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On Tuesday Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House committee on Oversight and Government Reform, took a major step toward holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to provide subpoenaed documents and other information about Operation Fast and Furious.

Just like clockwork, the Obama administration never misses an opportunity to unload thousands of records it hopes no one will ever bother sifting through during the holidays. On Black Friday, the White House released more visitor log info — trumpeting disclosures it has fought tooth and nail. I’ve started looking through the data. And you can, too, right here:

While the Obama Administration downplays violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities in Texas reveal that Mexican drug cartels have transformed parts of the state into a war zone where shootings, beheadings, kidnappings and murders are common. In fact, drug-cartel violence is so severe that Texas counties along the Mexican border are under attack around the clock, according to an alarming report published by the state’s Department of Agriculture. The agency was ordered by the state legislature to conduct an assessment of the impact of illegal activity along the Texas-Mexico border on rural landowners and the agriculture industry. Texas Agriculture...

Actions by Mexican drug cartels are “consistent” with what the U.S. would consider to be “terrorism or insurgency” in other parts of the world, a State Department official told lawmakers on Thursday. “I do acknowledge that many of the facts on the ground, the things that are being done by those organizations, are consistent with what we would call either terrorism or insurgency in other countries,” William Brownfield told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on emerging threats and security in the western hemisphere. Brownfield, assistant secretary at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, was responding to...

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a subpoena Wednesday to Attorney General Eric Holder as part of his investigation into the gun trafficking operation known as "Fast and Furious." "Top Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Holder, know more about Operation Fast and Furious than they have publicly acknowledged," the California Republican said in a statement. "The documents this subpoena demands will provide answers to questions that Justice officials have tried to avoid since this investigation began eight months ago. It's time we know the whole truth." The subpoena seeks, among other things,...

Breaking on Fox ...

by John HillStand With ArizonaSheriff Paul Babeu led a press conference with 9 other Arizona sheriffs today, to blast Attorney General Eric Holder and the Administration for the disastrous 'Operation Fast and Furious', calling it a a "betrayal of state law enforcement". Standing in front of a Phoenix memorial for fallen law enforcement officers, including Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry - murdered as a direct result of the operation - the sheriffs called for the president to launch an independent investigation and for Attorney General Eric Holder to step down or be fired. They are demanding that Holder reveal...

Though reporters asked about it during President Obama’s Thursday press conference, media coverage of the gun-running “Fast and Furious” scandal has generally been lacking. On Hugh Hewitt’s syndicated radio program Thursday, columnist Mark Steyn explained why he hasn’t ignored the story, and attacked the Obama administration’s involvement in the program. “In this case the government of the United States is the gunrunner,” Steyn said. “That is basically what is happening here. There would be no guns running to these Mexican cartels if the United States government hadn’t instituted a program to facilitate it.” Steyn noted the lack of media outrage...

So now the Fast and Furious affair has reached Stage 2 of the classic Washington scandal: House Republicans have called for a special counsel to investigate Attorney General Eric Holder himself for possible perjury. Justice Department documents indicate that Holder knew of the operation way back in July 2010 --far earlier than the “in the last few weeks” that he told congressional investigators under oath last May. Memos from Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and others to Holder clearly show the scope, if not the nature, of the disastrous project: “This investigation, initiated in September 2009 . . . involves...

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- The United States government has yet to brief Mexican authorities on the failed Fast and Furious gun-running operation that led to scores of American weapons being smuggled purposefully into a raging drug war, Mexico's top law enforcement official told The Times. "At no time did we know or were we made aware that there might have been arms trafficking permitted," said Atty. Gen. Marisela Morales in comments from a recent interview with Times reporters published Tuesday. "In no way would we have allowed it, because it is an attack on the safety of Mexicans."

The stench from Washington is getting stronger. Rep. Darrell Issa has called for a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of the festering mess known as Operation Fast and Furious. Hatched somewhere in the bowels of the Justice Department, that misbegotten scheme had the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives deliberately allowing high-powered guns to “walk” from Arizona and elsewhere into Mexico: Our agents turned a blind eye toward the straw purchasers who were funneling the weapons to the drug cartels. The (dumb) idea was to trace cross-border arms trafficking, and so prove the (false) claim that 90...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Whether it is Solyndra, Obamacare, or Fast and Furious, President Obama’s push for his “American Jobs Act” has been drowned out this week by the failure of his past policies. Every night it seems there is a new angle on the Energy Department’s failed loan to the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. Not only was there a headline-grabbing hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday (at which Obama officials tried to blame Bush) , but the Treasury Department separately announced that their Inspector General (IG) would join the FBI and Energy Department IG in their...

The U.S. State Department warned yesterday that the Juarez Cartel may target its consulate office in Ciudad Juarez -- just over the border from El Paso, TX -- or other U.S. interests as reported by Mary Forgione for the Los Angeles Times. The "emergency message" states: Information has come to light that suggests a cartel may be targeting the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez or U.S. Ports of Entry. In the past, cartels have been willing to utilize car bombs in attacks. Earlier this month a drug cartel in Ciudad Juarez spray painted a public warning to U.S. DEA agents...

Administration appears complicit in Mexican firearms smuggling schemeThe Obama administration on Friday renewed its proposal to force gun dealers in four southwest border states to register multiple firearms sales. According to its filing in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) wants to create detailed records of whenever anyone attempts to purchase more than one semi-automatic rifle in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The registry scheme highlights Department of Justice (DOJ) hypocrisy on the gun issue. DOJ claims information on law-abiding gun owners might help prevent Mexican drug cartels from obtaining American weapons. At...

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) The mayor and police chief of a small town on the U.S.-Mexico border were among 11 suspects indicted for allegedly trafficking around 200 guns to Mexico, authorities said on Thursday. The U.S. Attorney's office in New Mexico said the mayor of Columbus, Eddie Espinoza, the town's police chief Angelo Vega, and village trustee Blas Gutierrez were among those arrested on an 84-count indictment. "Gutierrez, Espinoza and Vega were duty sworn to protect and safeguard the people of Columbus," U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said in a statement. "Instead, they increased the risk of harm that the...

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV Friday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Barack Obama’s decision not to fully enforce the Defense of Marriage law has sparked a constitutional crisis as he has directly violated his constitutional duties by arbitrarily suspending a law. Gingrich for the first time raised the specter of Obama’s removal from office, noting that, if a “President Sarah Palin” had taken a similar action, there would have been immediate calls for her impeachment. Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the administration will not defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act...

RWBNews: Alleged cover-ups, stonewalling and lawlessness are possibly being perpetrated at high levels of the Obama DOJ by AG Holder to ATF higher-ups in order to manipulate statistics and further progressive agendas of gun-control, border security and immigration. New information has surfaced indicating more corruption at the DOJ’s ATF. Gun smuggling into Mexico to ‘pad’ statistics to ‘prove’ U.S. guns arm Mexican drug cartels. ALSO..ATF agents bribed a gun dealer into helping shady characters in making ‘straw purchases’ to ‘prove’ U.S. gun stores are breaking the law! If the allegations prove to be true, the American people are being lied...

SIERRA VISTA — The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is stepping up its effort to stop the flow of illegal guns flowing into Mexico and into the hands of drug cartels. The agency is setting up specialized teams along known trafficking hubs and routes, including Sierra Vista. Project Gunrunner will establish teams in seven U.S. cities: Atlanta, Dallas, Brownsville, Texas, Las Vegas, Miami, Oklahoma City and Sierra Vista. The move is a follow-up to the ATF’s Gun Runner Impact Team (GRIT) initiative, which saw a 100-day deployment of resources to the Phoenix Field Division, according to the...

McALLEN, Texas -- Two Mexican nationals caught in Texas with 147 assault rifles, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, high-capacity magazines and bayonets have started serving short federal sentences after pleading guilty to entering the U.S. illegally. Federal prosecutors released the names of Damaso Alberto Rueda Cabrera and Arnulfo de la Cruz Sanchez on Thursday along with the unusual announcement that the men made their initial appearances in federal court, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to terms of 10 days and 45 days, respectively, all on Tuesday. In a prepared statement, U.S. Attorney Jose Angel Moreno said the investigation continued and no...

INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION AGAINST THE ILLICIT MANUFACTURING OF AND TRAFFICKING IN FIREARMS, AMMUNITION, EXPLOSIVES, AND OTHER RELATED MATERIALS THE STATES PARTIES, AWARE of the urgent need to prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials, due to the harmful effects of these activities on the security of each state and the region as a whole, endangering the well-being of peoples, their social and economic development, and their right to live in peace; CONCERNED by the increase, at the international level, in the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives,...