Mike Vanderboegh

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About Those Big Fish The ATF Was Pursuing…

March 25, 2012 by

Ostensibly the purpose of ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious was to use the little fish (aka straw purchasers)as a means to reach the big fish of the Mexican drug cartels. After it came out last week that the ATF let Manuel Celis-Acosta, ringleader of the illegal gun buyers, off when they had him in custody at the US-Mexican border, we now learn that the so-called big fish were informants for the FBI.

According to DEA and Congressional reports, the two men were the primary cartel contacts used to finance the illegal gun trafficking ring. Jim Needles, the assistant Agent in Charge of the Phoenix ATF office estimated the brothers spent $250,000 on guns tracked by his agency while conducting Operation Fast and Furious. Needles called it “a disappointment” the FBI didn’t bother to tell his agency of the connection.

“You are getting at the very basis of this investigation,” Senator Charles Grassley said Friday.

“But I have to wait till we have all the information before we bring down the hammer.”

Grassley first revealed in September 2011 the FBI, knew, but failed to tell the ATF, it’s informants were part of the gun trafficking ring. Then in February, Grassley called them “the big fish” ATF had been looking for the entire time.

Both the FBI and DEA know the Miramontes brothers’ role and identity, but declined to tell the ATF during a “deconfliction” meeting Dec. 15, 2009. Nor did either agency speak up at any of the joint meetings all three agencies attended of the Southwest Border Initiative. The DEA and ATF’s Group 7 shared the same floor of the same building and the same ‘wire room’ to listen to wiretaps of suspects.

Eventually and under pressure, the FBI invited top ATF officials to a classified briefing in El Paso in the late summer of 2010 and described the Eduardo and Jesus Miramontes as “a national security assets”. The two men were “off limits, untouchable and indictable” said a source familiar with the briefing.

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

Mike Vanderboegh offers this analysis of the news:

Is it becoming clearer? Black operations are compartmentalized. The only thing that is required is the ability to deflect interest from other agencies and supervisors within a given agency who might be meddlesome. “National security” goes a long way. What is also required are back-channel means of communication and control. Can you say from “old friends” like the State Department’s Kevin O’Reilly serving on the National Security Council and “Gunwalker Bill” Newell in Phoenix? I knew you could. And remember the one thing in Phoenix which would be required would be someone in control who could issue the proper orders and put them in a nice legal-looking frame — Janet Napolitano’s lickspittle, anti-gun zealot Dennis K. Burke. Personnel is policy.

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich is leading a counter-attack by accusing Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and their investigators of “impeding the Department’s efforts to hold individuals accountable for their illegal acts.” Moreover, as David Codrea notes, Weich’s objections center around the fact that ATF knew Manuel Celis-Acosta was trafficking in firearms and still let him go despite that knowledge. His attempt at deflection on the leaks coming from the Department of Justice is a day late and a dollar short given what we now know.

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Even In The ICU He Does More Than The Mainstream Media

March 15, 2012 by

David Codrea has this update on Mike Vanderboegh’s condition after his surgery on Tuesday. The mainstream media (Sharyl Attkisson and William LaJeunesse excepted) should be ashamed that they are still being outrun by an old guy in an ICU hospital bed on Operation Fast and Furious.

I just got off the phone with him. He’s sitting up now. He’s also feeling the effects of the medications, but is lucid, engaged and interested in knowing what’s going on. He passed on some Gunwalker-related info I can’t go into (yet), but it shows even from his hospital bed in ICU he continues to shame the major media.

I started to recommend he take it easy, that the fight will still be here for him to return to when he recovers, and then stopped myself and acknowledged to him that fight is what invigorates and keeps ornery cusses like us going.

He was happy to hear about the well-wishes and prayers from many of you.

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“This Was Purely A Political Operation” – Judson Phillips, Tea Party Nation

March 13, 2012 by

Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, was interviewed on FoxNews this morning about his group’s call for the GOP leaders to get moving again on Operation Fast and Furious. He disagreed with Fox’s Jamie Colby that this was a botched sting operation. Instead, he said “this was purely a political operation” meant to increase support for gun control in the United States.

When asked specifically what he wanted GOP leaders to do, Phillips said, “I want them to get more aggressive on this and get more aggressive with the Obama Administration.”

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

The Joyce Foundation-funded Media Matters said of the Fox interview that Phillips was a “right wing extremist” who “spent the interview promoting the right-wing conspiracy theory that Fast and Furious was a plot to promote gun control instead of a failed law enforcement investigation.” Mike Vanderboegh, as might be expected, had a diametrically opposite view of the interview. He had more to say on the GOP leadership and Project Gunwalker in this earlier post.

Speaking of Mike, please keep him and his family in your prayers. He will be operated on tomorrow for a gastrointestinal stromal tumor or GIST. From what Mike has written, they don’t know for sure if this tumor is benign or malignant and won’t know until the pathologists test it. Either way, it is serious stuff.

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Under The Bus?

January 5, 2012 by 1 Comment

David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh put up posts last night indicating that three ATF managers implicated in Project Gunwalker have been relieved of their duties in advance of the Office of Inspector General report. It is also in advance of Eric Holder’s appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on February 2nd.

According to reports they received, William Hoover, Mark Chait, and William McMahon have been sidelined pending the outcome of the OIG report. From the Gun Rights Examiner:

William Hoover, ATF’s Deputy Director during Fast and Furious, who was recently reassigned as Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office, Assistant Director in Charge of Field Operations Mark Chait, likewise reassigned as head of the Baltimore Field Office, and Deputy Assistant Director of Field Operations William McMahon have reportedly been sidelined pending the outcome of the anticipated report from the Office of Inspector General. Debbie Bullock a mid-level manager has reportedly been advised that she is now the acting SAC for Baltimore, and will assume Chait’s functions.

As they note, this would indicate that they are implicated in the OIG report – which is supposed to be confidential – and that Eric Holder wants to appear before Darrell Issa on February 2nd saying we’ve cleaned things up. Again, from David:

Disciplinary actions could take momentum away from that (a Special Prosecutor). Sources tell Gun Rights Examiner and Sipsey Street Irregulars that “ATF is going to follow the long-awaited OIG report to a ‘t’: If OIG says XX gets terminated, they are going to terminate.” That this would be treated as a personnel matter, subject to disciplinary procedures, as opposed to a criminal matter, subject to prosecution was the topic of a recent post in this column.

Left unsaid is why these three have been singled out prior to the OIG report being submitted, particularly since their sharing findings with the Department of Justice and ATF subjects of their investigation would violate all principles of independence from influence. If that did not happen, a fair conclusion to assume would be that the process of the investigation itself led those answering questions and providing documentation to an inevitable conclusion. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa wrote a December 7 column claiming Attorney General Eric Holder, scheduled to testify again on February 2, was “protecting staff over ‘Fast and Furious’.”

This latest reported development lends itself to the observation that Holder is protecting something else, and that this is a tactical move in anticipation of the report’s release and his next trip to the Hill.

Do these mid-level managers need to go? Sure but they were not the ones who dreamed this whole debacle up in the first place. It was way above their pay grade and level of Machiavellian intrigue.

Conspiculously missing from this list are Ken Melson, George Gillett, David Voth, and Bill Newell. You have to wonder why?

UPDATE: Jeremy Pelofsky of Reuters reports on the changes in the Chicago Tribune here.  No mention of either David or Mike.

However, the Federal law enforcement webpage, ticklethewire.com, covers it and gives credit for breaking the story to Sipsey Street. They also have the statement given by Scot Thomasson of ATF concerning the changes:

“Taking into consideration the depth and breadth of the Fast and Furious investigation a decision to detail ATF Deputy Assistant Director William McMahon, Special Agents in Charge William Hoover and Mark Chait from operational positions with oversight responsibilities to non-operational positions was made by the Deputy Director Thomas Brandon. These new assignments will remain in effect pending the outcome of the OIG investigation.”

They also notice that all three had been moved once before as a result of Project Gunwalker.

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Quote Of The Day

November 8, 2011 by

Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to testify today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to advanced copies of his written testimony, he is expected to say we need more gun control, that Operation Fast and Furious would not have happened if we had stronger gun control, and that the Republicans in Congress are being irresponsible regarding Project Gunwalker.

Mike Vanderboegh’s response to this and an AP headline about the hearing is priceless.

My favorite headline: Holder on ‘Fast and Furious’: Never again.

“Never again”!?!? Eric Holder taking the pledge on gunwalking is like Reinhard Heydrich swearing off Holocausts or Jeffrey Dahmer announcing that he is an enthusiastic convert to vegetarianism. Like every other criminal, Holder’s not sorry he committed the crime (in his case to advance the gun control agenda), but he’s damn sorry he got caught.

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Sunday Morning Hodge-Podge

October 16, 2011 by

I normally don’t watch CBS’s Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer because he drives me nuts. Today, I will make an exception. The topic for discussion will be on Project Gunwalker.

Coming Up on Face the Nation

Topic: “Fast and Furious” gunwalker case
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Chairman, Oversight & Government Reform Committee

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Ranking Member, Oversight & Government Reform Committee

Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News Investigative Correspondent

It airs at 10:30 am Eastern. As they say, check your local listings for times in your area.

I don’t think I can overstate the importance of this. Face The Nation along with NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, and Fox’s Fox News Sunday is the type of program where major issues are discussed with the aim of influencing policymakers. Usually the topics revolve around taxes, jobs, the economy, and war. To have them discuss Project Gunwalker is evidence that at least CBS News is recognizing that it is a critical scandal for the Obama Administration. Moreover, it also makes it harder for the rest of the mainstream media to keep burying the story.

In gun blogging news, it is time to welcome a new gun blog called Shall Not Be Questioned. It really isn’t so much a new blog as a rebranded blog. It is the old Snowflakes In Hell blog with a new name, new look, and a new feel. That said, it will still be a gun blog run by Sebastian. He has this to say about why he is making the change.

But the biggest change you’ll probably notice, unless I can’t make my idea for it work (I’m a horrible graphic artist), is a name change for the blog. With the exception of the name, and a new look and feel, it’ll be the same blog. Same posts, same archives, and same comments as always. If links worked before, they’ll still work. I am looking at implementing a few requested enhancements people asked for.

I picked the name “Snowflakes in Hell” hastily, never thinking I’d keep this up. Ever since I passed the 1000 visitors a day mark, I’ve hated it. I’ve also hated it when I introduce myself as a blogger, and I get a weird look from the uninitiated when I tell them the name. Rather than talking about the blog, I get to spend the first 10 minutes explaining the name. I’ve also, rather humorously, heard people that did not know I was Sebastian mention they found something on this site “Snowflakes in Hell,” but they didn’t understand what kind of site it was. With my name and theme, who can blame them? I want a theme and a name that draws people in. I think a more relevant name and theme will be necessary to take this blog to the next level, and continue to grow my audience, and improve my brand.

I’ve updated by my gun blog links here to reflect the changeover. Having visited Shall Not Be Questioned, I think Sebastian has done a masterful job with the new look and feel. The typeface and background give it a Colonial period look which says to me the fight for freedom has been going on for over two hundred years.

Good luck to Sebastian and Bitter with the “new” blog.

Finally, over at Sipsey Street Irregulars, Mike Vanderboegh has a post on selective White House document releases. It appears to be an effort to shift blame for gunwalking back to the Bush Administration. However, it looks like it will end up rebounding on them.

You know, the best disinformation is a lie wrapped in a kernel of truth. Recall that early on the DOJ floated the excuse that “gun walking” was all Newell’s idea. We pooh-poohed that at the time, saying that Newell did not have the authority to make this multi-jurisdictional anti-law enforcement cluster coital situation happen.

But the Obama flacks knew what they were talking about, as far as it went.

Gunwalking WAS Bill Newell’s idea, and nobody knew that better than the people he sold the idea to.

And now, thanks to the desperate and incompetent folks at the White House scandal deflection team, we have more details of the early experiences of William “Gunwalker Bill” Newell, the guy who sold the whole idea to the people in the White House — who then began to make things happen to try to make the Ninety Percent Myth come true.

Make sure to read the whole post. It ties a lot of stuff together.

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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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Quote Of The Day

July 12, 2011 by 1 Comment

Those defending the new ATF multiple-rifle reporting requirement for the Southwest border states say it will give law enforcement another (needed) tool with which to fight straw purchases and gun smuggling to Mexico.

Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars who broke the story on Project Gunwalker with David Codrea has this to say about the need for new “tools”.

Ironic, ain’t it? It is as if the ATF is admitting that it was incompetent (deliberately or otherwise) in the Gunwalker Scandal and was having trouble keeping track of their cartel straw buyers so now they insist that the FFLs who previously tried voluntarily to help them, now must help them.

When the idea was first proposed, many ATF agents on CleanUpATF.org noted they were already drowning in paper and this would just make it even worse. If anything, it would cause information overload and induce decision paralysis.

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Hey! I Know That “Online Journalist”

July 9, 2011 by

Mike Vanderboegh was interviewed for a report on FoxNews that appeared on Special Report with Bret Baier this evening. He discussed the expansion of Project Gunwalker to Tampa and Houston. Mike appears at the :48 mark and the 1:21 mark. From what Mike said on his blog, his actual interview was a half hour and it was distilled down to this.

Rather than identifying Mike as a blogger, the caption under his name was “Online Journalist”. Whatever floats Fox’s boat. While I think blogger is a perfectly good and honorable title (and one I like), if I had to choose a fancy title for myself I think I’ll go with “Online Commentator”.

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

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TV Worth Watching!

July 8, 2011 by

David Codrea just sent out an alert that Mike Vanderboegh will be on FoxNews this evening. Mike will be appearing on Special Report with Bret Baier that airs at 6pm EDT.

From David on his War On Gun blog:

Vanderboegh is on his way to the local Fox News studio, wearing his Sunday boonie hat, to talk Tampa and more.

He called me up and asked how he should refer to me as, and I said I thought “youthful ward” was pretty cool (except I’m actually older than the youngster by a few months)…

It Mike is talking Gunwalker and Tampa it should be very interesting.