Fast and Furious: Using Humans as Collateral Damage

Townhall.com ^ | September 27, 2011 | Katie Pavlich

[Kaslin]

Tucson, Ariz.-The Canyon Del Oro High School auditorium in Tucson, Ariz. was packed full of at least 500 people last night as anxious tea party members waited to hear from ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar about the Obama Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious. The theme of the night? Accountability.  

“The only thing I have ever asked is to put all the cards on the table. Tell the truth,” ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu said.

Cefalu was heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious and has been an ATF agent for over 20 years. He has watched the bureau become a political entity rather than fulfilling its obligations as a law enforcement agency.

“We should not concern ourselves with any administration’s agenda,” Cefalu said. "It [Operation Fast and Furious] defies logic, common sense, it defies our core beliefs, our training and our experience as ATF agents.”

When Cefalu started speaking out against his superiors within ATF about the way Operation Fast and Furious was being conducted, putting high powered weapons into the hands of ruthless drug cartels and then losing track of them, he was approached within 24 hours and told to stop. He was also threatened and told if he didn’t shut his mouth, he would be relocated to North Dakota, a long way from where he had been working along the southern border with Mexico.

“To think that they could do this sort of operation knowing there could be a dead ATF agent at the ends of those guns made me nauseous,” he said.

Despite threats from his superiors, Cefalu blew the whistle about Operation Fast and Furious anyway, which has landed him under review for what he describes as “a proposal for removal for telling the truth.“

“Unchecked power corrupts,” he said, adding that there are no longer checks and balances within ATF.

In his speech, Cefalu made the larger argument that this is a major government corruption problem, not only surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, but about a runaway government that doesn't answer to the people, saying ATF agents and the Department of Justice shouldn’t be able to say no to Congress when asked for documentation surrounding operations within the Bureau. The Obama Justice Department has been stonewalling the House Oversight Committee in its investigation into Operation Fast and Furious since day one.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who is fighting on the ground in Arizona against the very cartels the federal government has been arming, was appalled at the operation, saying this scandal will “totally eclipse Watergate,” and made the case that Operation Fast and Furious was used as program to restrict Second Amendment rights for law abiding citizens. He brought up the lie that 90 percent of guns in Mexico come from the United States, told over and over again by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. The 90 percent figure has been proven false by multiple fact checking organizations, intelligence sources and even ATF agents yet, Obama and Holder have tried to make the case that all the violence in Mexico comes from the United States.

“He’s [Obama] saying that to build the argument to restrict our gun rights in America,” Babeu said, and internal ATF emails prove it.

Babeu was also disgusted at the idea that the government has never apologized to the family of Brian Terry, despite guns from Operation Fast and Furious being used by a cartel member to kill him.

“He was a cop, he was a marine and was murdered on American soil,” Babeu said.

“I want nothing out of this bit for justice to be served and for Brian Terry’s mama to know that somebody cared,” Cefalu said.  “You’ve sent that message tonight, that you cared.”

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar described Operation Fast and Furious as “A Few Good Men being played out in real life,” adding that humans were used as collateral damage while the federal government armed Mexican cartel members with .50 caliber sniper rifles, a weapon strong enough to take down a helicopter, and AK-47s.

“I want to remind you, we had a couple of guys break into a hotel take down an administration, nobody died,” Gosar said. “When are we going to hold agencies and bureaucrats to task?”

Gosar, Babeu and Cefalu all called for accountability from the Obama Administration multiple times throughout the evening and questions from the audience were centered around who ultimately would be held responsible for not only the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, but also for the deaths of thousands of innocent Mexicans. 

“These people are now being killed wholesale,” Cefalu said.

In the past 18 months, 22,000 Mexicans have been killed.

“President Obama is not above the law and he and this administration will have to account for this,” Babeu said.  

[bcsco]

This is a ping list promoting Immigration Enforcement and Congressional Reform.
If you wish to be added or removed from this ping list, please contact me.

Scandals proliferate(gunwalker)

Mexican Government Under Assault From Drug Cartels, Washington Yawns

Cain: DOJ is 'supposed to be about justice not politics' (calls for Ind. Counsel invest. of Holder)

Earth to Gov. Perry: True "Heart" Means No Benefits to Illegals

U.S. Government Bought and Sold Weapons During 'Fast and Furious,' Documents Show

Gunwalker bombshell--"there never was a 'sting'"

White House Answers Congress in Gunwalker (CBS)

U.S. Government Used Taxpayer Funds to Buy, Sell Weapons During 'Fast and Furious,' Documents Show

Texans Want Action on the Border

Police: Stolen ID Gets Illegal Alien Upstate Job

Perry’s footsteps heard in the Latino community

Drunk Driver Strikes Two, Kills One On Poplar Street Bridge

Immigrant student who sparked debate avoids a conviction

Day Laborers and the Right to Roadside Job Hunting

Border Wars Texas is Ground Zero (update) Texas Border Security Report

Arizona Sheriff Fights Drug Cartels, but Whose Side is Obama On?

Grassley: Holder Thwarts ATF Sting Inquiry

Hanover Park mayor: No bail for illegal immigrants

RI board approves tuition for illegal immigrants

Illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises (Old but worth reading)

Homeland Security Released Terror Operative Who Illegally Crossed Border (PJM Exclusive)

U.S. Government Used Taxpayer Funds to Buy, Sell Weapons During 'Fast and Furious'

Failure Guaranteed (Calif. "English Learners")

ATF Walked Guns Directly to Cartel Using Taxpayer Dollars

[marktwain]

Gunwalker ping.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Despite threats from his superiors, Cefalu blew the whistle about Operation Fast and Furious anyway, which has landed him under review for what he describes as “a proposal for removal for telling the truth.“ “Unchecked power corrupts,” he said, adding that there are no longer checks and balances within ATF.

This is more than your garden-variety "unchecked power corrupts."

Obama's ideological parents Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dorhn, and other 60's spoiled-brat, psycho-dangerous Marxist-Alinsky nutcases bragged that they'd have to kill tens of millions of Americans to create their America.

They are arguably now "the Establishment."

Does anyone think that these aged spoiled-brats and their ideological issue care one whit about Americans and Mexicans killed by any of their schemes?

Their only want is having their way and the major step is to get guns out of the hands of everyone except the ruling class.

[gargoyle]

...Sounds like these guys might need some protection, like a well armed militia. Good post, Kas...

...Fancy seeing you here, Will! Later...

[gargoyle]

...Savage hurrah!!!

[MestaMachine]

FOR REFERENCE:

DAVID CODREA'S PROJECT GUNWALKER

A Journalist's guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part One

A Journalist's Guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part Two

A Journalist's Guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part Three

A Journalist's Guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part Four

A Journalist's Guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part Five

A Journalist's Guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part Six

[MestaMachine]

GREATreportonFox just a few minutes ago. Sipsey Street and the Examniner were featured very prominently along with Codrea and Vanderboegh. They didn’t leave out a thing. Wm. Lajeunesse. Maybe video in about half an hour. Will watch for it.

[bcsco]

Thanks. Got it.

[bcsco]

I have to give Lajeunesse credit. He’s been following this.

[MestaMachine]

He has been following this for some time now. CBS broke it, Fox has been keeping up with it, but it still hasn’t struck the nerve center of Americans. I don’t get it.

[MrB]

They can’t advance their socialist/communist goals any further without violence,
and as of now, they’d be resisted to the point of defeat.

Gun confiscation is the next logical step,
and if you know the communist mind,
a few m/billion deaths are a small price to pay
for the utopia that will result.

[bcsco]

but it still hasn’t struck the nerve center of Americans. I don’t get it.

It's not the easiest story to follow. Broader "in-depth" coverage would solve that. But that's the MSM for you.

[SaraJohnson]

No political leadership. The elected Republicans are ignoring this. Like they ignored Obama’s qualification problem. I figure the Marxists must have a boatload of dirt on the members of the GOP.