Gunwalker: U.S. Attorney Won’t Grant Victim Status to Murdered Agent’s Family
Richard Serrano reports in the Los Angeles Times that ATF Acting Deputy Director William Hoover saw Operation Fast and Furious falling apart almost as soon as it began, and quickly became involved in trying to orchestrate a way to end the operation:
Acting Deputy Director William Hoover called an emergency meeting and said he wanted an “exit strategy” to shut down the program. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for decades had dedicated itself to stopping illegal gun-trafficking of any kind. Now it was allowing illegal gun purchases on the Southwest border and letting weapons “walk” unchecked into Mexico.
But those at the meeting, which included a Justice Department official, did not want to stop the illegal gun sales until they had something to show for their efforts. Hoover suggested a “30-day, 60-day or 90-day” exit plan that would shut Fast and Furious down for good — just as soon as there were some indictments.
But indictments did not come for another 10 months.
The indictments that came were little more than smokescreens designed to protect the government from the operation’s clear failures in the wake of Agent Terry’s death. The individual straw purchasers and smugglers taken into custody were all known to federal authorities prior to the start of the operation, and could have been arrested without letting thousands of guns flow into criminal hands.
Hoover’s comments to the Times, Acting ATF Director Ken Melson’s still secret July 4 testimony, and recent comments from the DEA administrator to congressional investigators indicate that officials within the Justice Department grasp the criminality of Gunwalker, and are beginning to come forward to tell their side of the story so that they cannot be scapegoated and forced to take the fall for an operation that appears to have started at the highest levels of government.
Thank you again Mr. Owens for staying on this story and keeping it in the public eye. You do our nation a service by keeping the spotlight on these criminals.
So, the DOJ, through departments under it’s control, let strawbuyers that they already could have arrested, make purchases. They even instructed the gun stores who were protesting the purchases to go ahead and make the sales.
Ostensibly they were to follow the guns to discover who the higher-ups were in the drug gangs; higher-ups whom they were already aware of and working as informants for the government.
.
Charges were filed against the gun store employees for actions that the ATF instructed them to take, and then dropped(?) when these instructions came to light.
Requests from on high were made for examples of cases involving long-gun purchases that fall under the definitions set forth in the new gun regs created by Obama by fiat….I mean executive order.
Now, the family of a murdered federal agent is denied crime victim status by a prosecutor who can foresee himself being a defendant in future criminal and civil actions by that family.
From the New Black Panther case to the hirings of DOJ lawyers to blatant racial discrimination regarding voting cases to gunrunner, it seems everything Holder’s DOJ does is beyond the pale. Attorneys General are usually scum-bags, but this Holder guy makes Janet Reno seem like a kindly grandmother.
I am confident that we will climb out of the rabbit’s hole next year, and this gunrunner scam will be shown for what it clearly is; a terrorist operation against the American people and their second amendment rights. That it was conceived of and implemented from the highest level seems apparent.
What gets me is nothing in newspapers or ABC,CBS,NBC,CNN etc. I have a friend I send info to in June…he knew nothing about this and admits he still wouldn’t if I did not send him info from PJM. They are all complicetby refusing to tell the public what this DOJ is really tring to do. Sombody has got to go to jail.
Ask your local TV news stations to cover it. Sometimes the locals don’t have their heads as firmly lodged up their asses as the national ones do.
i have to disagree with you, on the location of their heads, just couldn’t be they have no exit port, they are just full of it!
The only way to move this process now is to commence impeachment procedures in the House against Holder. We are not going to get a Special Prosecutor out of this Administration which is what is really needed. The MSM will continue to ignore the Obama/Holder criminality.
The House has plenty of counts to remove Holder and should begin to move on him. There will be plenty of rats prepared to jump the ship along the way. Obama will probably get rid of him well before the election.
It is indeed important to keep this story front and center, despite the MSM’s cover up for the Obama Administration. This story is proof positive that the media are part and parcel of the Democrat party.
Holder should be indicted for this, and despite the cover up, he will be, one day.
Obama should be impeached for this dispicable policy that killed Americans so the left could continue to blame the 2nd Amendment for the guns getting into the hands of Mexican drug lords.
this regime from the top down should be investigated tried convicted and sentenced to fourty years one day and one hour at hard labor making little rocks from big ones 12 hours a day seven days a week for what they have done and tryed to do to this country,
Interesting. If they are not crime victims, does that mean they were executed on purpose by the US government?
Another unintended consequence – they block a very basic request by the family and the consequence is that they open themselves up to a more egregious charge! You are right – if the family isn’t the victim of a crime, is it because there was no crime and the death can be considered intentional? What has our country come to that one arm of our law enforcement is working directly against another arm of our law enforcement? We don’t need to worry about fighting any enemies outside our borders as long as the most deadly enemies are within.
This is how the Department of Injustice is going to protect the ruling class from the working class. This breaking of federal laws goes all the way up to the White House and a cover up is in full swing.
“Thank you again Mr. Owens for staying on this story and keeping it in the public eye. You do our nation a service by keeping the spotlight on these criminals.”
Yes…many thanks and keep up the good work !!!!!
It is important to note that the elite in government were engaged in “Gunwalker”, because thay know better than the “masses” and it is for them to decide what is good and right for the rest of us. The idea of investigating and prosecuring these elites is simply proposterous…NOT!!!!!!!
Not only do these people think they are above the law … they actually DO think that they can get away with it just because they know better !!!!
Let’s go for the throat on this one and every other illegal move emanating from the WH !!!!! Hey, equality under the law or what?
can you spell conflictofinterest children?
how about collusiontocommitafelony?
accessorytocommitmurder?
and there are more little brother.
denial of this victim status just shows what kind of people we are dealing with,
top to bottom. these folks must be looking for an unpresidential pardon.
hard to do in handcuffs. are they still selling some of those 50 cal. sniper rifles?
could come in handy for what is coming.
obomination must still be looking for that army he needs ‘as large and as well armed as the military’ to implement his dream for amerika. one man’s dream becomes another’s nightmare.
honest Americans need to keep a list of these folks enabling this bunch of crooks.
i got one name for the top of my bucket list. i’ll bet mine hides and tries to run to another country with his stolen billion$ when his clock runs down, next year. no takers?
payback is a bich.
It is not just the fear of Terry’s family suing the government or specific officials involved. So far there have been over 150 deaths in Mexico connected with the “walked” guns. There may be more in the US that have not yet been exposed. If they allow Terry’s family to be listed as crime victims; they would open the door for huge governmental and personal liability.
Where is the special prosecutor? The longer this is side stepped, the worse it is going to be for Holder and the president. We all know laws are for the little people, but this could lead to an impeachment or resignation. Watergate was a burglary. This is arming criminals and leading to the murder of law enforcement officers. It will be fully revealed nad it will be a collosal mess.
This story can’t get enough play time. EVERYONE who gets a hint of this story realizes it can’t be “spun” to look good so they’re just ignoring it. Of course if they could pin this program on Bush we’d hear about it every friggin day (and rightfully so!)! So where’s the media outrage and reporting?
Oh right, it’s against THEIR guy so of course they’ll ignore it. No bias in the Media my ARSE!
Asa retired DEA agent, I can tell you that when we lost an agent, the whole DEA family came together to support the dead agent’s family. That included the head of the agency. One can only wonder why Janet Napolitano and Alan Bersin are not screaming bloody murder over this whole episode and supporting agent Terry’s family. Instead, they are silent. It is a disgrace all around.
Gary Fouse
DEA retired
Because they were in on it.
Denying victim status is a loser. They will lose the rank and file of the federal police forces very quickly.
Speaking of which, are they unionized? If so, will the union speak up in defense of the family of the fallen agent? Or are they on the side of the political management?
“Where’s the outrage?” – Bob Dole
In the entire two year saga this article represents the first news I’ve seen with Burke at the center. Phoenix – print and TV – have done nothing besides regurgitate AP or New York or LA times coverage – and never one word specifically regarding Dennis the Menace.
Several weeks ago during the national Governors meeting I watched via CSPAN the head of Border Patrol – David Aguilar make his case – that while there are ‘ongoing problems on the Mexican side of the border’ – basically we have the best border security money has every bought or could hope to – when lecturing our Gov Jan Brewer – with several other Govs sitting in.
Aguilar, like Dennis Burke, owes his promotion to Napolitano. While Burke served as Napolitano’s cheif of staff in her latter days as governor, Aguilar alligance goes back to Napolitano’s days as attorney general.
Don’t buy for a second the bogus claim of their being ‘firewall’ this or that on Gunrunner. These folks have been political allies for decades and nobody makes the kind of guns walking decisions rouge without the tippy top knowing and greenlighting.
Napolitano, Alan Bersin, Dennis Burke, and David Aguilar have consistantly echoed the party line regarding the Obama administrations real #1 priority on the border and immigration – which has always been political.
Trhoughout we in Arizona have been treated & abused as a rouge state – because as a conservative state overwhelmingly conservative in makeup and representation – we have consistantly resisted californication when it comes to illegal immigration.
Alan Bersin, having ‘solved’ illegal immigration via the Californa sector where he made his reputation, is the perfect Public Relations spokesperson for what passes as border security via Homeland Security and the attendant enforcement agencies under Obama.
So to 13. gary fouse & others here I say – what you sell is what you get with Bersin and Napolitano and the rest. I am sure they sleep like babies – they are what they are and they do what they do.
Rather than support building a fence and thus supporting landowners on the border, rather than amending the endangered species act and other enviornmental laws that empowers the Dept of Interior technocrates who choose to be obstructionist when thwarting border enforcement, what we get instead is a statistical barrage that competely misrepresents what the state of Arizona has had to deal with for the latter few years of Bush and all of Obama.
Thus the charm offensive of folks like Bersin and Aguilar insisting that all is okie dokie on the border now that we have poured in billions upon billions of $$$ by way of more agents and assorted technical goodies.
It sounds reasonalbe – just like the ‘partnering with Mexico’ narrative does to some. It’s just so inconvient that Mexico happens to be one the most corrupt countries outside of Pakistan in the known solar system. Just as the success in border enforcement in California and Texas has come expressidly – and in most views here DELIBERATELY – at the expense of Arizona.
Thus the famous ‘pincer movement’ of human and drug smuggling festering on us now that ‘operational control’ (another inconvienece downplayed by Bersin and others) is stronger in southern California and throughout Texas. Arizona,particularly our wilderness border areas, become the ‘gateway’ for illegal crossings.
Funny but we have proven that we can have just the same results in our Yuma sector as California and Texas enjoys – exept that Bersin in Homeland and Augilar in B.Patrol VETOED SUCH ENFORCEMENT…always with another bogus reason why.
It is all the more aggravating that it gets facilitated by democratic party allies of a former democratic party governor who left this state ‘when her president called’ in the worst shape financially since the dark winter of 1933.
With a certain stench of illegal immigration playing a principle role in the mess left behind.
When she was here as governor she was pursuing exactly the same policy she has refined for Obama. This ‘partnership of equal’s’ kumbaya fantasy camp for political junkies awaiting their casting call for a photo op.
Well the reporting here and elsewhere that have led to Issa’s investigations will have the final adjudicating word – negating the kind of Media silence that thusfar has been both telling and deafening.
The myth has been shattered. The narrative is no longer in the hands of opinion makers. First the economy cancelled the much anticipated voter registration drive oppertunity Latino immigration always has represented to the Democrate Party.
Now the felony stupid murders on both sides have cancelled the PR bull(*&$, and revealed the stistical gamesmanship for what it is, bureacratic doublespeak.
I thank the author and PJ media for keeping the reporting spotlight on an important topic that for far too long the compliant MSM has partnered with our own corrupt regime in Washington how to report and what not to report when buying the bunk and attempting to aid Obama’s cause.
AS far as most Arizonians are concerned, SB 1070 and all the popular referendums that preceeded it have had the desired effect – with fewer illegals staying rather than passing through.
Gunnrunner wasn’t OUR IDEA. And we are happy to give Dennis Burke back to Janet for a job somewhere – that is – if he isn’t serving time.
There is something about to break on the story. My guess is that someone in DOJ is breaking away from the administration line and the over up is about to blow up.
One the Friday night dumps came through one of the administration’s favorite conduits for leaks – The Politico – ran a story saying that Obama will not ask Holder to resign.
Asking an AG to resign is a pretty big deal but this is reported as some sort of innocuous question at an innocuous event. The event took place days before at a face-to-face of BHOnehead with the, usually, doting Mexican press (the big issue he wants pushed in Spanish language media is, of course, his commitment to “comprehensive” immigration reform.) He seemed to be blindsided with a question that focused in on what is a huge scandal in Mexico and that is the “Fast and Furious” debacle in which hundreds of Mexicans were murdered by crime gangs furnished with thousands of arms courtesy of the US government. In Mexico, one of the hot debates is whether to sue the US for its role in these murders. It is a high profile story there and the question should have been anticipated.
The Politico has barely followed this story and when they have it has been to make pronouncements against BATF (did you know W didn’t name a department head?) and doing crack reporting like scooping that insiders informed them that Melson was going to resign a couple days before he lawyered up and met with Issa (the DOJ leaks to Politico have been blame shifting DC stuff and if you read the stories it becomes obvious that their sources are either in, or trying to protect, DOJ.)
At some point, even a sycophantic scribe at Politico, has to get ahead of the story to avoid looking like the typical moron at the NYT. You don’t earn much credibility with a ridiculous habit of ignoring a hot story and then having to awkwardly report on something that has been in the blogs for weeks.
Well well well. And here’s more coverage of Operacion Rapido y Furioso in La Opinion: http://tinyurl.com/43mjoqb. Spanish-language press is sniffing around.
As for the L.A. Times article, it does not provide the context of William Hoover’s remarks, so I’m guessing he decided to speak directly to the reporter. In addition, the Times has obtained “memos, emails and other material.”
People are talking. This thing just might blow.
“And you have to wonder if the government’s efforts to deny the family the status of ‘crime victims’ is part of a strategy to avoid legal responsibility for some of the tragic mistakes of Operation Fast and Furious,”
Mistakes? You honestly believe their actions were mistakes?
“The individual straw purchasers and smugglers taken into custody were all known to federal authorities prior to the start of the operation, and could have been arrested without letting thousands of guns flow into criminal hands.”
You apparently missed the sole point of the operation. Letting thousands of guns flow into criminal hands was the point of the operation. Arresting the criminals would have stopped the flow and defeated the purpose of the whole enterprise. This is virtually a coup against our government in a terrible attempt to quash the second amendment.
For the victims of Waco & Ruby Ridge, the individuals involved in this travesty of justice known as ‘gun walker’ must be punished. I favor parachuting the guilty into down town Mogadishu bare assed naked with a Star of David tattooed on their foreheads.
I do not know if their lawyer has done this yet BUT I would be calling EVERY news paper and asking them to do a story on the victim in this case. I would also call all the news media and if they deny him ask why.
If that does not work then (and I do not know if he can) bring suit against the federal government, and if he can include Holder and the DOJ and see if he can use some of the information Congressman Issa has from the hearings he has had so far.
This administration has committed treason as far as I am concerned with operation gun runner and who ever was involved (and I bet it has obozos and Hillary) finger prints on it. This was all to cercomvent the second Amendment and to take our guns away.
Ask your local TV news stations to cover it. Sometimes the locals don’t have their heads as firmly lodged up their asses as the national ones do.
It seems to me that since this US attorney was involved in fast and furious, he might be complicit in the crime. Is so, should he even be allowed to prosecute it. It seems to me like he should recuse himself in the case, and turn it over to a US attorney that had no involvement in fast and furious. Not recusing himself, and now shutting out the family, looks to me like highly corrupt behavior, about what you would expect from the Holder Justice dept.
UNTIL SOMETHING IS DONE WITH THE PEOPLE (ALL) FROM THE ILLEGAL ON DOWN, NOTHING WILL GET DONE…..I FEEL FOR THIS FAMILY, BUT UNTIL WE STAND UP FOR ”OUR RIGHTS” THIS WILL JUST GO ON & ON………..