Posted on 10/30/2012 5:08:20 PM PDT by neverdem
In this Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012 photo, members of Brian Terry's family, from left to right, Michelle Balogh, left, Josephine Terry, Kelly Willis and Robert Heyer, far right, pose at the Marriott-Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, Ariz. Family members of Terry, an Arizona U.S. Border Agent killed in connection with a botched gun-smuggling operation, say they won't have closure until someone is held accountable for his death. (AP Photo/John Miller)
(CNSNews.com) – A new report(PDF) on Operation Fast and Furious, the Justice Department’s failed gunrunning program, said that department officials would not give true answers to the family of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
“No one at Justice Department headquarters have provided complete and accurate answers to the Terry family,” said a report released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Specifically, the report cited the Attorney General’s Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson, Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler and Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed Siskel and U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Dennis Burke.
“During their respective transcribed interviews, Monty Wilkinson stated 38 times that he ‘did not recall’ or ‘did not know,’” the oversight report continued. “In a similar fashion, Gary Grindler did so 29 times, and Ed Siskel 21 times. In two different transcribed interviews, Dennis Burke said he ‘did not recall’ or ‘did not know’ a combined total of 161 times.”
The Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious allowed about 2,000 guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels. The program began in fall of 2009, but was halted in December 2010 shortly after two guns from the operation were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Terry.
“The report discloses widespread management failures within the hierarchy of the Justice Department,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said in a statement.
“The Justice Department has yet to evaluate these management issues and implement structural changes to prevent another disaster like Operation Fast and Furious from occurring. Furthermore, the Justice Department has taken limited action against these negligent managers,” Issa added.
After the release of the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General report, only Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein resigned. However, the oversight committee report faults Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Grindler, Weinstein, Siskel and Wilkinson with having direct knowledge of the operation.
In June, in a bipartisan vote, the House held Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to provide thousands of documents regarding why the Justice Department initially told Congress that no gun walking occurred.
The oversight report, one of several to be issued as part of the committee’s ongoing investigation, does not directly fault Holder for Fast and Furious, but it does demonstrate a connection as to why he might have had knowledge of the program.
“Deputy Chief of Staff to the Attorney General Monty Wilkinson inquired about Attorney General Holder participating in the press conference announcing the take-down of Operation Fast and Furious,” the report said.
“Both Monty Wilkinson and Gary Grindler were informed about the connection between Operation Fast and Furious and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder,” the report continued. “Grindler received detailed information about the connection. He took no action, however, to investigate the operation.”
The report added that Burke recommended against a visit by Holder after the guns at the Terry murder scene were traced back to Fast and Furious.
Burke, a politically connected figure who served as chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano when she was governor of Arizona and who as a Senate staffer in the 1990s wrote the assault weapons band, was quoted throughout the report.
In the early stages of Fast and Furious, Burke wanted to hold out for a bigger case instead of arresting the straw purchasers and closing the investigation. Burke resigned from office on Aug. 30, 2011 at the height of the investigation.
Burke told committee staff in testimony that wiretaps were unusual for a firearms case.
“You know, I think—part of my recollection was that anyone who was doing a wire outside of DEA was not a typical procedure,” he said. “The FBI obviously does wires. They do a lot of FISAs and other—but an actual wiretap like this, my recollection at the time, I did think that ATF was not an agency that had a lot of history with doing T-IIIs [wire].”
One day before Terry was killed in a gun fight along the Arizona, Mexican border – Dec. 14, 2010 -- Wilkinson and Burke exchanged e-mails about Holder coming to Arizona to announce the upcoming indictments of straw purchasers transporting guns to Mexico. The subject of one message was “Fast and Furious.” Burke wrote: “AG’[s] office is now expressing interest in the AG coming out for it.”
“The e-mail traffic that day shows that Wilkinson left Burke a voicemail message about Attorney General Holder’s plan to travel to Arizona for the press conference announcing the Fast and Furious take-down,” the report says. “Burke and Wilkinson, however, remembered the details differently. Dennis Burke, represented by personal counsel after he had left his position as U.S. Attorney, recalled that the Attorney General’s office suggested the trip.”
Committee staff asked Burke, “So this email is specifically in regard to the Attorney General coming out to join you for the take-down of Fast and Furious?” Burke answered, “Correct.”
The report said that Wilkinson said Burked wanted Holder to come to Arizona.
Committee staff asked Wilkinson, “Is that something that he reached out to you for, or you reached out to him about?”
Wilkinson answered, “I don’t see why I would have reached out to him about it.”
The report said, “Burke adamantly disputed Wilkinson’s insistence that Burke wanted the Attorney General to announce the Fast and Furious press conference. After Wilkinson contacted him about the prospect of Attorney General Holder traveling to Arizona, Burke claims he was delighted, but believed that a Fast and Furious press conference would not be the best use of Holder’s time.”
The report continued, “Shortly after the weapons from Brian Terry’s murder traced back to Operation Fast and Furious, Dennis Burke recommended against Attorney General Holder’s announcement of Fast and Furious to Monty Wilkinson.”
Thanks in advance.
A half truth is a full lie. A year before this broke there was a flurry of press-release based news stories saying how American guns were fueling Mexican violence.
This was a naked attempt to lay the Mexican civil war at the feet of american guns laws. If fast and furious was not exposed, it was a perfect cover for Obama to sign the UN treaty and to reinstate a tougher version of the assault rifle ban.
It was a blatant criminal attempt to undermine the 2nd amendment.
A half truth is a full lie. A year before this broke there was a flurry of press-release based news stories saying how American guns were fueling Mexican violence.
This was a naked attempt to lay the Mexican civil war at the feet of american guns laws. If fast and furious was not exposed, it was a perfect cover for Obama to sign the UN treaty and to reinstate a tougher version of the assault rifle ban.
It was a blatant criminal attempt to undermine the 2nd amendment.
It was a plan that simply did not make sense from almost any angle. It sure wasn’t being run as any kind of competent sting. To rouse sentiment in favor of banning guns, maybe, but it would be too obvious the manipulation involved to truly drum up a story about the “danger” of US guns. But today someone suggested that it was an attempt to get Mexican kingpins talking with Holder. It is just the sort of egotistical sleaze I’d expect out of him.
In order for such a scheme to work and not look blatantly manipulated, they’d have to pick a better method than telling a US armament dealer to ignore legal restrictions on their customers.
ATF holds life or death power over Licensees. Licensees were told not to worry about purchases that they reported as suspicious. How exactly is a gun dealer in some city supposed to know THOSE sales were the guns that turned up in a shootout in Monterrey?
And don’t forget. That dealer was in a BAD position. If he turns on the ATF and starts talking about what he saw, honestly, what is to stop ATF from prosecuting them as the “supplier”? Don’t think for a minute they are above that.
Also, before F&F, there was a flurry of US Govt provided news stories about how American Gun Dealers fueled the violence. The tidal wave would have crushed them. Maybe they could have “won”, after being bankrupted, arrested, found not guilty in court, and driven out of business.
If the government even charges you, even a “win” can destroy your life.
The story about the dealer (Lone Wolf IIRC) got out and nobody stomped on them about it.
And you are underestimating their arrogance. This the party that got away with financing the Clintons with red Chinese money.
They had Hamas boiler room phone banks funneling huge sums to Obamas campaign. They STILL take foreign money though it is blatantly illegal.
They were caught on wikileaks blackmailing and threatening many small nations dependent on US aid to support the Copenhagen climate change treaty.
This is the party that told Medvedev that Obama would give them what they wanted, but he had to wait until AFTER reelection.
Plots and schemes like this are the breat and butter of the democrats. They don’t care if it looks blatantly manipulated. Honestly, i think they like it. It’s their way of giving us the finger.
And you are underestimating their arrogance. This the party that got away with financing the Clintons with red Chinese money.
They had Hamas boiler room phone banks funneling huge sums to Obamas campaign. They STILL take foreign money though it is blatantly illegal.
They were caught on wikileaks blackmailing and threatening many small nations dependent on US aid to support the Copenhagen climate change treaty.
This is the party that told Medvedev that Obama would give them what they wanted, but he had to wait until AFTER reelection.
Plots and schemes like this are the breat and butter of the democrats. They don’t care if it looks blatantly manipulated. Honestly, i think they like it. It’s their way of giving us the finger.
Maybe the “obscene gesture” theory makes the most sense of all.
“The story about the dealer (Lone Wolf IIRC) got out and nobody stomped on them about it.”
AFTER Terry was murdered and the cat was out of the bag. WIthout that one incident, there was going to be a showcase sweep of “strawmen” arrests in the US. And the store owner would have to decide, is he a “witness”, or is he going to line up AGAINST the ATF. In a non Terry death world, THAT would have been very dicey.
Soon after the strawman sweep, but not directly connected, would be several press releases of how many American guns were found at Cratel shootouts. There would be no way for a lowly store owner to tie those together.
Anyway, no other plan even makes remotely sense.
The owner of Lone Wolf said he was worried when he never heard about any stings happening. That lowly store owner would be going TILT in his conscience upon hearing about Cratel (cartel) shoot outs.
But i agree with you, its head scratcher how they could pull this off without it looking blatantly manipulated. The fnger theory is all i can think of. I only know one thing for sure. I’d like to be around in 75 years when the future Amity Schlaes or some such, writes a book about this and other modern corruption in our government.
You know, how sometimes we read and watch things about the Cold War or WWII that were above Top Secret. Venona, Ultra, the U2 flights, Manhatten Project, assassination attempts against Castro, the book about USN subs “Blind Mans Bluff”, etc.
Those things were all so secret that people were given suicide pills, were authorized to kill to protect them, Vice presidents were out of the loop, etc. Now we buy the full story at Barnes and Noble for 9 bucks.
I wonder when or if we will ever learn the truth of this era.
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