The Gunwalker conspirators in ATF's Chief Counsels Office. Traver's "reorganization." Will he thank CCO for Gunwalker? He should.

If the Gunwalker conspirators don't like the exploding cigar of the Gunwalker Scandal, they should know that it was the ATF Chief Counsels Office that put the load in the stogie.

From CleanUpATF.org come the following colloquy:

First, from ATF agent Pro Confesso, responding to this earlier post:

The word on street from the highest levels of accuracy says that a crew of future ATF executive defendants watched the hearings together at a command center. Reportedly Melson was dumbstruck by the comments from the Terry family. Pellietiere was busy sucking Melson's ass and adjusting the monitor. McMahon was a giant lump on the chair as he always is and always has been. Nothing to offer either way. McMahon is a modern day Dewey Webb. Where was Hoover. Reports are that he and Chait weren't there. Probably in a bar drunk off their asses. This is the kicker. Newell was their with Needles, Gillett and Voth are scribbling notes feverishly as if something that was said in the hearings was critical to their defense.

PC: Is there any "leader" in this Agency who doesn't line up single file behind Chief Counsel's Office? I laughed when the names of potential successors to HQ leadership positions was previously discussed. Jellyfish, one and all. The sanguine posts about resurrecting this outfit are entirely fantasy. Nothing has changed from days gone by. Face it. That memo by the AG is retred worthless nonsense. More gun crimes today and tomorow. A few press releases won't change facts in the inner city. No one is serious about illegal guns. The POTUS still hasn't addressed the issue - nevermind a cogent strategy by anyone in authority. It's left to the PD's of the major cities to deal with. I know some unarmed school security guards who have recovered more guns.

Moderator and ATF agent Doc Holiday responds:

Now that our Bureau is totally defunct and dysfunctional, NOW Melson leaves. Why is ANYBODY even mentioning Travers name? He was trained and mentored by Martin, Billy, John Torres and is as NON-inspirational as any of our leadership currently pending Congressional review. I defy ONE ATF employee to articulate Traver's views or position on the current state of the Bureau. What's his opinion? He doesnt have one. He has sat on the sidelines watching the ship go down as the NOMINEE. He didn't want to leave his gravy train in Chicago unless they confirmed him. That's cowardly and self serving. Not one peep out of him because hes a politician, not a COP. He was a marginal Agent, a poor Supervisor and a worthless Manager. Hes in it for personal gain. Otherwise why did he not demand to take the reins? I'll tell you why, he was told to sit silent and stay out of the fray. Andy, when in command, command. He has an agenda, and there is NO room for agenda in ATF. Only MISSION. Leave the politics to the politicians. Gene Hackman said in the movie the "Replacements", "Players want the ball". Andy doesn't want the ball until Obama and Holder say he can have it. Does that sound like a warrior? OUTSIDE Law Enforcement leadership is our only hope NO MORE Lawyers, and NO more ATF followers like Hoover, Melson, Chait, McMahon and the others. Crazy wiretaps under Martin that got zero guns off the street, but did seized one black rhino horn. No more lies to Congress or legal unethical conduct by counsel. No more Thomasson spins. Seriously Scott? "Mr Melson continues to focus on firearms violence and stemming the flow of guns"? Do you read that shit before you put it out?

Word is Traver is feverishly throwing together a NEW reorganization all weekend. You can't just reorganize and make this go away. And WHY would you without having boots on the ground before you start knee jerking. SMOKE and MIRRORS.

Then our old friend Len Savage at Historic Arms LLC points out:

Doc Holiday and Ike both bring up good points which got me to thinking.

My question to the forum and Chairman Issa; How much of a role did ATF Chief Counsels Office (CCO) play in "Fast and Furious" (and other operations patterned just like it)?

Would cleaning out the executive staff excise the issue in a reorganization? Or would that cleaning out have to include the entire CCO in order to re-establish ethical management at ATF?

I've often wondered if Mr. Rubinstein or Ms. Ficaretta were involved in this current mess. Now that former Associate Chief Counsel Ms. Ficaretta is now Deputy Assistant Director Ficaretta It's clear that all along ATF Chief Counsels Office was "The man behind the curtain" in running ATF management or the "puppet masters" if you prefer, during the leadership vacuum created by the revolving doors on the fifth floor offices. [Let's face it, you needed a score card to keep up with the changes of management personnel in the last six years].

I have read too many memos from the past that prove they (CCO) were pushing an agenda with respect to Industry Operations, Disclosure Division, Enforcement Programs and Services, Firearms Technology Branch, etc...

I would find it hard to believe that CCO was not involved in "Fast & Furious". Don't get me wrong the management personnel who even had information on this and allowed it to happen can never wash the blood from their hands. ATF management must of at some point consulted with ATF Chief Counsels Office, Why didn't CCO pull the plug or blow the whistle when they learned of it?

The only obvious answer is they approved of it and endorsed it...In the words so familiar to CCO that would make them "co-conspirators" would it not?

Am I wrong in this line of thinking?

No, he's not. And Len has reason to know more than most.

You know, the ironic thing in all of this is that the Gunwalker conspirators Obama, Holder, Melson and Traver have, besides themselves, one group to thank most for the explosion of their gun-running conspiracy: the ATF Chief Counsels Office, and not just because as lawyers tasked with responsibility they did not raise a red flag on the "felony stupid.".

For it was the CCO that organized the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians who brought the Gunwalker Scandal into the light. The CCO has been instrumental in making enemies among a disparate group of folks, folks who share little beyond the fact that each has been identified as enemies by the CCO. They are united as targets of CCO discrimination and misadventure.

Readers will recall that this blog has denounced the serial felonies of the CCO. In the process, other CCO victims and critics noticed, among them ATF agents. We had formed an informal web, if you will, into which the Gunwalker scandal dropped with the first rumors on CleanUpATF.org.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Without the CCO's framing of David Olofson, I would not be blogging.

Without CCO's vicious vendetta in the "economic Waco" against Len Savage, they would not have motivated him and his friends into defending him the best way they could. Can you say "Ramsey A. Bear," James P. Vann? I knew you could.

Without CCO's persecutions of honest ATF agents and whistleblowers, without their perversion of the EEOC process, there would be no CUATF.org.

The CCO forged the common resistance to to their depredations just as sure as the sun comes up in the east. They have no one to blame but themselves for the destruction of the Gunwalker conspiracy and its cover-up. How their superiors react to that when they realize it should be funny from this vantage point.

I doubt they'll find it as amusing, proper and just as their victims and critics will, though.