Getbig Bodybuilding, Figure and Fitness Forums
Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on February 25, 2011, 02:11:19 PM
-
Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
Program aimed at stopping the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico may have allegedly had the opposite effect
By Sharyl Attkisson .
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/23/eveningnews/main20035609.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea
________________________ ________________________ ___________
"Project Gunrunner" scandal
"Project Gunrunner," an operation run by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was designed to stop the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico's drug cartels, but had the opposite result. Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.
(CBSNews) WASHINGTON - Keeping American weapons from getting into the hands of Mexican gangs is the goal of a program called "Project Gunrunner." But critics say it's doing exactly the opposite. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on what she found.
December 14, 2010. The place: a dangerous smuggling route in Arizona not far from the border. A special tactical border squad was on patrol when gunfire broke out and agent Brian Terry was killed.
Kent, Brian's brother, said "he was my only brother. That was the only brother I had. I'm lost."
The assault rifles found at the murder were traced back to a U.S. gun shop. Where they came from and how they got there is a scandal so large, some insiders say it surpasses the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge and the deadly siege at Waco.
To understand why, it helps to know something about "Project Gunrunner" an operation run by the ATF the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Read the indictment
"Project Gunrunner" deployed new teams of agents to the southwest border. The idea: to stop the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico's drug cartels. But in practice, sources tell CBS News, ATF's actions had the opposite result: they allegedly facilitated the delivery of thousands of guns into criminal hands.
CBS News wanted to ask ATF officials about the case, but they wouldn't agree to an interview. We were able to speak to six veteran ATF agents and executives involved. They don't want to be quoted by name for fear of retaliation. These are their allegations.
In late 2009, ATF was alerted to suspicious buys at seven gun shops in the Phoenix area. Suspicious because the buyers paid cash, sometimes brought in paper bags. And they purchased classic "weapons of choice" used by Mexican drug traffickers - semi-automatic versions of military type rifles and pistols.
Sources tell CBS News several gun shops wanted to stop the questionable sales, but ATF encouraged them to continue.
Jaime Avila was one of the suspicious buyers. ATF put him in its suspect database in January of 2010. For the next year, ATF watched as Avila and other suspects bought huge quantities of weapons supposedly for "personal use." They included 575 AK-47 type semi-automatic rifles.
ATF managers allegedly made a controversial decision: allow most of the weapons on the streets. The idea, they said, was to gather intelligence and see where the guns ended up. Insiders say it's a dangerous tactic called letting the guns, "walk."
One agent called the strategy "insane." Another said: "We were fully aware the guns would probably be moved across the border to drug cartels where they could be used to kill."
On the phone, one Project Gunrunner source (who didn't want to be identified) told us just how many guns flooded the black market under ATF's watchful eye. "The numbers are over 2,500 on that case by the way. That's how many guns were sold - including some 50-calibers they let walk."
50-caliber weapons are fearsome. For months, ATF agents followed 50-caliber Barrett rifles and other guns believed headed for the Mexican border, but were ordered to let them go. One distraught agent was often overheard on ATF radios begging and pleading to be allowed to intercept transports. The answer: "Negative. Stand down."
CBS News has been told at least 11 ATF agents and senior managers voiced fierce opposition to the strategy. "It got ugly..." said one. There was "screaming and yelling" says another. A third warned: "this is crazy, somebody is gonna to get killed."
Sure enough, the weapons soon began surfacing at crime scenes in Mexico - dozens of them sources say - including shootouts with government officials.
One agent argued with a superior asking, "are you prepared to go to the funeral of a federal officer killed with one of these guns?" Another said every time there was a shooting near the border, "we would all hold our breath hoping it wasn't one of 'our' guns."
Then, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. The serial numbers on the two assault rifles found at the scene matched two rifles ATF watched Jaime Avila buy in Phoenix nearly a year before. Officials won't answer whether the bullet that killed Terry came from one of those rifles. But the nightmare had come true: "walked" guns turned up at a federal agent's murder.
"You feel like s***. You feel for the parents," one ATF veteran told us.
Hours after Agent Terry was gunned down, ATF finally arrested Avila. They've since indicted 34 suspected gunrunners in the same group. But the indictment makes no mention of Terry's murder, and no one is charged in his death.
Kent Terry said of his brother, "He'd want them to tell the truth. That's one thing my brother didn't like was a liar. And that's what he'd want. He'd want the truth.
In a letter, the Justice Department which oversees ATF says the agency has never knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to suspected gunrunners.
________________________ _________
Fucking wow.
-
Then, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. The serial numbers on the two assault rifles found at the scene matched two rifles ATF watched Jaime Avila buy in Phoenix nearly a year before. Officials won't answer whether the bullet that killed Terry came from one of those rifles. But the nightmare had come true: "walked" guns turned up at a federal agent's murder.
________________________ ______________-
Damn.
-
-
CCRKBA to Holder on ATF Scandal: ‘Investigate and Fire, or Resign’
February 24, 2011 01:14 PM Eastern Time
BELLEVUE, Wash.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Following new revelations regarding the growing scandal over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Project Gunrunner” — the most recent on Wednesday’s CBS Evening News — the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today is calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the allegations and remove ATF officials responsible, or hand in his resignation.
“Instead of cracking down on American gun owners, it is time to crack down on the ATF”
.“Instead of cracking down on American gun owners, it is time to crack down on the ATF,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who earlier this week urged gun owners to pressure Congress to cut ATF’s budget.
The Gunrunner scandal was originally uncovered by National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea and independent blogger Mike Vanderboegh. The case now has the attention of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. CCRKBA believes the committee should launch a full-scale investigation of ATF and that Grassley should not stand alone in his pursuit of the truth.
“Two weeks ago,” Gottlieb noted, “Sen. Grassley called on Holder to ‘come clean’ about this scandal, and the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. He was greeted with silence. Agent Terry was likely killed with a gun that ATF allowed one of the Gunrunner suspects to purchase more than a year ago. We have seen documents that show the gun was recovered at the Terry crime scene.
“Almost immediately after he took office,” he continued, “Holder joined other members of the Obama administration in calls for new gun laws to crack down on American gun dealers and gun owners. He wanted to renew the ban on so-called ‘assault weapons.’ Now, thanks to independent Internet reporters and CBS News, it appears hundreds, if not thousands of U.S.-origin guns that made their way to Mexican criminals were allowed to cross the border by an inept ATF operation that was even criticized by ATF agents.
“Senator Grassley’s inquiry has been met with stonewalling,” he said, “but with these new revelations, the time for silence has passed. ATF officials in Phoenix who allowed this travesty to continue, over objections from field agents who knew better, should be fired. Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson should go immediately, and a new director, from outside of the agency, should be appointed to clean up this mess. If Eric Holder is not willing to hold ATF officials accountable, he should resign.”
With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.
Contacts
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Alan Gottlieb, 425-454-4911
Permalink: http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20110224006566/en/ATF-scandal/gun-control/Hric-holderView All Releases from This Organization
-
-
-
the war end, their job ends.
and you can't have a war unless you arm and supply both sides.
same reason so many billions in cash and guns go missing in Afghanistan. Those taleban keep getting their new boxes of ammo somewhere ;)
-
the war end, their job ends.
and you can't have a war unless you arm and supply both sides.
same reason so many billions in cash and guns go missing in Afghanistan. Those taleban keep getting their new boxes of ammo somewhere ;)
240 - this was started to screw with american citizens and try to do AWB2. However, it backfired and an agent got killed.
This should bring about the end of ATF and Holder.
-
-
Fucking wow! I'm literally speechless over this.
-
Fucking wow! I'm literally speechless over this.
LOL! CTers have been saying for years that we're keeping the war alive on the border cause it's good business and keeps a lot of people rich.
Now, how many gun stores do you think were given an order to sell to everyone? ;)
-
Don't know, but that lawyer is saying exactly what occurred. I'm sure the clients must have something like a phone log, security tape etc.
-
the war end, their job ends.
and you can't have a war unless you arm and supply both sides.
same reason so many billions in cash and guns go missing in Afghanistan. Those taleban keep getting their new boxes of ammo somewhere ;)
I think that the thin line between being delusional and playing devils advocate has been blurred in your mind to the extent that you have lost touch with reality. If I knew your whereabouts, I would phone the local mental health ward and have you committed.
-
This story reminds me of the flight school guy who warned the fbi about the terrorists trying to fly but not land or take off and the fbi didn't do dick.
We need to end all the agencies asap. They do more harm than good.
-
I really don't buy the argument that mexican drug cartels get all their weapons from the US. This whole approach sounds like a pro-gun control argument.
Are people really saying that a lawless 'country' like meh-hee-co needs to get guns from a relatively restrictive country such as the US instead of (their) south of the border?
-
This story is saying that atf facilitated the transactions.
-
I really don't buy the argument that mexican drug cartels get all their weapons from the US. This whole approach sounds like a pro-gun control argument.
Are people really saying that a lawless 'country' like meh-hee-co needs to get guns from a relatively restrictive country such as the US instead of (their) south of the border?
correct sir...they do get a portion of their guns from the US no doubt but they also undoubtedly get guns from other sources as well. They are able to get their hands on fully automatic weapons that are illegal to 99.99% of the US population. They are able to get their hands on GRENADES!!!!!!! that are illegal to every private citizen in the US.
The idea that the US lack of gun control is causing the wars and death in Mexico is laughable.
-
correct sir...they do get a portion of their guns from the US no doubt but they also undoubtedly get guns from other sources as well. They are able to get their hands on fully automatic weapons that are illegal to 99.99% of the US population. They are able to get their hands on GRENADES!!!!!!! that are illegal to every private citizen in the US.
The idea that the US lack of gun control is causing the wars and death in Mexico is laughable.
I don't think cartel home-boys are going after people with .30-06 Winchesters and 10/22s. And last I checked, it was pretty darn expensive and a hugh PITA to get ahold of an AR-15 or MAK-90 around here. Seems to me getting them from Honduras or Guatemala would be the way to go.
Then again, it's mexicans killing people, not the guns.... but that's a whole different discussion....
-
I don't think cartel home-boys are going after people with .30-06 Winchesters and 10/22s. And last I checked, it was pretty darn expensive and a hugh PITA to get ahold of an AR-15 or MAK-90 around here. Seems to me getting them from Honduras or Guatemala would be the way to go.
Then again, it's mexicans killing people, not the guns.... but that's a whole different discussion....
agreed and when they do buy guns from the US they either are going to have to modify the guns themselves or be able to get their hands on spare parts NOT READILY AVAILABLE in the US to make them fully automatic...
The whole US gun to mexico thing is over played by the pro gun nuts
-
O read that they like the aks because they are converted easily to full auto.
Either way, at least 2000 guns are on the streets in mexico solely because of the atf.
-
O read that they like the aks because they are converted easily to full auto.
Either way, at least 2000 guns are on the streets in mexico solely because of the atf.
I agree, if this is true this is shit and they need to be put in jail for it.
Iono I think that just about every gun out there is going to need a different receiver or youre probably going to have to mill out some stoppers or both to enable fully automatic firing.
I know it can be done and its not to hard if you know what youre doing but you have to have access to either the right parts or tools to enable you to do it.
-
Fuck the ATF... Worthless... Absolutely worthless.
-
Sen. Grassley is on this like white on rice.
-
Sen. Grassley is on this like white on rice.
Racist post reported. Brown rice is more nutritious and politically correct.
-
More Civilians Killed Last Year in One Mexican Border Town Than All Afghanistan [FLOUS Mexico safe]
cnsnews.com ^ | Feb 25 2011 | Edwin Mora
More civilians were killed last year in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city across the border from El Paso, Texas, than were killed in all of Afghanistan.
There were 3,111 civilians murdered in the city of Juarez in 2010 and 2,421 in the entire country of Afghanistan.
On a per capita basis, a civilian was 30 times more likely to be murdered last year in Juarez, where there are 1,328,017 inhabitants according to Mexico’s 2010 census, than in Afghanistan, where there are 29,121,286 people according to the CIA World Factbook.
The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan was compiled by the Congressional Research Service and published in a CRS report released on Feb. 3. The number of civilians killed in Juarez was compiled by Molly Molloy, a research librarian at New Mexico State University who maintains a count of murders Juarez and published it on the Frontera List Web site. Molloy’s work on civilian murders in Juarez was also referenced in a recent CRS report on Mexican drug cartels.
Much of the violence in Juárez is sparked by drug trafficking organizations battling over one of the major smuggling corridors into the United States.
In Afghanistan, the U.S. is in the tenth year of a war that has continued since the U.S. invaded the country in late 2001 to overthrow the Taliban regime that had given sanctuary to al Qaeda and to prevent al Qaeda from using that country as a base for terrorist attacks against the United States.
U.S. forces suffered 497 casualties in Afghanistan last year, making 2010 the deadliest year of the war for U.S. military personnel. Through Dec. 31, 2010, U.S. forces had suffered a total of 1,358 casualties in Afghanistan throughout the course of the war.
The CRS said that of the 2,421 civilians killed in Afghanistan in 2010, more than 60 percent were killed by “anti-government elements, which include the Taliban and other individuals or groups who engage in armed conflict with the government of Afghanistan or members of the International Military Forces.”
“Pro-government forces caused 21% of the total civilian deaths,” said CRS.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you eric holder.
-
Thank you eric holder.
33, what were the annual death rates in this city for the last 5 years?
You still think shit like this changes every four years, huh? LOL!
-
Using lib logic, one death attributed to holders' incompetence is too much.
-
Using lib logic, one death attributed to holders' incompetence is too much.
it just you make it like the libs caused all this shit... it's international policy and the way the DEA/ATF roll for the last 25 years that made this policy. Same shit would be happening with Mccain in office right now. Some shit just keeps on keeping on - regardless of the flavor of dirtbag in office in DC.
-
it just you make it like the libs caused all this shit... it's international policy and the way the DEA/ATF roll for the last 25 years that made this policy. Same shit would be happening with Mccain in office right now. Some shit just keeps on keeping on - regardless of the flavor of dirtbag in office in DC.
::) ::) ::)
More spininng turds of obama/holder for you. Your spin isnt even plausible anymore. Did you even read the story?
-
::) ::) ::)
More spininng turds of obama/holder for you. Your spin isnt even plausible anymore. Did you even read the story?
Do you think the vast majority of people working for the DEA or ATF are liberal or conservative?
This isn't a lib / con thing... it's a policy of the ATF and DEA for X number of years thing... and I guarantee you the X in number of years is > 3.
-
Did you read the story or watch the clips? It started in 2009.
-
Did you read the story or watch the clips? It started in 2009.
I did read the story... While it may have started in 2009, we're talking about a policy... There have been tons of policies that have done things like this.
Do you not remember the Iran / Contra affair?
-
Mexico is a failed state. Good thing we can rely on Napolitano and Obama to secure the border. :-X
-
Did you read the story or watch the clips? It started in 2009.
LOL in this particular store ;)
How long has the sham called the war on drugs been going?
-
Mexico is a failed state. Good thing we can rely on Napolitano and Obama to secure the border. :-X
It is failed... but our war on drugs is what's caused this failure... We spend too god damn much money to pretend to stop the flow of drugs in this country.
-
It is failed... but our war on drugs is what's caused this failure... We spend too god damn much money to pretend to stop the flow of drugs in this country.
Do you honestly think this country will ever legalize drugs, though? And I'm not talking weed. I'm talking the hard drugs that make up the overwhelming majority of cartel profits. The big money is in cocaine and the like.
-
Do you honestly think this country will ever legalize drugs, though? And I'm not talking weed. I'm talking the hard drugs that make up the overwhelming majority of cartel profits. The big money is in cocaine and the like.
To be real, as much as it SHOULD, it won't.
I think that the government should get out of the business of trying to protect citizens from themselves in that capacity.
-
To be real, as much as it SHOULD, it won't.
I think that the government should get out of the business of trying to protect citizens from themselves in that capacity.
I don't know how I feel about someone coked out of their mind driving a car. I'm torn on the issue.
(http://livingelpaso.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/car-accident-cyclists-mexico1.jpg)
-
I did read the story... While it may have started in 2009, we're talking about a policy... There have been tons of policies that have done things like this.
Do you not remember the Iran / Contra affair?
no he dosent. I tried to school him.. he said it was a CT.. even though Regan admitted to it.. but who cares.. facts dont get in the way of this guys argument
-
I don't know how I feel about someone coked out of their mind driving a car. I'm torn on the issue.
(http://livingelpaso.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/car-accident-cyclists-mexico1.jpg)
Would it be any worse than the DUI laws we already have?
-
I don't know how I feel about someone coked out of their mind driving a car. I'm torn on the issue.
(http://livingelpaso.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/car-accident-cyclists-mexico1.jpg)
That driver is totally an obama voter... and symbolic of all obama voters.
-
ATF begins spin in wake of devastating press reports
By David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner
March 3rd, 2011 11:24 pm ET
..Now that CBS News has delivered its second definitive report on the scope of "Project Gunwalker"* and Senator Grassley has expressed his determination to not allow the Department of Justice to stonewall his investigations, the damage control at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have begun in earnest.
From one of the behind-the-scenes confidential sources advising Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and this correspondent, someone who has been instrumental in bringing this story to light from long before major media became involved:
This just hit minutes ago. Panic and chaos are taking place at ATF headquarters in advance of the anticipated media releases today and tomorrow. Below is a message just sent from the subordinate of Jim McDermond from the ATF Office of Public and Governmental Affairs. An emergency request is being issued to all ATF Public Information Officers to find ATF stories with a positive spin to counter-influence was is expected today. Very insulting and very much the character of ATF management. Please respond to me that you received this. I think it will be critical to your stories and for Senator Grassley to further see demonstrated ATF’s continued desire to spin and cover up.
Here is the internal communication that was forwarded:
Public Information Officers:
Please make every effort for the next two weeks to maximize coverage of ATF operations/enforcement actions/arrests at the local and regional level. Given the negative coverage by CBS Evening News last week and upcoming events this week, the bureau should look for every opportunity to push coverage of good stories. Fortunately, the CBS story has not sparked any follow up coverage by mainstream media and seems to have fizzled.
It was shoddy reporting , as CBS failed to air on-the-record interviews by former ATF officials and HQ statements for attribution that expressed opposing views and explained the law and difficulties of firearm trafficking investigations. The CBS producer for the story made only a feigned effort at the 11th hour to reach ATF HQ for comment.
This week (To 3/1/2011), Attorney General Holder testifies on the Hill and likely will get questions about the allegations in the story. Also (The 3/3/2011), Mexico President Calderon will visit the White House and likely will testify on the Hill. He will probably draw attention to the lack of political support for demand letter 3 and Project Gunrunner.
ATF needs to proactively push positive stories this week, in an effort to preempt some negative reporting, or at minimum, lessen the coverage of such stories in the news cycle by replacing them with good stories about ATF. The more time we spend highlighting the great work of the agents through press releases and various media outreaches in the coming days and weeks, the better off we will be.
Thanks for your cooperation in this matter. If you have any significant operations that should get national media coverage, please reach out to the Public Affairs Division for support, coordination and clearance.
Thank you,
Scot
Scot L. Thomasson
Chief
ATF Public Affairs Division
Washington, DC
Desk 202-648-7089
Cell 206-730-0005
There of course, was no "feigned effort." ATF was approached for comment in the first CBS News report and declined. The desperation to spin this and deflect attention is blatant.
Senator Charles Grassley is committed to moving on, as evidenced by posting his latest letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on his website. Now is the time to redouble efforts to get Darrel Issa to open parallel investigations in the House of Representatives.
Let us see how the allegations raised by Mr. Thomasson fare against sworn testimony and documents entered into evidence. And as far as Presidente Calderón goes, why no reporter asked him about the role an officer in his own adminsitration played in supplying cartel arms seems a more than fair question. It's not like it's the secret those trying to exploit the Mexican situation to demand more restrictive U.S. gun edicts and hide their own culpability would like it to be.
Also see:
A journalist’s guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner.
Vanderboeghs take: This just in from Waldo. Here's the first ATF internal spin-doctor memo on the Project Gunwalker Scandal.
*Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
More:
Click here to review tonight's rlated webchat on The Truth About Guns.
.Tags:'Project Gunwalker', Project Gunrunner, Mexican crime guns, Eric Holder, Sen. Charles Grassley, gun rights .
Continue reading on Examiner.com: ATF begins spin in wake of devastating press reports - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/atf-begins-spin-wake-of-devastating-press-reports#ixzz1FdYStDL6
-
Rumor confirmed: Murdered agent Terry armed with beanbag rounds
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 3 March, 2011 | David Codrea
“Files add some clarity to Terry's death,” The Arizona Daily Star is reporting. “Agents used beanbags against migrants, who replied with gunfire.”
This corroborates a rumor that has been widely circulating since the mid-December shootout, when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was fatally wounded in Peck’s Canyon after encountering armed illegal immigrants who would not obey commands to drop their weapons.
A key point is highlighted in this new report:
The Terry family remains upset about allegations that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed a gun smuggler it was investigating to purchase and smuggle into Mexico the weapons used in the shootout in which Terry died. The Justice Department has denied the allegations, but U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, continues to insist on the validity of the claims.
Another key point remains unresolved. The autopsy has shown “Terry was shot once in the lower back, about 29 inches down from the right shoulder…The bullet found inside his body was one used with AK-47s...”
So of course this means the government also knows which gun was used to kill Agent Terry. That the Justice Department refuses, as yet, to confirm that points to the same intentional stonewalling that kept the beanbag information suppressed for so long.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
CBS did a devastating report on this last night.
I hope this brings down the whole ATF along with Holder and the DOJ.
-
-
Skip to contentHomeAbout UsGun Reviews← AZ Border Patrol Agents [Not Shown] Fired Beanbags At Agent Terry’s MurderersTTAG Live Webchat Replay: David Codrea on ATF Gunwalker Scandal →CBS Blows the Lid off of ATF Gunwalker Scandal.
Posted on March 3, 2011 by Robert Farago
http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/03/robert-farago/cbs-blows-the-lid-off-of-atf-gunwalker
Click here for CBS News’ lead story: their second, even more damning report on the ATF Gunwalker scandal. Meanwhile, lots of news as the scandal goes mainstream. The AP reports that U.S. Attorney General has “asked the Justice Department inspector general to take another look at the efforts of U.S. agents who hunt gun traffickers along the U.S. border with Mexico. Some on Capitol Hill have suggested the current strategy endangers law enforcement officers.” Not just the two LEOs killed by thugs using guns enabled by the Justice Department’s ATF branch? Who’d a thunk it? And some fresh info on the Dallas deal, where an ATF-enabled gun smuggler smuggled a gun used to kill ICE Special Agent Zapata . . .
That case developed after investigators for ATF and the Drug Enforcement Administration allegedly met a confidential informant near Dallas in November and gave him 40 guns to take into Mexico. The pistols, rifles and a shotgun — most without serial numbers — were seized before they crossed the border as part of the undercover operation by ATF and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
But authorities later learned that another gun purchased in October by one of the three men, Otilio Osorio, was used in the Feb. 15 attack that killed Zapata. It’s unclear how, when and by whom that weapon was moved into Mexico.
What IS clear: the ATF now says that Osorio smuggled that weapon before they gave him other weapons to smuggle. Click here and here for the affidavits.
-
Damn! This might make 2 agent deaths related to this now.
http://thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/redacted_osorio_complaint_2.pdf
-
Senator Grassley's latest letter to Holder & Melson. 5 Pages and 10 Attachments (gunwalker)
sipseystreetirregulars ^ | 3 March, 2011 | Mike Vanderboegh
________________________ ________________________ _____________--
March 3, 2011
Via Electronic Transmission The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530
Kenneth E. Melson, Acting Director Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives 99 New York Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20226
Dear Attorney General Holder and Acting Director Melson:
It is has been over a month since I first contacted Acting Director Melson about serious whistleblower allegations related to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) operation called “Fast and Furious”—part of the broader “Project Gunrunner” initiative. Several agents alleged that ATF leadership encouraged cooperating gun dealers to engage in sales of multiple assault weapons to individuals suspected of illegally purchasing for resale to Mexican cartels. These agents were motivated to come forward after federal authorities recovered two of the Operation Fast and Furious guns at the scene where a Customs and Border Patrol Agent named Brian Terry was killed.
In response to my letter, the Department of Justice (DOJ) denied that ATF would ever knowingly allow weapons to fall into the hands of criminals, or let firearms “walk” in an operation. On February 9, I wrote to DOJ and attached documents that supported the whistleblower allegations about the guns found at the scene of Agent Terry's death.1
My office continues to receive mounting evidence in support of the whistleblower allegations. For example, attached are detailed accounts of three specific instances where ATF allowed firearms to “walk.”2 In all three instances, the suspect asks a cooperating
1 Letter from Senator Grassley to Attorney General Holder. February 9, 2011. Accessed at http://judiciary.senate.gov/resources/documents/upload/020911GrassleyToHolder-ATF.pdf.
2 ATF Reports of Investigation (ROIs) detailing ATF Phoenix Field Operations from May 8-June 1, 2010. (Attachment 1)
PAGE 2
defendant to purchase firearms at a gun dealer who was also cooperating with the ATF. So, two of the three participants in the transactions were acting in concert with the ATF. Yet, the ATF allowed the suspect to take possession of the firearms in each instance. In one case the suspect said that he “assumed the only real risk in their trafficking arrangement when he [REDACTED] „erase(d) the (serial) numbers‟ from the firearms and „take (transports) them…‟”3
The whistleblowers did not wait until a federal agent was killed before voicing their concerns internally. Several agents in the Phoenix Gun Trafficking Group (Group VII) voiced their opposition to the ATF‟s handling of the case internally first. Group Supervisor David Voth sent an email on March 12, 2010 about the “schism developing amongst our group.”4 His response to dissent within the group was to invite those who disagreed with the strategy to find another job:
Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case and they also believe we (Phoenix Group VII) are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Groups doing. It may sound cheesy, but we are “The tip of the ATF spear” [sic] when it comes to the Southwest Border Firearms Trafficking.
We need to resolve our issues at this meeting. I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors, or other adolescent behavior.
… If you don’t think this is fun, you’re in the wrong line of work— period! This is the pinnacle of domestic U.S. law enforcement techniques. After this the toolbox is empty. Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day.5
Two weeks later, on April 2, 2010, Voth sent an email to Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley and Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) George Gillett with the subject, “No pressure but perhaps an increased sense of urgency.”6 In the email, he reiterated support for the strategy, but cited increasing levels of violence as a reason to move more quickly. Voth wrote:
Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during the month of March alone, to include numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles. I believe we are righteous in our plan to dismantle this entire organization and to rush in to arrest any one person without taking in to [sic] account the entire scope of the conspiracy would be ill advised to the overall good of the mission. I
3 Id.
4 Email from Group Supervisor David Voth to Group VII. March 12, 2010. (Attachment 2)
5 Id. (Emphasis in original.)
6 Email from Group Supervisor David Voth to Group VII, Emory Hurley (USAAZ), and George Gillett. April 2, 2010. (Attachment 3)
PAGE 3
acknowledge that we are all in agreement that to do so properly requires patience and planning. In the event, however, that there is anything we can do to facilitate a timely response or turnaround by others, we should communicate our sense of urgency with regard to this matter.7
Voth also acknowledged in a May 3, 2010 email to his group that “April was the second most violent month during the Calderon administration with 1,231 executions.”8 ATF personnel in Mexico reportedly noted the increased violence and contacted ATF Headquarters to express concern over the Operation Fast and Furious strategy of allowing the weapons sales to proceed.
ATF Headquarters was fully aware of the strategy. A copy the Operation Fast and Furious case summary sent to ATF Headquarters states:
This OCDETF [Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force] case is a large scale firearms trafficking case with the firearms being recovered in the Republic of Mexico or on/near the US/Mexico border (El Paso, TX, Nogales, AZ, Douglas, AZ, etc.) To date over 1,500 firearms have been purchased since October 2009 for over one million ($1,000,000.00) cash in over-the-counter transactions at various Phoenix area FFLs. [REDACTION] There are many facets to this investigation but ATF is attempting to not only secure a straw purchase/dealing in firearms without a license case against various individuals but more specifically to make the bigger connection to the Mexican Cartel/Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) obtaining these firearms for the best possible case and the most severe charges when it is time to Indict [sic] this case.9
Dismantling the Mexican drug cartels is a worthy goal. However, asking cooperating gun dealers to arm cartels and bandits without control of the weapons or knowledge of their whereabouts is an extremely risky strategy. ATF leadership did not allow agents to interdict the weapons in this case. Instead, agents simply monitored the purchases of “suspect guns” and entered them into a database of firearms “suspected to eventually be used in criminal activity.”10 Over the course of this investigation, weapons allowed to walk were ending up in Mexico and along the Southwestern border. The ATF was well aware that this was happening. For example, in November 2009, four 7.62 caliber weapons were recovered in Naco, Mexico just two weeks after being purchased by one of the ATF‟s suspects in Glendale, Arizona.11 Also, in July 2010 a Romanian AK-47
7 Id.
8 Email from Group Supervisor David Voth to Group VII. May 3, 2010. (Attachment 4)
9 Phoenix Group VII, Operation Fast and Furious. (Attachment 5)
10 Email from Senior Firearms Program Specialist to Group VII Agent. June 17, 2010. (Attachment 6)
11 Email: Suspect Person Activity Report. March 18, 2010. (Attachment 7)
PAGE 4
variant—the same model found at the scene of Agent Terry‟s death—was recovered in Navojoa, Mexico.12
In light of this evidence, the Justice Department‟s denials simply don‟t hold water. On February 4, 2011, the Department claimed that the ATF did not “knowingly” allow the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers and that “ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation into Mexico.”13 Clearly those statements are not accurate. These documents establish that ATF allowed illegal firearm purchases by suspected traffickers in hopes of making a larger case against the cartels. ATF was not alone. The U.S. Attorney‟s office appears to have been fully aware and engaged in endorsing the same strategy.
Congress needs to get to the bottom of this.
After close of business last night, I received a one-page response to my letters of February 9 and 16.14 The response asks that I direct to the Inspector General any individuals who believe they have knowledge of misconduct by Department employees. You should know that just after Agent Terry died in December, at least one whistleblower contacted the Office of Inspector General before contacting my office. Despite reporting the allegations multiple times by phone, Internet, and fax, no one contacted the whistleblower until after my staff contacted the Acting Inspector General directly on February 1.
I have received no documents in response to my February 16, 2011, request. Last night‟s DOJ reply cites the Justice Department‟s “longstanding policy regarding pending matters” as a reason for withholding documents “relating to any ongoing investigation.”15 However, as you know, that policy is merely a policy. It is not mandated by any binding legal authority.
There are many instances where the Justice Department and its components choose to provide information about pending investigations to Congress. These examples are not always officially documented, but often occur when there are particularly egregious allegations of government misconduct or there is an extremely high level of public interest in an investigation. Getting to the truth of the ATF whistleblower allegations in this case is extremely important to the family of Brian Terry and should be important to all Americans. There is no reason to wait the unknown number of years it might take for all of the trials and all of the appeals to be exhausted. The time for truth is now.
12 Email from ATF Violent Crime Analysis Branch and Group VII Agents, detailing a weapon recovery in Mexico. August 6, 2010. (Attachment 8)
13 Letter from the Department of Justice to Senator Grassley. February 4, 2011. (Attachment 9)
14 Letter from the Department of Justice to Senator Grassley. March 2, 2011. (Attachment 10)
15 Id.
PAGE 5
In addition to providing the documents I previously requested, please explain how the denials in the Justice Department‟s February 4, 2011 letter to me can be squared with the evidence.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley Ranking Member Committee on the Judiciary
cc: The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Chairman, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The Honorable Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Honorable Alan D. Bersin, Commissioner, United States Customs and Border Protection
-
Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
CBSNEWS.com ^ | March 3, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
(CBS News) WASHINGTON - John Dodson, an ATF federal agent, says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.
"You were intentionally letting guns go to Mexico," Attkisson asked.
"Yes ma'am," Dodson replied. "The agency was."
An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.
Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ______-
waiting for the 240 spin to blame this on Bush.
-
Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight
StoryImage (2)Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight
Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, March 3, 2011 12:00 am
Jill Torrance/Arizona Daily Star
Border Patrol agents salute their fellow agent Brian Terry during his memorial at Kino Stadium Friday, January 21, 2011. .
Loading… .
..Border Patrol agents shot beanbags at a group of suspected bandits before the men returned fire during a confrontation in a remote canyon, killing agent Brian Terry with a single gunshot, records show.
And an illegal immigrant wounded in the gunbattle who is now the only person in custody linked to the slaying contends he never fired a shot, according to FBI search warrant requests filed in the U.S. District Court in Tucson.
The documents provide the most detailed version yet of what happened in the deadly gunbattle Dec. 14 in Peck Canyon, northwest of Nogales.
The documents say the group of illegal border entrants refused commands to drop their weapons after agents confronted them at about 11:15 p.m. Two agents fired beanbags at the migrants, who responded with gunfire. Two agents returned fire, one with a long gun and one with a pistol, but Terry was mortally wounded in the gunfight.
Border Patrol officials declined to answer questions about protocol for use of force, citing the ongoing investigation.
But Terry's brother, Kent Terry, said the other agents who were there that night told him that they were instructed to use the non-lethal beanbags first. It's a policy that doesn't make sense to Kent Terry.
"You go up against a bandit crew that is carrying AKs, and you walk out there with guns loaded with beanbags - I don't get it," Terry said in a phone interview from Michigan. "It's like going to the Iraqi war with one knife. It boggles my mind. ... These guys (Border Patrol agents) are professionals; they should be able to use their judgment call on their own."
On the night of the deadly encounter, agents were trying to apprehend at least five suspected illegal immigrants. One agent, using thermal binoculars, spotted two men carrying rifles. When the group came close, at least one agent identified himself as police and ordered the men to drop their weapons.
Here's how the rest of the events are described in the FBI document:
"When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed 'less than lethal' beanbags at the suspected aliens. At this time, at least one of the suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol agents. Two Border Patrol agents returned fire, one with his long gun and one with his pistol.
"Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot with one bullet and died shortly after. One of the suspected illegal aliens, later identified as Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was also shot."
The search warrants were requested to examine fingerprints and a hair sample from Osorio-Arellanes, who was one of four men arrested that night near the shooting scene. The other three arrested, illegal immigrants from Mexico, have been cleared in connection with the crime and deported back to their home countries.
Osorio-Arellanes has not been charged in connection with the fatal shooting. He has been charged only with illegal re-entry after deportation and is awaiting a May 10 trial. The FBI document represents the first time his name has been included in a public document related to the shooting.
Two days after the shooting, Osorio-Arellanes agreed to talk to FBI agents. He was traveling with four others that night, all of whom were armed, Osorio-Arellanes told investigators, according to the document.
"Osorio-Arellanes stated that he had raised his weapon towards the Border Patrol agents, but he did not fire because he realized that they were Border Patrol agents," the search warrant says. "At this time, he was shot."
Two firearms were recovered at the scene that are believed to belong to the suspects, the documents say. Officials were planning to take Osorio-Arellanes' fingerprints to compare with those found on the two weapons.
Officials also recovered five backpacks, three gloves, two sweat shirts, a pullover, a jacket, a knit hat, a baseball cap and a razor.
The summary provided in the search warrants is only a snapshot and does not include all facts known by investigators, FBI agents wrote in the three separate search-warrant requests filed in U.S. District Court in late December.
Terry, 40, of Michigan, was a member of a specially trained tactical unit known as Bortac. On the night of the shooting, Terry and his crew were targeting a "rip crew" that robbed and assaulted drug runners and illegal immigrants, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
This week, the Terry family received the autopsy report, which shows that Terry was shot once in the lower back, about 29 inches down from the right shoulder, Kent Terry said. Brian Terry was trying to turn, likely for cover, when he was shot, Kent Terry said. The bullet found inside his body was one used with AK-47s, he said.
The report gave the family some closure, and it erased any doubt about friendly fire being a possibility in the fatal shooting, because agents don't use AK-47s, Kent Terry said. The FBI announced in mid-February that it had ruled out friendly fire, but Kent Terry remained skeptical because he hadn't seen the autopsy.
The Terry family remains upset about allegations that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed a gun smuggler it was investigating to purchase and smuggle into Mexico the weapons used in the shootout in which Terry died. The Justice Department has denied the allegations, but U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, continues to insist on the validity of the claims.
"Your government is telling you to use beanbags, but you are selling guns back to the Mexicans," Kent Terry said. "There's a lot of questions that they haven't answered."
The FBI investigation remains ongoing, said agency spokesman Manuel Johnson. No arrests have been made. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona said investigators and prosecutors aim to bring criminal charges against the people responsible for Brian Terry's murder.
Terry, 40, was the 10th agent to die on duty in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector since 1926 and the first agent shot to death since 1998. Terry was buried in his hometown of Detroit on Dec. 22, and hundreds attended his memorial service January in Tucson.
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
-
ATF Let Hundreds of U.S. Weapons Fall into Hands of Suspected Mexican Gunrunners
The Center for Public Integrity ^ | March 03, 2011 | John Solomon and David Heath and Gordon Witkin
Hoping to score a major prosecution of Mexican drug lords, federal prosecutors and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives permitted hundreds of guns to be purchased and retained by suspected straw buyers with the expectation they might cross the border and even be used in crimes while the case was being built, according to documents and interviews.
The decision — part of a Phoenix-based operation code named “Fast and Furious” — was met by strong objections from some front-line agents who feared they were allowing weapons like AK-47s to “walk” into the hands of drug lords and gun runners, internal agency memos show. Indeed, scores of the weapons came back quickly traced to criminal activity.
(Excerpt) Read more at publicintegrity.org ...
________________________ ________________________ _--
NRA's fault!
-
Obama: No Arming of U.S. Agents in Mexico
FOX ^
Obama: No Arming of U.S. Agents in Mexico
President Obama on Thursday appeared to reject the idea of arming U.S. agents in Mexico, saying after a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon that the two governments will look at other ways to protect American officials in the wake of a fatal shooting last month.
"There are laws in place in Mexico that say that our agents should not be armed," Obama said, describing the U.S. role south of the border as an "advisory" one. "We do not carry out law enforcement activities inside of Mexico."
The president's statement answers speculation about how far the administration would go in reforming safety measures in response to the killing three weeks ago of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico. The shooting death raised questions in the U.S. about Mexico's ability to control violence but U.S. officials earlier wouldn't say whether Obama would press the Mexican leader to allow U.S. agents to be armed.
Coming out of the meeting Thursday afternoon, both presidents stressed that U.S. agents cannot be armed. Obama said he was nevertheless concerned about the safety of agents and that they would examine "procedures and protocols" for how to better protect them.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
Source: CBS News
Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief. He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico? "Yes ma'am," Dodson told CBS News. "The agency was."
An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.
Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.
Dodson's bosses say that never happened. Now, he's risking his job to go public.
-
Couric did a good job last night.
-
Couric did a good job last night.
]
Couric certainly has a penchant for revealing idiocy.
it's good to be back. ;D
-
Did you see the report last night?
I watched it at the gym and was surprised how deep they got in to this.
-
Did you see the report last night?
I watched it at the gym and was surprised how deep they got in to this.
i haven't seen TV in almost a week.
-
i haven't seen TV in almost a week.
This thing goes right to holder at DOJ. They eluded to that last night. They said "highest levels at DOJ"
-
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guns-mexico-20110304,0,2309966.story
latimes.com
U.S. gun-tracing operation let firearms into criminal hands
A federal operation aimed at tracing weapons to Mexican drug cartels lost track of hundreds, including two guns found at the scene of a Border Patrol agent's killing in Arizona.
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times
6:13 PM PST, March 3, 2011
Advertisement
A federal operation that allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers so they could be traced to the higher echelons of Mexican drug cartels has lost track of hundreds of firearms, many of which have been linked to crimes, including the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent in December.
The investigation, known as Operation Fast and Furious, was conducted even though U.S. authorities suspected that some of the weapons might be used in crimes, according to a variety of federal agents who voiced anguished objections to the operation.
Many of the weapons have spread across the most violence-torn states in Mexico, with at least 195 linked to some form of crime or law enforcement action, according to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity and The Times.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the operation, said that 1,765 guns were sold to suspected smugglers during a 15-month period of the investigation. Of those, 797 were recovered on both sides of the border, including 195 in Mexico after they were used in crimes, collected during arrests or intercepted through other law enforcement operations.
John Dodson, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who worked on Operation Fast and Furious, said in an interview with the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit research group based in Washington, that he was still haunted by his participation in the investigation.
"With the number of guns we let walk, we'll never know how many people were killed, raped, robbed," he said. "There is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are gone."
The ATF said agents took every possible precaution to assure that guns were recovered before crossing into Mexico.
Scot L. Thomasson, the ATF's public affairs chief in Washington, said the Fast and Furious strategy is still under evaluation.
"It's always a good business practice to review any new strategy six or eight months after you've initiated it, to make sure it's working, that it's having the desired effect, and then make adjustments as you see fit to ensure it's successful," he said.
But enough concern has been raised that some Washington officials have begun to dig deeper into the details of the operation.
On Thursday, as President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon met in Washington to discuss the increasing problems with drug and gun smuggling, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. asked top officials at the Justice Department to consult the inspector general to determine if further investigation of the operation was needed.
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, initiated an inquiry to determine whether guns traveled to Mexico through inadvertence or deliberate policy on the part of U.S. law enforcement.
"We still don't have the documents we've asked for. Maybe we will get the documents. But right now it's stonewalling," Grassley said in an interview Thursday.
"Too many government agencies always want the big case," he said. "They keep these gun-running sales moving along, even when they have people within the agency that say something bad's going to happen. They had plenty of warnings … and the prophets turned out to be right."
Much of what is now known about the case has only surfaced in the last few months following the December shooting death in Arizona of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry.
But the investigation was underway more than a year earlier, when Mexican customs agents in the small border town of Naco stopped a passenger car traveling from the U.S. that was carrying a surprising cargo: 41 AK-47s, a .50-caliber rifle, 40 semiautomatic gun magazines, a telescopic rifle sight and three knives.
At least three guns found that day were traced through their serial numbers to a gun shop in Glendale, Ariz., which then led to a Phoenix man, Jaime Avila, who had purchased four weapons there.
Over the course of the next year, federal agents watched Avila and several associates buy more heavy-duty weapons, which investigators were convinced were intended for Mexican drug cartels.
Despite their suspicions, the ATF allowed Avila to continue.
It was part of a new strategy embarked upon after the agency had found it increasingly difficult to build cases against "straw buyers," who purchased weapons for the cartels.
The buyers were working for increasingly complex trafficking organizations in which guns were passed among several legal owners in many locations in the U.S. before being transferred to Mexico.
As a result, the ATF decided to go after not just the buyers, but the organizations, Thomasson said.
"That was the shift in strategy. We recognized we were facing a far more sophisticated trafficking organization. We recognized the organization was a lot deeper in bodies, and we recognized that unless we went after the head of the organization, the person ordering the guns, ordering the violence, we were going to have little to no success in stemming the violence down there," he said.
It was an attempt to apply the tactics of a narcotics investigation, in which small-scale drug buyers are allowed to operate under surveillance in the hope of catching their more powerful cartel counterparts.
But several veteran agents were outraged at the shift, saying that there is a big difference between tracking drugs and tracking guns. They saw the change as a violation of a sacred ATF policy: Make the big case or don't make the big case, but don't let the guns go.
"We're not talking about bags of dope. We're not letting the guy walk away with a stolen flat-screen TV. We're talking about guns. Our job is to keep guns off the street and out of criminals' hands and prevent them from being used in violent situations," said Jay Dobyns, an ATF agent in Phoenix who was not part of the Fast and Furious team but who has watched it unfold.
Dodson, the ATF agent who did work on the operation, was transferred last fall to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. He said a supervisor justified the strategy by saying, "If you're going to make an omelet, you've got to scramble some eggs."
"I took it to mean that whatever crimes these guns were going to be involved in, those were the eggs, those were acceptable," Dodson said.
One agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added: "We voiced our concerns quite vocally to the point of yelling, screaming. We were overridden."
The dissent prompted a harsh e-mail last March from the ATF's group supervisor in charge of the day-to-day operations, David J. Voth, warning agents to stay on board.
"Whether you care or not, people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case, and they also believe we … are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Groups doing," he wrote.
"I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors or other adolescent behavior," he added. "This is the pinnacle of domestic U.S. law enforcement techniques. …Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day."
But even Voth became worried about the number of guns moving to Mexico — 359 last March alone, according to an e-mail he sent to the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix.
The risks of Operation Fast and Furious became apparent on Dec. 14, when Terry was killed in a shootout with bandits near Rio Rico, Ariz.
To the horror of federal authorities, two guns whose serial numbers matched guns purchased by Avila the previous January were found at the scene. Avila was promptly arrested.
Two months after the shooting, Sen. Grassley sent a query to the Justice Department, asking for more detail on Terry's death.
In response, the department denied that any guns had been allowed to enter Mexico as part of an investigation.
"The allegation … that ATF 'sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico — is false," Assistant Atty. Gen. Ronald Welch wrote. "ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico."
The department said that Project Gunrunner, the umbrella operation across the Southwest border of which Operation Fast and Furious was a part, has resulted in the seizure of more than 10,000 firearms and 1.1 million rounds of ammunition destined for Mexico since 2006.
But Grassley produced documents provided by ATF agents in Phoenix and elsewhere that showed that weapons bought by straw purchasers who were under surveillance were finding their way to Mexico, in addition to the two guns found at the scene of Terry's shooting.
Avila and 33 others were indicted in January on charges of acting as straw purchasers of weapons, along with related drug and money laundering charges. As a result of detailed spadework, ATF and Justice Department officials say, those cases now include strong evidence against suspected recipients of the contraband weapons.
No one, however, has been charged with shooting Terry. ATF officials said there was no evidence showing the two Fast and Furious guns found at the scene were used to kill the agent.
On Thursday, the Justice Department declined again in a letter to Grassley to release internal communications about the sale of the weapons to Avila and a 30-page memo the ATF's special agent in charge, William D. Newell, reportedly wrote to ATF headquarters after Terry's death.
Welch said any such documents, if they exist, cannot be released while they are part of an ongoing investigation.
Terry's mother, Josephine, said she had received no answer as to how the two guns from Arizona came to be at the same place her son died.
"They don't tell us nothing. They say they don't want to mess up their investigation. I'm disappointed. I'm really disappointed," she said. "As devoted as my son was to the government, I think they just want him to go away. They just want to forget that this even happened."
kim.murphy@latimes.com
John Solomon, David Heath and Gordon Witkin of the Center for Public Integrity joined in the investigation that produced this report.
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
________________________ ________
Thank you Eric Holder!
-
White House pleads ignorance to ‘Project Gunwalker’
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 7 March, 2011 | David Codrea
“White House press secretary Jay Carney did not shed any light Monday on the allegations uncovered by CBS News that ATF intentionally let thousands of assault rifles and other weapons fall into the hands of Mexico's drug cartels. Insiders call the controversial practice letting guns ‘walk’,” Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News reports.
When questioned by chief White House correspondent Chip Reid if President Obama was "aware of the specific allegations,” Carney replied “I don’t know.”
Watch the exchange in the sidebar video player. And help raise the president’s awareness level if so inclined. That is if you believe the most powerful and one of the best-informed men on the planet is truly in the dark about a major scandal being reported on network news concerning his administration.
After all, he may need to intermediate between Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Mexico queries US gun smuggling operation
BBC ^ | 6 March, 2011 | NA
Mexico has asked the US for detailed information on a law enforcement operation that allegedly allowed guns to be smuggled across the border.
The request follows media reports that US federal agents allowed hundreds of guns to be smuggled into Mexico in the hope of tracking the weapons to drug cartel leaders.
Some of the guns were reportedly later used in crimes including murder.
US Attorney General Eric Holder has already ordered an inquiry.
The Mexican request comes days after US President Barack Obama and his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon agreed to step up cooperation against guns and drugs trafficking. 'Shared responsibility'
The tracking operation, codenamed Fast and Furious, was conducted by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), according to CBS and the Los Angeles Times.
The ATF reportedly allowed 1,765 guns to be smuggled into Mexico over a 15 month period, including assault weapons and high-powered sniper rifles.
Of those guns, 797 were recovered on both sides of the border.
Many are thought to have been used in crimes, including two that were recovered at the scene of the killing of a US border protection agent in Arizona.
The ATF allowed the operation to continue despite objections from some agents involved, the LA Times reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
________________________ ________________________ ___--
Yet if Bush did this - you lib pieces of trash woud have spent day and night on this.
-
"Gunwalking" scandal final straw leading to resignation of U.S. ambassador to Mexico
CBS News ^ | March 20, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, has resigned under pressure.
In recent weeks, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has said in public he doesn't trust Pascual (seen at left). Several sources close to diplomatic circles inside Mexico tell CBS News that from Mexico's viewpoint, the ATF "gunwalking" scandal was the final straw in a series of controversies.
First, Pascual has been dating the daughter of a mistrusted and alleged cartel-linked opposition legislator.
Second, Pascual's critical views of Mexico in secret U.S. diplomatic cables were leaked on WikiLeaks several weeks ago. In one cable, Pascual said Mexico had turned a blind eye to U.S. leads on how to capture drug lords.
More recently, Mexico has demanded information from the U.S. on the ATF controversy revealed by CBS News, in which ATF agents allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to cross the border, supposedly in a failed attempt to gain intelligence to take down a major drug cartel. Some Mexican legislators have publicly said ATF agents who crafted and carried out the strategy could be extradited to Mexico and arrested. The legislators quote ATF agent John Dodson, as interviewed in our report.
Published reports, including one in the Miami Herald, quote the White House as recently having said U.S. officials thought the tiffs would blow over.
-
ATF's Mexico gun problem
www.sfgate.com ^ | 16 March, 2011 | SF Chronicle
"Fast and Furious" is the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' sting operation that allowed hundreds of weapons to get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. It is also a pretty fair description of the reaction in Mexico to the possibility that a U.S. government operation contributed to the lethal mayhem south of the border.
Attorney General Eric Holder has said he is taking the allegations "very seriously" and has asked the inspector general to "get to the bottom of it." U.S. Senate investigators are also looking into the effects of what was, at best, a sloppy ATF operation - including the possibility that one of the guns might have been used in separate attacks that killed two U.S law enforcement agents.
In Mexico, Humberto Benitez Trevino, chair of the justice committee in the lower chamber of Congress, claimed his government has found evidence of "150 cases of injuries and homicides with arms that were smuggled and passed illegally into our country."
Whistle-blower James Dodson, a Phoenix-based ATF agent who worked on the Fast and Furious operation, said the flow of guns to traffickers was so heavy that it was impossible for the agency to not know that some of the weapons would end up in Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
-
ATF gunwalking scandal: Second agent speaks out
ATF allegedly encouraged U.S. gun sales to Mexican drug traffickers -- Now there's evidence other agencies knew about program
Font size PrintE-mailShare53 Comments By Sharyl Attkisson .
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/21/eveningnews/main20045609.shtml
Second ATF agent speaks out against "Gunrunner"
Sharyl Attkisson reports on Rene Jaquez, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, who has publicly condemned the alleged practice of the ATF to allow guns from the U.S. into the hands of drug cartels in Mexico.
.S
Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
Documents point to ATF "gun running" since 2008
(CBS News) WASHINGTON - South of El Paso, Texas, on Mexico's side of the border, lies Juarez - the most dangerous city in the world. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports ATF Special Agent Rene Jaquez has been stationed there for the past year, trying to keep U.S. guns from being trafficked into Mexico.
"That's what we do as an agency," Jaquez said. "ATF's primary mission is to make sure that we curtail gun trafficking."
Video: Mexico assignment "most dangerous in the world"
Video: ATF agent describes dangers of "gunwalking"
That's why Jaquez tells CBS News he was so alarmed to hear his own agency may have done the opposite: encouraged U.S. gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexico's drug cartels. Apparently, ATF hoped that letting weapons "walk" onto the street - to see where they'd end up - would help them take down a cartel.
Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
Jaquez is so opposed to the strategy, he's speaking out. "You don't let guns walk. I've never let a gun walk."
Yet ATF agents told us they were ordered to let thousands of weapons walk. Two of them, assault rifles, were later found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona last December. Another gunrunning suspect under ATF surveillance was linked to the shooting of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata. And sources say many more "walked" weapons turned up at Mexican crime scenes.
Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
Jaquez said, "I think this incidence is probably one of the darkest days in ATF's history."
But ATF wasn't working alone on the case known as "Fast and Furious." Documents show ATF had conference calls with "DHS" (Homeland Security). "USMS" (U.S. Marshals) and DEA. An "ICE," or Customs agent, was on ATF's Fast and Furious team. They were advised by an "AUSA," or Assistant U.S. Attorney under the Justice Department.
AK47s vs. bean bags in border drug war
Justice Department head Eric Holder said the inspector general is investigating. "The aim of the ATF is to try to stop the flow of guns. I think they do a good job in that regard. Questions have been raised by ATF agents about the way in which some of these operations have been conducted. I think those questions have to be taken seriously, and on that basis, I've asked the inspector general to look at it."
Holder: Gunwalking is wrong
Jaquez is second sitting ATF agent to come forward and speak out to CBS News on the controversy.
Jaquez says one of the most difficult things for him is believing that his own agency inadvertently put innocent lives at risk. Jaquez has family - uncles, aunts, father and sister - living in Mexico. "Any one of us could have been shot with one of those guns."
Video: NRA members "outraged" over "gunwalking" reports
Jaquez says he's left wondering whether runaway violence in Mexico can be partly blamed on the agency tasked with stopping it.
-
Obama says he didn’t inform Mexico of U.S. gun smuggling operation because he didn’t know about it
sa.com ^ | 3/24/11 | richard dunham
Under fire for an operation that allowed smuggling of U.S. weapons across the nation’s border with Mexico, President Obama said in an interview that neither he nor Attorney General Eric Holder authorized the controversial “Operation Fast and Furious.”
The Mexican government has complained that it didn’t know about the U.S. operation that allowed guns to illegally cross the southwestern border so they could track the weapons.
Obama told Univision‘s Jorge Ramos that President Felipe Calderon wasn’t informed of the operation because he — the president of the United States — wasn’t informed either. When asked whether he knew of the weapon smuggling plan, Obama responded that it is “a pretty big government” with “a lot of moving parts.”
The investigation into the program comes after it was connected to two weapons that were found at the scene of a border shootout that killed U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December. Likewise, a gun smuggled from the U.S. were used to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Jamie Zapata, but it has not been determined if it was part of “Fast and Furious.”
When President Calderon came to visit Washington recently, the two presidents came together on a policy to stop drug and weapon smuggling across the border.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.mysanantonio.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
The Obama Administration is Under Mounting Pressure for its Botched Gun Trafficking Investigation
Fox News - ^ | March 28, 2011 | William La Jeunesse
Congress and the Department of Justice appear to be headed for a showdown this week over documents detailing Operation Fast and Furious, the botched gunrunning sting set up by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that funneled more than 1,700 smuggled weapons from Arizona to Mexico.
The Justice Department has until Wednesday to deliver to congressional investigators a stack of records and emails naming the individuals responsible for the gun trafficking operation that may have killed dozens, if not hundreds of Mexicans, and is becoming a growing embarrassment for the Obama administration.
Under Project Gunrunner and the Phoenix off-shoot, dubbed Fast and Furious, the ATF encouraged gun store owners to sell to straw buyers -- consumers who they suspected of working on behalf of Mexican drug cartels.
Project Gunrunner purposely allowed the straw buyers to illegally buy and export guns only to see where they surfaced in Mexico. Using this investigative technique, the ATF hoped to take down the entire gun trafficking organization. Instead, records show it allowed more than 1,700 guns, including hundreds of AK-47s and high-powered, armor-piercing .50-caliber rifles to be trafficked to Mexico
Buying guns for non-personal use is illegal. Yet gun store owners were assured by ATF agents the buyers were under investigation and the guns were being intercepted before crossing into Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Issa subpoenas ATF for Project Gunrunner documents - White House misses deadline
The Dailycaller ^ | April 1, 2011 | Matthew Boyle
Top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa is subpoenaing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for documents on Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious after the agency missed a Wednesday deadline for producing the documents.
The unwillingness of this administration – most specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms – to answer questions about this deadly serious matter is deeply troubling,” Issa said in a statement. “Allegations surrounding this program are serious and the ability of the Justice Department to conduct an impartial investigation is in question. Congressional oversight is necessary to get the truth about what is really happening.”
In Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, ATF allowed American guns to be smuggled into Mexico and sold to Mexican drug cartels. The goal of the program was to track the illegal weapons and drug markets after they were used in crimes and abandoned using ballistics information and serial numbers for the guns.
Issa had fired off his request to ATF, which falls under the Department of Justice, on March 16, giving the bureau two weeks to fulfill it – they missed their deadline.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Grassley: More ATF Whistleblowers Come Forward; Senator Seeks Information on Guidance from...
Office of Senator Grassley ^ | April 8, 2011 | Senator Grassley
Article
For Immediate Release
April 8, 2011
Grassley: More ATF Whistleblowers Come Forward; Senator Seeks Information on Guidance from Headquarters
WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today requested information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) about guidance it may have given to agents in the field in responding to Grassley’s requests.
Grassley’s inquiry comes in response to documents that the ATF released through the Freedom of Information Act. Within those documents was an email to the Deputy Director of the ATF, Billy Hoover, regarding suggestions on how ATF agents should be directed to respond to congressional requests, like those from Grassley.
“Since our investigation began, I’ve continued to be contacted by agents and others within the ATF about wrongdoing regarding Fast and Furious at the ATF and the Justice Department. If people have concerns they should be able to express themselves without feeling pressure from their bosses,” Grassley said.
Grassley has been investigating a program led by the ATF where assault weapons were sold to straw buyers who then transported the weapons across the border to resell them to Mexican drug cartels. Grassley learned of the wrongdoing from courageous whistleblowers. He has sent letters and asked questions inquiring about the policy, but has yet to be provided a substantive response from the Departments of Justice and State and the ATF.
Grassley is a champion of whistleblowers and is the co-author of the first Whistleblower Protection Act in 1989. This week, Grassley introduced legislation with Senators Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to update the law.
“Whistleblowers stand up for truth and help to fight wrongdoing, injustice, and waste, fraud and abuse in government. They shouldn’t be subject to retaliation, from either higher ups or colleagues, for coming forward with important information,” Grassley said. “Without whistleblowers, we’d know a lot less about what goes on in government. They are key to unlocking secrets deep in the closets of the bureaucracy.”
Here’s a copy of Grassley’s letter sent today to Acting Director of the ATF Kenneth Melson. For copies of all of Grassley’s letters, please visit his website, Grassley.senate.gov and click on the Judiciary Committee link.
April 8, 2011
Kenneth E. Melson
Acting Director
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
99 New York Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20226
Dear Acting Director Melson:
Attached is an email released through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).1
It appears to contain proposed guidance to ATF employees about how to respond to
contacts from my office. The guidance instructs ATF employees that they “are in no way
obligated to respond” to questions from Congress. It also attempts to prevent direct
communications with my office by instructing that ATF employees “should refer
congressional staff who seek information from you to the ATF’s office of congressional
affairs.” The guidance further attempts to prevent direct communications with my
office by claiming that ATF employees “are not authorized to disclose non-public
information.”
It is unclear from the email released through FOIA whether this guidance was
actually communicated to ATF employees. However, it is of grave concern because, as
you know, such attempts to prevent direct communications with Congress are not a
lawfully authorized activity of any officer or employee of the United States whose salary
is paid with appropriated funds.2 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).3
I wrote to you on January 31 to ensure you were aware of these provisions and to
express concerns that without proper guidance, managers might inappropriately
intimidate employees to discourage them from speaking with Congress and thus
unlawfully interfere with a Congressional inquiry.4 In order for Congress to exercise its
oversight authority and act as a check on Executive power, it is crucial that agency
employees are free to communicate directly with Members and Committee staff. Direct
contact means contacts that do not necessarily involve Congressional liaison or agency
management. Without such direct, unfiltered communications, Congress would still be
unaware of, and unable to inquire about, the serious allegations involving the death of
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the sales of weapons to known and suspected gun
traffickers.
I have a long experience of witnessing retaliation against whistleblowers.
Sometimes it is explicit and immediate. Often it is subtle and delayed until after public
scrutiny has faded. Unfortunately, it is so frequent that employees fear that even
truthful answers to direct factual questions from Congress will get them in trouble. That
is why I am committed to maintaining the confidentiality of those employees who wish
to cooperate with a Congressional inquiry or report problems anonymously. Direct
contact with Congress of the sort protected by the law serves as an extra level of
protection against retaliation and is obviously essential where an employee seeks
confidentiality.
However, in some cases, agency employees choose to disclose their direct
contacts with Congress, despite the potential consequences. As I explained in my
January 31 letter, one employee chose to disclose his protected contacts with my staff
and was immediately questioned about the content of those communications. I was
concerned about that because forcing an employee to reveal the details of such
communications would intrude on the integrity of the Congressional inquiry and offend
the comity between the Branches that flows from the separation of powers under the
Constitution.
Now, a second agency employee has chosen to disclose that he has had protected
contacts with Congress. George Gillett, through and in conjunction with his legal
counsel, is cooperating with this investigation. Mr. Gillett is the Assistant Special Agent
in Charge of the ATF’s Phoenix field division, and Committee staff’s direct contacts with
him are an essential component of our inquiry. He has participated in two preliminary
meetings jointly with Senate Judiciary Committee staff and House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee staff. As you know, retaliation for such
communications is prohibited by law.
On one previous occasion when an agency sought to compel an individual to
disclose the content of his communications with Congress, I was prepared to introduce a
resolution authorizing the Senate Legal Counsel to seek legal remedy in the courts.
Fortunately, in light of that draft resolution, the Executive Branch withdrew its attempt
to compel discovery of communications between a whistleblower and Congress.5
In this current inquiry, a similar attempt was also abandoned. The first ATF
agent to disclose that he had direct contacts with Congress was ordered to describe the
content of his communications in writing. However, shortly after my January 31 letter, I
was pleased to learn that the order was withdrawn. I appreciate the agency’s willingness
to respect Congressional prerogatives and avoid interfering with a Congressional
inquiry. Similarly, the agency should avoid intruding into our investigative process by
seeking to learn the content of ASAC Gillett’s communications with Congress.
In light of the attached email, I have renewed concerns that the guidance being
given to employees may be inconsistent with the law.6 Therefore, please provide
written answers to the following questions:
1. Was the attached guidance distributed, either in writing or otherwise, to
ATF field offices or other ATF personnel?
2. Was any guidance on contacts with Congress distributed, either in writing
or otherwise, to ATF field offices or other ATF personnel? If so, please
provide a copy.
3. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to ensure that employees
are aware of their right to communicate directly with Congress if they so
choose?
Please reply no later than April 14, 2011. If you have any questions about this request,
please contact (202) 225-5225. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Ranking Member
Attachments
cc: Chairman Patrick Leahy, Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Chairman Darrell Issa, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
1 Attachment 1.
2 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010, P.L. 111-117, 123 Stat. 3034, § 714 (2010), as continued by §101
of continuing resolutions P.L. 111-242, 124 Stat. 2607 (2010) and P.L. 112-6, 125 Stat. 23 (2011)—which
extends the funding levels in the 2010 appropriations bills, as well as “the authority and conditions
provided in such Acts,” through April 8, 2011.
3 Id.
4 18 U.S.C. § 1505 (providing criminal penalties for obstructing or impeding the power of Congressional
inquiry).
5 See S. PRT. 110-28, § VIII.D.2 “Attempt to Compel Disclosure of Confidential Communications with
Congress,” p. 103, 641, 652 (“Nothing in this agreement shall require [the production of] any
communications with, or documents that were created for, any Senate Committees (or the staff or
members thereof”). See also S. HRG. 109-898, at 39-41, 470-471, responses to questions for the record to
Dec. 5, 2006, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at 8.
6 See generally, Government Accountability Office, “Department of Health and Human Services—Chief
Actuary’s Communications with Congress,” B-302911 (Sep. 7, 2004) (discussing the history and
background in support of the government-wide prohibition on attempts to prevent direct communications
with Congress) (Attachment 2).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2008, Senator Grassley
-
BREAKING: Grassley has ‘damning’ Gunrunner documents – CBS News
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 14 April, 2011 | Dave Workman
Devastating e-mail exchanges between a senior official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix, AZ and a cooperating gun shop operator have been revealed by Senator Charles Grassley in a letter sent late yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder.
“In light of this new evidence,” Grassley tells Holder, “the Justice Department’s claim that the ATF never knowingly sanctioned or allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers is simply not credible.”
Grassley's press release can be viewed here.
CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson is reporting that the information contained in the e-mails is “damning.” The e-mail exchange is with David Voth, group supervisor for ATF’s Phoenix Group VII. Voth is the agent who infamously sent an e-mail to other ATF agents, goading them into participating in the Gunrunner project without question, or to find a different job. This column discussed the Voth e-mail here.
I don’t know what all the issues are but we are all adults, we are all professionals, and we have a (sic) exciting opportunity to use the biggest tool in our law enforcement tool box. If you don’t think this is fun you’re in the wrong line of work – period! This is the pinnacle of domestic U.S. law enforcement techniques. After this the tool bag is empty. Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day…We need to get over this bump in the road once and for all and get on with the mission at hand. This can be the most fun you have with ATF, the only one limiting the amount of fun we have is you!—e-mail from David J. Voth, group supervisor, Phoenix Group VII
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Obama snubs Issa on subpoena for ATF documents
The Daily Caller ^ | 04/20/2011 | Jonathan Strong
________________________ ________________________ ______________
For the first time since Republicans took control of the House and gained the power of congressional subpoena, the Obama administration has declined to comply with a subpoena issued by top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa.
In the face of a subpoena by Issa, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) provided no documents by the April 13 deadline, according to an April 20 letter from Issa to ATF’s director, Kenneth Melson.
Issa is threatening contempt proceedings if ATF does not comply.
At issue are documents related to Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, in which ATF allowed American guns to be smuggled into Mexico and sold to Mexican drug cartels. The goal of the program was to track the illegal weapons and drug markets after they were used in crimes and abandoned using ballistics information and serial numbers for the guns.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Chairman Issa Chastises ATF for Refusal to Comply with Subpoena (All links are PDFs.)
U.S. House of Representatives ^ | April 20, 2011 | NA
Chairman Issa Chastises ATF for Refusal to Comply with Subpoena
"If you do not comply with the subpoena, the Committee will be forced to commence contempt proceedings."
WASHINGTON. D.C. – Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today, in a letter to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson, criticized the Director for failing to produce any documents in response to a subpoena issued March 31. The subpoena was issued after ATF and Department of Justice officials failed to cooperate in good faith with the Committee's investigation.
"The Department's internal policy to withhold documents from what it labels pending criminal investigations may not deprive Congress from obtaining those same documents if they are pertinent to a congressional investigation – particularly in a matter involving allegations that reckless and inappropriate decisions by top Justice Department officials may have contributed to the deaths of both U.S. and Mexican citizens," Chairman Issa wrote in citing Supreme Court precedents and previous Congressional investigations. "Let me be clear ... we are not conducting a concurrent investigation with the Department of Justice, but rather an independent investigation of the Department of Justice – specifically, of allegations that the reckless and inappropriate decisions of Department officials have created a serious public safety hazard. We are asking for documents that relate to decisions such officials made. Congress is legally entitled to all of these documents."
Issa noted that the Committee's request for documents has been pending since March 16, 2011 and a request from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley has been pending since January. While the Department of Justice has not produced any documents, Issa's letter to Melson included several documents obtained elsewhere by the Committee indicating the Justice Department knew the public danger the operation created. The role of top Justice Department officials in approving the operation remains top concern for investigators.
"Efforts by the Department of Justice and ATF to stonewall the Committee in its investigation by erroneously, but matter-of-factly, citing an internal department policy as a preventative measure for denying access to documents have only enhanced suspicions that such officials have played a role in reckless decisions that have put lives at risk. The Committee continues to pursue this matter vigorously, in part, because concerned individuals have indicated they do not have confidence in the Department's ability to review the actions of its own top officials."
Issa noted that the Justice Department's claimed concerns about sharing particular documents are undermined by their unwillingness to take steps to engage the committee in a serious conversation.
"Even if a legal basis did exist for withholding documents, the first step in evaluating this argument and the basis for a meaningful conversation between the Committee and the Department of Justice would be the production of a log of documents responsive to the subpoena with a specific explanation as to why you cannot produce each document," Issa wrote in criticizing the Department's disingenuous reasons for failing to cooperate. "The Department has failed to provide any such log."
Media reports have raised questions about the handling of operations involving gun trafficking into Mexico – specifically the allegation that ATF has had a policy of permitting – and even encouraging – the movement of guns into Mexico by straw purchasers. This practice may have contributed to the deaths of hundreds on both sides of the border, including federal law enforcement agents.
The last time the Oversight Committee raised a contempt concern to the Department of Justice was July 2008, when then Chairman Henry Waxman prepared to move forward with a contempt resolution against Attorney General Michael Mukasey for failing to produce subpoenaed information or to assert a valid claim of executive privilege over documents related to an investigation into the identity disclosure of former CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson. The resolution did not move forward after President Bush asserted executive privilege over the documents in question.
Click here for the April 20, 2011 letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson.
###
TagTrends™ - Related Articles Tags
No Related Tags
-
Operation Fast and Furious Threatens Scandal(gunwalker)
theepochtimes.com ^ | 24 April, 2011 | Laura Carlsen
A secret operation to run guns across the border to Mexican drug cartels—overseen by U.S. government agents—threatens to become a major scandal for the Obama administration.
The operation, called Fast and Furious, was run out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) office in Phoenix, Ariz. ATF sanctioned the purchase of weapons in U.S. gun shops and tracked the smuggling route to the Mexican border. Reportedly, more than 2,500 firearms were sold to straw buyers who then handed off the weapons to gunrunners under the nose of ATF.
But once across the border, the agency seemed to lose track of the weapons. Hundreds of AK-47s and Barrett .50 caliber rifles—favorites of warring drug cartels—made it easily into the hands of some of Mexico’s most ruthless crime organizations.
In arms trafficking parlance, knowingly allowing smugglers to go about their business is called gunwalking. According to ATF whistleblowers, the agency stood by and watched as buyers purchased up to 20 weapons at a time and quickly passed them off to smugglers in nearby parking lots. The hope was to trace the guns into Mexico and bust a major cartel.
In December 2010 “walked” guns were identified as the murder weapons in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry by drug cartels. An anguished ATF agent made the decision to expose the gunwalking operation, after the bureau ignored months of complaints.
Agent John Dodson blew the whistle on Fast and Furious in an interview with CBS News on March 3. Dodson had been concerned about the operation since well before the Terry murder. As large numbers of guns freely crossed the border during the early part of 2010, he and other ATF agents noted with alarm the rise in violent crime south of the border.
Soon after the Dodson interview, the director of the ATF Mexico office, Darren Gil, told CBS that he began to receive disturbing reports of an unusually high number of Phoenix-area guns showing up in Mexican cartel violence. When he began asking questions, Gil discovered that his team had been blocked from computer access to information on Fast and Furious.
Gil questioned officials at U.S. headquarters who told him they were under direct orders from the Department of Justice and that he should say nothing to the Mexican government about the program.
Gil resigned in disgust in December 2010 after watching “seizure after seizure after seizure” of walked guns turning up at violent crime scenes in Mexico.
With evasive responses from government agencies, major international implications, and persistent questions of “who knew what, and when,” the Fast and Furious operation could develop into a major scandal for the Obama administration. That will depend on the administration’s response.
The Obama administration faces a tough choice: either orchestrate a cover-up, as the ATF appears to be doing, or open up the case and accept the consequences.
Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Laura Carlsen is director of the Americas Program for the Center for International Policy in Mexico City. www.fpif.org.
-
How deeply has DHS been involved with 'Project Gunwalker'?
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 27 April, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
"Project Gunwalker," the growing scandal in which the Burea of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) deliberately allowed thousands of firearms to be "walked" across the U.S./Mexican border by known gun traffickers, was almost certainly primarily the work of the Department of Justice. The DoJ is the parent department of the BATFE, and DoJ's fingerprints are all over this travesty. Still, this is too big for even the DoJ to have done completely on its own. Sipsey Street Irregular Mike Vanderboegh has been digging deeply into what looks like an administration-wide operation to create the mythical "iron river" of guns from the U.S. commercial market going to Mexico, to match the narrative we've been fed for the last two years.
One agency that would have to be brought into such an operation on some level is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as parent agency of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (which is in turn the Border Patrol's parent agency), etc. Indeed, we have already talked about some of DHS's involvement. From a March 21 CBS News story:
But ATF wasn't working alone on the case known as "Fast and Furious." Documents show ATF had conference calls with "DHS" (Homeland Security). "USMS" (U.S. Marshals) and DEA. An "ICE," or Customs agent, was on ATF's Fast and Furious team. They were advised by an "AUSA," or Assistant U.S. Attorney under the Justice Department.
With an ICE agent actually on the "Fast and Furious" team, and DHS in on the conference calls, that agency can hardly claim not to have been involved with the operation to help get guns to known killers who operate across our border--"secuirng the homeland," indeed.
And now CBS has more bad news for DHS officials hoping not to get caught
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Evidence mounts that government, not gun shops, arming Mexican cartels
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 29 April, 2011 | Dave Workman
________________________ ________________________ _______
PITTSBURGH — As the National Rifle Association gathers here for its annual convention starting today — an event that NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre predicted to this column yesterday would attract possibly 70,000 people — there is mounting evidence that this country’s government, not its gun shops or gun shows, is largely responsible for arming Mexican drug cartels.
That revelation, plus the fact that Capitol Hill sources told this column on background that Congressional investigators remain in Arizona, interviewing various people in connection with the Project Gunrunner/Operation Fast and Furious controversy, will boost the NRA’s contention that American gun rights are not responsible for Mexico’s criminal wrongs.
This new information, detailed yesterday by Fox News, and discussed by this column here, gives NRA new ammunition to oppose an effort by the Obama administration and embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to expand reporting requirements on the sale of long guns in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. Many in the firearms community believe this expanded requirement, as reported by Reuters, would be instituted not to thwart gunrunning to Mexico, but to “soften up” gun owners and retailers nationwide to the notion that multiple sales of all firearms will be reported to the ATF. This back-door gun control strategy would be expanded nationwide.
Here is what Fox News said about the U.S. government’s own culpability in arming Mexican drug gangs:
You can't buy this stuff at a U.S. gun store. So where do the cartels get it? According to leaked diplomatic cables, there are three sources.
1. U.S. Defense Department shipments to Latin America, known and tracked by the U.S. State Department as "foreign military sales."
2. Weapons ordered by the Mexican government, tracked by the State Department as "direct commercial sales."
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ________
Not one member of Team Messiah has a said a word about this.
-
Holder waffles under oath & new Grassley-Issa letter
sipseystreetirregulars ^ | 3 May, 2011 | Mike Vanderboegh
________________________ ________________________ ________________________
Eric Holder: “You have to understand the way in which the department operates. . . This has gotten a great deal of publicity.”
Darrell Issa: “There are dead Americans as a result of this of this failed and reckless program, so I would say it hasn’t gotten enough attention, has it Mr. Attorney General?” -- Testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee today.
CBS: "Attorney General Eric Holder grilled by Congress on ATF "Gunwalker" controversy."
Appearing today before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder got grilled about the "gunwalker" controversy in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is accused of allowing guns to get into the hands of criminals in Mexico. (Scroll down to watch video of Holder's testimony)
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) used asked Holder when first knew about the controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) operation known as "Fast and Furious." Though documents indicate Fast and Furious was started in 2009, Holder told Congress he only learned of it a "few weeks" ago.
That's after a CBS News investigation into allegations about Fast and Furious and other gun trafficking cases. Issa also asked who at the Department of Justice, if not Holder, approved Fast and Furious. Holder stated that he didn't know, but that investigations are underway to find that out.
The Department of Justice and ATF are under investigation by Congress and the Inspector General after numerous insiders say ATF pursued a strategy that allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to cross the border into Mexico, where it was allegedly known they were being put into the hands of drug cartels. Holder reiterated such a strategy would be against Department policy. Investigators are looking into possible ties between those weapons and the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, Customs Agent Jaime Zapata, and an unknown number of Mexicans.
The federal law enforcement blog Tickle the Wire characterized it as "an exchange that was intense and sometimes contentious." The Wall Street Journal even noticed.
In an email reaction, an experienced ATF street agent sneered: "Holder 'takes exception" to being blamed for Agent Terry’s death? I bet Agent Terry’s family takes exception that Holder is a lying, cover-up, motherf--ker."
Another said: "I think its hilarious the President knew about Gunwalker before Holder did."
He was reacting to a statement by Holder as characterized by the WSJ:
Mr. Holder declined to discuss who signed off on the program or how high the approval went, and said he became aware of Fast and Furious only in recent weeks.
"Only in recent weeks" indeed. Hell, the correspondence alone has been going back and forth for MONTHS. Obama had the Univision interview on 22 March, for crying out loud. Based on what we have been told by the agents and the documents that Grassley and Issa already have in their possession, Holder just committed perjury.
Issa and Grassley are getting fed up with Holder's evasions. Here's the press release from Grassley's office this morning:
For Immediate Release May 3, 2011
Grassley, Issa Press Justice Department to Provide Congress with Accurate Representations of Operation Fast and Furious
WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa today pressed Attorney General Eric Holder to provide a complete and accurate accounting of the policy to allow guns to be purchased by known straw buyers and then transported across the border into Mexico.
In a letter received yesterday from the Office of Legislative Affairs, the department once again denied any knowledge of the policy. The denial comes despite the documents that have been provided to the department that are contrary to the official stance.
Grassley and Issa said in a response to Holder that they will continue to conduct constitutionally mandated oversight of the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ policy to allow guns to be purchased by known straw buyers.
“We are extremely disappointed that you do not appear to be taking this issue seriously enough to ensure that the Department’s representations are accurate, forthcoming, and complete. We will continue to probe and gather the facts independently, as it has become clear that we cannot rely on the Department’s self-serving statements to obtain any realistic picture of what happened,” Grassley and Issa wrote.
Grassley began looking into allegations brought forward by Agent John Dodson, and more than a dozen other ATF agents after the Justice Department Inspector General failed to investigate their concerns. The agents indicated that their supervisors kept them from stopping gun traffickers with the normal techniques that had been successfully using for years. They instead were ordered to only watch and continue gathering information on traffickers instead of arresting them as soon as they could. In the meantime, the guns were allowed to fall into the hands of the bad guys even as agents told supervisors that it could not end well. Many of the guns have subsequently been found in firefights along the border, including a December 14, 2010 firefight where Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.
Grassley and Issa’s requests for information from the Justice Department have gone mostly unanswered about what transpired at the ATF and the Department of Justice during the time when Terry was killed and the policies instituted during Project Gunrunner that allowed guns to be sold to known straw purchasers and moved across the border without intervention.
As chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Issa has begun issuing subpoenas to uncover the facts about how this reckless policy was approved.
Here is a copy of today’s letter to Holder. Here is a copy of the May 2 letter to Grassley and the February 4 letter to Grassley.
The letter:
May 3, 2011
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20530
Dear Attorney General Holder:
As Senator Grassley discussed on the phone with you yesterday, we are very concerned that the Department chose to send a letter containing false statements in response to his initial inquiry into the ATF whistleblower allegations related to Operation Fast and Furious. To be more specific, the Department sent a letter on February 4, 2011 claiming that the whistleblower allegations were “false” and that “ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.” When questioned in transcribed interviews last week in Phoenix, agents with first-hand knowledge of ATF operations contradicted that claim.
Specifically, in response to that exact quote, they said the Department’s letter was “false” and could not explain how such a representation could be made to Congress in light of what they witnessed on the ground in Phoenix in late 2009 and 2010, prior to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. In fact, according to these witnesses, there was a specific strategy implemented to not “make every effort” but rather to avoid interdicting weapons in hopes of making a larger case against higher-ups in the trafficking organization.
Therefore, we were surprised and disappointed to see the Department repeat once again, in slightly different language, its denial in a letter received shortly after your telephone conversation with Senator Grassley. Yesterday’s letter reads, in part, “It remains our understanding that ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious did not knowingly permit straw buyers to take guns into Mexico.”
The documents and information previously provided to you demonstrate that the ATF urged gun dealers to go forward with sales to known straw buyers despite the concerns expressed by at least one dealer that the guns would be transferred to the border and possibly used against Border Patrol agents. ATF and Justice officials assured that dealer that unspecified safeguards were in place to ensure that did not happen. Yet, guns from that case were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder and at crime scenes in Mexico.
In its latest denial, the Department seems to focus more on whether ATF knew guns were being trafficked to Mexico than whether the ATF knew they were being purchased by straw buyers. While it might be typical in Washington for lawyers to narrowly parse statements and argue over fine distinctions to confuse the issue, those are not the kind of answers that we believe the Justice Department should give to Congress when asked straightforward questions about such a serious matter as this one.
You were asked to please explain whether you deny that the ATF allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers, and if so, why given the evidence that was attached. The reply was not signed by you, did not explain whether you stand by the denial, did not explain why, and did not meaningfully address the serious issues raised by the attached emails between a gun dealer and the ATF.
We are extremely disappointed that you do not appear to be taking this issue seriously enough to ensure that the Department’s representations are accurate, forthcoming, and complete. We will continue to probe and gather the facts independently, as it has become clear that we cannot rely on the Department’s self-serving statements to obtain any realistic picture of what happened.
Sincerely,
Darrell Issa, Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Ranking Member Committee on Oversight & Committee on the Judiciary Government Reform United State Senate U.S. House of Representatives
David Codrea notes Grassley's chance at Holder comes tomorrow when a Senate oversight hearing on DOJ takes place.
Pull up a seat and grab the popcorn. That one will be better than today's.
-
Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
Program aimed at stopping the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico may have allegedly had the opposite effect
By Sharyl Attkisson .
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/23/eveningnews/main20035609.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea
________________________ ________________________ ___________
"Project Gunrunner" scandal
"Project Gunrunner," an operation run by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was designed to stop the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico's drug cartels, but had the opposite result. Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.
(CBSNews) WASHINGTON - Keeping American weapons from getting into the hands of Mexican gangs is the goal of a program called "Project Gunrunner." But critics say it's doing exactly the opposite. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on what she found.
December 14, 2010. The place: a dangerous smuggling route in Arizona not far from the border. A special tactical border squad was on patrol when gunfire broke out and agent Brian Terry was killed.
Kent, Brian's brother, said "he was my only brother. That was the only brother I had. I'm lost."
The assault rifles found at the murder were traced back to a U.S. gun shop. Where they came from and how they got there is a scandal so large, some insiders say it surpasses the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge and the deadly siege at Waco.
To understand why, it helps to know something about "Project Gunrunner" an operation run by the ATF the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Read the indictment
"Project Gunrunner" deployed new teams of agents to the southwest border. The idea: to stop the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico's drug cartels. But in practice, sources tell CBS News, ATF's actions had the opposite result: they allegedly facilitated the delivery of thousands of guns into criminal hands.
CBS News wanted to ask ATF officials about the case, but they wouldn't agree to an interview. We were able to speak to six veteran ATF agents and executives involved. They don't want to be quoted by name for fear of retaliation. These are their allegations.
In late 2009, ATF was alerted to suspicious buys at seven gun shops in the Phoenix area. Suspicious because the buyers paid cash, sometimes brought in paper bags. And they purchased classic "weapons of choice" used by Mexican drug traffickers - semi-automatic versions of military type rifles and pistols.
Sources tell CBS News several gun shops wanted to stop the questionable sales, but ATF encouraged them to continue.
Jaime Avila was one of the suspicious buyers. ATF put him in its suspect database in January of 2010. For the next year, ATF watched as Avila and other suspects bought huge quantities of weapons supposedly for "personal use." They included 575 AK-47 type semi-automatic rifles.
ATF managers allegedly made a controversial decision: allow most of the weapons on the streets. The idea, they said, was to gather intelligence and see where the guns ended up. Insiders say it's a dangerous tactic called letting the guns, "walk."
One agent called the strategy "insane." Another said: "We were fully aware the guns would probably be moved across the border to drug cartels where they could be used to kill."
On the phone, one Project Gunrunner source (who didn't want to be identified) told us just how many guns flooded the black market under ATF's watchful eye. "The numbers are over 2,500 on that case by the way. That's how many guns were sold - including some 50-calibers they let walk."
50-caliber weapons are fearsome. For months, ATF agents followed 50-caliber Barrett rifles and other guns believed headed for the Mexican border, but were ordered to let them go. One distraught agent was often overheard on ATF radios begging and pleading to be allowed to intercept transports. The answer: "Negative. Stand down."
CBS News has been told at least 11 ATF agents and senior managers voiced fierce opposition to the strategy. "It got ugly..." said one. There was "screaming and yelling" says another. A third warned: "this is crazy, somebody is gonna to get killed."
Sure enough, the weapons soon began surfacing at crime scenes in Mexico - dozens of them sources say - including shootouts with government officials.
One agent argued with a superior asking, "are you prepared to go to the funeral of a federal officer killed with one of these guns?" Another said every time there was a shooting near the border, "we would all hold our breath hoping it wasn't one of 'our' guns."
Then, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. The serial numbers on the two assault rifles found at the scene matched two rifles ATF watched Jaime Avila buy in Phoenix nearly a year before. Officials won't answer whether the bullet that killed Terry came from one of those rifles. But the nightmare had come true: "walked" guns turned up at a federal agent's murder.
"You feel like s***. You feel for the parents," one ATF veteran told us.
Hours after Agent Terry was gunned down, ATF finally arrested Avila. They've since indicted 34 suspected gunrunners in the same group. But the indictment makes no mention of Terry's murder, and no one is charged in his death.
Kent Terry said of his brother, "He'd want them to tell the truth. That's one thing my brother didn't like was a liar. And that's what he'd want. He'd want the truth.
In a letter, the Justice Department which oversees ATF says the agency has never knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to suspected gunrunners.
________________________ _________
Fucking wow.
Does this surprise you? It doesn't surprise me at all!
-
New Project Gunrunner documents peg top DOJ officials
The Daily Caller ^ | 5/4/11 | Matthew Boyle
Three Project Gunrunner documents Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and House Oversight Committee chairman, released on Wednesday show high-ranking Justice Department officials were aware of Operation Fast and Furious and that there was a consistent administration policy that allowed American guns to be “walked” into Mexican drug cartels’ possession.
One of the documents shows Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer approved a wiretap application for suspects Operation Fast and Furious targeted in March 2010. The wiretap application process is lengthy and cumbersome, and often requires those applying to make strong case as to why they need it. So, Breuer would have been briefed in detail on Operation Fast and Furious before authorizing the wiretap.
Another document, a briefing paper from January 8, 2010, shows the administration’s step-by-step policy decisions and plans. The Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), wrote that the “investigation has currently identified more than 20 individual connected straw purchasers,” or those who bought weapons, under ATF surveillance, with the intent to traffic them to Mexican drug cartels. The briefing paper shows that ATF’s policy was to allow this to happen. “Currently, our strategy is to allow the transfer of firearms to continue to take place, albeit at a much slower pace, in order to further the investigation and allow for the identification of additional co-conspirators who would continue to operate and illegally traffic firearms to Mexican DTOs [Drug Trafficking Organizations] which are perpetrating armed violence along the Southwest Border.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
BREAKING: CBS News obtains document linking asst. AG to ‘Gunrunner’
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 4 May, 2011 | Dave Workman
CBS News is reporting that documents obtained by Congressional investigators looking into the Project Gunrunner scandal include a wiretap authorization from Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer dated in March 2010.
Read the CBS story by investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson here.
Also included in documents released by investigators is a January 8, 2010 “briefing paper” on Project Gunrunner from the Phoenix, AZ field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The documents were released earlier today as the Senate Judiciary Committee convened for an oversight hearing on the Department of Justice.
One document indicates a Holder Asst. Attorney General, Lanny Breuer, authorized a wiretap in the controversial gun trafficking case headquartered in Phoenix. In that case, called "Fast and Furious," multiple sources say ATF allowed thousands of guns to hit the streets, destined for Mexican drug cartels.—CBS News
As reported by this column today, Attorney General Eric Holder professed considerable lack of knowledge about the Gunrunner operation, and its links to the slaying of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry last December. That prompted the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to call for Holder’s resignation.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Project Gunrunner update: The fit hits the shan
michellemalkin.com ^ | May 4, 2011 | Michelle Malkin
I’ve been red-flagging this most explosive homeland security scandal for you for more than a month.
Independent citizen journalists, inside whistleblowers, and relentless GOP watchdogs on Capitol Hill led by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa and GOP Sen. Charles Grassley have kept up the pressure on the Obama administration to come clean on this deadly, stimulus-funded border nightmare.
And now, the fit is really starting to hit the shan on the Project Gunrunner story.
The latest?
Top DOJ officials have been nabbed in the drive to find out who exactly knew what and when.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
-
Skip to comments.
More Than 1,300 Guns Were Bought Illegally by Suspect Buyers Under ATF's 'Gunrunner' Program
FoxNews.com ^ | May 04, 2011 | William La Jeunesse
Posted on May 5, 2011 10:25:44 PM EDT by neverdem
It is the closest thing to a smoking gun congressional investigators have in their probe of Project Gunrunner -- a program that was intended to stop the flow of guns to criminals in Mexico but instead allowed those guns to be smuggled to Mexico instead.
An internal memo from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives shows that U.S. officials allowed criminals to buy 1,318 guns worth nearly $1 million, even after they suspected the buyers were working for Mexican drug cartels, and that the agency's effort to stop the guns had "yielded little or no results."
That memo came to light Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Hearing and provided by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The ATF memo shows a list of 15 suspects, all later indicted, who bought guns on behalf of Mexican cartels.
Click here to see memo (see page 1)(PDF)
Those suspects are known in the trade as straw buyers, or people who legally purchase guns and illegally resell them....
--snip--
In a companion memo dated June 15, 2010, field agents say they recovered "179 crime guns in Mexico...and 130" in the U.S., but roughly 1,300 were unaccounted for and "due to the proximity to the border, bank subpoenas and financial investigations have yielded little or no results."
Click here to see memo (see page 2)(PDF)
In a second, equally explosive disclosure, a law enforcement source tells Fox News, that ATF undercover agents were acting as the straw buyers and purchasing guns using government-issued false identifications and then providing those guns to cartel traffickers to gain credibility in their undercover roles. In that capacity, the ATF "provided 2, 50 cal. machine guns to traffickers that are loose in Mexico and unaccounted for," the source said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Texas county official says "stupid" feds sparked fire
By Jim Forsyth
SAN ANTONIO | Fri May 13, 2011 6:22pm EDT
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The fight between Texas and Washington, D.C., over wildfires in the Lone Star State just got nastier.
A county official in the Texas Panhandle is now blaming a federal agency for starting one of the fires through carelessness.
Tom Edwards, the county attorney in rural Motley County east of Lubbock, said on Friday that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives was responsible on Tuesday for sparking a fire that consumed 150 acres.
"You can quote me on it: That bunch has a real corner on stupid," Edwards told Reuters.
Tom Crowley, a spokesman with the federal agency, said bureau officials were assisting four local bomb squads -- at their request -- to destroy some explosives. Firefighters were on hand, he said. The wind picked up, but the explosives were too dangerous to move, so the officials went ahead and destroyed the explosives.
"Unfortunately, a fragment ignited some grass," Crowley said. "As far as the community, we're working with them to let them know how to go about making a claim with the government."
Texas Governor Rick Perry has publicly criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency for declining the state's request for a major disaster declaration for wildfires that have scorched some 2.5 million acres since November.
FEMA has said it has awarded fire management grants to Texas but that the agency determined there was not a need for additional support.
"We've got the federal government that has refused to provide assistance to the state on the request of Governor Perry because of all our statewide fires, and then in waltzes federal agents and they start a fire," Edwards said.
"We had high winds, we're under a burn ban because of extensive prairie fires, brush fires, and in they rolled with the idea of blowing up things."
Crowley said that the federal bureau and the local bomb squads were working as a team.
Fires covering some 203,000 acres were still burning as of Friday, according to the Texas Forest Service. The state remains dangerously dry, with 47 percent of Texas listed as in "exceptional drought" by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
This week's episode shows how dangerous the conditions are, said Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed.
"It underscores why we need help," she said. "It's still a touch and go situation out there with drought and winds."
(Additional reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Jerry Norton)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/13/us-wildfire-texas-blame-idUSTRE74C76T20110513
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Did MSNBC Produce Project Gunrunner’s Smoking Gun?
big peace ^ | 5/16/11 | Ben Barrack
Posted on May 16, 2011 8:02:51 PM EDT by Nachum
Imagine a scenario in which the media outlet most afflicted with Barack Obama Sycophancy Syndrome (BOSS) – the place Chris ‘thrill up my leg’ Matthews calls home – presented a ’smoking gun’ that could implicate the Obama White House in a cover-up akin to that of Watergate but with the added scarlet letter of murder. The notion of such a thing would be like Woodward and Bernstein ignoring Deep Throat. Impossible, right? Yes, unless it did so unintentionally.
It looks like that honor may just go to none other than Michael Isikoff who, in September of 2010, wrote about an ATF strategy that involved targeting gun dealers in the United States as a means to prevent weapons from ending up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Included in Isikoff’s article is a link to what Mike Vandergoegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars – who unearthed this amazing find – refers to as the “field manual” of the Project Gurunner scandal that led to the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry last December.
The “manual” was leaked to Isikoff as the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) was wrapping up a report that was critical of the ATF’s efforts to stem the flow of weapons to cartels. Ironically, that same OIG is what Obama and Holder point to as the entity that is to conduct a thorough investigation into the origins of the scandal it appears to be involved in at some level.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigpeace.com ...
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: gunrunners; msnbc; produce; project; Click to Add Keyword
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
-
ATF employees given directive for congressional inquiry/subpoena responses
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 17 May, 2011 | David Codrea
"A message has been sent out to all ATF employees on the agency intraweb with the title 'New Document Production Directive For Material Responsive To Congressional Inquiries and Subpoenas Concerning the Project Gunrunner Initative and Operation Fast And Furious'," writes a comment poster on CleanUpATF.org forums. CleanUpATF is the "dissident" website where ATF employee accusations about Bureau management waste, abuse, corruption and fraud first brought "Project Gunwalker"* allegations to the attention of Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner--allegations that resulted in our bringing Senate and House staffers into contact with whistleblowers and drawing the attention of some in "mainstream media."
Employees are directed to certify they have produced all the relevant information they have, or to indicate if they have none, and are cautioned "failure to produce responsive information could result in disciplinary action."
Left apparently unaddressed, at least in this summary, is responsiveness to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by citizens.
"Seriously people," the post continues. "Only in ATF, right?"
"Management is going to order me to produce documentary evidence on a Program and Operation they say was fully within...ethical boundaries of law enforcement and initially claimed didn't exist? Headquarters personnel are going to review these documents for value? After Headquarters has lied and covered-up and stonewalled this for several months?"
"And the topper (seriously this has to be one of the all time bests at ATF and that is not easy to do), the Assistant Director of Internal Affairs is going to threaten discipline on regular Joe and Jane employees for failing to comply when she and her cronies have protected and defended the very people responsible for the mess that created all this..."
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Grassley vows to block nominees until he gets answers on gun sales
The Hill ^ | 24 May, 2011 | Jordy Yager
________________________ ________________________ ________________-
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is vowing to block President Obama’s nominations until he gets detailed answers on a controversial program that resulted in drug cartels acquiring more than 1,300 firearms from the U.S.
Grassley is pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) on who initiated the “Gun Runner” program that authorized the sale of guns to people acting as straw purchasers for drug cartels in Mexico. Gun Runner might have contributed to the death of at least one federal agent.
As the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Grassley has been working closely with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for the past several months, gathering documents and conducting interviews with DOJ officials and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents in an attempt to find out who gave the order for the operation.
Sources note that unlike Grassley, Issa has subpoena power.
Gun Runner and another operation called Fast and Furious were designed to dismantle the gun-smuggling routes that drug cartels use to ferry high-powered assault rifles from the U.S. into Mexico. By allowing people to illegally purchase large quantities of the weapons from gun dealers, officials hoped to trace the firearms to the drug cartel members and prosecute them. But ATF whistleblowers allege that officials lost track of the guns.
Two of the guns from the operation were found at the scene of an Arizona gun battle in December between U.S. law enforcement and members of a drug gang. The firefight killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, but officials have not revealed whether the bullet that struck him came from the guns the ATF was supposed to be tracking.
Attorney General Eric Holder has denied knowing of Gun Runner and launched an Inspector General (IG) investigation into the matter earlier this year.
Obama, in an interview with the Spanish-language television network Univision in March, said that neither he nor Holder had any knowledge of the program’s existence before allegations arose from whistleblowers within the ATF.
Grassley told The Hill that the DOJ officials have not been forthcoming on his requests for documents. If they continue to be unresponsive, Grassley said, he will hold Obama’s judicial nominations hostage.
“We’re just getting stonewalled,” Grassley said in an interview. “The next step is we’re going to hold up nominations until we get their attention.”
Grassley, who has irritated Democratic and Republican administrations with his aggressive oversight, did not specify which Obama nominations he is targeting.
Grassley and Issa separately grilled Holder earlier this month before their respective committees.
“At best, the ATF was careless in authorizing the sale of thousands of guns to straw purchasers,” said Grassley. “At worst, our own government knowingly participated in arming criminals, drug cartels and those who later killed federal agents.”
Holder stressed the seriousness with which the DOJ was treating the issue, noting the IG investigation.
Issa told The Hill recently that he was not satisfied with Holder’s testimony before his panel.
“They stonewalled us on a subpoena,” Issa said, claiming that documents shown to his committee were heavily redacted. “So they’ve made no sufficient response to our subpoena. We consider that it continues to be a cover-up at the highest level of Justice.”
A Republican aide on Issa’s committee this week said DOJ has since increased its level of assistance and has been more accommodating to the panel’s requests for documents and interviews with DOJ and ATF officials.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said. “We want to be sure that whatever investigation there is, is thorough, but that it does not interfere with Justice’s investigations.
“I think Justice has made reasonable efforts to extend themselves to us and ask us to work with them so that we can still get the information we want and at the same time they can protect their witnesses. I think the problem here is, is the question … How deeply is Justice itself implicated?” he added.
Asked why the department was not providing more information to Congress, a DOJ spokeswoman referred The Hill to separate letters Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich sent to Grassley and Issa at the beginning of this month.
In the letters, Weich said that the DOJ could not deliver the entirety of the information Issa requested because of “pending criminal investigations and the prosecution of 20 individuals” relating to Project Gun Runner and Operation Fast and Furious. The requested information could jeopardize the prosecution, he said.
Weich added that “the executive branch over many administrations has taken the position that only a chairman can speak for a committee when conducting oversight.”
Grassley objected and pointed to a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from 1979, which found that the White House has no authority to restrict Congress’s requests for information.
The Iowa Republican has been able to get some of his requested DOJ documents through Issa, who subpoenaed the ATF for records in April.
-
Read the above article on Fox.com.
Grassley is doing the right thing. I hope he doesn't let the Feds squirm out of this one.
-
bump
-
Terrible.
-
House Democrats urge White House to come clean on Gunwalker
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 3 June, 2011 | David Codrea
Posted on June 4, 2011 8:21:39 AM EDT by marktwain
“House Democrats Urge President to End Stonewalling on ‘Gunrunner’,” a June 3 National Rifle Association alert reports.
Today, 31 U.S. House members -- all Democrats -- wrote to President Barack Obama, urging him to end Administration stonewalling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Project Gunrunner," and the "Fast and Furious" program under which border state dealers were encouraged to sell thousands of guns to suspicious buyers.
The letter was “spearheaded by Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa.” Among the key points raised:
“[C]oncerned Americans—regardless of where they stand on gun control issues—deserve prompt and complete answers to the questions surrounding this operation,” the letter asserts, recommending that “while the Department of Justice can and should continue its investigation, those activities should not curtail the ability of Congress to fulfill its oversight duties.”
Click here to read the complete letter.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
BREAKING: 1st ‘Gunrunner’ hearing scheduled next week
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 6 June, 2011 | Dave Workman
________________________ ________________________ ______________
The first of what could be several long-awaited congressional hearings on the controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Project Gunrunner” and “Operation Fast and Furious” will be held next Monday, congressional sources confirmed today.
The hearings will be conducted by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by California Congressman Darrell Issa, with the first session scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. (EDT) in Room 2154, Rayburn Office Building. According to congressional sources, the first hearing will focus on the Justice Department’s lack of cooperation with Issa’s investigation and with the agency’s limited compliance with Issa’s subpoena for several documents. The official title for the hearing is "Obstruction of Justice: Does the Justice Department have to respond to a lawfully issued and valid Congressional Subpoena?"
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
'Gunwalker' guns linked to helicopter shooting
CBS News ^ | June 6, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
CBS News has learned that the recent case of a Mexican military helicopter forced to land after it was fired upon is linked to the ATF Fast and Furious "gunwalker" operation.
Drug cartel suspects on the ground shot at Mexican government helicopters two weeks ago in western Mexico, forcing one chopper to land. Authorities seized more than 70 assault rifles and other weapons from the suspects.
Among the seized weapons are guns sold to suspects as part of the ATF sting operation, sources say. That information came from traces of serial numbers.
Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
"Shooting at an aircraft is a terrorist act," says one U.S. law enforcement source. "What does that say if we're helping Mexican drug cartels engage in acts of terror? That's appalling if we could have stopped those guns."
The Department of Justice provided no information or comment when asked about the incident by CBS News.
Major ATF shakeup after "gunwalker"
In "Fast and Furious" and other southwest border anti-trafficking operations, sources say ATF allowed more than 2500 weapons to be sold to suspects. Instead of interdicting them, sources tell CBS News, ATF let the guns "walk" or hit the streets. The idea was to gain intelligence to possibly take down an entire cartel. But many of the allegedly walked weapons have shown up at crimes such as the Mexican helicopter incident, and the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry; most have never been recovered.
In the case of the Mexican helicopter, sources say some of the weapons were purchased and moved by defendants who have already been arrested and indicted for their alleged roles in helping supply drug cartels.
The link between the helicopter downing and the ATF alleged gunwalking is likely to test the already-strained US-Mexico relationship.
In recent weeks, Congressional investigators and the Inspector General have been interviewing witnesses behind closed doors in preparation for multiple hearings which could begin as early as next week. The first hearing will likely feature the ATF whistleblower who first spoke to CBS News: Special Agent John Dodson.
ATF Agent: I was ordered to let guns go into Mexico
Attorney General Eric Holder has asked the Inspector General to investigate the gunwalking allegations.
________________________ ________________________ _
More WTF policies of this Admn.
-
Issa calls hearing on Justice Department possibly obstructing justice
the daily caller ^ | 6/7/11 | Matthew Boyle
________________________ ________________________ _________________
California Republican Darrell Issa has called a hearing to look at the possibility that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may be committing obstruction of justice by ignoring a subpoena.
On April 1, Issa, House Oversight Committee chairman, subpoenaed all documents pertaining to two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) programs, Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious.
Specifically, Issa was looking for documents and communications “relating to the genesis” of the programs and any information related to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two AK-47s ATF was tracking through Operation Fast and Furious were found at the scene of Terry’s death.
“The unwillingness of this Administration – most specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms – to answer questions about this deadly serious matter is deeply troubling,” Issa said in a statement on April 1. “Allegations surrounding this program are serious and the ability of the Justice Department to conduct an impartial investigation is in question. Congressional oversight is necessary to get the truth about what is really happening.”
The Obama administration still hasn’t complied with Issa’s requests for documents or his subpoena. Before Attorney General Eric Holder appeared at a Judiciary Committee, DOJ supplied several documents that were already public.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
________________________ __________-
Time to impeach this asshole.
-
Justice Officials in 'Panic Mode' as Hearing Nears on Failed Anti-Gun Trafficking Program
Foxnews ^ | June 9, 2011 | William La Jeunesse
Posted on June 9, 2011 8:46:40 PM EDT by driftdiver
Officials at the Department of Justice are in "panic mode," according to multiple sources, as word spreads that congressional testimony next week will paint a bleak and humiliating picture of Operation Fast and Furious, the botched undercover operation that left a trail of blood from Mexico to Washington, D.C.
The operation was supposed to stem the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexico by allowing so-called straw buyers to purchase guns legally in the U.S. and later sell them in Mexico, usually to drug cartels.
Instead, ATF documents show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms knowingly and deliberately flooded Mexico with assault rifles. Their intent was to expose the entire smuggling organization, from top to bottom, but the operation spun out of control and supervisors refused pleas from field agents to stop it.
Only after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died did ATF Agent John Dodson blow the whistle and expose the scandal.
"What people don't understand is how long we will be dealing with this," Dodson told Fox News back in March. "Those guns are gone. You can't just give the order and get them back. There is no telling how many crimes will be committed before we retrieve them."
But now the casualties are coming in.
.... SNIP
- It hid GPS trackers inside gun stocks and watched the weapons go south on computer screens.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
BREAKING: 2nd ‘Fast and Furious’ hearing set; Grassley, Dodson to testify!
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 9 June, 2011 | Dave Workman
________________________ ___________
The second in what promises to be a series of hearings on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ controversial Operation Fast and Furious has been announced for next Wednesday, June 15, and Sen. Charles Grassley will testify.
In addition, according to Becca Watkins, spokesperson for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, family members of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry will appear, along with ATF whistleblower John Dodson and other ATF agents.
Possibly the most heated testimony and questioning may come when Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich appears before the committee. Here is a complete witness list:
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
There should be 24 hour coverage of this by the media. Instead, they are talking about Weiner's weiner.
-
There should be 24 coverage of this by the media. Instead, they are talking about Weiner's weiner.
Palin and Newt are more important.
-
Issa schedules second Gunrunner, Fast and Furious hearing (ATF, DOJ)
Yahoo ^ | 6/09/11 | Matthew Boyle
Issa schedules second Gunrunner, Fast and Furious hearing
Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
Thu Jun 9, 11:37 am ET
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced details for the second in what he said will be a series of hearings on Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious. The hearing, set for Wednesday June 15, will examine “reckless decisions” and “tragic outcomes” as a result of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) programs.
In Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, ATF officials who reported to President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) allowed guns to be taken into Mexico via “straw purchasers,” or people who were eligible to purchase guns in the U.S. but were doing so with the known intention of trafficking them into Mexico. The ultimate goal, apparently, was to attempt to track the larger Mexican drug cartels’ gun market.
(Issa: ‘We do know’ decisions for Gunrunner, Fast and Furious were made in Washington)
Next Wednesday’s hearing witnesses, according to an Oversight Committee release, will include Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, ATF agents, Justice Department officials and family members of dead Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Two AK47’s the ATF was tracking in Operation Fast and Furious were found at the scene of Terry’s death.
“The reckless decisions of ATF and Justice Department officials in Operation Fast and Furious have devastated lives and put fear into communities on both sides of the border,” Issa said in a statement. “By exploring this Justice Department sanctioned program, we can better understand the flawed process surrounding the genesis and implementation of an operation that put guns into the hands of criminals.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
-
There should be 24 coverage of this by the media. Instead, they are talking about Weiner's weiner.
agreed. FOX and MSNBC and CNN are all compliant in it.
This was my CT - Weiner was doing it on purpose to keep people's eyes off some bigger issue. This one, perhaps Hmmmmm
-
agreed. FOX and MSNBC and CNN are all compliant in it.
This was my CT - Weiner was doing it on purpose to keep people's eyes off some bigger issue. This one, perhaps Hmmmmm
LOL!! I have to admit that sometimes you make me laugh.
-
Issa Investigates Project Gunrunner: President Obama is hiding behind big government in the...
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE ^ | June 10, 2011 | Frank Miniter
________________________ ________________________ ___
Issa Investigates Project Gunrunner
President Obama is hiding behind big government in the hopes that a scandal will fade away.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) is set to issue a number of subpoenas to federal officials who have ties to “Fast and Furious,” a secret program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that put thousands of semi-automatic firearms into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
Fast and Furious was a new addition to the ATF’s now-defunct “Project Gunrunner” program. It authorized (“pressed” is probably a more accurate word) U.S. gun stores located near the Mexican border to sell thousands of semi-automatic firearms to suspected and known straw-purchasers (those who buy guns for someone who can’t do so legally). The idea, apparently, was that the guns would lead the ATF to the heads of the cartels.
This program didn’t make headlines until Dec. 14, 2010. That day, during a late-night shootout between the U.S. Border Patrol and armed Mexican illegals in a remote canyon near Nogales, Ariz., 41-year-old federal agent Brian Terry was shot and killed. The U.S. Border Patrol agents had initially used beanbag rounds against the illegals. This loss of a federal agent in a beanbag-versus-rifle shootout should have been controversial enough — but the fact that agent Terry was killed by a firearm the ATF had “walked” across the border should have put this ill-considered program on every cable news network. Ditto for the fact that, as the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, a cartel arsenal recently captured in Mexico also contains guns from the sting.
But aside from CBS News, the mainstream media hasn’t been all that interested in investigating, and the Obama administration has been stonewalling. Two ATF agents — John Dodson, who is stationed in Phoenix, and Darren Gil, who was forced to retire as the agency’s attaché in Mexico City — became whistleblowers. Both Dodson and Gil have made the scandal public by speaking to CBS and other news outlets. Both agents say the orders for the program to send guns quietly into Mexico came from way over their heads, but neither knows how high up. Just where the idea began is what Representative Issa is hoping to discover.
Representative Issa’s investigation has been so stymied by the Obama administration that on June 3, some 31 congressional Democrats wrote to the president to urge him to end the administration’s stonewalling on the Fast and Furious program. In the letter(PDF), spearheaded by Rep. Jason Altmire (D., Pa.), the lawmakers called the uncooperative tactics “extremely troubling” and found the Justice Department’s failure to provide information to congressional investigators “equally troubling.” They say Americans deserve “prompt and complete answers.”
Though the details of just who authorized the program won’t be clear until Representative Issa’s investigation forces some compliance, this wasn’t the Obama administration’s first blunder when it comes to cartels and guns. In 2009, President Obama repeatedly claimed that “more than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States.” But then Fox News investigated. It turned out that the 90 percent figure is derived not from all the “guns recovered in Mexico,” but from the firearms that were submitted by Mexican officials to the U.S. for tracing. The Mexicans sent only the guns they thought came from the U.S., so it is hardly surprising that a high percentage of those guns were indeed American in origin. Obama had simply gotten the number wrong, presumably to bolster the case for gun control in the U.S.
Perhaps, through Representative Issa’s investigation, we’ll find out how high up the ladder the authorization for Fast and Furious goes. When we do, it just be might be worth recalling that President Obama told a Univision interviewer last March, “Well, first of all, I did not authorize it. Eric Holder, the attorney general, did not authorize it.”
Right now it’s amusing that when the Univision reporter asked if President Obama had been informed about the Fast and Furious program, Obama replied, “Absolutely not, this is a pretty big government, the United States government. I got a lot of moving parts.”
So, President Obama is hiding behind big government in the hopes that this scandal — a scandal that wouldn’t even be under investigation by Congress if the American public had not handed the U.S. House of Representatives back to the Republicans in November of 2010 — will fade away.
— Frank Miniter’s next book, out June 28, is Saving the Bill of Rights.
________________________ ____________________-
What is Obama hiding?
-
Obama Administration May Be Held in Contempt of Congress
Townhall.com ^ | June 14, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
________________________ ________________________ ____________
Presidential administration officials have been held in contempt only 12 times since Watergate in the 1970s, but number 13 may be on its way. Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to supply the House Oversight Committee with requested documents surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the lethal and botched operation in which thousands of semi-automatic weapons were illegally sent over the border and into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The operation resulted in the death of thousands of Mexican citizens and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and involved the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (a division of Holder’s Justice Department.)
Yesterday, during a hearing on Capitol Hill examining whether the DOJ must respond to a lawfully issued and valid Congressional subpoena, multiple witnesses confirmed that the DOJ is not above the law and must, in fact, comply with the subpoena. The witnesses, which included Commissioner on Wartime Contracting Professor Charles Tiefer, American Public Law Specialist at the Library of Congress Morton Rosenberg, and Legislative Attorney Todd Tatelman, confirmed it is a Constitutional duty for Congress to oversee and question executive branch activities.
“The Justice Department is not immune from these investigations,” Rosenberg said.
The hearing sustained that both the House and Senate Congressional Oversight Committees have the absolute right to pursue and obtain information surrounding actions taken by the executive branch, as was the Founding Fathers’ intention in limiting the size and power of the President and his administration. Legally, the executive branch can decline providing the Congressional Oversight Committees with requested documentation only when the President invokes a Privilege Law, which shields the release of certain information. In this case, President Obama has yet to do so, and at this point in time, the House Oversight Committee has full rights to the requested documents.
The Obama Justice Department has been stonewalling the House Oversight Committee for months, citing ongoing investigations within the DOJ surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, in addition to claiming the House Oversight Committee does not have the authority to access the requested information.
“As things stand now, they owe you the documents,” Professor Tiefer said while giving testimony, adding there is no Constitutional basis for the DOJ’s refusal.
The little documentation currently available for the Congressional Oversight Committee is only the information accessible by the general public, hundreds of pages of which have been so redacted that the Committee has been unable to obtain much useful information about the Operation. They have made little progress in getting to the bottom of the scandal, and there is no way the Committee can satisfy its Constitutional duty to oversee the executive branch when the only information presented is heavily redacted material.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate and I think it sends the wrong signal that there may be some things they [DOJ] don’t want you to see,” said Morton when answering a question about the validity of hundreds of redacted documents from the DOJ.
Congressman Darrell Issa’s attempts to look into operations conducted by the Obama Justice Department are nothing new. Congressional Oversight investigations are regular occurrences throughout U.S. history, including Watergate, Iran-Contra, the Tea Pot Dome Scandal, and the Bush Administration FBI informant program.
Issa’s requests are simple. He wants to know what happened, how high up in command the operation went, who ordered the operation, how the government can avoid this type of botched and lethal operation in the future and what the consequences of bad decisions made by officials in the DOJ have led to.
“Nobody wants to have to go to this step,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah said when commenting on whether the DOJ will be held in contempt. “But you have a president and an attorney general who claim to be oblivious to what went on.”
A second hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, when the family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry will testify.
“I want the people who killed Agent Brian Terry to be tried and convicted.” –Rep. Issa
-
‘Gunwalker’ Under Fire
Pajamas Media ^ | June 14, 2011 | Bob Owens
Will the Justice Department be held to account for arming lethal Mexican cartels?
Rumors began to fly over a week ago that a .50 BMG weapon supplied to Mexican drug cartels by the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was used to bring down a Mexican military helicopter in May. According to CBS News, the use of that weapon can be confirmed, and it turns out the helicopter was one of two fired upon by suspected cartel members.
The raid on the cartel that the helicopters were supporting was successful, netting more than 70 weapons, including the helicopter-down .50 BMG rifle and other weapons traced back to the botched ATF Operation Fast and Furious, also know as “Gunwalker.”
To date, the ATF operation, which encouraged gun shops in the American southwest to sell weapons to suspected criminals and let them carry the weapons across the border, has resulted in an estimated 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers shot with ATF-supplied weapons. While the theory behind the plot was different, the end result is no more deplorable than Iran’s arming of Iraqi terrorists.
At least two American law enforcement officers have been murdered with ATF weapons as well. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with “Gunwalker” firearms in Arizona, while ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in an ambush in Mexico with a gun the ATF allowed to be sold to a cartel gun smuggler in Dallas.
The damning evidence that the U.S. Department of Justice agency is a major supplier of cartel weapons will go in front of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week, in what could be a damning indictment of the ATF’s senior leadership and Eric Holder’s leadership of the Department of Justice.
Attorney General Holder has apparently ordered the DOJ to fight Congressional oversight, with the DOJ and ATF ignoring seven letters and a subpoena from the committee. Neither Holder nor ATF Director Ken Melson will answer questions — which may lead to them being held in contempt of Congress.
Holder and Melson have little reason to tell the truth about what happened with Operation Fast and Furious, which may be the most incompetent ATF operation since the agency’s ill-advised 1993 raid of the Branch Davidian compound left four agents dead and 16 wounded. (After the raid failed, the Justice Department then had the FBI take over a siege which ended in the deaths of 74 men, women, and children.) In responding to the subpoena and the letters directed to the agencies by Congress, they may reveal not just glaring incompetence, but perhaps open a door to political motives for the gun-running that point higher in the Obama administration.
President Barack Obama has long pushed the 90 percent lie, a bit of fiction in which he claims that 90 percent of cartel weapons in Mexico originate in U.S. gun shops along the border.
The fact of the matter is that of the 100,000 weapons that had been recovered by Mexican authorities at that time, only 18,000 were determined to have been manufactured, sold, or imported from the United States, and of those 18,000, just 7,900 came from sales by licensed gun dealers. He was only fabricating the truth by 81 percent.
Now that we know that the ATF directed U.S. gun dealers to allow more than 2000 — and as maybe as many as 2,500 — of those 7,900 guns, it now seems that something approaching a third of the guns sold by dealers to the cartels were conveyed at the order of Barack Obama’s Justice Department. Not only was the president lying about the percentage of guns coming from the U.S. in order to drum up support for gun control measures, his executive branch agencies were responsible for padding the numbers almost another 50 percent.
In addition to the civilian guns, the U.S. government is indirectly responsible for many of the cartels’ heavy weapons as well, though there is no indication that the Justice Department or ATF had any hand in what appears to be greed, graft, corruption, and theft south of the border.
So what do we have before us?
We have a rogue federal agency in the ATF that has been rudderless, without a permanent director since 2006, and with little hope of getting one anytime soon. (The president chose to nominate Andrew Traver for the post; he was immediately blocked by Republicans because of his anti-gun views and association with the Joyce Foundation.) We have a Justice Department that intends to deeply encroach upon individual liberties, emulating by deed, if not name, the same sort of lawless power King George gave to the redcoats. And we have a president that promised the most “unprecedented level of openness” in government, who has the power and responsibility to order the ATF and DOJ to respond to Congressional requests for information and subpoenas, and who refuses to do so.
Our executive branch has armed narco-terrorists as violent as any of the jihadis we’ve faced in Iraq or Afghanistan, and they owe it to the nation to explain both how and why.
-
'Gunwalker' subpoena dispute escalates
CBS News ^ | June 13, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
________________________ ________________________ _____-
WASHINGTON - Today, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing to explore whether Congress has the right to hold the Justice Department in contempt in the so-called ATF "gunwalker" investigation.
Experts indicated the Justice Department should probably be more forthcoming when responding to the document requests from Congress. They said Congress has the right to resort to contempt proceedings, but that the document tug-of-war between the co-equal branches of government is not unusual.
In this case, it's getting heated. Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, has said more subpoenas are forthcoming. He accuses the Justice Department of withholding documents after a subpoena he issued to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF); which is under the Justice Department's jurisdiction.
Issa subpoenas ATF over gunwalking allegations
Morton Rosenberg, a specialist in American public law, formerly with the Congressional Research Service, told Congress, "the Department of Justice has the power to string out your investigation, refuse to obey it, and then when it's time for contempt...say all you can do is bring a civil action which will extend and delay your constitutional ability to enforce your" legislative powers.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee defended the Justice Department saying it has provided some documents to Congress. "The Department in fact had produced to the committee or made available to the committee staff for review approximately 1,336 pages of subpoenaed documents to date," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD. Cummings added that turning over more could jeopardize the ongoing investigation into potential crimes at issue in the gunwalker case. Chairman Issa argued that all of the documents turned over were already publicly available on the Internet, or too highly redacted to be of use in the investigation.
ATF Agent: I was ordered to let guns go into Mexico
In the gunwalker case, ATF agents say they were ordered to allow thousands of weapons to be sold to suspected suppliers for Mexico's drug cartels. The idea of letting so many guns "walk" onto the street was apparently to see where they would turn up and go after the major cartel kingpins instead of the smalltime weapons traffickers.
Today's hearing was a precursor to Wednesday's gunwalker hearing, which will feature the family of murdered border patrol agent Brian Terry and a Justice Department official. Members of Congress will also hear from three ATF agents, including whistleblower John Dodson who first spoke to CBS News in March.
Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News investigative correspondent based in Washington. All of her stories, videos and blogs are available here.
________________________ ___________________--
Wonder why Holder and Obama are stonewalling his?
IMPEACH!
-
Document drop: More Project Gunrunner fit hits the shan
Michelle Malkin ^ | 6/15/11 | Michelle Malkin
I’ve been keeping you abreast of all the Obama administration’s Project Gunrunner stonewalling since March (links/chronology below). Today, vigilant GOP House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa is holding another hearing to pressure Team Obama for the whole truth. On Monday, Issa and GOP watchdogs spotlighted DOJ obstructionism (Sipsey Street Irregulars has a rundown here.)
More fit is hitting the shan. And in one of those rare confluences, other MSM outlets have joined CBS News in exposing the story.
First, new documents. Just in from Issa’s office:
Moments ago in his opening statement at today’s hearing, Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) released three e-mails detailing the intimate involvement of ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson and Acting Deputy Director Bill Hoover in Operation Fast and Furious:
* The first e-mail from March 10, 2010, to Operation Fast and Furious Group VII Leader David Voth indicates that the two most senior leaders in ATF, Acting Director Kenneth Melson, and Deputy Director Billy Hoover, were “being briefed weekly on” Operation Fast and Furious. The document shows that both Melson and Hoover were “keenly interested in case updates.” * A second e-mail from March 12, 2010, shows that Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon was so excited about Fast and Furious that he received a special briefing on the program in Phoenix – scheduled for a mere 45 minutes after his plane landed.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
-
Issa leaks ATF emails (Issa exposes truth)
The Hill ^ | June 15, 2011 | Jordy Yager
________________________ ________________________ ______
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released copies of redacted emails on Wednesday that detail the involvement of the head of the ATF in a controversial gun-tracking program as early as March of 2010.
The emails strike a stark contrast to letters the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) have sent to lawmakers in which they denied selling assault weapons to known and suspected straw purchasers for drug cartels and claimed that they made every effort to prevent weapons from going to Mexico.
In one of the emails, released by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), with the subject heading, “Director’s questions,” the supervisor of the “Fast and Furious” operation wrote to the assistant special agent in charge of Phoenix field operations with an Internet Protocol address for one of the video monitoring units in a gun store which was authorized to sell guns to the suspects.
The emails seem to indicate that ATF acting-director Kenneth Melson had asked for this information.
“With this information, acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and – himself – watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants,” said a Republican committee statement.
Earlier this year, in response to a letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to Melson asking him about his knowledge of the gun-tracking operation, the Justice Department wrote the senator and denied knowingly selling assault weapons to straw purchasers and stated that it made every effort to prevent weapons from going to Mexico.
In another email on March 10, 2010, the assistant special agent in charge of Phoenix field operations wrote to the supervisor of the “Fast and Furious” operation and said, “Not sure if you know, but Mr. Melson and Mr. Hoover are being briefed weekly on this investigation and the recent success with [redacted] so they are both keenly interested in case updates.”
The release of the emails come as Issa was holding a hearing on the gun-tracking program with ATF agents.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMM
Time to end this tyranical agency
-
Report: Four ATF Agents Working on Controversial Operation ‘Fast and Furious’ Tell their Story
U.S. House of Representatives ^ | NA | NA
Report: Four ATF Agents Working on Controversial Operation 'Fast and Furious' Tell their Story
Agents say DOJ still being untruthful about efforts to let guns 'walk' into hands of drug cartels
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) today released a report, "The Department of Justice's Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents." The report includes testimony from four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents offering firsthand accounts about the controversial Operation Fast and Furious that allowed suspects to walk away with illegally purchased guns. Two of the approximately 2,000 guns that ATF let criminals walk away with were found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
"ATF agents have shared chilling accounts of being ordered to stand down as criminals in Arizona walked away with guns headed for Mexican drug cartels," said Rep. Issa. "With the clinical precision of a lab experiment, the Justice Department kept records of weapons they let walk and the crime scenes where they next appeared. To agents' shock, preventing loss of life was not the primary concern."
"These agents have risked their lives working for the ATF and they've risked their careers by coming forward to speak the truth about a dangerous strategy that was doomed from the start," Sen. Grassley said. "The report shows the street agents' perspective on this risky policy to let guns walk. It should help people who are wondering what really happened during Operation Fast and Furious understand why we are continuing to investigate."
Highlights of the report include:
The supervisor of Operation Fast and Furious was "jovial, if not, not giddy but just delighted about" walked guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico according to an ATF agent. (p. 37)
Another ATF agent told the committee about a prediction he made a year ago that "someone was going to die" and that the gunwalking operation would be the subject of a Congressional investigation. (p. 24)
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords created a "state of panic" within the group conducting the operation as they initially feared a "walked" gun might have been used. (p. 38)
One Operation Fast and Furious Agent: "I cannot see anyone who has one iota of concern for human life being okay with this ..." (p. 27)
An ATF agent predicted to committee investigators that more deaths will occur as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. (p.39)
Multiple agents told the committee that continued assertions by Department of Justice Officials that guns were not knowingly "walked" and that DOJ tried to stop their transport to Mexico are clearly untruthful. (p. 45-50)
Click here for a copy of the report: "The Department of Justice's Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents."(PDF)
###
________________________ ________________________ __________-
Keep supporting Obama and Holder you fucking morons!
-
Report describes gun agents' 'state of panic' (Gun Walker)
LA Times ^ | June 14, 2011 | Kim Murphy
________________________ ________________________ _________--
Federal gun agents, concerned about weapons sales to Mexican drug suspects, begged to make arrests but were rebuffed, according to a congressional report on a controversial investigation.
Federal gun agents in Arizona -- convinced that "someone was going to die" when their agency allowed weapons sales to suspected Mexican drug traffickers -- made anguished pleas to be permitted to make arrests but were rebuffed, according to a new congressional report on the controversial law enforcement probe.
Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told congressional investigators that there was "a state of panic" that the guns used in the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in January and two U.S. agents in Mexico a month later might have been sold under the U.S. surveillance operation.
"I used the word anxiety. The term I used amongst my peers is pucker factor," Larry Alt, special agent with ATF's Phoenix field division, told investigators preparing a joint staff report for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The report will be released Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Neither of those shootings was ultimately linked to the "Fast and Furious" probe, though two weapons sold to a suspect under surveillance were found at the scene of the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry near Nogales, Ariz., in December.
Terry's family will be among the key witnesses at an oversight committee hearing Wednesday on the ATF operation, under which the bureau allowed purchases of high-powered weapons in an attempt to track their progress into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. According to the report and numerous interviews with The Times, several ATF agents regarded the operation as dangerous...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ______
What did Obama know and when did he know it?
-
Justice Department Accused of ‘Reckless Technique’
NY Times ^ | June 14, 2011 | GINGER THOMPSON
________________________ ________________________ _______________--
WASHINGTON — In a report issued Tuesday by two powerful Republicans in Congress, the Justice Department was accused of conducting an operation that allowed nearly 1,000 guns to flow illegally into Mexico, including two that were eventually found at the scene of the murder of an American Border Patrol agent.
The report, by Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Representative Darrell Issa of California, said the 2009 operation in Arizona by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, called Fast and Furious, was intended to shift the focus of enforcement efforts toward criminal organizations south of the border and away from straw purchasers who knowingly buy guns for others.
The legislators criticized the effort as using what they described as a “reckless investigative technique that street agents call ‘gun-walking.’ ” The technique involved long periods of surveillance in which agents watched loads of legally bought weapons move from straw purchasers to third parties, hoping that the transactions would lead them to bigger criminal targets.
Instead, the legislators said, guns were routinely lost, and fewer than two dozen people were ultimately arrested — all of them accused of being straw purchasers. The legislators say A.T.F. agents were routinely ordered to stand down rather than interdict guns from people they suspected of trafficking weapons.
“With the clinical precision of a lab experiment...,”
--snip--
Some of those agents blew the whistle to Congress this year after two such guns were found at the scene of the murder of the Border Patrol agent, Brian A. Terry. An official with knowledge of the investigation said that neither the bullet that killed Mr. Terry in December nor the casings found at the scene had been linked to the weapons that were recovered there.
The official emphasized that “the murder weapon has not been discovered.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
________________________ ________
Where is that pofs Eric Holder now?
-
Blood On Their Hands: Giving Guns to Criminals Was the Plan All Along
Townhall.com ^ | June 15, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
________________________ ________________________ _____________________--
“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.” –Special Agent John Dodson ATF Phoenix Field Division.
Damning new evidence from Capitol Hill shows that ATF Directors and Justice Department Officials knew about and encouraged the purposeful trafficking of thousands of weapons across the southern border, despite strong objections from ATF agents. Thousands of innocent lives were taken as the result, including those of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent Jamie Zapata.
New emails released by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa show that ATF Director Kenneth Melson was briefed weekly about Operation Fast and Furious and watched a live feed of straw purchasers (who serve as middle men, purchasing guns and giving them to cartel members) in Arizona gun shops from his cozy Washington D.C. office. Emails also show that Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon was enthusiastic about the operation.
“An e-mail from April 12, 2010, indicates that Acting Director Melson was very much in the weeds with Operation Fast and Furious. After a detailed briefing of the program by the ATF Phoenix Field Division, Acting Director Melson had a plethora of follow-up questions that required additional research to answer. As the document indicates, Mr. Melson was interested in the IP Address for hidden cameras located inside cooperating gun shops. With this information, Acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and – himself – watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants,” Chairman Issa said in his opening statement.
Senator Charles Grassley, who has been working closely with Rep. Issa, pointed out that officials from the Justice Department have been stonewalling the investigation for months. Attorney General Eric Holder has said he is unaware of who ordered the operation.
“On October 26, 2009, emails indicate that there was a meeting of senior law enforcement officials at the Justice Department. It appears to have included the heads every law enforcement component of the Department, including directors of the FBI, the DEA and the ATF. It also included the U.S. Attorneys for all the Southwest border states, the Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and the Chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee,” Grassley testified.
Emails also show that ATF encouraged gun dealers to sell to straw buyers, in spite of their own hesitance to do so.
"ATF encouraged gun dealers to sell to straw buyers. Emails prove that at least one dealer worried prophetically about the risk. He [a dealer] wrote to ATF about his concern that a border patrol agent might end up facing the wrong end of one of these guns. ATF supervisors told the dealer not to worry. So, the agents said it was a bad idea. And, the gun dealers said it was a bad idea, but ATF supervisors continued anyway", Grassley said.
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was that agent. He was killed by cartel member 18 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border near Rio Rico, Ariz. Agent Terry was a fighter-a former Marine who was willing to put everything he had, including his life, on the line for his country. He was dedicated to his job, his family and the United States.
“It was just ten days before Christmas last year, when our family received the devastating news; Brian had been shot and killed while engaged in a firefight with a group of individuals seeking to do harm to Americans citizens and others,” said Robert Heyer, the cousin of Terry, testifying on behalf of the entire Terry family. “Brian did ultimately come home that Christmas; we buried him not far from the house that he was raised in just prior to Christmas day. The gifts that Brian had picked out with such thought and care began to arrive in the mail that same week. With each delivery, we felt the indescribable pain of Brian’s death, but at the same time also remembered his amazing love and spirit.”
ICE Agent Jamie Zapata was killed in Mexico in February 2011 while on assignment. He was killed by a gun traced back to Operation Fast and Furious, however, Zapata’s family will never see justice. Once guns flow back into Mexico, they are no longer within the jurisdiction of the United States, leaving the government without any authority to prosecute anyone for any crime.
Three Special ATF Agents gave additional incriminating testimony. ATF Agent Dodson, one of the first whistleblowers to come out publicly against Operation Fast and Furious, provided details about the failed operation.
“I was involved in this operation, we monitored as they purchased hand guns, AK-47 variants, and .50 caliber rifles almost daily. Rather than contradict any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals for a short time after their purchases, but nothing more. Knowing all the while, just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, we still did nothing,” Dodson said. “Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.”
And there still isn’t an explanation as to why.
“Allowing firearms to be trafficked to criminals is a dangerous and deadly strategy. The thought that the techniques used in the “Fast and Furious” investigation would result in “taking down a cartel” given the toothless nature of the “straw purchasing law” and the lack of a “firearms trafficking statute” is, in my opinion, delusional,” Special Agent Peter Forcelli said. “This operation, which in my opinion endangered the American public, was orchestrated in conjunction with Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley. [Emory Hurley is the same Assistant U.S. Attorney who previously prevented agents from using some of the common and accepted law enforcement techniques that are employed elsewhere in the United States to investigate and prosecute gun crimes.] I have read documents that indicate that his boss, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, also agreed with the direction of the case.”
There is no way to prosecute drug cartels in Mexico even if firearms trafficking had been successful in locating them. They are not within United States jurisdiction.
“I can’t think of a single, logical strategy as to why this would have worked,” Forcelli said. “This was a catastrophic disaster.”
According to testimony, it has become common practice for retaliation to occur against ATF Agents who spoke out against their supervisor's corruption, even when operations had no logical backing.
Forcelli also added that while the ATF was ordering gun dealers to sell to straw buyers under surveillance, gun dealers were taking the heat for it, and being held responsible for violence in Mexico. He stressed gun dealers were not the problem. In fact gun dealers were helpful in pursuing cases against cartel members, making it blatantly clear law abiding gun owners are not at fault, but the government is.
Issa said he will continue to investigate in order to find the truth and get to the bottom of the operatation. The government owes the truth to the American people and to the family of Brian Terry and Jamie Zapata, he explained. “There has now become a focus on getting the truth out.”
________________________ _________________
fucking wow.
Can someone tell me why older has not resigned yet?
-
fucking wow.
Can someone tell me why older has not resigned yet?
Because like his boss he is a nappy headed fool. Bros before hoes and the nation.
-
Because like his boss he is a nappy headed fool. Bros before hoes and the nation.
And not one obama kneepadding fool has said a word about this.
-
http://cspan.org/Events/Fast-and-Furious-a-Catastrophic-Disaster/10737422274-2
Wow. Just wow. Can't make this up.
-
Law enforcement hard at work!
-
I truly believe this goes up to obama and holder.
-
I truly believe this goes up to obama and holder.
Why do you think http://drudgereport.com/ has 4 news stories about a naked and oiled up anthony weiner picture from 30 years ago, but not a single story about Gunrunner?
more of that liberal mainstream news bias?
-
Don't know - but remember when Obama and Holder were trashing all the gun dealers on the border as causing the mexican violence?
Obama was trying to undermine the 2nd Amend and lie about an issue he and holder had a hand in.
Do you know they testified yesterday that there are about 1800 guns they have no idea where they are, including .50 cal barretts!
-
Agents worried ATF program connected to Loughner gun
The Hill ^ | June 15, 2011 | Jordy Yager
________________________ ________________________ ______
TUCSON, Ariz. - Federal agents were worried that the gun used to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in the head could have been part of the controversial “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking operation. They learned eventually that it had not, sources said.
The “Fast and Furious” operation was a program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that authorized and monitored the sale of weapons to known and suspected straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels with the stated goal of exposing and dismantling gun trafficking routes.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) held a hearing on the mired program on Wednesday, during which ATF agents testified that they had been ordered to let guns “walk” into the hands of suspected and known criminals with little hope of ever seeing them again or being able to successfully track them to their final owners.
-
Top Agency Officials Knew of Disputed Gun Program
nytimes.com ^ | Published: June 15, 2011 | SEAN COLLINS WALSH
________________________ ________________________ _________________
WASHINGTON — Knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious, a controversial border security strategy that allowed guns to be shipped illegally into Mexico in an effort to track them to drug cartels, went to the top of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, according to evidence released on Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing.
Witnesses at the House hearing included three relatives of a Border Patrol agent killed in Arizona and three A.T.F. agents, right.
The operation, which began in 2009, came under fire after two guns linked to it were found at the scene of the killing of an American Border Patrol agent, Brian A. Terry, in Arizona in 2010. Members of Mr. Terry’s family testified at the hearing.
The acting director of A.T.F., Kenneth E. Melson, and his acting deputy, William J. Hoover, were “keenly interested” in the operation and received weekly updates on its progress, according to internal e-mails released for the first time by the Oversight Committee’s chairman, Darrell Issa, Republican of California.
At the hearing, Republicans pressed a Justice Department witness as to who else in Washington authorized the operation or was aware of it.
The witness, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, said releasing some of the documents that the committee sought would jeopardize continuing prosecutions.
At one point, Mr. Issa held up an entirely redacted page from evidence submitted by the department and chided Mr. Weich for the department’s response to a subpoena.
“How dare you make an opening statement of cooperation!” Mr. Issa shouted at Mr. Weich. “You’ve given us black paper.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
-
Time to impeach Obama and Holder - these two communists and radical terrorists are a plague on the nation.
-
-
-
Watch this you gun control nuts.
-
HOPE & CHANGE MY ASS!
Time to impeach obama and get him out of office.
-
Wow - the gun dealers tried to stop this and were forced by ATF to go forward with this craziness.
Fucking wow.
-
Don't know
I'll tell ya why......
Cause weiner/pornstart/resignation is a story that SELLS MORE link clicks, than a story that really matters, like our govt mass producing border violence by letting guns get through intentionally.
Stop blaming the "left" or "mainstream" media. FOX is talking about weiner's bullshit and not the gunrunner issue, debt ceiling, or libyan war. A congressman sending cock shots to a porn star affects us NOTHING, and its nonstop coverage.
ratings. money. NONE of them give a shit about what stories matter. Agreed?
-
I'll tell ya why......
Cause weiner/pornstart/resignation is a story that SELLS MORE link clicks, than a story that really matters, like our govt mass producing border violence by letting guns get through intentionally.
Stop blaming the "left" or "mainstream" media. FOX is talking about weiner's bullshit and not the gunrunner issue, debt ceiling, or libyan war. A congressman sending cock shots to a porn star affects us NOTHING, and its nonstop coverage.
ratings. money. NONE of them give a shit about what stories matter. Agreed?
240 - I dont watch TV other than possibly 15 minutes of mornin joe in the am and the end of the yankees games. I'm not kidding. I watch no TV whatsoever.
But its what the idiot public wants. guesswhat stories get the most comments I post on my facebook? The mindless crap.
I post some good stuff on facebook and only the nonsense stuff gets a ton of comments. I have about 1,000 FB frieds at this point.
I hear you. I have been on this story from Day 1!
Notice how blacken, traw mal, andre, benny, chad, and all the oter dolts for obama have not said a word on this?
-
240 - I dont watch TV other than possibly 15 minutes of mornin joe in the am and the end of the yankees games. I'm not kidding. I watch no TV whatsoever.
It's not just TV. It's internet media too. Drudge "BYE", HP "Weiner out", RawStory "Weiner to resign".
This little prick congressman matters nothing. nothing at all. yet the media (left/right/middle, and tv/internet/print) talk about the sex story because viewers prefer that over war, debt or gun stories.
-
Deadly Incompetence
Posted 06/15/2011 06:55 PM ET
________________________ ________________________ _____
Scandal: Given the federal government's batting average, another failure should come as no surprise. But sometimes the incompetence strains believability. Case in point: "Operation Fast and Furious."
That's the code name for what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives thought was a good idea: Put large numbers of semiautomatic weapons into the hands of Mexican gangsters, wait until they commit crimes, then track them.
Mexico is in the throes of a civil war that pits drug cartels against the government. The drug gangs are winning, having killed 34,000 people in the past five years.
So just on the surface, "Fast and Furious" has to be one of the dumbest operations ever carried out by a U.S. agency. Dig a little deeper, and it's also deadly.
Higher-ups at the ATF were warned repeatedly by their own agents that the plan was dangerous and unworkable. But the bosses ignored the warnings and even punished those who told them the obvious truth.
"Every time we questioned that order, there was punitive action," ATF agent John Dodson told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is holding hearings on the operation.
Dodson's tale is as predictable as it is tragic. The ATF lost track of as many as 1,800 of the semiautomatic weapons it put into circulation. Many of the weapons were used to commit crimes. And two of them were found at the murder scene of an ATF agent.
"Operation Fast and Furious contributed to the increasing violence and deaths in Mexico," the committee's report said. "This result was regarded with giddy optimism by ATF supervisors hoping that guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico would provide the nexus to straw (go-between) purchasers in Phoenix."
Said Darrell Issa, chairman of the House committee: "ATF agents have shared chilling accounts of being ordered to stand down as criminals in Arizona walked away with guns headed for Mexican drug cartels."
So who's responsible for this travesty? The Justice Department has been subpoenaed by the committee to provide information about the errant program, but it has refused to cooperate.
Top ATF officials have denied knowing details of the program. But it's clear from emails gathered by the committee that ATF acting director Kenneth Melson knew what was going on and didn't stop it.
Gun-control advocates try to demonize American gun owners by noting that two-thirds of Mexico's weapons come from north of the border. Now it turns out the U.S. government is the biggest gunrunner.
Thousands have died on both sides of the border as the drug war spreads. Deadly incompetence of the kind displayed by U.S. bureaucrats in Operation Fast and Furious must not go unpunished.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/575514/201106151855/Deadly-Incompetence.htm
________________________ ________________________ _________
Eric Holder needs to be jailed for life. He is a plague on this nation along with obama.
-
LOL @ blaming incompetence!
I don't. I think it's much shadier. I'm a CTer, of course :)
Look at your neighborhood bar - if there's not a fight for 3 weeks, the bouncer will START one. it's called job security ;)
Look at your border - if there's not a war/violence, a whole lot of agencies lose their funding. So they dump some guns into the mix to give the bad guys a chance - and voila, they get a shitload of funding to stop the violence.
just a silly CT, 33?
-
LOL @ blaming incompetence!
I don't. I think it's much shadier. I'm a CTer, of course :)
Look at your neighborhood bar - if there's not a fight for 3 weeks, the bouncer will START one. it's called job security ;)
Look at your border - if there's not a war/violence, a whole lot of agencies lose their funding. So they dump some guns into the mix to give the bad guys a chance - and voila, they get a shitload of funding to stop the violence.
just a silly CT, 33?
I believe that Obama and Holder came up with this to demonize gun owners and gun dealers so that they could push AWB2 as well as shut down a lot od dealers.
obama and holder both should be jailed for life. Both are traitors, both are treasonous communists, both are sleeper cell terrorist marxists, both are radical alinskyite bomb throwers, both are subversive and seditious radicals, and its becoming clearer by the day.
-
Statement by Governor Jan Brewer - Federal Operation Fast and Furious placed Arizonans at risk
Office of the Governor State of Arizona ^ | June 15, 2011 | Janice K. Brewer
________________________ ________________________ ______________
"I am outraged by findings in a new Congressional report that alleges federal agents were instructed to stand aside and do nothing as up to 2,000 weapons were illegally purchased in Arizona and resold. In many cases, the end result appears to have been the arming of violent drug cartels south of the border.
"During Operation Fast and Furious in 2010, according to this report, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms were ordered to simply track these „straw buyer‟ weapons sales but not intervene. Longtime federal agents have now testified before Congress that allowing these weapons to leave the premises, a practice generally known as 'gun walking,' was a marked departure from accepted law enforcement practices.
"ATF agents lost track of many of these weapons, including assault weapons and .50 caliber sniper rifles. A significant number undoubtedly found their way to Mexican drug cartels. Tragically, two AK-47s traced back to Operation Fast and Furious later turned up at the crime scene near Rio Rico, Arizona, where Arizona Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered by bandits. Authorities are still looking for the murder weapon.
"If the allegations contained in this Congressional report are accurate, then Operation Fast and Furious endangered the lives of innocent people on both sides of the border. The people of Arizona deserve answers from the Department of Justice and ATF as to how this could have been sanctioned, let alone encouraged. We may never know how many weapons illegally sold as part of this operation later turned up at a crime scene. But the connection between this failed federal operation and the death of Border Patrol Agent Terry is clear. The Congressional report puts it best: 'The death of Border Agent Brian Terry was likely a preventable tragedy.'"
http://www.azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/PR_061511_FastAndFurious.pdf
________________________ ________________________ ____
SHTF coming soon on this.
-
The Definitive Scandal: ‘Gunwalker’ Much Worse Than ‘Iran-Contra’
Pajamas Media ^ | June 16, 2011 | Bob Owens
________________________ ________________________ ______________
Pay attention to this era-defining event: The 2,000+ weapons are implicated in an estimated 150 shootings of Mexican officers and soldiers, two American officers, and an unknown number of civilians.
On October 5, 1986, a former U.S. Air Force C-123 transport plane was shot down in Nicaragua. The pilots and radio operator perished when the plane crashed, but a former U.S. Marine who was a cargo handler on the aircraft was able to parachute to safety. He was captured by the Nicaraguan government.
The former Marine, Eugene Hasenfus, claimed to be a cargo handler for the CIA. His capture and trial began the unraveling of what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair, which saw 14 Reagan-era officials indicted and eleven convictions for a plot that traded arms to Iran for hostages and illegally funded Nicaragua’s anti-communist rebels.
On December 14, 2010, a special unit of the U.S. Border Patrol came across a group of heavily armed suspects near Rio Rico, Arizona. The Border Patrol team identified themselves as law enforcement officers, at which point the armed men open fire. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was hit in the pelvis by a single bullet and died the next morning. One of the suspects was captured, and two AK-pattern semiautomatic rifles recovered at the scene were identified by serial number as weapons that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) — acting in concert with and with the blessing of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — allowed weapons smugglers to purchase at U.S. gun shops. The weapons were just two of more than 2,000 firearms that ATF supervisors and the highest levels of DOJ management allowed to be “walked” across the border to narco-terrorist drug cartels in Mexico, in a scandal that promises to be more damning and deadly than Iran-Contra.
The ATF named their operation Fast and Furious, but it will go down in history by its more descriptive title: “Gunwalker.”
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is holding hearings this week on Gunwalker, and seems to be squaring up for a political duel with the Obama administration, which is seeking to block all access to official information about the operation. To date, the information collected by the committee has come from ATF whisteblowers, agents inside the operation who fought against senior government officials who were “giddy” over the death and violence from the roughly 2000+ weapons that they allowed smugglers to take across the border — weapons that seemed to be raising the body count in what was arguably becoming a Mexican civil war.
A damning and detailed 51-page report — The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents (.pdf) — was released by the committee on Tuesday. The report captured testimony from ATF field agents who fought with their supervisors over orders that flew in direct contradiction to their primary order: to always follow the suspect with the gun and always interdict to keep the weapon from being used in a crime.
The report’s findings:
“DOJ and ATF inappropriately and recklessly relied on a 20-year-old ATF Order to allow guns to walk.” The agencies misrepresented the intention of the order to justify their actions.
“Supervisors told the agents to ‘get with the program’ because senior ATF officials had sanctioned the operation.” At least one agent was cautioned that if he didn’t stop complaining about the dangerous nature of the operation, he would find himself out of a job, and lucky to be working in a prison.
“Operation Fast and Furious contributed to the increasing violence and deaths in Mexico. This result was regarded with giddy optimism by ATF supervisors hoping that guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico would provide the nexus to straw purchasers in Phoenix.” ATF officials were seemingly unconcerned over the deaths of Mexican law enforcement officers, soldiers, and innocent civilians, noting that you had to “scramble a few eggs” to make an omelette, in a callous disregard or human life.
Senior ATF personnel including Acting Director Ken Melson, and senior Department of Justice officials at least up to an assistant attorney general, were well aware of and supported the operation.
Department of Justice officials hid behind semantics to lie and deny that they allowed guns to be walked across the border.
When asked by the Oversight Committee how many of 1,750 specific weapons that “walked” under orders of the ATF and DOJ could have been interdicted if agents were allowed to act as they were trained, the agents answered they could have stopped every single one.
The more than 2,000 weapons that the Obama Justice Department allowed to be delivered to Mexican narco-terrorist cartels are thought to have been used in the shooting of an estimated 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers battling the cartels. Two American law enforcement officers have also presumably fallen prey to these weapons, along with an unknown number of civilians on both sides of the border.
President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice has purposefully armed narco-terrorist drug cartels that have been accused of bombings, ambushes, mass murders, public executions, and the assassination of police, politicians, and civic leaders.
Obama’s Justice Department armed the enemy of our neighbor and ally, providing enough arms to equip ten infantry companies, or two battalions, of violent drug dealers.
Iran-Contra was a misguided attempt to trade arms for hostages and supply a covert supply of arms to rebels fighting against a communist dictatorship during the Cold War.
Gunrunner was an attempt to develop enough gun-running evidence to bring down a cartel, and instead supplied thousands of arms to drug cartels locked in a life-or-death struggle with a key U.S. ally and trading partner.
You tell me which is worse.
-
Taxpayer Funded Beer Bash, Ball Games and Scavenger Hunts at Holder DOJ
Big Government ^ | June 16, 2011 | J. Christian Adams
With the real unemployment rate above 16 percent, it is a perfect time to throw a lavish party for high paid federal employees at Eric Holder’s Department of Justice. At least Eric Holder thinks so.
The Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, the same unit that dismissed the slam dunk voter intimidation lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party and forced Dayton (OH) to hire firefighters who flunked employment tests, is throwing an alcohol-fueled bash during work hours for 815 employees.
I have obtained the invitation posted internally to all 815 Civil Rights Division employees. It reads:
“It’s Time to Get Together, So Save the Date – It’s time to open up and let the sun shine in!”
I’ll wager if a Freedom of Information Act request was sent to DOJ about the costs of the beer bash and lost employee time, there wouldn’t be much sunshine.
The invitation continues:
“The Civil Rights Division will host a get-together on Thursday, June 30th in the Main Justice Courtyard, from 3:00 p.m. Until 6:00 p.m. Beer, wine and snacks will be served. Come on out and enjoy the weather and say hello to your co-workers! Hope to see you there! (Rain/extreme heat date: Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 – Great Hall). Please contact Kathy Anderson in the Executive Office by email or on 202-514-5577 if you have any questions. “
Sounds like fun, courtesy of the United States taxpayers. Instead of working, hundreds of federal employees will be tapping kegs. Instead of earning their GS-15 ($123,758 – $155,500) salaries, they will be sipping Chardonnay while other Americans drive trucks, mow lawns or continue their long desperate search for employment.
The Main Justice Courtyard is in the center of the Robert F. Kennedy DOJ building and has fountains and landscaped terraces. It also has two large drive-thru open air gates on 9th and 10th street where members of the public could actually come and watch the party, and loudly petition the government about their grievance for holding such a tone-deaf party.
If that happens, you can bet the party will move to “extreme heat date” in the quiet confines of the Great Hall, inside the building.
Also invited to the party are numerous Senior Executive Service employees making $145,700 to $199,700. This Division has gone on a hiring spree since the inauguration and hired over 130 new high paid attorneys even though Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez informed employees they don’t have enough money from Congress to do it, even while DOJ holds employee scavenger hunts and pays for days at the ballpark watching Washington Nationals games.
After President Obama joked about the failed stimulus plan and the not-so shovel ready recipients of trillions of dollars, it seems an odd time for federal employees to be imbibing on the taxpayer’s dime during work hours. Then again, they probably didn’t count on “much sunshine.”
-
Issa asks THE question at 'gunwalker' hearing; anti-gunners scramble for excuses
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 16 June, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Recently, we discussed Congressman Darrell Issa's (R-CA) explanation of what this week's (and upcoming) "Project Gunwalker" hearings have been (and will be) about:
This is not a discovery process of what happened--we know what happened. We know that this administration, at the highest levels, approved a process that allowed thousands of high-powered weapons--basically AK-47 and M-16 look-alikes--to go to the worst of the worst on both sides of the borders, that those weapons have been used to commit crimes, and they have led to the death of federal agents on our side of the border, obviously, also Mexicans on their side of the border. This is known. The real question is what were they thinking.
Indeed--what were they thinking? In yesterday's hearing Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) Special Agent John Dodson (the first whistleblower to come forward publicly) and Special Agent Peter Forcelli made clear over and over again that the "gunwalking" had no value as a law enforcement tool, and no conceivable chance of attaining any value. One example, as Dodson explains to Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT):
Chaffetz: I mean, what was the goal here?
Dodson: Sir, I can tell you what I was told. I was told that the goal is to ultimately target and bring an entire cartel to prosecution.
Chaffetz: How were they going to do that? The suspected cartels were in Mexico, were they not?
Dodson: Yes sir, they were. I have no idea how they planned to do that by this operation, or how it was designed to function.
And in fact, no one can adequately begin to explain (or, really, even inadequately explain) how this was supposed to work. The described plan is, as we've discussed before, a drug cartel-busting strategy equivalent of the Underpants
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Operation Fast and Furious should end Holder tenure
Washington Examiner ^ | 06/16/11 | Examiner Editorial
Watergate cliches though they are, two questions beg to be asked about the exploding Fast and Furious scandal at the U.S. Department of Justice: What did Attorney General Eric Holder know and when did he know it concerning the underlying concept, operational protocols and legal status of the Operation Fast and Furious program in the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms bureau?
Those questions gained special relevance Wednesday when four ATF agents testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and squarely contradicted a Feb. 4, 2011, claim by a department spokesman that DOJ did not approve of the program that sanctioned the illegal sale here in America by legitimate gun dealers of assault weapons to representatives of Mexican drug cartels. The idea behind the program was that the hundreds of firearms thus sold would then be traced from specific crimes, thus enabling prosecutions of the individuals involved.
The agents testified that Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley, a Phoenix-based appointee of President Obama, "orchestrated" Operation Fast and Furious. ATF Phoenix field office supervisor Peter Forcelli, for example, told the committee: "I have read documents that indicate that his boss, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, also agreed with the direction of the case." That direction was established sometime after Obama was inaugurated in 2009 when Phoenix ATF agents, breaking with long-established agency practice, were ordered to monitor, but not stop, gun sales to suspected gun traffickers. The agents testified that Phoenix ATF supervisor David Voth "was jovial, if not, not giddy, but just delighted" when Fast and Furious guns were subsequently recovered at multiple Mexican drug busts. And emails released Thursday by Rep. Darrell Issa,R-Calif., revealed that acting director Kenneth Melson even arranged to watch live feeds from ATF cameras in gun stores being used by the program while sitting at his desk.
But delight turned to devastation on Dec. 14, 2010 when two Fast and Furious rifles were found at the scene of Border Agent Brian Terry's murder approximately 18 miles inside the U.S. border with Mexico in the Arizona desert. The program ended the next day. Special Agent Larry Alt told the committee that Terry's death was the entirely foreseeable result of Operation Fast and Furious: "You can't allow thousands of guns to go south of the border without an expectation that they are going to be recovered eventually in crimes and people are going to die." There had also been panic among ATF officials when news first broke that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., had been shot because they feared the weapon used might be one of those sold via Operation Fast and Furious.
Documents released by the Issa panel make it clear that Operation Fast and Furious was well-known and enthusiastically supported at the highest leveIs of ATF. That means the program had to have been supported elsewhere within the Justice Department. Thus, it is inconceivable that Holder did not know about Operation Fast and Furious. But even if he didn't know, he clearly should have. Either way, Wednesday's hearing provided the latest evidence that it's past time for Holder to go.
Another marxist terrorist and racial arsonist who needs to be jailed for life.
-
Holder, Napalitano (Big Sis), Geither, Salazar, Sebelius, should all be fired due to total incompetency. Obama's cabinet is such a joke.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Issa: DOJ Covering Up on Mexican Gun-Running Scandal
Cybercast News Service ^ | 6/17/11 | Fred Luca
Posted on June 17, 2011 8:37:37 PM EDT by Nachum
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) told CNSNews.com in an interview that he believes the Justice Department is covering up information relevant to a congressional investigation of an operation in which the department knowingly allowed intermediaries of Mexican drug cartels to purchase guns at licensed firearms dealers in the United States and then get away without being arrested or the guns being retrieved. Last December, two of those guns ended up at the scene of the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was killed by alleged agents
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Head of ATF Is Likely to Go
Fox News ^ | June 17, 2011
Posted on June 18, 2011 7:35:40 AM EDT by stevie_d_64
The Justice Department is expected to oust the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to people familiar with the matter, amid a troubled federal antitrafficking operation that has grown into the agency's biggest scandal in nearly two decades.
Moves toward the replacement of Kenneth Melson, acting ATF director since April 2009, could begin next week, although the precise sequence of events remains to be decided, these people said.
The shakeup shows the extent of the political damage caused by the gun-trafficking operation called Fast and Furious, which used tactics that allowed suspected smugglers to buy large numbers of firearms. Growing controversy over the program has paralyzed a long-beleaguered agency buffeted by partisan battles. The ATF has been without a Senate-confirmed director since 2006, with both the Bush and Obama administrations unable to overcome opposition from gun-rights groups to win approval of nominees.
In November, President Barack Obama nominated Andrew Traver, the head of the ATF's Chicago office, as permanent ATF director. The nomination stalled in the Senate after the National Rifle Association said Traver had a "demonstrated hostility" to the rights of gun owners.
Traver is set to travel to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole, the people said. The administration is weighing whether to name Traver as acting director or choose another interim chief while awaiting Senate action on his nomination, they said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Tip of the 'Gunwalker' iceberg? Are there MORE 'Operations Fast and Furious'?
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 17 June, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Posted on June 18, 2011 10:50:08 AM EDT by marktwain
During Wednesday's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing exploring the tragic, utterly unforgivable tragedies of "Project Gunwalker," it would have been easy to miss one short statement from one of the witnesses. This would be a mistake, because what Special Agent John Dodson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) said in that one sentence could have some pretty dramatic implications. Dodson, readers will remember, was the first brave whistleblower to publicly come forward with the sordid details of "Project Gunwalker."
As a witness at Wednesday's hearing, Dodson was asked by Congressman James Lankford (R-OK) to estimate the number of firearms "lost" in the operation (video also available in the sidebar):
Lankford: Special Agent Dodson, let me ask you a series of questions, and this will be for several agents. Give me your best guess, and it's going to be just a guess on this. How many weapons do we have in the United States or in Mexico, that are out there, that are a result of "Fast and Furious," that we do not know where they are?
Dodson: Well sir, my best guess estimate at that, and remembering that Fast and Furious was one case, from one group, in one field division.
He went on with numbers, of course (2,500 that BATFE facilitated the trafficking of, with from 300 to 800 since recovered), but today let's look at how Special Agent Dodson qualifiied those numbers: "Fast and Furious was one case, from one group, in one field division." The implication is, of course, that there could be other "Operations Fast and Furious," doing their own "gunwalking."
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
let's look at how Special Agent Dodson qualifiied those numbers: "Fast and Furious was one case, from one group, in one field division." The implication is, of course, that there could be other "Operations Fast and Furious," doing their own "gunwalking."
I thought it was only CT garbage when people said they believe the govt feeds and fuels the drug war in order to keep its own inflated budget $ rolling in... ;)
-
Two AK-47s Used to Murder Mexican Lawyer Were 'Fast and Furious' Guns From U.S., Sources Say
By William La Jeunesse
Published June 17, 2011
EXCLUSIVE: Two guns sold to a Mexican cartel and used in the high-profile kidnapping and murder of a Mexican lawyer last year were purchased under the U.S. Justice Department's failed anti-gun trafficking program Operation Fast and Furious, sources tell Fox News.
U.S. law enforcement sources and officials in Washington told Fox News that two AK-47s were purchased in Arizona by a straw buyer — someone who legally buys guns, then illegal sells them to a third party – and were allowed to “walk” into Mexico. Police recovered the guns in the course of their investigation of the kidnapping of Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez.
According to Fox News sources, Mexico was not told the confiscated guns were part of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Operation Fast and Furious until the past week.
Until now, the most high-profile crime allegedly committed with these guns was the murder in December of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two guns found near his body in Mexico were traced to the ATF program, though it is unclear if they were the guns that killed Terry.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/17/two-ak47s-us...
Fucking wow!
-
JUNE 18, 2011
ATF GUNRUNNING SCANDAL UPDATE: “The Wall Street Journal reported last night that the political fallout from Operation Fast and Furious has the White House looking for a fast and furious way out. The acting head of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, will likely lose his job, perhaps as early as next week, the WSJ’s sources say, in what looks like an effort to contain the damage.”
That won’t be enough, for a scandal that some are calling “worse than Iran-Contra.” “The effort to get rid of Melson looks like an attempt to appease the House, but it’s not likely to work. Had the White House provided more cooperation with Darrell Issa on this and other investigations, a Melson resignation might have sufficed. Instead of cooperating, Melson and Attorney General Eric Holder stonewalled the Oversight Committee for weeks, and when they finally turned over the documents subpoenaed by Issa, the heavy redactions prompted Issa to tell the the DoJ’s Assistant Attorney General that he ‘should be ashamed’ of its conduct in an investigation into the death of one of its Border Patrol agents. . . . Issa now will go after the DoJ for its conduct in the investigation, because Holder and Weich have certainly acted as if they have something to hide. And the sudden desire to throw Melson under the bus seems to indicate that the White House would like to end this probe rather quickly, too. At this point, even a resignation by Weich wouldn’t slow Issa’s probe.”
Bonus quote: “Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.” –Special Agent John Dodson ATF Phoenix Field Division. I retain my suspicions about the connection between a secret ATF operation that allowed thousands of weapons to go from U.S. gunshops to Mexican crime scenes, and a public gun-control campaign by the Obama Administration that stressed the need to limit gun sales in the United States because weapons from U.S. gun shops were turning up at Mexican crime scenes. Call me cynical, but this is an awfully convenient juxtaposition.
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/122687/
Holder's head needs to roll for this. They're doing everything they can to keep this from blowing up. Let's hope the GOP doesn't pussy out.
-
Remember Obama trying to politicize this issue by blaming the dealers ad saying our dealers were the cause of the violence?
-
Remember Obama trying to politicize this issue by blaming the dealers ad saying our dealers were the cause of the violence?
Yes. He's a real piece of shit.
-
let's look at how Special Agent Dodson qualifiied those numbers: "Fast and Furious was one case, from one group, in one field division." The implication is, of course, that there could be other "Operations Fast and Furious," doing their own "gunwalking."
I thought it was only CT garbage when people said they believe the govt feeds and fuels the drug war in order to keep its own inflated budget $ rolling in... ;)
ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
-
ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
Nice try but wrong. This wasn't fueling the drug war in any way whatsoever. What this was doing was setting up Obama's case for increased gun control, something you said he wouldn't touch (wrong again, twat). Two different concepts.
Swing and a miss, stud.
-
Nice try but wrong. This wasn't fueling the drug war in any way whatsoever. What this was doing was setting up Obama's case for increased gun control, something you said he wouldn't touch (wrong again, twat). Two different concepts.
Swing and a miss, stud.
way bigger than obama here, champ.
war on drugs is big business. if there isn't a fight in 3 weeks, the bouncer starts one in the name of job security.
of course, you are still of the ilk who believes we honestly want to stop drugs coming into usa? hahahahhaa
-
way bigger than obama here, champ.
war on drugs is big business. if there isn't a fight in 3 weeks, the bouncer starts one in the name of job security.
of course, you are still of the ilk who believes we honestly want to stop drugs coming into usa? hahahahhaa
Sorry, champ but you are again wrong (this is a recurring theme for a CT whackjob like yourself). This does nothing to help the war on drugs. It's being done to help build Obama's case for increased gun control (which you said he wouldn't touch, HAHAHAHAHAHA).
You are consistently wrong about every claim you make, moonbot. Give it a rest, Obama dicksucker.
-
240 - I dont watch TV other than possibly 15 minutes of mornin joe in the am and the end of the yankees games. I'm not kidding. I watch no TV whatsoever.
But its what the idiot public wants. guesswhat stories get the most comments I post on my facebook? The mindless crap.
I post some good stuff on facebook and only the nonsense stuff gets a ton of comments. I have about 1,000 FB frieds at this point.
I hear you. I have been on this story from Day 1!
Notice how blacken, traw mal, andre, benny, chad, and all the oter dolts for obama have not said a word on this?
How do I get you on facebook brah?
-
This does nothing to help the war on drugs.
Depends how you define "success" in the war on drugs.
if "success" means stopping drug flow, violence, etc - then yes you are right.
If "success" means perpetual border war and guaranteed job security for hundreds of thousands of LEO, border patrol, and ATF agents, then yes, I am right.
-
This was about trashing the 2nd amend and blaming the gun stores.
-
National security experts blast attorney general’s claim that lawyers...
Daily Caller ^ | 6/20/11 | Neil Munro
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ -
Centrist and right-of-center national security experts reacted with contempt to Attorney General Eric Holder’s claim at a legal convention that the courts are the nation’s “most effective terror-fighting weapon.”
“That’s utter nonsense … it is simply lunatic,” said Ralph Peters, military analyst, author and former soldier. In the war against the jihadis, he said, the courts “have been totally ineffective when they’re not outright destructive.”
“He’s unconsciously shilling for his own profession,” said Michael Rubin, a Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “Holder, like many ambitious bureaucrats, wants to build a bureaucratic empire … [and] by doing so, he will get Americans killed.”
On Sunday, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell added his voice to the criticism. “The attorney general said the other night our biggest weapon in the war on terror was the U.S. civilian court system,” he said on CBS’ Face The Nation. “ I don’t know what planet he’s living on.”
Holder’s declaration came in a Thursday speech to hundreds of progressive lawyers, advocates, judges and students gathered at the American Constitution Society’s annual gala. “I know that – in distant countries, and within our own borders – there are people intent on, and actively plotting to, kill Americans,” he told his legal peers in the enthusiastic audience. “Victory and security will not come easily, and they won’t come at all if we adhere to a rigid ideology, adopt a narrow methodology, or abandon our most effective terror-fighting weapon – our Article III [civil] court system,” he declared to much applause.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Agenda Behind Fast & Furious Gunrunner Program
http://noisyroom.net/blog/ ^ | 6.18.11 | AJ
________________________ ________________________ ______
While clear-thinking Americans can agree that Obama and Holder’s Justice Department made a fatal error in instituting “Operation Fast and Furious,” whereby thousands of weapons were knowingly placed in the hands of straw buyers who illegally crossed our southern border, few are asking why such a dangerous program was created.
There was a definite agenda and we need to go back to 2009, shortly after Obama was sworn in as President, to understand its origin.
At the start of the Obama regime, Obama and Hillary Clinton publicized that 90% of the guns used in crimes committed in Mexico came from the U.S. By April of 2009, FOX News had investigated this assertion and proved it was false. Only 17% – not 90% – of the weapons confiscated in Mexico were U.S. weapons.
Trafficking Guns to Mexico from - FOXNews com
Mainstream media did not report that Obama and Clinton’s claims were false and, instead, perpetuated the lie and the Obama administration moved forward with Operation Fast and Furious to make the lie a reality. To date, Obama has not been held to account for the false information he and his administration thrust forward for public consumption in 2009 and by the end of this article, you will see how this fits into a larger agenda with a purposeful outcome.
The Obama administration instituted their “bottom up” program – Fast and Furious. Their plan, aptly named, was designed to quickly and deliberately put as many U.S. weapons as possible into the hands of straw buyers who would bring them across the border into Mexico and into the hands of the drug cartels. This would ensure that when those weapons were retrieved and counted by Mexico’s law enforcement units, the numbers would then show a larger percentage of weapons coming from the U.S.
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has held congressional hearings on Fast and Furious and released redacted emails which described the following (emphasis added), as reported by Jordy Yager at The Hill:
“In one of the emails, released by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), with the subject heading “Director’s questions,” the supervisor of the “Fast and Furious” operation wrote to the assistant special agent in charge of Phoenix field operations with an Internet Protocol address for one of the video monitoring units in a gun store which was authorized to sell guns to the suspects.
The emails seem to indicate that ATF acting director Kenneth Melson had asked for this information. “With this information, acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and – himself – watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants,” said a Republican committee statement…
In another email dated March 10, 2010, the assistant special agent in charge of the Phoenix field operations wrote to the supervisor of the “Fast and Furious” operation and said, “Not sure if you know, but Mr. Melson and Mr. Hoover are being briefed weekly on this investigation and the recent success with [redacted] so they are both keenly interested in case updates.”
Prior to release of the emails, ATF’s letters to legislators denied that they were selling these weapons to straw buyers and in fact they “made every effort to prevent weapons from ending up in Mexico.”
However, the truth is documented (emphasis added) by Dave Workman at The Examiner, who has been reporting on this story for over four months since David Codrea (National Gun Rights Examiner) and Mike Vanderboegh (independent blogger) first uncovered the program:
“Operation Fast and Furious was an off-shoot of the larger Project Gunrunner, conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This controversial operation allowed an estimated 2,000-2,500 guns to “walk” into Mexico as ATF field agents were repeatedly ordered to “stand down” by their supervisors.”
“ATF agents have shared chilling accounts of being ordered to stand down as criminals in Arizona walked away with guns headed for Mexican drug cartels. With the clinical precision of a lab experiment, the Justice Department kept records of weapons they let walk and the crime scenes where they next appeared. To agents’ shock, preventing loss of life was not the primary concern.” — Congressman Darrell Issa
“The Issa/Grassley report, The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents, contains some chilling revelations:
Highlights of the report include:
* The supervisor of Operation Fast and Furious was “jovial, if not giddy, but just delighted about” walked guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico according to an ATF agent. (p. 37)
* Another ATF agent told the committee about a prediction he made a year ago that “someone was going to die” and that the gunwalking operation would be the subject of a Congressional investigation. (p. 24)
* The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords created a “state of panic” within the group conducting the operation as they initially feared a “walked” gun might have been used. (p. 38)
* One Operation Fast and Furious Agent: “I cannot see anyone who has one iota of concern for human life being okay with this …” (p. 27)
* An ATF agent predicted to committee investigators that more deaths will occur as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. (p.39)
* Multiple agents told the committee that continued assertions by Department of Justice Officials that guns were not knowingly “walked” and that the DOJ tried to stop their transport to Mexico are clearly untruthful. (p. 45-50)”
Quick re-cap – Obama, Clinton and Holder deliberately instituted Operation Fast and Furious for the sole purpose of increasing the number of U.S. weapons that “walked” into Mexico. Remember some of the facts:
* ATF agents were repeatedly told to “stand down” as the guns “walked;”
* The supervisor of this operation was “jovial” and “just delighted” when “walked” guns appeared at crime scenes in Mexico;
* No one had “one iota of concern for human life;” and
* “Acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and – himself – watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants.”
Why did Obama, Clinton and Holder do this? It’s obvious to even the most casual observer; they did this to further the propaganda they pushed in early 2009 – that the U.S. has a gun problem because “90%” of the confiscated weapons in Mexico are coming from the U.S. – in order to justify more aggressive restrictions on gun ownership in the U.S.
Keep in mind that when the operation was created in 2009, the Obama administration had not anticipated that it would be exposed. The Democrats had a majority in both the House and Senate and any investigation would have had to have been brought forward by their own party – which Obama, Clinton and Holder knew would not happen. But there were several things they didn’t anticipate:
* Agent Brian Terry’s murder whereby two of the weapons found at the scene were tracked to straw purchasers who bought the weapons under ATF’s supervision via Operation Fast and Furious.
* David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh’s discovery of this operation.
* Democrats’ loss of their majority in the House, with Republicans taking over in January 2011.
* CBS coverage of this operation.
* David Workman’s exceptional and diligent reporting on this operation.
* Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) pursuit of the truth through Congressional Hearings.
Marxists will always tell you that the ends justify the means. Creating the very problem they can claim they’re prepared to solve isn’t a new tactic for Progressives, but this is only part of the story.
Congressman Issa will fail the American people if he stops short and fails to investigate and determine the true purpose of Operation Fast and Furious. To say that it was a dumb program and needs to stop will miss the true agenda behind the creation of the operation in the first place.
While the “bottom up” Operation Fast and Furious continued, so too has Obama’s “top down” operation – the United Nations (UN) Small Arms Treaty.
Did you know that the UN has an Office for Disarmament Affairs? Did you know the Obama administration has been working closely with the UN and firmly supports the UN Small Arms Treaty, which Obama and Clinton fully intend to thrust upon America?
As I reported on April 18, 2011 in the article “THE GLOBALISTS’ TAKEOVER OF AMERICA: Part 3 – WEAKEN MILITARY & CIVILIAN DEFENSE”…
“In addition, the globalists (including Obama and Hillary Clinton) intend to enact the Small Arms Treaty which will restrict gun ownership for American citizens under the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs. Harm our soldiers and disarm our citizens and America is ripe for attack and invasion on our own soil. Couple the Small Arms Treaty with the President’s Executive Order granting international police (INTERPOL) full immunity on American soil, along with the National Civilian Security Force that Obama has been creating, and the clear and present danger to America is obvious.
The danger to America is reinforced by Eric Holder’s DOJ secretly arming Mexico’s drug cartel to put American citizens at greater risk in border-states, and Obama arming radical Islamists in Libya to put American soldiers at greater risk under UN control in Libya.”
If the Obama administration’s agenda isn’t yet clear, despite the facts from emails, testimony, investigations, reports and the links in this article, add the fact that during the Operation Fast and Furious hearings, Mike Lillis at The Hill reported what ensued when ATF Special Agent, Peter Forcelli, stated the following (emphasis added):
“I think perhaps a mandatory minimum one-year sentence might deter an individual from buying a gun,” Forcelli said.
He was responding to a question from Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who said the current penalties are so weak that they discourage state prosecutors from pursuing straw-purchase cases. Forcelli agreed the current penalties do little to intimidate straw purchasers.
That brief exchange prompted Issa to intervene.
“We’re not here to talk about proposed gun legislation,” Issa said…
Maloney defended her line of questioning, saying she was “trying to figure out why … prosecutors often decline these gun cases.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD), the senior Democrat on the oversight panel, also questioned Issa’s authority to mute Forcelli.”
Then Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, reinforced the fact that it’s really about gun control when he said in a statement on Wednesday:
“It’s also critically important that we examine why our gun laws are so weak that they make trafficking so easy in the first place.”
No mention was made by the Democrat representatives or by Paul Helmke that the Obama administration is aiding and abetting the transfer of U.S. weapons into Mexico via a program they designed, implemented and oversaw – complete with “acting Director Melson who was able to sit at his desk in Washington and – himself – watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants,” and “ATF field agents were repeatedly ordered to “stand down” by their supervisors.”
The agenda behind Operation Fast and Furious is only one piece of a larger operation to diminish and ultimately extinguish the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. The 2nd Amendment, as ratified by the States, reads:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Food for thought:
* “…to disarm the people – that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” (George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380)
* “No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” (Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334, [C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950])
* “The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals…. It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.” (Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789)
* “Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American… The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people” (Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788)
________________________ ________________________ ____-
This mess alone should be grounds to impeach holder.
-
Issa: Holder 'Absolutely' Knew About 'Fast & Furious' Earlier Than He Testified
nation.foxnews.com/CNSNews ^ | Fred Lucas
________________________ ________________________ ____________
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) told CNSNews.com in an interview that he believes the Justice Department is covering up information relevant to a congressional investigation of an operation in which the department knowingly allowed intermediaries of Mexican drug cartels to purchase guns at licensed firearms dealers in the United States and then get away without being arrested or the guns being retrieved.
Last December, two of those guns ended up at the scene of the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was killed by alleged agents of the Mexican drug cartels.
Issa pointed to two things he says indicates a Justice Department cover up. First, he cites a letter that Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, head of the Justice Department’s office of legislative affairs, sent to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 4, 2011. Issa characterizes that letter as a “lie.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nation.foxnews.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ______
Drip Drip Drip Drip!!!!!
-
Holder is fucking done.
I hope they press perjury charges against his terrorist ass.
-
Holder is going to be shown to have committed perjury. Jail his ass.
-
Holder: Justice Department Has Re-Opened The "Civil Rights Division" (enforce in places of worship?)
Real Clear Politics ^ | 6/20/11
________________________ ________________________ _
"We have reinvigorated the important work of our Civil Rights Division. Not only is this office once again open for business, it has never been stronger," Attorney General Eric Holder said at a speech to the American Constitution Society.
"Now, some of you know during this administration's first fiscal year the Department filed a record number of civil rights criminal cases," Holder added.
"We've also expanded enforcement efforts to guarantee that in our work places, our military bases, in our housing and lending markets, in our voting booths in our border areas, in our schools and places of worship. And I mean all places of worship," Holder also said.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
-
Rush is going wild on this now.
funny how I posted this months and months and months ago.
-
ATF acting director may resign over Fast and Furious program
Washington (CNN) -- Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is expected to resign under pressure, perhaps in the next day or two, in the wake of the ongoing controversy over Operation Fast and Furious, two senior federal law enforcement sources said Monday.
In the operation, straw buyers were allowed to illegally purchase large numbers of weapons, some of which ended up in the hands of cartels in Mexico.
Attorney General Eric Holder will meet Tuesday with Andrew Traver, head of the ATF field office in Chicago, about potentially serving as acting director of the agency, according to the sources.
The Justice Department refused comment.
The operation has come under intense criticism since the December killing of a U.S. Border Patrol officer.
Operation Fast and Furious was "a colossal failure of leadership," Peter Forcelli, a supervisor at the bureau's Phoenix field office, recently said.
The program focused on following people who legally bought weapons that were then transferred to criminals and destined for Mexico. But instead of intercepting the weapons when they switched hands, Operation Fast and Furious called for ATF agents to let the guns "walk" and wait for them to surface in Mexico, according to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The idea was that once the weapons in Mexico were traced back to the straw purchasers, the entire arms smuggling network could be brought down. Instead, the report argues, letting the weapons slip into the wrong hands was a deadly miscalculation that resulted in preventable deaths, including that of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Terry was killed last year just north of the Mexican border in Arizona after he confronted a group of bandits believed to be preying on illegal immigrants. Two weapons found near the scene of the killing were traced to Fast and Furious.
"I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe it at first," Terry's mother, Josephine, said when she learned that the ATF may have let some of the guns used in the attack slip through its fingers. Terry's family said they want all those involved in his killing and who helped put the weapons in their hands to be prosecuted.
"We ask that if a government official made a wrong decision, that they admit their error and take responsibility for his or her actions," Robert Heyer, Terry's cousin and family spokesman, said in a hearing last week by the House panel.
The committee's chairman, California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, called the operation "felony stupid." As many as 2,000 semi-automatic rifles reached the hands of the cartels as a result, and Issa said the top two ATF officials were briefed the program regularly.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/20/us.fast.and.furious/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
________________________ ________
obama/Holder - culture of corruption/incompetence/treason
-
Rep. Issa Compares Holder Gun Running Scandal to 'Iran Contra' (VIDEO)
FoxNation.com ^ | June 20 | Staff
NBC News Panel Left Stunned...House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) appeared on MSNBC's ‘Morning Joe' this morning to discuss the administration's so-called anti-gun trafficking program known as ‘Fast and Furious.' Issa said the program "looks like Iran Contra," and began almost immediately after Pres. Obama's inauguration. Issa says the plan was intentional: to let illegal guns walk across the border ‘to see where the weapons would end up....it was like letting go of the steering wheel and seeing where the car would end up, but not grabbing it before it leaves the road.'
(Excerpt) Read more at nation.foxnews.com ...
________________________ _____________________
Let Obama and holder cell share a cell for this.
Hey you morons and leftist dupes - is this what you voted for?
Fucking idiots
-
So here's the query... Is this this a CT type thing, where they would do this to be able to ban assault weapons in the future? Let's show that these illegal guns are from the US and we can push our anit-gun stance on the population.
-
So here's the query... Is this this a CT type thing, where they would do this to be able to ban assault weapons in the future? Let's show that these illegal guns are from the US and we can push our anit-gun stance on the population.
YES! ! ! ! !
Remember when that communist traitor obama and Hillary were out there demonizing gun dealers on the border and trying to institute longer wait periods and other restrictions claiming that gun dealers were shipping 90% of the guns over to Mexico?
That was the whole point! Notice DEA was not in on this as well so far as I can tell?
This whole mess goes right to obama and I hope he and holder are not only impeached, but imprisoned since an agent died as a result of their little stunt.
-
So here's the query... Is this this a CT type thing, where they would do this to be able to ban assault weapons in the future? Let's show that these illegal guns are from the US and we can push our anit-gun stance on the population.
AND/OR
Is this an effort to keep our inflated border/ATF budgets?
-
If this is the case, and they did this for the purposes of showing why the ATF needs money and or the purpose of banning weapons... I too hope they are found guilty of conspiracy and are impeached and held criminally liable.
-
AND/OR
Is this an effort to keep our inflated border/ATF budgets?
::) ::) ::)
Funny - cause the agents themselves did not agree with this but were ordered from DOJ and the to people in C to do this.
Another 240 fail.
Face it - your messiah most likely orchestrated this whole thing to impose AWB2, all while you kneepadded and sucked his cock for 2 years without hestitation.
Bro - yes or no - when he came to Ft. Meyers in 2009 - did he slip you a C note or something?
-
If this is the case, and they did this for the purposes of showing why the ATF needs money and or the purpose of banning weapons... I too hope they are found guilty of conspiracy and are impeached and held criminally liable.
They've been complaining that Obama hasn't given enough $ to them for their operations... now we hear they've been secretly letting guns get into the hands of their enemies.
It's similar to the "ct" that we give the taleban $ and weapons to "play nice" or just to keep the war going because so many companies are getting rich off it.
Sure, it's just a CT. But the more you see shit like this - govt approval of shitloads of guns going directly to hands of gangs... well, you have to wonder... are they the bouncer starting a fight in the name of job security?
-
Funny - cause the agents themselves did not agree with this but were ordered from DOJ and the to people in C to do this.
Oh, I see. Cause if the agents DID agree with it, they'd admit it to CNN. LMAO!
-
They've been complaining that Obama hasn't given enough $ to them for their operations... now we hear they've been secretly letting guns get into the hands of their enemies.
It's similar to the "ct" that we give the taleban $ and weapons to "play nice" or just to keep the war going because so many companies are getting rich off it.
Sure, it's just a CT. But the more you see shit like this - govt approval of shitloads of guns going directly to hands of gangs... well, you have to wonder... are they the bouncer starting a fight in the name of job security?
Nice deflection. Too bad we see through your bs.
obama/Holder/Hillary did this to get AWB2 and you know it.
Stop kneepadding.
-
Oh, I see. Cause if the agents DID agree with it, they'd admit it to CNN. LMAO!
Do you even read anything? Many of the agents were ordered to "stand down" and many of te gun stores were forced to go through with the sales.
Stop kneepadding obama.
-
Many of the agents were ordered to "stand down" Stop kneepadding obama.
who gave that order?
-
who gave that order?
240 - before spamming this thead with more CT's, do me a favor - start from my first post and read the articles I have posted on this.
-
240 - before spamming this thead with more CT's, do me a favor - start from my first post and read the articles I have posted on this.
Quotes from ATF managers. And anonymous ATF officials.
Who gave this order?
You said the agents were ordered to stand down. What is the name of the official that gave this order?
-
Read the damn thread! It came from washington dc! They apparently had a monitor allowing the head the watch all of this from his office.
To believe holder did not know of this is beyond ludicrous.
Additionally - it looks like holder committed perjury as well.
I also believe hillary and obama are up to their eyeballs in this well
Obama gave a detailed speech in 2009 on mexican guns and the border while this was going on.
No way in hell he was not briefed on this.
-
Acting ATF Chief Facing Pressure to Resign Over Botched Gun Operation (The cover-up begins)
abc ^ | 6/20/2011 | JASON RYAN
Posted on June 20, 2011 6:01:06 PM EDT by tobyhill
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives acting Director Kenneth Melson is facing pressure to resign over a poorly run gun-trafficking operation blamed for putting weapons in the hands of a border agent's killers.
One of the three ATF agents who blew the whistle on the program, dubbed "Fast and Furious," told a Congressional committee hearing last week that rather than shutting down the illegal gun trade to drug cartels, the operation helped arm them.
"ATF is supposed to be the sheepdog that protects against the wolves that prey upon our southern border," ATF Agent John Dodson said. "Rather than meet the wolf head-on, we sharpened its teeth and added number to its claws, all the while we sat idly by -- watching, tracking and noting as it became a more efficient killer."
Under "Fast and Furious," ATF agents recorded and tracked straw purchases of weapons and allowed the guns to "walk" across the U.S. border into Mexico in an effort to locate major weapons traffickers, rather than catching the low-level buyers.
The operation took a tragic toll when two weapons found on the scene where Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered were linked to the ATF program.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
-
Ron Paul Issues Statement on ATF Gun Scandal
businesswire.com ^ | 20 June, 2011 | Ron Paul
LAKE JACKSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, 2012 GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul commented on the recent revelations about the federal government’s botched program to track gun sales. See statement below.
“The ATF has a long history of abusing our Second Amendment rights, so I was glad to see Congressman Issa demanding answers on the Project “Gunwalker”
“The ATF has a long history of abusing our Second Amendment rights, so I was glad to see Congressman Issa demanding answers on the Project “Gunwalker” scandal.
“My hope is that the recent hearing will further expose the ATF's and Attorney General Eric Holder's assaults on law-abiding gun owners, and more people will start questioning the need for unconstitutional agencies like the ATF that exist solely to infringe on American citizens' God-given right to keep and bear arms.”
-
Has Romney issued a similiar condemnation?
-
Has Romney issued a similiar condemnation?
Don't think so. romney is my least favorite of all of them. at least Huntsman is honest about his lib beliefs.
-
Don't think so. romney is my least favorite of all of them. at least Huntsman is honest about his lib beliefs.
maybe a better way to phrase my Q...
Which 2012 potential candidates have have the courage to come fwd with direct criticism of the atf and this project?
-
maybe a better way to phrase my Q...
Which 2012 potential candidates have have the courage to come fwd with direct criticism of the atf and this project?
Paul for sure, and i'm sure Bachmann will pipe in on this. The the others not so much.
-
A 'Fast and Furious' border fiasco
NY Post ^ | June 19, 2011 | Michael A. Walsh
There's a war along the Mexican border all right, but it's not necessarily the one you're thinking of. In fact, this one has spread all the way to the halls of Congress.
This week, the Obama administration is expected to fire Kenneth Melson, the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- tossing him under the bus as a symbolic gesture to a congressional committee headed by Rep. Daryl Issa (R-Calif.).
Issa's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating an insane ATF operation -- a supposed sting that involved the deliberate funneling of thousands of weapons to ultra-violent Mexican drug cartels in 2009-10.
The op's name, "Fast and Furious," came from the series of movies about an undercover drag racer working for the FBI -- which gives you some idea of the lack of seriousness behind this cockamamie scam.
The Justice Department, which oversees the ATF, says the idea was to allow the sale of handguns, AK-47s and .50 caliber rifles to so-called "straw purchasers," who'd then pass them along to the cartels. In theory, ATF agents would then trace the extent of the smuggling networks in an effort to stop the illegal cross-border gun trade.
--snip--
Oops No. 2: The gangs used the weapons for what you'd expect. At least two American agents have been killed with Fast and Furious guns...
--snip--
In the meantime, ranchers have been shot and property trashed, and the lives of Border Patrol and ICE agents have been snuffed out in the line of duty.
The Issa hearings are just scratching the surface of a larger scandal -- Washington's consistent, bipartisan refusal to fulfill its constitutional duty to secure the country's borders.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
-
Agent Terry’s Family May Sue the ATF Under the Federal Tort Claims Act
The Truth About Guns ^ | 3 February, 2011 | Chris Dumm
________________________ ________________________ ___________________
What in the blue blazes is going on with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)? Are we permitted to ask, in all seriousness, if there are any adults in charge there? Ever since the murder of Border Patrol Agent Terry in a December shootout with Mexican smugglers, and the revelation that ATF has been approving questionable arms purchases which U.S. gun dealers had red-flagged as illegal straw-man purchases, the agency has been in full spin/damage-control mode. And now the shit has really hit the fan: ATF has finally admitted that the guns used in Agent Terry’s murder were among the guns that AFTE had been ‘monitoring.’
Against the full might and, ehem, majesty of the ATFE, the press seems to have little influence. Instead of coming clean with the facts, they’ve earned the wrath of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) by clamping down on whistleblowers who spoke to the senator’s staffers. The FBI has lent a hand in this skullduggery, declining to honor to FOIA requests from the press and refusing to even release the names of the four Mexican nationals held in connection with the murder.
What we do know is this: Brian Terry, a Border Patrol agent and U.S. Marine veteran, was murdered on American soil by foreign nationals using rifles that were illegally purchased a year ago by straw-man buyers at an Arizona gun store. We also know that ATF has been instructing U.S. dealers to proceed with the sale of guns to illegal straw purchasers, even after the dealers had specifically warned them that they appeared to be illegal. We know that two of these ‘monitored’ guns were recovered at the scene of Agent Terry’s murder.
The ATF has attempted to portray these illegal sales as part of a ‘sting’ operation, but this explanation falls flat on its face. As a criminal defense lawyer, I’ve read God-knows how many police reports of ‘sting’ drug buys, so I can tell you how the cops work a sting operation.
It goes like this: the cops suspect Mr. X of being a drug dealer, so they arrange to buy some drugs from him. An undercover cop (or a snitch with a wire) will go to the meeting with Mr. X. They’ll flash the money, get the drugs, and skedaddle. As soon as they do, the police tactical unit descends on the scene in force and in full entry gear, and nabs Mr. X. The drugs are recovered and put in the evidence locker.
As a variation on this theme, the cops might conduct several ‘buys’ from Mr. X and then either 1) Nail him with multiple felony charges, or 2) Threaten him with multiple felony charges and scare the crap out of him so he’ll ‘flip’ and help bring down his own suppliers, in exchange for leniency. No matter how many ‘buys’ occur, the drugs go in the evidence locker.
There are also ‘reverse stings’ where the suspect gets nabbed not for selling drugs, but for buying them from the undercover agent. (Prostitution busts often work this way as well.) But whether it’s a ‘sting’ or a ‘reverse sting’, the cops never allow any illegal drugs to actually go out on the street. Ever. If they buy drugs from Mr. X, they put them in the evidence locker until trial. If they sell drugs to Mr. X, they bust the scumbag as soon as the deal is complete. Whatever happens, they keep track of the drugs and put them in the evidence locker.
This is what the ATFE failed to do. They put these guns in criminal hands, and then they lost track of them. For a year. In order to illustrate the magnitude of this disaster, let’s pretend this was a drug operation instead of a gunrunning operation.
Imagine what would happen if your local narcotics squad set up a reverse-sting operation to nab Mr. X., the suspected drug dealer, by selling him two or three kilograms of highly refined heroin. Sounds like a good enough idea, right?
Now imagine that the narcotics squad decided not to bust Mr. X right away, but to let him keep the heroin so they could catch him in the act of selling it. It’s starting to sound like a bad idea at this point. And now imagine that they didn’t bother to actually keep track of Mr. X, and that Mr. X then sold the heroin to a teenager. Now it’s a really bad idea. And the teenager died of an overdose. Now it’s a god-damned disaster.
The press will go crazy, City Hall will feel the heat, and heads will roll. Cops will be disciplined, and the police chief will suddenly announce his retirement so he can “spend more time with his family.” Lawsuits will be filed, and the city will cough up several million dollars to the family of the overdosed teenager.
Well, that’s where we’re headed right now. Agent Terry’s loved ones, along with the American people, deserve a full accounting of just how and “why” the ATFE knowingly allowed guns to be illegally sold and delivered to his murderers. The press may not be able to get these answers, yet, but the family can get them by filing a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), the United States is liable for injury or loss of property or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred.
I can’t lay claim to any particular knowledge of Arizona tort law, but my gut feeling is that knowingly allowing a gun to be sold to a straw purchaser for Mexican drug gangs should expose you to the same kind of civil liability as knowingly selling another drink to a driver you suspect to be drunk. You may not intend for anyone to get hurt, but you just can’t go around doing these kinds of things when it’s your statutory duty to enforce our gun laws and not violate them.
If the family files a tort claim, the ATF would have six months to respond to it, either by offering a settlement or by denying liability. After the ATFE’s response, the family would have another six months to file their lawsuit.
I think it would be in the ATFE’s interests to pay off the family quickly and quietly, since an angry family would have the full arsenal of federal civil discovery rules at their disposal if the case headed to trial. Subpoenas and depositions of ATF personnel, and far-reaching demands for ATF documents could reveal secrets that might spell ruin for the agency.
Here’s hoping, anyway.
-
Paul for sure, and i'm sure Bachmann will pipe in on this. The the others not so much.
would you vote a candidate for president who didn't have the balls to address this very important story?
-
would you vote a candidate for president who didn't have the balls to address this very important story?
GOP can run a bag of cow manure and I will vote for it over obama.
-
GOP can run a bag of cow manure and I will vote for it over obama.
oh god, another palin thread...
-
oh god, another palin thread...
oh freaking please. You saw her emails and what she did for the troops before she was even known to anyone. Fuck of with your kneepadding.
And what does it say about you who will vote for the guy who ctually came up with this crazy policy to begin with?
-
oh freaking please. You saw her emails and what she did for the troops before she was even known to anyone. Fuck of with your kneepadding.
And what does it say about you who will vote for the guy who ctually came up with this crazy policy to begin with?
I thought she did pretty well as governor for her brief time. her hubby didn't belong CC'd, but she showed she's a solid manager.
personally, it's my opinion that she's doped up on prescription medication now. That clip of her rambling about paul revere - the look in her eyes was total pill junkie, I believe. Bug twitches, dawg. Can't deny it.
-
I thought she did pretty well as governor for her brief time. her hubby didn't belong CC'd, but she showed she's a solid manager.
personally, it's my opinion that she's doped up on prescription medication now. That clip of her rambling about paul revere - the look in her eyes was total pill junkie, I believe. Bug twitches, dawg. Can't deny it.
more CT's
-
more CT's
I dunno... most people can look at a person and say "Dayum, she ain't quite right".
particularly when she was way more composed, less jittery, and not so fricking nutty in 2008.
Pillled up - that's my belief. you don't need alex jones and it's not a CT. She looks, to me, like a person who is very medicated and high strung - things I don't look for in a President.
-
I dunno... most people can look at a person and say "Dayum, she ain't quite right".
particularly when she was way more composed, less jittery, and not so fricking nutty in 2008.
Pillled up - that's my belief. you don't need alex jones and it's not a CT. She looks, to me, like a person who is very medicated and high strung - things I don't look for in a President.
BTW - Huntsman made me want to vomit today. What a pussy.
-
BTW - Huntsman made me want to vomit today. What a pussy.
what did he do?
Is he essentially Mitt without obamneycare on hus resume?
-
what did he do?
Is he essentially Mitt without obamneycare on hus resume?
His speech at the SOL made me want to puke. going nowhere with that crappola.
-
His speech at the SOL made me want to puke. going nowhere with that crappola.
link?
-
The U.S. Guns In Mexico's Drug War
By Cami McCormick
(CBS/Cami McCormick)
Walking through an evidence room at the ATF headquarters in El Paso, an agent points out a variety of deadly weapons — seized before they could make their way across the border into Mexico.
"This is a typical AK-47," he says, pulling one from the rack. Pointing out another firearm, he explains that it is capable of higher-caliber rounds that can penetrate armored vehicles. Yet another has a huge scope, "which could be used as a sniper-type rifle."
(CBS/Cami McCormick)
And then there is the "cop killer," (at left) a Belgian-made handgun capable of firing armor-piercing ammunition.
These are the weapons of Mexico's drug war.
With the murder rate in Chihuahua State (which includes Ciudad Juarez) going from 600 in 2007 to more than 2,700 in 2008, ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Division, Michael Golson, puts the blame squarely on "firearms trafficking."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a visit to Mexico, said Wednesday that America's inability to prevent weapons being smuggled across the border is causing the deaths of Mexican police officers, soldiers and civilians. (Read a full report on Clinton's visit.)
Now, the ATF is about to get some reinforcements under an initiative announced this week by the Obama administration. The money will help track down who is buying these weapons and from whom.
"We know for a fact that a lot of the weapons are coming from firearms dealers," Golson said. "They're coming from gun shows and flea markets." Often, he says, private collectors are selling their weapons because "they don't have the same restrictions."
Complicating things for ATF agents, the weapons often change hands before crossing the border. After which they can fetch a hefty profit.
"You're going to spend $8,000 and sell them for $20,000 or $25,000 down in Mexico," according to an agent who wished to be identified only as Steve.
While much of the gun violence has, until now, involved one drug cartel battling another, there is concern these heavily-armed organizations could turn their weapons on Mexican forces who have flooded the border area, and the war could enter a new phase.
"They have high quality weapons," Golson said, referring to the powerful cartels. "I won't necessarily say they're better than what the Mexican soldiers have, but they're compatible. They have pretty heavy fire power, military style weapons."
Enough to threaten the Mexican military?
"Sure," Golson said. "There are enough weapons going in. It could be a definite challenge for the Mexican military."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This story was filed by CBS Radio News correspondent Cami McCormick.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-4893905-503543.html#ixzz1PvnpHD6K
________________________ ____
This is from 2009.
Impeach Hillary, Obama and holder
-
Gunwalker: From Obama’s Inauguration to Issa’s Report
Pajamas Media ^ | June 20, 2011 | Bob Owens
________________________ ________________________ ___________
The terrible gun policy and administration lies that have led to the scandal of scandals.
Major scandals don’t always have the most dramatic beginnings. Andrew Johnson was impeached for replacing the sitting secretary of war; Richard Nixon’s collapse started with a breaking and entering. Bill Clinton’s infamy was guaranteed for quibbling over the definition of a common verb.
It now appears that high-ranking officials in the Obama administration may be writing the end of their careers and risking a life behind bars by arguing about the technical definition of “walking” firearms.
“Gunwalker” now involves the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); its parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ); the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and the White House itself. But to understand the depth of the scandal you must return to its roots at the beginning of the Obama adminstration.
Within weeks of President Obama’s inauguration in January of 2009, newly installed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder began to craft the meme that Mexican drug cartel violence was rooted in what they view as lax American gun laws. By February 4, we were hearing the infamous “90 percent lie,” the administration’s false accusation that 90 percent of the guns used in cartel crime could be traced to U.S. gun shops.
The assertion was not based upon the total percentage of civilian-origin firearms captured from Mexican cartels and traced back to U.S. gun shops, but upon the small percentage of weapons that the Mexican government saw markings on which indicated they could have come from or through the States. Only this much smaller percentage of guns were sent to the ATF for tracing. Unsurprisingly, a large percentage of guns with U.S. markings did come from the U.S., but they were a small fraction of the total number of guns confiscated by Mexican authorities.
How large was the discrepancy between the Obama administration’s lie and reality?
Mexico has more than 300,000 confiscated weapons locked in vaults. Mexico has asked the U.S. government to trace just a small fraction of those, including just 11,000 in 2007-2008, of which a little more than half — close to 6,000 — were successfully traced. This means roughly 5,000 of the 11,000 submitted could not be traced at all. Of those 6,000 guns that could be traced, 5,114 were traced to the U.S.
It is unknown how many of those traced weapons were purchased in U.S. gun shops, how many were stolen, and how many were Mexican military weapons sold to cartels by deserting Mexican soldiers.
A few thousand firearms out of more than 300,000 doesn’t make for a good crisis, so the Obama administration lied: again and again they pushed the 90 percent lie in the media, hoping to spur calls for gun control.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tipped the administration’s hand just a little more than a month into Obama’s term, using cartel violence as an excuse to push for reinstatement of the failed Clinton-era “assault weapons” ban. The ban, part of the 1994 crime bill, outlawed several firearms by name and limited the number of certain other cosmetic features that politicians thought were scary, even though they did not have anything to do with a firearm’s rate of fire or accuracy. Examples of the cosmetic features banned included bayonet lugs, pistol grips, and barrel shrouds. Manufacturers released the exact same firearms, sans the offending cosmetics, the very next day with no reduction in lethality. The result of this pseudo-ban was to make these firearms more attractive to Americans, who purchased these weapons in far greater numbers than they ever had before.
The ban also stopped the new manufacture of standard capacity and high capacity magazines, but did nothing to address the ownership or sales of existing magazines. Wholesalers and retailers had millions of magazines in their warehouses, and they were available for retail, catalog, mail-order, and internet purchase throughout the life of the ban.
The “law of unintended consequences” also resulted in handgun manufacturers deciding that if they were going to be stuck dealing with an entirely arbitrary magazine capacity limit of ten rounds, then they would make the smallest ten-shot pistols imaginable. Because of the 1994 ban, we have an entirely new class of powerful subcompact centerfire pistols, and entirely new gun companies dedicated to better serving that market.
After the Obama administration was firmly rebuffed, they were forced to publicly withdraw their call for a reinstatement of the ban in March, though they still pushed the 90 percent lie.
By April, the administration began shifting resources to the border states as part of a “federal blitz,” and announced to great fanfare that they were going to step up efforts to stop gun and drug trafficking across the border — portraying American gun dealers as a key part of the problem. The political messaging being pushed by the White House through the DOJ, the DHS, and the ATF was so overt that by late April, the National Rifle Association warned their members about the scapegoating.
In August, Acting ATF Director Ken Melson signed an agreement with the Mexican government to interdict gun smugglers moving weapons from the United States into Mexico. We now know that that feigned agreement was a farce, as a little more than a month later Operation Fast and Furious was forcing U.S. law enforcement agents to deceive Mexican authorities about their interdiction efforts. The administration allowed roughly 2,000 firearms to walk across the border beginning in October of 2009.
The eventual — perhaps inevitable — death of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent killed by criminals armed with at least two “walked” AK-pattern semi-automatic rifles finally shut the program down in December of 2010. The shooting death of an American cop was the final straw for the ATF whistleblower who exposed the program, which may also have contributed to an estimated 150 or more Mexican police and soldier shootings, and many of civilians. Had a whistleblower come forward earlier, all might have been alive today.
You can read more about the timeline of what happened after Gunwalker was exposed on several blogs (this is a good rundown), and you will find calls for those responsible for this nightmare to be removed from office. Acting ATF Director Ken Melson will be the first official likely dismissed as a result of Gunwalker, but there are significant indications that more senior administration officials knew about and perhaps have lied about their knowledge of the program.
This operation could not have taken place without the cooperation of the Department of Homeland Security — DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano should bear responsibility for her agency’s actions. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has apparently lied to Congress about when he knew of Gunwalker, and considering the scope of the operation it is implausible that he was not involved in its implementation.
It is only reasonable to believe that knowledge of this operation did not stop with cabinet-level officials. If the directors of so many executive branch agencies were involved in this scandal, as it appears they might have been, it is plausible that knowledge of this scheme — perhaps the origination? — came directly from the White House.
One might ask what our laws demand of officials complicit in a plot that used the power of U.S. law enforcement agencies to pressure gun shops into selling weapons to narco-terrorists. If this is indeed the case, impeachment and resignations are just the beginning of the process of seeking justice. Those who authorized this operation and facilitated what was essentially a gunrunning operation to achieve what appears to be a political goal may very well be guilty of a number of felonies — and wanted for extradition to face justice in Mexican courts as well.
Under Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution, any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to its enemies by giving them aid and comfort is guilty of the act of treason. Gunwalker supplied narco-terrorists on our southern border with thousands of firearms.
Less dramatic, but more damning, is the fact that those that authorized this operation betrayed our ally Mexico, and are arguably accessories to more than 150 shootings of Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers.
The Constitution puts no one above the law. If Melson, Napolitano, Holder, Obama and their staffs were complicit in a plot to arm narco-terrorists that led to hundreds dead and wounded, they must face justice.
________________________ ___
HILLARY - OBAMA - HOLDER = TRAITORS AND CRIMINALS.
240 - THESE ARE YOUR HEROS - YOU VOTED FOR THIS. CONGRATS BRO. GOOD JOB.
-
"240 - THESE ARE YOUR HEROS - YOU VOTED FOR THIS. CONGRATS BRO. GOOD JOB. "
Lies.
-
Justice Officials in 'Panic Mode' as Hearing Nears on Failed Anti-Gun Trafficking Program
By William La Jeunesse
Published June 10, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Officials at the Department of Justice are in "panic mode," according to multiple sources, as word spreads that congressional testimony next week will paint a bleak and humiliating picture of Operation Fast and Furious, the botched undercover operation that left a trail of blood from Mexico to Washington, D.C.
The operation was supposed to stem the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexico by allowing so-called straw buyers to purchase guns legally in the U.S. and later sell them in Mexico, usually to drug cartels.
Instead, ATF documents show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms knowingly and deliberately flooded Mexico with assault rifles. Their intent was to expose the entire smuggling organization, from top to bottom, but the operation spun out of control and supervisors refused pleas from field agents to stop it.
Only after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died did ATF Agent John Dodson blow the whistle and expose the scandal.
"What people don't understand is how long we will be dealing with this," Dodson told Fox News back in March. "Those guns are gone. You can't just give the order and get them back. There is no telling how many crimes will be committed before we retrieve them."
But now the casualties are coming in.
Mexican officials estimate 150 of their people have been shot by Fast and Furious guns. Police have recovered roughly 700 guns at crime scenes, 250 in the U.S. and the rest in Mexico, including five AK-47s found at a cartel warehouse in Juarez last month.
A high-powered sniper rifle was used to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter. Two other Romanian-made AK-47s were found in a shoot-out that left 11 dead in the state of Jalisco three weeks ago.
The guns were traced to the Lone Wolf Gun Store in Glendale, Ariz., and were sold only after the store employees were told to do so by the ATF.
It is illegal to buy a gun for anyone but yourself. However, ATF's own documents show it allowed just 15 men to buy 1,725 guns, and 1,318 of those were after the purchasers officially became targets of investigation.
Arizona gun store owners say they were explicitly told by the ATF to sell the guns, sometimes 20, 30, even up to 40 in a single day to single person.
And those orders, from at least one ATF case agent, are on audio recording.
"We would say, 'Do you (the ATF) want us to stop selling, is there something we should do here?'" Brad DeSayes, owner of J&G Gun Sales in Prescott, said. "And they would say, 'No, no, no, keep selling - just tell us after the fact.'"
Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, holds a hearing Wednesday into Operation Fast and Furious.
The hearing is billed as "Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes," and the following are among the details expected in testimony:
- The ATF allowed and encouraged five Arizona gun store owners to sell some 1,800 weapons to buyers known to them as gun smugglers.
- It installed cameras inside the gun stores to record purchases made by those smugglers.
- It hid GPS trackers inside gun stocks and watched the weapons go south on computer screens.
- It obtained surveillance video from parking lots and helicopters showing straw buyers transferring their guns from one car to another.
- It learned guns sold in Phoenix were recovered only when Mexico police requested "trace data," which is obtained from their serial number.
The first witness in Wednesday's hearing is Sen. Charles Grassley, who will describe what his investigative team learned from four months of interviews and thousands of documents. He will be followed by three members of Brian Terry's family, three ATF agents and Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, who only months ago insisted the agency did not let guns go south to Mexico, a claim contradicted by field agents in Group 7, the actual agents who ran the operation in Phoenix.
Print Close
URL
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/09/justice-officials-in-panic-mode-as-new-testimony-is-expected-to-reveal-depth/
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/09/justice-officials-in-panic-mode-as-new-testimony-is-expected-to-reveal-depth/#ixzz1Pvtk1Q5v
________________________ _________________
Obama & Holder have blood on their hands.
-
ATF Hosts Its First 'Gay Pride' Observance
CNSNews ^ | June 22, 2011 | Susan Jones
(CNSNews.com) - The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), under fire for allowing U.S.-purchased guns to flow to Mexican criminals, celebrated its first gay pride event on Wednesday.
The celebration at ATF’s Washington headquarters was intended to recognize the “accomplishments and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans to ATF and the nation, and to promote awareness of the LGBT culture,” ATF said in a news release.
"ATF works to ensure sexual orientation discrimination and prejudice are not tolerated in our workplace," said Acting Director Kenneth Melson. "ATF is an equal employment opportunity environment where effective and equitable participation is encouraged.”
The keynote speaker, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), spoke about his experiences serving as an openly gay congressman.
ATF says it has created an LGBT affinity group called "ATF Pride" with the primary goal of ensuring equal employment opportunity and enhancing development opportunities for LGBT employees at the agency.
-
Grassley Disputes Firearms Figures from the ATF
U.S. Senate ^ | June 21, 2011 | Charles E. Grassley
Article
For Immediate Release
June 21, 2011
Grassley Disputes Firearms Figures from the ATF
WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today said that firearms data released last week by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was a selective release of certain statistical data that inaccurately reflects the scope and source of the problem of firearms in Mexico and the drug trafficking organization violence.
Grassley’s letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson cited additional statistical breakdowns and a Department of State cable that dispels myths about the source of weapons trafficked to Mexico. The unclassified cable includes sections such as: “Myth: An Iron Highway of Weapons Flows from the U.S.” and “Myth: The DTOs (Drug Trafficking Organizations) are Mostly Responsible.”
Grassley said when looking at a breakdown of the numbers, it’s clearly inaccurate to assert that 70 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico can be traced to a United States based gun dealer.
Grassley cited additional statistics in his letter to Melson. In the letter, Grassley said that by looking at more specific data provided to his office, it was clear that of the 26,813 weapons traced in 2009, only 5,800 actually traced back to Federal Firearms Licensees.
“The implication made by the ATF and various press reports is that the firearms come directly from U.S. manufacturers or U.S. Federal Firearms Licensees selling guns to drug trafficking organizations. Not only does this paint a grossly inaccurate picture of the situation, but it appears that the State Department disagrees with this portrayal,” Grassley said.
In his letter, Grassley provides a further break down of data of firearms tracing information, including a catchall category called “No Final Sale Dealer” in the ATF’s own eTrace system, which means the firearms did not trace back to a Federal Firearms Licensee. Astonishingly, nearly 78 percent of firearms traced in 2009 and 66 percent of firearms traced in 2010 were not traced to a United States licensed gun dealer. Grassley points out that these guns instead are likely sold to foreign countries or militaries requiring approval of the State Department and Homeland Security.
To make matters worse, this category includes firearms in the ATF’s Suspect Gun Database – a category which would include the nearly 2,000 firearms that are known to be part of the ATF’s ill-advised Fast and Furious strategy where the ATF knowingly authorized firearm sales to straw purchasers before the weapons were trafficked to Mexican drug trafficking organizations.
ATF needed a distraction before last week’s hearing. Unfortunately, nobody looked closely at the numbers to determine that this was a very selective release of information intended to distract people from the disastrous policy to let guns fall into the hands of straw purchasers, only to be often found on the other side of the border,” Grassley said.
Grassley has led the oversight efforts into the ATF’s reckless strategy to allow guns to fall into the hands of straw purchasers. He began his investigation in January and has yet to receive any substantive information from the Justice Department and the ATF. Grassley has been joined by Congressman Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to investigate Operation Fast and Furious.
A copy of the text of the letter can be found below. A signed copy of the letter can be found by clicking here.(PDF)
June 16, 2011
Via Electronic Transmission
Kenneth Melson
Acting Director
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives
U.S. Department of Justice
99 New York Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20226
Dear Acting Director Melson:
I write today in response to a June 10, 2011, article in The Wall Street Journal titled, “Mexican Guns Tied to U.S.”, which cites a letter you sent to Senator Diane Feinstein, the Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control (“Caucus”). As the Co-Chairman of the Caucus, and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary (“Committee”), I have been investigating serious allegations raised by whistleblowers within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that agents knowingly allowed weapons to be sold to straw purchasers who then transferred those weapons to Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (“DTOs”). These allegations were the subject of two Congressional hearings this week and the timing of the release of this information raises questions about why the ATF would choose to release this information publicly now. Further, after reviewing the data presented in the article, I have questions about why ATF provided some select information, but not a more detailed analysis that would help Congress, and the American people, better understand the causes and sources of illegal firearms in Mexico.
Federal law prohibits the ATF from releasing firearm trace data or multiple handgun sales reports, but it does not prohibit the release of aggregate statistical data on illegal gun trafficking. However, I am concerned that the selective release of certain statistical data without further clarification and categorization may inaccurately reflect the scope and source of the problem of firearms in Mexico and the DTO violence. For example, the article states that ATF traced firearms in Mexico that were submitted for tracing by the Government of Mexico (“GOM”) 21,313 firearms in 2009 and 7,971 firearms in 2010. The article further adds that of the firearms traced, 14,213 in 2009 were manufactured in the U.S. or imported to the U.S. from other countries. The article adds that 6,291 firearms in 2010 were either manufactured in the U.S. or imported from other countries. Taken together, these numbers provided the basis for the general estimate that 70% of firearms provided to the ATF from the GOM were traced back to the U.S.
The implication the article makes is that these firearms must come directly from U.S. manufacturers or U.S. Federal Firearms Licensees (“FFLs”) selling guns to DTO members who smuggle the guns over the Southwest border. Unfortunately, this information paints a grossly inaccurate picture of the situation.
First and foremost, it is worth noting that the firearms data discussed in the article is based upon only the firearms that were submitted by the GOM to ATF for tracing. According to a May 6, 2009, article written by the Associated Press, over 305,424 confiscated weapons are locked in vaults in Mexico.[1] The weapons submitted for tracing represent only a small percentage of the number of weapons found to be part of the DTO related crime in Mexico. Further, there has been significant evidence in the media recently regarding the proliferation of weapons in Mexico smuggled out of Central America. For example, at a recent hearing before the Caucus on Central American security cooperation we heard testimony from witnesses that corrupt officers with access to unsecured arsenals in Guatemala and Honduras were an important source of weapons. In one recent media report, they discussed how over 1,100 fragmentation grenades, M-60 machine guns, and over a dozen grenade launchers were recovered in Guatemala at an alleged safe house of the Zetas DTO. That same article added that the Zetas had stolen over 500 weapons from a Guatemalan military base between 2007 and 2008.
Additional evidence regarding the source of weapons in Mexico is contained in an unclassified cable from the U.S. Department of State (“DOS”) dated July 2, 2010, obtained by my office and attached to this letter. The cable, titled, “Mexico Weapons Trafficking – The Blame Game” seeks to dispel rumors about the source of weapons trafficked to Mexico. The unclassified cable includes sections such as: “Myth: An Iron Highway of Weapons Flows from the U.S.,” “Myth: The DTOs Are Mostly Responsible,” “Myth: Mexico Aggressively Investigating Weapons Confiscated,” “Myth: Mexico Methodically Registers and Tracks Weapons,” and “Myth: The GOM Justice System is Tough on Violators of Gun Laws.” While this cable is very candid about the true problem of weapons smuggling inside Mexico, the cover emails forwarding this cable suggest that the ATF and officials associated with the ATF disagreed.
In fact, one email written by Special Agent in Charge William Newell states, “I could go on and on but once our ‘Fast and Furious’ case breaks it will change this.” Unfortunately, it now appears that Special Agent in Charge Newell’s prediction was correct, but instead of an “Iron Highway” operating on its own, it was ATF who fueled the flow of weapons through its “Fast and Furious” investigation which knowingly sanctioned the sale of nearly 2,000 firearms to straw purchasers.
I understand that agents working on tracing weapons in Mexico back to the U.S. routinely instruct GOM authorities to only submit weapons for tracing that have a likelihood of tracing back to the U.S. The purpose of this policy is to direct resources to tracing firearms that may have a U.S. nexus, instead of simply wasting resources on tracing firearms that will not trigger a U.S. source. So, based upon this background information, it is not surprising that reviewing a sample of weapons that is purposefully directed to increase the likelihood of U.S. generated weapons would in fact skew toward the direction of making it look like U.S. gun dealers provide more weapons than they actually do.. However, further discussion of the data that is presented in the article is warranted.
Looking specifically at the information provided by the ATF to Senator Feinstein and the The Wall Street Journal raises some questions when compared more detailed data provided to my office. ATF actually traced 26,813 firearms in 2009 and 9,443 in 2010. Further, that data indicates that of those firearms actually submitted for tracing, a vast majority of those firearms did not come from FFLs (either U.S. based or Mexican based). In fact, of the 26,813 weapons traced in 2009, only 5,800 actually traced back to U.S. or Mexican FFLs. Table 1 illustrates a more detailed breakdown of the firearms data for both 2009 and 2010. The most noteworthy portion of the information is that nearly 78% of firearms traced in 2009 and 66% of firearms traced in 2010 were assigned to a catchall category “No Final Sale Dealer” which means the firearms did not trace back to a United States FFL. This category of firearms includes firearms that have no nexus with U.S. commerce. It also includes firearms where the only nexus to U.S. commerce is that they were manufactured by U.S. companies. This means they are not sold by FFLs in the United States. Instead, they may be sold to foreign countries or militaries requiring approval of the State Department and Homeland Security. Additionally, this category includes firearms in the ATF’s Suspect Gun Database—a category which would include nearly 2,000 firearms as part of ATF’s Fast and Furious Investigation where the ATF knowingly authorized firearm sales to straw purchasers before the weapons were trafficked to Mexican DTOs.
Table 1: Firearms Tracing Information for 2009 and 2010
Year
Number of Firearms Submitted for Tracing by Government of Mexico
Number of Firearms Traced to Federal Firearm Licensees (FFLs)
Number of Firearms Assigned to “No Final Sale Dealer”
2009
26,813
5,800 (22%)
21,013 (78%)
2010
9,443
3,176 (34%)
6,267 (66%)
Because the numbers provided to my office indicate that the data provided to Senator Feinstein and The Wall Street Journal may not be entirely accurate and because further questions and breakdowns of that data are necessary for Congress to make an informed decision about the sources of weapons that are fueling the DTO related violence in Mexico, I ask that you provide responses to the following questions:
(1) Of the 21,013 firearms in the “No Final Sale Dealer” category for 2009, how many of those firearms can be traced back to military sales to the GOM? How many can be traced to the military of Guatemala? How many can be traced to the military of Honduras? How many can be traced to the military of El Salvador? How many can be traced to other Central American and South American militaries? How many can be traced to other foreign militaries? How many are in that category because they were in the Suspect Gun Database?
(2) Of the 6,267 firearms in the “No Final Sale Dealer” category for 2010, how many of those firearms can be traced back to military sale to the GOM? How many can be traced to the military of Guatemala? How many can be traced to the military of Honduras? How many can be traced to the military of El Salvador? How many can be traced to other Central American and South American militaries? How many can be traced to other foreign militaries? How many are in that category because they were in the Suspect Gun Database?
(3) How many of those weapons in the “No Final Sale Dealer” category for 2009 and 2010 were previously reported lost or stolen?
(4) Has the ATF requested access to the 305,424 firearms held by the GOM military vault? How many of those firearms have been traced? How many of those firearms would trace back to the GOM and the Mexican military?
(5) Data indicates that the top source dealer for illegal firearms traced in Mexico for 2009 was “Direccion General De Industria Milita” or the Directorate General of Military Industry in Mexico. They provided 120 firearms that were later traced back, likely after a crime. Why does this entity have a U.S. Federal Firearms License? Are sales to this and other foreign entities with U.S. FFL’s included in the numbers the ATF provided as being a gun from a “U.S. Source”. If so, why?
(6) Why did the number of trace requests drop significantly from 2009 to 2010, but the percentage trace to U.S. FFLs go up? What is behind this trend?
Accordingly, as Co-Chairman of the Caucus and Ranking Member of the Committee, I request your prompt response to these important questions no later than June 23, 2011.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Co-Chairman, Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Attachment
-30-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] E. Eduardo Castillo, AP Impact: Mexico’s Weapons Cache Stymies Tracing, May 6, 2009, available at http://www. brownsvilleherald.com/common/printer/view.php?db=brownsville&id=97742 (last visited June 13, 2011).
-
http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/23/issa-camp-says-washin... /
A spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told The Daily Caller that the Washington Post is the only news organization to bite on new misleading sentiments from the Justice Department.
<snip>
Issa spokesman Frederick Hill told The Daily Caller the Post is the first newspaper to run these DOJ claims, but not the first one the Justice Department went to with them.
“We have had people who have contacted us before the Washington Post,” Hill said. “They told us people in the Justice Department were trying to push this story and I think a number of publications didn’t think it was credible or, for whatever reason, decided not to run it.”
Hill said there was a briefing that Issa attended back in April 2010 on a similar subject. “There were questions at the time about the number of U.S. weapons that were ending up at Mexican crime scenes,” he said. “Basically, the efforts of the ATF to stop cartels from doing this.”
Did Project Gunrunner or Operation Fast and Furious come up at that briefing at all? Hill says “they certainly did not.”<snip>
“They seem to be drastically shifting their stories, even if the story they’re telling now is just another lie,” Hill said. “For months, they’ve been asserting that they had no knowledge that this was ever happening. Now, it seems like they’re radically trying to change that and assert that not only were they aware of this, but that they were telling members of Congress all about this.”<snip>
The Washington Post also ignored a major part of Hill’s statement when writing their story on the matter. “They left the parts out where we told them that a staff member from Ranking Member Cummings’s , who has been working on the Fast and Furious investigation, was also in that briefing,” Hill told TheDC.
<snip>
On top of all that, one of the two Post reporters in the story’s byline, Sari Horwitz, is a known plagiarist. She plagiarized at least two stories during her reporting on the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords, Arizona Democrat.
________________________ _____________________
Impeachment is more than warranted for Holder
-
‘Gunwalker’ Goes Pravda: White House Unleashes MSM
Pajamas Media ^ | June 23, 2011 | Bob Owens
________________________ ________________________ _______
The Post prints an attack on Issa that no other paper saw fit to run: an anonymous hit job concocted by the Obama administration. And The Times finally talks Gunwalker ... by attacking the GOP. With a debunked lie.
To date, Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley have led the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious: a multi-agency scheme that allowed known straw purchasers to buy an estimated 2,000 firearms and to smuggle them into Mexico, into the hands of the narco-terrorists of Mexican cartels. An estimated 150 Mexican police officers and soldiers have been killed by the weapons.
Issa and Grassley have been operating in a near vacuum, with very little coverage from the media. This is stunning considering the scope of the plot, which seems to have originated at the highest levels of government. But on Tuesday, two of the largest and most influential news organizations finally saw fit to address the matter head-on.
By targeting the messenger.
The Washington Post has printed a character assassination piece targeting Issa which PJM sources confirm had been shopped around to other news outlets and blogs by the Obama administration since the House Oversight Committee hearings last week.
The administration-authored Post story attempts to claim that Rep. Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform which issued the damning report last week about Gunwalker, had been briefed about the program a year ago and had no objections to it at that time.
The evidence for this claim? There isn’t any.
According to a well-placed source, the hit piece the Post ran had been shopped by the administration to several other news organizations. All passed on it, since there was no credible attribution for the story.
Only the Washington Post would run it. Additionally, an article written last week in the Wall Street Journal had already challenged this narrative:
An April 2010 email from an ATF agent in Mexico City to a bureau official, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, discussed plans to provide a classified briefing to Mr. Issa’s own committee about several cases, including Fast and Furious. A spokesman for Mr. Issa said that the congressman wasn’t briefed on specifics of the operation and that staffers who attended the briefing don’t recall the operation being mentioned.
High-level “Cliff’s Notes” briefings of overall programs are often the content of routine briefings, but project-level details — such as the walking of guns to Mexican cartels — would not have been in a typical briefing, if specific projects were mentioned at all.
Contacted for their reaction to this Post hit piece op-ed by PJM, Issa’s staff released the following statement:
For six months, Justice Department officials including Attorney General Holder have denied knowledge that gunwalking in Operation Fast and Furious took place. With the truth now beginning to come out, opponents of this investigation are incredulously trying to assert that Obama administration political appointees at the Justice Department were ignorant — yet Congress was in the know on the details of Operation Fast and Furious.
The April 2010 ATF briefing on weapons smuggling by criminal cartels included a staff member of the Democratic staff of the Oversight Committee who has been working for Ranking Member Cummings on the Fast and Furious investigation. This Democratic staff member has never indicated to Republican staff that he had any prior awareness of the gunwalking that took place in Operation Fast and Furious and the recollections of Republican staff who attended this briefing have already been reported in the Wall Street Journal. This irresponsible and false accusation is indicative of a Justice Department bereft of leadership and rattled by the revelations of its own misconduct.
The New York Times aided the administration pushback by publishing an unsigned op-ed that went to bat for the White House … by blatantly lying. They presented as truth a claim that had been thoroughly debunked — months ago:
If Congressional Republicans are really intent on getting to the bottom of an ill-conceived sting operation along the border by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, they should call President Felipe Calderón of Mexico as an expert witness.
Mr. Calderón has the data showing that the tens of thousands of weapons seized from the Mexican drug cartels in the last four years mostly came from the United States. Three out of five of those guns were battlefield weapons that were outlawed here until the assault weapons ban was allowed to lapse in 2004. To help him stop the bloody mayhem, he is pleading with Washington to re-enact the ban and impose other needed controls.
The Times is once again trying to propagate a variant of Obama’s 90-percent lie.
Perhaps we should be encouraged: they’ve ratcheted down the deception level to a still erroneous 60 percent. The fact remains: no more than eight percent of the weapons recovered from the cartels have originated in the United States, and that figure may still be wildly inflated.
In addition to the blatant statistical falsehood, the editorial attempted to claim that the assault weapons ban that was part of the 1994 crime bill affected anything remotely like a “battlefield weapon.” The law did not ban any real military weaponry.
Not one military weapon.
Nonetheless, the Times did utter a few watered-down admonitions of the Obama administration officials who have hatched the most deadly incompetent law enforcement operation in U.S. history.
The Obama administration is lashing out through its media surrogates against those wishing to discover who was behind the potentially felonious debacle that is Gunwalker. One can only wonder what they are trying to hide, and who they are trying to protect.
________________________ ________________________ _______--
Keep kneepadding you fucking dopes.
-
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/breaking-atf-heeds-issa-s-no-retaliation-warning-by-retaliating
Obama admn sTarting to crack.
-
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110624,0,7283758.story
latimes.com
Federal ATF chief said to resist pressure to step down
Kenneth Melson of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms faces controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns into Mexico. He is said to be eager to testify to Congress.
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
June 24, 2011
________________________ ________________________ _______
The acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is strongly resisting pressure to step down because of growing controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns to flow unchecked into Mexico, according to several federal sources in Washington.
Kenneth E. Melson, who has run the bureau for two years, is reportedly eager to testify to Congress about the extent of his and other officials' involvement in the operation, code-named Fast and Furious.
Melson does not want to be "the fall guy" for the program, under which ATF agents allowed straw purchasers to acquire more than 1,700 AK-47s and other high-powered rifles from Arizona gun dealers, the sources said. The idea was to track the guns to drug cartel leaders. But that goal proved elusive, and the guns turned up at shootings in Mexico, as well as at the slaying in Arizona of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in December.
"He is saying he won't go," said one source close to the situation, who asked for anonymity because high-level discussions with Melson remained fluid. "He has told them, 'I'm not going to be the fall guy on this.' "
Added a second source, who also requested anonymity: "He's resisting. He does not want to go."
Melson has an open invitation to appear on Capitol Hill. So far, he has not been given Justice Department approval to appear before Congress.
This week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said he hoped that Melson would give a full accounting of how the gun operation was conceived and carried out. He also said Melson should resign, and that other senior leaders at ATF and the Justice Department should be held accountable as well.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also is awaiting answers from Melson, and cautioned this week that even if the acting director stepped down, it "would be, by no means, the end of our inquiry."
The Justice Department said it was cooperating with congressional leaders.
"We've been working with the [Issa] committee on interviews, including Melson, and will continue to do that," said Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokesperson.
At ATF headquarters in Washington, officials said Melson "continues to be focused" on leading the agency. His chief spokesman, Scott Thomasson, added, "We are not going to comment on any speculations" about Melson's status as head of the agency.
At a House hearing last week, testimony from ATF agents portrayed Melson as closely involved in overseeing the venture. At one point, according to documents released by Congress, he asked for and received log-in information and a link to an Internet feed in order to watch some of the illegal straw purchases.
richard.serrano@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
________________________ ______________________
BBBBOOOOMMMMMM
-
U.S. AK-47s linked to Mexican attorney's slaying
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gunrunner-20110623,0,6239860.story
A U.S. congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, the controversial federal gun-running surveillance operation, moves to Mexico amid reports that two assault weapons sold in Arizona were found at the scene of a shootout with the suspects in a Mexican attorney's slaying.
His sister of working with a drug cartel and ordering several infamous killings. (Associated Press / October 25, 2010)
By Kim Murphy
June 23, 2011
A congressional investigation into a controversial federal gun-running surveillance operation is moving to Mexico this week amid new reports that two AK-47s sold in Arizona during the operation were found at the scene of a shootout with the suspected killers of a well-known Mexican attorney.
According to testimony provided to investigators with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the two guns were sold to a straw buyer watched by agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who were under orders not to stop the guns from crossing the border. The ATF surveillance program, called Operation Fast and Furious, was supposed to lead to the arrests of high-level drug cartel figures.
Related
Many guns intended for Mexico drug cartels ended up in U.S., agents testify
Report describes gun agents' 'state of panic'
The two guns were subsequently linked to the suspects in the torture and killing of Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez, the brother of Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez, who was then attorney general of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The link was first reported by Fox News.
Gonzalez, kidnapped in October, became well-known across Mexico with the release of a video showing him handcuffed and surrounded by hooded gunmen, making a statement — under obvious duress — that alleged that his sister had been involved ordering killings and in protecting the Juarez drug cartel.
His body was found in November. Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez, who has denied the charges, asserted that her brother had been kidnapped by members of the Sinaloa cartel.
Several municipal police officers arrested in connection with the killing were subsequently released.
"Following Rodriguez's murder, when Mexican police attempted to arrest the suspects, guns with serial numbers tracing back to Operation Fast and Furious were found at [the] scene," a brief oversight committee statement said.
Another source familiar with the investigation said ATF agents learned that the guns were Fast and Furious weapons when their serial numbers were found in a database of information on guns sold to suspect straw buyers being watched under Fast and Furious.
The Mexican government has been notified of the match, the source said. On Friday, oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who has been leading the investigation of the ATF operation with Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), will travel with a bipartisan delegation to Mexico, partly in an attempt to draw the government there further into the investigation.
In a letter this week to Mexico's U.S. ambassador, Arturo Sarukhan, Issa and Grassley requested serial numbers of all firearms recovered in "substantial" violent crimes, along with the numbers of any other weapons that government officials have reason to believe may be connected to the operation.
"This information would be tremendously helpful to us in determining the full scale of the effects of Operation Fast and Furious, which includes the deaths of both Mexican and American citizens," the two lawmakers wrote. "We have a shared interest with you in getting to the bottom of this matter."
Issa will be joined by eight other U.S. lawmakers for meetings Saturday in Mexico City at the federal police command center and also with representatives of the U.S. Embassy.
Mexican officials have not commented on the latest revelations about the two AK-47s linked to the Gonzalez case.
"What I can tell you is there are investigations underway, and as a matter of policy, we don't comment on ongoing investigations. We will wait and see what comes out of those investigations," said Ricardo Alday Gonzalez, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington.
kim.murphy@latimes.com
-
ATF served Special Agent Vince Cefalu with termination paperwork today.
________________________ _______________________
What they have done is disguised reprisal and retaliation as something else to fire him.
What some of you may not know about Vince is that he was a United States Marine, a local police officer and U.S. Customs Agent before he came to ATF. In spite of his sometimes callous methods of expressing himself he has never failed to speak the truth, represent for what is right, fight for justice, and; doing all in the face of those who have the power to take his job of 25 years.
ATF has done everything within their power to break this agent. They have been proactive in the destruction of his reputation, killed his career, ruined his personal finances and have had emmense negative influence on his personal relationships and family members. Why? Because he didn't go along to get along. He didn't shut his mouth when ordered to. He didn't sit back like a coward when he saw things being done wrong, unethically and illegally. Now they are proposing to take the last thing they still have control over but, have yet to act on, his job.
I will say this from personal experience; Vince will stand in the path of a bullet for any good person and do so knowing the personal consequence could be grave but, at the same time being true to his character which is to stand up for people who can't or won't stand up for themselves. I have seen him do it on more than one occasion. And, when I say "bullet" I mean a projectile, AND, all the other various means and methods of attack that could be characterized as a bullet.
I would simply ask that anyone who believes in those traits and/or those who have personally witnessed the risks he has gladly accepted to help them and help reform ATF to weigh in on his behalf.
Vince does not deserve this in any way. It is an open demonstration of the corrupt arrogence of ATF management to ignore and defend those who have committed crimes as members of the agency but in turn, to attack Cefalu. No better example of ATF's double-standards exists than what took place today.
Ken Melson, you own this one as well as your Office of Chief Counsel. Shame on you and you attorneys for engaging in the retaliation you swore to America would not take place on your watch.
Ultimately why is Vince being fired. Because he exposed corruption, blew the whistle and helped launch CleanUpATF. This is ATF's payback.
http://cleanupatf.org/forums/index.php?/topic/213-vince-cefalu-firing
-
Operation Fast and Furious — How the Obama Administration Conned the Washington Post
Pajamas Media ^ | June 24, 2011 | Hans A. von Spakovsky
________________________ _________________
Selling arms to Mexican drug cartels? Misleading the Washington Post? It's all in a day's work for Obama's heavily politicized ATF.
Thanks to Operation Fast and Furious, the incompetence and ineptitude that has infected the Holder Justice Department is becoming more obvious all the time. For department prosecutors (and senior ATF personnel) to approve the sale of firearms to Mexican drug cartels through straw buyers was a deadly misstep.
It led directly to the tragic death of Border Agent Brian Terry. Mexican officials estimate that “150 of their people have been shot by Fast and Furious guns,” Fox News reports. The obdurate refusal of Justice to provide the names of the senior Justice leadership who approved this operation at the recent House hearing held by Rep. Darrel Issa shows the willingness of Justice to cover up its mistakes and defy congressional oversight. As Issa accurately said, this growing scandal “was so felony stupid that it got people killed.”
But Operation Fast and Furious also shows how willing this administration is to deliberately mislead the press and how easily the Washington Post was conned by the administration in a story it published last year.
On December 13, 2010, the Post ran a story about U.S. gun dealers with “the most traces for firearms recovered by police.” The Post included “the names of the dealers, all from border states, with the most traces from guns recovered in Mexico over the past two years.” The Post did not reveal where it got this information, but pointed out that Congress passed a law in 2003 exempting the trace information maintained by the ATF from public disclosure. So the Post had to have gotten this information through a leak directly from the ATF (or by illegally hacking the ATF’s records, a far-fetched and highly unlikely scenario).
Two of the gun dealers the Post’s story assailed were Lone Wolf Trading Co. in Glendale and J&G Sales in Prescott, Ariz. Lone Wolf Trading is number one on the list for Mexican traces; J&G is number three.
However, at the time the ATF was apparently leaking this information to the Post, both of these dealers were cooperating with the ATF in the Fast and Furious Operation. When Fox News talked recently to the owner of J&G, Brad DeSaye, about the ATF’s disastrous operation, he said that when he questioned the ATF about whether the agency wanted the gun shop to sell to the cartel front men, the ATF said, “Keep selling.”
The Post actually interviewed DeSaye over his store’s appearance in the trace records. DeSaye, to his credit, did not reveal the still-secret ATF operation to the Post reporters, even though they were clearly writing a negative story that was potentially embarrassing to DeSaye.
This double-dealing by the ATF is appalling. It was bad enough that the ATF was running a secret operation that had gone off the rails and was supplying dangerous weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels. But then the agency apparently leaked deceptive information on gun sales that put the gun dealers in a bad light, or at a minimum, misled the Post when it should have tried to provide cover for dealers who were following ATF instructions. Indeed, these dealers were showing up in the Mexican trace information because the ATF was telling them to ignore the law and the usual verification procedures and sell guns to the cartels, sometime dozens in a single day to one person.
In an irony that could almost be considered comeuppance to the ATF, the Post story was published the day before Agent Terry was killed. Terry’s death panicked the ATF supervisors who were running Fast and Furious, a panic that was deserved after two of the weapons found at the murder scene were traced to the operation. Yet in a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley on Feb. 4, 2011, DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, the same individual who testified before Issa’s committee, claimed the ATF had not “knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico.” As the whistleblower ATF agents testified, this was patently false.
This apparent leak by the administration to mislead the Washington Post was not a one-time incident. On May 26, just two weeks before the Issa hearing, La Opinión, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States (based in Los Angeles), published a story about the smuggling of guns from America into Mexico. The spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix again specifically named Lone Wolf Trading, which had sold guns at the express direction of the ATF, as being responsible along with other gun dealers for “a great majority of confiscated weapons in crimes on the other side of the border.” This is the same U.S. Attorney’s Office that “encouraged and supported every single facet of Fast and Furious,” according to the Joint Staff Report prepared by Rep. Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley.
There are two final points that should be made about this fiasco. The fact that Holder sent Weich up to testify on June 15 is very revealing to anyone familiar with internal Justice procedure. Weich is the head of the Office of Legislative Affairs, the office tasked with dealing with Congress. It is not a line department directly involved in prosecutions and investigations. The Fast and Furious Operation would have been handled out of the Criminal Division, headed by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, former special counsel to Bill Clinton. Breuer (or Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke) would obviously be the witnesses with the most direct knowledge — particularly the question of who at Justice in the top leadership offices was briefed or asked for approval of the operation.
The only reason for Justice to send Weich was to send someone with no actual knowledge of who approved this operation so he could truthfully testify under oath — as he did despite tough questioning by Issa — that he did not “know the answer to that question.” The fact that the Inspector General is supposedly investigating — one of the other excuses Weich gave for not answering questions — is also not a legitimate reason to withhold information from Congress when it is exercising its constitutional oversight function.
Finally, the most obvious question that Issa, Grassley, and others have been asking is: Why would the administration implement such an obviously perilous, risky, and foolish operation that sent hundreds of dangerous weapons into Mexico?
For a possible answer, recall that in 2009 the Obama administration was making a huge public issue about the flow of guns from American gun dealers into Mexico. President Obama himself erroneously claimed at a joint press conference with President Filipe Calderon in Mexico City on April 16, 2009, that “90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border.” Everyone from William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the ATF, to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed this same claim.
The problem, however, was that the 90 percent figure was demonstrably false. Only a small portion of the guns seized by Mexican authorities have traceable serial numbers. In 2008, GAO reported that the Mexican government seized 30,000 guns, and only 6,700 were confirmed to have originated in the U.S. That represents only 22 percent, not 90 percent.
The administration’s claim was widely criticized as being wrong — which may have provided a political motivation for an ill-advised operation that poured U.S. weapons into Mexico. This could provide the administration with a public-relations coup that supported its claims when it unveiled its prosecutions. Perhaps that’s why one ATF supervisor was described as “jovial, if not, not giddy, but just delighted” [sic] when Fast and Furious guns were found at Mexican crime scenes, and why Acting Director of the ATF Kenneth Melson took such a personal interest that he watched live feeds from secret ATF cameras in guns stores while sitting at his desk.
The bottom line is that considerations other than objective, professional law enforcement judgment seem to have driven the decision-making of the Holder Justice Department. The result has been tragedy and violence — and the bloodshed will persist as these weapons continue to be used.
Hans A. von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org) and a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission.
-
Play CBS News Video
(CBS News) Congress holds its first hearings Monday on the "gunwalker scandal" that CBS News first uncovered back in February.
Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) encouraged gun shops to sell thousands of assault rifles and other weapons destined for Mexican drug cartels.
On "The Early Show" Friday, CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported those who defend the strategy say their goal was to let the little fish go -- to get the big fish. But insiders say, in the process, lives were needlessly put in danger.
Attkisson initially broke the story for CBS News.
Last June, about nine months into the ATF operation known as "Fast and Furious," suspects had "purchased 1,608 firearms for over $1 million in cash transactions at various Phoenix-area gun shops," according to internal documents obtained by CBS News. The documents indicate ATF already knew that 179 of those very weapons had turned up at crime scenes in Mexico, and 130 in the U.S.
Issa subpoenas ATF over gunwalking allegations
ATF agent cooperates in gunwalking investigation
Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
Yet, ATF allowed some of the same suspects -- accused of being middlemen for Mexican drug cartels -- to continue to buy and transfer assault weapons. Sometimes, agents say, they videotaped the buys, but didn't interdict the guns.
Documents indicate intentions were good. The idea, according to those documents, was to "allow the transfer of firearms" to pinpoint big cartel crooks rather than the small-time traffickers supplying them.
-
whaaaaaaaaat?!?
Documents indicate intentions were good???
I wonder how you missed that article?
-
What is the date of your article?
-
whaaaaaaaaat?!?
Documents indicate intentions were good???
I wonder how you missed that article?
uuuggghhh - Issa has said DOJ hasnt sent them all the docs they requested and what they did send was heavily redacted. Dude, you are incredibly naive and or boot licker for the govt if you believe these were good intentions in this.
-
What is the date of your article?
June 10th
-
uuuggghhh - Issa has said DOJ hasnt sent them all the docs they requested and what they did send was heavily redacted. Dude, you are incredibly naive and or boot licker for the govt if you believe these were good intentions in this.
I'm like you, I just believe what I read.... and the article said the documents indicated intentions were good..
-
June 10th
Funny - watch my clips from Issa - himself holding up heavily redacted docs and saying DOJ is stonewalling this investigation.
if you believeHolder and the DOJ - you really need your head examined.
-
I'm like you, I just believe what I read.... and the article said the documents indicated intentions were good..
Yeah, "good intentions." Got it. Force gun dealers to sell guns to mexican cartels, people die, than the jack boot pigs and thugs with badges scream about the need for gun control and AWB2 for American Citizens.
Yeah, good intentions - for the disgusting vermin infesting the govt. to infringe on the 2nd amend and make a bad situation worse. Got it.
-
-
Yeah, "good intentions." Got it. Force gun dealers to sell guns to mexican cartels, people die, than the jack boot pigs and thugs with badges scream about the need for gun control and AWB2 for American Citizens.
Yeah, good intentions - for the disgusting vermin infesting the govt. to infringe on the 2nd amend and make a bad situation worse. Got it.
Forced gun dealers to make lots of money selling guns....
What is more than likely what occurred is the gun dealers reluctantly reported suspicious activity and were thrilled to hear the ATF say yes we know, we aren't going to intervene. I heard the gun dealers lawyers mention force..but he's a lawyer for them.
An investigation is in progress. When it is done, and it is found that ATF officials authorized gun shops to sell to cartel mules, didn't stop the guns from getting out of their sight which led to bad things happening I hope indictments follow and people are held accountable.
I am not saying that if what is alleged happened actually happened it is right. Hell no. I'm merely saying I don't think it is a conspiracy with long term goals to eventually empower the ATF to take away everyones guns. I think it was a bad idea, probably thought up with good intentions, that went wrong. Heads should roll because it was a pretty stupid idea to begin with
-
Forced gun dealers to make lots of money selling guns....
What is more than likely what occurred is the gun dealers reluctantly reported suspicious activity and were thrilled to hear the ATF say yes we know, we aren't going to intervene. I heard the gun dealers lawyers mention force..but he's a lawyer for them.
An investigation is in progress. When it is done, and it is found that ATF officials authorized gun shops to sell to cartel mules, didn't stop the guns from getting out of their sight which led to bad things happening I hope indictments follow and people are held accountable.
I am not saying that if what is alleged happened actually happened it is right. Hell no. I'm merely saying I don't think it is a conspiracy with long term goals to eventually empower the ATF to take away everyones guns. I think it was a bad idea, probably thought up with good intentions, that went wrong. Heads should roll because it was a pretty stupid idea to begin with
READ THE FUCKING THREAD!
Damn it bro - you are dense. he gun dealers were the ones who altered the ATF and the ATF forced them to go along with it. Even some agents objected to this insanity.
-
READ THE FUCKING THREAD!
Damn it bro - you are dense. he gun dealers were the ones who altered the ATF and the ATF forced them to go along with it. Even some agents objected to this insanity.
I read the fucking thread.. calm down....sheeesh
-
Grassley made it clear in the closing sentences of his statement that this investigation is not about gun control, or furthering the agenda of gun prohibitionists. Anti-gun Senators Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer (whose one-time protégé Congressman Anthony Weiner has reportedly announced that he is stepping down after days of speculation) and Sheldon Whitehouse issued a “report” earlier this week calling for more gun regulation as their answer to gunrunning to Mexico.
This effort, Grassley made clear, is about doing the right thing.
“Too often,” Grassley observed, “we want to make everything about politics. We pick sides and only listen to what we want to hear.”
One might remind Reps. Elijah Cummings, William Lacy Clay and Carolyn Maloney – all Democrat members of the House committee – about that as this investigation continues to unfold.
But Grassley’s final words on the matter yesterday put this issue in its clearest perspective:
It’s time to get to the truth and hold our government accountable.
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ _
I was reading the above article (its an excerpt from the article) which said the gun dealers were cooperating with the ATF. I think it is important to clarify that the ATF did not FORCE anyone to sell guns to anyone. The ATF asked them to continue because they were working on a case and of course the gun dealers, wanting to help, agreed.
But I agree with Grassely's perspective
-
My beef is with obama and Holder and Hillary lying about this issue as a way to tryto force AWB2 based on lies and the deadly results of their own incompetence.
-
Grassley made it clear in the closing sentences of his statement that this investigation is not about gun control, or furthering the agenda of gun prohibitionists. Anti-gun Senators Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer (whose one-time protégé Congressman Anthony Weiner has reportedly announced that he is stepping down after days of speculation) and Sheldon Whitehouse issued a “report” earlier this week calling for more gun regulation as their answer to gunrunning to Mexico.
This effort, Grassley made clear, is about doing the right thing.
“Too often,” Grassley observed, “we want to make everything about politics. We pick sides and only listen to what we want to hear.”
One might remind Reps. Elijah Cummings, William Lacy Clay and Carolyn Maloney – all Democrat members of the House committee – about that as this investigation continues to unfold.
But Grassley’s final words on the matter yesterday put this issue in its clearest perspective:
It’s time to get to the truth and hold our government accountable.
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ _
I was reading the above article (its an excerpt from the article) which said the gun dealers were cooperating with the ATF. I think it is important to clarify that the ATF did not FORCE anyone to sell guns to anyone. The ATF asked them to continue because they were working on a case and of course the gun dealers, wanting to help, agreed.
But I agree with Grassely's perspective
So you agree that letting these guns go to Mexico is doing the right thing? Or that the Government should be held accountable?
Isn't that what most of the discourse from you has been about? We the people believe that the government should be held accountable, but you seem to think that the police (Which is a part of government) shouldn't be? Or at least should be given more leave way than the average citizen?
Isn't EVERYONE in the ATF in the government? Shouldn't they ALL be held accountable?
How can you have it both ways?
Doesn't that seem a bit hypocritical?
Personally, I think if you were involved in this, you should be strung up... This is despicable.
Also, let's be clear, Grassley may say it's not politics... but let's be honest... It's fucking politics.
There is no way that if the guns HAD been traced back to whomever... Many anti-gun sorts would be trying to ban more assault weapons.
To say otherwise is simply being unrealistic at best, and naive at worst.
-
My beef is with obama and Holder and Hillary lying about this issue as a way to tryto force AWB2 based on lies and the deadly results of their own incompetence.
I agree... Anyone who is shown to be involved should be tried for treason... Trying to bring down our individual rights as citizens to keep and bear arms by nefarious means.
-
You can thank Monkey Boy Bush for the Mexico problems. If Jeb's wife wasn't Mexican, there would have never been a "Freedom to Cross the Border" Policy. It's no different than Bushy raiding oil fields in the Middle East to increase the value of Bush family oil holdings.
-
Where do u lefties get this shit.
-
Dems Call for More Gun Control in Light of Operation Fast and Furious
Townhall.com ^ | June 30, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
What’s the answer to failed government? More government!
In the June Issue of Townhall Magazine, I wrote Misfire: Obama's Scandalous Secret Gun Control Agenda, about how Operation Fast and Furious would result in calls for more gun control and I questioned whether officials in the Obama Justice Department purposely allowed thousands of semi-automatic weapons to flow into the hands of dangerous drug cartels in order to meet President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder’s goal of re-instating the ban on assault rifles and other forms of harsh gun control.
During an Oversight Committee hearing on June 15, Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings stated the following: “No legitimate examination of this issue will be complete without analyzing our nation’s gun laws, which allow tens of thousands of assault weapons to flood into Mexico from the United States every year, including fifty caliber sniper rifles, multiple AK variants and scores of others. When Mexican President Calderon addressed Congress in May, he pleaded for us to stop fueling a full-scale drug war with military-grade assault rifles.”
The problem is, as Mr. Cummings failed to point out, many of these weapons were been provided directly to violent cartel members courtesy of the U.S. government, not because of “lax” gun control laws.
Today, democrats on the House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Cummings, issued a report calling for more gun control in light of Operation Fast and Furious. Their solution to the Obama Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious scandal is to give the same officials who purposely broke U.S. federal law within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) overseen by the Justice Department, even more power and control over American gun rights, stomping on the Second Amendment to defend government incompetency rather than placing responsibility on Washington bureaucrats.
During the same hearing on June 15 we found out ATF Director Kenneth Melson watched a live video feed from his cushy Washington D.C. office of straw purchasers in Arizona, who he knew were working for Mexican drug cartels, buying mass amounts of weapons, but democrats like Cummings are blaming the Second Amendment for the lethal consequences of the operation.
The report executive summary outlines “three specific improvements to current law that would allow law enforcement to more effectively counter firearms trafficking by Mexican drug cartels,” including calls for Congress to increase criminal penalties for illegal straw purchases, enacting a dedicated firearms trafficking statute, requiring reports of multiple long gun purchases and a Congressional delegation to Mexico.
The report calls for improvement of the nation’s gun laws “to assist law enforcement agents in their efforts to counter drug violence and firearms trafficking by Mexican drug cartels,” stating these are “common sense” ways to help.
“ATF tracing data indicates that the number of U.S. firearms seized in Mexico is increasing dramatically,” the report states.
Once again, U.S. government officials have been illegally trafficking the firearms, therefore more gun laws won’t stop illegal trafficking and will only punish law abiding citizens and impose on Second Amendment rights.
The report claims 75 percent of guns traced to Mexico were originally purchased in the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
“ATF’s chief intelligence analyst in Mexico, Dennis Fasciani, confirmed for the delegation that the vast majority of weapons recovered at crime scenes in Mexico do come from the United States,” the report states.
Again, considering the U.S. government was illegally trafficking these guns south of the border, it makes sense data indicates the number of U.S. firearms seized in Mexico has increased significantly thanks to the Obama Justice Department. This data doesn’t even take into account the number of guns lost in Mexico since the only way the U.S. government can trace firearms is when they are found at final crime scenes. The rest are lost until someone is killed.
The report also accuses the United States of “fueling a torrent of violence in Mexico.”
According to Dr. Arturo Cervantes Trjo who contributed to the report, “there have been at least 34, 550 homicides in Mexico from 2006 to 2010. The number of homicides has increased dramatically, from 8,868 in 2007, to 14,007 in 2008, to 19,804 in 2009, to an estimated 15,000 for the part of 2010 included in the data. According to his report, the number of drug-related killings has also increased during this time, from 2,773 in 2007, to 5,661 in 2008, to 8,281 in 2009.”
Operation Fast and Furious started in 2008, yet even with the homicide data clear, Rep. Cummings doesn’t draw the conclusion that maybe, just maybe this had something to do with ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious instead of U.S. gun laws. The idea that providing violent criminals with high powered weapons would result in an increase in homicides doesn’t make sense to Cummings, but blaming U.S. gun laws does.
The report also cites the June 27 smear job of an editorial from the Washington Post, the same newpaper that smeared Carter's Country Gun Shop in Texas after they were forced by ATF to sell to criminals. The editorial read, "Lawmakers should give the ATF the tools it needs to fight illegal gun trafficking. They should enact stronger penalties for straw purchases and craft a federal gun-smuggling statute; close the gun-show loophole, which allows buyers under certain circumstances to purchase weapons without a background check; resuscitate the ban on assault weapons; and give the ATF the authority to collect data on multiple sales of long guns in border states. The Senate should move quickly to confirm a director for the long-leaderless bureau."
Bottom line: Officials within the Obama Justice Department have been breaking, not enforcing, current guns laws. It doesn’t matter how many more gun laws the U.S. government imposes on the law abiding public, a government willing to break its own laws for political gain without common sense or basis on factual evidence, will only lead to more corruption and more innocent deaths in Mexico and the United States. Operation Fast and Furious is a result of illegal government activity, not lax gun laws.
-
Issa rips Obama's silence on ATF gun-tracking matter
thehill.com ^ | 06/29/11 04:07 PM ET | Jordy Yager
______________________
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) denounced President Obama for refusing to comment on a controversial gun-tracking program that is under investigation.
Issa, who is the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Obama did not express the necessary “urgency” that is called for in investigating who approved of the “Fast and Furious” operation, which may have contributed to the death of at least one federal agent.
At a press conference Wednesday, Obama reiterated that Attorney General Eric Holder did not order the gun-tracking program, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and allowed known and suspected straw purchasers to buy thousands of weapons in hopes of tracking them to members of Mexican drug cartels.
Holder called for the Inspector General to investigate the matter to determine who approved of the operation. Obama said he would comment further on the issue once the investigation is completed.
“My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico,” Obama said.
“The investigation is still pending. I'm not going to comment on a current investigation. I've made very clear my views that would not be an appropriate step by the ATF, and we've got to find out how that happened.
“As soon as the investigation is completed, I think appropriate actions will be taken,” Obama said.
But Issa, who held a charged hearing on the issue earlier this month, has indicated that responsibility for the operation rests with some of the highest officials at the Justice Department and the ATF.
-
They are going to try to use this to take away gun rights... A couple of us said that early on... Be leery.
-
They are going to try to use this to take away gun rights... A couple of us said that early on... Be leery.
Of course they are - that was the point of this treason from day 1.
Agnostic can play the "but the ATF and DOJ had the best intentions" crap all he wants. To the rest of us, we know better.
-
Of course they are - that was the point of this treason from day 1.
Agnostic can play the "but the ATF and DOJ had the best intentions" crap all he wants. To the rest of us, we know better.
If they had "the best of intentions", they would have blown the whistle on this disaster the second it was mentioned.
-
Maybe this is what the POTUS meant when he promised the Bradys he was working on gun control "under the radar". Then there is the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, cartels get military grade weapons right out the back door of the Mexican Army's arms room before the ink on the 1348's are dry. So what is DOD doing about that? Nothing. The DOJ, AG holder and the Obama administration are up to eyeballs in the shit. Mexican and American citizens have dies due to this little operation and heads need to roll. And make no mistake their is going to be scape goat paraded around for all to see. Don't be fooled, this fuckup goes all the way to the top.
-
Maybe this is what the POTUS meant when he promised the Bradys he was working on gun control "under the radar". Then there is the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, cartels get military grade weapons right out the back door of the Mexican Army's arms room before the ink on the 1348's are dry. So what is DOD doing about that? Nothing. The DOJ, AG holder and the Obama administration are up to eyeballs in the shit. Mexican and American citizens have dies due to this little operation and heads need to roll. And make no mistake their is going to be scape goat paraded around for all to see. Don't be fooled, this fuckup goes all the way to the top.
Funny how Obama/Hillary/Holder in 2009 were all up in this issue and giving speechs on the guns issue over the border just as this progam was getting underway.
Coincidence? hhhhmmmmm?
-
They are going to try to use this to take away gun rights... A couple of us said that early on... Be leery.
But if they don't, I expect you to come on here and admit you were wrong. If they do, I'll do the same.
-
But if they don't, I expect you to come on here and admit you were wrong. If they do, I'll do the same.
They have been doing this from Day 1.
-
But if they don't, I expect you to come on here and admit you were wrong. If they do, I'll do the same.
They can't use this now that we know the government was complicit in this shit. Here is yet another question, what jurisdiction does the DOJ have in Mexico? How exactly were they planning on tracking these weapons to the big fish if they are on Mexican soil?
-
They can't use this now that we know the government was complicit in this shit. Here is yet another question, what jurisdiction does the DOJ have in Mexico? How exactly were they planning on tracking these weapons to the big fish if they are on Mexican soil?
They never had a plan to do that until the mexis reported that american guns were showing up at crime scenes and then pressing the need for AWB2, etc etc.
-
They never had a plan to do that until the mexis reported that american guns were showing up at crime scenes and then pressing the need for AWB2, etc etc.
objection, speculation
-
They have been doing this from Day 1.
can you expound on your claim?
-
can you expound on your claim?
Obama/Holder said we need to do AWB2 from day 1, Obama told Sarah Brady he was doig gun control "under the radar", ATF already tried imposig regional restrictions on border gun dealers as well as requiring long arms purchases to be registered, etc.
-
They can't use this now that we know the government was complicit in this shit. Here is yet another question, what jurisdiction does the DOJ have in Mexico? How exactly were they planning on tracking these weapons to the big fish if they are on Mexican soil?
Thats a good question. I'm not sure. I am aware that we do have a working relationship with law enforcement in Mexico and our Fugitive units work with federales to capture wanted people who flee to mexico. The mexican government has an interest in curtailing the violence so it is possible that working through similar channels they could in a collaborative effort, track the weapons
I don't know that for sure but I know we do work with them on various other fronts so it wouldn't be outrageous to believe they have resources avail on mexican soil.
-
Thats a good question. I'm not sure. I am aware that we do have a working relationship with law enforcement in Mexico and our Fugitive units work with federales to capture wanted people who flee to mexico. The mexican government has an interest in curtailing the violence so it is possible that working through similar channels they could in a collaborative effort, track the weapons
I don't know that for sure but I know we do work with them on various other fronts so it wouldn't be outrageous to believe they have resources avail on mexican soil.
Possibly, but as usual the governments of both countries have done a bang up job ::). People on both sides of the border have died, I'm sure the head of some agency is going to fall on their sword to protect higher ups, with the promise of an 11th hour pardon or some such shit. But we can only hope that now this is in the open, we find out exactly who knew what, and those that gave the green light are prosecuted to the fullest extent.
-
Possibly, but as usual the governments of both countries have done a bang up job ::). People on both sides of the border have died, I'm sure the head of some agency is going to fall on their sword to protect higher ups, with the promise of an 11th hour pardon or some such shit. But we can only hope that now this is in the open, we find out exactly who knew what, and those that gave the green light are prosecuted to the fullest extent.
This has Holder/Hillary/Obama written all over it.
Classical Cloward & Piven tactics.
-
Obama talks "Fast and Furious" ATF scandal
CBS News ^ | June 29, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
________________________ ________________________
WASHINGTON - Today at his news conference, President Obama was asked about the unfolding gunwalker scandal, and whether ATF leadership will be replaced.
Mr. Obama answered, "My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico. ... I'm not going to comment on -- a on a current investigation. I've made very clear my views that that would not be an appropriate step by the ATF, and we've got to find out how that happened."
Project Gunrunner scandal uncovered at ATF
Mr. Obama added, "As soon as the investigation is completed, I think appropriate actions will be taken."
This week, the Senate confirmed three Obama-nominated Justice Department officials in a deal that will give Congressional investigators access to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms documents that have been withheld for months. The bigger part of the deal, however, is that ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson will provide a "transcribed interview" to Republican and Democratic investigators in mid-July.
Melson is the highest-ranking official involved in the so-called gunwalker scandal to agree to be interviewed. For more than a week, Melson has resisted calls to resign from Republican members of Congress and critics. That after testimony and documents revealed he was fully briefed and engaged in the controversial plan to allow thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to be sold to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. Investigators have been trying to figure out who knew what, when at the Justice Department, which oversees ATF. They believe Melson may be able to provide some of that information.
Agent: I was ordered to let guns into Mexico
The president has said neither he nor Attorney General Eric Holder approved the operation known as "Fast and Furious." The Inspector General, the House Oversight Committee under Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are investigating.
-
Obama talks "Fast and Furious" ATF scandal
CBS News ^ | June 29, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
________________________ ________________________
WASHINGTON - Today at his news conference, President Obama was asked about the unfolding gunwalker scandal, and whether ATF leadership will be replaced.
Mr. Obama answered, "My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico. ... I'm not going to comment on -- a on a current investigation. I've made very clear my views that that would not be an appropriate step by the ATF, and we've got to find out how that happened."
Project Gunrunner scandal uncovered at ATF
Mr. Obama added, "As soon as the investigation is completed, I think appropriate actions will be taken."
This week, the Senate confirmed three Obama-nominated Justice Department officials in a deal that will give Congressional investigators access to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms documents that have been withheld for months. The bigger part of the deal, however, is that ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson will provide a "transcribed interview" to Republican and Democratic investigators in mid-July.
Melson is the highest-ranking official involved in the so-called gunwalker scandal to agree to be interviewed. For more than a week, Melson has resisted calls to resign from Republican members of Congress and critics. That after testimony and documents revealed he was fully briefed and engaged in the controversial plan to allow thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to be sold to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. Investigators have been trying to figure out who knew what, when at the Justice Department, which oversees ATF. They believe Melson may be able to provide some of that information.
Agent: I was ordered to let guns into Mexico
The president has said neither he nor Attorney General Eric Holder approved the operation known as "Fast and Furious." The Inspector General, the House Oversight Committee under Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are investigating.
Yeah my ass, the DOJ had no idea any of this was going on. The ATF just went rouge and did all this shit on their own ::)
Told you the scape goat is already being prepared, unless we the people demand to know the facts, this will be swept under the rug.
-
BOOM!
Looks like Melson not going down alone on this.
I hope Obama and Holder end up in prison over this. Two disgusting communist tyrants.
-
Good, someone needs their ass kicked over this fiasco
-
House Dems Set to Demonize Gun Owners with Gunwalker Forum
Pajamas Media ^ | June 30, 2011 | Bob Owens
________________________ ________________________ ___________
Can demagoguery stymie the growing Republican investigation?
The Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform will be having a forum today on the “Gunwalker” scandal almost guaranteed to fill any observer with disgust. It will be a markedly different than the previous hearings on the scandal chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa.
The hearings two weeks ago saw Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents testify about their role in Operation Fast and Furious, the multi-agency scheme that allowed gun smugglers to arm Mexican drug cartels with 2,000 or more weapons as federal law enforcement officers watched. Issa’s hearings included evidence of damning emails that showed acting ATF chief Kenneth Melson to be intimately familiar with the program, which has been blamed for the deaths of two U.S. federal agents and more than 150 Mexican police and soldiers.
The ATF’s parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ); the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were all directly involved in the operation, which could not even have occurred without State Department approval.
But the committee forum today isn’t about what Obama administration officials in the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security knew, or when they knew it, or about bringing those responsible for the dangerous plot to light to face accountability or possible criminal charges.
Instead, the minority forum by Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings will be a forum for gun control activists such as Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke.
In an article at the Huffington Post, Helmke lays out the goals of the minority committee forum in no uncertain terms:
If California Rep. Darrell Issa and other congressional members who are in lock-step with the NRA bosses want to get to the bottom of the ATF gun trafficking operation, they need to start looking at their own actions and lack of action. By blocking and loosening laws to prevent gun violence they, too, are culpable in ATF’s “Fast and Furious” apparent debacle.
The gun control advocate very clearly indicates that seeking out those responsible for signing off on this reprehensible and possibly criminal operation is not the purpose of his appearance at the Democrat-led meeting.
Helmke instead seeks to shift the blame for the government’s deadly decisions onto the National Rifle Association (NRA), American gun owners, and the Republican and Democratic lawmakers who will not pass the laundry list of anti-gun legislation that has long been on the Brady Foundation’s list of legislative priorities.
In all practical respects, Helmke’s appearance has nothing to do with Gunwalker, and everything to do with demagoguery. It is safe to assume that the other anti-gun organizations that will attend the forum are likewise interested more in proselytizing than fact-finding or demanding accountability.
So why has Congressman Cummings called this forum?
It is, sadly, a combination of grandstanding and defensive politics.
Cummings is a gun control advocate, and has been for quite some time — a position no doubt hardened by the murder of his nephew in April. But Cummings is also the ranking member of the Democratic delegation to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and was a member in the previous Congress where calls to clean up the organization by other whistleblowers had been ignored.
The primary reason Cummings is calling this forum was clearly indicated in his actions earlier this year, when he refused to sign a letter to President Obama asking the White House to direct the Department of Justice to cooperate with the Gunwalker investigation. At the time the Oversight Committee had authored the letter asking the president to compel DOJ officials to provide documents relating to the scandal to the committee. Cummings refused to sign the letter asking for the evidence, which all other Democrats on the committee did.
Cummings’ aide defended his actions by claiming:
The Justice Department (DOJ) had recently been cooperating very well with Issa’s subpoena for documents relating to the gun-tracking operation.
“It’s not consistent with what we’ve been experiencing with DOJ,” the aide said. “As of late they’ve been cooperating and showing us documents and pulling together documents in response to the subpoena, so I can’t imagine that given what we know about the investigation that we would have signed a letter saying that DOJ was not cooperating.”
The assertion by Cummings’ aide that the DOJ ever cooperated with the Oversight Committee is a blatant falsehood. It is a statement of a party loyalist attempting to shield his president and by extension, the Democratic Party, as much as possible from expected Gunwalker fallout.
The reams of heavily redacted “black paper” submitted by the Justice Department to the Oversight Committee stood in stark contrast to the congressman’s claims of cooperation. In addition to sending useless blacked-out pages, the Department of Justice supplied just one witness to the Oversight Committee hearings — an official from a separate branch of the Justice Department from the Criminal Division that was the conduit to the ATF on Gunwalker. It was a bit of brinksmanship that allowed the DOJ to make the disgraceful if accurate claim that they did send “someone” to the Oversight hearings, even though that “someone” had the explicit job of saying “I don’t know” repeatedly.
Instead of seeking answers from those Obama administration officials who are culpable for a rogue government program that has left cops, soldiers, and civilians dead, the congressman from Baltimore will use his position in order to provide airtime to those who would place blame at the feet of American citizens.
There may be a more disreputable role for a congressman to play during such a scandal, but I’m finding it hard to think of one.
Typical Dem lib pofs.
-
But if they don't, I expect you to come on here and admit you were wrong. If they do, I'll do the same.
Sure...
Let's see what happens. It looks like the House Democrats are trying shit already.
Notice the previous post. ;)
-
Sure...
Let's see what happens. It looks like the House Democrats are trying shit already.
Notice the previous post. ;)
Most "law enforcement" people i have met are against the 2nd amendent for private people unless it involves a locked up double barrell shotgun only suited for ducks that takes 2 minutes to load.
-
DOJ Orders Protection Of “Language Minority Populations”
Judicial Watch ^ | June 30, 2011
________________________ ________________________ _______________
Obama’s Department of Justice has ordered Colorado to protect the interests of “language minority populations” by strengthening a Court Interpreter Oversight Committee that assures immigrants who don’t speak English get free translators.
The new DOJ mandate also applies to civil cases, which means that U.S. taxpayers will fund interpreting services for foreigners who may stand to make settlement money. Under the agreement, announced this week, the Colorado Judicial Department will also develop “state and local language access plans” that address “both oral interpretation and the translation of vital written documents.”
A revitalized state Court Interpreter Oversight Committee will be expanded to include an attorney, prosecutor, public defender and an “advocate” representing the interests of the “language minority populations,” according to the DOJ’s order.
Interpreters have always been provided in criminal cases and in civil cases in which litigants were indigent. The new DOJ accord mandates free access to “timely and competent language assistance” for all “limited English proficient individuals” in all cases. This won’t come cheap. Colorado’s court system already spends nearly $4 million on 25 full-time interpreters and 300 contractors who provide services in 75 different languages.
The assistant attorney general that President Obama appointed to run the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (Thomas Perez) says it’s essential because “justice cannot be served without access and effective communication.” Perez is a known open-borders advocate who served on the board of a controversial, taxpayer-funded day laborer center (Casa de Maryland) that assists illegal immigrants.
Last year Perez lied to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to cover up that political leadership was involved in the dismissal of the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. Judicial Watch obtained records that prove top political appointees were intimately involved in the decision to drop charges against the radical black revolutionary group for bullying voters with racial insults, profanity and weapons during the 2008 presidential election.
A former Maryland Labor Secretary, Perez has made a number of controversial moves at the DOJ to protect illegal immigrants and minorities in general. Last fall he sued a public college system for discrimination because it requires job applicants to furnish proof of residency before getting hired and earlier this year he launched an initiative to eliminate written tests that discriminate against minorities in the workplace.
-
Holder, Napalitano (Big Sis), Geither, Salazar, Sebelius, should all be fired due to total incompetency. Obama's cabinet is such a joke.
Fired my ass they should be prosecuted! I for one am fed up with government officials getting to walk when they have broken the law.
-
Shocking new documents detail DOJ’s reasons for releasing Marxist bomber
The Daily Caller ^ | 7/1/11 | Matthew Boyle -
Posted on July 1, 2011 12:34:17 AM EDT by Nachum
Newly released documents show that the Department of Justice (DOJ) allowed for the release of Marxist radical and domestic terrorist Marilyn Buck from federal prison because officials believed she learned her lesson and had “expressed a dramatic change from her previous political philosophy.”
These new documents, obtained by investigative journalist Cliff Kincaid’s America’s Survival organization, shed more light on why Holder’s officials decided to release Buck, a convicted radical left-wing domestic terrorist.
“Incredibly, Buck’s attorney, Soffiyah Elijah, cited Buck’s ‘Master of Fine Arts in Poetics,’ completed behind bars, as evidence that she deserved parole. It’s a fraud and a racket,” Kincaid said at an America’s Survival event on Tuesday, adding that the poems Buck wrote “are not just terrible poetry but evidence of the same kind of murderous communist political ideology she was incarcerated for.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
The Gun Walker Pushback - The scandal which can no longer be ignored.
Human Events ^ | 06/30/2011 | John Hayward
Posted on June 30, 2011 7:16:47 PM EDT by neverdem
One of the whistleblowers who brought the massive “Gun Walker” scandal to light, ATF Special Agent Vince Cefalu, was terminated after a thirty-year career last week… the day after House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a warning letter to the Bureau, demanding a promise that there would be no retaliatory firings of whistleblowers.
Ironically, one of the reasons given for Cefalu’s termination was “a lack of candor.” He was previously turned into a desk ornament for daring to become a “vocal critic” of an illegal wiretap. Since he spoke up about Gun Walker, he spent most of his time “changing batteries or filling cars with gas.” He has described “Operation Fast and Furious,” designed to flood Mexico with American guns, as a violation of the law, maintaining “there was no intent to follow the guns… this never had a chance of succeeding.”
It doesn’t sound like Cefalu suffers from a lack of candor. Perhaps he’s recalcitrant by the boisterous standards of the ATF, where things are rowdy due to all the alcohol and tobacco.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post – so helpful to the Administration at key moments in the Gun Walker saga – ran an astonishing editorial this week, in which they tried to finger the gun-rights lobby as the true culprit behind this rogue ATF operation. The Post mourned the “reductions in the ATF’s meager budget” and restricted “ability to share information with other law enforcement agencies” brought about by the NRA and certain lawmakers, who are “concerned to the point of paranoia about the erosion of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
You know what is demonstrably not paranoia? The fear that you’ll be walking down a street in Mexico and get blown away by a gun supplied by the Bureau of Alcohol,...
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
-
Holder is going to be shown to have committed perjury. Jail his ass.
Ant time a person pretends not to hear something when it's pretty obvious that its very clear, you know they are full of shit.
-
FOX NEWS is running a great piece on it.
no, wait...
they're bashing 'media matters' all morning.
Sorry. Priorities, baby! We have definititive proof our taxpayer dollars are funding the arming of drug gangs - undeniable proof. And it's partisan booolshite as always.
-
FOX NEWS is running a great piece on it.
no, wait...
they're bashing 'media matters' all morning.
Sorry. Priorities, baby! We have definititive proof our taxpayer dollars are funding the arming of drug gangs - undeniable proof. And it's partisan booolshite as always.
Funny, cause morning joe only had on that piece of trash cummings to talk about the need for more gun control in all of this.
-
Funny, cause morning joe only had on that piece of trash cummings to talk about the need for more gun control in all of this.
agreed.... morning joe and fox n friends are both pieces of shit, compliant with the obama agenda.
-
FUCKING WOW!!!!!!
IMPEACH OBAMA/HOLDER/HILLARY/MELSON AND DISBAND ATF ASAP.
AND FUCK YOU WHOEVER STILL WANTS GUN CONTROL FOR REGULAR LAW ABIDING CITIZENS.
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ _-
Weapons linked to controversial ATF strategy found in Valley crimes
SHARETHIS.addEntry(); ShareThis
Posted: 9:59 PM
Last Updated: 13 minutes ago
By: Lori Jane Gliha
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/weapons-linked-to-controversial-atf-strategy-found-in-valley-crimes
PHOENIX - Weapons linked to a questionable government strategy are turning up in crimes in Valley neighborhoods.
For months the ABC15 Investigators have been searching through police reports and official government documents. We’ve discovered assault weapons linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ controversial "Fast and Furious" case strategy have turned up at crime scenes in Glendale and Phoenix communities.
THE HISTORY
Phoenix ATF agents recently testified during a Congressional hearing that they knowingly allowed weapons to slip into the hands of straw buyers who would then distribute the weapons to known criminals.
The strategy was designed to lead ATF officials to key drug players in Mexico, but some agents admitted they never fully tracked the weapons after suspicious buyers purchased them.
“It made no sense to us either, it was just what we were ordered to do, and every time we questioned that order there was punitive action,” Phoenix Special Agent John Dodson testified.
According to the testimony of three Phoenix ATF agents, including Dodson, hundreds of weapons are now on the streets in the United States and Mexico, possibly in the hands of criminals.
Dodson estimated the number could be as many as 1,800 weapons.
“…Fast and Furious was one case from one group in one field division,” he testified. He estimated agents in the Phoenix field division “facilitated the sale of” approximately 2,500 weapons to straw purchasers. A few hundred have been recovered.
THE ABC15 INVESTIGATION
Dodson guessed the majority of the missing weapons are in Mexico.
“I believe that these firearms will continue to turn up at crime scenes on both sides of the border for years to come,” testified Phoenix Special Agent Peter Forcelli.
Weapons linked to the strategy have been turning up at dangerous and deadly crime scenes near both sides of the border, including the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed last December.
The ABC15 Investigators uncovered documents showing guns connected to at least two Glendale criminal cases and at least two Phoenix criminal cases also appear in the ATF’s Suspect Gun Database, a sort-of watch list for suspicious gun sales.
All four cases involve drug-related offenses. In one Glendale police report dated July 2010, police investigators working with DEA agents served search warrants at homes near 75th and Glendale avenues in Glendale, and 43rd and Glendale avenues in Phoenix as part of a “large scale marijuana trafficking” investigation.
Police investigators reported they “obtained information that members of the (trafficking) organization were using the homes…as stash houses used to store large amounts of marijuana temporarily.”
They reported finding hundreds of pounds of marijuana, more than $63,000 in U.S. currency and three guns inside the homes. One of the recovered weapons, a Romarm/Cugir WASR-10 rifle, appeared in an official ATF Suspect Gun Summary document in November 2009, proving agents knowingly allowed the suspicious gun sale, months before the weapon turned up at the crime scene.
In a separate Glendale Police Department case, dated November 2010, detectives discovered “bulk marijuana and weapons” inside a residence near 75th Avenue and Bethany Home Road in Glendale. Investigators recovered nearly 400 pounds of drugs and several firearms from the home.
One of the recovered weapons, another Romarm/Cugir WASR-10 rifle, appeared in an official ATF Suspect Gun Summary document in February 2010.
PHOENIX CASES
The two Phoenix cases, also connected to drugs, occurred in March and August 2010.
In the August case, Phoenix officers conducted a traffic stop near 83rd Avenue and McDowell Road in Phoenix. They discovered marijuana and an AK-47 in the driver’s trunk as well as other weapons.
One of the suspects explained he purchased the Romarm/Cugir Draco weapon for $600 on the street, but he wouldn’t reveal from whom he purchased the gun. ATF documents show the weapon had been entered into the ATF Suspect Gun Database in January 2010.
Officers recovered an FN Herstal Five-Seven weapon in the March case. During that ongoing drug investigation, near 43rd Avenue and Camelback Road in Phoenix, officers had been conducting surveillance after receiving information that a suspect was selling methamphetamine and marijuana.
CONGRESSIONAL LEADER RESPONDS
“With people like you down there in Arizona investigating this,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), “and with Congressman Issa and this Senator on the case, they know we’re not going to give up.”
Grassley has been demanding information from ATF leaders, trying to determine who had knowledge of the controversial strategy and when they knew.
His staff also sent public records requests to every sheriff’s department in Arizona and several local Valley departments, requesting information about weapons that have turned up at Valley crime scenes that may have been connected to the Fast and Furious operation.
“Who knows where they’re going to end up,” Grassley said. “There’s ample evidence – even besides your own investigation – that they’ve been used in crimes on this side of the border, but how many? I can’t give you a figure.”
ATF RESPONSE
ATF representatives denied ABC15’s open records request for documents showing other weapons connected to the Fast and Furious case that may have been involved in other crimes in the United States.
They also denied our request for an interview, saying the case is still under investigation.
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
-
Possibly, but as usual the governments of both countries have done a bang up job ::). People on both sides of the border have died, I'm sure the head of some agency is going to fall on their sword to protect higher ups, with the promise of an 11th hour pardon or some such shit. But we can only hope that now this is in the open, we find out exactly who knew what, and those that gave the green light are prosecuted to the fullest extent.
Just based on history, even when and if we find out who knew what when, there will be little or no accountability. That is just how the US government rolls...
-
Most "law enforcement" people i have met are against the 2nd amendent for private people unless it involves a locked up double barrell shotgun only suited for ducks that takes 2 minutes to load.
Most I have met support citizens rights to own guns. I guess we just don't know the same cops.
-
Just based on history, even when and if we find out who knew what when, there will be little or no accountability. That is just how the US government rolls...
Aren't you a government employee?
-
Aren't you a government employee?
City...
City Government has its issues, but it is typically Varsity VS. NFL when compared to Federal Government corruption and accountability.
And you can even localize lack of accountability to the higher you are in government, the less accountability.
-
when I was 21 or 22... every cop that stopped me treated me like shit for having a legally concealed weapon.
now that i'm in mid 30s, they've very cool and respectable about it. Dunno why the change. One time, when stopped, the cop emptied my magazine and handed me back a handful of rounds - said this way I'd have to thumbload them all before I took a shot at them. WTF?
-
when I was 21 or 22... every cop that stopped me treated me like shit for having a legally concealed weapon.
now that i'm in mid 30s, they've very cool and respectable about it. Dunno why the change. One time, when stopped, the cop emptied my magazine and handed me back a handful of rounds - said this way I'd have to thumbload them all before I took a shot at them. WTF?
Badge or not and asshole is an asshole
-
When the “fall guy” won’t “fall”: Melson will testify before Senate “Fast and Furious” Committee
coachisright.com ^ | July 1, 2011 | Doug Book, staff writer
________________________ ________________________ __________
Barack Obama has spent a political lifetime profiting from underhanded deals made with one or another fellow incarnation of the devil.
So in 2009, when Obama appointed Ken Melson to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, he once again did what arrogant, would-be dictators do…he made a criminally irresponsible deal with a fellow egotist and power hungry usurper.
Melson had spent 12 years as a director of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, lecturing throughout the nation on the wisdom of giving his organization absolute authority over procedural, ethical and certification requirements governing forensic labs in the United States.
So upon Melson’s appointment to the ATF, Obama created the White House Subcommittee on Forensic Science, designating Melson a co-chair with authority over staffing and agenda. Armed with the power and prestige of a supportive President, Melson could now dictate policy to forensics practitioners across the nation.
And in return for this little fringe benefit, Melson had only to manage the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious. And that was quite simple. Just place a few thousand guns in criminal hands, ensure their safe conduct across the Mexican border and keep track of the body count as the weapons appeared at crime scenes throughout two countries.
The purpose: keep Obama’s gun-grabbing base happy by manufacturing an outcry for more restrictive gun legislation in the U.S.
But now that Fast and Furious has been exposed and a number of its illegally trafficked rifles linked to the deaths of two American federal agents, the Obama regime needs a fall guy. And Melson is tailor made for…..
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
-
Good, now maybe the real story will get out and all responsible can get burned.
-
when I was 21 or 22... every cop that stopped me treated me like shit for having a legally concealed weapon.
now that i'm in mid 30s, they've very cool and respectable about it. Dunno why the change. One time, when stopped, the cop emptied my magazine and handed me back a handful of rounds - said this way I'd have to thumbload them all before I took a shot at them. WTF?
Something to consider..
I've been in the career field a long time. I've witnessed an evolution of attitude or mentality in the cop field. Things are a LOT different now than they were even 10 yrs ago. IF you compared a roll call briefing today to 10 yrs ago it would be much different. Today verses 20 yrs ago would be night and day. 20 yrs ago racial slurs, gender slurs, alternative lifestyle slurs and jokes were common. Today you don't hear any of that.
20 yrs ago ex military, jock type cops were all the rage, today, college educated people who have cultural diversity experience and life experiences are in vogue.
Probably has some to do with your age, some to do with the evolution of policing
-
The Strange Priorities of Ken Melson [Project Gunrunner]
BulletPath ^ | June 20, 2011 | Amy Driver
________________________ ________________________ ___________
As the head of the agency responsible for a gun smuggling operation that has caused the deaths of at least two U.S. law enforcement officers, at least one Mexican soldier and scores of innocent civilians, you would think that Ken Melson would keep a low profile. He is, after all, facing indictment on contempt charges from congress for not responding to their subpoenas for information on the gun smuggling operation he has been overseeing.
But he’s Ken Melson. And he has more important things to do.
He’s Too… What’s the word?
I am very late in covering this corner of Ken Melson’s wide, wide world of questionable motives and self-serving choices. I’m usually kept busy by the mountain of material provided by the pathological lack of ethics of Melson and his merry band of wannabes at the ASCLDs (those associated with the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors).
Over the past 10 months or so, many things have come to light about Ken Melson’s dubious doings, including
Information presented on this website about the efforts Ken Melson has made during his tenure at the ATF to advocate the takeover of the forensic science system in the US by him and his associates at ASCLD/LAB who recently defended the practice of corrupt crime labs withholding evidence to put innocent people in prison,
Information provided on CleanUpATF.org and SipseyStreetIrregulars that exposed the illegal gun smuggling operation that Ken Melson was running at the ATF known as Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious, and all that came after with that,
And, finally, documentation and testimony provided by ATF agents that proved that Ken Melson was not only aware of the gun smuggling operation known as Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious, but was deeply involved in managing it.
[End of the article:]
And on June 3, 2011, just a few days before Brian Terry’s family and those ATF agents sat before the House Oversight Committee to tell their stories, Ken Melson was in New York making his case for himself and the ASCLD/LAB status quo at the American Bar Association’s Prescription for Criminal Justice Forensics.
Ken Melson has never spoken to or cooperated with any of the members of congress who have been trying to find out exactly what the point was of letting firearms just “walk” into the hands of drug cartels. And he hasn’t even had the decency to sit quietly in his office to weather the storm.
Instead, Ken Melson has been out and about slamming legislation from the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee because it doesn’t fit his personal agenda, making presentations that promote the best interests of him and his friends to the detriment of the rest of the country, and acting like he hasn’t got a care in the world.
Hopefully Ken Melson’s little party will come screeching to a halt very soon. He deserves prison. But guys like him are always surrounded by friends who are equally unburdened by a conscience to make sure they get away unscathed.
________________________ _________
This entire admn needs to be sent to prison.
-
City...
City Government has its issues, but it is typically Varsity VS. NFL when compared to Federal Government corruption and accountability.
And you can even localize lack of accountability to the higher you are in government, the less accountability.
Government at all levels is still government... You are still a government employee.
US government is just larger so more shit can be swept away... The corruption doesn't change, just how much it's caught.
-
Something to consider..
I've been in the career field a long time. I've witnessed an evolution of attitude or mentality in the cop field. Things are a LOT different now than they were even 10 yrs ago. IF you compared a roll call briefing today to 10 yrs ago it would be much different. Today verses 20 yrs ago would be night and day. 20 yrs ago racial slurs, gender slurs, alternative lifestyle slurs and jokes were common. Today you don't hear any of that.
20 yrs ago ex military, jock type cops were all the rage, today, college educated people who have cultural diversity experience and life experiences are in vogue.
Probably has some to do with your age, some to do with the evolution of policing
very good points here.
i know some folks laugh at the pussification of things today with diversity and ethics training - but I can attest the fact they're a lot less pricks these days. I also remember a cop telling me if she heard another word from me, she'd give me a seat belt ticket too (and i was wearing one! LOL)
totally hated her. i remember her name to this day.
-
Government at all levels is still government... You are still a government employee.
US government is just larger so more shit can be swept away... The corruption doesn't change, just how much it's caught.
using your criteria, then I have to conclude governments are not corrupt, because I am not corrupt.
-
very good points here.
i know some folks laugh at the pussification of things today with diversity and ethics training - but I can attest the fact they're a lot less pricks these days. I also remember a cop telling me if she heard another word from me, she'd give me a seat belt ticket too (and i was wearing one! LOL)
totally hated her. i remember her name to this day.
When I was 16, I was with a buddy and it was 2 in the morning. We stopped to buy a coke from a machine and the machine ripped us off. We rocked it a bit trying to get a soda to drop but otherwise did no damage to the machine. Someone called in that we were burglarizing the machine. Before I knew it we had 4 cop cars behind us pulling us over. We got out at gun point and I told them what had happened. They took us to the police station and sent another cop to check the machine.
While there they treated us like crap. Disrespectful, obnoxious and unprofessional. Even when they found out story to be true they didn't care. By the time they let us go I was seeing red.
Turns out it was a catalyst to how I did things as a cop. I swore I wouldn't be like those guys and I never have. I had other run ins with the cops from that department and they were just unprofessional, poorly trained and living in the past as far as policing goes. I've been fortunate in that I realized not all cops were like that and departments differ greatly from place to place in training and professionalism. But for the most part, they do the best they can with the training they have.
-
using your criteria, then I have to conclude governments are not corrupt, because I am not corrupt.
Actually, a more accurate conclusion would be that while there are people inside of government that are not corrupt... Governments as a whole, are.
-
Actually, a more accurate conclusion would be that while there are people inside of government that are not corrupt... Governments as a whole, are.
Small town governments are corrupt the same as the federal government? I dont buy the premise by virtue of having government in the name, you're corrupt
-
Small town governments are corrupt the same as the federal government? I dont buy the premise by virtue of having government in the name, you're corrupt
Ever been to Illinois ;D
-
Funny how team kneepad has not said a word about obamas deadly incompetence.
-
Funny how team kneepad has not said a word about obamas deadly incompetence.
And no one has addressed the pink unicorns orbiting mars either
-
And no one has addressed the pink unicorns orbiting mars either
clearly, team kneepad supports this wasteful use of orbital gravity.
-
clearly, team kneepad supports this wasteful use of orbital gravity.
wasteful is debatable
-
If this were bush the msm would be pounding this 24 7.
-
If this were bush the msm would be pounding this 24 7.
Where's FOX? They usually pound Obama pretty good
-
Since prince al tawib owns 18 percent they have been easy on him.
The only one really covering this is sherly atkinson from cbs.
-
Since prince al tawib owns 18 percent they have been easy on him.
The only one really covering this is sherly atkinson from cbs.
Yes, FOX has "gone easy" on Obama for the last 4 years.
-
Ever been to Illinois ;D
lol
-
Marc A. Thiessen
Opinion Writer The CIA’s exoneration and Holder’s reckoning
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-cias-exoneration-and-holders-reckoning/2011/07/04/gHQASrfnxH_story.html
This Fourth of July weekend, some of the CIA’s dedicated counterterrorism officials will be celebrating more than our nation’s freedom from oppression — they will be celebrating their own. On Thursday, after a grueling two-year investigation, the Justice Department announced that a special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder found no criminal wrongdoing by the CIA officials involved in the agency’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogationprogram.
Almost every news report led with the fact that the prosecutor, John Durham, was continuing his inquiry into two detainee deaths that took place outside the CIA interrogation program. But the real news was that, after an exhaustive look into the handling of some 100 high-value terrorists held in the CIA program, Durham found no crimes to prosecute. The agency’s interrogators, whose work stopped numerous terrorist attacks and led us to Osama bin Laden, have now been exonerated by the Justice Department for a second time.
Therein lies the outrage. During the Bush administration, career prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia conducted an exhaustive inquiry into allegations of abuse in the CIA program and decided against prosecutions in all but one case (a CIA contractor, not in the official interrogation program, who was later convicted of assault). The prosecutors drafted “declination memos” explaining precisely why they decided not to pursue charges. Not only did Holder, a political appointee, overrule the decisions of these career prosecutors, according to The Post, “Before making his decision to reopen the cases, Holder did not read detailed memos that prosecutors drafted and placed in files to explain their decision to decline prosecutions” (emphasis added).
Holder charged ahead over the vigorous objections of seven former CIA directors, who declared in a letter to President Obama that “Holder’s decision to re-open the criminal investigation creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy for those whose cases the Department of Justice had previously declined to prosecute” and “will seriously damage the willingness of many other intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country.” Joining their objections was Obama’s then-CIA director, Leon Panetta, who reportedly made his views known in a “profanity-laced screaming match” at the White House.
None of this deterred Holder from pursuing his ideologically driven crusade against the CIA’s interrogators. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Holder had told the left-wing American Constitution Society that “our government authorized the use of torture” and promised the crowd, “We owe the American people a reckoning.” Now — after two years of wasted resources and untold grief for these dedicated intelligence officers — Holder has come up empty. The special prosecutor he assigned to deliver that day of “reckoning” came to the same conclusion as the career prosecutors under the Bush administration: Further investigation of the CIA’s interrogation program “is not warranted.”
The two remaining cases reportedly involve a detainee who froze to death in his cell in Afghanistan in 2002 and another who died in American custody in Iraq in 2003. As Panetta noted in a statement last week, “Both cases were previously reviewed by career federal prosecutors who subsequently declined prosecution.” According to former senior intelligence officials I spoke with, both were battlefield detentions that took place early in the war, and neither had anything to do with the CIA’s interrogation program.
The CIA created a well-run, highly disciplined interrogation and detention regime, where clear guidelines were established, the safety of the detainees was ensured, invaluable intelligence was uncovered and any deviations from approved techniques were stopped, reported and addressed. Now the special prosecutor assigned by Holder to investigate that regime has affirmed — once again — that this program operated completely within the law.
The CIA officers who ran the agency’s interrogation program have been cleared, but their lives will never be the same. They have spent much of the decade since Sept. 11 under threat of prosecution, fighting to defend their good names even as they worked to keep us safe. As a result of the witch hunt Holder unleashed, some of our most talented, capable counterterrorism officials have left government service — and countless others, who might have contemplated such service, have chosen other careers instead. The damage this investigation has done is incalculable.
For this, the American people are indeed owed a reckoning.
-
Fired my ass they should be prosecuted! I for one am fed up with government officials getting to walk when they have broken the law.
+1
-
U.S. Officials Behind 'Fast and Furious' Gun Sales Should Be Tried in Mexico, Lawmaker Says
By William La Jeunesse
Published July 05, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Print Email Share
While the investigation continues into the U.S. operation that helped send thousands of guns south of the border, Mexican lawmakers say they'll press for extradition and prosecution in Mexico of American officials who authorized and ran the operation.
"I obviously feel violated. I feel my country's sovereignty was violated," Mexico Sen. Rene Arce Islas told Fox News. "They should be tried in the United States and the Mexican government should also demand that they also be tried in Mexico since the incidents took place here. There should be trials in both places."
FILE: Soldiers stand guard near seized weapons during a news conference at the Defense Headquarters in Mexico City. (Reuters)
Arce is chairman of Mexico's Commission for National Security, a congressional panel similar to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
His point of view is shared by many Mexican politicians, including Sen. Santiago Creel, a former Interior Minister and the likely presidential nominee next year of the National Action Party to succeed Felipe Calderone, also of PAN.
"I think we should at least try to prove that what happened in Mexico must be sanctioned by Mexican laws and under our sovereignty," Creel told us. "What can't happen is that this now ends on an administrative sanction, or a resignation. No, no, no. Human lives were lost here. A decision was made to carry out an operation that brought very high risk to human lives."
Mexico doesn't completely understand Operation Fast and Furious, the American plan to help send assault rifles and revolvers to Mexico as a means of exposing the gun trafficking rings that operate along the border. The project lasted 18 months and allowed some 2,500 guns to be illegally sold to suspects the U.S. government knew to be front men for the cartels.
Rather than follow the guns and arrest the brokers and middle men who helped move the guns south, agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives dropped back and ignored the transfer and transport of the weapons to Mexico.
Just days after watching the guns be sold to these so-called straw buyers, those who bought the weapons illegally and then sold them illegally, the weapons showed up at crime scenes and seizures in Mexico. Rather than stop the operation and tell Mexican police, U.S. officials continued to prime the pump, telling gun stores to order more weapons and sell hundreds to just a few individuals.
To Mexico, the U.S. government has blood on its hands.
"It confirms what many Mexicans already believe. That there is this conspiracy from the U.S. to sell guns to Mexico, and that conspiracy has to do with this idea that America is trying to control Mexico or protect the arms industry," said Ana Maria Salazar, a respected Mexican political analyst and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Drug Enforcement Policy under President Bill Clinton. Before that she worked as a policy adviser in the White House on Latin American affairs.
While it is highly doubtful the U.S. would allow its law enforcement officers to be extradited to Mexico, Salazar says Mexico could make the situation uncomfortable for the U.S. if it chooses to publicize the many people killed or injured by so-called Fast and Furious guns.
"It would be very difficult for them to get a fair trial in Mexico," she said. "But I think it's very important they be prosecuted in the U.S. Not just those involved, but those who allowed it to happen. This should be followed up with a very strong prosecution here. If you are not going to be nervous in the United States, you should at least be nervous where these guns are found," says Salazar.
Print Email Share
Bbboooommm.
-
Mexico Wants A Crack At The Gun Walker Brain Trust: It's not going to happen, but you can see.
Human Events ^ | 07/05/2011 | John Hayward
It’s not going to happen, but you can see their point.
Fox News reports today that Mexican lawmakers want the U.S. government officials behind the “Gun Walker” scandal extradited to Mexico, where they can face judgment in Mexican courts for the hundreds of people killed by the guns our Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives pushed across the border.
"I obviously feel violated. I feel my country's sovereignty was violated," Mexico Sen. Rene Arce Islas told Fox News. "They should be tried in the United States and the Mexican government should also demand that they also be tried in Mexico since the incidents took place here. There should be trials in both places."
Arce is chairman of Mexico's Commission for National Security, a congressional panel similar to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
So after we’re done grilling these characters in the United States, we hand them over to Mexico for another trial? Would they have to serve the sentences from both courts, and if so, would they get credit for time served before checking into the Mexican prison system?
Keep in mind that depending on how the Gun Walker investigation shakes out - and how loudly outbound ATF chief Ken Melson sings - the officials Senator Arce wants to perp-walk across the Rio Grande could include Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, and maybe even President Barack Obama.
No matter how heinous the deed, it should be American courts that hold our politicians responsible for dereliction of duty. Allowing other nations, or trans-national organizations, to criminalize American policy decisions is unwise. It’s no more appealing today than it was when far-left bloggers were daydreaming about George Bush and Dick Cheney getting arrested during overseas visits and dragged off to the Hague, so they could be tried for war crimes.
[Arce’s] point of view is shared by many Mexican politicians, including Sen. Santiago Creel, a former Interior Minister and the likely presidential nominee next year of the National Action Party to succeed Felipe Calderone, also of PAN.
"I think we should at least try to prove that what happened in Mexico must be sanctioned by Mexican laws and under our sovereignty," Creel told us. "What can't happen is that this now ends on an administrative sanction, or a resignation. No, no, no. Human lives were lost here. A decision was made to carry out an operation that brought very high risk to human lives."
The anger of these Mexican officials is understandable. What the ATF did through its “Operation Fast and Furious” is not difficult to characterize as an act of war. There is little practical difference between this bizarre program and Iran or Syria smuggling arms to Hamas.
Fox News notes that “Mexico doesn’t completely understand Operation Fast and Furious, the American plan to help send assault rifles to Mexico as a means of exposing the gun trafficking rings that operate along the border.” The more completely Mexican and American citizens understand this program, the less they like it. Senator Creel is quite correct to note that this has gone far beyond the point where a few well-timed resignations from cut-outs and fall guys would be an acceptable ending for the Gun Walker saga.
The people responsible for this operation should be made to explain themselves to the families of both Americans and Mexicans killed by their astonishing negligence. If it can be proven that this was a political operation, intended to generate headlines useful for the American gun control movement, then they should be wearing orange jumpsuits when they do it, because they are guilty of far worse than negligence.
Obama/Melson/Holder/Napolitano/Hillary et al should be jailed for life over this.
-
Justice Department Obstructing 'Fast and Furious' Gun Probe, ATF Director Says
FoxNews.com ^ | July 6, 2011 | By William Lajeunesse
Justice Department Obstructing 'Fast and Furious' Gun Probe, ATF Director Says
By William Lajeunesse
________________________ ________________
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Issa, Grassley blast Holder in letter after secret meeting with ATF’s Ken Melson
By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller 10:20 AM 07/06/2011
Top Republican lawmakers have authored an explosive new letter containing details of secret testimony by acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson, which reveal for the first time the extent to which his agency was involved in an international gun selling scandal.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, fired off the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Tuesday detailing what Melson told Congressional investigators in a secret July 4 testimony.
One key takeaway from the meeting was that Melson acknowledged to investigators that agents had witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without following the guns afterwards. Straw purchasers are people who could technically legally buy guns in the U.S. but their intent was to turn around and sell them to drug cartels in Mexico.
Another point Melson clarified for investigators was that the ATF group carrying out the mission of Operation Fast and Furious was placed under the direction of the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office. The U.S. Attorney in Arizona, Dennis Burke, is a political appointee of the Obama administration.
Melson appeared with only his personal attorney at the secret meeting with Congressional investigators. Melson was originally scheduled to conduct the interview on July 13 with Justice Department attorneys and his personal attorney present, but Melson abandoned DOJ representation after learning of a provision in his agreement to testify that allowed him to do so. (Issa staffer: Gunrunner investigation points much higher than ATF director)
“We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement,” Issa and Grassley wrote to Holder on Tuesday afternoon. “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.”
Issa and Grassley wrote that Melson’s interview “was extremely helpful to our investigation.” They said Melson told them he did not review the “hundreds of documents” the DOJ is withholding until after the public controversy about the operation. Issa and Grassley said Melson claims he was “sick to his stomach” when he obtained the documents and learned the full story.
The DOJ has not been fully cooperative with a number of Issa’s and Grassley’s requests for documents and other evidence in this investigation. According to the July 5 letter, Issa and Grassley said Melson told them he asked the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) to be more cooperative with Congressional requests for information, evidence and documents.
Their letter also details how Melson told Issa and Grassley that he and other senior ATF officials moved to reassign every major official involved in Operation Fast and Furious. Melson said Obama administration Justice Department officials directed him and other ATF officials to not communicate to Congress the reasoning behind the reassignments.
The ultimate point behind Issa’s and Grassley’s letter to Holder was to request Melson be provided with the protections that bureaucratic whistleblowers normally enjoy. Because Melson, a longtime career government employee, now serves as a political appointee of the Obama administration, he doesn’t automatically enjoy whistleblower protections.
In recent weeks, rumors have floated throughout the press that Melson was going to resign his post as acting ATF Director. Melson told Congressional investigators on July 4, though, that those reports were “untrue.”
“Technically, Mr. Melson no longer enjoys the due process protections afforded to career officials,” Issa and Grassley wrote. “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.”
Melson also confirmed many suspicions Issa and Grassley had of the existence of documents and other evidence in Justice Department possession. The Republican members called on Holder to be more transparent and honest in responses to their requests for information, and that DOJ officials should be informed of their right to communicate with Congressional committees without Holder’s oversight.
“We hope that the Department will take a much more candid and forthcoming approach in addressing these very serious matters with the Committee,” Issa and Grassley wrote. “If other 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.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/06/issa-grassley-blast-holder-in-letter-after-secret-meeting-with-atfs-ken-melson/#ixzz1RLGyUNEP
-
Obama Takes ATF Gun-Running Operation ‘Very Seriously,’ Spokesman Says
CNSNews ^ | 7/6/11 | Fred Lucas
________________________ _____________________
Washington (CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday deflected questions about a botched ATF sting operation that allowed guns to “walk” to Mexico, but he did tell reporters, “You could assume that the president takes this very seriously.”
As part of “Operation Fast and Furious,” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives knowingly allowed some 2,000 guns purchased in the U.S. to flow to Mexican criminals – to see where they would end up. But ATF lost track of many of the weapons. Two of the “straw-purchased” guns were later found in Arizona, at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent’s murder in December.
On Tuesday, Carney declined to answer whether ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson would testify about Operation Fast and Furious to Congress. A congressional oversight report indicated that people at the “highest levels” of the Justice Department knew about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
-
BREAKING: F&F firestorm: Mexican officials want to prosecute U.S. officials
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 5 July, 2011 | Dave Workman
Fox News is reporting today that some officials in Mexico would like to extradite and prosecute U.S. officials responsible for Operation Fast and Furious because it flooded their country with guns illegally, resulting in the deaths of possibly hundreds of Mexican citizens.
Not like anything of the sort will happen, but it underscores the serious nature of anger south of the border, where those government officials feel betrayed by the United States. There is no small irony today in the fact that President Obama is trying to intercede in Thursday's scheduled execution of a Mexican citizen who was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of a 16-year-old San Antonio girl. My colleague, David Codrea, writes about it here.
President Barack Obama is attempting to block the execution in Texas on Thursday of a Mexican man because it would breach an international convention and do "irreparable harm" to US interests.—The Guardian
And now that the Casey Anthony case has been decided, perhaps more attention will be paid to the gunrunning controversy.
Incredibly, according to The Hill newspaper, the family of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry does not want officials here prosecuted, only the straw buyers and gunrunners who may have been involved in moving the murder weapon from a gun shop in this country into the hands of the criminal who killed him.
Yet, as this column reported yesterday, there is ample evidence that quite a few U.S. officials knew about the controversial gunrunning sting operation . It may be some of those officials Mexican authorities want to get their hands on for legal action.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
________________________ ________________________ __
I hope Holder is forced to stand trial down there.
-
Issa, Grassley blast Holder in letter after secret meeting with ATF’s Ken Melson
By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller 10:20 AM 07/06/2011
Top Republican lawmakers have authored an explosive new letter containing details of secret testimony by acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson, which reveal for the first time the extent to which his agency was involved in an international gun selling scandal.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, fired off the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Tuesday detailing what Melson told Congressional investigators in a secret July 4 testimony.
One key takeaway from the meeting was that Melson acknowledged to investigators that agents had witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without following the guns afterwards. Straw purchasers are people who could technically legally buy guns in the U.S. but their intent was to turn around and sell them to drug cartels in Mexico.
Another point Melson clarified for investigators was that the ATF group carrying out the mission of Operation Fast and Furious was placed under the direction of the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office. The U.S. Attorney in Arizona, Dennis Burke, is a political appointee of the Obama administration.
Melson appeared with only his personal attorney at the secret meeting with Congressional investigators. Melson was originally scheduled to conduct the interview on July 13 with Justice Department attorneys and his personal attorney present, but Melson abandoned DOJ representation after learning of a provision in his agreement to testify that allowed him to do so. (Issa staffer: Gunrunner investigation points much higher than ATF director)
“We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement,” Issa and Grassley wrote to Holder on Tuesday afternoon. “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.”
Issa and Grassley wrote that Melson’s interview “was extremely helpful to our investigation.” They said Melson told them he did not review the “hundreds of documents” the DOJ is withholding until after the public controversy about the operation. Issa and Grassley said Melson claims he was “sick to his stomach” when he obtained the documents and learned the full story.
The DOJ has not been fully cooperative with a number of Issa’s and Grassley’s requests for documents and other evidence in this investigation. According to the July 5 letter, Issa and Grassley said Melson told them he asked the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) to be more cooperative with Congressional requests for information, evidence and documents.
Their letter also details how Melson told Issa and Grassley that he and other senior ATF officials moved to reassign every major official involved in Operation Fast and Furious. Melson said Obama administration Justice Department officials directed him and other ATF officials to not communicate to Congress the reasoning behind the reassignments.
The ultimate point behind Issa’s and Grassley’s letter to Holder was to request Melson be provided with the protections that bureaucratic whistleblowers normally enjoy. Because Melson, a longtime career government employee, now serves as a political appointee of the Obama administration, he doesn’t automatically enjoy whistleblower protections.
In recent weeks, rumors have floated throughout the press that Melson was going to resign his post as acting ATF Director. Melson told Congressional investigators on July 4, though, that those reports were “untrue.”
“Technically, Mr. Melson no longer enjoys the due process protections afforded to career officials,” Issa and Grassley wrote. “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.”
Melson also confirmed many suspicions Issa and Grassley had of the existence of documents and other evidence in Justice Department possession. The Republican members called on Holder to be more transparent and honest in responses to their requests for information, and that DOJ officials should be informed of their right to communicate with Congressional committees without Holder’s oversight.
“We hope that the Department will take a much more candid and forthcoming approach in addressing these very serious matters with the Committee,” Issa and Grassley wrote. “If other 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.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/06/issa-grassley-blast-holder-in-letter-after-secret-meeting-with-atfs-ken-melson/#ixzz1RLsxVxTA
-
IMAGINE the backlash if the mexican govt was secretly feeding rifles to american gangs who were killing citizens and cops by the truckload.
LOL!
-
IMAGINE the backlash if the mexican govt was secretly feeding rifles to american gangs who were killing citizens and cops by the truckload.
LOL!
Its ok - obama/holder did it so it must have been with the best of intentions. ::) ::)
-
Its ok - obama/holder did it so it must have been with the best of intentions. ::) ::)
prosecute em.
then go back to waco and preosecute teh BATF for MELTING the door so we couldn't see which way the bullets flew and bulldozed the entire compound THE NEXT DAY with zero investigation. And of course, the aerial helicopter footage showing the feds shooting into the place first.
Oh, and to back to OKC and ask the atf about all the shady shit on that one.
Sorry, but unless you have been screaming about their shadiness for the past 15 years, you can suck an egg by getting mad now. You let that shit happen for decades and suddenly you're all upset. Suck one. Youre politically motivated and don't give a shit for right & wrong.
-
prosecute em.
then go back to waco and preosecute teh BATF for MELTING the door so we couldn't see which way the bullets flew and bulldozed the entire compound THE NEXT DAY with zero investigation. And of course, the aerial helicopter footage showing the feds shooting into the place first.
Oh, and to back to OKC and ask the atf about all the shady shit on that one.
Sorry, but unless you have been screaming about their shadiness for the past 15 years, you can suck an egg by getting mad now. You let that shit happen for decades and suddenly you're all upset. Suck one. Youre politically motivated and don't give a shit for right & wrong.
Are you talking to me? I am a gun nut by every definition.
True story - about two months ago I was picking up a mossberg 500 cruiser pistol grip from the gun store I deal with. M boy owns the place so I give him all my business of course.
In walks a ATF agent with Badge, clipboard, etc. Dude was obviously not from NYC, and sounded like he was from ohio or some shit. He checked over all my paperwork in the store as the transaction occured, my boy had to do the NICS check with this guy watching, and he was like "I was just canvassing the area and making sure everything was ok" blah blah blah.
We all laughed at this asshole. He had a ATF jacket, ATf hat, badge on the outside, clipboard, showed up in the Lincoln town car, etc.
After 10 minutes he left after about 5 of us gave him the cold shoulder and shut the hell up real quick.
WTF do they send out of state agents into NYC area? Seriously, you send some goober from Missouri into a gun store in Yonkers, NY, WTF do they think is going to happen?
-
33,
do you feel congress should investigate OKC and waco incidents as well?
-
33,
do you feel congress should investigate OKC and waco incidents as well?
hhhuuuhhh?????
OF COURSE! ! ! ! !
TALK ABOUT TO BLACK BAG JOBS EVER THEY EXISTED!
-
LOL! Awesome, man. in taht case, we're on the same page.
I don't want to hear any F&F noise from people who buy into the BS the ATF got away with in the 90s just because they happened to be clinton voters! haha
-
Right... It's not like we are saying DON'T investigate those fucking disasters... But let's focus on the here and now at the moment... Let's focus on something that is RIGHT in front of us first.
-
Right... It's not like we are saying DON'T investigate those fucking disasters... But let's focus on the here and now at the moment... Let's focus on something that is RIGHT in front of us first.
my point is that the bloggers complaining about this FF thing... if they were talking shit back on misc.survival forums in 1997 that everyone who doubts the atf is crazy, and talking shit back in 2004 on getbig that there's nothing smelly about every single ATF agent being out of the building for the attack in OKC....
those people can suck one :)
-
my point is that the bloggers complaining about this FF thing... if they were talking shit back on misc.survival forums in 1997 that everyone who doubts the atf is crazy, and talking shit back in 2004 on getbig that there's nothing smelly about every single ATF agent being out of the building for the attack in OKC....
those people can suck one :)
Bro - I was walking gun shows floors in 1995 all over NYS with clinton commie stickers on the back of my pick up at the time.
I go way back on this shit.
-
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.
________________________ ________________________ ____________
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
oooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooo oo
oooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooo ooo
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-
Bump.
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
only being fair,
3333, Do you have some cliff notes to all that or do I have to read all that?
-
You really should read some of this. Its disgusting.
-
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! ! ! !
-
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.
-
'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 ...
-
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.
-
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 ...
________________________ ________________________ ______________
Eric Holder - "we are a nation of cowards"
-
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
________________________ ________________________ _
WTF! ! ! ! !
-
Disgusting.
Obama/Holder should rot in hell for this.
-
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.
________________________ ________________________ __
Shut the govt down.
-
Racist post reported. Brown rice is more nutritious and politically correct.
as well as disgusting
-
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.
________________________ ________________________ ___________________
Obama/holder/hillary/napolitano - perfect examples of the commie left
-
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.
________________________ ________________________ ______________________
What did Obama know and when did he know it!
-
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
________________________ ____________
WWWWTTTTFFFF? ? ? ? ?
-
The fact Holder is still AG says all that needs to be said about the Obama regime.
-
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.
-
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. ::)
-
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.
-
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.
No one cares about the past here but YOU. Why is that, you might ask? Because you're yet again trying to justify Obama's and Holder's actions with your tired old "but, but, but, Bush and Co. did it too" shit. You're a fucking twat.
-
Scandal: The ATF's acting director spills the beans on a program involving multiple agencies that not only supplied guns to Mexican gangs and drug cartels but may also have used taxpayer dollars to buy them.
The official story that Fast and Furious, also known as Project Gunrunner, was merely a botched sting operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives designed to track and stop cross-border arms-trafficking collapsed this week in secret testimony by ATF acting director Kenneth Melson.
Unwilling to be made a scapegoat in the affair, which resulted in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry using one of the trafficked guns, Melson, acting ATF director since April 2009, testified behind closed doors on Monday before two congressional oversight committees. He appeared with his own private attorney, rather than lawyers from the Department of Justice. His explosive testimony needs to be heard loudly and publicly.
According to a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Melson testified that he learned the full details of the operation only after Terry's death made the operation public and he reviewed internal documents — documents that have been withheld by DOJ — that made him "sick to his stomach."
ABC News reports that Melson wanted to appear before oversight committees earlier, but Eric Holder's Justice Department sought to delay his testimony. Pressured to resign and unwilling to take the fall, Melson seized the opportunity to tell his story.
"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," the letter said. "That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation."
Among the things that made Melson ill was the discovery of the activities of other agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, perhaps even the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Homeland Security.
How could this be if President Obama and AG Holder are telling the truth when they say they knew little or anything about the operation? All these agencies and U.S. dollars involved and the White House knew nothing?
Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast
"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 those activities," Issa and Grassley wrote.
Learning not only that guns were allowed to "walk" into Mexico after being bought by straw purchasers acting on behalf of criminals, but also that the purchases may have been financed with taxpayer dollars is enough to make anyone queasy. That Holder's DOJ would lie to Congress and hide what it knew and when it knew it is, well, absolutely criminal.
At an oversight hearing last month, three federal firearms investigators testified that they wanted to "intervene and interdict" the guns at the border, but were repeatedly ordered to step aside and let the traffickers proceed.
"Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals — this was the plan," John Dodson, an ATF agent, told the panel. "It was so mandated."
Agent Olindo James Casa said that "on several occasions I personally requested to interdict or seize firearms, but I was always ordered to stand down and not to seize the firearms."
Just how high up did this order originate? Just which federal agencies were involved and what were their roles? Did taxpayer dollars buy the guns for the criminals? Why did DOJ cover this up?
We'd like to see Eric Holder and Ken Melson testify side by side to answer these and one other important question: What did the president know and when did he know it?
-
http://www.timesofoman.com/innercat.asp?detail=47327
Mexico: Captured Mexican crime boss said his gang purchased weapons in the United States and smuggled them across the Rio Grande river, according to testimony released Tuesday by Mexican authorities.
Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, one of the founders and leaders of the feared Zetas drug cartel, said smugglers began transporting the weapons across the river following increased security at international crossings.
"All the arms are bought in the United States... Before we would transport them over the bridges, but now we transport them across the river, with difficulty," he said, according to the public security ministry.
The Rio Grande -- known as the Rio Bravo del Norte in Mexico -- forms the 1,200-mile (2,000 kilometer) border between Mexico and the US state of Texas.
<more>
-
No one cares about the past here but YOU.
Really?
-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14057363
US-Mexico ATF firearms smuggling sting 'mistakes'
The head of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has said mistakes were made in an operation to track the illegal movement of guns to Mexico.
Operation Fast and Furious saw US agents allowing hundreds of guns into Mexico illegally with the hope of tracking them to major arms dealers.
But the operation led to no arrests and many of the smuggled guns were later found at crime scenes.....
....Kenneth Melson, acting head of the ATF, has come under pressure to resign over the sting carried out by an Arizona-based branch of the agency.
But in a closed meeting with members of Congress on Monday, he said he had not known about the operation until it became public and that the department of justice (DOJ) had tried to prevent him from co-operating with the inquiry....
-
Skip to comments.
‘Gunwalker’ Whistleblower: ATF Director ‘Horribly Irresponsible’
Pajamas Media ^ | 7/7/2011 | Patrick Richardson
Posted on July 8, 2011 2:59:19 AM EDT by XHogPilot
One of the original whistleblowers on Operation Fast and Furious — which allowed thousands of guns to cross the border into Mexico — said Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Ken Melson’s testimony before congressional investigators on July 4 was nothing but “smoke and mirrors.” ATF Special Agent Vince Cefalu continued:
At this point he’s doing what anyone would do, he’s saving his own ass.
Cefalu is one of the founders of CleanUpATF.org, a message board dedicated to addressing abuses within the ATF. He is one of the most vocal critics of the heads of the organization.
Cefalu was served with a notice of termination just one day after Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the ATF warning them against retaliation towards agents who come forward to testify about the operation.
According to a release from Issa’s office, Melson secretly talked to House and Senate investigators with his personal attorney present — former United States Attorney Richard Cullen — and did so without the knowledge of the ATF or the Department of Justice.
Per the letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder by both Issa and Grassley:
[Melson’s] 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.
Cefalu questioned the presence of Melson’s lawyer:
Why would he need an attorney, why would you need all this protection if it doesn’t happen (that ATF retaliates against whistleblowers)?
According to Cefalu this is an attempt by Melson to avoid responsibility for the operation which led to the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, and more than 150 Mexican nationals. New reports now say that guns from Fast and Furious are being found in Arizona, having come full circle from the operation which was based in Phoenix. Said Cefalu:
He’s horribly irresponsible. He’s not taking responsibility for what he’s done. At the end of the day he made decisions on behalf of ATF and people died for it.
Cefalu said the operation was never about actually arresting cartel members for arms trafficking, it was about headlines for the ATF and its upper echelons, more budget, more gun control, and more media attention for ATF:
There’s no Mister Big in Mexico, there’s no … Iron Pipeline. It doesn’t exist.
When everybody is screaming terrorism and counterterrorism no one wants to talk to anyone but the FBI. If there’s gunrunning on the border and thousands of guns flowing into Mexico it’s more headlines for ATF.
It’s fame and glory and grabbing headlines.
Cefalu said the operation was akin to the DEA deciding to track the flow of drugs in a major city by putting tons of high-quality heroin on the streets, then waiting for a rash of overdoses to see which part of the city had the most drug activity.
Meanwhile, emails have revealed that high-level officials within DOJ were aware of the operation, which Attorney General Eric Holder has repeatedly said he only found out about when the story broke.
According to the emails, Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer, Melson, Acting Deputy Director of the ATF William Hoover, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, and Director of the FBI Robert Mueller were all aware of the operation.
It defies belief that Holder was unaware of the operation, and it is highly unlikely that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano were unaware of an operation that had both national security and international relations implications. It seems increasingly likely there will be multiple resignations as a result of this investigation and possibly criminal prosecutions.
-
Holder - busted!!!!!
Attorney General Eric Holder at the Mexico/United States Arms Trafficking Conference
CUERNAVACA, MEXICO ~ Thursday, April 2, 2009
Remarks as prepared for delivery.
First, let me express my thanks to Attorney General Medina Mora and Secretary of Government Gomez Mont for making this conference possible.
This is my first trip to another country as Attorney General. I wanted to come to Mexico to deliver a single message: We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this fight against the narcotics cartels. The United States shares responsibility for this problem and we will take responsibility by joining our Mexican counterparts in every step of this fight.
And, together, we will win – thanks in large part to the courage of my Mexican colleagues here today, who are on the front lines every day, and with whom I am proud to collaborate.
The topic that has been addressed over the past two days could not be more important – the development of an arms trafficking prosecution and enforcement strategy on both sides of the border.
I would like to thank the Mexican and U.S. experts who have worked so hard on this issue. On our side, Secretary Napolitano and I are committed to putting the resources in place to increase our attack on arms trafficking into Mexico.
Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail.
But as today’s conference has emphasized, the problem of arms trafficking will not be stopped at the border alone. Rather, as our experts emphasized, this is a problem that must be met as part of a comprehensive attack against the cartels – an attack in depth, on both sides of the border, that focuses on the leadership and assets of the cartel. This is the type of full-bore, prosecution-driven approach that the U.S. Department of Justice took to dismantle La Cosa Nostra – once the most powerful organized crime group operating in the United States.
With partners like those we have here today, I am confident that together, we will defeat these narcotics cartels in exactly the same way. I am proud to stand with you, and to join you in this fight. Thank you again for inviting me here.
Quiero que el pueblo Mexicano sepa que mi nación está con ustedes en la lucha contra los narcotraficantes.
México y los Estados Unidos comparten mas que una frontera—compartimos cultura, sangre e intereses comunes. Somos hermanos unidos contra una batalla que ganaremos.
Tenemos que aprender de uno a otro, trabajar juntos y luchar juntos. Si hacemos estas cosas, si nos dedicamos juntos a esta lucha, no tengo duda que tendremos éxito.
http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090402.html
-
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/gun-running-timeline-how-doj-s-operation
Timeline.
-
Holder is going to be shown to have committed perjury. Jail his ass.
Holder - busted!!!!!
Attorney General Eric Holder at the Mexico/United States Arms Trafficking Conference
CUERNAVACA, MEXICO ~ Thursday, April 2, 2009
Remarks as prepared for delivery.
First, let me express my thanks to Attorney General Medina Mora and Secretary of Government Gomez Mont for making this conference possible.
This is my first trip to another country as Attorney General. I wanted to come to Mexico to deliver a single message: We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this fight against the narcotics cartels. The United States shares responsibility for this problem and we will take responsibility by joining our Mexican counterparts in every step of this fight.
And, together, we will win – thanks in large part to the courage of my Mexican colleagues here today, who are on the front lines every day, and with whom I am proud to collaborate.
The topic that has been addressed over the past two days could not be more important – the development of an arms trafficking prosecution and enforcement strategy on both sides of the border.
I would like to thank the Mexican and U.S. experts who have worked so hard on this issue. On our side, Secretary Napolitano and I are committed to putting the resources in place to increase our attack on arms trafficking into Mexico.
Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail.
But as today’s conference has emphasized, the problem of arms trafficking will not be stopped at the border alone. Rather, as our experts emphasized, this is a problem that must be met as part of a comprehensive attack against the cartels – an attack in depth, on both sides of the border, that focuses on the leadership and assets of the cartel. This is the type of full-bore, prosecution-driven approach that the U.S. Department of Justice took to dismantle La Cosa Nostra – once the most powerful organized crime group operating in the United States.
With partners like those we have here today, I am confident that together, we will defeat these narcotics cartels in exactly the same way. I am proud to stand with you, and to join you in this fight. Thank you again for inviting me here.
Quiero que el pueblo Mexicano sepa que mi nación está con ustedes en la lucha contra los narcotraficantes.
México y los Estados Unidos comparten mas que una frontera—compartimos cultura, sangre e intereses comunes. Somos hermanos unidos contra una batalla que ganaremos.
Tenemos que aprender de uno a otro, trabajar juntos y luchar juntos. Si hacemos estas cosas, si nos dedicamos juntos a esta lucha, no tengo duda que tendremos éxito.
http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090402.html
Bbbboooooommmmm
-
My hate for holder runs deep. There is just something really irritating about him. When looking and him and hearing him babble you get the distinct impression he has zero potential for objectivity.
-
My hate for holder runs deep. There is just something really irritating about him. When looking and him and hearing him babble you get the distinct impression he has zero potential for objectivity.
I just provided clear proof he committed perjury.
-
‘Gunwalker’ Whistleblower: ATF Director ‘Horribly Irresponsible’
Pajamas Media ^ | 7/7/2011 | Patrick Richardson
________________________ ________________________ ________
One of the original whistleblowers on Operation Fast and Furious — which allowed thousands of guns to cross the border into Mexico — said Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Ken Melson’s testimony before congressional investigators on July 4 was nothing but “smoke and mirrors.” ATF Special Agent Vince Cefalu continued:
At this point he’s doing what anyone would do, he’s saving his own ass.
Cefalu is one of the founders of CleanUpATF.org, a message board dedicated to addressing abuses within the ATF. He is one of the most vocal critics of the heads of the organization.
Cefalu was served with a notice of termination just one day after Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the ATF warning them against retaliation towards agents who come forward to testify about the operation.
According to a release from Issa’s office, Melson secretly talked to House and Senate investigators with his personal attorney present — former United States Attorney Richard Cullen — and did so without the knowledge of the ATF or the Department of Justice.
Per the letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder by both Issa and Grassley:
[Melson’s] 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.
Cefalu questioned the presence of Melson’s lawyer:
Why would he need an attorney, why would you need all this protection if it doesn’t happen (that ATF retaliates against whistleblowers)?
According to Cefalu this is an attempt by Melson to avoid responsibility for the operation which led to the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, and more than 150 Mexican nationals. New reports now say that guns from Fast and Furious are being found in Arizona, having come full circle from the operation which was based in Phoenix. Said Cefalu:
He’s horribly irresponsible. He’s not taking responsibility for what he’s done. At the end of the day he made decisions on behalf of ATF and people died for it.
Cefalu said the operation was never about actually arresting cartel members for arms trafficking, it was about headlines for the ATF and its upper echelons, more budget, more gun control, and more media attention for ATF:
There’s no Mister Big in Mexico, there’s no … Iron Pipeline. It doesn’t exist.
When everybody is screaming terrorism and counterterrorism no one wants to talk to anyone but the FBI. If there’s gunrunning on the border and thousands of guns flowing into Mexico it’s more headlines for ATF.
It’s fame and glory and grabbing headlines.
Cefalu said the operation was akin to the DEA deciding to track the flow of drugs in a major city by putting tons of high-quality heroin on the streets, then waiting for a rash of overdoses to see which part of the city had the most drug activity.
Meanwhile, emails have revealed that high-level officials within DOJ were aware of the operation, which Attorney General Eric Holder has repeatedly said he only found out about when the story broke.
According to the emails, Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer, Melson, Acting Deputy Director of the ATF William Hoover, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, and Director of the FBI Robert Mueller were all aware of the operation.
It defies belief that Holder was unaware of the operation, and it is highly unlikely that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano were unaware of an operation that had both national security and international relations implications. It seems increasingly likely there will be multiple resignations as a result of this investigation and possibly criminal prosecutions.
Update: Someone in Congress funded Gunwalker via the stimulus bill.
-
DOJ Inspector General Can’t Be Trusted to Investigate Gunwalker
Pajamas Media ^ | July 8, 2011 | Bob Owens
Will Barack Obama dare to appoint an independent prosecutor?
As the pressure began mounting on his administration’s actions in the Gunwalker scandal last week, President Barack Obama turned once again to the Department of Justice inspector general’s investigation of the crime as cover:
Today at his news conference, President Obama was asked about the unfolding gunwalker scandal, and whether ATF leadership will be replaced.
Mr. Obama answered, “My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico. … I’m not going to comment on — a on a current investigation. I’ve made very clear my views that that would not be an appropriate step by the ATF, and we’ve got to find out how that happened.”
Mr. Obama added, “As soon as the investigation is completed, I think appropriate actions will be taken.”
Mr. Obama is referring to the investigation being run by acting DOJ Inspector General Cynthia A. Schnedar, who stepped into the position when well-respected longtime Inspector General Glenn Fine retired in late January.
Unfortunately for Schnedar, few seem to have confidence in her ability to run a competent or even unbiased investigation of the apparent crimes — deeds perpetrated by DOJ agencies involved in a program that saw federal law enforcement agencies providing de facto security to gun smugglers working for Mexican narcotics cartels. Attempts to apprehend gun smugglers during the commission of their crimes were thwarted by the very agencies and agents chartered to stop them.
Ultimately, the operation led to the murder of two U.S. federal agents and an estimated 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers. The strong implication is that those individuals and agencies responsible for allowing Gunwalker to proceed aided and abetted murder, committing felonies as accessories before the fact.
Such serious charges, potentially reaching the highest levels of the Department of Justice and possibly higher, should not be undertaken by an acting inspector general, which is typically a caretaker role until a new inspector general has been appointed.
Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) made that very observation in a March 8 letter to Kevin L. Perkins, chair of the Integrity Committee for the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.
In addition to noting that an inspector general’s office without an inspector general is unfit to investigate such serious allegations, he also noted that the OIG has two conflicts of interest in investigating the scandal, as it may be part of it:
…the DOJ-OIG was aware of the allegations long before the Attorney General’s request and did nothing. Agent Dodson had already contacted the DOJ-OIG in December, just after Agent Terry’s death. He received no reply. After contacting my office, Agent Dodson contacted DOJ-OIG again, and still received no reply. No one from the office contacted him to gather information about his allegations until after my staff contacted the Acting Inspector General directly on February 1, 2011. Given that the DOJ-OIG initially failed to follow-up, it might have an incentive to minimize the significance of the allegations in order to avoid the appearance that its own inaction contributed to the problem in the last few months.
Third, I understand that ATF officials have cited a DOJ-OIG report critical of Project Gunrunner as one of the factors that prompted the shift to a riskier strategy of letting guns be trafficked rather than arresting straw buyers. DOJ-OIG may be sensitive to the appearance that its previous criticism created the conditions under which ATF and DOJ felt pressured to take risks in order to make a “big case” against the cartels. Again, that could create an incentive to minimize the significance of the allegations.
DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General ignored ATF whisteblowers, and previous rulings by the OIG may have contributed to the tactics used in Gunwalker. These are clear and obvious conflicts of interest that demand removing the OIG as the investigating agency.
Grassley’s criticism is shared within the Department of Justice itself. A Pajamas Media source within the DOJ concurs that the DOJ OIG Schnedar is not trusted internally to run impartial investigations, and that DOJ employees now avoid going to OIG with concerns.
Aside from Schnedar’s credibility gap, the source further noted the Obama administration’s history of intimidating inspectors general, citing the firing and smearing of Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Gerald Walpin, who was investigating the AmeriCorps scandal, which had in its sights Obama’s friend Kevin Johnson.
Put simply, the DOJ-OIG’s impartiality and competence have been challenged, which has in no way been helped by the Obama administration’s thuggish intimidation of previous OIGs that have gotten too close to Obama’s allies.
The DOJ-OIG’s report won’t be worth the “black paper” the agency submitted in attempts to stonewall the Oversight Committee’s investigation in June.
The severity of the charges demands that a compromised DOJ-OIG be removed from the case, and that an independent prosecutor be appointed to determine who in the Obama administration authorized a gun-running operation that is responsible for graveyards filled with police dead.
-
Bump
I contacted Issa and Grassley today w this.
I will make sure to steer clear of Ft. Marcy Park now that this communist terrorist Holder is going to be sent to jail.
-
Grassley would be supportive of a special prosecutor in ‘Gunwalker’ (but he isnt calling for one)
pj tatler ^ | 7/08 | patrick richardson
Grassley would be supportive of a special prosecutor in ‘Gunwalker’
Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-Iowa) ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on a radio interview today, while he’s not calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Operation Fast and Furious, the failed operation to track guns across the Mexican border, he would be supportive if Chairman Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called for one.
In the interview on the Steve Gill Show, he had a couple of other interesting things to say.
He said three things came out of the interviews with Ken Melson, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
1. It wasn’t just an ATF operation. FBI and DEA were involved and knew about the operation.
2. This wasn’t controlled by ATF, the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix was in charge.
3. Contrary to the information the investigators had been given by letter, everyone inolved knew guns were going across the border.
Listen to the interview here.
-
Could (Gunrunner) controversy kill the ATF?
Politico ^ | 07/08/2011 | Politico
________________________ ________________________ ________
The unfolding scandal over a gunrunning investigation allegedly botched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could do what years of criticism of the long-beleaguered agency never quite accomplished — result in its demise.
That, at least, is the view of some former ATF employees and advocates on both sides of the gun control debate who have watched the agency struggle to contain the damage from an operation intended to trace the traffic of illegal guns to Mexico that has reignited the harsh criticism often directed at the ATF in the past.
The agency, which moved from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department in 2003, has been without a permanent director for nearly five years. Nominees offered by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have languished without approval from the Senate after drawing strong opposition from the National Rifle Association, which for years has been the agency’s loudest critic.
Now, with ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson hobbled by the scandal over Operation Fast and Furious and by indications he’s at odds with senior Justice Department officials, many are saying a breakup of the storied agency could just be a matter of time.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
-
Where are the lef wing commies on this?
-
Where are the lef wing commies on this?
I notice the only time they post these days is when they're attacking you, Palin or Bachmann. They're pathetic cowards just like their God-King.
-
Why the hell is the ATF even in existence? What do they do that is so specialized, so important and so specific that the ATF needed to be created to carry out these tasks?
-
Why the hell is the ATF even in existence? What do they do that is so specialized, so important and so specific that the ATF needed to be created to carry out these tasks?
You can ask that same question for at least 50-75% of these government organizations.
-
This was all about trying to undermine the 2nd amend.
-
You can ask that same question for at least 50-75% of these government organizations.
Truth!
-
People forget Waco and Ruby ridge...all ATF fuck-up's which dragged in other agencies and the military.
The white house mouthpiece said today that new laws are coming. Its starting to be like Barry just doesn't want to be re-elected. I just picked up an all jazzed out M-4. Way more crap then I would want in combat but it was super cheap. Just keep buying weapons and ammo.
-
People forget Waco and Ruby ridge...all ATF fuck-up's which dragged in other agencies and the military.
The white house mouthpiece said today that new laws are coming. Its starting to be like Barry just doesn't want to be re-elected. I just picked up an all jazzed out M-4. Way more crap then I would want in combat but it was super cheap. Just keep buying weapons and ammo.
I hear ya, just picked up another today
-
I have a buddy here who buys his ammo...fairly exotic...by the pallet. He has enough 7.62 to fund a latin american revolution.
-
I have a buddy here who buys his ammo...fairly exotic...by the pallet. He has enough 7.62 to fund a latin american revolution.
Most will probably think I'm nuts but I see absolutely nothing unusual about that
-
I have shit loads of all calibers too.
-
We went over to his storage site...its unreal. I have alot of ammo but he's way beyond anything I hold on to. He's got 3 versions of the swedish K..so he's got tons of .45...tons of 9mm..tons of 5.56...some odd's and ends stuff..but just tons of it.
-
I have a few softball bats. :)
-
We went over to his storage site...its unreal. I have alot of ammo but he's way beyond anything I hold on to. He's got 3 versions of the swedish K..so he's got tons of .45...tons of 9mm..tons of 5.56...some odd's and ends stuff..but just tons of it.
It's better than dollar bills at this point.
-
Bump for Vince.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
ATF Death Watch 33: C-SPAN’s Smoking Gun.
The Truth About Guns ^ | 9 July, 2011 | Brad Kozak
Posted on July 9, 2011 9:09:32 AM EDT by marktwain
Here we are thinking that there’s got to be a Watergate moment – the 18½ minutes of tape, Deep Throat, the Plumbers – to connect the final dot between the ATF’s Gunwalker scandal and Obama. Nope. Turns out, we just had to go back and watch some C-SPAN reruns, and there it was, straight from the Assistant US District Attorney’s mouth. Obama Ordered ATF’s Gunwalker. Wow. I mean, so we’re clear, the U.S. AG’s office was bragging about Gunwalker as a part of Obama’s “get tough on the border” policy. Or to put it in terms that a Democrat can understand, “he was for it, before he was against it.” Um-hmmm. And he approved it before he tried to distance himself from it.
What was once a lone voice crying in the wilderness, is beginning to snowball into a groundswell Greek chorus of voices calling for putting down the ATF like the rabid dog that it is. And nailing it’s master (that would be Obama) for letting the dog run wild.
I realize nobody watches C-SPAN, but don’t you think it’s gonna be a little hard for the AG’s office to ‘splain this one away?
While we’re at it, we may have cleared up the mystery of what those two agents were doing in-country when they were ambushed by the cartel thugs. Listen carefully, and you’ll see Obama stepped up the presence of American law enforcement inside Mexico.
Anybody else wondering how this is different from Kennedy ordering “advisors” into North Vietnam and claiming we weren’t doing anything suspicious? Or for that matter, how this policy bears a resemblance to the Un-war we seem to now be fighting in Libya?
I’m almost hoping ObamaCare actually works, as I’m gonna need some medical attention for all the whiplash I’m getting from the “Fast and Furious” lies coming out of the administration.
Fortunately, it’s gonna be pretty difficult for Obama, Holder & Co. to deny they knew anything about this, with an assistant AG spilling the beans. On C-SPAN no less.
I can almost smell the scandalous odors of gunpowder and desperation from here.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: banglist; castaway; fastandfurious; gunrunner; gunwalker; Click to Add Keyword
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
The video is at the site. It clearly differentiates between the old, Bush Presidency gunrunner program, and the new initiatives of the Obama presidency and the $10 million stimulus money. This is just the time the Gunwalking started.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
ATF Death Watch 33: C-SPAN’s Smoking Gun.
The Truth About Guns ^ | 9 July, 2011 | Brad Kozak
Posted on July 9, 2011 9:09:32 AM EDT by marktwain
Here we are thinking that there’s got to be a Watergate moment – the 18½ minutes of tape, Deep Throat, the Plumbers – to connect the final dot between the ATF’s Gunwalker scandal and Obama. Nope. Turns out, we just had to go back and watch some C-SPAN reruns, and there it was, straight from the Assistant US District Attorney’s mouth. Obama Ordered ATF’s Gunwalker. Wow. I mean, so we’re clear, the U.S. AG’s office was bragging about Gunwalker as a part of Obama’s “get tough on the border” policy. Or to put it in terms that a Democrat can understand, “he was for it, before he was against it.” Um-hmmm. And he approved it before he tried to distance himself from it.
What was once a lone voice crying in the wilderness, is beginning to snowball into a groundswell Greek chorus of voices calling for putting down the ATF like the rabid dog that it is. And nailing it’s master (that would be Obama) for letting the dog run wild.
I realize nobody watches C-SPAN, but don’t you think it’s gonna be a little hard for the AG’s office to ‘splain this one away?
While we’re at it, we may have cleared up the mystery of what those two agents were doing in-country when they were ambushed by the cartel thugs. Listen carefully, and you’ll see Obama stepped up the presence of American law enforcement inside Mexico.
Anybody else wondering how this is different from Kennedy ordering “advisors” into North Vietnam and claiming we weren’t doing anything suspicious? Or for that matter, how this policy bears a resemblance to the Un-war we seem to now be fighting in Libya?
I’m almost hoping ObamaCare actually works, as I’m gonna need some medical attention for all the whiplash I’m getting from the “Fast and Furious” lies coming out of the administration.
Fortunately, it’s gonna be pretty difficult for Obama, Holder & Co. to deny they knew anything about this, with an assistant AG spilling the beans. On C-SPAN no less.
I can almost smell the scandalous odors of gunpowder and desperation from here.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: banglist; castaway; fastandfurious; gunrunner; gunwalker; Click to Add Keyword
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
The video is at the site. It clearly differentiates between the old, Bush Presidency gunrunner program, and the new initiatives of the Obama presidency and the $10 million stimulus money. This is just the time the Gunwalking started.
-
http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/07/brad-kozak/atf-death-watch-33-c-spans-smoking-gun
Video at site is smoking gun. Busted.
-
http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/07/brad-kozak/atf-death-watch-33-c-spans-smoking-gun
Video at site. Obama and holder are busted.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Let's get one thing straight, Gunwalker is NOT simply an ATF scandal. It IS an OBAMA scandal.
sipseystreetirregulars ^ | 8 July, 2011 | Mike Vanderboegh
Posted on July 9, 2011 9:15:46 AM EDT by marktwain
The left-collectivist gun confiscationists, unable to ignore the Gunwalker Scandal any longer, are chanting the "Permanent Director, More Gun Control" mantra louder, longer and more frequently now. Here's Pro-Publica: "Embroiled in Controversy, ATF Has Long Been Leaderless and Hamstrung."
Josh Gerstein, writing at Polico asks: "Could controversy kill the ATF?"
The unfolding scandal over a gunrunning investigation allegedly botched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could do what years of criticism of the long-beleaguered agency never quite accomplished — result in its demise.
That, at least, is the view of some former ATF employees and advocates on both sides of the gun control debate who have watched the agency struggle to contain the damage from an operation intended to trace the traffic of illegal guns to Mexico that has reignited the harsh criticism often directed at the ATF in the past.
The agency, which moved from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department in 2003, has been without a permanent director for nearly five years. Nominees offered by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have languished without approval from the Senate after drawing strong opposition from the National Rifle Association, which for years has been the agency’s loudest critic.
Now, with ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson hobbled by the scandal over Operation Fast and Furious and by indications he’s at odds with senior Justice Department officials, many are saying a breakup of the storied agency could just be a matter of time.
“I think something like that is likely to happen,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Unless they take some action to give it a director, it’s inevitable it’s going to have to get to that stage. It cannot continue the way it’s going now. … Right now, ATF is so weak it’s amazing.” . . .
“I point the finger at Congress. You made it confirmable, so confirm somebody. If not, restructure it. … If this structure doesn’t work, let’s get a structure that does,” Helmke said.
Now folks, when rabid anti-gunners like Helmke get around to accepting the ATF's demise, you've got to ask yourself why. The answer? They are protecting the larger mission -- both the Obama administration and the gun control mission. This scandal is so bad, they know they'll have to give up something. But they also know that the firearm laws of the United States are NOT going to be repealed anytime soon.
As a matter of fact, these schmucks -- both the gun confiscationists and the guilty Gunwalker conspirators -- NEED you to think that this is about the ATF. The more folks focus on the tree of the ATF, the less they're worried about the larger forest of their naked attempt to subvert the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
And it is not just Helmke:
Some experts said the ATF, a successor to Treasury’s Prohibition Unit that once counted crimefighter Eliot Ness among its ranks, has outlived its usefulness.
“Even the name of the organization, it’s from the black-and-white movie era,” said Jim Kessler of Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. “I don’t think it should exist. The investigations should be subsumed within the FBI, and the licensing could be done by Treasury, which is a tax-collecting agency.”
Oh, right. Let's give it to the FBI, the same agency that we now know did its best to cover-up the circumstances of Brian Terry's murder by letting go three men apprehended at the murder scene and the same agency who had a cartel gunrunner as a paid informant WITHOUT telling the ATF. The same agency that has always been a lot more competent at avoiding punishment for their own fatal misdeeds, including the killing of Vicki Weaver and the immolation of 80 Davidian men, women and children. Yeah, THAT FBI.
Right.
Worse, the secret political policemen of DHS are waiting in the wings for the gun control mission.
But right now, it is to the advantage of the guilty parties at the top echelon of the Gunwalker conspirators at FBI, DEA. State, the NSC and White House for everybody to believe that this is strictly an ATF scandal.
By focusing on the tool, they hope you'll miss the fingerprints of the hand that wielded it.
TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; History; Politics; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: banglist; castaway; fastandfurious; ffgate; guncontrol; gunrunner; gunwalker; murder; treason; Click to Add Keyword
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
This shows that we are winning. This means we need to push all the harder to find all of those implicated in this scandal, and push hard for the guilty to be punished.
1 posted on July 9, 2011 9:15:51 AM EDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: vette6387; MetaThought; 60Gunner; XHogPilot; FreedomPoster; Josephat; Prince of Space; ...
2 posted on July 9, 2011 9:18:57 AM EDT by MestaMachine (Guns don't kill people, the obama administration does. (Gunwalker Ping List))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: marktwain
and possibly a Felipe Calderón scandal.
3 posted on July 9, 2011 9:20:29 AM EDT by RC one (DO NOT RAISE THE DEBT LIMIT!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: marktwain
...which explains why the media has ignored it.
4 posted on July 9, 2011 9:21:54 AM EDT by Mr. Lucky
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
Please add me to your ping list.
Thanks in advance.
5 posted on July 9, 2011 9:23:10 AM EDT by beltfed308 (Heller: The defining moment of our Republic)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Mr. Lucky
I’m wondering what’s it going to take for Americans to rise up and take their country back, I mean all evidence points towards either no elections next year, or heavily cheated ones. They are obviously planning some pretty dang nefarious things, where are the patriots?
6 posted on July 9, 2011 9:26:16 AM EDT by Bulwyf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: marktwain
“Worse, the secret political policemen of DHS are waiting in the wings for the gun control mission.”
Thank you, george.
7 posted on July 9, 2011 9:27:28 AM EDT by MestaMachine (Guns don't kill people, the obama administration does. (Gunwalker Ping List))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Mr. Lucky
This makes Watergate look like child’s play
8 posted on July 9, 2011 9:29:27 AM EDT by BubbaJunebug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Bulwyf
I think the closer this gets to obama, the more unstable and desperate he gets. I am looking for something truly outrageous very soon from this administration. obama can NOT take pressure without striking out wildly.
9 posted on July 9, 2011 9:30:45 AM EDT by MestaMachine (Guns don't kill people, the obama administration does. (Gunwalker Ping List))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
please add me to your ping list, too....thanks.
10 posted on July 9, 2011 9:31:03 AM EDT by mickie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
One more for your ping list.
TIA!
11 posted on July 9, 2011 9:34:08 AM EDT by maggief
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
Sign me up too. Thanks!
12 posted on July 9, 2011 9:36:22 AM EDT by Fresh Wind ('People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook.' Richard M. Nixon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
This Canadian will be there to help my southern brothers and sisters when the need arises ( I have three kids, I can’t afford to sit by and do nothing while freedom dies).
I’ve been expecting something big to happen for a while now, I just sometimes wonder why we have to wait, a good defense is a good offense?
13 posted on July 9, 2011 9:38:30 AM EDT by Bulwyf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article
FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Obama stimulus funded 'guns-to-drug-lords' plan
WorldNet Daily ^ | July 9, 2011 | Michael Carl
Posted on July 9, 2011 9:33:29 AM EDT by libstripper
Just a day after U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., called for Attorney General Eric Holder's removal, alleging a White House connection to the "Project Gunrunner" that allowed weapons to be delivered to Mexican drug lords, confirmation has come that the program originated at the highest levels of the Obama administration.
The link is the $10 million in taxpayer dollars designated to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for Project Gunrunner in Obama's 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, otherwise known as the Stimulus Bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
-
Smoking gun. Obama and Holder should get ready for prison.
-
Time for prison for these communists and traitors.
BTW - whoever still plans on voting for this disgusting communist regime needs to be fucking beaten senseless.
-
presidents always get away with this shit.
some fall guy takes all the blame, and he gets rich doing a cable tv show a few years later as a hero to the base for 'saving their guy'.
Ollie North Approved!
-
Sorry 240 - melson is not taking the fall on this.
-
Sorry 240 - melson is not taking the fall on this.
i dunno who will take the fall. someone will come fwd and make their claim to "my bad, that was my call..."
Scooter libby ring a bell? lol
-
i dunno who will take the fall. someone will come fwd and make their claim to "my bad, that was my call..."
Scooter libby ring a bell? lol
Hey dipshit it's already on record as an obama policy. Stop your excuses for this asshole. It makes you look like a real pofs.
-
Hey dipshit it's already on record as an obama policy. Stop your excuses for this asshole. It makes you look like a real pofs.
I already said obama and holder belong in prison for it. You call that making excuses?
I believe they're guilty. I also believe they'll walk because they do what the fck they want to do, as all presidents do, and they sure ain't going to jail for it. nixon was guilty as shit, and wasn't prosecuted - its bad for teh office.
Obama will beat the rap here, but if there's any justice, this will stall any potential anti gun legislation.
hey 33, learn to separate reality from emotion dude - i believe obama is guilty, but I believe he'll never be tried for any crime. That's not kneepadding.
-
How many calls have you made to your reps.
-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2746292/posts
Allen west calling for holder to go.
-
Holder bragged about Operation Gunrunner in 2009
By: Barbara Hollingsworth | Local Opinion Editor | 07/09/11 10:33 AM
On May 3, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa's committee that he only learned about the government's sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels "in the last few weeks."
But Big Government found a 2009 speech by Holder on the Department of Justice's own website that proves the attorney general was well aware of Operation Gunrunner back in 2009:
The problem with Holder’s feigned ignorance is that he gave a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation 'Gunrunner” and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success.
When questioned by the media, Holder also denied knowing anything about Gunrunner:
"Holder's office at first vehemently denied ATF has ever knowingly allowed weapons to get into the hands of suspected gunrunners for Mexico's drug cartels," CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported.
But at the arms trafficking conference in Cuernavaca, Holder not only acknowledged the program, he bragged that he was in the process of expanding it:
"Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail."
So Holder's May 3rd denial appears to be refuted by his own words.
With 43 automatic weapons with serial numbers traced back to the ATF operation seized during a single traffic stop in Phoenix, and others showing up in crimes throughout Arizona, the ATF director now claims that Holder's department is obstructing the congressional investigation.
-
Fast and Furious: The Issue That Could Sink Obama GOPUSA.com
GOPUSA.com ^ | July 8, 2011 | Bobby Eberle
Posted on July 8, 2011 8:01:37 PM EDT by Iam1ru1-2
There is a laundry list of issues that may lead to Barack Obama being a one-term president. There's his massive, debt-financed spending plans designed to boost the economy that, of course, failed. There's his seemingly incoherent foreign policy. There's his complete grasp of how jobs are created. But there is another issue that is waiting to explode. Obama's administration has been involved in the idiotic plan of allowing American guns to be sold to Mexican drug dealers. These guns were used to kill an American Border Patrol Agent. So... what did Obama know, and when did he know it?
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. This committee is tasked with investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and their so-called sting known as Operation Fast and Furious. Issa is trying to figure out which Obama official authorized the program in which "purchasers were allowed to buy guns in the U.S. -- in some cases, with taxpayer money, Issa said -- and then send those guns to Mexican drug cartels."
As CNSNews.com reports, the operation was established "to track the guns to see where they'd end up, but Issa says tracking devices were not put on most of the guns:"
"With only two exceptions where they put tracking devices on (the guns) was there any physical tracking beyond basically a few hours of following the first car, at most. In one case, they did watch (the guns) go on a GPS device quite a ways into Mexico, but of course they didn't inform the Mexican officials, and they didn't have a team on the other side of the border to follow it, so at some point the signal simply disappeared."
In December 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. At the scene were two rifles that were sold to a smuggler through the ATF's Fast and Furious program.
CNSNews.com has an outstanding timeline of the program.
In this operation, which began in the fall of 2009 and continued into early 2011, the federal government purposefully allowed known or suspected gun smugglers to purchase guns at federally licensed firearms dealers in Arizona. The government did not seek to abort these gun purchases, intercept the smugglers after the purchases, or recover the guns they had purchased. In some cases, as the government expected they would, the smugglers delivered the guns to Mexico drug traffickers.
Can you say INSANITY? The Obama administration puts together a program to track guns all the way to the bad guys, but doesn't actually track the guns and certainly doesn't get the bad guys. They basically made it easier for Mexican drug smugglers to get guns... guns that were used to kill an American!
Sean Hannity, on his Fox News program, interviewed Issa on his investigation into Operation Fast and Furious:
PART 1
Here's Part 2 of the interview:
PART 2
CNSNews.com's White House correspondent asked a simple question during a recent press briefing: What was the exact date that Obama learned about the ATF operation. Here's the response:
And so we have a program that was designed to fail... a program that purposely allowed guns to get into the hands of Mexican drug dealers. Aren't liberals supposed to be in favor of stronger gun control? Does that only apply to Americans and not to guns being used against Americans?
As Issa commented in the CNSNews.com story, "Because the operation involved wiretaps and other agencies -- including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona -- Issa said it's clear to him that the guns-to-Mexico operation goes to the 'highest levels' of the Justice Department."
This program is so plain stupid that it smacks of Obama thinking it up himself. What did he know, and when did he know it? Those are the questions.
-
Jul-09-2011 20:59
Holder Lied: DOJ News Release Shows Obama Admin Approved ATF Mexico Weapons Smuggling
Tim King Salem-News.com
Eric Holder gave false info. to a Congressional Committee last May about ATF operations tied to the deaths of two U.S. Agents; we have the proof.
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Special Agent Jaime Zapata from ICE both died from weapons that were sent to Mexico from the United States. There is no knowledge as to how many lives the U.S. weapons smuggling programs claimed in Mexico.
(SALEM, Ore.) - New information indicates that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's actions are squarely behind the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) operation known as "Fast and Furious", which orchestrated the delivery of almost 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels[1].
Holder openly proclaimed his connection to the operation in April 2009 during a publicized speech in Mexico, then told a Congressional Committee in May 2011, "I probably heard of Fast and Furious the first time in the last few weeks."[2]
The ATF weapons smuggling ring involved the arrest of several government officials with the city of Columbus, New Mexico including the mayor and police chief, but that is all[3].
They were apparently known from the beginning and the weapons deals with 'straw buyers' were videotaped. Smuggled U.S. weapons from this operation, described as mostly semi automatic versions of military weapons like the AK-47, were found to be used in the shooting deaths of two U.S. federal agents.
The new information, which is not really new at all, proves that Holder had to be aware of the U.S. government weapons smuggling operation planned and implemented by federal agents from ATF which he denied to Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) less than two months ago, as detailed below.
Background on Fast and Furious 'Gunrunner' Operation
As we have reported with the help of our Photojournalist Robert Plumlee, who is a former CIA asset, we know that around 1,800 weapons were funneled through the Chaparral Gun Store in Chaparral, New Mexico, and into the hands of the murderous cartels. As referenced, the gun shop was directly tied to the mayor, police chief and city council of Columbus, New Mexico, a town famous for the Pancho Villa border raids a century before[4].
Weapons from the ATF Gunrunner or Gunwalker scheme as it came to be known, were recovered from the desert where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died in a shootout with cartel members. A U.S. gun that allegedly was smuggled into Mexico from Dallas, Texas, was used to murder an Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent named Jaime Zapata[5].
Considering how big of a problems guns and violence already are in Mexico, it should be a mystery how this U.S. / Mexico weapons smuggling program was ever launched, and according to Holder's earlier testimony, included in our report, Feds Call Meeting with Journalist Who Reported Human Remains and Cartel Weapon Build up with U.S. Ties, it is a mystery[6].
This is official sworn testimony from Holder, the video is transcribed.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa grills Attorney General Eric Holder over Failure and tragedy of 'Operation Fast and Furious'
Issa: "When did you first know about the program, Fast and the Furious? To the best of your knowledge what date?"
Holder: "I'm not sure of the exact date but I probably heard of Fast and Furious the first time in the last few weeks."
Issa: "How about the head of the Criminal Dept. Lanny Brewer, did he authorize it?"
Holder: "I'm not sure whether or not Mr. Brewer authorized it, you have to understand in which the department operations, although there are operations this one has gotten a great deal of publicity".
Issa: "Yeah there are dead Americans as a result of this failed and reckless program. so I would say that it hasn't gotten enough attention, has it Mr. Attorney General?"
Holder: "Not exactly, there is an investigation that is underway You'll have to look at that to see what exactly in regard to..."
Issa: "But Mr. Attorney General..."
Holder: "...I take very seriously, the allegation..."
Issa: "Mr. Attorney General, do you take seriously... Mr. Attorney General, do you take, take seriously a subpoena signed by the Clerk of the House?"
Holder: "Of course".
Issa: "Mr. Attorney General, isn't it true that those cases that will go to trial in June... We have very limited time, sorry, those cases are basically a bunch of meth addicts who did the buying, that you do not have what this program was supposed to produce, you don't have the kingpins, you don't have the places it went, what you have are the people you already had on videotape many, many months before indictments were brought, isn't this true?"
Holder: "There are cases that are important that we are tying to bring that we want to try successfully and they are part of a scheme they are part of a scheme. You can't look at an individual case as an individual matter and think it's unimportant because small cases lead to larger ones."
Issa: "We're looking at you, straw purchasers, we're looking at you, and you're key people who knew or should have known about this, and whether or not your judgment was consistent with good practices and whether or not, instead, the Justice Dept. is basically guilty of allowing weapons to kill Americans and Mexicans. So will you agree to cooperate with that investigation both on the House and Senate side?"
Holder: "We'll certainly cooperate with all of the investigations but I take great exception to what you just said; the notion that somehow or another, this Justice Dept. is responsible for those deaths that you mentioned, uh... that assertion's offensive. and I want to tell you that..."
Issa: "What if it's accurate?"
Holder: "...it is the policy of the Justice Dept. to make sure that we do all that we can to protect law enforcement agents, it is one of the reasons we have tried to look at a whole variety of methods and techniques we can use to protect the lives of law enforcement agents, it is something this country is not focused enough on."
Issa: "What am I gonna tell Agent Terry's mother about how he died at the end of a gun that was videotaped as it was sold to a straw purchaser fully intending and expecting it to end up in the hands of drug cartels?"
Holder: "Well, one; you know we'll have to see exactly what happened with regards to the guns that are at issue there. And... (pause) I've attended funerals you know. it's something that, you know it isn't theoretical, this is not political, it is extremely real for me as Attorney General..."
Issa: "It is for us too"[7] .
An article published Friday, 8 July 2011, The Stimulation of Murder, by Investor's Business Daily, explained that A.G. Holder was, in spite of his denial, fully aware of the ATF's gun-running to Mexico operations, to the point that it was fully disclosed in President Barack Obama's Stimulus Bill.
"Right there in the stimulus bill that no one in Congress bothered to read is $10 million for Project Gunrunner (aka Operation Fast and Furious), which resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and increased drug cartel violence", the article stated[8][9].
Attorney General Eric Holder's direct denial of knowledge of this as shown above, to Congress, could and possibly should be his downfall. Rather than relying on the blog article, I simply copied the words and dropped them into Google. Lo and behold, Holder's 2009 speech in Mexico from the Dept. of Justice...
Attorney General Eric Holder at the Mexico/United States Arms Trafficking Conference in CUERNAVACA, MEXICO Thursday, April 2, 2009
Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail.
But as today’s conference has emphasized, the problem of arms trafficking will not be stopped at the border alone. Rather, as our experts emphasized, this is a problem that must be met as part of a comprehensive attack against the cartels – an attack in depth, on both sides of the border, that focuses on the leadership and assets of the cartel...[2]
Special Agent Jaime Zapata was shot and killed outside of Mexico City, Mexico.
He and another agent assigned to the United States Embassy and were traveling between Mexico City and Monterrey when they were forced off the road by 10 members of a Mexican drug cartel. The agents were in an armored vehicle with diplomatic plates and identified themselves as diplomats.
The cartel members opened fire on them, fatally wounding Agent Zapata and wounding the second agent.
Several members of the drug cartel were apprehended in Mexico and face charges in connection with Special Agent Zapata's murder.
Special Agent Zapata had served with ICE for four years and had previously served with the United States Border Patrol for just under one year. He is survived by his parents and four brothers, two of whom also serve as federal agents. Source: ODMP Remembers;...
As if the information isn't bad enough, one of our reporters who has spent the last three years working on the border, gathering information on the narco cartels, Robert 'Tosh' Plumlee; blew the whistle on both the gun walking operation, by filing reports to several federal agencies well before Brian Terry's death, and also on a number of bodies in the desert on the U.S. side that officials in New Mexico refuse to investigate. These bodies, mostly skeletal remains, have been fully photographed and documented with a GPS (Global Positioning System) locator by Mr. Plumlee[6].
Also, as revealed in our recent reports, there are major stores in Mexico of what Robert Plumlee refers to as, 'high impact weapons' which include anti-aircraft guns, rocket propelled grenade launchers and mortars. These weapons are of U.S. origin, they are ample and they include the latest and most deadly, the same high tech weaponry currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. While not fully tallied, there are reported sites where thousands and thousands of these weapons exist, along with 'knock-off' Mexican army uniforms[11].
He made note of these weapons storage areas while accompanying a recently disclosed U.S./Mexican joint military force that has been battling the cartels south of the U.S. border since 2009. Even reports about this task force were vehemently denied by Mexico, and then later corroborated by a Wikileaks cable[12][13][14].
Not only are we dealing with official, approved U.S. government weapons smuggling programs, undisclosed U.S./Mexican military anti-narco operations, and hardcore lies from the very top of the U.S. governmental structure; it also seems that there is an overriding motivator for destabilizing the U.S. southern border, and in essence extending the need for both the U.S. and Mexican 'wars on drugs'[13][14][15].
Many may ask, why now... why this? What possible reason would justify shipping weapons to 'trace' in Mexico that have no navigational or homing devices? For those who don't know, more than 40,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the launch of Calderon's drug war.
This is not to say that the Mexican President is not sincere. In fact by most accounts, Calderon is truly trying to help his country that does have a history of corruption, gain the upper hand over the cartels and end the rampant crime.
As we suggested in the article, Is Los Zetas Military Cartel Planning a Bloody Revolution in Mexico?, the push is on for control of Mexico and Los Zetas, a cartel that began three years ago when its founders split away from the Mexican Army Special Forces, 'Los Zetas', is moving toward a full-scale revolution. Robert Plumlee believes the outcome of the 2012 Mexican elections will determine that outcome. Either way, the end results do not look good, particularly with major supplies of brand new U.S. weapons in the Zetas' control.
The Money Trail
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed near Rio Rico, Arizona, while attempting to apprehend a group of armed subjects. The suspects had been preying on illegal immigrants with the intent to rob them.
Agent Terry and several other agents were attempting to arrest the group when shots were exchanged between the suspects and agents. Agent Terry was struck in the pelvis by a round fired by a suspect armed with an AK-47.
The wounded agent was flown to a hospital where he succumbed early the following morning.
Four members of the group were taken into custody and at least one suspect remains at large.
Agent Terry was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and had served with the United States Border Patrol for 3.5 years. He had previously served as a police officer with the Lincoln Park, Michigan, Police Department. He is survived by his parents, brother, two sisters, five nieces, and one nephew.
Officer Down Memorial Page
Los Zetas does not want the drug war to end. They are known for entering drug rehab facilities in Mexico and killing every single person in the building. The end of the drug war would lead to legalization of marijuana as a health treatment on a federal level and this move would devastate the current U.S. pharmaceutical industry. This is the industry that by all logic, would least benefit from an end to the drug wars. This is very likely why Eric Holder reversed the federal government's position last week on state laws over medical marijuana. He says the feds are going to increasingly bust medical cannabis users and program, regardless of state law, as federal law never made any real concessions.
With the government refocusing enforcing laws against sick people who use marijuana, and delivering deadly weapons to Mexico, one of our writers has been causing significant problems for one of the nation's top pharmaceutical companies.
Our writer Marianne Skolek, who lost her daughter to an Oxycontin-related respiratory failure, has been a thorn in the side of Purdue Pharmaceuticals for years, writing articles that continually expose the practices of this company that has been exposed for very serious criminal behavior.
Aided by Marianne's testimony, along with that of others who lost family members to Oxycontin, two U.S. Attorneys convicted several top level Purdue executives for falsely advertising the drug as both non-lethal and non-addictive. That may stand as one of the most outrageous claims ever made by a supposedly legitimate U.S. business.
The connection is that long before Eric Holder was lying to Congress over the U.S. role in Border Patrol and Immigration Customs Enforcement agent's deaths tied to U.S. supplied weapons in Mexico, he was one of a lawyer for Purdue, at this dark point in their business history.
In the article, Eric Holder negotiated an OxyContin settlement in West Virginia - working for Purdue Pharma!, Ms. Skolek reveals how Holder not only shielded Purdue over falsely advertising the drug Oxycontin which has led to tens of thousands of related deaths, but also how his actions in arranging a settlement actually allowed the drug to become the epidemic it is. That is serious.
In 2001, West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw Jr., filed a civil case against Purdue Pharma alleging that the privately held pharmaceutical company had engaged in "coercive and deceptive" marketing of OxyContin. He alleged that Purdue used misleading advertisements and had promoted the inappropriate use of OxyContin for minor pain. His lawsuit further stated that Purdue had offered doctors free trips to “pain management” seminars where the firm pitched the drug as safe and effective for treating minor pain – without mentioning the drug was supposed to be used only for severe pain and easily abused.
McGraw also alleged that Purdue had told “pharmacists that they can get in trouble if they do not fill prescriptions, even if they believe someone may be an abuser of the drug.”
The lawsuit was a big worry to Purdue because they had a lot to lose financially, and that is why they turned to Eric Holder, an attorney with Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C.
As Marianne wrote in her article:
The morning the case was to go to trial, in November 2004, Holder helped negotiate a settlement. Working in the judge’s chambers in West Virginia, he put together an agreement under which the firm would have to pay $10 million over four years into drug abuse and education programs in West Virginia -- and Purdue Pharma would not have to admit any wrongdoing!
Eric Holder managed to keep the criminal activity of Purdue Pharma quiet since there would be no trial and no documents or testimony to be made public. Did Holder's "hands in the pockets of Purdue Pharma" allow this epidemic of OxyContin death and addiction throughout the country to perpetuate? Many people think it did [16].
It seems clear that there are competing factions in the U.S. government and while there are positive motivations in some cases, there are other motivations that are highly detrimental to the future of both countries. Holder seems to be at the center of this.
There are reports of cartels financing U.S. politicians who have ties to the pharmaceutical industry. There are extremely solid reports of caches of large amounts of weapons that are too vast to have "fallen off the back of a truck".
What is lacking is a direct trail on the campaign contributions. It seems AG Holder has demonstrated for the record that he is not willing to tell the truth when under direct examination, and also that he prefers to see companies like Purdue avoid legal responsibility. I don't know what could be more significant when dealing with a lighted fuse situation like the border wars raging along the border that divides the United States and Mexico.
Sources:
[1] Border Patrol Agent's Murder Tied to ATF's Covert Shipment of Over 1700 Weapons to Mexico - Tim King Salem-News.com
[2] Attorney General Eric Holder at the Mexico/United States Arms Trafficking Conference - DOJ
[3] The Columbus Indictment... Bill Conroy - The Narcosphere Special to Salem-News
[4] Salem-News Photojournalist with Army Task Force 7 in Mexico threatened with arrest by U.S. Border Patrol - Tosh Plumlee Salem-News.com
[5] 1,800 missing guns…1,800 dead bodies? by Hugh Holub - Views from Baja Arizona
[6] Feds Call Meeting with Journalist Who Reported Human Remains and Cartel Weapon Build up with U.S. Ties - Tim King Salem-News.com
[7] AG Holder grilled on ATF "gunwalker" controversy - CBS News
[8] The Stimulation of Murder - Investor's Business Daily
[9] Read the Stimulus - readthestimulus.org/
[10] Raided Mexican Ranch Linked to U.S. Drug War Corruption - Bill Conroy The Narcosphere
[11] US Special Forces are Operating in Mexico - Salem-News.com
[12] Mexico Denies US Special Forces Presence South of the Border - Tim King Salem-News.com
[13] Is Los Zetas Military Cartel Planning a Bloody Revolution in Mexico? - Tim King Salem-News.com
[14] At Least 40 Killed in Mexico in 24-Hour Period - NY Times
[15] All Hell is Breaking Loose in Mexico - Tim King Salem-News.com
[16] Eric Holder negotiated an OxyContin settlement in West Virginia - working for Purdue Pharma! - Marianne Skolek Salem-News.com
________________________ ________________________ _________
Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer
Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.
Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Silver Spoke Award by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (2011), Excellence in Journalism Award by the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (2010), Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), First-place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Tim was a member of the National Press Photographer's Association for several years and is a current member of the Orange County Press Club.
Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 93 Salem-News.com writers in more that 20 countries. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can write to Tim at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com. Another way to reach Tim is by leaving a comment on any Salem-News.com story, specify 'message to Tim'
Related
Mexico | New mexico | Oxycontin | California | Weapons | Military | Police | Politics | History | Business | Economy | Drugs | Drug abuse | Murder | Homicide | Death | Safety | Health | Fraud | Honor |
Reports From IraqSalem-News.com Top Stories
Holder Lied: DOJ News Release Shows Obama Admin Approved ATF Mexico Weapons Smuggling
Netanyahu Panics When Folks Like Kathy Kelly Come to Visit Palestine by Sea or By Air
Life, Faith, and What Must be Said
The Tahrir Will Sail Again - Le Tahrir finira par naviguer
Reviewing the Powers of Intimidation & Mainstream Media Sources
Comments
Terry Saulsbury July 10, 2011 4:52 am (Pacific time)
To Moe Hailstone - Mexico is a bigger problem than the U.S. The best answer is to CLOSE the border immediately.
Jon Carry July 10, 2011 3:54 am (Pacific time)
Holder lied, people died.
flash July 10, 2011 3:39 am (Pacific time)
Thank You Salem-- You are on top of a major story that all Americans should know about. Don't let Washington insiders kill our country and cover this up like all the other wrong doings..
Agron Belica July 10, 2011 3:10 am (Pacific time)
This is deep!
Moe Hailstone July 10, 2011 1:30 am (Pacific time)
Mexico should take this to the International criminal Court at The Hague, The Netherlands
Mr. Wright July 10, 2011 12:07 am (Pacific time)
Holder is an Obama ag; therefore, he is allowed to lie.
Glad to clarify........
[Return to Top]
View Most Commented on
Leave a comment on this story.
Name:
Enter the text from the image to confirm you are human.(Cookies are required)
-
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/577800/201107081902/The-Stimulation-Of-Murder.htm
Stim bill funded this treason. Hope and change assholes.
-
Holder Lied: DOJ News Release Shows Obama Admin Approved ATF Mexico Weapons Smuggling
Salem[OR]-News.com ^ | July 10, 2011 | Tom King
Posted on July 10, 2011 9:09:34 AM EDT by libstripper
Eric Holder gave false info. to a Congressional Committee last May about ATF operations tied to the deaths of two U.S. Agents; we have the proof.
(SALEM, Ore.) - New information indicates that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's actions are squarely behind the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) operation known as "Fast and Furious", which orchestrated the delivery of almost 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels[1].
Holder openly proclaimed his connection to the operation in April 2009 during a publicized speech in Mexico, then told a Congressional Committee in May 2011, "I probably heard of Fast and Furious the first time in the last few weeks."[2]
The ATF weapons smuggling ring involved the arrest of several government officials with the city of Columbus, New Mexico including the mayor and police chief, but that is all[3].
(Excerpt) Read more at salem-news.com ...
-
Inquiry of weapons smuggling to expand (Mexican Marxists Bought Weapons from US Gov't)
Washington Times ^ | 7 July 2011 | Jerry Seper
Posted on July 10, 2011 11:16:21 AM EDT by Erik Latranyi
The closed-door testimony of ATF’s acting director, saying that the Justice Department was obstructing a congressional investigation, has prompted an expansion of that ongoing probe into the controversial “Fast and Furious” weapons-smuggling operation.
“We’ll go wherever the investigation takes us,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a key inquisitor in probing the operation, during which guns, including AK-47 assault rifles, were “walked” into Mexico.
He said the weekend testimony of Kenneth E. Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, had corroborated information that “more agencies within the Justice Department may have been involved in allowing guns to fall into the hands of known straw purchasers.”
A spokesman for Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Thursday that the Melson testimony “raises new questions” about the scope of the program and certainly “justifies an expansion of the investigation.”
“After talking with the acting ATF director, I think we have a greater insight into what happened and what questions need to be asked to lead to some final answers as to who authorized this program and why,” said spokesman Frederick Hill, whose boss also has been a key player in the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile Thursday, Mexican police released a videotaped interview of Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, in which the recently captured No. 3 leader of the Los Zetas drug cartel said “all the weapons” the Zetas use were “bought in the United States” and that “even the American government itself was selling the weapons.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Silence from mal, straw, Vince, Benny, blacken Chad Adonis andre etc.
-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2746292/posts
Allen west calling for holder to go.
yep. if there's one man who knows how to respect the law, it's allen west.
-
This is still flying under the radar for some reason. If he did lie to Congress, this will be a huge scandal.
-
This is still flying under the radar for some reason. If he did lie to Congress, this will be a huge scandal.
It is clar as day he lied, and my second clip shows Obama s lying as well.
-
yep. if there's one man who knows how to respect the law, it's allen west.
And whats that supposed to mean?
-
Time for prison for these communists and traitors.
BTW - whoever still plans on voting for this disgusting communist regime needs to be fucking beaten senseless.
Wow. That would be the smoking gun. I would hope that once the budget issue is resolved that Congress jumps all over this.
-
Wow. That would be the smoking gun. I would hope that once the budget issue is resolved that Congress jumps all over this.
No way anyone can spin this. Notice the silence of blacken Andre straw Vince mal etc?
-
No way anyone can spin this. Notice the silence of blacken Andre straw Vince mal etc?
They also hate America and want to destroy it. No surprise that they are MIA.
-
10
Jul
6
Brit Hume: “Real Scandal” behind Operation Fast & Furious; “Obama Justice Department Reminds Me Of Nixon Justice Department”
By: Curt
2digg
Brit Hume was on Fox News Sunday this morning while the panel was discussing Operation Fast and Furious:
Hume: This is a real scandal. And once again we have the classic question “what did the Attorney General, for example, know and when did he know it.” This Obama Justice Department reminds me of nothing so much as the Nixon Justice Department. You have the scent of high level knowledge, of serious wrongdoing, and you have the smell of cover-up and I think the stench of cover-up on this gunrunning operation is very strong indeed.
How high this cover-up is going to go is anyone’s guess but it could very well turn out to be much worse than the Nixon cover-up. His men stole papers while this operation cost us lives. This could turn out to be real ugly.
And once again we have the MSM covering for this administration simply by ignoring the story. Fox News is trying to do its part, and in this report they detail a bit about the latest blockbuster:
More on Operation Castaway:
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.
…According to court documents, a group of defendants connected to Hugh Crumpler, III, were involved in a major international gun trafficking operation. . . . Firearms like those involved in this investigation are often smuggled through Honduras and other Central and South American countries before being used in violent crimes in Mexico and other countries in the region. A number of the firearms trafficked by the defendants in Operation Castaway have been linked to violent crimes around the world.
The press release concluded, “This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys J. Bishop Ravenel and E. Jackson Boggs. Operation Castaway remains an ongoing investigation.”
SAC O’Brien was previously the Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division, was later promoted to the Deputy Assistant Director of ATF, but then stepped down to the position in Tampa. Whether the allegations of our source refer to the ongoing Operation Castaway remains at this hour unclear, but our source is certain that O’Brien has allowed the “walking” of straw-purchased firearms to Honduras using the same failed strategy as the Phoenix Field Division’s Operation Fast and Furious. That Operation Castaway involved arms smuggling to Honduras is also certain.
And we come back to the same question asked by Brit Hume.
What did the Obama Administration know and when did they know it.
http://floppingaces.net/2011/07/10/brit-hume-real-scandal-behind-operation-fast-obama-justice-department-reminds-me-of-nixon-justice-department
-
And whats that supposed to mean?
i dunno if a guy with his kind of track record with violations of internation law is really the guy I'd listen
i admire the hell out of him. But some folks just shouldn't lecture others on the law.
-
i dunno if a guy with his kind of track record with violations of internation law is really the guy I'd listen
i admire the hell out of him. But some folks just shouldn't lecture others on the law.
Fuck you asshole. Disgusting. You know he saved his men for fucks sake.
-
i dunno if a guy with his kind of track record with violations of internation law is really the guy I'd listen
i admire the hell out of him. But some folks just shouldn't lecture others on the law.
Oh I'm sorry, have you ever been in a war?
-
Gunwalker: Holder’s resignation is almost inevitable
Posted by: Phineas on July 6, 2011 at 9:44 pm
**Posted by Phineas
And the only way that doesn’t happen is if he is fool-enough to stay in office, Obama is fool-enough not to fire him, and Congress has no choice but to remove him from office.
Consider: On the 4th of July, a national holiday, acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives gave testimony to House and Senate investigators on Operation “Fast and Furious,” aka “Gunwalker.”
Without telling his bosses.
And bringing his own lawyer, not the Bureau’s and not the Department of Justice’s.
To quote Allahpundit — Dude!
This morning, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley released a copy of a letter (PDF) they sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on July 5 about Melson’s testimony. Melson’s revelations raise even more serious issues not only about the operation itself, but about apparent attempts by the Justice Department to mislead Congress on the details of the operation.
Contrary to the Justice Department’s denials, according to Melson, ATF agents specifically witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without taking any further action. Melson claimed that it was not until the public disclosure of the operation that he personally reviewed the “hundreds of documents” related to the case. He said he became “sick to his stomach” when he learned the full story. Even more shocking is 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” by agencies such as the FBI and the DEA.
Melson provided detailed information and documents to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department. But that information was not given to Congress by then-Acting Deputy Attorney General James Cole. In fact, “Melson was not allowed to communicate to Congress” and “Justice Department officials directed [ATF’s senior leadership] not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress.” According to the letter Issa and Grassley sent to Holder, it was “two days after [Melson] told [Cole] about serious issues involving lack of information sharing” that the Wall Street Journal suddenly reported that Melson was about to be ousted by the Obama administration.
Emphasis added. The Deputy Attorney General is the Attorney General’s chief assistant — the department’s number two. Here is how his authority is described by the DoJ:
The Deputy Attorney General advises and assists the Attorney General in formulating and implementing Departmental policies and programs and in providing overall supervision and direction to all organizational units of the Department. The Deputy Attorney General is authorized to exercise all the power and authority of the Attorney General, except where such power or authority is prohibited by law from delegation or has been delegated to another official. In the absence of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General acts as the Attorney General.
Think about this: Melson, head of the BATF, gave Cole, Holder’s chief deputy, “detailed information and documents,” after Melson had seen enough to make him sick. And instead of letting himself be set up as the fall-guy, he got his own lawyer –a former US Attorney– rather than let government lawyers “represent” him. Gee, I wonder why he’d feel that need?
But wait, there’s more!
In a related article, Bob Owens quotes an email from the Phoenix BATF office referencing an inter-agency meeting that shows how widespread knowledge of Gunwalker was:
The October 27, 2009 email from ATF Phoenix Field Division Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell regarded a Southwest Border Strategy Group meeting that focused on Fast and Furious. It contained a laundry list of high ranking Justice Department officials that attended the meeting, including:
Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer,
Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF
William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF
Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA
Robert Mueller, Director FBI
Four other Justice Department directors or their representatives came from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), Bureau of Prisons (BOP), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA). The chair of the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee (AGAC) also attended the session. Their names were redacted in the released document. U.S. attorneys for all four southwest border states also attended.
With all this legal and bureaucratic firepower in one room being briefed on Gunwalker, there is absolutely no way Attorney General Eric Holder did not know what was going on, which may make the DoJ’s actions in response to requests for information from Issa’s committee Obstruction, a felony. And interference with Melson’s testimony may also be Tampering, under Title 18, Section 1512 of the US Code. (See subsections (b) and (c).)
This is why I say Eric Holder is a “Dead Bureaucrat Walking.” There is too much to indicate he is either monumentally detached from his supervisory responsibilities and thus incompetent, or (more likely) knew all along about an operation that let thousands of firearms be sold to straw buyers who were acting as cutouts for the Mexican drug cartels, in order to trace a putative “gunrunning network.” An operation that has cost at least 150 Mexican lives (1) and the lives of two US federal officers.
And thus my strong guess is that he will resign to protect President Obama, rather than be impeached and to try to head off an independent prosecutor, because I find it very hard to believe the President didn’t know, either.
LINKS: More from Moe Lane and Power Line. “El Mamito” says the Zetas buy all their weapons in the US. Given what we’re learning about Gunwalker, perhaps that should be “from the US.”
Footnotes:
(1) It’s no wonder the Mexicans are talking about extradition; I’d be screaming mad, too.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
In: Gunwalker,Law/Judiciary,Mexico,Scandals | Email This Post | Print This
http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2011/07/06/gunwalker-holders-resignation-is-almost-inevitable
-
WASHINGTON The embattled head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has told congressional investigators that some Mexican drug cartel figures targeted by his agency in a gun-trafficking investigation were paid informants for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration.
Kenneth Melson, the ATF's acting director, has been under pressure to resign after the agency allowed guns to be purchased in the U.S. in hopes they would be traced to cartel leaders.
Under the gun-trafficking operation known as Fast and Furious, the ATF lost track of the guns. Many were found at crime scenes in Mexico. Two guns also were recovered near Nogales, Ariz., where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed.
Gun-trafficking controversy
In two days of meetings with congressional investigators over the weekend, Melson said the FBI and DEA kept the ATF "in the dark" about their relationships with the cartel informants. If ATF agents had known of the relationships, the agency might have ended the investigation earlier, he said.
As a result of Melson's statements, "our investigation has clearly expanded," a source close to the congressional investigation said this week, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing. "We know now it was not something limited to just a small group of ATF agents in Arizona."
"This whole misguided operation might have been cut short if not for catastrophic failures to share key information," Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Attorney General Eric Holder in a letter this week.
Ronald Welch, assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, responded that the Justice Department was still discussing how to provide any "sensitive law enforcement information" regarding the FBI and DEA to congressional investigators.
Without acknowledging that cartel leaders were paid informants, he said their main focus is "how best to protect ongoing investigations."
"Like you," he told Issa and Grassley on Wednesday, "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 its drug wars 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 who is wanted in the slaying of a U.S. immigration agent in Mexico. He told them that "all the weapons are bought in the United States" and that "even the American government itself was selling the weapons."
Melson: ATF made mistakes
Issa and Grassley said Melson "was candid in admitting mistakes that his agency made."
They said he told them he reviewed documents about Fast and Furious, and was "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.
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 said the FBI and DEA had a role in Fast and Furious lasting for months.
"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," Issa and Grassley said in their letter to Holder.
They said Melson apparently only became aware of this after indictments of the straw gun purchasers were handed down after the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, killed in a gun battle in December along a smuggling route in Arizona.
Subscribe to The Charlotte Observer.
Wow. Impeahment soon.
-
This makes watergate look like nothing.
-
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/07/09/2440172/atf-mexican-cartels-paid-to-inform.html
Boom.
-
Holder Lied: DOJ News Release Shows Obama Admin Approved ATF Mexico Weapons Smuggling
Salem-News.com ^ | July 10, 2011 | Tim King
Posted on July 10, 2011 9:36:15 PM EDT by Opinionatedtoday
Eric Holder gave false info. to a Congressional Committee last May about ATF operations tied to the deaths of two U.S. Agents; we have the proof.
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Special Agent Jaime Zapata from ICE both died from weapons that were sent to Mexico from the United States. There is no knowledge as to how many lives the U.S. weapons smuggling programs claimed in Mexico.
(SALEM, Ore.) - New information indicates that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's actions are squarely behind the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) operation known as "Fast and Furious", which orchestrated the delivery of almost 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels[1].
Holder openly proclaimed his connection to the operation in April 2009 during a publicized speech in Mexico, then told a Congressional Committee in May 2011, "I probably heard of Fast and Furious the first time in the last few weeks."[2]
The ATF weapons smuggling ring involved the arrest of several government officials with the city of Columbus, New Mexico including the mayor and police chief, but that is all[3].
They were apparently known from the beginning and the weapons deals with 'straw buyers' were videotaped. Smuggled U.S. weapons from this operation, described as mostly semi automatic versions of military weapons like the AK-47, were found to be used in the shooting deaths of two U.S. federal agents.
The new information, which is not really new at all, proves that Holder had to be aware of the U.S. government weapons smuggling operation planned and implemented by federal agents from ATF which he denied to Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) less than two months ago, as detailed below.
(Excerpt) Read more at salem-news.com ...
Nation of cowards.
-
This makes watergate look like nothing.
If it goes to the top (and it's looking like it is), then damn straight... Fucking get rid of all of those shitbags.
-
ATF’s Fast and Furious Seems Colored With Shades of Iran/Contra Scandal
Posted by Bill Conroy - July 10, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Congressional Inquiry Raising Specter of Spooks in the Soup
The acting head of ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) has seemingly blown the cover of both DEA and FBI informant operations in order to spare his own neck and to deflect blame away from a badly flawed operation undertaken by his own agency.
In doing so, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson has also left open the door to the house of mirrors that always comes into play when U.S. interests intersect with foreign affairs.
The operation that has put Melson in the hot seat before Congress is known as Fast and Furious, which was launched in October 2009 as an offshoot of Project Gunrunner — ATF’s larger effort to stem the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico
However, Fast and Furious actually undermined the goal of Project Gunrunner by allowing some 2,000 or more firearms illegally purchased in the U.S. to “walk” (or be smuggled under ATF’s watch) across the border in a supposed effort by the federal law enforcement agency to target the kingpins behind Mexico’s narco-gun-running enterprises, ATF whistleblowers contend.
Two of the guns linked to the Fast and Furious operation allegedly were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was shot to death by Mexican border marauders in Arizona late last year. The whistelblower revelations about Fast and Furious have since sparked Congressional inquiries.
In a letter sent on July 5 to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, two Republican members of Congress from the committees probing Fast and Furious made startling allegations in the wake of what they say was an interview of ATF’s Melson conducted by “both Republican and and Democratic staff.”
The letter was drafted by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform; and U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
The revelation from that letter of greatest significance:
Specifically, we have very real indications from several sources that some of the gun trafficking “higher-ups” that the ATF sought to identify [via Fast and Furious] were already known to other agencies and may have been paid as informants. The Acting Director [Melson] said that ATF was kept in the dark about certain activities of other agencies, including DEA and FBI. [Emphasis added.]
Mr. Melson said that he learned from ATF agents in the field that information obtained by these agencies [DEA, FBI and “other 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 [and “other agencies”], 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 16th, 2011.
The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayers dollars [in the form of informant payments] from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities.
… 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. …. [The entire letter can be found at this link.]
What the letter from Issa and Grassley is alleging, simply put, is that multiple U.S. agencies were employing as informants and assets members of Mexican drug organizations who were responsible for importing into their nation thousands of weapons from the U.S., leading to more than 40,000 homicides in Mexico’s drug war since late 2006.
The letter, by its wording, makes clear that the complicit U.S. agencies include FBI and DEA, but it also seems to make clear that “other agencies” might also be involved in the game. And also part of this game was ATF, which, via Fast and Furious, was allowing thousands of guns to be smuggled across the U.S. border into Mexico as part of a supposed plan to identify “higher-ups” in Mexican drug organizations who were responsible for the illegal weapons trade. And, as it turns out, those responsible, in some cases, were the very individuals being employed as informants and assets by other U.S. agencies.
Connecting flight
And in a strange twist of fate, one of the “higher-ups” in the Mexican narco-trafficking world, who recently claimed to be a U.S. government informant, is now pending trial in federal court in Chicago.
Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, is the son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia — one of the purported top leaders of the Sinaloa drug-trafficking organization — a leading Mexican-based importer of weapons and exporter of drugs. Zambada Niebla was arrested in Mexico in March 2009 and last February extradited to the United States to stand trial on narco-trafficking-related charges.
The indictment pending against Zambada Niebla claims he served as the “logistical coordinator” for the “cartel,” helping to oversee an operation that imported into the U.S. “multi-ton quantities of cocaine … using various means, including but not limited to, Boeing 747 cargo aircraft, private aircraft … buses, rail cars, tractor trailers, and automobiles.”
Zambada Niebla also claims be an asset of the U.S. government. His allegation is laid out in a two-page court pleading filed in late March with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. The pleading asserts that Zambada Niebla was working with “public authority” “on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”); and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”); and the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”).
Interestingly, in addition to the narco-trafficking charges pending against him in Chicago, Zambada Niebla also stands accused of seeking to smuggle weapons into Mexico for the Sinaloa organization.
“Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla sought to obtain weapons from the United States … and discussed the use of violence…,” U.S. government court pleadings in Zambada Niebla’s case state.
Zambada Niebla also is linked to alleged Sinaloa organization money-launderer Pedro Alfonso Alatorre Damy via a Gulfstream II jet (tail number N987SA) that crashed in Mexico in late 2007 with some four tons of cocaine onboard.
That aircraft was allegedly purchased with Sinaloa organization drug money laundered through Alatorre Damy’s casa de cambio business and a U.S. bank. And that same aircraft was reportedly suspected of being used previously as part of the CIA’s “terrorist” rendition program, according to media reports and an investigation spearheaded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
In addition, the Gulfstream II was purchased less than two weeks before it crashed in Mexico by a duo that included a U.S. government operative who allegedly had done past contract work for a variety of US law enforcement and intelligence agencies, according to a known CIA asset (Baruch Vega) who is identified as such in public court records. The four tons of cocaine onboard of the Gulfstream II at the time of its crash landing, according Vega, were purchased in Colombia via a syndicate that included a Colombian narco-trafficker named Nelson Urrego, who, according to Panamanian press reports and Vega, is a U.S. government (CIA) asset.
[For more more details on the Gulfstream II story and connections, read Narco News’s past coverage at this link.]
And now, one of the top players in the Sinaloa drug organization, who, according to the U.S. government, managed logistics for the criminal organization — a job that entailed overseeing the purchase of aircraft for drug smuggling activities, as well as weapons for enforcement activities — now claims to have been actively cooperating with several U.S. law enforcement agencies since at least 2004.
So once again, the DEA and FBI appear in the context of employing high-level narco-traffickers as informants and/or assets. And in the background of such intrigue, always, overseas, as in the Gulfstream II case, is the CIA, which trumps every other U.S. agency when it comes to operations in a foreign land.
A former CIA counterintelligence officer explained how it works as follows, in a recent interview with Narco News:
It’s … true that sometimes agents who do narcotics work [like DEA agents] may also do things that are at the same time of interest to the CIA in terms of intelligence collection.
If CIA and DEA are working the same person, collecting information, the CIA will get the nod [ultimate control] that’s normal. In the field [overseas] the CIA trumps everyone.
… The system is designed so that agencies do not walk over each other’s assets [or informants], so you don’t have two agencies going after the same people for different reasons [DEA to bust them for narco-trafficking and CIA to use them as intelligence assets, for example]. [In those cases, though] it is CIA that gets the preference; CIA is the mother god.
Wacko, Barroom Commandos
When it comes to prime intelligence targets, they don’t come much better than the leaders of Mexican drug organizations, who have their tentacles planted deep inside Latin American governments due to the corrupt reach of the drug trade. So it is not unreasonable to suspect that part of the reason that ATF’s Fast and Furious makes no sense in terms of a law enforcement operation is because it wasn’t one at all.
In fact, it may well have been co-opted and trumped by a covert U.S. intelligence agency operation, such as one run by CIA, that is shielded even from most members of Congress — possibly even the White House, if it was launched under a prior administration and parts of it have since run off the tracks on their own.
As the former CIA counterintelligence officer said: “Is there deviation [from the norm, in terms of CIA operations]? Yes. Stuff happens, but that’s because there was deviation; but it’s not authorized.”
In any event, it’s not likely that even the Attorney General of the U.S. could discuss publicly the specifics of such an intelligence operation, authorized or not, without facing the real threat of being accused of violating national security laws — such is the power of the U.S. intelligence community over even law enforcement and the courts in this nation.
As for Zambada Niebla, it is worth noting that shortly after he filed his motion in federal court outing himself as a U.S. informant, his attorneys filed separate pleadings alleging that he is being held improperly in solitary confinement, with all communications, except with his attorneys, essentially cut off by the very government he claims to have assisted.
From those pleadings, filed on June 27:
Vicente [Zambada Niebla] contends that the sum of the conditions under which he is being held in pre-trial detention violates the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
He is prohibited from speaking to any other inmates at any time and for any purpose. Vicente is prohibited from speaking to anyone except his counselor and those Bureau of Prisons personnel above the rank of lieutenant. Neither his counselor nor BOP personnel above the rank of lieutenant are regularly on his floor at the [Chicago Metropolitan Detention Center’s Special Housing Unit].
In the entire period of his pre-trial detention [since March 2011], he has not seen sunlight or breathed fresh air. In contrast, he had outdoor exercise every day in a super maximum security facility in Mexico.
Now, it’s not likely anyone is going to feel pity for Zambada Niebla, who stands accused of being a key player in one of the most ruthless narco-trafficking organizations in Mexico — though it is important to note, for the purposes of the U.S. justice system, he stands accused, but not yet convicted.
However, what should be a bit unsettling, even to those who have no empathy for someone like Zambada Niebla, is the possibility that he is telling the truth about being a U.S. government informant/asset, and that his treatment in jail is, in fact, designed to suppress that truth.
And with the stakes this high, in terms of the drug war in Mexico and the billions of dollars funding it, as well as the Congressional scrutiny now focused on Fast and Furious in Congress, can it be completely ruled out that Zambada Niebla might well be deemed a messenger worth silencing?
Former deep undercover DEA agent Mike Levine, who has extensive experience working in Latin America, offers his take on ATF’s Fast and Furious, a view that is grounded in first-hand knowledge of the drug war and its sordid history:
… Running guns into Mexico into the hands of criminals? There can be no objective to this but death, and lots of it.
The events in Operation Fast and Furious are eerily identical to those surrounding the arrest of General Ramon Guillen Davila, a CIA asset who was [indicted for] smuggling a ton of cocaine into the US [in] 1996, in what was described as an intelligence gathering operation, the problem being that no intelligence was ever gathered and that the ton was only one of many other similar shipments of cocaine that actually hit the streets of the U.S. by way of CIA agents.
If I were a criminal profiler, it wouldn't take much to identify a CIA pattern here [with Fast and Furious]: A wacko, barroom commando, illegal operation that makes no sense whatsoever, run outside the control of law enforcement.
Stay tuned….
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2011/07/atf-s-fast-and-furious-seems-colored-shades-irancontra-scandal
-
http://www.handgunclub.com/hca/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Project-Gunrunner-timelines0708.pdf
Good timeline of this scandal.
-
fall guy takes the blame. he gets msnbc tv show. obama/holder walk away from it.
does anyone really see any other likely outcome?
-
fall guy takes the blame. he gets msnbc tv show. obama/holder walk away from it.
does anyone really see any other likely outcome?
Yes, because unlike you, there are many pushing this thing to be brought to fruition. Many are feeding Issa info and and many are calling to keep this going.
So sit on your ass and watch as others bring your messiah and his criminal admn to justice.
-
presidents don't go to jail, dude.
you can file this under 'obamacare is dead' and 'inside polling shows mccain tied with obama, 2 days out...' and your other victory parades.
is he guilty as shit? of course. will some fall guy take the blame? you betcha!
-
Yes, because unlike you, there are many pushing this thing to be brought to fruition. Many are feeding Issa info and and many are calling to keep this going.
So sit on your ass and watch as others bring your messiah and his criminal admn to justice.
loaded language
-
loaded language
Obama used it himself:
"We are the ones we have been waiting for"
-
presidents don't go to jail, dude.
Maybe its about time one did, American citizens died as a direct result of this reckless bullshit, but because he is POTUS just let him walk?
-
Maybe its about time one did, American citizens died as a direct result of this reckless bullshit, but because he is POTUS just let him walk?
No, if this were bush or anyone else, 240 and the rest of the cult of obama would be calling for scalps.
-
Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry's family to sue feds over son's death
Report on Fox | July 11, 2011 | Self
Just saw William LeJeunesse do a report on Brian Terry's murder due to Gunwalker. Says Terry's family is preparing to sue the federal government for info on their son's death. This might be the breech that brings down the dam.
-
Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry's family to sue feds over son's death
Report on Fox | July 11, 2011 | Self
Just saw William LeJeunesse do a report on Brian Terry's murder due to Gunwalker. Says Terry's family is preparing to sue the federal government for info on their son's death. This might be the breech that brings down the dam.
yep, just a matter of time.....
-
yep, just a matter of time.....
Good - I hope they bring down the entire govt for all I care. i hope that all these "brave" law enforcement thugs are tossed in prison over this.
-
Good - I hope they bring down the entire govt for all I care. i hope that all these "brave" law enforcement thugs are tossed in prison over this.
They'll probably get 20 yrs each...
-
They'll probably get 20 yrs each...
The ATF officers who raised hell with the brass over this need to be protected. We need to find out who ordered the agents to watch the guns walk, for lack of a better term.
From my reading, many foot soldiers, the actual ATF agents, were livid over this cause they knew what would happen and were forced to go through with this nonsense.
-
The ATF officers who raised hell with the brass over this need to be protected. We need to find out who ordered the agents to watch the guns walk, for lack of a better term.
From my reading, many foot soldiers, the actual ATF agents, were livid over this cause they knew what would happen and were forced to go through with this nonsense.
My superior can't force me to shoot an unarmed person posing no threat. Nor can they force me to violate a law. If I feel strongly that an order is illegal I have recourses set out to take in order to be heard.
I wonder how it works with the ATF?
-
Time for prison for these communists and traitors.
BTW - whoever still plans on voting for this disgusting communist regime needs to be fucking beaten senseless.
Bump for Lurker.
-
Issa schedules second Gunrunner, Fast and Furious hearing (ATF, DOJ)
Yahoo ^ | 6/09/11 | Matthew Boyle
Issa schedules second Gunrunner, Fast and Furious hearing
Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
Thu Jun 9, 11:37 am ET
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced details for the second in what he said will be a series of hearings on Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious. The hearing, set for Wednesday June 15, will examine “reckless decisions” and “tragic outcomes” as a result of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) programs.
In Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, ATF officials who reported to President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) allowed guns to be taken into Mexico via “straw purchasers,” or people who were eligible to purchase guns in the U.S. but were doing so with the known intention of trafficking them into Mexico. The ultimate goal, apparently, was to attempt to track the larger Mexican drug cartels’ gun market.
(Issa: ‘We do know’ decisions for Gunrunner, Fast and Furious were made in Washington)
Next Wednesday’s hearing witnesses, according to an Oversight Committee release, will include Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, ATF agents, Justice Department officials and family members of dead Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Two AK47’s the ATF was tracking in Operation Fast and Furious were found at the scene of Terry’s death.
“The reckless decisions of ATF and Justice Department officials in Operation Fast and Furious have devastated lives and put fear into communities on both sides of the border,” Issa said in a statement. “By exploring this Justice Department sanctioned program, we can better understand the flawed process surrounding the genesis and implementation of an operation that put guns into the hands of criminals.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
-
Of course the decisions were made in Washington, some branch of some agency just doesn't go rogue and start something like this on their own. There has to be a paper trail 5 miles long for this mess.
-
I'll be real surprised if anything comes of it though.
-
Time for prison for these communists and traitors.
BTW - whoever still plans on voting for this disgusting communist regime needs to be fucking beaten senseless.
Bump for Team Traitor
Game over. Obama ordered this.
-
Bump for Team Traitor
Game over. Obama ordered this.
haha your record is not to good on predicting things, remember 200 million a day :D
-
haha your record is not to good on predicting things, remember 200 million a day :D
Did you watch the clip, he specifically mentions operation gun runner. Did he misspeak? Or this another teachable moment?
-
Did you watch the clip, he specifically mentions operation gun runner. Did he misspeak? Or this another teachable moment?
the only teachable moment is some lower guy taking the fall.that's your teachable moment ;D
-
the only teachable moment is some lower guy taking the fall.that's your teachable moment ;D
Obviously Melson didn't get your memo, at the very least AG Holder is done.
-
Obviously Melson didn't get your memo, at the very least AG Holder is done.
that may be ,but bachmann of getbig thinks it's going to be impeachment of the pres
[333386]
-
Obviously Melson didn't get your memo, at the very least AG Holder is done.
Amazing isnt it?
Blacken will even support illicit gun running by obama.
-
that may be ,but bachmann of getbig thinks it's going to be impeachment of the pres
[333386]
could be - why else do you think bama has gone grey?
-
that may be ,but bachmann of getbig thinks it's going to be impeachment of the pres
[333386]
And there is that possibility, depends on how much loyalty he has from Holder or Melson, Melson has lawyered up.
-
And there is that possibility, depends on how much loyalty he has from Holder or Melson, Melson has lawyered up.
there is about as much possibility as shit turning to gold
-
there is about as much possibility as shit turning to gold
You would defend obama raping your dog in front of you if you could.
-
Well clearly Holder and the President are gone for sure now.. They can't possibly get out of this one.....
-
Well clearly Holder and the President are gone for sure now.. They can't possibly get out of this one.....
Holder definately lied and they need to appoint a speciall prosecutor.
-
ATF to Require Information on Frequent Gunbuyers in Border States
AP ^ | July 11, 2011
________________________ ________________________ ________________
WASHINGTON -- In an effort to stem the illicit flow of weapons into Mexico, the Justice Department announced Monday that all gun shops in four Southwest border states will be required to alert the federal government to frequent buyers of high-powered rifles.
The new policy comes amid criticism of a failed federal probe aimed at dismantling large-scale arms trafficking networks along the Arizona border with Mexico.
In the probe, called Operation Fast and Furious, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say they were inexplicably ordered by superiors to stop tracking some small-time "straw" buyers who purchased large numbers of weapons apparently destined for drug cartels.
Under the new policy, federal firearms licensees in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico must report purchases of two or more of some types of rifles by the same person in a five-day span. The requirement applies to purchases of semi-automatic rifles that have detachable magazines and a caliber of greater than .22.
ATF estimates it will generate 18,000 reports a year.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the new reporting measure will improve the ATF's ability to disrupt illegal weapons trafficking networks that funnel firearms to criminal organizations.
One of the critics of Operation Fast and Furious called the new policy "the height of hypocrisy."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
WTF? ? ? ? Are these people freaking nuts?
-
Un-fucking believable.
-
“Arm The Mexican Drug Cartels With Thousands Of Guns - Leave The Border Completely Wide Open”
The American Dream ^ | 7-11-2011
________________________ ________________________ ___________
“Let’s Arm The Mexican Drug Cartels With Thousands Of Guns And Continue To Leave The Border Completely Wide Open”
July 11, 2011
How in the world are Americans living in the southwest United States supposed to sleep peacefully at night when the U.S. government has given thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels and continues to leave the border completely wide open? The brutality and viciousness of Mexican drug cartels is almost beyond description, and yet the U.S. government has armed them to the teeth and does next to nothing to stop their incursions into U.S. territory. "Project Gunrunner" was supposed to be a U.S. government initiative to fight the flow of guns into Mexico. Instead, it has now come out that ATF agents were ordered to facilitate the acquisition of thousands of U.S. guns by Mexican drug cartels and then halt surveillance on where those guns where going. One of these operations was known as "Fast and Furious" and the revelations that are now coming out have Congress in an uproar. If the full truth about what has been going on is revealed to the American people it is going to turn Washington D.C. upside down.
Right now, some of the most dangerous places to be on the face of the earth are along the U.S./Mexico border. The Mexican drug cartels are fighting a vicious war against each other and against the authorities.
Just this past week, there were 40 drug war deaths down in Mexico in just one 24 hour period. Over 35,000 people have been killed since the Mexican government declared war on the cartels back in 2006.
Every time one big cartel boss is brought down it just seems to cause the cartels to splinter and multiply. Each year the cartels seem to become better armed and more sophisticated.
Now it turns out that there was a very good reason why the cartels are armed so well.
The U.S. government has been supplying them with thousands of weapons.
The following is a brief excerpt from a CBS News report that discusses the fierce opposition that many ATF agents expressed to allowing thousands of guns to be given into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels....
On the phone, one Project Gunrunner source (who didn't want to be identified) told us just how many guns flooded the black market under ATF's watchful eye. "The numbers are over 2,500 on that case by the way. That's how many guns were sold - including some 50-calibers they let walk."
50-caliber weapons are fearsome. For months, ATF agents followed 50-caliber Barrett rifles and other guns believed headed for the Mexican border, but were ordered to let them go. One distraught agent was often overheard on ATF radios begging and pleading to be allowed to intercept transports. The answer: "Negative. Stand down."
CBS News has been told at least 11 ATF agents and senior managers voiced fierce opposition to the strategy. "It got ugly..." said one. There was "screaming and yelling" says another. A third warned: "this is crazy, somebody is gonna to get killed." Amazingly, according to Reuters, ATF agents were ordered not to track where the weapons ended up....
The agents complained they were ordered to break off surveillance of the firearms and instead follow the original gun purchaser rather than track where the weapons went. Does that make any sense at all?
Something really stinks about this whole thing, and the American people deserve the truth.
The Obama administration has been claiming that we need more restrictions on American gun owners because guns from the United States have been getting into Mexico.
During 2009 and 2010, 70 percent of the 30,000 guns that were recovered by authorities in Mexico were determined to have come from inside the United States.
Now we know why.
It was the Obama administration that was supplying large numbers of them to the drug cartels.
So what kind of guns are we talking about? A recent article posted on Natural News detailed some of the types of weapons that got into the hands of the drug cartels....
Among the firearms sold to the Mexican drug gangs were AK-47s, thousands of pistols and, remarkably, .50-caliber rifles which are typically used to disable vehicles or carry out sniper-based assassinations at extremely long ranges (up to two miles). The mainstream media is now reporting that these weapons are turning up in violent crimes being committed in Phoenix, Arizona. So now the Mexican drug cartels can shoot our cops (or any of us) from up to two miles away thanks to weapons that the federal government helped them acquire.
Kenneth E. Melson, the acting director of the ATF, has been taking most of the heat for all this so far.
But the truth is that this goes much higher than Melson. In fact, according to the Los Angeles Times, Melson is already pointing fingers at other agencies....
The embattled head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has told congressional investigators that some Mexican drug cartel figures targeted by his agency in a gun-trafficking investigation were paid informants for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration. So how deep will this rabbit hole go?
Will Congress have the guts to fully investigate this thing?
The reality is that is seems incredibly unlikely that Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano did not know anything about what was going on.
Could it be possible that even Barack Obama was aware of all of this?
Once upon a time, Obama administration officials were very proud of Project Gunrunner.
There was even 10 million taxpayer dollars for Project Gunrunner in the "Stimulus Bill" that was passed in 2009....
For an additional amount for 'State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance,' $40,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2014, 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. Apparently, stimulating the drug war in Mexico was a high priority at the time.
Back in 2009, everyone at the Department of Justice seemed absolutely thrilled with Project Gunrunner.
Video of Deputy Attorney General David Ogden talking about Project Gunrunner on March 24, 2009 can be found right here.
On April 2, 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech in which he discussed the expansion of "Project Gunrunner"....
"Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail." Did Eric Holder know the full extent of what was happening with Project Gunrunner at that time?
Perhaps someone should ask him.
There are also reports that people have been trying to alert federal authorities to all of this gun trafficking for years. The following is a brief excerpt from an article on www.salem-news.com....
As if the information isn't bad enough, one of our reporters who has spent the last three years working on the border, gathering information on the narco cartels, Robert 'Tosh' Plumlee; blew the whistle on the gun walking operation known as, Fast and Furious by filing numerous reports to federal agencies and local law enforcement in May 2009 about these guns walking across the border. The Salem-News article also claims that the cartels have huge stockpiles of mortars, RPGs and anti-aircraft guns down in Mexico....
Also, as revealed in our recent reports, there are major stores in Mexico of what Robert Plumlee refers to as, 'high impact weapons' which include anti-aircraft guns, rocket propelled grenade launchers and mortars. These weapons are of U.S. origin, they are ample and they include the latest and most deadly, the same high tech weaponry currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. While not fully tallied, there are reported sites where thousands and thousands of these weapons exist, along with 'knock-off' Mexican army uniforms Things have gotten crazy down in Mexico. Any American tourist that drives around in northern Mexico is literally risking his or her life. While we have our troops busy poking around in the caves of Iraq and Afghanistan, a major league threat is developing just south of our own border.
Normally the American public does not do much thinking about Mexico, but now this whole scandal threatens to bring a lot of unsavory truths to light.
Many in the Obama administration are freaking out about all of this and are in "cya" mode. All of the bigwigs want to cover their rear ends and make sure that they don't get tossed under the bus.
Mexican lawmakers are already threatening to ask for the extradition of any U.S. officials that were involved in authorizing the sale of guns to Mexican drug cartels.
Tensions between the U.S. and Mexico are rising. This will be an important development to watch.
One Mexican drug cartel leader is even admitting that many of the weapons being used by the cartels are being supplied by the U.S. government.
Just recently, Mexican federal police released an interview with Jesus Rejon Aguilar. He is reportedly a top honcho in Los Zetas, and he claims that "all the weapons are bought in the United States" and even more shockingly he says that the American government was directly involved in selling guns to the cartels....
"There were buyers for a time – because they weren’t our people, they were buyers on the other side – telling us that even the American government itself were selling them" You can view video of Aguilar making these statements right here.
So what has the Obama administration had to say about all of these new revelations?
So far they are being very quiet about the whole thing.
But what they are talking about is how we need to put more restrictions on American gun owners. In fact, the Obama administration is promising new gun legislation in the "near future".
Isn't that lovely?
The Obama administration loads the Mexican drug cartels with guns, leaves the border completely wide open and then talks about how we need to curtail the ability of American gun owners to defend themselves.
What in the world are they thinking?
Today, ordinary Americans are forced to endure a nightmare of "security" just to get on an airplane and yet our borders are left virtually undefended.
Day after day, thousands more drug cartel operatives, gang members and street criminals cross our border with Mexico and make a beeline for our cities.
The truth is that the U.S. government does not really care about national security and has not for a very long time.
If the Obama administration really cared about national security then they would secure the border.
We have helped South Korea totally secure their border with North Korea for decades. Nobody gets across that border without authorization.
But on the U.S. border with Mexico security is a joke. Millions of people have crossed it illegally and the federal government does not seem to care.
The feds love to talk about the danger of "terrorists" overseas, but if they really cared about terrorism they would secure the border.
Hezbollah has been very busy setting up operations all over Mexico, Central America and South America for the past 20 years. It is not a secret that Hezbollah is very involved in the drug trade and in trafficking illegal aliens.
Members of Hezbollah could be going back and forth across the U.S. border as you read this, but the federal government refuses to do anything about it.
But Hezbollah is just a small piece of the picture.
There are thousands of very dangerous people that go back and forth across the border on a continual basis and the federal government treats it like it is no big deal.
The entire region along the border is going downhill fast. The sad reality is that there are a number of open war zones along the U.S. border with Mexico.
For example, the city of Juarez, Mexico sits just across the U.S. border and it is considered to be one of the most dangerous cities on the entire planet. In fact, Juarez is now the murder capital of the western hemisphere.
But do most Americans know about this?
No, they are too busy listening to the mainstream media tell them all about Anthony Weiner and Casey Anthony.
Illegal immigrants continue to pour over the border at a staggering rate and a large percentage of them end up in gangs.
There are now over 1 million people involved in gangs inside the United States, and a rising percentage of those gangs are made up of illegal immigrants and are connected to the drug trade. According to federal statistics, gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the violent crimes committed in the United States each year.
In a previous article about illegal immigration, I talked about the infamous "18th Street Gang" which is terrorizing cities all over America. There are reports that the 18th Street Gang has thousands of members in the city of Los Angeles alone.
The following is what Wikipedia has to say about the 18th Street Gang....
A US Justice Department report from 2009 estimates that the 18th Street gang has a membership of some 30,000 to 50,000 with 80% of them being illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America and is active in 44 cities in 20 states. Its main source of income is street-level distribution of cocaine and marijuana and, to a lesser extent, heroin and methamphetamine. Gang members also commit assault, auto theft, carjacking, drive-by shootings, extortion, homicide, identification fraud, and robbery. Just think of how much violence could be stopped by keeping these criminals out of the country.
Yet our federal government does nothing.
But it isn't just gangs of young people that are the problem.
Some mainstream media outlets have been bold enough to report that Mexican drug cartels are openly conducting military operations inside the United States. Scouts for the cartels maintain strategic lookout bases in the hills of southern Arizona. The cartels very much try to avoid any confrontations with our border patrol or with our local police, but once they are approached they are not afraid to open fire.
In fact, it happens all the time. We just don't hear about it much on the news.
The handful of agents that we do have guarding the border are tremendously outgunned and outmanned.
One very frustrated border patrol agent told Fox News the following about what is going on in his area....
"To say that this area is out of control is an understatement." How can we allow this to go on?
What is happening on the border is a national embarrassment.
Another border patrol agent put it this way in an email to Fox News....
"Every night we’re getting beaten like a pinata at a birthday party by drug, alien smugglers." So what is the federal government doing about it?
They are doing next to nothing.
Well, they are putting up some warning signs.
In some parts of southern Arizona today, the federal government has actually put up signs that warn American citizens to keep away from the routes that the Mexican drug cartels use to bring in drugs.
We are supposed to be the most powerful nation on earth, and yet foreign drug cartels dominate our border areas.
At this point, the Mexican drug cartels are deeply entrenched in all of the states along the border. In fact, the reality is that the entire southwest United States has been fundamentally transformed over the past several decades.
Until the federal government secures our borders, it should not ask the American people to make one more sacrifice in the name of "national security".
Our nation is under attack every single day by these Mexican drug cartels. It was elements within our own government that provided them with thousands of weapons. Hopefully Congress will be courageous enough to launch a full investigation.
-
ATF to Require Information on Frequent Gunbuyers in Border States
AP ^ | July 11, 2011
________________________ ________________________ ________________
WASHINGTON -- In an effort to stem the illicit flow of weapons into Mexico, the Justice Department announced Monday that all gun shops in four Southwest border states will be required to alert the federal government to frequent buyers of high-powered rifles.
The new policy comes amid criticism of a failed federal probe aimed at dismantling large-scale arms trafficking networks along the Arizona border with Mexico.
In the probe, called Operation Fast and Furious, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say they were inexplicably ordered by superiors to stop tracking some small-time "straw" buyers who purchased large numbers of weapons apparently destined for drug cartels.
Under the new policy, federal firearms licensees in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico must report purchases of two or more of some types of rifles by the same person in a five-day span. The requirement applies to purchases of semi-automatic rifles that have detachable magazines and a caliber of greater than .22.
ATF estimates it will generate 18,000 reports a year.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the new reporting measure will improve the ATF's ability to disrupt illegal weapons trafficking networks that funnel firearms to criminal organizations.
One of the critics of Operation Fast and Furious called the new policy "the height of hypocrisy."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
WTF? ? ? ? Are these people freaking nuts?
Well there ya go..... they made a new policy......that mirrors the old policy...prior to the operation fast and furious.......
It's all fixed...nothing to see here folks..keep moving..
-
Issa now saying holder lied to congress. This is a diversion from holder.
-
Well there ya go..... they made a new policy......that mirrors the old policy...prior to the operation fast and furious.......
It's all fixed...nothing to see here folks..keep moving..
Yeah after the damage is done, whoops our bad, all fixed now ::) What a bunch of arrogant asshats
-
http://www.cnsnews.qcom/news/article/issa-says-he-doesn-t-believe-holder-s-te
Issa saying holder lied to congress.
-
Yeah after the damage is done, whoops our bad, all fixed now ::) What a bunch of arrogant asshats
This is a junta, not a legitimate admn.
-
http://www.cnsnews.qcom/news/article/issa-says-he-doesn-t-believe-holder-s-te
Issa saying holder lied to congress.
I hope this brings this whole fucked up administration down.
-
I hope this brings this whole fucked up administration down.
Yup.
-
This is still flying under the radar for some reason. If he did lie to Congress, this will be a huge scandal.
What reason, do you think?
-
Because the MSM stopped doing their job years ago.
-
Yeah after the damage is done, whoops our bad, all fixed now ::) What a bunch of arrogant asshats
As long as Grassley is willing to carry the water then their "better late than never" policy change won't mean shit.
Holder's head needs to roll for this. They just need to be diligent. Obama's protection of this thug better be a GOP talking point during the debates.
-
Because the MSM stopped doing their job years ago.
What is "their job"?
They are businesses that sell advertising for money, right? They're essentially "infotainment". Every single one of them.
So yes, if their audience reviews show they sell more ad revenue to younger people who enjoy more liberal news, then yes, more of them are going to focus upon stories that appeal to liberal voters. let's face it, the 35-year old single female college grad liberal spends a lot more $ each week on thing they see on commericals than the average 72-year old male conseravtive viewer.
Again, waht is the job of the media?
-
As long as Grassley is willing to carry the water then their "better late than never" policy change won't mean shit.
Holder's head needs to roll for this. They just need to be diligent. Obama's protection of this thug better be a GOP talking point during the debates.
I think Issa and grassley are doing this right. Drip drip drip. They have a lot more than is letting on so far.
-
The msm who 88 percent voted for Obama is scared of this. They know it will get Obama impeached. This scandal is far worse than watergate.
-
What is "their job"?
They are businesses that sell advertising for money, right? They're essentially "infotainment". Every single one of them.
So yes, if their audience reviews show they sell more ad revenue to younger people who enjoy more liberal news, then yes, more of them are going to focus upon stories that appeal to liberal voters. let's face it, the 35-year old single female college grad liberal spends a lot more $ each week on thing they see on commericals than the average 72-year old male conseravtive viewer.
Again, waht is the job of the media?
Infotainment? Maybe now but not once upon a time.
A JOURNALIST's job used to be keep our politicians in check by asking the questions that should be asked, not sucking Obama's dick like you do every day on here. If they would do their job then Obama's reelection chances right now would be non-existent. But thanks to people like you and those in the MSM, he limbers on in a zombie state.
You and your spinster bullshit really take the piss.
-
Infotainment? Maybe now but not once upon a time.
A JOURNALIST's job used to be keep our politicians in check by asking the questions that should be asked, not sucking Obama's dick like you do every day on here. If they would do their job then Obama's reelection chances right now would be non-existent. But thanks to people like you and those in the MSM, he limbers on in a zombie state.
You and your spinster bullshit really take the piss.
I agree maybe now it's infotainment..... I'm sure of it.
You can watch any of the networks. None just tell the facts. They all show their "side" of it in the most flattering way. FOX adds thousands to tea party crowds... MSNBC makes up racist things about ron paul.
It's INFOTAINMENT. Period. And the only reason it's primarily liberal, is because liberals spend more MONEY on the things being advertised on commercials. FOX viewers are older and dont buy unripe bananas. MSNBC viewers are younger and spend more $ on things like shampoo and mini-vans.
it's that simple. Maybe you have some romantic vision of "back in the day....." but today is today, and every media outlet is nothing but a business there to make money.
-
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/11/family-murdered-patrol-agent-seek-justice/
(video at link)
Family of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Considering Suing Feds Over ‘Fast and Furious’
By William Lajeunesse
Published July 11, 2011
| FoxNews.com
The family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry wants justice, and that may include suing the federal government.
“If the evidence shows Brian’s death was proximately caused by the negligence of the federal government, there may be a cause of action,” said Terry family attorney Paul Charlton.
Terry was killed in December 2010 at the hands of an illegal immigrant working for the Sinaloa Cartel while patrolling an area near Tucson known as Rio Rico.
Officials traced the gun found at the scene to Operation Fast and Furious, a weapons trafficking program run by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that let guns travel south of the border.
Generally speaking, government officials can’t be sued for damages, however misguided or incompetent. Yet, there are exceptions when agencies can reasonably foresee their actions will do harm.
While it’s too premature to know who likely would be fingered in a suit, it is possible that top ATF and Department of Justice officials could be the targets.
Defendants successfully sued the FBI three times when their informants committed murder. The U.S. government was made to pay millions of dollars to the victims families after it was found that federal agent created an unreasonable risk of harm to them by helping the informants avoid arrest. The IRS was also sued for close to $1 million when it failed to supervise one of their informants who also committed murder.
According to Charlton, the Terry family says it doesn’t want U.S. officials prosecuted criminally, but civil court is something else.
“Anyone who put these weapons in the killers’ hands may be liable,” he said.
Charlton was Arizona’s U.S. Attorney for 7 years. He understands the ATF and the internal chain of command on an operation the size of Fast and Furious.
“I have never seen an investigation in which guns were intentionally allowed to walk. That sort of thing does not happen, ought not to happen,” he said.
Charlton says a decision on future legal action will depend on the evidence. Congressman Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, initiated hearings on the Hill after learning the ATF helped sell thousands of guns to known criminals.
His hearings opened a floodgate of evidence against the agency, and provided a forum for whistleblower agents to air their concerns, which included multiple warnings to supervisors that the program was going to kill people.
Those warnings were ignored, despite reports showing Mexican police were recovering Fast and Furious guns at crime scenes throughout that country.
“Brian Terry’s loss was preventable,” said Issa. “It was regrettable and preventable.”
******************************************
Other related links :
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/06/operation-fast-and-furious-family-of-slain-border-patrol-agent-will-sue-atf/
Reference:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2011/07/atf-s-fast-and-furious-seems-colored-shades-irancontra-scandal
ATF’s Fast and Furious Seems Colored With Shades of Iran/Contra Scandal
Posted by Bill Conroy - July 10, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Congressional Inquiry Raising Specter of Spooks in the Soup
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/07/juan-williams-gop-distracts-from-drug.html
Juan Williams: “GOP distracts from drug horror” with Gunwalker Scandal investigation.
-
What reason, do you think?
I don't know.
-
Fast and Furiously Stealing the Second Amendment
www.scottfactor.com ^ | 07/12/2011 | Gina Miller
Along with other rights, like our First Amendment-sworn right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is a right with which the communist elites in our out-of-control government are desperate to do away, and it looks like they have been going to outrageous lengths to create false excuses to do so.
By now, you have certainly heard about Project Gunrunner and the recently revealed Fast and Furious operation, a scandal that could eclipse even Watergate in the extent of the government cover-up, as fall-out from it continues to descend on the Obama administration.
AWR Hawkins reports at Breitbart’s Big Government website,
“News about Operation ‘Fast and Furious’ is now ubiquitous. Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson’s Fourth of July testimony to Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa blew the cover off what appears to be one of the biggest political cover-ups in the last 50 years.
In the middle of it is Attorney General Eric Holder, who now feigns a blissful ignorance about the whole mess: having nothing to say about its beginnings as Operation ‘Gunrunner’ or its latest incarnation as ‘Fast and Furious.’
For those who might not know, Operation ‘Gunrunner’ was the plan to sell guns to ‘straw purchasers’ with suspected ties to the Mexican cartel. Apparently, ATF was then banking on those purchasers to walk the guns across the border into Mexico. Operation ‘Fast and Furious’ was the plan to follow those guns until they were in cartel hands and then make apprehensions. (For the record, I concur with those who believe this was all an attempt to flood the border with weapons in order to create a degree of chaos sufficient to convince us of the supposed-need for more gun control in America.)
Anyway, the problem with Holder’s feigned ignorance is that he gave a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation ‘Gunrunner’ and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success.
Holder told the audience:
'Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion.'
… But once the whole thing got crazy, and ‘Fast and Furious’ left Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry dead, Holder and others in the Justice Department went from boasting about such projects to pressuring people like Acting ATF Director Melson to keep their mouths shut.”
In a refreshing display of opposition to the typically thuggish tactics of this lawless Obama administration, Mr. Melson held firmly and refused to keep his mouth shut. He instead met with California Republican Congressman Darrell Issa and Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley in a closed-door meeting on July 4th. The meeting was quite revealing, and it led to a serious and disturbing spotlight being turned on the Obama Justice Department under Eric Holder.
Holder himself has been squirming and obfuscating to beat the band, as was seen in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in early May. Holder appears to be actively obstructing the official investigations into Operation Fast and Furious, and that is a crime. The day after the secret meeting between Mr. Melson and Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa, the two men shot off a scathing letter to Eric Holder in which they laid on the line some of what Mr. Melson revealed to them in the meeting.
Among other things, they wrote,
“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 information that we are now learning about the involvement of other agencies, including the DEA and the FBI.”
So, here we have Eric Holder fast and furiously attempting to hide pertinent (and possibly incriminating?) information from investigating officials. When will Holder be held accountable for his malfeasance in office? This man takes the cake, almost as much as Barack Obama does! How dare he obstruct a congressional investigation? How dare he lie about his knowledge of Project Gunrunner? Well, we know the answer to that. Being part of a dictatorial communist regime, Holder, like Obama, believes he is somehow above the law. One day he will discover that he is not.
There simply has to come a time when those in our government who still love our country and Constitution must grab hold of the courage to go after this lawless Obama regime, come hell or high water. The American people are sick to death of Obama and his minions getting away with all manner of unconstitutional and illegal behavior, as though they are untouchable. They must be stopped!
Even Florida Republican Congressman Colonel Allen West is calling for Eric Holder to be removed from the Justice Department. Quoting Col. West, Michael Carl reports at WorldNetDaily,
“‘This is just another sad chapter in the Eric Holder book of ineptness and incompetence,’ West said. ‘Eric Holder needs to be brought before an investigative committee and if those charges are warranted he needs to be held accountable.
‘At least the president needs to realize that Eric Holder needs to be removed from the Department of Justice … or else it appears President Obama is complicit and in approval of the actions of his attorney general,’ he said.”
Colonel West is much kinder to Holder than I would be in Col. West’s position. I would not attribute to “ineptness and incompetence” what can better be explained as deliberate sabotage and subjugation of our nation’s laws, Constitution, foundations and freedoms by this entire Obama administration, including Eric Holder.
It is virtually impossible that Eric Holder was unaware of the workings of the Fast and Furious operation, and it is also unlikely that Barack Obama knew nothing. This awful scandal most certainly could land at the very steps of the White House—if we were able to have an unhampered investigation—after all, Holder is Obama’s man. Why would an operation of this magnitude be kept secret from Obama? It probably was not kept secret.
As Aaron Klein wrote for WorldNetDaily,
“Project Gunrunner was first founded under President Bush as a bipartisan effort in 2005, when it had its inception as a pilot run by ATF in conjunction with the Justice Department and the FBI.
While the operation was run by a few dozen officers under Bush, it has since received an infusion of cash from the Obama administration, becoming a full-time project staffed by more than 200.
As WND reported, tucked away inside Obama's stimulus was $10 million in funding for the ATF's Project Gunrunner. This is in addition to $11 million already provided to the program under Obama, and another $12 million more requested by the White House for the end of this year.”
Oh, sure—Obama had no knowledge whatsoever of the evil dealings of his biggest law enforcement agencies in flooding Mexican drug cartels with weapons. It is apparent that the Obama administration’s Justice Department is in some very hot water. It remains to be seen if justice will be done to the Justice Department and Eric Holder.
Naturally, this whole ordeal has raised many questions about the real purpose of Fast and Furious under the Obama regime. Plenty of us on the Right see it as a horribly plain “false flag operation.” Let us examine what that means. According to one source, the Truth Move website, a false flag operation is,
“… a classic tool of deception and espionage. Intelligence agencies are usually linked to most false flag terrorism.
False flag terror by a state upon its own population can be a powerful tool of control. False flag operations can range from intentional provocation or ‘letting things happen,’ all the way up to outright orchestration.”
So, what if this is a false flag operation? Then, what is the point? The point is to create a false idea—with false statistics to back it up—that American guns are the “problem” and a large contributing factor to the animalistic violence near the Mexican border. The further purpose is to cause such violent chaos, which will spill over into the U.S.—as it has already—that American citizens and lawmakers will be duped and scared into believing that even more gun control legislation is necessary to curb the gun violence in Mexico and bleeding into America.
This is nothing more than yet another attempt by the communist Left to grab our guns. It is also one of the more despicable things I have ever seen from our government, and that’s saying a lot in light of the truly terrible things we have seen from Washington in recent years. The investigation into this matter could reveal that our own government and agencies conspired to use millions of taxpayer dollars to put guns in the hands of maniac drug gang members in Mexico, knowing full well that those guns would be used to kill Mexican and American citizens.
I hope this scandal will be the undoing of Obama. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
-
Obama’s Watergate
By Doug Hagmann Monday, July 11, 2011
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/print-friendly/38374
Just after 10:00 a.m. on March 23rd, 1973, John Dean, White House counsel to former President Richard M. Nixon advised Nixon of “a cancer within-close to the presidency, that’s growing. It’s growing daily.” Within the same breath, he advised Nixon that “people are going to start perjuring themselves very quickly that have not had to perjure themselves to protect other people and the like.” That cancer became known as “Watergate,” and eventually led to Nixon’s resignation.
Nearly forty years later, another “scandal,” exponentially larger than Watergate, has the potential to bring down the occupant of the oval office along with other high ranking officials. While no one was murdered as a result of Watergate, two law enforcement officers are dead because of the current “scandal” that is leading closer and closer to the highest levels of the Obama administration, including the Department of Justice and the U.S. State Department.
Obama’s “war on guns”
After taking office, Barack Hussein Obama began a coordinated effort with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to control the purchases and ownership of guns in the United States. To justify the implementation of tougher gun control laws and in a direct assault on the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, this administration cited a statement made to Congress by William Hoover, Assistant Director for Field Operations for the BATFE on February 7, 2008. According to that report, 90 percent of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels were purchased from or originated from the U.S.
That stunning revelation empowered the Obama administration to solicit public support for banning so-called assault weapons in the U.S., and calling for tougher gun control laws. The problem, however, is that the 2008 statement is disingenuous at best.
First and perhaps most transparent, it has been noted that only 1 in 5 guns that have been recovered in Mexico actually underwent any form of tracing, leaving 80% untraced. Accordingly, the 90 percent figure is already factually inaccurate.
Secondly and perhaps the most scandalous of all is that all figures cited by this administration pertaining to weapons tracing include weapons sold to the Mexican military via U.S. arms-trading policies under programs such as Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) initiatives. The fact is that the bulk of the arms used by the Mexican drug cartels did not - and do not originate from gun shop sales in the U.S., but from U.S. government sponsored programs that sell weapons and ammunition to the Mexican military as well as other third-world nations.
Many of the weapons used in Mexico and counted in border violence statistics actually arrived in that area from Central American countries involved in U.S. government sanctioned programs administered by the Pentagon and with the knowledge and imprimatur of the U.S. State Department.
Interestingly, confirmation of the government’s programs and knowledge by government officials, particularly Hillary Clinton, was made public by the recent release of State Department cables published by Wikileaks. The cables prove that the U.S. State Department and Hillary Clinton knew the origins of the bulk of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels, although kept this information secret for the greater agenda of U.S. gun control.
Meanwhile, it appears that the Obama administration via Eric Holder, used various weapons tracking programs already implemented to inflate the statistics involving guns originating in the U.S. to advance even tougher gun control measures.
Research and investigation indicates that a series of programs implemented under the umbrella of a government sanctioned program known as “Project Gunrunner” were purposely exploited with the knowledge and consent of government officials at the highest of levels.
Project Gunrunner
Part of the Southwest Border Initiative (SBI), Project Gunrunner was an operation that was started under the Bush administration. Ostensibly, the program was established to conduct surveillance, identify and stop the flow of weapons from the U.S. into Mexico and eventually into the possession of drug cartels. The pilot project was initiated in Laredo, Texas, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) in 2005.
In April of 2006, the program was expanded to a national level as a weapons interdiction program under the BATFE, formerly known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).. Project Gunrunner also involved the use of an Internet based weapon tracking system known as eTrace, a program that would permit participating law enforcement agencies to track the origin of confiscated or questionable guns, through their serial numbers, to their point of origin.
On April 10, 2008, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey briefed the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations on the status of the project. At that time, Mukasey stated that the “ATF has approximately 148 special agents…and 56 industry operation investigators (IOI) responsible for conducting regulatory inspections.” Mukasey also stated that the ATF “is also expanding its presence at the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) which serves as the central repository and ``clearinghouse’’ for all weapons related intelligence collected and developed by ATF’s field personnel and attaches in Mexico as well as by all other Federal, State and local law enforcement entities involved in narcotics interdiction and investigation along the U.S./Mexico border.”
By 2009, Project Gunrunner resulted in approximately 650 criminal cases being filed against about 1400 defendants. These cases involved about 12,000 firearms.
It is relevant to point out here that “Project Gunwalker” is not the name of any ATF operation, but a satirical moniker attached to Project Gunrunner.
Operation Fast & Furious
Under the Obama administration, “Operation Fast and Furious” was launched in early 2009. Under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner, The BATFE commissioned gun shops in the U.S. to sell weapons to known criminal suspects. Ostensibly, this operation was for interdiction purposes, but the agents involved were ordered not to interdict the weapons. What resulted was a mass amount of weapons that actually and genuinely originated in the U.S., with the knowledge and approval of the BATFE, being permitted to “walk” unmolested across the southern border (hence the satirical name “gunwalker”).
From early 2009 through December 2010, this process was repeated over and over in the southern U.S. despite the objections of numerous BATFE agents and gun shop owners. During this time, several agents began to notify congress and became “whistleblowers” about the stand-down orders.
On December 14, 2010, the inevitable happened. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down in Rio Rico, Arizona by an AK-47 that was “walked” across the U.S. Mexican border with the knowledge and allowance of the BATFE.
In addition to Agent Terry, Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata was also killed in a separate incident by a weapon allowed to “walk” into Mexico from the U.S.
With the tragic death of agents Terry and Zapata, the blame began to shift to those knowledgeable about the operation, including the acting director of the BATFE Kenneth Melson.
Much bigger than being reported
Unfortunately, the arguably illegal and certainly ill advised methodology implemented by the BATFE is not limited to the Project Gunrunner offshoot of “Operation Fast & Furious.” Other similar operations, each with the apparent knowledge and approval of the U.S. Justice Department, began to spring up elsewhere. There was also Operation Castaway in Tampa, which mirrored the methods of lack of interdiction as Operation Fast & Furious.
According to several agents who are now ready to offer testimony, each operation where weapons were allowed to “walk” into Mexico from the U.S. was approved at the highest levels of the United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State. Some believe that operations of this magnitude could not have been possible without the knowledge and approval of Obama himself.
Almost 40 years after the biggest scandal to rock the nation, it is again time to ask the question to Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama under oath and in front of congress: What did you know and when did you know it?
Doug Hagmann Bio
Doug Hagmann Most recent columns
Copyright © Douglas Hagmann
Douglas Hagmann, founder & director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, and a multi-state licensed private investigative agency. Doug began using his investigative skills and training to fight terrorism and increase public awareness through his website.
Doug can be reached at: director@homelandsecurityus.com
Older articles by Doug Hagmann
-
NRA Will Sue Obama Administration Over New Gun-Control Measure
CNS News ^ | 7/12/11 | Susan Jones
The National Rifle Association plans to sue the Obama administration over its new gun-reporting requirement in four states bordering Mexico.
On Monday, the Justice Department said it would require firearms dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to report multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles to the same person within a five-day period. The goal is to stop the illegal flow of weapons to Mexican drug cartels, said Deputy Attorney General James Cole.
The new reporting requirement applies to semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines and calibers greater than .22. Such weapons, Cole said, "are highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficiking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest Border."
NRA Executive Director Chris Cox called the reporting requirement "a blatant effort by the Obama administration and ATF to divert focus of Congress and the general public from their gross incompetence in the Fast and Furious scandal."
As CNSNews.com has reported, a House committee is investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for its botched gun-tracking operation in which the ATF -- evidently with the approval of Justice Department higher-ups -- allowed straw purchasers in the U.S. to send guns to Mexican criminals. Two of the guns sold as part of Operation Fast and Furious ended up at the Arizona crime scene where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was murdered in December.
Although ATF's goal was to track the guns, Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, said tracking devices were put on guns in only two instances.
Most of the tracking involved "a few hours of following the first car," Issa told Fox News. "In one case, he said, the ATF did track the guns with a GPS device "quite a ways into Mexico, but of course, they didn't inform the Mexican officials, and they didn't have a team on the other side of the border" to follow the signal, which "simply disappeared."
The NRA said the Justice Department's "scheme" will "unjustly burden law-abiding retailers in border states." Cox said the move will not affect drug cartels -- which are not deterred by paperwork violations -- and it won't prevent violence along the border.
"ATF and the Administration lack the statutory authority to do this, and the NRA will file suit as soon as ATF sends the first demand letters," Cox said in a statement posted on the NRA's Web site.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) called the Justice Department's new reporting requirement "the height of hypocrisy," given that the administration "knowingly and intentionally allowed guns to be trafficked into Mexico."
"Limiting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens is not going to solve the problem," the Associated Press quoted Smith as saying.
-
Scandal Grows: FBI, DEA Involved With Operation Fast and Furious
Townhall.com ^ | July 6, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
Yesterday, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson answered questions from Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley surrounding Operation Fast and Furious. Melson voluntarily participated in the interview and appeared with personal counsel, meaning although the Justice Department has prohibited Melson to testify before Congress on behalf of the DOJ about the scandal, he can in fact come forward with information as an individual informant outside of the DOJ and separate from DOJ interests.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder, Issa and Grassley expressed disappointment in the DOJ limiting and controlling Melson's communication and interaction with Congress surrounding the scandal but called the information Melson presented yesterday "extremely helpful," to the investigation.
Melson revealed the scope of Operation Fast and Furious reaches far beyond ATF and the Justice Department. He said the FBI, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and other agencies were heavily involved.
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. Mr.Melson said that he learned from ATF agents in the field that information 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.
According to the letter, the Justice Department continues to obstruct the independent House Oversight Committee Investigation:
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.
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. If this 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.
We hope that the Department will take a much more candid and forthcoming approach in addressing these very serious matters with the Committees. If other 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.
-
Breaking: Grassley & Issa name Holder's "Dirty Dozen" of Gunwalker conspirators at the DOJ. Demand all communications. The big "or".
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/07/breaking-grassley-issa-name-holders.html
Below is the transcript of a letter sent yesterday and released late this afternoon from Senator Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa to Eric Holder. In it, they name twelve senior DOJ officials, past and present, who were "unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program" (Fast and Furious).
These men represent Eric Holder's "Dirty Dozen" of Gunwalker conspirators within the upper ranks of the DOJ.
Perhaps the most significant word to me in this letter can be found in this paragraph:
"These records should include e-mails, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes. Additionally, any records related to communications referring to a large firearms trafficking case within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) or in Phoenix should be included in any production."
That's a big "or". It means that the records they seek are not simply limited to Phoenix but to any "large firearms trafficking case within (ATF)."
Houston and Tampa, here we come!
Mike Vanderboegh
5:50 CDT
July 11, 2011
The Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avennue, NW
Washington DC 20530
Dear Attorney General Holder:
As our investigation in Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program. Therefore it is necessary to review communications between and among these senior officials. As such, please provide all records relating to communications between and among the following individuals regarding Operation Fast and Furious:
1. David Ogden, Former Deputy Attorney General;
2. Gary Grindler, Officer of the Attorney General and former Acting Deputy Attorney General;
3. James Cole, Deputy Attorney General;
4. Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General;
5. Kenneth Blanco, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;
6. Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;
7. John Keeney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;
8. Matt Axelrod, Associate Deputy Attorney General;
9. Ed Siskel, Former Associate Deputy Attorney General;
10. Brad Smith, Office of the Deputy Attorney General;
11. Kevin Carwhile, Section Chief, Capitol Case Unit; and
12. Joseph Cooley, Criminal Fraud Section.
These records should include e-mails, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes. Additionally, any records related to communications referring to a large firearms trafficking case within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) or in Phoenix should be included in any production.
Please provide this information no later than July 18, 2011, at noon. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Tristan Leavitt in Ranking Member Grassley's office at (202) 224-5225 or Henry Kerner of Chairman Issa's Committee staff at (202) 225-5074. I look forward to receiving your response.
Sincerely,
Darrell Issa, Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Charles Grassley, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary
cc: The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
booooooommmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-
Congressman Gus Bilirakis questions Holder, Melson on Tampa gunwalking allegations. Exclusive Special Report by David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh.
Bilirakis questions Holder, Melson on Tampa gunwalking allegations
Exclusive Special Report by David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh.
WASHINGTON, DC: Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) wrote a letter today to Attorney General Eric Holder and Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Kenneth Melson expressing “deep concern about reports that [ATF and DOJ] have participated in multiple acts of ‘gun walking,’ purposely allowing firearms to pass from straw purchaser into the possession of criminals and other dangerous third party organizations.”
“These reports,” Bilirakis writes, “raise troubling questions about the motives, intentions, and competency of the ATF and DOJ.”
“In recent days,” he notes, “it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ may have participated in the act of ‘gun walking’ beyond the acts conducted within the scope of “Operation Fast and Furious’…and that similar programs included the possible trafficking of arms to dangerous criminal gangs in Honduras with the knowledge of the ATF’s Tampa Field Division.”
Referencing his membership on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Bilirakis asked for answers to the following questions, including whether ATF Tampa and DOJ “allowed weapons to be trafficked to Honduras.” Click here to see the complete letter and questions.
A point of clarification by Mike Vanderboegh, one of the two online journalists who broke the Tampa/Honduras gunwalking story, involves the appearance that Operation Castaway was necessarily the cover used for the trafficking. In an update filed today, Vanderboegh notes:
You will note the question mark in the header of the first story after "Part of Operation Castaway?"
Here is the exact wording:
"Whether the allegations of our source refer to the on-going Operation Castaway remains at this hour unclear, but our source is certain that O'Brien has allowed the "walking" of straw-purchased firearms to Honduras using the same failed strategy as the Phoenix Field Division's Operation Fast and Furious. That Operation Castaway involved arms smuggling to Honduras is also certain."
This is careful language for a reason. We asked the question because although other sources suggested it might be related to Operation Castaway we could not confirm it. We went with what our central source (who was closest to the source of the story than anyone else) said, which was that although he was certain of gunwalking to Honduras he was not certain it was a part of the Castaway operation.
Our second story, my analysis piece on "Why Honduras?" and my letter to Melson included nothing about Castaway.
Elsewhere on the Internet and in the mainstream media, others made the connection to Castaway, which may have been related to a combination of this language in the DOJ press release on Castaway, "Operation Castaway remains an ongoing investigation…
Sources have reconfirmed to these correspondents that regardless of any Castaway connection that may or may not be established, they stand by the gunwalking allegations.
Sipsey Street Addendum:
Transcript of Congressman Bilirakis' letter.
July 12, 2011
Mr. Eric Holder
Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20530
Mr. Kenneth Melson
Acting Director
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
99 New York Avenue NE
Washington DC 20226
Dear Attorney General Holder and Director Melson:
I am writing to share my deep concern about reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have participated in multiple acts of "gun walking," purposely allowing firearms to pass from straw purchasers into the possession of criminals and other dangerous third part organizations. These reports raise troubling questions about the motives, intentions, and competency of the ATF and the DOJ.
The ATF has noted that illegal weapons trafficking is a "problem with consequences on both sides" of our border, and that ATF's objective should be to prevent dangerous foreign groups and organizations from obtaining firearms "which they employ to murder rival drug traffickers, civilians, as well as political, military, and law enforcement figures in order to strengthen their grip on the lucrative drug and firearms routes into and out of the United States." However, two weapons found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry were traced back to the ATF's "Operation Fast and Furious" -- a gun walking operation conducted by the ATF's Phoenix Field Division. This evidence suggests that the federal government has severely failed the very objective it proposed for Project Gunrunner, the ATF's comprehensive strategy to reduce violent crime associated with foreign criminal organizations.
In recent days, it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ may have participated in the act of "gun walking" beyond the acts conducted within the scope of "Operation Fast and Furious." Recent reports have suggested that Project Gunrunner may not have been limited to weapons trafficking to Mexico and that similar programs included the possible trafficking of arms to dangerous criminal gangs in Honduras with the knowledge of the ATF's Tampa Field Division and the Department of Justice's Middle District of Florida through an operation known as "Operation Castaway."
As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, I find it troubling that the United States government would willfully allow weapons to be acquired by dangerous criminal and drug trafficking organizations, in direct contravention of our strategic and national interests.
I would therefore appreciate your answers to the following questions:
1. Can you confirm whether or not the ATF Tampa Field Division and/or the Department of Justice's Middle District of Florida participated in a "gun walking" scheme that allowed weapons to be trafficked to Honduras?
2. If so, does the ATF or the DOJ have knowledge of any of these firearms ending up in the possession of the notorious MS-13 gang?
3. How many guns have been allowed to pass into Honduras and how many have since been accounted for?
4. Were trafficked weapons subject to any special monitoring processes once they left the United States?
5. Has "Operation Castaway" been terminated? If not, does the DOJ or ATF plan to terminate this program or urge its termination?
6. Has the DOJ or the ATF established any criteria or guidance pertaining to what is admissible for future operations aimed at preventing firearms from being obtained and used by dangerous foreign criminal organizations in crimes similar to the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry?
It is my belief that the ATF and the DOJ operated in an extremely misguided manner in allowing guns to walk across the border and end up in the possession of dangerous criminal organizations. These actions have already resulted in the loss of human life and property. I hope that you would agree that we must not allow flawed programs to continue to operate to the detriment of the safety and security of the United States of America.
In that regard, I look forward to receiving your answers to these questions in a timely manner.
Sincerely,
Gus M. Bilirakis,
Member of Congress.
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/07/bilirakis-questions-holder-melson-on.html
-
Congressional Republicans step up investigation of Fast and Furious gun-tracing operation
Share0Comments 16
The investigation is being led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
July 12, 2011, 3:22 p.m.
Believing that the Operation Fast and Furious scandal reaches into the highest levels of the Justice Department, congressional Republicans are demanding the attorney general's office turn over a sweeping trove of emails, documents and other material to determine Washington's role in the "reckless" gun-tracing operation that allowed thousands of U.S. semiautomatic weapons to fill the arsenals of Mexican drug cartels.
"As our investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has progressed," Republicans wrote Tuesday in a letter to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., "we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice, including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program.
Related
U.S. to require more gun-buyer information in border states
More U.S. agencies implicated in Mexico gun-trafficking probe
ATF chief regularly briefed on botched gun operation
U.S. AK-47s linked to Mexican attorney's slaying
Many guns intended for Mexico drug cartels ended up in U.S., agents testify
Report describes gun agents' 'state of panic'
See more stories »
XDocument Accounts of Operation Fast and Furious ATF Agents "Therefore, it is necessary to review communications between and among these senior officials."
The investigation is being led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
With the investigation now moving into a new phase – determining how involved top Washington officials were in the ill-fated program run out of the Phoenix area – the demand for a carte blanche copy of "emails, memoranda, briefing papers and handwritten notes" could stir a fierce political and legal fight over how much material, if any, will be turned over.
Nevertheless, as one congressional investigator said Tuesday, "We've got questions. Lots of questions."
They want to see all the written communications to and from a dozen top officials. They include Holder's top assistant, Deputy Atty. Gen. James Cole, Assistant Atty. Gen. Lanny Breuer, and Gary Grindler, the former deputy attorney general now assigned to Holder's office.
Justice Department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-fast-and-furious-probe-20110712,0,3819584.story?track=rss#tugs_story_display
-
ATF loses track of 1,400 guns in criticized probe
CNN ^ | 7/12/11 | Todd Schwarzschild and Drew Griffin,
(CNN) -- Federal agents can't account for more than 1,400 guns after a widely criticized operation aimed at tracing the flow of weapons to Mexican drug gangs, sources with knowledge of the investigation tell CNN.
Of 2,020 guns involved in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives probe dubbed "Operation Fast and Furious," 363 have been recovered in the United States and 227 have been recovered in Mexico. That leaves 1,430 guns unaccounted for, the sources said.
The ATF operation was intended to build cases against Mexican drug cartels by allowing firearms to go from the United States into Mexico. The hope was by tracing the guns in Mexico, agents would be able to determine the structure of various cartels and then bring them down.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
-
Well done ATF ::) 30 percentile, that is fail anywhere
-
Obama arming MS-13 - nice.
-
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mexico-town-dissolves-police-dept-gun-smuggling-scandal-184408968.html#more-13679
Small border town Chief, Mayor and other city employees involved in gun smuggling....sheeeesh
-
DOJ’s Fast and Furious head fake
Michelle Malkin.com ^ | July 12, 2011 | By Michelle Malkin
In the wake of swelling outrage over the Obama administration’s fatally botched Fast and Furious straw gun purchase racket, the DOJ is punishing the very whistleblowers who protested the scheme in the first place.
This is a head fake.
Instead of exercising more control over lawless bureaucrats within its own agencies, the Obama administration is tightening its grip over law-abiding gun shops:
As a backlash mounts over the government’s failed Fast and Furious gun-tracing operation, the Justice Department will begin requiring firearms dealers in California and other border states to alert officials anytime they sell more than two semiautomatic rifles to someone in a five-day period.
The new reporting requirement will help the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “detect and disrupt” border gun-smuggling operations, Deputy Atty. Gen. James Cole said Monday.
Once the ATF distributes its new reporting forms, about 7,000 dealers near the border must report multiple sales of semiautomatic weapons in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Such weapons “are highly sought after by dangerous drug-trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest border,” Cole said.
Republican critics quickly denounced the measure, saying it was wrong for the Obama administration to let illegal guns get into the hands of Mexican cartels in Operation Fast and Furious, and then require more monitoring of legitimate gun owners in the U.S. Under the program, the ATF permitted illegal straw purchasers to obtain weapons as part of a plan to trace the guns as they flowed to Mexico.
“It’s the height of hypocrisy,” said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who is leading the House investigation into Fast and Furious, called it a “political maneuver designed to protect the careers of political appointees at the Justice Department and not public safety.”
NRA will sue over the new regs.
Sipsey Street Irregulars sums it up best:
Ironic, ain’t it? It is as if the ATF is admitting that it was incompetent (deliberately or otherwise) in the Gunwalker Scandal and was having trouble keeping track of their cartel straw buyers so now they insist that the FFLs [federal firearms licenesses] who previously tried voluntarily to help them, now must help them.
Of course this is another ratchet on the attempt at back-door arms registration…
Ignore the distraction.
Keep your eye on the corruptocrats’ ball. The latest:
Are high-profile suspects in Mexican drug cartels also paid informants for U.S. federal investigators? If so, could a brewing scandal in Washington implicate more U.S. agencies in the ongoing drug-related violence in Mexico?
Kenneth Melson, the embattled chief of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), made the earth-shaking revelation in testimony early last week, The Times reports. Melson reportedly told congressional leaders that Mexican cartel suspects tracked by his agents in a controversial gun-tracing program were also operating as paid informants for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the FBI.
***
More: Here’s the latest on the brewing Tampa gunwalking allegations.
***
On a side note: While I was on vacay, old news about Fast and Furious’s parent program, the stimulus-funded Project Gunrunner, somehow got recycled as new news. But if you read my column and extensive post with links back in March, you already are in the know. David Codrea and Bob Owens try to clear up confusion sown by latecomers.
-
U.S. Representatives demand answers of ICE in Tampa gunwalking case.
Sispsey Street and David Codrea ^ | 7/13 | Sispsey Street and David Codrea
Just received a pdf of this letter sent yesterday to John Morton, Director of ICE. It is apparent that at some point, the Obama administration is going to have to respond to questions about Tampa-Honduras gunwalking. I will post the pdf link when I have it.
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/
July 12, 2011
The Honorable John Morton Director U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department of Homeland Security 500 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20536
Dear Director Morton:
We are concerned about recent reports that suggest similarities between “Operation Castaway,” a firearms trafficking investigation led by the Tampa Field Offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and “Operation Fast and Furious,” an ATF program that provided firearms to Mexican drug trafficking organizations. Specifically, reports indicate that firearms under “Operation Castaway” may have been provided to dangerous criminal gangs in Honduras, including MS-13.
If true, these reports raise serious questions about the leadership of the ICE and ATF Tampa Field Offices. We support ICE’s efforts to disrupt criminal syndicates that traffic in firearms, drugs, and other illicit substances. However, when those efforts serve to fuel the operations of criminal enterprises through the provision of firearms, they must be stopped and those responsible must be held accountable. In an effort to address this issue, we would appreciate your response to the following questions.
1. What role did ICE agents and leadership play in “Operation Castaway?”
2. Can you confirm whether “Operation Castaway” included a gun walking scheme that allowed weapons to be trafficked to Honduras? If so, have any of these firearms ended up in the possession of the notorious MS-13 gang?
3. How many guns have been allowed to pass into Honduras and how many have since been accounted for?
4. Were these weapons subject to any special monitoring processes once they left the United States?
5. Is “Operation Castaway” still ongoing? If so, are you, in coordination with the ATF, planning to terminate the program?
We find it extremely troubling that the United States government would willfully allow weapons to be acquired by dangerous criminal and drug trafficking organizations, in direct contravention of our strategic and national interests. We look forward to receiving your responses to these questions in a timely manner.
Sincerely,
Gus Bilirakis, U.S. Representative, Florida, 9th District
Michael McCaul, U.S. Representative, Texas, 10th District
Candice Miller, U.S. Representative, Michigan, 10th District
________________________ __________________
BBBBOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!
-
Did Fast & Furious violate the Arms Export Control Act?
http://armsandthelaw.com/archives/2011/07/did_fast_furiou.php ^ | 7/12 | david hardy
First, the Arms Export Control Act, 22 USC §2778.. It authorizes the President to define defense articles and regulate their export. In so doing, he must consider the possibility that export could "support international terrorism, increase the possibility of outbreak or escalation of conflict..."
Those defense articles may not be exported without a permit, issued by the Secretary of State ( Department of State guidelines here), "except that no license shall be required for exports or imports made by or for an agency of the United States Government
(A) for official use by a department or agency of the United States Government, or
(B) for carrying out any foreign assistance or sales program authorized by law and subject to the control of the President by other means."
The firearms involved here were not being exported for official use by an agency, nor as part of foreign aid. This a lot narrower than the GCA exception for acts by a government agency, and for good reason: the purpose of this statute is to control executive agency actions. No gun running to foreign governments or persons without a paper trail (and in cases of large transactions, a prior request for Congressional approval).
Any person who willfully violates these provisions "shall upon conviction be fined for each violation not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both."
There have been some reports of agents having directly transferred firearms to drug cartel buyers, in order to boost their "street creds." That'd clearly be a violation. In other situations, the person who actually exported the firearms would be in clear violation. But what of those government supervisors who allowed the arms to flow -- especially the cases where a protesting FFL was told to sell the guns anyway?
18 U.S. Code §2 provides:
"§ 2. Principals
(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.
(b) Whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the United States, is punishable as a principal."
-
‘Gunwalker’ Deepens: Agent Zapata Killed By Gun From … Texas?
Pajamas Media ^ | July 12, 2011 | Bob Owens
________________________ ________________________ ___________________
In addition to Phoenix and Florida, it appears the U.S. government had gunwalking operations based in Houston and Dallas.
On February 15, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were returning to Mexico City, where they were assigned after a meeting, when they were ambushed by members of the Zetas cartel on a highway near San Luis Potosi.
Agent Avila was lucky. While seriously wounded in the attack he managed to survive, and is on the long road to recovery back in the United States. Agent Zapata died as a result of the ambush, and it was determined that he was killed with a weapon smuggled across the U.S. border.
A week after the ambush Julian Zapata Espinoza, aka “El Piolin,” was captured and confessed to the shooting, saying that the Zetas mistook the ICE Chevrolet Suburban for a vehicle driven by a rival cartel. Curiously, that confession does not match the facts as related by Agent Avila, which indicated the cartel knew exactly who they were attacking. It seems unlikely that the cartel gunners could have missed seeing the U.S. government diplomatic plates as they overtook the vehicle from behind and rammed it off the side of the road.
Regardless of the other details of the ambush, what is known is that these two agents were shot at point-blank range by a gunman armed with a weapon that had been purchased in a gun store in the United States. Agent Zapata’s death is commonly accepted as the second U.S. fatality related to “Operation Fast and Furious.”
But that isn’t entirely true.
The weapon used to shoot these agents was not sold in the Phoenix, Arizona, area that was the hub of Operation “Fast and Furious,” also known as Gunwalker, which allowed gunrunners to acquire the gun that was used to murder Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December. Instead, one of the weapons used to shoot these two ICE agents came from Lancaster, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
Brothers Otilio and Ranferi Osorio and their neighbor Kevin Morrison were arrested in Texas after Zapata’s death, but only after ATF and DEA agents had organized a transfer of some 40 weapons in November. It was one of those rifles that was traced back to Agent Zapata’s murder.
Senator Charles Grassley noted that these three men had actually been stopped by local police after the transfers took place, but they were not arrested — presumably on orders from the Department of Justice.
The men were trailed as part of a multi-agency operation similar to Fast and Furious, that to date has not been named, in the Dallas Field Operations area, which encompasses southwest Texas, north Texas, and Oklahoma.
This is in addition to considerable circumstantial evidence that the Houston Field Operations area, which is made up of central and southeastern Texas, may have been responsible for shipping a large percentage of the recovered guns linked to Mexican cartels in central and southern Mexico. How large is the alleged Houston operation? It could possibly dwarf the Arizona operation now so infamously known as the source of the weapons recovered at Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder.
On March 3, Senator Grassley sent a letter to Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the ATF, “concerned that the ATF may have employed the same risky strategy of encouraging weapons trafficking that was employed elsewhere by the ATF, beyond the Phoenix Field Office and its Operation ‘Fast and Furious.’”
Melson and the ATF never answered, prompting a follow-up letter on March 28, in which he revealed that the Department of Justice knew Otilio and Ranferi Osorio and Kevin Morrison were straw purchasers of cartel weapons as early as August 7, 2010, 193 days before Agents Avila and Zapata were murdered with a “walked” Texas gun.
In addition to the allegations of “Fast and Furious” type operations in both Texas Field Operations areas and the Fast and Furious operation itself in Arizona, there are sources reporting to Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea that another operation, codenamed “Castaway,” may have run as many as a thousand guns to MS-13 in Honduras from the Tampa Field Operations area, and that field agents are itching to testify.
“Fast and Furious” in Arizona, “Castaway” in Florida, unnamed operations in both the Dallas and Houston Field Operations areas — how many operations like “Fast and Furious” were run concurrently by the ATF, FBI, DOJ, IRS, DEA, and DHS?
Are the confirmed operation in Arizona and the three suspected operations in Texas and Florida just the tip of a wider conspiracy run across the entire southern border?
Just how many individual operations are there in what appears to be a multi-jurisduction, multi-state Gunwalker scandal, which perverted the largely successful Gunrunner program launched in cooperation with Mexico under the previous administration?
What was the ultimate goal of these projects? Was it a cynical and criminal enterprise to manufacture cartel-linked murders in order to generate domestic support for harsh gun control measures — like that issued by fiat by the Obama administration yesterday?
According to Mexican authorities, Gunwalker is allegedly responsible for contributing to hundreds of murders. As Congress digs to expose the roots of the scandal, the Obama Justice Department digs in, exuding the tell-tale signs of a cover-up: firing whistleblowers, manufacturing scapegoats, and manipulating witnesses.
By any objective measure, how is Gunwalker not a bigger scandal than Watergate or Iran-Contra?
Unfortunately for the Obama administration and the appointed officials that appear to be at the heart of this scandal, discovery seems to be outpacing the ability of the government to cover up their actions.
________________________ ___________
FUCKING WOW!
Hey - Bachmanns' husband is far more pressing! ! ! ! ! ! !
-
BB - can you merge this in the main Gunrunner thread?
-
Must talk about Bachmann!!!!!
-
COPY OF EMAIL AT SITE.
HEY 240 - LURKER - ETAL - THERE IT IS - GO FUCK YOURSELVES!
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/07/operation-fast-and-furious-designed-to.html
________________________ ______________________
Operation Fast and Furious: Designed to Promote Gun Control." -- Manufacturing evidence to achieve a political result.
From Katie Pavlich at Townhall comes the proof that in the middle of Fast and Furious came a politically motivated demand to "Gunwalker Bill" Newell from ATF HQ:
"Internal ATF emails seem to suggest that ATF agents were counseled to highlight a link between criminals and certain semi-automatic weapons in order to bolster a case for a rule like the one the DOJ announced yesterday [Monday]."
Townhall has obtained the email which states "Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field Operations."
Get that, they were creating through the Gunwalker Scandal the "evidence" to achieve the political inroads on the Second Amendment that they wanted. And wasn't that the whole point of Gunwalker?
-
Must talk about Bachmann!!!!!
CHECK OUT MY LINK. FUCKING WOW!
-
Holder Lied: DOJ News Release Shows Obama Admin Approved ATF Mexico Weapons Smuggling
Salem-News.com ^ | July 10, 2011 | Tim King
Posted on July 10, 2011 9:36:15 PM EDT by Opinionatedtoday
Eric Holder gave false info. to a Congressional Committee last May about ATF operations tied to the deaths of two U.S. Agents; we have the proof.
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Special Agent Jaime Zapata from ICE both died from weapons that were sent to Mexico from the United States. There is no knowledge as to how many lives the U.S. weapons smuggling programs claimed in Mexico.
(SALEM, Ore.) - New information indicates that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's actions are squarely behind the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) operation known as "Fast and Furious", which orchestrated the delivery of almost 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels[1].
Holder openly proclaimed his connection to the operation in April 2009 during a publicized speech in Mexico, then told a Congressional Committee in May 2011, "I probably heard of Fast and Furious the first time in the last few weeks."[2]
The ATF weapons smuggling ring involved the arrest of several government officials with the city of Columbus, New Mexico including the mayor and police chief, but that is all[3].
They were apparently known from the beginning and the weapons deals with 'straw buyers' were videotaped. Smuggled U.S. weapons from this operation, described as mostly semi automatic versions of military weapons like the AK-47, were found to be used in the shooting deaths of two U.S. federal agents.
The new information, which is not really new at all, proves that Holder had to be aware of the U.S. government weapons smuggling operation planned and implemented by federal agents from ATF which he denied to Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) less than two months ago, as detailed below.
(Excerpt) Read more at salem-news.com ...
Nation of cowards.
Who cares about that. We need to worry about Marcus Bachmann's clinic.
-
Bump.
-
I can't post the pic, but a new email released by someone shows atf tried to manufacture evidence to get more gun control.
But fuck, let's discuss bachmann that evil witch.
-
I can't post the pic, but a new email released by someone shows atf tried to manufacture evidence to get more gun control.
But fuck, let's discuss bachmann that evil witch.
240: "Gee golly, I've got squirrel on me brain and dems diffeycolt topics like economiks and gunrunnering is toos hards to comprehends. Not worth talking about dude. Fox news blah blah blah Bachmann had cheerios for breakfast blah blah blah gunrunner and the economy aren't worth talking about blah blah blah Palin blah blah Bachmann's husband blah blah."
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Fast and Furious just got more interesting (July 4th meeting)
Hillbuzz ^ | July 7, 2011 | Bridget
Posted on July 14, 2011 12:05:18 AM EDT by Texas Fossil
I know I’ve been doing a lot of posting on the Fast and Furious scandal and some of you might not be as enthralled as I am with it but I think this is heading downhill quickly for the DOJ (and thus Eric Holder) and I can’t wait to see where this will all end up. It’s like a great mystery movie where you watch and watch and wait to see “who done it”. We all know “who done it” here but will they get away with it and will it eventually end up in Obama’s lap?
Breaking news out late yesterday afternoon is that Kenneth Melson, Director of the ATF, is singing like a little bird and his song isn’t exactly music to the DOJ, ATF or the FBI’s ears. Melson was scheduled to meet next week with Rep. Issa and Grassley, who are heading up the investigation by the House Oversight Committee. Next week’s meeting would also have included lawyers from the DOJ (so they could keep an eye on him and do some damage control). Instead, Melson opted to have a secret meeting with Issa and Grassley so he could say what was really on his mind….and there was a lot on his mind.
Here’s a brief little summary of things discussed in the July 4th meeting…
Melson was shocked and nauseated to discover – after the fact – that the perfectly straightforward sting operation that he was overseeing had been perverted into a policy where guns were allowed to be handed off to Mexican narco-terrorists. As soon as he discovered this, he and the rest of BATFE’s leadership of course had everyone managing F&F operations reassigned.
Melson and the rest of BATFE’s leadership of course wanted to give full disclosure to Congress over this entire sorry affair. Alas, “he said Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress.”
Issa & Grassley are talking to other sources who are backing up Melson’s testimony. That includes intimations that BATFE was not informed of certain operations being done by the DEA & the FBI concurrently. Operations where “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”.
--
So several other government agencies were also doing concurrent operations involving gun sales to Mexican thugs? Doesn’t the DOJ oversee the ATF and the DEA? Apparently the Arizona US Attorney Dennis Burke (an Obama appointee) is up to his eyeballs in the scandal because his office provided legal advice to the ATF during Fast and Furious. No matter which way you go with this fiasco….all roads lead back to the DOJ and Eric Holder.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in Holder’s office when he is discussing what the DOJ will do next.
Wouldn’t Project Gunrunner make a great movie? Starring Denzel Washington, Harrison Ford and….who else?
Impeach these thugs ASAP.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Fast And Furious Scandal: A Watergate For Obama?
IBD Editorial ^ | July 13, 2011 | Staff
Posted on July 13, 2011 7:21:30 PM EDT by Kaslin
Border: A 2-year-old video shows a high Justice official saying "the president has directed us," including the attorney general, to speed up Project Gunrunner and the offshoot that got a border agent killed.
This tape has no 18-minute gap, and while it does not feature the president himself, the March 24, 2009, video may rival the tape that turned a "third-rate burglary" into a presidential resignation. No one died at Watergate. Agent Brian Terry lost his life in the administration's obsessive pursuit of gun control.
In addition to Agent Terry, Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata was also killed in a separate incident by a weapon allowed to "walk" into Mexico from the U.S. as part of the administration's third-rate alleged attempt to track and catch gun traffickers.
The video shows Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, who would resign nine months later after less than a year's service, telling reporters at a Department of Justice briefing of major policy initiatives to fight the Mexican drug cartels.
"The president has directed us to take action to fight these cartels," Ogden begins, "and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration's comprehensive plan."
At the president's direction, Ogden said, the administration's plan included DOJ's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "increasing its efforts by adding 37 new employees in three new offices, using $10 million in Recovery Act funds and redeploying 100 personnel to the Southwest border in the next 45 days to fortify its Project Gunrunner," of which Operation Fast and Furious would be a part.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Boom
-
More than guns: 'Gunwalker' tests very legitimacy of administration's governance
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 13 July, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Posted on July 13, 2011 9:16:16 PM EDT by marktwain
This afternoon, Congressman Darrel Issa (R-CA), as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, holds the first Congressional hearing devoted specifically to the growing scandal of "Project Gunwalker." As National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea explains, this hearing is merely the beginning, with a second already scheduled for Wednesday, and more in the works. This sequence of hearings has clearly been carefully thought out, with today's laying the groundwork of establishing the administration's obligation to comply with congressional subpeonas--something it has stubborny refused to do so far. Today's hearing, at 1:00 PM Eastern, is titled "Obstruction of Justice: Does the Justice Department Have to Respond to a Lawfully Issued and Valid Congressional Subpoena?" and will be covered on C-Span.
What must not be allowed to be lost in the shuffle here--and the smart money is on "the shuffle" being, much of mass media's wishes notwithstanding, quite significant--is that what is at stake here is vastly larger than "merely" whether or not our own government deliberately facilitated the trafficking of firearms to known criminals who would use them to kill innocent citizens and loyal agents of law and order both in Mexico and the U.S. The enormity of even such an atrocity as that pales in comparison to the question of what would prompt the government to engage in such evil.
We talked recently about Congressman Issa's thoughts on that:
This is not a discovery process of what happened--we know what happened. We know that this administration, at the highest levels, approved a process that allowed thousands of high-powered weapons--basically AK-47 and M-16 look-alikes--to go to the worst of the worst on both sides of the borders, that those weapons have been used to commit crimes, and they have led to the death of federal agents on our
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
weird that some of the same sources you use are blogspot and not FOX, drudge, etc.
Same sites that gave us the birther stuff, no?
Look, I think obama and holder are dogshite guilty here, and I'd loooove to boost the 2nd amendment with a nice trial for them, follwed by 25 years in Rikers... but the fact is, until the 'legit' media picks it up, this is nothing. What are fox waiting for? Why not like there? Secret documents obtained by a blogger = not a good source dude.
-
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tampa Tribune: Federal gun investigations draw Congressional scrutiny. SSI: Tampa agents ready to come in from the cold.
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com
Howard Altman's story here.
Mr. Altman and I chatted back and forth by email before he ran with this story. I cautioned him: "Don't get caught up in what is, or isn't, Castaway. That way lies obfuscation and confusion."
At ARFcom, Nolo Contendere, who does heroic work mirroring all the news reports of the growing Gunwalker Scandal writes:
To all the agents that are wrestling with what to do, whether to become a whistle-blower or whatnot.... do it. Come forward. WE NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER. If you want, I can get you in touch with the right people, or you can go straight to Grassley/Issa's committees yourself. Do not wait, do it now. You owe it to Brian Terry. Your higher-ups WILL turn on you, and you do NOT want to be carrying the water for these people.
These sentiments, or others like them, are being repeated to Tampa agents by a variety of means and our sources say that some are even now making arrangements to come in from the cold and speak to "competent authority."
One of my DC sources tells me: "The Tampa . . . (story) can break the whole thing wide open. They just discovered that this is a multi-front war and they don't have the reserves of plausible excuses to fight it. If it was in Tampa too, it was everywhere."
Right. Now we're just waiting for the street agents in Tampa to prove they have the integrity and guts of John Dodson.
-
-
"Fast and Furious" Scandal Making Cops, Citizens Furious Fast
Right Side News ^ | 7/12/2011 | Jim Kouri
When the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report -- “The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents -- it infuriated law enforcement officers and American citizens across the country.
One police commander in New Jersey told Law Enforcement Examiner, "We need to get to the bottom of this renegade operation fast. I am furious that our government actually contributed to the killing of two American law enforcement officers -- one in the U.S., the other in Mexico."
The at times shocking report includes testimony from four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents offering firsthand accounts about the controversial Operation Fast and Furious that allowed suspects to walk away with illegally purchased guns.
The gunrunners reportedly smuggled the weapons into Mexico and the agents, who were supposed to conduct surveillance, lost track of the suspected gun smugglers and the weapons which are believed to still be in the hands of Mexican drug cartel members.
"This is a prime example of an administration that is clueless in running a law enforcement operation," said former intelligence officer and police detective Mike Snopes.
"[Attorney General Eric] Holder and his minions are being deceptive in this case claiming they were unaware of the operation," said Snopes.
Two of the approximately 2,000 guns that ATF let criminals walk away with were found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
“ATF agents have shared chilling accounts of being ordered to stand down as criminals in Arizona walked away with guns headed for Mexican drug cartels,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House committee investigating the government snafu.
“With the clinical precision of a lab experiment, the Justice Department kept records of weapons they let walk and the crime scenes where they next appeared. To the agents’ shock, preventing loss of life was not the primary concern,” said Congressman Issa.
“These agents have risked their lives working for the ATF and they’ve risked their careers by coming forward to speak the truth about a dangerous strategy that was doomed from the start,” Senator Chuck Grassley said.
“Th[is] report shows the street agents’ perspective on this risky policy to let guns walk. It should help people who are wondering what really happened during Operation Fast and Furious understand why we are continuing to investigate.”
"Transparency appears to be in short supply in the Obama Administration these days. I know that dozens of FOIA requests go unanswered and investigators seeking information usually must watch the 'Washington two-step' before seeing any progress made on their requests for information," said political strategist and attorney Mike Baker.
According to Baker, highlights of the Congressional report include:
The supervisor of Operation Fast and Furious was “jovial, if not, not giddy but just delighted about” walked guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico according to an ATF agent.
Another ATF agent told the committee about a prediction he made a year ago that “someone was going to die” and that the gun-walking operation would be the subject of a Congressional investigation.
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords created a “state of panic” within the group conducting the operation as they initially feared a “walked” gun might have been used.
One Operation Fast and Furious Agent: “I cannot see anyone who has one iota of concern for human life being okay with this …”
An ATF agent predicted to committee investigators that more deaths will occur as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.
Multiple agents told the committee that continued assertions by Department of Justice Officials that guns were not knowingly “walked” and that DOJ tried to stop their transport to Mexico are clearly untruthful.
While President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder denied knowledge of the operation, according to law enforcement sources, the rationale for the operation that went awry was that Attorney General Holder and his staff at the Justice Department wanted to show proof of his, and other Obama administration officials', statements that the majority of firearms used by Mexican drug cartels originated in the United States and are smuggled into that drug war-torn country.
"The aim is to use the violence and death south of the border to take away Americans' Second Amendment rights to own and bear arms," said former police officer Edie Aguino.
In addition, investigation into this and other actions by President Barack Obama, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Department of Justice show that they knowingly distort figures to hide from federal lawmakers, state political leaders, and the American people the rampant corruption in this nation’s immigration court system as well, according to a Beltway watchdog group.
Adding insult to injury, U.S. taxpayers finance the enormous number of court appeals filed by illegal immigrants -- through their taxpayer financed legal counsel deported -- for criminal convictions and fraudulent marriages.
The suspected pervasive corruption allows deportable aliens to evade hearings without consequences and permits more than 1 million removal orders to be ignored by the Obama Administration, say officials with Judicial Watch, a public-interest group that investigates public and political corruption.
From 2000 to 2007, Americans doled out $30 million for aliens’ court costs, according to a new report from a former immigration court judge -- Mark H. Metcalf -- in south Florida, considered a hotbed within the immigration system.
The veteran jurist says the nation’s immigration courts, which are operated by the DOJ, are ruled by deception and disorder and are at the heart of a system that nurtures scandal. About 250 overwhelmed judges preside over hundreds of thousands of cases annually and rarely are their deportation orders enforced, according to Judicial Watch.
Even after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 50% of all aliens who were free pending trial disappeared, according to figures provided in the judge’s report. Between 2005 and 2006 the number of aliens who failed to appear at their court hearing grew to 59%.
The Government Accountability Office's report on visa holders states that up to four million aliens remain in the country illegally once their visas expire.
Further, officials at Judicial watch revealed that the DOJ deceptively reported the figure as “only” 39% by combining aliens who were free pending trial with those in custody who were forced by authorities to appear in court. That allowed the so-called bail-jumpers to appear as a smaller part of a bigger overall figure.
The GAO told Congress that immigration courts rule in favor of aliens only 20% of the time when in fact its 60% and that aliens appeal deportation orders in only 8% of cases when the figure is actually 98%. Many more examples are included in the judge’s report, which refers to the DOJ’s findings and statistics as a sham.
“Accuracy, credibility, relevance, and timeliness elude this agency and the flow of believable statistics to the public,” it says. Judge Metcalf suggested that Congress order its investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an in-depth probe.
-
Gunwalker probe points to DOJ (Fast and Furious)
cbsnews.com ^ | 7/13/11 | Chris Scholl
________________________ ________________________ _______
Two Republican congressman investigating ATF's controversial "Fast and Furious" program said yesterday "senior officials at the Department of Justice" were "unquestionably aware" of the operation.
In a letter yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) demanded copies of all communications among a dozen top DOJ officials in what they called "this reckless program."
Their allegations are among the most serious yet in the unfolding gunwalker scandal, in which ATF allowed thousands of weapons to be smuggled south of the border directly into the hands of the drug cartels.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
-
What do you realistically think will happen as a result of this inquiry? I get the feeling you are thinking Holder and Obama will somehow be held responsible..
-
What do you realistically think will happen as a result of this inquiry? I get the feeling you are thinking Holder and Obama will somehow be held responsible..
they won't be... just doesn't happen. presidents do whatever the #$@#&^ they want, and they get away with it. You can probably cite examples of illegal shit done by every president for the last 30 years. Even Nixon, caught red handed, wasn't prosecuted because it was bad for the country to prosecute a president.
obama and holder walk on this... if you don't like it, go back in time and complain about the other presidents first. Accepting their BS just gave obama the green light to do the same.
-
they won't be... just doesn't happen. presidents do whatever the #$@#&^ they want, and they get away with it. You can probably cite examples of illegal shit done by every president for the last 30 years. Even Nixon, caught red handed, wasn't prosecuted because it was bad for the country to prosecute a president.
obama and holder walk on this... if you don't like it, go back in time and complain about the other presidents first. Accepting their BS just gave obama the green light to do the same.
Disagree - I predict Holder steps down at least and obama is dogged on this for years once a special prosecutor is appointed.
-
Disagree - I predict Holder steps down at least and obama is dogged on this for years once a special prosecutor is appointed.
'dogged for years' isn't that big a deal. Nothing sexy about this scandal. no BJs with blue dresses. Drudge is making fun of Barry for pouting, and FOX news is making fun of extinct coloring books, a supermodel story, and Obama drama.
Until 'the media" gives a shit, this ain't watergate, bro.
-
they won't be... just doesn't happen. presidents do whatever the #$@#&^ they want, and they get away with it. You can probably cite examples of illegal shit done by every president for the last 30 years. Even Nixon, caught red handed, wasn't prosecuted because it was bad for the country to prosecute a president.
obama and holder walk on this... if you don't like it, go back in time and complain about the other presidents first. Accepting their BS just gave obama the green light to do the same.
Just asking because of the intensity of the updates and statements which seem to say that this is going to rock the nation, heads are going to roll etc etc.
-
'dogged for years' isn't that big a deal. Nothing sexy about this scandal. no BJs with blue dresses. Drudge is making fun of Barry for pouting, and FOX news is making fun of extinct coloring books, a supermodel story, and Obama drama.
Until 'the media" gives a shit, this ain't watergate, bro.
::) ::)
Yeah who cares if hundreds die as a result of you cult leaders' bs?
-
Just asking because of the intensity of the updates and statements which seem to say that this is going to rock the nation, heads are going to roll etc etc.
and every day that passes - we learn more, and more, and more, and more, and more,
Issa and Grassley are doing this perfectly.
-
Disagree - I predict Holder steps down at least and obama is dogged on this for years once a special prosecutor is appointed.
I would be surprised.
-
::) ::)
Yeah who cares if hundreds die as a result of you cult leaders' bs?
oh, are we now debating morals? move to religious board please.
-
oh, are we now debating morals? move to religious board please.
No, its people like you who make me fucking sick. you could care less what your messiah and cum sock does.
-
No, its people like you who make me fucking sick. you could care less what your messiah and cum sock does.
i've said obama/holder belong in prison for this.
i've also said that it's business as usual, i predict they'll get away with it.
the only thing we're arguing about now is... "240 doesn't care enough". ???
i've said the dude belongs in prison. I've said he'll get away with it. Doesn't make it right. Real life ain't always right/wrong... bad guys get away with shit in real life, homie.
-
i've said obama/holder belong in prison for this.
i've also said that it's business as usual, i predict they'll get away with it.
the only thing we're arguing about now is... "240 doesn't care enough". ???
i've said the dude belongs in prison. I've said he'll get away with it. Doesn't make it right. Real life ain't always right/wrong... bad guys get away with shit in real life, homie.
The only reason he will get away with these murders and deaths is because more people like yourself shrug your shoulders and never say a peep to your reps.
-
The only reason he will get away with these murders and deaths is because more people like yourself shrug your shoulders and never say a peep to your reps.
do you really think our reps do anything but follow marching orders?
-
do you really think our reps do anything but follow marching orders?
If there is enough pressure? Yes.
-
Crazy story. Seems akin to when Police let drug dealers walk to monitor where they are getting their drugs from. Can take years and lots of lives lost to addiction before they even make a move.
The story should be about changing the way police go about seeking justice. It is too much about big fish and not enough about catching criminals. Sadly it can lead to things like this - two dead Americans.
-
Crazy story. Seems akin to when Police let drug dealers walk to monitor where they are getting their drugs from. Can take years and lots of lives lost to addiction before they even make a move.
The story should be about changing the way police go about seeking justice. It is too much about big fish and not enough about catching criminals. Sadly it can lead to things like this - two dead Americans.
Mexico is now saying hundreds dead, and ATF still has no idea where thousands of rifles are.
-
Mexico is now saying hundreds dead, and ATF still has no idea where thousands of rifles are.
I guess it started out thinking it could track everything and it would be an easy bust, follow the gun and you get your man. Not the case in the seedy underworld of third world countries. This would make a great work of fiction.
Perhaps the ATF should 'chip' the rifles they intend to sell or make them explode on the user. Then set up a sign saying "free guns".
-
I guess it started out thinking it could track everything and it would be an easy bust, follow the gun and you get your man. Not the case in the seedy underworld of third world countries. This would make a great work of fiction.
Perhaps the ATF should 'chip' the rifles they intend to sell or make them explode on the user. Then set up a sign saying "free guns".
The worst part is that gun dealers notified the ATF of some of these scumbags and the ATF forced the dealers to go forward with the sales based on promises that the straw purchasers would be arrested.
The straw purchasers were never arrested and many of these guns ended up at crime scenes.
And seriously - without a GPS device - h0w exactly could they possibly trace these weapons.
Another thing - ok -the guns got sold by the dealers at ATF request - but how did they get over the border?
Did customs look the other way? Were the walked over the border?
-
The worst part is that gun dealers notified the ATF of some of these scumbags and the ATF forced the dealers to go forward with the sales based on promises that the straw purchasers would be arrested.
The straw purchasers were never arrested and many of these guns ended up at crime scenes.
And seriously - without a GPS device - h0w exactly could they possibly trace these weapons.
Another thing - ok -the guns got sold by the dealers at ATF request - but how did they get over the border?
Did customs look the other way? Were the walked over the border?
I would imagine if they can smuggle millions of tons of drugs across, not to mention people, they could smuggle a few AK's.
My guess would be they hoped they would be able to follow the buyer of the weapons and see him off sell in the United States. Or maybe they intended them to be used in Mexico and see how far down they would get and to which gangs. That way they could draw up a map so to speak, showing who the guns are getting to and from which buyers from the gun stores. Hoping perhaps to gain some traction in the war on drugs. Not a very responsible mode of going about it.
-
I would imagine if they can smuggle millions of tons of drugs across, not to mention people, they could smuggle a few AK's.
My guess would be they hoped they would be able to follow the buyer of the weapons and see him off sell in the United States. Or maybe they intended them to be used in Mexico and see how far down they would get and to which gangs. That way they could draw up a map so to speak, showing who the guns are getting to and from which buyers from the gun stores. Hoping perhaps to gain some traction in the war on drugs. Not a very responsible mode of going about it.
Did they think the guns would never be used? LOL.
-
Did they think the guns would never be used? LOL.
I think they did 100% but i think they thought they would be used in Mexico on Mexicans and that would be how they traced them. From dead gangsters and innocents in Mexico.
-
Did Operation Fast and Furious have a Tampa twin, Operation Castaway?
http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/13/did-operation-fast-and-furious-have-a-tampa-twin-operation-castaway/ ^
________________________ ___________________
Republican lawmakers are alleging that Operation Fast and Furious may have had a twin in Tampa: Operation Castaway.
The new revelations have come to light as Florida Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis fired off a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and acting ATF Director Ken Melson asking them for answers about the newly discovered program.
“In recent days, it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ have participated in the act of ‘gun walking’ beyond the acts conducted within the scope of ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’” Bilirakis wrote to Holder and Melson.
“Recent reports have suggested that Project Gunrunner may not have been limited to weapons trafficking to Mexico and that similar programs included the possible trafficking of arms to criminal gangs in Honduras with the knowledge of the ATF’s Tampa Field Division and the Department of Justice’s Middle District of Florida through an operation known as ‘Operation Castaway,’” the letter read.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
why won't FOX, drudge, or other right-wing media outlets make a big deal out of this story?
-
why won't FOX, drudge, or other right-wing media outlets make a big deal out of this story?
Fox has been on it somewhat. Drudge? No clue at all.
-
Fox has been on it somewhat. Drudge? No clue at all.
if this is "bigger than watergate", you'd think they'd be all over it.
FOX wants to talk about Clemens mistrial. A retired baseball player's perjury trial is more important than the leader of the free world feeding thousands of assault rifles to drug cartels? LOL maybe the RW media isn't your friend either, 33...
-
if this is "bigger than watergate", you'd think they'd be all over it.
FOX wants to talk about Clemens mistrial. A retired baseball player's perjury trial is more important than the leader of the free world feeding thousands of assault rifles to drug cartels? LOL maybe the RW media isn't your friend either, 33...
Fox News is horrible.
personally, I think the news stations are scared to death of this story since it would collapse the entire govt.
-
It's not watergate. The ATF is desperate. Desperate for a win in the war in drugs and so is the DOJ. They'll try anything once or twice, or thrice...
-
It's not watergate. The ATF is desperate. Desperate for a win in the war in drugs and so is the DOJ. They'll try anything once or twice, or thrice...
This goes to at least holder, and according to the Ass. AG. to Obama himself.
-
Fox News is horrible.
personally, I think the news stations are scared to death of this story since it would collapse the entire govt.
HAHAHAHA!!...oh wait..you were serious.....
-
I think the news stations are scared to death of this story since it would collapse the entire govt.
Really?
-
Gunwalker: Justice Department Tampering with Witnesses?
Pajamas Media ^ | July 14, 2011 | Patrick Richardson
________________________ ________________________ _________________
Darrell Issa and Charles Grassley demand to know about contact DOJ has had with committee witnesses. Also, a source tells PJM: DOJ has picked a new fall guy to target after they failed to topple ATF Director Ken Melson.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-IA), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, have fired off another pair of letters to Attorney General Eric Holder as part of their investigation into the Operation Fast and Furious debacle, which has claimed the lives of at least two American law enforcement agents and a reported 150 Mexican nationals.
In one letter, Issa and Grassley note that the Department of Justice has been providing information about the program to committee witnesses — which implies tampering. The other letter names DOJ officials who knew about the operation.
Per the tampering letter:
We have recently learned that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATF) has afforded potential witnesses for the Committees’ investigation into Operation Fast and Furious access to a shared drive on its computer system replete with pertinent investigative documents, including official ATF emails. Although, our staff has been advised the Department has since terminated access to this document cache, we write to seek additional information relating to this egregious decision. We also ask that you promptly self-report this matter to the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
As we understand it, the shared drive contains the documents that have been produced to the Committees through the course of our investigation, those made available for in camera review and possibly documents that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has not yet provided to the Committee. These witnesses had not previously seen many of these documents.
Allowing witnesses access to such documents could taint their testimony by allowing them to tailor their responses to what they think the Committees already know. Additionally, witnesses who gain access to documents they have not previously seen could alter their recollection of events. This practice harms not only our investigation, but also the independent investigation that you instructed the Inspector General to conduct.
In other words: the DOJ was either trying to make sure witness stories are consistent with DOJ talking points, or they were going through the back door to make sure everyone who was testifying was on the same page. Either would likely get the average citizen slapped with an obstruction or witness tampering charge in a state or federal court.
The hypocrisy here is egregious. According to the letter, on May 5 of this year an associate deputy attorney general expressed concern the committee “might allow witnesses exposure to documents they had not previously seen”:
To the extent that you nevertheless plan to interview our trial witnesses prior to trial, we would appreciate you taking the following steps to help reduce the risk of harm to the case that could arise from such interviews. First … we ask that you not show the witnesses new documents, as exposing the witnesses to facts that are not already within their personal knowledge may contaminate their recall of events. Second, for the same reasons, we ask that you not orally convey facts to the witness of which the witness was previously unaware.
DOJ did exactly what they asked Issa’s committee not to do.
Issa and Grassley demanded the following by July 18:
1. Identify which ATF and DOJ employees had access to this shared drive.
2. Provide a log of documents and the date each document was posted to the shared drive.
3. Provide a log of any other documents relating to this investigation, not on the shared drive, to which these employees had access.
4. Provide the dates for which these employees had access to the shared drive.
5. Identify those employees who still have access to this information.
The other letter sent to Holder names the people the committee says it knows for a fact had knowledge about Operation Fast and Furious. Of the 12 names on the list, there are a couple of particular interest. One is Lanny Breuer, former special counsel to President Bill Clinton and current assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division. Another is Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco.
PJMedia has heard from sources that since DOJ’s attempt to make Acting ATF Director Ken Melson the fall guy failed when he turned King’s Evidence, DOJ is now planning to make Blanco the sacrificial lamb.
A third name of extreme interest: Gary Grindler, Eric Holder’s chief of staff.
It’s a bit difficult to believe that Holder’s chief of staff knew about this operation, but Holder didn’t.
Issa and Grassley are demanding all communications records between the 12 relating to Operation Fast and Furious.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Holder to claim — as he has all along – that he didn’t know about the operation until it blew up in his face. Issa and Grassley must keep pounding away until the guilty parties are hauled before a federal grand jury – the country owes Brian Terry and Jamie Zapata nothing less.
ALSO READ:Gunwalker: Smoking Gun Email?
Patrick Richardson is a 12 year veteran of the community newspaper business. He is that rare bird, the conservative journalist. Living his whole life in Kansas, he has come to appreciate the conservative values of hard work, honesty and honor. Patrick blogs at View from Flyover Country.
-
This goes to at least holder, and according to the Ass. AG. to Obama himself.
Maybe it goes to Holder. Even then who knows if he understood the full scope of what was happening. In fact i doubt very much that he did and you would not find evidence to the contrary other than hearsay.
That is why no one is picking up this story. Once again you have let the hyperbole blind you. I have yet to see any evidence where Obama specifically addressed this and was 100% in the know.
-
Maybe it goes to Holder. Even then who knows if he understood the full scope of what was happening. In fact i doubt very much that he did and you would not find evidence to the contrary other than hearsay.
That is why no one is picking up this story. Once again you have let the hyperbole blind you. I have yet to see any evidence where Obama specifically addressed this and was 100% in the know.
did you watch the clip form the Ass. AG from 2009?
-
did you watch the clip form the Ass. AG from 2009?
Haven't seen it and frankly don't care. To me this reeks of police ignorance and desperation. Nothing more.
-
Haven't seen it and frankly don't care. To me this reeks of police ignorance and desperation. Nothing more.
Wrong - they were following the orders directly from obama/holder.
-
Maybe it goes to Holder. Even then who knows if he understood the full scope of what was happening. In fact i doubt very much that he did and you would not find evidence to the contrary other than hearsay.
That is why no one is picking up this story. Once again you have let the hyperbole blind you. I have yet to see any evidence where Obama specifically addressed this and was 100% in the know.
Its holders job to fully understand the scope of the operation, incompetence is not an acceptable answer. So far we have the assistant attorney general specifically saying under the direction of the POTUS and mentioning operation gun runner in the same press conference. So is the POTUS responsible for the people he puts into positions of power? What ever happened to the buck stops here?
Why would Obama address this 100%? Its easier to get your minions out there and deflect culpability to someone else. No one in this administration is going to say or admit anything until they have no other choice.
The fact of the matter is guns were knowingly sent into Mexico, which has resulted in deaths on both sides of the border. We also know that the DOJ is stone walling the investigation, sending redacted documents..... to the congressional oversight committee. Now we are finding out that there are multiple of these types of operations going on. Did all the field office's go rogue at the same time? Just coincidence?
-
By Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Add lying to Congress about his Justice Department's "Operation Fast and Furious" scandal to the reasons why Eric Holder must be fired as U.S. attorney general.
The idiocy of Fast and Furious -- an attempt by Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to link illegally sold guns with Mexican drug cartels -- became gravely clear when two such rifles were found at the scene of a Border Patrol agent's December murder.
Mr. Holder mentioned Fast and Furious essentials at an anti-arms-smuggling symposium in Mexico in April 2009. Last September, a Justice document referenced such efforts -- which received a quarter of the Obama stimulus package's special law-enforcement appropriations, followed by even more funding from the administration.
Yet Holder testified on May 3 before the House Judiciary Committee that he'd "probably" learned of Fast and Furious in "the last few weeks" -- a dishonest reply to questioning by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. The congressman has been doggedly pursuing Fast and Furious truth through the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which he chairs.
An attorney general who perjures himself before Congress has no business being America's chief law enforcement officer.
Read more: Holder's lies - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_746568.html##ixzz1S7PRvihO
-
Gunwalker: Smoking Gun Email?
Pajamas Media ^ | July 13, 2011 | Patrick Richardson
________________________ ________________________ _______________
An internal ATF email seems to support the assertion that Fast and Furious was a PR stunt for gun control.
PJM’s Bob Owens has long speculated that the primary reason for Operation Fast and Furious was to perpetuate the lie that 90 percent of illegal firearms in Mexico were from the United States.
Owens’ assertion was buoyed on Wednesday by internal ATF emails obtained by Townhall.com. One email reads:
Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field Operations.
This would seem to be a “smoking gun” for Owens’ assertion that this operation was never about crime and always about an “under the table” effort to institute the gun control Obama knew he could never push through Congress.
Additionally, Obama has just issued an executive order which requires gun dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California to report multiple long gun (rifle or shotgun) purchases to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in order to combat illegal firearms trafficking along the Mexican border.
The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action fired back at President Obama’s order. Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA-ILA, said they will be filing a lawsuit against the new order the first time ATF tries to enforce it. He noted that criminals generally don’t fill out forms:
$40 billion transnational criminal enterprises don’t fill out paperwork and are not deterred by paperwork violations. This is a blatant effort by the Obama administration and ATF to divert focus of Congress and the general public from their gross incompetence in the Fast and Furious scandal. This scheme will unjustly burden law-abiding retailers in border states. It will not affect drug cartels and it won’t prevent violence along our borders. ATF and the administration lack the statutory authority to do this and the NRA will file suit as soon as ATF sends the first demand letters.
Obama’s order is awash in hypocrisy per the details of the Gunwalker scandal. It was the ATF which ordered gun dealers to make multiple sales of military-style and .50 caliber sniper rifles to known and suspected straw purchasers in the Operation Fast and Furious debacle, in which more than 2,500 weapons were allowed to walk across the border by the ATF. The dealers were already reporting multiple long gun sales and the ATF told them to make the sales anyway.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform who has been investigating the mess form the beginning, said the executive order was about politics:
This political maneuver seems designed to protect the careers of political appointees at the Justice Department and not public safety. It’s disconcerting that Justice Department officials who may have known about or tried to cover-up gunwalking in Operation Fast and Furious are continuing attempts to distract attention from clear wrongdoing. In Operation Fast and Furious, gun dealers didn’t need this regulation as they voluntarily provided ATF agents with information about suspected straw purchasers. In return for this voluntary cooperation, the Justice Department betrayed them by offering false assurances that they would closely monitor sales of weapons that dealers otherwise did not want to make.
Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-IA), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was equally outraged by the executive order:
We’ve learned from our investigation of Fast and Furious that reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions. In fact, in just the documents we’ve obtained, we are aware of 150 multiple long gun sales associated with the ATF’s Fast and Furious case, and despite the fact that nearly all of these sales were reported in real time by cooperating gun dealers, the ATF watched the guns be transported from known straw purchasers to third parties and then let the guns walk away, often across the border. This makes it pretty clear that the problem isn’t lack of burdensome reporting requirements. The administration’s continued overreach with regulations continues, and is a distraction from its reckless policy to allow guns to walk into Mexico.
Two U.S. law enforcement agents are dead because of this operation, and a reported 150 Mexican citizens are as well. Additionally, the guns are now showing up in U.S. crimes.
-
Maybe it goes to Holder. Even then who knows if he understood the full scope of what was happening. In fact i doubt very much that he did and you would not find evidence to the contrary other than hearsay.
That is why no one is picking up this story. Once again you have let the hyperbole blind you. I have yet to see any evidence where Obama specifically addressed this and was 100% in the know.
So you're saying Holder is completely incompetent and has no control over his own department. Guess what, he should still be canned then.
Are you completely incapable of not sucking liberal dick for 5 minutes? You are easily one of the most partisan posters on this forum. Shameful.
-
Should we merge all these together as a "Outragious examples of politicians and government officials who did stupid, perhaps criminal and likely unethical things, but once again got away with it" thread?
-
BB - can you merge this in the main Gunrunner thread?
Done.
-
Media & Congress Still Missing the Big Legal Point of the Gunwalker Scandal: it was a conspiracy
sipsey street irregulars ^ | June 22, 2011 | Retired fellow
Posted on July 14, 2011 7:59:06 PM EDT by Nachum
Hillary. Conspiring to violate the laws she swore to uphold. What did she know and when did she know it?
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a set of United States government regulations that control the export and import of defense-related articles and services on the United States Munitions List (USML). These regulations implement the provisions of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), and are described in Title 22 (Foreign Relations), Chapter I (Department of State), Subchapter M of the Code of Federal Regulations. The Department of State interprets and enforces ITAR. Its goal is to safeguard U.S. national security and further U.S. foreign policy objectives.
For practical purposes, ITAR regulations dictate that information and material pertaining to defense and military related technologies (for items listed on the U.S. Munitions List) may only be shared with U.S. Persons unless authorization from the Department of State is received or a special exemption is used. U.S. Persons (including organizations) can face heavy fines if they have, without authorization or the use of an exemption, provided foreign (non-US) persons with access to ITAR-protected defense articles, services or technical data. . .
All U.S. manufacturers, exporters, and brokers of defense articles, defense services, or related technical data, as defined on the USML, are required to register with U.S. Department of State. Registration is primarily a means to provide the U.S. Government with necessary information on who is involved in certain manufacturing and exporting activities. Registration does not confer any export rights or privileges, but is a precondition for the issuance of any license or other approval for export. Registration fees start at USD $2,250 per year.
Under ITAR, a “US person” who wants to export USML items to a “foreign person” must obtain authorization from the U.S. Department
(Excerpt) Read more at sipseystreetirregulars.b logspot.com ...
-
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/will-gunwalker-export-violations-bust-criminal-investigation-wide-open
Oh boy.
-
FOX new doesn't mention obama in their article. Probably cause they're scared it'll collapse the entire govt.
-
ATF Florida Gun Probe Earns Congressional Scrutiny in Wake of 'Fast and Furious'
Fox News ^ | 07/14/2011 | Fox News
Posted on July 14, 2011 8:20:14 PM EDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
Several lawmakers are questioning the Obama administration about whether the controversial "Fast and Furious" gunrunning probe may have had a cousin in Florida that resulted in guns being trafficked to Central America.
Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., penned a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson inquiring about a program known as "Operation Castaway." Other top lawmakers are also starting to look into it, though ATF claims the program was above board and not similar to Operation Fast and Furious at all.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Mexican newspaper Excelsior interviews me on the Phoenix, Tampa & Houston components (gunwalker)
sipseystreetirregulars ^ | 13 July, 2011 | Mike Vanderboegh
Posted on July 14, 2011 9:05:18 PM EDT by marktwain
Mexican newspaper Excelsior interviews me on the Phoenix, Tampa & Houston components of Project Gunwalker. Our guesstimate of walked firearms: 5000
Translation:
Excelsior July 8, 2011
Houston and Tampa Source of Other Contraband, They Affirm
More Agents Assert that There Are More Like Fast and Furious
The Link from the Congress to the BATF Informants Could Get to the Crime of Another 3000 Guns
Sidebar: Fast and Furious was in Arizona; another like it whose name is still unknown, was directed from the Houston field office of the BATF. Mike Vanderboegh, activist
By Carmen Alvarez
Operation Fast and Furious which was operated from Phoenix, Arizona, is only a part of the scandal – there have been other similar operations run from Houston which allowed as many as 3,000 guns to walk.
“Both operations combined account for more than 5,000 guns that ended up in the hands of Mexican criminals,” Mike Vanderboegh told Excelsior who helped get whistleblowers of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) in touch with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Fast and Furious was in Arizona; another operation whose name is still unknown was directed from the Field Division of BATF in Houston. Another one, (possibly) called Castaway, was operated from Tampa, Florida and let guns walk to Honduras which later ended up at crime scenes in Mexico and other countries,” he added by means of telephone from the south of the United States.
Vanderboegh, who together with his colleague David Codrea, made public the accusations of BATF agents regarding how their superiors required them to disobey their duty to intercept the guns that ended up in criminal hands in Mexico. He believes that this would not have been possible without authorization from the highest levels of the U.S. government.
“This whole affair demonstrates that Project 'Gunwalker' (Gunrunner) the antecedent of operations such as Fast and Furious and Castaway (Tampa) were part of a national strategy, and that the Field Division of the BATF in Houston incidents which occurred in Dallas and in Columbus, New Mexico, and not the Phoenix Division,” he added.
“Many people died because of the guns allowed to walk into Mexico because those who made these decisions about these operations decided to keep the Mexican government in the dark,” he said.
The affair came to light in the Texas press and in the Washington Post where it was revealed that 115 guns confiscated from the cartels did not come from Phoenix, Arizona as did the over 2000 guns from Fast and Furious, but from Texas. The publication myfoxhouston.com also carried the news.
“After that, a curtain of silence has come down in the United States,” added the citizen-journalist and activist who bumped into Project Gunwalker when he was pursuing another BATF scandal.
Dick Deguerin, the lawyer for the chain of gun stores, Carter’s Country in Houston, told Excelsior via telephone from Houston that this firm and some of his [other?] clients informed BATF of suspicious purchasers who obtained numerous assault rifles, 9mm revolvers (sic), and AK-47 rifles who paid cash, and the only thing that happened was that the authorities came back on the stores in order to blame them.
“What happened was that operations such as Fast and Furious failed miserably because the only thing they succeeded in doing was to lose the trail of the arms that were sold legally in the United States later taken to Mexico. It was a complete failure by the BATF,’ said Deguerin.
The lawyer explained that the BATF asked his client, the owner of Carter’s Country, that he cooperate by giving information to them about the operation of suspicious sales and that he continue selling guns to Hispanics who bought high-power guns and paid cash.
“My client cooperated, but BATF took all the information my client got and we never knew what they did with it,” he added.
TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; History; Poetry; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: atf; banglist; castaway; dea; doj; excelsior; fastandfurious; fbi; gunrunner; gunwalker; holder; mexico; Click to Add Keyword
Your loyal support makes Free Republic possible. Thank you very much!!
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
If links of gunwalking prove out from Texas and Florida, the whole thing cannot be covered up as a "rogue operation".
1 posted on July 14, 2011 9:05:23 PM EDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
Gunwalker ping.
2 posted on July 14, 2011 9:06:54 PM EDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: marktwain
He is wrong. The operation is not a failure. It did EXACTLY what Obastard wanted it to do, increase the number of guns found in Mexico traceable back to the US so that he could claim that there was a “problem” with our gun laws.
3 posted on July 14, 2011 9:23:53 PM EDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: vette6387; MetaThought; 60Gunner; XHogPilot; FreedomPoster; Josephat; Prince of Space; ...
FOR REFERENCE:
4 posted on July 14, 2011 9:28:59 PM EDT by MestaMachine (Guns don't kill people, the obama administration does. (Gunwalker Ping List))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
You’re busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest!
5 posted on July 14, 2011 9:31:03 PM EDT by Tijeras_Slim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Tijeras_Slim
This thing is growing like the blob, and STILL the lsm stays silent.
6 posted on July 14, 2011 9:35:19 PM EDT by MestaMachine (Guns don't kill people, the obama administration does. (Gunwalker Ping List))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
Keep at it, we got Rather.
7 posted on July 14, 2011 9:39:28 PM EDT by Tijeras_Slim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Blood of Tyrants; MestaMachine
“Gun laws” is an oxymoron.
8 posted on July 14, 2011 10:33:47 PM EDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: marktwain
If you look at the timeline of Fast and Furious alone it would be difficult to dismiss it as a rogue operation.
Gun-Running Timeline: How DOJ’s ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ Unfolded
October 2009: The ATF’s Phoenix Field Division establishes a gun trafficking group called Group VII. Group VII initially began using the strategy of “gunwalking,” or allowing suspects to walk away with illegally purchased guns, according to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the staff of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The purpose was to wait and watch, in hope that law enforcement could identify other members of a trafficking network and build a large, complex conspiracy case,” the report says. It goes on to say: “Group VII initially began using the new gunwalking tactics in one of its investigations to further the Department’s strategy. The case was soon renamed ‘Operation Fast and Furious.’”
According to the congressional report, the ATF had known that most of the indicted straw purchasers were in fact straw purchasers before Operation Fast and Furious began.
-
'Gunwalking' to forcible citizen disarmament tyranny--compelling new evidence
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 14 July, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Posted on July 15, 2011 7:18:48 AM EDT by marktwain
Some in the gun rights advocacy community don't buy the official story, that "Project Gunwalker" was intended, through some "underpants gnome"-like magical mechanism, to "bring down a drug cartel." We believe instead that the real motive was to pad statistics which would then be used to bolster the foundering "U.S. commercial gun market is arming Mexican drug cartels" myth. In taking that position, we have opened ourselves up to the ridicule of such journalistic luminaries as Media Matters and Jon Stewart, who apparently really do believe both that senior government officials are stupidly incompetent enough to take such a harebrained approach to combating drug war violence, and that such massive incompetence isn't a pretty dire indictment of the current government.
In light of some new evidence released by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), Media Matters and Stewart would seem to have some serious new work to do in patching up the "underpants gnome" defense. That new evidence comes in the form of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) emails related to Operation Fast and Furious, that Congressmen Issa and Grassley have obtained in their "Gunwalker" investigation, and attached to a letter (thank you, Bob Owens) they sent to Attorney General Holder Tuesday.
We'll look at a couple of those emails, both from BATFE Assistant Director for Field Operations Mark Chait, to William "Gunwalker Bill" Newell (at that time Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix field division, where Operation Fast and Furious was implemented). First, this one, sent one year ago today:
Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
FOX new doesn't mention obama in their article. Probably cause they're scared it'll collapse the entire govt.
I'm curious to see what the collapes of our entire government would look like.. Hard to believe we may be on the precipice's of that...I'm frankly a little scared right now.
-
I'm curious to see what the collapes of our entire government would look like.. Hard to believe we may be on the precipice's of that...I'm frankly a little scared right now.
The networks are scared of it too. It's why they're all ignoring the story.
-
The networks are scared of it too. It's why they're all ignoring the story.
That has to be it... Based on the massive articles here, it is obvious that Obama likely carried weapons across himself, or at the very least, sanctioned it personally. I know my Chief personally sanctions every operation every unit in the department does... I'm sure the President is briefed on every operation every branch of the government does on a regular basis.
-
That has to be it... Based on the massive articles here, it is obvious that Obama likely carried weapons across himself
agreed.
we'll have confirmation once obamasucksdonkeyballs.bl ogspot.com makes a post on it.
-
That has to be it... Based on the massive articles here, it is obvious that Obama likely carried weapons across himself, or at the very least, sanctioned it personally. I know my Chief personally sanctions every operation every unit in the department does... I'm sure the President is briefed on every operation every branch of the government does on a regular basis.
Funny - like most others too stupid and ignorant on this topic - I guess you did not see the clip of the AGG saying that this whole treasonous scam was at the behest of obama. But its cool - stay in the dark.
-
Funny - like most others too stupid and ignorant on this topic - I guess you did not see the clip of the AGG saying that this whole treasonous scam was at the behest of obama. But its cool - stay in the dark.
which one of the 41 clips was it in? I'll review it
-
which one of the 41 clips was it in? I'll review it
watch them all. it's in there.
-
which one of the 41 clips was it in? I'll review it
Case closed.
-
Bump for KC, Agnotisic, any other deluded nut thinking this does not go directly to obama.
-
Case closed.
Hardly...
1. Operation Gunnrunner and Operation Gunwalker, same thing?
2. The President directed them to take action to fight the cartels....... That sounds like a good thing. Just like a Chief directing Highway enforcement unit to decrease unsafe trucks on the interstate. He lets the Commanders and Lieutenants figure out the how..
3. 9 people working with the mexican govt to facilitate gun tracing...... pretty benign broad statement.
I understand you are a lawyer... using that video, you would be hard pressed to make a case against the President for allowing guns to be illegally purchased and allowed to cross the border.
-
You really are unbelievable. Couple this with Holders' speech in 2009, Melsons' testimony that it was DOJ in charge of this, not ATf, etc, and you can make uop your own mind.
Not to mention the fact that the Tampa ATF did exactly the same thing as the AZ ATF at the behest of DOJ and you dont see what is going on?
-
You really are unbelievable. Couple this with Holders' speech in 2009, Melsons' testimony that it was DOJ in charge of this, not ATf, etc, and you can make uop your own mind.
Not to mention the fact that the Tampa ATF did exactly the same thing as the AZ ATF at the behest of DOJ and you dont see what is going on?
Well, I'm probably just dense. I'm sure it will be super clear to everyone else and heads will roll...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
More ‘Gunwalker’ Emails Suggest Gun-Control Conspiracy
pajamasmedia.com ^ | 15 July, 2011 | Bob Owen
Posted on July 15, 2011 9:37:51 PM EDT by marktwain
A Washington Times editorial notes that Operation Fast and Furious was “too fast, too furious,” as the gunrunning scandal continues to widen.
It was bad enough that more than a half-dozen director-level law enforcement officials and an unknown number of supervisors and managers acquiesced to a plot that armed cartels with more than 2,000 weapons in ATF’s Phoenix Field Operations area. But saying that a combination of groupthink, stupidity, and institutional inertia is to blame for this fiasco is giving dozens of federal law enforcement officers across multiple agencies the benefit of the doubt that they are merely criminally incompetent.
The increasingly more plausible motivation: political appointees of the current administration concocted a scheme to destabilize a friendly government to restore the flagging anti-gun movement.
That scenario would have seemed paranoid just weeks ago, but new evidence appearing almost daily indicates that the “Fast and Furious” scandal based in Arizona may be just one part of a much wider campaign by multiple government agencies acting well beyond the law.
Recent developments indicate that in addition to Fast and Furious in Arizona, another gunrunning operation was headquartered in ATF’s Tampa Field Operations area. It allowed roughly 1,000 firearms to be smuggled to the ultra-violent MS-13 gang in Honduras.
Evidence also suggests that similar multi-agency programs exist in both the Houston and Dallas Field Operations areas covering all of Texas and Oklahoma.
Taken together, this suggests that we are not dealing with an isolated incident, but an ambitious and insidious attempt by the highest levels of a rogue government to reshape our world by any means necessary.
Katie Pavlich broke the story yesterday of a ”smoking gun” email between ATF officials: Mark R Chait, assistant director for field operations with the ATF, copied ATF deputy assistant director for field operations on an email to William Newell, the special agent in charge (SAC) of the Phoenix Field Division:
Bill – Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a letter on long gun multiple sales.
Chait was asking Newell to use tracing data to support an initiative supported by the administration to require the reporting of multiple rifle sales.
If that sounds familiar, it should; this week, President Obama pushed an executive order — an end-run around Congress – stating the feds will now require the reporting of multiple rifle sales within a five-day period. That the office of the presidency lacks the constitutional authority to enact such a rule seems irrelevant to this administration, which is certain to see this edict challenged in court if the ATF attempts to enforce it.
Even more damning: the existence of more emails that confirm these same ATF officials and others were colluding to use the Operation “Fast and Furious” guns that they helped smuggle into Mexico as a pretext for the new reporting regulation.
Congressman Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley continue to unravel this plot. Along with the emails proving that the ATF was using “walked” guns to justify stricter gun laws, they sent a letter to embattled Attorney General Eric Holder asking the following:
1. Is there any other evidence suggesting that ATF of DOJ officials discussed how Operation Fast and Furious could be used to justify additional regulatory authorities for the ATF? IF so, are there any such indications prior to July 14, 2010?
2. Rather than collecting additional information on law-abiding gun owners, what steps have you taken to ensure that the ATF is better able to act on the information it already possesses to interdict the flow of firearms to criminals?
If most of the claims regarding this scandal are substantiated — and developing evidence certainly indicates a high likelihood of that happening — we face a watershed moment in American history.
Every component of federal law enforcement within the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security — and most likely with the knowledge of the Department of State — undertook a massive operation designed to facilitate the flow of thousands of weapons into the hands of some of the most vicious criminal organizations on Earth. These operations likely took place with the full knowledge of cabinet level officials, and possibly the White House. The weapons “walked” were used to gun down innocent men, women, and children, not to mention the brave police officers and soldiers in each nation trying to wage peace.
It demands a criminal investigation and the possible RICO prosecution of dozens of federal law enforcement officers, supervisors, senior management, political appointees, and possibly elected officials.
Our federal law enforcement apparatus became a criminal conspiracy. This was an assault on the democratic rule of law and the very essence of our republic.
-
Obfuscation: Dems Push Gun Control To Hide ‘Gunwalker’ Scandal
Pajamas Media ^ | July 16, 2011 | Bob Owens
Posted on July 16, 2011 11:51:56 AM EDT by Kaslin
They choose a pivotal moment in the Gunwalker investigation to announce a gun-control bill.
A handful of Democratic lawmakers in Congress and a fish cop held a press conference Friday to announce a new gun control proposal, the “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act.” The proposed law has no chance of passing, and seems orchestrated as a Democratic response meant to draw attention away from the still-developing “Gunwalker” scandal:
U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) will join other members and a leading law enforcement organization for an event Friday, July 15th, 11:00 a.m. at the House Triangle to introduce the “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act,” which establishes a dedicated firearms trafficking statute to empower law enforcement to keep high-powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels.
The exact same agencies that would be charged with enforcing the proposal are currently under investigation — and may eventually face felony charges — because they broke existing laws and participated in widespread gun trafficking. To borrow from a reader, the federal government is using federal agencies to break federal laws so that same federal government can impose more federal laws on the people that did not break the law.
It is Orwellian in its absurdity, and yet entirely real.
For those of you arriving to the story late, the scandal of Gunwalker began when ATF whistleblowers testified about a multi-agency federal program in Arizona called “Operation Fast and Furious.” The program was carried out by a multi-agency task force involving elements of the Department of Justice; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Drug Enforcement Agency; and the Internal Revenue Service. It would also have likely required the involvement of the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security.
As executed, the plot allowed straw purchasers to buy thousands of firearms and deliver them to Mexican drug cartels, presumably so that the ATF could learn who the primary gun smugglers were inside the cartels in order to shut them down. It was recently revealed, however, that at least some of the men the ATF were seeking may have been paid informants for the FBI and DEA.
Within the past week, evidence has emerged suggesting that the plot was not confined to Arizona. Similar programs existed in at least three other regions, including an operation that may have been called “Castaway” that shipped roughly 1,000 firearms to the violent gang MS-13 in Honduras from a multi-agency operation based in Tampa.
These politicians — who seem immune to either common sense or irony — can perhaps be convinced to re-title this legislation the Eddie Espinoza Act of 2011, in honor of the Democratic mayor of Columbus, NM, who was recently convicted of trafficking guns to Mexican drug cartels. Espinoza may face up to 65 years in prison — up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the smuggling counts and up to five years for the conspiracy charge as well as each of the false statement charges — for committing many of the same criminal acts (on a much smaller scale) as those carried out by the federal government that prosecuted his case.
Representatives Maloney, Cummings, and Carolyn McCarthy seem to be far less interested in holding those responsible for Gunwalker to account than they are in persecuting gun owners and hobbling the investigations into the scandal being played out in the House and Senate.
We saw this disreputable behavior from Cummings when he held a minority forum several weeks ago that was focused on blame-shifting instead of accountability, and in the 26-page political report that minimized the magnitude of the crimes perpetrated under the guise of law enforcement while building the case for gun control.
Anti-gun Democrats are pushing laws that would only affect the law-abiding, while attempting to direct attention away from what appears to be a widespread criminal conspiracy by executive branch agencies to arm narco-terrorists and then use the violence caused by those weapons to influence U.S. gun laws.
Americans don’t need more gun laws.
What we need are federal law enforcement agencies, legislators, and elected and appointed officials that aren’t willing to “break a few eggs” — or a few hundred lives — in order to take part in an illegal and murderous
-
why won't fox, drudge, or other media pick up on this?
the story can bring down obama and nobody will touch it?
hmmmm
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
More DOJ Malpractice(gunwalker)
The Weekly Standard ^ | 25 July, 2011 | MARK HEMINGWAY
Posted on July 16, 2011 11:07:07 AM EDT by marktwain
The Obama administration’s Justice Department has been no stranger to controversy. Attorney General Eric Holder has staked out controversial policies on everything from terrorist detainee trials to the decision not to pursue voter intimidation charges against two New Black Panther party members patrolling a polling place with weapons.
Now a slow-burning scandal at the Justice Department is threatening to become the largest law enforcement debacle in decades. The scandal, dubbed “Gunwalker,” involves the department’s role in knowingly supplying guns to Mexican criminal gangs. Holder has been lucky to avoid taint thus far, but his luck may not hold. Gunwalker could tarnish not just his department but the entire Obama administration.
The scandal was touched off by three pivotal events:
On December 14, 2010, Brian Terry and three other border patrol agents got caught in a firefight with Manuel Osorio-Arellanes and two other Mexican nationals carrying AK-47 rifles near Mesquite Seep, Arizona. Terry was shot in the pelvis and died the next day.
On February 15, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were ambushed while driving on a highway near San Luis Potosi in northern Mexico. Zapata was killed; Avila survived his wounds. The gun used to kill Zapata was traced back to Otilio Osorio, a Dallas-area man known for helping Mexican gangs.
In May, rumors began to spread that a Mexican military helicopter was forced to land after it had been fired upon in western Mexico by a heavy caliber weapon. The Mexican military later seized some 70 weapons in the accompanying raid—including a .50 caliber rifle, known for its ability to fire long distances and pierce armor. A number of the seized guns were said to have originated in the United States.
To hear the Obama administration tell it, the fact the guns used in these attacks came from the United States should not be surprising. In April 2009, the administration claimed that “90 percent” of the weapons used in Mexican cartel violence originated in the United States, a figure that was also parroted by the Mexican government.
When congressional hearings examined the substance of that claim, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) revealed that figure referred only to guns that the Mexican government handed over to the ATF. Of the total number of guns seized by Mexican authorities, about 8 percent were of U.S. origin.
So in the three attacks mentioned above, it might seem surprising that all would involve guns of U.S. origin. But this turned out not to be coincidental. In fact, the weapons used to kill the two U.S. law enforcement agents and down the Mexican helicopter were all provided to Mexican criminals as part of a baffling and ill-considered scheme initiated by the ATF and Justice Department.
“Gunwalking” is ATF slang for investigations where potentially illegal gun sales are allowed to go forward so that the guns can be used to help trace smuggling routes. Until recently, such obviously risky investigations have been rare.
That changed when the Obama administration in its first few months took up the cause of doing more about the alleged threat of U.S. guns entering Mexico. The White House’s warnings about U.S. culpability in Mexican drug violence—particularly the “90 percent” fiction—were so alarming to the National Rifle Association that the organization gave prescient congressional testimony in March 2009 warning that the White House would make “scapegoats” of lawful U.S. gun owners as a justification to pass more gun regulation to address violence in Mexico.
By the fall of 2009, ATF had launched an operation dubbed “Fast and Furious” that shifted ATF tactics away from seizing guns as soon as possible in favor of gunwalking. Fast and Furious may have allowed as many as 2,500 straw purchases of guns to Mexican gangs with no clear plan for recovering the weapons. The program was so out of control that when Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot last January, ATF agents immediately feared that the gun would be traced back to Fast and Furious.
And the operation appears to have come right from the top. “This shift in strategy was known and authorized at the highest levels of the Justice Department. Through both the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona and ‘Main Justice’ headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Department closely monitored and supervised the activities of the ATF,” according to a June 14 report produced by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
What’s more, the House report notes, “though many line agents objected vociferously, ATF and DOJ leadership continued to prevent them from making every effort to interdict illegally purchased firearms.” In fact, as early as this past December, months before congressional investigators began probing the issue in earnest, ATF agent Vince Cefalu was publicly speaking out against the agency’s gunwalking operation. Cefalu now reports he was sent a termination notice at the end of June, an action he claims is politically motivated.
The Justice Department has been less than forthcoming with congressional investigators. As of the release of the June 14 congressional report, the ATF and Justice Department had been unresponsive to seven letters and a subpoena from the House oversight committee.
Then over the July 4 holiday, things took an unusual turn. Acting ATF director Kenneth Melson appeared before Senate Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform investigators. Remarkably, Melson made the appearance with his private attorney rather than with Justice Department representatives, consistent with Melson’s reported contention that higher-ups in the Justice Department had been trying to muzzle him.
Melson told congressional investigators that the gunwalking operation was part of a special task force being run by the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix. Further, even in his capacity heading up the ATF, he had no knowledge of what was going on. Melson’s testimony came in the wake of a June 18 Wall Street Journal report on the Justice Department pressuring him to resign over the scandal. If Melson truly didn’t know the operational details even as the Justice Department was maneuvering to make him the fall guy, it’s no wonder he would get his own attorney, break his silence, and implicate the Justice Department.
It also appears that numerous other law enforcement agencies—including the FBI, DEA, ICE, U.S. Marshals, and Homeland Security—were involved in Fast and Furious to varying degrees. Again, the coordination of that many law enforcement agencies clearly points to involvement at high levels of the Justice Department.
“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,” Representative Daryl Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judicary Committee, wrote in a July 6 letter to Eric Holder.
There’s one more disturbing wrinkle that has yet to be ironed out—the role of federally licensed firearms dealers in Fast and Furious. Were they coerced into participating in the operation under threat of losing their licenses as firearms dealers? Troublingly, even if they knowingly made illegal sales to criminals at the behest of law enforcement, that wouldn’t immunize them from prosecution.
In February, the Mexican government retained a U.S. law firm, Reid Collins & Tsai, LLP, to pursue “claims against certain entities and individuals in the U.S. believed to be participating in . . . the illegal manufacture, import/export, or sale of weapons, or other conduct that may be harming Mexico.” That’s according to the Foreign Agents Registration Act paperwork, which must be filed with—yes—the Justice Department before a U.S. law firm can represent a foreign country. Incredibly, Mexico could take U.S. firearms dealers to court for their unwitting and unwilling role in Fast and Furious.
Despite the growing scandal, the White House is moving full steam ahead with planned gun regulations. On July 11, an ATF-Justice Department order went into effect requiring gun dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to report the purchase of two or more semi-automatic rifles over five days that are greater than .22 caliber and include a detachable magazine, a description so broad it encompasses a huge segment of the commerce in ordinary hunting rifles. The justification, naturally, is stemming the flow of guns into Mexico, even as that rationale is blowing up in the administration’s face.
Taken together, the Mexican government’s legal maneuvering and the Obama executive order raise the unsettling question of whether the White House and Justice Department have coordinated with a foreign country against U.S. gun dealers to help move forward a gun control agenda.
The NRA was quick to slam the executive order, saying, “$40 billion transnational criminal enterprises don’t fill out paperwork and are not deterred by paperwork violations. This is a blatant effort by the Obama administration and ATF to divert the focus of Congress and the general public from their gross incompetence in the Fast and Furious scandal.”
For once, the NRA might be understating things. “Gross incompetence” doesn’t adequately describe what has transpired here. The investigation is far from complete, but the facts so far suggest that the Justice Department and White House are implicated in the needless deaths of two U.S. law enforcement agents. And the level of political collusion suggests they were motivated not by law enforcement concerns, but by a desire to gain traction in implementing a liberal gun control agenda.
Mark Hemingway is online editor of The Weekly Standard.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: banglist; fastandfurious; gunwalker; holder; Click to Add Keyword
Click The Pic
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
Not a bad summation, but he is missing the Honduras and Texas connections so far.
If there is a problem with posting an entire Weekly Standard article, I would like to know. I did not see a copywrite notice.
1
-
It has to be frustrating to write articles like that without knowing all the facts. The authors are left to fill in the holes with sentences like "It also appears that numerous other law enforcement agencies—including the FBI, DEA, ICE, U.S. Marshals, and Homeland Security—were involved in Fast and Furious to varying degrees."
It's easy to read that and conclude all those agencies were in on it and culpable. But what it may mean is something as innocent as ICE sent a fax with some information, or U.S. Marshals shared intel on a suspect when an inquiry was made. The danger in writing articles like this when you have already decided what the conclusion is, is that you may read into things and get the wrong idea.
-
Melson testified that some of the suspects allowed to run guns were dea and fbi paid informants.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Fast & Fraudulent(gunwalker)
America's 1st Freedom, NRA ^ | July, 2011 | James O.E. Norell
Posted on July 16, 2011 8:04:19 PM EDT by marktwain
THE SCANDAL SPREADS
You have to look back at recent history to understand the origins and true danger to our liberty from Operation Fast and Furious, the star-crossed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives scheme to covertly and passively supervise the felonious acquisition, transfer and international smuggling of thousands of firearms into Mexican criminal commerce.
But first, be aware that the continuing steadfast efforts of two federal legislators, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are revealing government corruption and possible criminality on an increasingly broad scale.
There is no doubt that officials at the BATFE, with the concurrence of United States attorneys and higher authorities in the U.S. Department of Justice, are directly responsible for some percentage of armed violence, including murder and mayhem, on both sides of the border. Among those government-assisted crimes is the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry near Nogales, Ariz., in December 2010—an act that opened the scandal to ever-widening public scrutiny. That act has also prompted resistance and cover-ups on the part of the Obama administration.
Operation Fast and Furious is the spawn of a larger border-state federal effort that began to take malignant form at the outset of the Obama administration. That original scheme hatched by BATFE was tagged Project Gunrunner, and was sold to an unquestioning spendthrift Congress as an $80 million answer to the agency’s propaganda campaign claiming that the murderous Mexican drug cartels, with their hundreds of billions of dollars in illegal profits, were getting virtually all of their arms from BATFE-regulated U.S. firearm retailers.
That campaign was based on BATFE’s ubiquitous phony answer to crime—gun tracing (we’ll get to that later). When the agency-scripted talking points first surfaced, the newly manufactured “crisis” was summed up by USA Today: “ATF acting director Michael Sullivan said investigators have traced 90 to 95 percent of the weapons found in Mexico to the U.S.”
The media frenzy—to blindly believe what should have been obviously unbelievable—grew exponentially, and was immediately adopted by the Obama administration as a mantra for demanding a host of new powers to control law-abiding gun owners.
Early in Obama’s presidency, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel declared what would be a catchphrase for Obama’s every rule over his subjects: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
For an administration hell-bent on destroying the Second Amendment, the perfect exploitable “crisis” existed in Mexico, where drug cartels—$100 billion illegal profit centers—have become the dominant power through sheer terror. Mexico, then and now, is controlled by the cartels through a reign of terror marked by torture, beheadings and mass killings of the entire families of anyone with the courage to stand in the way of the cartels. A Mexican government database lists 35,000 victims of cartel assassination.
The crisis in Mexico is all too real. Fear is palpable. Drawing on natural fear in a foreign nation, the Obama administration has created a fictional domestic crisis for which the “solution” spells a loss of liberty for Americans.
Headlines such as “Lax U.S. Gun Laws Fueling Mexico’s Drug Violence?” and “U.S. Guns Arming Mexican Drug Gangs: Second Amendment to Blame?” and “The Drug Cartel’s Right to Bear Arms” dominated national news.
The story was everywhere in the national media. And the PR flacks at BATFE and among the gun-ban groups were working overtime.
A lengthy piece in the October 2010 issue of Phoenix Magazine was typically hysterical with this uppercased lead:
“As concerns mount over the potential for Mexican drug cartel violence to spill over the border, a steady flow of firearms south from Phoenix is helping give the cartels their lethal firepower.”
That hit piece—fed to the publication by the United States attorney and BATFE leadership—was melodramatically titled, “THE IRON RIVER.”
The Washington Post ran a series—doubtless also spoon-fed by BATFE—listing a number of border-state dealers the newspaper labeled as major suppliers to the cartels. Among them was a Houston, Texas, federal firearms licensee, Carter’s Country. Remember that for later.
All of this was accompanied by shrill cries for new gun control from high levels of the Obama administration. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on multiple occasions told officials in Mexico that our gun stores were supplying the bloodlust of the criminal drug bosses south of the border. In essence, she was saying that our freedom was the major contributor to their anarchy.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón also joined the fray, addressing the U.S. Congress and demanding that the answer to his total loss to the cartels of domestic control in his own nation could be cured by a U.S. ban on semi-automatic rifles—a new version of the Clinton gun ban.
Consequently, there are now administrative proposals in the works to register semi-automatic rifles under the guise of multiple sales reporting, something only an act of Congress could accomplish. Attorney General Eric Holder was acquiescing in that international demand for a new version of the Clinton gun ban, telling his adoring press that prohibiting Americans from owning certain guns “will have a positive impact in Mexico at a minimum.”
Further, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano—while absolutely refusing to do anything to secure the nation’s porous borders, which have been a gateway to Mexican criminals bringing their drugs and violence to American communities—threw her weight onto the blame-our-freedom crowd.
Given all the media and administration propaganda, Project Gunrunner was happily in place, funded and re-funded, humming along, doing basically nothing. It was a self-perpetuating machine with hundreds of agents and inspectors, researchers and office workers at its disposal. Agents transferred to new satellite offices from their real law enforcement jobs complained about the boredom. This was busywork doing little more than sucking up tax dollars.
BATFE even got an additional $10 million in 2009 emergency economic stimulus funds that were supposed to be used for creating jobs in the civilian marketplace. The only jobs they apparently created were for criminals running BATFE-sanctioned guns to Mexico.
In the grand scheme of things, the original projected target of all of this was not smugglers and criminals, but American gun stores, according to Robert Sanders, former head of enforcement for BATF in the late 1980s and now a highly successful attorney defending victims of agency abuse.
“When they started this thing, the premise was that the bad guys were the dealers,” Sanders told America’s 1st Freedom in an exclusive interview. “The whole original object of this fiasco was to prove dealers were supplying the cartels. And they had nothing to show for it since it wasn’t true.”
In fact, the biggest BATFE prosecution based on the dealer-as-evil-doer theory was a hugely publicized case to bring down a Phoenix FFL holder, George Iknadosian, owner of X-Caliber Guns. Iknadosian was the subject of a BATFE sting operation using criminals as undercover operatives and culminating in his May 2008 arrest.
It was all a setup. A phony. The federal case was so weak that federal prosecution was declined. In a bizarre turn, the feds then conned a local prosecutor to use federal evidence and federal witnesses in a state court, where different law prevailed.
One of the historical hallmarks of BATFE operations is that the agency subjects its targets to a pre-trial media inquisition. And the media is usually all too willing to be used. Iknadosian’s prosecution is a case in point. The media frenzy was remarkable, all the way up to his March 2009 trial in Arizona state court.
“Gun Runners Send Thousands Of Weapons From The U.S. To Mexico, Fueling That Country’s Drug Wars” was CBS’s heading in its coverage of the opening trial day.
The story led with this: “In Phoenix Monday, a gun dealer went on trial for supplying assault rifles to Mexican drug gangs who are locked in a bloody war with authorities. …
“‘Firearms trafficking to Mexico is a huge problem,’ says Phoenix ATF agent William Newell. ‘Drugs go north, guns come south.’”
The CBS story continued, “George Iknadosian is accused of being a top gun-supplier. When government agents raided his Phoenix gun shop last May, they found hundreds of weapons allegedly destined for Mexico.”
The story also included the by-now obligatory Obama administration boilerplate about our freedom being responsible for Mexican carnage.
“Mexican law makes it nearly impossible to buy guns there legally. But less restrictive laws in the U.S. keep the firearms flowing over the border.” Is something wrong with this logic? “Impossible to buy guns legally” is obviously a deterrent to the cartels, so they bypass those laws to violate ours?
After receiving massive media coverage claiming the dealer was a major gun supplier to the cartels, the Arizona trial judge threw out all 21 charges, saying the evidence and testimony was “not material.”
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Gottsfield on March 18, 2010, actually threw the case out before the prosecution had finished, saying “The state’s case is based upon testimony of individuals who [alleged] … that they were the actual purchaser of the firearms when they were not … There is no proof whatsoever that any prohibited possessor ended up with the firearm.”
So in the end, in this highest profile of cases, there was no evidence that any guns went to Mexico or supplied the cartels.
The Washington Post’s coverage of the verdict of acquittal devoted one paragraph to the actual case, saying it was ironic that the trial had begun “just as President Obama called for new attention to the flow of weapons from the United States to the drug cartels inside Mexico.” The rest of the story was brazenly repeating the big lie that gun dealers were evildoers.
Buried in the early coverage of this prosecutorial travesty was a comment by BATFE Special Agent Carlos Baixauli that was extraordinarily prescient with respect to the current BATFE scandal wracking the U.S. Justice Department:
“The bottom line is illegal gun trafficking is not only destroying Mexico, but some of these guns may get back to the United States. It puts our law enforcement officers in danger, and in Mexico, it decimates law enforcement.” (Emphasis added.)
But remember, in the Iknadosian case—despite the government innuendo and the media’s widespread slander—there wasn’t a single sting gun that ended up in Mexico. Not a single sting firearm ended up in the hands of the cartels. Not a single gun in the sting was used in a crime other than the straw sales crimes committed by the BATFE’s undercover operatives.
It took a new operation by the BATFE—Operation Fast and Furious—to fulfill Agent Baixauli’s prediction.
This time, real guns were provided to the real bad guys in Mexico courtesy of the leadership of the BATFE, with the repeated approval of the Justice Department.
Fast and Furious was a crash response to back-to-back 2009-10 internal Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports that excoriated BATFE for the total flop of Project Gunrunner.
In a word, the OIG reports said that the $80 million Project Gunrunner was worthless. “ATF has not focused its enforcement on complex conspiracy investigations with multiple defendants,” and the agency’s meager efforts “involved straw purchasers and corrupt dealers, not those who organize and command the trafficking operations.”
The earlier of the two reports blasted the agency for having almost no Spanish speakers among its ranks, and virtually no on-the-ground presence in Mexico.
So, with none of those requisites, and with absolutely nothing to prove its gun-dealer-to-cartel gun smuggling claim, the BATFE leadership came up with a brilliant idea. Let me paraphrase what the leadership might have been thinking:
“Instead of using fake straw purchasers in a sting, let’s make use of the real deal. Wait until real criminals show up at dealers, committing real felonious acquisition of firearms, then passively encourage those criminals to commit lots more crimes. Lots of crimes might show that BATFE is on top of one of those elusive trafficking operations with multiple offenders the OIG seeks.”
A chart produced by BATFE and released by Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa shows just how insanely out-of-line the whole criminal-watch program was. The chart lists a number of “monitored” criminals; how many guns they had bought before they were entered in the gun-smuggler monitoring scheme; and how many guns they bought while under the surveillance of BATFE.
And this brings us to the example of Carter’s Country, a four-location federally licensed dealer in Houston—one among many picked out by The Washington Post as a source of guns to Mexico. It was another one of those “tracing” hit-jobs dripping with guilt by innuendo with selective information planted by BATFE media puppeteers:
“Carter’s Country was one of Texas’s leading gun stores for firearms traced from Mexican crime scenes in the past two years. More than 115 firearms sold by Carter’s Country were recovered by Mexican police and military.”
The Post story failed to mention that Carter’s Country was among those fully assisting the feds, having alerted BATFE to questionable sales at the outset. Dick DeGuerin, the high-profile Texas defense attorney, told KRIV-TV news that Carter’s Country and its employees “have been co-operating with ATF from the get-go.”
After company officials reported what they thought might be “straw sales” or attempts to purchase a volume of guns, “They were told to go through with what they considered to be questionable sales—sales from three or more assault rifles at the same time or five or more or the sale of nine millimeter guns at the same time or young Hispanic males paying in cash … they reported them promptly, even while the transaction was going on or soon thereafter. They did this for months, and months, and months. Went through with the sales because the ATF told them to go through with the sales.
“If the ATF used the information that Carter’s Country developed for them,” Deguerin said, “they could have stopped these guns from going across the border.”
It is very likely that the “before” numbers on BATFE’s chart came from dealers like Carter’s Country, who also alerted BATFE and were told to keep on selling. In the meantime, BATFE was videotaping the felonious gun buyers instead of arresting them.
The chart identifies the criminal purchasers as “indicted targets,” but that title was only bestowed on them following the revelations that two Fast and Furious guns were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Terry’s death.
On the list, one individual stands out as a gold-star performer. He had been brought to the attention of BATFE after buying 59 guns, and was “monitored” buying an additional 661 guns. That’s a total of 720 felonious acquisitions. BATFE not only allowed the mega-felonies to proceed, they monitored the guns all the way to the border, where they vanished into darkest Mexico in criminal commerce.
The total number of guns memorialized on the chart was 1,725, with serial gun and smuggling crimes distributed among 15 “indicted targets.” The chart also lists 250 guns that have been traced to the operation after they were recovered at crime scenes, mostly in Mexico. Mexican authorities are claiming hundreds of its citizens have been killed with those firearms.
The chart accompanied a Jan. 8, 2010, briefing paper in which BATFE officials said Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke was repeatedly kept informed and concurred with the scheme.
As for the grand plan to meet the OIG expectations of nailing Mexican drug lords and bringing down international trafficking operations, the memo includes a whiny afterthought with a profound meaning:
“It is unknown at this time what direct connection exists between those straw-purchasers and the drug trafficking organizations (DTOS) in Mexico.”
It was unknown because the BATFE operation to oversee guns run into criminal commerce in that sovereign nation was kept totally secret from the Mexican government, and even from BATFE’s own attaché in Mexico. The only way BATFE or the Justice Department would know the whereabouts of their “monitored” criminal guns was when they ended up at crime scenes.
This admission is the key to something else—perhaps the most important element in this whole sordid mess.
In covering the revelations about the evils of Operation Fast and Furious, many people on the right side of the story repeat the phony mantra that these “walked” guns went to the cartels.
They might have gone to criminals for certain, or disarmed honest Mexicans wishing to defend themselves against cartel or corrupt government violence may have bought some of them. But as we said in last month’s feature (“Project Gunrunner,” June 2011, p. 36), it isn’t logical to assume that a ruthless group of ultra criminals rolling in billions of dollars in drug profits, who run highly sophisticated international drug shipping operations involving DC-10 airliners and surplus military submarines are going to bother with buying guns a few at a time from U.S. firearm retailers.
There was one other finding in the November 2010 final OIG report slamming Project Gunrunner that is key to exposing the gun store-to-cartel big lie. The rebuttal to the ever-repeated 90 percent nexus is covered in an OIG footnote.
In the beginning, the claim about 90 percent of the cartel guns in Mexico being from U.S. retailers was based on tracing data—information the OIG report said was useless to Mexican authorities, but is the raison d’etre of BATFE.
The OIG tracing stunner was buried in a footnote:
“n September 2010, in response to a draft of this report, ATF told the OIG that the 90 percent figure cited to Congress could be misleading because it applied only to the small portion of Mexican crime guns that are traced. ATF could not provide updated information on the percentage of traced Mexican crime guns that were sourced to (that is, found to be manufactured in or imported through) the United States.”
The 90 percent factoid—repeated over and over by the media, the Brady Campaign, the Violence Policy Center, Mayor Bloomberg, the White House, Attorney General Holder and DHS Secretary Napolitano—was revealed as fabricated garbage nearly a year ago!
A federal agent is dead because of it. And a growing number of Mexican citizens are dead because of it.
When you get down to it, all of the carnage of Fast and Furious—carnage that will continue long into the future—was created to prove a fraudulent statistic.
And that’s the operation’s true shame.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: atf; banglist; batf; castaway; dea; doj; fastandfurious; fbi; gunrunner; gunwalker; holder; nra; obama; Click to Add Keyword
Click The Pic
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
Pretty good sumary for a print publication. This is one of the NRA membership magazines.
1 posted on July 16, 2011 8:04:28 PM EDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
Gunwaker ping.
2 posted on July 16, 2011 8:05:23 PM EDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: vette6387; MetaThought; 60Gunner; XHogPilot; FreedomPoster; Josephat; Prince of Space; ...
Good Summary Ping.
FOR REFERENCE:
-
Family of U.S. agent slain in Mexico demands to know gun source
LA Times ^ | July 17, 2011 | Richard A. Serrano
Posted on July 17, 2011 10:00:53 PM EDT by neverdem
The lawyer for Jaime Zapata's family says U.S. officials refuse to answer questions about whether the weapons used were linked to the Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation.
Five months after U.S. immigration agent Jaime Zapata was shot to death by a Mexican drug cartel, his family is demanding to know whether the weapons were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico under the now-defunct Fast and Furious operation.
The family complains that U.S. authorities in Washington and Texas have refused to answer crucial questions about the Feb. 15 ambush on a four-lane highway in northern Mexico.
"What happened with Jaime needs to come out," the family's lawyer, Raymond L. Thomas of McAllen, Texas, said in a telephone interview Sunday. "And the likelihood that these were Fast and Furious guns is certainly plausible."
Mexican authorities have announced nine arrests in the high-profile case. Among them was Jesus Rejon Aguilar, a Zetas cartel leader who was captured near Mexico City this month.
In Washington, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is seeking information on the Zapata slaying.
Nelson Peacock, assistant secretary for legislative affairs for the Department of Homeland Security, which...
--snip--
Zapata, a 32-year-old Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent, was based in Laredo, Texas. He and fellow agent Victor Avila were on the Pan-American Highway in Mexico when they were stopped by at least eight men in two vehicles. The Americans identified themselves and the attackers opened fire, killing Zapata and wounding Avila.
In March, ATF officials in Texas told reporters that one of the weapons believed to have been used in the assault — a Romanian-made AK-47 — was bought in October at a Texas gun shop. The shop purportedly sold 40 firearms that wound up with the Zetas cartel...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
-
-
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cartel-guns-20110717,0,6972222.story
latimes.com
Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants
Probe reveals that the U.S. agency running the 'Fast and Furious' anti-gun-trafficking operation didn't know about the alleged FBI informants. Congressional investigators are looking into the matter.
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
July 17, 2011
Reporting from Washington
Advertisement
Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday.
The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them.
The development raises further doubts about the now-shuttered program, which was created in November 2009 in an effort to track guns across the border and unravel the cartels' gun smuggling networks. The gun tracing largely failed, however, and hundreds of weapons purchased in U.S. shops later were found at crime scenes in Mexico.
The scandal has angered Mexican officials and some members of Congress. Investigators say nearly 2,500 guns were allowed to flow illegally into Mexico under the ATF program, fueling the drug violence ravaging that country and leading to the shooting death of a U.S. border agent.
In a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, the investigators asked why U.S. taxpayers' money apparently was paid to Mexican cartel members who have terrorized the border region for years in their efforts to smuggle drugs into this country, and to ship U.S. firearms into Mexico.
"We have learned of the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious," wrote Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The two have been the leading congressional critics of the program.
"At least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring," they wrote.
The FBI and DEA did not tell the ATF about the alleged informants. The ATF and congressional investigators learned later that those agencies apparently were paying cartel members whom the ATF wanted to arrest.
"Operation Fast and Furious was conceived to get some of the bigger fish down there," said one official close to the congressional investigation, who asked not to be identified because the probe is ongoing. "Then it turned out that some of the ones they were zeroing in on actually, mostly likely were paid informants."
The official said at least half a dozen cartel figures were being paid by one U.S. law enforcement agency while they were being targeted by another.
"We are learning more about them, and there are six so far that we know about. It's multiples, for sure," the official said.
The official declined to identify the six, but said the individual cited in the letter to the FBI operated along the Texas border with Mexico.
"This guy could die if it got out who he is," the official said. "He'd be killed."
The FBI and DEA referred queries Saturday to the Department of Justice. Officials there said they cannot talk about paid informants, but are attempting to answer the questions from Issa and Grassley.
They noted that they already have provided thousands of pages of documents to Congress, and have answered questions in sworn depositions and open hearings.
"We have been cooperating, and we will continue to cooperate," said an Obama administration official. "We want to learn as much as we can about Fast and Furious, just as they do."
The ATF ran the Fast and Furious operation out of its field office in Phoenix until early this year. The idea was to monitor illegal purchases in federally licensed U.S. gun shops, but allow the illicit buyers to walk away with the weapons, giving ATF agents the opportunity to learn how the guns are smuggled across the border.
But many of their gun tracing efforts failed, and hundreds of firearms purchased under the program were used to commit crimes in Mexico.
In addition, two AK-47s purchased during the operation were found at the scene last December where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was shot to death near Tucson, allegedly by a Sinaloa cartel member.
A second U.S. immigration agent, Jaime Zapata, was slain in a cartel ambush in February in Mexico, and investigators now are trying to determine whether Fast and Furious weapons were used to kill him as well.
In the letter to Mueller, the senators asked if Zapata was armed when he was killed and "if not, why not?" They also asked if his vehicle was bulletproof, and if so, "how was he killed inside of the vehicle?"
They also asked how many cartel members were paid, if any of the informants had been deported from the United States, and if FBI personnel in Arizona knew of the informants.
The Republican leaders asked to see all "emails, documents, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes" from and to FBI and DEA field supervisors and agents in Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales and Yuma in Arizona, and in El Paso, Texas.
They are seeking the same material from the FBI case agent investigating Terry's death.
Zapata's family also is seeking answers. Relatives of the slain immigration agent sent a letter June 14 to the U.S. attorney's office in South Texas, the top FBI official in San Antonio, and several U.S. immigration officials, "requesting information about the specific circumstances of Jaime Zapata's death."
richard.serrano@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
________________________ ________________________ _______
FUCKING WOW!
-
In a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, the investigators asked why U.S. taxpayers' money apparently was paid to Mexican cartel members who have terrorized the border region for years in their efforts to smuggle drugs into this country, and to ship U.S. firearms into Mexico.
________________________ __________________
Obama spreading the wealth.
-
why won't fox, drudge, or other media pick up on this?
the story can bring down obama and nobody will touch it?
hmmmm
Hint:
(http://www.boingboing.net/200805281128.jpg)
-
Any Democratic congressmen on board with the investigation?
-
Any Democratic congressmen on board with the investigation?
no - they are trying to push more gun control because of this, which was exactly the purpose behind fast and furious in the first place.
-
no - they are trying to push more gun control because of this, which was exactly the purpose behind fast and furious in the first place.
But you have faith in Issa, a government official, to seek the truth, and not just a witch hunt against Obama and his regime?
-
But you have faith in Issa, a government official, to seek the truth, and not just a witch hunt against Obama and his regime?
Only so far. him and Grassley have been doing a good job so far, and I think they need to push for a special prosecutor to be appointed.
-
Only so far. him and Grassley have been doing a good job so far, and I think they need to push for a special prosecutor to be appointed.
Why haven't they? It would appear more credible
-
Why haven't they? It would appear more credible
My gut reaction at this point, since I believe it is the DOJ and POTUS who have to ok that is that at this point holder and obama will refuse one.
I think Grassley and Issa are gathering as much as possible from as many as possible such that holder and obama will not be able to resist one at that point. I could be wrong, but that is my guess.
-
Justice Department trying to shield officials in guns scandal, ATF chief says
Los Angeles Times ^ | 7/18/11 | Richard A. Serrano
Posted on July 18, 2011 7:30:41 PM EDT by NormsRevenge
The Department of Justice is trying to protect its political appointees from becoming embroiled in the broadening Fast and Furious gun-tracing scandal by refusing to release an internal "smoking gun" report that acknowledges the role of top officials in the program that allowed guns to flow illegally into Mexico, according to the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Kenneth Melson, the ATF acting director, earlier this month also told congressional investigators examining the role of top officials in the ill-fated program that affidavits in support of wiretaps used in the operation are inconsistent with what Justice Department officials have said publicly.
Melson told the investigators that when he raised his concerns with the Justice Department about "institutional problems" with the Fast and Furious operation, department officials resisted his desire to share his thoughts with Congress.
"It was very frustrating to all of us," Melson told congressional investigators over the Fourth of July holiday, "and it appears thoroughly to us that the department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the department."
Not only was the department slow to react, Justice officials even indicated to him they did not want him to cooperate with Congress, Melson said.
His comments appeared in transcripts released by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top GOP member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The Deputy Attorney General's office wasn't very happy with us" at ATF, Melson said, "because they thought this was an admission that there were mistakes made. Well, there were some mistakes made."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Issa and Grassley Seek More Fast and Furious Info
FoxNews ^ | July 18, 2011 | Wes Barrett
Posted on July 18, 2011 6:52:20 PM EDT by MestaMachine
A couple of Capitol Hill lawmakers are continuing their push for details of Operation Fast and Furious, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) gun running operation that purposely trafficked thousands of assault weapons across the U.S. border with Mexico. Guns traced back to the operation have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and near a murdered Border Patrol Agent in Arizona.
In a letter to the agencies' heads, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., call for information from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), including interviews with agents, lists of informants, emails and even handwritten notes about their roles in the operation. The letter says neither the FBI nor the DEA has responded to earlier requests for additional
information in the case.
"On March 15, 2011, Senator Grassley sent you a letter requesting a briefing to gain a better understanding of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) involvement in Operation Fast and Furious," the letter to DEA administrator Michele Leonhart reads. "Nearly four months later, your agency has yet to respond directly."
The questions for the FBI are even more pointed and include requests for details of the investigation into the murder of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jamie Zapata. Zapata was unarmed and gunned down, along with a fellow agent who was wounded, in northern Mexico in February.
(Excerpt) Read more at politics.blogs.foxnews.c om ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Grassley/Issa fire double broadsides at FBI & DEA. and NAME NAMES.
http://www.sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/ ^ | 7/18 | Sipsey Street Irregulars
Posted on July 18, 2011 8:09:15 PM EDT by RummyChick
... Please also include any communications of the following individuals at DEA relating to Operation Fast and Furious or Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta:
1) Elizabeth Kempshall, Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix
2) Doug Coleman, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix
3) Chris Feistle, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix
4) Albert Laurita, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Tucson
5) David Hathaway, Resident Agent in Charge, Nogales
6) Joe Muenchow, Resident Agent in Charge, Yuma
---
To help us better understand the role of the FBI in this multi-agency OCDETF case, we request that you produce communications relating to Operation Fast and Furious by FBI personnel based in Phoenix, Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, including the below-listed officials:
1) Nathan Gray, Former Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
2) Annette Bartlett, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
3) Stephen Cocco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
4) Steven Hooper, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
5) John Iannarelli, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
6) John Strong, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
7) David Cuthbertson, Special Agent in Charge, El Paso Field Division
8) The Case Agent from the Tucson office in charge of the Brian Terry murder investigation
TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: gunwalker; obama; Click to Add Keyword
Click The Pic To Donate!
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
I just listed the names
1 posted on July 18, 2011 8:09:19 PM EDT by RummyChick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: RummyChick
2 posted on July 18, 2011 8:10:14 PM EDT by RummyChick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: MestaMachine
Ping
3 posted on July 18, 2011 8:12:38 PM EDT by whinecountry (Semper Ubi Sub Ubi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: RummyChick
So it Issa. Open the can of worms.....
4 posted on July 18, 2011 8:12:51 PM EDT by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: RummyChick
The FBI certainly seems to have a profusion of folks “in charge”. So, I’d say: Charge ‘em.
5 posted on July 18, 2011 8:19:39 PM EDT by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: RummyChick
Not all of them will be willing to fall on the sword for the glory of Director Holder....
6 posted on July 18, 2011 8:49:44 PM EDT by tcrlaf (You can only lead a lib to the Truth, you can't make it think...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: RummyChick
Something’s been running across my mind ever since this happened. I can’t help but wonder what these two agents knew. Were they targeted for some reason? Had they objected too loudly? Was somebody afriad they would talk, or had talked to people?
Yes I know people are dying all over the place on and across the border and BPA’s are certanly vulnerable.
But in Brian Terry’s situation they are freaking armed with bean bag guns. And there were Mexican Military Officials at the scene when he was murdered on the US side of the border.
And Jaime Zapata was attached to the US embassy in Mexico (what did he know?) and was travelling thru San Luis Potosi a place where my son still goes on church missions to build orphanages. They shot Zapata four times in the chest, and Avila just in the leg. Like they were targeting Zapata.
It’s just fishier than hell.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Obama-Contra
IBD Editororials ^ | July 18, 2011 | Staff
Posted on July 18, 2011 8:30:00 PM EDT by Kaslin
Scandal: Democrats who condemned our support of Nicaraguan freedom fighters in the '80s now ignore administration gun-running that may have put American weapons in the hands of the Central American MS-13 gang.
As if "Project Gunrunner" and "Operation Fast and Furious" weren't bad enough, we now learn of "Operation Castaway," run out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Tampa field division. It's another operation that allowed guns to "walk" south of the border, this time to Honduras, using similar techniques and tactics.
Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., sent two letters a week ago to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melsom inquiring about the program. He shouldn't expect much. As commentator Brit Hume noted on "Fox News Sunday": "The stench of cover-up on this gun-running operation is very strong indeed."
"Two weapons found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry were traced back to the ATF's 'Operation Fast and Furious,' and reports now indicate that ATF's Tampa field division trafficked as many as 1,000 firearms to the dangerous MS-13 gang in Honduras through a similar program known as 'Operation Castaway,' " Bilirakis states on his website.
If these programs bring back memories of the Iran-Contra scandal, we are not surprised. If you're wondering why this isn't as big a scandal, so do we. Iran-Contra wasn't funded in a stimulus package to create jobs. Nor did it occur with the full knowledge and approval of both the attorney general and the White House, as these "gun-walking" fiascos did
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
-
Was ICE Agent Zapata Killed With a Gun Walker Weapon?
by John Hayward (more by this author)
Posted 07/18/2011 ET
Updated 07/18/2011 ET
So far, there has been one confirmed American victim of the Gun Walker project, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives deliberately “walked” American guns across the border into Mexico. In addition to over a hundred and fifty Mexicans, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with a Gun Walker weapon.
Questions linger about a possible second American victim, immigration agent Jaime Zapata, who was murdered by a Mexican drug cartel on the Pan-American Highway last February. Zapata’s partner, ICE agent Victor Avila, was also wounded in the attack.
Zapata’s family wants to know if the gun that killed him came from the ATF. Roughly 200 Gun Walker weapons have turned up at Mexican crime scenes, according to an article in the L.A. Times. The family has been unable to get answers from the FBI or Homeland Security, but now House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is investigating Zapata’s death and its possible links to the Gun Walker project.
It appears that the cartel which killed Zapata was getting a lot of its hardware from a gun shop in Texas, which would seem to be rather far removed from the ATF field office in Phoenix, Arizona that ran the notorious “Operation Fast and Furious.” We’ve since learned of a second Gun Walker operation, called “Castaway,” pushing guns into Honduras and run out of the Tampa, Florida bureau. Was there a third operation running in Texas?
Florida congressman Gus Bilirakis appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss Operation Castaway Monday morning:
Meanwhile, Issa and his Senate partner, Charles Grassley of the Judiciary Committee, have been running out of patience with Attorney General Eric Holder. In a new 10-page letter to Holder, they complain that “the Justice Department prevented Acting Director Melson from communicating with Congress, and even his own staff.” They relayed a little of the testimony Melson provided in his July 4 appearance, including Melson’s recollection of telling the Associate Deputy Attorney General that their frantic stonewall attempts amounting to “really just poking Senator Grassley in the eye.”
Senator Grassley does not like being poked in the eye.
Issa and Grassley once again accused the Justice Department of misleading Ken Melson about his options for testifying before their committees, and leaking media stories designed to set him as the Fast & Furious fall guy. Most shockingly, they assert “the Department’s efforts to isolate Mr. Melson went so far as to prevent him from communicating with his own staff about Fast and Furious.” It’s funny how much time this Administration spends on preventing our massive government from communicating with either the people, or itself.
Issa and Grassley are keenly interested in exploring the FBI’s connections to the Gun Walker operations:
Witnesses have testified that some of the very targets of Operation Fast and Furious – the high-level weapons suppliers to the cartels – may have been paid informants. While this is preliminary information, if true, the implications are dramatic. Not only would this mean taxpayer dollars could have funded those helping to arm Mexican drug cartels, it would also mean ATF unwittingly targeted unindictable defendants.
Or maybe that wasn’t done “unwittingly,” since much of this investigation will boil down to establishing the true purpose for the Gun Walker operations. If that purpose was to deliberately increase Mexican gun crime for American political purposes, the ability to indict the nominal targets wouldn’t have mattered much.
Melson characterizes the Justice Department’s response to the Gun Walker investigation as a “disaster.” Issa and Grassley say that “less than one percent of the documents the Department, by its own admission, has reviewed.” They note archly that “if the attorneys working on the Department’s response to the Committee spent less time redacting documents and more time producing them, we would be much closer to understanding the failures in leadership surrounding Operation Fast and Furious.” It took DOJ two months to cough up 69 pages of non-public documents.
The Congressmen sternly inform Eric Holder that his department “needs to move from spin mode to disclosure mode” and stop treating “the Fast and Furious inquiry as merely a public relations problem, rather than a legitimate topic in need of congressional oversight and corrective action.” The designated fall guy won’t fall, and the involvement of other agencies renders him useless as a firewall to protect his superiors anyway. This scandal has moved beyond “Operation Fast and Furious,” and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
-
http://tucsoncitizen.com/view-from-baja-arizona/2011/03/13/mexican-officials-claim-atf-walked-guns-suspected-in-the-death-of-150-mexicans
195 deaths and counting - plus Mexico is saying ATF never informed it of Fast n Furious.
-
Momentum builds, web expands on Fast and Furious investigation (gunwalker)
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 18 July, 2011 | Dave Workman
Momentum is building and the web appears to be expanding dramatically in the Congressional investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, which is now seeking communications involving senior personnel at both the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency; developments that are being closely watched by Northwest gun rights activists here and here.
In letters sent to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart and FBI Director Robert Mueller III, Congressman Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley are asking for communications and other documents. From the DEA, they want communications involving Operation Fast and Furious or a suspect identified as Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta from:
Elizabeth Kempshall, Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix
Doug Coleman, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix
Chris Feistle, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix
Albert Laurita, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Tucson
David Hathaway, Resident Agent in Charge, Nogales
Joe Muenchow, Resident Agent in Charge, Yuma
The laundry list is a bit longer from the FBI. Those officials named in the information request sent to Muller are:
Nathan Gray, Former Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
Annette Bartlett, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
Stephen Cocco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
Steven Hooper, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
John Iannarelli, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
John Strong, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division
David Cuthbertson, Special Agent in Charge, El Paso Field Division
The Case Agent from the Tucson office in charge of the Brian Terry murder investigation
The requested documents include e-mails, documents, memoranda, briefing papers and handwritten notes. Grassley and Issa want any communications these individuals had with any employee of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives between
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Why Did Drug Thugs Assassinate ICE Agent Zapata?(gunwalker)
The Truth About Guns ^ | 18 July, 2011 | Robert Farago
“Five months after U.S. immigration agent Jaime Zapata was shot to death by a Mexican drug cartel, his family is demanding to know whether the weapons were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico under the now-defunct Fast and Furious operation,” latimes.com reports. That’s kinda weird; a few days after the killing, we heard reports that the Mexican e-Trace on guns recovered at the scene revealed the connection to the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious. The more interesting question: what was Jaime Zapata doing in Mexico in the first place? I mean, we get the means: ATF-enabled guns. The opportunity is clear enough: a government convoy down a lonesome four-lane highway in Mexico. What was the motive? The Mexican government says . . .
that Los Zetas did the deed. Why? Knowing the heat they’d take for taking out a U.S. federale, why would Los Zetas take out a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent?
Some analysts reckon it was a f-up; a minor league Los Zetas member ordered the hit. I don’t think so.
Given that the Mexican government is the friend of the Sinaloa cartel, who are the enemies of the Los Zetas, it stands to reason that Zapata was doing something for/with/about the Mexican government/Sinaloas with which Los Zetas were not happy. What?
ICE Agent Zapata’s partner was wounded in the attack. Congressman Issa’s investigation into this whole ATF misegos need to call Victor Avila as a witness.
At the risk of sounding like Martha Mitchell, I’m telling you that all of this is connected: the ATF’s anti-gun running gun running, Zapata’s murder, U.S. support for Felipe Calderon, arms shipments to the Mexican Army and law enforcement leaking to drug cartels, U.S. drug and immigration interdiction (or lack thereof) and more.
As they said in Watergate, follow the money. Who had the most to benefit from Zapata’s death?
-
Hezbollah in Mexico--and not arming themselves through any 'gun show loophole'
By Kurt Hofmann, St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner
..Business Insider bears the alarming news that the Iran-supported terrorist group Hezbollah is busy establishing a presence in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America:
Islamic terrorist groups are setting up shop in Mexico and forming alarming ties with the country's brutal drug cartels, according to a 2010 internal memo from the Tucson Police Department.
The memo (pdf file) referred to here was not intended for public consumption, and came to light only after the hacker group LulzSec hacked into Arizona Department of Public Safety computers.
Well that's unnerving, especially given the fact that, according to the Violence Policy Center (VPC), the U.S. civilian gun market is a "virtually unregulated bazaar of military-style firearms," which is routinely heavily utilized by the Mexican drug cartels (Hezbollah's new buddies, remember). On top of that, American-born Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn says any aspiring jihadist in the U.S. can just pop into the nearest gun show, and buy "a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, and most likely without having to show an identification card" (my emphasis added).
Except that's not what's happening. From the memo:
In July of this year, Mexican authorities arrested Jameel Nasr in Tijuana, Baja California. Nasr was alleged to be tasked with establishing the Hezbollah network in Mexico and throughout South America. In April of last year, the arrest of Jamal Yousef – in New York City - exposed a weapons cache of 100 M- 16 assault rifles, 100 AR-15 rifles, 2,500 hand grenades, C4 explosives and antitank munitions. According to Yousef, the weapons, which were being stored in Mexico, had been stolen from Iraq with the help of his cousin who was a member of Hezbollah.
Stolen from Iraq, and then smuggled across an ocean to Mexico, when there's a "virtually unregulated bazaar of military-style firearms" to shop from right here?
Of course, not every wannabe jihadist has a cousin in Iraq to help him steal weapons there. No problem--there's plenty of firepower to be had all over Latin America--and that's without the Obama government "walking" guns to killers in Mexico and Honduras.
Advertisement
ADGRPID:|SERVTYPE:
So in the face of heavily armed terrorists who consider killing Americans to be a free ticket to paradise, gathering just across our very cursorily secured border with Mexico, what would the forcible citizen disarmament advocates have us do? Make it more difficult for us to obtain firearms to defend ourselves, and mandate that the firearms available to us be less capable.
Just whose side are they on?
See also:
.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Hezbollah in Mexico--and not arming themselves through any 'gun show loophole' - St. Louis gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-st-louis/hezbollah-mexico-and-not-arming-themselves-through-any-gun-show-loophole#ixzz1SYPRkxl4
-
-
ATF Chief Admits Mistakes in 'Fast and Furious,' Accuses Holder Aides of Stonewalling Congress
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/18/atf-chief-admits-mistakes-in-fast-and-furious-accuses-holder-stonewalling/ ^ | 7/18/11
WASHINGTON -- The head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has admitted that his agency, in at least one instance, allowed sales of high-powered weapons without intercepting them -- and he accuses his superiors at the Justice Department of stonewalling Congress to protect political appointees in the scandal over those decisions.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
ATF Chief Admits Mistakes in 'Fast and Furious,' Accuses Holder Aides of Stonewalling Congress
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/18/atf-chief-admits-mistakes-in-fast-and-furious-accuses-holder-stonewalling/ ^ | 7/18/11
WASHINGTON -- The head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has admitted that his agency, in at least one instance, allowed sales of high-powered weapons without intercepting them -- and he accuses his superiors at the Justice Department of stonewalling Congress to protect political appointees in the scandal over those decisions.
The lyingest, cheatingest agency in America = ATF.
To become head of the ATF, you must be the lyingest, cheatingest guy in the lyingest, cheatingest agency in America.
So you believe what the lyingest, cheatingest guy in the lyingest, cheatingest agency says now?
-
The lyingest, cheatingest agency in America = ATF.
To become head of the ATF, you must be the lyingest, cheatingest guy in the lyingest, cheatingest agency in America.
So you believe what the lyingest, cheatingest guy in the lyingest, cheatingest agency says now?
As opposed to who? Obama and Holder? LMFAO!
-
As opposed to who? Obama and Holder? LMFAO!
ATF has been lying and cheating since their inception. Waco, ruby, etc.
So yes, you want to compare evils, I think they're even worse than obama.
Still, your willingness to endorse ATF statements (or endorse Vandersloot for president) because you hate obama so much is just terrifying.
-
Issa and grassley are saying the same thing. Of course you believe obama and holder over them too.
-
Law enforcement, sticking up for law enforcement. Nothing new there guys, don't understand why this is a 20 page thread.
The DOJ, DEA and ATF needed a win in the war on drugs. They failed. Lesson to be learned for future ATF, DEA projects condolences to those lost in this losing battle.
-
Law enforcement, sticking up for law enforcement. Nothing new there guys, don't understand why this is a 20 page thread.
The DOJ, DEA and ATF needed a win in the war on drugs. They failed. Lesson to be learned for future ATF, DEA projects condolences to those lost in this losing battle.
Add in the FBI as well.
They are playing a treasonous game here and people died.
-
Gunwalker: Family of Slain Federal Agent Demands Answers
Pajamas Media ^ | 7/19/2011 | Bob Owens
Remember when Cindy Sheehan and the left claimed "absolute moral authority" for the families of those killed in the line of duty? Think they'll fight for Agent Zapata's family?
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were ambushed by eight cartel members in Mexico in February. Avila survived, Zapata did not.
One of the guns used in the murder was a Romanian-made semi-automatic AK-pattern pistol called the “Draco,” which is basically an AK-pattern rifle without a shoulder stock and featuring a much shorter barrel. It was traced back to a gun shop in the United States.
It has been almost six months since his murder, and Jaime Zapata’s family wants answers:
Five months after U.S. immigration agent Jaime Zapata was shot to death by a Mexican drug cartel, his family is demanding to know whether the weapons were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico under the now-defunct Fast and Furious operation.
The family complains that U.S. authorities in Washington and Texas have refused to answer crucial questions about the Feb. 15 ambush on a four-lane highway in northern Mexico.
“What happened with Jaime needs to come out,” the family’s lawyer, Raymond L. Thomas of McAllen, Texas, said in a telephone interview Sunday. “And the likelihood that these were Fast and Furious guns is certainly plausible.”
The ambush of Zapata and Avila has long been associated with the multi-agency aberration known as “Operation Fast and Furious.” But the Draco pistol used in Zapata’s murder was not part of Operation Fast and Furious, which took place in what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has designated the Phoenix Field Operations area, which encompasses all of Arizona and New Mexico. The Draco was instead just one of many firearms obtained for the cartels by a trio of gunrunners in the Dallas Field Operations area, from a parallel operation that looks suspiciously like Operation Fast and Furious.
A third operation named “Operation Castaway” is also coming to the attention of congressional investigators, and a pattern of weapons recovered from the Houston area in southern and central Mexico suggests that a fourth “watch and do nothing” operation existed.
Just how many “Gunwalker” operations did the ATF, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Agency, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, and the State Department collude in?
Was Operation Fast and Furious in Phoenix an isolated incident as the Obama administration and their unserious allies in the mainstream media would like us to believe? Or is it more likely that the federal agencies that are known to have come together for this operation participated in a number of operations in all border states where gun smuggling has been alleged, including the two suspected operations in Texas and Operation Castaway?
Should investigators be looking for the presence of similar multi-agency operations in the Los Angeles, Denver, Miami, and New Orleans field areas?
We are nowhere near being able to answer these questions, because the federal agencies involved are attempting to evade questions from the family members of dead law enforcement agents and congressional investigators alike.
The family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was murdered in Arizona by illegals armed with at least two Fast and Furious weapons from the Phoenix operation, wants answers as well. They are considering suing the government to get those answers.
Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa are trying to pry answers from a recalcitrant Department of Justice, including letters sent to the director of the FBI and the administrator of the DEA seeking “all communications” from eight FBI special agents and six DEA special agents. In addition, they are seeking information about the number of informants in each agency related to “Fast and Furious” defendants, and specific information about suspect Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta, who is accused of supplying a number of AK-type firearms to the cartels.
They’re also attempting to discover more about the circumstances surrounding Agent Zapata’s death, in order to get answers for the Zapata family.
Not so many years ago, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd asserted that “the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.”
The sentiment of “absolute moral authority” for anti-war parents of soldiers lost in battle was embraced, amplified, and echoed by the Times, the Washington Post, and the overwhelming majority of print and broadcast media pundits while those parents served as useful political props for the media and progressive politicians. When the left took over both houses of Congress and the White House — and the mother they used as a bludgeon turned out to be a hate-spewing, conspiracy-mongering anti-Semite — the media quietly let the “absolute moral authority“ card slip out of their hand.
Zapata’s father is a Vietnam combat veteran with two Purple Hearts, and his siblings work in law enforcement. The family isn’t demanding to see the president, or delivering ditch-side sermons to a fawning media. All they want is answers.
Where is the media to bestow them with absolute moral authority and to champion their cause?
-
LOL @ people who didn't want to investigate 911, but want a huge investigation into this!
-
LOL @ people who didn't want to investigate 911, but want a huge investigation into this!
uuuhhhh - maybe because we have actual govt people on record from this Admn supporting Fast n Furious?
-
Add in the FBI as well.
They are playing a treasonous game here and people died.
I wouldn't call it treasonous at all. I would call it miscalculated and poor executed.
-
I wouldn't call it treasonous at all. I would call it miscalculated and poor executed.
hhuuhh???? 150 dead mexicans and counting, 2 agents dead, 2,000 guns unaccounted for, DOJ refusing to cooperate, ATF agents forcing gun dealers to go forward with this murderous scheme, etc etc.
What do you call that? a mistake?
Ha Ha ha. Had you done an ounce of that as a private citizen you would do a life sentence.
-
uuuhhhh - maybe because we have actual govt people on record from this Admn supporting Fast n Furious?
you must not have read the 2000 document penned by 10 members of the Bush admin calling for a 'new pearl harbor' as a catalyst for initiating a plan for takeover in the middle east?
of course not.
-
you must not have read the 2000 document penned by 10 members of the Bush admin calling for a 'new pearl harbor' as a catalyst for initiating a plan for takeover in the middle east?
of course not.
Post it up for viewing and comment
-
Post it up for viewing and comment
oh geez.... you are serious... you've never read it, have you?
oh geez, it's like trying to teach algebra to a 1st grader.
-
oh geez.... you are serious... you've never read it, have you?
oh geez, it's like trying to teach algebra to a 1st grader.
Post it up for viewing or comment douche.
-
Post it up for viewing or comment douche.
If you'll first admit you've never heard of it or read it.
You see, a document like this - written by what would end up being the people running the country a year later, is pretty doggone huge. Motive, almost.
So just tell me you haven't read it (even though your anti-Obama hero Alex jones screamed about it for the last decade) and I'll post it :)
-
If you'll first admit you've never heard of it or read it.
You see, a document like this - written by what would end up being the people running the country a year later, is pretty doggone huge. Motive, almost.
So just tell me you haven't read it (even though your anti-Obama hero Alex jones screamed about it for the last decade) and I'll post it :)
Just post
-
Just post
so you don't even know what it's called?
-
so you don't even know what it's called?
Funny - if it were so pervasive, well knowm and credible, wouldnt we all by now?
-
Funny - if it were so pervasive, well knowm and credible, wouldnt we all by now?
I would wager most getbiggers are well aware of the 2000 document - penned by 17 people who would end up working in the Bush admin - with the goal of promoting American global leadership and the fact it wouldn't happen without "some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor".
The fact that you're not aware of a document that people worldwide have been screaming about for ten years shows that you'll spend years researching CT sources that make Obama look bad - but not 30 seconds on something written and published by a DC Think Tank that experts have spent the last decade pointing to as the motive for 911 and the bush Doctrine.
-
Yet you still wont post it.
-
Yet you still wont post it.
I'm seriously in shock that you know so much about Obama's kindergarten teacher -
But the blueprint for iraq/afghan wars and motive for 911 - written a year before Bush took office by what would end up being his Veep, Sec of Defense, and almost his entire staff...
You've never even heard of it.
-
I'm seriously in shock that you know so much about Obama's kindergarten teacher -
But the blueprint for iraq/afghan wars and motive for 911 - written a year before Bush took office by what would end up being his Veep, Sec of Defense, and almost his entire staff...
You've never even heard of it.
Post the doc.
-
Post the doc.
I don't want to.
I feel that it would disrupt the entire time-space continuum.
I worry you would do 1 of 2 things. Either you would immediately dismiss it without reading it, or you would read it, spend the entire night saying "holy shit!" and reading it over and over, and wake up tomorrow and vote anti-Repub for the rest of your life.
Either way, it could bring the entire universe crashing down.
-
I don't want to.
I feel that it would disrupt the entire time-space continuum.
I worry you would do 1 of 2 things. Either you would immediately dismiss it without reading it, or you would read it, spend the entire night saying "holy shit!" and reading it over and over, and wake up tomorrow and vote anti-Repub for the rest of your life.
Either way, it could bring the entire universe crashing down.
lmao.
-
hhuuhh???? 150 dead mexicans and counting, 2 agents dead, 2,000 guns unaccounted for, DOJ refusing to cooperate, ATF agents forcing gun dealers to go forward with this murderous scheme, etc etc.
What do you call that? a mistake?
Ha Ha ha. Had you done an ounce of that as a private citizen you would do a life sentence.
I wouldn't be tried for treason now would I? I call it a poorly managed attempt at stopping the flow of guns and drugs.
-
I wouldn't be tried for treason now would I? I call it a poorly managed attempt at stopping the flow of guns and drugs.
uuuh - that was project Gun Runner. Project Gun Walker and Fast N Furious were Obama's creation.
-
I wouldn't be tried for treason now would I? I call it a poorly managed attempt at stopping the flow of guns and drugs.
If by poorly managed you mean forcing guns to be sold to straw purchasers and then not bothering to keep track of the guns ::)
-
If by poorly managed you mean forcing guns to be sold to straw purchasers and then not bothering to keep track of the guns ::)
Uh yes that would constitute a poorly managed operation.
-
Uh yes that would constitute a poorly managed operation.
Which if you did you would be in jail for life.
-
Uh yes that would constitute a poorly managed operation.
Really, sounds more like criminal negligence to me
-
lmao.
seriously.
can you imagine if 17 members of the Obama admin had written a document in summer 2008 in which they detailed the need for a major terror attack in order to justify wars in say, Libya then Syria? And then we'd been attacked by "libya" with "help from syria", and we got into 2 expensive wars? And he didn't even want to investigate the attack - and waited 441 days to do so?
You'd be livid. You'd be screaming from the rooftop. Yet you aren't even aware of the EXACT scenario with afghanistan/iraq happening in 2000. Seventeen members of Bush cabinet got together and wrote up the need for an event like pearl harbor to justify invasion of arab states to secure resources and global position.
Since it happened on a Repub watch, you haven't looked into it, have you?
-
seriously.
can you imagine if 17 members of the Obama admin had written a document in summer 2008 in which they detailed the need for a major terror attack in order to justify wars in say, Libya then Syria? And then we'd been attacked by "libya" with "help from syria", and we got into 2 expensive wars? And he didn't even want to investigate the attack - and waited 441 days to do so?
You'd be livid. You'd be screaming from the rooftop. Yet you aren't even aware of the EXACT scenario with afghanistan/iraq happening in 2000. Seventeen members of Bush cabinet got together and wrote up the need for an event like pearl harbor to justify invasion of arab states to secure resources and global position.
Since it happened on a Repub watch, you haven't looked into it, have you?
If its so explosive - you should post it for everyone to see.
-
If its so explosive - you should post it for everyone to see.
I'm seriously embarassed that you haven't heard of it. It's been discussed in great detail by your hero Alex Jones.
-
I'm seriously embarassed that you haven't heard of it. It's been discussed in great detail by your hero Alex Jones.
so why not post it?
-
I'm seriously embarassed that you haven't heard of it. It's been discussed in great detail by your hero Alex Jones.
Just post the fucking document, if it indeed exists, but since Alex Jones says so it must be so ::)
-
seriously.
can you imagine if 17 members of the Obama admin had written a document in summer 2008 in which they detailed the need for a major terror attack in order to justify wars in say, Libya then Syria? And then we'd been attacked by "libya" with "help from syria", and we got into 2 expensive wars? And he didn't even want to investigate the attack - and waited 441 days to do so?
You'd be livid. You'd be screaming from the rooftop. Yet you aren't even aware of the EXACT scenario with afghanistan/iraq happening in 2000. Seventeen members of Bush cabinet got together and wrote up the need for an event like pearl harbor to justify invasion of arab states to secure resources and global position.
Since it happened on a Repub watch, you haven't looked into it, have you?
::)
That's not what the PNAC report stated retard. Talk about trying to twist shit around. Maybe you should go back to making up shit about - oh wait...
-
That's not what the PNAC report stated retard. Talk about trying to twist shit around. Maybe you should go back to making up shit about - oh wait...
LOL!
-
so why not post it?
Because it doesn't say what he's claiming. You've probably come across this issue while arguing with the CT'rs but you know how fast they change their angle when they can't back up their bullshit.
-
Because it doesn't say what he's claiming. You've probably come across this issue while arguing with the CT'rs but you know how fast they change their angle when they can't back up their bullshit.
240 is really playing hide the salami here.
-
Really, sounds more like criminal negligence to me
Perhaps some of the officers will be charged in connection. Law enforcement have always been able to bend the rules to get their man. The public hasn't minded much so long as the big picture is sold to them in terms of safer streets and better lives.
Perhaps that is the debate we should be having. What extent can law enforcement encroach on existing laws to catch criminals? Should they for example be charged for possession of drugs if they are an undercover hoping to catch buyers? Can they or should they be charged for sending out child pornography to pedophiles in the hope of tracing the images to the perp?
-
Perhaps some of the officers will be charged in connection. Law enforcement have always been able to bend the rules to get their man. The public hasn't minded much so long as the big picture is sold to them in terms of safer streets and better lives.
Perhaps that is the debate we should be having. What extent can law enforcement encroach on existing laws to catch criminals? Should they for example be charged for possession of drugs if they are an undercover hoping to catch buyers? Can they or should they be charged for sending out child pornography to pedophiles in the hope of tracing the images to the perp?
You dont get do you?
The agents did not want to go along with this. It was DOJ forcing this issue.
-
Perhaps some of the officers will be charged in connection. Law enforcement have always been able to bend the rules to get their man. The public hasn't minded much so long as the big picture is sold to them in terms of safer streets and better lives.
Perhaps that is the debate we should be having. What extent can law enforcement encroach on existing laws to catch criminals? Should they for example be charged for possession of drugs if they are an undercover hoping to catch buyers? Can they or should they be charged for sending out child pornography to pedophiles in the hope of tracing the images to the perp?
Give me a fucking break, they were sending arms to a foreign country, how exactly were they going to track them? They have no jurisdiction in Mexico. The whole thing is another giant cluster fuck, that no one in charge had the common sense to forsee little things like that ::)
-
240 is really playing hide the salami here.
I like how it went from 10 Bush cronies here:
you must not have read the 2000 document penned by 10 members of the Bush admin calling for a 'new pearl harbor' as a catalyst for initiating a plan for takeover in the middle east?
of course not.
Up to 17 Bush cronies here:
I would wager most getbiggers are well aware of the 2000 document - penned by 17 people who would end up working in the Bush admin - with the goal of promoting American global leadership and the fact it wouldn't happen without "some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor".
Give him another week and it will read:
you must not have read the 2000 document penned by 256 members of the Bush admin calling for a 'new pearl harbor' as a catalyst for initiating a plan for takeover in the middle east?
of course not.
-
I like how it went from 10 Bush cronies here:
Up to 17 Bush cronies here:
Give him another week and it will read:
Skip, I have to hand it to you, you really pick up on these little details like a champ. Love it.
240 = lying hypocrite. In other news, the sky is blue.
-
Gunwalker and Fast & Furious Updates: Holder, DOJ, FBI, Operation Castaway, ATF
Various ^ | Various | Various
Posted on July 19, 2011 7:45:53 PM EDT by cowpoke
Email Confirms ‘Gunwalker’ Known Throughout Justice Department The October 27, 2009 email from ATF Phoenix Field Division Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell regarded a Southwest Border Strategy Group meeting that focused on Fast and Furious. It contained a laundry list of high ranking Justice Department officials that attended the meeting, including:
* Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer, * Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF * William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF * Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA * Robert Mueller, Director FBI
Four other Justice Department directors or their representatives came from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), Bureau of Prisons (BOP), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA). The chair of the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee (AGAC) also attended the session. Their names were redacted in the released document. U.S. attorneys for all four southwest border states also attended...It strains credibility to claim that the assistant attorney general, the AGAC, the directors of the five major DOJ agencies in charge of law enforcement, and all the U.S. attorneys in the Southwest region were privy to Gunwalker, but that the attorney general himself was unaware of the operation. It suggests that either Holder is being untruthful about what he knew about the operation, and when he knew about it, or that he is so out of touch with a major operation conducted by his key law enforcement agencies that he is too incompetent to fulfill his official duties...more
Deputy Attorney General James Cole Involved in 'Fast & Furious' Whistleblower Cover-up? Operation Fast and Furious (F&F) – a program run by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that allowed thousands of lethal weapons to cross the Mexican border – was apparently no secret among high-level political authorities at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Among those in the know? Newly-confirmed Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Information is now seeping out about the political whiplash that secured a confirmation vote for Cole in exchange for the DOJ’s release of documents to Congress. In a supremely ironic twist, the documents ransomed by Cole’s confirmation strongly suggest that Cole himself was involved in the cover-up of F&F...more
Note also that Congress is apparently having to trade confirmation of Obama officials to obtain certain documents.
Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday. The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them. The development raises further doubts about the now-shuttered program, which was created in November 2009 in an effort to track guns across the border and unravel the cartels' gun smuggling networks. The gun tracing largely failed, however, and hundreds of weapons purchased in U.S. shops later were found at crime scenes in Mexico. The scandal has angered Mexican officials and some members of Congress. Investigators say nearly 2,500 guns were allowed to flow illegally into Mexico under the ATF program, fueling the drug violence ravaging that country and leading to the shooting death of a U.S. border agent...more
Obama-Contra As if "Project Gunrunner" and "Operation Fast and Furious" weren't bad enough, we now learn of "Operation Castaway," run out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Tampa field division. It's another operation that allowed guns to "walk" south of the border, this time to Honduras, using similar techniques and tactics. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., sent two letters a week ago to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melsom inquiring about the program. He shouldn't expect much. As commentator Brit Hume noted on "Fox News Sunday": "The stench of cover-up on this gun-running operation is very strong indeed." "Two weapons found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry were traced back to the ATF's 'Operation Fast and Furious,' and reports now indicate that ATF's Tampa field division trafficked as many as 1,000 firearms to the dangerous MS-13 gang in Honduras through a similar program known as 'Operation Castaway,' " Bilirakis states on his website. Project Gunrunner, of which Operation Fast and Furious was a part, and now Operation Castaway, are without noble purpose. The cover story is that they were part of a plan to trick and track gunrunners. In fact, these schemes made it easy for criminals, drug cartels and gangs to acquire weapons. The real purpose, we have stated and still suspect, was to advance the administration's push for gun control and the stripping of law-abiding Americans of their Second Amendment rights through "common sense" restrictions on private gun ownership by creating chaos and fomenting violence with the guns provided. Indeed, it did not take long for ATF to announce a new gun-control mandate — the requirement that gun store owners in the border states of Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico make a special ATF report for multiple long-gun sales, the same type of weapons the ATF was freely providing to the worst of the worst...more
ATF Chief Admits Mistakes in 'Fast and Furious,' Accuses Holder Aides of Stonewalling Congress The head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has admitted that his agency, in at least one instance, allowed sales of high-powered weapons without intercepting them -- and he accuses his superiors at the Justice Department of stonewalling Congress to protect political appointees in the scandal over those decisions. Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson made the disclosures about the so-called Operation Fast and Furious in an interview with congressional investigators looking into the controversial anti-gunrunning initiative. Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the two Republicans leading the charge in Congress against Fast and Furious, released a statement Monday noting Melson's testimony, along with a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder outlining their complaints. The two lawmakers accuse Holder's department of "unsatisfactory responses and lack of cooperation" with the congressional probe, and Melson seemed to agree. "It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department (of Justice) is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the department," Melson said in one quote highlighted by Issa and Grassley. Melson is quoted as saying, "there were some mistakes made" in Fast and Furious by the ATF's Phoenix Field Division, but Melson said aides to Holder didn't want to admit those mistakes to Congress...more
-
i looked it up on wiki. 17 members.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
'Gunwalker' could have major impact on Mexican politics
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 19 July, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Posted on July 20, 2011 7:18:37 AM EDT by marktwain
Writing for the Abilene Reporter-News, Jorge de la Isla points out a relatively unexplored implication of "Project Gunwalker":
Mexico's presidential election, coming up a year from now, could easily have the U.S. gun policy known as "Fast and Furious" at the center of public debate.
Two weeks ago, Fox News went farther than that, reporting that the potential next president of Mexico (as the likely nominee by President Felipe Calderón's National Action Party), Senator Santiago Creel, has advocated extradition, and prosecution in Mexico, of any U.S. officials behind Project Gunwalker. Says Sen. Creel:
I think we should at least try to prove that what happened in Mexico must be sanctioned by Mexican laws and under our sovereignty," Creel told us. "What can't happen is that this now ends on an administrative sanction, or a resignation. No, no, no. Human lives were lost here. A decision was made to carry out an operation that brought very high risk to human lives.
As the sordid details of "Project Gunwalker" emerge, a growing number of Mexicans are becoming very understandably angry over this monstrous conspiracy to facilitate mass murder in that country, and to destabilize its government by arming the narco-terrorists. Few, if any, people expect the U.S. government to agree to extradite U.S. officials to Mexico, but a closer look is now being taken at arms export laws in the U.S. that might have been broken by those behind "Project Gunwalker."
Attorney and Second Amendment advocate David T. Hardy explains on his Of Arms and the Law blog:
There have been some reports of agents having directly transferred firearms to drug cartel buyers, in order to boost their "street creds."
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
i looked it up on wiki. 17 members.
is that where you get the rest of your idiocy on 9/11
is the hologram ct on there?
-
Concerns came early in U.S.-Mexico gun sting, lawmakers say
Credit: Reuters/Alonso Castillo
By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON | Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:09pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Arizona gun dealer balked at continuing to sell weapons in a sting operation meant to track arms flowing to drug cartels in Mexico as early as December 2009, Republican lawmakers said on Monday.
Two guns sold in the operation, dubbed "Fast and Furious", ended up almost exactly a year later at the crime scene where a U.S. Border Patrol agent died in a shootout with illegal immigrants trying to cross into the United States.
The sting operation is becoming a major headache for the Justice Department, which oversees the ATF and prosecutors in Arizona who ran the sting that was aimed at tracking guns to Mexican cartel leaders in hopes of nabbing them.
Republican lawmakers have accused the Justice Department of withholding for months requested documents and interviews with key officials about the program, a charge officials denied.
Representative Darrell Issa, head of the House Oversight Committee, and Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, renewed their demand for documents related to December 17, 2009 meeting with a gun dealer.
They said they have evidence that the dealer was worried about a spike in sales to those reselling the guns to the cartels: a handful of buyers bought 212 guns in a few days.
"According to witnesses, that meeting was for the purpose of convincing the gun dealer to continue selling to the suspects and continue providing information to the ATF despite misgivings caused by the high volume of purchases," Issa and Grassley said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
ATF correspondence released three months ago suggested gun dealers began balking in April 2010, not December 2009.
Prosecutors painted a different picture of the meeting in a January 2011 memo turned over to lawmakers. It said the dealer was concerned about endangering himself or violating the law. He was told he did not have to participate in the sting.
But the gun dealer was also told that information he did give about large firearms sales was "very important and useful to ongoing ATF investigations," said the memo, obtained by Reuters, suggesting he was pressured to continue in the sting.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry died in a December 2010 shootout and two guns found there have been traced to the sting. It is not yet known if they fired the fatal shots.
Acting ATF director Kenneth Melson accused the Justice Department of missteps in a closed-door interview with congressional investigators earlier this month, saying the agency should have given information to lawmakers more quickly and officials were trying insulate political appointees.
"My view is that the whole matter of the department's response in this case was a disaster," he said in a transcript included in the letter.
The Justice Department has denied blocking the probe.
"Any notion that the department has failed to cooperate with the investigation is simply not based in fact," said Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler.
(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; editing by Doina Chiacu)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/19/us-mexico-usa-guns-idUSTRE76I5YS20110719
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Of course 240 believes obama and holder over Issa. you know, like the great libertarian he is. ::) ::)
-
Deputy Attorney General James Cole Involved in 'Fast & Furious' Whistleblower Cover-up?
www.whistleblower.org ^ | 19 July, 2011 | Bea Edwards ________________________ ________________________ _________
Operation Fast and Furious (F&F) – a program run by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that allowed thousands of lethal weapons to cross the Mexican border – was apparently no secret among high-level political authorities at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Among those in the know? Newly-confirmed Deputy Attorney General James Cole.
Information is now seeping out about the political whiplash that secured a confirmation vote for Cole in exchange for the DOJ’s release of documents to Congress. In a supremely ironic twist, the documents ransomed by Cole’s confirmation strongly suggest that Cole himself was involved in the cover-up of F&F.
To recap, James Cole is no stranger to serious misconduct occurring during his alleged “watch.” Cole was the “Independent Consultant” stationed at AIG by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before, during and after the financial meltdown of 2008. Despite his oversight responsibilities, Cole looked the other way as the AIG Financial Products Division in London ran the corporation off the rails, ultimately driving the international economy off a cliff. The cost to US taxpayers of the AIG bailout was more than $150 billion.
Fast forward to January 2011. After President Obama installed Cole at DOJ as the Acting Deputy Attorney General through a recess appointment, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-California) began asking Cole’s office for information about F&F. On January 27, Grassley wrote to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson, requesting information. Four days later, Grassley again wrote to Melson about reports that whistleblowers on F&F were being silenced, stating “Rather than focusing on retaliating against whistleblowers, the ATF’s sole focus should be on finding and disclosing the truth as soon as possible."
There followed a chronology of false and misleading information from DOJ to Congress about F&F, and in March, Melson claims he told Cole that DOJ “[…]needed to reexamine how it was responding to the request for information from Congress.” Not long after this, Politico reported that Melson was about to ‘resign’ from ATF.
Grassley, of course, has crossed swords with Cole before. Through 2010 and into 2011, Grassley blocked Cole’s confirmation in part because Cole had failed in his oversight at AIG. In June, however, Grassley withdrew his objection to Cole in exchange for information from the DOJ about F&F (Just for now, let’s ignore the dubious practice of forcing Congress to exchange votes for information from executive agencies about wrongdoing). Cole was then confirmed on June 27, and shortly after the vote, DOJ turned over documents about F&F to the Senate.
In the documents, Grassley discovered that Cole had been informed about F&F in March by Melson and had participated in concealing the details of the operation from Congressional investigators. A July 5th Grassley/Issa letter to Attorney General Eric Holder reads:
Mr. Melson provided documents months ago supporting his concerns [about Operation Fast and Furious] to the official in the ODAG [Office of the Deputy Attorney General] responsible for document production to the Committees, but those documents have not been provided to us.
Grassley and Issa also wrote that, according to Melson:
“[…] 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 [Melson’s] 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.”
Let's recap:
1. Cole ignored or failed to recognize financial risk at AIG for years (while collecting a hefty fee). 2. Grassley blocked his confirmation as Deputy Attorney General. 3. Using a recess appointment, President Obama appointed Cole to Deputy Attorney General in December of last year, and Cole took up his position at DOJ. 4. Cole’s office at DOJ withheld information from Congress about F&F at ATF, a program that allowed thousands of firearms bought in the US to fall into the hands of criminals in Mexico. 5. In a deal with Democrats, Grassley agreed to allow a confirmation vote on Cole in exchange for access to information from DOJ about F&F. 6. Upon receiving that information, Grassley learned that a DOJ official partially responsible for withholding F&F details from Congress was … Cole himself.
Last week, on July 11, Grassley and Issa wrote again to Holder:
As our investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program […].
Grassley and Issa are now requesting e-mails to and from Cole, among others, as part of their investigation.
Let’s hope that they don’t have to make another deal with the devil – or with our “Justice” Department – in order to get them.
Bea Edwards is the International Reform Director at the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
________________________ _____________________
WTF? Another criminal appointment by Obama
Im sure 240 loves this guy, since if obama nominated him, he must be good
-
Gunwalker: New Hearings Scheduled
According to a release from Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has scheduled new hearings into the on going Operation Fast and Furious scandal — this time they’ll be talking to ATF agents based in Mexico:
“Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border” will examine accounts of agents based in Mexico
Washington DC– On Tuesday, July 26th, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will convene a hearing as part of the ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious, a tragically flawed effort that is connected to deaths on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.
The Committee’s previous hearing, Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes, featured ATF agents who testified they were ordered to let guns destined for Mexican drug cartels walk and heartbreaking testimony from the family of a U.S. Border Patrol agent whose murder is linked to guns that law enforcement chose not to interdict.
This Tuesday’s hearing, Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border, will feature the testimony of U.S. law enforcement officials who witnessed a different side of the controversial operation.
These officials saw the steady stream of Operation Fast and Furious guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico and were given orders from superiors not to alert Mexican authorities.
Members of the Committee will also have their first opportunity to question ATF supervisors who have defended Operation Fast and Furious and the Justice Department’s decisions to committee investigators.
“The Acting Director of the ATF has told congressional investigators that the Justice Department is attempting to shift blame in Operation Fast and Furious away from its political appointees,” said Chairman Darrell Issa. “Examining the accounts of witnesses who did not participate in Operation Fast and Furious, but were nonetheless disturbed as they watched it unfold is critical to understanding the scope of this flawed program. This testimony is especially important in light of the Justice Department’s willful efforts to withhold key evidence from investigators about what occurred, who knew and who authorized this reckless operation.”
This should prove interesting. This scandal seems to reach ever higher into the DoJ. Let’s hope for some indictments and resignations out of this.
________________________ __________
WOW!
No wonder Mexico is demanding heads roll.
fuck obama and holder - impeachment now!
-
-26-11 "Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border"
Hearing Documents
Hearing Video
Witnesses
Mr. Carlos Canino
ATF Acting Attaché to Mexico
Mr. Darren Gil
Former ATF Attaché to Mexico
Mr. Jose Wall
ATF Senior Special Agent
Tijuana, Mexico
Mr. Lorren Leadmon
ATF Intelligence Operations Specialist
Mr. William Newell
Former ATF Special Agent in Charge
Phoenix Field Division
Mr. William McMahon
ATF Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations
(West, including Phoenix and Mexico)
-
Exclusive: Story of central ‘Operation Castaway’ figure in his own words
By David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner
..“Congress questions Tampa gun investigation,” Howard Altman of The Tampa Tribune writes in a July 20 report.
Grassley, Bilirakis and U.S. Rep. Darrel Issa, R-Calif., began looking into Operation Castaway after a pair of bloggers, David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh, wrote a piece based on an anonymous source claiming that the Tampa ATF office was "walking" guns to Honduras the way the Phoenix office ran Operation Fast and Furious. The story was widely repeated in the conservative blogosphere and then on Fox News.
But a plea agreement in May 2010 — well before Terry was killed and Operation Fast and Furious became news — seems to show substantial differences between the two operations.
That may well be. Mr. Altman approached this correspondent and Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars for details on this story on July 12, and this is what Vanderboegh took special care to point out in his responding email:
Mr. Altman,
Please read the first link below that David sent you to my story this morning. It covers the distinction between the public face of Castaway and the Honduras gun walking allegations by our sources, which may, or may not, be related. You would do well locally to ask questions on the general subject and not specifically Castaway.
Now, if you would like to make a proposal for an interview that I can pass on to my sources, they can decide if they wish to get in touch with you to talk about it. This is how David and I have handled requests from the politicians and media to the ATF whistleblowers since January. Sometimes they want to talk, sometimes they don't. Sometimes you'll get a response from one, just to see how you handle it, and it it goes well, you'll hear from others. Sometimes, if you're Michael Isikoff, we'll get a response back saying, "I'm not talking to that arrogant a******."
So, frame your request to the agent(s) and I'll pass it on.
Mike Vanderboegh
Altman’s story does not appear to have taken Vanderboegh’s specific caution to separate Operation Castaway from “gunwalking” allegations into consideration, but it does acquaint readers with a central figure in that investigation:
As a result of the investigation, Hugh Crumpler III, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, acknowledged that he illegally sold about 1,000 guns, shipping the bulk of them to Honduras and other countries in Central and South America.
This correspondent has established communications with Crumpler, currently doing time at a federal corrections facility, after being approached by a friend of his:
My dear friend, Hugh Crumpler III, was the sole gun dealer in the middle of the ATF Operation Castaway. He is now doing time at a Federal Medical Facility in Lexington, KY. In hopes of gaining early release, he would like very much to share his true story with you for publication. His wife is being contacted by the ATF, I believe to discourage him from telling his story and causing further embarrassment to them for this ill-advised program that ran concurrently with Fast and Furious. My sole mission in this is to help him get his story out. It is truly fascinating and coming from one of the most honest guys I have ever had the privilege to call "friend". Please let me know if you are interested and if so, I will be happy to put you in touch with Hugh.
What follows are my communications with Mr. Crumpler and his story in his own words, posted below, unedited, in the order sent. No representations as to accuracy and credibility are being made other than they are the words of Mr. Crumpler.
7/14/2011 11:51:40 AM
David-
Hugh Crumpler here. Glad we could connect. Please forward any questions you want answered. My time on the e-mail system is limited. I will do what I can within the time allotted and then continue on my next available opportunity.
Looking forward to any info you can relate to me.
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
7/14/2011 5:21:51 PM
David-
I am ready to provide what ever information you wish. Please let me know how you wish to proceed.
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
7/14/2011 10:10:17 PM
Hellow David,
Trying to reach you. Have you received the previous two e-mails?
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
[NOTE: This correspondent had not yet established an account on CorrLinks, an email utility for communicating with incarcerated persons.]
Codrea, David on 7/15/2011 3:33 PM wrote:
Your friend contacted me and said you wanted to give me some information. My response to him was to caution that anything said to me does not enjoy lawyer-client privilege, and while I am committed to protect my sources, going through CorrLinks with its attendant monitoring guarantees there can be no true confidentiality--so with that established, if you wish to proceed, my first question would be: Do you have evidence that any representative of the US government, either from ATF Tampa or any other agency--violated US law and/or ITAR regs and was involved in the illegal transport and transfer of firearms or other ordnance--and if so, did it involve export to any foreign nation, Honduras, or anywhere else?
-----
7/15/2011 5:06:40 PM
David-
I will e-mail you "my story" a very short version later. It will take some time to enter into the computer.
My case, Operation Castaway, centered around me. Agents from the Tampa, Orlando, Miami, and West Palm Beach offices of the ATF were actively involved. I have no "proof". Basically, my attorney never checked into what the ITAR regs (whatever that is) were, or even into the normal operations of the ATf. My attorney did not know anything about firearms. He was court appointed.
The other night, Senior Agent Keven McCann called my wife and told her that there were Blogs in the Tampa area comparing Operation Castaway to Operation Fast and Furious. Kevin told my wife the operations were not similar because the ATF comfiscated the weapons I sold from the folks I delivered them to.
While I was working with/for the ATF I informed them of several ways that those who bought guns from me at the Alvena Way, Orlando residence shipped the guns to Honduras. One way was through an International Shipper who shipped the guns in a Shipping Container. ATF agents followed residents of the Alvena Way, Orland residence, with guns I sold them, to the international shipper. The activities were photographed by the ATF. The guns were placed in a shipping container. The shipping container was taken, by the shipper, to a sea port. I believe Miami, but I am not certain. Agents McCann and Temple were visibly upset when ICE intercepted the shipment prior to its arrival at it destination. The destination was Honduras. This took two or more days, from the time the guns left the Alvena Way, Orlando residence until the guns were intercepted by ICE.
The agents told me they had been "Watching me for a long time". My attorney never asked for all records. They had bunches.
Two of the guns I sold were susposedly used by criminals. One in Columbia and one was found on a hit man in Puerto Rico. All that is in my Plea Agreement. Normally when they trace a gun used in a crime they ask every one from the manufacturer on down who had the gun next. They never asked or contacted me. I don't know if that is a violation of law, procedure, or?
I will get much more to you later.
God Bless You,
Hugh
-----
7/15/2011 7:20:49 PM
David-
My attorney, Roger Weeden, said on Fox News that he thought no guns made it to Latin America. How would he know? He did not request all the info of the investigation from the ATF. He did not interview ANY of the over 20 agents who participated in my case. He was not familiar with weapons, the ATF, or its operations and made no attempt to gain that knowledge. All he did was what the Prosecutor and the ATF wanted. Which is EXACTALLY what he is doing now. He was a court appointed attorney.
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
7/16/2011 12:05:47 AM
David-
I went to gun shows throughout Florida. I both sold and purchased guns. I did not intend to be a large volume buyer and seller. That evolved. There are Private Sellers and Gun Dealers at gun shows. A Private Seller is one who sells guns from his collection. Through both attending and haveing a table at gun shows I learned that a vast majority (almost all) Private Sellers were selling guns for a profit without a license.
Some of these Private Sellers had been doing it for more than twenty years. That is, they were selling guns for a profit without a lisence. Over a period of time I learned some of their procedyures and practices. I also learned how the ATF treated the Private Seller.
Amoung the practices and procedures of those Private Sellers who had been in business for a long time: buy guns from other Private Sellers where no paperwork was required; sell only for cash; and a couple of Private Sellers sold only long guns.
Purchases and sales through a lisenced gun dealer require a background check and paperwork. Sales or purchases of multiple handguns require additional paperwork and reporting. All the reports alert the government. Several Private Sellers told me they were given either verbal or written warnings to stop or to get a lisence. Some stopped. Some got a lisence and afew got more cautious and continued selling guns for a profit without a lisence.
I did not intend to be a volume gun dealer. in did not intend to be a long term gun dealer. I kept no secrets. i purchased guns from Private Sellers. However, by far, the vast majority of my purchases were from gun dealers. The vast majority of gun purchases, by far, were mulotiple firearms purchases. Three sets of paperwork were required: a background check; a multiple purchase report; and a receipt.
Clues that alert the ATF that a Private Seller may be selling guns for a profit inclued: the frequency of purchases; purchases of the same model gun; the volume of the purchases; and the particular models of firearms purchased. i was not attempting to hide anything! I expected the ATF to stop me and give me a warning. I planned to stop.
In the beginning my purchases were of one, two or three firearms; two to three times a week. Most were handguns. All purchases were from gun dealers. Appropriate background checks and multiple purchase/sales forms were filled out.
Several gun dealers asked me if I was concerned that the ATF might be watching me. My answer was: "i am sure they are!" I believed the ATF would follow past practices and give me a warning.
I developed a group of clients. Some in West Palm Beach, Orlando, Jacksonville, and Miami. These clients all wanted many of the same model gun and many of them. A large percentage of these clients were from Honduras. I was positive the government was watching me. But, why were they allowing me to continue?
My thought process was: OK - these guys want the same model guns and lots of them - why? So...I did my research. Zalia was the President of Honduras. Zalia was supported by Chavez (anti-US). The Honduran government was supported by Chavez through lower oil prices. The Hondurans were indeed sending the guns to Honduras. I was told (once I found out) and i believed what i was told, theat the guns were for the general population to defend against Chavez, a corrupt government, and crime. OK - I've heard of Oliver North. Maybe the government actually wanted the guns in Honduras so they were letting me make the sales.
Low and behold Zalia presented the Honduran Congress with legislature that he be the President for life = the same thing Chavez did. Zalia was escorted out of office. Now there was real turmoil in Honduras. Chavez was sending two Cesnas into Honduras daily. Each was filled with ten million U S dollars in twenty dollar bills. (I got paid in alot of twenty dollar bills during that time.) The money was distributed to peasants to protest against the ouster of Zalia.
By this time I was making daily firearms purchases of thirty or more firearms and delivering them daily - six days a week. My thoughts continued to be that: "Surely the government knew what I was doing. And since they did dnot approach me they must either want me to do this or they approve.
Most of my sales and purchases were during the last half of '09' and early January '10'. When the ATF stopped me in January of '10' I was informed that the guns I sold were ending up in the hands of Cartels. Two had been connected with crimes. The ATF asked for my cooperation and I said: "Lets go get them!"
With my cooperation and risking my life to obtain evidence at least twice the ATF was able to charge and convict numorous individuals; intercept weapons shipments and gain intelligence.
I asked the ATF agents handling my case many times why they did not stop me and warn me. For many months they did not respond to my question. Towards the end of their operations the ATF agent in charge gave me two different answers - neither of which I considered plausable.
From the very earliest contact the ATF informed me that my case was supervised at the National Level. (I thought it must have been because of my anti-Obama sentiments.) This was the time when Obama had the 'Tell on your friends" website.
The government provided me with an attorney who knew nothing about firearms and nothing about the ATF or its operating procedures. He made no attempt to learn. He never intervied any ATF agent involved with the case prior to the sentencing hearing. He did not return any messages left by the ATF agent, Temple who asked him to return call. He did not formally request notes of meetings or recordings of meetings I asked to get. My attorney neglected in returning phone calls. One of the ATF agents had the same problem with him. My attorney made ZERO progress on my behalf. During the Sentencing Hearing the Judge intimidated my attorney. My attorney stuttered and stammered. he did not ask my sitnesses any of the questions he told them he was going to ask them; he did not call all of my witnesses; and my attorney's closing argument enraged the Judge.
The ATF continues to investigate individuals based on information I provided them.
Recent revelations regarding ATF actions in Arizona appear to be actions taken very similar to actions taken in my case. The ATF actions were Supervised Nationally and guns were intentionally let fo into the hands of criminals.
I feel I should be immediately released from prison; given a warning; pardoned; and both the firearms and the cash the ATF took from me be returned. Based on recent revelations the ATF allowed me to sell guns way longer than under normal ATF practices. The ATF has had my complete cooperation. Basically, I should be reinstated to the position I would have been in when a warning should have been issued.
Information in the press indicated the ATF confiscated fifty thousand dollars from me. In actuality, the ATF confiscated a little more that four thousand dollars from my person and home. Other cash was obtained from other indivciduals by me under ATF supervision as evidence; seventeen thousand dollars in cash during a supervised transaction'; over thirteen thousand dollars from several individuals at one location - at the same; and a six thousand dollar deposit to my bank account. (The cash was immediately given to the ATF,.)
I would be happy to testify in front of Congress. And I have sent info to many congressmen (none have responded - info was sent in mid '10') so indicating.
During the ATF investigation and during my cooperation it was discovered that I was selling guns to the two largest gun dealing families in Honduras. One with ties to the government. Serious ties. Solictor General and one of the new President's staff.
God Bless America,
Hugh Crumpler III
Advertisement
ADGRPID:|SERVTYPE:
-----
Codrea, David on 7/16/2011 12:03 PM wrote:
I'm going to need some time to digest this and consult with my advisers. Also, will be in and out all weekend with limited internet access.
What I want you to think about is what it is you want me to do with this information, how it can best be used, all with a mind toward what best protects your vulnerability from further legal action and/or retaliation. I am more than mindful that your present surroundings could make such retaliation difficult to prove, yet nonetheless intimidating.
-----
7/16/2011 2:35:47 PM
David-
I am not worried about retaliation. Most likely, if any, retaliation would come from the criminal element that I helped to turn in. I did not for a second believe that I was selling to cartels. I was looking for any connection to crime and I could find none. The "looking" is how I was able to determine as much as I did.
I said it many times to the ATF that "It is easier to get guns out of the country than it is to get money in!"
I believe that the ATF allowed me to sell guns by not doing anything when they should have. Further, they did not do follow up questioning of me when they found I gun I had purchased was used in a crime. They were deliberately lax.
I would like to see the approach to the article that I was used by the ATF to locate the individuals who were shipping guns to cartels and put me in a position where I could be of invaluable assistance to them- which I was.
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
-
7/16/2011 3:21:16 PM
David-
I have always wanted to be a hero. My heros were John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Batman, Zorro, and so on. I joined the Army to fight the Communist Invasion of South Vietnam in Feb of 1966. I voluntered for Officer Candidate School that same year. And graduated from OCS as a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry in Feb of 1967. I was assigned duty in Vietnam in 1968. I was there for the Tet Offensive. I was an Infantry Platoon Leader in the Fourth Infantry Division. Our missions were primarily along the Laosan & Cambodian borders with South Vietnam. We went up and down the Ho Chi Minn Trail. NO MAN UNDER MY COMMAND WAS KILLED!! Not many Infantry Platoon Leaders can say that. I never heard of another. I was awarded medals for individual heroism by my country and by Vietnam. Late during my tour in Vietnam I was promoted to Company Executive Officer.
I have saved the lives of several individuals as a civilian. It is just my nature. I have never smoked, or done drugs. I don't even know the common terms of the drug culture. Most folks consider me a "Goody Goody". Crime, specifically, selling guns to criminals IS not in my make up. I thought I was being a hero to the people of Honduras and I thought it was what my government wanted.
I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and I was on Citalopram. That drug will alter a person's behavior. I believe that my taking that drug had something to do with my not seeing/being aware of things I should have known. The Judge, at my sentencing hearing said I should have known (referring to the fact that the guns went to cartels). Looking back, in retrospect, yes, I should have known. But "should have" and knowing are not the same thing.
I thought you might want a little of my background.
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
Codrea, David on 7/16/2011 4:48 PM wrote:
Rep. Bilirakis of FL is looking into the Honduran allegations--can I share your story with his staff?
-----
7/16/2011 8:50:59 PM
Please do. I am sending him a written version. I just found out that he was investigating. I am sending him the same as I have sent you.
Definantly, please do. I am willing to testify before Congress. Whatever!
God Bless You,
Hugh
-----
7/17/2011 7:05:42 AM
David and [REDACTED—name of Crumpler's friend mentioned earlier in this account]-
My internet e-mail access will be down Monday morning until aprox 11 AM. They are doing a software upgrade. I will be checking my e-mail as soon as possible. However, if things work as they usually do around here the flood of e-mail usage when the system comes on will overload the server and we will be a little slow. So......bear with me if you do not have a responce to any e-mail you might send.
Also, the usual BOP reading of incoming and outgoing e-mail applies. That usually means a two and a half hour one way e-mail.
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
Codrea, David on 7/19/2011 10:03 AM wrote:
What is it that you want me to do with your story? About all I can figure out is present it unedited on my Examiner.com page, attributed to you, give a background up front on who you are and that we are in communication, and then get out of the way and paste in what you've told me via email correspondence. That will do two things--it will inform the public and possibly get other news orgs interested in finding out more from you, and it will be additional info for Congressional investigators to start pulling threads from.
It's up to you if I do that or not--I always protect sources and never use information or names given to me unless authorized. So what would you like to have me do?
-----
7/19/2011 11:50:23 AM
David-
Every thing you suggested is perfectly alright with me. Post it, use my name.
Were you able to share the story with the Congressman from Florida's Staff?
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
Codrea, David on 7/19/2011 9:48 PM wrote:
Not yet but I will--writing it up and sending my contacts there the link is really the best way--it will consolidate all the info in one place plus I will mention it in the article to help create a pressure for both Bilirakis and Issa staffers to give it a serious look.
-----
7/20/2011 9:05:42 AM
Thank you. I appreciate all the help.
God Bless You,
Hugh
-----
7/20/2011 9:50:52 AM
Not Sure If I sent you this info
David-
While I was working for/with the ATF I informed them about methods the individuals at the Alvena Way, Orlando residence used to ship the guns to Honduras. One of the methods was that they took the guns to an International Shipping Company where they were placed in an overseas shipping container and shipped. The ATF photographed individuals leaving the Alvean Way, Orlando residence and driving to the International Shipping Company (I do not know which one.) The guns were placed in an overseas shipping container. The shipping container was taken by the shipping company to a sea port. I believe it was Miami. ATF agents McCann and Temple were visibly upset when ICE intercepted the shipment and confiscated the guns prior to their arrival at their destination. The destination was Honduras. These actions occurred over a period of at least, an probably, two days.
God Bless You,
Hugh Crumpler III
-----
Codrea, David on 7/20/2011 11:08:02 AM wrote:
When did this take place?
# # #
UPDATE: Just received this response to my last question:
The ATF stopped me in late Jan of 10. This took place within a couple of weeks. Probably, within the first week after they stopped me and asked me to cooperate.
This article is being forwarded to staffers for Sen. Grassley and Reps. Issa and Bilrakis.
Also see:
•Source claims ATF's Tampa SAC walked guns to Honduras
•Breaking News: Tampa SAC 'in full meltdown...shredders are buzzing'
•ATF’s Melson urged to prove he’s still director and stop alleged Tampa cover-up
•Bilirakis questions Holder, Melson on Tampa gunwalking allegations
A Journalist’s Guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner.
Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
------------
.....
Continue reading on Examiner.com Exclusive: Story of central ‘Operation Castaway’ figure in his own words - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/exclusive-story-of-central-operation-castaway-figure-his-own-words#ixzz1SkJtYIHX
-
why won't FOX or DRUDGE touch the story?
-
why won't FOX or DRUDGE touch the story?
Who cares?
What does that have to do with anything?
They don't touch the 9/11 conspiracies either, but you rail on them constantly... They don't touch on the Sarah Palin baby shit, but you brought it up non-stop man.
Look, if it's true... they need to go to prison... period.
If it's not, then they shouldn't but we need to know the truth.
-
Operation Fast and Furious: The Straw Buyers
By William La Jeunesse & Laura Prabucki
Published July 20, 2011
| FoxNews.com
When the Operation Fast and Furious indictment was announced back in January, it was depicted as a big bust. Twenty suspects were charged with numerous counts of conspiracy, money laundering, gun running and drug trafficking. The defendants faced 5 to 20 years on a single count.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives(ATF) along with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix claimed to have dismantled a major weapons trafficking organization from top to bottom- from the end user of the weapons in Mexico to the money men, those who smuggled and transported the weapons from the U.S. into Mexico, and the buyers on our side of the border.
Yet after thousands of man hours and millions of dollars spent, only one of the 20 suspects remains behind bars. Most were released within 24 hours of their arrest. In the end, all prosecutors got was one middle man and a handful of straw buyers.
Fox News paid a visit to some of the straw buyers in the Phoenix Metro area last week. What we found were young men, many living with their parents, who were apparently just looking to make some quick money.
"A straw buyer is usually a kid who is 18-25, who needs a couple hundred extra bucks and knows somebody who knows somebody that has a way to make a couple extra bucks," said Adrian Fontes, an attorney for the accused ringleader of this Operation. His client, Manuel Celis- Acosta is the only one still in jail.
"The government wants a dramatic indictment, they want the conspiracy to sound like it's run out by highly sophisticated individuals who are involved with a particularly nefarious organization when the reality is it's just a bunch of kids," said Fontes.
Those "kids" purchased more than 1800 guns from stores in and around Phoenix. The straw buyers reportedly received about $100 per transaction. The gun stores say they were assured by the ATF and U.S. attorneys that the weapons would be tracked. Instead, agents say the weapons were allowed to "walk", they were not followed and many ended up in Mexico. Along with crime scenes south of the border, two were also found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Former U.S. Attorney Melvin McDonald says the defendants' release suggests that Operation Fast and Furious is not only a scandal, it was a failure.
" It's pretty scary," says McDonald. " You'd think a lot of people probably would not get out , they'd be detained because of the risk."
The parents of some of the straw buyers claim their sons just got caught up with the wrong crowd.
The mother of 18-year old Dejan Hercegovac, who bought more than 30 guns, said, "He didn't know anything.. he was just a kid."
The father of Erick Avila- Davila, a 25-year old who bought 12 guns, said he didn't know what his son was up to and only found out when he was arrested.
" When I ask him what he did, he just told me 'I'm sorry dad'."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/20/operation-fast-and-furious-straw-buyers/#ixzz1Slo93AxU
-
Gunwalker: Testimony Reveals Eric Holder’s Obfuscation Tactics
Pajamas Media ^ | July 20, 2011 | Patrick Richardson
ATF Acting Director Ken Melson's testimony shows just how far the DOJ has gone to impede the investigation and to protect political appointees.
Attorney General Eric Holder continues to duck responsibility for Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed more than 2,500 weapons, including thousands of AK-47 variants and .50 caliber sniper rifles, across the Mexican border and into the hands of the cartels. The weapons were used to murder Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and an estimated 150 Mexican nationals.
In May of this year, Holder was called to testify in front of Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to answer questions about the program — which Holder claimed he’d first heard of in the media.
Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-IA), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, have been complaining for months now that the Department of Justice has been obstructing the investigation, to the degree of possible witness tampering.
Holder’s Justice Department finally responded to a letter from Issa and Grassley. But according to a new letter from them, Holder is merely continuing to obfuscate, a fact underscored by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Ken Melson initially being prevented from briefing or testifying to Congress, as his eventual personal testimony states.
According to the latest release from Issa and Grassley:
“It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department,” ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson said of his frustration with the Justice Department’s response to the investigation in a transcribed interview.
Indeed, Melson’s testimony makes it clear he feared the consequences of not coming clean from the beginning, as Issa and Grassley state in their letter:
[A]fter receiving [Senator Grassley's initial] letter, our first instinct and intuition was to directly march over to Senator Grassley’s office and brief him on what Fast and Furious was for purposes of explaining the concept and the role it played and how it got there, and where ATF was going in it. And we expressed that desire to the [Deputy Attorney General]‘s office.
The DOJ did not permit Mr. Melson to brief Senator Grassley. Instead, the Department devised a strategy to withhold information from the senator. Mr. Melson testified further:
I sat in [the office of the Associate Deputy Attorney General with responsibility for ATF] one day when they were writing the letter to Senator Grassley about him being only a ranking member and not the chair of the committee. I sat there across the desk from [him], as I recall, and said, this is really just poking [Senator Grassley] in the eye. What’s the sense of doing this? Even if you say you can’t give it to him, he’s going to get it through the back door anyhow, so why are we aggravating this situation.
Congress had demanded answers as far back as February 10, and was possibly lied to in an open hearing:
Instead of providing Congress answers from the individuals best-positioned to provide them, Mr. Melson and his staff were muzzled. The decision to withhold information at the earliest sign of congressional interest set the Justice Department on a course that required Congress to aggressively pursue testimony and documents elsewhere. As you now know, this was entirely avoidable. The Department’s leadership chose to protect its own interests at the expense of exposing the leadership of a subordinate agency to Congressional scrutiny.
While Congress waited, ATF’s senior leaders examined how and why Fast and Furious happened. Mr. Melson and his staff identified institutional problems. They concluded that the Phoenix Field Division needed new supervision and reassigned every manager involved in Fast and Furious. Mr. Melson wanted to share this important development with Congress to show that ATF was taking the allegations seriously. The Department resisted. Mr. Melson observed that “[t]he [Deputy Attorney General's] office wasn’t very happy with us, because they thought this was an admission that there were mistakes made. Well, there were some mistakes made.” (Emphasis in original)
The DOJ went so far as to refrain from telling Melson he had not just the option, but the right to appear before Congress without a DOJ handler and with his own attorney. Issa’s staff had to tell Melson this.
Even more damning, DOJ not only prevented Melson from testifying before Congress, they prevented him from communicating with his own department:
Part of the problem, and one of the things that frustrated me was that I have not been allowed to communicate to the troops about anything. So, for example, earlier on, I wanted to do a broadcast that just talked about the case, because everybody was wondering what’s this case about? What are you doing at headquarters? How come you were not issuing press releases and how come you were not ordering press conferences and pushing back and things like that? And I was told not to do that.
Then after we wanted to do several things to talk to our people about what this case was about, what it wasn’t about, and you know, where we were going and the fact that we were cooperating as much as we could with the committee and with the Department, but we were restrained from doing that. And even after your hearings on the — was it the 16th or whatever that Wednesday was, we wanted to do the same thing, and they said, well, let us read it first. So we finally drafted something and sent it over to them. I don’t know whether we ever got it back, but it has restrained our ability to work with our people.
Melson’s testimony also makes clear DOJ is trying to protect political appointees:
But I think the way it was handled went sideways and it could have been avoided with perhaps a more thoughtful approach to what was going on instead of such a strident approach to it. I think there could have been accommodations made between the Hill and ATF and DOJ as to how information was shared. It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department.
This is an understatement of British proportion. There are ten pages to this letter, and far more information. It’s clear that there has been a concerted effort by Eric Holder’s DOJ to block the congressional investigation and to protect political appointees, plus a willingness to throw anyone who doesn’t fall directly in line to the wolves.
They’ve also been happy to use the failed operation to push for more gun control.
Yet Issa and Grassley do not appear inclined to back down until all of the answers are public.
-
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0722-fast-furious-emails,0,5029419.story
latimes.com
ATF sought to downplay guns scandal, emails show
As Sen. Charles Grassley and congressional investigators looked into the Fast and Furious operation and the killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, ATF officials took steps to throw them off the trail.
Richard A. Serrano
Washington Bureau
3:41 PM PDT, July 21, 2011
Reporting from Washington
advertisement
Two days after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was killed in December, the top ATF supervisors in Phoenix said in internal emails that weapons found at the scene in Arizona came from a failed agency sting operation.
But nearly two months later, when U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) inquired about the origin of the guns, senior officials in Washington with the Justice Department and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were evasive.
Grassley asked whether the guns were "used" in the killing. According to agency emails obtained by the Tribune/Times Washington bureau, the Justice Department response to Grassley said that "these allegations are not true." The response made no acknowledgement that the guns were even there.
DOCUMENTS: Read the emails
ATF officials, speaking not for attribution because the probe is ongoing, said they saw a distinction between the guns being found at the scene and "used" in the killing. They said the FBI had determined that neither of the two AK-47 semiautomatics was the one that killed the agent.
The parsing of the response to Grassley fit a pattern of ATF and Justice Department officials seeking to minimize the depth of the problems with the sting operation run by the ATF's Phoenix field office.
The goal of the sting operation, dubbed Fast and Furious, was to observe but not prevent a series of illegal gun purchases in the hopes that agents could follow the guns and learn about smuggling routes into Mexico. The program, which began in November 2009, largely failed. ATF lost track of many of the weapons. Along with the two guns found at the Terry shooting, nearly 200 more were found at crime scenes in Mexico.
After the death of Terry and Grassley's inquiries, the agency sought to close ranks. In an email on Feb. 3, ATF supervisors were told "you are in no way obligated to respond to congressional contacts or requests for information.... You are not authorized to disclose non-public information about law enforcement matters outside of ATF or the Department of Justice to anyone, including congressional staff."
In addition, in a series of emails to William J. Hoover, the ATF's acting deputy director, bureau officials discussed what steps to take to throw Grassley and congressional investigators off the trail.
Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, are investigating who in Washington approved the program and why it was not shut down months before ATF ultimately halted it.
Grassley started asking questions in late January, when he received tips that two of the weapons found near Terry's body were Fast and Furious guns. He sent two letters to the ATF, saying "this raises a host of serious questions that the ATF needs to address immediately." He added that, if they were indeed Fast and Furious guns, then "the ATF may have become careless, if not negligent, in implementing" the program.
According to the internal emails, two days after Terry's killing on Dec. 14 the top two ATF field supervisors in Phoenix were openly discussing that Fast and Furious guns were found at the scene. George T. Gillett Jr., then the acting special agent in charge, sent his boss, William D. Newell, the agent in charge, a "narrative of incident/activity" about the death.
It said Jaime Avila bought three AK-47s a year earlier from a Phoenix-area store and two "were recovered in the area" of Terry's killing. "In summary," the email said, "Avila admitted to ATF agents that he straw purchased these firearms for an unidentified Hispanic male."
After Grassley's inquiries, Hoover received an internal email alerting him that the bureau was "receiving reports that Grassley's staff is contacting current and former ATF field agents to inquire about the open investigation into the Brian Terry murder" and Fast and Furious. According to one email, ATF officials believed that Grassley was growing more suspicious because "ATF is not answering" his concerns.
They seemed further alarmed when they learned a mid-level ATF supervisor "called to the carpet" an employee who had spoken with Grassley's staff. The employee "was ordered to write a memorandum disclosing everything" he told the senator's staff. The email said Grassley's office had expressed concern that the ATF supervisor may have violated federal laws intended to protect whistle-blowers.
As the agency continued to work on a written response to Grassley, an email to Hoover proposed a "watered-down" account of what was found at the site of the Terry killing. As an aside, the email added that Grassley was "at best imposing an unobtainable standard on ATF."
ATF finally sent Grassley a two-page response Feb. 4, under the signature of Assistant Atty. Gen. Ronald Weich. It largely defended the Fast and Furious program and devoted one paragraph to the Terry killing: The agency could not comment about "pending criminal investigations."
According to one email, it was sent with the approval of acting ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson. "He's good to go with it," it said.
Hoover praised the response. "Nice touch partner," the No. 2 man at ATF said about a colleague's work on the letter.
Indeed, several senior ATF and Justice Department officials dispatched emails congratulating one another. "You're a natural leader," one told Hoover. "The men and women are lucky you've stayed the course."
Whether Grassley and his staff would be satisfied with their response, they were left to wonder. As one official put it, "Whether or not they buy in, you are the man for supporting us like that."
DOCUMENTS: Read the emails
richard.serrano@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
ATF Whistleblower Case Triggers Retaliation Inquiry
NPR.org ^ | 7/21/11 | Carrie Johnson
Posted on July 21, 2011 7:42:10 PM EDT by Nachum
The Justice Department's inspector general has opened an investigation into possible retaliation against a whistle-blowing agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to two people briefed on the inquiry.
Watchdogs are examining whether anyone at the Justice Department improperly released internal correspondence to try to smear ATF agent John Dodson, who told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month that he repeatedly warned supervisors about what he called a reckless law enforcement operation known as "Fast and Furious."
Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate have spent months pursuing allegations that the ATF may have knowingly allowed assault weapons to enter Mexico in order to try to build bigger criminal cases against violent drug cartels that make use of AK-47s and other American weapons.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
-
House to question ATF officials on guns to Mexico
washingtontimes.com ^ | 21 July, 2011 | Jerry Seper
Several top ATF officials will testify Tuesday before a House committee investigating the controversial “Fast and Furious” weapons program and likely will be asked whether they were ordered not to tell Mexican authorities that guns recovered at crime scenes in that country had been illegally purchased in the U.S.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, called in the wake of acting ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson’s closed-door testimony that the Justice Department sought to shift blame for Fast and Furious away from its political appointees, also will get its first opportunity to question ATF supervisors who have defended the program and the Justice Department.
“Examining the accounts of witnesses who did not participate in Operation Fast and Furious, but were nonetheless disturbed as they watched it unfold is critical to understanding the scope of this flawed program,” said Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and the committee chairman.
“This testimony is especially important in light of the Justice Departments willful efforts to withhold key evidence from investigators about what occurred, who knew and who authorized this reckless operation,” he said.
The hearing, according to committee spokeswoman Becca Glover Watkins, will feature the testimony of officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) who “saw the steady stream of Operation Fast and Furious guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico and were given orders from superiors not to alert Mexican authorities.”
Those scheduled to testify are William McMahon, ATF deputy assistant director for field operations in Phoenix and Mexico; William Newell, former ATF special agent in charge at the Phoenix field division; Carlos Canino, ATF acting attache to Mexico; Darren Gil, former ATF attache to Mexico; Jose Wall, ATF senior agent in Tijuana, Mexico; and Lorren Leadmon, ATF intelligence operations specialist.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
Several top ATF officials will testify Tuesday before a House committee investigating the controversial “Fast and Furious” weapons program and likely will be asked whether they were ordered not to tell Mexican authorities that guns recovered at crime scenes in that country had been illegally purchased in the U.S.
Smart move here. We all know how corrupt Mexico's govt can be. Telling them about this would limit our ability to intentionally fuel both sides on the war on drugs.
-
Smart move here. We all know how corrupt Mexico's govt can be. Telling them about this would limit our ability to intentionally fuel both sides on the war on drugs.
240 - mexico was blaming gun dealers and calling for AWB2 at the time. Had they known is was the messiah and holder who were the ones shipping the guns, they might have trained their efforts on obama instead of ther 2nd amendment, and obama knows it.
-
240 - mexico was blaming gun dealers and calling for AWB2 at the time. Had they known is was the messiah and holder who were the ones shipping the guns, they might have trained their efforts on obama instead of ther 2nd amendment, and obama knows it.
you still don't get it.
without a war on the border and a shitload of violence, border partrol and ATF lose their budget.
If you're a bouncer and you don't have a fight for 3 weeks - YOU START ONE. Job security.
Same reason billions in cash and guns go missing in afghanistan every year. feeding the enemy to keep the war alive.
This shit will go on under different names under the next president, you know this, mannnn.
-
Is 'Gunwalker' whistleblower John Dodson victim of retaliatory smear campaign?
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 21 July, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
On March 3, when CBS Evening News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson asked Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) Special Agent John Dodson in an on-camera interview if he had been "intentionally letting guns go to Mexico," he answered, "Yes ma'am. I mean the agency was." That began the interview in which Dodson became the first BATFE whistleblower to publicly come forward to bring this scandal into the light.
Doing so required a great deal of courage. Whistleblowers face harsh treatment, and the BATFE has a long, rich history of especially harsh treatment of those who would dare make that agency accountable to the public it ostensibly exists to serve. Dodson could not have been unaware of the risks he was taking, but his conscience demanded those risks.
Now, National Public Radio reports that he may be paying the price:
The Justice Department's Inspector General has opened an investigation into possible retaliation against a whistle-blowing agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, according to two people briefed on the inquiry.
Watchdogs are examining whether anyone at the Justice Department improperly released internal correspondence to try to smear ATF agent John Dodson, who told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month that he repeatedly warned supervisors about what he called a reckless law enforcement operation known as "Fast and Furious."
Allegedly, according to Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), Department of "Justice" officials "leaked Privacy Act protected documents to the press in an effort to discredit Mr. Dodson with half-truths even though those documents had been withheld from Congress. It's a very serious matter that should be thoroughly investigated."
This gambit is not unexpected. National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea, in fact, warned about this possibility way back in January, quoting private correspondence:
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
There are 2 things that need to happen for the government to gain complete control over the populace.
1) Remove all guns, this is damn near impossible in the US because of 2A, but they are trying to setup scenarios to limit our ability to obtain weapons
2) Demonize a section of the population as a terrorist threat, extremist.... and this has been going on for while.
-
Gunwalker: Justice Dept. Inspector General Opens Investigation
Pajamas Media ^ | July 22, 2011 | Bob Owens
Operation Fast and Furious — and other alleged “gunwalker” programs — only ended when whistleblowers came forward from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after a firefight in Rio Rico, Arizona, left Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry dead.
NPR – yes, NPR – is now reporting that the Department of Justice inspector general is launching an investigation into whether or not the DOJ illegally retaliated against one of the agents that revealed the gunwalking plot:
The Justice Department’s inspector general has opened an investigation into possible retaliation against a whistleblowing agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to two people briefed on the inquiry.
Watchdogs are examining whether anyone at the Justice Department improperly released internal correspondence to try to smear ATF agent John Dodson, who told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month that he repeatedly warned supervisors about what he called a reckless law enforcement operation known as “Fast and Furious.”
The inspector general is attempting to determine if Obama’s Justice Department leaked one of Dodson’s internal memos to reporters in order to discredit him.
Senator Charles Grassley has warned the Department of Justice repeatedly not to attack whistleblowers, apparently with little effect:
“I’ve warned the administration several times not to retaliate against the whistle-blowers who speak to Congress,” Grassley wrote in an email to NPR Thursday. “Unfortunately, there are indications that the administration leaked Privacy Act-protected documents to the press in an effort to discredit Mr. Dodson with half-truths even though those documents had been withheld from Congress. It’s a very serious matter that should be thoroughly investigated.”
The Justice Department has been ruthless in dealing with the whistleblowers, who have blown the lid off an operation that saw the director-level involvement of every law enforcement entity within the DOJ, in addition to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and likely the State Department.
In addition to retaliating against Dodson, the DOJ stands accused of firing 30-year ATF Agent Vince Cefalu for his role in bringing this and other illegal operations to light at a website he helped found: CleanUpATF.org.
Cefalu ran afoul of the DOJ for criticizing the ATF for previous questionable operations, but his termination seems to have been in response to his stating that those government entities that participated in Gunwalker should be tried as criminals for conspiring to traffic in firearms.
Cefalu also claims that an Obama administration meme that large-scale gun smuggling operations were supplying the cartels was false, which likely drew even more scrutiny.
In addition to allegations that the DOJ participated in attempting to smear and fire ATF whistleblowers, the Department stands accused of trying to stonewall congressional oversight investigations into Operation Fast and Furious — first by stopping Acting ATF Director Ken Melson from testifying at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about what he knew of the operation:
The Justice Department blocked senior ATF leaders from cooperating with Congress in its investigation of the “Fast and Furious” weapons operation, ordering them not to respond to questions and taking full control of replying to briefing and document requests, the agency’s top boss told congressional investigators.
Kenneth E. Melson, the embattled acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told Senate Judiciary Committee and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigators during a secret interview designed to circumvent Justice Department attorneys that he was “sick to his stomach” when he learned about problems with the controversial operation.
Melson was eventually told by Congressman Darrell Issa’s office that he did not have to testify with DOJ attorneys present. Once he was “free” of DOJ lawyers, he gave direct testimony to congressional investigators with only his own private lawyer present and without DOJ minders, much to the dismay of his superiors.
To date, not all of Melson’s testimony has been released — it is apparently being withheld in a game of high stakes brinkmanship as Issa and Grassley face down a recalcitrant administration.
Acting DOJ Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar would be wise to keep the results of her investigations into the alleged Dodson leak, Fast and Furious, and any other gunrunning investigations that may develop for as long as is practically possible. As Gerald Walpin discovered the hard way, the Obama administration isn’t kind to inspector generals that are determined to do their jobs.
-
Worse Than Gunwalker? State Dept. Allegedly Sold Guns to Zetas
Pajamas ^ | 7/22/11 | Bob Owens
Posted on Friday, July 22, 2011 3:10:58 PM by ZGuy
Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative and one-time leader of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center, claims that the Obama administration is running guns to the violent Zetas cartel through the direct commercial sale of military grade weapons:
Jordan, who served as director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center in 1995, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons purchased in the Dallas area through El Paso.
Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, told the Times he supported Jordan’s allegations, adding that the Zetas have reportedly bought property in the Columbus, N.M., border region to stash weapons and other contraband.
“From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales Program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas.”
The U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program is run from the U.S. State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. It regulates and licenses private U.S. companies’ overseas sales of weapons and other defense materials, defense services, and military training. This does not include the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, which authorized sales to foreign governments.
An El Paso Times article – as of now ignored by mainstream media — went into much more shocking detail:
“They’ve found anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era,” Plumlee said. Other weapons found include grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor.
“The information about the arms trafficking was provided to our U.S. authorities long before the ‘Columbus 11′ investigation began,” said Plumlee, referring to recent indictments accusing several Columbus city officials of arms trafficking in conjunction with alleged accomplices in El Paso and Chaparral, N.M.
Jesús Rejón Aguilar, the number three man in the Zeta’s hierarchy, disclosed last week that the Zetas bought weapons in the United States and transported them across the Rio Grande. Mexican federal authorities captured Rejón on July 3 in the state of Mexico, and presented him to the news media the next day. His recorded video statement was uploaded on YouTube.
Jordan agreed with Plumlee’s allegations that the Zetas are operating in the Columbus-Palomas border.
Plumlee, who has testified before U.S. congressional committees about arms and drug trafficking, said the roads in Southern New Mexico provide smugglers easy access to Mexico’s highway networks.
Insight.org provides a map of the air-smuggling route originating in Dallas at Alliance Airport and ending in Columbus, New Mexico — a small town that has also been rocked by the arrests and guilty pleas of the town mayor and other elected officials who were running guns to a cartel safehouse, and then apparently into Mexico.
There is no direct link made as of yet between the Columbus, NM, officials case and the allegations of the Dallas-to-Columbus air smuggling route, but the possible connection should raise eyebrows.
If these allegations can be verified: what on Earth was the State Department thinking supplying the direct sale of military weapons to a cartel front company? Weapons that were then smuggled out of the very airport used by the Drug Enforcement Agency charged with bringing down the cartels?
Anthony Martin at the Examiner brings up one of the most damning and compelling questions that the State Department and Obama administration must answer if this story is true:
The program is set up so that the sale of U.S. guns to foreign entities involve direct negotiations with the governments of those countries purchasing the weapons. The description of the program specifically states that it regulates the sale of U.S. firearms to other countries or international organizations.
How, then, did a drug cartel purchase weapons through this program when it is neither an international organization nor a government?
At The Truth About Guns, Brad Kozak opines:
The ATF was not the only ones running guns to Mexico. Apparently the State Department was playing, too. And then consider this angle — was the State Department competing with the ATF for the hearts and minds of the Mexican drug trade?
…
If the ATF is supplying the Sinaloas (with Calderón’s tacit approval and/or help) and State is playing for the Zetas, where does that leave the rest of America?
It sounds like a fictional thriller, but considering what we’ve already learned of Operation Fast and Furious, the Justice Department, and the possibility of even more gunrunning operations (Operation Castaway) out of DOJ, is a rival program being run out of State really a bizarre accusation?
-
33 is starting to get it ;)
-
33 is starting to get it ;)
Maybe obama was CIA?
-
Zetas may be smuggling weapons using State Dept. program - Chaparral, Columbus & southern NM roads
http://www.thewesternerblogspot.com ^ | 7/23/11 | Frank DuBois
Posted on July 23, 2011 2:52:01 PM EDT by girlangler
Zetas may be smuggling weapons using State Dept. program - Chaparral, Columbus & southern NM roads
The brutally violent Zetas drug organization may be smuggling military-grade weapons through El Paso and Columbus, N.M., to feed its ongoing battles against other cartels and to possibly disrupt the 2012 elections in Mexico. Phil Jordan, a former director of the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center and a former CIA operative, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons through the El Paso area.
"They are purchasing weapons in the Dallas area and are flying them to El Paso, and then they are taking them across the border into Juárez," said Jordan, a law enforcement consultant and former DEA official who still has contacts in the law enforcement community. Jordan said the Zetas were flying weapons caches out of the Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, and after they arrive in the El Paso vicinity, the Zetas smuggled them into Juárez.
"What's ironic is that the DEA also uses the Alliance Airport for some of its operations," Jordan said. "The Zetas were working out of a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in the Dallas area to smuggle the weapons to the border." The DEA has its Aviation Operations Center at Alliance. Robert "Tosh" Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, supported Jordan's allegations and said the Zetas allegedly also purchased property in the Columbus-Palomas border region to stash weapons and other contraband. He said purchasing property and setting up a weapons-smuggling network suggests that the Zetas were establishing a staging area for their operations. Earlier this month, Plumlee had a debriefing with the Border Patrol in Las Cruces about the intelligence he gathered when he accompanied the U.S. military's Task Force 7 along the border. The military, which assists civilian law enforcement in counter-drug operations, was looking into allegations of gun smuggling along the border.
"The military task force became concerned that its information about arms smuggling was being compromised," Plumlee said. "From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas." Under the Direct Commercial Sales program, the U.S. State Department regulates and licenses businesses to sell weapons and defense services and training for export. Last year, according to U.S. statistics, the program was used to provide Mexico $416.5 million worth of weapons and equipment, including military-grade weaponry. Plumlee said military-grade weapons were found in a Juárez warehouse two years ago, and some of them were moved later to a ranch elsewhere in Juárez. Arms stash houses have also been reported in places across the border from Columbus and Antelope Wells, N.M.
"They've found anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era," Plumlee said. Other weapons found include grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor. "The information about the arms trafficking was provided to our U.S. authorities long before the 'Columbus 11' investigation began," said Plumlee, referring to recent indictments accusing several Columbus city officials of arms trafficking in conjunction with alleged accomplices in El Paso and Chaparral, N.M. Plumlee, who has testified before U.S. congressional committees about arms and drug trafficking, said the roads in Southern New Mexico provide smugglers easy access to Mexico's highway networks...more
We can all be assured that Bingaman's attempt to designate a quarter of a million acres in southern NM as Wilderness won't complicate things a bit. Can't we?
-
wow, everyone act surprised. this shit is brand new.
-
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, said Attorney General Eric Holder should not resign over “Operation Fast and Furious.”
That operation was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), under the Justice Department, and deliberately allowed guns to be sold and “to walk” into the hands of Mexican criminals and drug cartels. Many of those guns were then used in crimes and two of the guns were found at the scene where U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered in December 2010.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (AP Photo Lauren Victoria Burke)
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) has called on Attorney General Holder to take responsibility for the operation and step down from his office.
On Capitol Hill on July 15, CNSNews.com asked Maloney, “Some members of Congress, including Representative Allen West, have called for Eric Holder to resign. Do you think he should resign over ‘Operation Fast and Furious’”?
Rep. Maloney said, “No, I do not. Operation Fast and Furious is under investigation and we’ve had one hearing on it. We intend to have more and more investigations, more interviews and we will go where it takes us.”
“Right now, we heard about these loopholes in the law – law enforcement asked for greater tools so that they could get convictions and try to stop the flow of illegal guns and that’s where we are now,” she said. “So we will continue our investigation.”
-
Feds Silent on How Convicted Felons Bought Guns in 'Operation Fast and Furious'
Fox News ^ | July 25, 2011 | William La Jeunesse & Laura Prabucki
EXCLUSIVE: In the latest chapter of the gunrunning scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, federal officials won't say how two suspects obtained more than 360 weapons despite criminal records that should have prevented them from buying even one gun.
Under current federal law, people with felony convictions are not permitted to buy weapons, and those with felony arrests are typically flagged while the FBI conducts a thorough background check.
However, according to court records reviewed by Fox News, two of the 20 defendants indicted in the Fast and Furious investigation have felony convictions and criminal backgrounds that experts say, at the very least, should have delayed them buying a single firearm. Instead, the duo bought dozens of guns on multiple occasions while federal officials watched on closed-circuit cameras.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
HOPE & FUCKING CHANGE! ! ! !
-
A gunrunning sting gone fatally wrong
By Sari Horwitz, Published: July 25 | Updated: Tuesday, July 26, 12:01 AM
Phoenix — They came from all over the country, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, brought here in a bold new effort to shut down the flow of U.S. guns to Mexican drug cartels. It was called Operation Fast and Furious, after a popular movie about street car racing.
But from the beginning, much of the fury was inside the agency itself.
On his first day undercover, John Dodson, who had been an ATF agent for seven years in Virginia, sat in a Chevy Impala with Olindo Casa, an 18-year veteran from Chicago. They watched a suspected gun trafficker buy 10 semiautomatic rifles from a Phoenix gun store and followed him to the house of another suspected trafficker. All of their training told them to seize the guns.
The agents called their superior and asked for the order to “take him.” The answer came back swiftly, instructing them to stay in the car. The message was clear: Let the guns go.
This was all part of an ambitious new strategy allowing Fast and Furious agents to follow the paths of guns from illegal buyers known as “straw purchasers” through middlemen and into the hierarchy of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.
But Dodson and Casa were confused and upset. ATF agents hate to let the guns “walk.” Yet it happened again, day after day, month after month, for more than a year.
They feared the worst, and a year later it happened: A Border Patrol agent was killed in an incident in which Fast and Furious guns were found at the scene. And it was later revealed that the operation had allowed more than 2,000 weapons to hit the streets.
It is the agency’s biggest debacle since the deadly 1993 confrontation in Waco, Tex. What began as a mutiny inside ATF’s Phoenix office has blown up into a Capitol Hill donnybrook that is rocking the Justice Department.
“This is a mistake that could have and should have been prevented,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is investigating the operation.
The battle has hobbled Fast and Furious, a case that individuals inside ATF say held the promise of becoming one of the agency’s best investigations ever.
“We have never been up so high in the Sinaloa cartel, the largest and most powerful drug cartel in the world,” said a federal official involved in the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “This is an open, ongoing investigation. It is so unfair.”
* * *
A risky plan
Fast and Furious began with a noble goal.
On Oct. 26, 2009, the directors of the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and ATF and the top federal prosecutors in the Southwestern border states met with the deputy attorney general at the Justice Department to plot strategy for combating Mexican cartels. A key problem: the tens of thousands of guns coming from the United States to arm the drug traffickers.
Agents along the border had long been frustrated by what one ATF supervisor later called “toothless” laws that made it difficult to attack gun-trafficking networks. Straw buyers — people with no criminal record who purchase guns for criminals or illegal immigrants who can’t legally buy them — are subject to little more than paperwork violations. Even people convicted of buying AK-47s meant for the cartels typically just get probation for lying on a federal form attesting that they were buying the guns for themselves. With such a light penalty, it is hard to persuade those caught to turn informant against their bosses. And federal prosecutors rarely want to bring such charges because they do not consider the effort worth their time, according to ATF supervisors.
At the meeting in Washington, a new strategy was proposed. Instead of emphasizing the seizure of weapons in individual cases, the strategy focused on identifying and eliminating the pipelines that moved the weapons. The goal was to bring down the trafficking network, not just the people on the lowest rung.
The new strategy arrived in Phoenix the next day. But it had already been ATF policy for at least seven months. The task of implementation had gone to Bill Newell, the head of ATF’s Phoenix office, and his senior managers. Newell was a 20-year veteran who had worked the border for a decade and speaks fluent Spanish.
To identify the networks, the agents would watch and document as the straw buyers transferred guns to middlemen. The agents would be instructed not to move in and question the men but to let the guns go and see where they eventually ended up.
The reasoning was that an arrest of a straw purchaser would not get ATF the bigger fish; the buyer would get a light punishment, if any, and the cartel could just find another buyer. By not immediately arresting the straw buyers, the agents could follow them and their associates, wiretapping conversations, and possibly charge them with serious crimes such as conspiracy, drug trafficking and money laundering.
The plan they developed was permitted under ATF rules, had the legal backing of U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke in Phoenix, and had been approved and funded by a task force at the Justice Department, ATF’s parent agency.
Nevertheless, it was risky. In drug-trafficking cases, investigating agents, by law, cannot let drugs “walk” onto the street. Since gun sales are legal, agents on surveillance are not required to step in and stop weapons from hitting the streets and must have probable cause to make an arrest. But the danger in letting guns go is obvious.
In November 2009, Newell’s agents in “Group 7,” one of the squads in the office, began following a particularly busy suspected gun trafficker. In 24 days, he bought 34 firearms. The next month, the man and his associates bought 212 more.
The case began to grow exponentially, with more than two dozen suspected straw purchasers. It was named Fast and Furious because the suspects operated out of a sprawling auto repair shop and raced cars on the streets, like Vin Diesel, the star of the movie.
But a mutiny was brewing in Group 7. Dodson, Casa and two other agents were furious about letting the guns walk. The chemistry in the office was bad. Many of the agents had been sent in from outside Phoenix and were working together for the first time under David Voth, a Marine Corps veteran and brand-new supervisor sent in from Minnesota. The agents’ outrage overrode any sense of loyalty to their bosses.
Every day, Dodson and the other agents watched and stewed while the straw purchasers bought boxes of guns and sometimes took the weapons to stash houses and cars waiting in parking lots. Each time they called in to supervisors, they were told to stand down.
The agents, operating out of office space in downtown Phoenix, clashed with Voth and the agent running the case, Hope MacAllister, who they felt ignored their concerns. Neither Voth nor MacAllister responded to requests for comment.
“We were all sick to death when we realized . . . what was going on,” Casa later testified. Arguments ended in screaming and threats by supervisors.
“I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors, or other adolescent behavior,” Voth wrote in a March 2010 e-mail. “I don’t know what all the issues are but we are all adults, we are all professionals, and we have an exciting opportunity to use the biggest tool in our law enforcement tool box. If you don’t think this is fun you are in the wrong line of work — period!”
ATF agents stationed in Mexico were also raising objections, according to a congressional report that will be released Tuesday. Darren Gil, ATF attache to Mexico, and his deputy, Carlos Canino, were alarmed by the large number of weapons being recovered at bloody crime scenes in Mexico and being traced to Phoenix.
“Hey, when are they going to shut this, to put it bluntly, damn investigation down,’’ Gil recalled yelling at his boss. “We’re getting hurt down here.”
ATF and Justice didn’t tell Mexican officials about the 15-month operation until it became public, according to the report.
In May 2010, Dodson asked his supervisors whether they “were prepared to attend the funeral of a slain agent or officer after he or she was killed with one of those straw-purchased firearms.”
Dodson later told a congressional committee that Voth responded to the complaints by saying, “If you are going to make an omelet, you need to scramble some eggs.”
Voth denies making that comment or that Dodson raised the possibility of slain agents, said a law enforcement official involved in the case who has been instructed by his superiors not to talk to the media about the case. The official also described both Voth and MacAllister as hard-working and conscientious agents.
* * *
A death in the desert
Late on the evening of Dec. 14, 2010, U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and other officers were patrolling Peck Canyon, in the Arizona desert about 11 miles inside the Mexican border. The region was a hotbed for bandits who ambushed illegal immigrants.
Nicknamed “Superman” for his good looks and strength, the 40-year-old Terry was planning to fly to Michigan for Christmas with his family after his shift ended.
Suddenly, the group got into a firefight with five suspected illegal immigrants. At first, Terry and the officers fired “less than lethal’’ beanbag guns, an FBI report said. But the suspects fired assault weapons. Then the agents resorted to live ammunition.
Terry was fatally shot in the melee. Investigators made four arrests and found two AK-47 semiautomatic rifles nearby.
Within hours, the news spread inside ATF: The serial numbers on the two rifles matched guns bought by one of the Fast and Furious suspects a year before outside Phoenix. The bullet that killed Terry was so damaged that neither of the firearms could be definitively linked to his killing, according to a law enforcement official in the case.
Terry’s death was the last straw for Dodson. He said he tried to contact ATF headquarters, ATF’s chief counsel, the ATF ethics section and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.
When he didn’t get an immediate response, he and other agents reached out to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
At the same time, word was leaking out to bloggers on gun rights. They began posting that there was a dark side to the still-unpublicized Fast and Furious.
On Dec. 22, an item appeared on Cleanupatf.org, a site founded by dissident ATF agents. The post said that an ATF official in Phoenix “approved more than 500 AR-15 type rifles” to be “walked” to Mexico. Some bloggers speculated that ATF was encouraging the smuggling to boost the numbers of U.S. weapons recovered in Mexico to gain support for an assault-weapons ban.
* * *
‘A blatant lie’
The public first learned about Fast and Furious in late January of this year when U.S. Attorney Burke called a news conference in Phoenix to announce a 53-count indictment involving 20 suspects. The indictment alleged that from September 2009 to December 2010, the suspects bought hundreds of firearms to be illegally exported to Mexico.
To Newell, who was also at the news conference, Fast and Furious was a “phenomenal case,” the largest-ever Mexican gun-trafficking investigation, a direct answer to the call to stem the flow of firearms south of the border.
A local reporter asked Newell about the rumors that ATF agents had purposely allowed firearms to enter Mexico.
“Hell, no!” he answered. Newell said that they could not follow everyone and that sometimes suspects would elude agents, which could result in guns getting into Mexico.
Peter Forcelli, an ATF group supervisor in the Phoenix office, watched the news conference on television. “I was appalled,” he later testified to Congress. “Because it was a blatant lie.”
Two days later, Grassley wrote to the acting ATF director, Kenneth E. Melson, asking whether the gun-walking allegations were true. An answer came from Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Ronald Weich, who relied on ATF for his information: “The allegation — that ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico — is false.”
While technically correct — the straw purchasers transferred the weapons to middlemen and did not take them to Mexico themselves — those words would come back to haunt ATF and Justice at a congressional hearing.
Weich also wrote to Grassley that under long-standing practice, Justice would not release investigative documents to him because he was not the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Grassley was infuriated. “The Justice Department is an ache in my rear,” he said during a Judiciary Committee markup session.
* * *
‘Felony stupid’
Grassley soon teamed with Issa, the new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who had the subpoena power that Grassley lacked.
On March 31, 2011, Issa subpoenaed the Fast and Furious documents. Two and a half months later, Issa and Grassley released a scathing report calling the operation “ill-conceived” and “abhorrent.” On June 15, Issa held a hearing, bringing together
Weich, whistleblowers and relatives of Terry, the slain Border Patrol agent.
From the dais, Issa grilled Weich.
“Who authorized this program that was so felony stupid that it got people killed?” Issa said.
Weich answered that he didn’t know but said that Justice’s inspector general was now investigating.
After the hearing, the story received the dubious distinction of being lampooned by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show”: “The ATF plan to prevent American guns from being used in Mexican gun violence is to provide Mexican gangs with American guns. If this is the plan that they went with, what plan did we reject?”
The spotlight was now moving toward senior Justice officials, including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The attorney general told Issa that he did not learn about Fast and Furious until this spring. President Obama had said that Holder told him he would not have allowed guns to go into Mexico.
At the hearing, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, tried to turn the discussion toward gun control, noting that even the whistleblowers said they didn’t have the tools to stop firearms trafficking to Mexico.
Issa cut Cummings off, saying that was not their focus.
* * *
Fourth of July meeting
Through it all, ATF Director Melson sat in his office on New York Avenue in mounting frustration. He watched Congress pummel his agency and Issa call for his resignation while he said he was instructed by Justice to say nothing.
Melson had known there was a massive case being run out of Phoenix, but he later said he wasn’t aware of the operational details or the agents’ discontent.
After the outcry, Melson plunged into the case file, reading it at his kitchen table in Northern Virginia and on an airplane flight. It tied his stomach in knots, he said, and in mid-flight he composed an
e-mail telling Justice officials that their public stance was inconsistent with the documents.
Shortly after Issa’s hearing, Melson, a career prosecutor for more than 30 years, read in the newspaper that he might be fired.
On Friday, July 1, 2011, Grassley’s chief investigator sent Melson an e-mail, alerting him to concerns of retaliation against the Group 7 agents. He gave Melson his cellphone number and told him to call anytime.
By Sunday, Melson told the investigator he was ready to testify.
The next day, July 4, an extraordinary meeting took place: The embattled head of a federal agency went in secret to Capitol Hill to talk to the political enemies of his bosses in the Obama administration.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., as crowds gathered downtown for the fireworks, Melson testified behind closed doors to about 10 congressional staffers sitting around a long witness table in the Rayburn Building. So intent were Melson and Richard Cullen, the private lawyer he retained, that they did not eat or drink for six hours.
“I would have given $5 for a pretzel,” said Cullen, Melson’s longtime friend and a former U.S. attorney.
Melson said mistakes had been made by the ATF. He said guns should have been interdicted in certain instances. He was frustrated that Justice had not let him speak to Congress months earlier. And he said Justice officials seemed to be more concerned about protecting the political appointees at the top of the department.
After Melson’s testimony, Issa and Grassley wrote a five-page letter embracing the ATF director and warning Holder not to fire or retaliate against him. Grassley and Issa also demanded the e-mails, internal memos and handwritten notes of 12 Justice officials who they said were aware of Fast and Furious.
“I do have serious concerns that the attorney general should have known a lot more than he says he knew,” said Issa, who is holding another Fast and Furious hearing Tuesday. “In some ways, I’m more disappointed that he’s saying he didn’t know than if he says he was getting briefings and he didn’t understand.”
Some ATF officials still insist that Fast and Furious is a success, saying the case will soon lead to the indictment of as many as two dozen high-level traffickers. They fear the controversy could rob the agency of the will to pursue the biggest gun-trafficking cases.
“I am concerned that the lasting effect of this premature and stilted inquiry will be that the citizens of this country ultimately will be less safe as ATF agents will be less inclined to work the hard cases necessary to cut off the head of the snake,” said Paul Pelletier, a former Justice official and the attorney for Newell. “The shame of it is that the careers of these terrific public servants have been unfairly tarnished at the expense of public theater.”
Altogether, the straw purchasers bought 2,020 firearms during Fast and Furious, according to law enforcement officials. Of those guns, 227 were recovered in Mexico; 363 have been recovered in the United States.
An additional 1,430 remain on the streets.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-anti-gunrunning-effort-turns-fatally-wrong/2011/07/14/gIQAH5d6YI_print.html
-
Just checking in to see of Holder or Obama's head has rolled yet..
-
Just checking in to see of Holder or Obama's head has rolled yet..
Both are claiming ignorance, which with those two is always plausible.
-
Issa: Obama admin intimidating witnesses in ATF gun probe
Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, suspects an effort by the Obama administration to intimidate witnesses from testifying before his House committee regarding the “Fast and Furious” ATF cross-border firearms investigation. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)
By Stephen Dinan and Chuck Neubauer
-
The Washington Times
Updated: 8:12 a.m. on Tuesday, July 26, 2011
“At the end of the day, the president’s not going to be impeached over either of those two offenses” — Darrell E. Issa, Chairman of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)Click-2-Listen
The Obama administration sought to intimidate witnesses into not testifying to Congress on Tuesday about whether ATF knowingly allowed weapons, including assault rifles, to be "walked" into Mexico, the chairman of a House committee investigating the program said in an interview Monday.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, said at least two scheduled witnesses expected to be asked about a controversial weapons investigation known as "Fast and Furious"received warning letters from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to limit their testimony.
Mr. Issa's committee is set to hear testimony from six current or former ATF employees, including agents and attaches assigned to the bureau's offices in Mexico, about the operation — in which, federal agents say, they were told to stand down and watch as guns flowed from U.S. dealers in Arizona to violent criminals and drug cartels in Mexico.
The six-term lawmaker aired his concerns about the program in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors at The Washington Times on Monday.
Among other questions, the agents are likely to be asked about a large volume of guns showing up in Mexico that were traced back to the Fast and Furious program; whether ATF officials in that country expressed concerns about the weapons to agency officials in the U.S., only to be brushed aside; and whether ATF officials in Arizona denied ATF personnel in Mexico access to information about the operation.
Nearly 50 weapons linked to the Fast and Furious program have been recovered to date in Mexico. Committee investigators said Mexican authorities also were denied information about the operation.
Mr. Issa also said he is certain the Fast and Furious operation was known by most top officials at the Justice Department and that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. either knew and misled Congress, or was so out of the loop that he's guilty of mismanagement.
"How is it that the No. 2, 3, 4 at Justice all knew about this program, but the No. 1 didn't?," Mr. Issa said. "Is it because he said 'don't tell me'? Is it because they knew what they were doing is wrong, and they were protecting their boss? Or is it that Eric Holder is just so disconnected ... ?
"Whichever it is — he knew and he's lied to Congress, or he didn't know, and he's so detached that he wasn't doing his job — that really probably is for the administration to make a decision on, sooner not later," Mr. Issa said.
Those scheduled to testify are William McMahon, ATF deputy assistant director for field operations in Phoenix and Mexico; William Newell, former ATF special agent in charge at the Phoenix field division; Carlos Canino, ATF acting attache to Mexico; Darren Gil, former ATF attache to Mexico; Jose Wall, ATF senior agent in Tijuana, Mexico; and Lorren Leadmon, ATF intelligence operations specialist.
But after receiving subpoenas, at least two of the agents got letters from ATF Associate Chief Counsel Barry S. Orlow warning them to keep certain areas off-limits, including those still under investigation. Neither of the targeted agents was identified.
Mr. Issa said at least one witness wanted to back out of testifying to his committee after receiving the letter, but the chairman declined that request. Instead he fired a letter back to William J. Hoover, deputy director of ATF, saying the "timing and content of this letter strongly suggest that ATF is obstructing and interfering with the congressional investigation."
ATF, in a statement, said letters sent to agents subpoenaed to testify before Congress are "essentially the same as the standard document provided to ATF witnesses subpoenaed to testify in court." It said the witnesses are "encouraged to answer fully and candidly all questions concerning matters within his personal knowledge," but provide "guidance" about revealing statutorily prohibited information.
Mr. Orlow did not return messages left on his office and cell phones.
The Fast and Furious operation was halted in January after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was killed in a Dec. 15 shootout with Mexican bandits 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border near Rio Rico, Ariz. Authorities said two AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene were traced back to Fast and Furious "straw buyers."
Mr. Issa said the ATF operation showed a "callous disregard for what those weapons can and have done to Mexican citizens and even to one, perhaps two U.S. citizens and probably more before it is over." His comment referred to new information that another weapon found at the scene of the ambush killing Feb. 15 of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata also was traced back to a straw buyer.
President Obama and Mr. Holder have both disavowed the program, and Mr. Holder said it was running without their approval.
Told of Mr. Issa's concerns, Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler referred questions about the attorney general's knowledge back to remarks in March when he said he referred concerns raised by ATF agents to the department's Office of Inspector General, who is conducting an investigation.
When ATF field agents first began to question the Fast and Furious program, they received an email from their supervisor, David J. Voth, who wrote, "We all need to get along and realize that we have a mission to accomplish." In a March 12, 2010, email, Mr. Voth said he was "thrilled and proud" his group was involved and assured the agents that "people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention.
"It may sound cheesy, but we are the tip of the ATF spear when it comes to Southwest border firearms trafficking. I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors or other adolescent behavior," he wrote. "If you don't think this is fun, you're in the wrong line of work — period.
"This is the pinnacle of domestic U.S. law enforcement techniques. After this, the toolbox is empty," he said. "Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers, and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day."
© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
-
Guns from U.S. sting at Mexican crime scenes: report
9:21am EDT
By Jeremy Pelofsky
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE76P33T20110726
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 122 firearms from a botched U.S. undercover operation have been found at crime scenes in Mexico or intercepted en route to drug cartels there, according to a Republican congressional report being issued on Tuesday.
Mexican authorities found AK-47 assault rifles, powerful .50 caliber rifles and other weapons in late 2009 that were later linked to the U.S. sting operation to trace weapons going across the border to Mexico, the report said.
Guns from the program, dubbed "Operation Fast and Furious," also were found at the scene of the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in the border state Arizona last December. It is not clear if they were the weapons responsible for his death.
The sting has become an embarrassment for the Obama administration and its Justice Department, rather than a victory in cracking down on the illegal flow of drugs and weapons to and from Mexico.
It has also hurt ties with Mexico, which has been battling the violent cartels in a war in which thousands have died.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and federal prosecutors had hoped the sting would help them track gun buyers reselling weapons to cartels. But U.S. agents did not follow the guns after the initial purchaser re-sold them.
The House of Representatives Oversight Committee, led by Republican Darrell Issa, and the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley, have been investigating the sting and will issue the report Tuesday.
Their investigators say at least 122 firearms bought by suspected gun traffickers were found at Mexican crime scenes or caught going to the cartels.
Of the 2,000 weapons sold to the suspected gun traffickers, just over half remain unaccounted for, the report added. The Justice Department said that the ATF was not aware of the majority of those gun sales when they occurred.
"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," said the congressional report.
The independent watchdog at the Justice Department is also conducting its own investigation of the sting operation.
The Justice Department said it could only confirm 96 guns recovered in Mexico were tied to suspects being tracked in the operation, but it said that ATF did not have complete information on how many were recovered at crime scenes there.
The agency said another 274 weapons were recovered in the United States and, so far, about a dozen were found at U.S. crime scenes, according to information given to Grassley obtained by Reuters.
Soon after the sting began, Mexican authorities arrested a young woman with 41 AK-47s and a Beowulf .50 caliber rifle that were bought the previous day by a so-called straw buyer, or somebody buying a weapon for somebody else.
She told police she was taking them to the Sinaloa drug cartel, the congressional report said.
During a May, 2001 raid by Mexican federal police on the La Familia drug cartel, in which 11 members of the group were killed and 36 were captured, some of the more than 70 weapons recovered at the scene were traced back to the U.S. sting, according to the congressional report.
Issa's committee will hold a hearing later Tuesday with current and former ATF officials including those who worked in the U.S. embassy in Mexico who complained that they were kept largely out of the loop about the scope of the operation.
(Editing by Paul Simao)
-
Wow
GREAT COVERAGE
http://interactive.foxnews.com/livestream/live.html
-
Wow
GREAT COVERAGE
http://interactive.foxnews.com/livestream/live.html
Democrats on this panel are the dumbest pieces of shit on the planet. Elanor Holmes Norton and Cummings are probably one step above full retardation.
-
Senior ATF, Justice Dept officials ignored Mexico-based agents’ complaints, bragged about Fast and
The Daily Caller ^ | 7/26/11 | Matthew Boyle
House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, will soon air a different side of Operation Fast and Furious: what Mexico-based U.S. law enforcement officials dealt with. Senior Justice Department leadership in Washington ignored concerns Mexico-based Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officials raised about the program, according to assertions made as part of the congressional investigation.
A House oversight committee hearing on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. will examine effects Operation Fast and Furious had on “The Other Side of the Border.”
Former ATF attaché to Mexico, Darren Gil told Congressional investigators that, when he became aware of an “abnormal number of [Fast and Furious weapons] recoveries” in Mexico, he called Phoenix-based ATF officials with his concerns. Gil said they told him they were “working on it” and he was “satisfied” with that first response.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Just checking in to see of Holder or Obama's head has rolled yet..
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D
-
Issa: ATF warns witnesses to limit testimony
The Washington Times ^ | 7/25/11 | Stephen Dinan and Chuck Neubauer
The Obama administration sought to intimidate witnesses into not testifying to Congress on Tuesday about whether ATF knowingly allowed weapons, including assault rifles, to be “walked” into Mexico, the chairman of a House committee investigating the program said in an interview Monday.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, said at least two scheduled witnesses expected to be asked about a controversial weapons investigation known as “Fast and Furious”received warning letters from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to limit their testimony.
Mr. Issa's committee is set to hear testimony from six current or former ATF employees, including agents and attaches assigned to the bureau’s offices in Mexico, about the operation — in which, federal agents say, they were told to stand down and watch as guns flowed from U.S. dealers in Arizona to violent criminals and drug cartels in Mexico.
The six-term lawmaker aired his concerns about the program in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors at The Washington Times on Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
but...and just playing devils advocate here... could the letters be saying that when giving testimony, avoid giving out information that could put undercover agents at risk? That seems a likely scenario since it is in letter form and unlikely to say "Don't say anything to get us in trouble". And couldn't the person writing the article who has a hard on for Obama and the ATF write an article implying the letters were evil?
Just sayin...
-
Reporting from Washington— The claim by senior ATF officials that none of the weapons lost in the botched Fast and Furious sting operation were used in the shooting of a Border Patrol agent is not supported by FBI ballistics tests, according to a copy of the FBI report on the shooting.
Last week, spokesmen Scot Thomasson and Drew Wade of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told The Times that the FBI had assured them that neither of the two Fast and Furious weapons found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry's death were the ones that killed the agent.
"We're not aware of any forensic evidence that would link these guns to the homicide," they said.
A copy of the FBI report obtained by The Times' Washington bureau shows ballistics tests did not rule out the Fast and Furious guns.
Experts went to work on tests on Dec. 17, three days after Terry was killed, FBI records show. On Dec. 23, the FBI's "Report of Examination" said the fatal bullet came from a semiautomatic rifle, but that "due to a lack of sufficient agreement in the individual microscopic marks of value" on the weapons, "it could not be determined" which gun fired it.
A source briefed on the FBI's findings said the bullet that killed Terry was badly damaged "and that's why the FBI only got a partial match to the weapons. It was just too badly fragmented." The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
The goal of the Fast and Furious operation, run by the Phoenix office of the ATF, was to allow straw purchasers to illegally buy weapons in the U.S. so agents could learn the traffickers' routes into Mexico. The agents were then supposed to intervene before the guns were sold to drug cartels. But agents lost track of roughly 1,700 weapons, and hundreds soon began showing up at homicide scenes in Mexico.
The statement about the use of the guns found at the scene of Terry's death fits into a pattern in which ATF has offered carefully constructed responses in answer to questions from Congress and reporters about the Fast and Furious case.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to the ATF in January about allegations that Fast and Furious weapons had been "used" to kill Terry. A week later, senior Justice Department and ATF officials told their supervisors that they had "sent a written response to Sen. Grassley, advising him that these allegations are not true."
The response did not acknowledge that two of the lost weapons had been recovered at the scene.
The ATF defended the answer as accurate because officials saw a distinction between guns being found at the scene and "used" in the killing.
Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney in Phoenix now representing the Terry family, was outraged that the ATF statement distorted the FBI findings. "For them to say that is a lie," Charlton said in an interview. "It's a gross inaccuracy. It's yet another example of the ATF misleading the nation and the family on what actually happened to Agent Terry."
Thomasson, the top spokesman at ATF headquarters, declined Tuesday to discuss the disparity between the FBI report and what the agency has said. "I cannot comment on any ongoing investigation," he said, "especially one involving the death of a Border Patrol agent."
Terry's death marked a breaking point in the failed Fast and Furious operation, prompting former ATF agents who had previously raised objections internally to quietly tip Grassley's office about what had gone wrong.
When the two guns were found at the scene of Terry's death near Tucson, it sparked anger among rank-and-file agents — who resented orders to let weapons "walk" — and a concerted effort by their superiors to contain the damage.
The ballistics report, along with emails and a separate internal memo in the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix, all obtained by The Times, provide new details about how the weapons made it out of an Arizona gun shop and into the volatile border region, and how federal law enforcement authorities sought to downplay their mistakes.
The two Fast and Furious guns recovered at the scene of the Terry killing were bought in January 2010 at the Lone Wolf Trading Co. store in Glendale, Ariz. The weapons were among hundreds of firearms from the store that ATF agents hoped to track to Mexico.
The accused straw purchaser was Jaime Avila. According to a memo from Assistant U.S. Atty. Emory Hurley, who oversaw Fast and Furious for the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix, Avila started purchasing firearms in November 2009, the month the sting operation began.
The shop owner, Andre Howard, was "providing information to ATF on large firearms purchases," Hurley later wrote his boss, U.S. Atty. Dennis K. Burke. Howard also "expressed concerns about the cooperation he was providing and whether he was endangering himself," Hurley wrote.
But the ATF was clear: Permit the purchases and follow the weapons. Then the guns, like most of the 2,000 illegal sales permitted under the program, disappeared.
On Dec. 14, Terry and his intelligence team came upon a group of at least three men near Rio Rico, Ariz. Described as a "rip-off crew," the group allegedly preyed on undocumented workers. A gunfight ensued. Terry was shot once in the lower back, and died.
One of the assailants, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was wounded and arrested. He and the two other men, not publicly identified, were later charged in the slaying. Three weapons were recovered.
Within 24 hours, the ATF sensed trouble. Hurley emailed Burke that this was "part of the overall Fast and Furious conspiracy." In Arizona, Avila was quickly arrested on charges of buying the guns. William D. Newell, then the top ATF official in Phoenix, ordered an inventory of how many guns had been traced or recovered.
Then on Dec. 21, Newell emailed his boss and admitted that "guns purchased early on in the case couldn't have [been] stopped mainly because we weren't fully aware of all the players at that time and people buying multiple firearms in Arizona is a very common thing."
But Newell defended the operation. "I don't like the perception that we allowed guns to 'walk,'" he wrote.
richard.serrano@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fast-furious-fbi-20110727,0,808389.story
-
ATF agents denounce rogue guns transfers Not told of ‘insane’ operation of arms allowed
Washington Times ^ | Chuck Neubauer
Posted on July 26, 2011 10:48:12 PM EDT by Nachum
ATF field agents working in Mexico broke ranks with their supervisors Tuesday during a rancorous five-hour House committee hearing, saying they were kept in the dark about a controversial undercover operation in which hundreds of guns ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Carlos Canino, the ATF acting attache to Mexico; Darren Gil, former attache; and Jose Wall, senior agent in Tijuana, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee they had serious concerns about the alarming rate of guns found in violent crimes in Mexico whose source was “Operation Fast and Furious” in Arizona.
“I would like to apologize to my former Mexican law enforcement counterparts and to the Mexican people for Operation Fast and Furious,” said Mr. Gil. “I hope they understand that this was kept secret from most of ATF, including me and my colleagues in Mexico.”
Mr. Gil said he found it “inconceivable” that any competent ATF agent would allow “firearms to disappear at all,” especially on an international border. As a result, he said, the Mexican people will continue to suffer the consequences of narcotics-related firearms violence.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
Reports of witness intimidation, obstruction and secrecy filled Tuesday’s hearing on what Carlos Canino, acting ATF attache in Mexico, called “the perfect storm of idiocy” — Operation Fast and Furious.
According to an Oversight and Government Reform Committee report, Fast and Furious began in 2009 when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) began allowing strawpurchasers to buy guns in the U.S. and transfer them across the border. The goal of the project was purportedly to identify members of trafficking networks and trace smuggling routes in and out of Mexico.
However, when the December 2010 death of Brian Terry, a member of a special tactical border squad, was connected with guns traced back to Fast and Furious, whistleblowers began to come forward with details about the nearly 2,000 guns that were allowed to cross into Mexico.
A new joint staff report released prior to Tuesday’s hearing shares findings suggesting that ATF officials in Mexico were kept in the dark about all aspects of Fast and Furious. When these officials raised concerns about the number of U.S. guns being found in Mexico, their protests were brushed aside. The Los Angeles Times reports the information was also kept from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
Tuesday’s hearing included scheduled witnesses William McMahon, ATF deputy assistant directory for field operations in Phoenix and Mexico; William Newell, former ATF special agent in charge at the Phoenix field division; Carlos Canino, ATF acting attaché to Mexico; Darren Gil, former ATF attaché to Mexico; Jose Wall, ATF senior agent in Tijuana, Mexico; and Lorren Leadmon, ATF intelligence operations specialist.
The drama began early, with The Washington Times reporting that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has helped lead the Fast and Furious investigation, said at least two agents scheduled for Tuesday’s hearing received letters telling them to limit their testimony.
ATF, in a statement, said the letters were not a threat, but were “essentially the same as the standard document provided to ATF witnesses subpoenaed to testify in court.”
During the nearly five-hour hearing, CNN reports that while two federal officials said they made “mistakes” in the program, they denied letting guns walk across the border on purpose.
“It was not the purpose of the investigation to permit the transportation of firearms into Mexico," Newell said. “To the best of my knowledge none of the suspects in this case was ever witnessed by our agents crossing the border with firearms.”
McMahon said that with “the advantage of hindsight,” he would have done things differently.
However, other witnesses said guns were being allowed to walk across the border and that it flew in the face of everything they had been trained to do.
“When I first heard this going on in the media about the potential for ATF letting guns walk, it was inconceivable,” Canino said in the committee report. “I didn’t want to believe it. It just — it would never happen. Everybody knows the consequences on the other end of … these guns aren’t going for a positive cause, they’re going for a negative cause. The term ‘guns walking’ didn’t exist in my vocabulary.”
“What these guys did was basically grab the ATF rule book on trafficking and threw it out the window,” Canino said “This is indefensible. It is indefensible. The ATF does not do this.”
Gil, who also is quoted in the committee report, said the “abnormal” number of weapons originating in Phoenix and flowing into Mexico led him to call Phoenix for more information. Gil reports that the response his concerns elicited was simply, “yes, we’re aware of it. We have an ongoing investigation. We have a ton of resources on it. We’re looking at it.”
He said when he and his staff tried to access gun trace data on the E-Trace system, an online internal tracing system, they would receive notices that their trace information was “delayed,” meaning a hold had been placed on it by the tracing center or by a field division. An internal email between two National Tracing Center employees shows that they discussed postponing the completing of several traces for guns recovered in Mexico.
As the investigation continues to reveal more details on Fast and Furious, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News that finding the people responsible for the failed program is his chief concern.
“We don’t know how high up in Justice this goes,” Grassley said. “That’s the whole motive of our investigation, or at least part of the motive in our investigation.”
Both Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama have denied any knowledge of Fast and Furious. In his May 3 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder said he had learned about the operation only as details emerged in the media. However, prior to Tuesday’s hearing, Issa discussed the claim, saying it made little sense.
“How it is that No. 2, 3, 4 at Justice all knew about this program, but the No. 1 didn’t?” Issa asked. “Is it because he said ‘don’t tell me’? Is it because they knew what they were doing was wrong and they were protecting their boss? Or is it just that Eric Holder is so disconnected that he makes a speech on April 2, 2009, essentially describing advances in [Project] Gunrunner and additional activities that describe Fast and Furious, but then he never checks again until he reads the newspaper two weeks before he comes before us?”
Issa said he thinks the truth is found in his third guess — that Holder didn’t want to know and wasn’t doing his job.
“Whichever it is — he knew and he’s lied to Congress, or he didn’t know and he’s so detached that he wasn’t doing his job — that really probably is for the administration to make a decision on, sooner, not later,” Issa said.
Issa also released three documents he suggests undermine Holder’s claim, including a memo noting the involvement of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, who worked as one of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s chiefs of staff when she was the governor of Arizona, expressing support for allowing “the transfer of firearms to continue to take place.”
Another document shows an approved wiretap application with Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer’s name on it. Although Breuer didn’t sign it, The Daily Caller reports, his Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanc did. A March 10 email also clarifies rules from the Deputy Attorney General on guns crossing the border.
In the new committee report, Gil testified that he and his staff had so many concerns about the program from within Mexico that discussions with his boss, ATF’s Chief of International Affairs Daniel Kumor, would often turn into shouting matches. It was during one of these arguments that Gil reports Kumor told him the acting director of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, and the Department of Justice were both aware of Fast and Furious.
“If the acting director is aware, you assume everybody is aware of it,” Gil said. “You got to defer to your executive staff.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Pat Meehan, R-Penn., pressed witnesses to identify federal agencies involved in the operation. Newell identified the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service — both part of the Department of Justice — as being part of the investigation. Newell said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, was involved as well.
A report from Fox News shows that two Fast and Furious straw buyers — Jacob Wayne Chambers, who bought 70 guns for the Sinaloa cartel, and Sean Christopher Stewart, who bought 290 guns — both had felony convictions and criminal backgrounds.
This, Fox’s source suggests, means the FBI, which operates the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, knowingly allowed the pair to buy guns despite such purchases being disallowed under current gun control laws. A CBS News report earlier in July also suggests the FBI was involved.
A CBS News story on Tuesday's hearing also states Newell discussed Fast and Furious with his friend Kevin O’Reilly, a White House National Security Director for North America.
Tuesday’s hearing also included a few calls for tighter gun control laws and for expanded ATF power, with Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., voicing their concerns.
“We’ve made sure that the ‘F’ in ATF is non-existent,” Connolly said. We haven’t given them a permanent director. We’ve done everything we can to defang the ATF.”
“I stand by the notion that the ATF agents don’t have the laws they need is because the Republicans over and over again introduced laws that would, in fact, keep them from getting those laws and have stood in the way of their acquiring those laws,” Norton said.
Although the ongoing investigation on Capitol Hill is now focused solely on Fast and Furious, claims are also beginning to emerge that the administration sold weapons to the MS13 gang in Honduras, possibly as part of “Operation Castaway,” and also sold guns to the Zetas cartel through the State Department’s Direct Commercial Sales Program.
Related content
Article
'Gunwalker' scandal investigated
-
transparency and change at its best...
-
ATF Manager says he shared Fast and Furious Info with White House
CBS News ^ | 7/26/11 | Sharyl Attkisson
Posted on July 27, 2011 1:01:05 AM EDT by Nachum
At a lengthy hearing on ATF's controversial gunwalking operation today, a key ATF manager told Congress he discussed the case with a White House National Security staffer as early as September 2010. The communications were between ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office, Bill Newell, and White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O'Reilly. Newell said the two are longtime friends. The content of what Newell shared with O'Reilly is unclear and wasn't fully explored at the hearing.
It's the first time anyone has publicly stated that a White House official had any familiarity with ATF's operation Fast and Furious, which allowed thousands of weapons to fall into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to gain intelligence. It's unknown as to whether O'Reilly shared information with anybody else at the White House.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Bbbbooooooommmmm
-
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20083772-10391695.html
Obama has his own watergate.
-
Transcript of Newell questioning related to NSC's O'Reilly
Gun Rights Examiner
July 26, 2011 -
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/transcript-of-newell-questioning-related-to-nsc-s-o-reilly
A transcript of today's House Oversight Committee on Government Reform hearing has been released that includes all questioning of former Phoenix Field Division Special Agent in Charge William Newell regarding his relationship with and emails to National Security Council Director of North American Affairs Kevin O'Reilly, reported in today's earlier Gun Rights Examiner column.
Related transcript sections are copied and pasted below. Initial questions are by Rep. Raul Labrador and Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa:
LABRADOR: Special Agent Newell, do you know who Kevin O'Reilly is?
NEWELL: Yes, Sir.
LABRADOR: What's the nature of your relationship with him?
NEWELL: I've known Kevin for ‑ I'd say probably 10‑12 years?
LABRADOR: How often do you communicate with him?
NEWELL: Oh, I haven't communicated with him in a while but probably three or four times a year or something like that. Or maybe ‑ maybe more depending on him reaching out to me.
LABRADOR: Isn't it a little bit unusual for a special agent in charge of an ATF field division to have direct email contact with the national security staff at the White House?
NEWELL: He's ‑ he's a friend of mine.
LABRADOR: How many times did you talk to him about this case?
NEWELL: The specifics of this case? I don't think I ‑‑ I mean ‑‑ I don't think I had one specific conversation with him about the specifics of this case.
LABRADOR: OK. Who ...
ISSA (?): Would the gentleman allow me to help him a little? Not that you need it, but could you take the word specific out and ‑ and answer the general ‑‑ did you talk to him about this case?
NEWELL: I might have talked to him about this case. Yes, Sir.
ISSA(?): Do you know when that was?
NEWELL: It was probably ‑‑ I ‑‑ as I recall I think it was during the summer ‑‑ it might have been the summer or early fall of 2010.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Trey Gowdy picked up the O'Reilly connection to press for more information:
GOWDY: Let me ask you this. When you begin a sentence, "You didn't get this from me..." what does that mean to you?
NEWELL: Just means that didn't get it from me.
GOWDY: Well, but that's kind of a pleonasm, isn't it, because you are getting it from them? So it's a ‑‑ what do you mean by that, "You didn't get this from me..."? I'm referring to your e‑mail to Mr. O'Reilly (ph).
NEWELL: Well, obviously Mr. O'Reilly (ph) was a friend of mine and it's ‑‑ it's ‑‑ I shouldn't have been sending him that, obviously, I recognize that, it being a friend.
GOWDY: But what do you mean, "You didn't get this from me..."? Does that mean you should not have been talking to him about it?
NEWELL: Not that I shouldn't have been talking about. He's a friend of mine. He asked for information and I provided it to him.
GOWDY: Well, then, why wasn't it appropriate for you to give it to him? Why would you preface it by saying, "You didn't get this from me..."? Was it an improper communication?
NEWELL: No, it wasn't an improper communication.
GOWDY: Well, then, why would you preface it by that?
NEWELL: It's ‑‑ he's been a friend of mine for a long time and he asked me for information. So I gave him information that ‑‑ it's probably an improper use of the term or phrase.
..
Continue reading on Examiner.com Transcript of Newell questioning related to NSC's O'Reilly - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/transcript-of-newell-questioning-related-to-nsc-s-o-reilly#ixzz1TJ0hJGzx
-
FBI complicity in 'Gunwalker' refutes 'rogue operation by leaderless ATF' claim
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 26 July, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Fox News reported yesterday that at least two men suspected of being allowed by the Department of "Justice" to engage in gun trafficking to Mexico should never have been able to buy any guns in the first place:
In the latest chapter of the gunrunning scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, federal officials won't say how two suspects obtained more than 360 weapons despite criminal records that should have prevented them from buying even one gun.
Under current federal law, people with felony convictions are not permitted to buy weapons, and those with felony arrests are typically flagged while the FBI conducts a thorough background check.
The gun dealers would have to have submitted the prospective buyers' identifying information to the FBI-administered NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System--often called the "Brady background check"). The felony convictions in the histories of these men would have stopped the sales cold--unless the FBI was playing along.
According to Fox, the FBI refused to comment on this latest revelation, but one of Fox's sources within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) did have some information for them:
However, an ATF agent who worked on the Fast and Furious investigation, told Fox News that NICS officials called the ATF in Phoenix whenever their suspects tried to buy a gun. That conversation typically led to a green light for the buyers, when it should have stopped them.
The FBI, in other words, was fully aware of what was going on, and made no move to stop it. This flies in the face of claims by administration apologists that this was no more than a "rogue operation" within the BATFE, and was only allowed to happen because the BATFE has been "leaderless," without a permanent director since 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
________________________ _________________
Boom!
-
Obama DOJ Gave Cartel Enough Guns to Arm a Marine Regiment
www.Townhall.com ^ | July 26, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
________________________ ________________________ ___________
“These guns went to ruthless criminals,” Carlos Canino, ATF Acting Attaché to Mexico said in testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday regarding the scandal-plagued Operation Fast and Furious. “It’s alleged that over 2,000 guns were trafficked in this investigation. To put that in context, upon information and belief, the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment has approximately 2,500 rangers. That means that as a result of this investigation, the Sinaloa cartel may have received almost as many guns that are needed to arm the entire regiment. Out of these 2,000 weapons, 34 were .50-caliber sniper rifles. That is approximately the number of sniper riles a Marine infantry regiment takes into battle.”
The Department of Justice proposed a southwest border strategy in October 2009 to combat Mexican cartels, with final plans for the operation now known as Operation Fast and Furious coming in January 2010. The new “strategy” included multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency, ICE, the IRS and the FBI. This operation entailed ATF agents watching straw purchasers buy hundreds of high-powered weapons and allowed them to go back or “walk” into Mexico, with a goal of “tracing” them back to cartel leaders. As Americans learned in the second hearing about this operation on June 15, guns were lost, not traced, and now a cover-up has begun.
“The Acting Director of the ATF, in a transcribed interview with investigators, has said that the Justice Department is trying to push all of this away from its political appointees. That is not the response this committee, Congress and the public, should expect from the ‘most transparent administration in history,’” Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said during opening statements. “To date, President Obama has been keen to talk about who didn’t know about the program and who didn’t authorize it. These answers will not suffice. The American people have a right to know, once and for all, who did authorize it and who knew about it.”
A new report released by Issa’s office shows ATF agents working in Mexico were left in the dark about the details of Operation Fast and Furious. The report shows that in late 2009, ATF officials in Mexico began to see increasing amounts of guns traced to the Phoenix ATF Field Division office showing up at violent crime scenes. Former ATF Attaché to Mexico Darren Gil and ATF Acting Attaché to Mexico Carlos Canino expressed their concerns to officials in the Phoenix Field Office and in Washington D.C. but were ignored. The report shows ATF and DOJ “failed to share crucial details of the of Operation Fast and Furious with either their own employees stationed in Mexico or representatives of the Government of Mexico.” Specifically, personnel in Arizona denied ATF agents working in Mexico information directly related to their jobs and everyday operations.
“I would like to inform this committee and the American public that I believe what happened here was inexcusable – and we in Mexico had no part of it,” Carino said in testimony Tuesday. “We were aware of this investigation but were never aware of the policy to walk guns in this investigation.”
To make things worse, ATF leadership deliberately lied to agents working in Mexico, telling them Operation Fast and Furious would end in July 2010, but the program didn’t end until December 2010, only after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by a cartel member in the Arizona desert using a gun issued through Operation Fast and Furious.
“This was not even knowing of the potential for gun walking. This was just . . . not shutting this investigation down and letting another 300 weapons come into the country after the first 300 weapons,” Carino said in an interview issued in the Oversight Committee report. “What these guys did was basically grab the ATF rule book on trafficking and threw it out the window. This is indefensible. It is indefensible.”
Every time agents working in Mexico asked about the 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,’” according to the report.
At this point, 48 different recoveries of weapons have occurred in Mexico, and the public has only seen the beginning of the violence as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.
One suspect was able to purchase and transfer over 600 weapons to cartel members before he was arrested.
“I recall my first days at the ATF academy, where it was drilled into us as new agents that under no circumstances would any firearms, in any investigation, leave the control of ATF. Instructors stressed that even if a weapon was lost “by accident,” the agent was still subject to termination,” former ATF Attaché to Mexico Darren D. Gil said in testimony.
“Unfortunately, as a result of this operation, it is the Mexican people who will continue to suffer the consequences of narco-related firearms violence. I have no doubt, as recent media reports have indicated, that American citizens will also be exposed to more firearms-related violence as a result of this operation,” Gil said.
The media report Gil is referring to comes from internal emails that show weapons issued by ATF were being used to commit crimes in the Phoenix area.
Up until now, nobody within ATF or DOJ has been terminated as a result of purposely losing 2,000 high powered weapons in Mexico; however, one ATF agent has alleged he was fired for coming forward and acting as a whistleblower on the deadly program, and Issa has said the Obama administration is intimidating agents in an effort to prevent their testimony before Congress. ATF Associate Chief Counsel Barry Orlow has sent letters to ATF agents called to testify to the Oversight Committee under subpoena, warning them to watch what they say. Senior Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich, both nominated by President Obama, have repeatedly stonewalled the oversight committee investigation and have not complied with multiple congressional subpoenas to submit Operation Fast and Furious documents.
“I was skeptical when the first whistle-blower came to this committee with allegations of hundreds, maybe thousands of guns being allowed to “walk” into the country of Mexico. I could not believe that someone in ATF would so callously let firearms wind up in the hands of criminals. And that this activity has seemingly been approved by our own Justice Department and ATF management in the misguided hope of catching the “big fish,” Jose Wall, ATF Senior Special Agents based in Tijuana, Mexico said. “These firearms that are now in the hands of people who have no regard for human life pose a threat to all of us, a threat to which none of us is immune.”
Former ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell would not condemn Operation Fast and Furious and allowing guns to walk into Mexico during testimony and questioning. In fact, Newell went so far as to say he was unaware of guns walking into Mexico, despite internal emails showing he did know. Newell admitted the agency made mistakes but would not admit the program was a bad idea and exposed that he was in communication with a member of the White House national security team. His testimony also conflicted with previous testimony given by Special Agent John Dodson of the Phoenix Field Division who said on June 15, “Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.”
“At no time in our strategy was it to allow guns to be taken to Mexico,” Newell said, adding that at no time did his agency allow guns to walk.
“You’re entitled to your opinion, not your own facts,” Issa responded.
ATF Team Leader Lorren Leadmon disagreed and directly countered Newell’s testimony that is was not the plan of ATF to give dangerous cartels weapons, that there was no doubt weapons were going to criminal organizations as early as 2009.
This, is the perfect storm of idiocy,” Canino said in an interview issued in the Oversight Committee report. “You don't lose guns. You don't walk guns. You don't let guns get out of your sight.”
________________________ ________________________ _______________________
Obama / Holder deserve life sentences for this.
-
BREAKING NEWS: ATF attaché calls Gunwalker 'perfect storm of idiocy'
By David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner
..A Joint Staff Report prepared for Rep. Darrell Issa of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee has just been released today. Titled “The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious Fueling Cartel Violence,” the report asserts:
Operation Fast and Furious made unprecedented use of a dangerous investigative technique known as “gunwalking.” Rather than intervene and seize illegally purchase firearms, ATF’s Phoenix Field Division allowed known straw purchasers to walk away with guns, over and over again. As a result, the weapons were transferred to criminals and Mexican Drug Cartels.
Of significance, former ATF attaché to Mexico, Darren Gil and his deputy, Carlos Canino confirm reports made early on by Gun Rights Examiner and Sipsey Street Irregulars that not only was this information withheld from them, but also from the Mexican government—despite repeated questioning and objections leading to “screaming matches” registered with management. ATF’s office in Mexico being denied permission to share information with Mexican authorities was first reported in this column on Jan. 6.
Also reported is the involvement of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, again a subject of a report filed in this column on Feb. 5, as well as other managers at ATF and within the Justice Department. It is clear officials knew walked guns were being used to commit acts of violence—and continued to allow it rather than shut the operation down—something they did not do until the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry made it dangerous for them to allow the operation to continue.
There is much to glean from this report, particularly interesting since so many of the principals will also be witnesses in this morning’s scheduledhearings at 10:00 AM in the Rayburn House Office Building. Much of the report reads almost like an intrigue novel, with the kidnapping/murder of Mario Gonzales Rodriguez and the attack by cartels on a Mexican federal police helicopter, both of which involved Fast and Furious weapons, but hard numbers on the weapons are also presented by date, and by number and types of weapons recovered.
Telling is the assessment of Canino, who characterized the gunwalking as “the perfect storm of idiocy” and went on to say:
Just—you don’t do it. You don’t walk guns. You don’t walk guns…You don’t lose guns. You don’t walk guns. You don’t let guns out of your sight.
That some did, with terrible results, is certain.
Read the complete report by clicking here.
.
Continue reading on Examiner.com BREAKING NEWS: ATF attaché calls Gunwalker 'perfect storm of idiocy' - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/breaking-news-atf-attach-calls-gunwalker-perfect-storm-of-idiocy#ixzz1TJM8oSJ9
________________________ ________________________ ______
WTF?
Any of you dirtbags still supporting obama admn need to be beaten sensless.
-
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60923532/ATF-Mexico-Report
Wow. This is your disgusting govt at work. Yeah, lets send them more $$$$!
-
"How is it that the No. 2, 3, 4 at Justice all knew about this program, but the No. 1 didn't?," Mr. Issa said. "Is it because he said 'don't tell me'? Is it because they knew what they were doing is wrong, and they were protecting their boss? Or is it that Eric Holder is just so disconnected ... ?
"Whichever it is — he knew and he's lied to Congress, or he didn't know, and he's so detached that he wasn't doing his job — that really probably is for the administration to make a decision on, sooner not later," Mr. Issa said.
Exactly. Holder should resign or be fired for being a liar or for being incompetent.
-
Many weapons seized in Sonora traced to ATF's 'Fast and Furious'
Story(35) CommentsMany weapons seized in Sonora traced to ATF's 'Fast and Furious'
Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 12:00 am | (0)
Related: PDF: Operation Fast and Furious committee report
Many of the weapons seizures in Mexico that alerted authorities to problems with the ATF's "Fast and Furious" operation occurred south of Arizona in Sonora, a report by congressional Republicans shows.
So far, officials are aware of 48 weapons recoveries in Mexico involving 122 weapons connected to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Mexican gun-smuggling investigation called "Operation Fast and Furious," according to a report prepared for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
The list of the 48 weapons recoveries shows 15 seizures in Sonora totaling 60 weapons, including the biggest recovery of them all - 42 weapons on Nov. 20, 2009, in Naco, Sonora, south of Bisbee, about 80 miles southeast of Tucson.
On that day, Mexican authorities discovered 41 AK-47s and one Beowulf .50-caliber rifle in a vehicle driven by a 21-year old woman, the report says. The woman told police she planned to transport the weapons "straight to the Sinaloa cartel," the report said.
All 42 weapons traced back to Fast and Furious straw purchases, the report says. Straw purchases are when gun smugglers pay somebody with no criminal record to buy a gun from a licensed dealer.
In the operation, the ATF allowed guns to be bought by known straw purchasers. The goal was to investigate how the drug smuggling operation worked in order to arrest and prosecute high-level operatives.
Twenty of the 42 weapons recovered in Naco that day had been purchased less than 24 hours earlier from gun stores in Arizona, the report said.
The report was released the same day as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on the operation. There, William McMahon, the head of ATF's Western region, apologized for mistakes made during the operation but said they were only made out of zeal to track down weapons smugglers.
The report is based mainly on internal emails and interviews with two ATF officials who were working in Mexico during the operation: Darren Gil, attaché to Mexico, and Carlos Canino, then deputy attaché to Mexico.
"This is the perfect storm of idiocy," Canino says in the report. "You know what Gen. George Patton says, 'If we are all thinking alike, then nobody is thinking.' Right? Nobody was thinking here."
The other Sonoran weapons recoveries in the report occurred in Nogales, Agua Prieta, San Luis Río Colorado, Navojoa, Saric, Ciudad Obregon and Puerto Peñasco.
The congressional inquiries into the ATF operation began early this year after Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed during a shootout with suspected border bandits on Dec. 14 near Rio Rico. Two Romanian-made assault rifles were recovered at the scene that are believed to have been sold to straw buyers in Phoenix and tracked into Mexico under the operation.
"You know what Gen. George Patton says, 'If we are all thinking alike, then nobody is thinking.' Right? Nobody was thinking here."
Carlos Canino, ATF official, on Operation Fast and Furious
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com
Read more: http://azstarnet.com/article_ab5f24d6-1cd0-5a5d-809c-4378748ce984.html#ixzz1TJbVyDNa
________________________ _________________
"This is the perfect storm of idiocy," Canino says in the report.
Sounds like an apt description for Obama Admn.
-
Fast and Furious: Enter the IRS and White HouseThe scandal grows wider, and deeper.
by John Hayward
07/27/2011
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his House Oversight committee did not waste any time getting down to business when their “Gun Walker” hearings resumed yesterday. Within a matter of hours, they had Special Agent in Charge William Newell, of the Phoenix ATF office, sizzling nicely on the Oversight hibachi, and this astonishing exchange occurred:
So now we’ve got the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and ICE connected with Operation Fast and Furious. We already know the FBI was involved, because some of their paid confidential informants starred in ATF’s favorite closed-circuit TV shows. Who’s left to implicate?
Ah, yes: the White House. Newell also testified that he discussed Operation Fast & Furious with his old friend, White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O’Reilly. According to CBS News, Issa’s committee got its hands on an email that began with the ominous words, “you didn’t get this from me.”
Newell says O’Reilly 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.” A White House spokesman denied this exchange had anything to do with Operation Fast and Furious.
Here’s a little testimony from ATF Special Agent Carlos Canino, who figured prominently in yesterday’s staff report on the Gun Walker investigation. This is what happens when you force a good man to sail through the “perfect storm of idiocy” for years, and then give him a microphone.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Hayward is a staff writer for HUMAN EVENTS, and author of the recently published Doctor Zero: Year One. Follow him on Twitter: Doc_0. Contact him by email at jhayward@eaglepub.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Boom - time to get jump suits for obama and holder.
-
-
WWWWOOOWWWW
IRS & ICE also in on Fast & Furious!
-
the only one following the story is you and the other far right nuts this is going nowhere :D :D
-
-
the only one following the story is you and the other far right nuts this is going nowhere :D :D
Really? Go to the guns forum and DU and take a peek. Theyt are on this as well you piece of commie trash.
-
Agent Newell committed perjury. What a lying sack of shit.
-
Got to love Cummings, Norton, and the other 95er congress people trying to cover for obama in this clip. Disgusting.
-
Really? Go to the guns forum and DU and take a peek. Theyt are on this as well you piece of commie trash.
hahaha more lawyer talk you must impress your clients with your language
-
hahaha more lawyer talk you must impress your clients with your language
Only a homeless drug addicted commie traitor like yourself could support this.
-
Wow!!!!
This guy got nailed to the wall!
-
Only a homeless drug addicted commie traitor like yourself could support this.
come on slum dweller, that's not nice ;D
-
Only a homeless drug addicted commie traitor like yourself could support this.
i've talked to probably a dozen homeless drug addicted commie traitors today. We actually had our Wednesday meeting down at the local ACORN HQ.
They all pretty much support this whole Gunwalker thing. It's not easy to admit, but we homeless drug addicted commie traitors enjoy seeing the US Govt (specifically ATF agents who are democrats under direct order from Obama via futuristic videophone) arm evildoers worldwide.
-
come on slum dweller, that's not nice ;D
Its the truth. Watch the actual testimony I posted.
-
i've talked to probably a dozen homeless drug addicted commie traitors today. We actually had our Wednesday meeting down at the local ACORN HQ.
They all pretty much support this whole Gunwalker thing. It's not easy to admit, but we homeless drug addicted commie traitors enjoy seeing the US Govt (specifically ATF agents who are democrats under direct order from Obama via futuristic videophone) arm evildoers worldwide.
Watch Newells' testimony and Canino's
This is unreal.
goes right to obama, holder, obama, fbi
-
Watch Newells' testimony and Canino's
This is unreal.
goes right to obama, holder, obama, fbi
I'm the guy who has said this exact shit - arming the enemy for the goal of perpetual war - has been going on for decades - on the border, in the middle east, and even in our cities.
Just a CT though, right? ;)
-
I'm the guy who has said this exact shit - arming the enemy for the goal of perpetual war - has been going on for decades - on the border, in the middle east, and even in our cities.
Just a CT though, right? ;)
Watch the testimony. I can't do it justice by describing it. Its totally crazy.
Rep. Gouwdy kicks ass.
-
Watch the testimony. I can't do it justice by describing it. Its totally crazy.
Rep. Gouwdy kicks ass.
Three weeks, no fights... the bouncer gets fired. Unless,
Three weeks, no fights... the bouncer STARTS a fight.
I guess we need the bouncer... there are still fights.
;)
Shit like this has been going on for decades. Sad but it's reality now.
-
Three weeks, no fights... the bouncer gets fired. Unless,
Three weeks, no fights... the bouncer STARTS a fight.
I guess we need the bouncer... there are still fights.
;)
Shit like this has been going on for decades. Sad but it's reality now.
Watch the testimony.
-
-
Watch the testimony.
will it prove what i have already believed for 15 years? lol
-
will it prove what i have already believed for 15 years? lol
Just watch it.
Its worse than you think. Canino is the only honest one there. The jack boot Newell is looking at a perjury case at a minimum.
-
Funny too, the democrat commie dirtbags do whatever they can to shift the argument away from the facts of the case itself.
Typical commie 95er dirtbags like Cummings and Norton will do anything to run cover for this piece of shit obama.
-
Just watch it.
Its worse than you think. Canino is the only honest one there. The jack boot Newell is looking at a perjury case at a minimum.
lol @ worse than I think. I believe we let 911 happen, funded it with 2.3 trillion that went missing from the pentagon on 9/10/2001... and did it to give permission for a few arabian wars in which we fund the bad guys to ensure a state of perpetual war.
i'm just a nutbag CTer :) Not sure a few hundred missing guns for the same cause is gonna shock me.
business as usual. in 100 years, everyone will be like "duh, of course that's how it works". Ours is the immature generation that just has to grow used to it, silly :)
-
lol @ worse than I think. I believe we let 911 happen, funded it with 2.3 trillion that went missing from the pentagon on 9/10/2001... and did it to give permission for a few arabian wars in which we fund the bad guys to ensure a state of perpetual war.
i'm just a nutbag CTer :) Not sure a few hundred missing guns for the same cause is gonna shock me.
business as usual. in 100 years, everyone will be like "duh, of course that's how it works". Ours is the immature generation that just has to grow used to it, silly :)
Show me testimony before congress on your 911 ctas rivaling this.
-
will it prove what i have already believed for 15 years? lol
You sure it isn't a brilliant plan by Obama to kill of as man Mexican drug cartel members as he can, akin to the kinetic war strategy in Libya?
-
Show me testimony before congress on your 911 ctas rivaling this.
you must be shitting me.
youre shitting me right?
cause it sounds like youre shitting me here.
is that the case?
You sure it isn't a brilliant plan by Obama to kill of as man Mexican drug cartel members as he can, akin to the kinetic war strategy in Libya?
libya feeds the war machine too.
-
Yes - post the congressesional testimony rivaling this.
-
Yes - post the congressesional testimony rivaling this.
Bush had both the house and senate so they left him alone ;)
You show me the families of the victims marching on congress at lunch for 441 days until they reluctantly started an investigation...
-
Bush had both the house and senate so they left him alone ;)
You show me the families of the victims marching on congress at lunch for 441 days until they reluctantly started an investigation...
Show me the testimony from 2007 - 2010 then.
-
Show me the testimony from 2007 - 2010 then.
the bullshit underfunded fake ass investigation for a crummy $13 mil was concluded by then.
youre so full of shit on the 911 comparision, it's embarassing. There would be the smallest, most underfunded investigation on Gunwalker if obama owned the house.
-
the bullshit underfunded fake ass investigation for a crummy $13 mil was concluded by then.
youre so full of shit on the 911 comparision, it's embarassing. There would be the smallest, most underfunded investigation on Gunwalker if obama owned the house.
LMAO - you have nothing on 911. You have absolutely the same amount of failed CT's you had on September 12, 2001 as you have today.
-
LMAO - you have nothing on 911. You have absolutely the same amount of failed CT's you had on September 12, 2001 as you have today.
you can't list the basic point of 911 skeptics.
you're an athiest who has never read the bible here.
-
you can't list the basic point of 911 skeptics.
you're an athiest who has never read the bible here.
I dont have to since 10 years later you still dont have a damn theory, let alone a conspiracy.
-
I dont have to since 10 years later you still dont have a damn theory, let alone a conspiracy.
youre emotionally connected to 911. you shit your pants taht day. you beleive the american president (when he's a dem) is perfectly capable of forging a birth certificate then working to destroy the US economy, the dollar, and convert a nation of 300 million to marxist socialism.
Yet you don't think REPUB leadership would allow an attack, even if it fit their stated goals perfectly and their behavior before and after (and on!) that day was certainly not normal. Gotcha. Do you know what Transportation Sec Normal Minetta said Cheney was saying as the plan was 40, 30, 20 and 10 miles out from the pentagon?
Of course you don't.
-
Again - what is your theory - name names, places, dates, methods, etc or STFU
-
-
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.
-
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..
-
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
-
Most cops want a disarmed public.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
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.
-
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
Like this story? Then sign up to receive our free daily E-Brief newsletter
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/house-committee-seek-more-info-white-hou
-
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!
-
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".
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc.
nypost.com , nypostonline.com , and newyorkpost.com are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc.
Copyright 2011 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy | Terms of Use
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/lethal_fiasco_rllfHYxZwgAHwNGmMUCaoL#ixzz1TV6qT1Ab
________________________ ______________________
Funny how the Obama is God club is silent on this whole mess.
-
Meehan Getting Answers on Fast & Furious: ATF, ICE, DEA, & IRS Involved in Operation
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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..
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
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
-
about the same experience I've had with lawyers
Difference is that I don't cost the taxpayer a single penny.
-
Difference is that I don't cost the taxpayer a single penny.
Maybe you don't, but lawyers do
-
Maybe you don't, but lawyers do
Well, only civil attorneys... however, as far as criminal cases go, if you weren't out there locking up people for bullshit, then they wouldn't need defense attorneys to keep them from going to jail.
-
Well, only civil attorneys... however, as far as criminal cases go, if you weren't out there locking up people for bullshit, then they wouldn't need defense attorneys to keep them from going to jail.
Tu, tell me the last bullshit arrest I made?
Point is, not all attorneys are a blight on society, it's debatable the percentage. Not all cops are corrupt jack booted thugs.
-
Tu, tell me the last bullshit arrest I made?
Point is, not all attorneys are a blight on society, it's debatable the percentage. Not all cops are corrupt jack booted thugs.
Attorneys do a lot more good than cops do.
I don't know what the last bullshit arrest you made was, but I'm sure it's not been that long... Last month?
-
Attorneys do a lot more good than cops do.
I don't know what the last bullshit arrest you made was, but I'm sure it's not been that long... Last month?
once again, talking out of your ass.. ::)
-
once again, talking out of your ass.. ::)
Tell me about it. ::)
-
Tell me about it. ::)
Ok Mark... Whatever you say.
I love how you show up when it's about me... because of course if a republican such as 333 says anything about it, that's fine.
I'm even standing up FOR attorneys here... of which you happen to be right?
You're just another republican shill... This post pretty much proves that.
once again, talking out of your ass.. ::)
I'm not the one taking away peoples liberties... That would be you.
You're just another gestapo goon... Your opinion only means slightly more than Mark's up there.
-
Ok Mark... Whatever you say.
I love how you show up when it's about me... because of course if a republican such as 333 says anything about it, that's fine.
I'm even standing up FOR attorneys here... of which you happen to be right?
You're just another republican shill... This post pretty much proves that.
I'm not the one taking away peoples liberties... That would be you.
You're just another gestapo goon... Your opinion only means slightly more than Mark's up there.
How the heck do you know who he has arrested? He's right: you're talking out of your rear end. ::)
-
How the heck do you know who he has arrested? He's right: you're talking out of your rear end. ::)
He's a cop... There's no doubt he's made bullshit arrests... Do you think he has a 100 percent conviction ration on his arrests?
::)
Oh brother.
Hell, I'd even go find out, but he's another anonymous clown.
-
He's a cop... There's no doubt he's made bullshit arrests... Do you think he has a 100 percent conviction ration on his arrests?
::)
Oh brother.
Hell, I'd even go find out, but he's another anonymous clown.
I have no idea what kind of arrests he has made. Neither do you. ::)
-
In addition to health care, the economy, etc, add this to yet another treasonous disaster from this wretched admn.
-
I have no idea what kind of arrests he has made. Neither do you. ::)
Exactly. But he has no problems jumping to conclusions. I've asked him before where he thought he would be without the police but he was silent on it.
He accuses me of "taking away peoples liberties". I suppose child molesters, rapists, robbers, thieves and the like in his world deserve to run free.. It just makes no sense at all to stand on a platform as they do and say no one should ever arrest anyone and take away their liberties. I'm embarrassed now just getting caught up in the silly 3rd grade type debate...
-
Exactly. But he has no problems jumping to conclusions. I've asked him before where he thought he would be without the police but he was silent on it.
He accuses me of "taking away peoples liberties". I suppose child molesters, rapists, robbers, thieves and the like in his world deserve to run free.. It just makes no sense at all to stand on a platform as they do and say no one should ever arrest anyone and take away their liberties. I'm embarrassed now just getting caught up in the silly 3rd grade type debate...
Dude... You are retarded.
I can tell you where the world would be without the police... Just fucking fine.
It's not the "police" I have a problem with... It's the OVERABUNDANCE of police... How many rapists or child molesters or "robbers" have YOU caught... without any public assistance.
So tell me... You say you've done all of that... of all of the "work" you do, how much of it is actually catching real violent criminals.
Not stupid drug shit, not fucking traffic tickets, actually PREVENTING crime... How many? And then, tell me how many you actually catch IN THE ACT of committing the crime... Because you and I both know that you do not "stop crime", you report on crime, and you use the people to actually catch criminals.
If everyone could carry a gun, your entire job would be rendered absolutely USELESS.
People police themselves.
-
Dude... You are retarded.
I can tell you where the world would be without the police... Just fucking fine.
It's not the "police" I have a problem with... It's the OVERABUNDANCE of police... How many rapists or child molesters or "robbers" have YOU caught... without any public assistance.
So tell me... You say you've done all of that... of all of the "work" you do, how much of it is actually catching real violent criminals.
Not stupid drug shit, not fucking traffic tickets, actually PREVENTING crime... How many? And then, tell me how many you actually catch IN THE ACT of committing the crime... Because you and I both know that you do not "stop crime", you report on crime, and you use the people to actually catch criminals.
If everyone could carry a gun, your entire job would be rendered absolutely USELESS.
People police themselves.
Again, talking out of your ass Tu..
In fact, your statements are so far off the chart stupid, I'm just going to do what I said I would do before and drop it. You are like debating with a 3rd grader..
-
Again, talking out of your ass Tu..
In fact, your statements are so far off the chart stupid, I'm just going to do what I said I would do before and drop it. You are like debating with a 3rd grader..
So you have no answer for ANY question I asked at all?
ZERO?!
Yeah, that's what I thought... So you say "I don't answer your question", and then when I do... it's debating a 3rd grader... Ok there chief.
Whatever you say.
Remember... I'm not the anonymous clown afraid to say who I am on get big..
That would be you.
-
Dude... You are retarded.
I can tell you where the world would be without the police... Just fucking fine.
It's not the "police" I have a problem with... It's the OVERABUNDANCE of police... How many rapists or child molesters or "robbers" have YOU caught... without any public assistance.
So tell me... You say you've done all of that... of all of the "work" you do, how much of it is actually catching real violent criminals.
Not stupid drug shit, not fucking traffic tickets, actually PREVENTING crime... How many? And then, tell me how many you actually catch IN THE ACT of committing the crime... Because you and I both know that you do not "stop crime", you report on crime, and you use the people to actually catch criminals.
If everyone could carry a gun, your entire job would be rendered absolutely USELESS.
People police themselves.
Ok, I'll take the time to answer your "questions" even though I recall answering them before.
I've personally arrested several burglars in the act. I've arrested many more with warrants as a detective.
I've arrested aggravated assault suspects in the act, I've arrested many more with warrants as a detective
I've arrested at least 2 rapists fleeing the scene and have assisted in cases identifying and arresting subjects after the fact. You seem to think a rape victim doesn't care if their rapists is eventually caught..they do.
A bunch of folks who had just beaten up their spouses or girlfriends and I can recall many a time when we arrived prior to assaults happening and "stopped" them.
The argument is ridiculous which is why I didn't respond before. I've caught several car burglars in the act, and I'm pretty sure that "stopped" them from committing more.
I really don't know where you get the idea police don't do anything pro active.. again, you're argument was baseless.
I hope that put it to rest for you. And as far as anonymous, I have posted pics on Getbig, spoke about my department and position.
Why do you find it so hard to accept that not all cops are jack booted thugs? Why are you so predisposed to assume we are all worthless and don't do anything? Dude, you really need to take a deep breathe and take a sip of reality before posting again.
-
Difference is that I don't cost the taxpayer a single penny.
Costing the taxpayer a penny is not a meaningful yardstick.
-
Ok, I'll take the time to answer your "questions" even though I recall answering them before.
I've personally arrested several burglars in the act. I've arrested many more with warrants as a detective.
I've arrested aggravated assault suspects in the act, I've arrested many more with warrants as a detective
I've arrested at least 2 rapists fleeing the scene and have assisted in cases identifying and arresting subjects after the fact. You seem to think a rape victim doesn't care if their rapists is eventually caught..they do.
A bunch of folks who had just beaten up their spouses or girlfriends and I can recall many a time when we arrived prior to assaults happening and "stopped" them.
The argument is ridiculous which is why I didn't respond before. I've caught several car burglars in the act, and I'm pretty sure that "stopped" them from committing more.
I really don't know where you get the idea police don't do anything pro active.. again, you're argument was baseless.
I hope that put it to rest for you. And as far as anonymous, I have posted pics on Getbig, spoke about my department and position.
Why do you find it so hard to accept that not all cops are jack booted thugs? Why are you so predisposed to assume we are all worthless and don't do anything? Dude, you really need to take a deep breathe and take a sip of reality before posting again.
If you did all of those things as you purport, then I commend you.
That said, you are most likely in the company of 10-20 percent of the over all police force in the country. Which would equate to being able to reduce said police force by 80 percent.
Look at the actual numbers in your own jurisdiction... Of all arrests, what is the percentage of them that are for violent crimes? (You can even add burglary to that if you want)
20? 30? 40? 50?
Even if it's as high as 50... Why do I need the other 50?
Do you not see the problem here?
If 50% of arrests are for real crimes, then that means the other 50 is done out of jackbooted thuggery.
That 50 percent is the police state... The Gestapo.
You're still anonymous... If you're not willing to put your name out there (Like me)... You're still anonymous.
Beach just happens to not be anonymous anymore, but it's not by his choosing, I'm sure he wishes no one knew who he was, but we do.
-
If you did all of those things as you purport, then I commend you.
That said, you are most likely in the company of 10-20 percent of the over all police force in the country. Which would equate to being able to reduce said police force by 80 percent.
Look at the actual numbers in your own jurisdiction... Of all arrests, what is the percentage of them that are for violent crimes? (You can even add burglary to that if you want)
20? 30? 40? 50?
Even if it's as high as 50... Why do I need the other 50?
Do you not see the problem here?
If 50% of arrests are for real crimes, then that means the other 50 is done out of jackbooted thuggery.
That 50 percent is the police state... The Gestapo.
You're still anonymous... If you're not willing to put your name out there (Like me)... You're still anonymous.
Beach just happens to not be anonymous anymore, but it's not by his choosing, I'm sure he wishes no one knew who he was, but we do.
your stats are in error. hope this helps
-
your stats are in error. hope this helps
Only if you can show me what the stats are... and then show me where you got them.
I have this one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States
"In terms of federal prison, 57% of those incarcerated were sentenced for drug offenses. However, the federal prison population is a very small percentage of the massive state prison population, which also holds numerous people convicted of drug offenses."
So those people in federal prisons are arrested for the most violent crimes as well, and as such we know that 57% are for drug offenses (Non-Violent Crime) and we know that the other 43% are for ALL OTHER CRIMES combined.
Both violent and non-violent (tax evasion / fraud / the like)
You think your department arrests people differently than the rest of the country?
Hope THIS helps YOU.
-
If I'm following you Tu, you are advocating that Police only enforce laws regarding violent crimes?
-
Give the police a hammer and everyone looks like a nail.
-
Give the police a hammer and everyone looks like a nail.
Brilliant observation..
-
If I'm following you Tu, you are advocating that Police only enforce laws regarding violent crimes?
No.. however, we focused on that for a bit... i'm saying that police arrest people for bullshit all of the time.
I'm saying that people are locked up over 50% for bullshit (like drugs) and I'm saying that I and everyone else would be just as "safe" with 1/2 the police force we have today.
Because that's what we're talking about right? Safety?
-
No.. however, we focused on that for a bit... i'm saying that police arrest people for bullshit all of the time.
I'm saying that people are locked up over 50% for bullshit (like drugs) and I'm saying that I and everyone else would be just as "safe" with 1/2 the police force we have today.
Because that's what we're talking about right? Safety?
You call their OT, pensions, enhacements, etc "bullshit"?
Come on TU, those be important police matters.
-
You call their OT, pensions, enhacements, etc "bullshit"?
Come on TU, those be important police matters.
Apparently so...
I mean, I'm just a crazy person who debates like a 3rd grader, but I'm the one who isn't paid by the tax payer.
Is being a 3rd grader better or worse than being a leach?
-
No.. however, we focused on that for a bit... i'm saying that police arrest people for bullshit all of the time.
I'm saying that people are locked up over 50% for bullshit (like drugs) and I'm saying that I and everyone else would be just as "safe" with 1/2 the police force we have today.
Because that's what we're talking about right? Safety?
Ok, I hear what you are saying. 50% of all arrests are bullshit and we can do with 50% reduction in police. Gotcha
-
Ok, I hear what you are saying. 50% of all arrests are bullshit and we can do with 50% reduction in police. Gotcha
Yes, we could EASILY.
-
Yes, we could EASILY.
I disagree with you based on the fact our officers currently are running call to call and hardly have time to eat, and rarely finish a shift on time. Very few of these calls are drug related. In our case we are understaffed as it is and losing half the department would be detrimental to the citizens. But man it sounds good on paper..
-
I disagree with you based on the fact our officers currently are running call to call and hardly have time to eat, and rarely finish a shift on time. Very few of these calls are drug related. In our case we are understaffed as it is and losing half the department would be detrimental to the citizens. But man it sounds good on paper..
I call shenanigans... It wouldn't. You would simply prioritize the calls.
Unless Austin is the most dangerous city in the country, this is an excuse.
I have done many ride alongs and have seen how when a call comes in 3-4 cars show up. Perhaps try it with only 2.
Why is a traffic stop getting 2 or 3 cars?
I got pulled over for running a red light last year. 4. That's right. FOUR cruisers stopped and one female officer had the audacity to talk to the passenger in my car. To which I explained to the officer that this person wasn't involved in the "crime" and after they identified themselves was under no legal obligation to talk to her.
Austin must be a crime ridden place if this is your stance.
-
GOP lawmakers say 100 'Fast and Furious' weapons linked to crime scenes
The Hill ^ | 07/26/11 | Jordy Yager
More than 100 weapons linked to crime scenes were sold under a federal gun-tracking program, according to a new congressional report.
The report from two Republican lawmakers says the program was allowed to continue despite pleas from U.S. agents stationed in Mexico to stop arming the country’s drug cartels.
Issued by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday, the report found that Mexican law enforcement officials and U.S. attaché agents stationed in Mexico were kept largely in the dark about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) gun-tracking operation known as Fast and Furious.
As a result, the “ATF jeopardized relations between the U.S. and Mexico,” according to the 60-page report. The Republicans based their findings off more than a dozen interviews with ATF officials.
As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa will hear testimony on Tuesday from a half-dozen former and current ATF agents, including ATF attachés to Mexico and the ATF’s regional deputy assistant director for field operations.
Earlier this month, ATF acting director Kenneth Melson told the committee in a closed-door interview that neither he nor acting-deputy director Billy Hoover knew about the operation ahead of its public revelation earlier this year, according to a partial transcript of the meeting provided to The Hill by committee Democrats.
The Fast and Furious operation authorized gun dealers in the Southwest to sell more than 1,000 weapons to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels, with the stated hope of tracking the weapons to the eventual kingpins and dismantling the gun trafficking routes. But the federal officials in charge of the operation did not authorize enough surveillance of the weapons and offered no reliable method of tracing them other than if they were later recovered at a crime scene, according to ATF testimony before the committee last month.
Grassley and Issa have pursued the issue for seven months, ever since a whistleblower came to the senior Iowa lawmaker following the killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two of the guns found at the scene of Terry’s killing were later traced to sales made under the operation’s authorization.
The lawmakers want to find out who gave the ultimate authorization for the operation. Both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have decried the program. Holder called for the inspector general to investigate the issue, and Obama has declined to comment on the issue until that probe is complete.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
I disagree with you based on the fact our officers currently are running call to call and hardly have time to eat, and rarely finish a shift on time. Very few of these calls are drug related. In our case we are understaffed as it is and losing half the department would be detrimental to the citizens. But man it sounds good on paper..
HA, doubt it. My bro spends most of his time doing preventative patrol. But there are times when it's one call after the next, like 9pm to 2am. Seems to be really, really busy during that time.
You know something (for you and Tu), there's actually a case study. Camden PD cut their police force in half earlier this year, and it's one of the highest crime areas in the country. I don't know all the facts, but it would be interesting to learn how things panned out for them.
-
HA, doubt it. My bro spends most of his time doing preventative patrol. But there are times when it's one call after the next, like 9pm to 2am. Seems to be really, really busy during that time.
You know something (for you and Tu), there's actually a case study. Camden PD cut their police force in half earlier this year, and it's one of the highest crime areas in the country. I don't know all the facts, but it would be interesting to learn how things panned out for them.
Don't know skip - most of camden is already, and will always be, a zoo regardless of the amount of cops.
-
How ATF delivered assault weapons to drug cartels: Attorney general should explain how...
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | July 31, 2011 | Kevin Ferris
Attorney general should explain how misguided sting operation failed to trace guns.
Back in February 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder outlined the new administration's intent on an assault-weapons ban:
"As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons."
Not only would it be good for the United States, Holder pointed out, but it also would "have a positive impact" on Mexico, which was plagued - then and now - by drug-related gun violence.
That same month, in a travel warning, the State Department confirmed the level of violence near the U.S. border: "Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades. Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities . . . most recently in northern Mexico."
Holder's comments on a weapons ban naturally upset Second Amendment proponents, who always fear the worst when it comes to the government and gun rights. But their worst fears were no match for the misguided policy that would be implemented on Obama and Holder's watch.
A push for the ban never materialized. Holder was no more accurate on that count than he was on closing the Gitmo detention facility or trying Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in a civilian court in Manhattan. Maybe that's all on the second-term to-do list.
What did happen was Fast and Furious, a new operation out of the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives that turned the world of fighting gun trafficking upside down.
Before, ATF agents routinely busted straw purchasers - usually people with clean records who are paid to buy guns and pass them along to others with criminal records - and confiscated any weapons found. But straw purchasers are the bottom feeders in the gunrunning food chain. ATF officials, understandably, wanted to get closer to the cartel bosses running the smuggling operations.
Fast and Furious was supposed to help make that happen. The plan was to allow straw purchasers to make their deliveries, and then the ATF would trace the flow of the weapons.
But one huge detail was left unaddressed: The ATF made no provisions to actually trace the guns once they crossed the border.
The agency wasn't attaching electronic-tracking devices to the guns, and agents were not pursuing them into Mexico. They were forced to stop and watch the weapons "walk." Maybe Mexican authorities could have picked up the trail - but the ATF never told its counterparts across the border about the operation.
So, essentially, the U.S. government was now arming the very drug cartels that it was supposed to be helping Mexican officials fight.
Agents themselves were appalled. "It goes against everything we've been taught," Special Agent Carlos Canino said last week at the latest in a series of hearings on Fast and Furious by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
More than 2,000 weapons walked. Fewer than 600 have been recovered. And recovered usually means found at the scene of a crime, often a shooting or a homicide, in the United States or Mexico.
The last straw for some agents occurred in December, when two weapons traced to Fast and Furious were found at the scene of a firefight in the Arizona desert that killed U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Agents took their concerns up the chain of command at the ATF, and to the Justice Department's inspector general. When that didn't work, they went to Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. Grassley has been working with his House counterpart, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), who had the power to initiate hearings.
As a result, Holder has ordered an internal investigation at Justice, and has said he didn't learn of the program until this year. Both Grassley and Issa have complained about the department's lack of cooperation as they have tried to find out who authorized the program and let it continue when it was clear that there was no way to keep track of the weapons. Further, they have warned about retaliation against ATF acting director Kenneth E. Melson, who took the unusual step of testifying July 4, accompanied by a private attorney rather than one from the Justice Department.
At last week's public hearing, one ATF official apologized for mistakes made, and agent William Newell said more "risk assessment" should have been conducted.
That's a start, but not enough. Rep. Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), a member of Issa's committee, agrees.
"You've got the highest-level local and regional people from ATF who are taking a fall for the team," Meehan said after the hearing. "But it's clear that they were operating with authority from above, certainly in collaboration with the prosecutor's office and, one would believe, with approvals right on up to the highest level of the Department of Justice."
Holder needs to be more forthcoming on the decisions that led to the death of Terry and others. He needs to detail how he plans to recover the other 1,400 weapons that "walked" before they end up at a crime scene. Finally, he needs to explain how the administration went from wanting to ban assault weapons to supplying them to drug lords.
-
I call shenanigans... It wouldn't. You would simply prioritize the calls.
Unless Austin is the most dangerous city in the country, this is an excuse.
I have done many ride alongs and have seen how when a call comes in 3-4 cars show up. Perhaps try it with only 2.
Why is a traffic stop getting 2 or 3 cars?
I got pulled over for running a red light last year. 4. That's right. FOUR cruisers stopped and one female officer had the audacity to talk to the passenger in my car. To which I explained to the officer that this person wasn't involved in the "crime" and after they identified themselves was under no legal obligation to talk to her.
Austin must be a crime ridden place if this is your stance.
calls are already prioritized from 1 to 4. We must live in very different places. 2 officers on a traffic stop until the person is identified and the officer signals it is clear. Most of the time the back up hasn't arrived and goes back in service to another call.
2 officers are sent to typical disturbance calls unless a weapon is involved and the circumstances dictate how many go.
You and I have very different experiences apparently. I do this for a living, day in and day out for a couple decades and see what goes on all the time. That is one difference in our views. The other may be our location and the departments that work our locations.
-
calls are already prioritized from 1 to 4. We must live in very different places. 2 officers on a traffic stop until the person is identified and the officer signals it is clear. Most of the time the back up hasn't arrived and goes back in service to another call.
2 officers are sent to typical disturbance calls unless a weapon is involved and the circumstances dictate how many go.
You and I have very different experiences apparently. I do this for a living, day in and day out for a couple decades and see what goes on all the time. That is one difference in our views. The other may be our location and the departments that work our locations.
Yes... I haven't done any sort of police work since I was 21... so you're right... It's not my job.
My experiences are accurate though... I am not making anything up.
I've done many ride alongs and have many associates who are police officers... We don't talk much anymore because I find them hypocritical for the most part.
I actually know a guy, who is a cop, and was busted for DUI back when he was around 20.
He had his record expunged and is in the good old boy network and is a police lieutenant today... He busts people for DUIs all of the time.
I know another cop who was let go from his department for making inappropriate statements to minors... He will probably find a job elsewhere as a cop... he is always on the lookout.
A really good cop I know is very much the libertarian and HATES arresting people... He won't even write a ticket... That guy is cool and I consider a friend.
He would never make excuses for bad cops... he refuses to do so and is one of the biggest opponents of the "police state" mentality I know.
-
Yes... I haven't done any sort of police work since I was 21... so you're right... It's not my job.
My experiences are accurate though... I am not making anything up.
I've done many ride alongs and have many associates who are police officers... We don't talk much anymore because I find them hypocritical for the most part.
I actually know a guy, who is a cop, and was busted for DUI back when he was around 20.
He had his record expunged and is in the good old boy network and is a police lieutenant today... He busts people for DUIs all of the time.
I know another cop who was let go from his department for making inappropriate statements to minors... He will probably find a job elsewhere as a cop... he is always on the lookout.
A really good cop I know is very much the libertarian and HATES arresting people... He won't even write a ticket... That guy is cool and I consider a friend.
He would never make excuses for bad cops... he refuses to do so and is one of the biggest opponents of the "police state" mentality I know.
Good cops hate bad cops, that's universal. Can't say I HATE arresting someone who did an atrocious act. I can't even say I hate arresting someone who got behind the wheel at .30 and was swerving all over the road before stopped. I don't even think I HATE arresting the guy who put a gun to a pedestrians head and took everything in his pockets including his watch, necklace and the $400 bucks he just got from cashing his check. In fact, I can't understand any "good" cop hating any of that..
-
Good cops hate bad cops, that's universal. Can't say I HATE arresting someone who did an atrocious act. I can't even say I hate arresting someone who got behind the wheel at .30 and was swerving all over the road before stopped. I don't even think I HATE arresting the guy who put a gun to a pedestrians head and took everything in his pockets including his watch, necklace and the $400 bucks he just got from cashing his check. In fact, I can't understand any "good" cop hating any of that..
Once again, you always speak of these violent crimes (except for the DUI point... which in and of itself is facist, considering you are guilty of a crime even if you do not injure anyone else... just for driving with a BAC higher than some law dictates)
I have already shown where 57% of federal incarcerations are for NON-VIOLENT crime... so the majority of arrests are for NON-VIOLENT crime.
Once again, you take the REALLY bad stuff and act like it's the majority of arrests when as I've already shown statistically that it is NOT, and you act like it's the majority.
Why do you do that?
-
Good cops hate bad cops, that's universal. Can't say I HATE arresting someone who did an atrocious act. I can't even say I hate arresting someone who got behind the wheel at .30 and was swerving all over the road before stopped. I don't even think I HATE arresting the guy who put a gun to a pedestrians head and took everything in his pockets including his watch, necklace and the $400 bucks he just got from cashing his check. In fact, I can't understand any "good" cop hating any of that..
Uh...Tu clearly wasn't talking about any of those things...but, ok.
I'll pat you on the back.
-
Uh...Tu clearly wasn't talking about any of those things...but, ok.
I'll pat you on the back.
He said, his cop friend HATES arresting people. So no, it wasn't clear at all.
-
Once again, you always speak of these violent crimes (except for the DUI point... which in and of itself is facist, considering you are guilty of a crime even if you do not injure anyone else... just for driving with a BAC higher than some law dictates)
I have already shown where 57% of federal incarcerations are for NON-VIOLENT crime... so the majority of arrests are for NON-VIOLENT crime.
Once again, you take the REALLY bad stuff and act like it's the majority of arrests when as I've already shown statistically that it is NOT, and you act like it's the majority.
Why do you do that?
because you ignore it. You pretend cops aren't needed, they serve no purpose and it's down right evil to take away someones "liberty". When you argue so one sided then I play the same game so to speak. If you want to meet in the middle somewhere, thats cool
-
because you ignore it. You pretend cops aren't needed, they serve no purpose and it's down right evil to take away someones "liberty". When you argue so one sided then I play the same game so to speak. If you want to meet in the middle somewhere, thats cool
I'm not ignoring it... I said about 5 posts ago that we could do with 1/2 the cops and be just fine.
I have said in the past that if everyone carried a gun that cops wouldn't be needed much at all... that is also true.
Minus the badge and the gun which aid in your arrest power... What makes you special? Your power comes with the gun, the badge, and being a part of the biggest gang in America.
-
I'm not ignoring it... I said about 5 posts ago that we could do with 1/2 the cops and be just fine.
I have said in the past that if everyone carried a gun that cops wouldn't be needed much at all... that is also true.
Minus the badge and the gun which aid in your arrest power... What makes you special? Your power comes with the gun, the badge, and being a part of the biggest gang in America.
Not all people want to carry guns or are capable of carrying guns. It's an illusion in my opinion to think if everyone carried a gun all would be well.
Without superpowers Superman would not be special. The badge and the commission by the State of Texas gives me authority to enforce the laws on the books. The gun, taser, OC spray, handcuffs, baton and training are tools to assist in enforcing them. I'm not "special", I'm someone who has taken up a career, an honorable career to mainly help people.
You might be surprised to know many departments have a District Representative or Neighborhood Officer type unit. They are officers who's sole job is to field complaints from citizens like you about oridinance violations like loud noise, illegal parking, abandoned/unsafe buildings etc etc. Policing isn't all about arresting people though that is a part of the job, a very necessary part.
Sure we are a gang if you want to go that route, churches are gangs, VFW members are gangs, Steelers fans are gangs since we aren't really following the common definition of gang. I've been to a couple rallys where the anarchist dressed in black throwing balloons of paint at Starbucks were gangs...
-
August 3, 2011
Much More than a Third Rate Burglary
By Russ Vaughn
To believe that no top administration officials were involved in Operation Fast and Furious is not only disingenuous, it's dumb. Of course some top Obama administration officials were involved, if for no other reason than contemporary bureaucrats simply lack the intestinal fortitude to initiate such an ill-conceived and uncoordinated program without clearance from above. Here's a quote from a former ATF operative which makes that clear:
"I can tell you in every case I was involved in, the bureau would've been afraid to let the guns go," said William Vizzard who worked almost 30 years doing gun investigations for ATF and later taught criminal justice at California State University. "There was always the obsessive fear that if a gun goes out there ... it may be misused and traced back to you, and the political implications are terrible."
Note that political implications. Where bureaucratic control of such programs typically ends is at that not always bright line where political control by political appointees pushing political agendas begins. Anyone foolish enough to believe that Operation Fast and Furious was the brainchild of the head of the Phoenix ATF regional office, or even his agency bosses in Washington, needs to pay closer attention to how bureaucratic government operates, especially power-centered, leftist bureaucracies.
The lame rationale offered by the ATF is laughably implausible and refuted by their own field operatives. The parent program for OF&F was Project Gunrunner, initiated in 2005 with the stated official objective:
to deny firearms, the "tools of the trade," to criminal organizations in Mexico and along the border, as well as to combat firearms-related violence affecting communities on both sides of the border.
That was all well and good so far as that appears to have been a legitimate goal of a legitimate program. Contrast that with ATF's justification for OF&F given in testimony last week before the congressional committee investigating this scandal. This from evasive paid answerer and former Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office, William Newell:
"Fast and Furious was ... designed to identify purchasers, financers, transporters, and decision makers in a Mexican cartel-based firearms trafficking organization," Newell said in his opening statements. "It was not the purpose of the investigation to permit the transportation of firearms into Mexico."
Sure, identifying the purchasers was easily enough accomplished by ATF agents (and their Washington supervisors) watching in person or on closed-circuit video as the weapons were bought in Southwest gun stores. We should be able to assume that these same agents were collecting information on the drivers and vehicles being used to transport these weapons both down to and across the border. But, and this is one huge but, that leaves the stated goal of identifying the financers and decision-makers yet to be reckoned with. Common sense dictates that these key targets are all safely ensconced within the boundaries of Mexico, where unchecked corruption among law enforcement agencies affords them a degree of safety and sanctuary they certainly cannot expect north of the border.
Considering that ATF agents can't just cross the U.S./Mexican border willy-nilly in pursuit of criminal subjects, we must assume that provisions thus had been made with American ATF agents who are certified to operate within Mexico as well as Mexico's own ATF authorities to assume responsibility for the continued tracking of firearms beyond that boundary, right?
Wrong, completely and totally wrong, as testimony from these certified, Mexico-based ATF officials demonstrates. Here are some findings directly from the joint staff report published by Congressman Issa's committee:
ATF and DOJ leadership kept their own personnel in Mexico and Mexican government officials totally in the dark about all aspects of Fast and Furious. Meanwhile, ATF officials in Mexico grew increasingly worried about the number of weapons recovered in Mexico that traced back to an ongoing investigation out of ATF's Phoenix Field Division.
And this:
ATF officials in Mexico raised their concerns about the number of weapons recovered up the chain of command to ATF leadership in Washington, D.C. Instead of acting decisively to end Fast and Furious, the senior leadership at both ATF and DOJ praised the investigation and the positive results it had produced. Frustrations reached a boiling point, leading former ATF Attaché Darren Gil to engage in screaming matches with his supervisor, International Affairs Chief Daniel Kumor, about the need to shut down the Phoenix-based investigation.
So, we have the purported targets of OF&F, financers and decision-makers, located in Mexico, and the professed method of identifying those targets being the tracking of the illegal weapons to them directly. But with the law enforcement resources responsible for that tracking having been kept ignorant of the entire operation, the alleged rationale for OF&F falls flat on its face.
And if government officials are willing to lie and obfuscate, as I believe Agent Newell and others most likely have, to a congressional investigating committee; and if the Justice Department is willing to stonewall document subpoenas and refuse to produce subpoenaed witnesses, this administration is in full Watergate mode. What conclusion is to be drawn from their behavior other than that there are much bigger fish to be caught in Issa's net than a few overeager field operatives?
Are the big fish of the Obama administration ignoring the basic lesson of Watergate -- that it's the cover-up, not the crime, that can bring down a president? But then, in the present situation, we have illegal arms-smuggling, apparently to further a domestic political gun control agenda, which may have resulted in the deaths of Mexican citizens and two United States federal officers. Now that is a crime, a real and true crime, and most certainly a much more serious crime than a third-rate burglary.
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2011/08/much_more_than_a_third_rate_burglary.html
at August 03, 2011 - 10:39:11 AM CDT
-
Then again, maybe Obama administration DID directly traffic guns to Mexico
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 1 August, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Friday's column began with a bit of a qualifier:
In discussing "Project Gunwalker," this column tries to observe the perhaps small (but nevertheless important) distinction between directly trafficking guns, and "walking" them. That's why readers will find instance after instance of reference being made here to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (BATFE's) "facilitating the trafficking" of guns. Basically, the accusation being made here is not that the BATFE directly trafficked the guns.
There is, though, another way to look at it, in light of some startling allegations made by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) Acting Director Kenneth Melson on July 4. In testimony he gave that day to the "Project Gunwalker" investigation, led by Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA, and Chariman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA, and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee), Melson revealed that some of the "gunwalked" guns may have been paid for courtesy of the American taxpayer. From Rep. Issa's and Sen. Grassley's letter to Attorney General Eric Holder (pdf file):
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.
Fox News, in fact, quoted sources claiming that the BATFE's top target was himself a paid informant for the FBI:
In a separate development, congressional sources have learned that not only was U.S. taxpayer money being used to buy guns that were later sent to Mexico, but the main target of the investigation was actually a FBI informant and former drug dealer who had been deported years ago.
Remember from Friday's column that former BATFE Phoneix field division Special Agent in Charge
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
U.S. Admits “Dramatic Increase In Violence” Along Mexican Border
Judicial Watch ^ | August 3, 2011
While the nation’s Homeland Security secretary repeatedly assures Americans that the southern border is more secure than ever, a separate U.S. government agency has quietly issued an alarming report warning of “recent violent attacks and persistent security concerns” in the area.
It’s like the Abbot and Costello version of government, where one agency can’t even coordinate with another to provide the country with a consistent story. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims the Mexican border region is “as secure as it has ever been.” In fact, she embarked on a publicity tour to the area, using sound-bite opportunities to specifically deny that it’s infested with drug-cartel violence that often spills into the U.S.
It’s all a mistaken “perception” because the area is in fact a “secure and prosperous” region, according to Napolitano. During a trip to El Paso Texas a few months ago, she claimed that “misinformation about safety” is negatively impacting border communities by driving visitors away and hurting local business. She proceeded to say that “some of America’s safest communities are in the southwest border region.” The media was invited to tag along and Madame Secretary’s proclamations appeared in newscasts worldwide.
No such promotion of what appears to be a more accurate assessment, issued this week by the State Department, of the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border. Unlike Napolitano’s rose-colored glasses version, it mentions a “dramatic increase in violence”pdf and nearly 30,000 narcotics-related murders in the last few years. The State Department report bluntly says that “the security situation along the Texas border has changed markedly from a year ago.”
The culprits are sophisticated and heavily armed drug cartels competing with each other for trafficking routes into the U.S. In fact, a war between two notorious cartels has led to a “dramatic increase in violence” in two northern border regions, according to the State Department report issued this week by the agency’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). Large-scale gun battles often occur in broad daylight on streets and other public venues and U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area, according to the OSAC assessment.
Using the term “narcoterrorism,” it goes on to say that “continued concerns regarding road safety along the Mexican border have prompted the U.S. Mission in Mexico to impose certain restrictions on U.S. government employees transiting the area.” Local authorities aren’t helping because “police corruption and police involvement in criminal activity continue to be a problem in Mexico.”
As a result the violence is increasingly flowing north, even as the nation’s top Homeland Security official denies it. Just last summer a myriad of bullets fired into El Paso, striking City Hall and a public university building. The local sheriff said the gun battles are breaking out everywhere but his hands are tied because he’s legally forbidden from intervening in another country’s war. The disturbing incident inspired Texas’s Attorney General to send President Obama a letter saying his state is under constant assault from illegal activity threatening a porous border.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe if obama and holder did not arm all these cartels this would not be happening.
-
Felony or Felony Stupid: It shouldn’t be Rewarded
The Firearms Coalition ^ | 25 July, 2011 | Jeff Knox
________________________ ________________________ __
Representative Darrel Issa (R-CA) referred to the activities of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Operation Fast and Furious as “felony stupid.” Others have suggested that the plan was intentionally designed and cleverly crafted to bolster statistics in support of stricter gun control laws. Whether the operation was just stupid or intentionally criminal, it was clearly bad behavior on the part of ATF and Justice Department (DOJ) and such bad behavior should not be rewarded.
Some members of Congress, Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in particular, want to reward ATF and DOJ’s criminal stupidity with increased funding and increased authority through tighter regulation of firearms dealers and lawful firearm purchasers. ATF has introduced – and the Administration has now approved – and “emergency” regulatory change requiring firearms dealers in border states to report any purchaser who buys more than one semi-auto rifle greater than a .22 within a given week. The US House of Representatives promptly, and properly, rejected the new regulations by passing an appropriations rider prohibiting any funds from being used to enact or enforce the plan.
Proponents of the regulation argue that it gives ATF an important tool to help detect straw buyers and traffickers and that it poses little inconvenience to lawful gun buyers. Many on our side disagree, but usefulness and inconvenience aside, the fact is that Congress has looked at long gun reporting in the past and rejected the idea. For ATF and the Obama administration to now push forward, bypassing Congress, in order to do something Congress has previously refused to do is clearly overreaching and probably illegal. If Congress had passed a law setting auto mileage standards, but had specifically chosen to omit larger pickups from those standards, it would be outrageous for some bureaucracy to later enact regulations including trucks. This case is no different except that it is questionable whether even Congress has the authority to regulate firearms sales. Unelected bureaucrats certainly don’t.
The regulation also creates a de facto registration system, something Congress has expressly forbidden on numerous occasions, and it puts additional burdens – and liabilities – on the gun dealers. ATF claims that the records will be destroyed after two years, but ATF and DOJ have long histories of reneging on such guarantees, even when they are spelled out in law.
Purchase of multiple firearms within a week is not particularly uncommon and doing so should not make a person a suspect, nor should it result in their personal information being stored in government systems. Also, if the regulation does go into effect, it will be no time at all until ATF will be demanding that the reporting requirement be expanded beyond the border states. It will become the “multiple sales non-reporting loophole” and they will insist that all states need to follow the reporting requirements.
Firearms dealers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They want to honor and respect customers’ rights, but ATF controls their licenses and the laws and regulations hold dealers responsible for things they “should have known.” Dealers have to pass up business and/or alert ATF when they suspect possible criminal activity. Not doing so can have serious consequences. A New Mexico dealer is in jail today because the local police chief in the town of Columbus was allegedly trafficking guns to Mexico. The ATF says the dealer “should have known” so he is considered a co-conspirator. He could lose everything for selling guns to the Police Chief!
At the same time, gun owners can be very unforgiving of dealers who they perceive as “too cooperative” with ATF so dealers have to be careful about that too. Still, dealers don’t want to be selling guns to criminals as demonstrated during Operation Fast and Furious when dealers repeatedly expressed reservations about doing business with suspicious characters and ATF insisted that they go forward with sales. Mandatory multi-sale reporting increases dealers’ paperwork load, but relieves them of some judgment calls. It might make things generally easier on dealers in the short term, but it would probably make things worse for them in the long run.
Perhaps the most important reason to deny ATF’s long-gun registration regulation is, as stated earlier, that whether you’re dealing with dogs, children, or bureaucrats, it is always a mistake to reward bad behavior. ATF and DOJ (including the US Attorney’s Office and possibly the FBI and DEA) behaved badly. They encouraged and forced sales of some 2000 firearms (that we know of) to known Mexican gun traffickers and then they turned their backs and allowed those guns to disappear into the black market and to crime scenes in Mexico and the US, including the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. They did this in violation of long-standing rules of operation and common sense as well as international law. They did not do this in response to weak US gun laws or a need for multi-gun reporting. These straw buyers were already known and under surveillance. Politically motivated felony or just felony stupid, this was bad behavior any way you look at it and it should not be rewarded with increased authority, increased responsibility, and increased funding.
ATF, DOJ, the US Attorney’s Office, and any other agency involved in this fiasco need to be slapped down, not rewarded, and responsible individuals should be prosecuted.
-
US Court Documents Claim Sinaloa “Cartel” Is Protected by US Government(Another DOJ Scandle!)
The Narcosphere ^ | July 31, 2011 | Bill Conroy
The son of a heavy hitter in a powerful Mexican drug trafficking organization has filed explosive legal pleadings in federal court in Chicago accusing the US government of cutting a deal with the the “Sinaloa Cartel” that gave its leadership “carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States.
The indictment pending against Zambada Niebla claims he served as the “logistical coordinator” for the “cartel,” helping to oversee an operation that imported into the US “multi-ton quantities of cocaine. Zambada Niebla also claims to be an asset of the US government.
The latest allegations are laid out in motions filed late this week in federal court. Those pleadings spell out the supposed cooperative relationship between the US Department of Justice and its various agencies, including DEA and the FBI, and the leaders of the “Sinaloa Cartel” — including Zambada Niebla.
Under that agreement, the Sinaloa Cartel, through Loya, was to provide information accumulated by Mayo, Chapo, and others, against rival Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations to the United States government. In return, the United States government agreed to dismiss the prosecution of the pending case against Loya, not to interfere with his drug trafficking activities and those of the Sinaloa Cartel, to not actively prosecute him and the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, and to not apprehend them.
Zambada Niebla’s pleadings also reference the controversial U.S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) weapons-trafficking interdiction program Fast and Furious — an operation, now the subject of Congressional hearings, that allegedly allowed some 2,000 guns to be smuggled across the US/Mexican border under ATF’s watch. Zambada Niebla contends that Fast and Furious is yet another example of the US government’s complicity in the carnage of the drug war.
(Excerpt) Read more at narcosphere.narconews.co m ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Steelers fans are gangs
Never knew I was in a gang before. I feel soooo fucking street right now.
-
Not all people want to carry guns or are capable of carrying guns. It's an illusion in my opinion to think if everyone carried a gun all would be well.
Without superpowers Superman would not be special. The badge and the commission by the State of Texas gives me authority to enforce the laws on the books. The gun, taser, OC spray, handcuffs, baton and training are tools to assist in enforcing them. I'm not "special", I'm someone who has taken up a career, an honorable career to mainly help people.
You might be surprised to know many departments have a District Representative or Neighborhood Officer type unit. They are officers who's sole job is to field complaints from citizens like you about oridinance violations like loud noise, illegal parking, abandoned/unsafe buildings etc etc. Policing isn't all about arresting people though that is a part of the job, a very necessary part.
Sure we are a gang if you want to go that route, churches are gangs, VFW members are gangs, Steelers fans are gangs since we aren't really following the common definition of gang. I've been to a couple rallys where the anarchist dressed in black throwing balloons of paint at Starbucks were gangs...
The Definition.
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen.
Sounds like the police to me.
I ask why are you "special", because obviously you have the right to do things that common citizens do not... As we've already discussed in another thread.
-
The Definition.
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen.
Sounds like the police to me.
I ask why are you "special", because obviously you have the right to do things that common citizens do not... As we've already discussed in another thread.
Dude, don't be raining on my fucking parade. Check it, I was just getting used to being all street and shit.
-
Never knew I was in a gang before. I feel soooo fucking street right now.
LOL
-
The Definition.
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen.
Sounds like the police to me.
I ask why are you "special", because obviously you have the right to do things that common citizens do not... As we've already discussed in another thread.
Because early on it was discovered that people could not or did not police themselves all that effectively. Eventually it was agreed that for the good of the community a group of citizens would be empowered to do just that. Police forces evolved over time and as the need increased. Those people were given special authority to enforce ordinances and laws in a community.
-
ATF Death Watch 50: “The cover-up is probably worse than the crime”
The Truth About Guns ^ | 4 August, 2011 | Robert Farago
Notice the word “probably.” Then note the source of this quote: UCLA Law Professor Adam Winkler [above]. And here’s the coupe de grace: Winkler’s qualified pronouncement appears in The Huffington Post. That would be the left-leaning website that spent the early part of the ATF’s Gunwalker scandal ignoring it. And then prevaricated on behalf of the ATF, claiming the Agency was guilty of nothing more than over-exuberance caused by a lack of funding (despite the extra funding that funded the anti-gun running gun running operation). And now the HuffPo’s legal eagle is raising the red flag in an article entitled Obama’s Growing Gun Problem. So it’s official: Obama’s in deep shit. Oh, and about that “probably” . . .
The Gunwalker coverup is NOT worse than the crime. Operation Fast and Furious armed Mexican narco-terrorists who used ATF-enabled weapons to murder U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. And, it seems, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata. And, for sure, dozens if not hundreds of Mexicans.
This isn’t Watergate. No one died bugging the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Operation Fast and Furious is drenched in blood. The aforementioned ATF conspiracy is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The United States government has been aiding and abetting Mexican narco-terrorists for at least a decade.
Uncle Sam has sanctioned hundreds of millions of dollars of American arms sales to the Mexican military and law enforcement—knowing full well that U.S. guns and grenades have been “seeping” to Mexican drug cartels. More to the point, Operation Fast and Furious would not have been possible without the direct cooperation and informed consent of the DOJ, ICE, FBI, CIA, DEA, DHS, State Department and White House.
Yes, the White House. Anyone who believes that the all the President’s men didn’t know American guns were flowing to Mexican drug cartels—via the ATF and official sales—must then conclude that the Obama administration was wholly incompetent. As an NRA email blast put it this morning, either DOJ jefe Eric Holder lied to Congress about his knowledge of Fast and Furious or he’s a nincompoop [paraphrasing].
Even the liberal media is beginning to get it, with a growing inkling of what’s at stake. Truth be told, the Gunwalker scandal could bring down the President of the United States. That distant vision has the late-to-the-party (that they didn’t want to attend in the first place) MSM spooked. And rightly so. Winkler:
The administration should waste no time and come clean about what happened, who approved it, and how it can be avoided again.
This the Obama administration cannot do. To “come clean” on Gunwalker would be to admit that the White House—including the President himself—approved a program that armed vicious drug thugs. A criminal conspiracy that contributed to the death of an American Marine. And that would lead to even less palatable revelations, including the ones mooted above.
Winkler’s naiveté is no surprise. The law guru and his media cohorts live a long way from the Mexican border. More importantly, they haven’t been paying attention to the man behind the curtain. Blinded by Obama’s promises and rhetoric, they singularly failed to understand the ruthlessness of his ambition, and the pusillanimous perfidy of those who helped elevate him to the highest office in the land. They’re beginning to wake-up and BOY are they grumpy.
Obama took office promising unparalleled transparency, yet top officials have been anything but with regard to Fast and Furious. Instead of addressing the questions head on, which might end the controversy quickly, the administration is guaranteeing that the investigation will drag on and on. Soon it will develop into a full-blown political scandal and Obama will wish that instead of ignoring this controversy, he’d dealt with it fast and furious.
As greater thinkers than I have asserted, the wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. In fact, those of us who believe ours is a nation of laws may one day thank the ATF for its hubris. Gunwalker is the first crack in the corrupt foundation of the current executive branch. By no means will it be the last.
And when the veil is lifted, I have every confidence that Mr. Winkler will be amongst those who condemn the law-breakers. And he will be welcome.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-fast-furious-20110805,0,7816124.story
latimes.com
DEA acknowledges supporting role in Operation Fast and Furious
By Richard A. Serrano
10:25 AM PDT, August 5, 2011
Reporting from Washington
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged to congressional investigators that her agency provided a supporting role in the ill-fated Operation Fast and Furious run by the group's counterparts at the ATF.
Michele M. Leonhart, the DEA administrator, said DEA agents primarily helped gather evidence in cases in Phoenix and El Paso, and in the program's single indictment last January that netted just 20 defendants for illegal gun-trafficking.
The development marks the first time another law enforcement agency has said it also worked on Fast and Furious cases other than the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is under two investigations into why it allowed at least 2,000 firearms to be illegally purchased and then lost track of the guns’ whereabouts.
Nearly 200 of the weapons showed up at crime scenes in Mexico, and two semi-automatics were recovered after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was slain south of Tucson.
Leonhart made the acknowledgement in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A copy of the letter was obtained Friday by The Times.
Leonhart wrote that her agents in Phoenix and El Paso were "indirectly involved in the ATF operation through DEA-associated activity. "
She added, "the DEA El Paso Division responded to a duty call in March 2010 from ATF for assistance in conducting an ongoing surveillance operation in the El Paso area as part of Operation Fast and Furious."
But she said her agents in Phoenix "had the most notable associated investigative activity, though DEA personnel had no decision-making role in any ATF operations." That included helping obtain phone numbers and addresses, issuing subpoenas for information on the phone subscribers, and paying linguist costs of $128,000 to help translate intercepted calls.
Her agency further helped in the "round up phase of the case with the execution of search warrants, participated in debriefing some of the 20 gun-smuggling defendants who were arrested in the Phoenix area, and attending the Jan. 25 press conference announcing those arrests.
Dawn Dearden, a DEA spokeswoman in Washington, declined to comment further Friday on the DEA’s role in Fast and Furious. "The letter stands on its own," she said. "We’re still in a fact-finding mode, so there’s not much more we can say."
Richard.Serano@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
-
NRA Chief LaPierre: Eric Holder Must Go
Newsmax ^ | August 3, 2011 | Wayne LaPierre
Patience is a virtue that Americans practice perhaps better than any other civilization on earth. However, when our own Attorney General is at the forefront of a criminal scheme so unbelievable that you would only expect to see it in a B-level mobster movie, the time for patience is over. Now is the time for all Americans to demand Eric Holder’s immediate resignation, firing, or impeachment.
Recall that two years ago, Attorney General Holder embarked on an anti-gun PR blitz that blamed the Second Amendment and law-abiding gun owners for violent drug crime and murder in Mexico. According to Holder and the Obama administration, 90 percent of the guns used by Mexican drug cartels were being supplied by American gun dealers.
For its part, the mainstream media shouted Holder’s propaganda from the rooftops, without ever bothering to do its homework and check the facts. But the facts surfaced anyway in the form of leaked communications from Obama’s State Department, which proved beyond any doubt that the main source of guns and artillery for Mexican drug cartels was Central America and not the United States.
Holder’s lie was exposed, but the Obama administration had another trick up its sleeve: An operation dubbed “Fast and Furious” which established an illegal pipeline for funneling guns into Mexico.
Officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATFE), an agency under the direct purview of Eric Holder’s Justice Department, forced American gun dealers to sell guns illegally to straw purchasers who would then supply the guns to Mexican drug cartels.
Over 2,000 illegal guns in all were permitted to “walk” across the border under this scheme.
Law-abiding Americans...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
-
Because early on it was discovered that people could not or did not police themselves all that effectively. Eventually it was agreed that for the good of the community a group of citizens would be empowered to do just that. Police forces evolved over time and as the need increased. Those people were given special authority to enforce ordinances and laws in a community.
Early on?
You mean when the rulers of land in old England hire their Shire Reeve's to watch the masses.
I think society has come a long way from those days.
I also believe that it has very little to do with the OVER abundance of police... Crime overall since the early 90s is DOWN, yet we have more cops than ever.
Care to explain?
-
Early on?
You mean when the rulers of land in old England hire their Shire Reeve's to watch the masses.
I think society has come a long way from those days.
I also believe that it has very little to do with the OVER abundance of police... Crime overall since the early 90s is DOWN, yet we have more cops than ever.
Care to explain?
TU - check this out:
Had traffic court this morning for a client whose daughter got a ticket. Court was supposed to start at 9:30 am. Cop strolled in at 9:58 and after some haggling, we came to a deal. I had to wait in the court room until the deal got heard before judge.
Case after case after after case was ridiculous tickets issues to people. The judge was even getting pissed off at how insane some of these bogus tickets were. Got out of there around 11:15.
What a friggen waste of time, for everyone!
-
Don't know skip - most of camden is already, and will always be, a zoo regardless of the amount of cops.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41181450/ns/slate_com/t/officers-down-what-happens-camden-nj-now/
I like this part.
Camden may be the most drastic example of police cutbacks in recent memory. But it likely won't be the last. "Given the national financial situation at state and local levels, we may see more of these," says Samuel Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Which raises the question: What can cities like Camden, a drug-trafficking mecca billed as the second most dangerous city in America, do when faced with cuts? Is it possible for police departments to "do more with less"?
'Virtually the same'
The short answer is no, says McCarthy. "I'm tired of hearing that catchphrase," he says. What they can do, though, is do less better. For example, Newark's police department trimmed its mounted and aviation units, as well as its traffic responsibilities, instead focusing on patrols and responding to calls. "We're providing virtually the same amount of police officers on patrol as before," says McCarthy. And whereas the department used to have a separate detective bureau, patrol operations bureau, and narcotics bureau, officers now report to their local precincts—a change that eliminated staff positions. In the end, McCarthy says, shrinking the department may have been an overall improvement: "If I'd thought of it before, I would have done it."
-
TU - check this out:
Had traffic court this morning for a client whose daughter got a ticket. Court was supposed to start at 9:30 am. Cop strolled in at 9:58 and after some haggling, we came to a deal. I had to wait in the court room until the deal got heard before judge.
Case after case after after case was ridiculous tickets issues to people. The judge was even getting pissed off at how insane some of these bogus tickets were. Got out of there around 11:15.
What a friggen waste of time, for everyone!
Of course... I've been in traffic court enough times to see the crap that people are given tickets for. Think about this... at my salary, for every hour I'm in court, the government is LOSING close to 13 dollars in taxes. EVERY HOUR.
Expired inspections? Are you kidding me?
Most tickets are completely bogus and are designed to fill the coffers of the locality... It's common knowledge and is even listed in some localities budgets!
WHAT THE FUCK!
-
Expired inspections? Are you kidding me?
Must confess, I've been hit with that before. And the fine was something stupid like 10 bucks (can't remember exact amount), but after all the fucking fees, it was over 100. WTF?
-
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41181450/ns/slate_com/t/officers-down-what-happens-camden-nj-now/
I like this part.
Camden may be the most drastic example of police cutbacks in recent memory. But it likely won't be the last. "Given the national financial situation at state and local levels, we may see more of these," says Samuel Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Which raises the question: What can cities like Camden, a drug-trafficking mecca billed as the second most dangerous city in America, do when faced with cuts? Is it possible for police departments to "do more with less"?
'Virtually the same'
The short answer is no, says McCarthy. "I'm tired of hearing that catchphrase," he says. What they can do, though, is do less better. For example, Newark's police department trimmed its mounted and aviation units, as well as its traffic responsibilities, instead focusing on patrols and responding to calls. "We're providing virtually the same amount of police officers on patrol as before," says McCarthy. And whereas the department used to have a separate detective bureau, patrol operations bureau, and narcotics bureau, officers now report to their local precincts—a change that eliminated staff positions. In the end, McCarthy says, shrinking the department may have been an overall improvement: "If I'd thought of it before, I would have done it."
Great post.
The solution was to have the police actually do police work instead of a surveillance and tax collector squad.
Interesting, you actually have them "Serve and PROTECT" and the result wasn't mass chaos and looting but "virtually the same".
-
Gunwalker: It Must Have Been Eric Holder
Pajamas Media ^ | August 5, 2011 | Bob Owens
... Or higher. An informed examination of the facts leaves no other answer.
Now that the debt ceiling debate is over and done, let’s turn our attention back to Operation Fast and Furious and its alleged sister operations. The multi-agency operation (or operations) of the U.S. government allowed thousands of guns to be supplied to Mexican drug cartels, while American federal law enforcement effectively provided the straw purchasers and smugglers with the cover to operate with impunity.
Despite the tens of thousands of words of outrage written about the Obama administration’s botched Operation Fast and Furious, most of the focus has been on the horrific impact of the program as measured by the number of firearms smuggled over the border and the number of lives lost. Some attention has been consequently paid to the potential political and criminal impact of the operation and cover-up within the Department of Justice.
Sadly, the media has focused very little attention on the probable origins of the plot, or why Gunwalker was created as an adjunct of the longer-running and more successful Gunrunner campaign.
Of course, that may not be entirely true. The crack investigative reporters of print, network, and cable news organizations may very well have done the research and followed the various clues about the origins of Gunwalker to their logical conclusion, and then simply decided that the most probable story was one they not dare tell.
The story is this: no competent federal law enforcement officer would ever have concocted an operation as obviously doomed to catastrophic failure as Operation Fast and Furious.
Let us count the reasons why:
1.Federal law enforcement agents don’t let guns “walk.” A gun that is allowed to flow into criminal hands is a gun that could end up killing a fellow cop or citizen. As a result, all prior known operations under the long-running and successful Gunrunner program ended when a straw purchaser was allowed to make the purchase, and then arrested on the spot or shortly thereafter. Throughout the process of these stings, the suspects were under constant surveillance whenever they had firearms in their possession, and officers considered it catastrophic failure if surveillance was lost.
2.Federal law enforcement agents knew that this operation would not lead to cartel kingpins. The profiling of criminal activity has become a blend of art and high science in recent decades, and when combined with the intelligence provided by informants and a history of thousands of arrests, the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and IRS agents assigned to the task force knew from the beginning that cartel leaders could not be implicated in Fast and Furious, because they simply aren’t involved. Obtaining weapons for cartel gunmen is a problem for the lower to middle ranks of a cartel’s hierarchy, no different than acquiring vehicles or safehouses. The most commonly used cartel weapons are viewed by the organizations as consumable commodities to be bought, used, and discarded. Do CEOs, company presidents, and vice presidents, or even middle managers go out shopping for paper clips and pens?
3.Federal law enforcement agents knew from the outset that they could never arrest their targets, who were outside of their jurisdiction. Jurisdictional battles between federal, state, and local agencies are legendary, and sensitivity to jurisdictional issues is something every law enforcement agent learns, often with frustration. Knowing for a fact that the individuals running cartel gun acquisition would be based in Mexico, and staying in Mexico, agents would have realized from the mission planning phase — well before operational implementation — that effecting arrests of the operation’s stated targets was nearly impossible.
4.Middle managers in government would never dare to try such a dangerous, high-risk operation without express orders from above. All agencies — public or private — are saddled with bureaucracy, internal politics, and institutional inertia, which forms a powerful and pervasive cultural force that significantly inhibits change. Changes that threaten the equilibrium of agencies are viewed as a threat, and the more radical the proposed change, the more resistance there is to block it from occurring. Resistance to change occurs even when change is thought to be strongly beneficial.From the ground up and at the very beginning, Fast and Furious was a radical and dangerous proposal that would threaten the very existence of the ATF.
There is no way a politically experienced operative like Phoenix Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Bill Newell would have offered up such a plan merely out of the self interest of furthering his own career. Federal law enforcement officers never would have conceived of and did not support the implementation of Operation Fast and Furious. Agents fought tooth and nail with supervisors over the plot, as has been documented extensively in congressional testimony.
Operation Fast and Furious would not have come from agents in the field.
Operation Fast and Furious could not have come from regional SACs.
The one and only way that this multi-agency operation could have been organized and forced into action against the wishes and better judgment of seasoned professionals is through a top-down push from high-level executives within the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, State, and Treasury, which all played a role in the plot. Four executive branch departments, led by cabinet-level political appointees loyal to the Obama administration, worked on an operation together that was explicitly doomed to failure from the outset.
Was the goal of the project ever law enforcement?
The most logical explanation for Fast and Furious and related operations was that it was not a law enforcement operation, but a political operation designed to advance an anti-gun political agenda that Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama have been pursuing since the beginning of this presidency.
This explosive scandal at the heart of Gunwalker isn’t a matter of “what did he know and when did he know it?” It now instead seems to be a matter of who will come forward, and how much evidence will they provide to implicate officials at the highest levels of a lawless government.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Tu check this out. Had traffic court today where people who were written good tickets rolled the dice hoping the cop wouldn't show up. Then had to haggle with their attorneys over the tickets to try and save some court time. Well, after case by case went by with the judge getting more annoyed at citizens trying every trick in the book to get out of their tickets, it was finally over around 1pm. Man, if people would just take responsibility for their actions right?
(didn't really happen today but has been repeated over and over for the last 20 yrs.) And just as likely to have happened yesterday as any other story you might read here.
-
Early on?
You mean when the rulers of land in old England hire their Shire Reeve's to watch the masses.
I think society has come a long way from those days.
I also believe that it has very little to do with the OVER abundance of police... Crime overall since the early 90s is DOWN, yet we have more cops than ever.
Care to explain?
Today Austin has 790000 people living within the city limits. With the surrounding metropolitan areas commuting into Austin daily it raises it to 1.7 million people. In the early 90's it was around 500k total. That explains it. And crime overall being down? Attribute it to the "abundance of police officers"
-
Today Austin has 790000 people living within the city limits. With the surrounding metropolitan areas commuting into Austin daily it raises it to 1.7 million people. In the early 90's it was around 500k total. That explains it. And crime overall being down? Attribute it to the "abundance of police officers"
Read the book "Freakanomics".
It has nothing to do with "more cops".
-
Today Austin has 790000 people living within the city limits. With the surrounding metropolitan areas commuting into Austin daily it raises it to 1.7 million people. In the early 90's it was around 500k total. That explains it. And crime overall being down? Attribute it to the "abundance of police officers"
How about people just acting responsibility and going about their business?
I dont need a cop over me 24/7 for me not to commit crimes.
-
How about people just acting responsibility and going about their business?
I dont need a cop over me 24/7 for me not to commit crimes.
neither do I, but we aren't the only ones around. Unfortunately some people do. That is just a fact
-
neither do I, but we aren't the only ones around. Unfortunately some people do. That is just a fact
Like who? ;D ;D ;D
-
Like who? ;D ;D ;D
How about the gang of 3 who are hitting people walking to their cars after the bar closes and taking their wallets and pistol whipping them? Or the group that is hitting gym parking lots, doing a smash and grab of purses and wallets left in the cars while the people are working out? What about the guys who buy the stolen ID's fashion credit cards from the info and go on shopping sprees? Just off the top of my head
-
How about the gang of 3 who are hitting people walking to their cars after the bar closes and taking their wallets and pistol whipping them? Or the group that is hitting gym parking lots, doing a smash and grab of purses and wallets left in the cars while the people are working out? What about the guys who buy the stolen ID's fashion credit cards from the info and go on shopping sprees? Just off the top of my head
I'm thinking we need citizen patrols, deputized posses, etc. plus chain gangs myself.
-
How about the gang of 3 who are hitting people walking to their cars after the bar closes and taking their wallets and pistol whipping them? Or the group that is hitting gym parking lots, doing a smash and grab of purses and wallets left in the cars while the people are working out? What about the guys who buy the stolen ID's fashion credit cards from the info and go on shopping sprees? Just off the top of my head
You're stopping credit card fraud and identity theft?
-
You're stopping credit card fraud and identity theft?
Me? I'm not in that section but it's something the police do every day. For example, a car gets broken into. Thief uses the credit card to make purchases. The police investigate the initial crime of the car burglary, add the charge of credit card abuse etc and often times the thief is caught one of a few ways. We also work on identity theft cases and some arrests we make for seemingly unrelated offenses turn into bigger things. It's not rare when we bust an identity theft ring working out of a hotel room for example, with elaborate set ups to print credit cards, drivers licenses etc etc.
-
Me? I'm not in that section but it's something the police do every day. For example, a car gets broken into. Thief uses the credit card to make purchases. The police investigate the initial crime of the car burglary, add the charge of credit card abuse etc and often times the thief is caught one of a few ways. We also work on identity theft cases and some arrests we make for seemingly unrelated offenses turn into bigger things. It's not rare when we bust an identity theft ring working out of a hotel room for example, with elaborate set ups to print credit cards, drivers licenses etc etc.
I see... so that's "not rare".
I find that hard to believe, but hey man... If you say so, I'm going to believe you.
-
LOL @
Fox News, in fact, quoted sources claiming that the BATFE's top target was himself a paid informant for the FBI.
People are sooooooo surprised here. Guys, it's a border war, and it's GREAT for business! Of course we've been feeding it! This shit didn't start in 2008... we've been loving this for decades.
-
I see... so that's "not rare".
I find that hard to believe, but hey man... If you say so, I'm going to believe you.
I figured you would find it hard to believe. But thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt anyway.
-
Congressional Inquiries Turn To Houston Over Gun Trafficking Investigation
www.click2houston.com ^ | 5 August, 2011 | Robert Arnold
HOUSTON -- For weeks, congressional leaders have grilled officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about an operation in Arizona called "Fast and Furious." Now, some of those pointed questions are focusing on a gun trafficking investigation conducted by the ATF's Houston office.
According to testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, agents involved in Fast and Furious allowed Mexican drug cartel recruits to buy guns in the United States with the hopes of following the buyers and weapons back to key cartel and smuggling operations. The operation, called "reckless" by some congressional leaders, was aimed at curbing guns bought in the U.S. from reaching the hands of cartel members in Mexico.
"It got people killed," said U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from California and chairman of the House's Oversight Committee who has been critical of the ATF's operation.
A congressional report showed hundreds of the guns slipped through the cracks during the investigation. A joint staff report prepared for the House Oversight Committee and Senate Committee on the Judiciary claimed some of the Fast and Furious guns wound up in Mexico, some guns were found at crime scenes in the United States and hundreds more are missing.
The report read that Fast and Furious ended when guns that were part of the operation were found at the murder of border patrol agent Brian Terry.
Now, congressional leaders want to know if similar problems happened in Houston during an investigation done under the auspices of an ATF initiative called "Gunrunner." The operation targeted "straw buyers" in border states recruited to legally purchase handguns and high-powered rifles only to hand the weapons over to members of the drug cartels.
"The ATF agents encouraged them to go through with the sales," said Houston attorney
(Excerpt) Read more at click2houston.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Gunwalker: Drug Enforcement Agency Admits Involvement
Pajamas Media ^ | August 8, 2011 | Bob Owens
This marks the first admission of knowledge from an agency besides the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Michele Leonhart, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, has sent a letter to congressional investigators admitting her agency played a role in a criminal investigation that turned into a de facto gun-smuggling operation run by federal law enforcement agencies.
In mid-July, Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa sent a pair of letters to the heads of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, asking them to explain their alleged roles in Operation Fast and Furious and to provide specific communications relating to specific agents and managers in those respective organizations.
Fast and Furious is blamed for the deaths of approximately 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers, along with an unknown number of civilian casualties on both sides of the border. The program was only shut down after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in a nighttime desert firefight with criminals armed with at least two Fast and Furious-provided AK-pattern rifles.
The letters from Grassley and Issa were directed to FBI Director Robert Mueller and DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart. According to Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times, Leonhart has responded:
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged to congressional investigators that her agency provided a supporting role in the ill-fated Operation Fast and Furious run by the group’s counterparts at the ATF.
Michele M. Leonhart, the DEA administrator, said DEA agents primarily helped gather evidence in cases in Phoenix and El Paso, and in the program’s single indictment last January that netted just 20 defendants for illegal gun-trafficking.
The development marks the first time another law enforcement agency has said it also worked on Fast and Furious cases other than the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is under two investigations into why it allowed at least 2,000 firearms to be illegally purchased and then lost track of the guns’ whereabouts.
Leonhart’s letter, dated July 22, insists that the DEA is conducting a review of the documentation that the congressional investigators have asked for, even though the agency has not turned over any of the communications at this time.
Leonhart claims that the DEA agents in El Paso and Phoenix were only “indirectly involved in the ATF operation through DEA-associated investigative activity,” and further absolves her agency by claiming that “DEA personnel had no decision-making role in an ATF operations” associated with Fast and Furious.
This claim appears to stand in stark contrast to claims made by the ATF special agent in charge (SAC) of the operation, William Newell, who stated in congressional testimony that the ATF, DEA, FBI, and IRS were all “full partners” in the operation.
It now appears that the “full partners” may be on the verge of a internecine feud to deflect responsibility from their agencies. Unfortunately, it is going to be very difficult for DEA Administrator Leonhart, FBI Director Mueller, and other directors in Eric Holder’s Justice Department to claim they had little or no knowledge of the operation when email records show that they were informed about the program in one or more briefings from ATF’s Newell.
Newell also admitted that he briefed a friend in the White House about the operation, a staffer on President Obama’s National Security Council named Kevin O’Reilly. The Obama administration is standing by its claim that while every director in federal law enforcement and NSC staffers were briefed, the White House knew nothing.
The White House continues to claim they did not know about the gunwalking operation while it was occurring, a position shared by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as his underlings seem primed to turn upon one another to keep from facing the political and legal consequences of the operation.
The potential for a rending conflict in the executive branch is not limited to the Justice Department.
Gunwalker took place in Arizona, where DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was both governor and state attorney general, using personnel the secretary had in her own state administration. It is highly unlikely that Gunwalker occurred on Napolitano’s “home turf” and one of her current areas of focus without her knowledge — or advice.
Even the most faithful of left-leaning media outlets are concerned that Gunwalker may eventually be a serious problem for President Obama:
Now that Republicans in Congress won important concessions from President Obama in the debt ceiling debate, the next partisan battle is likely to be over what promises to be the first major scandal of the Obama administration: the botched gun sting known as “Operation Fast and Furious.” The administration should waste no time and come clean about what happened, who approved it, and how it can be avoided again.
Unfortunately, the early signs are that Obama is going to handle this controversy as poorly as he handled the debt ceiling debate.
The writer of that sentiment, Adam Winkler of the Huffington Post, can’t seem to get his head around the fact that Gunwalker is more than a political headache; it’s a deadly serious legal one as well.
Being an accessory to murder is a felony in the United States and Mexico, and that is just one of the many possible criminal charges that federal agents, supervisors, political appointees, and elected officials may face in both U.S. and Mexican judicial systems (for example, the ATF’s Newell).
As Gunwalker continues to unravel, it will be interesting to see who comes forward to testify in exchange for reduced charges or immunity. The line to turn witness could be long, and every indication is that it will point to the highest levels of the Obama administration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Gunwalker: Drug Enforcement Agency Admits Involvement
Pajamas Media ^ | August 8, 2011 | Bob Owens
Posted on August 8, 2011 12:39:32 PM EDT by Kaslin
This marks the first admission of knowledge from an agency besides the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Michele Leonhart, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, has sent a letter to congressional investigators admitting her agency played a role in a criminal investigation that turned into a de facto gun-smuggling operation run by federal law enforcement agencies.
In mid-July, Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa sent a pair of letters to the heads of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, asking them to explain their alleged roles in Operation Fast and Furious and to provide specific communications relating to specific agents and managers in those respective organizations.
Fast and Furious is blamed for the deaths of approximately 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers, along with an unknown number of civilian casualties on both sides of the border. The program was only shut down after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in a nighttime desert firefight with criminals armed with at least two Fast and Furious-provided AK-pattern rifles.
The letters from Grassley and Issa were directed to FBI Director Robert Mueller and DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart. According to Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times, Leonhart has responded:
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged to congressional investigators that her agency provided a supporting role in the ill-fated Operation Fast and Furious run by the group’s counterparts at the ATF.
Michele M. Leonhart, the DEA administrator, said DEA agents primarily helped gather evidence in cases in Phoenix and El Paso, and in the program’s single indictment last January that netted just 20 defendants for illegal gun-trafficking.
The development marks the first time another law enforcement agency has said it also worked on Fast and Furious cases other than the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is under two investigations into why it allowed at least 2,000 firearms to be illegally purchased and then lost track of the guns’ whereabouts.
Leonhart’s letter, dated July 22, insists that the DEA is conducting a review of the documentation that the congressional investigators have asked for, even though the agency has not turned over any of the communications at this time.
Leonhart claims that the DEA agents in El Paso and Phoenix were only “indirectly involved in the ATF operation through DEA-associated investigative activity,” and further absolves her agency by claiming that “DEA personnel had no decision-making role in an ATF operations” associated with Fast and Furious.
This claim appears to stand in stark contrast to claims made by the ATF special agent in charge (SAC) of the operation, William Newell, who stated in congressional testimony that the ATF, DEA, FBI, and IRS were all “full partners” in the operation.
It now appears that the “full partners” may be on the verge of a internecine feud to deflect responsibility from their agencies. Unfortunately, it is going to be very difficult for DEA Administrator Leonhart, FBI Director Mueller, and other directors in Eric Holder’s Justice Department to claim they had little or no knowledge of the operation when email records show that they were informed about the program in one or more briefings from ATF’s Newell.
Newell also admitted that he briefed a friend in the White House about the operation, a staffer on President Obama’s National Security Council named Kevin O’Reilly. The Obama administration is standing by its claim that while every director in federal law enforcement and NSC staffers were briefed, the White House knew nothing.
The White House continues to claim they did not know about the gunwalking operation while it was occurring, a position shared by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as his underlings seem primed to turn upon one another to keep from facing the political and legal consequences of the operation.
The potential for a rending conflict in the executive branch is not limited to the Justice Department.
Gunwalker took place in Arizona, where DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was both governor and state attorney general, using personnel the secretary had in her own state administration. It is highly unlikely that Gunwalker occurred on Napolitano’s “home turf” and one of her current areas of focus without her knowledge — or advice.
Even the most faithful of left-leaning media outlets are concerned that Gunwalker may eventually be a serious problem for President Obama:
Now that Republicans in Congress won important concessions from President Obama in the debt ceiling debate, the next partisan battle is likely to be over what promises to be the first major scandal of the Obama administration: the botched gun sting known as “Operation Fast and Furious.” The administration should waste no time and come clean about what happened, who approved it, and how it can be avoided again.
Unfortunately, the early signs are that Obama is going to handle this controversy as poorly as he handled the debt ceiling debate.
The writer of that sentiment, Adam Winkler of the Huffington Post, can’t seem to get his head around the fact that Gunwalker is more than a political headache; it’s a deadly serious legal one as well.
Being an accessory to murder is a felony in the United States and Mexico, and that is just one of the many possible criminal charges that federal agents, supervisors, political appointees, and elected officials may face in both U.S. and Mexican judicial systems (for example, the ATF’s Newell).
As Gunwalker continues to unravel, it will be interesting to see who comes forward to testify in exchange for reduced charges or immunity. The line to turn witness could be long, and every indication is that it will point to the highest levels of the Obama administration.
-
'Top' Justice Department officials told about 'Project Gunwalker' in March 2010
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 11 August, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Posted on August 13, 2011 8:59:01 AM EDT by marktwain
Much of the investigation of the "Project Gunwalker" scandal centers on the questions, "Who knew what, and when did they know it?" Attorney General Eric Holder has denied any involvement in the debacle, and indeed in sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in early May claimed that he "probably" had first heard of Operation Fast and Furious only "a few weeks" previously:
Congressman Issa: When did you first know about the program, officially, I believe, called "Fast and Furious"? To the best of your knowledge, what date?
Attorney General Holder: I'm not sure about the exact date, but I probably heard about "Fast and Furious" for the first time over the last few weeks.
That was hard to believe then, given the fact that we know Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had sent letters to Holder asking about that operation almost three months before the "last few weeks" claim.
And now, if Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) Acting Director Kenneth Melson is to be believed, Holder's claim is looking even more dubious. From the Los Angeles Times:
At that early stage of the program, Acting Director Melson said he warned top officials at the Justice Department that weapons had gotten away. "I wanted to alert my staff as well as the [deputy attorney general's] office that there were instances in which guns were not stopped," he said.
So the Deputy Attorney General knew at least as early as March 2010 that the BATFE had been watching guns being "walked" to Mexico, but didn't think that was worth bringing up to his boss? How likely does that sound?
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Gowdy: ‘Impossible to Conceive’ Holder Not Aware of Gunwalker
Pajamas Media ^ | August 15, 2011 | Patrick Richardson
Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) tells PJMedia: "I want to know the day when U.S. law enforcement knew, or should have known, that this had gotten out of control."
Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told PJMedia last week that it is possible Attorney General Eric Holder wasn’t aware of Operation Fast and Furious, but:
As things started to go south, I think it’s impossible to conceive he wasn’t briefed in on it.
Gowdy, who aggressively questioned ATF Special Agent William Newell at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last month, takes issue with whether the investigation was ever going to work in the first place:
I’m not sure I know any more than I did before the hearing; in some ways I know less.
I still have a lot of buddies in law enforcement and they’ve never heard of these investigative techniques, and they ignored all the ones I’m familiar with.
Gowdy contended in the hearing that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) should have interrogated the first straw purchaser they knew for a fact had sold guns to the cartels. He repeated that sentiment:
When the first gun was recovered in Mexico they should have been pulling people in.
One to question was perhaps Uriel Patino, whom the ATF knew had purchased more than 700 guns illegally. USA Today is reporting that 157 are known to have fallen into the hands of the brutal Sinaloa cartel.
When a gun dealer asked the ATF for guidance when Patino placed a special order for 20 weapons of which the dealer only had four in stock, he was told:
“Our guidance is that we would like you to go through with Mr. Patino’s request and order the additional firearms,” ATF Supervisor David Voth wrote the dealer in an Aug. 25 e-mail.
Even though agents knew then that guns allegedly purchased by Patino had been showing up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S.A., Patino was allowed to walk away that day.
He was finally arrested in January. When asked if ATF should have pulled Patino in much sooner, Gowdy said:
You’re asking the same question I asked.
It seems obvious to Gowdy that the traditional technique of offering a deal to Patino to avoid jail time could have been used to infiltrate any trafficking networks which existed.
Gowdy also noted that if the ATF was actually after the cartels, people should have been charged for using a firearm in commission of a federal drug felony. The straw buying charges would have likely netted the buyers only probation time, but drug charges would have meant prison time — and there are laws on the books which would have allowed the buyers to be so charged. Gowdy pointed out that Mexico was unlikely to extradite anyone over a probationary offense, but drug charges are different.
The big problem, said Gowdy, is in getting the information the committee needs to determine what actually happened in this debacle:
We can’t get straight answers on who knew what when. I think [Congressman Darrell] Issa is justifiably frustrated with the lack of document production and what we do get is stuff that’s already in the public domain.
Asked if the officials in charge of the operation — and possibly within the Department of Justice — should be indicted, he refocused the question:
“Oh you can get an indictment. … I dare say I could indict Mr. Issa for stealing my water bottle during the hearing,” he said with a chuckle. “The question is, can you get a conviction?”
That, he noted, is much more difficult in this case because of the cover-up:
I want to know the day when U.S. law enforcement knew, or should have known, that this had gotten out of control. I want to know who knew what when, and what they did about it, and was there a concentrated effort to cover this up.
Gowdy also said Gunwalker is far more serious than people may imagine:
If we didn’t have a debt crisis in this country this would be getting a lot more attention than it is. There’s no way this turns out well for the administration. I just can’t imagine anyone dumb enough to think you could keep this a secret.
-
Why does Holder still have a job?
-
Why does Holder still have a job?
Because he knows where Obama's skeletons are buried.
Obama tosses holder under the bus and holder will drop a dime on obama.
Both have a mutally dependent relationship in this.
this is another disaster and fisaco of this horrible admn that the delusional pieces of garbage who plan on voting for this junta conveniently ignore.
-
ATF's gun surveillance program showed early signs of failure
LA Times ^ | August 11, 2011 | Richard A. Serrano
Reporting from Washington— In March 2010, the No. 2 man at the ATF was deeply worried. His agents had lost track of hundreds of firearms. Some of the guns, supposed to have been tracked to Mexican drug cartels, were lost right after they cleared the gun stores.
Five months into the surveillance effort — dubbed Operation Fast and Furious — no indictments had been announced and no charges were immediately expected. Worse, the weapons had turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the ATF official was worried that someone in the United States could be hurt next.
Acting Deputy Director William Hoover called an emergency meeting and said he wanted an "exit strategy" to shut down the program. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for decades had dedicated itself to stopping illegal gun-trafficking of any kind. Now it was allowing illegal gun purchases on the Southwest border and letting weapons "walk" unchecked into Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
-
ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operation (Fast and Furious)
LA Times ^ | 8/15/11 | Richard A. Serrano
ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operation
The three, who have been criticized for pushing on with the border weapons sting even as it came apart, receive new management jobs in Washington.
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
August 16, 2011
Reporting from Washington— The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of a controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico.
All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and two at the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.
The three supervisors have been given new management positions at the agency's headquarters in Washington. They are William G. McMahon, who was the ATF's deputy director of operations in the West, where the illegal trafficking program was focused, and William D. Newell and David Voth, both field supervisors who oversaw the program out of the agency's Phoenix office.
McMahon and Newell have acknowledged making serious mistakes in the program, which was dubbed Operation Fast and Furious.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
-
ATF's 'Fast and Furious' firearms tracked to at least 11 violent crimes
Los Angeles Times ^ | 8/16/11 | Richard A. Serrano
Posted on August 16, 2011 8:00:01 PM EDT by Nachum
Firearms illegally trafficked under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program turned up at the scenes of at least 11 “violent crimes” in this country in addition to being involved in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona last year, the Justice Department has acknowledged to Congress. Although Justice did not provide any details about those crime scenes, it has been learned that the additional violent crimes occurred in cities such as Phoenix, where Operation Fast and Furious was managed, and as far away as El Paso, Texas, where a total of 42
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
-
ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operation (Fast and Furious)
LA Times ^ | 8/15/11 | Richard A. Serrano
ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operation
The three, who have been criticized for pushing on with the border weapons sting even as it came apart, receive new management jobs in Washington.
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
August 16, 2011
Reporting from Washington— The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of a controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico.
All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and two at the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.
The three supervisors have been given new management positions at the agency's headquarters in Washington. They are William G. McMahon, who was the ATF's deputy director of operations in the West, where the illegal trafficking program was focused, and William D. Newell and David Voth, both field supervisors who oversaw the program out of the agency's Phoenix office.
McMahon and Newell have acknowledged making serious mistakes in the program, which was dubbed Operation Fast and Furious.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
What the hell are they thinking?
-
What the hell are they thinking?
That they are the law and can do what they want.
-
Promotions of ‘Fast and Furious’ officials draw Texan’s wrath
The Washington Times ^ | Tuesday, August 16, 2011 | Jerry Seper
A senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday described as “inconceivable” a Justice Department decision to promote key Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) personnel who oversaw the controversial “Fast and Furious” weapons investigation that allowed hundreds of guns to be walked into Mexico.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who last week demanded that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. immediately brief his office regarding the “scope and details of any past or present ATF gun-walking programs” in his state, said until Mr. Holder and the department “come clean” on the gun-walking investigation, “it is inconceivable to reward those who spearheaded this disastrous operation with cushy desks in Washington.”
The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of the controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico.
Mr. Cornyn’s comments were in response to a Los Angeles Times‘ article that said three ATF supervisors heavily criticized for pushing the Fast and Furious program forward had been given new management positions at the agency’s Washington headquarters. The three are William G. McMahon, ATF’s deputy director of operations in the West, and William D. Newell and David J. Voth, both of whom oversaw the program out of the agency’s Phoenix office.
Mr. McMahon, who told a House committee he shared responsibility for “mistakes that were made” in the Fast and Furious operation, was promoted Sunday to deputy assistant director of the ATF's Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations - which investigates suspected misconduct by employees.
Mr. Newell, former ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix field division who steadfastly defended the program in his committee testimony, was named as special assistant to the assistant director of the agency’s Office of Management in Washington.
Mr. Voth....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
TX Governor Too Busy Issuing Executive Orders Mandating HPV Vaccinations To Address Gunrunner Case
Great point.
-
Skip to comments.
Fast And Furious Promotions?
IBD Editorials ^ | August 16, 2011 | Staff
Posted on August 17, 2011 7:55:08 PM EDT by Kaslin
Scandal: As guns funneled by the ATF into Mexico continue to show up at crime scenes, three key supervisors of an operation that resulted in the deaths of two U.S. agents get moved up instead of fired.
Considering the unmitigated disaster that came from a program allegedly designed to track and capture gun traffickers, we would have expected a wave of resignations and dismissals, starting with Attorney General Eric Holder. Instead, we get kudos and career advancement.
William McMahon, who was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' deputy director of operations in the West, where the program was focused, as well as William Newell and David Voth, field supervisors in the ATF's Phoenix office, have all received new management positions at ATF headquarters in Washington, D.C.
A cynic would suggest that this was so the agency could keep tabs on the trio in the wake of investigations by Rep. Darrell Issa's House Government Operations and Oversight Committee and other boards. Both ATF and the Justice Department have been pressuring witnesses as well as withholding documents.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who last week demanded that Holder immediately brief his office regarding the "scope and details of any past or present ATF gun-walking programs" in his state, said until Holder and the department "come clean" on the investigation, "it is inconceivable to reward those who spearheaded this disastrous operation with cushy desks in Washington."
It's staggering to us as well. The only desk or table they should be sitting at is one in front of a congressional committee and behind a stack of asked-for documents. That includes Holder, who needs to come clean as to what he knew, when he knew it and who authorized what.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
-
Holder requests Fast and Furious docs from Issa, Grassley for ‘independent’ investigation
Daily Caller ^ | 8/17/11 | Matthew Boyle
Posted on August 17, 2011 11:25:42 PM EDT by Nachum
The Department of Justice says its Office of Inspector General is conducting an independent investigation into the gunwalking Operation Fast and Furious, which Congress is already probing. Attorney General Eric Holder requested a transcript of Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa from their secret July 4th meeting with Ken Melson, acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director. Holder and other DOJ officials have repeatedly said the DOJ’s Inspector General is doing its own internal investigation into what went wrong with Fast and Furious.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Scandal: As guns funneled by the ATF into Mexico continue to show up at crime scenes, three key supervisors of an operation that resulted in the deaths of two U.S. agents get moved up instead of fired.
Welcome to 911. Everyone got a promotion and a raise. No investigations for the FAILS.
-
‘Fast and Furious’ weapons found at more violent crime scenes
Washington Times ^ | 8/17/11 | Jerry Seper
Posted on August 17, 2011 11:46:06 PM EDT by Nachum
Weapons purchased during the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives‘ controversial “Fast and Furious” undercover investigation, which included the sale to “straw buyers” of hundreds of AK-47 assault rifles, have turned up at a dozen violent crime scenes across the Southwest, the Justice Department told a Senate committee. In a letter to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Justice Department confirmed that the illegally purchased weapons recently were found at the sites of at least 11 violent crimes.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
Gunwalker: President Obama’s Un-Plausible Deniability
Pajamas Media ^ | August 17, 2011 | Bob Owens
Is it rational to believe the president and his closest advisers had nothing to do with this murderous plot?
I first ran into the concept of plausible deniability during my freshman year of college. A definition:
The term most often refers to the denial of blame in (formal or informal) chains of command, where upper rungs quarantine the blame to the lower rungs, and the lower rungs are often inaccessible, meaning confirming responsibility for the action is nearly impossible. In the case that illegal or otherwise disreputable and unpopular activities become public, high-ranking officials may deny any awareness of such act or any connection to the agents used to carry out such acts.
I was reading Tom Clancy’s Clear and Present Danger at the time, a novel that hinged on a fictional president deciding to change the war on drugs by descending into illegal covert activity.
Twenty-two years later, we are contemplating whether a sitting and all-too-real American president can claim plausible deniability for Operation Fast and Furious, Operation Castaway, and two unnamed but alleged operations in Texas that make up the Gunwalker scandal, which threatens to bring down the administration of Barack Obama.
The public scandal began when ATF whistleblowers disclosed that a multi-agency federal law enforcement operation in Arizona — Operation Fast and Furious — supplied weapons found at the crime scene of murdered U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
It was quickly revealed that federal law enforcement officers, supervisors, and administration appointees ensured that straw purchasers would be able to purchase weapons intended for the Sinaloa drug cartel without the threat of arrest. As federal agents watched — essentially acting as cartel security — 2,020 firearms were purchased, and the majority of them were “walked” by straw purchasers into the hands of the violent drug gang.
Mexican authorities claim that an estimated 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers, plus an unknown number of civilians have been murdered with weapons “walked” under the eyes of the federal task force. Three U.S. federal agents have also been shot in crimes using Fast and Furious weapons. Two died.
Initially, the Obama administration attempted to scapegoat acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson. When that failed, they colluded with the Washington Post and later possibly the New York Times on attempted character assassinations of Congressman Darrell Issa. Issa, along with Senator Charles Grassley, is leading the charge to investigate the scandal.
A month following Melson’s testimony to Issa’s committee, the Gunwalker landscape has changed considerably. Emails have been unearthed, additional figures with inside knowledge of the operation are testifying, and more congressmen and senators have joined the probe of the Department of Justice to see just how wide and high the administration’s knowledge of and participation in the gunwalking program — or programs — truly went.
All of these evolving disclosures are increasing the pressure on administration officials such as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, both of whom simply must have known of the operations considering the high-level collaboration between multiple agencies under their control.
Which leads to President Obama: how is it possible that the White House was not aware of Fast and Furious while it was occurring? We now know the following:
The #2 man in the ATF, Acting Deputy Director William Hoover, tried to shut Operation Fast and Furious down in March of 2010 but was rebuffed.
Officials with the Justice Department and ATF tried to evade Senator Grassley’s attempts to discover where the guns came from.
A National Security Council (NSC) operative in the White House named Kevin O’Reilly was in direct contact with Bill Newell, the agent in charge of the operation. (Are we to believe that the benign emails released between the two men were their only Gunwalker conversations, and that O’Reilly wasn’t briefing the National Security Council or the president?)
The U.S. attorney involved in Fast And Furious, Dennis Burke, is a long-time Napolitano ally and was her chief of staff while she was governor from 2003-2008. Burke is also on the attorney general’s Advisory Committee border and immigration law enforcement subcommittee. He recently opposed a routine filing by murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s family, in a move that appears designed to protect him in criminal and civil trials regarding Gunwalker.
Emails reveal that every law enforcement director in DOJ was briefed on Operation Fast and Furious. All have been silent on the allegations except the scapegoated Melson and the DEA administrator, who surfaced long enough to deny that her agency was involved in the criminal actions.
The Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Treasury were involved (State and CIA have allegedly had roles in the operation, but these allegations have not been confirmed by evidence).
With this level of cooperation across at least three (Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury) departments and among at least eight directors, with long-term personal contacts between friends and political allies that have been fingered as key players in this scandal, and with the president’s own words and deeds regarding his radical views towards gun rights in this country, is it rational to believe the president and his closest advisers had nothing to do with this murderous plot?
When we see a cover-up being orchestrated, we should rationally assume that the cover-up exists to hide criminal culpability. When we see corruption spread across the highest and most connected levels of government, we should rationally assume that the person at the top, President Obama, likely was involved.
With the latest evidence, Barack Obama and his co-conspirators no longer have plausible deniability. It remains to see how they will fare with criminal culpability, as more whistleblowers come forward from Justice and DHS to avoid prison time themselves.
-
ATF Whistleblower: Gunwalker Officials Being Shielded
Pajamas Media ^ | August 19, 2011 | Bob Owens
Former Agent Vince Cefalu tells PJM: Those men weren't being promoted this week, they were being protected via transfers to other positions within the department.
This week, the Bereau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms promoted three of the officials responsible for Operation Fast and Furious:
All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and two at the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.
The three supervisors have been given new management positions at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. They are William G. McMahon, who was the ATF’s deputy director of operations in the West, where the illegal trafficking program was focused, and William D. Newell and David Voth, both field supervisors who oversaw the program out of the agency’s Phoenix office.
I asked ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu what he thought of the promotions, and whether or not it was standard practice to promote ATF officials after a catastrophic operational failure. I even asked if he had heard of another instance where a federal law enforcement officer or manager was promoted after leading an operation that lost firearms which were subsequently used in the shootings of multiple federal agents.
His responses (via email) were as cutting as you might expect from a loyal agent recently fired by the Obama administration for attempting to clean up entrenched corruption:
First: why did they leave out FF ASAC George Gillette? He is one of the most corrupt and culpable guys in that operation. He was transferred to HQ as the liaison to the U.S. Marshals, which is normally a GS (General Schedule) 13 or 14 job. He is filling it as a GS 15?
None of the other three were actually promoted.
They were all placed in protected positions which shields them from public view. The assistant to the assistant director position was created under former Acting Director Mike Sullivan to shield corrupt and exposed managers so as to keep their grade and benefits.
No other law enforcement organization would make any of these moves while a congressional and OIG investigation was still ongoing. They should be in admin positions or on the beach [suspended], since potential criminal charges loom until they are cleared.
McMahon in charge of IA [Internal Affairs, a more common functional name for Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations]. S***, that’s like putting [Charles] Manson in charge of sharp objects.
IA has long been the Gestapo arm of our corrupt leadership, and now the very man who allowed Fast and Furious to continue is in charge?
This is appalling.
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) was infuriated when he heard that the Gunwalker conspirators were being protectively cloaked for their apparent crimes on behalf of the administration. Is the Department of Justice attempting to impose omertà so that these key figures don’t testify about what they know of those who authorized Operation Fast and Furious?
Speaking of the those responsible for the initial authorization, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review asked:
Who thought allowing illegal gun sales was a good idea in the first place?
Framed by the newspaper as “the question” that matters, it should be asked as a series of more pointed questions:
Who authorized Operation Fast and Furious (and any similar gunwalking operations) in the Department of Justice? Who in the Department of Homeland Security? Who in the Treasury Department (the IRS was involved)? Who in the State Department?
If State was not notified of Operation Fast and Furious (and any similar gunwalking operations), who had the authority to run this campaign without State’s knowledge?
If Operation Fast and Furious (and any similar gunwalking operations) did not originate within these departments with the authorization of their department heads, where did it originate?
Elsewhere, it was another brutal week for the Obama administration regarding the Gunwalker scandal. Weapons from the plot were identified in eleven more violent crimes in Arizona and Texas. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich took aim at Acting ATF Director Ken Melson, stating that Melson knew of Operation Fast and Furious almost from the beginning. Melson previously claimed he only found out about the walking of guns after the program was shut down.
And Cornyn also demanded that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder immediately brief his office regarding allegations that gunwalking operations similar to Operation Fast and Furious may have been run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in his state:
I write to express my deep concerns regarding press reports of an ATF “gun-walking” program that allegedly operated in the state of Texas. I request that the Department of Justice immediately brief my office regarding the scope and details of any past or present ATF “gun-walking” programs operated in the state of Texas.
PJMedia discussed the evidence pointing to the possibility of a gunwalking operation in both the Dallas Field Operations area and the Houston Field Operations area more than a month ago. To date, neither the DOJ nor the ATF has been willing to confirm or deny the existence of the alleged programs in Texas, even though guns from an alleged Texas gunwalking operation were used in a cartel ambush that murdered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata and severely wounded ICE Agent Victor Avila.
Senator Cornyn’s request puts the attorney general, the ATF, the DOJ, and the White House in an unsettling position. If Operation Fast and Furious in Arizona is not an isolated incident, as evidence suggests, then the probability that this plot was orchestrated from the highest levels of the Obama administration increases dramatically.
________________________ __________
Silence from team dildo as usual.
-
Gun-running sting gone wildly wrong
The Virginian-Pilot ^ | August 18, 2011 | Masthead Editorial
Operation Fast and Furious was so badly conceived, so incompetently executed and so disastrous in its result that nobody in the federal government wants to take responsibility. So, in the way of all scandals, the trouble is in the continuing coverup.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program began in Nov. 2009. It was designed to track the flow of illegal weapons by selling them to straw purchasers at Arizona gun shops. It was a horrible idea that got much worse in its execution.
The intention of the program was to follow the 1,400 weapons back to Mexican drug cartels, but the government lost track of them as they were moved back across the border. The result was that hundreds of high-powered guns ended up in the hands of the cartels' soldiers.
Eventually, the American government rediscovered the guns when they turned up as weapons used in the commission of violent crimes in the United States.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the weapons were used in at least 11 incidents, "in several Arizona cities, including Phoenix, where Fast and Furious was managed, as well as in El Paso, where a total of 42 weapons from the operation were seized at two crime scenes."
Two Fast and Furious assault rifles were recovered at the scene after a U.S. border patrol agent was murdered last December. The program ended a month later.
Kenneth E. Melson, the ATF's acting director, has said he became aware of how the operation was being run in January of this year. A Justice Department letter to Congress, obtained by The Times, disputes that, saying Melson was aware of Fast and Furious 13 months before.
The Justice Department - of which the ATF is a part - has been strangely silent on the matter, as has the rest of the administration. That silence fixes nothing and encourages no confidence.
At the risk of cliche, who knew about Fast and Furious, and when did they know it? Does knowledge go beyond the ATF to its bosses at the Justice Department? Did officials in the White House know?
Congress has held hearings. An inspector general is investigating. The time has come for the appointment of an independent counsel to get to the bottom of this.
Hundreds of high-powered weapons, including giant .50-caliber rifles, remain in circulation among Mexico's drug cartels, thanks to federal officials. Someone must be held responsible.
-
Unscrambling ATF supervisor’s omelet shows troubling timeline
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 19 August, 2011 | David Codrea
Posted on August 20, 2011 8:52:47 AM EDT by marktwain
“In an April 13, 2010 email, [an] unnamed gun shop owner told ATF he was worried how he'd be viewed if the guns he sold ended up in the wrong hands,” Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News reported months back.
The response?
ATF Supervisor [David] Voth tried to reassure the cooperating gun shop owner. "I understand that the frequency with which some individuals under investigation by our office have been purchasing firearms from your business has caused concerns for you... However, if helps put you at east we (ATF) are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into [in] detail."
Voth, of course, is the supervisor who infamously advised those under his command:
"If you are going to make an omelet, you need to scramble some eggs."
The CBS report was based on a letter Sen. Chuck Grassley had written Attorney General Eric Holder. Concerning Voth’s reply to the nervous gun dealer, Grassley flat-out stated:
As we now know, those assurances proved to be untrue.
Further corroboration for the untruth of Voth’s assurances can be gleaned from another key piece of information. From The Los Angeles Times:
In March 2010, the No. 2 man at the ATF was deeply worried. His agents had lost track of hundreds of firearms. Some of the guns, supposed to have been tracked to Mexican drug cartels, were lost right after they cleared the gun stores.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Fast and Furious update: DOJ to shuffle ATF director Kenneth Melson
Michelle Malkin ^ | 8/30/11 | Michelle Malkin
Both Fox News and the WSJ are out with breaking news about the corruptocracy’s latest dance of the lemons. In the wake of the ongoing Fast and Furious scandal, ATF acting head Kenneth Melson will be shuffled around until the heat dies down…
The acting director of the Justice Department division caught up in a firearms trafficking scandal is being removed from his post, sources told Fox News on Tuesday.
Kenneth Melson, who heads the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will be reassigned elsewhere in the Justice Department. An announcement is expected late Tuesday morning.
The decision comes in the wake of the embarrassing scandal connected with Operation Fast and Furious. The program tracked illegal gun sales, but has come under federal and congressional investigation after weapons linked to Fast and Furious were found at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent’s murder last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
-
Kenneth Melson Resigns As ATF Chief Over 'Fast And Furious' Gun Trafficking Operation
The Huffington Post Alexander Belenky First Posted: 8/30/11 12:13 PM ET Updated: 8/30/11 12:30 PM
Kenneth Melson is out as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Melson has been under fire from Republicans over the scandal surrounding the gun trafficking program Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department announced that Melson will be moving back to the Department of Justice to serve in the Office of Legal Programs.
Melson has been under pressure to step aside since earlier this summer, after a House Oversight Committee hearing revealed controversial aspects of the program. ATF agents charged with monitoring the illegal sale and transfer of guns from the U.S. To Mexican drug cartels told lawmakers that, instead of arresting small-time buyers, they were ordered to stand by and let the guns go through, in the hopes of tracing them to larger arms dealers.
After border patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered in a shootout along the Arizona-Mexico border in December 2010, two weapons found on the scene were linked that the Fast and Furious program.
This month, the Justice Department announced that guns from the program had turned up at the scenes of at least 11 crimes in the U.S. In El Paso, Texas, 42 weapons were seized from two crime scenes alone.
Melson “was part of the bad judgment. … This was a program so stupid from the start,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the head of the Oversight Committee, told Fox News in June.
In July, after a review of the program, Melson admitted that, in at least one instance, agents could and should have intercepted the weapons. "I read through those and found ROIs (reports of investigation) that indeed suggested that interdiction could have occurred, and probably should have occurred, but did not occur," Melson told congressional lawmakers.
This article has been updated to reflect the official announcement from the Justice Department.
________________________ __________
Funny how Lurker, Straw, andre, 240, and many others are so silent on this thread.
-
Amid controversy, ATF gets a new acting director
By PETE YOST, Associated Press
http://www.salon.com/wires/politics/08/30/D9PEH2GG2_us_atf_director/index.html
A new acting director was named Tuesday for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives following congressional hearings into a flawed law enforcement operation aimed at major gun-trafficking networks in the Southwest.
The Justice Department said the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, B. Todd Jones, will replace Kenneth Melson as the bureau's acting director.
Melson will become senior adviser on forensic science in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy.
ATF has been criticized by Republicans on Capitol Hill for a law enforcement operation in Arizona designed to track small-time gun buyers up the chain to make cases against major weapons traffickers. The operation was a response to longstanding criticism of ATF for concentrating on small-time gun violations and failing to attack the kingpins of weapons trafficking.
The strategy carried the risk that the tracking dimension of the program would be inadequate and that some guns would wind up in Mexico or on the U.S. side of the border in the hands of criminals and be used at crime scenes -- which is what has happened.
ATF intelligence analyst Lorren Leadmon testified that of more than 2,000 weapons linked to the operation, some 1,400 have not been recovered.
Jones will continue to serve as U.S. Attorney when he assumes the role of ATF acting director on Wednesday.
In a statement, Attorney General Eric Holder called Jones "a demonstrated leader who brings a wealth of experience to this position." Jones is a former military judge advocate as well as a prosecutor.
Holder added: "I have great confidence that he will be a strong and steady influence guiding ATF in fulfilling its mission of combating violent crime by enforcing federal criminal laws."
-
Kenneth Melson, acting ATF chief, steps down
Melson's replacement will be the current U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota. | AP Photo
By JENNIFER EPSTEIN | 8/30/11 12:21 PM EDT
The man who led the controversial Fast and Furious anti-gun-trafficking operation will step down as the interim head of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department announced Tuesday as it named a new acting director for the agency.
Kenneth Melson, the bureau’s acting director, on Wednesday will move to the Office of Legal Policy, where he will be a senior adviser on forensic science, the department said without making reference to the failed gun-tracking operation that is alleged to have ultimately put guns into the hands of criminals. Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney in Arizona who oversaw prosecutions in that state related to the Fast and Furious operation, is also stepping down, the department said.
“Ken brings decades of experience at the department and extensive knowledge in forensic science to his new role, and I know he will be a valuable contributor on these issues,” Attorney General Eric Holder said of Melson in a statement. “As he moves into this new role, I want to thank Ken for his dedication to the department over the last three decades.”
Melson’s replacement is B. Todd Jones, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota. Jones “is a demonstrated leader who brings a wealth of experience to this position,” Holder said. “I have great confidence that he will be a strong and steady influence guiding ATF in fulfilling its mission of combating violent crime by enforcing federal criminal laws and regulations in the firearms and explosives industries.”
Melson took the top spot at the ATF on an interim basis in 2009 and oversaw the execution of Fast and Furious, an effort that was aimed at rooting out gun smugglers selling weapons to Mexican cartels. Ultimately, the ATF lost track of as many as 2,000 guns that were sold during the operation, including two that were found near the scene of the killing of a Border Patrol agent.
In a separate statement, Holder commended Burke’s “decision to place the interests of the U.S. Attorney’s office above all else” in stepping down. CBS reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley, who worked under Burke on Fast and Furious, will be reassigned to the Civil Division of the Justice Department.
Holder also praised Burke’s work, and said his office’s “quick response to the devastating shootings in January that claimed the lives of several people and critically injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was crucial in arresting and charging the alleged shooter.”
An investigation of the Fast and Furious operation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found emails showing that Melson was regularly informed of the problems with the investigation.
One associate told POLITICO that, despite news stories predicting Melson’s exit since the beginning of the summer, he may have been reluctant to resign due to issues related to eligibility for retirement. Melson started at the Justice Department in 1983 as a federal prosecutor in Virginia.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House oversight committee, initially called on Melson to resign, but reversed course in July, saying that Melson should not be forced out until the facts about the operation were fully known.
In a statement Tuesday, Issa said “the reckless disregard for safety” by the Justice Department “certainly merits changes” in personnel.
But the committee will continue to investigate Fast and Furious “to ensure that blame isn’t offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department,” Issa said. “There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility, but these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) voiced dismay that Melson has been reassigned and not forced to step down. Holder, he said, should have requested Melson’s resignation and “come clean on all alleged gun-walking operations.”
In July, there was fresh evidence of distance between Melson and Justice Department leaders when he gave a lengthy interview to congressional investigators outside the presence of and without advance notice to DOJ’s legislative affairs team. In the interview, Melson said he had objected to aspects of DOJ’s plans for handing the legislative inquiries and that he had been told not to tell Congress why mid-ranking ATF officials with responsibility for the Fast and Furious operation were reassigned.
The ATF has been without a permanent director since 2006. The confirmation process for the Obama administration’s nominee, Andrew Traver, the head of the agency’s Chicago office, has stalled under opposition from the National Rifle Association.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62320.html#ixzz1WXLDSEQO
-
Edited on Tue Aug-30-11 12:22 PM by Tuesday Afternoon
By Richard A. Serrano
Washington Bureau
August 30, 2011, 9:13 a.m.
Kenneth E. Melson, who has faced heacy criticism in connection with the controversial Fast and Furious gun-trafficking investigation, announced Tuesday that he is stepping down as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Melson shared the news in a conference call at 11:30 a.m. EDT with supervisors at the bureau's field offices, telling them that he will be moving back to the Department of Justice to serve as a senior advisor with the Office of Legal Programs. His resignation will take effect at 5 p.m. EDT.
Attorney Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that B. Todd Jones, the U.S. Attorney in Minneapolis, will replace Melson as acting director, effective Wednesday.
Despite all the problems with Fast and Furious under Melson's tenure, Holder praised the out-going acting director and his new responsibilities.
more at link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-atf-director...
What a fucking joke this Admn is. Shame on you dirtbags and pieces of trash still supporting obama.
-
That Was Fast & Furious: U.S. Attorney For Arizona, Dennis Burke Resigns
KFYI News ^ | Tuesday, August 30, 2011 | Mike Broomhead
According to Fox News, Dennis Burke got physically sick during questioning last week when questioned by congressional investigators. Burke became so ill, that he could not finish his questioning.
Amid fallout from Operation Fast and Furious
Dennis Burke, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, has delivered his letter of resignation to President Obama - effective immediately.
The move comes amid fallout from Operation Fast and Furious, that was designed to track gun buyers and major weapons traffickers along the border. One of the guns was linked to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last year.
“My long tenure in public service has been intensely gratifying. It has also been intensely demanding. For me, it is the right time to move on to pursue other aspects of my career and my life and allow the office to move ahead," Burke said in the letter.
Burke was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona in 2009.
Burke's departure comes the same day as the transfer of ATF acting director Kenneth Melson to a new post.
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ _______
(Excerpt) Read more at kfyi.com ...
-
Everyone who supports Obama at this point would be better off being shoved off a cliff than continue this charade.
-
Issa, Grassley make good on promise to expand “Fast & Furious” investigation
Hot Air ^ | 9/1/11 | Tina Korbe
Posted on September 1, 2011 9:26:03 PM EDT by Nachum
Almost immediately after the Justice Department announced a shake-up of the officials who oversaw ATF’s ill-begotten “Operation Fast and Furious,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) signaled they wouldn’t let the reassignment of acting ATF director Kenneth Melson slow down their investigation of the questionable program.
Two days later, they’ve already made good on that promise. Today, they sent a letter to Ann Scheel, the acting attorney general in Phoenix, basically putting the Arizona district office on notice and demanding e-mails, memos, notes and other documents from six top officials, including Scheel and ousted former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke.
“The level of involvement of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona in the genesis and implementation of this case is striking,” the letter states. It continues:
Operation Fast and Furious was a prosecutor-led Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force case. The congressional investigation has revealed that your office, and specifically Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Emory Hurley, played an integral role in the day-to-day, tactical management of the case. In fact, Mr. Hurley served as a prosecutor on this case until very recently.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
New warning bells in Operation Fast and Furious probe
Washington Examiner ^ | 08/30/11 | Masthead Editorial
Posted on September 1, 2011 9:45:29 PM EDT by neverdem
Kenneth Melson, former acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, has a new job as a "senior adviser" in the Justice Department.
A bruised and battered veteran of the U.S. Civil Service explained how the government silences whistleblowers and other uncooperative employees: "They give you a big promotion, a fancy title and a new office, but no staff and nothing to do. Then they tell you to watch the flagpole in front of headquarters and, if that flag moves, you come tell us immediately. After that, you're never heard from again." Whistleblowers in the Washington bureaucracy come in all ideological stripes, but the one thing they almost invariably have in common is being subjected to this treatment. Some stick to their guns and alert the public to a problem in government, but most are bored into submission.
Kenneth Melson, the now former acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the center of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, appears to be getting the treatment now. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday that Melson has a new job as a "senior adviser" in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy. According to Holder, "Ken brings decades of experience at the department and extensive knowledge in forensic science to his new role, and I know he will be a valuable contributor on these issues. As he moves into this new role, I want to thank Ken for his dedication to the department over the last three decades." Sounds just hunky-dory, doesn't it? Don't be surprised if in a few weeks a lonely Melson is gazing out of an obscure Justice Department office, staring at a flagpole, waiting for something to do.
Or maybe not. There is an alternative explanation for Melson's promotion. His testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee led by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., was crucial in shining light on a misguided ATF program that allowed thousands of firearms to be sold to suppliers for Mexican drug cartels. The idea was the weapons would show up in Mexican crime scenes and thereby link high-ranking cartel figures to the ghastly murders that have become such a familiar part of the story south of the border.
Instead, some of the weapons -- most cannot be accounted for by ATF -- have shown up at crime scenes here in the U.S., including a desolate spot in the Arizona desert where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was gunned down in December. Officials from the top to the bottom of the Justice Department ran for the exits at that point, but Issa still managed to expose the basic facts about Operation Fast and Furious. Much of what Issa learned, however, came from sources other than Melson. And while Melson insisted that senior Justice Department officials knew and approved of the operation, nobody above him has been fired or otherwise disciplined as a result. Perhaps the new job -- which pays well and is out of the spotlight -- is intended simply to give Melson something else to talk about.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
More Fallout Expected Over Botched Gun Sting
National Journal ^ | August 31, 2011 | Chris Strohm
Posted on September 2, 2011 1:06:17 AM EDT by neverdem
The botched sting operation known as Operation Fast And Furious has claimed the careers of at least three Justice Department officials, with Republican lawmakers expecting even more fallout to come.
The operation, run out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives field office in Phoenix, allowed guns to knowingly fall into the hands of violent criminals in Mexico.
A congressional investigation into the operation led by House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Senate Judiciary ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is examining how high up within the administration the program was known about and authorized.
The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that Kenneth Melson, the acting head of the ATF bureau will be reassigned, and that Dennis Burke, U.S. attorney for the district of Arizona, is resigning. In another change, the assistant U.S. attorney responsible for the day-to-day operations of Fast and Furious — Emory Hurley — has been removed from his post and reassigned to the department’s civil division, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Justice Department did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story.
Fast and Furious has since been halted and is under investigation by lawmakers and the Justice Department’s inspector general for failing to stop guns from flowing into Mexico.
“As our investigation moves forward, and we get to the bottom of this policy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more fallout beyond the resignations and new assignments announced today,” Grassley said in a statement.
Issa added: “There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility, but these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels.”
Areas the congressional investigation will now focus on include who within the Justice Department reviewed and authorized wiretap applications in support of the operation, and whether other agencies had informants who knew that weapons were being bought illegally by straw purchasers, said Frederick Hill, spokesman for the House Oversight panel. Investigators are also still trying to determine when Attorney General Eric Holder first learned about the operation.
The Justice Department also has not turned over all documents the committee is seeking under a subpoena, Hill said, adding that the panel plans to hold more hearings on the operation.
Melson’s fate may have been sealed when he voluntarily met behind closed doors with congressional investigators on July 4. Melson told the committee he did not learn about the operation until it became public late last year, according to Issa and Grassley. Melson said he and other ATF leaders wanted to be forthcoming with Congress about what he learned but were directed by Justice Department officials not to do so.
Congressional investigators met with Burke on Aug. 18 and expect to soon have another meeting, Hill said. Hill declined to discuss Burke’s testimony but said Operation Fast and Furious was designated as a strike team which was led directly by Burke. ATF agents have previously told the committee that they wanted to stop the illegal transfer of guns but were directed not to.
Burke told the committee he knew about Operation Fast and Furious but had been unaware of the details, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., top Democrat on the House Oversight panel. But Burke said he still would take responsibility for mistakes made, according to a partial transcript of his interview released by Cummings’ office.
Holder announced the resignation of Burke and the reassignment of Melson, praising them for their service. He did not mention Operation Fast and Furious.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota B. Todd Jones has been appointed to replace Melson as acting ATF head. Jones has served as U.S. attorney for the district of Minnesota under two presidents. He has previously been a partner at private law firms and, in 2009, was appointed to serve as chairman of the Attorney General Advisory Committee.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Demand for More Answers in Fast and Furious Scandal
FoxNews.com ^ | September 02, 2011 | William La Jeunesse & Laura Prabucki
Posted on September 2, 2011 6:07:58 AM EDT by markomalley
Just hours after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, federal officials tried to cover up evidence that the gun that killed Terry, was one the government intentionally helped sell to the Mexican cartels in a weapons trafficking program known as Operation Fast and Furious.
The revelation comes just days after a huge shake-up of government officials who oversaw the failed anti-gun trafficking program and Congress renewed its demand for more answers.
Also late Thursday, Senator Charles Grassley's office revealed that 21 more Fast and Furious guns have now showed up at violent crime scenes in Mexico. That is up from 11 the agency admitted just last month.
“The Justice Department has been less than forthcoming since day one, so the revisions here are hardly surprising, and the numbers will likely rise until the more than 1000 guns that were allowed to fall into the hands of bad guys are recovered-most likely years down the road," Grassley said in a statement released Thursday.
"What we’re still waiting for are the answers to the other questions the Attorney General failed to answer per our agreement. The cooperation of the Attorney General and his staff is needed if we’re ever going to get to the bottom of this disastrous policy and help the ATF and the department move forward.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
White House received emails about Fast and Furious gun-trafficking operation
Los Angeles Times ^ | September 2, 2011 | By Richard A. Serrano
Newly obtained emails show that the White House was better informed about a failed gun-tracking operation on the border with Mexico than was previously known.
Three White House national security officials were given some details about the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious. The operation allowed firearms to be illegally purchased, with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. But the effort went out of control after agents lost track of many of the weapons.
The supervisor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in Phoenix specifically mentioned Fast and Furious in at least one email to a White House national security official, and two other White House colleagues were briefed on reports from the supervisor, according to White House emails and a senior administration official.
But the senior administration official said the emails, obtained Thursday by The Times, did not prove that anyone in the White House was aware of the covert "investigative tactics" of the operation.
"The emails validate what has been said previously, which is no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk," said the official.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ______________
drip drip drip drip
-
Fast & Furious fallout: Holder should be next
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | September 2, 2011 | Masthead Editorial
Tuesday's replacement of the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who led Operation Fast and Furious, and resignation of the U.S. attorney for Arizona, who oversaw related prosecutions, are fitting consequences for their roles in that fiasco.
But they leave open questions of higher officials' culpability.
Still unclear is who's responsible for allowing illegal U.S. sales of hundreds of guns that agents lost track of while supposedly following their illicit trafficking to Mexican drug cartels. Until definitive answers emerge, denials of responsibility by Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama remain as suspect as the notion that Justice's internal probe will reveal the Fast and Furious truth.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says he wants "to ensure that blame isn't offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department." His independent investigation, which continues, remains the best hope for getting to the bottom of this mess...
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
-
Evidence Suggests Cover-Up in ATF Scandal, as More Guns Appear at Crime Scenes
By William La Jeunesse & Laura Prabucki
Published September 02, 2011
Just hours after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, federal officials tried to cover up evidence that the gun that killed Terry was one the government intentionally helped sell to the Mexican cartels in a weapons trafficking program known as Operation Fast and Furious.
The revelation comes just days after a huge shake-up of government officials who oversaw the failed anti-gun trafficking program and Congress renewed its demand for more answers.
This picture shows part of a cache of seized weapons displayed at a news conference in Phoenix.
Also late Thursday, Sen. Charles Grassley's office revealed that 21 more Fast and Furious guns have been found at violent crime scenes in Mexico. That is up from 11 the agency admitted just last month.
Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Thursday they are expanding their investigation into the scandal. In a strongly worded letter to Anne Scheel, the new U.S. attorney for Arizona, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested interviews, emails, memos and even hand-written notes from members of the U.S. attorney's office that played key roles in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) program.
Issa and Grassley said they want to speak with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emory Hurley and Michael Morrissey, along with Patrick Cunningham, chief of the office’s Criminal Division.
Not only do congressional investigators want to "make sense" of details of the operation that allowed more than 2,000 guns to "walk" and later turn up at crime scenes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, but they want to known why Hurley -- who knew almost immediately the guns found at Terry's crime scene belonged to Fast and Furious -- tried to "prevent the connection from being disclosed."
In an internal email the day after the murder, Hurley, and then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, decided not to disclose the connection, saying " ... this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case."
“The level of involvement of the United States Attorney’s Office … in the genesis and implementation of this case is striking,” wrote Issa and Grassley.
The two claim witnesses have told them that recently reassigned Hurley may have also prevented ATF agents from doing their jobs.
“Many ATF agents working on Operation Fast and Furious were under the impression that even some of the most basic law enforcement techniques typically used to interdict weapons required the explicit approval of your office, specifically that from Hurley,” the letter states.
Grassley also raised concerns about the latest data on Fast and Furious guns found at crime scenes in Mexico.
“The Justice Department has been less than forthcoming since day one, so the revisions here are hardly surprising, and the numbers will likely rise until the more than 1,000 guns that were allowed to fall into the hands of bad guys are recovered -- most likely years down the road," Grassley said in a statement released Thursday.
"What we’re still waiting for are the answers to the other questions the Attorney General failed to answer per our agreement. The cooperation of the Attorney General and his staff is needed if we’re ever going to get to the bottom of this disastrous policy and help the ATF and the department move forward.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/02/demand-for-more-answers-in-fast-and-furious-scandal/#ixzz1WokAdkvN
-
Newest 'Project Gunwalker' revelations highlight need for special prosecutor
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 2 September, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Posted on September 3, 2011 8:50:44 AM EDT by marktwain
As National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman, and Sipsey Street Irregular Mike Vanderboegh have been covering, compelling new evidence strongly points to a deliberate cover-up of the "Gunwalker" scandal, involving at least the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) and the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona. The (very) short version is that emails between the BATFE Phoenix office and the U.S. Attorney's Arizona office openly discuss said cover-up.
Stonewalling and cover-ups have been the hallmarks of the Obama administration's response to every attempt to get to the bottom of the Gunwalker scandal. From sending hundreds of pages of completely redacted documents in response to subpoenas, to tampering with witnesses, to recruiting friendly mass media outlets to smear congressional investigators, the administration has fought tooth and nail to sweep this festering atrocity under the rug (so much for "the most open and transparent administration in history").
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
ATF Gunwalker: Who at the White House knew?
cbsnews.com ^ | 2 September, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
Posted on September 3, 2011 8:25:11 AM EDT by marktwain
CBS News has obtained a series of emails that show the White House had more information on ATF's controversial Fast and Furious operation than previously disclosed. But administration officials insists nobody at the White House knew specifically that ATF was allowing guns to "walk" into the hands of suspected gun traffickers for Mexican drug cartels.
ATF allegedly allowed more than two thousand assault rifles and other weapons to fall into the hands of suspects from late fall of 2009 through 2010.
The emails indicate three White House officials were briefed on gun trafficking efforts that included Fast and Furious. The officials are Kevin O'Reilly, then-director of North American Affairs, now assigned to the State Department; Dan Restrepo, senior Latin American advisory; and Greg Gatjanis, a national security official.
The White House officials were provided information on Fast and Furious and other border gun trafficking efforts through what an administration source calls "back channels" by ATF's then-Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix Bill Newell. "...don't want ATF HQ to find out, especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)," Newell wrote in an email to the White House's O'Reilly on July 28, 2010. Newell has since been transferred out of that post.
An administration source describes the emails as colleagues sharing information about a gun trafficking initiative. On July 28, 2010 O'Reilly emails Newell: "Just an informal 'how's it going?" Newell replied by reporting good progress in efforts to stop gun trafficking to Mexico, and gave specific anecdotes. "This is great; very informative," O'Reilly replies.
In another email to O'Reilly at the White House on Aug. 18, 2010, Newell expresses frustration with the US Attorney's request to have agents in trafficking cases "physically inspect the firearms (that turn up) in Mexico... to show the jury that (it) was part of a trafficking scheme." Newell complains, "Other districts don't require this but hey it's Arizona." Newell went on to explain the difficulties in getting Mexico to cooperate on its end. "...it won't take many more times of having doors slammed in (agent's) faces by the Mexicans before they give up..." The US Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke resigned this week. His lead prosecutor in Phoenix who had advised ATF on Fast and Furious has been moved out of the criminal division.
The emails taken alone neither prove nor disprove whether White House officials knew that ATF was monitoring as weapons were sold to suspected gun traffickers, then let on the street without interdiction. However, an administration source vehemently denies anybody at the White House knew the controversial tactic known as "letting guns walk," was being used. "These e-mails exchanges show nothing more than an effort to give local color to a policy initiative that was designed to give more resources to help with the border problem. They don't even contain the name 'Fast and Furious' until February 2011." The administration official adds: "The emails validate what has been said previously, which is no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk.."
The three email chains showing ATF made contact with White House officials are from: July 28- Aug. 11, 2010; Aug. 18, 2010; and Feb. 11, 2011. The third chain happened after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona. Two weapons ATF allegedly let "walk" were found at the murder scene. That case is not referenced in the emails. The administration has not said whether the emails represent the only written White House communications on the case.
The email chains indicate there were also phone conversations between ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell and the White House's Kevin O'Reilly. The content of those conversations has not been disclosed.
Correction: In an earlier version of this report, CBS News reported that an administration official claimed certain emails weren't related to Fast and Furious, then later acknowledged they probably were. In fact, the official did not change his representation: the emails discussed were two different sets of emails.
-
Newest 'Project Gunwalker' revelations highlight need for special prosecutor
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 2 September, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
Posted on September 3, 2011 8:50:44 AM EDT by marktwain
As National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman, and Sipsey Street Irregular Mike Vanderboegh have been covering, compelling new evidence strongly points to a deliberate cover-up of the "Gunwalker" scandal, involving at least the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) and the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona. The (very) short version is that emails between the BATFE Phoenix office and the U.S. Attorney's Arizona office openly discuss said cover-up.
Stonewalling and cover-ups have been the hallmarks of the Obama administration's response to every attempt to get to the bottom of the Gunwalker scandal. From sending hundreds of pages of completely redacted documents in response to subpoenas, to tampering with witnesses, to recruiting friendly mass media outlets to smear congressional investigators, the administration has fought tooth and nail to sweep this festering atrocity under the rug (so much for "the most open and transparent administration in history").
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
ATF Gunwalker: Who at the White House knew?
cbsnews.com ^ | 2 September, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
Posted on September 3, 2011 8:25:11 AM EDT by marktwain
CBS News has obtained a series of emails that show the White House had more information on ATF's controversial Fast and Furious operation than previously disclosed. But administration officials insists nobody at the White House knew specifically that ATF was allowing guns to "walk" into the hands of suspected gun traffickers for Mexican drug cartels.
ATF allegedly allowed more than two thousand assault rifles and other weapons to fall into the hands of suspects from late fall of 2009 through 2010.
The emails indicate three White House officials were briefed on gun trafficking efforts that included Fast and Furious. The officials are Kevin O'Reilly, then-director of North American Affairs, now assigned to the State Department; Dan Restrepo, senior Latin American advisory; and Greg Gatjanis, a national security official.
The White House officials were provided information on Fast and Furious and other border gun trafficking efforts through what an administration source calls "back channels" by ATF's then-Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix Bill Newell. "...don't want ATF HQ to find out, especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)," Newell wrote in an email to the White House's O'Reilly on July 28, 2010. Newell has since been transferred out of that post.
An administration source describes the emails as colleagues sharing information about a gun trafficking initiative. On July 28, 2010 O'Reilly emails Newell: "Just an informal 'how's it going?" Newell replied by reporting good progress in efforts to stop gun trafficking to Mexico, and gave specific anecdotes. "This is great; very informative," O'Reilly replies.
In another email to O'Reilly at the White House on Aug. 18, 2010, Newell expresses frustration with the US Attorney's request to have agents in trafficking cases "physically inspect the firearms (that turn up) in Mexico... to show the jury that (it) was part of a trafficking scheme." Newell complains, "Other districts don't require this but hey it's Arizona." Newell went on to explain the difficulties in getting Mexico to cooperate on its end. "...it won't take many more times of having doors slammed in (agent's) faces by the Mexicans before they give up..." The US Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke resigned this week. His lead prosecutor in Phoenix who had advised ATF on Fast and Furious has been moved out of the criminal division.
The emails taken alone neither prove nor disprove whether White House officials knew that ATF was monitoring as weapons were sold to suspected gun traffickers, then let on the street without interdiction. However, an administration source vehemently denies anybody at the White House knew the controversial tactic known as "letting guns walk," was being used. "These e-mails exchanges show nothing more than an effort to give local color to a policy initiative that was designed to give more resources to help with the border problem. They don't even contain the name 'Fast and Furious' until February 2011." The administration official adds: "The emails validate what has been said previously, which is no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk.."
The three email chains showing ATF made contact with White House officials are from: July 28- Aug. 11, 2010; Aug. 18, 2010; and Feb. 11, 2011. The third chain happened after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona. Two weapons ATF allegedly let "walk" were found at the murder scene. That case is not referenced in the emails. The administration has not said whether the emails represent the only written White House communications on the case.
The email chains indicate there were also phone conversations between ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell and the White House's Kevin O'Reilly. The content of those conversations has not been disclosed.
Correction: In an earlier version of this report, CBS News reported that an administration official claimed certain emails weren't related to Fast and Furious, then later acknowledged they probably were. In fact, the official did not change his representation: the emails discussed were two different sets of emails.
-
Codrea Exclusive: "Project Gangwalker?" More gunwalking -- in INDIANA!? FBI manipulated NICS system
sipseystreetirregulars ^ | 5 September, 2011 | Mike Vanderboegh
Posted on September 5, 2011 5:03:36 PM EDT by marktwain
"Exclusive Report: Documents indicate ATF, FBI allowed Indiana ‘crime gun’ sales."
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has acknowledged an Indiana dealer’s cooperation in conducting straw purchases at the direction of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Exclusive documents obtained by Gun Rights Examiner show the dealer cooperated with ATF by selling guns to straw purchasers, and that bureau management later asserted these guns were being traced to crimes.
From the confidential source providing the documents:
The dealer…was sent a "demand letter," based on the number of traces to him, which was retracted after his attorney pointed out they resulted from his cooperation with ATF. (Strangely, he got two voicemails from two different ATF people, both saying they were the head of the tracing operation).
Some of the straw men turned out to have felony convictions, the agents called the FBI background check system and fixed it so the transactions would be approved, something which may also have happened in Phoenix. (The attorney wasn't clear as to whether the guns were actually delivered to the gangs).
Fact is, if the the ATF was worried about "crime gun traces," they WERE in fact actually delivered to the gangs.
Fact is, the principal market for straw-purchased weapons in Indiana is Chicago.
Andrew Traver: What does he know about "Project Gangwalker" and when did he know it?
Fact is, Andrew Traver, Obama buddy and still declared heir-apparent to the ATF mini-throne would have known about any such gunwalking operation involving his area of operations. He would have had to have been briefed.
Fact is, David just broke an incredibly important story.
Fact is, once again, the new media beats the old media.
But this also highlights an email I received this morning from a retired military officer in the Northern Virginia reacting to my "Meetings, Part 5."
Mike -- another good "roadmap" for the congressional guys...
Let's hope they're already on the trails you're pointed out...
BTW -- The info my friend (REDACTED) sent on how convicted felons being allowed to buy guns (thx to FBI giving an "okay" on the data base search) is itself a felony -- this is a point, IMHO, worth hammering away at in damn near every piece. As (Redacted) pointed out, only two ways for a convicted felon to buy a gun: (1) Presidential pardon (Mark Rich can buy); and (2) get conviction overturned.
Everyone involved in approving sale to convicted felons has in fact committed a felony... we need an Independent Prosecutor...
Your call for expanding congressional actions to include Judiciary and Foreign Affairs is POINT ON!!!
Come on Obama tampons. Defend this.
-
Exclusive Report: Documents indicate ATF, FBI allowed Indiana ‘crime gun’ sales
Examiner.Com ^ | September 5, 2011 | David Codrea
Posted on September 5, 2011 12:07:56 PM EDT by PJ-Comix
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has acknowledged an Indiana dealer’s cooperation in conducting straw purchases at the direction of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Exclusive documents obtained by Gun Rights Examiner show the dealer cooperated with ATF by selling guns to straw purchasers, and that bureau management later asserted these guns were being traced to crimes.
From the confidential source providing the documents:
The dealer…was sent a "demand letter," based on the number of traces to him, which was retracted after his attorney pointed out they resulted from his cooperation with ATF. (Strangely, he got two voicemails from two different ATF people, both saying they were the head of the tracing operation).
Some of the straw men turned out to have felony convictions, the agents called the FBI background check system and fixed it so the transactions would be approved, something which may also have happened in Phoenix. (The attorney wasn't clear as to whether the guns were actually delivered to the gangs).
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Wow!
-
Three Fall Guys Won't Make Fast and Furious Go Away
Human Events ^ | 6 September, 2011 | A.W.R. Hawkins
On Tuesday, Aug. 30, Kenneth Melson, then-acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), was reassigned because of his involvement in the gunrunning operation known as Fast and Furious. At the same time, it was announced that Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney in Phoenix, was resigning his post due to his involvement in Fast and Furious, and that federal prosecutor Emory Hurley would be moved from “the criminal division in the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix” to the civil division.
In other words, after 2,500 guns were bought with illegal intent, transferred to various criminals of one type or another, and used to kill well over 1,100 people to date, the Department of Justice announces that they’re going to deal firmly with three people who were involved in the operation by reassigning them and/or accepting their resignations.
Wow. There are huge problems here.
For starters, it looks like these three are taking the fall for bigger fish higher up the administration food chain.
We know that ATF supervisors William McMahon and William Newell knew about Fast and Furious and were directly involved in it. And we also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Attorney General Eric Holder knew about Operation Gunrunner, which ultimately morphed into Fast and Furious. He bragged about his involvement in Gunrunner during a speech in Mexico on April 2, 2009.
Moreover, we know that one White House official was receiving regular updates on Fast and Furious. That official, Kevin O’Reilly, security director for North America, was briefed on the operation when it was taking place. And now we know that he wasn’t the only White House official being briefed. The Los Angeles Times has uncovered e-mails that show Dan Restrepo, senior Latin America adviser, and Greg Gatjanis, another White House national security official, were also kept in the loop.
Yet, the ATF plays dumb, Holder claims he didn’t know about Fast and Furious until the spring of 2011, and President Obama just grins and says neither he nor Holder directly authorized such an operation.
And after all this, we’re supposed to feel like our government has done a good job policing itself because two people got re-assigned and an attorney quit his job? (Moreover, the two ATF supervisors directly involved in Fast and Furious, McMahon and Newell, were actually promoted.)
Folks, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something isn’t right here. Even CBS News is starting to talk about the coverups involved with this operation.
This is all one big mess. It’s a tangled web of death, law infractions and destruction that only gets uglier the more one looks into it. And to make matters worse, the three people who appear to be taking the fall for the operation—Melson, Burke and Hurley—aren’t even facing criminal charges.
I bet there are a lot of people serving time in prison for far less serious gun-related crimes who wish they’d been able to resign or be reassigned instead of going to the big house.
-
Three Fall Guys Won't Make Fast and Furious Go Away
Human Events ^ | 6 September, 2011 | A.W.R. Hawkins
On Tuesday, Aug. 30, Kenneth Melson, then-acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), was reassigned because of his involvement in the gunrunning operation known as Fast and Furious. At the same time, it was announced that Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney in Phoenix, was resigning his post due to his involvement in Fast and Furious, and that federal prosecutor Emory Hurley would be moved from “the criminal division in the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix” to the civil division.
In other words, after 2,500 guns were bought with illegal intent, transferred to various criminals of one type or another, and used to kill well over 1,100 people to date, the Department of Justice announces that they’re going to deal firmly with three people who were involved in the operation by reassigning them and/or accepting their resignations.
Wow. There are huge problems here.
For starters, it looks like these three are taking the fall for bigger fish higher up the administration food chain.
We know that ATF supervisors William McMahon and William Newell knew about Fast and Furious and were directly involved in it. And we also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Attorney General Eric Holder knew about Operation Gunrunner, which ultimately morphed into Fast and Furious. He bragged about his involvement in Gunrunner during a speech in Mexico on April 2, 2009.
Moreover, we know that one White House official was receiving regular updates on Fast and Furious. That official, Kevin O’Reilly, security director for North America, was briefed on the operation when it was taking place. And now we know that he wasn’t the only White House official being briefed. The Los Angeles Times has uncovered e-mails that show Dan Restrepo, senior Latin America adviser, and Greg Gatjanis, another White House national security official, were also kept in the loop.
Yet, the ATF plays dumb, Holder claims he didn’t know about Fast and Furious until the spring of 2011, and President Obama just grins and says neither he nor Holder directly authorized such an operation.
And after all this, we’re supposed to feel like our government has done a good job policing itself because two people got re-assigned and an attorney quit his job? (Moreover, the two ATF supervisors directly involved in Fast and Furious, McMahon and Newell, were actually promoted.)
Folks, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something isn’t right here. Even CBS News is starting to talk about the coverups involved with this operation.
This is all one big mess. It’s a tangled web of death, law infractions and destruction that only gets uglier the more one looks into it. And to make matters worse, the three people who appear to be taking the fall for the operation—Melson, Burke and Hurley—aren’t even facing criminal charges.
I bet there are a lot of people serving time in prison for far less serious gun-related crimes who wish they’d been able to resign or be reassigned instead of going to the big house.
-
I am hearing this happened in Indiana too now!
-
I am hearing this happened in Indiana too now!
-
Hannity hosted an awesome show on this gun scandal last night. Holder really did lie thru his teeth.
-
Hannity hosted an awesome show on this gun scandal last night. Holder really did lie thru his teeth.
-
the ATF has been completely corrupt for the last 2 decades.
happened during clinton, bush, and now obama.
They don't answer to the president. Holder does what he is told.
-
the ATF has been completely corrupt for the last 2 decades.
happened during clinton, bush, and now obama.
They don't answer to the president. Holder does what he is told.
::) ::) ::)
Yeah - please show me where GWB made it his policy to use gun owners as proxies to put assault rifles in the hands of cartels.
-
Yeah - please show me where GWB made it his policy to use gun owners as proxies to put assault rifles in the hands of cartels.
Bush actually took the funds designed for fueling border war, and gave it to taleban warlords, remember ;) tens of billions of $ going missing, and "somehow" the insurgents got fed and armed for an extra ten years.
Remember how fricking hard it was for the US to quietly feed the afghan rebels (bin laden/tim, etc) in the mid 80s, against the russians? You're telling me with 20 years of better satellites and compelte air control - and we somehow "missed" the bad guys getting replenished?
Nope, cause we're the ones refueling them. bribing warlords knowing that's how they keep their men fighting. War is good for business. If you don't believe that, go sit on santa's lap, you're that blind.
-
Bush actually took the funds designed for fueling border war, and gave it to taleban warlords, remember ;) tens of billions of $ going missing, and "somehow" the insurgents got fed and armed for an extra ten years.
Remember how fricking hard it was for the US to quietly feed the afghan rebels (bin laden/tim, etc) in the mid 80s, against the russians? You're telling me with 20 years of better satellites and compelte air control - and we somehow "missed" the bad guys getting replenished?
Nope, cause we're the ones refueling them. bribing warlords knowing that's how they keep their men fighting. War is good for business. If you don't believe that, go sit on santa's lap, you're that blind.
spin as always.
I refer you to Skips' thread AGAIN!
-
thanks for not denying a single thing i wrote ;)
-
thanks for not denying a single thing i wrote ;)
When I saw that rambling CT laced mess of a post, I knew you had nothing.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Obama's DOJ Let Cartel Bombmaker Walk
Confederate Yankee ^ | September 6, 2011 | Bob Owens
Posted on September 6, 2011 7:11:21 PM EDT by Qbert
Jean Baptiste Kingery seems to be yet another thug that took advantage of the Obama Administration's criminal stimulus package for the southwest, building grenades and IEDs for the Sinaloa cartel.
So what did the Department of Justice do when they caught him. They released him free as a bird within hours.
Federal authorities are probing why the U.S. in 2010 let go an Arizona man accused of supplying grenades to a Mexican drug cartel, a case that played a role in the ouster last week of the nation's top firearms regulator and the U.S. attorney in Phoenix. U.S. officials said missteps in the case, which hasn't been previously disclosed, are being investigated by the Justice Department and Congress. Federal agents in 2009-10 at the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led the case against the suspect, who they believed was dealing grenades to cartels in Mexico. The case was overseen by prosecutors in the Arizona U.S. attorney's office, the U.S. officials said.
The Arizona U.S. attorney's office and the Phoenix ATF office are the Justice Department units behind another botched operation, called Fast and Furious, which has been the subject of intense congressional interest this year. The Fast and Furious program allowed suspected smugglers to buy about 2,000 firearms, some of which later turned up at drug-related crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S. Apparently the Obama Administration didn't think they were causing enough damage just running guns to Mexico, and so they released a bomb-builder and—against the pleading of ATF officials—so that he could flee to Mexico and resume building explosives.
When Mexican police finally caught up to Kingery they found enough material to construct 500 hand grenades, the iconic Shepard Fairey Obama "Hope" poster thumb-tacked to the plaster wall over his workbench.
I may have made up that last part.
The sad thing is that is is utterly believable.
-
Gunwalker Explodes into the Heartland (But NOT the Heartland MSM)
Pajamas Media ^ | September 6, 2011 | Bob Owens
Posted on September 6, 2011 6:36:21 PM EDT by PJ-Comix
If the reassignment of ATF officials in recent weeks and the abrupt resignation of U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke were attempts by the Department of Justice and the Obama administration to cover up the Gunwalker scandal, they have failed, miserably.
Now they are saddled by yet another claim of retaliation against a whistleblower and new revelations that gunwalking was far more lethal and widespread that originally thought.
David Codrea of the Examiner has been at the forefront of the investigation, and reveals that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and FBI — two of the agencies that played key rolls in Operation Fast and Furious — conducted a remarkably similar operation … in Indiana.
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
-
Source: ATF Gunwalker case to be transferred out of Arizona
By Sharyl Attkisson Topics News
1 Comment
Have Your Say
Email Story
Send to a Friend
Share This
Tell Your Friends
Tweet This
Tweet This
More
Share It
In a move that signals more trouble for the US Attorney's office in Arizona, sources tells CBS News the Department of Justice is transferring two controversial weapons cases and a murder case to other districts. The cases are the Fast and Furious "gunwalker" case, a major grenade case, and the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. "The Department of Justice is giving a no-confidence vote to the US Attorney's office in Arizona," says one law enforcement source.
Both weapons cases involve the trafficking to drug cartels in Mexico. In both instances, ATF agents accuse the lead prosecutor in Phoenix of wrongfully allowing suspects to remain on the street as they continued to traffic weapons without interdiction. The Justice Department did not confirm the case transfers, and provided no immediate comment.
A law enforcement source says Fast and Furious will now be prosecuted in San Diego instead of Phoenix. In that case, 20 suspects were charged last January with conspiracy, gun running and other charges. One suspect allegedly trafficked assault rifles found at the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. ATF allegedly let the suspect and weapons "walk" onto the street without interdiction a year before Terry was killed. ATF whistleblowers and Congressional investigators say the Arizona US Attorney's office attempted to conceal the connection between Fast and Furious and Terry's death, because people might fault them for letting the weapons "walk" and the suspect remain on the street until Terry was shot. Terry's murder case, under the FBI, will also be moved from Phoenix to San Diego, sources told CBS News.
In the grenade case, suspect Jean Baptise Kingery was arrested last week in Mexico. Mexican authorities said he had enough components to make 500 grenades, and allegedly transported materials from the US. Kingery was arrested in Arizona more than a year ago but let back on the street without being charged. That's despite that he allegedly confessed to operating a factory that produced explosive devices made from US supplies for drug cartels.
The lead ATF agent in the investigation, Pete Forcelli, told Congressional investigators he objected vehemently to Kingery's release last year, but was overruled by the US Attorney's office. Forcelli was a whistleblower to Congress in the Fast and Furious gunwalking investigation. He had no comment today except to say he'll "gladly discuss it under oath before a Congressional committee." Officials say they don't know how many grenades Kingery allegedly could have made in the year since his US release, before his arrest in Mexico last week. The Kingery case has been moved from Phoenix to the US Attorney's office in Los Angeles.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Arizona US Attorney's office acknowledged Kingery was freed in 2010, but said prosecutors planned to follow the case and possibly bring charges later. The Journal says prosecutors claimed some inside ATF also wanted Kingery freed at the time to make him an informant, but that Kingery disappeared.
For months, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) argued it's a conflict of interest for the US Attorney's office in Arizona to prosecute Fast and Furious, because whistleblowers implicated the US Attorney Dennis Burke and his lead prosecutor on Fast and Furious, Emory Hurley, in alleged poor judgment and possible misconduct
Boom. Silence from team tampon.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Melson Out, Holder Digs In: 1700+ Violations of the Arms Export Control Act?
Foreign Policy Association ^ | Sept. 5, 2011 | Kathleen Millar |
Posted on September 6, 2011 10:11:55 PM EDT by thouworm
Of course, there were important differences between Iran-Contra and Fast and Furious, the most obvious being that none of the guns manufactured in the US and shipped to Iran were used to kill Americans. A slim moral distinction, perhaps, but one I believe that speaks powerfully to critics who will still argue that Fast and Furious will never approximate Iran-Contra in scope or intent.
If we look at the consequences of the two scandals, Fast and Furious stands in a league of its own. Ask the family of slain US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Let’s get to the bottom of this ATF scandal. Stop the games, the professional executions, the subterfuge, the diversionary strategies, and the disinformation that aims to distract the press from the real story.
Administration officials can end this controversy right now. If DOJ/ATF did not break the law, if that agency did obtain exemptions to the Export Control Act, the Department of State will have that information at the ready.
All we have to do is ask.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: armsexportcontralact; fastandfurious; gunwalker; irancontra; Click to Add Keyword
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
Ok. Now we’re into it.
Administration top dogs have thrown ATF Director Ken Melson and US Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke under the truck.In firefighting, they call it a ‘controlled burn,’ torching a perimeter of just enough man-made flame to meet and beat the advance of a wildfire impervious to less-drastic solutions.
Good luck, gentlemen.
The House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the DOJ/ATF gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious is roaring through the halls of Congress, and despite DOJ’s efforts to spin the story every which way but up, Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) are on a trail insiders whisper may lead investigators all the way to the top.
Melson, who brought his own attorney with him when he first testified before the House Oversight Committee over the July 4th holiday, continues to allege that DOJ ‘planted’ rumors of his impending resignation in the press prior to that date to force the ATF Director’s hand, and that the present scapegoat strategy to jettison the ATF Director and several US Attorneys closely linked to Fast and Furious is more of the same: a last ditch attempt to stop the House Oversight Committee investigation before Congress homes in on political appointees, who, Melson suggests, devised and implemented Operation Fast and Furious at the behest of higher-ups in the Obama Administration.
Controlled burn: can DOJ contain the damage?
Note to Issa’s Committee
Consider the benefits if someone armed with a Forthwith Subpeona had been waiting to meet Melson on his way out of the building. Just because the man’s been reassigned doesn’t mean he can’t testify before a Grand Jury.
If investigators determine that Fast and Furious was intended to be something other than a bona fide law enforcement operation—an under-the-radar political ploy, for instance, designed to shore up Mexico’s claims that US gun dealers have been responsible for fueling Mexico’s gang wars and to lend support to the push for stronger gun control in the US—then Fast and Furious will stand beside the Iran-Contra scandal as a politically inspired effort devised by officials within the US government to export weapons illegally, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), to criminal actors in Mexico.
The Oversight Committee indicates DOJ/ATF officials knew from the beginning there was a high probability the guns ATF let ‘walk’ would fall into the hands of cartel gunmen who would use those guns, not just to murder Mexican nationals, but to attack and kill US citizens as well.
Guns supplied to Mexican gangs have been linked to the killings of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent Jaime Zapata. Just this week, CBS broke a story about an early ‘cover-up‘ on the part of ATF officials and the US Attorney’s Office in Arizona. According to a report filed by Sharyl Attkisson, Assistant US Attorney Emory Hurley, who was at that time simultaneously investigating the Terry shooting and Fast and Furious, chose to conceal the fact that the weapon used in Terry’s murder was one sent across the border via ATF’s gun-walking operation.
Investigators have also linked guns trafficked through the ATF Operation to a number of additional crimes committed in the US; reports supplied to the Committee indicate there was ‘panic’ within ATF immediately after the attack on Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), triggered by concern that the weapon used to gun down Giffords might have been one supplied through Fast and Furious.
Export Control Act
The Arms Export Control Act is the same law that brought down the architects of Iran-Contra, officials who facilitated the illegal sales of weapons to Iran and to Nicaraguan rebels (Contras) during the Reagan Administration.
It’s a critical piece of legislation, especially for the ordinary American, who’s usually the one wearing the boots when they hit the ground in bad places. Americans have a hard time with the notion that the bullets, guns, missiles, tanks, and other military hardware the enemy may be using to kill their sons and daughters in the military may have been ‘made in the USA.’
Here’s how it’s supposed to work. The Arms Export Control Act prohibits US arms merchants and defense manufacturers from selling lethal weapons and sensitive or dual-use technology to people who may want to use those weapons and technology to fire back at US citizens—at the military, law enforcement agents, and more and more often, a lot of just plain Americans who routinely miss those signs 80 miles inland on the US side of the Mexico-Arizona border warning tourists to go no further–Mexican gunmen on the prowl.
US weapons cannot be sold and shipped to countries that support terrorism, or nations, states, groups, or other entities deemed unfriendly to the United States.
Los Zetas and US weapons
I’d say Mexican cartels, especially the violent assassination squads that comprise Los Zetas, fall into that category, wouldn’t you?
Even more importantly, the Arms Export Control Act is, in fact, a servant to Article Three of the United States Constitution, which defines the act of selling weapons to those who would ‘levy war against the United States’ or ‘giving aid and comfort to our enemies’ as treason. No kidding. Treason.
If a US law enforcement agency wants to involve itself in the sale of weapons purchased from US gun dealers for export purposes–sales that may be part of an legitimate enforcement or military operation–that agency, let’s say ATF, must apply to the State Department for an exemption from the licensing requirements normally imposed on the commercial sale and export of such weapons. If an enforcement agency or military entity intent on running a covert op involving the export of lethal weapons does not obtain the necessary exemptions from State, for–listen carefully–each weapon or bundle of weapons purchased, that agency or military purchaser has committed a crime. Consider. ATF sent more than 1700 weapons across the border into Mexico–that could translate into 1700+ violations of the Arms Export Control Act.
When arms are purchased as part of a commercial deal from US manufacturers for shipment overseas–when the sale is not part of a law enforcement or military operation–the purchasing agent must apply to State for both a license and an End-User Certificate (EUC). If the EUC is obtained as part of a fraudulent deal, i.e., the guns were never meant to go where the purchaser said they were going, then the export license is automatically deemed null and void. If a commercial buyer does not obtain an export license from State as well as a bona fide EUC, that buyer has committed a crime.
Did ATF violate the Arms Export Control Act?
But let’s give the devil his due, and suppose that Fast and Furious was, in fact, conceived as a legitimate law enforcement operation: the agency, which intended to facilitate the sale of guns from US dealers to agency informants or ATF ‘ringers,’ chosen to act as straw buyers, would have factored in the need to obtain exemptions from the licensing requirements mandated by the State Department, which has oversight for the Arms Export Control Act.
But even before State issued those exemptions to ATF, DOJ/ATF would have had to demonstrate operational accountability, convincing State Department officials and other relevant agencies that Fast and Furious reflected solid planning, measurable objectives, and an endgame which guaranteed that none of the weapons in question would go missing or be used in the commission of crimes.
As we know, that’s not what happened with Fast and Furious.
Ice Agent Jaime Zapata killing linked to Fast and Furious
Congressional investigators tell us that from the inception of the operation, there was no strategy to trace or tag the weapons DOJ/ATF officials knew would cross illegally into Mexico, and no plan to interdict in an alternative manner, or to prevent thousands of deadly fully-functional weapons from disappearing without a trace once they moved across the US-Mexico border.
Instead, federal agents merely entered the serial numbers of the weapons sold to straw buyers (at ATF’s urging) into their database, and went back to the office to wait until Mexican, or US authorities returned these same weapons, by then used in the commission of a crime or a killing, to ATF.
ATF agents had no way of knowing to whom or where those weapons had traveled once they had crossed into Mexico, or who used any specific weapon to commit a crime or homicide. All ATF was able to do, and perhaps expected to do, was count the number of guns they knew for certain (because ATF had arranged the sale) had been purchased at gun shops along the US side of the border.
Does this sound like a gun-tracing operation that went bad? Or a clandestine gun-running operation whose purpose was to retrieve, mostly from Mexican authorities, piles of ‘illegally purchased and trafficked’ AK-47s and other lethal weapons ATF and DOJ could point to as solid evidence that the US has, as Calderon keeps insisting, been responsible for fueling the violence that’s already killed 40,000 Mexican civilians? Was the US responsible for the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent Jaime Zapata?
Who approved the ATF operation?
Ask yourself this question: who ok’d Fast and Furious? What are the chances that an interagency review board, the kind to which every enforcement agency that wants to run a cross-border covert operation goes to for approval, would give a thumbs-up to a plan to smuggle thousands of military-grade weapons into Mexico when there were no provisions in that plan to interdict, or track/trace, or somehow retrieve those guns before they could be used to kill innocent civilians?
Zero.
Why would other law enforcement/intelligence agencies put their heads on the block for a plan that promised to do nothing but send weapons to killers in Mexico and provide the Administration with a tally, after the fact, that proved how deeply involved the US had become in Mexico’s murderous gang wars?
Let’s think about who would have had representatives sitting on this kind of inter-agency review board, ready to yea or nay the ATF operation? DOJ and ATF, obviously. DHS and ICE—the latter has authority for investigating violations of the Export Control Act. Then DEA, the FBI, and the State Department—since State would have had to issue exemptions re the Export Control Act to allow ATF to move the guns into Mexico. DOD? NSA? CIA? Sometimes.
Why so many players?
The easy answer is coordination. But here’s the rest of the story . . .
First, a covert operation involving the trafficking of weapons across the US-Mexico border falls within ICE’s jurisdiction, not ATF’s.
You don’t steal turf in federal law enforcement and walk away unscathed.
If ATF wanted to ‘own’ Fast and Furious, it would have had to strike that deal with ICE and then work out the potential for jurisdictional ‘overlap’ with other enforcement and intelligence agencies as well. All of it before, not after, the operation began.
Let’s say that didn’t happen. No coordination with DHS/ICE. No green light re Fast and Furious from an interagency review board. Bad judgement. Bad form. Bordering on the illegal.
But not a crime.
Big dog in the fight: US Department of State
Did State provide ATF with exemptions to Arms Control Act?
The State Department had, and still has, the really big dog in this fight—that’s why it would have sent a department rep to a review board meeting re Fast and Furious. Play fast and loose with State, and it is, indeed, a crime. A serious one.
It was ATF’s job to make sure State knew it was engineering shipments of AK-47s and .50 cal rifles across the border and ATF’s responsibility under the law to obtain exemptions from State’s licensing requirements to send these guns south. To obtain these exemptions to the Arms Export Control Act, officials at DOJ, ATF’s parent agency, would have had to send a letter or formal request to State.
The State Department would have a copy of that letter or request in its files today, and on it would be the signature/s, no doubt, of one or more of the top three officials at DOJ–the Deputy Assistant Attorney for the Criminal Division, the Deputy Attorney General, or the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder. It takes horsepower to obtain authorization to send guns to Mexico.
So, where is that letter, that request for exemptions? Let’s take ATF off the hook.
The State Department isn’t talking, and the media doesn’t yet seem to understand how deafening that silence is.
ATF is talking, but their spin doctors are clinging desperately to a single message: ‘botched operation.’ Not good, but infinitely preferable to admitting Fast and Furious might have been a criminal endeavor, a deliberate effort to circumvent US law and use a US law enforcement agency to pursue political, as opposed to operational, objectives.
Plead guilty to a lesser crime, and cop a plea.
‘Botched operations’ are about ineptitude, not criminality. But ‘botched operations’ start out with good intentions and then go south. Fast and Furious, its intentions, its motive, seems to be about one thing only: supplying arms to Mexican gangs. No tag. No bag.
Listen. Melson, Burke and a slew of carefully selected US Attorneys haven’t been selected for ‘reassignment’ because ATF failed to play well with others, but because the folks who should know do know that an operation launched without the collective approval of an inter-agency law enforcement/intelligence panel was also an operation that engineered the sale and export of thousands of lethal weapons into Mexico in violation of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA)—the law that lends those big sharp teeth, even today, to Article Three of the United States Constitution.
And no one is above the law. Not ATF. Not the Attorney General of the United States. Not the Secretary of State or the President of the United States. You know who said that? Ronald Reagan, when he went on national television to admit his Administration did, in fact, “own Iran-Contra.”
Reagan takes ownership of Iran-Contra
But here’s the problem. When you start drawing comparisons between Fast and Furious and Iran-Contra, the issue ‘gets political.’ Hot. Really. Check out the blogosphere. Not a pretty picture.
One blogger writes that Fast and Furious will never become for the present Administration what Iran-Contra was to Reagan or Watergate was to Nixon. Why? He says the American people ‘love’ Obama,’ while Nixon was ‘hated.’
A progressive blogger, and yes, even a Democratic Congresswoman, contend that any questions about possible wrongdoing directed toward the Administration are rooted in racism. And then there are the media-skeptics, who accuse writers like myself of stepping over the line with hyperbolic comparisons which are themselves only sub rosa attacks on Obama and his appointees. Stop.
It’s a good thing to support our leaders, to rally behind policies and ideas we think will benefit our country. It’s also a good thing to hold passionate opinions about political positions that we believe will shape our future for better or worse.
But here is the point, the crux of the matter now before us: it is fine to love one’s president, one’s leaders, one’s beliefs, but it is imperative, in this country, to love the law more. Forced resignations, diversionary political rationales, debates about the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law—none of this speaks to the central question. Did ATF, under advisement of its political administrators, break the laws of the United States of America?
Iran-Contra was a criminal enterprise undertaken by officials within a Republican administration–that investigation went to the top and resulted in criminal indictments. The parallels between that scandal and ATF’s Fast and Furious are hard to ignore:
Administration officials devised Iran-Contra in clear violation of the Export Control Act, a law constructed to prevent US manufactured weapons from being sold to the enemies of the US (AECA covered arms shipments to Iran; the Boland Amendment covered the use of proceeds from arms sales forwarded to the Contras)—it appears this may be the case with Fast and Furious as well.
Administration officials facilitating the shipment of arms to Iran failed to obtain licensing exemptions from the State Department—no evidence has materialized that ATF sought or obtained exemptions from State’s licensing requirement before facilitating the shipment of arms, via the ATF ‘undercover operation’ tagged Fast and Furious to Mexico.
The architects of Iran-Contra dissembled to Congress—certainly DOJ/ATF obfuscated with an intent to mislead and deceive. Even Attorney General Eric Holder claims he knew none of the details regarding ATF’s gun-running operation until he was informed that a weapon trafficked via that operation had been used to kill US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Brian Terry's family attend funeral of slain Border Patrol Agent
Of course, there were important differences between Iran-Contra and Fast and Furious, the most obvious being that none of the guns manufactured in the US and shipped to Iran were used to kill Americans. A slim moral distinction, perhaps, but one I believe that speaks powerfully to critics who will still argue that Fast and Furious will never approximate Iran-Contra in scope or intent. If we look at the consequences of the two scandals, Fast and Furious stands in a league of its own. Ask the family of slain US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Let’s get to the bottom of this ATF scandal. Stop the games, the professional executions, the subterfuge, the diversionary strategies, and the disinformation that aims to distract the press from the real story.
Administration officials can end this controversy right now. If DOJ/ATF did not break the law, if that agency did obtain exemptions to the Export Control Act, the Department of State will have that information at the ready.
All we have to do is ask.
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/09/06/fast-and-furious-update-project-grenade walker
-
Gunwalker Explodes into the Heartland (But NOT the Heartland MSM)
wait a second - I watched an amazing piece on FOX last night.
Fox isn't mainstream media now?
-
wait a second - I watched an amazing piece on FOX last night.
Fox isn't mainstream media now?
hannity did do a good job on this.
-
hannity did do a good job on this.
i loved it. holder = criminal.
Why aren't the house repubs filing charges - and making the senate outright shoot it down, to bring it to nat'l attention?
-
i loved it. holder = criminal.
Why aren't the house repubs filing charges - and making the senate outright shoot it down, to bring it to nat'l attention?
Issa is doing what he can w grassley, but Reid won't go near this.
-
i loved it. holder = criminal.
Why aren't the house repubs filing charges - and making the senate outright shoot it down, to bring it to nat'l attention?
Congress can file criminal charges?
It's early in the course of events for this and the DOJ/President Downgrade are doing everything they can to cover this up. Give it some time.
-
Didn't a demi congress run that investigation on clinton? where's ken starr?
-
Didn't a demi congress run that investigation on clinton? where's ken starr?
GOP is doing this perfectly. getting enough info out there, let it fester, then call for an IP.
-
Botched U.S. Gun Smuggling Operation Let Grenades, IEDs 'Walk' Into Mexico
Business Insider ^ | Sep. 6, 2011 | Grace Wyler
Posted on September 7, 2011 10:14:34 AM EDT by Qbert
Amid brewing controversy over the ATF's botched Fast and Furious gunrunning operation comes new allegations that the Department of Justice also let off an Arizona man suspected of supplying grenades to Mexico's drug cartels.
The WSJ reports today that federal authorities are now investigating why the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix — the same office that oversaw Fast and Furious — released Jean Baptiste Kingery after he confessed to providing military-style weapons to the now-defunct La Familia Michoacana drug cartel.
Kingery, who was arrested and released in June 2010, confessed to manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using grenade components from the U.S. He also admitted to helping the cartel convert semi-automatic rifles into machine guns. Mexican criminal organizations are increasingly using these military-style weapons as the cartels' escalate their wars against the government and one another.
Despite Kingery's confession, and over loud protestations from the arresting ATF officers, the U.S. Attorney's office let Kingery go within hours of his arrest.
Kingery's release is now the subject of an internal probe by the DOJ inspector general. The findings in the DOJ probe were a major catalyst in the recent staff shakeup that ousted Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennie Burke and Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson from their posts.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Four more years!
-
Skip to comments.
Mexico Says U.S. Man Smuggled Grenade Parts for Sinaloa
foxnews.com ^ | Sept 6 2011 | Associated Press
Posted on September 7, 2011 1:38:09 AM EDT by NoLibZone
Police have arrested a U.S. man for smuggling American grenade parts into Mexico for use by the Sinaloa cartel, and a U.S. official said the case has now been included in investigations into flawed law enforcement operations aimed at gun-trafficking networks on the Mexican border.
The arrest of a man who Mexican police identified as Jean Baptiste Kingery has provided details on a network that allegedly supplied hundreds of hand grenades to Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel. Such grenades have been blamed in the injuries or deaths of dozens of civilians in Mexico, where grenades have been tossed into public squares, streets, bars and nightclubs. A U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation, known as Fast and Furious, was designed to track small-time gun buyers at several Phoenix-area gun shops up the chain to make cases against major weapons traffickers. But a congressional investigation says ATF agents of lost track of about 1,400 of the more than 2,000 guns whose purchase they had watched.
In Washington D.C., Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the department's inspector general has expanded that investigation to include the Kingery case.
"The department is aware of concerns raised" about the Kingery case "and has been looking into it," said Schmaler. "We have notified Congress about this operation and offered to brief them on it."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/06/mexico-says-us-man-smuggled-grenade-parts-for-sinaloa-cartel/#ixzz1XF4LfC90
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Wow
-
Federal LEO advocacy group charges retaliation for Gunwalker testimony
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 5 September, 2011 | David Codrea
Posted on September 7, 2011 7:18:52 AM EDT by marktwain
Project Bombwalker? Were grenade/IED components allowed to ‘walk’ to cartels?
Senator Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa were sent a letter last Wednesday by Luciano Cerasi, Associate General Counsel, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, detailing allegations of whistleblower retaliations against Peter J. Forcelli, Group Supervisor, ATF, by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona and the Department of Justice Office of Deputy Attorney General as a result of testimony he gave on June 15. Forcelli was one of the individuals who appeared before the second House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing into “Project Gunwalker,” where he testified “I believe that these firearms will continue to turn up at crime scenes, on both sides of the border, for years to come.”
This fear was corroborated in another letter sent Wednesday from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he acknowledged “ATF advises that, as of August 16, 2011, it has identified twenty-one additional firearms associated with Operation Fast and Furious that were recovered in Mexico and reportedly were associated with violent crimes.”
Included in Forcelli’s June testimony were several serious allegations regarding the conduct and decisions of Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley, author of a memo reported last Thursday in this column advising then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Dennis Burke, of the link between alleged straw purchaser Jaime Avila and guns found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. These departures from “the most basic law enforcement techniques” by AUSA Hurley were referenced in a joint letter issued last Thursday by Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Four more years!
-
A White House 'Gunrunner'?
IBD ^ | 9/7/2011 | Editor
The Law: Operation Gunwalker, the rogue ATF operation to arm Mexico's cartels, extends now to three White House officials. A bell goes off with the one named Dan Restrepo.
Late last Friday, CBS News and the Los Angeles Times almost buried the news that Restrepo, the National Security Council's top man for Latin America, and two other officials, were in on ATF memos from the Gunwalker operation called "Fast and Furious."
That blows apart White House claims that it had no idea the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was encouraging frontmen for Mexico's cartels to buy weapons from U.S. gun dealers — to "trace" them afterward.
Some 2,000 U.S. guns were sold in Gunwalker but simply disappeared — until they turned up at massacres in Mexico and at the murder scenes of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata.
But outgoing ATF acting director Ken Melson and others who've been the fall guys in this scandal darkly hint that their orders came from the White House, and domestic critics think Gunwalker can only be explained as a White House bid to boost support for gun control. Restrepo's involvement distinctly raises both possibilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
-
ATF Death Watch 75: ATF-Enabled Indiana Guns Went to Chicago Gangs
Posted on September 7, 2011 by Robert Farago
I just got off the blower with Brent R. Weil [above] 0f Kightlinger and Gray, LLP. The Evansville, Indiana lawyer represents the [as yet unnamed] gun store that sold firearms to ATF-enabled straw purchasers. “The ATF told my client to let the sales go through,” Mr. Weil told TTAG. “He later told me that the guns went to Chicago gangs.” In one case, a straw purchaser failed to pass the FBI’s NICS [National Instant Check System] background check . . .
The dealer called an ATF agent in the parking lot; the agent told the dealer to let the sale go through. The ATF arrested the so-called straw purchaser after he walked out the door. In every other instance, however, the ATF did not apprehend the buyers immediately after purchase.
In one case, a buyer and his associate left the store and smashed their vehicle into a police car on their way out. (Seriously.) The driver was charged with the traffic incident, but allowed to keep the guns and proceed. Whether or not the ATF kept tabs on the guns after that, or if guns were used in subsequent crimes, is unknown.
Mr. Weil also threw some cold water on the theory that Mexican cartel members in Indiana purchased the guns with the ATF’s blessing as part of an anti-Los Zetas quid pro quo. “The buyers were black and caucasian,” Weil said. Also, the gun store in question initiated the contact with the ATF.
The new information doesn’t rule out the possibility that the Indiana gun store “sting” involved criminals affiliated with the Sinaloa or La Familia cartels (whom the ATF armed during Operation Fast and Furious). But that possibility seems a whole lot less likely.
Nonetheless, the Indiana intel reveals that the ATF was allowing known criminals to purchase firearms. The crucial question: did they lose track of the guns accidentally on purpose, as they did during Operation Fast and Furious?
And if the guns purchased in Evansville ended up in The Windy City, the ATF’s heir apparent—Chi-town Bureau Chief Andrew Traver—must have known about the policy. What did Andy know and when did he know it?
As Ralph points out below, we’re still left wondering about the scope, scale and final destination of all ATF-enabled firearms. How many vicious thugs bought firearms with the ATF’s help? How many of those were recovered and/or recovered from crime scenes?
Meanwhile, rumors are swirling that the Carson City killer used an ATF-enabled AK-47 during his murderous rampage. The attacker, Eduardo Sencion, was Mexican-born (with an American passport) with no criminal record.
There’s no firm evidence establishing linking Sencion with the ATF. The fact that anyone would even think of that possibility reveals the corrosive effect of the ATF on the public’s respect for the federal government and the primacy of the rule of law. It’s yet another reason to deep-six the ATF—after we find out what they’ve been doing with our tax money.
http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/09/robert-farago/atf-death-watch-75-atf-enabled-indiana-guns-went-to-chicago-gangs
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Attorney General Eric Holder seeks distance from gun sting
Yahoo ^ | 9/7/11 | Jeremy Pelofsky - Reuters
Posted on September 7, 2011 10:00:40 PM EDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday sought to distance himself and other senior Justice Department officials from a botched operation to track guns smuggled to Mexican drug cartels, saying they were not involved.
The Obama administration has been under scrutiny after revelations that as many as 2,000 guns were sold to suspected gun traffickers, not properly tracked and ended up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico.
The operation, dubbed "Fast and Furious", was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona. Congressional Republicans have questioned who approved it and whether senior Justice Department officials were involved.
"The notion that somehow or other that this thing reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that, at this point, I don't think is supported by the facts," Holder told reporters.
The botched operation already has claimed the jobs of Ken Melson, acting director of the ATF, .. and the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, Dennis Burke, who resigned abruptly last week.
ATF officials and federal prosecutors had hoped the operation would help them follow the guns to cartel leaders. But ATF agents did not witness many of the purchases or track many of the guns after the initial purchaser resold them.
Holder questioned whether the congressional probe, ... was politically motivated.
He admitted it was a "flawed enforcement effort," but said, "my hope would be that Congress will conduct an investigation that is factually based and not marred with politics."
...
Two guns from the operation were found at the scene where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead in a shootout with illegal immigrants last December.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
-
GOP is doing this perfectly. getting enough info out there, let it fester, then call for an IP.
LOL! How many months is it best to hold off an investigation? LMAO...
this thread started in Feb... 7 months later, there is still nothing doing on an investigation.
Obama will be able to pause shit til after the election, if it ever happens.
LOL @ giving props to the repubs for 'biding their time'.
-
Holder Denies Prior Knowledge of 'Fast and Furious'
FOX ^ | 09/07/11 | Mike Levine
The head of the U.S. Justice Department launched his strongest personal defense yet in the growing furor over Operation Fast and Furious, the controversial sting targeting Mexican drug cartels and American gunrunners.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said for the first time that not only he but also other higher-ups at the Justice Department were not aware of the operation as it was being carried out. Holder also suggested politics could be a driving force behind Republican lawmakers' forceful inquiries into the matter.
"The notion that somehow or other this thing reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that. ... I don't think is supported by the facts," Holder told reporters at an unrelated press conference in Washington. "It's kind of something I think certain members of Congress would like to see, the notion that somehow or other high-level people in the department were involved. As I said, I don't think that is going to be shown to be the case -- which doesn't mean that the mistakes were not serious."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Holder Denies Prior Knowledge of 'Fast and Furious'
FOX ^ | 09/07/11 | Mike Levine
--------------------------------------------------------
an outright lie.
Unless the repubs start an investigation, they're complicit in these crimes and the cover up.
your theory that they're being smart by 'letting it marinate' is insanity.
-
an outright lie.
Unless the repubs start an investigation, they're complicit in these crimes and the cover up.
your theory that they're being smart by 'letting it marinate' is insanity.
They are doing it in the house of reps!
Reid wont start an investigation because is covering for obama. Again - do facts and reality ever mean anything to you?
-
They are doing it in the house of reps!
link. who is the prosecutor?
-
link. who is the prosecutor?
Are you even following this?
-
Are you even following this?
nope. give me the 10 second primer. there is so much drama-laden whining mixed in with fact, I can't folllow it. When you give me facts of the case in one post, then "they won't prosecute it cause it would lead to the collapse of the govt" in another post, I just kinda tune out.
I bet others do the same.
-
Fourth Weapon Linked to 'Fast and Furious' Found at Violent Arizona Crime Scene
Foxnews ^
Posted on September 8, 2011 8:54:19 PM EDT by Red in Blue PA
PHOENIX – Authorities confirm two weapons tied to the ATF's failed anti-gunrunning program 'Operation Fast and Furious' were found at a violent crime scene in Maricopa, Ariz., in 2010 -- marking the latest case in which such guns have been linked to violent crimes across the U.S. and Mexico.
The two guns found at the scene were an AK-47 and a Beretta pistol, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The weapons were found inside a stolen truck in March 2010 after the driver slammed into two DPS vehicles while trying to evade members of the Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force, ABC 15 reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Boom.
another Obama victory.
-
Fourth Weapon Linked to 'Fast and Furious' Found at Violent Arizona Crime Scene
Foxnews ^
Posted on September 8, 2011 8:54:19 PM EDT by Red in Blue PA
PHOENIX – Authorities confirm two weapons tied to the ATF's failed anti-gunrunning program 'Operation Fast and Furious' were found at a violent crime scene in Maricopa, Ariz., in 2010 -- marking the latest case in which such guns have been linked to violent crimes across the U.S. and Mexico.
The two guns found at the scene were an AK-47 and a Beretta pistol, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The weapons were found inside a stolen truck in March 2010 after the driver slammed into two DPS vehicles while trying to evade members of the Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force, ABC 15 reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Boom.
another Obama victory.
-
Notice how the usual suspects don't say boo about this?
hus is where RP missed a massive opportunity last night.
had he mentioned Fast n Furious he would have exploded this issue.
-
Holder’s qualified ‘Gunwalker’ denial withers under examination
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 8 September, 2011 | David Codrea
“Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday sought to distance himself and other senior Justice Department officials from a botched operation to track guns smuggled to Mexican drug cartels, saying they were not involved,” Reuters reports.
Note the perpetuation of the “botched” meme by the “Authorized Journalists,” who inserted that characterization into a supposedly “straight news” story on their own.
"The notion that somehow or other that this thing reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that, at this point, I don't think is supported by the facts," Holder told reporters.
“At this point…”?
“I don’t think…”?
Could that brief compilation of weasel words have been crafted any more carefully for escape clauses? And the “reporters” on the ground and in his face didn’t think to challenge it?
Holder questioned whether the congressional probe, led by Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate, was politically motivated...
Does anyone even know if murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Kel…uh…Terry was a Republican or Democrat? How about slain ICE agent Jaime Zapata? Does it matter what political sympathies the estimated scores of dead Mexicans may have had, if any?
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com
-
heres the thing, 33
it DOESNT MATTER if he's guilty or not. He'll get away with it. Just like Dubya, clinton, and everyone else before.
presidents do what the hell they want, and people don't do sheeit.
-
EXCLUSIVE: 3rd 'Fast and Furious' Gun at Border Agent Murder Scene
Fox News ^ | 9-9-2011 | William Lajeunesse
A third gun linked to "Operation Fast and Furious" was found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, new documents obtained exclusively by Fox News suggest, contradicting earlier assertions by federal agencies that police found only two weapons tied to the federal government's now infamous gun interdiction scandal.
Sources say emails support their contention that the FBI concealed evidence to protect a confidential informant. Sources close to the Terry case say the FBI informant works inside a major Mexican cartel and provided the money to obtain the weapons used to kill Terry.
Unlike the two AK-style assault weapons found at the scene, the third weapon could more easily be linked to the informant. To prevent that from happening, sources say, the third gun "disappeared."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBBOOOOMMMMM
-
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/09/exclusive-third-gun-linked-to-fast-and-furious-identified-at-border-agents/#ixzz1XTOWpyUG
And why hasnt obama fired holder?
-
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/09/exclusive-third-gun-linked-to-fast-and-furious-identified-at-border-agents/#ixzz1XTOWpyUG
And why hasnt obama fired holder?
He, like 99% of Getbig, doesn't read your threads?
-
He, like 99% of Getbig, doesn't read your threads?
::) ::) ::)
Put it this way - lets say a perp starts shooting at you with an AK and you later find that it was the DEA that put the AK in the perps' hands as part of some crack pot scheme. how would you feel?
-
::) ::) ::)
Put it this way - lets say a perp starts shooting at you with an AK and you later find that it was the DEA that put the AK in the perps' hands as part of some crack pot scheme. how would you feel?
I'd know a "perp" can get a rifle from 20 different sources if he wants a rifle and it's likely the outcome would have been the same, just a different serial number on the weapon.
Yeah, it was a stupid idea, yeah it should be stopped. Yeah some folks should lose their jobs over it. No, it's not worth 36 pages on Getbig
-
I'd know a "perp" can get a rifle from 20 different sources if he wants a rifle and it's likely the outcome would have been the same, just a different serial number on the weapon.
Yeah, it was a stupid idea, yeah it should be stopped. Yeah some folks should lose their jobs over it. No, it's not worth 36 pages on Getbig
LMFAO! ! ! !
Over 150 are dead and there are still HUNDREDS of guns not accounted for!
Are you fucking kidding me?
-
FOX blows the Terry murder cover-up to pieces, and the Gunwalker Plot cover-up with it.
Sipsey Street Irregulars ^ | 9-9-2011 | Mike Vanderboegh
This morning I called Bob Sanders, Chief of Criminal Investigations at ATF in the early '80s, and shared with him the substance of the FOX exclusive. Bob told me, "This is obstruction of a criminal investigation no matter which way you look at it."
As far as the FBI picking up informants dropped for cause by DEA and the Marshal's Service described in the story as "stone cold killers," Bob said:
"All major federal enforcement agencies have very structured, very rigid, formal informant procedures, including lie detectors, psych reports, etc. to vett them. The agency SAC keeps these records in his vault. . . These guys probably murdered somebody. Therefore they couldn't have made the threshold."
He added:
"The FBI was abusing their own system. Once thrown out by one agency these informants could never be approved by another. That involves real corruption of their own system."
Bob concluded, "They are clearly obstructing justice."
MORE HERE
________________________ ____
I will bet money that the AK47 found at the scene of the Nevada shooting with the 3 NG is a F&F gun as well.
-
latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-atf-gun-20110908,0,109137.story
latimes.com
Fast and Furious guns tied to second violent crime
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
3:49 PM PDT, September 8, 2011
In the second violent crime in this country connected with the ATF’s failed Fast and Furious program, two Arizona undercover police officers were allegedly assaulted last year when they attempted to stop two men in a stolen vehicle with two of the program's weapons in a confrontation south of Phoenix.
The officers, members of an elite Arizona Department of Public Safety law enforcement unit, said the driver rammed their cars and threatened them with the firearms, and then fled into the Arizona desert. The driver was caught and arrested, and two firearms –- a Beretta pistol and AK-47 semiautomatic assault rifle -- were found in the stolen Ford truck, the police said.
The suspect, Angel Hernandez-Diaz, 48, believed to be a Mexican national, was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, driving the stolen vehicle and illegal possession of the weapons. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in Pinal County, Ariz., next month.
Also arrested in the incident was the passenger, Rosario Zavala, 30, of Mexico, who was charged with possession of narcotics and the stolen vehicle.
The encounter came five months after the Fast and Furious program began, in which ATF agents allowed the illegal purchase of weapons to try to track the firearms to Mexican drug cartels. And it occurred nine months before the fatal slaying in December of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, killed in a separate assault in which two Fast and Furious firearms were discovered at the scene south of Tucson.
Sources said this is the first case so far of Fast and Furious weapons found at the scene of another violent crime other than Terry’s. Officials at ATF headquarters and the Justice Department are sifting through records to see whether there are more. About 2,000 weapons were allowed to be illegally purchased in the Phoenix area, and the vast majority were lost track of by ATF agents.
“There is bound to be a lot of them,” said one source close to case.
The new incident outside Phoenix, in the suburb of Maricopa, is the crime that the Justice Department alluded to last week in a report to congressional investigators reviewing Fast and Furious. They did not, however, provide any details. The Justice Department originally told Congress there were 11 sites in the U.S. with Fast and Furious guns, but last week revised the number to two identified so far.
Information about the crime surfaced Thursday after officials at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at Washington headquarters contacted Arizona law enforcement officials, and they agreed to discuss it.
The weapons found in the vehicle were the 9-millimeter Beretta, hidden under the front console, and the AK-47 in the back seat. Authorities in Arizona said they were told both weapons were illegally purchased under the Fast and Furious program that began in November 2009. Also in the truck were four boxes of ammunition for the AK-47, a box of 23 9-mm bullets for the Beretta, and four cases of Bud Light beer.
According to police reports, indictments and Officer Carrick Cook, the truck was stopped on the night of March 4, 2010, when the undercover unit realized the vehicle was stolen. Rather than exit, the driver revved the car and repeatedly rammed the two unmarked police vehicles.
Inside the truck, the driver removed the Beretta from his waistband, flashed it at the officers, and then bolted from the truck. He then turned in a crouched position as though he was pointing another weapon. At that point, Officer Mike Ruiz fired several times because “he felt his life was in danger and that of the other officer.”
Ruiz missed, and Hernandez-Diaz surrendered.
richard.serrano@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
-
Got to love how the obama douchebags like Straw, blacken, benny, andre, magoo, gaybear, chimps, loomis, et al are avoiding this thread like the plague.
-
I am disgusted by this... We should oust every fucking one of them.
-
I am disgusted by this... We should oust every fucking one of them.
Got to love how Agnostic down plays this
-
Got to love how Agnostic down plays this
One thing I've noticed about GB is that you start about half the threads and that you're the last person to comment on them, AT ALL HOURS OF THE DAY AND NIGHT.
Why don't you do something with your life? Seriously, how are you not dissatisfied with your existence?
-
One thing I've noticed about GB is that you start about half the threads and that you're the last person to comment on them, AT ALL HOURS OF THE DAY AND NIGHT.
Why don't you do something with your life? Seriously, how are you not dissatisfied with your existence?
As opposed to trolling me?
BTW - do you feel what Obama/holder did here is acceptable?
-
Congress expands Fast and Furious probe to White House
Los Angeles Times ^ | Sept 9 2011 | Richard A. Serrano
Congressional investigators reviewing the failed gun-tracking program Operation Fast and Furious have formally asked the Obama administration to turn over copies of "all records" involving three key White House national security officials and the program, other ATF gun cases in Phoenix, and all communications between the White House and the ATF field office in Arizona.
The letter signed Friday by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was sent to National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon, a top aide to President Obama.
It marks a significant step in the committee's investigation into the failed gun-tracking operation, as the committee begins to broaden its investigation from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and targets White House and Department of Justice officials.
This material, Issa and Grassley said, "will enable us to determine the extent of the involvement of White House staff in Operation Fast and Furious."
White House officials, along with those at the Justice Department, said they have been cooperating in the widening probe, begun earlier this year when several ATF whistleblowers alerted congress that Fast and Furious weapons were found at the scene of the slaying of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Under the program, ATF agents allowed illegal gun purchases and hoped to track the weapons to Mexican cartel leaders. But most of the more than 2,000 firearms were lost. Hundreds have reportedly turned up in Mexican crime scenes, two at the shooting where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed, and a semi-automatic at an altercation and assault with police in Maricopa, Az.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Darrell Issa: DOJ's ATF 'Mexican Grenade Scandal' mirrors "Fast and Furious"
Political Transcripts Examiner ^ | 7 September, 2011 | Devonia Smith
Posted on September 9, 2011 6:10:17 PM EDT by marktwain
Congressman Darrell Issa, a Republican from California who chairs the House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform, was on hand at Fox News to provide details this afternoon, September 7, of an operation referred to as the Mexican Grenade Scandal. It was described by Issa as yet another operation in the ongoing scandal ATF - with troubling similarities to "Operation Fast and Furious. "
Issa acknowledged that, "It's good to rack up the higher rankings," adding, "but you can't do it on the back of dead Americans or Mexicans."
The facts of the Mexican Grenade Scandal as explained by Issa:
* ATF had in custody a dangerous explosives expert, "up to his neck in grenades and explosive devices, 116 grenades and parts; supplying explosives to a cartel."
* ATF wanted to arrest him.
* The DOJ and senior prosecutor allowed the man to go, with the intention of watching him in the hopes of catching someone higher up.
* ATF wanted to rearrest him before he crossed the border.
* The DOJ wanted him to cross the Mexico border
* The man was lost on the Mexican side of the border, outside of the ATF's jurisdiction, and ultimately sold grenades to the Mexican drug cartel.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
That's what we do when we are conducting a legitimate official investigation into allegations of wrong doing, we always go on FOX news...... ;D
-
That's what we do when we are conducting an investigation, go on FOX news...... ;D
Well, you sure do have plenty of cameras following you around for "48 hours" or "Cops" or any of the other "Reality TV" cop shows.
Might as well talk to the news.
This actually makes me think of all of those reality shows and how they put "everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law" as a disclaimer, knowing full well that everyone watching thinks that the person that's in handcuffs is as guilty as shit.
I mean, why else would they be cuffed and on TV?
-
I just wonder why a legitimate investigation that is ongoing, would be vetted on FOX news by one of the investigators... It couldn't be political could it?? :o
-
I just wonder why a legitimate investigation that is ongoing, would be vetted on FOX news by one of the investigators... It couldn't be political could it?? :o
Isn't law always political?
It's politicians who make them, and politicians who break them.
-
Isn't law always political?
It's politicians who make them, and politicians who break them.
Soooo..... it IS political. Then anything the "investigator" found that didn't support what he wanted to conclude, it would likely be ignored, and any information that would likely support their agenda could be embellished....
Not much of an "investigation" if you ask me.
-
Soooo..... it IS political. Then anything the "investigator" found that didn't support what he wanted to conclude, it would likely be ignored, and any information that would likely support their agenda could be embellished....
Not much of an "investigation" if you ask me.
Law rarely contains much actual "unbiased investigation".
-
Law rarely contains much actual "unbiased investigation".
Sure it does, all the time
-
Sure it does, all the time
Let's not go down this road... It's tiresome and we never agree... so please... Not now.
-
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has acknowledged an Indiana dealer’s cooperation in conducting straw purchases at the direction of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Exclusive documents obtained by Gun Rights Examiner show the dealer cooperated with ATF by selling guns to straw purchasers, and that bureau management later asserted these guns were being traced to crimes.
From the confidential source providing the documents:
The dealer…was sent a "demand letter," based on the number of traces to him, which was retracted after his attorney pointed out they resulted from his cooperation with ATF. (Strangely, he got two voicemails from two different ATF people, both saying they were the head of the tracing operation).
Some of the straw men turned out to have felony convictions, the agents called the FBI background check system and fixed it so the transactions would be approved, something which may also have happened in Phoenix. (The attorney wasn't clear as to whether the guns were actually delivered to the gangs).
Advertisement
If the guns did not make it to criminal end users, why the demand for the reporting requirement was made remains unexplained: A demand letter, dated February 14, 2011 and signed by Charles J. Houser, Chief, National Tracing Center Division, informed the dealer he was required to provide acquisition and disposition information on firearms obtained from non-licensees, as well as to provide quarterly reports, based on ATF’s assessment that the dealer “had an unusually high number of traces of new crime guns with a relatively short ‘time-to-crime’…”
In a response dated March 10, 2011, attorney Brent R. Weil of Kightlinger and Gray, LLP, informed Houser:
Specifically, my client participated with and cooperated in certain law enforcement operations during 2009/2010 at the behest of ATFE enforcement officers from the Evansville, Indiana office (Agent Kevin Whittaker) and in the course of doing so, followed their instructions regarding the completion of certain transactions and the delivery of firearms to purchasers who did not clear the standard NICS [National Instant Check System] background check and were suspected of being involved in the purchase and transportation of handguns out of state despite passing NICS’s background checks.
In order to verify ATF claims, Weil requested they “be given a list of the ‘ten or more crime guns with a “time-to-crime: of three years or less’ so that we can satisfy ourselves that we are not being improperly included in this program because of our cooperation with and/or involvement with ATFE enforcement activities.”
The response letter resulted in a voice mail from Houser to Weil on March 15, 2011, ignoring his request for the list of guns, but promising:
If…that count is composed of firearms that were, where your client was working in conjunction with ATF, we will get your client removed entirely from the program.”
That same day, another voice mail was received, this time from Brenda Bennett, also identifying herself as “Chief of the National Tracing Center,” who informed Weil:
I have verified the information in the letter. I talked to law enforcement and they confirmed what he had to say. Therefore, he is being removed from the demand list.
See the sidebar slideshow accompanying this article for screen captures of all documents referred to in this column. At the very least, as with “Project Gunwalker,” they indicate straw purchased guns ended up in crime traces, something those directing surveillance were well aware of. It also indicates the FBI and ATF were once again involved with allowing transactions rejected by NICS to proceed, indicating this practice could be more widespread than has been previously documented, and not confined to Southwest border operations.
It’s fair to ask at this point what Robert J. Browning knows about this. He’s the Special Agent In Charge (SAC) of the Columbus Field Division, which directs Indiana and Ohio field offices. Also worth questioning: Joseph H. Hogsett, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, specifically about what he has directed and approved that has any bearing on “crime guns” making their way to the street following law enforcement firearm transfer approvals to straw purchasers within his jurisdicition.
It’s also fair to ask if it seems credible that such similar operations would develop independently in the Southwest (“Project Gunwalker”) and the Midwest (“Project Gangwalker’?), without authorization from and oversight coordination by Main Justice.
Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars has advocated opening “a second front” to complement House Oversight Committee investigations, and this column has been a consistent advocate for appointment of a truly independent special investigator, as well as for individual state attorneys general determining if multiple felony violations of their state laws, committed jointly by two or more persons, have been perpetrated. What seems clear is none of this will happen unless gun owners create such an uproar that their demands cannot be ignored—by timid political wind riders who don’t wish to get involved, by an arrogant, stonewalling administration, and by their protectors/abettors in the mainstream press.
UPDATE: Vanderboegh adds some important considerations.
Also see:
A Journalist’s Guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner.
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/exclusive-report-documents-indicate-atf-fbi-allowed-indiana-crime-gun-sales
Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
-
http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/09/robert-farago/atf-death-watch-78-fbi-claim-national-security-in-gunwalker-coverup/#more-63326
Damn. FBI gave one of the straw men 70k to buy illegal guns!
-
Drudge is distracted by Obama's terror "scare".
Like all teh media, they and FOX don't care about right or wrong. They care about RATINGS.
-
Drudge is distracted by Obama's terror "scare".
Like all teh media, they and FOX don't care about right or wrong. They care about RATINGS.
Funny, why isnt your beloved msnbc covering this
-
Funny, why isnt your beloved msnbc covering this
it's the 1st time obama's done it, to my knowledge.
Bush did it 14 times before MSNBC noticed the trend.
Tell us why fox/drudge is playing right into his BS instead of calling him on it/
ah yes ratings!
-
Fox has been covering this for awhile.
Try again.
-
Fox has been covering this for awhile.
Try again.
sorry cupcake, but they gave WAY more attention to 'reverent wright' than they did to something as huge as intentionally fueling a border war.
-
Rev wright was befor f and f.
-
Rev wright was befor f and f.
it was covered 2x an hour for 6 months straight. i watch fox, you said you dont.
thye've given way less coverage to F and F
-
And msnbc none at all.
-
2nd Arizona crime scene yields guns from ATF sting
Updated 03:17 p.m., Saturday, September 10, 2011
PHOENIX (AP) — Guns tied to a botched federal weapons-smuggling investigation have been recovered at a second Arizona crime scene, according to federal and state authorities.
The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/oB98j1) reported Saturday that two guns were found in the back of a stolen car in Maricopa last year that had rammed two Arizona Department of Public Safety vehicles.
Federal agents contacted the DPS this week and said a trace of the guns revealed they were part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sting in 2009 that inadvertently put hundreds of weapons bought at Arizona gun stores into the hands of Mexican criminals.
The probe was known as Operation Fast and Furious.
Two guns also were recovered at a December shootout in Rio Rico, where a Border Patrol agent was fatally shot.
A congressional investigation of the program has turned up evidence that ATF lost track of many of the more than 2,000 guns linked to the operation. Attorney General Eric Holder requested the inquiry now being conducted by the Inspector General's office at the Justice Department.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has asked the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for a hearing as soon as possible on Operation Fast and Furious.
McCain, a member of the committee, wrote in a letter that the panel must "ensure further damage from this operation does not persist."
According to an investigative report compiled for two congressional committees investigating the operation, 122 weapons have been recovered at 48 crime scenes in Mexico.
In addition, an unspecified number of weapons tied to Fast and Furious were recovered earlier this year when Mexican authorities raided a compound in Michoacan state to arrest members of La Familia cartel.
The joint report for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary also details how guns from the ATF operation were used in the kidnapping and murder of a Mexican official's brother.
It is unclear how many guns from Arizona made it to Mexico. Operation Fast and Furious was part of a multiagency federal drug-enforcement task force to trace weapon sales made to straw buyers working for Mexican cartels.
Three Phoenix ATF agents told Congress that instead of interdicting the straw buyers, they were ordered to monitor sales and track the weapons up the cartel-leadership chain.
Agents said that as many as 1,800 guns were sold and as many as two-thirds were smuggled into Mexico after they lost track of them. The goal of the operation was to use wiretaps on the straw buyers to snare high-ranking cartel members.
Arizona DPS officials said the Maricopa incident took place in March 2010 when officers with the Motor Vehicle Theft Task Force attempted to stop a truck with two Mexican citizens inside.
The driver refused to stop, and officers used their vehicles to block the road. Inside the car, officers recovered a pistol and an AK-47-type rifle.
"It was found, after the fact, that the guns were part of Operation Fast and Furious," said DPS spokesman Bart Graves, adding that the weapons had little to do with the actual incident.
___
Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com
________________________ ________________________ ______
Heck of a job Barry!
-
Gun store owner had misgivings about ATF sting
When federal agents with Operation Fast and Furious told Andre Howard to sell weapons to illegal purchasers, he complied, but he feared someone would get hurt. Then a border agent was shot.
Andre Howard owns the Lone Wolf gun store in Glendale, Ariz., part of Operation Fast and Furious. (Carlos Chavez, Arizona Republic / September 12, 2011)
September 11, 2011, 9:14 p.m.
Reporting from Glendale and Rio Rico, Ariz.— In the fall of 2009, ATF agents installed a secret phone line and hidden cameras in a ceiling panel and wall at Andre Howard's Lone Wolf gun store. They gave him one basic instruction: Sell guns to every illegal purchaser who walks through the door.
For 15 months, Howard did as he was told. To customers with phony IDs or wads of cash he normally would have turned away, he sold pistols, rifles and semiautomatics. He was assured by the ATF that they would follow the guns, and that the surveillance would lead the agents to the violent Mexican drug cartels on the Southwest border.
When Howard heard nothing about any arrests, he questioned the agents. Keep selling, they told him. So hundreds of thousands of dollars more in weapons, including .50-caliber sniper rifles, walked out of the front door of his store in a Glendale, Ariz., strip mall.
He was making a lot of money. But he also feared somebody was going to get hurt.
"Every passing week, I worried about something like that," he said. "I felt horrible and sick."
Late in the night on Dec. 14, in a canyon west of Rio Rico, Ariz., Border Patrol agents came across Mexican bandits preying on illegal immigrants.
According to a Border Patrol "Shooting Incident" report, the agents fired two rounds of bean bags from a shotgun. The Mexicans returned fire. One agent fired from his sidearm, another with his M-4 rifle.
One of the alleged bandits, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, a 33-year-old Mexican from Sinaloa, was wounded in the abdomen and legs. Agent Brian Terry — 40, single, a former Marine — also went down. "I'm hit!" he cried.
A fellow agent cradled his friend. "I can't feel my legs," Terry said. "I think I'm paralyzed." A bullet had pierced his aorta. Tall and nearly 240 pounds, Terry was too heavy to carry. They radioed for a helicopter. But Terry was bleeding badly, and he died in his colleague's arms.
The bandits left Osorio-Arellanes behind and escaped across the desert, tossing away two AK-47 semiautomatics from Howard's store.
Some 2,000 firearms from the Lone Wolf Trading Company store and others in southern Arizona were illegally sold under an ATF program called Fast and Furious that allowed "straw purchasers" to walk away with the weapons and turn them over to criminal traffickers. But the agency's plan to trace the guns to the cartels never worked. As the case of the two Lone Wolf AK-47s tragically illustrates, the ATF, with a limited force of agents, did not keep track of them.
The Department of Justice in Washington said last week that one other Fast and Furious firearm turned up at a violent crime scene in this country. They have yet to provide any more details. They said another 28 Fast and Furious weapons were recovered at violent crimes in Mexico. They have not identified those cases either. The Mexican government maintains that an undisclosed number of Fast and Furious weapons have been found at some 170 crime scenes in their country.
***
Howard said he does not own a gun, does not hunt, and does not belong to the National Rifle Assn. His love is helicopters — a former Army pilot, he gives flying lessons. He said he fell into the gun-dealing business 21 years ago only to help support his career as a flight instructor. Howard spoke to a reporter for the first time in depth about why he cooperated with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
He said he supported law enforcement, and never imagined a thousand weapons, or half of the entire Fast and Furious inventory, would "walk" out of his store. And when arrests were not forthcoming, "every passing week I was more stunned," he said.
According to a confidential memo written by assistant federal prosecutor Emory Hurley, "Mr. Howard had expressed concerns about the cooperation he was providing and whether he was endangering himself or implicating himself in a criminal investigation."
Other firearms dealers shared his concerns. At the nearby Scottsdale Gun Club, the proprietor sent an email to Agent David Voth. "I want to help ATF," he said, "but not at the risk of agents' safety because I have some very close friends that are U.S. Border Patrol agents in southern AZ."
Howard recalled that a chubby, bald and "very confident" man named Jaime Avila walked into the store on Jan. 16, 2010, and bought the AK-47s. Under the Fast and Furious protocol, agents were supposed to use the video cameras, surveillance, informants and law enforcement intelligence to follow the weapons and hope they led them to the drug cartels.
But no agents were watching on the hidden cameras or waiting outside to track the firearms when Avila showed up. Howard faxed a copy of the sale paperwork to the ATF "after the firearms were gone," assuming they would catch up later. They never did.
Between November 2009 and June 2010, according to an ATF agent's email to William Newell, then the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, Avila walked away with 52 firearms after he "paid approximately $48,000 cash. The firearms consisted of FN 5.7 pistols, 1 Barrett 50 BMG rifle, AK-47 variant rifles, Ruger 9mm handguns, Colt 38 supers, etc.…"
Sometime in spring or early summer 2010 — the exact date is unknown — U.S. immigration officers reportedly stopped Avila at the Arizona border with the two semiautomatics and 30 other weapons. According to two sources close to a congressional investigation into Fast and Furious, the authorities checked with the ATF and were told to release him with the weapons because the ATF was still hoping to track the guns to cartel members.
In Washington, ATF officials declined to comment. In Congress, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House investigating committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the Justice Department why Avila was not jailed and the guns seized. They have yet to receive an answer.
The two semi-automatics would turn up again, this time at the scene of the Terry shooting. According to sources, they were hidden in backpacks and stashed in the desert, ready for Mexican bandits.
***
When weapons were recovered at the scene of the agent's slaying, ATF officials in Phoenix scrambled. "All these ATF guys were showing up," one law enforcement official recalled. "We were trying to catch suspects and rope up the crime scene, and all the ATF guys were saying they needed the serial numbers! They needed the serial numbers!"
Newell wanted an immediate trace on the semiautomatics, and that afternoon ATF agents showed up at the Lone Wolf store. Howard had heard of Terry's death. "I was scared to death," he said. They asked for his paperwork and matched the serial numbers. "Both of them were in shock, too," he said. "You could tell they were sick."
A little before 8 that night, the Phoenix ATF field office sent out an agency-wide bulletin: The suspect guns were Fast and Furious weapons. In Washington the next morning, then-ATF Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson prepared to notify the Border Patrol.
Avila was arrested, and initially held just for using a bad address on the purchase form. "This way," Voth emailed the ATF field office, "we do not divulge our current case [Fast and Furious] or the Border Patrol shooting case."
In a subsequent report for Fast and Furious classified "Law Enforcement Sensitive," agents said Avila was buying for a Phoenix-based gun trafficking group that hid the weapons in vehicle compartments and drove them over the border from Arizona and Texas. The trafficking group used cash from drug sales to buy the weapons. The AK-47 was their weapon of choice, bought after cocaine and methamphetamines warehoused in Baja California were shipped north and sold in this country.
Other Avila weapons from Howard's store wound up at a Glendale home and a Phoenix automotive business, both "firearm drop locations," according to the ATF report. Still more were recovered in Sonora, Mexico, not far from Rio Rico.
In January, Avila and 19 others were charged in the straw purchasing. It was the one and only indictment to come out of 15 months of Fast and Furious. Asked at the press conference touting the charges whether the ATF allowed guns to "walk," Newell, the ATF field supervisor, responded, "Hell no!"
His denial and the agent's death provoked a small group of ATF whistle-blowers. They contacted Congress, and investigators asked the agency whether Terry was shot by Fast and Furious weapons.
The ATF replied that neither semiautomatic fired the fatal bullet. In truth, an FBI ballistics report could not determine whether one of the semiautomatics or a third weapon killed Terry.
Avila pleaded not guilty to the firearms charges, was released on bail and has yet to stand trial. Osorio-Arellanes was charged in the Terry slaying in May. No other suspects in the slaying have been arrested.
In Glendale, after two decades in business, Howard is thinking about closing his Lone Wolf gun store. He also has second thoughts about helping law enforcement.
"Was I betrayed?" he said. "Absolutely yes."
richard.serrano@latimes.com
________________________ _______________________
Disgusting
-
Issa: Holder so 'inept he is dangerous' as attorney general
By Justin Sink - 09/12/11 11:10 AM ET
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that Attorney General Eric Holder is so "inept that he is dangerous to have as the Attorney General" and that President Obama should consider removing him from office.
Issa made the comments on the Laura Ingraham show while commenting about the controversial "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking program.
"He doesn't want to admit that it was felony-stupid," Issa said of the operation, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which allowed assault-type weapons to be illegally purchased and smuggled across the border.
The Department of Justice was monitoring the weapons, but they have turned up at crime scenes across Mexico. Two weapons that were sold under the program were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.
Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson was removed from his position late last month as the result of an investigation pushed by Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But Issa believes that Attorney General Holder either signed off on the operation or was "willfully ignorant."
"The only way the attorney general didn't know is that he made sure he didn't want to know," Issa said.
The congressman said the scandal was "dumber than Iran-Contra," the program under which senior officials in the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran to fund Nicaraguan rebels. Both arms sales to Iran and funding of the Contras was explicitly prohibited by law, and Reagan national security advisers Oliver North and John Poindexter were convicted of violating the law.
"What we need is an admission that it was wrong … and then we need assurance that it won't happen again," Issa said.
For his part, Holder has admitted that the Fast and Furious program "was clearly a flawed enforcement effort," but denied that he or any of his aides had knowledge of the operation.
"The notion that this reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that at this point I don't think is supported by the facts and I think once we examine it and once the facts are revealed we'll see that's not the case," Holder said last Wednesday.
The Department of Justice has launched an internal investigation to look into the matter, in addition to the one led by Issa.
Holder also defended the decision to transfer Melson into the DOJ's Office of Legal Policy, rather than fire him outright.
"Ken has served this department well over the course of some three decades," Holder said.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/180867-issa-holder-qso-inept-he-may-be-a-dangerq-as-attorney-general
-
Issa: Holder so 'inept he is dangerous' as attorney general
By Justin Sink - 09/12/11 11:10 AM ET
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that Attorney General Eric Holder is so "inept that he is dangerous to have as the Attorney General" and that President Obama should consider removing him from office.
Issa made the comments on the Laura Ingraham show while commenting about the controversial "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking program.
"He doesn't want to admit that it was felony-stupid," Issa said of the operation, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which allowed assault-type weapons to be illegally purchased and smuggled across the border.
The Department of Justice was monitoring the weapons, but they have turned up at crime scenes across Mexico. Two weapons that were sold under the program were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.
Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson was removed from his position late last month as the result of an investigation pushed by Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But Issa believes that Attorney General Holder either signed off on the operation or was "willfully ignorant."
"The only way the attorney general didn't know is that he made sure he didn't want to know," Issa said.
The congressman said the scandal was "dumber than Iran-Contra," the program under which senior officials in the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran to fund Nicaraguan rebels. Both arms sales to Iran and funding of the Contras was explicitly prohibited by law, and Reagan national security advisers Oliver North and John Poindexter were convicted of violating the law.
"What we need is an admission that it was wrong … and then we need assurance that it won't happen again," Issa said.
For his part, Holder has admitted that the Fast and Furious program "was clearly a flawed enforcement effort," but denied that he or any of his aides had knowledge of the operation.
"The notion that this reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that at this point I don't think is supported by the facts and I think once we examine it and once the facts are revealed we'll see that's not the case," Holder said last Wednesday.
The Department of Justice has launched an internal investigation to look into the matter, in addition to the one led by Issa.
Holder also defended the decision to transfer Melson into the DOJ's Office of Legal Policy, rather than fire him outright.
"Ken has served this department well over the course of some three decades," Holder said.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/180867-issa-holder-qso-inept-he-may-be-a-dangerq-as-attorney-general
Again, that this "investigator" is on a right wing radio show discussing the investigation is pretty telling..
-
Are you fucking serious? and you wonder why the general public hates law enforcement now?
That's the best you can do is blame the messenger when there are 150 deaths, hundreds of rifles not accounted for, 2 border agents dead, etc?
GMAFB.
-
Are you fucking serious? and you wonder why the general public hates law enforcement now?
That's the best you can do is blame the messenger when there are 150 deaths, hundreds of rifles not accounted for, 2 border agents dead, etc?
GMAFB.
LOL! I don't think the general public hates the police, just a small psycho fringe
-
LOL! I don't think the general public hates the police, just a small psycho fringe
Yeah ok bro - tell yourself that.
I was in court this morning and this poor schmuck in front of me had to take a day off of work because some pofs dirtbag cop wrote a ticket for 56/55 on 87 - NYS Thruway.
Jusdge was so pissed off at the cop she tossed the ticket and everyone just shook their head in disgust.
-
Yeah ok bro - tell yourself that.
I was in court this morning and this poor schmuck in front of me had to take a day off of work because some pofs dirtbag cop wrote a ticket for 56/55 on 87 - NYS Thruway.
Jusdge was so pissed off at the cop she tossed the ticket and everyone just shook their head in disgust.
riiiiight........ ;D
-
riiiiight........ ;D
Greenburgh, N.Y., Village Court, Judge Friedman. Call up the chambers and you can confirm it.
-
Greenburgh, N.Y., Village Court, Judge Friedman. Call up the chambers and you can confirm it.
I'm on it ::)
-
when were you in court you were on here all day ;D
-
when were you in court you were on here all day ;D
I post mostly from my blackberry. Had traffic court, then short appearance in NY Supreme, Westchester Co., then back to the office.
-
holy shit even when your out your on here :D :D :D man get a life ;D
-
holy shit even when your out your on here :D :D :D man get a life ;D
Nice attempt to derail - care to weigh in on F&F?
-
Nice attempt to derail - care to weigh in on F&F?
i just can't believe someone can't leave this site for more an hour :D :D :D
-
i just can't believe someone can't leave this site for more an hour :D :D :D
Yet you have no problem w obama and holder running guns and grenades to Mexico to drug cartels and deaths of border agents. Nice.
-
Yet you have no problem w obama and holder running guns and grenades to Mexico to drug cartels and deaths of border agents. Nice.
No way you are a lawyer, making ludicrous statements like that..oh wait...traffic court..nevermind
-
No way you are a lawyer, making ludicrous statements like that..oh wait...traffic court..nevermind
What part of what I said is wrong?
-
LOL! I don't think the general public hates the police, just a small psycho fringe
I think you are mistaken... I'd bet it's easily 50/50.
-
Fast and Furious: Feds Forced Gun Store Owner to Make Illegal Sales
Big Government ^ | 9/12/11 | Publius
Posted on September 12, 2011 10:32:32 PM EDT by Nachum
In the fall of 2009, ATF agents installed a secret phone line and hidden cameras in a ceiling panel and wall at Andre Howard’s Lone Wolf gun store. They gave him one basic instruction: Sell guns to every illegal purchaser who walks through the door.
For 15 months, Howard did as he was told. To customers with phony IDs or wads of cash he normally would have turned away, he sold pistols, rifles and semiautomatics. He was assured by the ATF that they would follow the guns, and that the surveillance would lead the agents to the violent Mexican drug cartels on the Southwest border.
When Howard heard nothing about any arrests, he questioned the agents. Keep selling, they told him. So hundreds of thousands of dollars more in weapons, including .50-caliber sniper rifles, walked out of the front door of his store in a Glendale, Ariz., strip mall.
He was making a lot of money. But he also feared somebody was going to get hurt.
“Every passing week, I worried about something like that,” he said. “I felt horrible and sick.”
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
-
I think you are mistaken... I'd bet it's easily 50/50.
I would expect you to believe that... ;)
-
CITIZEN RATINGS OF POLICE: The difference Contact Makes
Recent surveys repeatedly indicate that the public holds favorable attitudes toward the police. This analysis suggests positive public evaluations of the police may be in part the result of citizen satisfaction with police actions in handling specific incidents. Citizen-police contacts are found to be relatively common, and in the majority of these contacts, citizens are found to rate police actions favorably. Four types of citizen-police contacts are analyzed: contacts resulting from victimizations, assistances provided by the police, stops initiated by police, and citizen calls to the police for information. Contact type alone is found to have relatively little influence on citizen evaluations of the police services provided to their neighborhoods. But citizen satisfaction with police handling of contacts has a stronger impact, which appears to vary with contact type.
-
BREAKING: Third Fast & Furious gun at Terry murder scene covered up
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 9 September, 2011 | Dave Workman
Fox News is reporting that a third gun apparently found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was linked to Operation Fast and Furious, but its existence may have been deliberately concealed by the FBI to protect the identity of an informant “who works inside a major Mexican cartel.”
That informant, according to the report by Fox reporter William Lajuenesse, “provided the money to obtain the weapons used to kill Terry.” This tends to support statements made by Kenneth Melson, former acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to congressional investigators in a behind-closed-doors interview on July 4, as reported by this column.
Fox News is reporting that a third gun apparently found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was linked to Operation Fast and Furious, but its existence may have been deliberately concealed by the FBI to protect the identity of an informant “who works inside a major Mexican cartel.”
That informant, according to the report by Fox reporter William Lajuenesse, “provided the money to obtain the weapons used to kill Terry.” This tends to support statements made by Kenneth Melson, former acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to congressional investigators in a behind-closed-doors interview on July 4, as reported by this column.
Sources say emails support their contention that the FBI concealed evidence to protect a confidential informant. Sources close to the Terry case say the FBI informant works inside a major Mexican cartel and provided the money to obtain the weapons used to kill Terry.—Fox News
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Napolitano, FBI Give Non-Answers to Questions Surrounding Operation Fast and Furious
Townhall.com ^ | September 13, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
Despite ATF Special Agent William Newell admitting in sworn testimony that mutiple government agencies, including the FBI and DHS, were responsible for the development and implementation of Operation Fast and Furious, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitiano and FBI Director Robert Mueller denied knowing anything about the operation until Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with guns from the program and avoided getting into details about their involvement by referring the case to the Inspector General in the Justice Department and citing an "on-going investigation" when asked by Arizona Senator John McCain recently on Capitol Hill. On top of Newell's testimony, President Obama called for a complete review of current gun control policies in April 2009:
“Our focus is to work with Secretary Napolitano, Attorney General Holder, our entire Homeland Security team, ATF, border security, 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 our working and make sure we are cutting down on the loop holes that are causing some of these drug trafficking problems."
The Operation Fast and Furious questioning starts at 2:50:
"I don't have specifics." -Mueller
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN AT THE HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Keep in mind, Operation Fast and Furious is an Obama Justice Department program. Although other agencies were involved, the officials most heavily involved are from ATF (which falls under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department) and the DOJ. In fact, internal emails show information about the program coming directly from Washington D.C. An internal investigation from the DOJ Inspector General will get us nowhere. Luckily, we have Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley to get us some answers as they are investigation the DOJ, not conducting an investigation with the DOJ. This "on-going internal investigation" is just a way for officials within the Obama Justice Department and the White House to buy time, and cover up what really went on with Fast and Furious.
A little reminder at 2:27:
"We are investigating you, your organization. The Executive Branch above the Phoenix office is what we are investigating. We want to know what felony stupid, bad judgement led to allowing this program at the highest level." -Rep. Issa
Video
-
‘Fast and Furious’ scandal has Obama administration in full cover-up mode
The Daily Caller ^ | 09/12/2011 | Chris Cox
The more we learn about the “Fast and Furious” scandal — in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) illegally facilitated the transfer of thousands of guns to violent drug cartels in Mexico — the more apparent it is that we are witnessing a large-scale cover-up of epic proportions.
In fact, it’s getting difficult to keep up with all of the shuffling of key agency personnel who were involved in the deadly scandal. Here is a brief run-down of what transpired over the past two weeks:
* BATFE director Kenneth Melson was reassigned by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department to a new senior advisor role at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
* Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, resigned from his post.
* Thanks to the tenacious investigations being led by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-IA), it is now apparent that the lead prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona, Emory Hurley, initially sought to cover up the fact that at least two illegal “Fast and Furious” guns were found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The Justice Department recently transferred Hurley out of its criminal division to its civil division.
* We now know that White House officials knew more about the deadly “Fast and Furious” operation than they previously disclosed. Three White House officials — Kevin O’Reilly, Dan Restrepo and Greg Gatjanis — all received back-channel communications about “Fast and Furious” from BATFE’s then-special agent in charge of Phoenix, Bill Newell. Newell, as you might recall, was recently reassigned to a new job at Justice Department headquarters.
The Obama administration’s continued stonewalling and seemingly orchestrated cover-up of the “Fast and Furious” scandal is only adding to the overall tragedy of this situation.
It’s tragic that this harebrained scheme cost people their lives, including a brave American Border Patrol agent. It’s also tragic that at the same time the Obama administration was purposefully arming Mexican drug lords, Obama, Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were blaming American gun owners and our Second Amendment rights for violent crime in Mexico.
But as White House officials continue to hide details related to this scandal, they are now doing serious damage to the rule of law upon which our republic was built.
The longer this drags on, the more lasting the damage will be — not only to our overall institution of government but also to the ability of future leaders to hold federal agencies accountable and protect the sanctity of our freedoms.
For this reason, it’s time for an independent prosecutor to be assigned to this case. Only then will we have any chance of learning the truth so we can fix the problem.
Chris W. Cox is the Executive Director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) and serves as the organization’s chief lobbyist.
-
I would expect you to believe that... ;)
http://www.popcenter.org/library/crimeprevention/volume_12/03-van_Dijk.pdf
"Less than half of the reporting victims are satisfied with the police response. In the transitional and developing countries the satisfaction rate is below 40%. For police forces in these nations, victims are hard to satisfy if the investigation is unsuccessful. Victims of prop- erty crimes are therefore more likely to be dissatisfied with the police response in less affluent countries. Their main reason for dissatisfac- tion is that the police fail to recover their property. In all regions many victims of contact crimes are also dissatisfied with the services delivered. If dissatisfied, they are more likely to say the police treated them impolitely or incorrectly. Such complaints are the most common among female victims of violence."
-
http://www.popcenter.org/library/crimeprevention/volume_12/03-van_Dijk.pdf
"Less than half of the reporting victims are satisfied with the police response. In the transitional and developing countries the satisfaction rate is below 40%. For police forces in these nations, victims are hard to satisfy if the investigation is unsuccessful. Victims of prop- erty crimes are therefore more likely to be dissatisfied with the police response in less affluent countries. Their main reason for dissatisfac- tion is that the police fail to recover their property. In all regions many victims of contact crimes are also dissatisfied with the services delivered. If dissatisfied, they are more likely to say the police treated them impolitely or incorrectly. Such complaints are the most common among female victims of violence."
I can't speak for other countries
-
Citizen Satisfaction Survey 2010
CITIZEN SATISFACTION SURVEY
(710 KB) Click here!
On March 20th and 21st, 2010 the Planning Division conducted a random telephone survey of the approximately 49,000 residential telephone numbers in the City of Newport News. We employed the survey module in our CityWatch telephone alert notification system to gauge citizens’ overall satisfaction with the Newport News Police Department via a nine-question, touchpad telephone survey. Each participant was also supplied with a voicemail phone number where they could call in and leave comments regarding the agency and/or the survey. The only comments received were related to the time the respondent was called on a Saturday, and a question regarding a specific Professional Standards inquiry.
We selected a sample population of 1,771 randomly-selected phone numbers (excluding business phones) that was used as our sampling frame for this survey.
At the end of the two-day project, all 1,771 phone numbers had been called and a total of 196 citizens took the time to complete the survey.
Based on the survey, 88 percent of those who completed a survey indicated that they felt the overall performance of the Newport News Police Department was satisfactory or better during the past 12 months. Below is a synopsis of our findings:
1. During the past 12 months, have you or a member of your immediate family had formal contact with a member of the Newport News Police Department?
YES = 27%
NO = 72%
2. If formal contact did occur, was it the result of you or your immediate family member being a victim of a crime?
YES = 11%
NO = 36%
NO FORMAL CONTACT = 52%
3. If formal contact did occur, how would you rate your overall level of satisfaction with the overall quality of the contact?
ABOVE SATISFACTORY = 25%*
SATISFACTORY = 25%*
BELOW SATISFACTORY = 5%*
DON'T REMEMBER = 44%*
*Excludes those with no formal contact
4. How would you rate the safety of your neighborhood during the day?
VERY SAFE = 39%
REASONABLY SAFE = 40%
SOMEWHAT SAFE = 14%
VERY UNSAFE = 3%
DO NOT KNOW = 4%
5. How would you rate the safety of your neighborhood after dark?
VERY SAFE = 23%
REASONABLY SAFE = 40%
SOMEWHAT SAFE = 23%
VERY UNSAFE = 9%
DO NOT KNOW = 5%
6. Do you currently feel safer in your neighborhood than you did a year ago?
YES = 46%*
NO = 53%*
*Excludes those with no opinion
7. How would you rate the safety of our city's business areas during the day?
VERY SAFE = 22%
REASONABLY SAFE = 52%
SOMEWHAT SAFE = 19%
VERY UNSAFE = 1%
DO NOT KNOW = 7%
8. How would you rate the safety of our city's buiness areas after dark?
VERY SAFE = 5%
REASONABLY SAFE = 35%
SOMEWHAT SAFE = 35%
VERY UNSAFE = 10%
DO NOT KNOW = 15%
9. How would you rate the overall performance of the Newport News Police Department?
ABOVE SATISFACTORY = 25%*
SATISFACTORY = 69%*
BELOW SATISFACTORY = 5%*
-
"Fast and Furious" Corpses Pile Up
Human Events ^ | 09/15/2011 | John Hayward
The New York Times had better get some more ridiculous hit pieces cooked up against House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa, because some more dead bodies have turned up in connection with the Obama Administration’s plan to push American guns into Mexico. CBS News has been following “Operation Fast and Furious” like a hawk, and they’ve got the latest body count:
Weapons linked to ATF's controversial "Fast and Furious" operation have been tied to at least eight violent crimes in Mexico including three murders, four kidnappings and an attempted homicide.
According to a letter from U.S. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the disclosed incidents may be only a partial list of violent crimes linked to Fast and Furious weapons because "ATF has not conducted a comprehensive independent investigation."
I can hardly wait for the full list of violent crimes linked to Fast and Furious to be compiled. So… what does it take to get the ATF cracking on one of those “comprehensive independent investigations?”
Among the crimes listed by CBS are a “confrontation between the Mexican military and an armed group,” which was armed with two Fast and Furious AK-47s, and “the terrorist kidnapping, torture, and murder of Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez,” whose sister was the attorney general of Chihuahua. She maintained her brother was kidnapped by corrupt police officers and cartel thugs.
The kidnappers released a video of armed and masked goons standing around Rodriguez, which became a sensation in Mexico. It’s possible some of the guns brandished in the video might have been provided courtesy of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. It’s hard to make out all the hardware carried by the terrorists, and there’s no way to get their serial numbers. The gang reportedly had...
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
-
Citizen Satisfaction Survey 2010
CITIZEN SATISFACTION SURVEY
(710 KB) Click here!
On March 20th and 21st, 2010 the Planning Division conducted a random telephone survey of the approximately 49,000 residential telephone numbers in the City of Newport News. We employed the survey module in our CityWatch telephone alert notification system to gauge citizens’ overall satisfaction with the Newport News Police Department via a nine-question, touchpad telephone survey. Each participant was also supplied with a voicemail phone number where they could call in and leave comments regarding the agency and/or the survey. The only comments received were related to the time the respondent was called on a Saturday, and a question regarding a specific Professional Standards inquiry.
We selected a sample population of 1,771 randomly-selected phone numbers (excluding business phones) that was used as our sampling frame for this survey.
At the end of the two-day project, all 1,771 phone numbers had been called and a total of 196 citizens took the time to complete the survey.
Based on the survey, 88 percent of those who completed a survey indicated that they felt the overall performance of the Newport News Police Department was satisfactory or better during the past 12 months. Below is a synopsis of our findings:
1. During the past 12 months, have you or a member of your immediate family had formal contact with a member of the Newport News Police Department?
YES = 27%
NO = 72%
2. If formal contact did occur, was it the result of you or your immediate family member being a victim of a crime?
YES = 11%
NO = 36%
NO FORMAL CONTACT = 52%
3. If formal contact did occur, how would you rate your overall level of satisfaction with the overall quality of the contact?
ABOVE SATISFACTORY = 25%*
SATISFACTORY = 25%*
BELOW SATISFACTORY = 5%*
DON'T REMEMBER = 44%*
*Excludes those with no formal contact
4. How would you rate the safety of your neighborhood during the day?
VERY SAFE = 39%
REASONABLY SAFE = 40%
SOMEWHAT SAFE = 14%
VERY UNSAFE = 3%
DO NOT KNOW = 4%
5. How would you rate the safety of your neighborhood after dark?
VERY SAFE = 23%
REASONABLY SAFE = 40%
SOMEWHAT SAFE = 23%
VERY UNSAFE = 9%
DO NOT KNOW = 5%
6. Do you currently feel safer in your neighborhood than you did a year ago?
YES = 46%*
NO = 53%*
*Excludes those with no opinion
7. How would you rate the safety of our city's business areas during the day?
VERY SAFE = 22%
REASONABLY SAFE = 52%
SOMEWHAT SAFE = 19%
VERY UNSAFE = 1%
DO NOT KNOW = 7%
8. How would you rate the safety of our city's buiness areas after dark?
VERY SAFE = 5%
REASONABLY SAFE = 35%
SOMEWHAT SAFE = 35%
VERY UNSAFE = 10%
DO NOT KNOW = 15%
9. How would you rate the overall performance of the Newport News Police Department?
ABOVE SATISFACTORY = 25%*
SATISFACTORY = 69%*
BELOW SATISFACTORY = 5%*
You work for Newport News?
My Ex-wife's mom used to live there... was never too fond of the place.
-
You work for Newport News?
My Ex-wife's mom used to live there... was never too fond of the place.
No, I work for Austin. I couldn't find any readily available surveys but Newport News and Austin are similar in many ways.
-
No, I work for Austin. I couldn't find any readily available surveys but Newport News and Austin are similar in many ways.
I've been to both places... I don't see the similarity, but that's just me.
The next time I come to Austin for work we will have to grab a beer or something.
-
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
-
Fast & Furious: FBI may have covered up third gun found at scene of agent’s death to protect
Hot Air ^ | 9/19/11 | Allahpundit
Posted on September 19, 2011 9:11:39 PM EDT by Nachum
Two new pieces of the puzzle here, one published 10 days ago and the other just this afternoon. We already knew that Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered in December with two AK-47s sold by the ATF through the F&F operation. That’s what broke the scandal open, of course — American law enforcement gunned down with weapons ingeniously provided to Mexican drug cartels by … American law enforcement. What we didn’t know until recently is that there might have been more than two guns recovered at the scene. Enter CBS brandishing a snippet of audio between an ATF agent and the gun dealer who assisted the ATF in selling those AK-47s that points to three guns having been found. Why didn’t we know that? Because the legal filings in the case took care not to mention it:
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
-
I've been to both places... I don't see the similarity, but that's just me.
The next time I come to Austin for work we will have to grab a beer or something.
Absolutely, would be fun.
The similarities are policing styles. Community based policing is a big part of both departments. It's a philosophy and style not all departments accept yet but it's time is drawing near. It mainly concerns educating the public and new officers that the idea the police can/will solve all your community problems without your involvement is not going to happen. We don't have the resources to do it. But if we can form partnerships with the community, Neighborhood Associations and watches we can have a bigger impact on crime. Thats an oversimplified description but that's the idea.. The police can't do it alone without citizens help
-
Issa to launch probe of Obama actions on Solyndra, LightSquared
The Hill ^ | September 20, 2011 | Justin Sink
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that his committee plans to investigate government loan programs to private corporations in light of allegations of improper dealings between the White House and failed energy company Solyndra and wireless startup LightSquared.
"I want to see when the president and his cronies are picking winners and losers… it wasn't because there were large contributions given to them," the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Tuesday morning on CSPAN.
Issa said the committee was looking at whether it was improper for members of Congress or White House staff to select companies eligible for subsidized government loans when those companies could give campaign donations. Loan programs have been a popular tool to provide funding for popular industries - like tech, green energy, and American auto companies - at more favorable terms than could be secured privately.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
-
Heads should roll in administration’s Fast and Furious debacle
State Press ^ | September 19, 2011 | Page Gerrick
Summary: We must demand answers and consequences for those responsible in Operation Fast and Furious.
One year ago, the phrase “Fast and Furious” would conjure images of a terrible movie franchise with fast cars, hot chicks, guys with big muscles and dreadful plot lines. Now, that phrase has morphed into an entirely different image.
It’s an image of the “straw purchases” of assault-style weapons from firearms dealers that are sometimes resold to criminal elements in Mexico. Straw purchasers are people who buy guns to resell to other parties, often members of cartels and gangs.
And before you lay blame on the dealers, you need to understand that they were given lists of ‘straw purchasers’ by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a branch of the Justice Department, and told to allow the sale of the firearms to ‘straw purchasers’ to go through.
The Justice Department has been accused of not only knowing the operation was active, but endorsing and arranging the operation through the ATF.
Under normal procedures, the “straw purchaser” would be arrested and the firearm confiscated before being sold to the intended target.
Under Fast & Furious, they bypassed this procedure, arrested the purchaser after the sale, and then attempted to “flip” them to give up the names of cartel members. The intent was to create a nexus between cartels and straw purchasers.
According to an article in The Huffington Post, this operation turned over approximately 2,000 firearms to violent cartels headquartered in Mexico, and as many as 1,400 of these are unaccounted for.
Now, it’s been discovered that the firearms have been used in the deaths of two Americans, and almost 200 firearms have been recovered from crime scenes in Mexico, according to The Los Angeles Times. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was murdered in Southern Arizona, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, who was murdered in Mexico, were the two Americans killed.
Where is Attorney General Eric Holder? Where is President Barack Obama? Why aren’t there more people marching around the White House and calling their legislators demanding answers?
And where is the media? Major newspapers and media outlets are attempting to minimize the exposure and discussion, and the Obama administration is certainly using this to their advantage.
While Holder is furiously working on reassigning agents to various posts and hanging Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney in Arizona, out to dry, the administration is still avoiding the topic and diverting attention to other, albeit important, issues without addressing this deadly one.
I find it curious that instead of focusing on the idiocy of the government enabling criminals to get their hands on guns, they are focusing on firearms in this country.
This administration has broken federal law in allowing the sale (against many dealers’ wishes) and transport of weapons across the border. It has now been revealed that White House staff members and advisors have received numerous briefings and emails on the status and function of the operation.
If this administration can’t see how their actions have not only escalated the violence of cartels on both sides of the border, increased the distrust felt by Mexican officials, and also caused the deaths of countless American and Mexican citizens, then I think it’s time for voters to seriously think about how incompetent the current administration really is.
The sins of the Obama administration should not be thrust upon unsuspecting law enforcement officers, Mexican citizens and law-abiding firearm dealers and owners in this country.
It’s time for the American people to stand up and demand answers, and perhaps the rolling of a few highly-ranked heads.
Reach the columnist at Page at Page.Gerrick@asu.edu
-
Has Issa accomplished anything yet?
You know, besides doing FOX interviews and forming committees? What has he accomplished in terms of curbing dem fraud and illegal activities?
-
Has Issa accomplished anything yet?
You know, besides doing FOX interviews and forming committees? What has he accomplished in terms of curbing dem fraud and illegal activities?
He is getting the story out to the public and hopefully just letting these scandals publicy fester until next year when they will be too hot to handle and bam bam is forced to step aside.
Normally this type of crap happens in a second term of a POTUS, not the first term.
If somehow Obastard geta second term - it will be entirely caught up in scandal as the GOP will have the senate and house and he will get ZERO done.
-
oh - what is his title, and where in its description is "getting the story out to the public" his job?
LOL... dems are continuing their nonstop plundering and Issa Has Not Done Shit to stop them.
Oh wait, he 'got the story out' on FOX news, and we all know that preaching to the choir is the most effective method...
-
oh - what is his title, and where in its description is "getting the story out to the public" his job?
LOL... dems are continuing their nonstop plundering and Issa Has Not Done Shit to stop them.
Oh wait, he 'got the story out' on FOX news, and we all know that preaching to the choir is the most effective method...
The congress is never going to impeach the first black potus short of him murdering someone. The best thing to do is just keeping the drip and stench of scandal out there so we can rid ourselves of the Damien Thorn POTUS
-
so what initiatives has Issa introduced to the HOuse?
SUrely they would support it - and we'd have to let the senate get on the record killing the bill.
Are you saying Issa is completely powerless - other than the abilitiy to "get the story out" to FOX viewers? LOL
-
so what initiatives has Issa introduced to the HOuse?
SUrely they would support it - and we'd have to let the senate get on the record killing the bill.
Are you saying Issa is completely powerless - other than the abilitiy to "get the story out" to FOX viewers? LOL
They voted to end ObamaCare, the Ryan budget, cut, cap and balance, etc.
All died in the Senate.
-
Solyndra Investor, Obama Bundler George Kaiser in 2009: It’s Time to Cash in on the Mother of All Government Handouts"
Morgen on September 20, 2011 at 6:22 am
http://www.verumserum.com/?p=29428
Billionaire Obama fundraiser George Kaiser visited the White House 16 times over the past 3 years, and is caught in the middle of the Solyndra scandal as the company’s chief investor and prime beneficiary of the debt restructuring approved by the Obama Administration earlier this year. This has lead to the obvious question of whether Kaiser leveraged his political connections to obtain federal stimulus funding, and preferential treatment, but surely there might be a less nefarious explanation for Kaiser’s White House visits, right? Nah…
Now, obviously in this presentation he was talking about his Family Foundation‘s efforts to obtain stimulus funding primarily for community-based initiatives, but he clearly wasn’t shy about leveraging his White House connections in order to do so, and remember that his investment in Solyndra was also made through his Foundation.
Frankly I can think of no better condemnation of the corruption and utter futility of the Obama stimulus then the fact that here you have one of the wealthiest philanthropists in America, a man with nearly $10 billion in personal assets, openly stating his intention to grab as much stimulus money as he possibly could, like every other pig at the trough. Is this the proper role of government, to take hard-earned dollars from tax payers (and their children and grandchildren) to fund the vanity projects of multi-billionaires, well-intentioned or not, who just so happen to have the right political connections? The $500 million to Solyndra is only the tip of the iceberg, I’d bet. How many other stimulus deals were greased by Kaiser and others like him?
I’m not the first to notice, but Obama is a bit of a fraud. Not exactly sure how he reconciles his tax the rich rhetoric with his Administration’s track record of deals like this. If you really believe the rich aren’t paying their fair share you might start by not forking over taxpayer dollars to your billionaire donors.
-
Issa to launch probe of Obama actions on Solyndra, LightSquared
The Hill ^ | September 20, 2011 | Justin Sink
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that his committee plans to investigate government loan programs to private corporations in light of allegations of improper dealings between the White House and failed energy company Solyndra and wireless startup LightSquared.
"I want to see when the president and his cronies are picking winners and losers… it wasn't because there were large contributions given to them," the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Tuesday morning on CSPAN.
Issa said the committee was looking at whether it was improper for members of Congress or White House staff to select companies eligible for subsidized government loans when those companies could give campaign donations. Loan programs have been a popular tool to provide funding for popular industries - like tech, green energy, and American auto companies - at more favorable terms than could be secured privately.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Well, with the obvious display of bias towards the president, it will be ignored as another political stunt.... ;D But the fact is the Administration is already investigating Solandya and Lightsquared and has conducted FBI raids on both places.
-
Yeah - ok Vince - keep believing the lies of obama. Says more about you than him at this point.
-
The Solyndra Scandal and the Future of Green Energy
Townhall.com ^ | September 20, 2011 | Elanor Vaughan
An investigation by the Energy and Commerce Committee has revealed that, for political reasons, the White House rushed a $528 billion federal loan to solar firm Solyndra, which went bankrupt two weeks ago. Taxpayers should be outraged. Not just about Solyndra, but about the inherent corruption of government's entire push to pick winners and losers in the energy sector, and micromanage the economy in general.
In case anyone has missed it, here's a refresher on what happened with Solyndra. After the Department of Energy had tentatively approved Solyndra’s loan, White House officials unduly pressured the Office of Management and Budget to give final approval. Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to appear at the company’s groundbreaking ceremony and the White House didn’t want to miss its photo opportunity. Even then Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel wrote to ask if there was anything he could do to speed the process along. Officials worried that rushing to approve the loan meant they didn’t have enough time to assess the risk to taxpayers. But, the loan went ahead and so did Biden’s photo op.
President Obama touted the project as central to his green jobs plan, visiting the company in May 2010. Solyndra was the first solar company to receive a loan from a federal program to support green energy, a promising symbol of all those green energy jobs still to come. Then, two weeks ago, Solyndra went bankrupt. Now subject to an FBI investigation. The failed company leaves 1,100 people out of work and taxpayers liable for $528 billion in federal loans.
Solyndra was the darling of Obama’s green business plan, but a bad bet from the beginning. Blinded by its close ties to Solyndra executives and its zealotry for green jobs, the White House chose to ignore warnings from the Government Accountability Office that the firm was headed for failure. Private credit ratings agencies also warned that the project would run out of cash in September 2011. Failing to conduct due diligence with public money, the White House got caught up in “corporate favoritism, big-money politics, and Chicago-style deal making.” They cajoled the OMB into approving an enormous loan – hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars – for political ends. Worse yet, Solyndra is not the only green energy firm propped up by taxes to go under. At least four other green energy firms that each received between $500,000 and $6 million dollars in federal loans have also gone bankrupt.
The Solyndra scandal raises the larger problem of government involvement in energy investment, and the economy in general. The problem is simple: Government’s primary motive is politics, not profit. This produces bad business decisions. Big money goes to projects which sound attractive to voters, are politically well-connected, or produce good photo opportunities, but not necessarily to the projects that produce the best results. Government ends up investing in a solar panel company that goes bankrupt, or a bio-ethanol product that does nothing to improve energy efficiency.
A savvy private investment firm would certainly never rush the approval of a half-billion dollar loan in order to take advantage of a photo opportunity. Private investment insures accountability: invest in a business that suddenly goes belly-up and you lose your investment. When its your own money on the line, you do your homework to make sure you won’t lose your shirt. The private investor wants to make a profit and therefore looks for projects with good prospects of success.
Taxpayers should keep this in mind the next time the President or another politician talks about making “investments” with taxpayer money. Do you really think that government is going to take the same care investing your money as you would?
When it comes to energy policy, the United States desperately needs clean, reliable, domestic energy sources. From this source will flow new jobs, new wealth, reduced environmental impact, and independence from Middle East oil states. But incompetent investment by politically-motivated bureaucrats is not the way to achieve this goal. If America is to have a hope of green energy and jobs, it will be through private investment in promising companies and technologies – not through government officials playing high stakes roulette with other people’s money.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Well, with the obvious display of bias towards the president, it will be ignored as another political stunt.... ;D But the fact is the Administration is already investigating Solandya and Lightsquared and has conducted FBI raids on both places.
The Administration is investigating itself? That's pretty funny. :)
-
Attorney General in Mexico: 200 Murders Result of Operation Fast and Furious
Town Hall ^ | 9//20/11 | Katie Pavlich
In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. Eleven crimes in the United States have been linked to Operation Fast and Furious up to this point. Issa said he expects as the investigation in the operation continues, more crimes connected to Fast and Furious will come to light and be exposed. This is not surprising, considering out of 2500 weapons the Obama Justice Department allowed to “walk,” and that only 600 have been recovered, the rest are lost until they show up at violent crime scenes. The damage from Operation Fast and Furious has only started to be seen. Remember, the Mexican Government and ATF agents working in Mexico were left completely in the dark about the operation.
July 26, 2011
A new report released by Issa’s office shows ATF agents working in Mexico were left in the dark about the details of Operation Fast and Furious. The report shows that in late 2009, ATF officials in Mexico began to see increasing amounts of guns traced to the Phoenix ATF Field Division office showing up at violent crime scenes. Former ATF Attaché to Mexico Darren Gil and ATF Acting Attaché to Mexico Carlos Canino expressed their concerns to officials in the Phoenix Field Office and in Washington D.C. but were ignored. The report shows ATF and DOJ “failed to share crucial details of the of Operation Fast and Furious with either their own employees stationed in Mexico or representatives of the Government of Mexico.” Specifically, personnel in Arizona denied ATF agents working in Mexico information directly related to their jobs and everyday operations.
Issa submitted
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.
-
Extravagant’ Spending, $16 Muffins Found at Justice Department Meetings
Nutty News ^ | 9/20/2011 | Seth Stein
U.S. Justice Department agencies spent too much for food at conferences, in one case serving $16 muffins and in another dishing out beef Wellington appetizers that cost $7.32 per serving, an audit found.
“Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending,” the Justice Department’s inspector general wrote in a report released today.
The inspector general reviewed a sample of 10 Justice Department conferences held between October 2007 and September 2009 at a cost of $4.4 million. The Justice Department spent $73.3 million on conferences in fiscal 2009, compared with $47.8 million a year earlier, according to the report.
The muffins were served at a conference of the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the beef Wellington was offered at a meeting hosted by the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys. A conference of the Office on Violence Against Women served Cracker Jacks, popcorn and candy bars at a single break, costing $32 per person, according to the report.
The report is a follow-up to one from 2007 that found the Justice Department had few controls to limit the costs of conference planning, food and beverages. That audit cited a reception that included Swedish meatballs costing $5 apiece.
In April 2008 the Justice Department issued policies and procedures designed to control conference spending.
The new report found that agencies were able to “circumvent meal and refreshment cost limits” when conferences were planned under cooperative agreements, a type of funding awarded by a Justice Department agency.
Justice Department agencies “did not adequately attempt to minimize conference costs as required by federal and DOJ guidelines,” the report said.
-
In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.
::)
-
::)
LMFAO! ! ! ! !
200 murders is nothing to you?
-
Solyndra execs will decline to testify at Congressional hearing Friday
Reuters Breaking News ^ | Sept. 20, 2011 | Starf
This is all for now:
Solyndra execs will decline to testify at Congressional hearing Friday, according to letters from their attorneys obtained by Reuters.
-
;)
-
DWB is on this!
-
LMFAO! ! ! ! !
200 murders is nothing to you?
200 murders is horrific. But to pretend they were the direct result of Fast and Furious is a stretch. You seem to think no guns would exist in Mexico had it not been for this operation when in fact, I have no doubt there would still have been 200 murders with or without the operation. Do you honestly think otherwise?
And before you come back with the predictable retort, no it doesnt make it right. Those responsible for such an operation should be held accountable. But for pete's sake, the Attorney Generals statement is bullshit.
-
200 murders is horrific. But to pretend they were the direct result of Fast and Furious is a stretch. You seem to think no guns would exist in Mexico had it not been for this operation when in fact, I have no doubt there would still have been 200 murders with or without the operation. Do you honestly think otherwise?
And before you come back with the predictable retort, no it doesnt make it right. Those responsible for such an operation should be held accountable. But for pete's sake, the Attorney Generals statement is bullshit.
So who shuold be held responsible ?
-
So who shuold be held responsible ?
The department heads that had knowledge of it and approved it.
-
The department heads that had knowledge of it and approved it.
And are they being held responsible now? No!
-
And are they being held responsible now? No!
Oh my! Should I start another thread about it?
-
Solyndra Execs to plead the 5th. It's almost like they have something to hide.
« on: Today at 04:29:10 PM »
Quote
Solargate Meets Enron: Solyndra CEO And CFO To Plead The Fifth
And now the political rags will really tear the American Jobs Act, ARRA and the administration, apart, because the Venn diagrams of Enron and Watergate just crossed and the point of intersection is called Solyndra. According to Reuters: "Solyndra LLC's chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer any questions put to them at a Congressional hearing on Friday, according to letters from their attorneys obtained by Reuters." But, but, what do they have to hide? And how many times in the past has pleading the fifth not led to a prison sentence for someone? And, implicitly, and potentially, the commencement of impeachment hearings?
From Reuters:
In the letters sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, attorneys for Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO W. G. Stover said they advised their clients not to provide testimony during the hearings.
The bankrupt company's $535 million federal loan guarantee is being investigated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Harrison is represented by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Stover is represented by Keker & Van Nest.
Solyndra's offices were raided by the FBI two days after the company filed for bankruptcy, although the FBI did not say what prompted the raid.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/solargate-meets-enron-solyndra-ceo-and-cfo-plead-fifth
I have developed solar power. My business plan is more sound that Solyndra's (I'll break exactly even forever). Give me $500 million.
Courtesy of BF.
-
Smith to Holder: Investigate Solyndra
Big Government ^ | 9/20/11 |
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has sent the following letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, seeking the appointment of an independent examiner to probe the Solyndra scandal:
Rep. Smith to Atty. Gen. Holder
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
-
Orrin Hatch: 35 states got less stimulus money for infrastructure than Solyndra
The Right Scoop ^ | 9/2o/11 | The Right Scoop
While Obama’s out there pointing at bridges that might need repair, Orrin Hatch reveals that there were 35 states that got less stimulus money for their roads, highways, and bridges than Solyndra did in a guaranteed loan for their green jobs scam.
(Excerpt) Read more at therightscoop.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Solyndra execs to plead Fifth in hearing
The Daily Caller ^ | 9/20/11 | C.J. Ciaramella
Posted on September 20, 2011 4:41:59 PM EDT by Nachum
The chief executive and chief financial officer of Solyndra will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer any questions at a congressional hearing on Friday.
According to letters obtained by Reuters, Solyndra attorneys have advised CEO Brian Harrison and CFO W. G. Stover to not testify at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (RELATED: Rahm Emanuel on Solyndra: I don’t remember)
“I have advised Mr. Harrison that he should decline to answer questions put to him by this subcommittee based on his rights under the Fifth Amendment,” Harrison’s attorney, Walter F. Brown Jr., wrote to the the committee. “This is not a decision arrived at lightly, but it is a decision dictated by current circumstances.”
The House Energy and Commerce Committee opened an investigation into Solyndra after the solar panel manufacturing company — which received a $535 million loan from the Department of Energy — announced it would be declaring bankruptcy earlier this month.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Attorney General in Mexico: 200 Murders Result of Operation Fast and Furious
Town Hall ^ | 9//20/11 | Katie Pavlich
Posted on September 20, 2011 2:37:47 PM EDT by Nachum
In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. Eleven crimes in the United States have been linked to Operation Fast and Furious up to this point. Issa said he expects as the investigation in the operation continues, more crimes connected to Fast and Furious will come to light and be exposed. This is not surprising, considering out of 2500 weapons the Obama Justice Department allowed to “walk,” and that only 600 have been recovered, the rest are lost until they show up at violent crime scenes. The damage from Operation Fast and Furious has only started to be seen. Remember, the Mexican Government and ATF agents working in Mexico were left completely in the dark about the operation.
July 26, 2011
A new report released by Issa’s office shows ATF agents working in Mexico were left in the dark about the details of Operation Fast and Furious. The report shows that in late 2009, ATF officials in Mexico began to see increasing amounts of guns traced to the Phoenix ATF Field Division office showing up at violent crime scenes. Former ATF Attaché to Mexico Darren Gil and ATF Acting Attaché to Mexico Carlos Canino expressed their concerns to officials in the Phoenix Field Office and in Washington D.C. but were ignored. The report shows ATF and DOJ “failed to share crucial details of the of Operation Fast and Furious with either their own employees stationed in Mexico or representatives of the Government of Mexico.” Specifically, personnel in Arizona denied ATF agents working in Mexico information directly related to their jobs and everyday operations.
Issa submitted
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
-
ATF Death Watch 75: ATF-Enabled Indiana Guns Went to Chicago Gangs
The Truth About Guns ^ | 7 September, 2011 | Robert Farago
Posted on September 9, 2011 7:33:43 AM EDT by marktwain
I just got off the blower with Brent R. Weil [above] 0f Kightlinger and Gray, LLP. The Evansville, Indiana lawyer represents the [as yet unnamed] gun store that sold firearms to ATF-enabled straw purchasers. “The ATF told my client to let the sales go through,” Mr. Weil told TTAG. “He later told me that the guns went to Chicago gangs.” In one case, a straw purchaser failed to pass the FBI’s NICS [National Instant Check System] background check . . .
The dealer called an ATF agent in the parking lot; the agent told the dealer to let the sale go through. The ATF arrested the so-called straw purchaser after he walked out the door. In every other instance, however, the ATF did not apprehend the buyers immediately after purchase.
In one case, a buyer and his associate left the store and smashed their vehicle into a police car on their way out. (Seriously.) The driver was charged with the traffic incident, but allowed to keep the guns and proceed. Whether or not the ATF kept tabs on the guns after that, or if guns were used in subsequent crimes, is unknown.
Mr. Weil also threw some cold water on the theory that Mexican cartel members in Indiana purchased the guns with the ATF’s blessing as part of an anti-Los Zetas quid pro quo. “The buyers were black and caucasian,” Weil said. Also, the gun store in question initiated the contact with the ATF.
The new information doesn’t rule out the possibility that the Indiana gun store “sting” involved criminals affiliated with the Sinaloa or La Familia cartels (whom the ATF armed during Operation Fast and Furious). But that possibility seems a whole lot less likely.
Nonetheless, the Indiana intel reveals that the ATF was allowing known criminals to purchase firearms. The crucial question: did they lose track of the guns accidentally on purpose, as they did during Operation Fast and Furious?
And if the guns purchased in Evansville ended up in The Windy City, the ATF’s heir apparent—Chi-town Bureau Chief Andrew Traver—must have known about the policy. What did Andy know and when did he know it?
As Ralph points out below, we’re still left wondering about the scope, scale and final destination of all ATF-enabled firearms. How many vicious thugs bought firearms with the ATF’s help? How many of those were recovered and/or recovered from crime scenes?
Meanwhile, rumors are swirling that the Carson City killer used an ATF-enabled AK-47 during his murderous rampage. The attacker, Eduardo Sencion, was Mexican-born (with an American passport) with no criminal record.
There’s no firm evidence establishing linking Sencion with the ATF. The fact that anyone would even think of that possibility reveals the corrosive effect of the ATF on the public’s respect for the federal government and the primacy of the rule of law. It’s yet another reason to deep-six the ATF—after we find out what they’ve been doing with our tax money.
-
ATF 'Fast and Furious' secret audio recordings reveal concerns about whistleblower
CBS News ^ | September 20, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
Posted on September 21, 2011 1:28:49 AM EDT by Watchdog85
In a series of secretly recorded audio tapes believe to have been recorded last March and obtained by CBS News, an Arizona gun dealer and an ATF agent involved with ATF's "Fast and Furious" operation worried about the unraveling scandal.
The tapes were made just weeks after CBS News broke the story in February.
The conversations were recorded by Andre Howard who ran the Lone Wolf Trading Company. Howard's gun dealership had been cooperating with the ATF in "Fast and Furious." At least two of his weapons were sold to a straw buyer before turning up later at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Hope MacAllister, the ATF agent heard in the conversations, was the lead case agent.
Among other things, Howard and MacAllister expressed concerns about ATF Special Agent John Dodson, who by that point had gone public about "Fast and Furious" in an exclusive interview with CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
They also spoke of their concerns that Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) was investigating, with Agent MacCallister saying of her superiors in Washington, DC, "they're gonna say have to say Grassley you're just gonna have to sit your a-- down."
These recordings are important because MacAllister has never spoken publicly about her involvement in the operation and its fallout and Howard's role as a gun dealer cooperating with the ATF placed him in position to see "Fast and Furious" firsthand . The audio recordings contain new revelations about the guns involved, and ATF's efforts to respond to the breaking scandal. The tapes were turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General in connection with their probe into "Fast and Furious."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
-
Solyndra, cont’d.
Last Updated: 4:40 AM, September 17, 2011
So now it turns out that the Obama White House was warned privately in no uncertain terms last January against a fresh infusion of taxpayer cash to financially beleaguered Solyndra.
Indeed, according to newly released e-mails, a top career official at the Office of Management and Budget warned that the rapidy deteriorating Solyndra situation could damage the president politically.
But the solar-paneling company -- a centerpiece of President Obama’s “green jobs” initiative -- pleaded that it was in danger of collapsing without new capital.
So the money went through -- and Solyndra went belly-up two weeks ago, after burning through $535 million in taxpayer-funded loan guarantees.
A few days later, the FBI raided its offices, seizing files and documents.
Incredibly, OMB staffers had estimated that keeping Solyndra alive but struggling -- as the administration did -- instead of allowing it to liquidate last January would cost taxpayers an extra $168 million.
“If Solyndra defaults down the road,” read one e-mail, “the optics will arguably be worse than they would be today,” because “additional funds [will] have been put at risk, recovery may be lower and questions will be asked as to why the administration made a bad investment, not just once ... but twice.”
The staffer, whose name was redacted from the published e-mail, tried to derail the extra Solyndra cash by making a political argument, suggesting that allowing Solyndra to shut its doors last January would let the White House “get some credit for fiscal discipline.”
But that suggestion was ignored -- little surprise, given how the Solyndra deal, now threatening to become Obama’s Enron, was steeped in politics from the start.
One of the California firm’s chief investors, after all, was billionaire George Kaiser, one of Obama’s top 2008 campaign fund-raising bundlers, who’s visited the White House 16 times.
In the months before Solyndra’s approval, ABC News reports, he had meetings with key adviser Valerie Jarrett, then-chief White House economist Austan Goolsbee and former chief of staff Pete Rouse.
All of which may help explain why Team Obama rushed through loan guarantees for Solyndra that had already been shelved by the Bush administration.
The steady drip of new disclosures suggests pretty strongly that what we’ve heard so far about Solyndra -- outrageous as it is -- is only the tip of the iceberg. See below.
NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc.
nypost.com , nypostonline.com , and newyorkpost.com are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc.
Copyright 2011 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy | Terms of Use
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/solyndra_cont_NISd2Y7FbeMrs6uC0KjV7N#ixzz1YasymceP
-
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE www.nationalreview.com PRINT
Victor Davis Hanson
Archive | Log In
September 21, 2011 4:00 A.M.
Obama’s Predictable Scandals
The media can no longer shield Obama from scrutiny.
The media finally conceded the Obama administration to be inexperienced and inept, reminiscent of the Carter administration — but, they maintained, not possibly involved in any corruption. Then suddenly scandals erupted on nearly every conceivable front: the crony-capitalist half-billion-dollar loan guarantee to a now bankrupt Solyndra; the Fast and Furious gun deal, in which, in lunatic fashion, the U.S. government sold deadly automatic weapons to Mexican drug-cartel killers; the administration’s pressure on a four-star general to fudge his testimony as a favor to a big campaign donor whose suspect company, LightSquared, was doing business with the Pentagon; and the politically inspired dropping of investigations by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.
The administration got itself into these messes because it customarily counts on a medieval notion of compartmentalized exemption. In the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama’s loud and welcomed hope-and-change promises to end insider influence, lobbying, and earmarks were essential to his well-crafted image of the outsider reformer. Once that liberal narrative was embraced by the media, few seemed to care whether the other, cynical Obama was the first candidate in the history of public financing of presidential campaigns to renounce the program — in order to maximize his campaign stash, much of it pouring in from firms like Goldman Sachs and BP.
The country shrugged at such contradictions: Surely such a saintly progressive had saintly reasons; or, if he didn’t, exemption must be given for a messianic figure to use questionable means to achieve his noble ends. Yet, according to PolitiFact, the fact-checking arm of the St. Petersburg Times, of the 17 grand promises candidate Obama made on ethics reform, he has so far kept only five.
That principle of liberal exemption from accountability explains much of both the fundamental and the trivial about the Obama administration. As a candidate, Obama railed against “Karl Rove politics.” Few seemed to notice that he had established a website (“Fight the Smears”) asking supporters to collect information on opponents, in a Nixonian effort at preemptive action to discourage opposition. The notorious and now-defunct JournoList followed. Currently we see that creepy tactic resurfacing a third time with the new AttackWatch.com website, which lists pictures and names, in the glaring red-and-black style of an intelligence dossier, of those who have criticized Obama — juxtaposed with supposed rebuttals and a puerile request for readers to snoop about and send in more names of those who dare to oppose the president.
“Civility” has followed the same tired script. Channeling the outrage over the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Obama in sonorous accents called for a new civility and a softer tone of public discourse — even though the man who shot Congresswoman Giffords was clearly sick and incited by neither left nor right political rhetoric. That the president, both in campaigns and in governance, had begged Latinos to “punish our enemies” and had called on supporters to “get in their faces” was irrelevant. The Congressional Black Caucus and the union bosses apparently understood that disconnect, as progressives called Tea Party types “son of bitches” who could go “straight to Hell” — the modern equivalents of the lynch mobs of the old segregated South. In the postmodernism of Obama, self-proclaimed underdogs and victims are not bound by protocols intended for their oppressors: Some illiberal targets clearly have to be demonized to thwart their demonic plans.
We all know that Obama supports the DREAM Act and ridiculed the calls to build a border fence as a conservative effort to install “moats and alligators.” Why, then, would such an enlightened administration that wished brotherly porous borders have its agents sell guns to Mexican killers? No doubt a rogue subordinate, or a well-intentioned effort to do some sort of good, would soon surface in righteous explanation that would preclude partisan gotcha audits.
The Solyndra mess, in Sophoclean tragic fashion, revealed these same requisite exemptions and penances. In 2010, a buoyant Obama visited the doomed plant to boast of government-generated green and homegrown jobs. By inference, Solyndra was just the sort of noble federally sponsored factory that the greedy private oil companies, non-union profit-hungry employers, and dastardly outsourcing CEOs just won’t build. The far wiser China and Germany subsidize green energy, so we must too. Case closed.
Once that huge moral superstructure went up, then no naysayers dared to look into the nitty-gritty mechanics down below, where some insider financiers and con artists were squeezing out of the taxpayers a $500 million loan without much intention of ever paying it back. The earthly laws of profit and loss, market demand and rationale, and the human tendency to connive to find profit were all to be superseded by Barack Obama’s ethereal appeals to help the unemployed and cool the planet.
In this world of liberal exemption, a suspect Dick Cheney conspires with an evil Halliburton; but liberal financiers who donated to Barack Obama to ensure progressive change can’t really want unwarranted insider profits from a Solyndra or a LightSquared. We are supposed to be outraged by recent lurid revelations that yokels like non-presidential candidate Sarah Palin supposedly long ago in her youth once tried coke; when Barack Obama confessed in print that he did so rather routinely, we automatically appreciated the angst of a sensitive soul coming of age in the course of his long odyssey to a progressive presidency. Sins are to be magnified or lessened depending on the larger perceived moral intentions of the sinner.
-
"But i am the first Black President"
"You need to give me a free pass!"
"I am entitled to it!"
-
September 21, 2011
Obama's Chicago pals get rich off of his fraud-ridden weatherization programs
Ed Lasky
The rest of America is just beginning to learn how Cook County politics works. Barack Obama learned his lessons well. He said as much when he let slip his real views: that politics is about "rewarding friends" and "punishing enemies."
As president, Obama seems to be busy "rewarding" his home town pals at taxpayer expense. The giant slush fund known as the "stimulus" has been a rich source of payoffs that extend far beyond mega donors such as George Kaiser and his Solyndra investment. The stimulus fund has also been a honey pot to send money to personal pals of Barack and Michelle.
One way he has found to funnel money to friends is through the fraud and waste-ridden weatherization program. This was a Van Jones approved program to help employment in minority communities. People would be hired from those communities to weatherize homes in poorer communities.
The program has been, surprise, a big loser for taxpayers. But for Obama's pals back in Chicago. Not so-they came out winners.
Amanda Carey reports at the Daily Caller:
...in October 2010, Gregory H. Friedman, Inspector General at the Department of Energy, issued a scathing report on Illinois' weatherization program funded with stimulus dollars.
Among his findings were that 14 out of 15 "weatherized" homes failed final inspection because of poor workmanship and 12 out of 15 homes contained substandard work that could have "resulted in significant property damage or injury to the homeowners."
The Inspector General report has a litany of expensive failures and botched jobs-substituting cheaper material than listed in the contract, dangerous practices leaving people exposed to possible risks to their lives, shoddy work and the like. One Republican who signed onto the group formed to monitor the program resigned in disgust when his views regarding the abuses were ignored by the rest of the panel.
But what is most interesting is the pinpointing of those who benefited from this waste and fraud-ridden program.
The state-run program is being promoted by four separate public relations firms. Two of those firms have close ties to the Obama administration.
According to state records, DCEO has been paying Jascula-Terman and Associates, Inc. of Chicago more than $700,000 a year to promote the program. The firm is headed by Chairman and CEO Rick Jascula; and President and CFO Jim Terman. In 2008, they provided pro bono services to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, at the request of Obama's close friend and adviser David Axelrod.
In 2010 former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel went to Jascula-Terman for help during his mayoral campaign.
The DCEO also hired Avis Lavelle, of A. Lavelle Consulting, to do press work for the program. A former press secretary for Mayor Richard Daley, Lavelle is considered to be a close friend of Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett. She did not return TheDC's request for comment.
Those "pro-bono" services were offered to Jeremiah Wright -- the anti-American, anti-white, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic friend and inspiration for Barack Obama -- apparently were not so "pro-bono" after all. The firm seems to have been well-rewarded with taxpayer funds. Apparently when Obama finally was forced to say sayonara to Wright when Wright became a political problem, Team Obama was looking out for him.
Wright was being taken care via David Axlerod, Obama's campaign guru at the time. Perhaps there was a quid pro quo offer made to Wright: lay low until the campaign is over and you will receive "free" public relations help to burnish your image.
This is how Cook County works. IOUs may take a respectable while to be paid off to avoid too many questions. But the "I scratch your back, you scratch my back" modus operandi still rules in politics. Debts are paid back -- with taxpayer funds. The payback may not be in brown envelopes in alleys or bars anymore but they still take place.
Of course it is nice to see that Michelle Obama's and Valerie Jarrett's gal pal, Avis Lavelle, has also been the beneficiary of our dollars. Maybe the three of them can now enjoy more meals at Spiaggia, the luxe Chicago restaurant that the Obamas consider suitable for them when they fly into town on Air Force One.
WWW.AMERICANTHINKER.COM
-
Fraud case targets grants awarded by President Obama’s friend
By CHRIS FUSCO & DAVE McKINNEY
Staff Reporters / cfusco@suntimes.com September 19, 2011 2:26AM
Not-for-profit group used state funds to buy decked-out Hummer Updated: September 21, 2011 10:01AM
The indictment of a Chicago nurse accused of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds for her personal use has turned a spotlight on an Illinois state agency that awarded her money while it was headed by one of President Barack Obama’s closest friends, Dr. Eric E. Whitaker, records show.
Under Whitaker, the Illinois Department of Public Health awarded Margaret A. Davis — the former program director of the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association — a no-bid contract and seven AIDS- and cancer-related grants that became part of her $500,000 cash-siphoning scheme, prosecutors say.
According to federal subpoenas and other records, Davis’ June 9 indictment by a federal grand jury in Springfield is part of a larger criminal investigation involving the health department and other state agencies.
Whitaker — who’s now a top executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center — has not been accused of any wrongdoing. He says he couldn’t have known about the problems the Davis indictment describes and that he and his staff acted quickly when they became aware of problems with other contractors.
Since 2009 and as recently as March, federal authorities have sent the health department a total of four subpoenas seeking information on a broad range of “faith-based initiatives” and health-outreach programs that Whitaker oversaw. Those subpoenas name seven organizations — including Davis’ National Black Nurses Association — which, in all, got more than $2 million under Whitaker.
The Illinois attorney general’s office is suing to recover $523,546 in allegedly misspent money from one of those organizations: the Let’s Talk, Let’s Test Foundation, a now-defunct AIDS awareness group.
Whitaker — who was hired by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2003 on Obama’s recommendation — publicly surfaced in the federal investigation in May 2010, when the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he, former chief of staff Quinshaunta Golden and two other Blagojevich administration officials — Deputy Gov. Louanner Peters and Whitaker’s successor at the health department, Dr. Damon Arnold — had been named in a subpoena seeking their state-government e-mails and other electronic records since January 2007. None has been charged with any crime.
Whitaker, 46, left state government in October 2007 to work alongside future first lady Michelle Obama at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he’s now executive vice president for strategic affiliations and associate dean for community-based research — a job that paid him $670,833 in 2009.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Whitaker frequently traveled with Obama, and he remains part of the president’s inner circle. He vacationed with the president in Martha’s Vineyard late last month and attended three White House parties earlier this year.
After the Sun-Times reported last year that Whitaker’s name had surfaced in the federal investigation, he told reporters: “The organizations the subpoenas were about — they received funding in the last month of my tenure at the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Sun-Times framed it as if I was in the center of a lot of things. I would say that’s inaccurate.”
But Davis’ indictment and other records show that Whitaker’s department had given money to those groups long before then.
Now, asked about that discrepancy and about the Davis case, Whitaker e-mailed a statement acknowledging “confusion related to statements I have made in the past.
“Let me be clear: In the course of administering some 8,000 grants related to approximately 240 public health programs, there was a handful that fell short. When I and my team were aware of problems, we acted swiftly. . . . In some cases, we couldn’t have known about transgressions — such as the alleged embezzlement related to a contract with the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association.”
Marj Halperin, a spokeswoman for Whitaker, said he hasn’t been subpoenaed personally, nor has he hired a lawyer to represent him regarding the investigation because “there’s been no reason for him to do so.”
Davis, 60, is scheduled to go on trial in federal court in Springfield on Dec. 6 on a 16-count mail-fraud and money-laundering indictment. A co-defendant, Tonja Cook, 44, is charged with one count of mail fraud.
According to their indictment, Davis used her roles with the National Black Nurses Association and two other health-care groups to obtain 15 state grants and contracts totaling more than $1 million between December 2005 and March 2009. She allegedly siphoned off $500,000 of that for personal use.
Of the taxpayer money, $577,473 came from the health department under Whitaker and Arnold, and $460,000 came from the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, then headed by Jack Lavin, who’s now Gov. Pat Quinn’s chief of staff.
Davis once won praise from Whitaker, who called her “the ultimate advocate for health care and human services” when Blagojevich honored her with a governor’s PATH (People Are Today’s Heroes) Award in January 2007. “Her energy and commitment amaze me.”
According to prosecutors, Davis got seven state grants totaling $195,000 between December 2005 and June 2007 while Whitaker headed the health department. In December 2007, two months after Whitaker left the department, Davis got another $150,000 through “Ticket for the Cure,” a breast-cancer awareness program that Whitaker created.
Besides the grants, Whitaker’s chief of staff, Golden, signed Whitaker’s name to a June 2007 no-bid contract under which Davis hired college nursing students to “receive education, training and experience in the administrative process related to” a 2006 state law requiring health department staffers to perform criminal-background checks on residents of Illinois nursing homes.
That “contract was falsely represented as a ‘professional and artistic service’ contract when, in fact . . . the services performed by the students were clerical in nature,” according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say that misrepresenting what the students would do meant that the contract wouldn’t have to be awarded through competitive bidding.
According to the indictment, Davis diverted “in excess of $11,000” obtained under that contract. Unbeknownst to state officials, she also “hired her granddaughter and her granddaughter’s half-sister to work” as nursing interns.
Golden, who is a niece of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), is now a top aide to Whitaker at the U. of C. Medical Center, where she made $311,407 in 2009. She declined to be interviewed, as did lawyers for Cook and Margaret Davis, who is no relation to Danny Davis.
Halperin, Whitaker’s spokeswoman, said the nursing contract was part of a Blagojevich administration effort to ease a statewide nursing shortage, and that Davis’ interns did bona fide work under the supervision of health department employees.
Halperin said prosecutors are interpreting the definition of “professional and artistic services” too narrowly. “Administrative work is part of work related to the nursing field,” she said.
Whitaker said “the handful of problems that we addressed and continued to monitor right through to the end of our tenure” shouldn’t define his time in state government.
“I’m proud of our success in many public health areas, including our programs to combat HIV in the African-American community, which accounted for more than half of new HIV/AIDS cases at the time I took office,” he said.
“Thanks, in part, to the investment made through our community-based partnerships, we did see a drop in the number of reported HIV cases.”
Contributing: Abdon M. Pallasch
-
Law firms representing Solyndra executives are major Democratic donors
daily caller ^
The law firms representing two prominent Solyndra executives are major Democratic Party donors, The Daily Caller has learned.
Reuters first reported that the bankrupt company’s CEO, Brian Harrison, and CFO, W.G. Stover, plan to refuse to talk openly to congressional investigators about how their company squandered $535 million in taxpayer money. They will invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate themselves at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Friday.
The law firms representing the executives are Orrick, Harrington and Sutcliffe, and Keker and Van Nest. Both are major contributors to Democrats and both have handsomely helped President Barack Obama’s political efforts, according to information retrieved from Center for Responsive Politics databanks.
Employees at Orrick, Harrington and Sutcliffe, which is representing Harrison, have donated more than $1.3 million to federal campaigns, political parties and Political Action Committees since 1990. More than 95 percent of those donations went to Democrats, including $184,000 to Obama.
Steven Newmark, a litigation managing associate for the firm, has bundled between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama’s ongoing bid for re-election.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/20/solyndra-executives-pleading-the-fifth-on-friday-represented-by-major-democratic-donors
-
Audio Tapes Reveal More Details in 'Fast and Furious' Gunrunner Scandal
Fox News ^ | 9/21/11 | William Lajeunesse
In a series of secretly recorded audio tapes, the owner of the gun store that sold a record number of weapons in Operation Fast and Furious admittedly sounds arrogant, crude and complicit in the U.S. government's plan to sell high powered assault rifles to the Sinaloa Cartel.
However, the lawyer representing the Lone Wolf Trading Co. says owner Andre Howard made the tapes only after he suspected he was being lied to, and his language is meant to get Hope MacAllister, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to implicate herself and her agency in their illegal gun running scheme. Related Video
Extended Interview with Fast and Furious Whistleblower
Exclusive: ATF agent Larry Alt talks to Fox News
"He became very suspicious and in his own defense would tape key conversations with Ms. MacAllister and try to get her to make admissions about the truth of the matter," said Dallas attorney Larry Gaydos. "Andre was trying to get her to admit that indeed they let guns go to Mexico."
Howard has become a key witness in the congressional investigation of the Department of Justice and its alleged cover up of Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department has repeatedly said it did not allow guns -- purchased under its direction and authority -- to reach Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Secret Fast and Furious Recordings Name Names (Holder and Burke among them)
Big Government ^
CBS News recently got their hands on secret recordings of conversations about Fast and Furious that took place between an ATF agent and a gun store owner, both of whom were located in the Phoenix area (and both of whom were thoroughly acquainted with Fast and Furious).
The recordings captured agent Hope McAllister talking with Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company, at a time when Howard was noticeably worried that Fast and Furious was going to become public knowledge or be put under the microscope of a congressional investigation. Howard especially feared that Senator Charles Grassley might push for an inquiry of some kind. Thus at least four times in the recordings he can be heard mentioning Grassley, and one of those four times it’s to say someone needs to tell Grassley “to sit [his] a—down.”
What’s also interesting about the recordings is that although they were made in mid-March 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder’s name comes up quite a bit. And his name doesn’t come up because they’re afraid he’s going to find out about Fast and Furious but because he was the one they were counting on to deflect attention from it.
In other words, he was well aware of the operation by mid-March 2011, and this is somewhat ironic because in answering questions from Congressman Darrell Issa on May 3 he said he only learned of Fast and Furious “over the last few weeks.” This means he led Issa to believe the earliest he knew anything about the operation was sometime in April. Yet on the recordings (from mid-March), it is clear Holder was the one Howard hoped would stop the investigative momentum by responding to a letter regarding Fast and Furious from the House Oversight Committee:
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Solyndra execs walked back from agreement to answer questions
By Andrew Restuccia - 09/21/11 02:38 PM ET
The cheif executive of the failed solar firm Solyndra had agreed to answer questions from lawmakers before deciding this week to invoke his Fifth Amendment amendment rights, an email released by House Republicans shows.
Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Office W.G. Stover Jr. are slated to appear Friday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel.
Lawyers for the executives told top lawmakers on the panel Tuesday that they will invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions about the companies decision to file for bankruptcy and lay off 1,100 workers, citing an ongoing investigation into the firm by the Justice Department.
But a Sept. 10 email from the counsel to Solyndra’s estate — the counsel’s name has been redacted — said Harrison, Solyndra’s CEO, would answer lawmakers questions at the hearing.
“As I discussed a few moments ago, the CEO of Solyndra, Brian Harrison will appear voluntarily and answer the Committee's questions on any day the Committee chooses, beginning next week and continuing thereafter,” the email to the committee's staff shows.
Republicans on the subcommittee blasted the executives Tuesday night after their lawyers said they would invoke their Fifth Amendment rights at the hearing.
“Who exactly are Solyndra’s executives trying to protect and what are they trying to hide?” full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Oversight and Investigations subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said in a joint statement.
Republicans intend to pound the Solyndra executives on their apparent change of heart at Friday’s hearing, which is part of the GOP’s ongoing investigation into the Obama administration’s decision to greenlight a $535 million stimulus-law loan guarantee to Solyndra in 2009.
Committee Republicans have pummeled the administration for approving the loan guarantee in recent weeks, arguing that officials missed a series of red flags that hinted at Solyndra’s financial problems.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/182989-solyndra-lawyer-said-executive-would-answer-lawmakers-questions-emai-shows
-
Email shows Solyndra execs broke pledge to testify
by Philip Klein Senior Editorial Writer
Follow on Twitter:@PhilipAKlein
House investigators have released an email showing executives of Solyndra, the bankrupt solar energy firm that received $535 million in government loan guarantees, broke their pledge to voluntarily testify before Congress at a day of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's choosing.
Originally, the company's president and chief executive, Brian Harrison, and W.G. Stover, Jr., its chief financial officer, were scheduled to testify as part of last Wednesday's hearing on questionable loans before the House Energy and Commerce's oversight subcommittee. That testimony was pushed back to this Friday, with the understanding, according to top committee members, that they would answer questions.
But yesterday, the executives informed the committee that they would be invoking their Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and oversight subcommittee chairman Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said this violated "repeated assurances that they would testify voluntarily and answer questions." Today, they've released evidence backing up that view.
A letter sent by Solyndra's counsel on Saturday, Sept, 10, read, "As I discussed a few moments ago, the CEO of Solyndra, Brian Harrison will appear voluntarily and answer the Committee's questions on any day the Committee chooses, beginning next week and continuing thereafter. He will appear without any need to issue a subpoena. I respectfully request this delay for the reasons I described, particularly the possible benefit to the taxpayer."
In an earlier email sent to the committee on July 13, Harrison claimed Solyndra was "currently on track to meet the job creation commitments agreed upon with the (Department of Energy)" and touted the company as "an example of a U.S. company using American innovation and ingenuity to compete in the global solar market..."
Just over six weeks later, the company announced its intention to file for bankruptcy protection.
-
'Gunwalker' conspirators right to fear Grassley and Issa; Leahy, not so much
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 20 September, 2011 | Kurt Hofmann
This week, CBS News has been revealing explosive new audio tapes detailing the extent of panic among the perpetrators of "Project Gunwalker." The tapes, recording phone conversations between participating gun dealer Andre Howard (owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company, in Phoenix), and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) Special Agent Hope MacAllister, were made in March, shortly after the herculean efforts of National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea and Sipsey Street Irregular Mike Vanderboegh had finally brought the story to the mass media, with CBS having just begun to cover it.
The most recently released recordings reveal not only panic over the possibility of getting caught, but open hostility and contempt for congressional oversight. Special Agent John Dodson, who courageously became the first to publicly come forward as a whistleblower, was a particular target of their venom. From the tapes:
Dealer: He's (Dodson) more toxic than you realize. I can tell you casue [sic] I asked him. How much of this f-----g file did you release?
Agent: Mmmhm
Dealer: He said basically the underlying case file. I said okay, who'd you release it to? F-----g Patrick Leahy! Ok? Wasn't just Grassley it was Leahy alright? Leahy as we both know has adjourned this inquiry right now okay with no plans to reconvene it. So your people were successful on that end.
MacAllister reassurred Howard that Grassley would not be a problem, because being a Republican, and thus not in the majority party in the Senate, had no real power to compel cooperation with an investigation. Howard worried that Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would pursue the investigation, despite being a Democrat.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
CBS : ATF 'Fast and Furious' secret audio: Murder of Border Patrol agent 'collateral damage'
CBS ^
WASHINGTON - In secretly recorded conversations between two individuals deeply entwined in the ATF's controversial "Fast and Furious" operation, the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is described as "collateral damage."
The recordings were obtained exclusively by CBS News. The man who made them - Arizona gun dealer Andre Howard - ran the Lone Wolf Trading Company and was speaking with Hope MacAllister, the ATF operation's case agent.
Two of the guns Howard sold while cooperating with the ATF that were later found at Terry's murder.
"It happened. It's terrible," Howard said. "That's life ok we move on."
In the following excerpts, they talk about the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two weapons purchased by ATF Fast and Furious suspects were found at the murder scene. They also discuss concerns that ATF whistleblower John Dodson, who had then been moved out of the ATF office and tasked to the FBI, has information that could be damaging to the government.
EXCERPT 1
Dealer: Unfortunately a consequence occurred from a weapon shall we say that found its way into the wrong area ok and that was not anticipated. Nobody could foresee that that's collateral damage I think the term is. It happened. It's terrible. That's life ok we move on. Unfortunately, Mr. Dodson with his allegation is a pain in the a--. Now, my understanding now is it will be impossible now that he will be able to substantiate anything directly because that evidence is gone. I want you to know that. It don't exist. Not that one. You understand me?
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7381619n
-
Issa Confirms 200 Mexicans Killed by Fast and Furious Weapons
American Thinker ^ | September 21, 2011 | M Catharine Evans
The cover-up of Fast and Furious is unraveling at breakneck speed. As a result of the ongoing investigation by Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the LA Times and Townhall.com are both reporting Mexico has been kept in the dark about the deadly fallout of the botched operation.
While information about the mounting carnage trickles out, a black cloud has descended over the White House, the DOJ and American-Mexican relations.
From Townhall.com:
"I would be remiss if I didn't mention, as the Attorney General in Mexico is so concerned, she's made the point that at least 200 Mexicans have been killed with these weapons and probably countless more," Issa said. [snip]
This is not surprising, considering out of 2500 weapons the Obama Justice Department allowed to "walk," and that only 600 have been recovered, the rest are lost until they show up at violent crime scenes.
The LA Times:
Marisela Morales, Mexico's attorney general and a longtime favorite of American law enforcement agents in Mexico, told The LA Times that she first learned about Fast and Furious from news reports. And to this day, she said, U.S. officials have not briefed her on the operation gone awry, nor have they apologized...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
-
EXCERPT 1
Dealer: Unfortunately a consequence occurred from a weapon shall we say that found its way into the wrong area ok and that was not anticipated. Nobody could foresee that that's collateral damage I think the term is. It happened. It's terrible. That's life ok we move on. Unfortunately, Mr. Dodson with his allegation is a pain in the a--. Now, my understanding now is it will be impossible now that he will be able to substantiate anything directly because that evidence is gone. I want you to know that. It don't exist. Not that one. You understand me?
Agent: MMhmm.
Dealer: Good. I get that.
EXCERPT 2
Dealer: My biggest problem is Dodson. You know this guy has damaged the hell out of me. I mean I walked out of here yesterday.
Agent: Mmhmm.
Dealer: I got it from the tattoo parlor, I got some damn Mexicans and white trash over there.
Agent: Yeah...
Dealer: Yelling across the parking lot: "can i buy 300 AK 47's?? Would you turn me in, over that?" This is the kind of sh-- i'm getting.
Agent: Yeah.
EXCERPT 3
Dealer: The most damning thing that you guys got to be aware of I think hypothetically is was there, you have to ask yourselves this first I'm just throwin this out there, was there a communication that hypothetically the US Attorney's office uh was entertained with the DOJ in reference to any ballistics tests or anything? Is there any way any of these idiots..
Agent: The problem is I mean we're not investigating that case.
Dealer: I know the FBI is.
Agent: And he's (Dodson) assigned to the FBI. I, I have not, I don't have any way of knowing what he has access to. And that's on the FBI. I mean that's on them. If they consider him, don't consider him an operational security issue, that's their f-----g fault. But I don't have access to that sh--, I don't know I have no idea what the FBI.
Dealer: (unintell.) I know you don't...I'm saying that's a whole parallel issue.
Agent: Right.
EXCERPT 4
Dealer: What about the emails copies he's got?
Agent: Those emails are a year ago that's why I wonder what he I mean
Dealer: Let me help you out. Here's what I smell. There's a reason you ran (unintell.) about not talking about any of your other agents out there.
Agent: Yeah.
Dealer: You got some rats in there honey...
(Crosstalk)
Dealer: I'll tell you some of these motherf-----s, I don't know if they're giving it to Dodson, I think they are, somebody's got some inter-agency copies not just this sh--.
-
Lawmakers Claim Justice Inspector Obstructed Probe Into ‘Fast and Furious’
By William Lajeunesse
Published September 21, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Print Email Share Comments
The inspector general of the Department of Justice undermined and obstructed a congressional investigation by releasing secret tape recordings that corroborate allegations of misconduct in "Operation Fast and Furious," according to a letter written by Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley.
The two lawmakers leading the probe into the Obama administration scandal claim Justice Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar compromised their investigators' ability to get to the truth and potentially prosecute those responsible for selling thousands of weapons to the Mexican drug cartels.
RELATED VIDEO
Extended Interview with Fast and Furious Whistleblower
Exclusive: ATF agent Larry Alt talks to Fox News
RELATED STORIES
Ex-ATF Official Admits His 'Fast and Furious' Tesitmony 'Lacked Clarity'
Schnedar failed to even listen to the recordings before handing them over to the actual targets of the investigation, the letter alleges.
"Each of these disclosures undermines our ability to assess the candor of witnesses in our investigation and thus obstructs it," they wrote in a letter dated Tuesday. "Moreover, your decision to immediately disclose the recordings to those you are investigating creates at least the appearance, if not more, that your inquiry is not sufficiently objective and independent.
"It appears that you did not consider the significant harm that providing these recordings to the very individuals under investigation could cause to either our inquiry or your own. You did not consult with us about the recordings even though the congressional inquiry and reactions to it are discussed at length."
The OIG argues that under discovery rules it is required to turn the tapes over to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The tapes Issa and Grassley refer to were recorded by Andre Howard, owner of the Lone Wolf Trading Co., after he suspected the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was lying to him about the guns they recruited him to sell to buyers of the Sinaloa Cartel.
On two occasions Howard taped Hope MacAllister, the lead agent in the Fast and Furious case.
Dallas lawyer Larry Gaydos, who represents the Lone Wolf Trading Co., claims Howard was trying to get MacAllister to implicate herself and the ATF in the illegal gun-running scheme.
"He became very suspicious and in his own defense would tape key conversations with Ms. MacAllister and try to get her to make admissions about the truth of the matter," said Dallas attorney Larry Gaydos. "Andre was trying to get her to admit that indeed they let guns go to Mexico."
Howard has become a key witness in the congressional investigation of the Department of Justice and its alleged cover up of Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department has repeatedly said it did not allow guns -- purchased under its direction and authority -- to reach Mexico.
The facts in the case suggest otherwise, but the agency continues to deny it and refuses to turn over pertinent documents to Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"Andre was acting under the direct supervision of the Department of Justice and ATF. And he thought he was making a difference and that these people were being arrested and there were going to be indictments and that there were going to be prosecutions," Gaydos told Fox News exclusively on Tuesday.
"He is appalled at the position being taken by the Department of Justice and the lack of candor and the lack of cooperation with Congress. He wants the truth to come out for the American people and the Terry Family."
Howard is not alone in his regret. Speaking in reaction to the tapes Tuesday was ATF agent and whistleblower Larry Alt, who has never spoken publicly about his opposition to the case and the retaliation he has suffered as a result of it.
"Agent Terry's death brought just a tremendous amount of, I guess, regret and sorrow, disappointment, disgust to myself, to other members of the group. I can't express enough--I've never had an opportunity to publicly express condolences to the Terry family," Alt told Fox News. "I'm almost speechless when it comes to that."
Alt stepped forward after hearing MacAllister disparage his wife and family on the tapes. He felt it was necessary to defend them, and his own reputation. A decorated soldier and police officer, an instructor at the ATF academy, Alt says he and fellow whistleblower John Dodson were transferred to dead-end jobs after standing up to Agent-in-Charge Bill Newell. The ATF in Phoenix and U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona then attempted to conceal the role they played in directing area gun dealers to sell weapons to buyers the agency knew were breaking the law.
"We were transferred from the group. We were placed in positions away from the investigation itself, denied access to the investigation," said Alt. "I would view that as a measure of control and if you want to call it a cover up, that would be an accurate statement."
Howard made the tapes in March 2011 after a meeting he and his attorneys held with federal officials. In that meeting, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley continued to insist the guns Lone Wolf sold were stopped and seized before reaching Mexico.
But ATF officials are quoted in a Washington Post article and the Spanish language daily La Opinion saying just the opposite -- blaming Lone Wolf for "selling guns to the cartels" with no mention that Howard was operating under the federal government's direction, encouragement and approval.
Print Email Share Comments
-
POLITICS
Ex-ATF Official Admits His 'Fast and Furious' Tesitmony 'Lacked Clarity'
By Mike Levine
Published September 21, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Print Email Share Comments
The head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' office in Phoenix during the failed “Operation Fast and Furious” acknowledged Wednesday his earlier testimony to a House panel “lacked clarity” and completeness, and he offered new insight into his own mistakes in the investigation and allegations that officials ignored agents’ concerns.
“After taking time to reflect and review my testimony from the hearing on July 26, 2011, I realize I could have given clearer, more complete and more direct responses to some questions,” former Special Agent in Charge William Newell said in a 12-page document submitted to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and obtained by Fox News.
In a “supplemental statement,” Newell insisted agents did not knowingly allow thousands of weapons to reach criminal hands. Any concerns raised over the program were never voiced to appropriate authorities, he said, and only once did higher-ups tell agents not to arrest a suspect -- when the safety of the agents was in jeopardy.
He tried to emphasize his points during the July hearing, but even Democrats then described his testimony, under oath, as “quite frustrating.”
Of nearly 2,000 weapons sold to suspected “straw” purchasers over several months, the ATF was notified in time and able to monitor the purchase of only about 300 firearms, Newell said. In fact, of the 2,000 weapons sold to suspects, as many as 400 of them were sold before “Fast and Furious” ever launched. Still, Newell acknowledged ATF “was able to proactively and lawfully” seize only a fifth of the nearly 300 weapons under ATF surveillance.
“With 20/20 hindsight, I now see that I should have conducted more frequent assessments,” Newell said in his filing. “With more regular assessments I could have articulated to my staff the need to be proactive in ascertaining the quantity of guns being purchased that we were not able to intercept.”
In his filing Wednesday, Newell said agents could only track guns when dealers notified them of an upcoming purchase. This was highlighted by the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010 along the Southwest Border. Weapons tied to “Fast and Furious” were found at the scene, and others have surfaced at other crime scenes in the United States. Meanwhile, many of the high-powered rifles lost under “Fast and Furious” ended up in Mexico.
In the case of Border Patrol agent Terry's murder, ATF was notified of the weapons' purchase three days after the sale.
“As such, ATF agents could not have surveilled the purchase, storage and/or transportation of those firearms,” Newell said in his filing.
That is not likely to curb some of the investigation’s most outspoken critics. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who as chairman of the House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into the controversial program, has repeatedly called it “reckless.”
In the filing Wednesday, Newell said any mistakes were “unintentional errors of omission” rooted in, among other things, “the laws we have at our disposal.”
“Fast and Furious” was launched in late 2009 by ATF, in conjunction with Justice Department officials in Arizona. Investigators planned to follow gun purchasers in hopes that suspects would lead them to the heads of Mexican cartels. In his filing Wednesday, Newell said ATF had identified an “expansive and expanding firearms trafficking network,” and it was “important” to “terminate” it. But lower-level suspects “generally refuse to cooperate” and offer law enforcement only limited information on such organizations "due to [their] insular design.” Thus, “Fast and Furious” was born.
Even when ATF agents were able to track a suspect, though, seizure of any weapons purchased was not guaranteed. In one instance, a suspected gun-runner bought 20 AK-47 type rifles, but he “maintained” to law enforcement the weapons “belonged to him,” Newell said. He “was not prohibited by law from purchasing or possessing the firearms,” and ATF agents felt they did not have “lawful authority to seize the weapons,” according to Newell.
A report issued in June by Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the “volume, frequency, and circumstances of these transactions clearly established reasonable suspicion to stop and question the buyers.”
Nevertheless, of the nearly 2,000 weapons sold to suspects, the vast majority of guns have yet to be recovered.
“The deadly consequences of this irresponsible program could last for years to come,” Issa said during the July hearing. “[Weapons] are still out there waiting to kill.”
In his new filing, Newell also tried to push back on suggestions from whistleblowers and others that ATF agents had repeatedly raised concerns about “Fast and Furious,” insisting he was “unaware” of any such concerns until they were voiced publicly on TV.
“To me, the stark absence of contemporaneous documents voicing concerns to supervisors over 'guns walking,' establishes quite convincingly that concerns over alleged 'gun walking' were not raised with the appropriate supervisors in the Phoenix Field Division during the operational phase of this investigation,” Newell said in his filing.
In addition, he said there is a “well-established process” for voicing concerns to ATF's Internal Affairs Division or Office of the Ombudsman, and, “To the best of my knowledge, at no time during the operational phase of the ‘Fast and Furious’ investigation did any of the whistleblowers contact [them] with concerns regarding the investigation.”
In an interview with House Oversight Committee investigators in April, one of the chief whistleblowers, ATF agent John Dodson, told investigators he shared his concerns with several fellow agents and with supervisor David Voth. In addition, he said he remembers a meeting as early as February 2010 in which an unidentified Assistant Special Agent in Charge told agents to, in Dodson’s words, “stand down with our complaints” over “gun walking.”
Meanwhile, questions continued to mount Wednesday over whether a third gun -- not part of the “Fast and Furious” investigation -- may have been found at the murder scene. Some critics have used word of a third weapon to accuse the federal government of covering up evidence in the case.
An FBI spokesman insists reports of a third weapon are “false,” stating emphatically, “There is no third gun.” And Newell's attorney, Paul Pelletier, who recently left the Justice Department for private practice, said he has access to case materials, and there were only two guns found at the murder scene.
The report released in June by Issa and Grassley stated a third weapon was recovered at the scene. In emails Tuesday and Wednesday, a Grassley spokeswoman said her office obtained information of a third weapon from Terry's family, who was told of it by a Border Patrol agent at Terry's funeral. They also learned of a third weapon from newly disclosed recordings of conversations between an ATF agent and an Arizona gun dealer referencing an SKS rifle, and “other documentation.”
In those newly disclosed recordings, the ATF noted that “all [she] can go by is what” the FBI told her. Pelletier, now with Mintz Levin in Washington, said he believes he knows the origin of the three-gun “misperception.” He said the FBI originally identified one of the two guns recovered as an SKS, made in China.
After ATF agents traced the guns' serial numbers back to “Fast and Furious,” they knew that both guns were in fact AK-47s from Romania. Some FBI officials, though, kept referring to an SKS, causing “initial confusion” and leading others to believe there was an SKS in addition to the two AK-47s, according to Pelletier.
Grassley's spokeswoman was skeptical of such an explanation, noting that it would seem “difficult to misidentify one of the AK guns, since they would be identical.” And, she said, the ATF agent in the recordings said the third weapon had been traced to Texas, not Arizona.
In a separate case not tied to “Fast and Furious” -- the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico -- weapons involved were traced to Texas.
Overall, Grassley's spokeswoman said of the Terry murder and weapons recovered at the scene, “Anything is possible with this case.”
Repeated emails to Issa’s office seeking comment were not returned. Asked about Newell’s filing Wednesday afternoon, Grassley’s spokeswoman suggested her office had only just received it, saying his office was “looking over [it] now.”
At least three men have been charged in connection with the murder of Terry, though only one is in U.S. custody. In addition, the Justice Department's inspector general has launched its own investigation in “Fast and Furious,” at the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder.
-
Panic Mode: Holder's Name Mentioned in New Fast and Furious Recordings
Town Hall ^ | 9/21/11 | Katie Pavlich Katie Pavlich
Posted on September 21, 2011 7:07:28 PM EDT by Nachum
New secret recordings obtained by CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson show ATF agent Hope MacAllister, who we have not yet heard from throughout this investigation, speaking with Lone Wolf Trading Company owner Andre Howard and expressing concern about ATF whistleblower John Dodson, the ATF agent who exposed the scandal by coming forward with information about Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's death in March. In the recording, MacAllister and Howard sound panicked, not only about Dodson, but about Senator Charles Grassley and about how Attorney General Eric Holder would respond to exposed scandal. The following audio doesn't prove Eric Holder knew about Operation Fast and Furious since it started in Fall 2009, but it certainly implies he knew and if he didn't know, he should have.
-
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-fast-furious-20110920,0,6511144,full.story
Wow!
-
Law firms representing Solyndra executives are major Democratic donors
daily caller ^
Posted on September 21, 2011 1:01:02 PM EDT by sunmars
The law firms representing two prominent Solyndra executives are major Democratic Party donors, The Daily Caller has learned.
Reuters first reported that the bankrupt company’s CEO, Brian Harrison, and CFO, W.G. Stover, plan to refuse to talk openly to congressional investigators about how their company squandered $535 million in taxpayer money. They will invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate themselves at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Friday.
The law firms representing the executives are Orrick, Harrington and Sutcliffe, and Keker and Van Nest. Both are major contributors to Democrats and both have handsomely helped President Barack Obama’s political efforts, according to information retrieved from Center for Responsive Politics databanks.
Employees at Orrick, Harrington and Sutcliffe, which is representing Harrison, have donated more than $1.3 million to federal campaigns, political parties and Political Action Committees since 1990. More than 95 percent of those donations went to Democrats, including $184,000 to Obama.
Steven Newmark, a litigation managing associate for the firm, has bundled between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama’s ongoing bid for re-election.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Fast and Furious Tapes: Sit Your Ass Down, Charles Grassley
Human Events ^ | 09/21/2011 | John Hayward
Posted on September 21, 2011 10:13:23 PM EDT by neverdem
CBS News has been among the few mainstream media outlets to treat the “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal as a big story all along. They just published some tapes of an amazing conversation between Arizona gun dealer Andrew Howard, who was one of the dealers used by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to deliberately sell American guns to Mexican drug cartels, and ATF agent Hope MacAllister.
Howard’s Lone Wolf Trading Company sold the guns that later turned up at the scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder. The tapes were made in February, just as the scandal was appearing on the radar screen of those who did not choose to studiously ignore it, like most of the supposedly scandal-hungry mainstream media.
A.W.R. Hawkins has a great write-up this morning of the “Watergate-sized leak” these tapes blow in the Obama Administration’s stone wall. I wanted to add a few other points from the CBS News transcript that jumped out at me:
First and foremost, after talking some smack about Senator Charles Grassley of the Judiciary Committee – who, according to the tapes, is an “arrogant bastard” – Agent MacAllister claims she actually suggested hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on Grassley to shut him up. She makes it sound like a joke she told to break the tense mood in a meeting with her superiors. It sounds like MacAllister is a real live wire during ATF conference calls.
Agent: That's kind of what my suggestion but nobody thought that was funny like if I were a P.I. I'd put him on Grassley, I'm sure there's a lot would go away. Actually my one suggestion was just tell him in a registered Republican. I'm sure if he knew that everything would be fine, they...
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
-
Audio Tapes Reveal More Details in 'Fast and Furious' Gunrunner Scandal
Fox News ^ | 9/21/11 | William Lajeunesse
Posted on 09/21/2011 11:27:30 AM PDT by Nachum
In a series of secretly recorded audio tapes, the owner of the gun store that sold a record number of weapons in Operation Fast and Furious admittedly sounds arrogant, crude and complicit in the U.S. government's plan to sell high powered assault rifles to the Sinaloa Cartel.
However, the lawyer representing the Lone Wolf Trading Co. says owner Andre Howard made the tapes only after he suspected he was being lied to, and his language is meant to get Hope MacAllister, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to implicate herself and her agency in their illegal gun running scheme. Related Video
Extended Interview with Fast and Furious Whistleblower
Exclusive: ATF agent Larry Alt talks to Fox News
"He became very suspicious and in his own defense would tape key conversations with Ms. MacAllister and try to get her to make admissions about the truth of the matter," said Dallas attorney Larry Gaydos. "Andre was trying to get her to admit that indeed they let guns go to Mexico."
Howard has become a key witness in the congressional investigation of the Department of Justice and its alleged cover up of Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department has repeatedly said it did not allow guns -- purchased under its direction and authority -- to reach Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Obama Creates Chicago Solution to Chicago Problem at Solyndra
Townhall.com ^ | September 22, 2011 | John Ransom
True story:
Once while working at a hotel in Chicago many years ago, I checked in an alderman and his mistress in one room, a couple of union guys who asked about the alderman and his mistress in another room and some polite law enforcement officers in still another room within a few hours of each other. It was hard to know who was watching who.
But somebody was watching someone for sure.
So let’s say I learned a few things growing up in Chicago watching politics and crime in real life. The ways of the Obama administration are something I’m used to. That’s partly why I dislike his administration so much.
This much I know: When the Illinois Combine has a problem, they usually make it go away. Like either forever or at least until paroled for good behavior.
For the uninitiated, the Combine is a term used to describe the GOP and Dem insiders who run the state of Illinois with a little help from some ham-handed friends, like asphalt contractors, garbage collectors, teachers’ pension funds and Teamsters.
The Dems run Cook County and the GOP runs downstate.
They stage a few fights here and there just to keep it looking like politics. But really, in the words of Michael Corleone from the Godfather, “It's strictly business.”
That’s why Obama tapped Illinois Republican, former congressman Ray LaHood, long-time Combine member and benefactor of paving contractors everywhere as his Transportation Secretary. LaHood can probably over-estimate the amount of cement and labor on a given road project without even looking at a calculator. He knows the business.
Chicago veteran political columnist John Kass, who covers the Combine for the Chicago Tribune, wrote about LaHood as LaHood was being installed as US transport and asphalt vice regal:
As Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich plays the dancing monkey for America's journalists, another Illinois political story is being ignored:
Ray LaHood, the Republican Combine congressman from Peoria, has been smoothly installed as secretary of transportation in the reform administration of President Barack Obama.
In political terms, Blagojevich is a pimple compared with LaHood, who will have billions of federal dollars to dole out in state grants for contracts for roads, bridges, airport modernization -- all the sugarplums the guys behind the guys dream about.
One such guy is the indicted Republican boss of Springfield, William Cellini, a wealthy developer and executive director of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association. LaHood is a Cellini guy.
And Cellini is a Combine guy. He’s known as the “Pope” in the state capital of Springfield. He’s currently under indictment for asking a Hollywood producer to make a seven-figure contribution to Blagojevich’s campaign in return for a contract managing teachers’ pension funds. He’s the guy-behind-the-guy, in Kass’ phrase. And as Wikipedia reports, “He has been vetted and licensed by gaming regulatory bodies in Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana, Illinois and Iowa.”
Shovel ready? LaHood and Cellini will give you shovel ready.
That’s why I kind of feel bad for the Solyndra guys. Not the donors, but the executives.
It’s just about now that they have figured out who they were dealing with.
They thought they were dating the prom king when courting Obama and his government checkbook. But really, they were getting juice from a loan shark, Chicago-style, and they didn’t know it.
Maybe that’s why all of sudden the business guys who wear ties for a living and who were so ready to cooperate with the investigation into Solyndra are going to make like mobsters and invoke 5th Amendment protection when testifying before Congress on Friday.
The Combine is pretty adept at government investigations that pin the blame on someone else; someone else who, in the best case scenario, ends up doing ten-to-twenty making small rocks out of large rocks.
Currently the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Treasury and Congress all have open investigations into Solyndra and possible loan fraud by the executives.
Political strategist James Carville recently recommended on TV that Obama “indict” someone as a way of saving his presidency.
This is the final image of hope and change? Scapegoat indictments?
The only hope the guys behind the donors at Solyndra have is for a change at prosecutor.
If I were them, I’d be crying out loud for a special prosecutor, independent of the Obama administration's Combine in this case.
True story:
It’s their only hope.
-
Fraud Charges Floating for Obama Administration
Townhall.com ^ | September 22, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
Since we first write about the collapse of Solyndra, the solar energy company favored by the White House with a $535 million taxpayer funded loan, the stench has only gotten worse.
Rather than restate the facts, here are links to our four previously published posts:
September 10, 2011 – September 13, 2011 – September 16, 2011 – Fox, September 19, 2011
For those of you following this evolving scandal, here are a few more important developments and relevant details:
At least five high level investigations have been initiated including the FBI, the Inspector General of the Department of Energy, the Inspector General of the U.S. Treasury, the House Energy & Commerce Committee, and the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
Lamar Smith, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has called on the Justice Department to appoint an "Independent Investigator" to look into the growing scandal.
Attorneys for Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO W.G. Stover, originally scheduled to testify to Congress this Friday, notified the House that the executives will invoke the Fifth Amendment and not answer questions.
Rep. Fred Upton, Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, cited an "apparent violation of the law" during opening statements in a House hearing last week; a reference to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that authorized the loan program to the benefit of Solyndra, but importantly contained a prohibition against subordination of the taxpayers secured position.
Former Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Andrew McCarthy ratcheted up the allegations further by alleging the actions of the Obama Administration are "criminal fraud." McCarthy says any competent prosecutor will pursue that line of investigation and points out that, "Fraud against the United States is one of the most serious felony offenses in the federal penal code."
Disregarding the exploding scandal, the DOE announced another half billion in loan guarantees to solar energy companies since the Solyndra collapse and reports suggest a dozen or more are being rushed through the pipeline prior to the programs expiration on September 30.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
ATF Counsel email to Melson on Gunwalker-Terry murder link preceded intimidation (Demanded Coverup)
Examiner.Com ^ | September 22, 2011 | David Codrea
A just-uncovered January 5, 2011 email to former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Kenneth Melson from Stephen R. Rubenstein, Chief Counsel, ATF, responded to a request by Melson for information regarding allegations on whistleblower website CleanUpATF that walked guns were linked to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and indicated this was a violation of ATF Orders and Standards of Conduct.
Copies of the email and Melson’s reply are posted in this correspondent's Scribd account and included in the sidebar slideshow accompanying this article. Per Rubenstein’s email:
This is in response to your request regarding information posted on "Clean Up ATF." Specifically, on December 22, 2010, "1desrtrat" [screen name used by CUATF comment poster--DC] stated that "word is" that Phoenix FD ASAC George Gillet "[a]llegedly approved more than 500 AR-15 type rifles from Phoenix and Tucson cases to be 'walked' into Mexico." The post further states that "- ne of those rifles is rumored to have been linked to the recent killing of a Border Patrol Officer in Nogales, AZ."
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Solyndra Takes The Fifth
IBD Editorials ^ | September 21, 2011 | Staff
Scandal: Two top executives of the bankrupt solar panel firm will refuse to answer questions about possible fraud and the waste of taxpayer dollars. Unlike oil execs, they and the administration have much to hide.
There's a delicious irony in the news that Solyndra's two top executives, Chief Executive Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer W.G. "Bill" Stover, plan to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to answer questions when they testify Friday before a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel investigating their failed company, which got more than $500 million in federally backed loans.
It was only a few months ago when the executives of Exxon Mobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, BP America and Chevron were summoned to appear before the Senate Finance Committee for what Sen. Orrin Hatch labeled a dog-and-pony show to defend their allegedly ill-gotten profits and tax breaks.
It didn't matter that they paid more than their share of taxes, ranking above most industries, or reinvested their profits to create a useful and reliable source of energy that created American jobs. They didn't need protection against self-incrimination, for they'd broken no laws and squandered no taxpayer cash. They were just the black hats du jour for the greenies and progressive left.
Solyndra asserts that it "is not aware of any wrongdoing by Solyndra officers, directors or employees in conjunction with the (Energy Department) loan guarantee." Oh, really? Then why did the FBI raid Solyndra's Fremont, Calif., offices, carting away boxes of files, something that happens only when authorized by a judge who believes a crime may have been committed?
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Gunwalker’s Body Count Grows, Along with the Obama Administration’s Cover-Up
Pajamas Media ^ | September 21, 2011 | Bob Owens
It seems like only a matter of time before administration officials face felony indictments for their role in Operation Fast and Furious.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa was brutally frank in a Tuesday morning conference call with new media representatives dedicated to the ongoing Gunwalker scandal.
The California Republican kicked off the call with a brief statement reporting that Marisela Morales, Mexico’s attorney general, now says that at least 200 Mexican deaths can now be traced to weapons from the gunwalking program.That number has been revised significantly upward from earlier unofficial claims of approximately 150 deaths attributed to Operation Fast and Furious guns.
The revelation of the increased body count comes less than 24 hours after the Los Angeles Times published a story that rightly describes the actions of the Obama administration as an unresolved betrayal.
This betrayal — and Morales pulled no punches in using that exact word — is being ignored by the majority of the U.S. mainstream media, which vacillate from pretending that Gunwalker was just a minor law enforcement snafu to echoing White House-orchestrated attempts to smear the Oversight Committee chairman and obstruct the investigation.
The question-and-answer period that followed Chairman Issa’s statement focused narrowly on Operation Fast and Furious, with only one reporter slipping off-topic to ask a quick question about the breaking Solyndra scandal.
Perhaps the most important clarification to come out of the call was confirmation that the Oversight Committee does indeed intend to call for a special prosecutor once they have completed their own investigation, which they optimistically would like to have wrapped up by the end of the year. Chairman Issa was quick to point out that finishing the House investigation by the end of the year hinged upon a transparent and timely release of information from the executive branch, including the federal law enforcement agencies involved and the Obama White House.
The White House has thus far refused to divulge any of the documentation the congressional investigators have asked for, and the administration’s political appointees are stymieing all attempts to get information out of the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and other involved agencies. Rep. Issa seemed quite aware that his goal of resolving the congressional investigation in 2011 was going to be obstructed by an administration in full cover-up mode.
Issa also revealed that the reason a special prosecutor has not yet been brought in to investigate the plot is that once a special prosecutor begins to investigate, the Oversight Committee has to stop its own inquiry. The committee wants to be certain that they have explored every avenue and leave no source or witness uninvestigated before turning over the case. He also pointed out that a special prosecutor will be a Department of Justice employee investigating his own employer. Thus, Issa wants to be certain that they have enough knowledge to hold the prosecutor accountable.
I had the unique opportunity to ask Chairman Issa a point-blank question that seems to trouble so many people following this scandal.
After reiterating that every law enforcement agent that has been asked about Operation Fast and Furious has said that there is no way that it could have been a viable law enforcement operation, I asked Chairman Issa if there was any evidence of another reason for the implementation of Operation Fast and Furious and the other alleged gun-walking operations.
“This was dumb, it was useless, and it was lethal,” was the soundbite most of us will take away from the call in answer to that question, but his longer answer — which I regret I do not have a transcript of — is far more telling.
Nothing in his response could be construed to mean that Rep. Issa thought Operation Fast and Furious was a legitimate law enforcement operation. And if it does not appear to have been implemented as a legitimate law enforcement operation, then we are left with the possible alternative that the goal of the operation was both illegitimate and unlawful.
Issa put it rather bluntly: “The administration wanted to show that guns found in Mexico came from the United States.”
He elaborated a bit when he noted that while he wouldn’t presume to know the precise goals of Operation Fast and Furious, it certainly did seem to tie in with the narrative the Obama administration was trying to push — that U.S. guns were turning up at Mexican crime scenes. That allowed, the suggestion hanging in the air was that a goal of the Administration was indeed a “Reichstag fire” designed to support a narrative that has been publicly woven by Attorney General Holder, Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano, and President Obama himself on multiple occasions.
One reason to assert the prominence of U.S. firearms in Mexico would be an attempt to once again bring forth an “assault weapons” ban like the failed 1994 law that sunset in 2004.
While the Oversight Committee investigation is far from over and a special prosecutor’s investigation hasn’t even begun, it is beginning to appear that the evidence and testimony being compiled so far indicate that the Obama administration was willing to break federal laws and get hundreds of people killed in Mexico and the United States in order to fabricate conditions that would help them implement their domestic gun control policies.
If so, it is entirely unethical and illegal, and it seems like only a matter of time before administration officials face felony indictments for their role in Operation Fast and Furious and perhaps the other alleged gun-walking operations that make up the Gunwalker scandal.
If that is indeed the path this scandal takes, the question may need to be asked whether U.S. justice is enough for the co-conspirators, or if Attorney General Morales should be given the opportunity to prosecute Obama administration officials in Mexico for actions that have left so many of their citizens dead and injured.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Some 2,000 firearms from the Lone Wolf Trading Company store and others in southern Arizona were illegally sold under an ATF program called Fast and Furious that allowed “straw purchasers” to walk away with the weapons and turn them over to criminal traffickers.
But the agency’s plan to trace the guns to the cartels never worked. As the case of the two Lone Wolf AK-47s tragically illustrates, the ATF, with a limited force of agents, did not keep track of them.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/11/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110912
-
Fast and Furious Tapes: Sit Your Ass Down, Charles Grassley
Human Events ^ | 09/21/2011 | John Hayward
CBS News has been among the few mainstream media outlets to treat the “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal as a big story all along. They just published some tapes of an amazing conversation between Arizona gun dealer Andrew Howard, who was one of the dealers used by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to deliberately sell American guns to Mexican drug cartels, and ATF agent Hope MacAllister.
Howard’s Lone Wolf Trading Company sold the guns that later turned up at the scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder. The tapes were made in February, just as the scandal was appearing on the radar screen of those who did not choose to studiously ignore it, like most of the supposedly scandal-hungry mainstream media.
A.W.R. Hawkins has a great write-up this morning of the “Watergate-sized leak” these tapes blow in the Obama Administration’s stone wall. I wanted to add a few other points from the CBS News transcript that jumped out at me:
First and foremost, after talking some smack about Senator Charles Grassley of the Judiciary Committee – who, according to the tapes, is an “arrogant bastard” – Agent MacAllister claims she actually suggested hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on Grassley to shut him up. She makes it sound like a joke she told to break the tense mood in a meeting with her superiors. It sounds like MacAllister is a real live wire during ATF conference calls.
Agent: That's kind of what my suggestion but nobody thought that was funny like if I were a P.I. I'd put him on Grassley, I'm sure there's a lot would go away. Actually my one suggestion was just tell him in a registered Republican. I'm sure if he knew that everything would be fine, they...
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Obama and Solyndra Owe Taxpayers Answers (And $535 Million)
Townhall.com ^ | September 22, 2011 | Reince Priebus
The more we learn about the failure of the stimulus-backed company Solyndra, the more questions we have. It is time the White House give us honest answers, not convenient excuses.
As I wrote in my RedState blog post and POLITICO op-ed last week, the Solyndra bankruptcy is a scandal fraught with political favoritism, reckless decision-making, and corrupt self-dealing. If the close political ties between Solyndra’s investors and the Obama White House weren’t enough cause for suspicion, there’s now even more troubling news.
On Tuesday, Solyndra executives announced they would plead the fifth before a Congressional hearing on Friday. Their silence effectively blocks Americans from getting to the bottom of the situation. They will leave us still wondering how Solyndra and the Obama Administration could so grossly mismanage taxpayer dollars.
But there’s more. Not only did the administration rush approval for Solyndra’s $535 million loan in 2009, but later in 2011, it restructured it so that private investors would be paid back before the government. In other words, the Obama administration chose to give preferential treatment to investors – including a political contributor – over their fiduciary responsibility to protect the American taxpayer.
A 2005 law outlining procedures for Energy Department loans required that the government be paid back first, thereby minimizing the risk incurred by taxpayers. Yet the Obama administration openly flouted this law and has yet to justify taking that risk.
What makes this action particularly galling is that the Administration was in close contact with the company, even going so far as to attend corporate board meetings. So, either they were well aware of Solyndra’s perilous financial situation and chose to do nothing, or they were completely oblivious in the face of evidence of impending bankruptcy.
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, Rep. Lamar Smith, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called for an independent investigation into this much-too-cozy relationship between the White House and Solyndra. The administration, though, will undoubtedly continue reading off its litany of excuses as it tries to ignore demands for accountability.
But if there is nothing to hide, why not be forthright with the American people? Why not put the issue to rest? When it spends over half a billion dollars in a bad investment, the White House should be able to explain what went wrong. If they continue to refuse, they will only confirm Americans’ suspicions that the Solyndra loan was not an investment to win the future, but rather an investment to win re-election.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Holder’s hell week - More Fast & Furious fallout
NY Post ^ | September 21, 2011 | Michael A. Walsh
The stench from Washington is getting stronger. Rep. Darrell Issa has called for a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of the festering mess known as Operation Fast and Furious.
Hatched somewhere in the bowels of the Justice Department, that misbegotten scheme had the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives deliberately allowing high-powered guns to “walk” from Arizona and elsewhere into Mexico: Our agents turned a blind eye toward the straw purchasers who were funneling the weapons to the drug cartels.
The (dumb) idea was to trace cross-border arms trafficking, and so prove the (false) claim that 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexican drug war zones originate in the US. (The real figure is closer to 17 percent.) But, as Issa’s Oversight and Government Reform committee continues its investigation, that pretension has evaporated -- and a major international scandal has been born.
Marisela Morales, the Mexican attorney general, estimates that at least 200 Mexicans have been killed with Fast and Furious weapons -- among them, a powerful Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle that took down a federal helicopter. Morales, who calls the program a “betrayal” of her country, told the Los Angeles Times that she first learned about Fast and Furious from news reports, and that US officials still haven’t briefed their Mexican counterparts on it.
She shouldn’t feel lonely: The administration has been notably unforthcoming to everybody on this one. Eric Holder’s Justice has engaged in a rearguard battle against Issa’s committee -- turning over subpoenaed documents only slowly and heavily redacted, making witnesses unavailable and transferring or retiring implicated officials such as former ATF head Kenneth Melson. Issa has publicly accused Holder & Co. of “gaming” congressional investigators.
Yet the drip, drip, drip of revelations continues. A third “Fast and Furious” gun has now...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Close Obama Pal Embroiled In Grant Fraud Scandal
Judicial Watch ^ | September 22, 2011
More than two months after a Chicago nurse got criminally charged for stealing half a million taxpayer dollars from minority outreach programs one media outlet has dared to reveal that a close friend, advisor and donor of President Obama’s is embroiled in the scandal.
It’s the taboo portion of the story that’s been ignored by the mainstream media and conveniently omitted in government press releases announcing the June federal indictment a month after it was filed. The one-time director of the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association (Margaret Davis) faces two decades in prison for defrauding various state grant programs out of approximately $500,000, according to federal authorities.
What the feds haven’t revealed is that the state agency that gave Davis all the money, the Illinois Department of Public Health, was run by one of Obama’s closest pals, Dr. Eric Whitaker, when the cash was disbursed. We know this only because Chicago’s conservative-leaning newspaper has been digging around. This week it published a lengthy article connecting the dots between Whitaker and the corruption scheme.
The state’s convicted felon governor (Rod Blagojevich) appointed Whitaker health director in 2003 after Obama, a state senator at the time, recommended him. During Whitaker’s four-year tenure, the agency spent millions of taxpayer dollars on highly questionable publicity campaigns to educate African-Americans and other minorities about common diseases in their communities, mainly AIDS.
Nearly $600,000 of it went to Davis and her Black Nurses Association, which received an additional half a million dollars in state grants from other agencies. Whitaker referred to the indicted nurse as “the ultimate advocate for health care and human services” and even gave her a no-bid contract to train college nursing students in administrative areas.
Similar minority programs, many of them “faith-based,” also received big chunks of taxpayer dollars from Whitaker’s agency while he was in charge. Among them is a defunct AIDS awareness program that has been sued by the Illinois Attorney General’s office for misspending $523,546. Whitaker claims that thousands of grants were distributed when he ran the agency and he “couldn’t have known about the transgressions such as the alleged embezzlement related to a contract with the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association.”
He seems to have little worries as he enjoys his lucrative, private-sector job. In 2007 Whitaker resigned to join Michelle Obama at the University of Chicago Medical Center where he makes more than $670,000 a year as executive vice president for strategic affiliations and associate dean for community-based research.
-
(http://02varvara.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/01c-bush-vs-obama-job-growth.jpg?w=1200&h=840)
-
And how many jobs have we lost TA?
The labor force participation rate is MILLIONS smaller than when bama came in to office
-
Secret Fast and Furious Tapes Spring a Watergate-Sized Leak
Human Events ^ | 09/21/2011 | A.W.R. Hawkins
When the Watergate break-ins took place in 1972, President Richard Nixon knew nothing about them. But once he found out, he acted quickly to keep them secret, and it was his role in the cover-up that eventually led to his resignation in August 1974. Excerpts of recorded conversations between figures in the Operation Fast and Furious U.S.-Mexico gunrunning scheme are becoming ominously reminiscent of the 1970s watershed event in American politics.
In the historically monumental Watergate scandal, Nixon’s role in the cover-up was verified when he handed over personal tape recordings of conversations he’d had in the Oval Office on the subject.
That was 1974, and this is 2011, and in an eerie twist of fate, another batch of recordings has turned up that might reveal more about Fast and Furious than the current administration wants anyone to know: In fact, it might create more of a storm than Obama & Co. can weather.
The recordings, which seem to have been made in March 2011, are of conversations between Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Ariz., and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent Hope McAllister. Lone Wolf was one of the gun stores used for Fast and Furious sales to straw purchasers.
Although the recordings have been turned over to congressional investigators and the Inspector General, excerpts that were released to the public make it sound like the gun dealer was extremely concerned that news of Fast and Furious was going to reach a House member or senator who would take action on it.
Howard’s concern arose from a March 9 letter from Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Tex.) and other members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder come clean about Fast and Furious. The House committee had been spurred into action by the testimony of ATF whistle-blower John Dodson.
Of the four excerpts released to the public, the first one best demonstrates the angst of those involved in the operation and the necessity for everyone, including Holder, to be sure their stories matched up:
HOWARD: "[Dodson’s] more toxic than you realize. I can tell you because I asked him, 'How much of this f-----g file did you release?' ”
McALLISTER: "Mmm hmm."
HOWARD: "He said basically the underlying case file. I said, 'Okay, who’d you release it to? F-----g [Sen.] Patrick Leahy!' Okay? Wasn’t just [Sen. Chuck] Grassley, it was Leahy, alright? Leahy, as we both know, has adjourned this inquiry right now, okay, with no plans to reconvene it. So your people were successful to that end." (Italics added.)
McALLISTER: "Right."
HOWARD: "Obviously that’s good. However these idiots from …"
McALLISTER: "… The House?"
HOWARD: "Yeah, and that I don’t know. What is troublesome with this [is] I expected [Rep.] Darrell Issa’s signature to be on this [but] it wasn’t. He’s your biggest thorn. He hates Holder."
McALLISTER: "Yeah. Where’s he out of?"
HOWARD: "Darrell Issa?"
McALLISTER: "California."
HOWARD: "Lamar Smith, you know’s, out of Texas, I don’t know. Holder has to respond to this tomorrow."
McALLISTER: "Yeah, he’s gonna respond."
HOWARD: "I know he is. And I assure you the media isn’t gonna like his response, because basically it’s gonna mirror what he’s told Grassley."
McALLISTER: "Yeah."
HOWARD: "He can’t deviate." (Italics added.)
McALLISTER: "Well if, I mean, I’ve seen a rough copy of what our U.S. attorney here has sent up. Whether or not he has the balls to actually use it or not, I doubt it. But I mean, it’s pretty aggressive. The way I see it, our local U.S. attorney is extremely aggressive. [But] when it gets to D.C. …"
HOWARD: "Who, [Assistant U.S. Attorney] Emory [Hurley]?"
McALLISTER: "No, the U.S. attorney."
HOWARD: "Burke, yeah, used to work under Clinton. …Talking about [Dennis] Burke?"
McALLISTER: "Mmm hmm."
HOWARD: "Yeah, well ..."
McALLISTER: "But the problem is, once it gets to D.C., it just gets … well, you know."
HOWARD: "Discombobulated—that’s a good term for it. Yeah, I get that."
Even from a cold transcription, it’s evident that Howard is as nervous as a cat about Fast and Furious becoming public knowledge. It’s also evident that McAllister is confident of how U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke had handled things, but not very confident about how things will go once everything is shifted to D.C. It is important to note that Burke was the one who tried to cover up the ties between the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Fast and Furious. He retired last month without facing any criminal prosecution for his role in the mess.
Interesting too, is that as Howard wraps up the first excerpt of the recordings, it appears he understood how widespread the federal involvement in Fast and Furious had been. He knew that it wasn’t just the ATF, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI too:
HOWARD: "Let me tell you, you got more people out there now talking about this f-----g thing than anything I've ever seen. … People are not shutting the hell up … and that goes from DHS to f-----g FBI to everybody. I’m hearing it hypothetically on every fringe."
Judging from the tenor of these recordings, particularly the consternation on the part of Howard, these excerpts may only scratch the surface of the immensity of the crimes hidden behind the door marked Fast and Furious.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Darrell Issa and Charles Grassley: DOJ compromised gun probe
Politico ^ | September 22, 2011 | Tim Mak
Two top Republicans looking into the bungled “Fast and Furious” gun operation have accused the Department of Justice’s Inspector General of undermining their investigation.
The Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” gun program targeted Mexican drug cartels but ended up inadvertently supplying them with firearms.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) send a letter to DOJ - first reported by Fox News - that accused the department’s Inspector General, Cynthia Schnedar, of compromising their investigation by releasing secret tape recordings to targets of their probe.
“Each of these disclosures undermines our ability to assess the candor of witnesses in our investigation and thus obstructs it,” wrote the two Republicans in a letter dated Tuesday. “Moreover, your decision to immediately disclose the recordings to those you are investigating creates at least the appearance, if not more, that your inquiry is not sufficiently objective and independent.
The DOJ Inspector General argues it was required to turn the tapes over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice under the legal rules of discovery.
Both Congress and the DOJ Inspector General are conducting investigations into the department’s role in the gun program. Issa and Grassley are concerned that releasing the tapes to the U.S. Attorney’s Office - a potential target in their investigation - might obstruct their inquiries.
The tapes Issa and Grassley are referring to were recorded by Andre Howard, a firearms dealer who was recruited by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to sell arms to a Mexican cartel. On two occasions, Howard recorded Hope MacAllister, the lead agent in the Fast and Furious case.
Howard’s lawyer, Larry Gaydos, said that Howard was recording MacAllister in an effort to implicate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the gun-running scheme.
Schnedar did not even listen to the recordings before handing them over, say the two Republicans.
Issa and Grassley said the Inspector General’s disclosure represented an obstruction to their investigation of the Department of Justice.
“It appears that you did not consider the significant harm that providing these recordings to the very individuals under investigation could cause to either our inquiry or your own,” they wrote.
The 2009 “Fast and Furious” operation involved ATF agents who tracked purchases of guns and allowed them cross from the United States into Mexico in hopes that the weapons would lead them to major weapons traffickers and drug cartel leaders. Instead, hundreds of rifles and other guns ended up in the hands of the cartels, and the operation was unsuccessful.
In fact, weapons linked to the program were later involved in the December 2010 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
© 2011 POLITICO LLC
-
:D
-
http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/22/bankruptcy-scenario-played-out-before-solyndra-col/?page=all
Wow. They knew it was going down and gave the money anyway.
-
Solyndra Went on a Spending Spree After Getting Loan
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/09/22/WP-Solyndra-went-on-a-spending-spree-after-getting-loan.aspx#page1
By September 22, 2011
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Former employees of Solyndra, the shuttered solar company that exhausted half a billion dollars of taxpayer money, said they saw questionable spending by management almost as soon as a federal agency approved a $535 million government-backed loan for the start-up.
A new factory built with public money boasted a gleaming conference room with glass walls that, with the flip of a switch, turned a smoky gray to conceal the room’s occupants. Hastily purchased state-of-the-art equipment ended up being sold for pennies on the dollar, still in its plastic wrap, employees said.
As the $344 million factory went up just down the road from the company’s leased plant in Fremont, Calif., workers watched as pallets of unsold solar panels stacked up in storage. Many wondered: Was the factory needed?
“After we got the loan guarantee, they were just spending money left and right,” said former Solyndra engineer Lindsey Eastburn. “Because we were doing well, nobody cared. Because of that infusion of money, it made people sloppy.”
Solyndra’s ability to secure federal backing also made the company eager for more assistance, interviews and records show. Company executives ramped up their Washington lobbying efforts, hiring a former Senate aide to work with the White House and the Energy Department. Within a week of getting a loan guarantee commitment from the Energy Department, Solyndra applied for another, worth $400 million. It never won final approval.
On Friday, company executives are scheduled to appear before a House committee investigating how Solyndra obtained its loan and whether the Obama White House rushed its approval for political reasons. Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover were supposed to face a grilling about the company’s spending and collapse, but they announced Tuesday that they would assert their Fifth Amendment rights because of a criminal probe of the company by the Justice Department.
A key question for lawmakers is whether Solyndra executives misled Congress about the financial state of the company as late as July, when questions about the loan surfaced on Capitol Hill. Solyndra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 31, laying off 1,100 workers and leaving taxpayers on the hook for repayment of the guaranteed loan made through the Federal Financing Bank.
Solyndra was once touted by President Obama as the flagship of his administration’s effort to spur the clean-energy industry. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that e-mails showed that White House officials pushed federal reviewers for a decision on the Solyndra loan as they sought to schedule a press announcement with the company and Vice President Biden.
An Energy Department spokesman said the agency was unaware that Solyndra sales projections, part of the justification for the new factory, had been too rosy. Spokesman Damien LaVera declined to comment on the employees’ accounts of company spending.
Solyndra, founded by enterpreneur Chris Gronet in 2004, pushed the Obama administration to support its niche solar technology — efficient cylindrical solar panels that were relatively expensive to make but cheaper and easier to install on the roofs of “big box” stores and other commercial buildings. The new administration awarded the company its first loan guarantee under the stimulus program.
The leading investors in Solyndra were two investment funds with ties to George B. Kaiser, a major campaign fundraising “bundler” for Obama.
The White House had scheduled a press event around the time of Solyndra’s factory groundbreaking on Sept. 4, 2009. Federal reviewers gave their final nod to the deal on Sept. 2.
With the loan guarantee in hand, Solyndra built a second, seven-acre factory with 19 loading docks. As part of the expansion, Gronet and fellow managers hoped to cut costs by speeding up the automated assembly. To do so, they bought a custom-made assembly tool from VDL, a Dutch company. The company had never built that kind of equipment, but it promised the assembly tool would arrive in the summer of 2010. By that time, Gronet had been pushed out as chief executive. Workers told The Post in interviews that they were shocked that summer when Harrison, newly installed as CEO, told them that sales projections used to justify the new factory to federal agencies had been far too optimistic.
“Obviously their forecasts weren’t correct,” said Peter M. Kohlstadt, a research engineer. “We just didn’t have the sales we thought we had.”
Employees said that in 2010 they noticed that solar panel inventories were growing — raising questions about why they weren’t being sold. The new assembly equipment arrived late and had technical problems. VDL officials did not respond to a request for comment.
In a July 13 letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, then probing his company’s loan, Harrison insisted that the company’s future was bright.
“Solyndra’s revenues grew from $6 million in 2008 to $100 million in 2009 to $140 million in 2010,” Harrison wrote. “For 2011, revenues are projected to nearly double again.”
Bankruptcy filings show the company was at the time desperately looking for bridge financing to keep its doors open. It shut down six weeks later.
Although Harrison stressed in a Post interview earlier this year that he focused on business, not “the political aspect of what happens in Washington,” public records show that since 2008, Solyndra has spent more than $1 million on lobbying inside the Beltway.
Lobbying expenditures of $160,000 a year in 2008 and 2009 accelerated as Solyndra’s financial and political troubles mounted. By 2010, such spending had grown to $550,000. So far this year, Solyndra has reported spending $220,000, but that number will grow as more reports filter in.
Sakera Alima, who began working at Solyndra as a financial analyst in the fall of 2010, said she was warned by a mentor that the company wasn’t doing well financially.
“She said, ‘I’ve been working here the past three years and I feel like any day now I might not have my job,’ ” Alima recalled. “I knew it was a risk.”
Kohlstadt said employees arrived at work to find the company closed, and they lost vacation pay and benefits without notice.
Kohlstadt said Solyndra’s collapse leaves him doubly affected.
“I’m being hit twice: As a taxpayer, $500 million, where did it go?” he said. “I’m hit a second time: I’m not getting money that is owed to me and the government hasn’t done anything to look out for us.”
-
White House Fingerprints on LightSquared Scandal
Townhall.com ^ | September 23, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
The newest Obama Administration scandal-de-jour, LightSquared, has quickly escalated to involve potentially "guided" testimony to two separate Congressional Committees. Additionally, two witnesses have confirmed that the White House pressured them to alter testimony in favor of LightSquared, a Virginia broadband provider whose executives also made very large Democrat Party campaign contributions.
Further, entire portions of the supposedly independent opinion submitted to a Congressional Oversight Committee regarding LightSquared from four separate government agencies contained "identical language in their written testimony" – a truly remarkable coincidence.
The scandal erupted last week on Capitol Hill when Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) revealed that General William Shelton, Commander of the Air Force Space Command Center in Colorado Springs, told the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee that the White House tried to convince Shelton to alter his testimony to favor LightSquared's FCC application to establish a national wireless communications network. Rep. Turner is Chairman of the Sub-Committee.
A second witness has now come forward, as well. Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing told The Daily Beast, that the White House pushed him to alter his testimony to say that "the government's concerns about the project by the firm LightSquared could be resolved in 90 days." That timetable, Russo understood, would be favorable to the company's FCC approval objectives. But, Russo disagreed, believing testing would take at least six months, so he rejected the White House pressure - he prefers to call it "guidance." General Shelton was also "guided" to make the same reference to a mere 90 days testing period.
The growing LightSquared scandal shares a common denominator with the on-going investigations involving Solyndra – the failed California solar energy company favored with a $535 million loan from the Department of Energy – in addition to the questionable White House involvement. In both cases major company principals were also large Democrat Party donors who got access to the White House brass.
Philip Falcone, LightSquared's principle investor, and his wife each donated $30,400 to the Democratic Senate Committee a week after meeting with senior White House staff. Falcone, a big money wheeler-dealer "who earned billions betting against the subprime mortgage market" is already under "tremendous scrutiny" in New York and Washington, according to The New York Times. CEO Sanjiv Ahuja donated $30,400 to the Democratic National Committee on the same day that two other LightSquared employees contacted the White House for meetings with senior officials.
Just as with the Solyndra scandal, questions are flying around Capitol Hill about whether these are just remarkable coincidences, or evidence of the pay-to-play politics in force at the White House.
The LightSquared application received conditional approval from the Federal Communications Commission in 2004, but concern about GPS interference has blocked the final go-ahead for seven years. Company executives and the White House contend that satisfying remaining questions is a minor, quick-fix issue and clearly are trying to get concurrence from Congress by suggesting concerns could be resolved with just a 90 day test period.
But a former FCC commissioner says any reference to a testing period, short or long, is highly irregular. According to Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a Clinton nominee to the FCC serving from 1997-2001, "Sometimes they (these types of tests) go on for long periods of time. To pick a number and say the tests have to end by a certain date is not consistent with commission precedent." He went on to state what seems obvious that, "you don't know what you will find when you do the test; you can't predetermine that you will absolutely be finished after 90 days."
General Shelton and Director Russo apparently had the same reservations, and thus rejected the "guidance" from the White House.
The bandwidth spectrum proposed to be used by LightSquared is very close to that of the GPS system critical to government agencies, private industry, and citizens. Military and private industry experts have raised serious concerns for years that the "tens of thousands of ground stations" that LightSquared would install could "drown out the GPS signal." Instead of softening his testimony as requested by the White House, Gen. Shelton testified that in his opinion the LightSquared network "would cause significant disruptions to GPS."
The White House's fingerprints on the LightSquared issue extend beyond a significant sentence or two revision suggested to Shelton and Russo, which to their credit both men rejected. Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), Chairman of the House Science Committee's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, also raised a red flag after review of written testimony to his Sub-Committee uncovered a remarkable irregularity.
In a statement released to A Line of Sight and The Daily Beast, who first broke the LightSquared scandal, Rep. Broun said, "I was troubled to note that at the Science, Space and Technology Committee's recent hearing on the company's potential interference to GPS, four of the five Administration witnesses – National Coordination Office; DOT; NOAA; and NASA – had identical language in their written testimony reflecting the administration's view of the LightSquared project. The language diminished the otherwise blunt assessments the witnesses articulated during the hearing when pressed by committee members."
On September 20, 2011 separate letters were sent to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requesting documents related to the Administration's involvement with LightSquared. The letters were signed by Science and Technology Committee Chairman Ralph Hall (TX), James Sensenbrenner (WI), Rep. Broun and four other committee members. The letters document the apparent attempts to "Tamper with Testimony" and "Muzzling Officials" for possible political objectives. "Sugarcoating testimony over critical matters that include the lives of Americans is irresponsible, and inevitably raises questions about the Administration's priorities," wrote the lawmakers.
The letters express frustration that earlier requests by the Committee for LightSquared related documents from DHS, NOAA, NIST, and the Commerce Department have been ignored. The lawmakers also cited the stonewalling by the FCC of Senator Charles Grassley's request for LightSquared documents made last April, and the refusal of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to testify at a Senate hearing.
Solyndra has prompted five separate high level investigations, and Chairman Darrell Issa of the House Government and Oversight Committee has now announced plans to also investigate the growing newest White House scandal around LightSquared.
Why is the White House so compelled to soften the testimony of experts in the field, particularly the four-star Commander of the Air Space Command? Why are numerous federal agencies controlled by the White House refusing to comply with Congressional requests for information? Why would the White House be willing to compromise the GPS system that is critical to our military, law enforcement, and the lives of virtually every American citizen?
John Kass, columnist for The Chicago Tribune in Barack Obama's hometown, knows exactly what these scandals are all about; it is "the Chicago Way" he says in a new scathing, satirical, condemning column. "Did you really believe it when the White House mouthpieces – who are also Chicago City Hall mouthpieces – promised they were bringing a new kind of politics to Washington?" Kass writes. Something smells really bad, Kass says, "And those of us from Chicago know exactly what it smells like. And it doesn't smell fresh and green."
See also New Day, A New White House Scandal: First Solyndra, Now LightSquared
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
ATF Counsel email to Melson on Gunwalker-Terry murder link preceded intimidation
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 22 September, 2011 | David Codrea
A Gun Rights Examiner/Sipsey Street Irregulars exclusive
A just-uncovered January 5, 2011 email to former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Kenneth Melson from Stephen R. Rubenstein, Chief Counsel, ATF, responded to a request by Melson for information regarding allegations on whistleblower website CleanUpATF that walked guns were linked to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and indicated this was a violation of ATF Orders and Standards of Conduct.
Copies of the email and Melson’s reply are posted in this correspondent's Scribd account and included in the sidebar slideshow accompanying this article. Per Rubenstein’s email:
This is in response to your request regarding information posted on "Clean Up ATF." Specifically, on December 22, 2010, "1desrtrat" [screen name used by CUATF comment poster--DC] stated that "word is" that Phoenix FD ASAC George Gillet "[a]llegedly approved more than 500 AR-15 type rifles from Phoenix and Tucson cases to be 'walked' into Mexico." The post further states that "- ne of those rifles is rumored to have been linked to the recent killing of a Border Patrol Officer in Nogales, AZ."
That post can be read here, and was the basis for Mike Vanderboegh’s initial December 28 report on the Gunwalker/Terry nexus.
“The disclosure of this information has a potential deleterious effect on ATF's undercover operations,” Rubenstien continued. “In that regard, suspects may alter their behavior if they know that law enforcement is allowing certain firearms to 'walk' into Mexico. In addition, public knowledge of this type of operation potentially places informants and undercover agents in jeopardy. Finally, public disclosure of such information could ATF's working relationship with Mexico.”
Examined objectively, Rubenstein admitted guns were purposely allowed to walk, that walking guns to a foreign country must be hidden from the public, and that if the Mexicans found
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Solyndra execs refuse to testify at House hearing
abclocal.go.com ^ | September 23, 2011 | Nick Smith
WASHINGTON (KGO) -- Two top executives at bankrupt Solyndra have invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions at a House hearing Friday.
The Solyndra executives have sent letters to the House Energy and Commerce committee, saying they will invoke their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
(Excerpt) Read more at abclocal.go.com ...
-
Solyndra executives repeatedly invoke the Fifth
By DARREN SAMUELSOHN | 9/23/11 10:46 AM EDT
Solyndra executives repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment this morning as House lawmakers pressed them to answer questions about the company's financial collapse and any hopes of repaying their $535 million federal loan guarantee.
"While I hope to have an opportunity to assist this committee in the future, on the advice of my attorney, I must respectfully decline to answer any questions," Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison told Energy and Commerce oversight subpanel Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who opened the questioning.
CFO Brian Stover gave a similar response.
The repeated questions drew an objection from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who slammed Republicans for persisting even after knowing that the executives would invoke their right to remain silent.
"I just want to take this moment to assert the fact that I think it's unseemly and inappropriate for members to be asking questions that you know they will not answer," Waxman said, saying the GOP questions were "sound bites" for the press.
Meanwhile, full committee Chairman Fred Upton called it unseemly for the White House to respond to the Solyndra scandal by highlighting Republican lawmakers' past support for clean energy projects in their districts.
"The administration's actions in this case are deeply troubling and so is their response to our findings," said the Michigan Republican, who quoted from a POLITICO story on the White House efforts.
He added: “This is not a debate about the virtues of clean energy, it is a serious inquiry into reckless use of taxpayer dollars on a company that was known to pose serious risks before a single dime went out the door.
"Let me just warn you and the other folks involved in this taxpayer rip-off," Upton said. "We're not done. No we're not."
But Waxman sounded a theme similar to the White House's.
"Republicans in Congress are now dancing on Solyndra's grave, but they seem to have a case of collective amnesia," said Waxman. He cited several members of the panel who have sought federal subsidies on energy, including Upton, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Charlie Bass of New Hampshire, Brian Bilbray of California and Mary Bono Mack of California.
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 10:38 a.m. on September 23, 2011.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64268.html#ixzz1YmxYvNLp
-
lol. Shut the heck up Waxman. lol
-
-
Doh! I wonder if the media will corner Obama about this scandal?
-
Obama raising with Missouri stimulus beneficiary
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 9/23/11 12:12 PM EDT Updated: 9/23/11 2:21 PM EDT
President Barack Obama will raise money in early October with a Missouri businessman whose company benefited from a $107 million federal tax credit to develop a wind power facility in his state.
Tom Carnahan, a scion of Missouri’s most prominent Democratic political family, is listed on Obama’s campaign website as a host of a $25,000-per-person fundraiser to be held in St. Louis on October 4.
Continue Reading
His investment firm, Wind Capital Group, was helped by a sizable credit authorized in the stimulus, for an energy project in northwest Missouri.
Republicans argue that it’s inappropriate for the Obama campaign to raise money from a donor who has benefited directly from the Recovery Act.
Missouri Republican Party executive director Lloyd Smith compared the situation to the Solyndra affair, in which the Obama administration reportedly rushed federal support to a green-energy firm that subsequently collapsed.
“At a time when Barack Obama is under fire for steering hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funds to a failed company linked to a major campaign donor, it is stunning that he would come to Missouri and raise money with another recipient of stimulus cash,” Smith said in a statement to POLITICO. “Sadly, Missourians have come to expect this kind of pay-to-play from the Obama administration. November 2012 can't come soon enough.”
The Obama campaign did not respond to a request for comment. There’s no evidence that Carnahan’s company received federal help because of political favoritism, and given the size of the stimulus, there are more than a few business executives who can be tied to the Recovery Act.
But Republicans have successfully wielded the Missouri wind power project as a political weapon before.
In 2010, Republicans attacked Tom Carnahan’s siblings, Rep. Russ Carnahan and Senate candidate Robin Carnahan, for the government help their brother’s firm received.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64276.html#ixzz1YnxzQe75
-
http://www.businessinsider.com/government-totally-ignored-the-inevitable-solyndra-disaster-2011-9?op=1
Blacken and Straw where for art thou?
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Solyndra’s Finance Chief No Stranger to Scandal
Bay Citizen ^ | 9/22/11 | Aaron Glantz
Posted on September 23, 2011 6:45:14 PM EDT by Nachum
Before he became Solyndra's chief financial officer, Wilbur G. Stover was at the center of one of the largest price-fixing scandals in U.S. history.
From 1994 to 2007, Stover was CFO of Micron Technologies Inc., a maker of computer memory chips. During that time, the Justice Department investigated Micron and four other companies for colluding to drive up the price of memory in violation of federal antitrust laws.
"This was a big deal case," said Robert Lande, a law professor at Baltimore University who has written extensively on the case. "It was price-fixing on a crucial component that everybody uses, and they got together and fixed prices in what was a blatant violation of antitrust laws."
Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/13jLP)
(Excerpt) Read more at baycitizen.org ...
-
Solyndra gave bright forecasts as it ran out of cash (and Obama was in on the $500 million scam)
reuters ^ | 9/23/2011 | Mark Hosenball and Roberta Rampton
Posted on September 23, 2011 6:25:12 PM EDT by tobyhill
Just before solar panel maker Solyndra scrambled in August to get more cash from private investors and better loan terms from federal bureaucrats, top company officials went on a political road show.
Brian Harrison, Solyndra's CEO who on Friday refused to answer questions posed by a House panel, met in July with congressional Republicans who were skeptical about how much money the Obama administration had sunk into the company's factory. He also met Democrats eager to support clean energy.
"Things were on the upswing, that's what they told me," said Diana DeGette, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives.
"I don't understand how they could paint such a rosy picture to us and then five weeks later be in bankruptcy court," DeGette told reporters.
The CEO's assertions were part of a long pattern of Solyndra putting on a positive face for the public as it struggled to keep its business alive. The rosy scenarios Harrison presented now face intense scrutiny from lawmakers, the FBI and other investigators.
The Solyndra saga also has become a political headache for President Barack Obama, whose administration had showcased the company as an example of how renewable energy programs could create jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
-
Fraud Charges Floating for Obama Administration (Impeachment is a must)
Townhall.com ^ | September 22, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
Posted on September 22, 2011 10:21:15 AM EDT by Kaslin
Since we first write about the collapse of Solyndra, the solar energy company favored by the White House with a $535 million taxpayer funded loan, the stench has only gotten worse.
Rather than restate the facts, here are links to our four previously published posts:
September 10, 2011 – September 13, 2011 – September 16, 2011 – Fox, September 19, 2011
For those of you following this evolving scandal, here are a few more important developments and relevant details:
At least five high level investigations have been initiated including the FBI, the Inspector General of the Department of Energy, the Inspector General of the U.S. Treasury, the House Energy & Commerce Committee, and the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
Lamar Smith, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has called on the Justice Department to appoint an "Independent Investigator" to look into the growing scandal.
Attorneys for Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO W.G. Stover, originally scheduled to testify to Congress this Friday, notified the House that the executives will invoke the Fifth Amendment and not answer questions.
Rep. Fred Upton, Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, cited an "apparent violation of the law" during opening statements in a House hearing last week; a reference to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that authorized the loan program to the benefit of Solyndra, but importantly contained a prohibition against subordination of the taxpayers secured position.
Former Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Andrew McCarthy ratcheted up the allegations further by alleging the actions of the Obama Administration are "criminal fraud." McCarthy says any competent prosecutor will pursue that line of investigation and points out that, "Fraud against the United States is one of the most serious felony offenses in the federal penal code."
Disregarding the exploding scandal, the DOE announced another half billion in loan guarantees to solar energy companies since the Solyndra collapse and reports suggest a dozen or more are being rushed through the pipeline prior to the programs expiration on September 30.
-
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/us/politics/in-rush-to-assist-solyndra-united-states-missed-warning-signs.html?pagewanted=all
Ridiculous. Pelosi now involved in this mess.
-
The Solyndra Story Keeps Unfolding
Posted by David Boaz
Is the taxpayers’ lost $535 million in the green-energy company Solyndra just an unfortunate business failure, or is there something more scandalous involved? You should read every word of this front-page New York Times article. Sure, it says that “no evidence has emerged that political favoritism played a role in what administration officials assert were merit-based decisions.” But the story is full of smoking guns.
Here’s the opening:
President Obama’s visit to the Solyndra solar panel factory in California last year was choreographed down to the last detail—the 20-by-30-foot American flags, the corporate banners hung just so, the special lighting, even coffee and doughnuts for the Secret Service detail.
“It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future,” the president declared in May 2010 to the assembled workers and executives. The start-up business had received a $535 million federal loan guarantee, offered in part to reassert American dominance in solar technology while generating thousands of jobs.
But behind the pomp and pageantry, Solyndra was rotting inside, hemorrhaging cash so quickly that within weeks of Mr. Obama’s visit, the company canceled plans to offer shares to the public. Barely a year later, Solyndra has become one of the administration’s most costly fumbles after the company declared bankruptcy, laid off 1,100 workers and was raided by F.B.I. agents seeking evidence of possible fraud.
Solyndra’s two top officers are to appear Friday before a House investigative committee where, their lawyers say, they will assert their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
And there’s more:
[Solyndra's] lobbyists corresponded frequently and met at least three times with an aide to a top White House official, Valerie B. Jarrett, to push for loans, tax breaks and other government assistance… Energy Department preliminary loan approvals—including the one for Solyndra—were granted at times before officials had completed mandatory evaluations of the financial and engineering viability of the projects.
…[T]he company spent nearly $1.8 million on Washington lobbyists, employing six firms with ties to members of Congress and officials of the Obama White House. None of the other three solar panel manufacturers that eventually got federal loan guarantees spent a dime on lobbyists… Solyndra’s loan guarantee was the highest of the four companies…
Five lobbyists employed by the McBee group eventually worked on Solyndra’s behalf, including Michael Sheehy, a former top aide to Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. Solyndra has paid McBee Consulting $340,000 since 2009…
Solyndra and its lobbyists continued to provide assurances to the White House and the Energy Department, which still could have stopped the flow of federal money…
The story might well be read in conjunction with yesterday’s Washington Post story, which stressed “questionable spending by management almost as soon as a federal agency approved a $535 million government-backed loan for the start-up… ‘Because of that infusion of money, it made people sloppy.’”
David Boaz • September 23, 2011 @ 1:49 pm
Filed under: Energy and Environment; Government and Politics; Tax and Budget Policy
Tags: Government waste, green energy, lobbying
Print
ShareThis
-
Soros Surfaces on the Edge of White House Controversy Involving LightSquared
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/23/soros-surfaces-on-edge-white-house-controversy/ ^ | 9-23-2011 | Fox News
Posted on September 24, 2011 2:57:03 AM EDT by sheikdetailfeather
Billionaire financier and liberal activist George Soros has been financially linked to LightSquared, which is at the center of allegations that the White House pressured a Pentagon commander to change his prepared congressional testimony to benefit the Virginia-based telecom company that once received a $90,000 investment from President Obama.
LightSquared is seeking to establish a new wireless broadband network that many, including Air Force Gen. William Shelton, believe could interfere with critical GPS systems used by the U.S. military. But Shelton, head of Space Command, confided to lawmakers that he thought his testimony had been leaked to LightSquared, and that he had rejected requests from the White House to downplay his concerns.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/23/soros-surfaces-on-edge-white-house-controversy
Unreal. Obama needs to go to jail.
-
MEXICO: U.S. has yet to explain Fast and Furious to Mexico, official says
September 22, 2011 | 1:43 pm
0 43
REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- The United States government has yet to brief Mexican authorities on the failed Fast and Furious gun-running operation that led to scores of American weapons being smuggled purposefully into a raging drug war, Mexico's top law enforcement official told The Times.
"At no time did we know or were we made aware that there might have been arms trafficking permitted," said Atty. Gen. Marisela Morales in comments from a recent interview with Times reporters published Tuesday. "In no way would we have allowed it, because it is an attack on the safety of Mexicans."
Morales said she first learned about the program -- which U.S. officials contend was meant to trace weapons up cartel ranks to top capos -- through news reports.
Mexico's attorney general also said the U.S. has not apologized for the violence inflicted by guns smuggled into Mexico under the watch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the secret program based out of the ATF's field office in Arizona. Morales characterized the operation's main tactic, letting guns "walk" into Mexico, if, she said, that is what actually happened, as a potential "betrayal."
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico and an acting ATF attache in Mexico City have also complained of being kept in the dark about the program.
At least one high-profile assassination has been linked to a weapon sent into Mexico through Fast and Furious: the killing of the brother of a former top prosecutor in violence-ravaged Chihuahua state. Hundreds more Fast and Furious weapons have reportedly turned up at crime scenes in Mexico.
The operation basically resulted in both sides in Mexico's drug conflict receiving weapons, as The Times has reported. The Mexican government has been receiving weapons and combat hardware through the Merida Initiative aid package, and suspected drug traffickers were receiving weapons as a result of the secret U.S. gun program.
At least 40,000 people have been killed in almost five years of fighting in Mexico, and there are estimates that more than 150 people have been killed or wounded by Fast and Furious weapons. Meanwhile, drugs continue to flow north to the United States despite the take-down of several top cartel figures in Mexico.
Congressional probes in Washington now have their eye on three national security officials in the White House who received emails alluding to Fast and Furious far before ATF whistle-blowers brought it to public light. In Mexico, officials say they want answers from their U.S. counterparts.
"Yes, it was bad and wrong, and you have to ask yourself, what were they thinking?" a senior official in President Felipe Calderon's administration told The Times, referring to Fast and Furious. "But, given the river of weapons that flows into Mexico from the U.S., do a few more make a big difference?"
RELATED:
Full coverage of the Fast and Furious scandal.
-- Daniel Hernandez
Photo: Mexico's attorney general, Marisela Morales. Credit: Reuters
-
SEPTEMBER 25, 2011
Counting the Democrat Bodies Involved in a Taxpayer-Guaranteed Loan
By Amy Oliver
9/25/2011
By now it’s obvious that the Solyndra scandal never should have happened. It’s not even a case of Monday morning quarterbacking. A number of people involved could see the disaster coming.
There is a larger principle here. Government should not use taxpayer money to socialize risk while privatizing profits. Examples such as Colorado-based Abound Solar, which received a $400 million loan guarantee, prove that crony capitalism simply rewards the well connected at taxpayer expense.
Abound Solar
Abound Solar, according to its Web site, “produces next-generation thin-film cadmium telluride solar modules” and “is committed to reducing the cost of solar electricity to levels competitive with fossil fuels.”
It is the brainchild of former Colorado State University (CSU) Professor W.S. Sampath and two former students Kurt Barth and Al Enzenroth. It began as AVA Solar and then incorporated into Abound in 2007.
The Web site says it employs 350 people in three Colorado locations. Its Colorado manufacturing plant is located in Weld County, which granted Abound up to $100,000 per year for the next ten years in business property tax rebates. According to sources, the reason for the rebate was job creation intended to benefit Weld County residents. Yet when officials and interested parties ask how many of the 350 jobs have gone to Weld County residents, the solar company does not answer.
Currently Abound has a manufacturing capacity of 65 megawatts expanding to 850 megawatts – at some point. However, in 2010 it manufactured only 30 megawatts. One wonders, if Abound can produce more, why doesn’t it?
The Web site does say it is “growing,” and news reports claim the company plans to add anywhere from 850 to 1,000 employees thanks to a $400 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan Abound received in July 2010. The taxpayer cash is so it can expand its manufacturing capabilities to a facility in Tipton, Indiana. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation “extended up to $11.85 million in tax credits and $250,000 in training grants” as well.
Abound Solar further claims $260 million in private investments, part of which came from billionaire medical heiress Pat Stryker’s Bohemian Companies. This is where the story gets interesting.
Thanks to Independence Institute investigative reporter Todd Shepherd, we still have access to the Web page that lists Bohemian as an investor even though it does not appear on the company’s current Web site. The exact amount that Stryker has given is not public at this time. Also, CSU and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are listed as funding resources.
Total public and private monies equal $673,100,000. Assuming Abound can “create” some 1,350 jobs, that is $498,593 per job, of which $360,000 comes from public coffers.
However, Abound’s Indiana manufacturing facility is not scheduled to open until 2013 or 2014, which seems like a long time to wait to “create” jobs and turn a profit.
As a comparison, the Denver Bronco’s stadium cost $364 million to build of which 68 percent was publicly financed. With a yes vote from taxpayers in November 1998, construction began in August 1999 and was completed in September 2001.
This is not an endorsement of publicly funded professional sports facilities but rather an assumption that the Broncos management didn’t want a disruption in cash flow that could come from the inconvenience of a lengthy construction project.
I asked Abound if the company is still on track for a 2013 expansion and received no response. For most companies, time means money except in solar panels.
Pat Stryker
Forbes lists medical heiress and founder of Bohemian Companies/Foundation Pat Stryker as number 331 of its top “400 Richest People in America.” Worth $1.3 billion, the Fort Collins resident could single-handedly fund Abound Solar and still be well above the poverty line.
While some of her fortune has gone to Abound Solar, she also has chosen to donate more than $2.2 million (probably a low figure) to Democrats and their causes over the last several election cycles. Beneficiaries include Barack Obama, one-term Congresswoman and Fort Collins resident Betsy Markey, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar when he successfully ran for U.S. Senate in Colorado.
Stryker is also a charter member of the notorious “gang of four” which changed the political landscape in Colorado through an organization called the Colorado Democracy Alliance (CoDA). Their success was titled the “Colorado Miracle” and is being replicated in other states.
Congresswoman Betsy Markey
With the help from Stryker in 2008, Markey beat incumbent republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado’s conservative 4th Congressional District. Abound Solar, Pat Stryker, and Colorado State University are all in the 4th CD. Between 2008 and 2010 election cycles, CSU employees also donated nearly $27,000 to Markey’s campaigns.
When the Waxman-Markey (named for Congressmen Henry Waxman and Ed Markey) cap and trade bill, which included a national renewable energy standard, came up for a vote, Congresswoman Markey danced around the issue for weeks because it wasn’t a popular bill in the 4th CD. Ultimately she voted “yes.”
In an interview on my radio show following the vote, Markey cited “green jobs” as one of her reasons. What she didn’t cite was her relationship to Pat Stryker and Abound Solar or the $2,000 campaign contribution she received from Henry Waxman the night before the vote.
Shortly after the vote, Abound Solar was part of a group that helped pay for TV ads thanking Markey for saying yes to Waxman’s bill. Todd Shepherd exposed the politically incestuous relationship and suggested:
“[T]he connections between Representative Betsy Markey (D, CO-4), billionaire heiress Pat Stryker, and Abound Solar, appear to have all of the fingerprints of the kind of pay-to-play agenda that has left many Americans wondering how they got stuck with unpopular bills such as cap and trade, formally known as Waxman-Markey (named after a different Markey)
Markey also urged the approval of Abound’s $400 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan. The Denver Business Journal reported, “Abound applied for the loan guarantee more than a year ago, and Markey and other members of Colorado's congressional delegation pushed for approval.”
Colorado State University
Located in Fort Collins, Colorado, CSU fancies itself the “green” university:
“Colorado State University is internationally known for its green initiatives and clean-energy research including alternative fuels, clean engines, photovoltaics, "smart" grid technology, wind engineering, water resources, and satellite-based atmospheric monitoring and tracking systems. It's also known as a "green" university for its sustainability efforts on campus and abroad.
Abound Solar founders got their start at CSU as the university bragged in a 2007 press release.
Stryker also has a connection to CSU, having donated millions the university. Furthermore, former CSU president Al Yates became Stryker’s mouthpiece and representative on CoDA. The Blueprint, a must-read book from Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer, details the Yates-Stryker relationship along with how democrats won control in Colorado.
Finally, CSU is home to the Center for the New Energy Economy headed by former
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a renewable energy activist, and funded by private donations, a third of which came from Stryker’s Bohemian Foundation. Ritter now makes $300,000 to promote renewable energy throughout the country.
Governor Bill Ritter
With the help of CoDA and Pat Stryker, Democrat Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter won the 2006 Governor’s race. His one term legacy is the state’s New Energy Economy, 57 pieces of legislation to move the state from reliance on less costly on fossil fuels to renewables. Ritter is a true believer, an eco-evangelical, who signed laws mandating 30 percent renewable energy standards and fuel switching.
In April 2009, Governor Ritter hand-delivered two letters to Energy Secretary Steven Chu who was touring NREL. One letter urged the Department of Energy to grant a $300 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan to Abound Solar:
“This request for $300 million would allow [Abound Solar] to triple production capacity within 12 months, develop a second manufacturing facility within 18 months and hire an additional 1,000 employees.
Abound received $400 million in July 2010. By all accounts, the solar panel company will not meet Ritter’s original promise of triple capacity in a year and a new facility within 18 months. Just won’t happen that fast.
When Ritter left office in January 2011, he became the Director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at CSU and one of the highest paid administrators on campus, thanks to Stryker.
President Barack Obama
President Obama received $11,700 directly from Stryker and Joseph Zimlich, who is a director at Abound Solar and is also associated with Stryker’s Bohemian Foundation. No doubt Obama benefitted as well from Stryker’s donations to other democrat causes including Campaign Money Watch and Democrat White House Victory Fund.
In Obama’s weekly radio address on July 3, 2010, he announced an acceleration of “the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power – steps that have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America.”
He said that Abound Sola:
“will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs. A Colorado plant is already underway, and an Indiana plant will be built in what’s now an empty Chrysler factory. When fully operational, these plants will produce millions of state-of-the-art solar panels each year."
That radio address was the formal announcement that Abound Solar received a $400 million loan guarantee courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Taxpayers get the risk while individuals get the profit.
To recap, Abound Solar receives support from Pat Stryker and Colorado State University both of which fund and promote Congresswoman Betsy Markey. She in turn votes yes on Cap and Trade and urges the federal government to approve the Abound loan.
Abound Solar then contributes to TV ads thanking Markey for her yes vote on Cap and Trade.
Governor Bill Ritter hand delivers letters to Energy Secretary Steven Chu urging the DOE to grant the loan guarantee. When he decides not to run for a second term, he is offered a job at CSU, which is funded in part by Pat Stryker.
President Barack Obama benefitted from Pat Stryker’s political donations. In July 2010, he announces a $400 million loan guarantee to Abound.
Can’t get a $400 million loan? Apparently you don’t know and fund the right people.
Amy Oliver Cooke is the director of the Colorado Transparency Project for the Independence Institute and writes on energy policy. She can be reached at amy@i2i.org
Disgusting.
-
http://floppingaces.net/2011/09/24/did-sen-patrick-leahy-obstruct-gunwalker-investigation-reader-post
Another communist pofs.
-
instead of surfing the right wing hate sites get out and have some fun, beautiful day
-
instead of surfing the right wing hate sites get out and have some fun, beautiful day
Don't worry aboyt me blackass - worry about keeping obama out of jail.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
GOP to sink its teeth deeper into Solyndra and White House
The Hill ^ | September 25, 2011 | Andrew Restruccia
Posted on September 25, 2011 10:27:41 PM EDT by Kaslin
House Republicans have sunk their teeth into the bankruptcy of an Obama administration-backed solar firm, and they made it clear this week that they’re not letting go.
Unlike other GOP-led probes of the White House that quickly faded away, Republicans are vowing to intensify their investigation into the California-based Solyndra.
The company declared bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers this month just two years after receiving a $535 million stimulus-law loan guarantee from the administration.
The incident has ignited a firestorm in Washington, leaving the White House scrambling to defend itself against Republican allegations that the administration missed a series of red flags that hinted at Solyndra’s pending financial collapse. The debacle is a messaging nightmare for the White House, which has invested a huge amount of political capital in the stimulus law and its clean energy agenda.
Republicans have seized the moment, launching investigations, leaking damaging emails from the White House and blasting the administration on television and the radio.
And it’s not over yet. Not even close.
“Well, you can run, but you can’t even hide,” Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said on Fox Business Network this week. “We’ve got a good e-mail trail. We’ve got a number of professional investigators interviewing people. There’ll be more witnesses. There’ll be more hearings.”
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have launched an investigation into the Solyndra debacle and they hauled the company’s top executives before the committee’s investigative panel Friday morning.
The executives – Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer W.G. Stover Jr. – refused to answer lawmakers’ questions, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights 20 times during the hearing.
Amid the silence from the Solyndra executives, Republicans used the hearing to bash the White House.
“Congress and the American taxpayer have a right to know whether this loan guarantee was rushed out the door before it was ready for prime time, whether the administration doubled down on a bad bet after knowing of the company’s dubious commercial prospects or, even worse, whether $535 million taxpayer dollars were wasted on false or incomplete information,” Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee, said.
Republicans warned that Friday’s hearing, a media spectacle that got major coverage even as lawmakers struggled to approve a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown, is just the beginning.
“Let me just warn you and the other folks involved in this taxpayer rip-off,” Upton told the executives Friday. “We’re not done. No, we’re not.”
Republicans on the panel received tens of thousands of documents from the White House, Energy Department and other agencies involved in reviewing the Solyndra loan guarantee in recent months after issuing a subpoena in July.
A handful of emails released by the committee appear to show that the White House tried to rush a final decision on the company’s financing so that Vice President Biden could publicly announce approval of the loan guarantee at the September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s new factory.
This week, the lawmakers requested more documents, sending a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu seeking all communications between DOE and the White House and Treasury Department on the loan.
After Friday’s hearing, Upton said Republicans would consider issuing another subpoena if the administration doesn’t continue to cooperate.
“We are going to continue pursuing this and if folks refuse to answer questions or appear, then we’ll issue another subpoena if we have to,” Upton said.
“At the end of the day we have to figure out what happened to this taxpayer money – half a billion dollars. We have more interviews to conduct and we are not going to conclude this until we get all the answers.”
It’s not just the House Energy panel that’s getting in on the action. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said this week that he would probe federal loan programs in light of the Solyndra incident.
Following a hearing Thursday in which Issa and other Republicans on the panel slammed the administration’s “green job” projections, Issa warned that taxpayers could be responsible for billions of dollars if other solar companies collapse.
“We could potentially have every solar panel company go out of business, and that’s multiple Solyndras that we’re going to find ourselves on the hook for,” Issa said.
But Issa said he has no immediate plans to hold hearings on the administration’s loan programs, citing the committee’s busy schedule.
Meanwhile, in another indication that Solyndra is becoming a rallying cry for Republicans, House GOP leadership cut $100 million from the Energy Department’s loan guarantee to offset the cost of emergency disaster aid in a stopgap spending bill approved by the chamber early Friday morning. An earlier version of the legislation that did not include the cut to the loan guarantee program failed Wednesday, but a slew of Republican defectors voted for the new version of the bill Friday.
The White House and Democrats in Congress have been aggressively pushing back against Republican allegations, while at the same time criticizing Solyndra for painting a rosy picture of its finances during a July meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
“To date, the Committee has received no documents indicating political favoritism played a role in the decisions involving the loan guarantee for Solyndra,” a memo released by Democratic staff on the House Energy and Commerce Committee ahead of Friday’s hearing says.
The White House, for its part, has denied any wrongdoing related to the Solyndra loan guarantee. And administration officials have argued that the incident shows that the United States must continue investing in clean energy in order to compete with countries like China, which have invested billions of dollars in low-carbon energy sources.
Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, echoed the administration’s sentiments Friday.
“The future will belong to the countries that recognize reality and invest in clean energy,” he said.
-
Posted on September 26, 2011 12:22:33 AM EDT by Nachum
Out of the hundreds of out-of-work employees, vendors, investors and other creditors in the bankruptcy of government-backed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, one name stands out: the California Democratic Party.
Why California Democrats would be creditor to a company that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans to build a solar-panel plant isn’t clear. Even party officials say they’re not sure.
The California Democratic Party’s communications director, Tenoch Flores, said the organization was not owed “any funds in any form” by the California-based company. He said he was unclear why the party would be listed as a creditor in Solyndra’s bankruptcy filing.
According to campaign-finance records, Solyndra donated $7,500 to the California Democratic Party in October 2010. It’s legal in California for corporations to make donations. But that doesn’t explain why the company would identify the Democratic Party as a creditor in its bankruptcy filing a year later.
A Solyndra spokesman did not respond to messages seeking more details about the filing.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
Solyndra's lobbying not disclosed by DOE under stimulus rules
The Hill ^ | 9/23/2011 | By Kevin Bogardus
Posted on September 26, 2011 6:42:21 AM EDT by tobyhill
The Energy Department has not disclosed any lobbying by the embattled solar energy company Solyndra, despite its K Street firm indicating it had contacted the department regarding the stimulus package.
Under a policy first issued by the White House in 2009, federal agencies were required to disclose lobbying for stimulus funds. McBee Strategic Consulting, a lobby firm then under contract with Solyndra, said it had contacted the Energy Department in the first and third quarters of 2009 regarding the Recovery Act, according to records filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA).
Yet a review by The Hill of the more than 40 lobbyist contact disclosure forms regarding the stimulus posted online by the Energy Department reveals no contact between the department and Solyndra's lobbyists.
The discrepancy has been a common problem with the stimulus lobbying disclosure policy. Lobbyists have disclosed under the LDA that they have lobbied on the stimulus thousands of times since 2009, but federal agencies have released records that only detail hundreds of contacts between them and K Street.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
-
Vanderboegh & Codrea exclusive: U.S. Gov't used an ATF employee to buy weapons with taxpayer money
Sipsey Street Irregulars ^ | 25 September, 2011 | Mike Vanderboegh & David Codrea
A Sipsey Street Irregulars/National Gun Rights Examiner Column Exclusive: ATF Letter and Sources Confirm That There Was No "Botched Sting Operation" in Fast and Furious.
"One hundred percent us."
Official ATF documents as well as sources in Arizona and Washington D.C. confirm that in at least two instances in 2010, an agent of the United States government purchased Kalashnikov-pattern semi-automatic pistols from licensed federal firearms dealers with taxpayer money and delivered those weapons directly into the hands of cartel smugglers.
In a letter dated June 1, 2010, then Phoenix ATF Group VII supervisor David Voth instructed a Federal Firearms Licensee in Arizona as follows:
Dear Sir,
Per Section 925(a)(1) of the Gun Control Act (GCA) exempts law enforcement agencies from the transportation, shipment, receipt, or importation controls of the GCA when firearms are to be used for the official business of the agency.
Please accept this letter in lieu of completing an ATF Form 4473 for the purchase of four (4) CAI, Model Draco, 7.62x39 mm pistols, by Special Agent John Dodson. These aforementioned pistols will be used by Special Agent Dodson in furtherance of the performance of his official duties. In addition, Special Agent Dodson has not been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. If you have any questions, you may contact me at telephone number 602-605-6501.
Sincerely,
(Signature) David Voth ATF Group Supervisor Phoenix Group VII
In the lower left-hand margin of the one-page letter is the hand-written notation:
"Picked guns up 6/10/10 Paid Cash"
"Paid Cash" is underlined.
The existence of this letter provided to these reporters by a previously reliable source familiar with the Fast and Furious investigation, coupled with interviews of other sources across the country which put it into context, provides startling proof that the Federal government did not merely "lose track" of weapons purchased by "straw buyers" under surveillance by the ATF and destined for the Mexican drug cartels. In an undercover operation ordered by Fast and Furious supervisor David Voth, the U.S. government purchased firearms with taxpayer money from licensed firearms dealers, instructed them to conduct the sales "off the books," and used an ATF agent, John Dodson, to deliver them directly to people that Dodson believed were conducting them across the border.
According one source close to the Issa committee and knowledgeable of its workings, this revelation "puts a stake in the heart of the 'botched sting operation' lie." He continued, "There never was any 'sting,' there was only a deliberate effort to provide weapons to the DTO's (Drug Trafficking Organizations)." He added, "this was one hundred percent us -- our money, our guy, our (gun)walking."
This source also provided context and explanation of how the letter came to exist in the first place.
(It should be noted that although we would never reveal our sources for any story, it is important in this case for the readers to understand where we did NOT get it. Neither John Dodson nor his lawyer provided us this letter. Nor did they pass it through to us via a third party, as the DOJ has been known to do lately.)
"Dodson was given this undercover assignment by Voth," said the source, "to purchase weapons directly and provide them to the smugglers. He was operating under cover, pretending to be a 'straw buyer.'" He continued, "I think Dodson demanded the letter from Voth to cover both himself and the FFL (Federal Firearm Licensee). He didn't want to be hung out to dry" by Voth.
A source also said that the undercover assignment was an effort by Voth to "dirty him (Dodson) up," pointing out that by the time of the undercover assignment that Dodson's vocal opposition to "letting guns walk" was well known to his superiors in the Phoenix ATF office.
Sources also describe a second letter from Voth to another FFL authorizing Dodson to purchase two more Draco pistols. One source stated flatly: "Issa and Grassley have copies of both letters, and have had for a long time."
Subsequent to this undercover weapons buying and transfer to cartel smugglers by Dodson, say the sources, "Dodson just about came apart all over them (his supervisors)." In a "screaming match" that was heard throughout the Phoenix office by many employees, Dodson yelled at Voth and Assistant Special Agent in Charge George Gillett, "Why not just go direct and empty out the (ATF) arms room?" (to the cartels), or words to that effect.
After this confrontation, say the sources, ATF managers transferred Dodson to a post as "liaison to the intel guys at FBI" in the Phoenix office. For clarification, it is worth noting that the Brian Terry murder investigation was at this time being carried out by the criminal investigations side of the FBI out of the Tuscon office, not Phoenix.
Sources describe continuing harassment of Dodson as his access to the Phoenix office building was restricted. "They removed him from the (Fast and Furious) case as politically unreliable," said another source, adding, "And of course after the Terry murder all the shots were being called by D.C."
After the death of Brian Terry, the "rumor" post on the ATF agent's website, CleanUpATF.org and the initial coverage by these reporters in the early weeks of January, 2011, "things got ugly" for Dodson. Blamed by his immediate supervisors as well as many of his fellow agents in the Phoenix office for "treason" as one source described it, Dodson's existence at the Phoenix office was described as "precarious" by one D.C. source. The threats to his life were perceived to be so great that "solitary range days" were arranged by a sympathetic supervisor so Dodson could practice marksmanship in safety. "He (the supervisor) didn't want him (Dodson) to eat one in the back" in a range "accident," said the source.
Dodson has not given any more interviews of late. "Not since the hearings as far as I know," said one source, and it is not because he hasn't been asked.
"They're (the Justice Department) coming at him hard, looking for anything they can use against him," said another. "Can you blame him for keeping his head down?"
Although our sources firmly agree that Senator Grassley and Congressman Issa have both of the Voth/Dodson letters, we are forwarding copies of the June 1, 2010 letter to staffers of both men, asking for comment on this story and an explanation as to why they have not previously released the letters.
Given the fact that it is a weekend, these reporters do not expect any reaction until later on Monday morning.
________________________ _________
HOPE AND CHANGE!
-
Letter implicates ATF in committing straw purchases for Gunwalker
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 25 September, 2011 | David Codrea
A letter forwarded on Friday by a proven reliable source to Gun Rights Examiner and Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars documents Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives management authorizing the sale of firearms, which sources say were intended for delivery to cartel purchasers as part of the “Fast and Furious” / ”Gunwalker” scandal. Written by then-ATF Phoenix Group VII Supervisor David Voth, the June 01, 2010 letter to a Federal Firearms Licensee, whose name is redacted, advises:
Per Section925(a)(1) of the Gun Control Act (GCA) exempts law enforcement agencies from the transportation, shipment, receipt, or importation controls of the GCA when firearms are to be used for the official business of the agency.
Please accept this letter in lieu of completing an ATF Form 4473 for the purchase of four (4) CAI, Model Draco, 7.62x39 mm pistols, by Special Agent John Dodson. These aforementioned pistols will be used by Special Agent Dodson in furtherance of the performance of his official duties. In addition, Special Agent Dodson has not been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. If you have any questions, you may contact me at telephone number 602-605-6501.
A hand-written note at the bottom says:
Picked up guns 6/10/10
Paid Cash [underlined in original]
A copy of the letter is posted at this correspondent’s Scribd account, and a jpg version is included as this column’s sidebar photo.
Dodson is the agent who put a face to the whistleblowers in Sharyl Attkisson’s bombshell CBS News interviews. Other sources tell Mike Vanderboegh that this letter indicates Dodson would have been fearful to proceed without documentation to prove management not only knew and approved of this activity, but had directed it.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/president-solyndra_594151.html
GOOD SUMMATION OF THE SCANDAL.
-
Scandals proliferate(gunwalker)
post-gazette.com ^ | 25 September, 2011 | Jack Kelly
Gunwalker
It was a rogue operation in Arizona we knew nothing about, Justice Department officials said. Since then, there have been reports that the ATF and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa allowed the vicious Salvadoran gang MS-13 to obtain weapons and that the ATF and FBI permitted criminals in Indiana to buy guns for gangs.
An internal memo which indicates "political appointees" were involved in Gunwalker is being withheld from Congress, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson told investigators in July. The inspector general at Justice obstructed their inquiry, lead congressional investigators said Wednesday.
Gunwalker is a sting gone wrong, the administration claims. Since ATF had no authority to follow the guns across the border to make arrests -- and made no effort to coordinate with Mexican police -- this is unlikely.
Some think Gunwalker was a cynical attempt to promote gun control in the United States by fomenting violence in Mexico and claiming that U.S. guns play a major role. Others suspect the government wanted to build up the Sinaloa cartel to keep its more powerful rival, Los Zetas, from seizing power in Mexico.
Several mainstream media outlets are following the story, but it hasn't received much play. White House reporters haven't asked a question about Gunwalker since July 5, Rory Cooper of the Heritage Foundation noted last week.
Watergate was on the front page for more than a year. Nobody died in Watergate. Gunwalker guns may have killed hundreds -- including at least one U.S. law enforcement officer. But to most journalists, a scandal isn't all that scandalous unless a Republican is involved. Jack Kelly is a columnist for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio (jkelly@post-gazette.com, 412 263-1476). More articles by this author
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Change.
The only change is a black man doing the white devil's work. ;D
-
Change.
The only change is a black man doing the white devil's work. ;D
Notice the silence from the obama a-holes on this site? Hey - bristol palin is more important - no wonder these pieces of garbage voted for him in 2008.
-
U.S. Government Bought and Sold Weapons During 'Fast and Furious,' Documents Show
FoxNews.com ^ | 9/26/11 | William Lajeunesse
In June 2010, however, the ATF dramatically upped the ante, making the U.S. government the actual "seller" of guns.
According to documents obtained by Fox News, Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy four semi-automatic Draco pistols from the Lone Wolf gun store in Peoria, Ariz. An unusual sale, Dodson was sent to the store with a letter of approval from David Voth, an ATF group supervisor.
Dodson then sold the weapons to known illegal buyers, while fellow agents watched from their cars nearby.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Notice the silence from the obama a-holes on this site? Hey - bristol palin is more important - no wonder these pieces of garbage voted for him in 2008.
what the did the white houe say about bristol palin?
-
White House answers Congress in Gunwalker
By Sharyl Attkisson Topics News .2 Comments
(Credit: CBS/AP) An administration official Congress wanted to interview before the end of the month may be unavailable. That's according to a new letter from a White House counsel to members of Congress investigating the ATF Fast and Furious "Gunwalker" scandal.
On September 9th, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked the White House to make former National Security Advisor Kevin O'Reilly available for an interview before the end of September to help "determine the extent of the involvement of White House staff in Operation Fast and Furious."
Emails already obtained by Congress show O'Reilly communicated about gun trafficking efforts with then-Special Agent in Charge of ATF's Phoenix office William Newell as early as summer of 2010. In the email exchanges O'Reilly asked Newell if it was okay to share the information with other White House staffers. Congressional investigators are seeking all related communications.
The new letter from the President's counsel doesn't say O'Reilly can't be interviewed by Congressional investigators, but neither does it provide an availability date. Instead the letter states that
O'Reilly, who has moved from the White House to the State Department from where he was tasked, is "currently on a previously scheduled assignment to Iraq."
The members of Congress also asked for other documents and communications within the White House staff regarding Fast and Furious by September 23rd. No materials were provided, but the President's Attorney indicated some could be handed over by the end of this week.
In Operation Fast and Furious, ATF allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to "walk" onto the streets and into the hands of Mexico's drug cartels.
President Obama has said neither he nor Attorney General Eric Holder approved of or knew about any gunwalking. Further, a spokesman for the administration has said nobody in the White House knew of any gunwalking tactics
________________________ _______________
Unfucking real.
-
U.S. Government Used Taxpayer Funds to Buy, Sell Weapons During 'Fast and Furious,' Documents Show
By William Lajeunesse
Published September 26, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in the sale of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel -- the federal government used taxpayer money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared.
This disclosure, revealed in documents obtained by Fox News, could undermine the Department of Justice's previous defense that Operation Fast and Furious was a "botched" operation where agents simply "lost track" of weapons as they were transferred from one illegal buyer to another. Instead, it heightens the culpability of the federal government as Mexico, according to sources, has opened two criminal investigations into the operation that flooded their country with illegal weapons.
Operation Fast and Furious began in October 2009. In it, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives encouraged gun stores to sell weapons to an arms smuggling gang, then watched as the guns crossed the border and were used in crimes. Each month, the agency allowed hundreds of guns to go South, despite opposition from some agents.
All told, the gang spent more than $1.25 million for the illegal guns.
In June 2010, however, the ATF dramatically upped the ante, making the U.S. government the actual "seller" of guns.
According to documents obtained by Fox News, Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy six semi-automatic Draco pistols -- two of those were purchased at the Lone Wolf gun store in Peoria, Ariz. An unusual sale, Dodson was sent to the store with a letter of approval from David Voth, an ATF group supervisor.
Dodson then sold the weapons to known illegal buyers, while fellow agents watched from their cars nearby.
This was not a "buy-bust" or a sting operation, where police sell to a buyer and then arrest them immediately afterward. In this case, agents were "ordered" to let the sale go through and follow the weapons to a stash house.
According to sources directly involved in the case, Dodson felt strongly that the weapons should not be abandoned and the stash house should remain under 24-hour surveillance. However, Voth disagreed and ordered the surveillance team to return to the office. Dodson refused, and for six days in the desert heat kept the house under watch, defying direct orders from Voth.
A week later, a second vehicle showed up to transfer the weapons. Dodson called for an interdiction team to move in, make the arrest and seize the weapons. Voth refused and the guns disappeared with no surveillance.
According to a story posted Sunday on a website dedicated to covering Fast and Furious, Voth gave Dodson the assignment to "dirty him up," since Dodson had become the most vocal critic of the operation.
"I think Dodson demanded the letter from Voth to cover both himself and the FFL (Federal Firearm Licensee). He didn't want to be hung out to dry by Voth," a source told the website "Sipsey Street Irregulars."
Subsequent to this undercover operation, sources told Sipsey, "Dodson just about came apart all over them (his supervisors). In a 'screaming match' that was heard throughout the Phoenix office by many employees, Dodson yelled at Voth and Assistant Special Agent in Charge George Gillett, 'Why not just go direct and empty out the (ATF) arms room?" (to the cartels), or words to that effect.'
After the confrontation, ATF managers transferred Dodson to a more menial job. Months later, after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, Dodson blew the whistle and went public about the federal government's gunrunning operation.
Print Close
URL
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/26/us-government-bought-and-sold-weapons-during-fast-and-furious-documents-show/
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/26/us-government-bought-and-sold-weapons-during-fast-and-furious-documents-show/print#ixzz1Z5GQf3ju
wow! !
-
Gunwalker bombshell--"there never was a 'sting'"
Conservative Examiner ^ | 26 September, 2011 | Anthony Martin
An ATF source has provided reporters a copy of a letter sent on June 1, 2010 which indicates that the monumental scandal known as 'Project Gunwalker,' or 'Operation Fast and Furious,' was never a sting operation as previously reported. If such an allegation is true, then the official Obama Administration explanation for the operation is entirely false.
The commonly-reported talking point concerning Gunwalker is that it was intended as a sting operation but that it went bad when rogue ATF agents took it in a sinister direction.
But the letter of June 2010, forwarded to reporters David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh, indicates that nothing about the operation contained any of the elements of a 'sting.' Everything ATF agents did in placing guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels was done in the open and with the approval of their supervisors:
An ATF source has provided reporters a copy of a letter sent on June 1, 2010 which indicates that the monumental scandal known as 'Project Gunwalker,' or 'Operation Fast and Furious,' was never a sting operation as previously reported. If such an allegation is true, then the official Obama Administration explanation for the operation is entirely false.
The commonly-reported talking point concerning Gunwalker is that it was intended as a sting operation but that it went bad when rogue ATF agents took it in a sinister direction.
But the letter of June 2010, forwarded to reporters David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh, indicates that nothing about the operation contained any of the elements of a 'sting.' Everything ATF agents did in placing guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels was done in the open and with the approval of their supervisors:
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
More Fast and Furious hearings could come as early as next month
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/more-fast-and-furious-hearings-could-come-as-early-as-next-month
More Congressional hearings in the Fast and Furious case could come as early as next month, meanwhile hearings could be starting up right here in Arizona.
Congressman Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and committee member, Rep. Paul Gosar, were in Phoenix over the weekend, talking to the ABC15 Investigators about the future of the controversial case, which involves the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
More hearings will come, they said. The next people called to testify will likely do so in front of both the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform committee, jointly.
“We want (the House Judiciary Committee) who has direct oversight over the Attorney General and of (the Department of Justice) to take a more active role, and we believe they will,” Issa said. Eventually, Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer will be called to testify, he said.
“This is the kind of thing that threatens the fabric of how America trusts law enforcement,” he said. “So, [the investigation] goes on until we get a real understanding that this can never happen again.”
Issa said the people involved in the Fast and Furious case must be either “punished legally or are at least dismissed.” He called the recent resignations and transfers of a handful of leaders within the Department of Justice a “good start.”
-
Grassley: Holder Thwarts ATF Sting Inquiry
newsmax ^ | 19 Aug 2011 | Martin Gould and Ashley Martella
Attorney General Eric Holder has broken an agreement with Republicans by refusing fully to respond to questions on the growing Fast and Furious scandal, Sen. Charles Grassley alleges in an exclusive Newsmax interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
-
Email Print 12Comments Share
September 27, 2011
A Total Eclipse of Solyndra
By Debra Saunders
On Friday, Solyndra execs Brian Harrison and Bill Stover invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. They refused to answer questions at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which is investigating a $528 million federal loan guarantee that the Obama administration granted to their solar manufacturing company in 2009. On Aug. 31, the company filed for bankruptcy and laid off most of its 1,100 workers. A week later, the FBI raided the company's Fremont, Calif., headquarters and Harrison's home.
Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., the chairman of the subcommittee, said the hearing wanted to discern, "What did they know (about their financial situation), and when did they know it?"
Though some committee members urged the two suits to ignore their lawyers' advice and answer questions -- one Republican even suggested that their failure to talk suggested guilt -- I thought the execs did the smart thing. Harrison and Stover have nothing to gain by talking, because there's no good way to explain how they blew close to a half-billion in taxpayer money.
Besides, they didn't need to talk when committee Democrats were so willing to toss around a few mitigating factors, such as:
--Excuse No. 1: New technology startups, by definition, are risky ventures.
Problem: Solyndra engaged in profligate behavior. A Washington Post story describes the spending spree that followed the Department of Energy loan guarantee -- new factory, state-of-the-art conference room, lobbying bills that grew from $160,000 in 2008 to $550,000 last year. Within a week of winning the first loan guarantee, Solyndra went back to the Department of Energy for another $400 million (which never was approved).
--Excuse No. 2: Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., claimed that both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations "supported Solyndra's loan guarantee application."
Problem: In its final month, the Bush Department of Energy credit committee voted against a loan guarantee for Solyndra.
It was the Obama White House that pushed for early conditional approval of a Solyndra deal, despite an Office of Management and Budget staffer's warning that "this deal is not ready for prime time." Also, the Obama White House embraced Solyndra with unprecedented support so that the company, which never had turned a profit, had a U.S. president, vice president and energy secretary at its high-publicity events.
--Excuse No. 3: Private investors sank $1 billion into Solyndra, more than taxpayers. They must have had good reason.
Problem: Venture capitalists gambled with money from willing investors, not taxpayers. And when Solyndra was in desperate need of cash, the administration agreed to a deal that, in the event of default, put the private investors ahead of taxpayers for a $75 million loan.
--Excuse No. 4: Blame China, which heavily subsidizes the solar industry.
Problem: Do Democrats think that Americans want to compete with China and bankroll more Solyndras?
--Excuse No. 5: Claim the administration embraced Solyndra for science. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., railed at Friday's hearing, "We need to face reality and stop denying science."
Problem: Democrats can't escape the math.
dsaunders@sfchronicle.com
Copyright 2011
-
Obama was warned of loan dangers long before Solyndra sank
September 27, 2011 | 3:08 am
0 7
Top economic advisors to President Obama warned him a year ago about the serious political and financial risks of the Energy Department's loan guarantee program that has resulted in taxpayers likely being responsible for the loss of $527 million loaned to the politically-connected California solar firm Solyndra.
That loan is currently under investigation by a House subcommittee and the FBI, which raided company offices earlier this month.
Obama visited the Solyndra plant in 2010, touting it as a shining example of his program to simultaneously boost the U.S. green-energy industry and create new jobs. Last winter the Energy Dept. restructured the more than half-billion dollar loan to the troubled firm.
But on Aug. 31 the company, whose major owner was also a major fundraising bundler for the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign, filed for bankruptcy and eliminated most of its 1,100 jobs.
In a detailed story posted overnight, The Times' Tom Hamburg, Kim Geiger and Matea Gold outline the danger signals set off in October 2010 when secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner and chief economic advisor Lawrence Summers warned the president that Energy's vetting process was not stringent enough to weed out troubled applicants in advance.
Energy Secy. Steven Chu, who like Obama holds a Nobel Prize, was eager to push through applications by 30 companies for the program's $17 billion. He wanted even less oversight from Treasury.
The story has developed legs for two reasons:
One, it hints at possible high-level political favoritism using taxpayer dollars in risky ventures with well-connected business people, what some have labeled "crony capitalism."
And, two, it's a classic example of the fundamental ongoing D.C. debate over government's proper role in the economy and the financial dangers to taxpayer funds inherent when officials and bureaucrats, not free market forces, pick corporate winners and losers.
Pencil this into your calendar for future political debate throughout 2012.
Www.latimes.com
-
California Democratic Party among Solyndra’s creditors
Washington Times ^ | 9/25/11 | Jim McElhatton
Out of the hundreds of out-of-work employees, vendors, investors and other creditors in the bankruptcy of government-backed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, one name stands out: the California Democratic Party.
Why California Democrats would be creditor to a company that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans to build a solar-panel plant isn’t clear. Even party officials say they’re not sure.
The California Democratic Party’s communications director, Tenoch Flores, said the organization was not owed “any funds in any form” by the California-based company. He said he was unclear why the party would be listed as a creditor in Solyndra’s bankruptcy filing.
According to campaign-finance records, Solyndra donated $7,500 to the California Democratic Party in October 2010. It’s legal in California for corporations to make donations. But that doesn’t explain why the company would identify the Democratic Party as a creditor in its bankruptcy filing a year later.
A Solyndra spokesman did not respond to messages seeking more details about the filing.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ______
Unreal.
-
Fast and Furious: Using Humans as Collateral Damage
Townhall.com ^ | September 27, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
Tucson, Ariz.-The Canyon Del Oro High School auditorium in Tucson, Ariz. was packed full of at least 500 people last night as anxious tea party members waited to hear from ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar about the Obama Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious. The theme of the night? Accountability.
“The only thing I have ever asked is to put all the cards on the table. Tell the truth,” ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu said.
Cefalu was heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious and has been an ATF agent for over 20 years. He has watched the bureau become a political entity rather than fulfilling its obligations as a law enforcement agency.
“We should not concern ourselves with any administration’s agenda,” Cefalu said. "It [Operation Fast and Furious] defies logic, common sense, it defies our core beliefs, our training and our experience as ATF agents.”
When Cefalu started speaking out against his superiors within ATF about the way Operation Fast and Furious was being conducted, putting high powered weapons into the hands of ruthless drug cartels and then losing track of them, he was approached within 24 hours and told to stop. He was also threatened and told if he didn’t shut his mouth, he would be relocated to North Dakota, a long way from where he had been working along the southern border with Mexico.
“To think that they could do this sort of operation knowing there could be a dead ATF agent at the ends of those guns made me nauseous,” he said.
Despite threats from his superiors, Cefalu blew the whistle about Operation Fast and Furious anyway, which has landed him under review for what he describes as “a proposal for removal for telling the truth.“
“Unchecked power corrupts,” he said, adding that there are no longer checks and balances within ATF.
In his speech, Cefalu made the larger argument that this is a major government corruption problem, not only surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, but about a runaway government that doesn't answer to the people, saying ATF agents and the Department of Justice shouldn’t be able to say no to Congress when asked for documentation surrounding operations within the Bureau. The Obama Justice Department has been stonewalling the House Oversight Committee in its investigation into Operation Fast and Furious since day one.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who is fighting on the ground in Arizona against the very cartels the federal government has been arming, was appalled at the operation, saying this scandal will “totally eclipse Watergate,” and made the case that Operation Fast and Furious was used as program to restrict Second Amendment rights for law abiding citizens. He brought up the lie that 90 percent of guns in Mexico come from the United States, told over and over again by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. The 90 percent figure has been proven false by multiple fact checking organizations, intelligence sources and even ATF agents yet, Obama and Holder have tried to make the case that all the violence in Mexico comes from the United States.
“He’s [Obama] saying that to build the argument to restrict our gun rights in America,” Babeu said, and internal ATF emails prove it.
Babeu was also disgusted at the idea that the government has never apologized to the family of Brian Terry, despite guns from Operation Fast and Furious being used by a cartel member to kill him.
“He was a cop, he was a marine and was murdered on American soil,” Babeu said.
“I want nothing out of this bit for justice to be served and for Brian Terry’s mama to know that somebody cared,” Cefalu said. “You’ve sent that message tonight, that you cared.”
Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar described Operation Fast and Furious as “A Few Good Men being played out in real life,” adding that humans were used as collateral damage while the federal government armed Mexican cartel members with .50 caliber sniper rifles, a weapon strong enough to take down a helicopter, and AK-47s.
“I want to remind you, we had a couple of guys break into a hotel take down an administration, nobody died,” Gosar said. “When are we going to hold agencies and bureaucrats to task?”
Gosar, Babeu and Cefalu all called for accountability from the Obama Administration multiple times throughout the evening and questions from the audience were centered around who ultimately would be held responsible for not only the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, but also for the deaths of thousands of innocent Mexicans.
“These people are now being killed wholesale,” Cefalu said.
In the past 18 months, 22,000 Mexicans have been killed.
“President Obama is not above the law and he and this administration will have to account for this,” Babeu said.
-
Thought it couldn't get any worse than Solyndra? ($1.37 B federal loan guarantee for another one)
WorldnetDaily ^ | 09/27/2011 | Aaron Klein
President Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary served as chairman of the board of a solar energy company that recently received a $1.37 billion federal loan guarantee – the largest the Department of Energy has ever given for a solar power project.
Now that company, BrightSource Energy, is attempting to build the world's largest solar power plant amid concerns such ventures may be too risky an investment for the federal government.
In June, BrightSource Chairman John Bryson was nominated by Obama to head the Commerce Department.
WND reported in June that Bryson co-founded an environmental activist group that is a member and funder of the controversial Apollo Alliance.
Read what we'll need to accomplish to restore America to greatness.
Apollo is run by a slew of socialists and radicals, including Jeff Jones, a founder of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization. Jones himself boasts of doing work for the environmental group founded by Bryson, the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Bryson served until June as co-chairman of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a globalist organization whose members can be found throughout the Obama administration.
The massive loan guarantee to BrightSource is meant to build an expensive California desert solar plant known as the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.
The system will feature mirrors that reflect sun toward a massive central tower that is in turn heated to produce steam meant to spin turbines to produce electricity.
The size of the BrightSource plant is thought to produce enough power to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of Californians.
During a national address last October, Obama mentioned the possible benefits of BrightSource Energy's "revolutionary new type of solar power plant."
However, some have doubted that the massive solar plant will actually work.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Obama raising with Missouri stimulus beneficiary (More Obama corruption at taxpayer's expense)
Politico ^ | 9/23/2011 | By ALEXANDER BURNS
President Barack Obama will raise money in early October with a Missouri businessman whose company benefited from a $107 million federal tax credit to develop a wind power facility in his state.
Tom Carnahan, a scion of Missouri’s most prominent Democratic political family, is listed on Obama’s campaign website as a host of a $25,000-per-person fundraiser to be held in St. Louis on October 4. Continue Reading
His energy development firm, Wind Capital Group, was helped by a sizable credit authorized in the stimulus, for an energy project in northwest Missouri.
Republicans argue that it’s inappropriate for the Obama campaign to raise money from a donor who has benefited directly from the Recovery Act.
Missouri Republican Party executive director Lloyd Smith compared the situation to the Solyndra affair, in which the Obama administration reportedly rushed federal support to a green-energy firm that subsequently collapsed.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Mexican attorney general demands explanation on Operation Fast and Furious
AHN News ^ | September 27, 2011 | Tom Ramstack
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) –Mexico’s attorney general is demanding an explanation from the United States as evidence grows the Obama administration was more deeply involved in Operation Fast and Furious than top officials admitted in previous statements.
Operation Fast and Furious was a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives effort to track more than 2,000 smuggled guns to Mexican drug cartels by allowing gang members to purchase them illegally from U.S. gun stores then take them back to their leaders. However, the federal agency lost track of many of the guns.
Some later were traced to murders of police and civilians in Mexico. Officially, the Justice Department says the operation backfired but did not admit U.S. agents sold the guns to the Mexican smugglers.
In June, President Barack Obama said he would take “appropriate action” against organizers of the operation. He said it never was approved by top Justice Department officials.
Investigative news stories this week cast doubt on reports of no high-level government involvement. Documents obtained from Fox News show ATF agents sold some of the guns to gang members. They allegedly purchased the guns with taxpayer money.
Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales called Operation Fast and Furious “an attack on Mexicans’ security.” She said she learned about the operation in the news media rather than being told about it in advance by U.S. government officials.
She said that if U.S. federal officials were involved, it would be a “betrayal” of Mexico while its police and military were fighting a war against drug cartels. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the war that started in December 2006.
Morales said she would await results of congressional investigations into the operation before making any conclusions over who should be blamed.
(Excerpt) Read more at gantdaily.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unreal. Hope 7 Change morons!!!!!
-
Gunwalker: Agent Admits His Testimony ‘Lacked … Completeness’
Pajamas Media ^ | September 27, 2011 | Patrick Richardson
In other words, ATF Agent William Newell wasn't telling the truth.
The ATF agent who oversaw Operation Fast and Furious now says his testimony to Congress “lacked clarity and completeness,” Fox News reports:
“After taking time to reflect and review my testimony from the hearing on July 26, 2011, I realize I could have given clearer, more complete and more direct responses to some questions,” former Special Agent in Charge William Newell said in a 12-page document submitted to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and obtained by Fox News.
In other words, Newell previously lied:
In a “supplemental statement,” Newell insisted agents did not knowingly allow thousands of weapons to reach criminal hands. Any concerns raised over the program were never voiced to appropriate authorities, he said, and only once did higher-ups tell agents not to arrest a suspect — when the safety of the agents was in jeopardy.
This would appear to be another lie — he contradicts testimony by one of the original ATF whistleblowers, Special Agent John Dodson:
“Rather than conduct any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, tracked movements of these individuals, wrote reports, nothing more. Knowing all the while that just days after these purchases, the guns we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the U.S. and Mexico. And yet we still did nothing,” says John Dodson, ATF Special Agent.
PJMedia’s Bob Owens has suggested this entire operation was about more gun control, and Newell’s filing suggests the same thing:
In the filing Wednesday, Newell said any mistakes were “unintentional errors of omission” rooted in, among other things, “the laws we have at our disposal.”
Meanwhile, one of the cooperating gun shop owners — Andre Howard, who ran the Lone Wolf Trading Company – was apparently concerned about the operation and secretly recorded conversations with ATF Agent Hope MacAllister. Two of the weapons Howard sold turned up just days later at the scene of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, according to CBS News:
Among other things, Howard and MacAllister expressed concerns about ATF Special Agent John Dodson, who by that point had gone public about “Fast and Furious” in an exclusive interview with CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
The transcripts are damning, as MacAllister suggests the FBI is in real trouble:
Dealer: But you have got to put the word out there to all the departments tell the f****ing FBI shut the f*** up. (whispering)
Agent: FBI’s got their own problems, trust me.
Dealer: I know, I hear.
Agent: They’ve got their own problems.
Dealer: Hypothetically.
Agent: If anybody’s gonna get sued it’s gonna be the FBI, in my opinion.
Moreover, Hot Air is reporting Howard suggested to MacAllister that Terry’s death was just “collateral damage“:
It’s not an ATF agent who utters those magical words, it’s the Arizona gun dealer who was working with the ATF on Fast & Furious. He utters them to an ATF agent, though, to which she replies with a cryptic “mm-hmm.” Callousness — or strategy?
In the tapes, Howard seems arrogant. Howard’s lawyer claims this was a strategy to cover his own backside:
“He became very suspicious and in his own defense would tape key conversations with Ms. MacAllister and try to get her to make admissions about the truth of the matter,” said Dallas attorney Larry Gaydos. “Andre was trying to get her to admit that indeed they let guns go to Mexico.”
This exchange is particularly damning, because one would expect MacAllister to go ballistic upon hearing someone suggest the death of a fellow federal law enforcement agent — the result of an operation in which she was intimately involved — was “collateral damage.” That she did not speaks to a problem within ATF.
It would appear, however, that things are finally beginning to break loose with this case.
The tapes were apparently released to the U.S. Attorney’s office by Justice Department Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar, a move which sent the two main investigators in the case — Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Chuck Grassley, (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee — around the metaphorical bend:
“Each of these disclosures undermines our ability to assess the candor of witnesses in our investigation and thus obstructs it,” they wrote in a letter dated Tuesday. “Moreover, your decision to immediately disclose the recordings to those you are investigating creates at least the appearance, if not more, that your inquiry is not sufficiently objective and independent.
“It appears that you did not consider the significant harm that providing these recordings to the very individuals under investigation could cause to either our inquiry or your own. You did not consult with us about the recordings even though the congressional inquiry and reactions to it are discussed at length.”
Moreover, Issa is now calling for an independent prosecutor, according to the Washington Examiner:
Issa complained in a conference call that “there is ongoing cover-up of a pattern of wrongdoing that can’t be explained by any ordinary people [who tried] to do the right thing but made a mistake.”
The Obama administration has been slow to hand over documents to Issa’s committee, and when they have, they’ve been heavily redacted.
“Even though I have subpoena ability, I don’t have the ability to lock people up for contempt until they fess up and give us what we want,” Issa said.
A special prosecutor would have such powers, and would be independent of the government agencies that were responsible for creating and attempting to cover up details of the program.
Indeed, as more details of this case come to light, the deeper and darker it seems to get. An independent prosecutor at this point would seem to be the only way to find out just how deep of a hole DOJ and ATF have dug, and who is in it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Fast & Furious: Congress expanding probe to include grenades
Law Enforcement Examiner ^ | Sept. 27, 2011 | Jim Kouri
Posted on September 27, 2011 8:53:55 PM EDT by Smokeyblue
The U.S. Congress will expand their investigation of Operation Fast and Furious to determine its connection to the smuggling of explosives ordinance into Mexico, a police source in Washington, DC, told the Law Enforcement Examiner on Saturday. According to the law enforcement source -- who requested anonymity -- besides the firearms and ammunition allowed to "walk" by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), grenades and explosives may have also been allowed smuggled across the border into Mexico, ending up in the hands of drug cartel members.
Investigators are renewing their probe into a narco-terrorist attack in which 60 people were killed and upwards of 30 were wounded on August 24 when the perpetrators tossed three grenades into a casino in Monterrey, Mexico, the capital of Nuevo Leon.
The incident occurred at the Casino Royale when two males aboard the back of a pickup truck pulled up to an entrance and allegedly tossed the grenades into the building
Between 20 and 30 people were trapped inside the casino because of debris from the grenade blasts, said the U.S. officer who requested anonymity.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Wow. WTF!!!
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Gunrunner: Cash For Cartels
IBD Editorials ^ | September 27, 2011 | Staff
Posted on September 27, 2011 7:35:11 PM EDT by Kaslin
Scandal: New documents reveal the Department of Justice lied to Congress and show how U.S. officials bought guns with tax dollars and then made sure no one stopped their transfer to Mexican drug cartels.
The funneling of thousands of American guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in the operation known as Fast and Furious was not a botched sting operation or the result of bureaucratic incompetence. It was not designed to interdict gun trafficking, but to facilitate it.
We now know that it involved not just the use of straw buyers, but also agents of the federal government purchasing weapons with taxpayer money, ordering the licensed dealers to conduct the sales off the books, then calling off surveillance of the gun traffickers and refusing to interdict the transfer of the weapon or arrest the people involved.
According to documents obtained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), agent John Dodson was ordered to buy semiautomatic Draco pistols and was provided a letter by ATF group supervisor David Voth authorizing FFLs (federal firearms licensees) to sell Dodson the guns without filling out the required form.
A copy of the letter obtained by David Codrea of the Gun Rights Examiner tells dealers to "accept this letter in lieu of completing an ATF Form 4473 for the purchase of four (4) CAI, Model Draco, 7.62X39 mm pistols, by Special Agent John Dodson" to be used "in the furtherance of the performance of his official duties."
Scribbled on the letter is this note: "Picked up guns 6/10/10. Paid cash."
According to Fox News, Dodson then sold the guns to known illegal buyers who took them to a stash house. Voth disapproved Dodson's request for 24-hour surveillance and ordered the surveillance team to return to the office.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Tucson town hall over Fast and Furious
fox11az.com ^ | Sept. 27, 2011 | Staff
Posted on September 27, 2011 3:26:50 PM EDT by Smokeyblue
It was a botched operation that sent more than 2,000 guns into the hands of Mexican cartel members.
There are still many questions about the federal gun-running investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious, but Monday night there were some answers.
The Tucson Tea Party hosted a town hall meeting at CDO High School Monday night in an attempt to the get the facts straight about the under cover operation that essentially armed the Mexican cartels.
"We want to make sure that all the documentation on who knew who OK'd comes forward," said District 1 Representative Paul Gosar while addressing the crowd.
Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar told a crowd of more than 600 people that the White House knew weapons were being sold to Mexican gang members as part of Operation Fast and Furious.
"Attorney General Eric Holder in a speech in Mexico City actually outlines tactical changes to Operation Gun Runner and it details exactly what transpires to be Fast and Furious. So there has to be some connection of who knew about this," said Gosar.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox11az.com ...
Wow. Obama better pray he does not get re elected.
-
Link to a letter used to authorize the purchase over Voth's signature.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/66315131/Voth-Straw-Purchase-...
Link to internal memo concerning info posted on CleanupATF
http://www.scribd.com/doc/65868759/Melson-Email
Discussion of the sale on CleanupATF
http://cleanupatf.org/forums/index.php?/topic/153-atf-o... /
At least one agent has made his contempt for Bill Newell, the then-Special Agent in Charge of ATF's Phoenix office and ATF's Fast & Furious damage control mouthpiece, abundantly clear. One sure has to wonder considering their "chummy" relationship how this ties in to suddenly former National Security Advisor Kevin O'Reilly's transfer to Iraq?
"Bill Newell you are a lying coward. This letter was written not to clarify anything you lied about but to attempt to avoid an indictment. You repeated your lame justifications and made excuses, the same thing you have done since the day you set foot in ATF. You lied to Congress and you are trying to cover your lies by calling the Whistleblowers, Gil and Canino liars. You are a 100% chickenshit.
You are a whiny little bitch to actually compose a letter to Congress after you lied to their faces and blame your lies the the "pressure" you feel and that this is "unlike anything you have ever experienced". You are pathetic to say that this experience has taken a toll on your health and family.
What about the toll on Brian Terry's family? What about the toll's on the hundreds of dead Mexican citizens and their families? All you ever have or ever will care about is you. You are one self-centered m_ _ _ _ _ rf _ _ _ _ r.
Here is where I am going to get off and probably be deleted. My friend is Jay Dobyns. Newell you are quite possibly the biggest hypocritical pussy ever in ATF to make the statements that you made in your letter knowing what you did to him and his family. You helped your boys Gillett and Higman go above and beyond to try and frame him as an arsonsist and attempted murder. You turned your back just like you did in Fast and Furious. I don't have the vocabulary to state what a double-standard POS you are. You think Dobyns felt pressure living under the allegation that he tried to murder his family for the last three years? How about the toll on his family have to hear that their husband and father intended to burn their house down on them and murder them? Then you lied under oath in that case too.
Don't bother to appologize. Whatever it is that happens to you, it is not evil enough to balance what you have done. Rot in hell."
Direct source to documents. prison is too good for holder and Obama and these jackboots.
-
Weapons recovered from suspects accused of trafficking illegal firearms to Mexican drug cartels. (Joshua Lott, Reuters / September 28, 2011)
Share0
Comments
0
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
September 28, 2011
Reporting from Washington—
An FBI/DEA confidential informant helped smuggle firearms from the ATF's Fast and Furious gun-trafficking surveillance operation to drug cartels in Mexico, according to evidence compiled by congressional investigators.
The investigators said the informant obtained the weapons from Manuel Celis-Acosta, considered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to be the "biggest fish" of 20 individuals indicted in Fast and Furious. At the same time the informant was receiving large amounts of "official law enforcement funds as payment" for his services, they said.
Congressional investigators believe the informant was working with U.S. law enforcement over a two-year period, beginning in early 2009, and often contacted DEA agents such as Jim Roberts, the resident agent-in-charge in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to "pass on information to these agents about Mexican drug cartels."
The revelations were contained in a letter Tuesday from Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. They contend that had the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration told the ATF about the informant, Fast and Furious would have been shut down much earlier.
Holder has said he learned of Fast and Furious after it was shut down, and did not know that ATF agents allowed more than 2,000 weapons to be illegally purchased in the Phoenix area. Many turned up at violent crime scenes in Mexico; two were recovered in December after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed in Arizona.
The letter signals that the congressional investigation is looking beyond the ATF operation and into the possibility of a major breakdown in law enforcement cooperation on the border.
Fast and Furious ran for 15 months, from fall 2009 to last January, and culminated in indictments in Phoenix. Among them was Celis-Acosta. Documents show that when Fast and Furious was first proposed, the ATF targeted Celis-Acosta because they said he was "believed to be supplying firearms" to a drug cartel.
Congressional investigators have learned that the DEA was aware of Celis-Acosta's alleged drug trafficking activity as early as late 2009, just when Fast and Furious was getting underway, and that he was "providing hundreds of firearms to members of Mexican drug cartels." In fact, they knew Celis-Acosta allegedly was moving guns to Ciudad Juarez, south of El Paso, "but that he was uneasy about taking the guns across the border himself."
The FBI and DEA also knew that the informant, identified as "CI#1," was ordering weapons from Celis-Acosta and smuggling them into Mexico. That informant, "apparently the financier for Celia-Acosta's firearms trafficking ring, later began cooperating with the FBI and may have received additional government payments as a confidential informant."
In one payment, the investigators learned, the U.S. government gave the informant $3,500 for his services.
richard.serrano@latimes.com
WOW!!!! so now FBI £ DEA are in on this crazy shit?
-
GOP lawmaker demands independent probe into Solyndra
The Hill ^ | 9/27/11 | Andrew Restuccia
GOP lawmaker demands independent probe into Solyndra
By Andrew Restuccia - 09/27/11 07:50 PM ET
A Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is calling on the White House to appoint an independent investigator to examine the administration’s decision to approve a $535 million loan guarantee for a now-bankrupt solar company.
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said the Obama administration should have quickly appointed a special investigator to look into Solyndra, the failed California-based solar-panel manufacturer, after the company announced late last month it would file for bankruptcy and lay off 1,100 workers.
“My opinion is that it should have already happened. It hasn’t,” Burgess said Monday on Fox Business Network. “We’ll see where that goes, but clearly there needs to be a special master involved in the investigation.”
Burgess and other Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee have launched an investigation into the Solyndra bankruptcy, alleging that the administration missed a series of red flags that hinted at the company’s financial troubles.
In addition, Republicans on the panel have released a series of emails they say show that the White House tried to rush a final decision on the company’s financing so that Vice President Biden could announce approval of the loan guarantee at the September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s new factory.
The Solyndra debacle has ignited a firestorm in Washington, offering Republicans a new opportunity to bash the White House going into an election year.
The Justice Department has launched its own investigation into the Solyndra incident, but Burgess suggested Monday that the DOJ probe might not be adequate.
Asked by anchor David Asman if the Justice Department investigation would be impartial, Burgess laughed, then added, “I probably should not speculate on that.”
The White House has denied any wrongdoing related to Solyndra, arguing that the emails released by Republicans were a “scheduling matter,” not an attempt to influence the final decision on the loan guarantee.
The Energy Department has vowed to continue investing in clean-energy technology. Such investments, officials say, are necessary to compete with countries such as China, which has put billions into solar energy.
The department is in the process of finalizing a slew of loan guarantees for solar, wind and other projects during the next few days. The loan guarantee program expires Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Solyndra Said to Have Violated Terms of Its U.S. Loan
Wall Street Journal ^ | September 28, 2011 | By DEBORAH SOLOMON
Solyndra LLC had such steep financial problems in late 2010 that the company violated terms of its loan-guarantee agreement with the Department of Energy and technically defaulted on its $535 million loan, according to people familiar with the matter.
The failed solar-panel maker ran so short of cash in December 2010 that it was unable to satisfy certain terms of its U.S. loan agreement, these people said. The agreement required Solyndra to provide $5 million in equity to a subsidiary building its factory but cash-flow problems prevented those payments.
The Energy Department ultimately restructured the loan agreement to help keep the company afloat and Solyndra continued to draw money from its loan.
Solyndra's cash-flow problems in late 2010 had previously come to light but it was not known that the company technically defaulted on its loan and violated its agreement with the U.S. government.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Sen. Chuck Grassley: Government Sold Guns to "Underworld"
opposingviews.com ^ | 27 September, 2011 | Mark Berman
A Senator is accusing the United States government of selling guns to the "underworld," and that he is being "stonewalled" in his investigation.
Newsmax reports that Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said this operation was similar to the "Fast and Furious" scheme in which the government sent guns to Mexico, and then tracked them to determine which ones were used in crimes.
“It’s hard to distinguish between the two, but evidence has come out that the orders came down from Justice that our agents were supposed to take taxpayers money, buy guns that shouldn’t have been sold, get them to the underworld,” Grassley told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. “The sale was made to the underworld. It happens to be that in this particular case, the federal government made a little bit of money, but that’s not the main issue.
“The main issue is that you would think they would arrest the people that bought them illegally -- no, they were told to just follow the guns -- they followed the guns to a storehouse. They would not have 24-hour surveillance except for one of the agents decided to stay there six days,” Grassley said. “A truck came along to load up the guns. They called for help to arrest them in the process of transferring the guns, but they wouldn’t send anybody to arrest them, so the guns got over -- got some place, maybe over the border -- and they were never traced, which was the purpose of the operation in the first place.”
Grassley said he is trying to investigate, but the Justice Department is not cooperating.
“There’s something sinister going on -- they’re doing everything they can to avoid the issue -- they want to stonewall us and string us along,” Grassley said.
Van Susteren said she had a letter from the Justice Department to Grassley saying that allegations are false.
“It is a false statement from the Department of Justice -- they knew about this -- I made reference to this in my first letter as they indicated, and the order came directly to an ATF agent to make the sale,” Grassley said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Weird science: EPA Inspector General calls greenhouse-gas regulatory process flawed
Published: 9:54 AM 09/28/2011 | Updated: 12:01 PM 09/28/2011
By Caroline May - The Daily Caller
Bio | Archive | Email Caroline May Follow Caroline May
In response to a report that could lead to questions about the credibility of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) , Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, is calling for hearings to investigate. The report — from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the EPA — reveals that the scientific basis, on which the administration’s endangerment finding for greenhouse gases hinged, violated the EPA’s own peer review procedure.
In a report released Wednesday (at Sen. Inhofe’s request, dating back to April) the inspector general found that the EPA failed to follow the Data Quality Act and its own peer review process when it issued the determination that greenhouse gases cause harm to “pubic health and welfare.”
“I appreciate the inspector general conducting a thorough investigation into the Obama-EPA’s handling of the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases,” Inhofe said. “This report confirms that the endangerment finding, the very foundation of President Obama’s job-destroying regulatory agenda, was rushed, biased, and flawed. It calls the scientific integrity of EPA’s decision-making process into question and undermines the credibility of the endangerment finding.”
Inhofe lambasted the EPA for its failure to adhere to its own rules, outsourcing the science to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — and refusing to conduct its own analysis of the science — in the period leading up to its final endangerment finding.
“The endangerment finding is no small matter: Global warming regulations imposed by the Obama-EPA under the Clean Air Act will cost American consumers $300 to $400 billion a year, significantly raise energy prices, and destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs. This is not to mention the ‘absurd result’ that EPA will need to hire 230,000 additional employees and spend an additional $21 billion to implement its [green house gas] regime. And all of this economic pain is for nothing: As EPA Administrator [Lisa] Jackson also admitted before the Environmental and Public Works] committee, these regulations will have no affect on the climate.”
According to Inhofe, Jackson has failed in her 2009 vow to commit the Agency to high transparency standards. The senator will instruct the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to hold hearings to investigate the EPA’s failings.
“Given what has come to light in this report, it appears that Obama-EPA cannot be trusted on the most consequential decision the agency has ever made,” Inhofe added.“I am calling for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the committee of jurisdiction over the EPA, to hold immediate hearings to address EPA’s failure to provide the required documentation and have the science impartially reviewed. EPA needs to explain to the American people why it blatantly circumvented its own procedures to make what appears to be a predetermined endangerment finding.”
The inspector general’s full report can be viewed here here.
Follow Caroline on Twitter
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/28/weird-science-epas-own-inspector-general-calls-green-house-gas-science-flawed/#ixzz1ZGvDmcnP
-
Solyndra: What the President Knew and When He Knew It
Big Government ^ | 9/28/11 | Larry O'Connor
Until now the Solyndra scandal only reached the White House in the guise of e-mails from staffers fretting about the political implications of the disastrous bankruptcy and how it would reflect on the President’s “Winning the Future” rhetoric.
Until now, the Solyndra scandal was a circumstantial log of White house visits by a big Obama donor who also was the failed solar company’s chief investor (those visits occurring right before a half-billion dollar loan guarantee was awarded by Obama’s Dept. of Energy).
Until now, the White House’s direct involvement in the Solyndra scandal appeared to be over-zealous operatives looking to speed-up the loan so Vice President Biden could have a nice photo-op at the doomed solar firm.
Now, we know much more.
According to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times, President Obama was warned nearly a year ago that Energy Secretary Stephen Chu’s department was not rigorous enough in vetting loan recipients and they ran the risk of funneling federal money to companies that shouldn’t receive it, or didn’t need it. And the warnings came from the President’s top economic advisers Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner.
Summers and Geithner also warned about the overall risks involved in relying so heavily on pumping federal stimulus money into unproven programs and technologies which would not have any lasting positive effect on the moribund economy and the stagnant job picture in America.
The divisions foreshadowed a question that has emerged since Solyndra’s bankruptcy: Was the program’s vetting process thorough enough? The disagreements also spotlighted an issue that has confronted Obama since he took office: What is the appropriate role of the government in stimulating the private marketplace?
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Solyndra’s $733M Plant Had Robots, Spa Showers
Solyndra’s ‘Taj Mahal’ Factory Raised Eyebrows As Sales Wane
“That’s a lot of money that went into that factory and I just don’t get how that factory is going to make this company successful,” said Barry Cinnamon, chief executive officer at Westinghouse Solar, a Solyndra LLC competitor. “It’s one of those neck-snapping things every time you drove down the highway." Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
“That’s a lot of money that went into that factory and I just don’t get how that factory is going to make this company successful,” said Barry Cinnamon, chief executive officer at Westinghouse Solar, a Solyndra LLC competitor. “It’s one of those neck-snapping things every time you drove down the highway." Photo:
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
.The glass-and-metal building that Solyndra LLC began erecting alongside Interstate 880 in Fremont, California, in September 2009 was something the Silicon Valley area hadn’t seen in years: a new factory.
It wasn’t just any factory. When it was completed at an estimated cost of $733 million, including proceeds from a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, it covered 300,000 square feet, the equivalent of five football fields. It had robots that whistled Disney tunes, spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature, and glass-walled conference rooms.
“The new building is like the Taj Mahal,” John Pierce, 54, a San Jose resident who worked as a facilities manager at Solyndra, said in an interview.
The building, designed to make far more solar panels than Solyndra got orders for, is now shuttered, and U.S. taxpayers may be stuck with it. Solyndra filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 6, leaving in its wake investigations by Congress and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a Republican-fueled political embarrassment for the Obama administration, which issued the loan guarantee. About 1,100 workers lost their jobs.
Amid the still-unfolding postmortems, the factory stands as emblematic of money misspent and the Field of Dreams ethos that seemed to drive the venture, said Ramesh Misra, a solar-industry analyst in Los Angeles for Brigantine Advisors.
Cylindrical Modules
“When you don’t have the demand, you can’t go into something with the attitude, ‘Build it and they will come,’” Misra said. “You have to make sure the customers are already there when you build it.”
He is skeptical of the company’s statement, in a press release on the groundbreaking for the plant, that it had a backlog of $2 billion in orders for its cylindrical solar modules for commercial rooftops, which it touted as cheaper to install and more efficient than competing flat panels. “Backlog” is a term sometimes used loosely in the industry and may not represent firm orders at all, he said.
David Miller, a Solyndra spokesman, didn’t respond to a phone call and e-mail seeking comment.
Solyndra was the dream of founder Chris Gronet, who received a Ph.D. in semiconductor processing at Stanford University and had spent 11 years as an executive at Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) He adopted as the company’s motto, “What we do here will someday change the world.” Gronet didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.
Prices Plunge
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attended the 2009 groundbreaking for the plant. At the event, Chu said the U.S. solar-energy industry was losing out to countries like China and the loan guarantee, the first awarded by the department under President Barack Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus plan, would ensure the company’s orders would be filled by U.S. workers.
Even as Chu, Gronet and Schwarzenegger were thrusting their shovels into the dirt, market forces were working against Solyndra. The price of polysilicon, the main ingredient in competing traditional solar panels, had plunged. By the time the plant opened last January, the price would be down about 40 percent from when Solyndra got the loan guarantee. Chinese companies were ramping up production of their ever-cheaper competing flat panels.
Solyndra executives rushed construction in a race to fill orders, putting some work on a 24-hour, seven-day schedule. The factory was up and ready for equipment installation in 10 months. The project employed more than 3,000 union construction workers, according to a Solyndra background sheet.
‘First Class’
“They were anticipating large production,” Juancho Suntay, 51, a former Solyndra equipment maintenance technician, said in an interview. “That’s why they wanted to have a state- of-the-art factory.”
The plant features 19 loading docks, four electric car charging stations in the parking lot and landscaping of wild grass and a rock garden. An automated rail system moved parts through the assembly process.
Robots that resembled “a big freezer with wheels” maneuvered around the factory transporting panels from one machine to another, said George Garma, 49, a former Solyndra equipment maintenance technician from Fremont. The Disney tunes alerted workers to the robots’ presence.
“It was first class,” David Chan, 51, who was an information-technology contractor for Solyndra, said in an interview. “I’ve been in the business for 25 years and have seen some elaborate buildings. I’ve never seen a facility like it.”
Costly Real Estate
The plant caught the attention of competitors. “Everybody I know in the solar industry would remark on it and say ‘Boy, that’s a really, really big factory,’” said Barry Cinnamon, chief executive officer at Westinghouse Solar Inc., a Campbell, California-based solar-panel company that manufactures in China.
“That’s a lot of money that went into that factory,” Cinnamon said in an interview. “It’s one of those neck-snapping things every time you drove down the highway.”
Commercial real-estate agents in the region wondered why a new factory was being built in the Silicon Valley region, the epicenter of some of the priciest real estate in the country, where most new construction consists of office space.
“There hasn’t been a factory or warehouse building built in Silicon Valley in well over 10 years,” Jeff Fredericks, managing partner at Colliers International in San Jose, said in an e-mail.
The asking rate for industrial properties in Silicon Valley is the fourth-most expensive in the U.S., according to Jack DePuy, Bay Area research manager at CB Richard Ellis in Foster City, California.
Machinery Breakdowns
About 11.4 percent, or 950,801 square feet, of industrial space was vacant in Fremont in September 2009, according to data from Colliers.
“There was available space that we talked about with them,” Bob Wasserman, Fremont’s mayor, said in an interview. “It was their decision that they needed a new building. Was that a good decision? It didn’t turn out to be.”
John Olenchalk, senior vice president at Kidder Mathews, a commercial real-estate firm in Redwood City, said Solyndra executives considered existing space, including a former Sun Microsystems Inc. facility in nearby Newark that had 218,000 square feet of production space. The company wanted more space and to be near its existing operations, he said.
Solyndra used the new plant for the first phase of panel production. An older facility nearby finished and assembled the panels, former employees said. Problems developed at the old plant, when machinery wouldn’t work properly and needed constant repair, workers said.
“Everybody was talking about it,” said Edward Santos, 44, a former warehouse worker in Solyndra’s logistics department.
Advantage Lost
“A significant percentage of the product we built went into a dumpster because it was defective,” said Craig Ewing, 55, a former maintenance technician. “It seemed like the company accepted that,” he said.
Even if the old plant hadn’t had problems, by the time the company opened the new facility it was clear that Solyndra had lost whatever cost advantage it might have had, said Michael Butler, chairman and CEO of Cascadia Capital LLC, a Seattle- based investment-banking firm that advises renewable-energy companies.
“I’m sure there was a lot of panic at that point, because I’m sure that everyone saw the writing on the wall,” Butler said.
Workers noticed inventory piling up. “The drivers would tell us that the warehouses are getting full,” Santos said. “Sometimes, they’d stay there one or two days before the material was unloaded.”
About two weeks before the company closed, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison gave an upbeat speech at the new factory, said Romie Sumera, 58, a former equipment-maintenance technician.
Solyndra was getting leads on new orders from companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Harrison told them.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alison Vekshin in San Francisco at avekshin@bloomberg.net; Mark Chediak in San Francisco at mchediak@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net; Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net.
-
The Secret Government Bank That's Financing More Solyndras
Fox Business ^ | September 28, 2011 | Elizabeth MacDonald
Sitting at the center of the Solyndra scandal is an off-balance-sheet bank at the Treasury Department that dates back to 1973.
This little-known government bank, the Federal Financing Bank [FFB], had a zero balance in 2008 for green energy projects, but now, with little Congressional oversight, it is giving out billions of dollars in loans to White House pet projects often at dirt-cheap interest rates below 1%.
In July alone, the government bank, which had $61 billion in assets, lent nearly three quarters of a billion dollars in taxpayer funds with no Congressional checks and balances.
Plus the bank is funding the insolvent U.S. Post Office; the White House’s expensive green car projects at Ford Motor, Nissan and Tesla Motors; a $485 million loan to an expensive solar project that’s lost $160 million over the last three years that’s backed by Google, BP and Chevron; plus the FFB is funding the teetering HOPE housing bailout program, which gives delinquent mortgage borrowers breaks on their loans.
And according to KPMG’s audit report of the bank, the FFB is losing billions of dollars in taxpayer money because it is forgoing collecting interest costs on already inexpensive loans that are financing projects at agencies like the Agriculture Dept.
What’s scary for taxpayers is this: The FFB can borrow unlimited amounts of taxpayer money from the Treasury for these kinds of political pet projects. Under the 1973 “FFB Act, the bank may, with the approval of the Secretary, borrow without limit from the Treasury,” says the bank’s audited statements from KPMG.
The Treasury Department’s inspector general is now investigating the bank over its $528 million loan to Solyndra. FFB’s chairman of the board is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and the bank’s board executives are Treasury officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
-
DOJ: ‘Mexican-Based Trafficking Organizations Control Access to the U.S.–Mexico Border’
Cybercast News Service ^ | 9/28 | Edwin Mora
Mexican drug-trafficking organizations “control access to the U.S.-Mexico border” and the “smuggling routes across” it, “resulting in unprecedented levels of violence in Mexico” and allowing those drug trafficking organizations and their associates to “dominate the supply and wholesale distribution of most illicit drugs in the United States,” according to the Justice Department's newly published 2011 National Drug Threat Assessment. “Mexican-based trafficking organizations control access to the U.S.–Mexico border, the primary gateway for moving the bulk of illicit drugs into the United States,” says the assessment published by DOJ’s National Drug Intelligence Center. “The organizations control,
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
-
Brian Terry’s Family Prepares For Funeral, Rips Obama Admin.
Issa Grills Attorney General Holder on Operation Fast and Furious
Obstruction Of Justice: Does The Justice Dept Have To Respond To A Congressional Subpoena?
Who in Justice Department is Responsible for Operation Fast and Furious?
“Operation Fast and Furious”: Reckless Decisions, Tragic
***One of the whistleblower’s- ATF Agent Vince Cefalu, (testifying in the video below has been fired since the hearng.***
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/27/
“Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes.” Panel 2
&NR=1
-
CNN doing great story n this now!
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
ATF Fast and Furious guns turned up in El Paso
Los Angeles Times ^ | September 29, 2011 | Richard A. Serrano
Posted on September 28, 2011 9:48:33 PM EDT by george76
They were being stored for shipment to Mexico, documents show. It's the first case of vanished weapons from the surveillance program showing up on this side of the border outside the Phoenix area.
A cache of assault weapons lost in the ATF's gun-trafficking surveillance operation in Phoenix turned up in El Paso, where it was being stored for shipment to Mexico, according to new internal agency emails and federal court records.
...
Under the program, dubbed Fast and Furious, agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the Phoenix field office allowed licensed firearm dealers to sell weapons to illegal "straw" buyers in the hope that the agents could track the weapons and arrest Mexican drug cartel leaders.
Instead, more than 2,000 weapons were trafficked along the U.S.-Mexico border, and many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. In addition, two AK-47 semi-automatics involved in the program were recovered after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed south of Tucson, and two others were found after a violent confrontation with state police officers in Maricopa, Ariz.
The El Paso case is the first example of Fast and Furious weapons turning up on this side of the border outside the Phoenix area.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
-
http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html#/video/bestoftv/2011/09/28/ac-babeu-fast-and-furious.cnn?iref=allsearch
Wow! Cant believe CNN aired this.
-
Operation Fast and Furious: Ariz. Lawmakers Want Answers Now
Babeu: "Mexican drug cartels. This is outrageous."
Updated: Tuesday, 27 Sep 2011, 6:15 PM MST
Published : Tuesday, 27 Sep 2011, 7:22 AM MST
TUCSON, Ariz. - At a town hall meeting in Tucson, the local government admitted they had no idea about Operation Fast and Furious - they found out by watching the news.
"Did anybody on the police force or law enforcement know this was going on or were you kept in the dark too?"
People in Tucson want answers and on Monday night, Tea Party supporters went to a public meeting in hopes of trying to understand what went wrong in the Fast and Furious gun operation.
It started in October 2009. Federal agents from the ATF approved, allowed and assisted in selling guns to illegal Mexican drug cartels in order to watch and investigate gun trafficking into Mexico.
But here's where things took a dangerous twist -- officials in Arizona say some of the guns were found at crime scenes in the United States, including the murder of Arizona Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010.
"Low and behold we now find out it's our own government that has been facilitating a strong purchase of weapons being placed into the hands of the most violent criminals in North America. Mexican drug cartels. This is outrageous," said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.
Law enforcement on the local level, like Babeu, say they had no idea the operation was going on -- they found out about it on the news.
The Department of Justice admits it was a botched operation where agents simply lost track of the weapons as they were transferred from one illegal buyer to another.
Several top Justice and ATF officials have already stepped down from their posts because of the controversy. There's also a Congressional probe into the operation.
-
A 'Furious' revelation
By MICHAEL A. WALSH
Last Updated: 5:10 AM, September 29, 2011
This just might be the smoking gun we’ve been waiting for to break the festering “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal wide open: the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives apparently ordered one of its own agents to purchase firearms with taxpayer money, and sell them directly to a Mexican drug cartel.
Let that sink in: After months of pretending that “Fast and Furious” was a botched surveillance operation of illegal gun-running spearheaded by the ATF and the US attorney’s office in Phoenix, it turns out that the government itself was selling guns to the bad guys.
Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy four Draco pistols for cash and even got a letter from his supervisor, David Voth, authorizing a federally licensed gun dealer to sell him the guns without bothering about the necessary paperwork.
“Please accept this letter in lieu of completing an ATF Form 4473 for the purchase of four (4) CAI, Model Draco, 7.62x39 mm pistols, by Special Agent John Dodson,” read the June 1, 2010, letter. “These aforementioned pistols will be used by Special Agent Dodson in furtherance of performance of his official duties.”
On orders, Dodson then sold the guns to known criminals, who first stashed them away and then -- deliberately unhindered by the ATF or any other agency -- whisked them off to Mexico.
People were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, including at least two American agents and hundreds of Mexicans. And the taxpayers picked up the bill.
So where’s the outrage?
There’s none from the feds. Attorney General Eric Holder has consistently stonewalled Rep. Darrell Issa, Sen. Chuck Grassley and other congressional investigators.
In a constantly evolving set of lies, Holder has denied knowing anything about Fast and Furious while at the same time withholding documents from the House and Senate committees looking into the mess while muzzling some witnesses and transferring others.
Justice calls the allegations about Dodson’s operation “false.” But Grassley says that’s “a lie,” as he told Greta van Susteren the other day. “The ATF ordered this ATF agent to purchase these guns and in turn sell them, and supposedly track them,” he said. “But he was a lone wolf in the operation -- they wouldn’t give him any help for 24-hour surveillance.”
So now the wheels have come off the official explanation for Fast and Furious. Of course, that explanation never made much sense in the first place.
For one thing, the ATF had no authority to track the guns once they were in Mexico; for another, nobody bothered to inform the Mexicans of this intrusion on their national sovereignty.
Further, we now know that a host of federal agencies (including the ATF, the FBI and IRS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration and, very probably, top officials at the Department of Homeland Security) were all in the loop at various levels, as was the White House.
So calling “Fast and Furious” a cockamamie operation gone wrong just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
There are two possible explanations. The first is that the anti-gun Obama administration deliberately wanted American guns planted in Mexico in order to demonize American firearms dealers and gun owners. The operation was manufacturing “evidence” for the president’s false claim that we’re to blame for the appalling levels of Mexican drug-war violence.
If this is true, then Holder & Co. have got to go -- and the trail needs to be followed no matter where it leads. For the federal government to seek to frame its own citizens is unconscionable.
A second notion is that the CIA was behind the whole thing, which accounts for all the desperate wagon-circling. Under this theory, the Agency feared the los Zetas drug cartel was becoming too powerful and might even mount a coup against the Mexican government. So some 2,000 weapons costing more than $1.25 million were deliberately channeled to the rival Sinaloa cartel, which operates along the American border, to keep the Zetas in check.
Of course, there’s a third explanation -- that both scenarios are true, and that those in charge of Fast and Furious saw an opportunity to shoot two birds with one Romanian-made AK Draco pistol.
Time for a special prosecutor, who’s both fast and furious.
Michael Walsh’s new spy thriller, “Shock Warning,” hits stores this week.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/furious_revelation_OhK6TBqPlEpRglHjsSbiBI#ixzz1ZLKR0DYx
-
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2011/09/21/tsr-todd-fast-furious-dnt.cnn?iref=videosearch
Can't believe CNN is running this.
Obama and Holder need a jail cell.
-
More solar companies led by Democratic donors received federal loan guarantees
12:51 AM 09/29/2011
A Daily Caller investigation has found that in addition to the failed company Solyndra, at least four other solar panel manufacturing companies receiving in excess of $500 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration employ executives or board members who have donated large sums of money to Democratic campaigns.
And as questions swirl around possible connections between political donations and these preferential financing arrangements, the Obama White House suddenly began deflecting The Daily Caller’s questions on Wednesday to the Democratic National Committee.
Asked Wednesday to comment on the connection between large Democratic donors and Obama administration loan guarantees to the companies they represent, the White House responded to TheDC with a single sentence: “We refer your question to the Democratic National Committee.”
Concerns about the long-term viability of Solyndra, first made public by The Daily Caller back in February, have now expanded to include the financial health of other loan-guarantee recipient firms as well.
These companies have suffered from declining stock prices despite their favored status in the White House. Yet as the end of the federal government’s fiscal year looms on Friday, a new series of loans could be finalized amounting to more than nine times what taxpayers have already lost on the failed company Solyndra.
“Who was visiting the White House during this period of time?” Texas GOP Rep. Joe Barton asked when contacted by TheDC. Barton is a former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “Who were they talking to and what were they talking about? Are there more loans at risk of not being paid back? Are these good investments or political favors?”
“The American people just lost a half billion dollars and they deserve answers to these questions before more money is wasted. Until we know exactly what happened, I think we should slow down this loan program and take a closer look at each case.”
“It is becoming more clear with each revelation that warning signs were ignored in the Solyndra case,” Barton continued. “Yet in the next 48 hours — because of a deadline that can still be changed — the Department of Energy is going to hand out another $5 billion in loans.”
Companies like First Solar, SolarReserve, SunPower Corporation and Abengoa SA have already, collectively, received billions in loans through Obama administration stimulus programs to build solar power plants in the southwestern United States.
Yet each, with the exception of the privately held SolarReserve, has seen its stock price hammered at the same time it was lobbying the Obama administration and Congress for billions in loan guarantees.
The Hill newspaper reported Wednesday that the Santa Monica, Calif.-based SolarReserve has secured a $737 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy for a Nevada solar project.
That company has ties to George Kaiser, the Oklahoma billionaire who raised $53,500 for President Obama’s campaign in 2008. Through his Argonaut Private Equity firm, Kaiser holds a majority stake in Solyndra.
Argonaut has a voting stake on SolarReserve’s board of directors in the person of Steve Mitchell, who also serves on Solyndra’s board of directors.
Additionally, Federal Election Commission records made available by the Center for Responsive Politics show that SolarReserve board member James McDermott has contributed $61,500 to various Democratic campaigns since 2008, including $30,800 to Obama’s presidential election campaign.
McDermott’s U.S. Renewable Energy Group has a significant financial stake in SolarReserve, and has drawn scrutiny for its ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — and for reportedly driving green jobs to China.
And Lee Bailey, a fellow SolarReserve board member and U.S. Renewables Group investor, has donated $21,850 since 2008 to Democratic candidates including President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, California Sen. Barbara Boxer and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
SolarReserve’s board of directors also includes Jasandra Nyker of Pacific Corporate Group Asset Management, where former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law, Ronald Pelosi, holds a leadership position.
Other data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that SolarReserve paid $100,000 in lobbying fees in 2009 to the Podesta Group. That firm’s principal, Tony Podesta, is the brother of John Podesta — who ran Barack Obama’s presidential transition team.
SolarReserve’s financials are not public since it’s a privately held company, but First Solar provides a more transparent example. That solar energy firm’s stock has lost more than $100 in value since it peaked at $170.80 on Feb. 17, 2011. The company was trading at $65.77 per share Wednesday afternoon.
This market tumble came despite First Solar’s success in winning approximately $2.1 billion in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. The company announced Wednesday that it would not be able to qualify for a further $1.5 billion loan guarantee before the Sept. 30 deadline.
First Solar founder and Chairman Michael Ahearn, whom Reuters reported cashed in $68.9 million of his company’s stock last month, has donated $123,650, along with his wife, to the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates during the three most recent cycles, mostly in Arizona.
The solar energy giant, the nation’s biggest, also spent more than $1.5 million lobbying Congress and the Obama administration since 2009 on the stimulus and subsequent green-jobs plans. This included approximately $400,000 paid to the Washington Tax Group, which also represented Solyndra.
Investment website The Motley Fool reported Wednesday that First Solar faces a potentially bleak future as its technology increasingly is becoming eclipsed by its competitors.
“As [solar] panel costs fall the balance of system costs becomes more important, highlighting First Solar’s current conundrum,” Motley Fool contributor Travis Hoium writes. “A less efficient panel requires more land, more labor to install, and more auxiliary components than higher efficiency panels. And with feed-in tariffs now leaning on rooftop installations in Europe, First Solar is now behind the curve.”
First Solar’s competitor SunPower has similarly received a $1.3 billion loan guarantee for a solar project in California, but Wall Street has been less than optimistic about the company’s financial health.
SunPower’s stock, like First Solar’s has lost enormous value in recent months. The stock peaked at $21.40 on April 29, 2011, and now trades at $8.36 per share. Morningstar forecasts the company “will post losses in both 2011 and 2012.” SunPower’s technology, Morningstar warns, is likely to remain “too costly compared to its peers” and it expects “mediocre” returns from the stock in the foreseeable future.
SunPower has paid lobbyist Patrick Murphy, a close confidant of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, at least $290,000 in lobbying fees since 2009.
SunPower’s political action committee gave $15,650 to Democratic congressional candidates in 2010 and only $500 to a single Republican candidate. Reid received the largest slice of that pie, a $4,000 campaign contribution.
The Spanish firm Abengoa Solar received a $1.45 billion loan guarantee for an Arizona solar project, yet it has similar financial woes. Abengoa also recently reached an agreement for a second loan guarantee, $1.2 billion for another Arizona project.
Yet despite its success appealing to the Obama administration for financing, the company has consistently lost value since March. Its stock fell from a high of $16.50 six months ago to just $10.45 per share on Wednesday.
Abengoa Solar’s lobbying efforts are spearheaded internally by Fred Morse, a veteran of the Department of Energy from the Carter and Reagan administrations. Since 2009, the company has paid Ernst and Young $330,000 in lobbying fees, according to information made available by the Center for Responsible Politics.
Abengoa also enlisted the help of California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, according to the Institute for Energy Research, to pressure the Department of Energy to expedite the loan guarantees.
“It is wrong when we let the country pick the winners and the losers,” said Mark Kramer, a project faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. “If they can’t get funding privately, they probably shouldn’t exist.”
In an interview with TheDC, Kramer described these companies as bad investments whose collapse taxpayers shouldn’t be bankrolling.
But Rhone Resch, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, defends the loan guarantee program as an investment in clean technologies that has created thousands of jobs and has spurred innovation.
He contends the United States needs to invest in solar to allow it to thrive in the face of Chinese competition, which has made it difficult for American companies.
This stiff competition was described as a key factor when Massachusetts-based Evergreen Solar and New York-based SpectraWatt filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/29/more-solar-companies-led-by-democratic-donors-received-federal-loan-guarantees/#ixzz1ZLOGpgDe
-
By MATTHEW MOSK and RONNIE GREENE
ABC NEWS and iWATCH NEWS
Sept. 29, 2011
Several of Barack Obama's top campaign supporters went from soliciting political contributions to working from within the Energy Department as it showered billions in taxpayer-backed stimulus money on alternative energy firms, ABC News and iWatch News have learned.
One of them was Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate. He became one of Energy Secretary Steven Chu's key loan program advisors while his wife's law firm represented a number of companies that had applied for loans.
Recovery Act records show Allison Spinner's law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, received $2.4 million in federal funds for legal fees related to the $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee to Solyndra, a solar company whose financial meltdown has prompted multiple investigations. She pledged to take no portion of the money and did not work on the loan applications.
As House Republicans step up their probe of the Obama administration's green-energy loan program in the wake of Solyndra's bankruptcy, a key focus -- and open question -- is whether the president's political supporters had any hand in influencing which companies received the taxpayer support.
"There is great concern over political influence contaminating the DOE loan guarantee program," said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. "The prevalence of fundraisers and bundlers scattered throughout DOE is cause for alarm and is a subject our investigation does not take lightly -- we are looking into this and will see where it leads us."
The administration has repeatedly said that politics has played no role in deciding which companies received federal loans.
ABC NewsSteve Spinner, loan programs advisor at the... View Full Size ABC NewsSteve Spinner, loan programs advisor at the Department of Energy, talks about green energy grants and loans in this YouTube video of the Bryan Cave Clean Tech Roundtable in Santa Monica, California on June 2, 2010.
White House Dodges Energy Company Questions Watch Video
White House Warned About Collapsed Energy Company Watch Video
Obama-Backed 'Green' Company Goes Bankrupt Watch Video
Spinner declined requests to be interviewed. But representatives for Spinner, his wife, and for the Energy Department all told ABC News and iWatch News that Spinner and his wife took elaborate steps to avoid conflicts between his government work and her legal work. Spinner obtained a waiver that promised he would not work on cases involving clients of his wife's firm. And she pledged not to take proceeds from her firm's work with companies that had applied for loans.
Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman, described Spinner as someone who had "no role" in evaluating loan applications or selecting recipients.
Spinner described his job differently. He wrote in an online bio for the Center for American Progress, the left-leaning think tank he joined after leaving the administration, that he "helped oversee the more than $100 billion of loan guarantee and direct lending authority" for the department's green-energy loan program. And in a speech at a "Green Tech" conference in June 2010, Spinner described how he "worked very, very closely with all the various organizations, the various offices, in trying to streamline operations and … move the funding opportunity announcements out, get the solicitations out on the street."
"What the Secretary really cared about was he wanted us to get the money out fast, he wanted us to pick and select fantastic projects," Spinner said.
Spinner was not the only Obama political supporter to play a role at the Energy Department. California venture capitalist Steve Westly, who raised more than $500,000 for Obama, had Secretary Chu's ear on green energy issues as a member of a high-level volunteer advisory panel. Mackey Dykes, who was a finance manager for the Obama campaign, was hired to be the liaison between the Energy Department and White House. Each declined interview requests.
Obama's political supporters were also investors in companies that had applied for loans. Westly has held stakes in at least five companies that have won DOE support. Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser, another Obama bundler, was the biggest private backer of Solyndra. Westly, Spinner and the CEO of Allison Spinner's law firm, John V. Roos, (now Obama's ambassador to Japan), each raised more than $500,000 for Obama's 2008 campaign.
Watchdog: Unusual for Donor To Get Federal Loan Job
While it is common for presidents to reward top donors with ambassadorships or other political posts, the Sunlight Foundation's Bill Allison said it is unusual to see a major donor such as Spinner given a position inside a relatively obscure government loan program.
"For an administration that won't hire lobbyists to be hiring fundraisers for that role, that seems to be a bit of a contradiction," Allison said. "Obviously you want to keep all people who are involved in political influence out of positions of responsibility." As a presidential candidate, Obama had said lobbyists "won't find a job in my White House," but then dialed that back to "won't dominate [my White House]."
The Energy Department said Spinner brought experience working with startup companies -- the type of firms lining up for green-energy funding intended to aid the environment and economy.
"Spinner is a Harvard MBA and an experienced business executive with more than 15 years advising innovative start-up companies in the technology, media and retail industries. He advised over 50 start-up companies over the last 10 years," DOE's LaVera wrote.
Both Spinner and Westly were among a California contingent of green-energy executives who put their money, and energy, behind Obama.
When President Obama won the White House in 2008, Spinner was one of several Silicon Valley executives to help vault him to victory. Spinner was one of just 52 fundraisers to raise more than half a million dollars for the president. He served the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, focused on technology innovation and government reform.
In February 2009, San Francisco Magazine quoted several local Obama backers reflecting on the campaign.
"In May, about 120 of us had an Entrepreneurs for Obama video teleconference with Barack. Afterward, Steve Westly and some other senior Silicon Valley executives stayed and put forth their ideas on tech issues and initiatives and the campaign," Spinner was quoted as saying. "I really loved that I could help differentiate this campaign's technology from any others in history. I knew most of the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, and if there was something good, I could bubble it up to the campaign."
In April 2009, Spinner joined a Department of Energy poised to unleash billions of dollars, becoming a "small business loan guarantee advisor," a title that later shifted to "loan program advisor," focused on financing start-up green energy firms and cutting-edge car makers. He held the job for 17 months.
The move turned a hearty presidential supporter and frequent energy investor into a DOE insider.
Spinner's financial disclosure forms showed that he was an active investor in energy-related companies. On his final disclosure report signed Oct. 15, 2010, Spinner listed at least 15 purchases and 14 stock sales of energy-related stock earlier that year.
An initial review of financial disclosure records by iWatch News and ABC News showed one investment in an energy firm whose subsidiary received funds from the Energy Department while he was working there, and investments in three others that landed Energy Department support after he sold his stakes. Energy officials said they considered his portfolio small enough to fall "within the Executive Branch-wide de minimis exception for interests in securities."
Spinner reported making $12,155 from a 2008 investment in Atheros Communications. In June 2010, Atheros announced it would receive up to $4.5 million in DOE grant funding. DOE said Spinner sold his Atheros stock before joining the department.
On another form, Spinner reported selling off his $1,001-$15,000 investment in Air Products & Chemicals Inc. in February of 2010, four months before Air Products announced it landed $253 million in stimulus funding. "To the best of our knowledge, he had no involvement" with the award, a company official said.
Spinner invested $1,001-$15,000 in Exelon. A subsidiary of Exelon was awarded a $200 million DOE grant in late 2009. A spokeswoman said the company never dealt with Spinner as their grant was being considered.
His wife's role in a law firm representing corporate clients seeking federal funds prompted Energy Department ethics officials to take a close look, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, has represented several companies that had applied for Energy Department loans and loan guarantees.
On August 18, 2009, four months into his tenure at DOE, Spinner received an ethics opinion involving that connection. Matt Rogers, then the senior advisor to the Energy Secretary, wrote that Spinner could continue in his duties, but "not participate in any discussion regarding any application involving Wilson [Sonsini]." The opinion said his wife would forgo pay "earned as a result of its representation of applicants in programs within your official duties."
Rogers said Spinner's conflict was minimized because his role at DOE was supervisory -- "to embrace strategic objectives, inquire on overall progress of applications to the program staff, anticipate and help senior management clear any institutional roadblocks to accomplishment of the program's objectives."
Spinner's Wife's Firm Worked for Solyndra
Courtney Dorman, a spokeswoman for Allison Spinner's law firm, Wilson Sonsini, said the firm also took strides to avoid conflicts, establishing a wall between her and client matters involving the Energy Department while Spinner was in office.
One of those law-firm clients, SEC records show, was Solyndra -- the California solar panel firm whose collapse put half a billion dollars of taxpayer money at risk and prompted an investigation by the FBI and other agencies.
WATCH the Original ABC News Report on Solyndra
READ the Original ABC News Report on Solyndra
The law firm worked on the solar company's failed public offering, the records show. And it also provided Solyndra with outside counsel on the DOE loan guarantee transaction. The company was paid $2.44 million for its Solyndra work, records show -- money generated by the Energy Department's stimulus loan guarantee to the solar panel firm.
Allison Spinner "was not involved with that transaction, nor has she ever worked with Solyndra in any capacity," Dorman said.
The law firm's website cites Allison Spinner's work with other clean-tech firms -- including Amyris Inc. and HCL CleanTech. Both companies had engaged in the time-consuming process of applying for green energy grants. Amyris Biotechnologies won $25 million from DOE in late 2009 to develop a diesel substitute and went public the next year -- with Spinner's wife helping handle the IPO. After Spinner left the department, HCL CleanTech landed a $9 million Energy Department grant to convert biomass feedstocks into fuel and chemical products.
Dorman, the firm spokeswoman, said in an email that Wilson Sonsini "established an ethical wall around Allison with respect to [Wilson Sonsini] representation of clients in matters involving DOE loan programs." Dorman added that Allison Spinner represented "clients who had DOE loans or grants that fell outside of Steve's jurisdiction."
Steven Spinner was not with the department when Solyndra won a conditional commitment for the loan guarantee in March 2009. But he was on board when the loan closed that September. A few days later, at a clean-tech forum in Boston in September 2009, Spinner spoke of the virtue of the DOE's support.
"We liked the taste of it," he said, telling the Boston group the company would bring thousands of jobs.
After leaving the department last September, Spinner has continued to cheerlead for its mission. This July, he co-authored an article for the Center for American Progress titled "Don't Let Clean Energy Funding Die on the Vine." The House committee's investigation of the Solyndra financing was just heating up.
Click Here to Sign Up for Breaking News and Investigation Alerts From The Brian Ross Investigative Unit
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/obama-fundraisers-ties-green-firms-federal-cash/story?id=14592626&singlePage=true
-
GOP's Solyndra probe threatens to ensnare Energy Secretary Chu
By Andrew Restuccia - 09/29/11 05:00 AM ET
The controversy over a $535 million loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt California solar firm Solyndra is threatening to dim the star of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a physicist and Nobel Prize winner who has rarely been thrust into the political spotlight.
Republican lawmakers have set their sites on Chu, who for three years has managed to avoid being dragged into a litany of political battles waged by Republicans and the White House on energy and environmental issues.
The GOP has for weeks lobbed a slew of allegations at the administration, arguing officials rushed a final decision on the loan guarantee and missed a series of red flags that hinted at the company’s financial troubles. Solyndra declared bankruptcy two years after receiving the Energy Department loan, resulting in layoffs for 1,100 workers.
Now, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are increasingly turning their attention to the role that Chu played in overseeing the loan guarantee program.
The ongoing fight over Solyndra could put Chu, who is not known as a political brawler, in uncharted waters.
Republicans are pointing to a recent Los Angeles Times story that says Chu disagreed with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and others when they raised concerns about the loan guarantee program during a meeting last October.
“We need to hear from Secretary Chu and [White House Office of Management and Budget Director Jack] Lew to fill in some of the blanks,” Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who sits on the Energy panel’s investigative subcommittee, told The Hill in a phone interview Wednesday. “The buck has to stop someplace and presumably it stops with the heads of those agencies.”
RELATED ARTICLESPoll: Solyndra not catching voters' attention in swing stateDOE approves $1B in solar loan guarantees
Burgess and other Republicans on the subcommittee have called on Chu to testify on the Solyndra loan guarantee.
Republicans on the panel wrote to Chu last week to request all communications between the Energy Department and the White House on the Solyndra loan guarantee.
The document request is part of a broader effort by Republicans to determine if the White House rushed consideration of the loan guarantee.
The committee, which launched its investigation into Solyndra in February, has already received more than 35,000 documents and has released select emails that Republicans say show that the White House tried to rush a decision on the company’s financing so that the loan guarantee could be announced at the Sept. 2009 groundbreaking of the company’s factory.
The administration has insisted that it thoroughly reviewed the project and has strongly denied any wrondoing.
Though Republicans say they want to hear from Chu, Sean Bonyun, spokesman for committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), said the panel has not yet formalized plans for the secretary to testify.
Democrats and clean energy advocates have criticized Republicans for their investigation, arguing it is a transparent attempt to score political points.
"This is not about Solyndra, this is not about the loan guarantee program, this is about Republicans going after the president," Marchant Wentworth, who focuses on clean energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said.
Before Obama chose him as his Energy secretary, Chu had little experience running a massive bureaucracy like a federal agency. In 2004, Chu became the director of the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. The laboratory employs about 4,000 people. By contrast, the Energy Department employs about four times that number.
Chu represents an unfamiliar target for the GOP, which has frequently sparred with top administration officials on energy policy.
Republicans bashed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for imposing a series of more stringent offshore drilling regulations in the aftermath of last year’s oil spill that Republicans and some drill-state Democrats said unfairly slowed down the pace of drilling.
And Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson has testified before Congress so many times one congressman even joked that she should have her own parking space. Jackson has borne the brunt of more criticism than any other top administration official for moving forward with a series of air regulations that Republicans say will place a massive burden on the economy.
Though Chu has largely avoided controversy, he came under fire from Republicans before he was confirmed by the Senate for calling coal his "worst nightmare" during a 2008 speech.. Chu walked back those comments slightly during a Senate hearing in 2009, after he was confirmed, calling over-reliance on coal a "bad dream," but stressing that it will remain a major part of the country's energy portfolio.
Chu has won the praise of clean energy advocates and is generally well respected by Republicans too.
"He’s been public about renewable energy and energy efficiency and knowledgeable in a way that we have not seen in an Energy secretary for a long time," Wentworth said.
Chu is best known for offering detailed and nuanced analyses of the energy landscape.
He has been a staunch advocate of making large and consistent investments in clean energy, arguing that it’s the only way that the United States can compete with countries like China, which have put billions into solar and wind.
Even amid growing criticism from Republicans, Chu has said the Energy Department will continue making such investments. The department, for example, announced the finalization of two loan guarantees for solar companies Wednesday totaling more than $1 billion
At an event in Washington this week, Chu delighted a crowd of energy industry officials with a rough history of the automobile – an anecdote he used to encourage long-term investment in low-carbon technology to ensure the United States wins what he calls the “clean energy race.”
“So, lesson number one,” Chu told the crowd. “The United States didn’t invent the automobile, it actually became the dominant automobile manufacturing force in the 20th Century by becoming the low-cost producer.”
After the meeting, Chu huddled in the corner with a group of scientists and listened intently for about ten minutes.
“These are his people. He’d stay here all day if he could,” one of Chu’s aides remarked.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/184515-gops-solyndra-probe-threatens-to-ensnare-energy-sec-chu
-
Senate Judiciary Committee staffer corroborates ATF gunwalking purchases
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 28 September, 2011 | David Codrea
As a follow up to a special joint exclusive report on a letter implicating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives committing straw purchases for “Project Gunwalker,” this correspondent on Monday approached media staffers working for Rep. Darrell Issa and the House Oversight Committee on Government Reform and Sen. Chuck Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with the following email:
Good morning all.
In case you haven't seen the latest reports Mike Vanderboegh and I have filed, or if you have and are digesting them, please note:
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/09/vanderboegh-codrea-exclusive-us-govt.html and http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/breaking-letter-implicates-atf-committing-straw-purchases-for-gunwalker
Mike and I would appreciate whatever for-the-record comments on this development you could obtain for us--we'd prefer sourced but we can forgo individual attribution if the statement is conditional on that.
Here is the reply from the Judiciary Committee media spokesperson:
In a March 3 letter to Attorney General Holder and Acting ATF Director Melson, Senator Grassley released Reports of Investigation (Attachment 1 to the letter linked below) in relation to the same case to which Mr. Voth’s letter pertains. There is more detailed information about this non-Fast and Furious case in those previously released ROIs than in Mr. Voth’s letter. The Voth letter was not obtained until later and merely corroborates the information already in the ROIs.
http://grassley.senate.gov/judiciary/upload/ATF-03-03-11-letter-to-Holder-with-redactions.pdf
The relevant report from Attachment 1 of the Grassley letter is presented in this column’s sidebar slideshow. It demonstrates an undercover agent (per the letter referenced in the Gun Rights Examiner/Sipsey Street Irregulars joint report, whistleblower John Dodson) utilizing Agent Cashier Funds to conduct the purchases.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
The Solyndra Scandal was FINALLY covered on MSNBC.....
Maddow blamed it on Bush and then quickly moved on.
What a pathetic "news" channel.
-
The Solyndra Scandal was FINALLY covered on MSNBC.....
Maddow blamed it on Bush and then quickly moved on.
What a pathetic "news" channel.
Did she mention that Bush Admn - TURNED DOWN THE APPLICATION BECAUSE IT WAS SO FLAWED?
-
$737 million in green-tech loan to company connected to Pelosi family?
Hot Air ^ | 9/28/2011 | Ed Morrisey
________________________ ______________________
As Tina wrote yesterday, Americans still favor government subsidies to companies unable to otherwise compete in the green-tech industry. That may be especially true of Nancy Pelosi and her family, but not exactly for reasons of environmental improvement. Let’s start with this report from The Hill, via Gateway Pundit and Instapundit, on the latest approved green-tech loan from the Department of Energy:
DOE announced a $737 million loan guarantee to help finance construction of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a 110-megawatt solar-power-generating facility in Nye County, Nev. The project is sponsored by Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve.
The Energy Department said the project will result in 600 construction jobs and 45 permanent jobs.
Forty-five permanent jobs? That puts the cost per permanent job at over $16 million, a figure that could employ perhaps a hundred people had the capital remained in the hands of the private sector that produced it. Whatever else these green-tech loans are, they certainly are not job-creation stimulus.
But that’s not the best part. As both Gateway Pundit and American Glob discover, one of SolarReserve’s “investment partners” is Pacific Corporate Group, through its Clean Energy and Technology Fund. And PCG’s executive director is Ron Pelosi — brother of Nancy Pelosi’s husband. Suddenly, this deal makes a lot more sense than spending $737 million for forty-five jobs.
This surely is just a coincidence … in the same way that the push by the Obama administration to approve a loan to a failing Solyndra backed by one of his big campaign bundlers was just a coincidence. Recall Reason TV’s excellent video yesterday on the urban-renewal movement, in which governments seized property ostensibly to improve neighborhoods but parsed out the spoils to the politically connected ? That’s exactly what’s going on with this program, and with Barack Obama’s demands for more blank checks for stimulus. The only thing Obama’s stimulating is the pockets of his cronies.
-
Grassley puts it bluntly: ‘It’s a lie’(gunwalker)
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 28 September, 2011 | Dave Workman
When Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley was told in February that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was not allowing guns to cross the border, it wasn’t true and the Justice Department knew it, and he said so in a Monday night interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren.
“It’s a lie.”—Sen. Charles Grassley
In a typically candid eight minute interview, Grassley told Van Sustern that the Justice Department has been “misleading to me,” and that the agency has known all along that Operation Fast and Furious had done exactly what Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich insisted they weren’t doing in his Feb. 4, 2011 letter to the senator.
“At the outset, the allegation described in your January 27 letter – that ATF “sanctioned” or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico – is false.”—Ronald Weich, assistant attorney general
Grassley, who was interviewed by this column last week, is growing more upset every day. According to congressional sources close to the senator’s investigation of Fast and Furious, investigators have interviewed ATF Special Agent David Voth, former supervisor of Group VII in Phoenix, who was discussed by this column on Monday. His name is prominently featured in a new revelation about a separate gun trafficking case involving whistleblower agent John Dodson.
Whether Voth will be asked to appear before Congressman Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform remains to be seen. Voth now appears to be a central figure in the Fast and Furious fiasco, which critics insist can no longer be referred to as a “botched operation” because it now appears the ATF’s plan all along was to let hundreds, if not thousands of guns to flow across the border into Mexico,
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
MSM Sheep: Ignoring the Scandal of the Century(gunwalker)
pajamasmedia.com ^ | 28 September, 2011 | Bob Owens
Monday’s revelations by Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars and David Codrea at the Gun Rights Examiner, corroborated here at PJMedia and expounded upon at Fox News, comprise a “smoking gun” of the one of the most stunning political scandals in U.S. history.
As William Lajeunesse writes at Fox:
Not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in the sale of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel — the federal government used taxpayer money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared.
I don’t wish to understate it: elements of the U.S. Departments of Justice, State, Homeland Security, and Treasury are responsible for supplying an arsenal to narco-terrorists waging a civil war against an American ally. Our federal government may bear responsibility for at least 200 murders committed with “walked” firearms, in what Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales describes as a “betrayal” of her country by the Obama administration.
Are there legal ramifications? Perhaps. According to Title 18, 2331 of the U.S. Code, Operation Fast and Furious may amount to international terrorism, which carries with it stiff penalties for conspiracies that result in homicide. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act — which was originally used to prosecute the mafia — and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) may also fit, as may assorted state and federal charges. Charges may also result from two investigations launched by Mexican authorities, and Mexico could conceivably file charges with the International Criminal Court.
This is objectively the most important political and legal story in America right now.
But despite the revelations from of documents and testimony obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and repeated calls for full disclosure from senators and congressmen, mainstream media organizations have done everything in their power to bury the scandal. This can only be viewed as a partisan media’s attempt to protect a criminal executive branch.
Let’s play “if Bush did it.”
If thousands of firearms had been provided to the Sinaloa cocaine cartel by the Justice Department; and if those guns had been blamed for not one or two, but hundreds of murders by Mexico’s lead prosecutor, would there not be wall-to-wall front page coverage every day on the pages of the New York Times … if Bush were still president?
Under Bush, the MSM did provide blanket coverage for the warrantless wiretapping program — which was deemed legal by the courts and caused no deaths.
If circumstantial evidence, political speeches, and talking points from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and President Bush all suggested that the solitary goal of a gunwalking conspiracy was to put American weapons in the hands of criminals in hopes they would commit violent crimes in order to undermine the Constitution and Bill of Rights … the Washington Post columnists would call for impeachment and criminal prosecution each day.
Recall how they breathlessly reported the minute details and speculations of the Valerie Plame affair, which had much smaller stakes.
Instead, both the New York Times and Washington Post have responded to Gunwalker with attempted character assassinations of Congressman Darrell Issa, the lead investigator.
The Post ran a desperate hit piece on Issa, a story turned down by at least two other news organizations and left-wing blog Talking Points Memo for being too thinly sourced. They gave the byline to a reporter returning from a plagiarism suspension.
After that failed to stop Issa, the New York Times produced a hit piece so rife with errors that it amounted to fiction.
Among the MSM, only Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times, Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, and William Lajeunesse of Fox News have faithfully reported on the story.
Nobody died in the Watergate break-ins, but the Washington Post’s dogged coverage of the story created a reputation that the now clearly partisan newsletter coasts upon to this day. The New York Times spent untold man-hours and and money exposing the FISA warrantless wiretapping program — to the detriment of the nation’s national security — even though no laws were broken by the wiretaps.
Yet perhaps hundreds have died as a result of this administration’s conspiracy to supply weapons to a narco-terrorist organization, and the crack ABC News investigative team at the Blotter can’t be bothered. 60 Minutes is more enthralled by the murder of an American Nazi than the Obama adminstration’s Reichstag fire. CNN may as well be protecting Saddam again. Need we mention PBS or MSNBC?
The Gunwalker conspiracy is the kind of story that journalists dream of breaking their entire careers. It is now in the palms of their hands: a story in which they can make a difference, take down the evil and corrupt, and ensure justice is served.
Instead of reporting, however, they are complicit. They have chosen to acquiesce to a clear and obvious evil, an aberration of our most basic values. They are no longer watchdogs, but docile sheep.
More news organizations are shrinking, merging, and consolidating as they face a decrease in circulation and credibility. When they die, point back to this moment in time, and write as their epitaph:
The could have lived, but chose death.
Unlike those they allow this government to terrorize and murder with impunity.
-
So what are your plans for this weekend?
-
So what are your plans for this weekend?
To keep educating you on the daily corruption machine that is Obama, who you voted for and still support.
-
"The Gunwalker conspiracy is the kind of story that journalists dream of breaking their entire careers. It is now in the palms of their hands: a story in which they can make a difference, take down the evil and corrupt, and ensure justice is served.
Instead of reporting, however, they are complicit. They have chosen to acquiesce to a clear and obvious evil, an aberration of our most basic values. They are no longer watchdogs, but docile sheep. "
or.... perhaps they don't find it as interesting as you and your blogger friends... scandal of the century? sheesh!
-
"The Gunwalker conspiracy is the kind of story that journalists dream of breaking their entire careers. It is now in the palms of their hands: a story in which they can make a difference, take down the evil and corrupt, and ensure justice is served.
Instead of reporting, however, they are complicit. They have chosen to acquiesce to a clear and obvious evil, an aberration of our most basic values. They are no longer watchdogs, but docile sheep. "
or.... perhaps they don't find it as interesting as you and your blogger friends... scandal of the century? sheesh!
LMFAO - as if you dont have a vested interest in this.
This story makes most citizens literally want to puke at you clowns calling yourself the "bravest, finest" etc etc
-
LMFAO - as if you dont have a vested interest in this.
This story makes most citizens literally want to puke at you clowns calling yourself the "bravest, finest" etc etc
LOL! " you clowns...."
-
Solyndra director tied to $737m loan guarantee
by
Joel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer
@jsgehrkejr
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/solyndra-exec-board-737m-loan-gaurantee
Steve Mitchell and Argonaut Private Equity might have a chance to recoup some of their losses in the Solyndra debacle now that the Department of Energy has given a $737 million dollar loan guarantee to a company backed by Argonaut that also lists Mitchell as a "board participant."
Mitchell served on the Solyndra LLC Board of Directors and reportedly still serves on the board. Mitchell serves as a "board participant" for Solar Reserve, the parent company to Tonopah Solar (the Tonopah Solar email address even routes to a Solar Reserve account) and his Solar Reserve biography says that he "currently sits on the Boards of Directors of . . . Solyndra" and several other companies. Despite the Solyndra failure, the Department of Energy continues to provide loan guarantees to solar companies, giving Tonopah Solar a $737 million loan guarantee for a project in Nevada.
Mitchell owes his position at Solyndra and Solar Reserve, apparently, to the fact that his primary employer, Argonaut Private Equity, invested in both companies. Mitchell holds the title of Managing Director for Argonaut Private Equity. After Solyndra declared bankruptcy, two Democratic members of the U.S. House asked that House Subcommittee call Mitchell to testify about Solyndra. Though he has not appeared before Congress, he has "been asked to provide documents to Congress" pertaining to Solyndra.
The Mitchell connection to Solar Reserve brings George Kaiser into the spotlight with respect to this latest loan guarantee. Kaiser owns Argonaut and thus invested in both Solyndra and Solar Reserve (more heavily in the former than the latter). He also bundled over $50,000 into President Obama's campaign.
Their poor track record notwithstanding, Kaiser and Mitchell now have another opportunity to profit from investing in a solar company funded by the Department of Energy.
-
Pelosi's brother-in-law is given $737m of taxpayers' money to build giant solar plant
Daily Mail (UK) ^ | September 29, 2011 | By John Stevens and Leon Watson
Posted on September 29, 2011 6:06:04 PM EDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Nancy Pelosi is facing accusations of cronyism after a solar energy project, which her brother-in-law has a stake in, landed a $737 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, despite the growing Solyndra scandal.
The SolarReserve project is backed by an energy investment fund where the Minority Leader's brother-in-law Ronald Pelosi is second in command.
Tom Schatz, president of Washington-based advocacy group Citizens Against Government Waste, said: 'It is time for a full audit of their activities, their management and their results.
'Candidly, it might be time for the federal government to rethink the whole idea of loan programs.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Drain the swamp!!!
-
Skip to comments.
MEXICAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: "OBAMA MORE INVOLVED IN FAST & FURIOUS THAN ADMITTED!" (gunwalker)
thecypresstimes.com ^ | 28 September, 2011 | Jim Kouri
Posted on September 29, 2011 1:17:22 PM EDT by marktwain
Mexico's Attorney General Morales, the first woman to hold that office, believes Obama knows more about guns smuggled into Mexico than he's admitting. Credits: KnowGangs.com ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Kouri
Jim Kouri Website: http://www.examiner.com... Email: Email President Barack Obama appears to be getting it from all sides regarding a government snafu dubbed Operation Fast and Furious. Besides both houses of the U.S. Congress and a number of public-interest groups investigating what is being characterized as a rogue federal law enforcement operation, Mexico's attorney general is infuriated over the allegations that the U.S. was behind the smuggling of weapons into Mexico that ended up killing her countrymen.
In a statement released by Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales, she called Operation Fast and Furious “an attack on Mexicans’ security.”
Morales told Mexican reporters that she is demanding a full and honest explanation from the United States government especially since evidence is being gathered that reveals the Obama administration was more involved in Operation Fast and Furious than top officials admitted in their sworn statements.
If what is being reported is true, U.S. Attorney General and other government officials may have committed perjury and/or obstruction of justice if it's proven they lied when testifying before House and Senate committees.
Operation Fast and Furious was a botched Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives covert operation initiated in order to track more than 2,000 smuggled guns to Mexican drug cartels by allowing gang members to purchase them illegally from U.S. gun stores then take them back to their leaders.
However, according to Congressional reports by both Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-NE), the federal agency lost track of many of the guns. Some later were traced to murders of police and civilians in Mexico and the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry.
There is also mounting evidence that the Cartel members obtained other weapons including grenades and brought them back to Mexico with the full knowledge of the ATF and the U.S. Justice Department.
President Obama said in June he would discipline the Fast and Furious organizers once the investigation is completed. He then stated that the Fast and Furious fiasco was never approved by his Justice Department officials.
However, reports from several sources including the non-governmental agency Judicial Watch, Fox News Channel and The Examiner strongly suggest there indeed high-level government involvement.
According to Fox News, documents obtained by their news staff revealed that the ATF agents involved actually sold some of the guns to gang members. They allegedly purchased the guns with taxpayer money.
Meanwhile Mexico's Attorney General claims she learned about the operation in the news media rather than being told about it in advance by U.S. government officials, including members of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's staff.
Morales said that if U.S. federal officials were involved, it would be a “betrayal” of Mexico while its police and military were fighting a war against drug cartels. Tens of thousands of Mexicans have been killed since the "war on drugs" began in 2006. Almost weekly, Mexican authorities are finding mass graves of those murdered by the cartels.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the House Oversight Committee’s chairman, recently said that it appears the trail of evidence about who authorized Operation Fast and Furious leads back to the White House.
Operation Fast and Furious began in October 2009 with sales from American gun stores to Mexican cartel members. They allegedly spent over $1 million on the firearms. Then in June 2010, ATF picked up the pace of the smuggling by allowing its agents to sell the guns to gang members, according to government documents obtained by Fox News and Judicial Watch.
According to his own testimony, ATF Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy six semi-automatic handguns then sell them to buyers he knew were illegal, the documents say.
Dodson claimed during his House testimony, that he acted on his own, against supervisors’ instructions, to monitor the movement of the guns to a “stash house.” He kept the house under surveillance until a vehicle showed up to pick up the guns for smuggling into Mexico.
Dodson says he called for a team to move in to arrest the smugglers, but his supervisors refused. The guns then disappeared from ATF surveillance.
Groups such as the Second Amendment Foundation believe the operation was "dreamed up to show proof that U.S. guns are contributing to the crime and violence in Mexico," something that has been alleged by President Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and their supporters in the gun-control lobby.
unreal. The incompetence of obama knows no bounds.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Bundlers on the inside
iWatchNews ^ | September 29, 2011 | By Ronnie Greene and Matthew Mosk
Posted on September 29, 2011 6:35:38 PM EDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Several of Barack Obama’s top campaign supporters went from soliciting political contributions to working from within the Energy Department as it showered billions in taxpayer-backed stimulus money on alternative energy firms, iWatch News and ABC News have learned.
One of them was Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and investor in energy companies who raised at least $500,000 for Obama. He became one of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s key loan programs advisors while his wife’s law firm represented a number of the companies that had applied for loans.
Recovery Act records show Allison Spinner’s law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati , received $2.4 million in federal funds for legal fees related to the $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee to Solyndra, a solar company whose financial meltdown has prompted multiple investigations. She pledged to take no portion of the money and did not work on the loan applications.
Spinner was not the only Obama political supporter to play a role at the Energy Department. California venture capitalist Steve Westly , who raised more than $500,000 for Obama, has Secretary Chu’s ear on green energy issues as a member of a high-level volunteer advisory panel. Mackey Dykes, who was a finance manager for the Obama campaign, was hired to be the liaison between the Energy Department and White House. Each declined interview requests.
(Excerpt) Read more at iwatchnews.org ...
-
what results has Issa gotten so far?
Or is his role "to make fox viewers aware of what obama is doing", as a getbigger stated?
-
what results has Issa gotten so far?
Or is his role "to make fox viewers aware of what obama is doing", as a getbigger stated?
ISSA is not the issue! Stop the bullshit already.
-
To keep educating you on the daily corruption machine that is Obama, who you voted for and still support.
Sounds a lot like last weekend.
-
ISSA is not the issue! Stop the bullshit already.
many of your articles have included his words.
he's the chief accuser.
he's the voice of what obama's doing wrong, to FOX, and you admitted so.
So please, since he promised an investigation a week - what has the man accomplished since taking that position? Obama has a laundry list of bullshit he's pulled - what effect has Issa had this far?
-
Sounds a lot like last weekend.
Why do you post here? You literally contribute nothing of value and all you do is follow 333 around like a little puppy dog looking for attention. Jog on, troll.
many of your articles have included his words.
he's the chief accuser.
he's the voice of what obama's doing wrong, to FOX, and you admitted so.
So please, since he promised an investigation a week - what has the man accomplished since taking that position? Obama has a laundry list of bullshit he's pulled - what effect has Issa had this far?
Yeah, man, because the DOJ is stonewalling any and all attempts to get any sort of information about this we should just go on and forget it. You'd like that wouldn't you, Obama drone? You're certainly doing your part on here to mitigate this scandal. How much do they pay retarded trailer trash like yourself to play the propaganda game on the internet for them?
The scope of this scandal guarantees that they're going to do everything they can to bury it. Yet it keeps getting more and more airtime. Even your vaunted leftist rags have been forced to cover it. Looks like Issa is doing something right. Hurts, doesn't it? :)
-
Source: The Washington Post
The U.S. Department of Energy learned in December that Solyndra was violating its federal loan deal, but the agency changed the loan terms to allow the solar company to continue receiving taxpayer funds, federal officials confirmed Wednesday.
Executives at Solyndra, which had been awarded a $535 million government-backed loan to spur its solar-panel production, confided to the Energy Department late last fall that the Fremont, Calif., company was running out of money and at risk of liquidating.
The company was unable on Dec. 1 to make its first $5 million payment into a special reserve fund, which was required under the loan terms and designed to help protect taxpayers.
Congressional investigators have questioned why the Obama administration agreed to help the company in late 2010 when it was warned that the firm was at risk of collapse. Internal e-mails show federal reviewers initially estimated they could save the taxpayers as much as $168 million by letting the company go under in December 2010, rather than resuscitating it and allowing it to draw down more federal money.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-violate...
Kenyanomics at work.
-
ATF Death Watch 89: 40 Fast and Furious Firearms “Found” in Dallas(gunwalker)
The Truth About Guns ^ | 29 September, 2011 | Robert Farago
There are so many curious aspects to the Gunwalker scandal. There are well over a thousand smoking guns still out there, somewhere. All of which prove that the ATF “lost control” of Operation Fast and Furious. But there is no single piece of evidence that answers the fundamental question about Uncle Sam’s gun running black bag job: why? What was the point of allowing bad guys to buy guns? The ATF claims they were going after the “big fish” controlling the U.S. gun stores-to-Mexican drug cartel weapons trade. That hardly seems likely—as there were no big fish to be gotten. It now looks like the ATF set about creating one. Or more. Equally damning, the ATF knew that Bureau-enabled guns were going awry a lot earlier than previously admitted . . .
A cache of assault weapons lost in the ATF’s gun-trafficking surveillance operation in Phoenix turned up in El Paso, where it was being stored for shipment to Mexico, according to new internal agency emails and federal court records.
Forty firearms along with ammunition magazines and ballistic vests were discovered in Texas in January 2010 during the early stages of the program, meaning the firearms vanished soon after the program began.
So what did the ATF do? Kept going of course. The latimes.com drills down on the logistics of the El Paso guns:
According to an ATF document, Sean Christopher Steward bought the 40 AK-47-type assault rifles on Dec. 24, 2009, from the Lone Wolf Trading Co. gun store in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix. The cache was part of 290 firearms ultimately acquired by Steward, a convicted drug felon, during the Fast and Furious operation . . .
According to ATF emails and a federal court affidavit, El Paso police officers tracking alleged drug smuggling from Mexico followed a dark blue Volkswagen Jetta as it backed into a garage at a residence on Jan. 13, 2010. The driver was identified as Alberto Sandoval. Police later searched the vehicle and found the weapons and other devices.
According to an email from ATF Special Agent Oscar B. Flores in El Paso, Sandoval told authorities that he was paid $1,000 “to store the firearms at his residence until they could be transported to the Republic of Mexico” by an unknown third party.
More emails discussing Sandoval’s arrest and the recovery of the weapons were sent to Washington headquarters and Kenneth Melson, then the ATF acting director, and William J. Hoover, the assistant director.
Sandoval was indicted and pleaded guilty to weapons charges in May 2010 in U.S. District Court in El Paso. He was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.
The latimes.com mentions the fact that Steward was a convicted felon in passing. But that little factoid is yet more evidence that the FBI was in on Operation Fast & Furious, and not in a good way. The Agency had to game their instant background check system to let Steward’s purchases go through.
Common sense suggests that Steward knew the FBI and ATF knew that he was buying guns illegally. A convicted felon doesn’t expect to walk into a gun store and walk out with 290 firearms. If so, why the jail time? If not, why didn’t the ATF yank his chain earlier? Clearly, his tail was loose, at best.
The F&F-enabled guns went from Lone Wolf to Steward to Sandoval to a Dallas garage, in anticipation of an “unknown third party” Who somehow isn’t identified in the course of the investigation triggered when the local fuzz nab Bad Guy number two. And . . . that’s it.
As my mother likes to say, there’s no there there. No clearly delineated strategy behind Operation Fast and Furious, either in its idealized state (a “sting operation”) or in its actuation (literally incredible investigative tactics).
I still maintain that there’s an intersection between the ATF’s stingless sting and America’s federal policy towards Mexico and Mexican drug thugs. To try and view the ATF’s gun running in isolation, without examining the activities of all the other agencies implicated (DEA, IRS, CPB, ICE, FBI and the CIA), is to contemplate a diseased tree without considering the health of the forest.
Meanwhile, Mexico is on fire.
-
Chu takes responsibility for a loan deal that put more taxpayer money at risk in Solyndra
By Carol D. Leonnig and and Joe Stephens, Published: September 29
Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged Thursday making the final decision to allow a struggling solar company to continue receiving taxpayer money after it had technically defaulted on a $535 million federal loan guaranteed by his agency.
Chu spokesman Damien LaVera said in a statement that the secretary approved the restructuring agreement for Solyndra because it gave the company “the best possible chance to succeed in a very competitive marketplace and put the company in a better position to repay the loan.”
Also Thursday, a law enforcement official confirmed that the criminal probe of Solyndra is focused on whether the company and its officers misrepresented the firm’s finances to the government in seeking the loan or engaged in accounting fraud. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe.
On the political front, Chu’s admission came as some members of Congress were asking whether Chu went too far in trying to help the company before it went into bankruptcy, leaving taxpayers on the hook for the loan.
Chu, a Nobel laureate and physicist who came to the administration from academia, arrived in Washington with a mandate to push billions of dollars in stimulus funds into clean-energy companies and projects. With keen White House interest, Chu rode herd over an $80 billion showcase initiative that was supposed to spur a new “green” industry and economic growth.
Solyndra was the first company approved for a loan guarantee under the Obama administration; its application originated several years earlier during George W. Bush’s presidency. Early on, there were concerns about Solyndra’s finances, but the company was still endorsed by President Obama and received high-profile support from Chu. Both visited the firm at different press events. Chu flew to California to announce the loan approval at the groundbreaking for a $750 million factory that was built mostly with funds from the loan.
In announcing the Solyndra deal in March 2009, Chu boasted of the “speed at which the department can operate,” according to an agency news release.
“Secretary Chu initially set a target to have the first conditional commitments out by May . . . but today’s announcement significantly outpaces that aggressive timeline,” the release said.
In April 2010, the company’s auditors raised doubts about whether the company could continue as a “going concern” because of cash-flow problems. The following month, Obama visited the company to praise it as an “engine of growth.”
In late autumn of 2010, company executives confided to the Energy Department that they were running out of cash and could not make a required payment to a cash-reserve account. The company was supposed to begin making the first of $5 million payments to create a $30 million cash reserve on Dec. 1.
Solyndra officially defaulted on its loan that day. Chu approved a softening of the loan requirements so that the company could continue receiving loan installments.
“Ultimately, the choice was between imminent liquidation or giving the company and its workers a fighting chance to succeed,” LaVera said in the statement, first reported by Politico.
The agency authorized the Federal Financing Bank to give two additional cash installments to Solyndra — one in December 2010 and another in January 2011. Both payments came before Energy Department officials finalized a deal to restructure the loan and forestall the company’s collapse in late February.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans continued to complain Thursday that the Obama administration and Chu had not protected taxpayers.
“Why was the leadership at DOE so stubborn, ignoring every warning sign that Solyndra was a bad bet, continuing to throw good money after bad right up until Solyndra’s fate was sealed and taxpayers were left holding the bag on DOE’s $535 million bust?” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee.
Chu is tentatively scheduled to appear before the subcommittee next month. The House probe seeks to determine whether the White House sought to help Solyndra for political reasons. The nature of the separate criminal probe was first reported in an online story by Bloomberg News on Thursday evening. The leading private investors in Solyndra were investment funds tied to Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser, a prominent fundraiser for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Some Democrats also have questioned Chu’s decision, including Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Rep. Gene Green (D-Tex.) said Thursday that he wants to know why Chu restructured Solyndra’s loan to put taxpayers behind a group of private investors to be repaid if the company went bankrupt. Two investors, including an equity fund tied to Kaiser, provided an additional $75 million to keep the company afloat.
“I guess I’m surprised that Secretary Chu made the decision earlier this year to give the private sector priority over the federal commitment, because your fiduciary duty is to the taxpayer, and not to an applicant. . . . Your responsibility is to the American people,” Green said.
Staff writer David A. Fahrenthold contributed to this report.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/chu-takes-responsibility-for-a-loan-deal-that-put-more-taxpayer-money-at-risk-in-solyndra/2011/09/29/gIQArdYQ8K_print.html
UNFUCKING REAL!
-
Was the Justice Department FORCED to make the "Fast and Furious" tapes public?
Coach is Right ^ | 9/30/2011 | Doug Book
Did a threat to “go public” by the man who did the recording–Lone Wolf gun store owner Andre Howard–force the US Justice Department to provide the previously “secret” Fast and Furious tapes to CBS News?
Andre Howard was in a tough spot. For two years he had provided valuable Operation Fast and Furious assistance to the ATF, the FBI and the Phoenix office of the US Attorney, selling nearly 1000 firearms–at the insistence of these agencies–to some pretty unsavory characters.
But Howard knew many of the buyers should not have been approved by the FBI for the purchase of guns.
On December 17th of 2009, Howard met with Assistant US Attorney Emory Hurley, ATF case agent Hope Macallister and ATF Group Supervisor David Voth.
According to an email Hurley sent his boss, US Attorney Dennis Burke a YEAR LATER in January of 2011, Howard “…expressed concern about the cooperation he was providing and whether he was endangering himself or implicating himself in a criminal investigation.”
According to his email, Hurley told Howard to simply comply with the law when selling weapons. That is, “as long as the required forms are properly filled out and [Howard] did not know or have reason to know that the firearms were part of a straw purchase or intended to be used in a crime, that he could complete the transfer.”
Whether this was really what Hurley related to Howard in that 2009 meeting, we can’t know. But it seems far more likely that Hurley simply told Howard what an important job he was doing and that he should continue providing assistance to the ATF, the FBI and, of course, to the US Attorney’s office.
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com
-
Issa questions whether White House pressured Ford to pull ‘bailout’ ad
By Justin Sink - 09/29/11 04:48 PM ET
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said in a letter to the Ford Motor Company on Thursday that he was "deeply concerned about undue political pressure exerted by the White House."
The House Oversight Committee chairman's letter comes on the heels of reports earlier this week that the company had pulled an ad critical of the auto bailout following a phone call with administration officials.
Ford denied Tuesday that the ad was removed because of political pressure, saying instead that it had simply been taken out of their ad rotation as scheduled.
"For those asking, the ad ran as part of a planned rotation and continues to run online. It contains the unscripted comments of a Ford owner. We supported emergency government support for our competitors and continue to support the decisions we made," Ford said in a statement posted to their Facebook page.
But Daniel Howes, a conservative columnist for The Detroit News, said that the advertisement was pulled "in response to White House questions."
In the ad, a man is asked why "buying American" was important to him when choosing a Ford pickup.
“I wasn’t going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government. I was going to buy from a manufacturer that’s standing on their own: win, lose or draw," he responds. "That’s what America is about, taking the chance to succeed and understanding when you fail that you gotta’ pick yourself up and go back to work. Ford is that company for me.”
The auto bailout, which primarily benefited Ford competitors Chrysler and GM, was a cornerstone of the president's stimulus plan and supported by Ford. But conservatives have been increasingly critical of the auto bailout and stimulus as a whole as unemployment continues to lag.
In the letter to Ford, Issa asks for a full explanation of the company's decision to pull the advertisement and whether any current or former employee of the Obama administration, United Auto Workers, or Democratic Party contacted the company about the ad. Issa also asks whether the company temporarily pulled the ad from its YouTube page.
"Given the close relationship between American automobile manufacturers, workers unions and the U.S. Government in the wake of a series of loans, grants, and stimulus programs, accusations of White House interference in private business matters to support its own political and policy agendas are very serious issues and warrant a full airing of the facts," Issa wrote.
On Friday, Ford took to Twitter to respond to Issa, saying that the ad had not been pulled from their YouTube channel.
"The answer is no. The ad remains online. The ad was posted on an agency employee's account before we had digital rights to it. Once we had them, we posted to ours," Ford spokesman Scott Monty wrote.
Issa's office quickly shot back on Twitter: "While Twitter is fast, you still have until Oct. 12 to answer ALL GOP oversight unanswered questions in writing."
The White House has denied that it asked Ford to remove the ad, with White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer calling Howes's column "false."
This article was updated on September 30 at 11 a.m. to include the Twitter posts by Ford and Issa.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/184681-issa-probes-white-house-pressure-in-ford-ad-pull
-
White House: Obama has 'full confidence' in Energy Secretary Chu
By Andrew Restuccia - 09/30/11 03:05 PM ET
The White House stressed Friday that President Obama still has “full confidence” in Energy Secretary Chu, who took responsibility this week for the decision to restructure a $535 million loan guarantee for the now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra.
“Chu does have the president's full confidence,” White House press Secretary Jay Carney said Friday during his daily briefing.
An Energy Department spokesman told The Washington Post and Politico this week that Chu approved a decision to restructure the Solyndra loan guarantee in February amid signs that the company faced financial troubles.
Republicans have blasted the administration for restructuring the loan, noting that the agreement ensures that major investors get paid back before taxpayers in the event of a default. But DOE spokesman Damien LaVera told the Post that the move "put the company in a better position to repay the loan." Solyndra filed for bankruptcy this month and laid off 1,100 workers.
Carney, at Friday’s briefing, said that Chu ultimately greenlighted the decision to restructure the loan because he is the head of the Energy Department. He stressed that career staffers at the department played a major role in the decision.
“[H]e is the head of that department, the department which, as we have made clear, where career professionals have administered the program, reviewed the loan applications, and made the recommendation,” Carney said.
“Obviously, ultimately, the head of that department is responsible for it, but let's be clear: There were numerous people involved who were career professionals and — and worked on those kinds of issues every day.”
Carney’s remarks come as Republicans are pummeling the administration over Solyndra's failure.
They are increasingly looking into the role that Chu played in the loan guarantee. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel hope to bring in Chu to testify.
Read more about the growing pressure on Chu here.
Incredible.
-
SEPTEMBER 30, 2011
Bombshell: DOJ Considering Elimination of ATF
By Katie Pavlich
9/30/2011
Multiple sources, including sources from ATF, DOJ and Congressional offices have said there is a white paper circulating within the Department of Justice, outlining the essential elimination of ATF. According to sources, the paper outlines the firing of at least 450 ATF agents in an effort to conduct damage control as Operation Fast and Furious gets uglier and as election day 2012 gets closer. ATF agents wouldn’t be reassigned to other positions, just simply let go. Current duties of ATF, including the enforcement of explosives and gun laws, would be transferred to other agencies, possibly the FBI and the DEA. According to a congressional source, there have been rumblings about the elimination of ATF for quite sometime, but the move would require major political capital to actually happen.
“It’s a serious white paper being circulated, how far they’d get with it I don’t know,” a confidential source said.
After a town hall meeting about Operation Fast and Furious in Tucson, Ariz. on Monday, ATF Whistleblower Vince Cefalu, who has been key in exposing details about Operation Fast and Furious, confirmed the elimination of ATF has been circulating as a serious idea for sometime now and that a white paper outlining the plan does exist.
Sounds great right? Eliminating ATF? But there is more to this story. Remember, low level ATF field agents, like ATF whistleblower John Dodson, were uncomfortable conducting Operation Fast and Furious from the beginning, but were told by high level officials within ATF that if they had a problem with the operation, they could find a job elsewhere.
“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated,” ATF Whistleblower John Dodson said in testimony on Capitol Hill on June 15, 2011.
In fact, not only were the ATF agents forced to carry out the operation, they were told to go against what they had been taught in training.
“This operation, which in my opinion endangered the American public, was orchestrated in conjunction with Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley. [Emory Hurley is the same Assistant U.S. Attorney who previously prevented agents from using some of the common and accepted law enforcement techniques that are employed elsewhere in the United States to investigate and prosecute gun crimes.] I have read documents that indicate that his boss, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, also agreed with the direction of the case,” Special Agent Peter Forcelli said in testimony on Capitol hill on June 15, 2011.
“I recall my first days at the ATF academy, where it was drilled into us as new agents that under no circumstances would any firearms, in any investigation, leave the control of ATF. Instructors stressed that even if a weapon was lost “by accident,” the agent was still subject to termination,” former ATF Attaché to Mexico Darren D. Gil said in testimony on June 15, 2011.
ATF field agents weren’t the problem with Operation Fast and Furious, high ranking officials within ATF and the Department of Justice were and still are. DOJ would eliminate ATF only to take the heat off of the Obama Administration. By eliminating the bureau, it makes it seem like DOJ is taking Operation Fast and Furious so seriously, they decided to “clear out the corruption, clean house,” however, it would only be a distraction away from the people at the top of the investigation. In fact, evidence shows the DOJ has been stonewalling the Oversight Committee investigation into the operation to protect Obama political appointees.
“It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department,” former ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson, who has since been moved to a position within DOJ, said of his frustration with the Justice Department’s response to the investigation in transcribed closed door testimony with the Oversight Committee in July 2011.
When I called the Department of Justice last week (five times) to request the white paper and receive a comment surrounding the idea of eliminating ATF, I received the following response: “Everyone is away from their desk right now.”
Up to this point, the Department of Justice has denied all allegations or involvement in Operation Fast and Furious, yet journalists and the House Oversight Committee have proved allegation after allegation to be true. For example, during a Congressional hearing in July, former ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell, who has since been promoted to a position within the Justice Department, denied that his agency was trafficking guns to Mexico, despite overwhelming evidence and testimony from other ATF agents proving otherwise.
“At no time in our strategy was it to allow guns to be taken to Mexico,” Newell said on July 26, 2011, adding that at no time did his agency allow guns to walk.
We’ve heard this was a low level, “rogue” operation, turns out high level officials in the Justice Department, DEA, FBI, DHS, and even members of the White House national security team knew about Operation Fast and Furious.
Last week, ATF offered 400 agents buy outs to avoid budget cuts and is expecting 250-275 agents to take the offer through Voluntary Early Retirement. These buyouts come at a convenient time for the Justice Department, which can eliminate ATF, then say it’s because of budget cuts, when really, it’s to cover their tracks.
Source: town hall.
-
Aronoff: Operation Fast and Furious - The Scandal that Can No Longer be Denied
gopusa.com ^ | September 30, 2011 | Roger Aronoff
Posted on September 30, 2011 6:58:22 PM EDT by Iam1ru1-2
The usual truism is that many politicians make the mistake of not coming completely clean when allegations of wrongdoing surface. The cover-up, it is said, is often worse than the underlying crime or ethical violation. This has often been cited as the mistake made by people including Richard Nixon (Watergate break-in), Bill Clinton (Lewinsky, not to mention Filegate and Travelgate), and John Edwards (love child and cheating on his cancer-stricken wife). More recently, Anthony Weiner. There is a long list.
But in some cases, the crime, or lapse in judgment, is definitely worse than the cover-up. That appears to be the case in a simmering scandal engulfing the Obama administration that the mainstream media have tried their best to ignore for many months. It is known as Operation Fast and Furious.
It involves the Obama Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). It involves some 1,500 guns, about 1,000 of which ended up in Mexico, and a Border agent, Brian Terry, who was murdered with weapons found near the scene of the crime in Arizona. The weapons were among 57 linked to Fast and Furious which have been tied to at least 11 violent crimes in the U.S., including the Terry murder. The Justice Department, while largely stonewalling, has admitted this much to Congress, as reported by The Los Angeles Times. In addition, at least 200 people have been killed or wounded in Mexico with weapons linked to the operation.
There has been some reporting on the incident in the mainstream press, but not much. Congressional hearings have taken place under the chairmanship of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Charles Grassley has led the way in the Senate. But they have mostly been met by a stonewalling Justice Department.
There has been some good reporting by Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, and Brian Ross of ABC News. Fox News has been all over the story, and Sean Hannity had a one-hour special back in July devoted to this emerging scandal. Others in the conservative media have done an excellent job, including Pajamas Media, Michelle Malkin, Andy McCarthy of National Review Online, American Thinker, WorldNetDaily, the Heritage Foundation and Andrew Breitbart through his many platforms, among others. This has perhaps been why the mainstream media have largely ignored the story. Even when they have reported it, they have gone to great lengths to be sure that it didn’t implicate President Obama, much less his Attorney General Eric Holder, for anything other than being out of the loop.
But that may have ended with recent revelations that the federal government apparently purchased weapons and sold them directly to criminals in Mexico. As Michael Walsh of the New York Post wrote, “the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives apparently ordered one of its own agents to purchase firearms with taxpayer money, and sell them directly to a Mexican drug cartel. Let that sink in: After months of pretending that ‘Fast and Furious’ was a botched surveillance operation of illegal gun-running spearheaded by the ATF and the US Attorney’s office in Phoenix, it turns out that the government itself was selling guns to the bad guys.”
This revelation may prove to be the game changer, and force the Obama administration to turn this over to an independent counsel.
Last night the story gained critical mass in the establishment media. CNN decided it can no longer duck and cover, and shield the Obama administration from a scandal that has the potential to make Whitewater and Watergate pale by comparison. Anderson Cooper deserves a lot of credit for putting this story together. In a long overdue report that I urge you to watch, he detailed much of what is known so far, including comments from Rep. Issa talking about the stonewalling he has met from the Justice Department, and from Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County in Arizona, who talked about the betrayal and potential criminal activity perpetrated by U.S. government officials.
Cooper’s reporter on this story, Drew Griffin, tried to explain a possible motive for Fast and Furious. He said that “the operation makes no sense.” So in attempting to explain it, he invoked the usual bogeymen. “So what's the real purpose?,” asked Griffin. “The lack of sense, the apparent cover-up has opened the door now for these conspiracy theorists. And you got to follow this. They believe this was part of a convoluted plan for the Obama administration and the attorney general to actually increase the level of violence on the Mexican border with assault weapons purchased in the U.S. in an apparent attempt to rekindle interest in an assault weapons ban. As wacky as that may sound, I must tell you that theory is gaining traction, not just among the second amendment crowd, because this operation makes no other sense.”
Griffin is correct that such theories are out there. But until some independent entity can get to the bottom of this, hopefully with the cooperation of the Obama administration rather than the stonewalling and obstruction that has characterized their response up to now, the reasons for the operation might remain theoretical. Let’s see if the cover-up proves worse than the crimes.
240 - fast and furious is no big deal.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Solargate Opens Wide
IBD Editorials ^ | September 30, 2011 | Staff
Posted on September 30, 2011 7:54:42 PM EDT by Kaslin
Corruption: It turns out a recent recipient of the administration's largesse is from the House of Pelosi. The green energy scandal keeps picking up speed.
Last week, the Energy Department completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy and an additional $337 million for Sempra Energy.
On the surface, there's nothing suggesting either is improper. But just beneath the surface is the clear appearance of impropriety.
Tonopah Solar is a wholly owned subsidiary of SolarReserve, which lists among its "investment partners" a company named Pacific Corporate Group. Again, on the surface, no hint of corruption.
But an enterprising blog called the American Glob dug a bit and found that "The No. 2 guy at Pacific Corporate Group is Ronald Pelosi," who happens to be the brother-in-law of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Fortune senior editor Dan Primack argues that "it is patently false" that Ronald Pelosi "will benefit from the loan."
That's a bit of a stretch, though. He might not be free to put his hands on any of those taxpayers' dollars. But if PCG benefits from the loan, so does he, just as any employee profits when his employer has healthy earnings or receives a windfall.
Merely hanging on to a cushy job due to an influx of cash qualifies as a benefit.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
-
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/feds-solyndra-execs-provide-financial-info/t/story?id=14642995
Ridiculous.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
New Fast and Furious docs released by White House
CBS News ^ | September 30, 2011 | Sharyl Attkisson
Posted on September 30, 2011 11:02:50 PM EDT by PJ-Comix
WASHINGTON - Late Friday, the White House turned over new documents in the Congressional investigation into the ATF "Fast and Furious" gunwalking scandal.
The documents show extensive communications between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell - who led Fast and Furious - and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the phone. Such detailed, direct communications between a local ATF manager in Phoenix and a White House national security staffer has raised interest among Congressional investigators looking into Fast and Furious. Newell has said he and O'Reilly are long time friends.
ATF agents say that in Fast and Furious, their agency allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to be sold to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. At least two of the guns turned up at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Drip drip drip drip.
Getting closer o Obama by the day!
-
WASHINGTON - Late Friday, the White House turned over new documents in the Congressional investigation into the ATF "Fast and Furious" gunwalking scandal.
The documents show extensive communications between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell - who led Fast and Furious - and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the phone. Such detailed, direct communications between a local ATF manager in Phoenix and a White House national security staffer has raised interest among Congressional investigators looking into Fast and Furious. Newell has said he and O'Reilly are long time friends.
ATF agents say that in Fast and Furious, their agency allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to be sold to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. At least two of the guns turned up at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.
ATF Manager says he shared Fast and Furious with the White House
The email exchanges span a little over a month last summer. They discuss ATF's gun trafficking efforts along the border including the controversial Fast and Furious case, though not by name. The emails to and from O'Reilly indicate more than just a passing interest in the Phoenix office's gun trafficking cases. They do not mention specific tactics such as "letting guns walk."
A lawyer for the White House wrote Congressional investigators: "none of the communications between ATF and the White House revealed the investigative law enforcement tactics at issue in your inquiry, let alone any decision to allow guns to 'walk.'"
ATF Fast and Furious: Who at the White House knew?
Among the documents produced: an email in which ATF's Newell sent the White House's O'Reilly an "arrow chart reflecting the ultimate destination of firearms we intercepted and/or where the guns ended up." The chart shows arrows leading from Arizona to destinations all over Mexico.
In response, O'Reilly wrote on Sept. 3, 2010 "The arrow chart is really interesting - and - no surprise - implies at least that different (Drug Trafficking Organizations) in Mexico have very different and geographically distinct networks in the US for acquiring guns. Did last year's TX effort develop a similar graphic?"
The White House counsel who produced the documents stated that some records were not included because of "significant confidentiality interests."
Also included are email photographs including images of a .50 caliber rifle that Newell tells O'Reilly "was purchased in Tucson, Arizona (part of another OCDTF case)." OCDTF is a joint task force that operates under the Department of Justice and includes the US Attorneys, ATF, DEA, FBI, ICE and IRS. Fast and Furious was an OCDTF case. An administration source would not describe the Tucson OCDTF case. However, CBS News has learned that ATF's Phoenix office led an operation out of Tucson called "Wide Receiver." Sources claim ATF allowed guns to "walk" in that operation, much like Fast and Furious.
Congressional investigators for Republicans Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have asked to interview O'Reilly by September 30. But the Administration informed them that O'Reilly is on assignment for the State Department in Iraq and unavailable.
One administration source says White House national security staffers were "briefed on the toplines of ongoing federal efforts, but nobody in White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk."
Operation wide receiver ? A new scandal brewing now?
-
White House sends Hill Fast & Furious docs, but withholds some
The White House sent another installment of documents to Congress on Friday detailing White House staffers' knowledge about the controversial "Operation Fast & Furious" gunrunning probe run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.
However, the chief counsel to President Barack Obama, Kathryn Ruemmler, indicated that the White House was withholding an unspecified number of internal e-mails exchanged among three National Security Staff aides.
"These internal NSS emails are not included in the enclosed documents because the [Executive Office of the President] has significant confidentiality interests in its internal communications," Ruemmler wrote in a letter to House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). The letter, posted here, was obtained Friday by POLITICO.
The latest batch of 102 pages of records partially duplicated information previously sent to Congress and didn't appear to include any smoking guns showing that White House officials were aware that the operation involved allowing hundreds or thousands of guns to flow essentially unimpeded from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.
"As today's production makes clear, none of the communications between ATF and the White House revealed the investigative law enforcement tactics at issue in your inquiry, let alone any decision to let guns 'walk,'" Ruemmler wrote in response to a letter Issa and Grassley sent to National Security Adviser Tom Donilon earlier this month.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0911/White_House_sends_Hill_Fast__Furious_docs_but_withholds_some.html
-
Solyndra Expands into Energygate
White House Dossier ^ | Oct. 1, 2011 | Keith Koffler
It now appears that the Energy Department was something of a haven for Obama fundraisers who wanted to affect policy after the election.
ABC News is reporting that several Obama fundraisers found themselves helping out around the place. Some of them had ties to green energy projects that DOE ended up supporting.
Well known already is DOE’s precipitous and calamitous decision to fund Solyndra, which was backed by Obama fundraiser George Kaiser.
Also known is that another Obama fundraiser, Stephen Spinner, was involved in advising on the Energy Department’s loan program. His wife’s law firm represented Solyndra, but the firm claims she had recused herself from work with the company.
DOE is trying to minimize Stephen Spinner’s role, while Spinner tried to maximize it, ABC reports.
Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman, described Spinner as someone who had “no role” in evaluating loan applications or selecting recipients.
Spinner described his job differently. He wrote in an online bio for the Center for American Progress, the left-leaning think tank he joined after leaving the administration, that he “helped oversee the more than $100 billion of loan guarantee and direct lending authority” for the department’s green-energy loan program.
Meanwhile, yet another Obama fundraiser has popped into the mix, according to ABC.
California venture capitalist Steve Westly, who raised more than $500,000 for Obama, had Secretary Chu’s ear on green energy issues as a member of a high-level volunteer advisory panel. Mackey Dykes, who was a finance manager for the Obama campaign, was hired to be the liaison between the Energy Department and White House. Each declined interview requests.
Westly has held stakes in at least five companies that have won DOE support.
Fundraisers are often awarded by presidentis with ambassadorships and ceremonial titles. But President Obama, who talked much about eliminating money from politics and halting the “revolving door” between the private and the public sector, and so forth, appears to have placed money people in position in the government where they had a chance to . . . make more money.
Notice that Westly was the liaison between Energy and the White House. And it’s clear someone at the White House pressured OMB to reluctantly sign off on the Solyndra loan guarantee, which will cost taxpayers $500 million in the wake of Solyndra’s failure.
There is much more to come. More names will surface.
Who in the White House pressured OMB? What were this person’s ties to the Obama fundraisers?
If this were Dick Cheney energy policy, the Democrats would surely be screaming for a special prosecutor.
H/T to Doug Ross @ Journal, where I first learned of the ABC story. He has a good summary of the Energygate players.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Big Time Scandals by Obama Administration Too Small for Investigation by Mainstream Media?
Canada Freepress ^ | October 1, 2011 | Jerry McConnell
Since Obama’s inauguration in January 2009 there have been several major scandals in which his Administration has been involved, principally, Operation Fast and Furious the government sponsored sale of guns to small time gun sellers along our border with Mexico; the failed ‘Stimulus’ loan of multi-millions to Solyndra and LightSquared, two small businesses that were Obama preferred for loans. All three of these Obama Administration ventures were major failures involving scandalous behavior.
...Is the entire communications arm of our country becoming beholden to Obama and his scandal ridden administration peopled by socialist, communists who break our laws with impunity and without fear of prosecution in our mainstream media or courts? Where will that take us if allowed to continue?
... in the Heritage Foundation report it was stated that “A cross-border gun-running scandal, deaths in the United States and Mexico, staff removals and resignations, secret audio recordings, complaints from foreign officials, hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, bankruptcy, an FBI raid, campaign donors, and allegations of inappropriate White House influence in congressional testimony; and the just reported suicide of ATF agent Jeff Ryan of the LA Field Division. There are serious questions coming out of Washington. It’s time for the media to start demanding answers.”
The mainstream media was very quick to investigate and demand the resignation of a GOP politician for simply sending emails to an underage Congressional Page with no evidence of any contact whatsoever; but a full-fledged taxpayer rip-off scandal by a liberal Democrat president’s administration doesn’t even rate a second thought for investigative purposes.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
More Pay for Play… Obama DOE Awarded $400 Million Loan Guarantee to Top Bundler’s Solar Investment Project
Jim Hoft on Friday, September 30, 2011, 8:06 AM
Like Solyndra’s George Kaiser, Colorado also features an Obama bundler whose direct investments included a solar company that received $400 million in loan guarantees from an enthusiastic and willing Obama administration.
Obama supporter Pat Stryker, who bundled $87,500 for the president in 2008, is a major investor in Abound Solar, a company that was awarded a $400 million stimulus loan. Obama even bragged about his support for the company in a July 2010 Weekly Address.
President Obama announced that two of America’s most established solar companies are set to receive up to $2 billion in loan guarantees in order to ‘kick-start’ the US solar industry. The plan will provide Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing with the massive investment in order to fund their expansive projects, both of which could drastically change how solar energy is used in the US. (Inhabitat.com)
Obama announced the $2 billion “investment” into green energy projects in his July 3, 2010 Weekly Address.
In fact, today, I’m announcing that the Department of Energy is awarding nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments to two solar companies.
The first is Abengoa Solar, a company that has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world right here in the United States…
The second company is Abound Solar Manufacturing, which will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs. A Colorado plant is already underway, and an Indiana plant will be built in what’s now an empty Chrysler factory. When fully operational, these plants will produce millions of state-of-the-art solar panels each year.
Top Obama bundler Pat Stryker owns Bohemian Companies, a major Abound Solar Manufacturing investor. Obama gifted the solar company with a $400 million loan guarantee after the election.
The People’s Press Collective out of Colorado is digging into the story.
Complete Colorado‘s Todd Shepherd first broke ground last September on the pay-to-play implications behind Abound Solar’s $400m Department of Energy loan guarantee touted by President Barack Obama in a July 2010 radio address and its connections to a Democratic Congresswoman seeking reelection and one of the state’s highest-profile Democratic donors.
Shepherd took a look at the political triangulation between former Rep. Betsy Markey (D, CO-4), Colorado billionaire and Colorado Democracy Alliance donor Pat Stryker, and Abound Solar. He noted the direct connection between Stryker’s company–Bohemian Companies–and its investment in Abound Solar, and the push for the DOE loan guarantee by Markey and other key Democrats. The amount of investment, however, was still unclear at that time, but Stryker’s connection to the company was not.
In many of the donations to Democratic candidates, Stryker is listed as “owner” of Bohemian Companies.
Amy Oliver, Shepherd’s colleague at the Independence Institute, followed up on this story earlier this week with an extensive detailing of more of Stryker’s donations to Colorado (and national) Democratic interests, including donations to President Obama, and a deeper connection between Abound Solar and Bohemian Companies.
Free Republic has more on this latest Obama pay for play scandal.
Michelle Malkin shines more light on the solar scandals.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/09/more-pay-for-play-obama-doe-awarded-400-million-loan-guarantee-to-top-bundlers-solar-investment-project
-
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/10/01/despite_denials,_map_proves_deliberate_illegal_gun_trafficking_by_atf_to_mexico
Wow - check out the map at this site. ATF and DOJ are in deep shit. no way they can say this was a botched sting operation anymore.
-
Document Dump: White House in Heavy Communication About Operation Fast and Furious
Townhall.com ^ | October 1, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
Posted on October 1, 2011 8:50:46 PM EDT by Kaslin
Barack Obama March 2011:
"First of all, I did not authorize it [Operation Fast and Furious]. Eric Holder, the attorney General did not authorize it."
"This is a pretty big government, the United States Government, I've got a lot of moving parts."
Barack Obama June 2011:
"As you know my Attorney General has made clear he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico."
"The investigation is still pending and I'm not going to comment on a pending investigation"
"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on the investigation if it is not completed."
New documents from the White House show extensive communications between for Special Agent in Charge William Newell, who has since been promoted to a cushy position within the Obama Justice Department in Washington D.C., and White House national security team staff about Operation Fast and Furious. In the video above, Obama claims it is his administration's policy to "catch gunrunners and put them into jail," when in fact ATF and DOJ policy under Obama has been exactly the opposite. ATF agents were told by senior officials to allow gunrunners to put high powered weapons into the hands of ruthless cartels, not to arrest them and to allow them to go back into Mexico.
From CBS News:
The documents show extensive communications between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell - who led Fast and Furious - and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the phone. Such detailed, direct communications between a local ATF manager in Phoenix and a White House national security staffer has raised interest among Congressional investigators looking into Fast and Furious. Newell has said he and O'Reilly are long time friends.
William Newell admitted during testimony on Capitol Hill in July that the White House had in fact been in contact with him about Operation Fast and Furious. Newell even referred to Kevin O'Reilly as, "a good friend." Previous to Newell's admission, the White House denied any knowledge or authorization of Operation Fast and Furious. Once Newell said he was in contact with O'Reilly, the White House then claimed O'Reilly and two other White House national security staffers knew about the program but didn't know "details."
Now, we know that White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly was heavily briefed about the details of the operation through emails and phone calls.
-
Friday night F&F document dump shows “extensive” communication with White House
Hot Air ^ | 9:15 am on October 1, 2011 | by Ed Morrissey
Posted on October 1, 2011 11:19:34 PM EDT by Forgiven_Sinner
When a White House dumps documents late on a Friday, it’s not because they aren’t newsworthy. It’s usually because they’re embarrassing, or potentially incriminating. Yesterday we got an almost perfect example of the art when the Obama administration finally released selected documents on the Fast & Furious scandal that prove “extensive” communications between the ATF’s field office and the White House on the deadly project:
Late Friday, the White House turned over new documents in the Congressional investigation into the ATF “Fast and Furious” gunwalking scandal.
The documents show extensive communications between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell – who led Fast and Furious – and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O’Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the phone. Such detailed, direct communications between a local ATF manager in Phoenix and a White House national security staffer has raised interest among Congressional investigators looking into Fast and Furious. Newell has said he and O’Reilly are long time friends. …
Among the documents produced: an email in which ATF’s Newell sent the White House’s O’Reilly an “arrow chart reflecting the ultimate destination of firearms we intercepted and/or where the guns ended up.” The chart shows arrows leading from Arizona to destinations all over Mexico.
In response, O’Reilly wrote on Sept. 3, 2010 “The arrow chart is really interesting – and – no surprise – implies at least that different (Drug Trafficking Organizations) in Mexico have very different and geographically distinct networks in the US for acquiring guns. Did last year’s TX effort develop a similar graphic?”
In other words, the White House knew that the guns had gone over the border, and treated it like an academic exercise. O’Reilly apparently never asked in his capacity as a national security adviser, “What the hell were you thinking in allowing the guns to get across the border?” Instead, O’Reilly wondered if a similar operation in Texas produced a cool map, too.
It sounds as if the Obama administration was on board the idea to allow guns to transit the border, and at the very least shows that no one can claim surprise at the outcome. The White House’s lawyer tried to spin it anyway, writing to the Oversight Committee that “none of the communications between ATF and the White House revealed the investigative law enforcement tactics at issue in your inquiry, let alone any decision to allow guns to ‘walk.’” That may be true — at least as far the documents the White House released, but that’s not all of the communications:
However, the chief counsel to President Barack Obama, Kathryn Ruemmler, indicated that the White House was withholding an unspecified number of internal e-mails exchanged among three National Security Staff aides.
“These internal NSS emails are not included in the enclosed documents because the [Executive Office of the President] has significant confidentiality interests in its internal communications,” Ruemmler wrote in a letter to House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). The letter, posted here, was obtained Friday by POLITICO.
The latest batch of 102 pages of records partially duplicated information previously sent to Congress and didn’t appear to include any smoking guns showing that White House officials were aware that the operation involved allowing hundreds or thousands of guns to flow essentially unimpeded from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.
This is rather amusing. Three years ago, a Democratic House sued to get Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify over the termination of US Attorneys, who are political appointments that serve at the pleasure of the President, and rejected the notion that executive privilege applied to such executive-branch personnel decisions. Now we have an ATF operation that armed drug cartels and resulted in hundreds of murders from guns supplied by the US government, including the murder of a Border Patrol agent here in the US — and Democrats think that should be covered by executive privilege.
Something stinks at the White House, and the lawyers are circling the wagons to keep Congress from finding it.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
TOP OBAMA FUNDRAISER OK’ED SOLYNDRA LOAN
Dick Morris.co, ^ | 10/02/2011 | Dick Morris
Posted on October 2, 2011 10:19:14 AM EDT by UB355
Who arranged the Solyndra loan? A top Obama fund raiser named Steven J. Spinner who, according to ABC, worked to “pick and select fantastic projects” for DOE to fund. During the campaign, he was responsible for raising at least half a million dollars for Obama. Now, he told associates that he “helped oversee the more than $100 billion of loan guarantee and direct lending authority” for DOE’s green-energy lending program.
And what a coincidence! Spinner’s wife, Allison’s law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati got $2.4 million in legal fees to handle the legal work in connection with the Solyndra loan.
The fact is that the Solyndra scandal is just the tip of the iceberg. Much of the DOE green energy lending program is a scam. It is a slush fund of pork for paying back campaign contributors. Top Obama bundler George Kaiser was the chief investor in Solyndra.
The Democrats are digging in to continue the lending program because the firms that have already gotten loans can’t pay them back unless the welfare continues to flow. If it is shut off, they risk having dozens of Solyndras to explain away, each with its own sordid history of campaign donations and special influence.
When the Republicans in the House demanded the termination of the $1.5 billion lending program to offset the extra money the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needed. The GOP conservatives did not want the FEMA money to add to the deficit. But the Senate is fighting like crazy against the cut, even going to the lengths of threatening a government shutdown over the issue. They need to keep the funding so the firms don’t embarrass them and add to the taxpayers’ losses.
The Solyndra scandal is a gift that keeps on giving. It shows that not only was Obama’s stimulus package and baloney about green jobs a fraud but that it was also good old Chicago politics at work.
And the entire concept of the loan program is bogus. How can you make an energy company that is not viable work by lending it money? If the program can generate energy at competitive prices, why would it need federal aid? And, if it can’t, how would it ever be able to repay the federal loan?
Indeed, giving a company a federal loan realistically precludes private financing unless the federal loan is subordinated to private financing in the loan agreement, an arrangement which – as it did in the case of Solyndra leads to the massive fleecing of the taxpayer.
-
When you’ve got bad news, release it on Friday. The White House followed that dictum yesterday by surrendering carefully selected documents to Congressional investigators exploring the link between Operation Fast and Furious and the Obama Administration. CBS has obtained records that prove that then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office (and Fast and Furious coordinator) Bill Newell and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O’Reilly were schmoozing about F&F by phone and email. [Click here for the pdf.] The White House said the two men never discussed the fact that ATF guns were walking. Riiiiight. That’s why O’Reilly’s now in Iraq, “on assignment,” where he can’t be contacted . . .
The White House continues to withhold other documents requested by Senator Grassley and Representative Issa’s investigation into the ATF’s Fast and Furious op. Specifically, the investigators want the Newell emails that O’Reilly forwarded to Dan Restrepo (Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs) and Greg Gatjkanis (Director for Terrorist Finance and Counternarcotics, Counterterrorism Policy, National Security Staff, Executive Office of the President).
The White House claims they can’t release the forwarded emails—and a different document related to the case against the drug thug who murdered U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry—because the EOP (Executive Office of the President) has “significant confidentiality interests in its internal communications.”
We’ve reached another milestone in this scandal: the White House is claiming executive privilege; although they’re not actually using the term. Yet. [Click here for the letter to Congress from Kathryn Ruemmler, Counsel to the President.]
No doubt O’Reilly’s emails contain remarks about Newell’s reports. I suspect those comments reveal that Agent Newell was kept out of the loop on the Obama Administration’s real strategy towards Mexico. Put another way, Newell was a patsy.
This conclusion is based on Agent Newell’s gung-ho gormlessness. In one of the released documents, Newell chronicles a case against straw purchasers where he sent three ATF Agents to inspect firearms confiscated by the Mexican government. Didn’t happen. [Scroll about halfway down the aforementioned pdf to "Guns Not Viewed in Mexico."]
We are more than willing to address [Mexico's] repeated requests to hold all those involved with the trafficking in firearms accountable to the fullest extent of the law but they need to be part of the solution and not the problem. My agents desperately want to make this work because we see the damage caused by these illegal acts by “straw” purchasers and others involved in trafficking of firearms to Mexico. We want to hold them accountable under US law but it won’t take any more times of having doors slammed in their faces by the Mexicans before they give up and when that happens Mexico can stop complaining because we tried and they failed.
It has to be said: Newell could well be the most naive human on planet earth. Did the ATF Agent really think the Mexican government really cares about a relative dribble of American guns south via low-rent straw purchasers? Or that the General who frustrated his agents’ planned inspection didn’t have his own, non-procedural reasons for telling the ATF to f-off? Or was Newell trying to play O’Reilly?
I’m going with door number one. A CIA/NSA/ATF/DOJ or DHS employee that couldn’t manipulate Blind Bill Newell to do their bidding wouldn’t have held the job in the first place. If you know what I mean. Anyway, the CBS report casually mentions the existence of another ATF gunwalking operation based in Tuscon.
Also included [in the email from Newell to O'Reilly are] photographs including images of a .50 caliber rifle that Newell tells O’Reilly “was purchased in Tucson, Arizona (part of another OCDTF case).” OCDTF is a joint task force that operates under the Department of Justice and includes the US Attorneys, ATF, DEA, FBI, ICE and IRS. Fast and Furious was an OCDTF case. An administration source would not describe the Tucson OCDTF case.
However, CBS News has learned that ATF’s Phoenix office led an operation out of Tucson called “Wide Receiver.” Sources claim ATF allowed guns to “walk” in that operation, much like Fast and Furious.
So six federal agencies are in the frame, but good. We have Operation Fast and Furious (Phoenix), Operation Castaway (Tampa), Operation Wide Receiver (Tuscon) and Grenadewalker (letting a bomb-maker scoot into Mexico). If I were a suspicious man, I’d say that this forms some kind of pattern. And the number of guns “lost”to the Sinaloas (not to mention grenades) could be well above the official count of 2000. Ish.
It’s no wonder that the Department of Justice (the ATF’s boss) is contemplating the nuclear option. Yup, the DOJ’s thinking about blowing-up the ATF. Not demoting the ATF and sending it back to the IRS from whence it sprang. Deep-sixing the entire Bureau.
townhall.com reports:
Multiple sources, including sources from ATF, DOJ and Congressional offices have said there is a white paper circulating within the Department of Justice, outlining the essential elimination of ATF. According to sources, the paper outlines the firing of at least 450 ATF agents in an effort to conduct damage control as Operation Fast and Furious gets uglier and as election day 2012 gets closer.
ATF agents wouldn’t be reassigned to other positions, just simply let go. Current duties of ATF, including the enforcement of explosives and gun laws, would be transferred to other agencies, possibly the FBI and the DEA. According to a congressional source, there have been rumblings about the elimination of ATF for quite sometime, but the move would require major political capital to actually happen.
In this case “major political capital” would mean the entire Obama administration going down in ATF-related flames. For that to happen, a Congressional investigator or Special Prosecutor would have to find a smoking gun: a document and/or witness directly tying Operation Fast and Furious (and/or worse) to the White House, perhaps even the President.
Given Friday’s revelations, it seems pretty clear that Issa and Grassley either have that document/person or they’re about to have it. Newell’s mea culpa letter to investigators indicates that he’s scared s4itless of going to jail. If Newell flips, or O’Reilly (who can’t like Iraq all that much), the pyre will be lit.
In the face of all this Mexican misegos, all the president’s men would gladly cut a deal to sacrifice the ATF to preserve the Commander-in-Chief. That said, it takes two sides to make a deal. If Republicans smell, see and taste White House blood, they are not going to trade the elimination of a piddling little completely redundant anti-Second Amendment federal agency for the President’s proverbial scalp.
If it comes down to it, it’ll be Watergate all over again.
Dozens of political appointees will resign and/or face criminal charges until, eventually, President Obama gets the word “besieged” attached to his name. He’ll claim executive privilege (like Nixon), the Supreme Court will shoot that down (like Nixon), and the Prez will resign gracefully.
Despite ranks thinned by indictments, the ATF will continue disgracefully. The incoming administration will appoint a “new broom” head to “clean up” the ATF. And so the Bureau will lick its wounds and sulk—and live to skulk again.
There is, however, a genuine possibility that the Obama administration will shutter the ATF proactively, to dodge the Fast and Furious bullet.
Last week, ATF offered 400 agents buy outs to avoid budget cuts and is expecting 250-275 agents to take the offer through Voluntary Early Retirement. These buyouts come at a convenient time for the Justice Department, which can eliminate ATF, then say it’s because of budget cuts, when really, it’s to cover their tracks.
If Obama Boyz pull the plug on the ATF (from my keyboard to God’s ears), the administration will arrange generous severance payments for existing ATF agents—with iron-clad non-disclosure agreements.
The WH will put it to their pursuers: if we close the ATF now, before this excrement hits the rotating air circulation device, will you quit bugging us? And BTW, it’s a matter of national security. And yay us for saving $1.6 billion per year! Are we fiscally responsible or what?
I have a sneaking suspicion that the “the ATF must die white paper” (a.k.a., trial balloon) is the start of Brad Kozak’s prediction of a forthcoming “night of the long knives.” The other federal agencies implicated—or soon to be implicated—in Gunwalker et al. want to sacrifice the ATF to save their own skins.
The FBI is deep into this gun running thing; they protect their rep with religious fervor. The CIA doesn’t want another foreign policy f-up laid at their doorstep. Hillary’s State Department had more than a little operational familiarity with Fast and Furious. As did the DHS, DOJ, CPB, IRS, ICE, NSA, CIA, U.S. Attorney’s Office and, of course, the White House.
Now that the knives are out, the truth may out as well, as ALL of these agencies are bound to compete with each other in the finger-pointing department. All it takes is one loudmouth punk to bring down the whole house of cards.
Would the ATF’s elimination end the investigation into Gunwalker? Not at all. But the fact that the idea has even seen the light of day, indicates that the real blood-letting is about to begin.
Many members of our Armed Intelligentsia don’t believe that spiking the ATF would be a victory for gun rights. Their anti-gun goonery would simply shift to the FBI, DHS, or some other bureaucratic arm of the federal government. Better the devil you know. That sort of thing.
Not true. The ATF is deeply, culturally antithetical to the Second Amendment. They have learned nothing whatsoever from the murderous rampages at Ruby Ridge and Waco. The ATF has a long, sordid history of bureaucratic and personal corruption (i.e. making a big bust so a large number of agents can travel to a retirement party on Uncle Sam’s dime). They are jack-booted thugs.
Killing the ATF would remove the biggest thorn in the side of the American firearms industry and American gun owners. The regulations that govern lawful gun manufacture and ownership would not go away. But the ATF zealots who use those laws as a bludgeon, who seek new draconian regulations to enhance their personal and communal power, would scatter.
If you detest the idea of an endless federal jihad against individual gun rights, then ditching the ATF would be the best news since the Supreme Court’s Heller and McDonald decisions.
Don’t forget it’s our government. We have the right—I would say obligation—to lop off those bits that don’t uphold their oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2786955/posts
-
Furiously unraveling
By MICHAEL A. WALSH
Last Updated: 12:27 AM, October 3, 2011
The joke goes that anything named “Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms” ought to be a convenience store instead of an arm of the federal government, but what’s going on in Washington these days with the embattled agency is no laughing matter.
Hardly a week passes now without some revelation about the Obama administration’s complicity in what may yet turn out to be one of the worst and most lethal scandals in American history: Operation Fast and Furious.
In a classic Friday document dump -- a sure sign of an administration with something to hide -- the feds released to congressional investigators a month’s worth of e-mail correspondence in the summer of 2010 between Bill Newell, then head ATF agent in Phoenix, and his friend Kevin O’Reilly, a former White House national-security staffer for North American affairs.
What do you know? Among the e-mails was a photograph of a powerful Barrett .50-caliber rifle that had been illegally purchased in Tucson and recovered in Sonora, Mexico, raising the possibility of a second “gunwalking” program, this one called “Wide Receiver.”
Like Fast and Furious, the ATF-supervised scheme that saw thousands of weapons “walk” across the Mexican border for reasons no one in the Justice Department has yet satisfactorily explained, Wide Receiver was apparently a joint operation that also included the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the IRS and the US Attorney’s office.
It’s likely there have been others, in such states as Florida and Indiana.
While the back-channel e-mails don’t explicitly discuss Fast and Furious, they do show the White House’s intense interest in the ATF’s and other federal agencies’ activities in Arizona. In one message, O’Reilly asks Newell whether he can share some information with other officials. “Sure, just don’t want ATF HQ to find out, especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)!” comes the reply.
Despite whistle-blower testimony, Newell denies that his agents deliberately facilitated weapons transfers to Mexican drug lords, although he recently admitted in a supplemental statement to Rep. Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight that his July testimony “lacked clarity.”
We’ve also just learned from documents that guns linked to Fast and Furious turned up in El Paso last year -- the first time such weapons have surfaced outside Arizona, where the guns were “released.” A convicted drug felon was allowed to buy 40 AK-47-type rifles, which eventually wound up in Texas.
It’s time for politicians on both sides of the aisle to demand answers from Justice and the White House. Issa and his colleague in the Senate, Chuck Grassley, have been doing yeoman’s work, but there’s only so much they can do without the wind at their backs.
A White House under investigation can delay, slow-walk documents, redact them in the name of national or operational security, and simply refuse to make witnesses available to investigators -- all of which the administration has done. Issa and Grassley had asked to interview O’Reilly before the end September, but the White House says he’s on assignment in the Mideast and thus unavailable.
Short of a special prosecutor -- a move floated by Issa but one that the Justice Department, which is leading its own probe, would likely block -- the only hope we have that the truth will come out is public pressure.
So where are the GOP candidates? Where is a critical mass of journalists and commentators, who should be asking sharp, tough, pertinent questions in the national interest?
By now, it’s clear that the US government is in Fast and Furious up to its ears -- with two, possibly three dead agents and more than 200 dead Mexicans to show for an operation that never had the slightest chance of success.
The only real question is: Why?
NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc.
nypost.com , nypostonline.com , and newyorkpost.com are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc.
Copyright 2011 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy | Terms of Use
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/furiously_unraveling_f6fpYY4OXSJg62rFIrFiUI#ixzz1ZikpsZEm
-
Solargate Spreads
FrontPage Magazine ^ | Sep 30th, 2011 | Rich Trzupek
New revelations suggest that the brewing scandal involving the solar panel industry may run much deeper than the failed Solyndra company. According to a report published by The Daily Caller, officials at at least four other solar companies that received billions in loan guarantees have donated large sums of money to prominent Democrats like President Obama, Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Barbara Boxer. In addition, tumbling stock prices suggest that some, if not all, of the companies in question may be heading for financial trouble.
Solyndra, the solar panel manufacturer based in Fremont, California that received $535 million in federal loans, was touted by the Obama administration as an example of the kind of cutting edge, green technology leader that America needs to invest in. The company subsequently declared bankruptcy and, when called upon to testify before a Congressional committee, Solyndra executives repeatedly invoked the 5th Amendment rather than answer questions about the fiasco. Now, it appears that the scandal is spreading. According to The Daily Caller’s John Rossomando:
Companies like First Solar, SolarReserve, SunPower Corporation and Abengoa SA have already, collectively, received billions in loans through Obama administration stimulus programs to build solar power plants in the southwestern United States. Yet each, with the exception of the privately held SolarReserve, has seen its stock price hammered at the same time it was lobbying the Obama administration and Congress for billions in loan guarantees.
For example, according to The Daily Caller, Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser raised over $50,000 for President Obama in 2008. Kaiser has ties to both SolarReserve and Solyndra. Lee Bailey, a SolarReserve board member and U.S. Renewables Group investor, has donated $21,850 since 2008 to Democratic candidates, including President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and California Sen. Barbara Boxer. SolarReserve also paid more than $100,000 of lobbying fees to the Podesta Group. The Podesta Group is run by Tony Podesta, brother of Obama transition team head Leon Podesta. In the same vein, SunPower, spent almost $300,000 in lobbying fees with a close confidante of Harry Reid’s, as well as making hefty campaign donations to influential Democrats.
Meanwhile, the value of these companies appears to be dropping precipitously. The price of both SolarReserve and SunPower stock has dropped more than sixty per cent in just a few months, and Abengoa SA stock dropped over thirty five per cent in six months. (First Solar is privately held, so financial data is not available.) Nonetheless, not only have they received billions in federal loan guarantees, the Department of Energy just authorized a billion more.
Your Ad Here
The administration and “green energy” advocates tout solar as a vitally important source of green energy and claim that DOE seed money pouring into companies like these will pay off in the long run. There is certainly some demand for solar panels in the residential and commercial markets, but it’s hard to see how any US company will be able to compete with solar panels built in China given all of that nation’s manufacturing advantages in commodity markets. Solyndra tried to compete in that market and failed miserably, if predictably.
But, as dubious an investment in the residential and commercial market is, investment in the power market is even shakier. Solar power does not, will not and cannot play any significant role in electrical generation for a couple of very good reasons. First, the installed cost of a solar plant is more than double that of an equivalently-sized coal plant, and more than ten times the cost of a gas turbine plant. And then, because the sun doesn’t shine all of the time, solar plants spend most of their time not running. The metric used to determine availability is called the “capacity factor.” This is a measure of how much power a plant actually produces, as compared to the amount of power the plant could produce if it were running at peak capacity every hour of the year. A typical nuclear plant runs at an annual capacity factor of around ninety percent. Coal plants usually operate in the sixty to seventy-five percent range. Most solar plants operate at capacity factors of less than twenty five percent.
There’s no free market incentive to build power plants that are much more expensive to build and operate far less than other technologies. Without the grants, loans, subsidies and tax breaks, no one would choose to use solar energy to enter the power market. Yet, that is the very market that First Solar, SolarReserve, SunPower Corporation and Abengoa SA are going after, and Obama’s Department of Energy is pouring billions and billions into the companies to make it possible.
To provide a little perspective on just how paltry a contribution solar power makes to electric generation, consider that the entire United States’ electric generation fleet totals a little over 1.1 million megawatts of capacity. Of this, about 640 megawatts, or 0.05%, is currently solar. Over the next five years, the Department of Energy projects that over 75,000 megawatts of new capacity of all sorts will come on line, a figure that includes 2,883 megawatts of solar power. That will move solar’s potential contribution up to a whopping 0.3% of the total.
Solar power combines enormous construction costs and pitiful reliability in a way that no other power source does, and the numbers reflect that simple truth. The fact is that solar power can do virtually nothing to replace reliable fossil and nuclear plants. The only thing that solar power has been able to achieve is to separate taxpayers from billions of their hard-earned dollars. As the Solargate scandal spreads, more and more Americans are wondering why that has been allowed to happen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from : http://frontpagemag.com
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/09/30/solargate-spreads
-
Obama crony company got special help on loan
By: Examiner Editorial | 10/02/11 8:05 PM
President Obama has learned nothing from the widening scandal surrounding the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program. Even as Energy Secretary Steven Chu admitted last week that he personally intervened to give the now bankrupt solar panel manufacturing firm Solyndra even more money -- after they had defaulted on their federal loan -- the Energy Department approved two new similar loans, worth more than $1 billion, to solar firms which, like Solyndra, have strong ties to Democratic Party fundraisers.
In the fall of 2010, Solyndra executives told Chu that their firm was dangerously low on cash and might not make a Dec. 1 payment to a $30 million cash reserve fund as required by the original terms of the loan. But when Dec. 1 came, and Solyndra did fail to make the payment, not only did Chu fail to pull the plug, he actually restructured the loan in a way to further protect Solyndra's investors at the expense of taxpayers.
Many of these investors are big-time Democratic Party fundraisers, including Oklahoma billionaire and Obama bundler George Kaiser. But the Solyndra loan turns out to be not the only hand Kaiser has in the taxpayer's pocket. On Wednesday, the Energy Department announced two new loans, including a $737 million guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy, which is owned by SolarReserve LLC. One of SolarReserve's "investment partners" is Kaiser's firm, Argonaut Private Equity.
Nor is Kaiser the only Democratic connection to SolarReserve. The company also lists the PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund as an investment partner. The executive director of PCG is none other than Ronald Pelosi, who just happens to be Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's, D-Calif., brother-in-law.
Perhaps, as Chu still insists, his decisions both to approve the original Solyndra loan and to restructure it after default, were done totally on the merits. Perhaps there was no political influence from major Democratic donors and friends and family members. But even if this is true -- and congressional investigators should under no circumstances take anything any Obama administration official says at face value -- the failures of government investments like Solyndra are precisely why Americans tell Gallup they believe the federal government wastes more than half of every dollar it spends.
Obama's and Chu's obstinate determination to fritter away more money on investments like Solyndra also helps explain why 81 percent of Americans tell Gallup they are dissatisfied with the way the country is being governed. They will get no reprieve as long as Obama administration officials are pulling levers for Obama's green cronies.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/10/obama-crony-company-got-special-help-loan#ixzz1ZjIbpf68
-
September 28, 2011
Unanswered Questions Haunt Family in 'Fast and Furious' Case
By Elise Cooper
On December 15, 2010, Brian Terry was murdered. Brian was a BORTAC Border Patrol Agent, considered among the most dedicated and trained. Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) are conducting an investigation to find out those involved, the facts behind this operation, and the cover-up that has ensued. American Thinker interviewed Brian Terry's stepmother as well as participated in a conference call conducted by Congressman Issa about this case.
In a 2009 operation called "Fast and Furious," ATF requested that gun shop owners sell guns, including AK47s, to straw buyers from the Mexican drug cartels. There were approximately 2,500 weapons involved, and to date, only 600 have been recovered. ATF field agents complained that allowing these guns into the hands of criminals set a bad precedent. Terry is proof of this since he was shot and killed by illegal immigrants during a gunfight. In addition to Terry, Issa reported that at least 200 Mexican civilians have been killed with these weapons. Congress is investigating the cover-up by ATF and others, since three guns found at the scene of the Terry murder were guns smuggled during the "Fast and Furious" operation.
Congressman Issa believes that Terry's shooting was the "smoking gun." If not for Terry's death, guns might still be smuggled across the border, and many more deaths might have resulted. The congressman sees a lot of panic occurring among those involved and notes that "when Gabby Giffords was shot and a federal judge assassinated, this was a time when everyone down there and certainly those on the inside were panicking that the weapon used was a Fast and Furious weapon."
The congressman is also wondering what people at the top knew since they are pleading ignorance. Why were people like Attorney General Eric Holder not briefed? Issa told the bloggers, "This administration is giving information in redacted form. Eric Holder did not know it because he either did not want to know or was not doing his job. We already have a cover-up. The failure to turn over documents shows a pattern of concealment and wrongdoing. It is a little hard to get the Justice Department to prosecute the Justice Department."
Carolyn Terry, Brian's stepmom, is torn about the Arizona gun shop owners' involvement because she thinks they should have used better judgment; yet, she understands that they thought they were doing the right thing since they were told the guns were being tracked and people were being arrested.
David Greenberg, an Arizona gun shop owner, is frustrated with the government's ineptness and does not believe that the gun shop owners should be blamed. He told ATF, after he was approached, that his shop, only a few miles from the border, would allow the criminals to have an easy escape route. He commented that in April 2011, he was told to put up a poster that said, in Spanish and English, "'It is illegal to take guns across the border.' I told ATF they need to put that poster up in their office."
Terry's stepmother lays most of the blame with Holder and Janet Napolitano, who she believes are somehow involved; she "does not believe a word Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano are saying." Issa describes Napolitano as someone who "seems to know everything and be running everything until something goes wrong. This is an organization where freedom of information is an oxymoron."
Carolyn Terry, besides putting the blame squarely on the Obama administration, also has a strong resentment of them. She wants those involved prosecuted because "our son would still be alive if they had not done what they did. I cannot understand what was the purpose of Fast and Furious. In a roundabout way, they encouraged trafficking. There are so many unanswered questions. We cannot even mourn our son's death because there is no closure."
The unanswered questions for Terry's stepmom include who made the call to sell the guns, who killed her son, and who knew about it. Unfortunately, no one in Justice is willing to answer these questions, and since most of the time they never returned her phone calls, she has quit calling. The one person sent to talk with the Terry family in March was Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. Terry feels that Burke outright lied to her, since he "told us ATF did not have the gun that killed Brian, which was strange since up until that point we were told the opposite. He was so involved and was covering up to protect himself and others. Just last week, e-mails came out where they talked about that gun, the third gun. Burke's office is right in the middle of this, and our son's death is the result of their actions. They don't have a clue what we are going through." She is glad that Burke has resigned and that the pending case was moved from Arizona to San Diego.
Terry is also grateful for the Congressional Investigative Committees headed by Issa and Grassley, since "the Committees are the only hope we have. Without Issa and Grassley, this investigation would be going nowhere." Their offices are also in contact with the family and keep them posted about any new updates.
Americans need to understand that the family is frustrated and angry since "we paid the price for this operation; we lost our son. Brian was a great person. If you knew him, you would have liked him. He had such goals. He was a positive person and had everything going for him. Those involved took it away from him and took him away from our family. The loss of our son Brian has changed our whole lives. A day does not go by that we don't think about him."
Congressman Issa feels for all those families who senselessly lost a loved one. He sees "a pattern of indifference toward the rules established about how to deal with deadly weapons." At best, Fast and Furious was a negligent and bungled operation, and at worst, there was an ulterior motive -- possibly to initiate more gun control laws. As Issa summarized, "this operation was dumb, useless, and lethal."
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2011/09/unanswered_questions_haunt_family_in_fast_and_furious_case.html
at October 03, 2011 - 10:21:29 AM CDT
-
Friday's "Fast and Furious" email dump means pressure increasing on Obama
Coach is Right ^ | 10/3/2011 | Doug Book
With a Friday evening release of emails, the Obama White House was finally forced to admit its early knowledge of and possible involvement in the Operation Fast and Furious “Gunwalking” scandal, even if not by NAME!
During the summer of 2010, Bill Newell, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Arizona field office exchanged numerous emails and telephone calls with Kevin O’Reilly, White House staffer and Director of North American Affairs of the National Security Council.
We now know the subject of these contacts to have been Operation Fast and Furious, the infamous Administration “Gunwalking” debacle.
While a White House National Security Director, O’Reilly not only held his meetings in the White House with such notables as the President and Vice President, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano and members of the Joint Chiefs, he asked for and received “regular updates” on ATF border operations directly from Bill Newell.
O’Reilly then shared this information with Dan Restrepo, Special Assistant to the President, National Security Council and Greg Gatjanis, Director of Terrorist Finance and Counternarcotics, National Security Council.
For months, Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have maintained–Holder under questioning by the Grassley/Issa congressional committees–that they neither had knowledge of, nor approved the Fast and Furious scheme.
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
-
Harry Reid's Solyndra
American Thinker ^ | October 3, 2011 | Ed Lasky
Here we go again: another gigantic taxpayer-funded loser, courtesy of President Obama's administration -- and this one seems to have helped friends of Harry Reid.
Eric Lipton and Clifford Kraus of the New York Times cover the tale:
In a remote desert spot in northern Nevada, there is a geothermal plant run by a politically connected clean energy start-up that has relied heavily on an Obama administration loan guarantee and is now facing financial turmoil.
The company is Nevada Geothermal Power, which like Solyndra, the now-famous California solar company, is struggling with debt after encountering problems at its only operating plant.
After a series of technical missteps that are draining Nevada Geothermal's cash reserves, its own auditor concluded in a filing released last week that there was "significant doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern."
It is a description that echoes the warning issued in 2010 by auditors hired by Solyndra, which benefited from the same Energy Department loan guarantee before its collapse in August caused the Obama administration great embarrassment.
This boondoggle got a loan guarantee of $79 million plus an outright grant (gift) of $66 million.
Who went to bat for the company?
Is it purely coincidental that the plant is based in Nevada, home state of Senate Majority leader Harry Reid?
The Times notes he has been a strong proponent of geothermal power:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
:)
-
The Solyndra Plot Thickens: Donor, Officials Warned White House Not to Visit
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 2:41pm
by Jonathon M. Seidl Print »Email »
WWW.THEBLAZE.COM
It seems the story about Solyndra — the belly-up solar panel company that was cleared for a $535 million loan guarantee despite warning signs — is the story that just won’t go away. Now, the Washington Post is reporting that officials and a donor close to the president warned the White House not to visit the company, advice that was ignored.
(Read all of The Blaze’s past stories on the Solyndra scandal)
“A number of us are concerned that the president is visiting Solyndra,” California investor and Obama fundraiser Steve Westly wrote to Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett in May 2010, the same month the President visited. “Many of us believe the company’s cost structure will make it difficult for them to survive long term. … I just want to help protect the president from anything that could result in negative or unfair press.”
The message gets even more damning: “If it’s too late to change/postpone the meeting, the president should be careful about unrealistic/optimistic forecasts that could haunt him in the next 18 months if Solyndra hits the wall, files for bankruptcy, etc.”
But Westlly wasn’t the only one concerned. According to e-mails released Monday (which included Wesly’s warnings), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials also cautioned the president.
One OMB official wrote: “I am increasingly worried that this visit could prove embarrassing to the Administration in the not too distant future, given 1) what we just heard today from DOE that Solyndra is delaying their IPO at least until the end of the year, and 2) what the auditors said about Solyndra making it through the year absent new financing.”
But that warning was brushed aside by the Department of Energy as typical worry associated with a start-up.
Now we know, that worry was well-placed. And now we know that such worry made its way all the way to the White House.
.
________________________ ____________________
OBAMA - FAIL!
-
Obama: No regrets over Solyndra
Posted by:
CNN White House Producer Alexander Mooney
President Obama Monday said he does not regret a half-billion dollar government loan to the now-bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra and vigorously defended his administration’s policy of providing assistance to similar entities.
“No I don’t,” the president said when asked directly if he regretted the $535 billion federal loan guarantee in 2009. “Because if you look at the overall portfolio of loan guarantees that had been provided, overall it’s doing well. And what we always understood is that not every single business is going to succeed in clean energy.”
The comments came in an interview with ABC and Yahoo News.
Obama specifically touted Solyndra in a visit to its California headquarters in 2010 but the company closed shop just over a year later, putting more than 1,000 people out of work and leaving the government unlikely to get back all the money it loaned.
Meanwhile, e-mails revealed by a House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation indicate at least some members of the administration expressed trepidation over the firm’s financial health before the loan was approved.
Obama brushed aside those contentions in the interview Monday, saying that "hindsight is always 20-20."
"It went through the regular review process and people felt like this was a good bet," he added.
But Solyndra's bankruptcy has renewed criticisms from Republicans that it is unwise to risk taxpayer dollars in start-up companies with outlooks that are far from guaranteed. The Solyndra loan, ultimately approved by the Department of Energy in 2009, was part of a $40 billion stimulus-funded effort to support renewable and clean energy technology.
“If we want to compete with China, which is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars in this space, if we want to compete with other countries that are heavily subsidizing industries of the future, we have got to make sure that our guys, here in the United States of America, at least have a shot,” Obama said Monday.
Meanwhile, top Solyndra executives refused to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee last month, leading the Justice Department to seek additional oversight in the bankruptcy proceedings
http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/03/obama-no-regrets-over-solyndra
wwwwTTTTTFFFFF! ! ! ! !
-
Obama warned not to visit Solyndra
Carol D. Leonnig
Monday, Oct 3, 2011
________________________ ________________________ _
A Silicon Valley investor and senior administration officials warned the White House to reconsider having President Obama visit a solar start-up company because of its mounting financial problems, saying he might be embarrassed later.
“A number of us are concerned that the president is visiting Solyndra,” California investor and Obama fundraiser Steve Westly wrote to Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett in May 2010. “Many of us believe the company’s cost structure will make it difficult for them to survive long term. . . . I just want to help protect the president from anything that could result in negative or unfair press.”
The memo was among several copies of e-mails released Monday morning by Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating a government loan to the now-bankrupt company.
Obama’s Energy Department had provided Solyndra with a $535 million government-backed loan in 2009 and wanted to highlight the investment to show taxpayers how their stimulus dollars had been put to work. Westly said that if Obama proceeded with the visit, he should be careful about touting the company’s future.
“If it’s too late to change/postpone the meeting, the president should be careful about unrealistic/optimistic forecasts that could haunt him in the next 18 months if Solyndra hits the wall, files for bankruptcy, etc.”
Westly’s concern, which proved to be prescient, was that the company’s outside auditors had warned the previous month that Solyndra was burning through cash rapidly and that they had doubts the company could remain a “going concern.” The solar-panel manufacturer closed its doors Aug. 31, then filed for bankruptcy protection and laid off 1,100 workers. Its closure has left taxpayers obligated to repay the half-billion-dollar loan.
But Obama did visit Solyndra in May 2010, touting it in a national news conference as an “engine of economic growth” and a model of his administration’s $80 billion stimulus-funded investment in clean-energy technologies and companies.
President Obama told George Stephanopolous in a live ABC News/Yahoo interview Monday afternoon that he doesn’t regret supporting or visiting Solyndra and is glad the administration backed a portfolio of clean-energy companies.
“Now there are going to be some failures,” he said. “Hindsight is always 20/20,” the president added about being warned about Solyndra’s financial problems. “It went through the normal review process and people thought this was a good bet.”
Republican lawmakers leading the probe have alleged that the administration rushed approval of the loan for Solyndra and favored the company in other ways because its leading investor was tied to a major Obama fundraiser, George Kaiser. Democrats releasing the e-mails Monday noted that the messages show plenty of disagreement but do not provide evidence of political favoritism to Kaiser and his investment funds.
A White House spokesman said Monday afternoon that he would respond with a comment shortly.
What was once a showcase of the Obama administration’s clean-energy initiative is now a political crisis for the White House. Federal investigators have launched a criminal probe into whether Solyndra misled the government and engaged in accounting fraud.
The e-mails also signal major concerns within the administration that the Department of Energy’s $38 billion program to back clean-energy projects had significant flaws.
“D.O.E.’s ‘system’ for monitoring loans is quite problematic (barely any review of materials submitted, no synthesis for program management, inherent conflicts in origination team members monitoring the deals they structured, etc) and does not seem to be a program priority,” one Office of Management and Budget official wrote in spring 2010.
In one striking exchange, one of the smaller investors in Solyndra, Brad Jones of Redpoint Ventures, warned National Economic Council Director Larry Summers in December 2009 that the Energy Department didn’t seem “well-equipped to decide which companies should get the money and how much.” He noted that a solar company he had invested in, an apparent reference to Solyndra, received a loan of more than half a billion dollars, despite having no profits and revenue of less than $100 million.
“While that is good for us, I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money,” Jones wrote in his e-mail.
Summers agreed: “I relate well to your view that gov is a crappy vc [venture capitalist] and if u were closer to it you’d feel more strongly.”
Another OMB official wrote to a White House staffer about the president’s visit to Solyndra: “I am increasingly worried that this visit could prove embarrassing to the Administration in the not too distant future, given 1) what we just heard today from DOE that Solyndra is delaying their IPO at least until the end of the year, and 2) what the auditors said about Solyndra making it through the year absent new financing.”
But inside the Energy Department, which had pushed to give Solyndra the government-backed loan, officials counseled the White House not to worry.
Matt Rogers, senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu on the stimulus funding, responded that these kinds of warnings were typical in the Silicon Valley start-up world.
Rogers wrote that “the ‘going concern’ letter is standard for companies pre-IPO,” and he predicted that “the company should be strong going into the fall with their new facilities on line.”
leonnigc@washpost.com
stephensj@washpost.com
________________________ _________________
wOW!!!!!
-
latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-solyndra-20111003,0,4508294.story
latimes.com
Obama defends loan to Solyndra, calling it a 'good bet'
By Christi Parsons
12:33 PM PDT, October 3, 2011
President Obama is cruising the Internet these days -- sometimes on a pre-release iPad given to him personally by Steve Jobs -- with a reading list made up mostly of mainstream media outlets.
"Typically I read on the Web what I read in hard copy," Obama said in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Monday afternoon.
Obama said there are some exceptions to the rule, and that he does read some blogs as well as abcnews.com and yahoo.com, the two outlets that were live-streaming the White House interview.
In a short but wide-ranging interview, the president spoke for the first time on the collapse of Solyndra, the solar start-up company that got a government-backed loan in 2009.
The question arose shortly after Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released copies of internal emails in which senior administration officials warned against having Obama visit the company as its financial troubles piled up.
Obama said the loan guarantee program is working well overall, despite the fact that "not every single business is going to succeed."
If the U.S. wants to compete with other countries that are subsidizing "industries of the future," Obama said, the government has to make sure American companies "get a shot" to compete.
"Hindsight is always 20/20," Obama said. "It went through the regular review process and people felt this was a good bet."
Just how his daughters have gotten information about that and other presidential decisions, Obama left a little fuzzy.
"They don't watch news," Obama said as he acknowledged Stephanopoulos' assertion that they have access to the Internet.
They don’t believe negative things when they hear them because "they know who their daddy is," he said.
For his part, though, he has the iPad that Jobs, the former Apple CEO, gave to him early.
He reads some blogs, the president said, but he never posts comments.
"I figure if I got started, I wouldn't stop," Obama said.
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
________________________ ________________________ _______
LMFAO! ! ! ! ! ! !
I would love for Obama to post on this site and debate me.
-
October 3, 2011 5:59 PM
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20115038-10391695.html
Fast and Furious: New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010
By Sharyl Attkisson Topics News ,Law and Order .Add Comment
(Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON - New documents obtained by CBS News show Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious guns operation as far back as July of 2010. That directly contradicts his statement to Congress.
On May 3, 2011, Holder told a Judiciary Committee hearing, "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."
More of this report tonight on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley at 6:30 p.m. ET
________________________ ________________________ __
BANG!!!!!!!!!!
TIME FOR PRISON HOLDER! ! ! ! !
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Doc Dump: White House Knew
IBD Editorials ^ | October 3, 2011 | Staff
Posted on October 3, 2011 8:01:54 PM EDT by Kaslin
Scandal: Friday's release of documents shows the extent of White House contact with the ATF over Operation Fast and Furious. Included is a map showing where the guns went in Mexico — enough weapons for a Marine unit.
In a classic news-dampening maneuver, some, but not all, documents requested by congressional investigators looking at administration gun-running were released late Friday by the White House. Usually this is done to avoid the full impact of politically embarrassing or, in this case, potentially incriminating news.
As we noted in July, Special Agent in Charge William Newell, recently promoted to a cushy job with a tighter leash in Washington, D.C., admitted in testimony on Capitol Hill that he had been in contact with then-White House National Security Council staffer Kevin O'Reilly, who Newell said was a "good friend."
The document dump confirms this was more than casual chatting between friends and involved more than a simple single inquiry. O'Reilly at the time was national security director for North America and tasked with monitoring the activities of Mexican drug cartels.
Newell testified in July that O'Reilly had inquired about the status of the operation to brief administration officials before a trip to Mexico. Newell sent O'Reilly the requested information with the caveat, "You didn't get this from me."
As CBS News has reported, the email exchanges between Newell and O'Reilly lasted for more than a month. Among the documents produced is an email Newell sent O'Reilly with an "arrow chart reflecting the ultimate destination of firearms we intercepted and/or where the guns ended up."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Hey Christie is fat!
-
Reports: Documents show Holder was briefed on Fast and Furious in July 2010
By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller 6:49 PM 10/03/2011
ADVERTISEMENT
New documents indicate Attorney General Eric Holder was informed of Operation Fast and Furious and its investigative tactics in mid-2010.
The new documents show that on November 1, 2010, Deputy Attorney General Lanny Breuer, the chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division, personally informed Holder about the operation in a briefing. The document was a memo Breuer wrote to Holder saying in which he included a brief description of Operation Fast and Furious.
Another document is a July 2010 memo from the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center to Holder that details how “straw purchasers” — enabled by Operation Fast and Furious — were responsible for the purchase of 1,500 guns that were then supplied to Mexican drug cartels.
Straw purchasers are people who can legally buy weapons in the United States but do so with the known intention of trafficking them to Mexican drug cartels.
The Justice Department responded to this new information by saying that Holder receives many updates, memos and briefings daily and doesn’t always read them all — even if official records show he was informed of the intimate details of a case.
In early May, Holder told House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa that he was “not sure of the exact date [he first learned of Fast and Furious], but I probably heard about Fast and Furious over the last few weeks.”
These new documents indicate Holder may have committed perjury while testifying under oath, depending on the legal readings of his statements and all the evidence. It’s unclear at this point what, if anything, will happen next on that front.
Another document released contained internal emails between several high-ranking Justice Department officials asking if Breuer would help with a then-forthcoming press conference on Fast and Furious because the number of guns DOJ and ATF officials allowed to be “walked” into Mexico was significant. Allowing guns to “walk” means ATF and other law enforcement officials facilitated the sale of weapons to drug cartels via straw purchasers.
“It is not going to be any big surprise that a bunch of U.S. guns are being used in [Mexico], so I’m not sure how much grief we get for gun walking,” one high-ranking DOJ official wrote in an email.
That was in response to another high-ranking official who, after asking if they would have “Lanny” help with press, wrote: “It’s [Operation Fast and Furious] a tricky case, given the number of guns that have walked, but it is a significant set of prosecutions.”
*This story has been updated.
Follow Matthew on Twitter
Most corrupt admn ever.
-
Documents Suggest Holder Knew About 'Fast and Furious' Earlier Than He Claimed
By William Lajeunesse
Published October 03, 2011 | FoxNews.com
ADVERTISEMENT
For the first time, documents appear to show Attorney General Eric Holder was made aware of the Operation Fast and Furious earlier than he claimed -- up to 9 nine months earlier.
The documents seem to contradict what Holder told a House Judiciary Committee on May 3, when he said he could not recall the exact date, but he'd "probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."
However, in a July 2010 memo, Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder straw buyers in the Operation Fast and Furious case "are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels."
Also, on October 18, 2010, one of Holder's chief deputies, Lanny Breuer, chief of the department's Criminal Division, told Holder in a memo that prosecutors were ready to issue indictments in Operation Fast and Furious.
Documents also show, contrary to earlier reports, the Justice Department was aware that ATF agents under the department's direction were involved in the controversial practice known as "gun walking" -- allowing illicit gun sales to proceed to track the traffickers to higher-ups. The department has said it did not allow guns to "walk."
When agents "let guns walk," they stop surveillance and allow criminals to transfer weapons to others. In this case, that meant allowing the guns to cross the border into Mexico. It is a highly controversial practice agents typically are taught not to do.
However, in an October 17, 2010 memo, Deputy Attorney General Jason Weinstein asks another attorney in the Criminal Division if Breuer should do a press conference when Fast and Furious is announced, but says, "It's a tricky case, given the number of guns that have walked."
His associate, James Trusty writes back, "It's not going to be any big surprise that a bunch of US guns are being used in MX (Mexico), so I’m not sure how much grief we'll get for 'gun walking.'"
Until now, there's been an attempt to portray Operation Fast and Furious as a rogue operation by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office. But insiders claim these documents show the Department of Justice in Washington was intimately aware of the case almost from the beginning.
In response to the documents released today, the Justice Department said Holder’s response referred to when he first learned of the “troubling tactics” of the program. A Justice spokesperson also says that the “gun walking” referred to in the October 2010 email exchange is about another case initiated before Operation Fast and Furious.
Print Close
URL
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/03/documents-suggest-holder-knew-about-fast-and-furious-earlier-than-claimed
-
fox showed two videos. one in which he said he just learned about it. another in which he bragged out it months before. lie caught.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
'Fast and Furious' needs full investigation
The Standard Times (San Angelo, TX) ^ | October 1, 2011 | Jose de la Isla
Posted on October 4, 2011 2:02:27 AM EDT by neverdem
SAN ANGELO, Texas — MEXICO CITY — The inquiry into "Fast and Furious," the horrendously terrible U.S.-sponsored, anti-drug operation that spun out of control, could become all about political spin if the inquiry stays on the partisan track.
"Fast and Furious" was the name given to an ill-conceived operation by Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operatives to make guns available to Mexican organized crime. That way, the feds thought, they could find out who was using stooges to do their gun-running.
But the agency allegedly let questionable buys from legitimate gun dealers slip by and then lost control of the weapons identification and tracking.
The operation is believed to have allowed Sinaloa Cartel members to buy more than 1,900 weapons with about $1.25 million over about 15 months until January. ATF is said to have recovered only 10 percent of the weapons.
Mexican authorities have reacted in furious disbelief. "To date, United States authorities has not informed us about the failed operation, nor apologized for it," Marisela Morales, who heads the Mexican federal prosecutors' agency, told the Los Angeles Times. Mexico is owed an explanation, she said.
"In no way have we permitted it," she added, "because that would be an attack on the security of Mexicans."
The head of ATF operations in Mexico, Carlos Canino, testified at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in July that "at no time ever did I know that ATF agents were following known (or) suspected gun traffickers." So it seems ATF wasn't even telling its own agents.
A further tragedy could be in the making if the ongoing inquiry fails to ask hard questions. One of them is how many people in both the United States and Mexico have been killed, injured and in other ways harmed as a consequence of "Fast and Furious." This is a delicate matter because of consequent criminal and civil liabilities on both sides of the border.
There is no place for glee, making special-interest points or hyperbole in something this serious. It started looking like that when National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre, in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, accused U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder of stonewalling.
"This is the biggest cover-up since Watergate," he said. LaPierre has called for an independent prosecutor.
The inquiry could take a greater partisan cast now that the investigating House committee has requested documents and notes from White House staffers Kevin Reilly, Dan Restrepo and Greg Gatjanis.
On Sept. 23, Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, called for a new inquiry into any knowledge Holder might have had of the ill-conceived plan. A resignation at ATF and recent personnel changes, Smith told Holder in a letter, looks like trying to "pin this scandal on a few individuals and expect it to be forgotten."
An in-depth, connect-the-dots inquiry into "Fast and Furious" is needed, asking not only embarrassing bureaucratic questions but the transnational ones about how much mayhem, injury and death has taken place because of the operation. Maybe a U.S.-Mexico inter-parliamentary inquest (televised live, like Watergate) might be the answer.
It would help LaPierre to remember, if he has forgotten, that Watergate started as a simple break-in investigation. The cover-up was what sent a president packing.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
EDITORIAL: Fast and felonious
The Washington Times ^ | October 3, 2011 | Editorial
Posted on October 3, 2011 8:12:22 PM EDT by jazusamo
Obama gun warriors shoot themselves in the foot
The “Fast and Furious” gunrunning probe is creeping closer to the Obama White House. It appears administration officials were willing to sign off on just about anything to accomplish their ends, and the result of this botched operation has has been over a hundred dead. Someone needs to be held accountable.
On Friday, the administration reluctantly released new and incriminating documents showing then-Special Agent William Newell with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had discussed details of Fast and Furious in a series of emails with White House National Security Council staff member Kevin O'Reilly. In one of the communications, Mr. Newell gave Mr. O'Reilly a heads-up about an upcoming press conference announcing indictments in a dozen “straw purchaser” firearms trafficking cases and a Gun Runner Impact Teams performance report containing statistics on investigations.
The congressional probe is no longer limited to just the ATF. Early on, the White House denied it had any knowledge of the gunrunning program. Agent Newell, who headed the Phoenix, Ariz., office from which the scheme’s operations were directed, contradicted that claim when he testified on Capitol Hill in July. The just-released emails reveal that not only did briefings on the shady gambit reach inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but the information provided was extensive.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
Democratic Donor Warned White House on Solyndra Trip in 2010, Email Shows (IMPEACH OBAMA!)
Fox News ^ | 10/3/2011 | fox news
Posted on October 4, 2011 6:32:48 AM EDT by tobyhill
Newly released emails show a Democratic donor, as well as officials inside the White House, were expressing concern more than a year ago that now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra's financial situation could deteriorate and prove "embarrassing" for the Obama administration.
The emails were released Monday by a Republican-led House panel looking into Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy last month after receiving nearly $530 million in federal government loans. As with other internal emails that have been disclosed as part of the investigation, the documents reflected uneasiness with Solyndra among those inside and near the administration.
A Democratic fundraiser, in a May 2010 email, warned the White House to be "careful" about a planned trip by Obama to the California company.
Steve Westly, a Silicon Valley investor and Energy Department adviser, said in the email that he and others were worried that Solyndra might not "survive long-term."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
This is the print preview: Back to normal view » Green Jobs Numbers Failing To Match Expectations, Report Says
www.huffingtonpost.com
By SAM HANANEL 10/ 3/11 05:10 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- A $500 million Labor Department program designed to train workers for green jobs has come up far short of its goals, with only 10 percent of participants finding work so far, the agency's assistant inspector general has found.
The report said the low rate makes it unlikely the program will meet the goal of placing nearly 80,000 workers in careers in energy efficiency or renewable energy by 2013.
"Grantees have expressed concerns that jobs have not materialized and that job placements have been fewer than expected for this point in the grant program," said the report from Assistant Inspector General Elliott Lewis.
The report comes as the Obama administration has been on the defensive about making a $528 million loan to Solyndra LLC, a now-bankrupt solar panel maker that has become a target for critics of the administration's green energy program.
The $500 million for green jobs training was part of the $787 billion stimulus act passed in 2009. Although the money was awarded in a series of grants in 2009 and 2010, only one-third has actually been spent by grantees. Lewis' report said the rate of expenditures has been decreasing. He suggested the department should consider returning unused money that may not be needed.
"At this point, there is no evidence that grantees will effectively use the funds and deliver targeted employment outcomes by the end of the grant periods," the report said.
Jane Oates, head of the department's Employment and Training Administration, strongly disagreed with the report and said she expects the number of job placements to increase in the next few months. She said the numbers were low in part because of the initial lag time in the start-up phase.
"What we've seen with these green grants is because of limited employment options, people are staying in training longer," Oates said. "I'm still optimistic that we are going to be successful with these grants."
Oates acknowledged that the economy is creating jobs at a slower-than-normal rate. But she said if grantees have not spent all the money by the deadline, the funds would be returned to the U.S. Treasury.
Another problem the report highlighted is that workers who completed training and were placed in green jobs have had trouble retaining their posts. Of the 8,035 workers placed, only 1,336 – or 2 percent of the overall target – have held those jobs for at least six months.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who requested the audit, said the report "paints a pretty bleak picture of the program's effectiveness in job creation."
"It's hard to see how leaving $300 million in unused funding for the program in the hands of the Labor Department benefits either the taxpayers or the unemployed," Grassley said.
Grassley said the administration should focus on job creation "in all sectors of the economy."
But Labor officials have insisted that green jobs are part of a future wave of growing employment needs and that it would be a mistake not to invest in training workers for those jobs now, even if the economic recovery has been slow to create new jobs in that area.
-
Mike Vanderboegh & David Codrea Awarded JPFO’s David and Goliath Award 2011(gunwalker)
Ammoland ^ | 3 October, 2011 | JPFO
Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- David Codrea of “Gun Rights Examiner” and Mike Vanderboegh of “Sipsey Street Irregulars“ (both unwavering pro Second Amendment writers with blog sites) have performed a service to America that is far from being fully weighed.
These two “everyday” Americans researched and broke the story about what may likely end up being the most despicable criminal scandal in modern American political history. We’re talking about the blood drenched BATFE debacle called “Fast and Furious”. And it’s not just BATFE involved. Homeland Security is in it up to the armpits. The FBI is in it up to its neck.
“Fast and Furious” was nothing less than a massive evidence planting operation performed by American law enforcement agencies at their highest levels. The likely deeper objective of “Fast and Furious” was not simply crime prevention, but the draconian expansion of “gun control” in this nation.
The U.S. Department of Justice reeks of collusion, and may very well have been the birthplace of this mutant, criminal operation. It could also have been the brainchild of Obama’s “never let a good crisis go to waste” Rahm Emanuel. The stench of the affair does have a very distinct waft of Chicago politics to it.
Larry Pratt of Gunowners of America also deserves a hearty thanks. Larry took Mike V. and Codrea to the people in the U.S. Senate and Congress who could actually do something about this atrocity. The story is long and convoluted, but Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea, when history is written, will make Watergate’s Woodward and Bernstein look like thumb suckers in diapers.
JPFO salutes these two great Americans with our “David and Goliath Award”. They faced the giant and they are winning! American freedom is winning.
About: Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership Mission is to destroy “gun control” and to encourage Americans to understand and defend all of the Bill of Rights for everyone. Those are the twin goals of Wisconsin-based Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO). Founded by Jews and initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed, JPFO has always welcomed persons of all religious beliefs who share a common goal of opposing and reversing victim disarmament policies while advancing liberty for all.
JPFO is a non-profit tax-exempt educational civil rights organization, not a lobby. JPFO’s products and programs reach out to as many segments of the American people as possible, using bold tactics without compromise on fundamental principles. Visit www.JPFO.org – Copyright JPFO 2011
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Fast and Furious: White House Connection Grows Deeper
by John Hayward (more by this author)
Posted 10/03/2011 ET
Updated 10/03/2011 ET
www.humanevents.com
One of Washington’s most time-honored rituals is the Friday Night Document Dump, in which the Administration quietly drops a garbage bag full of potentially controversial documents on the back stoop and hopes the big media organizations don’t notice. Last week’s dump involved a pile of emails between a White House staffer and one of the top ATF agents involved in “Operation Fast and Furious.” CBS News reports:
The documents show extensive communications between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell - who led Fast and Furious - and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the phone. Such detailed, direct communications between a local ATF manager in Phoenix and a White House national security staffer has raised interest among Congressional investigators looking into Fast and Furious. Newell has said he and O'Reilly are long time friends.
Investigators previously got their hands on an email from Newell to O’Reilly, in which the ATF agent said “You didn’t get these from me,” and proceeded to discuss “gunwalking” operations in a roundabout way. These operations, of which “Fast and Furious” is the most infamous example, allowed Mexican drug cartels to buy weapons from American gun stores under the watchful eye of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
The idea was to track the guns to their ultimate end users and bust them for firearms violations… something that almost never actually happened, as thousands of “walked” guns are still missing. Congressional investigators have learned there were never any reliable procedures in place to track the guns, ATF agents were told to stand down when they tried to track the cartels’ gun buyers, and in at least two incidents, the cartel gun buyer was actually an undercover ATF agent. Over two hundred Mexicans were killed with these “walked” guns, along with a United States Border Patron agent.
Here’s how things went back in July, when Representatives Raul Labrador (R-ID) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) of the House Oversight Committee grilled Special Agent in Charge Newell about his “you didn’t get these from me” email to White House National Security staffer O’Reilly:
LABRADOR: Special Agent Newell, do you know who Kevin O'Reilly is?
NEWELL: Yes, Sir.
LABRADOR: What's the nature of your relationship with him?
NEWELL: I've known Kevin for ‑ I'd say probably 10‑12 years?
LABRADOR: How often do you communicate with him?
NEWELL: Oh, I haven't communicated with him in a while but probably three or four times a year or something like that. Or maybe ‑ maybe more depending on him reaching out to me.
LABRADOR: Isn't it a little bit unusual for a special agent in charge of an ATF field division to have direct email contact with the national security staff at the White House?
NEWELL: He's ‑ he's a friend of mine.
LABRADOR: How many times did you talk to him about this case?
NEWELL: The specifics of this case? I don't think I ‑‑ I mean ‑‑ I don't think I had one specific conversation with him about the specifics of this case.
LABRADOR: OK. Who ...
ISSA (?): Would the gentleman allow me to help him a little? Not that you need it, but could you take the word specific out and ‑ and answer the general ‑‑ did you talk to him about this case?
NEWELL: I might have talked to him about this case. Yes, Sir.
ISSA(?): Do you know when that was?
NEWELL: It was probably ‑‑ I ‑‑ as I recall I think it was during the summer ‑‑ it might have been the summer or early fall of 2010.
(Emphasis mine.) It was just a little back-channel heads-up between longtime friends! You’d never guess from Newell’s testimony to House Oversight that he ended up discussing the flow of American guns into Mexico with O’Reilly for over a month, in a blizzard of emails that included a flowchart. It’s funny that Newell had such a hard time remembering the sizable volume of correspondence CBS News pulled out of this week’s document dump:
The email exchanges span a little over a month last summer. They discuss ATF's gun trafficking efforts along the border including the controversial Fast and Furious case, though not by name. The emails to and from O'Reilly indicate more than just a passing interest in the Phoenix office's gun trafficking cases. They do not mention specific tactics such as "letting guns walk."
A lawyer for the White House wrote Congressional investigators: "none of the communications between ATF and the White House revealed the investigative law enforcement tactics at issue in your inquiry, let alone any decision to allow guns to 'walk.'"
Among the documents produced: an email in which ATF's Newell sent the White House's O'Reilly an "arrow chart reflecting the ultimate destination of firearms we intercepted and/or where the guns ended up." The chart shows arrows leading from Arizona to destinations all over Mexico.
In response, O'Reilly wrote on Sept. 3, 2010 "The arrow chart is really interesting - and - no surprise - implies at least that different (Drug Trafficking Organizations) in Mexico have very different and geographically distinct networks in the US for acquiring guns. Did last year's TX effort develop a similar graphic?"
This is simply impossible to square with Newell’s earlier testimony before House Oversight. As the White House rushed to point out, there is no specific mention of the code name “Fast and Furious” in these emails, but Newell did send O’Reilly a photo of a menacing .50 caliber sniper rifle that was part of another, smaller gun walking called “Wide Receiver,” run out of the ATF’s Phoenix office.
There have been two competing theories about the Gun Walker program, which disintegrated in a rush of institutional panic after weapons from Operation Fast and Furious were found at the scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder. One explanation holds that it was essentially well-intentioned, but the execution was horribly bungled, and the intense Obama Administration cover-up is meant to protect them from charges of deadly ineptitude.
The other, much more sinister theory is that “gun walking” was intended to pump Mexico full of American guns for propaganda purposes, enabling U.S. gun-control advocates to point at all those weapons flowing across the border when they push for more restrictive American laws. As determined investigators chisel through the Administration stone wall and uncover more details of the operation and cover-up, the relatively benign “incompetence” explanation becomes increasingly difficult to believe.
These emails between Newell and O’Reilly add further weight to the “propaganda” theory. O’Reilly sounds like a grad student expressing gratitude for information that supports the thesis of his term paper. Newell doesn’t seem interested in boasting of the ATF’s efforts to stop the activity portrayed in his flow chart.
It would be useful to conclusively determine whether Newell ever discussed the mechanics of gun walking with his old pal O’Reilly, the guy he maybe talks to three or four times a year… except when he’s pumping out a flood of emails about the operation nobody expected to blossom into a gigantic scandal. Unfortunately, the White House is still claiming executive privilege on an unspecified number of key documents.
Also, O’Reilly just happens to be on assignment in Iraq, and is therefore unavailable for comment. Too bad the Most Transparent Administration In History fought tooth and nail to delay releasing every single byte of Fast and Furious information, or the House Oversight Committee might have been able to chat with O’Reilly before he jetted off to Mesopotamia.
-
-
-
the war end, their job ends.
and you can't have a war unless you arm and supply both sides.
same reason so many billions in cash and guns go missing in Afghanistan. Those taleban keep getting their new boxes of ammo somewhere ;)
and your kneepadding started from the day this story broke.
-
and your kneepadding started from the day this story broke.
you can't separate this...
legally, obama is guilty as shit. he's funding the borrder was like presidents sinch bush 1 have done. illegal as hell.
politiclaly, nothing is gonna stick to obama. "The end of govt" and "obama will resign" over what? We sent a bunch of guns to keep the war going? Sorry 33, but only a gawddarn pussy with a 4th grade mentality isn't aware of teh fact this is how shit works. hundreds of billions of $ in funding go to our end of the border war. You gotta keep that enemy armed ;)
-
you can't separate this...
legally, obama is guilty as shit. he's funding the borrder was like presidents sinch bush 1 have done. illegal as hell.
politiclaly, nothing is gonna stick to obama. "The end of govt" and "obama will resign" over what? We sent a bunch of guns to keep the war going? Sorry 33, but only a gawddarn pussy with a 4th grade mentality isn't aware of teh fact this is how shit works. hundreds of billions of $ in funding go to our end of the border war. You gotta keep that enemy armed ;)
Yeah - who cares if 200 are dead, 2 LE are dead, grenades, 1500 unaccounted rifles, broken treaties and laws, lying to gun store owners, and lying to the public right?
No biggie right? Lets focus on the issues that matter - Christies weight.
-
Yeah - who cares if 200 are dead, 2 LE are dead, grenades, 1500 unaccounted rifles, broken treaties and laws, lying to gun store owners, and lying to the public right?
No biggie right? Lets focus on the issues that matter - Christies weight.
lol - grenades? which gun store in the USA sells grenades?
-
lol - grenades? which gun store in the USA sells grenades?
See - this is why you have become a pathetic joke. Fast n Furious also involved grenades being allowed to walk - but you are too busy focused on peoples weight issues and affairs to inform yourself about this.
-
Fast & Furious: Congress expanding probe to include grenades
Law Enforcement Examiner ^ | Sept. 27, 2011 | Jim Kouri
Posted on September 27, 2011 8:53:55 PM EDT by Smokeyblue
The U.S. Congress will expand their investigation of Operation Fast and Furious to determine its connection to the smuggling of explosives ordinance into Mexico, a police source in Washington, DC, told the Law Enforcement Examiner on Saturday. According to the law enforcement source -- who requested anonymity -- besides the firearms and ammunition allowed to "walk" by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), grenades and explosives may have also been allowed smuggled across the border into Mexico, ending up in the hands of drug cartel members.
Investigators are renewing their probe into a narco-terrorist attack in which 60 people were killed and upwards of 30 were wounded on August 24 when the perpetrators tossed three grenades into a casino in Monterrey, Mexico, the capital of Nuevo Leon.
The incident occurred at the Casino Royale when two males aboard the back of a pickup truck pulled up to an entrance and allegedly tossed the grenades into the building
Between 20 and 30 people were trapped inside the casino because of debris from the grenade blasts, said the U.S. officer who requested anonymity.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Wow. WTF!!!
Bump for the uninformed 240
-
you article showed NO SOURCE of the grenades. What is the name of the official, and what was the gun store that sold grenades?
If you have one guy in DC (anonymously) telling us grenades were handed out... lacking proof brah
-
-
33,
please list the names of a few 911 whistleblowers.
oh, you can't? you credit FF whistleblowers as heroes, but those arobud 911 as liars.
youre way too partisan, and this is exactly why nobody takes you seriously on this.
if it was 240 screaming about F&F, people would say "oh, ,wow, he was right about a lot of 911 Qs, and he might be right about FF".
However, since it's you, ppl dismiss it as "33 hates obama and gets a lot of shit wrong... "
-
33,
please list the names of a few 911 whistleblowers.
oh, you can't? you credit FF whistleblowers as heroes, but those arobud 911 as liars.
youre way too partisan, and this is exactly why nobody takes you seriously on this.
if it was 240 screaming about F&F, people would say "oh, ,wow, he was right about a lot of 911 Qs, and he might be right about FF".
However, since it's you, ppl dismiss it as "33 hates obama and gets a lot of shit wrong... "
Name one 911 whistleblower with evidence of a govt sponsored operastion like this and supporting evidence
-
Name one 911 whistleblower with evidence of a govt sponsored operastion like this and supporting evidence
oh dear god, i want a prozac right now. you've been screaming about CTs and worshipping alex jones for years and you don't know?
fuck fuck, i'm arguing with a kid here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds
now, come back when you have gd clue.
-
oh dear god, i want a prozac right now. you've been screaming about CTs and worshipping alex jones for years and you don't know?
fuck fuck, i'm arguing with a kid here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds
now, come back when you have gd clue.
More spin. I asked for evidence of a govt sponsored operation, not whether red flags were missed - which i agree with.
-
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/04/house-republicans-to-request-special-counsel-to-probe-holder-on-fast-and/#comment
Special Prosecutor time.
Get the popcorn out.
-
CBS News Reporter Says White House Screamed, Swore at Her Over Fast and Furious
12:55 PM, Oct 4, 2011 •
By MARK HEMINGWAY
Jay Cost Your e-mail address: Confirm e-mail address: Zip code: Please sign me up for The Weekly Standard weekly newsletter. The Weekly Standard reserves the right to use your email for internal use only. Occasionally, we may send you special offers or communications from carefully selected advertisers we believe may be of benefit to our subscribers. Click the box to be included in these third party offers. We respect your privacy and will never rent or sell your email. Please include me in third party offers.
The Fast and Furious scandal, in which the Justice Department knowingly gave Mexican criminal gangs thousands of guns, just keeps escalating. The latest development centers around whether or not Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress about having knowledge of the controversial gun trafficking operation. Recently released documents say Holder was briefed about the operation long before he told the Judiciary Committee he was first aware of what was going on. (Holder now claims he misunderstood the question was being asked.)
What's more, CBS News investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson -- who's been covering the scandal from the beginning -- says in an interview on the Laura Ingraham Show today that the White House and Justice Department have taken to screaming at her for reporting on the story. You can listen to the full interview below, but here are the key excerpts from Attkisson:
In between the yelling that I received from Justice Department yesterday, the spokeswoman--who would not put anything in writing, I was asking for her explanation so there would be clarity and no confusion later over what had been said, she wouldn't put anything in writing--so we talked on the phone and she said things such as the question Holder answered was different than the one he asked. But he phrased it, he said very explicitly, 'I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.'
Ingraham: So they were literally screaming at you?
Attkisson: Yes. Well the DOJ woman was just yelling at me. The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me. [Laura: Who was the person? Who was the person at Justice screaming?] Eric Schultz. Oh, the person screaming was [DOJ spokeswoman] Tracy Schmaler, she was yelling not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House."
Finally, Attkisson notes that the White House is claiming that a thorough investigation of the scandal is unwarranted:
[The White House and Justice Department] will tell you that I'm the only reporter--as they told me--that is not reasonable. They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I'm the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I'm unfair and biased by pursuing it.
Here's the audio from the interview:
WOW! ! !
-
-
Obama Admn at work - DOJ WAS AWARE OF IT! ! ! ! ! !
-
What a friggin lying sack of shit!
-
-
THEY NEVER TOLD MEXICO!
-
Solyndra's Price Tag (No Wonder They Went Bankrupt)
Townhall.com ^ | October 4, 2011 | David Morris
Solyndra may have gone belly up, but at least it goes out with style. Constructed by union workers at a total cost of $733 million (proceeding from the Energy Department's $535 million loan guarantee), the Solyndra facility featured robots that sang Disney tunes, 19 loading decks, and localized rail lines for moving products across its 300,000 square feet (approximately 5 football fields).
“The new building is like the Taj Mahal,” said John Pierce, 54, a San Jose resident who worked as a facilities manager at Solyndra.
Situated in Silicon Valley (which hadn't seen factory construction in 10 years given that it is the 4th highest real estate area in the nation), further frills included professional landscaping for the front, 4 electric car recharge stations, and a glass covered conference room. It even featured a fully equipped spa with state-of-the-art shower displays to enable employees to relax after the daily grind.
Of course, the problem was that Solyndra was never worthy of profit to begin with. Despite the lack of demand for their signature "cylindrical" panel design, in 2009 such modules were touted to the Department of Energy as superior in the cost effectiveness of their construction and installation (compared to traditional flat panels, whose production is currently dominated by Chinese manufacturers.)
However, this cost advantage could hold only as long as the price of a primary component for flat panels, polysilicon, remained high. A comparable parallel would be citing a "cost advantage" for electric cars given the premise that oil price never recedes. This was the assumption in 2009, but by the time Solyndra became operational in January of 2011, commodity prices for flat panel components had plunged. Solyndra's claim of cost competitiveness with the conventional design of Chinese flat panels was completely nullified.
Even without the price fallout, hasty construction of the factory left the company with equipment that proved both high maintenance and unreliable.
“A significant percentage of the product we built went into a dumpster because it was defective,” said Craig Ewing, 55, a former maintenance technician. “It seemed like the company accepted that,” he said.
Solyndra executives also neglected to perform a proper cost analysis on their procedures. According to solar industry analyst Peter Lynch, the factory spent $6 per device. To remain competitive, they would have to resell it at $1 to $3 per device. The mass scores of defective product aside, Solyndra's business model wouldn’t even cover half of its costs.
The more we learn about the company, the harder it is to believe that such a waste of taxpayer money could occur. To review, without real demand to prop it up Solyndra's business model laid precariously on a presumption of high commodity price. Creating products, many of which didn't even work, Solyndra soon found itself backlogged with overly expensive inventory. Fifteen months of decline later, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 6th. 11,000 jobs "created or saved" by Obama's stimulus package went with it.
As for the factory itself, taxpayers are stuck with it for the time being, a harrowing reminder for anyone driving down Interstate 880 in Fremont, California.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Obama attends fundraiser hosted by wind kingpin
The Washington Examiner ^ | 10/5/11 | Charlie Spiering
Yesterday Obama attended four fundraisers, including one at the the home of Tom Carnahan, the founder of Wind Capital Group.
Carnahan hosted approximately 45 people who contributed at least $25,000 to attend.
Tom Carnahan is the son of former Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and former U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan of Missouri.
His brother Russ currently serves as a U.S. Congressman for the state of Missouri, and his sister Robin is the current Missouri Secretary of State, who ran against Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri in 2010.
Last year, Wind Capital's Lost Creek Farm facility received a $107 million "tax credit" from the Treasury Department under the stimulus bill.
Carnahan donated $30,500 to the DNC this year and has already maxed out his donations to Obama's re-election campaign.
Carnahan also donated $7,500 to the American Wind Energy Association, a lobbying organization promoting wind energy, and $1,000 to his brother's re-election campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at campaign2012.washingtone xaminer.com
________________________ _________________
Culture of corruption.
Not bad - give the communist obama 25,000 and get back $107,000,000
Sounds like Kenyanomics to me.
-
Solyndra e-mails: Dept. of Energy was poised to approve $469 million for firm
By Carol D. Leonnig and Joe Stephens, Wednesday, October 5, 12:14 PM
www.washingtonpost.com
The Obama administration’s Department of Energy was poised last summer to give Solyndra a second major taxpayer loan of $469 million, even as the company’s financial situation was growing more dire.
The Energy Department was actively pushing to provide the second loan guarantee to the troubled solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, when Solyndra’s auditors warned the company was in danger of closing due to its rapidly mounting debts and expenses, according to complete e-mails just released by a House committee investigating the original loan.
White House career staffers, who had first raised concerns in the fall of 2009 about the Department of Energy providing Solyndra with its first taxpayer-backed loan of $535 million , wrote e-mails in gallows humor in April 2010 about the prospect of giving Solyndra more money. That spring, industry analysts were publicly questioning how the Silicon Valley startup could so quickly be running out both the federal loan and $933 million in private capital.
“Apparently the loan size for Phase II is $469 million,” one Office of Management and Budget analyst wrote of DOE seeking a second loan for Solyndra. The analysts’s name was not released by the committee. “I’ve been told we should expect the see that project soon for conditional commitment.”
Another joked: “Possible to close and default on one before closing on a second??? Could be a new record.”
The agency didn’t shelve the idea for a second loan until October 2010, a Department of Energy spokesman has confirmed. That was the month that Solyndra executives and investors first warned the department that the company was facing the threat of having to liquidate without emergency cash.
Solyndra, which suddenly shut down on Aug. 31 and sought bankruptcy protection, has left taxpayers on the hook for repaying that first half-billion-dollar loan. Its also left many, both Republicans and Democrats, questioning why the Obama administration was so supportive of the startup. Republicans have alleged the administration was showing favoritism to a firm backed primarily by investment funds tied to a major Obama campaign bundler, George Kaiser.
Solyndra, the first clean energy company that the fledgling administration backed with a stimulus-funded loan, had been a showcase of Obama’s effort to spur a clean energy industry on U.S. soil. Obama personally visited the firm in May 2010, after being warned not to go by a donor and adviser in the venture capital field who noted the auditors’ warnings the firm could very likely fail.
Even in May 2010, Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s top advisers — his senior adviser on stimulus , Matt Rogers, and his chief of staff, Rod O’Connor — were telling the White House not to worry about the auditors’ warnings on Solyndra’s finances. They also referenced the need for more federal money for Solyndra.
O’Connor told a top White House adviser to Vice President Biden that the warnings were exaggerated, when a venture capitalist and Obama donor had flagged the company’s finances as a reason the president shouldn’t visit Solyndra as scheduled on May 25. O’Connor also raised the issue of more government support for Solyndra
“Bottom line is that we believe the company is okay in the medium term, but will need some help of one kind or another down the road,” O’Connor wrote on May 24.
Rogers, who had been a senior consultant at McKinsey before joining the administration and returned to that company last fall, told the White House the same day that such auditors’ warnings were typical for startups. Rogers acknowledged shifts in the market that were not favoring Solyndra, but stressed the short term and raised no concerns about the president visiting the company in a high-profile press conference touting Solyndra’s work.
Rogers predicted the company could run into trouble in 18 to 24 months if European markets stumbled, but stressed “the company should be strong going into the fall with their new facilities on line.”
The next day, Obama headlined a press event carried on national television broadcasts from Solyndra’s warehouse, and called the company an “engine of economic growth.”
Solyndra filled out the application for a second loan days after receiving the first one in September 2009. The agency had put Solyndra’s request for a second loan guarantee on a fast-tracked, priority list, two sources familiar with the company’s application told the Post. The sources asked to remain anonymous because the probes of the loan are ongoing.
A Department of Energy confirmed the agency had been reviewing Solyndra’s second loan application through much of last year.
“Solyndra inquired about applying for a second loan guarantee, but DOE and Solyndra mutually agreed not to pursue that application until after the project we were already supporting was complete,” LaVera said in a e-mailed response to the Post’s questions.
“In early fall of 2010, Solyndra informed the Department that it was having an acute liquidity problem and that it would need to raise additional capital to continue operations.,” LaVera said. “Solyndra subsequently hired Goldman Sachs to assist with the equity raise. In early November, it became clear that that effort was not likely to be successful and DOE began to discuss funding alternatives with the company and its existing investors. “
The company closed on Aug. 31. Federal agents executed a surprise search warrant on Solyndra headquarters days later, part of a criminal probe into the company for possible accounting fraud.
-
are you participating in Occupy New York?
-
are you participating in Occupy New York?
Fuck no - those socialist commies and hippies represent everything I detest.
-
Solyndra Probe Widens: Congress Wants To See Obama's Emails
Jon Terbush | Oct. 6, 2011, 10:52 AM | 218 | 2
The House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to the White House on Wednesday requesting any and all personal emails sent by President Obama related to the now bankrupt solar company Solyndra, according to CNBC.
While Obama administration officials had previously been called to testify before the committee, the president himself had been largely exempt from the scrutiny. Now, however, House members want to find out exactly how involved Obama was in the decision to give taxpayer-guaranteed loans to the energy company.
A White House spokesperson told CNBC that he believes this is the first time investigators have asked to review a president's emails.
The Solyndra probe has steadily widened over the past few months, particularly after FBI officials raided Solyndra's offices and the homes of former executives in September. Then later that month, the Washington Post obtained leaked emails suggesting that White House officials pressured the Office of Management and Budget to rush loans to Solyndra despite concerns about the company's financial solvency.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/solyndra-probe-widens-congress-asking-to-see-obamas-emails-2011-10#ixzz1a10qWumo
________________________ ____
BOOOMMMM!!!!!
-
Solyndra controversy claims casualty as head of Energy Department loan program steps down
By Juliet Eilperin, Thursday, October 6, 4:07 PM
The head of the Energy Department’s controversial loan guarantee program has decided to step down, department officials confirmed to The Washington Post on Thursday.
Jonathan Silver, who was named executive director of DOE’s Loan Programs Office in November 2009, has come under fire from congressional Republicans since the solar manufacturer Solyndra declared bankruptcy Aug. 31 after receiving a $535 million federal loan guarantee. While DOE made the initial loan to Solyndra before Silver took the program’s helm — a point he made repeatedly during his congressional testimony last month — he remained the administration’s point person for the embattled initiative.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement Thursday that Silver had informed him in July, when it was clear that no significant new funds were being budgeted for the loan program, that he would leave at the end of the fiscal year.
The program’s authorization expired Friday: On its last day the agency committed an additional $4.7 billion in loan guarantees to support four major clean-technology projects across the country.
“Because of my absolute confidence in Jonathan and the outstanding work he has done, I would welcome his continued service at the Department, but I completely understand the decision he has made,” Chu said.
Chu made a point of defending the agency’s loan guarantee operation, saying, “Under his [Silver’s] leadership, the loan program has demonstrated considerable success, with a broad portfolio of investments that will help American companies compete in the global clean energy market.”
Under Silver’s leadership, the program grew to be the largest project finance effort in the United States. He headed both a $35.9 billion dollar investment program in alternative energy and a $20 billion investment program in advanced automotive technology.
The House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee is investigating a range of issues surrounding the federal government’s loan guarantee to Solyndra, including the fact that DOE officials learned the company was violating its loan deal and subsequently changed the loan terms so that it could continue receiving taxpayer funds.
In a hearing last month. the subcommittee’s chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) grilled Silver on whether DOE officials had been more skeptical about backing a loan for Solyndra under the Bush administration. After reading an e-mail exchange from that period, Stearns asked, “Do you understand that the Bush administration essentially decided that the due diligence was not complete at this point?”
“No, Mr. Chairman, in fact the credit committee which you are referring to is, as I said, made up of a group of career professionals, is also exactly the same group of career professionals . . .” Silver replied, before Stearns cut him off.
“Oh I understand that, but the point is, what I just quoted to you is the truth, isn’t that correct, that that quote is accurate?”
“I haven’t seen that e-mail, sir. I wasn’t there,” Silver responded.
“Well you can be assured it is,” the congressman said. “And the DOE should quit talking with Solyndra, that was the recommendation.”
The day after the hearing, Stearns called for Silver to be fired.
Before joining the federal government, Silver co-founded and served as managing director of Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in alternative energy technology, advanced manufacturing, telecommunications and software. His last day at the Energy Department will be Friday.
© The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/jonathan-silver-head-of-doe-loan-guarantee-program-to-step-down/2011/10/06/gIQAzQmlQL_print.html
-
Energy Department Official in Charge of Solyndra Loan Program to Step Down
Fox News ^ | October 6, 2011 | Staff
The director of the controversial loan program that cleared the way for a $535 million taxpayer guarantee to bankrupt solar firm Solyndra is stepping down, the Energy Department confirmed Thursday.
Jonathan Silver, head of the Loan Programs Office, plans to join the organization Third Way as a "distinguished visiting fellow." The career change comes in the middle of heavy scrutiny from Congress over the department's handling of the Solyndra agreement. Documents that have emerged over the past month show officials were warned about potential problems with the company as it sought government help.
But the president on Thursday defended the Energy Department's vetting. And Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement that Silver's departure was expected.
Chu said Silver told him in July that he planned to return to the private sector soon after Sept. 30, when the loan program expired.
"Since he joined the Department in November 2009, Jonathan assembled and managed a truly outstanding team that has transformed the program into the world leader in financing innovative clean energy projects. Under his leadership, the loan program has demonstrated considerable success, with a broad portfolio of investments that will help American companies compete in the global clean energy market," Chu said. "Because of my absolute confidence in Jonathan and the outstanding work he has done, I would welcome his continued service at the Department, but I completely understand the decision he has made."
Solyndra, which later went bankrupt and is now under multiple investigations, ended up being lent $528 million in taxpayer money.
But defending the program, Obama said Thursday that lending by nature is inherently risky. At a wide ranging news conference, Obama said his administration knew that some companies participating in the loan guarantee program started under the Bush administration would fail.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
________________________ __________________
Obama is now doing in green energy the same as wall street did w subprime
-
Putrid Green: Harry Reid may have his own Solyndra, “Nevada Geothermal Power” to loot
coachisright.com ^ | October 6, 2011 | Kevin "Coach" Collins
First, consider a few facts of life in Nevada.
Harry Reid is the Boss Tweed of Nevada. He runs the state like a fiefdom where nothing of value goes untouched and “untaxed” by Boss Reid.
A “green” energy company opening in Nevada could not have escaped his grasp even if it was founded by people not directly connected to him; but such is not the case with “Nevada Geothermal Power”
In June 2010, Reid used his influence to arrange a Department of Energy “loan” of $98.5 million to Blue Mountain … a subsidiary of Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP). Aside from this NGP, …..soaked up another $145 million in federally guaranteed loans.
Nevertheless, Deloitte & Touche (D&T) the nationally known and respected accounting firm released a report on the fiscal health of NGP that had a familiar ring to it. The report said there is “significant doubt” that NGP has the “ability to continue as a going concern.”
To support its conclusion, D&T added, “… [NGP] has incurred net losses over the past several years, has an accumulated deficit of $44.0 million and an anticipated inability to retire its long-term liabilities.”
Boss Reid’s connection to NGP
In June of 2010, just in time for him to ingratiate himself to the backers of this phony company Boss Reid arranged to hand NGP the $98.5 million taxpayer backed loan …..
Reid was supported in this money laundering scheme by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu,…. “The United States leads the world in geothermal electricity production with just over 3,000 megawatts of installed capacity. Our support of the Blue Mountain project demonstrates our continued commitment to realize the potential in geothermal so that we can achieve our nation’s clean energy goals.”
Say anything to get the money......
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The entire demo party needs to be jailed.
-
Obama: Solyndra Got Loan 'On the Merits'
abc ^ | 10/6/2011 | MATTHEW MOSK
President Obama said Thursday that his administration has loaned billions to start-up high tech firms like the now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra based not on political influence, but "on the merits."
"I have confidence decisions were made based upon what's good for the American people," Obama said in a press conference Thursday in response to questions from ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper. "There were going to be some companies that did not work out. Solyndra was one of them."
The president addressed multiple questions Thursday about Solyndra, the first recipient of a government loan under a program to help finance start-up companies in the fledgling field of green energy. Solyndra declared bankruptcy last month, locking out 1,100 workers. The Energy Department loan is now the focus of investigations by Congress and by the Department of Justice.
"All I can say is the Department of Energy made these decisions based on their best judgments," Obama said, defending the decision to make Solyndra the country's first loan guarantee recipient.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ____
WTF! ! ! OMB told him this was a disaster!
-
GOP Solyndra probe wants Obama's BlackBerry messages
Politico ^
Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2011 4:55:51
GOP Solyndra probe wants Obama's BlackBerry messages
By: Darren Samuelsohn October 6, 2011 04:06 PM EDT
The GOP's demand for all White House communications on Solyndra covers President Barack Obama's personal BlackBerry messages too, Rep. Cliff Stearns said Thursday.
The Florida Republican said he made the precedent-setting request to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on Wednesday after newly released emails showed that warning flags about the California solar company’s shaky finances had reached into the president’s inner circle, including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
"We asked for all communications between the president, the White House and Solyndra,” Stearns said. “So if there's nothing on his BlackBerry, that's fine. But if there's something on his BlackBerry, I would assume that would include that.
"I don't know how that technically works," Stearns added of his unusual request. "But we've asked for them, so we're hopeful we'll get some response."
Obama fought his lawyers early in his term to become the first president to use a BlackBerry. He's said he uses it to keep in touch with a small circle of people — and so far, there has been no successful attempt to make any of the messages public.
Stearns’s request is the latest move in an escalating and increasingly personal battle with the White House over Solyndra.
During his news conference Thursday, Obama singled out Stearns’s statement earlier this week to NPR that “we can't compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines.”
“I don’t buy that,” Obama said. “I’m not going to surrender to other countries technical leads that could determine whether or not we’re going to have a strong middle class in this country.”
"I was a little puzzled to see the president single me out," Stearns replied Thursday when asked about his moment in the presidential spotlight.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow. Pass the popcorn.
-
Solyndra: A bad bet Obama should regret
By Editorial, Published: October 6
ONCE THE OBAMA administration’s paragon of a clean-energy future, Solyndra has gone bankrupt, taking a $527 million Energy Department-guaranteed loan with it. President Obama, however, has no regrets. “Hindsight is always 20-20,” he told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. “It went through the regular review process. And people felt like this was a good bet.” Solyndra didn’t pan out, Mr. Obama conceded, but that’s the sort of risk the United States must take to compete with countries, such as China, that subsidize solar power.
This answer, which Mr. Obama essentially repeated at a news conference Thursday, was unsatisfactory — in tone and substance. When a profit-making venture blows half a billion taxpayer dollars, the president should be more upset about it. Much of the criticism Mr. Obama is taking over Solyndra is political. But not all of it.
The important lesson is that the government “is a crappy vc” — venture capitalist — as then-White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers put it in an internal e-mail. Government can foster clean energy by subsidizing basic research, whose fruits become available to a variety of entrepreneurs, and by setting broad incentives that shift demand in favor of alternative energy. Subsidizing selected technologies or companies, by contrast, is a game that taxpayers often lose, as the history of boondoggles from synthetic fuels to the fast breeder reactor suggests. We suspect China will learn this lesson, too.
The Obama administration has noted that private-sector biggies such as Richard Branson also bet on Solyndra. We concede that government officials are no less susceptible to irrational exuberance than capitalists. The problem is that bureaucrats are more likely to bet wrong because they are generally not full-time investment experts and have no skin in the game themselves.
Solyndra was risky in the sense that all solar-energy ventures are risky. Fossil fuel technologies are more cost-effective for the vast majority of uses. Though the solar space is growing — and might be growing more if Congress had passed cap-and-trade legislation, as the administration anticipated — it is still tiny. There is intense competition for every sliver of market share.
But Solyndra posed a special risk, as its business model hinged on a transitory market condition: high prices for silicon, the raw material of competing solar panels. As of the time Solyndra began seeking — and obtaining — venture capital a half-decade ago, this seemed like a huge advantage for the firm. By March 2009, however, when the Solyndra loan won conditional approval from the Energy Department, silicon prices had cratered — and stayed low through the loan’s closing in September 2009 and its restructuring by the Energy Department in 2011. This was no unforeseeable surprise. Savvy market players saw it coming. The silicon glut — compounded by a global credit crunch — explains why Solyndra was finding private capital harder to raise before the Energy Department stepped in.
The administration insists the Solyndra losses were in a good cause — several, actually: fighting global warming, creating construction jobs and building a clean-energy manufacturing base. But it could have pursued those public goods at less risk and cost. The lost $527 million, as well as the private capital drawn to the firm by the federal seal of approval, is money that now cannot be used for any good objective. Instead, the country just has a bigger pile of debt to pay back, with interest.
-
LightSquared Threatens Legal Action against FCC
Flying Magazine ^ | 10/7/11 | Pope
LightSquared is threatening legal action against the Federal Communications Commission if the agency does not grant the company approval to build a planned nationwide network of around 40,000 broadband towers that many experts warn will cause interference with GPS receivers.
LightSquared argues that any interference with high-precision GPS receivers from the company’s planned network is a result of GPS receivers “looking” for signals in the adjacent frequency band. In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the company argues that GPS manufacturers have ignored standards developed by the Defense Department to block reception of transmissions from nearby bands.
A spokesman said LightSquared has tried to conduct itself as a “good neighbor” to GPS receiver manufacturers and users, but nonetheless is prepared to take legal action if the FCC does not approve the company’s network after additional testing is completed. LightSquared claims that, according to FCC rules, GPS receivers are not entitled to protection from interference “if they are listening outside their band.”
The Coalition to Save Our GPS, an industry group, is fighting to block construction of LightSquared’s ground network, pointing out that when the company submitted its plan to the FCC, the network was touted as being based almost solely on satellite transmissions, not a large ground network in a band next to that of Global Position System receivers.
(Excerpt) Read more at flyingmag.com ...
-
White House adviser on Solyndra: '*#~@ show'
Politico ^
White House adviser on Solyndra: '*#~@ show'
By: Dan Berman October 7, 2011 04:53 PM EDT
When Solyndra hit the fan in August, White House energy adviser Heather Zichal may have summed it up best.
"*#~@ show," Zichal wrote in an email Aug. 25.
Zichal’s email is one of dozens showing Obama administration officials were planning on how to handle a Solyndra bankruptcy days before the solar company went under.
On Aug. 17, Dan Utech, an energy special assistant in the White House, wrote in an email that DOE had learned Solyndra was beginning to shut down operations.
“It’s unclear what that means in terms of how many people are involved at Solyndra, but we’re now in a place where this could break at any time.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Obama Fundraiser Pushed Solyndra Deal From Inside
Steve Spinner, loan programs advisor at the Department of Energy, talks about green energy grants and loans in this YouTube video of the Bryan Cave Clean Tech Roundtable in Santa Monica, California on June 2, 2010. (ABC News)
By MATTHEW MOSK and RONNIE GREENE
ABC NEWS and iWATCH NEWS
Oct. 7, 2011
An elite Obama fundraiser hired to help oversee the administration's energy loan program pushed and prodded career Department of Energy officials to move faster in approving a loan guarantee for Solyndra, even as his wife's law firm was representing the California solar company, according to internal emails made public late Friday.
"How hard is this? What is he waiting for?" wrote Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate before being appointed to a key job helping oversee the energy loan guarantee program. "I have OVP [the Office of the Vice President] and WH [the White House] breathing down my neck on this."
Many of the emails were written just days after Spinner accepted a three-page ethics agreement in which he pledged he would "not participate in any discussion regarding any application involving [his wife's law firm] Wilson [Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati]."
The $535 million loan to Solyndra was ultimately approved in 2009 and for months was touted by President Obama as a model of his efforts to create new jobs in the emerging field of clean energy. But in late August, the company abruptly shut its doors and days later declared it was filing for bankruptcy. Now the loan is the subject of multiple investigations, by Congress and by the Department of Justice.
In one of the new emails shared with ABC News and other news outlets Friday, the White House appears to be bracing for the political fallout -- one high ranking energy official in the White House warns shortly before Solyndra's bankruptcy, on Aug. 26, that what's coming is a "*#~@ show" and "a mess."
ABC NewsSteve Spinner, loan programs advisor at the... View Full Size ABC NewsSteve Spinner, loan programs advisor at the Department of Energy, talks about green energy grants and loans in this YouTube video of the Bryan Cave Clean Tech Roundtable in Santa Monica, California on June 2, 2010.
Solyndra Execs Stonewall Congress Watch Video
Solyndra: A Loan to Nowhere Watch Video
White House Dodges Energy Company Questions Watch Video
In the lengthy email discussions that occurred in the days before the Solyndra loan closed in September 2009, Spinner emerges as a key figure in advocating for getting the deal done, apparently in an effort to score the loan as a political victory for President Obama. Many of the emails surround his efforts to coordinate plans for either President Obama or Vice President Biden to announce it as the administration's first loan approval -- one that he repeatedly notes will create clean energy jobs.
It is Spinner, for instance, who pushes for a "big event" with "golden shovels, bulldozers, hardhats, etc."
He also corresponds with career Department of Energy loan officials who are making the final decisions on the Solyndra loan. In one instance, he writes, "Hopefully, this might spur [the Office of Management and Budget] a little faster to help the closing."
Spinner also wrote an email two weeks before the Solyndra loan closed to an aide to Vice President Biden, identifying the private investors in the deal. He attached to the email a bio from Forbes Magazine of George Kaiser, an Oklahoma billionaire who raised up to $100,000 for Obama's 2008 campaign.
Recovery Act records show Allison Spinner's law firm, Wilson Sonsini, received $2.4 million in federal funds for legal fees related to the $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee to Solyndra. That ethics agreement said his wife would forgo pay "earned as a result of its representation of applicants in programs within your official duties."
Courtney Dorman, a spokeswoman for Allison Spinner's law firm, Wilson Sonsini, said the firm also took strides to avoid conflicts, establishing a wall between her and client matters involving the Energy Department while Spinner was in office.
The law firm worked on the solar company's failed public offering, the records show. And it also provided Solyndra with outside counsel on the DOE loan guarantee transaction. The company's $2.44 million payment was generated by the Energy Department's stimulus loan guarantee to the solar panel firm.
Allison Spinner "was not involved with that transaction, nor has she ever worked with Solyndra in any capacity," Dorman said.
Spinner took steps to further disclose his potential conflicts in an email dated Sept. 23, 2009, after the Solyndra loan had closed, and the formal announcement involving Vice President Biden and others took place. In the email, also made public Friday, Spinner wrote "I will recuse myself from any active participation in any of these applications." Among those he listed was Solyndra's.
-
E-mails suggest Rahm, and maybe Obama, pushed early to spotlight Solyndra amid financial warnings; Update: Obama appointee pushed Solyndra loan — despite conflict of interest with wife’s law firm
Share
70
POSTED AT 5:26 PM ON OCTOBER 7, 2011 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
PRINTER-FRIENDLY
We already knew that people in the White House were rushing OMB in August 2009 to approve Solyndra’s half-billion-dollar loan so that The One could get his all-important green jobs/stimulus photo op at the plant. Some OMB analysts complained at the time, in fact, that the time pressure might affect the diligence with which the loan was being reviewed. Oh well. What we didn’t know was who in the White House was pressuring them. Over to you, WaPo:
White House staff discussed in emails that either President Obama or his former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel were eager to help spotlight a solar company in early 2009, despite numerous internal warnings that the company could be financially unstable, according to new e-mails…
“Ron said this morning that the POTUS definitely wants to do this (orRahm definitely wants the POTUS to do this ?),” one White House staffer told an Obama scheduler on Aug. 17, 2009…
The emails also show that the Department of Energy was told by the Treasury Deparment its refinancing arrangement for the Solyndra loan in early 2011 might be improper and should be cleared with the Department of Justice…
“In February, we requested in writing that DOE seek the Department of Justice’s approval of any proposed restructuring,” Mary Miller, assistant secretary wrote in a August 17, 2011 memo to OMB deputy chief Jeffrey Zients. “To our knowledge that never happened.”
Remember, according to a Congressional Research Service report, it was already apparent by the time the loan was approved in September 2009 that changes in the polysilicon market meant that Solyndra had lost its key competitive advantage over foreign firms. That was ignored; OMB’s misgivings about being rushed were ignored; and later, according to the blockquote above, the question of whether the ill-fated loan restructuring to keep the company afloat might be illegal was also ignored. How much negligence do we need here before we can call it gross recklessness?
Update: But wait, it gets worse.
An elite Obama fundraiser hired to help oversee the administration’s energy loan program pushed and prodded career Department of Energy officials to move faster in approving a loan guarantee for Solyndra, even as his wife’s law firm was representing the California solar company, according to internal emails made public late Friday.
“How hard is this? What is he waiting for?” wrote Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate before being appointed to a key job helping oversee the energy loan guarantee program. “I have OVP [the Office of the Vice President] and WH [the White House] breathing down my neck on this.”…
The emails occurred less than two weeks after Spinner received a three-page ethics agreement in which he pledges he will “not participate in any discussion regarding any application involving [his wife's law firm] Wilson [Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati].”
Funny thing: ABC published a report about Spinner last week to which Jay Carney replied that, to the best of the White House’s knowledge, Spinner had no input on the green loans program. According to today’s e-mails, though, not only was Spinner evidently in contact with the White House — including Biden’s office! — about Solyndra, he corresponded directly with Solyndra’s VP of marketing. I can’t wait for the inevitable next round of e-mails in which we find out precisely what the people in Biden’s office were telling him.
Exit question: Spinner’s going to make a nifty fall guy, isn’t he?
-
By Doug Powers • October 7, 2011 07:37 PM
**Written by Doug Powers
Logo credit: Sloane
Buried within an ABC News story about today’s release of hundreds of Solyndra-related emails is a reminder of what White House Spokesman Jay Carney said at a press conference late last month after being asked about the involvement of a Department of Energy consultant and Obama fundraiser named Steve Spinner:
Carney replied: “It’s my understanding, at least with regard to the gentleman you just mentioned [Steve Spinner], that he had no connection to overseeing the loan guarantee program.”
After hearing Carney say that, your first instinct might have been to think, “Hey, Spinner must have a connection to overseeing the loan guarantee program!”
Now back to the top of the story for confirmation that you should always trust your instincts:
An elite Obama fundraiser hired to help oversee the administration’s energy loan program pushed and prodded career Department of Energy officials to move faster in approving a loan guarantee for Solyndra, even as his wife’s law firm was representing the California solar company, according to internal emails made public late Friday.
“How hard is this? What is he waiting for?” wrote Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate before being appointed to a key job helping oversee the energy loan guarantee program. “I have OVP [the Office of the Vice President] and WH [the White House] breathing down my neck on this.”
Many of the emails were written just days after Spinner accepted a three-page ethics agreement in which he pledged he would “not participate in any discussion regarding any application involving [his wife's law firm] Wilson [Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati].”
Prediction: At the next press conference Carney will claim that when he said Spinner had “no connection” to the loan program, he meant literally — as in that Spinner wasn’t duct taped, chained, super glued or stapled to it in any way.
If the “breathing down my neck on this” Spinner references from the White House and Veep’s office was in email or memo form, we might learn about it on a subsequent Friday afternoon document drop & dash.
Also, it isn’t difficult to spot a party planner who has access to piles of other people’s money:
Many of the emails surround his efforts to coordinate plans for either President Obama or Vice President Biden to announce it as the administration’s first loan approval — one that he repeatedly notes will create clean energy jobs.
It is Spinner, for instance, who pushes for a “big event” with “golden shovels, bulldozers, hardhats, etc.”
It wasn’t just a shovel ready job — it was a golden shovel ready job. At this point though, the whistling robots were just a gleam in his eye.
Politico has a story today about the “*#~@ show,” and there’s lots more Solyndra and Solyndra-related background here.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/10/07/friday-solyndra-email/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Solyndra: Obama's Solar Slush Fund
Townhall.com ^ | October 8, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
Posted on October 8, 2011 9:11:35 AM EDT by Kaslin
Newly released communications regarding the loan approval for Solyndra, the now failed California solar energy company, show direct intervention by an Energy Department adviser and Obama campaign fundraiser, and raise new questions of possible involvement by Rahm Emanuel and the President. As more is learned, it becomes increasingly clear that the Administration used the Stimulus, and specifically the green energy loan program, as a campaign slush fund to distribute billions of dollars like party favors to supporters and to grandstand for re-election to a perceived constituency.
By mid-2009, the White House was obsessing to make headlines with an announcement of a $535 million loan to Solyndra as the first of many green energy loans in the DOE's pipeline that would be funded by the recently passed Stimulus. Initially the staff tried to schedule an announcement by Obama, and later as approval was delayed, they shifted to the Vice-President.
"Ron said this morning that the POTUS definitely wants to do this (or Rahm definitely wants the POTUS to do this?)," a White House staffer told an Obama scheduler on August 17, 2009 according to The Washington Post. This was a reference to Ron Klain, Chief of Staff at that time for the Vice-President. "Rahm" refers to Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff to the President.
The Solyndra loan was finally approved in September 2009 over a plethora of warnings and objections from within the Department of Energy, the Office of Management and Budget, and numerous private and solar industry experts. Following the company's collapse, questions have haunted the White House of possible political corruption and cronyism as investigations revealed that executives and investors in Solyndra were also significant donors to the Obama campaign with repeated access to top White House officials. In addition, critics charge that the administration disregarded objective financial analysis, and blindly threw billions of taxpayer dollars at green energy companies like Solyndra with little chance of success.
Oblivious to the warnings from his own White House advisers that the company was in serious trouble and would run out of cash in September, 2010 (and it did), Obama visited the Solyndra headquarters in May 2010 and hailed it as "leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future."
The Washington Post is also reporting that Steve Spinner, a major Obama 2008 campaign fundraiser, later appointed by the White House to "advise" the Department of Energy regarding the green energy loan program, applied heavy pressure on DOE officials for approval of the $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra.
"How (expletive) hard is this? What is he waiting for?" Spinner wrote to a DOE official by email on Aug. 28, 2009 questioning why the Solyndra application was not already approved. "I have the OVP (Office of the Vice-President) and the WH (White House) breathing down my neck on this. They are getting itchy to get involved."
Later the same day, Spinner asked the same DOE official to "walk over there and force him to give you the answer."
In another exchange just minutes after getting an email from Solyndra, Spinner fired off a message to the DOE officials asking if the White House budget office (OMB) had completed their review. "Any word on OMB? Solyndra's getting nervous," he wrote.
The loan was pushed through, and on September 4, 2009 Joe Biden announced by video link the deal as the "unprecedented investment this Administration is making in renewable energy and exactly what the Recovery Act (Stimulus) is all about."
Spinner's involvement is in direct contradiction of previous representations by the DOE. Spinner had specifically recused himself from the Solyndra application because his wife's law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, represented the company on the DOE loan and pocketed $2.4 million in legal fees for their efforts.
The AP reports that an administration official, speaking on condition that he not be identified because of ongoing investigations in the evolving scandal, said that Spinner "clearly was actively involved in facilitating between DOE and OMB."
Joe Biden was partially correct – unfortunately. Solyndra is typical of what the billions of Stimulus dollars tossed around by the Obama Administration was "all about" – about waste, cronyism, and corruption. The taxpayer is on the hook for $535 million, but before this is done some once big shots in Washington will deservedly be cut down to size.
-
DOE Warned Solyndra Loan Could be Illegal
Official pushed approval despite conflict of interest.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/10/08/doe-warned-solyndra-loan-could-be-illegal.html
A new batch of Solyndra emails shows that the Energy Department was warned that their plan to aid the failing solar company could be illegal and should be cleared with the Justice Department. The Treasury Department warned DOE that it could be illegal to allow private investors to be paid back ahead of taxpayers. The correspondence also reveals that Steve Spinner, a senior adviser on the loan program, lobbied officials at the Office of Management and Budget to speed up their review—despite saying he would recuse himself from the case because his wife worked for a law firm representing Solyndra. “How [expletive] hard is this?” Spinner wrote to a staffer, asking about OMB's approval of the application. “What is he waiting for? Will we have it by the end of the day?” Asked by a White House aide whether Solyndra had any financial problems, Spinner replied, “I haven’t heard anything negative on my side.”
-
SOLYNDRAGATE: Huge Email Dump Implicates Obama And Rahm In Bankruptcy Scandal
Grace Wyler | Oct. 7, 2011, 6:49 PM | 8,945 | 96
The White House released a bunch of emails related to the Solyndra bankruptcy scandal to Congressional investigators today, in what has become a regular Friday evening email dump.
The emails, obtained by several news organizations, implicate the most senior levels of the Obama administration in the scandal, which has tainted the White House since the solar company went bankrupt last month, leaving taxpayers on the hook for a $534 billion federal loan.
Here are the highlights:
One email, obtained by the Washington Post, suggests that Obama and/or his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was actively involved in trying to get Solyndra's loan application approved in time for a September 2009 press conference.
“Ron said this morning that the POTUS definitely wants to do this (or Rahm definitely wants the POTUS to do this?),” one White House staffer told an Obama scheduler on Aug. 17, 2009, referring to Ron Klain, former chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden.
Steve Spinner, an Obama fundraiser who worked in the DOE loan department, repeatedly pushed the chief loan officer to expedite approval of Solyndra's loan — despite the fact that his wife worked for the law firm representing Solyndra. The firm received at least $2.4 million in fees related to the loan, according to the AP. DOE officials have previously stated that Spinner did not "actively participate" in Solyndra's application.
“How [expletive] hard is this? What is he waiting for? Will we have it by the end of the day?” Spinner wrote on Aug. 28, 2009. “I have OVP [Office of Vice President] and WH [White House] breathing down my neck on this. They are getting itchy to get involved if needed. I don’t want that.”
In 2011, the Treasury Department warned the DOE about the questionable legality of Solyndra's refinancing deal, which put investors ahead of taxpayers in the event the company went under.
"In February, we requested in writing that DOE seek the Department of Justice’s approval of any proposed restructuring,” an assistant Treasury secretary wrote in an August 2011 memo to the OMB. “To our knowledge that never happened.”
Another email, obtained by TIME, suggests that Solyndra's bad finances and poor business model were well-known within the solar panel industry. A February 2009 letter from the CEO of Solyndra's main competitor, Nanosolar, basically asks what everyone in the country is asking now:
“In light of the DoE loan program application of a competitor of ours, Solyndra, and given the well-publicized rapidly deteriorating financial state of this company as well as its failure to secure new investors and maintain a balance sheet adequate for product introduction, I would appreciate clarification from you about whether the DoE loan guarantee program is suitable as a ‘bail-out’ program for failing private manufacturers."
Here are eight red flags the government totally ignored in the Solyndra disaster >
http://www.businessinsider.com/solyndra-email-dump-implicates-obama-rahm-emanuel-treasury-illegal-bankruptcy-fundraiser-2011-10
-
Solyndra loan deal: Warnings about legality came from within Obama administration
By Joe Stephens and Carol D. Leonnig, Published: October 7
Energy Department officials were warned that their plan to help a failing solar company by restructuring its $535 million federal loan could violate the law and should be cleared with the Justice Department, according to newly obtained e-mails from within the Obama administration.
The e-mails show that Energy Department officials moved ahead anyway with a new deal that would repay company investors before taxpayers if the company defaulted. The e-mails, which were reviewed by The Washington Post, show for the first time concerns within the administration about the legality of the Energy Department’s extraordinary efforts to help Solyndra, the California solar company that went bankrupt Aug. 31.
The FBI raided Solyndra last month, shortly after it closed its doors.
The records provided Friday by a government source also show that an Energy Department stimulus adviser, Steve Spinner, pushed for Solyndra’s loan despite having recused himself because his wife’s law firm did work for the company. Spinner, who left the agency in September 2010, did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
The documents offer new evidence of wide disagreement between officials at the Energy Department and officials at the Treasury Department and Office of Management and Budget, where questions were raised about the carefulness of the loan vetting process used to select Solyndra and the special help it was given as its finances deteriorated. Energy Department officials continued to make loan payments to the company even after it had defaulted on the terms of its loan.
The Solyndra controversy has escalated with each new release of documents to a Republican-led House energy subcommittee investigating the matter. President Obama defended the Energy Department in a news conference Thursday, saying its decisions were made by career professionals. Also Thursday, the head of the embattled loan program announced that he would step down, although Energy Department officials said he was not doing so because of the Solyndra matter.
As Republican committee leaders moved to get more information about warnings from Treasury and the OMB, an Energy spokesman, Damien LaVera, said agency officials had listened to Treasury’s advice to consult the Justice Department on the loan restructuring but felt it was appropriate to move forward.
“Ultimately, DOE’s determination that the restructuring was legal was made by career lawyers in the loan program based on a careful analysis of the statute,” he said.
The e-mails show that Mary Miller, an assistant Treasury secretary, wrote to Jeffrey D. Zients, deputy OMB director, expressing concern. She said that the deal could violate federal law because it put investors’ interests ahead of taxpayers’ and that she had advised that it should be reviewed by the Justice Department.
“To our knowledge that never happened,” Miller wrote in a Aug. 17, 2011, memo to the OMB.
In February, the restructuring was approved by Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Company executives said they needed a quick cash infusion to save the company, and private investors agreed to contribute $75 million if loan repayment terms were modified.
Solyndra ran out of money anyway and sought bankruptcy court protection, leaving 1,100 employees out of work. The loan refinancing now makes it likely that taxpayers will have to make up most of the loss, the e-mails show. The Treasury Department’s general counsel had concluded that the renegotiated loan violated the law because it allowed private investors to be first in line for repayment in case of a default.
Those private investors include investment funds linked to George Kaiser, a Tulsa billionaire and Obama fundraiser. Kaiser has said he had no involvement in the loan.
The correspondence also suggests that, at the most senior levels at the White House and down through its ranks, the Obama administration wanted to use the Solyndra loan to highlight progress under the stimulus act.
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has been investigating the loan, issued a statement Friday saying the correspondence showed a “disturbingly close relationship between President Obama’s West Wing inner circle, campaign donors, and wealthy investors.”
“After 8 months of stonewalling by this Administration, today we finally learn one of the reasons why they fought our investigation every step of the way,” the statement said.
One participant in the Solyndra effort, according to the e-mails, was Spinner. He pressed for OMB officials to speed up review of the Solyndra loan, writing at one point: “Any word from OMB? I have the OVP [Office of the Vice President] and WH [White House] breathing down my neck on this.”
Spinner came from Silicon Valley to serve as a senior adviser on the loan program, and his wife was a lawyer with Wilson Sonsini, the law firm representing Solyndra in its application. Despite an ethics agreement under which he said he would recuse himself from Solyndra’s loan application, correspondence shows that Spinner defended the company, worked to get the president or vice president to visit its factory, and pushed for a final decision on approving the company’s loan.
“How [expletive] hard is this?” Spinner wrote to a career staffer on Aug. 28, 2009, asking for answers about final approval from an OMB official. “What is he waiting for? Will we have it by the end of the day?”
In an Aug. 19, 2009, e-mail, an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel asked Spinner if he could discuss any concerns among the investment community about Solyndra.
Spinner dismissed the idea that Solyndra had financial problems.
“I haven’t heard anything negative on my side,” he said.
A day after a discussion about possible problems at Solyndra, Spinner forwarded to the chief of staff’s aide a list of Solyndra’s main investors and attached a published profile of Kaiser.
Spinner is now a fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank.
A senior administration official declined to comment Friday when asked if Spinner violated his recusal agreement.
LaVera, the Energy Department spokesman, said Spinner “was authorized to oversee and monitor the progress of applications, ensure that the program met its deadlines and milestones, and coordinate possible public announcements,” because his wife gave up payments related to loan project clients. “He was not allowed to make decisions on the terms or conditions of any particular loan guarantee or decide whether or not a particular transaction was approved,” LaVera said. “This arrangement was reviewed and approved by the department’s career ethics officer.”
The e-mails also added more evidence that venture capitalists had access to senior White House decision makers.
David Prend, whose firm Rockport Capital was also a Solyndra investor, wrote a March 2009 e-mail to the White House two weeks before Solyndra won conditional commitment on its loan. Prend thanked Greg Nelson, a White House clean-technology aide, for meeting with him.
“It was great to meet you with [then-White House climate czar] Carol Browner last week,” he wrote. “I look forward to working with you to get the message out and to effect real change in the Energy Industry. I will follow up shortly on 2 of the companies we discussed,” mentioning Solyndra as one.
Staff writer Steven Mufson contributed to this report.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-obama-and-rahm-emanuel-pushed-to-spotlight-energy-company/2011/10/07/gIQACDqSTL_print.html
________________________ ______________________
Come on Team Kneepad - defend this.
-
Issa Eyes Political Connections That Drove Loan Approvals Like Solyndra
FoxNews.com ^ | October 09, 2011 | October 09, 2011
The Obama administration engaged in a pattern of approving loans that were not qualified to receive taxpayer money, according to one Republican House chairman who says the development is as disturbing as the potential loss of billions of dollars in investments.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Relations Committee, said Sunday that the administration's approval of a loan guarantee for solar power company Solyndra -- which went belly up shortly after a half-billion dollar investment by the federal government -- is just one example of a "breach of protocol" in approving loans.
Issa said the Energy Department actually approved $4.75 billion worth of loans on the last day that the law allowed for financial backing of alternative energy firms.
"We're finding it's not just Solyndra. It's a pattern of these sorts of investments," Issa told "Fox News Sunday." "One of the questions we have for (Energy) Secretary (Steven) Chu is, tell us why that last day, somehow, you had everything you needed and you didn't have it over a period of time before?"
He said that his committee is less interested in debating the merits of "green energy" and what qualifies as jobs created in that field than at looking to see whether political connections interfered in the approval process for struggling companies, and whether that interference pushed the Obama administration to back a loan for a creditor who otherwise would have been left holding the bag after Solyndra's bankruptcy claim.
"The American people have a right to except that the rule of law will guarantee that even if we don't like the policy, that it's done properly," Issa told "Fox News Sunday."
"Remember this was a $500 million earmark, effectively, by political appointees,
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
OCTOBER 9, 2011, 6:48 P.M. ET.
The Solyndra Economy
Administration emails reveal the reality of politicized investing.
The more we learn about the Solyndra solar-company debacle, the more the Obama Administration leaps to defend the $535 million loan guarantee. "There were going to be some companies that did not work out; Solyndra was one of them," President Obama told reporters Thursday. Earlier in the week he told ABC News "if we want to compete with China, which is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into this space . . . we've got to make sure that our guys here in the United States of America at least have a shot."
And there you have America's Solyndra economy, as the White House understands it: Washington allocates capital, and taxpayers pick up the tab if those choices go bust. Through this political lens, the August bankruptcy of the Fremont, Calif. company was a necessary casualty in the greater campaign to steer the U.S. economy toward Mr. Obama's noble goals. Private competition that winnows out losers is so yesterday.
As it happens, we're getting a look at what this world of political investment entails thanks to Administration emails released last week by House Democrats on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the White House. Democrats say the emails reveal a "vigorous internal debate" about the Solyndra deal and dispel accusations of crony capitalism.
.The opposite is closer to reality. Solyndra received federal help in 2009 and never turned a profit. In March 2010, PriceWaterhouseCoopers raised questions about the company's solvency. The next month, a White House Office of Management and Budget staffer worried that the Department of Energy "has one loan to monitor and they seem completely oblivious." Another said it was "terrifying" to consider that some of DOE's next projects would make Solyndra look "better."
Insiders raised alarms, too. Obama donor and venture capitalist Steve Westly wrote to senior White House aide Valerie Jarrett in May and said "many of us believe the company's cost structure will make it difficult for them to survive long term." Ms. Jarrett wrote to Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, who contacted the Department of Energy. But DOE expressed confidence in Solyndra, with one official noting that "we believe the company is okay in the medium term, but will need some help of one kind or another down the road."
Instead of launching a more serious inquiry, Mr. Klain supported a pending Presidential visit to Solyndra's factory, advising Ms. Jarrett of "risk factors" but adding that "it looks like it is OK to me, but if you feel otherwise, let me know." Ms. Jarrett replied "I'm comfortable if you're comfortable," and Mr. Klain responded, "The reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by election day 2012—but that to me is the reality of saying that we want to help promote cutting edge, new economy industries."
Here's more "reality." On August 20, 2009, a DOE staffer asked "how can we advance a project . . . that generates a working capital shortfall of $50 [million] when working capital assumptions are entered into the model?," adding "it also simply won't stand up to review by oversight bodies." Solyndra's federal loan guarantee closed the following month.
Then there are the still-hazy insider dealings, another inevitable feature of government-led investment. An Obama fundraiser, Steven Spinner, took an advisory role at DOE and pushed for the loan to proceed, even as his wife's law firm advised on the same deal. (DOE and the couple deny any undue influence.) Earlier this year, DOE reworked the Solyndra loan guarantee as the company floundered and put private creditors ahead of taxpayers. This newspaper reported Friday that Treasury raised alarms about the legality of such a move, although it's unclear when that happened.
Brad Jones of Redpoint Ventures got to the heart of the Solyndra economy in a December 2009 email to then-National Economic Council director Larry Summers: "The allocation of spending to clean energy is haphazard; the government is just not well equipped to decide which companies should get the money and how much . . . One of our solar companies with revenues of less than $100 million (and not yet profitable) received a government loan of $580 million; while that is good for us, I can't imagine it's a good way for the government to use taxpayer money."
Which is precisely the point. The emerging sophisticated defense of Solyndra is Mr. Obama's suggestion that if China subsidizes its industries "of the future," then we must too. But in a free-market economy, which America used to be, private investors decide which industries will succeed in the future, and bet their own money on it. The proper role for government is to support basic research, not commercial ventures that become exercises in taxpayer risk but private reward.
When government takes $535 million and invests in a loser, it not only wastes taxpayer money but it also denies that capital to some other project in the private economy that might have succeeded. The Solyndra emails show how ill-equipped government is to predict the industries of the present, much less the future.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204524604576610972882349418.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
-
WH Budget Official: Oh, We Made Far Worse Loans Than Solyndra
Guy Benson
Political Editor, Townhall.com
10 hours ago
Happy Monday, Obama administration. According to a new tranche of emails obtained by ABC News, the political wreckage of the Solyndra scandal could get significantly more grisly before all is said and done. In one particularly incriminating note, a staffer at the White House's Office of Management and Budget candidly frets that "bad days" lie ahead:
Emails released earlier this month show that at least one official of the Office of Management and Budget worried that Solyndra was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to ill-conceived government loans to green energy companies. “(W)hat’s terrifying is that after looking at some of the ones that came next, this one [Solyndra] started to look better,” the official emailed. “Bad days are coming.” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government on October 7 wrote to Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu to see just what other problematic loans might exist. Specifically, Issa is seeking “additional information regarding the loans approved on the final day of the program,” ones made to First Solar Inc, SunPower Corp., and ProLogis Inc.
The questions clearly suggest the concern that the Department of Energy officials in charge of the loan program did not conduct due diligence before sending billions in loan guarantees out the door — a concern that seems to have been shared by officials of the Department of Management and Budget.
How comforting. Remember, the ominous "terrifying" and "bad days" descriptors come not from GOP investigators, but from within Obama's own budget team. And those words were not employed to describe the Solyndra loan, but other loans within the broader "green energy" program. Just last week, the president asserted that even though Solyndra didn't "work out," he remains confident that the loan guarantee program is good for America's economic health:
Now, we knew from the start that the loan guarantee program was going to entail some risk, by definition. If it was a risk-free proposition, then we wouldn't have to worry about it. But the overall portfolio has been successful. It has allowed us to help companies, for example, start advanced battery manufacturing here in the United States. It's helped create jobs. There were going to be some companies that did not work out; Solyndra was one of them. But the process by which the decision was made was on the merits. It was straightforward. And of course there were going to be debates internally when you're dealing with something as complicated as this. But I have confidence that the decisions were made based on what would be good for the American economy and the American people and putting people back to work.
Obama's vision helps explain why even more hefty federal loans continue to fly out the door -- despite internal and external due diligence worries -- to politically-connected "green" companies, including one with substantial ties to Nancy Pelosi's brother-in-law. According to the Washington Post, additional emails indicate that President Obama and/or former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel were directly involved in the administration's efforts to spotlight Solyndra as a stimulus "success" story -- an impulse that eventually led to an infamous presidential visit to the failing company's headquarters in 2010. Still more internal documents reveal that the Obama Energy Department pressed ahead with a plan to refinance Solyndra's loan (on which the company had already defaulted) even after receiving warnings that the scheme could actually violate the law:
Energy Department officials were warned that their plan to help a failing solar company by restructuring its $535 million federal loan could violate the law and should be cleared with the Justice Department, according to newly obtained e-mails from within the Obama administration. The e-mails show that Energy Department officials moved ahead anyway with a new deal that would repay company investors before taxpayers if the company defaulted. The e-mails, which were reviewed by The Washington Post, show for the first time concerns within the administration about the legality of the Energy Department’s extraordinary efforts to help Solyndra, the California solar company that went bankrupt Aug. 31.
In addition to the stench of intentional lawlessness, the Los Angeles Times drops another damaging revelation atop this fetid heap -- an egregious case involving a clear conflict of interest at best, and rank cronyism at worst:
A top fundraiser for President Obama was far more involved in the $535-million loan guarantee to now-bankrupt solar equipment maker Solyndra than the administration had previously disclosed, according to newly released emails. Steven Spinner, a former Energy Department official, was supposed to be recused from the decision to select Solyndra to participate in the agency's $25-billion program to back loans for renewable energy projects because his wife's law firm represented the company.
A flurry of emails from early August to early September 2009 portrayed Spinner as impatient to show that the stimulus act was producing jobs, especially at so-called clean technology firms such as Solyndra. He was deeply involved in coordinating a "big event" to announce the approval of Solyndra's loan guarantee, which he envisioned involving "golden shovels, bulldozers, hardhats, etc," according to an Aug. 20, 2009, email. In addition, the emails showed that he was in close contact with Solyndra executives to plan the event. In late August 2009, Rogers wrote to Spinner in another email exchange: "Thanks for driving Solyndra." Federal records show that Allison Spinner's firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, received $2.4 million in federal funds for legal fees related to the Solyndra loan guarantee.
Spinner, incidentally, now works at the Center for American Progress, a lefty think tank. Quite a path, isn't it? Wealthy Silicon Valley investor to major Obama campaign bundler to DOE loan advisor to CAP. Naturally, both Spinner and the White House insist that his involvement in the Solyndra matter wasn't the least bit improper. Oh, of course not. Just like fellow deep-pocketed Obama donor and Solyndra backer, George Kaiser, didn't say a peep about the proposed loan when he visited the White House at least four times directly before the company's application was approved (against the advice of Bush and Obama-era budget and energy staffers, mind you). This whole thing stinks, and if the OMB official quoted above is correct, there's a lot more pain ahead.
UPDATE - Read the Wall Street Journal's sharp editorial on this debacle.
What the fuck!!!!!
-
obama should have deleted all his emails, like Cheney did.
nobody cared when the repubs did it.... I'm sure nobody here will complain if/when Obama does it. Right guys? ;)
-
obama should have deleted all his emails, like Cheney did.
nobody cared when the repubs did it.... I'm sure nobody here will complain if/when Obama does it. Right guys? ;)
skips rules?
-
skips rules?
no, they don't apply cause i'm not defending obama. i'm insulting fcktards who are okay with repubs doing crimes when they scream about dems doing it.
if i was saying "obama's not as bad because..."
I'm saying cheney, obama and holder should be in a cell together.... and none ever will. accept it champ :)
-
no, they don't apply cause i'm not defending obama. i'm insulting fcktards who are okay with repubs doing crimes when they scream about dems doing it.
if i was saying "obama's not as bad because..."
I'm saying cheney, obama and holder should be in a cell together.... and none ever will. accept it champ :)
So you are saying Cheney is a more skilled criminal than Bama?
-
So you are saying Cheney is a more skilled criminal than Bama?
Yes. Clinton too.
-
Communist plot/ terrorist invasion.
-
SunPower: Twice As Bad As Solyndra, Twice As Bad For ObamaCongressman's son lobbied for failing solar panel company
by Neil W. McCabe 10/11/2011 17
________________________ ________________________ __________
A photovoltaic solar panel ranch similar to the California Solar Valley Ranch under construction by SunPower in the state's San Luis Obispo County. The $1.2 billion loan guarantee to support the project was finalized in hours before the loan program expired Sept. 30. The company announced Aug. 5 that it will build the panels for the ranch at a new factory it will open in Mexico.
DOE photo
How did a failing California solar company, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits, receive a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project—three weeks after it announced it was building new manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the project.
The company, SunPower (SPWR-NASDAQ), now carries $820 million in debt, an amount $20 million greater than its market capitalization. If SunPower was a bank, the feds would shut it down. Instead, it received a lifeline twice the size of the money sent down the Solyndra drain.
Two men with insight into the process are SunPower rooter Rep. George R. Miller III, (D.-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee and the co-chairman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, and his SunPower lobbyist son, George Miller IV.
Miller the Elder is a strong advocate for SunPower, which converted an old Richmond, Calif., Ford plant in his district to a panel-manufacturing facility.
The congressman hosted an Oct. 14, 2010, tour of the plant with company CEO Thomas H. Werner and Interior Secretary Kenneth L. Salazar to promote the company’s fortunes.
“The path to a clean energy economy starts here, in places like SunPower’s research and development facility,” said Salazar during the tour.
“The work that comes from these facilities transforms renewable energy ideas into a reality. When renewable energy companies continue to invest in places like California, the realization of a new energy future is within our reach,” he said.
Miller the Elder said he was grateful for Salazar's interest.
“We’ve worked hard to make renewable energy a priority because it represents America’s future economic growth. Today, businesses like SunPower are moving forward, hiring 200 people for good clean energy jobs in the East Bay,” he said.
“By fostering a business climate that encourages companies like SunPower, even more good jobs will be created locally, we’ll reduce demand for dirty energy sources, and we’ll cut customers’ utility bills. That’s the right direction,” he said.
SunPower’s political action committee (PAC) was not shy about participating in the political process either.
According to the SunPower PAC filings for its activities in the 2010 midterm election campaign cycle, it donated more than $36,000. Of the $15,650 donated to House and Senate candidates, $14,650 went to Democrats, with these top recipients: $4,000 to Sen. Harry Reid (D.-Nev.), $3,000 to Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D.-Ariz.) and $2,900 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.).
The congressman was not forgotten either. The SunPower PAC remembered him with $500 for his 2010 campaign. While SunPower was a financial partner in the congressman’s reelection campaign, it straight-out hired his son.
Miller the Younger is not registered to lobby in Washington, but he is a member of its bar. He is not a member of the California bar, home of his lobbying firm, Lang, Hansen, O'Malley and Miller (LHOM), of which he is a founding partner.
According the firm's website LHOM specializes in providing advice to clients on larger macro political issues trends. “Utilizing our broad experience in California and Washington, D.C., we can furnish 'big picture' analysis of developing political and policy trends which may affect client interests and goals.”
What does Miller the Younger bring? Read here: “George Miller brings a lifetime of friendships, relationships, and contacts together with over 15 years of front-line advocacy experience. He’s an attorney with expertise that ranges from insurance and banking to transportation, taxation and gaming law,” according to the website. “Unlike most advocates, George is at ease working both the corridors of Sacramento power or the halls of Congress.”
What is the stated purpose of the SunPower’s DOE 1705 program loan guarantee?
SunPower has different lines of business. In addition to manufacturing solar panel and roof tiles, it builds solar panel ranches, which it then sells off, but retains the services contract.
The loan guarantee is earmarked for the job numbers for the California Valley Solar Ranch (CVSR) in San Luis Obispo County, which it has already sold to NRG Solar, but will continue to maintain.
According to the Department of Energy (DOE) website, the CVSR project will create 350 construction jobs during the two-year build and 15 permanent jobs—presumably those are the squeegee men for keeping the panels clean.
Capitol Hill powerbroker Rep. George Miller (D.-Calif.), center, hosted Interior Sec. Kenneth L. Salazar, left, on an Oct. 14, 2010 tour of SunPower's Richmond, Calif., plant.
During the tour, Salazar said plants like SunPower's transform renewable energy ideas into reality. One month later, the company announced it had restated its 2008 and 2009 financial filings to correct for unsubstantiated accounting entries.
[DOE photo by Tami Heilemann]
If $80 million per permanent job seems a little high, even for the current Obama administration, you are correct. In addition to the 350 construction jobs and the 15 squeegee men, there will an as-yet-undetermined number of jobs created building the panels for the CVSR—in Mexicali, Mexico.
The company is looking for a facility of up to 320,000 square feet, where it will build three different solar panel models and its solar roof tiles, according the company’s Aug. 5 statement.
Marty T. Reese, the company's chief operating officer, said, “Establishing our own manufacturing facility in Mexicali means we will be positioned to quickly deliver our high-efficiency, high-reliability solar products to a growing North American solar market.”
Mexicali Mayor Francisco Perez Tejada Padilla said he was thrilled. “Mexicali is rapidly becoming an industrial hub for high-tech companies, offering an educated workforce and a growing manufacturing area,” he said. “We welcome SunPower to our city and are pleased that they have chosen Mexicali to establish its solar panel manufacturing facility.”
The good news for Mexican jobs seekers did not affect the DOE's loan guarantee to SunPower. Hours before the DOE 1705 loan program expired at the end of Fiscal Year 2011 on Sept. 30, the $1.2 billion in loan guarantees was approved for the company.
Insiders get liquid through for $1.4 billion friendly buyout from France.
If that timing seems odd to you, consider the time line of company events around when the loan was announced April 12: just two weeks before France's Total Oil (TOT-NYSE) launched its friendly takeover.
The deal, made public April 28, was in effect a 60% buyout at $23.25, then a 60% premium over the stock's current trading price, which allowed insiders to get liquid.
SunPower CEO Werner is typical of the insiders. On May 24 he exercised his right to purchase 428,343 shares at $3.30 per share, a $18 discount from the day’s trading range. He sold 478,084 shares June 15, the day the Total Oil takeover closed, at $23.25 for proceeds of $11,115,453.
Remember, Total Oil was offering at $23.25 per share in what was in effect a private sale. The SPWR, Class A or B, shares have not traded above $23 since June 10, 2010.
SunPower is a company in trouble.
In his Sept. 26 column for SeekingAlpha.com, Stoyan Elitzen lists SunPower as the ninth-most-shorted solar stock in either the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ markets. Short sellers are betting that a stock price will go down, as opposed to those who buy long, who expect a stock price to up.
According the Elitzen, the size of SunPower's short position is equal to 15 days of its average daily volume of 725,000 shares per day. By any measure, such pessimism is a banshee screaming in the night for a company's stock price that has already lost 94% of value from its 2007 apex.
Although its stock has recovered from its all-time low Oct. 4 of $6.60 per share to trade between $8 and $9 per share, it has been a steep slide from its all-time high Dec. 3, 2007 of $133. Then, the company was worth $13 billion.
Today, its market capitalization is $800 million, just short of its debt of $820 billion, according to the company's July filings for the second quarter.
The Oct. 4 sell-off, which gave shareholders a 12% haircut, was triggered by the company's Oct. 3 aftermarket statement announcing the company was paying down its $50 million credit line with a consortium of European banks and opening a new $200 million credit line with Deutsche Bank.
According to the statement, Dennis V. Arriola, the company's chief financial officer said the new credit line will improve the company's ability to operate.
“However, the challenging market conditions continue to impact our global residential and commercial business. As a result, we will revise our 2011 revenue and earnings outlook on our third-quarter earnings conference call to be held on Nov. 3,” he said.
As much as Arriola's negative guidance shook up the markets, it also reflects a lesson learned.
In addition to all its other challenges, the company and its officers are defendants in a federal shareholder lawsuit, whose plaintiffs include, the Austin (Texas) Police Retirement System, the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System and a number of institutional investors for an alleged scheme to deceive the investing public by making false statements contrary to nonpublic information known to the insiders.
The allegations cover the period between April 17, 2008, to Nov. 16, 2009, the day the company announced that it had discovered unsubstantiated accounting entries to its operations in the Philippines, which led to the significant restating of the company's financials.
There are a number of lawsuits filed in California courts relating to the same period alleging gross mismanagement, breach of fiduciary responsibility, unjust enrichment and abuse of control.
The first of the lawsuits was filed Nov. 18, 2009, and they have yet to be resolved.
It is a fair question to ask how a company with such serious charges lodged against its management team could receive a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the taxpayers, so it could built a new manufacturing plant in Mexico to build the solar panels it will install at a photovoltaic ranch that will create a total of 15 permanent jobs.
Certainly, the time is right for Miller and Miller to clarify their roles in this mess.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neil W. McCabe is the editor of Guns & Patriots. McCabe, an Army reservist, has mobilized twice, first as combat historian in Iraq and then as a photojournalist at Fort Bragg, N.C.. Before his call to active-duty, he was a reporter and photographer at "The Pilot," Boston's Catholic newspaper and Cardinal O'Malley's blog for seven years.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46761
-
Obama Jobs Council Stacked With Democratic Donors
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
The group of private-sector business leaders advising President Obama on how to create jobs and grow the economy is full of deep-pocket Democratic donors and high-profile financiers of Obama’s re-election campaign, a review of Federal Election Commission data shows.
At least 10 members of the Obama-appointed Council on Jobs and Competitiveness gave the legal maximum contribution — $4,600 — to help get Obama elected in 2008, and they continue to write checks for the president in 2012. Several also serve as Obama campaign bundlers, top fundraisers who collect millions of dollars from their networks of well-to-do colleagues and friends to aid his re-election bid.
The bundlers — Mark Gallogy, co-founder of investment firm Centerbridge Partners, Penny Prtizker, president and CEO of Pritzker Realty Group, and Robert Wolf, chairman of UBS Americas — have raised as much as $2.7 million for Obama in 2008 and 2012 combined, according to estimates provided by the Obama campaign.
Pritzker served as the Obama presidential campaign’s national finance chairwoman in 2008 and co-chair of the Obama inaugural committee in 2009. Wolf is an occasional Obama golf partner and most recently played golf with the president during his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
Other members of the council who have personally padded Obama’s election coffers include Xerox Corporation CEO Ursula Burns, TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson, MIT/Harvard Broad Institute director Eric Lander, Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons, Hooven-Dayton Corp. CEO Christopher Che, UC Berkeley professor Laura D’Andrea Tyson, attorney and Amazon.com/Google board member John Doerr, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Sandberg hosted an exclusive, star-studded fundraiser for the Obama Victory Fund at her Palo Alto, Calif., home Sept. 25 that netted at least $2.5 million for the 2012 campaign. The money is split between the Obama Campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The companies and organizations represented on the council have also been prolific donors to Democrats and Obama through their political action committees, or PACs.
UC Berkeley employees contributed $1.6 million combined to Obama in 2008, more than from any other organization, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. UBS, Citigroup and GE, whose chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt leads Obama’s jobs council, were the source of more than $1.7 million combined.
Comcast Corp., headed by CEO Brian Roberts who sits on the council, is the top corporate source of campaign cash for Obama’s 2012 bid.
Two high-profile unions — the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and AFL-CIO — also played a key role in helping to elect Democrats and Obama in 2008, spending more than $900,000 on political communications and advertisements, according to CRP. The leaders of both groups, Joseph Hansen and Richard Trumka, also sit on Obama’s council.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/obama-jobs-council-stacked-with-democratic-donors
HOPE AND FUCKING CHANGE!
-
obama just printed this thread, wiped his ass with it, did a shot of crowne, and laughed.
-
Look whose relative just got $135.8 million energy loan
'Green' firm with White House ties lined up to get massive guarantee
Posted: October 11, 2011
7:38 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2011 WND
John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama's transition team
The sister-in-law of John Podesta, President Obama's influential White House transition director, served as the lobbyist for a wind power firm that was just awarded a $135.8 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
The company is Brookfield Asset Management. It boasts a board of nine directors, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's long-term girlfriend.
The Energy Department's promise to Brookfield marks the latest in controversial massive alternative energy loans to companies with strong ties to the Obama White House and to top Democrat lawmakers.
Read about the "ballot box stuffers," "urban terrorists," "gangsters" and others who make up "Obama's favorite community organizing group," in "Subversion Inc."
Last month, the grant was finalized to build the 99 megawatt Granite Reliable wind project in New Hampshire's Coos County, making it the state's largest wind plant.
Seventy-five percent of the new wind project is owned by BAIF Granite Holdings, which was created earlier this year by Brookfield Renewable Power, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management of New York.
Since 2009, Brookfield has been represented by the lobby firm Heather Podesta and Partners, LLC.
Podesta, a top financial bundler for Democrat politicians, is wife of lobbyist and art collector, Tony Podesta, who is the brother of John Podesta.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=354433
WTF!!!! How can any of you traitors keep defending these neo-terrorists?
-
"WTF!!!! How can any of you traitors keep defending these neo-terrorists? "
Slow down, cupcake. Nobody's defending the obama crime cartel junta.
No, for us, we shake our heads just as we did when bush did it. It's illegal and it sucks.
But, what we do like to point out - is that Repubs were a-okay when Bush did this kinda bullshit - hiring chertoff's cousin to write PopMech 911 reports, while giving him access to info that should not have been legally been available to them - shit that nobody else saw. Illegal.
So unless you complained about that - we don't want to hear you complaining about nepotism when obama does it.
or dubya's brother being security chief for WTC on 9/11. Unless you were pissed at that, don't cry about this.
-
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! Taxpayers paid the law firm Wilson Sonsini 2.4 million dollars for Solyndra but we can’t find out what we paid for?
by Greta Van Susteren Posted in: Solyndra, Wison Sonsini
OCT 12 2011 - 4:13 PM ETSHARE140 COMMENTS
Since (according to the LA Times) we paid Solyndra’s legal bill to Wilson Sonsini of $2.4 million, I would like to know what was done…wouldn’t you? I can tell you from my experience as a lawyer, that is a BIG tax bill and we should review it. What did we get? What was billed? And why are WE paying Solyndra’s legal bills? That is absurd that we paid their legal bill to get $535 million out of us…that is like sending the fox out to guard the chicken coop!
I asked for some research to be done to find the bill so that I could go over Wilson Sonsini’s legal bill. Here is the message I got back:
“…The actual legal bill that Wilson Sonsini submitted to Solyndra is not a matter of public record. Solyndra, as part of its Recovery Act reporting requirements, was required to disclose summary information about how the Recovery Act funds were spent, including the identity of the vendors, their DUNS number, the payment amount and a description of the product/service provided….”
This just is not right. Not a public record? We paid for it! We (taxpayers) get billed 2.4 million dollars for Solyndra’s legal bills (not to mention the about $535 loan!) and we can’t find out WHAT services were
http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2011/10/12/this-is-an-outrage-taxpayers-paid-the-law-firm-wilson-sonsini-2-4-million-dollars-for-solyndra-but-we-cant-find-out-what-we-paid-for
-
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/19/solyndras-legal-team-five-high-powered-lobbyists-at-2550-per-hour
WTF!!!!
-
OMGZERCYCLE!
This kind of corruption will be a-okay starting Jan 2013 when a repub is in office. Just the cost of doing business ;)
-
OMGZERCYCLE!
This kind of corruption will be a-okay starting Jan 2013 when a repub is in office. Just the cost of doing business ;)
Are you ok w this level of corruption?
-
Are you ok w this level of corruption?
No. They belong in prison. As do repubs who did this shit for the 8 years before that.
I just don't like ppl who are okay when repubs do it, and get all mad when dems do it.
-
No. They belong in prison. As do repubs who did this shit for the 8 years before that.
I just don't like ppl who are okay when repubs do it, and get all mad when dems do it.
Slip rule No. 1.
-
Slip rule No. 1.
incorrect - that only applies if I'm DEFENDING OBAMA. And I'm not. i say he belongs in prison.
nothing wrong with calling out getbiggers for being partisan hypocrites.
if I was nuthugging saying "Nah, obama shouldn't be prosecuted because..." I'm all for them investigation and locking him up. Holder is shady as fck. No doubt.
I just think it's funny - I've been debating the same ppl 6 years here - and they overlook MUCH more egregious crimes because it's a (R) in front of the criminal ;)
-
incorrect - that only applies if I'm DEFENDING OBAMA. And I'm not. i say he belongs in prison.
nothing wrong with calling out getbiggers for being partisan hypocrites.
if I was nuthugging saying "Nah, obama shouldn't be prosecuted because..." I'm all for them investigation and locking him up. Holder is shady as fck. No doubt.
I just think it's funny - I've been debating the same ppl 6 years here - and they overlook MUCH more egregious crimes because it's a (R) in front of the criminal ;)
If I agree the bush cabal deserves a Dell, will you agree the obama junta should share it?
-
If I agree the bush cabal deserves a Dell, will you agree the obama junta should share it?
a cell? of course.
-
a cell? of course.
This fucking iPad! The spelling situation sucks on this thing!
-
Solar Firm That Received $1.2 Billion Federal Loan Plagued by Financial Problems
By Stephen Clark
Published October 12, 2011 | FoxNews.com
With the Solyndra scandal still swirling, the Obama administration is under pressure to reveal the financial condition of the solar companies that received $4.75 billion in similar federal loan guarantees on the last day of the program.
Republican lawmakers on two House committees are seeking details about the loans given to First Solar, SunPower Corp. and ProLogis. Of those three companies, troubling financial revelations have emerged about SunPower, which sponsored a solar project that received a $1.2 billion loan, more than twice the money approved for Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy last month after receiving a $528 million loan.
The Energy Department says on its website that the $1.2 billion loan to help build the California Valley Solar Ranch in San Luis Obispo County, a project that will help create 15 permanent jobs, which adds up to the equivalent of $80 million in taxpayer money for each job.
But the Energy Department stands by the project.
“This project underwent many months of rigorous technical, financial and legal due diligence by career employees in the DOE loan program,” Energy spokesman Damien LaVera said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “It was approved for one reason only: because it meets all the requirements of the program – helping America win the clean energy race and create entire new industries for American workers.”
In April, the Energy Department gave the project sponsored by SunPower a conditional loan guarantee, even though the company was receiving financing in the capital markets. Shortly after the conditional guarantee, French energy giant Total bought a majority ownership in SunPower and extended a $1 billion credit line to the company.
But SunPower posted $150 million in losses during the first half of this year and its debt is nearly 80 percent of its market value. The company is also facing class action lawsuits for misstating its earnings.
SunPower sold the solar ranch that received the federal loan to NRG, an energy company based in New Jersey. But SunPower is still developing the project and stands to profit if it succeeds.
The Energy Department told FoxNews.com that the ranch was sold to NRG “as a means for increasing equity in the project.”
“DOE was aware of that arrangement, which was outlined in the term sheet negotiated before the conditional commitment was signed,” the official said.
The company is also politically connected. Rep. George Miller's son is SunPower's top lobbyist. The elder Miller, a powerful California Democrat, toured the plant last October with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and reportedly said, "We've worked hard to make renewable energy a priority because it represents America's future economic growth. Today, businesses like SunPower are moving forward, hiring 200 people for good clean energy jobs in the Easy Bay."
It’s not clear what role, if any, either of them played in securing the loan. Miller’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
An Energy Department official denied crony capitalism was a factor in the loan guarantee.
“The notion that political connections played any role in this application is simply false,” the official said. “This application was approved based on the exhaustive due diligence of the career professionals in the loan program, and nothing else.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu last week seeking information on the three companies.
“The committee is committed to protecting taxpayers from further loses from ill-fated ‘investments’ in companies whose viability is far from certain,” he wrote.
Issa told “Fox News Sunday” that the Solyndra debacle isn’t an isolated event.
“We’re finding it’s not just Solyndra. It’s a pattern of these sorts of investments,” he said. “One of the questions we have for Secretary Chu is, tell us why that last day, somehow, you had everything you needed and you didn’t have it over a period of time before?”
An oversight committee aide told FoxNews.com that the Energy Department has yet to respond.
The Energy and Commerce Committee also sent a letter to Chu last week after the Energy secretary didn’t respond to its first letter Sept. 20 requesting documents on the financial condition of the companies receiving loan guarantees.
The committee noted in its letter that President Obama defended the program last week, saying the overall portfolio “is doing well.”
“We sincerely hope that this is true and that no further taxpayer dollars are at risk,” the committee wrote. “However, as Solyndra executives and numerous members of the administration repeatedly told us the same thing about Solyndra during the last seven months, we have a responsibility to inquire further.”
A committee aide told FoxNews.com that the committee is still awaiting a response.
Print Close
URL
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/12/solar-firm-that-received-12-billion-federal-loan-plagued-by-financial-problems-702546811/
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/12/solar-firm-that-received-12-billion-federal-loan-plagued-by-financial-problems-702546811/print#ixzz1afixjyEK
-
Solyndra funder Kaiser paid zero taxes for years
Posted in Beltway Confidential - 13 October 2011 - No comments
Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser has been in the headlines in recent months thanks to his role as a major investor in Solyndra LLC, the now-bankrupt California solar panel maker hailed by President Obama as a model for America’s “clean energy future.”
Congress is investigating why the Obama administration gave Solyndra a $535 million loan guarantee despite multiple warnings from career bureaucrats and private sector investment experts that the company was a poor risk, lacked a realistic business model and was likely to go bankrupt as a result.
Other investigations are being conducted by the FBI and the Treasury Department’s Inspector-General, and the issue is likely to remain on the public mind throughout the 2012 presidential campaign as Republicans claim Solyndra’s failure demonstrates that government “cannot pick winners and losers in the marketplace.”
Because Kaiser was a campaign “bundler” – an individual who collects contributions to a candidate from others that are then simultaneously given to the candidate – who raised about $250,000 for Obama during the 2008 campaign, congressional Republicans and media analysts have speculated that the Solyndra loan guarantee was nothing more than using tax dollars to reward a political supporter.
http://www.newsamericadaily.com/solyndra-funder-kaiser-paid-zero-taxes-for-years
-
Solyndra funder Kaiser paid zero taxes for years (Another Obama friend)
Wasington Examiner ^ | Thursday October 13, 2011
Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser has been in the headlines in recent months thanks to his role as a major investor in Solyndra LLC, the now-bankrupt California solar panel maker hailed by President Obama as a model for America's "clean energy future."
Congress is investigating why the Obama administration gave Solyndra a $535 million loan guarantee despite multiple warnings from career bureaucrats and private sector investment experts that the company was a poor risk, lacked a realistic business model and was likely to go bankrupt as a result.
Because Kaiser was a campaign "bundler" - an individual who collects contributions to a candidate from others that are then simultaneously given to the candidate - who raised about $250,000 for Obama during the 2008 campaign, congressional Republicans and media analysts have speculated that the Solyndra loan guarantee was nothing more than using tax dollars to reward a political supporter.
But the Solyndra scandal is far from Kaiser's first brush with political controversy. As the Sunlight Foundation's Bill Allison reports today, Kaiser has become extraordinarily wealthy by taking advantage of the federal tax code in ways that some tax experts - including the IRS - believe to be illegal.
(Excerpt) Read more at campaign2012.washingtone xaminer.com ...
-
Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison Has Resigned, Company Says
www.huffingtonpost.com
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 23: Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison appears at the hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Capitol Hill September 23, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
By RANDALL CHASE 10/13/11 01:31 PM ET
The CEO of a California solar energy company that sought bankruptcy protection after receiving a $528 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration has resigned.
Solyndra Inc. said in papers filed in Delaware bankruptcy court Wednesday that Brian Harrison resigned last Friday. The company said Harrison's resignation was contemplated even before the company sought bankruptcy protection.
Solyndra's filing was in response to a motion by the Justice Department to appoint a trustee to oversee the bankruptcy case. The government was concerned company officials would not be forthcoming about Solyndra's operations and finances.
The Justice Department filed its motion after Harrison and Solyndra chief financial officer W.G. Stover refused to answer questions when called before a U.S. House committee investigating the loan Solyndra received from the Energy Department.
The executives cited an ongoing FBI investigation.
-
Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison, who refused to answer questions from Congress about his solar startup's high-profile bankruptcy, has left the company, according to a new court filing.
Harrison stepped down on Friday, Solyndra reported in a bankruptcy court document filed late Tuesday. The company said Harrison left "as scheduled," but didn't elaborate. A Solyndra spokesman could not be reached for an explanation.
To replace Harrison, Solyndra wants to hire R. Todd Neilson, who served as bankruptcy trustee for boxer Mike Tyson and rap impresario Marion "Suge" Knight.
Neilson has a background in forensic accounting, including a stint with the FBI as a special agent on white-collar crime cases.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/12/BU1A1LGVP3.DTL#ixzz1agpnND9r
-
Another Inside Man for Solyndra at the White House
By Chris Stirewalt, Fox News
“I thought the White House might want to take advantage of this event to highlight a highly successful public/private partnership.”
-- Obama adviser David Prend in an email to a White House aide encouraging the president to publicly embrace Solyndra, a solar-panel manufacturer that Prend’s investment firm partly owned.
The latest figure to emerge in Soylndra green-jobs scandal is David Prend, a co-founder of the Boston-based venture capital firm Rockport Capital, who used his role as a green energy adviser to the Obama administration to push for a half-billion-dollar subsidized loan for Solyndra even though his company was a major investor in the solar-panel manufacturer.
Emails obtained by congressional investigators show that Prend was perhaps the first to push for Solyndra inside the administration, touting the company in a February 2009 meeting with Carol Browner, President Obama’s former global warming and energy czar. At the time, Prend’s firm held a 7.5 percent stake in Solyndra.
Prend also pushed for Solyndra to be included in a Navy contract as part of the administration’s plan to switch the military to green energy. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Navy effort came in the spring of this year, long after it was clear that the company was kaput. The Navy seemed to be on the cusp of including Solyndra in the $1 million pilot project, but had to drop the well-connected firm as bankruptcy approached in September.
The Navy deal came after Rockport and other investors agreed to a $75 million rescue loan package to keep Solyndra afloat after the firm’s initial violation of the federal loan agreement at the end of last year.
The other inside man on the Solyndra loan was Steve Spinner, a former NBC executive who became a green energy guru who helped steer energy and environmental policy for the administration starting in the 2008 transition team. Spinner pushed for Solyndra to get the loan even though his wife was the lawyer for the now defunct solar firm.
But the best friend Solyndra had was George Kaiser, whose family foundation was the largest investor in the firm. Kaiser made 16 trips to the White House between March 2009 and April 2011 to consult with officials. Kaiser, a billionaire devoted to liberal causes who donated $53,500 to Obama’s 2008 campaign and raised may times more, has said that he didn’t lobby for the government loan. But the frequent presence of such an important patron who was visibly attached to Solyndra would have been an encouragement of its own.
Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/solyndra/2011/10/14/another-inside-man-solyndra-white-house#ixzz1anQEBKe7
-
Treasury Officials' Testimony Fuels GOP Concerns Over Solyndra Loan Restructuring
Published October 14, 2011
In this Oct. 6, 2010, photo, workers are seen at a control bank at Solyndra's solar panel factory in Fremont, Calif.
WASHINGTON – Treasury Department officials testified Friday that they've never in their careers seen the government handle a loan quite like the Energy Department handled the $528 million in taxpayer dollars that was lent to failed solar firm Solyndra.
At a tense hearing on Capitol Hill, two Treasury officials acknowledged that the government's restructuring of the loan earlier this year was unusual, if not unprecedented. Through that process, Solyndra investors, not taxpayers, were put at the front of the line for recovering money in case of bankruptcy.
Related Stories
Hey, Protesters: What About Solyndra?
Another Inside Man for Solyndra at the White House
Solyndra investor promoted panels to the Navy: report
Solyndra’s CEO Departs Amid Growing ScandalRelated Video
House Panel Examines Solyndra Loan Restructuring
New documents reveal Treasury Department's concerns with loan
Gary Burner, chief financial officer of the Treasury Federal Financing Bank responsible for the loan and a 28-year veteran of the Treasury Department, said he's never heard of a case where private money was prioritized ahead of taxpayer money in a loan.
Gary Grippo, deputy assistant secretary at the department, said he was never personally "involved" in a case like that.
The two were questioned as Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee tried to bare warning signs that were popping up inside the Obama administration as the Solyndra loan situation developed.
Panel Chairman Rep. Cliff. Stearns, R-Fla., charged that some senior officials inside the administration knew the loan was a "bad bet that was destined to fail," but were ignored by the Department of Energy.
"Recent emails ... clearly show that numerous members of the Obama administration from the most senior levels of the West Wing down to the career professionals at (the Office of Management and Budget) and (Department of Energy) knew that Solyndra was a bad bet that was destined to fail," Stearns said.
Newly released emails show that the Treasury Department was concerned that the loan restructuring, approved earlier this year, could violate federal law.
One August 2011 email from a Treasury official obtained by Fox Business Network stated that federal regulations say the taxpayer money "shall not be subordinate" to other investments. "I will bet a quarter that the DOE lawyers have some kind of theory on how whatever restructuring they have done and whatever they are considering doing does not violate these requirements. Can't wait to hear it," the official said.
Another August email questioned why investors were even considering putting more money into the company. "I think DOE should be thinking through whether the proposed deal is just giving the investors more time to extract more value from the firm before bankruptcy," the Treasury official said.
The GOP lawmakers cited other emails showing that Mary Miller, an assistant treasury secretary, said the restructuring deal could violate the law because it put investors' interests ahead of taxpayers. Miller told a top White House budget official that she had advised that any proposed restructuring be reviewed by the Justice Department before it was approved.
"To our knowledge that has never happened," Miller wrote in an Aug. 17 memo to the White House Office of Management and Budget.
She said Treasury had asked the Energy Department for briefings on Solyndra's finances and restructuring terms since July 2010 but only heard back from the White House budget office.
Under questioning from a Democratic lawmaker, Grippo acknowledged Friday that Treasury cannot and did not render a legal opinion on the restructuring.
At times, the hearing was a forum for Democrats and Republicans to trade charges about the nature of the Solyndra probe itself. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and others complained that Energy Department officials were not at the hearing to give their side. Waxman also said the GOP was withholding a vital memo with Energy Department information.
"We're only going to get one side of the story," Waxman said, accusing Republicans of conducting an unfair investigation while trying to "maintain our addiction to fossil fuels."
Administration officials have defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, Solyndra would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work.
Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said Thursday that the loan restructuring was legal.
"Based on a careful analysis of the terms of the restructuring, the career officials in the DOE loan program determined that the restructuring was legal and that it did not require Justice Department review," LaVera said.
Energy Department officials say the statute cited by the Treasury Department requires the Justice Department to approve a loan "compromise," in which a borrower is allowed to pay back less than the full amount of the loan. That was not the case in the Solyndra deal, they said.
And while one portion of the law makes clear that a federal debt cannot be subordinate to other financing at the time of the loan, another section provides officials with broad authority to take action to protect the taxpayer in an emergency situation, they said.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu approved the restructuring in February.
Even with the federal help, Solyndra closed its doors Aug. 31 and let all of its workers go.
Emails released last week show a wide disagreement among officials at the Energy Department, Treasury and Office of Management and Budget about Solyndra. Officials at the latter two agencies raised questions about the quality of the DOE's loan-vetting process and the special treatment Solyndra was given as its finances deteriorated.
The Fremont, Calif.-based company was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model. Obama visited the company's Silicon Valley headquarters last year, and Vice President Joe Biden spoke by satellite at its groundbreaking.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/14/house-panel-looks-at-solyndra-loan-restructuring/#ixzz1anQvKEEZ
-
Here we go: White House refuses House GOP demand to turn over all internal documents related to Solyndra
Share
POSTED AT 9:15 PM ON OCTOBER 14, 2011 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
PRINTER-FRIENDLY
Give us the Blackberry.
Congress isn’t getting a glimpse of what’s on President Barack Obama’s Blackberry – or any more internal White House communications related to the bankrupt solar company Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government…
On Friday the White House Counsel sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee explaining they won’t comply with the request because it “implicates longstanding and significant institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests.”
The response is hardly a surprise given past administrations’ refusal to comply with similar congressional requests. The difference here? President Obama is the first Chief Executive to carry a Blackberry, so it’s the first time a White House counsel has – even indirectly – turned down an attempt to peek at his email. Neither the Blackberry nor his personal email is explicitly mentioned in the letter…
The letter states the White House has turned over another 900 pages related to communications between the White House and Solyndra, its representatives and investors. She offers to cooperate further with the investigators.
We knew last week that they had their eye on his Blackberry, annnnd we also knew that they weren’t going to get it. So we’ll have to settle for some new Treasury Department e-mails instead. In case you’ve been wondering whether it’s legal for the government to agree to a loan restructuring that subordinates taxpayers’ interest to that of some private creditor, good news: Treasury’s been wondering that too.
One August 2011 email from a Treasury official obtained by Fox Business Network stated that federal regulations say the taxpayer money “shall not be subordinate” to other investments. “I will bet a quarter that the DOE lawyers have some kind of theory on how whatever restructuring they have done and whatever they are considering doing does not violate these requirements. Can’t wait to hear it,” the official said.
Another August email questioned why investors were even considering putting more money into the company. “I think DOE should be thinking through whether the proposed deal is just giving the investors more time to extract more value from the firm before bankruptcy,” the Treasury official said.
The GOP lawmakers cited other emails showing that Mary Miller, an assistant treasury secretary, said the restructuring deal could violate the law because it put investors’ interests ahead of taxpayers. Miller told a top White House budget official that she had advised that any proposed restructuring be reviewed by the Justice Department before it was approved.
“To our knowledge that has never happened,” Miller wrote in an Aug. 17 memo to the White House Office of Management and Budget.
So intent was Energy on helping out Solyndra that they evidently didn’t pause to consider whether the restructuring might be illegal. I wonder why. Simple cronyism involving the company’s investors, perhaps — or was there something more? If you missed it in Headlines earlier, read Chris Stirewalt’s piece noting that the Obama administration thought Solyndra was a good bet even after it had lost its competitive edge against Chinese firms because they still believed in early 2010 that they might be able to pass cap and trade. If C&T went through, the price of carbon would skyrocket and so would demand for clean energy. Solyndra might start to look like a good buy at that point, even though its units still would have been pricier than China’s. That doesn’t explain why Energy would have agreed to the restructuring late last year, long after any hope of cap and trade had died, but it does tie this story up in a neat little bow. The only way to justify micro-interference in the market by propping up Solyndra with taxpayer cash was to first cause macro-interference in the form of a massive new regulatory scheme. Make the market inefficient enough and eventually even the Solyndra loan could have been efficient!
Here’s video of today’s hearings. Note the response of Gary Burner, the CFO of Treasury’s financing bank and a 28-year veteran of the Department, when asked whether he’s ever seen taxpayers’ claim subordinated in a federal loan before.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/10/14/here-we-go-white-house-refuses-house-gop-demand-to-turn-over-all-internal-documents-related-to-solyndra
-
On Solyndra: President's Blackberry Off Limits
Posted by
CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin
Washington (CNN) - Congress isn't getting a glimpse of what's on President Barack Obama's Blackberry - or any more internal White House communications related to the bankrupt solar company Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government.
House Republicans investigating the loan controversy had requested all internal White House documents about the issue. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee chair Rep. Cliff Stearns said that includes emails on the President's Blackberry.
On Friday the White House Counsel sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee explaining they won't comply with the request because it "implicates longstanding and significant institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests."
The response is hardly a surprise given past administrations' refusal to comply with similar congressional requests. The difference here? President Obama is the first Chief Executive to carry a Blackberry, so it's the first time a White House counsel has - even indirectly - turned down an attempt to peek at his email. Neither the Blackberry nor his personal email is explicitly mentioned in the letter.
On October 5, Republican Chairmen Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns requested "all communications among White House staff and officials related to the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra" because they believed "the White House was closely involved in the monitoring of the Solyndra loan guarantee after it was issued."
They said these documents are necessary "to better understand the involvement of the White house in the review of the Solyndra loan guarantee and the Administration's support of this guarantee.'
In her letter Friday, White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler said, "the three federal agencies most directly involved in the Solyndra loan guarantee, the Department of Energy, the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of the Treasury, are all cooperating with the Committee's investigation into the Solyndra loan guarantee.”
Together she says the three agencies have turned over 70,000 pages of documents and are continuing to do so "on a rolling basis.” The letter states the White House has turned over another 900 pages related to communications between the White House and Solyndra, its representatives and investors. She offers to cooperate further with the investigators.
CNN has attempted to reach the Chairs of the Energy and Commerce Committee for comment. Expect some kind of political fallout.
Solyndra is a California solar panel manufacturer that had received $535 million in federal loan guarantees before it was forced to halt operations and file for bankruptcy at the end of August, putting more than 1,000 workers out of work.
Before its failure, the company had been touted as an example of the benefits of creating green jobs by the Obama administration. But since then, it has become the center of congressional criticism and a probe by the FBI.
Brian Harrison, the CEO of Solyndra, resigned Wednesday amidst the scandal.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/14/source-white-house-will-not-turn-over-all-solyndra-documents
-
Solyndra ties show in Obama 3Q haul
By: Jennifer Epstein and Glenn Thrush
October 14, 2011 08:22 PM EDT
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=367FCD76-D69E-4181-AFCA-9EFCDAB69744
Two Obama fundraisers involved in the controversy surrounding embattled energy company Solyndra ramped up their efforts on behalf of the president’s campaign in late summer, according to the campaign’s voluntary disclosure of its bundler list, released late Friday.
At least 30 percent of President Barack Obama’s $70 million third-quarter fundraising haul came from bundlers, power brokers who brought in $50,000 or more during the June-to-September reporting period, according to a POLITICO analysis of contributions to the Obama Victory Fund. Of the $70 million that went into the jointly run account, $42.8 million went to the Obama campaign while the Democratic National Committee took in $27.3 million.
A total of 41 wealthy supporters were mega-bundlers, bringing in $500,000 or more each. These supporters have brought in at least $20.5 million for the fund and, in all, bundlers have brought in at least $55.5 million through the end of the third quarter.
Steve Spinner, a longtime Obama fundraiser of Menlo Park, Calif., raised $500,000 or more during the third quarter, up from $200,000 to $500,000 during the second quarter.
Spinner got a spot in the administration to help monitor the clean energy program that eventually gave $535 million in loan guarantees to faltering Solyndra, which was once touted as a model for business-government partnerships by the Obama White House.
Spinner repeatedly pushed the Energy Department and the White House to commit to a loan before Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to the company’s headquarters in September 2009, according to emails released by the administration last week.
Another bundler, Steve Westly, also of Menlo Park, raised$200,000-$500,000 during the third quarter, up from $100,000-$200,000 during the second quarter. Westly warned Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett to reconsider his May 2010 trip to Solyndra’s headquarters as concerns about the company mounted. “I just want to help protect the president from anything that could result in negative or unfair press,” Westly, a venture capitalist, wrote in an email to Jarrett.
An email to an Obama campaign spokeswoman wasn’t immediately returned.
In all, 351 bundlers have brought in money to the campaign, more than doubling the total at the end of the second quarter, 144. New bundlers brought in at least $20.5 million to the campaign.
Obama for America is sitting on $61 million in cash, money that is expected to be used to set up state organizations. As it ratcheted up its campaign and built up its Chicago and regional offices, Team Obama began spending at a prodigious rate during the third quarter, burning through about $17 million, records filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday show.
Top recipients include the Perkins Coie law firm — home to former White House Counsel Bob Bauer — which received about $110,000 in legal fees; and senior strategist David Axelrod’s firm, which is receiving a $15,000-a-month retainer, according to the report.
The president’s love of Apple products seems to have filtered down to his campaign, which shelled out about $20,000 on the company’s products during the quarter.
Obama is the only major candidate to provide the public with a detailed list of his bundlers.
About half moved up from lower bundling ranges during the second quarter, while big second-quarter raisers dropped, but a few big names stayed on the list. Among them: Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Jon Corzine, who was CEO of Goldman Sachs before serving as a New Jersey senator and governor.
At lower levels, bundler list is full of bankers and investors but also some recognizable names. Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood superagent and brother of former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, raised $100,000-$200,000 during the third quarter, as did Penny Pritzker, the campaign’s national finance chair.
The campaign refunded $2,000 to actor Alec Baldwin — Alexander R. Baldwin III on FEC documents. The Obama campaign refunded the money because Baldwin gave a total of $7,000 in two checks, $2000 over the combined campaign and DNC limit.
Correction: A previous version of this post said at least half of Obama’s fundraising total came from bundlers.
© 2011 POLITICO LLC
-
Solyndragate: Blood in the Water
There’s blood in the water and the sharks are circling — the Solyndra story just keeps getting deeper. Two newspapers — the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post — are carrying front-page stories today about the Solyndra debacle, each covering a different aspect of the story. This is bad news for an Obama Administration hoping the worst was over — newspaper editors smell blood and now the hunt is on. The Journal’s story about the Solyndra-Navy relationship is particularly damaging:
A major investor in Solyndra LLC was instrumental in helping the troubled solar-power firm compete for a potentially lucrative U.S. Navy deal, a previously unreported connection that will likely fuel controversy surrounding the company.
Solyndra was promoted to the Navy by RockPort Capital, one of the firm’s largest investors and board members, which has a seat on a Pentagon panel that helps the government find emerging technologies.
RockPort recommended Solyndra to the military, along with four other companies. In the end, the negotiations for Solyndra’s inclusion in a $1 million pilot program fell apart when the Navy learned about the company’s pending bankruptcy filing. [...]
Mr. Kopczynski said RockPort disclosed its $47.5 million investment in Solyndra to the Pentagon panel, though it didn’t disclose that Solyndra was in financial trouble and said it wasn’t required to under the panel’s rules. Gaining the Navy as a customer could have helped Solyndra’s shaky financial state, and by extension RockPort’s $47.5 million investment in the Fremont, Calif., firm.
That the Obama Administration wasted millions of dollars of stimulus money chasing a green unicorn is already clear, but the idea that the company’s promoters attempted to mislead the armed forces to bail them out of a sticky situation will leave a particularly bad taste in people’s mouths.
The administration’s goal has to be to get this story off the front page and fast. With the Gunwalker mess at the Justice Department boiling briskly, the White House could find itself mired in the kind of interminable and damaging scandal stories that have dogged so many of its predecessors. This is not the kind of background noise that the President needs as he looks toward a tough race in 2012.
Posted in Environment, Media, Politics, Quick Takes
1138Email2
-
Top Solyndra pusher jumps up a bracket in Obama's reelection campaign bundling
The Daily Caller ^ | October 14, 2011 | Matthew Boyle
Former Obama administration Department of Energy loan programs adviser Steve Spinner jumped up a bracket in fundraising for the president’s re-election campaign.
Spinner was the staffer inside Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s office who pushed and advocated on behalf of Solyndra. Spinner was ranked in the Obama campaign’s $250,000 to $500,000 bundling bracket in the second quarter, but third-quarter fundraising numbers released on Friday show he raised more than $500,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedc.com ...
-
White House Refuses to Release ALL Solyndra Documents (after stealing $535 million from taxpayers)
big government ^ | 10/16/2011 | Publius
Posted on October 16, 2011 10:14:23 AM EDT by tobyhill
House Republicans investigating the loan controversy had requested all internal White House documents about the issue. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee chair Rep. Cliff Stearns said that includes emails on the President’s Blackberry.
On Friday the White House Counsel sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee explaining they won’t comply with the request because it “implicates longstanding and significant institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests.”
The response is hardly a surprise given past administrations’ refusal to comply with similar congressional requests. The difference here? President Obama is the first Chief Executive to carry a Blackberry, so it’s the first time a White House counsel has – even indirectly – turned down an attempt to peek at his email. Neither the Blackberry nor his personal email is explicitly mentioned in the letter.
On October 5, Republican Chairmen Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns requested “all communications among White House staff and officials related to the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra” because they believed “the White House was closely involved in the monitoring of the Solyndra loan guarantee after it was issued.”
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
-
Green Tesla Motors: Another Day, Another Solyndra
The "green" loan scandal grows to include yet another seemingly hopeless company.
October 17, 2011 - 12:00 am - by Richard Pollock
The resignation of Jonathan Silver, the U.S Energy Department’s top loan officer, over the Solyndra scandal may be the tip of the iceberg. He supervised a much larger DOE loan program that suffers from the same problems as Solyndra: over the last 18 months, the Department has awarded more than $9 billion in below-market loans to auto companies under its Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program.
The most troubling transaction: a $465 million loan to California’s Tesla Motors. Tesla received a loan rate of 1.6% from DOE to manufacture an all-electric car that will sell for nearly $50,000. It will not exactly be the people’s car. Tesla also builds luxury sports cars that retail for $103,000 to $128,000.
Tesla also is no simple new age car company. It is owned and financed by big donors to the Democratic Party and to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Tesla’s principal owner is Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal. He has an estimated personal wealth of $672 million. His firm received venture capital from the The Westly Group, Daimler Chrysler, and from Abu Dhabi investors. The firm has partnerships with luxury sports car manufacturer Lotus and with Mercedes-Benz.
The secret to access to the DOE money is The Westly Group, run by California Democratic Party stalwart and big Obama campaign bundler Steve Westly. The former eBay executive wasn’t merely a prodigious fundraiser for Obama, raising $500,000 for his presidential campaign. He also served as the president’s California campaign co-chairman. Another Obama $500,000 bundler was Solyndra investor George Kaiser and his foundation.
Westly got statewide attention in 2006 when he spent $35 million of his own money to run an ugly and largely negative race against California state Treasurer Phil Angelides for governor.
Westly is a personal friend of President Obama, and since the election has visited the White House for meetings and social parties. He privately dined with the president in February with a small group of Silicon Valley billionaires. It was called the “trillion-dollar dinner.”
Westly was rumored to be on Obama’s energy secretary short list. When he lost out to physicist Steven Chu, the White House got him a seat on a pivotal DOE advisory committee that made recommendations to the secretary on alternative energy policies. The committee voted in favor of changes to federal rebates for all electric cars — which would benefit Tesla.
Westly’s Washington political connections to the White House have made him a “pied piper” of DOE money for start-ups. DOE records show that Westly’s venture capital firm has reaped at least $500 million in DOE loans for his companies, wowing Silicon Valley’s VC community.
Westly also sat on Tesla’s board of directors early in the car company’s life.
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk also has been a generous donor to the Democratic National Committee, contributing more than $120,000 over three different election cycles and $292,250 to political campaigns, overwhelmingly to Democrats.
Financial analyst Brian Krasting has called the DOE loan program “free money” for all electric car manufacturers at taxpayer expense. Others have called the Tesla deal a form of “corporate welfare” for the president’s friends. There have been complaints from alternative energy companies that the ATVM loans were awarded because of political connections.
DOE defends the Tesla loan, telling PJMedia it was sound and neutrally approved by its financial analysts. However, the DOE spokesman also acknowledged not knowing of the company’s plan for a $200 million NASDAQ IPO when it awarded the firm the loan. Nor did the spokesman say DOE knew Toyota was to become its partner in the plant when DOE issued the loan.
There is a general question of competence regarding the DOE loan staff’s ability to examine the 130 loan applications they received from high-tech firms. A February 2011 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that the staff did not have adequate expertise for evaluating the “green” companies that were seeking the loans:
Without qualified oversight to analyze the information submitted by the borrowers and to provide technical monitoring, the ATVM program cannot be adequately assured that the borrowers are delivering the vehicle and component projects as required by the loan agreements.
Rep. Cliff Stearns — chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the Solyndra scandal — tells PJMedia he is launching an investigation “looking at the entire program, and some specific companies.”
The Model S, for which DOE awarded Tesla most of the $465 million, reportedly will sell for as much as $67,000. The company has yet to record a single quarter of profit and continues to see its own stated production schedule slip. It now promises that the Model S will be launched at the end of 2012, a year late.
Tesla says it still hopes to sell the base model for around $47,000 before governmental rebates. That still may be too steep a tag even for environmental enthusiasts.
When the White House gave a half-billion dollar loan to Tesla, President Obama lauded it as “[a] historic opportunity to ensure that the next generation of fuel-efficient cars and trucks are made in America.”
While on the committee, Westly supported a $7,500 instant rebate for electric car buyers. (Most federal rebates come long after a sale, when a customer files his income tax forms.) The new rule supported by Westly automatically deducts the $7,500 off the retail price of a car at the time of the sale. The regulation is now in force and will apply for all Tesla customers.
When Tesla’s application was before DOE loan managers in 2009, there were many indications it was not even in need of the loan. Tesla’s private investors included Google co-founders Sergey Brin & Larry Page, former eBay President Jeff Skoll, Hyatt heir Nick Pritzker, and VC firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Capricorn Management, and the Bay Area Equity Fund (managed by JPMorgan Chase). In May 2009, Daimler Chrysler took a stake in Tesla for a reported $50 million. Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments reportedly bought 40% of Daimler’s investment.
Tesla is also building powertrain components for the Mercedes-Benz A Class E-Cell all-electric cars, and is working with Daimler on components for its smart car.
That year Tesla was making presentations to potential investors for an IPO. In June of 2010, Tesla officially launched its IPO on NASDAQ, which instantly capitalized the company at $226 million. The IPO underwriters were not small investment houses, but Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank. The IPO, however, had troubling fine print that the company would discontinue the production of its roadster after only 1,600 vehicles had been built.
The DOE loan was also intended to reconfigure a Fremont car assembly plant partially owned by Toyota. Instead of selling its plant, Toyota became a $50 million partner with Tesla, which could have easily recapitalized the plant.
DOE says they had no inkling of the deals that were in the works when they initially approved the loan, which was announced in June 2009. DOE spokesman William Gibbons tells PJMedia that it was offered “a conditional commitment” in June of that year, but only learned after the issuance of the loan that “Tesla was able to raise significantly more private equity, and made its initial public offering.”
However, many financial analysts have seen Tesla economic prospects differently.
On automotive news website “The Truth About Cars,” Edward Niedermeyer wrote on February 13, 2009, months before DOE approved the loan:
How on earth is anyone supposed to believe his repeated insistence that Tesla is not in financial trouble?
Motley Fool financial analyst Sean Williams wrote:
I just can’t see Tesla turning a profit anytime soon — if ever! … Current analyst projections call for Tesla to grow revenue by threefold in 2012 with the introduction of the Model S, but call me not so convinced. On countless occasions in recent history, Tesla has run into parts supply delays and technical snafus. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be shocked to see the debut of the Model S pushed back beyond the mid-2012 date the company provided.
Williams was right. Tesla’s Model S is now slated for release sometime at the end of 2012.
Financial analyst Bruce Krasting openly worried about the “free money” being given to the automakers. The loans actually are paid by the Federal Financing Bank, a bank supervised by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Geithner has doubled the size of the bank and redirected its loans from government projects like rural electrification to private sector projects like Tesla. Geithner has total control over the size and disbursements of the bank. He has no oversight. A congressional committee is investigating the bank connected to the Solyndra scandal. Krasting complained that the bank, once reserved for governmental non-profit programs, was being redirected to for-profit companies like Tesla. In September 2011, Krasting tweeted:
Who got this money? Answer: The same characters that have gotten the “Free Money” since O/Timmy G. took control.
Motley Fool analyst John Williams didn’t pull punches when it came to Tesla:
Let’s get real here. Tesla carries a market capitalization of $2.8 billion and has a net worth of less than $400 million, so its stock price is 86% air — a bubble in search of a pin.
Before the Solyndra scandal broke, Tesla representatives said they were primed for a second federal loan from DOE’s ATVM program. But late last month, their CEO reversed course — saying they don’t need the money.
Westly and Tesla were the subject of a joint investigation by the non-profit Center for Public Integrity and ABC News that ran in March of this year. They outlined the nexus between energy politics and money in the Obama administration. They reported that Westly treated DOE’s loan program as his personal bank for capitalizing his portfolio of companies:
He (Westly) visits White House staff and, as a member of a government advisory board on energy policy, has the ear of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, whose department hands out the sort of seed money sought by companies in The Westly Group portfolio. He even has hosted the president at fundraisers in his Northern California home, and co-hosted events for three of Obama’s most influential advisors.
The Center for Public Integrity quoted an environmental reporter regarding Westly’s ability to pull strings in Washington for many companies:
“One of the things the firm pledges that differentiates The Westly Group from other venture capitalists is they help companies navigate the political landscape,” said Eric Wesoff, a senior analyst who specializes in renewable energy and financing for Greentech Media, which covers news and analysis about the green tech market. “If the premise is that The Westly Group is able to pull some strings to get their companies federal funding, that might actually be part of his business plan.”
Like Solyndra, despite the infusion of private and public funds Tesla may not be a financially successful company. Tesla has yet to see a single quarter of profit. Outside financial analysts assert they are skeptical Tesla will ever be profitable.
And like Solyndra, Tesla has been accused of poor financial management. There are charges it was running an unsustainable “burn rate” of $400 million in a short time. Ze’ev Drori, a former Tesla CEO, tried to put a stop to the financial hemorrhaging and slashed spending by ten percent. But Elon Musk reportedly didn’t like this new direction — he fired Drori and replaced him with himself.
Documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity under a Freedom of Information Act request show that the ATVM program has generated internal complaints that all firms did not get the same welcome mat that Westly and Tesla enjoyed. The Center for Public Integrity reported:
One of the firms turned down for funding in that loan pool complained of unfair treatment and being ignored. In a five-page letter to Chu, dated Sept. 21, 2009, the company said it had been given no reason for its rejection and had to call the Energy Department multiple times simply to learn what happened.
“DOE reviewers never even talked to the founder, inventor, engineers, project leads or primary contractors to obtain additional information,” said the letter from the California electric car maker XP Vehicles, Inc. “Why was staff at DOE during the course of the year positive about the outcome and never asked for additional information?”
Other firms shut out from the car program have expressed similar frustration, James Taylor, CEO of Ohio’s Amp Electric Vehicles, said in a Q&A last week on Edmunds.com. “These are companies trying to get off the ground and are just like us, starving for cash, looking for investors,” Taylor said. The government money is “not falling through the funnel and getting out to us.”
Multiple congressional and federal investigations are now underway over DOE ethics and political corruption besetting DOE and the Treasury Department’s Federal Financing Bank. The Energy Department’s inspector general, Gregory Friedman, said his office has 64 open investigations centered on stimulus spending. They include “the directing of contracts and grants to friends and family.”
Chris Horner, an attorney with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, calls the Tesla deal “corporate welfare.” He tells PJMedia:
This is a handout from the taxpayers. This is standard corporate welfare. It’s run-of-the-mill corporate welfare that they drape it in green rhetorical bunting as if this is different. It isn’t. It’s even worse because this is likely to be uneconomic.
Richard Pollock is the Washington, D.C., editor for Pajamas Media and the Washington bureau chief of PJTV.
-
News from The Hill: House Republicans demand Obama's emails on Solyndra
InboxX
House Republicans demand Obama’s emails on Solyndra
By Andrew Restuccia
House Republicans are pushing forward with their request for all internal White House communications related to the now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra, including President Obama’s emails.
The White House late last week denied the request by Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, noting that the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department and the Energy Department have provided over 70,000 pages of documents in recent months.
The White House, in a letter from White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, also said that more than 900 pages of communications between the White House and Solyndra have also been released.
The documents that have been provided by the administration “should satisfy the Committee’s stated objective,” Ruemmler said in the letter.
“Your most recent request for internal White House communications from the first day of the current Administration to the present implicates longstanding and institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests,” the letter says.
But, in a letter to Ruemmler Wednesday, top Republicans on the committee argue that the White House should turn over the additional documents.
Link: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/188509-republicans-demand-obamas-emails-on-solyndra
-----------------------------------------
For the latest news: http://www.thehill.com
Forward email
http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=rif8facab&m=1101665244433&ea=chris%40usassetrecovery.com&a=1108211012667
________________________ _______________________
We need a full time team of Special Prosecutors to monitor obama 24/7
-
Busted: DOE Altered Solyndra-Related Documents
National Review ^ | 10/19/11 | Andrew Stiles
It appears as though the Obama administration has been caught red-handed trying to cover up evidence in relation to the “green” loans programs that helped finance Solyndra. CNBC reports that a number of press releases posted by the Department of Energy have been retroactively altered to remove the name a solar company thought by many to be the next “green” failure:
The changes occurred in two press releases from the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program — the same program that has been the center of controversy surrounding the failed solar company Solyndra.
Both were changed to remove the name of a company that has received negative press attention in recent days, SunPower, and replace it with the name of another company, NRG Energy.
In the April case, the Department of Energy loan programs office announced in a press release on April 12 “conditional commitment” to a $1.187 billion loan guarantee to support the California Valley Solar Ranch project, which it said was “sponsored by SunPower Corporation.”
But that release was later changed on one website to say the project was “sponsored by NRG Energy.” The date on the release remained “April 12, 2011.”
The name substitution is not completely random. NRG recently finalized its acquisition of the California Valley Solar Ranch project from SunPower in September. However, at the time of the press release in April, SunPower still controlled the project.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Obama Energy Department Is Going Back and Changing Solar Energy Loan Press Releases
Gateway Pundit ^ | October 19,2011 | Jim Hoft
Posted on October 19, 2011 10:30:47 PM EDT by Hojczyk
The Obama Administration spent nearly half of the $38.6 billion ($17.2 billion) set aside for his green energy programs and was only able to create 3,545 permanent green jobs. This comes out to a staggering $4,853,000 per job.
Now we find out that the Obama Energy Department is going back and changing solar energy press releases. CNBC reported:
Someone affiliated with the Department of Energy has been going back to make changes to press releases posted on the Internet weeks and months ago, CNBC has found.
The changes occurred in two press releases from the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program — the same program that has been the center of controversy surrounding the failed solar company Solyndra.
Both were changed to remove the name of a company that has received negative press attention in recent days, SunPower, and replace it with the name of another company, NRG Energy [NRG 20.89 -0.14 (-0.67%) ].
Generally, it is not considered correct procedure to revise old press releases retroactively on the Web. More commonly, government agencies will issue a new press release with a current date explaining any changes that have occurred.
In the April case, the Department of Energy loan programs office announced in a press release on April 12 “conditional commitment” to a $1.187 billion loan guarantee to support the California Valley Solar Ranch project, which it said was “sponsored by SunPower Corporation.”
But that release was later changed on one website to say the project was “sponsored by NRG Energy.” The date on the release remained “April 12, 2011.”
-
Energy Department Altered Loan-Related Releases
Published: Wednesday, 19 Oct 2011 | 5:38 PM ET Text Size By: Eamon Javers
CNBC Washington, DC Correspondent
Someone affiliated with the Department of Energy has been going back to make changes to press releases posted on the Internet weeks and months ago, CNBC has found.
Getty Images
A worker installs solar panels at the Lieberose Solar Park in Lieberose, Germany.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The changes occurred in two press releases from the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program — the same program that has been the center of controversy surrounding the failed solar company Solyndra.
Both were changed to remove the name of a company that has received negative press attention in recent days, SunPower, and replace it with the name of another company, NRG Energy [NRG 20.67 -0.22 (-1.05%) ].
Generally, it is not considered correct procedure to revise old press releases retroactively on the Web. More commonly, government agencies will issue a new press release with a current date explaining any changes that have occurred.
In the April case, the Department of Energy loan programs office announced in a press release on April 12 "conditional commitment" to a $1.187 billion loan guarantee to support the California Valley Solar Ranch project, which it said was "sponsored by SunPower Corporation."
But that release was later changed on one website to say the project was "sponsored by NRG Energy." The date on the release remained "April 12, 2011."
The two companies are closely linked. Just before the announcement of the loan guarantee in September, NRG completed its long-in-process acquisition from SunPower of the same California Valley Solar Ranch project that had received federal support.
But in April, that project was still owned by SunPower, not NRG.
In a second instance of retroactive press release revision, someone changed a release from September 30 that announced the finalization of the California Solar Generation project. In an early version of the September 30 press release, the government said the project was "sponsored by SunPower." That was later changed to "sponsored by NRG Energy."
In a statement, a spokesman for the Department of Energy said that the changes were made by outside contractors for the department responsible for maintaining the Loan Programs Office website.
"The only website that changed was a separately maintained loan program webpage that is managed by support services contractors," the spokesman said. "While updating the project fact sheet to reflect the changes in the ownership of the California Valley Solar Ranch project, those contractors inadvertently changed the news bulletins posted on the LPO website."
Update: On Wednesday evening, a Department of Energy spokesman said that the press releases had been returned to their original content as a result of CNBC's inquiry about the changes.
Correction: A previous headline on this article incorrectly characterized the press releases as being related to Solyndra.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Fisker Karma: Solyndra on Wheels?
The Virginian ^ | 10/20/2011 | moneyrunner
Posted on October 20, 2011 8:26:15 PM EDT by moneyrunner
This car, which you can buy for a mere $100,000, was brough to your by a half billion dollar loan from the US Department of Energy, made in Finland using batteries and electric motors made in China.
But I'll let Andrew explain it:
Our tax dollars at work… a half-billion dollar loan (actually $529 million) from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a hybrid toy for the wealthy and/or celebri-licious (like Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the first customers) that, in real world driving, won’t get much better mileage than your average crossover utility vehicle. Not only that, but the cars are manufactured in Finland — that’s right, Finland – and shipped here for sale, where their purchasers will then receive a $7,500 tax credit for buying one (the “cheap” base model starts at $96,895, with the full-zoot Eco Chic model going for a bargain $108,900).
What is the Department of Wasting Tax Payer Dollars Energy's excuse for this over-the-top extravagance? It runs partly on batteries, getting you 32 miles away from your garage before the turbocharged engine kicks in, delivering 20 miles to the gallon!
(Excerpt) Read more at moneyrunner.blogspot.com ...
-
Car Company Gets U. S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/car-company-us-loan-builds-cars-finland/story?id=14770875 ^
Posted on October 20, 2011 9:17:38 PM EDT by kcvl
Wirh approval from the Obama adminstration
$529 million
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
-
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/car-company-us-loan-builds-cars-finland/t/story?id=14770875
Disgusting.
-
LightSquared refuses to release communications with White House
The Hill ^ | 20 October, 2011 | Brendan Sasso
Posted on October 22, 2011 4:53:44 AM EDT by Watchdog85
Wireless company LightSquared has refused a request from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to release its communications with the White House and the Federal Communications Commission.
Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, requested the documents earlier this month to probe whether the company benefited from improper influence in its effort to secure regulatory approval. LightSquared told Grassley it would "respectfully decline" his request in a letter Wednesday night.
LightSquared plans to launch a wholesale wireless broadband service, but tests earlier this year revealed its network interferes with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. The company is currently undergoing a new round of testing to determine if technical modifications have addressed the interference problem.
FCC officials have said they will not allow the company to move forward until the GPS issues are resolved.
Republican lawmakers began calling for an investigation of the company's lobbying efforts after emails revealed LightSquared had communicated with senior White House aides. The administration also reportedly asked an Air Force general to change his testimony in a congressional briefing to make it more supportive of the company.
The White House and LightSquared deny any improper influence.
"If LightSquared has nothing to hide and would like to put questions of improper influence at the FCC, Department of Commerce and White House to rest, the public release of these communications would allow Congress and the American people to fully examine the facts and decide for themselves," Grassley wrote in his request to the company earlier this month.
But in LightSquared's response, the company worried that the GPS industry would only try to distort any documents that the company released.
"Given the transparent efforts of the GPS industry to politicize this issue, I admittedly have concerns that any materials we provide may be used selectively or taken out of context," wrote Mark Paoletta, a lawyer representing LightSquared.
A LightSquared executive told The Hill last week he believes the GPS industry has pushed negative political stories about LightSquared in an attempt to discredit the company and prevent the launch of its network.
In the letter to Grassley, the company argued that the senator should also request documents from the GPS industry to gain a complete picture of the lobbying efforts surrounding LightSquared's proposed network.
A spokeswoman for Grassley said the senator would request similar information from GPS makers Garmin, Trimble and John Deere if it would mean that LightSquared would release its communications.
-
LightSquared buys-off government GPS, civilian GPS left to die
Calypso Wireless iHub ^ | 10/24/11
LightSquared is a competitor of the CLYW patent. They are trying to institute a new comm network that would end the GPS navigation network. Obama is giving them fast-track approval through the FCC because his friends are investors.
----------------------------------------------
Pay Up, LightSquared
Why is LightSquared paying federal agencies $50 million to replace affected government GPS units and not doing the same for civilian GPS units?
The hypocrisy of the LightSquared issue is reaching new heights. The FCC issues a license without regard for the frequency spectrum it is stated to protect. Then, when the economics of the issue become such that the FCC cannot withdraw its approval after finding out after the fact it made a mistake, it tries to kick the can down the road until a compromise can be reached.
Now I read all government agencies are getting $50 Million to replace effected units.
Where is the compensation or replacement of civilian units to correct the problem?
Looks like the American people are getting shafted by the FCC, LightSquared, and the politicians again.
Sincerely, Benjamin S. Armen
If and when that $6 filter becomes available, be prepared for a half-zillion dollar cost to have it installed. And that will be three or so years after it has been submitted to FAA/FTC for approval. Your GPS may have to go back to the factory for installation, it may require an STC, [and] it will certainly require an extensive/expensive utilization of an A&P/IA.
Don't hold your breath, and cut back on $100 hamburgers to build up the kitty for this wonderful new invention. You may have it paid for by the time you have to upgrade to ADB-S.
Dick Carden
-
Solyndra-linked fundraiser still boosting Obama campaign
latimes.com ^ | Oct. 24, 2011 | Peter Nicholas and Tom Hamburger
________________________ ______________
Reporting from Washington— A former Energy Department official linked to the failed Solyndra solar enterprise deal continues to raise campaign money for President Obama and helped plan a fundraising luncheon that the president will attend in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Steven Spinner, who remains in the top tier of Obama fundraisers, took part in a conference call in recent weeks devoted to planning the event at the W Hotel. He also has joined other Obama fundraising calls, according to a person familiar with Spinner's participation who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
An Obama campaign official said Sunday that Spinner did not raise funds for the San Francisco event but is an "active fundraiser for the campaign." He declined to comment on whether Spinner took part in conference calls about the luncheon.
Spinner could not be reached for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
-
Luck of O'bama: Another CEO Bites the Dust
Townhall.com ^ | October 26, 2011 | John Ransom
Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 9:23:13 AM by Kaslin
If you’ve had anything to do with Obama from a bumper sticker to bailouts, you might want to turn a circle three times in your tracks while you cross yourself. Or tack a horseshoe above your door. Or do a novena to Saint Jude.
Because the president is more than just a bad executive, he’s star-crossed. From union bosses, to Chicago, to CEOs, to millionaires, to billionaires, homeowners and healthcare practitioners, everyone involved with him is feeling hexed.
The hasty departure of First Solar CEO Robert Gillette, an Obama favorite, sent share prices for the publicly-traded “green” energy company tumbling 25 percent on Tuesday, on general jitters that another green rat may be abandoning another solar-powered sinking ship.
The company, whose stock has traded as high as $311 in May of 2008, was trading at $43.27 in after hours on Tuesday.
First Solar was one of the bigger benefactors of Obama’s Cash-by-Suckers program designed to, um…invest?- no, that’s not right; to support?- no, that’s not right either; designed to waste taxpayers' money on more solar crap that doesn’t work, won’t pay and can’t be justified financially or scientifically.
First Solar Stock Chart by YCharts
To make it easy on my Democrat friends, First Solar got the financial equivalent of four (4) Solyndra-type deals in September.
First Solar received $2 billion worth of loan guarantees on projects in California in the waning days of the controversial Department of Energy’s loan program. The company then sold the projects to other, better-connected companies within hours of getting the guarantees.
And when I say better connected, I’m not talking transmission lines.
Which other companies you ask?
GE and NextEra Energy.
You might remember them because the executives from GE and NextEra sit on Obama’s jobs council.
“Lew Hay is CEO of NextEra Energy” wrote The Street.com at the time of the deal, “and sits on the [President’s jobs] council along with Jeff Immelt, the head of General Electric, the council's leader. And sure enough, in late September, NextEra and GE Energy Financial Services got together to jointly acquire the Desert Sunlight solar project from First Solar.”
Who said that the $8 million worth of lobbying expenses NextEra spent from 2008 to 2011 wasn’t worth it?
You got it all wrong. You have to think of that lobbying money as a loan application fee.
The reason why the First Solar deal is so sweet is that NextEra already owes $22 billion with only $300 million left in the bank.
Gillette’s departure from First Solar hasn’t helped the troubled solar industry shake the feeling that the industry has a rendezvous with bankruptcy, in the same way that Obama has a rendezvous with the ballot box. But don’t worry, GE will be there to pick up the leftover scraps.
This is what happens when your president makes “start-up” investments in companies that are neither start ups, nor in need of investment. And it’s also what happens when your CEO sells your government-guaranteed projects to your biggest competitors.
Really: I’m not making that up.
Two weeks after making the deal with First Solar, GE announced it would compete with First Solar in thin-film solar manufacturing.
“General Electric Co., the world’s biggest maker of power-generating equipment,” reported Bloomberg-Businessweek, “said it will produce thin-film solar panels that convert at least 14 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity and may surpass products offered by First Solar Inc. When a new plant in Colorado reaches full capacity of 400 megawatts a year, efficiency will be above 14 percent, Danielle Merfeld, the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company’s solar product line leader, said today in an interview. Production will begin next year and initial shipments are expected in 2013. She didn’t say when the facility will reach full capacity or how much the panels will cost.”
No wonder Gillette left. Not so smart. Or maybe just part of the Obama hex.
“The long-anticipated move is the centerpiece of a $600 million investment that aims to catapult GE to the top of the solar industry,” says Smartplanet.com “and repeat the success it had scaling up its wind business. It also puts GE on the hunt to overtake market leader First Solar, which uses the same semiconductor material in its panels.”
With a billion dollar assist from the Department of Energy.
Yep.
Occupy that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Energy Secretary Chu agrees to testify in Congress about Solyndra
The Daily Caller ^ | 10/27/11 | Matthew Boyle
Posted on October 27, 2011 8:40:21 PM EDT by Nachum
President Barack Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu has agreed to testify about failed solar company Solyndra before congressional investigators on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing, according to committee staff, will be on November 17.
Solyndra received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy — and taxpayers are burdened with that cost since the solar panel manufacturer went bankrupt.
“We appreciate Secretary Chu making himself available and look forward to hearing his testimony on DOE’s involvement with the half-billion dollar loan to Solyndra,” Energy and Commerce’s Oversight and Investigations subcommittee chairman Rep. Cliff Stearns said in a statement. “We hope he will finally provide answers about why DOE consciously ignored the direct warnings from their own experts that Solyndra was doomed to fail, and granted the loan to Solyndra.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Energy Department-Backed Company Under SEC Investigation [ECOtality -- Electric car chargers]
The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation ^ | October 28, 2011 at 10:54 am | Lachlan Markay
In its push to get electric vehicles on the road, the Obama administration has partnered with a company in dire financial straits that is also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading.
San Francisco-based green technology company ECOtality received roughly $115 million in two separate Energy Department grants to build 14,000 electric vehicle charging stations in 18 cities. President Obama cited ECOtality in last year’s State of the Union address as a success story of his stimulus law. Ted Karner, president and CEO of ECOtality subsidiary eTec (now called ECOtality North America) watched from the crowd as the First Lady’s guest.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu boasted that his department was “working very closely [with eTec] to get EVs on the road.”
But the administration’s poster child for its electric vehicle project is riddled with financial and legal problems. According to ECOtality’s 10Q filing from the second quarter of this year, the SEC opened an investigation into allegations of insider trading.
"On October 28, 2010, we and our ECOtality North America subsidiary, as well as certain individuals, received subpoenas from the SEC, pursuant to a formal Private Order of Investigation, in connection with a fact-finding inquiry as to trading in shares of our common stock from the period between August 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009."
The “certain individuals” under investigation are not public record, and the SEC said it could not provide the names of people involved in an ongoing investigation. ECOtality likewise declined to comment. But as the form notes, both ECOtality and its subsidiary – in addition to the unnamed individuals – are targets of the investigation.
In addition to its legal troubles, ECOtality’s financial health is tenuous. In the first six months of 2011, the company reported a net loss of more than $12 million, according to its 10Q. More than half of its income during that period came from its Energy Department grants.
ECOtality attributes its increasing losses (they increased by about $3 million from the previous year) to “the ramp up of activity and associated costs incurred under the DOE Contract in 2011.” The electric vehicle project for which ECOtality received federal money is behind schedule, according to Karner. As of last month, only about 3,000 electric vehicle charging units had been installed. Karner said the company would be requesting an extension of the program to accommodate the slow pace of production.
The extension of the company’s work on the EV project raises concerns about its financial health, given the large costs apparently associated with the project and its lack of other sources of income.
The wisdom of large government expenditures on electric vehicles is itself a dubious policy, as Heritage’s Nick Loris pointed out:
"It should not be the focus of the Department of Energy to work to get EVs on the road. The world petroleum market is a multi-trillion one. That should be enough incentive for innovators, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to get EVs on the road because if they make economic sense they’ll capture part of that market share and make billions. The economic reality is that PHEVs are not ready for primetime, and the best indicator for when they will be is when the government stops using taxpayer dollars to subsidize their production"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Another Obama fundraiser is investor in car company that won federal loan
By Carol D. Leonnig, Friday, October 28, 11:40 AM
www.washingtonpost.com
An investment firm whose vice chairman has been an adviser and fundraiser for President Obama saw one of its portfolio companies win approval this year for $50 million in loans from the administration’s clean-energy loan program.
Washington-based Perseus says its affiliation with James A. Johnson, a major fundraiser for Obama’s campaign, played no role in persuading the Energy Department to award the loan to Vehicle Production Group, a Miami start-up that is manufacturing wheelchair-accessible cars and taxis.
Johnson headed Obama’s vice presidential selection committee in 2008 and is the former chairman of housing mortgage giant Fannie Mae. He was listed as a campaign fundraising bundler for Obama in the 2008 race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and committed to raising $200,000 to $500,000 for the upcoming presidential race.
Johnson could not be reached for comment Thursday. Perseus Chairman Frank Pearl said in an interview that it is an “absurd idea” to think that Johnson’s political connections helped the Miami company.
“I doubt there was anybody at DOE that even considered the fact that Jim was part of this firm. We went straight through the proper channels of the [loan] program,” he said.
Department spokesman Damien LaVera said in a statement Thursday that “the decision to provide the Vehicle Production Group a loan was made based on the merits after more than two years of review by officials in the DOE loan program.”
Republicans have criticized the administration for what they say is a pattern of loan assistance going to politically connected clean-energy companies. Recently, they expanded their investigations of loan guarantees to other companies whose investors include Democratic contributors.
Both the White House and the Energy Department have said that no such pattern exists and that all decisions were decided on merit.
A nine-month House investigation of the loan guarantee program has largely focused on the Obama administration’s first clean-energy loan: $535 million to solar start-up Solyndra, a now-shuttered company whose lead investors were funds tied to George Kaiser, an Obama fundraising bundler and Tulsa billionaire.
The Energy Department ignored numerous warnings that the company’s finances were shaky and rushed to approve the Solyndra loan; now taxpayers are obligated to repay the money. The head of the loan program, Jonathan Silver, resigned this month, weeks after the head of the House investigative committee called for him to be fired.
In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers have widened their scope to more deeply probe $1 billion in loans approved by the same program to electric auto makers Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors.
On Wednesday, a congressional committee chairman asked the Energy Department for documents concerning its decision to offer a $730 million loan to a U.S. subsidiary of a steel-making company run by the second-richest man in Russia.
The loan was for Severstal’s North American operation to upgrade a Dearborn, Mich., plant to supply the auto industry. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu to explain why the firm merited taxpayer-backed financing considering the financial mishaps and global standing of its parent company.
In the case of the Vehicle Production Group, the Energy Department conditionally offered the start-up its low-cost, government-backed financing last November. Chu announced the agency’s formal approval in March.
Perseus has been the leading investor in VPG since 2008. Pearl said he became interested in the company’s concept because of its reliance on compressed natural gas and its unique niche — the first vehicle designed for wheelchair accessibility. He was a longtime friend of VPG’s president, Fred Drasner, a former owner of the Washington Redskins and a former co-publisher of the New York Daily News.
“It’s a fabulous car,” Pearl said, adding that the department was looking for a compressed natural gas project to back. “It’s the only one purpose-designed and purpose-built to serve the needs of people in wheelchairs.”
Pearl said he took on the role of pursuing the loan for the company while Drasner and his team focused on marketing and car production.
Another investor was Clean Energy Fuels, a firm focused on using natural gas for transportation led by longtime Republican T. Boone Pickens.
Perseus’s vice chairman was Johnson, who joined the firm in 2001 but is better known as a fixture in Democratic politics for the past three decades. He served as manager of Walter Mondale’s unsuccessful 1984 presidential campaign and chaired the vice presidential selection committee for John F. Kerry’s White House campaign.
From 1991 to 1998, Johnson served as chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, a well-compensated position that would tail him as financial markets imploded in summer 2008 from the rise of risky, subprime mortgages.
Johnson had supported Obama as a young senator and, later, was briefly part of a three-member team leading his vice presidential search committee. But Johnson resigned in June 2008 amid revelations that he had received $7 million in deeply discounted mortgage loans from the chief executive of Countrywide, a company that had helped fuel the rise of subprime home mortgages. He said the controversy was a distraction for Obama’s campaign.
Johnson has personally donated $55,400 to Obama’s two presidential campaigns, federal donation records show, including a $35,800 check listed on Aug. 29 to Obama’s reelection effort. Pearl donated $1,500 to Obama’s campaign in 2008.
All told, Perseus officers have donated $120,700 to Obama and the Democratic Party’s top three fundraising committees since the 2007-08 election cycle.
Before Obama’s inauguration, Johnson served as a lead member of Obama’s transition team, advising him on economic policies.
Pearl said he actively tried to avoid using politics to woo the new administration. He said he met with a member of the White House’s disabilities council, Kareem Dale, to discuss VPG’s project while its application was pending “to make sure [the company] was on their radar screen” but did not seek his help with the Energy Department.
Pearl said that, to his knowledge, Johnson never asked the administration to help VPG.
“It seemed to me, and it still does, that dealing forthrightly with people at DOE and not putting them under pressure was the most effective way to do this,” Pearl said. “That’s what we did.”
The compressed natural gas vehicle MV-1 is expected to use no gasoline and produce lower emissions than gasoline-fueled vehicles. The Vehicle Production Group estimates that it will, at full capacity, produce more than 22,000 vehicles per year. The company estimates that the project will generate more than 100 jobs in Indiana, where the cars will be assembled, in addition to about 800 direct and indirect jobs across 17 states related to the assembly, parts supplies, production and sale of the vehicle.
Research Editor Alice Crites contributed to this article.
-
Beacon Power bankrupt; had U.S. backing like Solyndra
tweet
Email
Print
On Sunday October 30, 2011, 11:39 pm EDT
By Tom Hals and Roberta Rampton
(Reuters) - Beacon Power Corp filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, just a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial Department of Energy program.
The bankruptcy comes about two months after Solyndra -- a solar panel maker with a $535 million loan guarantee -- also filed for Chapter 11, creating a political embarrassment for the administration of President Barack Obama, which has championed the loans as a way to create "green energy" jobs.
Beacon Power drew down $39 million of its government-guaranteed loan to fund a portion of a $69 million, 20-megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York.
There are several key differences between the two loans, an Energy Department spokesman said on Sunday, noting the Beacon plant continues to operate, unlike Solyndra, which shut down shortly before filing for bankruptcy.
The Energy Department also had agreed to restructure Solyndra's debt in a last-ditch effort to keep the company alive, a deal which put taxpayers behind $75 million in private investment. But for the Beacon project, the government loan is the first debt the company must pay, the spokesman said.
But the new bankruptcy will stoke criticism from Republicans in the House of Representatives who are investigating whether Obama campaign donors who were investors in Solyndra played a role in decisions on the loan -- allegations denied by the White House and Department of Energy (DOE).
"This latest failure is a sharp reminder that DOE has fallen well short of delivering the stimulus jobs that were promised, and now taxpayers find themselves millions of more dollars in the hole," said Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican who is leading the House Energy and Commerce Committee's probe.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu plans to testify to the committee at a hearing slated for November 17.
'SMART GRID' TECHNOLOGY
The new bankruptcy comes on the heels of a White House announcement on Friday that Wall Street veteran Herb Allison will conduct an independent review of the Energy Department's loan portfolio during the next 60 days and issue a public report on how to improve the program.
The Energy Department has a loan portfolio of $35.9 billion -- $24.5 billion of which have been finalized. The portfolio includes "green energy" loans like the one given to Solyndra and Beacon Power, as well as loan guarantees for new nuclear plants and grants and loans for technology used in energy-efficient vehicles.
Beacon Power developed new technology that allows its energy storage plant to rapidly absorb electricity from New York's power grid when demand drops, and inject energy back into the grid when demand increases.
The technology is designed to help more solar and wind power -- which is intermittent -- be used by power grids, which need stable power to remain reliable.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission passed a new rule on October 20 requiring power markets to pay more for frequency regulation services, such as those provided by Beacon -- a major victory for the company.
The Tyngsboro, Massachusetts-based company was spun off of SatCon Technology Corp in 1997 and went public in 2000. It said in documents filed with Delaware's bankruptcy court that it had $72 million in assets and $47 million in debts.
Beacon currently operates at a loss and its revenues are not enough to support its operations, it said in court documents.
It blamed the bankruptcy on its inability to secure additional investments due to the financing terms mandated by the Department of Energy, its recent delisting by the Nasdaq stock market and the current "political climate."
The loan guarantee for the project included "many protections for the taxpayer," said DOE spokesman Damien LaVera, noting the department is not directly exposed to Beacon's liabilities, has the operating plant as collateral, as well as cash reserves held by the business.
The case is Beacon Power Corp, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 11-13450.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Dale Hudson and Eric Walsh)
Follow Yahoo! Finance on Twitter; become a fan on Facebook.
Another one!!!!
-
Second Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt
By Ben Geman - 10/31/11 08:04 AM ET
www.thehill.com
A Massachusetts company that received a $43 million Energy Department loan guarantee last year filed for bankruptcy Sunday, a step certain to fuel criticism of federal green energy financing in the wake of the solar company Solyndra’s collapse.
Beacon Power Corp., which develops energy storage systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
Beacon Power had received federal loan guarantee to help build an energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York that began operating in January. The Treasury Department’s Federal Financing Bank provided the loan.
Beacon sought bankruptcy protection two days after the White House ordered an independent 60-day evaluation of the Energy Department's loan programs aimed at ensuring effective management and monitoring.
The review, conducted by a former Treasury Department official, will include examination of how Beacon’s project is performing going forward, and whether there are additional steps that can be taken to protect taxpayers, according to the Obama administration.
The Beacon bankruptcy comes roughly two months after the California solar panel maker Solyndra, which had received a $535 million Energy Department (DOE) loan guarantee in 2009, went belly up and laid off 1,100 workers.
Solyndra’s collapse unleashed a torrent of GOP-led attacks on the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program.
Solyndra and the broader loan guarantee program are under investigation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“This latest failure is a sharp reminder that DOE has fallen well short of delivering the stimulus jobs that were promised, and now taxpayers find themselves millions of more dollars in the hole,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the GOP’s point man on the Solyndra investigation and a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement to The Hill and other outlets.
“Unfortunately for the American taxpayers, I am deeply concerned that other DOE programs could follow which goes to the heart of the President's flawed economic program,” he said.
Stearns is chairman of the energy panel’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which is expected to vote Thursday to subpoena internal White House communications about Solyndra.
Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said there are “many protections for the taxpayer” in the agreement with Beacon Power.
“The Department’s loan guarantee is for the project Stephentown Regulation Services, LLC, not the parent company, and the loan was set up in a way that ensures the Department is not directly exposed to the liabilities of the parent company,” he said in an email Monday.
The department also sought to contrast the Beacon Power project and Solyndra, noting that Solyndra stopped manufacturing operations when it went bankrupt, while Beacon Power intends to continue operating the New York energy storage plant.
“It is important to note that this plant itself, which is operational and generating revenue, is a valuable collateral asset. In addition, under the terms of our loan guarantee agreement, Stephentown Regulation Services, LLC currently has cash reserves and proceeds from the plant that it was required to hold as collateral on the loan,” LaVera said.
Beacon drew $39 million of the guaranteed loan to help finance the plant.
Beacon’s bankruptcy filing lists assets of $72 million and debt of $47 million, according to Bloomberg.
“The current economic and political climate, the financing terms mandated by DOE, and Beacon’s recent delisting notice from Nasdaq have together severely restricted Beacon’s access to additional investments through the equity markets,” CEO F. William Capp said in the bankruptcy filing, according to the financial news service.
The Energy Department has lauded Beacon’s flywheel energy storage technology as a way to improve power grid stability and help bring renewable power sources into the system.
“We will continue to support the development and deployment of innovative energy systems like this energy storage project that support our goal of expanding renewable energy generation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said when announcing the finalization of the agreement in August of 2010.
The loan guarantee program was first authorized in a 2005 energy bill crafted under GOP control of Congress and signed into law by then-President Bush, and expanded under President Obama’s stimulus law.
The program was slow to get off the ground, and first loan guarantees were not issued until the Obama administration took power.
This story was updated at 8:36 a.m.
-
Bush's fault.
-
Notice how blacken , straw, and 180 have more posts in the Cain thread each than this thread combined? telling.
-
Notice how blacken , straw, and 180 have more posts in the Cain thread each than this thread combined? telling.
tells me it is a lack of interest in your thread. I've noticed it's running about 50 to 1 on your posts verses anyone else.. Maybe you're reading into it?
-
tells me it is a lack of interest in your thread. I've noticed it's running about 50 to 1 on your posts verses anyone else.. Maybe you're reading into it?
Yeah, eaxacty! To the obama is god voters like yourself, Obama can do no wrong and nothing matters atall what he does.
-
Yeah, eaxacty! To the obama is god voters like yourself, Obama can do no wrong and nothing matters atall what he does.
uh.. I'm not a fan of Obama. I hope he gets voted out. I was commenting on your comment, not making a political statement.
-
uh.. I'm not a fan of Obama. I hope he gets voted out. I was commenting on your comment, not making a political statement.
Same as this Cain nonsense, like the palin baby nonsense, christie helicopter episode.
See a a pattern? No you, saying in general.
Christy taking a helicopter ride gets more press than obama sending 2000 guns to drug cartels resulting in deaths of 2 LE officers.
-
Same as this Cain nonsense,
Cain lied to america yesterday.
regardless of if these two tricks lied their asses off in a shakedown.
The "straight talk" candidate looked into the camera and lied yesterday, 33.
-
Holder dumps new Fast and Furious docs as 11 more congressmen call for his resignation
The Daily Caller ^ | 11/01/2011 | Matthew Boyle
The Obama administration appears to be attempting to defend Attorney General Eric Holder as the Justice Department dumped more than 650 pages worth of Operation Fast and Furious documents on congressional investigators late Monday.
There are two reasons why the timing of this release is significant: first, 28 members of Congress are currently calling on Holder to resign immediately. Second, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday — and this appears to be an attempt to divert pressure for Fast and Furious away from Holder.
The new documents, according to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, “indicate that contrary to previous denials by the Justice Department, the criminal division has a great deal of culpability in sweeping the previous Wide Receiver strategy under the rug and then allowing the subsequent Operation Fast and Furious to continue without asking key questions.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedc.com ...
-
Jobs Panel Member Whose Solar Firm Won Loan Guarantees Raises 'Conflict of Interest' Concerns
Fox News ^ | 11/1/11 | By Judson Berger
A clean-energy firm led by a member of President Obama's jobs council has a stake in projects that have reaped nearly $2 billion in loan guarantees from Washington, a case that has raised conflict-of-interest concerns as the same jobs council pushes for more "government-backed" investment in renewable energy.
The company, NextEra Energy, secured a loan guarantee in August for a solar project in California. An affiliate has taken over another California project that won a separate guarantee in September. The firm is no lightweight -- NextEra Energy Resources, the subsidiary working on both solar projects, is the biggest producer of wind and solar energy on the continent.
But the company also enjoys a connection to the Obama administration -- company Chairman and CEO Lewis Hay sits on the president's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which last month issued a report calling, among other things, for a new federal financing program to attract private investment for clean energy projects via loan guarantees and other tools.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
DOE IG: 100+ stimulus-related criminal probes
The fact that few 'shovel ready' projects existed in 2009 led to fraud, the inspector general said. | AP
By DARIUS DIXON | 11/2/11 11:24 AM EDT
The Energy Department's inspector general has launched more than 100 criminal investigations related to 2009 economic stimulus spending.
In written testimony prepared for delivery to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, Inspector General Gregory Friedman said the investigations have involved "various schemes, including the submission of false information, claims for unallowable or unauthorized expenses, and other improper uses of Recovery Act funds."
So far, the investigations have led to five criminal prosecutions and brought in "over $2.3 million in monetary recoveries," Friedman said.
"This includes a series of cases involving fictitious claims for travel per diem resulting in the recovery of $1 million alone in Recovery Act funds," he added.
The activity is partially due to the fact that few "shovel ready" projects existed in 2009, Feldman said. "The concept of 'shovel ready' projects became a Recovery Act symbol of expeditiously stimulating the economy and creating jobs. In reality, few actual 'shovel ready' projects existed," he said.
The stimulus funding DOE received — more than $35 billion — was greater than previous annual budgets for the entire agency, most notably its $27 billion in funding for fiscal 2011.
"Our reviews have identified a fairly consistent pattern of delays in the pace at which Recovery Act funds had been spent by grant and other financial assistance recipients," Friedman said.
He also offered a critical talking point for opponents of the DOE loan guarantee program, which is the subject of a White House-ordered independent review in light of the failure of solar manufacturer Solyndra after it received a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009.
"The Loan Guarantee Program had not [been] properly documented and as such could not always readily demonstrate how it resolved or mitigated relevant risks prior to granting loan guarantees," Friedman said.
Even programs that appeared the most straightforward, such as home weatherization, were mired in challenges at the federal, state and local levels.
"Weatherization work was often of poor quality. In a recent audit performed at the state level, nine of the 17 weatherized homes we visited failed inspections because of substandard workmanship, Friedman said.
Last month, the DOE IG’s office reported that a third of the stimulus money the DOE doled out in energy efficiency and conservation block grants had gone unspent, as of March.
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:21 a.m. on November 2, 2011.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67444.html#ixzz1cZF2U4I0
-
Over 100 Criminal Probes Related to Stimulus Funding in the Department of Energy Alone
The Weekly Standard ^ | Nov 2, 2011 | MARK HEMINGWAY
Thankfully, at least one man in the federal government has been awfully busy on behalf of the American taxpayer:
The Energy Department's inspector general has launched more than 100 criminal investigations related to 2009 economic stimulus spending.
In written testimony prepared for delivery to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, Inspector General Gregory Friedman said the investigations have involved "various schemes, including the submission of false information, claims for unallowable or unauthorized expenses, and other improper uses of Recovery Act funds."
So far, the investigations have led to five criminal prosecutions and brought in "over $2.3 million in monetary recoveries," Friedman said.
Bear in mind that the Department of Energy only recieved $35 billion of the $787 billion allocated by the stimulus bill. It would be impossible to get a handle on how much criminal activity surrounds the stimulus bill, given that the federal government is not exactly known for aggressively policing fraud. Still, it sounds like the Department of Energy inspector general is doing yeoman's work. If the schemes that he's uncovered are anything to go by, the stimulus has likely produced a staggering amount of crime.
-
Notice how blacken , straw, and 180 have more posts in the Cain thread each than this thread combined? telling.
LoL
you're actually counting our posts and comparing them
damn you're more desperate for attention that I realized
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Obama administration considered Solyndra bailout
Associated Press ^ | Nov. 2, 2011 | MATTHEW DALY
Posted on November 2, 2011 8:01:10 PM EDT by Free ThinkerNY
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Days before a solar panel maker collapsed, the Obama administration considered a bailout that would have provided an infusion of cash and a new board of directors, including two directors appointed by the Energy Department.
Officials rejected the plan, which was recommended in August by the investment banking firm Lazard Ltd. Lazard was paid $1 million for analyzing options related to the faltering company, Solyndra Inc.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Wow! Hey let's talk about Cain!
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Obama administration considered Solyndra bailout
Associated Press ^ | Nov. 2, 2011 | MATTHEW DALY
Posted on November 2, 2011 8:01:10 PM EDT by Free ThinkerNY
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Days before a solar panel maker collapsed, the Obama administration considered a bailout that would have provided an infusion of cash and a new board of directors, including two directors appointed by the Energy Department.
Officials rejected the plan, which was recommended in August by the investment banking firm Lazard Ltd. Lazard was paid $1 million for analyzing options related to the faltering company, Solyndra Inc.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Wow! Hey let's talk about Cain!
you focus on the past. others focus on the future. makes sense, dog.
-
Yawn. Weak shit from you.
-
http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/02/inspector-general-launches-criminal-probe-into-more-than-100-energy-dept-loans
Wow. No wonder this pofs bill failed so badly. Yeah, let's reward the street thug Obama w four more years.
-
House GOP votes to subpoena White House Solyndra documents
By Andrew Restuccia - 11/03/11 10:50 AM ET
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Thursday to subpoena the White House for all internal communications related to the failed solar company Solyndra.
The subpoena escalates the ongoing battle between the White House and Republicans over a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee to Solyndra, the California solar panel maker that filed for bankruptcy in early September, setting off a firestorm in Washington.
Republicans have pummeled the White House over the loan guarantee for weeks, using Solyndra’s bankruptcy to challenge the administration’s green energy agenda.
The committee’s investigative panel voted 14-9, along party lines to subpoena the internal communications a day after the White House offered to provide documents if Republicans narrowed their request. Every Republican on the panel voted in favor of the subpoena and every Democrat voted against it.
“I regret that we have reached this point,” Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee and the GOP’s pointman on the Solyndra investigation, said Thursday. “At this point in time, I am not confident that we will have a good faith response from the White House without issuing a subpoena.”
“Sometimes, in the course of an investigation, we find ourselves unable to secure necessary evidence,” full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said. “House Rules expressly give us the power of subpoena to compel cooperation in these instances. It is a tool we use sparingly and only as a last resort. Today, it is our last resort.”
The subpoena comes a week after the White House launched a 60-day review of the Energy Department’s loan program amid news that other companies backed by the administration face financial troubles. Beacon Power, an energy storage company that received a $43 million loan guarantee last year, filed for bankruptcy late last month.
Republicans also voted Thursday to block a motion offered by Democrats to delay the subpoena vote until Nov. 15 in an effort to work with the White House to obtain the documents.
Democrats on the committee blasted Republicans for issuing the subpoena, arguing that talks with the White House to secure the documents were making progress.
Top Republicans and Democrats on the panel met with White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler Wednesday in an effort to come to an agreement that would avoid a subpoena vote.
“The White House repeatedly said that they had turned over documents and they were willing to turn over more documents,” Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the top Democrat on the investigative panel, said at Thursday’s hearing, calling the subpoena “an act of irresponsible partisanship.”
The White House offered to provide Solyndra documents if lawmakers narrowed their request, arguing it was too broad. But Republicans said the compromise was insufficient.
“The White House has refused to produce them and we have no choice but to authorize the issuance of a subpoena to compel them,” Upton said at the hearing. “I will say it again; I wish it had not come to this.”
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, said Thursday that the subpoena is an effort to orchestrate a high-profile clash with the White House.
“Apparently, what the committee really wants is a confrontation with the president, not information for the investigation,” Waxman said.
Both Waxman and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who both formerly chaired the committee, said they never issued a subpoena to the White House and were always able to negotiate a compromise.
Republicans are hoping to uncover evidence that politics played a role in the approval of the loan guarantee and the decision to restructure the loan in February, an allegation the White House strongly denies.
The investigation has not found evidence of political favoritism.
But emails released by Republicans show that the White House pressed administration officials to make a swift decision on helping Solyndra. They also show that there was disagreement within the administration on the wisdom of approving the loan guarantee.
Republicans scheduled the subpoena vote after the White House rejected last month a request for all internal White House communications on Solyndra.
Ruemmler, in a letter to the committee last month, said the documents that have already been provided by the administration “should satisfy the committee’s stated objective.”
“Your most recent request for internal White House communications from the first day of the current administration to the present implicates longstanding and institutional executive-branch confidentiality interests,” she said.
The administration says it is cooperating fully with the Solyndra investigation, noting that the White House, its Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department and the Energy Department have provided more than 80,000 pages of documents to Republicans in recent months. The documents provided include communications between the White House and Solyndra.
On the eve of the subpoena vote, the Energy Department provided about 15,000 pages of documents to the committee.
Thursday’s vote mark the second time that the committee has subpoenaed the Obama administration for Solyndra documents.
The subcommittee voted in July to subpoena OMB for documents related to the 2009 Energy Department loan guarantee to the company. The July subpoena was issued before Solyndra filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers.
-
News bites: Beacon attorney blames bankruptcy on Solyndra 'firestorm'
By Andrew Restuccia - 11/03/11 07:55 AM ET
An attorney representing Beacon Power – the energy storage company that received an Energy Department loan guarantee, but filed for bankruptcy this week – blamed the firm’s financial problems on the “political firestorm” surrounding Solyndra, the Associated Press reports.
The former CEO of Solyndra received a $456 thousand severance package, AP reports.
Among the things that Solyndra is auctioning off as part of its bankruptcy is the banner that hung on the wall when President Obama when he visited the embattled solar company in 2010, ABC News reports.
Scientists are closely watching an asteroid slated to come within 220,000 miles of Earth next week, The Washington Post reports.
-
Obama administration mulled Solyndra bailout days before company's demise
By Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman - 11/02/11 09:26 PM ET
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/191531-administration-mulled-solyndra-bailout-in-weeks-before-company-collapsed
As California solar panel maker Solyndra teetered on the brink of financial collapse, Obama administration officials weighed and rejected a last-ditch plan to keep the company afloat.
Under the August plan, which was outlined in nearly 1,200 pages of documents the Obama administration released Wednesday evening, private investors would have put about $100 million into Solyndra, the company that received a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009.
Meanwhile, the Energy Department would have agreed to convert some of Solyndra’s debt to the federal government into a partial stake in the company. The agreement would have also authorized the Energy Department to appoint two independent directors to Solyndra’s board.
But the Obama administration ultimately rejected the plan presented by the financial advisory company Lazard, which the Energy Department had hired to review Solyndra's options.
Solyndra ceased operations in late August and filed for bankruptcy in early September after laying off 1,100 workers. The company’s collapse has set off a firestorm in Washington, with Republicans raising questions about the Obama administration’s investments in green technology.
The Obama administration had already restructured the Solyndra loan guarantee in February as the company faced financial troubles. Under that agreement, private investors who agreed to put $75 million in the company would be repaid before the taxpayer if the company collapsed.
The Obama administration sent the documents, which The Hill obtained from a government source, to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday night. The committee’s investigative panel is slated to approve Thursday a subpoena to the White House for its internal communications related to the Solyndra loan guarantee.
Republicans on the panel scheduled the Thursday subpoena vote after the White House rejected their request for all internal White House Solyndra documents.
The White House, its Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department and the Energy Department have now provided more than 80,000 pages of documents to Republicans in recent months.
White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, in a letter to the committee last month, said the documents that have already been provided by the administration “should satisfy the committee’s stated objective.”
“Your most recent request for internal White House communications from the first day of the current administration to the present implicates longstanding and institutional executive-branch confidentiality interests,” she said.
Republicans and Democrats on the committee met Wednesday in an effort to come to an agreement on the document request. But Republicans said the meeting did not convince them to cancel the subpoena vote.
But Democrats on the panel called on Republicans to cancel Thursday’s vote, arguing that the White House and the committee made progress at the meeting.
“We believe that discussions today between the White House and the Committee have resulted in substantial progress towards reaching an accommodation that will advance the Committee’s efforts to obtain information relevant to the investigation of the Department of Energy loan to Solyndra,” Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and investigative subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) wrote in the letter.
“In light of this turn of events, a Committee vote on subpoenas to the White House at this juncture would be a precipitous and irresponsible exercise of the Committee’s powers.”
The emails released Wednesday again highlight the extent to which, as Solyndra faced financial problems, senior Obama administration officials were sensitive to the repercussions if the company failed.
The Obama administration was heavily invested in Solyndra's success. President Obama visited the company, the first to receive an Energy Department loan guarantee, in May of 2010 to tout federal efforts to spur a green economy.
The emails include a Nov. 3, 2010 message from White House Office of Management and Budget Communications official Kenneth Baer to several senior White House aides. The message with the subject line “more loan guarantee news” included the text of a news account – titled “Solyndra spells disaster for DOE Loan Guarantee Program” – that was pessimistic about the company’s prospects.
White House energy aide Heather Zichal forwarded the message to Rod O’Connor, who was then Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s chief of staff. O’Connor replied “Great day all around. Want to kill someone.”
Zichal replied minutes later: “You are not alone.”
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Solyndra filing shows founder got $456,000 severance
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2011/11/02/solyndra-filing-shows-founder-got.html ^
Posted on November 3, 2011 9:09:14 PM EDT by kcvl
Solyndra filing shows founder got $456,000 severance
Bankruptcy court filings show that former Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet left the company about two months before it was announced and had worked out a $456,000 severance.
A bankruptcy court filing this week showed that Solyndra LLC founder and former CEO Chris Gronet left nearly two months before it was announced in August and won a $456,000 severance when he was terminated.
The filings also show a $17,000 payment to the company's bankruptcy law firm in February, about two weeks before a controversial loan restructuring which put $385 million in taxpayer money behind $70 million borrowed from private investors.
Solyndra has been the focus of a number of investigations by federal agencies and Congressional panels since shutting down and filing for bankruptcy late in the summer. It received more than half a billion dollars in government loans and guarantees.
Its equipment is being auctioned off this week and another auction of its patents and other assets is scheduled for later this month.
(Excerpt) Read more at bizjournals.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
ObamaCare's Billions In Hidden Pork For Unions
IBD Editorials ^ | November 3, 2011 | Editor
Posted on November 3, 2011 9:57:54 PM EDT by Kaslin
Health Reform: How do you funnel billions of dollars to your union pals at a time when the government is running record deficits? Easy, you just tuck the money into ObamaCare.
According to a new Government Accountability Office report, the federal government has so far handed out $2.7 billion out of a $5 billion program squirreled away in ObamaCare.
The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program is advertized as a way to "stabilize the availability of employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees," according to a Health and Human Services memo.
The argument goes that companies are increasingly dropping retiree health benefits, leaving those who retire before becoming eligible for Medicare in a jam — either they face exorbitant rates for insurance or expose themselves to potentially catastrophic health costs.
The little-noticed ObamaCare program was supposed to encourage companies to continue offering this benefit until 2014 — when ObamaCare fully kicks in and will solve everything — by reimbursing companies for a chunk of their retiree health costs.
But lift the hood a little and this program looks more like a slush fund for Friends of Democrats.
Almost as soon as the program was announced, thousands of well-connected unions and government agencies rushed in to apply for the free money. As a result, the agency running the program had to stop accepting applications in May or risk running out of funds.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
WTF! rot in he'll you commies!
-
White House Fires Back at 'Overbroad' Subpoena on Solyndra Documents (Obama's scared)
Fox News ^ | 11/4/2011 | fox news
The White House on Friday all but refused to turn over the documents House Republicans have subpoenaed on bankrupt solar firm Solyndra, firing off a letter saying the request would put an "unreasonable burden on the president's ability to meet his constitutional duties."
The feisty response appears to set up a clash between congressional investigators and the White House over the sprawling probe into Solyndra's finances and the administration's involvement in the decision to provide the struggling company a $528 million loan with taxpayer money.
White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, in her letter, scolded GOP lawmakers for demanding more documents, noting the Obama administration has already turned over 85,000 pages of documents in the course of their investigation. Without explicitly refusing to comply with the subpoena, Ruemmler repeatedly described the order as "overbroad."
"The Committee's extremely broad request for documents -- now a subpoena -- is a significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests," she wrote, saying she can only conclude the subpoena was "driven more by partisan politics than a legitimate effort to conduct a responsible investigation."
Though the White House has turned over thousands of documents, Republicans say the administration has not provided everything they've requested. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Thursday to subpoena, and the subpoenas went out late Thursday to the White House and office of the vice president.
"Unfortunately, we had to take this step after the White House has continued to slow walk the production of documents necessary for this investigation by only releasing selected documents and records," Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the House panel investigating the matter, said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/04/solyndra-subpoena-obama-administration_n_1076871.html#comments
What a farce. Obama = criminal.
-
White House Rejects Solyndra Subpoena; WH Says It's a "Fishing Expedition"
Pundit Press ^ | 11/4/11 | Aurelius
Posted on November 4, 2011 5:12:03 PM EDT by therightliveswithus
After the collapse of Solyndra, a solar company that received over $500,000,000 in loans from the Obama Administration, Republicans noted the unsettling amount of ties that the White House had with the defunct company.
Vice President Biden called on his advisers to hurry through the loan, President Obama toured the Solyndra plant in 2010, and the top executives of Solyndra donated heavily to then-candidate Obama in 2008. President Bush rejected loaning the company money, saying that it was too risky, and even President Obama's advisors told him in person that the half-a-billion-dollar loan was "not ready for prime time."
The Obama Administration has stated repeatedly that it did nothing wrong and would "not have changed" what he did if he had the chance. Mr. Obama has also said he has nothing to hide. And yet, today the Obama Administration rejected a subpoena on the Solyndra loan it pushed for, possibly confirming that the President does indeed have something to hide.
Kathryn H. Ruemmler, counsel to the president, stated officially that the rejection was because the subpoena was a "significant intrusion" into what the President has done in the White House. Her argument, in part, is that Congress has no need to know what Mr. Obama does or why.
She continued, "There is no basis for such a broad request beyond a 'vast fishing expedition.'"
(Excerpt) Read more at punditpress.com ...
-
Grassley to White House: Cough up LightSquared docs or I’ll block FCC nominees
Michelle Malkin ^ | 11/7/11 | Michelle Malkin
GOP watchdogs on Capitol Hill continue to chip away at White House stonewalls.
When last we visited the LightSquared scandal, one of the shady company’s partners was going under here in Colorado despite a $267 million fed loan and officials at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration were playing disclosure-ducking games.
The FCC is engaging in hide-the-docs, too. Sen. Charles Grassley has vowed to block Obama’s FCC nominees until the panel coughs up requested info:
The controversy over satellite-LTE carrier LightSquared could prevent the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from filling two vacant seats if a U.S. senator follows through on a threat issued this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ____
Rot in hell anyone planning on voting for this thug again.
-
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Executive privilege claim ahead on Solyndra
Washington Examiner ^ | 11/7/11 | Gene Healy
Posted on November 7, 2011 8:37:53 PM EST by Nachum
On Friday, citing "longstanding and important Executive Branch confidentiality interests," White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler refused a House panel's demand for "all communications among White House staff and officials" relating to Solyndra.
Solyndra is one of the administration's pet "green energy" firms. It received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy before its top executives took the Fifth before Congress.
What's been unearthed so far is embarrassing enough. The Obama administration seems to have rushed the deal through despite multiple warning flags and a lack of due diligence. The now-bankrupt firm, whose largest shareholder is a major Obama fundraiser, spent some $1.8 million on lobbying while waiting for the guarantee.
"If we want to compete with China," the president said recently, "we've got to make sure that our guys here in the United States of America at least have a shot." "Our guys," indeed.
Obama's legal team hasn't yet made an explicit claim of executive privilege, but that seems to be where this is heading.
Executive privilege is a judge-made doctrine, born of "penumbras and emanations" said to flow from the president's constitutional role. A privilege claim is stronger in national security matters and areas over which the Constitution gives the president sole discretion, like the pardon power.
A privilege claim is weaker where, as here, the president's alleged "confidentiality interests" involve shielding potential malfeasance from the taxpayers on the hook for Solyndra's bankruptcy.
But since the courts are reluctant to wade into inter-branch disputes, the struggle for executive-branch transparency is often resolved in a tug-of-war between the White House and Congress.
In 1996, for example, President Clinton claimed executive privilege over documents related to the Travelgate scandal, but a threat to cite the White House Counsel for contempt of Congress forced a climb-down.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
-
Executive privilege claim ahead on Solyndra
By: Gene Healy | 11/07/11 8:05 PM
Examiner Columnist Follow Him @genehealy
On Friday, citing "longstanding and important Executive Branch confidentiality interests," White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler refused a House panel's demand for "all communications among White House staff and officials" relating to Solyndra.
Solyndra is one of the administration's pet "green energy" firms. It received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy before its top executives took the Fifth before Congress.
What's been unearthed so far is embarrassing enough. The Obama administration seems to have rushed the deal through despite multiple warning flags and a lack of due diligence. The now-bankrupt firm, whose largest shareholder is a major Obama fundraiser, spent some $1.8 million on lobbying while waiting for the guarantee.
"If we want to compete with China," the president said recently, "we've got to make sure that our guys here in the United States of America at least have a shot." "Our guys," indeed.
Obama's legal team hasn't yet made an explicit claim of executive privilege, but that seems to be where this is heading.
Executive privilege is a judge-made doctrine, born of "penumbras and emanations" said to flow from the president's constitutional role. A privilege claim is stronger in national security matters and areas over which the Constitution gives the president sole discretion, like the pardon power.
A privilege claim is weaker where, as here, the president's alleged "confidentiality interests" involve shielding potential malfeasance from the taxpayers on the hook for Solyndra's bankruptcy.
But since the courts are reluctant to wade into inter-branch disputes, the struggle for executive-branch transparency is often resolved in a tug-of-war between the White House and Congress.
In 1996, for example, President Clinton claimed executive privilege over documents related to the Travelgate scandal, but a threat to cite the White House Counsel for contempt of Congress forced a climb-down.
A partial climb-down is possible here too, as pressure builds and the "most transparent administration in history" risks looking like it's engaged in a crony capitalist cover-up.
Meanwhile, as is so often the case in politics, the real scandal is what's gone on in broad daylight. Solyndra is a perfect illustration of the dangers of government/business "partnership."
"We're all in this together," has been Obama's continual refrain this fall while pushing his $449 billion jobs bill. Sure, it's a collectivist notion that's hard to reconcile with a country dedicated to the individual pursuit of happiness. But he doesn't really mean it.
In this half-socialized, corporatist sector of privatized profit and socialized loss, we're only "all in it together" if a federally favored company goes belly up -- as Solyndra did, sticking the taxpayer with tab. "One has to take risks in order to promote innovative manufacturing," as Energy Secretary Steven Chu put it last week.
In the days after Obama's inauguration, Jeffrey Immelt -- the General Electric CEO who'd go on to head up the president's Council on Jobs and (er,) Competitiveness -- celebrated the emerging new order.
"The global economy and capitalism will be 'reset' in several important ways -- the interaction between government and business will change forever," Immelt said.
With the federal government serving as "a regulator; an industry policy champion, a financier and a key partner," Immelt wrote, this environment would present "an opportunity of a lifetime."
That forecast was spot-on. As I noted in a recent column, the latest census figures show that in 2011, Washington, D.C. overtook Silicon Valley as the wealthiest metropolitan area in the United States. It may be hard times out there in flyover country, but it's boom times for federal power brokers here in D.C.
Today, with unprecedented levels of money and power flowing to Washington, more and more Americans fear that the game is rigged. Can you blame them?
Examiner Columnist Gene Healy is a vice president at the Cato Institute and the author of "The Cult of the Presidency."
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/11/executive-privilege-claim-ahead-solyndra#ixzz1d9CHMOrf
-
Solyndra Emails Claim Biden Team 'About Had an Orgasm' About Energy Loans to Firm
By Chad Pergram
Published November 09, 2011
| FoxNews.com
In this May 26, 2010, file photo, President Obama and Solyndra Chief Executive Officer Chris Gronet look at a solar panel during a tour of Solyndra, Inc.
A series of emails provided to the House Energy and Commerce Committee from individuals tied to Solyndra offer striking characterizations about running strategy with the White House to secure assistance for the now-bankrupt solar energy firm.
Emails among George Kaiser, head of the George Kaiser Family Foundation; Ken Levit, the executive director of the Foundation; and Steve Mitchell, who manages Argonaut Private Equity and was a member of Solyndra's board; show that Vice President Joe Biden's office were very gung-ho.
"They about had an orgasm in Biden's office when we mentioned Solyndra," reads a Feb. 27, 2010, email from Levit to Mitchell. A follow-up email from Mitchell to Levit later that day responds with: "That's awesome! Get us a (Department of Energy) loan."
According to exchanges obtained by Fox News, in an email from Mitchell to Kaiser on March 5, 2010, Mitchell writes that "it appears things are headed in the right direction and (Energy Secretary Steven) Chu is apparently staying involved in Solyndra's application and continues to talk up the company as a success story."
In a Feb. 27, 2010, message from Levit to a party whose name has been redacted, Levit writes that there was a meeting with a group of people in "Biden's office -- they seemed to love our Brady Project -- also all big fans of Solyndra."
In an email from Mitchell to Kaiser on March 5, 2010, Mitchell writes that "it appears things are headed in the right direction and Chu is apparently staying involved in Solyndra's application and continues to talk up the company as a success story."
Solyndra received a half billion dollars in loans from the Department of Energy even as questions were raised over whether the California-based firm would stay afloat. The company filed for bankruptcy in September just weeks after the administration weighed a bailout.
One email from Kaiser to Mitchell and Levit on Oct. 6, 2010, reads: "We can possibly reinforce the effort so long as it is in the form of 'I thought you should know, in case it comes up' rather than 'can you help with this.'"
In another communique dated Oct. 6, 2010, Kaiser tells Mitchell and Levit that he is "concerned that DOE/Chu would resent the intervention and your problem could get more difficult. I would see an appeal as only as last resort an, even then, questionable. We need to discuss."
In an email between Mitchell and Kaiser, Mitchell notes that the White House has "started a policy discussion as to whether a company should be able to get a second loan."
House Republicans received the emails after subpoenaing the White House last week. Lawmakers say they want to know how much influence the White House put on the Energy Department to approve the loans. The administration denies anyone tried to influence the decision.
Writing to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler regarding the panel's recent subpoenas, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., suggested seeming inconsistencies in White House responses.
"The White House has repeatedly stated that no political influence was brought to bear with regard to Solyndra, and that Mr. George Kaiser, a Solyndra investor and Obama fundraiser, never discussed Solyndra during any of his 17 visits to the White House. Documents recently obtained by the committee directly contradict those statements," they wrote.
A well-placed source told Fox News that Kaiser was interviewed by investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday. GKFF spokeswoman Renzi Stone on Wednesday told Fox News that Kaiser never was directly involved in the deal.
"To reaffirm our previous public statements, George Kaiser had no discussions with the government regarding the loan to Solyndra," she said in a statement
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/09/solyndra-emails-claim-bidens-staff-about-had-orgasm-about-energy-loans-to-firm/#ixzz1dF07GYrD
LMAO
-
Solyndra e-mails show Obama fundraiser discussed lobbying White House
Solyndra, a California solar company backed by a half-billion dollars in loan guarantees from the Obama administration, announced it was shutting its doors and laying off 1,100 employees.
By Joe Stephens and Carol D. Leonnig, Updated: Wednesday, November 9, 3:00 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-e-mails-show-obama-fundraiser-discussed-lobbying-white-house/2011/11/09/gIQAqPsq5M_story.html
Obama fundraiser George Kaiser and his business associates discussed lobbying the White House to help Solyndra, the solar panel company that failed in August, newly released e-mails show.
Records made public Wednesday by House Republicans show Kaiser’s associates were interested in winning White House assistance in selling its panels to the government, and that they discussed Solyndra with Obama Administration officials in charge of stimulus funding.
A Republican-led House panel on Thursday agreed to subpoena the White House for documents related to Solyndra Inc., the failed California solar company that received a half-billion-dollar federal loan. (Nov. 3)
.At one point, the messages refer to Solyndra and its operations as “prime poster children” of the stimulus program.
Solyndra’s biggest investor was a fund linked to the family foundation of George Kaiser, a Tulsa billionaire and bundler for Obama’s presidential campaign.
Kaiser was involved in e-mail correspondence with his business colleagues about an upcoming White House meeting to get the administration’s help in selling its panels, and in seeking a second energy department loan, which if awarded would have been in addition to a $535 million loan the company received in 2009.
Kaiser’s representatives have previously said Kaiser did not personally lobby the White House on behalf of Solyndra’s loan. Kaiser’s foundation told the Washington Post on Sept. 2 that Kaiser had no conversations with the administration about the loan and was not involved in the loan process.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said House Republicans are seeking to mislead the public by releasing partial documents suggesting political lobbying by a Solyndra bundler.
“Even the documents cherry-picked by House Republicans today affirm what we have said all along: this loan was a decision made on the merits at the Department of Energy. Nothing in the 85,000 pages of documents produced thus far by the Administration or in these four indicate any favoritism to political supporters. We wish that House Republicans were as zealous about creating jobs as they were about this oversight investigation.”
-
Executive privilege claim ahead on Solyndra
By: Gene Healy | 11/07/11 8:05 PM
Examiner Columnist Follow Him @genehealy
On Friday, citing "longstanding and important Executive Branch confidentiality interests," White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler refused a House panel's demand for "all communications among White House staff and officials" relating to Solyndra.
You'll soon feel the anger that "irrational liberals" felt when Cheney claimed they accidentally deleted 4 million white house emails.
It was bullshit then, it's complete bullshit now when obama does things like this.
The level of cover-up is so obvious and embarassing and frustrating.
But yes, liberals hated America when they wanted to know about Cheney's emails right before/after 911 and the iraq invasion for clues of wrongdoing. But, alas, "server error". At least you can take some solace in the fact that Obama's straight up telling you "i dont want to show them to you", and not just deleting them like cheney did.
-
You'll soon feel the anger that "irrational liberals" felt when Cheney claimed they accidentally deleted 4 million white house emails.
It was bullshit then, it's complete bullshit now when obama does things like this.
The level of cover-up is so obvious and embarassing and frustrating.
But yes, liberals hated America when they wanted to know about Cheney's emails right before/after 911 and the iraq invasion for clues of wrongdoing. But, alas, "server error". At least you can take some solace in the fact that Obama's straight up telling you "i dont want to show them to you", and not just deleting them like cheney did.
and I assume all right wingers who defended Bush administration for ignoring subpoena's will defend the Obama Administrations right to do so as well
-
and I assume all right wingers who defended Bush administration for ignoring subpoena's will defend the Obama Administrations right to do so as well
bush did it to protect the nation.
obama's doing it to destroy the nation.
i hope you will jump off a cliff into a tank of sharks if you can't see the difference.
-
“Even the documents cherry-picked by House Republicans today affirm what we have said all along: this loan was a decision made on the merits at the Department of Energy. Nothing in the 85,000 pages of documents produced thus far by the Administration or in these four indicate any favoritism to political supporters. We wish that House Republicans were as zealous about creating jobs as they were about this oversight investigation.”
let's not forget that Solyndra's second largest investor was a venture fund linked the the Walton family who are major donors to Republcans.
-
bush did it to protect the nation.
obama's doing it to destroy the nation.
i hope you will jump off a cliff into a tank of sharks if you can't see the difference.
Bush did it to protect himself and his staff
Further, on June 28, 2007, Bush invoked executive privilege in response to congressional subpoenas requesting documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor citing that:
The reason for these distinctions rests upon a bedrock presidential prerogative: for the President to perform his constitutional duties, it is imperative that he receive candid and unfettered advice and that free and open discussions and deliberations occur among his advisors and between those advisors and others within and outside the Executive Branch.
-
Sorry, liberals, but Solyndra is a real scandal
by Timothy P. Carney Senior Political Columnist
Follow on Twitter:@tpcarney
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/sorry-liberals-solyndra-real-scandal
When it was reported that Obama fundraiser and top Solyndra fundraiser George Kaiser met at the White House on multiple occasions, top White House officials asserted "the White House now firmly believes that [Solyndra investor and Obama fundraiser George] Kaiser never broached the subject of the Solyndra loan," in the words of ABC's Matthew Mosk. Kaiser said Solyndra never came up in these meetings.
New emails show that the subsidized bankrupt politically connected solar panel company was a topic of meetings when Kaiser and his lieutenants met at the White House. In fact, Kaiser & crew used their access to the White House to push for taxpayer subsidies.
Here's a nugget from an email Kaiser wrote.
BTW, a couple of weeks ago, when Ken and I were visiting with a group of Administration folks in DC who are in charge of the stimulus process (White House, not DOE) and Solyndra came up, every one of them responded simultaneously about their thorough knowledge of the Solyndra story, suggesting it was one of their prime poster children
I also agree with Reason's Tim Cavanaugh on this:
But the takeaway from this release will certainly be Levit’s and Mitchell’s comments regarding Vice President Joe Biden’s staff. Biden staffers are described as “big fans of Solyndra” who are “working on some bill asking for money” and close to experiencing an “orgasm” at the mere mention of the company’s name.
Snarky liberals are trying to turn Solyndra into a joke, as if it's just some all-purpose conservative boogeyman. When I was on MSNBC and someone mentioned Solyndra (a rarity on MSNBC), former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones made a big fake yawn.
But now, with these emails, we've got Obama fundraisers saying false things about lobbying, and the White House passing on those false things. We've also got a senior energy department official pushing for this subsidy while his wife's law firm represented Solyndra. Energy Department officials rewrote the law in order to aid Solyndra.
It doesn't look pretty. Liberals can mock Solyndra, and MSNBC's primetime shows can pretend it doesn't exist, but that doesn't mean no corruption happened.
-
Another DOE Loan Scandal: Are We Bailing Out Spain’s Solar Collapse?
Following the collapse of Spain's solar sector, a Spanish company with ties to Democrats received $2.7 billion in US Energy Department loans.by
Richard Pollock
http://pjmedia.com/blog/another-doe-loan-scandal-abengoa/?singlepage=true
________________________ _________________
November 10, 2011 - 12:00 am Yet again, evidence of impropriety surrounds the issuance of federal Department of Energy “green” loan guarantees — in this instance, loans were granted to a foreign company with Democratic Party ties.
Over the last two years, DOE Secretary Steven Chu has awarded Spain-based Abengoa — a sprawling, multi-national industrial firm operating in 70 countries — loan guarantees worth a staggering $2.78 billion for solar and ethanol plants.
Abengoa is a Madrid-based conglomerate that operates throughout Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. It is not starved for cash: according to its 2009 annual report, the firm was valued at $25.5 billion, enjoying a cash flow of $4 billion and a net profit of $288 million. It is traded on the Madrid and Barcelona stock exchanges and employs more than 25,000 workers.
At first glance, Abengoa does not appear to require U.S. government-backed loan guarantees. In 2010 it qualified for private bank loans in 11 countries worth $161 million. In July 2009 alone, Abengoa issued convertible bonds in Europe worth $688 million.
Overall, the Energy Department has awarded Abengoa three separate loan guarantees.
One was awarded on September 29, just before the deadline for the end of the fiscal year. This $132 million loan guarantee went to Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas for the construction of an ethanol plant to be built in Dodge City. Earlier in September, a $1.2 billion loan guarantee was awarded to Abengoa to construct a solar facility in the Mojave desert. And in July 2010, DOE awarded a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa’s Solana solar project. It is a highly leveraged arrangement: the deal was structured in such a way that the company has to put up very little of its own money:
Abengoa’s Solana 250 MW (net) project in Arizona finalized its Loan Guarantee from the DOE, which will cover up to $1.45B of the total $2.0B in project cost.
A small percentage of the balance will come from Abengoa. The piece that remains (around 25% of the total cost) will need to come from direct equity investors (such as NRG) and tax equity investors (such as Morgan Stanley and Union Bank).
Congressional leaders say the September issuance of DOE loan guarantees — including the two for Abengoa — may have been part of a group of loans that were rushed by the DOE to meet a September 30 funding deadline. In a September 20 letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) wrote:
We are concerned that another rush to meet stimulus deadlines will result in DOE closing those deals before they are ready.
DOE ignored Upton’s letter: by September 30, DOE had released more than $4.7 billion in federal funds to several “green” energy firms.
According to DOE, the $1.45 billion loan guarantee will employ or “save” 60 permanent jobs at the Solana solar plant, working out to $24.2 million per permanent job “created or saved.” The Mojave solar plant is similar. It will save or create 70 permanent jobs, which is $17.1 million per permanent job. The biomass plant will create 65 permanent jobs. That is a real job creator, generating each permanent job for $2 million.
The firm’s global profitability is due to non-renewable industrial activities; yet Abengoa’s U.S. solar and ethanol projects would not exist without the existence of Obama administration money. The $2.78 billion constitutes an American bailout of Spain — and Europe’s — collapsed solar industry.
As the Solyndra bankruptcy illustrates, solar technology is not profitable or sustainable without major government subsidies. Spain briefly enjoyed one of the most advanced solar industries in the world when it was subsidized by $26 billion in grants from the socialist-led Spanish government. However, the short-term injection of government funding was not sustainable. When the money ran out the Spanish solar industry collapsed, and more than 30,000 solar energy workers lost their jobs.
For years, Abengoa has been extolled by former Vice President Al Gore, including during a high-profile speech he delivered at the company’s Spanish headquarters in October 2010. Gore himself invested in the company in November 2007. The day he announced his investment, the company’s stock jumped 7 percent.
The Spanish firm has connections to Democratic operatives. According to federal lobbying records, Democrat Mark Rokala — a top Washington lobbyist who worked at the now-discredited Democratic lobbyist firm PMA — headed up Abengoa’s effort.
In 2008, PMA was embroiled in a government ethics “pay-to-play” scandal in which the late Democratic Rep. John Murtha directed $137 million in government contracts to PMA clients. PMA and its clients in turn donated $2.37 million to Murtha and other Democratic congressmen who sat on a defense appropriations subcommittee.
In 2007, the non-profit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named Murtha one of the “most corrupt” members of Congress. Rokala’s boss and PMA president Paul Magliocchetti is now serving a 27-month federal sentence for illegal campaign contributions. PMA has shuttered its doors, but since 2006, Rokala has led the lobbying effort on behalf of Abengoa at another D.C. lobbying firm, Cornerstone. Since 2006, Cornerstone has received $870,000 in lobbying fees from Abengoa.
Abengoa’s reputation on the European Continent does not fare much better. In 2008, the company shared the “Worst EU Lobbying Award” given out by environmental groups including Friends of the Earth Europe. The company was cited for making “false media claims about research that shows the EU can sustainably grow enough agrofuels to meet demand without needing imports.”
President Obama could be the “salvation” for the European solar industry, says Gabriel Calzada, president of Spanish think tank Instituto Juan de Mariana. He tells PJ Media:
Companies like Abengoa have invested heavily in solar. … The subsistence of those branches of the company depend on the construction of new “profitable” plants since Spain (and Europe for that matter) is not anymore that profitable.
Calzada believes the Obama administration may be bailing out Europe’s ailing solar energy industry:
The creation of new plants in countries like the U.S. that would now substitute the subsidies they have lost in Europe would represent their salvation.
Regarding Spain’s solar collapse, a solar industry representative tells the New York Times:
[The crash] was an inevitable consequence of a policy that was not … a long-term sustainable market design,” said Julie Blunden, vice president of public policy at U.S.-based SunPower Corp. “Whenever you’ve got something that’s unsustainable, eventually it gives. And lo and behold, that happened.”
According to Chris Horner, a senior attorney at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Abengoa is not an exception, but the rule for the Obama administration’s artificially stimulated “green” industry. He tells PJ Media, “This is not unique to Abengoa. It defines the industry, which exists in any meaningful way solely due to political creation, not performance or economics.”
Richard Pollock is the Washington, D.C., editor for PJ Media and the Washington bureau chief of PJTV.
-
Sorry, liberals, but Solyndra is a real scandal
by Timothy P. Carney Senior Political Columnist
Follow on Twitter:@tpcarney
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/sorry-liberals-solyndra-real-scandal
When it was reported that Obama fundraiser and top Solyndra fundraiser George Kaiser met at the White House on multiple occasions, top White House officials asserted "the White House now firmly believes that [Solyndra investor and Obama fundraiser George] Kaiser never broached the subject of the Solyndra loan," in the words of ABC's Matthew Mosk. Kaiser said Solyndra never came up in these meetings.
New emails show that the subsidized bankrupt politically connected solar panel company was a topic of meetings when Kaiser and his lieutenants met at the White House. In fact, Kaiser & crew used their access to the White House to push for taxpayer subsidies.
Here's a nugget from an email Kaiser wrote.
BTW, a couple of weeks ago, when Ken and I were visiting with a group of Administration folks in DC who are in charge of the stimulus process (White House, not DOE) and Solyndra came up, every one of them responded simultaneously about their thorough knowledge of the Solyndra story, suggesting it was one of their prime poster children
I also agree with Reason's Tim Cavanaugh on this:
But the takeaway from this release will certainly be Levit’s and Mitchell’s comments regarding Vice President Joe Biden’s staff. Biden staffers are described as “big fans of Solyndra” who are “working on some bill asking for money” and close to experiencing an “orgasm” at the mere mention of the company’s name.
Snarky liberals are trying to turn Solyndra into a joke, as if it's just some all-purpose conservative boogeyman. When I was on MSNBC and someone mentioned Solyndra (a rarity on MSNBC), former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones made a big fake yawn.
But now, with these emails, we've got Obama fundraisers saying false things about lobbying, and the White House passing on those false things. We've also got a senior energy department official pushing for this subsidy while his wife's law firm represented Solyndra. Energy Department officials rewrote the law in order to aid Solyndra.
It doesn't look pretty. Liberals can mock Solyndra, and MSNBC's primetime shows can pretend it doesn't exist, but that doesn't mean no corruption happened.
what laws were broken?
-
Subverting the taxpayers position in the event of bankruptcy to favor Obama's Billionaire bundler Kaiser looks to be a crime.
-
Subverting the taxpayers position in the event of bankruptcy to favor Obama's Billionaire bundler Kaiser looks to be a crime.
so far there is no proof of that whatsoever
-
so far there is no proof of that whatsoever
Yes there is. WTF are you talking about? DOE modified the loan to put Kaiser in front of taxpayers to protect his $75 Million Dollar investment.
-
Yes there is. WTF are you talking about? DOE modified the loan to put Kaiser in front of taxpayers to protect his $75 Million Dollar investment.
I provided this info to you before but you either didn't read it our simply chose to ignore it so that you could continue your irrational anger
btw - it's very common for various levels investors to have preference over assets in a bankruptcy (I figured you would know that as an attorney). You seem totally clueless of this most common of practice
CLAIM: Administration Restructured Loan To Favor Kaiser Rather Than Taxpayers
FACT: Walton's Firm Also Part Of The Deal, Which DOE Expects Will Result In Higher Recovery For TaxpayersMemo: Walton Family's Firm Was Part Of The Restructuring Deal. A memo released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee states that both Argonaut Venture Capital, the fund tied to Kaiser's foundation, and Madrone Capital Partners, which is tied to the Walton family, "negotiated the terms and conditions of an agreement to restructure the Solyndra loan guarantee":
In the fall of 2010, DOE told Solyndra that, due to the company's financial problems, the department would refuse its request for a loan disbursement unless Solyndra obtained additional capital. Solyndra, DOE, and two of Solyndra's lead investors -- Argonaut Venture Capital and Madrone Capitol Partners --began negotiations to restructure the Solyndra loan guarantee agreement. On November 3, 2010, Solyndra announced that it was closing its older manufacturing facility, resulting in the layoff of 135 temporary employees and approximately 40 full-time employees.
From December 2010 through February 2011, DOE, Solyndra, and two of its investors, Argonaut Venture Capital and Madrone Capitol Partners, negotiated the terms and conditions of an agreement to restructure the Solyndra loan guarantee. Throughout this process, DOE consulted with OMB about the proposed terms and conditions of this arrangement.
On February 23, 2011, the parties signed an agreement to restructure the Solyndra deal. Under that agreement, Solyndra's investors agreed to a $75 million credit facility, with the option of a second $75 million. DOE agreed to extend the term of Solyndra's loan guarantee from seven to 10 years, and to postpone the first repayment installment by one year, from 2012 to 2013. In addition, the agreement provided that, in the event of the company's liquidation before 2013, the investors have the senior secured position with respect to the first $75 million recovered. DOE has the second senior secured position with respect to the next $150 million recovered in liquidation. If Solyndra had not liquidated or declared bankruptcy by 2013, the investors would have lost their senior secured position to DOE. [House Energy and Commerce Committee, 9/12/11]
Under terms of the February loan restructuring, two private investors -- Argonaut Ventures I LLC and Madrone Partners LP -- stand to be repaid before the U.S. government if the solar company is liquidated. The two firms gave the company a total of $69 million in emergency loans. The loans are the only portion of their investments that have repayment priority above the U.S. government. [Associated Press, 9/16/11]
DOE Determined "That The Facility Would Be More Valuable, Even In The Event Of A Future Liquidation, Once Complete." In his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Director of DOE's Loan Programs Office Jonathan Silver stated that "DOE determined, as part of the restructuring, that the facility would be more valuable, even in the event of a future liquidation, once complete." He went on to say that "DOE determined that restructuring the loan guarantee gave the U.S. taxpayer the best chance of being repaid":
SILVER: Unsuccessful in its efforts to raise additional equity, Solyndra approached DOE, in late 2010, asking DOE to increase its loan commitment. DOE refused, indicating that any additional funds would need to come from other sources. Solyndra then sought to secure a new $75 million emergency loan from its current equity investors. The proposed new loan provided terms that were expected to be more favorable to taxpayers than any other financing options that were available to the company at that time. As is typical in cases where distressed companies seek new debt financing, the new financing would have priority, in the event of liquidation, over the company's existing debt--including the DOE loan guarantee (the investors' almost $1 billion of original equity investment was, and remains, subordinated to the debt owed to the government).
DOE faced a choice: whether to (1) refuse to allow the restructuring, thereby ensuring that Solyndra would close its doors immediately, and that the U.S. taxpayer would recover only a modest amount of the loan; or (2) allow the company to accept the emergency financing, thereby giving it and its almost 1,000 workers a fighting chance at success, and the government a higher expected recovery on its loan.
The decision was not an easy one, and it was made only after significant analysis and deliberation, using the same sort of tools and rigor that private sector lenders use in such scenarios. DOE had commissioned a new and comprehensive analysis of Solyndra's prospects in the global solar market (conducted by Navigant, a leading market research firm), and undertook -- with the aid of experienced financial consultants -- a complete review of the company's financial condition, business plan, and assets.9 Both the market study and the financial modeling suggested that the company's value as a going concern was greater than what the government was likely to recover in liquidation at that time. Accordingly, DOE determined that restructuring the loan guarantee gave the U.S. taxpayer the best chance of being repaid on the loan. [House Energy and Commerce Committee, 9/14/11]
DOE Expects Recovery of Taxpayer Money To Be Larger Due To Restructuring. During the hearing, John Dingell said: "I would note that the government's chance of recovery from that reorganization are better both in amount and certainty than if we had seen Solyndra go into bankruptcy earlier. Is that right?" Silver replied:
SILVER: We expect so. We'll have to see what happens, actually, in the bankruptcy process. But we have a completed an operating plant fully fitted out, inventory and all kinds of things that did not exist during the first restructuring. [House Energy and Commerce Committee, 9/14/11]
NY Times: Experts Said DOE's Decision To Restructure "Is Routine In The Commercial World." From a September 16, New York Times article:
Bankruptcy experts said Friday that the normal pattern was for the management of a bankrupt company to be given first crack at developing a plan, one that would either distribute ownership of the company to its creditors, in some agreed-upon proportion, or end in liquidation. The Energy Department believes that Solyndra has valuable patents.
Experts said the decision made by the Energy Department in February is routine in the commercial world. "It happens all the time," said Evan Flaschen, head of the financial restructuring group at Bracewell & Giuliani. But, he said, "A new lender coming in is going to want to be the first money out. The new money would want to be senior."
Martin Bienenstock, of Dewey & LeBoef, said that letting in another lender was often "the smart thing to do even though it's painful," because at worst, it would increase the company's scrap value. [New York Times, 9/16/11]
VentureWire: DOE "Squeezed The Terms Of Its Loan In Its Favor." VentureWire reported in March:
Making matters worse for the venture backers, the federal government has squeezed the terms of its loan in its favor, in hopes of increasing the chance of repayment even as the loan is being scrutinized. The Department of Energy could change some terms of the loan with each increment that it puts forward.
Solyndra agreed to change the terms of the federal loan so that it is now secured by all the assets of the company, including Solyndra's intellectual property. Previously, the loan was secured only by the solar panel factory it is helping fund. This is also true of the loan provided by private investors. [Dow Jones VentureWire, 3/3/11, via Factiva]
-
Nothing you posted disproves anything. Its a list of rationalizations.
-
Nothing you posted disproves anything. Its a list of rationalizations.
it's a list of salient facts about the restructing of the debt and the extension of lines of credit by private investors
there is nothing to "disprove" because there was no malfeasance in the first place
All of this is very common practice (again, I assumed you would have some knowledge of this type of thing)
For example, Warren Buffet investment of 5 billion in BofA a few months preferred stock that, in the event of bankruptcy liquidiation will pay him back first before common stock holders.
-
it's a list of salient facts about the restructing of the debt and the extension of lines of credit by private investors
there is nothing to "disprove" because there was no malfeasance in the first place
All of this is very common practice (again, I assumed you would have some knowledge of this type of thing)
For example, Warren Buffet investment of 5 billion in BofA a few months preferred stock that, in the event of bankruptcy liquidiation will pay him back first before common stock holders.
Oh please - since when is the govt supposed to be in the venture capital business like this? and to boot - people inside the OMB said they have NEVER seen or witnessed anything like this at all.
-
Oh please - since when is the govt supposed to be in the venture capital business like this? and to boot - people inside the OMB said they have NEVER seen or witnessed anything like this at all.
are you joking man
govt has been doing this typ of thing for years and this program was started by Bush
just because you've never heard of it and know nothing about it is your first clue to learn a little before you start ranting like a lunatic
-
are you joking man
govt has been doing this typ of thing for years and this program was started by Bush
just because you've never heard of it and know nothing about it is your first clue to learn a little before you start ranting like a lunatic
right blame bush. Got it. obama 2012 - bush did it too. Nice.
-
right blame bush. Got it. obama 2012 - bush did it too. Nice.
I didn't blame bush
I pointed out that Bush started this program (remember you asked " since when is the govt supposed to be in the venture capital business like this"?)
your lack of knowledge of this type of government involvement in private industry is really kind of suprising
how can be so completely uninformed?
-
I didn't blame bush
I pointed out that Bush started this program (remember you asked " since when is the govt supposed to be in the venture capital business like this"?)
your lack of knowledge of this type of government involvement in private industry is really kind of suprising
how can be so completely uninformed?
LMFAO. Bush admn CANCELLED SOLYNDRA loan fool. BTW - I disagree with all this crap. The Dept. energy needs to be disbanded. Its a den of corruption and fraud.
-
Fast and Furious Was Not Botched
Townhall.com ^ | November 10, 2011 | Katie Pavlich
“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.” –Special Agent John Dodson ATF Phoenix Field Division.
As allegations surrounding Operation Fast and Furious continue to heat up, many major media outlets continue to call the fatal program “botched,” which is a factually incorrect characterization.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines botched as: to foul up hopelessly, to put together in a makeshift way.
The only thing botched about Operation Fast and Furious is that the American public found out about it. Fast and Furious was carried out exactly as planned: allow straw purchasers to transfer guns to cartels, let those guns get trafficked back to Mexico and see where they end up. There was no plan to trace these guns and no plan to inform the Mexican Government of the operation, either.
Tactics used during Fast and Furious seem like mistakes, but in fact were just part of the strategy and process of Fast and Furious. Calling the program botched implies the Obama Justice Department didn’t intentionally allow 2000 high powered guns, including AK-47s and .50-caliber sniper rifles, to walk into the hands of ruthless drug cartels without proper tracing mechanisms. The opposite is true. This was the intention of the program, not an operational mistake in the process.
To prove the operation wasn’t “botched,” let’s take a look at some testimony from ATF whistleblowers about the operation.
On June 15, 2011 ATF Field Agent John Dodson, one of the first whistleblowers to go public about the scandal, testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee about Fast and Furious.
“I was involved in this operation, we monitored as they purchased hand guns, AK-47 variants, and .50 caliber rifles almost daily. Rather than contradict any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals for a short time after their purchases, but nothing more. Knowing all the while, just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, we still did nothing,” Dodson said. “Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.”
On July 26, 2011 ATF Senior Special Agent Jose Wall, who is based in Tijuana, Mexico also verified Fast and Furious was intended from the beginning to provide guns to cartels.
“I could not believe that someone in ATF would so callously let firearms wind up in the hands of criminals. And that this activity has seemingly been approved by our own Justice Department and ATF management in the misguided hope of catching the “big fish,” Wall said. “These firearms that are now in the hands of people who have no regard for human life pose a threat to all of us, a threat to which none of us is immune.”
ATF field agents knew Fast and Furious had the potential to get people killed, including federal agents. Vince Cefalu was one of those concerned agents and, although he knew he would face retaliation for exposing Fast and Furious to the public, he did it anyway. When Cefalu started speaking out against his superiors within ATF about the way Operation Fast and Furious was being conducted, he was approached within 24 hours and told to stop. He was also threatened and told if he didn’t shut his mouth, he would be relocated to North Dakota, a long way from where he had been working along the southern border with Mexico. Despite threats from his superiors, Cefalu blew the whistle about Operation Fast and Furious anyway, which has landed him under review for what he describes as “a proposal for removal for telling the truth.“
In September, Cefalu explained his concerns during a Fast and Furious town hall meeting in Tucson.
“To think that they could do this sort of operation knowing there could be a dead ATF agent at the ends of those guns made me nauseous,” Cefalu said.
Cefalu also described the skyrocketing murder rate in Mexico as “people getting killed wholesale,” and the federal government gave cartels the guns they need to do it.
To further prove Fast and Furious wasn’t botched in its implementation, ATF Phoenix Field Division Supervisor at the time, William Newell, described in emails that guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico was proof the operation was working.
The only people who have been trustworthy and credible throughout the investigation into Fast and Furious have been ATF whistleblowers. ATF management officials and Department of Justice officials have done nothing but lie, stonewall and cover-up the lethal program.
The Obama Administration botched the cover-up of Fast and Furious. Lies perpetuated by the Holder Justice Department continue to be shredded by a handful of media outlets, Sen. Charles Grassley, Sen. John Cornyn, Rep. Darrell Issa and members of the House Oversight Committee, but in no way was allowing Mexican cartels to get their hands on high powered weapons a "mistake."
-
LMFAO. Bush admn CANCELLED SOLYNDRA loan fool. BTW - I disagree with all this crap. The Dept. energy needs to be disbanded. Its a den of corruption and fraud.
no they did not
we've been over this before
why do you keep repeating the same lies
-
no they did not
we've been over this before
why do you keep repeating the same lies
LOL. The Bush Admn said it was not viable and did not sign off on it. It was only until Obama's O'bundler Kaiser got involved that Obama approved of it. the CEO said Obama was a key force in getting it done.
-
LOL. The Bush Admn said it was not viable and did not sign off on it. It was only until Obama's O'bundler Kaiser got involved that Obama approved of it. the CEO said Obama was a key force in getting it done.
again
not true
we've been over this before
why do you continue to lie
-
White House Misses Deadline for Solyndra Subpoena
Fox News ^ | 11-10-11 | Fox News and Ed Henry
The White House on Thursday missed the deadline for responding to the Republican-approved subpoena issued last week demanding the White House turn over "all documents" pertaining to the Solyndra loan guarantee.
White House aides told Fox News there are no plans to produce more documents on the bankrupt solar panel firm until Republicans agree to narrow the scope of their request.
When Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week approved the subpoena, they requested documents "referring or relating in any way" to the loan guarantee. The White House rejected the request as "overbroad" and accused Republicans of playing "partisan politics."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Grassley: Justice Dept. balking at making witnesses available [Fast & Furious]
The Washington Times ^ | Thursday, November 10, 2011 | Jerry Seper
The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says the Justice Department has refused to make available 11 of 12 department witnesses called by the panel for transcribed interviews in the ongoing investigation of the botched Fast and Furious weapons operation.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said that despite the department’s promises of good-faith cooperation in the probe, only one witness has been provided so far — former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Arizona, who resigned in August two weeks after he ended his testimony about Fast and Furious before a House committee, during which he took responsibility for mistakes.
“The department has refused to schedule interviews with any of the other 11 witnesses. That’s not the good-faith cooperation I was promised, and it is unacceptable,” Mr. Grassley said. “If this controversy has taught us anything, it is that you have to talk directly to the people who know the facts.
“If Congress had relied on the department’s official talking points, we still wouldn’t know the truth today,” he said Thursday during the committee’s executive business meeting.
Mr. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have been investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives‘ (ATF) Fast and Furious operation for several months.
They discovered that more than 2,000 weapons illegally purchased by “straw buyers” at gun shops in Phoenix, including hundreds of AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles, were allowed to be “walked” to drug smugglers in Mexico.
More than 1,400 of the weapons are believed still to be unaccounted for. Two AK-47s purchased at a gun shop in Glendale, Ariz., also were discovered at the site of the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry, killed during a gunfight with Mexican bandits just north of the...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Senator says Justice won’t provide witnesses
Washington Times ^ | 11/10/11 | Jerry Seper
Posted on November 11, 2011 12:44:09 AM EST by Nachum
The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says the Justice Department has refused to make available 11 of 12 department witnesses called by the panel for transcribed interviews in the ongoing investigation of the botched Fast and Furious weapons operation.
Sen. Chuck Grassley said that despite the department’s promises of good faith cooperation in the probe, only one witness has been provided so far - former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Arizona, who resigned in August after taking responsibility for his mistakes during testimony about Fast and Furious before a House committee.
“The department has refused to schedule interviews with any of the other 11 witnesses. That’s not the good-faith cooperation I was promised, and it is unacceptable,” said Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican. “If this controversy has taught us anything, it is that you have to talk directly to the people who know the facts.
“If Congress had relied on the department’s official talking points, we still wouldn’t know the truth today,” he said Thursday during the committee’s executive business meeting.
Mr. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have been investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives‘ Fast and Furious operation for several months.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
Source: Wash. Post
At a number of points in its troubled history, the solar company Solyndra faced dire financial problems that threatened its survival. Yet at each crisis, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and officials at his agency failed to take steps that critics say could have limited taxpayer losses when the company collapsed last summer.
Instead, Energy Department officials monitoring the solar panel manufacturer and its $535 million federal loan stepped in with financial assistance, or worked to dispel concerns raised by industry analysts and other Obama administration staffers, according to previously confidential documents analyzed by The Washington Post.
The officials raised no public red flags even as Solyndra executives presented a glowing picture last summer to Capitol Hill lawmakers, describing a growing company when internal sales figures suggested one that was in serious trouble.
The newly obtained documents, along with other records obtained in recent weeks, offer the clearest picture yet of Solyndra’s deteriorating finances and the Energy Department’s extraordinary efforts to prop up the company. Chu, who is scheduled to testify next week before a House investigating subcommittee, is likely to be questioned about his agency’s willingness to invest millions more taxpayer dollars in the firm, even after the White House had abandoned hopes of a rescue.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-energy-...
-
Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal (Obama donor gets no bid contract)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-smallpox-20111113,0,4293298.story ^
Posted on November 12, 2011 11:07:26 AM EST by macquire
Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work. Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
-
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-smallpox-20111113,0,4293298.story
Wow. Talk about blatant corruption. FUCK YOU every Obamabot.
-
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/white-house-email-energy-secretary-chu/t/story?id=14934698#.Tr6KiIR0r8C
Boom.
-
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/business/energy-environment/a-cornucopia-of-help-for-renewable-energy.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Unbelievable. How can anyone defend this shit!!!
-
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/business/energy-environment/a-cornucopia-of-help-for-renewable-energy.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Unbelievable. How can anyone defend this shit!!!
what exactly are you so hysterical about today
did you even read the article you posted
the subsidies, loan guarantees, etc.. are no different than we've done in the past for the
railroads, oil, gas and coal, aviation industries. Let's also not forget the government involvement in agrigulture, dairy industries.
-
The project is also a marvel in another, less obvious way: Taxpayers and ratepayers are providing subsidies worth almost as much as the entire $1.6 billion cost of the project. Similar subsidy packages have been given to 15 other solar- and wind-power electric plants since 2009.
The government support — which includes loan guarantees, cash grants and contracts that require electric customers to pay higher rates — largely eliminated the risk to the private investors and almost guaranteed them large profits for years to come. The beneficiaries include financial firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, conglomerates like General Electric, utilities like Exelon and NRG — even Google.
You support that bullshit?
-
The project is also a marvel in another, less obvious way: Taxpayers and ratepayers are providing subsidies worth almost as much as the entire $1.6 billion cost of the project. Similar subsidy packages have been given to 15 other solar- and wind-power electric plants since 2009.
The government support — which includes loan guarantees, cash grants and contracts that require electric customers to pay higher rates — largely eliminated the risk to the private investors and almost guaranteed them large profits for years to come. The beneficiaries include financial firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, conglomerates like General Electric, utilities like Exelon and NRG — even Google.
You support that bullshit?
I'd have to know MUCH more about the details before I could make a judgement .
I know things like details are not important to you
why haven't you started any threads ranting about the 6 billion in tax credits that we give each year to the wealthiest corporatations in the history of the world?
btw - also from your article:
I know you live in a shit hole and your neighborhood probably reeks of piss and vomit so things like clean air are probably not a big deal to you
Obama administration officials argue that the incentives, which began on a large scale late in the Bush administration but were expanded by the stimulus legislation, make economic and environmental sense. Beyond the short-term increase in construction hiring, they say, the cleaner air and lower carbon emissions will benefit the country for decades.
-
LOL. Obama has argued a lot of bullshit that the opposite turned out to be true.
-
How Obama’s Alternative-Energy Programs Became Green Graft (by unscrupulous means)
Victory chronicles ^ | Saturday November 12, 2011 | Peter Schweizer.
Posted on November 13, 2011 12:16:00 AM EST by Bigtigermike
Where did green-energy cash go? Straight to campaign donors. Read more about Peter Schwiezer’s Throw Them All Out in the new Newsweek on sale Monday.
When President-elect Obama came to Washington in late 2008, he was outspoken about the need for an economic stimulus to revive a struggling economy. He wanted billions of dollars spent on “shovel-ready projects” to build roads; billions more for developing alternative-energy projects; and additional billions for expanding broadband Internet access and creating a “smart grid” for energy consumption. After he was sworn in as president, he proclaimed that taxpayer money would assuredly not be doled out to political friends. “Decisions about how Recovery Act dollars are spent will be based on the merits,” he said, referring to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. “Let me repeat that: decisions about how recovery money will be spent will be based on the merits. They will not be made as a way of doing favors for lobbyists.”
Really?
It would take an entire book to analyze every single grant and government-backed loan doled out since Barack Obama became president. But an examination of grants and guaranteed loans offered by just one stimulus program run by the Department of Energy, for alternative-energy projects, is stunning. The so-called 1705 Loan Guarantee Program and the 1603 Grant Program channeled billions of dollars to all sorts of energy companies. The grants were earmarked for alternative-fuel and green-power projects, so it would not be a surprise to learn that those industries were led by liberals. Furthermore, these were highly competitive grant and loan programs—not usually a hallmark of cronyism. Often fewer than 10 percent of applicants were deemed worthy.
Nevertheless, a large proportion of the winners were companies with Obama-campaign connections. Indeed, at least 10 members of Obama’s finance committee and more than a dozen of his campaign bundlers were big winners in getting your money. At the same time, several politicians who supported Obama managed to strike gold by launching alternative-energy companies and obtaining grants. How much did they get? According to the Department of Energy’s own numbers … a lot. In the 1705 government-backed-loan program, for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party. The grant and guaranteed-loan recipients were early backers of Obama before he ran for president, people who continued to give to his campaigns and exclusively to the Democratic Party in the years leading up to 2008. Their political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy. It brought them returns many times over.
These government grants and loan guarantees not only provided access to taxpayer capital. They also served as a seal of approval from the federal government.
Taxpayer money creates what investors call a “halo effect,” in which a young, unprofitable company is suddenly seen to have a glowing future. The plan is simple. Invest some money, secure taxpayer grants and loans, go public, and then cash out.
In just one small example, a company called Amyris Biotechnologies received a $24 million DOE grant to build a pilot plant to use altered yeast to turn sugar into hydrocarbons. The investors included several Obama bundlers and fundraisers. With federal money in hand, Amyris went public with an IPO the following year, raising $85 million. Kleiner Perkins, a firm that boasts Obama financier John Doerr and former vice president Al Gore as partners, found its $16 million investment was now worth $69 million. It’s not clear how the other investors did. Amyris continues to lose money. Meanwhile, the $24 million grant created 40 jobs, according to the government website recovery.gov.
One might think that the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office, which has doled out billions in taxpayer-guaranteed loans, would be directed by a dedicated scientist or engineer. Or perhaps a civil servant with considerable financial knowledge. Instead, the department’s loan and grant programs are run by partisans who were responsible for raising money during the Obama campaign from the same people who later came to seek government loans and grants. Steve Spinner, who served on the Obama campaign’s National Finance Committee and was a bundler himself, was the campaign’s “liaison to Silicon Valley.” His responsibilities included fundraising, recruiting more bundlers, and managing Obama’s relationship with a cadre of very wealthy donors. After the 2008 campaign, Spinner joined the Department of Energy as the “chief strategic operations officer” for the loan programs. A lot of the money he helped hand out went to that same cadre of wealthy Silicon Valley campaign donors. He also sat on the White House Business Council, which is made up of Obama-supporting corporate executives.
Another Obama fundraiser positioned to lead the allocation of taxpayer money to Obama contributors was Sanjay Wagle, who served as the managing co-chairman of Cleantech & Green Business Leaders for Obama. Wagle’s day job was as a principal at VantagePoint Venture Partners. After the 2008 election, Wagle joined the Obama administration as a “renewable energy grants adviser” at the Department of Energy. VantagePoint owned firms that would later see federal loan guarantees roll in.
Jonathan Silver, who would serve as director of the loan programs, had worked in the Clinton administration, first as counselor to the secretary of the interior and later as assistant deputy secretary in the Department of Commerce. Silver’s wife has served as financial director of the Democratic Leadership Council. His business partner, Tom Wheeler, was an Obama bundler, and Wheeler’s wife was an outreach coordinator for the campaign. Silver’s “strategic adviser” was Steve Spinner.
The grants themselves originated in the office of Cathy Zoi, who served as the assistant secretary of energy for efficiency and renewable energy. (Wagle was her adviser.) Zoi had previously worked in the Clinton White House as the chief of staff on environmental policy, then as the CEO of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. You may be thinking, “So what? Why would we expect anything less of political appointees?” But the numbers don’t lie: the recipients of loans and grants were, overwhelmingly, Obama cronies.
The Government Accountability Office has been highly critical of the way guaranteed loans and grants were doled out by the Department of Energy, complaining that the process appears “arbitrary” and lacks transparency. In March 2011, for example, the GAO examined the first 18 loans that were approved and found that none were properly documented. It also noted that officials “did not always record the results of analysis” of these applications. A loan program for electric cars, for example, “lacks performance measures.” No notes were kept during the review process, so it is difficult to determine how loan decisions were made. The GAO further declared that the Department of Energy “had treated applicants inconsistently in the application review process, favoring some applicants and disadvantaging others.” The Department of Energy’s inspector general, Gregory Friedman, who was not a political appointee, chastised the alternative-energy loan and grant programs for their absence of “sufficient transparency and accountability.” He has testified that contracts have been steered to “friends and family.”
Friends indeed. These programs might be the greatest—and most expensive—example of crony capitalism in American history. Tens of billions of dollars went to firms controlled or owned by fundraisers, bundlers, and political allies, many of whom—surprise!—are now raising money for Obama again.
-
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100117187/american-way-whiff-of-scandal-now-taints-barack-obama
Obama = Maddoff.
-
I'd have to know MUCH more about the details before I could make a judgement .
I know things like details are not important to you
why haven't you started any threads ranting about the 6 billion in tax credits that we give each year to the wealthiest corporatations in the history of the world?
btw - also from your article:
I know you live in a shit hole and your neighborhood probably reeks of piss and vomit so things like clean air are probably not a big deal to you
The government support — which includes loan guarantees, cash grants and contracts that require electric customers to pay higher rates — largely eliminated the risk to the private investors and almost guaranteed them large profits for years to come. The beneficiaries include financial firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, conglomerates like General Electric, utilities like Exelon and NRG — even Google.
fuck you and your corrupt communist traitor messiah obama.
-
Family Of Slain Border Agent Call Holder A 'Liar'
cns news ^ | November 13, 2011
Posted on November 14, 2011 1:30:48 AM EST by george76
The father of slain border Agent Brian Terry calls Attorney General Eric Holder a 'liar'.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
-
Report: 80% of DOE Green Energy Loans Went to Obama Backers (SHOCKER)
Heritage ^ | 11-14-11 | Lachlan Markay
Posted on November 14, 2011 12:11:20 PM EST by Driftwood1
A new book by Hoover Institution fellow Peter Schweizer details the startling extent of the cronyism that has pervaded President Obama’s “green jobs” push. According to Schweizer, 4 out of every 5 renewable energy companies backed by the Energy Department was “run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers.”
Those companies’ “political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy,” Schweizer explains. “It brought them returns many times over.”
Doug Ross spotted the relevant excerpt of Schweizer’s book (h/t Ben Domenech’s Transom):
When President-elect Obama came to Washington in late 2008, he was outspoken about the need for an economic stimulus to revive a struggling economy… After he was sworn in as president, he proclaimed that taxpayer money would assuredly not be doled out to political friends…
…But an examination of grants and guaranteed loans offered by just one stimulus program run by the Department of Energy, for alternative-energy projects, is stunning. The so-called 1705 Loan Guarantee Program and the 1603 Grant Program channeled billions of dollars to all sorts of energy companies…
…In the 1705 government-backed-loan program [alone], for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party. The grant and guaranteed-loan recipients were early backers of Obama before he ran for president, people who continued to give to his campaigns and exclusively to the Democratic Party in the years leading up to 2008. Their political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy. It brought them returns many times over.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.heritage.org ...
Unreal! F U obamabots!
-
http://www.blogster.com/joannemor/another-bombshell-expose-green-loans-the-real-story
wow!!! Care defend this 180 blackcunt straw andre and Benny?
-
Another big Dem donor gets hundreds of millions in no-bid contract (The SEIU link)
Hotair ^ | 11/14/2011 | Ed Morrissey
Posted on November 14, 2011 11:25:43 AM EST by SeekAndFind
The scourge of smallpox has been all but eradicated for decades, with the only live samples of the source bacteria locked away in laboratories in the US and Russia. Nonetheless, the US maintains a large stockpile of proven smallpox vaccines just in case anyone gets access to the disease, and can quickly distribute it to the American population and prevent an epidemic, even after exposure. There is no reason to spend another dollar developing a new smallpox vaccine — and yet that is exactly what the Obama administration did, and in a most peculiar manner:
Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.
Why would they have done that? Well, look no further than the controlling shareholder of Siga:
Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.
One might think that some in the bureaucracy might question the wisdom of this deal, and they’d be right. But the Obama administration had a way of dealing with the skeptics — and Siga’s competitors, too. And that had the obvious consequences for taxpayers:
When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company’s financial demands, senior officials replaced the government’s lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.
When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.
Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a “sole-source” procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation’s biodefense stockpile. The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government’s specialists had earlier said was reasonable, according to internal documents and interviews.
Open Secrets shows that Perelman donated $127,000 in the 2008 and 2012 cycles (so far), almost all of it to Democrats, which makes him a very, very wise investor indeed. However, he’s not the only beneficiary of Obama’s largesse in this deal. Guess who sits on the board of Siga since his retirement from a more high-profile job — and a whole lot of visits to the White House?
SIGA Technologies, Inc (NASDAQ: SIGA), a company specializing in the development of pharmaceutical agents to combat bio-warfare pathogens, announced today that Andy Stern, labor leader and prominent advocate for reform, joined SIGA’s board of directors. Mr. Stern is the former president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in North America.
Andy Stern was responsible for growing the SEIU from 1.0 million members into a powerful 2.2 million member union. Under his leadership, the SEIU had been widely recognized as being an engaged and influential force driving healthcare reform and, ultimately, passage of the 2010 Health Care Reform Act.
This prompts an entire series of questions. The LA Times asks why we need to spend $443 million for a vaccine to a disease against which we are already amply prepared, and why the Obama administration replaced its contract negotiator to protect what is described as a 180% profit margin for Siga. The rest of us should also be asking how a firm owned by a big Democratic donor and one that employs the former SEIU chief ended up with a no-bid contract and got the Obama administration to block its competitors from giving taxpayers a better deal. However, that question pretty much answers itself, doesn’t it?
-
PICKET: New book shows how Soros set up and financially benefited from '09 stimulus
Washington Times Water Cooler ^ | 11/14/2011 | Kerry Picket
Posted on November 14, 2011 9:46:04 PM EST by paltz
----EXCERPT-----
It is not just the lawmakers on Capitol Hill who can make a killing. Their rich and powerful cronies can also financially benefit from intel they receive from Washington D.C. politicians. According to Schweizer's book, George Soros made his way into the Obama White House by becoming one of candidate Obama's "first big catches."
Mr. Soros donated more than $60,000 to Obama's 2004 Senate campaign and helped build the Obama 2008 war chest substantially. Soros gained amazing access to the president and the president's economic agenda immediately after the 2008 election, according to Schweizer, who writes in his book:
"Days after President Obama was elected, Soros was helping to set the agenda. Soros had regular meetings with senior White House officials. He met with Obama’s top economist, Larry Summers,on February 25, 2009. He also had meetings in the Old Executive Office Building with senior officials on March 24 and 25 asthe stimulus was being forged. He was later involved in private discussions concerning widespread financial reform."
"Soros was also a financial backer of the Center for American Progress, which functioned as Obama’s think tank. John Podesta,who headed CAP, was Obama’s transition director. Several CAP policy ideas became part of Obama’s agenda. Soros said at the time, 'I think we need a large stimulus package, which will provide funds for state and local government to maintain their budgets, because they are not allowed by the constitution to run a deficit. For such a program to be successful, the federal government would need to provide hundreds of billions of dollars. In addition, another infrastructure program is necessary. In total, the cost would be in the 300 to 600 billion dollar range.'”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
i've already said obama should be investigated. do you need a pink sock reminder?
-
Energy Department Pushed Solyndra To Wait To Announce Layoffs Until After Midterm Elections
TBI ^ | 11-15-2011 | Zeke Miller
SCANDAL DEEPENS: Energy Department Pushed Solyndra To Wait To Announce Layoffs Until After Midterm Elections
Zeke Miller
Nov. 15, 2011, 11:34 AM
Newly released emails from Solyndra executives show that the Department of Energy pressured the failed solar energy company to postpone announce layoffs until after the 2010 midterm elections.
First reported by The Washington Post, the emails show a Solyndra investor warning the company against announcing layoffs before the Nov. 2 elections, because the company's loan draw for December had yet to be approved by the Department of Energy.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu will testify before the committee on allegations that his department mismanaged the loans for political reasons.
Read the email chain, from the House Energy and Commerce committee, below:
On October 8, 2010, Solyndra executives informed DOE that the company‘s "situation has changed quite dramatically." Mr. Bill Stover, Solyndra‘s CFO, informed DOE that it would not be able to raise capital by the end of the year, as it originally had planned to do, and "without access to FFB loan funds in October, November, and December for work that has been completed, Solyndra would run out of cash in November"38
During October, documents produced to the Committee show that the company was working with its investors and bankers to identify a structure for a deal and potential new capital to bring into the company while DOE analyzed potential financial models for the deal. On October 25, 2010, Solyndra Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brian Harrison emailed DOE and stated that "Solyndra has received some press inquiries about rumors of problems (one of them with quite accurate information) and we have received in bound calls from potential investors. Both of these data points indicate the story is starting to leak outside Solyndra."39
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
-
Former Holder Chief of Staff Nomination to Court Imperiled Over 'Fast and Furious'
foxnews.com ^ | 11-15-11
The confirmation of a former aide to Attorney General Eric Holder to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces may be in peril over his response to questions posed by Arizona Sen. John McCain about his knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious.
Kevin Ohlson, who worked as Holder's chief of staff from January 2009 to January 2011, faces a confirmation hearing on Thursday for the post. The panel with jurisdiction is the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which McCain is the ranking Republican and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is chairman.
In his response Monday to a questionnaire sent from McCain last week, both obtained by Fox News, Ohlson said he knew nothing about the operation while he was at the Justice Department.
"During my tenure as chief of staff and counselor to the attorney general, I took no actions in regard to, had no knowledge of, provided no advice about, and had no involvement in Operation Fast and Furious," he wrote. Ohlson wrote he did participate in a prep session with Holder on Fast and Furious earlier this month before Holder testified to Congress.
In the letter sent by McCain, he wrote that as Holder's chief of staff Ohlson was "in a position to be informed about the Operation, to make decisions regarding the operation, and to know what information about it was and was not provided to the attorney general."
But in his response, Ohlson wrote he had "been informed that routine courtesy copies of weekly reports were forwarded to me that referred to the operation by name, but that did not provide any operational details and did not refer to gun walking or anything similar."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Grassley fires broadside at Eric Holder, DoJ subordinates(gunwalker)
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 14 November, 2011 | Dave Workman
Senator Charles Grassley late Monday afternoon fired a broadside at Attorney General Eric Holder in the wake of last week’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee that left not only Grassley, but others very unhappy with Holder, as this column noted.
As this column reported, the Iowa Republican is staying on point with his investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, who is responsible, who knew what and when did they know it?
Holder, and his defenders on the committee who have tried to shift public focus away from the gun trafficking scandal and toward their gun control agenda, as this column reported, may learn something about Grassley from all of this. Once he gets on the scent, and especially once he sinks his teeth into an issue, nothing appears to rattle him, or drive him off the rails.
Here are some points Grassley felt the necessity to emphasize on his website:
Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder, Nov. 8, 2011:
• Senator Grassley: “Who will be held accountable for allowing a letter to Congress with a statement that many people in the Justice Department knew was false?
Attorney General Holder: “Well again I – I have to dispute, with due respect, the assertion that people in the Justice Department knew it was false.”
• Attorney General Holder to Senator Cornyn: “February the 4th, the information that was contained in that letter was thought to be accurate. It wasn’t until sometime after that that we had a sense that the information was not, in fact, accurate. So it wasn’t as if the date upon which we knew the information was inaccurate was on February the 4th.”
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Fast and Furious: Case Files on Terry Murder Have Disappeared, Gone
Townhall ^ | 11/15/11 | Katie Pavlich
Posted on November 15, 2011 9:26:31 PM EST by Nachum
The Arizona Daily Star's Tim Stellar is reporting the federal case file against illegal Mexican bandits accused of killing Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, has disappeared.
The case against the alleged killers of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has disappeared from federal court records, apparently sealed by a federal judge.
In May, federal prosecutors won an indictment against Manuel Osorio-Arellanes and others, and they announced it with a press release. Only Osorio-Arellanes’ name was visible in the indictment, but there were blacked-out words where other defendants’ names go.
Osorio-Arellanes was charged with second-degree murder and was not considered the likely shooter. He had been wounded during the gunfight that left Terry dead.
But in the ensuing months, the case disappeared from court records.
Why? Nobody is saying.
Asked about the case, Debra Hartman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego, which is prosecuting the case, said via email: “Yes, our office is handling the case and can’t comment further.”
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
WWWTTTFFFF!!!!!
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
EDITORIAL: Solyndra and Keystone: Dual debacles
The Washington Times ^ | November 15, 2011 | Editorial
Posted on November 15, 2011 9:41:38 PM EST by jazusamo
Burned by solar, Obama passes on oil
President Obama is sticking by his policy of declaring the producers of trendy, impractical energy sources “winners,” leaving taxpayers to be the losers. Take the case of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the administration is effectively shutting down in the wake of the scandal surrounding solar-panel maker Solyndra. Stubbornly clinging to environmental fashion over a practical boost to America’s energy supply will further cloud America’s economic horizon.
The timing of two announcements out of Washington is hardly coincidental. On Thursday, the White House said it would end its heated standoff with House Republicans. Members sought documents related to the administration’s decision to shower Solyndra with $535 million in taxpayer funds. Before the sun set at Foggy Bottom, the State Department spread word it had ordered a new environmental review of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Alberta-to-Texas pipeline, effectively delaying any possibility of approval until after the 2012 election. The takeaway from the dual decisions: There’s a price for messing with the not-so-jolly green giant.
Until recently, it appeared the $7 billion pipeline was on track for approval. It would have carried 1.1 million barrels of Alberta’s tar-sands oil per day 1,700 miles southward to refineries on Texas’ Gulf coast. It also would add 20,000 well-paying jobs to the struggling U.S. economy and lessen America’s dependency on overseas oil...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
Energy Secretary Chu Defends How Administration Handled Solyndra
GPB News ^ | 11/15/11 | Eyder Peralta
Posted on November 15, 2011 9:59:44 PM EST by Nachum
In an interview with NPR, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu vigorously defended the actions of the Department of Energy with regards $528 million in loans it gave the now-bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra.
Chu told All Things Considered's Melissa Block that neither he nor any of his staff working on DOE loans program was swayed by politics and that even in hindsight there was no way to know that Solyndra would fail.
President Obama's administration has been engulfed by the Solyndra scandal for weeks. At issue is whether the White House pressured the Department of Energy to guarantee loans for Solyndra because the company had connections with at least one big Obama donor. Another question is whether the White House and the DOE ignored red flags about the company.
Chu denied all those claims and said his department did their due diligence on Solyndra.
"We improved the [loan] process," said Chu. "We did no cut corners. We made it more thorough and diligent... We were very thorough in the application of the loan."
Chu said the loan application was processed by professionals and the department asked "outside people" to look at market conditions; they asked for "second and third opinions about what the landscape was." Chu added that one thing that none of their analysts anticipated was that the price of solar modules would "plummet."
(Excerpt) Read more at gpb.org ...
-
Rep. Allen West publicly calls for Eric Holder to resign (video)
The Right Scoop ^ | Nov.15, 2011 | The Right Scoop
Posted on November 15, 2011 11:27:39 PM EST by Free ThinkerNY
This is the first clip to get me really excited in the last couple of hours.
Allen West nails it right on the head in his assessment of Eric Holder’s performance and says that Fast and Furious falls directly on his shoulders.
He also calls on Obama to recommend that Holder resign, and says that if Obama “doesn’t agree with that stance, then perhaps the President of the United States of America is also complicit in this horrible, tragic event of Operation Fast and Furious.”
(Excerpt) Read more at therightscoop.com ...
-
New emails: DOJ, Eric Holder manipulated press for favorable ‘Fast and Furious’ coverage
The Daily Caller ^ | 11/15/2011 | Matthew Boyle
Posted on November 16, 2011 3:11:40 AM EST by neverdem
Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department sought to manipulate reporters’ coverage of Operation Fast and Furious during the days preceding a November 1 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, new emails obtained by The Daily Caller indicate.
Emails between senior Justice Department officials and investigators in the office of Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley show that congressional staffers leading the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious requested information about Operation Wide Receiver — a Bush administration program – and other similar cases, more than a full month before the DOJ leaked information to selected media outlets on October 31.
That Halloween document dump from the DOJ seemed calculated to depict Grassley’s investigation as partisan in nature.
The emails show Grassley staffers inquiring about the Bush administration program as early as mid-September.
“Mr. Newell told us in his interview that there were 2 or 3 cases other than Fast and Furious where there were unsuccessful controlled deliveries at the border,” wrote a Grassley investigator on September 13, to a Holder staffers handling congressional inquiries on Operation Fast and Furious. “He said these examples occurred in the 2007 to 2008 timeframe.”
Bill Newell was the lead Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent tasked to Fast and Furious.
“In one case,” the Grassley staffer wrote, “he said the guns actually crossed the border but through some miscommunication they were not interdicted on the other side by the Mexican authorities. In the other case, the trafficker did not actually cross the border, but evaded U.S. law enforcement surveillance on this side of the border.
“You indicated today that there was an effort at the Department to get an understanding of previous controlled delivery cases that might raise similar issues in Fast and Furious. Were the two cases Newell described among them? Has the Department put together a detailed timeline of the sort you had today on each of the other unsuccessful controlled delivery cases? Is something like that in the works? Has the Department received inquiries about these other cases by the OIG?”
It appears Holder’s team didn’t answer any of the investigator’s questions. Instead, the Justice Department held the information and related documents until the night before Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Those documents showed Breuer was at least partially responsible for Fast and Furious. Breuer subsequently issued a statement apologizing for not stopping the ATF agents leading Fast and Furious from implementing the same failed tactics used in Operation Wide Receiver — information he confirmed he had in April 2010.
The DOJ selectively picked which news outlets received the leaked documents, and which documents were released.
This new information comes as several of the 40 members of Congress who have openly called for greater accountability from Holder and the Justice Department plan a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
The group, including Reps. Allen West, Paul Gosar, Raul Labrador, Joe Walsh, Tim Huelskamp, Blake Farenthold, Trent Franks and Diane Black, are scheduled to gather and call for Holder’s immediate resignation.
Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania will also be there. He is the most recent member of Congress to call for Holder’s resignation.
“The Fast and Furious gunwalking scheme carried out by the Department of Justice at the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder has resulted not only in numerous violent crimes against American citizens but even the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry,” Murphy told The Daily Caller in an email Tuesday.
“Beyond the inconsistencies in Mr. Holder’s testimony before Congress about what he knew and when he knew it, this investigation raises troubling questions about his judgment and ability to remain at the helm of our nation’s top law enforcement agency. The appropriate and necessary action is for Holder to voluntarily resign. And if he doesn’t do so voluntarily, I call on the President to remove him.”
This story was updated after publication to reflect Rep. Murphy’s call for Eric Holder’s resignation, and to include a statement from his spokesman.
-
politics as usual from the dems
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
SSI Exclusive: They knew. Everybody knew. This one email proves it. (gunwalker)
Sipsey Street Irregulars ^ | 15 November, 2011 | Mike Vanderboegh
Posted on November 16, 2011 7:26:25 AM EST by marktwain
"They should probably hire a media expert anyway to assist them in explaining the 2000 firearms and the possible connection in the murder of the Border Patrol Agent." -- Glenn W. Cook, 17 December 2010.
This story is based on a William LaJuenesse piece on FOX this afternoon which mentioned, but did not completely put into context, an email written two days after the murder of Brian Terry by Glenn W. Cook. Once I found out of the email's existence, I checked my sources until I located one. I will say that I did not get it from anyone at FOX.
Let me begin by introducing Glenn W. Cook.
Glenn Cook is the Deputy Chief of the Special Prosecutions unit of the Criminal Division, Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas in Houston.
From the DOJ website:
This section consists of a group of some of the most experienced, seasoned and talented AUSAs in the office, charged with developing and prosecuting some of the district’s most sophisticated and high-profile cases in the areas of terrorism and national security, public corruption, export control and environmental crimes. Additionally, the section is often tasked to handle special projects and cases as selected by the United States Attorney.
AUSAs who handle Anti-Terrorism matters are a group of specialized prosecutors who work closely with federal, state and local law enforcement officers assigned to Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) located in Houston and McAllen. In an attempt to prevent the occurrence of terrorist activity in the SDTX and elsewhere, AUSAs assigned to this group investigate and prosecute individuals with known links to international and domestic terrorism. They also prosecute special interest aliens, alien smugglers and persons involved in the illegal and unlawful exportation of prohibited technology. Perpetrators of elaborate hoaxes who threaten innocent people with the use of weapons of mass destruction are also prosecuted by our AUSAs.
The Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council (ATAC) leverages the information it acquires from the Counter Terrorism Section at Main Justice, the JTTF and DHS to actively coordinate and disseminate information to ATAC partners made up of federal, state and local law enforcement, as well as representatives from private industry and critical infrastructure throughout the district. The ATAC holds regularly scheduled meetings that address the most current terroristic threats and concerns and members receive bi-weekly intelligence summaries and special bulletins. ATAC also provides training to its partners and sends prosecutors to universities and community organizations to make presentations on the USA PATRIOT Act and other Anti-Terrorism laws. This district’s ATAC has been recognized by Main Justice and other USAOs as a model to be used by ATACs around the country.
AUSAs assigned to handle Public Corruption cases are responsible for the investigation and prosecution of public officials, employees and others involved in activities constituting an abuse of public office or corrupt practices. The types of cases handled by these AUSAs include drug trafficking and alien smuggling by law enforcement officials, misuse of grant funds by the grantee, extortion and bribery.
Mr. Cook has handled all manner of sensitive cases in his area of operations, many of which are regularly reported up the chain of command to the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer.
Sources report that before the Terry murder in December 2010, ATF agents in El Paso -- in the Southern District of Texas, that is, in Glenn Cook's part of the world -- had made a seizure of weapons that turned out to have been from Operation Fast and Furious, then being run by David Voth and Hope MacAllister in Group VII in the Phoenix field division of ATF. This OCDETF task force was supervised by Assistant United States Attorney Emory Hurley.
Voth and MacAllister, backed by Hurley and the Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division William Newell, repeatedly refused to cooperate with the Texas agents working the case, thereby crippling their the case. Not surprisingly, Texas refused to take no for an answer and kicked the problem upstairs, to Mr. Cook.
Two days after the murder of Brian Terry, Charlie Smith, the ASAC of the Dallas Field Division forwarded the email from AUSA Cook to the senior ATF supervisor at the Phoenix ATF Field Division, Jim Needles.
Needles, you may recall, was present at the 11 March 2011 meeting with Lone Wolf Trading Company owner Andre Howard and his attorney, Larry Gaydos. From my story about that meeting:
There were a number of things that Howard and Gaydos knew going into this meeting, according to the sources. Howard knew that the two Kalashnikovs that had been found at the Terry murder scene traced back to his shop. He also knew that a "third gun" had been found at the scene, and that it was an SKS that traced back to Texas. These facts he knew from ATF agents directly after the Terry killing.
Yet, to a man, the DOJ and ATF participants in the meeting sought to reassure Howard and his attorney that none of the weapons found at the murder scene had come from Lone Wolf and, more incredibly, they maintained that all of the weapons that had come from Howard's gun shop had been interdicted before they went across the Mexican border.
Howard, the sources say, had previously been told that by Hurley and at this meeting that falsehood was backed up by Morrissey.
"They were in a complete state of factional denial," said one source, adding, "They kept insisting that everything Dodson and the other whistleblowers were saying were lies," and that "the real truth would come out in the trials of the straw buyers."
According to a source familiar with the recollections of the meeting by its participants, "There were people in that room, and not just Gaydos and Howard, who knew that . . . it was bullshit and completely ridiculous."
Notes taken by Tonya English, at least those turned over to the Oversight Committee, do not reflect those statements, however. Although English was reported to have taken "copious notes," according to one source, the notes turned over to the committee are said to be a mere list of meeting participants. This column attempted to contact Ms. English and other meeting participants by email about the discrepancy, but as of this writing they have not responded.
Where did the notes go? "I guess you'll have to ask English that," said the federal source. "It isn't the first document that disappeared in this investigation and it won't be the last."
Ironically, according to all the sources, AUSA Hurley, while denying the obvious, admitted an even more dangerous fact.
"Howard told the meeting that he knew there was a third gun found at the scene and that it had been traced," said one source, adding, "Hurley admitted that there was but said that neither it nor the AKs came from Lone Wolf so Howard didn't have anything to worry about."
Neither Howard nor Gaydos was that stupid. It was also in early March that Howard began taping ATF Group VII supervisor Hope MacAllister, tapes where MacAllister also admits that there was a third gun.
"I think Gaydos knew that DOJ was taking a completely untenable position," said one federal source. "Factually, it just was not credible."
When Needles received the forwarded email, he must have run, not walked, it to his immediate superiors, including Newell and Hurley.
Here is the text of the email. I will post the pdf link here when it is up later this evening.
From: Smith, Charles E. Sent: Friday, December 17,2010 7:01 PM To: Needles, James R. Subject: FW:
FYI
Charlie Smith ASAC Dallas Field Division (LARGE BLOCK REDACTED)
From: Cook, Glen W. Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 2:14 PM To: Smith, Charles E. Cc: Cook, Glen W. Subject:
Charlie,
I advised AUSA Russ Leachman through SAs Steve Hall and Curtis Williams to provide me with a Grand Jury Subpoena for RAC David Roth and Holly in Phoenix to obtain the required evidence needed in our investigation here. AUSA Leachmnan has now advised the AUSA in Phoenix that the ATF agents here need access to the case in Phoenix since the ATF Phoenix office refuses to provide us with the evidence.
I wish that Leachman would have given those subpoenas to me but if the AUSA in Phoenix refuses to comply then maybe Phoenix should start preparing their explanations for the way that they conducted their straw purchase cases there. They should probably hire a media expert anyway to assist them in explaining the 2000 firearms and the possible connection in the murder of the Border Patrol Agent.
Thanks,
Glen
First of all, "David Roth and Holly in Phoenix" actually refer to David Voth and Hope MacAllister. Cook simply got it wrong. This is confirmed by a source of mine, who states:
"It is an email about Dave Voth and Hope MacAllister, after they had Newell call HQ and Dallas Field Division to have them stand down on following up on an El Paso seizure. The Dallas Field Division would have had the "cartel associates" that Phoenix claims as their success story over a year earlier."
Now, let's review. In order to compel the cooperation of Voth and MacAllister, Cook is threatening to have them subpoenaed by the grand jury! By forwarding this to Needles, Charlie Smith is giving Needles the heads up -- "Get off the track, the train's coming."
But it is this that is remarkable:
"(I)f the AUSA in Phoenix refuses to comply then maybe Phoenix should start preparing their explanations for the way that they conducted their straw purchase cases there. They should probably hire a media expert anyway to assist them in explaining the 2000 firearms and the possible connection in the murder of the Border Patrol Agent."
And Cook writes this off-handed threat to Phoenix only two days after the murder of Brian Terry! How does he know the number of weapons? How does he know that this stems from the way Phoenix "conducted their straw purchase cases"?
What, then, are we to conclude from this? Well, I'll tell you.
They knew.
EVERYBODY in ATF and DOJ along the border knew, and they knew it before the murder of Brian Terry, for it obviously is no surprise to the highly-placed AUSA Cook, and he doesn't mind using this common knowledge to achieve the desired result from Phoenix.
One more thing.
Sources tell me that in any dispute between DOJ AUSAs, there is a "deconfliction process" that is "written in stone." "All such disputes automatically get kicked upstairs," said one source, and "certainly would be known immediately to the head of the Criminal Division." Meaning, of course, Lanny Breuer. "Also, Holder would have been briefed about it," said the source.
One more thing to ask Breuer and Eric Holder about in the 8 December hearing.
If they're smart (and I don't consider them dumb), the committee investigators will have a subpoena ready for Glenn W. Cook as well.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Facts are Stubborn Things, U.S. Guns in Mexico
grassley.senate.gov ^ | 15 November, 2011 | Chuck Grassley
Posted on November 16, 2011 7:44:35 AM EST by marktwain
Setting the Record Straight from the Justice Department Oversight Hearing
“Facts are STUBBORN Things” “…and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” -John Adams, December 1770
Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder, Nov. 8, 2011
U.S. Guns in Mexico
Attorney General Holder: “- f the nearly 94,000 [weapons] that have been recovered that have been traced in Mexico in recent years, over 64,000 of those guns were sourced to the United States of America; 64,000 of 94,000 guns sourced to this country.”
FACT The definition of a “U.S. source gun” used in these often cited statistics was not created by the ATF and is overly broad. It includes guns manufactured in the United States even if never sold by a federally licensed gun dealer in the United States. Such weapons may have been legally exported to foreign governments or stolen before falling into the wrong hands. That cannot be properly blamed on Americans exercising their Second Amendment freedoms.
According to ATF statistics, of the 21,313 guns submitted for tracing by the government of Mexico in 2009, only 5,444 of them (25 percent) traced back to federally licensed gun dealers in the United States. Similarly, in 2010, of 7,971 guns submitted for tracing by the government of Mexico, only 2,945 (37 percent) traced back to federally licensed gun dealers in the U.S.
The reason for the large disparity between the overall numbers of guns submitted in those two years is that in late 2009, the government of Mexico provided the United States with a large list of guns it had been stockpiling for years. Accordingly, 2009’s numbers do not reflect guns that were seized exclusively in 2009, but rather for a number of the preceding years.
Additionally, any statistics on the percentage of such guns tracing back to the United States are further skewed because of selection bias. As it has been widely noted, the government of Mexico only provides guns to the United States for tracing that they already have reason to believe originated here. There is no reason to submit for tracing guns that are known to originate in Mexico.
In a November 8, 2011, court filing, the Chief of ATF’s Firearms Operations Division made a declaration that “in 2008, of the approximately 30,000 firearms that the Mexican Attorney General’s Office informed ATF that it had seized, only 7,200, or one quarter of those firearms, were submitted to ATF for tracing.” Based on these statistics, it’s clear that the total sample of guns submitted for tracing is not representative of all the guns found in Mexico, and there isn’t evidence that the other 75 percent of those guns were sold in a U.S. gun store.
Documents related to the facts.
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
-
Obama's Half-Billion-Dollar Crony Drug Deal
By Michelle Malkin
What do you get when you mix Democratic fat-cat donations, Big Labor favors, pharmaceutical lobbying and Beltway business as usual? Answer: another toxic half-billion-dollar Barack Obama-approved crony deal. Move over, Solyndra. Here comes Siga-Gate.
This latest Chicago-style payoff on your dime involves a dubious smallpox drug backed by a liberal billionaire investor, along with a former union boss who was one of the White House's most frequent visitors. They're the "1 percent" with 100 percent immunity from the selectively outraged Occupier mobs that purport to oppose partisan government bailouts and handouts to privileged corporations.
Ronald Perelman is the New York City-based leveraged buyout wheeler-dealer who controls Siga Technologies. He has donated nearly $130,000 mostly to Democrats over the past two election cycles alone, and he forked over $50,000 to pay for the president's lavish inaugural parties. A Siga affiliate pitched in nearly half a million more in contributions -- 65 percent of which went to Democrats -- and the firms have spent millions on lobbying.
Perelman's pharma company makes an experimental antiviral pill used by smallpox patients who received diagnoses too late to be treated with the existing smallpox vaccine. Smallpox experts cast doubt on the need for the drug given ample vaccine stockpiles, the remoteness of a mass attack and questions about its efficacy. But over the objections of federal contract negotiators, competitors and scientists, the Obama administration approved a lucrative $433 million no-bid deal for Siga in May. No other manufacturers were able to compete for the "sole source" procurement, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The special arrangement was made after a competitor objected to the administration's violating small-business rules during a first call for bids. That's right: It's yet another rigged giveaway from a Hope-and-Change champion who vowed on the 2008 campaign trail to "end the abuse of no-bid contracts once and for all."
Intensifying the culture-of-corruption stench: the critical role of Andy Stern. He's the profligate, corruption-coddling former head of the powerful Service Employees International Union -- the 2.2 million-member public-employee union powerhouse that he left in April 2010 with a mountain of debt and eroding rank-and-file pensions.
After pouring some $60 million of workers' dues into Democratic coffers, Stern was rewarded by Obama with a cozy spot on the White House deficit panel and dozens of visits to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- including at least seven with the president, one with Vice President Joe Biden, and meetings with Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain, OMB Director Peter Orszag, health czar aide Jennifer Cannistra and Valerie Jarrett's former high-powered aide and Chicago fundraiser Tina Tchen.
In a classic access-buying maneuver, Siga placed Stern on its board of directors in June 2010. Four months later, Siga nabbed an estimated $3 billion contract. By January of this year, Siga's stock had skyrocketed. The House GOP has been investigating the deal for months, which comes amid separate allegations of insider trading and political profiteering by investigative journalist Peter Schweizer.
Stern and Perelman have been scratching each other's backs for years. In the fall of 2006, the SEIU backed off organizing protests against AlliedBarton, a security guard firm in Philadelphia owned by a Perelman interest -- and then remained quiet when the firm was bought out by a longtime SEIU nemesis, the Blackstone Group.
According to the L.A. Times, which exposed the scandal over the weekend, Obama's top biodefense bureaucrat Nicole Lurie railroaded a key dissenter at the Department of Health and Human Services who ridiculed Siga's inflated projected profit margins. Lurie soothingly reassured a whiny Siga executive that the "most senior procurement official" would take over and mollified him in a letter: "I trust this will be satisfactory to you."
Lurie falsely told the newspaper that she had never made contact with the official regarding the contract and deemed any such contact improper. When caught with documentation, her department spun the communication with Siga as a "national security" matter. Lurie, it should be noted, is a former Clintonite and Howard Dean health care consultant who was most recently in the headlines for pushing anthrax vaccine testing for children. According to the Labor Union Report, there have been market murmurs of a merger between Siga and the anthrax vaccine manufacturer, PharmAthene. Hard to trust Lurie's public health moral authority with the taint of pay-for-play wafting over the Siga deal.
As always, venture socialism backed by Big Labor muscle and White House wealth redistribution is hazardous to taxpayers' health.
Copyright 2011, Creators Syndicate Inc.
-
House GOP Lines Up for Eric Holder's Resignation Over Operation Fast and Furious
Human Events ^ | 11/15/2011 | Audrey Hudson
Numerous House Republicans are banding together and calling for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder, demanding that he take responsibility for the failed Operation Fast and Furious that allowed gun smuggling into Mexico and ended with the tragic death of a border patrol officer.
“Eric Holder should resign, fast and furiously,” Rep. Connie Mack of Florida said Tuesday during a press conference with a dozen other members of Congress who voiced their frustration with the Obama administration. To date, 40 Republicans have called for the nation’s top lawyer to step down.
Holder’s first appearance before a Senate panel last week to answer questions about when he was first made aware of the operation, which allowed weapons to be smuggled from the U.S. and sold to Mexican drug cartels, did not curtail the growing frustration of Republican lawmakers who are increasingly asking more detailed questions about what key officials knew and when they knew it.
“After reviewing Attorney General Holder’s conflicting testimonies, uncovered evidence and recently released documents on Fast and Furious, it is clear that he is either lying or grossly incompetent,” said Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho.
Added Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas: “There are two options: Either Mr. Holder is not telling the truth, or he is inept. In either case, he should resign.”
Republicans say Holder added insult to injury when he revealed at last week’s hearing that he has never apologized or offered his condolences to the family of slain agent Brian Terry. At least two of the guns used in the crime were traced back to the botched operation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department said a letter has been sent to the family, but did not reveal the subject of the letter. However, one Republican lawmaker revealed that Holder offered his sympathies but refused to take responsibility for the department’s role in the agent’s death.
“The American people deserve answers about this, but first and foremost, the Terry family deserves answers,” said Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee.
Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina said Holder is unable to speak honestly about the operation, and that his entire tenure has been marked by troubling decisions.
“It appears that under his watch, the lack of judgment at the Justice Department may have cost people their lives,” Jones said.
Congressional investigators say Justice Department officials allowed straw purchasers to buy 2,000 guns and walk them across the border without interference from law enforcement. The weapons have been linked to numerous crime scenes and hundreds of deaths in Mexico.
Republicans said it is not plausible that Holder was completely unaware of the operations, and some memos that have surfaced during the investigation suggest that the attorney general had been briefed on the matter.
Rep. Michael Grimm of New York said he found it also disturbing that U.S. Embassy officials in Mexico were never notified of the cross-border operation.
“Attorney General Holder has a repeated pattern of misleading members of Congress under oath, and Fast and Furious appears to be no exception. As a consequence, I believe he has lost all credibility with Congress and the American people, which is why I am calling for his resignation,” Grimm said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R.-Iowa) is leading the investigation in the Senate, and took advantage of a hearing Thursday in the Judiciary Committee on stricter gun control to question the lone Justice Department official about the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The official repeatedly declined to answer any questions, citing the ongoing Office of the Inspector General investigation, but Grassley pressed his case and announced he was expanding the oversight of his investigation to the State Department. Grassley said he has issued a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding documents he says outline a myth perpetuated by officials that most arms recovered from crime scenes in Mexico and Central and South America are coming from the U.S.
Although the Justice Department agency maintains that 70% of guns recovered south of the border can be traced to a U.S. gun dealer, Grassley said the agency provided his investigators with numbers that add up to 25% in 2009 and 37% in 2010.
“Either way, both are a far cry from 70%,” Grassley said.
“Not to mention," Grassley added, "that guns in 2009 and 2010 from gun dealers could include some of the nearly 2,000 firearms walked as part of the Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious."
-
Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s ‘Green’ Company Scored $1.4 Billion Taxpayer Bailout
by Wynton Hall
President John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert Kennedy, Jr., netted a $1.4 billion bailout for his company, BrightSource, through a loan guarantee issued by a former employee-turned Department of Energy official.
It’s just one more in a string of eye-opening revelations by investigative journalist and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer in his explosive new book, Throw Them All Out.
The details of how BrightSource managed to land its ten-figure taxpayer bailout have yet to emerge fully. However, one clue might be found in the person of Sanjay Wagle.
Wagle was one of the principals in Kennedy’s firm who raised money for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. When Obama won the White House, Wagle was installed at the Department of Energy (DOE), advising on energy grants.
From an objective vantage point, investing taxpayer monies in BrightSource was a risky proposition at the time. In 2010, BrightSource, whose largest shareholder is Kennedy’s VantagePoint Partners, was up to its eyes in $1.8 billion of debt obligations and had lost $71.6 million on its paltry $13.5 million of revenue.
Even before BrightSource rattled its tin cup in front of Obama’s DOE, the company made it known publicly that its survival hinged on successfully completing the Ivanpah Solar Electrical System, which would become the largest solar plant in the world, on federal lands in California.
In its Securities and Exchange Commission filings, BrightSource further underscored the risky nature of the Ivanpah venture and, more broadly, the company’s viability:
Our future success depends on our ability to construct Ivanpah, our first utility-scale solar thermal power project, in a cost-effective and timely manner… Our ability to complete Ivanpah and the planning, development and construction of all three phases are subject to significant risk and uncertainty.
Ironically, in 2008, Kennedy wrote a CNN article praising Obama as reminiscent of his famous father and uncle. The article, titled “Obama’s Energy Plan Would Create a Green Gold Rush,” proved prophetic. However, the “green gold rush” came in the form of $1.4 billion of taxpayers’ money flowing into the pet projects of rich venture capital investors like Kennedy, not average citizens.
What’s more, BrightSource touted the Ivanpah project as a green jobs creator. Yet as its own website reveals, the thermal solar plant will only create 1,400 jobs at its peak construction and 650 jobs annually thereafter. Even using the peak estimate of 1,400 jobs, that works out to a cost to taxpayers of $1 million per job created.
As Schweizer writes in Throw Them All Out, “A billion dollars in taxpayer money being sent to wealthy investors to bail them out of risky investments—does this sound familiar to anyone?”
http://biggovernment.com/whall/2011/11/16/robert-kennedy-jr-s-green-company-scored-1-4-billion-taxpayer-bailout
WTF!!!
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Solyndra: Energy Dept. pushed firm to keep layoffs quiet until after midterms
By Carol D. Leonnig and Joe Stephens, Published: November 15
www.washingtonpost.com
The Obama administration, which gave the solar company Solyndra a half-billion-dollar loan to help create jobs, asked the company to delay announcing it would lay off workers until after the hotly contested November 2010 midterm elections that imperiled Democratic control of Congress, newly released e-mails show.
The announcement could have been politically damaging because President Obama and others in the administration had held up Solyndra as a poster child of its clean-energy initiative, saying the company’s new factory, built with the help of stimulus money, could create 1,000 jobs. Six months before the midterm elections, Obama visited Solyndra’s California plant to praise its success, even though outside auditors had questioned whether the operation might collapse in debt.
As the contentious 2010 elections approached, Solyndra found itself foundering, and it warned the Energy Department that it would need an emergency cash infusion. A Solyndra investment adviser wrote in an Oct. 30, 2010, e-mail — without explaining the reason — that Energy Department officials were pushing “very hard” to delay making the layoffs public until the day after the elections.
The announcement ultimately was made on Nov. 3, 2010 — immediately following the Nov. 2 vote.
E-mails describing the events were released Tuesday as part of a House Energy and Commerce Committee memo, provided in advance of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s scheduled testimony before the committee’s investigative panel on Thursday. As a result of the 2010 elections, that committee is now controlled by Republicans, whose aggressive nine-month investigation into Solyndra has focused partly on whether politics played a role in the company’s selection to receive a federal loan.
Amid the fallout from the company’s shutdown in August, the White House has said tough scrutiny of the department’s oversight efforts is warranted and it has begun its own independent review of the loan program. Although the president has publicly supported Chu, senior White House officials in February circulated an outside adviser’s recommendation that Chu be replaced because of anticipated political controversy over the energy loans.
On Tuesday, Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera declined to confirm events described in the e-mails or to identify who at the department may have urged the delay in the layoff announcement. He stressed, however, that “decisions about this loan were made on the merits.” In an interview aired Tuesday on NPR, Chu said that politics did not enter into any decisions he or his staff made regarding Solyndra and that there was no way to foresee the company’s demise.
The White House declined to comment Tuesday on whether senior White House officials attempted to influence the timing of the layoff announcement. “These e-mails, again cherry-picked by House Republicans, reflect nothing more than the White House being given a heads-up about an upcoming press release from Solyndra,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.
The e-mail release came on the heels of more bad news for Chu. Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman released a report Tuesday calling for a far-reaching review of the agency’s operations. He wrote that the department spent $10 billion last year on its core laboratory operations, but more than a third went toward overhead and program support.
In late 2009, Chu attended a groundbreaking for the factory Solyndra built with its $535 million federal loan, and Vice President Biden spoke at the event by satellite.
But Solyndra chief executive Brian Harrison warned the agency in an Oct. 25, 2010, e-mail that he intended to announce layoffs in three days. He wrote that journalists and investors were asking about rumored layoffs and the possible closure of one of its two factories.
Five days later, an adviser to Solyndra’s primary investor, Argonaut Equity, explained in an internal e-mail that the Energy Department had strongly urged the company to delay the layoff announcement.
The Energy Department “continues to be cooperative” and committed to a November drawdown on the loan, the Solyndra adviser wrote. “They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd — oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”
Solyndra has become a rallying cry for Republicans who believe Obama used his clean-energy initiative to steer loans to campaign donors. Argonaut is a private equity firm for the family funds of George Kaiser, a Tulsa billionaire and Obama fundraising bundler. Kaiser has said he played no part in helping Solyndra win the loan. Even so, previously released e-mails have shown Kaiser strategized with his business associates about the best way to approach the White House to help Solyndra deal with its financial problems.
In the fall of 2010, Solyndra executives and investors warned the Energy Department that they needed emergency financing to keep the company operating past December.
In the Oct. 25 e-mail, Harrison warned the Energy Department’s loan staff that the story of Solyndra’s financial problems “is starting to leak outside Solyndra.”
He said he would “like to go forward with the internal communication [to employees regarding layoffs] on Thursday, October 28.”
Harrison’s e-mail was forwarded to the Energy Department’s loan program director, Jonathan Silver. Silver forwarded the e-mail to Chu’s chief of staff, who then alerted White House climate change czar Carol Browner and Ron Klain, Biden’s point person on stimulus efforts. Browner reportedly asked for more information, and Chu’s chief of staff explained that he had left a voice-mail message on her cellphone.
Browner’s spokesman, David DiMartino, said Tuesday that Browner doesn’t recall the voice-mail and did not advise the Energy Department on how to handle the timing of Solyndra’s layoff announcement.
On Nov. 3, 2010, Solyndra publicly announced that it would lay off 40 workers and 150 contractors and shut down its original factory. The department agreed to continue giving Solyndra loan installments despite its failure to meet key terms of the loan. In February, the agency restructured its loan to give Argonaut and other investors a chance to recover $75 million in new money they put into the company before taxpayers would be repaid.
Silver resigned from the agency last month.
________________________ ________________________ ____
Madoff is in prison why?
-
Emails: Energy Dept. tried to delay solar layoffs
Yahoo ^ | 11/16/11 | Matthew Daly - AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration wanted the failing solar energy company Solyndra to delay announcing an early round of employee layoffs until after the 2010 midterm elections, according to newly released emails.
An October 2010 email from a Solyndra investment adviser to a colleague said Energy Department officials were pushing "very hard" to delay making the layoffs — an early sign of the company's financial woes — public until Nov. 3, 2010 — the day after the midterm elections.
"Oddly they didn't give a reason for that date," the email states. The email was released Wednesday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with dozens of other emails related to the Solyndra investigation.
...
Solyndra announced dozens of layoffs on Nov. 3, 2010, after the election, but continued to receive federal assistance. The company, which received a $528 million federal loan in 2009, closed its doors on Aug. 31, 2011 and laid off its 1,100 workers.
The Oct. 30, 2010, email was from Steve Mitchell, managing director of Argonaut Private Equity, a major Solyndra investor, to George Kaiser, an Oklahoma billionaire who founded Argonaut and other firms. Kaiser was a "bundler" for President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and a frequent White House visitor in 2009 and 2010. Argonaut invested $400 million in the solar company. Mitchell also served on Solyndra's board of directors.
Ken Levit, executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, also received the email.
Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera on Tuesday declined to confirm events described in the emails or to identify who at the Energy department may have urged the delay in the layoff announcement. He said "decisions about this loan were made on the merits."
Energy Secretary Steven Chu is scheduled to testify before the House energy panel on Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Energy Secretary Steven Chu On Solyndra: Everything Was ‘Proper’
IBD's Capital Hill ^ | 11/16/2011 | Sean Higgins
On the eve of his appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss the Solyndra bankruptcy, the Energy Department has provided reporters with advance excerpts from Secretary Chu’s prepared statement. The remarks indicate that Chu will continue to defend the green energy loan guarantee program that gave the now-bankrupt solar panel company more than $527 million in taxpayer dollars.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.investors.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Solyndra Case Reveals Gateway Between Administration Loans, Obama Allies
Published November 16, 2011 | FoxNews.com
As the White House rejects charges that the Obama administration was motivated by politics in its decisions on green energy loans, scrutiny is increasing over the preference given to Democratic donors seeking federal loans.
Recent emails suggest that politics did play a role in administration decisions regarding its energy loan guarantee programs. But beyond the timing of political announcements, the Solyndra investigation has churned up questions about the White House's overall strategy of doling out taxpayer money.
The rolls of green energy subsidies show that beyond a few headline-grabbing cases, several well-connected Democrats obtained taxpayer assistance for environmentally friendly projects.
Among the recipients are:
-- Solyndra, which received $535 million in loan guarantees and whose chief investor was Obama campaign bundler, George Kaiser;
-- Brightsource Energy, which received $1.6 billion and whose senior adviser is Robert Kennedy, Jr., an early Obama backer;
-- Solar Reserve, which got a $737 million loan, and whose major investor, Michael Froman, was a deputy assistant to the president. Froman bundled up to $500,000 for the president's 2008 campaign;
-- Granite Reliable Wind Generation, which received a $168.9 million loan. The company's majority owner is Nancy Ann DeParle, a White House deputy chief of staff and former head of the president's health care communications team during the reform debate; and
-- Abound Solar, which received $400 million in grants. A key investor is billionaire heiress Pat Stryker, who gave $87,000 to Obama's inauguration committee, and hundreds of thousands more to Democratic causes.
Peter Schweizer, author of the book, "Throw Them All Out," wrote that at least 10 members of Obama's finance committee and more than a dozen of his campaign bundlers took money from administration loan programs.
Schweizer told Fox News that he believes that many of those who were chosen to receive loan guarantees, were picked almost solely for their success in raising money for the Obama campaign.
Obama used the alternative energy program as an opportunity to make his campaign contributors "even more wealthy than they are," he said.
"This is a payoff to people who are your political backers and supporters. And this is really a wealth transfer from middle class taxpayers to billionaires," Schweizer said, adding that about 75 percent of the loans and grants doled out by the federal government has gone to "Obama-connected companies" even though the acceptance rate in the program is less than 10 percent.
Nick Loris, an economic and energy policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said the problem lies with the government playing the role of venture capitalist.
"This is a problem of when the government becomes involved in economic decisions that are best left for the private sector. It reduces the incentive to lower costs and innovate," he said.
He added that the Energy Department had an enormous amount of power because it received so much of the 2009 stimulus money.
"The real question needs to be the merit of the loan guarantee program, why is the government picking winners and losers in the market place when there is a huge demand for electricity, there's huge demand for transportation fuels. That profit incentive (alone is enough) to drive new technologies into the market place ... and I think really the question needs to be why do we have this program in the first place," Loris said.
On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released emails about the loan to Solyndra, the failed solar energy company that has become the poster child for criticism over the loan program.
One of the emails -- dated Oct. 30, 2010, just days before the midterm election -- conveys how the Department of Energy wanted Argonaut Equity, the biggest investor in Solyndra, to hold off on news of pending layoffs until Nov. 3, the day after the election.
"DOE continues to be cooperative and have indicated that they will fund the November draw on our loan (app. $40 million) but have not committed to December yet," wrote one Solyndra investor adviser. "They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd -- oddly they didn't give a reason for that date."
The Energy Department and White House have steadfastly maintained that loan guarantees were made strictly on their merits.
"The Republican report cites internal email from Argonaut about the timing of a press release. But as the 180,000 pages of documents that the Department of Energy turned over to the committee indicate, the department's decisions about this loan were made on the merits, based on extensive review by the experts in the loan program -- and nothing in this Republican Committee memo changes that," said Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera.
However, the Government Accountability Office and the Energy Department's inspector general both issued critical reports in March on the department's loan program. According to the IG report, investigators found that loan guarantee program could not always readily demonstrate "how it resolved or mitigated relevant risks prior to granting" the loans. It noted that key documents were missing from three of 18 electronic files despite federal requirements for inclusion and included only limited data for 12 additional projects.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to testify Thursday on the program to the House Energy's oversight subcommittee. He told NPR this week that the loan guarantee program analysis improved under his watch.
"We did no cut corners. We made it more thorough and diligent," he told the public radio network, adding that the application process went through professionals and "outside people" who looked at he landscape and market conditions.
But that answer does not seem credible to House Republicans, including oversight subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., who issued a statement Wednesday saying that the committee wants to hear from Chu why "all the warnings, from inside and outside the Department of Energy, were ignored and this risky bet was allowed to happen."
Print Close
URL
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/16/solyndra-case-reveals-gateway-between-administration-loans-obama-allies/
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/16/solyndra-case-reveals-gateway-between-administration-loans-obama-allies/print#ixzz1duPM2M3c
-
Obama's energy crisis
Solyndra scandal and the Nov. 3 layoffs
The White House decision to back a California-based maker of advanced solar panels with a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009 looks seedier by the day. By all appearances, this deal and subsequent debacle had more to do with campaign cash and hoodwinking voters than it did with green energy.
Solyndra Inc. burned through its loans in just two years, filed for bankruptcy and threw its employees on the street.
Topics
Elections
Solyndra LLC
Companies and Corporations
See more topics »
XEnergy
Television
Job Layoffs
Layoffs and Downsizing
Unemployment
White House
Waste Management and Pollution Control
Energy Saving
Alternative Energy
Renewable Energy
Bankruptcy
George Kaiser
Lobbying
Democratic Party
Steven Chu
Joe Biden
Republican Party Ads by GoogleIf the story stopped there, it would be bad enough. But a trail of emails trickling out over recent months reveals much worse.
The emails suggest that the Obama administration put taxpayers on the hook for Solyndra without due diligence and then tried to hide the grim news about the company's impending failure right before the 2010 midterm election.
Just six months after Uncle Sam guaranteed the loan, the company was losing money so fast that its auditor voiced doubts about its ability to continue operations. Some White House staffers had questioned the wisdom of backing such a high-risk venture, but they were overruled.
The White House wanted to speed up Solyndra's government guarantee at least in part because Vice President Joe Biden planned to speak at the groundbreaking of a company factory. Obama later visited Solyndra facilities with TV cameras in tow to tout his renewable energy policies. That bit of stage management wound up costing taxpayers a fortune. Expect that TV footage to show up in 2012 campaign commercials — GOP commercials.
Investors with Republican and Democratic ties backed Solyndra, but a big Obama donor —Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser — may have played a pivotal role in securing the government financing. He discussed Solyndra with the White House as the company tried to get even more taxpayer backing and stave off collapse. Unable to secure a second government loan, Kaiser and fellow investors made a private loan — but they moved ahead of taxpayers in line for repayment when Solyndra defaulted. The administration said Kaiser never lobbied on behalf of the company. Emails contradict that claim.
This week, evidence surfaced at a congressional hearing that Energy Department officials pressed the company to delay a planned layoff until one day after the November 2010 midterm election. The obvious conclusion: the administration didn't want voters to know that the government's half-billion-dollar, signature green-energy investment was going belly up.
Voters gave Democrats a shellacking anyway on Nov. 2. Solyndra announced its layoffs on Nov. 3.
We have a feeling that Solyndra won't be the last federal energy investment to fall apart. At Solyndra's groundbreaking, Energy Secretary Steven Chu celebrated his agency's swift award of its loan guarantee and promised to make many similar deals with "unprecedented speed." Chu recently said he stands by those words.
No lessons learned? Good question to ask when Chu testifies before Congress on Thursday.
We don't object to the government providing incentives for renewable energy research and development. But it has to do that with great care — bureaucrats making decisions about where to put other people's money are not going to be the best venture capitalists. They have no skin in the game.
The private sector is much better than the government at commercializing technology. Green energy, and America's competitiveness in the green energy field, can be advanced with government support for research and even for early-stage projects that put science into operation. Keep in mind, as we discuss elsewhere on this page, that the nation desperately needs to curb its deficit spending.
If we're going to make these investments, they have to be done smartly, carefully — and they can't be based on politics.
From George Kaiser to the post-election layoffs, Solyndra is exploding on the Obama administration.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-solyndra-20111117,0,906162.story
-
Another Obama Scandal In the Making
Peter Schweizer disclosed this “green” boondoggle in his new book, Throw Them All Out. Big Government has the story.
It has to do with a “green energy” company called BrightSource Energy Inc., which develops solar energy products (or intends to someday, anyway). In 2010, BrightSource was in deep trouble. It was $1.8 billion in debt and was losing money hand over fist–a $71.6 million loss on a mere $13.5 million in revenue. A company destined to go down the drain, one would think. But no! The Obama administration bailed out BrightSource to the tune of a cool $1.4 billion in loan guarantees.
How could that possibly have happened? Well, start with the fact that the principal investor in BrightSource is VantagePoint Partners. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a Venture Partner in VantagePoint. But BrightSource had an even more valuable contact than that:
Sanjay Wagle…was one of the principals in Kennedy’s firm who raised money for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. When Obama won the White House, Wagle was installed at the Department of Energy (DOE), advising on energy grants.
Well, that was convenient! So BrightSource got its $1.4 billion. BrightSource isn’t out of business yet, but how promising was the Obama administration’s investment? Check out the registration statement for the company’s IPO. This is from the discussion of risk factors:
This offering involves a high degree of risk. … We have generated substantial net losses and negative operating cash flows since our inception and expect to continue to do so for the foreseeable future as part of the development and construction of solar thermal energy projects using our systems.
We have generated substantial net losses and negative cash flows from operating activities since we commenced operations. We have incurred losses of approximately $204.1 million from our inception through March 31, 2011. For the year ended December 31, 2010 and three months ended March 31, 2011, we incurred a net loss of $71.6 million and $26.8 million, respectively, and our operating activities used cash of $64.1 million and $28.8 million, respectively.
We expect that our net losses and our negative operating cash flows will continue for the foreseeable future, as we increase our development activities and construct solar thermal energy projects. …
Our proprietary technology has a limited history and may perform below expectations when implemented on utility-scale projects.
We use proprietary technology that has not been previously implemented on utility-scale projects of the size and complexity of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, or Ivanpah, and Ivanpah may experience technological problems that neither we nor any of the third-party independent engineers that have reviewed our projects are able to foresee. The systems that we will implement on utility-scale projects include a solar field with heliostats controlled by advanced software systems that concentrate sunlight onto a receiver to produce high-temperature steam. If the implementation of our proprietary technology is unsuccessful, it could negatively impact the successful operation of projects using our systems and may result in additional payments, deductions or defaults under key project documents, including our PPAs or other financing arrangements.
Ivanpah is being primarily financed by a U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE, guaranteed loan facility, which requires the project companies to remain in compliance with numerous financial, construction and operational covenants to draw funds under the loan facility, compliance with which are within the control of NRG Solar, the majority equity owner and operator of Ivanpah….
Furthermore, adoption of our systems for use in solar-to-steam applications, such as thermal EOR, depends on successful implementation of the 29 MWth EOR project for Chevron in Coalinga, California that is expected to begin operations in the second half of 2011. We have recently experienced significant cost overruns related to the project. If the Coalinga Solar-to-Steam for EOR project does not meet expectations, our ability to sell additional thermal EOR systems may be negatively impacted.
How on Earth does a company like this survive for 15 minutes? Crony capitalism. This risk disclosure conveys a sense of how deep the rot runs:
We depend heavily on government policies that support renewable energy and enhance the economic feasibility of developing solar energy projects. Renewable energy sources currently benefit from various federal, state and local governmental incentives such as investment tax credits, or ITCs, cash grants in lieu of ITCs, loan guarantees, renewables portfolio standard programs, or RPS programs, modified accelerated cost-recovery system of depreciation and bonus depreciation. For example, the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, provides an ITC of 30% of the cost-basis of an eligible resource, including solar thermal energy projects placed in service prior to the end of 2016. Additionally, many states have adopted RPS programs mandating that a specified percentage of electricity sales come from eligible sources of renewable energy.
Companies like BrightSource can survive only as long as governments continue to pursue foolish “green energy” policies. If the voters ever wise up, they are finished:
However, the regulations that govern the RPS programs, including pricing incentives for renewable energy, or reasonableness guidelines for pricing that increase valuation above conventional power (such as a projected value for carbon reduction), may change. If the RPS requirements are reduced or eliminated, we could sustain fewer future power contracts or receive lower prices for the sale of power in future power contracts, which could have a material adverse effect on us and our project development plans. Such material adverse effects may result from decreased revenues, reduced economic returns on certain project company investments, increased financing costs, and/or difficulty obtaining financing. Furthermore, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, included over $80 billion in incentives to encourage investment in the renewable energy sector, such as cash grants in lieu of ITCs, bonus depreciation and expansion of the DOE loan guarantee program. Although the ARRA expanded the DOE loan guarantee program, this program faces challenges and may not continue past the projects already financed such as Ivanpah. In addition, the cash grant in lieu of ITCs program only applies to projects that commence construction prior to December 31, 2011.
Notice how the stimulus act makes an appearance. BrightSource isn’t a scandal like Solyndra yet, but give it time.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/11/another-obama-scandal-in-the-making.php
-
Energy Secretary Refuses to Apologize for Losing a Half-Billion Taxpayer Dollars
Fire it up
REP. UPTON: Last question, though my time is expired. Based on what you know and what’s happened, who is to apologize for the half a billion dollars that has been out the door?
SEC'Y CHU: Well, it’s extremely unfortunate what has happened with Solyndra. If you look back and look at the time, the decisions being made, was there incompetence, was there any influence of a political nature? And I would have to say no.
UPTON: So no apology?
CHU: Well it is extremely unfortunate what has happened to Solyndra, and I think you and I both feel the same, but when the bottom of a market falls out and the price of solar decreases by 70 percent in 2.5 years, that was totally unexpected. Not only by us but by, if you look at the range of predictions that were being made by financial analysis from the last quarter of 2008, 2009 the average, there are some outliers, but the average of those were not expecting these prices to plummet. And so, fundamentally, this company, and several others, got caught in a very bad tsunami if you will.
-
Steven Chu wishes for time machine on Solyndra
'Certainly knowing what I know now, we’d say no,' Steven Chu said. | Reuters
By DARREN SAMUELSOHN | 11/17/11 12:08 PM EST
If he had to do it over again, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Thursday that he wouldn’t give Solyndra a $535 million loan guarantee.
“Certainly knowing what I know now, we’d say no,” Chu said during a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. “But you don’t make decisions [by] fast-forwarding two years in the future and then go back. I wish I could do that.”
Continue Reading Text Size
-+reset Listen
Chu was responding to Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.), who had asked, “Knowing what you know today, would you approve that loan?”
Earlier, Chu declined to apologize for the failure of the California solar company.
“Based on what you know and what’s happened, who has to apologize” for Solyndra? Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) asked Chu.
“It is extremely unfortunate what has happened to Solyndra,” Chu replied, adding, “Was there incompetence? Was there any undue influence? I’d have to say no.”
“So no apology?” Upton followed up.
“It’s extremely unfortunate what has happened to Solyndra. You and I both feel the same,” Chu said, adding that the price drops for solar panels caught DOE and others off guard. “This company and several others got caught in a very, very bad tsunami,” he said.
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 12:00 p.m. on November 17, 2011.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68595.html#ixzz1dzL3djEx
-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://biggovernment.com/whall/2011/11/16/80-of-green-energy-loans-went-to-obamas-top-donors
80% of ‘Green Energy’ Loans Went to Top Obama Donors
by Wynton Hall
With Energy Secretary Steven Chu set to testify Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the government’s $573 million loan to failed solar panel maker Solyndra, an explosive new list of energy loan amounts to President Obama’s top fundraisers, bundlers, and supporters has been released by Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer, author of Throw Them All Out.
As the list reveals, 80 percent of all $20.5 billion in Department of Energy loans went to President Obama’s top donors. Furthermore, some of those dwarf in size those given to Obama bundler George Kaiser, owner of the now defunct Solyndra.
The list—which features the likes of Google owners Larry Page and Sergey Brinn, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ted Turner, John Doerr, and Al Gore—raises new questions about the procedures used to administer the now-controversial DOE loans.
Obama Bundlers_ Large Donors_ and Supporters fixed pdf
Schweizer’s list stands in sharp contrast to President Obama’s promise that the allocation of all federal “stimulus” monies would be nonpartisan and fair: “Let me repeat that: Decisions about how Recovery money will be spent will be based on the merits. They will not be made as a way of doing favors for lobbyists,” Obama said in 2009.
But as Schweizer’s charges in his book, Throw Them All Out, [link] the Obama Administration may be guilty of “the greatest—and most expensive—example of crony capitalism in American history.”
________________________ ____________
Larry Summers got $115 Million Dollar loan!
-
Capitol Cronyism: Obama-Backer Buffett Helped Shape Bailout Rules, Made Massive Profits from Them
Big Government ^ | November 15, 2011 | Wynton Hall
Posted on November 17, 2011 6:56:38 PM EST by opentalk
In the wake of the $700 billion TARP bailout, Warren Buffett apparently shaped a plan to clean up toxic assets that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner later adopted–resulting in massive profits for Buffett.
That’s the latest bombshell revelation from investigative journalist and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer’s sensational new book, Throw Them All Out.
According to Schweizer, after the bailout bill’s passage, Warren Buffett sat down and wrote then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a four-page private letter laying out a plan to clean up the toxic assets plaguing numerous financial institutions. Buffett proposed something he called a “public-private partnership fund.” For every $10 billion the private sector invested, Buffett said the government should put up $40 billion.
After Paulson’s exit, incoming Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner tweaked the plan and rolled it out in March 2009. But according to quarterly reports from Buffett’s holdings company, Berkshire Hathaway, between the time the billionaire crafted his plan and Geithner adopted it, Buffett quietly purchased 12.4 million shares of Wells Fargo stock and 1.5 million shares of U.S. Bancorp. Once the government unveiled its “Public-Private Investment Program,” bank stocks jumped, resulting in large profits for Buffett.
How much Buffett profited is hard to calculate,... But prior to the government adopting Buffett’s plan, Wells Fargo had been trading at roughly $20 a share. In the weeks after Geithner’s announcement, the stock jumped to $30 a share. Likewise, U.S. Bancorp went from $8 in February 2009 to more than $20 a share by May. ”
..When the TARP bailout passed, Berkshire Hathaway firms received a staggering $95 billion in bailout cash from U.S. taxpayers. In total, TARP-assisted companies made up almost a third (30%) of Buffett’s entire publicly disclosed stock portfolio. The payoff: by July 2009, Buffett’s Goldman bet and his congressional jawboning had yielded profits as high as $3.7 billion
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
-
SHOCK CLAIM: Energy Dept. Kickbacks Make Obama America’s Biggest Crony Capitalist… Ever
by Wynton Hall
At least ten members of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign finance committee, plus more than a dozen of his campaign bundlers, benefited from sweetheart loans through the Department of Energy (DOE) that collectively dwarfed those given to Solyndra and Fisker.
Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer, who is also a Breitbart editor, reveals the full extent of the DOE scandal in his explosive new book, Throw Them All Out. The book is featured in this week’s Newsweek, and was the subject of 60 Minutes this past Sunday, Nov. 13.
Schweizer’s research reveals that of the $20.5 billion in the DOE’s 1705 Loan Guarantee Program, $16.4 billion in taxpayer money–roughly 80% of all loans in the program–went to green enterprises “either run by or heavily owned by Obama financial backers–individuals who were either bundlers, members of Obama’s national finance committee or large donors to the Democratic Party.”
In 2009, President Obama had promised that the allocation of all federal stimulus monies would be nonpartisan, ethical, and fair. “Let me repeat that: Decisions about how Recovery money will be spent will be based on the merits. They will not be made as a way of doing favors for lobbyists,” Obama said.
However, Schweizer alleges, the Obama administration may be guilty of “the greatest–and most expensive–example of crony capitalism in American history.”
The details of how the DOE loan scheme was apparently conducted are almost as shocking as the billions bagged by Obama’s backers.
Instead of appointing a team of scientists or engineers to direct the DOE’s loan program office, Schweizer contends, the Obama administration placed some of the president’s biggest fundraisers in control. For example, Steve Spinner, who served on the Obama campaign’s National Finance Committee and was himself a top bundler, was tapped as the “chief strategic operations officer” for the DOE’s loan programs. Spinner was joined at DOE by another Obama fundraiser, Sanjay Wagle, and by Democrat donor Jonathan Silver, who would serve as executive director of the program.
With the scientists and engineers effectively out of the way, and the President’s top backers at the levers of the DOE’s loan program, the Obama administration was able to funnel billions of taxpayer dollars back to green energy companies associated with the President’s political and financial patrons.
For members of Obama’s national finance committee, the returns on investing in Obama’s 2008 campaign were incredibly lucrative, according to Schweizer. For every dollar committee members raised, they received $24,783 in return in the form of DOE sweetheart loans, on average.
Other top winners in the Obama campaign donor giveaway included several familiar billionaires. For example, a company indirectly owned in part by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the founders of Google (Sergei Brin and Larry Page) landed a loan almost three times as large as the Solyndra loan, at $1.4 billion. And Ted Turner and Paul Tudor Jones snagged a jaw-dropping $4.7 billion loan for their green company, First Solar–a sum almost nine times as big as the controversial loan given to Fisker Automotive.
The Government Accountability Office red-flagged this apparent–and historic–pattern of crony capitalism in its March 2011 report, which found that the DOE’s loan and grant programs had doled out federal monies through a process that appeared “arbitrary,” lacked proper documentation, and that “had treated applicants inconsistently in the application review process, favoring some applicants and disadvantaging others.”
In Throw Them All Out, Schweizer writes that untangling and uncovering every instance of Obama’s crony capitalism would “take a large team of investigative reporters.” Moreover, according to Schweizer, despite the fact that some successful companies were among the beneficiaries, the DOE loans and grants appear to have failed to create any significant short-term job gains.
“The true short-term effect of this money,” Schweizer concludes, “has been to enrich cronies of the party in power.”
http://biggovernment.com/whall/2011/11/17/shock-claim-energy-dept-kickbacks-make-obama-americas-biggest-crony-capitalist-ever
-
Grassley going for Eric Holder’s jugular(gunwalker)
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 17 November, 2011 | Dave Workman
Republican Senator Charles Grassley is closing in on Attorney General Eric Holder in earnest, dissecting his testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a pair of commentaries published today and yesterday on his website, and they are damning.
Probably not surprising, since Grassley made it clear in his opening statement to the Judiciary committee last week that he believes the Justice Department has been less than truthful about who knew what and when they knew it. This column detailed his remarks at the time.
Yesterday, the Iowa senator zeroed in on Holder’s claim that Congress had voted to “keep law enforcement in the dark” about suspicious firearms purchases by private citizens, and today he challenges another Holder assertion that he was not quickly advised by Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler about details revolving around the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Earlier this week, Grassley ripped Holder and his subordinates over other details in the Fast and Furious debacle, as this column reported. He also blistered the attorney general on Mexican gun trace assertions, as this column noted. The senator has been a busy fellow
Of particular interest to Grassley is the timing of the arrest of suspected Operation Fast and Furious straw purchaser Jaime Avila, who bought two of the guns found at the Terry murder scene. Avila was a suspect for months in the gun trafficking investigation, but it was only after Terry was killed that he was arrested. Here’s Grassley’s take:
Jaime Avila could have been arrested for straw purchasing any time between January 2010 and Agent Terry’s death on December 15, 2010.—Senator Charles Grassley
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Beacon Power follows Solyndra into bankruptcy
HotAir ^ | November 18,2011 | ED MORRISSEY
At the end of last month, I wrote about Beacon Power, a solar-tech company that received over a hundred million dollars in taxpayer-backed credit but who teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. Yesterday, Beacon tipped over, filing for protection from its creditors — and potentially taking $43 million in taxpayer dollars with it:
Beacon Power, a Massachusetts-based company that won praise from renewable power activists and loan guarantees from the federal government, has filed for bankruptcy, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for $43 million.
The company, which promised to build storage devices for intermittent power produced by wind and solar power facilities, was never able to attract investors. Coming on the heels of the Solyndra bankruptcy and ensuing scandal, the Beacon Power bankruptcy has a growing number of people calling for an end to federal loan guarantees for risky alternative energy start-ups.
According to published reports, Beacon’s shares traded for $47 in 2005 but fell to $3.44 in February 2011 and less than $1 a few months later. The company was cautioned by Nasdaq it was in danger of losing its listing. In late October, the price per share fell to just under 11 cents, leaving the company with a market value of $3 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
-
Obama's energy crisis
Chicago Tribune ^ | November 17, 2011 | Chicago Tribune
The White House decision to back a California-based maker of advanced solar panels with a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009 looks seedier by the day. By all appearances, this deal and subsequent debacle had more to do with campaign cash and hoodwinking voters than it did with green energy.
Solyndra Inc. burned through its loans in just two years, filed for bankruptcy and threw its employees on the street.
If the story stopped there, it would be bad enough. But a trail of emails trickling out over recent months reveals much worse.
The emails suggest that the Obama administration put taxpayers on the hook for Solyndra without due diligence and then tried to hide the grim news about the company's impending failure right before the 2010 midterm election.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
51 congressmen to Eric Holder: You must resign immediately
The Daily Caller ^ | 11/18/2011 | Matthew Boyle
Posted on November 19, 2011 12:09:11 AM EST by neverdem
The surge in congressional calls for Attorney General Eric Holder’s immediate resignation has reached a new milestone: More than 50 members of Congress are now demanding Holder step down in the wake of Operation Fast and Furious.
The number of congressmen calling for Holder’s immediate resignation is now 51. New additions to that list include Republican Reps. Todd Akin and Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri, Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, Steven Palazzo of Mississippi and Jeff Duncan of South Carolina.
Rep. Westmoreland said Operation Fast and Furious was a disgrace to the American people and that Holder needs to resign immediately.
“Fast and Furious played fast and loose with the American public’s safety, leaving a U.S. Border patrol agent dead and DOJ-purchased guns in the hands of Mexican drug lords,” Westmoreland told The Daily Caller. “To say this program was a failure and an embarrassment to the U.S. justice system is an understatement.”
“No matter how many times the attorney general’s statement of when he was aware of Operation Fast and Furious changes — and it has changed almost daily — at the end of the day, he is the head of the Department of Justice and the buck stops with him,” said Westmoreland.
“It’s time for Mr. Holder to hold himself accountable,” he added.
On Thursday morning there were 46 congressmen demanding Holder’s resignation. Holder is currently on a taxpayer-subsidized junket in the Caribbean with his spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler, who has repeatedly declined to answer questions about the increasing congressional disapproval of Holder’s job performance.
Akin and Luetkemeyer had not previously called for Holder’s immediate resignation, but cast doubts on the truthfulness of the attorney general’s testimony before Congress. (THE DAILY CALLER: Complete Operation Fast and Furious coverage)
“Given Mr. Holder’s inconsistencies and general lack of compelling testimony before the Judiciary Committee on such a serious matter as the ‘fast and furious’ gun walking debacle, his resignation would go a long way to restoring credibility to the office he now holds,” Akin told TheDC.
The recent surge in calls for Holder’s resignation can be attributed to two factors. First, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, the third congressman to demand Holder step down, hosted a press conference on Tuesday to amplify calls for Holder’s resignation. Second, Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois is currently circulating a letter on Capitol Hill asking for Holder to resign or for Obama to fire him.
The Walsh letter, addressed to Obama, urges him to “hold attorney general Eric Holder accountable for Operation Fast and Furious” and “ask for his immediate resignation.”
The new congressmen demanding Holder step down now are also signatories to Walsh’s letter — which currently has 39 co-signers.
The White House and the Justice Department remain silent as pressure for Holder’s immediate resignation builds, which may be a sign that the Obama administration is prepared to force Holder out if it is politically necessary.
-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/steven-chus-solyndra-testimony/2011/11/17/gIQAvIRkVN_blog.html
Lying rat thief.
-
SSI Exclusive: ATF & the Washington Post conspired to violate the Tiarht Amendment.(gunwalker)
Sipsey Street Irregulars ^ | 18 November, 2011 | Mike Vanderboegh
________________________ _______________________
"Hey, baby, let's go to Mexico."
On Monday, 13 December 2010, the Washington Post ran a story by Sari Horwitz and James V. Grimaldi entitled "U.S. gun dealers with the most firearms traced over the past four years." It began:
A decade ago, politicians and the press routinely reported on gun stores across the nation that had the most traces for firearms recovered by police. In 2003, under pressure from the gun lobby, Congress passed a law that hid from public view the government database that contained the gun tracing information.
The Washington Post has obtained the names of the gun dealers nationwide with the most traces over the past four years. In addition, The Post has uncovered the names of the dealers, all from border states, with the most traces from guns recovered in Mexico over the past two years.
In these paragraphs, Grimaldi and Horwitz admit up front that their sources have violated federal law, called the Tiahrt Amendment. We now know who at least one of those federal sources that the Washington Post used for that story was -- William "Gunwalker Bill" Newell, Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division.
In a recording of a telephone conversation obtained by Sipsey Street Irregulars, Newell, who refers to himself as "the big dog" in Phoenix is overheard talking to a Federal Firearms Licensee, Mike Detty, owner of Mad Dawg Global Marketing and a confidential informant for the Tuscon ATF office, about a variety of subjects, including the Washington Post story and Operation Wide Receiver, in which Detty played an integral part.
Although the audio file of the conversation is not dated, comparing internal evidence in the conversation with the references to the Washington Post article, it likely took place on 13 or 14 December 2010. Some relevant excerpts:
Detty: I got a call from Sari Horwitz at the Washington Post.
Newell: Oh, yeah, I saw that article.
Detty: And she wanted my comments and one of the things that she said to me, she said . . . I said, 'You know Sari I don't feel comfortable talking to you at least until I talk to somebody at ATF and see what, kinda, what they want me to do. Chances are that they won't want me to comment at all.' And she said, 'well we've already talked to, uh, ATF in Phoenix,' and I said, 'Well, who did you talk to?' and she said 'Well, we talked to the SAC Bill Newell there, and he told us that you're the one that made contact and that you've been cooperating with ATF. . .'
Newell: No. She's . . . she's . . . she's . . . she's playing the old . . . she's a typical reporter playing the old, uh . . . the old, uh, you know, dropping names, um, no, yeah, he did come to talk to us and what they did is what they did for that story . . . I saw that story today and what they did is that they pull court records, and, you know, there's nothing we can do for them, especially in Arizona and places like Arizona they have open court records and in the federal system once the court records are, you know, once the federal and state court records are filed . . . you know they spent a year doing that story, they go out and they look at all the different court records. I'm sorry she called you, it . . . it . . . it's never my intention for her to call anybody.
Detty: No, no, no, it's just that it . . . it took me off guard and for her to say, 'Well, yeah, you know he told us that you were cooperating' and, and, uh . . .
Newell: No, that's wrong. She's . . . you know, she . . . what, what I said and what she was referring to is she (unintelligible) people from headquarters (unintelligible) and what I said was 99 percent of our gun dealers in the United States cooperate with us . . . she . . . she tried to do the same thing with me. She talked to several SACs on the border. It's typical with the reporters, they'll do this. They'll try to say, 'Well, aren't the gun dealers responsible?' I said, 'listen, if a gun dealer knowingly allows certain things to occur without any ATF oversight, yeah." I said 'but 99 percent of our gun dealers are cooperative. They call us, when, you know, there is something illegal going on or about to go on.' And I said, 'without that assistance, you know, we couldn't make the cases we make for the most part. So that's what she's referring to. I would never, never . . . I mean, this is the first time in 22 years I ever gotten a call like this. You know, she obviously played, she obviously played that very well, which I'm sorry that she did because that was not the . . . you have no obligation to talk to her at all. If a reporter ever calls you, you're under no obligation to talk to her at all.
Detty: Well, again, you know she made it sound like, you know this was being talked about and, 'oh yeah, they won't have a problem with it because I talked to this guy,' and, and I left it at that, and what I told was, I said 'Look, you know, um, whether these guys think I set 'em up or not, um, or whether I'm a greedy gun dealer that doesn't care about what guns are going south,' I said, 'either way you print that, I'm the loser,' and I said, 'Don't attach my name to anything, and don't, um, don't quote me on anything, um. 'cause it'll come back to you.' So today, happily, I was glad to see that my name, even my corporate name, was not mentioned in her article. . .
Newell blaming "court records" for disclosure of Detty's involvement in straw man sales was a red herring. In the Grimaldi-Horwitz story there are only four mentions of court records. Indeed, the bulk of the story involves lists of supposed "bad guy" gun dealers derived from the illegally-leaked trace data -- which could only have come from the ATF -- and their reactions to being listed on the Washington Post's illegal list.
One of them was Carter's Country in Houston, who immediately hired Dick DeGuerin to defend them against the slander. Another was Lone Wolf Trading Company:
Lone Wolf Trading Co. in Glendale, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, is ranked eighth on the list with about 1,515 firearms traced. Lone Wolf sits in a strip mall, next to Spa Tahiti. Inside, model airplanes hang from the ceiling and the heads of animals adorn the walls. A sign behind the cash register advertised AK-47s for $499.
Lone Wolf has jumped from No. 61 on the 2004 list.
Last year, 12 people were indicted on charges of making false statements in order to buy 17 AK-47-type rifles headed to Mexico. The guns were purchased from seven stores, including Lone Wolf.
Owner Andre Howard could not be reached for comment. ATF officials said they have no indication that Lone Wolf is doing anything wrong or illegal.
Of course not. They're hardly likely to draw attention to their principle source for Fast and Furious weapons going to the Mexican cartels.
Other sources who were interviewed by the Washington Post tell Sipsey Street that they were told by Horwitz and Grimaldi that the ATF headquarters was cooperating with the story. It is not against the law to publish a leak from ATF about trace data. It IS a federal crime for ATF personnel to leak trace data to a media outlet. Obviously the political interests of ATF headquarters and the Department of Justice coincided with the Washington Post's agenda in doing the story based on illegally-leaked data.
In the conversation Newell evinces a great deal of knowledge about the story and indicates that ATF headquarters was on the line when he he talked to Horwitz. It would be interesting to me to subject this tape to voice stress analysis and find out where and about what Newell is lying. Where he begins to stammer is a clue.
Newell: I'm sorry that that reporter called you because she called several people and, you know, there's like four or five reporters that worked on this thing including a reporter in Mexico and they went out and they talked to a hundred people (unintelligible) they talked to a ton of people, they went through court records left and right and you're not the only gun dealer that they called and I said, 'listen,' I said, "I can't stop them from calling' and I said, I told another guy, I said, "You're under no obligation to say anything to these people.' I mean, if they want, if they start say 'no comment' and hang up the phone, I mean, you know, you're under no obligation. If you want to make a comment, then, hey, make a comment, knock yourself out. But if you notice in that story it says . . . she talked to me on the phone for about an hour hour which was a three way call to one in our headquarters and I . . . over and over again I said to all these reporters, I said, 'Listen, most of our great information on firearms trafficking comes from cooperative dealers who don't want a bad name associated with then and that's why we work with the NSSF who do all these campaigns' and so I said, "So, yeah, there are bad dealers. . . there's bad everything. We have bad ATF agents who get caught up doing things they shouldn't do and it happens. It's human nature. . .'
Detty: Uh, huh.
Newell: And I said ninety nine percent of our dealers are cooperative people who give us information and really are under no obligation to do so, but we appreciate when they do.' And of course, I don't know . . . there's some of that in there but of course they kinda leave that stuff off to the side because that doesn't . . . that's not juicy, you know?
Detty: Yeah.
Newell: But, um, I . . .
Detty: And to be honest with you I'd love for them to know the full story because, um, I'm not a bad guy and I've really gone out of my way to, to help you guys . . . I mean I've brought you some good cases, and as a result there's a whole bunch . . . I think probably right now, not counting anything from Wide Receiver, over twenty people in prison right now that deserve to be there. Um, and I would love for that story to be told, and there's just no good way to do that without putting me at risk. . .
Toward the end of the conversation, Detty gets around to asking about why Wide Receiver hasn't produced any prosecutions:
Detty: "You know, I was just curious with, uh, with Wide Receiver, you know, three years ago, I think, the U.S. Attorney here told me they were planning on arresting something like forty people and its my understanding, I think it was, November 10th or November 9th, they made six arrests here in Tucson.
Newell: Right.
Detty: But I haven't seen. . . I check the website daily and I haven't seen a press release regarding that. Is there a reason that you're waiting on that or hoping to make more arrests?
Newell: Yeah, there'll be . . . uh, we're waiting. There's some other stuff going on, uh, that's part of that, and so it'll be a wait, it'll be a bit here. Probably another month or so.
Detty: I was just curious because I, well, I mean, all the time and effort and man hours that went into that one case and I think we had at least two or three air surveillances from my house and there was the 48-hour surveillance all the way out to the border and the 50 .38 Supers and (unintelligible) and all that nonsense . . .
Newell: Right.
Detty: That uh . . .
Newell: Right.
Detty: That would be a case that you would be able to stand up and hold up the headline and say 'look what we did' . . .
Newell: Right. Exactly. Exactly. And, and we plan on doing that, its just the matter that right now there's another thing going on that, if we did that right now we'd would mess that other deal up, so . . .
Detty: Gotcha. Okay.
"There's another thing going on."
We now know that the other thing was Fast and Furious.
And shortly after this phone conversation -- within hours maybe, within days certainly -- Brian Terry encountered the muzzle end of a Fast and Furious Kalashnikov in Peck Canyon.
Addendum: Just before I put this article up this morning, I received this comment from Mike Detty:
I looked at your draft this morning and it is 100% accurate.
I am convinced that Sari Horwitz was accurate when she said that Bill Newell gave her my name as someone who was cooperating with ATF on Wide Receiver. To my knowledge, at this time, there was no other way she could have found my name in association with this case unless she got it from Newell or another ATF agent. It really didn't surprise me since I was exposed as the CI on every other case I worked for ATF.
I first heard of Fast & Furious back in spring of 2010 - though its code name was not mentioned. A field agent told me, "I have no idea on why they are letting so many guns go to Mexico or what they are hoping to do with the information but it makes your case look like small fry," he said referring to the 450 guns that were allowed to walk over the border in Wide Receiver.
Addendum: Some folks are having technical problems accessing the audio file of the entire conversation posted at David's site. When we get those worked out, I will post a notice here and independently so you will be able to verify the transcript.
Finally, I think it is important to note for the record that I did not get the tape from Mike Detty, nor from his attorney, nor from any of his friends. I would, however, like to take this opportunity to thank the Dogtown Rangers, Wiredog Platoon, Communications Intercept Section, SSGT Ralph Aloysius Bear, commanding. (Ralph is Ramsey's first cousin on his daddy's side.) ;-)
Mike Vanderboegh
-
Email Print 0Comments Share
November 20, 2011
The Absent-Minded Energy Secretary
By Debra Saunders
President Barack Obama likes to brag that his energy secretary, Steven Chu, won a Nobel Prize in physics. You would think that means that Chu is a brainiac who makes shrewd decisions and is extremely aware of whatever is happening around him. But as his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on Thursday revealed, there's a world of information that escapes Chu's notice.
The subcommittee is investigating Chu's decision to make Fremont, Calif., solar power company Solyndra the first recipient of a federal energy program loan in September 2009. Two years and $528 million later, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy, and it looks as if taxpayers will not see a dime of it. The Nobel Prize winner's pet pick was a bust.
Thursday was supposed to be Chu's moment to take responsibility for this high-profile bad "bet" -- as Obama once put it. Chu did say, "The final decisions on Solyndra were mine." Yet by the end of the hearing, Chu was using the passive voice and putting the onus on other people. As he looked back at the whole thing, Chu said that "competent decisions were made by the people in the loan program," that green energy is important and that everyone knew "there were risks."
If the White House was pushing for the Solyndra deal because Obama campaign contribution bundler and frequent White House visitor George Kaiser owned an equity firm that backed Solyndra, it was news to Chu. Ditto on communications between Solyndra backers and top White House operatives. Who knew?
The Nobel laureate was "not aware" of staffers' predictions that Solyndra would go broke, even run out of cash in September 2011.
In September 2009, Chu approved the Solyndra loan. He clearly missed the Office of Management and Budget staff's recommendation that the deal be "notched down" in light of "the weakening world market prices for solar generally." When he showed up at Solyndra's groundbreaking, Chu announced, "If you build a better solar panel, the world will beat a path to your door."
As Rick Perry would say, "oops."
In March 2010, PricewaterhouseCoopers warned that Solyndra's recurring losses and negative cash flows raised "substantial doubt about (its) ability to continue as a going concern."
And still, Chu was a booster. In May 2010, Obama appeared at a Solyndra event, chatting up Chu's Nobel history and proclaiming, "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra."
A month later, Solyndra canceled a planned $300 million public offering.
This might be a good place to mention that shortly after winning its first loan guarantee, Solyndra applied for a second, this one for $400 million. To its credit, the administration did not approve the loan.
By October, CEO Brian Harrison had informed the Energy Department that the company was about to lay off workers. According to an email from Kaiser's investment fund, "the DOE ... requested a delay until after the election (without mentioning the election)."
Voilà. Solyndra announced it would shutter one of its plants and lay off 40 workers Nov. 3, the day after the election. Chu testified he would not have approved such a political request.
Now Chu admits he approved a deal that allowed investors to put $75 million into Solyndra in order to give the company a chance to survive. He acknowledged that the second deal included a sweetener that put investors ahead of taxpayers in the payback line that follows bankruptcy.
Sadly, when that expensive (for taxpayers) gambit failed, Solyndra laid off 1,000 workers.
Chu rejected the notion that incompetence and politics may have been factors in this half-billion-dollar blunder. "It's extremely unfortunate what happened," said Chu, "but the bottom fell out of the market; it was totally unexpected."
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., came to Chu's defense. "We have lost the money," he announced. "It's unfortunate, but there's no scandal there."
No scandal? In February 2009, former Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet was so sure he'd get the loan that he set 10 conditions for the administration to meet to help him raise another $147 million. No. 9: "Fundraising support after conditional commitment: Steven Chu visits Solyndra with press interviews (target by end of March)."
Just who worked for whom?
dsaunders@sfchronicle.com
Copyright 2011, Creators Syndicate Inc.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Fast and Furious 'scandal' is a Republican red herring: What we really need are tougher gun laws
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ^ | November 18 2011 | Carolyn Maloney
Posted on November 20, 2011 8:12:46 PM EST by neverdem
Eric Holder is being blamed for a program that is not his creation
Miller Elisa/Elisa Miller for News
Republicans are roasting AG Eric Holder over an ATF program that precedes him by several years.
Operation Fast and Furious, the attempt to stop gun trafficking into Mexico gone horribly wrong, is now providing political fodder for a Washington game of “gotcha” that underscores everything wrong with our political system.
In Fast and Furious, federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents allowed guns illegally purchased at American gun shops by Mexican gun-runners to be taken back to Mexico, with the hope that the low-level buyers would lead ATF agents to trafficking kingpins.
But this initiative, which was identical to one launched under the Bush administration, spiraled out of control, with ATF agents losing track of the guns as soon as they crossed the border. Two of the weapons were later recovered at the scene of the December 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Yes, this operation was ill-conceived. Americans who are outraged at Terry’s death rightly want to know whether it has been scrapped and whether Attorney General Eric Holder, who oversees ATF, is aggressively investigating Fast and Furious. I can report that the answer to both of those questions is a resounding yes.
But for Republican congressional leaders, one botched operation is not enough to serve their political goals. They need a scandal — and are desperate to create one.
In testimony in May before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on which I sit, Holder said he learned about Operation Fast and Furious several weeks earlier. He had ordered the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate it and made clear that the tactics used in the program would not be tolerated. But in subsequent weeks, Republicans produced documents sent to the AG’s office the prior year containing references to the operation. So a “scandal” was born.
As with all Washington scandals, one must look behind the allegations. Holder explained that some of the weekly reports reviewed by his staff did occasionally mention Fast and Furious, though none of the documents (which he provided to the committee) gave any indication of controversial tactics — or that these had gone wrong. Multiple officials from Justice and ATF testified they didn’t know about illegal guns flowing to Mexico, either.
(Page 2 of 2) Of course, Republicans quickly alleged that there had been a coverup. The head of the National Rifle Association called it “the biggest coverup since Watergate,” while a Republican congressman said that top Justice officials were “accessories to murder.”
But this is pure politics. After all, House Republicans have yet to haul before Congress former AG Alberto Gonzales, even though the controversial tactics used in Fast and Furious began under his watch. According to recent media reports, another Bush-era AG, Michael Mukasey, received a detailed Fast and Furious briefing in 2007. But only Holder took decisive action in response to these dangerous tactics.
This political sideshow is obscuring a vital issue: the ongoing violence in Mexico, which has claimed the lives of at least 35,000 people since 2006 and is fueled, in large part, by illegal weapons smuggled in from the U.S. According to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Mexico has seized approximately 100,000 guns in the last four years; 84% of them originated in America.
“Straw purchases,” in which low-level operatives buy guns on behalf of others (the practice targeted in Fast and Furious), are one of the primary methods traffickers use to obtain weapons, often 10 or 20 at a time. These purchases are made possible by lax gun laws in the U.S. — laws supported by most of my Republican colleagues.
This is an actual scandal. Yet at a hearing this spring, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) tried to prevent me from asking an ATF agent whether current criminal penalties are so weak that federal prosecutors are discouraged from pursuing cases involving straw purchasers. I asked the question; the agent agreed that our weak gun laws are, in fact, helping funnel weapons into Mexico.
My GOP colleagues have done little to help law enforcement counter this vast criminal enterprise. A bill I introduced this summer to prohibit firearms trafficking and increase penalties for straw purchasers currently has zero Republican co-sponsors.
In a June 3 video released by Al Qaeda, a spokesman urges would-be jihadists to obtain guns in the U.S., saying: “This is a golden opportunity. America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms.” Given the ongoing violence on our border and the glaring loopholes in our gun trafficking laws, it’s time for Congress to drop its witch hunts and get serious. We cannot continue allowing weapons to end up in the wrong hands.
Maloney, a Democratic congresswoman, represents parts of Manhattan and Queens.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Mexico; Politics/Elections; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: banglist; fastandfurious; Click to Add Keyword
Click The Pic
Disgusting. Fuck you every Obama voting communist traitor.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Did agents in Texas let guns 'walk' into Mexico?
chron.com ^ | 19 November, 2011 | DAN FREEDMAN
Posted on November 20, 2011 9:33:58 PM EST by marktwain
WASHINGTON - Otilio Osorio was just 22 in October 2010 when he purchased a Romanian-made Draco AK-47 pistol in Joshua, just outside Fort Worth.
There was nothing remarkable about the sale until the gun, with its serial number obliterated, was identified as one of three weapons used to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata on a Mexico highway four months later.
Documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that at different points in 2010, two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms divisions - Dallas and Phoenix - had evidence implicating Osorio well before drug gangsters gunned down Zapata and his partner Victor Avila, who survived.
But no one put it all together until agents in Dallas arrested Osorio in February, 13 days after Zapata's death and four months after Osorio purchased the deadly Draco.
Now the case of Osorio, as well as his ex-Marine brother Ranferi Osorio, and their next-door neighbor in the Dallas suburb of Lancaster, Kelvin Leon Morrison, is exhibit A in an effort by congressional Republicans to uncover a Texas version of the flawed tactics used in the Phoenix-based Operation Fast and Furious.
Phoenix operation
Texas Sen. John Cornyn has demanded answers from Attorney General Eric Holder on whether ATF agents in Texas - akin to the botched Operation Fast and Furious in Arizona - allowed such guns to "walk" into Mexico in an effort to track them, rather than intercepting them and arresting the purchasers.
"The attorney general has taken every opportunity to sidestep and stonewall, and until he reassures Texans that gun-walking never occurred in our state, I will continue to press him for answers," Cornyn said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
-
So Obama is dirty. Old news
-
Editorial: White House should come clean on Solyndra failure
AText Size Published: 20 November 2011 10:18 PM
Solyndra default casts shadow over clean-energy effort
Mike Hashimoto: Delaying those layoffs until after the election
Rodger Jones: Race to the trough
Mike Hashimoto: Which is not to say there's no waste and fraud in D.C.
Add up the suspicions, suspects and suppositions swirling around Solyndra, the bankrupt solar-panel manufacturer. Now, subtract the knowns. The difference is roughly 535 million.
Put a dollar sign in front of that number, and you have the amount of taxpayer money lost to either an unfortunate gamble or something more sinister.
Bad luck or bad faith? Suspected but not yet known.
The short version is that Solyndra, the Silicon Valley developer of a unique thin-film solar energy panel — revolutionary but expensive to produce — received a $535 million federal loan guarantee as part of President Barack Obama’s stimulus push. That application had been stalled until the 2009 change in administrations, when Solyndra jumped to the front of the line.
As it happens, Solyndra’s chief private investor was Argonaut Private Equity, led by Tulsa, Okla., oil magnate George Kaiser, a top Obama fundraiser and frequent White House visitor. Smoke, perhaps, but no fire.
Solyndra, even with the government boost, continued to bleed cash and was about to default on the loan guarantee, until a 2010 restructuring that pushed Argonaut and other private investors ahead of U.S. taxpayers in the repayment line, in case of default.
Which, as we know now, is exactly how the story played out.
Hopes for clarity from Energy Secretary Steven Chu were dashed last week in his determined effort to fall on his sword. He alone approved the Solyndra loan guarantee and subsequent restructuring, he testified to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Politics, he insisted, played no part.
And this might satisfy your suspicions were it not for how much Chu, a Nobel physics laureate, apparently did not know.
For instance, he wasn’t familiar at the time with Kaiser or his involvement, making Chu one of the few people in his own department so unaware. Chu did not know about email traffic between Office of Budget and Management accountants and Energy Department staff warning of Solyndra’s tenuous financial situation and risky business plan. Or about pressure from Energy Department staff emailed to Solyndra executives to delay a layoff announcement until after the 2010 midterm elections.
Chu did know a few things. No, if he knew then what he knows now, he would not have approved the loan guarantee. And, no, U.S. taxpayers should not hold out hope of getting their money back, “not very much” anyway.
Chu’s testimony makes even clearer that the White House should quit stonewalling the House committee and release all internal communications regarding Solyndra, as demanded in a subpoena. The White House response, so far, is that any documents not turned over are “the same stuff you’ve seen before. There’s no evidence of any wrongdoing.”
Yes, this is Washington, where normal rules often don’t apply, but isn’t it usually up to the investigators — not the investigatees — to figure that out?
Energy secretary’s testimony to House panel
Excerpts of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s answers to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee:
Did you pressure Solyndra to delay the announcements of layoffs?
Chu: “I just learned about that. I was not part of that decision, and I certainly would not have been in favor of that decision.”
Did you know who George Kaiser was?
Chu: “I know now.”
How much will taxpayers get back?
Chu: “That remains to be seen. Not very much.”
Why did you restructure Solyndra’s loan?
Chu: “We had a half-completed factory … we either had to stop the loan, which would’ve put Solyndra into immediate bankruptcy, or we could continue on contract of the loan to build the factory. … It was a difficult decision.”
Did the White House pressure you to approve the loan?
Chu: “We did not communicate with the White House on whether we should approve a loan, and especially the Solyndra loan.”
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20111120-editorial-white-house-should-come-clean-on-solyndra-failure.ece
Get the leg irons ready in Kenyan prison - Barry is going to jail.
-
George Soros Helped Craft Stimulus then Invested in Companies Benefiting
Big Government ^ | 11-21-2011 | Wynton Hall
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2011 4:33:12 PM by BAW
Billionaire George Soros gave advice and direction on how President Obama should allocate so-called “stimulus” money in a series of regular private meetings and consultations with White House senior advisers even as Soros was making investments in areas affected by the stimulus program.
It’s just one more revelation featured in the blockbuster new book that continues to rock Washington, Throw Them All Out, authored by Breitbart News editor Peter Schweizer.
Mr. Soros met with Mr. Obama’s top economist on February 25, 2009 and twice more with senior officials in the Old Executive Office Building on March 24th and 25th as the stimulus plan was being crafted. Later, Mr. Soros also participated in discussions on financial reform.
Then, in the first quarter of 2009, Mr. Soros went on a stock buying spree in companies that ultimately benefited from the federal stimulus.
•Soros doubled his holdings in medical manufacturer Hologic, a company that benefited from stimulus spending on medical systems
•Soros tripled his holdings in fiber channel and software maker Emulus, a company that wound up scoring a large amount of federal funds going to infrastructure spending
•Soros bought 210,000 shares in Cisco Systems, which came up big in the stimulus lottery
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Ex-Solyndra Staff To Get $13,000 Each In TAA Federal Aid
IBD's Capital Hill ^ | 11/21/2011 | Sean Higgins
The Labor Department today announced that it had approved Trade Adjustment Assistance for the former employees of the bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra.
That means all of the firm’s 1,100 ex-employees are eligible for federal aid packages, including job retraining and income assistance. The department has valued packages at about $13,000 a head.
Taxpayers will have to cough up yet another $14.3 million as a result of Solyndra’s bankruptcy. They are already on the hook for $528 million in federal loan guarantees to the company that are unlikely to ever be paid back.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.investors.com ...
-
Why Can't Energy Secretary Chu Even Say, 'Sorry' for Solyndra?
New York Post ^ | November 21, 2011 | Michael Goodwin
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has outdone the doctor who declares the operation a success although the patient died. Chu won’t even say he’s sorry for the loss.
The corpse here is the $535 million loan given to Solyndra, the solar company whose business model relied on massive infusions of cash from the White House. The firm is defunct, the cash is gone to money heaven, and Chu can only say it’s “unfortunate.”
In five hours of congressional testimony, he refused to apologize for wasting so much taxpayer dough.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
U. S. Government May Be Primary Suppliers of Mexican Drug Cartel Guns
Big Government ^ | November 21, 2011 | Tom Stilson
With Operation Fast and Furious headlining the news, there is no doubt civilian arms have been trafficked into Mexico. However, many of the arms used by Mexican cartels are NOT supplied by civilian gun outlets in the United States. Based upon the statistics I have compiled, our State and Defense Departments may be the premier suppliers of weaponry to Mexican drug cartels — not the US civilian.
From 2003-2009, over 150,000 Mexican soldiers deserted from their ranks. Drug cartels became so confident in their recruitment of military personnel that they posted help wanted ads for hit men, traffickers, and guards. When these soldiers desert, their US-supplied weapons (grenades, sniper rifles, assault weapons, etc.) often accompany them over to the cartels. In 2008 and 2009, 13,792 and 20,530 small arms were exported to Mexico from the US. Over 92% of these arms were civilian legal semi-automatic or non-automatic firearms, a number eerily similar to the debunked 90% number echoed by the ATF. A 2008 State Department memo to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi shows a $1,000,000 shipment of select fire M4A2 assault rifles to the Mexican Federal Police Force, (AKA Federales) one of the most corrupt Mexican government agencies.
...From 2008 to 2009, when President Obama entered office, Defense Department expenditures to Mexico have increased from $12 million to $34,000,000 and State Department expenditures increased from $7.2 million to $356 million. While 2010 data is currently unavailable, it appears our foreign aid to Mexico has continued to increase for 2011. These statistics imply the State and Defense Departments may very well be the top suppliers of small arms to Mexico’s drug cartels and not civilians. Only the information obtained from ATF Firearms Traces will tell. However, those records are not public.
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
-
Armed illegals stalked Border Patrol
Mexicans were ‘patrolling’ when agent was slain, indictment says
________________________ ________________________ _____________
Five illegal immigrants armed with at least two AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole known as Mesquite Seep just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and one U.S. agent was killed, records show.
A now-sealed federal grand jury indictment in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry says the Mexican nationals were "patrolling" the rugged desert area of Peck Canyon at about 11:15 p.m. on Dec. 14 with the intent to "intentionally and forcibly assault" Border Patrol agents.
At least two of the Mexicans carried their assault rifles "at the ready position," one of several details about the attack showing that Mexican smugglers are becoming more aggressive on the U.S. side of the border.
According to the indictment, the Mexicans were "patrolling the area in single-file formation" a dozen miles northwest of the border town of Nogales and — in the darkness of the Arizona night — opened fire on four Border Patrol agents after the agents identified themselves in Spanish as police officers.
Two AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene came from the failed Fast and Furious operation.
Using thermal binoculars, one of the agents determined that at least two of the Mexicans were carrying rifles, but according to an affidavit in the case by FBI agent Scott Hunter, when the Mexicans did not drop their weapons as ordered, two agents used their shotguns to fire "less than lethal" beanbags at them.
At least one of the Mexicans opened fire and, according to the affidavit, Terry, a 40-year-old former U.S. Marine, was shot in the back. A Border Patrol shooting-incident report said that Terry called out, "I'm hit," and then fell to the ground, a bullet having pierced his aorta. "I can't feel my legs," Terry told one of the agents who cradled him. "I think I'm paralyzed."
Bleeding profusely, he died at the scene.
After the initial shots, two agents returned fire, hitting Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, 33, in the abdomen and leg. The others fled. The FBI affidavit said Osorio-Arellanes admitted during an interview that all five of the Mexicans were armed.
Peck Canyon is a notorious drug-smuggling corridor.
Osorio-Arellanes initially was charged with illegal entry, but that case was dismissed when the indictment was handed up. It named Osorio-Arellanes on a charge of second-degree murder, but did not identify him as the likely shooter, saying only that Osorio-Arellanes and others whose names were blacked out "did unlawfully kill with malice aforethought United States Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry while Agent Terry was engaged in ... his official duties."
The indictment also noted that Osorio-Arellanes had been convicted in Phoenix in 2006 of felony aggravated assault, had been detained twice in 2010 as an illegal immigrant, and had been returned to Mexico repeatedly.
Bill Brooks, U.S. Customs and Border Protection's acting southwest border field branch chief, referred inquiries to the FBI, which is conducting the investigation. The FBI declined to comment.
The case against Osorio-Arellanes and others involved in the shooting has since been sealed, meaning that neither the public nor the media has access to any evidence, filings, rulings or arguments.
The U.S. attorney's office in San Diego, which is prosecuting the case, would confirm only that it was sealed. Also sealed was the judge's reason for sealing the case.
The indictment lists the names of other suspects in the shooting, but they are redacted.
In the Terry killing, two Romanian-built AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene were identified as having been purchased in a Glendale, Ariz., gun shop as part of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) failed Fast and Furious investigation.
A number of rank-and-file Border Patrol agents have questioned why the case has not gone to trial, nearly a year after Terry's killing. Several also have concerns about the lack of transparency in the investigation, compounded now by the fact that the court case has been sealed.
Shawn P. Moran, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 17,000 nonsupervisory agents, said it is rare for illegal immigrants or drug smugglers to engage agents in the desert, saying they usually "drop their loads and take off south."
"The Brian Terry murder was a real wake-up call," Mr. Moran said. "It emphasizes the failed state of security on the U.S. border, which poses more of a threat to us than either Iraq or Afghanistan. We have terrorism going on right on the other side of the fence, and we're arming the drug cartels.
"My biggest fear is that someday a cartel member is going to go berserk, stick a rifle through the fence and kill as many Border Patrol agents as he can," he said.
Mr. Moran said he understood the "rationale of working things up the food chain," as suggested in the Fast and Furious probe, but had no idea how ATF planned to arrest cartel members who ultimately purchased the weapons since the agency lacks jurisdiction south of the border and never advised Mexican authorities about the operation.
"It was a ridiculous idea from the beginning, and it baffles us on how it was ever approved," he said.
Mr. Moran also challenged the use of less-than-lethal s in the shooting incident, saying field agents have been "strong-armed" by the agency's leadership to use nonlethal weapons. He said they were not appropriate for the incident in which Terry was killed.
"That was no place for beanbag rounds," he said, noting that the encounter was at least 12 miles inside the U.S. and was carried out by armed men looking specifically to target Border Patrol agents.
CBP has said Terry and the agents with him carried fully loaded sidearms, along with two additional magazines, and were not under orders to use nonlethal ammunition first.
Mr. Moran, himself a veteran Border Patrol agent, said he also was "surprised" that the suspected Mexican gunmen were carrying their weapons at the ready position, meaning that the butts of the weapons were placed firmly in the pocket of the shoulder with the barrels pointed down at a 45-degree angle. He said this probably meant they had some level of military training.
More than 250 incursions by Mexican military personnel into the United States have been documented over the past several years.
The Border Patrol has warned agents in Arizona that many of the intruders were "trained to escape, evade and counter-ambush" if detected. The agency cautioned agents to keep "a low profile," to use "cover and concealment" in approaching the Mexican units, to employ "shadows and camouflage" to conceal themselves and to "stay as quiet as possible."
Several of the incursions occurred in the same area where Terry was killed, including a 2005 incident in which two agents were shot and wounded by assailants dressed in black commando-type clothing in what law-enforcement authorities said was a planned ambush. More than 50 rounds were fired at the agents after they spotted the suspected gunmen.
Many of the Mexican drug cartels use former Mexican soldiers, police and federal agents to protect drug loads headed into the U.S. Many cartel leaders also have targeted U.S. Border Patrol agents and state and local police, sometimes offering bounties of up to $50,000.
________________________ _____________________
Unreal.
-
Gunwalker: More GOP Candidates Call for Holder’s Resignation
PJ Media ^ | November 23, 2011 | Bob Owens
Bachmann and Perry join Gingrich.
Two Republican presidential candidates have joined the 51 congressmen who have called for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over the gunwalking operation Fast and Furious. They join former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who called on Holder to be fired more than a month ago.
This past Friday, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann told the Daily Caller:
Attorney General Holder should resign because of the mismanagement of “Fast and Furious.” … As the nation’s top law enforcement officer, he bears the responsibility for the actions of his department.
Bachmann stopped short of calling on President Obama to fire Holder if he refuses to resign. Texas Governor Rick Perry, who had originally refused to answer when asked about the attorney general last week, wrote a scathing editorial in the Washington Times Monday that stated Holder must resign because he was either grossly incompetent or criminally involved in the plot:
Mr. Holder’s proclaimed ignorance leaves Americans to draw one of two conclusions: Either he is guilty of extraordinary bureaucratic incompetence or he is guilty of a cover-up meant to shield him from the consequences of an operation that has left at least one federal agent dead and continues to imperil many more.
Either way, it is high time for Mr. Holder to step down. If he refuses to resign, Mr. Obama must fire him immediately.
Under the attorney general’s leadership, our nation’s top law enforcement agency proactively armed some of the most dangerous criminal organizations in North America, and at least one American is dead as a direct result. The damage done to Mr. Holder’s credibility is irreparable.
Perry’s forceful statement is in line with growing public and Capitol Hill opinion, putting the administration in the unenviable position of having to defend a cabinet-level appointee against charges of gross incompetence, corruption, and criminality that has resulted in the deaths of American law enforcement officers and hundreds of Mexican civilians.
Operation Fast and Furious is one of ten alleged gunwalking operations in five states that seem to have existed with the express purpose of arming criminal gangs with the very weapons that the Obama administration and his gun control allies have long sought to ban. The Department of Justice has claimed that Operation Fast and Furious was an effort to identify drug cartel kingpins and to take down entire gun-smuggling rings, but the evidence suggests the DOJ’s position is a poor alibi.
High-level cartel members are simply not involved in low-level work such as weapons acquisition. Such a scheme would have been rejected at the planning phase. Further, there was no attempt at all to interdict or even to track the weapons being sold to the cartels. In multiple instances, executive branch law enforcement agencies stepped in to ensure that smugglers were freed from custody with their weapons when stopped by local police.
No rational person can look at the evidence of how the operation was run and come to any conclusion except that this was intended to be a government-sanctioned weapons smuggling program expressly designed to arm the Sinaloa drug cartel.
The DOJ plot seems in line with fresh allegations that the federal government during Obama’s presidency has greatly increased official arms sales to Mexico, with many of the sales sending military weapons to the most corrupt portions of the Mexican government and military — who are then apparently selling the guns to the cartels. The implication is that U.S government in the Obama years is the number one supplier of cartel weapons:
From 2008 to 2009, when President Obama entered office, Defense Department expenditures to Mexico have increased from $12 million to $34 million and State Department expenditures increased from $7.2 million to $356 million. While 2010 data is currently unavailable, it appears our foreign aid to Mexico has continued to increase for 2011. These statistics imply the State and Defense Departments may very well be the top suppliers of small arms to Mexico’s drug cartels and not civilians. Only the information obtained from ATF Firearms Traces will tell. However, those records are not public. After the DOJ and the White House knowingly pursued attempts at new gun control legislation, we are left to ask the question; is this just another case of government stupidity or is this something more premeditated?
Florida Republican Allen West has said if Holder doesn’t resign and President Obama doesn’t fire him, “then perhaps the president of the United States of America is also complicit in this horrible, tragic event of Operation Fast and Furious.” None of the Republican candidates have gone as far as Rep. West’s statement.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has been largely silent, dodging the issue at first. Later, a spokesman said that if the attorney general is proven to have lied in front of Congress he should resign. Herman Cain, who is rapidly fading in the polls, had opined earlier this month that the 30 members of Congress then calling for Holder to resign “can’t be wrong.”
Second-tier candidates John Huntsman and Rick Santorum have also called for Holder to resign. Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate to avoid taking a position on the scandal.
-
newt, palin and perry all want to just let these illegals stay.
-
Steven Chu Should Lose His Job Over The Solyndra Scandal
Investor's Business Daily ^ | November 17, 2011 | IND staff
Posted on November 23, 2011 8:53:54 PM EST by raptor22
Corruption: The Secretary of Energy takes responsibility for and defends the granting of a half-billion-dollar-loan guarantee to an imploding solar panel maker. But that's not where the campaign donor buck stopped.
In testimony Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Steven Chu, caught in a tangled web of administration deceit regarding a $535 million guaranteed loan to Solyndra, tried but failed to continue the administration line that the affair was just a good-faith bet that went bad.
"As the Secretary of Energy, the final decisions on Solyndra were mine, and I made them with the best interest of the taxpayer in mind," Chu claimed in his opening statement. "I want to be clear: Over the course of Solyndra's loan guarantee, I did not make any decision based on political considerations."
If political considerations were not involved, then explain the Oct. 30, 2010, email in which advisers to Solyndra's primary investor, Argonaut Equity, said the Energy Department had strongly urged the company to put off an announcement of looming layoffs until Nov. 3, the day after the midterm elections in which President Obama's failed stimulus was a hot issue.
In point of fact, newly disclosed emails show Democratic fundraiser and Solyndra investor George Kaiser talked directly with White House officials about the now-bankrupt solar company's $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
Kaiser, a major Obama bundler and backer who raised $50,000 to $100,000 for the president's election campaign, was one of Solyndra's primary investors. Kaiser himself donated $53,500 to Obama's 2008 election campaign, split between the DSCC and Obama for America.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Gunwalker scandal broadens--the FBI connection
Conservative Examiner ^ | 21 November, 2011 | Anthony Martin
Posted on November 24, 2011 9:55:53 AM EST by marktwain
Confidential informants who are participating in the Congressional probe of the Project Gunwalker (Operation Fast and Furious) scandal have now zeroed in on the FBI connection. Such a connection has been hinted at in the past, but information relayed today shows that FBI involvement was much deeper than anyone imagined.
The investigation into Gunwalker has revealed a scandal involving multiple departments of the Obama Administration--Justice, FBI, ATF, ICE, DEA, DHS, and State. These connections have been verified through previously hidden emails and documents, and sworn testimony of whistleblowers.
But the FBI connection is one that could be potentially the biggest one yet, indicating that the bureau not only was involved in Gunwalker but has been up to its neck in a scandal all its own--a program called 'PATCON,' or 'Patriot Conspiracy.'
A paid confidential informant enlisted under PATCON indicated a long history of the covert program spanning several decades which include such debacles as the Ruby Ridge murders, the Waco murders of a religious cult, the Oklahoma City bombing, and Project Gunwalker.
Newsweek Magazine had received this information which they had planned to include in a major story today, according to citizen investigative journalist Mike Vanderboegh. But before the story went to press, the facts were gutted out of the final copy. There is no mention of PATCON or its various tyrannical operations that have resulted in countless deaths.
Vanderboegh stated,
I also knew from sources, living and dead, that PATCON was the worst scandal that the FBI ever perpetrated. PATCON could sink the FBI, perhaps permanently, and along with the Gunwalker Scandal, totally discredit the teflon coating that the Bureau has excreted around its corrupt core and thoroughly debunk the myth that the FBI is anything but an agency of arsonists posing as firemen.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
McCaskill asks for investigation into Obama administration’s sole-source vaccine contract
The Daily Caller ^ | 11/24/11 | Will Rahn
Posted on November 24, 2011 6:33:27 PM EST by ColdOne
Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, has asked The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review the Obama administration’s award of a $443 million sole-source contract to a company owned by a major Democratic donor.
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the Obama administration has taken unusual steps to procure an experimental smallpox vaccine from a company owned by a major Democratic donor despite concerns from some experts that such a drug was unnecessary and would not be effective.
Citing “serious questions” about the contract, the Los Angeles Times reported that McCaskill has asked the inspector general of HHS to investigate. McCaskill is the chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting and Oversight.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
Bid exclusion puzzles aerospace firms
Quebec companies affected
BY FRANÇOIS SHALOM, THE GAZETTE NOVEMBER 23, 2011
0
MONTREAL - An unusual turn of events on a U.S. military procurement contract has lightly side-swiped three of Quebec’s largest aerospace firms.
Wichita-based aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft Corp. was excluded without explanation last week from a competition to supply 20 AT-6 Texan II light-attack and training planes to the Afghan air force.
Its four main suppliers on the bid to the U.S. air force – which would then turn the aircraft over to the Afghan forces – were all Canadian: Longueuil’s Pratt & Whitney Canada for the PT6A-68D 1,600-horsepower engine, St. Laurent’s CAE Inc. for the crew training, St. Laurent’s CMC Esterline for the flight management system, as well as Burlington, Ont.-based L-3 Wescam, which was to provide daylight sensors, infrared cameras with zoom and various lasers.
The elimination of Hawker Beechcraft apparently makes a winner of the Super Tucano trainer and light-attack aircraft produced by Brazil’s Embraer, the only other bidder for the contract.
Matthew Perra, spokesperson for Pratt & Whitney Canada, said by email that “as with any competition there was some investment made, but this amount is not material to P&W Canada.”
But it does not signify a loss for Pratt & Whitney Canada – it also supplies the same engine for Embraer’s Super Tucano.
Hawker Beechcraft said it was “confounded and troubled” by its unexplained elimination from the bid, and asked the U.S. air force for a formal debriefing to review the reasons for its exclusion from the 20-plane Light Air Support order. That was refused, and Hawker Beechcraft stepped up its efforts, lodging a protest with Washington’s Government Accountability Office.
“(Our) exclusion from competing for this important contract appears at this point to have been made without basis in process or fact,” Hawker Beechcraft said in a statement.
Janka Dvornik, spokesperson for avionics firm CMC Esterline, said that “we’re disappointed with this news.”
But her company also supplies avionics for Hawker Beechcraft’s T6-B training program, she added.
“Hawker Beechcraft is targeting many other programs by air forces around the world, so there’s that to look forward to,” Dvornik said.
Pascale Alpha, spokesperson for CAE, also said that the flight-simulator and training firm has also made an inconsequential investment for the program.
L-3 Wescam did not return calls seeking comments.
One Quebec aerospace insider said that being excluded from a military bid happens on occasion, but on big procurement contracts and for specific reasons, like the perceived inability to meet certain specifications.
“But this one kind of slid under the door,” he said. “And every loss hurts.”
One blogger for Flightglobal, a well-informed aviation trade publication, said that the summary dismissal of Hawker Beechcraft was “one of the more perplexing turns of events” he’s ever heard of in his years covering defence.
But he added that equally perplexing was the “more than $100 million” that Hawker Beechcraft said it and its partners invested on the bid.
“That’s quite an investment” to win a deal for up to 35 small planes, he said.
fshalom@montrealgazette.com
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
-
"Second Energy Department-Backed Company Goes Bankrupt," reported the Hill the other day. Beacon Power of Massachusetts got a $43 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department before it went belly-up trying to make a buck in the energy-storage business.
You can add that to the half-billion-and-change the Solyndra flop has left taxpayers on the hook for. Solyndra was supposed to be a one-off, according to administration supporters who blame the unique economics of the solar industry and Solydra's approach to it, rather than the folly of corporate welfare, for the flop. Wonder what excuse they'll come up with for Beacon.
Then there's Nevada Geothermal Power, whose auditor fears for its continued existence despite more than $60 million in federal grants and an Energy Department loan guarantee of $79 million. No doubt this is yet another totally unique situation, just like the others.
One of Solyndra's backers was the Kaiser Family Foundation. Billionaire George Kaiser gave heavily to the Obama campaign and conferred with Obama aides more than a dozen times. Now comes word that "the Obama administration restructured a half-billion-dollar federal loan to [Solyndra] in such a way that private investors — including [Argonaut Ventures LLC] — moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show. . . . Argonaut is an investment firm of the George Kaiser Family Foundation."
But don't throw anything across the room in disgust just yet — because it gets worse. Comes now word that another "green" company with cozy campaign ties has enjoyed special treatment at the hands of the Obama administration.
Vehicle Production Group makes wheelchair-accessible cars that run on compressed natural gas. This year it received a $50 million loan through the administration's clean-energy loan program. Another backer? The Perseus investment firm, whose vice chairman, James Johnson, was (a) an Obama campaign-finance "bundler," (b) the head of Obama's vice presidential selection committee, and (c) the former chairman of Fannie Mae. Gretchen Mortgensen, author of "Reckless Endangerment," has called him the "founding father of regulation manipulation."
What's more, the chairman of Perseus, Frank Pearl, met with a member of the White House's disabilities council to make sure Vehicle Production Group "was on their radar screen." Yet he insists that politics played absolutely no role in the federal loan.
It's entirely true that the previous administration also played similar games, and that Republicans in Washington didn't seem to mind at the time. But that's hardly an excuse for the Obama administration's own crony capitalism. Principled conservatives should have spoken up loudly, regardless of party affiliations, against the political allocation of economic resources, which has contributed greatly to much of the nation's economic misery. Principled liberals should do so now.
-
Yet another Obama "Bundler" caught with his hand in the DOE Loan "Cookie Jar" - to the tune of $50 Million!
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/yet-another-obama-bundler-caught-with-his-hand-in-the-doe-loan-cookie-jar---to-the-tune-of-50-m/question-2252117
Another Obama "bundler" is investor in car company that won federal loan
James A. Johnson, one of many un-indicted creators of the “housing bubble” and the failure of Fannie Mae which led to the financial collapse, and an Obama “insider,” is vice chairman of company winning $50
million in loans from Obama Department of Energy
An investment firm whose vice chairman has been an adviser and fundraiser for President Obama saw one of its portfolio companies win approval this year for $50 million in loans from the administration’s clean-energy loan program.
Washington-based Perseus says its affiliation with James A. Johnson, a major fundraiser for Obama’s campaign, played no role in persuading the Energy Department to award the loan to Vehicle
Production Group, a Miami start-up that is manufacturing wheelchair-accessible cars and taxis.
Johnson headed Obama’s vice presidential selection committee in 2008 and is the former chairman of housing mortgage giant Fannie Mae. He was listed as a campaign fundraising bundler for Obama in
the 2008 race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and committed to raising $200,000 to $500,000 for the upcoming
presidential race.
Johnson could not be reached for comment Thursday. Perseus
Chairman Frank Pearl said in an interview that it is an “absurd
idea” to think that Johnson’s political connections helped the
Miami company.
“I doubt there was anybody at DOE that even considered the fact
that Jim was part of this firm. We went straight through the proper
channels of the [loan] program,” he said.
Department spokesman Damien LaVera said in a statement Thursday
that “the decision to provide the Vehicle Production Group a loan
was made based on the merits after more than two years of review by
officials in the DOE loan program.”
Republicans have criticized the administration for what they say
is a pattern of loan assistance going to politically connected
clean-energy companies. Recently, they expanded their investigations
of loan guarantees to other companies whose investors include
Democratic contributors.
Both the White House and the Energy Department have said that no
such pattern exists and that all decisions were decided on merit.[How naive do they think the public is?]
A nine-month House investigation of the loan guarantee program
has largely focused on the Obama administration’s first
clean-energy loan: $535 million to solar start-up Solyndra, a
now-shuttered company whose lead investors were funds tied to George
Kaiser, an Obama fundraising bundler and Tulsa billionaire.
The Energy Department ignored numerous warnings that the
company’s finances were shaky and rushed to approve the Solyndra
loan; now taxpayers are obligated to repay the money. The head of
the loan program, Jonathan Silver, resigned this month, weeks after
the head of the House investigative committee called for him to be
fired.
In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers have widened their scope to
more deeply probe $1 billion in loans approved by the same
program to electric auto makers Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors.
On Wednesday, a congressional committee chairman asked the Energy
Department for documents concerning its decision to offer a
$730 million loan to a U.S. subsidiary of a steel-making
company run by the second-richest man in Russia.
The loan was for Severstal's North American operation to upgrade
a Dearborn, Mich., plant to supply the auto industry. Rep. Darrell
Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu to explain why
the firm merited taxpayer-backed financing considering the financial
mishaps and global standing of its parent company.
In the case of the Vehicle Production Group, the Energy
Department conditionally offered the start-up its low-cost,
government-backed financing last November. Chu announced the
agency’s formal approval in March.
Perseus has been the leading investor in VPG since 2008. Pearl
said he became interested in the company’s concept because of its
reliance on compressed natural gas and its unique niche — the
first vehicle designed for wheelchair accessibility. He was a
longtime friend of VPG’s president, Fred Drasner, a former owner
of the Washington Redskins and a former co-publisher of the New York
Daily News.
“It’s a fabulous car,” Pearl said, adding that the
department was looking for a compressed natural gas project to back.
“It’s the only one purpose-designed and purpose-built to serve
the needs of people in wheelchairs.”
Pearl said he took on the role of pursuing the loan for the
company while Drasner and his team focused on marketing and car
production.
Another investor was Clean Energy Fuels, a firm focused on using
natural gas for transportation led by longtime Republican T. Boone
Pickens.
Perseus’s vice chairman was Johnson, who joined the firm in
2001 but is better known as a fixture in Democratic politics for the
past three decades. He served as manager of Walter Mondale’s
unsuccessful 1984 presidential campaign and chaired the vice
presidential selection committee for John F. Kerry’s White House
campaign.
From 1991 to 1998, Johnson served as chairman and chief executive
officer of Fannie Mae, a well-compensated position that would tail
him as financial markets imploded in summer 2008 from the rise of
risky, subprime mortgages.[Johnson, as CEO of
Fannie Mae, started the practice of "subprime" loans. While Democrats
claim that subprimes provide "affordable housing", Johnson's motives
were to increase FM's volume, as his compensation was based upon
performance. As a result Johnson received over $100 million in pay and
bonuses during his time as CEO.]
Johnson had supported Obama as a young senator and, later, was
briefly part of a three-member team leading his vice presidential
search committee. But Johnson resigned in June 2008
amid revelations that he had received $7 million in deeply
discounted mortgage loans from the chief executive of Countrywide, a
company that had helped fuel the rise of subprime home mortgages. He
said the controversy was a distraction for Obama’s campaign.
Johnson has personally donated $55,400 to Obama’s two
presidential campaigns, federal donation records show, including a
$35,800 check listed on Aug. 29 to Obama’s reelection effort.
Pearl donated $1,500 to Obama’s campaign in 2008.
All told, Perseus officers have donated $120,700 to Obama and the
Democratic Party’s top three fundraising committees since the
2007-08 election cycle.[But, of course, that had nothing to do with their company receiving a $50 million loan from the DOE!!!]
Before Obama’s inauguration, Johnson served as a lead member of
Obama’s transition team, advising him on economic policies.[How did that advice work out?]
Pearl said he actively tried to avoid using politics to woo the
new administration. He said he met with a member of the White
House’s disabilities council, Kareem Dale, to discuss VPG’s
project while its application was pending “to make sure [the
company] was on their radar screen” but did not seek his help with
the Energy Department.
Pearl said that, to his knowledge, Johnson never asked the
administration to help VPG.
“It seemed to me, and it still does, that dealing forthrightly
with people at DOE and not putting them under pressure was the most
effective way to do this,” Pearl said. “That’s what we did.”
The compressed natural gas vehicle MV-1 is expected to use no
gasoline and produce lower emissions than gasoline-fueled vehicles.
The Vehicle Production Group estimates that it will, at full
capacity, produce more than 22,000 vehicles per year. The company
estimates that the project will generate more than 100 jobs in
Indiana, where the cars will be assembled, in addition to about 800
direct and indirect jobs across 17 states related to the assembly,
parts supplies, production and sale of the vehicle.
Research Editor Alice Crites contributed to this article.
Comment:
Amazingly,
despite his many defalcations, James A. Johnson is still known as a
"mover and shaker" in Democrat circles in Washington, D.C. Johnson,
probably more than any other single individual, with the possible
exception of Barney Frank, was responsible for the "subprime" mortgage
crisis. As CEO of Fannie Mae in the early '90s, he was the first to
ignore the normal "due diligence" lenders do when assessing the
riskiness of a home loan. While the motive was supposedly to achieve
Fannie Mae's mission of providing "affordable housing", Johnson's
motives were to increase his own compensation -- over $100,000,000
between 1991 and 1998! In 1994, Bill Clinton "federalized" Fannie Mae's
policies with rewritten regulations under the Community Reinvestment
Act (the Carter-era CRA), requiring lenders to meet quotas for loans to
low and middle income borrowers. These actions were the root cause of
the near-collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008, requiring
astronomical "bail outs" of financial institutions.
-
Pearl said he actively tried to avoid using politics to woo the
new administration. He said he met with a member of the White
House’s disabilities council, Kareem Dale, to discuss VPG’s
project while its application was pending “to make sure [the
company] was on their radar screen” but did not seek his help with
the Energy Department.
LMFAO.
-
From 1991 to 1998, Johnson served as chairman and chief executive
officer of Fannie Mae, a well-compensated position that would tail him as financial markets imploded in summer 2008 from the rise of risky, subprime mortgages.[Johnson, as CEO of Fannie Mae, started the practice of "subprime" loans. While Democrats claim that subprimes provide "affordable housing", Johnson's motives were to increase FM's volume, as his compensation was based upon performance. As a result Johnson received over $100 million in pay and bonuses during his time as CEO.]
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ___
Blacken, Benny, Straw, Lurker 240???? Can you guys please bump your threads and posts attacking johnson?
-
33, is there going to be a Holder trial? or did the F&F thing run its course, and nobody will see leg irons?
-
33, is there going to be a Holder trial? or did the F&F thing run its course, and nobody will see leg irons?
So long as Obama and Holder are actively CYA and withholding evidence and refusing to come clean, its going to be a longer process.
Remember that guy OReielly Issa wants to interview? Oh - Hillary and Obama sent him to Iraq for the forseeable future. Nothing to see here!
-
So long as Obama and Holder are actively CYA and withholding evidence and refusing to come clean, its going to be a longer process.
Remember that guy OReielly Issa wants to interview? Oh - Hillary and Obama sent him to Iraq for the forseeable future. Nothing to see here!
obama will be out of office, possibly, in 13 months.
what if it goes longer? Do you really think the next POTUS will allow Obama to be prosecuted for anything?
-
RED ALERT: Deputy A.G. behind 'Fast & Furious' met with Obama four times during height of operation
Director Blue ^ | 11/28/2011 | Doug Ross
Item 1: In March of 2011, President Obama denied knowledge of 'Operation Fast and Furious' -- the Justice Department program that sent thousands of murder weapons to Mexican drug cartels.
25 March 2011 - Under fire for an operation that allowed smuggling of U.S. weapons across the nation’s border with Mexico, President Obama said in an interview that neither he nor Attorney General Eric Holder authorized the controversial “Operation Fast and Furious.”
...Obama told Univision‘s Jorge Ramos that President Felipe Calderon wasn’t informed of the operation because he — the president of the United States — wasn’t informed either. When asked whether he knew of the weapon smuggling plan, Obama responded that it is “a pretty big government” with “a lot of moving parts.”
...President Obama said ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms enforcement) was behind "Operation Fast and Furious."
Item 2: According to documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee, Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler was keenly aware of all aspects of Operation Fast and Furious as early as March 2010. In a letter to A.G. Holder, Chairman Issa wrote:
Gary Grindler, the then-Deputy Attorney General and currently your Chief of Staff, received an extremely detailed briefing on Operation Fast and Furious on March 12, 2010. In this briefing, Grindler learned such minutiae as the number of times that Uriel Patino, a straw purchaser on food stamps who ultimately acquired 720 firearms, went in to a cooperating gun store and the amount of guns that he had bought. When former Acting ATF Director Ken Melson, a career federal prosecutor, learned similar information, he became sick to his stomach...
Item 3: Newly released White House Visitor Logs list Grindler as having visited the White House 40 times, but only four times with the President himself. All four meetings with the President occurred over a two-week period, between 7 May 2010 and 19 May 2010.
According to The Los Angeles Times, these dates just so happened to represent the run-up to "the height of [Operation] Fast and Furious":
In the U.S., intelligence officials consider the Sinaloa cartel the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world. Weekly reports from U.S. intelligence authorities to the Justice Department in the summer of 2010, at the height of Fast and Furious, warned about the proliferation of guns reaching the Sinaloa cartel... Under Fast and Furious, begun in fall 2009, the ATF allowed illegal buyers to walk away with weapons in the hope that agents in Phoenix could track the guns and arrest cartel leaders.
Summary: In early 2010, Gary Grindler was intimately involved in all aspects of Operation Fast and Furious. During the height of the operation, Grindler visited the President on four separate occasions in only two weeks -- his only documented meetings with the president at the White House.
So my question is this:
What did President Obama know -- and when did he know it?
Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.
-
Eric Holder and Barack Obama's "mens rea" on Fast and Furious
Coach is Right ^ | 11/29.2011 | Doug Book
Mens rea is Latin for “guilty mind.” In legal theory acting to set up a crime before committing it indicates a guilty mind; or guilty intent.
In the spring of 2009, just a few months before the Obama Administration instructed the Phoenix ATF office to commence Operation Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder introduced and secured a curious change to United States gun legislation.
The tracing of firearm serial numbers provides information about the manufacture of a weapon, its original retail seller and buyer, the entire known history of the weapon. For years, anti-gun rights zealots had procured these trace statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for the purpose of initiating frivolous law suits against both gun dealers and manufacturers.
Then, in 2004, Kansas Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt successfully added an amendment to the yearly ATF funding bill. Known since as the Tiahrt Amendment, the legislation prohibits the sharing of trace information for any but legitimate law enforcement purposes. That is, trace information on firearm serial numbers could only be provided to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies engaged in specific, criminal investigations. Those responsible for left-wing fishing expeditions would no longer have access to trace statistics for the purpose of manufacturing lawsuits.
Then, although Barack Obama and Eric Holder had promised liberal supporters they would fight to overturn the Tiahrt Amendment, in the spring of 2009 Holder lobbied Congress for a change to the Amendment, one which would allow ATF acquired trace data to be provided to “…a foreign law enforcement agency solely in connection with or for use in a criminal investigation or prosecution…”
The Regime was just about to launch the corrupt and murderous Operation Fast and Furious. And it must be remembered that during the year long course of that despicable...
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
-
Facts are STUBBORN Things, Knowledge of the Connection Between Agent Terry's Death and Fast and...
U.S. Senate ^ | November 28, 2011 | Senator Grassley
Article
For Immediate Release
November 28, 2011
Facts are STUBBORN Things, Knowledge of the Connection Between Agent Terry's Death and Fast and Furious
Setting the Record Straight on the Justice Department Oversight Hearing
“Facts are STUBBORN Things”
“…and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams, December 1770
Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearings with Secretary Janet Napolitano, October 19, 2011, and Attorney General Eric Holder, November 8, 2011
Knowledge of Connection Between Agent Terry’s Death and Fast and Furious
• Senator Grassley: “Have you had any communications with Mr. Burke about Operation Fast and Furious?”
…
Secretary Napolitano: “When Agent Terry was killed, it was December 14th, I went to Arizona a few days thereafter to meet with the FBI agents and the assistant U.S. attorneys who were actually going to look for the shooters. At that time, nobody had done the forensics on the guns and Fast and Furious was not mentioned. But I wanted to be sure that those responsible for his death were brought to justice, and that every DOJ resource was being brought to bear on that topic. So I did have conversations in – it would have December of ’09 – about the murder of Agent Terry. But at that point in time, there – nobody knew about Fast and Furious.”
• Senator Grassley: “When we met that day [on January 31, 2011], did you know that the guns connected to an ATF operation had been found at the Terry murder scene?”
Attorney General Holder: “I did not.”
• Senator Grassley: “Documents produced by the department suggest that your deputy chief of staff spoke with U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke about Fast and Furious, shortly after Agent Terry’s death. Did Mr. Wilkinson say anything to you about the connection between Agent Terry’s death and the ATF operation?”
Attorney General Holder: “No, he did not. The conversations that they had were about a variety of things. I’ve looked at the emails. Now the possibility of me coming out to at some point talk about being engaged in a press conference, other matters, but there was no discussion between them of the tactics that are of concern with regard to Fast and Furious and as a result of that, Mr. Wilkinson did not share information with me about his contacts with former U.S. Attorney, Burke.”
FACT(PDF)
The Attorney General’s Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson sent an email to U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke at 11:18 am on December 14, 2010, the day before Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death. The email had only a subject line: “You available for a call today?” On December 15 at 2:14 am, Burke responded: “Sorry for going dark on you. I was at Navajo and Hopi all day and coverage was weak at best. I did get your vm. We have a major gun trafficking case connected to Mexico we are taking down in January. 20+ defendants. Will call today to explain in detail.” Documents show that notice of Agent Terry’s death was emailed to Burke an hour later, at 3:31 am.
According to emails produced by the Justice Department, Nathan Gray, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Field Division, was at the press conference held that day to announce the death of Agent Terry, and was telling individuals there about the connection to Operation Fast and Furious. Thus, by the time Secretary Napolitano visited Arizona a few days later, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office were clearly aware of the connection.
The emails that have been produced by the Justice Department so far are insufficient to draw any conclusions about what Wilkinson and Burke may have discussed over the phone on December 15. Whether any follow-up conversation between them included the fact that Fast and Furious guns were found at the scene will remain unknown until Burke completes his testimony, which was interrupted on an earlier date, and Wilkinson testifies for the first time. Unfortunately, the Justice Department has to this point refused to make other witnesses with first-hand knowledge available for transcribed interviews.
It is clear, however, that multiple officials from multiple agencies knew almost immediately of the connection between Fast and Furious and Agent Terry’s death, including Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler. The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have failed to adequately explain why Attorney General Holder and Secretary Napolitano allegedly remained ignorant of that connection.
Documents supporting the FACTS.(PDF)
-
Obama Administration Seals Court Records of Agent Brian Terry’s Murder
Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 9:50 PM
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/11/obama-administration-seals-court-records-of-border-patrol-agent-brian-terrys-murder
On December 14, 2010 in Peck Canyon, northwest of Nogales, Arizona, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot dead by a group of illegal border entrants who refused commands to drop their weapons after they were confronted by US agents. The illegals murdered Terry with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico. The family of slain border agent Brian Terry blamed Eric Holder for their son’s death in a recent interview.
Now the Obama Administration has sealed the court records on Agent Terry’s murder.
Judicial Watch reported:
The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.
This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.
Instead, federal law enforcement officers lost track of more than 1,000 guns which have been used in numerous crimes. In Terry’s case, five illegal immigrants armed with at least two semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and Terry got hit.
We know this only because Washington D.C.’s conservative newspaper got ahold of the court documents before the government suddenly made them off limits. The now-sealed federal grand jury indictment tells the frightening story of how Terry was gunned down by Mexican drug smugglers patrolling the rugged desert with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents.
You can see why the administration wants to keep this information from the public and the media, considering the smugglers were essentially armed by the U.S. government. Truth is, no one will know the reason for the confiscation of public court records in this case because the judge’s decision to seal it was also sealed, according to the news story. That means the public or media won’t have access to any new or old evidence, filings, rulings or arguments.
Obama’s failed Fast and Furious program is also linked to 200 murders in Mexico.
WTF!!!!
-
33,
do you still believe holder and/or obama will go to jail for this?
or do you think it'll get redacted, 'classified', or otherwise thwarted by obama?
not what SHOULD happen - but what WILL happen.
-
33,
do you still believe holder and/or obama will go to jail for this?
or do you think it'll get redacted, 'classified', or otherwise thwarted by obama?
not what SHOULD happen - but what WILL happen.
Right now - i think holder will step down - and they will CYA for the ghetto thug communist Obama, piss be upon him and everyone associated with him.
-
Right now - i think holder will step down - and they will CYA for the ghetto thug communist Obama, piss be upon him and everyone associated with him.
what if obama shuts down teh entire thing, based upon 'national security concerns'?
Remember when the white house justified clipping the 911 investigations at every turn because "that's classified", or "our enemies use that info" or "that's just unpatriotic to question the president like this".
Hell, imagine how fcking irritated you'd do if Obama went on TV and said "let us not tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories that this govt knew anything about supplying foreigners with weapons" - When the documentation makes it pretty clear he was well aware?
You'll be screaming about it on message boards 10 years later. Watch and see. Obama and Holder will get away with this. You'll see how the 911 skeptics felt.
-
what if obama shuts down teh entire thing, based upon 'national security concerns'?
Remember when the white house justified clipping the 911 investigations at every turn because "that's classified", or "our enemies use that info" or "that's just unpatriotic to question the president like this".
Hell, imagine how fcking irritated you'd do if Obama went on TV and said "let us not tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories that this govt knew anything about supplying foreigners with weapons" - When the documentation makes it pretty clear he was well aware?
You'll be screaming about it on message boards 10 years later. Watch and see. Obama and Holder will get away with this. You'll see how the 911 skeptics felt.
::) ::)
There is a lot more evidence directly linking holder to this than 911 did to Bush admn CTS
-
::) ::)
There is a lot more evidence directly linking holder to this than 911 did to Bush admn CTS
You dont know shit aobut that, hombre.
FBI hand-delivered a smoking gun document to white house, 5 weeks before 911.
bush told the agent "you've covered your ass".
The document, though highly redacted, listed the attack date, targets, and 5 of the hijackers. Know what happened? An exec order to shut down the investigation in hollywood, FL.
And, with bush, rummy, and condi in TX at the time - Nobody bothered to read the document that arrived by red eye from mueller in middle of night. Oh, and at the same time, 11 of our allies warned us too ;)
You translate that to obama...
11 of our allies and our own FBI hands Obama a document, detailing which gun store is about to sell the guns, which agents will be killed, and the motherfvcking date of the purchase. But Obama responds by SHUTTING DOWN that investigation then pretending there was no way we could have predicted such a thing.
Bush was WAY WORSE in terms of pre-event intel. Our allies warning us left and right. You're yelling for impeachment because Obama ignored memos. Seems you're okay with a repub does it, eh? ;)
-
You dont know shit aobut that, hombre.
FBI hand-delivered a smoking gun document to white house, 5 weeks before 911.
bush told the agent "you've covered your ass".
The document, though highly redacted, listed the attack date, targets, and 5 of the hijackers. Know what happened? An exec order to shut down the investigation in hollywood, FL.
And, with bush, rummy, and condi in TX at the time - Nobody bothered to read the document that arrived by red eye from mueller in middle of night. Oh, and at the same time, 11 of our allies warned us too ;)
You translate that to obama...
11 of our allies and our own FBI hands Obama a document, detailing which gun store is about to sell the guns, which agents will be killed, and the motherfvcking date of the purchase. But Obama responds by SHUTTING DOWN that investigation then pretending there was no way we could have predicted such a thing.
Bush was WAY WORSE in terms of pre-event intel. Our allies warning us left and right. You're yelling for impeachment because Obama ignored memos. Seems you're okay with a repub does it, eh? ;)
Link for proof?
-
33, i love ya bro, but i think you're a little ignorant as to just how far bush had to step out of the way to let 911 happen...
and then how he fought the invetigation for 441 days - and then clipped it all over the place.
You let that happen - THEN You will understand the frustration felt by 911 skeptics. Multiple that by 1500 deaths too, and sick ass spending for 2 wars afterwards.
-
33, i love ya bro, but i think you're a little ignorant as to just how far bush had to step out of the way to let 911 happen...
and then how he fought the invetigation for 441 days - and then clipped it all over the place.
You let that happen - THEN You will understand the frustration felt by 911 skeptics. Multiple that by 1500 deaths too, and sick ass spending for 2 wars afterwards.
Link for proof or STFU .
-
Link for proof?
Oh geez my blood is boiling, i have to log off getbig lmao...
you live in NYC, you dont know shit about the 911 investigation. Read this link - July 2001 thru 9/10/2011 warnings:
http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&before_9/11=warnings&startpos=300
Scoot down to the end of august. You have shit, dozens of countries begging us to stop the attacks. Hell, israel gave us 4 of their NAMES and issued weekly warnings. EGYPT told us it was going to happen. This one is cute - September 10, 2001: US Generals Warned Not to Fly on Morning of 9/11
The best part of the timeline is right AFTER the attacks - cheney and meurller telling cameras there were NO WARNINGS. Even after they had run in many foreign newspapers.
You know what, enjoy your fucking ignorance on this issue, and get your panties all riled up over this gun case. typical partisan politics.
-
now, learn about 911's similiarities to this bullshit - how bush censored truth and ignored warnings WAY worse...
or don't.
I dont give a shit about what another person thinks about 911, why should I. We're all smart in some areas and stupid in other areas. Keep on living this delusion that Bush had no clue about 911 and it was 19 pricks. I'm giving up on 911 discussion once and for fucking all. Ignorant fucking people raise my blood pressure.
-
'Fast and Furious' Whistleblowers Struggle Six Months After Testifying Against ATF Program
Fox News ^ | 11/30/2011 | William Lajeunesse
Six months ago, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stood before Congress to testify about the details of a U.S. government program that armed Mexico's largest drug cartel with thousands of assault rifles.
The administration denied it at the time and questioned the agents' integrity. The men were nervous and scared. They said they feared for their careers, their reputation and their families.
[Snip]
And while President Obama has said the operation was a mistake and that "people who screwed up will be held accountable," the record so far does not bear that out. Those in charge of the botched operation have been reassigned or promoted, their pensions intact...
Here's what has happened to the managers of the operation:
-- Acting ATF Chief Ken Melson, who oversaw the operation, is now an adviser in the Office of Legal Affairs. He remains in ATF's Washington, D.C., headquarters.
[Snip]
-- Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix Bill Newell, the man most responsible for directly overseeing Fast and Furious, was promoted to the Office of Management in Washington.
-- Phoenix Deputy Chief George Gillette was also promoted to Washington as ATF's liaison to the U.S. Marshal's Service.
-- Group Supervisor David Voth managed Fast and Furious... [Snip] ATF boosted Voth to chief of the ATF Tobacco Division, where he now supervises more employees in Washington than he ever did in Phoenix.
[Snip]
Special Agent Jay Dobyns, who is suing the agency for breach of contract, is skeptical...
[Snip]
Case in point, he said, is field agent John Dodson...[Snip]
And what did Dodson get for telling the truth? In Phoenix he was isolated, marginalized and referred to as a "nut job," "wing-nut" and "disgruntled,"...[Snip]
In Washington, ATF command ordered that "Contact with Dodson was detrimental to any ATF career."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
And while President Obama has said the operation was a mistake and that "people who screwed up will be held accountable," the record so far does not bear that out. Those in charge of the botched operation have been reassigned or promoted, their pensions intact...
Hey, guess what, 33? I said this shit would happen. Everyone gets PROMOTED, everyone gets to keep their jobs.
You keep your head down and mouth shut, and you land on your feet.
I know you had this hollywood dream of people testifying, some glorious courtroom revelation, obama crying on the stand... but these things always get cut off at knees long before 'trials'.
The govt learned when they tried to deliver fall guys for pearl harbor - those guys spilled their guts about who told them to stand down. All the 911 decision makers got promoted too, probably the same for most local terror acts, etc. I bet the waco and Ruby Ridge supervisors have moved up a great deal.
-
And while President Obama has said the operation was a mistake and that "people who screwed up will be held accountable," the record so far does not bear that out. Those in charge of the botched operation have been reassigned or promoted, their pensions intact...
Hey, guess what, 33? I said this shit would happen. Everyone gets PROMOTED, everyone gets to keep their jobs.
You keep your head down and mouth shut, and you land on your feet.
I know you had this hollywood dream of people testifying, some glorious courtroom revelation, obama crying on the stand... but these things always get cut off at knees long before 'trials'.
The govt learned when they tried to deliver fall guys for pearl harbor - those guys spilled their guts about who told them to stand down. All the 911 decision makers got promoted too, probably the same for most local terror acts, etc. I bet the waco and Ruby Ridge supervisors have moved up a great deal.
i guess this will have to be dealt with next year in the election, like all the other treason, criminality, and incompetence of obama
-
i guess this will have to be dealt with next year in the election, like all the other treason, criminality, and incompetence of obama
it won't be dealt with 33. There will be no justice. This is how real life works. this issue will go away because repubs will focus upon obama's christmas tree decorations or he didn't say God enough times in a speech.
-
it won't be dealt with 33. There will be no justice. This is how real life works. this issue will go away because repubs will focus upon obama's christmas tree decorations or he didn't say God enough times in a speech.
Like I said - I think Issa and Grassley are doing the drip drip drip to let the blood spill over time for obama campaign since they know obama will never appoint a special prosectur. So they probably figure they can hurt him electrorally with this.
-
White House withholding Solyndra records, House energy committee says
The Daily Caller ^ | 12/2/11 | C.J. Ciaramella
Despite a subpoena, the White House is still withholding records related to the failed $535 million federal loan to Solyndra, Republican investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Thursday.
In a letter to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler today, Republican committee Chairman Fred Upton and subcommittee chairman Cliff Stearns said the White House had not fully complied with the committee’s Nov. 3 subpoena for documents concerning the Solyndra loan.
“[D]ocuments already in the Committee’s possession clearly indicate that you have numerous other documents in your possession which are responsive to the subpoena, but which have not been produced,” the letter reads. “In order for the Committee to complete its investigation of the problems with the loan guarantee program and the related loss of taxpayer dollars, those documents must be produced to the Committee.”
The $535 million Department of Energy loan to Solyndra has been the target of intense public scrutiny and investigation by since the solar company declared bankruptcy on Aug. 31.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
-
..Justice Dept. details how it got statements wrong
By PETE YOST | AP – 14 mins ago....Email
http://news.yahoo.com/justice-dept-details-got-statements-wrong-215322145.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday provided Congress with documents detailing how the department gave inaccurate information to a U.S. senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border.
In a letter last February to Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had not sanctioned the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser and that the agency makes every effort to intercept weapons that have been purchased illegally. In connection with Operation Fast and Furious, both statements have turned out to be incorrect.
In a letter to the ATF last January, Grassley said the Senate Judiciary Committee had received allegations that the law enforcement agency had sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers. Grassley also wrote that two of the guns had been used in a shootout that killed customs agent Brian Terry.
In a subsequent email to Justice Department colleagues, then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Phoenix said that "Grassley's assertions regarding the Arizona investigation and the weapons recovered" at the "murder scene are based on categorical falsehoods. I worry that ATF will take 8 months to answer this when they should be refuting its underlying accusations right now." That email marked the start of an internal debate in the Justice Department over how much to say in response to Grassley's allegations. The fact that there was an ongoing criminal investigation into Terry's murder prompted some at the Justice Department to argue for less disclosure.
It is unusual for the Justice Department to provide the details of its internal deliberations.
The Justice Department provided 1,364 pages of documents to Congress after concluding "that we will make a rare exception to the department's recognized protocols and provide you with information related to how the inaccurate information came to be included in the letter," Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is looking into the Obama administration's handling of Operation Fast and Furious.
..
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Border Agent's Murder Brings Calls For Investigation
Investor's Business Daily ^ | December 2, 2011 | IBD Staff
Posted on December 2, 2011 8:29:34 PM EST by raptor22
Scandal: The Justice Department has sealed court records detailing the circumstances of a border patrol agent's murder by a Mexican drug cartel, including the fact U.S. agents were being hunted with U.S.-supplied weapons.
The murder of Border Patrol Agent Bryan Terry by Mexican drug cartels with weapons provided by his own government is a national disgrace.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who professes being out of the loop regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the ATF program that got Terry killed, is doing his best to keep the American people from the truth.
Holder's Justice Department has abruptly sealed court records in the indictment of Manuel Osorio-Arellanes and four other drug smugglers in Terry's murder.
What we know about the indictments is courtesy of the Washington Times, which obtained a copy before they were sealed.
According to the now-sealed indictments, Osorio-Arellanes and the four others who are fugitives and whose names were blacked out were patrolling the rugged Arizona desert with the intent to "intentionally and forcibly assault" Border Patrol agents.
They succeeded in their hunt, when these members of the Sinaloa cartel found and murdered Terry just 10 miles from the Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz.
The administration doesn't want it widely known that the situation on the border has deteriorated so badly that U.S. Border Patrol agents are being hunted down to be killed. Nor do they want it known that Osorio-Arellanes has a criminal past and this wasn't his first dealing with U.S. authorities.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
-
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57335983-10391695/justice-dept-fast-and-furious-emails-show-disagreement-over-response-to-grassley/?tag=contentMain;contentBody
Unreal. obama/holder = tag team of treason.
-
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-friday-night-doj-docu-dump.html
Incredible. How can anyone possibly defend this.
-
Congressman sends scathing letter to White House counsel over Solyndra subpoena
BY MICHAEL P. TREMOGLIE
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a scorching letter to White House counsel Kathyrn Ruemmler regarding a lack of compliance with the committee's subpoena related to Solyndra documents.
The letter states that rather than provide the information requested Ruemmler had "unilaterally redefined (and narrowed) the language of the Committee's subpoena."
The subpoena requested documents about the participation of the White House in a loan to the failed energy company.
Upton further accuses the White House of intentionally excluding documents which are in its possession that relate directly to the committee's inquiry.
"These and other documents already in the Committee's possession clearly indicate that you have numerous other documents in your possession which are responsive to the subpoena, but which have not been produced," the Dec. 1 letter states.
"In order for the Committee to complete its investigation of the problems with the loan guarantee program and the related loss of taxpayer dollars, those documents must be produced to the Committee."
Upton wrote that the refusal to make certain employees available to the committee was "simply unacceptable."
"These employees... were closely involved in the approval and review process for the Solyndra loan guarantee, and possess information critical to the Committee's investigation."
The letter concludes with Upton - and co-signer, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations Committee, stating that the refusal to cooperate is "only the latest in a series of attempts to impede this Committee's investigation into the loss of a half a billion dollars of taxpayer funds."
Calls to the White House were not returned in time for publication.
Filed Under: Hot Topics
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/234548-congressman-sends-scathing-letter-to-white-house-counsel-over-solyndra-subpoena
-
ATF memo describes operation designed to get guns to Mexico
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | Dec 2, 2011 | David Codrea
See the memo itself in the sidebar media player, obtained by Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and posted exclusively on Gun Rights Examiner.
[snip] [Of significance in the Styers memo Lajeunesse references but does not detail...]
“The most important observation of Styers is that the ATF end of this operation was by all law enforcement standards set up to fail,” Vanderboegh said in a phone conversation with this reporter moments ago. “Indeed, it seems Styers’ opinion was that this was designed to be a necessary fail.
“Styers describes an ATF operation that is deliberately incomplete, seeming to shield the individuals who received the weapons from the straw buyers” Vanderboegh continued. “His letter is consistent with what the whistleblowers told us early on.
“This is an operation that was designed to get guns to Mexico,” he concluded.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Memo Shows Early ATF Concern on Fast and Furious Probe Despite Claims (Exclusive new memo obtained)
Fox News ^ | 12/2/2011 | William Lajeunesse
While federal officials publicly denounced a lone whistleblower and told Congress the Obama administration had done everything it could to stop guns from going to Mexico, administration officials had signs that Fast and Furious investigators were losing track of weapons, a new memo obtained exclusively by Fox News suggests.
The memo, written in early February by Agent Gary Styers with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, appears to corroborate allegations made a few weeks earlier by whistleblower ATF Agent John Dodson about the gunrunning probe. It also conflicts with a letter from Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich to Congress, in which he insisted, "The allegation ... that ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons ... is false.”
[Snip]
And while Attorney General Eric Holder now admits Weich's letter was inaccurate, many in Congress feel deliberately misled.
[Snip]
Grassley says emails also show Burke spoke on Dec. 15, the day after Terry was shot, with Holder’s deputy chief of staff, Monty Wilkinson.
Shortly after that, the deputy director of the ATF made sure briefing papers were prepared about the Fast and Furious connection to Terry’s death and sent those to the deputy attorney general’s office at the Justice Department. Within 24 hours, Grassley said, they were forwarded to Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, accompanied by a personal email from one of Grindler’s assistants, explaining the situation. Two weeks later, Grindler was named Holder's chief of staff.
"So, a very important question is unanswered," Grassley said. "Why wouldn’t Mr. Grindler bring up these serious problems with Attorney General Holder? The Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security lost a man. ... And, if that’s not serious enough to brief up to the top of the department, then I don’t know what is."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
-
Mods,
Obama administration has classified documents related to this case.
Obviously this is sensitive sujbect matter, and allowing any discussion on F&F is on par with hating America.
I mean, really guys... move this to the CT board... The Govt says it's none of our business, so let's just delete this thing and stop helping the terrorists, okay?
thanks in advance guys
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Eric Holder Gets Furious Fast
Townhall.com ^ | December 4, 2011 | Doug Giles
Posted on December 4, 2011 9:28:14 PM EST by Kaslin
You know what makes me angry? Guys who use more than three words when ordering Starbucks coffee, lizards that steal quail eggs and speed walkers. That’s what makes me mad. You know what gets Eric Holder heated? Probing questions from young reporters.
Yep, apparently young charges from conservative news sites aren’t supposed to ask Attorney General Eric Holder any itchy questions.
Hope and change.
This past Tuesday the Daily Caller got duly damned by the big dog of the DOJ for asking him what he thinks about the 52 members of Congress, three presidential candidates and two sitting Governors calling for him to hang up his hat over the Fast & Furious fiasco.
Hope and change, plebeians.
For the uninitiated, i.e. those who only watch Rachel Maddow’s show, Fast & Furious was the brain fart that the ATF and the DOJ hatched that purposefully put thousands of semi-automatic U.S. weapons into the hands of fully automatic murderous Mexican drug cartels. Doh. This act of wizardry by the ATF/DOJ has led to the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans and at least one U.S. Border Agent, Brian Terry.
This just in (sorta): The Obama Administration has now abruptly sealed the court docs containing the staggering details of how Mexicans murdered Brian Terry via the weapons Obama’s gents provided. But I digress …
Hope and change.
Now, in a normal world one would expect investigations into the nuts and bolts of the nuts and dolts who spawned this egregious crap; however, in the weird world that is Obamaland, where up is down and down is up, any attempt to connect the dots and affix some blame by the not-so-free-press to BHO’s buddies is met with stern rebuke by our nation’s chief lawkeeper.
Hope and change, monkeys. Hope and change.
Mi amigo Matthew Boyle of Daily Caller fame, his senior colleague Neil Munro and Townhall.com’s femme fatale Katie Pavlich have been on this scandal like stink on a monkey from day one just trying to figure out the WTFs of this foul caper in which hundreds of people have died and of which hundreds of thousands of people would like to know exactly who ordered this retarded scheme. And that, my friend, is verboten in this current misnamed Department of Justice—which is strange because BHO promised all the young ‘uns that he was going to sport the most transparent administration ever, ever, ever. Yes, mister and miss twentysomething, the admin that promised you the moon is now … mooning you.
Which leads me to my Jerry Springer summation for this week’s musings: This goes out to all the young dudes in light of Holder’s finger wag this week. Please, do not—I repeat—do not cease to pursue truth and speak truth to power. Our grand country needs good cats like you who will hold our elected officials accountable to all the laws we commoners are expected to keep. So, my heat-seeking missiles: Please stay your course. You’re greatly appreciated. Don’t let their threats grind you down.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Fast & Furious Cover-up Grows Bigger
Townhall.com ^ | December 4, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
Posted on December 4, 2011 10:36:03 PM EST by Kaslin
The Fast & Furious scandal pot may be reaching the boiling point. Attorney General Eric Holder has maintained he knew nothing about the “gun walking” operation on the southern border that put thousands of high powered weapons into the hands of the Mexican gun cartel and led to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and increased the mayhem on both sides of the border.
He would have us believe that the operation was simply a misguided adventure involving a couple of rouge officers behaving badly way out west. Holder contends that even after Agent Terry’s murder in December, 2010, the subsequent extensive press coverage, and formal inquiries for information to DOJ by Members of Congress that Fast & Furious simply didn’t register high enough on priority meter to merit any attention from the Attorney General himself, and that F&F was a minor subplot at the Department of Justice. (See previous articles here)
However, 1364 pages of documents just released to Congressional investigators tell a very different story. It’s a story of “robust internal deliberations” at the highest levels of the Justice Department to craft denials and falsify the facts of the gun running operation leading up to a formal response sent to Senator Charles Grassley on February 4, 2011. Based on the release of these new documents, the Justice Department has withdrawn the February 2011, and is now going through a tortured effort to cover their considerably messy tracks.
In a letter sent to Congress on Friday, December 2, 2012 Deputy Attorney General James Cole said, “Facts have come to light during the course of this investigation that indicate the February 4 letter contains inaccuracies.” That would be DOJ-speak for “we lied.”
“Department personnel…relied on information provided by supervisors from the components in the best position to know the relevant facts: ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona…Information provided by those supervisors was inaccurate. We understand that, in transcribed interviews with congressional investigators, the supervisors have said that they did not know at the time the letter was drafted that information they provided was inaccurate.”
According to a lengthy expose in Politico.com, “A selection of documents the Justice Department released to reporters on Friday demonstrates that U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, ATF Acting Director Ken Melson and ATF Deputy Director William Hoover vigorously urged the department to issue a forceful and broad denial of the allegations.”
Burke, who was also a former chief-of-staff to Janet Napolitano, resigned in August. Melson was “reassigned.” But, the head-rolling from this scandal is likely far from done. Politico explains that the huge volume of newly released documents “shed little light on precisely where in the federal bureaucracy the erroneous denials originated and whether the misstatements were deliberate or the product of some confusion.” Resolving those questions remains a major focus of the ongoing investigation.
One of Holder’s key deputies, Lanny Breuer, must be particularly nervous over the newly released documents. Breuer, who heads the Criminal Division at DOJ, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Nov. 1 that “I cannot say for sure whether I saw a draft of the letter that was sent to you.” The “letter” referred to was the February 4, 2011 letter that DOJ now admits was “inaccurate.” In written testimony sent to Senator Grassley, Breuer also said he had “no recollection” of seeing the letter before it was sent.
However, as the Friday dump of documents indicates, Breuer forwarded versions of the letter from his official email to his personal gmail account on three occasions: once before it was sent and twice after.
Further, Breuer’s aid Jason Weinstein was deeply involved in the drafting and redrafting of the Feb. 4 letter. On Feb. 2 expressing frustration and how difficult it was to satisfy all concerned, Weinstein sent an email to both Breuer and Burke, “The Magna Carta was easier to get done than this was.” In another email addressed to both Breuer and Weinstein as the final draft was near completion Burke wrote, “Great job by you.” Breuer replied, “Thanks, Jason, as usual great work.”
James Cole, the Deputy AG who drew the short straw and sent the letter to Congress Friday retracting the Feb. 4, 2011 Letter-of-Lies is going to have some explaining to do, as well. The documents show that his chief deputy, Lisa Monaco, expressed serious reservations about the “categorically false” claims in the Feb. 4 letter that F&F guns were used to kill Agent Terry.
“Obviously we want to be 300% sure we can make such ‘categorical’ statement” she warned, but apparently to no avail.
To some degree, these new documents are just further confirmation of what was already known. That the Fast and Furious operation, and most particularly the cover-up following Agent Terry’s assassination, involved some of the most highly placed officials at the Department of Justice. While there has been no disclosure as of yet that the new 1364 pages implicate Eric Holder himself, we reaffirm our earlier conclusion that on May 3, 2011 the Attorney General perjured himself when he testified to Congress that he had only just learned of F&F “over the last few weeks.”
Briefing memos from Holder’s closest aides including Lanny Breuer indicate Holder knew – or had an obligation to have known - of F&F as early as July, 2010, five months before Brian Terry was gunned down. Holder’s top aides have now been implicated in a cover-up plot to deny Congress, the American people, and Agent Terry’s family from knowing the truth of an ill-conceived, shameful operation that extended to the highest levels of government. And, yet, to date all Barack Obama has said of the scandal is, “I have complete confidence in Attorney General Holder.” And, for the record, the “I was not aware” defense invoked by Holder and Breuer is also the defense of choice by the President, too. Time will tell.
-
White House denies reports Obama knew of ‘Fast and Furious’in 2010
Daily Caller ^ | 12/4/11 | Matthew Boyle
A White House spokesman pointed Friday to an account published by the left-wing advocacy group Media Matters for America in its denial of three online claims that President Barack Obama was briefed about the failed “Operation Fast and Furious” gun-walking program in 2010. According to recently released White House visitor logs, then-Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler was admitted to the White House four times in 2010 between May 7 and May 19. The Los Angeles Times has reported that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program was at its peak during May 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Fast & furious lies
By MICHAEL A. WALSH
Last Updated: 11:31 PM, December 4, 2011
________________________ ________________________ ______
It was all a lie. The angry denials, the high dudgeon, the how-dare-you accuse-us bleating emanating from Eric Holder’s Justice Department these last nine months.
Operation Fast and Furious — the “botched” gun-tracking program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — did, in fact, deliberately allow some 2,000 high-powered weapons to be sold to Mexican drug cartel agents and then waltzed across the border and into the Mexican drug wars — just as Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, who are leading the congressional investigations, have charged all along.
That’s the conclusion we can draw from Friday night’s nearly 1,400-page document dump, which gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of the Justice Department as it struggled earlier this year to come up with an explanation for the deadly mess — and “misled” Congress.
Now the man who supervised it, Attorney General Holder, will appears before Congress again Thursday to testify in the exploding fiasco. But there’s really only one question he needs to answer: Why?
Why did Justice, the ATF and an alphabet soup of federal agencies facilitate the transfer of guns across the border — without the knowledge of Mexican authorities — when they knew they couldn’t trace them properly?
The scandal erupted late last year, after at least two F&F weapons were found at the southern Arizona scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder. Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Justice for an explanation.
The response was a Feb. 4 letter from assistant AG Ron Weich, who insisted, “The allegation . . . that ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons . . . is false.” The ATF, Weich went on, “makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.”
That letter has now been formally withdrawn. “Facts have come to light during the course of this investigation that indicate the Feb. 4 letter contains inaccuracies,” wrote deputy attorney general James Cole on Friday.
Nice to finally see the government admitting what we’ve known all along — that according to ATF whistleblowers, Fast and Furious was an ill-advised, poorly supervised mess that was doomed from the start.
Fox News recently unearthed a Feb. 3 memo in which ATF agent Gary Styers recounted to his superiors his conversations with Grassley’s investigators: “It is unheard of to have an active wiretap investigation without full-time, dedicated surveillance units on the ground,” he wrote, adding that objections by agents were “widely disregarded.”
Again — why? Perhaps the point was to put the onus for the Mexican drug violence on the American “gun lobby.” The newly released e-mails show Dennis Burke, the since-fired US attorney in Arizona who supervised the operation, furiously pushing back against Grassley and his staff, calling them “willing stooges for the Gun Lobby.”
Holder has insisted he knew nothing about F&F, but the documents show his underlings’ fingerprints. Weich’s original “misleading letter, for example, was edited by Jason Weinstein, a deputy to Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who forwarded various drafts to his boss.
But Breuer (who reports to Holder) has denied that he had anything to do with drafting or editing Weich’s letter and doesn’t even remember reviewing it before it went to Congress.
So who’s telling the truth?
Meanwhile, Holder spins that F&F was merely a continuation of the Bush-era Operation Wide Receiver, which also lost a few weapons. The difference is that Wide Receiver’s mistakes were inadvertent: That gun-tracking program was under tight surveillance and — unlike F&F — was a joint venture between the US and Mexican authorities.
It’s time for the months of lies to end — but don’t hold your breath. The administration recently sealed the court records relating to agent Terry’s murder and — a year later — the one man arrested hasn’t been tried.
So far, three presidential candidates, a couple of senators and more than 50 congressmen have called for Holder to resign. If he can’t answer the one question that matters — why — that number ought to include his boss.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fast_furious_lies_0EAFsSpd9y1RaeAxikkGUN#ixzz1ffDayejJ
And some of your scumbags and 95%ers want to vote for this asshole again?
-
Gunwalker: Justice Dept. Violated US Laws Beyond Those Being Investigated
PJ Media ^ | December 5, 2011 | James K. Stinebower
Posted on December 5, 2011 9:52:24 AM EST by Kaslin
As we continue to watch the general uproar over the Operation Fast and Furious program, and specifically what Attorney General Holder knew and when he knew it, it needs to be noted that perjury is not the only apparent violation of law to have occurred.
I refer to the apparent violation of at least one (probably two) major U.S. laws by the Holder Justice Department. A few years ago, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701, the follow-on to the Trading with the Enemy Act) was expanded in order to criminalize any transactions between U.S. entities — to include departments and agencies of the U.S. government — and all foreign drug cartels.
I am familiar with these prohibitive statues because several years ago, while serving as the senior drug analyst for the Senate Intelligence Committee, I was tasked to initiate and became the principal drafter of legislation which became known as the Kingpin Act (21 U.S.C. §§ 1901-08). The Kingpin Act is an extension of the highly successful IEEPA sanctioning program specifically targeting Colombian drug cartels. It expands sanctions authority against various drug cartel operations worldwide — including Mexico — which have been determined by the president to be threats to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.
A violation of any of the IEEPA sanctioning programs or the Kingpin Act carries stiff penalties, both criminal and civil, and potentially totaling decades in prison and tens of millions of dollars in fines. It is not necessary that an individual or governmental entity be shown to have “knowingly” violated any of these programs: it is illegal for any U.S. entity or individual to aid, abet, or materially assist — or in the case of Operation Fast and Furious, to facilitate others to aid, abet, or materially assist — designated drug traffickers. There are no exceptions within IEEPA programs for unlicensed U.S. law enforcement or intelligence agency operations.
Based on the July 5, 2010, memo to Eric Holder, it would appear that Fast and Furious facilitated the delivery of weapons to — at a minimum — the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, which administers both the IEEPA and Kingpin Act programs, has designated numerous members of the Sinaloa cartel under both programs. IEEPA prohibitions apply to the U.S. government as well as to individuals, and as stated there are no exceptions within IEEPA programs for unlicensed U.S. law enforcement or intelligence agency operations.
There is a provision in the Kingpin Act for “authorized” law enforcement and intelligence activities, however the only procedure by which an Operation Fast and Furious program could have been “authorized” under the Kingpin Act was by the U.S. attorney general requesting a waiver (known within the Treasury Department as a Specific License), prior to any such operation being undertaken. To illustrate and emphasize this point: even during the run-up to war in Iraq, the U.S. secretary of Defense had to obtain waivers (specific licenses) from the Treasury Department to allow U.S. Special Forces and their necessary equipment (to include weapons, intelligence gathering, and targeting gear) to go into Iraq, as Iraq at the time was under separate IEEPA sanctions.
As an aside: having spent many hours in discussions and negotiations over the exception in the Kingpin Act for authorized law enforcement and the intelligence community, I can assure the reader that the intent of this provision was not to allow for the transfer of thousands of semi-automatic weapons to cartel members. The intent of this portion of this particular Act is to allow for cash payments by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to confidential informants and intelligence sources within cartels to aid in their dismantlement, and not to facilitate the transfer of weapons used to murder hundreds of innocent civilians in Mexico and a U.S. Federal Border Agent.
As part of Congress’ ongoing investigation, as well as its constitutionally mandated oversight activities, it should be asked of Attorney General Holder if any such specific licenses were requested or granted by the Treasury Department. Additionally, Treasury Secretary Geithner should explain whether his Department has begun an investigation into these apparent violations of IEEPA and the Kingpin Act.
Interestingly, and of serious note — if Secretary Geithner finds that the laws and programs which his Department administers have been violated, Treasury procedures mandate that the matter be referred to Eric Holder’s Justice Department for enforcement!
Perhaps the appointment of a special prosecutor is necessary after all.
-
Obama = Criminal and ghetto thug looter.
-
DOJ cover-up of Fast and Furious coming apart at the seams
Coachis Right ^ | 12/05/2011 | Doug Book
The Department of Justice cover up of Operation Fast and Furious, begun literally hours after the December, 2010 shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, is coming apart at the seams.
In yet another Friday evening document dump, the Obama Administration provided Congress and an increasingly interested American public “…documents detailing how the [DOJ] gave inaccurate information to a US senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious.”
In short, after spending months in all out deny and obfuscate mode, stonewalling congressional investigators and depending upon nearly universal media silence to make the issue go away, the AG Eric Holder-led Department of Justice has begun to offer up damning, self-incriminating information to its principle antagonists—Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa.
And that means just one thing—Holder and the DOJ no longer have a choice!
On February 3rd, ATF Agent Gary Styers addressed a memo to top officials of the Bureau. In it he corroborated the testimony fellow Agent John Dodson had provided Senator Grassley one week earlier, asserting Dodson was quite correct in claims that the Bureau “divided and isolated agents” while facilitating the deliberate “walking” of guns across the Mexican border.
One day later, Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich addressed his own letter to Congress, stating unequivocally that “the allegation …that ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons…is ‘false.”
Former US Attorney for Phoenix Dennis Burke and former Phoenix branch ATF Agent in Charge Bill Newell spent months adhering to the phony claims made by Weich.
But overwhelming evidence of criminal ATF behavior coupled with the growing realization that the Regime would have no compunction about serving them up as scapegoats to relentless committee investigators finally forced the pair to fess up.
And now the DOJ is backtracking...
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
"Gunwalker": Agent's family wants death details
CBS News ^ | November 9, 2011 | NA
A Senate committee investigating the so-called "gunwalking" scandal spent hours Tuesday questioning Attorney General Eric Holder, who testified that "Operation Fast and Furious," which has been tied to the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, should never happen again.
Agent Brian Terry was gunned down in Arizona near the Mexican border 11 months ago. Two assault rifles that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allegedly let walk into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in "Fast and Furious" were found at the scene.
CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, who broke this story, has spoken exclusively with the agent's family. Terry's family told Attkisson they still have few details about the true circumstances of his death. They watched the Senate hearing, hoping to find some answers.
At the session, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked Holder if he would "like to apologize today for this program that went so wrong, that took the life of a United States law enforcement agent."
Holder said, "I certainly regret what happened to agent Brian Terry. It is not fair, however, to assume that the mistakes that happened in 'Fast and Furious' directly led to the death of agent Terry."
Brian Terry's father, Kent, and his mother, Josie, shared their thoughts on the testimony with Attkisson.
Josie Terry said of Holder, "I thought he was very evasive. I thought that this was his second time around, and I still didn't get anything out of it -- at all. Seems like all the questions that he was asked, he was evading or throwing someone else underneath the bus."
Kent Terry added, "We've heard five different stories, and every time we hear (a new) one, (it) is different. We never got a straight answer."
For the first time, Brian's parents -- who are divorced-- spoke at length about saying goodbye to their son -- a former Marine -- and their long search for answers.
Josie Terry said, "The last time Brian was home, we were just talking about something and he said, 'You know, Mom,' he said something bad is going to happen. He said, 'I just have that feeling.' He said, 'Somebody's going to get hurt."'
Brian's mom watches videos of him on the computer. His dad says he finds it hard to visit his son's grave.
Kent Terry said, "It's rough. I can answer, it's been pure hell is what it's been."
Josie Terry said, "I just remember things he said. I don't know. I can't explain it. He always looked out for me. And I miss that."
Both say they're still waiting for some official to take responsibility for the gunwalking operation that allegedly trafficked the weapons found at the murder scene.
Josie Terry said, "I couldn't believe that something like that would happen. I just couldn't believe that they would let those guns go across the border, and all them other innocent people in Mexico would get killed with those same guns."
For more on this investigation, visit CBS Investigates.
"Like my mom used to tell me, that lie's gonna catch up with you," Kent Terry said. "That's what's gonna happen to them. It's gonna catch up to them."
Josie Terry added, "I think that they know they did wrong, and if it wasn't for Brian's death I don't think -- I think this would still being going on."
"I think he'd want justice for them guns going over the border," Kent Terry said. "It's not right, and I think our politicians who were involved in it should pay -- pay the price."
Josie said, "Brian loved his country. Brian was a true Marine, he was a true American. When Brian was a Marine, he used to always say you never leave a man behind. And I think they're leaving my son behind, that's what I think. And I know that would be a disgrace to him."
Attkisson added on "The Early Show," "The Terry family says they're at such a loss for information, they're planning to file a wrongful death claim against the federal government to shake the tree and try to bring some details and closure their way."
This is the most disgusting asshole to ever hold office. And as bad as he is, those who voted for him and plan to do so again are even worse.
-
Obama's Global Godfather Dragged in with CH2M Hill Scandal Tide?
Free Press ^ | 12/4/2011 | Judi McLeod
Rusty Weiss's fully documented expose of CH2M Hill—the multinational that was awarded $2-billion in stimulus money—dragged something unexpected in with the tide: proof of President Barack Obama's Global Godfather.
Obama's Global Godfather is Canadian UN Poster Boy Maurice Strong—employed by CH2M Hill as chairman of its influential International Advisory Board.
Followers of the global poohbah money track have known since his arrival in the Oval Office that Obama's puppet strings were being pulled by George Soros. Now they can officially add Soros' one-time business partner in the failed Chinese Chery automobile project, Maurice Strong.
Taking in the scope of the combined power of Soros and Strong, it's no wonder that the puppet dances and gyrates on puppeteer strings while the Fundamental Transformation of America is closer with each passing day.
With those in the know still reeling from the shock of discovering that CH2M Hill was awarded more than three times as much funding as the now bankrupt Solyndra, George and Maurice the puppet masters remain off the radar screen.
In Weiss's The Case of CH2M Hill: $2 Billion in Crony Stimulation, he warns that of the companies involved in the Solyndra scandal, CH2M Hill "should be next on the House GOP radar, having used nearly $10 million in stimulus funding to design the elaborate Solyndra facility in Fremont, California."
Just for openers with their millions of dollars in pocket, "CH2M Hill clearly outdid themselves on the Solyndra project, building a facility the likes that had never been seen before in the heart of the Silicon Valley. The facility covers 300,000 square feet, ran a price tag of $733 million, and was equated by some to the Taj Mahal. Bloomberg News reported on some of the extravagant amenities..amenities which might surprise for a company using taxpayer funds to maintain operations.
"It wasn't just any factory. When it it was completed at an estimated cost of $733 million, including proceeds from a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, it covered 300,000 square feet, the equivalent of five football fields. It had robots that whistled Disney tunes, spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature, and glass-walled conference rooms.
"All on your dime."
"Why, having been awarded more than three times as much funding as Solyndra, has CH2M Hill escaped serious scrutiny," Weiss asks in his exposé. "Perhaps it is the significant donations and lobbying efforts they have doled out, targeting key Democrats in charge of the stimulus, or the revolving door of employees and White House administrative positions that have allowed them to continue their dominance in procuring government funding."
Besides being a "consistent government favorite" for taxpayer money and the 60% of nearly $65,000 in campaign finances to Democrats, what is CH2M Hill's main claim to fame?
From Wikipedia: "CH2M Hill is an American-based global provider of engineering, construction, and operations services for corporations, nonprofits, and federal, state, and local governments. The firm is headquartered in Meridian, an unincorporated area of Douglas County, Colorado in the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area. The postal designation of nearby Englewood is commonly listed as the company's location in corporate filings and local news accounts. As of December 2010 CH2M Hill had 23,000 employees, and 2010 revenues totaled approximately $6.3 billion.[2] The firm is employee-owned,[1] with an internal stock market that operates buy/sell events quarterly."
These are the big boys of big business; big politics.
CH2M Hill was one of the prime contractors in Iraq, its job to oversee other on-site contractors. It was also the leading U.S. contractor in Sri Lanka after the tsunami. In the aftermath of Katrina-devastated New Orleans, it was one of the companies that landed the contract to build trailer parks.
CH2M Hill has also shown up in the weirdest of places. For example, when the controversial Maurice Strong-led Earth Council took flight from the Costa Rican government which had been pursuing the Earth Council for payment of U.S. $1.65 million for the wrongful sale of land it imprudently donated to the Council, the Earth Council files and folders landed with no fanfare, in CH2M Hill's Consumer Road Toronto office towers, where as far as is known, they remain to the present day.
The international political influence of CH2M Hill would have to be rated as monumental.
Strong, who hightailed it to China in the fall out from the United Nations Oil for Food scandal, and where he remains to this day, was described thus by Nicholas Sonntag, a Canadian who heads up the Beijing office of CH2M Hill: "They (China) are taking a big risk. They're determined to be the economic engine of the world. This is why Maurice Strong is here—to help them think things through."
Compared to Communist China, Barack Obama would be a piece of cake.
SOURCE: Canada Free Press
Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, and Glenn Beck.
Judi can be emailed at:judi@canadafreepress.com Older articles by Judi McLeod
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Justice Dept. Caught In Lie About 'Fast And Furious'
Investor's Business Daily ^ | December 5, 2011 | IBD staff
Posted on December 5, 2011 10:20:05 PM EST by raptor22
Scandal: The Justice Department has formally withdrawn a letter to Congress denying it sanctioned or allowed guns to be transferred to Mexico because it contained "inaccuracies." That's one way of putting it.
Back in February, Assistant Attorney General Ron Welch, in response to the investigations by Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Fast and Furious gun "walking" program run out of ATF's Phoenix office, wrote a letter stating that the "allegation that ATF 'sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons is false."
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Welch contended, "makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico." Another Friday document dump has confirmed what agent testimony and other information have already shown — this letter, and almost everything in it, was a complete fabrication.
Coincidentally on Friday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, in another letter to Congress, wrote: "Facts have come to light during the course of this investigation that indicate the Feb. 4 letter contains inaccuracies." In other words, the Department of Justice lied to Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
-
Legal U.S. gun sales to Mexico arming cartels
By Sharyl Attkisson .44 Comments
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500202_162-57337289/legal-u.s-gun-sales-to-mexico-arming-cartels
(CBS News) Selling weapons to Mexico - where cartel violence is out of control - is controversial because so many guns fall into the wrong hands due to incompetence and corruption. The Mexican military recently reported nearly 9,000 police weapons "missing."
Yet the U.S. has approved the sale of more guns to Mexico in recent years than ever before through a program called "direct commercial sales." It's a program that some say is worse than the highly-criticized "Fast and Furious" gunrunning scandal, where U.S. agents allowed thousands of weapons to pass from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.
CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson discovered that the official tracking all those guns sold through "direct commercial sales" leaves something to be desired.
One weapon - an AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle - tells the story. In 2006, this same kind of rifle - tracked by serial number - is legally sold by a U.S. manufacturer to the Mexican military.
Three years later - it's found in a criminal stash in a region wracked by Mexican drug cartel violence.
That prompted a "sensitive" cable, uncovered by WikiLeaks, dated June 4, 2009, in which the U.S. State Department asked Mexico "how the AR-15" - meant only for the military or police - was "diverted" into criminal hands.
And, more importantly, where the other rifles from the same shipment went: "Please account for the current location of the 1,030 AR-15 type rifles," reads the cable.
There's no response in the record.
The problem of weapons legally sold to Mexico - then diverted to violent cartels - is becoming more urgent. That's because the U.S. has quietly authorized a massive escalation in the number of guns sold to Mexico through "direct commercial sales." It's a way foreign countries can acquire firearms faster and with less disclosure than going through the Pentagon.
Here's how it works: A foreign government fills out an application to buy weapons from private gun manufacturers in the U.S. Then the State Department decides whether to approve.
And it did approve 2,476 guns to be sold to Mexico in 2006. In 2009, that number was up nearly 10 times, to 18,709. The State Department has since stopped disclosing numbers of guns it approves, and wouldn't give CBS News figures for 2010 or 2011.
With Mexico in a virtual state of war with its cartels, nobody's tracking how many U.S. guns are ending up with the enemy.
"I think most Americans are aware that there's a problem in terms of the drug traffickers in Mexico, increases in violence," said Bill Hartung, an arms control advocate with the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. "I don't think they realize that we're sending so many guns there, and that some of them may be diverted to the very cartels that we're trying to get under control."
The State Department audits only a tiny sample - less than 1 percent of sales - but the results are disturbing: In 2009, more than a quarter (26 percent) of the guns sold to the region that includes Mexico were "diverted" into the wrong hands, or had other "unfavorable" results.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation's Larry Keane, who speaks for gun manufacturers, said he understands the potential for abuse.
"There have been 150,000 or more Mexican soldiers defect to go work for the cartels, and I think it's safe to assume that when they defect they take their firearms with them," Keane told CBS News.
But Keane said the sales help the U.S.
"These sales by the industry actually support U.S. national security interests," Keane told Attkisson. "If they didn't, the State Department wouldn't allow them."
"Do they need better oversight?" asked Attkisson.
"It's certainly for the State Department and the Mexican government to try to make sure that the cartels don't obtain firearms that way," he replied. "But that's really beyond the control of the industry."
Mexico is now one of the world's largest purchasers of U.S. guns through direct commercial sales, beating out countries like Iraq. The State Department office that oversees the sales wouldn't agree to an interview. But an official has told Congress their top priority is to advance national security and foreign policy.
________________________ ________________________ ___________________
so now we know Hillary was in on this too along w State Department. nice.
-
Year Item Amount Pres. Sec. State
1996 Machine Gun (All Types) 1 Clinton Warren Christopher
1996 Rifle M-16 (All Models) 50 Clinton Warren Christopher
1997 Rifle AR-15 1,080 Clinton Madeleine Albright
1997 Rifle M-16 (All Models) 3,193 Clinton Madeleine Albright
1998 Rifle AR-15 1,292 Clinton Madeleine Albright
1998 Rifle M-16 (All Models) 954 Clinton Madeleine Albright
1999 Rifle M-16 (All Models) 3,053 Clinton Madeleine Albright
2000 - 0 Bush Colin Powell
2001 - 0 Bush Colin Powell
2002 Rifle AR-15 500 Bush Colin Powell
2003 Rifle AR-15 464 Bush Colin Powell
2004 Rifle AR-15 77 Bush Colin Powell
2005 Rifle AR-15 2,886 Bush Condoleezza Rice
2006 Rifle Ar-15 919 Bush Condoleezza Rice
2008 Full automatic firearms 121 Bush Condoleezza Rice
2009 Full automatic firearms 1,361 Bammy Hillery
2010 2,547,074 Bammy Hillery
Category I- Firearms,
Close Assault Weapons,
and Combat Shotguns
http://justf.org/Sales_Detail?program=Direct_Commercial_Sales&country=Mexico
Yep. Thats right. Bammy/Hitlery, 2,547,074
-
Fast & Furious Cover-up Grows Bigger
townhall.com ^ | 4 December, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
The Fast & Furious scandal pot may be reaching the boiling point. Attorney General Eric Holder has maintained he knew nothing about the “gun walking” operation on the southern border that put thousands of high powered weapons into the hands of the Mexican gun cartel and led to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and increased the mayhem on both sides of the border.
He would have us believe that the operation was simply a misguided adventure involving a couple of rouge officers behaving badly way out west. Holder contends that even after Agent Terry’s murder in December, 2010, the subsequent extensive press coverage, and formal inquiries for information to DOJ by Members of Congress that Fast & Furious simply didn’t register high enough on priority meter to merit any attention from the Attorney General himself, and that F&F was a minor subplot at the Department of Justice. (See previous articles here)
However, 1364 pages of documents just released to Congressional investigators tell a very different story. It’s a story of “robust internal deliberations” at the highest levels of the Justice Department to craft denials and falsify the facts of the gun running operation leading up to a formal response sent to Senator Charles Grassley on February 4, 2011. Based on the release of these new documents, the Justice Department has withdrawn the February 2011, and is now going through a tortured effort to cover their considerably messy tracks.
In a letter sent to Congress on Friday, December 2, 2012 Deputy Attorney General James Cole said, “Facts have come to light during the course of this investigation that indicate the February 4 letter contains inaccuracies.” That would be DOJ-speak for “we lied.”
“Department personnel…relied on information provided by supervisors from the components in the best position to know the relevant facts: ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona…Information provided by those supervisors was inaccurate. We understand that, in transcribed interviews with congressional investigators, the supervisors have said that they did not know at the time the letter was drafted that information they provided was inaccurate.”
According to a lengthy expose in Politico.com, “A selection of documents the Justice Department released to reporters on Friday demonstrates that U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, ATF Acting Director Ken Melson and ATF Deputy Director William Hoover vigorously urged the department to issue a forceful and broad denial of the allegations.”
Burke, who was also a former chief-of-staff to Janet Napolitano, resigned in August. Melson was “reassigned.” But, the head-rolling from this scandal is likely far from done. Politico explains that the huge volume of newly released documents “shed little light on precisely where in the federal bureaucracy the erroneous denials originated and whether the misstatements were deliberate or the product of some confusion.” Resolving those questions remains a major focus of the ongoing investigation.
One of Holder’s key deputies, Lanny Breuer, must be particularly nervous over the newly released documents. Breuer, who heads the Criminal Division at DOJ, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Nov. 1 that “I cannot say for sure whether I saw a draft of the letter that was sent to you.” The “letter” referred to was the February 4, 2011 letter that DOJ now admits was “inaccurate.” In written testimony sent to Senator Grassley, Breuer also said he had “no recollection” of seeing the letter before it was sent.
However, as the Friday dump of documents indicates, Breuer forwarded versions of the letter from his official email to his personal gmail account on three occasions: once before it was sent and twice after.
Further, Breuer’s aid Jason Weinstein was deeply involved in the drafting and redrafting of the Feb. 4 letter. On Feb. 2 expressing frustration and how difficult it was to satisfy all concerned, Weinstein sent an email to both Breuer and Burke, “The Magna Carta was easier to get done than this was.” In another email addressed to both Breuer and Weinstein as the final draft was near completion Burke wrote, “Great job by you.” Breuer replied, “Thanks, Jason, as usual great work.”
James Cole, the Deputy AG who drew the short straw and sent the letter to Congress Friday retracting the Feb. 4, 2011 Letter-of-Lies is going to have some explaining to do, as well. The documents show that his chief deputy, Lisa Monaco, expressed serious reservations about the “categorically false” claims in the Feb. 4 letter that F&F guns were used to kill Agent Terry. “Obviously we want to be 300% sure we can make such ‘categorical’ statement” she warned, but apparently to no avail.
To some degree, these new documents are just further confirmation of what was already known. That the Fast and Furious operation, and most particularly the cover-up following Agent Terry’s assassination, involved some of the most highly placed officials at the Department of Justice. While there has been no disclosure as of yet that the new 1364 pages implicate Eric Holder himself, we reaffirm our earlier conclusion that on May 3, 2011 the Attorney General perjured himself when he testified to Congress that he had only just learned of F&F “over the last few weeks.”
Briefing memos from Holder’s closest aides including Lanny Breuer indicate Holder knew – or had an obligation to have known - of F&F as early as July, 2010, five months before Brian Terry was gunned down. Holder’s top aides have now been implicated in a cover-up plot to deny Congress, the American people, and Agent Terry’s family from knowing the truth of an ill-conceived, shameful operation that extended to the highest levels of government. And, yet, to date all Barack Obama has said of the scandal is, “I have complete confidence in Attorney General Holder.” And, for the record, the “I was not aware” defense invoked by Holder and Breuer is also the defense of choice by the President, too. Time will tell.
-
Just another Bam scandal
New York Post ^ | 12/06/2011 | staff
So it’s not just solar-energy boondoggles when it comes to the Obama White House rewarding top Obama donors.
And now, even a top Democrat is asking some serious questions.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has officially called on the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general to investigate a suspicious $433 million no-bid contract for a dubious smallpox vaccine.
Frankly, just about everything connected with this one smells.
The contract was awarded to Siga Technologies, a New York-based company whose principal investor is megabillionaire — and key Democratic moneyman — Ron Perelman.
WireImage
Ron Perelman
Its board includes another key Democratic figure: Andy Stern, former head of the powerful SEIU union — who, it’s been reported, was given stock options that would dramatically increase in value if Siga won the contract.
Siga has been hired to provide 1.7 million doses of its smallpox vaccine for the Strategic National Stockpile.
But its vaccine is considerably more expensive — $255 a dose — than the one now in use and has a significantly shorter shelf life: 38 months, although the contract requires a 60-month span.
According to internal e-mails recently revealed by The Los Angeles Times, HHS’ chief medical officer called Siga’s 180 percent markup on the vaccine “outrageous.”
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/just_another_bam_scandal_0Vch1oXCvoxaTaxBMwIGAM#ixzz1frBcjX7A
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
-
Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations
CBS ^ | December 7, 2011 1:44 PM | Sharyl Attkisson
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57338546-10391695/documents-atf-used-fast-and-furious-to-make-the-case-for-gun-regulations
Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline
In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.
On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:
"Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks."
On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as "(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale on Long Guns issue." And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed Newell: "Bill--well done yesterday... (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case."
This revelation angers gun rights advocates. Larry Keane, a spokesman for National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, calls the discussion of Fast and Furious to argue for Demand Letter 3 "disappointing and ironic." Keane says it's "deeply troubling" if sales made by gun dealers "voluntarily cooperating with ATF's flawed 'Operation Fast & Furious' were going to be used by some individuals within ATF to justify imposing a multiple sales reporting requirement for rifles."
The Gun Dealers' Quandary
Several gun dealers who cooperated with ATF told CBS News and Congressional investigators they only went through with suspicious sales because ATF asked them to.
Sometimes it was against the gun dealer's own best judgment.
Read the email
In April, 2010 a licensed gun dealer cooperating with ATF was increasingly concerned about selling so many guns. "We just want to make sure we are cooperating with ATF and that we are not viewed as selling to the bad guys," writes the gun dealer to ATF Phoenix officials, "(W)e were hoping to put together something like a letter of understanding to alleviate concerns of some type of recourse against us down the road for selling these items."
Read the email
ATF's group supervisor on Fast and Furious David Voth assures the gun dealer there's nothing to worry about. "We (ATF) are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into detail."
Two months later, the same gun dealer grew more agitated.
"I wanted to make sure that none of the firearms that were sold per our conversation with you and various ATF agents could or would ever end up south of the border or in the hands of the bad guys. I guess I am looking for a bit of reassurance that the guns are not getting south or in the wrong hands...I want to help ATF with its investigation but not at the risk of agents (sic) safety because I have some very close friends that are US Border Patrol agents in southern AZ as well as my concern for all the agents (sic) safety that protect our country."
"It's like ATF created or added to the problem so they could be the solution to it and pat themselves on the back," says one law enforcement source familiar with the facts. "It's a circular way of thinking."
The Justice Department and ATF declined to comment. ATF officials mentioned in this report did not respond to requests from CBS News to speak with them.
The "Demand Letter 3" Debate
The two sides in the gun debate have long clashed over whether gun dealers should have to report multiple rifle sales. On one side, ATF officials argue that a large number of semi-automatic, high-caliber rifles from the U.S. are being used by violent cartels in Mexico. They believe more reporting requirements would help ATF crack down. On the other side, gun rights advocates say that's unconstitutional, and would not make a difference in Mexican cartel crimes.
Two earlier Demand Letters were initiated in 2000 and affected a relatively small number of gun shops. Demand Letter 3 was to be much more sweeping, affecting 8,500 firearms dealers in four southwest border states: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. ATF chose those states because they "have a significant number of crime guns traced back to them from Mexico." The reporting requirements were to apply if a gun dealer sells two or more long guns to a single person within five business days, and only if the guns are semi-automatic, greater than .22 caliber and can be fitted with a detachable magazine.
On April 25, 2011, ATF announced plans to implement Demand Letter 3. The National Shooting Sports Foundation is suing the ATF to stop the new rules. It calls the regulation an illegal attempt to enforce a law Congress never passed. ATF counters that it has reasonably targeted guns used most often to "commit violent crimes in Mexico, especially by drug gangs."
Reaction
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is investigating Fast and Furious, as well as the alleged use of the case to advance gun regulations. "There's plenty of evidence showing that this administration planned to use the tragedies of Fast and Furious as rationale to further their goals of a long gun reporting requirement. But, we've learned from our investigation that reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions. It's pretty clear that the problem isn't lack of burdensome reporting requirements."
On July 12, 2011, Sen. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) wrote Attorney General Eric Holder, whose Justice Department oversees ATF. They asked Holder whether officials in his agency discussed how "Fast and Furious could be used to justify additional regulatory authorities." So far, they have not received a response. CBS News asked the Justice Department for comment and context on ATF emails about Fast and Furious and Demand Letter 3, but officials declined to speak with us.
"In light of the evidence, the Justice Department's refusal to answer questions about the role Operation Fast and Furious was supposed to play in advancing new firearms regulations is simply unacceptable," Rep. Issa told CBS News.
-
BREAKING:
Senator Grassley Calls for Assistant A.G.’s Resignation from Senate Floor over ‘Fast and Furious’
by AWR Hawkins
On October 18, 2010, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer sent communiqués to Attorney General Eric Holder alerting the A.G. that indictments over Fast and Furious could be forthcoming. This alert came on the heels of briefings on Fast and Furious which were sent to Holder at least as early July 2010. Yet although Fast and Furious was the topic of such correspondence and the focus of such briefings, in February 2011 Breuer told Congress he knew nothing about the gun walking tactics which had been used in the operation. His contention was that he only learned of the tactics once Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry had been killed in December 2010.
More recently, however, Breuer has decided he knew about the gun walking aspects of Fast and Furious as early as April 2010. But he continues to carry water for the DOJ by saying that although he knew, he never took the time to tell Holder about the gun walking.
How many lies can these people tell before someone changes the locks on their office doors and takes away their parking credentials?
Senator Charles Grassley, for one, has had enough, and just today officially called for Breuer’s resignation from the Senate floor.
Said Grassley:
The Justice Department had publicly denied to Congress that ATF would ever walk guns. Yet the head of the Criminal Division, [Lanny] Breuer knew otherwise and said nothing.
It is past time for accountability at the senior levels of the Justice Department. That accountability needs to start with…Mr. Breuer. I believe it is time for him to go.
While I view Senator Grassley as a strong ally in the pursuit of justice for the crimes associated with Fast and Furious, and I am grateful for his stand here, I urge him to go further and take whatever steps are necessary to have Breuer handcuffed and frog-marched out of DC immediately.
Breuer lied to Congress, and in so doing, he undermined one aspect of the very system of justice he swore to uphold.
The entire Obama admn should be jailed under R I C O
-
BREAKING: Grassley calls for Lanny Breuer’s resignation from DoJ
Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
December 7, 2011 -
Senator Charles Grassley has called on Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who heads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, to hand in his resignation over his apparent mishandling and misleading testimony about his involvement in the oversight of Operation Fast and Furious.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Grassley was blunt in his criticism of Breuer:
I’ve done oversight for many years, and in all that time, I don’t ever remember coming across a government official who so blatantly placed sparing agencies embarrassment over protecting the lives of citizens.
The full text of Grassley’s remarks can be found here.
Grassley, Ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been dogging Operation Fast and Furious for more than ten months. He has been blistering in his criticism of Attorney General Eric Holder’s management of the Justice Department, and has accused the department of stonewalling his investigation of Fast and Furious, which was mounted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the fall of 2009.
Advertisement
The Iowa senator’s remarks were not just limited to Fast and Furious. He mentioned an earlier ATF gun trafficking sting called Operation Wide Receiver, which also allowed guns to “walk” into the hands of suspected gunrunners. Grassley did not pull his punches:
He knew that the same Field Division was responsible for walking guns in a 2006-2007 case called Wide Receiver. But the real shock was how Mr. Breuer had responded within his own Department when that earlier gunwalking was first brought to his attention in April 2010.
He didn’t tell the Attorney General.
He didn’t tell the Attorney General’s Chief of Staff.
He didn’t tell the Deputy Attorney General.
He didn’t tell the Inspector General.
Instead, he simply told his deputy to meet with ATF leadership and inform them of the gunwalking “so they know the bad stuff that could come out.”
Grassley alluded to the anniversary of the event that was the catalyst for the Fast and Furious investigation, the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in Arizona last year.
Next week, it will be one year since Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered by bandits armed with guns as a direct result of this policy of letting guns walk.
The Terry family and all Americans who sympathize with their loss are rightfully outraged and astonished that our own government would do such a thing.
Grassley’s timing was strategic. Last week’s document dump by the Justice Department relating to Fast and Furious was accompanied by a letter to Grassley that acknowledged erroneous information had been provided to him early in the investigation. That letter, discussed by this column yesterday, tends to point fingers of blame at former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke and former Phoenix ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell. Tomorrow, Holder is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee where he will be grilled about Fast and Furious.
At that time, Holder may also face some questions about Breuer. Grassley appears to already have his mind made up.
“He has failed in his job of ensuring that the government operates properly, including that people are held accountable.
“Because of that, Mr. Breuer needs to go immediately.”—Sen. Charles Grassley
Burke resigned abruptly in August. Newell and his subordinates who were directly involved in the Fast and Furious operation have been reassigned, although nobody has been fired.
Breuer remains on the job.
..
Continue reading on Examiner.com BREAKING: Grassley calls for Lanny Breuer’s resignation from DoJ - Seattle gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/breaking-grassley-calls-for-lanny-breuer-s-resignation-from-doj#ixzz1ftEWcbLi
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Eric Holder's New Scandal: Money Laundering For Cartels
Investor's Business Daily ^ | December 7, 2011 | IBD staff
Posted on December 7, 2011 9:39:00 PM EST by raptor22
Scandal: The House committee probing government gun-running now sets it sights on possible money-laundering involving drug cartel funds run in the name of drug enforcement. Why should we believe DOJ this time?
It's an old adage that when investigating criminal activity you should follow the money. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has announced an investigation into a money-laundering operation allegedly run by the Drug Enforcement Administration. We may need to follow the people following the money.
Just as Fast and Furious was allegedly intended to track and interdict gun-trafficking into Mexico, this operation, detailed in a New York Times article Sunday, is said to have as its purpose to follow how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are.
But the question once again arises: Have the feds interrupted or aided the flow?
After a Friday document dump showing how deliberately deceptive the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder were regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the government's gun-running operation that led to the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, it's hard to believe this latest scheme was well-run.
In a Monday letter to Holder, Issa noted that as in Fast and Furious "this same goal of dismantling Mexican drug cartels motivated the Drug Enforcement Administration in aiding and abetting these same cartels in laundering millions of dollars in cash."
It may have produced equally tragic results.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
-
John Conyers, Eric Holder, Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Waters have got to be the dumbest idiots on the planet. These morons are in a hearing today on F&F, god damn are they stupid.
-
Holder Suggests 'Fast and Furious' Guns Will Be Used in Crimes for 'Years to Come'
Published December 08, 2011
Dec. 8, 2011: Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House Judiciary Committee.
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder suggested Thursday that weapons lost during the course of the failed "Fast and Furious" gunrunning operation will continue to show up at crime scenes in the U.S. and Mexico "for years to come."
Holder, in testimony on Capitol Hill that comes as the congressional investigation into the program expands, decried the "gun-walking" tactic used in the operation as "inexcusable" and "wholly unacceptable." But a day after an influential senator called for the resignation of one of Holder's top deputies over the scandal, Holder denied department leaders played any role in the crafting of "Fast and Furious."
He continued to assert that top Justice officials were not told about the "inappropriate tactics" until they were made public.
Still, the top law enforcement official in the country conceded that, as a result of "Fast and Furious," guns lost by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives remain in the hands of criminals.
"Although the department has taken steps to ensure that such tactics are never used again, it is an unfortunate reality that we will continue to feel the effects of this flawed operation for years to come," he said. "Guns lost during this operation will continue to show up at crime scenes on both sides of the border."
Congress has been investigating "Fast and Furious" for nearly a year. Scrutiny of the program intensified after guns from the program were found at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's murder.
Republican lawmakers in recent weeks have complained about inconsistencies in the Justice Department's public accounting of the program over the past year. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday pointed to those alleged inconsistencies in calling for the resignation of Lanny Breuer, chief of the department's criminal division. Grassley accused Breuer of withholding information about gunwalking tactics used in a Bush administration-era program known as Wide Receiver, and of not being forthcoming about whether he saw a Justice letter to Congress in February that inaccurately claimed ATF was not letting illegal guns walk across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Though Breuer denies seeing the memo, Grassley pointed to emails that show he was sent a draft of the letter.
The Justice Department is standing by Breuer, and Holder testified Thursday that department heads were not aware of the program early on.
"The documents produced to date also belie the remarkable notion that this operation was conceived by department leaders, as some have claimed," Holder said. "It is my understanding that department leaders were not informed about the inappropriate tactics employed in this operation until those tactics were made public and, as is customary, turned to those with supervisory responsibility over the operation in an effort to learn the facts."
Holder said such a program "must never happen again," but effectively urged lawmakers to move on -- and tackle the broader issue of the flow of firearms into Mexico.
"We cannot afford to allow the tragic mistakes of 'Operation Fast and Furious' to become a political sideshow or a series of media opportunities," he said. "Instead, we must move forward and recommit ourselves to our shared public safety obligations."
He used the occasion to prod Congress to support efforts to give the Justice Department broader legal tools to track firearms purchases.
But Republican lawmakers continued to put pressure on Holder about how he's responding to the operation.
"This project was failed and flawed from the beginning," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., questioning why Holder has not terminated the "many people involved" with the program.
"Mr. Attorney General, the blame must go to your desk," Issa said.
Holder later said that he's "ultimately responsible" for actions in the department, but stressed the actions he's taken to get to the bottom of the operation once he learned about it.
Despite the controversy over the inaccurate February letter from Justice, Holder also stated: "Nobody in the Justice Department has lied."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/08/holder-suggests-fast-and-furious-guns-will-be-used-in-crimes-for-years-to-come/#ixzz1fxqThDQb
-
Holder Hearings Part I: Issa strikes a blow, & Sensenbrenner says Holder could face impeachment
Big Government ^ | 12-8-11 | AWR Hawkins
Once Lamar Smith (R-TX) opened the hearings with comments on Fast and Furious and then passed the baton to Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), it seemed the hearings would be a wash. That’s because it was evident from the start that Conyers was there to carry water for Holder. For example, Conyers used his opening comments to highlight the “life and contributions” of Holder, and to highlight the need for more gun control in the United States. He particularly supported the new requirement for border state gun stores to file special reports on customers who make multiple long gun purchases. (Conyers made no mention of the thousands of long guns transferred to criminals via the DOJ/ATF operation Fast and Furious.)
Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) used his opening comments to call for more gun control, and was particularly critical of concealed handgun laws and of Republican support of concealed handgun laws. Moreover, Scott actually defended Holder by blaming gun walking on President Bush. (For the record, there was an operation called Wide Receiver under Bush, but it was very small and was done in conjunction with the Mexican government rather than by keeping the Mexican government in the dark as Holder did with Fast and Furious.)
Folks, the whole tone of the hearing changed when Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) was allowed to make his opening statement. He contented that gun control was not the important matter before the committee. Rather, “what is important is the 2nd Amendment.” Added Issa, “ATF Used Fast and Furious to make case for gun regulations”
After this opening salvo, Issa was on a roll:
This administration is more interested in building data bases, in talking about control, than controlling the flow of guns they had control over. …[Fast and Furious] was not an accident. This project was failed and flawed from the beginning.
Issa went on to make the point that “Brian Terry is dead today because of this program,” yet Holder and Co. are hesitant to investigate Terry’s murder for fear of uncovering their own culpability to a greater degree. Said Issa: “This justice department is not looking for who killed Brian Terry” in order to preserve their own “plausible deniability.”
Issa continued:
The president has said he has full confidence in this attorney general. I have not confidence in a president who has not terminated those…who knew enough to stop this program. …Mr. attorney general, the blame must go to your desk. Why haven’t you terminated the many people involved?
Once the opening comments were over, and the actual hearing began, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) warned Holder that he was tired of not getting the truth on Fast and Furious. He complained that up till now, Holder’s answers had been “gees, somebody else did it.”
Sensenbrenner then basically said we can do this the easy way or the hard way. He told Holder that the A.G. could either give Congress the truth they were asking for or “impeachment” could be pursued.
That’s right: Sensenbrenner said “impeachment” to Holder’s face.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Holder Hearings Part I: Issa strikes a blow, & Sensenbrenner says Holder could face impeachment
Big Government ^ | 12-8-11 | AWR Hawkins
Once Lamar Smith (R-TX) opened the hearings with comments on Fast and Furious and then passed the baton to Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), it seemed the hearings would be a wash. That’s because it was evident from the start that Conyers was there to carry water for Holder. For example, Conyers used his opening comments to highlight the “life and contributions” of Holder, and to highlight the need for more gun control in the United States. He particularly supported the new requirement for border state gun stores to file special reports on customers who make multiple long gun purchases. (Conyers made no mention of the thousands of long guns transferred to criminals via the DOJ/ATF operation Fast and Furious.)
Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) used his opening comments to call for more gun control, and was particularly critical of concealed handgun laws and of Republican support of concealed handgun laws. Moreover, Scott actually defended Holder by blaming gun walking on President Bush. (For the record, there was an operation called Wide Receiver under Bush, but it was very small and was done in conjunction with the Mexican government rather than by keeping the Mexican government in the dark as Holder did with Fast and Furious.)
Folks, the whole tone of the hearing changed when Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) was allowed to make his opening statement. He contented that gun control was not the important matter before the committee. Rather, “what is important is the 2nd Amendment.” Added Issa, “ATF Used Fast and Furious to make case for gun regulations”
After this opening salvo, Issa was on a roll:
This administration is more interested in building data bases, in talking about control, than controlling the flow of guns they had control over. …[Fast and Furious] was not an accident. This project was failed and flawed from the beginning.
Issa went on to make the point that “Brian Terry is dead today because of this program,” yet Holder and Co. are hesitant to investigate Terry’s murder for fear of uncovering their own culpability to a greater degree. Said Issa: “This justice department is not looking for who killed Brian Terry” in order to preserve their own “plausible deniability.”
Issa continued:
The president has said he has full confidence in this attorney general. I have not confidence in a president who has not terminated those…who knew enough to stop this program. …Mr. attorney general, the blame must go to your desk. Why haven’t you terminated the many people involved?
Once the opening comments were over, and the actual hearing began, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) warned Holder that he was tired of not getting the truth on Fast and Furious. He complained that up till now, Holder’s answers had been “gees, somebody else did it.”
Sensenbrenner then basically said we can do this the easy way or the hard way. He told Holder that the A.G. could either give Congress the truth they were asking for or “impeachment” could be pursued.
That’s right: Sensenbrenner said “impeachment” to Holder’s face.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Sensenbrenner floats impeachment of Obama admin. officials as ‘Fast and Furious’ response
The Daily Caller ^ | 12/8/11 | Matthew Boyle -
Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2011 3:47:03 PM by Nachum
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee where Attorney General Eric Holder testified on Thursday, suggested that impeachment of administration officials involved with Operation Fast and Furious may be the only way to bring the scandal to a close.
In a heated exchange between Sensenbrenner and Holder during Thursday’s Judiciary Committee hearing, Sensenbrenner said impeachment is one option on the table if Holder and the Justice Department continue to withhold information from congressional investigators.
Sensenbrenner didn’t specify which administration officials he thinks could face impeachment proceedings, or if Holder is among them. But he did say the drastic measure would be a last resort.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
GET THE LEG IRONS READY!!!!
-
Republican says Fast and Furious was hatched to build support for gun control
The Hill ^ | December 8, 2011 | Jonathan Easley
The botched gun-tracking operation Fast and Furious was a plot hatched by the Obama administration to impose stricter gun laws, a House Republican said.
In an interview with the National Rife Association, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said the controversial Justice Department operation — which authorized the sale of guns to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels — was a plot from the administration to build support for gun control.
“This was the most anti-gun administration in our country’s history and there are a number of us that believe the whole genesis of this Fast and Furious was to further their gun control aims right here in the United States,” Walsh told NRA reporter Ginny Simone.
“When you look back at Holder’s testimony a few weeks ago — in his opening statement he basically fell back on that again and said — ‘You know what? You may have problems with Fast and Furious, but this just goes to show we need to keep a tighter lid on arms and guns in America that may be leaving the country,’” he continued.
“It was outlandish … and actually, I would say very stupid, that he actually said that, because he revealed their aims,” Walsh said.
Walsh has been vocal in calling for Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation over the scandal. He said a special prosecutor, who could hold witnesses in contempt of court, is needed to investigate the Department of Justice.
“There does appear to be a real stonewalling effort here that I believe will leave Congress with no alternative but to call for a special prosecutor,” he said. “They haven’t responded to subpoenas, clearly there have been conflicting reports and now evidence as to when he was first aware of Fast and Furious, and now this latest dump of material shows that there were real conflicts for a while as to who knew what about this program.”
Holder has ordered an inspector general investigation on Fast and Furious and said the gun walking that occurred under the program “should never have happened.”
“This operation was flawed in concept, as well as in execution. And, unfortunately, we will feel its effects for years to come as guns that were lost during this operation continue to show up at crime scenes both here and in Mexico. This should never have happened. And it must never happen again,” Holder said last month.
The attorney general testified Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee about Fast and Furious and faced a barrage of criticism from Republicans.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) suggested Congress might impeach Holder if it does not get satisfactory answers about inaccurate statements and information the Department of Justice provided about Fast and Furious.
-
-
The fact that obama has not demanded his resignation speaks volumes.
-
E-mails questioned huge contract for firm with ties to Obama administration (Another Scandal)
CNN ^ | 12/8/2011 | David Fitzpatrick and Drew Griffin
Posted on December 8, 2011 10:47:17 PM EST by tobyhill
A series of e-mail exchanges between officials at the Department of Health and Human Services shows growing alarm at the amount of projected profit from a government contract for a drug company whose controlling shareholder is a longtime Democratic Party activist.
Ronald Perelman is controlling shareholder of Siga Technologies and a longtime Democratic Party activist and fundraiser. He's also a large contributor to Republicans, but has been a particular friend of the Obama White House.
Also on Siga's board of directors is Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union, who has had close relations with the Obama administration and who has supported President Barack Obama's health care initiatives.
In May 2011, Health and Human Services awarded Siga a no-bid contract worth nearly $433 million to develop and produce 1.7 million doses of an anti-viral smallpox drug called STS-246. The drug would augment the existing supply of smallpox vaccine now in U.S. control.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
-
When Wisconsin Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and Attorney General Eric Holder had a sharp back-and-forth on whether or not officials in the Department of Justice lied to Congress. The questioning was during Thursday morning’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on Operation Fast and Furious.
“First let me make something very clear, in response to an assertion you made, or hinted at: Nobody in the Justice Department has lied,” Holder said in response to accusations that he or his confidantes lied to Congress. “Nobody has lied.”
“Then why was the letter withdrawn?,” Sensenbrenner retorted, referring to a factually inaccurate letter one of Holder’s deputies, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, sent to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on February 4. In that letter, Weich claimed that guns were never allowed to walk.
Holder and one of his other deputies, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer have both admitted that statement was false in recent Senate hearings.
“The letter was withdrawn because there was information in there that was inaccurate,” Holder replied to Sensenbrenner’s question.
Still unsatisfied, Sensenbrenner followed up again. “Tell me what the difference is between lying and misleading Congress in this context?,” he asked Holder.
Holder responded that whether a statement is a lie or misleading comment depends on what the person making it is thinking at the time.
“If you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind, and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that can be considered perjury or a lie,” Holder said. “The information that was provided in that February 4th letter was gleaned by the people who drafted the letter after they interacted with people who they thought were in the best position to have the information.”
Fast and Furious was a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program overseen by the Justice Department. The operation facilitated the sale of thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers. Straw purchasers are people who can legally purchase guns in the United States with the intention of illegally trafficking them into Mexico.
At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Follow Matthew on Twitter
-
http://news.yahoo.com/eric-holder-debates-definition-lying-congressman-184429794.html
-
December 8, 2011
Holder, Grilled on Gun Inquiry, Says He Won’t ResignBy CHARLIE SAVAGE
WASHINGTON — House Republicans pummeled Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Thursday over the disputed gun-trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious, accusing the Justice Department of hiding the truth and lying to Congress in a slugfest of an oversight hearing.
Mr. Holder denied the allegations and declared that he would not resign.
Mr. Holder had testified about Fast and Furious on three prior occasions, and the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday produced few revelations. But it was the most politically charged session yet, as one Republican after another tore into the attorney general.
Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, for example, called for “heads to roll” and threatened to impeach unspecified Obama administration officials. Representative Darrell Issa of California pronounced Mr. Holder in “contempt of Congress” for refusing to turn over certain internal departmental e-mails. Representative Ted Poe of Texas suggested that Justice Department officials should be prosecuted for manslaughter for recklessly allowing guns to fall into the hands of criminals.
In his opening statement, Mr. Holder suggested that critics were playing “politically motivated ‘gotcha’ games” and trying to “score political points.” In the question period he largely limited himself to objecting that various criticisms were “factually inaccurate” or unjustified, as lawmakers talked over his answers.
But Mr. Holder snapped near the very end, after Mr. Issa, who has been a leader of the Fast and Furious investigation, compared him to John Mitchell, the Nixon administration attorney general who went to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal.
“The reference to John Mitchell — think about that,” he said. “At some point, as they said in the McCarthy hearings, have you no shame?”
The comment was a paraphrase of a famous 1954 rebuke of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican who rose to fame and power by accusing military and government officials of Communist sympathies, destroying careers and reputations. Mr. Issa did not respond.
Fast and Furious was a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-led investigation from late 2009 to early 2011 into an Arizona-based gun-trafficking network. “Straw buyers” bought guns, which were smuggled to Mexican drug cartels. Agents, seeking to identify higher-level figures and build a more significant case, sometimes did not immediately move to arrest low-level suspects or seize the guns.
They ended up losing track of hundreds of weapons. Of the roughly 2,000 guns purchased by suspects in the case, about 600 have been recovered. Many probably reached Mexico, and two were found near the scene where a Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed in last December.
Mr. Holder said Thursday that he agreed that Fast and Furious had been deeply flawed and that it was likely the missing guns would be used in crimes for years to come. At the same time, he insisted that no one at Justice Department headquarters sanctioned or knew about the operation’s “gunwalking” tactics.
Democrats played defense, and argued that Mr. Terry’s killers would probably have been armed even without Fast and Furious. They also accused Republicans of trying to weaken and block gun-control measures aimed at diminishing firearms violence and trafficking across the border.
“For those of you keeping score at home, one side is using this horrible screw-up to justify a policy,” said Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois. “The other side is using this horrible screw-up to justify” keeping A.T.F. weak and “extraordinarily lax” gun-control laws.
Mr. Holder has reassigned officials at A.T.F., and the United States attorney for Arizona, Dennis K. Burke, has resigned. But Mr. Holder said he would not resign, and did not believe subordinates — including assistant attorney general Lanny A. Breuer, the head of the criminal division, or an aide, Jason Weinstein — should resign, either.
His comments came one day after Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, called for Mr. Breuer to resign or be fired over a Feb. 4, 2011, letter the Justice Department sent to the senator in response to early questions about Fast and Furious. The letter falsely said A.T.F. always tried to interdict illegally purchased guns and prevent their transportation to Mexico.
At the time the letter was written, Mr. Burke and A.T.F. leaders insisted that guns had not been allowed to “walk” in Fast and Furious. But Mr. Breuer had been briefed in April 2010 about another Arizona-based A.T.F. case during the Bush administration, called Operation Wide Receiver, in which guns reached cartels.
Mr. Weinstein helped edit the Feb. 4 letter, and sent Mr. Breuer several drafts as attachments to e-mails. Mr. Breuer has said he did not make a connection between Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious, and has no recollection of reading the letter before it went out, but Mr. Grassley said he did not believe him.
-
Gunwalker Goes ‘Legal’: Obama Admin Massively Increased Gun Sales to Mexican Military
More than a quarter of these guns ended up in cartel hands in 2009, yet the admin continued the sales program.
by Bob Owens
http://pjmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-goes-legal-obama-massively-increased-gun-sales-to-mexican-military/?singlepage=true
December 8, 2011 - 10:44 am Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News has posted a bombshell article detailing how the Obama administration has greatly increased gun sales to the Mexican military. But further investigation into Attkisson’s discovery points toward the padding of a gun-control statistic — one frequently mentioned by the Obama administration — as the motive behind the increased sales.
Writes Attkisson:
One weapon — an AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle — tells the story. In 2006, this same kind of rifle — tracked by serial number — is legally sold by a U.S. manufacturer to the Mexican military.
Three years later — it’s found in a criminal stash in a region wracked by Mexican drug cartel violence.
That prompted a “sensitive” cable, uncovered by WikiLeaks, dated June 4, 2009, in which the U.S. State Department asked Mexico “how the AR-15″ — meant only for the military or police — was “diverted” into criminal hands.
And, more importantly, where the other rifles from the same shipment went: “Please account for the current location of the 1,030 AR-15 type rifles,” reads the cable.
There’s no response in the record.
The problem of weapons legally sold to Mexico — then diverted to violent cartels — is becoming more urgent. That’s because the U.S. has quietly authorized a massive escalation in the number of guns sold to Mexico through “direct commercial sales.” It’s a way foreign countries can acquire firearms faster and with less disclosure than going through the Pentagon.
Perhaps the most interesting disclosure: the 1,030 weapons that were sold for use by the Mexican military were not military-grade weapons. The Mexican government was acquiring the AR-15, a semi-automatic firearm designed for the civilian market. Selective-fire weapons (which have the ability to fire either in fully automatic or semi-automatic) would be preferred by virtually any modern military force.
Why was the Mexican military buying commercial, off-the-shelf AR-15 rifles from the Obama administration via the State Department in record numbers? Writes Attkisson:
[The State Department] approve[d] 2,476 guns to be sold to Mexico in 2006. In 2009, that number was up nearly 10 times, to 18,709. The State Department has since stopped disclosing numbers of guns it approves, and wouldn’t give CBS News figures for 2010 or 2011.
With Mexico in a virtual state of war with its cartels, nobody’s tracking how many U.S. guns are ending up with the enemy.
…
The State Department audits only a tiny sample — less than 1 percent of sales — but the results are disturbing: In 2009, more than a quarter (26 percent) of the guns sold to the region that includes Mexico were “diverted” into the wrong hands, or had other “unfavorable” results.
If the audited sample is representative of the total, 26 percent of 18,709 — 4,864 guns — were diverted from the Mexican military to the cartels in one year, and the Obama administration apparently chose not to stop the program.
Does a logical reason exist for the administration to continue to approve such sales?
If the goal of Operation Fast and Furious was — as ATF agents have alleged under oath — to arm violent Mexican drug cartels, and the purpose of arming cartels was so guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico would be traced back to American sources, then the Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) route was an avenue to greatly increase the flow of traceable weapons into the hand of the cartels.
The DCS program is run from the U.S. State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. It regulates and licenses private U.S. companies’ overseas sales of weapons and other defense materials, defense services, and military training.
This is different than the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, the Defense Department program mentioned by Attkisson in her article. The main distinctions between the two programs: FMS is government-to-government, while DCS is private-to-government and has fewer controls.
The DCS program appears to have been a much more effective way of arming the cartels than Operation Fast and Furious. DCS is legal.
When these DCS-obtained firearms are recovered at crime scenes, they are identified by Mexican authorities as being American by any number of distinguishing marks, though primarily by the manufacturer’s name etched in the lower receiver.
A weapon, once identified as being American in origin, has its serial number submitted to the ATF for tracing. The ATF runs the serial number, likely coming up with a “hit” confirming that the weapon in question was indeed of U.S. origin.
The weapon can then be used to pad the statistics of the 90-percent lie that President Obama, Attorney General Holder, and Secretaries Clinton and Napolitano have used to call for more gun control in the United States.
Operation Fast and Furious, perhaps the most incompetent and deadly law enforcement operation in U.S. history, occurred at the same time as the emerging “moneywalker” scandal, perhaps the most incompetent DEA drug money-laundering scheme in U.S. history, and at the same time as the Mexico DCS program, perhaps the most incompetently audited and controlled weapons purchase program in U.S. history.
Taken together, these concurrent pro-cartel developments do not look like coincidence. They look like policy.
Those controlling that policy from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have a lot of accounting to do for the death and destruction they have caused and may still be contributing to in Mexico and along our southwest border.
Bob Owens blogs at Bob-Owens.com.
-
Furious’ twisting
By MICHAEL A. WALSH
Last Updated: 5:28 AM, December 9, 2011
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that everything Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee yesterday was true.
That the answer to several questions about who ordered Fast and Furious — the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “deeply flawed, reckless, misguided and inexcusable” (Holder’s words) gun-trafficking operation — is: “We don’t know yet.”
That concerns over the program’s death toll (one, probably two American agents, hundreds of Mexicans) and demands for accountability — including for Holder’s resignation and that of his deputy, Lanny Breuer — are “inflammatory and inappropriate rhetoric to score political points.”
That the recently withdrawn letter from the Justice Department to Congress denying federal responsibility for the program was not a lie, “because it all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie.”
That the push for something called “Demand Letter No. 3”— a new regulation to compel border-state gun dealers to report multiples sales of long guns to the ATF — had nothing to do with the fact that the feds had just allowed some 2,000 weapons to “walk” to Mexico and were using the blowback to justify more gun control.
That Holder doesn’t read the memos in his own in-box, instead relying on staffers to bring pertinent information to his attention.
And that, miraculously, of the thousands of pages of e-mails about F&F turned over to Congress last Friday night, not one is from or to Holder — that he was just an innocent bystander as the US Attorney’s office and ATF field headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., cooked up the scheme.
Let’s believe all that; what are we left with? Let Holder sum it up:
“Although the department has taken steps to ensure that such tactics are never used again . . . we will continue to feel the effects of this flawed operation for years to come. Guns lost during this operation will continue to show up at crime scenes on both sides of the border.”
There you have it: One of the most incompetent (at best) and murderous operations ever undertaken in the name of the Justice Department, and all the attorney general can do is say they’ve closed the barn door now that the horses have fled, taking the guns and ammo with them.
Oh, and promise to get to the bottom of things . . . someday.
Watching Holder dodge, twist and weave under intense questioning by his nemesis, Rep. Darrell Issa (R- Calif.) and other Republicans yesterday was to observe a true turf-defending Washington apparatchik. Holder repeatedly hid behind the excuse that acting Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar is doing her own probe. “That,” said Holder, “will take time.”
And still heads have not rolled.
Sure, Dennis Burke, the former US Attorney in Arizona, has stepped down. Kenneth Melson, the former acting head of the ATF, on whose watch Fast and Furious got started, has been protectively shuffled off into a do-nothing job elsewhere.
But both Holder and Breuer remain behind their desks, finger-pointing down the chain of command.
No wonder Issa tried to get Holder declared a hostile witness and have him put under oath.
Issa says his committee has been “systematically lied to” by Holder & Co.
“We believe you’re withholding documents,” said Issa, threatening Holder with contempt of Congress as well as a subpoena for an appearance before his Oversight Committee in January and comparing him to disgraced Nixon AG, John Mitchell.
“Have you no shame?” retorted Holder, to which Issa replied: “Have you no shame?”
Holder angrily rejected the implication that Justice deliberately concocted Fast and Furious to justify the increased gun control that is a clear priority of the Obama administration. Committee Democrats, meanwhile, did their best to change the subject, cheer him on and support his irrelevant calls for tighter gun laws.
But just last week, we learned that the Drug Enforcement Administration, another Justice Department division involved in F&F, has laundered and smuggled millions of dollars in drug money, ostensibly to help the Mexican government track drug money and identify cartel leaders.
“I have no intention of resigning,” said a defiant Holder yesterday, nor, he said, should anyone else quit. But if the drip, drip, drip of revelations continues, that might soon change.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/furious_twisting_WWsKrZive2GHkm802TkSDJ#ixzz1g3CnEKrr
-
In Preparation For Solyndra 2, A/K/A LightSquared: A Humiliated Phil Falcone Gets Wells Notice
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2011 09:59 -0500
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/preparation-solyndra-2-aka-lightsquared-humiliated-phil-falcone-gets-wells-notice
MF Global Phil Falcone Securities and Exchange Commission Special Situations Spectrum Brands Wells Notice
Just because Solyndra was not enough of a humiliation for the president, not to mention MF Global where inquiring minds are wondering when the president and vice-president will refund any and all campaign donations received by Jon Comminglerzine, here comes the next public fiasco for the administration, as the broader public shifts its attention to LightSquared by way of owner Harbinger capital, and its flamboyant head (and wife) - Phil Falcone. As has been just released in an SEC filing, Harbinger has received a Wells Notice from the SEC. Now in a time long, long ago, or about three years ago, before market criminality and manipulation became wholly endorsed by the US government, getting a Wells Notice was a death sentence for any hedge fund. Alas, it still is: "The Wells Notices state that the staff intends to recommend or is considering recommending that the Commission file civil injunctive actions against HCP, Harbinger Capital Partners Offshore Manager, LLC, Harbinger Capital Partners Special Situations GP, LLC, Mr. Falcone, Mr. Asali, and Ms. Roger alleging violations of the federal securities laws’ anti-fraud provisions in connection with matters previously disclosed and an additional matter regarding the circumstances and disclosure related to agreements with certain fund investors." And whether the Wells Notice is merely an inquiry into Falcone previous shady hedge fund-dipping practices described here, or a preamble to a full blown public spectacle-cum-humiliation on Harbinger's LightSquared remains to be seen. One thing is certain: Mrs Falcone will milk the newly found notoriety to its full extend, prenup firmly in gold-braceleted hand.
Per the 8-K:
On December 8, 2011, Harbinger Capital Partners LLC ("HCP") and certain of its affiliates, including Philip A. Falcone, Omar Asali, and Robin Roger, received "Wells Notices" from the staff of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Investment funds managed by HCP are our controlling stockholders. Mr. Falcone is our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our Board of Directors. Mr. Asali is our Acting President and a member of our Board of Directors and Ms. Roger is a member of our Board of Directors.
The Wells Notices were not addressed to the Company or any of its subsidiaries (including Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.) and the matters described in the Wells Notices do not include any conduct involving, by, or on behalf of the Company or any of its subsidiaries (including Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.).
The Wells Notices state that the staff intends to recommend or is considering recommending that the Commission file civil injunctive actions against HCP, Harbinger Capital Partners Offshore Manager, LLC, Harbinger Capital Partners Special Situations GP, LLC, Mr. Falcone, Mr. Asali, and Ms. Roger alleging violations of the federal securities laws’ anti-fraud provisions in connection with matters previously disclosed and an additional matter regarding the circumstances and disclosure related to agreements with certain fund investors.
A Wells Notice is an indication of the current views of the staff of the Division of Enforcement, prior to a decision by the Commission. It does not constitute a determination that the recipients have violated any law. Should the Commission accept the recommendations of the staff, the Commission could seek a range of possible remedies, including permanent injunctive relief, a cease-and-desist order, censure, a bar (as to the individuals) from association with an investment adviser, investment company, and/or broker-dealer, disgorgement, pre-judgment interest, and/or civil penalties. It is not possible at this time to predict the outcome of these investigations, including whether or when any proceedings might be initiated or whether the matters will result in settlements on any or all of the issues involved.
HCP and its affiliates are disappointed that the staff issued Wells Notices in these matters. Except with respect to certain previously disclosed matters regarding Rule 105 of Regulation M, they strongly disagree with the staff that any violation of federal securities laws occurred and, in accordance with SEC procedures, plan to submit responses explaining why they believe enforcement actions are unwarranted. If the SEC decides to bring an enforcement action, HCP and its affiliates intend to vigorously defend against it.
Average:
-
-
-
Op/Ed|12/09/2011 @ 1:53PM |386 views
Fast and Furious Stonewallings Call For Eric Holder's Impeachment
Attorney General Eric Holder sat down on a dark-stained wood chair and slouched over table in front of a microphone. He’d come into the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing room on Thursday with a staff. He was suddenly by himself at a large table set before the 38-member committee seated behind two rows of courtroom-style benches.
For nearly a year Holder has been avoiding accountability for Operation Fast and Furious, a secret ATF program that allowed guns to “walk” into Mexico and right into the arsenals of Mexican drug cartels. Nevertheless, he still looked shocked when a congressman insinuated he might be impeached.
Move up Move down
Inside President Obama's War On The Fast & Furious Whistleblowers
Frank Miniter
Contributor
"Fast And Furious" Just Might Be President Obama's Watergate
Capital Flows
Contributor
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, suggested impeachment of administration officials involved with Operation Fast and Furious just might be the only way to bring this bloody scandal to a close.
During the Judiciary Committee hearing, Sensenbrenner postulated the idea that impeachment might be their last-resort option if Holder, and others in the Obama administration, continue to withhold information from congressional investigators.
Sensenbrenner wouldn’t name the officials he thinks might face impeachment proceedings, but he did say he was being driven to this as a last resort. “There is really no responsibility within the Justice Department,” Sensenbrenner said. “The thing is, if we don’t get to the bottom of this — and that requires your assistance — there is only one alternative that Congress has and it is called impeachment…. f we keep on getting pushed down the road and the can keeps getting kicked, and we don’t get closure to this, what is Congress to do so that we don’t spend all our time in court arguing privilege?” Sensenbrenner then added, “That is not a way to get at the truth.”
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who is the committee’s ranking Democrat, interrupted Sensenbrenner by demanding to know whom he wanted to impeach. Sensenbrenner decided not to spell out the threat, but said, he has “done more impeachments than anyone else in the country, and it is an expensive and messy affair, and I don’t want to go this far.”
Conyers lightened the mood a moment later by saying that he has conducted more impeachments than Sensenbrenner or anyone else.
But this threat of impeachment from Sensenbrenner seemed to be a tactical maneuver, not a real threat. Technically, Article One of the U.S. Constitution gives the U.S. House of Representatives the power of impeachment and the U.S. Senate the power to try impeachments. However, impeachment doesn’t necessarily result in removal from office; it is only a legal statement of charges, like an indictment. An official who is impeached by the House must then be convicted by a two-thirds vote in the Senate before they’ll be removed from office. Accomplishing all of that is very unlikely given the current make-up of the Senate.
However, mentioning impeachment as a tactical move makes sense. Some Republicans have been struggling to find out who authorized Operation Fast and Furious and thereby sent more than 2,000 firearms from U.S. gun stores into the hands of criminal gangs. But the Obama administration has been stonewalling and even smearing whistleblowers.
The standoff has gotten so tense that, later in the hearing, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) even mentioned that manslaughter charges could be filed because this insane operation resulted in the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. At least two of the guns found at a crime scene in the Arizona dessert (where Terry was gunned down) were sold in a U.S. gun store to a man then under surveillance by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF purposely stopped tailing the man who’d purchased the guns. The guns — in this case AK-47s — then went to criminals.
Here’s why mentioning impeachment at this stage makes sense. Though impeachment may be too high a hurdle, because of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, the public is very aware of the concept and its implications. Therefore, if the idea hits the airwaves people will start asking, “Why do some Republicans want to impeach Attorney General Eric Holder?” The answers they and journalists will have to contend with will be revealing.
At each stage of this investigation the Obama administration has withheld evidence, heavily redacted documents, harassed whistleblowers and, in the beginning, even denied that any such operation ever took place. Incredibly, just last week the Obama administration even had to formally withdraw a letter it had sent to Congress last February that falsely claimed the ATF didn’t watch guns “walk” into Mexico.
Move up Move down
Inside President Obama's War On The Fast & Furious Whistleblowers
Frank Miniter
Contributor
"Fast And Furious" Just Might Be President Obama's Watergate
Capital Flows
Contributor
Sensenbrenner also brought up this withdrawn document.
Holder continued, “First let me make something very clear, in response to an assertion you made, or hinted at: Nobody in the Justice Department has lied.”
“Then why was the letter withdrawn?” demanded Sensenbrenner.
Holder answered, “The letter was withdrawn because there was information in there that was inaccurate.”
Not satisfied, Sensenbrenner demanded, “Tell me what the difference is between lying and misleading Congress in this context?”
Holder replied, “If you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind, and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that can be considered perjury or a lie.”
The audience — typically silent — actually laughed. This answer that it depends on a “state of mind” sounded too much like President Bill Clinton’s answer that it depended on the definition of the word “is.”
Later Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) would threaten to subpoena Holder and other Obama administration officials to force them to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which he chairs. Issa also asked why none of the emails Holder or his staff has supplied to the congressional investigation were from or to Holder. The attorney general avoided the question but finally admitted that he has not supplied his emails to Congress. Holder said he is waiting for the Inspector General’s investigation into Fast and Furious to be complete before he’ll hand over the emails or take action to discipline any ATF or other agency officials for the operation that has gotten at least one American killed and, reportedly, hundreds of Mexicans slain.
There will be more salvos — and a lot more politics — in the coming months as congressional investigators continue to grapple for the truth. The 1,400 or so guns from Fast and Furious that are still unaccounted for will also continue to kill people. Given all this, perhaps a little impeachment talk right now is a good thing.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2011/12/09/fast-and-furious-stonewallings-call-for-eric-holders-impeachment/2
-
Congressman claims Tea Party, NRA “manufactured” Fast and Furious
Hotair ^ | 12/09/2011 | Tina Korbe
Attorney General Eric Holder has accused The Daily Caller of creating the story of calls for his resignation. Never mind that more than 50 Republicans are on board for his ouster. Maybe not all of them would have made the official call for his resignation had a DC reporter not called to ask their opinions — but the reporter didn’t supply the opinions for ‘em. The gist of Holder’s accusation: Stop asking questions, reporters!
No doubt Democrats like Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson agree. Reporter Michelle Fields didn’t make him say what he said, but, if she hadn’t asked a question, he never would have said this quote, which was especially revealing about what he knows of the Fast and Furious scandal:
“I think this is another manufactured controversy by the second amendment, NRA Republican tea party movement,” Johnson said.
Hmm. How exactly did the Tea Party Movement or the NRA instigate an ATF program to sell firearms to straw purchasers and then rapidly lose track of the weapons?
Honestly, the quote makes so little sense, I don’t know how to respond to it. But, then again, it comes from a fellow who somehow managed to mention “white supremacists” in yesterday’s Judiciary hearing — and who once said overpopulation might cause the entire island of Guam to “tip over and capsize.” What did I expect?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Malkin: Triangle of Sleaze - Holder, Blago and Richardson
gopusa.com ^ | December 9, 2011 | Michelle Malkin
It was a rough week for the corruptocracy. White House officials better ho-ho-hold on tight because the sleigh ride isn't going to get any smoother.
On Wednesday, disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., received a 14-year prison sentence for scheming to sell President Barack Obama's Senate office, along with several other pay-for-play schemes. Blago played the distressed daddy for the federal judge, invoking his young daughters and wife (who held her notoriously foul tongue in check) to bemoan how his "life is in ruins."
How far Blago's fallen from the glory days of 2008, when he was gloating at the prospect of naming a candidate to fill then-President-elect Obama's seat. "I've got this thing, and it's f**king golden," he crowed. All that glitters now, though, are the paparazzi flash bulbs that Blago faces on his perp walks.
Earlier this week, Bill Richardson, former Democratic governor of New Mexico, disgraced former presidential candidate and failed Obama Commerce Secretary nominee, faced new reports of a federal grand jury into his possible violations of campaign finance laws. The funny-money business is tied to an alleged mistress payoff a la disgraced former presidential candidate and Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.
Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reports, investigators are probing how "Richardson's close allies steered more than $2 billion of public money into investment funds run by money managers who in turn agreed to pay millions of dollars in consulting fees to high-profile Democratic fundraisers and other supporters of Richardson."
The star that joined together this little constellation of sleaze? Disgraced U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Holder and Blago go way back. Holder himself suffered selective amnesia about the relationship during his confirmation hearing. He somehow "forgot" to mention that Blagojevich had appointed him to probe corruption in Illinois casino licensing decisions. State officials had objected to Blago's crony appointment of fundraiser Christopher Kelly to the state Gaming Board. Kelly's business partner was now-convicted felon and shakedown artist Tony Rezko, Obama's former bagman and real-estate fixer.
Holder pocketed $300,000 from Blago to "investigate" and -- surprise, surprise -- concluded that no corruption existed. They stood shoulder to shoulder at a 2004 news conference to make the announcement. But Holder failed to disclose it on his Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, which he signed five days after Blagojevich's arrest in December 2008 for putting Obama's U.S. Senate seat up for sale.
After duping a Senate majority (including 19 Senate Republicans) into approving his AG nomination despite multiple admissions of failure, neglect and sabotage of the rule of law, Holder moved up to perform more cover-ups for Obama's pals. In August 2009, Holder's DOJ announced it was dropping federal corruption charges against Richardson after a yearlong federal probe into pay-to-play allegations involving one of his large political donors and state bond deals.
"It's over. There's nothing. It was killed in Washington," a source close to the investigation told the Associated Press. Even as they tapped Richardson to serve as Obama's first Commerce Secretary, the White House transition team knew about Richardson's pay-to-play scandal involving a California company, CDR Financial Products. FBI and federal prosecutors had launched their probe of CDR's activities in New Mexico in the summer of 2008.
The feds had been digging into a nationwide web of favor-trading between financial firms and politicians overseeing local government bond markets. CDR was tied to a doomed bond deal in Alabama, which, according to Bloomberg News, threatened to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. CDR raked in nearly $1.5 million in fees from a New Mexico state financial agency after donating more than $100,000 to Richardson's efforts to register Hispanic and Native American voters and to pay for expenses at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the news service reported.
The state agency that awarded the money consisted of five Richardson appointees and five members of his gubernatorial cabinet. CDR made contributions both shortly before and after securing consultant work with the state of New Mexico. CDR's president also contributed $29,000 to Obama's presidential campaign. After Holder dropped the case, New Mexico Republicans blasted the lack of transparency in the decisions and the refusal to heed the advice of experienced, non-political prosecutors and FBI investigators.
Mother Jones writer James Ridgeway's comment on the day of Richardson's Commerce Secretary nomination withdrawal proved quite prescient: "It may be premature to say that Obama and his team have too high a tolerance for corruption. But this first self-destruct among his cabinet picks could well prove all the more damaging because it's something they should have seen coming from miles away."
The same applies, of course, to Holder himself -- who admitted at a House hearing that the Operation Fast and Furious scandal under his watch was "flawed," "reckless," "tragic" and deadly." How much longer will America tolerate this reign of error and terror?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010).
-
Issa threatens Holder with contempt of Congress charge(Gunwalker)
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 8 December, 2011 | David Codrea
Posted on December 10, 2011 6:31:35 AM EST by marktwain
Following a pattern established in previous hearings, today's House Judiciary Committee hearing produced fireworks from the Republicans and calls for more gun control from the Democrats. The grilling of Eric Holder climaxed at the very end of the day's proceedings, when Rep. Darrell Issa threatened the attorney general with contempt of Congress for his refusal to produce communications and logs, resulting in the embattled top law enforcement officer shooting back a line reminiscent of the McCarthy hearings:
"Have you no shame?"
Among some of the surprises: Holder was not sworn in as Issa had requested. Chairman Lamar Smith indicated the attorney general was already technically under oath.
Per Holder, no one lied.
'It all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie," he said in reply to a line of questioning by Rep. James Sensenbrenner.
"If we don't get to the bottom of this — and that requires your assistance on that — there is only one alternative that Congress has, and it's called impeachment," Sensenbrenner threatened.
Holder adamantly refused to resign when asked if he would, nor would he indicate anyone else had done anything to merit resignation.
One of the more outrageous abuses of time to stump for gun control instead of determine the truth came from Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia, who began with the statement that "There is a hole in our gun control laws that is so large that you could drive or fly a space shuttle through it. And it's called the gun show loophole. And so we've got gun shows, thousands of gun shows per year being held throughout America. And we've got untold numbers of licensed gun dealers
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
LightSquared disrupts 75% of GPS receivers in gov’t testing
Hot Air ^ | December 10,2011 | ED MORRISSEY
Posted on December 10, 2011 9:43:10 AM EST by Hojczyk
Philip Falcone’s proposed LightSquared Inc. wireless service caused interference to 75 percent of global-positioning system receivers examined in a U.S. government test, according to a draft summary of results.
The results from testing conducted Oct. 31 to Nov. 4 show that “millions of fielded GPS units are not compatible” with the planned nationwide wholesale service, according to the draft seen by Bloomberg News.
“LightSquared signals caused harmful interference to majority of GPS receivers tested,” according to the draft prepared for a meeting next week of U.S. officials reviewing the LightSquared proposal. “No additional testing is required to confirm harmful interference exists.”
LightSquared, backed by $3 billion from Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund, faces challenges from makers of global-positioning system devices who say the service will disrupt navigation by cars, boats, tractors and planes. U.S. regulators are withholding approval as they check on claims of interference.Why is this important? Philip Falcone is a big donor to the Democratic Party, and he has billions of dollars at stake in LightSquared’s approval. Also, Obama himself was an investor in LightSquared at one point, as were or are a number of his associates. The resounding failure in this test makes it look like the White House pressured witnesses to back off of exposing LightSquared’s product as exactly the kind of dangerous problem that critics had maintained all along — with the intent to mislead Congress into moving forward with LightSquared’s government contracts.
One amusing note: LightSquared announced two days ago that the same tests showed no problems at all. After Bloomberg reported on the draft report, the company expressed outrage over the “leak” of “preliminary results.” Yeah, we’re with you on the leak outrage, pal.
Congress needs to add this to its growing list of investigations into the Obama administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
-
just like the nation laughed when a few far-left libbies cried for bush's impeachment...
it'll never happen. Watergate, iran contra... you name it. presidents do what they feel needs to be done. they don't go to jail for it. the office of the presidency is too important.
-
just like the nation laughed when a few far-left libbies cried for bush's impeachment...
it'll never happen. Watergate, iran contra... you name it. presidents do what they feel needs to be done. they don't go to jail for it. the office of the presidency is too important.
They're still trying to get him arrested. Zambia told Amnesty International to "go hang" and "build your own country if you want to arrest him" last week as they missed the fact that Bush is given a hero's welcome in Africa due to the support he gave them.
-
They're still trying to get him arrested. Zambia told Amnesty International to "go hang" and "build your own country if you want to arrest him" last week as they missed the fact that Bush is given a hero's welcome in Africa due to the support he gave them.
LOL @ "Amnety international"
hahahha oh brother, what a bunch of little girls.
-
This week in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder doubled down, then tripled down, on Fast and Furious. He dug in, fought back, and pretended nothing is systemically wrong inside his Justice Department. Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) even accused him of potential contempt of Congress, a crime (2 U.S.C. 192).
Holder’s testimony was not merely shameful, it was a maturing manifestation of a lawlessness which I first warned about in July of 2010 when I testified about the New Black Panther dismissal. Small acts of lawlessness have given way to larger ones.
In the radio and television interviews I do, I am often asked, “What can be done about Holder and the DOJ?” Until now, I have responded that becoming educated about the DOJ and urging your congressman to action is best. But circumstances have changed, and you as an American can do something about it.
Holder’s brazen display before the House Judiciary Committee signals that the Justice Department is in deep trouble. It is time for Eric Holder to go. It is time for his Chief of Staff Gary Grindler to go. It is time for Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer to go.
The list shouldn’t end there. The swirl of corruption also taints Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich, who managed the production of the false letter to Congress about Fast and Furious. It also taints Tracy Schmaler, the truth-challenged head of the Office of Public Affairs who disassembles the truth to the public on so many issues I have lost count.
The Constitution provides two avenues for just this circumstance. One is found in the First Amendment and the other in Article II, Section 4.
This coming Tuesday, Eric Holder is coming to Austin, Texas, to make a major announcement about voting rights. Most likely, it will involve opposing election integrity efforts like voter identification requirements in Texas and South Carolina. It will have a direct impact on the 2012 election. His appearance at the LBJ Library will be met by True the Vote, which will hold a counter-rally to which all of America is invited. It is at 4 p.m. on the grounds of the LBJ Library. Here is the flyer with more information. The First Amendment gives citizens the right to petition their government for redress of grievances. Use it.
But the Constitution provides more tools to undo the rot at DOJ. Article II, Section 4 allows executive branch officers to be impeached. This includes Holder, Breuer, and Weich.
Shakespeare could have been describing the Justice Department when he wrote in Macbeth that “there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them.” Honest Americans haven’t seen this degree of dishonest defense of corruption in almost four decades. Except now, the corruption involves hundreds of murders and thousands of guns, not a burglary.
The rot at Holder’s DOJ is not confined to a few political officials. It extends to entire units. During the Bush years, the DOJ Inspector General castigated Office of Public Affairs employee John Nowacki for misleading the media that politics played no role in hiring in the DOJ. But now, Tracy Schmaler of the Holder Office of Public Affairs misleads the media daily in ways that would shame Ron Ziegler. What reprimand from the Inspector General awaits Schmaler?
The lying occurs from root to branch in this Justice Department. Shortly we’ll learn more about repeated lies under oath in the Inspector General’s investigation of the Civil Rights Division. Will there be grand jury referrals? Or more whitewash?
We also learned that former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes didn’t tell the whole truth when it came to what she said about enforcing all portions of the Motor Voter law. She told the internal ethics investigators that she would approve a lawsuit to clean up the voter rolls of dead voters if it had merit, after she told dozens of employees at Justice in my presence she wouldn’t even support investigations of the same.
And this week Attorney General Eric Holder laughably told the House Judiciary Committee the tallest of tales that politics or ideology plays no part in attorney hiring at DOJ. Lying, we heard from the attorney general, is simply “a state of mind.”
If you are so corrupt, so rotten, that you don’t recognize that hiring 113 left-wing and politically active attorneys for 113 attorney jobs at DOJ, without a single conservative or moderate, is political, then perhaps you really aren’t lying. To make Holder’s fantasy even more fantastic, this week we learn from Matthew Vadum that an ACORN affiliated group was regularly emailing Voting Section Chief Chris Herren about attorneys they wanted Justice to hire to oversee elections in 2012.
Ben Shapiro , in his book Primetime Propaganda (Broadside Books, 2011), describes how writers in Hollywood don’t even recognize their own left=wing bias. To them, they merely portray the world as they see it. To Holder, there is nothing ideological or political about lawyers who worked for ACORN or the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and fought against voter ID. Isn’t that what everyone reasonable does?
Committees with DOJ oversight power should be past the time for caution. It is time to go on offense against DOJ, and not merely continue probing around the edges. Consider the fact that Rep. Darrell Issa’s motion to have Holder put under oath was denied. Why? What price would have been paid to do so? Did someone advise the chairman there was danger in doing so? Does someone want to keep a friendly relationship with Democrats more than they want to uphold the law?
It is time for the Judiciary Committee to adopt an offensive strategy worthy of Patton’s Third Army. Too much is at stake.
It is also time for Americans to hold elected officials, and their staff, accountable. For example, every time I am on the radio in Dallas, I sing the praises of Congressmen Louie Gohmert and John Culberson. Both have displayed the courage to uphold the Constitution in the face of executive branch lies. They don’t flinch at hearings, and some of the most important admissions by administration officials have been extracted by tough questions by this pair. When I am on the radio in Phoenix, Rep. Trent Franks earns praise. He too recognizes the corrupted rot of the DOJ and acts accordingly.
But the same cannot be said for everyone involved in investigating Eric Holder’s misdeeds, even if they wear the GOP uniform. Some still do not recognize the depths of radicalism in this administration.
They still don’t recognize that the Justice Department has been politicized with messianic zeal. Either they have not read PJ Media’s Every Single One series, or they don’t want to believe it. After all, the Justice Department is above all this, right?
I am reminded of the same story told to me by multiple former Justice Department officials. They recount the story of a senior Bush political appointee at DOJ who refused to believe that personnel is policy. This individual refused to believe that left-wing lawyers at DOJ would reach any different legal conclusions, or adopt arguments significantly different than other lawyers who harbored no partisan instincts. “The law is the law,” the appointee naively thought.
Yet we have seen the results of the rank and file’s unbounded ideological zeal in the last three years. We have seen cases to fight for child transvestites in public schools and naked advocacy for race-based hiring, all of which I discussed in my book Injustice.
Some in Washington care more about the cocktail party circuit or being respected as a “reasonable Republican” by Beltway Democrats than they do about protecting and defending the Constitution. Their focus is on ensuring their own future confirmation prospects by not ruffling any feathers on the Left. Principles be damned. At the first sign of controversy, they capitulate. In the end, of course, what they have done is to enable the radicals that populate certain parts of the Justice Department and inflict a deep scar on our constitutional fabric.
And what if Holder is drummed out of office, what then? Will he be welcomed with open arms back in Big Law? Will he return to Covington and Burling, a firm which has donated millions of dollars of value to defending Islamic terrorists at GITMO? Most likely, yes, because Democrats embrace their warriors.
Republicans, on the other hand, often flee from the fight. When Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez was under attack, he adopted a strategy suggested to him by quisling advisors – retreat and concede. Instead of counterattacking, Gonzalez fled the field, shed his uniform, and allowed his political enemies to destroy him. Instead of being embraced by Big Law upon his departure from DOJ, he wandered the wilderness, then went to Texas Tech working on campus diversity, and now teaches at the Belmont University College of Law.
Gonzalez is a good man who got bad advice to surrender in a political fight, and did so. Attorney General Eric Holder is exactly the opposite. Now is the time, both for members of Congress and citizens in the public square, to hit back hard. See you in Austin.
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Navy buys biofuel for $16 a gallon
Hot Air ^ | December 11,2011 | J.E. DYER
Posted on December 11, 2011 7:28:39 PM EST by Hojczyk
Teaming up with the Department of Agriculture (which has a cheery Rotary Club ring to it), the Navy has purchased 450,000 gallons of biofuel for about $16 a gallon, or about 4 times the price of its standard marine fuel, JP-5, which has been going for under $4 a gallon.
You won’t be surprised to learn that a member of Obama’s presidential transition team, T. J. Glauthier, is a “strategic advisor” at Solazyme, the California company that is selling a portion of the biofuel to the Navy. Glauthier worked – shock, shock – on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill.
The Navy sale isn’t Solazyme’s first trip to the public trough, of course. The company got a $21.8 million grant from the 2009 stimulus package.
Solazyme’s partner in the biofuel sale is Dynamic Fuels, a Louisiana company owned jointly by Tyson Foods and Tulsa-based Syntroleum. Tyson and Syntroleum are distinguished by having profitable lines of business that do not rely on government grants to unprofitable “green” projects. This does not make their biofuel product price-competitive with fossil fuels, however. (They were induced to develop biofuel manufacturing processes by a combination of subsidies and tax breaks.)
The Dynamic Fuels plant was opened for business in Geismar, LA in 2010, becoming by far the largest biofuels plant in North America – and reportedly, in combination with a plant in Finland, a producer of 94% of the world’s biofuels. This is great boosterism stuff, but the biofuels produced by Dynamic Fuels are still considerably more expensive than the fossil-fuel alternative. Dynamic Fuels has begun supplying aviation biofuel to KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, but of course, the use of more-expensive biofuels by commercial carriers has to be subsidized by governments.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
-
Rep. Sandy Adams (R, FL): …let me ask you another question, because one of my colleagues asked you about your e-mails and you went straight to your work e-mail. Hardly anybody has that. I’m going to ask you a very direct question. You have a personal e-mail account. Did you at any time – at any time – e-mail on your personal account with Lanny Breuer – or Lanny Breuer and Gary Grindler in regards to Fast and Furious ever?
Attorney General Eric Holder: Ever?
Adams: Yes…
(CROSSTALK)
Judiciary Chair Lamar Smith (R, TX): The gentlewoman is recognized for an additional minute so the attorney general can respond to her questions.
Holder: I don’t know. I can tell you that I didn’t know…
(CROSSTALK)
Adams: Would you check and get back with us? If you need some help, I’m sure that your agency personnel can get into those computers.
Holder: Well, with regard to provision of e-mails, I thought I’ve made it clear that after February the 4th it is not our intention to provide e-mail information consistent with the way in which the Justice Department has always conducted itself. The exception that I made, that I made in the hope that the Justice Department would be seen as transparent was to go against that tradition and to make available deliberative material around the February 4th letter.
(CROSSTALK)
Adams: So, again, as in when you were here before and I asked you about a totally different issue, you were saying that you refused to provide that information, is that correct?
Holder: I didn’t hear the – you were talking the same time I was talking. And, please, she can have more time. I don’t – I don’t want to cut off your time. I’m – I just didn’t hear the question.
Adams: Previously, in another committee, when you were here earlier I asked you another question, you said you would not answer that question. Now you’re saying that you won’t provide those e-mails because that’s not consistent with whatever policy was previous. I’m asking you, if there is clean hands here, will you provide those e-mails to this committee…
Holder: As I said…
Adams: … yes or no?
Holder: … I’m going to act in a way that’s consistent with all attorneys general before me.
Adams: That’s not my question, Attorney General.
(CROSSTALK)
Adams: I – you know, with due respect, that was not my question. I asked you, with clean hands, would you supply those e-mails, whether it’s work-related or personal e-mails, as they apply to anything that had to do with and to this committee, yes or no?
Holder: And as I said – as I said, with regard to the Justice Department as a whole…
Adams: I yield back.
Holder: And I am…
(CROSSTALK)
Adams: Mr. Chair, I’m not going to get the answer…
(CROSSTALK)
Holder: … with regard to the Justice Department as a whole – and I’m certainly a member of the Justice Department – we will not provide memos after February the 4th. And that is a way in which we are…
Adams: With regards to e-mails, I didn’t ask memos, I said e- mails.
Holder: E-mails, memos – consistent with the way in which the Department of Justice has always conducted itself in its interactions…
(CROSSTALK)
Adams: What about prior to February 4th?
Smith: The gentlewoman’s time has – the answer was no, is that correct, Mr. Attorney General?
Holder: No, but consistent with the way in which the Justice Department has always conducted itself. This is not something that I am making up in terms of new policy.
Smith: I know, but you used the word “not.” I took “not” to be no.
Holder: Oh, I said no.
Smith: OK.
Holder: I’m saying no. But, again, consistent with DOJ policy.
…Now, I am not a lawyer; but that sounds to me a whole lot like the Attorney General tacitly admitting that there are personal emails originating from him and sent to Lanny Breuer (Assistant AG; admitted knowing of Operation F&F in April 2010) & Gary Grindler (Holder’s Chief of Staff: possibly briefed on Operation F&F in March 2010) that discuss Operation Fast & Furious. Now, I understand that AG Holder is trying to use the old Jesuit tactic of “I am not a priest and if I were I would lie to you about it:” specifically, that he doesn’t remember any emails and if there were he wouldn’t give them to the Judiciary committee anyway. Whether or not that tactic will be permitted to work depends on whether the the Judiciary committee is willing to accept that a Justice Department that went out and got cops killed is really qualified to do its own internal vetting.
Judging by the response from Judiciary so far, they very well may not accept that. Isn’t it nice to have more people in public office who get upset about the same things that get you upset? I think that it’s nice…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
TOPICS: Government; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: atf; banglist; dea; dhs; doj; ericholder; fastandfurious; fastfurious; fbi; gunrunner; gunwalker; holder; obama; Click to Add Keyword
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
Rep. Sandy Adams (R, FL): …let me ask you another question, because one of my colleagues asked you about your e-mails and you went straight to your work e-mail. Hardly anybody has that. I’m going to ask you a very direct question. You have a personal e-mail account. Did you at any time – at any time – e-mail on your personal account with Lanny Breuer – or Lanny Breuer and Gary Grindler in regards to Fast and Furious ever?
Attorney General Eric Holder: Ever?
...Holder: I don’t know. I can tell you that I didn’t know…
...Holder: No, but...
That is a YES!!! Nobody answers a question like that with such evasion unless the true answer is YES!
-
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/12/sipsey-street-exclusive-greater-fear.html
Wow.
-
Frank Miniter, Contributor
I expose the excesses of the bureaucracy.
+ Follow on Forbes
OP/ED | 12/07/2011 @ 5:31PM |7,982 views
Inside President Obama's War On The Fast & Furious Whistleblowers
+ Comment now
300
185
9
2
1
Image by Getty Images Europe via @daylife
Legal Dictionary: Whistleblower: an employee who brings wrongdoing by an employer or other employees to the attention of a government or law-enforcement agency and who is commonly vested by statute with rights and remedies for retaliation
Slang Dictionary: Whistleblower: n.
someone who calls a halt to something; an informer; an enforcer; a stool (pigeon): I don’t know who the whistle-blower was, but a good time was really ruined.
"Fast And Furious" Just Might Be President Obama's Watergate
Capital Flows
Contributor
The synonyms thesaurus.com gives for “whistleblower” are even less charitable than the word’s definition: canary, nark, rat, snake, snitch, squealer, stoolie, tattletale, weasel…. But none of these labels seem harsh enough to federal bureaucrats. They’ve left whistleblowers in legal limbo; they’ve barred whistleblowers from offices and forced others to transfer to backwater districts; they’ve mined records to publically disparage at least one recently (more on him in a moment); they’ve deemed a few to be “traitors” and had them shunned by colleagues … and this is just the beginning of what they’ve been doing to the few courageous squealers who exposed Operation Fast and Furious, the once-secret operation that, by design mind you, let thousands of guns “walk” from U.S. gun stores to the arsenals of Mexican drug cartels.
To find what is being done to protect these and other government whistleblowers, I sat down with Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA). He’s the Obama administration’s gadfly on this topic. Grassley was one of the original authors of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989. Thanks to this legislation, if authorities in a federal agency take (or threaten to take) retaliatory action against a whistleblower, then they’ve broken the law. Nevertheless, the bureaucrats who often make life difficult for whistleblowers have had little to fear from this law.
The quasi-judicial agency that adjudicates government whistleblower complaints (called the Merit Systems Protection Board) uses appointed judges to hear whistleblower cases. These judges have more often than not sided with the government; in fact, since 2000, this board has ruled in favor of whistleblowers only about 5 percent of the time (just three times in 56 cases) according to a Government Accountability Project study.
Senator Grassley has criticized this board for allowing the federal bureaucracy to have its revenge on those who uncover corruption. More recently, he’s been working to update the Whistleblower Protection Act and he’s written multiple letters to Attorney General Eric Holder telling him not to punish whistleblowers.
As Senator Grassley is clearly passionate about this topic, I said, “Just speak your mind Senator Grassley. Don’t let me stop you.”
He smiled warmly and leaned over his Capitol Hill desk as he said, “Whistleblowing ruins people professionally. I’d say there’s more retaliation out there than you and I know about. Because of this, though people want to do right, by golly they can’t because they know they’re going to get hurt. This is why I’ve always advised presidents, going back to President Ronald Reagan, that we need a Rose Garden ceremony celebrating a whistleblower now and then. That way they’d know there is some support for standing up against corruption.”
Senator Grassley then pointed out that the first whistleblower to come forward about Fast and Furious (ATF Agent John Dodson) had recently been attacked by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). According to Senator Grassley, “Someone in the Justice Department leaked a document to the press along with talking points in an attempt to smear [Dodson.]” The letter insinuated that Dodson went rogue and started a gun-walking operation on his own. This was easy to prove false; however, if Republicans hadn’t taken control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2010 election (meaning an opposing political party wouldn’t have had the power to do an investigation) then Dodson would have been left dangling in these political winds, as records giving the complete picture would likely not have been available.
Senator Grassley pointed out that the documents DOJ released to smear Dodson were actually supposed to be so sensitive that the DOJ wouldn’t provide them to congressional investigators. But then, to harm a whistleblower, someone from the DOJ provided these specifically selected documents to the press. In fact, the name of the criminal suspect in the documents was redacted, but Agent Dodson’s name was left for all to see. “This looks like a clear and intentional violation of the Privacy Act as well as an attempt at whistleblower retaliation,” said Grassley.
300
185
9
2
1
PAGE 2 OF 2
In a subsequent letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Grassley said, “In a private phone conversation with me, you already told me that someone has been held accountable for this. But your staff refused to provide my staff with any details. Who was held accountable and how?”
No one at DOJ is known to have been held accountable for this attack on Dodson. Meanwhile, the whistleblowers who blew the top off Fast and Furious are paying the price.
Agent John Dodson, after nearly a year of harassment, including being given menial assignments and being barred from areas of the ATF building in Phoenix, is in the process of trying to sell his home in Arizona so he can transfer to South Carolina.
Agent Larry Alt transferred to Florida. He still has unresolved legal claims against the ATF.
Agent Pete Forcelli was demoted to a desk job after he testified before Congress. He has requested an internal investigation to address retaliation targeting him.
Agent James Casa took a transfer to Florida.
Agent Carlos Canino, who was a deputy attache in Mexico City, was moved to Tucson.
Meanwhile the officials who went along with the operation and its subsequent cover up have mostly been rewarded. “These transfers/reassignments have never been described as promotions in any of the documents announcing them,” said an ATF statement after journalists noted that those who didn’t become whistleblowers profited from their silence. The ATF says that because these officials pay didn’t go up they weren’t promoted; however, in many cases their titles and positions have inarguably been enhanced.
Former Acting ATF Chief Ken Melson, after refusing to be a scapegoat for this operation, became an adviser in the Office of Legal Affairs in Washington, D.C.
Acting Deputy Director Billy Hoover is now the special agent in charge of the D.C. office.
Deputy Director for Field Operations William McMahon—he’d received detailed briefings Fast and Furious—is now at the ATF’s Office of Internal Affairs.
Former Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix William Newell—he oversaw Fast and Furious and lied by saying guns hadn’t been allowed to go south of the border—is now at the Office of Management in Washington, D.C.
Phoenix Deputy Chief George Gillette is now in to Washington, D.C., as ATF’s liaison to the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
ATF Group Supervisor David Voth—he managed Fast and Furious out of the Phoenix office—is now in a management position in Washington, D.C.
Agent Hope McCallister—she had management duties on the team that ran Fast and Furious—was given a “Lifesaving Award” after it came to light she’d ordered agents to stop tailing suspects who the ATF had allowed to buy guns.
"Fast And Furious" Just Might Be President Obama's Watergate
Capital Flows
Contributor
In light of all of this, Senator Grassley pivoted and said, “With regards to Operation Fast and Furious, we want the person at the highest level of government who approved Fast and Furious to be fired. We want justice for Brian Terry’s family—they still don’t know what happened that night when Brian was killed. And we want to know that this stupid program will never happen again.”
Then Senator Grassley highlighted a related issue that hasn’t made the headlines. This issue puts the politics behind the cover up of Fast and Furious in perspective. In November internal documents showed that the DOJ was considering changing existing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulations (this is a process that allows citizens to seek and obtain unclassified documents) to allow agencies responding to a FOIA request to answer the person by saying “no records exist,” even if the records do, in fact, exist. This way when someone makes a request for government documents, the agency would be able to fib and thereby work to discourage other such requests. The idea was that agencies could do this whenever someone requested a document that the law allows the government to keep from the public, such one that has a “top-secret” rating.
“They were giving themselves a license to legally lie,” Senator Grassley deadpanned. “This was supposed to be the most transparent administration we’ve ever seen. Well, they’re not.”
After Senator Grassley’s staff made this attempt to give themselves a “license to legally lie” public the DOJ was “so embarrassed they withdrew the proposal right away,” said Senator Grassley.
So whistleblowers who’d been ordered to let guns “walk” in Operation Fast and Furious—and those federal employees who find themselves in other misguided programs or corruption—either can keep their mouths shut or they can come forward and be crushed by the bureaucracy as they attempt to reform the system. This isn’t a decision citizens in a country with the freedom of speech enshrined in the U.S. Bill of Rights should have to contend with.
Just when did the federal bureaucracy get so strong that it lost its fear of the people? Just when did the people become more afraid of the bureaucracy? Given the gauntlet whistleblowers now face, it isn’t surprising that Americans have become cynical about Washington; however, perhaps instead of deciding all politicians are tainted, we should instead realize it’s the growing bureaucratic swamp that needs to be drained.
In fact, saying all of Washington’s politicians are corrupt is too convenient a philosophy; such fashionable cynicism can even be self-fulfilling, as deciding all politicians are crooked doesn’t allow a Senator Grassley, for example, to now and then be a shining example of what a statesman should be.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2011/12/07/inside-president-obamas-war-on-the-fast-furious-whistleblowers/2
-
LightSquared Slams Leak on GPS Tests, Expects to Win(Barry's Cronies Company)
pc world ^ | 12/12/2011 | Stephen Lawson
LightSquared believes a government official selectively leaked results from tests of its proposed mobile broadband network to set public opinion against the company, and it is seeking a federal investigation of the apparent leak.
But executives of the fledgling carrier, which plans to build a national LTE (Long Term Evolution) network in spectrum near GPS frequencies, said they are still confident of getting government approval in time to launch the network next year.
"The tide is on our side completely in terms of getting through this process," LightSquared General Counsel Curtis Lu said on a conference call with reporters on Monday.
The company believes the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be able to make a decision in the first quarter of next year and will rule in LightSquared's favor, said Martin Harriman, executive vice president of ecosystem development and satellite business. LightSquared has said it could launch the network within nine months of receiving government approval.
However, the company faces several hurdles on the way to that launch, including one more set of tests in January and a variety of political challenges.
LightSquared's plan for a network of 40,000 LTE base stations, on which it would sell mobile data service wholesale to other carriers, has been plagued by controversy over possible interference with GPS receivers. Last month, the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) oversaw the second set of tests to determine the danger of interference.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Grand jury begins probe of Solyndra
washington times ^
Attorneys’ billing shows preparation
A grand jury has begun investigating Solyndra LLC, the failed California solar-panel maker that lost more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans, according to law-firm billing records.
Weeks after Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in September, a judge allowed the company to hire a law firm to represent it in what court records at the time called a “federal criminal investigation.”
Now the firm, K&L Gates, has filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware a detailed, hour-by-hour account of how attorneys have been spending their time. Most of their efforts have focused on what the firm called the U.S. attorney’s office and Department of Justice investigation of Solyndra.
In an 18-page invoice from the law firm dated Dec. 9, the words “grand jury” appear numerous times: “Prepare response to grand jury subpoena,” one entry reads. Another said, “Review and prepare documents to respond to grand jury subpoena.”
The invoices also point to a meeting on Oct. 14 between K&L Gates attorney Jeffrey L. Bornstein, a former federal prosecutor in San Francisco, and an assistant U.S. attorney identified in the billing records only as “J. Nedrow.”
Jeffrey Nedrow is an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, which is the same office overseeing the Solyndra investigation. Mr. Nedrow was a prosecutor in the criminal trial against former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds.
read on.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-
The Year in Obama Scandals -- and Scandal Deniers
Townhall.com ^ | December 28, 2011 | Michelle Malkin
With 2011 drawing to a close, it is time to account. As an early-and-often chronicler of Chicago-on-the-Potomac, I am amazed at the stubborn and clingy persistence of President Barack Obama's snowblowers in the media. See no scandal, hear no scandal, speak no scandal.
Dartmouth College professor Brendan Nyhan asserted in May -- while Operation Fast and Furious subpoenas were flying on Capitol Hill -- that "one of the least remarked upon aspects of the Obama presidency has been the lack of scandals." Conveniently, he defines scandal as a "widespread elite perception of wrongdoing."
So as long as left-wing Ivy League scribes refuse to perceive something to be a scandal -- never mind the actual suffering endured by the family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose death came at the hands of a Mexican cartel thug wielding a Fast and Furious gun walked across the southern border under Attorney General Eric Holder's watch -- there is no scandal!
Self-serving much?
Mother Jones' Kevin Drum likewise proclaimed: "Obama's presidency has so far been almost completely free of scandal."
This after the year kicked off in January with the departure of lying eco-radical czar Carol Browner. In backroom negotiations, she infamously bullied auto execs to "put nothing in writing, ever." The previous fall, the White House's own oil spill panel had singled out Browner for misleading the public about the scientific evidence for the administration's Draconian drilling moratorium and "contributing to the perception that the government's findings were more exact than they actually were."
The Interior Department inspector general and federal judges likewise blasted drilling ban book-cooking by Browner and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who falsely rewrote the White House drilling ban report to doctor the Obama-appointed panel's own overwhelming scientific objections to the job-killing edict.
In February, federal judge Martin Feldman in Louisiana excoriated the Obama Interior Department for defying his May 2010 order to lift its fraudulent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf. He called out the administration's culture of contempt and "determined disregard" for the law.
This spring saw rising public anger over the preferential Obamacare waiver process (which I first reported on in September 2010). Some 2,000 lucky golden ticket winners were freed from the costly federal mandates -- including a handful of fancy restaurants in Aloha Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district, the entire state of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Nevada, and scores of local, state and national Big Labor organizations, from the Service Employees International Union and Teamsters on down. Meanwhile, as The Hill newspaper reported last month, other not-so-lucky Republican-led states seeking waivers, such as Indiana and Louisiana, were rejected.
But it wasn't just Republicans objecting to the president's arbitrary Obamacare fiats. In July, congressional Democrats turned on the monstrous federal health bureaucracy known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The constitutionally suspect panel -- freed from normal public notice, public comment and public review rules -- would have unprecedented authority over health care spending and an expanding jurisdiction of private health care payment rates.
Obama's health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, faced separate legal questions over her overseer role in a hair-raising document-shredding case when she served as governor of Kansas. In October, a district judge in the Sunflower State suspended court proceedings in a high-profile criminal case against the abortion racketeers of Planned Parenthood. Bombshell court filings showed that Kansas health officials "shredded documents related to felony charges the abortion giant faces" and failed to disclose it for six years.
That same month, Bloomberg News columnist Jonathan Alter gushed: "There is zero evidence ... of corruption. Where is it?"
Alter's declaration of the "Obama Miracle" came just weeks after the politically driven half-billion-dollar Solyndra stimulus "investment" went bankrupt, prompting an FBI raid and ongoing criminal and congressional probes of the solar company funded by top White House bundler and visitor George Kaiser.
As Solyndra and an avalanche of other ongoing green subsidy scams erupted, so did the LightSquared debacle -- a federal broadband boondoggle involving billionaire hedge fund managers and Obama donors Philip Falcone and George Soros. In September, two high-ranking witnesses -- William Shelton, the four-star general who heads the Air Force Space Command, and National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Director Anthony Russo -- exposed how the White House had pressured them to alter their congressional testimony and play down concerns about LightSquared's interference threat to military communications.
The White House continues to block efforts to gain information about the Federal Communications Commission's approval of a special waiver for the company, even as new government tests this month showed that the company's "signals caused harmful interference to the majority of ... general purpose GPS receivers."
The Obama White House closed out the year with Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri demanding a probe of the smelly $443 million no-bid smallpox antiviral pill contract with Siga Technologies -- controlled by big lefty donor Ron Perelman. Then there was the small matter of massive voter fraud in Indiana, where a Democratic official resigned amid allegations that "dozens, if not hundreds," of signatures were faked to get Obama on the state primary ballot in 2008. And while Americans busied themselves with the holidays, White House and Democratic campaign officials were dumping more than $70,000 in contributions from another deep-pocketed contributor -- scandal-plagued pal and former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who oversaw the collapse of MF Global.
All this -- and so much more -- yet erstwhile "conservative" journalist Andrew Sullivan of Newsweek/The Daily Beast scoffed, "Where are all the scandals promised by Michelle Malkin?"
There's none so blind as those who will not see.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Bankrupt Solyndra seeking to pay bonuses
The Washington Times ^ | January 11, 2012 | Jim McElhatton
Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt Solyndra LLC, but that’s the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to persuade key employees to stay put.
Nearly two dozen Solyndra employees could receive bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 each under a proposal filed by Solyndra’s attorneys in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
The attorneys say the extra money will add motivation at a time when workers at the solar company have little job security and more responsibilities because so many of their colleagues have been fired.
The names of the bonus-eligible employees are not disclosed in the court filings that outline the bonus proposal. None of the employees is among the so-called corporate “insiders” — top officers or members of the board of directors, records show.
The proposed bonus recipients include nine equipment engineers, six general business and finance employees and up to two information technology workers.
The biggest bonus, for $50,000, would go to a Solyndra employee whose job title is listed as a senior director with a base salary of $206,499 per year. Two senior managers stand to receive bonuses of $30,000 and $32,500.
Bankruptcy attorneys said the so-called “key employee incentive plan” aims to keep important personnel from leaving the company.
Solyndra went broke just two years after winning a more than $500,000,000 federal loan-guarantee package, and one year after President Obama toured its California headquarters and hailed its prospects.
Most of Solyndra’s employees were laid off last year. The company employed about 1,100 people last year. Just 84 remain. Of those who managed to avoid the mass firings, many have been scrambling to find jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at p.washingtontimes.com ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
LightSquared CEO resigns amid revelations of company’s proximity to Obama White House
Published: 1:43 PM 02/28/2012
By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday amid revelations of his company’s political proximity — and his own closeness — to the White House and Obama administration officials.
The Daily Caller first reported one week ago on emails and documents that indicate political ties and numerous meetings between LightSquared and Obama administration officials as the was undergoing regulatory review.
Ahuja’s resignation comes after Obama’s FCC suspended conditional approval of a waiver LightSquared needed to complete its high-speed broadband network. Until two weeks ago, the company’s final approval appeared imminent.
Ahuja, who had never donated to Democrats before and has not since, gave the maximum allowable $30,400 contribution to the Democratic National Committee on the same day his lawyers were trying to arrange a meeting for him at the White House with top Obama technology adviser Aneesh Chopra and other officials.
In emails between Ahuja’s lawyers and White House officials Ahuja wanted to meet with, his lawyers pointed out that he would attend an Obama fundraiser on or about the same day he wanted the meeting.
In a statement accompanying the company’s announcement of Ahuja’s resignation, he made no mention of those revelations.
“During my tenure at LightSquared, we all worked tirelessly to create the nation’s first open wireless broadband network and provide consumers with a new wireless broadband experience,” Ahuja said. “That work continues and I wish the company and its fine management team well as they work to achieve this important goal.”
Ads by GoogleAmericans Elect 2012
Who would you nominate in 2012? This election, it's up to you!
www.americanselect.orgLi ghtSquared spokesman Terry Neal did not immediately respond to TheDC’s request for comment on the possible connections between Ahuja’s resignation and revelations published exclusively by TheDC.
According to the release, Ahuja will remain LightSquared’s chairman.
Philip Falcone, the CEO of Harbinger Capital Partners — which created LightSquared from its predecessor, SkyTerra — was appointed to the LightSquared board on Tuesday as well. The Obama administration FCC approved Harbinger’s purchase of SkyTerra after what appeared to be a series of favorable regulatory decisions amid White House visits.
In the press release, Falcone said he remains confident in LightSquared’s future despite these new revelations and the company’s reported challenges related to GPS interference issues.
“LightSquared’s objective, through its wholesale business model, is to provide increased competition and lower prices in the telecommunications industry, and to bring broadband cellular phone service to rural areas that currently don’t have such service and that has not and will not change,” Falcone said. “We are, furthermore, committed to working with the appropriate entities to find a solution to the recent regulatory issues. We, of course, agree that it is critical to ensure that national security, aviation and the GPS communities are protected.”
Follow Matthew on Twitter
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/28/lightsquared-ceo-resigns-amid-revelations-of-companys-proximity-to-obama-white-house/#ixzz1ni9tsZMy
WHERE FOR ART THOU OH 99%ERS?
-
Skip to comments.
Obama Doubles Down On More Solyndras
IBD Editorials ^ | April 18, 2012
Posted on April 18, 2012 9:11:14 PM EDT by raptor22
Green Energy: Another day and another set of layoffs at a Department of Energy-backed solar company and an electric-car maker funded with stimulus dollars. Yet the President wants to double down on green energy.
First Solar, a solar energy company that received a $1.46 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, announced Monday it will lay off 2,000 workers worldwide. In December, First Solar laid off 100 employees at a Santa Clara , Calif., plant.
The DOE has committed the loan to a project in Riverside County, Calif., expected to create a whopping 15 permanent jobs and 550 construction jobs.
Contrast this boondoggle with the privately funded Keystone XL pipeline, delayed by President Obama over alleged environmental concerns, which would create 20,000 jobs initially and perhaps 10 times that over the life of the project. It will bring 800,000 barrels of oil daily to U.S. refineries, whether the sun shines or not.
Last Friday, Delaware Online reports, 12 more workers — including engineers and maintenance technicians — were laid off at Fisker Automotive's plant in Wilmington, Del., an old General Motors facility.
Originally Fisker was to build its $107,850 dream car, the electric Fisker Karma, there. The Karma, which Consumer Reports labeled "undrivable" after it had to be towed away after a test drive, is being built by Valmet in Finland. Fisker Automotive is the recipient of a $529 million federal government loan guarantee.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
-
Lol, I wonder how Obama feels watching his ideology blow up in his face, its gotta be hard, to believe in something so strongly only to see all your beliefs destroy themselves and to have people mock you for being such an idiot....
-
Lol, I wonder how Obama feels watching his ideology blow up in his face, its gotta be hard, to believe in something so strongly only to see all your beliefs destroy themselves and to have people mock you for being such an idiot....
The problem is that idealogical communists like obama see nothing wrong with anything going on.
-
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/solyndra-building-sale_640469.html
Awesome.
-
Infinite Taxpayer Money Needed for Electric Truck Company's Survival
National Legal & Policy Center ^ | April 20, 2012 | Paul Chesser
Despite a new report out of the United Kingdom that says the future of the business is bleak without government subsidies, a three-year-old unprofitable electric truck company that received $32 million in U.S. taxpayer stimulus plans to raise more money via an initial public offering.
Kansas City-based Smith Electric Vehicles was launched in January 2009, and despite its lack of track record and the inexperience of its leadership, theDepartment of Energy awarded the company$10 million in August 2009, and an additional $22 million in March 2010, for an electric truck demonstration program. The company was little more than a spinoff of a failed U.K. operation with the same name, owned by a troubled parent company called The Tanfield Group. In July 2008 – largely because of Smith-UK’s shortcomings – Tanfield’s stock price “collapsed” (scroll down at link) and was harming other holdings of its founder, Roy Stanley.
Smith-UK’s electric truck venture, part of the “green” energy economy euphoria that swept Europe, once received praise from luminaries such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who called Tanfield “UK manufacturing innovation at its best.” But soon afterward media discovered that customers for the electric trucks were sparse, and investors wondered whether the company was “more hype than reality.”
A study commissioned by the U.K. Department of Transport confirms the industry was unworthy of the publicity it received. British consulting firm Element Energy examined the total costs of ownership of low emission vans, in light of the government’s plans (implemented in February) to extend its Plug-In Car Grant program to electric trucks. It found that for electric trucks to make economic sense, government would need to provide grants indefinitely in order to compete with diesel-powered vehicles.
“The report’s authors suggest that cash incentives will need to continue to compensate owners for the higher running costs, as well as non-financial incentives…,” reported England-based Fleet News. John Lewis, CEO of the British Vehicle Renting and Leasing Association, said, “The government has put its money where its mouth is by delivering the Plug-in Van Grant and other tax incentives, but it needs to give operators confidence that these will be more than just short-term measures.”
So unsurprisingly, we have another industry in the clean energy economy that depends on public funding for its survival, rather than the appeal of its products or services. But a study isn’t required to show that’s the case; the Tanfield/Smith Electric-UK experience is proof.
After Tanfield’s stock lost 80 percent of its value in one day, and 97 percent of its value within a year, investors demanded changes in 2008. By January 2009 Smith-U.S. was started, CEO Bryan Hansel planned to raise $15 million, and in August 2009 had its first $10 million commitment from DOE – just eight months after its founding. By the end of the year, however, Smith-U.S. still had no revenues.
In April 2010 Smith-U.S. had raised the $15 million it had sought – on top of another $22 million grant from the Department of Energy – so the company agreed to buy Smith-UK. Tanfield Founder Roy Stanley, and CEO Darren Kell, were added to the board of directors for Smith-U.S. But by late summer the deal had still not been consummated and the British company’s share price again tanked. Liberty, a rival British EV manufacturer, made overtures to Tanfield investors for a buyout, but were rebuffed.
Finally by the end of 2010 the sale was complete, for $15 million in cash, payable in 20 equal installments, plus other financing and ownership considerations. In its annual report Tanfield stated it now owned 32.2 percent of Smith-U.S., while Smith-U.K. was now formally a “discontinued operation.” But Tanfield’s woes may not be over, as the U.K. Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board announced a year ago it would investigate the conduct of its accountants in their preparation of the company’s 2007 and 2008 financial statements. The investigation is still ongoing.
It certainly looks like U.S. taxpayers helped bail out troubled British investors in Tanfield. But the government subsidized electric truck scheme, established in England, continues in North America. Smith-U.S. counts Frito-Lay,Coca-Cola, Staples andFedEx among its customers, but only because it is paying those companies to use their vehicles as delivery vans.
Since April 2010 Smith-U.S. has filed seven quarterly reports that are viewable at the Recovery.gov Web site. The company reported that through December 31 it had placed 240 trucks into service under the program, and had received $15 million from Recovery Act funds. Of that, Smith reimbursed its customer companies nearly $13.7 million for taking the ETs off its hands -- an average of just over $57,000 per vehicle. In addition, electric truck owners benefit from an array of other federal and state incentives programs.
With that business model in place, Smith-U.S. now plans an initial public offering, according to a filing earlier this month with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has reported net losses of $17.5 million, $30.3 million and $52.5 million in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Besides having to pay for the Tanfield failure, Smith-U.S. needs to continue its program of paying customers to take its electric trucks. It reported to the SEC that it had “sold” 290 trucks in the U.S. and 279 outside the U.S.
Another bad sign for this taxpayer “investment” (and for prospective private investors) is that Smith-U.S. is contracted withfloundering battery supplier A123 Systems, which has had at least two recalls of its batteries due to manufacturing flaws and an additional incident in which one of its batteries caused an explosion at a General Motors test facility, sending at least one person to the hospital. A123, which received $249.1 million in Recovery Act funds to produce its EV batteries, is in deep financial trouble and Smith-U.S. is one of its affected customers.
“We believe it is likely that substantially all of the battery modules we have sourced from A123 contain one or more defective cells,” Smith-U.S. reported to the SEC in its IPO prospectus, under “risk factors.” “We expect that A123 will replace all defective battery modules supplied to us beginning in April 2012 at A123’s cost…. At this time, we are unable to predict whether this issue will affect our production or operating results for the second quarter of 2012.”
And to pay for all this incompetence and for customers to buy its trucks, Smith Electric – confirming the findings of the British study – said in its SEC filing that it needs ongoing taxpayer support.
“We believe that the availability of government subsidies and incentives currently is an important factor considered by our customers when purchasing our vehicles,” the filing said, “and that our growth depends in part on the availability and amounts of these subsidies and incentives.”
Smith-U.S. even has “incentives specialists” as part of its sales team to make sure every government dollar is found to pay for its trucks. Aren’t you glad you’re invested?
Paul Chesser is an associate fellow for the National Legal and Policy Center.
-
Solyndra” as the Employer, this election cycle:
Presented by the Federal Election Commission
Individual Contributions Arranged By Type, Giver, Then Recipient
Non-Federal Receipts “Exempt From Limits”
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA/EXECUTIVE
PRIORITIES USA ACTION
06/30/2011 500.00 11932493299
BIERMAN, BEN MR.
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA, INC
WOMEN VOTE!
09/12/2010 250.00 10931499697
Total Soft Money: 750.00
Contributions to Political Committees
ALTER, KAREN
PALO ALTO, CA 94301
SOLYNDRA/SVP MARKETING
SANDERS, DAVID AURAM
VIA SANDERS FOR OUR REP
10/30/2010 1000.00 11930326342
ALTER, KAREN L
PALO ALTO, CA 94301
SOLYNDRA/BUSINESS
KHAZEI, ALAN
VIA KHAZEI FOR MASSACHUSETTS
06/30/2011 1000.00 11020244664
BAR-NESS, LESLIE
SAN JOSE, CA 95127
SOLYNDRA, INC
CONWAY, JOHN WILLIAM (JACK)
VIA CONWAY FOR SENATE
06/30/2010 250.00 10020494114
BAR-NESS, LESLIE
SAN JOSE, CA 95127
SOLYNDRA/DIRECTOR, GOVERNMENT AFF
BALDERAS, HECTOR
VIA BALDERAS FOR NEW MEXICO
06/30/2011 250.00 11020244193
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
06/30/2010 500.00 10931172822
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA INC.
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
07/30/2010 200.00 10931362080
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA INC./VP OPERATIONS
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
10/27/2010 250.00 11990272168
05/31/2011 500.00 11932167211
10/28/2011 200.00 12951335470
01/22/2012 500.00 12970836243
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA, INC.
DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
11/23/2009 500.00 10990272705
12/02/2009 200.00 10990556223
09/12/2010 250.00 11990012165
09/12/2010 500.00 11990012165
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA, INC./VP, OPERATIONS
DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
09/07/2008 500.00 29990032709
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA, INC/VP OPERATIONS
OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR AMERICA
09/07/2008 1000.00 11972514488
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA/EXECUTIVE
OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR AMERICA
06/08/2011 1000.00 12950013688
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA/VP ENGINEERING
DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
10/06/2006 200.00 26940550300
DECAUX, VINCENT
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107
SOLYNDRA, INC./TECHNOLOGIST
OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR AMERICA
02/10/2008 500.00 28992068246
GRONET, CHRISTIAN
PORTOLA VALLEY, CA 94028
SOLYNDRA
BOXER, BARBARA
VIA FRIENDS OF BARBARA BOXER
06/29/2010 1000.00 10020802429
HUNTER, ERROL
PACIFICA, CA 94044
SOLYNDRA/ATTORNEY
HONDA, MIKE
VIA MIKE HONDA FOR CONGRESS
08/23/2011 250.00 11971611953
LOURIS, MICHAEL MR
SAN JOSE, CA 95117
SOLYNDRA
SCHIFF, PETER DAVID
VIA SCHIFF FOR SENATE
11/06/2009 2400.00 10020054639
PASETTI, JOE
FREMONT, CA 94538
SOLYNDRA
FEINSTEIN, DIANNE
VIA FEINSTEIN FOR SENATE
06/28/2010 1000.00 10020511973
PASETTI, JOSEPH
WASHINGTON, DC 20002
SOLYNDRA
BRADY, KEVIN
VIA BRADY FOR CONGRESS
05/17/2010 250.00 10991022070
PASETTI, JOSEPH
WASHINGTON, DC 20024
SOLYNDRA
BOXER, BARBARA
VIA FRIENDS OF BARBARA BOXER
03/31/2010 1000.00 10020362894
GIFFORDS, GABRIELLE
VIA GIFFORDS FOR CONGRESS
10/06/2010 500.00 10931702163
MURKOWSKI, LISA
VIA LISA MURKOWSKI FOR US SENATE
08/24/2010 1000.00 10020791465
THOMPSON, MIKE MR.
VIA MIKE THOMPSON FOR CONGRESS
09/15/2010 1000.00 10991378515
PASETTI, JOSEPH
WASHINGTON, DC 20024
SOLYNDRA, INC.
GIFFORDS, GABRIELLE
VIA GIFFORDS FOR CONGRESS
06/25/2010 250.00 10990857389
PASETTI, JOSEPH A
WASHINGTON, DC 20002
SOLYNDRA
REID, HARRY
VIA FRIENDS FOR HARRY REID
03/30/2010 1000.00 10020202834
PASETTI, JOSEPH A.
WASHINGTON, DC 20002
SOLYNDRA/DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT R
BONO MACK, MARY
VIA MARY BONO MACK COMMITTEE
03/31/2010 500.00 10930583305
PASSETTI, JOSEPH
WASHINGTON, DC 20024
SOLYNDRA
CAMP, DAVID LEE
VIA DAVE CAMP FOR CONGRESS
10/11/2010 1000.00 10931711052
REIDY, SEAN
FOSTER CITY, CA 94404
SOLYNDRA, LLC/ENGINEERING MANAGER
LIBERTARIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, INC.
07/29/2011 250.00 11932297556
WHITAKER, CORBY C
OAKLAND, MI 48363
SOLYNDRA/EXECUTIVE
HARIDOPOLOS, MIKE
VIA FRIENDS OF MIKE H
02/28/2011 1000.00 11020183820
Total Contributions: 21700.00
Joint Fundraising Contributions
These are contributions to committees who are raising funds to be distributed to other committees. The breakdown of these contributions to their final recipients may appear below
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA/VP OF OPERATIONS
OBAMA VICTORY FUND
10/31/2008 300.00 29934401195
Total Joint Fundraising: 300.00
Recipient of Joint Fundraiser Contributions
These are the Final Recipients of Joint Fundraising Contributions
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA, INC
OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR AMERICA
11/03/2008 300.00 11953169224
BIERMAN, BEN
FREMONT, CA 94539
SOLYNDRA/VP ENGINEERING
DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
10/12/2006 200.00 26940550300
Recipient Total: 500.00
TRY A: NEW QUERY
RETURN TO: FEC HOME PAGE
-
Solyndra Not Dealing With Toxic Waste At Milpitas Facility
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/04/28/solyndra-not-dealing-with-toxic-waste-at-milpitas-facility/ ^
Posted on April 29, 2012 8:18:45 PM EDT by dewawi
MILPITAS (CBS 5) — Three months ago, CBS 5 caught Solyndra tossing millions of dollars worth of brand new glass tubes used to make solar panels. Now the bankrupt solar firm, once touted as a symbol of green technology, is trying to abandon toxic waste.
(Excerpt) Read more at sanfrancisco.cbslocal.co m ...
-
Free Republic
Browse · Search Pings · Mail Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.
Solyndra Was Not The Only Failure
The American Thinker ^ | April 30, 2012 | Warren Beatty
Posted on April 30, 2012 5:30:35 AM EDT by Cincinatus' Wife
....Obama was emphatic about how recovery money was to be spent......Eighty percent of the Department of Energy's (DOE) green loans, loan guarantees, and grants went to Obama backers....
...In March 2011, for example, the GAO examined the first 18 loans that were approved and found that none were properly documented. ... No notes were kept during the review process.....
Schweizer concludes, "DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman......testified that contracts have been steered to "friends and family."
So with all that in mind, let's turn our attention to what has actually happened since Obama took office.
* SunPower, after receiving $1.5 billion from DOE, is reorganizing, cutting jobs.
* First Solar, after receiving $1.46 billion from DOE, is reorganizing, cutting jobs.
* Solyndra, after receiving $535 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* Ener1, after receiving $118.5 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* Evergreen Solar, after receiving millions of dollars from the state of Massachusetts, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* SpectraWatt, backed by Intel and Goldman Sachs, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* Beacon Power, after receiving $43 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* Abound Solar, after receiving $400 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* Amonix, after receiving $5.9 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* Babcock & Brown (an Australian company), after receiving $178 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* A123 Systems, after receiving $279 million from DOE, shipped some bad batteries and is barely operating. It cut jobs.
* Solar Trust for America, after receiving $2.1 billion loan guarantee from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
* Nevada Geothermal, after receiving $98.5 million from DOE, warns of potential defaults in new SEC filings.
And that's a partial list....
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
-
Bump - lol!!!!!
-
Obama can pardon himself from any crime - Except one.
IMPEACHMENT.
But, only jason Chaffertz in congress has called for it. Vote would be 534 to 1, I guess :(
-
May 21, 2013
Is it time to consider a RICO case against the Administration?
Matt Holzmann
We are finding out new and interesting revelations about how our government operates every day, it seems. From an ever expanding IRS scandal to the Department of Justice's fishing expedition at AP to the President of the United States telling us that he found out about all of this in the newspapers just like the rest of us, it seems that everywhere we look there is evidence of the Administration using the apparatus of government as a tool of political repression and widespread corruption.
So say such diverse authorities as Bob Woodward, Charles Rangel, Peggy Noonan and Jon Stewart.
There is now enough evidence to begin considering a RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization) case.
Think about it. It began with Czars and Czarinas unanswerable to anyone but the president and shielded from any form of oversight. Whole segments of the economy were reorganized behind closed doors, and GM and Chrysler bondholders and retirees were disestablished. The rule of law was damaged.
Then came the regular abuse of executive orders. As recently as last week his recess appointments of members of the NRLB was declared illegal. The Wall Street Journal wrote earlier this year:
"President Obama has shown increasing contempt for the constitutional limits on his power, and the courts are finally awakening to the news."
Early in 2009, the White House, in a conference call hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts urged grant recipients "to plug Barack Obama's domestic agenda". The Administration was called out on this and swiftly withdrew, but it seems that this administration is most adept at pushing the legal envelope.
They have broken new ground in an amoral overreach. Individuals and organizations have been targeted and harmed. The FBI, once the paragon of rectitude, has become an arm of the Obama Campaign.
The president, his press secretary, and his water carriers such as Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi have made the most fantastic claims about the Benghazi investigation. HHS Secretary Sebelius is strong arming the pharmaceutical industry to fund Obamacare.
Everywhere we look we see what is more and more looking like a pattern of corruption.
Should we be surprised? For a politician who came out of the Chicago School, it is par for the course. Valerie Jarrett told us:
"After we win this election, it's our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don't forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won't be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go."
Sounds sort of like Al Capone. But this statement goes to the core of the Administration's philosophy. This how they do business.
The Obamacare scandal saw arm twisting and deal making on an unprecedented scale. None of this has been subject to a legal test. Unions, corporations, special interests and hundreds of other administration cronies received special treatment. Both Louisiana and Nebraska received variances in exchange for their Senator's votes.
Then came Fast & Furious. The ATF supervised and facilitated the cross border supply of 2,700 firearms to the Sinaloa Cartel that were then used in hundreds of crimes including the murder of over 200 Mexican citizens and two federal agents.
The Director of the EPA was found to have used private e mails to correspond with outsiders on government business, a practice that is apparently widespread in this administration. This conduct extends to the White House itself and goes back some time.
The current scandals are only the latest in a pattern of illegal conduct by our government. The threats are very real. Rights clearly protected in the Constitution have been violated time and again and it mainly those who oppose the administration who are affected. It has become Orwellian.
In 1970 the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) was passed. Since then it has been used against the Catholic Church for covering up sex abuse cases; against corporations for hiring illegal aliens; against the Mob, the Hell's Angels and other gangs, and against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick most recently.
It would seem that as time passes, the evidence test will have been met on at least several of the statues specifically covered by RICO. These include extortion, bribery, fraud, and obstruction of justice. The law requires at least two acts in the pattern of racketeering. We have many more in this case.
The government has been highly successful in using the RICO laws to indict and convict individuals for crimes committed against witnesses who cooperate with law enforcement. In this the use of RICO statutes might take an ironic twist as government has so abused its power.
With Sgt. Schultz defense being offered by the Administration to date, it may at some point be advisable to bring a RICO case. Civil suits are specifically allowed; encouraged, even. But there is a real danger to our legal system which must be addressed. As Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
Read more:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/is_it_time_to_consider_a_rico_case_against_the_administration.html#.UZuJdJE5iA0.facebook#ixzz2TwHoci82
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
-
Budget request denied, Sebelius turns to health executives to finance Obamacare
By Sarah Kliff, Published: May 10, 2013 at 4:12
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is asking private industry executives to help fund Obamacare’s implementation.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama’s landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said.
Her unusual fundraising push comes after Congress repeatedly rejected the Obama administration’s requests for additional funds to set up the Affordable Care Act, leaving HHS to implement the president’s signature legislative accomplishment on what officials have described as a shoestring budget.
Over the past three months, Sebelius has made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and asked that they contribute whatever they can to nonprofit groups that are working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law, according to an HHS official and an industry person familiar with the secretary’s activities. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk openly about private discussions.
An HHS spokesperson said Sebelius was within the bounds of her authority in asking for help.
But Republicans charged that Sebelius’s outreach was improper because it pressured private companies and other groups to support the Affordable Care Act. The latest controversy has emerged as the law faces a string of challenges from GOP lawmakers in Washington and skepticism from many state officials across the country.
“To solicit funds from health-care executives to help pay for the implementation of the President’s $2.6 trillion health spending law is absurd,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement. “I will be seeking more information from the Administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law.”
Federal regulations do not allow department officials to fundraise in their professional capacity. They do, however, allow Cabinet members to solicit donations as private citizens “if you do not solicit funds from a subordinate or from someone who has or seeks business with the Department, and you do not use your official title,” according to Justice Department regulations.
HHS spokesman Jason Young added that a special section in the Public Health Service Act allows the secretary to support and encourage others to support nonprofit groups working to provide health information and conduct other public-health activities.
Sebelius is working “with a full range of stakeholders who share in the mission of getting Americans the help they need and deserve,” Young said. “Part of our mission is to help uninsured Americans take advantage of new, quality affordable insurance options that are coming thanks to the health law.”
Young said that Sebelius did not solicit for funds directly from industries that HHS regulates, such as insurance companies and hospitals, but rather asked them to contribute in whatever way they can.
But the industry official who had knowledge of the calls but did not participate directly in them said there was a clear insinuation by the administration that the insurers should give financially to the nonprofits.
Meredith McGehee, policy director for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which researches government ethics issues, said she was troubled by Sebelius’s activities because the secretary seemed to be “using the power of government to compel giving or insinuate that giving is going to be looked at favorably by the government.”
The success of the Affordable Care Act largely hinges on whether enough people sign up for insurance coverage. If only a small number of sick people participate, premiums would spike.
But spreading information about the law to the 30 million uninsured Americans has been a struggle, partly because there isn’t enough money to fund the effort, HHS officials have argued.
The Affordable Care Act included $1 billion to be used in overall implementation of the law. Congressional Budget Office projections, however, estimated that federal agencies will need between $5 billion and $10 billion to get the law up and running over the next decade. And because many states have refused to partner with the federal government in setting up the law, the burden on HHS has grown.
HHS has repeatedly requested additional funds from Congress to assist in the implementing but has been turned down.
After Congress rejected a request in March for nearly $1 billion in additional spending for fiscal 2013, the White House asked for $1.5 billion for fiscal 2015 to set up and run dozens of exchanges that will provide Americans options for health insurance. The new marketplaces will launch in October for open enrollment.
“We requested additional money . . . but we didn’t receive any additional funding for the exchanges,” Ellen Murray, HHS’s assistant secretary for financial resources, said last month at a budget briefing. “So we’ve had to come up with a Plan B. We’ve been working very hard to develop that.”
In 2012, budget documents show that HHS pulled hundreds of millions of dollars from programs not specifically earmarked for the Affordable Care Act’s implementation.
On top of that, the agency announced Thursday that it would use $150 million in Affordable Care Act funds meant to build additional community health centers to train thousands of health-care outreach workers at facilities that already exist.
“Investing in health centers for outreach and enrollment assistance provides one more way the Obama administration is helping consumers understand their options and enroll in affordable coverage,” Secretary Sebelius said in a statement.
Many of Sebelius’s calls have gone to current supporters of Enroll America, the most prominent nonprofit group working on the health care law’s implementation, an HHS official said. Its president, Anne Filipic, joined the group in January after serving as the White House’s deputy director for public engagement.
“We all have a lot of work to do between now and the Marketplace opening in October,” Filipic said in a statement. “That’s why it’s so important that the public, private and non-profit sectors are coming together to educate consumers about the opportunities that will be available to them later this year. Secretary Sebelius recognizes how important the work Enroll America is doing and we’re thrilled to be working with her.”
Health insurers plan to run their own outreach campaigns alongside the work of the Obama administration. They have a vested interest in recruiting Americans to enroll in their specific products rather than those of their competitors.
“As open enrollment gets closer, health plans will be engaged in a variety of innovative outreach activities,” spokesman Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the trade association America’s Health Insurance Plans, said.