Bowsite.com

2000 guns? This may be just as dumb as taking your pet black mamba out of the cage.

As far as the MSM...... nothing to see here, it's just going to be BBQ smoke until the whole garage is up in flames and they have no other choice.

From the indomitable Ann Barnhardt:

On Gunwalker - The Ultimate False Flag Operation Posted by Ann Barnhardt - June 17, AD 2011 9:54 AM MST Yes, I have been watching this closely but it feels like the fit is hitting the shan on this - finally. Obama and Holder are complicit in murder and are engaging in outright treason just within the matrix of Gunwalker alone. Here is a link to a great piece at Pajamas Media that sums it all up - and read the comment thread which is every bit as informative as the article itself.

Click Here for article and comment thread.

Bottom line:

Gunwalker never, ever had ANYTHING to do with drug enforcement or stopping the cartels. NOTHING. The reason that the Obama regime, which we all know is a treasonous Marxist-totalitarian enemy force, executed the Gunwalker program was to create optics (lots of dead Mexican civilians, dead Mexican law enforcement, dead Mexican military and dead Americans) that they could then use to justify the elimination of the Second Amendment via the U.N., specifically the Small Arms Treaty. ATF insiders have reported that the Obama regime was "giddy" that Mexicans were being killed by Gunwalker firearms. This is because these people are Marxists, and as I have said here repeatedly, Marxists lie and murder human beings as policy. Marxists believe that human life has no intrinsic value and that human beings are object pawns that can be used and exterminated without compunction in order to further their own goals and increase their own power. In this case, the goal is to disarm the people of the United States so that the Marxist-Obamaist regime can seize totalitarian, dictatorial power, overthrow the Constitution, and establish a global power matrix. This disarmament will be achieved (or so they think) by using the meme of American omni-culpability. In other words, everything is OUR FAULT.

"See? These Mexicans are dead because of weapons sourced in the U.S. If it weren't for the U.S. and the Second Amendment, none of this would have happened."

Yeah, except the Obama regime specifically handed the weapons in question to the Mexican cartels, and then explicitly FORBADE the ATF agents from interdicting them.

Kids, we have to get our heads around the fact that the Obama regime is an enemy of this nation. They are not "us". They are not "on our side". These people are the sworn, declared enemy of this Republic, its constitution, and every single person who is loyal to the Republic and the constitution. Additionally, any other sovereign nations that are allied with the United States are the ENEMY of the Obama regime, and, conversely, those nations and groups that are enemies of the United States are the allies of the Obama regime. The Obama regime IS THE ENEMY. The Obama regime is the "black flag". They are engaging in operation after operation, be it Gunwalker, cultivated destabilization on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood in more nations than I have fingers, overt support of Marxist factions in Honduras, surrendering Poland to Russia, handing Russia the U.K.'s missile codes, and on and on, that are diametrically opposed to the United States and her allies. All of these actions are being taken IN THE NAME of the United States, but the Obama regime IS NOT the United States. The Obama regime is its own non-American Marxist entity that is in a state of war against the United States, its constitution, its economy and its people. This is the mother of all false flag operations, and Gunwalker is just one facet of that operation.

Watch this carefully. If Issa folds on this, then this iteration of the United States of America will be finished. From there, the only options will be a reboot and upgrade to America 2.0, or a permanent fatal crash.

I'd like to think they were simply played as dupes. Useful idiots.

Except I don't think they were. They knew exactly what the game plan was from the start. They were just willing to lie about it along with the rest of the leftists. Willing to put up the front, the cover, as long as he got elected.

Integrity. Honesty. It was something they were willing to give up for the greater good. To take control and turn the US into the socialist/marxist utopia they all learned about in college.

In reality you have to take away any and all "power to the people" and hand total power to the liberal/leftist elitists.

On another note, did anyone happen to notice how similar the picture of the tortured and murdered Gonzales are to those of Daniel Pearl, or other civilian hostages of radical Islamic terrorists? Do you think this tactic is somehow coincidental?

Obama just gave Hamas nearly a billion dollars. He, and those under his command just gave the Mexican narcos, who are successfully destabilizing our Southern border, over 2000 military grade weapons.

From the onset, forward thinking men predicted that the United States of America would not be overthrown from outside forces, but from within.

It's happening right now, in front of our eyes, and it hardly gets a mention from the main stream media or our elected officials.

Real change has to come swiftly and decisively - or our country is doomed.

Darrell Issa: Holder Absolutely Knew About Gunrunning Outrage Earlier Than He Said

With the notable exception of CBS, the mainstream media has studiously ignored the federal scheme to undermine the Second Amendment by helping Mexican criminals smuggle American guns across the border. But Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is giving this outrageous scandal full attention, following the trail of slime straight to the top. Here he affirms that Eric Holder of the Social Justice Department "absolutely" knew about Fast and Furious earlier than he testified:

Already two American agents (Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata) have been killed with guns effectively provided to Mexican gangs by our rogue government. With a responsible media on the case, this story would place Comrade Obama's reelection beyond the realm of possibility.

The embolded statement comes to the crux of this Pres**ent's administration. Obama has shown that no matter the consequences of what he has done, neither he or any of his inner circle will accept any responsibility for their actions and decisions. It is always the fault of some other (usually President Bush). A truly responsible media would hold his toes to the fire for his actions.

Far too few of the elected elites in DC or talking heads in the media are willing to take Obama to task. If Bush or any Republican were sitting in the oval office, the cries for impeachment would be loud and continuous.

I cannot believe this project was done without direction from the highest levels. Bureaucrats don't take risks like these without blessing from way above, at least the AG level.

Published June 18, 2011, The Wall Street Journal

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.

Linky to WSJ below.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304453304576392023631543738.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

Carney: Obama "Did Not Know About Or Authorize" Border Gunrunning Operation

"Well, I don't have anything specific," White House press secretary said in response to a question asking if President Obama ordered or had any knowledge of project "Fast and Furious." The mission involved gunrunning at the southern border between the U.S. Mexico.

Congress is currently investigating this secret operation which has resulted in subpoenaing the Department of Justice to testify on the issue and provide unredacted memos relating to the mission.

"He did not know about or authorize this operation," Carney told the press about President Obama's lack of involvement.

You can bet they had to get permission at least at this level to get 2000 guns to slip through the cracks.

The cop-out excuse of "not being aware" is just as bad, because it demonstrates further incompetence of the chief executive.

If he "didn't authorize" this activity, then he is again responsible for the people who he placed in those positions. How many of his tsars were put into positions of authority without any Congressional review?

Further proof that Obama is an incompetent little dictator.

This is just an attempt to stop the bleeding and thus the bloodtrail.

The wheels on the bus go bump-bump-bump:

Andrew Traver was nominated in November by President Obama to become the permanent ATF director, but his nomination has been held by objections from groups that say Traver is hostile to the rights of gun owners.

Nonetheless, Traver's return to Washington Tuesday for a meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole could be the first step toward ousting acting director, Kenneth Melson.

Melson is complicit in Gunwalker and is the logical sacrificial lamb for the Obama administration.

I suspect he will not be the last to fall.

Update The Examiner says that while Melson needs to go, he is hardly the only one, and that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder must resign as well.

That Melson should be removed is obvious, as should other senior ATF officials in Washington and in the field. But Gunwalker could not have gone as far as it did without the approval of senior Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, which is why The Washington Examiner last week called for Holder's resignation. Holder should have stopped the program as soon as he found out about it if he was aware of it. And if he didn't know such an outrage was being perpetrated on his watch, he clearly isn't up to the job of managing the Justice Department.

Add Janet Napolitano to the mix and we're starting to get close to bringing those responsible to account.

Holder's "Oh S***" Gunwalker Moment: Melson "reportedly eager to testify to Congress about the extent of his and other officials' involvement."

Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau, of the LA Times writes: Federal ATF chief said to resist pressure to step down.

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.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-21-2011/the-fast-and-the-furious---mexico-grift

Guess they had more than just a little hand in setting new records in gun sales. Turns out they may be right, their stimulus program IS working here and there.....

Hey, I'm all for giving credit where credit is due....

I bet most of the mass graves are not hand dug, though.

When did the American media become a lap-dog for the socialist party? I believe fully that every "journalism" department at every college in this country is headed by some marxist-socialist anti-American bigot, and in order to even pass, you have to adopt their twisted beliefs.

Un-friggen believable.

110% agree.

And I fully agree with where it comes from.

How our very educational system became the foundation for an organized system of anti-American brainwashing, I have no idea. IMO the seed of that was set with "tenure". It's entire reason for existence is "we are going to attack America and it's freedom from within and this is the tool we need to do so...." They can teach what they want with no repercussion. How that ever came about I have no idea.

Ooops...double post day.

Issa Warns – Spare The Whistle Blower; ATF Fires Him

Republican Darrell Issa of CA, wrote a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Deputy Director William J. Hoover, demanding that there be no reprisals against the ATF agents testifying in the illegal Operation Fast and Furious; the operation termed “Felony Stupid” by Issa.

Twenty four hours later, Agent Vince Cefalu received notice that the agency wants to terminate him, after thirty years, for an apparent “lack of candor”.

Agent Cefalu problems with the ATF go back four years, when he caused ill feelings with the agency by refusing to use illegal wiretaps set up by local law enforcement, a case referred to as “Road Dog”.

I threw the locals under the bus. … I became the most vocal critic and they got sick of my s***.

For the last four years, Cefalu has been given jobs with no importance to get him to retire early.

They put me in a cage, paid me full salary, and hoped it would break me down mentally and I would retire.

In May, Cefalu did a three part interview with CNN b Anderson Cooper, concerning problems in the ATF; since then, he has only been given 122 minutes worth of work, not the usual investigative work, he was instructed to change batteries or fill up cars with gasoline.

He has endured seven internal affairs investigations, since he blew the whistle, with an attorney present, he answered every question.

He represents dozens of other officers with grievances against the ATF and if he is terminated or retired early, he thinks the ATF will consider those grievances dead..

Cefalu maintains that there should be prosecutions in the failed Operation Fast and Furious, AKA as Gunwalker.

Of course it violates the law! They conspired to traffic firearms, you can’t do that under color of law. … There was no intent to follow the guns, this never had a chance of succeeding. It was a failed plan from the beginning.

He also says there is no huge gun-trafficking operation, no “Iron Pipeline” of firearms traveling from the U.S. to Mexico — just lots of buyers who can make a couple thousand dollars selling weapons across the border.

In addition, he has some more explosive allegations: he says the Mexican government was not made aware of the operation, and neither was the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

And he says people within the Justice Department had to be aware of the operation — contrary to what Attorney General Eric Holder claimed. Cefalu says no one runs a major operation like this without getting approval from their boss.

Again the Obama/Holder Administration seems to be conducting the cover up with Chicago Thug type tactics. Will the investigation be allowed to proceed or will the Holder and Obama continue to stonewall?

Cefalu insists he just wants to see the agency he loves cleaned up, but the public probably has other ideas that could include impeachment of Holder and even Obama if the investigation reveals that he was aware of the illegal operation.

Lid Ready to Come Off Fast and Furious Gunwalking Scandal

Posted by Dave Blount at 1:42 PM | Comments (27)

Compliments of Zappatrust.

ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu, who called attention to the Obama Administration's policy of undermining the Second Amendment by helping foreign criminals smuggle American guns into Mexico, has unsurprisingly been fired:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is being accused of retaliating against an agent who helped publicize the agency's role in allowing thousands of guns to cross the U.S. border and fall into the hands of Mexican drug gangs.

The agent, Vince Cefalu, who has spoken out about the ATF's so-called "Project Gunrunner" scandal, says he was served with termination papers just last week, and he calls the move politically motivated.

The weapons smuggling scheme, which has gotten American agents killed, was politically motivated too — as is everything inflicted by the current administration.

Unfortunately for the Community Organizer in Chief, canning Cefalu isn't going to keep a lid on a scandal that makes Watergate look like a parking violation. ATF chief Kenneth Melson — whom Obama has tried to throw under the bus — will be testifying before Congress:

The head of the embattled federal agency that combats gun trafficking has agreed to talk with Senate investigators, a potentially important breakthrough as Congress tries to determine whether higher-ups in the Obama administration knew about a controversial sting that let assault weapons flow across the border into Mexico's drug wars.

The testimony — expected next month from Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — was brokered as part of a deal between Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the committee's top Republican, Iowa's Charles Grassley. Grassley and his fellow Republicans were given full access to ATF documents, Melson, and other key witnesses; and in return, Grassley agreed to release three Obama administration nominees he had been blocking, according to correspondence obtained by NEWSWEEK and THE DAILY BEAST.

That's the way it works: you have to offer deals to get Democrats to allow an investigation against The Anointed One to go through. No doubt Leaky Leahy would stop Grassley altogether if he could, but it's too late for that.

If Melson were going to accept his role as scapegoat, he would have done it by now. This is going up the chain — and hopefully higher than Eric Holder, who has already been caught lying on the matter.

Good news: Gunrunner weapons discovered on scene of Phoenix crimes

The Obama administration's, eh, unique strategy of selling weapons to Mexican drug cartels appears to have, uhm, backfired.

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.

...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... [Agents] estimated the number could be as many as 1,800 weapons.

...“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.

This is impeachment-level criminality. Perhaps legacy media could look into this when they finish their investigations of Michele Bachmann.

As I said earlier, it gets worse and worse.

THE best vote "I" ever cast......

Tell me it doesn't go clear to the top!

Anyone who had a hand in this should be caned.

"of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner."

Project Gunrunner Funded By 2009 Stimulus: Obama Signed For It

On 07.7.11, in Censorship, Economy, Government, History, Immigration, Law, New World Order, Racism, Regime, Taxes, Terrorism, War, by Sad Hill

In April 2011, SHN reported on ‘Project Gunrunner‘ and captured Lou Dobbs’ interviewing Wayne LaPierre of the NRA, then posted it on YouTube (above). HD version (less views): HERE

As the coverup and lies continue to unfold, the story is beginning to get the traction it needs – but deserves much, much more.

PLEASE – SHN doesn’t need the credit – copy and paste this story to your website or favorite forums, forward it to your favorite new media websites, local radio stations, local newspapers, and the MSM. This one goes straight to the top.

What Is Project Gunrunner (aka ‘Fast and Furious’, aka ‘Gunwalker’)? If you’re in the know, jump to ‘Operation Gunrunner Funded By 2009 Stimulus‘ below.

‘Under US Government surveillance and supervision, American gun store owners along the US-Mexico border were ordered to make gun sales to ‘unknown’ buyers who were then permitted to take ‘thousands and thousands’ of guns across the border – openly – and put them in the hands of Mexico’s drug cartel. (Side Note: So why is TSA sticking their hands down our pants at the airport? Because Janet Napolitano accuses America’s returning veterans of being ‘lone wolf extremists‘.)

From Lou Dobbs’ April interview with Wayne LaPierre of the NRA (see video above):

‘The largest gunrunner to the Mexican drug cartels is our government under this administration.’ [...] ‘You have to assume that the White House is in bed with the justice department on this cover-up.’

So. Here we have a taxpayer funded program that takes advantage of open borders to supply Mexico’s drug cartel with American weapons – all of which Barack Obama and Eric Holder have repeatedly claimed they know nothing about…

Operation Gunrunner Funded By 2009 Stimulus

(Free Republic) 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.

(Pajamas Media) So Obama didn’t know anything about this, but he signed $10,000,000 in funding for the program. This thing would stink on a dung pile. It’s time for indictments.

The $10,000,000 stimulus funded project can be verified directly on the OpenCongress.org website. Here’s a snippet:

(OpenCongress) ‘For an additional amount for ‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance’, $90,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 20140,000,000, 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.’

DOJ Wiretap Authorization: HERE

Project Gunrunner Briefing Paper: HERE

Project Gunrunner: DOJ / ATF smuggle guns to Mexican drug cartel: HERE

Project Gunrunner: DOJ authorized wiretap of ATF’s ‘Fast and Furious’: HERE

White House aims to squash negative stories about Obama: HERE

ABC News reporter fired for telling the truth: HERE

Eric Holder’s DOJ forces US Police departments to lower test standards for blacks: HERE

Eric Holder = Bad Egg: HERE

DOJ Mobile Unit: HERE

Team Napolitano labels returning veterans as ‘lone wolf extremists’: HERE

WARNING: United Nations gun control scheme: HERE

Our nation cannot survive treason from within: HERE

h/t: Free Republic, Weasel Zippers, I Own The World, Pajamas Media

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/breaking-news-source-claims-atf-s-tampa-sac-walked-guns-to-honduras

Breaking News: Source claims ATF's Tampa SAC walked guns to Honduras

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.

Read the rest at the link...

The Honduran Connection Posted by Ann Barnhardt - July 7, AD 2011 4:54 PM MST

Read the latest from Sipsey Street Irregualrs and forward. (SEE LINK)

(BTW: Sipsey is where the story first broke and has been in the lead following it--Jack)

Two angles:

1. The Obama/Clinton machine is trying to gin up a global "cry" in the U.N. for "something to be done" about all of these American weapons, which Obama would then respond to by signing on the Small Arms Treaty in order to "make amends" for America's crimes against humanity, when in fact the crimes against humanity were carried out BY OBAMA AND CLINTON THEMSELVES. This is all TEXTBOOK Marxist-Alinsky agitation and rabblerousing. The Marxist agitator is specifically tasked with CREATING CHAOS where none existed before, and then leveraging that chaos to advance the Marxist revolution. In this case, the "chaos" is not merely picketing or rallies, but PILES OF DEAD HUMAN BEINGS, killed by narco-terrorists specifically armed by the agitators themselves, Obama-Jarrett, Clinton, Holder and the rest of the regime.

2. Obama/Clinton are also using Gunrunner to arm Marxist factions who will act AGAINST sovereign, truly free nations that do not fall into line with the Obama/Clinton agenda, in this case the nation of Honduras. This tactic was specifically targeted at Honduras as payback for standing firm on the rule of law and refusing to re-install the Marxist clown, Zelaya, even with Obama and Clinton braying at the top of their lungs that they wanted Zelaya "in". If I were Honduras, I would consider all of this an act of war against the Honduran people and their constitution. If I were the Honduran president, I would be demanding to meet with, if not deliver an address to a joint session of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, state governors and anyone else who would listen. The Obama regime has engaged in a shadow war against a free and constitutional Honduras, and must be prosecuted. Viva Honduras Libre! God save the United States of America.

West calls for Eric Holder's removal

If attorney general given pass, 'it appears President Obama is complicit'

Posted: July 08, 2011 1:00 am Eastern

By Michael Carl © 2011 WND

U.S. Rep. Allen West

A new member of Congress who rode into office during the 2010 American rejection of Washington's business-as-usual practice today said that a special prosecutor needs to review the actions of Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the "Fast and Furious" gun scandal where weapons were sold to carriers known to supply Mexican drug lords, and the circumstances make it appear that President Obama could have dirty hands in the deal.

During an appearance on the Steve Gill Show, U.S. Rep. Allen West said the roads that appear to lead to those responsible for the botched program that was supposed to trace guns to high-ranking drug lords are alarming.

"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.

(continued at link)

Is it no wonder that ObiWun has begun to divert attention to his desire to enact new gun laws from this program. It gives OPNS® a different "gun" story to run with.

Obama is making Nixon and Watergate small beans.

Administration to propose steps on "gun safety" {emphasis mine}

WASHINGTON (AP) — Six months after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot, the White House is preparing to propose some new steps on gun safety, though they're likely to fall short of the bold measures activists would like to see.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-07-08-obama-gun-control-safety-giffords_n.htm

Jumpsuit & Flip-Flops: The Eric Holder Story Posted by Ann Barnhardt - July 8, AD 2011 9:03 AM MST Holder knew. He bragged in a speech before Mexican authorities in 2009 about overseeing Gunrunner's implementation. BigGovernment.com has it.

Here's the citation. You know what to do.

Now, let me demonstrate my INCREDIBLE psychic abilities and mystically predict what Holder's lying, weaseling response to this will be. Holder will say that Issa asked him when he first heard about Operation Fast and Furious, NOT Project Gunrunner. It will be some semantics-based lawyering pullusfimus like that, I guarantee it. The problem is that we let these scumbags get away with crap like that. Someone needs to stand up to these lawyers. If Holder comes back with this semantics crap, denying that he knew what Issa was referring to, Holder needs to be told that either he cut the crap or be held in contempt of Congress and thrown in prison so that he can have as much "quiet time" as he needs to make the intellectual connection between the terms "Fast and Furious", "Gunwalker" and "Gunrunner".

Shakespeare was right.

"Janet Napolitano’s name is beginning to surface, which would further explain her absurd attempts to forcefully ignore the US-Mexico border."

Chicago style politics...imported and enhanced in DC.

She has demonstrated the ability to tie apparently unconnected items together; and again, expands the scope of Gunwalker:

Pre-emptively Tying Things Together

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - July 10, AD 2011 7:46 PM MST

There is one more loose end that needs to be tied together regarding Gunwalker. In the last 2 1/2 months I have heard from very credible sources, who are unconnected, the same thing repeatedly - so frequently that it is truly frightening.

There have been numerous, and I mean NUMEROUS, Muslim plots to wage Mumbai-style attacks against churches and synagogues that have been foiled and thwarted in the U.S. within the last several years. By "Mumbai-style" I mean muslims walking into churches heavily armed with AK-47s and open-firing on the congregation. This is what they did in Mumbai, India, except that they focused on stations, hospitals, hotels and other public areas. In Mumbai, there were ten discrete attack locations carried out simultaneously. 164 people were killed with 308 wounded. Churches and synagogues have people much more tightly packed than the hotels, hospitals and offices targeted in Mumbai.

A few weeks ago, the "American Al Qaeda", Adam Gadahn, released a video calling and urging muslims in the U.S. to carry out attacks against "their religion and sacred places".

What does this have to do with Gunwalker? Well, in case you have been under a rock for the last ten years, Muslim terror outifts (yes, that is redundant) such as Hamas and Hizbullah are actively coordinating with the Mexican narco-terror gangs in Mexico, and Hamas and Hizbullah already have a huge physical presence in Mexico and are entering the United States across the Mexican border. Border agents report finding Muslim and arabic paraphernalia routinely on the "coyote trails" on the Southwest border.

Additionally, we have seen the Mexican narco-terror gangs start to use such tactics as beheadings with significantly increased frequency over the past several years. This implies a Muslim cultural influence. Finally, we have the fact of Central and South American Marxists embracing and actively allying themselves with Muslim states, led by Hugo Chavez' strong alliance with Iran. Did you know that Iran has TROOPS stationed in Venezuela, and has promised to arm Chavez, or at least park a nuclear device in Venezuela as soon as possible?

Read it and weep.(link)

So, the Obama-Clinton criminal machine has been sending thousands - and probably tens of thousands - of AK-platform weapons not only into the hands of the narco-terror gangs in Mexico and Central America, but also into the hands of their Muslim allies who have been and will continue to plot Mumbai-style attacks against the U.S. It is a miracle - and that is exactly the word that was used to describe it to me: "MIRACLE" - that diligent Americans have managed to thwart every one of these musloid attacks so far. But guys, it is just a matter of time. It will happen. Musloids will walk into a church somewhere in suburban America, walk uncontested through the narthex and into the sanctuary or auditorium. They will then open fire on the neatly arranged and tightly packed congregates, every one of whom is sitting with their back to the door, with AK-47s that very well could have been supplied by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder via Operation Fast and Furious, and all of the other gun walking programs instituted nationwide.

When Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot earlier this year in Arizona, the entire ATF and DOJ was in a state of blind panic because they thought that Giffords had been shot in a hit by the Mexican narco-terror gangs who had threatened her for some work she was doing on the border issue. But beyond that, the core cause of their panic was the fact that they knew it was possible that Giffords had been shot with a Gunwalker weapon. As it turned out, the gunman was a severely mentally ill American who was a fan of Marx and Hitler. But the panic by the ATF was certainly warranted, and it will be warranted again when the first Muslim Mumbai-style attack takes place on U.S. soil. The odds are very high that the weapons used will have been supplied by Obama, Clinton and Holder.

Now, an action item. If you go to church, you need to schedule a meeting with your priest/pastor/rabbi/whatever and explain this situation to them. If they make the predictable argument that "guns in church means the terrorists win", you need to remind them that the terrorists aren't keeping score by counting guns. They are keeping score by counting DEAD BODIES. DEAD MEN, WOMEN and CHILDREN are the metric.

Every church in North America should have armed men on the door during all major services. Anyone who concealed carries should carry to church without hesitation. There is NOTHING sinful or immoral about being armed in a church. NOTHING. Remember, the apostles wore their sidearms to the Last Supper. Sidearms have been carried and worn in churches since time immemorial. The Muslims are coming. And there will be casualties. But, by God, we need to be returning fire and defending our families and children when it happens. Dear God, I hope it never does happen - but given that Muslims are openly declaring their plans and the Obama-Clinton machine is arming them to the teeth and holding open the door for them, we MUST be ready to defend ourselves.

Bravo, Ann.

This was emailed to me by a reader.

This guy is one of the founders of the major Mexican narco-terror gangs, Los Zetas. Los Zetas was founded by seven AWOL Mexican army special forces in 1999, of which this guy was one of the seven. He was just captured, and this recording is just a few days old. He implicates both the U.S. Government and the Mexican Government as being directly involved in arming Los Zetas.

Beginning at the 5:20 mark, this is the translation of the dialog, and yes, I speak enough Spanish to be able to confirm that. This translation is legit:

Interrogator: And where do you get your weapons?

Rejón Aguilar: From the United States. All weapons come from the U.S.

Interrogator: How are they brought here?

Rejón Aguilar: Crossing the river. We used to bring them through the bridge, but it’s become harder to do that.

Interrogator: Who purchases the weapons?

Rejón Aguilar: They are bought in the U.S. The buyers (on the U.S. side of the border) have said in the past that sometimes they would acquire them from the U.S. Government itself.

Interrogator: And nowadays, who distribute them to you?

Rejón Aguilar: It’s more difficult for us to acquire weapons nowadays, but we find ways. But it’s easier for the Gulf Cartel to bring them across the border.

Interrogator: Why?

Rejón Aguilar: We don’t know why, but they bring them (accross the bridge) in the trunk of their cars without being checked (by Mexican Customs). One can only think that they must have reached a deal with the (Mexican) government.

Interrogator: How often are they smuggled?

Rejón Aguilar: Today it’s more difficult so it’s more sporadic, like every month, every 20 days, or every month and a half. It’s done when ever there’s an opportunity.

Interrogator: And the drugs?

Rejón Aguilar: The drugs are handled by a group of accountants. They handle that in private. It’s compartmentalized. Only they know how and when it’s smuggled to the United States. I suppose, with the way that things are right now, they probably smuggle the drug shipments every two or three months.

Interrogator: How are the drug shipments smuggled to the U.S.?

Rejón Aguilar: They bring it to the U.S. through Laredo, but that’s done by a compartmentalized group handled by the accountants. They are responsible for all that.

Interrogator: Let’s talk about San Luis Potosi, do you remember the attack on the U.S. ICE agents?

Rejón Aguilar: Yes. They (Los Zetas) were travelling in a caravan of bullet-proof vehicles. They mistook them for other people and cut them off.

Interrogator: What’s happening in Tamaulipas?

Rejón Aguilar: In Tamaulipas, there’s a war because of the separation of the cartels. But we’re on hold because there is too much government (troops) presence.

Interrogator: Tell me about the armored (monster) vehicles. How were they made? How many of these vehicles were under your command?

Rejón Aguilar: Three… five at one time.

Interrogator: And out of these five vehicles, what type were they?

Rejón Aguilar: They were armored trucks typically known as monsters.

Interrogator: Were you ever prepared for being captured?

Rejón Aguilar: One always knows that sooner or later, we will be captured.

Interrogator: Is there someone you would like to ask for forgiveness?

Rejón Aguilar: Like how?

Interrogator: Yes. Like for your actions, or for disappointing somebody, like your children or your family?

Rejón Aguilar: Yes. To my mother, because since all of this happened, I haven’t seen her for 17 years.

Interrogator: And knowing that you haven’t seen your mother and she’s still alive, how do you feel?

Rejón Aguilar: Well, it’s hard. It’s cruel but oh well

Why is President Obama backing the Mexican drug cartels? [Papa B]

Papa B:

That's not a joke. That's a serious question. Consider:

Exhibit A: The Obama-Holder Justice Department is suing Arizona for its enforcement of federal immigration law. Arizona's SB1070 is modeled directly after the immigration law passed by Congress and signed by President Roosevelt in 1940. In other words, Mr. Obama is siding with the Mexican government and its criminal elements against American citizens. Or, in the words of Professor Terry Lovell, "Mr. Obama is on the side of the Mexican drug cartels."

Exhibit B: The Justice Department's "Operation Fast and Furious" supplied more than 2,000 military-grade weapons -- many of them purchased with taxpayer dollars by government informants -- to the Mexican drug cartels. Among the weapons purchased for the cartels by the American people: Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifles, AK-47 assault rifles, and FN assault pistols. Put simply, Eric Holder was arming the Mexican drug cartels and lying to Congress about it.

Exhibit C: The Justice Department is also requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to free illegal aliens even if they are caught committing serious crimes. Because a significant percentage of illegals caught committing crimes are members of Mexican drug cartels and other gangs, Mr. Obama is literally issuing "Get Out of Jail Free" cards to the most vicious criminals imaginable.

This is not a joke. This isn't funny.

President Obama is doing his level best to support the Mexican drug cartels. And, if that's "over-the-top", prove it. Can you show me one shred of evidence that Mr. Obama supports the American people over the drug cartels?

And one more question: are traditional Democrats so cynical that they can support these activities? I pray not.

If you guys aren't watching the latest on "Project Gunrunner" a.k.a. "Fast and Furious", you really should be. This would make one heck of a hollywood movie, aside from the fact that it is real.

Arizona gun stores cooperated with the Federal B.A.T.F.E to conduct a "sting" operation to observe and intercept the illegal trafficking of assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Under surveillance, gun stores were instructed by the BATFE to allow the sales of thousands of assault weapons to straw buyers in the United States knowing the intention was to pass those arms into Mexico and into the hands of the cartels. The supposed intent was to follow the weapons and track them, so that arrests could be made.

According to news reports, the Mexican government now claims they had no involvement in the operation. As we all know now, hundreds of Mexican citizens lost their lives to these weapons, and at least two U.S. border patrol agents were killed by guns that our fed let "walk" into the hands of violent drug gangs.

Here's where it gets really dicey for the current administration. I'm sure some of you remember the Iran/Contra situation, where the US supplied guns to Iran, who was already the subject of arms embargo. Our own treaties prevent us from aiding, militarily, groups hoping to overthrow their own governments. Since Mexico has declared war on the cartels, and we have intentionally armed those cartels, some people are now saying that we have actively supplied weapons to an unauthorized insurgency.

I'm sure it will not gain any traction, but the current position of the Mexican government is that heads of the BATFE, and Department of Justice who authorized these actions, including Eric Holder, should be tried in Mexican courts.

Any way you look at it, operation "Fast and Furious" or "Project Gunrunner" eclipse Watergate, Katrina, Lewinsky, as an example of just how corrupt the federal government has become. And to make matters worse, you'll hardly find a journalist willing to even discuss it. Now ask yourself, what would the coverage of this monumental disaster have been if Obama and his clowns weren't the ones in charge right now. That just illuminates the power of the paid-for media in this country.

If you think for one minute you get a fair shake when the rubber hits the road, you're wrong. This country's political future has been bought and paid for, with your money - and mine. BMB (Buy More Bullets).

First, linked from CNN, it appears that the majority of firearms provided to drug lords, potential ROPO terrorists, and other assorted criminals cannot be tracked (supposed purpose of the program) until a crime is committed:

(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.

The problem was that once the guns were allowed to “walk,” there was no way to recover them until they turned up at crime scenes. The operation has been widely criticized in Congress, with the chairman of a House committee that investigated the issue calling it “felony stupid.”

Rene Jaquez, the ATF’s former attache in Mexico City, told CNN the operation never should have happened.

“Guns traditionally are just not allowed to leave the undercover operation for fear that it will enter into the criminal element and then be subsequently used in a crime at a later date,” Jaquez said.

And the following:

GOP Senators Grassley, Issa Request DOJ Hand Over Documents On Operation Fast And Furious, Name 12 Senior Justice Officials In Letter…

Let the games begin.

(The Hill) — Republican lawmakers have requested correspondence records, including emails and handwritten notes, from a dozen senior Justice Department officials who may have been involved in a controversial gun-tracking operation.

The Hill has obtained a letter sent from Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) to Attorney General Eric Holder this week in which they ask for communication records from 12 senior officials with the Department of Justice (DOJ), including James Cole, the recently confirmed Deputy Attorney General.

Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, are investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) botched operation “Fast and Furious,” which sold thousands of weapons to known and suspected straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels.

The move comes in connection with a separate letter sent by the lawmakers to Holder on Monday asking for records of a shared drive, which they say was provided to the computers of ATF officials and could jeopardize their investigation.

The drive contained documents relating to the Fast and Furious operation that the DOJ has given to the committee and possibly documents that it has not yet handed over, their letter states.

“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,” the lawmakers wrote.

More from the Daily Caller:

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, ripped Attorney General Eric Holder again in another Monday letter.

In this new letter, Issa and Grassley name 12 senior Justice Department political officials they believe may have been involved in the decision which allowed guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. They asked Holder to provide all records relating to communications between those 12 individuals regarding Operation Fast and Furious.

Obama administration officials Issa and Grassley named in their letter were:

* Former Deputy Attorney General David Ogden

* Deputy Attorney General James Cole

* Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer

* Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco

* Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein

* Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Keeney

* Associate Deputy Attorney General Matt Axelrod

* Former Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed Siskel

* Gary Grindler in the Office of the Attorney General

* Brad Smith, in the office of the Deputy Attorney General

* Kevin Carwile, section chief of the Capital Case Unit

* Joseph Cooley, in the Criminal Fraud Section

Keep reading…(link at Weasel Zippers)

I'm beginning to wonder that Obama wants to continue to drag out the Debt Limit debate as long as possible to keep the Gunwalker/Fast and Furious story in the background. When this story (which is not going to go away) reaches the point where OPNS® can no longer keep it in the background, the rotten core of corruption of Obama's Chicago style gangster government will make Watergate and Iran Contral look like school yard pranks.

Gunwalker: Comment of the Day

From Patrick Richardson's Pajamas Media article about a "smoking gun" email that proves the ATF were trying to use "walked" guns to influence policy, a dead-on comment by reader L.E. Liesner:

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. If this isn't a direct violation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights nothing ever will [be].

Terry

HT: Confederate Yankee

First:

"Grassley and Issa are asking the pointed, specific questions of prosecutors that already have the answers and are looking to catch the defendants in a provable lie. Rather obviously, they smell blood." (link)

And:

Gunwalker Never Stops

Democrats continue to try to hide it, because the story just keeps getting worse. (links at Confederate Yankee)

Damage control so they can continue, nothing more, nothing less.

Oh Hell, Hillary: State Department Allegedly Sold Military Weapons to Zetas Cartel

If this is true, it makes Gunwalker look like child's play, and would seem to make it very unlikely that this wasn't part of an Administration-wide conspiracy.

Forget impeachment. This is gas chamber-worthy.

The story from Pajamas Media:

Worse Than Gunwalker? State Dept. Allegedly Sold Guns to Zetas

It’s a stunning allegation that makes the other gunrunning scandals look like child’s play.

July 22, 2011 - 10:35 am - by Bob Owens

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?

Awesome: Former federal officials believe cartels may attempt to overthrow Mexican government next year... using U.S. weapons

Nothing instills confidence in truth, justice and the American way like Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama:

Former DEA and CIA Operatives: Los Zetas May Attempt to Overthrow Mexican Government in 2012 (Using U.S. Government Weapons)

By Carmen Álvarez (Translated by Mario Andrade from excelsior.com.mx)

Los Zetas use the border crossings of El Paso-Ciudad Juarez and Palomas-Columbus (both locations along the Texas-Chihuahua border) to supply and stockpile military type weapons, which would give them ability to disrupt the 2012 elections, according to the El Paso Times.

“Many of the weapons have been stored in safe houses. I think Los Zetas are storing them for the upcoming elections of 2012,” said Robert Plumlee, a former CIA pilot who has testified before Congress on drugs and weapons trafficking research.

The report is corroborated with an interview with Phil Jordan, former director of the DEA in El Paso, who stated that the stockpiles, which include anti-aircraft missiles, are transported from a Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The consultant added that the criminals set up (phony) companies to buy weapons directly through a State Department program.

...The Border Patrol personnel and U.S. intelligence services have recently learned that Los Zetas have been purchasing properties on both sides of the border to store thousands of high-power weapons that were discovered to be part of five or six shipments that left the same airport where the DEA has its air operations center... ...[Los Zeta wants to] reinforce their troops for battling other cartels and possibly disrupt the 2012 elections in Mexico, El Paso Times reported yesterday.

“I believe Los Zetas are storing weapons for the election season (2012). They probably want to be included as part of the (new) government, “said Plumlee... [they are stockpiling] grenades, grenade launchers, antiaircraft missiles, body armor, radios, GPS devices, and night vision binoculars, among other items.

...the stockpiles of weapons are not only held at real estate properties that Los Zetas have purchased on both sides of the border, but in other locations throughout Mexico because it was found that a private company is taking advantage of the Direct Commercial Sales program under the U.S. State Department, which allows businesses to purchase high-power weapons which the U.S. exports worldwide... The global arms report, Small Arms Survey of 2011, from the Institute for International and Development Studies in Switzerland, said that Mexico was the number one importer in the world of RPG’s, and “under-barrel” grenade launchers, with 1,429 units being imported, followed in second place by Latvia with 250.

Speaking of government programs to route weapons to the Mexican drug cartels, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the latest from Sen. Chuck Grassley. He continues to doggedly pursue "Project Gunrunner" (or, as I like to call it, "KillGate").

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says the Obama administration may have launched a failed gun-tracking operation along the Mexican border because “they don’t like the Second Amendment” and want to “restrict guns.”

Grassley is leading the Senate’s investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) knowingly allowed semi-automatic guns such as AK-47s to be straw-purchased in the U.S., then sent to Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

Operation Fast and Furious began in September 2009 but was halted after two of the weapons were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010... The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a second hearing on the matter next week, on Tuesday...

Here's another theory: what if Obama, Clinton and Holder really did want to foment a civil war in Mexico? Their rationale: such a war would spark a "humanitarian crisis" and cause a mass exodus of civilians out of Mexico and into the U.S. The majority of this influx, Obama could legitimately assume, would vote Democrat.

Because when it comes to cynical, diabolical plots to weaken America, this administration appears to take a backseat to no one.

"...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..."

"UNEXPECTEDLY, the media remains curiously silent...

It just keeps getting worse and worse. Heads should roll on this one. And some very high up ones at that.

It just keeps getting worse and worse. Heads should roll on this one. And some very high up ones at that.

"...Thus today's hearing will continue to build the case for a wider, national scope to the Gunwalker Scandal. There also exists, according to my sources, a golden opportunity for the Committee to take this story even farther up the chain of command, to the doors of the White House itself..."

This cannot be left to die away.

Washington — At least one person in the White House knew about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun-running operation three months before weapons from the botched sting were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

That’s what a high-ranking ATF official told Congress on Tuesday.

William Newell, the former ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix field office, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he communicated with Kevin O’Reilly, a staffer on President Obama’s National Security Council, about Operation Fast and Furious in September 2010.

By that time, at least one thousand guns straw-purchased in the U.S. had been transferred to Mexican criminals under the noses of ATF officials who intended, but failed, to track them to see where they’d end up.

Under Operation Fast and Furious, which began in September 2009, the ATF allowed some 2,000 guns to “walk” to Mexican drug cartels. The operation was halted in December 2010 after two of the guns were found in Arizona, at the place where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered.

details at link

"Too busy ‘reporting’ on Charley Sheen meltdowns and Sarah Palin emails, mainstream media simply doesn’t have time to bother with Obama’s fishy birth certificate, his illegal war in Libya and especially Project Gunrunner (aka ‘Operation Fast and Furious’) – another lawbreaking treasonous scandal that involves Barack Hussein Obama, Eric Holder AND Janet Napolitano.

The good news is, the longer MSM ignores this boiling cauldron of government corruption that is Project Gunrunner, the more names will bubble up to the surface:

Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and Immigration And Customs Enforcement (ICE) connected with Operation Fast and Furious...

Posted 07:02 PM ET

Scandal: A former ATF special agent tells Congress a National Security Council staffer was informed about Operation Fast and Furious before guns allowed into Mexico wound up at the murder scene of a U.S. agent.

The latest evidence that both the White House and attorney general knew and approved of Project Gunrunner and its deadly offshoot, Operation Fast and Furious, came this week in the testimony of William Newell, ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix office, before Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

That the "stench of cover-up," as Fox News analyst Brit Hume described the administration's handling of the matter, may reach even into the Oval Office itself was evidenced by Newell's testimony that he communicated with Kevin O'Reilly, a staffer on President Obama's National Security Council, about Operation Fast and Furious in September 2010.

O'Reilly was national security director for North America tasked with monitoring the activities of Mexican drug cartels. We are asked to believe he inquired about a program that was providing the cartels with guns but kept what he found out to himself.

That date, by the way, is three months before weapons permitted to "walk" into Mexico were found at the scene in Arizona were U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. Newell said O'Reilly had inquired about the status of Project Gunrunner 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."

Why was a National Security Council staffer asking about an operation that no one in the upper echelons of the administration was supposed to be aware of? We find it hard to believe it was for O'Reilly's personal amusement. Why would Newell request that he not be acknowledged as the source?

Certainly the whole area of drug cartels, cross-border violence and gun trafficking are matters of national security. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made a cause celebre of blaming the easy access to U.S. weapons for Mexican violence.

Are we to believe neither the White House nor the Department of Justice knew about a program that made that access even easier?

Administration officials have taken the Sgt. Schultz "we knew nothing" approach to any inquiries, only to be tripped up by their own words and actions.

Newell's email to O'Reilly is evidence that at least one person in the White House did.

Too much here to quote. Read the whole thing.

The failed federal anti-gunrunning program known as Operation Fast and Furious got so out of control in November 2009, it appeared the U.S. government was single-handedly "arming for war" the Sinaloa Cartel, documents show, even as U.S. officials kept lying to fellow agents in Mexico about the volume of guns it helped send south of the border.

...

Meanwhile, the report claims the agents' superiors in Washington met every Tuesday, to review the latest sales figures and the number of guns recovered in Mexico.

"How long are you going to let this go on?" Steve Martin, an assistant director of intelligence operations asked the ATF top brass at meeting Jan. 5, 2010...

Meanwhile, ATF agents in Mexico were seeing a flood of weapons coming south. When asked, ATF brass told the resident ATF attaché in Mexico things were "under control."

"They were afraid I was going to brief the ambassador on it or brief the government of Mexico," said Darren Gil, former ATF attaché in Mexico. For months, officials assured Gil that Fast and Furious was going to be "shut down," but it wasn't.

"We're getting hurt down here," Gil told ATF International Affairs Chief Daniel Kumor.

Kumor reportedly raised Gil's concerns and was told the case "was going great," and nothing happened until the death of Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

...

The precise number of casualties in Mexico isn't known, but ATF officials confirm the murder of Mario Gonzales Rodriguez, brother of the Chihuahua attorney general, with a Fast and Furious gun.

According to the report, the U.S. knew for eight months of the link between the ATF operation and his death, but refused to tell any Mexican officials. Finally the acting ATF attaché told the Mexican Attorney General Maricela Morales. Her reply, "Hijole," which translates into "Oh my."

There's more there too, and someone will have to explain this new wrinkle to me:

1, We already knew they weren't following the guns, which is preposterous enough, but instead,

2, Apparently the idea was that they were to follow the money used to buy them... but then weren't allowed to follow the money, either.

What?

Newell said the purpose of the operation was to dismantle the entire Mexican cartel but agents testified they were not allowed to do that when they saw transfers of money and weren't permitted to follow the money.

Newell, who as I noted earlier is courting a perjury prosecution, was kind enough to acknowledge that maybe some mistakes were made.

Let's see if I have this straight:

The smartest administration in the history of the world conceived of this plan.

The plan was to just let thousands of weapons flow to murderous drug cartels.

And then take those cartels down.

But they didn't take the cartels down, because they didn't track the guns.

They instead were to follow the money, but they also didn't do that.

A US border agent was killed due to the illegal arms sent to a neighboring sovereign country in this massive covert operation.

In addition, so was the brother of a Mexican attorney general.

So were a number of other Mexican citizens murdered with these weapons -- we don't know the number yet.

In conducting this massive covert action, we lied to officials in this neighboring sovereign country, even though their people (and cops, and officials) were getting killed with our weapons.

As far as I know, we haven't taken any action beyond arresting a few straw buyers... who could have easily been arrested, with the weapons, when they attempted to smuggled them or sell them.

We have not taken down any cartels at all.

In fact, we've not done anything except murdered people by indirect, but perfectly foreseeable, US covert action.

And the only outlet that is following this is FoxNews, so you can tell Fox is biased.

Thanks for the updates, keep them coming.

HT: Sipsey Street Irregulars (http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/) which has been in the forefront of Gunwalker/Fast and Furious coverage. Worth visiting the site and checking out related stories and info.

"From the highest levels of a lawless government." Congresscritters are on vacation. When you buttonhole them at the BBQ, make sure they read this.

Gunwalker: It Must Have Been Eric Holder

... Or higher. An informed examination of the facts leaves no other answer.

August 5, 2011 - 9:37 am - by Bob Owens

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.

Bob Owens blogs at Confederate Yankee and Bob's Gun Counter.

Another Fast and Furious? Cornyn demands information on ATF operation in Texas. Outstanding.

Sen. John Cornyn took a stand against the gun walking that has been reported in Texas. Gun walking is a practice similar to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Fast and Furious” operation, which is now undergoing intense scrutiny in a congressional investigation.

Under the program, ATF agents did not intercept firearms that were suspected of going to drug cartels, but instead attempted to follow the firearms to lead them to gangs’ higher-ups. Problems arose when those firearms were later used in violent crimes and killings.

Cornyn today sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting information about any gun walking operations in Texas.

“Unfortunately, the Department of Justice has been less than forthcoming during congressional investigations into the failed ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’” Cornyn wrote. “I believe it is important that you promptly disclose the details of any past or present Texas-based ATF ‘gun-walking’ program similar to ‘Operation Fast and Furious.’ My constituents deserve a full accounting of any such activities in Texas.”

(see link)

pretty significant "change"

Yes, promoted.

(LA Times) — 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.

“I share responsibility for mistakes that were made,” McMahon testified to a House committee three weeks ago. “The advantage of hindsight, the benefit of a thorough review of the case, clearly points me to things that I would have done differently.”

Payoff or bribe?

August 15, 2011 Times Reporter Eric Lichtblau's Hit Piece on Issa Full of Fact Errors, Reported Plagiarism. Bears Marks of Obama Administration Desperation

Eric Litchblau is not a reporter. He never has been.

What Eric Litchblau of the New york Times happens to be is a political ideologue with few scruples, and undeveloped sense of right and wrong, and honor... well, it simply was never in his DNA.

He was infamously part of the Times reporting team (along with James Risen)that leaked the existence of a NSA program that included intercepting terrorist communications in an attempt to politically hobble the Bush Administration. The disclosure served to tip off terrorist plotters to use other forms of communications, and was ultimately deemed legal by the federal court.

Before that final confirmation, however, Litchblau played fast and loose with the truth on more than one occasion, and even reversed the facts of stories so that he was essentially fabricating the news.

Old habits, unpunished by a rabid and unscrupulous editorial staff, once again surfaced today in a hit piece directed at Congressman Darrel Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee that has been ranging in the Obama Administration in the Gunwalker scandal and a number of other questionable activities.

Perhaps out of desperation, Litchblau's latest article simply makes up facts... those it doesn't apparently plagiarize from left wing blogs, that is. Even left wing radicals that are the Times biggest idolators are calling him out for his theft.

My big question regarding the Litchblau piece is whether or not it was even written by Litchblau. Actually, I suspect Litchblau wrote the story—at least the parts he didn't allegedly steal—but the question remains as to why he would put such a poorly researched, easily debunked and roundly condemned article, unless he was doing it as a political favor to the the Administration.

It was, after all, the White House that shopped a hit piece targeting Issa just months ago that had similarly desperate and sloppy details in a story so weak that a number of news organizations and even a left wing blog passed on it for being not credible.

The hit piece seems to confirm that Issa is damaging the Administration with his Oversight committee probes. As more federal agents, supervisors, and political appoints come forward to point out corruption and criminality, you can only expect the media to publish more manufactured smears in hopes of tarring the reputations of the men and women who just might make the 44th President of the United States the first one ever impeached, put on trial in a criminal court, and extradited to face even more criminal charges.

Update: An editorial in the Washington Examiner suggests that it is DHHS, and not DOJ and DHS that has spurred the White House attack dogs in the press to attack Issa, and they make the very accurate point that these are not just attacks, but in-kind contributions to the Obama campaign.

The simple fact of the matter is that Issa is determined and was released as chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform committee in the most target-rich environment in the history of American government... and that he is very good at his job.

Gunwalker: President Obama’s Un-Plausible Deniability

Is it rational to believe the president and his closest advisers had nothing to do with this murderous plot?

August 17, 2011 - 8:24 am - by Bob Owens

It shows that Pres**nt Subprime McDowngrade's appointees are fighting a holding action to protect him from doing a Nixon.

And Grassley and his committee ain't buyin' none of it!

Sipsey Street is the site that broke the whole story.

Of course, this is toxic material for OPNS®

Part 3 to follow...

Anonymous said...

Since these illegal gun exporting operations were operated with the knowledge of fusion centers (the joint operations of the federal leviathan and the several States), the question must be answered:

When did Gov. Perry and his administration know about these illegal export operations?

Gunwalker: Heard about the city officials in New Mexico who were smuggling guns to drug cartels in U.S. police cars?

Several city officials of the New Mexico border town of Columbus recently admitted they smuggled firearms and tactical gear to the La Linea drug cartel. And now, it turns out, that case may be linked to "Operation Fast and Furious", the malevolent Justice Department project that shipped thousands of murder weapons to Mexican drug gangs.

The Columbus gun smuggling case might be linked to a national case... The mayor, police chief and a trustee have all pled guilty to running guns to the Juarez drug cartel "La Linea".

At a hearing for police Chief Angelo Vega on Thursday, it was revealed that six of those weapons may be connected to "Operation Fast and Furious"[, ...] an ATF program that allowed thousands of guns to cross into Mexico so that federal agents could track them.

Now "Fast and Furious" is under investigation, because officials lost track of more than a third of the guns, many of which were linked to shootings.

Last month it was revealed that Columbus city officials were using the town's police cars and other equipment to run guns to the cartels.

The former mayor of a New Mexico border town pleaded guilty to gun smuggling charges four months after he was arrested in a federal sting.

On Tuesday, Eddie Espinoza, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, three counts of making false statements, and three counts of smuggling firearms from the United States.

The guilty plea means the former mayor of the village of Columbus could face up to 50 years in a federal prison.

In March, federal agents arrested Espinoza and several others, including Columbus Chief of Police Angelo Vega and village Trustee Blas Gutierrez.

Federal documents state the group smuggled more than 200 guns from New Mexico to the streets of Cíudad Juárez and Palomas, Chihuahua. The documents further state that at times the group used unmarked police cars registered to Columbus to smuggle the guns across the border... the guns [were connected] to at least eight murders in those cities.

Gunwalker is a bigger scandal than Watergate. American law enforcement officials have been killed by the weapons smuggled to the drug cartels by a rogue Justice Department.

If we had a real media in this country, a firestorm of outrage would have already been ignited among the electorate. And the most partisan Attorney General in American history -- Eric Holder -- would be testifying every day in front of Congress.

Sipsey Street has done a great job investigating and pulling all the strings together.

ATF Director Reassigned; U.S. Attorney Out Amid 'Fast and Furious' Uproar

By William Lajeunesse

Published August 30, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Kenneth Melson has been acting director of the ATF since 2009.

Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson has been reassigned to a lesser post in the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney for Arizona was also pushed out Tuesday as fallout from Operation Fast and Furious reached new heights.

Melson's step down from his role as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the position of senior adviser on forensic science in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Programs is effective by close of business Tuesday, administration officials announced. U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota B. Todd Jones will replace Melson.

U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, one of the officials closely tied to Fast and Furious, is also a casualty in a shakeup tied to the botched gun-running program. Burke was on the hot seat last week with congressional investigators and, according to several sources, got physically sick during questioning and could not finish his session.

The purge of those responsible for the firearms trafficking scandal continued as new documents reveal a deeper involvement of federal agencies beyond ATF.

In Phoenix, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley, who oversaw Fast and Furious on a day-to-day basis, was reassigned from the criminal to civil division. Also in Phoenix, three out of the four whistleblowers involved in the case have been reassigned to new positions outside Arizona. Two are headed to Florida, one to South Carolina.

Hurley's reassignment came after three ATF supervisors responsible for the operation were promoted. William G. McMahon, a former deputy director of operations, took over the Office of Professional Responsibility. Field supervisors William D. Newell and David Voth also moved up despite heavy criticism.

The moves follow a series of reports by Fox News detailing the face-off between Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, whose investigators have recently broadened their probe. It now reportedly shows a deeper involvement of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

"While the reckless disregard for safety that took place in Operation Fast and Furious certainly merits changes within the Department of Justice, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation to ensure that blame isn't off-loaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department," Issa, chairman of the House panel.

"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. ... I also remain very concerned by Acting Director Melson's statement that the Department of Justice is managing its response in a manner intended to protect its political appointees," Issa continued.

Operation Fast and Furious, a program designed to track illegal gun sales, turned into an embarrassing scandal after weapons linked to it were found at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent's murder last year. Thousands of guns ended up in the hands of Mexican cartel members.

Melson has led the agency since April 2009, supplanting a Bush administration acting director who was also unable to get Senate confirmation over the objections of gun rights groups. It was during his tenure that the ATF Phoenix office began Operation Fast and Furious in the fall of 2009.

According to the Justice Department, Jones will take over ATF in place of Melson beginning Wednesday, and will continue to serve as a U.S. attorney. A permanent replacement at ATF would need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

"As a seasoned prosecutor and former military judge advocate, U.S. Attorney 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."

Without mentioning either Melson or Burke's role in the Fast and Furious fiasco, Holder also praised the two for their "dedication" and "commitment" to the Department of Justice.

Bookmark Sipsey Street and read daily...

Normally, I only see a marked police car come down my street every couple of months. This past three weeks I have had marked and unmarked cars come by just about everyday. Even had them walk on the trail behind my house. Maybe they didn't like someone disagreeing with our worthless President and Attorney General. My chiropractor stopped by last week. He has about every anti Obama sticker I have ever seen on his vehicle. I wonder if they are watching him too.

Obama's Watergate...it won't go away. Now there should be perjury charges.

Who will be the weak link and refuse to fall on his sword to protect Presidebt Subprime McDowngrade?

Boom: Congressional Investigators Find Evidence of a Gunwalker Coverup

You've got to give CBS credit on two fronts: they've doggedly pursued the biggest DC scandal since Watergate and they fired Dan Rather.

Congressional investigators tell CBS News there's evidence the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona sought to cover up a link between their controversial gunwalking operation known as "Fast and Furious" and the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Terry was murdered in Arizona near the US border last December. Two assault rifles ATF had allegedly allowed onto the street without interdiction were found at the scene...

...the lead prosecutor on Fast and Furious, Assistant US Attorney Emory Hurley, learned almost immediately that guns allowed onto the street in his case, had been recovered at Terry's murder. "(I)n the hours after Agent Terry's death," says the letter from Grassley and Issa, Hurley apparently "contemplated the connection between the two cases and sought to prevent the connection from being disclosed." The Justice Department recently transferred Hurley out of the criminal division into the civil division...

...An internal ATF email dated the day after Terry's death reveals the quick decision to not disclose the source of the weapons found at the murder scene: "... this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case."

Another ATF email indicates that the justification both offices used to not charge the suspect with crimes related to the murder scene "was to not 'complicate' the FBI's investigation."

ATF whistleblowers revealed the link between the two cases to Congressional investigators and CBS News, saying their supervisors were attempting to cover it up.

To their credit, Reps. Grassley and Issa have announced they are expanding the Gunrunner investigation. Particularly galling:

...a court filing by the Phoenix office seeking to deny Mr. Terry’s family rights under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, and expressed concerns about conflicts of interest in prosecuting the Terry case. “Since your office directed and approved the daily tactical decisions in Operation Fast and Furious, it is hard to avoid the perception that a conflict of interest exists,” the two wrote.

What did Eric Holder know -- and when did he know it?

And just how high does the coverup go?

Additional: follow Sipsey Street Irregulars for all the latest.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/

Five Questions the Media Won't Ask The Administration About Gunwalker

So far, the shuffling of employees--and some might argue, the buying of their silence--has been the only reaction to the Gunwalker scandal, in which various agencies of the federal government conspired to assure the success of straw purchasers and smugglers running guns to a violent Mexican drug cartel.

In the months since the scandal was revealed, the Department of Justice (DOJ) , BATF, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Division (IRS-CD), Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State, have conspired to stonewall and House and Senate investigations that have been launched to investigate a scandal that appears to be worse than Iran-Contra and Watergate combined.

The scandal is not complicated, and would be revealed by the answering of five simple questions that the media dare not demand answers to from this Administration.

1. Who came up with the idea of allowing guns to be purchased by straw purchasers and then "walked" across the border by smugglers?

2. Who authorized Operation Fast and Furious in the Department of Justice?

3. Who authorized Operation Fast and Furious in the Department of Homeland Security?

4. Is Operation Fast and Furious the only operation of its type, or were there similar operations in Texas, Florida, and other states as evidence suggests?

5.What, precisely, did Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Janet Napolitano know about Operation Fast and Furious, and when did they know it?

Answering these five simple questions would go a long way towards revealing if Operation Fast and Furious was merely the most inept and bloody law enforcement operation in modern American history, or if it was--as logic and circumstantial evidence suggests--a criminal conspiracy intent on manufacturing evidence to justify gun control initiatives and further the Administration's political agenda at the cost of Mexican and American lives.

I sent the questions to Senator Debbie Donuts Stabenaw...doubt if I will ever get an answer. I send her cartoons and pictures like I post here almost every day.

A few weeks ago I got an email from her and she called me "Jack" and closed with "Debbie"--I must assume (ass-u-me) that we are now friends and on a first name basis.

She made a point that if she could do anything for me or my family to let me know.

I immediately responded, "Resign".

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/09/richard-serrano-la-times-white-house.html

And another program revealed: Gangwalker

See link

Via Gun Watch:

At the ATF, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing

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).

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.

Much more here (link)

Every family who lost someone as a result of one of these firearms should sue the government!

Fast and Furious update: And now…Project Grenadewalker?!

The truth is still seeping out, despite Team Obama’s best efforts to cover up and shut up the Fast and Furious whistle-blowers.

Last week, we noted the latest evidence that the scandal went straight to the top and chronicled the desperate dance of the lemons. In discussing the quiet resignation of U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Phoenix, I talked with NRA News’s Cam Edwards about Burke’s transparent attempt at liability avoidance.

Today, the WSJ spotlights the Phoenix USAO’s botched handling of an Arizona man accused of supplying grenades to a Mexican drug cartel. Business Insider provides a closer look (h/t William Amos):

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.

more at link

Also: check out Sipsey Street today:

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/09/subject-for-second-front-on-gunwalker.html

Fox News investigative reporter William Lajeunesse dropped a pair of bombshells in one article Friday afternoon, revealing: the presence of a third “walked” gun at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder, an FBI cover-up of the gun, and the news that your tax dollars funded cartel weapons purchases:

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.”

In addition to the emails obtained by Fox News, an audio recording from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent investigating the Terry case seems to confirm the existence of a third weapon. In that conversation, the agent refers to an “SKS assault rifle out of Texas” found at the Terry murder scene south of Tucson. …

The two AK-type assault rifles were purchased by Jaime Avila from the Lone Wolf Trading Co. outside of Phoenix on Jan. 16, 2010. Avila was recruited by his roommate Uriel Patino. Patino, according to sources, received $70,000 in “seed money” from the FBI informant late in 2009 to buy guns for the cartel.

Every American, regardless of political ideology, should be livid that the FBI gave at least $70,000 of “seed money” to murderous felons so that they could buy firearms. The FBI knew these weapons were destined for narco-terrorists, and that they would be used to target not just other murderous cartels but to terrorize innocents.

The third weapon recovered at the scene of Agent Terry’s murder that the FBI made “disappear” is an SKS carbine. Not an assault weapon by any practical definition, authorities claim that the official existence of the Texas-purchased rifle at the crime scene could have exposed an FBI informant.

Another plausible motive for hiding the weapon is that it would be traced to a different ATF operational sector, as an early indication that gunwalking was not limited to Operation Fast and Furious in the Phoenix Field Operations area. We now know as a matter of fact that all three federal agents shot with walked firearms had weapons walked from Texas recovered at their crime scenes. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were ambushed in Mexico by members of the Zetas cartel, including at least one armed with a weapon from Lancaster, Texas, the Dallas Field Operations area.

The SKS “disappeared” by the FBI from the scene of Agent Terry’s murder most likely came from Dallas, but could have come from what appears to be a second Texas-based gunwalking operation, suggested by considerable circumstantial evidence to be centered in the Houston Field Operations area.

The fact that every U.S. agent gunned down in the line of duty was fired upon with weapons recovered from apparent gunwalking operations in the Dallas and/or Houston Field Operations areas — not to mention the revelation of an domestic gunwalking operation in Indiana dubbed “Gangwalker,” and now “Grenadewalker” — suggests a widespread program to arm violent felons.

If this supposition is correct — and new evidence emerging every few days suggests that is the case — then we are plagued by an executive branch gone mad, and there is every reason to believe that such madness either originated from the White House or was done with the full knowledge of the White House, as Mike Vanderboegh suggests:

“This information confirms what our sources were saying all along — that the FBI was covering up the true circumstances of the murder of Brian Terry,” added Mike Vanderboegh, an authority on the Fast and Furious investigation who runs a whistleblower website called Sipsey Street.

“It also confirms that the FBI was at least as culpable, and perhaps more culpable, than the ATF in the (Fast and Furious) scandal, and that there was some guiding hand above both these agencies (and the other agencies involved) coordinating the larger operation,” Vanderboegh said.

Robert Mueller of the FBI and Ken Melson of the ATF obviously knew of these gunwalking operations. Michele Leonhart of the DEA likely knew. Eric Holder had to know.

Janet Napolitano, whose former Chief of Staff Dennis Burke ran Operation Fast and Furious and who was the governor of Arizona and its attorney general before then, had to know.

Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley smell corruption, and have expanded the Gunwalker investigation to request the records of Greg Gatjanis, Kevin O’Reilly, and Dan Restrepo, all from the president’s National Security Council.

Three White House officials know something about the operation, and yet we are expected to believe Eric Holder and Barack Obama when they deny knowledge of it?

Issa: Holder is Dangerously Inept By: Curt | 92 views

Just imagine if these gunrunning scandals were happening under a Republican administration. The wall-to-wall coverage would knock even the latest Obama “pass this bill” speech off the air.

Money quote around the two-minute mark:

“We have a paper trail of so many people knowing that the only way the Attorney General didn’t know is he made sure he didn’t want to know. But if you don’t want to know something of this sort then you shouldn’t have the job he has. And ultimately that’s one of the questions is, if he didn’t know, is he that inept that he is dangerous to have as the Attorney General, and that is for the president to decide.”

It sure is not going to go away.

Government Report: Secret Recordings Uncovered in ‘Fast and Furious’ Case

CBS News has posted what it claims is a secret recording between a senior ATF Agent and an Arizona gun store owner at the heart of the botched operation “Fast and Furious” weapons sting. The tape could be proof that the ATF tried to suppress evidence found at the crime scene of murdered U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry.

Recorded around March 2011, the tape is the work of Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Arizona– which was the primary gun dealer cooperating with ATF in “Operation Fast and Furious.” On the tape, Howard is talking with the lead case ATF Case Agent Hope MacAllister, according to CBS.

Listen to their conversation below:

Note the discussion included the admission of three weapons found.

This is significant because it means the ATF might have known months ago that there were three Fast and Furious-linked guns, not two, found near U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry after he was killed in a shootout with cartel criminals.

Originally, court records only showed two “AK-47-style” weapons linked to Fast and Furious were part of the investigation. And a ballistics report turned over to Congress months ago also only indicated two Fast and Furious associated weapons.

If a new ballistics test shows the missing third gun was in fact the one used to gun down the U.S. Border Agent, it would be hard to argue that evidence was not intentionally suppressed to avoid scandal.

Apparently, the Justice Department’s Inspector General obtained the audio tape discussing the number of weapons several months ago, and for some yet-to-be-determined reason, handed them over to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Arizona — a primary subject itself of the Fast and Furious investigation.

CBS has asked the pertinent question: ”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.”

Increasingly, the answer appears to be a cover-up that stretches widely across the government and reaches up into the highest echelons of power.

In a national election year, a cabinet-level resignation due to scandal would be very politically damaging. For Operation “Fast and Furious,” it appears robust Congressional oversight measures will be required to get anywhere near the truth.

Top State Prosecutor in Mexico Holds Obama Administration's Gunwalker Responsible for Death of Her Brother, Thousands of Otherse

We can't get the mainstream media to do anything other than cover-up for "Teh Won," but south of the border they see the Administration's Gunwalker gorefest as the massive criminal conspiracy that it is.

Morales said she did not want to draw conclusions before the outcome of U.S. investigations, but that deliberately letting weapons "walk" into Mexico would represent a "betrayal" of a country enduring a drug war that has killed more than 40,000 people.

Concealment of the bloody toll of Fast and Furious took place despite official pronouncements of growing cooperation and intelligence-sharing in the fight against vicious Mexican drug-trafficking organizations. The secrecy also occurred as Mexican President Felipe Calderon and other senior Mexican officials complained bitterly, time and again, about the flow of weapons into Mexico from the U.S.

Patricia Gonzalez, the top state prosecutor in Chihuahua at the time of her brother's 2010 kidnapping, noted that she had worked closely with U.S. officials for years and was stunned that she did not learn until many months later, through media reports, about the link between his death and Fast and Furious weapons.

"The basic ineptitude of these officials (who ordered the Fast and Furious operation) caused the death of my brother and surely thousands more victims," Gonzalez said.

Operation Fast and Furious was just one of at least five alleged gun-walking operations that sent weapons not just to criminals along and over our southern border, but which also purposefully armed gangs in the Midwest.

As the corpses pile up, it seems more and more likely that the ultimate goal of Gunwalker was never law enforcement at all, but a criminal and perhaps treasonous attempt by political ideologues to wreck both the United States and Mexico to create the optimal conditions to achieve a radical leftist dream of destroying the way America works.

As an attempt to impose Cloward-Piven Strategy Gunwalker was almost successful, and if ATF line agents had not blown the whistle on the Administration, it may have stood a chance of succeeding.

It was a high-risk plot that should result in impeachment, resignations, and criminal charges, up to and including the textbook definition of treason for aiding and abetting the enemies of our nation, arming them with weapons used to cut down our own citizens.

We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail in our pursuit of this story.

More threads lead directly to White House.

Via Confederate Yankee:

September 23, 2011

A Fine Line Between Governance and Terrorism

Smuggling weapons--arms trafficking--has long been argued as an act of war or an act of terrorism, whether we're discussing Iran's various attempts to provide weapons of war to those fighting the U.S. and Israel, the German submarine U20's sinking of the Lusitania for smuggling 4.2 million rounds of small arms ammunition, or the Obama Administration's smuggling of thousands of weapons to drug cartels locked in a a mortal struggle with the government of Mexico.

As a matter of fact, U.S. federal law would seem to define Operation Fast and Furious as an act of international terrorism:

As used in this chapter— (1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that— (A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended— (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;

Operation Fast and Furious seems to have violated multiple federal laws, including the Arms Export Control Act.

More to the point of terrorism, the gun-walking occurred within the United States and knowingly involved allowing weapons to transition an international border with Mexico in order to "intimidate or coerce" Mexico's embattled civilian population and civil government.

Another apparent goal was to influence the policy of U.S. gun laws by coercion (actual ATF implementation of multiple long-gun reporting, asserted attempt to create conditions for a U.S. weapons ban).

Last but not least, Operation Fast and Furious (and contemporary programs) seem designed to affect the conduct of the government of Mexico by providing mass destruction in the form of thousands of firearms used typically used for assassination and kidnapping, and the conduct of the government of the United States by lending anecdotal credence to President Obama's 90-percent lie and trump up support for attacks on the Second Amendment.

Governed by this definition provided in Title 18 of U.S. Code, there is every reason to state that Gunwalker is international terrorism sponsored from the highest levels of appointed and elected officials within the executive branch of the administration of President Barack Obama.

No wonder they want to close Gitmo. As terrorists, that is precisely where they belong.

Links at link

Vanderboegh & Codrea exclusive: U.S. Gov't used an ATF employee to buy weapons with taxpayer money & walk them -- without help from straw buyers!

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."

By Mike Vanderboegh & David Codrea

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.

The TBVIECians would have held Bush responsible for the actions of his DOJ and BATF had this debacle occurred under his Presidency. Obama should be held under the same standards...but protection by the OPNS® and complicit government officials keeps this story with as low profile as they can.

Independent prosecutors are needed to fully open the details to the American voter and heads should roll in the Obama administration. If not Obama, Holder and down should be serving hard time in Mexican jails.

The next hearing will be JOINT hearings. From Lori Jane Gliha at ABC15 in Arizona.

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.”

I wanna see dat one.

"Now appearing: AG Eric Holder as Sammy Davis Jr. doing famous dance steps from his movies of old......"

Jack et al.....

Could we PLEASE start a Gunwalker II thread? My DSL is slow and loading up a 200+ post thread takes a while.....

I know it's a complaint akin to watching a hotdog in a microwave and shouting "com'on! COM'ON!" but it would make life easier for us less fortunate.... heheheh....

"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."