This just in: The Washington Post, rising from the dead, walks the Gunwalker walk and even mentions David and me! Well, not by name but reputation.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Brewer reads today's Washington Post. Damn it, Grimaldi! Didn't the caviar and vodka mean anything to you? You bastard, you even slyly mentioned Vanderboegh and Codrea!

ATF's tactics to end gun-trafficking faces a federal review.

A controversy over tactics used to break up an extensive Mexican gunrunning ring has prompted federal officials to re-evaluate an aggressive law enforcement strategy to stop firearms trafficking.

The new scrutiny comes after two separate shootings in the past three months where federal agents were killed and guns recovered by investigators were later traced back to individuals already under investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee has charged that ATF agents allowed hundreds of firearms to flow from gun stores in the United States to criminals in Mexico and elsewhere in order to build cases against more prominent gun traffickers.

In one of those cases, ATF agents in Phoenix were deeply divided over when to conclude the investigation and arrest suspected traffickers. Some of those agents took their misgivings to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) after two AK-47s traced back to a U.S. gun store were recovered near the scene where a Customs and Border Protection agent was killed.

Wrong, Grimaldi. We vectored the Senators onto the agents, not the other way around.

Of course it wouldn't be an ATF scandal story without dragging out my old "buddy" James "Waco Jim" Cavanaugh, the serial perjurer:

"There is no gun-trafficking statute," said James Cavanaugh, a retired ATF supervisor. "We've been yelling for years that we need a gun-trafficking statute because these cases are so difficult to prove."

Yes, even when they screw up royally, they demand more power and money, so they won't screw up even worse next time. Although, how they could possibly screw worse than this without detonating a dirty bomb at Knob Creek, Kentucky, themselves is beyond me. There will be thousands dead from Project Gunwalker. But of course, as they told Agent Dodson when he objected:

"In order to make omelettes, you have to break a few eggs."

Then Grimaldi gives us this spare mention in return for the hundreds of emails I've sent him linking stories on this scandal since 28 December:

The frustrations of agents began appearing anonymously on Web sites. Anti-ATF bloggers sympathetic to the militia movement picked up the allegations late last year, dubbing the scandal "Project Gunwalker" and alleging ATF agents let guns "walk" to boost the numbers of U.S. weapons recovered in Mexico. The bloggers theorized that the ATF wanted high numbers to gain support for an assault-weapons ban.

We ain't the only one with that theory, bub.

Oh, but wait, there's more! Here's an "expert witness":

The ATF strategy was defended by Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Co. in Arizona, which cooperated with the ATF and sold the weapons found near Terry.

"It appears that any state or federal agency charged with said tasks are damned if they do, and damned if they don't," Howard said.

Of course he would defend his paymasters. Although Grimaldi certainly knows but doesn't mention, this venal sonofabitch IS A PAID CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT OF THE ATF. He made money two ways on this deal, first by selling the weapons at a nice profit and then by taking taxpayers' money to let the ATF know just how well their bright idea was working. Hell, yes, he's going to defend the ATF, the stinking Judas. He got his silver all right.

And I'll give Grimaldi his props for remedying the damage his first story on Carter's Country did when ATF headquarters set him up with false information:

Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin said the controversy has had an impact on the criminal investigation into one of his clients, Carter's Country, a prominent Houston area chain that had sold assault weapons to an extensive gun-trafficking ring.

In an echo of the Fast and Furious case, DeGuerin said that Carter's County had dozens guns traced to Mexico because in the past few years the retailer was told by ATF to go ahead with sales of assault weapons and then report the serial numbers later to the ATF.

Last week, a prosecutor called DeGuerin to say the investigation was being dropped.

"We stood to embarrass them, meaning the ATF, for being hypocritical, two-faced, and turning against the very people who were trying to help them," DeGuerin said.

"Hypocritical, two-faced, and turning against the very people who were trying to help them."

You damn betcha, Dick. And that is the least of their sins.

PS: I received the link on this story almost simultaneously from both Grimaldi and someone on the Grassley staff. You gotta love it. Not bad for an "anti-ATF blogger sympathetic to the militia movement," huh?