Tag Archives: Fast and Furious

Fast and Furious – Inspector General Report is Released

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Who is to blame for Fast and Furious? Lots of responses to the Inspector General’s report.

By Sari Horwitz, Published: September 19

Federal agents and prosecutors in Phoenix ignored risks to the public and were primarily responsible for the botched effort to infiltrate weapons-smuggling rings in the operation dubbed “Fast and Furious,” according to a report released Wednesday by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The long-awaited report also criticized senior officials at the Justice Department and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington for lax oversight of the attempt to block the flow of weapons to Mexico’s violent drug cartels. Many of the weapons later turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, including one where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed.

The inspector general’s report recommended that the Justice Department review the actions of 14 officials and consider whether disciplinary action is warranted. Among them are former acting deputy attorney general Gary Grindler, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, former acting ATF director Kenneth Melson, former ATF special agent in charge William Newell and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein. . . .

Read more here

Representative Issa Continues to Pursue Answers to Fast and Furious

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Representative Issa Continues to Pursue Answers to Fast and Furious

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, goes on Fox News to discuss next week’s hearing on Operation Fast and Furious. Patrick Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, will plead the fifth amendment during next week’s committee hearing.

Gun Control Legislation – Obama’s Administration Has Attempted to Use Fast and Furious To Further Its Anti-Gun Stance – Chris Cox

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Gun Control Legislation – Obama’s Administration Has Attempted to Use Fast and Furious To Further Its Anti-Gun Stance – Chris Cox

These are strong words from Chris W. Cox, Executive Director of The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action and the organization’s chief lobbyist. The saddest part of this entire anti-gun agenda is the willingness to endanger lives, both in the United States and Mexico. All honest, law-abiding gunowners should be looking for Justice for the Justice Department.

Read Chris Cox’s article here.

Attorney General Eric Holder – Asked to Testify Before House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

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Attorney General Eric Holder – Asked to Testify Before House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

Representative Darrell Issa who is faithfully pursuing the Fast and Furious Investigation has requested, by letter, that AG Eric Holder appear before the committee on January 24, 2012. The Examiner article demonstrates how the mainstream media are spinning this to be nothing more than a political problem between polarized parties. No, it is much more than that.

Darrell Issa’s letter to AG Eric Holder about Fast and Furious can be found here.

If Congress were not controlled by Republicans right now, I seriously doubt if the investigation into Fast and Furious would have gotten off the ground.

Read more here.

Fast and Furious – Is This Obama’s Watergate? Washington Times

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Fast and Furious – Is This Obama’s Watergate? Washington Times

Jeffrey T. Kuhner of the Washington Times certainly thinks so. He also argues, as you can see below, that the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation is far worse than Nixon’s Watergate. Eric Holder, Attorney General, and President Obama, are being heavily scrutinized over what has happened, and of what now appears to be a systematic cover-up. So if this is worse than Watergate, when will justice be served?

. . . Mr. Holder insists he was unaware of what took place until after media reports of the scandal appeared in early 2011. This is false. Such a vast operation only could have occurred with the full knowledge and consent of senior administration officials. Massive gun-running and smuggling is not carried out by low-level ATF bureaucrats unless there is authorization from the top. There is a systematic cover-up.

. . .

Mr. Holder clearly knew about Fast and Furious and did nothing to stop it. This is because the administration wanted to use the excuse of increased violence on the border and weapons-smuggling into Mexico to justify tighter gun-control legislation. Mr. Holder is fighting ferociously to prevent important internal Justice documents from falling into the hands of congressional investigators. If the full nature of his involvement is discovered, the Obama presidency will be in peril.

Fast and Furious is even worse than Watergate for one simple reason: No one died because of President Nixon’s political dirty tricks and abuse of government power. But Brian Terry is dead; and there are still 1,500 missing guns threatening still more lives.

What did Mr. Obama know? Massive gun-smuggling by the U.S. government into a foreign country does not happen without the explicit knowledge and approval of leading administration officials. It’s too big, too risky and too costly. Mr. Holder may not be protecting just himself and his cronies. Is he protecting the president?

Read more at the Washington Times.

Operation Fast and Furious – Crime Control? or More Gun Control?

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Operation Fast and Furious – Crime Control? or More Gun Control?

Rep. Daryl Issa made this point in the most recent oversight hearing of the Department of Justice. Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, and not a surprise, the hearing focused mainly on the Fast and Furious gunwalking scheme. Several other committee members offered support to the contention that Fast and Furious is an attempt to create more gun control laws. Gun Owners of America provide some excellent analysis of the hearing and what is going on. Still, no one is being held accountable for the disaster created by Operation Fast and Furious.

. . . Holder, as he has already done numerous times in testimony before Congress, continued his practice of stonewalling and deflecting blame for the failed scheme that led to thousands of firearms “walking” across the border into Mexico and into the hands of violent drug cartels.

Committee members grilled Holder on misleading Congress, not dealing appropriately with the individuals who called the shots on Fast and Furious and, even worse, for using the guns that the government allowed to “walk” to Mexico as an excuse for greater gun control in the U.S.

Fast and Furious Leading to More Gun Control

From his opening statement, Rep. Daryl Issa (R-CA), a chief congressional investigator looking into Fast and Furious, made clear that gun control, not crime control, is really the main objective of the Obama administration. . . .

In other words, the Justice Department helped to create a huge mess, and is now seeking more authority to regulate firearms to clean it up. At the same time, the Department has taken no action to hold anyone accountable within the government. . .

Read more at Gun Owners of America.

Reese Family Gun Saga – Charged With Gun Sales to Mexican Drug Cartels . . . But Why the Heavy-Handed Government Treatment?

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Reese Family Gun Saga – Charged With Gun Sales to Mexican Drug Cartels . . . But Why the Heavy-Handed Government Treatment?

Several months ago, New Mexico residents and gun store owner, Rick Reese, his wife and two sons were charged with illegal gun sales to individuals who, according to the Justice Dept., they should have known were Mexican drug traffickers. According to a recent updated article by Jeff Knox of WorldNetDaily (wnd.com), the family has been denied bond, which means they are still sitting in jail more than three months after their arrest.

WorldNetDaily questions how is it possible that our government can come down so hard on the Reese family (jail without bond, asset forfeiture, seized inventory of guns, safes, and ammunition), knowing that the Fast and Furious operation led to several thousand guns being sold to Mexican drug gangs, and yet no one seems to be held responsible for Fast and Furious??

This is a very serious situation, and if anyone knows anything at all, please comment and share with our readers.

A family of four – Rick Reese, his wife Terri, and their two sons, Ryin, 24, and Remington, 19 – was arrested in Las Cruces, N.M., on August 30, 2011. They have been held in four separate county and federal detention facilities without bond ever since.

Their alleged crime is that, over the course of several months, they sold between 15 and 30 guns to people they “knew, or should have known” were gun traffickers for Mexican drug gangs.

Shortly after they were arrested in Las Cruces, dozens of police vehicles, including four armored personnel carriers and two helicopters, full of armed officers and agents from an alphabet soup of state and local law enforcement agencies, swarmed over the Reese’s home and businesses. The entire firearm and ammunition inventory was taken from Rick Reese’s store, as well as his entire personal collection of firearms and all cash and valuables from his home safe. Even the 30 to 40 empty gun safes that were on display at the store were seized.

U.S. Attorney Ken Gonzales indicated that he is going to seek asset forfeiture of the Reese’s home and 25-acre property (including the shooting range on the property that he leased to various law enforcement agencies), all of the cash and valuables seized, their vehicles and a monetary judgment of at least $36,000 of whatever assets might be left.

In a prepared statement to the press, U.S. Attorney Gonzales stated, “This case serves to put firearms dealers on notice that they will be held accountable for any failure to comply with federal firearms laws.”

That’s fine. All gun dealers, particularly dealers in southern border states, are well aware of heightened scrutiny and enforcement of gun laws for the past several years. But it is almost inconceivable that any dealer, particularly a successful and prosperous one like Rick Reese, would jeopardize his life and livelihood for the sake of a few extra dollars.

What’s not fine is the heavy-handed treatment of the Reese family, the judge’s refusal to establish bond for them and something else that U.S. Attorney Gonzales said: “Those who sell firearms knowing that they will be illegally smuggled into Mexico to arm Mexican cartels share responsibility for the violence that has been devastating Mexico.”

While the Reese family sits in their various jail cells accused of “should have known,” the leadership of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, or ATF, in cooperation with the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney for Arizona, twisted dealers’ arms to get them to sell over 2,000 guns to people that they knew were trafficking the guns to Mexican drug gangs. They did this with every intention of allowing the unmonitored guns to reach the bad guys and only tracked them by the crime scenes where they inevitably appeared. This program was only stopped when two of those guns turned up at the scene of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

So, with those facts known, when are those responsible for dumping 2,000+ guns into the criminal market going to be arrested and held accountable for their contributions to “the violence that has been devastating Mexico?” . . .

Read more about the Reese Family at wnd.com

“Fast and Furious” Operation – Were More Gun Regulations The Justification?

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“Fast and Furious” Operation – Were More Gun Regulations The Justification?

Sharyl Attkisson, cbsnews.com, has continued her great investigative work and reporting as she seeks out answers to the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal. Her latest installment is found on the CBS News site. What is the real motivation behind all of these efforts? It appears from the information being reported that ATF wanted this to become the justification for more gun regulations.

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the “big fish.” But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called “gunwalking,” and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

ATF officials didn’t intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called “Demand Letter 3″. That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or “long guns.” Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF’s Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:

“Bill – can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks.” . . .

This is a lengthy article on Fast and Furious, so please click through the link below and read it.

Read more on Fast and Furious here.

Fast and Furious – Justice Department Responds to Congressional Investigation – New York Times Reports

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Fast and Furious – Justice Department Responds to Congressional Investigation – New York Times Reports

These couple of paragraphs from the NYT article indicate, in my opinion, the DOJ’s continuing effort to deflect criticism from the current Fast and Furious investigation to the earlier Operation Wide Receiver operation. I’ve quoted the first paragraphs of the NYT article. Read that and then see below it to what John Lott has already said about the two gun operations.

By CHARLIE SAVAGE [New York Times]

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Friday turned over to Congress nearly 1,400 pages of “highly deliberative internal communications” about the drafting of a February letter in an effort to show that agency officials did not knowingly mislead lawmakers in connection with a disputed gun trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious.

Officials now acknowledge that the claim was misleading. It has come to light that A.T.F. agents in Arizona have on several occasions, dating to a 2006 investigation called Operation Wide Receiver, tried to identify the leaders of gun-trafficking networks by allowing lower-level suspects to transfer guns — and have lost track of weapons in the process. . . .

Read the rest of the NYT article here.

But, the problem here is what John Lott has already shown in an earlier article I posted, the two operations, Fast and Furious and Operation Wide Receiver are very different in how they were carried out. Wide Receiver had in place ‘guntracing’, and they notified the Mexican government about the weapons so that they could be traced or tracked. Fast and Furious didn’t do any ‘guntracing’ nor did it notify the Mexican government, according to John Lott.

See John Lott’s earlier analysis and comparison of Operation Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious here.

“Fast and Furious” – Arizona Republic Article by Dennis Wagner – EXCELLENT

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Fast and Furious – Arizona Republic Article by Dennis Wagner – EXCELLENT

Dennis Wagner [**this is from the AZ Republic site** Reporter Dennis Wagner spent weeks reviewing congressional testimony, court documents and records from the Justice Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about Operation Fast and Furious. The congressional testimony includes sworn statements by ATF Agent John Dodson and other whistle-blowers, as well as Attorney General Eric Holder, then-acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson and other agency administrators. His story also includes information from dozens of interviews with federal agents, congressional investigators, prosecutors and other sources.]

has compiled an excellent article FULL of the background and details about Fast and Furious. I have quoted a brief introductory excerpt below, but don’t miss out. Read the article at Arizona Republic.

When the National Rifle Association launched a TV ad campaign this month to have Attorney General Eric Holder fired, it culminated a political frenzy over a once-obscure Arizona gun-smuggling case.

Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed hundreds of weapons to cross the border in hopes of catching Mexican drug kingpins, wound up increasing the firepower of cartels without getting any key players. By all accounts, both the strategy and execution were flawed, leading to investigations by Congress and the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The initial story line of Fast and Furious was about outrage — anger that guns, let out of sight, had been used in crimes. But the backstory of the investigation is one of hidden motives, curious contradictions and strange allegiances, both among those who organized the effort and those who exposed it:

Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department authorized the investigation to catch bad guys, stem the flow of guns to Mexico and, presumably, elevate their own careers. Instead, they failed to arrest drug lords, helped arm the cartels and damaged their professional reputations.

Rigid defenders of the right to bear arms, who typically assail ATF for enforcing gun laws, took a polar position on Fast and Furious, arguing that ATF agents should have arrested suspected straw buyers and seized their weapons even though the purchases were, in most cases, legal. . . .

Read more on Fast and Furious here.