Obama Corruption & Scandal Thread - Solyndra and other crimes.

[Soul Crusher]

Again - what is your theory - name names, places, dates, methods, etc or STFU 

[Soul Crusher]

[Soul Crusher]

Mexico Gun-Running Operation Enhanced Cartels’ ‘Ability to Inflict Serious Damage and Casualties’...
CNS News ^ | 7/28/11 | Edwin Mora



The botched gunrunning operation in which U.S. federal law enforcement officials knowingly allowed guns to be transported to Mexican drug cartels has increased the ability of cartels in Mexico to “inflict serious damage and casualties,” according to a congressional staff report released Wednesday.

At least 48 different recoveries of weapons linked to “Operation Fast and Furious” have taken place in Mexico so far, the report said, noting that some of the firearms, in particular .50 caliber rifles, had provided “a new level of sophistication” to criminal gangs’ arsenals.

The revelations form part of a second investigative report on “Operation Fast and Furious,” prepared for House Government Reform and Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)  and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa).

The operation was conducted by the Phoenix, Ariz. division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), a component of the Department of Justice. It allowed Arizona gun dealers who were cooperating with the ATF to sell guns to straw purchasers, destined to Mexican drug cartels.


According to the report, acting ATF Attache in Mexico Carlos Canino testified that he had sent an email to a supervisor, ATF International Affairs Chief Daniel Kumor, around July 2010, drawing Kumor’s attention to worrying statistics about firearms associated with Fast and Furious.

“[T]he count was up to 1,900 guns in suspect gun data, 34 of which were, 34 of which were .50 caliber rifles. And I, my opinion was that these many .50 caliber rifles in the hands of one of these cartels is going to change the outcome of a battle,” Canino testified.

The report noted that “Barrett .50 caliber rifles provide a significant upgrade to the cartels’ ability to inflict serious damage and casualties on their enemies.”

As an example, it described a May 24, 2011 incident in which gunmen from the La Familia drug trafficking gang had forced a Mexican Federal Police helicopter to make an emergency landing.

Two officers on board had been wounded, and the aircraft was forced to land in western Mexico.

According to Canino, the Mexican police on May 29 launched a “massive raid” on the gang following the downed helicopter incident.

“During the raid, cartel gunmen again attacked Federal Police helicopters and wounded two more officers,” he said, adding that he believed all four helicopters involved were hit.

As a result of the raid, 11 cartel members were killed and 36 were arrested, including those who had opened fire on the helicopter days earlier.

“Authorities also found a cache of more than 70 rifles at the scene, including a Barrett .50 caliber rifle,” the report said. “Some of these weapons traced back to Operation Fast and Furious.”


“Mexican police also found a stash of heavy-duty body armor belonging to the cartels. This was the first time ATF in Mexico had seen such body armor in the hands of the cartels. Along with the Barrett .50 caliber rifles, these vests symbolized a new level of sophistication in cartel weaponry.”

It was evident that a round from a .50-caliber rifle had penetrated the damaged helicopter’s ostensibly ‘bullet proof’ windshield, the report stated.

‘We’ll be dealing with these weapons for years to come’

The report noted that, according to information provided by the Department of Justice, “Fast and Furious suspects purchased 1,418 weapons after becoming known to the ATF.”

“Of those weapons, 1,048 remain unaccounted for, since the Department’s response indicates that the guns have not yet been recovered and traced.”

“U.S and Mexican law enforcement officials continue to seize weapons connected to the operation and recover weapons at crime scenes on both sides of the border,” the report added.

“Given the vast amount of Operation Fast and Furious weapons possibly still in the hands of cartel members, law enforcement officials should expect more seizures and recoveries at crime scenes. According to several agents involved in Operation Fast and Furious, ATF agents will have to deal with these guns for years to come.”

The report said ATF agents in Mexico had been kept in the dark about the operation for fear they would leak information to the Mexican authorities.

It said concerns raised by ATF agents in Mexico about a spike in guns recovered at crime scenes, many of which were traced directly to the Fast and Furious operation, had fallen on deaf ears.


“Rather than share information, senior leadership within both ATF and the Department of Justice (DOJ) assured their representatives in Mexico that everything was ‘under control,’” it said.

Although ATF leadership told its Mexican office that Fast and Furious would be shut down by July 2010, the operation continued and was only ended after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in December 2010 with weapons linked to the operation.

The operation, which began in the fall of 2009, allowed Mexican drug cartels to obtain guns ranging from AK-47 variants and Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles to .38 caliber revolvers.

[Agnostic007]

Got no problem with a ban on assault rifles, got no problem with a ban on mustard gas... Got no problem with people having guns for hunting or personal protection. I don't see a red flag here..

[Kazan]

Got no problem with a ban on assault rifles, got no problem with a ban on mustard gas... Got no problem with people having guns for hunting or personal protection. I don't see a red flag here..

aside from mustard gas, it is a violation of the 2nd amendment, we have the right to bear arms, it doesn't say the right to bear certain arms

[Soul Crusher]

Most cops want a disarmed public.

[Soul Crusher]

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Gunwalker: William Newell Circles the Wagons
Pajamas Media ^ | July 28, 2011 | Patrick Richardson
Posted on July 28, 2011 4:29:41 PM EDT by Kaslin

Tuesday's hearing put the ATF special agent under the microscope, and he revealed as little as possible.



The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Internal Revenue Service were all aware of Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed thousands of military-style weapons to “walk” across the southern border to the Sinaloa drug cartel and other criminals.

These explosive revelations came on Tuesday, as Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA) grilled the former ATF special agent who was in charge of the Gunwalker program, William Newell.

Meehan noted the so-called “plaza bosses” — mid-level bosses within the cartels who were the ones often purchasing the walked guns — expected to get what they’d paid for, when Newell insisted that it had never been part of the plan to allow guns to walk across the border:

You understand if he purchased $70,000 worth of guns he expects $70,000 worth of guns. Where does that come in with “there’s no strategy to allow guns into Mexico?”

Meehan pressed on, angrily, without giving Newell time to answer and demanded to know which agencies were involved with the operation. Newell replied that they had received assistance from ICE, DEA, and IRS. Apparently the FBI knew about it as well — indeed, some of the straw buyers ATF was targeting were FBI informants.

When Meehan, a former federal prosecutor, demanded to know if those agencies knew guns were being walked into Mexico, Newell answered: “they were aware of the strategy.”

It was a rough day for Newell. Several lawmakers grilled him about the program relentlessly, including South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy, a freshman congressman and also a former federal and state prosecutor.

Gowdy asked repeatedly if Newell interrogated the first straw purchaser the ATF knew for a fact was buying guns illegally. Newell said no, and several times during his testimony tried to make the case that taking down one straw buyer would have had little or no effect.

Gowdy insisted they should have interrogated the first straw buyer they knew had sold guns across the border, rather than walking more than 2,500 guns with an eye to getting a cooperative witness:

That’s an old fashioned investigative technique, it’s not as complicated as letting guns walk. It is more effective though, to go back and interrogate the person who made the acquisition.

Gowdy then demanded to know how exactly the ATF planned to extradite the drug kingpins, and was told there had never been any intention to do so. Gowdy was incredulous:

So once the guns made it to Mexico there was nothing you were going to do about those drug kingpins.

Newell said there was in fact a plan in place:

Yes sir, there was. One of the things we were going to do was as soon as we had solid information on who those drug kingpins were we were going to share that information with Mexican law enforcement.

Gowdy replied:

So they’re supposed to trust American law enforcement, who’s been conducting an investigation and knows guns are going into Mexico and you told them after the fact and they’re supposed to thank you and be partners in this endeavor? How are you going to dismantle the Mexican cartels if you’re not going to extradite the drug kingpins back to the United States, sir?

Newell:

We hoped the Mexicans would prosecute them for that.

Gowdy was derisive in his reply:

So you’re going to help the Mexican justice system, you’re just not going to tell the Mexican justice system about it? It was never going to work.

ATF Special Agent Carlos Canino, acting ATF attaché to Mexico, also told the committee that not only was the Mexican government unaware of the program, so were the ATF agents based in Mexico:

At no time, ever, did I know of ATF following known gun traffickers. I had no clue we were allowing guys to act like this.

I was so disgusted, I didn’t want to look at the case file anymore. It goes against everything we’re taught. From the day you walk into academy until the day you leave.

This is a trafficking case, this is what we do. It’s not special.

Gowdy was equally disgusted:

I worked with ATF for six years directly and I worked with ATF indirectly for 10 years. This is one of the saddest days, in fact it might be the saddest day in my 6 months in Congress. ATF has a wonderful reputation in South Carolina. We never once contemplated letting firearms walk, ever. A first year Quantico (the FBI training academy) or Glynco (U.S. Marshall Service) person knows that.

Prior to Tuesday’s hearings, the committee released another report on Operation Fast and Furious of some 60 pages. Among the findings:

• There was little to no information sharing from the Phoenix Field Division, ATF headquarters and the Justice Department to their colleagues in Mexico City. Every time Mexico City officials asked about the mysterious investigation, their U.S. based ATF counterparts in Phoenix and Washington, D.C., continued to say they were “working on it” and “everything was under control.”

• Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, was clearly aware of Operation Fast and Furious and touted the case during a visit to Mexico.

• ATF officials in Mexico City were incredulous that their agency would knowingly allow guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, and they were incensed when they finally began to learn the full scope of Operation Fast and Furious and the investigative techniques used.

Not only did Brewer know about the program, but Attorney General Eric Holder’s chief of staff did as well. There are now only two possibilities: either Holder simply didn’t want to know about the program, or was so disconnected from his department as to have essentially abrogated his responsibilities.

The former is possibly criminal, the latter merely incompetent, and either should exclude him from continuing as attorney general.

[Soul Crusher]

A man is reflected in a bullet riddled window of a gym in Tijuana, Mexico, Monday Feb. 28, 2011. According to police at the scene, a man was shot to death by unknown gunmen inside the gym while he was working out. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)
(CNSNews.com) – Congressional investigators plan to seek information from the White House National Security Council staff regarding communications about the botched gunrunning sting known as Operation Fast and Furious, which now has a publicized connection to the White House.
“Very clearly, part of the problem is there has been political interference at the highest level,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told CNSNews.com during a conference call Wednesday. “We are going to be asking the National Security Council what occurred.”
On Tuesday, the Oversight Committee held a hearing on Operation Fast and Furious, in which the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed about 2,000 guns to flow to Mexico, through straw purchasers, with the intent of tracing the weapons to Mexican drug trafficking organizations.
At the hearing, a top ATF official, William Newell, took questions about an e-mail he sent to White House staffer Kevin O’Reilly.
The operation, which began in September 2009, was halted in December 2010 after two of the guns from the operation were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. With hundreds of guns still unaccounted for, the Justice Department ended the investigation with the indictment of 20 straw purchasers on minor charges.
Newell, the former ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix field office – now the ATF’s Attaché to Mexico – told the Oversight Committee Tuesday that he communicated with O’Reilly in the fall of 2010. A Sept. 3, 2010 e-mail from Newell to O’Reilly, obtained by the House committee, begins, “You didn’t get this from me.”
As members asked why he informed O’Reilly of this case, Newell said the two are friends. He went on to say the e-mail message “wasn’t improper. He’s been a friend of mine for a long time. He asked me for information.”
Issa said, “It’s amazing” that Newell just happens to have a good friend in the White House.
“This e-mail by the way was not provided to us by the Justice Department. It was given to us by a whistleblower,” Issa added. “He was very quick to answer, he was just a friend. But, very clearly, this is the kind of thing we are discovering. One of the reasons we do these hearings is to inform the public, but also motivate the public. We are finding more good people both in and out of law enforcement.”
Asked further about getting testimony from O’Reilly or others in the NSC, Issa said the committee will make every effort.
“Try yes,” Issa said. “One of things that have made this a slow investigation is that we’re getting no cooperation. Even under subpoena we’re going through that.”
Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee in May that he only knew about the case in the last few weeks. Meanwhile, the White House has not answered questions as to when President Barack Obama first became aware of the operation.
The highest ranking Obama administration official that the committee knows was aware of the operation early on was Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general for the criminal division at the Justice Department. That is because his office approved wiretaps for this operation in spring 2010. Breuer will be called to testify to the committee, Issa said.
“We not only want to stop agents who think this is a good idea – and they are few and far between,” Issa said in the conference call. “We also want to stop the people who funded, authorized, coordinated and helped with the cover-up.”
 Like No


Post as …


clever
3 hours ago
Loose lips sink ships in the White house Black Panther office.
reply

mikemcgoo
4 hours ago
What Obama and Holder knew and when they knew it has become quite obvious. This operation started or was reported on, in april, 2009,when Holder gave a speech to the mexican government outlining the role of the DOJ,DEA, DHS, ATF and the FBI in an attempt to break the backs of the cartels.  They allowed straw buyers to purchase 1000s of weapons and then let these weapons cross into mexico.While this was going on, there were several reports released to newspapers, that complained about how easy it was to aquire weapons in boder states and that somehow mexican cartels were arming themselves with american style weapons These statist/socialist/marxist had attempted a ruse so they could make the case to make the 2nd ammendment go away. If several ATF agents hadnt ratted out their bosses on this operation, the american public would have never known the truth..The silence on the part of the whitehouse and holder has become deafening and the tradgedy in mexico has become horrific...
reply

Snaptie8
4 hours ago
Keep digging Congressman Issa... This might be the closest thing we ever get to a shovel ready project.
reply

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http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/house-committee-seek-more-info-white-hou

[quadzilla456]

Hell yes they want an unarmed public. Just like Europe. And then the weapons will be in the hands of the police state and the criminals.

In the wake of the Arizona tragedy, anti-gun groups and politicians have been falling all over themselves to “cash in” with radical new gun control schemes.

Here is one example: The Gun-Grabbers’ Magazine Ban Bill (H.R. 308)

If passed, Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy’s Magazine Ban Bill would outlaw the sale or transfer of firearm magazines with a capacity of more than ten rounds.

Already own a handgun, rifle or shotgun with a magazine that holds more than ten rounds?

You’re “legal” for now.  But you can’t ever sell it, give it away or pass it down to your kids.

In fact, Congresswoman McCarthy’s bill would turn widows into instant FELONS if their late husbands possessed a 12-round magazine!

Of course, all this is bad enough.  But it’s not even close to the end of it.

News reports are that President Obama recently met with House Republicans where he likely made whatever promises he had to in order to pass H.R. 308 with as little publicity as possible.

His goal is simply to “get the camel’s nose under the tent.”

Then, once H.R. 308 goes to the Senate, the White House is preparing to launch an all-out WAR on our Second Amendment freedoms!

In fact, once the bill reaches the Senate floor, inside sources are saying dozens of amendments are already in the works, including:

*** Mandatory waiting periods, and expensive, drawn-out “psychological screenings” designed to force ALL law-abiding citizens to get government approval before purchasing a firearm;
*** A TOTAL ban on all private sales under the guise of “closing the gun-show loophole”;
*** A new so-called “Assault Weapons” Ban, targeting ALL semi-automatic rifles and shotguns -- which, unlike the Clinton ban, will NEVER expire;
*** A National Concealed Carry “Standard” -- designed to make it even more difficult for law-abiding citizens to carry a gun to protect themselves and their families from murderers like Jared Loughner.

This “standard” is nothing more than the feds forcing states to slow down the approval of concealed carry permits, and make the remaining permits null-and-void in most areas!

[Soul Crusher]

Fast & Furious: The man who knew too little

By Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
  Fallout from Tuesday’s third Capitol Hill hearing into Operation Fast and Furious, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ botched gun trafficking sting operation, will continue thanks to new revelations, one of which came, perhaps inadvertently from the man on whose watch the investigation broke down, former Phoenix Special Agent in Charge William Newell.

 The four-hour hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, quizzed current and former ATF officials stationed in Mexico, and those involved in conducting the operation. It is getting lots of attention from gun rights activists on several forums including Northwest Firearms, WaGuns.org, GunRightsMedia.com, TheHighRoad.org and even Hunting-Washington.

  Newell came under repeated criticism for evasive answers, and he had some company in his supervisor, William McMahon. Neither could specifically (a word that Committee Chair Darrell Issa twice told Newell to stop using) identify who planned the operation and made it happen.

 One bombshell revelation did come later in the hearing when Newell acknowledged (late in this video segment) that he had traded e-mail about the operation with Dr. Kevin O’Reilly, director of North American Affairs for the National Security Council. My colleague, David Codrea, writes about that here.

‘You didn’t get these from me…

‘The first attachment is what we were going to hand out to the media prior to our planned August 26th press conference. We will still use this IF we ever do a press conf. It had been vetted through ATF HQ. The second Word doc is what we were going to give to ATF DD Melson as notes in case he got asked specific questions about our Industry Operations efforts during GRIT.’—William Newell e-mail to Kevin M. O’Reilly, National Security Council

 Some observers greeted this revelation as “the White House connection” to the operation, which President Obama has disavowed publicly and insisted that neither he, nor Attorney General Eric Holder, approved.

 That does not mean they didn’t know about it, critics argue.

 Issa made it clear in his opening remarks that his committee is not investigating this operation in cooperation with the Justice Department’s Inspector General. Instead, this is what Issa (watch video here) told a panel of ATF witnesses:

Let me be clear. The Justice Department is not our partner in this effort. They are the subject of this investigation, and their continued interference will not be allowed to derail the committee's work.—Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

 Under questioning from Congressman Patrick Meehan, Newell rambled and evaded directly naming a single individual who formulated the plan. Instead, he said the plan was the product of:

Several individuals; it was the group supervisor (David Voth*), assistant special agent in charge (George Gillett*), myself and individuals in headquarters.

 He did not identify those “individuals in headquarters.” Watch the video from yesterday’s hearing here.

 (*Voth was the supervisor of Group VII in Phoenix, and the man who sent the now infamous e-mail to subordinates, chiding them for lack of enthusiasm and for questioning the tactics involved in Fast and Furious. This column discussed his e-mail back on March 4, which essentially was a “my way or the highway” ultimatum. Gillett is the man identified early on in a letter from Senator Charles Grassley to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson as having confronted a subordinate over that agent's cooperation with Grassley staffers who were asking questions about the operation, which this column discussed. Gillett has subsequently hired private counsel and started cooperating with the investigation, earning for himself some whistleblower protection that he allegedly violated when he confronted the earlier whistleblower. Gillett is the man who abruptly hung up on this column when asked about Fast and Furious.)

 Newell essentially took the same tack under questioning from Congressman Dan Burton, as though he did not clearly understand the question. A video of that exchange can be viewed here.

 There will almost certainly be more hearings into Fast and Furious as even more revelations surface. Congressional sources assure this column today that “We will continue to investigate".

[Agnostic007]

Most cops want a disarmed public.

Most cops don't see a need for citizens to have AK47's... most cops don't give a rats ass if you have home defense weapons or legally carrying a weapon.

[Soul Crusher]

Most cops don't see a need for citizens to have AK47's... most cops don't give a rats ass if you have home defense weapons or legally carrying a weapon.

And i dont see a need for 95% of the shit cops do. 

[Soul Crusher]

The Fast & Furious e-mail; White House denies connection
Add a comment Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
July 28, 2011 -



Tuesday’s startling revelation by a central figure in the Operation Fast & Furious investigation that he communicated with a longtime friend in the White House about the gun trafficking sting has opened up a new segment of the Congressional probe, bringing an administration denial that the contact had anything to do with the botched operation.


 This bombshell came thanks to questions from a Northwest congressman on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The entire hearing is available on video in three segments, accessible here, on the committee’s website. This column discussed Newell's appearance yesterday.

 The revelation first came during questioning of former Phoenix Special Agent in Charge William Newell by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), and was picked up by South Carolina’s Trey Gowdy, a former district attorney. It involved Newell’s recently-discovered e-mail to Dr. Kevin O’Reilly, director of North American Affairs on the National Security Council. That, say critics of the botched gunrunning sting, “puts this investigation into the White House.” You be the judge after watching the videos.

 The exchange, quoted by CBS News went like this:

   Congressional investigators obtained an email from Newell to O'Reilly in September of last year in which Newell began with the words: "you didn't get this from me."

"What does that mean," one member of Congress asked Newell, " 'you didn't get this from me?' "

"Obviously he was a friend of mine," Newell replied, "and I shouldn't have been sending that to him."

Newell told Congress that O'Reilly had asked him for information.

"Why do you think he asked for that information," Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked Newell.

"He was asking about the impact of Project Gunrunner to brief people in preparation for a trip to Mexico... what we were doing to combat firearms trafficking and other issues." 
 

  This exchange was between Labrador and Newell. At one point, Newell said he did not specifically discuss the specifics of the case with O'Reilly. But Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) quickly jumped in and asked Newell to stop using the term "specific" in his remarks.

   This was not the only time that Issa pressed Newell ton that point. That term might be considered as a semantics tool to cover one’s self from subsequent scrutiny should it be revealed that a subject came up during a “general conversation” (i.e. “We never specifically talked about that.”)


 Watching Newell’s body language throughout the hearing, one sees he consistently lowers his head, looks down at the table and not consistently at members of the committee.

 Compare that to the body language of Carlos Canino, acting ATF attaché to Mexico, who at one point refuted Newell’s assertion that he knew about guns flowing south as part of Fast and Furious.

 People may zero in on Newell’s remark to Gowdy that, “I shouldn’t have been sending him that…” But he did, anyway, and subsequently insisted “it wasn’t an improper communication.” Well, was it or wasn't it?


 Labrador's exchange with Canino was immediately preceded by another interesting exchange that appears to show a definite conflict in testimony between Newell and Canino. Under questioning by Gowdy, Newell asserted that Canino knew about the guns flowing into Mexico, which can be seen at the end of this segment of the committee video, at 2:49:12, at which point Gowdy asks Newell:

"Were you, at some point, going to let Special Agent Canino know about it?

 Newell's response: "Mister Canino knew about the investigation."

 However, after Gowdy was finished with his questioning, Labrador was next up on the committee, and he turned his attention to Canino. This segment is right at the beginning of Part 2 of the YouTube video. Here's how that went:

Q. "Special Agent Canino. I believe I just heard Special Agent Newell say that you knew about this gun walking..."

A. "Yes, sir, I want to make it perfectly clear to you, the American people, the Mexican government, my family, my friends; at no time ever did I know that ATF agents were following known (or) suspected gun traffickers...Never, ever...would I imagine...that we were letting that happen."

A moment later, Labrador was questioning Newell about his e-mail to O'Reilly. As noted earlier: You be the judge.
.....

Continue reading on Examiner.com The Fast & Furious e-mail; White House denies connection - Seattle gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/from-the-fast-furious-transcript-white-house-denies-connection#ixzz1TV1qBNXh

[Soul Crusher]

Lethal fiasco
By MICHAEL A. WALSH
Last Updated: 3:11 AM, July 29, 2011




Operation Fast and Furious -- the Obama administration's lethal gun-running fiasco -- keeps getting uglier and uglier.

In a series of hearings, Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley have been systematically dismantling the administration's preposterous claim that no one in the Justice Department -- which oversees the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- knew anything about the so-called gun-tracking operation.

In Fast and Furious, ATF officials encouraged "straw buyers" in Arizona -- including two convicted felons who should have been stopped by the FBI -- to purchase more than 2,000 heavy-duty firearms, including AK-47 variants and .50-caliber sniper rifles, and then resell them to the Mexican drug cartels, allegedly to trace and stop crossborder arms trafficking.

At least two dead American agents later, the scheme looks set to blow up in Attorney General Eric Holder's face -- and now's there's evidence that it might reach all the way to the White House.

On Tuesday, the ATF agent in charge of the Phoenix office, Bill Newell, told Issa's House committee that he discussed the operation with the national-security director for North America, Kevin O'Reilly, an old friend, in the form of a "you didn't get this from me" e-mail in September 2010. (The White House insists the e-mail had nothing to do with Fast and Furious, but instead concerned the larger, legitimate Project Gunrunner gun-tracking program.)

We already knew that the debacle also involved the FBI and the DEA (both part of DoJ), but Newell also revealed that even more agencies were part of the program, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Homeland Security) and the IRS.


It gets worse. Issa and Grassley also have identified a dozen Justice Department officials who they say knew about the program, including former Deputy Attorney General David Ogden and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.


Yet President Obama insists that Holder & Co. knew nothing about it. "My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun-running to be able to pass through into Mexico," he said last month.


Hmm. In a joint April 2009 appearance with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama said: "Our focus is to work with . . . everybody who is involved with this, to coordinate with our counterparts in Mexico, to significantly ramp up our enforcement of existing laws. In fact, I've asked Eric Holder to do a complete review of how our current enforcement operations are working and make sure we are cutting down on the loopholes that are causing some of these drug-trafficking problems."


Fast and Furious began a few months later. Coincidence?


Its apparent goal was to "prove" Obama's ludicrous claim that "more than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border." That charge fits with the liberals' guns-are-evil, America-is-always-to-blame worldview -- but it's not true. The best guesstimate is that about 17 percent of firearms in Mexico come from El Norte.

Yet every new revelation makes Fast and Furious look more like a sting operation against law-abiding Ameri cans. A clandestine assault on the citizenry by the US government cannot be tolerated in a free society.


Which is why the administration's cooperation in this probe is crucial. Yet Issa has said flatly that he thinks Holder gave inaccurate testimony to the House Judiciary Committee back in May when he claimed to have learned about Fast and Furious only in the "last few weeks."


He's also accused the DoJ of stonewalling his committee's requests for documents and of allowing potential witnesses to have access to a database "replete with pertinent investigative documents, including official ATF e-mails." As Issa and Grassley recently wrote to Holder: "This practice harms not only our investigation but also the independent investigation that you instructed the Inspector General to conduct."


Meanwhile, the ATF is left with its reputation tarnished, hundreds of people killed and our relationship with Mexico damaged.


"This is the perfect storm of idiocy," said the ATF deputy attaché to Mexico, Carlos Canino -- who testified that he and his boss, Darren Gil, were astonished by the sudden surge of American weapons into Mexico but were kept in the dark by officials in Phoenix and Washington.


Idiocy? It looks a lot worse than that.

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________________________ ______________________


Funny how the Obama is God club is silent on this whole mess. 

[James]

Meehan Getting Answers on Fast & Furious: ATF, ICE, DEA, & IRS Involved in Operation

[Soul Crusher]

Meehan Getting Answers on Fast & Furious: ATF, ICE, DEA, & IRS Involved in Operation

I watched that entire hearing.   Newell better get 24/7 protection real fast and stay away from Ft. Marcy park. 

[Agnostic007]

And i dont see a need for 95% of the shit cops do. 

That's right. you and Tu believe cops aren't needed. You can handle your business. But I've asked before and I'll ask again.. who is the person being robbed, raped, beat up, etc etc gonna call if there are no cops? Ghost busters?

I agree with you some cops do some stupid crap. Some cops do some downright illegal crap. But you an irrational sense of the extent of the issue and forget that a vast majority of cops are doing very good things for the citizens.     

[Soul Crusher]

That's right. you and Tu believe cops aren't needed. You can handle your business. But I've asked before and I'll ask again.. who is the person being robbed, raped, beat up, etc etc gonna call if there are no cops? Ghost busters?

I agree with you some cops do some stupid crap. Some cops do some downright illegal crap. But you an irrational sense of the extent of the issue and forget that a vast majority of cops are doing very good things for the citizens.     

I can and will.  Most cops are useless tax eating leeches who cry about how hard their job is all while they soak up tax dollars like sponges. 

Case in point.  On my block alone - this week alone - we have has a few robberies, daily car break ins, glass all over street every morning from the break ins, drug dealing, loitering groups of thugs, etc.   This has been going on for months now.  I told you about a month or so ago when my car got busted in to. 

Do you think we get a foot patrol, a cruiser once in a while, some type of presence, anything at all?  Nope. 

What we get are ticket blitzs to where dozens of sqaud cars pull everyone over for meaningless shit and give exhorbitant tickets and fines.   

Honestly - I laugh now that I used to look up to cops as a kid.  now I look at most cops and police departments as little more than Welfare for White People.       

[240 is Back]

A man is reflected in a bullet riddled window of a gym in Tijuana, Mexico, Monday Feb. 28, 2011. According to police at the scene, a man was shot to death by unknown gunmen inside the gym while he was working out.

Training to failure.

[Agnostic007]

I can and will.  Most cops are useless tax eating leeches who cry about how hard their job is all while they soak up tax dollars like sponges. 

Case in point.  On my block alone - this week alone - we have has a few robberies, daily car break ins, glass all over street every morning from the break ins, drug dealing, loitering groups of thugs, etc.   This has been going on for months now.  I told you about a month or so ago when my car got busted in to. 

Do you think we get a foot patrol, a cruiser once in a while, some type of presence, anything at all?  Nope. 

What we get are ticket blitzs to where dozens of sqaud cars pull everyone over for meaningless shit and give exhorbitant tickets and fines.   

Honestly - I laugh now that I used to look up to cops as a kid.  now I look at most cops and police departments as little more than Welfare for White People.       

THis hurts, coming from a Lawyer..

[Kazan]

Most cops don't see a need for citizens to have AK47's... most cops don't give a rats ass if you have home defense weapons or legally carrying a weapon.

It doesn't matter if most cops don't see a need for citizens to have AK47's, its not up to them. We have a right to bear arms, if cops don't like it then they should find a new line of work.

[Soul Crusher]

It is what it is.   I am a main street guy, not a wall street guy.   I grew up in the Bronx and have seen a ton of shit.  I am not a wealthy guy, just a guy who has seen shit all over the spectrum.   most cops are no different than DMV workers with guns and badges.    


I grew up with a lot of guys who became cops, lots of them.  


Most are pulling insane salaries and pensions, dont do dick for it.  Abuse roids, treat taxpayers like shit, and bitch and moan about pensions, vacations, sick days, etc.  

[Soul Crusher]

Issa Hopes White House Official Aware of Fast and Furious Will Testify
heritage.org ^ | 27 July, 2011 | Lachlan Markay



Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said on a conference call Wednesday evening that he will try to get a White House official who may have had knowledge of the botched Fast and Furious gunrunning operation to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

But Issa, who chairs the committee, was not optimistic about the effort. “Try? Yes,” he said, asked whether he would try to get the official into his committee room. But Issa noted that there has been “political interference at the highest level” throughout the Oversight committee’s Fast and Furious investigation.

The White House official in question is National Security Director for North America Kevin O’Reilly. During a Tuesday Oversight hearing on Fast and Furious, former ATF Special Agent Bill Newell, who was instrumental in implementing the operation, said that he had spoken with O’Reilly about Fast and Furious as early as September 2010. Whether O’Reilly was made aware that the ATF had let guns cross the border into Mexico as part of the investigation was not clear.

Newell’s admission is the first indication that White House officials were aware of the Fast and Furious program while it was ongoing. The email was leaked to the Oversight Committee by a whistleblower, Issa said; it was not released willingly by the White House.

CBS News reported on the details of the message on Wednesday:

Congressional investigators obtained an email from Newell to O’Reilly in September of last year in which Newell began with the words: “you didn’t get this from me.”

“What does that mean,” one member of Congress asked Newell, ” ‘you didn’t get this from me?’ ”

“Obviously he was a friend of mine,” Newell replied, “and I shouldn’t have been sending that to him.”

Newell told Congress that O’Reilly had asked him for information.

“Why do you think he asked for that information,” Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked Newell.

“He was asking about the impact of Project Gunrunner to brief people in preparation for a trip to Mexico… what we were doing to combat firearms trafficking and other issues.”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Agnostic007]

It is what it is.   I am a main street guy, not a wall street guy.   I grew up in the Bronx and have seen a ton of shit.  I am not a wealthy guy, just a guy who has seen shit all over the spectrum.   most cops are no different than DMV workers with guns and badges.    


I grew up with a lot of guys who became cops, lots of them.  


Most are pulling insane salaries and pensions, dont do dick for it.  Abuse roids, treat taxpayers like shit, and bitch and moan about pensions, vacations, sick days, etc.  

about the same experience I've had with lawyers

[Soul Crusher]

about the same experience I've had with lawyers

Difference is that I don't cost the taxpayer a single penny.