Eric Holder's gun control audacity vs. John Boehner's political cowardice

The comments by Attorney General Eric Holder at the U.S. Conference of Mayors were intended to help push Barack Obama's gun control agenda. What they did was further expose what Fast and Furious was all about:

"...the administration has called upon Congress to... consider a series of new federal laws imposing tough penalties on gun traffickers who help funnel weapons to dangerous criminals." - Eric Holder on 1/18/13

Aside from the fact that such penalties should apply to high ranking Obama administration officials - to include Holder himself - for what happened in Fast and Furious, this is quite the exercise in contrasting audacity with cowardice.

Audacity: boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions. 

Cowardice: lack of courage to face danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.

First up, the truth regarding what Operation Fast and Furious was all about. It is a truth that Speaker John Boehner has proven he'd rather ignore than confront. That operation was conceived and carried out at the highest levels of the Justice Department and ATF with the irrefutable proof that Attorney General Eric Holder's immediate subordinates knew about it.

Fast and Furious was about ATF Supervisors in Arizona requiring Gun Store owners to sell assault weapons illegally to straw purchasers who would then 'walk' those weapons into Mexico and give them to drug cartels. These thousands of assault weapons were then used to murder hundreds of innocents. Those murders will continue for years to come. As Joe Biden said about Sandy Hook's shooting victims, children murdered at the hands of the thousands of guns our government gave to Mexican drug cartels have been and are being 'riddled with bullets'.

Biden has never referred to the countless victims of Fast and Furious - which include children as well - in such fashion.

This makes the U.S. Government (DOJ / ATF at minimum) complicit in mass murder with... assault weapons.

All along, the plan was to draw attention to these murders as well as to the fact that they were sold by U.S. gun dealers in order to re-enact the 1994 assault weapons ban as well as to enact tighter gun control restrictions. The administration - as well as the usual cast of Democratic politicians like Dianne Feinstein - was even caught lying about the percentage of guns found at Mexican crime scenes.

Once you come to grips with that reality, it's easy to see what's going on with the latest gun control push. The Obama administration is clearly banking on Sandy Hook doing what Fast and Furious failed at doing. This is not conjecture. It is demonstrable.

Here is Holder at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, piggy-backing on the newly christened Sandy Hook exploitation exercise to enforce gun control.



To underscore the point, check out this video of Holder's immediate subordinate, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden in 2009, announcing what the goals of 'Project Gunrunner' (the larger umbrella term for Fast and Furious) were. Take note what he says at the very beginning as well:

"The president has directed us to take action to fight these cartels and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration's comprehensive plan."

It's rather eye-opening to watch this after watching Holder above:



That Eric Holder still has a job is not only brazen on the administration's part but it exposes Obama's complicity in Fast and Furious. We already know he's complicit in the coverup.

Just look at Obama's ultimate actions in Fast and Furious and Sandy Hook to this point. The former involved Executive Privilege and the latter involves Executive Orders. The primary difference between the two is that Fast and Furious blew up in the administration's face.

Sandy Hook is Plan B.

Only because it continues to be relevant... Eric Holder in 1995, when he was a U.S. Attorney. Note his comparison between gun owners and smokers. He refers to smokers as people who 'cower outside of buildings'. Nearly twenty years ago, Holder wanted a world where gun owners would 'cower' when it came to owning guns.

What's happening today?

The Obama administration is attempting to get gun owners to 'cower' by somehow blaming them for Sandy Hook. This administration is attempting to shame gun owners and the NRA. It's even brought back its 2012 election campaign team to help do it.

What the Republican establishment still refuses to either learn or admit is that the reason why the Obama campaign was so effective before the election was because the Romney campaign didn't fight. It will only be effective in the gun control push if Republicans repeat their failing formula.

The third presidential debate is where Romney lost the election. Why? Because he didn't hit Obama where the President was weakest - Fast and Furious and Benghazi.

On the same day that Holder was speaking at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Boehner's office was asked to respond to Obama's unconstitutional gun control push via twenty-three Executive Order slaps in the face of Congress.

The response from the most powerful Republican in the United States?

Speaker Boehner will "review the recommendations". One could make the argument that this is strategic on Boehner's part but his history doesn't indicate that in the slightest.

In 2009, Eric Holder called his political opponents 'cowards'. Boehner continues to prove him right.

About those Fast and Furious Reports

On July 30th,  Los Angeles Times reported that Operation Fast and Furious was being laid at the feet of "five senior ATF officials," while mentioning that there are still two more reports due out from Congressional Investigators. Still, the news that ATF officials were being identified as the responsible parties for the operation didn't seem to jibe with what is known about DOJ leadership.  The Times piece, published before that report was released to the public, may have left readers (this one included) with the impression that this was basically the final word on the operation.

However, since then, increased focus has been placed on two more reports expected to come out; they will detail things like what the Justice Department knew, covered up, or refused to release. Those reports are likely going to be more explosive.

Before I get to those, let's consider what the consequences should be for those five senior ATF officials. Here are their names, via the Daily Caller:

The five ATF officials Grassley and Issa point to as responsible for Fast and Furious are:

William Newell, the special agent in charge of the phoenix field division
William McMahon, Newell’s boss who was ATF’s deputy assistant director for field operations
Mark Chait, McMahon’s boss who was ATF’s assistant director for field operations
William Hoover, ATF’s former deputy director
Kenneth Melson, former acting ATF director

Our system of Justice will be tested here because as of right now, those five men have been reassigned. When one takes a look at the blood on their hands, based on this 211-page report, the next thing to watch for is accountability. Check out what the Los Angeles Times piece (mentioned above) relayed from the report:

They found that William Newell, the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, exhibited “repeatedly risky” management and “consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques.” The report said “he had been reprimanded ... before for crossing the line, but under a new administration and a new attorney general he reverted back to the use of risky gunwalking tactics.”

His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon, “rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them,” the report alleged. “In McMahon’s view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field.”

They added that McMahon gave “false testimony” to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.

His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, “played a surprisingly passive role during the operation,” the report said. “He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required.”

Above Chait was Deputy Director William Hoover, who the report said ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: “Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized.”

And they said Melson, a longtime career Justice official, “often stayed above the fray” instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an “end sooner.”

But, the investigators said, ATF agents said that they were hamstrung by federal prosecutors in Arizona from  obtaining criminal charges for illegal gun sales, and that Melson “even offered to travel to Phoenix to write the indictments himself. Still, he never ordered it be shut down.”

In the November 2010 slaying in Mexico of Mario Gonzalez, the brother of Patricia Gonzalez, then attorney general for the state of Chihuahua, two of 16 weapons were traced back to Fast and Furious after they were recovered from a shootout with Mexican police.

But 10 days later, ATF Agent Tonya English urged Agent Hope MacAllister and their supervisor, David J. Voth, to keep it under wraps. “My thought is not to release any information,” she told them in an email.

When Patricia Gonzalez later learned that two of the guns had been illegally obtained under Fast and Furious, she was outraged. "The basic ineptitude of these officials [who ordered the Fast and Furious operation] caused the death of my brother and surely thousands more victims," she said.

Based on the findings in this report, there should be jail time and / or plea bargains for every one of those five individuals. They each have blood on their hands.

Moreover, the first report does, in fact, point to senior DOJ leadership, something that was given scant to no attention by the L.A. Times piece.

Via Daily Caller:

Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley — both Republicans — concludes senior Obama administration officials appear to have set the stage for, and possibly encouraged, ATF officials to walk guns into Mexico.

The report finds that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who leads the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, told Holder about the Firearms Trafficking Working Group (FTWG) in an Aug. 19, 2009, memo of recommendation.

“The FTWG’s mission was to formulate a plan to improve the U.S. government’s efforts in stemming the illegal flow of weapons, which was fueling escalating violence along both sides of the Southwestern border,” the report reads. “The working group’s first recommendation was that the ‘attorney general and secretary of Homeland Security should form an interagency Southwest Border (‘SWB’) firearms trafficking strategy group.’ According to the Justice Department, ‘the deputy attorney general responded to the specific proposals in this memorandum by forming the Southwest Border Strategy Group, which he chaired.’”

Shortly thereafter, then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, the No. 2 official in the Department of Justice, drafted and disseminated a new planning document titled “Strategy for Combating the Mexican Cartels.”

In that document, Ogden laid the groundwork for the Obama administration’s senior-level political support of gunwalking.

“[M]erely seizing firearms through interdiction will not stop firearms trafficking to Mexico,” Ogden wrote in that memo, obtained by congressional investigators and released along with the report Tuesday.

“We must identify, investigate, and eliminate the sources of illegally trafficked firearms and the networks that transport them.”

Ogden’s directive was an official policy statement directing agents to stop focusing exclusively on arresting straw purchasers. Instead,the Department of Justice would zero in on more complex conspiracy cases.

The Ogden memo and its explicit support from senior administration officials opened the door for agents like Bill Newell, who led ATF’s Phoenix field division, to allow guns to walk in large numbers. Newell, one of five officials to whom Issa and Grassley have pointed as responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, had already tried similar tactics during the George W. Bush administration.

In short, it may have been a bit premature to look at this as Holder and the gang escaping accountability. It's also premature to say that they won't. The next two reports, and what comes from them, will tell a lot.

Also, to be fair to Issa and Grassley, they've really fought hard and against long odds. For example, the fate of those five senior ATF officials is shockingly in the hands of none other than Eric Holder.

Democrats wanna talk Wide Receiver? Let's talk Wide Receiver!

As Fast and Furious burst onto the national stage this week with the Oversight Committee decision to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, the Democratic left unsurprisingly decided to defend Holder primarily in two ways. Nancy Pelosi's insane argument notwithstanding, one line of defense is that Holder is being targeted because he is black. The other is that Operation Wide Receiver was a gun-walking program started under the Bush Administration, which they claim is evidence that this is all partisan.

Consider...

Holder made this claim during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on June 12, 2012:

If you want to talk about Fast and Furious, I’m the Attorney General that put an end to the misguided tactics that were used in Fast and Furious. An Attorney General who I suppose you would hold in higher regard was briefed on these kinds of tactics in an operation called Wide Receiver and did nothing to stop them – nothing. Three hundred guns, at least, walked in that instance.

The blame Bush strategy is nothing new but instead of Republicans arguing Wide Receiver was drastically different from Fast and Furious in scope, perhaps they should engage the Democrats in the Wide Receiver debate by referring to someone who was at the heart of both operations. If they do, the Democrats are likely to give up the argument.

There is at least one man who was intimately involved with both Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious; his name is William Newell, former ATF Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in Phoenix. In a phone conversation from December, 2010 between Newell and a gun store owner named Mike Detty, the subject of Operation Wide Receiver was discussed. Here is that relevant portion, via Sipsey Street:

Detty: "You know, I was just curious with, uh, with Wide Receiver, you know, three years ago, I think, the U.S. Attorney here told me they were planning on arresting something like forty people and its my understanding, I think it was, November 10th or November 9th, they made six arrests here in Tucson.

Newell: Right.

Detty: But I haven't seen. . . I check the website daily and I haven't seen a press release regarding that. Is there a reason that you're waiting on that or hoping to make more arrests?

Newell: Yeah, there'll be . . . uh, we're waiting. There's some other stuff going on, uh, that's part of that, and so it'll be a wait, it'll be a bit here. Probably another month or so.

If we are to take Holder at his word on June 12th, then Newell necessarily perjured himself in previous testimony.

CNN reported on the following exchange between Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and William Newell at a July 26, 2011 Oversight Committee hearing:

Newell's insistence that guns were not allowed to cross the border drew an angry rebuke from Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House committee investigating the program, who called Newell a "paid non-answerer" at Tuesday's hearing.

"Are they (the other agents) lying, or are you lying?" Issa asked Newell.

"We did not let guns walk," Newell responded.

"You're entitled to your opinion, not to your facts," Issa said.

Either Newell lied then or Holder lied last week. Perhaps concurrent with the upcoming House Resolution that will determine if Holder will be in contempt, the Oversight Committee could revisit its meetings with Newell. At this point, no one is going to protect him; he could go under the bus at any time. His testimony is in direct contradiction with Holder's. Which one do you think will be made to take the fall? As this Fast and Furious = Wide Receiver narrative continues to be pushed by the left, Newell is increasingly exposed. It would seem that the best thing for him to do would be to start singing to Issa's Committee (if he isn't already).

As proof that Democrats don't want to go down the road of equating Wide Receiver with Fast and Furious, take a look at this clip from a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing from November 8, 2011. This exchange between Senator Cornyn and Holder turns to the subject of Wide Receiver at about the 2:30 mark. Shortly thereafter, Cornyn draws a line of distinction between the two operations so well that any inclination Holder had to compare the two was extinguished. In fact, at the 3:30 mark, Holder says:

"Senator, I have not tried to equate Wide Receiver with Fast and Furious."

Watch the entire exchange if you can.



During that same hearing, Senator Chuck Schumer played the Wide Receiver card too, saying in part:

"It's a pretty good bet that top officials at the Bush Justice Department - perhaps the Attorney General himself - learned of this operation in its early stages... at the very least, they let it continue. For all we know, they've endorsed it. And so, I think it's important that we look at both sides and my suggestion Mr. Chairman is, if the House won't do that, we should."

Shortly after making those comments, Schumer found agreement with none other than John Cornyn, who echoed Schumer's sentiment about getting to the bottom of Wide Receiver as well.

Memo to the Democrats. If you wish to point to Wide Receiver in defense of Fast and Furious, you might want to re-think your strategy; Holder did.

Of course, that leaves you with nothing but the race card.

Six more Congressmen call for Eric Holder's Resignation over Fast and Furious

I've been waiting for this list to grow; it's been rather stagnant lately. Add six more as of today, which puts us at halfway to a majority.

Via Daily Caller:

Six more U.S. Congressmen have demanded Attorney General Eric Holder leave his post this week in the wake of Operation Fast and Furious, bringing the number of U.S. House members pushing for a change in Justice Department leadership to 109.

Spokespeople for Florida Republican Reps. Cliff Stearns and Mario Diaz-Balart told The Daily Caller their bosses agree with the surging group of members already demanding Holder’s resignation. Meanwhile, four new members have signed onto the official House resolution of “no confidence” in Holder — House Resolution 490 –  because of Fast and Furious: Republican Reps. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, Cory Gardner of Colorado, and Pete Olson and Mike Conaway, both of Texas.

If this figure incrementally grows until it reaches a majority, the current position espoused by House Speaker Boehner - that he supports the investigation but will not comment further - might just have to change into something far more substantive. There are currently 242 Republicans in the House. 218 calls for Eric Holder's resignation puts impeachment on the table. With 109 such calls, Republicans are halfway there. As this number continues to grow, so does the pressure on Boehner.

If your congressman is not on the list of those who are calling for Holder's resignation, call him / her and demand they do so.

In case you needed any incentive, it will help put Boehner in a rather hot seat.

Grassley asking why DOJ IG report on Fast and Furious taking so long

Senator Chuck Grassley is rightfully demanding to know where the DOJ IG's report on Fast and Furious is. It's been well over a year since Cynthia Schnedar was allegedly asked to investigate the operation. Considering that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer's deputy, Jason Weinstein, referred to the drafting of the now infamous February 4, 2011 letter as being more difficult than the "Magna Carta," perhaps we already know the answer to Grassley's question. If the two page letter was so difficult to draft - and was later proven to have been demonstrably false - perhaps the IG's report is more difficult than calculating Einstein's theory of relativity.

Anyway, via the Washington Times:

The ranking Republican on the SenateJudiciary Committee says a Justice Department investigation into the botched “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation has taken “an awfully long time to finish” and, as a result, “should meet the highest standards of accuracy and independence.”

“Operation Fast and Furious failed to live up to the standards set by the American people, and we need to know how that could ever happen,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who first questioned the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operation more than a year ago.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. asked the inspector general’s office at the Justice Department in February 2011 to investigate the operation after Mr. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, discovered that ATF had allowed more than 2,000 weapons - including AK-47 assault rifles - to be “walked” across the border to drug smugglers in Mexico.

The origins of this operation have been narrowed down to a group of people that is not all that large so there's really no logical explanation for why it's taking so long. Then again, as the Times points out, the acting IG is not only a Holder lackey but she hasn't even been confirmed by the Senate yet:

Jay Lerner, spokesman for the inspector general’s office, said “the review is ongoing,” but declined to elaborate.

Mr. Grassley initially expressed concern that the investigation was being conducted without an independent Senate-confirmed inspector general running the office. Acting Inspector General Cynthia A. Schnedar has not been through the Senate confirmation process and Mr. Grassley questioned whether she could “challenge senior officials with tough questions.”

President Obama’s nominee as inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is awaiting Senate confirmation.

Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the inspector general’s review has “taken longer than the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination.” He said the inquiry “comes across that it is being stonewalled until after the election.”

I don't think Holder will be able to wait that long to release the report. In fact, I seem to remember him saying it would only be a couple of months or so when he testified back on February 2nd.

One month down.

Video: Darrell Issa interview with Greta on Fast and Furious

About a month ago, reports began to surface from "four sources" according to Sipsey Street's Mike Vanderboegh that House Speaker John Boehner may have asked Oversight Chairman, Darrell Issa to pull back on the Fast and Furious investigation. Another report from Vanderboegh involved an alleged deal that would end the investigation; the Justice Department would offer up Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and his Deputy Chief of Staff, Jason Weinstein in return.

In fairness to Issa and Boehner, this is not ironclad but it is noteworthy for two reasons. One, Boehner's relative silence on anything related to the investigation. Two, Issa's backing down on a threat to issue a contempt order of Attorney General Eric Holder if the latter didn't produce documents demanded in a subpoena. To this point, there still is no date set for Holder to comply. In fact, it is Holder whom Issa has given the privilege of picking a date by which he WILL comply. The word, "limbo" comes to mind.

Back to Breuer and Weinstein. Whether there is a deal or not, it is becoming increasingly obvious that these two men are likely feeling the most heat from Issa's Committee. While the evidence currently available definitely implicates those two men, it strongly points to officials above them, to include Eric Holder. Breuer and Weinstein appear to be guilty of criminal negligence at best but the investigation should absolutely not end with them. If it does, it will be a gross miscarriage of justice.

If you have time, this piece by Ronald Kolb at American Thinker is long but worth the read. It underscores this reality quite well.

That all leads to this exchange between Greta Van Susteren and Rep. Darrell Issa. A former attorney herself, Greta asks good, tough questions here. Also, take note that Breuer and Weinstein appear to be the brightest dots on Issa's radar. That's perfectly fine as long as the other dots don't drop off after taking Breuer and Weinstein down.

Via Oversight and Reform:

Video: Darrell Issa interviewed by Megyn Kelly on Jaime Zapata

Rep. Darrell Issa appeared on Megyn Kelly's show today to discuss the new revelations about ATF's involvement in the murder of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata on February 15, 2011. Incidentally, eleven days before Zapata's death, the DOJ sent the infamous February 4th letter in which they denied gun walking ever took place. Almost one year later, Assistant Atty General Lanny Breuer, the head of the Criminal Division, admitted that letter was inaccurate.

Here's the interview between Kelly and Issa. Note that Issa refers back to the DOJ IG being in possession of 80,000 pages of documents while his committee has only 6,000 pages. He makes it clear that all the IG would have to do to honor the subpoena is to hit a button.



h/t FFI

ATF Implicated in another DHS Agent's Death; Where is Napolitano's Outrage?

This new development could indicate that Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley have come into possession of the best evidence yet that ICE Agent Jaime Zapata's murder was a direct result of an ATF Fast and Furious type operation. It involves a man named Manuel Barba, whom I posted about here last week. Barba had been convicted of trafficking a weapon connected to Zapata's death without the Zapata family being notified. That is noteworthy in itself.

On the heels of that astonishing news, Issa and Grassley have sent another letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and it contains information that may indicate exactly why the DOJ wanted to let Barba's prosecution fly under the radar.

To this point, there have been three other men with ties to guns that were used in Zapata's murder but they reportedly weren't under ATF surveillance at the time. Though they had plenty of reason to be. The names of those three other men are Otilio and Rafael Osorio and Kelvin Morrison. The addition of Barba to this grouping may point directly to a Fast and Furious style operation that led to Zapata's murder, which would seemingly contradict a statement made by an ATF spokesman.

Here is a portion of the letter to Holder I had sitting in my inbox from Issa Press Secretary Becca Watkins this morning:

ATF has tried to distinguish this case from Operation Fast and Furious and to justify its failure to intervene.  In one news article on the Osorio brothers, ATF North Texas spokesperson Tom Crowley is quoted as saying: “[T]aking them down and arresting them at that time would have possibly jeopardized that investigation. . . . None of the tactics used in this investigation were anything similar to what was used in Arizona’s Fast and Furious, including intentionally walking firearms across the border.”[4]  Yet failure to conduct surveillance of individuals known to be trafficking weapons to Mexico was a core problem with the tactics used in Fast and Furious.  Lack of surveillance is what allowed such firearms to reach the border.  The same irresponsible tactic appears to have been used in this matter.

Prior to what's been learned about Barba, the primary difference between Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder and the murder of Zapata was that the ATF was literally shown to have been holding the smoking gun in Terry's murder. The ATF had foreknowledge of the gun used in Terry's being 'walked' into Mexico after operation Fast and Furious permitted it.

To this point, Zapata's case didn't reveal the same smoking gun. Remember, the Osorio brothers, along with Morrison, hadn't been put under surveillance so the ATF had an out.

However, Barba was a different story. Again, from the letter:

Now, news reports indicate that this may have been an issue with a purchaser of another one of the weapons found at Agent Zapata’s murder scene.[5]  Records indicate that ATF opened a case against Manuel Barba in June 2010,[6] approximately two months before he took possession on August 20, 2010, of the rifle which was later trafficked to Mexico and also used in the murder of Agent Zapata.[7]  Additionally, the documents show that ATF had indications in October 2010 that Barba was obliterating serial numbers on weapons, the possession of which would have been a prosecutable offense.[8]  At least as of December 13, 2010, ATF also was aware that Barba was still under indictment for a 2006 state case, and thus had been unlawfully receiving firearms while under indictment.[9]  However, a warrant was not issued for Barba’s arrest in this case until February 14, 2011.[10]

The February 14th date is significant because Zapata was murdered one day later. It was also two months to the day, after Brian Terry had been murdered.

We could be seeing a new line of attack from Issa and Grassley here. There has been a narrative pushed by the Democrats that Issa has been on a witch hunt against Eric Holder and has had far too many hearings. This isn't the least bit true since each hearing has consisted of perjury, stonewalling, or both. Hearings should continue until they can take place without such things.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano becomes increasingly more important as Zapata's murder is tied directly to an ATF operation similar to Fast and Furious. Border Patrol Agent Terry and ICE Agent Zapata were both agents under the purview of Napolitano's Department. She hasn't appeared the least bit outraged at the DOJ or ATF despite Terry's murder being the direct result of an ATF operation.

Now that evidence is coming out that Zapata's murder could be directly tied to the ATF in a very similar way, Napolitano's lack of outrage could be a red flag twice the size.

Here is the text of what I sent to Issa's office after receiving the joint letter to Holder:

Becca, 

In a sane world, DHS Secretary would be siding with Oversight committee instead of deferring to DOJ IG.

Two of her agents confirmed dead as a result of ATF?

Where is Ms. Napolitano's outrage? She appears to be more agitated with Republican congressional investigators than with those responsible for her agents' deaths. 

Thanks for sending. 

I believe they call that "dishonor" in the military.

Gun in ICE Agent's death linked to ATF Operation

Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and ICE agent Jaime Zapata were both murdered in the line of duty. Terry's death seems to have gotten more attention for two reasons. One, he was gunned down inside the U.S. border with Mexico. Two, the guns found at his murder scene came from ATF's Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-walking operation sanctioned by Terry's government. Zapata was killed in Mexico and the origin of the guns used to kill him were not proven to have been as closely connected to the ATF.

Well, thanks to CBS' Sharyl Attkisson, one of the guns used in Zapata's murder has now been proven to have come from an ATF operation. A suspicious aspect to this involves a conviction of the man who possessed the gun and Zapata's family never knew he was implicated in the murder.

Via CBS:

Prosecutors recently sentenced a Texas man, Manuel Barba, for trafficking a weapon connected to the murder of Immigration and Customs (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata. Nobody was more astonished to learn of the case than Zapata's parents, who didn't know that Barba had been arrested or linked to their son's murder.

"The family was obviously surprised to learn that there was a case involving a weapon linked to the Zapata incident," attorney Trey Martinez told CBS News. Martinez represents Zapata's parents and the surviving ICE agent in the assault, Victor Avila. "They were surprised they had never been contacted in the capacity as victims so they could give a response or some kind of reaction at the time of sentencing."

Perhaps this goes a long way in explaining why the Zapata family was kept in the dark...

In a related development, CBS News has obtained documents showing that Barba was under ATF surveillance for at least six months before a rifle he trafficked was used in Zapata's murder. Zapata's government vehicle was ambushed by suspected cartel thugs in Mexico Feb. 15, 2011.

Documents indicate ATF opened its case against Barba, entitled "Baytown Crew," in June of 2010. During the investigation, court records state Barba recruited straw purchasers and "facilitated the purchase and exportation of at least 44 firearms" including assault rifles. On August 20, 2010 Barba took delivery of the WASR-10 semi-automatic rifle later used in Zapata's murder, obliterated its serial number, and sent it to Mexico with nine others just like it. Nearly two months later, on Oct. 8, 2010, ATF agents recorded a phone call in which Barba "spoke about the final disposition of ... firearms to Mexico and also about the obliterating of the serial numbers before they were trafficked." Barba told straw purchasers the guns were destined for the Zeta drug cartel.

Dave Workman at the Gun Rights Examiner received an e-mail from Senator Charles Grassley that said, in part:

"I've been asking for information from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security on the circumstances surrounding the murder of ICE Agent Zapata for almost a year, only to be met with resistance and more of the same stonewalling. If these revelations prove to be true, it's a sad commentary that this known trafficker was allowed to continue his illegal purchases, including trafficking the apparent weapon used in the murder of our own agent."

It's nice to see that Senator Grassley believes this report is a "sad commentary" and that he's reiterating what we've all known for over a year now, that's he's being stonewalled, but this righteous rhetoric needs to transition to righteous action soon. I realize Grassley is the ranking member and has limited power but DOJ needs to start coughing up documents or be held in contempt, which is something Rep. Darrell Issa's office has been hinting at doing but has already backed down once.

Be sure to read Attkisson's entire piece. It reveals a lot of smoke, and you know what they say about smoke.

New York Post: Stern Letters to Holder are nice but...

Since the Fast and Furious scandal blew open over a year ago, there has been a plethora of strongly worded letters sent by both Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley to various individuals at ATF, DOJ, State, etc. Those stern letters keep coming but to this point, there hasn't been much action according to Michael Walsh at the New York Post:

‘Contempt of Congress” is a pretty strong term, and one with tangible legal consequences, but how else to describe Attorney General Eric Holder’s continuing obstructionism in the burgeoning Fast and Furious scandal?

It’s been 14 months since news broke that a federal agent had been killed with weapons that Holder’s Justice Department intentionally allowed to cross the border into Mexico, with no plan on how to track them and without alerting Mexican officials. In all, the Obama administration sent thousands of guns south to the drug gangs under the misbegotten operation.

So, now what you ask?

On Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif) — whose House Oversight Committee is leading the congressional investigation — sent Holder another in a series of stern letters, demanding that Justice comply with committee subpoenas that it’s been pretty much ignoring since Oct. 12.

The letter was prompted by Justice’s failure to meet a Feb. 9 deadline to make witnesses available and turn over hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of internal documents. Holder’s crew requested a further extension — while publicly decrying Issa’s probe as a political witch hunt.

Of course, as Issa writes, it’s Justice’s own “delay tactics” that “have extended this investigation into a presidential-election year.” Indeed, “had the department demonstrated willingness to cooperate with this investigation from the outset — instead of attempting to cover up its own internal mismanagement — this investigation likely would have concluded” last year.

“In reality,” Issa continues, “it is the department that is playing political gotcha games, instead of allowing a co-equal branch of government to perform its constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch.

“We cannot wait any longer for the deparment’s cooperation.”

Tough words. But will there ever be more than words?

The American people who are insisting that Holder be held accountable have been very patient but it's time to escalate this thing. That includes a longer list of Congressmen who are demanding Holder's resignation. An increase in the number of names on that list will help both Issa and Boehner do the right thing.

h/t Sipsey Street

Video: Boehner confronted about Fast and Furious, avoids the question

The Daily Caller's Nicholas Ballasy asked House Speaker John Boehner if he supported the 100 congressmen who've either called for Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation or for a resolution of "no confidence." While Boehner said he supports Issa's investigation, he didn't answer the question. In particular, he would not respond to the part about whether he would bring the "no confidence" resolution to the floor.

If you just watch Boehner's answer, you might feel pretty good but when you include the question and how blatantly he avoided it, the warm and fuzzy feeling kinda goes away.


This is the only part of the exchange that Boehner's office has posted to his website (notice the question is missing):

Video: Darrell Issa on Fox about threat to hold Holder in Contempt

It's nice to see this fiery version of Darrell Issa. Here he discusses the threat to find Attorney General in contempt over not complying with the subpoena for documents no later than February 9th. Good interview but now is the time for a "trust but verify" mentality with Issa's committee as we're quickly approaching a small window of opportunity to get to the truth and hold the right people accountable.

Video: Former Reagan Attorney General Mum on Fast and Furious Accountability

This is a head-scratcher. Edwin Meese, former Attorney General under Ronald Reagan, is unwilling to comment on who should be held accountable over operation Fast and Furious. No comment on the falsified letter; no comment on Holder's inconsistent testimony; no comment after this thing has been dragging on for over a year.

Via Daily Caller:


As someone who knows how the Department of Justice works, it's shocking that Meese would rather appear ignorant than informed. There has been far more than enough information made public over the last year for Meese to have a more substantive take than that.

Meese concedes knowing about Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's death and the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans but is unwilling to identify who should be held accountable after more than a year?!

His answer, in part, was that as a former Attorney General himself, it's hard to get to the truth. Uh, if it's that hard to get to the truth about something like a decision to put guns in the hands of bad guys, perhaps Mr. Meese, at the very least, would agree that the government is far too big.

Sipsey Street has an interesting take on Meese's reticence to assign blame.

The Question Darrell Issa's Office is not Answering **UPDATE**Issa Letter sent to Holder**

Look, let me be clear. Over the last year, I have been very happy with how Rep. Issa's office has gone out of its way to communicate with the public about what was going on in the Fast and Furious investigation. Issa's Press Secretary Becca Watkins has been very good at this, often sending links to videos, articles, statements, etc. that I wouldn't otherwise see. If I was giving her an evaluation, she'd have gotten an A++++++ (Christmas Story reference).

Over the weekend, I e-mailed Ms. Watkins the recent column penned by Tom Tancredo in which the former congressman suggested that House Speaker John Boehner could be "sabotaging" the investigation. I received a response from her less than two hours later.

Here is that response:

From: "Watkins, Becca"
To: "'benbarrack@yahoo.com'"  
Cc: "Hill, Frederick"  
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2012 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: Becca, What is going on here?

Ben,

Please use this on the record from me:
Leadership has been, and continues to be, supportive of oversight's investigation into operation fast and furious. There is no substance to these rumors.

I've cced me colleague above in case he has something to add.

Becca Watkins Press Secretary House Oversight Committee Chairman Issa

I replied and included a CNN news story that reported the following:

A key congressional Republican who had threatened to bring a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder if he did not comply with a demand for "Operation Fast and Furious" documents by 5 p.m. Thursday, has backed off his stated deadline.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, who has the backing of the committee's Republican majority, has granted a Justice Department request for an extension. No new deadline was set.

Here is the reply I sent to Watkins. More than 72 hours later, I still have no response to this question:

From: Ben Barrack
To: "Watkins, Becca"
Cc: "Hill, Frederick"
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2012 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: Becca, What is going on here? 

Becca, 

Understood, thanks for the response, and will do. 

Things like the CNN article seem to help feed a perception that you don't want to exist. 

A perception that does exist among those who are demanding justice is that extensions of grace (like the one being granted to AG Holder) do seem a bit misplaced after all that's transpired. 

I understand that your committee has far more information than any of us do but I'm just relaying how it looks. 

P.S. I used to be in the litigation business and from a practicality standpoint, copying or Imaging 80,000 pages (approx. 40 boxes) took less than 48 hours when we used all of the resources we had at our disposal. I'm guessing the IG's office has digital copies at this point. As such, they should only have to hit the "print" button and call a courier to comply with the subpoena. Cole's assertion that it would be "impossible" to turn over all of the documents the IG has doesn't sound believable.

For the record, if there is no deal and there is a legitimate reason why this question cannot be answered, Issa's office surely must understand the concerns of people who are suspicious. I understand their frustration relative to reports of a deal if one doesn't exist but they should look at previous administrations and previous congresses as the source of that frustration, not those of us who question them.

Poor track records matter and have consequences. The track record of Congress very much warrants suspicion.

If there is no deal, I apologize in advance. If there IS a deal, it amounts to obstruction of justice and needs to be stopped. Call your congressman and see if you can find out.

I went into greater detail about this on my February 12th radio show.

----------------------------
***UPDATE*** Just found a letter from Issa to Holder in my in-box from Becca Watkins. It appears Issa is demanding that Holder give the committee a date on which the DOJ will honor the subpoena issued in October that had a February 9th deadline.

Here is an excerpt from the letter:

We cannot wait any longer for the Department's cooperation. As such, please specify a date by which you expect the Department to produce all documents responsive to the subpoena. In addition, please specify a Department representative who will interface with the Committee for production purposes. This individual should also serve as the conduit for dealing with the contempt proceedings, should the Department continue to ignore the Committee's subpoena.

The letter closed with a not-so-subtle jab at ranking member - who has also been registered with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Caucus so his integrity is already next to zero as a result - Elijah Cummings.

As Ranking Member Cummings promised the family of slain BOrder Patrol Agent Brian Terry, "we will not rest until every single person responsible for all of this, no matter where they are, are brought to justice." I applaud his resolve, and I want to make it clear that Congress will not give up until this accountability has been achieved.

At the June 15, 2011 hearing, Cummings looked the Terry family straight in the eye and uttered those words. Despite that, his intellectual honesty in the months since has belied that promise. It has been Cummings and the Democrats who have been politicizing this scandal in what appears to be a blatant attempt to protect a Democratic administration.

Then again, to socialists, lying is like breathing.

Good letter.

Read it all HERE.

Video: Arizona Sheriff says Eric Holder 'Perjured himself'

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu isn't just a no-nonsense officer of the law, he's also running for Congress. Next to Joe Arpaio, you'll be hard pressed to find a tougher sheriff. Babeu spoke at CPAC last week and devoted his entire speech to the Fast and Furious scandal.

Babeu spoke to the Daily Caller at CPAC:

Pinal County, Ariz. Sheriff Paul Babeu, a Republican congressional candidate, told The Daily Caller he thinks Attorney General Eric Holder “perjured himself” before Congress when testifying about Operation Fast and Furious.

“I believe that [Holder], and many sheriffs in Arizona believe that, he has perjured himself,” Babeu said during an interview with TheDC at this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. “His story has changed. After there was evidence produced that he did know — he was given briefings, he was given emails — he then started to walk back his statements to say that, ‘well, I misunderstood the question.’”

“As a police officer before I was a sheriff, when somebody I’m talking to starts to change their story — that’s a clue they’re not telling the truth,” Babeu continued. “So, this guy is in charge of the Department of Justice, still — to this day — from Dec. 15, 2010, so it’s been over a year and there’s still been no accountability, we still don’t know who’s approved this program. How can that be? In the Department of What?”

If reports about any alleged deal in the Fast and Furious investigation are true (not saying they are), the constant sunlight being shone on the scandal by the likes of Babeu will help prevent that deal from being sealed.

Keep the pressure on, even if Issa has not been instructed by Boehner to stand down.

Fox Video Report: DEA and ICE involved in Fast and Furious

These kinds of news reports help to assuage suspicions that the Fast and Furious investigation is losing steam. In much the same way that ATF's involvement leads to Holder's Justice Department, DEA and ICE involvement leads to Janet Napolitano's DHS.

Via Oversight YouTube page:

Audio: John Bolton on Fast and Furious

Yeah, I know John Bolton endorsed Mitt Romney but if you can, check this out. The former UN Ambassador talks Fast and Furious with Dana Loesch at CPAC. In short, as someone who worked in the Reagan administration, Bolton said there's no way that Holder's counterpart at the time would not have known about the operation, especially since it involved another country.



h/t Sipsey Street

Operation Cajones (BoehnerBalls)

Great idea, courtesy of a Sipsey Street reader. As the days pass, the clues coming out of Congress only seem to reinforce the claims that House Speaker John Boehner is putting the kibosh on the Oversight Committee's Fast and Furious investigation.

Though it's a bit too early to say for sure, it's not too early to let Boehner know that he needs to grow a pair. At minimum, he's not expressing much public support for the investigation. At maximum, he could be obstructing justice.

Gayle Nyberg wrote into Sipsey Street with the draft of a letter she is encouraging everyone print out and send to House Speaker John Boehner, along with a couple of fuzzy balls. Here is the contents of the letter. Please print out; instructions on what to do next are at bottom.

Operation Cajones

An Outreach to Speaker Boehner
Speaker Boehner,

I have become increasingly frustrated of late, as you seem to lack the necessary courage and fortitude to pursue any number of actions that would lead the Congress to stopping the illegal and unconstitutional actions of this President.

Recognizing that perhaps your time in Washington has either removed or dramatically shrunk those essential apparatus from whence much courage and boldness spring, it is my humble hope that you will accept the enclosed prosthetic replacements for your own natural ones that clearly have atrophied to uselessness.

Please take these tokens and keep them in your pocket and at any time you feel the urge to cave in, cry, or give yet another pass to this budding tyrant, just reach into your pocket and caress these substitutes so you might be comforted in knowing you now have a big fuzzy pair. 

Hope this helps.

Yours truly,

It's worth noting that the photo below, courtesy of Nyberg includes a bag of 100 fuzzy balls that can be purchased for less than $5 in most places. Please print out 50 copies of the letter, buy a bag of balls and hand out to 50 people.

Remember, you'll be doing Boehner a favor. If he truly cared about the future of our kids, he wouldn't obstruct justice by instructing Oversight Committee to pull back on its investigation:

Tancredo thinks Boehner is shutting down Fast and Furious Investigation

Rumors about House Speaker John Boehner directing Oversight Committee Chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa to back off the Fast and Furious investigation began to surface a week or so before the Feb. 2nd hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder. Those rumors seemed to pick up momentum after the hearing, which many saw as a disappointment that helped reinforce those rumors.

The Daily Caller approached Boehner's office and was met with vehement denials. Curiously, however, the Speaker would not come out forcefully in support of the Committee's work, which also bolstered the credibility of those rumors. These are politically high stakes and Issa could definitely use some support from House leadership, to include Boehner and majority leader Eric Cantor. So far, he hasn't gotten much of it, at least not publicly. He should have gotten a heaping helping of it before the hearing.

Again, the silence of Boehner and Cantor don't just reveal political cowardice; it also gives further credibility to the claims that House leadership wants this to quietly go away.

Now we have a former congressman, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) lending credence to the charge that Boehner is wimping out.

Via WND:

The interesting question is why Speaker Boehner and other Republicans in leadership positions in the House are trying to hamper and curtail the Issa investigation. If Holder is innocent of the allegations, won’t that become evident when all the evidence is made public? If he is innocent, why does the White House fear the investigation?

What’s going on here? Every time Issa’s committee holds a public hearing, new evidence comes to light. Why should the investigation be aborted? Why would Republicans want the investigation halted? What possible “deal” could the White House offer to Boehner to persuade him to end the investigation? The only compromise Republicans in Congress should accept in the case of Attorney General Holder is his early resignation instead of impeachment and removal.

Over 100 members of Congress – I think it is 112 at the latest count – have called for Holder’s resignation. That’s more than a quarter of all congressmen. And while it’s not just his role in the Fast and Furious scandal that has led them to that conclusion, it’s hard to imagine any of them calling for an end to the investigation.

The reported “deal” Boehner and Holder are discussing would let higher ups in the Department of Justice off the hook if they prosecute one or two individual ATF supervisors. Holder would then claim he “cleaned up the mess” and be free from any moral or political culpability. How does that sound, folks?

Rep. Issa must persevere in his investigation and seek the truth no matter where it leads. As for Speaker Boehner, if he has a problem with this, he should go into the hospital for a backbone transplant.

If these claims against Boehner are true, it amounts to obstruction of justice. Clearly, that would be more egregious than Issa going along with it. However, Issa would actually be complicit in the obstruction if he does.

If Boehner is, in fact, demanding that Issa back off and the latter complies, the Oversight Committee should just shut down because it will have zero credibility.

***UPDATE*** After sending the Tancredo column to Issa's Press Secretary and asking for a response, I received the following reply:

From: "Watkins, Becca"
To: "'benbarrack@yahoo.com'"  
Cc: "Hill, Frederick"  
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2012 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: Becca, What is going on here?

Ben,

Please use this on the record from me:
Leadership has been, and continues to be, supportive of oversight's investigation into operation fast and furious. There is no substance to these rumors.

I've cced me colleague above in case he has something to add.

Interesting: Charles Grassley now Focusing on Lanny Breuer and Jason Weinstein

Sipsey Street Irregulars wrote about the possibility that House Speaker John Boehner was putting the kibosh on Darrell Issa's investigation of Fast and Furious. According to the site's author - Mike Vanderboegh - sources were telling him that there would essentially be a deal between Issa and Attorney General Eric Holder that would allow both men to save face while not getting to the truth.

That face saving deal allegedly was being endorsed by House Speaker John Boehner and it involves the Justice Department throwing Asst Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer and his deputy, Jason Weinstein under the bus and then allowing the investigation to quietly go away save for some  house cleaning. Though it hasn't been necessarily quantifiable, Boehner's office has undoubtedly been receiving a significant deal of heat over this charge.

In light of the claim that Breuer and Weinstein are the top two guys who will take the fall in an attempt to make the scandal go away, coupled with the pressure Boehner is receiving from the indignant followers who are demanding justice, I found Senator Chuck Grassley's floor statement on February 9th quite interesting. He set his sights on two Justice Department employees specifically. Any guesses as to who they are?

Here's a hint. The title of Grassley's prepared statement is,

"Breuer Violates DoJ Policy in Advocating for Gunwalking"

Via Grassley's Website:

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer proposed letting guns cross the border.

His proposal came at the same time the Department was preparing to send its letter to me denying that ATF ever does the very thing he was proposing. 

In a February 4, 2011 email, the Justice Department attaché in Mexico City wrote to a number of officials at the Justice Department:

“AAG Breuer proposed allowing straw purchasers to cross into Mexico so [the Secretariat of Public Security] can arrest and [the Attorney General of Mexico] can prosecute and convict.  Such coordinated operations between the US and Mexico may send a strong message to arms traffickers.”

So, we've got people here in Washington who say the program doesn't exist. At the same time we've got people talking down in Mexico City of what we're trying to accomplish by the illegal sale of guns.

 Grassley then turned to...... Jason Weinstein

The recipients of this email included Mr. Breuer’s deputy, Jason Weinstein, who was helping to write the Justice Department’s letter to me that they would later withdraw for its inaccuracies.

Mr. Weinstein was sending updates about the draft letter to Mr. Breuer in Mexico.  Yet, during his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Breuer downplayed his involvement in reviewing the draft letter.

It is outrageous to me that the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division proposed exactly what his Department was denying to me was happening.

An interesting narrative coming out of the Oversight Committee right now has to do with Issa's team playing hardball with Holder over unsealing the wiretap applications. As that continues, pressure on Boehner would subside because the charge that Boehner is telling Issa to back down is belied by the request to unseal wiretaps.

It's interesting that the recent focus of Grassley seems to be on the same two individuals who Vanderboegh's sources told him would be part of the face saving deal involving Boehner.

To be clear, Breuer and Weinstein are definitely key players in Fast and Furious but they do not represent the high water mark of culpability in this scandal, which is why any potential deal involving their scalps only (save for some lower level ATF employees) should be perceived as a betrayal of justice.

I am not saying that Grassley is doing anything wrong or involved in any hijinks here. It's simply that if Breuer and Weinstein are part of some unjust deal, it's noteworthy that Grassley appears to be focusing on them during  his prepared floor statement.

Here is the video of Grassley's statement (Fast Forward to the 4:15 mark):