Posted on 10/01/2012 2:17:20 PM PDT by jazusamo
(CNSNews.com) - Kevin OReilly, a member of the White House National Security Staff who regularly communicated about Operation Fast and Furious with the Arizona-based ATF agent responsible for running the operation that allowed guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels, was suddenly transferred out of the White House and into Iraq in July 2011.
The transfer took place shortly after the ATF agent OReilly had been communicating with testified about Fast and Furious in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the White House had provided the committee with a series of emails that OReilly and the agent had exchanged while Fast and Furious was underway.
Since then, the White House has declined to allow OReilly to be interviewed either by the committee or by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who conducted the administrations internal investigation of Fast and Furious. The White House also refused to give the inspector general access to internal White House communications relating to Fast and Furious.
Under Fast and Furious, the ATF and the Justice Department deliberately allowed known straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels to buy about 2,000 guns at U.S. gun stores. In December 2010, two of these guns were found at the scene of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Many more of the guns were found at crime scenes in Mexico.
In Sept. 20 testimony before the Oversight Committee, Horowitz said that the White Houses refusal to let OReilly speak and to provide the IGs office with access to relevant internal White House communications made it impossible to pursue that aspect of the case.
In a letter they sent to OReillys attorney last Thursday, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned that Issa would subpoena OReilly if he did not agree to testify.
We have been trying to arrange to speak with your client, Kevin OReilly, for nearly a year now, Issa and Grassley wrote. Earlier this year, you agreed to make OReilly available for an interview if the White House authorized his participation. The White House, where OReilly worked during the pendency of Operation Fast and Furious, refused to make him available, citing an insufficient basis to support the request.
If OReilly chooses to continue to make himself unavailable, Chairman Issa will have no further alternative but to use compulsory process to require his testimony before the committee, they wrote.
In a March 28, 2012 letter to the White House Counsel, Issa and Grassley had said: "O'Reilly's personal lawyer has represented to the Committee that he would permit his client to speak to the Committee in the absence of any objection from the White House."
In their letter to O'Reilly's attorney on Thursday, Issa and Grassley said that without getting OReillys story it would be impossible to determine the role the White House played in Fast and Furious.
By not interviewing OReilly, the OIG could not fully determine the role the White House played in Fast and Furious, Issa and Grassley wrote. Given that OReilly was the link connecting the White House to the scandal, and that the President subsequently asserted executive privilege over documents pertaining to Fast and Furious, it is imperative that the American people get to the bottom of OReillys involvement in Fast and Furious.
To do this, Issa and Grassley said, Congress must speak with OReilly directly.
The letter indicates that while OReilly was working at the White House he communicated for more than half a year about Fast and Furious with ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell, who was in charge of the operation for the ATF in Arizona.
Last year, the Department of Justice and the White House produced several series of email exchanges ranging from July 2010 to February 2011 between OReilly and William Newell pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious and Newells work as head of the ATF Phoenix Filed Division, wrote Issa and Grassley. At that time, OReilly was serving on the National Security Staff at the White House. Several of the emails produced by the Department and the White House raise serious questions about the nature and the purpose of their interactions. For example, one email from Newell, the Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Phoenix Field Division, began, You didnt get these from me Another email shows Newells intent to circumvent his leadership structure in talking with OReilly: Just dont want ATF HQ to find out, especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)!
When Newell testified before Issas committee on July 26, 2011, he said of White House aide OReilly: He has been a friend of mine for a long time, and he asked me for information.
Not that I shouldnt have been talking to him, Newell testified. He is a friend of mine. He asked for information and I provided it to him.
In one of his emails to Newell that the White House did give to the committee, OReilly told Newell he intended to inform two other White House National Security staff members--Dan Restrepo, the senior director for Western Hemisphere; and Greg Gatjanis, director for the Counterterrorism and Counternarcotics--about the gun trafficking investigation.
On July 28, 2010, OReilly responded to Newell: This is great; very informative. OK to share with Sr. Director Dan Restrepo and CT/CN Director Greg Gatjanis? Would not leave the NSS, I assure you.
Newell replied: Sure, just dont want ATF HQ to find out since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)!
Issa and Grassley learned that shortly after Newells July 26 2011 testimony, OReilly was transferred from the White House to Iraq.
Additionally, we recently learned that, last July, OReilly was suddenly transferred out of the country to serve in Baghdad as the head of the Police Development Program, a multi-year, multi-billion dollar program designed to train Iraqi security forces, Issa and Grassley wrote.
OReillys sudden transfer to Baghdad occurred just days after the aforementioned e-mails with William Newell were produced to the Committee and Newell testified about them before Congress, Issa and Grassley wrote. Additionally, we have learned that OReilly took the place of a previously selected individualand individual who had gone through a competitive application process and thorough vetting process, had the necessary qualifications, and whose spouse was already in Baghdad in anticipation of the individuals arrivalto serve as the head of the Police Development Program.
A State Department official told CNSNews.com last week that OReilly was no longer assigned to Iraq and is now between assignmentsbut would not say what his next assignment is.
I can confirm that he [Kevin OReilly] is no longer in Iraq but he has not yet started in his next position, said a State Department official. So, I cant confirm what that position is. I just dont have any information on that right now, what his next position will be or when he will be starting.
The State Department official said there is no official biography for OReilly because he is not in a senior level post. However, public records do not indicate that OReilly had experience in the Middle East before his sudden posting to Iraq.
OReillys LinkedIn profile says he started working for the State Department as a foreign service officer in 1987 and that he started at the Obama White House in May 2009.
Before going to the Obama White House, he had worked from September 2008 to May 2009 for the State Departments Office of the Coordinator of Counterterrorism, and from May 2006 to August 2007 as the director of Latin American Affairs for the Department of Homeland Security.
OReilly worked from 2005 to 2006 for the office of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) from 2005 to 2006 as a Pearson Fellow.
OReilly was the deputy political counselor for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico from 2003 to 2005, officer in charge of Columbian Affairs from 2002 to 2003. He was the executive assistant to the assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2001 to 2002. He served as the officer in charge of Iberian Affairs for NATO Division J-5 from 2000 to 2001. He served as the political affairs officer for the U.S. embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from 1997 to 2000; worked as the political affairs officers for the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires from 1994 to 1996; and was the executive secretariat for the State Department in 1993.
OReilly apparently was willing to talk to congressional investigators over the phone while he was working in Iraq, according to a March 28, 2012 letter from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House oversight committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler responded in an April 5, 2012 letter that there is an insufficient basis to support the request to interview Mr. OReilly.
During the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Sept. 20, Issa asked Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, Can you tell us a little bit about your efforts to try to interview Kevin O'Reilly, a member of the national security team?
Horowitz responded, We reached out to his lawyer, requested an interview. We have no basis to compel interviews from individuals who are outside the Department of Justice. He does not work in the Department of Justice. So we had to ask for a voluntary interview, and he denied our -- his lawyer told us he would not appear voluntarily.
Issa responded, Would it surprise you that hes been in Afghanistan and weve been denied even the ability to serve a subpoena on him?
Horowitz responded, I was not aware of where he was, but I was told by his lawyers, Issa corrected himself, I'm sorry. Iraq. Sorry.
Horowitz said, As I said, we werent -- I don't recall knowing myself where he was, but we were told by his counsel he would not appear voluntarily.
Later in that same hearing, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) asked Horowitz, You noted also in your report that the White House refused to share internal communications with you during your investigation of Fast and Furious. We've noted a connection into the White House through Kevin O'Reilly at the National Security Council. Do you believe the White Houses refusal to share these documents limited the scope of your investigation? And would this committee be well served by pursuing an investigation in that avenue?
Horowitz answered, Well, as we noted in the report, and as you know, congressman, we did not get internal communications from the White House and Mr. OReillys unwillingness to speak to us made it impossible for us to pursue that angle of the case and the question that had been raised.
Farenthold followed, So it would probably be worthwhile for us to pursue. Horowitz said, Well, certainly we have sought to pursue every lead we could. So I can just tell you, from our standpoint, it was a lead we wanted to follow.
In their letter to OReilly lawyer, Issa and Grassley note that the program in Baghdad that OReilly was assigned to run was cited in an inspector generals report for wasting tax dollars.
The program drawn up to be the single largest State Department program in the world, recently came under fire in a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, published a year after OReilly took the helm, for having a total amount of de facto waste to about $206 million.
These events raise serious questions about OReillys assignment in Baghdad, the motivation for his transfer there, his qualifications for his position there, and the potentially extreme waste of taxpayer dollars in placing OReilly in this position, Issa and Grassley wrote.
“His only other choice was a security guard at Fort Marcy Park.”
I would be seriously worried if I were him.
... but it involves either a settlement in either the Arctic circle, or, alternatively, the Antarctic circle.
There is something else kind of eerie. Fast and Furious was exposed about two weeks after the assassination of Judge John Roll and the shooting of Gabby Giffords by a crazed young man on a mission.
Someone sent me this (below) in an email. I know very little about it except it’s a couple years old. Has anyone researched the possible link?
A key quote from Wayne Madsens report follows.
WMR has been told that in 2009, information about the CIA/Homeland Security/Napolitano smuggling operation came to the attention of three individuals, two members of Congress and a federal judge. The three were Arizona Democratic Representatives Giffords, Republican Representative Mike Conaway from west Texas, and Judge Roll.”
I'm with you. I see a LOT of GRANDSTANDING and POSING but nobody is "kickin ass"... and it's LONG overdue.
It looks a lot more like a WWE Wrestling Event than a serious investigation.
I can confirm that he [Kevin OReilly] is no longer in Iraq but he has not yet started in his next position, said a State Department official. So, I cant confirm what that position is. I just dont have any information on that right now, what his next position will be or when he will be starting.
Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes... and Kevin O'Reilly joins Ron Brown as a faithful and (permanently) unobtrusive public servant who will not be collecting his pension.
Regards,
GtG
Burn him. Erase all records of his existence.
He’s body bag material. The hit is probably already paid for.
There is no chance that he is still alive.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. The shooting of Gabby Giffords was on Jan. 8th 2011. The story of F&F was first broken on Dec. 8th 2010.
And the wheels of ‘justus’ grind ever more slowly and maddeningly.
Don’t you want him to testify?
Too much hyperbole?
I was afraid I was confused with the dates. I only recently started getting emails regarding the involvement of Judgee Roll in the F&F investigation. I dn’t have a credible source I can quote. That’s why I was asking. Sorry for the misinformation.
Naw, I like Hyperbole...rare with a mesquite rub and a baked potato....
That’s alright it’s an interesting hook. If Judge Roll had any legal-professional connection to F&F then it must have been very early on. Worth checking out.
I'll take that tater though! (snatch) ;^)
I don’t fault yuh. I jus don’t like saucey type stuff on my foods.
I’ll split the tater with you though...
I would like to try a rub but I haven't had the time to cook the way I would like to. So I fall back on old standards.
I don't know why Issa couldn't have subpoenaed him out of Iraq. Issa represents the House and this guy is a gov employee.
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