Posted on 11/01/2011 6:31:48 AM PDT by martosko
The Obama administration appears to be attempting to defend Attorney General Eric Holder as the Justice Department dumped more than 650 pages worth of Operation Fast and Furious documents on congressional investigators late Monday.
There are two reasons why the timing of this release is significant: first, 28 members of Congress are currently calling on Holder to resign immediately. Second, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday — and this appears to be an attempt to divert pressure for Fast and Furious away from Holder.
The new documents, according to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, “indicate that contrary to previous denials by the Justice Department, the criminal division has a great deal of culpability in sweeping the previous Wide Receiver strategy under the rug and then allowing the subsequent Operation Fast and Furious to continue without asking key questions.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedc.com ...
F&F has come out in drip and drabs, and so there are thousands of incremental articles which don't show the forest. There have been very few GOOD noob summaries written...perhaps Mesta has a best of.
Let me try?
Mexican drug cartels hire "Straw Purchasers" to buy guns from licensed dealers in the US.
ATF/FBI had in the past allowed these people to buy, and then immediately nabbed them in a sting--never letting the guns out of their control.
In Gunwalker somebody (up high or down low?) had the bright idea to turn their heads and let the guns keep "walking" to their final destination, where the serial numbers would be verified...but obviously only once they were recovered at crime scenes.
Brian Terry's murder, a federal agent, was one of those crime scenes.
Coincidentally, about the spring of 2009, Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Administration was spreading a myth that 90% of the guns used in mexican drug crime were from legal dealers in the USA....thus providing support for efforts to pass more gun control legislation.
After Congressmen Issa and Senator Grassley started turning stones, they found some whistleblower agents and firearm dealers willing to talk. Then other programs were found outside of Arizona....now the administration is running for the hills claiming they had no idea about any of this, after a failed attempt to blame Bush.
You do the math. Pigs/Mesta, correct me if I'm wrong.
Sheriff Paul Babeu one of our fabulous county Sheriffs is ALL OVER THE MEDIA about F&F and wanting Holder not only out, but a serious trial. He really is a stellar law enforcement official...hear he may be running for Congress. Just the kind of “new” leadership this country desperately needs.
So, um, let's sue South Carolina!
As this story has progressed, it has become more and more convoluted and far more expansive than most people would think possible. It has encompassed virtually every law emforcement and intel agency, along with the whitehouse and state department. It has been operating in different countries using different op names from different locations within the US. It is HUGE.
In addition to the brief summaries already posted in response to your post, some additional tidbits include evidence that:
The Mexican(s) who used the US-supplied guns to kill the agent were let go.
There were three F&F guns found at the scene, one now denied by the Feds.
A second Federal agent was also killed with a F&F gun.
The money for the guns was supplied by the Feds themselves.
The Feds who set this up told the gun store owners how many and what type the straw men would be buying.
The Feds told the sellers not to do background checks on the straw buyers.
The guns they bought were all ones the cartels had no interest in, or could get cheaper elsewhere, and yet were models touted by the gun control crowd as the ones most in need of control.
Over 2000 guns were involved: they were never prepared for tracking, they were never tracked, and no one has any idea where most of them ended up.
The guns have shown up as often in the US as they have in Mexico.
Mexico was not informed of the operation - they say.
Mexico claims over 200 people have been murdered with these weapons.
Many other states had similar operations run by the Feds.
Grenades were also walked to Mexico.
The Feds have set up a deal with the Sinaloa Cartel, where there members can run drugs throughout the US with no risk of consequences, in exchange for info about their rival cartels.
All the major Fed players have been implicated to their highest levels: ATF, ICE, DEA, FBI, CIA, and at the Cabinet level DOJ, DOS, DHS, and at the highest level the Obama Administration and the “Man” himself.
And then, aiding and abetting, there is the largely bipartisan, media-complicit cover-up.
Others please correct and add to this list.
AZ Sheriffs just did a multi-BILLION dollar drug bust. Gonna be very interesting to see what happens now.
In other news...Politicians are saying that fundraising efforts are slower than expected this year. Film at 11.
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 ZetasPhil 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.
How did 0bama know what Holder didn't know because Breuer didn't tell Holder? Who told 0bama?
Holer is an accessory to mass murder. He should be arrested and tried as a criminal.
“more calls to resign..”
No, a trial.
I want him tried for murder 1. Premeditated, flat out murder.
The more people that can condense this convoluted mess, so that more people understand the seriousness of this crime, the better. I hope lots of these little synopses make others curious as to looking for more info, writing Issa with a letter of encouragement, etc.
It IS a massive story and a huge coverup looks to be in the works as we write.
I can hardly keep up with all the new info...
He will claim that it was his mistake not to cut it off at its inception, nor did he inform his superior.
How will he explain, though, that the Stimulus Bill (Porkulus) appropriated the funds for Fast & Furious. I don't think the Phoenix office of the ATF was sufficiently powerful to get that line item inserted in the budget.
Further, the operation was actually run out of the office of the US Attorney -- not the ATF. Dennis Burke, the US Attorney for Arizona reports to the AG -- not thru the ATF. Burke was the one-time AG for Arizona...under Gov. Janet Napolitano, now Secretary of Homeland Security.
We also have the FBI and the DEA directly involved in the operation. How did the Phoenix office of the ATF accomplish that?
And here's the clincher: The stated purpose of the operation was to let the guns "walk" across the border into the hands of the carte...and track their route to wherever they ended up.
One problem: absolutely no provision was made to actually "track" the weapons. It was so obvious to the ATF agents in the field that they bought some GPS devices at Radio Shack out of their own pockets and secreted them into some weapons. The batteries expired before they discovered anything, however.
Literally thousands of weapons were moved across the border into Mexico -- with no control or tracking of them whatsoever. The "straw" buyers were given taxpayer money to make the purchases. And the Mexican government was never advised of the program. They still haven't been officially informed.
It is known that at least two American agents met their deaths due to these weapons (Border Patrol's Brian Terry and ICE's Jaime Zapata). And it is estimated that they were responsible for literally hundreds of deaths of innocent Mexicans.
Find all you can. Read all you can. It is an appalling story.
P.S.: It also appears that, while the Phoenix ATF was arming the Sinaloa cartel, the Familia de Michoacana was being supplied out of Indiana gun stores, and the Zetas were being armed thru an agency of the State Department -- via Dallas and Tampa.
“...guns they bought were all ones the cartels had no interest in, or could get cheaper elsewhere, and yet were models touted by the gun control crowd as the ones most in need of control...”
This one is a real eye opener.
Every day this story gets worse. If Obama is at the head of this plan...he needs to be tried for many, many crimes.
And treason. We are at war with those drug dealers he got heavy weapons to. A fifty cal is not a small arms.
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