Bernard La Forest retired from ATF after heading up its offices in Kansas City, Detroit, Phoenix and Los Angeles. His column is in response to a story that appeared in ticklethewire.com on Monday about a speech Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. gave in Chicago. Holder said there will be 13,000 cops laid off by year’s end,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Details are sketchy, but the Denver Post reports that ATF on Tuesday arrested two Colorado Army National Guard members from Fort Lupton, Colo. on gun charges. The paper reported that the neither the Guard nor ATF would elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the arrests of Staff Sgt. Eric Lee and Spc….
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com For the second time in less than a week, Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings has publicly blasted Republican Rep. Darrell Issa over ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious, which encouraged Arizona gun dealers to sell to middlemen, all with the hopes of tracing the guns to the Mexican cartels. ATF lost track of…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Criticism about ATF’s controversial Operation Fast and Furious have overwhelming come from Republicans like Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley. But not everyone agrees with the intensity of the criticism. On Sunday, Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight & Government Reform Committee, told CBS’ Face the Nation…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. is an honorable man. So I believe him when he tells Congress he didn’t know about ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious until the controversy exploded in 2011. The problem is that he needs to take responsibility for it. Period. He’s the top dog. People in his…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A big shakeup has begun at ATF. Thomas Brandon, who had recently been sent from Detroit to head up the Phoenix Division and clean up the fall out from Operation Fast and Furious, will become the agency’s deputy director — the number two person. The acting number two person, William J….
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Flair-ups continue between local and federal law enforcement over a recent ATF letter to arms dealers regarding guns and medical marijuana users. The Belgrade News reports that Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock wrote the Justice Department this week to voice his opposition to a recent ATF letter sent to guns dealers…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com With acting ATF Director B. Todd Jones in place, and the new fiscal year beginning, rumors are swirling about that ATF is soon expected to make a lot of changes in top management, which will result in a serious round of musical chairs. One rumor circulating within ATF is that Thomas…
