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WHISTLEBLOWERS -- (Senate - April 14, 2011)(gunwalker)
Congressional Record ^ | 14 April, 2011 | Senator Grassley

Posted on 04/16/2011 7:18:10 AM PDT by marktwain

Mr. GRASSLEY. Since January, I have been investigating allegations from whistleblowers at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. The allegations I have received are shocking, but sadly they appear to be true. Praise the Lord for the whistleblowers in this government because we don't know where the skeletons are buried, and they help us to do our constitutional role of oversight and the checks and balances of government.

The ATF, which is supposed to stop criminals from trafficking guns to Mexican drug cartels, was actually making that trafficking of arms easier for them. That would be bad enough if it happened because of incompetence or turf battles, but it looks as if the agency was doing this on purpose. The government actually encouraged gun dealers to sell multiple firearms to known and suspected traffickers.

Two of those guns ended up at the scene of a murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona. His name was Brian Terry. His family deserves answers from their very own government. I have been fighting for those answers. I have written eight letters to the Justice Department. I have asked for documents. I have asked that specific questions be answered.

At first, the Justice Department simply denied the charges. Then one of the whistleblowers went on television. He risked his career to tell the truth on ``CBS Evening News.'' He had a sense of duty to Agent Terry's family and, in turn, to the entire population of this great country. He could not believe his own government refused to come clean and tell the truth when questioned by this U.S. Senator. He went public to set the record straight.

Other whistleblowers have confirmed what this whistleblower said. In fact, I received internal government documents that confirmed what he said. Anonymous patriots tried to ensure that the truth would come out. You know, that is about the only crime whistleblowers commit--committing truth. Isn't that sad?

I forwarded many of those documents that I received clandestinely to Attorney General Holder and Acting Director Melson. I asked them how to square the denials from that Department with the evidence I have received both orally and on paper.

At Attorney General Holder's confirmation hearing--now 2 years ago--I told him:

I expect that you will be responsive to my oversight work and that my questions and document requests will be taken seriously. ..... I hope that I have your assurance that if you are confirmed, you will assist me with oversight activities, be responsive to my requests, and help me make the Justice Department accountable.

Now, the Attorney General, who was the nominee at that time, responded:

I will try to do all that I can to make sure that we respond fully and in a timely fashion to the very legitimate questions that I know you have propounded to the Department.

But now, ironically, I have provided more internal documents to the Justice Department in this investigation than the Justice Department has provided to me. Now, instead of issuing denials, do you know what happened? It happens all the time when you are doing oversight work, with almost any agency. But in this case, the Justice Department has circled the wagon. They have clammed up.

The President of the United States admitted on Spanish language television that ``certain mistakes'' may have been made here in the instance of this investigation. He and Attorney General Holder say they didn't authorize a policy change that allowed criminals to walk away with guns. But there was a change in policy that went tragically wrong. The prophecy of a lot of whistleblowers turned out to be fact, sadly. So Congress needs to find out what did the highest senior officials know and when did they know it.

The purpose of the policy change was to go after leaders high up in the chain of command and bring down a drug cartel. Nobody can find fault with that. But prosecutors didn't want to just go after criminals who just lie on Federal forms to buy guns for trafficking; they wanted to go after the really big fish. The problem is this: They let so many little fish keep operating that between 1,300 and 1,700 guns got away. That is just in this one case in Arizona that I can document. Hundreds of these guns have, in turn, turned up in crimes on both sides of the border--some in Mexico and some in the United States.

Federal agents often have to walk a fine line in trying to catch the bad guys. They sometimes have to allow a crime to progress to make sure everyone involved in the conspiracy gets caught. I understand that. That can be

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legitimate, but you have to look at it this way. It is very serious business. It is quite a gamble, you might say. There have to be careful controls in an operation like I just described. Law enforcement should not cross the line into actually assisting criminals just for the simple process of gathering information. Operations should be carefully focused on stopping crime without risking public safety. Seizing contraband and making arrests are the most important goals. Big, headline-grabbing cases to advance some prosecutor's career should take a backseat in any of these gambles.

Yesterday, I sent a letter to Attorney General Holder with some more documents. So I am sending the Department documents I would like to have them send me. These are documents that maybe the Attorney General himself didn't know about.

There are e-mails between a federally licensed firearms dealer and the supervisor in this Arizona case known as ``fast and furious.'' In one e-mail, the dealer raises, for a third time now, his concerns about how the case is being handled. This time, he was prompted by a story on FOX News about the growing firearms problem on our border with Mexico. The dealer wrote--and this is a long quote which I will start now:

The segment is disturbing to me. I shared my concerns with you guys that I wanted to make sure that none of the firearms that were sold per our conversation with you and various ATF agents could, or would ever, end up south of the border and in the hands of the bad guys. I want to help ATF with its investigation, but not at the risk of agents' safety, because I have some very close friends that are U.S. Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona.

Now, maybe one of those friends, for all I know, was Agent Terry, and he got murdered--or at least we think he did--with one of these guns. These guns were at the scene, at least. That e-mail I quoted was sent to the supervisor of the case 6 months before guns from that case were found at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's murder.

The government put these firearms dealers in a completely unfair position. Let me explain that. On the one hand, these gun dealers rely upon the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for their license to even be able to be in business. So of course these dealers want to cooperate with the government when they have this big club hanging over their head: Will you be licensed or not? On the other hand, the government asks these gun dealers to keep selling to the bad guys even after the dealers warned it might end in tragedy.

I am going to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this. The House Oversight Committee has joined in my effort and issued a subpoena for documents because it might duplicate the process in the House.

I have not sought any subpoenas or hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee yet. I have not exercised my right to object to any unanimous consent request on nominations because of this issue yet. However, I want my colleagues and officials at the Justice Department to hear this loud and clear: If that is what it takes, then I will take those actions. I hope it doesn't have to come to that. I hope the Justice Department will decide to cooperate and provide the information we need, doing our constitutional responsibility of oversight, to make sure the checks and balances of the system of government under our Constitution is working. It has been nearly 3 months since I first raised this issue. It is past time for the Justice Department to come clean.

I ask unanimous consent to printed in the Record a copy of this letter to Attorney General Holder.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY,

Washington, DC, April 13, 2011. Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC.

Dear Attorney General Holder: At approximately 1:30 p.m. yesterday, my staff learned that the Justice Department was making four documents available at 2:00 p.m. for Chairman Darrell Issa's staff to review regarding the controversy over ATF's Project Gunrunner, Operation Fast and Furious, and the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. These documents are among those I requested in February of this year. Yet, the Justice Department refused to make them available for my staff to review. In fact, the Justice Department has produced not one single page of documents in response to my inquiries.

Thus far, I have not requested that Chairman Leahy join in any document requests, consider any subpoenas, or schedule any hearings into this matter in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Any such request would be unnecessary and duplicative of the process on the House side, so long as any documents provided there are also provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee at the same time.

The Department's failure to cooperate with my requests is especially troubling in light of the February 4, 2011, reply to my initial letter. In that reply, the Justice Department took the position that those allegations were ``false'' and specifically denied ``that ATF `sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons'' to straw purchasers. The letter further claimed that ``ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.''

I already provided evidence contradicting that denial in my February 9 and March 3 letters. In addition, attached you will find further documentation undermining the Department's assertion. Specifically, the documents are emails between ATF officials and a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) in Arizona. These emails demonstrate that ATF instructed gun dealers to engage in suspicious sales despite the dealers' concerns. The emails refer to meetings between the FFL and the U.S. Attorney's office to address the concerns being raised by the FFL. ATF supervisor David Voth wrote on April 13, 2010:

I understand that the frequency with which some individuals under investigation by our office have been purchasing firearms from your business has caused concerns for you. ..... However, if it helps put you at ease we (ATF) are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into [in] detail.

In response, the gun dealer expresses concern about potential future liability and sought something in writing to address the issue explicitly:

For us, we were hoping to put together something like a letter of understanding to alleviate concerns of some type of recourse against us down the road for selling these items. We just want to make sure we are cooperating with ATF and that we are not viewed as selling to bad guys.

Following this email, the ATF arranged a meeting between the FFL and the U.S. Attorney's office. According to the FFL, the U.S. Attorney's office scheduled a follow-up meeting with the FFL, but asked that the FFL's attorney not be present.

At the meeting on May 13, 2010, the U.S. Attorney's office declined to provide anything in writing but assured the gun dealer in even stronger terms that there were safeguards in place to prevent further distribution of the weapons after being purchased from his business. As we now know, those assurances proved to be untrue. On June 17, 2010, the gun dealer wrote to the ATF to again express concerns after seeing a report on Fox News about firearms and the border:

The segment, if the information was correct, is disturbing to me. When you, [the Assistant U.S. Attorney], and I met on May 13th, I shared my concerns with you guys that I wanted to make sure that none of the firearms that were sold per our conversation with you and various ATF agents could or would ever end up south of the border or in the hands of the bad guys. ..... I want to help ATF with its investigation but not at the risk of agents' safety because I have some very close friends that are U.S. Border Patrol agents in southern AZ[.]

Incredibly, the FFL sent this email six months before guns from the same ATF operation were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder. So, not only were the ATF agents who later blew the whistle predicting that this operation would end in tragedy, so were the gun dealers--even as ATF urged them to make the sales.

Furthermore, according to the FFL, there were ``one or two'' occasions on which his employees actually witnessed and recorded with surveillance cameras an exchange of money between the straw purchaser and another individual on the premises. Despite this actual knowledge of a straw purchase, the dealer said ATF officials wanted him to proceed with the transaction. However, his employees refused to process the sale.

In light of this new evidence, the Justice Department's claim that the ATF never knowingly sanctioned or allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers is simply not credible. As you know, I have multiple document and information requests pending with various components of the Justice Department. Unfortunately, however, it appears that senior Department officials are not allowing the components to respond fully and directly.

Please provide written answers to the following questions by no later than April 20, 2011:

1. Do you stand by the assertion in the Department's reply that the ATF whistleblower allegations are ``false'' and specifically that ATF did not sanction or otherwise knowingly allow the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers? If so, please explain why in light of the mounting evidence to the contrary.

2. Will you commit to providing the Senate Judiciary Committee with documents, or access to documents, simultaneously with the

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House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform? If not, please explain why not.

If you have any questions regarding this request, please have your staff contact Jason Foster at (202) 224-5225. Thank you for your prompt attention these important issues.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley, Ranking Member.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: atf; banglist; ericholder; grassley; gunwalker; holder; prosecuteholderpdq
Will we see any prosecutions of ATF management? I sincerely hope so.
1 posted on 04/16/2011 7:18:12 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Thanks for posting this!


2 posted on 04/16/2011 7:45:22 AM PDT by tsowellfan (http://www.cafenetamerica.com)
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To: marktwain
If an FFL sells a firearm to a straw purchaser whom porbably has a bogus ID of a real person with real numbers, how in the hell will the ATF trace the weapon? If the weapon goes South of the Border how in the hell will the ATF trace the weapon even if it was bought by a straw purchaser whom actually used his own ID?

This is a bogus operation that is actually aimed at second amendment rights. I truly believe that the ATF (at the top) wanted these arms to be used in crimes and thus try to pass laws that infringe on second amendment rights.

The ATF has the blood of the border patrol on their hands.

If this did not go to the top of the ATF, Holder would have already thrown an underling under the political and legal bus. No supervisor in the ATF that is in his right mind would launch an operation like this without approval from the top.

Legally any supervisor that did this could be prosecuted and in jail for the rest of their lives. Five years for each count would be about 8000 years in jail. Unless the supervisor was absolutely insane, this goes to the top i.e. Holder and or Obama.

Most of the weapons that are used in crime in Mexico come from third world arms dealers and stolen weapons from the Mexican Military. They are already full auto and would require no modifications.

3 posted on 04/16/2011 7:51:51 AM PDT by cpdiii (Deckhand, Roughneck, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist, Iconoclast: THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR.)
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To: marktwain

Two things ... up in the article, someone claims neither holder nor obama authorized a change in policy. If I run a gang of thugs and make it known that I want cookies for dinner, should I be surprised to learn that the cookie store got robbed ... and that Oreo’s are on the menu tonight?

The other thing is that “justice department” should appear in quotes until further notice.

A footnote ... holder, obama, “justice department” do not deserve capitalization.


4 posted on 04/16/2011 7:59:13 AM PDT by RobinOfKingston (An election is not a (national) suicide pact.)
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To: cpdiii

“Legally any supervisor that did this could be prosecuted and in jail for the rest of their lives.”

The same goes for Ron Horiuchi in the Weaver case. Following orders is no defense, at least it wasn’t at Nuremburg or Me Lai. The only people that get away with these things are people working for Democrats.


5 posted on 04/16/2011 8:01:54 AM PDT by A Strict Constructionist (Oligarchy...never vote for the Ivy League candidate.)
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To: cpdiii

“Legally any supervisor that did this could be prosecuted and in jail for the rest of their lives.”

The same goes for Ron Horiuchi in the Weaver case. Following orders is no defense, at least it wasn’t at Nuremburg or Me Lai. The only people that get away with these things are people working for Democrats.


6 posted on 04/16/2011 8:02:02 AM PDT by A Strict Constructionist (Oligarchy...never vote for the Ivy League candidate.)
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To: cpdiii
If an FFL sells a firearm to a straw purchaser whom porbably has a bogus ID of a real person with real numbers, how in the hell will the ATF trace the weapon?

The ATF knew full-well that nobody was going to reveal the actual serial numbers of firearms found in Mexico....when has that ever happened?

Therefore, once a large number of Mexican firearms were being traced back to the US, Holder and Obama would have their case for more gun control.

Yes, a few dealers would squeal about the straw purchases, but the ATF, DOJ and MSM would portray them as part of the problem, as unable to prove their case (no serial numbers) and ignored by the media.

7 posted on 04/16/2011 8:50:15 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (Too many conservatives urge retreat when the war of politics doesn't go their way.)
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To: RobinOfKingston
"The other thing is that “justice department” should appear in quotes until further notice."

My tagline agrees -- in principle -- with you...

8 posted on 04/16/2011 9:06:51 AM PDT by TXnMA (America's most Orwellian oxymoronic acronym: "DOJ"...)
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To: marktwain
Prosecute Holder asap for Accessory To Murder then ship his sorry butt off to Leavenworth so he can sit with 'his people' for 25 to Life.
9 posted on 04/16/2011 10:01:10 AM PDT by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits [A.Einstein])
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To: Erik Latranyi
"The ATF knew full-well that nobody was ever going to reveal the actual serial numbers of firearms found in Mexico..."

Then...

"Therefore, once a large number of Mexican firearms were being traced back to the US..."

Gee, do you see the fallacy of any argument you may come up with?

Once you make conflicting statements, you veracity is suspect.

I learned that on TV.

10 posted on 04/16/2011 10:56:57 AM PDT by diogenes ghost
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To: diogenes ghost
Gee, do you see the fallacy of any argument you may come up with?

It is not my argument, but Obama/Holder/Calderon's argument.

You see, while the Mexican and US Governments will say that thousands of firearms discovered in Mexico were traced back to the US, those same governments would never reveal the actual serial numbers of those firearms for independent verification.

Therefore, both the Mexican and US governments could claim that the "traced" firearms had nothing in common with the "few" firearms that dealers were forced to sell. The governments would claim that those "few" firearms allowed those governments to uncover a bigger gun-running scheme.

Obama/Holder/Calderon would have their proof needed to call for more gun control.

The MSM would never question the veracity of the government claim.

You and I would know it was a setup, but nobody could prove it.

It was the death of a US Border Agent, Brian Terry, that caused some to start breaking the silence. Had it not been for that unfortunate death, this may have worked for the liberals.

11 posted on 04/16/2011 1:08:39 PM PDT by Erik Latranyi (Too many conservatives urge retreat when the war of politics doesn't go their way.)
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