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Several top ATF officials will testify Tuesday before a House committee investigating the controversial “Fast and Furious” weapons program and likely will be asked whether they were ordered not to tell Mexican authorities that guns recovered at crime scenes in that country had been illegally purchased in the U.S. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, called in the wake of acting ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson’s closed-door testimony that the Justice Department sought to shift blame for Fast and Furious away from its political appointees, also will get its first opportunity to question ATF supervisors who have defended...

According to a release from Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has scheduled new hearings into the on going Operation Fast and Furious scandal — this time they’ll be talking to ATF agents based in Mexico: “Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border” will examine accounts of agents based in Mexico Washington DC– On Tuesday, July 26th, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will convene a hearing as part of the ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious, a tragically flawed effort that is connected to...

Congressional Hearings on Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz Possible Washington, DC -- The day after a national pro-life organization released a new comprehensive report showing the numerous abuses at Planned Parenthood abortion centers as reasons for a Congressional investigation, one top Republican says that's possible. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/08/congressional-hearings-on-planned-parenthood-abortion-biz-possible/

At a congressional hearing on Muslim radicalization in U.S. prisons, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said that investigators needed to analyze Christian militants in America because they too might try to “bring down the country.” In an exchange with witness Patrick Dunleavy, the former deputy inspector of the criminal intelligence unit, New York Department of Correctional Services, Rep. Jackson Lee mentioned the case of a man who blew up an abortion clinic and proposed that this perhaps was an attempt to undermine U.S. law that allows a woman to procure an abortion. Rep. Lee then said, “As we look to...

WASHINGTON — Knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious, a controversial border security strategy that allowed guns to be shipped illegally into Mexico in an effort to track them to drug cartels, went to the top of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, according to evidence released on Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing. Witnesses at the House hearing included three relatives of a Border Patrol agent killed in Arizona and three A.T.F. agents, right. The operation, which began in 2009, came under fire after two guns linked to it were found at the scene of the killing of...

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released copies of redacted emails on Wednesday that detail the involvement of the head of the ATF in a controversial gun-tracking program as early as March of 2010. The emails strike a stark contrast to letters the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) have sent to lawmakers in which they denied selling assault weapons to known and suspected straw purchasers for drug cartels and claimed that they made every effort to prevent weapons from going to Mexico. In one of the emails, released by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.),...

Mid-June could potentially bring the first of what may be several hearings on Capitol Hill over Project Gunrunner, but that is not confirmed nor is it presently on the Congressional calendar, a House source said today. "It might not happen," the source said via e-mail. Mike Vanderboegh, the Sipsey Street Irregulars blogger who broke the initial Gunrunner stories with National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea almost six months ago, first reported the possibility of a hearing earlier today. That hearing would be before Congressman Darrell Issa’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Issa did recently indicate that hearings into the...

An open letter to Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester Senators Baucus and Tester: You’ve both led in actions in the past to merit gun owner support (see "On the Issues" links, below), notably your letter to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson opposing expansion of reporting requirements for long gun purchases, your leadership in ensuring that spent military cartridge cases remain available to the civilian market, and your warning to Attorney General Eric Holder that you “oppose reinstating the ban on the sale of assault weapons.” Good job on those. Unfortunately, you...

Five executives from America’s leading oil companies were marched in front of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday morning for a public scolding, and told to defend industry tax breaks while Americans are being charged $4 for a gallon of gas. In other words, Thursday was judgment day the CEO’s of the country’s five largest oil companies. And because most of the committee’s Republicans were attending a budget meeting at the White House, the executives were left to face a very partisan, very unhappy panel of Democrats. Representing the scorned oil industry was John Watson of Chevron, Marvin Odum of Shell...

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- President Barack Obama announced Thursday that the Justice Department is assembling a team to "root out any cases of fraud or manipulation" in oil markets that might be contributing to $4 a gallon-plus gasoline prices. "We are going to make sure that no one is taking advantage of the American people for their own short-term gain," Obama said at a town-hall style meeting at a renewable energy plant in Reno. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.84 on Thursday, about 30 cents higher than a month ago and almost a dollar...

In what is likely a response to Rep. Peter King's relatively tame hearings on Muslim extremism and homeland security earlier this month, Senator Dick Durbin will be holding a hearing this Tuesday to investigate the supposedly growing problem of anti-Muslim bigotry in America. USA Today reports: "Our Constitution protects the free exercise of religion for all Americans," said Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who will chair the hearing. He said it follows a spike in anti-Muslim bigotry over the past year. Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy organization based in San Francisco, said...

Opponents of New York Republican Rep. Peter King’s hearings on domestic Muslim extremism have tried to make the controversy into a civil rights battle. The more the left obfuscates the issue, the more dangerous the threat becomes. One line of argument is that the House Homeland Security Committee hearings are unfairly discriminatory because they don’t address other domestic terror threats, such as from purportedly violent militia groups. Rep. Al Green, Texas Democrat, bizarrely contended that failing to investigate the Ku Klux Klan somehow amounted to a defense of that organization. “Over a hundred years of terrorism, why not investigate them...

Today’s Homeland Security hearing investigating the issue of radicalization of American Muslims was decried by the leftist media as a supreme attack on the civil rights of Muslim Americans. The most serious drama that came out of the hearing today, however, was provided by Sheriff Leroy Baca of Los Angeles County who took issue with Congressman Chip Craavack‘s concerns regarding Baca’s unequivocal support for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Sheriff Baca exhibited marked defensiveness toward CAIR when it was suggested by Congressman Craavack that CAIR might be using him to advance a pro-terrorism agenda. The exchange between Congressman Cravaack...

Radical Islam, Little Rock shooting spotlighted in congressional hearingUpdated: 3/10 5:37 pm WASHINGTON D.C. - - Melvin Bledsoe is one of the people testifying in a controversial hearing on Capital Hill in Washington D.C. His son, Abdulhakim Muhammad, 25, is charged with capital murder in Pulaski County for the attack on two soldiers. "If we knew our serious his extremism had become we could have put in every effort to prevent the tragedy in Arkansas from even happening," Bledsoe says. Melvin Bledsoe offered testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee about the supposed radicalization of his son Abdulhakim Muhammad. Describing...

The congressman told a teachable story this morning. One problem: It’s untrue. This morning, Rep. Keith Ellison (Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, Minn.) appropriated a hearing on Islamic radicalism by weeping his way through a speech about whata-buncha-nasty-bigots Americans are. He chose as his case in point Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a Pakistani-born Muslim American who rushed to lower Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, to assist in rescue efforts, and died in the collapse of the World Trade Center. Here’s how Representative Ellison tells the story of the aftermath of his death: ((snip)) Does Ellison’s account check out with reality? No....

H.R.3162 Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TITLE I--ENHANCING DOMESTIC SECURITY AGAINST TERRORISM SEC. 101. COUNTERTERRORISM FUND. (a) ESTABLISHMENT; AVAILABILITY- There is hereby established in the Treasury of the United States a separate fund to be known as the `Counterterrorism Fund', amounts in which shall remain available without fiscal year limitation-- (1) to reimburse any Department of Justice component for any costs incurred in connection with-- (A) reestablishing the operational capability of an office...

Is there such as thing as "must-see" C-SPAN3? If so, set the DVR for 6:30 a.m. West Coast time for Thursday's Homeland Security Committee, where as we told you the other day, GOP Rep. Peter King is planning to look into the radicalization of U.S. Muslims. San Mateo's own Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier is a member of that committee and told us Wednesday that she is planning to "call out" King Thursday: "This is one member's bias that he is now putting forth as the policy of this country and there are going to be many of us who will...

King hearings should probe imams whose teachings threaten AmericansDespite opposition from the usual Muslim Brotherhood offshoot "advocacy" groups in the United States, Rep. Peter King is forging ahead with hearings Thursday on what he terms domestic "Muslim radicalization." ~snip~ I believe direct cross-examination of clerics from the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA), including a frank discussion of their public "fatwas" (Islamic religious rulings), is essential to the congressman's critically important goal of understanding Muslim radicalization in America. ~snip_ Finally, another Arabic-language fatwa from Salah Al-Sawy, secretary-general of the AMJA, leaves open the possibility for offensive jihad against America...

Being religious is never un-American. Being religious is quintessentially American -Denis McDonough The White House is quick to defend the only religion liberals recognize as legitimate in preparation for congressional hearings on Islamic radicalization in America. Liberals show no such tolerance toward Christianity, but tirelessly defend the rights of terrorists as long as they remember to shout “allahu akbar” at some point during their killing rampages. Rep. Peter King of New York wants to study the reasons why young people are turning themselves into jihadis at such a terrifying rate. Rather than applaud King’s efforts to combat extremism, those much...

CAIR says Peter King doesn’t think American Muslims are real Americans. CAIR director Corey Saylor is angry at Republican Peter King for his intention to drag members of the American Muslim community before his House Homeland Security Commission, which he chairs. So what does Saylor do in his role as representative of the “religion of peace?” Why, start to cast aspersions on the good Republican. That’s what. He also accused King—who just wants to help the American Muslim community by finding the radicals there—of misrepresenting the number of Muslims in the US who do not report on the bad apples...