~ Christine
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Stonewalling: Obama StyleReaders, you can donate to The Second Amendment Foundation by clicking here or mail a check to:
We are getting closer and closer to the truth,
...in relationship to getting to the bottom of "Project Gunrunner" and "Operation Fast and Furious."
Wednesday's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Rep. Darrell Issa, questioned several, some who brought out new revelations. The bottom line: It is more of a cover-up than we had imagined!
The scandal broke when it was learned that the Department of Justice deliberately led operatives of Mexican drug cartels purchase guns at licensed U.S. firearms dealers and did nothing to intercept the gun purchaser or retrieve the guns even when they were under active surveillance by federal law enforcement officials.
"Who authorized 'Operation Fast and Furious'?"
Ronald Weich, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Justice Department, finally responded to Issa's heated questioning: "I do not know the answer to that question, and the (Justice Department) inspector general is reviewing the matter!"
Despite the courageous testimony of four ATF agents---speaking against the Department of Justice standard answers---the STONEWALLING by this administration continues!
Quite frankly, it will take an independent Special Prosecutor to get the real truth!
Documents released by U.S. Representative Darrell Issa's panel make it very clear that "Operation Fast and Furious" was well-known and enthusiastically supported at the highest levels of ATF. This devastating program had to have been supported elsewhere within the Justice Department. Despite him saying different, it is totally inconceivable that Attorney General Eric Holder did not know about Operation Fast and Furious!
Four ATF agents' sworn testimonies very much CONTRADICT the Justice Department's account of "Operation Fast and Furious."
John Dobson, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), told the Issa committee on Wednesday that he was SHOCKED when he discovered his agency was carrying out a plan specifically designed to deliver "loads of weapons" into the hands of criminals, including operatives purchasing guns for Mexican drug cartels.
Dobson stated under oath: "This is not a matter of some weapons that had gotten away from us or allowing a few to walk so that we could follow them to a much larger, more significant target. Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals was the plan, this was the mandate."
"Yes. We were mandated, 'Let these guns go!'"
Of course the reported original purpose of the project was to track the guns back to leaders in the Mexican drug cartels.
"THIS EFFORT FAILED!" House Oversight Chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA) declared at Wednesday's meeting.
Issa went on to explain: "Over strong objection of the ATF field agents, the program continued, and approximately 2,000 AK-47s and derivatives and some 50-caliber sniper rifles and others and 10,000 or more rounds of live ammunition went into the arsenals of the Mexican drug lord."
Yet, the Obama administration finally admitted that they would "look into the matter."
An independent Special Prosecutor must be appointed to find out who authorized what, when and where---let the chips fall where they may!
STONEWALLING BECAME THE NAME OF THE GAME!
No one in the administration would "own up" to this debacle of a plan; especially after U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry was murdered approximately 18 miles INSIDE the border from Mexico - with two of these weapons that we sold to the drug cartel found at the crime scene!
Then, almost all the ATF lips were suddenly sealed!
David Voth, a supervisor at the ATF field division in Phoenix, told complaining agents to back off: "Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at headquarters are paying close attention to this case and they also believe we (Phoenix field division) are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Groups doing," Voth wrote in a March 12, 2010 email.
His email was included in a 51-page report by Republican staffers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, spearheaded by U.S. Senator Charles Grassley.
At one point, Dobson asked his superiors if they "were prepared to attend the funeral of a slain agent," Dobson's fellow agent Olindo James Casa told the committee.
"I and other field agents involved in this operation repeatedly raised these concerns with our supervisors," Dobson testified. "In response we were told that we simply did not understand the plan."
YET, more and more killings have been linked to "Fast and Furious" Project.
ONLY an independent Special Prosecutor can sort out the genuine truth from some of the "fiction" and "outright lies" that have been told in the interview process!
Representative Issa has been critical of the Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the ATF, for not turning over all of the documents he has requested and not making available all of the officials he has wanted to interview, sometimes citing ongoing gun-tracking investigations and prosecutions.
"Fast and Furious" was part of the five-year-old GUNRUNNER program. It authorized local U.S. gun stores to sell THOUSANDS of semiautomatic rifles to suspected and known straw-purchasers for Mexican drug cartels.
By allowing people to illegally purchase large quantities of the weapons from gun dealers, officials hoped to trace the firearms to the upper ranks of the drug cartels and prosecute them. But ATF whistleblowers allege that officials lost track of guns. Some even point to the very, very top!
Issa and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have led the congressional hunt for more information about the ATF operation and its approval. The lawmakers have said repeatedly that they are being "stonewalled" by the Department of Justice.
U.S. Senator Grassley, who does not have the same subpoena power as Issa—has vowed to hold up President Obama's nominations in the Senate until he gets the documents and information that he has requested on the operation.
The fingers of guilt point to officials high up in the Obama administration.
Across-the-board stonewalling by government agencies is hindering the final investigation, including the Attorney General. The Obama administration is the most anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment administration in recent memory!
This stonewalling goes way, way beyond any "political maneuvering"---it verges on the dark side of criminal acts!
This cover-up must be stopped!
Many of the whistleblowers have come forward to Congress out of loyalty to the murdered Border Patrol Agent. We need the administration to come forward out of "loyalty" to patriotic Americans who voted their superiors into office!
You see, here is how this cover-up affects you and me directly---when the criminals use the illegal weapons, it puts gasoline on Mr. Obama's anti-gun "fire" to go against ALL gun owners in general; and even against those who believe in our Second Amendment rights! We cannot let Mr. Obama use this illegal act---perpetrated by his own administration---to use against legitimate gun owners!
The Obama Administration is doing all this in a concentrated effort to blame America's gun owners like YOU for the violent crime with guns in an attempt to pass new anti-gun laws to infringe on your gun rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment!
Please help to expose this cover-up! Please help to urge others to appoint an independent Special Prosecutor. Your Constitutional rights are literally at stake here!
I look forward to hearing from you on exposing this cover-up!
Respectfully,
Alan M. Gottlieb
Chairman
Second Amendment Foundation
P. S. We can only guess (just for a little longer!) how far up the Administration hierarchy this cover-up was approved...maybe all the way to the top!
Second Amendment Foundation
Department Code 6472
12500 NE 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005
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Another blog post on this issue:
Noisy Room: Agenda Behind Fast and Furious Gunrunner Program.
Excerpt:
Quick re-cap – Obama, Clinton and Holder deliberately instituted Operation Fast and Furious for the sole purpose of increasing the number of U.S. weapons that “walked” into Mexico. Remember some of the facts:
* ATF agents were repeatedly told to “stand down” as the guns “walked;”
* The supervisor of this operation was “jovial” and “just delighted” when “walked” guns appeared at crime scenes in Mexico;
* No one had “one iota of concern for human life;” and
* “Acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and – himself – watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants.”
Why did Obama, Clinton and Holder do this? It’s obvious to even the most casual observer; they did this to further the propaganda they pushed in early 2009 – that the U.S. has a gun problem because “90%” of the confiscated weapons in Mexico are coming from the U.S. – in order to justify more aggressive restrictions on gun ownership in the U.S.
Keep in mind that when the operation was created in 2009, the Obama administration had not anticipated that it would be exposed. The Democrats had a majority in both the House and Senate and any investigation would have had to have been brought forward by their own party – which Obama, Clinton and Holder knew would not happen. But there were several things they didn’t anticipate:
* Agent Brian Terry’s murder whereby two of the weapons found at the scene were tracked to straw purchasers who bought the weapons under ATF’s supervision via Operation Fast and Furious.
* David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh’s discovery of this operation.
* Democrats’ loss of their majority in the House, with Republicans taking over in January 2011.
* CBS coverage of this operation.
* David Workman’s exceptional and diligent reporting on this operation.
* Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) pursuit of the truth through Congressional Hearings.
Marxists will always tell you that the ends justify the means. Creating the very problem they can claim they’re prepared to solve isn’t a new tactic for Progressives, but this is only part of the story.
Congressman Issa will fail the American people if he stops short and fails to investigate and determine the true purpose of Operation Fast and Furious. To say that it was a dumb program and needs to stop will miss the true agenda behind the creation of the operation in the first place.
While the “bottom up” Operation Fast and Furious continued, so too has Obama’s “top down” operation – the United Nations (UN) Small Arms Treaty.
Did you know that the UN has an Office for Disarmament Affairs? Did you know the Obama administration has been working closely with the UN and firmly supports the UN Small Arms Treaty, which Obama and Clinton fully intend to thrust upon America?
That excerpt is just a small portion of the entire article. Wait till you read what is written before and after that information!!
Go to this link and read it all!!!
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