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| Post Number: 81
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Grinning_Dragon 
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Posted on: Jul. 29 2011,7:33 am |
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Fast & Furious Hearing Sending Shockwaves towards White House & Eric Holder
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducted another hearing this week on Fast and Furious -- the operation spearheaded by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) which knowingly put thousands of guns into criminals’ hands.
Tuesday’s hearing exposed the anti-gun animus of several people within the Obama Administration, and their answers continued to beg the question: Was Operation Fast and Furious all about drumming up more support for gun control?
Gun Owners of America met with three persons from the House committee prior to the hearing. The meeting was “off the record,” so we can’t report on the details. Only to say, GOA brought up a hard-and-fast link between the White House and “Fast and Furious” -- and encouraged committee members to pursue a line of questioning that would publicly expose this connection.
We were pleased to see that Representatives did just that. Here’s what Tuesday’s hearing revealed for the record:
1. The White House WAS BEING BRIEFED by Fast and Furious manager Bill Newell. In fact, a “smoking gun” email establishing the clandestine link between ATF Agent Newell and the White House begins with Newell saying: “You didn’t get this from me ….”
2. ATF agents DID KNOW that “Fast and Furious” guns were going to Mexico. During much of the hearing, ATF Agent Newell denied this, but intense questioning by Pennsylvania Republican Patrick Meehan revealed Newell’s lie. The fact is, Newell and others DID KNOW that Mexican cartel bosses were expecting to get illegal firearms funneled into Mexico.
3. ATF agents have been deceptive when they claimed that Operation Fast and Furious was going to provide information for Mexican authorities to prosecute drug kingpins south of the border. Cross-examination revealed that Mexican authorities already knew who the drug kingpins are and that ATF did not share any information with Mexico that would help them bring down these cartels.
4. Under oath, ATF agents admitted that Fast and Furious was a TOTAL break with their normal standards and procedures. Normal police work would mean arresting straw buyers and “flipping them” -- in other words, turning them against their superiors and bringing down the higher-ups in the smuggling ring.
But Fast and Furious involved a complete break with this strategy, in that gun smugglers were allowed to “go free” -- even to the point where the guns were smuggled south of the border and permanently “out of sight” of ATF agents (or Mexican authorities, for that matter). Indeed, one straw buyer bought some 720 guns for his bagman.
So the question is: Why would an anti-gun administration knowingly let guns get into the “wrong hands”? They claim the purpose was to help take down drug cartels in Mexico.
But given the fact that ATF was not sharing information with Mexico … and that they were TOTALLY breaking with standard law-enforcement procedures … and that they knew that “Fast and Furious” guns were winding up at crime scenes in Mexico … another more likely explanation is raising its ugly head.
The better explanation is that anti-gun officials in the Administration were trying to bring disrepute upon our Second Amendment freedoms and that this would lead to calls for more gun control.
Remember Rahm Emanuel’s famous line: “Don’t let a crisis go to waste?”
Well, it seems that the Obama Administration was doing whatever it could to create a crisis that would supposedly show that most of the Mexican crime guns were originating in U.S. gun stores.
The Washington Times picked up on this obvious motive earlier this month:
The White House often claimed that 90 percent of the weapons used in Mexican crimes had been traced to the United States, but the number has never been substantiated. By all appearances, Fast and Furious delivered statistics to back up the figure. (“Too fast, Too Furious,” July 13, 2011.)
Apparently, the ATF was not the only organization involved in Fast and Furious. Tuesday’s hearing confirmed that the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were all involved.
In other words, Fast and Furious was a giant operation being run out of the Justice Department. And that means that all roads are starting to point to Attorney General Eric Holder.
As stated by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa:
How is it that the Number Two, Three, Four at Justice all knew about this Program but the Number One [Attorney General Eric Holder] didn’t? Is it because he said “don’t tell me”? Is it because they knew what they were doing was wrong and they were protecting their boss? Or is it just that Eric Holder was so disconnected ….
Either Holder is lying about the fact he didn’t know early on about Fast and Furious or he is inept. Either way, Eric Holder needs to step down.
We asked you earlier this month to urge your Senators to call for Holder’s forced retirement. It’s now time to communicate this to the House.
ACTION: Ask your Representative to call for Eric Holder’s resignation. And don’t forget to circulate this alert to your pro-gun family and friends.
source http://gunowners.org/a07282011.htm
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*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.
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| Post Number: 82
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Grinning_Dragon
rideo draconigena
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Posted on: Jul. 29 2011,7:39 am |
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7-26-11 "Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border"
The entire hearing is available on video in three segments, accessible here Continue reading on Examiner.com The Fast & Furious e-mail; White House denies connection - Seattle gun rights | Examiner.com http
Tuesday’s hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will examine the effects of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) program dubbed “Operation Fast and Furious.” Specifically, we will review the impact of this program on our neighbor to the south, on our agents working in, and on the people of Mexico.
The Committee’s task today is serious, and the Administration’s effort to impede this investigation slows our work to make public the truth of an acknowledged—and failed—operation. The Acting Director of the ATF, in a transcribed interview with investigators, has said that the Justice Department is trying to push all of this away from its political appointees. That is not the response this Committee, Congress and the public, should expect from the ‘most transparent Administration in history.’
In this hearing, lawmakers will hear firsthand from field agents who have worked in Mexico for years and who were systematically kept in the dark by officials in Phoenix and at headquarters about the real nature and scope of “Operation Fast and Furious.” The Committee will also hear testimony from ATF supervisors who chose to allow weapons to flow from illegal sales in the United States directly into the hands of Mexican drug cartels—without interception or interdiction.
To date, President Obama has been keen to talk about who didn’t know about the program and who didn’t authorize it. These answers will not suffice. The American people have a right to know—once and for all—who did authorize it and who knew about it.
Working with our counterpart in this investigation, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Committee will remain focused on these basic questions and pursue the trail of truth to the highest levels of government. We owe the men and women in law enforcement nothing less because it is their lives on the line.
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*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.
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| Post Number: 83
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Grinning_Dragon
rideo draconigena
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Posted on: Jul. 30 2011,9:10 am |
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Gunwalker: One Step Closer to the Oval Office
This week's revelations placed knowledge of the operation within the White House for the first time.
The cover-up is always worse than the crime: considering the Gunwalker scandal, it’s hard to know if that is true — for the moment. America is now a bit closer to that answer, and is also closer to an answer for the question at the heart of all Washington scandals: what did the president know, and when did he know it?
July 20: The Examiner reported that the State Department, through a little-known program called “U.S. Direct Commercial Sales,” supplied considerable small arms to the Zeta cartel. In fact, a Zeta leader has said that all of their weapons were purchased in the U.S. Evidence indicates that weapons not obtained through the State Department were obtained through straw purchasers in the Gunwalker investigation.
The Zetas apparently purchased land in Columbus, New Mexico, which was used as a transshipment point for taking weapons directly across the border. Another method reportedly saw weapons flown out of Alliance Airport north of Ft. Worth, an air operations center of the Drug Enforcement Agency.
July 25: Fox News reported that two of the 20 people indicted in Operation Fast And Furious for making straw purchases of firearms which were primarily shipped to Mexican drug cartels were cleared by the FBI to make those purchases. Federal officials refuse to explain how this occurred.
Those who have been following the case will recall that when it began to blow up in public, 20 people — all bottom-level straw purchasers — were arrested, and claims were made that no guns were allowed to walk across the border (claims that have been exposed as false). The FBI runs the instant check system (NICS) that must be used to allow anyone to purchase a firearm, yet two convicted felons — apparently in the system as felons — were allowed to buy more than 360 weapons. The FBI has had no comment, however an ATF source told Fox that whenever the NICS flagged a felon trying to buy guns, the ATF in Phoenix was called. Obviously, the ATF and FBI allowed the purchases to go through.
July 26: The Examiner reported that in the fall of 2009, ATF agents in Mexico noticed an unusual number of American guns coming into Mexico, and were surprised to learn that many were traced back to the Phoenix ATF office. Over the year that followed, ATF agents in Mexico complained, and were told only that things were “under control” and that the investigation would end soon — but it did not end until the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in January 2011.
The agents sent their concerns to Phoenix, and up the chain of command to ATF headquarters and to the Department of Justice. This caused ATF agent Darren Gil to get into a screaming match with ATF International Affairs Chief Dan Kumor.
DOJ Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny Breuer, on a visit to Mexico, praised the operation, to the horror of the agents in Mexico. The ATF withheld information from their own agents because they did not want the Mexican government to know what was going on.
July 27: The Los Angeles Times reported that shortly after the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, ATF officials in Arizona and D.C. made several arrests of straw purchasers. Also, William Newell — ATF head in Arizona — sent several e-mails to his D.C. superiors, one of which admitted that guns were “walked” across the border. He defended the operation, saying: “I don’t like the perception that we allowed guns to walk.”
After Terry’s murder, top ATF officials claimed that none of the guns found at the scene of Terry’s killing were used to kill him. FBI forensics reports, which came to light last week, prove that the ATF claim was at best misleading. Ballistics testing could not conclusively indicate which weapon was actually used to shoot Terry, but the weapons found were walked across the border during Operation Fast and Furious. The ATF continues to claim that their misleading statement is accurate because they saw a distinction between guns found at the scene and guns “used” in the murder.
July 27: Hot Air reported that before Rep. Darrell Issa’s committee on July 26, William Newell testified that in September 2010 he discussed the Gunwalker case with White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O’Reilly. In relation to that communication, Newell sent O’Reilly an e-mail in which he wrote: “You didn’t get this from me.” Newell explained that O’Reilly was a long-time friend, and he shouldn’t have informed him.
The revelations of this week not only support or confirm much of what was already known, but add new, more disturbing dimensions to the scandal. It has long been known that heads of the FBI and DEA were informed about the program, as well as officials in the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and the State Department. However, the State Department’s role in selling significant quantities of military surplus and military grade weapons and other equipment to the Zeta cartel, possibly through a thinly veiled front company, was not previously known.
The FBI certainly had to have known that the ATF was misrepresenting their forensic findings in the Terry murder, but did nothing to correct that misrepresentation to Congress or to the public, and had no comment regarding this revelation.
The most significant revelation of the week is that someone in the White House was made aware of the operation. Did the president or his chosen officials not only allow but encourage the illegal purchase and smuggling of arms into Mexico, a foolish and cynical attempt to further gun-control policies unobtainable through the legislative process? We now know that knowledge of the program was within a few steps of Obama.
Meanwhile, the MSM continues to avoid perhaps the most important, most deadly scandal in modern American history.
Source http://pajamasmedia.com/blog...-office
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*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.
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| Post Number: 84
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Grinning_Dragon
rideo draconigena
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Posted on: Jul. 30 2011,9:40 am |
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Gun trafficking as compared to William Newell's definition of 'gunwalking'
In discussing "Project Gunwalker," this column tries to observe the perhaps small (but nevertheless important) distinction between directly trafficking guns, and "walking" them. That's why readers will find instance after instance of reference being made here to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (BATFE's) "facilitating the trafficking" of guns. Basically, the accusation being made here is not that the BATFE directly trafficked the guns. Instead, they strongly pressured gun dealers into proceeding with sales those dealers would otherwise never have touched, because of the obviously nefarious intent on the part of the purchasers.
In Tuesday's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing regarding the BATFE's "Operation Fast and Furious," former BATFE Phoenix field division Special Agent in Charge William Newell repeatedly made the startling statement that he believed no guns were "walked" during the operation. The reason, of course, that this statement was startling is that we already know that more than 2,000 guns were "walked," with perhaps 1,700 or more still unaccounted for.
Even Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), although a frequent BATFE apologist and enthusiastic supporter of "gun control," seemed more than a little taken aback by Newell's denial, and eventually thought to ask for Newell's definition of "gun walking." The Daily Caller has the quote for us:
QUOTE “My definition of walking, and I believe it’s a common law enforcement term, is when a law enforcement agency, whether it be DEA or a state or local agency, actually puts some sort of evidence into the hands of a suspect in an undercover operation or an investigation and, for instance, with the ATF it could be one of our prop guns, and then don’t follow up where that is going,” Newell said, adding that he believed his definition of “walking” guns did not happen in Operation Fast and Furious.
Newell's definition of "gunwalking," in other words, would have required the BATFE to have personally armed the cartels themselves, rather than "merely" pressuring gun dealers (and even paying them as informants?) to sell guns to known straw purchasers (and felons?), known to be working for the drug syndicates. Newell seems to have turned the distinction on its head, and gotten the difference exactly backwards.
Now compare Newell's definition of "gunwalking" with Representative Carolyn Maloney's (D-NY) new anti-gun trafficking bill (co-sponsored by Rep. Cummings, and every other Democrat on the Oversight and Reform Committee), H.R. 2554, the "Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act of 2011," announced with great fanfare as these representatives' response to "Project Gunwalker." And it was a response--a response intended to distract from the growing scandal (further, very not-for-the-children,discussion here).
QUOTE ‘(a) In General- It shall be unlawful for any person, regardless of whether anything of value is exchanged, to receive, or to transfer or otherwise dispose of to 1 or more individuals, 2 or more firearms that have been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such conduct will result in the disposing of 1 or more such firearms to an individual--
‘(1) whose possession or receipt of the firearm would be unlawful; or
‘(2) who intends to or will use, carry, possess, or dispose of the firearm unlawfully.
‘(b) Organizer- It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly direct, promote, or facilitate conduct that violates subsection (a).
‘© Conspiracy- It shall be unlawful for any person to conspire to violate subsection (a).
H.R. 2554 is pure legislative theater, with no chance of accomplishing anything useful, although it would have been interesting to see how much of the Obama administration could have been swept up in the "Conspiracy" provision. Thus, charging someone with, and convicting him for, gun trafficking requires clearing a vastly lower bar than would need to be cleared to meet Newell's definition of "gunwalking."
Remember when public servants were held to a higher standard of conduct than the public they ostensibly served?
Source http://www.examiner.com/gun-rig...walking
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*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.
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| Post Number: 85
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Grinning_Dragon
rideo draconigena
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Posted on: Jul. 31 2011,7:24 pm |
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Open letter to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne: prosecute the ATF people responsible for Fast and Furious under state law
by Hugh Holub on Jul. 30, 2011, under atf, politics
Tom Horne
Arizona Attorney General
Re: ATF Fast and Furious
Dear Mr. Horne
As you are aware, ATF ran a program called “Fast and Furious” out of their Phoenix office whereby the let assault rifles “walk” into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels and various border bandits.
Two of those ATF “walked” guns, which were sold by a Phoenix area gun shop with the knowledge of ATF, were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
While various investigations are on-going at the federal level, there appear to be important state law issues involved in this situation.
I specifically call your attention to Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 Section 1201 “Endangerment”
13-1201. Endangerment; classification
A. A person commits endangerment by recklessly endangering another person with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical injury.
B. Endangerment involving a substantial risk of imminent death is a class 6 felony. In all other cases, it is a class 1 misdemeanor.
Evidence is mounting that field agents within the Phoenix office of ATF warned their superiors that the “walking” of guns could lead to the deaths of, among others, federal agents.
The warnings of these dedicated and honorable law enforcement officers were ignored by their superiors. The end result was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry died as a result of these “walked” guns.
Arguably senior officials in ATF are chargeable for endangerment under state law.
I would urge you and your staff to look into the record that has been developed so far by the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the sworn testimony by various ATF employees with an eye on what, if any, state criminal laws were violated in the course of the “Fast and Furious” project.
I am suggesting ARS 13-1201 as just one of what may be many examples of violation of state criminal laws by ATF officials.
There is a fundamental issue at stake here.
Sometimes the federal government operates as though it is not subject to any law, even at the federal level. At times it becomes obvious that in the pursuit of their mission, they disregard state law, placing their mission ahead of the public safety and well-being of the people within a state.
Just because they might be federal employees or even federal law enforcement officials, they do not have any kind of immunity for violations of the state criminal code.
I urge you to look closely at the conduct of ATF within Arizona, and investigate whether or not that conduct violated state criminal laws, And if you find the conduct of the ATF senior management did indeed violate state law, please hold those ATF officials accountable to the people of Arizona.
Thank you
Hugh Holub
Attorney at Law
P.O Box 4773
Tubac, Arizona 85646
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*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.
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| Post Number: 86
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Stone-Magnon
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Posted on: Jul. 31 2011,11:37 pm |
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Do you ever get the feeling you're yelling to no one in the middle of the forest?
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...everybody must get stoned
-Bob Dylan
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| Post Number: 87
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Grinning_Dragon
rideo draconigena
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Posted on: Aug. 05 2011,9:53 pm |
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Documents: Feds allegedly allowed Sinaloa cartel to move cocaine into U.S. for information
U.S. federal agents allegedly allowed the Sinaloa drug cartel to traffic several tons of cocaine into the United States in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to court documents filed in a U.S. federal court.
The allegations are part of the defense of Vicente Zambada-Niebla, who was extradited to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges in Chicago. He is also a top lieutenant of drug kingpin Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman and the son of Ismael "Mayo" Zambada-Garcia, believed to be the brains behind the Sinaloa cartel.
The case could prove to be a bombshell on par with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Operation Fast and Furious," except that instead of U.S. guns being allowed to walk across the border, the Sinaloa cartel was allowed to bring drugs into the United States. Zambada-Niebla claims he was permitted to smuggle drugs from 2004 until his arrest in 2009.
Randall Samborn, assistant U.S. attorney and spokesman for the Justice Department in Chicago, declined comment.
The court in Chicago had a status hearing on Wednesday and ordered the government to respond to allegations in Zambada-Niebla's motion by Sept. 11.
According to the court documents, Mexican lawyer Humberto Loya-Castro, another high-level Sinaloa cartel leader, had his 1995 U.S. drug-trafficking case dismissed in 2008 after serving as an informant for 10 years for the U.S. government.
Guzman and the Zambadas allegedly provided agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with information about other Mexican drug traffickers through Loya-Castro.
"Loya himself continued his drug trafficking activities with the knowledge of the United States government without being arrested or prosecuted," the court documents state.
Zambada-Niebla met voluntarily with U.S. federal agents on March 17, 2009, at the Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City, which is near the U.S. Embassy, "for the purpose of his continuing to provide information to the DEA and the U.S. government personally, rather than through Loya," court records allege.
"DEA agents (then) told Loya-Castro to tell Mr. Zambada-Niebla that they wanted to continue the same arrangements with him as they had with Mr. Loya-Castro."
Five hours after the meeting, Mexican authorities arrested Zambada-Niebla and extradited him later to the United States. His father and Guzman are fugitives.
The court documents also allege that the U.S. government is using a "divide and conquer" strategy, "using one drug organization to help against others."
Zambada-Niebla's motion seeks U.S. government records about the 2003 Juárez case involving an informant who participated in several homicides for the Carrillo-Fuentes drug cartel, while under ICE's supervision.
He also requested records about the ATF's "Operation Fast and Furious," which permitted weapons purchased illegally in the United States to be smuggled into Mexico, sometimes by paid U.S. informants and cartel leaders.
"It is estimated that approximately 3,000 people were killed in Mexico as a result of 'Operation Fast and Furious,' including law enforcement officers in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, the headquarters of the Sinaloa cartel," the court documents allege. "The Department of Justice's leadership apparently saw this as an ingenious way of combating drug cartel activities."
source http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18608410?source=most_viewed
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*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.
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| Post Number: 89
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Grinning_Dragon
rideo draconigena
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Posted on: Aug. 05 2011,9:59 pm |
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DEA acknowledges supporting role in Operation Fast and Furious
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged to congressional investigators that her agency provided a supporting role in the ill-fated Operation Fast and Furious run by the group's counterparts at the ATF.
Michele M. Leonhart, the DEA administrator, said DEA agents primarily helped gather evidence in cases in Phoenix and El Paso, and in the program's single indictment last January that netted just 20 defendants for illegal gun-trafficking.
The development marks the first time another law enforcement agency has said it also worked on Fast and Furious cases other than the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is under two investigations into why it allowed at least 2,000 firearms to be illegally purchased and then lost track of the guns’ whereabouts.
Nearly 200 of the weapons showed up at crime scenes in Mexico, and two semi-automatics were recovered after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was slain south of Tucson.
Leonhart made the acknowledgement in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A copy of the letter was obtained Friday by The Times.
Leonhart wrote that her agents in Phoenix and El Paso were "indirectly involved in the ATF operation through DEA-associated activity. "
She added, "the DEA El Paso Division responded to a duty call in March 2010 from ATF for assistance in conducting an ongoing surveillance operation in the El Paso area as part of Operation Fast and Furious."
But she said her agents in Phoenix "had the most notable associated investigative activity, though DEA personnel had no decision-making role in any ATF operations." That included helping obtain phone numbers and addresses, issuing subpoenas for information on the phone subscribers, and paying linguist costs of $128,000 to help translate intercepted calls.
Her agency further helped in the "round up phase of the case with the execution of search warrants, participated in debriefing some of the 20 gun-smuggling defendants who were arrested in the Phoenix area, and attending the Jan. 25 press conference announcing those arrests.
Dawn Dearden, a DEA spokeswoman in Washington, declined to comment further Friday on the DEA’s role in Fast and Furious. "The letter stands on its own," she said. "We’re still in a fact-finding mode, so there’s not much more we can say."
source http://www.latimes.com/news...4.story
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*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.
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| Post Number: 90
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Grinning_Dragon
rideo draconigena
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Posted on: Aug. 05 2011,10:13 pm |
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Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
ATF Officials in Mexico Denied Access to Fast and Furious Details
Over the last several weeks, new details have emerged about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ reckless strategy, named Operation Fast and Furious, to allow guns to fall into the hands of known straw purchasers. The guns often were transported across the border to Mexican drug cartels.
I began asking questions in January and have been joined by Congressman Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. We’re working together to find answers about who signed off in the ATF and Department of Justice on the policy and why they thought it was an appropriate strategy.
In testimony to congressional investigators and in a hearing before the House committee, ATF officials based in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said they were increasingly worried about the alarming rate of guns found in violent crimes in Mexico that were traced to a single ATF operation based out of the ATF’s Phoenix Field Division.
When the ATF officials in Mexico City asked their counterparts in Phoenix and at ATF headquarters for additional information, they were denied access. This silo mentality is incomprehensible, especially after 9-11. There is no reason for officials at the Justice Department, the ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office to keep their counterparts at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City in the dark about Operation Fast and Furious. This secrecy jeopardized our relationship with our southern ally, and put lives at risk.
In a report released before the hearing, Congressman Issa and I outlined several of the findings from the interviews with congressional investigators. This is the second report we’ve released. The first report, which can be found here, outlined the accounts of ATF agents who provided firsthand accounts about Operation Fast and Furious.
The findings from the most recent report include:
· Little to no information was shared by the officials in the Phoenix Field Division, the ATF Headquarters and the Justice Department with their colleagues in Mexico City. Every time U.S. officials in Mexico City 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.
It seems that with every stone we turn over, we uncover more information to track down. We’ll keep working until we get to the bottom of who knew what and when, and then we’ll work on making sure the right people are held accountable.
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*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.
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