Project Gunwalker

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Project Gunwalker – Let’s Go To The Tape

September 19, 2011 by 1 Comment

Andre Howard of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, AZ is not stupid. After being forced to cooperate with the ATF agents runnings Operation Fast and Furious, he took the smart step to record some of his conversations with one of the lead agents in the operation, ATF Agent Hope McAllister.

These tapes have been turned over by Mr. Howard to the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General and to Congressional investigators. In the tape below obtained by Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, Howard and McAllister are discussing the third firearm that turned up at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder. The transcript of the tape can be found on the CBS News website above.

If you may recall, President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich have all said that that the DOJ Office of Inspector General should be the lead investigator into whether there was any wrongdoing in Operation Fast and Furious. Sharyl Attkisson reports today that the OIG is reported to have passed these tapes along to one of the subjects of the investigation – the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona.

Law enforcement sources and others close to the Congressional investigation say the Justice Department’s Inspector General obtained the audio tapes several months ago as part of its investigation into Fast and Furious.

Then, the sources say for some reason the Inspector General passed the tapes along to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona: a subject in the investigation. It’s unclear why the Inspector General, who is supposed to investigate independently, would turn over evidence to an entity that is itself under investigation. The Inspector General’s office had no immediate comment.

I am speculating here but one explanation as to why OIG turned over evidence to the U.S. Attorney’s Office would be so as to coach their testimony whether before OIG investigators or before Congressional investigators.

The role of OIG in this investigation is and has been tainted from the very start. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) recognized this early on which is why he called for an assignment to an outside Inspector General in a letter to the head of Integrity Committee of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency back in March.

UPDATE: The DOJ OIG sent a response to CBS on why the tapes were given to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona:

A spokesman from the Office of the Inspector General today said, “The OIG officially provided the United States Attorney’s Office with a copy of the recordings in question so that the USAO could consider them in connection with the government’s disclosure obligations in the pending criminal prosecutions of the gun traffickers. Prior to receiving the tapes, the OIG made clear that we would have to provide a copy of the recordings to the United States Attorney’s Office because they would need to review them to satisfy any legal disclosure obligations.”

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Quote Of The Day

September 16, 2011 by

Investor’s Business Daily has been running some very hard hitting editorials on Project Gunwalker. The latest published this evening is entitled Alcohol, Tobacco, and Murder and included this conclusion.

The administration that has given us “cash for clunkers” has also given us “guns for gangs” in a cynical attempt to foment violence in Mexico for which the U.S. gets blamed in pursuance of its gun-control agenda.

As bad as the crony capitalism of funding insolvent green energy companies in exchange for political contributions might be, no one died at Solyndra. As we’ve said, if the president knew, he should be held accountable.

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Quote Of The Day No. 2

September 13, 2011 by 1 Comment

Kurt Hofmann, the St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner, takes the mainstream media to task over their continued characterization of Operation Fast and Furious as “botched gun sting”. His article titled, “Let’s be clear–the only thing ‘botched’ in ‘Project Gunwalker’ was the cover-up”, examines why the operation was never about tracking guns. He concludes:

To allow the characterization of “Project Gunwalker” as a “botched sting operation” to go unchallenged is to give the perpetrators near (or at?) the very top of the Obama government a free pass on the utter evil of this monstrosity, and allow “gun control” apologists to blame it on desperation stemming from “weak U.S. gun laws,” because of the “gun lobby.”

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Quote Of The Day No. 1

September 13, 2011 by

Mayor Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayors are up in arms over the prospect of H.R. 822 – the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 – passing Congress. So much so that they have started a new website and commissioned another push poll whose results, to be frank, aren’t all that good for the gun prohibitionists.

However, Bob Owens – Confederate Yankee – asks the most pertinent question regarding Bloomberg and MAIG.

Isn’t it interesting that Bloomberg and the largely Democratic MAIG have all the time in the world to disparage lawful citizens, but can’t seem to come together to issue such much as a strongly worded statement again the Obama Administration, elements of which have walked more than 2,000 guns to drug cartels and allowed convicted felons to buy guns in the Midwest?

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Issa-Grassley Letter Demands Info From White House On Project Gunwalker

September 9, 2011 by

Sharyl Attkisson reported a few minutes ago that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have sent a letter today to National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon requesting e-mails and other information from three current or former White House staffers.

The staffers are: Kevin O’Reilly, former Director of North American Affairs, National Security Council; Dan Restrepo, Special Assistant to the President, National Security Council; and Greg Gatjanis, Director for Terrorist Finance and Counternarcotics, Counterterrorism Policy, National Security Council.

The information requests were made after revelations that ATF’s Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix during Fast and Furious, William Newell, “provided regular updates to Kevin O’Reilly” at the White House…”as early as the summer of 2010.” The emails indicate O’Reilly asked to share information about Fast and Furious with Restrepo and Gatjanis.

In addition to the new documents request, the Congressional Republicans also requested to interview O’Reilly by the end of this month.

The White House is denying all prior knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious according to a statement from an “unnamed” White House official.

“As has already been reported, the emails referenced in this letter affirm that no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk. To the extent that some NSS staffers were briefed on the toplines of ongoing federal efforts, so were members of Congress. The Washington Post reported that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa received a Fast and Furious briefing in April of 2010. These types of top-line briefings would not include a discussion of the investigative tactics like gun-walking. These e-mail exchanges show nothing more than an effort to give local color to a policy initiative that was designed to give more resources to help with the border problem. They don’t even contain the name “Fast and Furious” until February 2011, after the indictment was unsealed.”

If you have been following Mike Vanderboegh’s reports on Sipsey Street Irregulars, you know that he has had Dan Restrepo in his sights since the Spring. Today he gave some more background on him from his time as a staffer for former Rep. Lee Hamilton. As Mike notes about Restrepo’s reputation,

He has been described by sources who know him as “ruthless,” “amoral,” and a “f-cking political thug” who would “sell his mother or stab his father” if he thought he could thereby get ahead.

Just the kind of loyal political functionary to carry out a sensitive, secret operation like the Gunwalker Plot.

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Weapon Linked To Fast And Furious

September 9, 2011 by

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich backtracked last week and said only three weapons have been found at violent crime scenes in the U.S. that could be linked to Operation Fast and Furious. Unfortunately, two of those were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder.


Lori Jean Gliha seems to be a rather tenacious reporter in Phoenix and she filed the report below. She has also linked almost 50 Project Gunwalker firearms to other crimes in Arizona.

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Is A Second Front Opening

September 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

Mike Vanderboegh has been calling for a “Second Front” in the investigation into Project Gunwalker.

The selective release of the emails proves that the Obamanoids are now in full damage control mode, for as Ben Franklin quoted Samuel Johnson, “Nothing concentrates the mind so wonderfully as the prospect of being hung in morning.”

That same sentiment can work for the investigation into the truth of the matter, for once some of these malefactors are put on the Congressional hot seat under oath they will more reason to come clean. Let’s face it, not enough questions are being asked of too few people who were at the genesis of this scandal, and if that pace continues some of the malefactors will die of old age before they face justice.

So, it is time to open a second front, or even a third front, on the search for truth in the Gunwalker Plot. As before, since the beginning, this will have to be from the bottom up.

By a Second Front he means hearings by other committees such as the House Judiciary Committee or the House Foreign Affairs Committee as they would have jurisdiction over the Justice Deparment and transnational arms smuggling respectively.

A Second Front may be opening due to pressure from what I would consider an unexpected source – Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

According to an article in the Arizona Daily Star of Tucson, McCain has sent a letter to Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME), Chairman and Ranking Member respectively of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asking for committee hearings into Operation Fast and Furious.

In a letter sent Wednesday, McCain said additional information released about the operation last week warrants a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of which McCain is a member.

“The committee should hold a meeting as soon as possible to examine these new revelations and determine what additional measures are needed to help prevent this type of malfeasance from occurring again,” McCain wrote in a letter addressed to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The veteran Arizona Senator is asking for the committee to call the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder; the Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano; and the ATF’s acting director, B. Todd Jones; as witnesses.

A PDF of the letter can be found here.

I am anxious to see what comes of this push by McCain to have hearing on Project Gunwalker in the Senate. While I think the Senate Judiciary Committee is probably a lost cause given the chairmanship of Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), this committee may hold some promise. Lieberman broke from the Democratic ranks to support John McCain for President in 2008 and given he has said he isn’t running for re-election he has nothing to lose by going after Obama and Holder. It will be interesting.

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Holder Continues To Deny Involvement In Project Gunwalker

September 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

Attorney General Eric Holder continues to deny any involvement in Operation Fast and Furious according to a report from the Reuters News Service.

“The notion that somehow or other that this thing reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that, at this point, I don’t think is supported by the facts,” Holder told reporters.

I wonder just what Mr. Holder considers the upper levels of the Justice Department. I don’t think there is much debate among informed observers that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden were not involved in some capacity.

Holder goes on to claim that the investigations by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as well as the work of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are politically motivated.

Holder questioned whether the congressional probe, led by Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate, was politically motivated.

He admitted it was a “flawed enforcement effort,” but said, “my hope would be that Congress will conduct an investigation that is factually based and not marred with politics.”

There is nothing that is NOT political in Washington and Holder well knows it. The very effort to use guns walked to Mexico as a pretext for more gun control was political.

As to my response to Attorney General Holder’s denial that he and other upper level executives in the Justice Department were not involved at some level in Project Gunwalker, it is below.

BS Flag gif
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Justice Backtracks On Number Of Fast And Furious Guns Involved In Violent Crimes

September 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

In a letter sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich is backtracking on the number of firearms from Project Gunwalker that have been found at U.S. violent crime scenes. Previously, the Justice Department said these walked firearms had been found at the scene of 11 violent crimes in the United States. Now according to this letter, Weich is saying they combined the number of U.S. and Mexican guns traced into the number reported to Congress by mistake.

Weich is now saying that except for the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry that “ATF is aware of only one instance where a firearm associated with Operation Fast and Furious was traced and coded as recovered in connection with a crime of violence in the United States.”

Why does one get the feeling that anytime Assistant AG Ron Weich opens his mouth that he will seek to confuse, obfuscate, or otherwise parse what he has said in the past?

Lori Jean Gliha, a local reporter for ABC15 in Phoenix, has been following the firearms that were walked to crimes in Arizona for months now.

We uncovered official documents showing nearly 50 guns connected to the Fast and Furious case were also recovered at the scenes of non-violent Glendale and Phoenix crimes.

All of the non-violent cases involve drug-related offenses.

Notwithstanding Weich’s retraction, 2 Federal law enforcement officers and an estimated 15-200 Mexicans have been killed with firearms traced to Operation Fast and Furious. Gliha reports that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had this response to the retraction.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been a leader in the Congressional investigation into the controversial Fast and Furious case said he was not surprised by the new information.

“The Justice Department has been less than forthcoming since day one, so the revisions here are hardly surprising, and the numbers will likely rise until the more than 1000 guns that were allowed to fall into the hands of bad guys are recovered-most likely years down the road.”

Unfortunately, Sen. Grassley is correct. These walked guns will keep showing up for years to come.

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Quote Of The Day

September 5, 2011 by

Sebastian at Snowflakes In Hell writing about Operation Fast and Furious and the most recent revelations which seem to indicate that it goes beyond merely an attempt to build support for more domestic gun control:

I should say, if this scandal gets into cloak and dagger territory, it will really speak to the incompetence of this administration. If you’re going to go that route, do you really want to leave a key component of your strategy in the hands of…. ATF? I’d like to think no one would be that foolish.