Posted on 07/13/2011 2:45:33 AM PDT by markomalley
House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, ripped Attorney General Eric Holder again in another Monday letter.
The top Republicans investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Operation Fast and Furious also blasted Holder for allegations that he allowed his Justice Department to skew potential witnesses by prepping them with access to background information.
In this new letter, Issa and Grassley name 12 senior Justice Department political officials they believe may have been involved in the decision which allowed guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. They asked Holder to provide all records relating to communications between those 12 individuals regarding Operation Fast and Furious.
“As our investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program,” Grassley and Issa wrote to Holder. “Therefore it is necessary to review communications between and among these senior officials.”
Obama administration officials Issa and Grassley named in their letter were:
–Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco
–Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein
–Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Keeney
–Associate Deputy Attorney General Matt Axelrod
–Former Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed Siskel
–Gary Grindler in the Office of the Attorney General
–Brad Smith, in the office of the Deputy Attorney General
–Kevin Carwile, section chief of the Capital Case Unit
–Joseph Cooley, in the Criminal Fraud Section
The records Issa and Grassley are requesting include emails, memos, briefing papers and handwritten notes. They also requested any records concerning any large weapons trafficking cases within ATF or in Phoenix. The deadline they gave Holder is July 18 at noon. (Grassley, Issa slam Holder again: Are you skewing witnesses?)
Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner were ATF programs the administration aimed at stopping guns from getting into the hands of criminals in Mexico.
With Operation Fast and Furious, Obama administration officials permitted “straw purchasers” to buy guns and then to sell them to Mexican drug cartels with the goal of tracking the flow of arms to determine how the market functioned. The program backfired with criminals ending up getting guns.
Most egregiously, two U.S. Border Patrol agents were killed by drug cartels using Operation Fast and Furious guns.
FOR REFERENCE:
David Codrea:
MISCONCEPTIONS...
Reference Links in Order:
Nachumlist Gunruunner
I'm for impeachment right about here.
It might be interesting to have someone spell out what exactly the original game plan was, and how each week...it just kept changing....to where none of the major players what was going on.
The fact that you’ve got around twenty different national police or law enforcement organizations....all working on their little piece of the pie....might actually be finally exposed.
Too much talk and not enough action——why not get a special prosecutor on the case?
I heard a news snippet yesterday and some snarky reporter made a comment about Issa being a bad Car Dealership owner. Here we go again, slamming the messenger of a very important tale. This story is being stalled and not getting the traction it should receive. It’s like preaching to the choir. It’s seems all I do in spare time is “Write my Congressman”. Sheesh!
They have to keep pulling the thread before the sweater finally unravels. These twelve names and their correspondence is part of that. Is Holder going to be a recipient of one of those e-mails? Is then Obama a recipient of one of Holder’s e-mails? Step by step, Issa & Grassley get closer and closer to the explosive truth.
Ping to you on this smouldering issue. Issa and Grassley are grinding the Obama Administration down. When this issue breaks into the public’s awareness, right around six to eight months from now it will be a gift to whoever is the GOP nominee.
5.56mm
I’m not positive, but it seems to me that Drudge has pretty much avoided reporting on this issue. I wonder why?
It is a mystery. He had a story on this up about a month ago and has not posted anything since. IMO Drudge takes a blacked out by the media such as this story and makes it front and center. It is a shame. We have a whistle blower that was fired and the ATF director singing about Holder and Obama. It is the story of a lifetime. It makes watergate look tame.Maybe Drudge will put the sirene up when Obama is impeached. But then again Obama has no character so if everyone were to call for his resignation or an impeachment trial he would ignore it and continue ruining our country.
You are correct,and I don't understand it either. It isn't as if he has no links from his tipline.
Hey, weren’t F&F hearings scheduled to renew today???
God bless Sen. Grassley and Cong. Issa. These two men are bulldogs on this issue.
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