Fast and Furious

[TheMercenary]

Um no, Holder is choking on it. Hopefully to his end.

[TheMercenary]

After weeks of stonewalling by the Department of Justice, a clearer picture of what its top officials knew about BATFE’s Operation Fast and Furious, and when they knew it, is slowly beginning to emerge.

On Tuesday, Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism about his knowledge of BATFE’s gunwalking operations, and his support for gun control.

In April 2010, Breuer says, he knew that BATFE agents had allowed hundreds of guns to be illegally purchased and smuggled to Mexican drug cartels in 2006 and 2007 as part of Wide Receiver, a Tucson-based operation similar to Fast and Furious, which was hatched out of Phoenix. Nevertheless, nearly a year later, when BATFE was accused of allowing guns to walk in Fast and Furious, Breuer suggested that he was convinced to not consider the allegations seriously. “I recall that both the leadership of ATF and the leadership of the United States Attorney's Offices in Arizona . . . were adamant about the fact that [gunwalking] was not, in fact, a condoned practice,” Breuer said. And as noted last week by the New York Times, last February the Justice Department sent a letter to Congress stating “A.T.F. makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transport into Mexico.”

Seeming to corroborate the 2007 date Breuer mentioned, the Associated Press reported today that a briefing paper prepared in 2007 for then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey “outlined failed attempts by federal agents to track illicitly purchased guns across the border into Mexico.” But why Breuer did not give more attention to the gunwalking claims made against Fast and Furious is as unclear to him as to the rest of the country. “I regret that in April of 2010 that I did not draw the connection between Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious,” Breuer said. “Moreover, I regret that even earlier this year, I didn't draw that connection.”

When it became Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s turn to question Breuer, the zealous anti-gun crusader from California tried to shift the focus of the hearings from battling international crime to battling those of us who support the Second Amendment.

The exchange between the two gun control supporters speaks for itself.

Feinstein: Mr. Breuer, in June of this year, I received a letter from the ATF. . . stating that 29,284 firearms [were] recovered in Mexico in '09 and 2010, and submitted to the ATF Tracing Center. With those weapons, 20,504, or 70 percent, were United States sourced. . . . Is it fair to say that 70 percent of the firearms showing up in Mexico are from the United States?

Breuer: Thank you, Senator, for the question, and for your leadership on this issue. . . . Of the 94,000 weapons that have been recovered in Mexico, 64,000 of those are traced to the United States. We have to do something to prevent criminals from getting those guns, Senator. . . .

Feinstein: . . . .“[W]e have very lax laws when it comes to guns. . . . And so the question comes, do you believe that if there were some form of registration when you purchase these firearms that that would make a difference?

Breuer: I do, Senator. . . . Today, Senator, we are not even permitted to have ATF receive reports about multiple sales of long guns, of any kind of semiautomatic weapon or the like. . . . Very few hunters in the United States or sports people and law-abiding people really need to have semiautomatic weapons or long guns. . . .”

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been co-leading Congress’ investigation of Fast and Furious with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), disagreed with Feinstein’s and Breuer’s claim that 70 percent of guns seized in Mexico come from the United States. “I released a report that I would like to ask be made a part of the record,” Senator Grassley said. “It refutes the numbers referenced early that 70 percent of the guns in Mexico came from the U.S. The answer isn't to clamp down on law abiding citizens or gun dealers.”

While Mr. Breuer’s testimony shined a glimmer of light on who knew what and when they knew it, about the BATFE’s most disastrous operation since the 1993 Waco raid, it obviously did not, nor was it intended to, lead Congress or the American people to a proper understanding of how many firearms have been smuggled to Mexico without BATFE’s help, since the Mexican drug cartels began waging war on their country. As has already been reported, many of the “guns traced to the U.S.” from Mexico were seized in that country many years ago, but have been only recently submitted for tracing at the urging of the BATFE. And to complicate things further, Mexican officials have acquiesced to BATFE’s urgings by submitting multiple trace requests on single guns.

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Fe...d.aspx?id=7165

[classicman]

Am I missing something? That piece sheds no new information whatsoever.

[TheMercenary]

Meanwhile, former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Arizona, who resigned in the wake of a congressional probe into Fast and Furious, has admitted leaking a sensitive memo about a federal agent who blew the whistle on the operation.

Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said in a statement late Tuesday the leaked memo was “deemed so sensitive by the Justice Department” it was not provided to Congress, except in a secured room at Justice headquarters.

The leak targeted ATF Agent John Dodson, who told a House committee in June that ATF superiors told him to stand down and watch as weapons flowed from gun dealers in Arizona to drug cartels in Mexico as part of the Fast and Furious operation.

Mr. Grassley said the Justice Department has confirmed that its inspector general continues to investigate the leak, “which means there are others who may be involved in drafting and distributing” the leak to the press.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...g-fast-and-fu/

[TheMercenary]

And the beat goes on.... as more info comes to light.

Armed illegals stalked Border Patrol

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...border-patrol/

[TheMercenary]

Transparency!!!!! NO OBAMA in 2012!

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...us_610783.html

[classicman]

Merc, Please paste at least some of what you are quoting.

William Lajeunesse of Fox News has a big report today that suggests Holder’s Justice Department might not have taken congressional injunctions against Fast and Furious whistleblower retaliation to heart.

In fairness to Holder, it’s been a contention of his for the past several weeks that he doesn’t really pay much attention to internal memos, intelligence briefings, and stern warnings from angry members of Congress, so he might have missed it when Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) said “any attempt to retaliate against whistleblowers for their testimony today would be unfair, unwise, and unlawful.”

Six months later, Lajeunesse took stock of the situation, and found “those in charge of the botched operation have been reassigned or promoted, their pensions intact. But many of those who blew the whistle face isolation, retaliation and transfer.” Here’s the scorecard for the Fast and Furious management team:

Acting ATF Chief Ken Melson, who oversaw the operation, is now an adviser in the Office of Legal Affairs. He remains in ATF's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Acting Deputy Director Billy Hoover, who knew his agency was walking guns and demanded an "exit strategy" just five months into the program, is now the special agent in charge of the D.C. office. He, too, did not have to relocate.

Deputy Director for Field Operations William McMahon received detailed briefings about the illegal operation and later admitted he shares "responsibility for mistakes that were made.” Yet, he also stays in D.C., ironically as the No. 2 man at the ATF's Office of Internal Affairs.

Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix Bill Newell, the man most responsible for directly overseeing Fast and Furious, was promoted to the Office of Management in Washington.

Phoenix Deputy Chief George Gillette was also promoted to Washington as ATF's liaison to the U.S. Marshal's Service.

Group Supervisor David Voth managed Fast and Furious on a day-to-day basis and repeatedly stopped field agents from interdicting weapons headed to the border, according to congressional testimony. ATF boosted Voth to chief of the ATF Tobacco Division, where he now supervises more employees in Washington than he ever did in Phoenix.

Meanwhile, key whistleblower ATF agent John Dodson was shuffled off to an FBI task force, and can’t even get into the ATF building with his access pass anymore. The brass said that contact with him “was detrimental to any ATF career.” U.S. attorney Dennis Burke admitted leaking documents to discredit Dodson.

Other agents found themselves demoted, reassigned, and generally floating in career dead zones. The pattern is consistent enough to be disturbing, and several of the agents involved have been disturbed enough to call for investigations. They’ll probably get about as far as the family of murdered U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, which spent Thanksgiving digesting the knowledge that the Obama Administration had sealed the court records in his case. Even the judge’s reason for sealing the case was sealed. Some very provocative details leaked out before all the envelopes were glued shut, but we should probably say no more about it, because the Attorney General told us not to.

[TheMercenary]

And to think that Attorney General Eric Holder is getting testy about congressional calls for his resignation. After all, the Justice Department has nothing to hide, right?:

The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.

Link via Judicial Watch. The murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent is related to the Justice Department willingly turning over thousands of guns to Mexican criminal gangs, and Obama administration is hiding information about his death from the public. Amazing.

[TheMercenary]

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline
In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:

"Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_16...n-regulations/

[classicman]

Well, that wasn’t really Eric Holder’s intent when he answered an allegation of intentionally misleading Congress from James Sensenbrenner, but the circumstances fit almost perfectly in this moment gleaned from the Boss Emeritus’ live blog of his testimony today. Holder’s aides didn’t lie or mislead Congress when they sent over false information — including Holder himself. You see, they talked with the people who they thought knew what was going on, and simply passed along what they said.

You know — just like when George Bush listened to every Western intelligence agency when they warned that Saddam Hussein was working on weapons of mass destruction.

Now, there are a couple of key differences between the two instances. Fast & Furious didn’t take place around the world in a nearly-impenetrable Arab dictatorship — it got conducted by ATF personnel that report in the same chain of command as Holder himself. The data that Congress demanded wasn’t an assessment of intel on a program run in the Middle East, but the actual information on a program run by Holder’s team. And the inability to produce accurate data on this would indicate that either Holder and his team are a group of incompetents who don’t have any real management control over the ATF and DoJ, or that people intentionally misled Congress by feeding the House committees with false and misleading information.

Considering that the latest memo has ATF and DoJ officials plotting how to use Operation Fast and Furious as a political tool to push for more restrictive gun-control legislation, I’m pretty sure I know which way I’m betting on the question. If Holder wants to argue mens rea, then I’m just as satisfied by the alternative of total incompetence — and await his resignation.
Link

[BigV]

Considering that the latest memo has ATF and DoJ officials plotting how to use Operation Fast and Furious as a political tool to push for more restrictive gun-control legislation,

you forgot your tinfoil hat smiley. you know, the one that keeps your head safely protected from facts and shit.

[classicman]

V, Have you paid ANY attention to this issue or watched any of the coverage on it or are you just defaulting to your standard position?

Cuz you really should.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by BigV

you forgot your tinfoil hat smiley. you know, the one that keeps your head safely protected from facts and shit.

Facts are in the Emails released to the Congressional panel and shit. Obviously you never looked.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by classicman

V, Have you paid ANY attention to this issue or watched any of the coverage on it or are you just defaulting to your standard position?

Cuz you really should.

First of all, I think you should have indicated that you were quoting another source for your recent post, when at first blush it looks like you're making statements of your own.

Second, at whatever level of attention I've been giving this issue, I am asking for "the memo that details the plotting of the ATF and DoJ officials". Really? Get me up to speed here, since you, and others, notably mercy, have been following this closely. I find it... frankly unbelievable that such a memo exists, or that any memo that does exist says what you said it says.

I won't begrudge you your opinion, and that's what I consider the statement I quoted to be. Fine, your opinion. But I'm interested in more factual evidence. If you have that, and I don't, share it, won't you?

Thanks!

[classicman]

Originally Posted by BigV

I think you should have indicated that you were quoting another source for your recent post, when at first blush it looks like you're making statements of your own.

Yet the link at the bottom was there ... I missed the quote button which was accidental... Mod can fix please?

Second, at whatever level of attention I've been giving this issue, I am asking for ...(snip)
But I'm interested in more factual evidence. If you have that, and I don't, share it, won't you?

No, I will not do your homework for you. If you are truly interested and you should be, you will bring yourself up to speed.
There is plenty of info available. WATCH the video's they're on CSPAN or youtube.

I would prefer you see what is happening for yourself and draw your own conclusions, then post them here.
Then come back and we can have a more intelligent discussion.