Rep. Darrell Issa

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HR 2668 – Brian A. Terry Memorial Act

July 30, 2011 by 1 Comment

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is holding hearings into Operation Fast and Furious, has just introduced a bill to honor one of its victims. The Brian A. Terry Memorial Act would designate the U.S. Border Patrol station in Bisbee, Arizona as the Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station.

The bill has 52 co-sponsors including some of the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee such as Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) whose goal in the hearings seems to be to promote gun control and protect the White House. I guess a guilty conscience will sometimes prompt even the most politically jaded to do the right thing every now and again.

The text of the bill is below:

H.R.2668 — Brian A. Terry Memorial Act (Introduced in House – IH)

HR 2668 IH
112th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2668

To designate the station of the United States Border Patrol located at 2136 South Naco Highway in Bisbee, Arizona, as the `Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station’.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 27, 2011

Mr. ISSA (for himself, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. MICA, Mr. QUAYLE, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. GALLEGLY, Mr. PENCE, Mr. CHAFFETZ, Mr. JORDAN, Mr. ROSS of Florida, Mr. MARINO, Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas, Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. GOODLATTE, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. LEWIS of California, Mr. MCKEON, Mr. DREIER, Mr. DENHAM, Mr. WALBERG, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. DESJARLAIS, Mr. GOHMERT, Mr. LABRADOR, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. TURNER, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. LUETKEMEYER, Mr. FORBES, Mr. REICHERT, Mr. PEARCE, Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS, Mr. CLAY, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia, Mr. REYES, Mr. PASTOR of Arizona, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. HONDA, Mr. BACA, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. KINGSTON, Mr. GARRETT, Mr. WESTMORELAND, and Mr. QUIGLEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

A BILL

To designate the station of the United States Border Patrol located at 2136 South Naco Highway in Bisbee, Arizona, as the `Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station’.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Brian A. Terry Memorial Act’.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds the following:

(1) A native of Flat Rock, Michigan, Agent Brian A. Terry served his country proudly with the United States Marine Corps and continued his service as a police officer with the cities of Ecorse and Lincoln Park, Michigan, prior to joining the United States Border Patrol.
(2) Agent Terry was a member of the 699th Session of the Border Patrol Academy assigned to the Naco Border Patrol Station within the Tucson Sector.
(3) On December 14, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was conducting a Border Patrol Tactical unit (BORTAC) operation in the area of `Peck Wells’.
(4) At 11:15 p.m., near Rio Rico, Arizona, and about 15 miles north of Nogales, Arizona, Agent Terry and his team spotted a group of individuals approaching their position.
(5) Shortly thereafter, an encounter ensued and gunfire was exchanged that left Agent Terry mortally wounded.
(6) Agent Terry succumbed to his injuries on December 15, 2010.
(7) Agent Terry is survived by his mother, father, stepmother, stepfather, brother, and two sisters.

SEC. 3. DESIGNATION.

The station of the United States Border Patrol located at 2136 South Naco Highway in Bisbee, Arizona, shall be known and designated as the `Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station’.

SEC. 4. REFERENCES.

Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the station referred to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to the `Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station’.

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Issa Gives FoxNews A Preview Of Next Week’s Gunwalker Hearings

July 22, 2011 by 1 Comment

In an interview with FoxNews, Rep. Darrell Issa gives a preview of next week’s hearing on Project Gunwalker. Among the things Issa says is that if all the facts had been known, ATF would not have needed to even engage in Operation Fast and Furious. He made that point that there were people in DOJ who did have knowledge of all the various operations and still let ATF blunder along with Operation Fast and Furious.

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Rep. Darrell Issa On The Demand For Info From The DEA And FBI

July 20, 2011 by

Rep. Darrell Issa was a guest on Cam and Co. He was interviewed by both Cam Edwards and Ginny Simone. He discusses the letters sent to the heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He revealed that that he and his investigators already know the names of the confidential informants that may have been paid with taxpayer monies.

It is a very informative interview to say the least.

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Melson: DOJ Response to Fast and Furious Investigation Intended to Protect Political Appointees

July 18, 2011 by 1 Comment

Attorney General Eric Holder is not as politically astute as I previously thought despite having been groomed by the Clintons. If he were more politically astute, he would have known better than to make a career bureaucrat the fall-guy for Operation Fast and Furious because they are exceedingly adept at in-fighting. Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson is currently serving in a slot set aside for a political appointee. However, Melson had been a career employee of the Department of Justice from 1983 until 2009 when he was appointed Acting Director with the understanding he would return to the career service. He didn’t get to the Senior Executive Service on talent and good looks alone.

When Melson was made the designated fall-guy, he balked. Moreover, he began to talk to Congressional investigators which led to today’s 10-page letter to Holder from Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley asking about “the smoking gun” so to speak.

Chairman Issa and Senator Grassley Press Attorney General Holder with Key Testimony

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley today pressed Attorney General Eric Holder about the Justice Department’s unsatisfactory responses and lack of cooperation with an investigation into the highly controversial Operation Fast and Furious. A letter sent by the two lead investigators highlighted testimony indicating internal disputes within the Justice Department and a statement from the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that the Justice Department is attempting to protect its political appointees.

“It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department,” ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson said of his frustration with the Justice Department’s response to the investigation in a transcribed interview.

“The Department should not be withholding what Mr. Melson described as the ‘smoking gun’ report of investigation or Mr. Melson’s emails regarding the wiretap applications,” wrote Issa and Grassley. “Mr. Melson said he reviewed the affidavits in support of the wiretap applications for the first time after the controversy became public and immediately contacted the Deputy Attorney General’s office to raise concerns about information in them that was inconsistent with the Department’s public denials. The Department should also address the serious questions raised by Mr. Melson’s testimony regarding potential informants for other agencies.”

The full text of that letter can be found here. It is very interesting. The letter and Melson’s testimony leads one to believe that an active cover-up is in process at DOJ and that documents have been created after the fact.

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Issa And Grassley Press DEA And FBI For Answers

July 18, 2011 by

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are pressing the heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for answers to their agencies’ involvement in Operation Fast and Furious. This is amid reports that some of the targets of the ATF in Project were actually paid FBI informants.

While Issa and Grassley are pressing for information, I fully expect at the FBI to try and stonewall them.

Grassley, Issa Press for Answers from FBI, DEA in Fast and Furious Investigation

WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa are pushing for additional information and documents from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in relation to the two agencies roles in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reckless strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious. The strategy employed by the ATF allowed firearms to be purchased by known straw buyers and then transferred to third parties where the guns often crossed the border to Mexican drug cartels.

The letters are a follow-up to a recorded, transcribed interview with Acting ATF Director Ken Melson. The Acting Director was interviewed by congressional investigators on July 4 where he corroborated several details that included other agencies involved in Operation Fast and Furious.

In the letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Grassley and Issa asked about the “veracity of claims” regarding the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically at least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant” and “might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring.”

The letter to DEA Administrator Michelle Leonhart requested a briefing by DEA staff as well as “the number of informants or cooperating informants handled by other agencies identified in the course of any investigations related to Operation Fast and Furious.”

In addition, both letters (to Mueller and Leonhart) asked for communications of several members of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force who were working in coordination with the ATF to conduct Operation Fast and Furious.

The full letter to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart can be found here.

The full letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller can be found here.

Both letters are detailed in the information sought. The Leonhart letter specifically asks about any communications regarding Fast and Furious by the heads or assistant heads of the DEA offices in Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales, and Yuma. This letter also asks for any information relating to Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta who is the lone person in custody who can be linked to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

The Mueller letter is broader in scope than the Leonhart letter. It seeks info on confidential informants, the investigation into the murder of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico, and any communications between ATF and certain FBI officials including ones in Phoenix, El Paso, and Tucson. They especially are looking to see if ATF and the FBI agent in charge of the Terry murder investigation have had any communications.

If they get the information they request, things could heat up very quickly and even the mainstream media would not be able to ignore it like most of them have been doing these last few months.

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Issa And Grassley Name Names

July 12, 2011 by 2 Comments

In what Mike Vanderboegh calls the Dirty Dozen (loved that movie!), Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley have sent another letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting documents in reference to 12 people they say at the Justice Department who knew about about Operation Fast and Furious (aka Project Gunwalker) and its implementation.

This was the second letter that Issa and Grassley sent to Eric Holder yesterday. As Matthew Boyle reports in the Daily Caller, their first letter ripped into Holder over skewing potential witnesses (aka witness tampering) by allowing access to sensitive background information.

July 11, 2011

The Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avennue, NW
Washington DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

As our investigation in Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program. Therefore it is necessary to review communications between and among these senior officials. As such, please provide all records relating to communications between and among the following individuals regarding Operation Fast and Furious:

1. David Ogden, Former Deputy Attorney General;

2. Gary Grindler, Officer of the Attorney General and former Acting Deputy Attorney General;

3. James Cole, Deputy Attorney General;

4. Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General;

5. Kenneth Blanco, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

6. Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

7. John Keeney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

8. Matt Axelrod, Associate Deputy Attorney General;

9. Ed Siskel, Former Associate Deputy Attorney General;

10. Brad Smith, Office of the Deputy Attorney General;

11. Kevin Carwhile, Section Chief, Capitol Case Unit; and

12. Joseph Cooley, Criminal Fraud Section.

These records should include e-mails, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes. Additionally, any records related to communications referring to a large firearms trafficking case within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) or in Phoenix should be included in any production.

Please provide this information no later than July 18, 2011, at noon. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Tristan Leavitt in Ranking Member Grassley’s office at (202) 224-5225 or Henry Kerner of Chairman Issa’s Committee staff at (202) 225-5074. I look forward to receiving your response.

Sincerely,

Darrell Issa, Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Charles Grassley, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary

cc: The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary

UPDATE: Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee is reporting that the no. 5 guy on the list, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco is being set up to be the probable “fall guy” for Operation Fast and Furious.

The primary reason, as it always is with anything involving Holder and Obama, is politics. Blanco is not the politico that his superiors are, which is strike one. they look out after theri own, and while Blanco is career, he isn’t apparently an Obamite. He is apparently a decent human being and competent DAAG, according to the source. That’s two strikes against him in an organization as corrupt and politicized as the highest levels of Justice.

Blanco’s third strike happens to be the fact that he was the signing authority that authorized the wiretaps for Fast and Furious.

Let’s hope that like another (formerly) designated fall guy named Kenneth, Mr. Blanco goes to see Chairman Issa with his own attorney.

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Twitter Has Its Uses

July 7, 2011 by

With the White House all atwitter over Twitter yesterday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa took advantage of it. According to The Hill, Issa used Twitter to deliver a letter to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

The tweet was a response to a question about the letter asked in the White House press briefing on Tuesday.

Carney told reporters at Tuesday’s briefing that he had not seen the letter. “I’m not aware of it,” he said.

The letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder is signed by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). It details their concerns following the testimony of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) acting director Kenneth Melson regarding the ATF operation “Fast and Furious.”

A picture of the tweet in question is below.

It is nice for once to see a Congressman using Twitter for something other than Tweeting pictures of his privates!

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Issa Staffer: Project Gunwalker Doesn’t Stop At Ken Melson

June 25, 2011 by

This is an interview that Cam Edwards of NRA News had with Matthew Boyle of The Daily Caller to discuss Project Gunwalker. Included is part of an interview with House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa who flatly states that Attorney General Eric Holder will be the last witness called. He goes on to explain that they are taking a bottom-up approach to the investigation and started at the lowest level.

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“Felony Stupid”

June 16, 2011 by 2 Comments

If you haven’t heard or seen a good rant in a while, here is your chance. The C-Span video below is from the third portion of today’s hearings held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

After Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich reads his prepared testimony, Chairman Darrell Issa starts to light into him with a vengeance. It was beautiful to see Weich squirm knowing he had to sit there and take it. The relevant parts of the video run from the 7:15 mark up to about 12:47 mark. If the video was able to be excerpted – or if I knew how! – I would have presented that alone.

I was disgusted by the obsequious apology from Ranking Member Cummings to Weich when it was Cummings turn to speak. He certainly never apologized for his behavior in many of the hearings he held when he was Chairman of the Committee and it was not his place to apologize for Issa’s comments. I think darn near anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis would have said much worse and would not have been as restrained as Chairman Issa.