Obama Corruption & Scandal Thread - Solyndra and other crimes.

[Agnostic007]

no - they are trying to push more gun control because of this, which was exactly the purpose behind fast and furious in the first place. 

But you have faith in Issa, a government official, to seek the truth, and not just a witch hunt against Obama and his regime? 

[Soul Crusher]

But you have faith in Issa, a government official, to seek the truth, and not just a witch hunt against Obama and his regime? 

Only so far.  him and Grassley have been doing a good job so far, and I think they need to push for a special prosecutor to be appointed.   

 

[Agnostic007]

Only so far.  him and Grassley have been doing a good job so far, and I think they need to push for a special prosecutor to be appointed.   

 

Why haven't they? It would appear more credible

[Soul Crusher]

Why haven't they? It would appear more credible

My gut reaction at this point, since I believe it is the DOJ and POTUS who have to ok that is that at this point holder and obama will refuse one. 

I think Grassley and Issa are gathering as much as possible from as many as possible such that holder and obama will not be able to resist one at that point.  I could be wrong, but that is my guess.   

[Soul Crusher]

Justice Department trying to shield officials in guns scandal, ATF chief says
Los Angeles Times ^ | 7/18/11 | Richard A. Serrano
Posted on July 18, 2011 7:30:41 PM EDT by NormsRevenge

The Department of Justice is trying to protect its political appointees from becoming embroiled in the broadening Fast and Furious gun-tracing scandal by refusing to release an internal "smoking gun" report that acknowledges the role of top officials in the program that allowed guns to flow illegally into Mexico, according to the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Kenneth Melson, the ATF acting director, earlier this month also told congressional investigators examining the role of top officials in the ill-fated program that affidavits in support of wiretaps used in the operation are inconsistent with what Justice Department officials have said publicly.

Melson told the investigators that when he raised his concerns with the Justice Department about "institutional problems" with the Fast and Furious operation, department officials resisted his desire to share his thoughts with Congress.

"It was very frustrating to all of us," Melson told congressional investigators over the Fourth of July holiday, "and it appears thoroughly to us that the department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the department."

Not only was the department slow to react, Justice officials even indicated to him they did not want him to cooperate with Congress, Melson said.

His comments appeared in transcripts released by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top GOP member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"The Deputy Attorney General's office wasn't very happy with us" at ATF, Melson said, "because they thought this was an admission that there were mistakes made. Well, there were some mistakes made."

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

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Issa and Grassley Seek More Fast and Furious Info
FoxNews ^ | July 18, 2011 | Wes Barrett
Posted on July 18, 2011 6:52:20 PM EDT by MestaMachine

A couple of Capitol Hill lawmakers are continuing their push for details of Operation Fast and Furious, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) gun running operation that purposely trafficked thousands of assault weapons across the U.S. border with Mexico. Guns traced back to the operation have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and near a murdered Border Patrol Agent in Arizona.

In a letter to the agencies' heads, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., call for information from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), including interviews with agents, lists of informants, emails and even handwritten notes about their roles in the operation. The letter says neither the FBI nor the DEA has responded to earlier requests for additional

information in the case.

"On March 15, 2011, Senator Grassley sent you a letter requesting a briefing to gain a better understanding of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) involvement in Operation Fast and Furious," the letter to DEA administrator Michele Leonhart reads. "Nearly four months later, your agency has yet to respond directly."

The questions for the FBI are even more pointed and include requests for details of the investigation into the murder of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jamie Zapata. Zapata was unarmed and gunned down, along with a fellow agent who was wounded, in northern Mexico in February.

(Excerpt) Read more at politics.blogs.foxnews.c om ...

[Soul Crusher]

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Grassley/Issa fire double broadsides at FBI & DEA. and NAME NAMES.
http://www.sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/ ^ | 7/18 | Sipsey Street Irregulars
Posted on July 18, 2011 8:09:15 PM EDT by RummyChick

... Please also include any communications of the following individuals at DEA relating to Operation Fast and Furious or Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta:

1) Elizabeth Kempshall, Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

2) Doug Coleman, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

3) Chris Feistle, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

4) Albert Laurita, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Tucson

5) David Hathaway, Resident Agent in Charge, Nogales

6) Joe Muenchow, Resident Agent in Charge, Yuma

---

To help us better understand the role of the FBI in this multi-agency OCDETF case, we request that you produce communications relating to Operation Fast and Furious by FBI personnel based in Phoenix, Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, including the below-listed officials:

1) Nathan Gray, Former Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

2) Annette Bartlett, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

3) Stephen Cocco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

4) Steven Hooper, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

5) John Iannarelli, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

6) John Strong, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

7) David Cuthbertson, Special Agent in Charge, El Paso Field Division

The Case Agent from the Tucson office in charge of the Brian Terry murder investigation

TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: gunwalker; obama; Click to Add Keyword

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I just listed the names
1 posted on July 18, 2011 8:09:19 PM EDT by RummyChick
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To: RummyChick
 
2 posted on July 18, 2011 8:10:14 PM EDT by RummyChick
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To: MestaMachine
Ping


3 posted on July 18, 2011 8:12:38 PM EDT by whinecountry (Semper Ubi Sub Ubi)
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To: RummyChick
So it Issa. Open the can of worms.....


4 posted on July 18, 2011 8:12:51 PM EDT by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one)
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To: RummyChick
The FBI certainly seems to have a profusion of folks “in charge”. So, I’d say: Charge ‘em.


5 posted on July 18, 2011 8:19:39 PM EDT by Paladin2
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To: RummyChick
Not all of them will be willing to fall on the sword for the glory of Director Holder....


6 posted on July 18, 2011 8:49:44 PM EDT by tcrlaf (You can only lead a lib to the Truth, you can't make it think...)
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To: RummyChick
Something’s been running across my mind ever since this happened. I can’t help but wonder what these two agents knew. Were they targeted for some reason? Had they objected too loudly? Was somebody afriad they would talk, or had talked to people?

Yes I know people are dying all over the place on and across the border and BPA’s are certanly vulnerable.

But in Brian Terry’s situation they are freaking armed with bean bag guns. And there were Mexican Military Officials at the scene when he was murdered on the US side of the border.

And Jaime Zapata was attached to the US embassy in Mexico (what did he know?) and was travelling thru San Luis Potosi a place where my son still goes on church missions to build orphanages. They shot Zapata four times in the chest, and Avila just in the leg. Like they were targeting Zapata.

It’s just fishier than hell.

[Soul Crusher]

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Obama-Contra
IBD Editororials ^ | July 18, 2011 | Staff
Posted on July 18, 2011 8:30:00 PM EDT by Kaslin

Scandal: Democrats who condemned our support of Nicaraguan freedom fighters in the '80s now ignore administration gun-running that may have put American weapons in the hands of the Central American MS-13 gang.

As if "Project Gunrunner" and "Operation Fast and Furious" weren't bad enough, we now learn of "Operation Castaway," run out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Tampa field division. It's another operation that allowed guns to "walk" south of the border, this time to Honduras, using similar techniques and tactics.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., sent two letters a week ago to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melsom inquiring about the program. He shouldn't expect much. As commentator Brit Hume noted on "Fox News Sunday": "The stench of cover-up on this gun-running operation is very strong indeed."

"Two weapons found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry were traced back to the ATF's 'Operation Fast and Furious,' and reports now indicate that ATF's Tampa field division trafficked as many as 1,000 firearms to the dangerous MS-13 gang in Honduras through a similar program known as 'Operation Castaway,' " Bilirakis states on his website.

If these programs bring back memories of the Iran-Contra scandal, we are not surprised. If you're wondering why this isn't as big a scandal, so do we. Iran-Contra wasn't funded in a stimulus package to create jobs. Nor did it occur with the full knowledge and approval of both the attorney general and the White House, as these "gun-walking" fiascos did

(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

   
Was ICE Agent Zapata Killed With a Gun Walker Weapon?
by John Hayward (more by this author)
Posted 07/18/2011 ET
Updated 07/18/2011 ET

 


So far, there has been one confirmed American victim of the Gun Walker project, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives deliberately “walked” American guns across the border into Mexico.  In addition to over a hundred and fifty Mexicans, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with a Gun Walker weapon.


Questions linger about a possible second American victim, immigration agent Jaime Zapata, who was murdered by a Mexican drug cartel on the Pan-American Highway last February.  Zapata’s partner, ICE agent Victor Avila, was also wounded in the attack.


Zapata’s family wants to know if the gun that killed him came from the ATF.  Roughly 200 Gun Walker weapons have turned up at Mexican crime scenes, according to an article in the L.A. Times.  The family has been unable to get answers from the FBI or Homeland Security, but now House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is investigating Zapata’s death and its possible links to the Gun Walker project.


It appears that the cartel which killed Zapata was getting a lot of its hardware from a gun shop in Texas, which would seem to be rather far removed from the ATF field office in Phoenix, Arizona that ran the notorious “Operation Fast and Furious.”  We’ve since learned of a second Gun Walker operation, called “Castaway,” pushing guns into Honduras and run out of the Tampa, Florida bureau.  Was there a third operation running in Texas?


Florida congressman Gus Bilirakis appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss Operation Castaway Monday morning:











Meanwhile, Issa and his Senate partner, Charles Grassley of the Judiciary Committee, have been running out of patience with Attorney General Eric Holder.  In a new 10-page letter to Holder, they complain that “the Justice Department prevented Acting Director Melson from communicating with Congress, and even his own staff.”  They relayed a little of the testimony Melson provided in his July 4 appearance, including Melson’s recollection of telling the Associate Deputy Attorney General that their frantic stonewall attempts amounting to “really just poking Senator Grassley in the eye.” 


Senator Grassley does not like being poked in the eye.


Issa and Grassley once again accused the Justice Department of misleading Ken Melson about his options for testifying before their committees, and leaking media stories designed to set him as the Fast & Furious fall guy.  Most shockingly, they assert “the Department’s efforts to isolate Mr. Melson went so far as to prevent him from communicating with his own staff about Fast and Furious.”  It’s funny how much time this Administration spends on preventing our massive government from communicating with either the people, or itself.


Issa and Grassley are keenly interested in exploring the FBI’s connections to the Gun Walker operations:


Witnesses have testified that some of the very targets of Operation Fast and Furious – the high-level weapons suppliers to the cartels – may have been paid informants.  While this is preliminary information, if true, the implications are dramatic.  Not only would this mean taxpayer dollars could have funded those helping to arm Mexican drug cartels, it would also mean ATF unwittingly targeted unindictable defendants.


Or maybe that wasn’t done “unwittingly,” since much of this investigation will boil down to establishing the true purpose for the Gun Walker operations.  If that purpose was to deliberately increase Mexican gun crime for American political purposes, the ability to indict the nominal targets wouldn’t have mattered much.


Melson characterizes the Justice Department’s response to the Gun Walker investigation as a “disaster.”  Issa and Grassley say that “less than one percent of the documents the Department, by its own admission, has reviewed.”  They note archly that “if the attorneys working on the Department’s response to the Committee spent less time redacting documents and more time producing them, we would be much closer to understanding the failures in leadership surrounding Operation Fast and Furious.”  It took DOJ two months to cough up 69 pages of non-public documents.


The Congressmen sternly inform Eric Holder that his department “needs to move from spin mode to disclosure mode” and stop treating “the Fast and Furious inquiry as merely a public relations problem, rather than a legitimate topic in need of congressional oversight and corrective action.”  The designated fall guy won’t fall, and the involvement of other agencies renders him useless as a firewall to protect his superiors anyway.  This scandal has moved beyond “Operation Fast and Furious,” and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.


 

[Soul Crusher]

http://tucsoncitizen.com/view-from-baja-arizona/2011/03/13/mexican-officials-claim-atf-walked-guns-suspected-in-the-death-of-150-mexicans



195 deaths and counting - plus Mexico is saying ATF never informed it of Fast n Furious.

[Soul Crusher]

Momentum builds, web expands on Fast and Furious investigation (gunwalker)
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 18 July, 2011 | Dave Workman




Momentum is building and the web appears to be expanding dramatically in the Congressional investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, which is now seeking communications involving senior personnel at both the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency; developments that are being closely watched by Northwest gun rights activists here and here.

In letters sent to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart and FBI Director Robert Mueller III, Congressman Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley are asking for communications and other documents. From the DEA, they want communications involving Operation Fast and Furious or a suspect identified as Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta from:

Elizabeth Kempshall, Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

Doug Coleman, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

Chris Feistle, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

Albert Laurita, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Tucson

David Hathaway, Resident Agent in Charge, Nogales

Joe Muenchow, Resident Agent in Charge, Yuma

The laundry list is a bit longer from the FBI. Those officials named in the information request sent to Muller are:

Nathan Gray, Former Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

Annette Bartlett, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

Stephen Cocco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

Steven Hooper, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

John Iannarelli, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

John Strong, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

David Cuthbertson, Special Agent in Charge, El Paso Field Division

The Case Agent from the Tucson office in charge of the Brian Terry murder investigation

The requested documents include e-mails, documents, memoranda, briefing papers and handwritten notes. Grassley and Issa want any communications these individuals had with any employee of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives between


(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Why Did Drug Thugs Assassinate ICE Agent Zapata?(gunwalker)
The Truth About Guns ^ | 18 July, 2011 | Robert Farago



“Five months after U.S. immigration agent Jaime Zapata was shot to death by a Mexican drug cartel, his family is demanding to know whether the weapons were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico under the now-defunct Fast and Furious operation,” latimes.com reports. That’s kinda weird; a few days after the killing, we heard reports that the Mexican e-Trace on guns recovered at the scene revealed the connection to the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious. The more interesting question: what was Jaime Zapata doing in Mexico in the first place? I mean, we get the means: ATF-enabled guns. The opportunity is clear enough: a government convoy down a lonesome four-lane highway in Mexico. What was the motive? The Mexican government says . . .

that Los Zetas did the deed. Why? Knowing the heat they’d take for taking out a U.S. federale, why would Los Zetas take out a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent?

Some analysts reckon it was a f-up; a minor league Los Zetas member ordered the hit. I don’t think so.

Given that the Mexican government is the friend of the Sinaloa cartel, who are the enemies of the Los Zetas, it stands to reason that Zapata was doing something for/with/about the Mexican government/Sinaloas with which Los Zetas were not happy. What?

ICE Agent Zapata’s partner was wounded in the attack. Congressman Issa’s investigation into this whole ATF misegos need to call Victor Avila as a witness.

At the risk of sounding like Martha Mitchell, I’m telling you that all of this is connected: the ATF’s anti-gun running gun running, Zapata’s murder, U.S. support for Felipe Calderon, arms shipments to the Mexican Army and law enforcement leaking to drug cartels, U.S. drug and immigration interdiction (or lack thereof) and more.

As they said in Watergate, follow the money. Who had the most to benefit from Zapata’s death?

[Soul Crusher]

Hezbollah in Mexico--and not arming themselves through any 'gun show loophole'
By Kurt Hofmann, St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner



..Business Insider bears the alarming news that the Iran-supported terrorist group Hezbollah is busy establishing a presence in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America:

Islamic terrorist groups are setting up shop in Mexico and forming alarming ties with the country's brutal drug cartels, according to a 2010 internal memo from the Tucson Police Department.

The memo (pdf file) referred to here was not intended for public consumption, and came to light only after the hacker group LulzSec hacked into Arizona Department of Public Safety computers.

Well that's unnerving, especially given the fact that, according to the Violence Policy Center (VPC), the U.S. civilian gun market is a "virtually unregulated bazaar of military-style firearms," which is routinely heavily utilized by the Mexican drug cartels (Hezbollah's new buddies, remember).  On top of that, American-born Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn says any aspiring jihadist in the U.S. can just pop into the nearest gun show, and buy "a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, and most likely without having to show an identification card" (my emphasis added).

Except that's not what's happening.  From the memo:

In July of this year, Mexican authorities arrested Jameel Nasr in Tijuana, Baja California. Nasr was alleged to be tasked with establishing the Hezbollah network in Mexico and throughout South America. In April of last year, the arrest of Jamal Yousef – in New York City - exposed a weapons cache of 100 M- 16 assault rifles, 100 AR-15 rifles, 2,500 hand grenades, C4 explosives and antitank munitions. According to Yousef, the weapons, which were being stored in Mexico, had been stolen from Iraq with the help of his cousin who was a member of Hezbollah.

Stolen from Iraq, and then smuggled across an ocean to Mexico, when there's a "virtually unregulated bazaar of military-style firearms" to shop from right here?

Of course, not every wannabe jihadist has a cousin in Iraq to help him steal weapons there.  No problem--there's plenty of firepower to be had all over Latin America--and that's without the Obama government "walking" guns to killers in Mexico and Honduras.

Advertisement
 ADGRPID:|SERVTYPE:


  So in the face of heavily armed terrorists who consider killing Americans to be a free ticket to paradise, gathering just across our very cursorily secured border with Mexico, what would the forcible citizen disarmament advocates have us do?  Make it more difficult for us to obtain firearms to defend ourselves, and mandate that the firearms available to us be less capable.

Just whose side are they on?

See also:

.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Hezbollah in Mexico--and not arming themselves through any 'gun show loophole' - St. Louis gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-st-louis/hezbollah-mexico-and-not-arming-themselves-through-any-gun-show-loophole#ixzz1SYPRkxl4

[Soul Crusher]

[Soul Crusher]

ATF Chief Admits Mistakes in 'Fast and Furious,' Accuses Holder Aides of Stonewalling Congress
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/18/atf-chief-admits-mistakes-in-fast-and-furious-accuses-holder-stonewalling/ ^ | 7/18/11


WASHINGTON -- The head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has admitted that his agency, in at least one instance, allowed sales of high-powered weapons without intercepting them -- and he accuses his superiors at the Justice Department of stonewalling Congress to protect political appointees in the scandal over those decisions.


(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...

[240 is Back]

ATF Chief Admits Mistakes in 'Fast and Furious,' Accuses Holder Aides of Stonewalling Congress
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/18/atf-chief-admits-mistakes-in-fast-and-furious-accuses-holder-stonewalling/ ^ | 7/18/11


WASHINGTON -- The head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has admitted that his agency, in at least one instance, allowed sales of high-powered weapons without intercepting them -- and he accuses his superiors at the Justice Department of stonewalling Congress to protect political appointees in the scandal over those decisions.

The lyingest, cheatingest agency in America = ATF.

To become head of the ATF, you must be the lyingest, cheatingest guy in the lyingest, cheatingest agency in America.

So you believe what the lyingest, cheatingest guy in the lyingest, cheatingest agency says now?

[Soul Crusher]

The lyingest, cheatingest agency in America = ATF.

To become head of the ATF, you must be the lyingest, cheatingest guy in the lyingest, cheatingest agency in America.

So you believe what the lyingest, cheatingest guy in the lyingest, cheatingest agency says now?

As opposed to who?  Obama and Holder?   LMFAO! 

[240 is Back]

As opposed to who?  Obama and Holder?   LMFAO! 

ATF has been lying and cheating since their inception.  Waco, ruby, etc.

So yes, you want to compare evils, I think they're even worse than obama.

Still, your willingness to endorse ATF statements (or endorse Vandersloot for president) because you hate obama so much is just terrifying.

[Soul Crusher]

Issa and grassley are saying the same thing.  Of course you believe obama and holder over them too. 

[kcballer]

Law enforcement, sticking up for law enforcement.  Nothing new there guys, don't understand why this is a 20 page thread. 

The DOJ, DEA and ATF needed a win in the war on drugs.  They failed.  Lesson to be learned for future ATF, DEA projects condolences to those lost in this losing battle.

[Soul Crusher]

Law enforcement, sticking up for law enforcement.  Nothing new there guys, don't understand why this is a 20 page thread. 

The DOJ, DEA and ATF needed a win in the war on drugs.  They failed.  Lesson to be learned for future ATF, DEA projects condolences to those lost in this losing battle.

Add in the FBI as well. 

They are playing a treasonous game here and people died. 

[Soul Crusher]

Gunwalker: Family of Slain Federal Agent Demands Answers
Pajamas Media ^ | 7/19/2011 | Bob Owens


Remember when Cindy Sheehan and the left claimed "absolute moral authority" for the families of those killed in the line of duty? Think they'll fight for Agent Zapata's family?


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were ambushed by eight cartel members in Mexico in February. Avila survived, Zapata did not.

One of the guns used in the murder was a Romanian-made semi-automatic AK-pattern pistol called the “Draco,” which is basically an AK-pattern rifle without a shoulder stock and featuring a much shorter barrel. It was traced back to a gun shop in the United States.

It has been almost six months since his murder, and Jaime Zapata’s family wants answers:

Five months after U.S. immigration agent Jaime Zapata was shot to death by a Mexican drug cartel, his family is demanding to know whether the weapons were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico under the now-defunct Fast and Furious operation.

The family complains that U.S. authorities in Washington and Texas have refused to answer crucial questions about the Feb. 15 ambush on a four-lane highway in northern Mexico.

“What happened with Jaime needs to come out,” the family’s lawyer, Raymond L. Thomas of McAllen, Texas, said in a telephone interview Sunday. “And the likelihood that these were Fast and Furious guns is certainly plausible.”

The ambush of Zapata and Avila has long been associated with the multi-agency aberration known as “Operation Fast and Furious.” But the Draco pistol used in Zapata’s murder was not part of Operation Fast and Furious, which took place in what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has designated the Phoenix Field Operations area, which encompasses all of Arizona and New Mexico. The Draco was instead just one of many firearms obtained for the cartels by a trio of gunrunners in the Dallas Field Operations area, from a parallel operation that looks suspiciously like Operation Fast and Furious.

A third operation named “Operation Castaway” is also coming to the attention of congressional investigators, and a pattern of weapons recovered from the Houston area in southern and central Mexico suggests that a fourth “watch and do nothing” operation existed.

Just how many “Gunwalker” operations did the ATF, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Agency, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, and the State Department collude in?

Was Operation Fast and Furious in Phoenix an isolated incident as the Obama administration and their unserious allies in the mainstream media would like us to believe? Or is it more likely that the federal agencies that are known to have come together for this operation participated in a number of operations in all border states where gun smuggling has been alleged, including the two suspected operations in Texas and Operation Castaway?

Should investigators be looking for the presence of similar multi-agency operations in the Los Angeles, Denver, Miami, and New Orleans field areas?

We are nowhere near being able to answer these questions, because the federal agencies involved are attempting to evade questions from the family members of dead law enforcement agents and congressional investigators alike.

The family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was murdered in Arizona by illegals armed with at least two Fast and Furious weapons from the Phoenix operation, wants answers as well. They are considering suing the government to get those answers.

Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa are trying to pry answers from a recalcitrant Department of Justice, including letters sent to the director of the FBI and the administrator of the DEA seeking “all communications” from eight FBI special agents and six DEA special agents. In addition, they are seeking information about the number of informants in each agency related to “Fast and Furious” defendants, and specific information about suspect Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta, who is accused of supplying a number of AK-type firearms to the cartels.

They’re also attempting to discover more about the circumstances surrounding Agent Zapata’s death, in order to get answers for the Zapata family.

Not so many years ago, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd asserted that “the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.”

The sentiment of “absolute moral authority” for anti-war parents of soldiers lost in battle was embraced, amplified, and echoed by the Times, the Washington Post, and the overwhelming majority of print and broadcast media pundits while those parents served as useful political props for the media and progressive politicians. When the left took over both houses of Congress and the White House — and the mother they used as a bludgeon turned out to be a hate-spewing, conspiracy-mongering anti-Semite — the media quietly let the “absolute moral authority“ card slip out of their hand.

Zapata’s father is a Vietnam combat veteran with two Purple Hearts, and his siblings work in law enforcement. The family isn’t demanding to see the president, or delivering ditch-side sermons to a fawning media. All they want is answers.

Where is the media to bestow them with absolute moral authority and to champion their cause?

[240 is Back]

LOL @ people who didn't want to investigate 911, but want a huge investigation into this!

[Soul Crusher]

LOL @ people who didn't want to investigate 911, but want a huge investigation into this!

uuuhhhh - maybe because we have actual govt people on record from this Admn  supporting Fast n Furious? 

[kcballer]

Add in the FBI as well. 

They are playing a treasonous game here and people died. 

I wouldn't call it treasonous at all.  I would call it miscalculated and poor executed.