Free Republic

Recent focus on the relationship between U.S. guns and Mexican cartels has been limited to the ATF's "Fast and the Furious." That plan had agents selling assault rifles to Mexican gun runners so that they could track high-ranking cartel members. Though the ATF's actions are a bit questionable, there's actually a completely legal -- and perhaps more harmful -- way the U.S. is arming Mexican cartels. It's called "direct commercial sales" and it's operated by the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC). So how is taxpayer money paying to arm drug dealers? Under the direct commercial sales program,...

California Congressman Darrell Issa has evidently gotten his “second wind” and in a Thursday evening interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper regarding Operation Fast and Furious and a similar project in Texas, accused the Justice Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of lying to Congress. The interview came at the end of a lengthy report on illegal gun walking that appears to have been permitted under the Obama administration in 2009 and 2010 in more places than just Arizona. It may be seen here, and this is what Issa told Cooper: ‘We’ve been lied to by the Department...

An international gun rights organization founded with the support of the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms went on the warpath Thursday, demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder resign…now because of Operation Fast and Furious.. The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights made it brutally clear in an e-mail alert that went to tens of thousands of gun owners and supporters: Operation Fast and Furious was planned and executed to make the case for gun control laws by manufacturing an international gun running crisis as an excuse to...

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was informed of management corruption and abuse issues at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) before allegations of “gunwalking” surfaced, but opted to do nothing about it. That allegation comes from veteran Special Agent Vince Cefalu, who recently informed Gun Rights Examiner of his efforts to persuade the powerful Democrat to investigate documented instances of gross mismanagement and perjury. Cefalu is the veteran street agent who was served termination papers last June for his efforts to bring management wrongdoing to light, a move perceived by other whistleblowers and observers as not just retaliation,...

When it comes to gun walking and mass murder, top House Republicans act as if their party lost the midterm elections. Tea party patriots are justifiably frustrated over House Speaker John Boehner's and young guns Majority Leader Eric Cantor's and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy's weak-kneed response to Operation Fast and Furious. While the Left whips up scandals over a Georgetown law student's inability to locate the nearest Target to purchase a $9 month's supply of birth control pills, Boehner and company prefer the less vocal approach when it comes to slain agents Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata. Judson Phillips, founder...

USA --(Ammoland.com)- BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —“Doctors managed to do what the government could not—temporarily silence me,” Sipsey Street Irregulars blogger Mike Vanderboegh told Gun Rights Examiner by phone this morning from the intensive care unit at Trinity Medical Center. The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance blog reported yesterday that Vanderboegh, the first citizen journalist to tie in the connection between Fast and Furious “walked” guns and the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, and a continual force in breaking new information about the ongoing story, was out of surgery, where a large gastro-intestinal stromal tumor was removed. His...

At least one dead and three wounded after gunman reportedly opens fire in Beaumont courthouse, while suspect now believed to be holding hostages. More headlines from FoxNews.com: http://email.foxnews.com/t?ctl=1D4B1:0DBDA5A47DC7658469E0706BCB13099D&

(Ad Script) I’m Congressman Ben Quayle. Washington has treated Arizona with contempt. Instead of securing our borders President Obama has sued our state and made a mockery of our laws. Deadly drug cartels terrorize Mexico and menace our communities. And the Obama Justice Department gives us “Fast and Furious,” an outrageous scheme to sell thousands of guns to ruthless criminals. Those guns and criminals killed border agent Brian Terry. And the Obama administration accepts zero accountability for this disaster. Attorney General Holder is stonewalling the Congress, hiding the facts and hanging subordinates in the wind. Arizona’s largest trading partner is...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) today, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, wrote that the Justice Department's request of an extension for completing its document production on Operation Fast and Furious again "demonstrates a lack of good faith" and a Department "more concerned with protecting its image through spin control than actually cooperating with Congress." "The Justice Department's request for additional time has, unfortunately, not been followed by efforts to bridge the significant differences between its legal obligation to Congress and the reality of its stonewalling," said Chairman Issa on...

Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, appeared on Fox News this morning and called out top Republican leaders in Congress for their inaction on the Fast & Furious gunrunning scandal. Phillips accused GOP leaders like John Boehner and Eric Cantor of just “sitting there” and “not picking a fight with the president” instead of making the case a priority. Jamie Colby reminded viewers of Fast & Furious and its link to several deaths, including the murder of a U.S. border agent. She asked Phillips if the support of an investigation was a purely partisan one. Phillips said it...

WASHINGTON - The one thing the salesman at JJ's Pawn Shop in Beaumont remembered about Robert Riendfliesh from the day he picked up an order of 10 AK-47s was his military-style camouflage hat. An Army veteran of the Iraq War, Riendfliesh was familiar with weapons like the Romanian-made 7.62 semi-automatic, capable of firing 30 rounds in under a minute. But Riendfliesh, 25, wasn't buying the guns for himself. Records show they were for "Manny," a drug dealer who had promised him $650 in cash. Six months later, ballistics tests proved one of the weapons Riendfliesh bought was used Feb. 15,...

Republican Reps. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia have signed on to a House resolution of “no confidence” in Attorney General Eric Holder over his role in Operation Fast and Furious. With their signatures, a total of 120 U.S. House members have now either publicly demanded Holder’s resignation, expressed no confidence in his job performance via a formal House resolution, or both.

The following is the text of a campaign radio spot running on Phoenix area radio stations for Ben Quayle, (former VP Dan’s son) who’s locked in a primary battle with fellow Republican David Schweikert for the Republican nomination to an Arizona congressional seat: I’m Congressman Ben Quayle. Washington has treated Arizona with contempt. Instead of securing our borders President Obama has sued our state and made a mockery of our laws . . . Deadly drug cartels terrorize Mexico and menace our communities. And the Obama Justice Department gives us “Fast and Furious,” an outrageous scheme to sell thousands of...

It appears that as a result of Congressman Darrell Issa’s February 28 announcement that Attorney General Eric Holder and the DOJ were not complying with the investigation into gun-walking ties to death of Federal Agent Jaime Zapata, six more U.S. Reps have added their names to the list calling for Holder’s resignation. The six Reps, Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Pete Olson (R-TX), Mike Conaway (R-TX), Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), bring the total number of House members calling for Holder’s resignation to 109. And four of these six—Huizenga, Gardner, Olson, and Conaway—have also signed Rep. Paul...

Well, that was interesting. Had a long chat with my new surgeon (who actually I had met before when I was going to the wound care clinic for my foot) and tells me I have a Gastrointestinal stromal tumor, or GIST for short. Bottom line: 1 in 5 chance of not surviving the surgery and convalescence. Will involve at least a partial gastrectomy with possible involvement in the pancreas, spleen and the main artery that serves the spleen. Minimum hospital stay two weeks. Maximum, two months, if I make it. The Doc led Rosey and me in a prayer at...

You recently editorialized in response to an article focusing on rising gun sales in America (Gun shops find warm welcome in Natick: Feb. 29 Metrowest Daily News.)I would like to take this opportunity to respond to Rick Holmes (“Guns and paranoia,” March 5):. My first reaction to your opinion was a sense of embarrassment for you as a journalist. I simply cannot imagine a “journalist” who could be more ignorant of real reasons American citizens might choose to exercise their Constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. The most glaring example of this shortcoming on your part would be the...

Vice President (Biden) began a tour of Mexico and Honduras. Tegucigalpa, Honduras U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, takes a trip on Sunday in Mexico and Honduras to protect the region's leaders that his country is willing to do more against organized crime and drug trafficking, which have no mercy against the region. But the trip comes at a time of fiscal constraints in the U.S. and a growing frustration among the Central American leaders for the violence. Biden, who on Tuesday in Honduras will meet with Central American Presidents also seek to prepare the Summit of the Americas in mid-April...

Spokespeople for Florida Republican Reps. Cliff Stearns and Mario Diaz-Balart told The Daily Caller their bosses agree with the surging group of members already demanding Holder’s resignation. Meanwhile, four new members have signed onto the official House resolution of “no confidence” in Holder — House Resolution 490 – because of Fast and Furious: Republican Reps. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, Cory Gardner of Colorado, and Pete Olson and Mike Conaway, both of Texas.

“ATF’s #2 Says Agency Mistakenly Used Drug Strategy in Operation Fast and Furious,” Tickle the Wire reported yesterday, citing Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Deputy Director Thomas E. Brandon’s appearance on the radio program “The Badge.” “Being totally candid with you and the public, we made mistakes and we’re owning up to them,” Brandon told host Howard Safir, citing good intentions but bad decisions to apply a drug and money-walking strategy to gun investigations. “You’re on the street and you’re watching dope deals go down, and you’re trying to locate the stash house so you let…you know…you follow...

(CNSNews.com) - Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday expressed sorrow and anger at the escalating number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, including at least 71 killed by "gun violence." "We can, and we must, do even more" to protect law enforcers," Holder told the spring meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington. "Just as I promised last year, protecting the safety of our law enforcement officers has been, and will continue to be, a key area of focus for the Justice Department," Holder said. Holder noted that 177 law enforcement officers were...