At this point, an AK47 could be found personally engraved with Eric Holder's signature and well wishes to the Zetas, Holder would still deny it, and the GOP would keep right on sitting on its thumbs.
Posted on 06/07/2012 10:04:52 PM PDT by neverdem
Big news about the Obama Administration's “Fast and Furious” scandal broke earlier this week, when the House Oversight committee finally got its hands on some of the documents it subpoenaed long ago – specifically, a set of wiretap applications that prove high officials at the Justice Department were very well aware of the deadly “gun walking” tactics that put American weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartel killers. Attorney General Eric Holder has always maintained that knowledge of these tactics did not reach the upper echelons of his department.
The revelation of documents shredding Holder's claims stirred some in the Republican leadership to begin taking the idea of filing contempt of Congress charges against the Attorney General more seriously. Justice sent a letter to the House Republican leadership on Tuesday, offering to work out a deal for releasing some of the “Fast and Furious” information covered by those long-defied subpoenas. As House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) said in an angry letter challenging Holder's honesty, it's increasingly clear why he doesn't want congressional investigators to see the documents he is refusing to hand over.
It turns out that Issa didn't get those bombshell wiretap applications because Holder suddenly decided to comply with the subpoenas, and dribble out some useful material. It seems the House Oversight committee has a “mole” in the Justice Department, who surreptitiously gave the wiretap documentation to House investigators.
In a Fox News interview on Wednesday, Issa said he would not reveal the identity of his source for the documents, pointing out that other “Fast and Furious” whistleblowers have experienced retaliation from their superiors, particularly at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives:
On Thursday, The Hill reported that Justice is angry about the document leak, although no decision about finding and punishing the mole has been made yet:
“Chairman Issa's letter makes clear that sealed court documents relating to pending federal prosecutions being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California have been disclosed to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in violation of law,” wrote Deputy Attorney General James Cole to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Issa this week.
“This is of great concern to us,” the letter added.
There isn't much chance that Justice will file any sort of charges against Issa or the rest of the House Oversight Committee, but the whistleblower who handed over the sealed documents could be prosecuted, and ultimately imprisoned. House Oversight members have been careful not to release specific information from the sealed documents to the public.
Leaving the mole alone would make Justice look bad. The Attorney General's excuse for defying congressional subpoenas has always involved claiming that an internal DOJ investigation into Operation Fast and Furious is still ongoing (and has now ostensibly been in progress far longer than the investigation into John F. Kennedy's assassination.) Also, he says the requested documents are relevant to ongoing criminal prosecutions, which would be ruined if judicial seals on the documents were violated.
If either of these defenses is to be taken seriously, the whistleblower has jeopardized both the fabled “internal investigation” and those criminal prosecutions, so he or she must be found and punished. It remains an open question who the Justice Department might still be trying to prosecute in relation to Fast and Furious, since one major component of the outrage is that most of the high-value targets were already well-known criminals. Some of them actually turned out to be FBI informants. Several were caught and released by ATF on multiple occasions. How can every scrap of the paperwork mountain House Oversight wants Holder to hand over be tied up in an active criminal case that was in progress over eight months ago, when the subpoenas were issued, and is still percolating along today?
On the other hand, if Justice roots out the House Oversight source and levels serious charges, it's likely to enrage both members of Issa's committee and the Republican leadership. It might even draw the attention of a press corps that has generally worked very hard at not noticing the Attorney General of the United States misleading Congress to cover up an operation whose true goals remain the subject of debate, and whose result was hundreds of dead Mexican citizens, plus slain American law enforcement agents.
It is vitally important to learn who initiated this program, and why. It's equally important to pin down exactly when top Justice officials, including Eric Holder himself, became aware of "gun walking" tactics, and why they didn't put a stop them instantly. It could not be more clear that Holder will never produce documented answers to those questions voluntarily.
boehner has stopped Issa from putting any teeth into these hearings. He has refused ro allow a contempt citation against holder or any other action that Issa’s committee could use to hold the doj’s feet to the fire. Boehner alone has stood in Issa’s way from the gitgo. He needs to be replaced.
Issa can’t do anything without boehner’s approval which has not been forthcoming. He has stopped Issa dead in his tracks.
He’s waiting to see the whites of his eyes!
Can't remember his name off hand, but how about the former, temporary head of the ATF? Remember, he had that "secret" meeting, with his own atty. present, with Issa over the last 4th of July weekend.
marker
marker
At this point, an AK47 could be found personally engraved with Eric Holder's signature and well wishes to the Zetas, Holder would still deny it, and the GOP would keep right on sitting on its thumbs.
In related news:
President Barack Obama indignantly hit back Friday at “offensive” charges that his administration disclosed vital national security secrets to beef up his image in an election year, insisting he has a “zero tolerance” approach to leaks that endanger America’s interests.
[snip]
“We have mechanisms in place where, if we can root out folks who have leaked, they will suffer consequences. In some cases it’s criminal, these are criminal acts when they release information like this. And we will conduct thorough investigations as we have in the past,” he said.
I have a few ideas, but they are rather drastic.
No, but the 3rd Reich wasn't tried by their own government either.
BOMBARD Congress with phone calls & emails - with special attention to Boehner. Ask ask them if they have been paying attention to Wisconsin.
Tell them that WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING & we are tired of waiting for them to get off their collective asses or suffer the consequences.
You left out Valerie Jarett. FWIW I was referring as much to their style and tactics as their origins. I’m not sure I can accept the premise that because they fought the Daley Machine that means they’re not raised on and part of the Chicago Machine though.
No doubt. In order to get someone to commit to a losing hand you don't want to let them know you're holding a winning hand.
We’ve done all that just to get where we are now.
(Pres. Obama to Sarah Brady.)
POTUS and the AG could barbeque and feast on infant babies in front of reporters from ABCNNBCBS/NYT/WaPo/LAT, and they would not report it.
Welcome to the USSA, comrade, where American Pravda goes by many names, but speaks with one mind and voice.
Alinsky tactics don’t work with me.
Please explain how it is possible that the CIA would not know about the multi agency Fast and Furious program that was arming the enemy of the Zetas -who you claim were being armed by the CIA.
You're mincing words.
You sure are pushing CIA theories. ...it’s just you are pushing the theory that they were arming the Zetas.
That is not a theory it is a quote from an article where Plumlee and Jordan are the sources.
Jordan, who served as director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center in 1995, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons purchased in the Dallas area through El Paso.Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, told the Times he supported Jordan’s allegations, adding that the Zetas have reportedly bought property in the Columbus, N.M., border region to stash weapons and other contraband.
“From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales Program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas.”
“The information about the arms trafficking was provided to our U.S. authorities long before the ‘Columbus 11' investigation began,” said Plumlee, referring to recent indictments accusing several Columbus city officials of arms trafficking in conjunction with alleged accomplices in El Paso and Chaparral, N.M.
Jesús Rejón Aguilar, the number three man in the Zeta’s hierarchy, disclosed last week that the Zetas bought weapons in the United States and transported them across the Rio Grande. Mexican federal authorities captured Rejón on July 3 in the state of Mexico, and presented him to the news media the next day. His recorded video statement was uploaded on YouTube.
Jordan agreed with Plumlee’s allegations that the Zetas are operating in the Columbus-Palomas border.
You were the one who brought Plumlee and Jordan into this to support your CIA conspiracy theory. You don't like what they say now?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.