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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: macquire

Mark my words..This goes ALL THE WAY to the top...Bambi himself. The buck stops there!


21 posted on 07/06/2011 3:54:51 PM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: chemicalman

...and stays out of Ft Marcy Park.....


22 posted on 07/06/2011 3:55:48 PM PDT by Feckless (I was trained by the US Government to Kill Commies and Radical Moo-slims. Now ain't that irOnic?)
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To: NRG1973

I believe Fast and Furious was the name the ATF designated to the program for internal correspondence. Gunwalker was something the justice department used to describe it in their communications.


23 posted on 07/06/2011 3:56:32 PM PDT by macquire
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To: macquire
Read the letter from Issa and my guess Holder's first phone call, after cleaning his shorts, was to call his old buddy Bill Clinton.

He knows Obama will at some point HAVE to toss him under the yellow bus

Bill is an old hand manipulating a scandal

I wonder how the Clinton's will work this scandal into more power over Obama

24 posted on 07/06/2011 3:57:11 PM PDT by Popman (Obama. First Marxist to turn a five year Marxist plan into a 4 year administration.)
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To: truthguy

I’m sure they will get right on it./s


25 posted on 07/06/2011 3:57:30 PM PDT by MsLady (Be the kind of woman that when you get up in the morning, the devil says, "Oh crap, she's UP !!")
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To: blueplum
Look, the civil service laws had nothing to do with a NEED for reassignment. In fact, civil service laws bind the hands of management when it comes to that very question.

They can't just send someone off for a detail for 6 months and then to another detail and so on and so forth ~ WITHOUT taking a permanent personnel action ~ that is a formal reassignment to something.

I know the laws in that regard very well having DESTROYED the old system with a successful appeal 33 years ago.

The idea that you can just transfer people around informally and kind of "lose them in the system" is simply not legitimate. Eventually they will be tracked down ~ if only by the payroll system!

Melson knew this ~ he also knows that everyone who participated in this little scheme ~ the smallest part of it ~ will be FIRED eventually, their reputations shredded beyond repair, their credit ratings dissolved before their very eyes.

Some of them might even be brought up on murder charges.

26 posted on 07/06/2011 3:57:57 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Nachum

Might be a good time to start official procedings on impeachment if they don’t start cooperating. Impeachment might be the only way to get the media to report on this latest ‘high crime’ by the Obama Administration as well.


27 posted on 07/06/2011 3:58:10 PM PDT by penelopesire (Let The Congressional Hearings Begin!)
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To: Round 9

This is international. NOTHING this big happens without full knowledge of, and permission from, the whitehouse. NOTHING. obama signed off on this. There is no way the DOJ or ATF could have done this on their own, let alome apprropriate money from other government agencies.


28 posted on 07/06/2011 3:58:48 PM PDT by MestaMachine (Sarah Palin is the mirror by which evil reflects back upon itself until consumed out of existence)
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To: macquire
For once I agree with the Mexican Govt... extradite all the SOBs.

And Eric, you might want to make recordings of your farts cause after a few months in a Mex Prison "Senorita Erica" they'll sound like curtains fluttering in an open window.

29 posted on 07/06/2011 3:59:19 PM PDT by Feckless (I was trained by the US Government to Kill Commies and Radical Moo-slims. Now ain't that irOnic?)
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To: macquire

NB that assisting those who are straw-buyers of guns running them into Mexico (eg, giving them money or other material assistance) qualifies this activity as “international terrorism” as defined in USC Title 18.

This is not a small thing. Just watching passively whilst straw buyers come in and then trying to trace where the guns go afterwards is a known and upheld law enforcement practice.

But if the DOJ/DEA/et al gave any material assistance.... the Congress should use their platform to accuse Holder (et al) of taking part in international terrorism. And then they should offer to hear from Mexican law enforcement in sworn testimony.


30 posted on 07/06/2011 3:59:46 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: muawiyah

Obama knows all he has to do is buy off the Mexican Government with Bribe money (YOUR MONEY), and it will go away....


31 posted on 07/06/2011 3:59:53 PM PDT by tcrlaf (You can only lead a lib to the Truth, you can't make it think...)
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To: NRG1973
Now I'm confused...how is this program different than Gunwalker?

It certainly is confusing. My interpretation:

Project Gunrunner - Started in GWB administration, had some success

Operation Fast and Furious - Offshoot/part of Project Gunrunner, re-purposed to support Obama's lie that 90% of the cartels' guns were coming from US

Project Gunwalker - a blogger's nickname for Operation Fast and Furious which plays on the original project's Gunrunner name and the fact that US agents allowed/facilitated the guns walking across the border

32 posted on 07/06/2011 4:00:29 PM PDT by Bob
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To: chemicalman

...stay out of airplanes and away from bridges and tall buildings....


33 posted on 07/06/2011 4:01:56 PM PDT by pointsal
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To: NRG1973
Now I'm confused...how is this program different than Gunwalker?

Project Gunrunner, often referred to with the sarcastic term "Gunwalker" is an ATF program that started in the mid 2000's. FFL's (Federal Firearms Licensees) in the border areas were asked to report suspicious transactions and those weapons would be entered into an ATF tracking database. When possible the suspected straw purchaser was tracked down and arrested.

Operation Fast and Furious is an offshoot of the Gunrunner program based in Phoenix. It was essentially an expansion of the Gunrunner MO with the stated purpose of tracking weapons to drug cartels. The difference with F&F is that ATF didn't arrest anyone. The weapons got sold, were entered in the database and accounted for only when they showed up at a crime scene....such as the shooting of Brian Terry.

34 posted on 07/06/2011 4:03:48 PM PDT by Tucsonican
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To: HereInTheHeartland

If Grassley follows it as high as it goes....You can color me blown away!!


35 posted on 07/06/2011 4:04:13 PM PDT by Osage Orange (MOLON LABE)
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To: Don Corleone

“Mark my words..This goes ALL THE WAY to the top...Bambi himself. The buck stops there!”

Holder will fall on his sword and take all the blame after securing a secret deal with 0bama to be pardoned just before zero leaves office.


36 posted on 07/06/2011 4:04:29 PM PDT by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: DManA
I believe this has achieved full “Gate” status.

Fast and Furious-gate.

Nope.

This will start a whole new cycle of political scandal monikers.

The -gate is dead. The new hotness for the next two generations will be -walker.

Nobody died as a direct result of Watergate. Gunwalker is worse. Far, far worse.

"What did the President know, and when did he know it?" is still applicable, however.

37 posted on 07/06/2011 4:05:23 PM PDT by filbert (More filbert at http://www.medary.com--GAME ON!!!)
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To: Osage Orange

Grassley has been doing some good things recently. He seemed pretty adamant in the interview.


38 posted on 07/06/2011 4:05:55 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Real hope and change comes in January 2013)
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To: CincyRichieRich
Holder can be subpoenaed by Congress and failing full cooperation, can be held in contempt. That means federal marshalls will arrest him and detain him until he cooperates. If obama had the seriously defective judgment to try to protect him, or even better pardon him, it would be the end of the regime. Americans have gotten used to eating a lot of sh*t from these ratbastards, but I don't think they'd swallow this one.
39 posted on 07/06/2011 4:06:19 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: macquire

MSM will do everything in its power to “embargo” (bury) this.


40 posted on 07/06/2011 4:07:33 PM PDT by bwc2221
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