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May 17, 2011 4:55 PM

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Major ATF Phoenix shake-up after "Gunwalker"

By: Sharyl Attkisson
Topics: Law and Order

CBS

CBS News has learned that virtually all the top ATF managers in Phoenix involved in the controversial "Fast and Furious" operation have been reassigned and replaced. The shake-up comes in the wake of the gunwalking scandal in which ATF allegedly allowed more than 2500 weapons to hit the streets or "walk."

Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Bill Newell has been replaced by the former Detroit SAC Tom Brandon. Newell was reassigned to ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. shortly after CBS News interviewed an ATF agent-turned-whistleblower about the alleged gunwalking.

Two new Assistant Special Agents in Charge (ASACs) have also moved into the ATF Phoenix office: Joe Anarumo of Miami and Tom Atteberry of Kansas City. Sources say they replace the ASACs who oversaw Fast and Furious in Phoenix: George Gillett, who's being reassigned to Washington D.C. headquarters; and Jim Needles, who's been tasked to the Phoenix U.S. Attorney's office.

"This is unprecedented and welcome," says one insider, who describes the new Phoenix management as "the A-Team" and "respected."

Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF

Another move involves Agent David Voth, who directly supervised the Phoenix ATF "Group VII," that executed Fast and Furious. Sources say he's also been assigned to the U.S. Attorney's office along with Agent Hope McAllister. Sources say McAllister was the agent in charge of Fast and Furious. Replacing Voth as head of Group VII is Steve Barborini from Miami.

None of the managers who've been moved have had any disciplinary action announced against them. The fact of their transfers does not in itself suggest any wrongdoing. There are at least two investigations underway looking into how and why ATF allegedly let assault rifles and other weapons "walk." Sources say at the time, agents believed the guns would likely end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. One of the allegedly walked guns was used at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Officials are also looking into a possible link to the murder of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata.

Nobody from the ATF public affairs or from the Justice Department, which oversees ATF, would immediately confirm the personnel shifts. As of this writing, the official ATF web site for Phoenix still listed Newell, Needles and Gillette as their former positions in Phoenix ATF Division Management.

Sharyl Attkisson
Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News investigative correspondent based in Washington. All of her stories, videos and blogs are available here.
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by vikinginc May 20, 2011 5:42 PM EDT: Why doesn't anyone read the facts in proper perspective? Let me present a few to you who by choice are ignorant and think guns are bad.
1. you are 3 times more likely to be killed by a mistake at a hospital than you are a gun
2. Over half of gun related deaths are suicides
3. only 22% of violent crime involves a weapon which includes guns, knives and other weapons
Of those violent crimes it was used most often in robbery, not murder or rape.
4. America needs to be properly trained on how to use guns, since video games and media have drained us of our common knowledge of this tool. A gun is no more deadly than a knife, a cordless drill and exponentially safer than a car.

Items 1-3 can be referenced to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The 4th is just 50 years of paying attention.

Guns are a right and a duty that have kept us free for over 200 years. Don't mock the item that has given you these freedoms.; Reply to this comment


by StephenABaker May 20, 2011 1:40 AM EDT: ATF has been out of control for some time now. Think about this for a moment: The 2nd amendment to the US constitution states that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Every ATF agent has sworn to uphold the US Constitution. Every one. Yet they go about their business of enforcing laws that clearly violate the document they swore to defend. For ten years, they enforced the Clinton Gun Ban in the '94 Crime bill. This is a blatantly unconstitutional infringement that banned guns because of cosmetic features like a protruding pistol grip, a muzzle flash suppressor, a folding stock that makes it easier to store, an adjustable stock that makes it easier to shoot, etc. They are currently trying to enact more rules that limit shotgun imports because they have some arbitrary feature the ATF considers non-sporting like a flashlight rail. The Supreme Court made it abundantly clear in the Heller and McDonald decisions that the 2nd amendment is NOT about sporting purposes. How can an agent look at themselves in the mirror when working for an organization that blatantly attacks the Constitution every day?; Reply to this comment


by Moman1940 May 19, 2011 4:19 PM EDT: The fools where you work should be arrested and put in jail for treason. Letting guns go across our bourder into the hands of drug runners and then killing our bourder patrol agents with them is the worst thing I have heard of out of our Government Agents. If all the BATFE agents who knew this was going on would have came forward and name the ones who were involved from the begining,maybe this would not happened. If I were an Agent and one of the people who I worked did this,hold on to your hat. He or she would have been in jail already and anyone involved. You people should be ashamed.; Reply to this comment


by Moman1940 May 18, 2011 10:18 PM EDT: I am at a loss,to think that a group of people would betray their country and see that Mexican drug dealers and gun runners were given guns from the BATFE to use against our own border agents,one was killed and maybe more with our own weapons.This is almost treasonous and these people and Eric Holder should be brought to justice. What are they trying to do with such an act,show guns going to Mexico and then finding them and then making to Americans scapegoats only to disarm us.These people and their leaders are very dangerous people and should be held in prison until we find out who is responsible. My Government Scares The Hell Out Of Me. Senator Grassley get to the bottom of this and don't quite.; Reply to this comment


by GlynnW50 May 18, 2011 8:05 PM EDT: It's all about gun control on this side of the boder let American arms into Mexico Make sure they get into the Narco Terriost's hands and then when they are used to kill US and Mexican law enforcement show they came from the US and then us it to make bigger and better laws to get guns out of law abiding owners hands You remember Clinton standing with the Mexican President saying most of the guns were coming from the US It is more than treason it's a plan And all of them From the President on down were in on it wake up America this should be on every head line and the lead on every news program instead we get Arnold getting his house keeper pregnat; Reply to this comment


by GlynnW50 May 18, 2011 8:01 PM EDT: It's all about gun control on this side of the boder let American arms into Mexico Make sure they get into the Narco Terriost's hands and then when they are used to kill US and Mexican law enforcement show they came from the US and then us it to make bigger and better laws to get guns out of law abiding owners hands You remember Clinton standing with the Mexican President saying most of the guns were coming from the US It is more than treason it's a plan And all of them From the President on down were in on it wake up America this should be on every head line and the lead on every news program instead we get Arnold getting his house keeper pregnat; Reply to this comment

by ZenCowboy May 18, 2011 3:31 PM EDT

First, I find it amazing that people interested in "justice" forget that people (including ATF folks) are innocent until proven guilty. Second, ATF has nothing to do with Napolitano - two different agencies. Third, most of the people who work at ATF are quite decent; I'm sure there are fools where you work, too, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're one. Fourth, it's totally inaccurate to say we'd save millions without ATF; the same job would have to be done by someone, and the FBI has a history of wasting hugely more money than ATF, which you can easily confirm with a little independent research.

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by Edjumacator May 19, 2011 1:53 PM EDT: The fools where I work are not "alleged" accessories in the murder of a Border Patrol agent and American citizen. The decent ATF agents are the ones who blew the whistle on this operation.


by sharps4570x2 May 18, 2011 1:01 PM EDT: why is it, we don't have enough people in our government with enough guts to stand up to all the corruption in our judicial system. Where do we find the people we need to fight our corrupted government????; Reply to this comment


by Montana5 May 18, 2011 8:18 AM EDT: ATF is an irrelevant, superfluous organization whose mission is redundant and could easily and far more effectively be carried out by the FBI with the resultant savings of millions of $$ to the US taxpayers. Congress has almost done away with this group of Miami Vice like cowboys on three separate occasions, but effective lobbying by ATF has kept them and their obscure mission alive. And we continue to pay for this silliness which , as shown here, has become very dangerous.; Reply to this comment

by formrusmcsgt May 18, 2011 7:13 AM EDT

Why are morons like these "reassigned"?

They should be terminated.

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by logicalsc May 19, 2011 6:37 AM EDT: Public sectors unions rules forbid the firing of any workers, they are simply "reassigned" until the heat is off.

And if the boob is really lucky then they are so incompetent that they get permanently "reassigned" to getting paid for not coming to work.

But it is simply inexcusable that you hurt the boobs self-esteem by termination regardless of the number of people killed.

Why is it that CBS and the other Democrat lackey's of the press are so forgiving of Democrat administration killing American citizens with their programs? Waco and now this Obama disaster????


by ceh310 May 19, 2011 4:37 PM EDT: "Reassignment." Isn't that what the Catholic Church does with pedophile priests to sweep the problem under the rug?

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