Free Republic

Serial abuses of justice by America’s top law enforcement official should be enough to make just about any tinhorn banana republic dictator blush. Yet regarding any embarrassment evidenced by the leader of the free world… not so much. Despite the fact that our attorney general has been indicted for contempt of Congress on both felony and civil charges, has repeatedly lied under oath, and has routinely turned a blind eye to laws that he is duty-bound to enforce, Mr. Holder continues to serve at the behest of his presidential mentor. At least he has so far. Apparently not so very...

Scandal: The truth about how and why Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata and hundreds of Mexican nationals were killed with weapons supplied by this administration may yet come out as a court lets a lawsuit proceed. The most transparent administration in history suffered a defeat Monday, when U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson turned down the Justice Department's request to dismiss a lawsuit seeking "Fast and Furious" documents hidden by Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department after President Obama invoked executive privilege. The lawsuit was brought by Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after...

Mexican authorities have announced the arrest of a third suspect in the December, 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, Reuters reported this morning. Ivan Soto Barraza was apprehended in Sinaloa by “Mexican Interpol agents working with federal and state police” and the FBI, and awaits extradition to the United States. Terry’s killing prompted a post a week later on CleanUpATF, a website established by agents frustrated with Bureau waste, abuse, corruption and fraud, alleging weapons found at the murder scene were tied to federally-sanctioned “gunwalking,” now known to the world as Operation Fast and Furious. That post was...

While most of Washington has moved on, legal scholars expect a decision soon in a potentially landmark case in one of the federal government's most damaging scandals -- Operation Fast and Furious. Republican lawmakers, after holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for failing to turn over records they had subpoenaed, are still waiting for a judge to rule on their case. But they have not forgotten.

Florida officials have arrested radical anti-Islam preacher Terry Jones as he was on his way to a Sept. 11 event where he planned to burn 2,998 Korans, according to local news reports Wednesday. Jones is best known for stoking Muslim anger by publicly desecrating the religion´s holy book, sometimes with international consequences. This time law enforcement officials intervened before Jones could carry out his plans for a ceremonial Sept. 11 burning. Jones had planned to set alight 2,998 Korans at a Polk County park for the 12-year anniversary, with each Koran "representing one of the victims, every person who was

Scandal after scandal, coupled with an ongoing contempt for the law and the Constitution, demonstrated by high-level officials and the president himself, point to one deeply troubling conclusion: the Obama administration may be the most corrupt administration ever inflicted on the American public. And while the mainstream media have done a remarkable job deflecting much of that reality, even they cannot keep up with the avalanche of disturbing revelations that arise, seemingly on a daily basis. We begin with yet another report about the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation, courtesy of Sharyl Attkisson, one of the few remaining reporters who...

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder reminding him that the Department of Justice has an obligation to inform Congress when Operation Fast and Furious weapons are found at crime scenes. Just last week, the Los Angeles Times reported Mexican Police Chief Luis Astorga and his body guard were killed by cartels using guns from the lethal operation. "Since the beginning of this investigation, we have followed the link between Fast and Furious weapons and crimes committed on both sides of the border. On numerous occasions we have asked the Department to keep us...

WASHINGTON – The controversy surrounding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ infamous Fast and Furious program has faded over the past few months but it’s unlikely to be relegated to the background for very long. Last week it was revealed that a high-powered rifle employed in the unsuccessful gun-tracking program was used to kill a police chief and his bodyguard in the Mexican state of Jalisco, signaling that some of the weapons used in the enterprise are now in the possession of members of drug cartels – the same people Fast and Furious was supposed to entrap as...

Barack Obama and Eric Holder are doubtlessly grateful that virtually everyone, including the mainstream media, has turned the Fast and Furious page and moved on to more recent White House Administration scandals.  But, the human carnage continues to mount.A Los Angeles Times investigation uncovered Justice Department documentation of the assassination Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the Police Chief of Hostotipaquillo in the west-central Mexican state of Jalisco, who "was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire."  Also killed was one of Astorga's bodyguards.  The Chief's wife and another bodyguard were also wounded.  Eight suspects...

Syracuse, NY - Doctors at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center were about to remove organs for transplant from a woman they thought was dead. Then she opened her eyes. She was alive. The state Health Department found St. Joe's care of patient Colleen S. Burns in 2009 unacceptable and a federal agency criticized the hospital for not properly investigating the cause. The hospital's mishandling of the case was part of the reason the state Health Department fined St. Joe's $22,000 last September... A series of mistakes that began shortly after Burns arrived in the emergency room suffering from a drug...

WASHINGTON—A high-powered rifle lost in the ATF’s Fast and Furious controversy was used to kill a Mexican police chief in the state of Jalisco earlier this year, according to internal Department of Justice records, suggesting that weapons from the failed gun-tracking operation have now made it into the hands of violent drug cartels deep inside Mexico. Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the police chief in the city of Hostotipaquillo, was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire. Also killed was one of his bodyguards. His wife and a second bodyguard were wounded.

WASHINGTON – A high-powered rifle lost in the ATF’s Fast and Furious controversy was used to kill a Mexican police chief in the state of Jalisco earlier this year, according to internal Justice Department records, suggesting that weapons from the failed gun-tracking operation have now made it into the hands of violent drug cartels deep inside Mexico. Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the police chief in the city of Hostotipaquillo, was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire. Also killed was one of his bodyguards. His wife and a second bodyguard were wounded. Local...

The ATF leader who oversaw a botched undercover operation in Milwaukee will now be in charge of the agency's embattled Phoenix office, where agents allowed more than 2,000 guns to walk into the hands of suspected criminals through the infamous "Operation Fast and Furious."

Credits: (Photo courtesy of ATF via Getty Images) On October 27th, in a townhall meeting in Yuma, Arizona, before his election as senator, Jeff Flake promised to hold those who had allowed and covered up the Fast and Furious scandal accountable. The time has come for Senator Flake to start making good on his promise. On June 11th, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin hearings on the confirmation of B.Todd Jones as the Director of the BATFE. Senator Flake is a member of that committee. B. Todd Jones was present at a key meeting that occurred just...

Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made the following statement after an Office of Inspector General Report showed that U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke leaked a sensitive document to the press regarding a whistleblower who had come forward with allegations of gunwalking, that he leaked an internal memo regarding Fast and Furious suspect Jaime Avila to the New York Times, and that he lied to Deputy Attorney General James Cole. The document leaked to Fox News was deemed so sensitive by the Justice Department that it was not provided to Congress, except in a secured room at...

Senator Charles Grassley, who launched the first Capitol Hill investigation of Operation Fast and Furious more than two years ago, today blasted the treatment of a chief whistleblower in the investigation by the former U.S. attorney in Arizona, and subsequent attempts to discredit him by the Justice Department. Grassley released a statement after the Office of Inspector General released a report Monday morning that shows former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke leaked “a sensitive document” to a Fox News reporter in an attempt to discredit John Dodson, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The IG’s...

The U.S. Attorney in Arizona violated Justice Department policy by providing Fox News with information apparently aimed at undercutting the credibility of a federal agent who helped reveal the botched arms-trafficking probe called Operation Fast and Furious, the Justice Department's inspector general said Monday. There was substantial evidence in the 2011 incident that then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke's motive for disclosing a memo by federal agent John Dodson was retaliation, the inspector general's report said. In testimony to a House committee just two weeks earlier, Dodson had raised serious concerns about Operation Fast and Furious. In Dodson's memo, which was eventually...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General published a new report Monday that confirms former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke leaked a document intended to smear Operation Fast and Furious scandal whistleblower John Dodson. The DOJ IG said it found “Burke’s conduct in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to be inappropriate for a Department employee and wholly unbefitting a U.S. Attorney.” “We are referring to OPR our finding that Burke violated Department policy in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to a member of the media for a determination of whether Burke’s conduct violated the Rules of Professional Conduct for the state...

(US President Barack gestures as he speaks at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, Friday, May 3, 2013.) (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, speaking in Mexico City on Friday, said the United States is responsible for much of the crime and violence in Mexico because of the demand for drugs and the illegal smuggling of guns across the southern border. He told the crowd, “We understand that the root cause of violence that’s been happening here in Mexico for which so many Mexicans have suffered is the demand for illegal drugs in the United States.” He later added, “We...

Guns To Mexico: Once again blaming his own country for Mexico's gun violence without mentioning Fast and Furious, the gun runner in chief pledges to find and jail gun smugglers. Perhaps he should start with his own administration. 'We recognize that most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States. ... We'll keep increasing the pressure on the gun traffickers who bring illegal guns into Mexico, and we'll keep putting these criminals where they belong — behind bars," President Obama told students assembled at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City on Friday, repeating...