In between getting kids off to school, and taking my mother to her doctor’s appointment, this morning, I was able to sit in on a conference call with Chairman Darrell Issa of the Oversight & Government Reform Committee. The subject at hand was the latest developments in the Fast and Furious investigation. Others sitting in on the conference call were reporters and bloggers from CNN, Townhall, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, Gun Rights Examiner, Newsmax, Confederate Yankee, and Sipsey Street Irregulars.
Issa began the conference call by informing us that according to the Attorney General in Mexico, at least 200 murders south of the border have occurred as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. He also referenced a report from over the weekend that indicated Mexico was kept in the dark about the program, and to this day, Mexican officials are not getting briefed by Obama administration officials. Nor have they apologized. Issa said the debacle has ” seriously damaged our relationship with Mexico.”
Issa and Grassley expanded the investigation to the White House nearly two weeks ago when they asked a senior White House official for documents and communications regarding the gun-walking scandal. Thus far, that request has not been filled. The White House has until the end of this week to submit documents requested before Issa takes the next step.
When asked by the Newsmax reporter whether the DOJ has engaging in a cover-up, Issa answered flatly, “yes”.
As for the possible motivations for the debacle (I won’t say “botched operation”), Issa wasn’t prepared to say the ultimate goal was an assault weapons ban, but he did say that “the administration wanted to show that guns in Mexico came from the US.”
Well….
Issa told us that there would be more hearings, and that he would like to wrap up his investigation this Fall, saying they may end up writing legislation that criminalizes this sort of activity in a future administration. I asked what the chances were that Congress would appoint a Special Prosecutor given the obstruction they were seeing, and he noted that his committee would need to finish their investigation first, before that happened.
When asked if the investigation could end in prosecutions, he answered in the affirmative.
Also sitting in on the conference call:
Townhall’s Katie Pavlitch Attorney General in Mexico: 200 Murders Result of Operation Fast and Furious
When asked what the consequences would be for DOJ or ATF officials involved in the operation, Issa said prosecutions may come at the end of this scandal to those who knowingly trafficked weapons across the border and could be held accountable for the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Sipsey Street Irregulars: The Era of Big Media is Over. Just finished a conference call by Darrell Issa with bloggers on the state of the Gunwalker investigation.
I asked: about FBI complicity in Gunwalker. “Given that we now know about FBI paid informants further up the cartel chain and a third gun that ‘disappeared’ from the Terry murder scene indicating the FBI is covering up the true circumstances of his death, when will we see Robert Mueller and his apparently-complicit minions under oath?” Issa indicated that he thought the third weapon disappeared because “people were panicking.” He added later, “The smoking gun is the gun that killed Brian Terry.”
Asked about Janet Napolitano’s knowledge of Gunwalker, Issa cracked that in Janet’s DHS, “Freedom of information is an oxymoron.” He indicated that they would continue to ask questions to get as far up the chain as possible.
Asked about the overall purpose of Gunwalker, he demurred on agreeing outright with the “conspiracy against the Second Amendment” theory which sources say was the entire point of the larger exercise, but said:
“The administration wanted to show that guns found in Mexico came from the United States.”
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner: Issa calls Fast & Furious ‘dumb, useless and lethal’:
Congressman Darrell Issa, speaking this morning in a conference call with on-line reporters, called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Operation Fast and Furious “dumb, useless and lethal.”
Issa said that in addition to the slaying of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, he has been advised by Mexican authorities that there have been some 200 different incidents involving guns linked to the Fast and Furious operation, launched in autumn 2009 by the Obama administration.
See also:
John Hayward, Human Events: Fast and Furious: Time to Come Clean - The media plays along with a massive cover-up.
You can see why the Mexican government might be growing a bit crabby about getting shoved into voice mail when they call Washington to ask about a covert U.S. government program that put heavy weapons into the hands of terrorists who want to topple them. A less polite government might use terms like “act of war.”
I’m sure the Mexicans will have their answers, once the full-court media press squeezes some answers about this astonishing scandal out of the Administration. I’m sure that pressure will be coming soon from a media that went berserk and provided wall-to-wall coverage of far less serious matters, like Iran-Contra and Watergate. Instead of cooking up new trillion-dollar tax schemes, President Obama should spend his time answering tough questions about this, and many other, scandals.
Bob Owens, Confederate Yankee: Should Obama Administration Officials Face Death Penalty?
Barack Obama’s inept Presidency is coming under fire from all corners now, with his top problems now being scandals involving apparent corruption involving a massive loan to Solyndra that involves apparent political payoffs, and a similar bit of corruption that may have threatened national security when the White House attempted to rig the testimony of a general for their campaign donors at LightSquared.
The worst affront, however is Operation Fast and Furious and other suspected gun-walking operations that could not have functioned as a law enforcement endeavor and which only makes sense as an attempt to implement the radical Cloward-Piven strategy and destroy capitalism in America.
Taken in the aggregate with so many of the economic, regulatory, and political moves we’ve seen since January 20, 2009, it is hard to conclude that the goal of the Obama administration is anything but the intentional destruction of our government.
If this can be proven, should Obama Administration officials face extensive prison time, or do such crimes against the nation warrant the use of the rarely-used implementation of the federal death penalty?
David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner: ‘Elite’ media treatment of Gunwalker is scandalou
The Hill: Issa to launch probe of Obama actions on Solyndra, LightSquared:
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that his committee plans to investigate government loan programs to private corporations in light of allegations of improper dealings between the White House and failed energy company Solyndra and wireless start-up LightSquared.
“I want to see when the president and his cronies are picking winners and losers… it wasn’t because there were large contributions given to them,” the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Tuesday morning on C-SPAN.
Issa said the committee was looking at whether it was improper for members of Congress or White House staff to select companies eligible for subsidized government loans when those companies could give campaign donations
Issa calls Fast & Furious ‘dumb, useless and lethal’
When the transcript from the phone call is available, I’ll post it under the fold.
Linked by Doug Ross in Larwyn’s Links, thanks!
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