As Issa Closes in on FBI Role in Gunwalker, Dems Feign Outrage
As the Gunwalker conspiracy continues to unravel, initial claims that the multi-agency plot was an isolated and localized Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives operation are falling apart.
Following up on comments made this past Sunday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Charles Grassley sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller seeking detailed information in their Fast and Furious investigation. They are particularly focused on the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010.
The letter asserts that as many as five firearms may have been in the hands of the suspects, based upon the claim by the captured suspect that he was traveling with four other individuals — all of whom he says were armed. Neither the search warrant affidavit nor the unsealed indictment stated the total number of weapons recovered after the firefight, a curious omission.
The letter goes on to ask 16 questions. The first three questions cover the ballistics tests run on the weapons recovered, while the next four inquire about the weapons the smugglers may have used in the firefight and how many shots may have been fired from each kind of weapon. The remaining questions are focused on the investigators themselves (specifically the FBI, ATF, and any other “state local, or federal” agencies that may have been present by the time the FBI arrived to the crime scene), the gun trace data, and the total number of suspects involved.
Getting honest answers to these questions is critical, as the FBI seems to be claiming that only two weapons were recovered at the scene. Candid conversations with other law enforcement agents strongly suggest that a third weapon, an SKS tied to an FBI criminal informant, was at the crime scene before disappearing.
The Department of Justice was quick to denounce the letter and the Oversight Committee’s quest to reach the bottom of Operation Fast and Furious:
On Monday, the Justice Department responded to Issa’s accusations about a possible third gun saying, “The FBI has made clear that reports of a third gun recovered from the perpetrators at the scene of Agent Terry’s murder are false.” They also maintain that Issa’s staff was previously informed of this.
“Unfortunately, this most recent false accusation not only maligns the dedicated agents investigating the murder of Agent Terry, it mischaracterizes evidence in an ongoing case,” the Justice Department said in its statement.
Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD), an Obama administration loyalist, fiercely responded as well:
Frankly, I am shocked that Chairman Issa would continue to spin this conspiracy theory — that the FBI is hiding a third weapon — even after his recent allegations proved false. Rather than acknowledging this embarrassing mistake and apologizing for making false accusations about the FBI, Chairman Issa’s letter is an unprecedented attack on the integrity and credibility of law enforcement that could seriously jeopardize the ongoing prosecution.
To put it mildly, Cummings’ criticism is duplicitous. The ATF’s William Newell boldly lied to the American people when he answered “Hell no!” to inquires on whether guns were walked in Operation Fast and Furious. Instead of being fired, he and his fellow conspirators were promoted “laterally” to desk jobs in Washington, D.C.
The Department of Justice has repeatedly tried to claim that Operation Fast and Furious was a localized operation, when documents prove that numerous Obama administration-appointed officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder himself and the number two man in Justice, Gary Grindler, were briefed on the operation. One document shows Grindler’s personal notes scrawled in the margins.
This scandal makes Watergate pale in comparison. Yet where is the mainstream media? Where are Woodward and Bernstein?
Gary Fouse
DEA retired
They’re too busy investigating the previous owners of Perry’s rental jets, Palin’s old e-mails and Cain’s family.
When Democrats try to shoot the messenger and the Department of Justice tries to cover up something so dastardly that it may well end up making Watergate pale by comparison. You begin to realize that the Justice Department is no doubt complicit in the Fast & Furious scandal, and just like Watergate, the cover-up is going to be Eric Holder’s downfall and undoing.
The Obama administration has shown time and again that they are a ruthless, corrupt entity whose main goals are not “truth and justice” or in playing fair or even in trying to remain respectable in the eyes of their peers, or in the eyes of the American people. Rather, it is a “my way or the highway” mentality, shrouded in underhandedness and political connivery. Which, in my opinion, is very similar to Vladamir Putin’s rule of governance in repressive Russia. In other words, an abusive thuggery style of politicking which in this case has the label Democrat Party attached to it. Permeated from the top on down, with Barack Obama as the ring leader. Putin, Obama. Obama, Putin. Kissing cousins?? You decide.
Plus now we have several corrupt Democrats in Congress doing everything in their power to try and make Fast & Furious go away by trying to blame the messenger and demonizing the very committee looking to get to the bottom of this horrific tragedy. Hopefully Darrell Issa and his Congressional committee will prevail and those who are responsible will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It is very likely that several people within the Justice Department, ATF and others in the Obama administration, could end up going to prison for a very long time. Including AG Eric Himpton Holder Jr.
Justice needs to prevail. Hopefully it will. But Democrats are doing everything they can, it seems, to make sure it doesn’t. Which tells you right there all you need to know about the Democrat Party in my opinion. They are obstructing justice and corrupt to the core in my opinion. Gangsters masquerading as politicians. But hopefully the American people will wake up and will see progressive Democrats for who they really are and then turn out in droves to toss each and every one of them to the curb on November 6, 2012… and beyond. So America can begin to heal and the restoration process can begin anew. With competent, America loving, highly respectable candidates taking their place. What a novel idea?
While I agree with everything you said, the despicable, grotesque, deceiving, complicity, of the leftist media in providing cover and slant is probably more important than the others combined.
The media is “enjoying” the backlash, actually. Those conservatives who used to watch the evening news read TIME magazine or subscribe to other formerly noteworthy outlets are no longer doing so. The revenues for such entities are down and going lower. The media, naturally, does not report on its own financial troubles, except to blame the internet and other “mysteries” of the modern age.
Yes, the founders allowed for a free press. Free to print whatever they like. But I wonder if they were cognizant of a biased press. I’m sure they had to be aware of the possibility.
But the press, failing the ability to be objective and honest, has lost the respect/listener/readership they once enjoyed and they continue to sink. This is, of course, a good thing. The internet has given us the real, free and immediate source for current events and the old-school hacks are hating that. They’re status and reputations have been ruined, by their own hand. More and more people become aware of this every day now and as long as they stack the deck, the way they did with their “reporting” of the tea-party protests (“hardly anyone showed up”)vs. the OWS idiots, giving them full pages of copy and prime-time coverage, the people will continue to leave.
I still hold faith that the vast majority of people in this nation can recognize crap when they see/read/hear it. Granted the process has been slow, but either the new services are going to have to change their ways (unlikley) or collapse under their own weight and then and only then, can new news services be born from the ashes. But the people will be very suspicious of them until they can demonstrate, fair, accurate and unbiased reporting.
The press back then was, if anything, far more biased than today. However, it was not unified in it’s bias.
Sorry, but in 2008 the majority of American voters waded through crap hip deep to get to the polls and elect Der Crapmeister himself.
The only media that will unravel this unholy alliance between the Democrats and “main stream media” on Fast and Furious are the bloggers and a free internet! We don’t need Woodward or Bernstein. The more Obama’s minions try to hide the facts the more guilty they look. Keep digging bloggers, we are the the truth tellers in this fight…
Kansas Patriot – Unfortunately, many people who would be on our side are woefully ignorant of Fast and Furious. During the last days of the Tabernacle Festival, I had to opportunity to have a very pleasant repast with some co-religionists who are Second Amendment types. (In fact, I got the opportunity to hold a beautfiul 45 caliber rifle.) Well, anyway, the mistress of the house and I got to talking and I ended up telling her about Fast and Furious. She knew nothing about it. Clearly, while we here on PJM know a lot about this, the news on it is just not getting out, so out there in the wide world, knowledge about this is neligible to nonexistent, which is just how Holder and O like it. The only way other people will get to know about this is by our carrying the message to them.
Despite Elijah Cummings’s defense, one reads a lot these days about how the Dems are deserting the SS Obama for all the other reasons — bad leadership, stupidity, ineffectiveness, killing the Dem brand, etc. Once things get to a certain point, I wonder if any of them will find Op F&F a handy excuse to totally turn on the bastard.
Wouldn’t that be more likely Her Majesty’s Kenyan Ship HMKS Obama?
I’ve wondered about that too. A very plausible scenario. No honor among thieves, you know….
It would be more plausible by far if we were speaking of a Republican administration. The Democrats have never been prone to turning on one another in an over fashion, with one exception: Obama and his penchant for jettisoning anyone who starts to look like unwelcome baggage.
My surmise is that, should the Democrats decided that Obama is no longer “their guy,” they’ll try for the subtlest play possible, perhaps something involving a crisis within the First Family that compels Obama to “refuse” the 2012 presidential nomination. I’m virtually certain — bet-the-rent certain — that no mainstream Democrat will vote for his impeachment or conviction, much less start a movement among fellow Democrats to have him impeached and removed.
The quickest, cleanest way for the Dems to get rid of Obama is to decide that the birthers are correct, that he does not qualify as a “natural born citizen”, and so — sorry, Barack, nothing against you personally — we got to nominate someone else for 2012.
And yet, and yet, most of the mainstream media is saying nothing about this. There has been some good reporting from one reporter at CBS and Fox News, but other than that you don’t hear much about this. And you’d think all of those eager beavers at the Washington Post or the New York Times would be literally jumping at the chance to get a Pulitzer Prize for uncovering this scandal which, at the present moment, could make Watergate look like a joke. Remember, nobody got killed in Watergate. Here we have a dead American Border Patrol Agent and who knows how many dead Mexicans as a direct result of this botched operation. So where are these “great” newspapers? Why, they’re defending the liberal black president that they helped get elected, that’s where they are. And they wonder why fewer and fewer people are reading them anymore.
“……with top administration officials contributing willfully to a bloody criminal conspiracy.”
Yeah, their contribution was the planning, organizing and directing of the whole thing.
I still cant believe how bold they were about the whole operation. Surely they knew it would be found out. What have they got up their sleeves?
You underestimate their arrogance. I believe they fully expected that F&F would remain “under the radar,” as Obama characterized it when reassuring Sarah Brady that they were working on more gun control.
And the the extent that the MSM protects them, they are still right. I have friends who hunt but who don’t know about F&F until I tell them. Most people really aren’t tuned into politics; they’re happy in their ignorance.
If the current administration, DOJ and FBI don’t think they can ignore the separation of powers and commit an outrageous, treasonous attack on the Bill of Rights, then maybe it is time for the Speaker of the House to remind the JCS that they owe their allegiance to the U.S. Constitution as does every member of the military. This administration / Democrat response to Fast and Furious is starting to look like the Monty Python “this parakeet isn’t dead sketch”. If they think they can kill people in an effort to usurp the 2nd Amendment and then just get a free pass from the legacy media and their 19 percent of mouth-breathing, OWS, Obama-mob supporters they are wrong. No one is above the law. I’d like to think that “We the People” aren’t going to stand for this illegal, marxist attack on the U.S. Constitution.
This CFR attack on gun ownership has failed. The global Marxists, and their flag holders will do something else now. DaOne, Billery, the Bull Dike, and Holder are just following an agenda. They should be charged with Treason during a time of war.
The enmey must be attacked. America can not wait until they try something else.
“maligns the dedicated agents investigating the murder of Agent Terry”
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Oh, those heroic agents. As if they get a say when the higher-ups decide to dis-investigate (to coin a word) something.
Some rats do not know when to abandon ship. This one is going down. You cannot save it. Of course, they are probably in “safe” districts. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps not, though. The RNC should start running ads in the districts of these guys helping to obfuscate this. That might get them to back down.
The original quote is “False patiotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” – William Pitt.
What is really bad here is that the corruption in our government runs this deep. Our country will never be safe again until this corruption is rooted out. What we have today is a federal government breaking federal laws, while everybody including the so called watch dog of the government is covering it up.It is apparent that the “Ship of State” and the “MSM” is full of rats and rat poison is the solution.
From Maryland’s own firearms regulations:
“Purchase of a handgun or assault weapon from a regulated firearms dealer is subject to disapproval by the Secretary of the Maryland State Police during a seven-day waiting period. The buyer must complete an application form that is sent by the dealer or law enforcement agency to the Secretary of the State Police for investigation.”
Rep. Cummings is truly a hypocrite.
This is really scary. And with the mobs in the streets… guns unaccounted for,US congressmen “joking” about not holding elections…this is the stuff of nightmares!
What the hell is going on in this country? And why don’t our federal officials just man-up and admit when mistakes have been made?
Because it’s way more than a mistake. It’s a flagrant abuse of power by cocky individuals that think they can get away with anything.
While this President, advocating workarounds despite congressional attempts to halt his agenda & blithely giving millions in taxpayer dollars to personally favored boondoggles and political supporters, sets the tone.
Creeps like Elijah Cummings (D-MD) attempt to circle the wagons and bring the Republic even farther into the gutter.
He either has no idea of what went down in F&F and the other gunrunning operations or he is a baldfaced liar trying to halt the investigation into DOJ/Holder and this President. (I vote for door #2)
Either way, he should keep his trap shut.
No. No. He’s a bald headed liar.
Need I say that the Democrat Party is the most perfuse criminal organization in America today? And they don’t even try to hide it. They just say, “Nah; That wasn’t a crime. It’s just our internal criminal investigative units doing ‘sting’ operations”.
And they think everybody believes them because the media just repeats the same B.S.
Defeating entrenched criminal organizations like these is a very costly endeavor. Most people are not up to the task unless these criminals directly effect them or their families.
Well, how much ‘effect’ are we willing to endure?
Fast and Furious is Watergate with a body count both in Mexico and the U.S.
Its legacy will be an ever increasing body count as long as the guns allowed to go to the drug cartels and other criminal enterprises with this administrations approval,are not recovered.
It will be difficult to prosecute those involved because every time one of the guns is used in a criminal act or kills someone; additional “aiding and abetting’ charges will have to be added to the charges against those responsible.
“Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD), an Obama administration loyalist, fiercely responded as well:
Frankly, I am shocked that Chairman Issa would continue to spin this conspiracy theory — that the FBI is hiding a third weapon…….”
Yeah. just like the FBI claimed there wasn’t another perp with McVeigh, even though multiple witnesses say that person.
FBI also covering up one of their informants?
“The constant revelations of new documents and new testimony strongly suggest that President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not been forthright about what they knew of multiple plots carried out jointly by their agencies.”
It would be hard for them to be forthright in their participating in a plot to subvert the Bill of Rights.
If they relealed all they know it would be self incrimination and they would be facing long jail terms. The information IS out there we jsut don’t have a combined Congress that will go after it.
“Its legacy will be an ever increasing body count as long as the guns allowed to go to the drug cartels and other criminal enterprises with this administrations approval,are not recovered”-R Cook
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but properly maintained, these weapons can last practically forever. I own a 1898 Mauser bolt and a semi auto WW2 M1 Garande. Both shoot straight and consistantly. AK47′s are loved for their low maintenance, and durability in the worst conditions. Parts are east to get also.
We’ve recovered a dozen at murder scenes? Who leaves the gun behind, if not dead? We could be finding these for generations. If the serial number list lasts that long
As the owner of a Swedish Mauser M96/38, 6.5 x 55 m/m, that came from the Karl Gustav Stadts Gevarsfactori in 1904 (it says so right on the receiver ring), I can personally testify that firearms are far longer-lived than most gun-haters realize. I have also used Colt and Remington percussion revolvers that dated to the American Civil War- not reproductions, either. The fact that they were over a century old didn’t seem to impress them much, but targets and pests were suitably “impressed” by .36 and .44 caliber lead bullets traveling at 650 feet-per-second or so.
The idea that “once we get rid of guns, they’ll vanish” is a fantasy the hoplophobes cherish, that simply has no basis in reality. Rather like most “progressive” theories, which are closer to delusions.
“Properly cared for, firearms are good and faithful servants. Their main enemies are rust, and politicians.”- Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC.
cheers
eon
IF the Demoncrats actually revelaed what they knew, they’d all be in jail. Yes they’re downplaying the accusations to protect tehmselves.
Ron Paul ‘They’re Setting The Stage For Violence In This Country’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embed…!
Think New World Order, Caliphate. BO and HAJI HILLARY, on the prowl. Be preparered to bow to Mecca, five times a day.
Judging by the actions and words of Rep. Elijah Cummings, I wonder why he is even on the House Oversight Committee. He is clearly an obstacle and not there to do the job of the committee.
What we have in the Obama administration are individuals with the character, honesty and integrity of Moammar Kadafi. The only difference I see is that the members of the Obama administration have a hatred of this nation that runs much deeper than the late Moammar’s. Handcuffs for Holder are too good for him.
Makes one wonder, are ALL black elected democrats crooked, stupid and mendacious?
Enough weapons to staff an entire army of Libyans. That would not shock me one bit and I think we need to stay on top of this cr@p.
Do not let him get reelected again. Hold him accountable for killing Americans and for laundering middle east money through running guns.
Here is a great idea ….
When Obama appears in a presidential debate next year, the opposing candidate should ask him when did he first learn about fast-n-furious, who was involved in it, and what is the status of the remaining guns?
I just do not see how Obama can show his face in a debate with this kind of scandal going on in his administration.
All this ruckus will fly under the radar and Obama will win a narrow reelection over Romney. His negatives will be a causal factor in the Senate shifting dramatically to the elephants, but gridlock will prevail. By 2016, which will probably be year two or three of the Greater Global Depression, a Gen X repub will have the best shot of leading us out of the wilderness (Rubio? West?) With an ends justify the means gov’t looting and pillaging us repeatedly as we numbly watch American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, we get to watch the SS Obama make things much much worse over the next five years. Cheers.
You’ve glossed over the complete and final unraveling of the moral fabric of this society in these coming months. By 2016 persecution and detention of hate-mongering Christians will become necessary to protect the civil liberties of the 99%. Extreme? Cheers.
You democratic morons…..do you think we are as stupid as your constituents? Holder is dead wrong and he’s going down. He is a disgrace and so is Obama because he was fully aware!