Posted on 06/10/2011 5:25:30 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Two enormous stories are waiting for the MSM when it recovers from the Weiner implosion. One concerns domestic policy and the other foreign.
"Fast and Furious" is the name given to a Department of Justice/Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms investigation into gun running into Mexico. The Feds decided to try and tag and follow heavy weaponry into Mexico with the idea of charting the smugglers' map.
What happened to the operation is the subject of an investigation by Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Governmental Affairs Committee. Appearing on my show Tuesday, Issa had this about the investigation into the operation:
HH: Would you explain to people what it is and what your committee is looking into?
DI: Well, Hugh, this is often called Project Gunrunner, because it was really about knowingly, deliberately letting guns be sold to straw purchasers who were going to supply them to the narco-terrorist groups on both sides of the border, and they did. And even at our discovery, our investigation, which is now, you know, 20 subpoenas, incredible amount of depositions, leading up to the office of the Attorney General, has shown us that this was authorized at the highest level. They regret that it went badly, that two American agents are now dead, and countless Mexicans are dead, and 2,000 weapons, 1,600 of them are still unaccounted for. They regret it, but they’re probably still doing similar programs. And that’s why this is such a big thing. If you think you can let guns walk in order to “lead to the bad guys”, you’re missing the whole point of law enforcement. You don’t let drugs walk, you don’t let the money walk, you don’t let guns walk. You do that, you’re part of the crime.
HH: You know, there’s a tremendous novelist, lives maybe in your district, T. Jefferson Parker, and he has written a number of books, and I’ve interviewed him about the gun trade from north to south. It’s vicious, and it’s violent. But when did this Fast and Furious program start that countenanced, basically, Americans selling guns with the effort to sting someone on the other side? When did it start?
DI: It started with this administration.
HH: It is?
DI: It started with, literally, the political appointees, many of whom had to approve specifics of this, including funding. And understand, there were agents at the ATF who have testified that they believe this was a good program. And there are agents who gave up their careers, basically, by refusing to be involved in it. So it was controversial. But it’s not about the agents in Arizona, or a similar program in Texas. It’s about the approvals all the way back in Washington. This is the Iran Contra decision. The Iran Contra decision was made by people around the President in the White House. This decision was made at least by people in the Office of Attorney General Holder. And they’re hiding behind every delay tactic they can, claiming that we’re going to interfere with an investigation. I’ve got to tell you, Hugh, I don’t want anyone to walk because of our investigation. But if some meth addict doesn’t get a strong sentence for buying guns, that’s probably not the worst damage if this kind of program continues, and we believe it continues to today.
HH: Is there any evidence that Attorney General Holder approved the selling of these guns?
DI: There is evidence all the way up to Lanny Brewer in the office, a very famous name from the past. And he is an immediate assistant of Eric Holder. President Obama, as a good lawyer, used his terms very carefully. He said neither I nor Attorney General Holder authorized this program. There’s a long way between authorized and knew.
HH: Has Attorney General Holder appeared in front of your committee yet?
DI: He has not. As a matter of fact, they have been refusing to even go through depositions voluntarily. We had a deal with them, and candidly, they reneged on it the moment my plane was off the ground. So far, we have had to issue more subpoenas on this than all others combined in all other investigations. This has been the real investigation where you can see the stonewalling, and you can see it for a reason. People got people killed, and they were people who are appointed by this President.
HH: So American agents may have been murdered as a result of this program?
DI: Their guns were found, with those serial numbers, at the scene, and by the way, long time after emails indicate that they knew this program was out of control.
HH: And so in terms of that chain of command, have you subpoenaed the Attorney General yet to come?
DI: We have not. One of the natures of this investigation is we’re going through this step by step, because we want to understand is there a problem at Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire all the way up to Washington? Is there a problem at Justice? The one thing I can tell you today is this was a joint task force operation. So DEA, Justice Department, the U.S. attorney in Arizona, all these elements had to be part of it, which is what should really tell you there’s something wrong at the highest levels, but there may be something wrong in the ability for somebody at a operative level to pull the stop cable. It doesn’t appear as though we had it. And candidly, that’s what concerns me. There should be a culture in a law enforcement that says if something’s really wrong, you don’t just obey the orders.
If and when MSM trains its resources on this brewing scandal, Team Obama will have an another DOJ mess on it's hands as the election year opens.
The second story concerns the fact that our entire country has a problem with the Chinese government which is becoming increasingly brazen in it's assaults on American security. Former Ambassador to China and Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. was a guest on Wednesday's program and we had this exchange on the recent hack attacks originating from the PRC:
HH: It is widely believed that the Chinese were behind the Google hacks, and the various cyber attacks. To what do you attribute that? Is there a regime within the regime there, Jon Huntsman, that is rogue?
JH: There is a concerted effort on the part of the Chinese military, on the part of government, to infiltrate and penetrate whatever they can find here in the United States that might bring them value, value in terms of understanding where our thinking it, value in terms of understanding our latest technology, and it is done very, very aggressively, and without rules and without boundaries. And this is something that we’ve got to begin to understand, because I do believe that now and going forward, cyber security for this country will be extremely important. When you start seeing the plans for the F-22 begin showing up in strange places, you know that the effort, the money, the brainpower that we’ve put into some of our best innovations, if we can’t protect those, if we can’t come up with countermeasures against those who seek to rip us off, then we’re going to be discounted and hobbled for the rest of our future.
HH: But would military officials dare do things like mount cyber attacks without the knowing consent of the politburo and the leadership in China, Governor?
JH: Even though there is a serious divide between the civilian and military leadership teams, you would have to imagine that all decisions are made through the central military commission, the CMC. That is chaired by Hu Jintao, that’s the party secretary-general and the president of the country. They would basically review all of these decisions, and I would suspect that they would give the go.
Very few reporters, editors and producers seem to have grasped the import of what Huntsman is confirming. The PRC is launching serial attacks on American business, individual privacy and national security, and the U.S. Is saying nothing. President Obama's fecklessness in response to these attacks is sure to invite more of the same.
The complete transcripts of both of these interviews are available at HughHewitt.com, but the surface has just been scratched on both dramas. And they are dramas, dramas which the MSM is almost entirely missing, once again.
Thank you. It is a sad refelction of the American attention span when it is more focused on the dalliances of a idiot Congressman and avoids the REAL news here. And the press just keeps on spinning and providing more cover for the crimials in the WH and Justice Department.
Lets count how may articles are out there on the idiot from New York vs. the Real stories. I’m so sick of this.
Project Gunrunner? That just involves corrupt Federal agencies covering up a murder. The MSM has better things to do with its time like comb through Palin’s email. After all, they could uncover serious crimes with the emails, like a dangling participle or worse, a run on sentence.
If the whitehouse can stonewall this megascandal (1,000 times worse than Watergate) and walk, we’ll know officially that our constitutional republic is dead, now replaced by the USSA.
The rule of law in America is finished, if they get away with this.
Keep going, Hugh!
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I've thought this was already the case ever since the Waco massacre in 1993. In fact, I'd wager the poor souls of the Bonus Army would peg the date at 1932.
What is really hard to believe is that Hugh went the whole interview without asking Issa if he also had wet dreams about Mitt Romney.
LOL.. True dat!
How many more? Hundreds? Thousands?
The government is off the hook and is an active danger that will run rampant until it is put down like a rabid dog.
Fixed it for you!
I have no illusions about this. Government corruption has become de rigeur and the Proletariat has become so enamored with scandal and who made it through to the next round on Dancing with the Stars that government can continue unchecked.
The PRC , the American Enemedia and the US government at all levels is launching serial attacks on American business, individual privacy and national security, and the U.S. Is saying nothing. President Obama's fecklessness in response to these attacks is sure to invite more of the same.
TSA sexually molesting children, State Supreme Courts invalidating the 4th Amendment, the Alaska government and the enemedia pouring through Sarah Palin's emails, the Internal Revenue Service demanding secrets one doesn't even tell to family, the EPA systematically destroying every business in the united States. Then we have the Mexican government tying up our courts to sue private American oil companies for thefts performed by the Mexican drug-cartels, suits against American gun manufacturers and ranchers for simply existing.
The whole of NAFTA, UN and every single NGO make as their sole purpose of existence to destroy American business, individual privacy and American Security. All foreign policy out of Washington D.C. is a exclusively about destroying American business, individual privacy and American security. The point and purpose for Obamacare, again to destroy business, privacy and security. Our public school systems are incubators of hate against business, privacy and security. What money other than debt payments and entitlements is devoted to destroying all these things?
China has much to learn from our enemedia and government concerning "launching serial attacks on American business, individual privacy and national security".
we’ll know officially that our constitutional republic is dead, now replaced by the USSA.
You and I both know the official notice regarding the Republic, was long long ago.
1968 gun law, 1986 gun law, Ruby ridge, and Waco. Government of the people, in name only. Maybe I should turn the clock back to 1913, a very bad year for the people. The process has been official for quite awhile IMHO.
Your reference may be more political and financial than I was thinking, so I’ll grant you that in relation to USSA, although the Fed, and world bank don’t inspire much confidence that manipulation at our expense hasn’t been happening for a long long time as well.
I know Hewitt does not have a lot of fans on FR but his show is generally quite informative
Like Tanks and stuff?
You forgot the worst crime... a misspelled word. /sarc
The “American attention span” doesn’t write articles or flog certain new stories over others. Blame media for what media tries to sell to the American public.
Larry Sabato recently mentioned something about a big scandal involving Obama himself. I wonder if he was referring to Operation Gunrunner? Is there a document with Obama’s signature that proves he was aware of this operation? Probably not since Obama has displayed an aversion to paperwork. Even a mere signature could be more work than he likes to perform. If you ever see pics of Obama’s Oval Office desk it is notable because of its lack of any paperwork...except for public bill signing ceremonies.
The reason I think this is never going to be exposed for what it really is, is because they (the Republicans) are still giving the administration protection from what really happened.
This was not a “good” idea or good program gone wrong. It was intended from the start to increase the number of guns of U.S. origin in Mexico.
This was so they could push the idea of American guns being the cause of Mexico’s problems. If it had been just a good investigation gone wrong, there would have been 4 or 5 guns walked into Mexico, not 2000!
Even Issa is stil giving the administration cover.
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