Report: Security Clearances Revoked, Criminal Charges Pending For ATF Fast and Furious Officials

[Geee]

Town Hall:

Washington D.C. - According to credible ATF sources, officials heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious and named as partially responsible for the program's failure by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the House Oversight Committee have been stripped of their government security clearances while some have been fired, demoted, and transferred. Criminal charges are also reportedly pending.

[Valin]

About Time! Review Board Recommends Firings Over Operation Fast & Furious

John G. Malcolm

December 8, 2012

 

The Professional Review Board of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has reportedly recommended firing four managers — William Newell, Mark Chait, William McMahon, and George Gillett — and disciplining two lower-level employees — David Voth and Hope MacAllister — for their roles in Operation Fast and Furious. The panel’s recommendations will now be reviewed by high-level ATF managers.

 

Operation Fast and Furious was the botched law-enforcement initiative in which agents allowed approximately 2,000 high-powered weapons obtained by “straw purchasers” (individuals who purchased them illegally for someone else) to “walk” into Mexico. It was an ill-conceived attempt to develop criminal firearms cases against higher-ups within the vicious Sinaloa drug cartel.

 

Most of these guns remain unrecovered. Two, however, were linked to the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010. Others were used to kill or wound approximately 300 Mexicans, according to former Mexican attorney general Victor Humberto Benítez Treviño. As reported by Univision, Fast and Furious guns were involved in a September 2009 shootout that left 18 dead at a drug rehabilitation center in Ciudad Jaurez. Fast and Furious guns were also used in a January 2012 ambush at a birthday party, in which 16 teenagers were killed.

 

(Snip)