Friday, July 8, 2011

Attorney General on a razor's edge

Examiner
William Heuisler

Attorney General (AG) Eric Holder is tiptoeing on a razor’s edge of incompetence or perjury.

He has once again denied prior knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious (Gunrunner) smuggling guns into Mexico that were used to kill American Agents. President Obama told CBS last week, “My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico”. (Attkisson, 2011)

But more evidence has surfaced that Holder must have known ATF was smuggling guns into Mexico at least a year before Border Agent Brian Terry was killed in the desert south of Tucson by ATF-smuggled-Operation-Gunrunner-weapons.

The evidence? Senator Charles Grassley last week showed his House Committee an email from Phoenix ATF Agent in Charge, William Newell, about a “Southwest Border Strategy Group” of senior Justice Department officials meeting on October 27, 2009.

The meeting was about Gunrunner, and smuggling guns into Mexico. (Owens, 2011)

Present were:

1) Assistant AG (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer.

2) Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF.

3) William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF.

4) Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA.

5) Robert Mueller, Director FBI.

6) Justice Department Directors of Organized Crime, Drug Enforcement Task Force, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals, and Executive Office for US Attorneys.

7) The chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.

8) The U.S. Attorneys of four southwest Border States. (Owens, 2011)



As detailed in Examiner/Tucson, articles (4/4, 4/29, 6/20, 6/28) Operation Gunrunner was a multi-agency, extra-legal scheme that purchased nearly 2000 firearms from Tucson and Phoenix gun stores that were then smuggled to Mexican drug cartels. ATF agents were ordered by supervisors to let the guns be smuggled into Mexico without notifying Mexican police. Hundreds of smuggled weapons have turned up at crime scenes across Mexico and the US. Along with US Agents, Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, 152 Mexican police and soldiers have been killed with Gunrunner weapons.

While it has been known since the beginning of the investigation that the ATF, DOJ, DHS, and the IRS were heavily involved in Gunrunner, the Newell email confirms that every major agency within DOJ was briefed on Gunrunner in 2009, including the Chairman of the AGAC, which, by his title, has the primary purpose of advising Attorney General Holder.

AG Holder should have known his AG Advisor, his assistant AG, directors of five of his agencies, and all Southwest U.S. Attorneys were discussing smuggling guns into Mexico in 2009. His declarations of ignorance about Gunrunner place him on the razor’s edge of, either admitting gross incompetence, or making false statements to Americans, to Congress, and now even to his President.

Attkisson, S. (2011). CBSNEWS. Obama talks “Fast and Furious” ATF scandal. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20075484-10391695.html

Owens, B. (2011). Pajamas Media. Email confirms “Gunwalker” known throughout Justice Department. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/email-confirms-gunwalker-known-throughout-justice-department/?singlepage=true



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1 comment:

  1. Crooks in the White House? OWW!! My virgin ears. The CFR giveth, and the CFR taketh away.
    Maybe if we gestured towards a military gallows, the CFR could be persuaded to replant the SCOTUS in somebody else's front yard.

    ReplyDelete