Posted on 12/14/2011 10:29:01 AM PST by neverdem
Terry's death stopped the star-crossed gun walking program.
Brian A. Terry
One year ago today, The Washington Post published its “Hidden Life of Guns” article exposing how under-regulated gun sales along the Mexican border were sending firearms into that country feeding its crime and instability.
The paper’s four-reporter team operated as full-partners of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives PR department receiving internal statistics, documents and even an interrogation video.
One of the two gun stores were correctly singled out by the Post: Lone Wolf in Arizona and Carter Country in Texas. But, one year later, we know it was for the wrong reasons.
It was on a Dec. 13 Houston's KRIV-TV news broadcast that the lawyer for Carter Country, responding to that morning's report in the Post, made the outrageous charge that agents from the BATFE actively encouraged reluctant Carter Country employees to sell weapons to suspected “straw purchasers.”
The charges were ignored by The Washington Post and everyone else, and would have stayed ignored, if not for the events of the following night.
During the overnight of December 14 into 15, an AK-47 sold to a straw purchaser with the blessing of the ATF at the Lone Wolf gun store was used in the firefight that cut down Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry.
Within a few hours, four men who fired upon Terry were wrapped up, while a fifth was tracked down the next day in a manhunt that included federal agents on horseback and in helicopters.
Within 24 hours of Terry’s death, federal officials had traced the AK-47 to Fast and Furious.
Behind the scenes, ATF and other federal agents aware of the gun walking program called Operation Fast and Furious, staged a mutiny and the operation was shut down.
In the next week, two cabinet officers visited Arizona, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., for the funeral and Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano, to meet with members of Terry’s special tactics unit, known as BorTac. Holder’s Justice Department oversees the BATFE and Napolitano’s department includes the Border Patrol.
By Napolitano’s December 18 visit, both she and Holder, who both were aware of Fast and Furious, knew that Terry was killed with a Fast and Furious AK-47. They were both fully briefed on Fast and Furious, and though the operation was still a secret, they had both touted in public speeches the overall program it was a part of called Operation Gun Runner.
Conceivably, Napolitano was even better informed than Holder because her former gubernatorial chief of staff Dennis K. Burke was the U.S. Attorney for the Arizona Department. It is fair to guess, that Burke briefed his former boss, who sponsored his appointment.
Burke was a useful part of the Fast and Furious cover-up and damage control. After waiting more than two weeks to charge the men who killed Terry, he charged them with unrelated gun violations. This move allowed him to deny Terry’s parents' request for victims-of-crime rights. Under federal law, victims of crimes are afforded special briefings about the progress of investigations and prosecutions.
Burke also saw to it that the Terry case was sealed and all press relations were handled through the local FBI office that he controlled rather than through Border Patrol public information officers.
One year later, the Post has published the obligatory articles about Fast and Furious, and the various hearings and shuffling of personnel. But, it may not get the Pulitzer it was gunning for when it launched its blowout expose on the wrong side of the story.
The poor Carter County clerk, whose indictment for facilitating illegal guns sales the paper celebrated as validation of its crusade, had all charges dismissed—lest he explain in court what really happened.
Holder and Napolitano have weathered the storm and still enjoy the confidence and support of the President. But, Burke has resigned and awaits what other shoes may drop.
One year ago today, we had no idea that the Obama administration was funneling guns to Mexico at the same time it blamed under-regulated gun sales for destabilizing our neighbor to the south. We have learned many of the details in the last year, but there is still so much that does not make sense or add up.
Most troubling of all, if Terry knew the full extent of what his government was doing, the 6-foot, 4-inch former Marine and Iraq veteran might have had a better chance.
What “doesn’t make sense”? Zero told the Brady people he had a plan “under the radar”. Fast and Furious was it.
one-year-ago-today ping
First sentence...last sentence.
Terry’s death stopped the star-crossed gun walking program....
Most troubling of all, if Terry knew the full extent of what his government was doing, the 6-foot, 4-inch former Marine and Iraq veteran might have had a better chance.
RIP Brian Terry!
“During the overnight of December 14 into 15, an AK-47 sold to a straw purchaser with the blessing of the ATF at the Lone Wolf gun store was used in the firefight that cut down Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry.”
“’But, I do fear the loss of my honor and would rather die fighting than to have it said that I was without courage. So I will fight you, no matter how insurmountable it may seem, to the death if need be, in order that it may never be said of me that I was not a warrior.’ -Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry”
RIP, Agent Terry.
Prayers up for Brian Terry’s family. I hadn’t realized it happened so close to Christmas.
As for those who planned this and those who carried it out, two words.
Woodchipper.
Sharkbait.
Until holder is in prison for aiding and abetting charges for murder, then the “undoing” is of no real consequence. It serves only to prove that he and his boss, hussein, are above the law.
Yeah? So why isn’t Holder in prison?
I was sadly thinking that too. He survived Iraq, only to be betrayed by his own government. Adding to the family’s grief is the fact that they have been so mistreated by the same government responsible for their son’s death.
Holder’s own admission of guilt lies in the fact that after admitting F & F should never have happened, he, nor anyone from DOJ-—or the WH-— ever contacted the Terry family. When shamed into that admission, Holder leaked a letter of condolence to the press that he intended to send to the Terry family.
Holder has sunk so low, that “moral squalor” is not in his vocabulary.
Continual prayers that the Terry family and all the other families whose loved ones died at the hand of criminals with F & F guns find closure in the justice of seeing Holder behind bars.
The socialist democrats are cool with our government arming foreign drug cartels with automatic weapons. That is the only conclusion you can make from them burying their collective heads in the sand and hoping this fiasco blows away. Not one word of this mess in the San Jose Mercury newspaper. I encourage anybody still taking any of the propaganda rags who are run by socialist anti american democrats to cancell the paper ASAP.
LOL! Cancelled our local fish wrap 15 years ago. I told ‘em it wasn’t welcome in my home.
Thanks neverdem.
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