JUST DO IT!
Posted on 10/07/2011 11:31:33 AM PDT by jazusamo
CBS News says they have lots more evidence, plus the Gunwalker architect may have been identified.
July 5, July 12, July 19, July 26, and August 9, 2010.
These are the dates of weekly memos provided by National Drug Intelligence Center Director Michael Walther to Attorney General Eric Holder. Each was a short document that included information on Operation Fast and Furious, including descriptions of the operation as a multi-agency task force targeting a gun trafficking ring headed by Manuel Celis-Acosta that had purchased “1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”
The release of these documents from mid-2010 — and supporting documents from Department of Justice insiders discussing “gunwalking” — has led House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) to ask President Obama to appoint a special prosecutor. The special prosecutor would investigate whether or not Attorney General Holder committed perjury when he stated in sworn testimony in March: “[I] probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) yesterday called for Holder toresign, and Arizona Senator John McCain is “ leaning towards” demanding a special council appointment to investigate.
With the increased attention on the case — including coverage from johnny-come-lately ABC that needed to add a backstory section to get their readers up to speed — the White House and Department of Justice are fighting back, alleging that the growing scandal is nothing but a game of “gotcha” being played by Republicans:
“Here they go again. Chairman Issa and Senator Grassley can re-package and re-release the same documents every other day and it won’t change the facts: the attorney general’s testimony to both the House and Senate committees has been consistent and truthful,” the department said.
The department said the “brief” passages were “buried in a few written reports” and did not detail the full extent of the operation.
“Instead of peddling selectively edited transcripts and distorting questions and answers in some distracting political game of gotcha, these congressional leaders should be focusing their attention on the underlying public safety problem we confront as a nation — that too many guns are being illegally trafficked to Mexico,” the statement said.
It is worth noting: the documents being released are new; the information was not buried, but featured bullet points of weekly summary reports; and there were no “selectively edited” transcripts or “distorted questions.” The DOJ pushback seems rooted in political firefighting, not facts.
Even left-leaning NPR — which seems to doubt Holder’s truthfulness — reported the details of the key question and answer accurately:
At a hearing in March, California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa asked: “When did you first know about the program officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious? To the best of your knowledge, what date?”
Holder replied: “I’m not sure the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”
Texas Senator John Cornyn blasted President Obama’s forceful defense of his attorney general, claiming that the president was the “the only person left with any confidence” in Holder:
“It is difficult to believe that after memos were sent to his office, ATF officials briefed Congress on Fast and Furious and it was reported in the media, Mr. Holder still didn’t have knowledge of it, as he claims, for several months,” Cornyn, a San Antonio Republican, said in an emailed statement.
The worst news of the week for Holder and Obama may have come last night. Bill O’Reilly interviewed CBSNews investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who has provided the most dogged mainstream media coverage of the administration’s gun-walking plots. O’Reilly asked Attkisson what caused a White House staffer to scream and curse at her several days ago. Her response left little doubt that more damning revelations are to come :
Well, I would say there have been some pretty incredible developments in the past week. Also, documents we haven’t even had time to report on all of them. They are very sensitive documents and allegations going around. Many of them we haven’t reported yet because we need to get more confirmation of them.
But what you see on the surface that we do report in our stories is really only a part of what may be going on and we may be reporting the future when we can get confirmation.
Attkisson may have been alluding to more evidence about Operation Fast and Furious, or perhaps about the nine other alleged gunwalking programs in five states which seem to have been implemented with the singularly practical purpose of getting thousands of weapons into the hands of criminals, both drug cartels and domestic gangs. Using Operation Fast and Furious as a baseline, it is reasonable to assume that if the other gunwalking operations were as productive, the U.S. may have run between 10,000 and 20,00o guns, enough weapons to outfit an entire U.S. Army infantry division.
If these numbers could be verified, it would prove that the Obama administration is the number one U.S. source of cartel guns.
As if things were not bad enough for the White House, Mike Vanderboegh — one of the bloggers who broke the original story linking ATF gunwalking to Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death — has sources claiming “Obama’s man in the State Department,” (former) Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg, was the State Department operative who helped Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and the Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General David Ogden formulate the strategy that led to the tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious.
And a follow-up story asserts what many have long suspected: that Gunwalker came about out of a desire to “pad” the Obama administration’s “ 90-pecent lie.”
If evidence can be obtained to support these contentions, then perjury is going to be the least of the worries for those involved. As Dave Gibson at the Examiner notes:
With the recent revelation that Attorney General Eric Holder knew about the ATF gun smuggling scheme as early as July 2010, which is nearly a year earlier than he claimed before Congress, the question becomes … Is Eric Holder an accomplice to Agent Brian Terry’s murder?
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu recently pointed out: “If somebody gives a gun to somebody knowing they’re going to commit murder, guess what we call them? … We call them accomplices.”
Bob Owens blogs at Confederate Yankee and Bob's Gun Counter.
If the MSM is truly turning on Zero, either:
1) his goose is cooked, or
2) he invents an excuse to declare martial law.
Just sayin’
Tick, tick, tick, ...
Yep, they may running out of ticks. It’s telling it was mentioned that ABC had to run a back story to get readers up to speed. More of the LSM will be forced to report and I believe soon.
Could it be, rather, that we the people are being played by those running media whoredom, setting up the exit for barry bassturd and advent of the hillary? Ask yourself, how could barry be extricated from the oval orifice yet his blind sycophancies not turn on whomever the democrap party criminal enterprise stand up to run? Simply by creating the illusion that it is conservatives who ran little barry off by attacking him when it was eric the red holder and underlings who should have been deposed! You could publish a letter wherein barry says to funnel guns to Mexico so Mexican will be killed in order to get new and more sweeping legislation to ban all weapons sales in the US, and little almost half-black barry ‘s sycophants would find some excuse to not believe it!
The GUNWALKER operation was just the thing they needed to promote hostile feelings about gun ownership across the country.
He just won't listen.
Sounds crazy, but these Rats are cornered and running out of time. They are going to double down on stupid.
I agree. And beware of cornered rats facing prison. They might try to go Hugo Chavez before 2012 with mobocracy.
Enough with the Monday-morning quarterbacking already.
Hindsight is always 20-20. It went through the regular review process. And people felt like this was a good bet.
We’re almost to the point that journalists will realize that this is a “Watergate looking for a Woodward”
It’ll be hard to take that away from Atkinson. But when the smoking gun is found, when it becomes apparent that Obama is involved, journalists will drop their allegiance to liberalism in a heartbeat to go after fame.
That should keep bodies dropping for at least a couple of decades.
I believe that’s a fair possibility. Many of Obama’s appointees have skirted and ignored laws if not down right broken them as has he.
I couldn’t agree more.
I believe some already realize it and also realize this scandal can and probably will make Watergate look like small potatoes.
Does Hillary have any idea what is going on in the State Dept. or is she going to go with the "my mind is JELL-O" defense again?
That's a great question and by her performance I would really doubt it, I'd bet on that JELL-O defense. :)
If these numbers could be verified, it would prove that the Obama administration is the number one U.S. source of cartel guns.
Bears repeating.
I really think this was an attempt by the administration to arm groups for the purposes of future social revolution, while using the statistics as a case for gun confiscation of the general law abiding populace, making their socialist revolution attempt more likely to meet with less deadly opposition. This would be the case particularly in large urban areas. The public would meet the business end of the criminal gangs, union commandos, local and state police, guard units, and many federal response teams under the DHS umbrella.
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