Fast and Furious: Beanbags, the Unsealed Indictments, and the three men who were 'cleared'

Yesterday, the Justice Department unsealed five indictments of suspects in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. One of those suspects is in custody; four of them are believed to be in Mexico. In the video at the bottom of this post, Fox's William LaJeunesse makes reference to the revelation that before Terry was shot, he and his fellow agents were firing beanbags at their assailants before switching to actual bullets. Rep. Darrell Issa is also in the video and condemns the "timing" of the unsealing of the indictments, which clearly points to a political motive.

The Arizona Daily Star actually reported that on March 3, 2011, which I wrote about here. This is from an FBI document excerpted in that article:

"When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed 'less than lethal' beanbags at the suspected aliens. At this time, at least one of the suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol agents. Two Border Patrol agents returned fire, one with his long gun and one with his pistol.

"Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot with one bullet and died shortly after. One of the suspected illegal aliens, later identified as Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was also shot."

There is another excerpt from that article that I'd like to get to in a minute but first, check this out from David Codrea:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation unsealed an indictment in Tucson and offered a $1 million reward “for information leading to the arrest of four fugitives” wanted in connection with the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, the Bureau’s Phoenix Division announced today.

“Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, Ivan Soto-Barraza, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, and Lionel Portillo-Meza are charged with crimes including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, attempted interference with commerce by robbery, use and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, assault on a federal officer, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person,” the FBI press release revealed. “A sixth defendant, Rito Osorio-Arellanes, is charged only with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery.”

Ok, of those five suspects, only one - Manuel Osoria-Arellanes - is in custody. The other four are believed to be in Mexico. That leads me back to a question about the March 3, 2011 article by Brady McCombs. Here is an excerpt from that article I found potentially interesting (or could be nothing):

...search warrants were requested to examine fingerprints and a hair sample from Osorio-Arellanes, who was one of four men arrested that night near the shooting scene. The other three arrested, illegal immigrants from Mexico, have been cleared in connection with the crime and deported back to their home countries.

This raises a logical question: What were the identities of the three men who were "cleared"? Like I said, it could be (and probably is) nothing but remember, this Justice Department's leadership has been caught lying, covering up, and stonewalling on multiple occasions. It should be fair to rule out the possibility that any of the three men who were released might be among the four whose indictments have been unsealed.

Back to Codrea's piece. In particular, check out his very last paragraph, in which he discusses the possible fate of the four wanted men:

If the unsealing somehow forces the suspects in from the cold, the gamble with their lives will have paid off, but that assumes they are still alive and they are guilty. If they are instead caught first by the cartels, the adage “Dead men tell no tales” will certainly fuel further speculation among those who don’t believe the government has been forthcoming about its role in a deadly operation that has already claimed known and untold lives, an unfortunate but logical consequence of earned mistrust.

Again, I'm not alleging anything here but as Codrea says, the government has put itself in the position of not being trusted. Besides, if the names on those indictments were in fact released this week so that they could be targeted and silenced by the cartels, wouldn't the government have wanted them "cleared" and "deported" shortly after Terry's murder as well?

Here's the Fox News report with Megyn Kelly, LaJeunesse, and Issa:



**UPDATE** Check out the photos released by the FBI of the four wanted men that are allegedly across the border. Note how only three of them have photos available. Remember that in McCombs' article, three men were 'cleared' and 'deported'.

Where / when were these photos taken and what were the names of the three men who were deported?