Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Are Fast and Furious Guns Coming to a Town Near You?
Human Events ^ | 09/16/2011 | A.W.R. Hawkins
Posted on September 16, 2011 10:10:38 PM EDT by neverdem
Like a cancer, the growing number of news stories being uncovered from the cache on Operation Fast and Furious relentlessly gnaws at the Obama administration. And at a time like this, when other scandals, such as Solyndra, are raising questions about possible White House improprieties, the President who promised us transparency is forced to circle the wagons to protect the White House, the Justice Department and the myriad federal agencies involved in Fast and Furious from the eyes of investigative committees in the House and Senate.
What makes things even worse for Obama & Co. is that Fast and Furious is not over yet. There are still more than 1,000 guns unaccounted for, grenade components that were moved across the border to the Mexican cartel, and questions about how truthful the administration has been in reporting details to date.
For example, although we’ve been told for months that only two Fast and Furious guns were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010, we now know there were at least three. We also know that the existence of the third gun and its ties to Fast and Furious were intentionally covered up by the FBI.
And while Obama & Co. has tried to act like American citizens were not endangered by Fast and Furious, recent unsettling news is that in 2010, police in Maricopa County, Ariz., apprehended a Mexican national with a Fast and Furious gun in his possession. He had rammed two police cruisers and tried to outrun others before being caught with two weapons in his possession, one of which was a gun that was supposed to be walked into Mexico and transferred to the cartel.
How many other criminals are driving the streets in Arizona, Texas and New Mexico with Fast and Furious weapons in their cars right now?
Moreover, how many of the 1,000 Fast and Furious guns unaccounted for are in the U.S. instead of Mexico?
These are serious questions that need to be answered by the administration that promised us transparency.
And when you couple these new developments with the fact that we now know White House officials were briefed on Fast and Furious far more and in far greater detail than we were first led to believe, it’s hard to keep from thinking that Obama and his underlings have something to hide.
For example, although the administration is playing dumb on the specifics of the operation, Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) has learned that White House official Kevin O’Reilly received e-mails from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) supervisor William Newell about “a 22-year-old kid on State financial assistance [who walked] into a gun store and [plopped] down $12,000 in cash to buy a tripod mounted .50-caliber rifle” during the Fast and Furious operation. In other words, the White House was told that a young man on food stamps bought a $12,000 specialty rifle (for which ammo alone is well over $3 per bullet), and this was only one of nearly 700 gun buys this particular straw purchaser made under the auspices of that operation.
How can a White House that knew such purchases were taking place likewise claim it knew nothing about the gun-walking aspect of the Fast and Furious operation?
For now there’s no answer, but answers need to be pursued, because this operation is rife with coverups and questions that could sink even the most popular President, much less Obama.
Someone in the administration lied, and people died: lots and lots of people, among them a U.S. Border Patrol agent whose family is being denied closure. Therefore, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Issa has "formally asked the Obama administration to turn over copies of 'all records' dealing with exchanges between White House officials and the ATF on Fast and Furious."
Let's hope Issa gets to the bottom of this mess before a Fast and Furious weapon makes it to a town near you.
September 19, 2011 12:53 PM
Secret recordings raise new questions in ATF 'Gunwalker' operation
By Sharyl Attkisson .
(Credit: CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - CBS News has obtained secretly recorded conversations that raise questions as to whether some evidence is being withheld in the murder of a Border Patrol agent.
(Scroll down to listen to the audio)
The tapes were recorded approximately mid-March 2011 by the primary gun dealer cooperating with ATF in its "Fast and Furious" operation: Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Arizona. He's talking with the lead case ATF case agent Hope MacAllister.
The tapes have been turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General.
As CBS News first reported last February, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to "walk" onto the streets without interdiction into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in its operation "Fast and Furious."
The conversations refer to a third weapon recovered at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Agent: I was ordered to let guns into Mexico
Court records have previously only mentioned two weapons: Romanian WASR "AK-47 type" assault rifles. Both were allegedly sold to suspects who were under ATF's watch as part of Fast and Furious.
Also, a ballistics report turned over to Congressional investigators only mentions the two WASR rifles. The ballistics report says it's inconclusive as to whether either of the WASR rifles fired the bullet that killed Terry.
Law enforcement sources and others close to the Congressional investigation say the Justice Department's Inspector General obtained the audio tapes several months ago as part of its investigation into Fast and Furious.
Then, the sources say for some reason the Inspector General passed the tapes along to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona: a subject in the investigation. It's unclear why the Inspector General, who is supposed to investigate independently, would turn over evidence to an entity that is itself under investigation. The Inspector General's office had no immediate comment.
(Left, listen to the audio)
In the audiotapes, ATF Agent MacAllister tells Howard that a third weapon recovered at the Brian Terry murder scene last December is an SKS assault rifle. Agent MacAllister claims to know that the SKS "had nothing to do with" the Brian Terry murder and, unlike the WASR's, did not trace back to the Lone Wolf gun store.
It's unclear why a weapon would be, in essence, missing from the evidence disclosed at the crime scene under FBI jurisdiction.
Agent MacAllister and Howard (the gun dealer) also discuss various Republicans and Democrats in Congress who are investigating Fast and Furious. They express concern that whistleblower ATF special agent John Dodson has further evidence that could be damaging to the government.
Transcript of the audio below:
Agent: Well there was two.
Dealer: There's three weapons.
Agent: There's three weapons.
Dealer: I know that.
Agent: And yes, there's serial numbers for all three.
Dealer: That's correct.
Agent: Two of them came from this store.
Dealer: I understand that.
Agent: There's an SKS that I don't think came from.... Dallas or Texas or something like that.
Dealer: I know. talking about the AK's
Agent: The two AK's came from this store.
Dealer: I know that.
Agent: Ok.
Dealer: I did the Goddamned trace
Agent: Third weapon is the SKS has nothing to do with it.
Dealer: That didn't come from me.
Agent: No and there is that's my knowledge. and I spoke to someone who would know those are the only ones they have. So this is the agent who's working the case, all I can go by is what she told me.
Read more:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20108240-10391695.html#ixzz1YQGAlU8f
