Top Brass Cited in Gun Sting

Emails Show ATF Director Involved in Troubled Operation Tied to Agent's Death

By EVAN PEREZ /WSJ

Lawmakers released documents showing that senior federal officials were closely involved in a troubled gun-enforcement operation that came to light after the death of a U.S. border agent in a shootout in December.

The disclosures came at an emotional House hearing at which family members of the agent testified. Republican lawmakers are pressing to determine how high up knowledge and approval of the program went in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and its parent agency, the Justice Department.

Two assault rifles purchased at a gun store that was part of an ATF probe called Fast and Furious were found at the scene of the Arizona shooting in which the 40-year-old agent, Brian Terry, lost his life. The program was created to monitor weapons purchases by suspected gun traffickers. Agency officials hoped eventually to build a case against major arms smugglers serving Mexican drug cartels.

Republican lawmakers leading an investigation of Fast and Furious say the ATF didn't have the means to track the guns and should have known that such tactics were dangerous.

At a hearing by the House oversight committee Wednesday, three ATF agents made scathing assessments of decisions by agency officials to refrain from arrests and allow suspected illicit gun purchases to proceed. Agent Peter Forcelli said Fast and Furious exhibited a "colossal failure of leadership."

The hearing also highlighted partisan differences, as agents raised concerns about existing gun laws one called "toothless." They partly blamed the laws for the aggressive ATF tactics now under scrutiny. Democratic lawmakers at the hearing pounced on those comments to urge consideration of new laws to address the problem of "straw purchasers," small-time buyers who purchase firearms on behalf of cartel smugglers. Many GOP lawmakers, and pro-gun Democrats, oppose new laws.

Mr. Terry's mother and sister sat beside his cousin, Robert Heyer, at the hearing as he tearfully read a statement on behalf of the family. Mr. Heyer spoke of the family's anguish at learning of Mr. Terry's death in a phone call in the middle of the night 10 days before Christmas. He recounted how relatives received presents Mr. Terry had mailed shortly before he was killed.

"We ask that if a government official made a wrong decision, they admit their error and take responsibility for his or her actions," he said.

Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, released internal ATF emails that identified the senior officials involved, including Kenneth Melson, the bureau's acting director.

One email among ATF officials describes Mr. Melson's request for the Internet link to hidden cameras the ATF had planted in gun shops cooperating with the Fast and Furious probe, Mr. Issa said, citing the documents. That allowed Mr. Melson to watch a live feed of suspected straw buyers purchasing AK-47-style rifles, Mr. Issa said.
The Justice Department has said the operation never was intended to let weapons be trafficked to Mexico. Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered an investigation of the operation.

An ATF spokesman declined to comment, citing the investigation.

Ronald Weich, assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, testified but gave few details of the program. Mr. Weich said that if the investigation found "flawed strategies" or "insufficient surveillance of weapons," the responsible officials would be held to account. The agents cited the reluctance by some prosecutors to bring charges in gun-trafficking cases as another reason why the ATF operation came about. Law-enforcement officials say it's hard to bring cases. They cite a case in 2008 that was dismissed by an Arizona federal judge, who ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge a man with being an unlicensed gun dealer although he sold 400 firearms. The judge said there wasn't enough proof of profit-making.

A congressional report produced ahead of the hearing included testimony from four Phoenix ATF agents, who described how they and other agents battled supervisors. The dissenting agents said they wanted to make arrests instead of allowing illicit guns into circulation, fearing they would lead to deaths. Supervisors insisted that the investigation proceed, aiming to trace them to weapons traffickers, the congressional report shows.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, of Maryland, the top Democrat on the oversight panel, called the committee's findings so far "very troubling." He cited testimony that instead of agents following the guns, "surveillance of suspected straw purchasers was discontinued repeatedly, seemingly for no reason, so agents could return to gun stores to start over with new suspects."

ATF agents interviewed by congressional investigators described supervisors trying to tamp down agents' misgivings about the strategy to allow the weapons purchases.
An April 2010 email from an ATF agent in Mexico City to a bureau official, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, discussed plans to provide a classified briefing to Mr. Issa's own committee about several cases, including Fast and Furious. A spokesman for Mr. Issa said that the congressman wasn't briefed on specifics of the operation and that staffers who attended the briefing don't recall the operation being mentioned.
Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com
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