Sharyl Attkisson

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Request For DOJ IG To Investigate Zapata Murder

September 26, 2012 by 1 Comment

Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News is reporting this afternoon that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have sent a letter to Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice Inspector General, requesting that he investigate the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata. The murder weapons used in Zapata’s death have been traced to guns that ATF allowed to be walked.

According to the letter, ATF may have had probable cause to arrest
two firearms dealers before they bought and trafficked a weapon used to
murder Zapata, who was on assignment in Mexico. “Only after Agent Zapata
was murdered…and one of the weapons was traced back” to suspect
Otilio Osorio “did ATF finally arrest Otilio, his brother and a third
suspect for their gun trafficking activity,” reads the letter.

Congressional
investigators say ATF had earlier witnessed the Osorio brothers in a
Walmart parking lot providing 40 weapons with obliterated serial numbers
to be trafficked to Mexico. It was what’s known as a “controlled
delivery,” meaning law enforcement officials were monitoring the sale.
In this case it was part of a joint investigation with the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA). But “ATF failed to confront the two
individuals” leaving them to continue to allegedly traffic weapons,
including one used in Zapata’s killing, according to the letter.

The DOJ IG’s office is said to be reviewing the request.

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Sharyl Attkisson On The DOJ OIG Report

September 20, 2012 by

Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, one of the few journalists to take Project Gunwalker seriously, had a story this evening on the DOJ Inspector General’s report. Her story notes that both former ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Jason Weinstein disagreed with the findings of the report.

In all, the inspector general faults 18 officials from the Justice Department, to the U.S. Attorney’s office on Arizona, on down to the Phoenix ATF agents who oversaw Fast and Furious.

The report says Holder was in essence let down by his deputies. Although he received numerous briefings on Fast and Furious, they didn’t specifically mention gunwalking and Holder said doesn’t recall reading them anyway.

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Eggs, Caskets, Adoptions, Or Project Gunwalker?

July 14, 2012 by 1 Comment

Those are the four topics for the nominees in this year’s Emmy Awards Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a Regularly Scheduled Broadcast category. Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News is one of the four nominees in this category for her series “Gunwalker: Fast and Furious”.

I won’t comment on the other stories except to say that Brian Ross of ABC always comes across as a little slimey.

Congratulations to Sharyl and her team for the nomination and to those who nominated her in the first place. It is well deserved. I do think a couple of names are missing, however, from her team: Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea.

OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCAST

CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley CBS
Dover Mortuary Scandal
Executive Producer
Patricia Shevlin
Senior Producer
Ward Sloane
Producers
Kate Rydell, Mary Walsh
Anchor and Managing Editor
Scott Pelley
Correspondent
David Martin

CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley CBS
Gunwalker: Fast and Furious
Executive Producers
Rick Kaplan, Patricia Shevlin
Senior Producer
Bill Piersol
Producer
Christopher Scholl
Anchor and Managing Editor
Scott Pelley
Correspondent
Sharyl Attkinson

CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley CBS
Kansas City Adoption Scam
Executive Producer
Rick Kaplan
Senior Producer
Keith Summa
Producers
Pat Milton, Michael Rey
Correspondent
Armen Keteyian

Good Morning America/ABC World News with Diane Sawyer ABC
Mc Donald’s Eggs
Chief Investigative Correspondent
Brian Ross
Chief of Investigative Projects
Rhonda Schwartz
Executive Producers
Jeanmarie Condon, Michael Corn
Producers
Cynthia Galli, Momtaz Rym
Field Producer
Angela Hill
Digital Managing Editor
Mark Schone
Digital Producer
Lee Ferran

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Congratulations To Sharyl Attkisson

June 13, 2012 by 2 Comments

CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson and her team just won the 2012 Edward R. Murrow Award in the Video Investigative category. They won for their coverage of Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker.

CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, producer Chris Scholl and editor Matt Tureck took home the prize for won for Gunwalker. In the gunwalker case, ATF agents say they were ordered to allow thousands of weapons to be sold to suspected suppliers for Mexico’s drug cartels. The idea of letting so many guns “walk” onto the street was apparently to see where they would turn up and go after the major cartel kingpins instead of the smalltime weapons traffickers.

That wailing and gnashing of teeth you hear is coming from DOJ press flack Tracy Schmaler and White House Associate Communications Director Eric Schultz. They were the ones in the Obama Administration who tried to silence Sharyl through their bully tactics. Obviously, it didn’t work and the judges at the Radio Television Digital News Association rewarded her for standing tall.

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“I Think They Are Leaving My Son Behind” – Josephine Terry

November 9, 2011 by

That is the opinion of Brian Terry’s mother, Josephine Terry. It was said in reference to her son’s service as a Marine and the ethos that fallen Marine is ever left behind.

Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News interviewed slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s parents yesterday in the wake of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Attorney General Eric Holder. They still have not been given answers and are planning to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Federal government.

This episode that aired on this morning’s The Early Show is very powerful as was Ms. Attkisson’s interview with the parents of slain ICE Agent Jaime Zapata.

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Sharyl Attkisson On “The Grilling” Of Holder

November 9, 2011 by

Sharyl Attkisson had a report on today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the CBS Evening News. Some of it is a repeat from earlier reports today.

However, the most touching part were statements from Brian Terry’s father, Kent, who said that those involved should be prosecuted not only for his son’s death but for “all the people murdered in Mexico.” He’s absolutely right. Unfortunately, I’m sure Holder and his minions will claim governmental immunity for their actions.

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Jaime Zapata And The Smoking Gun

November 8, 2011 by

The thing that really struck me watching this report by CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson was the utter hypocrisy of Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano as they spoke at the funeral of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata’s funeral in Texas. And we will be treated to more hypocrisy from Mr. Holder today as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Is The FBI Suppressing Evidence?

October 17, 2011 by

In a follow-up to this morning’s Face The Nation interview of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) about Operation Fast and Furious, CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson reports that the committee will be asking for more information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Issa said this morning that the family of Agent Terry was told by agents attending his funeral that there were three firearms found at the murder scene.

Documents released to the committee only mentioned two weapons linked to Operation Fast and Furious. Issa wants to know more about the third weapon and what tests from it have shown. Recordings from conversations between ATF Agent Hope McAllister and the owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company seem to indicate there was a third firearm and that it was an SKS.

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Issa On Face The Nation

October 16, 2011 by 2 Comments

If you missed seeing Rep. Darrell Issa and CBS Investigative Reporter Sharyl Attkisson on CBS’s Face The Nation this morning, here it is courtesy of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s YouTube page.

One of the key things that Issa said was that the Committee’s subpoenas to the Department of Justice were narrowly focused. He goes on to say that in many cases they already have e-mails and memos provided to them by whistle-blowers but want the original documents from the Department of Justice and/or White House to confirm their authenticity. This goes along with what Dave Hardy wrote earlier this week about the subpoena in Of Arms and The Law.

I was happy to see that CBS featured Project Gunwalker on their Sunday news show Face The Nation. While I would have wanted more questions asked (and answered), the mere fact that it was on this program underscores its growing importance in Washington. We in the blogosphere and in the gun rights community have always recognized this but having it shown on one of the premier mainstream media programs confirms it to the general public.