The Strange Priorities of Ken Melson

As the head of the agency responsible for a gun smuggling operation that has caused the deaths of at least two U.S. law enforcement officers, at least one Mexican soldier and scores of innocent civilians, you would think that Ken Melson would keep a low profile. He is, after all, facing indictment on contempt charges from congress for not responding to their subpoenas for information on the gun smuggling operation he has been overseeing.

But he’s Ken Melson. And he has more important things to do.

He’s Too… What’s the word?

I am very late in covering this corner of Ken Melson’s wide, wide world of questionable motives and self-serving choices. I’m usually kept busy by the mountain of material provided by the pathological lack of ethics of Melson and his merry band of wannabes at the ASCLDs (those associated with the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors).

Over the past 10 months or so, many things have come to light about Ken Melson’s dubious doings, including

• Information presented on this website about the efforts Ken Melson has made during his tenure at the ATF to advocate the takeover of the forensic science system in the US by him and his associates at ASCLD/LAB who recently defended the practice of corrupt crime labs withholding evidence to put innocent people in prison,
• Information provided on CleanUpATF.org and SipseyStreetIrregulars that exposed the illegal gun smuggling operation that Ken Melson was running at the ATF known as Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious, and all that came after with that,
• And, finally, documentation and testimony provided by ATF agents that proved that Ken Melson was not only aware of the gun smuggling operation known as Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious, but was deeply involved in managing it.

And, since I kicked them for ignoring the NC SBI corruption scandal as it unfolded right before their eyes in the Kirk Turner trial, let me give props to CBS for actually picking this story up and sticking with it.

Let me also give unending accolades to the ATF whistleblowers, whose sense of right and wrong outweighed their fear of the mediocrity-filled, vindictive vessels of unethical stupidity who made up their chain of command. They deserve medals instead of the stress and anxiety that all too often comes with doing the right thing.

Over the past year or so, I have been told by people who know Ken Melson that they do not believe that he is capable of the things he has done, whether it be on behalf of ASCLD/LAB, with his tightly controlled White House Subcommittee on Forensic Science, or with Operation Fast & Furious at the ATF, for the following reasons:

• Ken Melson is too smart to do these things.
• Ken Melson is too stupid to do these things.
• Ken Melson is too much of a politician to do these things (I’m not sure how that is supposed to be a defense to anyone).
• Ken Melson is too nice of a guy to do these things.

Nice. Right. Gun smuggling, threats, retaliation, letting innocent people get killed, defending putting innocent people in prison… there’s nothing this guy won’t do for his friends. Ken Melson’s a real sweetheart of a guy.

Project “Gunwalker” & Operation Fast & Furious

On Monday, June 13 and Wednesday, June 15, 2011, Representative Darrell Issa (R-California), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, held the first in what are likely to be a series of hearings into the ATF program Project Gunrunner and its subcomponent Operation Fast & Furious.

At the June 15 House Oversight Committee hearing, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the ATF agents who testified gave very good insight into just how Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious worked. The ATF agents who testified were Special Agent John Dodson, Senior Special Agent Olindo James Casa, and Supervisory Special Agent Peter Forcelli.

The hearing also showcased the deliberate arrogance that the ATF and the Department of Justice uses to meet any questions it faces, whether from congress or from the ATF’s own agents tasked with carrying out Operation Fast & Furious.

The family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry testified at the hearing and gave what is, unfortunately, just a glimpse into some of the awful but not unanticipated consequences of Operation Fast & Furious.

The hearing was very, very interesting and I would highly recommend that you watch it. You can view the webcast and download the prepared statements of the witnesses here (click on Panel 1, Panel 2, Panel 3 for each webcast).

Here are some of the basics to understanding Operation Fast & Furious and some of things discussed at the hearing

• As explained by ATF Supervisory Special Agent Peter Forcelli during the June 15 House Oversight Committee hearing, Project Gunrunner began at least 5 years ago essentially as a funding source for other operations to ostensibly prevent the flow of firearms from the US to Mexico. Project Gunrunner spawned several other operations, including Operation Fast & Furious. One of the stated missions of this operation was to try to infiltrate and take down a large drug cartel by tracking gun smuggling from the point of purchase all the way to the top.
• Project Gunrunner has been dubbed “Project Gunwalker” because, as it turns out, in operations such as Operation Fast & Furious, ATF agents were ordered by the purported “leaders” of the ATF to let guns “walk” into Mexico from the US without actually tracking them.
• All the information that is currently known is from the Phoenix Field Office because those are the only agents who have talked, so far.
• ATF agents in the Phoenix Field Office observed the purchase of firearms by straw buyers (people who buy firearms for others who can’t legally buy firearms). The ATF agents were ordered to allow those straw buyers to then transfer the firearms to others, usually for transport to drug cartels in Mexico. The ATF agents were ordered not to stop or follow the recipients of the firearms who were transporting them to the drug cartels. This practice by the ATF is called “gunwalking” (letting guns “walk” away instead of intercepting them).
• Firearms dealers were cooperating with the ATF and alerting them in real time to firearms purchases by the straw dealers. Some of these firearms dealers had hidden cameras set up in their stores so that the ATF could monitor the purchases.
• The weapons that the ATF agents were forced to let “walk” included AK-47-type rifles, .50 caliber rifles, and 5.7 FN pistols. For those of you unfamiliar with firearms, these are “devastating weapons”, as described by ATF Senior Special Agent Olindo James Casa during his testimony at the June 15 House Oversight Committee hearing.
• The ATF entered the serial numbers of the firearms purchased by the straw purchasers into a database. That is how it is known that these “walked” guns are the same guns recovered later at crime scenes in Mexico and the US.
• The ATF agents who had the straw purchasers under surveillance repeatedly asked for permission to follow the third parties who received the firearms (those who were transporting the firearms up the chain to the drug cartels). The agents were always told to stand down.
• ATF agents tried to bring charges against the straw purchasers that they had been following, but the US Attorneys Office in Arizona repeatedly refused to file charges against the defendants in Operation Fast & Furious.
• When the ATF agents told their superiors that the operation a bad idea and was putting lives in danger by letting guns “walk”, the agents were threatened with punitive action or told that they simply didn’t understand the mission, without any further explanation.
• This “gunwalking” policy was in effect in the Phoenix Field Office as early as mid- to late-2009. However, Project Gunrunner is in effect throughout the southwest border states.
• The “gunwalking” strategy of Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious was finally exposed after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with one of the “walked” guns on December 14, 2010. Agent Terry’s family provided testimony at the June 15, 2011 House Oversight Committee hearing.

E-mails released by Congressman Issa’s office show that Ken Melson was not only fully involved in and constantly briefed about the ongoing “gunwalker” strategy, he asked for the IP address of the hidden camera in one of the gun shops so that he could watch the gun sales for himself from his personal computer.

During one of his visits to the Phoenix Field Office in March 2010, Ken Melson spoke to the ATF agents. Melson knew all of the case managers by name (those running the operation from the field office) and knew some of the defendants by name who were under surveillance, thereby demonstrating his deep involvement in running Operation Fast & Furious.

The Department of Justice has repeatedly refused to respond to requests for information and subpoenas from congress regarding Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious, calling it a “pending criminal investigation”. There is no indication of when, or if, this “gunwalking” policy ended. In response to questions about Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious, the Department of Justice told congressional leaders to stop asking questions.

But how just how many guns could one little ATF field office let “walk” away in a little over a year’s time?

Operation Fast & Furious, By the Numbers

The following numbers are from just two of the 40 or so defendants listed in Operation Fast & Furious, which operated out of the Phoenix Field Office.

• Two straw buyers, Uriel Patino and Jaime Avila, are two of the defendants who had open cases in Operation Fast & Furious.
• Uriel Patino bought 34 guns in the first 24 days after the ATF opened a case on him on or about October 31, 2009. One of those guns was seized in Mexico two weeks after Patino purchased it and the ATF was informed of this on November 24, 2009.
• Also on November 24, 2009, Uriel Patino brought Jaime Avila to a firearms dealer and they bought 5 guns.
• Jaime Avila bought 13 more guns over the next 6 weeks. Avila then bought 3 AK-47-type rifles on January 16, 2010.
• The ATF was aware of every purchase made by Patino and Avila in the shops of cooperating dealers. The ATF entered the serial numbers of the Patino- and Avila-purchased firearms into their database but did nothing to interrupt the purchase of the firearms by Avila and Patino. They also did nothing to determine where the firearms where going.
• Between January 16, 2010 and December 14, 2010 Jaime Avila bought 34 more firearms from dealers cooperating with the ATF. Uriel Patino bought 539. The ATF did nothing to intervene.
• On December 14, 2010 Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed near Rio Rico, Arizona. Two of the AK-47-type rifles purchased by Jaime Avila on January 16, 2010 were recovered at the scene.
• About half a dozen of the ATF’s “walked” guns were recovered around the body of Arturo Beltran-Leyva. Beltran-Leyva was the head of the Beltran-Leyva Cartel and was killed during a shoot-out with the Mexican Naval Infantry, which also left one soldier dead, in Cuernavaca, Mexico on December 16, 2009.
• No one seems to know exactly how many guns Uriel Patino bought during the year or so that he was under investigation, but the ATF has no idea where about 670 of the guns that they know he bought have gone.
• The current estimate is that the Phoenix Field Office of the ATF alone allowed approximately 2,500 guns to “walk”. Some of those guns have been recovered at crime scenes in Mexico and in the United States.
• The estimates of the number of guns that the ATF has lost track of from the Phoenix Field Office’s part in Operation Fast & Furious range between 1,300 and 1,800. Approximately 2/3 of those are believed to be in Mexico, with the other 1/3 believed to be somewhere in the United States.

Now, remember… this is just information from the Phoenix Field Office.

On February 15, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in Mexico by Los Zetas cartel members with an AK-47-type rifle that, it has since been discovered, was “walked” from a Dallas gun store by a previously identified straw buyer.

There have also been ATF-walked guns recovered from arrests made by Mexican authorities of members of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Arellano-Felix Cartel. With the horrifically high spike in the numbers of drug-related murders in Mexico caused by all of these drug cartels over the past year or so, it stands to reason that the ATF is likely responsible for at least a percentage of these deaths. Especially since the ATF was knowingly allowing guns to be transported to criminals headed to Mexico.

Multiple ATF agents have come forward to object to this “gunwalking” policy. Senator Chuck Grassley estimates that his office has heard from between 12 and 15 whistleblowers.

These agents are, no doubt, torn apart by what has happened in their agency. Each of these people has conscience that has compelled them to choose honor and truly serving their country over blindly following a willfully ignorant political appointee.

So, what’s Ken Melson been up to during this time?

Ken Melson’s Busy Schedule

What I would suggest Congressman Darrell Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley subpoena is Ken Melson’s schedule. I think that they might have questions about why Ken Melson was unavailable to answer their questions on Project “Gunwalker” and Operation Fast & Furious while he has made himself oh-so-available to promote his personal agenda.

For those of you as yet unfamiliar with Ken Melson’s true allegiances… Ken Melson has been running around the country for quite a while now trying to convince everyone that his other organization, ASCLD/LAB, should be legislated into permanently overseeing the forensic science system of the U.S. His logic is that ASCLD/LAB has supposedly been doing this for about 30-plus years, therefore they should keep doing it.

The flaw in the logic of Ken Melson and his buddies is that ASCLD/LAB has overseen and approved of the fatally flawed policies of crime labs all over the U.S. that have resulted in the fabrication of evidence, withholding of evidence, and decades-long imprisonment of innocent people.

As you would expect from a Ken Melson-sponsored enterprise, ASCLD/LAB has proven to be just as dangerous to the citizens of the United States as ATF’s gun smuggling policies have been to the citizens of Mexico and the law enforcement officers of the United States.

This doesn’t really matter to Melson who, as a long-time member of the board of directors of ASCLD/LAB, recently issued a letter defending the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s practice of withholding evidence that Ken Melson and every one else knows actually helped send innocent people to prison. Anyone expecting Ken Melson to shed a tear for Brian Terry or Jaime Zapata has a long wait ahead of them.

Ken Melson was even given a White House Subcommittee on Forensic Science to fill with his friends in order to try to write his own forensic science policies. This White House Subcommittee on Forensic Science was chartered in July 2009, just after Melson was appointed to head up the ATF and around the same time guns started “walking” to Mexico.

Here is just a sampling of some of the conferences and meetings Ken Melson has found it necessary to attend during the life span of Operation Fast & Furious in order to make his case that his vision for the future of forensic science in the United States is the correct one:

Start Date	End Date	Event	Location
July 27, 2009	July 30, 2009	St. Louis Death Investigation Conf.	St. Louis, MO
August 2, 2009	August 7, 2009	Trace Evidence Symposium	Clearwater Beach, FL
August 17, 2009	August 21, 2009	International Association for Identification (IAI)	Tampa, FL
September 14, 2009	September 17, 2009	American Society for Crime Lab Directors (ASCLD)	Anaheim, CA
September 23, 2009		DNA Executive Session	Washington, DC
November 13, 2009		NE J. on Crim & Civ Confinement Symp	Boston, MA
December 11, 2009	December 12, 2009	Criminal Defense Seminar	San Francisco, CA
February 18, 2010		UCLA PULSE Seminar on Forensic Science	Los Angeles, CA
February 22, 2010	February 27, 2010	American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS)	Seattle, WA
June 4, 2010		ABA Prescription for Crim Justice Forensics	New York, NY
June 14, 2010	June 16, 2010	NIJ Conference	Arlington, VA
July 11, 2010	July 17, 2010	International Association for Identification (IAI)	Spokane, WA
August 2, 2010	August 5, 2010	Impression & Pattern Evidence Symposium	Clearwater Beach, FL
September 12, 2010	September 15, 2010	American Society for Crime Lab Directors (ASCLD)	Baltimore, MD
September 23, 2010	September 24, 2010	NW Bias & Forensic Science Workshop	Chicago, IL
November 8, 2010	November 12, 2010	NE Association of Forensic Science & NE Div. of IAI	Manchester, VT
February 20, 2011	February 26, 2011	American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS)	Chicago, IL
March 21, 2011	March 22, 2011	Chesapeake Bay Div.- IAI	Cambridge, MD
June 3, 2011		ABA Prescription for Crim Justice Forensics	New York, NY

…just to name a few.

Remember, these are not ATF-related meetings or symposia. These are forensic science meetings where Ken Melson was making presentations regarding what he feels should be the future of forensic science in the United States.

Some of these presentations were regarding Ken Melson’s White House Subcommittee. Having seen that presentation a few times and hearing from others who have seen it as well, I can tell you that it consists of Melson pandering to what he believes forensic practitioners want to hear: Ken Melson is going to protect everybody from the big, bad government, but he can’t tell you how.

Even though Ken Melson knows that his White House Subcommittee is supposed to be open and transparent, he has worked very hard to keep it very, very closed and tightly controlled.

Some of the presentations have been about how he envisions ASCLD/LAB taking over the forensic science system in the United States, whether anyone likes it or not.

But something happened shortly after Brian Terry was killed that added a new flavor to all of Ken Melson’s presentations. No, it wasn’t that Brian Terry’s death made Ken Melson sober up and pay less attention to pursing his selfish ASCLD/LAB-related policy ambitions and rethink his failed ATF policies.

It was that Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) introduced the Criminal Justice and Forensic Science Reform Act (S.132).

With Senator Leahy’s legislation, Ken Melson’s White House Subcommittee has real competition with real reforms that threaten to derail Melson’s attempts to have himself and ASCLD/LAB given absolute authority over the forensic science system in the United States. Melson has to do something about that.

So, Ken Melson’s presentations since January have the added portion of “Openly Deride Senator Leahy’s Legislation”. Such as the presentation Melson made at the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) meeting on February 24. Let me break down the timing of that just a little more for you.

ICE Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in Mexico with a “walked” gun on February 15, 2011.

The AAFS meeting was February 20 to February 26, 2011 in Chicago. Ken Melson was at the AAFS meeting. Except for Tuesday, February 22.

On Tuesday, February 22, Ken Melson flew to Brownsville, Texas to attend the funeral of Jaime Zapata. Awfully nice of you, Ken.

Then Ken Melson came back to the AAFS conference so he could, among other things, give his talk on Senator Leahy’s legislation. This was the talk where Melson explained how awful it is that the Forensic Science Board that Senator Leahy’s legislation calls for will have to be open and transparent. The rest of Melson’s talk was quite misleading about what the legislation actually says and very, very critical of the legislation overall.

We’ll all hear a recording of this talk Ken Melson gave next time. I think it will be instructive for anyone in congress hoping to understand how Ken Melson likes to frame an argument.

Just before the AAFS meeting in February, Senator Chuck Grassley’s office had been speaking with the ATF whistleblowers and had issued two letters directly to Ken Melson.

The first letter, sent on January 27, 2011, alerted Ken Melson to the fact that Grassley had just been informed of the serious flaws in the Project Gunrunner strategy and the implications of ATF responsibility in the death of Brian Terry. Senator Grassley wanted a briefing.

The second letter, sent on January 31, 2011, alludes to the fact that ATF managers and supervisors began retaliating against the ATF whistleblowers who contacted Senator Grassley’s office immediately after the January 27 letter was sent. Senator Grassley sent the second letter to essentially say, “Bad idea, moron”, and cites the anti-retaliation laws that protect whistleblowers. The letter is also CC’d to Attorney General Eric Holder.

On February 4, 2011, the Department of Justice, through the Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich’s office, sent a letter to Senator Grassley completely denying that the ATF allowed any guns to “walk”.

At the outset, the allegation described in your January 27 letter- that ATF “sanctioned” or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico- is false. ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.

Ronald Weich was the final witness at the House Oversight Committee hearing on June 15. He did not have a happy afternoon. You really should watch the hearing.

So, while the Department of Justice is busy lyin’ & denyin’ to cover Ken Melson’s ass, Melson himself is off promoting ASCLD/LAB, his other organization that specializes in raising retaliation to an art form and bastardizing the criminal justice system.

You would think Ken Melson would have the decency or at least the intellect to know to keep his head down during this time, since he is obviously being kept far away from anything that would involve speaking to congress or answering questions about his day job.

However, Ken Melson’s appearance at AAFS marked the beginning of a trend for the next few months: a complete and utter in-your-face disrespect for congress (and everyone, really) that shows just where Ken Melson’s priorities lie.

Ken Melson was supposed to appear at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on March 31, 2011, but pulled out of the appearance at the last minute. He would likely have faced questions regarding Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious during the hearing. You would have though at that point Melson was locked in a vault somewhere in DOJ headquarters for his own good.

However, just a few days earlier, on March 21, Ken Melson gave a presentation at the Chesapeake Bay Division of the International Association for Identification called, “A Short Discourse on the Criminal Justice and Forensic Science Reform Act of 2011.” Melson didn’t even present on his own Subcommittee. He left that to one of his buddies from Mike Sheppo’s office. He devoted his whole hour to trashing Senator Leahy’s legislation.

And on June 3, 2011, just a few days before Brian Terry’s family and those ATF agents sat before the House Oversight Committee to tell their stories, Ken Melson was in New York making his case for himself and the ASCLD/LAB status quo at the American Bar Association’s Prescription for Criminal Justice Forensics.

Ken Melson has never spoken to or cooperated with any of the members of congress who have been trying to find out exactly what the point was of letting firearms just “walk” into the hands of drug cartels. And he hasn’t even had the decency to sit quietly in his office to weather the storm.

Instead, Ken Melson has been out and about slamming legislation from the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee because it doesn’t fit his personal agenda, making presentations that promote the best interests of him and his friends to the detriment of the rest of the country, and acting like he hasn’t got a care in the world.

Hopefully Ken Melson’s little party will come screeching to a halt very soon. He deserves prison. But guys like him are always surrounded by friends who are equally unburdened by a conscience to make sure they get away unscathed.