Operation Fast and Furious — How the Obama Administration Conned the Washington Post
Thanks to Operation Fast and Furious, the incompetence and ineptitude that has infected the Holder Justice Department is becoming more obvious all the time. For department prosecutors (and senior ATF personnel) to approve the sale of firearms to Mexican drug cartels through straw buyers was a deadly misstep.
It led directly to the tragic death of Border Agent Brian Terry. Mexican officials estimate that “150 of their people have been shot by Fast and Furious guns,” Fox News reports. The obdurate refusal of Justice to provide the names of the senior Justice leadership who approved this operation at the recent House hearing held by Rep. Darrel Issa shows the willingness of Justice to cover up its mistakes and defy congressional oversight. As Issa accurately said, this growing scandal “was so felony stupid that it got people killed.”
But Operation Fast and Furious also shows how willing this administration is to deliberately mislead the press and how easily the Washington Post was conned by the administration in a story it published last year.
On December 13, 2010, the Post ran a story about U.S. gun dealers with “the most traces for firearms recovered by police.” The Post included “the names of the dealers, all from border states, with the most traces from guns recovered in Mexico over the past two years.” The Post did not reveal where it got this information, but pointed out that Congress passed a law in 2003 exempting the trace information maintained by the ATF from public disclosure. So the Post had to have gotten this information through a leak directly from the ATF (or by illegally hacking the ATF’s records, a far-fetched and highly unlikely scenario).
Two of the gun dealers the Post’s story assailed were Lone Wolf Trading Co. in Glendale and J&G Sales in Prescott, Ariz. Lone Wolf Trading is number one on the list for Mexican traces; J&G is number three.
However, at the time the ATF was apparently leaking this information to the Post, both of these dealers were cooperating with the ATF in the Fast and Furious Operation. When Fox News talked recently to the owner of J&G, Brad DeSaye, about the ATF’s disastrous operation, he said that when he questioned the ATF about whether the agency wanted the gun shop to sell to the cartel front men, the ATF said, “Keep selling.”
The Post actually interviewed DeSaye over his store’s appearance in the trace records. DeSaye, to his credit, did not reveal the still-secret ATF operation to the Post reporters, even though they were clearly writing a negative story that was potentially embarrassing to DeSaye.
This double-dealing by the ATF is appalling. It was bad enough that the ATF was running a secret operation that had gone off the rails and was supplying dangerous weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels. But then the agency apparently leaked deceptive information on gun sales that put the gun dealers in a bad light, or at a minimum, misled the Post when it should have tried to provide cover for dealers who were following ATF instructions. Indeed, these dealers were showing up in the Mexican trace information because the ATF was telling them to ignore the law and the usual verification procedures and sell guns to the cartels, sometime dozens in a single day to one person.
In an irony that could almost be considered comeuppance to the ATF, the Post story was published the day before Agent Terry was killed. Terry’s death panicked the ATF supervisors who were running Fast and Furious, a panic that was deserved after two of the weapons found at the murder scene were traced to the operation. Yet in a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley on Feb. 4, 2011, DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, the same individual who testified before Issa’s committee, claimed the ATF had not “knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico.” As the whistleblower ATF agents testified, this was patently false.
So they lied, cheated and got somebody killed.
And what is going to be done about it?
It tell you what
Absolutely nothing!
Obama’s crew is above the law.
Problems with the law?
Just re-interpret the law.
Rewrite the law.
Ignore the law.
Laws are for suckers!
eric holder and all involved in this criminal action should be tried and convicted for MURDER and should be given the maximum penalty,
This is a mere distraction to keep you from looking too close at their manuvering to set up martial next year…..think not? Just keep your head in your dark smelly place….
I see that as well
Laws are for peasants. The ruling class knows that laws do not apply to them, so they ignore them.
This is called poetic justice.
It bothers me that Conservatives increasingly use the tactics of the left for political gain. It is very unlikely that Holder, let alone Obama, knew anything about this operation.
Remember Abu Ghraib? Remember how the left tried to pin that on Rumsfeld and Bush? It was unfair then and it is unfair now. We should not let the NY Times, MoveOn.org, the DailyKos and the Democrats define us. We are better than that.
Bill – I have a proverbial bridge to sell you. You are either ignoring the obvious ON PURPOSE or ignoring it because it somehow suits you to do so.
Melson is NOT in control. He wants to testify to Congress and the DOJ (aka HOLDER via BO) have NOT agreed to that. WHY?
BO and HOLDER are both FULLY aware. Not that the ENEmedia will truthfully investigate and report the facts.
It is already been coming out that this is ONE way that the BO and klan were going to use for ABSOLUTE gun control across the US. They did not account for that poor mans family being made of steel and DEMANDING answers as to HOW this happened and as well as WHOSE idea this was. When the agents themselves showed objections and said this is a BAD idea, WHO was it that ‘enforced it’.
Keep your head in the sand.. but don’t expect your fellow Americans to protect you.
This whole sordid, immoral AND illegal fiasco proves a VERY salient point, one in which sums up much of the Obama regime’s operations-the end ALWAYS justifies the means, regardless of who gets caught in the crossfire(literally) and how MANY dead bodies pile up.
Case closed.
Adina – spot-on. If the Republicans were doing something like this, the LSM would be blasting story in four inch headlines. Instead, it’s almost not spoken, and then only to besmirch honest people. Thank goodness for the internet and people like Hans A. von Spakovsky and Bob Owens. Hopefully, the truth will come out on this.
I hope Obama, and his associates in Washington, live long enough after leaving office, hopefully after only one term, to see themselves, this administration, go down in the history books as the most corrupt administration of all times.
Losing reelection in 2012 will humiliate them. Reading in a history book, ten or twenty years down the road, that they should all be considered criminals who, either by intent, by inaction, by incompetence, partisan grandstanding or ignorance moved this country right to the edge of destruction.
Them knowing that that is how they will be seen for the rest of American history would be like the cherry on the top of the sundae.
(My statement at the top of of this reply, that I hope they live long enough Should NOT be seen as a threat against the president or anyone else. Just covering my own ass. Something the Obama administration should understand.)
Jefferson I totaly agree with you,
Hey , how did that work out for Carter? He continues to bash Israel after he made a mess of the middle east. And has written how many books since leaving office. The One will move on to the United Nations, Michelle will get to hang with the creme de la creme of Euro Elite Trash, and The One can make bigger messes of the third world, most likely directing American Taxpayer monies to line the pockets of Third World evil butchers. Their wives can go shopping with Michelle in Geneva, since all the money Obamugabe gives them gets deposited in Swiss banks.
So no, it is pure fantasy to think these people look back and see the destruction they wrought, never happens.
They will never ever fall to there knees with head in hands and say what have I done.
@ Jefferson – the problem is, Liberals write the history books, The One, The Messiah …. will only been written about in flowing praise, glowing terms …. from on yonder high mountain …. he came down and tried guide us to compassion and Universal Healthcare ….. making life fair for everyone ….
That is why I fervently hope that any Republican administration that succeeds Obama in 2012 does NOT let this drop. “Move on,” “Let bygones be bygones” etc. are bromides that do not apply to numerous deaths and lies.
And with that, I survey the current Republican field. Who would have the ethics and guts to do this? I see two: Palin and Bachmann.
This part confuses me. Surely the death of an American Border Patrol agent at the hands of a Mexican thug using a weapon bought in an American gun shop was very much in line with the operation’s true agenda: creating a case for massive new gun control restrictions on the grounds that the weapons are being used by criminals to kill innocents. Why, then, were the ATF brass so panicked over it? Did they estimate the chance of being found out to be so high? And if so, then why execute the operation in the first place?
Thoughts?
Francis, The first thing you have to understand is, obviously, this plan was poorly considered. I doubt they intended, or expected, any American citizen, law enforcement or otherwise, to die from what they were doing.
They expected a bunch of Mexican thugs to murder a bunch of other Mexican thugs, maybe a few corrupt Mexican cops or a few corrupt Mexican politicians to be the only victims.
An American getting killed, especially some one in law enforcement always leads to many, many uncomfortable questions. Questions they never wanted asked because they don’t want to answer for what they’ve done.There is no good explanation for what they have done.
They expected the drug war to remain in Mexico. Mexican law enforcement and the Mexican military, possibly with help from American law enforcement and the American military, would continue to fight this war, killing or arresting bad guys and taking their guns and finding gun after gun after gun had come in, surprise, surprise, from American gun stores… Proving President Obama right in his “90%” claim. Giving Obama and his administration all the ammunition it would need to get more gun laws on the books here in the US.
No, I don’t think they ever intended, or expected, American’s to die because of their actions. Look at the explosion of interest since Brian Terry’s death. No, they don’t want to answer these questions. They know they screwed up.
I suspect that ATF’s upper echelon, and Holder, and Obama, were counting on all the casualties being in Mexico. And on all the casualties being Mexicans. As a result, they failed to “work out the implications” of their actions, as per John W. Campbell. In short, they didn’t think ahead- a common malady with this witless crew.
The entire theme of Obama’s gun control campaign was “Lax U.S. gun laws are killing innocent people in Mexico”. This was because CCW laws plus more severe sentencing for career criminals (keeping them off the streets) has resulted in a sharp drop in violent crime in the U.S. (Thereby depriving progressives of one of their favorite arguments for disarming honest citizens- and depriving them of the services of many of their “frontline soldiers in the war against a repressive society”.)
Since The One could not use domestic crime to justify his plans, he needed something else. Namely, to blame us for the violence in a certain failed state south of the Rio Grande. (Yes, Mexico is a failed state, and it’s about time everybody admitted it.)
OFAF shows every evidence of “planning in an information vacuum”. That is, the plan was conceived based on the planners’ pre-conceptions of the conditions under which it would be operating, and all their predictions of results were based on a “best case” scenario. The reality on the ground was different, but that simply did not enter into the equation. As the old Red Army officer’s school used to put it, they did not take “objective conditions” into account when planning their op.
(NB; This was why there was never a Warsaw Pact invasion of NATO. The Politburo, etc., were always salivating over the possible gains; the Red Army planning staff were looking at the actual correlation of forces, especially in West Germany, and knew they couldn’t win short of “going nuclear”. They concluded that it wasn’t worth the gamble.)
But when Americans began dying as a result of this “brilliant” PR stunt, it backfired. And ATF, Holder, & Co., who had planned this as a propaganda ploy, got low-bridged by Murphy’s First Law; Anything which can go wrong, will. Not to mention the Law of Unintended Consequences.
What they should have thought of, but didn’t, is that when you start a snowball rolling down a steep, long, snow-covered hill, you cannot predict either (a) how big it will get, (b) how fast it will go, or (c) what it will finally hit.
A sensible person with some knowledge of the actual border situation (as opposed to Obama’s DREAM Act fantasies) would have probably deduced that at some point, the weapons that were allowed to “walk” across the border would come back north in the hands of people with nasty intentions and a total disregard for human life. But as I have stated previously, this administration seems notably lacking in sensible people with even average reasoning ability. Even by “progressive” standards, which are by definition pretty low.
Being dogmatic is just so much more fun, in their estimation. And if anything goes wrong, they can always find somebody else to blame it on.
It will be interesting to see who they throw under the bus for this one. And also to see if it actually works this time around.
clear ether
eon
I suspect that ATF’s upper echelon, and Holder, and Obama, were counting on all the casualties being in Mexico.
————————-
I suspect they didn’t give a damn if things spilled over the border into the US; if anything it would enhance what they were counting on – the expansion of their argument that US guns were involved and it mandated severe crackdowns on US gun dealers/owners.
My belief is that the WH and Holder were more than willing, in fact they were hoping for and perhaps even enthusiastic about the easily foreseen eventuality that our own Border Patrol agents, who for all practical purposes now constitute tethered prey, “armed” as they are with *bean bags,* would be at greatly increased risk of being slaughtered by superior American weaponry placed very deliberately into the hands of unspeakably primitive criminals. Here’s the trifecta they could have been hoping to hit. 1. Decimate the ranks of BP agents and intimidate potential replacements, rendering their (understandably dwindling) numbers insufficient to stem the tide of illegals, thereby creating hospitable conditions for terrorist training camps in ever-increasing swaths of AZ and other border states. 2. Reap phony statistical data to substantiate the myth of “90%,” enabling further emasculation of the populace with ever tighter gun controls. 3. Punish and break the will of Governor Brewer and any other governors and inhabitants of border states who have the temerity to oppose the will of this administration with a scorched earth policy that makes their homelands uninhabitable (see 2. above). To provide for the common defense is the defining responsibility of the President of the United States. And actually, one could in fact argue that it’s the only area he’s been actively engaged in since taking office (other than working to corrupt the electoral process to insure his re-election), and always with the same result: America continues to become weaker and weaker. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” We need to oust this evildoer and all his myrmidons and install an authentic patriot in The People’s House. “Does one gather figs from thistles?”
(a) how big it will get?
Not very big at all outside PJM.
(b) how fast it will go?
Its already slowing down.
(c) what it will finally hit.
Nothing. Its past tense, so its over.
The implications will be buried.
Gone. Next.
This story will go the way of the Soldier with Muslim identity that repeatedly shot up the Pentagon and the Marine Museum…
He was just disgruntled, maybe it was a PAYROL issue they’re saying…
After all, he was “so careful” when FIRING HIS WEAPON INTO BUILDINGS that he chose times when they were (probably) least occupied…
See? doesnt THAT make you feel safer.
No security threat.
No Jihad implications.
No, he couldnt POSSIBLY be “warming up” for something bigger, poor fellow.
Move along you Racist Tea Partiers, nothing to see here.
Stop the agitating, you frightening potentially violent wretches.
Youre scaring the children.
I can see this story getting prominence if Andrew Breitbart takes it up. The reason? The left is so angry at him now and so determined to show him up as a fraud that they’ll hound him fast and furious to try to bring him down.
Help us, Andrew-won Kenobi.
“This was because CCW laws plus more severe sentencing for career criminals (keeping them off the streets) has resulted in a sharp drop in violent crime in the U.S.”
eon, I much respect you as a poster but this statement is wrong. The sharp drop in violent crime (nationwide) is due to abortion.
http://www.rochester.edu/college/psc/clarke/204/Levitt01.pdf
-The entire theme of Obama’s gun control campaign was “Lax U.S. gun laws are killing innocent people in Mexico”.-
I live not too far from Phoenix. There is already a stretch of southern Arizona which this government has “ceded” to Mexico.
http://www.examiner.com/county-political-buzz-in-san-diego/arizona-warns-residents-with-signs-against-hiking-region-near-mexico-border
Not to mention the many lovely sections in Phoenix itself where English is a second language.
Combine the idiotic desire for no borders, add the stupidity of amnesty, and the bloodthirstiness of lots of guns, and you have the Disunited States of Amexico.
eon: perceptive and reasoned points. I suggest another aspect of the administration’s lack of “situational awareness”: maybe they felt immune to any consequences even if this plot were discovered. They knew the MSM would be disintereted in looking at this, maybe even carry a little water for them if something went wrong, as the recent article against Issa in WAPO confirms. What they hadn’t planned on was a Republican contolled House, in charge of oversight.
To be sure the plan was ill considered. But those supervisors had to have known they were putting their own guys at risk by letting all those weapons walk.
Consider-The supervisors were aware of cartel/coyote thugs firing at American Law Enforcement along the border.
The cartels and the BP are two opposing forces down there.
From a practical stand point, there’s no reason to believe a thug wouldn’t, for whatever reason, trade his current weapon in for a new one. As would an ATF guy. Why wouldn’t some of those walking weapons find a home near the border?
A supervisors would have to be aware of that possibility. Right?
Those supervisors knew the risks. (Especially after those good men stated their opposition to the plan) The supervisors were following orders. That’s it. And since the ATF is pretty much committed to disarming everyone and anyone (except, apparently, foreign criminals), there’s no reason to believe they weren’t wholly committed to supporting obama’s 90% lie.
But supervisors don’t initiate a program to arm cartel murderers with American guns. That’s above their pay grade.
If they panicked when Agent Terry was killed, it was because they knew shit rolls down hill and they are expendable.
This is the best possible answer to F.W. Porretto’s incisive question.
“…the death of an American Border Patrol agent at the hands of a Mexican thug using a weapon bought in an American gun shop”
This is NOT what the reports have said. The weapon used to kill Agent Terry has not been publicly specified. Reports were that two guns traced to this operation were “found at the murder scene”. This is actually a pretty mild claim; it doesn’t even imply that the two guns were part of the firefight in which Terry was killed. For all we know they were found in crates still packed in rust preventative.
Yes Tom, good point. Now all we have to do is wonder about the other 6,800 guns.
I see, two guns, traced back to Fast and Furious found at the scene of the killing of a BP agent, and they were not used in that gunfight. Yeah, they were just laying around there before anyone on the scene started shooting. Wake up pal.
oooooh crikee.
This is a charles “yer all racists” johnson, little green footballs site.
Bwahahahaha.
That is because everyone is missing the WHOLE point. Most will assume that Ovomit’s MAIN goals were to use this whole thing to control guns in the USA. That would have just been a BONUS to them.
I just read an article yesterday that his criminal Admin was going to be getting Donations from the Drug Cartels for his Re-election—JUST like the thousands and thousands of Donations that were made to him before that do NOT have to be reported, yet were traced back to the Middle East. $100 a pop on a debit card, is under the radar of the laws to account WHO sent it. This goes WAY deeper than anyone would think.
His last election he made MILLIONS of Dollars this way.
Given the following statement by Special Agent (and original whistle blower) John Dodson: “I was having a conversation with Special Agent [L] about the case in which the conversation ended with me asking her are you prepared to go to a border agent’s funeral over this… because that’s going to happen. And the sentiment that was given back to me by both her, [and?] the group supervisor, was that…if you are going to make an omelette [sic], you need to scramble some eggs.” (Source: http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/06/18/atf-fast-furious-worse-than-a-nightmare/). I would say that some high-level BATFE (and likely DOJ) officials committed a crime that is tantamount to both murder and treason.
They were still puching the 90% myth back in March when the police chief and mayor of a New Mexico town were caught buying weapons and illegally exporting them to Mexico.
http://www.kvia.com/news/27146962/detail.html
I don’t see anyone hitting the nail on the head here.
This operation is completely consistent with everything BHO is doing is every single industry in our country. He wants to bring anything not in his ideology down. He wants higher commodity prices, so he makes regulations the big issue; taxing dairy farmers, coal miners, big rigs, removing oil rigs, no permits, etc. etc. His passion for neutralizing the 2nd amendment would drive him to do what he could to make guns out to be something they arent. If he could create a scenario where “guns” were being abused and he and his guys could “ride to the rescue” by making it so difficult for Americans to acquire said guns, he would be able to grossly limit access while not restricting them completely. I think that was the goal in the long run. This was ideologically driven, as is 100% of what this administration is doing. Nothing more,nothing less. No logic,no law, no feedback will stop this dictator. I can only hope that Rep. Issa has balls of steel and will go after these guys with everything he can by every letter of the law.
I think the most distressing thing of the fast and furious gun running operation,at the conception was the willing intent to break american laws at many levels.this isnt meant to diminish any deaths linked to illegal guns on both sides of the border or the tragedy brought to individual families at their loss.
America depends on the citizens cooperation in obeying our laws and the trust given them (law enforcement) in equally applying those laws,Justice is blind.
By what only can only be described as willful breaking of these laws they unwittingly created an atmosphere of mistrust at the base level needed for society to continue,law and order is the glue that binds america together and is being torn apart by corruption at the highest levels of our government.
If you have a brother,a sister,a father,a mother,or children which covers all citizens this should call to your humanity to demand justice for federal agent Brian Terry and an untold number of other deaths enabled by corrupt officials at the ATF and possibly elected government officials,all involved should be revealed and placed in the system to be judged for their crimes and sentenced accordingly, allow a healing process which can restore the trust and honor to law enforcement they deserve.
This is an extraordinarily important story that should be a major scandle. It will be interesting to see if Rep. Issa and his colleagues in Congress do anything with it. For there not to be major congressional oversight and many more hearings in the wake of a story like this would be a scandal in and of itself. Excellent reporting by Hans von Spakovsky.
The Post wasn’t conned – they are willing water carriers.
This will end up being Obama’s “Iran-Contra” scandal. What is ironic is that the Washington Post, which broke the Watergate scandal, was actually conned by another scandal by a democratic president. But there may be more than just a little bit of irony in that. It smells of collusion.
Not Iran-Contra but rather Watergate. Mr. von Spakovsky and Mr. Issa are being circumspect. The oversight committee is building the case that President Obama had direct knowledge of the operation. Committee staff are deposing players on up the line. These individuals are being made aware of the criminal penalties for perjury and obstruction of justice. Somebody is going to break. When they do they will revisit the others and confront them. Deals will be made for leniency in exchange for spilling the beans. This is standard operating procedure. Stand by.
I continue to follow this story and am grateful for Mr. Owens, the author of this piece, and the many others including PJM for working it.
I keep hoping that something will come out that this was just an ill-advised, ignorant, foolish, operation and that no one was intended to be harmed. Unfortunately, it keeps quacking like a duck. That really hurts at an elemental level if it is true. If it is true, then truly there is nothing that will not be done to have it their way–even murder.
I hope Mr. Issa and Grassley will continue courageously and hope they stay personally safe. Apart from any political advantage, it is so important that we understand what the truth is and look it dead in the eye.
Could Woodward and Bernstein have been so easily duped? Investigative journalism is proven once again to be an oxymoron.
The spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix again specifically named Lone Wolf Trading, which had sold guns at the express direction of the ATF, as being responsible along with other gun dealers for “a great majority of confiscated weapons in crimes on the other side of the border.” This is the same U.S. Attorney’s Office that “encouraged and supported every single facet of Fast and Furious,” according to the Joint Staff Report prepared by Rep. Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley.
Amazing. CYA and deflecting blame seem to be the defining characteristic of Eric Holder’s DOJ.
Memo to gun dealers and every sentient being on the planet:
“Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.”
The bottom line is that considerations other than objective, professional law enforcement judgment seem to have driven the decision-making of the Holder Justice Department.
Holder seems to think (think may be a stretch when it comes to Eric Holder) that the role of AG is to impose his own ignorant and small-minded version of the planet. His hires are required to share his views.
Last week, he said that lawyers are the solution to terrorism, apparently indicating he’s still hung up on civil trials for Islamist assassins.
Thomas Sowell has called Holder’s DOJ the Department of Payback.
“Last week, he said that lawyers are the solution to terrorism…”
Wait, isn’t that a great idea?! We send all the lawyers to the Middle East, and they solve terrorism, or…not, but it’s certainly worth trying. I don’t see a downside, anyway.
Sorry, that was me.
This ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ was what Rush Limbaugh correctly describes as a “False Flag Operation”. It was obviously directly against lawful firearms dealers, law-abiding citizens, here in the United States. It is more evidence supporting the growing perception that the Obama administration is so crooked that they have to screw their socks on.
Obama is an enemy of the Constitution.
“…6,700 were confirmed to have originated in the U.S. That represents only 22 percent, not 90 percent.”
Out of that 22 percent, how many were U.S. Military rifles sold to the Mexican government for their military and police forces, which wound up in the hands of the cartels? I suspect the answer is “Most”.
While the rest were these gunrunner weapons. Meaning? Our laws work and this claim that our gundealers are supplying weapons to cartels (unless oredered to by the ATF) is hogwash!
Has anyone at ATF offered a plausible version of how the plan was supposed to work as advertised after the fact? As far as I understand, the idea was that known weapons were going into the hands of known traffickers who would take them into the illegal channel in Mexico. Then when they were found at crime scenes, this would reveal where they ended up. OK. But has anyone offered an explanation of how the two dots were going to be connected? Have they at least said, “Mexican and US law enforcement have intelligence operations that could connect these dots” or even “we cannot comment about ongoing investigations of this sort”?
At this point, it looks something like:
Public story:
1. US Guns into known traffickers across the border
2. US Guns confiscated
3. ???
4. Intelligence bonanza!
Suspected real story:
1. Push US guns as big problem story
2. Send US guns into Mexico
3. US Guns confiscated
4. Political bonanza – gun laws!
“…one ATF supervisor was described as “jovial, if not, not giddy, but just delighted”
Sheriff J. P. Harrah in El Dorado: You thought it was pretty funny, too, didn’t you. Well, why aren’t you laughing now? Let me hear you laugh! SMACK!
Nice one.
What makes that scene even more apropos’ in this context is that in real life, Bob Mitchum (the smacker) was a “classic” Truman/Eisenhower liberal, while Ed Asner (the smackee) was and is a typical “progressive”.
(That’s what you get for quoting one of my favorite movies.
)
cheers
eon
Listen folks, when people don’t police these things, the criminals keep committing crimes. Where are all the gentlemen republicans the party keeps insisting we elect. We should certainly prosecute Holder and everyone involved in this mess. However, politicians that sit by and do nothing are accessories.
What must always be remembered about those who wish to deprive us of our inalienable right to keep and bear arms is that they also wish to deprive us of our other inalienable rights.
Evil never sleeps.
I suspect that the reason the ATF brass lost their nerve is that they knew that the lower-downs wouldn’t keep quiet.
What I’d like to know is how much ammo was sold as part of Gunwalker. 50cal ammo isn’t available from every Walmart.
One of the tricks of conning someone is to find someone who wants to be conned, someone who wants to believe what you’re telling them, someone who will not take a rational, objective look at what’s being told them. For Obama, The Washington Post, and may other MSM outlets, fit that criteria perfect.
“Ronald Weich, the same individual who testified before Issa’s committee, claimed the ATF had not ‘knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico.’”
So Ronald Weich, are you going to publically and loudly resign from this incredibly corrupt “Department of Justice” for using you like this? Lying to the America taxpayers who pay you all to do justice on our behalf?
You sir, are a disgrace.
How do you sleep at night?
I think you need to go to jail. But reading on further, apparently your handlers (for that is indeed what they are) gave you a task that you could lie for and not go to jail.
They need to go to jail. They being Eric Holder (who absolutely HAD TO APPROVE this) and his boss.
“On March 30, the 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Jim Brady… came to Capitol Hill to push for a ban on the controversial “large magazines.” Brady… met with White House press secretary Jay Carney. During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said.
“I just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”
http://nation.foxnews.com/guns/2011/05/25/obama-were-working-gun-control-under-radar#ixzz1QCYFNyMk
Horrendous.
Does anyone think the Mexicans might be a little upset that this admin doesn’t really give a damn about them being killed? Come on people wake up! The only thing obama cares about is being re-elected so he can continue to destroy this country.
It looks more and more like a gangster regime, something that would be found in Central America with someone like Castro in charge. Everyone is a believer in the Alinsky/Piven plan, everyone lies, cheats, steals and extorts. These people are for the most part Marxists that with the complicity of the MSM gamed the system and are ruining the country on purpose. The 2nd Amendment is not for shooting targets and hunting, it wasn’t put into the Constitution for that reason, our far seeing Founder’s knew that this country would eventually have the usurpers of freedom and gave the People them means to save themselves from slavery. Those that try to disarm the people are the bureaucratic totalitarians that we are now seeing emerging and they can’t have a population armed and ready for what they will attempt if they get their nerve up. “ObamaGunRunner” was another Obama scam but this one got killed people, the Democrats have to pay a huge price for this.
Thank God we got a repub congress in 2010. If Pelosi and co was still in charge of congress, this would not even be investigated.
As a candidate, Barack Obama supported the Washington DC gun ban.
After the Supreme Court found that law unconstitutional, he suddenly found a right for the citizen to bear arms under the 2nd amendment. Or so he said.
One among many of his convenient and self-serving flip flops.
It doesn’t seem far-fetched that the real objective of Fast and Furious was to provide a rationale for an attack on the Second Amendment.
All of your freedoms under the Constitution & Bill of Rights must be struck down if the current prevailing notion of government as Jabba The Hutt and the citizen as grateful underling is to prevail.
On BATF secret cameras: “Nice gun store you have there…Wouldn’t want anything to happen to it.”
My guess would be that ATF planned to double cross the gun dealers who they told to sell guns to straw purchasers. The gun dealers are lucky this scheme was outed as they probably would have found themselves in ATF handcuffs, if otherwise.
This whole sordid tale makes me wonder if we should take another look at the Oklahoma City bombing. There was another person with McVeigh, that witnesses talked about, and the FBI says didn’t exist. Was that third person an undercover federal agent or informant? Was the OK city bombing a federal sting operation gone bad? At the time, the Clinton administration, also anti-Second Amendment, was worried about the militia movement (another excuse to push for gun control). And, at the time, Holder was number two at the Justice Department. Coincidence?
What exactly does Eric Holder have to do before he is FORCED to resign?
Where is the GOP when you need it ? They need to buy a page for Issa on all the newspapers of the Country, they need to have Issa prepare a TV ad with the main points of the story, they need to ADD the story of this CRIME to the story of the crippling debt created by this administration, they need to call the Country to wake up against the follies and the crimes of this administration of subversives and imbeciles.
As far as this administration is concerned, laws are for the little people. The Cpnstitution is outdated and quaint. So they do what they like. It would be nice to see Eric Holder hauled up to Capital Hill to testify under oath about this fiasco of lawbreaking by the ATF and DOJ. Will we get to see that? I doubt it. Also, do you think the Washington Post will try to find a team of 100 citizen journalists to pour through pages of documents related to this malfeasance? Maybe they can call back the ones they enlisted to prowl through Sarah Palin’s emails. But of course, that won’t happen.
It’s amazing how the main stream media and the left are ignoring this. Can you imagine this if Bush were President, there would have been 15 independent investigations. Issa deserves much kudos here for standing up to this regime and it’s protectors on theleft.
When Bush was president, it was daily attacks over the TWO wars, Haliburton, Black Water, etc. And his only crime ws being tied in with Big Business (a curse of the Left). Now that Obama has the same, AND MORE; THREE wars; Haliburton, Blackwater, and on and on, NOT A PEEP FROM HIS PROSTITUTES IN THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA!!!
Harvard. Columbia. Yale. The stench is overwhelming.
Corruption in this administration is wide and deep. Really, truly Apalling.
Only 20 more months ’til we evict the Marxist in the Oval Office & cancel “Amateur Hour” at the White House.
After 50 years, even Fidel Castro has finally admitted that Socialism doesn’t work.
Unfortunately for the USA, American Liberals are dumber than Castro.
NOBAMA 2012
“Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink.” P.J.O’Rourke
I suspect that Hillary Clinton’s dirty hands are on this too–if you will recall that in 2009 the Obama administration was making a huge public issue about the flow of guns from American gun dealers into Mexico and Hillary was one of the most strident voices in that effort. She got her training in Slick Willie’s administration with the ATF’s assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX, in 1993, which was a blatant attempt to discredit guns and gun ownership.
Please, please, please, please, please Issa and Grassley, ferret out those responsible for this attack on American freedom that led to the death of our border agent Terry. Leave no document or witness unsubpoenaed; go all the way to the top if that is where this leads.
WHAT A JOKE! This whole “Fast and Furious” thing is a joke, right? You neocon losers have nothing else to latch onto that can really embarrass President Obama other than a BATF program that was designed to smoke out American gun runners? Oh, I’m sorry….are you maroons actually rooting for illegal gun runners here? This nonsense just goes to support my basic thesis that conservatives stand for only two things: anarchy and war. And oil. And nuclear power. And crappy beer, like Molson. “Guns for everyone!” they yell! “War will solve the problems of the Middle East!” you all scream. “There’s a sale on flat ware at Walmart!”, the neocons blurts. Go take your Smith & Wessons and your Ford F-150′s and jump into a swamp, like those ridiculous guys on “Swamp People”. Is that who you people have become? Swamp people? And that nut job on that show “Sons of Guns” is just another example of the crazed Cheney/Palin/Daniel Staub mindset you maroons deliver to the rest of normal America! Like I always tell my houseman, Rigaberto, “put down the Bud Light and get a good liberal arts education”. And “take out my refuse”. Losers, all of you.
Oh, I don’t know, it’s not to hard to find something weird with our current token president’s preoccupation with reality derangement syndrome. But why stop with smoking out gun runners by allowing the police to give them real weapons with live ammunition? Gee, let’s get the DOJ and FBI involved in the trafficking of sex slaves by pimping and pandering real sex slaves into the country. Or, how about getting the CIA and FBI involved in importing and distributing high quality Mexican Brown heroine and China White at 100 percent purity and see who dies on the streets and in those upscale neighborhoods in San Francisco. We currently have a rich supply of heroine in Afghanistan: by the product, import it, spike with arsenic, and solve the American demand problem. Yeah, that should work.
If we’re losers, I guess that makes you a winner.
If you’re a winner, why are you so miserable?
(Psst! Emma! Don! “SATIRE”!)
Here is the real story that the Main STream Media (including Faux News) does not want you to see…
“NEW YORK – The typography expert who played a key role in ending the career of CBS News anchor Dan Rather has told WND he has strong suspicions the Obama birth certificate released by the White House is fraudulent.
Joseph M. Newcomer, who exposed the “Killian documents” as fraudulent in 2004, has told WND the Obama birth certificate released by the White House April 27 is a “highly suspicious” document that deserves professional forensic examination.”
Read more: ‘Rathergate’ expert on birth certificate: ‘Highly suspicious’ http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=314297#ixzz1QDgay1rO
Don-Idk about arsenic but the heroin already hits the streets.500 dead in Missouri alone.All od’s.A nice big mosque in St.Lou with terror tie rumors and bro of the Imam busted for food stamp fraud,twice.
The ammo question is interesting.I wonder where they purchased .50 cal.
Hillary is rabid with savior syndrome,of course she is involved with a gun control plan.She and Obama will save the US by disarming those big,scary,unsophisticated,white hick gun owners.It’s not like they can go after illegal guns.Someone could get hurt or they may be called scary names.
I enjoyed Obama’s education improvement numbers.On standardized test scores black children improved 41%,Mexicans 122%,white kids -9%.
We’re wrong to think that Operation Fast and Furious was the result of “incompetence and ineptitude”. Yes, there’s plenty of that to go around in the Holder DOJ, but incompetence is not the reason that today DOJ is every bit as politically corrupt as it was during John Mitchell’s term as AG under Nixon during Watergate. We must never forget that the defining characteristic of Eric Holder is his absolute willingness to abuse power for political gain. In DOJ he has shamefully subverted our country’s law enforcement machinery into an arm of political will.
I worked in and with various federal law enforcement agencies for almost 30 years, sometimes at administrative and policy levels which involved working with agency heads and the AG. I know federal bureaucracy; federal administrative and law enforcement policy; federal hierarchy; and the way things like Operation Fast and Furious come into being. And I know OFF didn’t happen because AG Holder, ATF Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson, or any of their politically appointed or career factoti** are incompetent: it happened because Melson badly wanted to remove the “Acting” from his title. It seems plain that Melson just couldn’t summon the courage to oppose OFF; even though, as an experienced federal prosecutor, he must have known beyond any doubt that the op plan, from a law enforcement perspective, verged on the insane.
It just could not be that an operation like OFF, because of its (purported) goals, size, unusual methods, foreign policy implications and potential for disaster, was planned, proposed, authorized and implemented on the authority of no personage higher than an Acting Director of BATF. Simply.not.possible. It would have never have gotten off the drawing board*** without the explicit command of Holder. The State Department necessarily would have been a party to the plan as well, involving as it does a foreign power. State would never go along with some potentially treaty-violating enterprise brought to them by an acting agency director. I would be surprised if Secretary of State Clinton had not had significant input, even veto power. I suspect Hillary Clinton is too experienced a Washington hand to have left anything as damning as her signature approving an automatic weapons “walk” to Mexico, though.
It is simply not conceivable that any ATF Director, certainly not one with no more clout than an “acting” executive, would originate such a plan without at a minimum receiving the explicit approval of the AG. I can see how Melson did it, though. When he approved this plan Team Obama was fresh on the scene and still being lionized and lauded as miracle workers, saints and geniuses by the same news media that has since been struck blind and deaf about other Administration members. The Democrats at the time apparently held Congress in perpetuity; Obama had just been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize; political commentators were unashamedly expressing their awe: the world loved everything Obama. Holder wouldn’t even have had to mention that Obama would be grateful to Melson if he helped Obama finally break what the President and his party saw as the stranglehold which the NRA had on the country. If Melson could only make this op work, then the “good guys” could finally show that US weapons were indeed winding up in Mexican drug cartel hands…particularly if the ATF made sure the cartel got those weapons. It’s easy to see how Melson thought he was doing what he politically had to do if he was to stay as the head of a vital and very powerful federal law enforcement agency.
I just wish Melson had had more personal integrity. But in the next several days he’s likely to pay the price for that sin. If Holder and Obama have their way, Melson will be the one paying for their sins as well. Let’s hope the major news media regain their sight and hearing soon.
* Indeed, Holder has been astonishingly open about the politicization of DOJ (viz. New Black Panther Party voter intimidation). Doubtless that his partisanship is so flagrant is due in large part to our mainstream news media’s unprecedented lack of interest in pursuing credible reports and undeniable evidence of wrongdoing and even criminal behavior by various Obama cabinet members and “czars”. Why bother to hide what won’t be reported?
** It should be no surprise that most personnel brought in with any new head of a US government agency, including DOJ, are usually anywhere from a little fuzzy to completely ignorant of how to do the street-level job of that agency. But they are brought in not to achieve the agency’s “mission” (oh, that execrable word!), but to work with Capitol Hill and/or the White House, execute their bosses’ will, and to politically cover their backs. Which extends to taking arrows if things get bad, or falling on swords if they get worse.
*** That is, if the OFF plan had originated at ATF, which I doubt: this was a political op which originated at no less august a site than DOJ…if not the White House. It would have been brought to Melson in Holder’s name. That it was an order was would have been understood.
Selling arms to Mexican drug cartels? Misleading the Washington Post? It’s all in a day’s work for Obama’s heavily politicized ATF.
How about a ‘thank you’ to the guys who are writing about the classic of all Democrat screw ups – the ‘Fast and Furious’ – or ‘Guns Across The Border’!
A thank you to Bob Owens – Hans A. von Spakovsky and Patrick Richardson for their contributions through Pajamas Media in exposing once again the lies of the current Justice Department and the questionable actions of the ATF.
And how did E. Himpton Holder get on my friends list – ugh!
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
George Washington
This was never intended for what they said. When you provide a weapon to someone knowing it will be used in the commission of a crime, you are an accessory. In this case and accessory to murder. They can’t be allowed to get away with calling this crime “Bad Policy.” It is an accessory to the murders of 150 people including two border agents. Obama knew about this and he lied about not knowing about it, like he lies about everything. He is a dangerous sociopath, just like Hitler.
kjatexas
The OK City Bombing was not what they said. Please read The Third Terrorist by Jayna Davis. After the Gulf War, former President Bush allowed refugees to come here from Iraq. They weren’t screened properly. There were eight Iraqi soldiers who worked with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. They wanted to recruit someone who in their words were “Lily white.” This was an act of Jihad. A few months ago, a homeless man was arrested in Boston. That homeless man was believed to have been in the truck with Timothy McVeigh before the bomb went off. His name is Hussein Al-Husseini. This was a massive coverup by the FBI, Clinton and Janet Reno. I was a very naive person until Obama was allowed to enter the White House. I always thought our country was different, and were not capable of this type of deceipt. I now know different. A couple of weeks ago in Utah a judge granted someone suing the FBI the right to the video tapes in front of the Federal Building in OK City that morning. I hope the truth comes out. All I keep picturing is that little girl that fireman carried out that morning, Baylee Almon. I never would have believed things like this would happen in America. Clinton, Reno, Berger, and everyone else who covered this up, belong in prison. Even when experts first looked at that building, they said it reminded them of Beirut.
“Homeless” Man Hussain Hashem al-Hussaini is “John Doe #2 in Oklahoma bombing
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/34299
http://bigpeace.com/sfr/2011/04/12/jayna-davis-middle-eastern-involvement-in-the-oklahoma-city-bombing/
I’m worried that the BP Oil Disaster was an act of sabotage to shut down drilling. Another Reichstag type event. Obama should have never been allowed to enter the White House. I truly believe he has no problem killing. Does anyone know what happened to John Wheeler? This ATF Agent needs protection.
The gun control justifies the means, eh left/liberals?
Re: “In 2008, GAO reported that the Mexican government seized 30,000 guns, and only 6,700 were confirmed to have originated in the U.S. That represents only 22 percent, not 90 percent.”…
But the percentage that actually got into the cartels’ hands via U.S.-Mexico border smuggling is much smaller even than that.
From Vince Warde at Reasoned Politics:
We now know that not only did the Justice Department know that the 90% figure was inaccurate, the State Department knew where the bulk of the rifles were actually coming from: Central America and U.S. sales to the Mexican Military.
The hearings and the questions won’t resolve anything if the questions aren’t answered. The article repeated documents the ways that the ATF “spokesman” is refusing to answer the question. If Issa and Grassley can’t figure out how to get answers, persistent asking of the questions doesn’t help much.
Until I see otherwise in terms of results, I have to keep concluding that, at some level, what O’bama’s minions are doing is ok with Congress. Congress has the authority to do something about it. Unless they can figure out how to leverage that authority, just having the authority isn’t worth anything.
The WaPo conned? I suspect the WaPo has conned anyone who thinks they needed to be conned to help the Administraton.
Please Mr.Issa – don’t go after the minnows this time -
get the great white sharks in Washington. (and a few Czars and agency heads while you’re at it.) This did not start near the bottom. Smells too much like Chicago politics to me. Someone needs to provide witness protection for Mr.Whistle blower
Well, I’ve been hearing for a long time how illegal guns are flowing from here to Mexico. It’s no surprise it was being controlled by Obozo and boyz. Wouldn’t surprise me at all that it wasn’t planned this way in hopes of having an excuse to attempt to confiscate guns. We need control of the Senate back so these criminals can be tried.
“It bothers me that Conservatives increasingly use the tactics of the left for political gain. It is very unlikely that Holder, let alone Obama, knew anything about this operation.”
IF true, that is negligence on Holders part. One cannot expect Holder to run around slapping cuffs on crooks. His job is to keep track of the bosses of the bosses of those that do the cuffing. So when some bureaucrat 4 layers down the food chain takes it upon them self to violate a tractor trailer full of laws, the buck stops on Holders Desk.
That is why POTUS and his cabinet are above the law. In theory AND fact.
They have to be impeached (charged with a crime) by the House and convicted (given a trial) by the Senate. Only then can law enforcement have at them.
Not sure what the point here is. The (R)’s will not support impeachment. They understand that Berry is a crook, his cabinet members are mostly crooks too. That doesn’t concern them since they are crooks also. The point here is POWER. The goal of the (R) is to allow voters to ‘discover’ that Berry and his buds are crooks. Then they can run against crooks while hoping the voters don’t figure out they are crooks also. They think that will return them to power. In 2008 8 years of crony capitalism was replaced with 3 years of crony socialism.
The cronies don’t care if it’s (D) or (R) cutting the taxpayer pie. They just want the lion’s share. The (R) and (D) of it are just part of the smoke and mirrors used by the cronies to keep the voters confused.
That is why people like Cain and Palin raise fear in the heart of the establishment (cronies). The establish knows that if either ends up as POTUS, Dirty Harry and Boner will end up sharing a cell.
Anybody confused about there being a difference between (D) and (R) needs to watch “The Departed” enough times to figure out what is going on.
This was done to get the American people disarmed. Even hillery is involved with this she also stated that the weapons were ending up in Mexico.
Anyone who thinks that obozo knew nothing about this is nuts, as brazen as holder is this came from the top. This whole administration stinks from the top down. Laws mean nothing the constitution means nothing, maybe we will enforce this law but not that one well maybe we could but will not.
I wish Issa would speed up these hearings so we can get the impeachment process started.
Obama knows the he is not qualified to be president. This fast and furious business will be the end him just like nix ion. The problem will just keep growing.
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