Project Gunwalker

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Iowahawk Satirizes Operation Fast And Furious

September 30, 2011 by

Iowahawk is one of the best satirists on the scene today. In a post he did today, he imagines a phone call between President Obama and a Mexican leader. The topic of Operation Fast and Furious comes up because the Mexican leader’s son was murdered by the drug cartels with a firearm provided by ATF. An excerpt is below but follow the link to read the whole thing.

Now, Juan, let’s not jump to conclusions here. We both know there are lots of machine gun murders in Mexico, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re all…

Yes, Juan, I got your messages. As a matter of fact that’s why I’m calling this afternoon. I’ve had my people look into this thing and…

Mmhmm.

Mmmhmm.

Now… now Juan… let’s just calm down here a minute. Just, okay.. okay… let me please explain, okay? See, the funny thing is, it turns out, a couple years back there was, well, this stimulus program money, and then there were these brainstorming sessions, where, well, there were some ideas what to do with it. So, anyhoo, one of the ideas that happened was, ‘hey, what if there were, say, 2000 machine guns that got sent to Mexican drug lords?’ and so forth.

Well no, of course we couldn’t tell you. It would have ruined the surprise.

Well, okay, I guess the gato is out of the ol’ bag-o. You know that drug cartel war problem you’ve been having? So, well, the idea was, hey, wouldn’t it be great if somehow we could put a trace on the machine guns, and then, surprise! It’d be a like a whole pinata full of drug lord information.

Mmhm.

Why? Well see, if we traced all the machine guns we gave to your drug lords, then we could all learn how your drug lords get their machine guns.

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A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

September 26, 2011 by

The picture above is a screen cap of The Drudge Report from this afternoon. It links to this Fox News story which is based upon work by David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh.

Maybe now the so-called elite media will pay attention given that it is the lead headline in The Drudge Report.

What the headline refers to is a letter signed by Phoenix AFT Group VII supervisor David Voth authorizing an FFL to transfer firearms to ATF Senior Agent John Dodson without requiring a Form 4473 and paid for with government funds. Read the Fox story but more importantly read both Mike and David. They have the proof in the form of the letter signed by Voth with the handwritten note from the dealer who filled the order.

Botched sting operation, my foot.

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Newell – “Could Have Been Clearer, More Complete, and More Direct”

September 22, 2011 by

Lori Jane Gliha of ABC15-New in Phoenix reports yesterday that former the SAC of the Phoenix Field Division Bill Newell now says his answers in the July hearing “could have been clearer, more complete, and more direct.” To that end, he and his attorney have released a 12-page document that they are calling supplemental testimony.

It is interesting that Newell has chosen now to release this supplemental statement given the release of audio tapes involving ATF Agent Hope McAllister and Lone Wolf Trading Company owner Andre Howard. I’m just speculating here but this statement seems to be an effort to get out in front of what is released in the tapes.

As it is, Newell is still trying defend Operation Fast and Furious in what is obviously a carefully crafted letter. He says that an errors were errors of omission rather than commission. He then makes the claim that ATF officials in Mexico and Mexican authorities were kept informed. This claim has been previously denied by both former ATF Attache Darren Gil and Mexican authorities. Finally, he goes on to say that he had no knowledge of any formal whistle-blowing until ATF Senior Agent John Dodson went public with Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News. I think this last claim is an attempt to protect himself against charges of retaliation against the whistle-blowers.

Newell’s letter is embedded below and can also be found here.

Newell Letter to Oversight Committee(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();

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Chuck Grassley On The Released Gunwalker Tapes

September 21, 2011 by 1 Comment

Sen. Chuck Grassley was interviewed by Ginny Simone of NRA News about the secret tape recordings of ATF Agent Hope McAllister and Lone Wolf Trading Co. owner Andre Howard. He made an interesting point that the tapes would need to be shared with the straw purchasing defendants under the Brady Rule at some point. However, he went on to say that the trials were a long way in the future and that due to that they shouldn’t have been shared with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona until then. As it is, he said, this will make their investigation harder.

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Where Is Rose Mary Woods When Holder Needs Her?

September 20, 2011 by

Rose Mary Woods was President Richard Nixon’s personal secretary. She was the one officially responsible for the infamous 18-minute gap in the Watergate tapes. Whether she was the one who accidentally erased the tape or whether it was really an accident will remain one of the unsolved mysteries of the Watergate affair.

Woods demonstrating how she accidentally erased the tape.

Given the newest batch of recordings released by Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News of ATF Agent Hope McAllister and gun store owner Andre Howard, Attorney General Eric Holder is probably wishing that a Miss Woods or a modern equivalent had erased these tapes.

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Watergate Redux

September 20, 2011 by

It was under questioning by Minority Counsel Fred Thompson at the Watergate hearings that presidential aide Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of tape recording devices in both the Oval Office and the President’s office in the Executive Office Building. These tapes provided the nail in the coffin to Nixon’s presidency.

Now more tapes are leaking out of the conversations between ATF agents and the owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company Andre Howard. These tapes seem to indicate a strong effort to conceal the details of Operation Fast and Furious as well as a strong disdain for Senator Grassley. The one item that was mentioned that I find particularly interesting was the assertion by ATF Agent Hope McAllister that she had a file that would cover her if the operation went sour. I wonder if she is still in possession of that file and, if so, have copies been provided to Congressional investigators.

The more  I see and read of Project Gunwalker the more it reminds me of Watergate. Of course, no one died in Watergate nor was the press complicit for the most part in hushing up the scandal.

The excerpts of the tape and transcript are from CBS News.
 

EXCERPT 1

Dealer: Question: do your people have any confidence that you can forestall subpoena? Or is it still up in the air?

Agent: No, my understanding is person, the only people that can request a congressional hearing has to be a majority party. Grassley is a Republican.

Dealer: I know.

Agent: And as of right now…

Dealer: In the Senate right.

Agent: Yeh. And as of right now we don’t have any interest from anybody in the majority party to the extent that he’s shown interest. So even if you wanted to at this point unless he gets CUTS OUT somebody from the majority party to jump on board, he can’t…

Dealer: Not on his own no but you know Leahy and rest of ’em these people are snakes, they’ll do anything they can…

Agent: My understanding also is that the Attorney General’s office is supposed to come out little bit stronger…um…

Dealer: I understand that.

Agent: position…which may or may not, um, you know, help.

Dealer: I’ll tell you what I’ll give him that, he’s got f—ing b—s making that statement. I don’t wanna even go there.

EXCERPT 2

Dealer: Until something else happens they’re not stupid, Hope, they connect the dots.

Agent: No and you know and all that’s fine if Senator Grassley wants to come in and tell us show us how to work these cases more efficiently more effectively by all means.

Dealer: Don’t think Grassley, think Leahy.

Agent: Well, him too. I… I welcome him to come down and work…

Dealer: He’s an arrogant b—–d

Agent: So is Grassley though

Dealer: Chuck probably and I don’t know a thing about him other than from somebody else I’ve heard seems to be just somebody who’s hitching his wagon to any star to.. for his own aggrandizement.

Agent: Yeh

Dealer: You know that. He’s an arrogant

Agent: Yeh

Dealer: individual. Look he’s a United States senator there it is right there.

EXCERPT 3

Agent: That’s kind of what my suggestion but nobody thought that was funny like if I were a P.I. I’d put him on Grassley, I’m sure there’s a lot would go away. Actually my one suggestion was just tell him in a registered Republican. I’m sure if he knew that everything would be fine, they didn’t like that either.

Dealer: Well.

Agent: Alright.

Dealer: You gotta be, watch your back. I don’t trust these people around you one bit. You’ve been very lucky so far.

Agent: Again I’ll be more than happy to talk to somebody, they won’t let me, but more than happy to talk to anybody about the decisions we made.

Dealer: Hope, stay off the screen. You don’ t need this sh–. Neither does your husband.

Agent: Believe me I have…

Dealer: You gotta have a f—–g life man.

Agent: I have a file and…

Dealer: shhh

Agent: It’s all, it’s all public stuff I dont’ care.

Dealer: Well don’t even convey it in that. I’m sure you do. Hopefully this thing will subside…

Agent: You keep saying that but ?

Dealer: I know.

Dealer: You and I both know how bad it’s gonna get I won’t bull—t you you don’t bull—t me

Agent: Ha ha.

Dealer: my a– is up here and yours is here here but you’re covered I’m out in the open

Agent: Ha ha.

Dealer: God.