Investigations Into BATFE Accelerate (A Crude Chronology Since late March 2011)

[Ed Jewett]

The American People Are Fast Becoming More Furious.

Posted by Repair_Man_Jack (Profile)
Thursday, July 14th at 2:00PM EDT
3 Comments

USG Property - Last Seen Somewhere in Tijuana

[COLOR="#8b0000"]"Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field Operations."

- Townhall.com[/COLOR]

The ATF went statistic-shopping in support of a proposed rule to limit the freedoms of firearm owners and dealers. Operation Fast and Furious was an effort to create a law enforcement problem so that government could expand its enforcement operations without actual organic crimes to fight. This involved the government deliberately seeding areas near the US border with firearms that they intended to track after sales. These straw man deals went bad when the USG promptly failed to track their inventory of 1,700 firearms. Losing just one would get a 2nd LT tossed from the USMC.


The government weapons began turning up at murder scenes that resulted from gunplay between rival international narcotics gangs. Allegedly, at least two USBP agents and 150 Mexican Citizens have turned up dead after being drive-by body-pierced by Operation Fast and Furious firearms. In fairness, even some ATF agents have become angry that .50 caliber Barrett Rifles have been sold into Mexico and lost by USG employees and have gone to the media with accounts of it all.

The government is attempting to restrict 2nd Amendment Rights using artificially generated data. It's the law enforcement agency version of the infamous Hockey Stick Curve. Based on the fake but accurate data, gleaned from losing .50 caliber sniper rifles in drug-infested border towns, the DoJ has authored a letter. This missive regrettably failed to include any resignations by its senior staff.

"The international expansion and increased violence of transnational criminal networks pose a significant threat to the United States. Federal, state and foreign law enforcement agencies have determined that certain types of semi-automatic rifles greater than .22 caliber and with the ability to accept a detachable magazine are highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest Border…..These targeted information requests will occur in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to help confront the problem of illegal gun trafficking into Mexico and along the Southwest Border."

-Department of "Justice"

God bless Amerika! If I look at that document closely enough, I detect the faint watermark of a "Mission Accomplished" Banner. The DoJ has officially declared victory in Operation Fast and Furious. Now everyone's $100 bills will come encrusted with several ppm less cocaine residue! I love it when my tax dollars are so hard at work.

In order to make things run as smoothly as possible, the DoJ has worked to clear up ambiguities before people testify in Congressional hearings. They've worked out those ambiguities by leaking classified documents to witnesses prior to these people being questioned. Senator Grassley and Congressman Issa have sent the DoJ a letter. It explains to America's leading law enforcement agency why witness-tampering is a bad thing.

We have recently learned that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATF) has afforded potential witnesses for the Committees' investigation into Operation Fast and Furious access to a shared drive on its computer system replete with pertinent investigative documents, including official ATF emails…..Allowing witnesses access to such documents could taint their testimony by allowing them to tailor their responses to what they think the Committees already know. Additionally, witnesses who gain access to documents they have not previously seen could alter their recollection of events.

We give the government our tax monies to help prevent crime. They use it pursue political vendettas against gun owners based on fantasy data. Then, when forced to give an accounting of this, they witness-tamper. Department of "Just-Us" indeed!

People know that any sort of a government shutdown resulting from a failure to raise the debt ceiling would hurt quite badly. They know just kicking it up a couple of trillion more will allow the USG to keep on doing exactly what it is currently doing. The 53% of the people who follow this stuff, and know they'll get hammered by a government shutdown, want that shutdown explicitly because of what the government is doing.

I'll speculate here, but without much fear of being wrong. Using the debt ceiling to shut our government down is a last and desperate way for an exploited and badly misgoverned populace to make the whole nightmare stop. The people in charge had better change things fast. The ones who pay the bills and make it all work are growing increasingly furious.

http://www.redstate.com/repair_man_jack/...e-furious/

[Ed Jewett]

Were gun smugglers paid by U.S.?

6 tied to cartel were informants for FBI, investigation of Fast and Furious' program suggests
By RICHARD A. SERRANO
Los Angeles Times
July 17, 2011, 10:41AM

WASHINGTON Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday.

The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them.

The development raises further doubts about the now-shuttered program, which was created in November 2009 in an effort to track guns across the border and unravel the cartels' gun-smuggling networks.

The gun tracing largely failed, however, and hundreds of weapons purchased in U.S. shops later were found at crime scenes in Mexico.

The scandal has angered Mexican officials and some members of Congress. Investigators say nearly 2,500 guns were allowed to flow illegally into Mexico under the ATF program, fueling the drug violence ravaging that country and leading to the shooting death of a U.S. border agent.

In a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, the investigators asked why U.S. taxpayers' money apparently was paid to Mexican cartel members who have terrorized the border region for years in their efforts to smuggle drugs into this country, and to ship U.S. firearms into Mexico.

"We have learned of the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious," wrote Rep. Darrel Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles Grassley, of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The two have been the leading congressional critics of the program.

"At least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring," they wrote.

FBI, DEA kept silent
The FBI and DEA did not tell the ATF about the alleged informants. The ATF and congressional investigators learned later that those agencies apparently were paying cartel members whom the ATF wanted to arrest.

"Operation Fast and Furious was conceived to get some of the bigger fish down there," said one official close to the congressional investigation, who asked not to be identified because the probe is ongoing. "Then it turned out that some of the ones they were zeroing in on actually, mostly likely were paid informants."

The official said at least half-a-dozen cartel figures were being paid by one U.S. law enforcement agency while they were being targeted by another.
"We are learning more about them, and there are six so far that we know about. It's multiples, for sure," the official said.

The official declined to identify the six, but said the individual cited in the letter to the FBI operated along the Texas border with Mexico.

"This guy could die if it got out who he is," the official said. "He'd be killed."

AK-47s at death scene
The FBI and DEA referred queries Saturday to the Department of Justice. Officials there said they cannot talk about paid informants but are attempting to answer the questions from Issa and Grassley.

They noted that they already have provided thousands of pages of documents to Congress and have answered questions in sworn depositions and open hearings.

"We have been cooperating, and we will continue to cooperate," said an Obama administration official. "We want to learn as much as we can about Fast and Furious, just as they do."

The ATF ran the Fast and Furious operation out of its field office in Phoenix until early this year. The idea was to monitor illegal purchases in federally licensed U.S. gun shops, but allow the illicit buyers to walk away with the weapons, giving ATF agents the opportunity to learn how the guns are smuggled across the border.

But many of their gun-tracing efforts failed, and hundreds of firearms purchased under the program were used to commit crimes in Mexico.
In addition, two AK-47s purchased during the operation were found at the scene last December where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot to death near Tucson, allegedly by a Sinaloa cartel member.

A second U.S. immigration agent, Jaime Zapata, was slain in a cartel ambush in February in Mexico, and investigators now are trying to determine whether Fast and Furious weapons were used to kill him as well.

Questions about Zapata
In the letter to Mueller, the senators asked if Zapata was armed when he was killed and "if not, why not?" They also asked if his vehicle was bulletproof, and if so, "how was he killed inside of the vehicle?"

They also asked how many cartel members were paid, if any of the informants had been deported from the United States, and if FBI personnel in Arizona knew of the informants.

The Republican leaders asked to see all "emails, documents, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes" from and to FBI and DEA field supervisors and agents in Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales and Yuma in Arizona, and in El Paso.

They are seeking the same material from the FBI case agent investigating Terry's death.

Zapata's family also is seeking answers.
Relatives of the slain immigration agent sent a letter June 14 to the U.S. attorney's office in South Texas, the top FBI official in San Antonio, and several U.S. immigration officials, "requesting information about the specific circumstances of Jaime Zapata's death."


Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tops...z1SUcBQR4J

[Ed Jewett]

Gunwalker: ATF Targets Were Actually FBI Informants
It would be comical if we weren't talking about dead federal agents and Mexican nationals.

Writing from the Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau, Richard Serrano reveals that at least six of the ATF's targets in Operation Fast and Furious were paid FBI informants.

Your tax dollars at work:

In a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, the investigators asked why U.S. taxpayers' money apparently was paid to Mexican cartel members who have terrorized the border region for years in their efforts to smuggle drugs into this country, and to ship U.S. firearms into Mexico.

"We have learned of the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious," wrote Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The two have been the leading congressional critics of the program.

"At least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring," they wrote.

The FBI and DEA did not tell the ATF about the alleged informants. The ATF and congressional investigators learned later that those agencies apparently were paying cartel members whom the ATF wanted to arrest.

To simplify: the Department of Justice was paying ATF agents to ignore federal laws in order to provide weapons to criminal informants paid by the FBI, who then distributed those weapons to other cartel members who killed federal agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement plus an estimated 150 soldiers and police in Mexico.

The development draws FBI Director Robert Mueller further into the scandal, and suggests that acting ATF Director Ken Melson was being truthful when he claimed he was unaware of key elements of Operation Fast and Furious. Congressional investigators now need to interview the FBI director and determine if Mueller was also being provided with only partial details about the operation.

If that turns out to be the case, it is a damning indictment of the Justice Department and senior officials within the Department, who learned nothing about the disastrous and deadly effects of compartmentalization which were partially to blame for the success of Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001. The "wall of separation" created by Clinton-era Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick seems to have been embraced by her successor Eric Holder, who is now the attorney general under Barack Obama.

The "wall" was created to safeguard the civil liberties of terrorists by keeping counter-terrorists from communicating with federal prosecutors, but can be twisted to serve a far more nefarious purpose, as the various "Gunwalker" operations being uncovered seem to show.

"Operation Fast and Furious" was run out of Phoenix as a multi-agency operation, and Congress is now pursuing leads into "Operation Castaway," an operation based out of Tampa that seems to have mirrored the goals and tactics of the Arizona operation while providing weapons to the violent MS-13 gang in Honduras. Additionally, ICE Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were ambushed and Zapata killed with a weapon traced back to a yet-unnamed operation based out of Dallas. A steady recovery of weapons to southern Mexico out of the Houston area seems to indicate the possibility of a fourth operation.


t has been know from the beginning of the scandal that Operation Fast and Furious was a multi-agency operation involving elements of the Department of Justice (ATF, DEA, FBI, etc.) the Department of Homeland Security, the IRS, and almost certainly the State Department. It is suspected that this operation violated the Arms Export Control Act, and turned federal law enforcement officers into felons.

While the administration originally tried to scapegoat acting ATF Director Melson and a key source indicates that Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco is now being set-up to take the fall, neither man has the authority or reach to initiate or approve this kind of operation. It is unlikely that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was unaware of such wide-ranging and vast operations that involved every law enforcement agency within the Department of Justice. It is also possible even probable at this point that he perjured himself in congressional testimony.

Holder either knew of the operation and purposefully committed his agencies to committing thousands of felony acts, or he is a serial incompetent playing the role of patsy for a cabinet-level peer or his superior.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-a...nformants/


****

Obama-Contra

Posted 07/18/2011 07:09 PM ET

Scandal: Democrats who condemned our support of Nicaraguan freedom fighters in the '80s now ignore administration gun-running that may have put American weapons in the hands of the Central American MS-13 gang.

As if "Project Gunrunner" and "Operation Fast and Furious" weren't bad enough, we now learn of "Operation Castaway," run out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Tampa field division. It's another operation that allowed guns to "walk" south of the border, this time to Honduras, using similar techniques and tactics.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., sent two letters a week ago to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melsom inquiring about the program. He shouldn't expect much. As commentator Brit Hume noted on "Fox News Sunday": "The stench of cover-up on this gun-running operation is very strong indeed."

"Two weapons found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry were traced back to the ATF's 'Operation Fast and Furious,' and reports now indicate that ATF's Tampa field division trafficked as many as 1,000 firearms to the dangerous MS-13 gang in Honduras through a similar program known as 'Operation Castaway,' " Bilirakis states on his website.

If these programs bring back memories of the Iran-Contra scandal, we are not surprised. If you're wondering why this isn't as big a scandal, so do we. Iran-Contra wasn't funded in a stimulus package to create jobs. Nor did it occur with the full knowledge and approval of both the attorney general and the White House, as these "gun-walking" fiascos did.

Iran-Contra is the umbrella name for a series of actions that at least had the worthy goal of keeping a still-ambitious Soviet Union from establishing a second permanent Communist beachhead in the America, this time in Nicaragua.

Project Gunrunner, of which Operation Fast and Furious was a part, and now Operation Castaway, are without noble purpose. The cover story is that they were part of a plan to trick and track gunrunners. In fact, these schemes made it easy for criminals, drug cartels and gangs to acquire weapons.

The real purpose, we have stated and still suspect, was to advance the administration's push for gun control and the stripping of law-abiding Americans of their Second Amendment rights through "common sense" restrictions on private gun ownership by creating chaos and fomenting violence with the guns provided.

Indeed, it did not take long for ATF to announce a new gun-control mandate the requirement that gun store owners in the border states of Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico make a special ATF report for multiple long-gun sales, the same type of weapons the ATF was freely providing to the worst of the worst.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis...Contra.htm

****


ERIC HOLDER - AGENT OF THE ZIONIST NETWORK BEHIND 9/11


April 4, 2011 - U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder announces that the alleged "Mastermind of 9/11" and four other terrorists will not*face open trial*in the United States -- but*closed military tribunals in Cuba.* Who benefits from this*decision?**


Holder, a Zionist agent who served as deputy attorney general during the second Clinton administration, was instrumental in getting a presidential pardon for the Israeli mega-criminal Marc Rich.* What Holder did not say about the KSM*decision*is that the U.S.*had*dropped*its*case against*the men*accused*of*carrying out*9/11.**Could it be that*the real reason*Holder dropped the charges against*the*alleged "Mastermind of 9/11" is that the real KSM*died - on September 11, 2002 - and*they can't risk having the 9/11*hoax exposed*in an*open court in the United States?




Watching Eric Holder announce that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will not be tried in an open court I was immediately struck by the way Holder looks like he is lying.* One gets the same impression when watching Holder*on*"Face the Nation"*in Aspen in July 2010.* This man is not telling the truth about why KSM will*not be tried in the United States.* 

It should be remembered that Eric Holder was Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general, and*Holder played a*key insider role in the pardon of the Zionist mega-criminal and Mossadnik Marc Rich.* When asked by the White House what he thought about a pardon for Rich, Holder replied, "Neutral, leaning towards favorable." 

Of the*71 people who signed letters of support*submitted with the Israeli Marc Rich's pardon application, 48 were prominent Israelis (67.6 percent). Another eight were leading American Jews, such as Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, and Rabbi Irving Greenberg, chairman of the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.* In a March*2001*article entitled "Pardon Us",*the Jerusalem Post*wrote:**"Topping a list of dozens said to have recommended that Rich be pardoned are [Ehud] Barak, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, former Mossad head Ya'acov [Shabtai] Shavit, and directors of museums, hospitals and other institutions."* Shimon Peres also personally pressed Clinton to pardon Marc Rich.

A PARDON FOR THE MOSSAD


In February 2001, Jodi Enda of Knight Ridder News reported that the Mossad had been behind the pardon for Marc Rich:* "The petition asking Clinton to pardon Rich also contained a number of letters from the heads of Israeli philanthropic organizations, whose support was solicited by Avner Azulay, executive director of the Rich Foundation, a charitable entity that Rich established in Tel Aviv in 1988. Azulay is a former Mossad agent, according to a House of Representatives investigator who has been researching the pardon and who asked not to be identified. Rich's bodyguards also are former Israeli intelligence agents, the investigator said." 


As Richard Cohen of the Washington Post wrote in his December 2008 article on Eric Holder, "Pardon My Exception":*

The Rich pardon request had power written all over it -- the patronage of important Democratic fundraisers, for instance. Holder also said he was "really struck" by the backing of Rich by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the possibility of "foreign policy benefits that would be reaped by granting the pardon." This is an odd standard for American justice, but more than that, what was Holder thinking? That U.S.-Israeli relations would suffer? Holder does not sound naive. He sounds disingenuous.

Eric Holder serves as an agent for the Zionist criminal network that controls the Obama administration and that ran the Clinton White House.* As I pointed out in my article, "Why the 'Mastermind of 9-11' is Kept Secluded":*

Eric Holder not only studied with Jews, his family vacationed with the most elite Jewish Zionist families in the United States. ... Eric Holder's relationship with highest-level Zionists explains his appointment to serve as U.S. Attorney General.

As a high level Zionist agent at the Department of Justice, Eric Holder has been instrumental in protecting the Zionist criminal network behind 9/11.**In 2001, Holder was a key insider in obtaining a presidential pardon for Marc Rich, the*Israeli Mossadnik*who in 1999 set up the global trading division at Hugo Neu, the*Jersey City junkyard that*disposed of most of the steel evidence from the World Trade*Center by sending it to Asian smelters to prevent it from being used as evidence.* In 2011, Holder, as U.S. Attorney General,*shut down the U.S. prosecution of the alleged 9/11 terrorists and prevented an open trial for the accused "Mastermind of 9/11".* Both of these actions were taken to protect the real criminals behind the terror attacks that changed America.


http://www.bollyn.com/index.php#article_12931

[Ed Jewett]

Deputy Attorney General James Cole Involved
in 'Fast & Furious' Whistleblower Cover-up?

by Bea Edwards on July 19, 2011 (The Whistleblogger/ 2010)

Operation Fast and Furious (F&F) a program run by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that allowed thousands of lethal weapons to cross the Mexican border was apparently no secret among high-level political authorities at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Among those in the know? Newly-confirmed Deputy Attorney General James Cole.

Information is now seeping out about the political whiplash that secured a confirmation vote for Cole in exchange for the DOJ's release of documents to Congress. In a supremely ironic twist, the documents ransomed by Cole's confirmation strongly suggest that Cole himself was involved in the cover-up of F&F.

To recap, James Cole is no stranger to serious misconduct occurring during his alleged "watch." Cole was the "Independent Consultant" stationed at AIG by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before, during and after the financial meltdown of 2008. Despite his oversight responsibilities, Cole looked the other way as the AIG Financial Products Division in London ran the corporation off the rails, ultimately driving the international economy off a cliff. The cost to US taxpayers of the AIG bailout was more than $150 billion.

Fast forward to January 2011. After President Obama installed Cole at DOJ as the Acting Deputy Attorney General through a recess appointment, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-California) began asking Cole's office for information about F&F. On January 27, Grassley wrote to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson, requesting information. Four days later, Grassley again wrote to Melson about reports that whistleblowers on F&F were being silenced, stating "Rather than focusing on retaliating against whistleblowers, the ATF's sole focus should be on finding and disclosing the truth as soon as possible."

There followed a chronology of false and misleading information from DOJ to Congress about F&F, and in March, Melson claims he told Cole that DOJ "[…]needed to reexamine how it was responding to the request for information from Congress." Not long after this, Politico reported that Melson was about to resign' from ATF.

Grassley, of course, has crossed swords with Cole before. Through 2010 and into 2011, Grassley blocked Cole's confirmation in part because Cole had failed in his oversight at AIG. In June, however, Grassley withdrew his objection to Cole in exchange for information from the DOJ about F&F (Just for now, let's ignore the dubious practice of forcing Congress to exchange votes for information from executive agencies about wrongdoing). Cole was then confirmed on June 27, and shortly after the vote, DOJ turned over documents about F&F to the Senate.

In the documents, Grassley discovered that Cole had been informed about F&F in March by Melson and had participated in concealing the details of the operation from Congressional investigators. A July 5th Grassley/Issa letter to Attorney General Eric Holder reads:

Mr. Melson provided documents months ago supporting his concerns [about Operation Fast and Furious] to the official in the ODAG [Office of the Deputy Attorney General] responsible for document production to the Committees, but those documents have not been provided to us.

Grassley and Issa also wrote that, according to Melson:

"[…] 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 [Melson's] 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."

Let's recap:

1. Cole ignored or failed to recognize financial risk at AIG for years (while collecting a hefty fee).
2. Grassley blocked his confirmation as Deputy Attorney General.
3. Using a recess appointment, President Obama appointed Cole to Deputy Attorney General in December of last year, and Cole took up his position at DOJ.
4. Cole's office at DOJ withheld information from Congress about F&F at ATF, a program that allowed thousands of firearms bought in the US to fall into the hands of criminals in Mexico.
5. In a deal with Democrats, Grassley agreed to allow a confirmation vote on Cole in exchange for access to information from DOJ about F&F.
6. Upon receiving that information, Grassley learned that a DOJ official partially responsible for withholding F&F details from Congress was … Cole himself.

Last week, on July 11, Grassley and Issa wrote again to Holder:

As our investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program […].

Grassley and Issa are now requesting e-mails to and from Cole, among others, as part of their investigation.

Let's hope that they don't have to make another deal with the devil or with our "Justice" Department in order to get them.

Bea Edwards is the International Reform Director at the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.



http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/31-201...r-cover-up

[Ed Jewett]

7/18/11
operating in the geopolitical black holes
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2011/07...holes.html

[Ed Jewett]

Third Fast & Furious hearing scheduled next Tuesday

Congressman Darrell Issa's office has just announced that a third hearing probing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive's botched Operation Fast and Furious is scheduled next Tuesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The hearing will convene at 10 a.m. (that's 7 a.m. PDT for all of the Pacific Northwest gun rights activists who are watching this case unfold). You will be able to click here for more hearing information and to watch a live stream of the hearing on Tuesday.

This hearing will be headlined The Other Side of the Border, and will examine accounts of ATF agents based in Mexico.

It could be a blockbuster event, because the witness list includes former Phoenix Special Agent in Charge William Newell, and Carlos Canino, acting ATF attaché to Mexico. Canino's name appeared in a report issued by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings earlier this month regarding gun trafficking to Mexico. ATF sources say Canino is a "good cop." In the Cummings report, it is stated:

Special Agent Carlos Canino, the acting ATF attaché to Mexico, stated during his transcribed interview that there is an "epidemic" of illegal firearms trafficking to Mexico, and a "trafficking statute would be helpful." He added: "What we want to do is we want to stop otherwise legal guns from getting into an illegal secondary market. You know, we want to stop these guys, violent criminals, from hurting people."

Newell has been identified as a key figure in the Fast and Furious operation, and he is one of several Phoenix ATF managers who was reassigned several weeks ago when this story became the subject of national headlines.

The investigation is beginning to heat up in the wake of revelations by acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson, as reported by this column here, here, here and here.

According to the announcement from Issa's office:

This Tuesday's hearing, Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border, will feature the testimony of U.S. law enforcement officials who witnessed a different side of the controversial operation. These officials saw the steady stream of Operation Fast and Furious guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico and were given orders from superiors not to alert Mexican authorities. Members of the Committee will also have their first opportunity to question ATF supervisors who have defended Operation Fast and Furious and the Justice Department's decisions to committee investigators.

Melson told congressional investigators behind closed doors earlier this month that the Department of Justice is trying to shift the blame "away from its political appointees," as noted in this column.

In a statement today, Issa noted:

"Examining the accounts of witnesses who did not participate in Operation Fast and Furious, but were nonetheless disturbed as they watched it unfold is critical to understanding the scope of this flawed program. This testimony is especially important in light of the Justice Department's willful efforts to withhold key evidence from investigators about what occurred, who knew and who authorized this reckless operation."

The hearing will be held in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Below is a complete list of witnesses currently available from the committee:

Mr. Carlos Canino ATF Acting Attaché to Mexico

Mr. Darren Gil Former ATF Attaché to Mexico

Mr. Jose Wall ATF Senior Special Agent, Tijuana, Mexico

Mr. Lorren Leadmon ATF Intelligence Operations Specialist

Mr. William Newell Former ATF Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

Mr. William McMahon ATF Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations (West, including Phoenix and Mexico)


Continue reading on Examiner.com BULLETIN: Third Fast & Furious hearing scheduled next Tuesday - Seattle gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-se...z1ShpRCt3X

***** *** *

Issa not losing sight of anti-gun attitudes of 'Gunwalker' principals

On June 15, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held the first congressional hearing dealing specifically with the "Project Gunwalker" scandal. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) is chairman of that committee, and along with Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), has been the "tip of the spear" in Congress's investigation into the "Gunwalker" monstrosity. During that hearing, Rep. Issa asked Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) Special Agent Peter Forcelli what I call the question of "Project Gunwalker" (the two and a quarter minute video segment is available here):

So let me just ask a question for your supposition, but I think it's a very well educated one. If you only look at the beginning and the end of the dot, isn't the only thing you've proven is that guns in America go to Mexico? Now could that be a political decision? Could that be a decision that basically, we just want to substantiate that guns in America go to Mexico--something we all knew, but would have considerable political impact, as Mexico began complaining about these, and they could say, "Well, yeah--we're even rolling up the straw purchasers." It wouldn't change the fact that Mexicans were dying at the behest of the United States, but wouldn't it ultimately meet a political goal?

This, of course, is a question to which many of us in the gun rights advocacy community think we have the answer, even if, in articulating that answer, we open ourselves to ridicule from such journalistic luminaries as Jon Stewart and Media Matters. Special Agent Forcelli, although not receptive to that explanation of the motive behind "Project Gunwalker," could not avoid acknowledging that the operation had zero utility in achieving the ostensible motive--catching and prosecuting the "higher ups" in the gun trafficking rings--the "underpants gnome" theory of gun smuggling interdiction. Nor did he offer an explanation as to why his superiors were "giddy" over the spiking violence, committed with "gunwalked" guns, that would not involve exploiting Mexican deaths (facilitated by the U.S. government) as a Rahm Emanuel-style "crisis."

Since then, we have discovered that even if more restrictive gun regulation was not the initial goal behind "Project Gunwalker," by one year ago at the latest, senior BATFE officials were looking for ways to exploit it for that purpose, as revealed in emails.

Then last night, Rep. Issa was on the NRA News show "Cam and Company," with Cam Edwards and Ginny Simone, talking about the scandal. It's very much worth watching in its entirety, but the short (1 minute, 5 seconds) segment in the sidebar video is especially interesting, in that it shows that Issa has not lost sight of the fact that those political appointees at the top of this debacle have a long, well known history of hostility to gun rights. Here's a transcription of an even shorter segment of the sidebar video:

They've been pushing back and trying to push blame or responsibility to non-political appointees, while, in fact, Lanny Breuer, Eric Holder, and the rest of the political appointees clearly were actively involved in this effort--and no surprise. The war against Second Amendment rights has been a war that Lanny Breuer has been involved in since the Clinton administration. Eric Holder certainly goes back to that same administration, so there's a secondary agenda that's pretty transparent.

Sounds as if Rep. Issa is still not buying the "underpants gnome" explanation, although he might want to reconsider the "secondary" part. Too bad so many in the mass media are buying it.

See also:

A journalist's guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part One
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...-gunwalker

A Journalist's Guide to 'Project Gunwalker-Part Two
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...r-part-two

A Journalist's Guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part Three
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...part-three

A Journalist's Guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part Four
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...-part-four

Official Correspondence on the Project Gunwalker Scandal
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.c...oject.html

Sharyl Attkisson's stories on CBS
http://www.cbsnews.com/sharylattkisson?t...ontentBody

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-st...z1ShqA7doB

[Ed Jewett]

Operation Fast and Furious: The Straw Buyers
By William La Jeunesse & Laura Prabucki
Published July 20, 2011
| FoxNews.com

Video at link


When the Operation Fast and Furious indictment was announced back in January, it was depicted as a big bust. Twenty suspects were charged with numerous counts of conspiracy, money laundering, gun running and drug trafficking. The defendants faced 5 to 20 years on a single count.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives(ATF) along with the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix claimed to have dismantled a major weapons trafficking organization from top to bottom- from the end user of the weapons in Mexico to the money men, those who smuggled and transported the weapons from the U.S. into Mexico, and the buyers on our side of the border.

Yet after thousands of man hours and millions of dollars spent, only one of the 20 suspects remains behind bars. Most were released within 24 hours of their arrest. In the end, all prosecutors got was one middle man and a handful of straw buyers.
Fox News paid a visit to some of the straw buyers in the Phoenix Metro area last week. What we found were young men, many living with their parents, who were apparently just looking to make some quick money.
"A straw buyer is usually a kid who is 18-25, who needs a couple hundred extra bucks and knows somebody who knows somebody that has a way to make a couple extra bucks," said Adrian Fontes, an attorney for the accused ringleader of this Operation. His client, Manuel Celis- Acosta is the only one still in jail.
"The government wants a dramatic indictment, they want the conspiracy to sound like it's run out by highly sophisticated individuals who are involved with a particularly nefarious organization when the reality is it's just a bunch of kids," said Fontes.
Those "kids" purchased more than 1800 guns from stores in and around Phoenix. The straw buyers reportedly received about $100 per transaction. The gun stores say they were assured by the ATF and U.S. attorneys that the weapons would be tracked. Instead, agents say the weapons were allowed to "walk", they were not followed and many ended up in Mexico. Along with crime scenes south of the border, two were also found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Former U.S. Attorney Melvin McDonald says the defendants' release suggests that Operation Fast and Furious is not only a scandal, it was a failure.
" It's pretty scary," says McDonald. " You'd think a lot of people probably would not get out , they'd be detained because of the risk."
The parents of some of the straw buyers claim their sons just got caught up with the wrong crowd.
The mother of 18-year old Dejan Hercegovac, who bought more than 30 guns, said, "He didn't know anything.. he was just a kid."
The father of Erick Avila- Davila, a 25-year old who bought 12 guns, said he didn't know what his son was up to and only found out when he was arrested.
" When I ask him what he did, he just told me 'I'm sorry dad'."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/20/ope...z1SnkXS2NE

****

Investigators Say They've Been Monitoring Former OBN Agent for Awhile


Posted: Aug 11, 2010 8:24 PM
Updated: Aug 12, 2010 9:52 PM
Featured Video
OBN Agent's Alleged Double Life Shocked Those Who Knew Him
OBN Agent's Arrest Could Be Tip of Iceberg in Gun Smuggling Scheme


ATF investigators said they have been monitoring former OBN agent Francisco Javier Reyes, 29, since the spring for his alleged involvement in a firearms smuggling scheme.


Court records indicated Kyle Wooten, 28, was one of the people Reyes would allegedly pay to buy guns that would eventually be smuggled into Mexico. Wooten has since died.


Reyes' patrol car now sits parked at the agency, while he is out of jail on $25,000 bond and under house arrest.
By Adrianna Iwasinski and Rusty Surette, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- According to court documents, agents have been tracking a number of people, including an Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics agent, involved in a secret scheme of smuggling firearms into Mexico.

Right now former OBN agent 29-year-old Francisco Javier Reyes is the only one facing federal charges, but recently unsealed court documents showed a number of people were involved.

Reyes busted more than his fair share of people for smuggling drugs during his three years on the force, but now he stands accused of smuggling guns to Mexico.

Court documents revealed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents recovered dozens of assault rifles heading to Laredo, Texas and traced several of them back to Oklahoma, and ultimately to Reyes.

It's unclear how long Reyes had been living a double life, but the ATF had been tracking him and his whereabouts since the spring of this year.

According to a federal affidavit, Reyes would often use his blue Chevy Tahoe to transport the firearms, many of which were AK-47s.

Reyes also allegedly recruited several friends in the Stillwater area to buy the firearms for him. Court records stated Reyes contacted a few of them at a Stillwater hookah lounge, which he co-owned.

One of them was 28-year-old Kyle Wooten, who did electrical work at the hookah lounge. Wooten has since died and his wife and children are reportedly in hiding in fear of his connection to the gun smuggling scheme.

Agents reported Reyes would give Wooten and others wads of cash to make the purchases at several gun shows and gun shops around town and the state and would then pay them up to $100 per firearm. One of those gun stores Wooten and Reyes visited was H & H Gun Range in Oklahoma City. The owner confirmed the two bought guns at his store.

However, ATF agents were onto the scheme early on and started doing mobile surveillance on Reyes back in June. Many of the guns Reyes and his friends bought had electronic tracking devices on them, allowing ATF agents to monitor their every move.

In June agents made a bust at the Texas-Mexico border where they recovered dozens of assault rifles with obliterated serial numbers. Agents were able to trace one of the rifles back to Reyes.

There is also a money trail. Court records showed Reyes was pulled over for speeding in Denton, Texas in July. Deputies found a black briefcase with two checks inside, one for $27,000 and one for $6,000. There was also a notebook with an itemized list of guns totaling more than $40,000.

Reyes has since resigned his position with the Bureau of Narcotics and the agency has launched its own investigation.

Those who knew Reyes said it is hard to believe he is on the other side of the law.

The owner of Club Albee in Bricktown, DJ Saad, said he often saw Reyes in his club.

"Usually him and his friend would come in here and sit down and smoke hookah. Just quiet, very nice and very polite people," Saad said.

Saad said Reyes was a frequent customer and would often talk about the hookah bar, but what Reyes didn't talk about was his work as a drug agent and his secret double life.

"After watching the news story, I still don't believe it. I'm in shock," Saad said.

And that's the same reaction from everyone else who said they knew Reyes. They said the former OSU student was good at his job, especially the work he did for the past three years at the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, but now his patrol vehicle sits parked at the agency instead of at his downtown apartment where the 29-year-old is out on a $25,000 bond and under house arrest.

Reyes said he had no comment at this time.

More:

Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics Agent Arrested for Alleged Firearms Sales to Mexican Cartels

http://www.news9.com/story/12966103/inve...ected=true

****

ATF sought to downplay guns scandal, emails show
As Sen. Charles Grassley and congressional investigators looked into the Fast and Furious operation and the killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, ATF officials took steps to throw them off the trail.

Richard A. Serrano
Washington Bureau
July 21, 2011, 3:41 p.m.
Reporting from Washington Two days after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was killed in December, the top ATF supervisors in Phoenix said in internal emails that weapons found at the scene in Arizona came from a failed agency sting operation.

But nearly two months later, when U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) inquired about the origin of the guns, senior officials in Washington with the Justice Department and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were evasive.

Grassley asked whether the guns were "used" in the killing. According to agency emails obtained by the Tribune/Times Washington bureau, the Justice Department response to Grassley said that "these allegations are not true." The response made no acknowledgement that the guns were even there.

DOCUMENTS: Read the emails (see link below)

ATF officials, speaking not for attribution because the probe is ongoing, said they saw a distinction between the guns being found at the scene and "used" in the killing. They said the FBI had determined that neither of the two AK-47 semiautomatics was the one that killed the agent.

The parsing of the response to Grassley fit a pattern of ATF and Justice Department officials seeking to minimize the depth of the problems with the sting operation run by the ATF's Phoenix field office.

The goal of the sting operation, dubbed Fast and Furious, was to observe but not prevent a series of illegal gun purchases in the hopes that agents could follow the guns and learn about smuggling routes into Mexico. The program, which began in November 2009, largely failed. ATF lost track of many of the weapons. Along with the two guns found at the Terry shooting, nearly 200 more were found at crime scenes in Mexico.

After the death of Terry and Grassley's inquiries, the agency sought to close ranks. In an email on Feb. 3, ATF supervisors were told "you are in no way obligated to respond to congressional contacts or requests for information.... You are not authorized to disclose non-public information about law enforcement matters outside of ATF or the Department of Justice to anyone, including congressional staff."

In addition, in a series of emails to William J. Hoover, the ATF's acting deputy director, bureau officials discussed what steps to take to throw Grassley and congressional investigators off the trail.

Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, are investigating who in Washington approved the program and why it was not shut down months before ATF ultimately halted it.

Grassley started asking questions in late January, when he received tips that two of the weapons found near Terry's body were Fast and Furious guns. He sent two letters to the ATF, saying "this raises a host of serious questions that the ATF needs to address immediately." He added that, if they were indeed Fast and Furious guns, then "the ATF may have become careless, if not negligent, in implementing" the program.

According to the internal emails, two days after Terry's killing on Dec. 14 the top two ATF field supervisors in Phoenix were openly discussing that Fast and Furious guns were found at the scene. George T. Gillett Jr., then the acting special agent in charge, sent his boss, William D. Newell, the agent in charge, a "narrative of incident/activity" about the death.

It said Jaime Avila bought three AK-47s a year earlier from a Phoenix-area store and two "were recovered in the area" of Terry's killing. "In summary," the email said, "Avila admitted to ATF agents that he straw purchased these firearms for an unidentified Hispanic male."

After Grassley's inquiries, Hoover received an internal email alerting him that the bureau was "receiving reports that Grassley's staff is contacting current and former ATF field agents to inquire about the open investigation into the Brian Terry murder" and Fast and Furious. According to one email, ATF officials believed that Grassley was growing more suspicious because "ATF is not answering" his concerns.

They seemed further alarmed when they learned a mid-level ATF supervisor "called to the carpet" an employee who had spoken with Grassley's staff. The employee "was ordered to write a memorandum disclosing everything" he told the senator's staff. The email said Grassley's office had expressed concern that the ATF supervisor may have violated federal laws intended to protect whistle-blowers.

As the agency continued to work on a written response to Grassley, an email to Hoover proposed a "watered-down" account of what was found at the site of the Terry killing. As an aside, the email added that Grassley was "at best imposing an unobtainable standard on ATF."

ATF finally sent Grassley a two-page response Feb. 4, under the signature of Assistant Atty. Gen. Ronald Weich. It largely defended the Fast and Furious program and devoted one paragraph to the Terry killing: The agency could not comment about "pending criminal investigations."

According to one email, it was sent with the approval of acting ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson. "He's good to go with it," it said.

Hoover praised the response. "Nice touch partner," the No. 2 man at ATF said about a colleague's work on the letter.

Indeed, several senior ATF and Justice Department officials dispatched emails congratulating one another. "You're a natural leader," one told Hoover. "The men and women are lucky you've stayed the course."

Whether Grassley and his staff would be satisfied with their response, they were left to wonder. As one official put it, "Whether or not they buy in, you are the man for supporting us like that."

richard.serrano@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-0722-f...2598.story

****


ATF e-mails in agent's shooting death

http://documents.latimes.com/atf-emails-agent-shooting/

[Ed Jewett]

Gun-Running Timeline: How DOJ's Operation Fast and Furious' Unfolded
Thursday, July 07, 2011
By Fred Lucas

(CNSNews.com) - Operation Fast and Furious was a program carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a division of the U.S. Justice Department.
In this operation, which began in the fall of 2009 and continued into early 2011, the federal government purposefully allowed known or suspected gun smugglers to purchase guns at federally licensed firearms dealers in Arizona. The government did not seek to abort these gun purchases, intercept the smugglers after the purchases, or recover the guns they had purchased.
In some cases, as the government expected they would, the smugglers delivered the guns to Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

The reported purpose of the operation was to track and uncover the entirety of the smuggling operations so they could be completely shutdown. However, two rifles sold to a smuggler in the course of Operation Fast and Furious in January 2010 ended up at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.), and Sen. Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are currently investigating the operation.
Here is a timeline based on information the congressional investigation has so far uncovered.

Operation Fast and Furious Timeline:
September 2009 Jan. 8, 2010: A Jan. 8, 2010 briefing paper from the ATF Phoenix Field Division Group VII says: "This investigation has currently identified more than 20 individual connected straw purchasers." It further says: "To date (September 2009 present) this group has purchased in excess of 650 firearms (mainly AK-47 variants) for which they have paid cash totaling more than $350,000."

October 2009: The ATF's Phoenix Field Division establishes a gun trafficking group called Group VII. Group VII initially began using the strategy of "gunwalking," or allowing suspects to walk away with illegally purchased guns, according to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the staff of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The purpose was to wait and watch, in hope that law enforcement could identify other members of a trafficking network and build a large, complex conspiracy case," the report says. It goes on to say: "Group VII initially began using the new gunwalking tactics in one of its investigations to further the Department's strategy. The case was soon renamed Operation Fast and Furious.'"

Nov. 25, 2009: The ATF began conducting surveillance of Jaime Avila as early as this date, according to the congressional report.
Early December 2009: "It should be noted that since early December, efforts to slow down' the pace of these firearms purchases have succeeded and will continue but not to the detriment of the larger goal of the investigation," the ATF briefing paper from Jan. 8, 2010 says. "It should also be noted that the pace of firearms procurement by this straw purchasing group from late September to early December 2009 defied the normal' pace of procurement by other firearms trafficking groups investigated by this and other field divisions. The blitz' was extremely out of the ordinary and created a situation where measures had to be enacted in order to slow this pace down in order to perfect a criminal case."

Jan. 4-Jan. 8, 2010: There were three recorded phone calls during this period "between the most prolific suspected straw-purchaser and the Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL)," according to the ATF briefing paper. "These conversations have been to schedule future purchases of AK-47 variant riffles. The anticipated purchase is about forty (40) rifles."

Jan. 5, 2010: ATF agents met with Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Emory Hurley, the lead prosecutor in the matter, according to the briefing paper. The briefing paper says: "a determination was made that there was minimal evidence at this time to support any type of prosecution; therefore, additional firearms purchases should be monitored and additional evidence continued to be gathered."
Further, US Attorney for the District of Arizona Dennis Burke was briefed on this day. Burke "concurs with the assessment of his line prosecutors and fully supports the continuation of the investigation," the briefing paper says. The paper goes on to say that then head of the ATF Phoenix Field Division, Special Agent in Charge William Newell, "has repeatedly met with the USA Burke regarding the on-going status of this investigation and both are in full agreement with the current investigative strategy."

Jan. 8, 2010: The aforementioned briefing paper from the ATF Phoenix Field Division sheds further light on the operation:
--The paper makes clear: "Currently our strategy is to allow the transfer of firearms to continue to take place, albeit at a much slower pace, in order to further the investigation and allow for the identification of additional co-conspirators who would continue to operate and illegally traffic firearms to Mexican DTOs [Drug Trafficking Organizations]."
--The ATF worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Phoenix Ariz. "Surveillance operations are now being coordinated with information being obtained from the REDACTED. This is being coordinated out the of the Phoenix OCDETF Strike Force, of which Phoenix Group VII is a full-time member."
--"There have been five notable seizure events connected with this group, and approximately 53 firearms originally purchased by this group have been recovered. Three of these seizures have been in the Country of Mexico, one recovery in Douglas, AZ, and one recovery in Nogales, AZ. The U.S. recoveries were both believed to be destined for Mexico. It should be noted however that there has been one seizure in the Phoenix areas related to the ongoing DEA narcotics trafficking investigation."
--"The seizures referenced above were not from any member of the targeted group of straw purchasers identified in this investigation. Rather they were from Hispanic individuals (both male and female) whose association with our target group is currently unknown."
--"The ultimate goal is to secure [REDACTED] to identify and prosecute all co-conspirators of the DTO to include the 20 individual straw purchasers, the facilitators of the distribution cell centered here in Phoenix, the transportation cells taking firearms South, and ultimately to develop and provide prosecutable information to our Mexican law enforcement counterparts for actions."

Jan. 15, 2010: A joint strategy meeting was planned for this day, according to the Jan. 8, 2010 ATF document, with the representatives from the ATF, the DEA and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Jan. 16, 2010: Jaime Avila purchased three Romarm 7.62 rifles from Lone Wolfe Trading Company near Glendale, Ariz. According to the report, he also bought guns illegally in April and June of 2010.
Jan. 26, 2010: Operation Fast and Furious receives funding from the Justice Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF)

March 10, 2010: A memo from Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer authorizes a wire tap application as part of Operation Fast and Furious. The memo on the authorization was sent to Paul M. O'Brien, director of the Office of Enforcement Operation for the Criminal Division and to Emory Hurley, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona and the lead prosecutor in the operation.

March 10, 2010: An internal e-mail from George T. Gillett Jr., assistant special agent in charge to supervisor Voth and others said that ATF Acting Director Melson and ATF Deputy Director Billy Hoover "are being briefed weekly on this investigation and the recent success with REDACTED so they are both keenly interested in case updates."
March 11, 2010: An e-mail from Voth to Gillett, with the subject line "Director's questions" said, "Here are anwers to what I understand the director's questions to be. More detail can be provided upon request. I thought it best to start brief. 1.) IP Addresses for Pole Cameras: REDACTED User ID: REDACTED password: REDACTED This must be monitored from a stand-alone computer as ATF Network bandwidth does not permit continuous monitoring." In a news release in June, Rep. Issa said, "With this information, Acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and himself watch a live feed of straw buyers entering the gun stores and purchasing dozens of AK-47 variants."

March 12, 2010: David Voth, the Phoenix Group VII supervisor, sent an e-mail addressing the divide between field agents who wanted to halt the operation and the chain of command who supported the operation.
"Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case and they also believe we (Phoenix Group VII) are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Groups doing," Voth's e-mail said. "It may sound cheesy, but we are The Tip of the ATF spear' when it comes to Southwest Border Firearms Trafficking. We need to resolve our issues at this meeting. I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors or other adolescent behavior. If you don't think this is fun you're in the wrong line of work--period."
The Voth e-mail continued: "This is the pinnacle of U.S. law enforcement techniques. After this, the tool box is empty. Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day."

April 2, 2010: David Voth, the Phoenix Group VII supervisor, sent an e-mail to a redacted recipient that says: "Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during the month of March alone, to include numerous Barrett .50 caliber riffles. I believe we are righteous in our plan to dismantle this entire organization and to rush in to arrest any one person without taking in to account the entire scope of the conspiracy would be ill advised to the overall good of the mission."

April 12, 2010: An e-mail from Voth to Gillett says that the next day, the ATF Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon will get a briefing on the operation.

Dec. 14, 2010: U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, 40, was murdered in Rio Rico, Ariz., by suspected operatives of a Mexican drug-smuggling organization. Police arrested four suspects in the murder.

Dec. 15, 2010: An e-mail exchange among ATF agents at 7:45 p.m. confirmed that the two of the weapons that Jaime Avila had purchased in January 2010 as part of Operation Fast and Furious were found at Terry's murder scene. The names on the e-mail were redacted.
"The two firearms recovered by ATF this afternoon near Rio Rico, Arizona, in conjunction with the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Terry were identified as Suspect Guns' in the Fast and Furious investigation [REDACTED]," the e-mail says. The e-mail stated the guns and serial numbers, and said: "I initiated an urgent firearms trace request on both of the firearms and then contacted the NTC to ensure the traces were conducted today."

December-January 2010: "According to Acting Director Melson, he became aware of this startling possibility [that guns were being smuggled into Mexico with the awareness of the ATF] only after the [December] murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the[ January] indictments of the straw purchasers, which we now know were substantially delayed by the U.S. Attorney's Office and Main Justice," says a July 5, 2011 letter from Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa to Attorney General Holder.

Jan. 8, 2011: U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is shot while meeting with constituents in Tucson. ATF agents were initially worried she might have been shot by a gun sold through Operation Fast and Furious. This turned out not to be the case. However, Pete Forcelli, a group supervisor with the ATF Phoenix Field Division who had warned about potential dangers of the program, told congressional investigators that after Terry was murdered many agents were on edge. "And then there was a sense like every other time, even with Ms. Giffords' shooting, there was a state of panic, like, oh, God, let's hope this is not a weapon from that case."

Jan. 19, 2011: Operation Fast and Furious results in the indictment of 20 straw purchasers, including Jaime Avila. That is the same number of straw purchasers that the ATF had identified as long as a year before this indictment. The Jan. 8, 2010 ATF briefing paper on the operation had said its goal was to prosecute "the 20 individual straw purchasers, the facilitators of the distribution cell centered here in Phoenix, the transportation cells taking firearms South." The indictment focused on the straw purchasers failing to provide accurate information on ATF Form 4473, which a purchaser must complete truthfully when buying a gun. According to the congressional report, the ATF had known that most of the indicted straw purchasers were in fact straw purchasers before Operation Fast and Furious began.

Jan. 25, 2011: Phoenix Special Agent in Charge William Newell held a press conference announcing the indictment of the 20 people as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. When asked if agents purposefully allowed weapons to enter Mexico, Newell says, "Hell, no."

Jan. 27, 2011: Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson that said: "Members of the Judiciary Committee have received numerous allegations that the ATF sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers, who then allegedly transported these weapons throughout the southwestern border area and into Mexico. According to these allegations, one of these individuals purchased three assault rifles with cash in Glendale, Arizona on January 16, 2010. Two of the weapons were then allegedly used in a firefight on December 14, 2010 against Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, killing CBP Agent Brian Terry."
Grassley requested that the ATF brief his staff on the matter.

Jan. 31, 2011: Grassley wrote a second letter to Melson that says whistleblowers were being targeted in the agency. "This is exactly the wrong sort of reaction for the ATF. Rather than focusing on retaliating against whistleblowers, the ATF's sole focus should be on findding and disclosing the truth as soon as possible."
The Grassley letter continued, "As you may be aware, obstructing a Congressional investigation is a crime. Additionally, denying or interfering with employees' rights to furnish information to Congress is also against the law. Federal officials who deny or interfere with employees' rights to furnish information to Congress are not entitled to have their salaries paid by taxpayers' dollars. Finally, ATF personnel have Constitutional rights to express their concerns to Congress under the First Amendment."

Feb. 1, 2011: In a story headlined, "Claims tie ATF sting to guns in shootout," The Arizona Republic reported on Grassley's pending investigation and on the whistleblower's allegations. Other media, such as The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times reported on this in the following days.

Feb. 4, 2011: Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote Grassley denying that the Justice Department knowingly "sanctioned" the sale of guns to people they believed were going to deliver them to Mexican drug cartels.
"At the outset, the allegation described in your January 27 letter--that ATF sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them to Mexico--is false," Weich wrote. "ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico."

Feb. 15, 2011: Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata is murdered in Mexico. The Associated Press later reported (on Feb. 28), based on an unnamed source, that the weapon used to kill Zapata "was shipped through Laredo with the possible knowledge of the ATF." The story continued that "the feds were already investigating the suspects when the gun was sent to Mexico." The matter was separate from Operation Fast and Furious, but was under the same umbrella as part of the larger Project Gunrunner.

Feb. 23, 2011: CBS Evening News airs its first piece on Operation Fast and Furious that includes interviews with ATF whistleblowers who say they warned supervisors of potential problems.

March 8, 2011: The Justice Department informed Sen. Grassley that the matter would be reviewed by the DOJ's Office of Inspector General. In a letter to Grassley, Assistant Attorney General Weich wrote, "We appreciated your continuing concern about this matter. We have referred your letters to and the attached documents to the Department's Office of Inspector General."

March 10, 2011: At a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) asked Holder about the matter.
"What is your view now on that particular program? And I know that you've asked for an IG study of it, but tell me if you think that that program should be continued. Is it the correct use of the Project Gunrunner subprogram, I guess? Because it--of course, it's a great concern."
Holder responded, "Well, first, I'd say that, you know, the mission of ATF and the mission to which they are dedicated is to stop the flow of guns into Mexico and to people who shouldn't have guns here in the United States. And that is the focus of ATF, and it is why ATF agents serve bravely in Mexico and in this country, and I think do a great job. It is true that there have been concerns expressed by ATF agents about the way in which this operation was conducted and I took those allegations, those concerns, very seriously, and asked the inspector general to try to get to the bottom of it. An investigation, an inquiry, is now under way.
"I've also made clear to people in the department that letting guns walk--I guess that's the term that the people use--that letting guns walk is not something that is acceptable. Guns are different than drug cases or cases where we're trying to follow where money goes. We cannot have a situation where guns are allowed to walk, and I've made that clear to the United States attorneys as well as the agents in charge in the various ATF offices."

March 11, 2011: The Contra Costa Times and other news organizations reported that the Mexican attorney general's office, known as the PGR, issued a statement that Mexican authorities were aware of the U.S. anti-gun operation that allowed smugglers to buy weapons under watch of U.S. agents, but that the Mexican government "had no knowledge of the existence of an operation that might include the transgression or controlled trafficking of arms to Mexican territory." The statement continued, "The government of Mexico has not given nor will it give its authorization, tacit or express, under any circumstance, for that to occur."
March 22, 2011: President Barack Obama was asked about Operation Fast and Furious on Univision, a Spanish language network.
"Well, first of all, I did not authorize it," Obama told Univision. "Eric Holder, the attorney general, did not authorize it. There may be a situation here in which a serious mistake was made. If that's the case, then we'll find-- find out and we'll hold somebody accountable."

March 2011: ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson says "he told the Office of Deputy Attorney General at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the request for information from Congress," according to a July 5 letter from Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley to Attorney General Holder.

May 3, 2011: Holder testified to the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Holder had an exchange about Operation Fast and Furious. Under questioning from Issa, Holder said he was not sure of the exact date he first heard of the operation, but said it was "probably … over the last few weeks." Holder also could not say who authorized the operation.
Issa asked: "When did you first know about the program officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious? To the best of your knowledge, what date?"
Holder answered: "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."
Issa followed: "Now that you've been briefed on it, the president has said on March 22 that you didn't authorize it. Did your deputy attorney general, James Cole, authorize it?"
Holder answered: "I'm sorry. That would be?"
Issa repeated: "The deputy attorney general, James Cole."
Holder again acted puzzled: "Did he -- I didn't hear. Did he?"
Issa completed the question: "Did the deputy attorney general authorize it?"
Holder finally gave a less than clear answer: "My guess would be no. Mr. Cole, I don't think, was in theI--I think--I don't think he was in the department at the time that operation started."
Issa went on to ask: "How about the head of the Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer?"
Holder answered, "I'm not sure."
Issa followed; "Did he authorize it?"
Holder responded: "I'm not sure whether Mr. Breuer authorized it. I mean, you have to understand the way in which the department operates. Although there are--there are operations, this one has become--has gotten a great deal of publicity."
Issa later asked: "Do you stand by this program? In other words--and it's not a hypothetical, really--if you knew this program, knew about this program 90 days ago, 180 days ago, would you have allowed it to continue? And if not, then what are you going to do about the people who did know and allowed it to continue?"
Holder answered: "Well, what I have told people at the Department of Justice is that under no circumstances in any case that any investigation that we bring should guns be allowed to be distributed in an uncontrolled manner."
Issa followed: "So that would be cognizant with the March 9th letter from Deputy Attorney General James Cole in which he says that we should not design or conduct undercover operations which include guns crossing the border. If we have knowledge that guns are about to cross the border, we must take immediate action to stop the firearms from crossing the border, and so on. That's--that's your policy today."
Holder says: "That has--that is our policy. That has totally been the policy that I tried to impose."
Issa then asked: "And isn't Fast and Furious inconsistent with that policy?"
Holder answered: "Well, that's one of the questions that we'll have to see whether or not Fast and Furious was conducted in a way that's consistent with what Jim wrote there, what I have said today. And that's what the inspector general is, in fact, looking at."
June 16, 2011: Issa told CNSNews.com he believes Holder knew about the operation earlier than he testified.
"We believe he [Holder] was aware of it much earlier than he says in his testimony and questioning before the Judiciary Committee," Issa said. Issa later added: "Are we confident that Eric Holder knew it much earlier? No. Did he know it earlier than he testified? Absolutely."

June 15, 2011: The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in conjunction with the staff of Sen. Grassley, released a report on Operation Fast and Furious. On that day, the House oversight committee held a hearing on the matter. Four ATF agents testified about their opposition to the operation.
At the hearing, Chairman Issa questioned Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich about the letter he sent to Sen. Grassley on Feb. 4 in which Weich said it was "false" that the Justice Department had "knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them to Mexico."
"You made a statement in that letter that you signed on the 4th that said: ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico," said Issa. "Who prepared that line in your letter? You signed it, who prepared it? Was it you?"
"These letters are the product of the Justice Department," Weich responded.
"So your signature on that letter doesn't mean that you know it to be true, is that correct?" asked Issa.
"I take ultimate responsibility," said Weich.
"Okay," said Issa. "Isn't that statement false now with what you know?"
"Obviously, there have been allegations that call into serious question that particular sentence," said Weich.
"Weren't there documents that now have been provided and made public that let you know that that statement was false?" asked Issa.
"And that's why you're investigating and that's why we're investigating," said Weich.
Replied Issa: "I just take your agreement that those documents indicate that that statement that you signed that someone prepared for your signature were false?
"Congressman, I am not prepared to say that at this time," said Weich. "Everything that we say is true to the best of our knowledge at the time we say it. As more facts come out, obviously our understanding of the situation is enhanced."

June 27, 2011: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney could not provide the answer when CNSNews.com asked him for the exact date when President Obama first learned about Operation Fast and Furious. Carney responded, "I'll have to get back to you. I don't have an exact date for you." Carney also did not comment on whether the president believed Acting ATF Director Melson should resign from his position.

June 29, 2011: A reporter asked President Obama about the matter at a White House news conference. Obama responded, "As you know, my attorney general has made clear he certainly would not have ordered gun running to pass through into Mexico. The investigation is still pending. I'm not going to comment on the current investigation. I've made very clear my views that that would not be an appropriate step by the ATF, and we've got to find out how that happened. As soon as the investigation is complete, appropriate action will be taken."

July 4, 2011: Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson and speaks to congressional investigators from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Melson met with investigators with his personal attorney presentnot Justice Department attorneys.

July 5, 2011: Chairman Issa and Sen. Grassley wrote a letter to Attorney General Holder about Melson's testimony. The letter says Melson "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 (Justice) 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."

The Issa-Grassley letter to Holder further says that contrary to earlier denials by the Justice Department, Melson acknowledged that ATF agents had in fact witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without following the guns any further. Melson also said that ATF agents carrying out Operation Fast and Furious had been placed under the direction of the Arizona U.S. Attorney's office.


***

"straw buyers" had criminal backgrounds...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-PtJAjD4...dded#at=44


"You cannot sanction the violation of federal law by enabling or co-enabling prohibited persons, which includes felony convictions, from purchasing firearms," said Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), a former federal prosecutor and a member of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee...

****

"Grenadegate." "Worse Than Gunwalker?" Nah, but you are supposed to think so. Caveat lector -- let the reader beware.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.c...r-nah.html

****

Embassy kept in dark as guns flooded Mexico

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-...1661.story

*****

Guns from botched US operation found at Mexican crime scenes

Revelation blow to Obama administration as at least 122 weapons from undercover operation traced across border


Reuters in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 July 2011 10.16 BST


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul...xico-drugs

*****

Investigative journalist and Second Amendment analyst Mike Vanderboegh says the witnesses probably will name names.

"There are names within Justice, not just in the ATF, that come up time and again in this. One of them is Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. I rather suspect that his name will be mentioned this time," Vanderboegh said. Breuer was one of President Clinton's lawyers during Clinton's impeachment.

Vanderboegh said it looks like the government itself, from the highest level, was trying to undermine the Constitution.

"They're gradually building a case for a much wider, national conspiracy. By the end of this process, they'll be able to prove that orders came from the very top," Vanderboegh said.

The Project Gunrunner, or "Operation Fast and Furious," investigation is moving to the next level with hearings set this week in which the border agents who worked in the field while weapons were being dispatched to Mexican drug lords will testify.

"This hearing will focus mainly on how Mexican officials and ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) officials stationed in Mexico were kept in the dark on Operation Fast and Furious," said Becca Watkins, a spokeswoman for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The controversy is over a program set up by the federal government that reportedly allowed banned individuals to buy hundreds, maybe thousands, of guns with the knowledge they probably would be taken to Mexico and used in that nation's drug-related violence.

Investigative journalist and Second Amendment analyst Mike Vanderboegh says the witnesses probably will name names.

"There are names within Justice, not just in the ATF, that come up time and again in this. One of them is Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. I rather suspect that his name will be mentioned this time," Vanderboegh said. Breuer was one of President Clinton's lawyers during Clinton's impeachment.

Vanderboegh said it looks like the government itself, from the highest level, was trying to undermine the Constitution.

"They're gradually building a case for a much wider, national conspiracy. By the end of this process, they'll be able to prove that orders came from the very top," Vanderboegh said.

"They're also building a case showing that Fast and Furious was only one component of a much larger plan. I believe that's what's going to happen," he said.


U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told San Diego talk-radio host Roger Hedgecock that this phase of the hearings will focus on Mexico.

Vanderboegh said an important part of these hearings will feature ATF agents who began to make noise about the operation in Mexico.

"The hearings are going to deal with how the attachés in Mexico were severely limited by headquarters and how they were kept in the dark how they were lied to," Vanderboegh said....


"The thing that everyone has been speculating on and waiting for is an Alexander Butterfield Moment," Vanderboegh said.

Alexander Butterfield was the Navy officer and assistant to H.R. Haldeman during the Nixon administration who revealed the existence of the White House tapes and taping system.

Historians and political analysts speculate that Butterfield's revelations led to President Nixon's resignation.

"At some point we are going to see, I predict, in this scandal, an Alexander Butterfield moment, where someone asks the question, that is critical, takes this thing all the way to the top, and the witness does one of two things," Vanderboegh said.

"He either takes the Fifth (the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution that protects a witness against self-incrimination), which in any case points in the direction for where the evidence goes, or he tells the truth," Vanderboegh said.

"And if he tells the truth, upon that truth, the Obama administration will fall ultimately," he asserted.


Vanderboegh suggested that the other major issues surrounding the Obama administration have not gained public traction because the pressure has not come from the people.

He added that the voters have to be diligent to ensure that any facts brought out by the hearings are publicly pursued.

"Nothing will ensure that Obama is held accountable except the American people and their demand that we get to the bottom of this. This is a bottom-up scandal. I mean, it was broken by alternate media on the internet," Vanderboegh observed.

"The ATF agents themselves broke it on their web site and [it was] picked up by me and David Codrea. Then we used that information to get U. S. senators to send people out to talk to the Whistleblower agents," Vanderboegh said.

Vanderboegh is also realistic about the process that will lead to the Obama administration being held accountable because of the American people's lack of indignation.

"They're hardly indignant at all, because they don't quite understand the truth," Vanderboegh explained.

Read more: Witnesses to ATF gunrunner operation to name names http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=326029#ixzz1TFOBdtig

****


http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.c...-gets.html


Just one of Gunwalker Bill Newell's emails that lead straight to the side door of the White House.

Well, today actually started out sometime before this email, but here is a good enough place to start:

-----Original Message-----
From: georgemason1776
To: brian_downey; henry.kerner
Sent: Sat, Jul 23, 2011 8:34 pm
Subject: re: Fast & Furious emails between ATF Phoenix SAC William Newell and Dr. Kevin O'Reilly, Director of North American Affairs, National Security Council

Gentlemen,

As the Internet journalist who broke the Gunwalker Scandal on 28 December and who first drew the attention of Senator Jeff Sessions' office to the need for whistleblower protection for Phoenix ATF agents such as John Dodson, sources told me this weekend that your joint investigation possesses e-mails between ATF Phoenix SAC William Newell and Dr. Kevin O'Reilly, Director of North American Affairs, National Security Council.

Dr. O'Reilly's professional background (attached, obtained on the Internet) states he has been a Foreign Service Officer for 22 years, whose most recent responsibilities include coordinating counter-terrorism issues in Latin America for the Department of State and the National Security Council. You will note there is a gap from 1989 to 1995 in his background, before he studied at the Naval War College in 1996-97, after which he embarked on a series of short-term assignments. One of these was as a Pearson Fellow in the office of one of your colleagues, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois.

Different sources of my own within the U.S. intelligence community who have reviewed the foregoing, consider the e-mails between Mr. Newell and Dr. O'Reilly and their professional positions and duties to be reminiscent of the back-channel communications employed by then-Col. Oliver North, empowered by what was jokingly referred to as a "Fuhrer letter" from then-National Security Adviser John Poindexter. This authorized North to operate outside established channels to implement Iran-Contra mischief. In the opinion of my sources, the highly irregular direct communication between a senior advisor on the National Security Council and a lowly ATF Special Agent in Charge reeks of executive branch misconduct. It would be, if as true as my sources say it is, "felony stupid."

Since SAC Newell will be testifying under oath before the Committee on Tuesday, there is an opportunity for Mr. Newell to explain his own understanding of the communications between himself, Dr. O'Reilly, and the National Security Council; how they relate to Fast & Furious; and thus enable the Committee and the American people to better understand the genesis of Fast & Furious and the role of the White House. This opportunity also affords the Committee the chance to appropriately define the inquiry, and to illuminate the darker recesses of the Gunwalker Scandal debacle before the inevitable speculation that will arise in the press and on the Internet as this information becomes more fully understood.

While I reside in Alabama, I am currently here in the DC area staying at the residence of my friend Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners.of America. We plan to be on Capitol Hill to meet with certain congressional offices on Monday morning, and I am writing to you because I would like to personally discuss other aspects of the information discussed above. I would like to talk with you personally at your earliest possible convenience, and will be calling your office early on Monday morning to see if a mutually convenient meeting time can be arranged.

Sincerely,

Mike Vanderboegh


In about a half hour on that Saturday night we received the following reply:

-----Original Message-----
From: Kerner, Henry
To: georgemason1776 ; brian_downey
Sent: Sat, Jul 23, 2011 9:06 pm
Subject: RE: Fast & Furious emails between ATF Phoenix SAC William Newell and Dr. Kevin O'Reilly, Director of North American Affairs, National Security Council

Dear Mr. Vanderboegh:

Thank you for your e-mail from earlier this evening. Members of Chairman Issa's staff are available to meet with you on Monday morning. Would 10 o'clock work for you? Please let me know if that time is convenient.

Thank you,

Henry


This was the information contained in the attachment:

From Linked In

Kevin O'Reilly's Experience

Director of North American Affairs
U.S. National Security Council
Government Administration industry
2009 June 2011 (2 years)

Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorsim
U.S. Department of State
Government Agency; International Affairs industry
September 2007 May 2009 (1 year 9 months)

Foreign Service Officer
United States Department of State
Government Administration industry
November 1987 2009 (22 years)

Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
Director Latin American Affairs
Department of Homeland Security
Government Administration industry
2006 2007 (1 year)

Pearson Fellow
Office of Senator Richard J. Durbin
Government Administration industry
2005 2006 (1 year)

Deputy Political Counselor
US Embassy, Mexico CIty
Government Agency; 201-500 employees; Government Administration industry
2003 2005 (2 years)

Officer-in Charge, Colombian Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Government Agency; 10,001+ employees; International Affairs industry
2002 2003 (1 year)

Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Government Agency; 10,001+ employees; International Affairs industry
2001 2002 (1 year)

Officer-in Charge, Iberian Affairs, NATO Division, J-5
Joint Staff
Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Military industry
2000 2001 (1 year)

Political Affairs Officer
US Embassy, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Government Agency; 201-500 employees; Government Administration industry
1997 2000 (3 years)

Kevin O'Reilly's Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Fellow, MIT Seminar XXI - international relations and the national interest
2001 2002

Naval War College
MA
1996 1997

Loyola University Chicago School of Law
JD, Law
1985 1988

The Johns Hopkins University - Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) (MBV: http://www.jhu.edu/ ) (MBV: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/ )
M.A, International Relations
1984 1986
Activities and Societies: Bologna Center, 1983-1984

Loyola University of Chicago (MBV: http://www.luc.edu/ )
BA, History
1979 1983
Activities and Societies: Loyola University Rome Center - (MBV: http://www.luc.edu/romecenter/ )


On Monday morning Larry and I met with three guys from the Committee. The meeting was on the condition of "Off the Record," hence it is off the record and will not be reported on. I will say that we left without any more information than we had going in. We were by no means certain that the committee would be asking Newell about O'Reilly.

Mr. O'Reilly's name had come to our attention last week. We immediately began gathering anecdotal information, although we could find precious little. One source called him "a ghost," and another said he had been "sheep-dipped." A third said he was a doctrinaire liberal, while a fourth denied that but described him variously as a "snake in a suit," a "sociopath" and said O'Reilly's nickname was "The Scorpion," as in the story of The Frog and the Scorpion.

(I would like to take this opportunity to ask any of our readers to contribute any other information they might have on Mr. O'Reilly. I rather suspect that today's hearing will not be the last that his name will come up at.)

Anyway, just as the first O'Reilly question was being asked of "Gunwalker Bill" about O'Reilly, I fell afoul of a Justice Department harridan with a law degree, who apparently complained that I was harrassing her. (I had asked her to pass down O'Reilly's bio to Newell's DOJ lawyer to ask the boy for an interview and she took exception to it.)

So I sat out in the hall, exulting in the knowledge that they actually HAD asked the $1.1 billion dollar question and wondering where I was going to get something to eat because my sugar was low.

At this point i was ambushed by a Media Matters puke who claimed that I had told "lies" about the Tampa gunwalking incident being part of Operation Castaway.

Like I said, low sugar. I was cranky, and after my umpteenth recital of the facts with his cell phone in my face I believe I called him a bad word, something that started with c and ended with sucker. I can't wait until I see THAT video. My momma would not be proud.

Anyway, I tried to escape him by going back into the hearing, they wouoldn't let me (having been previously banned) so I went down to get something to eat. Only had pocket money for a cookie, but that was enough to tide me over.

So I sat in the cafeteria and made phone calls until Larry came down for a break, then he went back to the hearing and I sat in the hallway by an overflowing garbage can. It stank.

Now THIS, I thought, is an excellent metaphor for Mordor-on-the-Potomac.

Anyway, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what happened for the best part of the hearing (other than seeing enough of Newell to recognize that he too is a sociopath, and maybe a psycopath).

A fun time was had by all.

Going home tomorrow having done as much damage as I could to the Evil Empire.

There is no evidence that the committee asked these questions because of Larry's and my urging. Obviously, it didn't hurt.

****

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.c...ys-he.html

CBS Reports:

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."

Today, a White House spokesman said the email was not about Fast and Furious, but about other gun trafficking efforts. The spokesman also said he didn't know what Newell was referring to when he said he'd spoken to O'Reilly about Fast and Furious.

**** ****


TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011
David Codrea: ATF's Phoenix SAC emailed Gunwalker info to National Security Council.
An exchange between House Committee on Oversight and Reform Committee members and William Newell, former Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive's Phoenix Field Division during this morning's hearings on Operation Fast and Furious pointed to key information that may be the most important to come out of today's session.


Exactly correct. http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...ty-council

Transcript of Newell questioning related to NSC's O'Reilly http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...s-o-reilly

Posted by Dutchman6 at 4:34 PM
1 comments:

Mickey Collins said...
More F&F type activity?

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...42434.html

As a result of the 2010 emergency supplemental appropriation for border security, ATF received $37.5 million for Project Gunrunner, ATF's comprehensive firearms trafficking strategy to disrupt the illegal flow of firearms into Mexico. With this funding, ATF will establish and place firearms trafficking groups along traditional and newly-discovered firearms trafficking routes and hubs in Atlanta; Dallas; Brownsville, Texas; Las Vegas; Miami; Oklahoma City; and Sierra Vista, Ariz.
July 26, 2011 5:56 PM

***

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.c...t-fbi.html



As predicted here at Sipsey Street, the FBI starts to spin their own meme with leaks. A copy of the FBI document shows ballistics tests did not rule out the Fast and Furious guns in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry. [ See http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...8389.story ]

****

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2011
Appropriations Committee calls for independent Gunwalker investigation
"[T]he House Appropriations Committee included report language in the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill (H.R. 2596; H. Rept. 112-169) that recommends the appointment of 'an outside, independent investigator,' who would be charged with conducting 'a thorough investigation of the allegations against ATF with respect to Operation Fast and Furious and policies guiding this and similar operations.'" [More]

This evening's Gun Rights Examiner report looks at where things probably need to go next.

****

http://www.waronguns.blogspot.com/



There's bunches of Gunwalker hearing videos in the Oversight and Reform channel sidebar

http://www.youtube.com/user/oversightandreform


Gun Rights Examiner report

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...vid-codrea

***


"former ATF attaché to Mexico, Darren Gil and his deputy, Carlos Canino confirm reports made early on by Gun Rights Examiner and Sipsey Street Irregulars that not only was this information withheld from them, but also from the Mexican governmentdespite repeated questioning and objections leading to "screaming matches" registered with management...."

"Canino characterized the gunwalking as "the perfect storm of idiocy"


http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...z1TOGHNBHd
Posted by David Codrea at 7/27/2011 07:17:00 PM

****


Transcript of Newell questioning related to NSC's O'Reilly

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...z1TOH1AOQ9

[Ed Jewett]

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said on a conference call Wednesday evening that he will try to get a White House official who may have had knowledge of the botched Fast and Furious gunrunning operation to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

But Issa, who chairs the committee, was not optimistic about the effort. "Try? Yes," he said, asked whether he would try to get the official into his committee room. But Issa noted that there has been "political interference at the highest level" throughout the Oversight committee's Fast and Furious investigation.

The White House official in question is National Security Director for North America Kevin O'Reilly. During a Tuesday Oversight hearing on Fast and Furious, former ATF Special Agent Bill Newell, who was instrumental in implementing the operation, said that he had spoken with O'Reilly about Fast and Furious as early as September 2010. Whether O'Reilly was made aware that the ATF had let guns cross the border into Mexico as part of the investigation was not clear.

Newell's admission is the first indication that White House officials were aware of the Fast and Furious program while it was ongoing. The email was leaked to the Oversight Committee by a whistleblower, Issa said; it was not released willingly by the White House.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com...cial-aware.html

[Ed Jewett]

Fast and Furious: The Federal Gun Running Scandal
by seekingamericadotorg

Seeking America's debut show will deal with the subject of Federal Agents participation in the gun running business.. It started off as "Project Gunrunner" and in 2009 there was an offshoot called "Fast and Furious" that undermined the efforts of Project Gunrunner by allowing thousands of guns to "walk" across the border into the waiting arms of Mexico's kingpins of the narco - gunrunning enterprise. Join us as we take a look into what's really happening while the corporate owned media continues distracting the American public with stories that don't affect our lives.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/seekingamer...ng-scandal

It's a 30-minute podcast summarizing this thread and the scandal/investigation by me and my friend Jimiray...