Fast and Furious: Refuse to Testify? Here's a Subpoena

Townhall.com ^ | January 19, 2012 | Katie Pavlich

[Kaslin]

Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa is back on the Fast and Furious trail and announced the issuance of a new subpoena today to Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S Attorney's Office for Arizona Patrick Cunningham. Cunningham was asked politely to voluntarily testify before the committee about Operation Fast and Furious, but refused. In a letter sent to Cunningham announcing the subpoena, Issa doesn't mince words, saying Cunningham approved tactics used in the lethal program. Cunningham was scheduled for an interview with Issa today but canceled after implying he was willing to cooperate with the investigation, further delaying the Oversight Committee's ability to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious. Considering Justice Department officials have done nothing but stonewall Issa up to this point, the move wasn't surprising and this tactic is nothing new.  

“During the course of our investigation, the Committee has learned of the outsized role played by the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office – and you specifically – in approving the unacceptable tactics used in Fast and Furious,” Chairman Issa wrote to Cunningham in a letter informing him of the subpoena.  “Senior Justice Department officials have recently told the Committee that you relayed inaccurate and misleading information to the Department in preparation for its initial response to Congress."

Cunningham is under fire for participating in the cover up of the program even after Congress launched an investigation.

 “These officials told us that even after Congress began investigating Fast and Furious, you continued to insist that no unacceptable tactics were used.  In fact, documents obtained confidentially just last week appear to confirm that you remained steadfast in your belief that no unacceptable tactics were used, even after the Department’s initial response to the congressional inquiry.  Given that the Attorney General has labeled these tactics as unacceptable and Fast and Furious as ‘fundamentally flawed,’ this position is startling,” Issa wrote.

Remember, Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, Cunningham's boss, resigned in August just two weeks after giving closed door testimony to the House Oversight Committee. He did not mention Fast and Furious in his resignation letter addressed to President Obama. Attorney General Eric Holder will face his day before the committee on February 2, just over a week away.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Those damn Republicans and their “culture of corruption”!

[TLI]

Waiting on the arrest warrants...

[milwguy]

I wonder if the Holder will send this guy off to Iraq ‘on assignment’ like the State Dept did with Kenn O’Reilly? It seems the Justice Dept and the rest of the Obama Administration is playing hide the witness from Issa.

Dennis Burke was Janet Napolitano’s CHIEF OF STAFF when she was Gov of Arizona, and he was very deep into F&F. O’Reilly was the liason who worked at the WHITE HOUSE when F&F was hatched. When Holder found out about those pesky memos the Arizona Justice gang was sending to O’Reilly with MAPS OF THE FLOW OF F&F GUNS FROM THE USA TO MEXICO, he conveniently had Hillary send ol O’Reilly off to Bahgdad and out of the reach of Issa’s subpeonas.

Funny how all our combaty troops have left Iraq but State Dept O’Reilly is still there, working on ‘drug interdiction’ programs. I was not aware the Iraq is a major source of illegal drugs flowing into the USA.

I have a sneaking suspicion we will wake up one day and find O’Reilly has been taken out by an IED while out in the field looking for drugs in a muslim country.

[TigersEye]

Cunningham was asked politely to voluntarily testify before the committee about Operation Fast and Furious, but refused.

Issue a no-knock warrant, send in a SWAT, bust his doors down at 0-dark thirty, shoot his dogs, stomp his cats, throw his half naked wife on the floor, point guns at their heads, put knees in their backs, break up their possessions, rip their doors off their hinges, drag them out in zip-tie cuffs and leave their house open to thieves while you let them cool their heels in a jail cell.

[Deaf Smith]

Mexico should have their own legal envoy sitting in on these hearings.

Face up on their lap, a copy of the Extradition Treaty between the USA & Mexico.
Make sure that everyone that walks by can see it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And if that won’t work, then begin to get nasty. :-)

[rdcbn]

The reality of what the Obama Administration was doing with Fast and Furious must be so damaging that high level Justice, DHS and other are willing to openly obstruct justice and actively try to coverup what happened.

They are so all in on this, the alternative has to be serving serious, hard time for criminal offenses.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Ay yi yi yi!

You armed the Frito Banditos!

Too bad corn chips were not all that they would want;

They shot us and you across borders we’ll punt!

Ay yi yi yi! Ay yi yi yi!

[TigersEye]

I was presuming he would be smart enough not to resist but I might be giving him too much benefit of the doubt. If they look cross-eyed at the entry team then the fun begins. ;^)

[HiTech RedNeck]

Or worse, plunge Democrats’ fortunes into decades of ruin.

[Deaf Smith]

Mexican AG Marisela Morales has already been starting at the small end of the scale.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=445482&CategoryId=14091
Now if she will just work her way up to the AFT agents.

[Kansas58]

Somebody needs to make a campaign ad, attacking Obama, for his RACIST disregard for the lives of Mexicans, in an attempt to push his anti-2nd Amendment gun grabbing agenda!

[In Maryland]

I would advise Mr. Cunningham to get ground floor rooms when he travels ... staying on high floors has "tempted" some in his position to "suicide".

He also might want to avoid Ft Marcy Park when he is in D.C.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Aww, Rats only care about Hispanics when they’re convenient. Notice that hordes of disgruntled ex-Cubans aren’t even on the Rat map.

[gaijin]

Issue a no-knock warrant, send in a SWAT, bust his doors down at 0-dark thirty, shoot his dogs, stomp his cats, throw his half naked wife on the floor, point guns at their heads, put knees in their backs, break up their possessions, rip their doors off their hinges, drag them out in zip-tie cuffs and leave their house open to thieves while you let them cool their heels in a jail cell.

Why not instead something unusual, and harsh..? ;)

[rawcatslyentist]

>"Mexico should have their own legal envoy sitting in on these hearings."

Only fair since the TERRORISTS Ricky and Racky are supplying arms to, reside mostly in Mexico.

BTW arming terrorists in another nation is an act of WAR!

[bksanders]

"I wonder if the Holder will send this guy off to Iraq…"

Yes, on a barge with South American ports of call.

[emax]

Are Cuban Americans still overwhelmingly Conservative ? I thought that at least among generations of Cuban Americans born in the US, that many of them had changed to far left viewpoints or had alled with far left Democracts due to liberal views on immigration, and some had even adapted the position of numerous Mexican Americans in terms of socializing government. Myabe I am wrong, anyone here of Cuban background who could crrect me on this ?

[TigersEye]

Cunningham is an American so I figured he should get the All-American treatment even if he doesn’t deserve it. ;^)