State and Defense Departments Arming Mexican Cartels

In the wake of the Project Gunrunner scandal, in which gun store owners were told by the ATF to allow weapons to be purchased and then walked into Mexico illegally, this story takes on added significance. The Department of Defense in conjunction with the State Department, have been selling powerful weapons to Latin American governments as well as to the Mexican government. Once they arrive in the hands of the Mexico government, they seem to disappear and end up in the hands of cartels. In Latin America, they appear to be sold to the cartels of the north.

Yet, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attempted to push the narrative in 2009 that 90% of the gun crimes in Mexico were the result of weapons being trafficked from the United States. The implication was that tighter gun control was necessary.

Via Fox News:

You can't buy this stuff at a U.S. gun store. So where do the cartels get it? According to leaked diplomatic cables, there are three sources.

1. U.S. Defense Department shipments to Latin America, known and tracked by the U.S. State Department as "foreign military sales."

2. Weapons ordered by the Mexican government, tracked by the State Department as "direct commercial sales."

3. Aging, but plentiful arsenals of military weapon stores in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Even though these facts were well-known by the Obama administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, it blamed much of the violence in Mexico on U.S. gun stores.

"More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our border," President Obama said in February 2009.

That was contested, but few listened to gun store owners and former vets like Lynn Kartchner, owner of Allsafe Security, a gun shop in Douglas, Ariz.

"We in the gun industry knew from day one the allegations that the preponderance of sales came from gun stores like this one was totally not true," Kartchner said.

You can debate whether it's bad policy to sell weapons to Mexico and Latin American counties. What is absolutely unacceptable is for a government agency - the ATF - to order gun store owners to sell guns illegally to people who 'walk' those guns into Mexico and then blame those gun store owners for being irresponsible.

This really is an outrage.

Read it all.

Videos: Out Come the After-Birthers

For sheer entertainment value, be sure to watch MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell attempt to get Orly Taitz - long known as 'Queen of the Birthers' - to admit that Obama has unequivocally proven that he was born in Hawaii with the release of his long form Birth Certificate. Taitz doesn't even acknowledge the question once but instead demands closeups of a document she has in her hands. When O'Donnell asks her what it is, she begins talking about Obama's Selective Service number. At that point, the avowed Socialist O'Donnell begins blowing gaskets in large numbers.

Via The Blaze:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Taitz obviously thought it more beneficial to focus on something else rather than declare the Long form a forgery. Had she done that, O'Donnell may have begun screaming like an insolent child. There are people out there who are declaring the long form a fake. Check it out:



h/t Gateway Pundit

Senate and Congressional Investigators in Arizona to Investigate Project Gunrunner

It would take more than two hands to count the number of times Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) have been stonewalled by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, and ATF Director Kenneth Melson collectively. The most egregious infraction came courtesy of Melson, when he completely ignored a subpoena issued by the Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform. Issa, as Chairman, has subpoena power and he used it. After Melson ignored the deadline, Issa threatened contempt hearings.

It now appears Issa and Grassley are ratcheting up the pressure by sending investigators to Arizona to get more information from where this scandal originated.

Via CBS News:

CBS News has learned that House and Senate investigators have descended upon Arizona for their probe into the so-called "Gunwalker" scandal. They're gathering interviews from witnesses, including ATF insiders and area gun shop owners. Sources tell CBS News the congressional investigators are frustrated by what they view as across-the-board stonewalling by government agencies which have refused to provide information in the investigation. Government officials have said they won't provide information while their own investigations are ongoing.

"They're investigating themselves," says one source on Capitol Hill, "and then claiming the open investigations preclude them from giving Congress information it needs for independent oversight. It's highly improper."

ATF insiders being interviewed in Arizona are among those who told CBS News that their own agency employed a controversial strategy beginning in late 2009 called "letting guns walk," to try to gather intelligence. In that strategy, used in an operation ATF called "Fast and Furious," ATF allegedly allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons cross the Mexican border into the hands of drug cartels. Many of the guns later turned up at Mexican crime scenes, and ATF was notified; but documents show the agency continued to encourage local gun shop owners to sell more guns to the same suspects.

The longer this goes on, the worse it's going to be for the Obama administration. If Grassley and Issa get the incriminating answers from officials on the ground in Arizona they're likely to, we could see this scandal blow wide open. Then again, that should have happened at several points since this story broke a few months ago.

Read it all.