Acting ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson has until Wednesday to provide several key documents requested by Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in the congressman’s probe of the Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious.
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BULLETIN: Sen. Charles Grassley today sent yet another letter to ATF Director Melson, this time regarding the link between a suspected gun trafficker in Texas and the death of ICE agent Jaime Zapata in a highway ambush in northern Mexico in February. This column wrote about that incident here, and discussed the case against suspect Otilio Osorio, who purchased a gun that was recovered at the Zapata murder scene.
As this column noted at the time, Osorio was arrested only after a gun known to have been purchased by him was recovered at the Zapata crime scene.
We will discuss this new development further tomorrow.
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So far, according to a committee source, Melson has not responded to the letter, which was dated March 16. (Nor has there been a response on Melson's behalf from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, who sent the now-infamous letter to Sen. Charles Grassley back on Feb. 4, “respectfully” requesting the Iowa Republican to back off in his Gunrunner inquiry, which had been launched following the slaying of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry. Grassley had sent two letters to Melson, who did not respond; Weich replied instead.) Asked what happens if Melson does not respond, the source said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Grassley is Ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He started snooping into the Gunrunner controversy in late January, which this column wrote about here and here.
Rep. Issa, a six-term Republican from California’s 49th District, took over the helm of Oversight and Government Reform with the change in power in the House in January. This column reported his entry into the controversy here.
Mr. Issa was direct in his letter to Melson: “Recent media reports have raised grave questions about your department’s handling of operations involving gun trafficking into Mexico…”
“It has been brought to my attention that you are not cooperating with congressional inquiries about Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious,” Issa wrote.
Issa reminded Melson about Sen. Grassley’s recent experiences, and about the senator’s frustrations. And just to demonstrate that he knew exactly what he was looking for, Issa provided Melson with a list of specifics, excerpted here:
1. Documents and communications relating to the genesis of Project Gunner(sic) and Operation Fast and Furious, and any memoranda or reports involving any changes to either program at or near the time of the release of the DOJ-OIG report about Project Gunrunner in November 2010.2. A lost of individuals responsible for authorizing the decision to “walk” guns to Mexico in order to follow them and capture a “bigger fish.”3. Following the fatal shooting of Agent Brian Terry, did ATF conduct an investigation of the circumstances of his killing? Did you determine whether the two guns found at the crime scene were permitted to cross into Mexico?4. Is ATF aware what weapon was responsible for the death of Agent Brian Terry?5. All documents, including e-mails, relating to communications between the ATF and the Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) who sold the weapons to Jaime Avila, including any Report of Investigation (ROI) or other records relating to a December 17, 2009 meeting to “discuss his role as an FFL during this investigation.”6. A copy of the presentation, approximately 200 pages long, that the Group 7 Supervisor made to officials at ATF headquarters in the spring of 2010.7. All documents, including e-mails, relating to communications regarding Operation Fast and Furious between ATF headquarters and Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William D. Newell, Assistant Special Agents in Charge Jim Needles and George Gillette, Group Supervisor David Voth, or any Case Agent from November 1, 2009 to the present. The response to this request should include a memorandum, approximately 30 pages long, from SAC Newell to ATF headquarters following the arrest of Jaime Avila and the death of Agent Brian Terry.8. All documents and communications related to complaints or objections by ATF agents in Phoenix about letting straw buyers with American guns enter Mexico.
A check with Sen. Grassley’s office this morning revealed that he has had no luck getting a response from Alan D. Bersin, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, to whom Grassley wrote, also on March 16, asking about a very curious incident involving gunrunning suspect Jaime Avila last summer. Avila is one of about three dozen people indicted in the Gunrunner operation earlier this year. He was arrested in December on the day after the Terry shootout occurred, and just hours after the border agent died from his wounds.
“CPB officials,” Sen. Grassley wrote, “allegedly stopped Jaime Avila near the border in the spring or summer of 2010. He allegedly had the two WASR-10 rifles in his possession that were later found at the scene of Agent Brian Terry’s murder, along with over thirty additional weapons. CBP officials contacted ATF or an Assistant United States Attorney who allegedly instructed CBP to allow Avila proceed without seizing the weapons.”
Avila is one of 20 defendants named on just one of the Gunrunner indictments announced back in January.
As noted by this column here last Friday, CBS News’ Sharyl Atkisson interviewed now-retired former ATF attaché to Mexico Darren Gil, who appears to have been deliberately shut out of the Gunrunner operation. Gil said he was told by his supervisor that the operation had gotten the nod from someone at the Department of Justice. Who?
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