Bill Newell - ATF
Posted on 11/03/2011 4:45:56 PM PDT by brityank
ATF legal counsel had "moral objections" to gunwalking
By: Sharyl Attkisson
November 3, 2011 5:18 PMWASHINGTON - An ATF attorney raised "moral objections" to a plan to provide criminals with firearms "to be released into the community, and possibly into Mexico, without any further ability by the U.S. Government to control their movement or future use." That's according to a memo written to the U.S. Attorney in Arizona in July of 2006. Yet ATF went ahead with the so-called "gunwalking," in its operation "Wide Receiver," and later in "Fast and Furious" and numerous other cases.
Gunwalking refers to a controversial investigative tactic allowing guns to be sold to suspected traffickers to see where they'd end up, and try to take down a "big fish" in a drug cartel. As CBS News reported last March, Wide Receiver let hundreds of weapons "walk" in 2006 and 2007, prior to inception of the larger Fast and Furious operation in 2009 and 2010.
The 2006 memo citing "moral objections" from ATF's legal counsel is among more than 600 pages of subpoenaed documents turned over this week to Congressional investigators. The memo asks then-U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton to weigh in on the gunwalking proposal. Charlton told CBS News he has no memory of the memo but "I don't believe I would have or ever did approve letting guns walk." He says his Assistant U.S. Attorney on the case at the time recently assured him the memo was disapproved.
"It's almost an I.Q. test," Charlton told CBS News, meaning nobody would approve the "preposterous" idea as outlined in the memo. But he notes, "Somebody did it (gunwalking) anyway, in disregard of what was disallowed, and repeated it again in Fast and Furious."
Phoenix ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell oversaw both gunwalking operations. Newell was named to head the Phoenix office in June 2006. One month later came the memo seeking approval for the gunwalking. At a January press conference, Newell was asked if guns were allowed to walk in Fast and Furious, and he replied "hell, no." That answer was soon revealed as false, and Newell was transferred to ATF headquarters.
In a strange twist, former U.S. Attorney Charlton, now in private practice, represents the family of a murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Guns from Fast and Furious were found at Terry's murder scene. Because of publicity surrounding Charlton's connection to a previous gunwalking case, he's stepping aside as lead attorney for the Terry's, and handing that role to a partner.
Anyone know - Was Newell involved with the ATF's debacle 'Operation Showtime' at Mount Carmel, Waco, Tx?
Another worm comes out of the slime!
How about the legal objections of moving contraband across a border without the legal requirements of notifying State and acquiring exemptions to arms trafficking laws?
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
bttt
Another slithering shyster lawyer covering his tracks.
Yup. Lawyers aren’t asked ethical questions. That topic lies completely outside their realm of expertise or experience. They’re only asked legal questions. The stage is being set. Stories are being cross checked, leaks are being plugged, fall guys are being chosen, and stalling tactics employed in hopes this will all just blow over.
Bill Newell - ATF
Four federal agencies were “full partners” in the Obama administration’s bungled Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed guns to wind up in the hands of Mexican drug lords, the man who implemented the program revealed today at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
William Newell, the former head of the Phoenix field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was pressed by Rep. Pat Meehan, R-Penn. to identify all the federal agencies involved in the operation.
In response, Newell identified the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service as “full partners” with the ATF.
The DEA and ATF are both part of the Department of Justice and ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Well, there goes my respect for Sharyl Atkisson.
There difference between Wide Receiver and Gun Walker is so large that they should not be discussed together. That difference is in intent. Under the former program, the guns had tracking chips. When that didn't work the program was killed. Under the latter, there was not even an attempt to track the weapons over the objections of field agents and Border Patrol agents who were instructed to stand down. Effectively, the Obama Administration was willfully SUPPLYING weapons to the Mexican drug cartels; the Bush Administration was not.
By equating the two, Atkisson is playing into the "Bush's fault" meme, where Holder was supposedly unaware of problems with a continuing program.
ONE Moral objection in a sea of immorality is like a drop of water in an ocean. The power of the ocean just absorbs it and the waves keep rollin’...
I know there is some question about FBI informants with the Terry shooting, but I will have to see evidence of FBI complicity before I believe anything Newell says. This "investigation" of his was so f'd up in it's inception that I can't believe anybody from outside ATF would get near it. I can't believe the AUSA bought off on something that was this jacked up, but that is one office ATF was in "full partnership" with.
...Add moral, legal, The Boy Scout motto and a thousand other adjectives to that list about what the Administration and most of Congress is not! It adds up to CRIMINAL!!!
bump to the top
Sounds like Sharyl Atkisson’s “role” might be to provide media cover for the current administration, via an artistically choreographed reporting of the chain of events, leading to “plausible denial”.
When mixing/contrasting reports of different events/programs, separated by years, it is vital to include both the year and the month, for clarity.
It may sound like nitpicking to the newer generation, but most of us old folks are very familiar with the techniques the media and the government use.
“Information Management” existed as a recognised specialist skillset, well before the invention of the Internet.
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