Today is a good day to die.
I didn't say for whom.
Posted on 02/04/2011 6:00:18 AM PST by marktwain
The Los Angeles Times confirms it: the rifles used to murder U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry were “allowed” to slip into Mexican hands by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Clearly, the agency is trying to get out ahead of the scandal. “Sources said U.S. authorities did not have the ability to adequately monitor the movement of the guns toward the southern border, in part because current laws and low levels of staffing.” In other words, the ATF is blaming the criminal conspiracy that led to a man’s murder on federal bean counters who’ve hamstrung their valiant efforts to stop guns from crossing the U.S. – Mexican border (even though they were engaging in said traffic). By extension, given the Washington Post’s take on ATF funding, they’re blaming the NRA. It gets worse . . .
“My worst fear was that they would be used in a homicide of a Mexican military official or a Mexican police official. It crossed my mind that they would be used against U.S. forces, but I didn’t think it would happen this soon,” said another federal law enforcement source.
This soon? So these unnamed feds were expecting the smuggled guns to be used against U.S. law enforcement officials eventually? Pardon my French, but how fucked-up is that? The question now becomes how far up the food chain this fiasco extended. Here’s an indication . . .
Federal sources confirmed that there has been controversy over the program within the bureau and, at least in the early stages, little communication with Mexican authorities, many of whom are often targeted with U.S.-smuggled weapons.
“Should they have been notified? I think you’re correct,” said one source familiar with the investigation.
“The policy [until Project Gunrunner] has always been we don’t allow any weapons to cross south of the border, because then it’s out of our hands and we can’t control it,” he said.
But the complaints were “overruled,” he said, by both the Phoenix office and bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C.
And who, pray tell, might those taxpayer-funded officials might those be? The stonewalling is breaking out all over. Again, the ATF line: we’re underfunded and sometimes guns slip through. Here’s the conclusion of the LA Times piece:
Agents are hampered in following up [on straw purchases, Tom Mangan, spokesman for the bureau's Phoenix office] said. “An individual could buy 500 guns, and painfully, we know that’s legal. And then they can turn around and say, ‘I sold them.’ And then again, realistically, say you have a list of these guns, if some of them would turn up in Mexico, it’s, ‘I just sold them; they’re not my responsibility; I don’t know how they got there.’”
TTAG knows for a fact that this is bullshit. New Mexico’s largest gun dealers tell us [via friends] that they have NEVER sold more than two rifles at a time. Not that they wouldn’t have. Just that they don’t; there isn’t demand. Not ten years ago. And not now. The ATF’s Iron River is an illusion, as is any idea that they are somehow not to blame for supplying guns to the men who murdered Agent Terry.
Heads must roll in the ATF and DOJ.
Bottom line: A BP Agent was murdered by an ATF rifle.
Reason # 528 to add the BATFE to the list of alphabet agencies that need to be defunded and axed.
lets not forget la times is a noted liberal rag
“I, Sarah Palin, do solemnly swear...”
[1 second pause]
“and all federal executive agencies are now officially disbanded and suspended pending review of necessity”.
Then, Mayor Bloomberg ~ he got involved in stuff going on within the jurisdictional district of the Phoenix office ~ did they know he was there? Were they cooperating with Bloomberg?
Let's go further with this now that we have the La-La land aspects of the killing out on the table, what about the Washington Post? Were they in contact with the Phoenix office beforehand? Did they know all about this trick?
Remember, the Washington Post did a massive interview on the gang at Walter Reed's psychiatric outpatient operation a couple of years back ~ when Major Hassan, the mad-dog Islamofascist killer was still just a Captain ~ and all the "Posties" could find was bad plaster and paint on a wall.
So how is it the Washington Post messed up and failed to report concerns expressed by most of the people they interviewed ~ about Captain Hassan?
Just who do these people work for? We've got 13 dead military personnel at Fort Hood. We've got a dead border patrol agent in Arizona and these guys are supplying the killers with the guns!
It's time for a knock down drag-out at the House of Representatives.
The facts in the story are accurate. The ATF was allowing guns to be run over the border with their knowledge and consent. One of those weapons killed a BP agent.
Names. I want the names of the criminally negligent idiots who approved this.
L
There no words to express my disgust.
He blew it. His final report on the Fort Hood event blames it on "the military" for not dealing with the negative reports about how troubled Captain and then Major Hassan really was.
As I recall Lieberman, et al, were once again ON THE OTHER SIDE back at the Walter Reed event and ended up blaming the top commanding officers at that installation for the bad plaster and paint job ~ and got them fired!
So who were the lower ranking officers to report to? Lieberman had already trashed them ~
I think Lieberman best look in a mirror and admit "Hey, time to go before more people get killed".
“It’s time for a knock down drag-out at the House of Representatives. “
________________________________________________________
If a knock doown and drag out does ocurr in the House of Representatives, as much as it hurts to say this, it will be the Democrats doing the knocking down and dragging out.
It seems to me it's quite clear that the Democrats are on the defensive for shooting a BP agent!
Any Federally Licensed dealer who did what F Troop is alleged to have done here would be looking at decades in Federal prison.
Well well, the DHLS issues a statement that ILLEGAL gun sales in the U.S. are making their way to Mexico.
Presto, BATF green lighting illegal sales of illegal guns going to Mexico.
One Would almost think that it is a plan by the brainless Dummies to instigate calls for gun control.
What is really scarey is that the BATF would be a party to Government intrigue for POLITICAL purposes.
Maybe the BATF needs to be defunded and defanged.
Homocide charges need to be filed against everyone at the ATF, starting at the top.
I’ve lost track of the details. Which ATF ofice did this happen in? If it was one in California, IIRC, California still has the Aiding and Abetting law in place that says anyone aiding and abetting a murder is equally guilty as the person who committed the murder and is subject to the same punishment.
I am not certain. Those details have yet to be completely revealed, but the hints are that it was from the Phoenix ATF office.
It also appears that more than one ATF office was involved. There are reports from Texas of similar “stings”. This is quite likely an agency wide policy designed to prop up the “iron river of guns” meme.
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