Posted on 07/07/2011 12:21:00 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday, July 4, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson testified before investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee about Operation Fast and Furious. Following this interview, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, expressed their deep concerns about the involvement of the DEA, FBI, and other agencies – including the possibility that they were aware of and even working with people connected to Fast and Furious suspects.
In addition to these concerns noted in the letter to the Attorney General, Acting Director Melson made key assertions to investigators:
-Contrary to denials by the Justice Department, Acting Director Melson acknowledged the agents had in fact witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without following the guns any further.
-The ATF group executing Operation Fast and Furious had been placed under the direction of the Arizona U.S. Attorney's office.
A copy of the text of the letter from Issa and Grassley to Attorney General Holder is below. Click here for a copy of the signed letter.
-30-
© 2008, Senator Grassley
Finally Bloomberg.com! Melson was singing on July 3 & 4.
This would be the lead story in the MSM if a GOP admin. were responsible.
And in the scheme of leadership who is it in the Federal government who has the authority to transfer a group of ATF officers to the control of a state attorney general...? There are very few people with cross-agency authority who could make such a move. One among that tiny group would be Eric Holder.
It wasn’t an “operation targeting gun smugglers.” It was a gun smuggling operation.
Bump
Signed letter
And then some....
But still no Drudge.
It was a gun smuggling operation targeting Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.
So what? I don't want a flash in the pan. It's been CBS News, LA Times, NPR and now Bloomie's, not to mention FOX and other right wing sources. Personally, if I had to time it, it's next year for full effect.
"The ATF group executing Operation Fast and Furious had been placed under the direction of the Arizona U.S. Attorney's office."
IMHO, the Arizona U.S. Attorney (General) gets a federal paycheck(electronic funds transfer).
So what? You must not understand the influence that Drudge has over the news business. Once a story hits Drudge, it's worldwide, and can't be ignored by any news outlet, or Washington DC.
These investigations are going on right now, and the more eyeballs that can be put on them, the better the chances are that public opinion will force the truth out of the ATF, FBI, DOJ, etc.
If this were a Republican in office, this thing would have already blown sky high. Same needs to happen on Obama's watch.
My bet is this story breaks on August 2.
In perfect timing with the NY Slimes headline, “Republicans fail to reach deal on debt. Country is deep doo doo”
That's why it should happen next year. Now is too soon. That's the time to impeach Holder and put 17 rat senators in a squeeze! (Six other rats are retiring. Pubbies are defending only ten seats. Only three will be empty from retirements, IIRC.) Timing is everything. Don't be hasty.
I hear you, but these things do take months and months to play out. As they say, "the wheels of justice turn slowly." I'm glad to see this getting started now. It'll take until sometime next year before anything serious is done about it anyway.
Yes, the AZ A/G gets a federal paycheck. But lots of people get a federal pay check. That doesn’t give them the authority to put a group of ATF agents under their own control, or anyone elses.
I strongly doubt that the AZ A/G had the authority to “seize” contol of a bunch of ATF agents. I’m thinking that an order like that came from Holder’s office. I doubt that anyone lower in authority than that would have been allowed to make such a move.
Issa on Bret Bier live now .
Politics is one thing. Justice is another. Issa says, in effect, that Holder lied to him already. Holder and at least two of his assistants/deputies, Lanny Breuer and James Cole, IIRC, can be impeached at the end of the year or start of next year, if they don't resign. Some in Mexico want them extradited.
Will they be satisfied with reparations for the claimed 150 casualties, or will they demand prosecutions for accessory to murder?
The BATFags were working for the UNITED STATES ATTORNEY (for Arizona), in other words, working for a different office of the USDOJ (Holder the Red). Not for the Arizona AG.
I'm good with that. It'll leave a huge stain on the Obama administration throughout 2012.
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