Posted on 10/06/2011 11:06:29 AM PDT by jazusamo
Drama: Eric Holder faces damning evidence, while the White House and MSM rearrange the deck chairs.
The thrusting and parrying between Obama administration officials, increasingly inquisitive journalists, and congressional investigators is evolving at a dizzying pace, as the Gunwalker conspiracy continues to unravel — to the horror of the Executive branch. They have been reduced to screaming hysterics and Chip Dilleresque appeals to “ calm down ” by one of the most dramatic scandals in American political history.
An attempt by the Obama administration — funneled through the Associated Press — to claim equivalence between a Bush-era cartel weapons interdiction program and the current administration’s plot to arm cartel members was debunked earlier today in a PJ Media exclusive. The Bush-era operation had no intention of allowing guns to walk, whereas Operation Fast and Furious and other alleged gunwalking programs were intentionally designed criminal enterprises.
Several congressmen and senators have voiced their concerns over the unfolding scandal in the past 24 hours. Senator Charles Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa released a statement via Grassley’s office this morning, excoriating Attorney General Eric Holder’s apparent perjury in his sworn testimony in front of the Oversight committee earlier this year.
The statement says in part:
Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa today said that Attorney General Eric Holder received at least five weekly memos beginning in July 2010, including four weeks in a row, describing the ill-advised strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious. The memos were to Holder from Michael Walther, the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center.
The Attorney General told Issa during a House Judiciary Committee in May 2011 that he had just learned of Fast and Furious a few weeks before. Yet, on January 31, in a previously scheduled meeting, Grassley personally handed him two letters about Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa said they find it very troubling that Holder actually knew of Operation Fast and Furious much earlier, and in greater detail than he ever let on.
The memos specifically said that the straw buyers were “responsible for the purchase of 1500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”
“With the fairly detailed information that the Attorney General read, it seems the logical question for the Attorney General after reading in the memo would be “why haven’t we stopped them?” Grassley said. “And if he didn’t ask the questions, why didn’t he or somebody in his office?”
The Daily Caller goes into more detail, noting :
Holder received briefing memos from National Drug Intelligence Center Director Michael Walther on July 5, July 12, July 19, July 26, and August 9.
Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that Obama administration officials responsible for Operation Fast and Furious might be accessories to murder.
“We’re talking about consequences of criminal activity, where we actually allowed guns to walk into the hands of criminals, where our livelihoods are at risk,” Gosar said in a phone interview. “When you facilitate that and a murder or a felony occurs, you’re called an accessory. That means that there’s criminal activity.”
Texas Senator John Cornyn was just as adamant in a series of interviews, revealing that Fast and Furious weapons are confirmed to have been recovered at 11 separate crime scenes within the United States so far. Cornyn bluntly accused Attorney General Holder of leading a Department of Justice coverup, a charge which emerging evidence seems to support. Cornyn wants Holder back under oath testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
“It’s looking more and more like the typical Washington scenario where people get caught doing bad things, but actually the cover-up ends up being worse than the original offense,” Cornyn, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on a conference call with reporters.
Newspaper op-eds, such as this one from Investors Business Daily, are beginning to call for Eric Holder’s criminal indictment.
Amid the onslaught, the administration has offered nothing in the way of accountability and only a superficial offering of change by rearranging staff within the ATF. It seems that the administration, from the White House down through the Department of Justice into the ATF, apparently thinks it can get away with little or no real consequences for a criminal conspiracy they orchestrated. They have been blamed for providing weapons that have killed 200 or more Mexican citizens, and that have been linked to the shootings of three federal law enforcement officers — two of whom were killed.
The New York Times, Washington Post and Associated Press seem to be doing everything within their considerable power to minimize the crimes alleged against the administration, even as they overstate the rearranging of the deck chairs on Captain Obama’s sinking ship.
There may ten or more gunwalking operations in five states, yet the part-time acting director of the ATF — who was also conspicuously the Chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and allegedly briefed on Operation Fast and Furious, according to documents obtained by Senator Grassley — can’t seem to find them .
Perhaps being a “part-time acting director” is a do-nothing job in which he has no power, influence, or interest. Or perhaps he’s covering his own hide, much like the acting DOJ inspector general who leaked information to the alleged co-conspirators she is supposed to be investigating.
If there are ten or more gunwalking operations just half the size of Operation Fast and Furious, then 12,000 weapons were supplied to criminals by our federal government — enough to arm three U.S. Army infantry brigades. If each operation was roughly as large as Fast and Furious, we’re looking at more than 20,000 weapons — enough to equip a U.S. infantry division.
The possibilities suggest that the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, and White House committed felony crimes domestically and internationally on a nearly unimaginable scale.
The Obama administration is still defending Eric Holder:
White House press secretary Jay Carney said that Holder has been “consistent and truthful” about when he learned of the controversial tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious, which oversaw the sale of thousands of firearms to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels.
“The president believes he’s an excellent attorney general and has great confidence in him, and we absolutely know that the testimony he gave was consistent and truthful,” Carney told reporters at a press briefing.
What else can they say? An administration neck-deep in felony crimes isn’t going to turn on one of their co-conspirators without a solid exit plan.
Between possible charges of accessory to murder, violations of international terrorism laws, felony violations of arms export laws, and possible treason, Franklin’s advice to hang together to avoid hanging separately is far more literal than anyone would have ever dreamed just a week ago.
Bob Owens blogs at Confederate Yankee and Bob's Gun Counter.
Nice try by AP to deflect to the Bush admin. The problem with that, as stated, is nothing was allowed to “walk” and the runners were immediately arrested.
The only reason Obama and his minions did this was to use it as justification for draconian gun laws.
I'm fully convinced of that and they were tripped up by a few outraged ATF agents.
Dear Senator Cornyn,
Worse than hundreds of murder victims?
If that's the case, you had better bring Holder and crew to justice. If you don't do your duty in this, you become complicit in the murders.
So your position, Senator, is that covering this up is actually worse than the killings of at least 200 Mexican civilians and 4 US Federal Agents?
People died because of this, it wasn't a puny break-in like Watergate.
Sorry to pick nits, but they didn't just die.
They were murdered. And Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and many other high Federal officials were complicit in those murders.
These are the "high crimes" which our Founding Fathers spoke of when they wrote the Constitution. I don't want Obama impeached. I want him indicted, tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the rest of his natural life in Marion for this.
this isn’t going away....
You’re correct and stated it much better than I and others besides Obama should suffer the same fate, especially Holder.
This one isn’t going away despite the best efforts of the Associated Press and the rest of the MSM. You might be able to plead ignorance up to the first actual killing, but after that anyone who is knowingly involved is an accessory to murder.
This isn't just some paper shuffle thingie that got out of hand.
rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, indeed.
This is a criminal conspiracy that directly led to the deaths of hundreds in Mexico and United States.
Not only is the Obama Administration involved, but so are media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC and CNN.
These media outlets are complicit in the criminal conspiracy as they assisted the Obama Admininstration in covering up this crime. They also assisted the Obama Administration in using this criminal conspiracy to falsly implicate US firearm dealers as the source of illegal firearms in Mexico.
I believe you’re right and certainly hope so.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Sharyl Attkisson since she spoke out about the WH and DOJ people coming unglued with her. Haven’t heard anything today but yesterday CBS spokespeople were telling callers she wasn’t available. She may be the one that forces the enemedia to start reporting on this.
and besides stopping the sales of guns, he also is arming his army of dreggs...I don’t think he will step down easily, its their last chance for communism..
Lets just hope Holder drops a dime on Barry on his way out.
Do you think he'll fall out of a helo, get killed by a stray bullet, an IED, or food poisoning after sampling local cuisine?
Betcha he doesn't see another Christmas in CONUS.
Remember Ron Brown?
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