Project Gunwalker

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Biggest Failures Of His Tenure?

October 21, 2014 by 1 Comment

Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder named as the biggest failure of his tenure – the lack of more gun control. Moreover, it “weighs heavily” on his mind.

“I think the inability to pass reasonable gun safety laws after the Newtown massacre is something that weighs heavily on my mind,” Holder said during an interview aired on CNN.

I can think of things that should weigh heavier on his mind like 300 dead Mexican nationals and 2 Federal law enforcement officer. And as Katie Pavlich reports, Project Gunwalker AKs were still being found at Arizona crime scenes as late as 2013.

Holder goes on to say:

“And the thought that we could not translate that horror into reasonable — I mean, really reasonable gun safety measures that were supported by the vast majority of the American people is for me something that I take personally as a failure,” he said, “and something that I think we as a society should take as a failure, a glaring failure, that I hope will ultimately be rectified.”

While Holder may look upon this as a failure, those of us who believe that 20,000 existing gun control laws is more than enough (and less would be better) would look upon it as one of the few accomplishments of his reign at DOJ. If Holder really wants to look at failures, he should look at how his tenure at Justice has politicized that department far and above anything that could have been dreamed up by Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell.

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Comment Of The Day

June 17, 2014 by

The comment of the day comes from an editorial in Investor’s Business Daily. The subject of the editorial was the supposedly lost emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner. She is the IRS official who “took the Fifth” before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee with regard to her actions against Tea Party groups. Lerner has also been charged with contempt of Congress but the prosecution of that charge would have to come from the Department of Justice run by Eric Holder.

With regard to Holder, the editorial had this to say:

As in Watergate, more than a few individuals warrant prosecution and incarceration. But that would have to come from Eric Holder’s Justice Department, an organization shown to be as corrupt as the IRS.

Watergate’s John Mitchell was the first attorney general to be convicted and imprisoned due to illegal activities. We suggest that he shouldn’t be the last.

I quite agree. I can think of many reasons that Attorney General Eric Holder should be tried but first and foremost among them would have to be Operation Fast and Furious. Unlike Watergate, two Federal law enforcement officers and over 300 Mexican nationals have been murdered as a result of those guns walked by ATF agents. 

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I Wonder Where He Got That AK-47

February 26, 2014 by 3 Comments

Making the headlines this past weekend was the capture of Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman by Mexican marines in a joint US-Mexico operation. What caught my eye in the story of how they got Guzman was this little detail.

“He had an AK-47 next to the bed. When the Mexican marines entered the condominium, he was still asleep,” said Michael Vigil, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who says he was briefed on the raid. “They used the element of surprise, and he did not have a chance to react and seize his weapon.”

Guzman had an assault rifle and ammunition close by when Mexican marines broke into the apartment in a “surgical” operation, the Mexican official said.

What makes this detail so intriguing is that so many of the AKs “walked” to Mexico during Operation Fast and Furious ended up in Sinaloa Cartel hands. Indeed, the cartel’s logistics head who is in US custody, Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, has argued in court filings that the walked guns were meant to arm the Sinaloa Cartel in their fight with their rivals.

You have to wonder if that AK-47 was a walked firearm and, if so, will the serial numbers be sent to BATFE for tracing. For some reason, I think while the Justice Department is quite pleased that they “got Shorty”, I don’t think they will ever want that particular AK-47s serial numbers traced. The answer might not be to their liking.

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A Missing Third Fast And Furious Rifle?

January 22, 2014 by

Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News reports that the Department of Justice’s Inspector General is looking into the existence of a three firearm found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder.

In a new development in the Fast and Furious gunwalking case, the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) is making inquiries into the possible existence of a missing third weapon in the 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, CBS News has learned. According to sources close to the investigation, the IG is questioning the Border Patrol’s evidence collection team this week in Tucson, Ariz.

The Justice Department, which oversees ATF and the FBI – and which is investigating Terry’s murder – has steadfastly denied the existence of a third gun. Court records have previously only mentioned two weapons: Romanian WASR AK-47 type rifles found at Terry’s southern Arizona murder scene on Dec. 14, 2010. Both weapons were sold to suspects who were under ATF’s watch in the agency’s controversial gunwalking case. Also, a ballistics report only mentions the two WASR rifles and states that it’s inconclusive as to whether either of them fired the bullet that killed Terry.

 The missing third rifle from the Fast and Furious murder scene is thought to be a SKS carbine which also shoots the 7.62×39 cartridge. Secret recordings made of meetings between ATF Agent Hope McAllister and Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company, referenced such a rifle.

In the audiotapes, ATF’s lead agent on Fast and Furious, Hope MacAllister, tells Howard that a third weapon recovered at the Terry murder scene is an SKS rifle. It’s unclear why a weapon would be absent from the evidence disclosed at the crime scene under FBI jurisdiction. If it’s proven to exist, sources familiar with the investigation say it would imply possible evidence-tampering for unknown reasons.

DOJ denied its existence back in 2011 and neither the DOJ or the Inspector General’s Office is willing to answer questions about this possible third murder weapon.

I’m glad to see that Sharyl Attkisson is keeping on the case and not letting it fade away as many in Washington seem willing to do.

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John Dodson On His New Book

December 12, 2013 by

BATFE Senior Agent John Dodson was interviewed about his new book and Operation Fast and Furious on Cam & Company on Monday. It is an interesting interview which touched upon not only Fast and Furious but the culture within BATFE that led to using developmentally disabled individuals as middlemen.

I just picked up a copy of his book The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious at my local Sam’s Club. I am looking forward to reading it between now and the New Year.

I’m glad to see it on the shelves at Sam’s Club because this means both the book and the scandal will get more exposure. I spoke with one of the product demonstrators at Sam’s who noticed the book in my cart. She was shocked when I told her the story behind Fast and Furious as she had never heard anything about it in the news.

It is a good interview and it flows right along. I suggest listening to the whole thing.

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The Third Event

May 22, 2013 by 2 Comments



Yesterday I said things happen in groups of three and wondered when we’d be hearing that CBS New Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson was targeted. Well, that didn’t take long!


It was revealed in Politico today that her personal and work computers have been compromised and the incident is under investigation.

“I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some
investigation on my end for some months but I’m not prepared to make an
allegation against a specific entity today as I’ve been patient and
methodical about this matter,” Attkisson told POLITICO on Tuesday. “I
need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on
info we make public.”

And when did she first notice this intrusion? It was in February 2011 which is when she began working on the Operation Fast and Furious story. According to her interview with WPHT Philadelphia, she was also working on a story about green energy spending by the Obama Administration.

I realize that correlation is not causation. However, it does seem very strange to me that right after Sharyl Attkisson starts work on a big story such as Project Gunwalker, her computers are compromised. When you add in the targeting of William LaJeunesse of Fox News, it gets even stranger.

You wonder if her post on CleanUpATF.org was the trigger or was it something more sinister such as the surveillance of bloggers Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea who passed the story on to her. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but the timing is too coincidental and the topic too sensitive for the Obama Administration.

UPDATE: In an article in Commentary Magazine, Jonathan Tobin calls the attack on the press a fundamental attack on democracy. He discusses both Sharyl and William LaJeunesse.

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Happening In Threes

May 20, 2013 by 1 Comment

It is often said that things, especially bad things, happen in threes. I wonder if that will be true of disclosures about Project Gunwalker.

The first thing that happened is that the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Justice released a report saying that former US Attorney for the District of Arizona Dennis Burke had leaked a sensitive document to the press with the intention of undermining the credibility of ATF Senior Agent John Dodson. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) blasted this in a release earlier today.

The second thing that happened was the revelation that the Department of Justice targeted two FoxNews reporters and one producer. While much of the attention is about their targeting of Fox’s Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen, what caught my attention was that they also targeted William LaJeunesse. You may remember that LaJeunesse was one of two mainstream reporters who reported extensively on Operation Fast and Furious.

I’m now wondering if we will soon find out that the DOJ was also targeting CBS’s  Emmy-award winning Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. She not only was the lead mainstream reporter on Project Gunwalker but has also made the White House’s shit list over her reporting on the Benghazi scandal.

You know I wouldn’t be surprised given the Obama Administration.

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Subtle Reminder From Sharyl Attkisson

January 13, 2013 by 3 Comments

The lead story on this morning’s CBS Sunday Morning was a report by Sharyl Attkisson about bribes and corruption within the US Customs and Border Protection. Narco-terrorists and illegal immigrant smugglers have been targeting CBP agents in an effort to have them turn a blind eye to smuggling of both drugs and humans. Since 2004, there have been 358 convictions of Customs and Border Patrol employees and their associates for this. Of course this is an important story and I’m glad Sharyl is on it.

However, that is not what I want to discuss. Instead it is a rather subtle reminder – intentional or unintentional – that was embedded in the story about Project Gunwalker. Just before a graphic came up showing the DHS Office of Inspector General’s report on the corruption convictions, the camera focused for approximately three seconds on the sign below.

Sharyl and her producers could have used any Border Patrol Station between Imperial Beach, California and Brownsville, Texas or any Ports-of-Entry from San Ysidro, California to Brownsville, Texas. Rather they chose the one Border Patrol Station that would remind observant viewers of Operation Fast and Furious. I can’t believe this is just a coincidence.

As it is, the Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station is a constant reminder that Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in the line of duty with firearms that were allowed to be smuggled to Mexico by the Department of Justice and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. It is also a reminder that while his killers have pled guilty to his murder, the Obama Administration is still sitting on thousands upon thousands of documents that may well point to complicity in the operation by those at the highest levels of the Justice Department. Finally, it is a reminder that BATFE managers such as former Phoenix FD SAC Bill Newell and his ASAC George Gillett still haven’t been fired and/or indicted for their role in this affair.

Thank you Sharyl for this reminder lest we forget.

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This Billboard Should Be Across The Street From The White House

October 17, 2012 by 3 Comments

A group called MurderedMexicans.org is sponsoring a billboard that asks “Who cares about a few hundred” murdered Mexicans. I don’t know if they have other billboards up but the one below is in Clovis, New Mexico on S. Prince Street. This picture comes from a post on CleanUpATF.org.

This website along with its Spanish language version lays out the details of Operation Fast and Furious. It urges people to call their Congressman but especially those on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It says to thank those asking the tough questions of ATF and the Justice Department and to ask those defending Attorney General Eric Holder “why they are defending such a despicable person”.

Not having heard of this group, I checked Network Solutions and their Whois tool and found that the website was registered in March of 2012 to Charles Abernathy.

An Internet search turns up a story from the Portales News-Tribune about Abernathy and the billboard.

Charles Abernathy, 47, said the website is a grassroots effort to
hold those responsible for the Fast and Furious fiasco, in which a
border patrol official was killed.


He said the “murdered Mexicans” refers to the hundreds who were killed by weapons supplied to Mexican Drug Cartel leaders through a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms sting.


Abernathy said he chose the words for their shock value.


“I’m sure some people are offended,” said Abernathy, an oil field truck
driver from Houston. “I think if they use that and end up doing research
over the issues. …. This is what I’m trying to accomplish; people
don’t know about this and now they do.”

The story points out that some in Clovis were offended by the billboard until they went to the website. They do wish he’d chosen his wording a little differently. Abernathy is also paying for digital billboards in Odessa and Lubbock, Texas. He says it is a grassroots effort and he is paying for it out of his own pocket.

 More power to people like Charles Abernathy who put their money behind their convictions.