Operations Fast & Furious

[MeeMie]

Operations Fast & Furious - the Gunrunner Scandal




Back in February, American Thinker reported:

Death in the Desert: Project Gunwalker and the ATF Cover-Up


On December 14, 2010, a firefight erupted in the Arizona desert. When the smoke had cleared, Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was dead, and the seeds of a scandal had been sown. Some of the rank and file of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), often referred to as the ATF, began to grow concerned that a new development in Project Gunrunner probably had resulted in the death of Agent Terry.

First word of the incident began to appear on CleanUpATF.org, a whistle-blower website dedicated to "returning the integrity, accountability and decency to the ATF." Two Second Amendment advocates, Mike Vanderboegh of the blog Sipsey Street Irregulars and David Codrea, a writer at Gun Rights Examiner.com, became immediately aware of the posts, and their interest pushed them to collaborate and use their own sources within the ATF to confirm the allegations being made.

The pair independently corroborated the existence of a deviation from Project Gunrunner which they began to sardonically refer to as Project Gunwalker. Sources told them of the unstated policy to provide assault weapons to straw buyers, who would walk the guns over the border and sell them to members of the Mexican drug cartels for the purpose of manufacturing evidence.

One source of resistance to this development came from Darren Gil, then ATF attaché to Mexico, who felt strongly that the Mexican authorities should be made aware of the change in tactics. Gil brought his concerns to Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Office William D. Newell. Despite Gil's insistence, Newell refused to inform Mexico of the Bureau's intent. Frustrated and considering Newell's refusal to be a significant international policy error, Gil went to Newell's superiors in Washington. One can only speculate as to the conversations that took place, but Gil has since retired from the ATF.

With no further objections, the cynical plan allegedly was put into effect, and a string of subsequent events were unleashed. If played right, however, the Obama administration would get their "evidence," and the ATF could count on increased resources to pursue the very problem they were facilitating. That did not take into account the events that unfolded on the night of December 14 -- events which resulted in the death of Agent Terry.

Vanderboegh and Codrea relentlessly pursued the facts as presented to them by numerous and separate sources. They recognized that if true, the allegations would spell a serious breach of the public trust and the prospect of criminal activity within the ATF.

Finally, with facts in hand, they sought protection for their sources before going public. They approached several staff members on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They were directed from one person to the next. It was a struggle to ensure the safety of the agents putting their lives and careers on the line to expose the actions of the ATF. Eventually, Vanderboegh and Codrea obtained assurances that their informants would come under the whistle-blower protections offered by Senator Grassley of Iowa, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.


What follows is an excerpt of a letter from Grassley to Acting Director of the ATF Melson:

Members of the Judiciary Committee have received numerous allegations that the ATF sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers, who then allegedly transported these weapons throughout the southwestern border area and into Mexico. According to the allegations, one of these individuals purchased three assault rifles with cash in Glendale, Arizona on January 16, 2010. Two of the weapons were then allegedly used in a firefight on December 14, 2010 against Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, killing CBP Agent Brian Terry.​

On January 30, 2011, there came word that the ATF in Phoenix, instead of helping Senator Grassley get to the bottom of the allegations, had begun to exert retaliatory pressure against agents suspected of blowing the whistle on the operation.

The following is an excerpt from the subsequent letter sent from Grassley to Acting Director Melson upon hearing of the retaliation:

As you know, I wrote you on Thursday, January 27, regarding serious allegations associated with Project Gunrunner and the death of Customs and Protection Agent Brian Terry. Although the staff briefing I requested has not been scheduled, it appears that the ATF is reacting in less productive ways to my request. I understand that Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) George Gillette of the ATF's Phoenix office questioned one of the individual agents who answered my staff's questions about Project Gunrunner.​

Mike Vanderboegh is now reporting that the answer to this letter from Senator Grassley has been the January 31 promotion of William D. Newell to Darren Gil's previous position of Mexican attaché to the ATF. Theoretically, this would leave Gillette -- a person already alleged by the whistle-blowers to be deeply involved in coercion of the informants -- in charge of the Phoenix office.

 

[MeeMie]

Border Patrol Agent Killed in Southern Arizona


Authorities continue to comb the rugged southern Arizona terrain during the manhunt for a suspect they say was involved in the deadly gunfight that claimed the life of a U.S. Border Patrol agent late Tuesday night.

“I assure you, that every effort will be extended to bring that suspect into custody,” said Richard Barlow, the Border Patrol deputy chief of the Tucson Sector.

Agent Brian A. Terry was gunned down the frenzied shoot out that involved a cadre that robs illegal immigrants--vulnerable targets-- as they cross the border. One of the suspects was injured during the shoot out and taken into custody, said Barlow. Three more suspects were later apprehended.


"This is a stark reminder of the realities that we face every single day," said Barlow, who wore a black band over his yellow shield at a press conference. "There are people out there that wake up every single day with nothing else on their minds than to harm citizens of this country and our way of life."

The FBI and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office are performing a joint investigation near Rio Rico, Ariz.

Prior to the shooting, Terry was waiting with three other agents in a remote area north of Nogales, said T.J. Bonner, the council president of the National Border Patrol

Terry, 40, a former Marine, was a member of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's special response team.


Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the killing is an "unconscionable act of violence," according to a statement released Wednesday.

"Over the past year and a half, this administration has pursued a new border security strategy with an unprecedented sense of urgency, making historic investments in personnel, technology and infrastructure," Napolitano said in a statement released on July 19. "These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the Southwest border," the statement continued.



I guess nobody told her about this administrations involvement in giving weapons to drug cartels.

 

[MeeMie]

Two AK-47s Used to Murder Mexican Lawyer Were 'Fast and Furious' Guns From U.S.


Two guns sold to a Mexican cartel and used in the high-profile kidnapping and murder of a Mexican lawyer last year were purchased under the U.S. Justice Department's failed anti-gun trafficking program Operation Fast and Furious.

U.S. law enforcement sources and officials in Washington said that two AK-47s were purchased in Arizona by a straw buyer — someone who legally buys guns, then illegal sells them to a third party – and were allowed to “walk” into Mexico. Police recovered the guns in the course of their investigation of the kidnapping of Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez.

Gonzales, brother of the now former attorney general of Chihuahua, was kidnapped in October. He was taken by six gunmen from the Sinaloa cartel and tortured extensively over two weeks.

Three videos posted online show Gonzalez surrounded by hooded armed men with his hands and feet bound and apparently being electrocuted with electrical devises attached to his feet.

The incident received heavy publicity in Mexico – not just because he was a family member of a top law enforcement officer, but because he claims in the video that his sister, while attorney general, protected the Juarez cartel, and that she ordered the murder of two journalists and a member of the Mormon community in that state.


Gonzalez’s body was found last November in a shallow grave outside the city after armed federal police forces raided the kidnappers' compound. Mexican officials arrested the suspects and confiscated the guns.

Mexico was not told the confiscated guns were part of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Operation Fast and Furious until the past week.

Mexico submits thousands of guns for tracking in the U.S. by serial number.
Fast and Furious, which was supposed to trace and stop the trafficking of illegal guns, instead allowed thousands of guns get into the hand of Mexican cartel members.

The program is now the focus of an investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called "Fast & Furious"

On Wednesday, ATF Special Agent John Dodson testified that the operation facilitated the sale of about 2,500 firearms. About 700 have been recovered by police at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., but he said that there could be as many as 1,800 of them still out.

Until now, the most high-profile crime allegedly committed with these guns was the murder in December of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two guns found near his body in Mexico were traced to the ATF program, though it is unclear if they were the guns that killed Terry.

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have tried to distance themselves from the failed program, saying it was running without their approval.

 

[MeeMie]

Phoenix-area gun store, ATF sting linked to shootout


Bandits who gunned down a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a December firefight near Nogales may have been armed with assault rifles purchased from a Valley gun store in conjunction with a federal sting operation and subsequently smuggled into Mexico, according to a key member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

In letters to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, suggests that negligence by federal agents who failed to keep the firearms out of Mexico may have played a part in the slaying of Agent Brian Terry, a member of the Border Patrol's elite tactical unit known as BORTAC.

Grassley said he had information that the AK-47s recovered at the shooting scene were traced to Project Gunrunner, an ATF program designed to stem the illegal flow of U.S. guns to Mexican narcotics cartels. It is not unusual for law-enforcement agents to allow illegal transactions to occur so that they can follow contraband, identifying ringleaders and key players in organized-crime organizations.



"Members of the Judiciary Committee have received numerous allegations that the ATF sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers, who then allegedly transported these weapons throughout the southwestern border area and into Mexico," the senator wrote in a letter Thursday to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson.

"According to the allegations, one of these individuals purchased three assault rifles with cash in Glendale, Arizona, on January 16, 2010. Two of the weapons were then allegedly used in a firefight on December 14, 2010, against Customs and Border Protection agents, killing CBP Agent Brian Terry."

A source within the justice system familiar with the case confirmed to The Arizona Republic last week that one or two weapons recovered from the border shootout had been traced to Lone Wolf Trading Co., a Glendale gun store, but did not confirm they were part of Project Gunrunner.

Terry and his teammates were hunting for rip crews, robbers who target illegal immigrants and smugglers, when they spotted five armed men near Rio Rico. The Republic source, who requested anonymity, said BORTAC agents called out, "Policia!" and attempted to arrest the suspects. When the shooting started, the source said, agents returned fire with non-lethal bean bags, then bullets.

One suspect was wounded, but four others ran off in the confusion, disappearing into the night. Agents swarmed the area and conducted a search, locating several men who claimed to be illegal immigrants unconnected to the gunbattle. According to the justice-system source, FBI agents now believe that those detainees were telling the truth and that four assailants escaped across the border.

Six weeks after the murder, no one has been charged, although the source said an indictment was expected against the wounded suspect.

Grassley has requested a briefing from the ATF, adding that he had received documentation in support of the allegations.

"There are serious concerns that the ATF may have become careless, if not negligent, in implementing the Gunrunner strategy," he wrote.

ATF Director Melson could not be reached for comment Monday.

Tom Mangan, an ATF spokesman in Phoenix, said he was "unaware of any guns allowed to go south of the border," either intentionally or inadvertently. "I am not aware of any internal investigation that's going on regarding Project Gunrunner."

Manuel Johnson, an FBI agent in Phoenix, declined to comment, as did the U.S. Border Patrol.

At a Phoenix news conference last week, the ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office announced indictments of 34 people in connection with firearms smuggling to Mexico. Bill Newell, ATF special agent in charge for Arizona, said five separate cases, all part of Project Gunrunner, demonstrate the corruptive reach of Mexican cartels using straw buyers to acquire guns in Arizona for illegal shipment south.

After the news conference, Newell was asked if agents purposely allowed firearms to enter Mexico as part of an investigation. He answered, "Hell no."

However, he said, suspects under surveillance sometimes elude agents, which could result in guns winding up in Mexico.

Although Grassley's letter does not specify which Glendale store sold the assault rifles used in the shooting, transaction details match information in a 53-count indictment against Jaime Avila, identified as the leader of one Arizona smuggling ring.

In a statement Monday, Lone Wolf owner Andre Hunter said he has been cooperating with authorities. "We have worked closely in conjunction with several federal agencies," Hunter wrote.

 

[MeeMie]

I KNOW NOTHING! NOTHINGGGGG!

When asked about Operation Fast and Furious and the contention that the administration deliberately sent these guns south, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the president did not know who authorized the program.

“I can tell you that, as the president has already said, he did not know ... about or authorize this operation. But the Department of Justice has said repeatedly that fighting criminal activity along the Southwest border, including the illegal trafficking of guns to Mexico, has been and is a priority of the department,” Carney said.

"Well, I don't have anything specific," White House press secretary said in response to a question asking if President Obama ordered or had any knowledge of project "Fast and Furious."

The mission involved gunrunning at the southern border between the U.S. Mexico.

 

[islandman]

http://b i t.l y/j56CTN

 

[MeeMie]

Obama Administration Hiding Thousands of Gunrunner Scandal Documents From Congress Investigation


Insiders reportedly tipped off Congressman Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley weeks ago regarding thousands of pages of documents being stored at the Washington DC ATF headquarters.

To date, neither Issa nor Grassley have been able to get full compliance from the ATF or the Obama Department of Justice regarding full disclosure of these alleged documents. Insiders have indicated that ATF officials are working closely with the DOJ to determine which documents are acceptable to be viewed by members of Congress – not so much out of concern for ongoing investigations, but as a clear stalling tactic meant to protect high ranking officials now being implicated in the developing scandal.

According to Congressman Darrell Issa, who earlier this week aggressively rebuked the claims by Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich’s claim that his office was in fact fully cooperating with the Congressional investigation of Project Gunrunner/Fast and Furious and the resulting deaths of both American and Mexican border agents and citizens, it is not only Republicans who are now demanding real answers and accountability.

“Thus far, more than 30 Democratic House Members have joined Senator Grassley and me in calls for the truth.”

Congressman Issa also released emails obtained from special agent George Gillett, formerly of the ATF office in Phoenix. Those emails reveal ATF Director Kenneth Melson, who himself answers to Attorney General Eric Holder, as being directly involved in the failed Gunrunner project.

Those emails outlined Melson’s ability to in fact watch in real-time the illegal gun transactions from his office in Washington DC via hidden cameras set up by ATF operatives inside various gun stores.


And now with both Democrats and Republicans demanding answers to what Congressman Jason Chaffetz describes as a situation where...


“You’ve got people who are dead. You have weapons that are missing and you have an administration that doesn’t seem to want to take any accountability for it.”

 

[MeeMie]

Will There Be Contempt Charges Coming Against Obama DOJ?


On Monday, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa laid out the historical and legal justification for contempt charges to be filed against the Obama Department of Justice.



For those unfamiliar with the political hearing process, Monday’s Darrell Issa-initiated investigation of the now infamous Gunrunner project may have appeared a tedious, long-winded affair. Not so. By D.C. standards, what Issa pulled off was brilliant political stagecraft, which ultimately may prove highly damaging to the Obama administration.

In a 90-minute time span, the terms “cover-up”, “Watergate”, and “Iran-Contra”, were repeated numerous times as a table of constitutional scholars appeared unanimous in their opinion that Obama’s DOJ was in violation of the right of Congress to make applicable requests for information – in this case information surrounding Project Gunrunner that resulted in the death of U.S. border agent Brian Terry and likely hundreds more civillians just across the Mexican border. Since 2009, thousands of guns were allowed to be sold to Mexican drug cartels – guns that were in turn used against U.S. law enforcement, civilians, and their Mexican counterparts.

Attorney General Eric Holder testified before Congress he knew nothing of the program, but that he would launch “an internal investigation.”

Since that time, no findings have been disclosed, as Holder continues to ignore Congressional requests for further information.



On Monday, June 13th, Republican Congressman Darell Issa led the first of two scheduled hearings this week surrounding Project Gunrunner and the implied cover-up being undertaken by top-ranking ATF officials, and the Obama Department of Justice.

This first hearing centered on the right of Congress to receive requests for information from the Executive Branch in a timely manner, even if those requests could prove politically damaging to Executive Branch officials.

And while Democrat Congressman Gerald Connolly attempted to paint the actions of Issa and his fellow Republicans as being unreasonable against the Department of Justice, this claim was roundly dismissed by the constitutional scholars providing testimony. In fact, these same scholars indicated there was no applicable reason for the Obama DOJ to not be providing the information being requested by Congress, leaving the ever-growing spectre of a possible cover-up looming over the proceedings.


On Wednesday, Issa will be calling the mother of slain border agent Brian Terry to testify. Her testimony will most certainly provide a powerful emotional component to the proceedings, while further heightening the questions of what Attorney General Eric Holder has been hiding from Congress, and giving more reason for Congress to proceed with official charges of contempt against Holder, and possibly even President Obama, if the administration continues to actively stonewall the ongoing Project Gunrunner investigations.

 

[MeeMie]

Operation Fast and Furious, Operation Gun Runner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvk_WICNMLc

Details and history.

 

[unregistered]

 

[MeeMie]

Operation Fast and Furious should end Holder tenure



Watergate cliches though they are, two questions beg to be asked about the exploding Fast and Furious scandal at the U.S. Department of Justice: What did Attorney General Eric Holder know and when did he know it concerning the underlying concept, operational protocols and legal status of the Operation Fast and Furious program in the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms bureau?

Those questions gained special relevance Wednesday when four ATF agents testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and squarely contradicted a Feb. 4, 2011, claim by a department spokesman that DOJ did not approve of the program that sanctioned the illegal sale here in America by legitimate gun dealers of assault weapons to representatives of Mexican drug cartels. The idea behind the program was that the hundreds of firearms thus sold would then be traced from specific crimes, thus enabling prosecutions of the individuals involved.

The agents testified that Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley, a Phoenix-based appointee of President Obama, "orchestrated" Operation Fast and Furious. ATF Phoenix field office supervisor Peter Forcelli, for example, told the committee: "I have read documents that indicate that his boss, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, also agreed with the direction of the case." That direction was established sometime after Obama was inaugurated in 2009 when Phoenix ATF agents, breaking with long-established agency practice, were ordered to monitor, but not stop, gun sales to suspected gun traffickers. The agents testified that Phoenix ATF supervisor David Voth "was jovial, if not, not giddy, but just delighted" when Fast and Furious guns were subsequently recovered at multiple Mexican drug busts. And emails released Thursday by Rep. Darrell Issa,R-Calif., revealed that acting director Kenneth Melson even arranged to watch live feeds from ATF cameras in gun stores being used by the program while sitting at his desk.

But delight turned to devastation on Dec. 14, 2010 when two Fast and Furious rifles were found at the scene of Border Agent Brian Terry's murder approximately 18 miles inside the U.S. border with Mexico in the Arizona desert. The program ended the next day. Special Agent Larry Alt told the committee that Terry's death was the entirely foreseeable result of Operation Fast and Furious: "You can't allow thousands of guns to go south of the border without an expectation that they are going to be recovered eventually in crimes and people are going to die." There had also been panic among ATF officials when news first broke that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., had been shot because they feared the weapon used might be one of those sold via Operation Fast and Furious.

Documents released by the Issa panel make it clear that Operation Fast and Furious was well-known and enthusiastically supported at the highest leveIs of ATF. That means the program had to have been supported elsewhere within the Justice Department. Thus, it is inconceivable that Holder did not know about Operation Fast and Furious. But even if he didn't know, he clearly should have. Either way, Wednesday's hearing provided the latest evidence that it's past time for Holder to go.

 

[MeeMie]

Obama Administration Credibility on ‘Gunrunner’ Scandal



On June 15, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, held another hearing into the failed “Operation Fast and Furious” program, which has also been dubbed the “Gunwalker” scandal. “Gunwalker” allowed literally thousands of weapons to walk across the border into Mexico.

The guns, which included semi-automatic AK-47 variants and Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, were purchased by straw buyers in Arizona, who then allegedly passed them on to Mexican drug cartels.

Issa issued subpoenas to the Department of Justice several months ago, demanding to know exactly who had authorized a program he called “felony stupid.”

At least two of the firearms the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) allowed to walk were found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose family testified earlier in the week.

To date, DoJ has refused to comply with those requests, citing an ongoing investigation.

This is an assertion Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) both claim is false.

In a sharply worded letter earlier this year, Issa and Grassley, who is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said such an excuse for failing to comply with a Congressional subpoena might hold if the committee and DoJ were conducting concurrent investigations. But they pointed out that Congress is investigating DoJ, not gun traffickers.

In the meantime, the ATF and DoJ have both maintained no guns were allowed to walk, which was refuted by testimony during the hearing.

“We monitored as they purchased handguns, AK-47 variants and .50 caliber rifles, almost daily at times,” said John Dodson, an ATF special agent in Phoenix, during his testimony. “Rather than conduct any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals, we wrote reports but nothing more.”

As whistleblowers continue to blow up the idea that this was a well organized operation with good oversight, the White House is perpetuating the myth that DoJ is cooperating with the investigation.

Sources close to the committee about the assertion that the administration was cooperating with the investigation said this was manifestly not the case.

“That’s saying something we’ve been very clear about since the beginning is not the case,” one source said. “They have not complied with our subpoena. The only reason we have the information we do and know what we know is because ATF whistleblowers came forward. If it was up to the Department of Justice, we wouldn’t have nearly the information we do now.”

It was also made clear that Issa is not backing off on this investigation.

“This is just the beginning,” a source said.

It’s also becoming increasingly clear that the administration would like to find someone to take the fall.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Kenneth Melson, acting director of ATF, could be ousted by DoJ as early as next week.

Emails released during the hearing show Melson was intimately involved in managing the operation, which had both ATF agents and gun dealers worried.

President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder continue to maintain that they knew nothing about an operation which had potential international repercussions until CBS broke the story in February.

Whatever the truth, and it’s possible we will never know how high up this actually goes, it does strain credulity to believe that at the very least Holder was unaware of the operation.

It all comes back to the age-old questions: Who knew what, and when did they know it? Holder also needs to explain why his department continues to stonewall legitimate Congressional inquiry.

 

[MeeMie]

And the scapegoat enters center stage ...


ATF head to resign over botched gun program


The acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is expected to resign in the next few days as a scandal over the agency’s “Fast and Furious” anti-gun trafficking operation continues to boil.




Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House oversight committee, last week held a hearing on the operation and released three e-mails showing top ATF officials “very much in the weeds with Fast and Furious.” Justice Department officials, Issa charged, have been “obstructing” his efforts to investigate the gunrunning operation.



An interesting part ... keep this in mind for the following article.

The agency has been without a permanent director since 2006. The Obama administration last year nominated Andrew Traver, the head of the agency’s Chicago office, to become the permanent director, but the confirmation process stalled after the National Rifle Association said it “strongly opposed” his nomination.

 

[MeeMie]

Mega-Scandal:
Was ‘Gunwalker’ a Public Relations Operation for Gun Control?


Buckle up: An agent testifies that surveillance stopped at the border, meaning the operation didn't actually trace guns to cartels to make arrests. The only conclusion? Law enforcement wasn't the point, orchestrated violence was, and that's a history-making scandal.



The most damning revelations coming out of the hearings on Operation Fast and Furious held by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform are the unmistakable indications that the program was never designed to succeed as a law enforcement operation at all.

A quartet of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents and supervisors turned into whistleblowers to bring the operation down, but only after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down in the Arizona desert. Two of the weapons recovered at the scene of Terry’s murder were traced to the operation.

Fast and Furious, also known by the more accurate “Gunwalker,” allowed known straw purchasers to buy large quantities of firearms — often a dozen or more semi-automatic rifles — at a time with the full knowledge of ATF agents and executives. The guns were then smuggled into Mexico, as frustrated front-line ATF agents watched, under strict orders to do nothing.

ATF agents testifying in front of the House Oversight Committee could not explain how the operation was supposed to succeed when their surveillance efforts stopped at the border and interdiction was never an option.

ATF Agent John Dodson, testifying in front of the committee, said that in his entire law enforcement career, he had “never been involved in or even heard of an operation in which law enforcement officers let guns walk.” He continued: “I cannot begin to think of how the risk of letting guns fall into the hands of known criminals could possibly advance any legitimate law enforcement interest.”

The obvious answer is that Gunwalker’s objective was never intended to be a “legitimate law enforcement interest.” Instead, it appears that ATF Acting Director Ken Melson and Department of Justice senior executives specifically created an operation that was designed from the outset to arm Mexican narco-terrorists and increase violence substantially along both sides of the Southwest border.

Success was measured not by the number of criminals being incarcerated, but by the number of weapons transiting the border and the violence those weapons caused. An ATF manager was “delighted” when Gunwalker guns started showing up at drug busts. It would be entirely consistent with this theory if DOJ communications reflected the approval of the ATF senior officials they were colluding with — but as we know, Holder’s Department of Justice refuses to cooperate.

At the same time in 2009 that federal law enforcement agencies (the ATF, the DOJ, and presumably Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security) were creating the operation that led to the executive branch being the largest gun smuggler in the Southwest, the president’s team was crafting the rhetoric to sell the crisis they were creating.

On television, in various news outlets, and even in a joint appearance with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama pushed the 90 percent lie, implying that 90% of the guns recovered in Mexican cartel violence came from U.S. gun shops.

At the same time they were damning gun dealers in public, the administration was secretly forcing them to provide weapons to the cartels, by the armful and without oversight. More than one gun industry insider suggests that the administration extorted cooperation and silence from these gun shops. As the ATF has the power to summarily shut dealers down for the most minor of offenses, that is very, very possible.

The administration has spared no effort to stop the investigation in its tracks. Democrat senators attempted to poison the well the day before the Oversight Committee’s hearings. The ranking Democrat on the committee did as well, before being flummoxed into silence by the testimony presented.

And Obama himself has offered the solutions we would expect from a gun prohibitionist:

Faced with a Congress hostile to even slight restrictions of Second Amendment rights, the Obama administration is exploring potential changes to gun laws that can be secured strictly through executive action, administration officials say.

The Department of Justice held the first in what is expected to be a series of meetings on Tuesday afternoon with a group of stakeholders in the ongoing gun-policy debates. Before the meeting, officials said part of the discussion was expected to center around the White House’s options for shaping policy on its own or through its adjoining agencies and departments — on issues ranging from beefing up background checks to encouraging better data-sharing.

Administration officials said talk of executive orders or agency action are among a host of options that President Barack Obama and his advisers are considering.
​

As there is a pattern of behavior to suggest that Gunwalker was not a botched law enforcement operation, but was instead an effort by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department to carry out a subversive anti-gun policy of the Obama administration, it is pertinent to examine Obama’s past associations with anti-gun groups.

From 1994-2002, Obama was a director of the Joyce Foundation. Joyce is a progressive organization dedicated to “social justice,” and one of their primary areas of advocacy has always been the funding of gun control organizations. Joyce has long attempted to erode Second Amendment rights, and during Obama’s tenure as a director went so far as to try to subvert Second Amendment scholarship. Joyce gave millions to effectively buy law reviews with grants, and then used those reviews to publish only papers that attacked the individual rights interpretation. The goal was to so pervert legal scholarship that the scholarship would affect Supreme Court decisions.

Joyce director Obama, and those surrounding him, internalized fellow Chicagoan Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. While the Joyce plot narrowly failed, it affirmed Alinsky’s strategy of agitating, fanning hostility, and disorganizing the public in order to force radical change.

We know that Obama’s friends in Joyce Foundation-supported gun control groups suspiciously have not attacked the administration’s gun-running, but instead have attacked the Oversight Committee’s investigation.

We know that of the 7,900 weapons that came from gun shops in the United States, about 2,000 of them were the result of Gunwalker.

We know that Gunwalker was never designed to interdict the weapons the ATF and DOJ pushed objecting gun sellers to provide. We know that management reacted to the spiraling violence that Gunwalker caused not with concern, but with enthusiasm.

The Department of Justice claims that their inspector general will investigate Gunwalker, but it appears obvious to the very agents that brought this scandal into the open that they have a clear conflict of interest. There are already calls for a special prosecutor to investigate Gunwalker.

Considering the arming of narco-terrorist gangs, the destabilizing geopolitical effect on Mexico, the foreign policy ramifications, and the possibility of extrajudicial and criminal activity at the highest levels of the executive branch, a special prosecutor should be an avenue of investigation.




. . .

 

[busybody..]

no one cares

we needa talk

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[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

I liked the part where the bureaucrat claims the operation has taken down the smuggling ring top to bottom. Somebody should have asked him if that was because the Attorney General shut down Fast and Furious.

Time to consider impeachment charges against the Attorney General.

no one cares

we needa talk

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Which one's Schultz and which one's Klink?

"I know no-think!"



I absolutely can believe that they know nothing of this operation, they didn't care HOW American guns got to Mexico, just as long as they got there so they could go out and argue gun-control...

 

[MeeMie]

I absolutely can believe that they know nothing of this operation, they didn't care HOW American guns got to Mexico, just as long as they got there so they could go out and argue gun-control...

The worst case scenario would be (as the last article above suggests) that they indeed KNEW ... and that it was purposely planned to force gun control legislation on us in the aftermath.

If that turns out to be true, they should be hanged and buried right alongside the corpseseseses (Obamaspeak) of those killed with those weapons.

 

[unregistered]

 

[busybody..]

Which one's Schultz and which one's Klink?

"I know no-think!"



I absolutely can believe that they know nothing of this operation, they didn't care HOW American guns got to Mexico, just as long as they got there so they could go out and argue gun-control...

We dont care

We needa talk

RADIO ADS​

 

[unregistered]

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

I think they did it on purpose, in order to "recover" guns in Mexico, and use it to advance their main agenda, blaming innocent gun dealers along the border of illegal activity, in order to advance their plans for enhanced regional gun control along the border, as part of an overall long range gun control agenda. This is a political agenda the left is willing to get Americans killed over in order to advance. The families of two dead American agents want people brought to justice, I think they're right. Somebody needs to go to prison.

It's not far-fetched as he moves from being able to control the congress to get his good works done and so moves into the bureaucracy...

... Where, where nobody knows your name,
And the results are all the same...
__________________
Paddy O’Bama Says: I say DRILL BABY DRILL and the EPA says, OH NO YOU DON'T!
It's a win-win for me!!!
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/files/2011/04/obama-wide-grin80.jpg

 

[busybody..]

If HO! didnt know, he is out of touch with his own administration! HO! MUST GO!

If HO! did know, HE MUST BE IMPEACHED!

WE DONT CARE!

WE NEEDA TALK

RADIO ADS!​

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

More phrases from the past: Plausible deniability...

Laurel: If Dubya lied about the damage of the "missing" W keys, then he should be impeached; if he didn't press charges for the damage, THEN HE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED!

 

[MeeMie]

More phrases from the past: Plausible deniability...

Laurel: If Dubya lied about the damage of the "missing" W keys, then he should be impeached; if he didn't press charges for the damage, THEN HE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED!

OMG!

Did she actually say that?

 

[unregistered]