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Katie Pavlich's 'Fast and Furious'
Townhall.com ^ | April 17, 2012 | David Limbaugh

Posted on 04/17/2012 3:38:29 AM PDT by Kaslin

Of all the myriad scandals of the Obama administration, there is one, largely ignored by the mainstream media, that could actually be its worst.

That scandal is the operation run from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the Justice Department, known as "Fast and Furious," through which the federal government actually encouraged and even ordered American gun shops to sell guns -- against the store owners' better judgment -- to "straw" purchasers who were funneling guns to Mexican drug gangs while the ATF sat back and watched and did nothing.

As Katie Pavlich shows in her remarkable and eye-opening new book, "Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up," the whole scheme was either absolutely harebrained or, as some have more ominously theorized, intentionally designed to manufacture "evidence" for tightening gun control legislation.

Pavlich exposes how extreme gun control measures have been a top political goal for President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and other important leaders within the administration -- and she draws the lines that link this goal directly to the implementation of Fast and Furious. Just as importantly, she shows how the administration has shamelessly tried to obscure those links.

The operation resulted in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the murder or wounding of some 200 Mexican citizens.

In the operation, there was no attempt to track the weapons sold, and some agents who tried to follow the purchasers were told to stand down. Not only that, but our government kept Mexican authorities wholly in the dark about the operation. Allowing these guns to "walk" into Mexico without surveillance and behind the backs of Mexican authorities guaranteed they would end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels and only be recovered after crimes had been committed, which is exactly what occurred.

As one ATF agent testified to Congress, "you can't allow thousands of guns to go south of the border without an expectation that they are going to be recovered eventually in crimes and people are going to die."

In their reports on Fast and Furious, congressional investigators concluded that the Department of Justice "had much greater knowledge of, and involvement in, Fast and Furious than it has previously acknowledged." Indeed, Attorney General Holder claimed that he had been unaware of Fast and Furious until a few weeks before May 3, 2011, but it was shown that he had received numerous memos about it much earlier, which he later insisted he had not read.

Rep. Darrell Issa has said that the DOJ has spent more time and resources trying to protect the careers of its officials who knew about the operation than in holding accountable those who were involved. In fact, the evidence shows that the only ones who have been punished are those who blew the whistle on the operation, while those who were engaged in wrongdoing have been rewarded -- reassigned or promoted with their pensions still intact.

Meanwhile, the DOJ, according to the committee report, "has blamed everyone except for its political appointees for Fast and Furious." Ken Melson, then the ATF's acting director, said that the DOJ is "circling the wagons to protect its political appointees."

Though Holder told the House Judiciary Committee his office was working "tirelessly to identify, locate and provide relevant information" to Congress, Republican representatives and senators say he and his department have been stonewalling their investigation. Sen. Charles Grassley said that Justice was withholding some 74,000 pages of relevant documents from the investigators.

The ongoing investigation also reveals a disturbing lack of coordination and cooperation among the ATF, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, all of which are under the domain of Holder's DOJ. One deputy attorney general, upon being confronted with this issue, just casually replied, "We will look into it."

The committee's report said that everyone involved was blaming others: The ATF pointed the finger at the Justice Department for encouraging the operation, and Justice blamed the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona for implementing it. DOJ officials who could have stopped the operation blamed their staffs for not bringing critical facts to their attention. Making matters worse, U.S. attorney's office personnel have taken the Fifth Amendment in refusing to testify before Congress, or the DOJ has prohibited them from appearing before Congress at all.

Katie's book is a real reporter's book, loaded with interviews with inside sources, including conscience-stricken government agents who are appalled by the politicization of the ATF. She quotes ATF agent John Dodson, who says, "I have never heard an explanation from anyone involved in Operation Fast and Furious that I believe would justify what we did."

This book, which is the best reporting yet on the Obama administration's bloodiest scandal -- and its most unconscionable one -- will make your blood boil. You should purchase and read it.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: atf; banglist; batf; brianterry; dea; dhs; doj; ericholder; fastandfurious; fbi; gunrunner; gunwalker; holder; ice; obama
Katie Pavlich was last night on the Factor and was talking to Bill O'Reilly about the Scandal. She also was on Fox and Friends a little while ago talking about it also
1 posted on 04/17/2012 3:38:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Joe Brower; Travis McGee; LucyT; vette6387; MetaThought; 60Gunner; XHogPilot; FreedomPoster; ...

Going national BIGTIME ping.


2 posted on 04/17/2012 4:00:27 AM PDT by MestaMachine (obama kills)
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To: MestaMachine

Scandal by democrats = media = silence.

Republicans complaining about scandal by democrats = media = partisan politics

Scandal by Republicans = media = Outrage

democrats complaining about scandal by Republicans = media = pile on, agree, and give more testimony

It’s come down to this. I will never give a crap about a Republican scandal since the democrat/media machine is utterly corrupted and biased.


3 posted on 04/17/2012 4:29:21 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
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To: MestaMachine
ABCNNBCBS (aka Gangster Govt TV) in full coverup mode. I wonder if this mega-scandal will get traction now.


4 posted on 04/17/2012 5:11:40 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Travis McGee

Looks as if it just might.


5 posted on 04/17/2012 5:30:23 AM PDT by MestaMachine (obama kills)
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To: harpseal; TexasCowboy; nunya bidness; AAABEST; Travis McGee; Squantos; wku man; SLB; ...
Click the Gadsden flag for pro-gun resources!
6 posted on 04/17/2012 5:39:17 AM PDT by Joe Brower (Sheep have three speeds: "graze", "stampede" and "cower".)
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To: Kaslin

I saw her on F&F this morning.

Funny, cops profiling muslims in NYC nets a Pultizer...but not this. Boggles the mind.


7 posted on 04/17/2012 6:27:09 AM PDT by SueRae (Tale of 2 Towers - First, Isengaard (GOP-e), then, the Tower of Sauron on 11.06.2012)
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To: Alas Babylon!

Meanwhile the drumbeat of Dictator Obama grows louder:

regulate -— control -— destroy -— Regulate -— control -— destroy -— REgulate -— control -— destroy -— REGulate -— control -— destroy -— REGU


8 posted on 04/17/2012 6:28:59 AM PDT by Graewoulf ((Dictator Baby-Doc Barack's obama"care" violates Sherman Anti-Trust Law, AND U.S. Constitution.))
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To: MestaMachine

But how can we get zer0’s fans to realize the truth? Or even some conservatives who listen to the mainly slime media?


9 posted on 04/17/2012 9:35:17 AM PDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list)
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To: Kaslin

BTTT


10 posted on 04/17/2012 12:06:41 PM PDT by TigersEye (Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)
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To: TheOldLady

“But how can we get zer0’s fans to realize the truth? Or even some conservatives who listen to the mainly slime media?”

_________________________________________________________

We can do it by getting Congress to investigate Obama’s Eligibility!!

Please sign the petition!!

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http://www.wnd.com/wnd_petition/petition-urging-congress-to-investigate-obamas-eligibility/

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Now 41,369 others have already signed this petition. Sign now to show your support!!

PS: when I signed this Petition 7days ago there were only 18,000+ signatures.

Obama needs to be removed from the WH before the election & charged with “TREASON” against America for using “Forged Documents” to be elected POTUS!!
__________________________________________________________
We got Congress to listen to us before the 2010 election with our 4 Million
“PINK SLIP” we sent to Congress...... If you don’t listen to We the People, we will vote you out & we did !!

Together We Stand.... Divided We Fall!!


11 posted on 04/17/2012 9:01:57 PM PDT by ebysan (ebysan)
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