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Gun Reports - News

LA Times: Irate Former
ATF Director Melson Tries to Dodge
Blame for Fast and Furious

(GunReports.com) -- The L.A. Times reports that in a confidential deposition with congressional investigators, the then-head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives blamed agents, field supervisors and even his top command for never advising him that for more than a year, his agency allowed illegal gun sales along the southwestern U.S. border.

The deposition, which was taken in July and was recently obtained by the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times, shows that Kenneth E. Melson was irate.

Once Fast and Furious broke into public view, Melson said, Justice officials strenuously objected when he wanted to disclose everything to Congress. "We were floating the idea and asking them to allow us to do that," he said. But he said he was told "it is a long-standing policy of the Department of Justice that we don't talk about ongoing cases."

Justice officials said they were never told about the Fast and Furious tactics and cite ATF internal emails as evidence.

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Reader Comments

Why does the excuse "no one told me" only work for politicians? If an ordinary citizen, a nonmember of the ruling elite, were to allow one firearm to walk out of this country, that citizen would be in prison, not giving interviews to the LA times. Ken Melson needs to be irate-while he is in Jail.

Comment by: KT | January 5, 2012

"When ideas fail, words come in very handy." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist.

Comment by: Mister E | January 5, 2012

Hey Melson, next time you get a job and are in charge, try paying attention to what is going on instead of hitting the D. C. cocktail circuit.

Comment by: Cecil B | January 5, 2012

I think this is very interesting. One of the recently-big names had a remedy for big-time goat-screws like this - I think it was James Carville - but correct me guys if I'm wrong. (Maybe it was Rumsfeld?)

Anyway, it was "Tell it, tell it all, tell it now." It sounds like that's what Melson was recommending, which may have been his shining moment of doing right. At least there would have been a lot fewer casualties from admitting the truth than there are going to be from the cover-up and white-wash efforts.

Kinda ironic for Holder and boss, huh? A fall from grace because of 'white-washing'. HA! (Yeah, that was bad. Sorry. I just couldn't resist the temptation.)

Comment by: david b | January 5, 2012

It seems like none of these government miscreants have learned a damned thing from history. The attempt at a cover-up is always going to get you in more trouble than the original screw-up that you are trying to cover.

Comment by: canovack | January 5, 2012

History? Holder thinks that is a Michael Jackson LP.

Comment by: david b | January 5, 2012

Oh what a tangled web we weave .............

Comment by: Cecil B | January 5, 2012

Perhaps Melson's ire will provide enough impetus to finger Obama and Holder...

Comment by: PVB | January 6, 2012

I would like to think so BUT, being the eternal pessimist, AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. No one in the congress has the cojones (balls for those of us that don't habla).

Comment by: Cecil B | January 6, 2012

I think that if clear evidence of their involvement was presented, there would be more in Congress calling for their heads. Right now, there's just not 'critical mass' to change direction, but a nice copy of a juicy e-mail might be enough. Then the stampede might start. Right now the sheep on the hill have no leaders, there's just two flocks butting heads.

Comment by: david b | January 6, 2012

Obama & Holder have been doing what they want for the last 3 yrs. Our do nothing congress just keeps their eyes closed.

Comment by: Patron01 | January 6, 2012

And so it starts. A conspiracy starts to unravel when the first one starts to yell "Him/Them. Not me." Melson is just as guilty as Holder and his boss. But it is comforting to see the larger rats begin to desert this sinking ship.

Comment by: Visigoth52 | January 6, 2012

After all the rhetoric and down right bull &^%$, we owe it to ourselves as citizens to rid America of the current Congress through the election process Nov. 2012. If there is not enough "critical mass" as David b puts it, when will they EVER have enough.A thousand smoking guns tell the tale...........Semper Fi

Comment by: Sharps | January 8, 2012

No matter how satisfied you might be with your current US House Representative and US Senators, I believe it is imperative that we, the voters, send a clear, unambiguous message to the US Congress by voting every one of them out of office. That's it.....No favorites! All incumbents must leave! Of course the fly in the ointment of this idea is if the challengers to the incumbents are completely unacceptable due to some small thing such as failure to support the Second Amendment. Beyond that exception, if we could just totally clean house, in the course of just two election cycles we could have an entirely new Congress.....one that would definitely know that the voters are in charge. Now, with all of that said, can we realistically do that? I posit that it isn't likely, but it surely would be interesting to find out.

Comment by: canovack | January 8, 2012

I am with you Colonel but I am not holding my breath waiting for it to happen. Americans seem to have the attention span of a gerbil. Most don't even watch the news.

Comment by: Cecil B | January 8, 2012

Unfortunately, Cecil, I think your observations are spot on. I further also think that there are many folks who are quite content with their current representation, so they will vote to keep their pets in office. It'll be a case of "My guy/girl is OK, so you vote yours out", and that way we will never get the idea across that they work for us.....not us for them.

Comment by: canovack | January 8, 2012

I truly hate to be so pessimistic but I have been around the track, like you have, way too many times to think things will change. Not in OUR lifetime. I wish we could impart some of our experiences and knowledge to the younger kids but they just don't care, especially if they have a job.

In the BTW department, my little stray Carin had his leg surgery on Friday and seems to be doing well. The break in his leg was about a month old, so because the Achilles tendon had shrunk, he will have one back leg about 1 inch shorter than the other. But, at least he will not be in pain all his life and will be pretty normal. He and his little brother have already spoiled themselves and they have only been here 10 days. I keep wondering how that happened.

Comment by: Cecil B | January 8, 2012

"My guy/girl is okay" (alternatively - mine hasn't killed me yet) is exactly why Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein are still in office. Californians are unwilling to get rid of them. For some reason, we always seem to prefer the devil we know.

Cecil - I agree completely about the younger generations. I know quite a few college age youth myself, and many of them are faced with difficulty finding a job, in part (unbeknownst to most of them) because many people who could be hiring are leery of their work ethic. On the other hand, don't give up hope, because there are still plenty of hard-charging, focused young Americans eager to contribute. Many of them detest what our current congress and president have been doing. I hope your dog does okay with the surgery!

Here's some food for thought: Suppose you were BHO. Your approval rating sucks at 46%, right? Well, where's congress' rating? Even lower. So; who's doing a bad job in BHO's eyes?

Comment by: PVB | January 9, 2012

Even if the numbers were reversed, BHO would still see himself as being the Socialist Savior. It matters not, to the consummate narcissist, what the facts might tell him. He considers himself the new messiah, so he's not going to be influenced by anything that did not originate in his own mind.

Comment by: canovack | January 9, 2012

You can even see it in the way he poses for photos. What a prick.

The puppy has managed to spoil himself since his surgery on Friday.

I know there are a lot of good kids out there PVB. I see them on TV in Afghanistan all the time. I just wish they could get some of their friends that stayed home and went to college, off their asses.

Comment by: Cecil B | January 9, 2012

I agree completely. I'm sure there are big chunks of the public though, that are more frustrated with congress and view Obama as the lesser evil right now, and worse, do not see him as a narcissist. Further, though Obama would still see himself as the Messiah even if his approval rating were in single digits, the fact that he has the best approval rating of any federal governance will only serve to embolden a dangerous man.

Cecil - Newton's 1st Law explains the difficulty in getting people off their asses: Every body persists in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed. In other words, a couch potato is a couch potato until some outside force acts upon it to impel change...

Comment by: PVB | January 10, 2012

I sure want to see BHO go but the republicans keep dropping the ball. What is a person to do? The whole thing, the election of 2012 is turning into a damn carnival with lots of trolls.

Comment by: Cecil B | January 10, 2012

Cecil, the objective still remains.....ABO.....Anybody But Obama! Whoever the "troll" might be that gets the GOP nomination, is the one who will need our votes to unseat BHO. Now, some might say.....better to stick with an enemy we know than to put someone we don't know in power. To that, I say that we already know enough about BHO to know we cannot withstand another four years of his arrogant, narcissistic, socialism. Besides, if you think that BHO has shown us his whole playbook, you might as well be whistling as you walk by the graveyard. BHO hasn't even begun to screw with us.....just wait until he gets into a second term. We absolutely cannot give him the election. We MUST vote for whomever runs against him.

Comment by: canovack | January 10, 2012

I'm on board Colonel. ABO. I was just pissing and moaning I guess. I do that a lot. LOL.

Comment by: Cecil B | January 10, 2012

You know Cecil, if your urine hurts so bad you moan, you can probably get a prescription from you doctor.... ;)

Comment by: PVB | January 10, 2012

...or just quit drinking that rotgut stuff and upgrade a little. I got rid of all kinds of problems when I stopped drinking Night Train and and Boone's Farm and started only buying wine with corks! (Just kidding Cecil!)

Comment by: david b | January 10, 2012

There is much to be said for drinking a medium grade wine. At the suggestion of my cardiologist, I happily consume a 16 ounce glass of red wine every night. As you might imagine, this can run into a pretty good logistical train of red wine. I have tried to stay with brands that have corks, vice screw caps, since the corked brands do seem a bit up the scale from screw-capped rotgut. My wife has joined me in this venture, but she insists on Concord Grape wine, and it all seems to come in screw-capped bottles. So when I make my weekly wine run, I buy four magnum bottles of her Mogen David, along with four magnum bottles of my St. Genevieve Sweet Red. Life continues to be good.....

Comment by: canovack | January 11, 2012

Actually, I like the "Livingston Chardonnay". It has a screw on top.

And I can remember my younger days when pissing and screaming was accompanied by a dose of anti-biotics.

Have a great day guys.

Comment by: Cecil B | January 11, 2012

Well, Cecil, you likely figured, like so many young people, that you were invincible. I am reminded here of one of my captains in Vietnam. He regularly flew with us, and he came back from a week in Saigon with a case of the drips. He reported into the shop one morning proclaiming that he couldn't fly that day, because he had just gotten 2000 units of penicillin in his glutes. Helicopters generally vibrate pretty well.....causing some pain to the glutes after a big shot of anything. He was rather put out that I ordered him to fly, and in the future to watch out where he was sticking his tool.

Comment by: canovack | January 11, 2012

All that vibration probably helped the muscle tissues absorb the penicillin. Good call, Colonel. He was probably cured by nightfall.

Comment by: david b | January 11, 2012

Vibration? Glutes? You guys are scarin' me! ;)

Comment by: PVB | January 11, 2012

He's lucky the thing didn't fall off.

Comment by: Cecil B | January 11, 2012