ATF Presser
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will ask a multi-disciplinary panel of law enforcement professionals to review the bureau’s current firearms trafficking strategies employed by field division managers and special agents. This review will enable ATF to maximize its effectiveness when undertaking complex firearms trafficking investigations and prosecutions. It will support the goals of ATF to stem the illegal flow of firearms to Mexico and combat firearms trafficking in the United States.
Ok, I’ll start. Uhm, don’t arm Mexican drug runners.
March 7th, 2011 at 11:32 am
Whitewash.
March 7th, 2011 at 11:48 am
Asking other law enforcement agencies to review their policies on conducting investigations is like asking Al Qaida to review Al Aqsa’s policies on targeting civilians.
I imagine the most common sentence spoken during these reviews will be “I don’t see any problem with that.”
March 7th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
I figure someone in the ATF was getting bribed.
March 7th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Yep:
“I’ll take ‘Whitewash’ for $1000, Alex.”
March 7th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
How about them just f**king answering the questions of our elected representatives as they are required to by law?
March 7th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
If you don’t want to answer the question, get someone else to ask a different one.
Trying to maximize one’s effectiveness is quite different from exploring the failures of the past.
I suggest they get one Six Sigma trained process engineer in there to drive the inquiry, and use a one week deadline for the conclusions. That’s how we do it in industry; it should work just as well for a government inquiry.
March 7th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
We already know what the problem is.
The ATF wanted to set up a sting, one that also justified new regs to prevent guns from getting smuggled into Mexico. How do you do that? By letting smugglers take the guns in. Then you have a big bust, and you prove that gun smuggling is a problem and the ATF needs more controls and funds to prevent this.
Except that someone got killed because they couldn’t control the bad guys.
The last time the ATF pulled this crap, they encouraged Tim McVeigh to make a really big bomb, so they could look good busting heap big terrorist Militia Nazis.
Except that McVeigh and his partner slipped the leash. Ans a lot of people in OK City died as the ATF evacuated their offices.
F-troop is too fucking incompetent to run a sting without losing track of the criminals. They all need to be fired. The FBI can arrest gun owning felons. ICE can arrest smugglers. The IRS can collect NFA tax.
We do not need these clowns. They are there only to fuck with lawful gun-owners.
March 7th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I’ve never heard that before. Where can I go for more info on that?
March 7th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Maybe the ATF can build a wall along the Mexican Border. Who knows with all the money that gets thrown around and cluelessness of Washington, it might work!
March 7th, 2011 at 5:44 pm
Looks like they’ve got their spin doctors putting in a lot of overtime.
March 8th, 2011 at 4:13 am
wizardPC: there are a whole boatload of conspiracy theories about McVeigh. Google em up if you are interested.
The one I find most plausible, and has the best evidence, IMO, is the one that postulates that the whole thing was an ATF sting gone incredibly wrong.
Given f-troops incompetence, I find it chillingly believable.
March 8th, 2011 at 9:46 am
Ah, so no actual evidence, then.
March 8th, 2011 at 10:58 am
“Ah, so no actual evidence, then.”
Except for the con-trails and dead aliens.
heh
March 8th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Whatever. I find this more believable than dead aliens and contrails.