Gunwalker: Friday ‘Document Dump’ Reveals Justice Dept. Misled Congress
A couple of other interesting points NPR found in the document dump:
– Jason Weinstein, a senior aide in the Justice Department’s criminal division, played a key role in drafting the February 2011 letter. Weinstein, who had served as a highly regarded prosecutor in Baltimore and New York for a decade before taking a political appointment at the Justice Department, already had come under scrutiny from Republican lawmakers. They say he had approved the use of wiretaps in the Obama administration’s Fast and Furious operation and he should have dug deeper. The department has acknowledged that the operation sent as many as 2,000 weapons into Mexico but failed to follow them. Many of those guns later ended up at crime scenes on both sides of the border, including near the body of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
– Drafts of the Feb. 4 letter reached the highest levels of the Justice Department, as aides to the deputy attorney general (Lanny Breuer) suggested fixes to the language and prodded subordinates to check the facts. In one email chain, a deputy named Lisa Monaco advised against using adjectives such as “categorically” and asked, “why poke the tiger” when it comes to communications with Capitol Hill.
According to NPR, Grassley was less than amused with the document dump:
Grassley, who has been leading an investigation into what went wrong in the Fast and Furious operation for most of this year, says, “the Justice Department can’t have it both ways.” He took to the Senate floor Thursday night to raise a series of new questions about the operation. Many of them could emerge anew next week, when Attorney General Holder testifies in a House oversight hearing December 8.
Burke had a few choice words for Grassley during the drafting of the initial letter. Roll Call magazine reports:
“What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations … but, instead, lobbing this reckless despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer,” [Burke] wrote in a Feb. 4 email.
Burke was wrong. What is actually offensive and despicable? Officials of the United States government repeatedly lied to Congress and to the American people. It’s time for Eric Holder to come clean on what he knew and when, and to resign.
You know he won’t be fired. He can take obama down with him. Even if promised a pardon, he doesn’t want to go through a trial without his buddy and bestest friend little bama.
This group is so criminal and doesn’t give a flying flip if anyone knows. The chicago way is to do what you want and not care about the consequences because they are all corrupt and they can get away with it. This isn’t chicago holder or bama.
BTW, how many vacations has obama taken in chicago since being pres? I mean doesn’t he have a huge home there that was secured by a man now serving jail time? I guess he will be pardoned too. We all know that’s not his real home. He only made connections there with the criminal element and the communists and America haters.
We hae to get him out of office to find out what he’s done to our country, a la princess nanci.
Obama can’t fire Holder because it would reflect badly on Obama. Holder would have to be seen as too much of a loose cannon in the popular media and in some less nuanced way than this issue. It’s why the DOJ is stonewalling, to create doubt and a clear timeline and scenario.
I am so tired of the use of the term “misled”.
Why don’t you use the correct term: lied.
Yes, “lied” is the proper term. Why doesn’t the author call a spade a spade?
AP reports the DOJ inspector general is now investigating where Burke got the inaccurate information. Is it possible that — like Special Agent William Newell of the ATF — Burke simply lied?
NPR used the term “Misled” I used the term “lied” twice.
Because it is not politically correct to use the “S” word.
Patrick Richardson – If would be nice if you or Bob Owens would go through the e-mails. Either of you summarize them for us, or even come up with some interesting findings (such as, was anyone in the WH cued in on this).
Holder has no incentive to either come clean or to resign.
Burke states their success in taking down an arms smuggling ring. Who and where are they?
In the course of the War on Drugs, going after the guns used, is like chasing your tail.
In the end it is about the drugs, not the guns or the vehicles.
If the DEA could put the cartels afoot and disarmed, (What difference is that suppose to make?).
Wake-up Chief. This has nothing to do with drugs, and everything to do with money. The so-called “war on drugs”, like the Viet Nam war, was meant to be fought, but not won. Don’t be shocked when you learn that some low-level member of this administration has been “talking” with the main drug cartels, because they are seen as the real power in Mexico. The govt. there, for all intents and purposes, is already out of power. They’re just too dumb (and greedy, as in US Billions) to know it.
Holder will simply take a page from the playbook of Bill Clinton — ignore the other side, arrogantly act as if he is peeved about this waste of his time, & continue to march as if this investigation is inconsequential. Like Clinton, he is backed up by Obama & the MSM who cover for him (pace NPR). At the end of this term, he will either be out of a job since Obama lost (prayer to heaven), or he will retire & move on as if it were his idea in the first place. Either way, he can pay the same regard to the situation as he did to the family of Agent Terry, which is ‘none’.
Now that Left-wing radicals and outright racists are running the DOJ, (with the ever-present help of the MSM) lies have become simple “inaccuracies”. Don’t you wish you had that ability when caught lying? Then they wonder why the people have less respect and trust for members of the govt. than they have for used car salesmen.
If the Republicans don’t start taking some lessons from the leftist Democrats, who always seem to have them on the defensive, they should disband their party and start over. The Republicans, already seen as the party of weakness, need to grow-a-pair. And right now!
“… the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations vs. (the) ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer”
You can put puppies in the oven but that don’t make ‘em biscuits…time to call it what it was
Judging only from what I have read about the “walking guns” affair, I believe that there is already sufficient evidence to arrest, jail and hold without bail those persons involved. Prolonged questioning, begging for information which when it arrives, has had time to be altered, and many hours of time spent, should stop. If any of the persons involved were not government employees, but instead, ordinary citizens, they would now have been tried, sentenced and serving time. I join the thousands watching this comedy play out with disgust,
disdain, and finally, no more patience. When, where is justice? God help us.
Justice, unfortunately, only comes from the barrel of a gun.
An Eye for an eye…all else is forgiveness.
And some folks dont rate forgiveness.
So then, there is only one form of Justice for Gunwalker…
And it, sure as shootin’, wont happen here.
I believe the term is “LIED”, not mislead. To define it any different is well… misleading. Even more truthful would be perjured themselves. Something democrats are known for.. Slick Wilie anyone? The democrats/liberal/progressives main man.
“…documents detailing how department officials gave inaccurate information to a U.S. senator….”
Don’t accept this spin from this nest of snakes. Nail the skins of the DOJ leadership to the wall, metaphorically speaking. Put them in jail for a long, long time, literally speaking. Do not falter, do not fail.
Isn’t this coverage by NPR a little strange in that they seem, by these excerpts, to be trying to be even-handed in their reporting….did I miss the usual and expected left-wing approach by NPR?
I’d expect NPR to cover for Holder and smooth over the “administration” and their Chicago culture of “screw the public” by public officials.
Read the entire NPR report. Fair, it ain’t
The whole bunch forgets that people have long memories when they are continuously insulted. At some point you taint your cause and everything else you represent.
One thing that killed prohibition was the dishonesty of its backers and architects; we may be seeing something similar here. I suggest that if you want to really see something make a study of the movement and the people involved. I find them odious, certainly, but the taint is very American.
Again, I scream to the heavens “WHERE ARE ALL THE REPUGS ON THIS??!!” Why aren’t they holding press conferences, why isn’t this coming up in the debates, what the $$##@@!!!! is going on?
Contact your Rep/Senator and put the heat on them. . . .
Burke: “What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations … but, instead, lobbing this reckless despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer,”
And you are not complicit in the death of that federal LEO and those Mexican citizens, by allowing those weapons to fall into the hands of the most murderous thugs in North America, Mr. Burke? Only an idiot would not have known that the cartels would use those weapons to kill people.
It seems the management of the ATF has always found the Second Amendment rights of Americans to be a problem, and pursue with relish, policies to infringe on those rights whenever there is an anti-gun President in office.
This is an agency that will not abide by the oath taken to protect and defend the Constitution. As such, it should be disbanded. To which agency those duties then go, is the question. Issa’s suggestion that the FBI establish a unit to oversea federal firearms laws is probably the best idea. However, I seem to remember when that was suggested after the debacles at Ruby Ridge and Waco, that the then head of the FBI was against merging the two agencies. His comment was “You mix dirty water with clean water, and you get dirty water”.
Eric Holder and the others have a little problem. They need pardons for all this. However, while that may deal with our courts, what happens if/when Mexico requests their extradition for the deaths of how many Mexican citizens traceable to the gunwalking?
You forgot one thing in the last bit of a very informative article. That one thing is that holder should be prosecuted for his directing this traitorous act. And let’s hope the verdict comes in after Jan. 20, 2013 to eliminate the possibility of a Presidential pardon. Or holder can be extradited to Mexico to stand trial there for his contribution as an accessory before the fact in the murders of about 250 Mexican citizens.
I’ve heard Mexican prisons are lovely and a wonderful place to kill some time while awaiting execution.