Fast and Furious leaders move up the ladder of command

Tracking the on-going investigation and Congressional hearings on the BATF's "Fast and Furious" program that saw firearms deliberately fall into the hands of Mexican criminals, the National Rifle Association expressed alarm how three of its top administrators were promoted.

From the NRA: In what can only be described as "Washington D.C. logic," the three BATFE agents who were responsible for the "Fast and Furious" debacle in Phoenix have been promoted.

You read that right, promoted! Not reprimanded, not demoted and certainly not fired, but given bigger jobs with more responsibility and more pay.

Each of the agents now have high profile positions in D.C. William Newell is now special assistant to the assistant director of the agency's Office of Management, David Voth has been made branch chief for the BATFE's tobacco division.

And if those two promotions seem hard to understand, the third is particularly hard to fathom. William G. McMahon, who had been the BATFE's deputy director of operations in the West, has been made the deputy assistant director of the Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations. That is the division within BATFE that investigates misconduct by agency personnel.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com