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Posted on 02/12/2011 6:04:20 AM PST by marktwain
Alarmed at the growing controversy surrounding a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gunrunning sting operation, the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms urged its members Friday afternoon to call the U.S. Senate and demand a “full and open inquiry” into the affair.
This column discussed the controversy here yesterday, and last week here and here.
U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has already initiated an inquiry, but considering the contents of letters exchanged between Grassley, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich and Wednesday’s letter from Grassley to Attorney General Eric Holder, the ATF and Justice Department have circled the wagons.
There is also an unsavory allegation that ATF officials in Arizona tried to silence agency whistleblowers who had cooperated with Grassley’s staff in his effort to get at the truth. His primary concern has been to determine whether ATF’s “Project Gunrunner” – which produced more than two dozen indictments last month in Arizona – had gone horribly awry last year and allowed “hundreds of guns” to make it into Mexico. Two of those guns were recovered at the crime scene of December’s slaying of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb issued a statement Friday afternoon applauding Grassley’s effort, and urging CCRKBA members to “call their Senators and encourage them to support Grassley’s inquiry effort.” This may become more important than Gottlieb realizes, because some of the Senate's leading anti-gunners, including Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, sit on the Judiciary Committee. Here is the full roster.
The group even listed the Capitol switchboard number (202) 224-3121 in its press release.
“For two years, we’ve been hearing from Holder and others in the Obama administration about a so-called ‘iron pipeline’ of American guns across the border. Only after the recent arrests in
Arizona did we learn, through court documents, that hundreds of guns were allowed to be purchased by alleged straw buyers, while ATF conducted its investigation. Now, according to various news reports, two of those guns showed up at a crime scene where a federal officer lost his life. What is going on here?”—CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb
While major news organizations – except those in Seattle – have done stories about the controversy, the investigation started with my colleague, National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea, and an independent blogger, Mike Vanderboegh. Other Gun Rights Examiners (there are about 20 around the country), are also looking into this story.
ATF sources have told this column that morale in the agency is bad, especially because of the alleged attempts to retaliate against field agents who followed the law, and their public duty, to provide information to a U.S. Senator. As Grassley noted in his blistering letter to Holder, “..if not for the bravery and patriotism of law enforcement personnel who were willing to put their careers on the line, this Committee would have been forced to rely on nothing more than rumors in the blogosphere and a Justice Department denial to resolve these allegations. We need more than that. To be an effective check on the Executive Branch power, we need cold, hard facts. We will seek them from whatever source is necessary.”
“The Terry family deserves answers,” Grassley concluded in his letter. “The whistleblowers have expressed a desire to honor Agent Terry’s memory by disclosing this information. The Justice Department should work to do the same. The best way to honor his memory is to come clean.”
To underscore the fact that he could verify the allegations, Grassley attached copies of documents that directly link two of the “Project Gunrunner” firearms to the Terry crime scene.
In his statement to members, Gottlieb recalled that Holder and others in the Obama administration have, since early in 2009, suggested restrictions including renewal of the ban on so-called “assault weapons” as a response to drug war violence in northern Mexico. Thousands of people have been murdered there, including police officers and public officials, and gun prohibitionists have tried to blame this country’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for the carnage.
“Wouldn’t it be ironic,” Gottlieb mused, “to learn that while the Obama administration was blaming our gun rights for the drug war violence in Mexico, its own gun sting operation was a major source of illicit firearms?”
I would guess about the 12th of Never........
I'm going to put my money on Mee 2 (Me too)...when they pile on to original work done by those who hold a harder line than the NRA prefers - witness their actions in recent SCOTUS decisions like Heller.
I was there that day—and three guys wearing NRA hats told us we (SAS) were silly for holding our SAS banner up in front of the court..........
Actually, no, it isn't ironic. One thing about which Obama is very consistent, is talking out both sides of his face. Whatever he says, make sure you look 180 to find out what he's doing, whether it's gun rights, energy supply, employment, deficit reduction, fat food, you name it.
Deceit is one of the Left's drugs. They're addicted to it.
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