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Archbishop Cordileone at USCCB meeting in Nov. (photo by Addie Mena of CNA) The following comes from a Dec. 6 press release issued by the U.S. bishops.The U.S. Catholic bishops have launched a pastoral strategy addressing critical life, marriage and religious liberty concerns. The five-part strategy or call to prayer was approved by the bishops in November and is set to begin after Christmas. The overall focus is to invite Catholics to pray for rebuilding a culture favorable to life and marriage and for increased protections of religious liberty.Campaign components include monthly Eucharistic holy hours in cathedrals and parishes, daily...

A DEA agent has died in an apparent robbery attempt in Colombia, U.S. Ambassador Michael McKinley said Friday. Colombian authorities said the American agent was stabbed four times.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General published a new report Monday that confirms former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke leaked a document intended to smear Operation Fast and Furious scandal whistleblower John Dodson. The DOJ IG said it found “Burke’s conduct in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to be inappropriate for a Department employee and wholly unbefitting a U.S. Attorney.” “We are referring to OPR our finding that Burke violated Department policy in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to a member of the media for a determination of whether Burke’s conduct violated the Rules of Professional Conduct for the state...

A Mexican national claims to be the man who shot and killed U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose death is tied to the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking scandal. Gustavo Cruz-Lozano, who says he killed Terry, turned himself in on Wednesday on charges related to a separate incident: threatening to kill Hidalgo County, Texas Sheriff Lupe Treviño. But before he surrendered himself, Cruz-Lozano said in an exclusive interview with Univision News' daily news magazine show "Primer Impacto" that he murdered Terry during a firefight on Dec. 14, 2010, while the agent was on patrol near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona....

Today's Washington Post editorial clings to the liberal anti-gun rights view that only the government should have access to "military weapons," by which of course they mean semiautomatic "assault rifles" like the AR-15. Of course, government corruption and incompetence has long been an avenue by which criminals have obtained weapons, the Fast & Furious gunrunning scandal being an instructive case in point. But alas, the drug-running scandal was curious missing from the January 11 editorial in which the Post argued that in addition to an assault weapons ban, the U.S. government needs to crack down on international gun-smuggling, particularly on...

**SNIP** U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley said two guns linked to the operation were found last month after a gun battle between Sinaloa drug cartel members and the Mexican military. Grassley said one of the weapons was lost by federal agents during "Fast and Furious" and the other was originally purchased by George Gillett, who served as Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives field office in Phoenix during the "Fast and Furious" scandal. Grassley, who has asked Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz to investigate the findings, said firearms records suggest Gillett was...

Spanish-language television network Univision plans to air a television special that it said reveals more violence than previously known, as well as the stories of how many more Operation Fast and Furious victims were killed, the network announced in a Friday release. “The consequences of the controversial ‘Fast and Furious’ undercover operation put in place by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2009 have been deadlier than what has been made public to date,” the network said. “The exclusive, in-depth investigation by Univision News’ award-winning Investigative Unit — Univision Investiga — has found that the...

At 7 p.m. on Sunday, Univision says it’ll air a blockbuster investigation detailing the impact of the deeply flawed gunrunning investigation, which operated between Oct. 2009 and January 2011. The Spanish-language channel says the “Aqui y Ahora” program will expose the true deadly toll of a covert program where US officials allowed over 2,000 high-powered rifles to “walk” into the hands of violent Mexican cartels. Expecting American interest, Univision will caption the program in English.

A handy dandy chart

A U.S. official says an elite Marine rapid response team is headed to Sudan in the wake of violence and protests against the embassy in Khartoum. The deployment comes as Sudanese police opened fire on protesters trying to climb the walls of the U.S. Embassy. The Marine unit, known as a fleet antiterrorism security team, was sent in response to Friday's violence and as a precautionary measure, The move follows news that Marines arrived on the ground in Yemen to deal with the aftermath of another attack on the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Sanaa. They arrived in...

A team of about 50 Marines has been dispatched to the Libyan city of Benghazi to secure the U.S. Consulate after attacks Tuesday left four Americans dead including the U.S. ambassador, a senior U.S. military official told Fox News. The official said a Marine "fast team" is being sent from the U.S. Naval base in Rota, Spain. They are not yet on the ground. The move comes after President Obama ordered "all necessary resources" provided to Libya to support the security of U.S. personnel in the country.

U.S. weapons that were exported to Mexico as part of the controversial "Fast and Furious" program ended up in the hands of Colombia crime syndicate Oficina de Envigado, reported newspaper El Tiempo Monday. According to the newspaper, investigations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have established that some of the weapons found during the arrest of Oficina boss "Sebastian" were part of the thousands of arms lost in the Fast and Furious program. "Two rifles that were seized in February with "Frank," the brother of Sebastian also are part of the tracking operations of the ATF,...

Romney's Tax Records vs. Obama's Fast and Furious Records I heard a discussion about Romney’s tax returns in a PalTalk political chat room that suggested Romney agreed to release some of his tax returns with one condition. I ignored the discussion because I assumed they were talking about Romney challenging Pelosi to release her tax returns. By the way, I heard she refused Romney's challenge. The discussion gathered my attention when I thought they were discussing Obama’s tax returns but they weren’t. As I listened I realized they were talking about Romney suggesting he would release tax returns as soon...

The day before the Justice Department broadly, and falsely, denied that guns had “walked” as part of the botched “Fast and Furious” gun-smuggling operation, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told supervisors in a memo that he had expressed his concerns about the operation to Congressional investigators. In a July 3 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) questioned whether the memo should have raised red flags at the Justice Department. “The possibility that DOJ was aware of this memorandum on February 3, 2011, and still sent the erroneous letter to Congress...

Republicans to press "Fast and Furious" suitWASHINGTON | Sun Jul 1, 2012 1:11pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives plans to file a civil suit in federal court in the next several weeks over the Obama administration's refusal to give Congress documents about a failed gun-running probe, House Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday. The Justice Department said on Friday it would not prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder after he was cited a day earlier by the Republican-led House for contempt of Congress for withholding some documents related to the probe. Holder heads the department. **SNIP**...

During a time when many of us could be down about many things... Gutless Republicans, Healthcare being upheld, Obama being president.. Rep Darrell Issa seems to be the only one making headway. He's NOT going to let this Fast And Furious Scandal go away. LOVE IT!

Obama weaves Fast and Furious fight into his re-election narrativeBy Amie Parnes - 06/20/12 08:29 PM ET President Obama escalated a battle between his administration and the Republican House over Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday in ways that could benefit his reelection campaign. By asserting executive privilege over “Fast and Furious” documents sought by the House GOP, Obama inserted himself directly into the fight between Holder and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman. He also made it easier to run against not only Mitt Romney, but a Republican House he hopes to portray...

A new exclusive report from PJ Media reports that the suspect in the death of Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, may be an FBI informant. Brian Terry was killed as a direct result of the Obama/Holder botched Operation Fast and Furious. PJ Media reported: In the growing Fast and Furious scandal, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death in Peck Canyon, Arizona was previously described as a chance meeting that led to a firefight: an illegal alien “rip crew” working for the Sinaloa cartel was hoping to find other illegal aliens and to rob them at gunpoint. Instead, they stumbled across...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden held a news conference to announce the U.S.-Mexico Border Security Policy. They spoke to reporters and .. Read More 31 minutes

Wide Receiver - The number of guns used in the operation from the beginning until the end of the operation was 300. Fast & Furious - The number of guns used in the operation from the beginning until the end of the operation was 2,000. Wide Receiver - Guns were traced with miniature GPS devices inserted inside the guns. Fast & Furious - No tracking devices were used. Wide Receiver - ATF agents were ordered to follow the gun smugglers from the gun store to the US/Mexico border. Fast & Furious - ATF agents were ordered to stand down and...