Obama Corruption & Scandal Thread - Solyndra and other crimes.

[Soul Crusher]

Posted on July 6, 2011 by John Hinderaker in Obama Administration Scandals
“Fast and Furious” Blows Sky-High


http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/07/fast-and-furious-blows-sky-high.php



This morning, there was a stunning development in Congress’s investigation of the Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” gun-running program: it was revealed that on July 4, Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Obama administration’s intended fall guy in the scandal, broke ranks with his superiors. Without their knowledge, he gave an interview to Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, accompanied only by his personal attorney. While a transcript of that interview is not yet public, it is clear that he blew the whistle on senior officials in the Justice Department.

This morning, Issa and Senator Charles Grassley released a letter that they sent yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder. It is explosive, to say the least. You should read it in its entirety; here are some excerpts:

Yesterday, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson participated in a transcribed interview regarding Operation Fast and Furious and related matters with both Republican and Democratic staff. He appeared with his personal counsel, Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods LLP. His interview had originally been scheduled through the Justice Department to occur on July 13 in the presence of DOJ and ATF counsel. As you know, however, under our agreement Department witnesses who choose to attend a voluntary interview with their own lawyer are free to exercise that right rather than participate with counsel representing the Department’s interests.

After being made aware of that provision of our agreement, Acting Director Melson chose to exercise that right and appeared with his own lawyer. We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement. Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress.

DOJ’s effort to cover up the Fast and Furious scandal is one of the letter’s themes.

According to Mr. Melson, it was not until after the public controversy that he personally reviewed hundreds of documents relating to the case, including wiretap applications and Reports of Investigation (ROIs). By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story.

More on the DOJ’s attempt to hide the scandal from Congress:

Mr. Melson said that he told the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the requests for information from Congress.

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF’s senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF’s senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process. However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear.

Issa’s committee has learned that other federal agencies, including the FBI and DEA, were involved in Fast and Furious, and that there was a failure to share information that was known to those other agencies:

When confronted with information about serious issues involving lack of information sharing by other agencies, which Committee staff had originally learned from other witnesses, Mr. Melson’s responses tended to corroborate what others had said. Specifically, we have very real indications from several sources that some of the gun trafficking “higher-ups” that the ATF sought to identify were already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants. The Acting Director said that ATF was kept in the dark about certain activities of other agencies, including DEA and FBI.



The evidence gathered by Issa’s oversight committee suggests that the Obama administration may actually have financed the purchases of firearms by known criminals, which then wound up in the hands of Mexican gangs and were involved in murders, including the murder of an American border patrol agent:


The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities. While this is preliminary information, we must find out if there is any truth to it. According to Acting Director Melson, he became aware of this startling possibility only after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the indictments of the straw purchasers, which we now know were substantially delayed by the u.s. Attorney’s Office and Main Justice.



Issa and Grassley link the Obama administration’s effort to slide Melson out of his position, making him the fall guy for the Fast and Furious operation, with Melson’s complaints to Deputy Attorney General James Cole, the number two official in the Department of Justice, about DOJ’s failure to respond adequately to Congress’s requests for information about Fast and Furious:

However, two days after he told Acting Deputy Attorney General Cole about serious issues involving lack of information sharing, the Wall Street Journal reported that unnamed sources said that Melson was about to be ousted.

The full transcript of Melson’s testimony, when released, will be a fascinating document. In the meantime, it appears clear that the Fast and Furious scandal reaches to the very top of Barack Obama’s Department of Justice.

Via InstaPundit.



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oooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooo oo
oooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooo ooo
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Soul Crusher]

Bump.

[Soul Crusher]

Fbi and dea now caught up in this shit.  Ill post it later. 


Hope and change assholes - you pieces of trash voted for this murderous admn. 

Yes murderous.  Mexico saying 150 now dead due to obamas' treason and we already have two dead border agents.


Bottom line - fuck you if you still support this disastrous admn.

[Soul Crusher]

latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-naw-atf-guns-20110707,0,6997495.story

latimes.com

More federal agencies implicated in gun-trafficking controversy

The head of the ATF says the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration kept him in the dark about their role in the operation that allowed guns to escape untracked into the hands of Mexican criminals.

By Richard A. Serrano

Washington Bureau

3:27 PM PDT, July 6, 2011

Reporting from Washington

advertisement
The embattled head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has told congressional investigators that the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration kept his agency "in the dark" about their dealings with Mexican drug cartel figures linked to a controversial gun-trafficking investigation.

Kenneth Melson, the ATF's acting director, has been under pressure to resign over the agency's handling of the gun-trafficking operation, known as Fast and Furious. But in two days of meetings with investigators, Melson disclosed that other law enforcement agencies had a connection to the operation. His statements sharply ratcheted up the affair, and strongly suggested that House and Senate investigations, as well as an internal review by the Justice Department, will widen.

"Our investigation has clearly expanded," one source close to the investigation said Wednesday. "We know now it was not something limited to just a small group of ATF agents in Arizona."

Under Fast and Furious, the ATF allowed straw purchases of weapons -- in which a person buys guns on behalf of someone else who cannot legally buy them -- ostensibly to trace the guns back to Mexican drug cartels. The agency lost track of the guns, and many were found at the scene of crimes in Mexico, including two that were recovered at the site of a U.S. Border Patrol agent's killing.

According to Melson, some of the Mexican drug cartel leaders being targeted were paid informants working for the FBI and DEA. Those agencies never shared that crucial information with the ATF, he said, telling investigators that if ATF agents had known of the relationships, the agency might have ended the investigation much earlier.

Melson was to have met with investigators on July 13 accompanied by ATF and Justice Department attorneys. Instead, he met with them Sunday and over the Fourth of July holiday and brought his personal lawyer along.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), told Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. in a letter Tuesday that "this whole misguided operation might have been cut short if not for catastrophic failures to share key information."

Ronald Welch, assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, responded Wednesday to the Issa-Grassley letter by saying Justice Department officials were still discussing how to provide any "sensitive law enforcement information" regarding the FBI and the DEA to congressional investigators. Without specifically acknowledging that cartel leaders were paid informants, he said their main focus is "how best to protect ongoing investigations."

"Like you," he told them, "the department is deeply interested in understanding the facts surrounding Operation Fast and Furious."

Mexican authorities have long complained that most of the guns that fuel the drug wars there are purchased in the U.S.

On Wednesday, Mexican federal police released a videotaped interrogation with recently captured Jesus Rejon Aguilar, an alleged founder of the Zetas gang there who is wanted in the slaying of a U.S. immigration agent in Mexico. He brazenly told them that "all the weapons are bought in the United States" and that "even the American government itself was selling the weapons."

He added, "Whatever you want, you can get."

Issa and Grassley said that over the holiday weekend Melson "was candid in admitting mistakes that his agency made."

They said he told them he personally reviewed hundreds of documents about Fast and Furious and became "sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story."

Melson said ATF agents had witnessed the transfer of weapons from straw purchasers to others "without following the guns any further," contradicting statements by the Justice Department that they did follow through.

Sources both on Capitol Hill and at the ATF said Melson did not volunteer the information about the FBI and DEA informants. Rather, they said, he "corroborated" it when congressional investigators told him other sources have said the FBI and DEA had a role in why Fast and Furious continued for months.

Issa and Grassley were clearly upset over the revelation.

"The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities," they said in their letter to Holder.

"According to Acting Director Melson, he became aware of this startling possibility only after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the indictments of the straw purchasers." Terry was killed when a gun battle erupted in December along a smuggling route in Arizona near the border with Mexico.

Melson's attorney, Richard Cullen, a former federal prosecutor and state attorney general in Virginia, declined in an interview Wednesday to elaborate except to say that the letter accurately reflects Melson's comments to the investigators.

Cullen said Melson volunteered to speak with the committee because "he was anxious to get the facts out about the program." He added that no one "in the leadership" at the Justice Department has told him to resign.

"He just wants the facts to be known by people in authority," Cullen said. "He's eager to be as cooperative in any official inquiry as he possibly can."

Sources said the congressional investigators "confronted" Melson with evidence that the FBI and DEA were not cooperating with the ATF, and it was at that point that "Mr. Melson's responses tended to corroborate what others had said."

They said investigators have "very real indications from several sources" that some of the cartel leaders the ATF was trying to identify through Fast and Furious were "already known" to the other agencies and apparently had "been paid as informants."

Finally, Melson said, ATF agents along the U.S.-Mexico border realized that the FBI and DEA were running separate operations and that it "could have a material impact on Fast and Furious." Melson said he notified his superiors of this problem in April.

The congressional leaders also noted the pressure Melson has felt to resign, and they warned Holder not to make Melson the sole "fall guy" in Fast and Furious.

richard.serrano@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

[Soul Crusher]

Sipsey Street Irregulars
The gathering place for a merry band of Three Percenters. (As denounced by Bill Clinton on CNN!)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2011
From the Mexican newspaper Excelsior: The U.S. sells us arms, admits Zeta kingpin.

English translation of this article in the Mexican newspaper Excelsior.

The U.S. sells us arms, admits El Mamito

The drug dealer Jesus Rejon affirms that the cartel buys drugs in Guatemala, and then they cross the river

Raul Flores Martinez

Mexico City, July 6, 2011 The arms used by the criminal group The Zetas were bought in the United States including those sold by authorities of the United States government, according to the account of Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, El Mamito.

Last Sunday, elements of the Federal Police arrested El Z-7, one of the principal leaders and founders of The Zetas who in his initial statement affirmed that there are entities of the government of the United States that are furnishing arms to the Mexican cartels.

In an interview released by the Federal Police with El Mamito, indicated that the arms that are purchased cross over the International Bridge and thus cross the river.

“The arms bought in the United States – there was a time that the buyers, because they were not with us, were buyers on the other side – said that even the American government itself sold them.”

Furthermore, the arms trafficking from the American Union to Mexico took place in periods of 20 days, a month or month and a half, according to the review and operation that the federal authorities carried out. The transport of armaments were facilitated for the Gulf Cartel by having an agreement with the authorities, said Rejon Aguilar in his initial statements.

“We cannot overlook the reason for the success of this operation; we can deduce that it is impossible to be buying arms much less take them in the trunk of a car and be able to freely pass, well there had to have been a treaty or something, I don’t know, one can suppose that there had to have been a treaty with the government, I don’t know.”

Regarding drug trafficking, the central base is Guatemala. Everything is purchased in that Central American country.

“Drugs are controlled by a group of accountants, they direct everything in private, so it is a closed circle, and they know how it is being done.”

Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) applauded the capture of Rejon Aguilar for whom there is an warrant in the United States for the distribution of cocaine and marijuana.

“This significant arrest is testimony to the commitment of President Filipe Calderon to defeat the dangerous and violent drug cartels that operate in Mexico,” indicated the Agency.

[Soul Crusher]

Here is the text of the letter:
****************************

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General u.s. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

Yesterday, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson participated in a transcribed interview regarding Operation Fast and Furious and related matters with both Republican and Democratic staff. He appeared with his personal counsel, Richard CullenofMcGuireWoodsLLP. His interview had originally been scheduled through the Justice Department to occur on July 13 in the presence of DOJ and ATF counsel. As you know, however, under our agreement Department witnesses who choose to attend a voluntary interview with their own lawyer are free to exercise that right rather than participate with counsel representing the Department’s interests.

After being made aware of that provision of our agreement, Acting Director Melson chose to exercise that right and appeared with his own lawyer. We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement. Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress. This is yet another example of why direct communications with Congress are so important and are protected by law.

Specifically, no officer or employee may attempt to prohibit or prevent “any other officer or employee of the Federal Government from having direct oral or written communication or contact with any Member, committee, or subcommittee of the Congress” about a matter related to his employment or the agency “in any way, irrespective of whether such communication or contact is at the initiative” of the employee or Congress (emphasis added). Moreover, the prohibition also applies to any officer or employee who “removes, suspends from duty without pay ... any other officer or employee of the Federal Government ... by reason of any communication or contact of such other officer or employee with any Member, committee, or subcommittee of the Congress.” Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010, P.L.111-117, 123 Stat. 3034, § 714 (2010), as continued by §1104 ofP.L. 112-10- which extends the funding levels, as well as “the authority and conditions provided in such Acts,” through September 30, 2011.

Acting Director Melson’s cooperation was extremely helpful to our investigation. He was candid in admitting mistakes that his agency made and described various ways he says that he tried to remedy the problems. According to Mr. Melson, it was not until after the public controversy that he personally reviewed hundreds of documents relating to the case,including wiretap applications and Reports of Investigation (ROIs). By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the fullstory. Mr.Melson said that he told the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the requests for information from Congress

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF’s senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF’s senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process. However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear. Ifhis account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation. The Department’s inability or unwillingness to be more forthcoming served to conceal critical information that we are now learning about the involvement of other agencies, including the DEA and the FBI.

The Role of DEA, FBI, and Other Agencies
When confronted with information about serious issues involving lack of information sharing by other agencies, which Committee staff had originally learned from other witnesses, Mr. Melson’s responses tended to corroborate what others had said. Specifically, we have very real indications from several sources that some of the gun trafficking “higher-ups” that the ATF sought to identify were already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants. The Acting Director said that ATF was kept in the dark about certain activities of other agencies, including DEA andFBI. Mr.Melsonsaidthathelearn edfromATFagentsinthefiel dthatinformation obtained by these agencies could have had a material impact on the Fast and Furious investigation as far back as late 2009 or early 2010. After learning about the possible role of DEA and FBI, he testified that he reported this information in April 2011 to the Acting Inspector General and directly to then-Acting Deputy Attorney General James Cole on June 16, 2011.

The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities. While this is preliminary information, we must find out if there is any truth to it. According to Acting Director Melson, he became aware of this startling possibility only after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the indictments of the straw purchasers, which we now know were substantially delayed by the u.s. Attorney’s Office and Main Justice. Mr. Melson provided documents months ago supporting his concerns to the official in the ODAG responsible for document production to the Committees, but those documents have not been provided to us.

It is one thing to argue that the ends justify the means in an attempt to defend a policy that puts building a big case ahead of stopping known criminals from getting guns. Yet it is a much more serious matter to conceal from Congress the possible involvement of other agencies in identifying and maybe even working with the same criminals that Operation Fast and Furious was trying to identify. Ifthis information is accurate, then the whole misguided operation might have been cut short if not for catastrophic failures to share key information. If agencies within the same Department, co-located at the same facilities, had simply communicated with one another, then ATF might have known that gun trafficking “higher-ups” had been already identified. This raises new and serious questions about the role of DEA, FBI, the United States Attorney’s Office in Arizona, and Main Justice in coordinating this effort. Nearly a decade after the September 11th attacks, the stovepipes of information within our government may still be causing tragic mistakes long after they should have been broken down.

Efforts to Oust Melson
In the last few weeks, unnamed administration officials have indicated to the press that Acting Director Melson would be forced to resign. According to Mr.Melson, those initial reports were untrue. Regardless of what we might have thought before about how he should handle a request to resign, we now know he has not been asked to resign. We also now have the benefit of hearing his side of the story and will have a chance to examine what he said and compare it to the other evidence we are gathering. However, that will take some time. Mr. Melson served as the First Assistant to the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District ofVirginia for 21 years, from 1986 to 2007. That is a career position. After the controversy over the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, he took over the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA). He indicated that he was asked to convert to a non-career Senior Executive Service (SES), a politically appointed position, in order to speed the hiringprocess,andheagreed. However,his former position at EOUSA is currently filled by a career SES employee, Marshall Jarrett. As you know, for civil servants, the distinction between career and non-career status is significant.

In 2009, he said he was asked to take over as Acting Director of the ATF. Acting Director of the ATF is by its nature a temporary job. According to Mr. Melson, he was willing to serve the Department with the understanding that after a short tenure as Acting Director, he would return to a position as a career senior executive elsewhere within the Department. However, two days after he told Acting Deputy Attorney General Cole about serious issues involving lack of information sharing, the Wall Street Journal reported that unnamed sources said that Melson was about to be ousted.

The revelations about Operation Fast and Furious have focused intense scrutiny on the ATF. It has no doubt taken a toll on the agency and the good people who work there. Much of that damage has occurred because the Department prevented ATF from being more forthcoming and responsive to questions from Congress. This is the context in which Mr. Melson decided to submit to an on-the-record interview with private counsel, pursuant to our agreement with the Department.

Technically, Mr. Melson no longer enjoys the due process protections afforded to career officials. Given his testimony, unless a permanent director is confirmed, it would be inappropriate for the Justice Department to take action against him that could have the effect of intimidating others who might want to provide additional information to the Committees.

We hope that the Department will take a much more candid and forthcoming approach in addressing these very serious matters with the Committees. Ifother important fact witnesses like Mr. Melson have a desire to communicate directly with the Committees they should be informed that they are free to do so. They should also be notified that if they are represented by personal counsel, they may appear with personal counsel rather than with Department lawyers. Any decision about Mr. Melson’s future with the Department would need to be justified solely on the basis of the facts and the needs of the agency, rather than on his decision to speak to us. We encourage you to communicate to us any additional significant information about any such decision so that we can work together to ensure that it would not impede our investigation. For now, the Office of Inspector General is still conducting its review, and we are still conducting ours. Knowing what we know so far, we believe it would be inappropriate to make Mr. Melson the fall guy in an attempt to prevent further congressional oversight.

Sincerely,

Darrell Issa, Chairman
Committee on Oversight & Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives

Charles E. Grassley, Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate









Bbboooommmm

[240 is Back]

hey guys, use your brains... the war on drugs in an awesome scam for justifying use of tax dollars for law enforcement and many other budgets.

the minute there isn't a side to fight, you lose all that $$$$ in the budget.

So, you have to keep a viable enemy... gotta keep them strong and armed.

It's the same way we kept "losing" shitloads of money and guns in afghanistan which kept feeding the militants we were fighting.  You can't justify war spending when the enemy runs out of ammo.  We run that country and they keep getting weapons and supplies for ten years?  sorry champ, that's bullshit.


So yes, act all surprised.  Pretend this all started on Jan 20, 2009, you dummies. 

[Hugo Chavez]

only being fair,

3333, Do you have some cliff notes to all that or do I have to read all that?

[Soul Crusher]

You really should read some of this.  Its disgusting.

[Soul Crusher]

Breaking News: Source claims ATF's Tampa SAC walked guns to Honduras
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 6 July, 2011 | David Codrea

________________________ ________________________ ___________________



Part of 'Operation Castaway'?

Exclusive Special Report by Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea

Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious, it was reported to these correspondents this evening via private correspondence from a proven credible source.

On 21 September, 2010, A. Brian Albritton, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida issued a press release on Operation Castaway:

Part of 'Operation Castaway'?

Exclusive Special Report by Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea

Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious, it was reported to these correspondents this evening via private correspondence from a proven credible source.

On 21 September, 2010, A. Brian Albritton, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida issued a press release on Operation Castaway:

United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton, Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of central and northern Florida Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operations, and Susan McCormick, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, Tampa Field Office announce the initial results of Operation Castaway, an intensive and wideranging Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) firearms trafficking investigation conducted by ATF, ICE, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, and the Miami-Dade Police Department. ATF describes Operation Castaway as the most significant firearms trafficking investigation in Central Florida history.


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






WTF! ! !  !

[Soul Crusher]

July 7, 2011
BATF Head Melson Implicates DOJ In Surprise July 4th Testimony
By Rob Miller




Over the July Fourth weekend, there was a major development in the Fast and Furious investigation when BATF head Ken Melman made a surprise July 4th appearance before Darrel Issa and Chuck Grassley's congressional committee put together to investigate Fast and Furious.

That operation involved BATF(Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agents allowing straw purchasers to buy over two thousand automatic weapons and then smuggle them illegally across the border to Mexican Drug cartels. The operation led to a spike in violence in Mexico, the killing in Arizona of a U.S. Border Patrol agent last December and a possible attempted cover up by the BATF and the US Department of Justice.

BATF head Melman was placed in a particularly bad light by the earlier testimony of agents, some of whom depicted him watching the illegal gun deals go down on closed circuit TV and literally rubbing his hands with glee. Melman, a temporary appointee, was set up to fall on his sword for Fast and Furious and was apparently under a great deal of pressure from the Obama Administration to 'resign'.  Instead, he resisted and said he wanted to testify before the investigative committee, but in order to do that, he needed clearance from the Department of Justice.

In a particularly revolting display of partisan horse trading and disregard for justice, the ranking Senate Democrat on the committee, Patrick Leahy made a deal with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley to allow access to certain documents and allow Melman and other witnesses to testify -- in exchange for releasing holds on three Obama Administration DOJ nominees.

Testimony was set up for July 13th, but then something very interesting happened.  Apparently there was a clause in the agreement between the committee and the Department of Justice saying that "witnesses who choose to attend a voluntary interview with their own lawyer are free to exercise that right rather than participate with counsel representing the Department's interests."

Melson apparently was never made aware of it, and neither were Rep. Issa or Senator Grassley and they weren't exactly pleased about not being informed. But when it became known, Melson chose to appear before the committee with his own lawyer over this last weekend.

In the letter linked above to Attorney General Eric Holder, Issa and Grassley wrote that Melson's testimony was 'extremely helpful to our investigation' which was just the first bit of bad news they had for President Obama's Attorney general:

According to Mr. Melson, it was not until after the public controversy that he personally reviewed hundreds of documents relating to the case, including wiretap applications and Reports of Investigation (ROIs). By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story.

Mr. Melson said that he told the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the requests for information from Congress.

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF's senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF's senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process.However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear.


 If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation. The Department's inability or unwillingness to be more forthcoming served to conceal critical nformation that we are now learning about the involvement of other agencies, including the DEA and the FBI.

What Issa and Grassley are talking about is Obstruction of Justice. And the fact that some of the 'gun traffickers' were paid informants on the FBI and DEA payroll:

The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities. While this is preliminary information, we must find out if there is any truth to it. According to Acting Director Melson, he became aware of this startling possibility only after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the indictments of the straw purchasers, which we now know were substantially delayed by the u.s. Attorney's Office and Main Justice. Mr. Melson provided documents months ago supporting his concerns to the official in the ODAG responsible for document production to the Committees, but those documents have not been provided to us.

What Melson has effectively done is to finger the Department of Justice for some felony offenses, and there's no telling how high this might go. Not only that, but by becoming what amounts to friendly witness for the committee, he's ensured their protection and made sure that any bureaucratic retaliation from the Obama Administration is going to cost a lot more in scrutiny and oversight than it's going to be worth:

Any decision about Mr. Melson's future with the Department would need to be justified solely on the basis of the facts and the needs of the agency, rather than on his decision to speak to us. We encourage you to communicate to us any additional significant information about any such decision so that we can work together to ensure that it would not impede our investigation.

For now, the Office of Inspector General is still conducting its review, and we are still conducting ours. Knowing what we know so far, we believe it would be inappropriate to make Mr. Melson the fall guy in an attempt to prevent further congressional oversight.

Issa has already stated that he has proof Eric Holder was out and out lying about what he knew about Fast and Furious and when he knew it. Now it's just a matter of moving up the ladder and getting these people to rat out one another until they get to Holder.

The cover up's always worse than the original offense in these matters.

Rob Miller blogs at Joshuapundit


Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2011/07/batf_head_melson_implicates_doj_in_surprise_july_4th_testimony.html at July 07, 2011 - 08:15:33 AM CDT


















WHOEVER PLANS TO VOTE FOR THIS COMMUNIST CRIMNAL CONSPIRACY KNOWN AS THE OBAMA ADMN SHOULD BE BEATEN DAILY.   

[Soul Crusher]

'Fast & Furious' gets hotter for Holder
New York Post ^ | 07/07/2011 | Michael A. Walsh

________________________ ________________________ _________



Don't look now, but the real action in Washington this week isn't the parti san wrangling over the debt ceiling but something -- literally -- even more incendiary: Operation Fast and Furious, which seems about to explode right in the face of Attorney General Eric Holder -- and maybe other administration officials, too.

Also known as Project Gunrunner, the Arizona-based operation was supposed to be a sting, under which the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is part of the Justice Department, allowed "straw purchasers" to transfer weapons from gun shops in Arizona to Mexican drug cartels to trace and halt crossborder arms-trafficking.

That's the official version, anyway -- but it's crumbling, fast.

The ATF's acting director, Kenneth Melson, has been singing like a canary to congressional investigators as he pushes back against administration pressure for him to resign and take the fall for something that, at the very least, had to include the US Attorney's Office, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and possibly the Homeland Security Department.

In a letter to Holder released yesterday, Rep. Daryl Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley accused the Justice Department of blocking their investigation into the burgeoning scandal (which has resulted in the deaths of at least two American agents and countless Mexican civilians), muzzling the ATF and involving other federal agencies, including the FBI and the DEA, in funding the crackpot scheme.


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

[Soul Crusher]

ATF Chief Testifies Before Congress in Secret Over Controversial Gun Program
July 06, 2011 1:55 PM


ABC's Jason Ryan (@JasonRyanABC) reports: The acting head of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire Arms agency, facing scrutiny over a controversial gun program across the U.S. - Mexico border linked to the death of a Border Patrol agent last year, appeared secretly before Congressional investigators on July 4 with his own private attorney, rather than lawyers from the Justice Department.

According to sources close to the investigation, ATF Acting Direction Ken Melson had previously wanted to testify before the oversight committees but Justice Department officials sought to delay his testimony.

Melson’s testimony came weeks after three current ATF agents who were involved in the program known as “Fast and Furious” testified before Congress about the botched operation and how ATF failed to stop guns going into Mexico. The program allowed straw purchases of weapons that were then allowed to “walk” across the border into Mexico in an effort to locate major weapons traffickers.

But when Border Agent Brian Terry was murdered in December 2010 and two guns were found on the scene that were linked to the  program,  it came to a halt and was brought under Congressional investigation. According to reports by the ABC affiliate in Phoenix, other guns from the Fast and Furious program have now also been linked to additional crimes.

According to a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder by Rep Darrel Issa, R-CA and Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who have been investigating the Fast and Furious program, Melson expressed dismay during testimony over how the operation was run and that “he was sick to his stomach” when he reviewed internal documents.” The letter also notes that Melson’s testimony corroborated information indicating that DEA and FBI may have had a role in the operation.

In the July 5,2011 letter (read more HERE) lawmakers who were once very critical of Melson and his tenure at ATF, have since changed their tune and are now urging the Attorney General to ensure Melson is being treated fairly – even suggesting that action against Melson by the Justice Deparmtment could have the effect of “intimidating others who might want to provide additional information to the committees.”








Boom - this entire govt is a corrupt crimnal org. 

[Soul Crusher]

ATF Director Says Holder Obstructing 'Fast and Furious' Probe
nation.foxnews.com ^ | July 06, 2011 | nation.foxnews.com



The Justice Department is obstructing the congressional investigation of a U.S. law enforcement operation intended to crack down on major weapons traffickers on the Southwest border, according to the embattled leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Ken Melson, the acting director of the ATF, lobbed the accusation when he sneaked in for an interview with congressional investigators on July 4, two days ahead of his scheduled interview with the inspector general about the operation known as "Fast and Furious," Fox News has learned.


"If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand," Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. "That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation."


The Justice Department is reportedly looking to oust Melson, who has been acting ATF director since April 2009, as the agency deals with its biggest scandal in nearly two decades. Andrew Traver, who was tapped in November by President Obama to become the permanent ATF director, could be named as acting director until the Senate acts on his nomination, sources have said.


Continue reading at Foxnews.com


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


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Eric Holder - "we are a nation of cowards"

[Soul Crusher]

43 Weapons in Phoenix Traffic Stop Linked to ATF's 'Fast and Furious' (video)
ABC15/SWA (YouTube) ^ | 07-07-2011 | Stand With Arizona



The scope of Eric Holder's disastrous 'Fast and Furious" ATF operation just keeps expanding. Now a single traffic stop in Phoenix has revealed 43 weapons with serial numbers traceable to the the ATF scandal - taken from 4 illegal aliens arrested in the stop. How many guns has this Administration put in the hands of gangs throughout the U.S. How many children will die in drive-bys using weapons Holder GAVE to criminals? And with the ATF Director now saying the DoJ obstructing the investigation, the House GOP must not stop until all responsible are rotting in jail. And what did Obama know and when did he know it?

VIDEO LINK HERE



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WTF! ! ! ! !

[Soul Crusher]

Disgusting.   

Obama/Holder should rot in hell for this. 

[Soul Crusher]

Operation Gunrunner was funded by the 2009 Stimulus Package
7/7/2011 | Domandred




Something about Project Gunrunner (gunwalker, fast and furious) has been bugging me but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

This morning when I woke up I remember seeing Project Gunrunner in a bill that was discussed here. The original thread about it was a rumor thread that HR45 had been rolled into the stimulus package.

In that thread I scanned the text of H.R.1 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for gun, firearm, etc and came up with a hit.

I posted in the thread: "Only time “gun” or “firearm” appears is in the part that give $10,000,000 to the ATF for Project Gunrunner. That was H.R. 495, asking for 15,000,000 for Gunrunner".

H.R. 495 that I mentioned never made it out of committee, but it looks as it was to specifically fund Gunrunner.

Instead portions of it were rolled into the stimulus package a month later. That text found in H.R.1 is:

For an additional amount for ‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance’, $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner.

Notice that's $40,000,000 for Southern border enforcement, $10,000,000 of which specifically for Project Gunrunner. What does $10 million pay for here? It didn't hire any new agents that I am aware of.

What this tells me is that several congressmen also had knowledge of what Gunrunner was going to entail. This isn't just the ATF and DOJ. This is all levels and areas of government. Even members of the House and Senate knew what Project Gunrunner was.


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Shut the govt down. 

[Option D]

Racist post reported. Brown rice is more nutritious and politically correct.

as well as disgusting

[Soul Crusher]

Which Was Worse: Watergate or Operation ‘Fast and Furious’?
by AWR Hawkins


After The Washington Post broke the news of the Watergate break-ins in 1972, the Nixon administration circled the wagons. And in 1997 – a full 25 years after the fact – Katherine Graham, who was with The Post in 1972, vividly recalled how “Nixon began making threats of economic retaliation against the paper.”


According to Graham, Nixon bullied the paper, sought to silence it, and launched a “campaign to undermine public confidence in [it].”


Judging from what Graham said, it appears that Nixon wanted to be sure people understood that if they continued to pry into Watergate or talk about Watergate or break news about Watergate as it unfolded, there would be harsh ramifications. (Keep in mind – Nixon had nothing to do with planning Watergate. Only with covering it up once he learned of it after the fact.)

Honestly folks, Watergate provided the Left with such a singularly sweet opportunity to bring down a Republican president that they’ve never gotten over it. As recently as 2004, MSNBC sent reporters to the streets to be sure up and coming generations had not forgotten what Nixon had done. (I don’t want to belabor the point, but Nixon had nothing to do with planning Watergate. Only with covering it up once he learned of it after the fact.)

So for covering up something up, Nixon was crucified by Left: to the point that by the summer of 1974 it became evident the House of Representatives was going to bring up impeachment charges against him. But he nipped those plans in the bud by resigning office on August 9, 1974, and flipping the “V” for victory to the hippies and the war protestors as he boarded the chopper that carried him away from the White House.

No one died during the Watergate break-ins or as a result of Nixon’s cover-up.

Switch gears and jump to 2009, and the ATF’s special operation “Fast and Furious.” An operation with which you’re all familiar by now, where upwards of 2500 guns in Arizona were sold to “straw purchasers” under the assumption that those guns were going to end up in the hands of Mexican cartel members who could then be arrested.

Talk about an embarrassingly ignorant plan.


Jump now to 2011 – of the approximately 2500 guns sold only a few hundred have been recovered and at least one federal agent, Brian Terry, lost his life due to this ludicrous operation.

Talk about a cover-up: this operation was somehow planned and conducted without the full knowledge of the Acting ATF Director, the Justice Department, or President Obama having any knowledge of it. (By “full knowledge” I mean that Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson says knew about it, but was kept “in the dark” regarding the extent of the operation, and the involvement of other agencies like the FBI and DEA.)

In other news, on July 5th Jack Tapper (ABC News) peppered Obama’s White House Press Secretary with questions about “Fast and Furious” in front of the rest of the press reporters, but the most substantive answer that Jay Carney gave was: “The president takes this very seriously.” (In all fairness to Carney, he’s clueless because Obama keeps him clueless.)

Look folks, this is ridiculous. Where is Chris Matthews? Where is that Keith guy who used to work for MSNBC? Where are all the freaks who wanted to hang George W. Bush in effigy for supposedly-lying about Iraq?

Why are they silent in the face of so great a cover-up?

Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa are pressing for answers on “Fast and Furious,” yet the Justice Department is doing its best to keep people from talking. (Grassley and Issa actually had to send a letter to the Justice Department to ask them to avoid pressuring people into not talking and to provide protections for those who do.)

Remember: No one died during Watergate, yet Nixon had to resign. Federal Agent Brian Terry is gone due to “Fast and Furious” – it’s time for someone to lose their job, if not go to jail or face impeachment charges in the House of Representatives.








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Obama/holder/hillary/napolitano - perfect examples of the commie left

[Soul Crusher]

White House Mum on When Obama Learned of DOJ's Gun-Running Scheme
cnsnews.com ^ | Thursday, July 07, 201 | Fred Lucas



(CNSNews.com) – White House Spokesman Jay Carney has failed to follow-up on a statement he made at the June 27 White House briefing that he would get back to a reporter with the exact date that President Barack Obama first became aware of “Operation Fast and Furious,” a botched sting operation in which U.S. officials knowingly allowed smugglers to buy guns at licensed U.S. firearms dealers.

“I’ll have to get back to you," Carney said at the briefing. "I don’t have an exact date for you.”

The operation was halted shortly after two of the guns from the operation were found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010. It was an operation ran primarily through the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The Justice Department in Washington, D.C., the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Arizona, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration were also involved, according to findings by congressional investigators.

On June 27, CNSNews.com asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, “Could you tell me what is the exact date that the president learned about the Justice Department ATF operation to allow guns to flow into Mexico?”

Carney apparently had trouble understanding the question, saying, “I mean, I think I’ve answered this question a bunch about -- about what he learned?”

CNSNews.com said, “What is the exact date that he learned about it?”

Carney apparently still did not understand. “The exact thing that he learned?”

CNSNews.com again clarified, “Exact date -- date.”

Carney finally responded, “I’ll have to get back to you. I don’t have an exact date for you.”

The White House has since not responded to questions about an exact date or approximate date when Obama learned about the operation.

The next day, June 28, CNSNews.com sent a follow-up e-mail to Carney. Then on July 6, CNSNews.com e-mailed Carney and the White House press office, and called the White House press office to ask for the exact date the president became aware of “Operation Fast and Furious.” In lieu of a precise date, CNSNews.com said an approximate date of a month and year would be helpful.

Neither Carney nor another White House spokesperson replied.


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What did Obama know and when did he know it! 

[Soul Crusher]

Congress Probes Payments to Gun Smugglers
By Justin Blum - Jul 6, 2011 5:54 PM ET inShare1More



Congressional investigators looking into a U.S. law enforcement program to track guns shipped illegally to Mexico are examining whether government-paid informants were involved in smuggling weapons.

Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, and Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, have been investigating a program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that allowed illegal purchases in the U.S. in an effort to link guns to Mexican drug cartels.

The lawmakers said they want to know whether suspects identified in that program were serving as informants for other law enforcement agencies without ATF’s knowledge.

“The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities,” the two lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that was released today.

The ATF operation, called Fast and Furious, has prompted criticism from lawmakers. Holder has said he asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate.

Two of about 2,000 guns that ATF allowed to be carried away were found at the Arizona murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010, according to a report released in June by Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Assault-Style Weapons

The operation sought to show a connection between straw buyers of assault-style weapons in the U.S. and Mexican drug trafficking organizations working on both sides of the border, according to the report.

Congressional investigators are looking into whether the Drug Enforcement Administration or Federal Bureau of Investigation paid any informants involved in gun smuggling, according to a congressional staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity and wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Issa and Grassley’s letter to Holder said they had “very real indications” that the gun traffickers the ATF tried to identify were “already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants.”

The letter also said acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson told congressional staff that his agency wasn’t informed about certain activities of the FBI and DEA. All three agencies are part of the Justice Department.

Managers Reassigned
Melson told congressional investigators that after public controversy over the Fast and Furious program, he reviewed documents in the case that made him “sick to his stomach,” according to the letter to Holder. Melson said he moved to reassign every field manager involved with the program after reading the documents, the letter said.

ATF wanted to provide more information to Congress and was blocked by Justice Department officials, who took control of communication with lawmakers and told ATF officials not to respond, according to the letter.

Chris Jakim, a spokesman for the DEA, referred questions to the Justice Department. Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokeswoman, didn’t return phone calls. Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the FBI, didn’t return a call.

Continuing Discussions
In response to the lawmakers’ letter, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that discussions are continuing about how to provide any information about activities of other law enforcement agencies that may be related to Fast and Furious.

Melson was originally scheduled to be interviewed by congressional investigators on July 13 and instead appeared in meetings on July 3 and July 4, according to the letter. Melson didn’t inform the Justice Department that he’d spoken with investigators until after the meetings occurred, the letter said.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon is trying to reduce violence tied to organized crime and drug trafficking that has caused more than 34,000 deaths since he took office in 2006.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Blum in Washington at jblum4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net



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WWWWTTTTFFFF? ? ? ? ? 

[Fury]

The fact Holder is still AG says all that needs to be said about the Obama regime.

[240 is Back]

you *@#&$^*(@#&$^*&# dumbshits are finally getting it!!!!!!!!!


"Congressional investigators looking into a U.S. law enforcement program to track guns shipped illegally to Mexico are examining whether government-paid informants were involved in smuggling weapons"


No shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

same shit is happenening in afghanistan, same shit everywhere.  You only care to look at it now cause it's on obama's watch.  You couldn't give two shits about the afghan war for heroin.  sad.

[Fury]

you *@#&$^*(@#&$^*&# dumbshits are finally getting it!!!!!!!!!


"Congressional investigators looking into a U.S. law enforcement program to track guns shipped illegally to Mexico are examining whether government-paid informants were involved in smuggling weapons"


No shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

same shit is happenening in afghanistan, same shit everywhere.  You only care to look at it now cause it's on obama's watch.  You couldn't give two shits about the afghan war for heroin.  sad.

Shut the fuck up, clown. A fucking Obama fanboy like yourself now acting like you were in on it all along. Jog on, you arrogant twat. 

[240 is Back]

Shut the fuck up, clown. A fucking Obama fanboy like yourself now acting like you were in on it all along. Jog on, you arrogant twat. 

i agree obama/holder should be in a jail cell.  also, we should look at past similar instances.  but we won't.  Some d-bag middle mgmt guy will take all the blame and resign, then get an awesome job as an msnbc analyst/pundit. 

same shit, diff president.