Fast and Furious?

lolcatz · Nov 6, 2011

LOL...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC2C2lIwNSA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC2C2lIwNSA[/ame]

Eric Holder on the subject...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHkaRU9EoVM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHkaRU9EoVM[/ame]

Eric Holder, is involved personally...

Justice Department Obstructing 'Fast and Furious' Gun Probe, ATF Director Says
By William Lajeunesse
Published July 06, 2011

The Justice Department is obstructing the congressional investigation of a U.S. law enforcement operation intended to crack down on major weapons traffickers on the Southwest border, according to the embattled leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Ken Melson, the acting director of the ATF, lobbed the accusation when he sneaked in for an interview with congressional investigators on July 4, two days ahead of his scheduled interview with the inspector general about the operation known as "Fast and Furious," Fox News has learned.

"If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand," Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. "That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation."

The Justice Department is reportedly looking to oust Melson, who has been acting ATF director since April 2009, as the agency deals with its biggest scandal in nearly two decades. Andrew Traver, who was tapped in November by President Obama to become the permanent ATF director, could be named as acting director until the Senate acts on his nomination, sources have said.

In a separate development, congressional sources have learned that not only was U.S. taxpayer money being used to buy guns that were later sent to Mexico, but the main target of the investigation was actually a FBI informant and former drug dealer who had been deported years ago.

"Fast and Furious" has been at the center of an investigation by Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. The operation began in the fall of 2009 as an effort to trace and stop the trafficking of illegal guns on the Southwest border, but instead allowed thousands of guns to get into the hands of Mexican cartel members.

The two say they learned about the program after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. At the crime scene were two guns linked to the "Fast and Furious" operation.

At an Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing last month, three federal firearms investigators testified that they wanted to "intervene and interdict" loads of guns, but were repeatedly ordered to step aside to allow suspected smugglers to carry the weapons over the border.

Issa and Grassley have urged Holder to cooperate and turn over subpoenaed records that would reveal the scope of the government coverup.

The alleged coverup involves three law enforcement agencies: the ATF, FBI and the DEA, or Drug Enforcement Administration.

According to sources, unbeknown to the ATF, the target of their operation was a FBI confidential informant, a fact that only became known to them in April of this year after an 18-month investigation that cost millions of dollars of tax dollars.

"They were going after someone they could never have," a source in Washington told Fox News. "The Mr. Big they wanted was using government money to buy guns that went to the cartels. The FBI knew it and didn't tell them."

The confidential informant is a former high-level drug dealer who had been deported by the DEA. The FBI, however, recruited him as a counter-terrorism informant, providing information on potential dirty bombs or Al Qaeda suspects moving through the border region.

The FBI informant was picked up on a DEA wiretap, and forwarded to the ATF.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/06/justice-department-obstructing-fast-and-furious-gun-probe-atf-director-says/#ixzz1RLfW4xXB

Proof that he knew back in 2009...

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/MexicoBor&start=800

ATF Senior Agent John Dodson exposes ATF as gun traffickers...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvRzrSXota8&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvRzrSXota8&feature=related[/ame]

RPA1 · Nov 6, 2011

Well the administration failed to finger Ken Melson (then head of ATF) for this debacle so...another 'fall guy' was needed.

November 1, 2011...

"Today, Breuer issued a statement saying he regrets that he didnt alert others in Justice Department leadership, apparently including his boss Attorney General Eric Holder."

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/11/01/breuer-becoming-the-fast-furious-fall-guy/

Now it's Lanny Breuer (head of DoJ criminal division) who just admitted that the DoJ knew of 'fast and furious' after stating they did not. In fact, Breuer admitted he knew more than a year before the memo was sent to congress declaring Fast and Furious 'false.'

It's way past time for Holder to either step down or be impeached. (or whatever we do with criminal politicians)

waltky · Nov 8, 2011

Holder says gun investigation was flawed...

AG Eric Holder says never again on flawed gun investigation
8 Nov.`11 WASHINGTON (AP) Attorney General Eric Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution, never should have happened and "it must never happen again."

Facing tough questioning by Senate Republicans, the attorney general said in remarks prepared for a hearing Tuesday that he wants to know why and how firearms that should have been under surveillance could wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. "Unfortunately, we will feel its effects for years to come as guns that were lost during this operation continue to show up at crime scenes both here and in Mexico," the attorney general said. Several federal agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have testified that they were ordered by superiors to let suspected straw buyers walk away from Phoenix-area gun shops with AK-47s and other weapons believed headed for Mexican drug cartels, rather than arrest the byers and seize the guns there. The goal was to track the guns to trafficking ring leaders who long had escaped prosecution. ATF lost track of some 1,400 of the more than 2,000 weapons whose purchases attracted the suspicion of the Fast and Furious investigators.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa was expected to lead the questioning of the attorney general for Republicans. Grassley's investigation brought problems in Operation Fast and Furious to light early this year. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was expected to question Holder on whether federal agents in Texas adopted the same controversial tactic called gun-walking used in Arizona in Operation Fast and Furious. Holder also may run into questioning by Democrats on the panel over new FBI rules on intelligence collection activities, an issue of importance to civil liberties groups concerned that in a post-Sept. 11 world, the government is loosening restrictions on investigative tactics. In the years since 9/11, Congress and the Justice Department have granted the FBI "ever-greater powers to investigate Americans with less basis for suspicion and less oversight," said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Holder, who says he learned of problems in Fast and Furious early this year, has become a focal point for criticism in a congressional investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Republican critics have suggested Holder was informed of the problems as early as July 2010 when the operation's name turned up repeatedly in weekly departmental reports. The reports provided updates on dozens of investigations, including Fast and Furious, but do not mention the gun-walking tactic. Holder is using what is likely to be a contentious hearing as an opportunity to urge support for ATF. The attorney general cited congressional testimony by some of the ATF agents in the probe who said they lack effective enforcement tools. They have sought clearer authority to arrest straw purchasers and tougher prison sentences for them. Holder asked Congress to "fully fund our request for teams of agents to fight gun trafficking."

On Monday, the committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked whether the Justice Department's inspector general has expanded its probe of Operation Fast and Furious to include earlier Bush-era arms trafficking probes that relied on gun-walking. The Associated Press reported on Friday that a briefing paper prepared for then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey during the Bush administration in 2007 outlined failed attempts by federal agents to track illicitly purchased guns across the border into Mexico. Those failed attempts involved an earlier gun-walking probe run out of the same ATF office in Phoenix that later handled Operation Fast and Furious. A month ago, the AP also disclosed that several hundred weapons wound up in the hands of arms traffickers in a second Bush-era gun-walking probe beginning in 2006. It was called Operation Wide Receiver and was run out of the ATF's office in Tucson, Ariz. The IG's office says in a semiannual report that it is reviewing Operation Fast and Furious "and other investigations with similar objectives, methods and strategies." A spokesman for the IG's office, Jay Lerner, declined to comment on whether the investigation has been expanded to cover Wide Receiver and the probe that the briefing paper to Mukasey referenced.

Source
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waltky · Dec 1, 2011

No good deed goes unpunished...

'Fast and Furious' Whistleblowers Struggle Six Months After Testifying Against ATF Program
November 30, 2011 | Six months ago, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stood before Congress to testify about the details of a U.S. government program that armed Mexico's largest drug cartel with thousands of assault rifles.

The administration denied it at the time and questioned the agents' integrity. The men were nervous and scared. They said they feared for their careers, their reputation and their families. "Any attempt to retaliate against them for their testimony today would be unfair, unwise and unlawful," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, warned the Department of Justice. He and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., began an investigation to determine who authorized "Operation Fast and Furious" and aimed to hold accountable those responsible for a plan that helped known criminals run guns across the border in violation of U.S. and international law.

And while President Obama has said the operation was a mistake and that "people who screwed up will be held accountable," the record so far does not bear that out. Those in charge of the botched operation have been reassigned or promoted, their pensions intact. But many of those who blew the whistle face isolation, retaliation and transfer.

Here's what has happened to the managers of the operation:

-- Acting ATF Chief Ken Melson, who oversaw the operation, is now an adviser in the Office of Legal Affairs. He remains in ATF's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

-- Acting Deputy Director Billy Hoover, who knew his agency was walking guns and demanded an "exit strategy" just five months into the program, is now the special agent in charge of the D.C. office. He, too, did not have to relocate.

-- Deputy Director for Field Operations William McMahon received detailed briefings about the illegal operation and later admitted he shares "responsibility for mistakes that were made. Yet, he also stays in D.C., ironically as the No. 2 man at the ATF's Office of Internal Affairs.

-- Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix Bill Newell, the man most responsible for directly overseeing Fast and Furious, was promoted to the Office of Management in Washington.

-- Phoenix Deputy Chief George Gillette was also promoted to Washington as ATF's liaison to the U.S. Marshal's Service.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ifying-against/?test=latestnews#ixzz1fLVn65bZ
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Hate_bs · Dec 29, 2011

waltky said: ↑

No good deed goes unpunished...

'Fast and Furious' Whistleblowers Struggle Six Months After Testifying Against ATF Program
November 30, 2011 | Six months ago, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stood before Congress to testify about the details of a U.S. government program that armed Mexico's largest drug cartel with thousands of assault rifles.
Click to expand...

All the evidence to get these guys is gone. They had a year to delete files and shred documents. Plus they are right there at internal affairs.

Bondo · Dec 29, 2011

Hate_bs said: ↑

All the evidence to get these guys is gone. They had a year to delete files and shred documents. Plus they are right there at internal affairs.
Click to expand...

Ayuh,... Just a few more examples of Hope, 'n Change, 'n a Transparent administration that shows Us No hope, the Wrong changes, 'n the transparency of Mud...

thinkitover · Dec 31, 2011

This mans death is especially a trajedy as he was a man in uniform trying to protect our country and enforce it's laws. It is not all that relevant that he was in a dangerous occupation where there is a risk of injury and even death.

What is more relevant is that the Mexican Cartels and the like are rich, very rich criminals that make millions and millions of dollars selling grass to Americans. They can bribe, among others, hundred of guns sellers everyday. They have money to burn.

They can buy all the guns they need from anywhere and anyone they want. It was terrible this man was shot, but I do not find it so signficant that the gun came from this U.S. Government program, because if the criminals didn't get the gun from Fast and Furious they had access, in a minute, to thousands and thousands of guns elsewhere.

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