Operations Fast & Furious

[Ruxeille]

“Fast and Furious” operation

The failure of the “Fast and Furious” operation will haunt the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms for several years. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms will need to reply for supplying Mexico's cartels with guns. I read this here: Congress grills ATF on botched Fast and Furious operation

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Some of us rather suspect that that might not be true because the press has a Democrat bias and a real investment in Barack Obama's reelection...

Did Nixon get in trouble for ordering a break-in? No, for ordering a cover-up.

Did the Democrat press enthusiastically go after Reagan for Iran-Contra? Oh hell yes...

Did the Democrat press have to be drug kicking and screaming to the blue dress and the Edwards' love child?



Oh, and one more, did not the Democrat press support with glee a forged document faxed from a Texas Kinko's only to finally declare that it was a forgery attached to a true story?

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Internal Revenue Service were all aware of Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed thousands of military-style weapons to “walk” across the southern border to the Sinaloa drug cartel and other criminals.

These explosive revelations came on Tuesday, as Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA) grilled the former ATF special agent who was in charge of the Gunwalker program, William Newell.

Meehan noted the so-called “plaza bosses” — mid-level bosses within the cartels who were the ones often purchasing the walked guns — expected to get what they’d paid for, when Newell insisted that it had never been part of the plan to allow guns to walk across the border:

You understand if he purchased $70,000 worth of guns he expects $70,000 worth of guns. Where does that come in with “there’s no strategy to allow guns into Mexico?”

Meehan pressed on, angrily, without giving Newell time to answer and demanded to know which agencies were involved with the operation. Newell replied that they had received assistance from ICE, DEA, and IRS. Apparently the FBI knew about it as well — indeed, some of the straw buyers ATF was targeting were FBI informants.
When Meehan, a former federal prosecutor, demanded to know if those agencies knew guns were being walked into Mexico, Newell answered: “they were aware of the strategy.”

It was a rough day for Newell. Several lawmakers grilled him about the program relentlessly, including South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy, a freshman congressman and also a former federal and state prosecutor.

Gowdy asked repeatedly if Newell interrogated the first straw purchaser the ATF knew for a fact was buying guns illegally. Newell said no, and several times during his testimony tried to make the case that taking down one straw buyer would have had little or no effect.

Gowdy insisted they should have interrogated the first straw buyer they knew had sold guns across the border, rather than walking more than 2,500 guns with an eye to getting a cooperative witness:

That’s an old fashioned investigative technique, it’s not as complicated as letting guns walk. It is more effective though, to go back and interrogate the person who made the acquisition.

Gowdy then demanded to know how exactly the ATF planned to extradite the drug kingpins, and was told there had never been any intention to do so. Gowdy was incredulous:

So once the guns made it to Mexico there was nothing you were going to do about those drug kingpins.

Newell said there was in fact a plan in place:

Yes sir, there was. One of the things we were going to do was as soon as we had solid information on who those drug kingpins were we were going to share that information with Mexican law enforcement.

Gowdy replied:

So they’re supposed to trust American law enforcement, who’s been conducting an investigation and knows guns are going into Mexico and you told them after the fact and they’re supposed to thank you and be partners in this endeavor? How are you going to dismantle the Mexican cartels if you’re not going to extradite the drug kingpins back to the United States, sir?

Newell:

We hoped the Mexicans would prosecute them for that.

Gowdy was derisive in his reply:

So you’re going to help the Mexican justice system, you’re just not going to tell the Mexican justice system about it? It was never going to work.

ATF Special Agent Carlos Canino, acting ATF attaché to Mexico, also told the committee that not only was the Mexican government unaware of the program, so were the ATF agents based in Mexico:

At no time, ever, did I know of ATF following known gun traffickers. I had no clue we were allowing guys to act like this.

I was so disgusted, I didn’t want to look at the case file anymore. It goes against everything we’re taught. From the day you walk into academy until the day you leave.

This is a trafficking case, this is what we do. It’s not special.

Gowdy was equally disgusted:

I worked with ATF for six years directly and I worked with ATF indirectly for 10 years. This is one of the saddest days, in fact it might be the saddest day in my 6 months in Congress. ATF has a wonderful reputation in South Carolina. We never once contemplated letting firearms walk, ever. A first year Quantico (the FBI training academy) or Glynco (U.S. Marshall Service) person knows that.

Prior to Tuesday’s hearings, the committee released another report on Operation Fast and Furious of some 60 pages. Among the findings:

• There was little to no information sharing from the Phoenix Field Division, ATF Headquarters and the Justice Department to their colleagues in Mexico City. Every time Mexico City officials asked about the mysterious investigation, their U.S. based ATF counterparts in Phoenix and Washington, D.C. continued to say they were “working on it” and “everything was under control.”

• Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, was clearly aware of Operation Fast and Furious and touted the case during a visit to Mexico.

• ATF officials in Mexico City were incredulous that their agency would knowingly allow guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, and they were incensed when they finally began to learn the full scope of Operation Fast and Furious and the investigative techniques used.

Not only did Breuer know about the program, but Attorney General Eric Holder’s chief of staff did as well. There are now only two possibilities: either Holder simply didn’t want to know about the program, or was so disconnected from his department as to have essentially abrogated his responsibilities.

The former is possibly criminal, the latter merely incompetent, and either should exclude him from continuing as attorney general.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-william-newell-circles-the-wagons/?singlepage=true

 

[MeeMie]

Not only did Breuer know about the program, but Attorney General Eric Holder’s chief of staff did as well. There are now only two possibilities: either Holder simply didn’t want to know about the program, or was so disconnected from his department as to have essentially abrogated his responsibilities.

The former is possibly criminal, the latter merely incompetent, and either should exclude him from continuing as attorney general.

That about sums it up ... but, let's see how high the shit rises.

 

[koalabear]

I wonder how many sanctimonious libs have contacted their Washington Reps for an answer to this scandal.

 

[cjh]

I wonder how many sanctimonious libs have contacted their Washington Reps for an answer to this scandal.

probably about the same number as repubs who turned a blind eye to reagan's cocaine for contra guns program.

you DID contact your washington rep then, didn't you?

 

[koalabear]

probably about the same number as repubs who turned a blind eye to reagan's cocaine for contra guns program.

you DID contact your washington rep then, didn't you?

There you are again acting like mercmoron, moron.

 

[cjh]

There you are again acting like mercmoron, moron.

you'll have to turn down the chuck berry.

i can't quite make out what you're trying to say.

 

[koalabear]

you'll have to turn down the chuck berry.

i can't quite make out what you're trying to say.

You never will, moron.

 

[cjh]

You never will, moron.

you make an excellent point.

 

[koalabear]

NOTE: The information contained in this message is confidential and intended for the named recipient. If this message was forwarded to you or you did not receive it directly from my Congressional e-mail account, you cannot rely on it as an official statement because it may have been altered.

 

[Sean Renaud]

I wonder how many sanctimonious libs have contacted their Washington Reps for an answer to this scandal.

Not me. I simply don't care much about it. Someone did something stupid and it didn't work or at least hasn't so far. Oh well.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

probably about the same number as repubs who turned a blind eye to reagan's cocaine for contra guns program.

you DID contact your washington rep then, didn't you?

Sweet Jesus, but that story line is so old that it occurred at a time when I was still a Democratic Socialist type...

Can you at least drag your ass up to 1999 when Bush past drug and alcohol use was a bad thing?

Unlike Clinton and Obama...



THIS IS SERIOUS! People are being shot with stimulus guns and dying just as sure as our stimulus economy!!!

 

[koalabear]

Sweet Jesus, but that story line is so old that it occurred at a time when I was still a Democratic Socialist type...

Can you at least drag your ass up to 1999 when Bush past drug and alcohol use was a bad thing?

Unlike Clinton and Obama...



THIS IS SERIOUS! People are being shot with stimulus guns and dying just as sure as our stimulus economy!!!

Yeah, but...

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Ollie sure stuck it to them...







URRAH!!!

 

[koalabear]

Issa Introduces Legislation to Honor Fallen Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1401&Itemid=29


Agent Terry's murder is linked to Operation Fast and Furious, a reckless program where federal law enforcement agencies knowingly allowed the trafficking of illegally purchased weapons into Mexico, arming drug cartels. The Oversight and Government Reform Committee is conducting an ongoing investigation to determine which U.S. officials are responsible for creating and authorizing the deadly program.

 

[Sean Renaud]

What you mean is we are wasting tax dollars chasing our tails but you like it cus it might hurt Obama.

 

[koalabear]

What you mean is we are wasting tax dollars chasing our tails but you like it cus it might hurt Obama.

Where is the money being wasted?

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

How much money can words on paper cost?



Very niggardly remark at a time of $14 trillion dollar debt under the cover-up team.

 

[koalabear]

NRA
August 02, 2011
Minimizing Obama’s Fast and Furious Scandal

The elite media are at it again. They're trying to downplay the Operation Fast and Furious scandal that has rocked the Obama administration, and they're using the scandal to push the same tired calls for more gun control laws.

The Washington Post, for example, which has largely ignored the scandal, ran a front page story recently, but made sure to quote anonymous Obama administration officials who praised the gunrunning strategy and claimed it was "unfair" for Congress to investigate. And the newspaper's recent editorial quoted an ATF agent who believes that we need more gun laws, but ignored Congressional testimony of other agents who said all the gun laws we need are already on the books.

The Post also continues to report on the scandal as if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was the only agency involved in Operation Fast and Furious. Instead, we now know that DEA, ICE, FBI and even the IRS had knowledge of the program. High-ranking officials at the Justice Department were aware of the program, and ATF official Bill Newell testified before the House Oversight Committee that he had also talked with a National Security Council staffer about the operation.

Thankfully, there's at least one media outlet where you can get the truth about Operation Fast and Furious: NRANews.com. From interviews with members of Congress and newsmakers to the most complete coverage of the House Oversight Committee hearings anywhere, NRANews.com is shining a light on the biggest scandal of the Obama administration, even while the media elites carry the administration's water.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Fair! unfair! the administration has the polity of a seven year-old...

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

To believe that no top administration officials were involved in Operation Fast and Furious is not only disingenuous, it's dumb. Of course some top Obama administration officials were involved, if for no other reason than contemporary bureaucrats simply lack the intestinal fortitude to initiate such an ill-conceived and uncoordinated program without clearance from above. Here's a quote from a former ATF operative which makes that clear:

"I can tell you in every case I was involved in, the bureau would've been afraid to let the guns go," said William Vizzard who worked almost 30 years doing gun investigations for ATF and later taught criminal justice at California State University. "There was always the obsessive fear that if a gun goes out there ... it may be misused and traced back to you, and the political implications are terrible."

Note that political implications. Where bureaucratic control of such programs typically ends is at that not always bright line where political control by political appointees pushing political agendas begins. Anyone foolish enough to believe that Operation Fast and Furious was the brainchild of the head of the Phoenix ATF regional office, or even his agency bosses in Washington, needs to pay closer attention to how bureaucratic government operates, especially power-centered, leftist bureaucracies.

...

Are the big fish of the Obama administration ignoring the basic lesson of Watergate -- that it's the cover-up, not the crime, that can bring down a president? But then, in the present situation, we have illegal arms-smuggling, apparently to further a domestic political gun control agenda, which may have resulted in the deaths of Mexican citizens and two United States federal officers. Now that is a crime, a real and true crime, and most certainly a much more serious crime than a third-rate burglary.

Russ Vaughn
The American Thinker

 

[MeeMie]

Smoking Gun:
Obama Ordered Operation Fast and Furious/Project Gunrunner in 2009


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFrApLNmjtk&feature=related

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Kagemusha

 

[RobDownSouth]

Fair! unfair! the administration has the polity of a seven year-old...

http://img.freebase.com/api/trans/image_thumb/en/soon-yi_previn?pad=1&maxheight=110&mode=fillcropmid&maxwidth=110Soon Yi says: AJ-San! Prease to exprain sudden animosity towards seven year olds? Velly disturbing!