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

[Ed Jewett]

Progressive' group ramps up attack on Issa

David Codrea

, Gun Rights Examiner





"A liberal advocacy group is filing an ethics complaint against Rep. Darrell Issa, alleging that the California Republican has repeatedly used his public office for personal gain," The Hill reported Tuesday.

The group, American Family Voices, is planning to file the complaint with the House Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) ...

"This is all a well-coordinated plan," John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog asserts. "Those who lodged the ethics complaint make no secret of the fact that they rely on the discredited NY Times story."
That would be the hit piece discussed a month ago in this column that showed the desperation of the left to shield the administration from "Project Gunwalker" investigations.

"So, who is American Family Voices'?" Powerline continues. "We have no idea, of course. They are a 501©(4) organization that does not disclose its donor list." [Link added to quoted text.]
It's true, they don't. A search of the nonprofit reporting site, GuideStar, shows an income of $358,437 and Form 990 filings for 2007 through 2009. The program description for this organization claims they are a "[v]oter registration and voter turn-out, non-partisan issue advocacy including research, coalition builing [sic] and advertising."
"Non-partisan issue advocacy." Right. Let's see the types of American families represented by their leadership.
The president of this group is Mike Lux, "co-founder and CEO of Progressive Strategies." Importantly, "[i]n November 2008, Mike was named to the Obama-Biden Transition Team. In that role, he served as an advisor to the Office of Public Liaison on working with the progressive community."
The secretary-treasurer is Amy Pritchard, a self-described "Progressive Democratic Political Consultant and entrepreneur" and a chronic donor to leftist politicians, including Obama.
Board members include:
Phyllis Cuttino, a well-heeled environmentalcase cosmic ray denier who would have us believe her bachelor's degree in political science and history from an exclusive liberal arts college beyond the means of most American families qualifies her to demand emissions standards of those who are actually educated, competent and experienced at designing, engineering and manufacturing automobiles. Naturally, she's a big supporter of Dianne Feinstein and the UN, and argues that Obama is in sync with America on standardsevidently he's every bit the car design expert Cuttino would have us believe she is.
Then there's Bernard Craighead, who lists his employers as the Democratic National Committee and Urbanomics Consulting Group (which includes The Bell Campaign/Million Mom March among its clients). He was also a panelist on "The Progressive Potential of Chicago City Politics…sponsored by the University of Chicago DSA Youth Section and the Hispanic Association for Cultural Expression and Recognition." Long-time readers will recall the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America)they're the ones who endorsed Obama and promoted a "solidarity song" that includes the lyrics "When the revolution comes, we'll kill you all with knives and guns…"
You know, typical "American families."
Next we have businessman and "philanthropist" Leo Hindery, Jr., "an economic adviser to the Obama campaign." Funny that he should be involved in an ethics complaint against a Republican politician, when former Senate Majority Leader and Democrat Tom Daschle, whom Hindery provided a Cadillac and driver foras part of the compensation package for being a "consultant" with his private equity firm chalked up "$101,943 in back taxes plus interest" for violating the law by not reporting it as income. That would be the same Tom Daschle who "pushed Hindery for [an] Obama job."
Victoria Duffy-Hopper? Aside from being a big Obama supporter she…well, see for yourself if she appears to be representative of any American families you know.
And then we have Joe Velasquez, a "former White House deputy political director and longtime union organizer, [who] directs Moving America Forward, a 527 organization dedicated to registering and mobilizing Latinos." It's a shame that Mr. Velasquez is apparently more concerned with running interference for Obama than getting justice for the rising Mexican death toll being attributed to the administration's "Project Gunwalker" covert operations.
Because this is what Rep. Issa, the man American Family Voices is attacking, is trying to get to the bottom of. And had the Democrats, who at the time headed up the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, heeded accusations raised by veteran ATF agents when they were first brought to their attentioninstead of arrogantly ignoring them with deliberate indifferencecurrent Chairman Issa would not now be holding "Gunwalker" hearings.
As for Mike Lux rejecting accusations his group's attack on Issa is politically motivated, he and his boardand those behind the tentacles extending to all of themare demonstrable agenda-driven political operatives on a mission, and this is but another front in the ideological warin actuality a cold civil warthey are waging on the freedoms of American families.
The very name "American Family Voices" is a calculated deception, as is the term "progressive" to describe those who wish to regress the Republic to iron-fisted centralized rule. That they would question anyone's ethics is in itself a sick, subversive joke.
Also see:

• Project Gunwalker' investigators: Watch for smears, focus on leads
  
• New York Times' Issa hit piece shows desperation to shield administration
  
• A Journalist's Guide to Project Gunwalker' Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Part Six for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner.
  

Note to newcomers to this story: "Project Gunrunner" is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. "Project Gunwalker" is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed "walking" surfaced.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Progressive' group ramps up attack on Issa - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...z1Y3i24kKD

[Ed Jewett]

Former cops: The drug cartels are winning

By Stephen C. Webster
Friday, September 16th, 2011 -- 11:11 am

"[Look] at Phoenix, Arizona," Neill Franklin, a former undercover police officer in Maryland, told Raw Story recently. "That is the number two kidnapping capital in the world. A couple years back they were averaging one drug-related kidnapping every day. We do already have these [cartels] in the United States, but you just don't hear about them very often. And when we do, it's not the 'undocumented workers' as people are often led to believe, it's the result of our drug policies."
Suggesting Phoenix has the second most number of kidnappings out of any city in the world is not new: for instance, that very claim was immediately disputed after Sen. John McCain said it in 2010. However, a review of kidnapping statistics by a team of judges and criminologists earlier this year nearly doubled the official 2008 numbers, lending at least some credibility to the statement.
No matter what statistic it is that's examined, be it the kidnapping ranking of Phoenix, shootings in El Paso, marijuana arrests in Brownsville or the number of new gang members in San Diego, the reality of today's America is that drug violence has become a pervasive and pressing threat to most citizens.
"We have got to fix this problem, or else it's going to get a lot worse for us here at home," explained Terry Nelson, whose three-decades in law enforcement saw him serving the U.S. Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Customs Service. "We talk a lot about the 40,000 people who've died in the last five years in Mexico's drug war, but we don't talk a lot about Central and South America. The drug deaths down there per 100,000 are just as great as Mexico. Guatemala, El Salvador ... These countries are just wiped out by drug cartels, and it's not even in the news."
Just last week, people on both sides of the border were shocked when authorities discovered a chilling scene where two bodies were hanging from a bridge, mutilated beyond recognition, next to a handwritten poster warning to avoid publishing about the cartels on social media or blogs. The situation has become so extreme that today more Mexican youths die from murder than vehicle accidents.
But what does this mean for American citizens? In short: the drug cartels have won, but it doesn't have to be this way.
Both Nelson and Franklin are members of the non-profit advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which aims to win the hearts and minds of law enforcement and conservative lawmakers, who've largely stood in the way of any significant changes to the nation's drug policies.



Franklin, LEAP's director whose time as an undercover officer came amid the height of the cocaine craze in the 1980s, explained that what used to be a large bust to him -- a kilo or two of cocaine -- is now little more than a few handfuls of powder. "They're bringing it in with giant shipping containers now," he said. "Boats. 18-wheelers. Submarines even."
"These are businessmen," Nelson said. "These are people who own shopping malls and service businesses. By all appearances, these appear to be legitimate businessmen. Their money is in the banks. Law enforcement and busts have just become the cost of doing business for them. There's really no stopping them anymore."
Nelson also said that even in Colombia, where U.S. authorities have spent billions strengthening the Colombian military, going so far as to send U.S. troops and drone aircraft to patrol for smugglers, it has not deterred the cocaine producers, and the costs to the U.S. taxpayer have skyrocketed, to little effect.
Both men agreed that the dramatic escalation in the sheer volume of drug shipments is indicative of a growing business savvy among the cartels, which the Department of Justice says are now the major distributors of illicit substances in every large U.S. population center.
"As you're trying to find out who all these people are in these networks, we felt like we were being effective in interrupting the drug supply," Franklin said. "But a significant seizure today is a container-load, we're talking tons of cocaine, tons of heroin. And when we intercept those today, the streets don't even hiccup. The availability doesn't change. The cartels build their losses into what they ship. They know, percentage-wise, how much to write off."
For any business that exists outside the law, the consequences for mistakes are much greater than in the private sector: and for the lower-level cartel members, or their opponents, that consequence is often death.
"The worst thing I saw quite often in South America is people being stuffed into barrels and soaked with diesel fuel, then set on fire," Nelson said. "That's got to be the worst kind of death, even worse than all the beheading we've seen in Mexico lately."
"We still have violence associated to the cartels in our country," Franklin added. "Most of it is probably on members of the cartels themselves. When their workers don't do what they're supposed to do, they suffer the consequences."
Nelson, a life-long Republican, said that he believes many conservative lawmakers are beginning to come around to their view of drug policy as counter-productive to the overall goals of the drug war. "They're just waiting for when it becomes politically viable to take action," he said. "I hope that happens. It needs to."
"If you legalize it, you take the violence and the obscene profits out of [drugs]," he added. "Legalization does not help your drug problem, it helps your crime problem. Over the years in this war, we've made no progress. Legalization, education and treatment is the best way."
Image: Guns seized from a Mexican cartel. Credit: AFP.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/16/fo...e-winning/

[Ed Jewett]

Cloward-Piven: The Ultimate Goal of Gunwalker?

It's hard to think of a more logical reason for Gunwalker to exist.
September 17, 2011 - 12:00 am - by Bob Owens



PJMedia reader "eon" posted an insightful comment in response to my September 15 article on the Gunwalker scandal:

To the best of my knowledge, no previous U.S. administration has ever destabilized the government of a putatively friendly foreign power purely for domestic political gain.
The closest you can get would be the revolutionary movement in what is now Panama, that the U.S. nurtured to gain that area's independence (from Nicaragua) to facilitate building the Panama Canal. But that was a pre-existing revolutionary movement with pre-existing complaints against the Nicaraguan government that did not include stopping them from selling illegal drugs. (Editor's note: Panama gained its independence from Colombia, not Nicaragua.)
The gains Obama & Co. seem to be seeking come in three flavors. Ranked in order of time-criticality from their POV, they are most likely:
1. Short-term: Increased illegal immigration from Mexico as people attempt to flee the increasing violence (allowing them to push the DREAM Act through, and "stacking the deck" in the next election via ACORN and SEIU);
2. Medium-term: Propaganda for tighter gun laws (possibly enacted by Executive Order, bypassing the Congress);
3. Long-term: Legalization of "recreational drugs," helped by a "drug friendly" Mexican government, influenced by if not overtly controlled by the drug cartels.
I strongly suspect that (3) is the ultimate objective, with (1) and (2) being seen (at least by Obama & Co.) as "stepping-stones" to attaining it.

While I personally think (3) is a non-starter even as a long-term issue, investigators and pundits closely tracking Gunwalker have long suspected a larger game was afoot.
A high-risk plot involving major elements of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury, and State, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Border Patrol, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID), requiring approval from the State Department, isn't something that comes from a mid-level bureaucrat. It is typically incited and decided by the very highest levels of appointed and elected officials.
As anyone with any experience in government will attest, there is massive institutional inertia against both change and risk. It is insurmountable without significant stakeholder support. In government, this means directors, secretaries, and elected officeholders.
An operation like Fast and Furious would have been jettisoned in the conceptual stages as inherently dangerous and assured of failure, as various veteran law enforcement officers have attested (including here at PJMedia in an article by LAPD veteran "Jack Dunphy"):

I can appreciate the desire to use novel law enforcement approaches in confronting the violence attendant to drug trafficking in Mexico. Someone, displaying a bit of that outside-the-box thinking, came up with the idea of allowing thousands of weapons to be bought on this side of the border with the idea that they could be tracked as they made their way through the network of cartel members and facilitators and into the hands of Mexican outlaws.
This was a pipe dream. To me, it is inconceivable that this operation ever made it out of the first meeting where it was discussed. It goes to show how detached police executives can be from the reality of police work as it is actually practiced. There is simply no effective way to track a gun once it leaves the store where it was purchased.

We've long suspected that what "eon" calls a "medium-term" goal propaganda for tighter gun laws was the ultimate goal of Gunwalker, but the plot makes significantly more sense if Gunwalker did have multiple goals, of which gun control was just one.
A logical speculation posted by "eon" is that the short-term goal of Gunwalker was to increase violence in Mexico. This would drive more Mexican citizens northward as illegal aliens, seeking respite from the violence in their home country. Their plight would provide the administration a way to pitch the DREAM Act as an act of kindness to political refugees and another step towards amnesty.
This would be a strategy straight from the Cloward-Piven playbook.
As James Simpson noted several months ago at American Thinker, the Cloward-Pieven strategy is always approached the same way:

1. The offensive organizes previously unorganized groups eligible for government benefits but not currently receiving all they can.
   
2. The offensive seeks to identify new beneficiaries and/or create new benefits.
   
3. The overarching aim is always to impose new stresses on target systems, with the ultimate goal of forcing their collapse.
   

Gunwalker purposefully increases social unrest (increased gun violence/destabilizing Mexico), with the possible result of overloading the U.S. public welfare system (more illegal aliens fleeing the violence in Mexico and Central America). Gunwalker's perpetrators could then use that influx to create an insurmountable constituency of poor seeking handouts from the Democratic Party. The hope of the strategy is to force a system-wide collapse of the current system, and then to rebuild the government in a variant of the strongest socialist model they think the public will accept.
It sounds too devious. It appears to fit.
Take Operation Fast and Furious in Arizona, the two suspected operations in Texas, Operation Castaway in Tampa, and the newer allegations of "Gangwalker" in the Midwest they make sense only in the larger context of a Cloward-Piven framework.
These operations could not possibly succeed at interdicting straw purchasers, smugglers, and cartel bosses. No one actually involved in law enforcement could possibly believe that such idiotic operations could work. But these operations are logical when viewed through the context of their implementation as tactical applications designed to support a Cloward-Piven strategy.
Operation Castaway provided weapons to destabilize Central American countries and to help keep the cartel drug supply lines from Central and South America open. The unnamed gunwalking operations in Texas provided a steady flow of U.S. firearms to southern and central Mexico. Operation Fast and Furious provided the Sinaloa cartel more than 2,020 weapons in northern Mexico along the U.S. border. And to make sure the cartel wars didn't get too one-sided, the State Department made sure the bloodthirsty Zetas were armed with American military equipment by selling them military hardware through a transparent front company.
The violence in Mexico triggered by the administration's gunwalking efforts also seems logically designed to reverse a trend that had begun of Mexicans and others originating from south of the border leaving the United States because of our current economic situation.
If the net flow of illegal aliens is negative, the Democratic Party's desires are inhibited: increasing numbers of illegal aliens can create the sort of economic crisis they need to force amnesty laws, to assure a long-term Democratic majority, and to establish lock-step control over Hispanic voters as they have established over blacks.
Operation Fast and Furious doesn't make sense as a anti-cartel operation, but it makes perfect tactical sense as a way of implementing Cloward-Piven, something that President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Secretary Napolitano, and Secretary Clinton have long embraced as followers of those radicals and Saul Alinsky. Gunwalker is the start of a coup d'état against the republic by the very souls entrusted to guard it.
Of course, this is entirely speculation at this point. It's just damn hard to think of a more logical reason for Gunwalker to exist.

Bob Owens blogs at Confederate Yankee and Bob's Gun Counter.


****

[Ed Jewett]

September 19, 2011 12:53 PM

• PRINT
  
• TEXT

Secret recordings raise new questions in ATF 'Gunwalker' operation

BySharyl AttkissonTopicsNews ,Law and Order

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(Credit: CBS/AP)

WASHINGTON - CBS News has obtained secretly recorded conversations that raise questions as to whether some evidence is being withheld in the murder of a Border Patrol agent.(Scroll down to listen to the audio)The tapes were recorded approximately mid-March 2011 by the primary gun dealer cooperating with ATF in its "Fast and Furious" operation: Andre Howard, owner of[url=http://lonewolftradingco.net/index.html]Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Arizona. He's talking with the lead case ATF case agent Hope MacAllister.

The tapes have been turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General.As CBS News first reported last February, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to "walk" onto the streets without interdiction into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in its operation "Fast and Furious."The conversations refer to a third weapon recovered at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.Agent: I was ordered to let guns into MexicoCourt records have previously only mentioned two weapons: Romanian WASR "AK-47 type" assault rifles. Both were allegedly sold to suspects who were under ATF's watch as part of Fast and Furious.Also, a ballistics report turned over to Congressional investigators only mentions the two WASR rifles. The ballistics report says it's inconclusive as to whether either of the WASR rifles fired the bullet that killed Terry.Law enforcement sources and others close to the Congressional investigation say the Justice Department's Inspector General obtained the audio tapes several months ago as part of its investigation into Fast and Furious.Then, the sources say for some reason the Inspector General passed the tapes along to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona: a subject in the investigation. It's unclear why the Inspector General, who is supposed to investigate independently, would turn over evidence to an entity that is itself under investigation. The Inspector General's office had no immediate comment.

(Listen to the audio)

In the audiotapes, ATF Agent MacAllister tells Howard that a third weapon recovered at the Brian Terry murder scene last December is an SKS assault rifle. Agent MacAllister claims to know that the SKS "had nothing to do with" the Brian Terry murder and, unlike the WASR's, did not trace back to the Lone Wolf gun store.It's unclear why a weapon would be, in essence, missing from the evidence disclosed at the crime scene under FBI jurisdiction.Agent MacAllister and Howard (the gun dealer) also discuss various Republicans and Democrats in Congress who are investigating Fast and Furious. They express concern that whistleblower ATF special agent John Dodson has further evidence that could be damaging to the government.Transcript of the audio below:

Agent: Well there was two.Dealer: There's three weapons.Agent: There's three weapons.Dealer: I know that.Agent: And yes, there's serial numbers for all three.Dealer: That's correct.Agent: Two of them came from this store.Dealer: I understand that.Agent: There's an SKS that I don't think came from.... Dallas or Texas or something like that.Dealer: I know. talking about the AK'sAgent: The two AK's came from this store.Dealer: I know that.Agent: Ok.Dealer: I did the Goddamned traceAgent: Third weapon is the SKS has nothing to do with it.Dealer: That didn't come from me.Agent: No and there is that's my knowledge. and I spoke to someone who would know those are the only ones they have. So this is the agent who's working the case, all I can go by is what she told me.

​http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20...91695.html

[Ed Jewett]

September 20, 2011 4:12 PM

• PRINT
  
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ATF 'Fast and Furious' secret audio recordings reveal concerns about whistleblower

BySharyl Attkisson, Chris SchollTopicsNews ,Law and Order

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(Credit: CBS)

In a series of secretly recorded audio tapes believe to have been recorded last March and obtained by CBS News, an Arizona gun dealer and an ATF agent involved with ATF's "Fast and Furious" operation worried about the unraveling scandal.The tapes were made just weeks after CBS News [url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/23/eveningnews/main20035609.shtml]broke the story in February.MORE: ATF Fast and Furious secret audio recordingsSecret recordings raise new questions in ATF 'Gunwalker' operationThe conversations were recorded by Andre Howard who ran the Lone Wolf Trading Company.Howard's gun dealership had been cooperating with the ATF in "Fast and Furious." At least two of his weapons were sold to a straw buyer before turning up later at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Hope MacAllister, the ATF agent heard in the conversations, was the lead case agent.The ATF's controversial "Fast and Furious" operation allowed thousands of weapons to be smuggled into Mexico and into the hands of drug cartels. Agents involved describe it as "letting guns walk."Among other things, Howard and MacAllister expressed concerns about ATF Special Agent John Dodson, who by that point had gone public about "Fast and Furious" in an exclusive interview with CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

(Listen to the audio below)

Agent: I was ordered to let guns into MexicoThey also spoke of their concerns that Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) was investigating, with Agent MacCallister saying of her superiors in Washington, DC, "they're gonna say have to say Grassley you're just gonna have to sit your a-- down."These recordings are important because MacAllister has never spoken publicly about her involvement in the operation and its fallout and Howard's role as a gun dealer cooperating with the ATF placed him in position to see "Fast and Furious" firsthand . The audio recordings contain new revelations about the guns involved, and ATF's efforts to respond to the breaking scandal. The tapes were turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General in connection with their probe into "Fast and Furious."The excerpts below refer to whistleblower ATF special agent John Dodson, and a March 9 letterthat Rep. Lamar Smith and 13 other House Judiciary Committee members sent to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding answers regarding "Fast and Furious."(Read text of the audio excerpts below.)

The gun dealer is Andre Howard, the agent is ATF Agent Hope MacAllister.

Dealer: He's (Dodson) more toxic than you realize. I can tell you casue I asked him. How much of this f-----g file did you release?Agent: MmmhmDealer: He said basically the underlying case file. I said okay, who'd you release it to? F-----g Patrick Leahy! Ok? Wasn't just Grassley it was Leahy alright? Leahy as we both know has adjourned this inquiry right now okay with no plans to reconvene it. So your people were successful on that end.Agent: Right.Dealer: Obviously that's good. However these other idiots fromAgent: Yeah I saw that. The House?Dealer: Yeah and that I don't know. What is troublesome with this I expected Darrell Issa's signature to be on this it wasn't. He's your biggest thorn, he hates Holder.Agent: Yeah. Where's he out of?Dealer: Darrell Issa?Agent: Yeah.Dealer: California.Agent: California.Dealer: Lamar Smith you know's out of Texas, I don't know. Holder has to respond to this tomorrow.Agent: Yeah he's gonna respond.Dealer: I know he is. And I can assure you the media isn't gonna like his response because basically it's gonna mirror what he's told Grassley.Agent: Yeah.Dealer: He can't deviate.Agent: Well if, I mean I've seen a rough copy at least of what our US Attorney here has sent up. Whether or not he has the b---s to actually use it or not, I doubt it. But I mean it's pretty aggressive. Um. The way I see it our local US Attorney is extremely aggressive. When it gets to DC..Dealer: Who Emory?Agent: No...THE US Attorney.Dealer: Burke, yeah, used to work under Clinton. Guy used to work under Clinton. Talking about Burke?Agent: MMhmm.Dealer: yeah wellAgent: But the problem is once it gets to dc it just gets... well you know(unintell.)Dealer: Discombobulated that's a good term for it yeah I get that.Dealer: Let me tell you you got more people out there now talking about this f-----g thing than anything I've ever seen...(unintell.) ... they're not shutting the hell upAgent: (unintell)Dealer: and that goes from DHS to f-----g FBI to everybody...Agent: Yeah.Dealer: I'm hearing hypothetically on every fringeAgent: Yeah.Dealer: Thru third parties and I can assure you they're all like what the hell are they nuts?EXCERPT 2Dealer: But you have got to put the word out there to all the departments tell the f------g FBI shut the f--- up. (whispering)Agent: FBI'S got their own problems, trust me.Dealer: I know I hear.Agent: They've got their own problems.Dealer: Hypothetically.Agent: If anybody's gonna get sued it's gonna be the FBI in my opinion.EXCERPT 3Dealer: What is it with the FBI they just have a h--- on for you guys or what?Agent: The FBI's got their own problems. Like I said they're focusing on our problems they should probably turn it inward, cause they got their own problems right now.Dealer: That ain't no lie.Agent: So.. so hahaha.EXCERPT 4Dealer: What's Holders' office got to say about this?Agent: Well like I said they're supposed to come out with little more um b----y statement than they have in the past, so...Dealer: God they're (intell)Agent: I mean at some point they're gonna say have to say Grassley you're just gonna have to sit your a-- down. I mean that or they're gonna have to (unintell). I mean like I said my understanding is he can't call a hearing. Somebody from the majority party has got to call a congressional hearing and as of right now...Dealer: Patrick Leahy's an a----e, you know that. He gets ahold of something he's like a dog with a bone.Agent: As of right now we don't have any info that's occurred. So...Dealer: No, not now, butAgent: I know there was a presentation given to Judiciary committee and everybody aside from Grassley is is satisfied. At least at this point.Dealer: So they say you know I don't trust em...Agent: No but I mean that's all I've got...it's all (unintell.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20...91695.html

[Ed Jewett]

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Secret Fast & Furious' Audio Recordings Specify Eric Holder, Other Politicians, By Name

Pat Dollard

CBS News recently got their hands on secret recordings of conversations about Fast and Furious that took place between an ATF agent and a gun store owner, both of whom were located in the Phoenix area (and both of whom were thoroughly acquainted with Fast and Furious).

The recordings captured agent Hope McAllister talking with Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company, at a time when Howard was noticeably worried that Fast and Furious was going to become public knowledge or be put under the microscope of a congressional investigation. Howard especially feared that Senator Charles Grassley might push for an inquiry of some kind. Thus at least four times in the recordings he can be heard mentioning Grassley, and one of those four times it's to say someone needs to tell Grassley "to sit [his] ass down."

What's also interesting about the recordings is that although they were made in mid-March 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder's name comes up quite a bit. And his name doesn't come up because they're afraid he's going to find out about Fast and Furious but because he was the one they were counting on to deflect attention from it.

In other words, he was well aware of the operation by mid-March 2011, and this is somewhat ironic because in answering questions from Congressman Darrell Issa on May 3 he said he only learned of Fast and Furious "over the last few weeks." This means he led Issa to believe the earliest he knew anything about the operation was sometime in April. Yet on the recordings (from mid-March), it is clear Holder was the one Howard hoped would stop the investigative momentum by responding to a letter regarding Fast and Furious from the House Oversight Committee:

HOWARD: "Holder has to respond to this tomorrow."

McALLISTER: "Yeah, he's gonna respond."

HOWARD: "I know he is. And I assure you the media isn't gonna like his response, because basically it's gonna mirror what he's told Grassley."

McALLISTER: "Yeah."

HOWARD: "He can't deviate." (Italics added.)

As Howard continues to express concern over what Holder will say, Agent MacAllister tries to calm him by saying she believed Holder & Co. would "come out with [something a] little more um b-y…than they [had] in the past."

In the next portion of the recording, former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke's name is referenced. This is where agent MacAllister admits Burke had been more tenacious in handling Fast and Furious inquiries than Holder would be:

McALLISTER: "Well if, I mean, I've seen a rough copy of what our U.S. attorney here has sent up. Whether or not [Holder] has the balls to actually use it or not, I doubt it. But I mean, it's pretty aggressive. The way I see it, our local U.S. attorney is extremely aggressive. [But] when it gets to D.C. …"

HOWARD: "Who, Emory [Hurley]?"

McALLISTER: "No, the U.S. attorney."

HOWARD: "Burke, yeah, used to work under Clinton. …Talking about [Dennis] Burke?"

McALLISTER: "Mmm hmm."

It's somewhat surreal to hear Holder's name, and to come to the immediate recognition that some of his answers to Issa don't add up.

And it strikes a strange chord within one's psyche to hear Burke's name thrown around as the go getter and the hard hitter on Fast and Furious, and then to remember he's the one who denied victim of crime status to the family of U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry. (God bless the family of Brian Terry.)

Hopefully these recordings will pull back the sheets on this massive cover-up once and for all.

http://weeklyintercept.blogspot.com/2011...dings.html

[Ed Jewett]

Republicans Step Up Pressure on Holder as More Details Surface on 'Fast and Furious

link contains embedded video ("closer to 0% cooperation)

Congressional Republicans once again are turning up the heat on Attorney General Eric Holder, asking more questions about whether he had a role in the controversial anti-gunrunning operation known as "Fast and Furious."
The new inquiry comes from Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. Despite recent personnel changes at the Justice Department, Smith told Holder in a letter Friday the department cannot "pin this scandal on a few individuals and expect it to be forgotten."


"Fast and Furious was a result of systemic problems at the ATF. Congressional interest will continue until we fully understand who authorized the failed program," Smith said.
The idea behind Fast and Furious, hatched in the ATF's Phoenix office, was to let so-called straw buyers purchase guns in the United States so they could be traced to big-time gunrunners in Mexico. But documents and testimony now show that U.S. officials lost track of thousands of guns, some of which later were found at the scenes of violent crimes, including the murder of a U.S. border agent.
On Friday, National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre accused Holder of stonewalling Congress.
"This is the biggest cover-up since Watergate, and it's time to ask the Watergate question. Who authorized Fast and Furious, and how high up does it go?" LaPierre asked during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.
According to a source close to the investigation, despite numerous subpoenas and demands for potentially thousands of pages of records, the Justice Department has turned over just 12 documents. Unless the House Oversight Committee can cut lose more incriminating documents from the Justice Department or additional whistleblowers come forward, the investigation could stall, said a person familiar with the situation.
So far, the scandal has produced headlines but only one resignation, that of the U.S. attorney in Arizona.
The paper trail however has revealed blatant lying by the Justice Department, which originally told Sen. Charles Grassley the ATF did not "walk" guns. That position conflicts with agent testimony and pages of internal emails.
A document obtained Friday by Foxnews shows the following agencies all had some hand in Operation Fast and Furious: ATF, IRS, DEA, ICE, the U.S. Marshall's Service, Phoenix police and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The operation allowed members of the Sinaloa Cartel to buy in excess of 1,900 weapons for more than $1.25 million dollars over a one-year period beginning October 2009, according to a briefing paper dated last January. The briefing paper did not delineate the duties of each agency, but other records have shown the IRS investigated the income sources of the straw buyers, Phoenix police assisted occasionally with surveillance, the DEA shared its informant and ICE "saw everything and had access to everything" the ATF did, according to an agent tasked to Fast and Furious.
But throughout the operation, the agency recovered just over 10 percent of the weapons.
An ATF whistleblower agent told Fox News the agency made "absolutely no attempt to follow the weapons." And even though agents used electronic vehicle trackers, they only used them on the strawbuyers, not on those to whom they transferred the weapons.
This does not jibe with an amended statement issued Thursday by ATF Agent in Charge Bill Newell, who claimed in a letter to Congress his the agency used "a wide variety of well established law enforcement investigative techniques" to interdict and seize weapons.
In his letter to Holder on Friday, Rep. Smith demanded to know what oversight role the Justice Department had over Fast and Furious. He also noted that President Obama promised a new era of government "transparency and openness" when elected in 2008, a promise that Smith says rings empty.

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Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/...z1Z0Uv0xua

[Ed Jewett]

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

Vanderboegh & Codrea exclusive: U.S. gov't used ATF employees to buy weapons with taxpayer money & walk them -- without help from straw buyers!

Official ATF documents and sources in both Arizona and Washington D.C. confirm that in at least two instances in 2010, agents of the United States government purchased Kalashnikov-pattern semi-automatic pistols directly from licensed federal firearms dealers with taxpayer money and delivered those weapons directly into the hands of cartel smugglers.

In a letter dated June 1, 2010, Phoenix ATF Group VII supervisor David Voth, instructed as Federal Firearms Licensee as follows:

Dear Sir,

Per Section925(a)(1) of the Gun Control Act (GCA) exempts law enforcement agencies from the transportation, shipment, receipt, or importation controls of the GCA when firearms are to be used for the official business of the agency.

Please accept this letter in lieu of completing an ATF Form 4473 for the purchase of four (4) CAI, Model Draco, 7.62x39 mm pistols, by Special Agent John Dodson. These aforementioned pistols will be used by Special Agent Dodson in furtherance of the performance of his official duties. In addition, Special Agent Dodson has not been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. If you have any questions, you may contact me at telephone number 602-605-6501.

Sincerely,

(Signature)
David Voth
ATF Group Supervisor
Phoenix Group VII

Posted by Dutchman6 at 11:49 AM

[Peter Lemkin]

FARAGO: Was CIA behind Operation Fast and Furious?
New and troubling motive for Team Obama's illegal gunrunning scheme

By Robert Farago and Ralph Dixon

Thursday, August 11, 2011
Washington Times

Why did the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) let criminals buy firearms, smuggle them across the Mexican border and deliver them into the hands of vicious drug cartels? The ATF claims it launched its now-disgraced Operation Fast and Furious in 2009 to catch the "big fish." Fast and Furious was designed to stem the "Iron River" flowing from American gun stores into the cartels' arsenals. The bureau says it allowed gun smuggling so it could track the firearms and arrest the cartel members downstream. Not true.

During the course of Operation Fast and Furious, about 2,000 weapons moved from U.S. gun stores to Mexican drug cartels - exactly as intended.

In congressional testimony, William Newell, former ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix Field Division, testified that the Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were "full partners" in Operation Fast and Furious. Mr. Newell's list left out the most important player: the CIA. According to a CIA insider, the agency had a strong hand in creating, orchestrating and exploiting Operation Fast and Furious.

The CIA's motive is clear enough: The U.S. government is afraid the Los Zetas drug cartel will mount a successful coup d'etat against the government of Felipe Calderon.

Founded by ex-Mexican special forces, the Zetas already control huge swaths of Mexican territory. They have the organization, arms and money needed to take over the entire country.

Former CIA pilot Robert Plumlee and former CIA operative and DEA Director Phil Jordan recently said the brutally efficient Mexican drug cartel has stockpiled thousands of weapons to disrupt and influence Mexico's national elections in 2012. There's a very real chance the Zetas cartel could subvert the political process completely, as it has throughout the regions it controls.

In an effort to prevent a Los Zetas takeover, Uncle Sam has gotten into bed with the rival Sinaloa cartel, which has close ties to the Mexican military. Recent court filings by former Sinaloa cartel member Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, currently in U.S. custody, reveal that the United States allowed the Sinaloas to fly a 747 cargo plane packed with cocaine into American airspace - unmolested.

The CIA made sure the trade wasn't one-way. It persuaded the ATF to create Operation Fast and Furious - a "no strings attached" variation of the agency's previous firearms sting. By design, the ATF operation armed the Mexican government's preferred cartel on the street level near the American border, where the Zetas are most active.

Operation Fast and Furious may not have been the only way the CIA helped put lethal weapons into the hands of the Sinaloa cartel and its allies, but it certainly was an effective strategy. If drug thugs hadn't murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry with an ATF- provided weapon, who knows how many thousands more guns would have crossed the U.S. border?

To be sure, Operation Fast and Furious suited the ATF's needs. It was all too willing to let guns walk to increase its power, prestige and budget in Washington. It actively recruited so-called straw purchasers and happily used American gun dealers as pawns. And it was only one agency in a mosaic of federal agencies helping the CIA actualize its covert plans.

The fact that Operation Fast and Furious was part of the CIA's black-bag job in Mexico does not excuse the ATF for violating the very federal laws it was created to enforce; for contributing to the deaths of hundreds of innocent citizens, including a Border Patrol agent trying to live up to his oath; or for being unrepentant, uncooperative and unresponsive to the wishes of the American people for honesty, integrity and loyalty to the U.S. Constitution.

Nor should the FBI get a free pass for subverting the criminal-background-check system designed to prevent illegal firearms purchases. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department - all major players in the CIA's grand schemes - should not escape scrutiny, either. In fact, we should not shrug off the activities of any of our federal agencies that broke the law on the Sinaloa's - and thus the Mexican government's - behalf.

The Obama administration clearly thinks the entire federal government should help keep the profoundly corrupt Calderon government in power - no matter what. If that means sending lawyers, guns and money to unconscionable criminals, so be it. In this, Obama officials are wrong.

By choosing sides in a brutal war between opposing criminal syndicates rather than sealing our southern border, the Obama administration is fueling brutality and carnage and killing any hope of Mexican democracy. All that aside, either we are a nation of laws or we are not. If we live by our principles, Congress must appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the people in the Obama administration who enabled this reckless gun scheme.

[Ed Jewett]

CIA Death Squad Responsible For Dumping 35 Dead Zetas' On Veracruz Highway

2809

2011DEADLINE LIVE EXCLUSIVE: CIA Death Squad

Responsible For Dumping 35 Dead Zetas' On Veracruz Highway

by supermario


Last July, DeadlineLive.info reported that the CIA death squad known as Los Matazetas' (Killers of Zetas) was going to start a war against Los Zetas in the state of Veracruz.
By Mario Andrade
DeadlineLive.info
September 26, 2011
Last week, motorists in Veracruz, Mexico witnessed a gruesome scene where over a dozen armed men wearing face hoods created a road block and dumped 35 dead bodies at a busy highway. The armed men used two stolen commercial trucks to transport the bodies, then cleverly left the trucks and the bodies beneath an underpass in the town of Boca de Rio. The armed sicarios' then left a banner stating that the bodies were of members of Los Zetas and drove away with no police or military presence to stop them. Each dead body had the letter Z' carved.
Mexican authorities have recently announced that the criminal organization responsible for the massacre is the Jalisco Cartel (New Generation). The new generation' Jalisco Drug Cartel is a subsidiary branch of the CIA-backed Sinaloa Drug Cartel, headed by Joaquin El Chapo' Guzman a man who has smuggled cocaine into the U.S. onboard CIA rendition aircraft, and a man who according to Vicente Zambada's federal court testimony, is a DEA operative.
Last July, DeadlineLive.info reported that a CIA death squad known as Los Matazetas' had announced their intentions to remove Los Zetas from the state of Veracruz. Los Matazetas is a death squad created by the new generation Jalisco Drug Cartel. In recent months, the CIA-backed Sinaloa Drug Cartel removed the original members of the Jalisco Cartel and placed their own operatives in the region in order to prevent a takeover by the Knights Templar, Los Zetas, or the Beltran-Leyva syndicate (Barbie Valdez's previous criminal organization).
Yesterday, the death squad known as Los Matazetas posted a video on Youtube (also posted at the websiteBlog del Narco) describing how they plan to eliminate Los Zetas from the state of Veracruz and eventually, from Mexico.
In the video, the man speaking at the center of the table uses sophisticated Spanish vocabulary unlike the typical street drug gang language used in most execution videos. The spokesman probably has a university graduate level degree (master's degree or higher). His tone of voice and vocabulary is similar to that of a university professor or a high-ranking politician.
It is important to mention that in 1993, in Colombia, the CIA and U.S. special forces (Delta Force) created the death squad known as Los PEPES, which was acronym for people who are persecuted by Pablo Escobar. Los PEPES used guerrilla warfare tactics to eliminate Pablo Escobar and his drug cartel operatives. Much like Los Matazetas, Los PEPES used similar messages and psy-ops, painting themselves as Robin Hoodstrying to protect the average people from certain evil drug lords. Though in reality, they are just eliminating the competing criminal organizations that are not affiliated with the federation of cartels, led by the CIA-Sinaloa alliance. Many of the members of Los Matazetas and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel are former operatives of [url=http://deadlinelive.info/2011/09/27/re-post-mexican-drug-cartel-leader-"nacho-coronel"-linked-to-cia-yucatan-cocaine-operations/]CIA asset Ignacio Nacho' Coronel's organization[/url] - the man who was in charge of the CIA rendition flights that transported cocaine into the United States.
Below is the video and a Deadline Live exclusive verbatim translation of it:
Video: Narcocomunicado de Los Mata-Zetas | Blog…, posted with vodpod
Good afternoon.
At 16:00 hours of this Saturday 24 of September of 2011, we issue the following announcement.
To the federal, state and municipal authorities, and society in general.
As you may already know, the public safety problems in our country have now began to transcend all political, economic and military sectors, affecting those who are the most vulnerable due to the circumstances created by their own way of life.
We make mention of this so it can be understood what our role is in this problem. Due to our ethical values, we forbid our organization to engage in extortion, kidnapping, robbery, intimidation, or any other activity that negatively affects the moral fabric, family values or the peace of mind (of the population).
Motivated by personal experiences of those of us who now form part of this force, which constitutes the enforcing arm of the people and for the people, our only interest and objective is the cartel known as Los Zetas. Thus, we respect the armed forces, which we understand that they cannot act outside the limits of the law like we do.
We condemn the bad public servants, whom with their support, they allow this segment of society continue to harm mainly the communities in the port of Veracruz, Boca del Río, Cardel, Jalapa, Poza Rica, Tuxpan, Panuco, Córdoba, Orizaba, Perote, San Andrés Tuxtla, Martínez de la Torre, Minatitlán, Acayucan, Alvarado, Coatzacoalcos and other municipalities in the state of Veracruz.
We do not elude our responsibilities; however, only by leveling the plane field (fighting in their turf) can Los Zetas be eradicated at the root. As a result, we ask of these public servants to stop supporting them; for the armed forces to be certain that our own objective is to annihilate Los Zetas; and for the society in general to be sure and to trust that we, Los Matazetas do not kidnap or extort, and we will never go against our national heritage. We respect federal and local government institutions in their fight against organized crime. We understand their position of not collaborating with us, which obligates us to operate clandestinely but always for the good of the Mexican people.
We are anonymous and faceless warriors, but we are proud to be Mexicans. Let us not fall in the trap of foreign enemies, who are experts at delivering betrayal, deceit, discredit, and malice, shielding themselves in their so-called respect of God and democracy.'
Again, we reiterate to the local and federal authorities that our fight is against Los Zetas, and if with our recent acts (the dumping of the dead Zetas on the street), we offendeded society, the people of Mexico and the federal entities, we would like to offer our apologies on behalf of our entire group.
What we intended to do was to show the people of Veracruz that these individuals are not invincible. Thus, we ask you not to fall victim of them. Do not continue to allow yourselves to be extorted by them.
Everyone has his own fears and struggles. We are all one heart.
Thank you.