Where's Holder?

CNN is reporting that the acting head of the ATF Kenneth Melson is going to be forced to resign over the disaster called operation fast and furious. In that operation, ATF agents let people buy 2000 assualt weapons and sell them to Mexican drug cartels. Supposedly, the plan was to wait until the guns got into the hands of the cartels and then use the transfers to roll up the entire gun purchasing network both in the USA and Mexico. Of course, as any sensible person could have told the government, the guns were used for all sorts of crimes including the murder of a US border control agent in December. Only about a third of the guns have been recovered thus far.

Melson was an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University prior to his appointment. He also held some other jobs in the Justice Department. He was not, however, a law enforcement professional. Even so, it is hard to imagine that Melson thought that it would be possible to give 2000 weapons to the drug cartels without there being murder and mayhem as a result. There is not a law enforcement agency in the world that would guarantee the most of the guns could be rolled back up once delivered to the cartels. Indeed, if anyone claimed that his agency could get the bulk of the guns back before they were used, that person should have been fired and replaced. The claim is just a joke.

So that gets to the real question. Did Melson really authorize this operation without even informing his superiors at DOJ what was going on? I question whether or not the acting head of ATF would authorize giving 2000 guns to the drug cartels. It seems like a time when any agency head would want the cover of approval from his superior. But let's assume for the moment that Melson was foolish enough to authorize the operation on his own. It is impossible to believe that he did not report the existence of the operation to the Attorney General. Otherwise, we are to believe that the head of ATF approved a secret operation to give 2000 weapons to the Mexican drug cartels. Even on TV, they do not write stories that are that unbelievable. Without knowing anything else, I believe that Eric Holder had to know about the operation. If Melson has to resign, Holder should go with him.

I know that some people believe that the real purpose of the operation was not to track gun running to the drug cartels, but rather to cause chaos with the guns so as to strengthen the hand of those who want to further regulate gun sales in the USA. I find this far fetched but not impossible to believe. The real point, however, is this: There was either massive stupidity or massive incompetence in the DOJ and ATF. Someone authorized this crazy scheme. Someone specifically decided that the guns had to be allowed to go to the drug cartels. Someone actually believed that once these violent felons had 2000 guns, they would somehow just give them back or surrender them in raids without ever using them for criminal purposes. Alernatively, someone decided that if the drug cartels used 2000 guns to commit crimes including murder, it was acceptable collateral damage to achieve the purpose of the operation which, of course, was to reduce criminal activity by the cartels. In short, this was incredibly stupid, but once it was underway, someone could have pulled the plug and stopped it. Where was the oversight by Holder and DOJ?