As the Brits say, it’s the bus you don’t see that kills you. Last night’s CBS report on the Gunwalker scandal—in which the Agency stands accused of allowing thousands of rifles to cross into Mexico to justify their existence—is a blow against the ATF’s credibility. Not to mention the ATF’s criminal culpability in the death of Brian Terry, the U.S. Border Patrol Agent shot by thugs using ATF-enabled rifles. But you can see how the Agency can spin this debacle. “There were some mistakes made. Agents will be disciplined. But our hearts were pure.” This, however, is another kettle of fish. A revelation on cleanupatf.org that dozens of ATF agents were making-up criminal crisis just so they could get together and party like it’s 1999. Check it . . .

. . . when one of the “untouchables” is retiring. His fellow untouchables will have a local ATF office, “somehow” get a search warrant, so all of the “team” can come to that location, which happends to be the location of the retiring agent. It will be an incident that local manpower could handle alone, but because they need a “free” reason to get to the party, they are acomodated. 5 agents could have served the warrant, but all of the sudden we have 25 NRT team members on site. This was sanctioned by our wonderful ATF management. Which by the way, cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars for airflight, hotels, rental cars, gas, and out of town pay.

Try justifying that. As we’ve said many times, the ATF is a deeply, profoundly corrupt agency whose work overlaps with that of at least four federal law enforcement agencies. This billion-and-a-half dollar boondoggle (per year) should be eliminated as soon as possible.