Report: Fast and Furious a product of DOJ ‘deliberate strategy’ laid out by Eric Holder, other senior Obama officials

Daily Caller
Matthew Boyle

The latest congressional report on Operation Fast and Furious found that the gunwalking-program-turned-scandal was the result of a “deliberate strategy created at the highest levels of the Justice Department aimed at identifying the leaders of a major gun trafficking ring.”

The report is the second installment in a three-part series from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley and House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa.

That “deliberate strategy,” congressional investigators argue, sprang from “a series of speeches about combating violence along the Southwest border” that Attorney General Eric Holder delivered shortly after taking office.

“Although [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] ATF did not officially open the Fast and Furious investigation until the fall of 2009, the groundwork for the strategy that would guide the operation began shortly after new leadership took control of the Department of Justice nine months earlier,” the report reads. “On February 25, 2009, just one month after Attorney General Eric Holder took office, he gave a speech noting the danger of the Mexican drug cartels, focusing on the Sinaloa cartel in particular.”

On Feb. 25, 2009, Holder said the drug cartels “are lucrative, they are violent, and they are operated with stunning planning and precision” and, under his leadership, he promised “these cartels will be destroyed.”

A little more than a month later, on April 2, 2009 in Cuernavaca, Mexico, congressional investigators say Holder “gave further insight into the department’s new strategy for combating these dangerous cartels.”

“He spoke about the development of a prosecution and enforcement strategy with respect to firearms trafficking, noting that the ‘administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels,’” the report reads. “In particular, the attorney general said that the Justice Department was committed to adding ‘100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest Border’ and that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) would add ‘16 new positions on the border.’ Most importantly, the attorney general noted that there must be ‘an attack in depth, on both sides of the border, that focuses on the leadership and assets of the cartel.’”

Shortly after that April 2, 2009 speech by Holder, congressional investigators say “a Firearms Trafficking Working Group was formed.” Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, the head of DOJ’s Criminal Division, led the working group. It was tasked with “exploring and recommending proposals to enhance law enforcement efforts to curb firearms trafficking, focusing specifically on investigation, interdiction, training, prosecution, and intelligence-sharing.”

Later, on June 30, 2009, congressional investigators say Deputy Attorney General David Ogden argued that the border between the U.S. and Mexico was the “front line” to fight firearms trafficking. The report lays out how Ogden “also said that ATF and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would sign a new agreement to ‘ensure coordination between the departments on firearms investigations.’”

Then, on Aug. 19, 2009, that working group presented its recommendations to Holder in a memo. “The recommendations section of this August 2009 memo included many of the previous public comments by Attorney General Holder and Deputy Attorney General Ogden,” the congressional report says of that memo.

“The document went on to recommend “intelligence-based, prosecutor-led, multi-agency task forces,’” congressional investigators write. “It suggested that under its new model, ‘we develop priority targets through the extensive use of intelligence,’ which would allow it to ‘build cases, coordinating long-term, extensive investigations to identify all the tentacles of a particular organization.’”

US OFFICIALS: WE DIDN'T LINK LIBYA ATTACK TO VIDEO

BY BRADLEY KLAPPER AND LARRY MARGASAK 
ASSOCIATED PRESS

The State Department said Tuesday it never concluded that the consulate attack in Libya stemmed from protests over an American-made video ridiculing Islam, raising further questions about why the Obama administration used that explanation for more than a week after assailants killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

The revelation came as new documents suggested internal disagreement over appropriate levels of security before the attack, which occurred on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S.

Briefing reporters ahead of a hotly anticipated congressional hearing Wednesday, State Department officials provided their most detailed rundown of how a peaceful day in Benghazi devolved into a sustained attack that involved multiple groups of men armed with weapons such as machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars over an expanse of more than a mile.

But asked about the administration's initial - and since retracted - explanation linking the violence to protests over an anti-Muslim video circulating on the Internet, one official said, "That was not our conclusion." He called it a question for "others" to answer, without specifying. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter, and provided no evidence that might suggest a case of spontaneous violence or angry protests that went too far.

The attack has become a major issue in the presidential campaign, featuring prominently in Republican candidate Mitt Romney's latest foreign policy address on Monday. He called it an example of President Barack Obama's weakness in foreign policy matters, noting: "As the administration has finally conceded, these attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists."

The administration counters that it has provided its best intelligence on the attack, and that it refined its explanation as more information came to light. But five days after the attack, Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, gave a series of interviews saying the administration believed the violence was unplanned and that extremists with heavier weapons "hijacked" the protest and turned it into an outright attack.

She has since denied trying to mislead Congress, and a concurrent CIA memo that was obtained by The Associated Press cited intelligence suggesting the demonstrations in Benghazi "were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo" and "evolved into a direct assault" on the diplomatic posts by "extremists."

Alongside defining the nature of the Benghazi attack, Congress is looking into whether adequate security was in place.

According to an email obtained Tuesday by the AP, the top State Department security official in Libya told a congressional investigator that he had argued unsuccessfully for more security in the weeks before Ambassador Chris Stevens, a State Department computer specialist and two former Navy SEALs were killed. But department officials instead wanted to "normalize operations and reduce security resources," he wrote.

Eric Nordstrom, who was the regional security officer in Libya, also referenced a State Department document detailing 230 security incidents in Libya between June 2011 and July 2012 that demonstrated the danger there to Americans.

Nordstrom is among the witnesses set to testify Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. According to the panel's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and the head of a subcommittee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the State Department refused repeated requests to provide more security for U.S. diplomats in Libya.

"You will note that there were a number of incidents that targeted diplomatic missions and underscored the GoL's (government of Libya) inability to secure and protect diplomatic missions," Nordstrom's email stated.

"This was a significant part of (the diplomatic) post's and my argument for maintaining continued DS (diplomatic security) and DOD (Department of Defense) security assets into Sept/Oct. 2012; the GoL was overwhelmed and could not guarantee our protection.

"Sadly, that point was reaffirmed on Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi," he added.

Nordstrom said the incidents demonstrated that security in Libya was fragile and could degrade quickly. He added that Libya was "certainly not an environment where (the diplomatic) post would be directed to `normalize' operations and reduce security resources in accordance with an artificial time table."

Nordstrom also said diplomats in Libya were told not to request an extension of a 16-member special operations military team that left in August, according to an official of the Oversight panel. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and thus spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

The State Department has said it never received a request to extend the military team beyond August, and added that its members were replaced with a security team that had the same skills.

Democrats on the Oversight committee were sharply critical of Issa, the chairman, calling his investigation "extremely partisan."

"The chairman and his staff failed to consult with Democratic members prior to issuing public letters with unverified allegations, concealed witnesses and refused to make one hearing witness available to Democratic staff, withheld documents obtained by the committee during the investigation, and effectively excluded Democratic committee members from joining a poorly-planned congressional delegation to Libya," a Democratic memo said.

It said in the previous two years, House Republicans voted to cut the Obama administration's requests for embassy security by some $459 million.

The Democratic memo said Nordstrom told committee investigators that he sent two cables to State Department headquarters in March and July 2012 requesting additional diplomatic security agents for Benghazi, but that he received no responses.

He stated that Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary for international programs, wanted to keep the number of U.S. security personnel in Benghazi artificially low and that Lamb believed the Benghazi facilities did not need any diplomatic security special agents because there was a residential safe haven to fall back to in an emergency.

Issa had a phone conversation Monday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about the committee's investigation.

The FBI is still investigating the attack. Clinton also has named a State Department review panel to look into the security arrangements in Libya.

Democrats “willfully misleading” or “wrong” on Fast and Furious

By ADI News Services

Fast and Furious report reveals inaccurate statements Republicans on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR) are asking whether the Democrats’ on the OGR who made “false statements on Fast and Furious wiretap applications: willfully misleading the American people” or were they “just plain wrong?

OGR Democrats have said that the wiretaps in the Fast and Furious matter did not show reckless tactics. Cases in point:

“All six of these wiretap applications state explicitly that law enforcement agents on the ground in Arizona did not observe the illegal acts of transferring firearms to unauthorized persons or trafficking firearms across the border to Mexico,” Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, on 6/15/2012.

“The wiretap applications. I read through them yesterday, and I would say without — since we can’t talk about what was in them, that my perception of what they would imply was far different than my friend from South Carolina’s perception,” Rep. John Yarmuth, on 6/20/2012.

“We have to be cautious because of the privileged nature of the wiretaps. So, I can’t talk about the contents of those. But I can say after reading those, nothing — nothing in those wiretaps supports what you’re alleging. Not a — matter of fact, they refute — they refute everything you’re saying,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, on 6/20/2012.

However, Republicans say that the Inspector General’s report released last week, “contradicts their false assurances to the public” He cites cases in point:

The report reads on page 277, “We found that the affidavits described specific incidents that would suggest to a prosecutor who was focused on the question of investigative tactics that ATF was employing a strategy of not interdicting weapons or arresting known straw purchasers.”

On page 279, it reads, “Moreover, a reader of only the 5-page OEO cover memorandum would have learned significant facts [redacted] . . . We concluded that a reader of the OEO cover memorandum would infer from the facts stated that ATF agents did not take enforcement action to interdict the weapons or arrest [redacted].”

According to Jake Tapper of ABC News, President Obama has also made a false claim about Fast and Furious. Tapper writes:

Asked about the Fast and Furious program at the Univision forum on Thursday, President Obama falsely claimed that the program began under President George W. Bush.
“I think it’s important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration,” the president said. “When Eric Holder found out about it, he discontinued it. We assigned a inspector general to do a thorough report that was just issued, confirming that in fact Eric Holder did not know about this, that he took prompt action and the people who did initiate this were held accountable.” 

In actuality, the Fast and Furious program was started in October 2009, nine months into the Obama presidency.

Justice Department launches ad campaign

The Examiner

For the first time in the history of the agency, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an ad campaign featuring a sitting attorney general speaking to Americans about the need to protect endangered children.

This reporter saw the ad for the first time last evening.

The series of ads comes at a curious time in American politics. The U.S. presidential election is less than three months away. The DOJ is under intense fire due to the Fast and Furious scandal. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the DOJ issued his first draft report on Fast and Furious this week, and leaks from DOJ indicate that already the report has created a flurry of activity as officials scurry about attempting damage control.

DOJ officials have one month to pour over the OIG report, providing their feedback, prior to its release to Congress, the media, and the public.

Yet as if to get a head start and gain the upper hand in the court of public opinion, Holder launches a massive ad campaign touting the agency's work and focusing on the need to "protect the children."

No one would argue that vulnerable children do not need to be protected. But why is this suddenly the focus of an ad campaign during an election year? Is there some reason that now is the time to step up such efforts? Are there statistics showing that suddenly, out of the blue, multimillions more children are now in harm's way within, say, the last six months?

In all likelihood, children are in no more danger now than they have been at any other time during the Obama presidency.

The thing that has changed, however, is the president's likelihood of being reelected. National opinion polls are skewed toward Democrats and are thus unreliable. Americans in the heartland and in the small towns and cities that dot the landscape all across the nation know in their hearts that this president has failed to deliver on his promises. He did not, as he promised, lower unemployment below 8 percent. He did not, as he promised, fix the economy. He did not, as he promised, make sure that the elderly will be secured in the national safety net for decades to come. Instead, he robbed the Medicare program of nearly 800 billion dollars in order to fund ObamaCare, placing the Medicare program in a highly vulnerable position going forward.

In addition, the president faces a Republican ticket that headed out of Tampa in a very strong position. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan did what they had to do to define themselves and their positions on the issues. Nothing at the Republican Convention gave the impression that this team is not ready on day one to begin to clean up the mess that Obama has made worse.

Thus, the only explanation for the DOJ ads is that they are part of the Obama reelection campaign without identifying themselves as such. And the taxpayers are footing the bill.

ALERT!

A new entry in my regular series Musings After Midnight is now posted at my blog, The Liberty Sphere. It's titled "With All of THIS Going On, It's Enough to Make a Normal Person Become a Conspiracy Theorist." Don't miss it!

'Fast and Furious' ATF Official Granted Paid Leave to Take 6-Figure Job at JP Morgan

CNS News
Susan Jones

The long-awaited inspector general's report on the Justice Department's botched gun-running scheme is finished, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on Wednesday.

But along with that news comes more questions: Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are demanding to know why a top ATF official involved in Operation Fast and Furious remains on paid leave from ATF -- while simultaneously drawing a six-figure salary from J.P. Morgan, a major investment bank.

In a letter to the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Issa and Grassley asked why the Justice Department would approve such a special arrangement for Bill McMahon.

(Pardon the goofy player)

“Under any reading of the relevant personnel regulations, it appears that ATF management was under no obligation to approve this sort of arrangement,” wrote Issa and Grassley. “Given McMahon’s outsized role in the Fast and Furious scandal, the decision to approve an extended annual leave arrangement in order to attain pension eligibility and facilitate full-time, outside employment while still collecting a full-time salary at ATF raises a host of questions about both the propriety of the arrangement and the judgment of ATF management.” Issa and Grassley say the ATF has made it possible for McMahon to "double dip for nearly half a year by receiving two full-time paychecks -- one from the taxpayer and one from the private sector."  They noted that the treatment of McMahon is "in sharp contrast" to how the ATF has treated whistleblowers such as Special Agent John Dodson, "who is told he must wait until the Inspector General’s report is complete before the agency will even consider his simple request for a statement retracting the false statements made about him by agency leadership.” Issa and Grassley noted that ATF approved the arrangement for McMahom before the Justice Department inspector general finished his report on the failed gun tracking scheme.

 As for the IG report examining Fast and Furious, as well as the Justice Department's knowledge of and response to it, Issa said the report is done: "We know that the IG report is finished, we know that it's at Justice, and we know that we can't see it. We're hoping, though, that they will release it," Issa told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren on Wednesday. Issa said he's "positive" that the IG's report "is going to say the same thing our report has said, which is -- this is somebody (Bill McMahon) who is responsible for and signed documents that he told our committee he didn't see, didn't know about. Now, the only question is -- did he not read them and sign them?" "We're dealing with somebody who should have been fired from ATF," Issa added. According to the final congressional report on Fast and Furious, William McMahon was a supervisor at ATF headquarters who served as a "crucial link" between ATF headquarters and the Phoenix Field Division. "He received a wealth of information about Fast and Furious” -- including the fact that straw purchasers had bought over 900 firearms, many of which ended up in Mexico -- "but did not view it as his role as supervisor to ask questions about events in the field. He has publicly admitted to having failed in his duty to read information presented to him about the case."

The report says McMahon rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them. McMahon also "gave false testimony to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious," the report says.  Operation Fast and Furious began in the fall of 2009 as part of a plan to track guns illegally purchased in the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels. The ATF lost track of most of the 2,000 weapons that were allowed to "walk" into Mexico, and two of the straw-purchased guns ended up at the scene of a U.S. border agent's murder. (Issa told Fox News that news of McMahon's double-dipping will produce "more outrage for the family of fallen Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.) According to the final congressional report, "From the outset, the case was marred by missteps, poor judgments, and an inherently reckless strategy." Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has accused Attorney General Eric Holder and other Justice Department officials of undermining his investigation into Fast and Furious.

Obama Contributor, Who Helped Enact Assault-Weapons Ban, Ran ‘Fast and Furious’

CNS News
Fred Lucas

Dennis K. Burke, who as a lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1990s

Former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke

was a key player behind the enactment of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, and who then went on to become Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s chief of staff, and a contributor to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, and then a member of Obama's transition team focusing on border-enforcement issues, ended up in the Obama administration as the U.S. attorney in Arizona responsible for overseeing Operation Fast and Furious.

When Obama nominated Burke to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Burke told the Arizona Capitol Times he believed he understood what the president and his attorney general wanted him to do.

“There’s clearly been direction provided already by President Obama and Attorney General Holder as to what they want to be doing, and this is an office that is at the center of the issues of border enforcement,” said Burke.

Over the course of several days, CNSNews.com left multiple telephone messages with Burke for comment on this story. He did not respond.

Dennis K. Burke has had a long career working as an aide and political appointee to Democratic elected officials. From 1989 to 1994, he was a counsel for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, working in that capacity for several years on an assault-weapons ban, which was finally enacted on Sept. 13, 1994 as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. That act expired on Sept. 13, 2004. (See NYT: Dennis Burke, Sen. DeConcini, Weapons Ban.pdf)

From 1994-95, Burke served in the Clinton Justice Department in the Office of Legislative Affairs, and in 1997-99, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Arizona.

From 1999 to 2003, Burke was chief deputy and special assistant to Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano.

In 2003, when Napolitano became governor, Burke became her chief of staff. He stayed in that job until the fall of 2008, when he left to help Democratic political campaigns, including then-Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign.

Department of Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that on Jan. 9, 2008, while working as Gov. Napolitano’s chief of staff, Burke contributed $2,000 to then-Sen Obama’s presidential primary campaign. Since 1997, according to FEC records, Burke has contributed a total of $16,350 to various Democratic candidates.

After Obama was elected in November 2008, Burke joined his presidential transition team, serving on the Immigration Policy Working Group.

Eight days before Obama’s inauguration, on Jan. 12, 2009--while Burke was working on the transition team--Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C. At that meeting, Obama “pledged” to take action to stop the flow of guns from the United States to Mexico.

Obama also decided to put Burke’s old boss, incoming Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in a leadership role in making the gun-trafficking problem a top priority.

“President-elect Obama expressed support for efforts in the border states in both the United States and Mexico to eradicate drug-related violence and stop the flow of guns and cash,” incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement at the time. “He told President Calderón that he intends to ask the Secretary of Homeland Security to lead an effort to increase information sharing to strengthen those efforts. He pledged to take more effective action from the United States to stem the flow of arms from the United States to Mexico.”

When Napolitano became Homeland Security secretary, Burke moved from the Obama transition team to become her senior adviser. On Feb. 25, 2009, a little more than a month after Obama had made his “pledge” to Calderon, Napolitano testified in the House Homeland Security Committee. She stressed that stopping the flow of guns to Mexico was a top priority of the Obama administration and key focus of her work.

Former Obama chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Responding to a question about violence on the border, Napolitano said the administration was going to work with the Mexican government on the issue. Then she said: “Secondly, it is looking at, government-wide, at what we can do to stop the southbound export of weaponry, particularly assault-type weapons and grenades that are being used in that drug war.”

Napolitano further noted that drug cartels were targeting Mexican government officials and law enforcement officers, and that, given the seriousness of the threat, Obama’s national security adviser, the attorney general, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Customs (of which the Border Patrol is part) would all be working on the issue.

Obama Asserts Executive Privilege Over Fast And Furious Fiasco

ZeroHedge
Tyler Durden

If there was any confusion whether Obama is in fact Bush, or maybe even Nixon, this has now been squashed. From Fox:

President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off a contempt vote against Holder by Republicans in the House. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to forge ahead with its meeting on the contempt resolution anyway.

Holder, whose guilt is implicitly proven by this action, is now likely absolved of everything as the TOTUS has effectively onboarded all of his "balance sheet risk." And why not. The Fed does it for everyone else every day.
As a reminder, from the WSJ:

A showdown Wednesday in the House between Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Darrell Issa comes down to this: Who will blink first in a dispute over Justice Department documents Mr. Issa is demanding related to the botched Fast and Furious gun-trafficking probe?

California Republican Mr. Issa is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and he has called a 10 a.m. meeting of his panel to vote on a resolution to sanction Mr. Holder with contempt of Congress. The two men held a meeting Tuesday that lasted only 20 minutes. And from their accounts, it has become a game of chicken, with each side insisting the other act first to resolve the standoff.

Mr. Holder said Mr. Issa rejected his offer to provide documents because the lawmaker wouldn't agree that they would fulfill the subpoena, effectively ending the contempt threat. Mr. Issa said the attorney general didn't come prepared to provide documents and that the contempt threat can't be removed until the documents are produced.

At issue are Justice Department documents that Mr. Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) have sought and that the department resisted turning over in the congressional investigation into Fast and Furious. The department said the documents reflected internal deliberation or were related to continuing criminal investigations and therefore weren't subject to congressional subpoena.

If a majority of the committee votes for contempt Wednesday, the matter then could be taken up by the full House. If the House votes in favor, then a contempt citation could be referred to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, an appointee of President Barack Obama who is in Mr. Holder's chain of command. And then things become legally more uncertain. It isn't clear if Congress can compel an executive-branch official to prosecute the attorney general. In the Bush administration, the House voted to hold White House officials in contempt in a similar documents dispute and the Bush-appointed attorney general ordered the U.S. attorney to disregard it. The matter was eventually settled with the production of documents before a civil-court battle ran its course.

The main issue in Fast and Furious remains the contention by Messrs. Issa and Grassley that the Justice Department is improperly withholding documents. The department has turned over thousands of documents—about 7,000 or 8,000, depending on which side is counting—and says it is being forthcoming. By comparison, the inspector general has had access to about 80,000 documents, including those the department has declined to share with lawmakers.

...

The matter has become a political fight, with little real impact on Mr. Holder, who is expected to serve out his tenure through the end of the current administration in January. Democrats accuse Republicans of using the contempt measure as a political tool against Mr. Holder and the president. Democrats did some of the same against President George W. Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, who resigned under pressure in a controversy over the firings of U.S. attorneys.

And now back to your regularly scheduled farce of a democratic republic.

Eric Holder warns of ‘constitutional crisis’

Politico
Tim Mack
Josh Gersten

Under threat of a House contempt citation over the botched Fast and Furious gun-walking operation, Attorney General Eric Holder spoke in a conciliatory tone Tuesday about his willingness for “compromises” to avoid what he called “an impending constitutional crisis” over the withholding of documents in response to a congressional subpoena.

“We are prepared to make – I am prepared to make - compromises with regard to the documents that can be made available,” said Holder in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I want to make it very clear that I am offering – I myself – to sit down with the Speaker, the chairman, with you, whoever, to try and work our way through this in an attempt to avoid a constitutional crisis, and come up with ways, creative ways, in which to make this material available. But I’ve got to have a willing partner. I’ve extended my hand, and I’m waiting to hear back,” he added in response to a question about the subpoenaed documents posed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.)

Holder’s remarks were his most aggressive public offer yet to wheel and deal with Congress to head off a dramatic contempt showdown — Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has scheduled a vote on the citation for June 20 in his committee.

After using the phrase “constitutional crisis” at least three times, Holder noted two hours into the hearingthat “constitutional conflict” might be a better term.

At issue between Republicans and Democrats are the withholding of Justice Department documents in response to a Congressional subpoena. The DOJ claims that previous administrations have reserved the right to withhold deliberative documents.

“There is a basis for the withholding of these documents… the tradition has always been, by members of the Justice Department, whether they were Republicans or Democrats, to withhold deliberative material,” argued Holder. “We have reached out to Chairman Issa, members of the leadership on the House side, to try to work our way through these issues.”

One possible area of compromise appeared to be the issue of wiretap applications related to Fast and Furious that are confidential because they are under a court-ordered seal.

“Will you seek the court’s permission to release the affidavit so that people can read them… and if there’s any problem with something sensitive, could the judge make a decision to remove any truly sensitive information before release?” asked Grassley.

House GOP still mulling Holder contempt

Politico
John Bresnahan

House Republicans are not ready to proceed with a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder over the Fast and Furious scandal, but there are clear signals that that GOP patience with the Justice Department is wearing thin.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday night that Speaker John Boehner had “given the green light” to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to pursue a contempt citation against Holder and the Justice Department for failing to comply with the panel’s probe into the hugely controversial program.

But GOP leadership aides and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee say no decision has been made to take such a dramatic step. They acknowledge, however, the possibility of bringing contempt proceedings has been discussed in leadership sessions.

“While there are very legitimate arguments to be made in favor of such an action, no decision has been made to move forward with one by the Speaker or by House Republican leaders,” a senior GOP leadership aide said.
“The Justice Department has not fully cooperated with the investigation into gunwalking that occurred in Operation Fast and Furious. The House Oversight Committee continues to make necessary preparations to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt if the Justice Department refuses to change course and stop blocking access to critical documents,” a spokesman for Issa added.

Fast and Furious: Issa Issues Subpoena for AZ U.S. Attorney, Patrick J. Cunningham

Nice Deb

AWR Hawkins, Big Government reports:

I just received an email from Congressman Darrel Issa’s office, containing a copy of a letter that was just sent Patrick J. Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. The letter announces that Cunningham has just been subpoenaed for “repeated refusals to testify voluntarily” before the House Oversight Committee, concerning accusations that he relayed inaccurate and misleading information to the Justice Department in preparation for its initial response to Congress.

Go to Big Government to see the copy of the letter. Cunningham is required to appear before the House Oversight Committee on January 24.
Eric Holder is set to testify on Feb 4:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa today announced that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been scheduled to testify on February 2 about the Department of Justice’s knowledge of, and response to, gunwalking that occurred in Operation Fast and Furious. The Attorney General will be asked to address management deficiencies within the Department that occurred both during and after the conclusion of Operation Fast and Furious. This will include the Department’s steadfast refusal to disclose information following the February 4, 2011 letter to Senator Grassley, which the Department has withdrawn because it contained false information denying allegations made by whistleblowers about Operation Fast and Furious. The committee’s investigation has found documentation that numerous members of the Justice Department knew the letter to Congress contained false information both before it was sent and later withdrawn.

“The Department of Justice’s conduct in the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious has been nothing short of shameful,” said Chairman Issa. “From its initial denials that nothing improper occurred, to efforts to silence whistleblowers who wanted to tell Congress what really happened, to its continuing refusal to discuss or share documents related to this cover-up, the Justice Department has fought tooth and nail to hide the full truth about what occurred and what senior officials knew. Attorney General Holder must explain or reverse course on decisions that appear to put the careers of political appointees ahead of the need for accountability and the Department’s integrity.”

UPDATE:
John Hinderaker: Holder’s United Front on Fast and Furious Crumbles:

In an ominous development for the Obama administration, Patrick Cunningham, chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, has told the House Oversight Committee that he will assert his privilege against self-incrimination rather than testify before the committee next week.
**
… it would seem to be a bright line rule that any time a high-ranking official of the Department of Justice pleads the Fifth, a major scandal is under way.

But is some kind of fix in?

Sipsey Street Irregulars: FINALLY. Fifth Amendment Time in the Gunwalker Scandal. FOX breaks the story I knew was coming yesterday: “Federal official in Arizona to plead the fifth and not answer questions on ‘furious’” But, is the fix in? Issa staff reported to have witheld information from Grassley. “The roach motel of press inquiries.”

It is complex because this event comes at what may be a critical juncture in the investigation which some are interpreting as a reluctance on the part of the Issa committee to fully explore the many leads they have already developed because of their political sensitivity.

“I won’t say that the fix is in, but the Committee seems to be buying into the ‘Made-in-Phoenix’ line pushed by the White House,” said one source with inside knowledge of the investigator’s work. This seems to be reflected in the subpoena letter from Issa to Cunningham. From the Politico story linked above:

“Senior Justice Department officials have recently told the Committee that you relayed inaccurate and misleading information to the Department in preparation for its initial response to Congress,” wrote Issa. “These officials told us that even after Congress began investigating Fast and Furious, you continued to insist that no unacceptable tactics were used.”

The White House is happy for Issa to go after Cunningham for this is consistent with their denial that the White House had anything to do with gunwalking. Indeed, from the evidence above it would seem that the White House has determined Cunningham to be one of the designated sacrificial goats to that end.

Bob Owens:

Sure. Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller, U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota/Chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee/Acting ATF Director B. Todd Jones, top federal prosecutors in the southwest and White House staffers were all aware of Operation Fast and Furious. So let’s blame it all on the one guy in Arizona.

Stay tuned…

Congress issues subpoena for Holder, others in 'Fast and Furious' probe

CNN

Congressional investigators have issued a subpoena for communications from several top Justice Department officials - including Attorney General Eric Holder - relating to the discredited "Fast and Furious" federal gunrunning operation, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California.

Operation Fast and Furious involved agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowing illegal sales of guns believed to be destined for Mexican drug cartels to "walk" from Phoenix, Arizona, gun stores into Mexico.

The idea was to track the sellers and purchasers of guns to Mexican cartels, but the program became mired in controversy after weapons found at Mexican and American murder scenes were traced back to the program. Mexican officials and critics in the United States called the program a failure, saying it exacerbated the longstanding problem of U.S. weapons getting into the hands of the violent Mexican cartels.

Holder Claims to Have Ignored at least 5 Memos on 'Fast and Furious'

Big Government

Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Congressman Darrell Issa (R., California)today said that Attorney General Eric Holder received at least five weekly memos beginning in July 2010, including four weeks in a row, describing the ill-advised strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious. The memos were to Holder from Michael Walther, the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center.

The Attorney General told Issa during a House Judiciary Committee in May 2011 that he had just learned of Fast and Furious a few weeks before. Yet, on January 31, in a previously scheduled meeting, Grassley personally handed him two letters about Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa said they find it very troubling that Holder actually knew of Operation Fast and Furious much earlier, and in greater detail than he ever let on.

The memos specifically said that the straw buyers were “responsible for the purchase of 1500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”

Big Government

“With the fairly detailed information that the Attorney General read, it seems the logical question for the Attorney General after reading in the memo would be “why haven’t we stopped them?” Grassley said. “And if he didn’t ask the questions, why didn’t he or somebody in his office?”

“Attorney General Holder has failed to give Congress and the American people an honest account of what he and other senior Justice Department officials knew about gunwalking and Operation Fast and Furious. The lack of candor and honesty from our nation’s chief law enforcement officials in this matter is deeply disturbing,” Issa said.

Grassley and Issa have been leading the investigation into who approved the strategy to allow guns to be purchased by known straw buyers who then often transferred the firearms to Mexican Drug Cartels.

Note: Move to Full Screen mode to read:
ATF_10-04-11_Holder_memo_docs

Secret ‘Fast & Furious’ Audio Recordings Specify Eric Holder, Other Politicians, By Name

Pat Dollard

CBS News recently got their hands on secret recordings of conversations about Fast and Furious that took place between an ATF agent and a gun store owner, both of whom were located in the Phoenix area (and both of whom were thoroughly acquainted with Fast and Furious).

The recordings captured agent Hope McAllister talking with Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company, at a time when Howard was noticeably worried that Fast and Furious was going to become public knowledge or be put under the microscope of a congressional investigation. Howard especially feared that Senator Charles Grassley might push for an inquiry of some kind. Thus at least four times in the recordings he can be heard mentioning Grassley, and one of those four times it’s to say someone needs to tell Grassley “to sit [his] ass down.”

What’s also interesting about the recordings is that although they were made in mid-March 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder’s name comes up quite a bit. And his name doesn’t come up because they’re afraid he’s going to find out about Fast and Furious but because he was the one they were counting on to deflect attention from it.

In other words, he was well aware of the operation by mid-March 2011, and this is somewhat ironic because in answering questions from Congressman Darrell Issa on May 3 he said he only learned of Fast and Furious “over the last few weeks.” This means he led Issa to believe the earliest he knew anything about the operation was sometime in April. Yet on the recordings (from mid-March), it is clear Holder was the one Howard hoped would stop the investigative momentum by responding to a letter regarding Fast and Furious from the House Oversight Committee:

HOWARD: “Holder has to respond to this tomorrow.”

McALLISTER: “Yeah, he’s gonna respond.”

HOWARD: “I know he is. And I assure you the media isn’t gonna like his response, because basically it’s gonna mirror what he’s told Grassley.”

McALLISTER: “Yeah.”

HOWARD: “He can’t deviate.” (Italics added.)

As Howard continues to express concern over what Holder will say, Agent MacAllister tries to calm him by saying she believed Holder & Co. would “come out with [something a] little more um b—-y…than they [had] in the past.”

In the next portion of the recording, former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke’s name is referenced. This is where agent MacAllister admits Burke had been more tenacious in handling Fast and Furious inquiries than Holder would be:

McALLISTER: “Well if, I mean, I’ve seen a rough copy of what our U.S. attorney here has sent up. Whether or not [Holder] has the balls to actually use it or not, I doubt it. But I mean, it’s pretty aggressive. The way I see it, our local U.S. attorney is extremely aggressive. [But] when it gets to D.C. …”

HOWARD: “Who, Emory [Hurley]?”

McALLISTER: “No, the U.S. attorney.”

HOWARD: “Burke, yeah, used to work under Clinton. …Talking about [Dennis] Burke?”

McALLISTER: “Mmm hmm.”

It’s somewhat surreal to hear Holder’s name, and to come to the immediate recognition that some of his answers to Issa don’t add up.

And it strikes a strange chord within one’s psyche to hear Burke’s name thrown around as the go getter and the hard hitter on Fast and Furious, and then to remember he’s the one who denied victim of crime status to the family of U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry. (God bless the family of Brian Terry.)

Hopefully these recordings will pull back the sheets on this massive cover-up once and for all.

Issa: We Won’t Investigate News Corp’s Alleged Hacking Of 9/11 Victims Because We Don’t Want To Pick On The Media

Think Progress

Yesterday on Fox News, a subsidiary of News Corp, Issa responded to those calls by claiming that (1) the Justice Department is investigating the matter so he doesn’t need to, (2) it is not his responsibility to look into an issue that occurred “in another country,” and (3) the “most inappropriate” course of action would be “picking on media”:

ISSA: Well, thank you for being fair and balanced. [...] This is being looked at by the Justice Department. This is being looked at by the Senate, and we’re keeping and eye on it. But at the same time, this is a story about a unit in another country, and we want to make sure we don’t enter the ground that is most inappropriate for us, which is we don’t start picking on media whether they’re the left or the right just because we can.

Issa’s claims are laughable for several reasons. First, just because the Justice Department is already probing an issue never precludes the House Oversight Committee, charged with investigating matters in the interest of the American people, from conducting its own inquiry. Second, the 9/11 victims allegedly hacked by News Corp employees was not a foreign matter, as Issa said on Fox News.

According to reports, the victims were living in the United States — making the concern all the more important for the Oversight Committee. And the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which News Corp allegedly broke by bribing British police, makes the matter a concern of American authorities. News Corp is also embroiled in another hacking scandal, one involving its American marketing division and its domestic competitors.

Finally, Issa says he would not want to investigate the many criminal accusations against News Corp because the company consists of media outlets, and Congress should never be “picking” on media. In reality, Issa has used his taxpayer-funded media team to harass the New York Times with largely empty charges of inaccuracy. News Corp has aided in the campaign, airing segments attacking the Times for criticizing Issa.

The view that media outlets are above the law led to a crime spree in the UK. Politicians, under pressure from News Corp and threats of smear campaigns by its many newspapers, refused to take on the company as News Corp’s tabloids continued to recklessly hack celebrities, dead children, and political adversaries alike. Given News Corp’s growing control over American media, scrutiny over serious accusations of hacking is all the more important.

Last year, when I interviewed Issa concerning a separate News Corp issue, Issa suggested that he trusts News Corp because he personally “know[s] Rupert Murdoch.”

Operation Fast and Furious: DOJ Protecting Political Appointees

TownHall
Katie Pavlich

According to Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa, both who have been at the front of the investigation into the Obama Justice Department's Operation Fast and Furious, it appears DOJ is withholding vital information about the lethal operation to protect political appointees. Today, Grassley and Issa asked Attorney General Eric Holder why documentation requested by the Oversight Committee has not been provided, specifically a "smoking gun" report ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson mentioned during closed testimony over two weeks ago.

“It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department,” ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson said of his frustration with the Justice Department’s response to the investigation in a transcribed interview.

“The Department should not be withholding what Mr. Melson described as the ‘smoking gun’ report of investigation or Mr. Melson’s emails regarding the wiretap applications,” wrote Issa and Grassley. “Mr. Melson said he reviewed the affidavits in support of the wiretap applications for the first time after the controversy became public and immediately contacted the Deputy Attorney General’s office to raise concerns about information in them that was inconsistent with the Department’s public denials. The Department should also address the serious questions raised by Mr. Melson’s testimony regarding potential informants for other agencies.”

Issa and Grassley have sent a letter to Drug Enforcement Administrator Michele Leonhart requesting information about DEA's involvement with Operation Fast and Furious. A similar request for information was made on March 15, 2011 but was ignored.   Grassley and Issa have also requested memos, emails, briefing papers and handwritten notes from the FBI  to be provided to the Oversight Committee after reports showed bureau officials may have paid informants to help the FBI, DEA, ATF and DOJ with the operation.

Justice Department trying to shield officials in guns scandal, ATF chief says

Los Angeles Times

Kenneth Melson, the ATF's acting director, claims Justice Department officials refuse to release a telling internal report on the Fast and Furious operation.

The Justice Department is trying to protect its political appointees from the Fast and Furious scandal by concealing an internal "smoking gun" report and other documents that acknowledge the role top officials played in the program that allowed firearms to flow illegally into Mexico, according to the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Kenneth E. Melson, the ATF's acting director, also told congressional investigators this month that the affidavits prepared to obtain wiretaps used in the ill-fated operation were inconsistent with Justice Department officials' public statements about the program. Justice Department officials advised him not to raise his concerns with Congress about "institutional problems" with the Fast and Furious operation, Melson said.

"It was very frustrating to all of us," Melson told congressional investigators in a private meeting over the Fourth of July holiday, "and it appears thoroughly to us that the department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the department."

Not only was the department slow to react, Melson said, but Justice Department officials indicated they did not want him to cooperate with Congress.

A transcript of his comments was released Monday by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Melson said he wasn't attempting to shield his agency from its share of the blame. He acknowledged an instance in which his agents failed to intercept high-powered weapons when they could have.

"The deputy attorney general's office wasn't very happy with us" at the ATF, Melson said, "because they thought this was an admission that there were mistakes made. Well, there were some mistakes made."

Justice Department officials denied they were stonewalling the congressional investigation. They said they were cooperating and had been providing thousands of pages of documents and other material to investigators.

"Any notion that the department has failed to cooperate with the investigation is simply not based in fact," said Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokeswoman. She added that the department's inspector general's office was reviewing the Fast and Furious operation.

"The department, like the committee, is interested in determining whether Operation Fast and Furious was appropriately handled," Schmaler said.

The intent of Fast and Furious was to allow illegal straw purchasers to buy guns so ATF agents could follow the weapons and ferret out gun-smuggling routes into Mexico. But many of the approximately 1,700 weapons eluded tracing — some even before they were shipped over the border.

Nearly 200 of the weapons were later found at crime scenes in Mexico, and two were recovered at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent's slaying in Arizona in December.

Melson said the Justice Department repeatedly thwarted his attempts to tell investigators about the failures of Fast and Furious, which was run out of the ATF's Phoenix field office. When the ATF reassigned managers in Phoenix, he said, "the department resisted" his offer to tell Congress about the changes. Melson said he was told not to issue any news releases about Fast and Furious and was instructed not to brief rank-and-file ATF agents about the growing scandal.

When Grassley sought to meet with Melson this year, the Justice Department blocked that interview too, Melson said. "This is really just poking [Grassley] in the eye," Melson said he told Justice Department officials. "He's going to get it through the back door anyway, so why are we aggravating this situation?"

ATF Director wanted to watch

Examiner
William Heuisler

Brian Terry

Last week, Representative Darrell Issa, Chair of  the House Government Oversight Committee, revealed how the Acting Director of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) evidently wanted to be personally involved with selling guns to criminals.  In fact, E-mails of ATF supervisors describe how Director Kenneth Melson requested personal Internet access to ATF cameras hidden in Arizona gun shops so the Director could observe firearm sales to criminals.

Why is that important? Remember how our Border Patrol Agents were outgunned by a gang of criminals in the desert 40 miles south of Tucson near Rio Rico? Remember, on December 14, 2010, when an AK-47 round killed Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry of Tucson?

Two AK-47s found at the scene had serial numbers listed among nearly 2,000 weapons ATF and DOJ had allowed sold to members of drug cartels in Mexico. ATF named the operation, “Fast and Furious”. Many call the disaster, ”Gunrunner” or “Gun walker”.

 Skeptics should read, The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents, which is full of testimony from ATF field agents who fought with their supervisors over orders to ignore gun sales to criminals. Among the findings:

1) At least one agent was cautioned that if he didn’t stop complaining about the dangerous nature of the operation, he would find himself out of a job, and lucky to be working in a prison.

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2) “Operation Fast and Furious contributed to the increasing violence and deaths in Mexico”. ATF officials seemed unconcerned about deaths of Mexican law enforcement officers, soldiers, and innocent civilians. One noted you had to “scramble a few eggs to make an omelet.”

3) Senior ATF personnel, including Acting Director Melson, and senior Department of Justice officials, were aware of, and supported, the operation.

4) When asked by Issa’s Oversight Committee how many of 1,750 specific weapons that “walked” under orders of the ATF and DOJ could have been interdicted, if agents were allowed to act as they were trained, “agents answered they could have stopped every single one”. (Government oversight 2011)

Last week Senator Lautenberg  of  New Jersey sent a letter to the President asking why his administration "has not shown the leadership to combat gun violence." Could that be a tasteless joke? How could the Senator from New Jersey not be aware of Operation Gunrunner?
Government Oversight (2011). House Government Oversight Committee Report on BATF. http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/ReportsATF_Report.PDF