As Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman noted Monday, today marks the deadline imposed by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) in his request to Kenneth Melson, Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), to provide a number of documents related to "Project Gunrunner" and "Operation Fast and Furious." Issa's request, made two weeks ago, has met with no reply so far, and there seems little reason to believe that today's deadline will be honored either, despite Issa's position as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. That position bestows upon Issa almost unlimited subpeona power, and he will apparently have to tap that power to get anywhere.
Meanwhile, last Thursday, we discussed here the fact that Melson was to appear tomorrow before a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, seemingly providing an excellent opportunity to grill him about the "Gunwalker" allegations. Yesterday, though, we found that Melson had been removed from the witness list, as per his own decision, and that indeed, the BATFE has declined to send anyone to the hearing. CBS News reports:
Later, a spokesman told us in an email, "The Subcommittee had invited, but not confirmed, Mr. Melson as well as other officials from ATF to testify at the hearing this week. In the end, ATF declined to send a representative."
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has been similarly unable to secure any kind of useful cooperation from the administration. As the ranking member (but not chairman, since the Republican Party is not in the majority in the Senate) of the Senate Judiciary Committee, one might think that administration officials would owe him the courtesy of being forthright and cooperative, but they apparently disagree. Sen. Grassley has been looking for answers since Jan. 27, only to run into stone wall after stone wall, including an arrogant request from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to, bascially, get his nose out of their business:
We also want to protect investigations and the law enforcement personnel who directly conduct them from inappropriate political influence. For this reason, we respectfully [Hah!] request that Committee staff not contact law enforcement personnel seeking information about pending criminal investigations, including the investigation into the death of Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Weich sent that letter, by the way, responding to one of Sen. Grassley's letters not to Weich, but to Melson. The Acting Director, it would seem, "lawyered up," in a very real sense, right from the beginning.
Congressman Issa has noted the administration's recalcitrance and reluctance to come clean about this growing scandal. Yesterday, he expanded the investigation to the State Department, sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter requesting (for now, it's a "request") information about former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pasqual's meeting with Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and others in Mexico City last summer. In that letter, he notes, with some apparent anger, the lack of cooperation that has been shown Senator Grassley:
On March 4, 2011, Senator Charles E Grassley wrote to you requesting basic information about the connection between Operation “Fast and Furious”,” conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (AFT), and the December 14 2010 firefight that claimed the life of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. I understand that you have yet to respond and are likely to refuse Senator Grassley’s request for information without a letter from the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This refusal is mystifying in its own right, given Senator Grassley’s standing as the Ranking Member of that committee. More inexplicably, your refusal stands in stark contradiction to the promise of transparency promoted by President Obama. During Sunshine Week last year, the President stated that he had “recommit(ed) (his) administration to be the most open and honest ever.”
Rep. Issa, by the way, also seems skeptical about President Obama's apparent implication that Attorney General Eric Holder was unaware of what was going on in "Project Gunwalker." Fox News reports:
The ATF operates under Justice Department, and two assistant U.S. attorneys in Phoenix authorized virtually every wiretap, affidavit and investigation conducted in Operation Fast and Furious.
Some, like Issa, wonder how Holder could not have known about an investigation that size.
House Judiciary Committee members wanting answers about "Project Gunwalker" have been similarly ignored, with 14 of them, including Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), having on March 9 requested the relevant information, with a deadline of March 18--a deadline that has passed almost two weeks ago, with no response.
Enough with the games, administration officials. Every attempt to obstruct and evade the investigation merely delays the inevitable, and compounds your guilt. Congressman Issa can subpoena documents and witnesses nearly at will, and now that he has become heavily involved, he seems to have that will. If formal hearings, with senior administration officials (very senior, perhaps) treated as hostile witnesses are the only way the truth will get out, the truth will still get out.
President Obama would do well to remember that it was not the Watergate break-in itself that undid Nixon--it was the cover-up afterward. Then again, Watergate didn't kill anyone.
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