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“Fast and Furious” Blows Sky-High
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/07/fast-and-furious-blows-sky-high.php ^ | 7/6/11 | John Hinderaker

Posted on 07/06/2011 3:29:47 PM PDT by macquire

This morning, there was a stunning development in Congress’s investigation of the Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” gun-running program: it was revealed that on July 4, Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Obama administration’s intended fall guy in the scandal, broke ranks with his superiors. Without their knowledge, he gave an interview to Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, accompanied only by his personal attorney. While a transcript of that interview is not yet public, it is clear that he blew the whistle on senior officials in the Justice Department.

(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bafte; banglist; batf; corruption; democrats; doj; dojisajoke; fastandfurious; federalcriminals; govtabuse; gunwalker; holder; impeachablecrimes; issa; kennethmelson; mexico; obama
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To: muawiyah; truthguy; MsLady; clintonh8r

Mainstream media IS covering this. Here are just a few links:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20077264-10391695.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303544604576429902386223520.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/alcohol-tobacco-firearms-chief-ken-melson-clean-atf/story?id=14009585

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/atf-director-testifies-on-bungled-gun-operation/2011/07/06/gIQAhy3d0H_story.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/06/137650378/atf-chief-tells-congress-what-he-knows-about-fast-and-furious

Let’s be fair if we want others to.


121 posted on 07/06/2011 6:17:13 PM PDT by Jedidah
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To: macquire

Ah yes, Eric is trying to make this other group of darker skinned people his people too. ... Oh wait!


122 posted on 07/06/2011 6:17:33 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: Nachum

Nachum if your list is a Fast and Furious list, could you put me on it?

THIS IS GREAT..!! Is there hope? Maybe? Whoopee..!!!


123 posted on 07/06/2011 6:19:59 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: Popman
Issa has to know a lot more than he's letting on. The WH and the DOJ have to be pooping bricks because they don't know exactly who's been talking, what they've said and who they've implicated. This whole escape is definitely an Obama ‘under the radar’ move to enable him to pull more of his gun-grabbing agendas. When you are deceitful and underhanded things eventually blow up in your face.
124 posted on 07/06/2011 6:21:11 PM PDT by JPG (Elect Sarah Palin in '12. America won't get another chance.)
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To: macquire
Bttt.

5.56mm

125 posted on 07/06/2011 6:23:52 PM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: macquire
TWEEEEEEEEEEEET!
126 posted on 07/06/2011 6:27:33 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Hawk)
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To: FlyingEagle

Excellent info, FlyingEagle. Thanks very much, and so true. I think he showed his hand too quickly.

Ann Coulter said it best when the compared Democrat and Republican “scandals”.

What Democrat would ever try to dream up a plan that would provide arms and supplies to one side of a war between two enemies of our country which might cause greater destruction to both, possibly open the way for hostage negotiations and at the same time, raise money to be sent to freedom fighters in Central America being denied aid by liberals who were rooting for the statist anti-American Cuban-loving Marxists to win out.

Liberal scandals involve stealing money from taxpayers to line their own filthy pockets, or in this case, move the country towards banning gun ownership.


127 posted on 07/06/2011 6:28:41 PM PDT by rlmorel ("Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions." Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: Jedidah
BS ~ we are being fair but the WarshPost, for example, seeks to portray it as an investigative ploy that went wrong.

The evidence suggests strongly that the purpose was two fold ~ to send firearms to favored narcotrafficantes, AND to build evidence to back up ATF (and DOJ/Holder/Obama) sponsored stories of last year about weapons flowing from the USA to Mexico.

So, no, it didn't just turn bad ~ it was bad from the beginning.

128 posted on 07/06/2011 6:30:52 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

“combinations of Free Republic and Mexico “

Well here is another. Hey guys; keep your mess on your side of the border.

Is that as good as emailing my Congressman here in the US?


129 posted on 07/06/2011 6:30:57 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Real hope and change comes in January 2013)
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To: MestaMachine

Lautenburg has blood on his hands with this one.


130 posted on 07/06/2011 6:36:00 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Renderofveils

>>Is “Fast and Furious” the new name for the program called “Gunwalker”?<<

>They are two separate programs.<

No, they are one in the same.


131 posted on 07/06/2011 6:39:26 PM PDT by Munz (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)
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To: NRG1973

>Now I’m confused...how is this program different than Gunwalker?<

They are the same program.


132 posted on 07/06/2011 6:40:16 PM PDT by Munz (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)
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To: mojito
The list of people who could be prosecuted could be quite large and the charges would be profound. It starts with aiding and abetting the sale and transfer of firearms to persons who intended to take them across the border into Mexico. This would violate Federal law, and violate international law. When it was first learned that a United States Law Enforcement Officer was killed, and that an instrument in the death could have been one of the weapons which was allowed to "walk," EVERY PERSON who had knowledge of the operation was obligated to report what they knew to judicial authorities. Anyone who didn't blow the whistle became an accessory to any number of felonies before the killing, and if they remained silent after the killing, they became accessories to murder after the fact.

Now that it is known that there are multiple agencies involved and personnel in those other agencies didn't report what they knew, there is a massive obstruction of justice, and a coordinated criminal conspiracy being engaged in by Federal Employees who should know better.

It strains all common sense and any concept of credibility that anyone involved could not have foreseen that some of the weapons being "walked" into Mexico were likely to be used by Drug Cartel members against Mexican citizens, Police, Military members, possibly politicians, and against U.S. citizens, U.S. Law Enforcement members and possibly eventually, even members of the U.S. Military. I buy into what someone else posted, in that this operation constituted an act of war against Mexico. Mexico is fully within its rights to demand extradition to Mexico for trial of all persons involved in approving, financing, actively participating in, and consciously engaging in the obstruction of justice in this operation.

133 posted on 07/06/2011 6:40:27 PM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: Osage Orange; Popman
At some point, it will be too big to contain and the MSM will have to start asking the much harder questions.

The WH posted a birth certificate on its web site that was the digital equivalent of hand drawn with crayons. The MSM didn't ask any hard questions about that. More to the point, they went to great extremes to defend it and smear those who did question it.

F and F is small potatoes next to that. So.......

134 posted on 07/06/2011 6:41:33 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ( If you can remember the 60s....you weren't really there)
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To: macquire
Two distinctly different programs. Under the Bush admin Gunwalker was used to nab agents of the cartels trying to buy arms in AZ, NM, etc. but these arms were tracked electronically and not allowed out of the country. The Fast and Furious program went too far under Holder's administering it, allowing weapons into Mexico.

One can only guess why Holder would want arms from US dealers killing Hispanics in Mexico, but the propaganda barry bassturd's admin fed to the whoreish media about most of the arms in cartels coming from America might be a clue as to what Holder and company were trying to accomplish.

Conflating the two distinctly different programs is now the talking points approach to connect this to Bush and absolve the criminal democrats of their crimes. Don't help them establish this blatant lie.

135 posted on 07/06/2011 6:41:54 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: Travis McGee
Gunwalker (aka F&F) = Watergate X Irancontra.

Or maybe the 1924 Democratic Nomination Scandal:

Trouble for the Democrats

In the early months of the campaign season Democrats eagerly anticipated recapturing the presidency, especially since President Harding, a well-loved Republican, had died and the Teapot Dome scandal promised to taint the Republican Party. The Democrats' hopes waned as Coolidge successfully distanced himself from the scandal, and their leading candidate, William McAdoo—President Wilson's treasury secretary and son-in-law—became more closely associated with the scandal, as well as with the Ku Klux Klan. Democratic success in 1924 depended on party unity, but Democrats could not find a single issue that could bring together the party's disparate constituents. Prohibition loomed as one divisive issue. "Wets" and "dries" each had a candidate who shared their views. The increasingly prominent Ku Klux Klan attracted many Democrats but repelled many others. As was evident in the 1922 election, Democrats were gaining voters in large urban areas. These new urbanités, however, clashed with the party's established rural base. ... .

On 24 June 1924 delegates assembled at Madison Square Garden in New York, a controversial host city given the heightened cultural division displayed during the primaries. Dry delegates never passed up an opportunity to express outrage at New Yorkers' flagrant violation of Prohibition, and the city supplied endless opportunities for criticism.

The Platform and the Ku Klux Klan

The Democrats' platform opened with the lofty statement that the party stood for "equal rights to all, and special privilege to none." Moreover, they pronounced their commitment to "human rights" to be above the Republicans' shallow commitment to "material things." Yet the Democratic platform lacked specific recommendations that would give substance to their rhetoric. William Jennings Bryan managed to slip a bit of radicalism into the otherwise bland political document by adding calls for federal aid to education, "vigorous enforcement of existing laws governing monopoly," government control of natural re-sources, and a public referendum on any declaration of war, The bulk of excitement surrounding the platform, however, came from debate over an excluded plank. Smith's supporters, wanting to embarrass McAdoo for accepting Klan support, proposed a plank denouncing the Klan by name rather than accepting a milder condemnation of efforts "to arouse religious or racial dissension." McAdoo forces argued that Smith's plank would destroy the harmony of the convention, and delegates defeated it by a margin of one vote, the closest in convention history.

THE FIRST RADIO COVERAGE OF POLITICAL CONVENTIONS

When Republicans and Democrats gathered for their 1924 national conventions, Americans nationwide heard the proceedings from gavel to gavel for the first time. Carried live on radio, both conventions were heard by millions. In these first convention broadcasts the new entertainment medium simply eavesdropped on the events, recording them as a bystander. An editor for The Nation noted that convention speakers addressed themselves exclusively to the delegates in the halls, as if they were unaware of their national audience. Conventioneers continued their traditional practice of demonstrating for their candidates even though radio could not effectively convey the excitement of these demonstrations. Lamenting that politicians had not developed a "radio-oratory," the editor hoped this shortcoming would be remedied before the 1928 campaign began. Some observers realized that once the novelty of radio had faded, listeners' patience with forty-seven-minute demonstrations that produced only muffled noise would wane. Thus, political strategists in the future would have to learn to integrate the new technology into their campaign plans and engage radio listeners directly.

The vote on the anti-Klan plank foreshadowed the difficulty the divided convention had in selecting a candidate, but still no one seemed prepared for the lengthy stalemate that ensued. The Democrats' procedural rule requiring that a nominee receive two-thirds of the delegates' votes to win the nomination further complicated an already complex situation. McAdoo and Smith had similar strategies. Each planned to understate their support initially and then increase his vote total slowly. The field was not limited to McAdoo and Smith. Delegates nominated and supported fourteen favorite sons and dark-horse candidates. Instead of dropping out as usual, many of the other candidates—each hoping to become a compromise choice in the face of a deadlocked convention—remained in the balloting, which began on Monday, 30 June. By the end of the week there had been seventy-seven rounds of balloting and neither McAdoo nor Smith was close to the 733 votes he needed to win the nomination. Several attempts to break the deadlock with rule changes were all defeated. The candidates' strategies reflected their escalating frustration. Each side began to hold out for his opponent's delegates to leave town. Balloting resumed the next Monday, 7 July. Increasingly, it became clear that delegates would not accept McAdoo or Smith, and they would have to choose a nominee from among the alternate candidates. Finally, on the 103rd ballot, after nine days of voting, the convention nominated John W. Davis, who had been the third-place candidate through most of the balloting. Davis, a cultivated gentleman and corporate lawyer, had served as ambassador to Great Britain in Wilson's administration. While the eleventh-hour decision was hardly a victory for anyone, Davis's nomination represented a strategic win for Smith's forces because Davis had the support of urban politicians.

The Vice-Presidential Candidate

Choosing Davis's running mate from among thirteen candidates, the delegates nominated Gov. Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska, brother of William Jennings Bryan, for the vice presidency with the minimum two-thirds vote. Bryan's nomination seemed to be an attempt to mollify the radical fringe of the party, and many dissatisfied delegates booed and hissed when Bryan's victory was announced.

136 posted on 07/06/2011 6:42:24 PM PDT by archy (I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!)
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To: CPO retired

congress has the power to subpoena and would send that to Marshall’s. They can hold Holder in contempt and he can’t stop the Marshall’s.

But yes technically they do fall under justice.


137 posted on 07/06/2011 6:47:09 PM PDT by Munz (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)
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To: Osage Orange; Popman
At some point, it will be too big to contain and the MSM will have to start asking the much harder questions.

Really,,,?? The MSM asks the harder questions?

Since when? At the point that Democrat Party realists come to believe that trying for a second term may cost the Democrats the election, much as four years of Jimmy Carter gave us eight years of Ronald Reagan plus four years of George Bush.

And, when that point is reached, a Democratic Obama alternative would have to be advanced. And Hillary still has her supporters, particularly among the New York-and Washington based national media where she served as New York's US Senator.

138 posted on 07/06/2011 6:48:51 PM PDT by archy (I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!)
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To: HereInTheHeartland

Actually it’s better because the Mexican politicians who follow FR get the word. Your Congresscritter is NEVER going to complain to them herself.


139 posted on 07/06/2011 6:50:04 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Jedidah; muawiyah; MsLady; clintonh8r
Oh, Please! On everyone of the sites you listed I had to struggle to find the story. It was not on the front page of any of these sites and was not in the headline section on any one of them. I saw more stories about a Grizzly Bear kill than I did about this story. I've not read the text of these sites because I haven't had the time.

The notion that the MSM is giving this story the exposure it should is preposterous.
140 posted on 07/06/2011 6:50:30 PM PDT by truthguy (Good intentions are not enough.)
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