In a new development in the continuing scandal at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives--a division of the Department of Justice--CBS News is reporting today that Barack Obama is denying all knowledge of the illegal scheme but that an ATF whistleblower insists that someone in the highest levels of the Administration not only knew about it but gave their approval.
The ATF's lead official in Mexico, Darren Gill, reported in an exclusive interview with CBS News today that his Washington Bureau supervisor told him point-blank that the person who approved the scheme is higher up in the Administration than ATF director Kenneth Melson.
That would mean at the very least the Justice Department, which has oversight of the agency.
A video of the interview can be found in the top left column. A second portion of the interview can be found at the CBS News site.
The key portion of the interview is in this exchange:
"Is the director aware of this," Gil asked the supervisor. Gil says his supervisor answered "Yes, the director's aware of it. Not only is the director aware of it, D.O.J.'s aware of it... Department of Justice was aware of it."
Gil goes on to say senior Justice official Lanny Breuer and several of his deputies visited Mexico amid the controversy last summer, and spoke to ATF staff generally about a big trafficking case that they claimed was "getting good results." Gil says Melson, ATF's Acting Director, also visited Mexico City. Gil's Deputy Attache and his Analyst questioned Melson about the case that surrounding all the weapons showing up in Mexico. "His response was 'it's a good case, it's still going on,'" recalls Gil, "and we'll close it down as soon as we possibly can."
Thus, not only is the ATF's acting director implicated in illegal activity, but so is someone yet unnamed at the Department of Justice.
And that criminal activity led directly to the death of ATF agent Brian Terry. Gill reports that he warned his directors within the ATF that such an outcome was inevitable. In fact, it is worse than that as this damning portion of the interview shows:
Faced with the flow of guns and the serial number evidence tracing to Phoenix, but locked out of the computer case files, Gil says he repeatedly questioned his supervisor in Washington. He says some of the conversations became screaming and shouting matches. He says he was instructed not to tell his Mexican counterparts about the case. Gil said he inquired, "when is this case gonna shut down? The Mexicans are gonna have a fit when they find out about it." Gil says he also noted "at some point, these guns are gonna end up killing either a government of Mexico official, a police officer or military folks, and then what are we gonna do?"
Gil is the second ATF agent to tell CBS News that he specifically warned of such an outcome. Agent John Dodson says he told his superiors in Phoenix much the same.
"I specifically asked one time, 'are you prepared to go to the funeral of a Border Patrol agent...are you prepared for that fact because it's only a matter of time before that happens," Dodson told CBS News.
That's exactly what happened. Two of the weapons, AK-47 variant assault rifles, were eventually found at the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December. Officials are looking into possible connections to the murder of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata in February.
Thus, with such evidence now on the table, the question becomes, will director Melson keep his appointment to appear before a Senate subcommittee next Thursday? At least one person--Mike Vanderboegh, who along with David Codrea originally broke the story--believes that Melson will likely decide not to appear.
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