Two and a half years after one of his administration’s Fast and Furious guns killed border patrol agent, Brian Terry, and even as the guns continue to kill Mexican citizens, Obama used his trip to Mexico as a pretext to push for gun control, blaming our lax gun laws for gun violence in Mexico.
“Most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States,” President Obama said during a speech at Mexico’s Anthropology Museum. “I think many of you know that in America, our Constitution guarantees our individual right to bear arms. And as president, I swore an oath to uphold that right, and I always will.”
“But at the same time, as I’ve said in the United States, I will continue to do everything in my power to pass common-sense reforms that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. That can save lives here in Mexico and back home in the United States. It’s the right thing to do,” Obama added.
Are we all supposed to have forgotten about his crooked administration’s Fast and Furious gun running scheme, already? Really?
Well, I haven’t forgotten, and if this president is going to be brazen enough to go to Mexico and blame the US for their gun violence, I’m happy to remind people.
Sharyl Attkisson of CBS reported in December on one of the latest Fast and Furious gun seizures.
Another weapon from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency’s controversial Operation Fast and Furious was recently recovered at a Mexican crime scene, CBS News has learned. Congressional investigators say the crime scene was likely where a recent shootout took place between reported Sinaloa drug cartel members and the Mexican military, in which Sinaloa beauty queen Maria Susana Flores Gamez and four others were killed.
According to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the Justice Department did not notify Congress of the Fast and Furious firearm recovery in November, even though Grassley has requested an accounting of weapons that surface from the case. During Fast and Furious, ATF allowed more than 2,000 weapons, including giant .50-caliber guns, to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels and other criminals. Other so-called “gunwalking” operations by ATF let hundreds more guns hit the street. Most of them have never been recovered.
The latest known recovery is a Romanian AK-47-type WASR-10 rifle. It was picked up at a crime scene Nov. 23 in Ciudad Guamuchil, Sinaloa, Mexico. That’s the same area and weekend of the shootout involving Flores Gamez’s death. A trace report shows the rifle was purchased by Uriel Patino, the Fast and Furious suspect who allegedly bought more than 700 weapons while under ATF’s watch.
Here’s a common sense reform that I think could go a long way toward keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people.
Sharyl Attkisson of CBS, reports that “heads are beginning to roll” two years after the fast and furious scandal came to light. I would argue that heads aren’t rolling until we see these guys in orange jumpsuits….hundreds of people are dead because of this…
William McMahon, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) official who was in charge of field operations during the controversial operation, has been fired, according to his attorney Mark Zaid who told CBS News “we will be appealing the decision.”
Other ATF managers reportedly face similar fates, and announcements could be made soon, though neither they nor their attorneys would confirm it. They are: Mark Chait, who was ATF’s assistant director for field operations; Bill Newell, who was ATF’s Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix; and George Gillett, Newell’s second in command. Chait’s attorney David Laufman stated in an email: “Mr. Chait has not been advised of any adverse finding or recommendation by the Professional Review Board at ATF, and any such action would be utterly without merit.”
Another key Fast and Furious figure who’s leaving the Justice Department today is Attorney General Eric Holder’s chief of staff Gary Grindler. Grindler was faulted by the Justice Department’s Inspector General for not informing Holder about the “significant and troubling” link between ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious, and rifles found at the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry on December 15, 2010.
In announcing his departure this week, Holder made no mention of Fast and Furious, and said Grindler “has demonstrated time and again his good judgment and an ability to make the tough – and correct – decisions.” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who led the House investigation into Fast and Furious, said Grindler’s “departure from the Justice Department is warranted and long overdue.”
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, which neither the Justice Department nor ATF would confirm, two other Phoenix-based agents have been recommended for disciplinary action: David Voth, who led the team that conducted Fast and Furious; and the lead agent on the case Hope MacAllister. According to the Wall Street Journal, they would receive demotions, reprimands and/or transfers.
The managers recommended for termination, according to people familiar with the matter, are Mark Chait, former assistant director for field operations; William McMahon, who oversaw field operations in the Western U.S.; William Newell, former chief of the ATF’s Phoenix office; and George Gillett, the No. 2 official in the ATF’s Phoenix office.
In addition to dismissal, the officials’ security clearances would be revoked if the recommendations are accepted, according to the people familiar with the matter, a move that could hurt their future job prospects.
David Laufman, attorney for Mr. Chait, said “any adverse finding or recommendation by the PRB would be utterly without merit.”
Mr. Newell’s attorney, Paul Pelletier, declined to comment. Peter Noone, Mr. Gillett’s attorney, also declined to comment, saying he hadn’t received official notification.
Mr. McMahon has been the subject of criticism from lawmakers because he took a leave from his ATF post to take a global security management job for a bank, pending his planned retirement later this month. ATF officials took the additional step of dismissing Mr. McMahon last week, according to officials familiar with the matter, though that move is subject to appeal.
“Mr. McMahon was unfortunately the victim of a politically charged football match over an operation that was officially sanctioned,“ said Mr. McMahon’s lawyer, Mark S. Zaid. “As a result, he was terminated less than a month shy of achieving his 25-year pension. He’ll absolutely be appealing that decision.”
The two other ATF employees subject to disciplinary proceedings are David Voth, an ATF Phoenix supervisor who rejected complaints from agents about the operation, and Hope McAllister, a lead agent in the operation. Mr. Voth would be demoted to a street agent and Ms. McAllister would be subject to a reprimand and a disciplinary transfer to another ATF post.
Mr. Voth’s attorney declined to comment. Ms. McAllister didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. An ATF spokesman declined to comment.
Yes, it’s probably best for these attorneys not to comment…
Mr Voth, sometimes referred to as “the Omelet Man”, made this infamous statement to Agent John Dodson when he complained that letting guns walk was going to get people killed.
“If you’re going to make an omelet, you’ve got to scramble some eggs.”
He may or may not lose his job over this.
FYI, it should be noted that the DOJ’s initial reaction to the scandal was to promote key supervisors Voth, Newell, and McMahon and bring them to Washington DC:
The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of a controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico.
All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and two at the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.
***
The three supervisors have been given new management positions at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. They are William G. McMahon, who was the ATF’s deputy director of operations in the West, where the illegal trafficking program was focused, and William D. Newell and David Voth, both field supervisors who oversaw the program out of the agency’s Phoenix office.
Bill Newell was the one who sent Fast and Furious information to then-Director of North American Affairs for the National Security Council Kevin O’Reilly with the caution “You didn’t get these from me,” that O’Reilly was removed from the country to a State Department assignment in Iraq, and that, even with his return, the White House Counsel will not allow him to testify to the Oversight Committee, and he has refused to cooperate with the Office of inspector General.
Why does Kevin O’Reilly get to skate in all of this?
Holder’s Chief of Staff, Gary Grindler, a key player in the Fast and Furious cover-up, is leaving the department this week, reports Legal Times:
Grindler, who joined the department’s Criminal Division as a deputy assistant attorney general under the leadership of Lanny Breuer in April 2009, served as the second-in-command at DOJ in 2010 after the departure of David Ogden.
Holder named Grindler—a former white-collar defense and government investigations partner at King & Spalding—chief of staff in January 2011. (Grindler, who had worked under Holder during the Clinton administration, replaced Kevin Ohlson.)
Holder said in a statement today that Grindler “has distinguished himself as an exceptional public servant, a trusted advisor, and a principled leader.”
“He has demonstrated time and again his good judgment and an ability to make the tough—and correct—decisions,” Holder said in the statement. “I cannot imagine the Department without Gary, though I wish him all the best as he considers opportunities in the private sector—and I know that his extraordinary contributions will continue to guide our efforts.”
The timing of Grindler’s decision to leave the department comes between administrations, when it’s not uncommon to see changes in federal agency leadership posts.
Rep Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee says Grindler’s departure is “long overdue”:
“Gary Grindler was appropriately faulted by his Department’s own Inspector General for keeping information about a connection between the murder of a Border Patrol Agent and a mishandled department operation away from the Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security. His departure from the Justice Department is warranted and long overdue,” Issa said in a statement. “Other figures in Operation Fast and Furious are currently being evaluated for their conduct in the reckless effort that needlessly placed lives in danger. I expect more departures and discipline to come.”
A report on Fast and Furious from the Justice Department’s inspector general recommended disciplinary action against Grindler and 13 other officials. A report from Issa’s committee took direct aim at Grindler, accusing him of “pass[ing] the buck to underlings” and failing to take charge of the department.
Margaret Richardson, currently Grindler’s deputy, will take over his position.
But as David Codrea of the Gun Rights Examiner points out, Issa is “parroting the unknowable” when he asserts that Grindler kept information away from Holder.
How the IG has been able to determine that with certainty, and why Issa accepts it with full faith are unknown. At most, all anyone can say with assurance is they haven’t been able to prove if Grindler communicated with Holder about a program under the attorney general’s authority, where enforcers and prosecutors were up to their necks in a sanctioned operation that has produced lethal collateral consequences .
Grindler, as Gun Rights Examiner and Sipsey Street Irregulars reported in November of last year, had generated notes “including about quantities of guns bought by straw purchasers and dollars spent.” He had detailed knowledge of a program that could present grave repercussions for his boss and the administration, and everyone is supposed to conclude he just kept all that to himself based on what?
Issa’s own release, in quoting the Joint Staff Report, prepared for himself and Sen. Chuck Grassley, gives good cause to not leap to such circumstantially unsupported conclusions.
“Gary Grindler [indicated that he could ‘not recall’ or did ‘not know’] 29 times during his interview with investigators,” the release quotes from the report.
The serial stonewalling on the part of the Justice Dept resulted in a contempt of Congress citation for withholding subpoenaed documents. Moreover, the White House aided and abetted the cover-up by claiming executive privilege, so how anyone can know with any certainty what Grindler may or may not have shared with Holder is anyone’s guess at this point.
So, to sum up, according to the IG report and House investigators, Grindler kept information about Fast and Furious away from the Attorney General, passed the buck to underlings, failed to take charge of the department, and could not recall or did not know the answers to 29 of the House investigators’ questions.
He’s leaving with full retirement benefits, I presume.
Because he is what Holder considers “an exceptional public servant, a trusted advisor, and a principled leader.”
Ugh. After indication last week that the scandal plagued Attorney General might step down because he was “running out of gas”, comes news viaThe NY Postthat Obama is holding on to Eric Holder as the nation’s top law-enforcement official:
The newly re-elected president asked his controversial attorney general to stay for the second term, and Holder has agreed despite enduring a firestorm of criticism from Republican lawmakers.
“I don’t know if everyone in the White House wants him [Holder] to stay, but the important guy does, and that’s all that matters,” said one person briefed on the matter.
Holder’s office declined to comment.
I mentioned, last week, that contrary to what you may hear from the regime’s media toadies, Holder has not been completely “cleared” and “exonerated” of wrongdoing in Fast and Furious.
In the wake of the IG report, Andrew Cohen, a liberal legal analyst and Atlantic columnist said it best, “avoiding perjury or obstruction of justice, or being ignorant of your department’s biggest scandal, is no cause for relief. … There’s no dispute that he should have known.”
It doesn’t exactly instill confidence that his entire defense was “I’m a completely incompetent boob.” Yet that is the defense that supposedly “cleared” him of wrongdoing in Fast and Furious, the bloody gun running fiasco that has already caused hundreds of murders in Mexico and along the US border and will continue to do so for many years to come. And that is looking at it in the most charitable light.
Awesome. Four more years of that guy as our top law enforcement official..
Thisisn’t especially earth shattering, given that Attorney Generals rarely stay beyond one term, and Obama is likely to have someone equally corrupt on tap to replace him.
Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday he has not decided whether to stay on as the chief U.S. law enforcement officer in President Barack Obama’s second term.
Holder, speaking to law students at the University of Baltimore, said he still must speak with Obama and with his own family and ask himself, “Do I have some gas left in the tank?”
“That’s something that I’m in the process now of trying to determine,” he said.
Reuters made sure to note that “Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives said a congressional inquiry into Fast and Furious was political, and the Justice Department’s inspector general cleared Holder of any wrongdoing.”
See, the whole Fast and Furious thing was a racist Republican witch hunt, and Holder was totally cleared of any wrongdoing, there. And if you doubt me, google IG report clears Eric Holder of any wrongdoingand see how many hundreds of pages come up attesting to that. Holder is as clean as the wind driven snow, just so you know. No doubt that’s what the history books will say, too.
The Justice Department’s Public Affairs director, Tracy Schmaler, has said the inspector general’s report “cleared,” “exonerated,” and “vindicated” Holder, claims that a variety of media outlets and pundits have repeated uncritically. But Cohen, a left-leaning journalist, plainly was not convinced.
“Even viewing the documents and investigation in a light most favorable to the current head of the Justice Department, even discounting the conspiracy theories offered by the Administration’s most ardent critics, the Inspector General’s report tells us that Holder ultimately failed to do what he absolutely had to do at Justice when he succeeded caretaker Attorney General Michael Mukasey in early 2009,” Cohen wrote.
As one of the administration’s most ardent critics, I don’t discount the “conspiracy theories,” myself. There are no other theories out there to explain why the administration thought it was a good idea to walk thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican bandits to kill people with.
Cohen added that, while the inspector general concluded that Holder was not personally aware of Fast and Furious until February 2011, “avoiding perjury or obstruction of justice, or being ignorant of your department’s biggest scandal, is no cause for relief. … There’s no dispute that he should have known.”
Cohen also criticized Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and the consistent failure of administration of officials to communicate.
“The [inspector general's] report confirms that Breuer knew about the program in 2010 and yet failed to tell his boss about it,” Cohen wrote. “Never mind what Breuer then said to Congress; this initial failure to report the critical information up the line is inexcusable and unacceptable. And so is Holder’s failure this week even to mention, in his remarks responding to the OIG report, what Breuer belatedly conceded was his ‘mistake.’ Breuer should have resigned long ago. And, since he didn’t, this week Holder should have fired him. Trust me, the Department can live without Lanny Breuer.”
Republicans are calling for more heads to roll in the wake of a lengthy inspector general report on the botched “Fast and Furious” operation that culminated in the immediate resignations of two top officials.
Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s (DOJ) criminal division, is at the top of the GOP’s list of officials they are pressing to step down or be fired.
“Lanny Breuer has failed to lead the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in a manner worthy of that title,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), a former federal prosecutor, in a statement to The Hill.
“He failed to connect ‘dots’ on gun walking that a summer law clerk intern could have seen. By either errors of omission or commission, two demonstrably false letters were sent from the DOJ to committees of congress. Out of respect for the department and what the concept of Justice means, he needs to resign.”
***
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has also called on Breuer to be removed. As the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley initiated Congress’ inquiries into “Fast and Furious” early last year. After calling for Breuer’s resignation 10 months ago, Grassley is maintaining that he should step aside in the wake of the IG’s report, his office told The Hill.“I’m not somebody who flippantly calls for resignations,” said Grassley, on the Senate floor in December. “I’ve done oversight for many years, and in all that time I don’t ever remember coming across a government official who so blatantly placed sparing agencies embarrassment over protecting the lives of citizens.“He has failed to do his job of insuring that the government operate [properly], including holding people accountable. Because of that Mr. Breuer needs to go immediately.”
Not that any of this matters. Like I said, even if they stepped down, they’d be replaced with equally, corrupt left-wing ideologues, although it would be a tall order to find anyone even more corrupt than those two…
Think about it. As bad as the last four years have been, the next four years will be even worse because the criminals in this administration will no longer be restrained by politics.
“Early this morning Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Brian Terry Station were involved in a shooting near Naco, Ariz. Preliminary reports indicate one agent has died from his injuries and another sustained non-life threatening wounds. The injured agent has been airlifted to the hospital. Names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. More updates will follow as appropriate. The incident investigation is being led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.”
The Brian Terry Station is of course named after the agent whose murder abruptly ended the Obama regime’s reckless and deadly Operation Fast and Furious because Fast and Furious weapons were found at the scene.
Time will tell if the guns from this crime will be linked back to Fast and Furious.
“According to investigations, ‘El Diego’ forms the link between this massacre and Fast and Furious,” an anchor read on air in Spanish Sunday evening, referring to two different mass killings drug cartel operatives used Fast and Furious weapons to conduct as Univision reported.
“When he [El Diego] was captured in Chihuahua in the summer of 2011, he was found with weapons that the American government had allowed to enter Mexico,” the anchor added. [...]
Mexican authorities have alleged El Diego is responsible for the murders of at least 1,500 people in Juarez and Chihuaha City, Mexico, according to the El Paso Times.
UPDATE:
Via Twitchy, we find Univision taking the lead on this story by asking the obvious question American News Agencies dare not ask:
That’s what Univision journalist Mariana Atencio is wondering. She also suggested the political implications could be “catastrophic” for President Obama.
Border patrol agent killed in Brian Terry's section. Could it be w Fast & Furious guns? Catastrophic for Obama one day before debate
Rep. Darrell Issa , R-Calif., released a statement calling an investigation into the shooting and cautioned about drawing conclusions before “relevant facts are known.”
“This shooting is a tragic reminder of the dangers the brave men and women who guard our borders face every day,” Issa’s statement read.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called the fallen agent a fallen hero.
FOX 10 News reported that the Mexican bandits suspected in the killing were under investigation by the feds as part of Operation Fast and Furious. Video here.
I would love to be a fly on the wall of the Obama White House as increasingly, mainstream media outlets (other than “Faux” News) cover stories that are (let us say) *unhelpful* to his reelection. There are almost certainly behind closed doors screaming fits, and lamps flying while President Creature Comforts and Commander of Me-Time kicks back in Las Vegas.
President Barack Obama arrived in Nevada last night to begin three days of debate preparation at the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort, a luxurious golf community just a few miles from the Las Vegas strip.
Cool as a cucumber, I’m sure, and kept away from unpleasantness like this:
While the Obama regime was using bogus talking points about an out of control mob upset over an internet video, CNN’s sources weren’t corroborating any of it. Where was the regime getting its “information”? Did they really think they would get away with such an outrageous coverup so close to an election?
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced tonight that they will be holding a hearing on the Benghazi attack and cover-up.
A letter will be sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. The hearing will focus on the previous attacks in Benghazi leading up to the consulate attack on 9-11.
Mark your calendars, the hearing is set for October 10.
Almost entirely missing from the debate surrounding the anti-U.S. attacks in Libya is the administration’s policy of arming jihadists to overthrow Mideast governments. But in the case of Libya, the arming of jihadists may have directly resulted in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the subsequent murder of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, private security employees and former U.S. Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
After changing its story multiple times, the White House finally conceded the deadly assault on the U.S. consulate was a planned attack linked to al-Qaida, as per information released by national intelligence agencies.
The admission prompted Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., to call for the resignation of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice for pushing the narrative that the attacks were part of a spontaneous uprising.
King may instead want to focus his investigative energies on the larger story: How the Obama administration armed Libyan rebels who were known to include al-Qaida and other anti-Western jihadists, and how the White House is currently continuing that same policy in Syria.
During the revolution against Muammar Gadhafi’s regime, the U.S. admitted to directly arming the rebel groups.
At the time, rebel leader Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi boasted in an interview that a significant number of the Libyan rebels were al-Qaida gunmen, many of whom had fought U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
White House sources confirm that in the run up to the decision to involve U.S. military personnel, President Obama was fully briefed that a large portion of the Libyan rebel forces most active in areas around such critical cities as Benghazi had ties to al Qaeda, particularly Al Qaeda in Iraq, the wing of the terrorist group that killed hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq.
“He was warned that should we reach a point where NATO needs to re-arm the rebels — it appears that time is coming now — we will be arming the very enemy that we have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan,” says a career employee at the State Department. “Secretary Clinton knows it, the White House knows it, but we’re working with these thugs anyway because the President thinks it’s the moral thing to do in the face of Gaddafi.”
Someone should ask President Eye Candy if it still feels like “the moral thing to do” in the aftermath of the Benghazi attack.
In the mean time, Mexico’s government has put Holder’s death toll at over 200 dead, not to mention U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed by Mexican drug smugglers armed by Holder’s Justice Department.
What had happened was Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, or “El Diego,” the onetime leader of the Juarez Cartel’s La Linea, sent his team to the birthday party to kill what he thought were members of the rival Sinaloa Cartel.
La Linea is the “enforcement arm” of the Juarez Cartel. According to the El Paso Times, El Diego told Mexican authorities after his capture that La Linea’s mission was, among other things, to “eliminate the members of the Sinaloa cartel in Ciudad Juárez.”
“Regarding the party in Villas de Salvarcar, I was informed that there were some who belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel,” El Diego said in police interrogation videos. “I send the boys, and when they are there, they tell me that they have already located them, and so the order to start working is given.”
When El Diego gave the order, Univision said “seven vans blocked the streets so that nearly 20 hitmen from the Juarez Cartel could unleash the bloodshed with R15 rifles and 9mm pistols.”
“What no one in Mexico ever knew was that some of the weapons used in this massacre were part of a secret gun tracing operation ran by the ATF, according to this exclusive document obtained by Univision News,” Univision reported.
That document was a Mexican Army document that stated, according to Univision: “[t]hree of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).” That operation was Fast and Furious.
An onlooker who went solely by “Gloria” told Univision, “It looked like a war. A war where one only side was shooting.”
Luz Davila and her husband then “rushed down the street,” Univision said, to find out what happened. “Everything went dark,” Davila said. “I could only say that it wasn’t possible.”
“I went inside the house and the first thing I see is the older one, he was face down,” Luz Davila said. “And right ahead was the younger one. He was still alive.”
Both ended up dying. Univision said one of Luz’s sons died on scene and the other died 14 hours later at the hospital.
I’ll stop there – the next line is kinda hard to take…
Not the sort of story the regime wants coming out a month before election day, right?
…Obama appeared on a Univision program Thursday night and faced tough questions over Fast and Furious, which reportedly led to many deaths in Mexico, and not just the killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. He defended the refusal to give Congress relevant documents by describing them as “internal communications that were not related to the actual Fast and Furious operation.”
As Horowitz’s comments make clear, this is dishonest spin. On Fast and Furious, the president has zero credibility.
Graham and other Republicans were livid after the Obama administration issued the guidance on Friday telling contractors that their legal costs would be covered due to canceled contracts under sequestration, but only if they did not issue layoff notices before sequestration occurs — and before the November election.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure not one taxpayer dollar is spent reimbursing companies for failure to comply with WARN Act,” Graham told The Hill in a phone interview Monday. “That is so beyond the pale — I think it’s patently illegal.”
Gee, ya think, Senator?
So there are several major scandals bubbling up as the Preezy of the United Skeezy prepares for his big debate, which apparently everyone (including he himself) expects him to lose.
“Early this morning Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Brian Terry Station were involved in a shooting near Naco, Ariz. Preliminary reports indicate one agent has died from his injuries and another sustained non-life threatening wounds. The injured agent has been airlifted to the hospital. Names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. More updates will follow as appropriate. The incident investigation is being led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.”
WASHINGTON — Investigators looking into lavish spending for a pair of Veterans Affairs training conferences in 2011 found evidence that department employees improperly accepted gifts, wasted hundreds of thousands on unneeded expenses and exhibited “serious management weaknesses” in handling taxpayer dollars.
The investigation report released Monday by the VA Inspector General’s office also says that the department’s top human resources official, Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration John Sepulveda, “failed to provide proper guidance and oversight to his senior executives” and lied to investigators about details of the conference.
Sepulveda resigned on Sunday, a VA spokesman confirmed. He had served in that position since May 2009, as the department’s top advisor on administrative and employee management issues.
VA officials released a statement saying “misuse of taxpayer dollars is completely unacceptable” and calling the actions cited in the report “serious lapses in oversight, judgment, and stewardship.”
With political and GWOT stories dominating the news cycle, this week, the newly released IG report on Fast and Furious, and ensuing political fallout has been somewhat neglected.
In case you missed it, Oversight and Reform Chairman Darrell Issa went on Fox and Friends, Thursday morning, to discuss the IG report and the continued need to hold Lanny Breuer and Eric Holder accountable for the cover-up at the Justice Dept.
Issa was also asked about the recent Daily Caller reportabout collusion between MMFA and the DOJ.
Matthew Boyle of the Daily Callerhas that transcript:
“Not since Richard Nixon have we seen a president who puts together an enemies list and has a whole team pursuing it,” House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa said Thursday morning on the Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.” “That’s what’s happened in this administration. It’s sad. It’s not the America I want to see going forward. I sincerely hope that after the election, regardless, the American people will have made a statement that they won’t tolerate this.”
Issa said he expects Congress will look into whether or not political advocacy organizations like Media Matters should enjoy tax-exempt statuses normally reserved for apolitical charities, too.
“Congress should address that tax loophole for entities that are really not charities,” Issa said, adding that Media Matters “is certainly one of them.”
Issa also said he’d like to see DOJ Office of Public Affairs Director Tracy Schmaler terminated for working with Media Matters.
Yes, please – time to look into tax exempt MMFA – what are you waiting for Congress?
Bret Baier on Fox’s Special Report also interviewed Issa, yesterday.
Issa stated, “Just because you’re not convicted doesn’t mean you’re vindicated,” adding “Eric Holder didn’t do his job, didn’t care enough to even call the family. And today, today finally, one of the people who should have been gone a year and a half ago, resigned, but only after the IG pointed specifically to him, but he also pointed to others and areas in which there’s still more work to be done, including the unsealing of 14 wiretaps – things that the Atty General has fought us on, the documents from post Feb 4th were the reason that the Atty Gen was held in contempt, and the IG said these need to made public.”
It’s been a key subject of dispute throughout the “Fast and Furious” saga but one shrouded in mystery: whether wiretap applications reviewed and approved by senior Justice Department officials should have tipped them off about the dangerous tactics being used in the operation.
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who obtained the wiretap applications surreptitiously from a whistleblower, said yes.
Attorney General Eric Holder and Congressional Democrats who reviewed them adamantly said no.
But because the documents were under court seal, the public was only afforded a glimpse of what was in them when Issa inserted a letter that characterized and quoted from them in the Congressional Record.
Now Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, is broadly siding with Issa, saying in testimony before the Oversight panel today that the wiretap applications should have raised red flags to senior officials who approved them.
Asked by several Republican lawmakers at the hearing whether reading the wiretap applications would have indicated that guns were being “walked,” the tactic employed in Fast and Furious, Horowitz said “yes.”
Committee Hearing on IG Report: The DOJ Office of Inspector General Examines the Failures of Operation Fast & Furious:
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing entitled, “IG Report: The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General Examines the Failures of Operation Fast and Furious” on Thursday, September 20, 2012.
Rep Gowdy (at 1:01:20) made note at the beginning of his questioning that the DOJ was not vindicated despite what some of the headlines were saying.
Brian Terry is the best-known victim of “Fast and Furious,” the Obama administration’s “de facto conventional-weapons proliferation program,” as Delroy Murdock aptly called it.
Between November 2009 and January 2011, Team Obama arranged for licensed firearms dealers to sell guns to straw buyers, who transferred them to known violent criminals in Mexico. Among these firearms, two AK-47s were found near Rio Rico, Ariz., where suspected smugglers fatally shot Terry, a 40-year-old former Marine, on Dec. 15, 2010.
While Terry epitomizes those whom Fast and Furious has harmed, he is not its sole casualty.
In another Obama administration “gun-walking” escapade, in February 2011 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, members of Los Zetas drug gang ambushed two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Jaime Zapata, 32, was fatally shot and Victor Avila was wounded.
Largely overlooked is this plan’s calamitous impact on Mexico, its people and U.S.-Mexican relations.
“Our federal government knowingly, willfully, purposefully gave the drug cartels nearly 2,000 weapons — mainly AK-47s — and allowed them to walk,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told NBC News recently. These arms were supposed to lead federal agents in Phoenix to the Mexican thugs who acquired them. Instead, Fast and Furious guns melted into Mexico.
Approximately 300 Mexicans have been killed or wounded by Fast and Furious guns, estimates former Mexican attorney general Victor Humberto Benitez Trevino.
Today, via Gateway Pundit, Mexican authorities announced that they have detained a man accused of fatally shooting Brian Terry back in 2010.
Mexican police detained a man accused of fatally shooting a U.S. Border Patrol agent almost two years ago in Arizona in a botched U.S. operation to track guns smuggled across the border, the government said Friday.
Federal police detained Jesus Leonel Sanchez Meza on Thursday in Sonora state, which borders Arizona, where agent Brian Terry was shot dead in December 2010, the Public Security Ministry said. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office plans to extradite Sanchez Meza to the United States, the ministry said in a statement.
Two guns found at the scene were traced to a botched U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) sting operation called “Fast and Furious” that allowed weapons to slip across the border. It was not clear, however, if those weapons fired the fatal shots.
Four others have been accused in the shooting, the ministry said. Officials did not say if they were also being detained.
Reuters managed to resist resorting to hackery in order to run interference for the regime, but ABC sure didn’t, as Andy from AoSHQ bitterly notes:
In Operation Fast and Furious and at least three earlier probes during the administration of President George W. Bush, agents in Arizona employed a risky tactic called gun-walking …
Guess whose names they don’t mention in the entire article.
Also, conflating these various operations is complete bullshit. If you’re going to call OF&F “botched”, you need to be able to explain how it was supposed to work.
In one of the operations not run by Barack Obama and Eric Holder, we used GPS trackers in the guns and suspended it when the trackers didn’t work. And in all of the operations not run by Barack Obama and Eric Holder, Mexican officials were working with us so we actually had an effin’ plan to track the guns on the other side of the border that didn’t involve recovering them from crime scenes.
….After they had murdered people! We get so sick of having to point that out.
Last July, the DOJ unsealed the indictments against five men for the murder of Brian Terry. A week later, Town Hall’s Katie Pavlich, having read the incident report, discovered that four men had been detained by the ATF on the night of Terry’s murder, one was gunshot, and has remained in custody – three were let go.
Guns from Operation Fast and Furious were left at the scene. Four of the men indicted are on the run and believed to be in Mexico. Those men are Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, Ivan Soto-Barraza, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes and Lionel Portillo-Meza. Manuel Osario Arellanes was shot on the night Terry was killed and has remained in custody since. His brother, Rito Osorio-Arellanes is also in custody and has been charged not for Terry’s murder, but for other related crimes.
BORTAC shooting incident report 11 TCANGL 121570000077, obtained by Townhall, indicates authorities had four suspects in custody at the time of Terry’s murder and let them go. Multiple updates in the report show “four men in custody,” one of the men in custody being wounded, with another at large but “spotted.” Five men in total. It has been confirmed multiple times that there were five bandits in Peck Canyon, Ariz. the night Terry was killed.
No, the names don’t match up exactly. Not sure what the deal there is.
With Sanchez’s arrest, three suspects in Terry’s death still remain at large.
RELATED:
Something positive that came out of this whole mess, via KVOA News Tucson:
On Thursday, the Terry family and Jim Click launched the First Annual Brian Terry Foundation Benefit Dinner. It is set for Monday, September 17 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa in Tucson. The proceeds will help the Brian Terry Foundation continue it’s work. The website raises funds to help families of fallen U.S. Border Patrol Agents, establish educations scholarships and it raises awareness for border security issues.
To kick things off Thursday, the Jim Click Automotive Team presented the foundation with a $25,000 check.
There’s concern in some corners of the internet, that when Mitt Romney is elected, he’s going to let the Fast and Furious investigation die.
Townhall’s Katie Pavlich caught up with Darrell Issa at the RNC, last week, and asked him about that.
Many have speculated that if Mitt Romney beats Barack Obama in November, the entire scandal will disappear, but that just isn’t the case. As long as Issa is Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the Fast and Furious headache for DOJ and ATF officials responsible, isn’t going away. Criminal charges are very much on the table as a consequence of Fast and Furious, no matter who is sitting in the White House.
As reassuring as that sounds, it didn’t bode well that Fast and Furious, aka “Murdergate”, aka Obama’s “Watergate with a Bodycount” was MIA at the RNC, last week.
How can it be that the Obama administration’s gun walking program that led to hundreds of bloody murders, including federal agents Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, was not deemed important enough to make it into the program?
This week, an open letter from gun rights bloggers, Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea, was sent to Mitt Romney asking the presidential candidate to make good on his words of support for the Congressional investigation into the ATF’s deadly Fast and Furious gunwalking scheme, and for him to condemn the Obama administration for invoking executive privilege.The two also asked Romney to commit to revoking the executive privilege claim and “instruct full cooperation from the Department of Justice in assisting with, instead of obstructing the investigation”. You can read the full text of the letter, here.
If Romney won’t even do so simple a thing as pledge to revoke executive privilege protecting documents covering up an official lie, what else can we expect him not to do? There are many who feel even that does not go far enough—some are demanding Romney expand the pledge to include appointing a special prosecutor, and more. When you consider the GOP’s unfulfilled promised to make Fast and Furious a campaign theme—something they studiously avoided in last week’s convention, is it really too much to expect a man and a party who covet roles of leadership to show some on what’s been aptly described as “Watergate with toe tags”?
But just focusing on this one small piece of what a president is empowered to do, there are plenty of reasons why not making this an expectation would make stirring words we’ve been told appear hollow.
“Attorney General Eric Holder’s continued refusal to turn over ‘Fast and Furious’ documents to House investigators — even in the face of being held in contempt by Congress — is another symptom of the disease of lawlessness that has been rotting our republic ever since President Barack Obama took office,” NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action executive director Chris Cox wrote in an impassioned appeal, concluding “This is our country and it’s time to take it back.
“after a long heart&soul conversation with MittRomney today I concluded this goodman will properly represent we the people & I endorsed him,” Nugent tweeted to announce his support.
“The only thing fast and furious that ought to happen is a full-on murder investigation by the FBI of the government goons who hatched, authorized and now are covering up this brain-dead, criminal scheme, which ended up costing the life of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry,” he advocated in a more formal write-up.
Is it too much to expect that politically influential people who represent themselves as gun rights leaders use that influence to persuade Mitt Romney to do the right thing and show some leadership himself on this? It’s only small fry desperate to get an important story out who need to resort to incessantly banging pots and pans for media attention, political attention and “gun lobby” attention. Nugent and Cox would get the right people’s attention immediately.
If they won’t call for Romney to do this, if they truly believe it’s too much to expect, we’d be interested in hearing why, and how that comports with their rousing words about the need for Fast and Furious justice.
In a lengthy press release posted on its website, the Romney campaign laid out a series of examples of Obama’s transparency “hypocrisy.”
“President Obama has run one of the least transparent administrations in American history,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement accompanying the release. “Whether hiding lobbyists in coffee shops, cutting back-room deals on Obamacare, or concealing the records of ‘Fast and Furious,’ President Obama’s pledge to be transparent has turned out to be just another broken promise. With no rationale for reelection and no plan to help middle-class Americans, President Obama has resorted to running a campaign of distraction, distortion and dishonesty.”
The Romney campaign leads off its list of transparency failures with Fast and Furious. It points out how then-Senator Obama attacked President George W. Bush for using executive privilege in 2007, and how Obama is now asserting executive privilege to withhold Fast and Furious documents from Congress.
It’s a good start. If he meant every word of that, he should have no problem committing to a promise to revoke the executive privilege claim.
Hmmm! Gotta say I like the timing of this - Mike Vanderboegh of SSI is calling it a “September Surprise”.
Rep Issa, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee sent the letteron Friday to the Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz, summoning him to Capitol Hill to testify before a hearing on Sept. 11.
“Under normal circumstances, the Department has two weeks to complete this review, which would make its response due by September 4, 2012. It would be regrettable if senior Department officials applied political pressure on you to delay publication of this report. Given the considerable public interest in this case and the Attorney General’s own purported interest in learning the recommendations set forth in your report in order to make important management changes, it is incumbent upon you to release this report as soon as practicable.”
“We have been told through our sources for some time to be ready for a ‘September Surprise,’” Vanderboegh told his readers yesterday of this latest development. “The idea was to get the OIG report on the record and then, if it was a whitewash, to blow it out of the water with additional documents and witnesses already in the hands of the Issa committee.”
That makes Issa’s warning against delay all the more understandable, and further validates claims made over the weekend to this columnist by a past-proven source that there are “a lot of closed doors” at ATF Headquarters, as Acting Director B. Todd Jones, Deputy Director Thomas E. Brandon, the Chief Counsel’s office and relevant staffers are “poring” over a report said to be over 400 pages long.
It also renews hope that Issa and the Committee will be taking heed of unsolicited public counsel from this correspondent and Vanderboegh to demand the evidentiary work papers used as the basis for report findings, characterized by an adviser in government practices as “hot stuff, that’s for sure.”
The move comes after the House in June voted to hold Holder in contempt over the department’s response to inquiries into Operation Fast and Furious.
The civil court case was expected, as congressional Republicans anticipated they would have to take their case to a judge to try and compel the Obama administration to turn over documents pertaining to the failed anti-gunrunning program. Shortly before the House voted for contempt, President Obama locked down key documents by claiming executive privilege.
That decision is expected to be challenged in the court case.
The lawsuit will be reviewed by a judge who will assess whether Holder has an obligation to comply with a 22-part Congressional subpoena that was issue in October 2011. The judge will also review whether President Obama’s assertion of executive privilige surrounding Fast and Furious documents was warranted.
“The idea that you would withhold based on some executive privilege the documents related to a cover up of a crime is absurd, but that’s the claim that the attorney general is hiding behind,” Issa said.
“We’re seeking a remedy and the remedy is an order to compel,” Issa said. “Nixon didn’t respond to Congress, he responded to federal judges, ultimately the Supreme Court, ordering that he had no such privilege to cover up the tapes. And these are no different than the Nixon tapes, we’re asking for documents related to a cover up of lying to Congress.”
Fox reports predictable wagon-circling behavior from Democrats:
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking Democrat on the oversight committee, released a brief statement Monday chastising his GOP colleagues over the suit.
“It seems clear that House Republican leaders do not want to resolve the contempt issue and prefer to generate unnecessary conflict with the administration as the election nears,” Cummings said. “Unfortunately, the American public suffers as House Republicans disregard the real work that needs to be done.”
Operation Fast and Furious put thousands of guns into the hands of drug cartels in Mexico. Hundreds of Mexicans, U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata are dead, and Holder’s contemptible stonewalling has prevented Congress from conducting a complete inquiry.
But in liberal fantasy land — where the Left always retreats when faced with the truth – Eric Holder is the unimpeachable attorney general with a heart of gold. His refusal to cooperate is a non-issue and Rep. Issa, a stalwart fighter for justice and accountability, is the real problem.
NRA Videos’ Ginny Simone interviewed AZ Rep Paul Gosar about the lawsuit, last week:
And Cam Edwards had an interesting discussion with Rep Blake Farenthold (R-TX), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, about the lawsuit.
Fast and Furious, the fatally flawed operation that allowed 2,500 guns to walk across the border into the hands of Mexican drug cartel killers, began in fall 2009 and was only halted after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. Approximately 300 Mexicans were killed or wounded by Operation Fast and Furious guns, which have been found in the vicinity of at least 200 crime scenes.
In a final report likely to be released later this week, Republican congressional investigators have concluded that five senior ATF officials are responsible for the failed operation that they say was “marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently reckless strategy.” The five managers are highlighted in bold type, in the paragraphs below.
Richard Serrano at The LA Timeshas the exclusive report:
The five ATF managers, since moved to other positions, have either defended Fast and Furious in congressional testimony or refused to discuss it. They could not be reached for comment Monday. At the Justice Department, senior officials, including Holder, have steadfastly maintained that Fast and Furious was confined to the Arizona border region and that Washington was never aware of the flawed tactics.
They found that William Newell, the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, exhibited “repeatedly risky” management and “consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques.” The report said “he had been reprimanded … before for crossing the line, but under a new administration and a new attorney general he reverted back to the use of risky gunwalking tactics.”
His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon, “rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them,” the report alleged. “In McMahon’s view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field.”
They added that McMahon gave “false testimony” to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.
His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, “played a surprisingly passive role during the operation,” the report said. “He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required.”
Above Chait was Deputy Director William Hoover, who the report said ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: “Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized.”
And they said Melson, a longtime career Justice official, “often stayed above the fray” instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an “end sooner.”
But, the investigators said, ATF agents said that they were hamstrung by federal prosecutors in Arizona from obtaining criminal charges for illegal gun sales, and that Melson “even offered to travel to Phoenix to write the indictments himself. Still, he never ordered it be shut down.”
This is just the first of three final reports that investigators say will deal with “the devastating failure of supervision and leadership” at the DOJ and an “unprecedented obstruction of the investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself.”
Shameless and brazen Democrats have demonstrated that they are willing to circle the wagons for this most corrupt of Attorney Generals so it looks highly unlikely, at this point, that he will step down, or be forced to step down before the election.
After all, Holder has a very important role to play, this year, IYKWIMAITYD.
Not one to let a crisis go to waste, the President touched on the sensitive issue of guns in Aurora, Co, Wednesday when he called for a “consensus around violence reduction” in the country.
“I – like most Americans – believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms,” Obama said. “I think we recognize the traditions of gun ownership passed on from generation to generation, that hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage.
Duh…..(election year boilerplate)
But this is….interesting:
“But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers and not in the hands of crooks. They belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities,” he added.
Actually, I think most gun owners are scratching their heads, wondering which soldiers in the US military are using AK-47s.
…the U.S. military does not generally use the AK-47, a weapon originally developed in the Soviet Union that was subsequently adopted by many other communist states.
The AK-47 also became the weapon of choice for guerilla armies and terrorist groups.
Today, AK-47s are typically to be found among enemy forces that U.S. troops encounter on the battlefield. Osama bin Laden was often filmed or photographed near his AK-47 rifle–and was killed by U.S. Navy Seals when he reached for it.
Did Obama mean the terrorist “soldiers” shooting at American soldiers? That’s where they “belong”?
Though President Obama has cultivated an image of a strong and decisive commander-in-chief–partly through apparent White House leaks of military secrets–he has frequently demonstrated an elementary lack of familiarity with the basic facts about the forces he leads. At the National Prayer Breakfast in 2010, for example, he referred to U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsmen as “corpse-men,” mispronouncing the word.
Whether the error of an errant speechwriter, or the choice of the president himself, the use of the AK-47 metaphor in Obama’s speech reveals a lack of knowledge about the U.S. military–and a possible lingering romanticism about the guerilla forces often lionized by the radicals among whom Obama began his political career.
It gave the graduate student a $26,000 stipend and paid his tuition for the highly competitive neuroscience program at the University of Colorado in Denver. Holmes was one of six neuroscience students at the school to get the grant money.
Meanwhile, via John Ransom of Townhall,we find that the Law of Unintended consequences is in full effect, despite the left’s best efforts:
While the Left looks for more reasons to restrict our right to self defense every time an infamous shooting occurs, the standard reaction of the general population in Colorado is to stock up on guns and ammo in self defense.
It’s a reaction that’s uniquely American, where every man’s a captain. But it’s also a reaction that has a long history in the West, a history we should be proud of.
And when I say the West I really mean everywhere in America. Because at one time or another in our history everywhere from the tidewater on the east coast to the tidewater on the west coast was the West, as civilization pushed further and further westerly. And so, I believe, everywhere remains the West- at least metaphorically.
As the establishment press (hat tip to Dan Mitchell) acts shocked! yes, shocked! that people are buying guns in record numbers in the Denver area as a reaction to last week’s shooting rampage in an Aurora, Colorado theater that killed or injured 70 people who were attending a screening of the newest Batman movie, I’m feeling, um, American about the sales.
RELATED:
Speaking of AK-47s and gun control…
It should never be forgotten that the Obama administration funneled thousands of weapons – mostly AK-47s to criminal drug gangs in Mexico, resulting in hundreds of dead Mexicans and one – possibly two murdered American agents, Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata. Mexicans and Americans will be staring down the barrels of these guns for many years into the future…
In total, over 2,000 weapons—mostly AK-47s, which are civilian versions of military assault rifles—were allowed to “walk” into Mexico as part of Operation Fast and Furious.[20] Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales told the Los Angeles Times that she first learned about Operation Fast and Furious from news accounts. “In no way would we have allowed it,” she said, “because it is an attack on the safety of Mexicans.”[21] Former Mexican Attorney General Victor Humberto Benítez Treviño estimates that approximately 300 Mexicans were killed or wounded by Operation Fast and Furious guns, which have been found in the vicinity of at least 200 crime scenes.[22]
Even ATF’s Acting Attaché in Mexico, Carlos Canino, was kept in the dark about this operation. Testifying in July 2011 before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Canino noted that “U.S. law enforcement and our Mexican partners will be recovering these guns for a long time to come as they continue to turn up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States.” Canino also stated that he was infuriated “that people—including my law enforcement, diplomatic and military colleagues—may be killed or injured with these weapons” and noted that the “Sinaloa cartel may have received almost as many guns [as] are needed to arm the entire [U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger] regiment.”[23]
As of July 2011, 227 Operation Fast and Furious guns had been recovered in Mexico and 363 in America; the rest remain unaccounted for.[24] Remarkably, it also seems that two of the targets of Operation Fast and Furious are probably unindictable, having been paid informants of, and designated as national security assets by, the FBI—information that should have been shared within the task force overseeing the investigation.[25]
In January 2012, Patrick Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division in the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office and the individual who was allegedly tasked with investigating ATF whistleblower allegations, resigned and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.[26] Several senior DOJ officials who attended Operation Fast and Furious briefings now claim that they cannot recall key details about what they knew and, in some instances, what they did.[27]
He was brought in to reform the embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the wake of the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal.
The following videotaped message, obtained by the Washington Guardian,was distributed to ATF employees this month warning there would be “consequences” for reporting wrongdoing outside their chain of command.
“Choices and consequences means simply that if you make poor choices, that if you don’t abide by the rules, that if you don’t respect the chain of command, if you don’t find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences,” Acting Director B. Todd Jones told the employees in a video distributed July 9 by email and closed-circuit TV and obtained by the Washington Guardian.
The 3 minute, 22 second videotape was the last of eight “Changecasts” that Jones distributed to ATF employees in recent weeks to describe how he planned to run the agency, improve morale and instill a new culture in the aftermath of one of the agency’s worst scandals.
ATF officials in Washington and rank-and-file agents told the Washington Guardian that the tape was interpreted by many as a warning not to pursue the path of the Arizona agents who went outside the agency in 2011 and reported concerns to Congress about the bungled Fast and Furious gun probe that let semiautomatic weapons flow to Mexican drug gangs.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, whose investigative work uncovered the Fast and Furious investigation, on Wednesday called the video message outrageous and a threat to lawmakers’ ability to interview whistleblowers.
“It ought to be a wake-up signal for everybody in Congress who wants to do their job of constitutional oversight,” Grassley told Sinclair Broadcast, which reported the story with the Washington Guardian. “You can’t put up with agency heads like this having this attitude.”
“It is outrageous that a leader of a major organization of any department, particularly law enforcement, would have the temerity to make those sort of comments.”
Whistleblower advocates said the effect of the message was to discourage ATF employees from coming forward.
Here is an open letter to the DC Bar Association from a fed up agent who is choosing to ignore “Jones’ order not to air ATF’s dirty laundry” as posted at Clean up ATF:
To the D.C. Bar Association:
US Atty General Eric Holder needs to be held accountable according to the ABA’s Model Rules because rules are rules for everyone. According to the ABA rules (that have been adopted by the D.C. bar), he should be disbarred. Holder was held in contempt, the ABA rules demand he be sanctioned. The aggravating factors listed in the ABA’s Rules demand that the sanction be severe. Where is the public media in researching and publicizing this information?
What has Holder done since he supposedly learned of F&F? He appointed his close personal friend, US Atty for Minnesota, B. Todd Jones to be the acting Director of ATF. He is allowing Jones and ATF to retaliate against the whistleblowers of ATF that broke this news story by coming forward to Sen Grassley and Congressman Issa.
Holder is allowing those who oversaw the operation to remain as high paid federal government managers yet not be punished in accordance with ATF policies that require them to be on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigations by ATF IA and DOJ OIG. Holder refuses to appoint an outsider such as Louis Freeh, a Democrat, to conduct an complete and full external investigation of F& F. Holder is the head of the snake apparently in the F&F chaos that has cost lives on both sides of the border, as well as violated international firearms trafficking laws.
Holder needs to be recognized for his continuing involvement to coverup this scandal, for punishing those who are truthful, and for defending those who are deceptive and culpable such as Lanny Breuer and Weich, Melson, Rubenstein, Chaite, Newell, McMahon, Hoover, and Voth. Holder is truly where the buck should stop in this deadly, unlawful international criminal act (Janet Reno understood this). Holder’s behavior would lead people to believe the White House is involved, but this is actually highly unlikely. Perhaps the one guy who was sent to Iraq had some knowledge from his personal friend Newell, but probably not the facts and dangers and problems of the actual operation. However, Holder’s actions clearly demonstrate he was involved, he had knowledge, he was ok with Breur and Weich providing the go ahead approving nod to the poorly planned operation by Voth and Newell. Holder tries to divert this to Wide Receiver, yet that was a totally separate type of operation that was ended because it proved impossible. Voth’s plan did not use any technical or intense surveillance efforts to keep track of the firearms. This plan was ill conceived and Holder approved it indirectly, then directly when he failed to read his emails and failed to inquire further when the initial leaks of this grossly mismanaged operation was leaked. Eric Holder did not care enough to worry himself over dead Border Patrol and ICE agents, much less hundreds of Mexican citizens. They were collateral damage, expendable. Voth’s broken eggs for the Holder omelet.
The ABA needs to be pressured to enact their own rules by suspending Holder’s law license because he has been held in contempt. Their rules are for everyone with a law license, so they must be applied to everyone equally. Disbar AG Holder now!
U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. says of the vote to hold him in contempt of Congress, “you have to be exceedingly naive to think that vote was about … documents.”
Prove it, sir. Put your documents where your mouth is. Because if the Justice Department and the White House truly believe a Democratic government should be accountable to those it governs, then releasing all documents in the botched “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation is necessary.
While there is little doubt there is plenty of embarrassment to go around in the decision by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to allow 2,000 guns to walk away, believing real life is like a Hollywood movie and law enforcement would be able to track each of them to powerful Mexican drug cartels, there is no doubt the operation went horribly wrong.
Two of the guns were found near the body of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Yet Holder says it’s all about him, and he has “become a symbol of what they don’t like about the positions this Justice Department has taken; I am also a proxy for the president in an election year.”
