A federal law enforcement agency said it will allow an agent to go ahead with his book detailing the failed “Fast and Furious” gun-smuggling sting operation, backtracking on its initial decision to ban publication, Politico reports.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will still request some redactions to Special Agent John Dodson’s book, the ATF said in a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union, which had protested the initial prohibition.
The ATF also said it is still reviewing whether Dodson can profit from the book. The agency previously said that publication would hurt morale within the ATF and harm its ability to work with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI, according to the protest statement from the ACLU.
Dodson worked in the Phoenix field office that in late 2009 launched a program to allow gun-runners to buy guns that the agency hoped to follow in an effort to track Mexican gun-smuggling rings. Revelations of the “Operation Fast and Furious” program sparked outrage when one of the guns being tracked was found at the scene of a 2010 shooting death of a border agent.
[Politico]