Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Re-assigning an ATF Director Is Not Enough: Those Behind ‘Fast and Furious’ Must Be Prosecuted


News broke yesterday that punishment had been meted out for “Fast and Furious.” Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson had been re-assigned and U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke had resigned. There was no mention of pending criminal prosecution or jail time. Rather, we were politely informed that Melson would be moved to a new position at the DOJ in Washington DC while Burke would “return to private life.”


Hmmm. Let’s think about this: Over 150 Mexican law enforcement officials have been killed as a result of Fast and Furious. As have nearly 1,000 Mexican civilians, at least one U.S. Border Agent (God bless the family of Brian Terry), and who knows how many other humans on both sides of the border who have yet to be accounted for. And there are still over 1,000 weapons on the loose, although we are starting to find them more and more at crime scenes in America.

And all that happens in response to this is that an Acting Director gets re-assigned and a U.S. Attorney returns to private life?

Think about it: “Straw purchasers” went into gun stores to buy weapons they had pre-determined to pass on to criminals, and now those criminals have used the weapons against Mexicans and Americans alike. It has put us all at risk, and especially those living near the border in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

No wonder Congressman Paul Gosar of the House Oversight Committee contends that “we (Americans) were the known collateral damage” in this whole plan.


Yet we’re supposed to sit back and say, “Wow, that Eric Holder sure is tough on crime. Just look honey, he re-assigned Melson as a result of all this.”

No, no, no. It’s an insult to our intelligence and our love of country for Holder & Co. to think they can shift a few people around and we’ll forget the literal death and carnage that has been caused.

They tried this once already, when they re-assigned “two A.T.F. Phoenix division supervisors, William Newell and William McMahon…to positions in Washington” a few weeks ago. But that didn’t assuage any one’s anger over this outrageous operation then, and giving Melson a desk job in DC won’t do it now.

Moreover, U.S. Attorney Burke, who says he’s stepping down to re-enter private life, is the very one who denied “victim of crime” status to Brian Terry’s family earlier this month. What a cowardly human he must be: upon resigning he claimed “responsibility” for the “mistakes” associated with Fast and Furious, yet he denies Terry’s family the right to be recognized as victims of those very mistakes.

But as disgusting as these things are, we must remind ourselves that both Melson and Burke are just the tip of the iceberg. This goes much higher in the administration. And thankfully, Congressman Issa has made it clear he’s ratcheting up the investigation at this point, instead of slowing it down.

Big Government