8 singled out in GOP "Fast and Furious" report

Rep. Darrell Issa

(CBS News) Republican congressional investigators place much of the blame for the ATF "Fast and Furious" scandal on at least three Justice Department officials and five ATF agents - particularly then-Special Agent in Charge in the Phoenix division William Newell - in a draft report expected to be released in final form sometime this week.

The report, obtained by CBS News, lays much of the blame for the creation and execution of the gunwalking scheme on Newell. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Newell's actions are described as "reckless," adding that he appears to still believe he did nothing wrong. He has since moved on to other duties.

The others singled out for blame of some kind in the report include: Kenneth Melson, acting ATF director; William Hoover, deputy ATF director; Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations at the ATF; William McMahon, deputy assistant director for field operations - West, ATF; Dennis Burke, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona; Emory Hurley, Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona; and Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division.

Complete coverage of the "Fast and Furious" scandal from CBS News
A primer on the "Fast and Furious" scandal
$1M reward offered in murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry
Suspected ICE agent killer held in U.S.

The congressional report is focused on an offshoot of the ATF's "Project Gunrunner," which was a national initiative under the Justice Department started in 2006 aimed at reducing U.S.-Mexico cross-border violence and trafficking of weapons and drugs.

"Fast and Furious" is the name ATF assigned to a group of Phoenix-area gun trafficking cases under Project Gunrunner that began in fall of 2009. It's the largest of several known operations in which ATF employed gunwalking involving more than 2,000 weapons, including hundreds of AK-47 type semi-automatic rifles and .50 caliber rifles. According to sources who worked directly on the case, the vast majority of guns were not tracked, and Mexico's government was not fully informed of the case.

The congressional investigation into the scandal is being led by Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

[moretruthnow]

The Obama administration has already taken action against those involved in the ATF. These republicans know very well that action has been taken and that charges were filed against several who purchased the guns. That was really what set the stooges off. The fact that action was taken against the guilty. Worthless republicans making fools of themselves.

[nygurl1]

I see nothing but reps lying and saying nasty things because they don't like that the President wasn't accused of anything!
.
boohoo....boohoo....boohoo!

[BWB2020]

So it turns out that when the Mexican government took the US to task for flooding Mexico with the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels, they were actually correct, despite all the bagger denials at the time.

Now, the bagger posters have to deal with the fact that the gunrunning goes all the way back to 2006, two whole years before Mr. Obama took office.

Yeah yeah, we know baggers, it was OK when Bush did it, but not OK when it continued under the current president.

[RealWorldNow]

You need to learn more about the specifics before you spout off fleabagger.

[nygurl1]

Ok real - give us more "real" info!

[smithejm]

Was this a "congressional report" or a "GOP" report as the headline suggests. If the report is by a congressional committee then it is a report of congress. CBS editorial input by applying misleading titles to stories to disparage actions related to republicans even in supposed "news" articles. If a senate committee headed by dems issued a report, CBS would call it a "senate" report and not a "dem" report.

[nygurl1]

smitty - you just can't stand to see your people not smearing the President can you? Too, too bad. Suck it up!

[moretruthnow]

Just republicans pulling another right wing stunt which is about all they have done in the House other than come up with more tax cuts for the rich and more cuts for the middle class and working poor. There are no more worthless bunch of empty headed republicans than these lame-brained fools not working for the good of the people of America, but for the greed and corruption of the wealthy and never for anyone else.

[nottblu]

the partisan, purposely ignorant libs at this site are claiming Holder and Obama's name weren't on the report so they must be innocent. This stance IGNORES the fact Holder did not turn over documents that incriminated both he and Obama and just to be sure nothing will surface Obama issues an "executive order" sealing those documents. IF this scandal, in which people died, happened when Bush was president the news media and trolls on the left would be relentless in the accussations and march to prosecution, but since it's the messiah, it must be Issa's and Bush's fault! Typical nonsense here at leftwing central.

[thechooch1]

nottblu did you read the article? Did you miss this part " ATF's "Project Gunrunner," which was a national initiative under the Justice Department started in 2006" that was w's term.

[nottblu]

chooch, nobody died when this was called project gunrunner, Bush didn't hide documents or issued an executive order COVERING UP evidence of wrongdoing, your defense of Obama by once again blaming bush no longer has any validity, but thanks for proving my point.

[canislupus16]

Yawn

[credibility2]

...nothing will ever come of this, because the administration needs to cover its you know what...

[catmomtx]

Did you see the names of Eric Holder or President Obama in the report? NO. Nothing will come of this because it had nothing to do with President Obama or Eric Holder. Republicans were trying to do what they do best in their attempts to destroy a Democratic Presidential administration, dig until they find something no matter how irrelevant. It is what they did to Bill Clinton and it is what they are doing to President Obama. Maybe they should just focus on helping to move our country forward rather than trying to destroy the President and Holder. They might have better luck.

[dan3607]

Once again the FBI is walking away free and clear, shielded by national security. ATF may have been stupid/lazy to stand by and continued to only watch the suspicious sales of guns. But the suspects were fbi informants - under fbi supervision and with fbi money, that were buying the guns in the first place.
I hope the two other reports that are coming out later shed some real light on the full picture...because this report is just a "fall guy" report which pins things on easy suckers.

[nygurl1]

How did the FBI get involved? Where did you see that info?

[bc-1948]

If we are going to investigate this progam - lets go back and pull all the players in - this is the administration that KILLED the program - it started under President Bush

[pohd1]

The program under Bush was different. It did track the guns unlike under Holder. They informed the Mexican govt which Holder did not. They ended the program before Bush left office because it was not working and the drug lords found out about the tracking devices on the guns. You libs and Obama goose steppers need to get into the real universe. Even the program under Bush was dumb to do but at least they tracked the guns and informed the government of Mexico.

[nygurl1]

Gee pod - where did you get that info? Never seen it before!

[josephp5]

It's pretty sad when Forbes magazine (hardly a bastion of liberal thought!) does a more thorough investigation than Daryl Issa's Congressional committee.

[nygurl1]

Rrrriiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhhhhhhttttttttttttt!