SCANDAL: ATF Gives Guns to Mexican Drug Cartels to Undermine Second Amendment

[The Infidel]

Admit it: This is all about attacking a Black man isn't it? You Racist!

 

[xsited1]

When your theory stands on more than the allegations of "moonbattery", lemme know.

Now it's front-page news:

Obama Administration Under Mounting Pressure for Botched Gun Trafficking Investigation - FoxNews.com

I guess this story should no longer be in 'Conspiracy Theories'.

NRA to Call for Holder's Resignation Over 'Project Gunrunner' Allegations - FoxNews.com

LaPierre has criticized Holder's handling of "Project Gunrunner." The program of the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is intended to stop the flow of guns to criminals in Mexico, but whistleblowers claim the bureau actually encouraged the illegal sale of firearms to known criminals, then allowed those guns to be smuggled to Mexico and tracked.

The practice of knowingly allowing guns to "walk" -- or be sold to straw buyers and then transferred to criminal organizations -- is against ATF policy. However, at least 15 ATF whistleblowers claim the agency, with the approval of Holder's Department of Justice, encouraged gun stores to make sales to questionable buyers, then failed to interdict the weapons.

Madeline was, well..., Madeline.

Holder should resign. This is serious. That would be one less racist in the Obama Administration and a net win for America.

 

[The Infidel]

Holder should resign. This is serious. That would be one less racist in the Obama Administration and a net win for America.

I feel as though I live in Bizzaro world

Ive been watching this case from the get go, and it stinks the HIGH HEAVEN!

We are going to lose control soon, and I hope Obama and his ENTIRE regime pay for it dearly.

 

[KSigMason]

The Department of "Justice" is becoming more and more a disgrace every day. Truly sad times.

 

[Patriot911]

This is not a conspiracy theory as it obviously happened. Those involved should be charged with multiple counts of murder as far up the chain of command as can be proven.

 

[Big Fitz]

Holder should resign. This is serious. That would be one less racist in the Obama Administration and a net win for America.

I feel as though I live in Bizzaro world

Ive been watching this case from the get go, and it stinks the HIGH HEAVEN!

We are going to lose control soon, and I hope Obama and his ENTIRE regime pay for it dearly.

No no no... you have to remember, Holder was put in to make sure we got "SOCIAL Just-us". Not Justice.

The two are not equal, let alone synonymous.

 

[xsited1]

This is bad.

It is the closest thing to a smoking gun congressional investigators have in their probe of Project Gunrunner -- a program that was intended to stop the flow of guns to criminals in Mexico but instead allowed those guns to be smuggled to Mexico instead.

An internal memo from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives shows that U.S. officials allowed criminals to buy 1,318 guns worth nearly $1 million, even after they suspected the buyers were working for Mexican drug cartels, and that the agency's effort to stop the guns had "yielded little or no results."

Read more: More Than 1,300 Guns Were Bought Illegally by Suspect Buyers Under ATF's 'Gunrunner' Program - FoxNews.com

 

[M14 Shooter]

This is so amazingly stupid.
It serves no purpose other than to illustrate the incompetence of the administration.

 

[xsited1]

This is so amazingly stupid.
It serves no purpose other than to illustrate the incompetence of the administration.

I wish I could say it illustrates the incompetence of the administration, but one reason this is in the conspiracy theory section is because of the "Undermine Second Amendment" part. If this is what the Obama Administration is doing, then the problem is much bigger than I thought. Certainly Holder should resign over this.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

When your theory stands on more than the allegations of "moonbattery", lemme know.

Will do. That's why I posted it in the 'Conspiracy Theories' section. However, you should watch the video. We are getting closer to the truth. This could be Obama's Iran/Contra.

Rather than launch an internal investigation into the murder and the illegal scheme, the Department of Justice under Eric Holder, according to ATF whistleblowers, instead attempted a coverup. …

Denials are now part of standard operating procedure at the DOJ as the news media and Senator Grassley close in. Grassley's inquiries have been met with stonewalling. But it appears that Grassley's office so far isn't buying DOJ denials.

BTW, I'm still surprised that the 2nd Amendment types have not commented on this. Where are you?

Not a 'Conspiracy Theory. This will piss you off. obama lied and a border agent died.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEYuzOHItmg&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - The ATF deliberately allowed the entry of Thousands of military style guns into Mexico[/ame]

 

[xsited1]

Justice Officials in 'Panic Mode' as Hearing Nears on Failed Anti-Gun Trafficking Program - FoxNews.com

Officials at the Department of Justice are in "panic mode," according to multiple sources, as word spreads that congressional testimony next week will paint a bleak and humiliating picture of Operation Fast and Furious, the botched undercover operation that left a trail of blood from Mexico to Washington, D.C.

 

[waltky]

Gee, wonder how dey got all dem guns?...

Report says 70% of arms seized in Mexico from US
Wed, Jun 15, 2011 - SURPRISE, SURPRISE:The Mexican president said the mass violence in Mexico was the result of the lifting of a US ban on domestic sales of assault rifles in 2004

About 70 percent of the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to a US gun-tracing program came from the US, according to a report released by three US senators on Monday. Of the 29,284 firearms recovered by authorities in Mexico in 2009 and last year, 20,504 came from the US, according to figures provided to the senators by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Most of those weapons — 15,131 — were US made, while another 5,373 were of foreign manufacture, but had moved through the US into Mexico.

The ATF said the remainder of the weapons total — 8,780 arms — were of “undetermined origin due to insufficient information provided.” The figure of the number of guns arriving in Mexico from north of the border has been polemical ever since a June 2009 US report covering earlier years said that 87 percent of guns seized in Mexico came from the US. While the report did not specify why the percentage had changed, the most recent figures appear to included more gun-trace reports, as the reporting program in Mexico became easier to use. Evidence that US weapons trafficking has been fueling a bloody drug war that has cost more than 35,000 lives in Mexico since late 2006 has angered many Mexicans.

On Saturday, in a speech to the Mexican-American community in San Jose, California, Mexican President Felipe Calderon lashed out at the US weapons industry. “I accuse the US weapons industry of [responsibility for] the deaths of thousands of people that are occurring in Mexico,” Calderon said. “It is for profit, for the profits that it makes for the weapons industry.” The report, issued by US Senator Dianne Feinstein and two other senators, recommended background checks for sales at gun shows, a ban on the import of nonsporting weapons and the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban in force in the US until 2004.

Calderon endorsed calls for reinstating the ban on domestic sales of assault rifles, saying its expiration in 2004 may have played a roll in the increase of drug violence in Mexico. “You can clearly see how the violence began to grow in 2005 and of course it has gone on an upward spiral in the last six years,” Calderon said.

Report says 70% of arms seized in Mexico from US - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Dumb idea gone wrong...

ATF program tracking guns put agents at risk, report says
June 15,`11 WASHINGTON — Federal agents based in Arizona "abandoned" surveillance of suspicious gun purchases along the Southwest border for months and allowed possibly hundreds of weapons to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartel operatives and other criminals as part of a risky investigative strategy aimed at dismantling cartel operations.

The program ceased shortly after two of the rifles were found at the scene of a U.S. border agent's slaying last year, a congressional report concluded Tuesday. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's Dec. 15 death was "likely a preventable tragedy," the report found, indicating that the suspect who allegedly bought the two rifles was linked to at least two other suspicious gun purchases prior to buying the weapons seized at Terry's shooting. The weapon used to kill Terry has not yet been identified. The report, prepared by the joint staffs of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, states that the activities of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents involved in the strategy — known as Operation Fast and Furious — were approved by top ATF officials in Phoenix, despite concerns raised by some field agents who believed the practice was potentially deadly.

One Arizona agent, according to the report, told congressional investigators there was such dread that more deaths would follow the Terry murder because of the novel investigative strategy that "panic" swept the office in January when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was critically wounded in an attack that left six dead, including U.S. District Judge John Roll. "There was a state of panic, like, 'Oh, God, let's hope this is not a weapon from that case,'" ATF Agent Pete Forcelli, a supervisor in the Phoenix office, told investigators. The weapon used in the Tucson assault was not linked to the ATF program.

The congressional review comes in the midst of simmering battle between the Justice Department and Republican members of Congress who have been demanding information about the controversial ATF operation. According to the report, agents had hoped that by letting the weapons "walk," the trail of guns — many of them assault rifles — would lead to high-level traffickers and ultimately help dismantle some cartel operations. Instead, the tactic has only brought grief and trouble for federal authorities. "Unfortunately, ATF never achieved the laudable goal of dismantling a drug cartel," the report found. "In fact, ATF never got close."

In a House hearing room today, scrutiny of the program is set to intensify as ATF officials who first raised concerns about the program are scheduled to testify along with Terry's relatives before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a panel that Issa chairs. ATF officials declined to comment Tuesday, referring questions about the report's findings to the Justice Department.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Operation Fast and Furious back-fired big time...

ATF Agent to Bosses on Gun-Running Scheme: ‘Prepared to Attend Funeral of a Slain Agent’?
Thursday, June 16, 2011 - John Dodson, a special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, pointedly asked his superiors if they were “prepared to attend the funeral of a slain agent” as a consequence of an operation the Obama Administration was running in which suspected intermediaries of Mexican drug cartels were allowed to freely purchase guns from licensed firearms dealers in the United States—all the while under surveillance by the ATF.

Dodson’s words turned out to be horribly prophetic when Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was slain in Arizona on Dec. 15 by alleged cartel operatives. Two guns found at the scene of Terry’s murder had been part of the Obama administration program that purposefully allowed so-called “straw buyers” for Mexican cartels to buy guns in the United States for shipment back to cartel operatives in Mexico. The program was hatched by the administration as a way of tracing guns bought in the United States back to the cartel. During his time in office, President Obama has personally made an issue of the fact that some guns bought in the United States have ended up in the hands of Mexican cartels.

“On at least a couple of occasions I witnessed Special Agent Dodson ask both Special Agent McAllister and Group Supervisor [Dave] Voth if they were prepared to attend the funeral of a slain agent or officer after he or she was killed with one of those straw purchase firearms,” Senior Special Agent Olindo James Casa told the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. “Neither one answered or even seemed concerned by the question posed to them,” said Casa. Dodson himself, who also was a witness before the committee on Wednesday, sat next to Casa as he testified.

“Prior to my coming to Phoenix, I had never been involved in or even heard of an operation in which law enforcement officers would let guns walk,” Dodson told the committee. “The very idea of doing so is unthinkable to most law enforcement. “I and other field agents involved in this operation repeatedly raised these concerns with our supervisors,” said Dodson. “In response we were told that we simply did not understand the plan. “I cannot begin to think of how the risk of letting guns fall into the hands of known criminals could possibly advance any legitimate law enforcement interest,” said Dodson. “I hope the committee will receive a better explanation than I.”

Both President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have boasted of what they describe as the administration’s successful efforts to stem the flow of guns from the U.S. into Mexico. Obama most recently addressed the issue in a speech delivered in Santiago, Chile, on March 21. “We're also doing more to stem the southbound flow of guns into the region,” he said. “We're seizing many more guns bound for Mexico, and we're putting more gunrunners behind bars. And every gun or gunrunner that we take off the streets is one less threat to the families and communities of the Americas.”

In August of last year, before Border Patrol Agent Terry was murdered, Napolitano brought up the issue at a White House briefing when she was asked about Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s criticism of the administration for failing to adequately enforce the immigration law. “The facts are the facts, and the facts are that there are, you know, more Border Patrol agents at that border than ever before, there's more infrastructure at the border than ever before, there's more technology at the border than ever before, there's more air cover at the border than ever before,” said Napolitano. “And the results are the results,” said Napolitano. “The results are that illegal crossings are way down, and seizures of drugs and guns and cash are way up.”

Source

See also:

Justice Dept. should be 'ashamed’ over guns to Mexico
06/15/11 - Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Wednesday escalated his standoff with the Department of Justice over a gun-tracking program that might have contributed to the death of federal agent.

As the family of slain ATF agent Brian Terry pleaded for justice, Issa said officials should be "ashamed" for handing over heavily redacted documents about the program. Issa has made the fight over the program his first big battle with the Obama administration. He and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have tried for the past five months to find out who authorized the “Fast and Furious” operation, which might have contributed to Terry's death.

The lawmakers have doggedly pursued the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for documents in the case. Both have accused the DOJ of “stonewalling” their efforts. In April, Issa subpoenaed the DOJ for thousands of documents related to the operation, including email correspondence and departmental records. But according to committee aides, the DOJ has only given the committee documents that are publicly available or heavily redacted.

After more than two months of back-and-forth between DOJ officials and Issa’s staff, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich told lawmakers that the department was cooperating and actively working to respond to the committee’s request. Outraged, Issa held up a piece of white paper with a giant black box of entirely redacted text on it. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” Issa said to Weich. “It doesn’t take so long if you don’t spend your life redacting it. “The pages go on like this forever,” he said, referencing the blackened piece of paper. “You’ve given us black paper instead of white paper. You might as well have given us a ream still in its original binder. How dare you make an opening statement of cooperation.”

Weich’s response was restrained as he repeated variations of the department’s expressed desire to work with the committee in a cooperative manner to meet its request. If the committee continues not to receive the requested documents, Issa can move to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. In emotional testimony, Terry’s family pleaded with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to punish everyone involved in his killing.

More Issa: DoJ should be

 

[Ringel05]

I started a thread on this a few days ago, but it didn't get much traction. Perhaps it was the title. Let's try this one more time.

A brewing scandal at the Department of Justice involving an illegal scheme to pad statistics on U.S. guns in Mexico threatens to erupt as U.S. Senator Charles Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee begins an investigation. ATF agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives — a DOJ agency — allegedly smuggled U.S. guns into Mexico in order to bolster the Department’s disputed contention that Mexican drug cartels are armed primarily with U.S. guns. Whistleblowers within the ATF contend that one of these guns was used to kill Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry in December of 2010.

SCANDAL: ATF Gives Guns to Mexican Drug Cartels to Undermine Second Amendment

A journalist's guide to 'Project Gunwalker' - National gun rights | Examiner.com

I don't buy it, it was an ill conceived track op that went completely bad since they probably hadn't thought it through completely before instituting it.
Now are there those who wouldn't hesitate to exploit this for their anti-gun agenda? Duuuh, yup!

 

[Trajan]

also-

Published June 17, 2011

Two AK-47s Used to Murder Mexican Lawyer Were 'Fast and Furious' Guns From U.S., Sources Say



Two guns sold to a Mexican cartel and used in the high-profile kidnapping and murder of a Mexican lawyer last year were purchased under the U.S. Justice Department's failed anti-gun trafficking program Operation Fast and Furious, sources tell Fox News.

U.S. law enforcement sources and officials in Washington told Fox News that two AK-47s were purchased in Arizona by a straw buyer — someone who legally buys guns, then illegal sells them to a third party – and were allowed to “walk” into Mexico. Police recovered the guns in the course of their investigation of the kidnapping of Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez.



Read more: Two AK-47s Used to Murder Mexican Lawyer Were 'Fast and Furious' Guns From U.S., Sources Say - FoxNews.com


add 1 more body to the KIA list....

 

[waltky]

Granny says somebody not tellin' the truth...

Plan to Let Drug Cartels Buy Guns in U.S. Approved at ‘Highest Levels' of DOJ
Friday, June 17, 2011 - Instead of trying to stop the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels, the Obama administration’s “Operation Fast and Furious” deliberately allowed it to happen. Moreover, “This shift in strategy was known and authorized at the highest levels of the Justice Department,” says a report by congressional staffers.

“Through both the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona and ‘Main Justice’ headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Department closely monitored and supervised the activities of the ATF,” the report says. On Wednesday, Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, convened a hearing to determine who ultimately authorized the Operation Fast and Furious, who knew about it – “and why it took the murder of a 40-year old border patrol agent and a congressional inquiry before administration officials cancelled it.” Operation Fast and Furious, conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was launched in 2009 in an effort to track the flow of guns from U.S. straw purchasers to Mexican cartels. ATF agents who complained about the recklessness of allowing cartel associates to buy guns in Arizona were reprimanded, the congressional report said.

David Voth, a supervisor at the ATF field division in Phoenix, told complaining agents to back off: “Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case and they also believe we (Phoenix field division) are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Groups doing,” Voth wrote in an e-mail dated March 12, 2010. “It may sound cheesy, but we are ‘The Tip of the ATF spear’ when it comes to Southwest Border Firearms Trafficking. “If you don’t think this is fun you’re in the wrong line of work – period,” the Voth e-mail continued: “This is the pinnacle of U.S. law enforcement techniques. After this, the tool box is empty. Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day.”

Voth’s e-mail was included in a 51-page report by Republican staffers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Two of the guns purchased by cartel associates were found at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent’s murder in December. Attorney General Eric Holder said in March he ordered the Justice Department inspector general to investigate the ATF’s gun-tracking operation – “to see exactly what happened, and whether or not what happened was appropriate.”

Plan to Let Drug Cartels Buy Guns in U.S. Approved at

See also:

Assistant AG: ‘I Do Not Know’ Who Authorized Plan to Let Drug Cartels Get Guns
Friday, June 17, 2011 Ronald Weich, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Justice Department, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Commitee on Wednesday that he does not know who authorized the Justice Department’s “Operation Fast and Furious” which deliberately let operatives of Mexican drug cartels purchase guns at licensed U.S. firearms dealers and did nothing to intercept the gun purchaser or retrieve the guns even when they were under active surveillance by federal law enforcement officials.

Pressed repeatedly by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) to say who at the Justice Department authorized the operation, Weich finally responded, “I do not know the answer to that question, and the (Justice Department) inspector general is reviewing the matter.” It was a heated exchange. “Operation Fast and Furious,” conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, allowed dozens of so-called "straw purchasers" in the U.S. to buy thousands of guns that were supposed to be traced as they moved into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Two of the straw-purchased guns were found at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent’s murder. Brian Terry was murdered on Dec. 15 by alleged Mexican drug cartel operatives. Attorney General Eric Holder said in March that he has asked the Justice Department inspector general to “look into” the Operation Fast and Furious. “The aim of the ATF is to try to stop the flow of guns,” Holder said at the time. “I think they do a good job in that regard. Questions have been raised by ATF agents about the way in which some of these operations have been conducted. I think those questions have to be taken seriously.”

Holder said gun-tracing investigations are more difficult than other types of investigations. “Now whether there should be guns allowed to travel--or let them run, whatever the phrase is--is something that I think we have to look at and examine, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve asked the inspector general to look at the facts and see exactly what happened, and whether or not what happened was appropriate.” Rep. Issa has described Operation Fast and Furious as “felony stupid.” The California Republican produced internal ATF emails at Wednesday’s hearing as evidence that “those at the highest level of ATF” knew about – and “showed great interest” -- in Operation Fast and Furious. That includes ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson.

Assistant AG:

 

[Trajan]

well, looks like obama is teeing up the alter for a sacrifice.

Head of ATF Is Likely to Go



The Justice Department is expected to oust the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to people familiar with the matter, amid a troubled federal antitrafficking operation that has grown into the agency's biggest scandal in nearly two decades.

Moves toward the replacement of Kenneth Melson, acting ATF director since April 2009, could begin next week, although the precise sequence of events remains to be decided, these people said.

The shakeup shows the extent of the political damage caused by the gun-trafficking operation called Fast and Furious, which used tactics that allowed suspected smugglers to buy large numbers of firearms. Growing controversy over the program has paralyzed a long-beleaguered agency buffeted by partisan battles. The ATF has been without a Senate-confirmed director since 2006, with both the Bush and Obama administrations unable to overcome opposition from gun-rights groups to win approval of nominees.

more at-

Head of ATF Likely to Be Ousted - WSJ.com

 

[boedicca]

I don't find it credible that Obama didn't know.

Just sayin'.

 

[daveman]

I don't find it credible that Obama didn't know.

Just sayin'.

Neither do I.

And even if he didn't, it happened on his watch, done by his troops. So it's his anyway.