Why DOJ Released the Top Fast and Furious Suspect
Richard A. Serrano of the Los Angeles Times broke an exclusive story this morning that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had top Operation Fast and Furious gun smuggler Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta in custody while he was attempting to smuggle ammunition into Mexico, and made the decision to let him go:
Seven months after federal agents began the ill-fated Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation, they stumbled upon their main suspect in a remote Arizona outpost on the Mexican border, driving an old BMW with 74 rounds of ammunition and nine cellphones hidden inside.
Detained for questioning that day in May 2010, Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta described to agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives his close association with a top Mexican drug cartel member, according to documents obtained this weekend by the Times/Tribune Washington Bureau.
The top Fast and Furious investigator, Special Agent Hope MacAllister, scribbled her phone number on a $10 bill after he pledged to cooperate and keep in touch with investigators.
Then Celis-Acosta disappeared into Mexico. He never called.
Had they arrested him red-handed trying to smuggle ammunition into Mexico, Fast and Furious might have ended quickly. Instead, the program dragged on for another eight months, spiraling out of control.
If you choose to believe Attorney General Eric Holder, the multi-agency strike force composed of assets from the ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID), Department of Homeland Security, and (if conducted legally with waivers from the Arms Export Control Act) the State Department wanted to catch drug cartel higher-ups by using this gun-walking plot. To anyone even remotely familiar with how professional criminals use guns, the Department of Justice’s public justification for Operation Fast and Furious never made sense, and how Operation Fast and Furious was designed to work discredits the attorney general’s claim.
The DOJ claims that higher-ups were the plot’s goal. This is entirely untrue.
In the world of drug cartels, firearms are a disposable consumable, much as copy paper is in a normal company. Just as Warren Buffett has far more pressing issues on his plate than determining where to buy copy paper and other office supplies, cartel ringleaders have more pressing concerns. With shifting alliances to maintain and exploit, and the need to cultivate relationships with politicians and law enforcement officers across international borders, they simply don’t have time for what amounts to obtaining consumable office supplies in their line of work.
Ask any federal law enforcement agent and they will corroborate that fact. Fast and Furious never would have caught higher-ups, because higher-ups simply aren’t involved in such pedestrian matters as small-batch gun acquisition. Even if the ATF/DEA/FBI had tracked the guns, and had worked with Mexican authorities, the operation never would have been able to bring down cartel leaders. No cartel gun investigation of this type ever has, and none ever will. The official line provided by Attorney General Holder is a bald-faced and rather obvious lie.
It seems scandals like “gun runner” are as much to make a point about government as they are about running guns. There seem to be distinct planes to any conspiracy, few of which are really illegal. Only the top layer (one must pray) is entirely ethical.
“Ethics” and “Liberal” in the same sentence constitute an oxymoron. What, exactly, or perhaps who, do you believe to be the “top layer?” If that top layer is either, in your opinion, Obama and/or Holder then you are mistaken.
Dunno. (yet)
Spin,
In Sept 2010 ATF special agent in charge Bill Newell discussed F&F with White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O’Reilly. If you believe that the W/H had no knowledge of this you are the one who is not only mistaken, you are in denial.
Only two possible scenarios exist here. The first is Obama knew about it and in the least condoned it or the worse, authorized it. Second is the president has no idea what his cabinet level departments are doing and is incompetent as a leader.
Pick one.
Baobo, with all due respect, you make no sense. So much so, I read it three times and could only guess what you meant.
Gun runner is a scandal with a purpose. That’s all I know.
It’s kind of like watching a staged bar fight- you need to watch your wallet, and warn the bank that a hold-up is about to occur. Don’t get involved whatever you do…
Even his reply to your reply make absolutely no sense at least in the English language that I understand something is definitely wrong and it might involve drugs and or alcohol!
“Once the gun shipments went over the Mexican border, the operation was designed, from the ground up, to wait for these guns to turn up at crime scenes.”
Isn’t supplying guns to known criminals, knowing that they are going to be used to commit murder, accessory to murder? Eric Holder is an accessory to murder of hundreds of Mexicans as well as a couple of US agents. He belongs in jail.
Yeah, he’ll get there right after confessed bomber/murderer Ayers.
Ayers committed all of his crimes here. Holder’s crimes crossed the border. A presidential pardon would only work in this country. This may cure the administration of their interest in making U.S. law subordinate to international law.
Yeah, that’s how I read it. But the scales of justice aren’t always interpreted the same way for everyone.
Fast and Furious nothing more than a stupid attempt hatched at the highest level by incompetent Chicago community organizers to convince the American public the need for more gun control.
Mr. Owens, I appreciate all you’ve done to expose this issue. We can’t get this information anywhere else. I’m getting very frustrated though. When will this investigation amount to something? When, if ever, do you see this administration being held accountable? Hell’s bells, the election is only 8 months away. If they win again, there will be no stopping them.
Do you have any inkling that congress is ever going to actually do something with this information? I’m getting very worried that it will all be swept under the rug….
Don,
You are raising the question of whether this information will ever reach the consciousness the vast majority of people who trust the well established news outlets to tell them what’s going on.
There is a considerable obstacle course in the path of this information reaching the electorate. How many of us are reading PJ Media? Hopefully an ever growing number, but still a minority. What minority? Just the folks who are doing their own research on the Internet because they don’t want to rely on the usual channels, by default, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the printed media, organization who are typically pushing for gun control, in contradiction with their duty to report from more than a single perspective.
Will this information surface between now and the time of the election? It would be nice, but there is no guarantee. What can we do about it? Talk about it to friends and family, at the risk of being taken for some obscure promoter of some far fetched conspiracy theory! As long as people continue to trust exclusively the evening news on their TV, they have no particular reason to suspect what this piece is revealing. Not that they would be particularly guilty of willful ignorance. They may have more pressing concerns, the children, the family budget, their career, etc, not suspecting that their goodwill and good intentions could be manipulated for nefarious purposes.
How many people know that government agents in the service of Joseph Stalin stole the wheat harvest from farmers in the Ukraine, who were left to die of hunger by the millions from it? How many had a chance to realize that this could have been prevented if those farmers had have guns in their possession? Gun control is one of the steps on the way to tyranny. How many people are ready to contemplate such a somber possibility, while it is so much easier to take comfort in the notion of a benevolent government, simply because their own benevolence would magically permeate the minds of people in positions of power?
I understand your point about the level of conciousness among the voters of this country. However, my question is actually something like, “when is congress going to man up and do the duty they are sworn to perform?” The media can ignore the story all they want, but if congress decides to act, as they should, the administration will be forced to deal with it. Call me a starry-eyed dreamer, but I’d like to believe that Issa et al, aren’t just sitting around waiting for CNN to break the story.
If congress will simply act in accordance with the law, the media will be FORCED to deal with the issue, like it or not.
Mark,
Sorry for mistaking your name the first time around. I am interested in your second question as well: How wonderful it would be to see politicians cornering the media instead of the other way around! Right now we can see Darrel Issa, (R-CA) conducting hearings to challenge Eric Holder to show some humility regarding the Fast and Furious disaster. The question to me is “Why is the Attorney General able to get away with so much stonewalling?” I am afraid it’s because he knows that the media will cover for him. So there it is: The congressman does everything in his power to challenge the AG, who still has the upper hand, simply because the electorate is in the dark about what the AG is really up to. Is there anything else the congressman can do? Yes, keep pressing the case, as he is doing! Will the scandal bubble up to the surface before the election? Anyone wants to bet?
Guys: I am as mad about “Gun Runner” as you are. However, when I see a supposedly serious commentary citing 74 rounds of ammunition as supplying the drug runners, I have to laugh! Get serious!
‘ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the printed media, organization who are typically pushing for gun control, in contradiction with their duty to report from more than a single perspective.’
The alternative perspective you find here but not in the printed media is that blogs like this are still willing to claim that Obama and Holder were involved in this operation, despite finding no evidence to support this claim in 2 years of reporting on it.
So really an ‘alternative perspective’ in the way that book stores have separate non-fiction and fiction sections.
Shoosh, can you imagine and accept an attorney general withholding thousands upon thousands of subpoenaed documents, and when under pressure dripping out a few highly redacted documents to the congressional committees, after having two murdered federal agents as well as hundreds of Mexicans slaughtered as a result of illegal “gun-walking” arranged under the Department of Justice; yet that attorney general, after more than a year cannot or will not say who in the chain of command under him ordered Operation Fast and Furious?
Can you imagine and accept that a president of the United States, after all of these crimes in addition to the human slaughter, pretty much limits his comments to the statement that he has full faith in the attorney general. Can you accept a president taking that lackadaisical attitude without ever having a personal conversation with the attorney general about the full facts of Fast and Furious (according to Holder’s testimony)?
Surely any American who has followed this enormous gun-walking scandal, and has an ounce of decency about himself or herself, can do no less than demand that Fast and Furious continue to be investigated until all of the perpetrators are brought to light and prosecuted.
The president himself has ultimate responsibility for his administration, yet if anything, President Obama appears to have a complete lack of concern about the whole thing. Why?
Nothing will happen in Congress because the Democrats under Reid (who takes orders from Obama) will block everything. It will take a Republican control of the Senate to enable any action against Holder et al.
I think impeachment is a better choice than an independent prosecutor.
Impeachment of any federal officeholder can be initiated solely by the House of Representatives, which is presently controlled by the Republicans. It does not require Senate concurrence (the trial is held in the Senate), and would certainly generate headlines for months. Impeachment prosecutors would have far more power to gather evidence, and the spectacle would churn along through November, creating a huge problem for Obama. Holder would almost certainly resign (just as Nixon did with just the threat of impeachment). An independent prosecutor would bury the case for a long time.
Incidentally, if Holder has actually violated any criminal laws, he could still be prosecuted if impeached.
Do you think for one minute that will happen in a Romney administration?
Look for the Bride of Alberto Gonzales.
Not going to happen, not even with a Republican Senate.
Ken Starr made sure of that, and boy, did he do his job well. He should have won an Oscar for his “Bad Cop” routine.
Oh, you didn’t know that Starr was an old crony of Clinton’s? Look up the Lippo group.
Bob,
I’m behind what youve been going for against Holder 100%.
But in THIS particular story….
74 rounds of ammunition? Thats less than two boxes…
and carrying ammunition in a car isnt a crime…
Where was it found, in the trunk?
The fact you dont say makes me wonder how “obvious” and “incriminating” it was.
Cell phones are pretty circumstantial, too. Flea Market items, often bought/sold/carried in bulk. I can find dozens of people selling hundreds of them every day. So, what we have is a Mexican, in Rural America, driving around with everyday things in his car. I’d be more concerned over the validity of his DRIVERS LICENSE than the presence of ammo.
The “decision” to release him is not as nefarious as it seems…
Its sounds routine to me. Except for his driving credentials (were they good, faked forged?), what COULD they hold him for? Would YOU like to be detained by the Feds over “one and a half boxes” of ammo, and some cell phones?
Even if he WAS sought after by Higher- ups, I doubt very much Special Agent “Hope-n-change MacAllister” had a clue who she was dealing with at the time of the stop.
He may have been a “somebody to somebody”, but its usually only LATER when connecting the dots that becomes clear.
Dont forget, DC sniper John Wayne Mohammad was “stopped and released” once too…sleeping in his car at a rest stop, or something like that, while they were all on the lookout for that “white van”, remember?
I dont like what happened with F&F, and want folks hung by their balls for it. No doubt. I’m for “off-ing” the worst offenders….Holder, Obama, if it goes that far.
But the “release” of guy in this story doenst smell like “the smoking gun of conspiracy” to me.
Just another depressing annecdote, to a thoroughly FUBAR’d story.
It has been reported elsewhere that he had been under surveillance for some time. He had been involved in straw purchases, obliterating serial numbers on weapons and smuggling. The minor charges were likely just to get his attention so he would know the feds had evidence of bigger issues and he should play ball. He was arrested less than a year later regardless.
Thanks Mr.Owens for a common sense expose of the entire situation … simple really; but this type of simplicity seems to escape most people. Holder is lying through his teeth … insulting our intelligence. Please someone bring this guy to justice.
Mr. Owens, Thanks for helping keep this issue alive with a good summary of the events and Holder’s [and Obama's] real motivations. Many of us have been aware of all of this for almost a year. The disgrace is the lack of interest of most of the media. This may well be the biggest government scandal in American history, but Obama and Holder are protected by their Palace Guard, the American television, newspaper, and magazine community. Even Fox News is timid in its coverage.
Mark, There are websites that have been reporting on this for a long time. Some whistle blower ATF agents have bloggrd about this. Off the top of my head, one site is The Sipsey Street Irregulars.
Another good site for reporting on Fast and Furious is The Daily Caller. The American Thinker as well as Human Events also have in depth articles on the subject from time to time.
Don and Prosecutor, thanks for the tips on the web sites.
CBS has covered this the most out of any of the former MsM.
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Why does anti-gun look like such a smoke screen when Holder is involved? How anti-gun is Holder in relation to that other infamous incident of the Marc Rich pardon, as Marc Rich was also into gun running as late as the Iraq food for oil deal? How thick is Holder’s layers of hypocracy which keep in office despite his questional agendas?
Let’s face it, the suspect was let go(probably a much richer drug runner) as to avoid any possibility of a slip up on his part if prosecuted. Holders bunch are brushing their foot prints off this case completely.
Please click Bob’s reference cited in blue type in his article,i.e. ” 1995 campaign to demonize guns and gun-owners”. In his speech at that time, Holder advocated “brainwashing” Americans against gun ownership.
Bob’s article mentions that gun store owners were forced to comply with ATF demands to permit the straw purchases. Presuming this was done in person by local agents, why didn’t the owner say, “OK, but I want to make a video recording of your request, so I have a record of it.” My guess is the ATF agent would have walked.
Or what if said owner stated, he wanted in writing a letter from department superiors saying that ATF and DOJ would hold him legally harmless for the sale and any criminal activity that occurred due to the sale.
Or best of all: why didn’t a store owner secretly video the meeting with ATF and then, when F and F broke, just post it on You Tube.
The lawless leftists in ATF and DOJ deserved nothing less.
Roger, what you say makes good sense, but know that the low level agents who made the requests didn’t know that the guns would not be followed beyond the straw purchasers’ homes. They questioned their superiors when the surveillance was broken off, but were BS’ed and told they didn’t need to know the whole strategy. When Agent Terry was killed, a couple of agents complained louder and eventually blew the whistle.
Roger, forgot to type in my name and it came up as Anonymous.
My guess is the ATF agent would have walked.
Of course, but following that the ATF would have very likely destroyed the gun dealer, it’s their SOP for FFLs that don’t cooperate with them and all to often those who do (and as I recall there’s at least one example of the latter in Fast and Furious).
Once you get an FFL (Federal Firearms License) you are totally at their very limited mercy, for the ATF is an extremely abusive agency. Waco was an extreme but hardly surprising to those of us who’ve followed their excesses since the early ’70s. A little time with Google will confirm this if you have any doubt.
You don’t know the ATF. A much more believable response would be, “You’ll do it, and you won’t video tape anything, and you won’t say anything to anybody, or your gun license is history and we’ll find some reason to bring criminal charges, too.”
Anyone with experience with the ATFE field agents is going to record the conversation, and the heck with if it’s legal. (Doctrine of balancing harms)
There are some great people working for ATFE, but they are at the mercy of their superiors, who are at the mercy of their superiors, who … Bottem line? They have to choose between the well being of the citizens and their paycheck. Guess which loses?
“Why would the the Obama administration invest in a high-risk, low-reward program that was dependent on guns being used to murder more than 300 Mexican citizens so far?”
They wouldn’t. Just like the Bush administration didn’t when the same operation ran on their watch.
You are asking why the executive branch was intimately involved in one particular criminal investigation, in one city, in one state. You know there is nothing to suggest that they were and that there would be as much need for them to be as any DEA drug purchase
monitoring operation in New York state. None.
It’s been several years already, you’ve found nothing to suggest this operation occurred on the orders of Holder or Obama, or that they were aware of the tactics used. The only piece of incriminating evidence against these two men after 2 years is their skin color.
” The only piece of incriminating evidence against these two men after 2 years is their skin color.”
No, Actually it’s about our government’s facilitation of arms smuggling across our southern border, in violation of federal law, resulting in the deaths of at least 200 human beings. Skin colcr is only a factor as far as your defense of the indefensable goes.
1. about 2,000 assault rifles. 2. Millions of dollars invested in Fast and Furious. 3. Unlike operation under Bush, Mexico was not informed and played no part in F&F. 4. Four Federal Agencies were part of F&F. 5. Head of ATF testified he was involved. 6. Thousands, not hundreds killed in Mexico. 7. ATF agents on ground complained that surveillance was cut off.
No way an operation so large and risky,with no heads up to Mexican authorities, was carried out without approval at the highest levels.
The operation under President Bush was not the same as “Fast and Furious.” The guns were tracked, and not allowed to actually leave the country.
It was on a much smaller scale and, when they realized they couldn’t reliably track the weapons, they killed it. The leftists try to use this as a red herring to cover their corrupt regime.
Except it wasn’t the same operation at all. Not even close.
That’s just the latest liberal talking point. A lie, as usual.
Apples & Oranges Shoosh!
The Bush Operation TRACKED and STOPPED the straw-purchased guns at the border before they left the country!
Fast & Furious was DESIGNED to LET the straw-purchased guns leave the country un-tracked!
Funny how Bush is ASSUMED to have had full and complete knowledge of the “gun-walking” operation that occured on his watch, but to imply that Obama had any knowledge whatsoever is “Crazy”, “Racist”, “Absurd!”
I’m always perplexed as to whether it is worse that the lefty punks who show up to spout this crap don’t believe it but just cynically spout the party line or if the lefty punks who spout this crap are so stupid that they believe the party line.
Opinions?
This gun control issue is an interesting one. It will be interesting to see how the murder of Treyvon Martin effects this debate.
It doesn’t. They’re totally unrelated, as you well know.
The only links are firearms and a hispanic.
So far as I can see, that shooting was just hispanic vs black violence.
Project Gunrunner began under Bush’s ATF, but was cancelled after a few hundred guns went across the Border and a few were lost track of. The Mexican government was cooperating and involved. The differences between the two operations are obvious.
Your willingness to forget about Fast and Furious appears to be an effort to cover-up and dismiss what has actually taken place. The investigations into this debacle have been stalled in the House, for reasons we are not privy to yet. This issue will not go away though, because regardless of lack of proof to surface yet, there is good reason for believing the operation had to be approved at the highest ranks of our government and for purely political reasons. The results of this scandalous operation are horrendous and cannot be miminimized.
Me thinks you doth protest too much. Hundreds of lives have been taken across the Border and two of our own Federal Agents are dead, linked to these guns. You believe that a year old investigations has proven nothing, you’re wrong. It’s proving to me that the crimes involved are so evident of corruption and resulting homicides, that it is in the best interests of everyone involved to stall and maintain their silence as long as possible, hoping potential witnesses will be gone.
We do know why it’s stalled in the house. 1. Holder says it’s under investigation internally and no comments until investigation is complete. Problem is the investigation by his subordinate has been going on for best part of a year. What’s the odds it will be completed before November?
2. Issa can’t get the e-mails and memos, and what he gets is heavily redacted.
Issa will have to go the route of impeachment or criminal charges to knock our criminal top law enforcement officer off his high horse. Remember this is the guy who helped criminal Marc Rich to get his pardon. He was Janet Reno’s assistant during Ruby Ridge and Waco, both arising from gun ownership charges. The depth of Holder’s evil doings is deep. When will the Republican candidates join the fight against evil in the highest places, before we lose the liberty we fought for?
Don’t forget Holder’s connection to Oklahoma City
Vangrungy, you’re right. Free Republic has info on FBI supplied explosive materials to Timothy McVeigh. Supposedly a Freedom of Information release says FBI agents’ and McVeigh’s fingerprints on material, and Holder was having kittens trying to locate the explosives. If true, this should be knock out blow for Holder. We’ll see if the info is solid. Check it out.
Another group that is covering this is the NRA. They definitely have a vested interest in all this. They have been covering it almost as well as PJM and are getting the message out to millions of their members worldwide.
Sorry for posting again so soon but I had to get that first out there before I said something I shouldn’t to Shooosh.
Another point I meant to make was that any impeachment hearing would be conducted by the Democratically controlled Congress. Could we really expect a fair and impartial hearing on this? My guess is that nothing will be done until after the election when hopefully the makeup of congress changes. For now, Izza and Grassely are just collecting enough damning evidence to hang everyone involved when they are sure of a fair hearing.
I believe impeachment is brought by the House. Then, I think the senate sits as the jury. The present Dem. Senate probably wouldn’t find him guilty, no matter how compelling the evidence.
I don’t think the Repubs have the cojones to do it. There may be criminal charges possible, outside of impeachment, I don’t know. Maybe some of the lawyers here know.
You are correct on all points.
I beleive that Daryl Issa is being extremely methodical in pursuing this case- This is nothing that you want to do in a half-baked manner. It’s hard to imagine that the White house was oblivious to this- that just beggars credulity. I think that Issa wants to make sure that Holder is held accountable, along with any others that may be involved, by which I mean higher ups. No sense in going after Holder only to have Obama pardon him on the way our of the White House in January. It would be nice if there were some hearings in October.
it’s been more than two years.. when is issa going to do something besides talk.. after the elections?? when they’ll be thrown out of office and they won’t be able to do anything about it.. it’s looking like it to me…less talk more action.. more action how about ANY action.. this is all BS.. ain’t nobody going to do anything about this.. even if it gets to trial or whatever.. and holder and his gang are found guilty of murder they will STILL let them walk.. only way we can do anything about this is VOTE the arses out.. dems and republicans.. anyone not getting justice done needs to hit the bricks..
If Issa brings ANY charges, Obama pardons everybody involved and they all WALK. The pardons come after the election, win OR lose.
I’m very glad Issa is wise enough to see this.
You should learn that patience is a powerful weapon.
I congratulate Mr. B. Owens for a true journalism coup; this would be the stuff of a Pulitzer if our journalism profession had not been corrupted.
However I would correct No. 13. OldCon and 11. Shooosh on one fundamentally vital point, based on other open sources. There was a similar effort under the Bush Administration, with a different code name, basically trafficking weapons to Mexican drug armies. The key difference was an inept implantation of an electronic locator in each weapon, in the first program. When it was implanted, the transmitting aerial was broken off, limiting the signal range to feet, not thousands of meters, effectively making any tracing impossible. It is most difficult to believe that people do not check their equipment before lethal activities, but it speaks to the professionalism of those involved. The F&F program followed the Bush Administration work, was much larger, and no attempt to trace the weapons in Mexico was made, except to link them to murders, through Mexican police inquiries. The Mexicans police were kept in the dark about F&F.
I have read a theory, competing with this article, that the weapon transfer was a covert operation by our CIA to prevent the overthrow of the Mexican government by certain powerful drug warlords. We supplied arms to their competitors in a divide and conquer scenario. The fact that Mexico is basically locked in an unwinable multi-axis Civil war, for years, indicates that the government lacks the muscle to conquer the warlords. I do not know what is the truth. Mr. Owens reporting and logic, although shredding our AG’s integrity, seems equally hard to swallow. The reason maybe “unintended consequences”.
There is Prima facie evidence of enormous felonies, including conspiracy in the murder of US sworn officers. High officials have been shuffled but no criminal charges have been leveled against any DoJ official, while murdered cops, and hundreds of innocents, lie in their graves. This can not last, it is obvious that people know dark secrets and have not divulged the simple truth. If we get a new AG next year, we should get explosive information. Whoever sings first, skates. Somebody is looking at serious time in prison.
What we do know is that an American government scandal which is more heinous than Abu Ghraib, My Lai, and Gitmo, combined, is non existent in the American consciousness. Why? Because almost no reporter, or their editors, are interested in what happened. This alone is shocking.
The ATF whistle blowers who were on the front line of the operation seem to agree with the “attack on the 2nd amendment” explanation. Of course people don’t want to think that high government officials would be so underhanded as to cause so much destruction to accomplish their aim to restrict gun ownership.
But if you follow Eric Holder over two decades and read his statements about gun control, and if you recall his involvement in Ruby Ridge and Waco, you might not find this so difficult to believe. I fear, based on historical precedent, that this will be covered up, and I am not a conspiracy theorist. Holder has withheld or redacted much of the evidence requested by Issa’s House committee. But someone may crack, as you suggested, and we will learn at least the extent of Holder’s lies.
As disgraceful as this bloody scandal is the silence of the fourth estate that is charged with informing the citizenry.
Yup, still waiting for that in house DOJ investigation to figure out who actually signed off on all that murder and mayhem in Mexico. I notice they have no problem figuring out which GI killed those civilians in Kandahar, which GIs burned the Korans in Kabul, and who in the Pakistan intelligence service was probably hiding out bin Laden in Pakistan, but they can’t figure out who in Washington authorized the mass killings in Mexico. Maybe after the election, hey?
Owens is absolutely correct that allowing guns purchased by straw buyers in the US to cross over into Mexico without any attempt at interdiction, control or surveillance would never result in building a case against the leaders of the Mexican cartels, who likely would never touch said guns-just as they have no need to ever touch the drugs they are responsible for sending into the US. The only thing that could be obtained would be intelligence that these guns came from the US when they showed up at the scenes of shootings. Thus, the only explanation that makes sense is what was originally just a conspiracy theory-that the administration wanted to make a point that their statements about 90% of Mexico’s guns having come from the US was correct, thus, making the case for tighter gun control here at home. As a result they used, abused, and subverted the ATF to their own political ends.
What other logical explanation exists?
ATF agents at the street level in Arizona were charged with conducting an operation that could not be described as an enforcement operation, rather an intelligence operation that went against everything they had been taught. Their mission in ATF was to get illegal guns off the streets and out of the hands of criminals, just as a DEA agent’s mission is to get drugs off the street and dealers into jail. While there is a legitimate need for intelligence, the agent’s job ultimately is not to write history.
Aside from the blown seizures and arrests, the end result is some 300 deaths in Mexico and the killing of two US agents, Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, both of whom worked under Janet Napolitano, who, to this day, has not even (according to her sworn testimony) spoken to Attorney General Eric Holder about it.
Gary Fouse
DEA -retired
can’t figure out who done it, eh? need some special tax $$$ spent by doj(oke) to figger it out?
been watching a lot of c.s.i. stuff, and i believe the good ones would look at who got promoted and reassigned to wash. (ya know, to keepemclose and quiet) , and then who in wash. promoted them.
got a good hunch where it ends. go pick ‘em up danno, i’ll get the room ready.
Congratulations and thanks for your great and relentless reporting on this issue, Bob. You’d have earned a Pulitzer if they meant what they were supposed to mean.
Given Obama’s propensity to throw people under the bus, I suspect he knew more about this far sooner than has been acknowledged – perhaps even by the time of his remark to Sarah Brady – and that Holder has proof of it, so he’s golden.
Bob,
I’m behind what youve been going for against Holder 100%. But 74 rounds of ammunition? Thats less than two boxes….and carrying ammunition in a car isnt a crime….where was it, in the trunk?
Cell phones are circumstantial, too. Flea Market items, often bought/sold/carried in bulk. So, we have a Mexican in Rural America, driving around with everyday things in his car. I’m more concerned over the validity of his DRIVERS LICENSE than the ammo.
The “decision” to release him is not as nefarious as it seems…
Its sounds routine to me. Except for his driving credentials (were they good, faked forged?), what COULD they hold him for? Would YOU like to be detained by the Feds over a box and a half of ammo, and some cell phones?
Even if he WAS sought after by Higher ups, I doubt very much Special Agent “Hope-n-change MacAllister” had a clue who she was dealing with at the time. DC sniper John Wayne Mohammad was “stopped and released” once too…sleeping in his car or something like that, while they were all on the lookout for that “white van”
No “conspiracy” there.
And none either here I suspect.
What I find most troubling, at this point, is that the investigation by Issa and Grassley seems to have gone into slow motion. Issa was going to issue a contempt citation to Holder, for failing to provide requested documents, and that didn’t happen.
There were several news reports, that John Boehner was involved in quashing the contempt citation, and brokered a deal whereby everyone would be let off the hook except for one ATF manager. If that is true, it is beneath contempt, and Boehner needs to go. We have the deaths of two federal agents, and hundreds of Mexican citizens, with weapons supplied by the ATF, and we are making deals, to let people off and not embarrass the DOJ or Obama? People should be going to jail over this. If it was anyone other than government officials, people would already be in jail awaiting indictment and trial.
Let the chips fall wherever and to whomever, and if that proves to be Holder, or Clinton, or Napolitano, or even Obama, then so be it. That would be the equal justice, that Holder is always calling for. It needs to be delivered. The investigation needs to be handed off to a special prosecutor, to remove it from politics. The truth needs to come out, and justice needs to prevail.
Bob – great stuff – something smells in the Issa investigation tho – like where is it? Lots of noise now and then but right now its a big zero.
Bob, you are thinking too small. Using F&F to push more gun control in the US was to be a side benefit to the civil unrest provoked in Mexico to bring the leftist PRI back into power. Obama and his fellow Maoists tried to use a Mexican cartel to bring down the current rightist Mexican government.
Putting the leftists back in power would allow them to reestablish the relative quiet where the cartels were part of the government, working hand in glove to keep everyone happy, particularly the beneficiaries of the drug trade on both sides of the border.
“It’s past time for the appointment of an independent prosecutor, and to press for criminal charges against those responsible for the carnage that has resulted from the deadliest scandal in U.S. government history.”
It will never happen. Holder’s job is to impede and obstruct the investigation for as long as possible. He will never be brought to trial because he is under O’s umbrella. The worst that will happen is Holder will resign. If O succeeds in cheating his way into a 2nd term, gun control beyond our wildest imagination will happen, and no one will be able to stop this evil duo from Executive orders, overturned laws, and illegally passed laws.
I do agree we may as well try to shed light on this outrage, in the unlikely event I am wrong!
Keep shining the light on these scumbags and their “under the radar” treasonous UNAMERICAN utopian radical agenda and war against America from within. They thought they could get away with it because there is so much going on, so much cover from the media and the politicized into Marxist socialist secular-to-the-core revolutionary hub academic departments. The Democrat media complex is just the front.
Why Did The DHS Just Order 450 Million Rounds Of .40 Caliber Ammunition?
http://thecentristpoint.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/why-did-the-dhs-just-order-450-million-rounds-of-40-caliber-ammunition/
Until now I’ve always taken this claim with a grain of salt.
No more. This definitely appears to be an Obama/Holder plot of the worst kind.
If Holder was a ‘loose cannon’ operating his own rogue foreign policy, running illicit guns into a sovereign country, delivering said guns into the hands of narcoterrorists actively engaged in subverting this country’s legitimately elected government and therefore usurping the sole authority of the President to authorize covert activities in foreign countries, why hasn’t Obama fired him and indicted him?
A large part of the criminal responsibility for the hundreds of murders committed with these F&F guns could be laid directly on Holder’s desk.
Obama has to know that his silence equals not only consent but support. He and Holder should be leading this investigation, not obstructing it.
In Sept 2010 ATF special agent in charge Bill Newell discussed F&F with White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O’Reilly.
Are we to believe that Obama does not communicate with this cabinet level officials that are actually in the W/H?