The embattled federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, still reeling from the botched gun-trafficking scandal that allowed 2,000 guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, is in the middle of yet another ugly dispute.
The ATF’s Reno office has been all-but shut down for nearly a year because U.S. prosecutors said they would no longer accept cases submitted by the office, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported after a months-long investigation.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee which oversees the ATF, said the dispute has forced the transfer of four full-time agents from the Reno outpost, which once housed six investigators. He said a Sept. 29, 2011, directive from Nevada federal prosecutors, informing the ATF that “we are not accepting any cases submitted by your office” has left the office adrift.
The two remaining agents have been attempting to assist state prosecutors because their federal counterparts have shut them out, Grassley said.
So we’re still paying them, but not using them? Also gotta love the misuse of the term “Botched”. I mean if you GIVE guns to known Mexican criminals, and then make ZERO attempts to track the rifles as they leave the country, did you really “Botch” tracking the rifles as they left the country?
See, this one has me Head Scratching. Are the Federales in Reno not prosecuting for the ATF because the ATF cases are Bogus and will be thrown out of court OR are they not prosecuting because they are protecting some VIP?
One would think that the Holder Dept. of Injustice would be all over the Vast Right Wing Clingers, right? Yet unless there’s another Fast and Furious Delivery Path to the Cartels….
Botched. As in, “the public wasn’t supposed to find out” and the secrecy was botched.
Exactly, McThag.
What “botched gun-trafficking scandal” means is, “it is a scandal that their gun-trafficking conspiracy was discovered.”
After all, it sure as Hell wasn’t a law enforcement investigation, given that no attempt to, yaknow, enforce the law, nor actually investigate anything. If the OPORD is “deliver (we know at least some of the straw buyers were actually working for Uncle Sam as informants — in other words, “acting as agents of the police”) guns to foreign drug gangs, but make zero attempt to track them, coordinate efforts with the foreign government involved, or do anything that might actually achieve that quaint goal of “gathering evidence”, then it is apparant that the operation is actually just an organized plan to smuggle guns.
See here.
I found that here, which has the money comment, “I guess that means we can also dispense with the word ‘botched’…”
Couldn’t agree more. Too bad we can’t get the MSM press to follow suit.
I think this one in Reno is ALL about turf wars…
Bubblehead Les: According to the article I read, the reason the US Attorney is not prosecuting is because the local BATFE refused to investigate any felon with a gun cases.
They only wanted to do stuff that would make their bosses in DC happy. Like harassing dealers and trolling gun shows for bullshit conspiracy charges.
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