Issa: Holder May Have Lied Under Oath

July 9, 2011 By 21 Comments

Fred Lucas, CNSNews.com

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) says he does not believe Attorney General Eric Holder gave accurate testimony when Issa questioned him in the House Judiciary Committee on May 3.

In that testimony, Holder told the Judiciary Committee he had “probably” heard only in the “last few weeks” about the Justice Department’s “Operation Fast and Furious.” Issa told CNSNews.com he is convinced—“absolutely”—that Holder knew about the operation earlier than he claimed…

on Jan. 27, 2011, Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa) wrote a letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson asking him to explain Operation Fast and Furious in light of the weapons found at the scene of Terry’s murder. Five days after that, on Feb. 1, 2011, the story of Operation Fast and Furious broke in the press—with multiple reports referencing Grassley’s letter to Melson. By Feb. 3, 2011, the operation, its link to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Terry, and Grassley’s inquiry to the ATF about it, had been reported in USA Today, The Arizona Republic, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press.

Yet, three full months after these public news reports, at a May 3 Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Holder, under questioning by Issa, testified that he had “probably” only learned about Operation Fast and Furious in “the last few weeks.”

“We believe that he was aware of it much earlier than he said in his testimony and questioning before the Judiciary Committee,” Issa told CNSNews.com in an interview.

“Are we confident that Eric Holder knew it much earlier? No,” said Issa. “Did he know it earlier than he testified? Absolutely.”

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Whistleblower Testifies Obama Obstructed Fast and Furious Investigation

July 6, 2011 By 96 Comments

Ben Johnson, The White House Watch

The chief congressional investigators of Operation Fast and Furious released explosive testimony from the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that they say indicates the Obama administration tried to stonewall Congress, deny witnesses the ability to testify freely, and fire employees who refused to conceal damning information. According to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson not only did the Justice Department play fast-and-loose with Fast and Furious, but other government agencies may have known – and funded – the straw purchasers the ATF program was designed to catch. The agency’s investigation, which has resulted in at least two deaths, may have been entirely unnecessary.

Scorn on the Fourth of July

Congressman Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley sent a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday, revealing that Melson gave a transcribed interview on the Fourth of July, with only his personal lawyer present. The news must have come as a shock to Holder. Melson’s testimony had been scheduled to take place July 13, with Melson’s counsel and Obama administration lawyers from the DoJ and ATF taking part.

According to the letter, Melson testified that the administration had not informed him of his legal right “to attend a voluntary interview with [his] own lawyer… rather than participate with counsel representing the Department’s interests.”

“We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement,” they wrote. “Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress. This is yet another example of why direct communications with Congress are so important and are protected by law.”

(Obstruction of) Justice Department

The Congressmen’s recounting of Melson’s testimony includes mistakes he admitted making, including not personally reviewing hundreds of documents relating to Fast and Furious until March of this year. “By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story,” they write.

In the most stinging passage of the letter, Issa and Grassley accuse the administration of a concerted cover-up….

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Obama’s Fast and Furious Fall Guy Refuses to Fall

July 6, 2011 By 10 Comments

Doug Book, FloydReports.com

Barack Obama has spent a political lifetime profiting from underhanded deals made with one or another fellow incarnation of the devil.

So in 2009, when Obama appointed Ken Melson to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, he once again did what arrogant, would-be dictators do…he made a criminally irresponsible deal with a fellow egotist and power hungry usurper.

Melson had spent 12 years as a director of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, lecturing throughout the nation on the wisdom of giving his organization absolute authority over procedural, ethical and certification requirements governing forensic labs in the United States.

So upon Melson’s appointment to the ATF, Obama created the White House Subcommittee on Forensic Science, designating Melson a co-chair with authority over staffing and agenda. Armed with the power and prestige of a supportive president, Melson could now dictate policy to forensics practitioners across the nation.

And in return for this little fringe benefit, Melson had only to manage the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious. And that was quite simple. Just place a few thousand guns in criminal hands, ensure their safe conduct across the Mexican border and keep track of the body count as the weapons appeared at crime scenes throughout two countries.

The purpose: keep Obama’s gun-grabbing base happy by manufacturing an outcry for more restrictive gun legislation in the U.S.

But now that Fast and Furious has been exposed and a number of its illegally trafficked rifles linked to the deaths of two American federal agents, the Obama regime needs a fall guy. And Melson is tailor made for the role.

The smart money said he would resign under pressure a week ago, taking one for the team. But Melson had other ideas….

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Operation Fast and Furious Has a Kickback, Too

June 28, 2011 By 15 Comments

Doug Book, FloydReports.com

In April 2009, Barack Obama named Kenneth Melson acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Today, this attorney and longtime bureaucrat possesses information which could bring down A.G. Eric Holder and perhaps Barack Obama himself.

As head of the ATF it was Melson who oversaw the Fast and Furious project, begun only a few months after his appointment and now responsible for the sale of more than 2000 weapons to straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels.

He helped facilitate the “walking” of these guns across the Mexican border, instructing agents to not interfere with the process. He even watched closed circuit broadcasts of US border state gun dealers illegally transferring dozens of weapons to criminal buyers at the instruction of his agency.

After ATF agent and whistle blower John Dodson testified to members of Charles Grassley’s Senate Judiciary Committee, Melson provided cover for his bosses at the Justice Department and the White House by saying nothing and providing nothing but denials in response to Grassley’s demands for information.

But as the ATF’s Project Gunrunner, or “Gunwalker” as it is more rightly called and its Phoenix, sister operation, Fast and Furious have become better known, dragging Eric Holder before Congressional Committees and forcing employees of his agency to explain their responsibility in the deaths of American agents, Ken Melson has become a liability to those who selected him and his days at the ATF appear numbered.

Nevertheless, there is more to the “Gunwalker” story and its continued cover up than apparent blind loyalty shown by a Regime subordinate to his bosses.

Around the time Ken Melson was made Acting ATF Director and just before thousands of guns began briskly “walking” to Mexico, Melson was named co-chair of the newly chartered White House Subcommittee on Forensic Science….

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Cartoon of the Day: Who the ATF Really Targets

June 24, 2011 By 5 Comments

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