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

[Magda Hassan]

Gotta love that free market and cottage industies and small business savvy. :hippy:

[Peter Lemkin]

Dec-10-2011 00:39
U.S. Weapons Smuggling Program for Mexican Cartels Exposed Four Years Ago

Robert Plumlee Salem-News.comInformation about Fast and Furious was in Homeland Security's hands four years ago, it should have saved the lives of two U.S. federal agents.


Salem-News.com's Robert 'Tosh' Plumlee was a CIA asset for many years before becoming a news photographer and reporter.



(COLUMBUS, N.M.) - This memo represents the first time that the U.S. Border Patrol knew about guns going across the border at Columbus, New Mexico.
Needless to say, the 'Fast and Furious' gun walker program administered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF&E), under U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, that led specifically to the shooting deaths of two U.S. federal agents with ATF guns, has brought mass public attention to the fact that the U.S. government is not above any level of behavior, and in fact is a contributor to the ever growing danger along the border.
However as the memo below indicates, the knowledge of this activity is nothing new and that is the forté and essence of our work at Salem-News.com; to prove that the knowledge of federal corruption and outright international criminality is already here.
Tosh explains in regard to the memo below, that a series of reports to Homeland Security were made on this and those reports were forwarded to the proper agencies. He posted this on a forum as a backup after mailing a detailed letter to the Department of Justice IG Sutton in 2007 and 2008.

[Ed Jewett]

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[TD]December 9-11, 2011 -- Giffords, Roll Hit a Planned Twin Assassination

A knowledgeable federal government counter-narcotics source in Arizona has revealed to WMR that the shooting on January 8 this year of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and U.S. Judge John Roll in Tucson was planned as a twin assassination of two individuals who threatened to expose a weapons-for-drugs smuggling operation carried out by a covert group working under the aegis of the Central Intelligence Agency and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. In fact, the covert operation dates back to when Napolitano was governor of Arizona. Roll had been Chief Judge of the District of Arizona since 2006. The assassin, Jared Lee Loughner, killed five others and wounded thirteen, including Giffords, at a Safeway parking lot in north Tucson. Loughner's first and priority targets were Roll and Giffords.

WMR has also been told that while the U.S.-Mexican border operation oversees the smuggling to Mexican drug cartels of weapons, including fully automatic AK-47s, in return for drugs smuggled across the border, mostly delivered by airplanes that make clandestine drops on pre-approved drop zones or landing strips in Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas, at night, it is only peripherally connected to the "Fast and Furious" operation. Our source said that there were so many weapons being smuggled across the border that some were dropped, including a new AK-47 that was found in a wash on the Arizona side of the border. When the discoverer of the weapon contacted federal authorities about his find, he was told to keep the weapon since there were so many in the area. The "area" in question is said to be a special zone created by Napolitano when she was governor and that the special operations carried out there involve a number of "former" CIA, Navy SEALS, and other Special Operations personnel.

Operation Fast and Furious was a weapons tracking program conducted by the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In what is known as "gun walking," agents permitted the sale to Mexican cartels of weapons obtained from Phoenix area gun stores in order to identify the major weapons traffickers on the U.S. and Mexican side of the border. However, Fast and Furious soon allowed for some 2,000 weapons purchased in the United States to end up in the hands of drug cartels. Two of the weapons were later used to kill U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry on the U.S. side of the border.

House Republicans are calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to fire all those involved with Fast and Furious, something he has refused to do in a wholesale manner. Holder claims Fast and Furious was a "regional" operation and that little direction came from Washington. Holder, we are told, is not being forthcoming because of the possibility that the more secretive weapons-for-narcotics operation being conducted by the CIA and Napolitano could be exposed. In fact, Napolitano's predecessor as Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, who still advises his old department, has defended the head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer, over charges that Breuer has covered up Fast and Furious details.

WMR has been told that in 2009, information about the CIA/Homeland Security/Napolitano smuggling operation came to the attention of three individuals, two members of Congress and a federal judge. The three were Arizona Democratic Representatives Giffords, Republican Representative Mike Conaway from west Texas, and Judge Roll. Giffords and Roll were working together on investigating the extent of the clandestine weapons and druigs smuggling operation and held some joint meetings with informants, one in north Phoenix, in 2009. Information on the investigation and informants was strictly limited to only a few trusted staffers and clerks for Giffords and Roll. In addition, Conaway was also being briefed by informants on the smuggling operation but since the death of Roll and the severe mental and physical incapacitation of Giffords from the shooting carried out by Jared Lee Loughner, said to be an MK-ULTRA-like trained assassin, he has gone silent in fear for his own safety. Loughner's was declared mentally incompetent and there are reports, including one in Slate Magazine, that the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where Loughner is being held, pending a determination of his mental fitness to stand trial, is being administered psychotropic drugs in his Kool Aid.

In addition to receiving drugs to fund its off-the-books operations, the CIA weapons smuggling program is designed to arm the two main Mexican cartels -- Sinaloa and Los Zetas -- in order to destabilize Mexico. A violence-ridden Mexico makes it more dependent on U.S. military aid and, eventually, the country is seen by Washington as a future virtual U.S. protectorate, whose state PEMEX-controlled oil reserves will be available to U.S. oil companies.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20111209_3


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[Ed Jewett]

Holder may be holding on to private emails about Fast and Furious

Published: 11:49 PM 12/11/2011 | Updated: 12:11 PM 12/12/2011








Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/11/holder...z1gLtGQdyf

A largely overlooked exchange from Thursday's House Judiciary Committee hearing includes what appears to be an admission from Attorney General Eric Holder that emails to and from him about Operation Fast and Furious may exist, and that he's refusing to provide them to Congress.
The possibility was first addressed during an exchange with House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, who also sits on the House Judiciary Committee, early in the hearing.
"Most of the 5,000 documents you turned over are emails," Issa said to Holder. "Mr. Attorney General, I have a question for you. Not one of these emails, in fact, is yours. Aren't you a prolific emailer?"
Holder responded that, "No," he is not a "prolific emailer."
Issa followed up: "Don't you email?"
Holder responded in the affirmative. "Do you have a personal email account as well as an attorney general email account?" Issa pressed.
"I have an email account at the Justice Department, yes," Holder equivocated.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/11/holder...z1gLt6GHjc
"Do you have a personal email?" Issa asked again. Holder replied that, "yes" he has a personal email account.
"Do you regularly email to Lanny Breuer, your former partner, and your criminal division head?" Issa then asked.
"I wouldn't say regularly," Holder answered. "But there are only a limited number of people who know my email address in the Justice Department." (RELATED: Full coverage of Operation Fast and Furious)
Issa, still not satisfied with Holder's response, pressed further. "Let's cut to the chase," Issa said. "Don't you think it's a little conspicuous that there's not one email to or from you related to Fast and Furious in any way, shape or form?"
Instead of answering whether or not there were any emails to or from him, Holder said the Department of Justice's document production to the House oversight committee had been "unprecedented."
"There are a variety of reasons why the emails we have shared with you are there," Holder said. "We have shared in an unprecedented way emails and information that no Justice Department and no attorney general has ever authorized before. You have deliberative information contained in that."
Issa has issued subpoenas and made official requests for many of the emails Holder has withheld from Congress. Because Holder isn't citing any legal or constitutional exemption, Issa said later in the hearing that he "stands in contempt of Congress" if he continues to stonewall.
"But isn't it true that executive privilege does not flow to the attorney general, only to the office of the president?" Issa asked during that initial exchange. "So, deliberate process within law enforcement, in your department, in fact, doesn't deserve executive privilege. As the chairman said going on, you haven't cited any reason why these have not been delivered."
Holder continued to avoid the line of questioning, and said that he's provided an "unprecedented" amount of documents to Congress. But, he still wouldn't cite a legal reason why he's refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas and requests.
"In making production determinations, we have followed what attorneys general in the past have always used applicable standards, whether these are Republican or Democrat attorneys general," Holder said. "The information we've provided you has been responsive, has been, I think, wholesome and also unprecedented."
NEXT: How Holder uses his personal email account


In a later exchange Holder had with Florida Republican Rep. Sandy Adams, Holder all but said he has used his personal email account to communicate with Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and his former deputy attorney general and now chief of staff, Gary Grindler, about Fast and Furious.
"You have a personal email account. Did you at any time, at any time, email on your personal account with Lanny Breuer and Gary Grindler with regards to Fast and Furious ever?" Adams asked Holder. "Yes or no?"
"I don't know," Holder responded.
"Would you check and get back with us?" Adams further pressed Holder. "If you need some help, I'm sure your agency personnel can get into those computers."
Holder then tripled down on his claims that the DOJ has provided "unprecedented" levels of documents to Congress, but refused to cite a legal reason why he won't give up the emails, if they exist.
"Well, with regard to the provision of emails, I though I made clear that after February 4, it is not our intention to provide email information consistent with the way in which the Justice Department has always conducted itself," Holder said in response to Adams' questioning. "The exception that I made that I made in the hope that the Justice Department would be seen as transparent was to go against that tradition to make available deliberative material around the February 4 letter."
During an interview with The Daily Caller on Friday, during which Adams called for Holder's resignation over the Fast and Furious scandal, she said that if Holder hasn't misled Congress and has nothing to hide, he should deliver the communications.

"I do, I truly do [think Holder should provide those emails]," Adams told TheDC. "If there were a part of anything to do with Fast and Furious, he should release those. As I said to him, if you have clean hands, why won't you release them?"
Adams added that Holder's claim that his document production has been "unprecedented" doesn't appear to hold much legal weight, and doesn't really matter if he's refusing to comply with lawfully issued congressional subpoenas.
"I wouldn't think so [that Holder's claims his document production has been unprecedented' is enough]," Adams said in a phone interview. "What's unprecedented is the fact that we have an attorney general who was allowing guns to walk across international borders. As a matter of fact, walking [guns] anywhere is bad, but it's compounded because they walked across international borders."
Fast and Furious was a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program overseen by the DOJ. The operation facilitated the sale of thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers. Straw purchasers are people who legally purchase guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else. In Fast and Furious, the straw purchasers were known to be trafficking the weapons into Mexico, effectively arming Mexican drug cartels.
At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/11/holder...z1gLsnNYty

[Ed Jewett]

Those following these events and playing along at home may wish, at the commercial break, to go on to an old thread containing my review of Cheri Seymour's "The Last Circle", paying almost immediate attention -- especially if you are already familiar with the tale in general -- to my questions to the author, and to her responses.

[Ed Jewett]

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Sipsey Street Exclusive. File this under "Things Eric Holder Doesn't Want You To Know." The Discovery Protective Order in the case of United States v. Avila et al. An update regarding wiretaps (Ooooooh. . . )

Sipsey Street has just learned that the Issa Committee has this morning received a copy of an email in the Fast & Furious straw buyers' case sent by the US Attorney for the Southern District of California Mark Conover yesterday afternoon. Here is the transcript:

From: "Conover, Mark (USACAS)"

To: "shoemaker@azbar.org" ; "joey.hamby@azbar.org" ; "lrangel@joeyhambypc.com" ; "berardonilaw@yahoo.com" ; "david.eisenberg@azbar.org" ; "alan@alansimpson.net" ; "laura@alansimpson.net" ; "philnoland@qwestoffice.net"
; "mpaige@paigelawfirm.com" ; "screenwriter2@earthlink.net" ; "simplex17@earthlink.net" ; "court@dlockhartlaw.com" ; "tom@crowescott.com" ; "cindy@crowescott.com" ; "lisa@crowescott.com" ; "shannon@alcocklaw.com" ; "filings@alcocklaw.com" ; "zariniguez@aol.com" ; "tmitchell@tyronemitchellpc.com" ; "ltate@btlawyers.com" ; "Conover, Mark (USACAS)" ; "eugene.marquez@azbar.org" ; "eugenemarquezlaw@yahoo.com" ; "anne@amwilliamslaw.net" ; "Sportclips1212@yahoo.com" ; "laura.gonzalez1019@yahoo.com" ; "susanhrwd@yahoo.com" ; "kevin.burns2@gmail.com" ; "burnsnickersontaylor@bntazlaw.com" ; "bellandflorence@yahoo.com" ; "sun@parklaw.us" ; "lucy@parklaw.us" ; "sunparklaw@msn.com"

Cc: "Gonzalez, Jacob (USACAS)" ; "Braskett, Myra (USAAZ)" ; "Neyra, Ghian (USACAS)" ; "Knight, Sheila (USACAS)" ; "Coughlin, Timothy (USACAS)" ; "Harrigan, Shane (USACAS)" ; "Ciaffa, Robert (USACAS)" ; "Chaney, Tracie (USACAS)"

Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 2:28 PM

Subject: United States v. Avila et al. iscovery Protective Order

Counsel,

After further consideration and review of Judge Teilborg's April 1, 2011 protective order, we have decided to forgo seeking an additional protective order at this time and rely upon the current protective order. Judge Teilborg's April 1, 2011 protective order continues to cover all discovery in this case. This includes additional wire tap related discovery recently made available by our office and all future discovery. I have attached the existing protective order below. Discovery is available to be picked up at your convenience. Paralegal Myra Braskett or her associate will be providing the discovery to you. If you have any questions please email me or call me.

Thank you.

W. Mark Conover Assistant United States Attorney Southern District of California 880 Front Street, Room 6293 San Diego, California 92101-8893 Tel: (619)557-5200 Fax: (619)557-3445

Here is the pdf of the original protective order attached to the email.

And here is a screen shot of the email:

OOOOOH . . . More wiretap information. How cool is that? Now there's something that the committee will end up seeing one of these days, don't you think? You know, Congressman Issa was just saying on the Hannity TV show the other night that he has more second-tier whistleblowers in DOJ coming forward every day and providing printouts of emails. I wonder if this is what he was talking about?

Posted by Dutchman6 at 10:37 AM

[Ed Jewett]

Former Mexican Govrnment Officials Work for U.S. Intelligence

December 19th, 2011Via: AFP:
At least 80 former Mexican government officials are currently working as informants for US intelligence agencies, the daily La Jornada reported, citing senior Mexican officials.
Most of them are gathering information for the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the prestigious daily reported.
Senior officials in the attorney general's office and the interior ministry said that those informants work as spies, gather and analyze information, and follow cases on request.
"We have not dismissed the possibility that current government employees are also working for the Americans in combination with their ex-colleagues," a senior government official who has participated in counternarcotics meetings with US officials told the newspaper.
The spying case came to light during a probe into whether the DEA has laundered drug money seized from criminal groups in Mexican territory, La Jornada reported.
On December 4, The New York Times reported that undercover US counternarcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels.
Related: DEA Launders Mexican Profits of Drug Cartels
Posted in Covert Operations, Economy

[Ed Jewett]

Sipsey Street Exclusive: BREAKING. White House dumps 500 plus pages of documents tonight! Emails from Burke to Holder's office regarding Terry murder and Fast & Furious weapons?

Sipsey Street Irregulars has learned that the Department of Justice, at the direction of the White House, has dumped more than 500 pages of documents including emails on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Darrell Issa tonight. Sources say that among these are at least one email on 15 December 2010 from then US Attorney Dennis K. Burke to Monty Wilkinson, aide to Eric Holder, informing the Attorney General office of the murder of Brian Terry and, later that day, of the seizure at the scene of Fast and Furious weapons. More shortly.

LATER: NPR was apparently the preferred outlet for the dump. Go here -- http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012...stice-dept

They also have the emails posted. Holder is screwed. Of course the only reason they're doing this is to further the modified limited hangout, which now apparently includes Eric Holder. Remember, these are the emails that the WH WANTED to release. What does that tell us? That they're protecting the White House and are willing to dispose of Holder to do it.

Posted by Dutchman6 at 8:01 PM

Friday, January 27, 2012

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/