Arizona Governor Brewer Issues Statement on Gunwalker

We can probably file this one under 'fallout from Day 2 of the hearings over Project Gunrunner / Operation Fast and Furious.' I'm still trying to figure out what bonehead decided to air the most historic hearings since Watergate to C-SPAN 3. Every cable news channel should have carried Wednesday's entire round; it was that compelling. Instead, they've been fixated on the Casey Anthony trial. I really don't understand who's making these decisions but they need a bad performance appraisal the next time around.

Ok, now to Jan Brewer's statement (h/t to Sipsey Street) The Governor of Arizona ain't happy at all and if she continues to press on this, she will find herself holding much higher ground against the Feds, an entity she's been fighting for some time.

From her statement:

Federal Operation Fast and Furious placed Arizonans at risk

“I am outraged by findings in a new Congressional report that alleges federal agents were instructed to stand aside and do nothing as up to 2,000 weapons were illegally purchased in Arizona and resold. In many cases, the end result appears to have been the arming of violent drug cartels south of the border.

“During Operation Fast and Furious in 2010, according to this report, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms were ordered to simply track these „straw buyer‟ weapons sales but not intervene. Longtime federal agents have now testified before Congress that allowing these weapons to leave the premises, a practice generally known as „gun walking,‟ was a marked departure from accepted law enforcement practices.

“ATF agents lost track of many of these weapons, including assault weapons and .50 caliber sniper rifles. A significant number undoubtedly found their way to Mexican drug cartels. Tragically, two AK-47s traced back to Operation Fast and Furious later turned up at the crime scene near Rio Rico, Arizona, where Arizona Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered by bandits. Authorities are still looking for the murder weapon.

“If the allegations contained in this Congressional report are accurate, then Operation Fast and Furious endangered the lives of innocent people on both sides of the border. The people of Arizona deserve answers from the Department of Justice and ATF as to how this could have been sanctioned, let alone encouraged. We may never know how many weapons illegally sold as part of this operation later turned up at a crime scene. But the connection between this failed federal operation and the death of Border Patrol Agent Terry is clear. The Congressional report puts it best: „The death of Border Agent Brian Terry was likely a preventable tragedy.‟”

Can you say, 'Humpty Dumpty Presidency'?

Also via Sipsey Street, this cartoon from Glenn McCoy says it all:

FrontPage Magazine Asks why Weiner's Wife is not Resigning

It looks like that little snowball about Weiner's in-laws being connected to the Muslim Brotherhood is beginning to roll a little bit. As Anthony Weiner exits Congress, he continues to get the majority of media attention but there are two people who hold significant positions of power who should be leaving as well. One is Anthony Weiner's wife - Huma Abedin - who has familial ties to the Muslim Brotherhood; her mother is a member and her brother raises even more red flags. The other person who should resign is her boss, Hillary Clinton.

In addition to Pajamas Media, FrontPage Mag has also picked up on the story. Arnold Ahlert adds an interesting twist about how the group Huma's mother belongs to is actually portrayed by Der Spiegel:

Anthony Weiner resigned yesterday, unable to withstand the relentless pressure put on him for his sexting extravaganzas. Yet if an article written by former PLO terrorist-turned-Christian and Israel supporter Walid Shoebat (along with KTEM radio host Ben Barrack) is any indication, it may very well be that the wrong member of the family resigned. According to Arabic sources translated by Mr. Shoebat, Huma Abedin’s mother and brother are both associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ms. Abedin’s mother, Saleha Mahmoud Abdeen, is reportedly part of a special woman’s unit known as the Muslim Sisterhood or the International Women’s Organization (IWO) which, according to a counter-terrorism report obtained by the Terrorism Committee of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, operates within the Brotherhood in Egypt and possibly other Arab nations as well. The Egyptian newspaper Al-Dostor confirms that the Sisterhood includes 63 international members in 16 different countries.

The group is being portrayed by Western media in a benign fashion, as noted in Der Spiegel and on its Facebook page. But a report by the Egyptian opposition newspaper Al-Liwa Al-Arabi paints a far more ominous picture. It reveals that these women, who are “the wives of some of the highest-ranking leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood” are being recruited to:

[S]muggle secret documents for the members since women go undetected by security surveillance…to spread the Brotherhood’s ideology by infiltrating universities, schools and homes…to lay the plans for the Sisterhood to work at the state level…[and]…to fulfill the interests of the Brotherhood and also to benefit from international women’s conferences and unify all efforts to benefit the Brotherhood globally.

To those who express concern that this is guilt by association, I point you to why Barack Obama had to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright. If Huma Abedin cannot renounce her mother and her brother, she has no business being anywhere near an American administration's State secrets, let alone having significant access to them.

Read it all.

Video: Is ATF Director on Suicide Watch?

Sipsey Street is reporting that it's heard from two sources that say revelations in yesterday's hearings have led to ATF Director Kenneth Melson either being ready to turn State's evidence or needing to be put on suicide watch. The testimony given by Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich - coupled with emails released by Issa that show Melson was 'in the weeds' with Gunwalker - are apparently too much for Melson to handle. Get ready for some big bombshells in and around this scandal in the coming days.

First up, the most explosive exchange that likely led to Melson's meltdown. Coupled with the release of emails that show Melson was monitoring Operation Fast & Furious weekly, along with Weich's performance put Melson in a box. The fireworks start right after Assistant Attorney General Weich delivers his opening statement. Fast forward to the 7:00 mark if you must.

See if you can read the body language of the woman directly behind Issa as he eviscerates Weich for several minutes:



Via Sipsey Street:

Heard from two sources today that the revelations at yesterday's hearing (dubbed "Black Wednesday" over at CleanUpATF.org) about Acting ATF Director Kenneth "Gunwalker Man" Melson hooked into Internet video of the Lone Wolf Trading Company hit the Fifth Floor of ATF HQ "like a bomb."

One source said, "Melson looks like he's been suckered punched and then run over by a Mack truck." He added, "I hope they've got him on suicide watch."

Another repeated a rumor to the same effect and then added, "The whispering is that he's ready to roll. He's been waffling back and forth on the decision for months, but the thinking is that this latest stuff at the hearing will push him into Issa and Grassley's lap. He's the (administration's) designated goat, he knows it, and he really doesn't have much choice."

If you watched the exchange between Issa and Weich, which for some reason is nowhere to be found on YouTube, it was truly historic. That exchange only serves to make these claims all the more credible.

More at Sipsey Street