Obama's "Iran-Contra" Mexican Arms Smuggling Cover-Up

[houndawg]

Guns don't kill people, native....

No, Mexican narcos kill people.

That's why you don't just give them guns and let them ride.

We give guns to lots of outfits that kill people, and let them ride.

[CID1990]

No, Mexican narcos kill people.

That's why you don't just give them guns and let them ride.

We give guns to lots of outfits that kill people, and let them ride.

Oh, ok.

Nevermind, that makes it right.

[SDHornet]

We give guns to lots of outfits that kill people, and let them ride.

Oh, ok.

Nevermind, that makes it right.

It doesn’t make it right; it just puts this crappy situation in perspective. Hell this wouldn’t even be news if it weren’t happening directly on our borders.

[CID1990]

Oh, ok.

Nevermind, that makes it right.

It doesn’t make it right; it just puts this crappy situation in perspective. Hell this wouldn’t even be news if it weren’ happening directly on our borders.

I have all the perspective I need on this situation.

I also appreciate the hyperbole from folks like houndawg who seem to think that I don't realize that the US has provided arms to unsavory characters and regimes in the past. If, by this, you are trying to ameliorate Gunrunner by doing this, then come out and say it. If not, STFU.

[houndawg]

It doesn’t make it right; it just puts this crappy situation in perspective. Hell this wouldn’t even be news if it weren’ happening directly on our borders.

I have all the perspective I need on this situation.

I also appreciate the hyperbole from folks like houndawg who seem to think that I don't realize that the US has provided arms to unsavory characters and regimes in the past. If, by this, you are trying to ameliorate Gunrunner by doing this, then come out and say it. If not, STFU.

Get over yourself, Sidney.

Nobody is trying to ameliorate anything, but it sure is funny to watch the crowd that thought Ollie North was a true patriot whimpering and bleating about selling arms to thugs when it has been SOP for at least a century.

[CID1990]

I have all the perspective I need on this situation.

I also appreciate the hyperbole from folks like houndawg who seem to think that I don't realize that the US has provided arms to unsavory characters and regimes in the past. If, by this, you are trying to ameliorate Gunrunner by doing this, then come out and say it. If not, STFU.

Get over yourself, Sidney.

Nobody is trying to ameliorate anything, but it sure is funny to watch the crowd that thought Ollie North was a true patriot whimpering and bleating about selling arms to thugs when it has been SOP for at least a century.

Oliver North was another fvcktard, and a prime example of what happens when there is a lack of oversight of the executive.

I could just as easily say that it is funny how the Obamabots have no problems with the current administration's contempt of Congressional oversight (how many Czars are there again?), yet still vilify an administration from the 1980s over Iran-Contra.

How about post something other than hyperbole and you won't look like such a partisan flack.

[CID1990]

Double post!

[houndawg]

Get over yourself, Sidney.

Nobody is trying to ameliorate anything, but it sure is funny to watch the crowd that thought Ollie North was a true patriot whimpering and bleating about selling arms to thugs when it has been SOP for at least a century.

Oliver North was another fvcktard, and a prime example of what happens when there is a lack of oversight of the executive.

I could just as easily say that it is funny how the Obamabots have no problems with the current administration's contempt of Congressional oversight (how many Czars are there again?), yet still vilify an administration from the 1980s over Iran-Contra.

How about post something other than hyperbole and you won't look like such a partisan flack.

You go girl, say whatever you want, it's the internet.

And there is not a thing hyperbolic about about stating the US has been selling weapons to thugs for a century.

Anybody who can move enough heroin can have all the weapons they want.

[travelinman67]

ATF Manager testifies he briefed WH National Security Director about "Operation Gunrunner" in prelude to Obama's trip to Mexico.

ATF Manager says he shared Fast and Furious Info with White House

July 26, 2011 5:02 PM
By Sharyl Attkisson

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-2 ... 91695.html

At a lengthy hearing on ATF's controversial gunwalking operation today, a key ATF manager told Congress he discussed the case with a White House National Security staffer as early as September 2010. The communications were between ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office, Bill Newell, and White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O'Reilly. Newell said the two are longtime friends. The content of what Newell shared with O'Reilly is unclear and wasn't fully explored at the hearing.

It's the first time anyone has publicly stated that a White House official had any familiarity with ATF's operation Fast and Furious, which allowed thousands of weapons to fall into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to gain intelligence. It's unknown as to whether O'Reilly shared information with anybody else at the White House.

Congressional investigators obtained an email from Newell to O'Reilly in September of last year in which Newell began with the words: "you didn't get this from me."

"What does that mean," one member of Congress asked Newell, " 'you didn't get this from me?' "

"Obviously he was a friend of mine," Newell replied, "and I shouldn't have been sending that to him."

Newell told Congress that O'Reilly had asked him for information.

"Why do you think he asked for that information," Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked Newell.

"He was asking about the impact of Project Gunrunner to brief people in preparation for a trip to Mexico... what we were doing to combat firearms trafficking and other issues."

[youtube][/youtube]

[LeadBolt]

Kevin O'Reilly = Oliver North ?

[travelinman67]

The pay-off...

...Obama Admin promotes supervisors who oversaw Operation Gunrunner...

...and kept their mouths shut about what DOJ knew when questioned by Congressional investigators.

ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operation

The three, who have been criticized for pushing on with the border weapons sting even as it came apart, receive new management jobs in Washington.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 6977.story

Reporting from Washington— The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of a controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico.

All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and two at the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.

The three supervisors have been given new management positions at the agency's headquarters in Washington. They are William G. McMahon, who was the ATF's deputy director of operations in the West, where the illegal trafficking program was focused, and William D. Newell and David Voth, both field supervisors who oversaw the program out of the agency's Phoenix office.

Documents: Fast and Furious paper trail

McMahon and Newell have acknowledged making serious mistakes in the program, which was dubbed Operation Fast and Furious.

"I share responsibility for mistakes that were made," McMahon testified to a House committee three weeks ago. "The advantage of hindsight, the benefit of a thorough review of the case, clearly points me to things that I would have done differently."

Three Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesmen did not return phone calls Monday asking about the promotions. But several agents said they found the timing of the promotions surprising, given the turmoil at the agency over the failed program.

McMahon was promoted Sunday to deputy assistant director of the ATF's Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations — the division that investigates misconduct by employees and other problems.

Kenneth E. Melson, the ATF's acting director, said in an agency-wide confidential email announcing the promotion that McMahon was among ATF employees being rewarded because of "the skills and abilities they have demonstrated throughout their careers."

Newell was the special agent in charge of the field office for Arizona and New Mexico, where Fast and Furious was conducted. On Aug. 1, the ATF announced he would become special assistant to the assistant director of the agency's Office of Management in Washington.

Voth was an on-the-ground team supervisor for the operation, and last month he was moved to Washington to become branch chief for the ATF's tobacco division.

The program ran from November 2009 to January 2011, with the aim of identifying Mexican drug cartel leaders by allowing illegal purchases of firearms and then tracking those weapons. Nearly 200 were recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, and in December two semiautomatics were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's slaying in Arizona.

No cartel leaders were arrested.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are reviewing the operation.

Steve Martin, an ATF deputy assistant director, said he urged McMahon as far back as January 2010 to end the operation, and was met with silence. "I asked Mr. McMahon, I said, what's your plan?" Martin told the House committee. "Hearing none, I don't know if they had one."

Newell spent a decade on the border. As Operation Fast and Furious was unraveling, he insisted that his agents never allowed guns to "walk."

The statement angered many agents. "Literally, my mouth fell open," said Agent Larry Alt, who worked under Newell. "I am not being figurative about this. I couldn't believe it."

Newell has since acknowledged that "frequent risk assessments would be prudent" for operations like Fast and Furious. He also said the slaying of Terry "is one I will mourn for the rest of my life."

Voth supervised the crew of ATF agents under the operation. As they questioned the wisdom of allowing illegal purchases, he countered that because the weapons were turning up at Mexico crime scenes, cartel leaders had to be involved. He told his crew members they were "watching the right people."

His agents did not buy it.

List of Democrat Congressmen seeking investigation of this ATF misconduct and Obama Admin sponsored cover-up:

1)
2)
3)

...nothing.

Fucking traitorous cowards.

[travelinman67]

Firearms from ATF sting linked to 11 more violent crimes
Guns from Operation Fast and Furious were found at scenes in Arizona and Texas, the Justice Department acknowledges, widening the scope of the danger posed by the program.

August 17, 2011|By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/17 ... s-20110817

Firearms from the ATF's Operation Fast and Furious weapons trafficking investigation turned up at the scenes of at least 11 violent crimes in the U.S., as well as at a Border Patrol agent's slaying in southern Arizona last year, the Justice Department has acknowledged to Congress.

The department did not provide details about the crimes. But The Times has learned that they occurred in several Arizona cities, including Phoenix, where Fast and Furious was managed, as well as in El Paso, where a total of 42 weapons from the operation were seized at two crime scenes.
The new numbers, which expand the scope of the danger the program posed to U.S. citizens over a 14-month period, are contained in a letter that Justice Department officials turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.

In the letter, obtained by The Times on Tuesday, Justice Department officials also reported that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officials advised them that the agency's acting director, Kenneth E. Melson, "likely became aware" of the operation as early as December 2009, a month after it began.

Melson has said he did not learn about how the operation was run until January of this year, when it was canceled.

The July 22 letter, signed by Assistant Atty. Gen. Ronald Weich, was sent to Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was in response to questions posed to the Justice Department about Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and the weapons operation.

The program was intended to identify Mexican drug cartel leaders and smuggling routes across the border by allowing illegal purchases of firearms and tracking the weapons. Instead, many of the guns vanished.

Weich said that although the "ATF does not have complete information" on all of the lost guns, "it is our understanding that ATF is aware of 11 instances" beyond the Border Patrol agent's killing where a Fast and Furious firearm "was recovered in connection with a crime of violence in the United States."

Justice Department officials did not provide any more details about the crimes or how many guns were found.

But a source close to the controversy, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation, said that as early as January 2010, just after the operation began, weapons had turned up at crime scenes in Phoenix, Nogales, Douglas and Glendale in Arizona, and in El Paso. The largest haul was 40 weapons at one crime scene in El Paso.

In all, 57 of the operation's weapons were recovered at those six crime scenes, in addition to the two seized where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.

Weich's letter also said a total of 1,418 firearms were circulated under the program. How many remain missing in the U.S. and Mexico is unclear. The total is considerably lower than earlier estimates, when authorities said that at least 2,000 guns had vanished.

Melson has told congressional investigators that he learned how the program operated in the field only after it was shut down in January.

[BDKJMU]

ATF Head and USA for AZ both sacked

"The man who led the controversial Fast and Furious anti-gun-trafficking operation will step down as the interim head of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department announced Tuesday as it named a new acting director for the agency.

Kenneth Melson, the bureau’s acting director, on Wednesday will move to the Office of Legal Policy, where he will be a senior adviser on forensic science, the department said without making reference to the failed gun-tracking operation that is alleged to have ultimately put guns into the hands of criminals. Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney in Arizona who oversaw prosecutions in that state related to the Fast and Furious operation, is also stepping down, the department said........................."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/08 ... z1WXuZhmk0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[travelinman67]

ATF Head and USA for AZ both sacked

"The man who led the controversial Fast and Furious anti-gun-trafficking operation will step down as the interim head of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department announced Tuesday as it named a new acting director for the agency.

Kenneth Melson, the bureau’s acting director, on Wednesday will move to the Office of Legal Policy, where he will be a senior adviser on forensic science, the department said without making reference to the failed gun-tracking operation that is alleged to have ultimately put guns into the hands of criminals. Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney in Arizona who oversaw prosecutions in that state related to the Fast and Furious operation, is also stepping down, the department said........................."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/08 ... z1WXuZhmk0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Threw them under the bus, eh...


Betcha they were forced to sign confidentiality agreements...

So...

...nothing inappropriate took place...

...that resulted in these two directors stepping down.

Fire Holder

[BDKJMU]

ATF Head and USA for AZ both sacked

"The man who led the controversial Fast and Furious anti-gun-trafficking operation will step down as the interim head of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department announced Tuesday as it named a new acting director for the agency.

Kenneth Melson, the bureau’s acting director, on Wednesday will move to the Office of Legal Policy, where he will be a senior adviser on forensic science, the department said without making reference to the failed gun-tracking operation that is alleged to have ultimately put guns into the hands of criminals. Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney in Arizona who oversaw prosecutions in that state related to the Fast and Furious operation, is also stepping down, the department said........................."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/08 ... z1WXuZhmk0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Threw them under the bus, eh...


Betcha they were forced to sign confidentiality agreements...

So...

...nothing inappropriate took place...

...that resulted in these two directors stepping down.

Fire Holder

If they did wouldn't those confidentiality agreements be null and void under congressional subpoena?

Oh, and I agree about firing Holder. Biggest crook in the Obama admin.

[BDKJMU]

Secret recordings raise new questions in ATF 'Gunwalker' operation
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-2 ... 91695.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[travelinman67]

Hard to believe this isn't the number one topic in the press.

Were this to have occurred under a Republican Administration, it would be the ONLY topic being discussed by American news outlets.

Holder is WAY PAST DUE to be fired, and the Special Counsel still needs to be set up to hold all those responsible, accountable.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10 ... ous-probe/

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ?track=rss

[travelinman67]

10/06/2011

From GOP Rep. Darryl Issa’s office this morning.:

Holder Received at Least Five Memos on Fast and Furious


WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa today said that Attorney General Eric Holder received at least five weekly memos beginning in July 2010, including four weeks in a row, describing the ill-advised strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious. The memos were to Holder from Michael Walther, the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center.

The Attorney General told Issa during a House Judiciary Committee in May 2011 that he had just learned of Fast and Furious a few weeks before. Yet, on January 31, in a previously scheduled meeting, Grassley personally handed him two letters about Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa said they find it very troubling that Holder actually knew of Operation Fast and Furious much earlier, and in greater detail than he ever let on.

The memos specifically said that the straw buyers were “responsible for the purchase of 1500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”

“With the fairly detailed information that the Attorney General read, it seems the logical question for the Attorney General after reading in the memo would be “why haven’t we stopped them?” Grassley said. “And if he didn’t ask the questions, why didn’t he or somebody in his office?”

“Attorney General Holder has failed to give Congress and the American people an honest account of what he and other senior Justice Department officials knew about gunwalking and Operation Fast and Furious. The lack of candor and honesty from our nation’s chief law enforcement officials in this matter is deeply disturbing,” Issa said.

Grassley and Issa have been leading the investigation into who approved the strategy to allow guns to be purchased by known straw buyers who then often transferred the firearms to Mexican Drug Cartels.

The Memo's:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/67777030/ATF- ... -Memo-Docs

[Col Hogan]

[youtube][/youtube]

[Bronco]

--
BHO amd Holder need to be arrested for the deaths of 200 Mexican and two Americans because their back door plan for gun control.

The plot thickens


High-Powered Assault Weapons Found In Home Of Top Enforcer For Mexican Drug Cartel.

(LA Times) — High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.

In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The smugglers’ tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.

“These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there,” said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. “But that’s only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through.”

Torres Marrufo, also known as “the Jaguar,” has been identified by U.S. authorities as the enforcer for Sinaloa cartel
chieftain Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman. The Fast and Furious weapons were found at one of Torres Marrufo’s homes.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ?track=rss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bronco]

-
Holder lied the first time he was called before the comittee.
Hope he does it again. O'Nixon...you're next

On May 3rd, Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee asked Attorney General Eric Holder the following question: “When did you first know about the program officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious, to the best of your knowledge, what date?” Holder’s response: “I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”

House Committee to Subpoena Holder in 'Fast and Furious' Probe
Fox News.com ^ | October 9, 2011

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is planning to subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder this week to determine who in the Justice Department knew about "Operation Fast and Furious" -- the plan to let thousands of guns sold in the U.S. get into Mexican drug cartel hands -- and when they knew it.

The subpoena targeting Holder aims to get at the heart of the authorization for the program, and when the people in charge decided the program was a problem.
When did they know it wasn't the right way to do it and why (did) they keep doing it?" asked committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

Issa, who is also a member of the House Judiciary Committee where Holder testified in May that he'd only learned of the program a few weeks earlier, told "Fox News Sunday" that "people in the top" of the Justice Department knew about the operation, were "well-briefed about it, and seemed to be the command and control and funding for this program."

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

[travelinman67]

[youtube][/youtube]

Boo-ya!!!

Glad to see other's haven't fallen asleep.

NYT and WAPO does hit pieces on Investigative Committee's Chair Issa...

...while Obama and Holder facilitate murder...

...then lie about it.

Unfuckingbelievable.

[Skjellyfetti]

Hard to believe this isn't the number one topic in the press.

Were this to have occurred under a Republican Administration, it would be the ONLY topic being discussed by American news outlets.

Really? Was Project Gunrunner the ONLY topic being discussed in the news back 4 or 5 years ago?

[travelinman67]

Hard to believe this isn't the number one topic in the press.

Were this to have occurred under a Republican Administration, it would be the ONLY topic being discussed by American news outlets.

Really? Was Project Gunrunner the ONLY topic being discussed in the news back 4 or 5 years ago?

4 or 5 years ago, Project Gunrunner was an INTERDICTION program with the mission of STOPPING the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico/Latin America. Under Bush, the eTrace program was established and shared with Latin American nations to monitor the arms traffic. Under Bush, Project Gunrunner helped STOP illegal traders BEFORE the arms could be purchased and shipped across borders.
In 2009, Under Obama, Operation Fast and Furious was established as an offshoot of Project Gunrunner. Fast and Furious's mission was to FACILITATE the sale of arms within the U.S., to (knowingly) illegal traders (Jacob Chambers, Sean Stewart) with the INTENTION THAT THEY WIND UP IN MEXICO IN THE HANDS OF THE DRUG CARTEL ( http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/ ... ontentBody ).

The policy change was made

BY HOLDER

WITH OBAMA'S BLESSINGS

to support their unconstitutional political agenda of increased gun confiscation/control from U.S. citizens.


Big difference, Jellydonut.

Holder and Obama knowingly, willfully, facilitated the unlawful sale of arms to drug traffickers, who used them to murder people, including law enforcement personnel.

Holder has already been caught perjuring himself to Congress, stating he had no knowledge of Fast and Furious until March, 2011, though Sen. Grassley PERSONALLY HANDED HIM SEVERAL LENGTHY LETTERS back in 2010, chronicling evidence of ATF malfeasance uncovered by Sen. Grassley.

Holder's response: He didn't read the letters Grassley had handed to him.

DOJ appointed an Inspector General, whom Congressional members have already publicly stated attempted to impede the investigation and cover-up evidence.

Congress MUST appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and pursue appropriate remedies.

Jelly, don't waste your time trying to obfuscate the truth.

Holder is a lying political shill.

Obama is lying to cover up his own culpability.

[native]

I have all the perspective I need on this situation.

I also appreciate the hyperbole from folks like houndawg who seem to think that I don't realize that the US has provided arms to unsavory characters and regimes in the past. If, by this, you are trying to ameliorate Gunrunner by doing this, then come out and say it. If not, STFU.

Get over yourself, Sidney.

Nobody is trying to ameliorate anything, but it sure is funny to watch the crowd that thought Ollie North was a true patriot whimpering and bleating about selling arms to thugs when it has been SOP for at least a century.

Typical mischaracterization.

BIG DIFFERENCES, as T-man points out.