Obama Corruption & Scandal Thread - Solyndra and other crimes.

[Deicide]

Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
Program aimed at stopping the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico may have allegedly had the opposite effect
By Sharyl Attkisson .

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/23/eveningnews/main20035609.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea


________________________ ________________________ ___________

 
"Project Gunrunner" scandal
 
"Project Gunrunner," an operation run by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was designed to stop the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico's drug cartels, but had the opposite result. Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.


(CBSNews)  WASHINGTON - Keeping American weapons from getting into the hands of Mexican gangs is the goal of a program called "Project Gunrunner." But critics say it's doing exactly the opposite. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on what she found.


December 14, 2010. The place: a dangerous smuggling route in Arizona not far from the border. A special tactical border squad was on patrol when gunfire broke out and agent Brian Terry was killed.


Kent, Brian's brother, said "he was my only brother. That was the only brother I had. I'm lost."


The assault rifles found at the murder were traced back to a U.S. gun shop. Where they came from and how they got there is a scandal so large, some insiders say it surpasses the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge and the deadly siege at Waco.


To understand why, it helps to know something about "Project Gunrunner" an operation run by the ATF the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Read the indictment

"Project Gunrunner" deployed new teams of agents to the southwest border. The idea: to stop the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico's drug cartels. But in practice, sources tell CBS News, ATF's actions had the opposite result: they allegedly facilitated the delivery of thousands of guns into criminal hands.


CBS News wanted to ask ATF officials about the case, but they wouldn't agree to an interview. We were able to speak to six veteran ATF agents and executives involved. They don't want to be quoted by name for fear of retaliation. These are their allegations.


In late 2009, ATF was alerted to suspicious buys at seven gun shops in the Phoenix area. Suspicious because the buyers paid cash, sometimes brought in paper bags. And they purchased classic "weapons of choice" used by Mexican drug traffickers - semi-automatic versions of military type rifles and pistols.


Sources tell CBS News several gun shops wanted to stop the questionable sales, but ATF encouraged them to continue.


Jaime Avila was one of the suspicious buyers. ATF put him in its suspect database in January of 2010. For the next year, ATF watched as Avila and other suspects bought huge quantities of weapons supposedly for "personal use." They included 575 AK-47 type semi-automatic rifles.


ATF managers allegedly made a controversial decision: allow most of the weapons on the streets. The idea, they said, was to gather intelligence and see where the guns ended up. Insiders say it's a dangerous tactic called letting the guns, "walk."


One agent called the strategy "insane." Another said: "We were fully aware the guns would probably be moved across the border to drug cartels where they could be used to kill."


On the phone, one Project Gunrunner source (who didn't want to be identified) told us just how many guns flooded the black market under ATF's watchful eye. "The numbers are over 2,500 on that case by the way. That's how many guns were sold - including some 50-calibers they let walk."


50-caliber weapons are fearsome. For months, ATF agents followed 50-caliber Barrett rifles and other guns believed headed for the Mexican border, but were ordered to let them go. One distraught agent was often overheard on ATF radios begging and pleading to be allowed to intercept transports. The answer: "Negative. Stand down."


CBS News has been told at least 11 ATF agents and senior managers voiced fierce opposition to the strategy. "It got ugly..." said one. There was "screaming and yelling" says another. A third warned: "this is crazy, somebody is gonna to get killed."


Sure enough, the weapons soon began surfacing at crime scenes in Mexico - dozens of them sources say - including shootouts with government officials.


One agent argued with a superior asking, "are you prepared to go to the funeral of a federal officer killed with one of these guns?" Another said every time there was a shooting near the border, "we would all hold our breath hoping it wasn't one of 'our' guns."


Then, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. The serial numbers on the two assault rifles found at the scene matched two rifles ATF watched Jaime Avila buy in Phoenix nearly a year before. Officials won't answer whether the bullet that killed Terry came from one of those rifles. But the nightmare had come true: "walked" guns turned up at a federal agent's murder.


"You feel like s***. You feel for the parents," one ATF veteran told us.


Hours after Agent Terry was gunned down, ATF finally arrested Avila. They've since indicted 34 suspected gunrunners in the same group. But the indictment makes no mention of Terry's murder, and no one is charged in his death.


Kent Terry said of his brother, "He'd want them to tell the truth. That's one thing my brother didn't like was a liar. And that's what he'd want. He'd want the truth.


In a letter, the Justice Department which oversees ATF says the agency has never knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to suspected gunrunners.


________________________ _________

Fucking wow.  

Does this surprise you? It doesn't surprise me at all!

[Soul Crusher]

New Project Gunrunner documents peg top DOJ officials
The Daily Caller ^ | 5/4/11 | Matthew Boyle



Three Project Gunrunner documents Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and House Oversight Committee chairman, released on Wednesday show high-ranking Justice Department officials were aware of Operation Fast and Furious and that there was a consistent administration policy that allowed American guns to be “walked” into Mexican drug cartels’ possession.

One of the documents shows Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer approved a wiretap application for suspects Operation Fast and Furious targeted in March 2010. The wiretap application process is lengthy and cumbersome, and often requires those applying to make strong case as to why they need it. So, Breuer would have been briefed in detail on Operation Fast and Furious before authorizing the wiretap.

Another document, a briefing paper from January 8, 2010, shows the administration’s step-by-step policy decisions and plans. The Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), wrote that the “investigation has currently identified more than 20 individual connected straw purchasers,” or those who bought weapons, under ATF surveillance, with the intent to traffic them to Mexican drug cartels. The briefing paper shows that ATF’s policy was to allow this to happen. “Currently, our strategy is to allow the transfer of firearms to continue to take place, albeit at a much slower pace, in order to further the investigation and allow for the identification of additional co-conspirators who would continue to operate and illegally traffic firearms to Mexican DTOs [Drug Trafficking Organizations] which are perpetrating armed violence along the Southwest Border.”


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

[Soul Crusher]

BREAKING: CBS News obtains document linking asst. AG to ‘Gunrunner’
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 4 May, 2011 | Dave Workman



CBS News is reporting that documents obtained by Congressional investigators looking into the Project Gunrunner scandal include a wiretap authorization from Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer dated in March 2010.

Read the CBS story by investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson here.

Also included in documents released by investigators is a January 8, 2010 “briefing paper” on Project Gunrunner from the Phoenix, AZ field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The documents were released earlier today as the Senate Judiciary Committee convened for an oversight hearing on the Department of Justice.

One document indicates a Holder Asst. Attorney General, Lanny Breuer, authorized a wiretap in the controversial gun trafficking case headquartered in Phoenix. In that case, called "Fast and Furious," multiple sources say ATF allowed thousands of guns to hit the streets, destined for Mexican drug cartels.—CBS News

As reported by this column today, Attorney General Eric Holder professed considerable lack of knowledge about the Gunrunner operation, and its links to the slaying of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry last December. That prompted the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to call for Holder’s resignation.


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

[Soul Crusher]

Project Gunrunner update: The fit hits the shan
michellemalkin.com ^ | May 4, 2011 | Michelle Malkin



I’ve been red-flagging this most explosive homeland security scandal for you for more than a month.

Independent citizen journalists, inside whistleblowers, and relentless GOP watchdogs on Capitol Hill led by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa and GOP Sen. Charles Grassley have kept up the pressure on the Obama administration to come clean on this deadly, stimulus-funded border nightmare.

And now, the fit is really starting to hit the shan on the Project Gunrunner story.

The latest?

Top DOJ officials have been nabbed in the drive to find out who exactly knew what and when.


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

[Soul Crusher]

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More Than 1,300 Guns Were Bought Illegally by Suspect Buyers Under ATF's 'Gunrunner' Program
FoxNews.com ^ | May 04, 2011 | William La Jeunesse
Posted on May 5, 2011 10:25:44 PM EDT by neverdem

It is the closest thing to a smoking gun congressional investigators have in their probe of Project Gunrunner -- a program that was intended to stop the flow of guns to criminals in Mexico but instead allowed those guns to be smuggled to Mexico instead.  

An internal memo from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives shows that U.S. officials allowed criminals to buy 1,318 guns worth nearly $1 million, even after they suspected the buyers were working for Mexican drug cartels, and that the agency's effort to stop the guns had "yielded little or no results." 

That memo came to light Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Hearing and provided by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The ATF memo shows a list of 15 suspects, all later indicted, who bought guns on behalf of Mexican cartels. 

Click here to see memo (see page 1)(PDF)

Those suspects are known in the trade as straw buyers, or people who legally purchase guns and illegally resell them....

--snip--

In a companion memo dated June 15, 2010, field agents say they recovered "179 crime guns in Mexico...and 130" in the U.S., but roughly 1,300 were unaccounted for and "due to the proximity to the border, bank subpoenas and financial investigations have yielded little or no results."

Click here to see memo (see page 2)(PDF)

In a second, equally explosive disclosure, a law enforcement source tells Fox News, that ATF undercover agents were acting as the straw buyers and purchasing guns using government-issued false identifications and then providing those guns to cartel traffickers to gain credibility in their undercover roles. In that capacity, the ATF "provided 2, 50 cal. machine guns to traffickers that are loose in Mexico and unaccounted for," the source said.

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

[Soul Crusher]

Texas county official says "stupid" feds sparked fire
By Jim Forsyth
SAN ANTONIO | Fri May 13, 2011 6:22pm EDT



SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The fight between Texas and Washington, D.C., over wildfires in the Lone Star State just got nastier.

A county official in the Texas Panhandle is now blaming a federal agency for starting one of the fires through carelessness.

Tom Edwards, the county attorney in rural Motley County east of Lubbock, said on Friday that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives was responsible on Tuesday for sparking a fire that consumed 150 acres.

"You can quote me on it: That bunch has a real corner on stupid," Edwards told Reuters.

Tom Crowley, a spokesman with the federal agency, said bureau officials were assisting four local bomb squads -- at their request -- to destroy some explosives. Firefighters were on hand, he said. The wind picked up, but the explosives were too dangerous to move, so the officials went ahead and destroyed the explosives.

"Unfortunately, a fragment ignited some grass," Crowley said. "As far as the community, we're working with them to let them know how to go about making a claim with the government."

Texas Governor Rick Perry has publicly criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency for declining the state's request for a major disaster declaration for wildfires that have scorched some 2.5 million acres since November.

FEMA has said it has awarded fire management grants to Texas but that the agency determined there was not a need for additional support.

"We've got the federal government that has refused to provide assistance to the state on the request of Governor Perry because of all our statewide fires, and then in waltzes federal agents and they start a fire," Edwards said.

"We had high winds, we're under a burn ban because of extensive prairie fires, brush fires, and in they rolled with the idea of blowing up things."

Crowley said that the federal bureau and the local bomb squads were working as a team.

Fires covering some 203,000 acres were still burning as of Friday, according to the Texas Forest Service. The state remains dangerously dry, with 47 percent of Texas listed as in "exceptional drought" by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

This week's episode shows how dangerous the conditions are, said Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed.

"It underscores why we need help," she said. "It's still a touch and go situation out there with drought and winds."

(Additional reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Jerry Norton)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/13/us-wildfire-texas-blame-idUSTRE74C76T20110513

[Soul Crusher]

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Did MSNBC Produce Project Gunrunner’s Smoking Gun?
big peace ^ | 5/16/11 | Ben Barrack
Posted on May 16, 2011 8:02:51 PM EDT by Nachum

Imagine a scenario in which the media outlet most afflicted with Barack Obama Sycophancy Syndrome (BOSS) – the place Chris ‘thrill up my leg’ Matthews calls home – presented a ’smoking gun’ that could implicate the Obama White House in a cover-up akin to that of Watergate but with the added scarlet letter of murder. The notion of such a thing would be like Woodward and Bernstein ignoring Deep Throat. Impossible, right? Yes, unless it did so unintentionally.

It looks like that honor may just go to none other than Michael Isikoff who, in September of 2010, wrote about an ATF strategy that involved targeting gun dealers in the United States as a means to prevent weapons from ending up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Included in Isikoff’s article is a link to what Mike Vandergoegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars – who unearthed this amazing find – refers to as the “field manual” of the Project Gurunner scandal that led to the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry last December.

The “manual” was leaked to Isikoff as the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) was wrapping up a report that was critical of the ATF’s efforts to stem the flow of weapons to cartels. Ironically, that same OIG is what Obama and Holder point to as the entity that is to conduct a thorough investigation into the origins of the scandal it appears to be involved in at some level.

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

TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: gunrunners; msnbc; produce; project; Click to Add Keyword
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[Soul Crusher]

ATF employees given directive for congressional inquiry/subpoena responses
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 17 May, 2011 | David Codrea





"A message has been sent out to all ATF employees on the agency intraweb with the title 'New Document Production Directive For Material Responsive To Congressional Inquiries and Subpoenas Concerning the Project Gunrunner Initative and Operation Fast And Furious'," writes a comment poster on CleanUpATF.org forums. CleanUpATF is the "dissident" website where ATF employee accusations about Bureau management waste, abuse, corruption and fraud first brought "Project Gunwalker"* allegations to the attention of Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner--allegations that resulted in our bringing Senate and House staffers into contact with whistleblowers and drawing the attention of some in "mainstream media."

Employees are directed to certify they have produced all the relevant information they have, or to indicate if they have none, and are cautioned "failure to produce responsive information could result in disciplinary action."

Left apparently unaddressed, at least in this summary, is responsiveness to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by citizens.

"Seriously people," the post continues. "Only in ATF, right?"

"Management is going to order me to produce documentary evidence on a Program and Operation they say was fully within...ethical boundaries of law enforcement and initially claimed didn't exist? Headquarters personnel are going to review these documents for value? After Headquarters has lied and covered-up and stonewalled this for several months?"

"And the topper (seriously this has to be one of the all time bests at ATF and that is not easy to do), the Assistant Director of Internal Affairs is going to threaten discipline on regular Joe and Jane employees for failing to comply when she and her cronies have protected and defended the very people responsible for the mess that created all this..."


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

[Soul Crusher]

Grassley vows to block nominees until he gets answers on gun sales
The Hill ^ | 24 May, 2011 | Jordy Yager

________________________ ________________________ ________________-


Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is vowing to block President Obama’s nominations until he gets detailed answers on a controversial program that resulted in drug cartels acquiring more than 1,300 firearms from the U.S.

Grassley is pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) on who initiated the “Gun Runner” program that authorized the sale of guns to people acting as straw purchasers for drug cartels in Mexico. Gun Runner might have contributed to the death of at least one federal agent.

As the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Grassley has been working closely with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for the past several months, gathering documents and conducting interviews with DOJ officials and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents in an attempt to find out who gave the order for the operation.

Sources note that unlike Grassley, Issa has subpoena power.

Gun Runner and another operation called Fast and Furious were designed to dismantle the gun-smuggling routes that drug cartels use to ferry high-powered assault rifles from the U.S. into Mexico. By allowing people to illegally purchase large quantities of the weapons from gun dealers, officials hoped to trace the firearms to the drug cartel members and prosecute them. But ATF whistleblowers allege that officials lost track of the guns.

Two of the guns from the operation were found at the scene of an Arizona gun battle in December between U.S. law enforcement and members of a drug gang. The firefight killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, but officials have not revealed whether the bullet that struck him came from the guns the ATF was supposed to be tracking.

Attorney General Eric Holder has denied knowing of Gun Runner and launched an Inspector General (IG) investigation into the matter earlier this year.

Obama, in an interview with the Spanish-language television network Univision in March, said that neither he nor Holder had any knowledge of the program’s existence before allegations arose from whistleblowers within the ATF.

Grassley told The Hill that the DOJ officials have not been forthcoming on his requests for documents. If they continue to be unresponsive, Grassley said, he will hold Obama’s judicial nominations hostage.

“We’re just getting stonewalled,” Grassley said in an interview. “The next step is we’re going to hold up nominations until we get their attention.”

Grassley, who has irritated Democratic and Republican administrations with his aggressive oversight, did not specify which Obama nominations he is targeting.

Grassley and Issa separately grilled Holder earlier this month before their respective committees.

“At best, the ATF was careless in authorizing the sale of thousands of guns to straw purchasers,” said Grassley. “At worst, our own government knowingly participated in arming criminals, drug cartels and those who later killed federal agents.”

Holder stressed the seriousness with which the DOJ was treating the issue, noting the IG investigation.

Issa told The Hill recently that he was not satisfied with Holder’s testimony before his panel.

“They stonewalled us on a subpoena,” Issa said, claiming that documents shown to his committee were heavily redacted. “So they’ve made no sufficient response to our subpoena. We consider that it continues to be a cover-up at the highest level of Justice.”

A Republican aide on Issa’s committee this week said DOJ has since increased its level of assistance and has been more accommodating to the panel’s requests for documents and interviews with DOJ and ATF officials.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said. “We want to be sure that whatever investigation there is, is thorough, but that it does not interfere with Justice’s investigations.

“I think Justice has made reasonable efforts to extend themselves to us and ask us to work with them so that we can still get the information we want and at the same time they can protect their witnesses. I think the problem here is, is the question … How deeply is Justice itself implicated?” he added.

Asked why the department was not providing more information to Congress, a DOJ spokeswoman referred The Hill to separate letters Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich sent to Grassley and Issa at the beginning of this month.

In the letters, Weich said that the DOJ could not deliver the entirety of the information Issa requested because of “pending criminal investigations and the prosecution of 20 individuals” relating to Project Gun Runner and Operation Fast and Furious. The requested information could jeopardize the prosecution, he said.

Weich added that “the executive branch over many administrations has taken the position that only a chairman can speak for a committee when conducting oversight.”

Grassley objected and pointed to a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from 1979, which found that the White House has no authority to restrict Congress’s requests for information.

The Iowa Republican has been able to get some of his requested DOJ documents through Issa, who subpoenaed the ATF for records in April.

[dario73]

Read the above article on Fox.com.

Grassley is doing the right thing. I hope he doesn't let the Feds squirm out of this one.

[Soul Crusher]

bump

[Dos Equis]

Terrible. 

[Soul Crusher]

House Democrats urge White House to come clean on Gunwalker
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 3 June, 2011 | David Codrea
Posted on June 4, 2011 8:21:39 AM EDT by marktwain

“House Democrats Urge President to End Stonewalling on ‘Gunrunner’,” a June 3 National Rifle Association alert reports.

Today, 31 U.S. House members -- all Democrats -- wrote to President Barack Obama, urging him to end Administration stonewalling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Project Gunrunner," and the "Fast and Furious" program under which border state dealers were encouraged to sell thousands of guns to suspicious buyers.

The letter was “spearheaded by Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa.” Among the key points raised:

“[C]oncerned Americans—regardless of where they stand on gun control issues—deserve prompt and complete answers to the questions surrounding this operation,” the letter asserts, recommending that “while the Department of Justice can and should continue its investigation, those activities should not curtail the ability of Congress to fulfill its oversight duties.”

Click here to read the complete letter.

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

[Soul Crusher]

BREAKING: 1st ‘Gunrunner’ hearing scheduled next week
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 6 June, 2011 | Dave Workman

________________________ ________________________ ______________



The first of what could be several long-awaited congressional hearings on the controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Project Gunrunner” and “Operation Fast and Furious” will be held next Monday, congressional sources confirmed today.

The hearings will be conducted by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by California Congressman Darrell Issa, with the first session scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. (EDT) in Room 2154, Rayburn Office Building. According to congressional sources, the first hearing will focus on the Justice Department’s lack of cooperation with Issa’s investigation and with the agency’s limited compliance with Issa’s subpoena for several documents. The official title for the hearing is "Obstruction of Justice: Does the Justice Department have to respond to a lawfully issued and valid Congressional Subpoena?"


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

[Soul Crusher]

'Gunwalker' guns linked to helicopter shooting
CBS News ^ | June 6, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson




CBS News has learned that the recent case of a Mexican military helicopter forced to land after it was fired upon is linked to the ATF Fast and Furious "gunwalker" operation.

Drug cartel suspects on the ground shot at Mexican government helicopters two weeks ago in western Mexico, forcing one chopper to land. Authorities seized more than 70 assault rifles and other weapons from the suspects.


Among the seized weapons are guns sold to suspects as part of the ATF sting operation, sources say. That information came from traces of serial numbers.



Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF


"Shooting at an aircraft is a terrorist act," says one U.S. law enforcement source. "What does that say if we're helping Mexican drug cartels engage in acts of terror? That's appalling if we could have stopped those guns."


The Department of Justice provided no information or comment when asked about the incident by CBS News.


Major ATF shakeup after "gunwalker"


In "Fast and Furious" and other southwest border anti-trafficking operations, sources say ATF allowed more than 2500 weapons to be sold to suspects. Instead of interdicting them, sources tell CBS News, ATF let the guns "walk" or hit the streets. The idea was to gain intelligence to possibly take down an entire cartel. But many of the allegedly walked weapons have shown up at crimes such as the Mexican helicopter incident, and the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry; most have never been recovered.


In the case of the Mexican helicopter, sources say some of the weapons were purchased and moved by defendants who have already been arrested and indicted for their alleged roles in helping supply drug cartels.


The link between the helicopter downing and the ATF alleged gunwalking is likely to test the already-strained US-Mexico relationship.


In recent weeks, Congressional investigators and the Inspector General have been interviewing witnesses behind closed doors in preparation for multiple hearings which could begin as early as next week. The first hearing will likely feature the ATF whistleblower who first spoke to CBS News: Special Agent John Dodson.


ATF Agent: I was ordered to let guns go into Mexico


Attorney General Eric Holder has asked the Inspector General to investigate the gunwalking allegations.


________________________ ________________________ _


More WTF policies of this Admn.

[Soul Crusher]

Issa calls hearing on Justice Department possibly obstructing justice
the daily caller ^ | 6/7/11 | Matthew Boyle

________________________ ________________________ _________________


California Republican Darrell Issa has called a hearing to look at the possibility that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may be committing obstruction of justice by ignoring a subpoena.

On April 1, Issa, House Oversight Committee chairman, subpoenaed all documents pertaining to two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) programs, Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious.

Specifically, Issa was looking for documents and communications “relating to the genesis” of the programs and any information related to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two AK-47s ATF was tracking through Operation Fast and Furious were found at the scene of Terry’s death.

“The unwillingness of this Administration – most specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms – to answer questions about this deadly serious matter is deeply troubling,” Issa said in a statement on April 1. “Allegations surrounding this program are serious and the ability of the Justice Department to conduct an impartial investigation is in question. Congressional oversight is necessary to get the truth about what is really happening.”

The Obama administration still hasn’t complied with Issa’s requests for documents or his subpoena. Before Attorney General Eric Holder appeared at a Judiciary Committee, DOJ supplied several documents that were already public.


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



________________________ __________-

Time to impeach this asshole.   

[Soul Crusher]

Justice Officials in 'Panic Mode' as Hearing Nears on Failed Anti-Gun Trafficking Program
Foxnews ^ | June 9, 2011 | William La Jeunesse
Posted on June 9, 2011 8:46:40 PM EDT by driftdiver

Officials at the Department of Justice are in "panic mode," according to multiple sources, as word spreads that congressional testimony next week will paint a bleak and humiliating picture of Operation Fast and Furious, the botched undercover operation that left a trail of blood from Mexico to Washington, D.C.

The operation was supposed to stem the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexico by allowing so-called straw buyers to purchase guns legally in the U.S. and later sell them in Mexico, usually to drug cartels.

Instead, ATF documents show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms knowingly and deliberately flooded Mexico with assault rifles. Their intent was to expose the entire smuggling organization, from top to bottom, but the operation spun out of control and supervisors refused pleas from field agents to stop it.

Only after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died did ATF Agent John Dodson blow the whistle and expose the scandal.

"What people don't understand is how long we will be dealing with this," Dodson told Fox News back in March. "Those guns are gone. You can't just give the order and get them back. There is no telling how many crimes will be committed before we retrieve them."

But now the casualties are coming in.

.... SNIP

- It hid GPS trackers inside gun stocks and watched the weapons go south on computer screens.

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

[Soul Crusher]

BREAKING: 2nd ‘Fast and Furious’ hearing set; Grassley, Dodson to testify!
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 9 June, 2011 | Dave Workman

________________________ ___________



The second in what promises to be a series of hearings on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ controversial Operation Fast and Furious has been announced for next Wednesday, June 15, and Sen. Charles Grassley will testify.

In addition, according to Becca Watkins, spokesperson for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, family members of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry will appear, along with ATF whistleblower John Dodson and other ATF agents.

Possibly the most heated testimony and questioning may come when Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich appears before the committee. Here is a complete witness list:


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

[dario73]

There should be 24 hour coverage of this by the media. Instead, they are talking about Weiner's weiner.

[Soul Crusher]

There should be 24 coverage of this by the media. Instead, they are talking about Weiner's weiner.

Palin and Newt are more important.   

[Soul Crusher]

Issa schedules second Gunrunner, Fast and Furious hearing (ATF, DOJ)
Yahoo ^ | 6/09/11 | Matthew Boyle



Issa schedules second Gunrunner, Fast and Furious hearing
Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
Thu Jun 9, 11:37 am ET


Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced details for the second in what he said will be a series of hearings on Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious. The hearing, set for Wednesday June 15, will examine “reckless decisions” and “tragic outcomes” as a result of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) programs.


In Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, ATF officials who reported to President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) allowed guns to be taken into Mexico via “straw purchasers,” or people who were eligible to purchase guns in the U.S. but were doing so with the known intention of trafficking them into Mexico. The ultimate goal, apparently, was to attempt to track the larger Mexican drug cartels’ gun market.


(Issa: ‘We do know’ decisions for Gunrunner, Fast and Furious were made in Washington)


Next Wednesday’s hearing witnesses, according to an Oversight Committee release, will include Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, ATF agents, Justice Department officials and family members of dead Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Two AK47’s the ATF was tracking in Operation Fast and Furious were found at the scene of Terry’s death.


“The reckless decisions of ATF and Justice Department officials in Operation Fast and Furious have devastated lives and put fear into communities on both sides of the border,” Issa said in a statement. “By exploring this Justice Department sanctioned program, we can better understand the flawed process surrounding the genesis and implementation of an operation that put guns into the hands of criminals.”


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

[240 is Back]

There should be 24 coverage of this by the media. Instead, they are talking about Weiner's weiner.

agreed.  FOX and MSNBC and CNN are all compliant in it. 

This was my CT - Weiner was doing it on purpose to keep people's eyes off some bigger issue.  This one, perhaps  Hmmmmm

[dario73]

agreed.  FOX and MSNBC and CNN are all compliant in it. 

This was my CT - Weiner was doing it on purpose to keep people's eyes off some bigger issue.  This one, perhaps  Hmmmmm

LOL!! I have to admit that sometimes you make me laugh.

[Soul Crusher]

Issa Investigates Project Gunrunner: President Obama is hiding behind big government in the...
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE ^ | June 10, 2011 | Frank Miniter

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Issa Investigates Project Gunrunner

President Obama is hiding behind big government in the hopes that a scandal will fade away.


Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) is set to issue a number of subpoenas to federal officials who have ties to “Fast and Furious,” a secret program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that put thousands of semi-automatic firearms into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Fast and Furious was a new addition to the ATF’s now-defunct “Project Gunrunner” program. It authorized (“pressed” is probably a more accurate word) U.S. gun stores located near the Mexican border to sell thousands of semi-automatic firearms to suspected and known straw-purchasers (those who buy guns for someone who can’t do so legally). The idea, apparently, was that the guns would lead the ATF to the heads of the cartels.

This program didn’t make headlines until Dec. 14, 2010. That day, during a late-night shootout between the U.S. Border Patrol and armed Mexican illegals in a remote canyon near Nogales, Ariz., 41-year-old federal agent Brian Terry was shot and killed. The U.S. Border Patrol agents had initially used beanbag rounds against the illegals. This loss of a federal agent in a beanbag-versus-rifle shootout should have been controversial enough — but the fact that agent Terry was killed by a firearm the ATF had “walked” across the border should have put this ill-considered program on every cable news network. Ditto for the fact that, as the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, a cartel arsenal recently captured in Mexico also contains guns from the sting.

But aside from CBS News, the mainstream media hasn’t been all that interested in investigating, and the Obama administration has been stonewalling. Two ATF agents — John Dodson, who is stationed in Phoenix, and Darren Gil, who was forced to retire as the agency’s attaché in Mexico City — became whistleblowers. Both Dodson and Gil have made the scandal public by speaking to CBS and other news outlets. Both agents say the orders for the program to send guns quietly into Mexico came from way over their heads, but neither knows how high up. Just where the idea began is what Representative Issa is hoping to discover.

Representative Issa’s investigation has been so stymied by the Obama administration that on June 3, some 31 congressional Democrats wrote to the president to urge him to end the administration’s stonewalling on the Fast and Furious program. In the letter(PDF), spearheaded by Rep. Jason Altmire (D., Pa.), the lawmakers called the uncooperative tactics “extremely troubling” and found the Justice Department’s failure to provide information to congressional investigators “equally troubling.” They say Americans deserve “prompt and complete answers.”

Though the details of just who authorized the program won’t be clear until Representative Issa’s investigation forces some compliance, this wasn’t the Obama administration’s first blunder when it comes to cartels and guns. In 2009, President Obama repeatedly claimed that “more than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States.” But then Fox News investigated. It turned out that the 90 percent figure is derived not from all the “guns recovered in Mexico,” but from the firearms that were submitted by Mexican officials to the U.S. for tracing. The Mexicans sent only the guns they thought came from the U.S., so it is hardly surprising that a high percentage of those guns were indeed American in origin. Obama had simply gotten the number wrong, presumably to bolster the case for gun control in the U.S.

Perhaps, through Representative Issa’s investigation, we’ll find out how high up the ladder the authorization for Fast and Furious goes. When we do, it just be might be worth recalling that President Obama told a Univision interviewer last March, “Well, first of all, I did not authorize it. Eric Holder, the attorney general, did not authorize it.”

Right now it’s amusing that when the Univision reporter asked if President Obama had been informed about the Fast and Furious program, Obama replied, “Absolutely not, this is a pretty big government, the United States government. I got a lot of moving parts.”

So, President Obama is hiding behind big government in the hopes that this scandal — a scandal that wouldn’t even be under investigation by Congress if the American public had not handed the U.S. House of Representatives back to the Republicans in November of 2010 — will fade away.

— Frank Miniter’s next book, out June 28, is Saving the Bill of Rights.



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What is Obama hiding? 

[Soul Crusher]

Obama Administration May Be Held in Contempt of Congress
Townhall.com ^ | June 14, 2011 | Katie Pavlich

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Presidential administration officials have been held in contempt only 12 times since Watergate in the 1970s, but number 13 may be on its way. Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to supply the House Oversight Committee with requested documents surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the lethal and botched operation in which thousands of semi-automatic weapons were illegally sent over the border and into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The operation resulted in the death of thousands of Mexican citizens and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and involved the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (a division of Holder’s Justice Department.)


Yesterday, during a hearing on Capitol Hill examining whether the DOJ must respond to a lawfully issued and valid Congressional subpoena, multiple witnesses confirmed that the DOJ is not above the law and must, in fact, comply with the subpoena. The witnesses, which included Commissioner on Wartime Contracting Professor Charles Tiefer, American Public Law Specialist at the Library of Congress Morton Rosenberg, and Legislative Attorney Todd Tatelman, confirmed it is a Constitutional duty for Congress to oversee and question executive branch activities.

“The Justice Department is not immune from these investigations,” Rosenberg said.


The hearing sustained that both the House and Senate Congressional Oversight Committees have the absolute right to pursue and obtain information surrounding actions taken by the executive branch, as was the Founding Fathers’ intention in limiting the size and power of the President and his administration. Legally, the executive branch can decline providing the Congressional Oversight Committees with requested documentation only when the President invokes a Privilege Law, which shields the release of certain information. In this case, President Obama has yet to do so, and at this point in time, the House Oversight Committee has full rights to the requested documents.

The Obama Justice Department has been stonewalling the House Oversight Committee for months, citing ongoing investigations within the DOJ surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, in addition to claiming the House Oversight Committee does not have the authority to access the requested information.


“As things stand now, they owe you the documents,” Professor Tiefer said while giving testimony, adding there is no Constitutional basis for the DOJ’s refusal.


The little documentation currently available for the Congressional Oversight Committee is only the information accessible by the general public, hundreds of pages of which have been so redacted that the Committee has been unable to obtain much useful information about the Operation. They have made little progress in getting to the bottom of the scandal, and there is no way the Committee can satisfy its Constitutional duty to oversee the executive branch when the only information presented is heavily redacted material.


“I don’t think it’s appropriate and I think it sends the wrong signal that there may be some things they [DOJ] don’t want you to see,” said Morton when answering a question about the validity of hundreds of redacted documents from the DOJ.


Congressman Darrell Issa’s attempts to look into operations conducted by the Obama Justice Department are nothing new. Congressional Oversight investigations are regular occurrences throughout U.S. history, including Watergate, Iran-Contra, the Tea Pot Dome Scandal, and the Bush Administration FBI informant program.

Issa’s requests are simple. He wants to know what happened, how high up in command the operation went, who ordered the operation, how the government can avoid this type of botched and lethal operation in the future and what the consequences of bad decisions made by officials in the DOJ have led to.

“Nobody wants to have to go to this step,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah said when commenting on whether the DOJ will be held in contempt. “But you have a president and an attorney general who claim to be oblivious to what went on.”


A second hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, when the family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry will testify.

“I want the people who killed Agent Brian Terry to be tried and convicted.” –Rep. Issa