Project Gunwalker

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Project Gunwalker Is Back In the News

April 13, 2017 by 1 Comment

Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious is back in the news. That is because the suspected killer of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has been apprehended in Mexico on Tuesday.

William Lajeunesse of FoxNews reports:

The suspect, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, was apprehended by a joint U.S.-Mexico law enforcement task force that included the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC).

A $250,000 reward had been sought for information leading to the arrest of Osorio-Arellanes, who was captured at a ranch on the border of the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua. U.S. authorities have said they will seek his extradition.

Terry was killed on Dec. 14, 2010 in a gunfight between Border Patrol agents and members of a five-man cartel “rip crew,” which regularly patrolled the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border looking for drug dealers to rob.

The agent’s death exposed Operation Fast and Furious, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operation in which the federal government allowed criminals to buy guns in Phoenix-area shops with the intention of tracking them once they made their way into Mexico. But the agency lost track of more than 1,400 of the 2,000 guns they allowed smugglers to buy. Two of those guns were found at the scene of Terry’s killing.

Four members of the “rip crew” have been arrested, convicted, and sentenced to prison in the United States. Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga is the only remaining member of the “rip crew” still at large.

In a sane world, the involvement of the Obama Administration and Attorney General Eric Holder in Project Gunwalker should have brought it down. It didn’t. Given all the talk about “fake news”, this whole sordid episode is a reminder of how the mainstream media did not do its job.

The only two mainstream reporters that worked on the story were Fox’s Lajeuness and then-CBS Investigative Report Sharyl Attkisson. If it was not for the efforts of the late Mike Vanderboegh, David Codrea, and Dave Workman, we never would have even known that the Justice Department and the BATFE were involved in allowing firearm to be walked to Mexico in an effort to build support for gun control measures.

While nothing will bring back Brian Terry, I’m happy to see his killer apprehended.

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This And That

March 13, 2017 by

I was out of town at the end of last week at a company meeting. I missed that the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee was having a hearing regarding the death of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata. However, David Codrea didn’t miss it nor the fact that two BATFE officials on their own accord skipped the meeting despite being “invited” to appear.

He (former Agent Vince Cefalu) was referring to Thursday’s appearance (video below) before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Activities by Thomas E. Brandon, Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The hearing was held to further explore the ambush murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata by cartel operatives in Mexico, where “straw-purchased” guns allowed by ATF to “walk” across the border were recovered from the scene.

Two of Brandon’s agents, Associate Deputy Director Ronald Turk and Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge William Temple, were no-shows to the hearing. They decided on their own not to come testify, and Brandon informed Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz that he agreed with their decision.

Recognizing a continuation of the stonewalling that was dragged on for years by ATF and the Department of Justice under the Obama administration, Chaffetz was having none of it. He immediately issued subpoenas for Temple and Turk to appear on March 22.

Ronald Turk, you may recall, is the one who wrote a white paper discussing, among other things, removing suppressors from the NFA. You’d think a guy who is clearly aiming to be named the new Director of BATFE would want some face time with Congress even if it wasn’t going to be all favorable.

I also missed that Remington Arms Company is again laying off employees at their Ilion, New York plant due to slowing sales. My friend Rob Morse didn’t miss it. He noted:

Remington Arms is moving out of anti-gun New York..one layoff at a time. They expand their production in Alabama during a market increase, and cut from the New York plant during the downturns. I guess elections have consequences as New York voters raised both the price of doing business and of owning a gun in NY.

If you listen to the news lately, you would think that the mainstream media has been teleported to the 1950s with all the hysteria over Russia. It is almost like that 60s move The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! Lest you think that we in the gun culture are exempt from the Russian hysteria, Sebastian discusses a Daily Beast article trying to tie the NRA to Vlad (the Impaler) Putin.

I did work the GRNC booth Saturday morning at the Asheville Gun Show. While our business was a bit slow, the crowds seemed bigger than this time last year. I don’t know whether it was bargain shopping on the part of attendees or because we were supposed to get snow Saturday night.

I didn’t check the prices of ARs at the show but they did seem down at the Winston-Salem show I attended the preceding weekend. If anyone is looking for an AR15, now is as good a time as you’ll ever get to buy one. I have seen Ruger AR-555s selling under $500 at multiple locations, off-brands for under $400, and the S&W M&P-15 in the low $500 range. If you want to look for deals, check the Reddit sub group called gun deals.

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Project Gunwalker: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

March 16, 2016 by 3 Comments

Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious is the gift that keeps on giving. If the Department of Justice and the BATFE wanted guns that had been walked to keep showing up at crime scenes in Mexico, they got their wish.

The Associated Press reported this morning that a .50 BMG rifle found at Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in January was one of the ones sold through a straw purchase in Operation Fast and Furious.

Officials say the weapon was one of 19 firearms that Mexican authorities said was recovered from the hideout and was the only one determined to be associated with the botched sting operation (sic), in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed gun-runners to buy weapons in hopes of tracking them and disrupting gun smuggling rungs (sic).

The rifle was bought in July 2010 in a straw purchase by someone not known to ATF at the time. The buyer was later identified and came under investigation but was never indicted. The weapon is not known to be associated with any other crime, the Justice Department says.

This information was revealed in a letter from Assistant AG for Legislative Affairs Peter Kadzik to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and House Oversight and Governmental Affairs Chairman Jason Chaffetz. This letter gave an accounting of walked firearms that had been recovered in the US and Mexico.

“ATF accepts full responsibility for the flawed execution of Fast and Furious, and will continue to support Mexican law enforcement in efforts to recover and identify associated firearms.’’

As of January, according to the Justice Department letter, 885 firearms purchased by targets of the ATF operation have been recovered. Of that number, 415 were found in the U.S. and 470 “appear to have been recovered in Mexico.’’

The same letter confirmed prior reports that one of 19 weapons — a .50-caliber rifle — recovered in the January raid in Mexico that resulted in the re-capture of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman also was traced to the ATF operation.

The letter goes on to say that the Department of Justice “deeply regrets” that firearms connected to Project Gunwalker were used in violent crimes. If they really regretted it, former Attorney General Eric Holder would have been tried for his contempt of Congress citation and BATFE officials would have been fired and not merely moved around. As it is, Holder never was prosecuted and former Phoenix FD SAC William Newell, ASAC George Gillett, and Deputy Assistant Director Bill McMahon were never fired.

The only people who suffered as a result of Project Gunwalker were Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata, 300 plus Mexicans, and their families who had to bury their loved ones. You could also add in the whistleblowers like Sr Agent John Dodson who had his life made a living hell by the powers that be.

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She Approves Of Dead Mexicans, Gun Running, And Murdered Federal LEOs

February 9, 2016 by 1 Comment

Hillary Clinton is one of the most shameless politicians of this era or any era. If an endorsement or ad will get her just one more vote, she’ll go for it. It doesn’t matter if the person making the endorsement was the most partisan, the most contemptible, the most brutally corrupt Attorney General since the founding of this Republic. A man whose fingerprints were all over an operation to run guns to Mexican cartels so as to build support for gun control. A man who was found in Contempt of Congress. A man who said he supported voting rights but dismissed charges of outright voter intimidation against favored groups. A man who used the Department of Justice as a shakedown machine against corporate America.

Of course, I’m referring to former Attorney General Eric Holder.

Living in western North Carolina, 3/4’s of our broadcast TV comes from the Upstate of South Carolina. I was watching Jeopardy! last night when the ad below came on with Holder’s endorsement of Hillary. The two themes pushed were gun control and voting rights. These are themes that play well with black voters and Hillary needs to lock down the black vote to stave off Bernie Sanders.

Who cares if the endorser and his minions were responsible, directly or indirectly, for the murders of two Federal law enforcement officers, the deaths of a minimum of 300 Mexican nationals, and the arming of Mexican drug cartels through smuggled guns?

Hillary doesn’t. All she cares about is getting one more vote.

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A Little Late To This

January 18, 2016 by 2 Comments

As many of you know, Mike Vanderboegh has been battling cancer among a whole host of ailments. Recently, he was told by his oncologist that his time for this world was quite limited. David Codrea is spearheading a campaign to raise money for Mike and his family during his last days.

Per Mike, the doctors have told him he is not long of this world. As we all know, his financial situation due to years of disability and devotion to the larger issue of self-sacrifice for freedom is terrible. He is doing what he can to get his affairs in order, but the reality is, his wife will be left in really bad shape. I would like to help with a funding appeal.

I looked at various “crowdfunding” sites, but there are hoops to jump through and/or a cut they take. For now at least, in order to get the ball rolling and hopefully growing as it does, I’m asking all of Mike’s friends to spread the word and to send gratitude offerings directly to him:

Paypal to georgemason1776@aol.com*

Check, money order, cash, etc. to Mike Vanderboegh, PO Box 926, Pinson, AL 35126.**

Mike is cranky and cantankerous and can be a SOB at times. That said, he deeply loves his wife Rosie and his daughters and son. While he may have pissed off a lot of people over time, he still was the person with David Codrea and Dave Workman who broke open Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker. If that was all he ever did in his life for the Second Amendment, then it would have been a life well spent.

As David Codrea writes in Ammoland today, donations and gifts to Mike should not be seen as charity but rather “gratitude gifts”.

I like that and will be contributing. I hope you will see it in your heart to do so as well.

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People Ask The Most Embarrassing Questions

January 5, 2016 by

Unlike scripted townhalls scheduled for CNN, when it comes to government agencies and social media embarrassing questions do get asked.

A case in point. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives maintains a Facebook page. They posted a number of links late last night to the new rules being promulgated as the result of President Obama’s Executive Actions. There was one about the elimination of the CLEO signoff and another about Rule 41-P and responsible persons needing background checks. My favorite, however, was their guidance about when a Federal firearms license was needed. Someone named Bre Ve asked a question that you know they would rather ignore.

Reading the comments, it appears that a Becky Solis objected to the question. The commenters had good Google-fu and found out that she was none other than an area supervisor in the Denver Field Division. Her comment objecting to Ms. Ve’s question has, of course, been deleted.

Good on Bre Ve for asking the question of the day and for the commenters in exposing Ms. Solis.

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Absurd Ruling In Terry Murder Trial

September 19, 2015 by 2 Comments

US District Court Judge David Bury ruled on Friday that no mention of Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker could be made in the trial of two men accused of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

The U.S. asked the judge this summer to keep the details of Fast and Furious out of the murder trial, stating it was irrelevant.

Bury agreed. “I agree with one exception. I can’t find any relevance expect if the government should open the door,” he said.

If the government brings up the origins of the guns found, Bury ruled that defendants can then bring up Fast and Furious.

Bury ordered the defendants “not to refer to … or elicit any testimony regarding Operation Fast and Furious. Understood?”

Excuse me?

The defendants, Ivan Soto Barraza and Jesus Leonel Sanchez Meza, used AK-47s to kill Agent Terry that the BATFE had allowed (encouraged) to be walked to Mexico as part of Operation Fast and Furious. Given that the Department of Justice and BATFE were complicit in providing the firearms used to kill Agent Terry, ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata, and 300 or more Mexicans, I’m not surprised that the US Attorney’s Office doesn’t want it mentioned. However, I am surprised that a judge would deny the defense of the opportunity to use it in defending their clients.

It is obvious that burying the details of Operation Fast and Furious is important to the prosecutors. In addition to the judge’s order above, they have a whole series of questions for potential jurors asking about their knowledge of Project Gunwalker.  One does have to wonder if this was a local decision to suppress mention of Operation Fast and Furious or did the order come down from DC.

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Project Gunwalker Keeps On Giving

August 6, 2015 by

Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunwalker keep on giving. The latest is news that at least one of the Islamofascist terrorists who attacked Pam Geller’s “draw Mohammed” event in Garland, Texas was armed with a pistol from one of the gun shops in question.

Nadir Soofi purchased his 9mm handgun in 2010 from Lone Wolf Trading Company. This gun shop was cooperating with the BATFE in Operation Fast and Furious. Reports indicate that Soofi’s purchase got slapped with a 7-day hold which was released 24 hours later for unknown reasons.

Two days ago the BATFE denied that Soofi’s purchase had anything to do with Project Gunwalker. This is what they said to the Dallas Morning News:

Ginger Colbrun, chief spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed that Soofi legally purchased the 9 mm handgun from the Lone Wolf Trading Co. store in Glendale, Ariz., as reported by the Los Angeles Times over the weekend.

But while the gun shop was the top outlet for the Justice Department’s secret Fast and Furious firearms operation at the time of Soofi’s purchase, the sale was not part of the sting and Soofi was not a known criminal suspect, she said.

Previously, federal officials had refused to comment on the 2010 purchase.“There was no firearm associated with the Garland attack and Fast and Furious,” Colbrun said.

“His purchase of a handgun in 2010 was never reported to ATF as suspicious. He completed the background check as required, and he was never a suspect or person of interest in any ATF investigation.”

We have heard many denials in the past that the operation even existed so I agree with Alan Gottlieb below that we need to investigate this further. While it may sound a bit like Alex Jones-like chem-trails conspiracy theorist lunacy, is it all that unreasonable to think that just maybe someone in the Justice Department not only was arming narcoterrorists but Islamofascists as well? This in an effort to build a case for draconian gun control within the United States. Hmmm.

From the CCRKBA release:

BELLEVUE, WA – The weekend revelation that one of the two would-be terrorist gunmen killed at a Garland, Texas attack earlier this year had purchased a handgun “through a botched federal firearm sting” is ample reason for Congress to re-open its probe of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

The New York Daily News reported that slain would-be terrorist Nadir Soofi purchased a 9mm pistol in 2010 from the same gun shop that was heavily involved in the Fast and Furious gun trafficking case. At the time, the firearms retailer was cooperating with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in what was supposed to have been a gun trafficking “sting” effort.

“But Fast & Furious was a fiasco,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb recalled. “The gun shop operator even expressed concerns about the way the investigation was being handled. Although the Garland gunman was not connected with Fast and Furious, because he was allowed to buy a handgun after a reported delay was placed on the transaction, we think Congress has good reason to ask more questions about the operation.

“This new revelation shows that not only did the operation put guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartel gunmen,” he added, “it now appears that a future would-be terrorist was allowed to buy a handgun at the same time.

“Nobody in the agency was ever held accountable for this blundering operation,” Gottlieb said. “One ATF agent even called Fast and Furious the ‘perfect storm of idiocy,’ and we’re inclined to agree. We predicted at the time that this operation would have far-reaching impacts, and that now appears to be the case.

“While our sources tell us that the gun Soofi bought was not recovered in Garland,” he stated, “the fact that he was able to buy that gun says the operation should have been called ‘Fast and Loose,’ and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, now with a new chairman, should dig back into this mess and find the truth.”

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Project Gunwalker Makes It Into Loretta Lynch’s Confirmation Hearing

January 28, 2015 by

Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious was mentioned today as the confirmation hearings for Loretta Lynch to become the 83rd Attorney General began. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had this to say in his opening statement:

The Department’s own Inspector General listed as one of its top management challenges:
“Restoring Confidence in the Integrity, Fairness, and Accountability of the Department.”

He cited several examples, including the Department falsely denying basic facts in the Fast and
Furious controversy. The Inspector General concluded this “resulted in an erosion of trust in the
Department.”

In that fiasco, our government knowingly allowed firearms to fall into the hands of international
gun traffickers.

And it led to the death of a Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry.

And then, after Congress called on the leadership of the Department to account for this foolish
operation, what did they do?

Did they apologize to the family and rush to uncover the truth?

Quite the opposite.

They denied, spun and hid the facts from Congress and the American people.

They bullied and intimidated whistleblowers, members of the press, and anyone who had the
audacity to investigate and uncover the truth.

 You can listen to this in the live video of Lynch’s hearings at the 25:00 to 26:09 marks.

While it won’t bring back the lives of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, I’m glad Sen. Grassley at least hasn’t forgotten them and what was a proximate cause of their deaths.

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Chaffetz Renews Project Gunwalker Subpoena

January 7, 2015 by

In his first move as the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Operations Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) renewed the subpoena issued to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Subpoenas die at the end of a session of Congress and thus need to be renewed. However, as Mike Vanderboegh notes, he doubts this will really go anywhere.

Sadly, I must agree with him. To the media, this is yesterday’s story no matter that people are still being killed and will be killed with the walked AKs for a long time to come. Moreover, with Holder leaving office as soon as Loretta Lynch is confirmed as Attorney General, the impetus to go after him will diminish.