Issa Demands Justice Dept. Answer Project Gunrunner Subpoenas
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, stopped just short of calling for the firing of both Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano on a California radio program Tuesday.
On The Roger Hedgecock Show, Issa discussed his committee’s investigation of Operation Gunrunner: an operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Department of Justice which allegedly allowed thousands of firearms across the border into Mexico. The guns ended up in the hands of drug cartels and were allegedly used in the murder of at least two American law enforcement agents: “Ultimately the Justice Department has to be asking questions about how they’re run,” Issa said on the program, adding that, with a campaign preparing to start, President Barack Obama needs to question if he has the right people heading DOJ and DHS.
According to a story originally broken by CBS News earlier this year, the operation was designed to allow “straw buyers” — who would purchase the weapons for someone else — to buy high quality weapons, including .50 caliber sniper rifles, from cooperating licensed dealers in the U.S. ATF would then track those weapons and hopefully take down the gun-running rings and perhaps the cartels as well. Said Issa:
This was an approved program designed to get not just the straw buyers but the bigger fish. It failed to get the bigger fish.
After learning of the program, Issa fired off subpoenas to DOJ to find out how ATF allowed the weapons — which were allegedly used to murder Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Officer Jaime Zapata — into the hands of criminals.
Watch this one, and get one more datum on the question
of whether the Obama administration acknowledges _any_
power of the Congress, the Courts, or the citizens to
question, let alone control its behavior.
As Dr. Pournelle points out, Constitutional crises are
to be avoided, if possible, but they must not be ignored.
Obama’s already made pretty clear he bows to no authority but his own. We shall see what we shall see.
You’re mistaken.
I just saw Obama bow down to Donald Trump.
It made the President’s curtsey before King Abdullah look modest.
He only did it in an attempt to make Trump look stupid and like so many of his gambits he has failed. Not to say that Trump doesn’t do a good job of that himself but Obama is much better at making himself look small and petty than Trump is. Not to mention dishonest. It is clear from everything he does that Obama has no honor.
Can anyone explain to me why Obama and his advisors would put forward a birth certificate that is so obviously a fake after all this time? One would think that if you were going to produce a document that has been such a source of controversy that you wouldn’t put out an obviously layered computer creation. I am frankly confused. It is so obviously faked that it doesn’t seem that they could possibly be that stupid.
Nickel, let me try:
The COLB released is an obvious digital composite, a concoction. It was concocted by the Hawaiian authorities. They were tasked with it, and they obliged. Should the thing go belly up, which is highly likely, any blame will be deflected from Obama by pointing out that it was not him who produced the certificate: that was what he received and passed on in good faith. Thus he is innocent of any fraud.
The big issue is why Obama had to send for his own COLB in the first place – why did he not just reach in the drawer and pull it out? Does it mean he did not have a copy, and I mean straight, hard, physical copy of the original? Or does it mean he did not want to produce it for whatever reason, possibly so as not to incriminate himself?
The original issue stands unresolved: Where is the birth certificate? The one The One is supposed to have in his hands.
Time for an INDEPENDENT PROSECUTOR. David Kopel or David Hardy would do well….
Ooo! David Kopel! I’d love to see him in (legal) action!
Why stop short? They should be fired. And prosecuted as traitors.
Reach down and grab ‘em Issa and do what’s right for our country.
they should have been fired long ago and slammed in the slammer, obummer aint gonna let that happen as long as he can hold on to the oval office. maybe we will get a president next election who will have his justic dept investigate and jail the intire bunch of socialisti crooks we have in the white house now, one can only hope,
ANY way that works to rid the American people of the Obama regime, with Holder’s Dept of Injustice as a FIRST target, is a good day for America.
Issa should chew at them like a dog with a bone, daring not to let go until they are mincemeat!!
The regime-in all its permutations-are a clear & present danger to freedoms in America.
sablegsd….absolutely. Issa brings a knife to the fight and they already have assault weapons lined up…a day late and a dollar short. I predict he will never get any satisfaction from these subpoenas. They will stonewall up and down the system. This is the only game in town that I know of where congress is attempting to hold the O’bama admin accountable. It’s like an 8th grade wrestler trying to take down someone in the WWE smackdown ring. It’s highly unlikely. Mark my words…he’s going to get nothing.
On the plus side, the State Department admitted this morning (after several subpoenas and a few FOIA requests for their records in the matter) that the majority of “traceable” American-made weapons found in the cartels’ hands south of the border were “military-grade” weapons not sold to American civilians.
Which is a softball way of admitting that the major source of American-made hardware for the cartels is the corrupt Mexican military and police. Who apparently, as fast as our government sends weapons south for them to use against the cartels, turn them over to the cartels for a suitable “consideration”.
Mexico has had a serious industry building its own small arms for over a century. The Mexican Army was the first to issue its troops a semiautomatic rifle, the Mondragon, in 1908. They built the first light machine gun designed and built outside of Europe or the major powers, the Mendoza, in 1934. And more recently, they’ve begun production of their own 5.56mm NATO rifle, the Xuicoatl (Fire Dragon), a variant of the Heckler & Koch G36 design (“varied” just enough to avoid a patent-infringement lawsuit, that is), to be the new standard rifle of their military and police.
“Considering” that the arms we are sending them are “foreign aid” (meaning, supplied at no cost to them on the American taxpayers’ nickel), my question is, why are we still doing it?
Unless, of course, the “complex thinkers” in the White House, etc., think having Mexican drug cartels armed with American-made military-level weaponry is somehow a good thing. For their “agendas”, if nothing else.
I’d honestly rather believe that they are, as Mr. Issa says, simply suffering from felony-grade stupidity.
Of course, as Ayoob’s Law states, “If you do something stupid, and it works, by definition it isn’t stupid”.
And this sort of “stupidity” makes it much easier for The One to push “gun control” up here, doesn’t it?
clear ether
eon
Yes, I believe a major reason for Gun Runner, was to pin the blame for supplying the cartels with “assault weapons” on US gun dealers, thereby giving Obama a reason to push for renewal of the “assault rifle” ban. I believe the OK for this goes all the way to Holder, and probably to Obama. Holder knows what Obama wants and will do the dirty work required. What a dishonest, corrupt bunch they all are.
If one harkens back to the early days of the Obongo regime, you might remember that both Sec. of State Clinton and A.G. Holder, both extreme hoplophobe’s, (Hoplophobia from the Greek hoplon, meaning armor, is defined as the “fear of firearms” and as the “fear of armed citizens”.) complained long and bitterly about the violence and deaths that occur along the border. And that 90% of the guns that were being used by the cartels came from the gun shops along the border and the “gun show loophole”, hoping that maybe some of the gravitas of Mr. Clinton had been absorbed by the missus and that her word would be enough to re-instate the assault weapons ban. Holder is extremely anti-gun in his own right. It appears now, according to one of the commenter’s that the State dept. has recently come clean on the actual figures and the true source of the bulk of the weapons. Is this the Hildebeast trying to distance herself from the impending train wreck?
This goes all the way to the top. The ATF is not smart enough to carry this off by them selves. What even made them think that they could possibly track these guns once they got south of the border where they don’t have jurisdiction? Especially when they have kept the Mexican govt. in the dark as regards to Gunrunner/Fast and Furious.
This is clearly an attempt to abrogate the Second Amendment, and what better way to do that than provide the proof of the statements by Hil and Holder? Even if you have to use a govt. agency to supply the weapons to do it.
so, it appears that obozo and co. is setting itself up as a rogue admin. w/ no respect for the rule of law.
Americans had better find a backbone soon. this arsewipe has no intention of losing his crackin good job, playin’ golf, traveling in style, posing for pix and partyin’, on our dime. nice.
imho, this is looking more and more like something that doesn’t end well.
On a related note see http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/04/meet-dan-restrepo-is-dan-oliver-north.html
Dan Restrepo, a former associate of Williams & Connolly (a high powered DC law firm), Obama campaign point man and current Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs on the National Security Council may be the Oliver North of the Gunwalker Scandal.
Bryan Preston at, http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/04/28/wikileaks-obama-admin-lied-about-source-of-mexican-drug-war-guns/ , has a complementary article on the same subject. It would seem that the best thing Rep. Issa could do is to hold hearings on eliminating the ATF. In ordinary times the ATF serves no useful purpose; in these times, it seems downright destructive.
Felony-grade stupid Republicans. Issa, you idiot. Cite him for contempt the first time you are denied. Do not write back and engage them. You issued a subpoena. They denied your legal demand. Does a judge tolerate such nonsense. No, a judge nails them right away. They fobbed you off, because they know you’ll do NOTHING, you big fat sissy!
Throw the respondent’s butt in jail NOW! And keep him there. Indefinitely. Fine him, too. B****-slap him hard, and the next subpoena will be taken seriously. You gotta EARN you some RESPECT.
Republicans – the Stupid Party
Like Marc says, the Republican party if filled with people who are to afraid to offend anyone that they fail to fulfill their mandate to govern constitutionally. Issa has gotten off to a good start but failed so far to follow through with enough force to get the job done. Time to stop pussy footing around and file contempt charges. If Issa does this, and if Boehner will grow a set, we might have a chance.
Oops, my fingers have betrayed me. That was supposed to read “…party is filled…”.
Well, WOULD they have eventually been able to break the gun-runner rings, and perhaps even the cartels themselves, until people who broke the story ruined their chances?
(Or were they deliberately trying to make the problem worse in the hope of convincing Americans to accept new gun laws?)
“Well, WOULD they have eventually been able to break the gun-runner rings, and perhaps even the cartels themselves, until people who broke the story ruined their chances?”
Are you High?
Success from an ATF operation?
Have you ever TRAINED with these guys?
I can tell you what their SENIOR RANGE INSTRUCTORS look like in L/E Instructor Development courses I’ve been involed with:
The ATF guys are Gun-droppers, muzzle-pointers, and Mag-fumblers extrordiare.
They are also known as “The Un-holserables”
Competence with BASIC L/E Pistol and Shotgun is almost beyond their capabilities. Advanced tactical and/or dynamic SMG is a FRIGHTENING experience with them.
And these are THEIR WEAPONS INSTRUCTORS, not rank and file agents.
The ATF is good at screwing the pooch, getting van loads of weapons (and the van!) stolen, and making up B.S. esoteric paper violations against harmless people.
Fight actual Gun runners?
In the CITIES?
Yipes, they might get SHOT going after them.
Better to invent some armchair busy-work paper chase, (like, maybe to mexico?) that can be managed from an air conditioned office.
These are GOVERNMENT WORKERS you know.
Word.
Obama has every reason to think he is above the law. D-rats in the Senate would not convict him if he machine-gunned his cabinet in the Oval Office, and he knows it. So he just keeps expanding the reach of his contemptuous, lawless tyranny.
Until a Republican nails this fascist dictator-wannabe with a specific, undeniable, criminal indictment, Obozo bogeys on. Squeals of “racist” and “baby-killer” and “poor sick grandma” are his stock in trade. Media dupes lap it up and D-rat looters love it. Until a majority of the American people wake up and smell the compost, who cares about such a minor issue as selling military weapons to Mexican drug cartels?
Cut Obama some slack on this one. All he’s done is follow a page from a previous president’s playbook.
“When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.” — Richard M. Nixon
Of course, that guy was forced to resign in disgrace.
Funny how months ago Hillary was pushing gun control because the Mexican Drug Cartels were getting all their guns from the bad old US. Now we find that the ATF was deliberately selling guns. Is there a connection here? If one believes in conspiracies one might think Hillary and the Progressives were shamelessly using the deaths caused by the ATF and the drug cartels to implement attacks on the Second Amendment.
Extending this to general principles of the Progressives in our Government, might one think they could deliberately wreck the Economy by forcing unsecured mortgages into the system so they can blame greedy Capitalists for the Meltdown?
I’m just sayin’
Remember, now that we are under sharia law, Barry Obama’s ‘constitutional’ defense is the ends justifies the means.
Of all the government misconducts and abuses in all of the critical issues facing this country — healthcare, climate, energy, czars, unauthorized wars,…– any one of which Issa could get traction on, how does this one rate prime time?
This is a round about atttempt by the OBOMBer admin to curtail our rights to buy and own guns. He’ll blame gun manufacturers for the guns gettting into the drug cartels hands and say we have to ban guns and our rights to buy them. It’s his attempt to override the decond admendment. He’ll never answer Issa because he believes he is above the Constitution.