Posted on 07/07/2011 10:06:47 AM PDT by Domandred
Something about Project Gunrunner (gunwalker, fast and furious) has been bugging me but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
This morning when I woke up I remember seeing Project Gunrunner in a bill that was discussed here. The original thread about it was a rumor thread that HR45 had been rolled into the stimulus package.
In that thread I scanned the text of H.R.1 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for gun, firearm, etc and came up with a hit.
I posted in the thread: "Only time “gun” or “firearm” appears is in the part that give $10,000,000 to the ATF for Project Gunrunner. That was H.R. 495, asking for 15,000,000 for Gunrunner".
H.R. 495 that I mentioned never made it out of committee, but it looks as it was to specifically fund Gunrunner.
Instead portions of it were rolled into the stimulus package a month later. That text found in H.R.1 is:
For an additional amount for ‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance’, $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner.
Notice that's $40,000,000 for Southern border enforcement, $10,000,000 of which specifically for Project Gunrunner. What does $10 million pay for here? It didn't hire any new agents that I am aware of.
What this tells me is that several congressmen also had knowledge of what Gunrunner was going to entail. This isn't just the ATF and DOJ. This is all levels and areas of government. Even members of the House and Senate knew what Project Gunrunner was.
Thanks for your work on this.
“It is right there in broad daylight.”
Sometimes the best place to hide something is in plain sight.
Is this another version of “we need to vote for it so we can see what’s in it” bill?
Even if they had read it ..probably many glazed over it.
But someone knew...and put it in.
&&&&&&
Eggzackly! The biggest expose’ of all would be getting American voters to realize how bills really get written and voted.
WHO PUT IT IN is the giant question.
Maybe when Obama said, “shovel ready,” he meant burying the dead in the wake of this program.
I thought there was suspicion that a great number of the stimulus bill was written by one of the big unions. Will have to look at that again.
That said, in many legislatures you can request a “drafting record” that shows how the bill was built. I’ve never looked at them on the federal level so I can’t tell you if they are available or useful, but I suspect there are records somewhere.
H.R.495 - Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act of 2009
To authorize additional resources to identify and eliminate illicit sources of firearms smuggled into Mexico for use by violent drug trafficking organizations, and for other purposes.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h495/show
Introduced by:
Ciro Rodriguez D-
Co-Sponsors
Rep. Henry Cuellar [D, TX-28]
Rep. Eliot Engel [D, NY-17]
Rep. Silvestre Reyes [D, TX-16]
It will be good to find out what creature in Congress earmarked these funds.
There's enough rope at the local Home Depot to hang high everyone involved in this growing scandal.
As Travis McGee pointed out, this is Watergate multiplied by Iran/Contra. If a Republican was President, the leftmedia would have been screaming for impeachment for months already.
I heard Levin say that FR exposed the money trail.
Good work FReepers!
I guarantee this will be far more fruitful than the Birth certificate line of pursuit.
The sick irony here is that our tax dollars were specifically allocated to an attempt to infringe on our Civil Rights by our Government.
The Government is trying to make gun owners the enemy.
Either a complete waste of money, or a way to pad the expenses to shuffle funds not actually spent elsewhere.
That language went through some congressional office; probably some idiot like Al Franken.
All bills should be no longer than one single standard 8.5x11” and printed in standard Times New Roman 12 font with 1” margins on all four sides. That would eliminate all this “I’m too lazy to read it” mentality and would eliminate pork and all the other hidden fluff. No vote should ever be taken without immediately reading the one page bill aloud for all to hear and no member should be allowed to vote if he were not present at the reading.
I'd bet this leads back to Elijah Cummings. He's been trying his best to kill this thing.
I guess new laws should be treated like wishes (consider the consequences and how it would get perverted prior to agreeing to sing the damned thing into law). While I generally agree with your premise of short bills (generally brevity being the soul of wit and all). Sometimes brevity can be the reaper of knowledge and intelligence as well (too verbose = too many potential loopholes, not verbose enough = too vague and way too many loopholes).
If they gave out "REAL" pulitzer prizes it would go to JR and the team here at Free Republic.
All I can say is thank you for exposing the truth and please EVERYONE call your congressman or woman regardless of party.
These people need to be held accountable. The MSM won't say a thing. I know several people including myself know folks in Congress on a personal level. We all need to talk to them and get Eric Holder impeached!!!
Project Gunrunner Got Stimulus Money
Poster “Domandred” at Free Republic dug through the text of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise known as the “Obama stimulus,” and discovered that an earmark of ten million dollars for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was rolled into the bill.
Part of that earmark came from House Resolution 495,...
Great investigative reporting!
Operation Gunrunner was funded by the 2009 Stimulus Package
Project Gunrunner was already in effect. -It was started under Bush. - This was to continue THAT program, but the chief executive and the doj changed the rules and ordered the ATF to back off arresting the perps. THAT is when things began to spiral out of control nd the guns that “walked” got away. This op goes straight to the oval office and obama is a murderer responsible for the deaths of at least two American law enforcement officers and who knows how many other innocent people.
Check out article.
Thanks for the ping, sweetiepiezer.
Limbaugh mentioning this now ...
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