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Operation Fast and Furious: The Forgotten History of the ATF's Notorious Gunwalking Scandal
Ammo.com ^ | 12/16/2020 | Sam Jacobs

Posted on 12/15/2020 10:34:57 PM PST by ammodotcom

The ATF isn’t all bad. In fact, they had a policy of letting illegal gun purchases go between 2006 and 2011. It ended up getting U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry killed on December 14, 2010, and let Mexican criminals get enough guns that they were found at over 150 crime scenes where Mexican citizens were either killed or maimed. And some of the guns were used in the November 2015 terrorist attack in Paris at the Bataclan. But other than that, it turned out just fine.

(In case you’re not picking up on it, we’re laying on the sarcasm very thick right now.)

You probably know what was officially called “Project Gunrunner” as “Operation Fast and Furious.” Started under George W. Bush, this ATF policy audaciously grew under President Obama and became indicative of the perceived attack on American gun owners by both policy makers and their friends in the establishment media.

(Excerpt) Read more at ammo.com ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government
KEYWORDS: 2deadfeds; 300deadmexicans; atf; banglist; bidenvoters; bp; brianterry; cia; dhs; doj; fastandfurious; fbi; gunrunner; gunwalker; holder; hsi; ice; jaimezapata; obama; terry; zapata

1 posted on 12/15/2020 10:34:57 PM PST by ammodotcom
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To: ammodotcom

I remember the year or so before this came out. The news was suddenly filled with stories about how the 2nd Amendment in America was fueling the drug wars in Mexico.
The remedies being discussed in the articles were ban on assault rifles, gun limiting schemes in border states and other intrusive schemes all leading to a ban. The articles were discussing American guns being found at scenes in Mexico.

Then lo and behold, about a year later we start hearing about fast and furious.

As Matt Bracken calls it “Murdergate”. Several hundred Mexicans were murdered solely as props to help Obama “prove” that US 2nd amendment was a menace and needed to be curbed. That evil small man Obama, and his DOJ and Hillary literally murdered hundreds as a way to go after the rights of Americans.

Evil.


2 posted on 12/15/2020 11:04:25 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. .... )
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To: ammodotcom

I rank it along side Ruby Ridge, Waco, and the murder of LaVoy Finicum as examples of unrestrained government power, especially involving the perversely named FBI Hostage Rescue Team.


3 posted on 12/15/2020 11:07:35 PM PST by Knocker (Tell the truth and run like hell)
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To: ammodotcom

This is false information. Project Gunrunner, under GWB, was terminated before he left office. Fast and Furious was a brand new operation started under 0bama and Holder.

Gunrunner tracked the guns after they went into Mexico. F&F did not.
Gunrunner kept Mexican LEAs informed of every step. F&F told the Mexican government nothing.
Gunrunner kept American agents in Mexico informed and they were part of the operation. F&F kept American agents in Mexico in the dark.


4 posted on 12/15/2020 11:28:05 PM PST by TigersEye (2020 - The year of massive frauds. Impeachment - masks - lockdowns - Biden - elections...)
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To: All
Mexico calling for extradition of officials involved with Fast and Furious.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ATF Whistleblower Speaks Out

Jun 30, 2011 - 6:15 - Vince Cefalu, who's being pushed out by the agency, discusses the botched gun operation

Fox News interview with senior agent Vince Cefalu. He says he has been terminated "along with dozens of others" (agents) due to their opposition to operation Fast and Furious. Says DoJ was intimately involved.

More Fox News video interviews with Vince Cefalu.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

President 0bama denying that he or Holder knew anything about Operation Fast and Furious on Mar 23, 2011.

Obama on "gunwalking" - "Serious mistakes" may have been made (video)

Deputy Attorney General David Ogden plainly states that "the President and AG Eric Holder ordered" new facets to Operation Gunrunner. (and describes to a T the facets of Operation Fast and Furious) on March 24th, 2009.

Obama Orders Launched Fast and Furious (video)

On June 27, CNSNews.com asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, “Could you tell me what is the exact date that the president learned about the Justice Department ATF operation to allow guns to flow into Mexico?”

White House Mum on When Obama Learned of DOJ's Gun-Running Scheme (video)

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Gun-Running Timeline: How DOJ’s ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ Unfolded

October 2009: The ATF’s Phoenix Field Division establishes a gun trafficking group called Group VII. Group VII initially began using the strategy of “gunwalking,” or allowing suspects to walk away with illegally purchased guns, according to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the staff of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“The purpose was to wait and watch, in hope that law enforcement could identify other members of a trafficking network and build a large, complex conspiracy case,” the report says. It goes on to say: “Group VII initially began using the new gunwalking tactics in one of its investigations to further the Department’s strategy. The case was soon renamed ‘Operation Fast and Furious.’”

According to the congressional report, the ATF had known that most of the indicted straw purchasers were in fact straw purchasers before Operation Fast and Furious began.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sen. Chuck Grassley: Guns in ATF sting tied to agent's death

Grassley said he had information that the AK-47s recovered at the shooting scene were traced to Project Gunrunner, an ATF program designed to stem the illegal flow of U.S. guns to Mexico.

Tom Mangan, an ATF spokesman in Phoenix, said he was "not aware of any internal investigation that's going on regarding Project Gunrunner."

At a news conference last week, the ATF and the U.S. attorney's office announced indictments of 34 people in connection with firearms smuggling to Mexico. Bill Newell, ATF special agent in charge for Arizona, said the five separate cases, all part of Project Gunrunner, demonstrate the corruptive reach of Mexican cartels using straw buyers to acquire guns in Arizona for illegal shipment south.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Issa Says He Doesn’t Believe Holder’s Testimony Was Accurate

However, on Dec. 14, 2010, two rifles sold to one of the smugglers that the Justice Department had allowed to buy guns turned up at the scene of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Within 24 hours of Terry’s murder, according to an internal ATF email released by Issa, the FBI had definitively traced the rifles found at the murder scene back to Operation Fast and Furious and had so notified ATF.

While Holder told the Judiciary Committee he had “probably” heard about Fast and Furious” a “few weeks” before May 3, readers of the Washington Post heard about it a few months before that, on Feb. 2, when the Post ran a page-4 story that referred to “Fast and Furious” three times by name in describing how guns sold to a smuggler during the operation ended up at the scene of Border Agent Brian Terry’s murder.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gun-Running Timeline: How DOJ’s ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ Unfolded

Operation Fast and Furious Timeline:

September 2009 – Jan. 8, 2010: A Jan. 8, 2010 briefing paper from the ATF Phoenix Field Division Group VII says: “This investigation has currently identified more than 20 individual connected straw purchasers.” It further says: “To date (September 2009 – present) this group has purchased in excess of 650 firearms (mainly AK-47 variants) for which they have paid cash totaling more than $350,000.”

---------------------------------------------------------------

Gunwalker: Smoking Gun Email?

An internal ATF email seems to support the assertion that Fast and Furious was a PR stunt for gun control.

PJM’s Bob Owens has long speculated that the primary reason for Operation Fast and Furious was to perpetuate the lie that 90 percent of illegal firearms in Mexico were from the United States.

Owens’ assertion was buoyed on Wednesday by internal ATF emails obtained by Townhall.com. One email reads:

"Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field Operations."

--------------------------------------------------------------

The ATF has said that there are still over 1,400 guns unaccounted for in Mexico, there were a 1,000 guns "walked" to Honduras and other Central American countries. That is a lot of guns and every time some show up at the scene of a murder/shootout there will be new press about it. Especially if more LE agents are murdered with them. Especially if Hezbollah in Mexico gets a hold of some and murders some Americans with them.

This story has the potential to re-surface afresh for a decade with all those arms out there.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer got a Power Point presentation on Fast and Furious. (link now scrubbed)

July 28, 2011 Senior ATF, Justice officials ignored Mexico-based agents’ complaints, bragged about Fast and Furious successes

Gil and now-acting ATF attaché to Mexico Carlos Canino also told congressional investigators high-ranking ATF and Justice Department officials bragged about what they considered successes of Operation Fast and Furious. Officials they said included Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who oversees the DOJ’s criminal division, and acting ATF director Ken Melson.

“Lanny Breuer says, yeah, there is a good case, there is a good case out of Phoenix,” Canino said of a meeting he and Gil had with Breuer and the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual.

Gil said Breuer was going to present the outcome of Operation Fast and Furious to Mexican authorities as evidence of a positive effort to stop weapons trafficking. Gil said Breuer said the ATF investigation “looks like it’s going to generate some good results and it will be a good positive case that we can present to the Government of Mexico as efforts that the US government is taking to try and interdict weapons going into Mexico.”

The National Scope of the Gunwalker Scandal. Lanny Breuer & four border state ATF SACs implicated in report. "Lions! And tigers! And bears! Oh, my!"

Two months after the January 5, 2010 briefing, ATF headquarters hosted a larger, more detailed briefing. Not part of the normal Tuesday field ops briefings, this special briefing was dedicated to Operation Fast and Furious. David Voth, the Phoenix Group VII Supervisor who oversaw Fast and Furious, traveled from Phoenix to give the presentation. On videoconference were the four southwest border ATF SACs: Bill Newell in Phoenix, Robert Champion in Dallas, J. Dewey Webb in Houston, and John Torres in Los Angeles. (Emphasis supplied, MBV)

In addition to the usual attendees of the Tuesday morning field ops briefings (the Deputy Assistant Directors for Field Operations, including Bill McMahon, and Mark Chait, Assistant Director for Field Operations), Deputy Director William Hoover also attended. Joe Cooley, a trial attorney from the gang unit at Main Justice, also joined. After a suggestion from Acting ATF Director Ken Melson in December 2009, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer personally assigned Cooley as a DOJ representative for Operation Fast and Furious. Kevin Carwile, chief of the Capital Case Unit at Main Justice, may have also been present. According to Steve Martin, the inclusion of Main Justice representatives was unusual.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Gunwalker and Fast & Furious Updates: Holder, DOJ, FBI, Operation Castaway, ATF

Email Confirms ‘Gunwalker’ Known Throughout Justice Department The October 27, 2009 email from ATF Phoenix Field Division Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell regarded a Southwest Border Strategy Group meeting that focused on Fast and Furious. It contained a laundry list of high ranking Justice Department officials that attended the meeting, including:

* Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer, * Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF * William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF * Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA * Robert Mueller, Director FBI

Four other Justice Department directors or their representatives came from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), Bureau of Prisons (BOP), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA). The chair of the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee (AGAC) also attended the session. Their names were redacted in the released document. U.S. attorneys for all four southwest border states also attended...


5 posted on 12/15/2020 11:42:32 PM PST by TigersEye (2020 - The year of massive frauds. Impeachment - masks - lockdowns - Biden - elections...)
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To: ammodotcom
I made a mistake in my previous post #4. The operation conducted during the Bush administration was called Wide Receiver not Gunrunner. I will clarify Operation Gunrunner in my next post.

The Department of Justice ’ s Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents

(above) Four ATF field agents testify under oath that they "never even heard of intentionally letting guns "walk" before F&F."

No, Operation Wide Receiver Does Not Excuse Obama Or Holder

New Documents Highlight Differences in Bush-Era, Obama-Era Gunrunner Investigations

Operation Wide Receiver vs. Operation Fast and Furious

Mexico's Gun Supply and the 90 Percent Myth


6 posted on 12/15/2020 11:54:59 PM PST by TigersEye (2020 - The year of massive frauds. Impeachment - masks - lockdowns - Biden - elections...)
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To: DesertRhino
You forgot ex Arizona Gov Janet Napolitano in the list.
7 posted on 12/15/2020 11:55:38 PM PST by rdcbn1
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To: All
Project Gunrunner was the agency-wide program. F&F was part of Project Gunrunner out of the Tucson ATF office just as Operation Castaway was, which ran guns to Honduras out of the Tampa ATF office, as a part of Project Gunrunner. One of the guns used to kill ICE Agent Jaime Zapata was “walked” from a Texas gun shop so that would have been a different ATF operation than F&F too but still part of Project Gunrunner.

0baMugabe, Holder and Napolitano have used that confusion to deliberately muddy the waters.

While the weapons found at the Zapata murder scene were not from among the Fast and Furious guns, this revelation is profoundly significant, because it directly contradicts sworn testimony by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

“I have no information to that effect, no. I don’t know one way or the other,” she replied to a direct question on any Fast and Furious connection by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Word games. Here's the little trick Napolitano, Holder and ATF are playing. F&F was an ATF operation run out of the Tucson AZ office. But some guns were walked out of Texas gun shops too which puts them in the jurisdiction of Texas ATF offices so those ops must have had other names. I never saw any reporting on what those op names were.

8 posted on 12/15/2020 11:59:24 PM PST by TigersEye (2020 - The year of massive frauds. Impeachment - masks - lockdowns - Biden - elections...)
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To: All
0bungles knew that Holder didn't know before Holder knew that he didn't know.

How Did Obama Know About "Fast and Furious" Before Holder?

And then there is this...

"Grenade-walking" part of "Gunwalker" scandal

And this...

Worse Than Gunwalker? State Dept. Allegedly Sold Guns to Zetas

Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative and one-time leader of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center, claims that the Obama administration is running guns to the violent Zetas cartel through the direct commercial sale of military grade weapons:

Jordan, who served as director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center in 1995, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons purchased in the Dallas area through El Paso.

(snip)

“They’ve found anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era,” Plumlee said. Other weapons found include grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor.

More about State Department involvement...

— 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.

Steinberg took office as Deputy Secretary of State on January 28, 2009

A little more than two years later, it was announced that Steinberg's time in the Obama State Department was over. From the New York Times, 30 March 2011:

Mrs. Clinton heaped praise on Mr. Steinberg, describing him as an “indispensable” partner. “On every foreign policy challenge, big and small, he has helped formulate our policy and oversee its execution,” she wrote. Mr. Steinberg, she said, played “Oscar to Jack Lew’s Felix,” referring to Jacob J. Lew, her other deputy, who left earlier this year to become Mr. Obama’s budget director.

Want to read even more about State Dept. involvement? ...

Sipsey Street Exclusive: "In at the beginning." The State Department & the Gunwalker Scandal.

Which comes to this...

Grassley to ask for resignation of highest-level person who signed off on Fast and Furious

Which just doesn't seem like enough.

9 posted on 12/16/2020 12:04:57 AM PST by TigersEye (2020 - The year of massive frauds. Impeachment - masks - lockdowns - Biden - elections...)
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To: ammodotcom

ammo.com sez: “You’re free to republish or share any of our articles (either in part or in full), which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.”

Given that why did you excerpt the article?


10 posted on 12/16/2020 3:58:59 AM PST by upchuck (Executive Order 13848 will save the day. Pray for President Trump, his family and his advisors.)
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To: DesertRhino

“...That evil small man Obama, and his DOJ and Hillary literally murdered hundreds as a way to go after the rights of Americans....”

And still they all walk about, free and easy, and helping to overthrow our government...

Crim... quite well, apparently.


11 posted on 12/16/2020 4:24:46 AM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: NFHale

And nobody is in jail and our 2nd amendment rights are eroded daily.


12 posted on 12/16/2020 4:36:42 AM PST by RBW in PA
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To: DesertRhino

So do I. Hillary and Janet Nappy were really pushing the narrative.


13 posted on 12/16/2020 4:54:08 AM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: ammodotcom

One of many Obama crimes he’s yet to be brought to justice on. I once had an Obama supporter actually say “what’s one life?” about the border agent who lost his life by FNF. Depraved, all around.


14 posted on 12/16/2020 5:02:45 AM PST by Vision (Obama is an evildoer.)
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To: RBW in PA

Re Eroded;
As long as it’s still in your hands and you refuse to comply, it’s NOT eroded.
You don’t own it because they gave you “permission”, you own it because
You’re an AMERICAN, and because it is your RIGHT to do so, and no g*d-d*mned PUBLIC SERVANT can tell you what you can or can’t own.

You have it FOR the day they try to take it. Period. What you decide to do at that point is your own personal choice; there are consequences either way, but it is still your choice.

Every single one of us is a Battlefield, and WE decide when and where - and IF - to engage.

It is what it is, friend. We all make our own destiny either way.

Free men do not bow, ever.


15 posted on 12/16/2020 5:18:57 AM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: ammodotcom

Every BATFE agent needs to spend half an hour in a room filled with nothing but nitrogen.

All buildings associated with this rogue and unconstitutional agency need to be burned to the ground.

Section 922 of the federal code needs to be repealed and stricken from the record.

One of the major disappointments of the Trump administration is that he hasn’t done anything to speak of with these petty tyrants.


16 posted on 12/16/2020 6:47:51 AM PST by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: RBW in PA

Our government grew to the point where only aspiring career criminals want to work in its upper levels. And the smartest, evilest ones succeed at it.


17 posted on 12/17/2020 12:30:38 AM PST by ammodotcom
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