Gunwalker: Justice Dept. Inspector General Opens Investigation The IG is looking into charges of illegal retaliation against the ATF whistleblowers.
Operation Fast and Furious — and other alleged “gunwalker” programs — only ended when whistleblowers came forward from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after a firefight in Rio Rico, Arizona, left Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry dead.
NPR – yes, NPR – is now reporting that the Department of Justice inspector general is launching an investigation into whether or not the DOJ illegally retaliated against one of the agents that revealed the gunwalking plot:
The Justice Department’s inspector general has opened an investigation into possible retaliation against a whistleblowing agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to two people briefed on the inquiry.
Watchdogs are examining whether anyone at the Justice Department improperly released internal correspondence to try to smear ATF agent John Dodson, who told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month that he repeatedly warned supervisors about what he called a reckless law enforcement operation known as “Fast and Furious.”
The inspector general is attempting to determine if Obama’s Justice Department leaked one of Dodson’s internal memos to reporters in order to discredit him.
Senator Charles Grassley has warned the Department of Justice repeatedly not to attack whistleblowers, apparently with little effect:
“I’ve warned the administration several times not to retaliate against the whistle-blowers who speak to Congress,” Grassley wrote in an email to NPR Thursday. “Unfortunately, there are indications that the administration leaked Privacy Act-protected documents to the press in an effort to discredit Mr. Dodson with half-truths even though those documents had been withheld from Congress. It’s a very serious matter that should be thoroughly investigated.”
The Justice Department has been ruthless in dealing with the whistleblowers, who have blown the lid off an operation that saw the director-level involvement of every law enforcement entity within the DOJ, in addition to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and likely the State Department.
In addition to retaliating against Dodson, the DOJ stands accused of firing 30-year ATF Agent Vince Cefalu for his role in bringing this and other illegal operations to light at a website he helped found: CleanUpATF.org.
Cefalu ran afoul of the DOJ for criticizing the ATF for previous questionable operations, but his termination seems to have been in response to his stating that those government entities that participated in Gunwalker should be tried as criminals for conspiring to traffic in firearms.
Cefalu also claims that an Obama administration meme that large-scale gun smuggling operations were supplying the cartels was false, which likely drew even more scrutiny.
In addition to allegations that the DOJ participated in attempting to smear and fire ATF whistleblowers, the Department stands accused of trying to stonewall congressional oversight investigations into Operation Fast and Furious — first by stopping Acting ATF Director Ken Melson from testifying at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about what he knew of the operation:
The Justice Department blocked senior ATF leaders from cooperating with Congress in its investigation of the “Fast and Furious” weapons operation, ordering them not to respond to questions and taking full control of replying to briefing and document requests, the agency’s top boss told congressional investigators.
Kenneth E. Melson, the embattled acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told Senate Judiciary Committee and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigators during a secret interview designed to circumvent Justice Department attorneys that he was “sick to his stomach” when he learned about problems with the controversial operation.
Melson was eventually told by Congressman Darrell Issa’s office that he did not have to testify with DOJ attorneys present. Once he was “free” of DOJ lawyers, he gave direct testimony to congressional investigators with only his own private lawyer present and without DOJ minders, much to the dismay of his superiors.
To date, not all of Melson’s testimony has been released — it is apparently being withheld in a game of high stakes brinkmanship as Issa and Grassley face down a recalcitrant administration.
Acting DOJ Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar would be wise to keep the results of her investigations into the alleged Dodson leak, Fast and Furious, and any other gunrunning investigations that may develop for as long as is practically possible. As Gerald Walpin discovered the hard way, the Obama administration isn’t kind to inspector generals that are determined to do their jobs.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
Feds Silent on How Convicted Felons Bought Guns in 'Operation Fast and Furious'
EXCLUSIVE: In the latest chapter of the gunrunning scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, federal officials won't say how two suspects obtained more than 360 weapons despite criminal records that should have prevented them from buying even one gun.
Under current federal law, people with felony convictions are not permitted to buy weapons, and those with felony arrests are typically flagged while the FBI conducts a thorough background check. Related Slideshow
Suspected ‘Straw Buyers’ Helped Traffic Guns From Arizona to Mexico, Say Officials
ATF’s failed Operation Fast and Furious allowed straw buyers, or those who legally purchased guns and illegally sell them to a third party, to walk guns into Mexico. Here are some of the suspected buyers who bought hundreds of guns while under surveillance by the ATF.
However, according to court records reviewed by Fox News, two of the 20 defendants indicted in the Fast and Furious investigation have felony convictions and criminal backgrounds that experts say, at the very least, should have delayed them buying a single firearm. Instead, the duo bought dozens of guns on multiple occasions while federal officials watched on closed-circuit cameras.
Congressional and law-enforcement sources say the situation suggests the FBI, which operates the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, knowingly allowed the purchases to go forward after consulting with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which initiated Operation Fast and Furious.
Under the failed anti-gun trafficking program, straw buyers -- those who legally purchase guns and illegally sell them to a third party -- were allowed to buy guns, many of which were sold to Mexican drug cartel members and subsequently lost. Related to the case, the U.S. government in May charged Manuel Osorio-Arellanes with killing Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last year using a gun purchased through the program.
Court documents show the breakdown involves suspects Jacob Wayne Chambers, 21, and Sean Christopher Stewart, 28, both of Phoenix. Police arrested Chambers for felony burglary and trafficking stolen property in 2008, a year before he began buying more than 70 guns that ended up in the hands of the Sinaloa cartel. Stewart pled guilty to resisting arrest and criminal damage in 2001 and was arrested on drug charges in 2010. He was also charged with violating an order of protection and a local municipal court issued a warrant for his arrest. Stewart purchased 290 weapons.
"You cannot sanction the violation of federal law by enabling or co-enabling prohibited persons, which includes felony convictions, from purchasing firearms," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a former federal prosecutor and a member of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, which is investigating the botched ATF operation. Gowdy said he would discuss the apparent violation with committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
When asked about the breakdown, Stephen Fischer, a spokesman for the NICS System, said the FBI had no comment. However, an ATF agent who worked on the Fast and Furious investigation, told Fox News that NICS officials called the ATF in Phoenix whenever their suspects tried to buy a gun. That conversation typically led to a green light for the buyers, when it should have stopped them.
The apparent corruption of the system concerns Gowdy. "It is unconscionable and goes beyond just being a terribly ill-conceived investigation to bordering, if not crossing, into criminal activity," he said.
The investigation into why these men were able to purchase weapons and this sting operation gone wrong continues on Tuesday. The House Oversight Committee will hold a third hearing, focusing on what was happening on the other side of the border in Mexico.
The former and current ATF attachés to Mexico will testify that their agency never informed them of this operation.
Issa and his colleagues will also have their first opportunity to question ATF supervisors who have defended Operation Fast and Furious and the Justice Department's decisions to committee investigators.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
Many of us here at CUATF.org used to believe that Kenneth Melson was simply another clueless career bureaucrat, who, although he might not be a bad guy personally, had not the slightest idea what was really happening in the agency he was supposedly responsible for "leading". Although that would make him patently incompetent (which seems to have been rather conclusively established at this point), many of us gave him a certain benefit of the doubt in terms of personal integrity. That misconception has now been irrevocably clarified.
The simple fact is that Kenneth Melson is a bald-faced LIAR.
In the interview shown below, Melson states that he has an "open door" policy. However, on the basis of repeated conduct, such a claim is an unequivocal lie. A significant number of employees have, while using their real names, attempted in good faith to make Melson aware as to just how screwed up ATF is in terms of managerial malfeasance, corruption and unlawful conduct, only to either be retaliated against, or to receive nothing but a big, fat cold shoulder.
"Open-Door" Policy? Our ass.
You might also recall that when confronted about the fact that Whistleblower Special Agent Vince Cefalu had been deliberately relegated to twiddling his thumbs all day (at significant taxpayer expense) by his vicious, retaliatory, corrupt, perjuring managers (who all work directly for Kenny-Boy, Melson told the nation, "Not on my watch". However, Melson then proceeded to do precisely NOTHING about that ridiculous abuse of taxpayer monies (and complete waste of Cefalu's 25 years of top-notch training, experience and accomplishments), and Cefalu remains in the same basket-weaving status to this very day, more than a YEAR after Melson's shameless whoppers.
Once again, there is a word for what Melson did; it's called LYING. You are a professional prevaricator, Melson...an unmitigated, unadulterated, dyed-in-the-wool fibber. You might manage to somehow save your own ass in this ginormic fiasco you have overseen, but you're still a liar by any reasonable measure.
Also, you'll note that Melson laughably contradicts himself in the most amateurish manner by first pompously stating that he personally blocked www.CleanUpATF.org (from access through government computers) "because no employee should be exposed to such lies and distortions" (in so many words), but in the same breath, saying that he encourages employees to visit the site(!), as long as it's on their own time. Only the most dronishly jaded lifelong federal bureaucrat could make such an incomprehensibly muddled and logically incompatible statement.
Ken Melson, you are a disgrace and a stain on the honor of decent, hard-working law enforcement agents. You have failed miserably in your duties as Acting Director of ATF, a position for which you were clearly not qualified or competent. We call on you to resign immediately and spare yourself, ATF, DOJ and this nation further embarrassment.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
This will make you sick. Read the Congressional report released in the early morning hours before the hearings. Then ask yourself this.
Melson still has a job? Hoover? Chait, McMahon, Newell, Gillett, Voth all still have jobs? They got McMahon on perjury before Congress! Melson clearly lied.
And they want to fire Vince Cefalu?
What is anyone with any balls at DOJ waiting for? Leaderless is an understatment.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
ATF Death Watch 44: ATF, ICE, DEA, & IRS Implicated in Gunwalker
During today’s Oversight hearing, the Former ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division admitted to the Congressional Committee that the Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Agency, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agencies all kew about—and participated in—Operation Fast and Furious. Does William Newell’s testimony blow the Gunwalker scandal wide open? If not, it bloody well should. The admission further undermines any claim from the White House that Department of Justice jefe Eric Holder knew nothing about guns allowed to flow to the Mexican drug cartels. Also guilty by association and, I suspect, direct knowledge: the President of the United States.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
Issa: Obama admin intimidating witnesses in ATF gun probe
The Obama administration sought to intimidate witnesses into not testifying to Congress on Tuesday about whether ATF knowingly allowed weapons, including assault rifles, to be “walked” into Mexico, the chairman of a House committee investigating the program said in an interview Monday.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, said at least two scheduled witnesses expected to be asked about a controversial weapons investigation known as “Fast and Furious”received warning letters from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to limit their testimony.
Mr. Issa's committee is set to hear testimony from six current or former ATF employees, including agents and attaches assigned to the bureau’s offices in Mexico, about the operation — in which, federal agents say, they were told to stand down and watch as guns flowed from U.S. dealers in Arizona to violent criminals and drug cartels in Mexico.
The six-term lawmaker aired his concerns about the program in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors at The Washington Times on Monday.
Among other questions, the agents are likely to be asked about a large volume of guns showing up in Mexico that were traced back to the Fast and Furious program; whether ATF officials in that country expressed concerns about the weapons to agency officials in the U.S., only to be brushed aside; and whether ATF officials in Arizona denied ATF personnel in Mexico access to information about the operation.
Nearly 50 weapons linked to the Fast and Furious program have been recovered to date in Mexico. Committee investigators said Mexican authorities also were denied information about the operation.
Mr. Issa also said he is certain the Fast and Furious operation was known by most top officials at the Justice Department and that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. either knew and misled Congress, or was so out of the loop that he’s guilty of mismanagement.
“How is it that the No. 2, 3, 4 at Justice all knew about this program, but the No. 1 didn’t?,” Mr. Issa said. “Is it because he said ‘don’t tell me’? Is it because they knew what they were doing is wrong, and they were protecting their boss? Or is it that Eric Holder is just so disconnected … ?
“Whichever it is — he knew and he’s lied to Congress, or he didn’t know, and he’s so detached that he wasn’t doing his job — that really probably is for the administration to make a decision on, sooner not later,” Mr. Issa said.
Those scheduled to testify are William McMahon, ATF deputy assistant director for field operations in Phoenix and Mexico; William Newell, former ATF special agent in charge at the Phoenix field division; Carlos Canino, ATF acting attache to Mexico; Darren Gil, former ATF attache to Mexico; Jose Wall, ATF senior agent in Tijuana, Mexico; and Lorren Leadmon, ATF intelligence operations specialist.
But after receiving subpoenas, at least two of the agents got letters from ATF Associate Chief Counsel Barry S. Orlow warning them to keep certain areas off-limits, including those still under investigation. Neither of the targeted agents was identified.
Mr. Issa said at least one witness wanted to back out of testifying to his committee after receiving the letter, but the chairman declined that request. Instead he fired a letter back to William J. Hoover, deputy director of ATF, saying the “timing and content of this letter strongly suggest that ATF is obstructing and interfering with the congressional investigation.”
ATF, in a statement, said letters sent to agents subpoenaed to testify before Congress are “essentially the same as the standard document provided to ATF witnesses subpoenaed to testify in court.” It said the witnesses are “encouraged to answer fully and candidly all questions concerning matters within his personal knowledge,” but provide “guidance” about revealing statutorily prohibited information.
Mr. Orlow did not return messages left on his office and cell phones. The Fast and Furious operation was halted in January after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was killed in a Dec. 15 shootout with Mexican bandits 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border near Rio Rico, Ariz. Authorities said two AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene were traced back to Fast and Furious “straw buyers.”
Mr. Issa said the ATF operation showed a “callous disregard for what those weapons can and have done to Mexican citizens and even to one, perhaps two U.S. citizens and probably more before it is over.” His comment referred to new information that another weapon found at the scene of the ambush killing Feb. 15 of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata also was traced back to a straw buyer.
President Obama and Mr. Holder have both disavowed the program, and Mr. Holder said it was running without their approval.
Told of Mr. Issa’s concerns, Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler referred questions about the attorney general’s knowledge back to remarks in March when he said he referred concerns raised by ATF agents to the department’s Office of Inspector General, who is conducting an investigation.
When ATF field agents first began to question the Fast and Furious program, they received an email from their supervisor, David J. Voth, who wrote, “We all need to get along and realize that we have a mission to accomplish.” In a March 12, 2010, email, Mr. Voth said he was “thrilled and proud” his group was involved and assured the agents that “people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention.
“It may sound cheesy, but we are the tip of the ATF spear when it comes to Southwest border firearms trafficking. I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors or other adolescent behavior,” he wrote. “If you don’t think this is fun, you’re in the wrong line of work — period.
“This is the pinnacle of domestic U.S. law enforcement techniques. After this, the toolbox is empty,” he said. “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.”
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
Sharyl Attkisson: ATF Manager says he shared Fast and Furious Info with White House
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.
Is that whitehouse stooge that obtuse, or just trying to down play it? But then again it could also be he was leaning towards other operations, like the one in Florida, and another one that was in Texas. These guys knew exactly what was going on, they got busted and are in crisis mode. This way worse than Watergate X 1000.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
ATF’s Phoenix SAC emailed Gunwalker info to National Security Council
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.
Newell was asked about his relationship with Kevin O’Reilly, Director of North American Affairs of the National Security Council, and this was followed up shortly thereafter with his being questioned why he began one email correspondence with the words “You didn’t get these from me.” [UPDATE: A copy of this email is presented here.] Newell, who was chastised by multiple Committee members for being evasive, answered that he and O’Reilly were long-time friends, but he would admit no wrong-doing in why he wanted O’Reilly to keep his name secret as a source for disclosure about an investigation that allowed guns to “walk” to cartel criminals in Mexico.
The question becomes: Why is Newell’s communication with O’Reilly significant?
Rephrased: Why are ATF field office management communications about Fast and Furious with NSC’s North American Affairs Director significant?
"[Congressional investigators are] gradually building a case for a much wider, national conspiracy. By the end of this process, they'll be able to prove that orders came from the very top," Mike Vanderboegh of the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog told WorldNetDaily in a story filed yesterday.
Vanderboegh also gave his blog readers insights yesterday into why the Newell/O’Reilly nexus provides circumstantial evidence of highest-level cognizance:
QUOTE
The President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of State are considered to be statutory attendees of NSC meetings, but they are also regularly joined by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Advisor, and other executive officials. The NSC conducts its meetings in the White House Situation Room, and the National Security Advisor’s presence in the West Wing provides the President with direct access to research, briefings, and intelligence related to all aspects of national security. During times of crisis, the National Security Advisor is also responsible for operating out of the Situation Room in order to provide the President and other members of the NSC with regular updates pertaining to the situation at hand.
What’s evident from today’s exchange is Issa’s committee has some degree of access to past Newell/O’Reilly email correspondence. How much is one question. Where following up on what they have will lead—and how high up—is another, and the most important one of all.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
Thanks for all the updates on this. I appreciate you making all of the information available.
signed,
One of the Gullible
-------------- Actually my wife is especially happy when my google check arrives each month. Thanks to douchbags like you, I get paid just for getting you worked up. -Liberal
Thanks for all the updates on this. I appreciate you making all of the information available.
signed,
One of the Gullible
Not a problem and you're welcome.
And you are not gullible.
I wish more media outlets would pick this scandal up. Seeing how our govt has broken many laws that you or I would be sitting in prison if we pulled a stunt like this. I can say the local paper and the local news here, has run a few stories on it with comment from the area FFL's.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
