Posted on 09/22/2011 12:28:38 PM PDT by neverdem
When the Watergate break-ins took place in 1972, President Richard Nixon knew nothing about them. But once he found out, he acted quickly to keep them secret, and it was his role in the cover-up that eventually led to his resignation in August 1974. Excerpts of recorded conversations between figures in the Operation Fast and Furious U.S.-Mexico gunrunning scheme are becoming ominously reminiscent of the 1970s watershed event in American politics.
In the historically monumental Watergate scandal, Nixon’s role in the cover-up was verified when he handed over personal tape recordings of conversations he’d had in the Oval Office on the subject.
That was 1974, and this is 2011, and in an eerie twist of fate, another batch of recordings has turned up that might reveal more about Fast and Furious than the current administration wants anyone to know: In fact, it might create more of a storm than Obama & Co. can weather.
The recordings, which seem to have been made in March 2011, are of conversations between Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Ariz., and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent Hope McAllister. Lone Wolf was one of the gun stores used for Fast and Furious sales to straw purchasers.
Although the recordings have been turned over to congressional investigators and the Inspector General, excerpts that were released to the public make it sound like the gun dealer was extremely concerned that news of Fast and Furious was going to reach a House member or senator who would take action on it.
Howard’s concern arose from a March 9 letter from Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Tex.) and other members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder come clean about Fast and Furious. The House committee had been spurred into action by the testimony of ATF whistle-blower John Dodson.
Of the four excerpts released to the public, the first one best demonstrates the angst of those involved in the operation and the necessity for everyone, including Holder, to be sure their stories matched up:
HOWARD: "[Dodson’s] more toxic than you realize. I can tell you because I asked him, 'How much of this f-----g file did you release?' ”
McALLISTER: "Mmm hmm."
HOWARD: "He said basically the underlying case file. I said, 'Okay, who’d you release it to? F-----g [Sen.] Patrick Leahy!' Okay? Wasn’t just [Sen. Chuck] Grassley, it was Leahy, alright? Leahy, as we both know, has adjourned this inquiry right now, okay, with no plans to reconvene it. So your people were successful to that end." (Italics added.)
McALLISTER: "Right."
HOWARD: "Obviously that’s good. However these idiots from …"
McALLISTER: "… The House?"
HOWARD: "Yeah, and that I don’t know. What is troublesome with this [is] I expected [Rep.] Darrell Issa’s signature to be on this [but] it wasn’t. He’s your biggest thorn. He hates Holder."
McALLISTER: "Yeah. Where’s he out of?"
HOWARD: "Darrell Issa?"
McALLISTER: "California."
HOWARD: "Lamar Smith, you know’s, out of Texas, I don’t know. Holder has to respond to this tomorrow."
McALLISTER: "Yeah, he’s gonna respond."
HOWARD: "I know he is. And I assure you the media isn’t gonna like his response, because basically it’s gonna mirror what he’s told Grassley."
McALLISTER: "Yeah."
HOWARD: "He can’t deviate." (Italics added.)
McALLISTER: "Well if, I mean, I’ve seen a rough copy of what our U.S. attorney here has sent up. Whether or not he has the balls to actually use it or not, I doubt it. But I mean, it’s pretty aggressive. The way I see it, our local U.S. attorney is extremely aggressive. [But] when it gets to D.C. …"
HOWARD: "Who, [Assistant U.S. Attorney] Emory [Hurley]?"
McALLISTER: "No, the U.S. attorney."
HOWARD: "Burke, yeah, used to work under Clinton. …Talking about [Dennis] Burke?"
McALLISTER: "Mmm hmm."
HOWARD: "Yeah, well ..."
McALLISTER: "But the problem is, once it gets to D.C., it just gets … well, you know."
HOWARD: "Discombobulated—that’s a good term for it. Yeah, I get that."
Even from a cold transcription, it’s evident that Howard is as nervous as a cat about Fast and Furious becoming public knowledge. It’s also evident that McAllister is confident of how U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke had handled things, but not very confident about how things will go once everything is shifted to D.C. It is important to note that Burke was the one who tried to cover up the ties between the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Fast and Furious. He retired last month without facing any criminal prosecution for his role in the mess.
Interesting too, is that as Howard wraps up the first excerpt of the recordings, it appears he understood how widespread the federal involvement in Fast and Furious had been. He knew that it wasn’t just the ATF, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI too:
HOWARD: "Let me tell you, you got more people out there now talking about this f-----g thing than anything I've ever seen. … People are not shutting the hell up … and that goes from DHS to f-----g FBI to everybody. I’m hearing it hypothetically on every fringe."
Judging from the tenor of these recordings, particularly the consternation on the part of Howard, these excerpts may only scratch the surface of the immensity of the crimes hidden behind the door marked Fast and Furious.
Nosirreebob, those Mexicans got jails that make the Turks shiver!
There are young people in every federal police agency in Washington and in the various regional and division offices who know something about all of this. They may not know it all but they know something. They need to come over to the side of the angels and get hold of Representative Issa's office and start fessing up and naming names. Else their federal career is going to crash and burn!
Leahy dropped his investigation. He be the first socialist democrat I’d throw in jail. When the full truth of this idealogical political fraud is revealed there will be many heading to sing sing. One thing that’s happened. Obama and Hillary don’t have to “Work under the Radar” any longer on gun control I think they along with Holder and the rest of obama’s commie appointees have been detected and are being tracted right now by the Issa and Grassley radar.
A google news search got About 1,870 results for a news search for "fast and furious" (with the quotes)
The skid marks on Journalism's shorts seem to be handling this is the usual manner: No Bush, No action. Run away!
What guidelines have the Society of Professional "Journalists" given the employees of MSM?
Within days of 9/11 the "Journalists" organization was out saying.. don't you dare mention Muslims and terror in the same article! But if you absolutely must.. then include examples of domestic terrorists like the people opposed to abortion.
—So “Fast and Furious” is nothing more than the cover-up of a third rate burglary, amplified into the “story of the decade”, by the anti-American CommieMedia?—
My take is that the evidence is equally conclusive. The actual crime is several orders of magnitude worse.
“will we see this in MSM?”
The answer to your question is no. There are literally no MSM people willing to investigate this.
Is he singing the Obama song?
“By the anti-Republican American CommieMedia.”
####
I don’t consider the collectivist “Democrats” actual Americans. On multiple fronts and via the deployment of various, truly evil methodologies, they have been working to destroy the United States, as we have known it, for decades.
Thus I felt the “Republican” modifier, unnecessary.
This conversation sounds more like co-conspirators than a lawman and a CI.
I’m going to send an email - that’ll show them.
I emailed Fitzpatrick three times about F&F, so far.
No serious reply from him but I think I got put on another list!;^)
You raised a good point by asking, What the Hell are YOU doing about this?.
I’m fairly certain that the folks following this tragedy here have contacted their political overlords. Sharing any responses received would be an interesting and perhaps enlightening read.
Watergate was Watergate only because the press would not let the story die.
In this case, the press won’t let the story live.
“—So “Fast and Furious” is nothing more than the cover-up of a third rate burglary, amplified into the “story of the decade”, by the anti-American CommieMedia?—
My take is that the evidence is equally conclusive. The actual crime is several orders of magnitude worse.”
Dead Federal agents as a result of program designed to undermine the Second Amendment to the Constitution, that the culprits swore to uphold. Yea, can’t get a whole lot worse than that. Not without the use of foreign troops trying to do the same thing anyway.
Anything us common citizens can do to see that traitor Leahy doesn’t dodge or finesse his way out of his due justice?
Bump.
Yep.Just like Valerie Plame.And see Dan Rather’s non career because he tried to politically destroy Bush.Nowadays bloggers create BC’s and the WH posts them.Nowadays there is factcheck.org,snopes,daily kaos,Du,Huffy,fightthesmears,and the newly arrived ATTACK WATCH!PBS,NPR and all of the other alphabet government run channels.Obama’s alinsky tactics have run dry.I think the tea party really freaked them out bad.
Think about how not long ago the tea party was racist nazi freak paid astroturfers.NOW they are sponsered with CNN for the debates.
“Watergate?
So “Fast and Furious” is nothing more than the cover-up of a third rate burglary, amplified into the “story of the decade”, by the anti-American CommieMedia?”
re you kidding? It was a deliberate act to arm terrorists on the border and in Mexico which resulted in the deaths of an as yet undetermined number of people, and then the covering up that the highest levels of our government may have been party to and approved it. If proved, it is called “high crimes and misdemeanors and warrents prison time for all involved. It has also been called an act of war against Mexico.
Ummmm.
I’m not the one that compared it to Watergate.
In fact, I was the one that ridiculed that juxtaposition.
I agree. I was speaking more toward the specific motivations for the reporting and escalation of the Watergate scandal by the media back in those days. They still were afraid of exposure and still hid their motives under a contrived cloak of ‘journalistic professionalism’.
“will we see this in MSM?”
Hell no!!!! colonoscopy anyone?
It is my take that like these tapes, Issa and Grassley have much more that they know and they are going to string this out until heads do roll.
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