Posted on 06/25/2011 4:58:09 AM PDT by XHogPilot
As whistleblowers continue to blow up the idea that this was a well organized operation with good oversight, even the White House is perpetuating the myth that the Justice Department is cooperating with the investigation.
On June 15, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, held another hearing into the failed “Operation Fast and Furious” program, which has also been dubbed the “Gunwalker” scandal. “Gunwalker” allowed literally thousands of weapons to walk across the border into Mexico.
The guns, which included semi-automatic AK-47 variants and Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, were purchased by straw buyers in Arizona, who then allegedly passed them on to Mexican drug cartels.
Issa issued subpoenas to the Department of Justice several months ago, demanding to know exactly who had authorized a program he called “felony stupid.”
At least two of the firearms the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) allowed to walk were found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose family testified earlier in the week.
To date, DoJ has refused to comply with those requests, citing an ongoing investigation.
This is an assertion Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) both claim is false.
In a sharply worded letter earlier this year, Issa and Grassley, who is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said such an excuse for failing to comply with a Congressional subpoena might hold if the committee and DoJ were conducting concurrent investigations. But they pointed out that Congress is investigating DoJ, not gun traffickers.
In the meantime, the ATF and DoJ have both maintained no guns were allowed to walk, which was refuted by testimony during the hearing.
“We monitored as they purchased handguns, AK-47 variants and .50 caliber rifles, almost daily at times,” said John Dodson, an ATF special agent in Phoenix, during his testimony. “Rather than conduct any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals, we wrote reports but nothing more.”
As whistleblowers continue to blow up the idea that this was a well organized operation with good oversight, even the White House is perpetuating the myth that DoJ is cooperating with the investigation.
In a White House press briefing on Friday, ABC News’ Jake Tapper had this exchange with White House press secretary Jay Carney:
TAPPER: Does the administration or the president have any personal reaction to the investigative report from the House investigative committee upon the fast — the ATF’s “Fast and Furious” program and all the blowback from the operation?
CARNEY: Well, I don’t have anything specific like a quote from the president. I can tell you that, as the president has already said, he did not know or — about or authorize this operation. But the Department of Justice has said repeatedly that fighting criminal activity along the Southwest Border, including the illegal trafficking of guns to Mexico, has been and is a priority of the department.
The attorney general has also made clear that he takes the allegations that have been made — or raised, rather – very seriously, and that is why he has asked the inspector general to investigate the matter. It is also why you see the department cooperating with the Oversight Committee. So this investigation is ongoing and I really can’t comment beyond that.
TAPPER: Has the president heard from the Mexican authorities about it?
CARNEY: Not that I’m aware of. I believe the president made a comment about this that I was just referencing when the Mexican president was here.
TAPPER: Did he say something then?
CARNEY: So I don’t — I mean, I — it certainly came up in that room when it was –
TAPPER: No — but I mean specifically this week, with the — with the report being issued.
CARNEY: I don’t believe so. I’m not aware of any conversation like that.
TAPPER: OK.
PJM asked sources close to the committee about this assertion that the administration was cooperating with the investigation and was told this was manifestly not the case.
“That’s saying something we’ve been very clear about since the beginning is not the case,” one source said. “They have not complied with our subpoena. The only reason we have the information we do and know what we know is because ATF whistleblowers came forward. If it was up to the Department of Justice, we wouldn’t have nearly the information we do now.”
It was also made clear that Issa is not backing off on this investigation.
“This is just the beginning,” a source said.
So much for the most transparent administration in history.
It’s also becoming increasingly clear that the administration would like to find someone to take the fall.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Kenneth Melson, acting director of ATF, could be ousted by DoJ as early as next week.
Emails released during the hearing show Melson was intimately involved in managing the operation, which had both ATF agents and gun dealers worried.
President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder continue to maintain that they knew nothing about an operation which had potential international repercussions until CBS broke the story in February.
Whatever the truth, and it’s possible we will never know how high up this actually goes, it does strain credulity to believe that at the very least Holder was unaware of the operation.
It all comes back to the age-old questions: Who knew what, and when did they know it? Holder also needs to explain why his department continues to stonewall legitimate Congressional inquiry.
More evidence that the U.S. govt conspired to deprive U.S. citizens of the 2nd amendment by smuggling or allowing the smuggling of firearms into Mexico to arm the cartels. This would cause a blowback against gunowners and gun stores in the U.S. It failed because they blundered, as usual. I wonder if the Mexican govt was complicit in this endeavor. If not, this administration committed an act of war against Mexico.
Resident Obama, Holder, Clinton and his entire regime are corrupt teflon cronies. This screw up will fade away like Mena, AK drug running did w/ Clinton.
Don’t forget Hillary’s small fortune in stock trading, Vince Foster, Whitewater, Waco, American tech to the Chinese for cash to the DNC, Monica Lewinsky, The whole Clinton body count, Obama’s eligibility to be POTUS, Violation of the War Powers act, ect.
There is no rule of law in the US anymore.
Congress might as well appoint our halfrican hitler to be chancellor like Von Hindenburg did. He is already acting like our Furher, and our leaders don’t care.
Want to be more outraged?
In the BATFE report on Fast & Furious, after thousands of straw purchases, after thousands of observations, after thousands of reports being filed.....guess what?
The BATFE could not find a direct link between ANY of the straw buyers and ANY of the Mexican drug cartels!
Yes, thousands of weapons lost, hundreds of human lives (American and Mexican) snuffed out and the BATFE could not even make a single link between one of the straw buyers and one of the drug cartels!
Ongoing investigations, ya know...
You know this is all a scheme to halt gun sales.
American guns are slipping across the south border enableing drug syndicates to terrorize us and them.
Some of these fools need to go to jail for this. Course none will.
Our government is operated as a criminal enterprise.
Shall we debate gay marriage?
Of course, if this was a GOP POTUS it would be daily top of the line newsprint and talking heads would be exploding all over newsrooms
Just shows us again how deeply invested in Obama and corrupted our "free press" has become, more as an arm of the DNC
If the truth be known, at minimum Holder should resign to save Obama ass, but true to their nature the ONLY thing that matters to these vermin is power, not principles
Obama is engineering an ever ripening economic disaster. The script is evil.
ping
Martial Law. Other than that, you are spot on.
>The BATFE could not find a direct link between ANY of the straw buyers and ANY of the Mexican drug cartels!<
Because that was NEVER the intent of this charade. They told agents to back off their surveillance after the guns were transfered to someone from the original straw buyer.
This is where Issa has something tangible to go after the head of ATF and Holder.
Holder because no one from ATF could ever authorize this type of investigation on their own. Most people do not realize that almost EVERY investigation on a federal level goes through the US attorneys office at every stage for approval. The US attorneys make the decisions in federal investigations as to how things will proceed.
No local Assistant US attorney would allow such a blatant diversion from SOP for this. They had to go as high as they could. It would have eventually ended up on Holders door step. It would have HAD to since their intent was to allow it into the hands of “Mexican Drug Cartels”
AKA - NARCO terrorists.
This also involves Homeland security at it’s highest levels.
The final statement I would like to make I will pose in a question to you.
Since these guns were
a: “walking” through straw purchasers to Mexican drug cartels in Mexico - a “foreign country”
b: where the pResident had expressed great concern over diplomatic relations
c: considering the “foreign relations” policy and implications of allowing thousands of guns to “walk” to these terrorists.
Is it reasonable to assume that the head of the Department of Justice, who holds no authority over investigations outside of the United States would have gone to another person to authorize this?
I wonder WHO that might be?? What do you think??
>One would think even the liberal media would sink their teeth into this scandal enough to draw some blood. To me it seems simply just too juicy to pass up at least to get a few meaty bites
Of course, if this was a GOP POTUS it would be daily top of the line newsprint and talking heads would be exploding all over newsrooms
Just shows us again how deeply invested in Obama and corrupted our “free press” has become, more as an arm of the DNC<
See:
Gunwalker is 1,000 times worse than Watergate, and gets one-thousandth of the MSM attention.
Some people might say Clinton because the State Department gets involved in these types of international situations.
However, the BATFE attache in Mexico was not told about Fast & Furious.....meaning the Obama Admin wanted to keep it hidden from everyone in Mexico.
Of course, this rises to Obama's desk. I do not have faith that he will get nailed for it.
Here is a thought to leave you with:
Since we know the socialists are in bed with the islamists, fomenting the turmoil in the Middle East, I think this may have been part of a program to arm friendly socialists south of the border.
Worldwide turmoil is the goal, after all.
I think people are fed up with RINOS enough to make another third party split next year if the GOP nominates Romney. There would be an election in that case because the democraps would see an easy victory.
If by some miracle a true conservative uniter gets the GOP nomination, this regime will be smelling defeat. Soros would crash the economy, bringing about martial law and indefinitely suspended elections.
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