Posted on 07/09/2011 5:22:19 AM PDT by marktwain
“Since you are, despite the most sincere wishes of others in the Department of Justice bureaucracy, still the director of your troubled agency, I thought I would give you the chance to prove it,” Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars tells Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson in an open letter sent last night.
Referencing a joint exclusive report filed with this correspondent about claims ATF's Tampa Special Agent in Charge walked guns to Honduras and a follow-up report that a cover-up is in progress, Vanderboegh tells Melson:
If so, this cover-up is going on right under your nose, and, if you indeed ARE still the Acting Director of ATF, you have the responsibility to stop it immediately.
Melson’s recent highly-publicized testimony before Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hinges largely on claims that decisions were made around him, and that he was “sick to his stomach when he…learned the full story.”
This is treated with no small amount of skepticism by the regulars at Clean Up ATF, the “dissident” website set up by agents because their complaints of bureau waste, abuse, corruption and fraud fell on deaf ears—and the place where accusations of gunwalking were first made.
How Melson responds to Vanderboegh’s open letter with actions—if at all—will be an indicator of whether his interests go beyond self-preservation.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
If he does not, he shows that he is not really interested in cooperating with Issa and that his claims about being shocked at what went on in Fast and Furious are all just coverup.
I do not care if he gets his pension and keeps out of jail, but the price is that he comes clean and gives us a bigger fish up the chain.
BTTT
The SAC who setup Tampa is the same SAC who setup the Phoenix operation after she was whisked away from Phoenix after the Field Agents began blowing their whistles. She was promoted to another job and then for some unknown reason took a demotion to take the Tampa office.
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/07/open-letter-to-kenneth-melson-regarding.html
An Open Letter to Kenneth Melson regarding the Tampa-Honduras gunwalking cover-up. “The shredders are buzzing.”
“The shredders are buzzing.”
I’d wager that everybody who was given orders they thought were illegal or might get them in trouble made “memos to the record” or kept copies of written documentation safe at home. They may even have made surreptitious recordings. When these lower-level types are threatened they’ll whip out their save-me stuff like silver crosses held before vampires. Even now, people in the know are probably lining up to be first to whistle-blow so they can get immunity. This whole gun-walker scandal could dissolve the entire administration like a sugar cube in coffee.
It’s unlikely that Obama can be impeached unless 25 Democrats in the Senate can be convinced his continued presidency will harm them personally. If impeachment does start, the Democrats will be the ones to show the press the real birther story and the press will cover it. Once the press turns on Obama, he’s finished whether he’s impeached or not. The press, whoever, won’t turn on him until they have a socialist replacement. Probably Hillary; as I don’t know of any other name Democrat who could do it.
I wouldn’t wager agin’ ya on this one. This, to quote an ignoble hack, is a “big effing deal.”
The dominoes are falling.
Ask yourself, "What is it about this Fast and Furious, Gun Runner, Gun Walker event that makes me think it is so hot that there will be arrests and firings of FEDERAL EMPLOYEES"? I asked myself that question and I can't come up with a solitary thing that places it above the 54 adults and 21 children who were found dead after the fire. So to repeat myself, this is nothing more that politicians trying to get their faces in front of media cameras which they believe will further their political careers. They are not going to damage their reputations amongst the federal employees with whom they work EVERYDAY of the week by firing some of them.
“Ask yourself, “What is it about this Fast and Furious, Gun Runner, Gun Walker event that makes me think it is so hot that there will be arrests and firings of FEDERAL EMPLOYEES”?”
Our government agencies have cooperated with foreign interests to force legitimate sellers to make illegal gun sales which resulted in the death of one federal agent and an unknown number of US and foreign nationals. This program was most likely approved by the president to set up a pretext to do away with the second amendment. I suspect Holder will fall on his sword to protect Obama and will be suitably rewarded with amnesty and a million dollar book deal, book deals being how liberals transfer bribes now. The thing is, if this was approved by Obama, Gun Walker is a clear violation of Obama’s oath of office. He’ll skate on that, but Holder may go down and get replaced by Van Jones.
I agree with you, I’m not backing any Republicans with money until I see how they shake out on ending Obamacare and handling the debt.
This may be apropos to nothing, but in WWII the US and allied nations went to naming secret projects from a pre-determined list of nonsense words. This is because Hitler named his operations himself and called them names like Barbarossa where you could easily figure out from the name what the operation was about. If this were a CIA operation it would be named something like Flower Black, Have Blue, or Simple Orange. The fact that this was named after a movie tells me it was dreamed up by somebody in the White House or Justice Department. They came up with the political goals and then ordered ATF to make them happen. The political goal was to destroy the second amendment.
Desert Storm and Desert Shield, by contrast, were not secret operations. The names were thought up by a marketing company as the war had to be marketed to the populace in order to gain support. The Fast and The Furious is unbelievably amateur as names go. It goes along with our unbelievably amateur Administration.
>>The fact that this was named after a movie tells me it was dreamed up by somebody in the White House or Justice Department. They came up with the political goals and then ordered ATF to make them happen. The political goal was to destroy the second amendment.<<
Given my low opinion of Establishment Republicans, I would be surprised if some of them sat in on the feasibility of this plan.
I think you are asking the wrong question. After all, what was so hot about the Watergate break-in and following cover up? It was nothing compared to what Johnson or Kennedy did.
The difference is not in the crime, but in the media. With Waco, there was no Fox news, the Internet was in its infancy, and the MSM dominated everything. The Republicans were used to being underdogs and almost completely caved to the establishment in order to protect the ... establishment.
The reason to hope now is, the current administration is not really the establishment, and the establishment is a little scared of it. We now have Fox news, the Internet, and much more established talk radio.
The current crop of Republicans has at least a few that have a little more spine than the Republicans in 1995, mostly because of the new media.
>>The reason to hope now is, the current administration is not really the establishment, and the establishment is a little scared of it.<<
No, I don’t think so. I believe the Establishment is working WITH the current maladministration. This budget nonsense is IMO, collusion between the parties. We aren’t hearing a single solid proposal from Boehner on what’s needed to correct the high unemployment numbers.
>>With Waco, there was no Fox news, <<
You say that as if FOX is something special. If they were truly independent and truly stood out from the crowd when Zero deserves criticism, I’d agree but IMO they shuffle too many things under the table that could be used to awaken Americans about the actual truth of the situation.
If I was in his chair I’d be screaming about reopening the Gulf to increase the drilling. I’d be jumping on every news channel telling the world what a stupid idea “clean air” is when 1/4 of the country is unemployed.
>>The current crop of Republicans has at least a few that have a little more spine than the Republicans in 1995, mostly because of the new media. <<
I think that’s to do with the newly elected legislators who are not a part of the Old Crowd, Establishment.
This really needs the lid blown off it and repeated everywhere that this is akin to Iran-Contra.
The victims at Waco were generally white, Christian and mere citizens; IOW, fair game.
The (known) victims of Gunwalker include Mexicans and a Federal officer...both protected classes.
Valid points
Twenty-eight were black, several were black American, one black Canadian and the other 23 were black British citizens. Others: 3 white Austrailians, 2 with unborn children, 2 Filipino, 1 white British, 1 Samoan New Zealander, 1 Asian New Zealander.
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