Fast And Furious Promotions?

Scandal: As guns funneled by the ATF into Mexico continue to show up at crime scenes, three key supervisors of an operation that resulted in the deaths of two U.S. agents get moved up instead of fired.

Considering the unmitigated disaster that came from a program allegedly designed to track and capture gun traffickers, we would have expected a wave of resignations and dismissals, starting with Attorney General Eric Holder. Instead, we get kudos and career advancement.

William McMahon, who was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' deputy director of operations in the West, where the program was focused, as well as William Newell and David Voth, field supervisors in the ATF's Phoenix office, have all received new management positions at ATF headquarters in Washington, D.C.

A cynic would suggest that this was so the agency could keep tabs on the trio in the wake of investigations by Rep. Darrell Issa's House Government Operations and Oversight Committee and other boards. Both ATF and the Justice Department have been pressuring witnesses as well as withholding documents.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who last week demanded that Holder immediately brief his office regarding the "scope and details of any past or present ATF gun-walking programs" in his state, said until Holder and the department "come clean" on the investigation, "it is inconceivable to reward those who spearheaded this disastrous operation with cushy desks in Washington."

It's staggering to us as well. The only desk or table they should be sitting at is one in front of a congressional committee and behind a stack of asked-for documents. That includes Holder, who needs to come clean as to what he knew, when he knew it and who authorized what.

Under the operation, federally licensed gun dealers were instructed to illegally sell several thousand weapons to straw purchasers working for drug cartels in Mexico. ATF agents were then instructed by their superiors not to interdict these weapons before they flowed into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed last December at the hands of an illegal immigrant working for the Sinaloa Cartel just 10 miles from the Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. Two AK-47 assault rifles found at the site of the Terry shooting were traced back to a straw buyer allowed to smuggle guns into Mexico with the blessing of ATF and Justice.

In addition to Agent Terry, Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in a separate incident by a weapon allowed to "walk" into Mexico from America.

In a letter that Justice officials turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, it was acknowledged that at least 11 violent crimes in the U.S. involved weapons traced to ATF's Fast and Furious operation.

The Los Angeles Times reports that these crimes occurred in multiple cities in the Southwest, including El Paso, Texas, where 42 Fast and Furious weapons were seized at two crime scenes. El Paso's City Hall recently found itself pockmarked by gunfire likely resulting from another episode of Mexico's ongoing drug war.

We have documented how a National Security Agency staffer was informed of the details of the program and how former Deputy Attorney General David Ogden at a Justice press briefing said the program was proceeding as the "president has directed us."

The White House knew and the Justice Department knew and we have suggested this was part of a plan to promote gun control by fomenting increased violence. The administration has long blamed Mexican violence on easy access to U.S. weapons, so Team Obama made it easier.

One thing is sure: The only kudos and promotions Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata will receive will have to be given posthumously.