BATFE's Project Gunwalker

[Tim Nunan]

http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?op ... statements

Chairman Issa Chastises ATF for Refusal to Comply with Subpoena
"If you do not comply with the subpoena, the Committee will be forced to commence contempt proceedings."


WASHINGTON. D.C. – Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today, in a letter to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson, criticized the Director for failing to produce any documents in response to a subpoena issued March 31. The subpoena was issued after ATF and Department of Justice officials failed to cooperate in good faith with the Committee's investigation.

"The Department's internal policy to withhold documents from what it labels pending criminal investigations may not deprive Congress from obtaining those same documents if they are pertinent to a congressional investigation – particularly in a matter involving allegations that reckless and inappropriate decisions by top Justice Department officials may have contributed to the deaths of both U.S. and Mexican citizens," Chairman Issa wrote in citing Supreme Court precedents and previous Congressional investigations. "Let me be clear ... we are not conducting a concurrent investigation with the Department of Justice, but rather an independent investigation of the Department of Justice – specifically, of allegations that the reckless and inappropriate decisions of Department officials have created a serious public safety hazard. We are asking for documents that relate to decisions such officials made. Congress is legally entitled to all of these documents."

Issa noted that the Committee's request for documents has been pending since March 16, 2011 and a request from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley has been pending since January. While the Department of Justice has not produced any documents, Issa's letter to Melson included several documents obtained elsewhere by the Committee indicating the Justice Department knew the public danger the operation created. The role of top Justice Department officials in approving the operation remains top concern for investigators.

"Efforts by the Department of Justice and ATF to stonewall the Committee in its investigation by erroneously, but matter-of-factly, citing an internal department policy as a preventative measure for denying access to documents have only enhanced suspicions that such officials have played a role in reckless decisions that have put lives at risk. The Committee continues to pursue this matter vigorously, in part, because concerned individuals have indicated they do not have confidence in the Department's ability to review the actions of its own top officials."
Issa noted that the Justice Department's claimed concerns about sharing particular documents are undermined by their unwillingness to take steps to engage the committee in a serious conversation.

"Even if a legal basis did exist for withholding documents, the first step in evaluating this argument and the basis for a meaningful conversation between the Committee and the Department of Justice would be the production of a log of documents responsive to the subpoena with a specific explanation as to why you cannot produce each document," Issa wrote in criticizing the Department's disingenuous reasons for failing to cooperate. "The Department has failed to provide any such log."

Media reports have raised questions about the handling of operations involving gun trafficking into Mexico – specifically the allegation that ATF has had a policy of permitting – and even encouraging – the movement of guns into Mexico by straw purchasers. This practice may have contributed to the deaths of hundreds on both sides of the border, including federal law enforcement agents.

The last time the Oversight Committee raised a contempt concern to the Department of Justice was July 2008, when then Chairman Henry Waxman prepared to move forward with a contempt resolution against Attorney General Michael Mukasey for failing to produce subpoenaed information or to assert a valid claim of executive privilege over documents related to an investigation into the identity disclosure of former CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson. The resolution did not move forward after President Bush asserted executive privilege over the documents in question.

[Tim Nunan]

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/16503 ... ng-program

Subpoenas are coming in probe of Dept. of Justice gun-tracking program
By Jordy Yager - 06/06/11 08:19 PM ET


Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is planning to issue a number of subpoenas to federal officials with ties to the controversial program, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The move by Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, comes on the tail end of a series of interviews with government officials and witnesses that the panel’s investigators conducted last month. Sources said the interviews produced a plethora of new evidence and information regarding who gave the ultimate go-ahead for ATF’s “Fast and Furious” operation.

“Fast and Furious” was part of the five-year-old Gunrunner program. It authorized local U.S. gun stores to sell thousands of semiautomatic rifles to suspected and known straw-purchasers for Mexican drug cartels.

By allowing people to illegally purchase large quantities of the weapons from gun dealers, officials hoped to trace the firearms to the upper ranks of the drug cartels and prosecute them. But ATF whistleblowers allege that officials lost track of the guns.

Two of the guns from the operation were found at the scene of an Arizona gun battle in December between U.S. law enforcement and members of a drug gang. The firefight killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, but officials have not revealed whether the bullet that struck him came from the guns the ATF was supposed to be tracking.

In addition, guns from the Fast and Furious operation might have been used in an attack on a Mexican government helicopter that was grounded after being fired upon by suspected members of a drug cartel two weeks ago, according to a Monday news report by CBS.

The subpoenas, which Issa said will be issued to key Washington-based government officials with ties to the operation, are slated to serve as a launching pad for a new series of hearings on the matter.

Issa has been critical of the Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the ATF, for not turning over all of the documents he’s requested and not making available all of the officials he’s wanted to interview, sometimes citing ongoing gun-tracking investigations and prosecutions.

“We have a slew of subpoenas we expect to be issuing for people here in Washington,” Issa said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

“What we haven’t gotten one bit of is — here in Washington, far away from the actual investigation and prosecutions that they seem to be using as a façade to protect them — here in Washington, they’re not making one agent available, one hierarchy available, and we will be issuing subpoenas because we have to,” Issa said.

Next Monday the committee is scheduled to hold a hearing titled “Obstruction of Justice: Does the Justice Department Have to Respond to Lawfully Issued and Valid Congressional Subpoena?”

Committee aides have not released a witness list yet, but confirmed that this was the first of several hearings on the matter.

Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have led the congressional hunt for more information about the ATF operation and its approval. The lawmakers have said repeatedly that they are being “stonewalled” by DOJ.

Grassley — who does not have the same subpoena power as Issa — has vowed to hold up President Obama’s nominations in the Senate until he gets the documents and information that he has requested on the operation.

Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the Fast and Furious operation was first brought to his attention sometime around April. He quickly launched an Inspector General (IG) investigation into the matter earlier this year, and has deferred many questions about the operation until that probe is complete.

“The inspector general will be looking at who exactly was involved, what the level of knowledge was, who should be held accountable, if in fact there were mistakes that were made,” Holder said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in May.

“Under no circumstances in any investigation that we bring should guns be allowed to be distributed in an uncontrolled manner,” Holder said.

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this year, Issa subpoenaed the DOJ for documents relating to the operation. The day before Holder was set to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, the DOJ sent over about 20 percent of the requested documents and told the committee that the remaining documents — about 400 pages — could be made available for review, but could not be handed over to the committee because of their sensitivity.

There is still a large cache of requested documents that the DOJ has not produced for the committee.

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-2 ... 91695.html

'Gunwalker' guns linked to helicopter shooting

(Credit: CBS/AP)

CBS News has learned that the recent case of a Mexican military helicopter forced to land after it was fired upon is linked to the ATF Fast and Furious "gunwalker" operation.

Drug cartel suspects on the ground shot at Mexican government helicopters two weeks ago in western Mexico, forcing one chopper to land. Authorities seized more than 70 assault rifles and other weapons from the suspects.

Among the seized weapons are guns sold to suspects as part of the ATF sting operation, sources say. That information came from traces of serial numbers.

Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF

"Shooting at an aircraft is a terrorist act," says one U.S. law enforcement source. "What does that say if we're helping Mexican drug cartels engage in acts of terror? That's appalling if we could have stopped those guns."

The Department of Justice provided no information or comment when asked about the incident by CBS News.

Major ATF shakeup after "gunwalker"

In "Fast and Furious" and other southwest border anti-trafficking operations, sources say ATF allowed more than 2500 weapons to be sold to suspects. Instead of interdicting them, sources tell CBS News, ATF let the guns "walk" or hit the streets. The idea was to gain intelligence to possibly take down an entire cartel. But many of the allegedly walked weapons have shown up at crimes such as the Mexican helicopter incident, and the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry; most have never been recovered.

In the case of the Mexican helicopter, sources say some of the weapons were purchased and moved by defendants who have already been arrested and indicted for their alleged roles in helping supply drug cartels.

The link between the helicopter downing and the ATF alleged gunwalking is likely to test the already-strained US-Mexico relationship.

In recent weeks, Congressional investigators and the Inspector General have been interviewing witnesses behind closed doors in preparation for multiple hearings which could begin as early as next week. The first hearing will likely feature the ATF whistleblower who first spoke to CBS News: Special Agent John Dodson.

ATF Agent: I was ordered to let guns go into Mexico

Attorney General Eric Holder has asked the Inspector General to investigate the gunwalking allegations.

[Tim Nunan]

http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/15/democ ... trol-push/

Faced with bracing evidence and the testimony of four ATF agents contradicting the Justice Department’s initial blanket denials that assault weapons were knowingly allowed to escape into the clutches of Mexican drug cartels, Democrats tried a new approach at a hearing Wednesday.

Rather than focus on questioning the GOP’s investigative tactics, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sought to subtly channel the burgeoning scandal into a push for new gun control laws.

For instance, Rep. Gerry Connolly, Virginia Democrat, connected the apparently reckless investigative strategy to the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) lobbying pushes.

“The NRA has opposed regulations which would require tracking of multiple gun sales,” Connolly noted in a statement passed out to reporters. “The gun lobby and its advocates in Congress are even trying to pass legislation to eviscerate the ATF’s authority to stop criminals.”

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, New York Democrat, also drew a link between the Operation Fast and Furious scandal and whether ATF agents are plagued by “toothless” laws.

“US Attorneys have complained” that prosecutions for illegally purchasing weapons to resell to criminal networks are viewed by judges as “mere paper violations. Have you heard this criticism before?” Maloney asked the four ATF agents testifying.

“I have and I agree with it,” said Peter Forceilli, who thought a minimum sentence of one year in jail would ensure cooperation from “straw buyers” caught by federal authorities.

Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight Committee, sought to intervene.

“I want to caution the witnesses,” Issa said. “The scope of your testimony here is limited, and is not about proposed legislation and the like.”

Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat and Issa’s combative foil on the oversight panel, protested vociferously. “It’s only fair” for the ATF agents to speak their mind about whether gun laws should be strengthened, he said.

The shift in tactics by the Democrats came as they also appeared to concede the weight of the evidence Issa was presenting clearly undercut blanket denials initially issued by the Justice Department.

Cummings, for instance, called the four ATF agents “great Americans” for “standing up for what you believe in,” and warned the ATF not to retaliate against the agents.

However, when a top deputy to Attorney General Eric Holder was testifying, Cummings ostentatiously apologized for Issa’s conduct in demanding answers from assistant attorney general Ronald Weich. “Let me apologize,” he said. Issa objected that “you may apologize on behalf of something you say.”

Cummings, in defending Weich, shows Democrats are still invested in defending the Obama administration even as documents and testimony are increasingly undermining the administration’s claims.

But the gun control comments Wednesday indicate they may be preparing to chart a new course: embracing the controversy and using it for their own political purposes.

That would, at the very least, leave less time to save Holder from Issa’s zealous investigation.

[1gewehr]

It's hard to imagine how anyone is going to defend the ATF and Justice Department without resorting to outrageous lies. Not, of course, that they have shown any previous reluctance to using outrageous lies in the past.

[Tim Nunan]

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/16677 ... be-ashamed

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Wednesday escalated his standoff with the Department of Justice over a gun-tracking program that might have contributed to the death of federal agent.

As the family of slain ATF agent Brian Terry pleaded for justice, Issa said officials should be "ashamed" for handing over heavily redacted documents about the program.


Issa has made the fight over the program his first big battle with the Obama administration. He and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have tried for the past five months to find out who authorized the “Fast and Furious” operation, which might have contributed to Terry's death.

The lawmakers have doggedly pursued the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for documents in the case. Both have accused the DOJ of “stonewalling” their efforts.

In April, Issa subpoenaed the DOJ for thousands of documents related to the operation, including email correspondence and departmental records. But according to committee aides, the DOJ has only given the committee documents that are publicly available or heavily redacted.

After more than two months of back-and-forth between DOJ officials and Issa’s staff, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich told lawmakers that the department was cooperating and actively working to respond to the committee’s request.

Outraged, Issa held up a piece of white paper with a giant black box of entirely redacted text on it.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Issa said to Weich. “It doesn’t take so long if you don’t spend your life redacting it.

“The pages go on like this forever,” he said, referencing the blackened piece of paper. “You’ve given us black paper instead of white paper. You might as well have given us a ream still in its original binder. How dare you make an opening statement of cooperation.”

Weich’s response was restrained as he repeated variations of the department’s expressed desire to work with the committee in a cooperative manner to meet its request.

If the committee continues not to receive the requested documents, Issa can move to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt.

In emotional testimony, Terry’s family pleaded with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to punish everyone involved in his killing.

No conclusions were reached during the hearing as to who might have authorized the program. Both President Obama and Holder have denied ordering it. When news of the operation became public, Holder immediately asked the inspector general to conduct an investigation.

Weich, who operates as a legislative liaison to Congress, has written Issa and Grassley in previous months with the agency’s concern that the committee’s investigation could jeopardize the DOJ’s prosecution of suspects rounded up through the operation. Earlier this year, Issa and Grassley made public a wiretap that was under a federal seal, and the DOJ says it does not want to risk similar leaks.

One letter of Weich’s to Grassley came under particular fire on Wednesday. In the letter, Weich said the ATF had not “knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser” and that the agency makes “every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation into Mexico.”

Issa leaked a series of three emails to the press during Wednesday’s hearing, however, that seem to contradict this statement and imply that acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson knew of the operation since March of 2010.

In one of the emails, under the subject heading “Director’s questions,” the supervisor of the Fast and Furious operation wrote to the assistant special agent in charge of Phoenix field operations with an Internet protocol address for one of the video monitoring units in a gun store authorized to sell guns to the suspects.

“With this information, acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and — himself — watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants,” said a Republican committee statement.

During the hearing, lawmakers heard a litany of allegations from ATF agents that the gun-tracking operation has endangered lives.

Three ATF agents who testified said they had never seen a law enforcement operation planned with so little forethought. The aim of the Arizona-based operation was to monitor the sale of firearms to known and suspected straw purchasers in an attempt to expose gun trafficking routes by tracking those weapons to members of Mexican drug cartels across the border.

But the surveillance tools and authority given to the agents were extremely limited, they said. Without tracking devices in the guns, the agents were forced to rely on visual surveillance, which was frequently terminated by their commanding officers, in part because they lacked sufficient manpower to monitor all of the weapons being “walked” out of the gun stores.

The only way the agents could successfully track the straw purchaser to more powerful members of a gun trafficking enterprise was if the gun was ultimately recovered at a crime scene and they could confirm its serial number, said Special Agent John Dodson, who was part of the operation until he brought it to the attention of Grassley’s staff.

“There was not a time when we were out there on surveillance where we didn’t have the forethought that these were going to be recovered in crimes,” said Dodson.

“What we were ordered to do every day was watch the same guys buy the same guns from the same dealers, who we told to make the sales, and then we’d sit back and wait for the traces, and when they came through from places in Mexico where it was definitively related to cartels, they were giddy.”

At the end of the hearing, Issa and ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) proposed a compromise to Weich in which the committee would gain full in-camera access to the requested documents, which would narrow the risk of any possible leaks. Weich said he was not authorized to make such a deal but remained hopeful that they could reach an agreement.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) refrained from commenting on whether contempt proceedings were warranted at this point, but said the stakes had been raised.

“I haven’t been in Congress very long, but this is the most serious investigation I’ve ever seen,” said Chaffetz in an interview. “If the administration had hoped to diminish our desire to get at these documents, that didn’t happen. If nothing else, this has escalated it to another level.”

[C. Richard Archie]

The hits just keep on coming!

Current temp head of BATFE likely to be ousted over the Gunwalker situation, Andrew Traver to be placed at the helm temporarily, which is what Obama wants in the first place.

[Pat McGarrity]

Thanks to TFA Member, Jim Williams for sending me the latest on this dangerous scheme the ATF has been running. So much is revealed here. First, unless the weapons were Class III (regulated by ATF), select fire weapons, they were not "assault weapons". That is the term the anti-gun media loves to use, almost always inaccurately.

What this article does not reveal is what Alan M. Gottlieb, Chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, stated. Mr. Gottlieb states that in a shocking interview last Thursday, U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) Issa produced a potential "political bombshell" when he stated: "The president knew about it before Eric Holder, according to Eric Holder." What did Obama know and when did he know it?

TFA is drafting an open letter to the Tennessee Federal delegation strongly urging that they publicly announce their support for Representative Issa and Senator Graham's investigations into the "Fast and Furious" and "Gunwalker" programs run by the BATFE. TFA, NRA, GOA, CCRKBA and many gun rights organizations are demanding answers and accountability for this dangerous scheme. As Vice President Biden says; This is a big... deal!

In Liberty,

Pat McGarrity
Director - Shelby County TFA



"I want to add my voice to those who are calling on Congress to finally -- to finally -- pass these very common-sense gun measures."

-- Attorney General Eric Holder (Would that include being complicit in smuggling guns to violent Mexican gangs Mr. Holder?)






www.tennesseefirearms.com



ATF Chief to Resign Over Mexican Guns Controversy
Elspeth Reeve – Mon Jun 20, 2:21 pm ET
Kenneth Melson is expected to resign as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in the next day or two with the agency facing scrutiny over the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun trafficking operation that cost the life of a border agent, CNN's Terry Frieden reports. Melson has led the ATF since April 2009, and might be replaced by Andrew Traver, who leads the agency's field office in Chicago. Melson was "closely involved with managing" the operation.

The ATF allowed Mexican drug cartels to buy large numbers of weapons during the operation, which took place in 2009 and 2010, so it could keep tabs on gun smugglers with the hope of building a case against them. But the operation went wrong, as The Wall Street Journal's Evan Perez and Devlin Barrett report, and Republican lawmakers have been harshly critical of it:


Mr. Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) are leading the congressional probe of Fast and Furious, which came to light after an Arizona shootout in December that killed a U.S. border agent. Two assault weapons bought in a gun shop that was part of the operation were found at the scene. The shooter and the gun used to kill the agent haven't been identified. A Mexican national is charged in the shootout.

The Journal notes that the agency "has been without a Senate-confirmed director since 2006, with both the Bush and Obama administrations unable to overcome opposition from gun-rights groups to win approval of nominees." Traver was nominated in November by President Obama to be the permanent ATF director, but the Senate has not confirmed him. The NRA says he's "demonstrated hostility" to gun rights.

[In the photo above, an ATF agent in Arizona displays an AK-47 short pistol confiscated in 2008 from a shipment headed to Mexico.]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent: 6/20/2011 8:07:27 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: ATF Chief to Resign Over Mexican Gun Sales Permitted.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/201106 ... rsy39030_1


The ATF tried to blame this on
American gun owners, but the
NRA fought back and was joined
by Republican Congressmen.
Now, it has blown up in the ATF's
face and coming back on them.

Jim

[ProguninTN]

Toothless laws ? How about non-enforcement of existing laws ? It seems to me that BATFE is on the hot seat and there is no sign of it letting up. Go get them, Congressman Issa.

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/mex ... -who-appro

From Fox News: Mexican lawmakers say they'll press for the extradition and prosecution in Mexico of American officials who authorized and ran "Operation Fast and Furious," a botched ATF investigation intended to track guns sold in the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.

"I obviously feel violated. I feel my country's sovereignty was violated," Mexico Sen. Rene Arce Islas told Fox News. "They should be tried in the United States, and the Mexican government should also demand that they also be tried in Mexico since the incidents took place here. There should be trials in both places." Arce is chairman of Mexico's Commission for National Security, a congressional panel similar to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Another Mexican senator said the operation "brought very high risk to human lives." Sen. Santiago Creel, a former Interior Minister and a likely presidential nominee next year, said a resignation would not be a satisfactory end to the probe: What happens in Mexico, he said, "must be sanctioned by Mexican laws and under our sovereignty."

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... -congress/

The Justice Department blocked senior ATF leaders from cooperating with Congress in its investigation of the “Fast and Furious” weapons operation, ordering them not to respond to questions and taking full control of replying to briefing and document requests, the agency’s top boss told congressional investigators.

(more at link)

[Tim Nunan]

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot. ... tampa.html

Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious, it was reported to these correspondents this evening via private correspondence from a proven credible source.

(more at link)

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.sundriesshack.com/2011/07/09 ... ame-thing/

There’s an old saying that says, roughly, “It’s not the crime that kills you; it’s the cover-up”. Right now the Obama administration is on the verge of being killed by the almost daily revelations of how it came to be that over 2,000 guns passed from the United States, under the watchful eyes of the BATFE, into the hands of narco-terrorist drug cartels in Mexico. Those guns have killed at least 152 government and law enforcement officials, an unknown (but high) number of civilians, and have destabilized the Mexican government.

The latest revelation is that Eric Holder might know more about Operation Fast and Furious — the program launched from the Phoenix office of the BATFE ostebsibly to conbat the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico — than he let on. Both Doug Ross and Barbara Hollingsworth for the Washington Examiner have the transcript of several Holder statements in which he bragged about how the administration was going to ramp up its weapons-interdiction efforts.

However, we need to be very careful how we write about this story. Both Ross and Hollingsworth, as well as Buck Sexton as Glenn Beck’s site The Blaze, conflate Project Gunrunner with Operation Fast and Furious. The terms are not interchangeable. So far as I can tell, Attorney General Holder did not profess ignorance about Project Gunrunner, as Sexton alleges. He professed ignorance about Operation Fast and Furious. That’s a critical difference that, at this point, leaves him off the hook.

Here is the difference between the two. Project Gunrunner is a multi-state operation that began in 2005-2006. It encompasses several local operations inside it, including Operation Fast and Furious (such as Operation Castaway, which might have its own scandal a-brewing). Gunrunner also involves other federal law enforcement agencies — the FBI, DEA, and ICE — as well as local and state police departments.

Operation Fast and Furious started in 2009 as part of the larger Gunrunner initiative. It ran out of the Phoenix (Arizona) Field Division of the BATFE and was shut down in 2010. It may have involved other agencies, unbeknownst to the acting director of the BATFE. Fast and Furious is the program under which all the guns “walked” into Mexico, the one that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent Jaime Zapata, and the one about which the Department of Justice has stonewalled Darrell Issa’s Congressional investigation. The trouble for this administration lies in Fast and Furious — not the larger Project Gunrunner.

We need to be crystal clear about what we mean when we discuss this growing scandal. You had better believe that this administration will try to use the legal and safe operations happening elsewhere under the Gunrunner umbrella to confuse the issue and hide its misdeed. We can not give them an inch of cover. Right now, the evidence shows, at the very least, that high-ranking officials inside the Justice Department directly contributed to hundreds of needless deaths. We must get to the bottom of that, and clarity will get us there much faster.

[C. Richard Archie]

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... #pagebreak

The Obama administration sought to intimidate witnesses into not testifying to Congress on Tuesday about whether ATF knowingly allowed weapons, including assault rifles, to be “walked” into Mexico, the chairman of a House committee investigating the program said in an interview Monday.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, said at least two scheduled witnesses expected to be asked about a controversial weapons investigation known as “Fast and Furious”received warning letters from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to limit their testimony.

Mr. Issa's committee is set to hear testimony from six current or former ATF employees, including agents and attaches assigned to the bureau’s offices in Mexico, about the operation — in which, federal agents say, they were told to stand down and watch as guns flowed from U.S. dealers in Arizona to violent criminals and drug cartels in Mexico.

The six-term lawmaker aired his concerns about the program in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors at The Washington Times on Monday.

Among other questions, the agents are likely to be asked about a large volume of guns showing up in Mexico that were traced back to the Fast and Furious program; whether ATF officials in that country expressed concerns about the weapons to agency officials in the U.S., only to be brushed aside; and whether ATF officials in Arizona denied ATF personnel in Mexico access to information about the operation.

Nearly 50 weapons linked to the Fast and Furious program have been recovered to date in Mexico. Committee investigators said Mexican authorities also were denied information about the operation.

Mr. Issa also said he is certain the Fast and Furious operation was known by most top officials at the Justice Department and that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. either knew and misled Congress, or was so out of the loop that he’s guilty of mismanagement.

“How is it that the No. 2, 3, 4 at Justice all knew about this program, but the No. 1 didn’t?,” Mr. Issa said. “Is it because he said ‘don’t tell me’? Is it because they knew what they were doing is wrong, and they were protecting their boss? Or is it that Eric Holder is just so disconnected … ?

“Whichever it is — he knew and he’s lied to Congress, or he didn’t know, and he’s so detached that he wasn’t doing his job — that really probably is for the administration to make a decision on, sooner not later,” Mr. Issa said.

Those scheduled to testify are William McMahon, ATF deputy assistant director for field operations in Phoenix and Mexico; William Newell, former ATF special agent in charge at the Phoenix field division; Carlos Canino, ATF acting attache to Mexico; Darren Gil, former ATF attache to Mexico; Jose Wall, ATF senior agent in Tijuana, Mexico; and Lorren Leadmon, ATF intelligence operations specialist.

But after receiving subpoenas, at least two of the agents got letters from ATF Associate Chief Counsel Barry S. Orlow warning them to keep certain areas off-limits, including those still under investigation. Neither of the targeted agents was identified.

Mr. Issa said at least one witness wanted to back out of testifying to his committee after receiving the letter, but the chairman declined that request. Instead he fired a letter back to William J. Hoover, deputy director of ATF, saying the “timing and content of this letter strongly suggest that ATF is obstructing and interfering with the congressional investigation.”

ATF, in a statement, said letters sent to agents subpoenaed to testify before Congress are “essentially the same as the standard document provided to ATF witnesses subpoenaed to testify in court.” It said the witnesses are “encouraged to answer fully and candidly all questions concerning matters within his personal knowledge,” but provide “guidance” about revealing statutorily prohibited information.

Mr. Orlow did not return messages left on his office and cell phones.

The Fast and Furious operation was halted in January after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was killed in a Dec. 15 shootout with Mexican bandits 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border near Rio Rico, Ariz. Authorities said two AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene were traced back to Fast and Furious “straw buyers.”

Mr. Issa said the ATF operation showed a “callous disregard for what those weapons can and have done to Mexican citizens and even to one, perhaps two U.S. citizens and probably more before it is over.” His comment referred to new information that another weapon found at the scene of the ambush killing Feb. 15 of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata also was traced back to a straw buyer.

President Obama and Mr. Holder have both disavowed the program, and Mr. Holder said it was running without their approval.

Told of Mr. Issa’s concerns, Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler referred questions about the attorney general’s knowledge back to remarks in March when he said he referred concerns raised by ATF agents to the department’s Office of Inspector General, who is conducting an investigation.

When ATF field agents first began to question the Fast and Furious program, they received an email from their supervisor, David J. Voth, who wrote, “We all need to get along and realize that we have a mission to accomplish.” In a March 12, 2010, email, Mr. Voth said he was “thrilled and proud” his group was involved and assured the agents that “people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention.

“It may sound cheesy, but we are the tip of the ATF spear when it comes to Southwest border firearms trafficking. I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors or other adolescent behavior,” he wrote. “If you don’t think this is fun, you’re in the wrong line of work — period.

“This is the pinnacle of domestic U.S. law enforcement techniques. After this, the toolbox is empty,” he said. “Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers, and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day.”

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-2 ... 91695.html

At a lengthy hearing on ATF's controversial gunwalking operation today, a key ATF manager told Congress he discussed the case with a White House National Security staffer as early as September 2010. The communications were between ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office, Bill Newell, and White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O'Reilly. Newell said the two are longtime friends. The content of what Newell shared with O'Reilly is unclear and wasn't fully explored at the hearing.

It's the first time anyone has publicly stated that a White House official had any familiarity with ATF's operation Fast and Furious, which allowed thousands of weapons to fall into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to gain intelligence. It's unknown as to whether O'Reilly shared information with anybody else at the White House.

Congressional investigators obtained an email from Newell to O'Reilly in September of last year in which Newell began with the words: "you didn't get this from me."

"What does that mean," one member of Congress asked Newell, " 'you didn't get this from me?' "

"Obviously he was a friend of mine," Newell replied, "and I shouldn't have been sending that to him."

Newell told Congress that O'Reilly had asked him for information.

"Why do you think he asked for that information," Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked Newell.
"He was asking about the impact of Project Gunrunner to brief people in preparation for a trip to Mexico... what we were doing to combat firearms trafficking and other issues."

Today, a White House spokesman said the email was not about Fast and Furious, but about other gun trafficking efforts. The spokesman also said he didn't know what Newell was referring to when he said he'd spoken to O'Reilly about Fast and Furious.

President Obama has said neither he nor Attorney General Eric Holder authorized or knew about the operation. Holder has asked the Inspector General to investigate.

[Tim Nunan]

http://townhall.com/columnists/katiepav ... page/full/

Multiple sources, including sources from ATF, DOJ and Congressional offices have said there is a white paper circulating within the Department of Justice, outlining the essential elimination of ATF. According to sources, the paper outlines the firing of at least 450 ATF agents in an effort to conduct damage control as Operation Fast and Furious gets uglier and as election day 2012 gets closer. ATF agents wouldn’t be reassigned to other positions, just simply let go. Current duties of ATF, including the enforcement of explosives and gun laws, would be transferred to other agencies, possibly the FBI and the DEA. According to a congressional source, there have been rumblings about the elimination of ATF for quite sometime, but the move would require major political capital to actually happen.

“It’s a serious white paper being circulated, how far they’d get with it I don’t know,” a confidential source said.

After a town hall meeting about Operation Fast and Furious in Tucson, Ariz. on Monday, ATF Whistleblower Vince Cefalu, who has been key in exposing details about Operation Fast and Furious, confirmed the elimination of ATF has been circulating as a serious idea for sometime now and that a white paper outlining the plan does exist.

Sounds great right? Eliminating ATF? But there is more to this story. Remember, low level ATF field agents, like ATF whistleblower John Dodson, were uncomfortable conducting Operation Fast and Furious from the beginning, but were told by high level officials within ATF that if they had a problem with the operation, they could find a job elsewhere.

“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated,” ATF Whistleblower John Dodson said in testimony on Capitol Hill on June 15, 2011.

In fact, not only were the ATF agents forced to carry out the operation, they were told to go against what they had been taught in training.

“This operation, which in my opinion endangered the American public, was orchestrated in conjunction with Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley. [Emory Hurley is the same Assistant U.S. Attorney who previously prevented agents from using some of the common and accepted law enforcement techniques that are employed elsewhere in the United States to investigate and prosecute gun crimes.] I have read documents that indicate that his boss, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, also agreed with the direction of the case,” Special Agent Peter Forcelli said in testimony on Capitol hill on June 15, 2011.

“I recall my first days at the ATF academy, where it was drilled into us as new agents that under no circumstances would any firearms, in any investigation, leave the control of ATF. Instructors stressed that even if a weapon was lost “by accident,” the agent was still subject to termination,” former ATF Attaché to Mexico Darren D. Gil said in testimony on June 15, 2011.

ATF field agents weren’t the problem with Operation Fast and Furious, high ranking officials within ATF and the Department of Justice were and still are. DOJ would eliminate ATF only to take the heat off of the Obama Administration. By eliminating the bureau, it makes it seem like DOJ is taking Operation Fast and Furious so seriously, they decided to “clear out the corruption, clean house,” however, it would only be a distraction away from the people at the top of the investigation. In fact, evidence shows the DOJ has been stonewalling the Oversight Committee investigation into the operation to protect Obama political appointees.

“It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department,” former ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson, who has since been moved to a position within DOJ, said of his frustration with the Justice Department’s response to the investigation in transcribed closed door testimony with the Oversight Committee in July 2011.

When I called the Department of Justice last week (five times) to request the white paper and receive a comment surrounding the idea of eliminating ATF, I received the following response: “Everyone is away from their desk right now.”


Up to this point, the Department of Justice has denied all allegations or involvement in Operation Fast and Furious, yet journalists and the House Oversight Committee have proved allegation after allegation to be true. For example, during a Congressional hearing in July, former ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell, who has since been promoted to a position within the Justice Department, denied that his agency was trafficking guns to Mexico, despite overwhelming evidence and testimony from other ATF agents proving otherwise.

“At no time in our strategy was it to allow guns to be taken to Mexico,” Newell said on July 26, 2011, adding that at no time did his agency allow guns to walk.

We’ve heard this was a low level, “rogue” operation, turns out high level officials in the Justice Department, DEA, FBI, DHS, and even members of the White House national security team knew about Operation Fast and Furious.

Last week, ATF offered 400 agents buy outs to avoid budget cuts and is expecting 250-275 agents to take the offer through Voluntary Early Retirement. These buyouts come at a convenient time for the Justice Department, which can eliminate ATF, then say it’s because of budget cuts, when really, it’s to cover their tracks.

[Tim Nunan]

http://jpfo.org/kirby/kirby-frying-pan.htm

Rumors are surfacing regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s plans to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE). The blood soaked debacle of BATFE’s "Operation Fast and Furious", the blatantly felonious scheme of running guns to murderous Mexican drug cartels, may have put the nail in the coffin for what is almost certainly America’s most sordid federal agency.

Since our founding in 1989, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has relentlessly called for the abolition of the BATFE (see: "The Gang" link here). Every warning JPFO could give about the dangers of "gun control", short of the final act of genocide, was embodied by the despicable behavior of the "jack booted thugs", the "bucket heads", the "gun goons".

Normally, JPFO would be cheering the possibility of disbanding the BATFE from the roof tops. But we now face a particularly disturbing question: "If not the BATFE … then who?"

Some federal agency is going to take over the "stewardship" of the millions and millions of gun owner registration documents that the BATFE now cuddles with the slobbering fetishism of Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings". You can hear the goose stepping drones right now as they scroll through their computerized databases: "Ahhh … my precious. My precious!"

Do any of you really think that the draconian expansion of "gun control" would lessen under the more efficient FBI or the other agency whispered (according to one report) to be in line for the BATFE’s present authority, the DEA?

Is the DEA less corrupt than the BATFE? There is so much free floating drug cash available in the symbiotic dance called the "War on Drugs" – can palms remain ungreased? Additionally, as revelations unfold, it is becoming clear that DEA was also involved in "Fast and Furious" up to its eyeballs.

Okay, so what about the FBI being put in charge of "gun control" in America?

Let’s not forget who put the icing on the cake at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas. It was the bungling BATFE that got the show rolling with both these atrocities. But it was the FBI that was called in as the "closer". An FBI sniper put a bullet through Randy Weaver’s wife’s head. It was FBI tanks and/or tear gas canisters that preceeded the inferno and murderous incineration of a church in Waco. And it was the FBI’s NICS checks that cleared felons as straw purchasers in "Fast and Furious", so they were complicit at best.

No friends, these aren’t the squeaky clean "G Men" of decades past. Also remember that the FBI upper crustlings are certainly not advocates of an armed citizenry in America. See: FBI Director Mueller’s statements regarding Heller. Mueller is a classic example of the type of authoritarian power tripper that rises to leadership roles in police hierarchies (see: "Seven Varieties of Gun Control Advocate")

Add to this the vast and still unknown (as in classified) powers granted the FBI by the so-called "Patriot Act", and you have the makings of a much more sinister "Big Brother" than the cabal of lying, back biting stooges presently in charge over at BATFE.

JPFO’s stance has been, and will remain, the repeal of ALL "gun control" in America. We stand on the principle that the tail must not be allowed to wag the dog. To quote our late founder Aaron Zelman:

"Anyone who is lawfully adjudicated unfit to carry a firearm should not be on the street in the first place. They should be in prison or in a mental institution. We’ve thrown the baby (our personal liberties) out with the bathwater, making us helpless to protect ourselves from armed criminals and lunatics. And who promotes this delusional illogic the most fervently? Politicians and the law enforcement hierarchy."

However, dealing with things as they presently are, JPFO, along with other pro-gun rights organizations in America, is now facing an unpleasant dilemma: the actual preservation of the BATFE (albeit radically reformed) could be the least of the available evils!

Mind you, JPFO has made no policy decision on this, but we are acutely aware that a stance will demanded of us sooner rather than later.

Pertinent questions must be asked:

1. Does Congress have the pro-Second Amendment votes to confirm a hard core constitutionalist as the permanent head of BATFE? This of course implies an individual in the Oval Office who would have the moral clarity to nominate such a possible BATFE Director. It will never happen with Obama, unless some incredible political force can be brought to bear. Example: "You give us our chosen nominee for BATFE Director and we’ll let Eric Holder resign without going to jail … and thereby pointing his finger at you, Mr. President."

2. Will every single guilty BATFE employee, from the acting Director down to the lowliest field grunt, be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting in the bloodshed that has resulted from "Fast and Furious"? Not just fired, but arrested and tried in courts of law.

3. Will BATFE’s entire operating manual be completely overhauled and radical positive changes instituted regarding FFL dealers and the treatment of American citizens?

4. Will the BATFE’s use of its immense gun ownership database be ruthlessly monitored by an independent third party – or better, destroyed? Will the BATFE’s sharing of gun ownership data with foreign nations be stopped immediately?

With the disgusting revelations of "Fast and Furious" pouring forth it is now not impossible to envision a complete "gutting" of the agency and a ground-up rebuild along constitutional principles. (Setting aside, of course, the minor detail that any "gun control" law is an infringement upon our unalienable right to self defense as guaranteed by the Second Amendment.)

In JPFO’s opinion (and the opinion of other pro-gun organizations), the NRA has in the past been far too weak-handed with the BATFE. With loud calls for an independent prosecutor in "Fast and Furious", and demands for Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation, Wayne LaPierre and Company seem to be seeing things more correctly these days. Will the NRA apply the ruthless political pressure it is capable of applying to politicians and demand a top-to-bottom "purification" of the BATFE?

The coming months may present a golden window of opportunity for Second Amendment advocates and American freedom. Let’s stay on target.

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.foxnews.com/interactive/poli ... ght-panel/

Can't copy and paste this letter from that link.

The tone of the letter indicates Representative Issa is rather irked with Holder <sarc>

[Tim Nunan]

http://srnnews.townhall.com/news/politi ... robe_rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday revealed new reforms undertaken to improve how it conducts undercover gun trafficking investigations in the wake of a botched operation in which scores of weapons disappeared.

The reforms require additional oversight of undercover operations, including those that involve more than 50 firearms, and, in most cases, ends the practice of paying gun dealers to serve as confidential informants.

Additionally, a new review committee has been established to monitor sensitive undercover cases or those that would have a "significant regional or national impact," according to the Justice Department.

The details were revealed just before Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Thursday before members of the House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the bungled operation known as "Fast and Furious."

The operation, run out of the Phoenix offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Attorney's office was meant to follow the guns from the initial buyers along the U.S. border to violent drug cartel leaders in Mexico.

However ATF agents did not track the weapons after they were transferred from the initial buyer to others who smuggled them across the border. As many as 2,000 guns may have been sold under the operation.

Two AK-47 style weapons from that program were found in Arizona 18 miles from the border where a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was shot and killed during a December 2010 shootout with illegal immigrants.

A similar, smaller program was run during the Bush administration dubbed "Wide Receiver."

"We are undertaking key enhancements to existing department policies and procedures to ensure that mistakes like those that occurred in 'Wide Receiver' and 'Fast and Furious' are not repeated," Deputy Attorney General James Cole said in a letter to Congress.

Republicans have been demanding to know who in the Obama administration knew about the "Fast and Furious" operation and when. Holder and other senior ATF and Justice Department officials said they did not learn about it until early 2011.