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

[Ed Jewett]

How did Sen. Feinstein get ATF gun trace data in violation of Tiahrt Amendment?

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David Codrea

, Gun Rights Examiner
November 28, 2011





Persons within the Department of Justice whose identities are not yet publicly known apparently broke the law by leaking firearms trace data to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which she introduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee record in the hearing on Department of Justice oversight earlier this month.
"If I may," Senator Feinstein requested at the beginning of her questioning of Attorney General Eric Holder (see webcast, at the 69:45 mark), I'd like to put in the record the official firearms trace data from the Department of Justice from 12/1/2006 to 2000...excuse me, 9/30/2011...this is guns [unintelligible] Mexico."
Left unchallenged and unsaid is how Feinstein obtained the data, which is prohibited by the Tiahrt Amendment from being shared with anyone but law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, and only then in the course of a criminal investigation. That prohibition extends even to Senator Feinstein, as evidenced by thefailed attempt earlier this year by Rep. Adam Schiff "to allow Congressional committees to be included on the list of entities to which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms can disclose part or all of the contents of the Firearms Trace System database."

While there is no reliable evidence that Sen. Feinstein knew she was improperly disclosing data she had been provided, a Senator so active in promulgating new gun laws not knowing existing ones is the most innocuous explanation if she did not. If that's the case, it strongly implies someone at Justice used the Senator.
Per an anonymous congressional source:

• It was Main Justice, not ATF, who leaked the trace data to Feinstein. I am told ATF "was blindsided" by it.
  
• The trace data did not include any Tiahrt nondisclosure warnings.
  
• The information was leaked to provide selective "statistics" that Feinstein could use to promote her views on gun traffickingno criminal intelligence interpretation was provided, and the way this was done was intentional, with cognizance that the data were going to be misused.
  

Fair questions to follow up with: Who at Main Justice illegally leaked the data to Sen. Feinstein and did she knowingly abet a violation of the law in order to advance her agenda?
And will Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa follow up on this in their investigations?


Continue reading on Examiner.com How did Sen. Feinstein get ATF gun trace data in violation of Tiahrt Amendment? - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-na...z1f3rU5SrU

[Ed Jewett]

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2011

SSI Exclusive: FBI put pressure on Newsweek to keep details of PATCON Brown's Ferry Nuclear conspiracy quiet. Radioactive 302s & black bag jobs.

Brown's Ferry Nuclear Plant on the Tennessee River, north Alabama.

(NOTE: There were a lot of problems getting the documents to load properly both here and at Scribd but those problems should now be solved. If anyone has any further problem seeing the documents, please drop us a comment or an email. -- MBV)

Sources tell Sispey Street that the home of John Matthews' daughter was broken into over the weekend and although a television, an X-box and a small steel lockbox containing papers and a handgun were stolen, the burglars left behind prescription pain medicine, cash, and other valuable items. It wasn't because the burglars didn't find them, for "the entire place was completely trashed, they even tore apart the beds and bedding," said one source. "It was as if they were searching for something they didn't find it," the source said.

Other sources tell Sipsey Street that private email files belonging to Matthews and people who have corresponded with him have literally disappeared from folders on home computers without explanation.

When I informed another DC source of mine of these developments, he commented, "Well, they're either looking for more documents they think Matthews has hidden or they are just trying to send a message that they can get to his daughter so he'd better shut up." The source then added, rhetorically, "Do you really think that the FBI ever gave up the black bag job as a tool of enforcement?" He paused, and added, "And I don't mean law enforcement."

Speculation as to what documents the FBI may be looking for has centered on unredacted FBI invesitigative reports, called FD-302s, having to do with the plot Matthews reported that dealt with the Browns' Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama. Sources tell Sipsey Street that the FBI put pressure on Newseek reporters and editors not to print details of this portion of Matthews story. Said one, "These allegations didn't even make it into the rough draft of the Newsweek story because the FBI asked them not to print (details) about Browns' Ferry."

Copies of those unredacted FD-302s have now been obtained by Sipsey Street and may be found here as well as embedded at the end of this story.

Readers will recall these paragraphs deleted from the Newsweek story that seemed to suggest that Tom Posey was a federal asset and that the Browns' Ferry case allegatios were deep-sixed by the prosecution in order to protect him:

1. The missing paragraphs that presented evidence that Tom Posey, the supposed chief conspirator whose crazy talk about using weapons of mass destruction first prompted Matthews to go to the FBI, may himself have been a government asset. From the original story as written, before Tina Brown's felt tip marker excised it:

After Posey's arrest, the FBI had Matthews Social Security number changed, and paid for him and his family to move to Stockton , California . Yet the trial in Alabama proved frustrating for him. Despite hundreds of hours of recorded conversations, as well as video and personal surveillance, the Justice Department only chose to prosecute Posey and his cohorts for buying and selling the stolen night vision goggles. And in the end, Posey was sentenced to just two years in prison.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department in Birmingham said there simply wasn't enough evidence to prosecute Posey for the Brown's Ferry plot. Yet curiously, the TVA denied that the plot or the weapons cache even existed. Meanwhile, several of the men involved in the planned robbery were never arrested. At the time, two of the men, Matthews says, were planning to blow up a federal building in Birmingham .

"They were gonna take a truck filled with fertilizer," says Matthews. "You look at what Timothy McVeigh done, it's basically the same thing. "What happened in Oklahoma could have happened a couple of years earlier."

One possible explanation for how Posey's trial played out: In 1996, the year he was released from prison, Posey appears to have been issued a new Social Security number, according to a Lexis-Nexus search conducted by Newsweek. Tony Gooch, a friend and Posey's and a former CMA member, said that Posey was innocent of any wrongdoing, and that the whole Brown's Ferry plot had been cooked up by Matthews. "Tom was a good man," he says. "John did not endear himself to us with that story." Yet Gooch said that Posey may have felt forced to cut a deal with the Justice Department, and provide them with information on other groups in the movement, or agreed not to reveal what he knew about Iran Contra.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Gooch said. "Tom knew some people who were real hardcore."

If it is indeed these documents that the burglars of John Matthews' daughter's home were looking for, Sipsey Street is more than happy to post them here and save them further trouble. And the FBI, I'm sure, must be wondering what else besides these 302s are still out there.

Mind you, I am speaking from mere experienced speculation here, but I do recall that after the unsuccessful assassination attempt of Pete Langan behind the Columbus, Ohio ARA safe house when the raid team unexpectedly pulled his living body out of the riddled van as alley neighbors watched from second-story balconies, Langan was able to keep from sharing the fate of his co-conspirator in the Aryan Republican Army bank robbery gang, "Wild Bill" Guthrie, who ended up at the end of a dirty bedsheet at a jail in Covington, Kentucky, two days after he told an LA Times reporter that he knew more than a little about the Oklahoma City bombing.

Langan, J.D. Cash told me, had an "open in the event of my death" file that has so far kept him alive in the Bureau of Prisons, although he remains held incommunicado from the media. Even 60 Minutes couldn't get in to see him. As long as the file exists where the FBI cannot find it, J.D. said, Langan's life is secure.

I suppose if I were the FBI, I would be wondering what else is in a similar file owned by friends of Mr. Matthews. For the record, Mr. Matthews would have no comment to Sipsey Street on any of these matters.

But still, if you're the FBI, you'd have to wonder.


Browns Ferry

Posted by Dutchman6 at 11:40 AM

[Ed Jewett]

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2011

Walking Guns and Laundering Drug Money The "War" on Drugs is Doing Just Fine

by Scott Creighton via willyloman.wordpress.com

If there is an argument to be made that the United States is the biggest purveyor of terrorist activities across the world which we justify with the endless "Global War on Terror" (and that argument is not hard to make), what does that say about our "War on Drugs"? Look at just a few of the recent stories from the headlines and judge for yourself…
The Justice Department lied repeatedly about "gun walking" firearms to Mexican drug cartels There was a policy in place at the highest levels in the ATF and the Justice Department to ship weapons to Mexican "drug cartels". This is at a time when violence in Mexico is at it's highest level since the Spanish landed on their shores. In February the Assistant Attorney General wrote the following to an investigating body of congress; it was a complete fiction… a lie… and congress now has the emails to prove it.

""ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation into Mexico," wrote Ronald Weich, assistant attorney general." the Hill

Darrell Issa has backed off his calls for Eric Holder's resignation. He basically states that since the program is institutional in the Department of Justice and has been since the Bush administration (yes, yet another Bush program the administration of CHANGE kept), holding Holder responsible would be pointless. If corruption existed before the new head took over and the new head of the department continues the same corruption and illegality, I guess he gets a pass. That's what passes for logic these days.

"This isn't the first time the FBI and other agencies have been involved in investigations in which bad people are allowed to continue doing bad things in the name of going after bad people," Issa said" CSM

In that vein, we take a look at another developing story, this one deals with the money made by the so-called "drug cartels" in Mexico.
Apparently, while the ATF was shipping weapons to the drug cartels, the DEA was helping them launder their cash. I shit you not.

"Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington's expanding role in Mexico's fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials.
… Another former agency official, who asked not to be identified speaking publicly about delicate operations, said, "My rule was that if we are going to launder money, we better show results. Otherwise, the D.E.A. could wind up being the largest money launderer in the business, and that money results in violence and deaths."" New York Times

According to officials who are only speaking out about this because the plan was exposed, the idea was much like the one they claimed when Fast and Furious came out… they were laundering the money so they could catch the bad guys. But as the NYT article pointed out, they have been doing it for a couple of the drug cartels "for years"
In Washington these days when you get caught doing something illegal and definitely immoral (like morality factors into any equation in DC anymore) all you have to do is say you were doing it to catch the bad guys. Arming thugs in Mexico to destabilize the country? Just say you did it to "catch the bad guys". Laundering massive amounts of drug money for off the books financing of your destabilization teams? Just say you were doing it to "catch the bad guys". Get caught fabricating "terrorist" plots to divert public attention from you SS style crackdown on legitimate protests in New York? Just say you did it to "catch the bad guys"
Seems pretty simple doesn't it? And as long as you have over-paid stenographers posing as journalists in the MSM, it'll work.
Here's an interesting point brought up in the Times piece:

"The laundering operations that the United States conducts elsewhere about 50 so-called Attorney General Exempt Operations are under way around the world…" New York Times

"About 50" drug money laundering programs "around the world"? What? And the AG is "exempt" from U.S. law while running them? Really? Really? That's a lot of drug money. That's a lot of drugs and ruined lives and crime and murder. And the AG is "exempt"?
Let's take a trip back in the not-so-way-back machine to 2009 because remember, both Fast and Furious and apparently the drug money laundering program existed back then and god knows how many of the 50 other exempt operations did too. It was revealed by an Afghani counter narcotics official that U.S. and NATO forces were taxing the poppy growers and actually protecting their crops. (go to the link for an endless selection of photos of U.S. and NATO troops protecting the poppy fields)

"In November 2009, the Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics General Khodaidad Khodaidad stated that the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada. He also said that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control and that foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan." Public Intelligence

His statement dovetails perfectly with something else we know about Afghanistan: 1. Afghanistan's installed puppet president has a brother Wali, who is a notorious drug dealer with ties to the CIA and 2. the Taliban had nearly wiped out the poppy production in that country (drug dealing is a death sentence according to Sharia Law) until Baby Bush invaded in 2003 and got things going again.
Yes, you can go back to Iran Contra when it's known that the CIA was shipping in cocaine and shipping out guns for another fascist coup.
Yes, you can go back to Mena Arkansas and the start of the Clinton rise to power.
Yes, you can go back to Ricky Freeway Ross and Gary Webb who showed that the CIA created crack cocaine and conspired to market it to the West coast of the U.S. Gary Webb wrote "Dark Alliances" exposing all of this shit and when he turned up dead with two bullets in his head, they called it a suicide.
Yes, you can go back to Frank Lucas, that's the New York heroin dealer made famous by a Hollywood movie recently. He became the drug kingpin of the 60s and 70s because during the Vietnam War, for some reason, he was able to have loads of smack shipped right along on Army transport planes with no one supposedly the wiser. For years his shipments came in regularly and he moved tons and tons of Asian heroin into New York and other cities without anyone ever getting to wise, that is until the end of the Vietnam War.
Hell, for that matter you can go back to the Opium Wars when Britain was shipping the shit from India to China. The Chinese government didn't like it too much. Go figure. I guess back then they hadn't invented the Attorney General Exempt Operation. That makes it all ok.
You can go back to all of those things and see a pattern of hypocrisy, corruption, and the vile institutionalized exploitation of the human condition if you want to, or you can just read today's paper and connect the dots yourselves. Or you can get drunk and watch a football game and thank god they haven't kicked in your door… yet.

Posted by poorrichard at 10:27 AM

[Ed Jewett]

How many have died from DEA's Project Buckwalker'?

Continue reading on Examiner.com How many have died from DEA's Project Buckwalker'? - National gun rights | Examiner.comhttp://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-nati...e#ixzz1fow6eLD3

"Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington's expanding role in Mexico's fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials," The New York Times reports.

Several readers sent me this link requesting insights. I have no special information and am dependent on this report to draw any conclusion, and would only note this is The New York Times we're talking about.

My initial reaction: I wonder if any of this money ended up being used to buy Gunwalker guns.

It would appear somewhat similar concerns were voiced by the unidentified "former agency official" interviewed for this story:

QUOTE
[T]he D.E.A. could wind up being the largest money launderer in the business, and that money results in violence and deaths.


Yeah, no kidding. Hey, you can't make an omelet without scrambling some eggs.

Searching around for background on drugs and money-laundering, I stumbled upon this bit of "public/private partnership" fascist nonsense, "Produced in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Good grief--what were these people on? Government addiction certainly produces some bizarre and destructive effects. Talk about something we need to protect our children from.

This latest development is also reminiscent of "Project Drugwalker" allegations and leads to the legitimate question: Is there any criminal activity our federal "law enforcement" does not engage in?

I'm only half-joking when I wonder if the next twist in this dark, outrageous tale will be "Project Streetwalker."


Continue reading on Examiner.com How many have died from DEA's Project Buckwalker'? - National gun rights | Examiner.comhttp://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-nati...e#ixzz1fovm4ZbV

***

Issa broadens DOJ investigation to include drug money laundering report


"House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., today announced an investigation into the Drug Enforcement Agency's alleged laundering of millions of dollars in Mexican drug cartel money," a December 5 House Committte on Oversight and Goverment Reform press release declared.

From the release:

The New York Times reported that the DEA employed similar tactics with money laundering as were seen in ATF's Operation Fast and Furious, where guns were allowed into the hands of low level straw purchasers in hopes that they would lead to drug kingpins.

"Given your upcoming testimony this Thursday," Issa continued, "it is imperative that Congress be apprised of the true dimensions of these alleged operation immediately. Please arrange to provide a briefing to my staff no later than Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 5:00 pm to address these allegations."



Continue reading on Examiner.com Issa broadens DOJ investigation to include drug money laundering report - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-nati...e#ixzz1fowV6vqo

Issa's letter to Attorney General Holder can be read here: http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/...ng_due_12-7.pdf

In a new dimension to this continually unfolding story, James K. Steinbower of PJMedia reveals another area where gunwalking runs afoul of the law:

There is a provision in the Kingpin Act for "authorized" law enforcement and intelligence activities, however the only procedure by which an Operation Fast and Furious program could have been "authorized" under the Kingpin Act was by the U.S. attorney general requesting a waiver (known within the Treasury Department as a Specific License), prior to any such operation being undertaken.

Additionally, this column raised the question of violations of International Trafficking in Arms Regulations several months back.

Whether Issa will include Kingpin/ITAR questioning in Thursday's hearing is not known at this time--Gun Rights Examiner has asked the Committee Press Secretary and will report back any answer received.


Continue reading on Examiner.com Issa broadens DOJ investigation to include drug money laundering report - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-nati...e#ixzz1fowI5eql

***

Vanderboegh exclusive: Melson thanked Burke for work on Fast and Furious

Blogger Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars has obtained a copy of a Feb. 3, 2011 email from Ken Melson, then-Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to Dennis Burke, the former United States Attorney for the District of Arizona who resigned in the wake of revelations concerning his role in the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal. The text of the email reads:

Dennis: I just got back from the Interpol meeting and wanted to thank you for your help on the Grassley response and for your work on Fast and Furious. Ken

"Melson email to Burke shoots his 'What, me Gunwalker?' defense in the head," Vanderboegh's analysis declares.

Click here [ http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com...-found-his.html ] to read Vanderboegh's report and to see a copy of the email. He will be atending the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Thursday and will be reporting from there.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Vanderboegh exclusive: Melson thanked Burke for work on Fast and Furious - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-nati...e#ixzz1fowwtpeU

[Ed Jewett]

ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations
(Credit: CBS) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57...gulations/


Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.


PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline


In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.


ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.


cbsnews.com


Posted by admin at 12:17 PM


http://1newsjunkie.blogspot.com/2011/12/...-case.html
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[Ed Jewett]

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2011

The Killer Tomato of Border Issues.

I want to preserve (this Time Magazine article) as a benchmark of what Churchill called "the light of perverted science."

This is, I believe, a perfect example of that -- using behaviorialism to achieve modification of political outcomes is an abuse of science. And if this is perverted science, then these 29 members of the Consortium of Behavioral Scientists are science's perverts. The photos sprinkled through the story are of individuals mentioned in a sidebar to the magazine story with Time captions. The caption of the sidebar: "CHANGE AGENTS: The Obama Administration is swarming with practitioners and disciples of behavioral economics. They're already looking for ways to change the way we behave." -- Mike Vanderboegh, 24 April 2009.

Cass Sunstein, killer tomato.

It would take a long-time reader to recall my first post on Cass Sunstein back in April 2009, Obama's Change Agents: "Made more sinister . . . by the light of perverted science" as well as my follow-up,"Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." Later that year, Gun Owners of America issued an alert on Sunstein.

Just when you thought the news about the Obama administration couldn't get any worse, gun owners find themselves needing to rally the troops once again.

This time it's the proposed "Regulatory Czar" who will be coming to a vote this week in the U.S. Senate.

His name is Cass Sunstein, and he holds some of the kookiest views you will ever hear.

For starters, Sunstein believes in regulating hunting out of existence. He told a Harvard audience in 2007 that "we ought to ban hunting." And in The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer (2002), he said:

I think we should go further ... the law should impose further regulation on hunting, scientific experiments, entertainment, and (above all) farming to ensure against unnecessary animal suffering. It is easy to imagine a set of initiatives that would do a great deal here, and indeed European nations have moved in just this direction. There are many possibilities. (Italics are his emphasis.)

If that's all Sunstein believed, he would be dangerous and extreme, but not necessarily kooky. Unfortunately, when you look at WHY he wants to restrict hunting, this is where he goes beyond extreme.

In Sunstein's world, animals should have just as many rights as people ... and they should be able to sue humans in court!

"We could even grant animals a right to bring suit without insisting that animals are persons, or that they are not property," Sunstein said on page 11 of Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (2004).

Well, that's a relief ... he is at least willing to concede that animals are not persons! But he would still have animals suing humans, apparently, with more enlightened humans representing the cuddly critters.

Imagine returning from a successful hunting trip ... only to find out that you've been subpoenaed for killing your prize. Who knows, maybe Sunstein would have the family of the dead animal serving as witnesses in court!

By the way, if you're wondering what he thinks about the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, you won't be surprised to know that Sunstein is a huge supporter of gun control.

In Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts are Wrong for America (2005), Sunstein says:

Almost all gun control legislation is constitutionally fine.... [O]n the Constitution's text, fundamentalists [that is, gun rights supporters] should not be so confident in their enthusiasm for invalidating gun control legislation.

Hmm, what part of "shall not be infringed" does Sunstein not understand?

You know, right after I began working on the Gunwalker Scandal, one of my old spook friends told me, "Don't ignore Cass Sunstein in this unholy clusterfuck. I hear he had some input and this kind of 'nudging' is right up his alley."

My friend was referring to this Time magazine article, How Obama Is Using the Science of Change. Sometime later, Larry Pratt of GOA mentioned the same possibility.

I must confess I never pursued that lead on Sunstein. I was a very busy boy at the time and had many other leads to pursue and I had no other solid clue beyond that.

Until, perhaps, now.

"The five faces behind the U.S. border plan."

They are five tough cookies three Americans and two Canadians who together have spent a year thrashing out a plan that maybe, just maybe, is going to bring big changes to a border near you.

So who are the real drivers behind the Canada-U.S. Beyond The Border initiative to be unveiled Wednesday, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets President Barack Obama at the White House?

THE AMERICANS

DAN RESTREPO: His official title is western hemispheres director at the National Security Council and as such, this close adviser to Obama owns the entire Canada file. Sad, then, that this grandson of a former Colombian ambassador to Washington is routinely described in the U.S. press as "Obama's senior adviser on Latin America." But that doesn't mean Restrepo, an alumni of the Democratic-leaning Center for American Progress, comes up blank on Canada. Crucially, he has the ear of the president and top negotiation teammates neck-deep in all questions Canada.

CASS SUNSTEIN: "The toughest of the cookies" on the American side, according to several sources familiar with his style, Sunstein is a Harvard grad and head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Though he earned a reputation as a security hawk in some circles as an adviser to the U.S. Justice Department during the tumultuous aftermath of 9/11, Sunstein has more recently won the respect of U.S. industry leaders as the White House point person for streamlining "onerous" domestic regulation in search of job growth. "He's tough and extremely thoughtful. He takes an analytical and perhaps worldly view of risk," a senior U.S. industry source told the Star. "When it comes to the Canadian border, I would expect him not to accept at face value when someone warns about the security risks of ironing out trade barriers. He'll demand evidence rather than accept conventional wisdom."

PATRICIA COGSWELL: "She's like a classic bureaucrat in reverse she actually gets things done," a U.S. colleague said of Cogswell, who is widely regarded as one of America's foremost non-political experts on border screening issues. As head of the Department of Homeland Security's Screening Coordination Office, Cogswell was integral to the introduction of biometrics as a routine part of the individual screening all the while negotiating the ideological divides over privacy without making enemies. "Patricia would be the pleasant personality at the negotiating table," the former colleague told the Star. "But not political or ideological just really focused on finding common ground where others might fail. She's the person you'd want to have looking at the nuts and bolts of how to improve borders in a time of decreasing resources."

Well, well.

Of course this is northern border, not southern, but . . .

We know that Restrepo had great input into the Gunwalker Scandal by virtue of his position on the National Security Council as well as statements of sources within the U.S. intelligence community.

Given Sunstein rapidly anti-firearm rights position, is it such a stretch to think that this is Obama getting the band back together?

Posted by Dutchman6 at 5:08 AM

[Ed Jewett]

Wall Street Buys Up Guns

Wednesday, December 07, 2011 by Staff Report



Mystery company buying up U.S. gun manufacturers ... Some gun enthusiasts have claimed that the power behind the company is actually George Soros, the hedge-fund billionaire and liberal activist. Soros, these people have warned, is buying U.S. gun companies so he can dismantle the industry, Second Amendment be damned. The chatter grew so loud that the National Rifle Association issued a statement in October denying the rumors. "NRA has had contact with officials from Cerberus and Freedom Group for some time," the NRA assured its members. "The owners and investors involved are strong supporters of the Second Amendment and are avid hunters and shooters." Soros isn't behind the Freedom Group, but, ultimately, another financier is: Stephen Feinberg, the chief executive of Cerberus. Cerberus is part of one of the signature Wall Street businesses of the past decade: private equity. New York Times
Dominant Social Theme: It's just business, nothing more to it.
Free-Market Analysis: Another subdominant social theme? It's always the same. The Anglosphere power elite is on its way to buying up all the oil, water and farmland in the world (with or without China), or so it seems, and we are told it is the evolution of the free-market economy. Sure ...
And now ... guns. Not George Soros, mind you. The NRA an elitist, Trojan Horse of an organization itself has assured us that the folks behind the purchases are "strong supporters of the Second Amendment." The NRA added, "We have a mighty fine bridge connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn that we'd like to sell you."
Oh, sorry we just made up that last part. Anyway, this is how the power elite likes to work, it seems to us. Every move to support global governance is likely cloaked and hidden. There are always justifications. If it is not a war, or a "human tragedy" that necessitates further centralization, then it is "market forces" at work. But in fact, it is always directed history ...
Is it possible that Feinberg is doing the bidding of a larger and more powerful elite? We are well aware that one of the goals of the powers-that-be is to rid the US of guns. It is a major stumbling block to declaring one-world government, or so it is said by directed history observers. Here is something about Feinberg, via Wikipedia:
Stephen Feinberg was born in the Bronx, NY. At eight his family moved to Spring Valley, New York, a relatively poor suburb of New York City. His father was a steel salesman. He attended Princeton University in New Jersey, graduating with a degree in politics in 1982. While there, he captained the tennis team and joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps.
After graduating from college, Feinberg worked as a trader at Drexel Burnham and Gruntal & Co. In 1992 Feinberg teamed up with William L. Richter to found Cerberus Capital Management with just $10 million under management. Feinberg has been at the helm of the firm since its founding. Later alliances with J. Ezra Merkin were important for raising capital.
Subsequent hirings of former politicians and lobbyists John Snow, Dan Quayle and others have served as door-openers in Washington and abroad. The 2007 Cerberus purchase of Chrysler Corp. from Germany's Daimler Benz became a major and, as of 2009, unsuccessful initiative by Feinberg into a higher-profile investment. Feinberg and others at the firm explicitly presented the investment as patriotic, but many critics ultimately questioned that characterization, especially after Chrysler had to seek and take federal aid. Chrysler now, with federal help, has been sold to Fiat.
As of 2009, Cerberus was facing major calls from its investors for redemptions, and had written down its investment in Chrysler to 19 cents on the dollar. Had there not been the federal bailout, the investment could have been worth nothing.
Well, it's nice to know that Feinberg has friends in the federal government. Suspicious people (even more paranoid than ourselves) might suggest a quid pro quo: Feinberg gets a bailout and in return, the US gun manufacturing industry gets a roll-up. Well, on second thought, no ... That's just too darn paranoid!
Nonetheless, there is a roll-up. And the activity seems frenetic. Cerberus-controlled Freedom Group, Feinberg's vehicle, has purchased one high profile gun manufacturer after another. The article tells us that it began with Maine-based Bushmaster before the biggest prize of all fell into its lap, Remington.
After pocketing Remington, the "Freedom Group" targeted Marlin Firearms, then DPMS Firearms, "a maker of semiautomatic, military-style rifles, as well as manufacturers of ammunition and tactical clothing."
But there was more to come: Harrington & Richardson and L.C. Smith, and Dakota Arms makers of rifles and something called Barnes Bullets. And more! The article mentions S&K Industries, which supplies wood and laminate for gun stocks, as well as the Advanced Armament Corp., which makes silencers.
This is a pretty hefty swath, no? The Freedom Group itself seems to think so. According to the Times article excerpted above, the Freedom Group said in a filing last year with the Securities and Exchange Commission, "We believe our scale and product breadth are unmatched within the industry."
We are sure this is just the market at work ... aren't we? Or will there come a day in the not too distant future when the NRA announces that in order to buy a rifle you will need to be formally licensed and fingerprinted. You will need an ID or a microchip implant.
And then, perhaps, the NRA will announce that the Freedom Group, America's number one gun owner, is firmly behind the measure! "The industry supports it," we shall be told. "And so should you!"
Conclusion: "We fight for the independence of recreational gun owners and hunters everywhere," the press release might continue. "And that's why we stand side-by-side with the NRA in welcoming this most important initiative. Call your Congressperson today!" Mr. Feinberg, the wire reports inform us, could not be reached for comment ...

http://www.thedailybell.com/3327/Wall-St...ys-Up-Guns

[Ed Jewett]

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[TD]A knowledgeable federal government counter-narcotics source in Arizona has revealed to WMR that...



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Well, the story is embargoed.... Be patient.

[Ed Jewett]

Friday, 09 December 2011

Six Lessons from Mexico's War on Drugs

One thing is a certainty: when the global economy tanks, black/grey markets and smuggling networks will zooom. This new commercial layer will suddenly be everywhere and you will interact with it constantly. NOTE: this contact less so if you are a) one of the lucky ones in the emerging global ne0-feudal financial aristocracy or b) in a networked resilient community. On that note, here's some unusual insight from Melissa Dell, a doctoral student in (Forensic) Economics at MIT. She has written an excellent paper on Mexico's war on drugs. Here are her insights into the business dynamics of the Mexican Drug War:

1. Black markets/smuggling networks make decisions like businesses in aggregate. They hire, fire, compete, partner, and optimize. The rules can be a bit different though (as you will see below).
   
2. There will be a diverse mix of local and national organizations. 49% of Mexico's 320 drug producing municipalities were controlled by major organizations. 51% by local gangs. Local gangs ally with major organizations for transhipment of product to the United States. Most of the rest of the municipalities (90%) are either on a smuggling route or a market.
   
3. There will be lots of national/regional smuggling/criminal organizations and they won't be monolithic. For example, in 2011, Mexico had 16 major trafficking groups. This level of fluidity and diversity is the result of decentralized decision making. Local gangs make many of their own decisions in order to compartmentalize failure. However, this works against organizational integrity at the national/regional level since autonomous local gangs can switch affiliations easier.
   
4. The election of "law and order" politicians/parties at the local level increases violence. Here's why: Law and order politicians increase police activity. Increased police pressure weakens the gang currently in control of a municipality. It usually doesn't destroy the gang in charge (unless the police themselves become an informal militia that replaces the local gang's economic role). A weak local gang is often attacked by new rival gangs intent on taking over the municipality. This means: gun fights/battles, lots of bodies, collatoral damage, kidnappings, etc..
   
5. Spillovers: If a smuggling route can't traverse a town due to a crackdown or congestion (too much drug traffic), it will reroute to an optimized alternative. The optimal path within a complicated road network isn't obvious without analysis. Melissa found that Dijkstra's algorithmworks well as a way of predicting the new route. What this may mean to you? Crackdowns in other municipalities may cause your municipality/town to suddenly become a node in a smuggling network. Spillovers are an important dynamic worth studying (see the inset picture for a simplified example of it -- the PAN victory is a "law and order" disruption to a route).
   
6. General effects. When a town becomes a node on a smuggling route, informal sector wages fall 2.5% due to the ability of smugglers to extract protection money (primarily from poor people). It also leads to a fall female workforce participation (fear).
   

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Posted by John Robb on Friday, 09 December 2011 at 10:46 AM | Permalink

Comments

Karl said...
If you remove the American attitude toward cannabis (illegality; criminality) and look at it instead as production and movement of things that humans WANT, it's a lot easier to understand.
Analyze it from the perspective of people wanting to get something that someone won't let them have.
And not from the perspective of "that's ILLEGAL! look at those CRIMINALS!"
Tainting black/grey market analysis with law-and-order perspectives is a disservice to those trying to manage the transition to and survival within our collapse.
What is "illegal" in the Mainstream Economy is not the same as what is unacceptable in the black/grey market economy. The rules are purer and relate more to what people want. It's not a managed economy.

ReplyFriday, 09 December 2011 at 12:50 PM

Dusty Sensiba said in reply to Karl...
One problem--you're advocating empirical analysis or some other logical or scientific approach to problem solving. Politicians don't work that way.
Politicians and their minions/handlers are experts at stirring up emotions in others to manipulate them into giving them what they want. Using things like logic or science gets in the way of their sociopathic, narcissistic goals.


ReplyFriday, 09 December 2011 at 03:06 PM

Scott Supak said in reply to Dusty Sensiba...
This is, of course, more true of one class of politician than the other. (See: evolution, teaching of; climate change; et al)


ReplyFriday, 09 December 2011 at 03:45 PM

Scott Supak said...
I read recently that the big drop in violent crime in the US was directly attributable to the huge drop in the price of cocaine. As the price dropped, the low level dealers who make minimum wage and engage in most of the violence couldn't make a big enough profit, and have dropped out of the game.
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-an...crime/474/
With this in mind, as the police are increasingly unable to enforce the stupid classification of pot as a schedule one drug, there will be an increased supply, and a big drop in price, which will remove the profit that a lot of these gangs depend on. Resilient communities will just grow their own, demand for imports will drop, the price will drop, and the war will end.

ReplyFriday, 09 December 2011 at 01:42 PM

Mica said...
I've been trying to tie together the various accusations coming out of the Fast and Furious scandal too. The main question being what are the ties between the Sinaloa cartel and the US/Mexican governments?http://mrgnc.blogspot.com/2011/12/zetas-...s-and.html

ReplyFriday, 09 December 2011 at 05:25 PM

[Keith Millea]

With this in mind, as the police are increasingly unable to enforce the stupid classification of pot as a schedule one drug, there will be an increased supply, and a big drop in price, which will remove the profit that a lot of these gangs depend on. Resilient communities will just grow their own, demand for imports will drop, the price will drop, and the war will end.

This is exactly what is happening here in the NW.The market is glutted from all the homegrown.Street prices have dropped from a high of $400.00 per ounce,to now at $150.00,in just a couple of years.

WEED:We don't need no stinking foreign weed.:canabis: