The Chickens Are Coming Home... To Roost

The target of a scapegoating attempt by the Obama Administration, acting ATF Director Ken Melson fires back:

rnal "smoking gun" report that acknowledges the role of top officials in the program that allowed guns to flow illegally into Mexico, according to the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Kenneth Melson, the ATF acting director, earlier this month also told congressional investigators examining the role of top officials in the ill-fated program that affidavits in support of wiretaps used in the operation are inconsistent with what Justice Department officials have said publicly.

Melson told the investigators that when he raised his concerns with the Justice Department about "institutional problems" with the Fast and Furious operation, department officials resisted his desire to share his thoughts with Congress.

"It was very frustrating to all of us," Melson told congressional investigators over the Fourth of July holiday, "and it appears thoroughly to us that the department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the department."

The more I dig into this story here and at Pajamas Media, the more it seems improbable that Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano were not aware of Gunwalker.

"Gunwalker" itself seems like an even better name for the scandal than it once did, as the plot is both different from the Bush-era Gunrunner program, and can denote more that just Operation Fast and Furious in Arizona, including Operation Castaway in Florida, the two suspected gun-running operations in Texas, and any similar operations that may have been run concurrently in other operational areas that are yet to be discovered.

Grassley and Issa are asking the pointed, specific questions of prosecutors that already have the answers and are looking to catch the defendants in a provable lie. Rather obviously, they smell blood.

The top officials of the top law enforcement agencies in our federal government have delegitimized themselves and the reputations of tens of thousands of good officers and agents for what increasingly looks like a malicious, murderous attempt by key appointed officials of the Obama Administration to orchestrate a plot that only makes sense as a justification for gun control.

The people must have their independent prosecutor, and if the evidence supports charges, impeachment in Congress and prosecutions as warranted under the laws of the United States in a federal court. Considering the severity of the crimes, Congress should also consider the rare but legal option of allowing Mexican prosecutors to extradite those that deserve to be charged in Mexican courts.

There must be accountability, or else.