11-07-2011, 07:59 AM
The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
u.s. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Attorney General Holder:
http://grassley.senate.gov/judiciary/upl...erview.pdf
*****
ATF Chief Implicates FBI in Gunrunner Probe
Thursday, 07 Jul 2011 08:59 AM
By Dave Eberhart
Kenneth E. Melson, acting head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), has told Capitol Hill investigators that some Mexican drug cartel figures targeted by his agency in a gun-trafficking operation were in fact paid informants for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a report by sfgate.com.
The ATF reportedly allowed guns to be purchased in the United States in hopes they would be traced to cartel leaders, but the sting went way off course as the seed guns wound up at the scenes of crimes in Mexico and Nogales, Arizona -- where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was gunned down.
Melson said the FBI and DEA kept the ATF "in the dark" about their connections with the cartel informants.
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/ATFCh...z1RRzTpKs2
*****
Whistleblower Testifies Obama Obstructed Fast and Furious Investigation
Posted on July 6, 2011 by Ben Johnson
he chief congressional investigators of Operation Fast and Furious released explosive testimony from the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that they say indicates the Obama administration tried to stonewall Congress, deny witnesses the ability to testify freely, and fire employees who refused to conceal damning information. According to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson not only did the Justice Department play fast-and-loose with Fast and Furious, but other government agencies may have known and funded the straw purchasers the ATF program was designed to catch. The agency's investigation, which has resulted in at least two deaths, may have been entirely unnecessary.
Scorn on the Fourth of July
Congressman Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley sent a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday, revealing that Melson gave a transcribed interview on the Fourth of July, with only his personal lawyer present. The news must have come as a shock to Holder. Melson's testimony had been scheduled to take place July 13, with Melson's counsel and Obama administration lawyers from the DoJ and ATF taking part.
According to the letter, Melson testified that the administration had not informed him of his legal right "to attend a voluntary interview with [his] own lawyer… rather than participate with counsel representing the Department's interests."
"We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement," they wrote. "Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress. This is yet another example of why direct communications with Congress are so important and are protected by law."
(Obstruction of) Justice Department
The Congressmen's recounting of Melson's testimony includes mistakes he admitted making, including not personally reviewing hundreds of documents relating to Fast and Furious until March of this year. "By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story," they write.
In the most stinging passage of the letter, Issa and Grassley accuse the administration of a concerted cover-up:
According to Mr. Melson [after learning about the consequences of the program], he and ATF's senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments.
He claimed that ATF's senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process. However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear. 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. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation. The Department's inability or unwillingness to be more forthcoming served to conceal critical information that we are now learning about the involvement of other agencies, including the DEA and the FBI. (Emphases added.)
Melson's story of the administration seizing control of the agency's communications is reinforced by another whistleblower, Catherine Papoi of the Department of Homeland Security. Papoi testified that Obama officials are "breaking the law by knowingly and intentionally delaying and obstructing the release of agency records" after Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Similarly, a recent survey of 148 Senior Executive Service members conducted by the Government Business Council found career bureaucrats accused the Obama administration of routinely engaging in "politicization of normal agency functions."
In Melson's case, what they covered up was more unthinkable.
Project Gunrunner: Another Obama Stimulus Plan?
Issa and Grassley write the program designed to sell guns to "straw buyers," whom agents hoped would lead them to high-value purchasers across the Mexican border may have taken place after the government had acquired their identities and, in some cases, cut deals with them.
They write:
[W]e have very real indications from several sources that some of the gun trafficking "higher-ups" that the ATF sought to identify were already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants…The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities…If this information is accurate, then the whole misguided operation might have been cut short if not for catastrophic failures to share key information. (Emphasis in original.)
In the bureaucratic chaos that has persisted ten years after 9/11, the ATF may have tried to learn the identity of criminals other agencies had on their payroll and those funds may have purchased the weapons that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and U.S. Special Agent Jaime Zapata.
As recently as last week, assault weapons from the program had been reported at crime scenes in Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona.
Punishing a(nother) Whistleblower
Monday's testimony suggests Obama officials have taken punitive measures against Melson out of fear he would expose them. The department attempted to leak word the director would be forced to resign over the scandal, but Issa and Grassley reveal that "he has not been asked to resign." However, his employment is much more tenuous after he agreed to shift from a career to a political position. Political appointees lack many of the protections career civil service members enjoy.
This, too, echoes the Obama administration's treatment of other whistleblowers in the past. The Holder Justice Department busted Christopher Coates down from chief of its Voting Rights division to a satellite office in South Carolina, so he could not testify about the department's racial bias following its dismissal of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case. The DHS demoted Papoi after she contacted Issa. And the administration fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin after he filed two reports that embarrassed the administration's allies.
In an attempt to protect Melson from further repercussions, the letter states: "Given his testimony, unless a permanent director is confirmed, it would be inappropriate for the Justice Department to take action against him that could have the effect of intimidating others who might want to provide additional information to the Committees."
Issa concludes, "Knowing what we know so far, we believe it would be inappropriate to make Mr. Melson the fall guy in an attempt to prevent further congressional oversight."
Despite Obama's most dogged attempts, the truth is coming out about how Agents Terry and Zapata lost their lives and who has their blood on his hands.
http://floydreports.com/whistleblower-te...stigation/
****
ATF Scandal Threatens to Bring Down Top Obama Administration Officials
Video and interview transcript at the link.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/20...-officials
****
FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2011
Attorney General on a razor's edge
Examiner
William Heuisler
Attorney General (AG) Eric Holder is tiptoeing on a razor's edge of incompetence or perjury.
He has once again denied prior knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious (Gunrunner) smuggling guns into Mexico that were used to kill American Agents. President Obama told CBS last week, "My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico". (Attkisson, 2011)
But more evidence has surfaced that Holder must have known ATF was smuggling guns into Mexico at least a year before Border Agent Brian Terry was killed in the desert south of Tucson by ATF-smuggled-Operation-Gunrunner-weapons.
The evidence? Senator Charles Grassley last week showed his House Committee an email from Phoenix ATF Agent in Charge, William Newell, about a "Southwest Border Strategy Group" of senior Justice Department officials meeting on October 27, 2009.
The meeting was about Gunrunner, and smuggling guns into Mexico. (Owens, 2011)
Present were:
1) Assistant AG (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer.
2) Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF.
3) William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF.
4) Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA.
5) Robert Mueller, Director FBI.
6) Justice Department Directors of Organized Crime, Drug Enforcement Task Force, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals, and Executive Office for US Attorneys.
7) The chairman of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.
8) The U.S. Attorneys of four southwest Border States. (Owens, 2011)
As detailed in Examiner/Tucson, articles (4/4, 4/29, 6/20, 6/28) Operation Gunrunner was a multi-agency, extra-legal scheme that purchased nearly 2000 firearms from Tucson and Phoenix gun stores that were then smuggled to Mexican drug cartels. ATF agents were ordered by supervisors to let the guns be smuggled into Mexico without notifying Mexican police. Hundreds of smuggled weapons have turned up at crime scenes across Mexico and the US. Along with US Agents, Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, 152 Mexican police and soldiers have been killed with Gunrunner weapons.
While it has been known since the beginning of the investigation that the ATF, DOJ, DHS, and the IRS were heavily involved in Gunrunner, the Newell email confirms that every major agency within DOJ was briefed on Gunrunner in 2009, including the Chairman of the AGAC, which, by his title, has the primary purpose of advising Attorney General Holder.
AG Holder should have known his AG Advisor, his assistant AG, directors of five of his agencies, and all Southwest U.S. Attorneys were discussing smuggling guns into Mexico in 2009. His declarations of ignorance about Gunrunner place him on the razor's edge of, either admitting gross incompetence, or making false statements to Americans, to Congress, and now even to his President.
Attkisson, S. (2011). CBSNEWS. Obama talks "Fast and Furious" ATF scandal. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20...91695.html
Owens, B. (2011). Pajamas Media. Email confirms "Gunwalker" known throughout Justice Department. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/email-confi...epage=true
http://weeklyintercept.blogspot.com/2011...-edge.html
****
Captured Zeta Leader: We've Purchased Weapons From The "U.S. Government Itself"
-->2 Comments
By Mario Andrade
DeadlineLive.info
July 8, 2011
This article was released by Deadline Live on July 6th.
Last Sunday, one of the original seven members of Los Zetas, Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, aka El Mamito, was captured in Mexico. Rejón Aguilar was also known as Zeta 7.
He helped the then Gulf Drug Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas recruit the original Mexican special forces soldiers trained at Fort Benning, Georgia to become the most dangerous criminal organization in Mexico.
In an edited interview with Mexican Federal Police (in Spanish and now posted at YouTube), Rejón Aguilar reveals some interesting information about the origins of Los Zetas, where they get their weapons, and where they buy their drug shipments.
Rejón Aguilar probably knows he's going to be murdered in prison, so he appears to be speaking the truth, perhaps in order to reach a deal with Mexican authorities so they can provide him witness protection.
Los Zetas are the biggest obstacle for the Mexican narco-state. They are their biggest and most dangerous competitors. In the interview Rejón Aguilar reveals that Los Zetas do not trust the Colombians, so they purchase the drug shipments (mostly cocaine) from the Guatemalans.
They know the Colombians are infiltrated by CIA and DEA, so they wait to buy the cocaine using the Guatemalans as decoys to avoid being traced.
Another interesting revelation made by Rejón Aguilar is that Los Zetas have operatives in the U.S. who have purchased (at least in the past) firearms and other weapons from different suppliers including from the U.S. Government itself.'
Last March, the Mexican military raided a Zeta camp at Falcon Lake, where they seized several anti-aircraft shoulder missiles and other weapons.
The following is the (edited) interview transcript translated to English:
Interrogator: What is your name?
Rejón Aguilar: Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, aka El Mamito o El Caballero.
Interrogator: What is your date of birth, where are you from and how old are you?
Rejón Aguilar: June 9th, 1976. I'm 35 years old, and I'm from Sabancuy, Campeche.
Interrogator: What do you do for a living?
Rejón Aguilar: Drug trafficking.
Interrogator: For which organization?
Rejón Aguilar: Los Zetas.
Interrogator: How did you join this organization, and when?
Rejón Aguilar: After I deserted from the army, in 1999, I went to Reynosa and I met (Arturo Guzman) Decena, aka. Zeta 1.
Interrogator: Who created Los Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: It was Osiel (Cardenas), through Zeta 1.
Interrogator: When they were originally created, how many members were there?
Rejón Aguilar: At first we were seven. Then they brought seven more and added to the original fourteen members.
Interrogator: Were you one of the founders?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes.
Interrogator: Which (rank) number were you?
Rejón Aguilar: Zeta 7.
Interrogator: What happened after Osiel was captured?
Rejón Aguilar: When Osiel was captured, what happened later was that Jorge Costilla Sanchez took control of the organization.
Interrogator: What happened when Los Zetas separated from the Gulf Drug cartel?
Rejón Aguilar: They (the Gulf Cartel) began to do business with La Familia Michoacana, El Mayo Zambada (member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who's son, Vicente Zambada is a DEA operative, according to court documents from his trial in Chicago), with el Chapo Guzman (leader of the Sinaloa Cartel), and people from Jalisco. They created their alliance, and when we broke away, they were already organized and began to kill our people. That's when the organization was split in two: Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
Interrogator: And this is when the separation began between Gulf and Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: That's when the separation began.
Interrogator: Are you basically at war with everyone?
Rejón Aguilar: They, the Gulf, created an alliance, and we're at war with El Mayo, El Chapo, La Familia Michoana, and Jalisco. We're at war with all of them.
Interrogator: And you know La Familia is from Michoacan, El Chango Mendez (leader of La Familia who was discovered to be distributing weapons purchased from the U.S. BATF) went to Aguascalientes to dialog with Los Zetas, was he asking you for protection?
Rejón Aguilar: He was trying to reach out to us.
Interrogator: Why?
Rejón Aguilar: To dialog because they killed all his people and he wanted our support.
Interrogator: Would that have been possible?
Rejón Aguilar: In my opinion, who ever betrays you once, can betray you again, so it wouldn't have been a good idea. But I don't know what the commanders would think about that.
Interrogator: And La Tuta (member of La Familia and founder of the Knights Templar)? Is there a relation between him and Los Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: No. His organization is with the Gulf, so he's our enemy.
Interrogator: That relationship between La Tuta, La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar with the Gulf makes them your enemies?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes, because they're killing our people and we're trying to stop them.
Interrogator: With respect to the relationship between Arturo Beltran (former partner of DEA Operative Edgar Barbie' Valdez who was betrayed and killed by the military) and La Familia, then Beltran falls, then el Chayo falls, later el Chango, what do you think happened in Michoacan?
Rejón Aguilar: Michoacan collapsed because in essence, they didn't keep their word. There was never a deal reached with them. In fact, when Arturo went down, there was a cease-fire, but they (La Familia) broke it, and they went to war against Arturo and sought refuge with el Valencia.
Interrogator: So after that, everyone started to break away and work for themselves?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. That's when the war started. By that time, we were already working for ourselves.
Interrogator: How did you all begin to work independently?
Rejón Aguilar: Since we no longer had ties with anybody, we began to bring the material (the drugs) ourselves.
Interrogator: How do you obtain the drugs? Which Colombian cartel do you work with?
Rejón Aguilar: I do not know. That's handled by different personnel. But it has always been brought through Guatemala because the Colombians are not trustworthy.
Interrogator: They bring it from somewhere else?
Rejón Aguilar: From Guatemala. It can be bought from Colombia, Panama, or Guatemala. We buy it from Guatemala.
Interrogator: And where do you get your weapons?
Rejón Aguilar: From the United States. All weapons come from the U.S.
Interrogator: How are they brought here?
Rejón Aguilar: Crossing the river. We used to bring them through the bridge, but it's become harder to do that.
Interrogator: Who purchases the weapons?
Rejón Aguilar: They are bought in the U.S. The buyers (on the U.S. side of the border) have said in the past that sometimes they would acquire them from the U.S. Government itself.
Interrogator: And nowadays, who distribute them to you?
Rejón Aguilar: It's more difficult for us to acquire weapons nowadays, but we find ways. But it's easier for the Gulf Cartel to bring them across the border.
Interrogator: Why?
Rejón Aguilar: We don't know why, but they bring them (accross the bridge) in the trunk of their cars without being checked (by Mexican Customs). One can only think that they must have reached a deal with the (Mexican) government.
Interrogator: How often are they smuggled?
Rejón Aguilar: Today it's more difficult so it's more sporadic, like every month, every 20 days, or every month and a half. It's done when ever there's an opportunity.
Interrogator: And the drugs?
Rejón Aguilar: The drugs are handled by a group of accountants. They handle that in private. It's compartmentalized. Only they know how and when it's smuggled to the United States. I suppose, with the way that things are right now, they probably smuggle the drug shipments every two or three months.
Interrogator: How are the drug shipments smuggled to the U.S.?
Rejón Aguilar: They bring it to the U.S. through Laredo, but that's done by a compartmentalized group handled by the accountants. They are responsible for all that.
Interrogator: Let's talk about San Luis Potosi, do you remember the attack on the U.S. ICE agents?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. They (Los Zetas) were travelling in a caravan of bullet-proof vehicles. They mistook them for other people and cut them off.
Interrogator: What's happening in Tamaulipas?
Rejón Aguilar: In Tamaulipas, there's a war because of the separation of the cartels. But we're on hold because there is too much government (troops) presence.
Interrogator: Tell me about the armored (monster) vehicles. How were they made? How many of these vehicles were under your command?
Rejón Aguilar: Three… five at one time.
Interrogator: And out of these five vehicles, what type were they?
Rejón Aguilar: They were armored trucks typically known as monsters.
Interrogator: Were you ever prepared for being captured?
Rejón Aguilar: One always knows that sooner or later, we will be captured.
Interrogator: Is there someone you would like to ask for forgiveness?
Rejón Aguilar: Like how?
Interrogator: Yes. Like for your actions, or for disappointing somebody, like your children or your family?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. To my mother, because since all of this happened, I haven't seen her for 17 years.
Interrogator: And knowing that you haven't seen your mother and she's still alive, how do you feel?
Rejón Aguilar: Well, it's hard. It's cruel but oh well…
[url]http://theintelhub.com/2011/07/08/captured-zeta-leader-we've-purchased-weapons-from-the-"u-s-government-itself"/[/url]
**** *****
Eric Holder Bragged About Operation Gunrunner In 2009
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/798/978/E..._2009.html
http://sadhillnews.com/
****
Carl Levin defending Project Gunrunner Finding in Feb 2011
http://ttmsoia.andyhill.us/2011/07/09/ca...-feb-2011/
****
Another scandal that could take Obama down
Posted: July 09, 2011
1:00 am Eastern
© 2011
Sometimes the news seems stranger than fiction.
Who could dream up a plot line like this?
Several law enforcement agencies of the federal government, including the FBI, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, got together to hatch a plan to sell guns to Mexican drug cartel members at least one of which was later used to murder a Border Patrol agent.
Can't be, right?
Wait a minute. It gets worse. It now appears the money used by the known criminals in Mexico was federal "stimulus" money.
I know. It's a nightmare. It's government gone wild.
Yet that is exactly what the aptly named "Project Gunrunner" seems to have been all about with a scandal and ensuing cover-up big enough to bring down Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.
Members of Congress have been trying to investigate, but are getting no cooperation from Holder and the Justice Department. Apparently, the plan of the Obama administration was for the acting director of the ATF to take the fall. His name is Kenneth Melson but he has other ideas.
Melson says he first found out about "Project Gunrunner" also called "Operation Fast and Furious" after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, killed with a gun sold to the Mexican gangs by U.S. law enforcement personnel.
But after checking through the files on the program, Melson said he got "sick to his stomach" by what he found the direct involvement of the FBI, DEA, Homeland Security, etc.
While Melson is talking to congressional investigators, Obama's buddy Holder is in full stonewalling mode. He won't give Rep. Darrel Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the time of day.
The Obama administration appears to have put together a sophisticated, inter-agency conspiracy to provide money to Mexican gangsters to purchase guns from the U.S. to kill federal agents, but it is not at all happy about explaining itself to the American people, the press or Congress.
Initially, Holder tried to dismiss the operation as a botched sting run by ATF to track and stop cross-border arms-trafficking. But that story is a dead letter after secret testimony provided by Melson on July 4 to congressional investigators.
Melson wanted to testify earlier, but Holder stopped him. Holder pressured Melson to quit his job and go away. But he's not having any part of that.
He may have become Obama's worst nightmare after Jerome Corsi.
Try to picture this: Holder, the FBI, Homeland Security, DEA and ATF all get together to run a sting operation at least partly in a foreign country. Is it even conceivable that Obama would not have to be informed of such a plan? Not likely. This was an operation with international consequences. If Obama didn't know, whose fault is that.
And then we get into the question of what really might have motivated such an elaborate plot. Is the explanation we've received really plausible?
Or is it more likely that the ideologically driven Obama administration, which detests the constitutionally protected right of every American to own and bear firearms, was actively participating in a diabolical political program to put U.S. guns into the hands of Mexican gangsters as part of a false flag operation that would be used to seize the guns of U.S. civilians?
The old line is that the cover-up is worse than the crime. Maybe not in this case. What could Holder be so afraid of revealing that he would lie to Congress (a crime in itself) to conceal? Chances are it's pretty bad probably worse than my scenario.
Just so you don't think I'm making this up, here's what ATF investigators told members of Congress last month that they wanted to "intervene and interdict" large numbers of guns at the border, but were ordered to step aside and let them fall into the hands of the drug cartel.
"Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals this was the plan," John Dodson, an ATF agent, told the panel. "It was so mandated."
Agent Olindo James Casa said that "on several occasions I personally requested to interdict or seize firearms, but I was always ordered to stand down and not to seize the firearms."
Do you see why I say this is another scandal that could bring Obama down?
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=320129
Attorney General
u.s. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Attorney General Holder:
http://grassley.senate.gov/judiciary/upl...erview.pdf
*****
ATF Chief Implicates FBI in Gunrunner Probe
Thursday, 07 Jul 2011 08:59 AM
By Dave Eberhart
Kenneth E. Melson, acting head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), has told Capitol Hill investigators that some Mexican drug cartel figures targeted by his agency in a gun-trafficking operation were in fact paid informants for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a report by sfgate.com.
The ATF reportedly allowed guns to be purchased in the United States in hopes they would be traced to cartel leaders, but the sting went way off course as the seed guns wound up at the scenes of crimes in Mexico and Nogales, Arizona -- where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was gunned down.
Melson said the FBI and DEA kept the ATF "in the dark" about their connections with the cartel informants.
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/ATFCh...z1RRzTpKs2
*****
Whistleblower Testifies Obama Obstructed Fast and Furious Investigation
Posted on July 6, 2011 by Ben Johnson
he chief congressional investigators of Operation Fast and Furious released explosive testimony from the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that they say indicates the Obama administration tried to stonewall Congress, deny witnesses the ability to testify freely, and fire employees who refused to conceal damning information. According to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson not only did the Justice Department play fast-and-loose with Fast and Furious, but other government agencies may have known and funded the straw purchasers the ATF program was designed to catch. The agency's investigation, which has resulted in at least two deaths, may have been entirely unnecessary.
Scorn on the Fourth of July
Congressman Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley sent a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday, revealing that Melson gave a transcribed interview on the Fourth of July, with only his personal lawyer present. The news must have come as a shock to Holder. Melson's testimony had been scheduled to take place July 13, with Melson's counsel and Obama administration lawyers from the DoJ and ATF taking part.
According to the letter, Melson testified that the administration had not informed him of his legal right "to attend a voluntary interview with [his] own lawyer… rather than participate with counsel representing the Department's interests."
"We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement," they wrote. "Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress. This is yet another example of why direct communications with Congress are so important and are protected by law."
(Obstruction of) Justice Department
The Congressmen's recounting of Melson's testimony includes mistakes he admitted making, including not personally reviewing hundreds of documents relating to Fast and Furious until March of this year. "By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story," they write.
In the most stinging passage of the letter, Issa and Grassley accuse the administration of a concerted cover-up:
According to Mr. Melson [after learning about the consequences of the program], he and ATF's senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments.
He claimed that ATF's senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process. However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear. 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. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation. The Department's inability or unwillingness to be more forthcoming served to conceal critical information that we are now learning about the involvement of other agencies, including the DEA and the FBI. (Emphases added.)
Melson's story of the administration seizing control of the agency's communications is reinforced by another whistleblower, Catherine Papoi of the Department of Homeland Security. Papoi testified that Obama officials are "breaking the law by knowingly and intentionally delaying and obstructing the release of agency records" after Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Similarly, a recent survey of 148 Senior Executive Service members conducted by the Government Business Council found career bureaucrats accused the Obama administration of routinely engaging in "politicization of normal agency functions."
In Melson's case, what they covered up was more unthinkable.
Project Gunrunner: Another Obama Stimulus Plan?
Issa and Grassley write the program designed to sell guns to "straw buyers," whom agents hoped would lead them to high-value purchasers across the Mexican border may have taken place after the government had acquired their identities and, in some cases, cut deals with them.
They write:
[W]e have very real indications from several sources that some of the gun trafficking "higher-ups" that the ATF sought to identify were already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants…The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities…If this information is accurate, then the whole misguided operation might have been cut short if not for catastrophic failures to share key information. (Emphasis in original.)
In the bureaucratic chaos that has persisted ten years after 9/11, the ATF may have tried to learn the identity of criminals other agencies had on their payroll and those funds may have purchased the weapons that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and U.S. Special Agent Jaime Zapata.
As recently as last week, assault weapons from the program had been reported at crime scenes in Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona.
Punishing a(nother) Whistleblower
Monday's testimony suggests Obama officials have taken punitive measures against Melson out of fear he would expose them. The department attempted to leak word the director would be forced to resign over the scandal, but Issa and Grassley reveal that "he has not been asked to resign." However, his employment is much more tenuous after he agreed to shift from a career to a political position. Political appointees lack many of the protections career civil service members enjoy.
This, too, echoes the Obama administration's treatment of other whistleblowers in the past. The Holder Justice Department busted Christopher Coates down from chief of its Voting Rights division to a satellite office in South Carolina, so he could not testify about the department's racial bias following its dismissal of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case. The DHS demoted Papoi after she contacted Issa. And the administration fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin after he filed two reports that embarrassed the administration's allies.
In an attempt to protect Melson from further repercussions, the letter states: "Given his testimony, unless a permanent director is confirmed, it would be inappropriate for the Justice Department to take action against him that could have the effect of intimidating others who might want to provide additional information to the Committees."
Issa concludes, "Knowing what we know so far, we believe it would be inappropriate to make Mr. Melson the fall guy in an attempt to prevent further congressional oversight."
Despite Obama's most dogged attempts, the truth is coming out about how Agents Terry and Zapata lost their lives and who has their blood on his hands.
http://floydreports.com/whistleblower-te...stigation/
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ATF Scandal Threatens to Bring Down Top Obama Administration Officials
Video and interview transcript at the link.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/20...-officials
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FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2011
Attorney General on a razor's edge
Examiner
William Heuisler
Attorney General (AG) Eric Holder is tiptoeing on a razor's edge of incompetence or perjury.
He has once again denied prior knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious (Gunrunner) smuggling guns into Mexico that were used to kill American Agents. President Obama told CBS last week, "My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico". (Attkisson, 2011)
But more evidence has surfaced that Holder must have known ATF was smuggling guns into Mexico at least a year before Border Agent Brian Terry was killed in the desert south of Tucson by ATF-smuggled-Operation-Gunrunner-weapons.
The evidence? Senator Charles Grassley last week showed his House Committee an email from Phoenix ATF Agent in Charge, William Newell, about a "Southwest Border Strategy Group" of senior Justice Department officials meeting on October 27, 2009.
The meeting was about Gunrunner, and smuggling guns into Mexico. (Owens, 2011)
Present were:
1) Assistant AG (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer.
2) Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF.
3) William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF.
4) Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA.
5) Robert Mueller, Director FBI.
6) Justice Department Directors of Organized Crime, Drug Enforcement Task Force, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals, and Executive Office for US Attorneys.
7) The chairman of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.
8) The U.S. Attorneys of four southwest Border States. (Owens, 2011)
As detailed in Examiner/Tucson, articles (4/4, 4/29, 6/20, 6/28) Operation Gunrunner was a multi-agency, extra-legal scheme that purchased nearly 2000 firearms from Tucson and Phoenix gun stores that were then smuggled to Mexican drug cartels. ATF agents were ordered by supervisors to let the guns be smuggled into Mexico without notifying Mexican police. Hundreds of smuggled weapons have turned up at crime scenes across Mexico and the US. Along with US Agents, Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, 152 Mexican police and soldiers have been killed with Gunrunner weapons.
While it has been known since the beginning of the investigation that the ATF, DOJ, DHS, and the IRS were heavily involved in Gunrunner, the Newell email confirms that every major agency within DOJ was briefed on Gunrunner in 2009, including the Chairman of the AGAC, which, by his title, has the primary purpose of advising Attorney General Holder.
AG Holder should have known his AG Advisor, his assistant AG, directors of five of his agencies, and all Southwest U.S. Attorneys were discussing smuggling guns into Mexico in 2009. His declarations of ignorance about Gunrunner place him on the razor's edge of, either admitting gross incompetence, or making false statements to Americans, to Congress, and now even to his President.
Attkisson, S. (2011). CBSNEWS. Obama talks "Fast and Furious" ATF scandal. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20...91695.html
Owens, B. (2011). Pajamas Media. Email confirms "Gunwalker" known throughout Justice Department. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/email-confi...epage=true
http://weeklyintercept.blogspot.com/2011...-edge.html
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Captured Zeta Leader: We've Purchased Weapons From The "U.S. Government Itself"
-->2 Comments
By Mario Andrade
DeadlineLive.info
July 8, 2011
This article was released by Deadline Live on July 6th.
Last Sunday, one of the original seven members of Los Zetas, Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, aka El Mamito, was captured in Mexico. Rejón Aguilar was also known as Zeta 7.
He helped the then Gulf Drug Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas recruit the original Mexican special forces soldiers trained at Fort Benning, Georgia to become the most dangerous criminal organization in Mexico.
In an edited interview with Mexican Federal Police (in Spanish and now posted at YouTube), Rejón Aguilar reveals some interesting information about the origins of Los Zetas, where they get their weapons, and where they buy their drug shipments.
Rejón Aguilar probably knows he's going to be murdered in prison, so he appears to be speaking the truth, perhaps in order to reach a deal with Mexican authorities so they can provide him witness protection.
Los Zetas are the biggest obstacle for the Mexican narco-state. They are their biggest and most dangerous competitors. In the interview Rejón Aguilar reveals that Los Zetas do not trust the Colombians, so they purchase the drug shipments (mostly cocaine) from the Guatemalans.
They know the Colombians are infiltrated by CIA and DEA, so they wait to buy the cocaine using the Guatemalans as decoys to avoid being traced.
Another interesting revelation made by Rejón Aguilar is that Los Zetas have operatives in the U.S. who have purchased (at least in the past) firearms and other weapons from different suppliers including from the U.S. Government itself.'
Last March, the Mexican military raided a Zeta camp at Falcon Lake, where they seized several anti-aircraft shoulder missiles and other weapons.
The following is the (edited) interview transcript translated to English:
Interrogator: What is your name?
Rejón Aguilar: Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, aka El Mamito o El Caballero.
Interrogator: What is your date of birth, where are you from and how old are you?
Rejón Aguilar: June 9th, 1976. I'm 35 years old, and I'm from Sabancuy, Campeche.
Interrogator: What do you do for a living?
Rejón Aguilar: Drug trafficking.
Interrogator: For which organization?
Rejón Aguilar: Los Zetas.
Interrogator: How did you join this organization, and when?
Rejón Aguilar: After I deserted from the army, in 1999, I went to Reynosa and I met (Arturo Guzman) Decena, aka. Zeta 1.
Interrogator: Who created Los Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: It was Osiel (Cardenas), through Zeta 1.
Interrogator: When they were originally created, how many members were there?
Rejón Aguilar: At first we were seven. Then they brought seven more and added to the original fourteen members.
Interrogator: Were you one of the founders?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes.
Interrogator: Which (rank) number were you?
Rejón Aguilar: Zeta 7.
Interrogator: What happened after Osiel was captured?
Rejón Aguilar: When Osiel was captured, what happened later was that Jorge Costilla Sanchez took control of the organization.
Interrogator: What happened when Los Zetas separated from the Gulf Drug cartel?
Rejón Aguilar: They (the Gulf Cartel) began to do business with La Familia Michoacana, El Mayo Zambada (member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who's son, Vicente Zambada is a DEA operative, according to court documents from his trial in Chicago), with el Chapo Guzman (leader of the Sinaloa Cartel), and people from Jalisco. They created their alliance, and when we broke away, they were already organized and began to kill our people. That's when the organization was split in two: Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
Interrogator: And this is when the separation began between Gulf and Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: That's when the separation began.
Interrogator: Are you basically at war with everyone?
Rejón Aguilar: They, the Gulf, created an alliance, and we're at war with El Mayo, El Chapo, La Familia Michoana, and Jalisco. We're at war with all of them.
Interrogator: And you know La Familia is from Michoacan, El Chango Mendez (leader of La Familia who was discovered to be distributing weapons purchased from the U.S. BATF) went to Aguascalientes to dialog with Los Zetas, was he asking you for protection?
Rejón Aguilar: He was trying to reach out to us.
Interrogator: Why?
Rejón Aguilar: To dialog because they killed all his people and he wanted our support.
Interrogator: Would that have been possible?
Rejón Aguilar: In my opinion, who ever betrays you once, can betray you again, so it wouldn't have been a good idea. But I don't know what the commanders would think about that.
Interrogator: And La Tuta (member of La Familia and founder of the Knights Templar)? Is there a relation between him and Los Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: No. His organization is with the Gulf, so he's our enemy.
Interrogator: That relationship between La Tuta, La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar with the Gulf makes them your enemies?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes, because they're killing our people and we're trying to stop them.
Interrogator: With respect to the relationship between Arturo Beltran (former partner of DEA Operative Edgar Barbie' Valdez who was betrayed and killed by the military) and La Familia, then Beltran falls, then el Chayo falls, later el Chango, what do you think happened in Michoacan?
Rejón Aguilar: Michoacan collapsed because in essence, they didn't keep their word. There was never a deal reached with them. In fact, when Arturo went down, there was a cease-fire, but they (La Familia) broke it, and they went to war against Arturo and sought refuge with el Valencia.
Interrogator: So after that, everyone started to break away and work for themselves?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. That's when the war started. By that time, we were already working for ourselves.
Interrogator: How did you all begin to work independently?
Rejón Aguilar: Since we no longer had ties with anybody, we began to bring the material (the drugs) ourselves.
Interrogator: How do you obtain the drugs? Which Colombian cartel do you work with?
Rejón Aguilar: I do not know. That's handled by different personnel. But it has always been brought through Guatemala because the Colombians are not trustworthy.
Interrogator: They bring it from somewhere else?
Rejón Aguilar: From Guatemala. It can be bought from Colombia, Panama, or Guatemala. We buy it from Guatemala.
Interrogator: And where do you get your weapons?
Rejón Aguilar: From the United States. All weapons come from the U.S.
Interrogator: How are they brought here?
Rejón Aguilar: Crossing the river. We used to bring them through the bridge, but it's become harder to do that.
Interrogator: Who purchases the weapons?
Rejón Aguilar: They are bought in the U.S. The buyers (on the U.S. side of the border) have said in the past that sometimes they would acquire them from the U.S. Government itself.
Interrogator: And nowadays, who distribute them to you?
Rejón Aguilar: It's more difficult for us to acquire weapons nowadays, but we find ways. But it's easier for the Gulf Cartel to bring them across the border.
Interrogator: Why?
Rejón Aguilar: We don't know why, but they bring them (accross the bridge) in the trunk of their cars without being checked (by Mexican Customs). One can only think that they must have reached a deal with the (Mexican) government.
Interrogator: How often are they smuggled?
Rejón Aguilar: Today it's more difficult so it's more sporadic, like every month, every 20 days, or every month and a half. It's done when ever there's an opportunity.
Interrogator: And the drugs?
Rejón Aguilar: The drugs are handled by a group of accountants. They handle that in private. It's compartmentalized. Only they know how and when it's smuggled to the United States. I suppose, with the way that things are right now, they probably smuggle the drug shipments every two or three months.
Interrogator: How are the drug shipments smuggled to the U.S.?
Rejón Aguilar: They bring it to the U.S. through Laredo, but that's done by a compartmentalized group handled by the accountants. They are responsible for all that.
Interrogator: Let's talk about San Luis Potosi, do you remember the attack on the U.S. ICE agents?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. They (Los Zetas) were travelling in a caravan of bullet-proof vehicles. They mistook them for other people and cut them off.
Interrogator: What's happening in Tamaulipas?
Rejón Aguilar: In Tamaulipas, there's a war because of the separation of the cartels. But we're on hold because there is too much government (troops) presence.
Interrogator: Tell me about the armored (monster) vehicles. How were they made? How many of these vehicles were under your command?
Rejón Aguilar: Three… five at one time.
Interrogator: And out of these five vehicles, what type were they?
Rejón Aguilar: They were armored trucks typically known as monsters.
Interrogator: Were you ever prepared for being captured?
Rejón Aguilar: One always knows that sooner or later, we will be captured.
Interrogator: Is there someone you would like to ask for forgiveness?
Rejón Aguilar: Like how?
Interrogator: Yes. Like for your actions, or for disappointing somebody, like your children or your family?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. To my mother, because since all of this happened, I haven't seen her for 17 years.
Interrogator: And knowing that you haven't seen your mother and she's still alive, how do you feel?
Rejón Aguilar: Well, it's hard. It's cruel but oh well…
[url]http://theintelhub.com/2011/07/08/captured-zeta-leader-we've-purchased-weapons-from-the-"u-s-government-itself"/[/url]
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Eric Holder Bragged About Operation Gunrunner In 2009
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/798/978/E..._2009.html
http://sadhillnews.com/
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Carl Levin defending Project Gunrunner Finding in Feb 2011
http://ttmsoia.andyhill.us/2011/07/09/ca...-feb-2011/
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Another scandal that could take Obama down
Posted: July 09, 2011
1:00 am Eastern
© 2011
Sometimes the news seems stranger than fiction.
Who could dream up a plot line like this?
Several law enforcement agencies of the federal government, including the FBI, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, got together to hatch a plan to sell guns to Mexican drug cartel members at least one of which was later used to murder a Border Patrol agent.
Can't be, right?
Wait a minute. It gets worse. It now appears the money used by the known criminals in Mexico was federal "stimulus" money.
I know. It's a nightmare. It's government gone wild.
Yet that is exactly what the aptly named "Project Gunrunner" seems to have been all about with a scandal and ensuing cover-up big enough to bring down Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.
Members of Congress have been trying to investigate, but are getting no cooperation from Holder and the Justice Department. Apparently, the plan of the Obama administration was for the acting director of the ATF to take the fall. His name is Kenneth Melson but he has other ideas.
Melson says he first found out about "Project Gunrunner" also called "Operation Fast and Furious" after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, killed with a gun sold to the Mexican gangs by U.S. law enforcement personnel.
But after checking through the files on the program, Melson said he got "sick to his stomach" by what he found the direct involvement of the FBI, DEA, Homeland Security, etc.
While Melson is talking to congressional investigators, Obama's buddy Holder is in full stonewalling mode. He won't give Rep. Darrel Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the time of day.
The Obama administration appears to have put together a sophisticated, inter-agency conspiracy to provide money to Mexican gangsters to purchase guns from the U.S. to kill federal agents, but it is not at all happy about explaining itself to the American people, the press or Congress.
Initially, Holder tried to dismiss the operation as a botched sting run by ATF to track and stop cross-border arms-trafficking. But that story is a dead letter after secret testimony provided by Melson on July 4 to congressional investigators.
Melson wanted to testify earlier, but Holder stopped him. Holder pressured Melson to quit his job and go away. But he's not having any part of that.
He may have become Obama's worst nightmare after Jerome Corsi.
Try to picture this: Holder, the FBI, Homeland Security, DEA and ATF all get together to run a sting operation at least partly in a foreign country. Is it even conceivable that Obama would not have to be informed of such a plan? Not likely. This was an operation with international consequences. If Obama didn't know, whose fault is that.
And then we get into the question of what really might have motivated such an elaborate plot. Is the explanation we've received really plausible?
Or is it more likely that the ideologically driven Obama administration, which detests the constitutionally protected right of every American to own and bear firearms, was actively participating in a diabolical political program to put U.S. guns into the hands of Mexican gangsters as part of a false flag operation that would be used to seize the guns of U.S. civilians?
The old line is that the cover-up is worse than the crime. Maybe not in this case. What could Holder be so afraid of revealing that he would lie to Congress (a crime in itself) to conceal? Chances are it's pretty bad probably worse than my scenario.
Just so you don't think I'm making this up, here's what ATF investigators told members of Congress last month that they wanted to "intervene and interdict" large numbers of guns at the border, but were ordered to step aside and let them fall into the hands of the drug cartel.
"Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals this was the plan," John Dodson, an ATF agent, told the panel. "It was so mandated."
Agent Olindo James Casa said that "on several occasions I personally requested to interdict or seize firearms, but I was always ordered to stand down and not to seize the firearms."
Do you see why I say this is another scandal that could bring Obama down?
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=320129
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"