Project Gun-walker and the ATF

[twoguns]

I for one am VERY concerned for Mike Vanderboughs physical safety.

I agree. We have good reason to be very concerned for both Vanderboegh and Codrea.

[Ten*K]

Thank you for your continued updates to this thread. This is where I get the majority of my updates on this botched operation. Someone rep twoguns for me - I can't b/c I repped too many times.

the only part of this operation that was "botched" was that the information regarding this treacherous affair became public knowledge.

[twoguns]

the only part of this operation that was "botched" was that the information regarding this treacherous affair became public knowledge.

We need to refuse to use terms like, "botched" or "failed operation". These are the terms used by the media who have largely attempted to ignore this scandal.

[tntblaster]

Don't have to worry about it now... all the records are sealed *cough* administration of transparency *cough*.

[twoguns]

We start the Friday Gun-Walker/F&F update with this bit from THE HILL.

This pretty much does it for my respect of Issa. In my opinion, he has revealed himself to be another mush in the middle Republican. Talking about melding the ATF into the FBI at this stage should not be his focus. Criminal prosecutions should be!

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/19...reorganize-atf

[twoguns]

Gearing up for next week's hearing on the 8th.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogsp...-fox-memo.html

Friday, December 2, 2011
The run-up to next Thursday begins. FOX: Memo Shows Early ATF Concern on Fast & Furious Probe Despite Claims. Holder & Nappy "were not truthful."
William Lajeunesse:

While federal officials publicly denounced a lone whistleblower and told Congress the Obama administration had done everything it could to stop guns from going to Mexico, administration officials had signs that Fast and Furious investigators were losing track of weapons, a new memo obtained exclusively by Fox News suggests.

The memo, written in early February by Agent Gary Styers with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, appears to corroborate allegations made a few weeks earlier by whistleblower ATF Agent John Dodson about the gunrunning probe. It also conflicts with a letter from Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich to Congress, in which he insisted, "The allegation ... that ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons ... is false.”

Styers' memo to top ATF officials was dated Feb. 3, a day before Weich told Congress on Feb. 4 that Dodson's claims were false. Styers explained that Fast and Furious "divided and isolated agents," and the agent in charge called off surveillance. He detailed one instance in which agents monitoring a firearms transaction at a gas station were told they were too close to the scene -- while they repositioned, the buyer left the area without agents following.

"It is unheard of to have an active wiretap investigation without full time dedicated surveillance units on the ground," he wrote.

Styers wrote that his advice, and the advice of other agents, was "widely disregarded."

And Senator Grassley took to the Senate floor yesterday, calling into question possible perjury by both Holder and Napolitano.

Grassley has demanded to know who at Justice approved the Weich letter before it was sent out. So far, Justice has failed to comply, prompting Grassley to speak out Thursday afternoon on the Senate floor.

"It’s clear that multiple highly placed officials in multiple agencies knew almost immediately of the connection between Operation Fast and Furious and Agent Terry's death," Grassley said. "Yet a month and a half after Agent Terry’s death, Attorney General Holder was allegedly ignorant of the Fast and Furious connection."

Grassley said "documents that have come to light in my investigation" that suggest to him both Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano WERE NOT TRUTHFUL when they told Congress they didn't know Fast and Furious guns were used kill Terry. (Emphasis supplied, MBV.)

Those documents include emails suggesting U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke knew immediately guns found at the scene belonged to Fast and Furious and that Burke briefed Napolitano when she arrived in Tucson. The Phoenix FBI director knew it as well, and he too allegedly spoke to Napolitano.

"So, a very important question comes up. Why would they conceal the Fast and Furious connection from Secretary Napolitano days later?" Grassley asked. "Why would Mr. Burke conceal the Fast and Furious connection from Secretary Napolitano?"

Grassley says emails also show Burke spoke on Dec. 15, the day after Terry was shot, with Holder’s deputy chief of staff, Monty Wilkinson.

Shortly after that, the deputy director of the ATF made sure briefing papers were prepared about the Fast and Furious connection to Terry’s death and sent those to the deputy attorney general’s office at the Justice Department. Within 24 hours, Grassley said, they were forwarded to Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, accompanied by a personal email from one of Grindler’s assistants, explaining the situation. Two weeks later, Grindler was named Holder's chief of staff.

"So, a very important question is unanswered," Grassley said. "Why wouldn’t Mr. Grindler bring up these serious problems with Attorney General Holder? The Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security lost a man. ... And, if that’s not serious enough to brief up to the top of the department, then I don’t know what is."

Holder will be grilled on Fast and Furious next week by the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. They are likely to bring up the memo from Styers which quickly made its way to Washington in February.

Posted by Dutchman6 at 11:17 AM

[twoguns]

Codrea with the latest here:

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-i...guns-to-mexico

ATF memo describes operation designed to get guns to Mexico

David Codrea
, Gun Rights Examiner
December 2, 2011

“Memo shows early ATF concern on Fast and Furious probe despite claims,” William Lajeunesse of Fox News reports today.

The memo, written in early February by Agent Gary Styers with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, appears to corroborate allegations made a few weeks earlier by whistleblower ATF Agent John Dodson about the gunrunning probe. It also conflicts with a letter from Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich to Congress, in which he insisted, "The allegation ... that ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons ... is false.”

The Weich letter was reported and posted on Gun Rights Examiner in early February.
Advertisement

Of significance in the Styers memo Lajeunesse references but does not detail: It documents Agent Styers was contacted by Robert Donovan and Brian Downey representing Sen. Chuck Grassley and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Downey was the recipient of Gun Rights Examiner’s Jan. 19 “Open Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee staff on 'Project Gunwalker’,” wherein this correspondent informed him:

But also understand that so far, attempts to generate interest among various senate and congressional staffers over the past few days has been a frustrating experience of evasiveness and deflection, and that also is being documented. There is far too much at stake for the brave people who are putting themselves on the line to let this continue. To do so is inexcusable. That's why this is being sent to you as an open letter, published on the Internet to apprise the media and interested citizens of the efforts we are taking to bring this matter to light.

Also in the memo:

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) participated—specifically, the Co-Case Agent named in the memo was Lane France. This provides direct documentary evidence of group participation outside of Justice, in this case Homeland Security, and should provide an entirely new avenue to explore in terms of authorizations, reports and memos/communications.
Surveilling agents were ordered off-site from where a transfer was being conducted by Special Agent Hope McAllister, at which point the suspects conducting a firearms transaction were able to leave the scene with their purchase without being followed.
While Styers reported he saw no direct evidence of “padding of statistics,” he was ordered by Group Supervisor David Voth to “trace firearms that had not been recovered…so that if someone else traced the firearms they would know the firearms were connected to the case.”

See the memo itself in the sidebar media player, obtained by Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and posted exclusively on Gun Rights Examiner.

“The most important observation of Styers is that the ATF end of this operation was by all law enforcement standards set up to fail,” Vanderboegh said in a phone conversation with this reporter moments ago. “Indeed, it seems Styers’ opinion was that this was designed to be a necessary fail.

“Styers describes an ATF operation that is deliberately incomplete, seeming to shield the individuals who received the weapons from the straw buyers” Vanderboegh continued. “His letter is consistent with what the whistleblowers told us early on.

“This is an operation that was designed to get guns to Mexico,” he concluded.

Also see:

A Journalist’s Guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner. Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.


Continue reading on Examiner.com ATF memo describes operation designed to get guns to Mexico - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-i...#ixzz1fPuFoEkL

[twoguns]

Go read this latest from MVB. DoJ is now trying to draw away attention from the scandal and focus on the drafting of the letter back Spring, claiming Holder's assertion of not knowing about F&F was all a big misunderstanding.

Only a bunch of gov lawyers could twist things in such a way.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogsp...docu-dump.html

Be sure to follow all the links.

[twoguns]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69680.html

Top officials sent false Fast and Furious denials, documents reveal

Sen. Chuck Grassley was assured that a whistleblower’s claims were false.

By JOSH GERSTEIN | 12/2/11 10:39 PM EST

False denials the Justice Department sent to Congress about the Fast and Furious gun-running investigation came from top officials at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona and at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, documents released Friday by the Obama administration show.

The 1,364 pages of documents and emails turned over to Congressional investigators detail the Justice Department’s robust internal deliberations leading to a Feb. 4, 2011 letter in which the department assured the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, that claims a whistleblower was making about the Fast and Furious investigation were false.

“ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that were purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico,” the February letter from Justice Department legislative affairs chief Ron Weich to Grassley said. The letter also asserted that an “allegation … that ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico — is false.”

The second denial related to startling, emerging claims that weapons ATF lost control of in the Fast and Furious operation wound up at the scene of the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, in Arizona last December.

Terry’s death has fueled much of the public controversy over and congressional interest in Fast and Furious, which investigators say allowed as many as 1,200 weapons to make their way from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.

The operation, which Attorney General Eric Holder has called “flawed in concept, as well as in execution,” has prompted investigations by three congressional committees and has led to calls from more than 50 Republican members of Congress for Holder’s resignation. The Friday afternoon document dump came in advance of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing next Thursday where Holder is expected to face extensive and intense questioning.

Holder has contended that the operation violated Justice Department policy, but that he was unaware until the controversy erupted earlier this year that Fast and Furious had used the controversial technique of “gunwalking.”

“The tactic of allowing guns to ‘walk,’ as was permitted in Operation Fast and Furious, is completely unacceptable,” Holder said in a letter last month, expressing his sorrow to Terry’s family.

Top Justice Department officials, including Holder, have acknowledged in congressional testimony in recent months that the February letter was wrong in some respects. In a letter to Congress on Friday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole formally withdrew the February response and sought to explain the misstatements — to a degree.

“Facts have come to light during the course of this investigation that indicate the Feb. 4 letter contains inaccuracies,” Cole wrote. “Department personnel … relied on information provided by supervisors from the components in the best position to know the relevant facts: ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona. … Information provided by those supervisors was inaccurate. We understand that, in transcribed interviews with congressional investigators, the supervisors have said that they did not know at the time the letter was drafted that information they provided was inaccurate.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories...#ixzz1fVZVIkut

[twoguns]

http://biggovernment.com/bmccarty/20...rican-citizen/

‘Fast and Furious’ Not Holder’s First Controversy Involving the Murder of an American Citizen
by Bob McCarty

While some in the news media say Eric Holder’s involvement in the controversial ATF gun-running program known as Operation Fast and Furious is “only the tip of the iceberg,” Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue says he “was way ahead of the curve” in pointing out the attorney general’s involvement in shady activities. He points to a scathing 4-page letter (PDF) he sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Dec. 19, 2008, as proof.

In the letter, Trentadue told the chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee the following:

You need to know that Eric Holder, now nominated to become Attorney General, played a key role in covering up the torture-murder of my brother, Kenneth Michael Trentadue. You also need to know that Mr. Holder did this while serving as Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General from 1997-2001.

This is not just my shocking opinion. It is also the opinion of many Americans. More importantly, it is supported by the Justice Department’s records and actions that came to light as a result of my family’s efforts to obtain a certain measure of justice for my brother’s murder.

Kenneth was killed in Oklahoma City in August of 1995. My family has spent over 13 years investigating my brother’s gruesome murder, including bringing a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court in 1997. In that case, the Justice Department hid and destroyed evidence that would have exposed my brother’s murders, and we believe that Mr. Holder was directly involved in those acts of obstruction of justice.

In a footnote appearing on page one of that letter, Trentadue noted the following:

Despite the destruction of evidence, the court awarded my family a $1 million judgment. We have used that money to offer a $250,000 reward for the people who killed Kenney. That offer is posted at: www.kmtreward.com. This site also contains the irrefutable evidence that my brother was murdered, which evidence was kept from us by the Justice Department.

Trentadue’s letter continues:

To this day, however, despite the efforts of my family, numerous journalists, and Congress, the Justice Department has been able to hide this terrible story — and its culpability in the death of my brother Kenneth. More importantly, then Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder was assigned to be the point man in blocking my family’s efforts to bring my brother Kenneth Trentadue’s murderers to justice. Now, President-elect Barack Obama has nominated Eric Holder to be the new Attorney General.

The paper trail on Mr. Holder’s actions is scant. However, e-mails and handwritten notes by those working under Mr. Holder in the Justice Department have surfaced. These documents paint a clear picture of a wide-ranging and cynical scheme, run directly by Mr. Holder, to quash my family’s efforts to have my brother’s murder investigated, and to deflect congressional oversight and media attention from the shocking circumstances of his death.

According to these documents, a significant part of this plan involved Mr. Holder convincing Congress not to inquire into my brother’s murder. The plan called for Mr. Holder to meet with Senator Hatch on October 9, 1997, just prior to the Justice Department’s issuance of a Press Release announcing that the federal grand jury supposedly “investigating” my brother’s murder had failed to charge anyone with this crime.

The stated purpose of this meeting between Mr. Holder and Senator Hatch was to defuse Judiciary Committee oversight and media inquiry into the circumstances of my brother’s death. In fact, one e-mail states that “we ain’t looking for press on this. Hill takes priority.”

But that meeting apparently did not go as planned by Mr. Holder, because the next day, October 10, 1997, Senator Hatch gave an exclusive interview to Fox News in which he spoke out against the results of the grand jury and the Justice Department’s handling of the case.

Rather than share Trentadue’s summary of what Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), told Fox News during the interview Oct. 10, 1997, I offer video (below) of the interview itself.


Did you catch that? Senator Hatch said, “There’s a lot wrong with this case.” Not surprisingly, Jesse Trentadue agrees and points anyone willing to listen to the remaining content of his letter to Senator Leahy (PDF) before noting the following:

Fast & Furious is only the “tip of the iceberg”;

Two U.S. Border Patrol agents are dead;

The Oklahoma City Bombing is the “iceberg”; and

168 bombing victims, plus his brother Kenneth Trentadue, are dead.

For more information about Trentadue’s pursuit of justice, read my other reports about the Oklahoma City Bombing and visit Kenneth Trentadue.com.