Fast and Furious just got more interesting
Kenneth Melson
I know I’ve been doing a lot of posting on the Fast and Furious scandal and some of you might not be as enthralled as I am with it but I think this is heading downhill quickly for the DOJ (and thus Eric Holder) and I can’t wait to see where this will all end up. It’s like a great mystery movie where you watch and watch and wait to see “who done it”. We all know “who done it” here but will they get away with it and will it eventually end up in Obama’s lap?
Breaking news out late yesterday afternoon is that Kenneth Melson, Director of the ATF, is singing like a little bird and his song isn’t exactly music to the DOJ, ATF or the FBI’s ears. Melson was scheduled to meet next week with Rep. Issa and Grassley, who are heading up the investigation by the House Oversight Committee. Next week’s meeting would also have included lawyers from the DOJ (so they could keep an eye on him and do some damage control). Instead, Melson opted to have a secret meeting with Issa and Grassley so he could say what was really on his mind….and there was a lot on his mind.
Here’s a brief little summary of things discussed in the July 4th meeting…
So several other government agencies were also doing concurrent operations involving gun sales to Mexican thugs? Doesn’t the DOJ oversee the ATF and the DEA? Apparently the Arizona US Attorney Dennis Burke (an Obama appointee) is up to his eyeballs in the scandal because his office provided legal advice to the ATF during Fast and Furious. No matter which way you go with this fiasco….all roads lead back to the DOJ and Eric Holder.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in Holder’s office when he is discussing what the DOJ will do next.
Wouldn’t Project Gunrunner make a great movie? Starring Denzel Washington, Harrison Ford and….who else?
© 2011, Bridget. All rights reserved.
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Just read this on a Pajamas Media posting…seems like the best summary of the whole affair:
"Senior law enforcement officers within the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, including government appointees, potentially committed felonies that led to the deaths of dozens, if not hundreds of Mexican police, soldiers, and civilians, and the murders of least two American federal agents. This program was put in place in order to pursue a phantom gun-smuggling network that only seemed to exist in the the minds of those pushing a political agenda of gun control championed exclusively by the left wing of the Democratic Party, Attorney General Eric Holder himself, and the president of the United States, Barack Obama."
Bridget, thanks for all of the posts on this topic. Without you I wouldn't even know this happened!
"I know I’ve been doing a lot of posting on the Fast and Furious scandal and some of you might not be as enthralled as I am with it…" Stay on it! The LaughingStock Media mostly tippy-toed around this, while the new Vox Populi righteously called for justice.
This is one scandal which goes well beyond the Obamanation's slaughter of our economy and assassination of rule of law, going to actual mass murder. Unlike the suspicion that the OKC bombing was a similar sting op gone horribly wrong* which the FBI is still covering up, this is uncovered, out there, and heads ought to roll. Soon!
* "[T]he Oklahoma City Bombing appears to have been an earlier and far, far uglier version of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ 'Operation: Fast and Furious,' an affair involving many of the same key players." -Jesse Trentadue, June 27, to Bob McCarty
Do you have any further info on the FBI response to Jesse Trentadue? I had not heard about this case before reading this link but I never believed the whole Timothy McVeigh/disgruntled GI working alone scenario.
"Do you have any further info on the FBI response to Jesse Trentadue?"
Just the IntelHub link I posted before, and the longer Associated Press article IntelHub quoted. <a href="http://biggovernment.com/bmccarty/2011/07/01/fbi-official-to-federal-judge-okc-bombing-videotapes-might-have-been-misfiled-impossible-to-know-where/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BigGovernment+%28Big+Government%29">Further report by McCarty at Big Government.
Basically, the FBI says, "What, there were videotapes? No there weren't. Anyway, they were mis-filed, we don't know where, and it would do no good to keep looking." Very convincing, and pretty much waht <a href="http://bobmccarty.com/2011/06/27/lawyer-lists-four-possible-fbi-responses-to-federal-judge-re-missing-okc-bombing-tapes/">Trentadue predicted to McCarty.
There is plenty out there, though. For instance, Hussain Al-Hussaini, arrested just last March in Quincy, Mass., same name, same face, same Iraqi Army tattoo as "John Doe #2" <a href="http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/34299">(Canada Free Press, <a href="http://www.patriotledger.com/features/x1777801225/Author-links-man-arrested-in-Quincy-to-the-subject-of-her-book-on-Oklahoma-City-bomb-ing#axzz1GFRb6cX5">Patriot Ledger), identified by multiple witnesses as being in McVeigh's company, also sometimes <a href="http://newsok.com/terry-nichols-gave-conflicting-accounts-fbi-records-show/article/3555494">identified by convicted co-conspirator Terry Nichols. Ah, but after the initial search for him, and the remarkably immediate arrest of McVeigh, Doe#2 was quickly swept under the rug. The FBI says Al-Hussaini was "thoroughly investigated" and there's nothing to see here, move along, move along. Never mind the reports that <a href="http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/04/05/3941/memo-suggests-fbi-had-mole-inside-abc-news-1990s">"the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Service advised that the Oklahoma City bombing was sponsored by the Iraqi Special Services who contracted seven former Afghani Freedom Fighters out of Pakistan.”
Besides Trentadue, the main investigator who won't let this go is <a href="http://jaynadavis.com/main.html">Jayna Davis, whose website is full of information about the "3rd terrorist." There is also plenty of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=oklahoma+city+bombing&aq=f">YouTube video about the bombing, including the initial news reports about the initial search for John Doe #2, of secondary bombs inside the building, and the alleged FBI cover-up. Some of it flakey, of course, but much of it solid.
A hard look at what happened in Oklahoma City 1995 April 19 is enough to make one start wearing a tinfoil hat! Especially if you read sites like <a href="http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/ok.php">WhatReallyHappened.com
Seriously, there's always been <a href="http://www.constitution.org/okc/okc.htm">much more than meets the popular press.
Above all, always remember <a href="http://www.oklahomacitybombing.com/oklahoma-city-bombing-pictures-1.html">those who paid the price. the dead, the wounded, and even the rescuers, as well as its <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/19/sixteen-years-oklahoma-city-bombing-attacks-led-fbis-counterterrorism-focus/">place in the convoluted history of serious anti-terrorism and its evil counterpart, increased Big Brotherism.
Ew! I apparently flubbed many of the links in the message above. Not the first time I've done this. I'm pretty sure a sloppy copy-and-paste left line-feeds amid the link URLs. Correction would involve more than just removing the linefeeds, though. Since I wouldn't expect the dedicated but overtaxed moderators to tackle the changes, and I am not privileged to edit my own messages, I'll just apologize to the group — Sorry! — and try to be doubly careful in the future. It looks right on my site's copy of the message, for any who care.
McVeigh was not working alone. Actually, after reading about John Doe #3 and other information about why McVeigh did this, I am of the view that he was a pawn in a bigger game.
It boils down to John Doe #3… and I do not believe in any FBI cover-up angle.
I still think that it has something to do with Hussein al-Husseini and Iraq.
Well, ozzieaussie does not believe in any FBI cover-up. That's convincing! Okay, friend down under, please forgive the sarcasm, but you hardly offer anything substantial.
When I was a boy, back around the middle of the last century, the FBI were heroes and J Edgar Hoover was The Man. That weird cross-dressing paranoid! Would that they were the sterling examples that I once admired!
I don't believe Bush "engineered" 9/11, nor that FDR "wanted" Pearl Harbor to happen, and I doubt the FBI/BATF intended to let OKC happen. But that they helped set it up and screwed up and covered up? All too easy to believe, and too much testimony to support it. They're deeply dangerous now, involved in one scandal after another, and as ready to cover their rears as the rest of the captains of American corruption. You hardly have to look past the first page of search engine results to find their sad, shady history, and in hard news stories, not just the kook sites. What seems to have happened, as in so many law-enforcement agencies (and other organizations), is that good people they had got discouraged and quit, if not forced out, leaving the creeps. Just look at their involvement in this murderous gun-running scandal!
The real question is not whether these agencies are corrupt, but how in heaven we're ever going to stop them. More than Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? the question is, Who Can Destroy the Destroyers?
Hi Bridget – I agree with dginga. Thanks for putting this up and I encourage you to continue to keep us posted. I think this is a scandal that will continue to expand. When I learned that Melson would not resign, I knew that there was something to this. He wasn't going to take the fall for something that he didn't authorize. The twists and turns are so immoral. I hope that heads will roll and I don't care if it wipes out the top tier at DOJ. Want to plea bargain? Want to avoid spending time in a cell as someone's Jenny? Give us something substantial!
is this Obama's under the radar gambit????
Instead, Melson opted to have a secret meeting with Issa and Grassley so he could say what was really on his mind….and there was a lot on his mind.
THANK GOD!
I have been on every twist and turn…Yes, Bridget, it would make a great movie.
The *plan* was for Melson for take the fall for this sick, twisted operation.
Eric Holder is a Dead Bureaucrat Walking.
http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2011/07/06/gunw…
******
Gunwalker: The ATF’s Kenneth Melson Blows the Whistle on the Justice Department http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-the-atf%E2…
Nary a peep from our friends at Pravda
**********************************************************************************************
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/06/21/reminder-ano…
And then there’s the man waiting in the wings to replace Melson — either as acting director or as permanent director. He’s Chicago anti-gun radical Andrew Traver and he’s scheduled to meet with Holder and DOJ today.
I told you all about Traver in April when only a few were paying attention and I’m reprinting my column in full to bring you back up to speed. See also David Codrea’s FOIA on Gunrunner from April for Traver’s fingerprints.
Say it with me…..what if the BUSH Adm. were doing this??
Good point. They would have demanded impeachment proceedings to begin. In fact, they would be so certain of the outcome that there would be a rallying cry for Bush to resign. The silence from the limp-stream media is deafening!
Supposedly, Obama told Mr. and Mrs. Brady (the “Brady Bill” bunch) that gun control measure were being worked out behind the scenes. Anti-gun slingers have been, falsely, claiming that guns from the U.S. are being sold in Mexico and used by violent criminals. Because of this we should have way more control on guns… Obama and many others have been using this argument to shut down the 2nd Amendment. Were they trying to track guns or just setting the scene for their play and got caught? Melson came in pretty late in the game, could he be a pawn, imported for that position?
Even more so than the last administration, to follow the intentions of Obama’s administration take every Executive Order he has written, every law jammed down our throats, everything he has said/lied and what do you get. An administration that is quickly pushing us into a “global” government (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Agenda 21 etc.), crushing our Constitution, violating our laws, and usurping individual’s rights.
Hummm, was it just Tuesday that White House spokesman Carney (Carnival is more like it. Perfect for guy who takes us on a ride.) told (Jake Trapper?) that he did not know when Melson was going to testify, when Melson had already testified. Liar, stupid, or incompetent? None of these are good things. My guess is that Holder walks, either it never touches him or Obama pardons him. There are plenty of “underlings” and lots of room under that bus!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/world/americas/…
In Mexico, Obama Seeks Curbs on Arms Sales
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/17/o…
Obama blames U.S. guns in Mexico
The New Untouchables…….
Good question:
So if the identities of the Mexican criminals were known to the feds, what was the point of Project Gunrunner — and why is Holder so desperately trying to stonewall by withholding hundreds of documents from Congress?
Good answer:
Law-abiding gun owners and dealers think they already know. With the Obama administration wedded to the fiction that 90 percent of the guns Mexican cartels use originate here — they don't — many suspect that "Fast and Furious" was a backdoor attempt to smear domestic gun aficionados as part of its stealth efforts on gun control by executive fiat.
By good I mean plausible, there's nothing good about it. http://www.mudvillegazette.com/034365.html
Occam's Razor: The simplest explanation is usually the correct one: IMO, the only reason that BO and Holder would allow guns into the hands of already known criminal gun runners and drug dealers is because they–this administration–are a part of and enabling the drug trade in this country. BO and his high level appointees emerged from the corrupt Chicago crime/political sewer, and hence, are every bit as criminally corrupt.
I have followed this debacle from the beginning and agree that it is a huge story…however, I have no faith that it will ever hit the front page or the nightly news. It clearly leads straight to Holder (and probably Obama as well) so the press will bury it and minimize it.
Sadly, I lived through the Clinton years – the Chinese nuns, the selling of the Lincoln bedroom, the firing of the travel office, the FBI files, Ron Brown, Whitewater etc. Every scandal was rolled up into Monica Lewinsky and we were all told that it was "just sex".
Let's hope this time is different – we do have way more ability now to get the news out through alternative media. Pray hard and keep the stories coming!
The only reason any of this might make the mainstream press is because there will be enough buzz in alternative media that the "authentic" media will be pressured to report something. The Lewinsky situation came to light ONLY after Drudge dug into it; John Edwards love child came to light ONLY after the National Enquirer (!) reported on it. This will, of course, be spun by the MSM as an operation developed and run by rogue ATF agents – Holder and The One will be depicted as both clueless and blameless, regardless of any evidence. The same vigilance with which Woodward and Bernstein pursued the Nixon administration for Watergate will go by the wayside on this – there will be endless Casey Anthony stories ("Casey's New Hairdo – What Does It Mean?") but nothing that might implicate Obama's lackeys in anything criminal.
Re: "We all know “who done it” here but will they get away with it and will it eventually end up in Obama’s lap?"
I do not know if this will "eventually end up in Obama’s lap" but I am convinced it will get him in the end!
Rush just mentioned hillbuzz on radio about the fast and furious story
BO wouldn't even talk budget or debt reduction for months, and his sudden move to do so now with the purported impending 'debt deal' including Social Security and Medicare cuts isn't what it seems. His real goal is to distract public and LSM attention from the Operation Fast & Furious (OFF) investigation/scandal that's building rapidly and threatening to take down his administration. The NY Post's Michael Walsh does a good job, but he's too narrowly focused on Holder. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnis….
Bridget, it is great that you are covering this one, because it is huge.. and it leads directly to the extremely corrupt Eric Holder.
I am also covering this story on my blog: http://openthreads.wordpress.com/
I have two stories on Eric Holder. The second one covers the conference that was held recently and Holder's corruption was exposed. He is in it up to his ears, and it appears that he has links to both the Weather Underground as well as to the Cuban and South American terrorists. There is also a link back to Jeremiah Wright.
On a "Follow the money" line:
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Operation Gunrunner was funded by the 2009 Stimulus Package
7/7/2011 | Domandred
Posted on Thursday, July 07, 2011 10:06:47 AM by Domandred
Something about Project Gunrunner (gunwalker, fast and furious) has been bugging me but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
This morning when I woke up I remember seeing Project Gunrunner in a bill that was discussed here. The original thread about it was a rumor thread that HR45 had been rolled into the stimulus package.
In that thread I scanned the text of H.R.1 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for gun, firearm, etc and came up with a hit.
I posted in the thread: "Only time “gun” or “firearm” appears is in the part that give $10,000,000 to the ATF for Project Gunrunner. That was H.R. 495, asking for 15,000,000 for Gunrunner".
H.R. 495 that I mentioned never made it out of committee, but it looks as it was to specifically fund Gunrunner.
Instead portions of it were rolled into the stimulus package a month later. That text found in H.R.1 is:
For an additional amount for ‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance’, $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner.
Notice that's $40,000,000 for Southern border enforcement, $10,000,000 of which specifically for Project Gunrunner. What does $10 million pay for here? It didn't hire any new agents that I am aware of.
What this tells me is that several congressmen also had knowledge of what Gunrunner was going to entail. This isn't just the ATF and DOJ. This is all levels and areas of government. Even members of the House and Senate knew what Project Gunrunner was.
Very interesting!! I hope this thing grows legs.
Keep posting Bridget.
MORE FOLLOW THE MONEY
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, guess where funding for Project “Fast and Furious” “Gun Runner/Walker” came from? Oh, come on … You know where. Why, that whole ‘job creating’ Obama Stimulus, of course:
http://babalublog.com/2011/07/follow-the-money-th…
… You’ll be relieved to know the IRS is quietly dropping its probe into certain donors to nonprofit groups that spend millions on political ads. Thank goodness somebody down there is going to save some of those taxpayer dollars … er, I'm sorry revenue. Unfortunately the IRS didn't make it to all those George Soros funded groups and their political ad buying and agenda. Or maybe they did, and that's why they dropped the probe… I'm just sayin'.
UPDATE:
BREAKING: 43 Weapons in Phoenix Traffic Stop Linked to Holder’s Gunrunning Scandal
Gee, I sure hope nobody was racially profiled or asked if they were in the USA "legally" … That would be bad.
HT: Weasel Zippers
I hope this results in a tsunami of curiosity and investigation. There cannot be too much light thrown into this case.
Holder guilty of Perjury
from two years ago
http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech…
Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail.
yet before committee he claims knowing nothing
Bridget, you have done an incredible job on F & F. This may be the most important story this year and we cannot let it die.
Thank you very much. I’m still learning a lot about it and hopefully I’m getting most of it right. Please let me know if I have my facts wrong. I’m definitely going to stay on it.
What angers me is the term "Fast & Furious". Was it the 0bama Regime that gave it this title so it would be more confusing when Googled? That anyone wanting to learn more about it would get a bunch of MOVIE CRAP instead? Nice tactic huh?
This criminal event should be given it's original, UNIQUE name; GUNWALKER. This project makes Watergate look like a picnic outing.
This project not only rises to the level of a Watergate scandal, it far exceeds it because Americans died as a result of it. Countless Mexican citizens have died as well.
With the help of our State run media, watch this story eventually GO AWAY with no prosecutions whatsoever…