Posted on 06/22/2012 5:39:18 PM PDT by NoLibZone
Here is a timeline of some of the events in the Fast and Furious investigation:
December 14, 2010: Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry is killed in the Arizona desert. Two guns found at the site are later linked to the ATF Fast and Furious program.
January 2011: Congress begins asking questions about the ATF program.
February 4, 2011: Responding to an inquiry from Sen. Charles Grassley, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich writes that top officials had only recently learned about the ATF gun-running program, but that nothing improper was done in the operation. Weich also asserts that any allegation that the ATF knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico is false. "ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico," Weich wrote.
March 3, 2011: An ATF whistleblower tells "CBS Evening News" that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to go into Mexico. Just minutes before the broadcast, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson issues a statement saying the agency is forming a panel to "review the bureau's current firearms trafficking strategies employed by field division managers and special agents."
March 4, 2011: CNN reports that Grassley wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder complaining that the ATF was "stonewalling" his investigation into the matter. CNN also reports that, according to Grassley, ATF agents told his staff "the agency allowed the sale of assault rifles to known and suspected straw purchasers for an illegal trafficking ring near the southwest border."
May 2011: Holder tells the House Judiciary Committee that he "probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.blogs.cnn.com ...
Hear Hear!
--For Immediate Release
October 26, 2011
WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa are pressing for additional information into the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata and the tactics used while conducting surveillance on known straw purchasers, raising concerns similar to policies of Operation Fast and Furious out of the Phoenix office.
The letter explains the inconsistent statements by the Justice Department regarding Otilio Osorio, his brother Ranferi Osorio, and Kelvin Morrison. The three straw purchasers were known to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, long before one of the guns purchased by the brothers was linked to the murder of Agent Zapata.
To make matters worse, Grassley and Issa wrote in their letter that documents indicate the ATF failed for more than three months to create a Report of Investigation on the November 9 transfer of firearms between the brothers and Morrison and a confidential informant, witnessed by ATF agents. The report was finally written on February 25, 2011—the same day the ATF received the report tracing the Zapata murder weapon back to the purchase by Otilio Osorio.
Grassley and Issa said that documenting investigative steps three months after the fact and only after a trace returned to the murder of a federal agent raises red flags about the nature of ATF’s investigation.
Here is a copy of the text of today’s letter from Grassley and Issa and here is a signed copy of the letter. Also, click here to read Grassley’s March 4, 2011 letter and here to read the March 28, 2011 letter. Here is a copy of the Justice Department’s latest response.
October 25, 2011
Via Electronic Transmission
The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear Attorney General Holder:
On October 11, your Department (DOJ) sent Senator Grassley a letter regarding murdered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata. Not only was the response more than six months late, it completely failed to answer the key questions.1
In a March 1, 2011, press release, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) stated it was unaware of Otilio Osorio’s purchase on October 10, 2010, of the weapon used to murder Agent Zapata.2 According to ATF documents, however, the agency had reason to believe as early as September 17, 2010, that Otilio’s brother and co-habitant Ranferi Osorio and their next-door neighbor Kelvin Morrison were straw purchasers.3 Yet the ATF apparently made no effort to contact Ranferi Osorio or Kelvin Morrison and inquire about how their weapons came to be trafficked to Mexico within 2 weeks of their purchase.
Moreover, it appears that the ATF had an opportunity to arrest the Osorio brothers and Kelvin Morrison during a staged operation on November 9, 2010. According to a DOJ press release, “a Dallas ATF confidential informant (CI) arranged a meeting” at which the Osorio brothers, arriving at the meeting with Morrison as a passenger in their vehicle, “unloaded several large bags containing firearms into the CI’s vehicle, which was kept under surveillance…”4 The DOJ press release says all 40 firearms had obliterated serial numbers, which made simple possession of them a prosecutable offense.5 Local law enforcement officials stopped the vehicle later in the day—presumably in concert with ATF and for the purpose of identifying the vehicle’s inhabitants.6 Inexplicably, none of the suspects were arrested.
Finally, documents in our possession indicate that the ATF did not create a Report of Investigation (ROI) on the November 9 transfer of firearms until over three months later, on February 25, 2011—the same day ATF received the report tracing the Zapata murder weapon back to the purchase by Otilio Osorio.7 Documenting investigative steps three months after the fact and only after a trace returned to the murder of a federal agent raises red flags about the nature of ATF’s investigation.
Yesterday, another member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator John Cornyn, also raised questions about issues surrounding the Osorio brothers and Morrison and urged us to look into the matter.8 Accordingly, please provide detailed responses to the following questions:
(1) Did ATF make any effort to question Ranferi Osorio or Kelvin Morrison after trafficked firearms were traced back to them on September 17? If not, why not?
(2) Why weren’t any of these individuals arrested in November in connection with the undercover drop-off of weapons on November 9?
(3) Was any surveillance maintained on the Osorio brothers or Morrison by any DOJ component, including ATF and DEA, after the November 9 operation?
(4) If not, did personnel from any DOJ component raise concerns about the wisdom of allowing individuals like the Osorio brothers or Morrison to continue their activities after the November weapons transfer? If so, how were those concerns addressed?
(5) Given that the likely recipients of any trafficked guns were so close to the border, did personnel from any DOJ component raise concerns about the possibility of those guns being used against U.S. border agents? If so, how were those concerns addressed?
(6) Does any component of DOJ know when or how the firearm used in the deadly assault on Agent Zapata was trafficked to Mexico?
(7) Does the ATF have policies about creating ROIs at the time that events take place?
(8) Why was the ROI regarding events in November 2010 not created until immediately after the ATF received the trace results on the Zapata murder weapon?
In addition to answering those questions, please provide all records relating to the following:
(9) When any component of the DOJ first became aware of the trafficking activities of Otilio and Ranferi Osorio and Kelvin Morrison;
(10) Surveillance that may have been conducted on the Osorio brothers or Morrison prior to the November 9 transfer of weapons;
(11) The November 9 transfer; and
(12) Any surveillance that any component of the DOJ continued to conduct on the Osorio brothers or Morrison between the November 9, 2010, transfer and their arrest on February 28, 2011.
We look forward to receiving your response as soon as possible, but by no later than noon on November 8, 2011. Should you have any questions regarding any of these letters, please contact Tristan Leavitt in Ranking Member Grassley’s office at (202) 224-5225 or Henry Kerner of Chairman Issa’s Committee staff at (202) 225-5074.
Sincerely,
___________________________ ___________________________
Darrell Issa, Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Ranking Member
Committee on Oversight and Committee on the Judiciary
Government Reform U.S. Senate
U.S. House of Representatives
cc: Mr. B. Todd Jones, Acting Director
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The Honorable Michele M. Leonhart, Administrator
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Chairman
U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary
1 Letter from Senator Charles Grassley to Acting Director Kenneth Melson (Mar. 4, 2011) (Attachment 1); Letter from Senator Charles Grassley to Acting Director Kenneth Melson (Mar. 28, 2011) (Attachment 2).
2 Department of Justice Press Release (Mar. 1, 2011), available at
http://www.fbi.gov/dallas/press-releases/2011/dl030111.htm.
3 Attachments 2.2 and 2.3, attached to Letter from Senator Charles Grassley to Acting Director Kenneth Melson (Mar. 28, 2011).
4 Department of Justice Press Release (Mar. 1, 2011).
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Delivery of Firearms to ATF Confidential informant (created Feb. 25, 2011, 14:53).
8 Letter from Senator John Cornyn to Senator Charles Grassley and Chairman Darryl Issa (Oct. 24, 2011).
thanks.
Use to contradict the memes RE:
Timing
Political goal of GOP etc.
Also contains some of the name and specific incidents that congress is investigating?..... What they are “fishing” for. (seems like logical specific questions to me)
Remember the EP was filed the same day that the Zepata family filed a wrongful death suit against the DOg...DoJ. Surely the material in the letter will be used in their case.
Points out the lack of arrest of individuals committing a known illegal act that lead to the death of Zapata.
To the more than half of America that only half pays attention to the news, "Fast And Furious" is a B-rated Hollywood action movie. It's just not serious.
This scandal will get more traction if we do a little meme-shifting, and call it what it was: MURDERGATE.
When libtards whine and ask why we're calling it Murdergate, just remind them that nobody was murdered at the Watergate. But Nixon was forced to resign, and his A.G. went to prison....over a "3rd rate burglary."
I'm glad they referred to him as a whistleblower rather than a mole, which I've seen elsewhere.
Imagine, if you even can, being inside Holder’s head, or his innermost circle. How do they even THINK clearly? There are so many lies it must be a challenge to keep them straight- especially to themselves. Anytime deceit becomes the SOP of an organization it becomes ineffective and disorganized (at the very least). I’m fascinated by how they communicate with each other. Is it discussed openly, or in vague allusions or what?
I’m reminded of the testimony of Jeffrey Skilling during the Enron disaster- he seemed to be from another universe- he was sincerely baffled by all the fuss and clearly didn’t grasp the immorality of what he had done. I was struck by it- it was a peek into the mind of a sociopath- he DID NOT GET IT. What he got was- he was smarter than everyone, and disdainful of the morals and ethics he had breached and irritated that he had to appear in front of Congress.
Holder and whoever is in cahoots with him are that way too- their capacity for dishonesty is boundless..and they’re aided by a media who is unwilling to investigate.
Thanks for the ping. This is important to bookmark.
I agree. We should use Murdergate whenever discussing F&F. Not only here on FR, but in public and when contacting the media (we should do more of this). We need to let the media know we are not going to let this rest until judgement comes.
BTW, the links to the “Signed copy” and “Justice Departments latest response” don’t work. File not found.
Well, the links in Texas Fossil’s post #22 didn’t work, but by following the link in post #19, I was able to retrieve all of the documents.
Good! Got a feeling that documentation without MSM filter will come in handy!
“You kill a deer, you can kill an enemy, but you “murder” a LEO.”
Kill is an act, murder is a legal description. Knock off the emotional semantics.
“You kill a deer, you can kill an enemy, but you “murder” a LEO.”
Kill is an act, murder is a legal description. Knock off the emotional semantics.
“Knock off the emotional semantics”
Screw you. There’s some more emotion for you, A/H.
Thanks for the ping.
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