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quietone 
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 Topic: ATF "Fast and Furious" guns killed US Agent
Posted: March 03 2011 at 7:44pm |
Full Article and Comments
"Two of the guns involved in the sting operation turned up at the scene of a fatal shooting of a U.S. agent."
Whistleblower Says Agents Strongly Objected to Risky Strategy
By John Solomon and David Heath and Gordon Witkin | March 03, 2011
The decision — part of a Phoenix-based operation code named “Fast and Furious” — was met by strong objections from some front-line agents who feared they were allowing weapons like AK-47s to “walk” into the hands of drug lords and gun runners, internal agency memos show. Indeed, scores of the weapons came back quickly traced to criminal activity.
One of those front-line agents who objected, John Dodson, 39, told the Center for Public Integrity that these guns “are going to be turning up in crimes on both sides of the border for decades.” Dodson said in an interview that “with the number of guns we let walk, we’ll never know how many people were killed, raped, robbed … there is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are gone.”
Dodson has taken his misgivings to the Senate Judiciary Committee as a whistleblower after his concerns were dismissed by his supervisors and initially ignored by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
Sen. Charles Grassley, the panel’s top Republican — who is spearheading a probe of ATF’s actions – said “it’s time to step back” and examine the policy. Two of the guns involved in the sting operation turned up at the scene of a fatal shooting of a U.S. agent.
lots more info in article ...................
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My God. There is simply no way to defend taking the smallest of chances of these ending up in the wrong hands. Now agents have died by these thugs using U.S. weapons.
...... Looking at the story over to the right, they're starting with the "90 percent of guns smuggles into Mexico came from American suppliers" bit. That is always followed up by calls for stricter gun control laws....................................
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endman
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Posted: March 04 2011 at 11:16am |
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Same old story some one at the top creates a problem, and then using public money they are trying to solve it. Again guns are not the problem people are
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quietone
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Posted: March 05 2011 at 11:44am |
Files add some clarity to Terry's death; agents used beanbags against migrants, who replied with gunfire
"Your government is telling you to use beanbags, but you are selling guns back to the Mexicans," Kent Terry said. "There's a lot of questions that they haven't answered."
Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight
Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight
Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, March 3, 2011 12:00 am
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Jill Torrance/Arizona Daily Star Border Patrol agents salute their fellow agent Brian Terry during his memorial at Kino Stadium Friday, January 21, 2011.
Border Patrol agents shot beanbags at a group of suspected bandits before the men returned fire during a confrontation in a remote canyon, killing agent Brian Terry with a single gunshot, records show.
And an illegal immigrant wounded in the gunbattle who is now the only person in custody linked to the slaying contends he never fired a shot, according to FBI search warrant requests filed in the U.S. District Court in Tucson.
The documents provide the most detailed version yet of what happened in the deadly gunbattle Dec. 14 in Peck Canyon, northwest of Nogales.
The documents say the group of illegal border entrants refused commands to drop their weapons after agents confronted them at about 11:15 p.m. Two agents fired beanbags at the migrants, who responded with gunfire. Two agents returned fire, one with a long gun and one with a pistol, but Terry was mortally wounded in the gunfight.
Border Patrol officials declined to answer questions about protocol for use of force, citing the ongoing investigation.
But Terry's brother, Kent Terry, said the other agents who were there that night told him that they were instructed to use the non-lethal beanbags first. It's a policy that doesn't make sense to Kent Terry.
"You go up against a bandit crew that is carrying AKs, and you walk out there with guns loaded with beanbags - I don't get it," Terry said in a phone interview from Michigan. "It's like going to the Iraqi war with one knife. It boggles my mind. ... These guys (Border Patrol agents) are professionals; they should be able to use their judgment call on their own."
On the night of the deadly encounter, agents were trying to apprehend at least five suspected illegal immigrants. One agent, using thermal binoculars, spotted two men carrying rifles. When the group came close, at least one agent identified himself as police and ordered the men to drop their weapons.
Here's how the rest of the events are described in the FBI document:
"When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed 'less than lethal' beanbags at the suspected aliens. At this time, at least one of the suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol agents. Two Border Patrol agents returned fire, one with his long gun and one with his pistol.
"Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot with one bullet and died shortly after. One of the suspected illegal aliens, later identified as Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was also shot."
The search warrants were requested to examine fingerprints and a hair sample from Osorio-Arellanes, who was one of four men arrested that night near the shooting scene. The other three arrested, illegal immigrants from Mexico, have been cleared in connection with the crime and deported back to their home countries.
Osorio-Arellanes has not been charged in connection with the fatal shooting. He has been charged only with illegal re-entry after deportation and is awaiting a May 10 trial. The FBI document represents the first time his name has been included in a public document related to the shooting.
Two days after the shooting, Osorio-Arellanes agreed to talk to FBI agents. He was traveling with four others that night, all of whom were armed, Osorio-Arellanes told investigators, according to the document.
"Osorio-Arellanes stated that he had raised his weapon towards the Border Patrol agents, but he did not fire because he realized that they were Border Patrol agents," the search warrant says. "At this time, he was shot."
Two firearms were recovered at the scene that are believed to belong to the suspects, the documents say. Officials were planning to take Osorio-Arellanes' fingerprints to compare with those found on the two weapons.
Officials also recovered five backpacks, three gloves, two sweat shirts, a pullover, a jacket, a knit hat, a baseball cap and a razor.
The summary provided in the search warrants is only a snapshot and does not include all facts known by investigators, FBI agents wrote in the three separate search-warrant requests filed in U.S. District Court in late December.
Terry, 40, of Michigan, was a member of a specially trained tactical unit known as Bortac. On the night of the shooting, Terry and his crew were targeting a "rip crew" that robbed and assaulted drug runners and illegal immigrants, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
This week, the Terry family received the autopsy report, which shows that Terry was shot once in the lower back, about 29 inches down from the right shoulder, Kent Terry said. Brian Terry was trying to turn, likely for cover, when he was shot, Kent Terry said. The bullet found inside his body was one used with AK-47s, he said.
The report gave the family some closure, and it erased any doubt about friendly fire being a possibility in the fatal shooting, because agents don't use AK-47s, Kent Terry said. The FBI announced in mid-February that it had ruled out friendly fire, but Kent Terry remained skeptical because he hadn't seen the autopsy.
The Terry family remains upset about allegations that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed a gun smuggler it was investigating to purchase and smuggle into Mexico the weapons used in the shootout in which Terry died. The Justice Department has denied the allegations, but U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, continues to insist on the validity of the claims.
"Your government is telling you to use beanbags, but you are selling guns back to the Mexicans," Kent Terry said. "There's a lot of questions that they haven't answered."
The FBI investigation remains ongoing, said agency spokesman Manuel Johnson. No arrests have been made. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona said investigators and prosecutors aim to bring criminal charges against the people responsible for Brian Terry's murder.
Terry, 40, was the 10th agent to die on duty in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector since 1926 and the first agent shot to death since 1998. Terry was buried in his hometown of Detroit on Dec. 22, and hundreds attended his memorial service January in Tucson.
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
Copyright 2011 Arizona Daily Star. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistribu
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Turboguy
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 5:35pm |
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The BATFE is the problem yet again.
Color me surprised...
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Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views. - William F. Buckley
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quietone
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Posted: April 17 2011 at 6:49pm |
Project Gunrunner: Obama’s Stimulus-Funded Border Nightmare
By Michelle Malkin • March 30, 2011 11:16 AM
Graphic via CBS News
I’ve been tied up on other things, but have been following the Project Gunrunner scandal closely — and delve into the basics in my syndicated column today. To its credit, CBS News gave this deadly Obama culture of corruption nightmare mainstream coverage last month. But it’s been brewing on the blogs of gun rights advocates David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh and the website CleanUpATF.org, where the story originated, for months prior. Codrea’s journalists’ guide to Project Gunrunner here. Here’s Vanderboegh’s blog with massive Gunrunner links and background document caches, including this one of all official correspondence on the Gunrunner scandal between GOP watchdogs Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa and the House GOP Judiciary Committee and various Obama officials and agencies.
Previous IG reports on Gunrunner’s shortcomings are here and here (pdf).
GOP Rep. Darrell Issa’s letter yesterday to Hillary Clinton on her State Department’s refusal to turn over related Gunrunner documents is here.
My warnings about the Merida Initiative, which provided essential funding for Project Gunrunner under the Bush administration, are here.
Codrea’s intro to the story:
The following is a summary and time line of articles appearing on the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog and Gun Rights Examiner, reflecting original reporting on the developing “Project Gunwalker” story by Mike Vanderboegh and myself. That’s the purposely ironic name I assigned it, a parody of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive’s “Project Gunrunner,” and it refers to allegations by whistleblowing ATF insiders that:
* ATF management was allowing potentially hundreds of semiautomatic firearms to be walked across the Mexican border in order to pad statistics used to further budget and power objectives.
* Mexican authorities were kept in the dark, and protests that they should be informed were overridden, first by the Phoenix ATF office, and ultimately by higher-ups in Washington, DC.
* A gun used in this operation was involved in a December 2010 incident in which a Border Patrol agent was killed.
The original allegations were posted on CleanUpATF.org. Vanderboegh and I, who have a history going back years of documenting allegations posted there, and pressing for congressional hearings to investigate the claims, were both contacted independently by various ATF insiders claiming to have corroborating information and documentation. Mike vetted his sources and I used my contacts to help validate that my informant was who he represented himself to be. Mike and I did what we could throughout our separate and coordinated investigations to test and corroborate what was being told. We also had a small circle of behind-the-scenes consultants, including firearms designer Len Savage, and a few other knowledgeable advisors, all with contacts and informed insights of their own, and all of whom have earned our trust over the years.
Our primary goal was to help arrange for protection for our sources, and quickly, as retaliation was feared. Because the allegations involved higher ups within the Justice Department, the added protection afforded by separation of powers was sought. Through various contacts and machinations that are documented in the following timeline, the whistleblowers came under the protective umbrella of Sen. Charles Grassley, a senior member of the Committee of the Judiciary.
Our secondary goal was to push this story outside our limited spheres of influence and into the “mainstream press,” so that it would be problematic to ignore or bury things. Again, making this happen has been an ongoing struggle, but we’ve seen the first cracks in the dam. The following time line will bring journalists just getting involved with this story up to speed by walking them though it, from its genesis to where we are today as major media outlets finally begin to take notice and get involved.
There will be two stories, of course, as I’ve chronicled from Day One of this administration: the scandal and the attempted cover-up.
Obama told Univision that he knows nothin’, as usual:
Transcript:
JR: THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT COMPLAINS THAT THEY WERE NOT INFORMED ABOUT THE “FAST AND FURIOUS” OPERATION. DID YOU AUTHORIZE THIS OPERATION AND WAS PRESIDENT CALDERON PROPERLY INFORMED ABOUT IT?
PBO: Well, first of all I did not authorize it. Eric Holder, the Attorney General, did not authorize it. He’s been very clear that our policy is to catch gun runners and put them into jail. So what he’s done is he’s assigned an I.G., an inspector general, to investigate what exactly happened…
JR: SO WHO AUTHORIZED IT?
PBO: Well, we don’t have all the facts. That’s why the I.G. is in business. To collect the facts.
JR: AND YOU WERE NOT EVEN INFORMED ABOUT IT?
PBO: Absolutely not, this is a pretty big government, the United States government. I got a lot of moving parts. But I want to be very clear, I spoke to President Calderon when he came to visit just a few weeks ago, our policy is to ramp up the interdiction of guns flowing south because that’s contributing to some of the security problems that are taking place in Mexico and what we are doing is trying to build the kind of cooperation between Mexico and the United States that we haven’t seen before. That ensures that we have a comprehensive approach. I’ve said to President Calderon and I’ve said it publicly, we’ve got obligations. It’s not just Mexico’s problem, it’s also our problem. We got to reduce demand for drugs, which is why even though we got obviously significant deficits; we are allocating 10 billion dollars in our budget to try to reduce demand through prevention programs and education programs. We have to make sure that we are enforcing the kinds of measures that will stop the flow of guns and cash down south that is helping to fuel these transnational drug cartels. So we’ve initiated excellent cooperation, there may be a situation here in which a serious mistake was made, if that’s the case then we’ll find out and will hold somebody accountable.
JR: MEXICO WAS NOT INFORMED THEN?
PBO: Well, if I wasn’t informed I assure you that Mexico wasn’t either.
Today is a deadline day for DOJ to respond to GOP watchdog inquiries for information. Via FOX News:
Congress and the Department of Justice appear to be headed for a showdown this week over documents detailing Operation Fast and Furious, the botched gunrunning sting set up by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that funneled more than 1,700 smuggled weapons from Arizona to Mexico.
The Justice Department has until Wednesday to deliver to congressional investigators a stack of records and emails naming the individuals responsible for the gun trafficking operation that may have killed dozens, if not hundreds of Mexicans, and is becoming a growing embarrassment for the Obama administration.
Watch AG Eric Holder do what’s he done his entire career: Stonewall, deny, forget, cover up, give passes, and get passes.
More on Gunrunner and ties to the ICE agent Jaime Zapata’s murder at Patterico’s.
The Truth about Guns’ coverage of the scandal is here. Andrea Shea King’s Gunrunner archive and radio interview with Gunrunner insiders is here. Laura Ingraham’s coverage of the scandal and interview with Sen. Grassley is here. Jim Geraghty and Cam Edwards ask tough questions at NRO. Townhall’s Katie Pavlich has been tracking the story.
This disaster has only just begun.
***
Project Gunrunner: Obama’s Stimulus-Funded Border Nightmare
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011
Buried in Barack Obama’s failed trillion-dollar stimulus program was a $10 million bloody border racket that has now cost American lives. This goes far beyond the usual waste, fraud and abuse underwritten by progressive profligacy. It’s bloodstained government malfeasance overseen by anti-gun ideologues — and now anti-gun ideologue Attorney General Eric Holder will “investigate.”
Welcome to Project Gunrunner. Prepare for another Justice Department whitewash.
First, some background. Like so many border programs run amok, Project Gunrunner was the spawn of Beltway bipartisanship. It was established in 2005 as a pilot project under the Bush administration and run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The intended goal of the program’s sting operations: stop illicit firearms trafficking along the Southwest border through close surveillance of undercover gun purchases and coordinated intervention with Mexico. The deadly result: federally sanctioned gunwalking of high-powered weapons from U.S. officials right into the hands of drug cartel killers.
By 2008, Project Gunrunner’s bureaucratic fiefdom had expanded rapidly along the U.S.-Mexico border and into the nine U.S. consulates in Mexico. The office raked in $2 million more through the little-scrutinized Merida Initiative, which Hispanic vote-pandering Republicans rammed through in a war supplemental bill. Despite warnings from the DOJ inspector general that tracking and assessment measures needed improvement, the payroll exploded from a few dozen to more than 200 by 2009. Under the Obama administration, ATF reaped another $21.9 million to expand Project Gunrunner (nearly half from the stimulus boondoggle), and the White House has requested almost $12 million more in fiscal year 2011 appropriations for the program.
Project Gunrunner’s reach and authority continues to grow despite dire, prolonged warnings from insiders and whistleblowers that countless monitored guns have been passed on to violent criminals without being intercepted as planned. Following up on leads first published at www.cleanupatf.org and the blogs of gun rights advocates David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh, CBS News reported last month that Project Gunrunner “allegedly facilitated the delivery of thousands of guns into criminal hands.”
One of those guns was used by Mexican gang thugs who murdered U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December. At least six veteran ATF agents and executives stepped forward to expose how ATF presided over the purchase of hundreds of high-powered rifles and pistols — over the objection of the very private gun shops that the Obama administration’s anti-gun zealots have vilified.
One whistleblower familiar with Project Gunrunner’s Phoenix offshoot, dubbed “Operation Fast and Furious,” told CBS News: “The numbers are over 2,500 on that case by the way. That’s how many guns were sold — including some 50-calibers they let walk.” The weapon used in the Mexico slaying of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata has also been linked to Project Gunrunner surveillance operation subjects.
As investigative watchdog Republicans Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa step up pressure on the administration to come clean this week about who knew what and when, Obama denied any knowledge of Project Gunrunner on Spanish-language Univision TV. He blithely allowed that “there may be a situation here in which a serious mistake was made. If that’s the case, then we’ll find out and we’ll hold someone accountable.”
Coming from a man who appointed crime-coddling, accountability-evading, open-borders corruptocrat Eric Holder to uphold the law, that is a bloody, cruel joke.
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quietone
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Posted: April 17 2011 at 6:51pm |
Click to See Comments
February 10, 2011
Sen. Grassley: Time For ATF To Come CleanT.L. Davis
The death of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry should have been an accident quietly disposed of in the silence of the Arizona desert. Everything was easily explained away, a CBP patrol came across a nefarious band of characters in the desert, a firefight erupted that left Agent Terry fatally injured. It could have been easy. The only trouble with the cover story was that the weapons held by the suspects were supposedly being tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) often referred to simply as the ATF.
How assault weapons sold with full knowledge of the ATF wound up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels has become the pertinent question in the scandal dubbed Gunwalker by David Codrea of Examiner.com a sardonic referral to the ATF's acknowledged project "Gunrunner." Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars have been working diligently to break the story and shepherd congressional whistleblower protection to outraged ATF agents.
If one were to ask Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich how this was allowed to happen, he might respond as he did to Senator Grassley's inquiries:
At the outset, the allegation described in your January 27 letter-that ATF "sanctioned" or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico-is false.[1]
Further, Weich makes an accusation typical of the Obama Administration, wherein accusing the accuser is routine.
We also want to protect investigations and the law enforcement personnel who directly conduct them from inappropriate political influence. For this reason, we respectfully request that Committee staff not contact law enforcement personnel seeking information about pending criminal investigations. [1]
Assistant Attorney General Weich issued the denial and warning on February 4th, 2011 and raised the stakes in a high-level game of chicken with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Grassley's response was quick and effective issuing this letter with attached corroboration of the charges.
Senator Grassley's letter contains these facts:
On January 16, 2010, Avila (the suspect purchasing the AK-47's from the gun dealer under knowledge of the ATF) bought three AK-47 variant Romanian WASR-10 assault rifles from the same dealer with the serial numbers 1983AH3977, 1979IS1530 and 1971CZ3775. ATF entered these weapons into the National Tracing Center's Suspect Gun Database three days later...
The letter continues:
After the shooting of CBP Agent Terry, law enforcement officials recovered from the scene two assault rifles. On December 16, 2010, ATF's trace results confirmed that serial numbers 1983AH3977 and 1971CZ3755 match two of the three rifles purchased by Avila and tracked by the ATF nearly a year earlier. In addition to these specific weapons, the indictment of Avila and other reference approximately 769 firearms. Of those, the indictment refers to the recovery of only about 103 weapons. So, where are the other approximately 666 weapons referenced in the indictment?
It seems clear from Senator Grassley's response that he is not impressed by Assistant Attorney General Weich's categorical denial or the warning to drop the investigation. In fact, the very last part of the letter is the most poignant as it includes a personal plea from Agent Terry's Stepmother, causing Senator Grassley to issue this plea:
The Terry family deserves answers. The whistleblowers have expressed a desire to honor Agent Terry's memory by disclosing this information. The Justice Department should do the same. The best way to honor his memory is to come clean.
What more can be said?
[1] February 4th letter from the U.S Department of Justice, Office of Legislative Affairs from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to Charles E. Grassley, Ranking Minority Member Committee on the Judiciary.
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quietone
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Posted: April 19 2011 at 8:59am |
Update: See emails between the ATF and gun shop owner. I am assuming the gun owners would want assurances to protect themselves as well.
By Michelle Malkin • April 19, 2011 09:52 AM
Tick, tick, tick. Another Project Gunrunner disclosure deadline approaches for the Department of Justice. And GOP watchdogs are hammering away at yet another stonewall erected by corruptocrat Attorney General Eric Holder.
Late last week, Sen. Charles Grassley roasted the DOJ for failing to produce documents he requested in February — and released his own set of damning e-mails between a gun shop owner who had protested the ATF’s dangerous straw purchase scheme repeatedly. Via CBS News’s Sheryl Atkinson:
Damning, newly-obtained emails show that a key gun shop owner made explicit concerns in writing last year in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ “gunwalking” scandal.
Starting in late 2009, ATF allegedly directed an undetermined number of Phoenix-area gun shop owners to go ahead with sales of thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to suspicious buyers. Insiders claim ATF knew the buyers were connected to Mexico’s drug cartels, but let the guns “walk” onto the street anyway in a misguided attempt to obtain intelligence. ATF and the Justice Department have denied that.
Investigators from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) obtained the emails this week.
You can download the .pdf file of Grassley’s letter to the DOJ and the e-mails here.
http://michellemalkin.cachefly.net/michellemalkin.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/gunwalking_emails_041411.pdf
This will make your blood boil over:
On June 17, 2010, the gun dealer wrote to the ATF to again express concerns after seeing a report
on Fox News about firearms and the border:
The segment, if the information was correct, is disturbing to me. When
you, [the Assistant U.S. Attorney], and I met on May 13th, I shared my
concerns with you guys that I wanted to make sure that none of the
firearms that were sold per our conversation with you and various ATF
agents could or would ever end up south of the border or in the hands of
the bad guys. … I want to help ATF with its investigation but not at the risk
of agents‟ safety because I have some very close friends that are U.S.
Border Patrol agents in southern AZ[.]5
Incredibly, the FFL sent this email six months before guns from the same ATF operation were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry‟s murder. So, not only were
the ATF agents who later blew the whistle predicting that this operation would end in tragedy, so were the gun dealers—even as ATF urged them to make the sales. Furthermore, according to the FFL, there were “one or two” occasions on which his employees actually witnessed and recorded with surveillance cameras an exchange of money between the straw purchaser and another individual on the premises.6
Despite this actual knowledge of a straw purchase, the dealer said ATF officials wanted him to proceed with the transaction.7 However, his employees refused to process the sale.8
In light of this new evidence, the Justice Department‟s claim that the ATF never knowingly sanctioned or allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers is simply not credible.
Grassley wants to know:
1.Do you stand by the assertion in the Department‟s reply that the ATF whistleblower allegations are “false” and specifically that ATF did not sanction or otherwise knowingly allow the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers? If so, please explain why in light of the mounting evidence to the contrary.
2. Will you commit to providing the Senate Judiciary Committee with documents, or access to documents, simultaneously with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform? If not, please explain why not.
Grassley’s deadline for a DOJ response to his continued inquiries is tomorrow.
Tick, tick, tick.
***
More: U.S. urged dealer to continue gun sales despite concerns, inquiry finds, LAT
Mexican homicides tripled while ATF operation sent guns south, Dave Workman
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quietone
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Posted: May 04 2011 at 6:37pm |
Published: 2:23 PM 05/04/2011
Matthew Boyle is a contributing reporter at The Daily Caller.
Three Project Gunrunner documents Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and House Oversight Committee chairman, released on Wednesday show high-ranking Justice Department officials were aware of Operation Fast and Furious and that there was a consistent administration policy that allowed American guns to be “walked” into Mexican drug cartels’ possession.
One of the documents shows Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer approved a wiretap application for suspects Operation Fast and Furious targeted in March 2010. The wiretap application process is lengthy and cumbersome, and often requires those applying to make strong case as to why they need it. So, Breuer would have been briefed in detail on Operation Fast and Furious before authorizing the wiretap.
Another document, a briefing paper from January 8, 2010, shows the administration’s step-by-step policy decisions and plans. The Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), wrote that the “investigation has currently identified more than 20 individual connected straw purchasers,” or those who bought weapons, under ATF surveillance, with the intent to traffic them to Mexican drug cartels. The briefing paper shows that ATF’s policy was to allow this to happen. “Currently, our strategy is to allow the transfer of firearms to continue to take place, albeit at a much slower pace, in order to further the investigation and allow for the identification of additional co-conspirators who would continue to operate and illegally traffic firearms to Mexican DTOs [Drug Trafficking Organizations] which are perpetrating armed violence along the Southwest Border.”
The briefing paper also shows that the “straw purchasing group” made a “blitz” in weapons trafficking from late September to early December 2009.
The third document, an e-mail from Arizona-based U.S. Attorney Shelley Clemens to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official Richard Crocker and FBI official S. Annette Bartlett, shows that the Justice Department has begun scrambling to stop the gun “walking” practice since Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, launched investigations into the program. “Yesterday, we received a directive from the DAG [Deputy Attorney General], instructing on DOJ’s policy regarding guns going south into Mexico,” Shelley wrote on March 10, 2011. The directive from the Deputy AG, as she Shelley quotes it, is: “We should not design or conduct undercover operations which include guns crossing the border. If we have knowledge that guns are about to cross the border, we must take immediate action to stop the firearms from crossing the border, even if that prematurely terminates or otherwise jeopardizes an investigation.”
Attorney General Eric Holder has faced GOP heat on Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious for two straight days now. On Tuesday, Issa questioned him on it during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Holder told Issa he’s only heard of the controversial gun trafficking programs over the past few weeks.
Then, on Wednesday, before Issa released the three new documents, Grassley grilled Holder about the email from Clemens and the indications of a policy shift during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Grassley pushed Holder on the e-mail from Clemens. “If the ATF, as the agency keeps telling us, did not knowingly allow guns into the hands of traffickers, why was that directive even necessary? Why issue a memo telling people to stop doing something unless you think maybe they have been doing it?” Grassley asked Holder.
“The memo was issued because the allegations had been raised,” Holder said, “the possibility that that happened was sufficient I thought to have clarification sent to the field that we should never allow guns in an uncontrolled fashion to cross the border or actually to leave any investigation in an uncontrolled way,” Holder said.
“I don’t think it represents a change in policy, but I certainly wanted to make sure that people in the field understood that that is in fact the policy. And to the extent there was any confusion, I wanted to make sure there was none,” Holder said. Issa expressed dissatisfaction with Holder’s appearance of resisting cooperating with his and Grassley’s congressional investigations.
“Two federal agents are dead,” Issa said in a statement. “While Attorney General Holder and other top officials at the Justice Department have refused to address the reckless decisions made in Operation Fast and Furious that have created a serious public safety hazard, investigations led by Sen. Charles Grassley and I continue to receive information from deeply concerned insiders who believe those responsible for what has occurred cannot be trusted to investigate themselves.”
Spokespeople for the DOJ did not immediately return TheDC’s request for comment on the new release. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/04/new-project-gunrunner-documents-peg-top-doj-officials/#ixzz1LR7ovtsV
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quietone
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Posted: May 05 2011 at 10:09pm |
Click for Article and Two Videos of exchanges between the Senate House Judiciary Committee and US Attorney Eric Holder at the hearing.
Not only Has an American border agent been killed but how many innocent Mexicans have been caught up in this and killed by these guns??
Gunwalker Scandal: Watergate with Murder?
The phrase, “it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up” was made infamous by Watergate. The same principle appears to be at work here.
=====================================
Comments from article:
Let’s see now.
Hillary Clinton goes to the Mexican border and accuses American citizens of being behind the deaths in Mexico, because, she says, American citizens are illegally supplying the drug gangs with weapons.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/03/25/us-usa-...
She and the ATF thugs start proceedings to restrict, limit or outright deny the legal American citizens the right to exercise their second amendment rights, treating them as criminals.
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/article_5f...
Fast forward to today. We now know what she knew all along.
obama and his .... Justice Dept. head, Holder, have been murdering people in Mexico by sending illegal weapons there directly from the White House. They even videotaped some of the smuggling of their weapons by the drug dealers, as they loaded them into vehicles and crossed the border, (instead of stopping them).
ATF officers have come forward to report they were told to let the weapons they are hired to stop, into Mexico.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20043411-10...
Holder says this was being done to track the weapons, so they could make a major drug bust in the future. When asked about the crimes committed, the deaths caused, by Holder and obama’s weapons, a justice dept. official said it was necessary to “break a few eggs” (to make an omelette).
Of course, Holder doesn’t mind killing some Mexicans, hell no, they’re not, “his people”.
What has been uncovered, but still not mentioned by the “Three Blind Mice”, (ABC CBS NBC), is a classic, “False Flag” project.
obama and Holder invaded a sovereign nation with the intent to kill and do harm to their citizens, and blame it on legal American businesses, so they could gut the Second Amendment and ban guns.
This whole administration is an illegal abomination, a disgustingly lawless cabal of socialists, communists and union thug terrorist supporters, doing their best to destroy Capitalism and the American Constitution.
Obama “…I got a lot of moving parts.”
On March 26, 2011, In Politics, By Ron Reale
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-on-the-potomac...
So, our President claims neither he nor Eric Holder knew of, “Operation Gunrunner”. You know, the “Operation Gunrunner” that, according to ATF officials, allowed illegal weapons to flow across the Mexican border so that the Justice Department might make some big drug bust in the future.
Instead, our President says the decision to invade a foreign country and help terrorize, kill and maim its inhabitants came from some underlings, he doesn’t know who, yet, because, ya know, “…this is a pretty big government, the United States government. I've got a lot of moving parts.”
“A LOT OF MOVING PARTS!?” That is his answer?!? Where’s the indignation, the outrage, that one of his subordinates in Government would do something so blatantly unethical, immoral and plain illegal?
Where is his compassion for all those harmed or killed by these weapons…has he apologized to the family of the DEA officer HIS GOVERNMENT MURDERED?
If someone else had done something so underhanded in my name, I would be turning over ever rock, looking in every nook and cranny, TODAY, MYSELF. I would have every officer in the chain of command in my office, and they would leave unemployed if they could not answer my questions, NOW, IMMEDIATELY! I would not need some Inspector General to investigate who was murdering people in my name, I would not accept another person leading the search for answers. It would all be public hearings, and I, the President, would be demanding answers.
The fact that that is not what is happening is proof once again that obama is lying. (misrepresenting) .......................He knows the answers, he is just looking for someone to fall on the sword for him, or just plain leave holding the bag, (Eric Holder).
He and Holder actually want the public to believe that some obscure department head took it upon themselves to breach the sovereignty of a foreign nation and purposely do harm to its citizens.
If we are to believe this, we have a much bigger problem............ How many of the government workers have been bestowed this power? How many of them are making decisions, or think they have the authority to make such decisions, to circumvent the Constitution, Congress? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
..........................
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Hillary Clinton is pushing this UN small arms treaty.
Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
October 14, 2009
Conventional arms transfers are a crucial national security concern for the United States, and we have always supported effective action to control the international transfer of arms.
The United States is prepared to work hard for a strong international standard in this area by seizing the opportunity presented by the Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations. As long as that Conference operates under the rule of consensus decision-making needed to ensure that all countries can be held to standards that will actually improve the global situation by denying arms to those who would abuse them, the United States will actively support the negotiations. Consensus is needed to ensure the widest possible support for the Treaty and to avoid loopholes in the Treaty that can be exploited by those wishing to export arms irresponsibly.
On a national basis, the United States has in place an extensive and rigorous system of controls that most agree is the “gold standard” of export controls for arms transfers. On a bilateral basis, the United States regularly engages other states to raise their standards and to prohibit the transfer or transshipment of capabilities to rogue states, terrorist groups, and groups seeking to unsettle regions. Multilaterally, we have consistently supported high international standards, and the Arms Trade Treaty initiative presents us with the opportunity to promote the same high standards for the entire international community that the United States and other responsible arms exporters already have in place to ensure that weaponry is transferred for legitimate purposes.
The United States is committed to actively pursuing a strong and robust treaty that contains the highest possible, legally binding standards for the international transfer of conventional weapons. We look forward to this negotiation as the continuation of the process that began in the UN with the 2008 UN Group of Governmental Experts on the ATT and continued with the 2009 UN Open-Ended Working Group on ATT.
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quietone
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Posted: May 17 2011 at 10:01am |
We Do Know Decisions For Gunrunner Fast and Furious Were Made In Washington
Published: 11:03 AM 05/17/2011 | Updated: 12:12 PM 05/17/2011
Matthew Boyle is a contributing reporter at The Daily Caller
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and the Chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee, expressed more confidence in his committee’s investigation into President Obama’s Department of Justice policies surrounding Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, comparing it to the Iran-Contra scandal.
Issa told radio host Rick Amato that it is “not unprecedented” for government agencies, like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), to refuse to honor Congressional subpoenas.
“This looks an awful lot like Iran Contra,” Issa said. “When a government agency makes a mistake they stall, delay and cover up. That’s what’s happening here.”
Issa reaffirmed his certainty that the decision to allow guns to “walk” into Mexico was one made in Washington, not in border cities or local ATF offices as DOJ officials have contended.
“We’re not done but what we do know is that the decision for this was not made in Tucson or El Paso or anywhere else,” he said. “It was made in Washington.”
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quietone
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Posted: June 13 2011 at 2:05pm |
House of Representatives
House Panel to Weigh Subpoena Authority in 'Fast and Furious' Gun Case
By William Lajeunesse
Published June 13, 2011
Please click on link below to see Video
ReCap: 'It appears that the purpose behind this operation was part of the gun control effort by the administration. BATF sets up a program to create illegal sales so that they can later make claims that U.S. gun dealers are providing weapons to drug cartels. This operation included not just the Justice Department, but also the Director of Homeland Security. This is a major conspiracy that included appointees at high level in Justice and DHS. Cost the lives of at least two Federal agents and likely dozens of Mexican citizens.'
Will Eric Holder be held in Contempt? Both Holder and President Obama have declared to the Mexican President of not knowing of this operation.
So much for Rule of Law.....and Transparency.
-----------------------------------------
Since Watergate, Congress has held just 12 senior U.S. government officials in contempt for failure to produce subpoenaed documents. On Monday, that process begins again.
A hearing in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is laying the groundwork to compel U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to turn over documents related to "Operation Fast and Furious," a secret Obama administration program that put thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
Fast and Furious aimed to track gun sales to Mexico, allegedly, say critics of the program, to build up evidence to publicly blame cartel violence on U.S. gun store owners and lax American gun laws.
In the past two months, the Department of Justice, on behalf of ATF, has ignored subpoenas and seven letters demanding details of the program. It has refused to provide a single document to the oversight committee, according to chairman Darrell Issa.
"Now the question is will DOJ give us the documents or will law enforcement officials, little by little, as whistleblowers give us what we want to show this problem goes to the highest levels," said Issa, R-Calif. "What we would like to do is get the truth out quickly, that it's the judgment of the people involved that Congress needs to question."
Legal experts say Monday's hearing is one step in a long process. Testimony will focus on the almost unlimited subpoena powers given to the legislative branch when it comes to government oversight.
"There is no special status under the law for the Department of Justice. The attorney general is an important member of the Cabinet, but he is no different than any other agency chief. He, too, is subject to congressional oversight," Steve Ross, formerly the top lawyer for the House of Representatives, told Fox News.
Until now, the Justice Department has taken the position that House and Senate investigators are not entitled to the documents because it may jeopardize an ongoing investigation. It also claims the ATF, under Director Ken Melson, never sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw buyers despite evidence to the contrary.
One of the documents that exposed the operation shows ATF officials knowingly allowed the sale of 1,318 guns to 15 suspects after they had been positively identified as gun smugglers. A majority of those guns went south of the border and only about 250 have been recovered in the U.S. by police at crime scenes.
Mexican officials say at least 150 Mexicans have been shot by guns obtained through the "Fast and Furious" program.
"When you look at least 2,000 rifles of choice going into Mexico, 150 seems like a very reasonable number, if it is not higher than that already it will be in time," Issa said.
While Monday's hearing will focus on administration stonewalling, a second hearing on Wednesday will include family members of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and three ATF agents who blew the whistle on the operation.
They have told Fox News that ATF ordered and encouraged law-abiding gun shop owners to sell weapons to buyers knowing those guns would be smuggled to Mexico. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/13/house-panel-to-weigh-subpoena-authority-in-fast-and-furious-gun-case/#ixzz1PBlSLsAz
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Turboguy
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Posted: June 13 2011 at 8:10pm |
On March 30, the 30th anniversary of the assassination
attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Jim Brady, who sustained a
debilitating head wound in the attack, and his wife, Sarah, came to Capitol Hill
to push for a ban on the controversial “large magazines.” Brady, for
whom the law requiring background checks on handgun purchasers is named,
then met with White House press secretary Jay Carney. During the
meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady,
brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said. “I
just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the
president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but
under the radar.”
There's no connection here... Under the Radar huh? Like he doesn't know exactly what's going on. Obama's a total piece of lying s***. FBHO and especially that Liberal cockbag Eric holder. F*** be upon him too.
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Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views. - William F. Buckley
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quietone
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Posted: June 14 2011 at 9:29pm |
U.S. Gun Laws: Mexico’s Favorite Scapegoat For Drug Violence
The body count in Mexico’s drug wars keeps rising, now approaching 40,000 since President Felipe Calderón took office in late 2006. Growing public anger about that horrific situation leads Mexican officials to look for scapegoats, and a favorite candidate has clearly emerged: supposedly lax U.S. gun laws. Again and again, the Mexican government contends that 90 percent of the weapons seized from the drug cartels “originate” in the United States.
Calderón’s first attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, typified the view that U.S. firearms laws are responsible for the drug-related violence in his country. He fumed that “American laws are absurd,” because “they make it very easy for citizens to acquire guns.” During his May 2010 visit to the United States, which included a summit meeting with President Obama, Calderón himself asserted: “If you look carefully, you will notice that the violence in Mexico started to grow a couple of years before I took office in 2006. This coincides, at least, with the lifting of the assault weapons ban in 2004.”
U.S. advocates of strict gun control measures echo the Mexican government’s arguments. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton epitomized that approach during a trip to Mexico in March 2009. On her arrival in Mexico City she said: “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers, and civilians.” During a subsequent trip to Mexico in January 2011, Clinton emphasized that the U.S. government was committed to cracking down on weapons smuggling, and she pledged $60 million in the forthcoming fiscal year for new measures.
Although some of the more destructive weapons the drug cartels use do originate in the United States, that does not mean that they come from purchases at unethical sporting goods stores or gun shows. Many of those weapons, including an increasing cartel favorite—grenades–typically come from military depots that the United States government helped fill for friendly Central American regimes during the Cold War. Washington was so concerned about Soviet penetration of that region during the 1980s that it sent shipment after shipment of high-powered weapons to the governments of such countries as El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala to use against left-wing insurgents. Records indicate, for example, that at least 300,000 grenades were sent to the region during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
When the Cold War ended, unused grenades remained in the armories of those countries. But now more and more of them are finding their way into the hands of Mexican drug trafficking organizations. Such weapons typically sell for $100 to $500 apiece on a vigorous black market. And they are being used with greater and greater frequency. Mexican authorities seized more than 5,800 grenades from 2007 to mid 2010, but they concede that number is a tiny fraction of the total at the disposal of the cartels. More than 90 percent of them are at least 20 years old, meaning that they were manufactured during the Cold War period. Although most originated in the United States, some came from the Soviet bloc, probably part of Moscow’s military aid programs to the Marxist regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua.
Even if gun laws in the United States were dramatically tightened, Mexican drug gangs would have little trouble obtaining all the guns—and far more powerful armaments—they desire from black market sources in Mexico and elsewhere. After all, drug traffickers are individuals who make their fortunes operating in a black market involving another product, and they have vast financial resources to purchase whatever they need to conduct their business.
Enterprising analysts in the United States have even debunked the Mexican government’s assertion that 90 percent of the cartels’ weapons originate in the United States. There are credible reasons for skepticism. While the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives continues to say that many guns the cartels use are bought in the United States, primarily in Texas and Arizona, it no longer releases estimates of how many. The reason for the Bureau’s reticence? Officials contend that the numbers have become “too politicized.” But bureaucracies are rarely shy about presenting data if they’re confident that the data support their argument. That unwillingness suggests that the available evidence cannot sustain the figures previously put forth by both the Mexican and U.S. governments, implying that the vast majority of cartel weapons come from sales in the United States.
Even the statistics that the Bureau is willing to release cast serious doubt on the Calderón government’s “90 percent” figure—or anything close to that level. For example, the Mexican government submitted 21,726 requests in 2009 to trace weapons that authorities had captured. According to a report issued by the inspector general of the U.S. Justice Department, in only 31 percent of those cases could any source for the firearm, defined as the dealer who originally sold the gun, be identified—much less prove that it was a U.S. dealer. Other analyses suggest that the percentage that could in fact be traced back to gun shops or gun shows in the United States was a very modest 17 percent.
Attempts to lay the primary blame for Mexico’s chaos at the door of U.S. gun laws are either naive or a cynical effort to find a scapegoat. One has to wonder whether Mexican authorities take their own arguments seriously. According to U.S. agents working in the country, Mexican prosecutors had not achieved a single conviction in a major arms trafficking case.
Tightening firearms laws in the United States (even if that were politically feasible) is not a solution to the violence in Mexico. At most, that step would have a minor impact by creating annoyances and slight impediments for the drug gangs.
Blaming Mexico’s woes on U.S. gun laws may be good domestic politics for that country’s leaders, since it deflects at least some of the growing public dissatisfaction with the government in Mexico City. It may even be effective diplomacy for Washington to embrace those myths as a way to placate the Calderón administration. But such use of scapegoats does not bring anyone closer to a real strategy to dampen the turmoil and weaken Mexico’s dangerous, well-armed cartels.
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yossarian22 101p · 5 hours ago
ZMB792 91p · 1 hour ago
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quietone
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Posted: June 15 2011 at 3:46pm |
Four Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents in transcribed interviews with top GOP oversight official Darrell Issa’s office are contradicting the Justice Department’s account of “Operation Fast and Furious,” saying hundreds of weapons -– including assault rifles and military-grade sniper weapons -– were allowed to escape into the clutches of Mexican drug cartels in an apparently reckless investigative strategy.
Their testimony raises the question of whether Ronald Weich, a deputy to Attorney General Eric Holder, lied to congressional investigators in a Feb. 4 letter denying the allegations. Weich is testifying before Issa’s committee Wednesday.
The four ATF agents describe how the weapons were tracked from sales at U.S. gun shops but not seized as is normal practice. The goal of the operation was to track the weapons as they progressed from the purchasers through criminal networks.
But two rifles involved in “Fast and Furious” were found at the scene of Border Agent Brian Terry’s murder Dec. 14, 2010, apparently provoking the Justice Department to halt the operation in the aftermath of the murder. Jaime Avila, the purchaser of the guns, had been under surveillance for over a year as he illegally purchased weapons.
The ATF agents’ testimony, from John Dodson, Olindo James Casa, Lawrence Alt and Peter Forceilli, adds additional context and detail to “Fast and Furious” not previously known. The testimony is excerpted in a report from Issa released on the eve of the hearing where Weich is testifying.
Top-ranking Justice Department officials have previously denied the allegations, saying ATF agents made “every effort” to seize weapons purchased illegally. Since earlier blanket denials, however, Justice officials have since narrowed the scope of what they are denying, defining terms in ways the ATF agents say are at odds with common usage.
The four agents’ account
Dodson, Casa, Alt and Forcelli say they were instructed to watch weapons purchased illegally en route to criminal networks but not seize the weapons as they had been trained.
Forceilli recounted an instance when Casa requested help after facing aggressive and violent behavior from a man that had just illegally purchased guns.
Having “heard an agent that sounded like he was in distress” on the radio, Forceilli said, “what happened was he [Casa] was attempting to do a car stop. And we heard a female agent … telling him to stand down and not do the car stop. I later found out there were guns in the car and that the agent felt distressed because they had made him on the surveillance.”
(AGAIN: Issa schedules second Gunrunner, Fast and Furious hearing)
“Later on I spoke with him. And he said that a car had almost come at him. That’s how aggressive they had become during the surveillance,” Forceilli said.
Dodson estimates 1,730 weapons escaped to the clutches of Mexican drug cartels throughout the lifespan of “Fast and Furious.” Many were later recovered at the scenes of violent crimes.
“This guy comes in, buys 10, 15, 20 AKs or … a 22-year-old girl walks in and dumps $10,000 on … AK-47s in a day, when she is driving a beat-up car that doesn’t have enough metal to hold hubcaps on it. They knew what was going on. The ‘may have facilitated’ to me is kind of erroneous. We did facilitate it. How are we not responsible for the ultimate outcome of these [g]uns?” Dodson said.
Get with the program’
The agents said they complained vociferously about the operation to superiors. Eventually, a “schism” between team members developed over whether the tactics being used were wise or even legal.
David Voth, the team’s supervisor, sent a March 12, 2010, email to the team, saying the tactics of “Fast and Furious” were backed by “HQ.”
“Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case and they also believe we … are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Grouops doing. It may sound cheesy but we are ‘The tip of the ATF spear’ when it comes to Southwest Border Firearms Trafficking,” Voth wrote.
If the agents didn’t like it, “Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day,” Voth wrote.
Dodson said he was told “the U.S. Attorney is on board, and it was Mr. [Emory] Hurley, and they say there is nothing illegal going on.”
Justice Department denials
Initially, top Justice Department officials denied weapons were allowed to escape into criminal networks.
“At the outset, the allegation described in your January 27 letter – that ATF ’sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico – is false,” a Feb. 4 letter from Weich to Issa and Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley said.
“ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico,” the letter said.
According to the testimony of the four ATF agents and a broad range of other evidence, the second sentence (“every effort”) is plainly false.
Issa’s report says since the Feb. 4 letter, Justice Department officials have clarified that their denial was only meant to encompass instances when the weapon purchasers themselves physically crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with the weapons they had purchased illegally under ATF surveillance.
“Of course, this statement misses the point entirely. ATF permitted known straw purchasers to obtain these deadly weapons and traffic them to third parties. Then, at some point after ATF broke off surveillance, the weapons were transported to Mexico. ATF was definitely aware that these guns were ending up in Mexico, being transported through Arizona and Texas Points of Entry,” Issa said
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Elver
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Posted: June 18 2011 at 9:45pm |
The whole thing was cooked up by the Obama administration in an attempt to vilify guns. That way he can promote his anti-gun agenda for the elitists.
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Posted: June 19 2011 at 7:15am |
 Elver wrote:
The whole thing was cooked up by the Obama administration in an attempt to vilify guns. That way he can promote his anti-gun agenda for the elitists.
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That's a given. Grassley and Issa have significantly more than they're releasing here. I'm hoping they'll have enough to get Holder fired. Holder is a total and complete P.O.S. and should be out on the street. If Obama knew about this, or even sanctioned it, he's guilty of a felony and subject to impeachment. While I'd absolutely love to see him thrown from office, especially over trying to drum up "Finding" American guns in Mexico as a reason to curtail our Constitutional rights, it could very well kick off a civil or race war in our country. I can't wait to see how crazy it's going to get when Obama loses his re-election in 2012!
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Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views. - William F. Buckley
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Posted: June 19 2011 at 11:59am |
Black Jack Pershing and Douglas MacArthur new how to take care of business on the US/Mexico boarder 100 years ago by utilizing a non-political correct practice of simply killing the bad guys!
Exposed: The secret guns sting that backfired on the US
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/
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quietone
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Posted: June 20 2011 at 8:12am |
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth Melson current acting ATF Director will be the fall guy for Holder and Obama.
The person Obama would like to replace Melson with is Andrew Travers, ATF Chicago Office and is known to be hostile to the rights of gun owners.
Just keeps following the progressive, globalist UN agenda.
Head of ATF Is Likely to Go
The Justice Department is expected to oust the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to people familiar with the matter, amid a troubled federal antitrafficking operation that has grown into the agency's biggest scandal in nearly two decades.
 Associated Press
Border Patrol agents in Arizona conduct a search of the site where an agent was killed in December.
Moves toward the replacement of Kenneth Melson, acting ATF director since April 2009, could begin next week, although the precise sequence of events remains to be decided, these people said.
The shakeup shows the extent of the political damage caused by the gun-trafficking operation called Fast and Furious, which used tactics that allowed suspected smugglers to buy large numbers of firearms. Growing controversy over the program has paralyzed a long-beleaguered agency buffeted by partisan battles. The ATF has been without a Senate-confirmed director since 2006, with both the Bush and Obama administrations unable to overcome opposition from gun-rights groups to win approval of nominees.
In November, President Barack Obama nominated Andrew Traver, the head of the ATF's Chicago office, as permanent ATF director. The nomination stalled in the Senate after the National Rifle Association said Mr. Traver had a "demonstrated hostility" to the rights of gun owners.
Mr. Traver is set to travel to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole, the people said. The administration is weighing whether to name Mr. Traver as acting director or choose another interim chief while awaiting Senate action on his nomination, they said.
Associated Press
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives acting director Kenneth Melson.
ATF spokesman Scot Thomasson said: "Acting Director Kenneth Melson continues to be focused on leading ATF in its efforts to reduce violent crime and to stem the flow of firearms to criminals and criminal organizations. We are not going to comment on any speculations."
Mr. Melson is the most senior official so far implicated in a congressional probe of the Fast and Furious operation. The ATF Phoenix office ran the program in 2009-2010 to monitor weapons purchases by suspected gun smugglers. Agency officials hoped eventually to build a case against major arms smugglers serving Mexican drug cartels. The ATF has struggled to stanch the flow of U.S. weapons to Mexican drug gangs.
At a House hearing this week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, disclosed internal documents showing that Mr. Melson was closely involved in managing Fast and Furious operation. One email among ATF officials described Mr. Melson's request for an Internet link to hidden cameras the ATF had planted in gun shops cooperating with the operation, Mr. Issa said, citing the documents. That allowed Mr. Melson to watch a live feed of suspected "straw buyers," who purchase firearms on behalf of others, buying AK-47-style rifles, he said.
Mr. Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) are leading the congressional probe of Fast and Furious, which came to light after an Arizona shootout in December that killed a U.S. border agent. Two assault weapons bought in a gun shop that was part of the operation were found at the scene. The shooter and the gun used to kill the agent haven't been identified. A Mexican national is charged in the shootout.
Republican lawmakers say the agency was "reckless" in running the program and should have known that at least some of the thousands of weapons would end up in Mexico or be used in crimes in the U.S.
The office of the Justice Department's inspector general is investigating the matter.
Fast and Furious has grown into the agency's worst crisis since the ATF's 1993 raid on a religious sect in Waco, Texas, which triggered a gunbattle that killed four ATF agents. The fallout from the raid and subsequent government assault on the sect's compound led to years of recriminations and investigations of the ATF.
The Fast and Furious operation caused dissent in the ATF Phoenix office, according to three ATF agents who testified at a House hearing Wednesday. The agents said they battled supervisors who insisted on doing surveillance instead of arresting suspected straw buyers.
Despite the Justice Department's internal probe, the hearing helped cement the view among top Justice Department officials that Mr. Melson needed to be moved out before pressure from lawmakers grew more intense, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Ronald Weich, assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, testified at this week's hearing but gave few details of the program. Mr. Weich said that if the investigation found "flawed strategies" or "insufficient surveillance of weapons," the responsible officials would be held to account.
The ATF is at the forefront of the government's efforts to stem the flow of what both the U.S. and Mexican governments say is a flood of U.S. arms to Mexican cartels. ATF agents say stopping that flow is often complicated by gun-owning traditions, particularly in border states, and laws that make it difficult to prosecute illegal weapons sales.
Gun-rights groups, which dispute that the U.S. is a major source of firearms trafficked to Mexico, have criticized ATF attempts to increase regulation of gun purchases. At the same time, the Obama administration has been under pressure from big-city mayors and others who favor tighter restrictions.
In a 2010 audit, the Justice Department inspector general criticized the ATF for pursuing too many small-buyer cases and not using its resources to find major gun traffickers.
It's unclear how the current controversy will affect the administration's chances of winning Senate confirmation for Mr. Traver. Mr. Traver is a 24-year ATF veteran investigator and former Navy officer. As the head of the ATF office in Chicago, he made a priority of pursuing gang cases. In particular, he focused on pursuing street gangs that had spread from urban areas into the suburbs, according to people who have worked with him.
Some ATF agents believe the scandal could help highlight how Congress's refusal to approve an ATF leader contributes to the agency's troubles.
White House spokesman Jay Carney, in response to questions Friday, said, "I can tell you that, as the president has already said, he did not know about or authorize this operation."
Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com and Devlin Barrett at devlin.barrett@wsj.com
COMMENTS.....................
Comments (142)
What did Obama Know and When did He Know It?
Obama: Eric Holder and I are Completely ignorant (difficult to disprove)...Gun Runner..whats that?
April 16 2009 During a joint press conference with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, Obama said of the raging violence by Mexican drug gangs:
Obama: A demand for these drugs in the United States is what is helping to keep these cartels in business. This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border.
Obama would have been correct to say that 90 percent of the guns submitted for tracing by Mexican authorities were then traced to the U.S. The percentage of all recovered guns that came from the U.S. is unknown.
February 2009 - The Recovery Act signed into law, allocated $10 million to ATF for Project Gunrunner.
Grassley needs to Subpoena Obama and put the "....." under Oath
http://www.handgunclub.com/hca/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Project-Gunrunner-timelines.pdf
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Turboguy
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Posted: June 20 2011 at 8:20pm |
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=1145029&page=68Quietone you need to check out this thread over on AR15.com. It's all about the Project Gunwalker scam Obama and company tried to pull to restrict a Constitutional right. The NoloContendre guy is a U.S> Attorney who's got his finger on the pulse of what's going down. This might go further than Melson.
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Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views. - William F. Buckley
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Posted: June 20 2011 at 10:03pm |
Thanks .....great site.
I certainly hope this goes much futher than Melson. It should go all the way to Janet, Holder and Obama. One can only hope.
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quietone
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Posted: June 22 2011 at 10:14pm |
Another good thread about Fast and Furious / Gunwalker
Daily updates.
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quietone
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Posted: June 24 2011 at 8:56pm |
Federal ATF chief said to resist pressure to step down
Kenneth Melson of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms faces controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns into Mexico. He is said to be eager to testify to Congress.
Kenneth E. Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, in 2009. (Eric Gay / Associated Press / August 13, 2009)
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By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
June 24, 2011
Reporting from Washington—
The acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is strongly resisting pressure to step down because of growing controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns to flow unchecked into Mexico, according to several federal sources in Washington.
Kenneth E. Melson, who has run the bureau for two years, is reportedly eager to testify to Congress about the extent of his and other officials' involvement in the operation, code-named Fast and Furious.
Melson does not want to be "the fall guy" for the program, under which ATF agents allowed straw purchasers to acquire more than 1,700 AK-47s and other high-powered rifles from Arizona gun dealers, the sources said. The idea was to track the guns to drug cartel leaders. But that goal proved elusive, and the guns turned up at shootings in Mexico, as well as at the slaying in Arizona of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in December.
"He is saying he won't go," said one source close to the situation, who asked for anonymity because high-level discussions with Melson remained fluid. "He has told them, 'I'm not going to be the fall guy on this.' "
Added a second source, who also requested anonymity: "He's resisting. He does not want to go."
Melson has an open invitation to appear on Capitol Hill. So far, he has not been given Justice Department approval to appear before Congress.
This week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said he hoped that Melson would give a full accounting of how the gun operation was conceived and carried out. He also said Melson should resign, and that other senior leaders at ATF and the Justice Department should be held accountable as well.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also is awaiting answers from Melson, and cautioned this week that even if the acting director stepped down, it "would be, by no means, the end of our inquiry."
The Justice Department said it was cooperating with congressional leaders.
"We've been working with the [Issa] committee on interviews, including Melson, and will continue to do that," said Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokesperson.
At ATF headquarters in Washington, officials said Melson "continues to be focused" on leading the agency. His chief spokesman, Scott Thomasson, added, "We are not going to comment on any speculations" about Melson's status as head of the agency.
At a House hearing last week, testimony from ATF agents portrayed Melson as closely involved in overseeing the venture. At one point, according to documents released by Congress, he asked for and received log-in information and a link to an Internet feed in order to watch some of the illegal straw purchases.
richard.serrano@latimes.com
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Posted: June 25 2011 at 8:18am |
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I love the way those hacks display the American flag pin on their lapel, as if they really give a hoot about our US Constitution! Ken Melson was probably just following orders, and he'll be the fall guy. The fish stinks from the head down.
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Posted: June 25 2011 at 9:35pm |
Mexican authorities arrested the head of the La Familia Mexico drug cartel who has now been fingered as working as the point man in the US Government’s Fast and Furious gun smuggling operation.
blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/06/25/leader-mexico-drug-cartel-fingered-head-feds-fast-furious-gun-smuggling-operation-30661/
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Posted: July 07 2011 at 10:30am |
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Posted: July 07 2011 at 12:42pm |
Published: 10:20 AM 07/06/2011 | Updated: 6:01 PM 07/06/2011
Top Republican lawmakers have authored an explosive new letter containing details of secret testimony by acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson, which reveal for the first time the extent to which his agency was involved in an international gun selling scandal.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, fired off the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Tuesday detailing what Melson told Congressional investigators in a secret July 4 testimony.
One key takeaway from the meeting was that Melson acknowledged to investigators that agents had witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without following the guns afterwards. Straw purchasers are people who could technically legally buy guns in the U.S. but their intent was to turn around and sell them to drug cartels in Mexico.
Another point Melson clarified for investigators was that the ATF group carrying out the mission of Operation Fast and Furious was placed under the direction of the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office. The U.S. Attorney in Arizona, Dennis Burke, is a political appointee of the Obama administration.
Melson appeared with only his personal attorney at the secret meeting with Congressional investigators. Melson was originally scheduled to conduct the interview on July 13 with Justice Department attorneys and his personal attorney present, but Melson abandoned DOJ representation after learning of a provision in his agreement to testify that allowed him to do so. (Issa staffer: Gunrunner investigation points much higher than ATF director)
“We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement,” Issa and Grassley wrote to Holder on Tuesday afternoon. “Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress. This is yet another example of why direct communications with Congress are so important and are protected by law.”
Issa and Grassley wrote that Melson’s interview “was extremely helpful to our investigation.” They said Melson told them he did not review the “hundreds of documents” the DOJ is withholding until after the public controversy about the operation. Issa and Grassley said Melson claims he was “sick to his stomach” when he obtained the documents and learned the full story.
The DOJ has not been fully cooperative with a number of Issa’s and Grassley’s requests for documents and other evidence in this investigation. According to the July 5 letter, Issa and Grassley said Melson told them he asked the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) to be more cooperative with Congressional requests for information, evidence and documents.
Their letter also details how Melson told Issa and Grassley that he and other senior ATF officials moved to reassign every major official involved in Operation Fast and Furious. Melson said Obama administration Justice Department officials directed him and other ATF officials to not communicate to Congress the reasoning behind the reassignments.
The ultimate point behind Issa’s and Grassley’s letter to Holder was to request Melson be provided with the protections that bureaucratic whistleblowers normally enjoy. Because Melson, a longtime career government employee, now serves as a political appointee of the Obama administration, he doesn’t automatically enjoy whistleblower protections.
In recent weeks, rumors have floated throughout the press that Melson was going to resign his post as acting ATF Director. Melson told Congressional investigators on July 4, though, that those reports were “untrue.”
“Technically, Mr. Melson no longer enjoys the due process protections afforded to career officials,” Issa and Grassley wrote. “Given his testimony, unless a permanent director is confirmed, it would be inappropriate for the Justice Department to take action against him that could have the effect of intimidating others who might want to provide additional information to the Committees.”
Melson also confirmed many suspicions Issa and Grassley had of the existence of documents and other evidence in Justice Department possession. The Republican members called on Holder to be more transparent and honest in responses to their requests for information, and that DOJ officials should be informed of their right to communicate with Congressional committees without Holder’s oversight.
“We hope that the Department will take a much more candid and forthcoming approach in addressing these very serious matters with the Committee,” Issa and Grassley wrote. “If other important fact witnesses like Mr. Melson have a desire to communicate directly with the Committees they should be informed that they are free to do so. They should also be notified that if they are represented by personal counsel, they may appear with personal counsel rather than with Department lawyers.” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/06/issa-grassley-blast-holder-in-letter-after-secret-meeting-with-atfs-ken-melson/#ixzz1RNXYW1s4
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Posted: July 07 2011 at 5:27pm |
Main Justice, a blog much more identified with the powers-that-be at DOJ reports Melson's own lawyer says that there is no break with DOJ. Jake Tapper at ABC reports "This story keeps getting weirder and weirder." Keep going Jake, you'll figure it out. Patrick Richardson at the PJ Tatler has rediscovered that stimulus funding was used to fund Gunwalker: "Someone in Congress knew about Gunrunner, and Obama signed funding for it into law."Actually, Michelle Malkin reported on this on 30 March with this story: Project Gunrunner: Obama’s Stimulus-Funded Border Nightmare.
VIDEO
-------------------------------
At David Codrea's War on Guns.
At Big Government: Which was worse? Watergate or Operation Fast and Furious?
New York Post OpEd: 'Fast & Furious' gets hotter for Holder
Don't look now, but the real action in Washington this week isn't the partisan wrangling over the debt ceiling but something -- literally -- even more incendiary: Operation Fast and Furious, which seems about to explode right in the face of Attorney General Eric Holder -- and maybe other administration officials, too.
Also known as Project Gunrunner, the Arizona-based operation was supposed to be a sting, under which the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is part of the Justice Department, allowed "straw purchasers" to transfer weapons from gun shops in Arizona to Mexican drug cartels to trace and halt crossborder arms-trafficking.
That's the official version, anyway -- but it's crumbling, fast.
The ATF's acting director, Kenneth Melson, has been singing like a canary to congressional investigators as he pushes back against administration pressure for him to resign and take the fall for something that, at the very least, had to include the US Attorney's Office, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and possibly the Homeland Security Department. . .
That's the key to this mess -- and the reason that Operation Fast and Furious might turn out to be the biggest Washington scandal since Iran-Contra.
As Issa and Grassley note in their letter, had the other agencies shared information -- theoretically the goal of the post-9/11 revamp of the intelligence and law-enforcement agencies -- "then ATF might have known that gun trafficking 'higher-ups' had already been identified."
So if the identities of the Mexican criminals were known to the feds, what was the point of Project Gunrunner -- and why is Holder so desperately trying to stonewall by withholding hundreds of documents from Congress?
Law-abiding gun owners and dealers think they already know. With the Obama administration wedded to the fiction that 90 percent of the guns Mexican cartels use originate here -- they don't -- many suspect that "Fast and Furious" was a backdoor attempt to smear domestic gun aficionados as part of its stealth efforts on gun control by executive fiat.
"I just want you to know that we're working on it," Obama was quoted as saying to gun-control advocate Sarah Brady in March. "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar."
Unfortunately for the administration, this one's out in the open now.
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Posted: July 10 2011 at 6:01am |
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Posted: July 10 2011 at 9:14pm |
US government openly admits arming Mexican drug gangs with 30,000 firearms - but why?
www.NaturalNews.com/032934_ATF_illegal_firearms.html
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Posted: July 10 2011 at 9:46pm |
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Posted: July 10 2011 at 10:29pm |
Daily Show Video: Jon Stewart On The ATF's Mexican Gunapalooza: "Operation Fast And Furious"
dailybail.com/home/daily-show-video-jon-stewart-on-the-atfs-mexican-gunapalooza.html
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Posted: July 11 2011 at 6:21am |
Breaking News: Source claims ATF's Tampa SAC walked guns to HONDURAS! Part of Operation Castaway? Exclusive Report by David Codrea & Mike Vanderboegh.
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Posted: July 11 2011 at 6:24am |
ATF Tampa Division Walked Guns to Honduras and to MS13 Gang Members (Video)
Watch Video
There are now reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious. 1,000 of those guns were sold to MS13 buyers.
Congress gave the ATF $29 million in 2009 including $10 million in stimulus money for “project gunrunner,” the predecessor of “fast and furious.” A year later it got $37 million more to expand gunrunner.
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Posted: July 12 2011 at 11:31am |
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Will Obama and the Democrats use the Debt Ceiling farce as a smoke screen to divert attention away from their dastardly deed of suppling forign criminals with weapons?
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Posted: July 12 2011 at 9:00pm |
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Aren't we supplying weapons of all sorts to the 'Rebels' in Libya without really knowing who they are? Some are known to be terrorist or have terrorist ties.
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Posted: July 13 2011 at 1:48pm |
Today the administration’s plans are beginning to come into effect. Through an Executive Order, the Obama administration is implementing new restrictions on the sale of certain weapons in border states, and increasing the penalties for violating certain firearms laws.
randysright.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/obama-executive-orders-impose-new-gun-rules/
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Posted: July 15 2011 at 7:03am |
House of Representatives
ATF Florida Gun Probe Earns Congressional Scrutiny in Wake of 'Fast and Furious'
------------------------
Full Article
Document drop: ICE faces heat over Tampa gunwalking allegations
By Michelle Malkin • July 13, 2011 12:33 PM
On Monday, I noted brewing questions about a Fast & Furious-like gunwalker operation out of Tampa, Florida, that allegedly put weapons in the hands of MS-13 gangsters in Honduras.
House Republicans are turning up the heat on several agencies.
------------------------------
UPDATE:
Just a reminder that investigative bloggers at Sipsey Street Irregulars and David Codrea, who broke the Tampa stories, could not confirm from their sources that Operation Castaway was tied to the Tampa gunwalking allegations, but they report that two sources are pointing to ATF misdeeds that led to 200 firearms ending up in Honduran hands. Here’s where they are:
We went with what our central source (who was closest to the source of the story than anyone else) said, which was that although he was certain of gunwalking to Honduras he was not certain it was a part of the Castaway operation.
…Whether or not the Tampa-to-Honduras gunwalking was a part of, or spin-off of, Operation Castaway, I had a long exchange of information with two of our sources on the Tampa nexus of the Gunwalker Scandal and ATFSA’s non-denial denial of Tampa gunwalking last night. They had both solid confirmation that it took place and more allegations of misdeeds on the part of Virginia O’Brien, Tampa Field Division SAC and the ATF Chief Counsel’s Office in DC.
“The Honduras story is solid,” one source said. Not only that, but it seems the “walked” firearms, amounting to about 200 (not 1000 as has been reported), “were surveilled by agents to Honduras ‘on the walk,’” all the way through to the point where “they watched the delivery.”
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Posted: July 15 2011 at 7:45am |
Katie Pavlich: "Democrats to Introduce Gun Control Legislation Tomorrow."
Democrat Representatives Maloney, Cummings and McCarthy, all members of the Minority on the House Oversight Committee chaired by Republican Congressman Issa, plan to hold a press conference tomorrow to announce new gun control anti-gun trafficking legislation in light of Operation Fast and Furious. The "Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act," is designed to "keep high powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels."
U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) will join other members and a leading law enforcement organization for an event Friday, July 15th, 11:00 a.m. at the House Triangle to introduce the “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act,” which establishes a dedicated firearms trafficking statute to empower law enforcement to keep high-powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels.
"Damn the Gunwalker Scandal! Full speed ahead!" Old Bloody Hands Cummings, 15 July 2011.
So let me get this straight, democrats want to punish law abiding Americans and impede on Second Amendment rights with new legislation "to prevent gun trafficking to Mexico," however, aren't willing to focus on the ATF and DOJ's role in deliberately putting high powered firearms into the hands of criminals including Mexican drug cartels? It doesn't matter how many gun control laws we have on the books if the federal government is willing to break them to push a political agenda, however, this is not surprising.  Second email from Chait to Newell after the F&F dog-and-pony show in January. It is always about the politics.Pavlich continues:
The announcement of new legislation comes just a day after Townhall obtained emails showing Operation Fast and Furious was designed to promote gun control and four days after the DOJ Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who is under investigation for his involvement in the scandal, released new reporting requirements for multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles. So "Old Bloody Hands," who could have short-circuited the murderous Gunwalker debacle if he had but held long-overdue oversight hearings into ATF management malpractices when HE ran the committee, cynically and hypocritically demands more power and money for the same agency that, pursuant to orders from the leading figures in the Obama administration, is the largest gun smuggling facilitator to the southern hemisphere in history? The New York Times, of course, predictably agrees.We mustn't get too caught up in all of this puppet theater for credulous children. As the Gunwalker Scandal revelations continue to cascade out into the public eye, such delusional adventures into collectivist alternate reality will begin to look more and more like what they are -- the pathetic last gasps of a self-discredited bunch of power-mad bunkum artists screaming "Pay no attention to the Scandal behind the curtain!" 
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Posted: July 18 2011 at 6:05am |
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Posted: July 26 2011 at 12:07pm |
So much for transparency! You would think Obama would want to get to the bottom of this, after all US Federal agents were killed in this operation. Oh wait a minute, that might expose a false flag operation to help facilitate the UN gutting our Second Amendment rights under the pretext that there are more Mexicans dying on the US/Mexican boarder than in Iraq and Afghanistan from all those nasty AK's and M4's. And, something must be done to help these poor innocent folks that are caught up in this decades long War on Drugs!
Issa: Obama admin intimidating witnesses in ATF gun probe.
12160.info/profiles/blogs/2649739:BlogPost:516829
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Posted: July 26 2011 at 7:36pm |
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Posted: July 26 2011 at 7:51pm |
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
An exchange between House Committee on Oversight and Reform Committee members and William Newell, former Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive’s Phoenix Field Division during this morning’s hearings on Operation Fast and Furious pointed to key information that may be the most important to come out of today’s session. Exactly correct.Transcript of Newell questioning related to NSC's O'Reilly
CBS Reports:
At a lengthy hearing on ATF's controversial gunwalking operation today, a key ATF manager told Congress he discussed the case with a White House National Security staffer as early as September 2010. The communications were between ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office, Bill Newell, and White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O'Reilly. Newell said the two are longtime friends. The content of what Newell shared with O'Reilly is unclear and wasn't fully explored at the hearing.
It's the first time anyone has publicly stated that a White House official had any familiarity with ATF's operation Fast and Furious, which allowed thousands of weapons to fall into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to gain intelligence. It's unknown as to whether O'Reilly shared information with anybody else at the White House.
Congressional investigators obtained an email from Newell to O'Reilly in September of last year in which Newell began with the words: "you didn't get this from me."
"What does that mean," one member of Congress asked Newell, " 'you didn't get this from me?' "
"Obviously he was a friend of mine," Newell replied, "and I shouldn't have been sending that to him."
Newell told Congress that O'Reilly had asked him for information.
"Why do you think he asked for that information," Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked Newell.
"He was asking about the impact of Project Gunrunner to brief people in preparation for a trip to Mexico... what we were doing to combat firearms trafficking and other issues."
Today, a White House spokesman said the email was not about Fast and Furious, but about other gun trafficking efforts. The spokesman also said he didn't know what Newell was referring to when he said he'd spoken to O'Reilly about Fast and Furious.
 Just one of Gunwalker Bill Newell's emails that lead straight to the side door of the White House.Well, today actually started out sometime before this email, but here is a good enough place to start:
-----Original Message-----
From: georgemason1776
To: brian_downey; henry.kerner
Sent: Sat, Jul 23, 2011 8:34 pm
Subject: re: Fast & Furious emails between ATF Phoenix SAC William Newell and Dr. Kevin O'Reilly, Director of North American Affairs, National Security Council
Gentlemen,
As the Internet journalist who broke the Gunwalker Scandal on 28 December and who first drew the attention of Senator Jeff Sessions' office to the need for whistleblower protection for Phoenix ATF agents such as John Dodson, sources told me this weekend that your joint investigation possesses e-mails between ATF Phoenix SAC William Newell and Dr. Kevin O'Reilly, Director of North American Affairs, National Security Council.
Dr. O'Reilly's professional background (attached, obtained on the Internet) states he has been a Foreign Service Officer for 22 years, whose most recent responsibilities include coordinating counter-terrorism issues in Latin America for the Department of State and the National Security Council. You will note there is a gap from 1989 to 1995 in his background, before he studied at the Naval War College in 1996-97, after which he embarked on a series of short-term assignments. One of these was as a Pearson Fellow in the office of one of your colleagues, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois.
Different sources of my own within the U.S. intelligence community who have reviewed the foregoing, consider the e-mails between Mr. Newell and Dr. O'Reilly and their professional positions and duties to be reminiscent of the back-channel communications employed by then-Col. Oliver North, empowered by what was jokingly referred to as a "Fuhrer letter" from then-National Security Adviser John Poindexter. This authorized North to operate outside established channels to implement Iran-Contra mischief. In the opinion of my sources, the highly irregular direct communication between a senior advisor on the National Security Council and a lowly ATF Special Agent in Charge reeks of executive branch misconduct. It would be, if as true as my sources say it is, "felony stupid."
Since SAC Newell will be testifying under oath before the Committee on Tuesday, there is an opportunity for Mr. Newell to explain his own understanding of the communications between himself, Dr. O'Reilly, and the National Security Council; how they relate to Fast & Furious; and thus enable the Committee and the American people to better understand the genesis of Fast & Furious and the role of the White House. This opportunity also affords the Committee the chance to appropriately define the inquiry, and to illuminate the darker recesses of the Gunwalker Scandal debacle before the inevitable speculation that will arise in the press and on the Internet as this information becomes more fully understood.
While I reside in Alabama, I am currently here in the DC area staying at the residence of my friend Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners.of America. We plan to be on Capitol Hill to meet with certain congressional offices on Monday morning, and I am writing to you because I would like to personally discuss other aspects of the information discussed above. I would like to talk with you personally at your earliest possible convenience, and will be calling your office early on Monday morning to see if a mutually convenient meeting time can be arranged.
Sincerely,
Mike Vanderboegh In about a half hour on that Saturday night we received the following reply:
-----Original Message-----
From: Kerner, Henry
To: georgemason1776 ; brian_downey
Sent: Sat, Jul 23, 2011 9:06 pm
Subject: RE: Fast & Furious emails between ATF Phoenix SAC William Newell and Dr. Kevin O'Reilly, Director of North American Affairs, National Security Council
Dear Mr. Vanderboegh:
Thank you for your e-mail from earlier this evening. Members of Chairman Issa's staff are available to meet with you on Monday morning. Would 10 o'clock work for you? Please let me know if that time is convenient.
Thank you,
Henry
From Linked In
Kevin O'Reilly's Experience
Director of North American Affairs
U.S. National Security Council
Government Administration industry
2009 – June 2011 (2 years)
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorsim
U.S. Department of State
Government Agency; International Affairs industry
September 2007 – May 2009 (1 year 9 months)
Foreign Service Officer
United States Department of State
Government Administration industry
November 1987 – 2009 (22 years)
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
Director Latin American Affairs
Department of Homeland Security
Government Administration industry
2006 – 2007 (1 year)
Pearson Fellow
Office of Senator Richard J. Durbin
Government Administration industry
2005 – 2006 (1 year)
Deputy Political Counselor
US Embassy, Mexico CIty
Government Agency; 201-500 employees; Government Administration industry
2003 – 2005 (2 years)
Officer-in Charge, Colombian Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Government Agency; 10,001+ employees; International Affairs industry
2002 – 2003 (1 year)
Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Government Agency; 10,001+ employees; International Affairs industry
2001 – 2002 (1 year)
Officer-in Charge, Iberian Affairs, NATO Division, J-5
Joint Staff
Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Military industry
2000 – 2001 (1 year)
Political Affairs Officer
US Embassy, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Government Agency; 201-500 employees; Government Administration industry
1997 – 2000 (3 years)
Kevin O'Reilly's Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Fellow, MIT Seminar XXI - international relations and the national interest
2001 – 2002
Naval War College
MA
1996 – 1997
Loyola University Chicago School of Law
JD, Law
1985 – 1988
The Johns Hopkins University - Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) (MBV: www.jhu.edu/ ) (MBV: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/ )
M.A, International Relations
1984 – 1986
Activities and Societies: Bologna Center, 1983-1984
Loyola University of Chicago (MBV: www.luc.edu/ )
BA, History
1979 – 1983
Activities and Societies: Loyola University Rome Center - (MBV: http://www.luc.edu/romecenter/ )
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mrmouse
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Posted: July 26 2011 at 7:59pm |
Obama works with the U.N. to destroy the 2nd Amendment!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Syt0GNvmag
Ron Paul on the 2nd Amendment
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbq--pFYcLw&feature=related
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quietone
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Posted: July 26 2011 at 8:17pm |
An armed populace ----
To a Government of, for, and by the People it is a great protection, aiding the Government in the discharge of its duties under the Constitution
To a Government becoming a Tyranny, it is a great danger, blocking the Government in any attempt to ignore Constitutional limits on its power over the People.
From a person commenting on the Ron Paul Video
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quietone
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Posted: July 26 2011 at 10:48pm |
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Terrylee 
jdw 
Everybody must pay attention. Elisah cummins ignored this for over a year and a half. this is the latest up to date http://www.blogtalkradio.com/askshow/2011/06/15/the-andrea-shea-king-show