posted December 08, 2011 12:00 AM            

The gun sales to illegal...straw purchasers, was authorized by ATF agency heads. Add to that the fact those guns were not tracked into Mexico..or even tracked at all and it becomes clear the Gun Runner Operation was not designed to track the guns to the end users, Mexican drug cartels.

It's now clear this illegal operation was designed to permit O'Bomber and other leftists to implement more gun control in the US.

I guess our Constitutional Scholar and Community Organizer president has not yet read the 2 recent Supreme Court decisions on the 2nd Amendment rights of US citizens.

December 7, 2011 1:44 PM PrintText Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations
By Sharyl Attkisson

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:

"Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks."

On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as "(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale on Long Guns issue." And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed Newell: "Bill--well done yesterday... (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case."

This revelation angers gun rights advocates. Larry Keane, a spokesman for National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, calls the discussion of Fast and Furious to argue for Demand Letter 3 "disappointing and ironic." Keane says it's "deeply troubling" if sales made by gun dealers "voluntarily cooperating with ATF's flawed 'Operation Fast & Furious' were going to be used by some individuals within ATF to justify imposing a multiple sales reporting requirement for rifles."

The Gun Dealers' Quandary

Several gun dealers who cooperated with ATF told CBS News and Congressional investigators they only went through with suspicious sales because ATF asked them to.

Sometimes it was against the gun dealer's own best judgment.

In April, 2010 a licensed gun dealer cooperating with ATF was increasingly concerned about selling so many guns. "We just want to make sure we are cooperating with ATF and that we are not viewed as selling to the bad guys," writes the gun dealer to ATF Phoenix officials, "(W)e were hoping to put together something like a letter of understanding to alleviate concerns of some type of recourse against us down the road for selling these items."

ATF's group supervisor on Fast and Furious David Voth assures the gun dealer there's nothing to worry about. "We (ATF) are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into detail."

Two months later, the same gun dealer grew more agitated.

"I wanted to make sure that none of the firearms that were sold per our conversation with you and various ATF agents could or would ever end up south of the border or in the hands of the bad guys. I guess I am looking for a bit of reassurance that the guns are not getting south or in the wrong hands...I want to help ATF with its investigation but not at the risk of agents (sic) safety because I have some very close friends that are US Border Patrol agents in southern AZ as well as my concern for all the agents (sic) safety that protect our country."

"It's like ATF created or added to the problem so they could be the solution to it and pat themselves on the back," says one law enforcement source familiar with the facts. "It's a circular way of thinking."

The Justice Department and ATF declined to comment. ATF officials mentioned in this report did not respond to requests from CBS News to speak with them.

The "Demand Letter 3" Debate

The two sides in the gun debate have long clashed over whether gun dealers should have to report multiple rifle sales. On one side, ATF officials argue that a large number of semi-automatic, high-caliber rifles from the U.S. are being used by violent cartels in Mexico. They believe more reporting requirements would help ATF crack down. On the other side, gun rights advocates say that's unconstitutional, and would not make a difference in Mexican cartel crimes.

Two earlier Demand Letters were initiated in 2000 and affected a relatively small number of gun shops. Demand Letter 3 was to be much more sweeping, affecting 8,500 firearms dealers in four southwest border states: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. ATF chose those states because they "have a significant number of crime guns traced back to them from Mexico." The reporting requirements were to apply if a gun dealer sells two or more long guns to a single person within five business days, and only if the guns are semi-automatic, greater than .22 caliber and can be fitted with a detachable magazine.

On April 25, 2011, ATF announced plans to implement Demand Letter 3. The National Shooting Sports Foundation is suing the ATF to stop the new rules. It calls the regulation an illegal attempt to enforce a law Congress never passed. ATF counters that it has reasonably targeted guns used most often to "commit violent crimes in Mexico, especially by drug gangs."

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is investigating Fast and Furious, as well as the alleged use of the case to advance gun regulations. "There's plenty of evidence showing that this administration planned to use the tragedies of Fast and Furious as rationale to further their goals of a long gun reporting requirement. But, we've learned from our investigation that reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions. It's pretty clear that the problem isn't lack of burdensome reporting requirements."

On July 12, 2011, Sen. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote Attorney General Eric Holder, whose Justice Department oversees ATF. They asked Holder whether officials in his agency discussed how "Fast and Furious could be used to justify additional regulatory authorities." So far, they have not received a response. CBS News asked the Justice Department for comment and context on ATF emails about Fast and Furious and Demand Letter 3, but officials declined to speak with us.

posted December 08, 2011 01:11 AM            

History will look back at this joke of a president as even a bigger joke on the bleeding heart knee jerks that voted him in.

posted December 09, 2011 07:50 AM            

It was always Holder's "intention" to lie about his part in this illegal operation, when he knew about it, what he knew and what O'Bomber knew. He's lied about reports not being sent to him about this illegal operation but report distribution lists show Holder was on the list. Holder lied to Congress when he said his top adviser didn't discuss the illegal operation with him..though this adviser was personally briefed by the head of ATF on the operation at least 4 times.

Let's see, we've got an illegal operation blowing up in administration faces which involves O'Bomber's political appointees in the ATF and Justice Dept. Holder's chief adviser is briefed at least 4 times by the head of the ATF about this illegal operation to run guns into Mexico AND then...this top adviser didn't bother to brief Holder about the coming firestorm? Right! Check!

And, Holder says he didn't lie to Congress because...he lacked the requisite "INTENT" to lie while he sat there spinning fairy tales.

People would have to be down to their very last braincell to believe Holder.

BearsArcher
O'Bomber and his gun grabbing Loony Tunes comrades have done more to boost gun and ammunition sales in America than could have been accomplished with a billion dollars of television advertising by Remington, Winchester, Ruger, Colt, Blazer, etc.

There was an 18 month period when guns, ammunition and even reloading components were on constant back order. Not because the factories had cut production but because sales skyrocketed and factories couldn't keep up with the demand.

It could be said that O'Bomber created lots of jobs....at gun and ammunition makers! But, that's about the only place in America.

posted December 13, 2011 11:58 AM            

How could anyone as corrupt or incompetent as Eric Holder still have a job in any honest administration?

The operative words here are.."honest administration" and the O'Bomber administration doesn't qualify.

Calderon spokesman: Mexico unaware DOJ was passing laundered cash to cartels
12/12/2011
By Matthew Boyle

According to a spokesperson for Mexican president Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s government was left in the dark about a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration drug money laundering scheme that allegedly facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars to Mexican drug cartels.

The program was similar to Operation Fast and Furious in that the U.S. Department of Justice, under Attorney General Eric Holder, was allegedly furnishing narcotics traffickers with laundered drug proceeds in an attempt to discern how those funds would move, and to whom.

On this week’s Al Punto, a Sunday news program on the Spanish-language television network Univision, Calderon spokeswoman Alejandra Sota said the Mexican government was not aware of, or involved with, any DEA money laundering scheme.

According to a New York Times report, “in operations supervised by the Justice Department and orchestrated to get around sovereignty restrictions” drug enforcement agents “laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels.”

Almost immediately after the Times published the story, and House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa’s subsequent announcement that he will expand his investigation of Operation Fast and Furious to examine reports of DEA-facilitated money laundering, the Department of Justice released a public statement disclaiming the practice as perfectly ordinary.

In that statement, the Obama administration claimed it was “working collaboratively with the Mexican government” on the efforts to fight more widespread money laundering.

“As our partners in Mexico have stated, the joint investigations to detect and dismantle money laundering networks have led to important advances and detentions in each country,” the DEA and DOJ jointly said. “The cooperation between the United States and Mexico is based on principles of shared responsibility, mutual trust and respect for the jurisdiction of each country.”
http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/12/calderon-spox-mexico-unaware-doj-wa s-passing-laundered-cash-to-cartels/

posted January 21, 2012 10:57 AM            

The O'Bomber administration is running a cover-up. The cover-up of O'Bomber's illegal gun running operation across an international border to Mexican drug cartels dwarfs the Nixon administration cover-up of Watergate. Additionally, no one got killed in the Watergate break-in or cover-up. Hundreds of Mexican citizens have been killed with the guns O'Bomber ran illegally into Mexico...and at least one Border Patrol Agent.

January 20, 2012
Criminal Division Chief of AZ U.S. Attorney's Office Will Plead Fifth in Fast and Furious Investigation
M Catharine Evans
American Thinker

A major player who's up to his eyeballs in the bloody fiasco known as Operation Fast and Furious is pleading the fifth.

Under threat of a subpoena from Congressman Darrell Issa's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Patrick Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona, lawyered up with an attorney from the high-powered Washington firm of Williams and Connolly.

Tobin Romero, a specialist in white collar crime, responded to a January 18 letter from Chairman Issa which pointedly named Cunningham as the official "identified" by the Justice Department "as the most appropriate person to interview from the U.S. Attorney's office regarding Operation Fast and Furious."

Romero wrote back:

According to your letter Justice officials have reported to the committee that my client relayed inaccurate information to the Department on which it relied in preparing its initial response to Congress. If as you claim, Department officials blamed my client, they have blamed him unfairly."

The evidence described above shows that my client is, in fact, innocent but he has been ensnared by the unfortunate circumstances in which he now stands between two branches of government.

I am writing to advise you that my client is going to assert his constitutional privilege not to be compelled to be a witness against himself.

Romero issued the standard denial stating he had received "no documents supporting the allegations in your letter that my client had anything to do with approving the unacceptable tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious."

Cunningham's refusal to tell what he knows about the murders of innocent people is only the latest act of cowardice coming from this gang of government outlaws who ran guns straight into the hands of the Sinaloa cartel. (aside: the same cartel mysteriously omitted from one of President Obama's executive orders)

Cunningham can't separate himself from this mass murder mess fast enough. Washington Examiner's David Codrea reported "a little bird told him" the official will follow in former Arizona US Attorney Dennis Burke's footsteps and resign on January 27. How convenient.

Meanwhile doubts about Congressman Issa's willingness to break through Attorney General Holder's wall of lies and find out who authorized an illegal gun walking operation are increasing. After he received the Arizona attorney's letter, Issa politely asked if Cunningham's "assertion" of his Fifth Amendment right doesn't "also raise questions about whether President Obama and Attorney General Holder have made a serious and adequate response to allegations raised by whistleblowers."

posted January 28, 2012 11:06 PM            

This isn't going to go away until every detail is laid bare.

In a related operation, elements of the US Executive Branch of government laundered Mexican drug cartel drug money and ran that laundered money back over the Mexican border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Neither is that going away until every last detail is revealed to congressional investigating committees.

Btw, lying to congress under oath is a felony. It's also an impeachable offense.

Latest Friday night document dump shows Holder was informed of Fast and Furious connection to Brian Terry’s murder on day border agent died
By Matthew Boyle
1/28/2012

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 08: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing about the controversial the "Operation Fast and Furious" gun running program on Capitol Hill, on November 8, 2011 in Washington, DC. "Operation Fast and Furious" was set up to be a sting set up by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that allowed weapons to be purchased from Arizona gun shops by Mexican drug cartels to trace cross boarder gun trafficking. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 4, 2011, before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (AP)

Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice dumped documents related to Operation Fast and Furious on congressional officials late Friday night. Central to this document dump is a series of emails showing Holder was informed of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder on the day it happened – December 15, 2010 – and that he was informed the weapons used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious on the same day.

An email from one official, whose name has been redacted from the document, to now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke reads: “On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center.”

That email was sent at 2:31 a.m. on the day Terry was shot. One hour later, a follow-up email read: “Our agent has passed away.”

Burke forwarded those two emails to Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson later that morning, adding that the incident was “not good” because it happened “18 miles w/in” the border.

Wilkinson responded to Burke shortly thereafter and said the incident was “tragic.” “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”

Then, later that day, Burke followed up with Wilkinson after Burke discovered from officials whose names are redacted that the guns used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious. “The guns found in the desert near the murder BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson.

“I’ll call tomorrow,” Wilkinson responded.

Ads by GoogleThis is hardly the first time new evidence has come out that directly contradicts Holder’s congressional testimony. These new emails are written evidence that Holder was aware of Fast and Furious about five months before he testified in Congress that he had only learned of the gunwalking program a “few weeks” before a May 3, 2011, House Judiciary Committee appearance.

Holder has since walked back that “few weeks” comment, amending it to more of a “couple months.”

“I did say a ‘few weeks,’” Holder said during a November 8 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, responding to a question from its chairman Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy. “I probably could’ve said ‘a couple of months.’ I didn’t think the term I said, ‘few weeks,’ was inaccurate based on what happened.”

There have also been a series of documents containing the intimate details of Fast and Furious that were sent to Holder all throughout 2010 from several of his senior aides. Holder claims he did not read his memos.

Holder will be appearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform next Thursday, Feb. 2. Though Holder has already testified before Congress three times about matters relating to Fast and Furious — twice before the House Judiciary Committee and once before the Senate Judiciary Committee — this is the first time the House oversight committee will have an opportunity to question Holder himself.

“The Judiciary Committee has multiple issues with the Attorney General,” House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller last week. “We have one issue: the issue of breaking the law in order to enforce the law.”

“The oversight committee is investigating the Department of Justice, which is very different than his appearances before the Judiciary Committees in which they’re asking how things are going at Justice. What we’ve discovered in our investigations is a pattern of cover-up [and] delay. Ultimately Congress was given false information and now we’ve had people both resign and take the Fifth as we try to get to the basic elements of why and how was Congress lied to.”

posted January 31, 2012 09:30 AM            

Fast and Furious: Holder’s Perjury Defense Gets Shaky
The latest Friday night document dump raises questions
John Hayward
01/30/2012

To the great annoyance of congressional investigators, Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department has been dragging its feet turning over subpoenaed documents relating to several inquiries – most infamously the “Fast and Furious” gun walking operation, in which American guns were deliberately allowed to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartel killers.

DOJ has a habit of releasing these subpoenaed documents in massive “dumps” on Friday night, to guarantee minimal media coverage. Last Friday’s dump weighed in at 500 pages, and turned out to contain some very interesting emails sent in the wake of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder. Among the first media outlets to dig out these messages was… National Public Radio:

The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. "Tragic," responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson. "I've alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General..."

Only a few minutes later, Wilkinson emailed again, saying, "Please provide any additional details as they become available to you."

Burke then delivered another piece of bad news: "The guns found in the desert near the murder [sic] ... officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about — they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store."

Uh-oh. This is very bad news for Attorney General Eric Holder’s perjury defense - which rests on the assertion that he has no idea what’s actually going on at the Justice Department, doesn’t read his email, and was totally out of the loop on Operation Fast and Furious until it became a media sensation. Specifically, Holder told Congress in May 2011 that he “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” Later, he changed his mind and said it was more like “a couple of months.”

But here we have emails clearly demonstrating that Holder’s aide, Monty Wilkinson, was fully aware of the Fast and Furious connection to Agent Terry’s murder on December 14, 2010 almost immediately. NPR’s summary of the incriminating emails leaves out some very important details, which the Washington Times provides:

The released emails show a conversation between one official, whose name was redacted, and now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke.

“On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center,” the email read.

Another email sent an hour later, read: “Our agent has passed away.”

Burke then forwarded those two email to Eric Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff, Monty Wilkinson, adding that the shooting was “not good,” due to the fact that it had happened “18 miles w/in” the United States border.

Wilkinson responded with, “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”

Later that day, Burke sent an email to Wilkinson alerting him that the guns used to kill Brian Terry were weapons from the gunrunning operation, Fast and Furious.

“The guns found in the desert near the murdered BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson in an email.

(Emphases mine.) Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) of the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of the leading investigators of the Fast and Furious scandal, said via Twitter that these documents “clearly show Holder’s people knew about gun running days before I opened my investigation, yet they lied.” (Note: I have taken the liberty of transcribing Grassley’s comment from highly compressed Twitter-speak.)

Now, in order to maintain his “Sergeant Schultz” defense against perjury, Holder would have to claim that his aide, Wilkinson, never actually briefed him after claiming to have done so, and never passed along any of the Fast and Furious-related details of Terry’s murder.

If Wilkinson is willing to go under the bus for his boss, he might try claiming he was somehow distracted from researching this immensely significant story, after plainly stating he would look into it, and keep Holder up to speed. Keep in mind that the emails make it absolutely and unambiguously clear that Wilkinson knew weapons found at the scene of Terry’s murder were connected to an investigation he and Burke “were going to talk about.” It strains credulity that Wilkinson simply lost interest in the Terry murder, which generated a huge amount of DOJ message traffic, and near-panic among the ATF brass running Operation Fast and Furious.

Or, alternatively, Holder would have to claim that Wilkinson dutifully prepared a detailed briefing within a day or two of Terry’s murder, but Holder never bothered to read it.

Burke, by the way, is a key Fast and Furious player who admitted, after resigning, that he leaked a Justice Department memo to the press, in an attempt to discredit whistle-blowing ATF agent John Dodson. To date, he’s pretty much the only person to lose his job because of the Obama Administration’s deadly gun-walking scandal. He just happens to have been the subject of a critical profile in the Arizona Republic this weekend, which pointed out that many observers think he was thrown under the bus to protect his superiors, perhaps including AG Holder:

Curiously, the supporters and detractors agree on one point: They say Burke became a scapegoat to protect higher officials in the Justice Department or White House. Dave Workman, a gun-rights blogger, described Burke as "the chief sacrificial lamb."

Sen. Grassley, in an October statement, said: "Mr. Burke is to be commended, to some extent, for being the only person to resign and take responsibility for the failed operation. Of course, I do not believe he should feel obligated to be the only fall guy."

Phoenix attorney Andy Gordon, a close friend for nearly two decades, said Burke may be loyal to a fault, protecting higher-ups in the Justice Department. "DOJ threw him under the bus. That's my view," Gordon said.

Another friend, attorney Tim Nelson, said: "I don't know the workings of the Obama administration, whether they were looking for a fall guy or what. But it certainly looks that way."

posted February 01, 2012 09:14 AM            

After setting themselves up as "watchdogs of the people's right to know", they hide stories, twist, distort and outright lie about issues and obstruct the dissemination of important information the public needs to know and has every right to know.

O'Bomber's gun running operation to Mexican drug cartels is the perfect example of press suppression of information and in the few instances where some details were reported, twisting and distorting conclusions which could not possibly be reached by the available information.

In a review of how Americans view the American press, it was revealed that only 21% of Americans believe ALL or even MOST of what's printed in the NY Times. Other publications fared even worse..like the Associated Press, Reuters and the Washington Post.

The press richly deserves all the contempt Americans are now showing for them.

February 1, 2012
Are Big Media Covering Up Fast and Furious?
By M. Catharine Evans

Where was the public outcry for justice when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry bled to death at the hands of a drug cartel in cahoots with the U.S. government? It happened in the Peck Canyon corridor northwest of Nogales, Arizona -- nowhere. The general public didn't hear about it.

It's been one year and two months since agent Terry died. Within weeks of his demise, his shocking murder would illuminate a bizarre and murderous government plot to run guns, lots of guns -- over 2,000 guns -- into the hands of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Members of Sinaloa were behind 19,097 murders in Mexico between 2006 and 2010. But that didn't stop the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in conjunction with the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona from initiating a program in 2009 that would add at least 300 more dead bodies to that sobering pile of human remains south of the border.

Within 24 hours of Terry's death, officials had traced two AK-47s to an ATF Phoenix-based operation dubbed Fast and Furious.

Soon bloggers at sites like cleanupatf, sipsey street irregulars, and Washington Examiner were joining forces to blow the lid off a mindless, deadly program that had collapsed into a destructive free-for-all. As ATF whistle-blowers like John Dodson came forward with reports of illegal gun-buying, untraceable weapons, threats of demotion by power-crazed superiors, and their futile efforts to stop the Fast and Furious madness until Terry's death, mainstream editorial boards across the country failed to report the story.

Not since Lenin gathered his fellow Bolsheviks together in 1912 at the Prague conference to plan the publication of Pravda has there been such an all-out effort to quash facts that out in the open might bring down Attorney General Eric Holder and the whole Obama administration.

An amoral herd of left-wing journalists acting like "bootlicking propagandists," as Orwell once called members of his own British press in 1944, might find it difficult in the long run to get away with suppressing a scandal involving mass murder. Orwell warned reporters, "Do remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid for. ... Once a ***** , always a ***** ."

A pimped out press slavishly covering for corrupt leftist regimes while bringing down the opposition is nothing new. It happens openly every day in places like Cuba and Venezuela. But here in the land of the free press?

Parsing the Spin

Last November, Dennis Wagner of The Arizona Republic wrote a chronological exposé of the Fast and Furious scandal. But he put a fancy spin on his article which illustrates perfectly how a Big Lie can emerge from a kernel of truth told with bad intent.

*The once-obscure case in Phoenix blew into a national controversy, putting a giant bull's-eye on President Barack Obama and the Justice Department.

Wow. You see, it's not about the real victims. Poor President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder must be protected from those gun-nuts (like Palin) marking maps with bulls-eyes everywhere.

*Cartels, which operate like quasi-military outfits, were well-armed before Fast and Furious. It is impossible to say whether the flow of guns into Mexico increased because of the gun-walking case or has diminished in the aftermath.

Here's a reporter toeing the Party line. The message to non-elite readers from hoity-toity Wagner: what I'm saying is tantamount to nihilism, but you won't get it; you'll only think to yourself, yes, drug cartels are armed to the teeth -- a few more weapons wouldn't make a difference. Of course, now the reader is free to commit all kinds of atrocities because, heck, in our violent culture, someone will die anyway.

*Firearms were allowed into Mexico during two earlier operations, including a 2006-07 Tucson case known as Operation Wide Receiver. Those investigations were carried out quietly during the George W. Bush administration, without public controversy.

Translation: Bush and Gonzalez started it (falsification), so it is OK for Obama's ATF to murder Mexican civilians and U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Wagner quotes the "experts" in the end. Harry L. Wilson, director of Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College, expounds on conspiracy theories and the idea that anyone who believes the government was "intentionally putting guns into Mexico as a ploy to regulate firearms in America ... is just beyond paranoia."

Translation: don't think. You're not up to the task. You're mentally unstable anyway.

"Cover-ups often are worse than what you are trying to cover up," states Wilson. I wonder if Zapata's or Terry's parents would agree.

Putting the Shoe on the Other Foot

In addition to slanting the truth, the gung-ho press has no problem doing unto others what they would not have done to them.

Flashback.

2002 - Attorney General John Ashcroft and the forced covering of Lady Justice's breasts in the DoJ's Great Hall created such a stir in the leftist press that the story was news for weeks.

2007 - Ashcroft's successor, Alberto Gonzalez, fared even worse; the media firestorm became so intense that he finally resigned for his part in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys general. A New York Times editorial depicted Gonzalez as a "consiglieri to Bush's imperial presidency" and pummeled him for "abandoning his duties as guardian of election integrity and voting rights."

Even Senator Obama, appearing on Larry King Live in the same year, called for Gonzalez's resignation, accusing him of being a "president's attorney," not the "people's attorney." Obama told King that "part of the role of the attorney general is to say to the executive branch these are the limits of your power, here's the things you can't do."

The audacious junior senator from Illinois chastised Gonzalez, indirectly, for carrying out "political vendettas" ordered by the White House. Obama described Bush's AG as an "attorney general who saw himself as enabler of the administration as opposed to somebody who was actually trying to look out for the American people's interest ... for that reason I think it's time for him to step down ... and for another attorney general who can exercise some independence" to be appointed. King sat spellbound.

Then there's John Mitchell, the only attorney general to go to prison on charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and lying under oath. A Nixon loyalist 'til the end, Mitchell's involvement in the Watergate break-in, which involved photographing documents, planting microphones, payouts, and an eventual cover-up, landed him lots of bad press and a 19-month stint in a minimum-security facility in Alabama.

Sans murders of innocent federal agents and civilians, the Washington Post played out the Watergate scandal until 25 defendants were charged with various crimes.

Too bad that agents Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata, and hundreds of Mexican civilians, with "more to come" according to Holder, didn't die under a Republican administration. The wheels of justice grind down to a full stop when Democrats circle the wagons.

The Washington Post, The New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Reuters, the Associated Press, and countless others along with their political backers routinely characterize the Fast and Furious murders as part of "a botched ATF sting operation that went awry," "an ill-conceived operation," "a witch hunt," "political fodder," "deeply flawed," "horrible screw-up," "bad judgment," and a "Republican red herring."

Various big media outlets that ran 120 stories of Herman Cain's alleged sexual dalliances from November 2 to November 15 didn't see a need to enlighten the masses about Fast and Furious. The number of times "F and F" was mentioned in the same time span? One.

Are informed journalists who remain silent in the face of evil culpable for sins of omission? Are journalists who intentionally subvert truth and invert facts, allowing corrupt government officials to ride roughshod over the rule of law, complicit in the very crimes they're covering up?

posted February 15, 2012 10:10 AM            

First, one or more of O'Bomber's political appointees violates both US and International law by deliberately running guns over the Mexican border to drug cartels. Those guns are used to kill hundreds of Mexican citizens and at least 1 and possibly 2 American federal agents.

Then, the Attorney General, heads of the DEA, BATF and White House officials throw a blanket over the stench and try to run a cover-up by refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas for documents.

Eric Holder, has been put "on notice" he faces a "Contempt of Congress" citation if he doesn't comply with the already issued and ignored subpoenas.

If Holder doesn't produce the documents, a "Contempt of Congress" citation should issue immediately followed by a "Bill of Impeachment" in the US House to remove Holder from the office of the Attorney General.

Issa takes step toward holding Holder in contempt of Congress
By Matthew Boyle
02/14/2012

On Tuesday Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House committee on Oversight and Government Reform, took a major step toward holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to provide subpoenaed documents and other information about Operation Fast and Furious.

In a Jan. 31 letter, Issa had threatened Holder with such a move if he failed to provide all the subpoenaed documents relating to the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal by Feb. 9. That deadline has come and gone, and Holder’s Department of Justice still hasn’t provided most of those documents. Issa’s subpoena dates back to Oct. 12, 2011.

On Tuesday in a seven-page letter, Issa revealed that Deputy Attorney General James Cole begged Congress to extend the Feb. 9 deadline. Issa wrote that the request was “ironic” and “ignores the reality that the Department has unreasonably delayed producing these documents to the Committee.”

“On its face, the requested extension demonstrates a lack of good faith,” Issa wrote to Holder. “With one exception, the Department has only produced documents responsive to the subpoena on the eve of congressional hearings in which senior Department officials testified. The Department appears to be more concerned with protecting its image through spin control than actually cooperating with Congress.”

“We cannot wait any longer for the Department’s cooperation,” Issa continued. “As such, please specify a date by which you expect the Department to produce all documents responsive to the subpoena. In addition, please specify a Department representative who will interface with the Committee for production purposes.”

Issa added that whoever Holder designates as the go-to DOJ official for delivering subpoenaed documents “should also serve as the conduit for dealing with the contempt proceedings, should the Department continue to ignore the Committee’s subpoena.” (RELATED: Full coverage of Eric Holder)

The California Republican slammed Holder, too, for claiming the congressional investigation into Fast and Furious was a political game for Republicans.

“It is ironic that while the Department’s delay tactics have extended this investigation into a presidential election year, you have had the audacity to characterize it as an attempt at ‘headline-grabbing Washington ‘gotcha’ games and cynical political point scoring,’” Issa wrote to Holder on Tuesday. (RELATED: Read the full letter here)

Issa also attacked Holder for Justice’s failure to comply with Congressional subpoenas. “Had the Department demonstrated willingness to cooperate with this investigation from the outset — instead of attempting to cover up its own internal mismanagement — this investigation likely would have concluded well before the end of 2011. In reality, it is the Department that is playing political gotcha games, instead of allowing a co-equal branch of government to perform its constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch.”

Issa’s letter concluded by warning that Congress will continue to investigate Operation Fast and Furious until responsible parties are held accountable. He pointed to bipartisan support behind efforts to assign responsibility for Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder, for the murders of at least 300 Mexican civilians and, likely, for the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata.

“This is not an ‘election year political ‘gotcha’ game,’ but rather a bipartisan sentiment,” Issa wrote. “As Ranking Member [Democratic Rep. Elijah] Cummings promised the family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, ‘we will not rest until every single person responsible for all of this, no matter where they are, are brought to justice.’ I applaud his resolve, and I want to make it clear that Congress will not give up until this accountability has been achieved.”

posted March 19, 2012 06:23 PM            

When the gun running story first broke, some, including me believed that because of the fact that the guns were not tracked and no provisions were made for them to be tracked to drug cartels in Mexico; that the gun running operation appeared to be a ploy to institute additional gun control run out of the Justice Dept.

I don't think there's a bit of doubt remaining that's what "Gun Walker" was all about.

But, those untracked and illegally bought and sold guns...with US taxpayer money fronting the sales killed as many as 300 Mexican citizens, some officials of the Mexican government and at least one US Border Patrol agent.

Time for Eric Holder to be impeached then charged with a minimum charge of accessory to murder, convicted and put in a max security prison for many years. Same for the rest of the motley crew who implemented "Gun Walker" and are now involved in a cover-up which includes lying to Congressional hearing committees.

1995 Video of Eric Holder: We Must ‘Brainwash’ People Against Guns
March 18, 2012
Erica Ritz Print

New video of Eric Holder from 1995 has surfaced, and it may put “Fast and Furious” in a much broader perspective.

Recorded on CSPAN2, the clip shows current Attorney General Eric Holder laying out a strategy to “change the hearts and minds of the people in Washington, DC” in how they look at guns.

“What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we changed our attitudes about cigarettes.”

Though it’s no surprise that Eric Holder is anti-gun, critics are saying that his proposed initiatives go too far. Among other things, Holder suggested that there be some form of hotline you could call if see a gun, or have any “information” about one.

[b]He also said that the school board should have some form of anti-violence or anti-gun message every day. “Every day, every school, at every level,” he stated.

Last, Holder admitted that his proposal is “brainwashing.”

“We have to be repetitive about this,” he said. “We need to do this every day of the week, and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”

Watch the video, unearthed by Breitbart.com contributor Charles C. Johnson, below:

posted October 13, 2012 11:19 AM            

O'Bomber and Eric Holder are attempting to throw a blanket over the scandal known as "Fast and Furious" which was a gun running operation conducted by the administration for running guns into Mexico to be turned over to drug cartels.

To that end..cover-up, O'Bomber has attempted to claim "Executive Privilege" to prevent Congress from getting documents and testimony from Holder and White House officials. O'Bomber has also transferred personnel whom Congress wanted to testify, out of the United States to get them beyond the jurisdiction of Congress. Hey, now that's really government transparency...Marxist style. .

But now, the O'Bomber administration is involved in yet another illegal activity in their cover-up of what is a violation of both US and International law. They've violated the "Whistle Blower Act" and fired one of the key Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Agents who had direct first hand knowledge of the corruption, incompetence and illegality within the ATF, Justice Dept and DEA.

I recall the glee with which Richard Nixon was dragged through the mud for a 3rd rate burglary of the Watergate Hotel and Nixon didn't order it. The object of the burglary was to obtain the list of hookers the Democrat National Convention intended to hire for their upcoming convention. Nixon attempted to cover up the burglary and was forced to resign as President of the United States.

But, let's be clear here. No one died in the Watergate scandal. No one.

In Fast and Furious, hundreds of Mexican citizens are dead from the weapons the O'Bomber's administration run into Mexico to the drug cartels and at least one US Border Patrol Agent.

Just thought you'd like to get "Fast and Furious" into the proper perspective. Know what I mean?

ATF Whistleblower Fired in Denny's Parking Lot For Exposing Corruption
Katie Pavlich
News Editor, Townhall
Oct 12, 2012

Special Agent Vince Cefalu has worked for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms for more than 25 years. On top of successfully placing dozens of hard criminals behind bars throughout his career, Cefalu has received promotions and consistently positive evaluations. When he started raising his voice about ATF corruption and illegal wiretapping in 2005, things changed. Tuesday evening, Cefalu was asked to meet Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco Field Division Joseph Riehl at a Denny's Restaurant near Lake Tahoe. When he arrived, he was served termination papers in the parking lot. Classy move. The exchange was secretly recorded by a confidential source. David Codrea has more:

The video, shaky at times from being handheld, and with color imbalance streaking happening inadvertently in the uploading to YouTube, was recorded by a confidential source and shows Cefalu approached by two ATF management representatives including Joseph M. Riehl, Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco Field Division, which encompasses Northern California and Nevada field offices.

Riehl, seen talking to Cefalu through his Jeep window and reportedly telling him he couldn’t leave because he had to sign papers, had been criticized on the CUATF forum, and Gun Rights Examiner is attempting to track down audit reports to determine what an independent assessment reveals about the allegations there. But the bottom line is, an employee with over 25 years of service who has been a leading spokesman for whistleblowers was unceremoniously canned in a public parking lot by senior division management.

Cefalu was placed on administrative leave a year and a half ago after speaking out about Operation Fast and Furious. In 2009, he launched the website CleanUpATF.org in order for agents within ATF to blow the whistle on corrupt behavior anonymously due to the agency's history of retaliation against those who "jump their chain of command." His website is where bloggers and news reporters first saw allegations of gunwalking. The site is heavily monitored by the Department of Justice.

In the February 2012 issue of Townhall Magazine, Cefalu detailed the ATF corruption leading up to Fast and Furious and his retaliation case coming from inside the bureau that led to his firing this week.

My name is Vincent A. Cefalu. I am a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms under the U.S. Department of Justice. Welcome to our nightmare. I say “our” because dozens of us can’t write a single article, and I have been asked and am privileged to speak on behalf of my peers who have not had the opportunity to voice their concerns related to ATF mismanagement, particularly with Operation Fast and Furious. This grotesquely dangerous and reckless operation should have never been considered, much less allowed to occur. It employed the unprecedented practice of allowing firearms to be transferred to violent criminals without any interdiction effort at all, in hopes of somehow later identifying high-level Mexican cartel members. But it was the pattern of gross mismanagement that had been allowed to exist in ATF—and that I witnessed—which fostered an environment that unleashed this operation, violating public trust on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

At no time in my career prior to becoming a complainant against my own agency—the agency I love and have been honored to serve— could I have ever been convinced I would be the poster boy for whistleblowers and challenges to corrupt government. As a young Marine military policeman, I was thrilled, proud and honored to be in law enforcement. I never considered it work....

But I ended up the lead agent in a case with huge vendetta overtones by my state and local counterparts, where members of an ad hoc task force insisted on fast-tracking wiretap attempts against the suspects. I refused. When I reported this officially, senior management retroactively fabricated justifications for the actions they were preparing to take against me. This led to a network of frustrated agents and inspectors, which ultimately resulted in my being contacted regarding the gun-walking practices and cover-ups related to Fast and Furious. I took this information to Congress and advocated others to do the same.

In the 18 months leading up to Fast and Furious, Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell’s actions required that the agency had to pay out over a million dollars in settlements which should have led to his removal for the related conduct, had it ever been investigated and documented. Special Agent in Charge George Gillette had been disciplined multiple times, and his subordinates had logged dozens of complaints related to his incompetence and mismanagement. Had ATF dealt with them at the time, the Fast and Furious program would never have been undertaken. However, by attacking those who exposed corruption, ATF was able to keep their golden boys in place. This process was repeated all over the country (Newell has since been relocated to D.C. headquarters, but not fired). So pronounced was the mismanagement that ATF logged more complaints than either the DEA or FBI per agent. This is notable because the latter two are much larger agencies.

I write this article almost 6 years into the whistleblower process with ATF and only after millions of taxpayer dollars and countless hours of manpower have been expended by my agency to attack and discredit me and other whistleblowers.

The environment at ATF today is one where honest officers cannot act without fear of reprisal from dishonest officers. Such is this agent's story, and the story of many other whistleblowers, including those involved in Fast and Furious.

Whistleblowers are often put under the supervision of corrupt ATF officials who have the intention of retaliating against them no matter what the circumstances. The Department of Justice has done little to prevent this behavior despite the act of retaliation being illegal and a violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act.

ATF's termination decision comes just weeks after Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General James Cole about a rift between the Reno ATF Field Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

As you may be aware, I recently contacted both Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director B. Todd Jones about allegations from whistleblowers that a breakdown in relations had occurred between ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) in Reno, Nevada.[1] I have not yet received a briefing from either of their offices.

The alleged breakdown is illustrated in a declination memorandum from the Reno USAO, which indicates that as of September 29, 2011, the Reno USAO categorically refused to accept any cases submitted by Reno ATF. The declination memo states, “We are willing to consider your cases again when your management addresses and resolves the issues at hand.”[2] Apparently as a consequence, ATF’s Reno Field Office has only opened one case in 2012, as the attached chart indicates.[3]

I have since obtained documents from whistleblowers which indicate that these issues were raised with ATF headquarters and the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) almost a year ago. According to one document, ATF agents in Reno notified ATF’s Internal Affairs Division of the issue on October 13, 2011.[4] According to a second document, an ATF agent in Reno notified OPR on October 25, 2011.[5] As you may know, because of ATF and the Reno USAO’s inability to resolve these issues, three ATF line agents and a supervisor were transferred out of Reno in April 2012.

In light of these facts, I am seeking to understand whether Justice Department management was also notified of the problems between ATF and the USAO in Reno, and if so, what actions were taken to rectify these issues. Your office, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG), is responsible for overseeing both ATF and U.S. Attorneys.

Cefalu says he will challenge ATF's decision. The following was posted on CleanUpATF shortly after the termination was issued.

Well, they've finally gone ahead and done it. ATF's San Francisco hatchet men just served Special Agent Vince Cefalu with termination papers in the parking lot of a Dennys. They did this over a year and half after proposing the termination . Notwithstanding the transparently trumped-up nature of the so-called "charges" in question, proposing a termination and then excuting it over a year and a half later is prima facie evidence that the action is unsustainable and is virtually certain to be reversed on appeal.

Moreover, the allegations used as a basis for the adverse action are laughably unfounded, deliberately fabricated, and relied largely on the testimony of ATF officials who committed easily-provable felony perjury in open court and later in sworn depositions. I herein predict that a number of the people involved in this grotesque act of bald-faced unlawful retaliation and obstruction of justice will do significant jail time before this is all over.

I will also say with confidence that this was by far the stupidest , most ill-advised course of action that they (ATF management) could possibly have taken in this case. Rather than quietly settling what a mediocre first-year law student would recognize to be a Hindenburg of a losing case (for them), ATF just substantially amplified the damages award that Cefalu will, in my opinion, recover at trial. Talk about stepping in it.

It's well-known that ATF management and their viciously corrupt counsel are, for the most part, brutally self-serving and mean-spirited. But this Cefalu termination is nevertheless surprising in its utter incomprehensibility under the circumstances, from purely legal and elemental federal labor law standpoints. If they had any prayer of making the action stick, they had to do it more than a year ago, before so many additional events have transpired that will render the termination plainly unlawful and inescapably untenable. It's just plain moronic no matter how you slice it.

It seems apparent that ATF's leadership at all levels has degenerated to a pathetic state of paroxysmal, shoot-from-the-hip incompetence. They can't even do the wrong thing right.

Things are far from over.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/10/12/atf_whistleblower_fired_in_dennys_parking_lot