Mexico, Fast And Furious Operation | featured news

Republican congressional investigators have concluded that five senior ATF officials — including the special agent in charge of the Phoenix field office and the bureau's top man in Washington — were responsible for the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation that was "marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently reckless strategy."

Mexican cartel suspects targeted in the troubled gun-trafficking probe were actually working as FBI informants at the time, memo says.

Kenneth Melson, the ATF's acting director, claims Justice Department officials refuse to release a telling internal report on the Fast and Furious operation. The Justice Department is trying to protect its political appointees from the Fast and Furious scandal by concealing an internal "smoking gun" report and other documents that acknowledge the role top officials played in the program that allowed firearms to flow illegally into Mexico, according to the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.