Melson Testifies To Committee July 4th

[Kathianne]

brought his own lawyer. This instead of doing the same with DOJ/ATF lawyers on scheduled date. Surprise for Holder and they sent him a letter after the fact, on July 5th.


http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-the-atf%E2%80%99s-kenneth-melson-blows-the-whistle-on-the-justice-department/?singlepage=true


Gunwalker: The ATF’s Kenneth Melson Blows the Whistle on the Justice Department

Posted By Hans A. von Spakovsky On July 6, 2011 @ 8:52 am In Crime,Homeland Security,Immigration,US News | 23 Comments

In a blockbuster development in the Operation Fast & Furious gun-running scandal, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson secretly testified before House and Senate investigators on July 4 with his own personal lawyer present, former United States Attorney Richard Cullen, without the knowledge of the ATF or the Department of Justice.

This morning, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley released a copy of a letter [1] they sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on July 5 about Melson’s testimony. Melson’s revelations raise even more serious issues not only about the operation itself, but about apparent attempts by the Justice Department to mislead Congress on the details of the operation.

Contrary to the Justice Department’s denials, according to Melson, ATF agents specifically witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without taking any further action. Melson claimed that it was not until the public disclosure of the operation that he personally reviewed the “hundreds of documents” related to the case. He said he became “sick to his stomach” when he learned the full story. Even more shocking is that some of the “gun trafficking ‘higher-ups’ that the ATF sought to identify were already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants” by agencies such as the FBI and the DEA.

Melson provided detailed information and documents to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department. But that information was not given to Congress by then-Acting Deputy Attorney General James Cole. In fact, “Melson was not allowed to communicate to Congress” and “Justice Department officials directed [ATF’s senior leadership] not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress.” According to the letter Issa and Grassley sent to Holder, it was “two days after [Melson] told [Cole] about serious issues involving lack of information sharing” that the Wall Street Journal suddenly reported that Melson was about to be ousted by the Obama administration...

PDF of letter from Committee to Holder:

http://grassley.senate.gov/judiciary/upload/ATF-07-05-11-CEG-Issa-letter-to-Holder-Melson-interview.pdf

[Gaffer]

Since they fired him he's no longer required to keep quiet and can spill the beans all he wants. Including behind closed doors where he can talk about secret and confidential information.

I think this guys going to turn out to be a true hero. I really hope impeachment hearings are coming soon.

This is a case worth watching. My gut feeling is it's critical. Kinda like the egypt post I made.

[fj1200]

I really hope impeachment hearings are coming soon.

Has it been tied all the way up to BO and if so do you think it meets impeachment standards? My guess is it'll never happen and I'd be more happy if he just loses Carter-style anyway.

[Kathianne]

Since they fired him he's no longer required to keep quiet and can spill the beans all he wants. Including behind closed doors where he can talk about secret and confidential information.

I think this guys going to turn out to be a true hero. I really hope impeachment hearings are coming soon.

This is a case worth watching. My gut feeling is it's critical. Kinda like the egypt post I made.

He hasn't been fired, indeed that's the beauty of his choice of this hearing. See the letter the committee sent Holder, priceless.

[Kathianne]

Has it been tied all the way up to BO and if so do you think it meets impeachment standards? My guess is it'll never happen and I'd be more happy if he just loses Carter-style anyway.

I doubt it will get that high, at least before the next elections. However, Holder I think will be gone, soon.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=1039491504001&w=466&h=263"></script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript>

[Gaffer]

He hasn't been fired, indeed that's the beauty of his choice of this hearing. See the letter the committee sent Holder, priceless.

I was confusing him with that ATF agent that was fired for bringing this to the attention of Congress.

So this guy isn't the buffoon the media wants to make him out to be and he's not going to be a scapegoat.

I don't know if they can go after bam bam on this, but eventually holders gone. And that is a really good thing.

[Gaffer]

I doubt it will get that high, at least before the next elections. However, Holder I think will be gone, soon.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=1039491504001&w=466&h=263"></script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript>

First of all it appears the clinton walls between agencies have been completely rebuilt. This is done to prevent anyone coming after the politicians and their minions who are doing criminal acts. It's liberals protecting liberals.

Next whoever came up with this plan should be arrested. I know there's no law for being stupid, but this whole thing was total incompetency. Or it was an insidious plan to arm certain groups for future use.

[Kathianne]

First of all it appears the clinton walls between agencies have been completely rebuilt. This is done to prevent anyone coming after the politicians and their minions who are doing criminal acts. It's liberals protecting liberals.

Next whoever came up with this plan should be arrested. I know there's no law for being stupid, but this whole thing was total incompetency. Or it was an insidious plan to arm certain groups for future use.

I really think they thought they could play this for more gun legislation. The claims of 90% of guns in Mexico wasn't selling, so they set out to make it work. It backfired, big time.

[Gaffer]

I really think they thought they could play this for more gun legislation. The claims of 90% of guns in Mexico wasn't selling, so they set out to make it work. It backfired, big time.

Makes sense. Another dem plan bites them in the ass.

[SassyLady]

He hasn't been fired, indeed that's the beauty of his choice of this hearing. See the letter the committee sent Holder, priceless.

Love it! Finally, things are starting to make sense. Looks like they picked the wrong guy to be the fall guy. Hope others will take advantage and bring their personal counsel to a private hearing.

[Kathianne]

Well there's many more MSM stories today. Some are beginning to question why this 'plan' ever got off the ground. There was no system for actually keeping the guns in check, in fact there seemed be be planned gun walking right to the border. I don't think this is going to disappear.

[Gaffer]

Well there's many more MSM stories today. Some are beginning to question why this 'plan' ever got off the ground. There was no system for actually keeping the guns in check, in fact there seemed be be planned gun walking right to the border. I don't think this is going to disappear.

The MSM will bury it as soon as they can. But it needs to stay out there. The whole thing has been fishy from the start and the using it to suppress the 2nd Amendment is sounding more and more plausible. This is proving to be a very evil conspiracy and goes all the way to the top. They are going to have to find another scapegoat.

[Kathianne]

Some news coming out:

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/171073-republicans-want-records-from-justice-officials-about-gun-operation


Republicans want records from Justice officials about botched gun operation
By Jordy Yager - 07/12/11 07:15 PM ET

Republican lawmakers have requested correspondence records, including emails and handwritten notes, from a dozen senior Justice Department officials who may have been involved in a controversial gun-tracking operation.

The Hill has obtained a letter sent from Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) to Attorney General Eric Holder this week in which they ask for communication records from 12 senior officials with the Department of Justice (DOJ), including James Cole, the recently confirmed Deputy Attorney General...

[Kathianne]

Interesting:

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2011/jul/13/federal-gun-investigations-draw-congressional-scru-ar-243657/


Published: July 13, 2011
Updated: July 13, 2011 - 12:58 PM


Federal gun investigations draw Congressional scrutiny
By Howard Altman

In December, Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot by a man connected to the Sinaloa drug cartel.

The death of a law enforcement agent would have been big news by itself, but it was the weapons used in the slaying that made the story scandalous. Guns found where Terry was killed were linked to a botched effort by the federal government to track weapons commonly used by drug cartels.

Operation Fast and Furious was run by the Department of Justice and the Phoenix Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office, and has since come under heavy criticism because agents lost track of many of the weapons, including at least two where Terry was killed.

Seven months earlier, and 1,700 miles to the east, investigators in the ATF's Tampa office were running its own gun smuggling investigation, this one dubbed Operation Castaway. It targeted a Florida man who was illegally trafficking about 1,000 weapons, some of which wound up in the hands of killers south of the border.

Now a U.S. senator and two Congressmen – including Gus Bilirakis, R- Palm Harbor, want to know whether there were similar problems in the Tampa investigation.

"We are looking into allegations that Operation Castaway incorporated the same policies as Operation Fast and Furious, allowing guns to be purchased, or straw purchasers to buy guns, and then allow those guns to be transferred to third parties and not follow the guns," said Beth Levine, a spokeswoman for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

On Tuesday, Bilirakis wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Acting ATF director Kenneth Melson asking, among other things, if Operation Castaway "allowed weapons to be trafficked to Honduras" and if the agency has accounted for all the guns involved.

"I find it very troubling that the United States government would willfully allow weapons to be acquired by dangerous criminal and drug trafficking organizations, thus compromising our strategic and national interests," Bilirakis wrote. "This appears to be an extremely misguided effort by the ATF and DOJ and I hope that we do not allow such flawed programs to continue to threaten the safety of the United States."

Today, Bilirakis sent a similar letter to ICE director John Morton...

...Operation Castaway began in the summer of 2009 and included the ATF, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sheriff's offices in Orange, Osceola and Brevard counties and the Miami-Dade Police Department. As a result of the investigation, Hugh Crumpler III, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, acknowledged that he illegally sold about 1,000 guns, shipping the bulk of them to Honduras and other countries in Central and South America.

As with Operation Fast and Furious, the guns sold by Crumpler wound up in the hands of at least one killer, according to federal documents, as well as a violent drug organization in Puerto Rico, the hitman for a Colombian drug organization, a murder-for-hire gang and an effort to smuggle guns into Colombian prisons.

But unlike Operation Fast and Furious, these guns apparently wound up in the hands of criminals before Operation Castaway was even launched, according to federal court records.

Crumpler's attorney at the time, Roger Weeden, said he did not think it was possible that guns from Operation Castaway wound up in the hands of criminals in Latin America once the investigation began because agents "closely monitored Crumpler's activities after they got involved with him.''...

[Kathianne]

emails may confirm the real purpose behind 'Fast & Furious'.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-smoking-gun-email/?singlepage=true


Gunwalker: Smoking Gun Email?
An internal ATF email seems to support the assertion that Fast and Furious was a PR stunt for gun control.
July 13, 2011 - 12:00 am - by Patrick Richardson

PJM’s Bob Owens has long speculated that the primary reason for Operation Fast and Furious was to perpetuate the lie that 90 percent of illegal firearms in Mexico were from the United States.

Owens’ assertion was buoyed on Wednesday by internal ATF emails obtained by Townhall.com. (http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/07/13/operation_fast_and_furious_designed_to_promote_gun _control) One email reads:

Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field Operations.

This would seem to be a “smoking gun” for Owens’ assertion that this operation was never about crime and always about an “under the table” effort to institute the gun control Obama knew he could never push through Congress.

Additionally, Obama has just issued an executive order which requires gun dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California to report multiple long gun (rifle or shotgun) purchases to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in order to combat illegal firearms trafficking along the Mexican border.

The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action fired back at President Obama’s order. Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA-ILA, said they will be filing a lawsuit against the new order the first time ATF tries to enforce it. He noted that criminals generally don’t fill out forms:

...

[Kathianne]

A couple more letters from the committee to DOJ:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunrunner-justice-department-tampering-with-witnesses/?singlepage=true


Gunwalker: Justice Department Tampering with Witnesses?

Posted By Patrick Richardson On July 14, 2011 @ 8:40 am In Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-IA), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, have fired off another pair of letters to Attorney General Eric Holder as part of their investigation into the Operation Fast and Furious debacle [1], which has claimed the lives of at least two American law enforcement agents and a reported 150 Mexican nationals [2].

In one letter, Issa and Grassley note that the Department of Justice has been providing information about the program to committee witnesses — which implies tampering. The other letter names DOJ officials who knew about the operation.

Per the tampering letter:

...

The hypocrisy here is egregious. According to the letter, on May 5 of this year an associate deputy attorney general expressed concern the committee “might allow witnesses exposure to documents they had not previously seen”:

To the extent that you nevertheless plan to interview our trial witnesses prior to trial, we would appreciate you taking the following steps to help reduce the risk of harm to the case that could arise from such interviews. First … we ask that you not show the witnesses new documents, as exposing the witnesses to facts that are not already within their personal knowledge may contaminate their recall of events. Second, for the same reasons, we ask that you not orally convey facts to the witness of which the witness was previously unaware.

DOJ did exactly what they asked Issa’s committee not to do.

Issa and Grassley demanded the following by July 18:

1. Identify which ATF and DOJ employees had access to this shared drive.

2. Provide a log of documents and the date each document was posted to the shared drive.

3. Provide a log of any other documents relating to this investigation, not on the shared drive, to which these employees had access.

4. Provide the dates for which these employees had access to the shared drive.

5. Identify those employees who still have access to this information.

...

[Kathianne]

More legs:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fast-furious-fbi-20110727,0,808389.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fnationworld% 2Fnation+(L.A.+Times+-+National+News)


FBI report at odds with ATF claim on weapons A copy of the FBI document shows ballistics tests did not rule out the Fast and Furious guns in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry. By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
July 27, 2011
Reporting from Washington

The claim by senior ATF officials that none of the weapons lost in the botched Fast and Furious sting operation were used in the shooting of a Border Patrol agent is not supported by FBI ballistics tests, according to a copy of the FBI report on the shooting.

Last week, spokesmen Scot Thomasson and Drew Wade of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told The Times that the FBI had assured them that neither of the two Fast and Furious weapons found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry's death were the ones that killed the agent.

"We're not aware of any forensic evidence that would link these guns to the homicide," they said.

A copy of the FBI report obtained by The Times' Washington bureau shows ballistics tests did not rule out the Fast and Furious guns...

Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to the ATF in January about allegations that Fast and Furious weapons had been "used" to kill Terry. A week later, senior Justice Department and ATF officials told their supervisors that they had "sent a written response to Sen. Grassley, advising him that these allegations are not true."

The response did not acknowledge that two of the lost weapons had been recovered at the scene.

The ATF defended the answer as accurate because officials saw a distinction between guns being found at the scene and "used" in the killing.

Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney in Phoenix now representing the Terry family, was outraged that the ATF statement distorted the FBI findings. "For them to say that is a lie," Charlton said in an interview. "It's a gross inaccuracy. It's yet another example of the ATF misleading the nation and the family on what actually happened to Agent Terry."

Thomasson, the top spokesman at ATF headquarters, declined Tuesday to discuss the disparity between the FBI report and what the agency has said. "I cannot comment on any ongoing investigation," he said, "especially one involving the death of a Border Patrol agent." Why a special prosecutor needs to be appointed. Justice is not disinterests, to say the least.

Terry's death marked a breaking point in the failed Fast and Furious operation, prompting former ATF agents who had previously raised objections internally to quietly tip Grassley's office about what had gone wrong.

When the two guns were found at the scene of Terry's death near Tucson, it sparked anger among rank-and-file agents — who resented orders to let weapons "walk" — and a concerted effort by their superiors to contain the damage...

[Kathianne]

It's still developing and it's getting more interesting:

http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/08/robert-farago/atf-death-watch-50-the-cover-up-is-probably-worse-than-the-crime/


ATF Death Watch 50: “The cover-up is probably worse than the crime” Posted on August 4, 2011 (http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/08/robert-farago/atf-death-watch-50-the-cover-up-is-probably-worse-than-the-crime/) by Robert Farago

(http://thetruthaboutguns.com/author/robert-farago/)Notice the word “probably.” Then note the source of this quote: UCLA Law Professor Adam Winkler [above]. And here’s the coupe de grace: Winkler’s qualified pronouncement appears in The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-winkler/obamas-growing-gun-proble_b_917104.html). That would be the left-leaning website that spent the early part of the ATF’s Gunwalker scandal ignoring it. And then prevaricated on behalf of the ATF, claiming the Agency was guilty of nothing more than over-exuberance caused by a lack of funding (despite the extra funding that funded the anti-gun running gun running operation). And now the HuffPo’s legal eagle is raising the red flag in an article entitled Obama’s Growing Gun Problem. So it’s official: Obama’s in deep shit. Oh, and about that “probably” . . .


The Gunwalker coverup is NOT worse than the crime. Operation Fast and Furious armed Mexican narco-terrorists who used ATF-enabled weapons to murder U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. And, it seems, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata. And, for sure, dozens if not hundreds of Mexicans.


This isn’t Watergate. No one died bugging the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Operation Fast and Furious is drenched in blood. The aforementioned ATF conspiracy is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The United States government has been aiding and abetting Mexican narco-terrorists for at least a decade.


Uncle Sam has sanctioned hundreds of millions of dollars of American arms sales to the Mexican military and law enforcement—knowing full well that U.S. guns and grenades have been “seeping” to Mexican drug cartels. More to the point, Operation Fast and Furious would not have been possible without the direct cooperation and informed consent of the DOJ, ICE, FBI, CIA, DEA, DHS, State Department and White House...




Watch for a special prosecutor...

[Kathianne]

Funny how many of the 'fast and furious' related threads have been trashed. This one though seems to be working. ;) This story is growing, not receding.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20108240-10391695.html


September 19, 2011 12:53 PM
Secret recordings raise new questions in ATF 'Gunwalker' operation <dl class="storyBlogByline"><dt class="storyBlogBy">BySharyl Attkisson (http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-31727_162-20108240.html?contributor=41919)
</dt></dl>

Updated 5:09 pm, Sept. 19, 2011 with comment from the Office of the Inspector General WASHINGTON - CBS News has obtained secretly recorded conversations that raise questions as to whether some evidence is being withheld in the murder of a Border Patrol agent.

(Scroll down to listen to the audio) The tapes were recorded approximately mid-March 2011 by the primary gun dealer cooperating with ATF in its "Fast and Furious" operation: Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company (http://lonewolftradingco.net/index.html)in Glendale, Arizona. He's talking with the lead case ATF case agent Hope MacAllister.

The tapes have been turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General.



As CBS News first reported (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/23/eveningnews/main20035609.shtml)last February, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to "walk" onto the streets without interdiction into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in its operation "Fast and Furious."


The conversations refer to a third weapon recovered at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.


Agent: I was ordered to let guns into Mexico

(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/03/eveningnews/main20039031.shtml)

Court records have previously only mentioned two weapons: Romanian WASR "AK-47 type" assault rifles. Both were allegedly sold to suspects who were under ATF's watch as part of Fast and Furious.


Also, a ballistics report turned over to Congressional investigators only mentions the two WASR rifles. The ballistics report says it's inconclusive as to whether either of the WASR rifles fired the bullet that killed Terry.



Law enforcement sources and others close to the Congressional investigation say the Justice Department's Inspector General obtained the audio tapes several months ago as part of its investigation into Fast and Furious.


Then, the sources say for some reason the Inspector General passed the tapes along to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona: a subject in the investigation. It's unclear why the Inspector General, who is supposed to investigate independently, would turn over evidence to an entity that is itself under investigation.


A spokesman from the Office of the Inspector General today said, "The OIG officially provided the United States Attorney's Office with a copy of the recordings in question so that the USAO could consider them in connection with the government's disclosure obligations in the pending criminal prosecutions of the gun traffickers. Prior to receiving the tapes, the OIG made clear that we would have to provide a copy of the recordings to the United States Attorney's Office because they would need to review them to satisfy any legal disclosure obligations."



(Listen to the audio)

In the audiotapes, ATF Agent MacAllister tells Howard that a third weapon recovered at the Brian Terry murder scene last December is an SKS assault rifle. Agent MacAllister claims to know that the SKS "had nothing to do with" the Brian Terry murder and, unlike the WASR's, did not trace back to the Lone Wolf gun store.


It's unclear why a weapon would be, in essence, missing from the evidence disclosed at the crime scene under FBI jurisdiction.



Agent MacAllister and Howard (the gun dealer) also discuss various Republicans and Democrats in Congress who are investigating Fast and Furious. They express concern that whistleblower ATF special agent John Dodson has further evidence that could be damaging to the government.


...

[Gaffer]

Just read this a few minutes ago myself. It's not going away, much as the media would like it too. It just gets deeper and bigger like a sink hole. There's so much corruption going on with this it's unreal. The IG turned the tape over to the AG in AZ who they are investigating....WTF.

A congressional appointed special prosecutor is need here and quickly.

[red states rule]

Fast and Furious should be Obama's Katrina

[Kathianne]

It's past time for a special prosecutor:

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/21/new-fast-furious-audio-border-patrol-agent-killed-by-ff-weapons-was-collateral-damage/


New Fast & Furious audio: Border Patrol agent killed by F&F weapons was “collateral damage”
Share66 (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhotair.com%2Farchives%2F 2011%2F09%2F21%2Fnew-fast-furious-audio-border-patrol-agent-killed-by-ff-weapons-was-collateral-damage%2F&t=New%20Fast%20%26%20Furious%20audio%3A%20Border%2 0Patrol%20agent%20killed%20by%20F%26F%20weapons%20 was%20%E2%80%9Ccollateral%20damage%E2%80%9D%20%C2% AB%20Hot%20Air&src=sp)

posted at 6:18 pm on September 21, 2011 by Allahpundit
<small> printer-friendly (http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/21/new-fast-furious-audio-border-patrol-agent-killed-by-ff-weapons-was-collateral-damage/?print=1) </small>
It’s not an ATF agent who utters those magical words, it’s the Arizona gun dealer who was working with the ATF on Fast & Furious. He utters them to an ATF agent (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20109529-10391695.html?tag=stack), though, to which she replies with a cryptic “mm-hmm.” Callousness — or strategy (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/21/audio-tapes-reveal-more-details-in-fast-and-furious-gunrunner-scandal/)?

However, the lawyer representing the Lone Wolf Trading Co. says owner Andre Howard made the tapes only after he suspected he was being lied to, and his language is meant to get Hope MacAllister, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to implicate herself and her agency in their illegal gun running scheme.


“He became very suspicious and in his own defense would tape key conversations with Ms. MacAllister and try to get her to make admissions about the truth of the matter,” said Dallas attorney Larry Gaydos. “Andre was trying to get her to admit that indeed they let guns go to Mexico.”…


Howard made the tapes in March 2011 after a meeting he and his attorneys held with federal officials. In that meeting, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley continued to insist the guns Lone Wolf sold were stopped and seized before reaching Mexico.
But ATF officials are quoted in a Washington Post article and the Spanish language daily La Opinion saying just the opposite — blaming Lone Wolf for “selling guns to the cartels” with no mention that Howard was operating under the federal government’s direction, encouragement and approval.
The “collateral damage” exchange comes in the first clip below. The second clip, also between Howard and MacAllister, was posted yesterday at CBS and apparently shows MacAllister this time suggesting that the DOJ would have to tell Chuck Grassley to “sit your ass down” (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20108965-10391695.html) if he insisted on calling a hearing and demanding more info on F&F. And that’s where we’re at today in the curious case of an American law enforcement official shot dead by guns provided to drug cartels by the Department of Justice — aong with 200-300 Mexican citizens (http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/20/report-at-least-200-murders-in-mexico-now-linked-to-fast-furious-weapons/), of course. Exit question: Anyone covering this story anymore except CBS and Fox News?


Update: New from Reuters, just as I’m posting this. Is the DOJ’s probe of Fast & Furious actually a way to derail the House’s investigation (http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-criticize-u-probe-mexico-gun-sting-220747245.html)?

...

[logroller]

In a letter released on Wednesday to Acting Justice Department Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar, they expressed deep concern over her decision to turn over to U.S. prosecutors in Arizona audio recordings obtained during her investigation.
Representative Darrell Issa, head of the House Oversight Committee, and Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Schnedar apparently did not consider the significant harm caused by giving the recordings to those under investigation....

Before getting the tapes, it was made clear that a copy would have to be provided to the U.S. attorney's office "because they would need to review them to satisfy any legal disclosure obligations," the spokesman said. -source (http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-criticize-u-probe-mexico-gun-sting-220747245.html)



U.S.Code, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 73,
§ 1512. TAMPERING WITH A WITNESS, VICTIM, OR AN INFORMANT
(c) Whoever corruptly—(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.


The only reason to disclose information to somebody under investigation, is to influence their story.

This woman should be transferred to another job, something with a 20-year term in a federal penitentiary so the next one in her position does the right thing.
2476

[Kathianne]

There should be a demand for a special prosecutor.