ATF Phoenix Manager shared Fast and Furious Info with White House (With Videos)

email graphic via Sipsey Street Irregulars

ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office, Bill Newell was squirming on the hot seat in Tuesday’s Fast and Furious hearing on Capitol Hill. As CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson reports, Newell admitted to corresponding with White House National Security Director, Kevin O’Reilly about the ATF’s gunrunning operations:

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.”

Issa tried to get Newell to admit that he allowed thousands of guns to walk.

One of the whistleblowers,  Special Agent Canino, whom Newell claimed knew about the operation,  testified that “at no time EVER did he know that ATF agents were following known suspected gun traffickers (one of whom bought 700 guns)…..never, ever would I imagine that we would let that happen…..I had no clue that we were allowing these guys to operate like this……there was no interdiction to start any case…” At the end of this video, Newell was asked about his correspondence with White House National Security Director for North America, Kevin O’Reilly, who has been described by Sipsey Street Irregular’s sources as  “a ghost,”  “sheep-dipped,”  “a doctrinaire liberal”,   a “snake in a suit,” and a “sociopath” with the nickname, “The Scorpion,” (as in the story of The Frog and the Scorpion). Sounds like just the sort of charmer who belongs in this White House:

Rep. Chaffetz demanded to know when Newell finally realized he was allowing guns to walk. He couldn’t get a straight answer because Newell claims he didn’t see it that way…

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who has had direct and indirect experience with the ATF for 10 years, focused on why it was conducting the operation in the jacked-up manner it did, “Why do it this way? It was never going to work!”

See Also: David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner: The transcript of Newell questioning related to NSC’s O’Reilly

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, thanks!