ATF chief out over botched Mexican arms sting

WASHINGTON�? The head of the U.S. agency that oversaw a botched attempt to track arms flowing to drug cartels in Mexico is being reassigned to Justice Department headquarters, the Obama administration said Tuesday.

Kenneth Melson, who has been acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, has been under fire and admitted mistakes in the sting operation meant to try to crack down on the flow of weapons to violent drug gangs.

He will be reassigned to the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy as an adviser on forensic science, the Justice Department said. The U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Todd Jones, will serve as acting ATF director.

In further fallout from the operation, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, Dennis Burke, has resigned and the lead prosecutor on that case in the office has been reassigned, according to an administration official.

Burke is an experienced federal prosecutor. He was also a chief of staff to Janet Napolitano, who is now Homeland Security secretary, when she was governor of Arizona.

"My long tenure in public service has been intensely gratifying. It has also been intensely demanding. For me, it is the right time to move on to pursue other aspects of my career and my life and allow the office to move ahead," Burke said Tuesday in a memo to his staff.

Another administration official said the changes are a chance for a "fresh start given everything they've gone through lately" at ATF.

The operation, dubbed "Fast and Furious," has spawned congressional and internal Justice Department probes and put the Obama administration on the defensive about whether dangerous weapons were knowingly allowed to cross the border.

Republicans in Congress have been demanding the Obama administration explain who knew what and when about the ATF program, which was conceived of and run out of the agency's Phoenix division.

Authorities had hoped they would be able to follow the guns to cartel leaders, but ATF agents did not track the weapons after they were transferred from the initial buyer to others. Some agents have said they were not allowed to continue the pursuit.

Instead, numerous weapons from the operation, which began in late 2009 and ran through 2010, have shown up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. Cheney: I don't think Iraq war hurt U.S. reputation
   2. Cheney: 'I didn't set out to embarrass' Bush
   3. Loughner's lawyers fighting forced medication
   4. After Irene, navigating tricky insurance-claim waters
   5. What others' embarrassing moments say about you
   6. NY firefighter's 9/11 memorial to fallen brother
   7. Single and seriously ill: Care circles fill in for family

U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry died in a December 2010 shootout on the American side of the border and two guns found there have been traced to the sting. It is not yet known if those guns were used to fire the fatal shots.

Mexican authorities have complained bitterly about the thousands of guns that cross the border from the United States each year and want Washington to do more to stem the flow.

President Barack Obama has nominated a permanent director for ATF, Andrew Traver of the agency's Chicago office, but the gun industry has opposed him. Melson is a career federal employee.

Melson took the unusual step of being interviewed on the July 4 holiday by congressional investigators. During those discussions he acknowledged mistakes had been made and other law enforcement agencies had had critical information that they did not share about their targets.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the personnel changes were warranted.

"While the reckless disregard for safety that took place in Operation Fast and Furious certainly merits changes within the Department of Justice, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation to ensure that blame isn't offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department," Issa said in a statement.

"There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility, but these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels."

Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC News contributed to this report.

local news channels local news chicago local news fail local news in brief