Posted on 09/08/2012 3:06:59 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
Mexican federal police announced Friday that they have arrested a suspect in the killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, the slaying at the center of the scandal over the botched U.S. gun-smuggling probe known as Operation Fast and Furious.
Jesus Leonel Sanchez Meza is one of the five men charged with killing Terry in December 2010 during a shootout in Arizona near the Mexico border. One is on trial in Arizona and the other three remain fugitives. Sanchez was arrested Thursday in Sonora state.
Two guns found at the scene were bought by a member of a gun-smuggling ring that was being monitored in the Fast and Furious investigation. Critics have knocked U.S. federal authorities for allowing informants to walk away from Phoenix-area gun shops with weapons, rather than immediately arresting suspects.
In Operation Fast and Furious and at least three earlier probes during the administration of President George W. Bush, agents in Arizona employed a risky tactic called gun-walking - allowing low-level "straw" buyers in gun-trafficking networks to leave with loads of weapons purchased at gun shops. The goal was to track the guns to major weapons traffickers and drug cartels in order to bring cases against kingpins who had long eluded prosecution under the prevailing strategy of arresting low-level purchasers of guns who were suspected of buying them for others.
During Operation Fast and Furious, many of the weapons weren't tracked and wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., including the Terry shooting.
In July, U.S. authorities made a rare disclosure linked to the botched gun-smuggling probe, revealing identities and requesting the public's help in capturing the four fugitives accused in the shooting death of Terry.
The release of the suspects' identities in an unsealed indictment came with the offer of a $1 million reward for information leading to their capture.
The FBI said it was seeking information related to Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, 31, Ivan Soto-Barraza, 34, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, 34, and a man identified as Lionel Portillo-Meza, which Mexican police said was an alias of the man arrested Thursday in Puerto Penasco, Sonora.
Portillo-Meza's age and birthplace were unavailable. The other three fugitives were born in Mexico, but their hometowns were not available.
Authorities had previously released the identity of the fifth suspect, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes of El Fuerte in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. He was shot during the gunfight and has been in custody since the night of the shooting. He has pleaded not guilty in the case, telling investigators that he raised his weapon toward the agents during the shootout but didn't fire, the FBI said in records. His age was not immediately available.
All five men have been charged with murder. They also face charges of assaulting four federal agents.
FBI agents declined to discuss which fugitive is suspected of firing the shot that killed Terry. They also would not comment on whether the weapon was linked to an Operation Fast and Furious purchase.
The five men, plus another who faces lesser charges in the case, went to the U.S. from Mexico in order to rob marijuana smugglers, the indictment said.
Ping
How embarrassing for Obozo! And right in the middle of his national obfuscation tour!
And they went for some cover and in the next paragraph stated that some were not tracked.
Are we starting to see the unraveling? We know that none were tracked and now the media is starting to say that some weren't as a statement of journalistic fact? I say this guy will quickly assume room temperature so this story will die, literally.
Another “workplace violence” incident? DHS has yet to declare...
Something is in the wind and the glow is off the rose. Posting on another thread
They arrested HOLDER???? FABULOUS!!
I admit that my second reaction after reading your comment, right after LOL, was to try to find the Like button.
My initial reaction as well!
And not only of the Odinga supporters. How many times did Lenny Davis show up on Faux News, Hannity and Faux Business and not one of these A$$ hats have yet to ask him about the Fast and Furious emails that lead back to him.
This guy should be indicted right along with Holder and others in my opinion.
(My emphasis.)
Can somebody explain the bolded phrase?
Are "probes" during GWB's administration being associated with FnF? Clearly, one would assume from this sentence that President Bush participated in Fast and Furious or an early version of "gun walking."
Someone please clarify for me.
Like Obozo’s Fast and Furious, the Bush Administration had a smaller scale operation called project “Wide Receiver”. Unlike Obummer’s, Bush’s program notified the Mexican government and actually had trackers on the guns, so they knew where they were going. And actual arrests were made, if I’m not mistaken.
The person you are thinking of is Lanny Bruer. Lanny Davis was a Democratic operative and aide to Bill Clinton.
“we cannot understand how some of our liberal friends can so blindly support Obama”
You are dealing with people who have no concept of absolute truth, so one lie is as good as another to them.
Normalcy bias suppressing cognitive dissonance allows them to simply ignore any fact that reflects negatively on their “messiah”.
Fox News has a DNC video showing actress Kerry Washington claiming that Republicans want to deny women the right to vote, healthcare, and education. The audience cheers.
You can’t fix stupid.
Okay. Thanks.
Is is correct to say that Obama’s FnF operation had a sinister second goal of somehow raising support for more restrictive US gun laws? If so, how was that supposed to happen.
Thanks for your response.
No, Obama killed bin Laden. Seems to me that's where this story is headed. See? Obama is doing something about [fill-in-the-blank]. No details are necessary beyond that. The minds get imprinted and the MSM steamroller moves on.
If you caught Rush late Friday he said that's what's coming if Bobo gets way behind. Which I would put at a week at -7. Not impossible.
There are a couple of factors involved here.
First, with libs it is all about *feelings*. Think about high school pep rallies. Who do you cheer for? Your own team. You don’t cheer for the other school to win, even if their players are better, stronger, smarter, whatever. It is all about the tribal mentality.
Second, the way the human brain is designed makes it hard to make changes. What toothpaste do you use? I’ll bet your current tube is the same brand as the last tube. Why? Maybe because that is the brand your Mom always bought. Or maybe at one point you may have tried a few different kinds or looked into what worked best, but now you don’t stand in the grocery store for an hour and read every label when you buy toothpaste, you just buy the same thing every time because you made that decision somewhere in the past. Reexamining that decision every time you buy toothpaste just takes too much time and effort and thinking.
Yes, I know that choosing a President is not the same as choosing toothpaste, but many of the same principles apply. People are lazy.
Third, (and this is closely related to the second point): Loyalty. If your spouse dings the car, you are probably not going to get divorced over it. If your spouse totals the car, you are still not likely to get divorced over it. But if your spouse totalled a new car every week, how long do you think the marriage would last? Eventually, most people would reach the breaking point. It would be more than they could cope with.
Most dems are tolerant of a few dents in the car for what is an otherwise good relationship, in their minds. (Same for us. We never get a shiny new candidate with no flaws. We still vote for someone with some dings and scratches.) The big problem with Zippy is that he is totalled, but is hiding it. He’s had the totalled car towed away and is avoiding all questions about what happened to the car or where it is.
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