SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF PART 2 OF THIS LARGE POST FOR TIMELINE UPDATES AND ADDITIONAL SEARCH RESULTS
The Gunwalker Scandal:
Overview and Timeline, Part 1 (of 2)
(updated March 31, 2014)
PRIMARY TIMELINE SOURCES: Vince Warde at Reasoned Politics, David Codrea at Gun Rights Examiner, Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars, and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa. Amendments, additions, updates, source corroboration by John Z., Ramona TEA’d Steering Committee. The timeline below is a chronology of thousands of sources as they have appeared, within days of publishing. Throughout this timeline, many new media sources have consistently proven to be indispensable for important and highly credible information the “mainstream” media has either refused to cover, has missed altogether, or has twisted and/or outright fabricated to fit an agenda. All sources linked and embedded in text. This document is updated regularly, hosted at Rinosandrats.com, and linked at RamonaTead.com.
OVERVIEW
Over 300 drug cartel murders of innocent civilians are directly attributable to Gunwalker (widely recognized by its Phoenix, AZ BATFE division operation name, Fast and Furious), including the murders of 2 American Citizens. The death toll continues today with no end in sight. Nearly 200 murder weapons have been recovered at the scenes of the crimes, each of which is directly traceable to guns supplied to known and suspected criminals under direct order of the US government. Our nation’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric Holder, has repeatedly perjured himself in front of the House Oversight Committee, and has repeatedly lied to the American people. Holder has consistently stonewalled multiple investigations and has lied to cover up his original lies, also under sworn testimony. Over 120,000 requested and subpoenaed documents have been withheld. Marking yet another unprecedented and shameful record in US history, over 200 members of Congress have demanded Holder’s resignation over Gunwalker. In rapid succession, on June 20, 2012, President Obama invoked executive privilege to protect himself and his cabinet, as had been expected for at least a year. The next day, AG Eric Holder was officially held in criminal contempt of Congress, another unprecedented event in US history for a sitting US cabinet member, by a 255-67 bipartisan House vote. In a separate vote, Holder was also held in civil contempt.
As this scandal has unfolded, it has become increasingly evident that the deliberately unlawful, treasonous and seditious acts and intentions behind Project Gunwalker make both Watergate and Iran-Contra pale in comparison, and that a massive, well-coordinated cover-up has been, and remains in effect to this day. According to the sworn testimony of dozens of federal agents, the Gunwalker scandal involves an entire alphabet soup of federal agencies including, but not limited to: the BATFE, FBI, DOJ, DEA, USMS, AUSA, OIG, DHS, ICE, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) and IRS, not to mention the State Department and the White House.
The implications of this scandal are critical to the future of America
Our nation’s understanding of this scandal could ultimately determine whether or not the Second Amendment is overturned within the next few years. Full exposure of the corruption behind it would, without question, bring down the entire Obama administration. A cover-up, orchestrated between the administration and the mainstream media, remains in effect to ensure that you never comprehend it — and especially to make certain that you never understand the motive behind it.
Holder’s DOJ/BATFE Operations WERE NOT “Botched” and DID NOT “Fail”. No one “lost track” of any weapons. It is impossible to “lose” thousands of firearms that are deliberately surrendered and deliberately not tracked.
The mainstream media continues to paint the Gunwalker scandal, aka “Operation Fast and Furious” exactly as the Obama administration wants it portrayed: as a botched sting operation that resulted in unintended consequences. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is even more disturbing and infuriating to note that this same mischaracterization continues to be repeated by many of those attempting to fight the tsunami of false propaganda maintained by the well-orchestrated, massive cover-up that has continued uninterrupted since the start.
It is of utmost, critical importance to understand the following up front: Throughout eleven House Oversight Committee hearings, by the sworn testimony of many dozens of BATFE and DOJ agents and personnel of many other Federal agencies, and by the massive material evidence entered into the record over 18 months of Senate Judiciary and House Oversight Committee investigations, with regard to all aspects of the Gunwalker scandal, there has appeared not one single shred of evidence that either the programs, policies, or the actions of any individual in any department of our Federal government below cabinet level were ever “botched”, or that any significant aspect of Gunwalker operations under Attorney General Eric Holder ever “failed” the direct orders of either White House or DOJ leadership. If this had been the case, it would have been a relatively quick, simple and easy matter to isolate and identify the improper actions of the perpetrator or perpetrators. What has been, and continues to be improperly mis-cast and obfuscated as just another bureaucratic snafu, mistake, series of mistakes, and/or acts of garden variety incompetence or inadvertent negligence (falsely alleged to have been initiated by the Bush administration) would have been prosecuted and likely adjudicated long ago. But no such examples have ever been in evidence, and none clearly exist.
An entirely different scenario has been clear to credibly vetted insiders at the DOJ and BATFE nearly from the start. A continuing, reprehensible aftermath of increasingly evident government sponsored high crimes, including conspiracy, treason, sedition, international arms trafficking, and accessory to mass murder, has clearly followed directly from faithful execution of well-orchestrated orders throughout the chain of command across all the various Federal government agencies exclusively within the Obama administration, exactly as the orders that initiated all criminal department actions were issued. In other words, by any credible and objective, fact and evidence-based analysis, the outcomes of all aspects of Gunwalker had to have been fully planned, coordinated, and choreographed at the highest level of command since the early months of 2009. It was then, and only then, shortly after the Obama administration took office, that the highly conspicuous, unique, and unquestionably illegal, criminal, and unconstitutional operational policies of Fast and Furious (and many other Gunwalker divisional operations cited here below), none of which previously existed, were implemented.
What operational plan of any government program that meets all its ordered enforcement objectives at the field operations level (as Fast and Furious and the other Gunwalker programs similar to it clearly have) could properly be considered “botched” or “failed”? The terms, “botched” and “failed” continue to serve the interests of the administration as a smokescreen to conceal intent. In all reporting on the Gunwalker scandal and its most infamous regional division operation, Fast and Furious, these terms can only properly and accurately be substituted with the terms, “deliberate” and “intentional”. According to the irrefutable facts and massive evidence exposed here, rather than “failure”, in terms of intent, the term “success” is entirely applicable. The perpetrators have managed to carry out their objectives with full impunity, notwithstanding the fact that the final objective, the disarming of America and the abolition of the second amendment, remains yet to be fully achieved.
PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO FIRST (or what follows may not make much sense!)
GUNWALKER SCANDAL VIDEO: NRA Exec VP Wayne LaPierre’s keynote address to the 4/29/11 annual NRA meeting in Philadelphia was prefaced with a well produced segment dedicated to exposing Gunwalker, followed by LaPierre’s call for AG Eric Holder’s resignation over the scandal. (Please ref. the first 6:20 of the 38 minute address. Here’s the link.)
There are six key accusations against the BATFE and DOJ made by BATFE whistleblowers and other sources within the Federal Government:
1. That BATFE instructed US gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners, knowing that the guns were going to Mexican drug cartels.
2. That BATFE allowed, and even assisted in those guns crossing the US border into Mexico to “boost the numbers” of American civilian market firearms seized in Mexico, thereby providing the justification for more firearm restrictions on American citizens (particularly the upcoming blatantly unconstitutional UN Small Arms Treaty) and more power and money for BATFE.
3. That BATFE intentionally kept Mexican authorities in the dark about the operation, even over objections of their own agents.
4. That weapons that the BATFE let “walk” to Mexico were involved in the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE agent Jaime Zapata, as well as at least hundreds of Mexican citizens.
5. That at least since the shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on 14 December, the Obama administration is engaged in a well coordinated cover-up of the facts behind what has come to be known as “the Gunwalker scandal”.
6. That at the highest level, the Obama administration either ordered, or directly approved the BATFE policy of promoting illegal weapons trafficking in order to create a significant retail gun smuggling reality that had not previously existed, and that this policy was intentionally implemented to support the deliberately fabricated lie that, “90% of Mexican drug cartel weapons come from US retail sources”, with the objective of justifying a planned unconstitutional gun control strategy against American citizens.
BATFE Gunrunner Purpose, Origin, and Name Clarifications:
Project Gunrunner is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Southwest Border Initiative (BATFE was formerly known as ATF). Gunrunner is nationwide and international in scope, with at least 10 divisions throughout the US, and a division operating in Mexico. The following is the operation’s BATFE-published official charter:“In partnership with other U.S. agencies and the Government of Mexico, ATF developed Project Gunrunner as a pilot initiative around 2005. Realizing its success, ATF nationalized the effort…in January 2008, to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico and reduce violence on both sides of the border.”- Press Release by Ken Melson, Acting Director, BATFE, 4/28/09. NOTE: Project Gunrunner pre-dated the Obama administration, but the practice of deliberately walking guns untracked by way of known and suspected criminals did not (see Project Gunwalker, below).
Project Gunwalker is the “whistleblower” and journalist’s name (coined by David Codrea) for the BATFE’s practice (“unofficial policy”) of deliberately allowing guns to illegally “walk” untracked across the border via known and suspected criminal straw buyers into Mexico and Honduras (among potentially many other Central American countries, as well as to drug cartel operatives within the US). This practice was first introduced to Project Gunrunner in early 2009, in the early months of the Obama administration.
Operation Fast and Furious is the BATFE name for the Phoenix, AZ division operation of Project Gunrunner. Fast and Furious was a 100% Obama/Holder DOJ operation. It ran at least 2,020 weapons to the Sinaloa cartel through known and suspected criminals, without any plan for, or intention to either track the weapons, or to arrest the straw purchasers, smugglers, or cartel operatives. Despite continuing widespread White House and media propaganda to the contrary, there never was any intention whatsoever of a “sting” operation attached to Fast and Furious. At no point in the planning or execution of F&F were Mexican authorities ever involved or informed of the operation. It is critically important to understand that Fast and Furious was not a “botched” operation, as it continues to be falsely mischaracterized by both the media and the Obama administration. Federal agents of F&F were specifically not allowed to interdict weapons. According to sworn testimony, on many occasions, multiple gun shop personnel and BATFE agents who alerted BATFE superiors to criminal gun running activity up front, in time to interdict and make arrests, were ordered by BATFE to stand down as weapons went to the cartels. Weapons traced to this operation have been found at over 100 Mexican drug cartel crime scenes. Two were found at the murder scene of US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in Arizona on 12/14/10. F&F weapons were also found at the crime scene of the murder of US ICE special agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico on 2/15/11. It is estimated that up to 1,800 Fast and Furious weapons are still unaccounted for, and are presently in the hands of cartel operatives, both in Mexico and within the US. Unlike Operation Wide Receiver under Bush, no known cartel leaders were targeted in F&F. In fact, there were no specific F&F cartel targets whatsoever. In the entire history of the Fast and Furious operation, only three indictments have been issued that were attached to F&F. One low-level drug cartel operative, an illegal alien named Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was arrested on US soil following the murder of border Agent Brian Terry, and charged with his murder (with BAFTE-authorized F&F walked weapons). The case was subsequently closed and the investigation was sealed by a federal judge. In mid-January, 2012, a request by multiple media sources to unseal the records was unopposed by DOJ, and the request remained unresolved, pending the ruling of a federal judge. Any objective, rational analysis of the differences between Fast and Furious, Wide Receiver, and White Gun further exposes the true objective of Fast and Furious – to intentionally put traceable firearms from US retail sources directly into the hands of the Sinaloa cartel, with no intention of a “sting” of any kind.
Operation Castaway is the name of the massive Tampa, FL BATFE division investigation that began in late 2010, the most significant firearms trafficking investigation in Central Florida history. It involved the “walking” of straw-purchased firearms to Honduras using the same strategy as the Phoenix BATFE Field Division’s Operation ‘Fast and Furious’. Operation Castaway remains an ongoing investigation, and is not a part of Project Gunrunner. By its very existence and timing, Operation Castaway is evidence that “Gunwalker policy” was, from its inception, a coordinated Obama administration strategy, not (to use the false media characterization) another ‘Fast and Furious’ Phoenix “aberration”.
Operation Wide Receiver was a Bush-era BATFE operation run in Tucson, that sought to track and interdict guns being smuggled south using a combination of RFID-tracking devices embedded in the shipments and surveillance aircraft. Wide Receiver failed because of the limitations of the technology used, compounded by inept, untested installation, and the unexpected resourcefulness of cartel gun smugglers. As a result of the mistakes made in Wide Receiver, guns were lost: approximately 450 made it into Mexico. This botched operation that was launched in 2006 — and in this instance, actually botched — was shut down in 2007. Compare the unintentional mistakes of Wide Receiver to the deliberate failure of the Fast and Furious operation launched under Eric Holder’s Department of Justice, which had all the advantages of learning from the postmortem failures of Wide Receiver two years before at its immediate disposal. Yet, unlike Wide Receiver, F&F had no operational basis whatsoever for tracking and interdicting “walked” weapons, and no plan of any kind to support its success. Where Operation Fast and Furious was a multi-agency, multi-department plot involving high-ranking government appointees and possibly elected officials, Operation Wide Receiver was a local BATF operation, using untested new technologies in an attempt to interdict and capture weapons smugglers. Fast and Furious used neither tracking devices nor surveillance aircraft, and ran interference for smugglers with local law enforcement on multiple occasions.
Operation White Gun is the BATFE name for another Phoenix-based Gunrunner Division “parallel operation” to “Fast and Furious”, conducted at roughly the same time, but which only surfaced mid-January of 2012, first in the mainstream US media in the LA Times. Though both operations were under the same BATFE chain of command, what sets White Gun apart from F&F are the following: Unlike F&F, White Gun was run in full cooperation with the Mexican government, it involved strictly military-grade weapons not available though retail sources, it had a surveillance plan, it targeted specific cartel members known to BATFE, and it actually had incorporated established policies and procedures from the start to interdict weapons. (F&F, in contrast, involved only retail-sourced, civilian grade weapons, it strictly disallowed both weapons interdiction and arrests, with provision for neither, nor did it have any provision for surveillance.) White Gun, as in Operation Wide Receiver of the Bush era, was backed by planned surveillance and orders to arrest specific cartel targets. No cartel kingpin arrests were made by following weapons into Mexico in White Gun. Three low-level cartel operatives were arrested and prosecuted – not on weapons charges though BATFE, but on drug charges through DEA. In this respect, White Gun was a truly failed operation from a BATFE perspective. Further, though White Gun was smaller in scale by the weapons numbers than F&F, as in F&F, a significant, yet unknown number of White Gun weapons were also lost to the cartels.
Operation Grenadewalker (also known as the Mexican Grenade Scandal) is the “whistleblower” and journalist’s name for the DOJ incident whereby some 2000 components of bomb making equipment were deliberately allowed to “walk” to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. The first case on record was perpetrated by an individual by the name of Jean Batiste Kingery, who was arrested, and then inexplicably released by the BATFE on the orders of AG Holder’s DOJ at the Arizona-Mexico border, while in the act of successfully smuggling over one hundred grenade parts and other bomb making equipment into Mexico.
The Direct Commercial Sales Program is a State Department operation run from the Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, independent of BATFE’s Project Gunrunner. Through this program, it is alleged by Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative and one-time leader of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center, and Robert Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, among others, that the Obama administration is running guns to the violent Zetas cartel (see US News Article of July 13, 2011) through the direct commercial sale of military grade weapons. Because this program is subject to national security restrictions, information is largely classified, and it has for the most part remained off-limits to media coverage.
An official report posted on the BATFE Web site in late February, 2011 cited nearly 4,500 active investigations, recommendations of over 1,100 criminal cases, and in excess of 2,500 defendants for prosecution as a result of Project Gunrunner.
Yet conspicuous by its absence in this report, and all other public BATFE reports, are any more than 20 minor arrests or recommendations for prosecution, and only one single jail sentence directly attributable to the well over 2 thousand weapons that BATFE is known to have deliberately authorized, and/or directly assisted in illegally “walking” via known or suspected criminal straw purchasers into Mexico over a period of more than two years.
As more evidence emerges, it appears more and more likely that high-ranking administration officials in both the Justice and State Departments not only lied to the American people, but that they also conspired to increase the number of US firearms being smuggled into Mexico, actually using directed resources of the Department of Justice to arm Mexican drug cartels at taxpayer expense, in direct contradiction to BATFE’s own officially published purpose for Project Gunrunner.
Shortly after President Obama took office in January 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a coordinated effort to pass more gun control laws here in the US, specifically the re-instatement of the previously failed, deeply flawed, and unconstitutional “assault weapons ban”. The justification? On multiple occasions, Holder and Clinton publicly declared versions of the following statement: “90% of the guns used in the cartel wars in Mexico were bought in U.S. gun stores and smuggled across the border.” Also on record over the last two years repeatedly making the same official, public statement were Ken Melson, Director, BATFE, Janet Napolitano, Secretary, DHS, and Barack Obama, President of the USA.
There is only one problem: It was all a lie.
NOTE: Drug cartels primarily purchase, and much prefer fully automatic weapons such as the Kalashnikov AK-47 and its variants, over all US-made and US-imported semiautomatic weapons. In the USA, for other than military, law enforcement, and in certain states (limited by Class 3 license), it is a felony to manufacture, buy or sell fully automatic weapons. Generally speaking, only semi-automatics are available on the US retail market. The cost and logistics of converting semi-auto weapons to full auto is prohibitive in any quantity, particularly for Mexican drug cartels. When the cartels are unable to steal weapons in high enough quantity to arm themselves, they readily purchase automatic weapons on the international arms black market at a fraction of the cost of retail US semi-automatics. The world’s most notorious gun smuggler of the modern era, Viktor Bout, known by the DEA and worldwide as “the merchant of death”, a former Soviet air force officer, consistently sold full auto AK-47 Kalashnikovs (delivery anywhere in the world included) at a unit price of $55 USD. US retail gun dealers sell the same weapon, remanufactured to semi-automatic US-spec, for $500 to $1000 (depending on configuration, grade, etc.) in US gun shops.
The Obama administration’s deliberately fabricated deception that US retail sources supply 90% of Mexican cartel guns has given rise to the media’s non-existent “iron river” and “gun show loophole” fallacies. This wholly manufactured narrative has been widely published in the mainstream media as if it were a fact. We now know that not only did the Justice Department know that the 90% figure was deliberately and grossly overstated, but that the State Department knew where the bulk of the seized cartel weapons (again, nearly all fully automatic) were actually coming from — that is, prior to Operation Gunwalker and the State Department’s Direct Commercial Sales Program: Central America, China, Eastern Europe, the Mexican military, and various other non-US sources on the international arms black market.
One might ask what our laws demand of officials complicit in a plot that used the power of U.S. law enforcement agencies to pressure gun shops into selling weapons to narco-terrorists. If this is indeed the case (as mounting evidence continues to strongly suggest), impeachment and resignations are just the beginning of the process of seeking justice. Those who authorized this and facilitated what was essentially a gunrunning operation to achieve what bears an ever-stronger resemblance every week to a purely political goal may very well be guilty of a number of felonies — and are already wanted for extradition to face justice in Mexican courts.
Under Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution, any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to its enemies by providing them aid and comfort is guilty of an act of treason. Gunwalker intentionally supplied previously known and suspected criminals on both sides of our southern border with thousands of firearms. In all of US history, there has never been an equivalent government-operated gun smuggling “policy” where weapons were ordered to be delivered from legitimate US retail gun shops directly into the hands of narco-terrorists, let alone on this scale.
Less dramatic, but more damning, is the fact that those who authorized and coordinated these operations betrayed our ally Mexico, and are arguably accessories to upwards of 250 shooting murders of Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers.
The Constitution puts no one above the law. If Melson, Napolitano, Clinton, Holder, Obama and their staffs were complicit in a plot to arm narco-terrorists that led to hundreds dead and wounded, they must face justice under law.
The current timeline of the scandal below and the ever-increasing mountain of evidence that continues to be exposed provides a convincing set of arguments that administration officials first deliberately lied about the source of Mexican drug cartel guns, and then implemented a murderous policy of breaking both US and international law, trying to create support for their “90% US retail source for Mexican drug cartels weapons” lie by dramatically increasing the number of guns “going south”.
The Gunwalker Scandal Timeline
Early 2009: High ranking members of the administration launch a major campaign to pass a new “Assault Weapons Ban” in the US. Over and over again, they state that 90% of weapons recovered in Mexico from drug cartels come from U.S. retail gun shops. Almost immediately, the 90% figure is called into question. it becomes apparent that:
1) 90% of seized Mexican cartel guns submitted to the U.S. BATFE for tracing are found to have come from the US. HOWEVER: ONLY ABOUT ONE IN 20 GUNS RECOVERED IN MEXICO IS SUBMITTED FOR TRACING, since 19 of 20 are obviously fully automatic weapons, and/or otherwise without question, obviously came from other than US retail sources. Weapons clearly manufactured without serial numbers, for example, are neither manufactured in the US, nor imported for retail sale.
2) The administration was also including any firearm from the U.S. in their figures – including firearms originally legally sold to the Mexican military, and subsequently illegally diverted to, or stolen by the cartels. Information revealed by Wikileaks confirms that the State Department was well aware that large numbers of these weapons were ending up in the hands of the cartels – and that BATFE would discover this when they ran the traces. Counting these guns as coming from U.S. retail gun shops and gun shows was deceitful and flat out deliberately dishonest.
3) Diplomatic cables recently published by Wikileaks now also confirm that at the time the “90% lie” was being sold to the U.S. public, Hillary Clinton’s own State Department knew that the majority of weapons were actually coming from Central America, not the U.S. This would include the so-called “assault weapons” the administration was seeking to ban.
In short, there is now ample proof that one of the first things the new Obama administration did upon taking office was to broadcast DISINFORMATION that they absolutely knew was false to attempt to pass new gun control laws. The story does not end there. It appears that the administration may have reacted to the exposure of their lie by trying to make it come true.
Early 2009: The BATFE began the practice of ordering gun dealers to sell guns to known and suspected smugglers through straw buyers.
Early 2009 to late 2010: Instead of arresting the smugglers, BATFE agents are ordered to watch as the guns are smuggled into Mexico. Over and over, gun shop retailers begged for permission to stop the guns from going into Mexico – every time the order was the same – Stand down.
December 14th 2010, just after 11:00pm: US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is killed in a shootout with Mexican drug cartel members 18 miles inside the Arizona border with an AK-47 known to have been smuggled into Mexico with the approval of BATFE.
December 28th 2010: The first of what quickly became a dozen whistle-blowing BATFE agents makes contact with gun rights media reporters David Codrea of National Gun Rights Examiner, and Mike Vanderboegh, of Sipsey Street Irregulars. This first agent states that the program’s true purpose was to increase the number of US guns recovered in Mexico in order to justify further gun control laws in the US and increase BATFE’s budget.
From this point forward, there is a steady stream of daily reports from investigative journalists David Codrea, and Mike Vanderboegh. Their account of how Project Gunwalker came into being and developed is chronicled in the Journalist’s Guide to Project Gunwalker (parts 1-5.)
The entire scandal may have never seen the light of day, had Codrea and Vanderboegh not first pressured and then arranged for Sen. Chuck Grassley’s staffers to contact their insider sources.
January 22, 2011: World Net Daily becomes the first news outlet outside the “gun rights” media to report the story.
Late January 2011: BATFE supervisors begin threatening whistle-blowers in an effort to kill the story.
January 30, 2011: The Mexican press begins reporting on the scandal. Over the next two months it becomes and remains front page news throughout the country. Mexican lawmakers are furious, and demand that the US BATFE Agents involved be extradited for trial in Mexico. The US Ambassador is forced to resign. In late March the Mexican Attorney General states that an investigation is underway and that he is willing to bring charges against US Officials.
January 30, 2011: Sen. Charles Grassley offers his protection to whistle-blowers. His staff begins investigating Gunwalker.
February 2, 2011: Fox News Online carries a story on the scandal.
February 2011: BATFE officials try to stonewall Sen. Grassley. He continues to demand answers. At this point, approximately 12 BATFE agents have come forward to aid Grassley’s investigation.
February 15, 2011: The Washington Times begins reporting on the story.
February 16, 2011: CBS News first contacts Vanderboegh and Codrea, who guide CBS through the details, and ultimately make recommendations to BATFE sources for interviews with CBS based on their own interviews. Their first report did not air until Feb. 23. By that time Vanderboegh and Codrea had already informed their own readers that BATFE management had reportedly allowed guns to “walk” across to Mexico, that gun stores had been instructed to allow suspected straw purchases to proceed, that walked guns were found at the Brian Terry murder scene, that the Mexican government was not informed of the operation, that ATF Attaché to Mexico, Darren Gil’s complaints and the protests of agents had been overruled, that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer was allegedly involved in these decisions, and that ATF whistleblowers had testimony and documentary evidence to corroborate their allegations. In fact, the momentum to gain wider attention within BATFE was already underway.
February 23, 2011: Sharyl Attkisson of CBS news becomes the first mainstream broadcast news reporter to report the story. Attkisson continues to dig and report for the next 6 weeks, joined belatedly by Fox News. Two brave BATFE agents go on camera to confirm the story.
March 4, 2011: Rush Limbaugh discovers the story and shares it with his 20 million listeners.
March 16, 2011: Rep. Darrel Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, opens his investigation on Gunwalker, announcing it in a live interview with Roger Hedgecock on Roger’s radio talk show. Issa calls on the BATFE to answer questions and produce documents about “gunwalking” operations where guns were allegedly allowed into Mexico in order to track drug cartels. Significantly, unlike Sen. Grassley’s prior investigation, Issa’s investigation carries subpoena power. Issa already has copies of many documents supplied by BATFE whistleblowers. Congressional hearings are now certain.
March 23, 2011: In an interview with the Mexican TV network Univision\fs20plain , Pres. Obama goes on record stating that neither he, nor Attorney General Eric Holder had knowledge of guns being smuggled into Mexico with the knowledge and aid of BATFE.
March 27, 2011: The highest ranking agent yet, former BATFE Attaché to Mexico, Darren Gil goes on camera. The now retired agent was head of BATFE operations in Mexico during the entire time the guns were going south. He describes how he protested the policy over and over. Gil states that this operation had been approved at the highest levels of both BATFE and the Justice Department.
April 1, 2011: BATFE refuses to provide requested information to Rep. Darrell Issa’s House Oversight Committee. Issa’s committee issues subpoenas to the office of BATFE Director Ken Melson.
April 9, 2011: It is revealed that the Phoenix BATFE office Special Assistant Agent in Charge, George Gillett, is cooperating with Senator Charles Grassley’s and Rep. Issa’s investigations into the scandal. The majority of the guns smuggled south with the help of BATFE came from the Phoenix office (BATFE’s Fast and Furious contingent of Project Gunrunner). CBS Report here.
April 20, 2011: Rep. Issa warns the acting head of BATFE that if he does not provide the requested information, he will be charged with contempt of congress.
April 26, 2001: The left wing website Huffington Post reports the story, calling it, “Obama’s Mexicogate”.
May 3-4, 2011: Eric Holder finally testifies before Congress. in the first House Judiciary Committee hearing on Gunwalker. He denies that neither he, nor Asst. AG Lanny Brewer had any knowledge of the operation. Fox News reports that his testimony was FALSE.
The latest charges at this point:
1) BATFE agents actually BOUGHT THE GUNS that went to cartels
2) U.S. Attorney for AZ Dennis Burke knew and approved of the operation
3) Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer knew and approved (Breuer reports directly to Eric Holder)
May 4, 2011: CBS confirms HOLDER’S IMMEDIATE SUBORDINATE KNEW ABOUT THE BATFE’S OWN ILLEGAL TRANSFER OF WEAPONS TO MEXICO. CBS has copies of documents that directly contradict AG Holder’s congressional testimony.
May 5, 2011: NPR finally breaks the story – focusing upon BATFE letting guns across the border, while repeating the disproven 90% lie the operation may have been created to support.
May 11, 2011: Judge Andrew Napolitano interviews BATFE whistleblower Agent Jay Dobyns on Fox News.
May 16, 2011: Congressional investigators are back on the ground in Arizona, according to CBS news. They are not only interviewing ATF agents, they are interviewing gun shop owners and employees.
May 17, 2011: CBS news reports ATF management has appointed a new special agent in charge (SAC) of the Phoenix office, part of a major shake-up in that office.
May 17, 2011: According to an interview by the Daily Caller, Rep. Darrell Issa reports that investigators have proof that “Operation Gunwalker” was planned “in Washington”, and key decisions were made by administration officials there. Remember that Issa’s investigation is the first to carry subpoena power, that his many sources within ATF have provided hundreds, if not thousands of internal agency documents at this point – and that he has secured the testimony of the former head of the Phoenix BATFE office. Rep. Issa is quoted as saying that “this scandal is looking more and more like Iran-Contra”.
May 24, 2011 – World Net Daily publishes an article entitled: “White House ‘strategy’ on Project Gunrunner documented” – The article reported accusations that the motivation for this “strategy” was to justify gun control in the US.
May 25, 2011 – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is vows to block President Obama’s nominations until he gets detailed answers on the Gunwalker scandal. Additional Fox News coverage HERE.
May 31, 2011 – Fox News reporter William La Jeunesse, citing Wikileaks data, reports in this VIDEO that guns sold through US retail channels are a small fraction of the total drug cartel weapons – not 90% as claimed by the Obama Administration, and that there are of US-sourced weapons that wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels:
1. U.S. Defense Department shipments to Latin America, known and tracked by the U.S. 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, and Nicaragua.
June 2, 2011 – A report published at Examiner.com indicated that a .50 Cal rifle ‘walked” into Mexico under the “Fast and Furious” operation may have been used to shoot down a Mexican government helicopter. In addition to the .50 Cal, it is suspected by the ATF that many other guns from the ill fated program were recovered at the shoot out, in which 11 people were killed. Although Examiner.com is not part of the mainstream press, it should be noted that they were among the first to break the Gunwalker story.
June 3, 2011 – House Democrats Urge President to End Stonewalling on “Gunrunner”
June 6, 2011 – Roger Hedgecock reports on his national radio show that Gunwalker was “certainly…a political operation to justify more gun control laws in the US.” [and]…”The net effect – The drug cartels now have better guns than ever, and the [drug] war in Mexico continues, now partially armed by the Obama Administration.” CBS News – Congress set for first ‘gunwalker’ hearing Monday, June 13.
June 7, 2011 – The Daily Caller reports that the first hearings will focus upon possible obstruction of justice by the Obama administration. Rep. Issa will hold additional hearings on Wednesday, June 15th. Witnesses will include Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, ATF agents, Justice Department officials and family members of dead Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. World Net Daily interviews David Codrea of the Gun Rights Examiner, one of the first reporters to break the story. The interview focuses upon Rep. Issa’s strategy for the first congressional hearings.
June 9, 2011 – The Wall Street Journal breaks story on new Gunwalker fallout – Guns from US Probe Surface in Mexico.
June 10, 2011 – Fox News reports that DOJ is in “full panic mode” over next week’s hearings. They report that the hearings will reveal that BATFE “knowingly and deliberately flooded Mexico with assault rifles” over the repeated objections of field agents. National Review Online Reports that Rep. Darrell Issa is set to issue a number of subpoenas to federal officials who have ties to “Fast and Furious”. The article also notes that the mainstream media is basically ignoring the story. Fox also has an audio recording of an ATF agent instructing a gun dealer to make a sale to a known trafficker, over the objection of the dealer. that the DOJ is “stonewalling” the congressional investigation. The Pittsburgh Tribute calls for “sunshine” to be applied to the ATF scandal.
June 13, 2011 – Fox news reports that hearings held today will focus on the Obama Administration’s refusal to respond to subpoenas and other requests for documents, as the first step in a process that will eventually compel compliance. Rep. Issa is quoted as saying, “Now the question is will DOJ give us the documents or will law enforcement officials, little by little, as whistleblowers give us what we want to show this problem goes to the highest levels.” In an opinion piece, World Net Daily – the first non-gun media to carry the story – becomes the first outlet to raise the issue of IMPEACHMENT. The author, Roger Hedgecock, reports that, behind the scenes, Republican Congress members consider the actions of the justice department an act of war against Mexico. In a Fox news interview, Rep. Issa accuses the Administration of a systematic cover up. He also links Gunwalker to a coordinated effort between DOJ and gun control groups. Rep. Issa’s opening statement from today’s hearing, detailing the Administration’s cover up. In an attempt to divert attention and deceive the public on Gunwalker, Democrat Senators Diane Feinstein, Charles Schumer, and Sheldon Whitehouse produce a blatantly false “pre-emptive strike” report, Halting US Firearms Trafficking to Mexico that blames America’s (nonexistent) “gun show loophole,” its laissez-faire policy on imported assault weapons, the lack of an assault weapons ban, the lack of a federal long gun registry, and lack of funding for the ATF for the scandal.
June 14, 2011 – MAJOR GUNWALKER MILESTONE: The New York Times breaks the Gunwalker story (lifting its blackout to date) with predictable Hard Left spin: Justice Department Accused of ‘Reckless Technique’. Now that the NYT has broken the story, the rest of the “me, too” mainstream media is expected to follow suit with equally predictable Hard Left spin and soft-pedaling in their usual well-orchestrated support of the Obama administration. The Hill reports that the Dems are trying to blunt the impact of the hearings by asserting that it will impede ongoing criminal investigations. Just ahead of tomorrow’s hearing, the House oversight committee releases its first report. It confirms the worst of the Gunwalker accusations – including that ATF managers were “giddy” when they heard that both violence in Mexico and “gunwalker” gun recoveries were rising. They showed no concern for the innocent Mexicans who were dying. In an earlier video report, Fox News reported that at least one goal of the program was to blame US gun dealers and provide justification for tighter US gun laws. Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in collaboration with ranking Senator Chuck Grassley, issue a report: Four ATF Agents Working on Controversial Operation ‘Fast and Furious’ Tell their Story. An official staff report for Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley on Accounts of ATF Agents involved with Fast and Furious is posted on Issa’s Oversight Web site.
June 15, 2011 – “The Dam Breaks on Gunwalker” in sworn testimony. House Committee on Oversight and Reform “Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes – Hearing Videos, Panels 1-3. C-SPAN – House Committee Hearing: Operation “Fast and Furious” a “Catastrophic Disaster” – Among others, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley, ATF Agent John Dodson, and Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich testified. Whistleblowers and family members of border patrol agent Brian Terry killed in 2010 also appeared, The Wall Street Journal reports: Agents Resisted Weapons Tracking. Greta Van Susteren interviews Peter Forcelli, ATF Supervisory Agent after his testimony. NY Times: Top Agency Officials Knew of Disputed Gun Program. SF Chronicle: Federal agents testify on guns smuggled to Mexico. Washington Post: Wayward policy blamed for agent’s slaying. Two LA Times Reports HERE AND HERE. Wall Street Journal – Top Brass Cited in Gun Sting. USA Today: ATF agent calls gun-tracking program a ‘disaster’. CBS News: Congress irate over ATF guns-to-Mexico program. NPR: ATF Agents: Higher-Ups Let Guns Go To Cartels. Newsmax: Issa: ATF Mexican Gun Scandal a Lot Like Iran-Contra. Interview with NRA Exec VP Wayne LaPierre: Wayne LaPierre on BATFE Scandal Hearings, Day 2.
June 16, 2011 – NBC, ABC and PBS continue to IGNORE THE STORY. How many dead will it take? NRA VIDEO INTERVIEW (11:25) – A summary of this week’s House Oversight Committee Hearings with Darrell Issa: Issa Calls for Firings, Prosecutions over Fast and Furious.
June 17, 2011 – Roger Hedgecock authors a report in Human Events entitled, Obama’s The Target of Mexico Gunrunning Probe. Quoting Hedgecock, “Members of the Mexican Congress think [the US government deliberately ran guns into Mexico] and have opened their own investigation. From the Mexican standpoint, Operation Fast and Furious was an act of war on Mexico.” According to Fox News, in a classic “avoid the news cycle” move, the Obama administration leaked word that acting head of ATF Ken Melson will be fired. They are also floating the idea that Obama’s choice to head ATF, Andrew Traver, could be named the new acting director. Traver, who is from – you guessed it – Chicago, has a long history of gun control activism, pushing the very same unconstitutional measures that the Gunwalker operation may have been designed to justify – often by providing falsified information and misleading “demonstrations” to the media. Traver’s confirmation has been held up for years by gun rights groups. The Wall Street Journal published a longer report. Dallas Morning News Editorial: ‘We don’t know’ isn’t good enough from Justice Dept. Fox News story: Two AK-47s Used to Murder Mexican Lawyer Were ‘Fast and Furious’ Guns – (But it’s OK because Obama didn’t authorize it!). World Net Daily Editorial: Did White House approve Project Gunrunner? Tom Tancredo asks the obvious question that no Obama administration official will ever be asked by the mainstream media: What was the goal — to justify more gun control?
June 18, 2011 – The Wall Street Journal reports, Head of ATF is Likely to Go over ‘Fast and Furious’ operation of Gunwalker. “Fast and Furious” has grown into [the BATFE’s] worst crisis since the ATF’s 1993 raid on a religious sect in Waco, Texas, which triggered a gunbattle that killed four ATF agents” — and resulted in the murder of 74 men, women, and children, all American citizens, who burned to death in the raid.
June 19, 2011 – The Nevada Appeal publishes an editorial by Jim Bagwell, graduate of the FBI National Academy with 31 years law enforcement experience. In it he states that one objective of Gunwalker was the passage of new federal gun control laws. Washington Examiner: Don’t make Melson a Fast and Furious scapegoat.
June 20, 2011 – The Wall Street Journal publishes another Gunwalker article, entitled, A Drug-War Plan Goes Awry. LA Times reports acting ATF director to resign, and rank and file agents do not have faith in Traver. The Huffington Post reports that Melson will resign in one to two days. CNN reports that Melson will resign, says political damage is major. ABC News Online finally reports their first story on Gunwalker SIX MONTHS AFTER AGENT TERRY DIED. Surrounding the ABC text story is a six month old video report on Terry’s death and, you guessed it, links to stories pushing gun control. USA today reports that acting ATF director Melson is likely to resign, and very little about guns walking, other than Terry’s death. Newsmax reports: Acting ATF Director to Resign Over Gun-Buying Sting. AUDIO Interview (12:26) – Roger Hedgecock interviews Sharyll Attkisson, CBS News Investigative Reporter on Gunwalker. Greta Van Susteren interviews ATF Agent Jay Robbins. He states “fast and furious” was planned in the Attorney General’s Office and was known “at the highest levels of government”. Rep. Issa is interviewed on Fox News. He states that Eric Holder “should have known” about the program. Fox Video Newsmax Print Story
June 21, 2011 – The Daily Caller, citing an Issa staffer, reports that responsibility for “fast and Furious” goes “much higher” than acting head of ATF Melson. Main Justice reports Rep. Issa’s call for Melson to resign, also quotes Sen. Grassley as saying that last week’s 70% figure for US gun recoveries in Mexico was intentionally inaccurate and was intended to distract attention from the June 15th hearings. The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources within ATF, reports that Rep. Isaa was fully briefed on “everything he is objecting to now” in April 2010. Apparently, the Washington Post has taken the position that lack of an objection to Gunwalker by Issa 14 months ago amounts to tacit justification for criminal behavior by the BATFE and DOJ since then. Absurdly enough, either the WP believes such a justification is valid, or they wish to invalidate Issa by including him in his own investigation on the ever-expanding “what did they know and when did they know it” list.
June 22, 2011 – Investors Business Daily publishes an editorial, “Who OK’d ‘Guns to Gangs Program’ and Why?”, demanding accountability for Gunwalker “as high as it goes”. They are critical of Traver as well, questioning why the administration should benefit from a crisis they created. Finally, they strongly imply that Obama himself was behind the program and the motive was to create support for a new assusalt weapons ban. Main Justice reports the accusation against Issa. However they also report that House Oversight Committee spokesperson Fredrick Hill has denied the accusation – pointing out that the ATF cannot have it both ways. They cannot say that they did not know about guns going to Mexico, but Issa did know because they briefed him on it. The Huffington Post dutifully echoes the Washington post accusation. In a report posted to the internet this morning, Anderson Cooper casts profound doubt on Eric Holder’s denial of prior knowledge of “Fast and Furious”. CBS news reports Rep. Issa’s denial of the Washington Post allegations. He blames “opponents of the investigation” within DOJ for the false reports. Similar reports are carried on June 23rd by The Daily Caller, Main Justice, and The Hill.
June 23, 2011 – Newsmax reports that aides to Rep. Issa state that the Washington Post story alleging that the Congressman was fully briefed on Gunwalker is “an outright lie”. The spokesman further stated that the Justice Department “shopped the story around” the Washington media, and that several outlets refused to print it because they did not find it credible. The LA Times reports that Kenneth Melson is resisting pressure to step down. He reportedly does not want to be the “fall guy” for the Gunwalker scandal. The article notes that he has an open invitation to appear before Issa’s committee, but has not been given permission to do so by the Justice Department.
June 24, 2011 – Main Justice reports that Rep. Issa has departed for Mexico, where he will meet with government officials in an effort to gather more evidence. Human Events publishes an article in which they make the case that the Washington Post has inadvertently provided convincing circumstantial evidence that the real agenda behind “Fast and Furious” (The Phoenix operation of Gunrunner) was the promotion of gun control in the US. NPR covers the story again, ending with, “One thing’s for sure: Issa and Grassley say they’re planning more hearings this summer.”
June 26, 2011 – The Washington Post publishes an editorial blaming Gunwalker on the NRA. According to the Post, weak gun laws and the gun rights movement have tied ATF’s hands.
June 27, 2011 – The Weekly Standard responds to the Washington Post editorial. They question the wisdom of giving more power to an agency that is out of control. The LA times publishes an editorial on Gunwalker, blaming the problem on the “impossible task of enforcing weak gun laws”. No mention of the fact that dealers reported the straw purchases to ATF and never would have sold the guns if they had not been ordered to do so. 2006 congressional investigation into ATF excesses in Virginia is cited as an example of how hard it is to enforce gun laws. No mention of the fact that ATF targeted women and mixed race couples, made felony car stops and seized guns with zero probable cause, or that local PD refused to assist when they saw the tactics. Fox News reports that BATFE has served one of the “Gunwalker” whistleblowers with a termination notice. The Daily Beast reports that Senators Charles Grassley and Patrick Leahy have reached an agreement that will give Grassley and fellow Republicans access to ATF acting head Kenneth Melson, as well full access to ATF documents and other key witnesses. In return, Sen. Grassley will release holds on three Obama nominees awaiting confirmation. As a result Melson, who has reportedly stated that he will not “take the fall” for the scandal, will definitely testify before the House, the Senate or both.
June 28, 2011 – The Beaufort Observer calls for the abolition of the ATF and the dismissal of Attorney General Holder. The Sacramento Bee reprints the LA Times editorial blaming ‘lax guns laws” for the ATF scandal. CNN confirms the deal that will give Senate investigators access to ATF acting director Kenneth Melson. Fox News video interviews (9:25) with Vince Cefalu and Darrell Issa: BATFE retaliates against BATFE whistleblower Vince Cefalu by firing him, Rep. Issa reports that the BATFE stonewalling and cover-up continues as his investigation closes in on AG Eric Holder, and BATFE corruption extends into Mexico. BATFE acting Director Ken Melson cuts a deal to testify in exchange for break-up of nominee logjam by Sen. Charles Grassley.
June 29, 2011 – President Obama is asked about the ATF scandal at his news conference. He once again denied that Eric Holder, his Attorney General, had authorized the operation. In their report CBS notes that Kenneth Melson, acting head of BATFE, will be interviewed by Senate investigators in mid-July. Town Hall reports on President Obama’s remarks. Their report includes the following response from Rep. Issa: “”President Obama’s remarks today on Operation Fast and Furious were disappointing. There was no sign of urgency to provide answers or explain why no one at the Justice Department has accepted responsibility for authorizing an illegal gunwalking operation six months after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder. The American people expect more from the President than unsubstantiated assertions that the Attorney General didn’t know about this reckless program and no explanation about who authorized it.” The Daily Caller reports that lawyers for the defendants in “Gunwalker” are using their discovery rights to conduct their own investigation of BATFE’s actions.
June 30, 2011 – Democrats in Congress, lead by Rep. Elijah Cummings, conduct a “full court press” aimed at changing the subject from BATFE felony misconduct as deliberately coordinated policy to “weak gun laws”. In other words, in an outrageous display of arrogance in the face of sworn congressional hearing testimony that they themselves perpetrated regarding previously non-existing trafficking of thousands of weapons to Mexico in violation of both US and Mexican law, Obama Democrats are actually trying to use Gunwalker to continue to pass more gun control laws. This is the very accusation made by whistleblowers at BATFE and DOJ, as well as by gun rights groups. Articles: Politico – Chron – Washington Post – Wall Street Journal – Baltimore Sun – Newsmax – Main Justice – The Hill. ATF Whistleblower Vince Cefalu appears on the Fox News program the O’Reilly Factor, hosted by Laura Ingraham. We learn that prior to exposing the Gunwalker scandal, Cefalu served in many posts within BATFE and had earned glowing reviews – yet he was terminated after “blowing the whistle”. Cefalu states that many people high in DOJ were fully aware of Gunwalker. Speaking of why he went public, he said, “I had been exposing what I saw as a deterioration in the senior leadership in ATF to the point where it started crossing pretty huge ethical and legal boundaries. Other agents were coming to me from across the country just because I’m as senior as I am, and I became vocal and open and public about it. The straw that broke the back for me was when one of our own was killed with a gun that we allowed to walk.” ABC News 15 – a local Phoenix outlet reports that Gunwalker firearms are turning up at crime scenes in the Phoenix area. John Hayward, writing in Human Events, authors an article entitled: The Gun Walker Pushback – The scandal which can no longer be ignored. The Blue Ridge Now, the online version of the Hendersonville NC Times becomes the latest news outlet to suggest that the whole point of Gunwalker was to pump guns into Mexico from US retail sources, calling it a “False Flag Operation”.
July 2, 2011 – Newsmax quotes Sen. Charles Grassley as saying, “Many very high up in the Department of Justice” had full knowledge of Gunwalker. Given that the acting ATF director has stated that, “I am not going to take the fall for this” and that he is scheduled to testify later this month, there are not too many people above him in DOJ. Lanny A. Breuer, assistant AG for the criminal division is already linked to the scandal via warrant requests he signed. Above him is the AG, Eric Holder and above Holder is President Obama. Either Lanny Breuar was behind this whole thing, or he is willing to take the fall for someone else, or he will roll over on someone else higher up – and that means Holder and/or Obama. Things are about to get very interesting.
July 5, 2011 – Fox News reports that Mexico is increasingly infuriated by Gunwalker and the hundreds of people known to have been gunned down and murdered in Mexico by drug gangs armed with BATFE-approved weapons. The Mexican government demands extradition of Obama administration Gunwalker perpetrators for prosecution. The Guardian (UK) reports that, in a stunning display of arrogance and hypocrisy, even as Mexican government officials broadcast Gunrunner as an “act of war” against Mexico, Obama attempts to block the execution of convicted Mexican rapist and murderer Leal Garcia in Texas, quoting Obama, “because it would breach… international convention and do “irreparable harm” to US interests”. Human Events publishes a background piece calling for reform of the ATF. The New York Times publishes another article blaming the ATF’s problems on “lax gun laws”. Fox News covers the story on “Special Report”. Fox News hosts a panel discussion in which liberal commentator Juan Williams states that Eric Holder has to take responsibility for this scandal. No one defends ATF and the general opinion is that this is not going away any time soon.
July 6, 2011 – In a surprise pre-emptive move ahead of the next scheduled hearing, acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson voluntarily comes forward to testify before members of congress on July 4th. He testified that the main target of the investigation was in fact a paid FBI informant. In a stunning breakthrough disclosure, Melson also testified that DOJ lied to congress and intentionally obstructed their investigation. Rep. Issa and Senator Grassley report that the cover up includes ATF, FBI and DEA. Melson denied prior knowledge of Gunwalker, and stated that he moved to replace those execs responsible as soon as he learned of the program. He also wanted to fully disclose the operation to Congress and the public, but was forbidden to do so by DOJ officials. Rep. Issa has now backed away from his previous calls for Melson’s resignation. Reports: Fox News US News and World Report CBS Washington Times. “If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand,” Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. “That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation.” The local Phoenix ABC affiliate reports that 43 guns recovered by DEA during a drug bust last April have been positively linked to Gunwalker. They also report that FBI and DEA were involved in the program. BREAKING NEWS: Another large-scale Gunrunner division operation known as “Operation Castaway” now exposed in Tampa, Fla.: Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge at the BATFE Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious, it was reported to these correspondents this evening via private correspondence from a proven credible source.
July 7, 2011 – The San Francisco Chronicle publishes this article: ATF Implicates FBI in Mexico Gun Trafficking Probe. The article outlinines Melson’s testimony and the allegations of FBI involvement. It also blames the US for the gun problems in Mexico. The New York Post publishes an OP Ed tying Gunwalker to “under the radar” gun control efforts. They also believe that Eric Holder may have criminal responsibility. The Washington Post publishes an article in which they present the administration’s and DOJ’s position with little to no questioning. Rep. Darrell Issa is interviewed by Fox News. Sean Hannity Interview: Part 1 Part 2 Bret Baier Interview Rep. Chaffetz, who serves on the oversight committee with Rep. Issa is interviewed by Megan Kelly. The NRA launches www.fireholder.com – a website devoted to the removal of Attorney General Eric Holder in response to Gunwalker. The site has links to news, an online petition and background information on Gunwalker. National Gun Rights Examiner journalist Kurt Hoffman publishes this article: Stunning New ‘Gunwalker’ Allegations Expose Massive Scale of Scandal. Rep. Allen West calls for Holder’s resignation and the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Gunwalker. West strongly asserts that unless and/or until this happens, it must be assumed that Obama is complicit in the strategy behind the scandal. The Los Angeles Times publishes an article entitled, More U.S. Agencies Implicated in Mexico Gun Trafficking Probe. The Washington Times reports, Inquiry of Weapons Smuggling to Expand.
July 8, 2011 – The “Ogden video” goes viral. In this video, it is clear from a public press release that Project Gunrunner (and its Fast and Furious division in Phoenix) were launched under the orders of President Barack Obama, with the knowledge of Attorney General Eric Holder. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced the Obama Administration’s new and aggressive ‘comprehensive plan’ on March, 24, 2009. The plan was aimed at disrupting gun trafficking between the United States and Mexico. Josh Gerstein, writing in Politico, suggests that the ATF scandal may result in the abolition of the agency. One Democratic group is quoted as saying that FBI could handle enforcement and Treasury could handle licensing. John Lott, author of the most definitive compilation of long term scientific studies on the devastating results of gun control, More Guns, Less Crime, writing on FoxNews.com, strongly suggests that the real goal of Gunwalker was to smuggle guns to Mexico in order to advance gun control in the US. U.S. Rep. Allen West calls for Eric Holder’s removal and appointment of a special prosecutor on Gunrunner, according to World Net Daily article, BELTWAY GUNRUNNERS: West Calls for Holder’s Removal – If Attorney General Given Pass, ‘it appears President Obama is complicit’. Fox News SPECIAL REPORT – viewer’s choice #1 topic of the week – Friday Lightning Round VIDEO coverage – Fast and Furious. It is now clear that Operation Gunrunner (and it’s sub-operations at division level, including “Operation Fast and Furious”, “Operation Castaway”, and countless others, were funded by Obama’s “stimulus package”, further elevating the stream of staggering evidence, still coming in, that US taxpayers actually paid for weapons smuggled to Mexican drug cartels on a large scale – with the approval and direct assistance of multiple government agencies at the highest levels – all the way up to, and including the office of the President. A video from 2009 surfaces on youtube in which Deputy AG David Ogden, speaking from the White House, outlines “Fast and Furious”/”Operation Gunrunner” including DEA and ATF involvement. He states that this was being done on orders from President Obama and AG Holder.
July 9, 2011 – The Greeley Gazette states that Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa have sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, accusing him of issuing “false denials” and “distorting the truth.”, and reports that it is “impossible” for Holder not to have known about Gunwalker. World Net Daily commentary asserts that, “FBI, Homeland Security, DEA and ATF all get together to run a sting operation at least partly in a foreign country. Is it even conceivable that Obama would not have to be informed of such a plan? Not likely.” The Charlotte Observer reports that “As a result of Melson’s statements, “our investigation has clearly expanded,” a source close to the congressional investigation said this week, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing. “We know now it was not something limited to just a small group of ATF agents in Arizona.”” Salem News Online reports that “Holder Lied: DOJ News Release Shows Obama Admin Approved ATF Mexico Weapons Smuggling”. The New York Post publishes a surprisingly candid article, The Government’s Gunrunners, challenging the propriety of the DOJ’s empowerment of “one of its own”, the Inspector General, to conduct an investigation of itself, which “could create an incentive [for the IG] to minimize the significance of the allegations.” . The Houston Chronicle publishes an article, Texas guns, Mexican Murders, with an interactive map of illegally “walked”, BATFE-approved weapons into Mexico known to have gone to drug cartels. The map tracks each weapon from its US retail source, identifies each by make and model, identifies purchasers and the salient facts of each case.
July 10, 2011 – World Net Daily, the first outlet outside the gun rights media to carry the Gunwalker story, reports that the motive for Gunwalker may very well have been to advance gun control. In a separate article, World Net Daily also reports that, as part of “Fast and Furious” BATFE trained Mexican police officers known to be corrupt. Fox News Sunday Panel Plus on Operation “Fast and Furious” with Brit Hume, Mara Liasson, Steve Hayes and Juan Williams, provides an overview and tackles the latest developments.
July 11, 2011 – The LA Times prints a fairly objective article, ‘Fast and Furious’ scandal grows with revelation that Mexican cartel suspects may be paid U.S. informants, that points out the DEA, and FBI connections and the administration’s cover-up efforts. Could the gravity of this story have actually penetrated the culture enough to gain some real traction in the captive mainstream liberal media? Fox News reports that the family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is considering filing a suit against the Federal Government for wrongful death. Discovery would provide another high-profile avenue of exposure of the scandal. In spite of the fact that retail gun dealers have long demonstrated a stellar track record of reporting suspicious buyers – including multiple purchases – to BATFE, BATFE today announced a “rule” that will require dealers to report sales of multiple semi-auto rifles. In the Gunwalker case, no dealers were charged or disciplined in any way. Why? Because they all reported the straw buyers directly to BATFE, only to be ordered to sell the guns. It is widely believed that this new “rule” has absolutely no foundation in law, and is therefore illegal. The NRA is expected to sue to prevent it from going into effect. While this “rule” may not prove to be a problem, the NRA wants to ensure that the BATFE doesn’t exploit another Obama administration “Rahm Emmanuel crisis”, and set another unconstitutional and illegal precedent by making up their own laws.
July 12, 2011 – Dennis Hennigan, Acting President of the Brady Campaign and John R. Lott, Jr., economist, author, and gun rights advocate, author of “More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws”, discuss Gunwalker on Southern California public radio. In this very brief interview, Hennigan, who is on video record here infamously misquoting the Second Amendment, a shocking gaffe that reveals his ignorance of the same Second Amendment his organization is bent on abolishing, deliberately and repeatedly makes outrageously false statements, blatantly misstates fundamental facts, and severely distorts BATFE whistleblower testimony. Inexplicably, probably due to time constraints, Hennigan’s continuing lies and ignorance go unchallenged by Lott. Issa and Grassley named 12 senior Justice Department political officials in ‘Fast and Furious’ in a letter demanding all their communication records, as reported by The Daily Caller. In a separate article, The Daily Caller and other outlets report that AG Holder has given potential witnesses access to a shared hard drive with full details on the failed ATF operation. Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa have sent him a letter protesting this and expressing their concerns that this is an effort to derail their investigation. In a first for a major US newspaper, the Deseret News publishes a huge, multi-page article on Gunwalker. In an exhaustive, beginning to current time account of the scandal, they compare it to Watergate and Iran-Contra. They also build a strong, fact based case that the true motive of the program was to create a crisis that would enable a “crackdown on guns in the US” and ensure the confirmation of Andrew Traver as ATF head. The article also underscores multiple credible accusations that Holder is lying about when he knew about the operation. Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) writes a public letter to Holder and Melson demanding they come clean on Operation Castaway: “In recent days,” he notes, “it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ may have participated in the act of ‘gun walking’ beyond the acts conducted within the scope of “Operation Fast and Furious’…and that similar programs included the possible trafficking of arms to dangerous criminal gangs in Honduras with the knowledge of the ATF’s Tampa Field Division.” ‘Gunwalker’ Deepens: Agent Zapata killed by Gun From…Texas? CNN reports that over 1,400 guns given to criminals under BATFE’s Phoenix division “Fast and Furious” are still unrecovered and un-trackable.
July 13, 2011 – CBS News reports: Gunwalker Probe Points to DOJ. In direct contradiction to AG Eric Holder’s sworn testimony in the first House Judiciary Committee hearing on Gunwalker on May 3, senior DOJ officials were “unquestionably aware” of Gunwalker. In an article entitled, Operation Fast and Furious: Designed to Promote Gun Control, Townhall Journalist Katie Pavlich exposes a BATFE internal email from whistleblower Mark R. Chait, Assistant Director Field Operations, that points to a hidden agenda behind Gunwalker, indicating the manufacture of evidence to support a political result: “Internal ATF emails seem to suggest that ATF agents were counseled to highlight a link between criminals and certain semi-automatic weapons in order to bolster a case for a rule like the one the DOJ announced yesterday [Monday].” Michelle Malkin updates Operation Castaway: Document Drop: ICE Faces Heat Over Tampa Gunwalking Allegations Rep. Blake Farenthold,(R-Texas) appearing on an NRA vidcast, states that the purpose of “Fast and Furious” was to justify further gun control laws. The Los Angeles Times reports: Republicans Seek Documents Related to Fast and Furious Gun Scandal. According to a letter to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. from Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee investigating the scandal made public Tuesday, “As our investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice, including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program.” Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley respond to false claims by Mayors Against Illegal Guns that the Tiahrt Amendment was an impediment to the investigations into BATFE’s “Fast and Furious” project.
July 14, 2011 – Kurt Hoffman of National Gun Rights Examiner publishes an update on the state of the known evidence, presents what increasingly appears to be the only possible rational, fact-based case for the motive behind it, and contrasts the fact-based case with the absurdity and illogic of the evidence-defying explanation still being presented by the BATFE and DOJ: ‘Gunwalking’ to forcible citizen disarmament tyranny – compelling new evidence. A staggeringly audacious attempt by the Obama administration to push new gun control measures is actually attempted during the early stages of multiple investigations and congressional hearings over the Gunwalker scandal. In an address to the Third Session of the UN Arms Trade Treaty Preparatory Committee in New York, Wayne LaPierre, Executive VP of the NRA, issued a stern warning to the UN bureaucracy that the NRA will not tolerate interference with the Second Amendment freedoms of Americans, and pledged to continue the fight to preserve civilian ownership of firearms in the U.S. He said the NRA will oppose any U.N. provision that seeks to prohibit or regulate U.S. civilian firearm ownership. LaPierre said in his remarks, “The cornerstone of our freedom is the Second Amendment. Neither the United Nations, nor any other foreign influence, has the authority to meddle with the freedoms guaranteed by our Bill of Rights, endowed by our Creator, and due to all humankind.”
July 15, 2011 – Mounting evidence surfaces – More Gunwalker emails Suggest ‘Gun Control Conspiracy’, according to article by Bob Owens at Pajamas Media. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review prints an editorial calling for Eric Holder’s resignation, alleging Holder has clearly committed perjury. PBS reports on the outrage in Mexico over “Fastand Furious”. The story is gaining traction in even liberal media. The Sacramento Bee prints an opinion piece by Margaret A. Bengs, which makes the point that California has an interest in the “Gunwalker” investigation. The Jamestown Sun calls for further investigation of the ATF and the resignation of Eric Holder. City Watch LA – an LA online outlet, reports on the ATF scandal. The Weekly Standard publishes a large article on Gunwalker entitled: More DOJ Malpractice – A misbegotten scheme to boost gun control turns deadly. The author of the article, Mark Hemingway, concludes: “the facts so far suggest that the Justice Department and White House are implicated in the needless deaths of two U.S. law enforcement agents. And the level of political collusion suggests they were motivated not by law enforcement concerns, but by a desire to gain traction in implementing a liberal gun control agenda.” As if the Gunwalker scandal and the multiple investigations now underway never existed, the Dallas Morning News continues to publish the now long-exposed Obama administration’s deliberately fabricated, lying, deceitful narrative that Mexican drug cartels are able to purchase US weapons at US gun dealers without restrictions, and without US government awareness.
July 16, 2011 – The Christian Science Monitor publishes a large article including coverage of Gunwalker. The LA Times reports on the FBI involvement in Gunwalker, indicating investigators have discovered “at least half a dozen cartel figures were being paid by one U.S. law enforcement agency while they were being targeted by another.” The Austin Statesman reports on a case where a firearms dealer reported a suspicious buyer to ATF and the resulting conviction. The left-leaning editorial on ‘Fast and Furious” concludes that this all somehow proves the need for mandatory reporting on multiple rifle sales, even though existing laws already provide for this, and there have been no examples of any retail gun dealer breaking existing laws, other than when specifically directed to break the law by BATFE.
July 17, 2011 – The Los Angeles Times publishes this article: Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants. “We have learned of the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious,” wrote Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. The two have been the leading congressional critics of the program. Issa and Grassley further revealed their findings that, “At least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring,” The article explains, “The FBI and DEA did not tell the ATF about the alleged informants. The ATF and congressional investigators learned later that those agencies apparently were paying cartel members whom the ATF wanted to arrest.” The Tennessean reports that congressional investigators have evidence that the scandal reaches “the highest levels” of the Justice Department – including “Senate confirmed appointees”. Rep. Issa has demanded further information, including emails and other documents. Fox 26, the Fox station in Medford Oregon, reports that the family of DEA agent Jaime Zapata has retained a lawyer and that ATF has refused them any information in regard to the firearms used in his murder.
July 18, 2011 – The Daily Caller reports that Isaa and Grassley are pushing the FBI and DEA hard for answers regarding their involvement in Gunwalker. ABC News reports that Acting Director Melson was taken by complete surprise when he found out that the subjects ATF was enabling to buy firearms and smuggle them across the border were on the FBI payroll. When he communicated this to deputy attorney general (DAG) Jim Cole, he did not seem to be shocked. CNN reports on the congressional demand for DEA, FBI and DOJ documents.
July 19, 2011 – Continuing obstruction and stonewalling by the DOJ and alleged cover up of Gunwalker, including the existence of a ‘smoking gun”, according to an internal report from Fox News Latino. The LA Times reports Kenneth Melson, the ATF’s acting director, claims Justice Department officials refuse to release a telling internal report on the Fast and Furious operation. ATF Director tells Congress of “smoking gun” from CBS. Forbes reports ATF Chief confirms some criticism of the agency. USA Today: ATF Chief: Response to gun-tracking inquiry ‘a disaster’. Main Justice asks: Do Withheld ATF Documents Protect DOJ Political Appointees? Main Justice quotes Acting Director of the BATFE Ken Melson, “My view is that the whole matter of the Department’s response in this case was a disaster, that as a result it came to fruition that the [House Oversight] Committee staff had to be more assertive in attempting to get information from the department, and as a result, there was more adverse publicity toward the ATF than was warranted if we had cooperated from the very beginning.” The Government Accountability Project publishes a breakthrough report implicating Deputy AG James Cole in the coverup of Operation Fast and Furious. Cole is a recess appointee of Obama plagued by a track record heavily tainted with graft and corruption as a central figure in the AIG scandal. Reuters carries a story about Gunwalker, focusing on a gun dealer who did not want to participate, illustrating how BATFE routinely used coercion to get gun dealers to consciously break the law against their will. Cam Edwards and NRA Exec Director Ginny Simone interview Rep. Darrell Issa, see VIDEO (12:14), as the House Oversight investigation continues to unearth high-grade information that points from the BATFE on to the FBI, DEA, and ICE, as well as the DOJ. It becomes increasingly evident that AG Holder was directly involved, despite his testimony under oath to the contrary in the early hearings, and that the continuing road-blocking, denials and distortions are emanating from the DOJ. Issa says, “It’s beyond Watergate, it’s beyond Iran-Contra.”
July 20, 2011 – The Tampa Tribune: Congress questions Tampa gun investigation. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, working with Sen. Chuck Grassley R-Iowa, begin to open up Operation Castaway, the Tampa BATFE Gunwalker scandal counterpart of ‘Fast and Furious’ in Phoenix. Fox News does a story on the straw buyers and the failure of “Fast and Furious” to snare any high ranking cartel members – or any significant number of criminal lawbreakers whatsoever. Absurdly, nearly beyond comprehension at this point, “After thousands of man hours and millions of dollars spent, only one of the 20 suspects remains behind bars. Most were released within 24 hours of their arrest.” They also report that new hearings will take place on July 26. Roger Hedgecock interviews Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Operation Fast and Furious: Streaming AUDIO (11:00). CBS has inexplicably gone silent, Acting BATFE Director Melson was to have been thrown under the bus by this time, but instead has spilled the beans on the “smoking gun” documents previously hidden from the subpoenas and doctored statements by DOJ. So what gives? Issa explains in his own words why he now trusts Melson, reasserts his commitment to uphold the public’s right to know, and gives a preview into next week’s congressional hearing on Tuesday, hinting that new criminal activity has been discovered on the part of DOJ. The hearing will be on C-Span and streamed live at Issa’s House Oversight Committee site here: http://oversight.house.gov.
July 22, 2011 – In an update article in Human Events, Obama, Holder Busted in Gunwalker Cover-up, based on his 6/20/11 interview of Rep. Darrell Issa, Roger Hedgecock says, “…all hell is about to explode over the operation dubbed by Obama’s Justice Department ‘Fast and Furious’”. The LA Times reports that the BATFE attempted to mislead congressional investigators earlier in the investigation. Sen. Grassley is interviewed by Fox News. He reports that DOJ withheld documents given to them by the acting director of ATF. Grassley believes that DOJ is probably “stonewalling” and that “very high ranking officials in DOJ” knew of the program. Human Events reports that the DOJ’s Inspector General has opened a formal investigation into alleged retaliation against ATF whistle blowers. Sen. Grassley is quoted in a Newsmax story, saying that Gunwalker clearly involved criminal activity. He also indicated that acting ATF director Melson was not only told to quit, he was ordered not to talk to Congress.
July 24, 2011 – The Toledo Blade prints an OP ED by Jack Lessenberry, the paper’s ombudsman and member of the journalism faculty at Wayne State University. In it Lessenberry expresses his concern over the lack of coverage of Gunwalker. The Eureka Times-Standard reports on the DOJ cover up. World Net Daily publishes a commentary by Roger Hedgecook in which he points out that having created a scandal, the administration is now attempting to use it to pass additional gun control laws. He also reports that in addition to, and entirely independent of the BATFE/DOJ Operation Gunwalker fiasco, “the Obama administration is also running guns directly to the Zeta cartel through the State Department’s U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program, bypassing legitimate arms sales to the Mexican government entirely. The weapons in that program include “anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era” as well as “grenade launchers … and military gear including night vision goggles and body armor.”
July 25, 2011 – The LA Times reports that the US Embassy in Mexico City was intentionally kept “out of the loop” on Gunwalker. Fox News reports that ATF and FBI manipulated the National Instant Check System (NICS) to allow straw buyers in “Fast and Furious” to buy firearms, even when they were prohibited persons, See VIDEO coverage (2:52). Human Events publishes article: Convicted Felons Buy Fast and Furious Guns, and the Daily Caller carries an update: Officials mum on how two ‘Fast and Furious’ suspects with criminal records obtained guns. On the eve of new hearings the Washington Post publishes an article portraying Gunwalker as an innocently well intentioned, but risky program that “just went wrong”. Indulging in an incredible combination of blatant wishful thinking, speculation, and fantasy, the author, Sari Horwitz claims that her ATF sources are still contending that it still may result in the arrest of high ranking members of the cartel, and if it doesn’t, this is because Isaa and Grassley’s investigations ruined it. Of course she contends that tougher gun laws could fix the whole problem.
July 26, 2011 – ATF Attaché calls Gunwalker ‘perfect storm of idiocy’, confirming deteails from a new congressional report of earliest whistleblower reports by Codrea and Vanderboegh. Fox News reports that the latest congressional report indicates that the ATF, through “Fast and Furious” was the primary arms source for the Sinaloa Cartel, helping them to buy 1,026 weapons worth more than $650,000. When ATF agents in Mexico reported this “flood of weapons” they were told “everything is under control”. Perhaps the most devastating aspect of the report is confirmation that Lanny Breuer, the head of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, was fully briefed on the number of guns and who they were going to at the time. This removes any doubt that high ranking DOJ managers knew of the operation, in clear contradiction to the sworn congressional hearing testimony of Breuer’s boss, AG Eric Holder. Holder’s boss is President Obama. The Wall Street Journal reports ATF Gun Probe Lost Track of More than 1,000 Weapons in Operation Fast and Furious, according to the latest congressional report. A list of new findings include the astonishing discovery that, completely at odds with prior sworn congressional hearing testimony of AG Eric Holder, “ATF officials in Mexico noticed in late 2009 an increase in weapons caches traced to Arizona recovered in Mexico”, and “The congressional report cites Justice Department records showing Fast and Furious weapons recovered in at least 48 caches found in the U.S. and Mexico.” CNN reports: ATF ‘stonewalled’ agents on botched gun probe, report says. The Washington Times reports: “The Obama administration sought to intimidate witnesses into not testifying to Congress on Tuesday about whether ATF knowingly allowed weapons, including assault rifles, to be “walked” into Mexico, the chairman of a House committee investigating the program [Rep. Darrell Issa] said. They also report that Rep. Isaa is positive that most high level officials in DOJ knew of the program and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. either knew and misled Congress, or was so out of the loop that he’s guilty of mismanagement.
House Oversight Committee Hearing #3 “Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border” – You Tube Video: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3. The House Oversight Committee releases a report on the Mexican side of the scandal. Highlights: 1) ATF agents, likely DEA agents, and US Ambassadors in Mexico City were kept in the dark. 2) Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, was clearly aware of Operation Fast and Furious and touted the case during a visit to Mexico. 3) ATF officials in Mexico City were incredulous that their agency would knowingly allow guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Summary Complete Report
The Deseret News publishes one of the earliest comprehensive reports on today’s hearing: Hearing Seeks Answers in ‘gunwalker’ Operation. The article concludes with this statement: “Although the ongoing investigation on Capitol Hill is now focused solely on Fast and Furious, claims are also beginning to emerge that the administration sold weapons to the MS13 gang in Honduras, possibly as part of “Operation Castaway,” and also sold guns to the Zetas cartel through the State Department’s Direct Commercial Sales Program.” The LA Times reports that forensic data from the FBI proves that a Gunwalker gun was used to kill Agent Terry. The ATF has said the two “Fast and Furious” guns recovered at the scene were not used to kill the agent. The NY Times reports that William Newell, the former special agent in charge of the Phoenix field division “admitted he made mistakes” in regards to Gunwalker. CBS headlines that an ATF manager told the White House about Gunwalker. Fox News reports that “the scandal has spread” to ICE, DEA and the IRS. Fox News Reports on “new fast and furious bombshells” by interviewing Sen. Grassley. Fox News reporter William La Jeunesse reports on today’s hearings. He states that lying and duplicity are alive at ATF. He reports on Lanny Breuer’s briefing and states that he is “Eric Holder’s right hand man”. He also reports that the next hearings will focus on DOJ. Official Committee on House Oversight staff report focusing on impact of Operation Fast and Furious on Mexico: ATF Officials in Mexico Denied Access to Information by U.S. Counterparts about Reckless Strategy that Allowed Guns to Fall Into the Hands of Mexican Drug Cartels.
July 27, 2011 – Originally called for by Senator Charles Grassley, the House Appropriations Committee Calls for Independent Gunwalker Investigation. The recommendation specifies appointment of “an outside, independent investigator,” who would be charged with conducting “a thorough investigation of the allegations against ATF with respect to Operation Fast and Furious and policies guiding this and similar operations.” In addition, the House committee called on both DOJ and ATF to cooperate fully with related oversight investigations, whether they be conducted by congressional committees, the DOJ OIG, or an independent investigator. Appropriations is a powerful committee—their recommendations have weight. Additionally, further obstruction of Congress and/or perjury charges against individuals equivocating under oath are now a distinct possibility. The Weekly Standard reports that “White House Knew About ATF Gunrunning Scandal.” The Washington Times, pointing out that ATF is the agency that brought us Waco, Ruby Ridge, and now Fast and Furious, calls for the disbanding of the troubled agency. They also point out that the people they regulate in the firearms, tobacco, alcohol and explosives industries are extremely law abiding. Not only did a very expensive “sweep” of all southwestern gun dealers turn up absolutely nothing — it was the dealers who reported the suspicious buyers and were ordered buy ATF to sell the guns anyway. A 1982 Senate investigation found that ATF’s enforcement tactics were “constitutionally, legally and practically reprehensible.” Sadly, in the years since Waco and Ruby Ridge, things may have gotten worse. Judge Andrew Napolitano interviews BATFE whistleblower agents Vince Cefalu and Jay Dobyns on Fox News (VIDEO, 6:20): “Fast, Furious, and Fouled Up”. VIDEO (8:36) – Cameron Edwards interviews Houston defense attorney Dick DeGuerin. DeGuerin’s client, gun dealer Carter’s Country, was in the middle of ATF Fast and Furious operations.
July 28, 2011 – A local Tucson TV station, KVOA, reports on one of the whistle blowers, Jay Dobyns. He is quoted as saying that ATF’s apologies do not come close to being enough. The LA Times claims that emails sent to the White House by an ATF manager did not mention the fact the fact “Fast and Furious” was sending guns to Mexico. Investors business daily reports that the White House knew about Gunrunner and “Fast and Furious”. The NY Times condemns the ATF for it’s actions – and then calls for a renewed assault weapons ban. The International Business Times reports that the White House was kept in the dark in regards to Gunwalker. The National Review online predicts that the scandal will continue to grow and move higher in the administration.
July 29, 2011 – The New York Post reports that the DOJ covered up the operation and that the goal was to increase the number of US guns recovered in Mexico. Ginny Simone of the NRA interviews Darrell Issa post-hearing #3 VIDEO (7:43) – Representative Darrell Issa on latest Fast and Furious Hearing. Issa indicates there will be two more Gunwalker hearings scheduled this year.
July 30, 2011 – AP carries a huge, comprehensive story on Gunwalker, entitled ‘What Led To Project Gunrunner”. Many gun dealers are quoted and portrayed as being against the program and very concerned about the guns “walking”. At the time of posting the Boston Herald, Forbes and the Salt Lake City Tribune appear to have carried the story in its’ entirety. Shorter versions were carried in the Huffington Post, CBS News Website, and the NPR Website. Undoubtedly, many more outlets will run the story in their Sunday editions. An attorney, writing in a Tucson Citizen.com article, suggests a novel idea that should make the Obama administration nervous: Open letter to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne: prosecute the ATF people responsible for Fast and Furious under state law.
July 31, 2011 – Several US Newspapers run Gunwalker linked editorials. The usual suspects continue to spin the narrative of the Obama administration, heavily loading their coverage with deliberate deceit. Tucson Citizen: Prosecute ATF officials under Arizona law. San Diego Union-Tribune: DOJ cover up dishonors Agent Terry. Philadelphia Inquirer: Holder needs to stop cover up and explain what happened. Miami Herald: Gunwalker proves cartels get all their guns from the US. Washington Post: Build a Stronger ATF – this all happened because they didn’t have a director. The Miami Herald reports: For Mexicans, Fast and Furious Conflict Confirms U.S. Role in Mexico’s Violence. The Philadelphia Enquirer: Back Channels: How ATF Delivered Assault Weapons to Drug Cartels. San Diego Union-Tribune: DOJ cover up dishonors Agent Terry.
August 1, 2011 – Human Events carries a devastating front page article on Gunwalker by author and military historian A. W. R. Hawkins, Ph.D, who suggests that AG Eric Holder is an Enemy of the State, and should be removed from office (impeached). Human Events is the latest news outlet to assert that the actual goal of Gunwalker was to advance a gun control agenda. The Atlanta Journal Constitution carries an opinion piece by Bob Barr. Barr, a former federal prosecutor and Congressman from Georgia, suggests the following: First, the administration needs to work with Republicans in the Senate to find a mutually acceptable head for ATF. Second, AG Holder should set forth clear guidelines for undercover ops. Third, Holder needs to make it clear that DOJ will conduct a public investigation of Gunwalker – and let the chips fall where they may.
August 2, 2011 – Local Phoenix TV station, KPHO, carries a story on the latest Congressional report. Writing in a blog for forbes.com, Larry Bell provides a comprehensive report on Gunwalker. He strongly suggests that the scandal was part of an overall plan to restrict gun rights.
August 3, 2011 – The Eastern AZ Courier carries an editorial summarizing the ATF debacle, noting that the mainstream media has basically ignored the story. They note that when this story becomes more widely known, It has the potential to severely damage Obama’s presidency. The Huffington Post runs an article by Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor, in which he calls Gunwalker the first major scandal of Obama’s administration. Complete with links to LA Times articles, he concedes that both DOJ and the administration appear to be covering up. He also expresses concern that the controversy will prevent passage of new gun control laws.
August 4, 2011– NewsMax publishes an article by Wayne LaPierre, EVP of the NRA, entitled, Eric Holder Must go. LaPierre lays out the NRA’s case for stating, “Now is the time for all Americans to demand Eric Holder’s immediate resignation, firing, or impeachment.”
The Kansas City Star covers the story. The Fort Dodge Messenger prints an editorial stating that “Fast and Furious” was a program that should have never been undertaken. Human Events publishes an editorial asserting that the Washington Post has share of the blame in Agent Terry’s death. They make the point that instead of exposing “Fast and Furious” they have acted as it’s PR team. ticklethewire.com, a website covering Federal law enforcement, reports that William Newell, who headed the Phoenix Division during ‘Fast and Furious”, will not be appointed as ATF’s attaché to Mexico as had been previously stated by ATF. Instead, he’s been named special assistant to the ATF Assistant Director for the Office of Management in Washington. The word is that both the Mexican government and ATF agents are fuming over Newell’s denials that ATF “let guns walk” into Mexico.
August 5, 2011 – While their BATFE has been promoting gun smuggling, the Obama/Holder DOJ has apparently also been promoting drug smuggling. The El Paso Times reports that U.S. federal agents allegedly allowed the Sinaloa drug cartel to traffic several tons of cocaine into the United States in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to court documents filed in a U.S. federal court. “It is estimated that approximately 3,000 people were killed in Mexico as a result of ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’ including law enforcement officers in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, the headquarters of the Sinaloa cartel,” the court documents allege. “The Department of Justice’s leadership apparently saw this as an ingenious way of combating drug cartel activities.” Fox News provides coverage of the Sinaloa cartel deal with the DEA: America’s Third War: The U.S. Cut a Deal With the Sinaloa Cartel, Say Court Documents. The LA Times reports that the head of DEA, in interviews with Congressional Investigators, has admitted that DEA agents were involved in “Fast and Furious”. The LA Times now has a central web listing for Gunwalker stories – the paper seems VERY committed to covering this story. Click2Houston.com reports: Congressional Inquiries Turn to Houston Over Gun Trafficking Investigation. It now appears that the Houston division of BATFE has allowed and/or directly assisted more substantial illegal arms trafficking to known or suspected criminal straw buyers than the now infamous “Fast and Furious” BATFE operation in Phoenix.
August 7, 2011 – Fox News interview with EVP and CEO of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre (VIDEO, 4:29) – Fierce Battle Over Gun Rights – LaPierre explains the current lawsuit against the Obama administration.
August 8, 2011 – USA Today prints a factual article on Gunwalker, focusing upon the one gunrunner who bought more than 700 guns with help from the ATF. They report that the gun store owner was concerned about the number of guns he was buying and ATF directed him to keep selling to the known gunrunner. The story also includes quotes from whistle blowing agents.
August 9, 2011 – Newsmax reports that court documents confirm ATF enabled a suspect they knew was sending guns to a Mexican drug cartel to buy 20 handguns from a cooperating dealer. The dealer did not want to deliver the guns, but was directed to do so by ATF. Author and military historian Dr. A.W.R. Hawkins, writing in Human Events, makes a strong case that “’Fast and Furious’ Goes All The Way to the White House”. Reportedly both Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa are “certain” that President Obama knew of the operation. Hawkins reports, “It doesn’t take long to connect the dots on this one. We have a president who funded these programs, who talked to Mexican President Calderon two months later about tracing guns, and whose National Security Director for North America received communications from ATF Special Agent Newell regarding the operations. The Justice Department is littered with people who knew about the program, and nearly every federal law-enforcement agency besides the Secret Service [BATFE, DHS, IRS, DEA, ATF, ICE and DOJ] was involved.”
August 10, 2011 – The LA Times runs another article on Gunwalker. In this one they focus on the fact that the Fast and Furious program was known to have gone off the rails many months before it was finally shut down. The ATF 2nd in command was well aware of the problems. ATF was sent agents to check the guns recovered at Agent Terry’s murder scene, confirmed that two were from the program and continued the program unchanged for another six weeks. No one notified congress – the whistle blowing agents had to do that. The LA Times clearly smells blood in the water and seems committed to uncovering the truth. WXYZ reports on an ATF press event held in Michigan. ATF is clearly working on it’s image.
August 11, 2011 – The New York Post carries an editorial entitled, “‘Fast and furious’ failure — still waiting for accountability”. It contains a call for AG Holder to resign. Was the CIA involved in Gunwalker? Writing in the Washington Times, Robert Farago and Ralph Dixon suggest that the real motive behind the “Fast and Furious” operation was to strengthen the Sinaloa cartel in order to check their opposition, the Zetas. Citing sources within the CIA, they suggest that the intent was to prevent the Zetas from disrupting the 2012 Mexican elections – and possibly conducting a coup against the Mexican government. The article mentions other indications that the US government has decided to favor the Sinaloa cartel. However, it is worth noting that there have been credible reports from CIA officials that the US State Department has trafficked weapons directly to the Zetas in very significant numbers. (See The Direct Commercial Sales Program in BATFE Gunrunner Purpose, Origin, and Name Clarifications above). Fox News, Human Events and the Arizona Capital Times all report that the DOJ prosecutor in charge of the case against the man who bought the guns used to kill Agent Terry has opposed a request by Brain Terry’s family to testify at his sentencing hearing. Fox News points out that this same Assistant AG may have partial responsibility for Gunwalker.
August 12, 2011 – CBS News publishes an opinion piece entitled, “Why U.S. foreign policy invites blowback”. Gunwalker is cited as an example of what is wrong. The Washington Post publishes an editorial on Gunwalker entitled, “Slow draw on Fast and Furious?”. Patrick B. Pexton defends the paper’s coverage. The Washington Times reports that Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has written to AG Holder demanding answers, and pointing out that the Justice Department seems to be involved in a cover-up.
August 14, 2011 – The San Antonio Express News publishes an editorial calling on the White House and the Justice department to stop stonewalling. The Pittsburgh Tribune publishes an editorialrecapping Gunwalker, and ending with this line: “Who thought allowing illegal gun sales was a good idea in the first place?” In a transparent attempt to distract attention from continuing “up chain” progress of Darrell Issa’s House Oversight investigation, The New York Times publishes an entirely groundless personal smear on Rep. Darrell Issa, loaded with blatant inaccuracies and abject fabrications. Issa publishes a rebuttal demonstrating factual errors and plagiarism in the hit piece. The author of the NYT article, Lichtblau has a long history of anti-gun advocacy pieces masked as journalism.
August 15, 2011 – Another Michigan Newspaper – The News Herald – publishes an article on yet another media event held by ATF. The effort to bury the scandal with positive PR continues. Verifying earlier reports, the LA Times confirmsthat ATF has promoted the managers involved in the “Fast and Furious” program. The move reportedly has mystified many line agents and seems to be yet more evidence of an unbroken continuance of the historically toxic culture at ATF – even with multiple investigations underway, and the likelihood of more to come.
August 16, 2011 – Additional outlets cover the ATF promotion story: New Mexico Independent Fox New York, Newsmax, NPR. According to the Washington Times and UPI, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) blasted the ATF decision, saying, “Until Attorney General (Eric) Holder and Justice Department officials come clean on all alleged gun-walking operations, including a detailed response to allegations of a Texas-based scheme, it is inconceivable to reward those who spearheaded this disastrous operation with cushy desks in Washington.” World Net Daily publishes an overview of Gunwalker and strongly suggests that the true motive was to advance a gun control agenda. The LA Times reports that guns from the “Fast and Furious” operation have turned up at 11 more crime scenes.
August 17, 2011 – The LA Times reports: ATF denies it promoted Fast and Furious Supervisors. The denial is based on the concept that those promoted did not get pay increases – just nice offices in Washington and high profile new jobs with lots of prestige. NewsMax reports: 11 New Crimes Tied to ‘Fast and Furious’ Guns. The Daily Caller reports that Issa and Grassley’s investigation continues to move forward with further information requests direct to DOJ. Examiner.com, one of the first outlets to break the story, echos the Daily caller report, adding that “Issa, Grassley tell Holder ‘word games’ won’t do.” John McGinness, former Sacramento County Sheriff and current KFBK radio host covers Gunwalker on his broadcast. In answer to a caller’s suggestion that goal of “Fast and Furious” was more US gun control, he replied that a year ago he would have dismissed the suggestion – but not now. The broadcast should be available soon HERE. The Washington Examiner publishes an editorial on Gunwalker. In it they are very critical of the ATF promotions. Sen. John Cornyn appears on “The Factor” on Fox News. Interview runs 6 minutes. Evidence is that dealers did not want to sell these guns but were directed to do so by ATF. Cornyn is also very upset about more guns turning up at US crime scenes and the ATF “promotions”. Republicans on committee will continue investigate until they get to the bottom of the matter. Cornyn believes Gunwalker “goes all the way to the top.” He also categorized Eric Holders statements as “unbelievable”.
August 18, 2011 – Human Events interviewsHouse Oversight Committee member Rep. Paul Gosar on Gunwalker. Rush Limbaugh, in response to a listener question about ATF promotions, tells his 20 million listeners that in his opinion Gunwalker’s purpose was to justify gun control in the US. He pointed out that if this had happened under a Republican president, impeachment proceedings would already be underway. Business Insider publishes a comprehensive article entitled, “Inside The Gun Smuggling Scandal That Could Take Down Attorney General Eric Holder”. The article confirms that Gunwalker continues to be big news in the Spanish language press, both in the US and Mexico. According to this Spanish language article, President Obama was asked during a mini press conference if Eric Holder should resign. His answer was one word: No. Is it possible that Obama could lose the Hispanic vote over this scandal? Sean Hannity announces that the primary focus of his Friday August 19th show on Fox News will be Gunwalker. The San Francisco Examiner publishes a scathing editorial on Gunwalker, saying that the promotions are evidence of a cover up. Tyler TX TV station does an editorial entitled, “A Crying Shame” and concluding that, “Attorney General Eric holder and the rest of high level feds have some explaining to do”. They point out that gun dealers tried to stop the sales.
August 19, 2011 – Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News publishes an editorial by Christine M. Flowers: Iran-Contra, the Sequel. She questions how this could ever have happened without Eric Holder knowing. Sean Hannity devotes his entire one hour broadcast to exposing the “Fast and Furious” scandal from beginning to current. After laying the ground work, Hannity ended the broadcast with a comparison to Watergate, pointing out that the question here is the same: What did the president know and when did he know it? Issa Demands Page One Retraction from NY Times, in an article from Newsmax.com. Issa’s office stated shortly after the NYT smear piece appeared that, “It’s disappointing that the so-called ‘paper-of-record’ has decided to publish a story that is nothing more than a compilation of left-wing blog posts that are easily found by a simple Google search. It’s the same old playbook, every time Darrell Issa starts gaining ground, the left-wing smear machine goes on the attack. If anything, this story validates the work that the Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is pursuing”, the article contained no less than “13 erroneous statements”. The Dallas Morning News publishes an editorial entitled, “Details only get worse from ATF’s Fast and Furious fiasco”. In it the accuse Eric Holder of engaging in a cover up. Newsmax publishes an interview with Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, in which he is quoted as saying “Americans were ‘Collateral Damage’ in Fast, Furious” and “There was no way to get the drug lord. How could we? We didn’t even tell Mexico what we were doing. In a separate interview with Sen. Charles Grassley, he is quoted as saying that Holder is obstructing the congressional investigation and that the “promotion” of the two ATF figures was “A move to keep them quiet.”
Online update videos:
Behind the Fast & Furious Program
Did Justice Department Know About ‘Fast and Furious’?
August 20, 2011 – Writing in a commentary for Yahoo News, Todd Jacobs writes, “Will Operation Fast and Furious be the Downfall of Obama Presidency?” The Fort Worth Star Telegram publishes brief article on Sen. Cornyn’s efforts to investigate gunwalking in Texas. Central Florida Future – the student newspaper of Central Florida University – publishes an article entitled, “Retribution should be Fast and Furious”. Chuck Norris publishes a commentary in World Net Daily entitled, “Obama smuggling guns and registering yours”
August 21, 2011 – The North County Times, a paper from Rep. Issa’s home district, publishes an article entitled, “Issa makes waves leading oversight panel”. It covers the Gunwalker investigation and the smear campaign launched against him since it began. Incredibly, the author, Mark Walker, claims that Issa has yet to uncover any “smoking guns” of corruption in the Obama administration in all of his investigations. This, despite Issa’s exposure of the seizure of over 500 BATFE-approved “walked” weapons from over a hundred crime scenes to date (including shootouts with drug cartels where hundreds of Mexican citizens have been killed with those weapons, and in addition, 2 US agents). The article begs the question – When a government agency is caught dead to rights blatantly failing to uphold the laws each of its members are sworn to uphold, by actively participating in a massive gun smuggling operation that by its own charter it exists to prevent, where hundreds of murders have occurred as a direct result of that government agency’s behavior, and we have not only hundreds of bodies, but hundreds of murder weapons and the sources of those weapons, as well as a clear motive belonging to the administration, capped off by a well-orchestrated cover-up, and Mexico is rightfully demanding extradition of Obama administration officials for prosecution – If this DOES NOT add up to any “smoking guns” of corruption… What does?
August 22, 2011 – The Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board publishes an editorial titled, “Lose 2,000 Weapons, Get a Big Promotion”. The Dakota Voice publishes an article praising Sean Hannity’s hour of Gunwalker coverage and providing links to the entire broadcast.
August 23, 2011 – Human Events publishes an article, Media Matters Distorts ‘Fast and Furious’ Facts, revealing how the largest Soros-funded Leftist propaganda factory in the USA continues to twist and distort reality. They are still maintaining the same old long ago exposed lies and distortions of BATFE reports that the Obama administration is on record promoting since the BATFE began Operation Gunrunner in early 2009, with the objective of creating a retail channel gun flow to the Mexican drug cartels that had not previously existed, in order to provide justification for a re-launch of the previously failed and discarded “assault weapons ban” and the upcoming UN Small Arms Treaty.
August 24, 2011 – David Codrea, half of the original investigative journalist team that originally broke the Gunwalker scandal, authors a probing article in National Gun Rights Examiner entitled, Government brooks no Gunwalker competition. Codrea asks the question unasked by the captive mainstream liberal media: How is it that a US District Judge calls it “…reprehensible that American citizens would sell firearms to the drug cartels that continue to kill innocent people in Mexico”, and hands down a sentence of 30 years in prison for exactly the same crime that the US government has itself been conducting for years – and yet the US government has (to this date) enjoyed 100% impunity, holding itself above the laws it and all in its law enforcement organizations are sworn to uphold? In advance of the resumption of Darrell Issa’s Gunwalker hearings after the summer recess, Codrea notes that it’s past time for an independent prosecutor to take up the Gunwalker scandal.
August 25, 2011 – In advance of the next round of Gunwalker hearings, Mike Vanderboegh, half of the original investigative journalist team that originally broke the scandal with the first interviews of BATFE agent whistleblowers, has uncovered more evidence directly implicating the Obama administration. “The blame shifting & leaping to illogical exculpatory conclusions begins, but Obama’s Gunwalker was a deliberate conspiracy vs. the 2nd Amendment,” – Mike Vanderboegh, Sipsey Street, 8 March 2011. New support for this statement from back in March (which, like the rest of his reporting on Gunwalker, has stood the test of time, having never been credibly challenged) appears today in Part 1 of an exclusive by Vanderboegh. From this article is a key quote from a BATFE meeting that many still get wrong, including most, if not all of the captive mainstream liberal media, and much of the rest of the media as well: “Gunrunner …predated the Obama administration. “Yes, but ‘walking guns’ didn’t.”
August 26, 2011 – The American Spectator carries an article entitled, “Arming the Cartels”. The author concludes that the stated reason for Fast and Furious doesn’t pass the “smell test”, and speculates that the actual goal may have been to arm one of the cartels to enable them to defeat the others so Mexico City could negotiate with only one of them. The Tiffin, Ohio Advertiser-Tribune editorializes, “‘Fast and Furious’ discipline deserved.”
August 27, 2011 – New Mexico TV station KASA reports that a gun smuggling case involving the mayor of Columbus, New Mexico is linked to “Fast and Furious”. The Des Moines Register prints an editorial on Gunwalker, by John Carlson: “How Chuck Grassley is causing discomfort for the Obama administration”. Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government reports that the “DOJ Raids Gibson Guitars over Alleged Environmental Infractions, but Mum’s Still the Word on ‘Fast and Furious’”.
August 29, 2011 – The New American documents countless falsehoods in the New York Times hit piece on Rep. Issa. In addition to every charge being completely false, the liberal online outlet “ThinkProgress” has pointed out that most of the NYT article was lifted from their site. Maybe that’s why the NYT got so many facts wrong — the “paper of record” left the fact checking to a left wing web site. A greater question is: Why is a man with a stellar reputation for attacking government waste and corruption being attacked by the New York Times now? The Minot Daily News editorializes about Gunwalker: “Mistakes can’t be rewarded“. According to a local news outlet, the mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Chief of Police, and a Trustee have all pled guilty to running guns to the Juarez drug cartel “La Linea”. At a hearing for police Chief Angelo Vega, it was revealed that six of those weapons may be connected to “Operation Fast and Furious”.
August 30, 2011 – CBS News Reporter Sharyl Attkisson, the first in the “captive mainstream liberal media” to break the Gunwalker Scandal in February, reports that Acting Director of BATFE Ken Melson is out, and is being transferred to the Justice Department, as further DOJ upheaval and re-organization ripples throughout top positions at DOJ and BATFE. TickleThe Wire: New ATF Director Todd Jones No Stranger to Fed Law Enforcement, Considered Pro-ATF. According to Senator Charles Grassley’s June 15, 2011 congressional testimony attachment 4, Jones was a member of the Southwest Border Strategy Group, attended at least one briefing on Fast and Furious in October 2009, and appears to be complicit in the coverup, just like Melson. Other coverage of this development: Fox News NPR Washington Post Reuters Politico Washington Post USA Today NY Post. The Wall Street Journal runs another article on the “Fast and Furious” shake ups. The WSJ points out that these moves do not address the large issue of which high ranking officials knew of the program, and that it is known that Lanny Breuer, Holder’s immediate subordinate, was involved. The Wall Street Journal publishes a second story: Grassley, Issa: Shakeup Won’t Stop Probe of ATF. Rep. Issa appears on the Fox News program “On the Record”. He makes it clear that the investigation is not over, that the career employees were sacrificed in order to protect “political appointees”, including Lanny Breuer. The New York Times predictably takes the side of the Obama administration. In their article, they present the administration’s moves as “cleaning house”, and (without evidence) claim that the Congressional investigation is politically motivated. The LA Times article may be less biased than the NY Times, but it still fails to mention the involvement of Breuer and possibily other high ranking administration officials. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the investigation will continue, and suggests that Eric Holder’s job may not be safe. Rep. Issa issued the following official press release statement: “While the reckless disregard for safety that took place in Operation Fast and Furious certainly merits changes within the Department of Justice, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation to ensure that blame isn’t offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department. There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility, but these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels. I also remain very concerned by Acting Director Melson’s statement that the Department of Justice is managing its response in a manner intended to protect its political appointees. Senator Grassley and I will continue to press the Department of Justice for answers in order to ensure that a reckless effort like Fast and Furious does not take place again.”
Aug 31, 2011 – Fox News video report: “ATF Director Reassigned Amid Uproar – Has enough been done in investigating Operation Fast and Furious?” The New York Post Reports: “Capitol Punishment – Some heads roll for gun-running debacle”. The article strongly suggests that both AG Holder and President Obama had knowledge of the operation. Newsmax reports that the investigation is not over, and that the scandal goes much higher than those who have been removed. The Arizona Daily Sun publishes an article entitled, “U.S. Attorney taking the fall?” CBN News covers the story in a piece entitled, “ATF Chief Resigns over ‘Fast and Furious’ Debacle”. They also echo the charge that the responsibility goes “much higher”. Human Events publishes an article entitled, “Screw Up, Move Up, Cover Up: The Fast and Furious Edition”, by Michelle Malkin. The Tucson Citizen: Heads roll fast and furiously over botched ATF gun walking scheme. The Daily Caller: Issa spokesman: NYT burying latest Fast and Furious stories shows paper’s ‘biased approach’ against Oversight Chairman. The Washington Post reports that those dismissed have ‘Taken full responsibility for “Fast and Furious”‘. AzCentral.com: US Attorney for Arizona, Dennis Burke Resigns over Operation ‘Fast and Furious’. The Christian Science Monitor publishes one of the best articles I have found on the story, the first I have found that has listed further targets of the investigation by name. According to the Washington Post, the “Real Scandal” is the “flood of guns” going to Mexico, which is the fault of the NRA. How sad that the paper that broke and pursued Watergate doesn’t care to pursue the truth when it doesn’t fit their naked agenda.
September 1, 2011 – Congressional investigators tell CBS News there’s evidence the U.S. Attorney’s office in Arizona sought to cover up a link between “Fast and Furious” and the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. USA Today reports on the new ATF director and the two investigations that will continue. The new director blames the agency’s troubles on – guess who? The NRA, of course. According to Kevin Johnson at USA Today, this all happened because the NRA refused to stand by while an anti-gun zealot was confirmed as the head of ATF. (There seems to be a familiar pattern here). A new article from CBS news reporter Sharyl Attkisson: Cover-up in ATF gunwalker case? National Review Online: Foreign Policy on Operation Fast and Furious. David Hardy writing in “Of Arms and the Law” exposes the “shills” in the media who are trying to shift blame away from the administration. The Wall Street Journal reports: Grassley, Issa Expand ‘Fast and Furious’ Investigation. USA Today: GOP lawmakers: Coverup attempted in death of Border Patrol agent. Pasadena Star News: Our View: Questions linger in ATF probe. KPHO TV, Phoenix: Cover up alleged in Fast and Furious.
September 2, 2011– Fox News reports on the cover-up in an article entitled, “Demand for More Answers in Fast and Furious Scandal”. LA Times: White House received “Fast and Furious” emails. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on the expansion of the Congressional investigation into the ATF “Fast and Furious” gunwalker scandal. Katie Pavlich at Townhall.com: At Least Three White House Officials Knew About Operation Fast and Furious. Openmarket.org: Obama Administration Violated Federal Laws in Operation Fast and Furious. The Detroit News: Keep asking questions about bungled gun sting. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Fast & Furious fallout: Holder should be next. Main Justice: What Did The White House Know About Fast and Furious? Politico: Emails show some W.H. contact on ‘Fast and Furious’. Washington Post: White House e-mails refer to gun-trafficking operation. CBS News: ATF Gunwalker: Who at the White House knew? Hot Air: Fast and Furious e-mails reached at least three White House officials. Fox News: Evidence Suggests Cover-Up in ATF Scandal, as More Guns Appear at Crime Scenes. Sen. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Thursday they are expanding their investigation into the scandal. NRA/ILA: Heads Roll in Wake of ‘Fast and Furious’ Scandal.
September 3, 2011 – AUDIO interview (13:09) with Wayne LaPierre, Executive Director of NRA. LaPierre again calls for a special prosecutor for the ‘Fast and Furious’ BATFE division of Operation Gunrunner, and explains why he believes that criminal activity is still underway in the Obama administration – beyond the criminal act of the cover-up itself. He lambasts the leftist media, specifically citing the Washington Post, for the absurdity of blaming the NRA for the Gunwalker Scandal, and compares the behavior of the Obama administration to that of Third World dictatorships.
September 4, 2011 – Big Government.com: White House Cover-up Makes Continuation of Fast and Furious Investigation Imperative. Azcentral.com: Lawmakers press for gun-case details – U.S. Attorney’s Office documents sought. Tacoma News Tribune, columnist Brian O’Neill – a sworn police officer – writes an opinion piece: Fast and Furious = Desperate and Political. CBN News reports that information on gun buyers instant check forms – including social security numbers – has been made available by BATFE to law enforcement in 35 nations – including Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Suriame, Jamaica, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic. They express concerns that widespread identity theft is possible. The Solaria Sun reports on the ATF cover up.
September 5, 2011 – David Codrea at Gun Rights Examiner reports: Senator Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa were sent a letter last Wednesday by Luciano Cerasi, Associate General Counsel, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, detailing allegations of whistleblower retaliations against Peter J. Forcelli, Group Supervisor, ATF, by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona and the Department of Justice Office of Deputy Attorney General as a result of testimony he gave on June 15. Other examples BATFE retaliation against whistleblowers are cited. David Codrea breaks another Exclusive Report: Documents Indicate ATF, FBI Allowed Indiana ‘Crime Gun’ Sales, and suggests a name for the most recent addition to the growing list of BATFE field division organized crime operations encompassed by the ever-widening wake of the massive Gunwalker scandals: Gangwalker, this one in Indiana and Ohio. New evidence indicates that “the FBI and ATF were once again involved with allowing transactions rejected by NICS to proceed, indicating this practice could be more widespread than has been previously documented, and not confined to Southwest border operations.”
September 6, 2011 – The Wall Street Journal provides all new disclosure on a related BATFE scandal in Phoenix that stands apart from ‘Fast and Furious”: Grenades Case Hits Justice. Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), and the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), are now probing the Kingery case as an extension of their Fast and Furious probe. A January 2010 BATFE email exchange appears to show high-level approval of yet another layer of criminal behavior at BATFE and DOJ. One News Now: ATF reassignments step ‘closer to the truth’. Vallejo CA Times-Herald: Serious Questions Remain (reprint from Denver Post). Human Events: Three Fall Guys Won’t Make Fast and Furious Go Away. AZ Daily Sun: Botched gun sting raising questions. Longview TX News-Journal: Fatal flaw: Firings are justified as a result of ill-conceived federal gun investigation. Human Events: Obama, DOJ Play Musical Chairs at BATFE – Administration’s reaction to Fast and Furious scandal is a scandal. News: Source: ATF Gunwalker case to be transferred out of Arizona. Newsmax: Issa: ‘Fast and Furious’ Was a Crime.
September 7, 2011 – NPR: New ATF Chief Inherits Agency Fighting For Survival The headline says it all. We have reached a point where news outlets on both the left and the right realize that ATF is in danger of being abolished. Bob Barr, writing in The Daily Caller: It’s time to fill the ATF’s leadership vacuum. In this opinion piece, Barr argues that the Obama administration needs to nominate a director who is not an anti-gun zealot, and the firearms community must be willing to compromise on a nominee in whom they can have confidence to fairly enforce the law. The Arizona Daily Star: New criticism in ‘Fast, Furious’ Another story detailing the attempt to cover up the scandal. Washington Post: New federal prosecutors called in for cases arising from flawed arms trafficking operation. CBS News: McCain wants AG to testify at gunwalker hearing – McCain’s letter. Newsmax: U.S. Attorney General Seeks Distance from Gun Sting. CNN: Holder: ‘Fast and Furious’ operation didn’t reach DOJ ‘upper levels’. Fox News: Holder Denies Prior Knowledge of ‘Fast and Furious’. Reuters: Attorney General Holder seeks distance from gun sting. Investors Business Daily reports that Dan Restrepo, the National Security Council’s top man for Latin America, and two other White House officials were in on Gunwalker, stating that this “blows apart” continuing White House denials of prior knowledge of Gunwalker. IBD avoids the word, ‘perjury’ when referring to Holder’s congressional testimony, but has now begun to use the word, ‘impeachment’ in reference to Obama (when quoting Mike Vanderboegh): A White House ‘Gunrunner’?. Fox News interview VIDEO (5:03) – Issa on Grenadewalker – the latest addition to the rapidly expanding list of DOJ directed BATFE “walking” incidents under investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for numerous counts of felony criminal activity by DOJ, including conspiracy and treason.
September 8, 2011 – Coverage continues on Sen. McCain’s call for Senate hearings on Gunwalker, especially in Arizona. In a letter sent Wednesday, McCain said additional information released about the operation last week warrants a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of which McCain is a member. McCain asked the committee to call the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder; the Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano; and the ATF’s acting director, B. Todd Jones; as witnesses. Coverage: AP Phoenix Business Journal AZ Republic ABC News 15 AZ Daily Star Corvalis OR Gazette Times. Continuing coverage of AG Eric Holder’s denial that he knew of the Gunwalker operation: Gather.com Texas Insider Politico Fox News Tickle the Wire Examiner.com.
September 9, 2011 – Fox News: EXCLUSIVE: Third Gun Linked to ‘Fast and Furious’ Identified at Border Agent’s Murder Scene. More Gunwalker guns have been traced to US crime scenes. Sadly, this is likely to continue for years. CBS News – Politico – Fox News – LA Times – AZ Daily Star – UPI – ABC 15. September 9, 2011 – The Port Huron Times-Herald publishes an editorial on Gunwalker: Failed gun sting needs answers. They state “Operation Fast and Furious was a disgrace. The American people must know why it was created, why it failed and who was responsible.” In a surprising move, UPI publishes a special report: “ATF Mexico gun scandal far from over“. In it they report the cover up and the White House links. They state that the public deserves truthful answers. Boston Herald: Congress expands Fast and Furious probe to include White House. CBS News: ATF investigation expands to White House staffers. Third Gun Linked to ‘Fast and Furious’ Identified at Border Agent’s Murder Scene. The American Thinker editorial: Eric Holder, Another Day Another Denial. The AT contends that Eric Holder needs to take responsibility for the Gunwalker scandal and resign. If he doesn’t, Obama should fire him. The Daily Caller: Issa, Grassley take ‘Fast and Furious’ investigation to the White House. The Washington Post: Guns tied to botched federal weapons-smuggling probe are recovered at 2nd Arizona crime scene.
September 11, 2011 – Fort Wayne IN Journal Gazette: Gunrunning farce smacks of conspiracy. In this editorial, the paper contends that motive for Gunwalker was to provide justification for gun control in the US. California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says Attorney General Eric Holder is “so inept that he may be a danger as attorney general” and that President Barack Obama should consider firing him. Issa also states that the only conceivable reason for the program was to justify gun control in the US. In an interview on the Laura Ingraham Show Issa says Gunwalker was not “the right idea wrongly executed” as maintained by the administration, but something far more serious, by deliberate intent. Additional coverage: Newsmax – Main Justice – The Hill.
September 12, 2011 – The LA Times continues its extensive coverage of Gunwalker with a very sympathetic story on one of the gun stores that was involved in the operation. They make it very clear that the store owner Andre Howard had expressed his concerns to ATF repeatedly, and the ATF had responded with reassuring lies.
September 13, 2011 – The New Jersey newspaper the Courier Post accuses Eric Holder of conducting a cover up on Gunwalker. The Hill: Napolitano denies knowledge of Fast and Furious gun-tracking program. The Moral Liberal: Internal Docs List Crimes Tied To ATF Gun Operation. The Vista (UCSD Newspaper) publishes an editorial: Operation Gunwalker Backfires. Rep. Darrel Issa on Fox News: Fast and Furious: Who In The White House Knew?
September 14, 2011 – CBS News: 3 more murders linked to Gunwalker.
September 15, 2011 – Investors Business Daily article: Alcohol, Tobacco And Murder – IBD states that Gunwalker is worse than Solyndra, and that we need to find out if President Obama knew and hold him accountable if he did. Townhall.com: More Violent Crimes in Mexico a Result of Operation Fast and Furious. Ground Report’s Lawman Review: Outrage: Crimes tied to ATF Operation Fast & Furious uncovered. Human Events: “Fast and Furious” Corpses Pile Up – Issa follows the trail to the White House.
September 16, 2011 – The East Valley Tribune: Fast and Furious should be renamed ‘Foolish and Fatal’. Human Events: Are Fast and Furious Guns Coming to a Town Near You? The Washington Times: Fast and Furious gun program absurd, deadly. In another unrelated indication of trouble at ATF, agent gets three years in prison for embezzling cigarettes and guns: Chron.com – Daily Press – Hampton Roads.com.
September 17, 2011 – Big Government.com: Today’s Special: Rocket Launchers (from a Fast and Furious Dealer Near You). Lou Dobbs interviews BATFE Agent and Whistleblower Vince Cefalu (4:33) – Cefalu sees little change coming from within the agency with the departure of Ken Melson, since no other changes have been made in leadership. The Arizona Republic: Gun scandal skipping the big fish. “Monstrous and wrong.”
September 18, 2011 – Sacramento Bee: Mexico still waiting for answers on Fast and Furious gun program. Tampa Bay Online carries an LA Times Story: Gun seller who helped ATF had doubts about the sting.
September 19, 2011 – CBS News: Secret recordings raise new questions in ATF ‘Gunwalker’ operation. These recordings provide evidence that there was a 3rd gun (an SKS) recovered at the scene of Agent Terry’s murder. Why was this gun covered up? Even more interesting, who made the recording and are there more? Townhall.com – Katie Pavlich: Operation Fast and Furious: Coverup Continues With New Secret Recording. CBS News Releases more recordings: ATF Fast and Furious secret audio recordings. Agent says she has a “file” that will protect her. Newsday Editorial: Shine a light on gun operation. Arizona State University Newspaper: Heads should roll in administration’s Fast and Furious debacle.
September 20, 2011 – Newsmax: US Officials Kept Mexico in Dark on ‘Fast and Furious’. Human Events Editorial: Fast and Furious: Time to Come Clean – The media plays along with a massive cover-up. Examiner.com: Breaking news–Congressman Issa discards mainstream media for bloggers. Townhall.com: Attorney General in Mexico: 200 Murders Result of Operation Fast and Furious (Information from a conference call between Issa and Mexican AG, with reporters listening in). National Review Online: Did Fast and Furious Cause 200 Murders? CNSNews.com: Issa Says He Wants a Special Prosecutor to Probe ‘Fast and Furious’. CBS News has revised their previous article. They now reveal that the DOJ Inspector General turned the recordings over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona – WHO WERE THE SUBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION. The Inspector General’s office has confirmed that this. This revelation casts even more doubt over the administration’s internal investigation that so far has produced zero results. It should provide a boost to Rep. Issa’s call for special prosecutor, as well as his committee’s investigation. CBS News releases additional recordings, these include discussions where the head ATF agent discusses their fear of Congressional investigators and their expectation that AG Holder will shut them down. They express no fear of the DOJ Inspector General’s investigation. It appears that CBS is either releasing segments as they are reviewed, or they are releasing the least damaging segments first and they are building to the most damaging. The Washington Post links to the CBS recordings. Investor’s Business Daily editorial: The Administration’s Tangled Web.
September 21, 2011 – CBS News releases more recordings in which an ATF agent discuss how to deal with whistle blowing agents and the cover up. Newsmax covers Rep. Issa’s call for a special prosecutor. Human Events reports on the recordings in a piece entitled, “Fast and Furious Tapes: Sit Your Ass Down, Charles Grassley – It’s bipartisan, the conspirators don’t think much of Pat Leahy, either.” Townhall.com’s Katie Pavlich reports: Panic Mode: Holder’s Name Mentioned in New Fast and Furious Recordings. Fox News, in an article entitled, “Audio Tapes Reveal More Details in ‘Fast and Furious’ Gunrunner Scandal” provides background on the CBS tapes. According to Fox, the lawyer representing the Lone Wolf Trading Co. says owner Andre Howard made the tapes only after he suspected he was being lied to by ATF and DOJ. Fox News reports that William Newell, an ATF official who clearly gave false testimony before congressional investigators, has now admitted that his testimony “lacked clarity” and has submitted revisions to the committee. Fox News reports that Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa have directly accused the DOJ Inspector General – whose supposed “investigation” has produced zero results – of intentionally obstructing their investigation into Gunwalker. “The two lawmakers leading the probe into the Obama administration scandal claim Justice Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar compromised their investigators’ ability to get to the truth and potentially prosecute those responsible for selling thousands of weapons to the Mexican drug cartels.” They also allege that, “Schnedar failed to even listen to the recordings before handing them over to the actual targets of the investigation.” Fox News video: ‘Fast and Furious’ Coverup? – Rep. Issa details concerns over new details in botched ATF gun running operation. Is a special prosecutor needed?
September 22, 2011 – David Codrea, Gun Rights Blogger/Reporter for Examiner.com, one of the two reporters who broke the story in January has uncovered an email from that time period (January 5th) in which the ATF Chief Counsel Stephen R. Rubenstein discusses a post describing Gunwalker and ways they can retaliate against the posting agent (whose identity was unknown). The email was sent to acting ATF head Kenneth Melson. Melson replied that he was going to forward the email to “A” or “IA”. IA would be internal affairs. These emails not only prove that knowledge of Gunwalker was widespread within ATF management – they also prove that even after Agent Terry’s death they were working hard to illegally cover it up. Politico: Darrell Issa and Charles Grassley: DOJ compromised gun probe. New York Post: Holder’s hell week – More Fast & Furious fallout. The Hill: Issa: Fast and Furious probe ‘stonewalled’ by DOJ. The New American: Fast and Furious Scandal Grows. NRA releases a video – Fast and Furious Round-table with Katie Pavlich of Townhall.com and Matthew Boyle of the Daily caller. Great discussion of recordings, and a possible bombshell: Katie Pavlich has inside knowledge of an administration white paper (currently circulating within DOJ) that recommends that BATFE be abolished, and the assignment of BATFE responsibilities to other Federal Agencies, including the FBI. Pavlich indicates that the purpose would be to more effectively cover up and bury the mountain of emerging evidence that ties the White House directly to Fast and Furious and the rapidly emerging list of additional Gunwalker scandals.
September 23, 2011 – CBS News reports on NRA President Wayne LaPierre’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today in Orlando. They report that he stated that the American people were “never supposed to find out” about ATF’s “Fast and Furious” operation and that “”Fast and Furious” biggest cover-up since Watergate”. After reporting his charges, CBS then references support for them in their previous reports. Who would have ever thought that a MSM outlet like CBS would openly side with the NRA? Fox News, in a report entitled, “Republicans Step Up Pressure on Holder as More Details Surface on ‘Fast and Furious’“, reports that Rep. Lamar Smith, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Eric Holder that despite recent personnel changes at the Justice Department, the department cannot “pin this scandal on a few individuals and expect it to be forgotten.” He also wrote, “Fast and Furious was a result of systemic problems at the ATF. Congressional interest will continue until we fully understand who authorized the failed program.” It should be noted that this is the first time the House Judiciary Committee, where any impeachment would begin, has taken interest in Gunwalker. The Fox Report also covers NRA President Wayne LaPierre’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The weekly Standard, in an article entitled “Lawyers, Guns, and Money” reports on the cover up and calls upon Republicans to put more pressure on the administration in order to find out who was really responsible. Main Justice: Judiciary Chairman Questions Dual Role of Acting ATF Chief.
September 25, 2011 – BREAKING NEWS: Yet another unprecedented Gunwalker bombshell is dropped by original Gunwalker “whistleblower” investigative journalists David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh with the following exclusive: BATFE Letter and Sources Confirm That There Was No “Botched Sting Operation” in Fast and Furious. Codrea and Vanderboegh reveal that for some time now, Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley have been in possession of two BATFE letters bearing “proof” that there never was a “sting operation” associated with Gunwalker (exactly as ATF and DOJ whistleblowers have been on record clearly and consistently stating for 9 months). The “botched sting” story always was, and still is a false narrative fabricated to cover up the deliberate walking of guns to drug cartel operatives for the purpose of supporting the Obama administration’s consistently well-broadcasted lie that, “90 percent of Mexican drug cartel weapons come from US retail gun shops.” Further, the two letters, first public knowledge of which is represented in this report, also provide “proof” that specific individuals within BATFE ordered the purchase, followed by the direct “walking” of specific weapons to drug cartel operatives without going through straw buyers. Internal retaliatory tactics against BATFE whistleblower Special Agent John Dodson are also revealed.
September 26 – CBS News reports that the White House counsel has responded to a request by Rep. Issa’s committee to interview one of the administration officials who received information on Gunwalker. The answer is NO – HE WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE. The committee wants to interview National Security Advisor Kevin O’Reilly to “determine the extent of the involvement of White House staff in Operation Fast and Furious.” The question now is “What is the White House hiding?” Pittsburg Tribune: Fast and Furious: Justice’s obstruction. Fox News: Government Used Taxpayer Funds to Buy, Sell Weapons During ‘Fast and Furious’. The bombshell in this report: “This disclosure, revealed in documents obtained by Fox News, could undermine the Department of Justice’s previous defense that Operation Fast and Furious was a “botched” operation where agents simply “lost track” of weapons as they were transferred from one illegal buyer to another. “Fox News now believes that it is possible that the transfer of weapons to the cartel was deliberate. (AUDIO, 1:29) – Roger Hedgecock updates recent Gunwalker developments.
September 27, 2011 – The Lakeland FL Times publishes a large article on Gunwalker: Fast and Furious: Who knew what and when did they know it? (NRA leader calls for independent counsel; CBS says third errant gun possibly used in death; Dems call for gun control) It is a comprehensive article that asks three questions: 1) Who knew what, and when did they know it?, 2) Was the program intended to be effective in the first place, or was it intentionally devised as a gun-control scheme?, 3) Are Democratic calls for gun control intended to distract from the scandal? Several outlets report on an appearance by ATF whistle-blower Vince Cefalu at a townhall meeting in Arizona. Other officials were also present, including Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, and Rep. Paul Gosar: Townhall.com: Fast and Furious: Using Humans as Collateral Damage Cefalu: “BATFE has become a political entity rather than fulfilling its obligations as a law enforcement agency.” – “There are no longer checks and balances within ATF.” Babeu: “This scandal will “totally eclipse Watergate,” Babeu made the case that Operation Fast and Furious was used as program to restrict Second Amendment rights for law abiding citizens. Fox 10 News: Operation Fast and Furious: Ariz. Lawmakers Want Answers Now. KVOA Tucson Channel 4: Latest on Operation Fast and Furious Rep. Gosar: “We have to have the truth come out, and we need to be told the whole story.” Fox 11 News: Tucson town hall over Fast and Furious – Those responsible for the Fast and Furious mess should take note of this: “Gosar says if the House Committee can pinpoint who messed up, those people will be charged.”In other words, local AZ authorities are working with Issa’s committee and are willing to bring State charges against the responsible Federal officials. KVOA video report: Tea Party looking for answers in ATF gun mistake. Human Events: Fast and Furious – This is what we know so far. Newsmax: Sen. Grassley: Evidence Shows Government Sold Guns to Underworld. Fox News VIDEO (8:05): How Taxpayers Paid to Arm Mexican Drug Cartels – Greta Van Susteren interviews Senator Charles Grassley: How your taxes bankrolled and armed cartels in a massive, and still-expanding Justice Department scandal. Main Justice Quotes Rep. Issa, who states that both the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees will hold joint hearings in the near future. They intend to call Eric Holder, Lanny Breuer and former AZ US Attorney Dennis Burke to testify. The continuing reports of Judiciary Committee involvement is a strong indication that this scandal reaches high into the administration. It also takes us one step closer to impeachment.
September 28, 2011 – Forbes publishes a huge article on Gunwalker. The title: “‘Fast And Furious’ Just Might Be President Obama’s Watergate”. In the comprehensive article Forbes links the 90% lie to the ATF program to pump guns into Mexico, arguing that the motive for the program was political, with the goal being the justification of further gun control laws in the US. CBS News: “Congress: Feds failed to share ‘critical information’ with each other“. Examiner.com (The outlet that first broke the Gunwalker story): Mexican attorney general: “Obama more involved in Fast & Furious than admitted!” All Headline News is running the same story. Investor’s Business Daily publishes a large article that ends with a call to find and punish those responsible, “even if the trail ends at the Oval Office”. The LA Times confirms that an ATF/FBI paid informant smuggled guns across the border. Anderson Cooper interviews Sheriff Paul Babeu, who states that the entire ATF/DOJ chain of command is guilty of acessory to murder. Additional Anderson Cooper report. Additional report by KTAR. Fox News: Gunrunning Informant Used Taxpayer Money to Buy Drugs, Possibly Guns, Lawmakers Allege. LA Times: Gunwalker guns turn up in El Paso TX.
September 29, 2011 – Fox Chicago: Gunrunning Informant Used Taxpayer Money to Buy Drugs, Possibly Guns. Examiner.com: Jim Kouri, Law Enforcement Examiner, reports that there is considerable and growing anger over Gunwalker in the law enforcement community. The Weekly Standard (Blog): Will the ‘Fast and Furious’ Scandal Be Obama’s Watergate? The NY Post (editorial): A ‘Furious’ revelation – Feds sold guns to drug gangs. The Philadelphia Inquirer: In an editorial entitled “Two scandals threaten Obama“, the paper comments on the scandal.
September 30, 2011 – Townhall.com: Katie Pavlich publishes her second article on the white paper circulating in the administration that calls for the elimination of ATF. 450 agents would be laid off immediately, in addition to a roughly equal number currently being offered early retirement. These agents would be gone, they would not transferred. ATF’s current duties would go to DEA and FBI. The idea is to blame the agents and the agency in order to protect the administration. Pavlich says she has multiple sources. Examiner.com: In the first confirming article from any media outlet, Anthony Martin confirms that ATF may be on the chopping block. He cites posts at cleanUpATF.org. Townhall.com: Does Fast and Furious Put Impeachment on The Table? The NY Post reports on the F&F guns recovered in Texas. BigGovernment.com: Fast and Furious; A Lawless, Tax-Payer Funded (Impeachable?) Offense. In another classic move to limit news coverage, the White House released some – but not all – of the emails between ATF officials and Presidential aides. In addition to the emails that were not disclosed, the released emails indicate that there were multiple phone calls as well.
CBS News- Sharyl Attkisson of CBS, Blogging on Fox News – Townhall.com (Katie Pavlich) – Politico (Josh Gerstein).
October 1, 2011 – Canada Free Press: Operation Fast and Furious: The Scandal that Can No Longer be Denied. CBS News: New Fast and Furious docs Released by White House. Townhall.com (Katie Pavlich) – In the first bombshell a map has been found attached to an email sent by William Newell to the White House. The map shows where Fast and Furious guns were recovered in Mexico. William Newell has testified that “we never let guns walk” and the White House has denied any knowledge of guns being sent to Mexico. This map is strong evidence that those statements were false. San Angelo Standard Times: ‘Fast and Furious’ needs full investigation. World Net Daily, in an article entitled “Sheriff fighting drug war wants Obama buddy charged – ‘This had to have gone up to Eric Holder’“, lays out the case for local charges in Gunwalker. It is also clear that local law enforcement is actively investigating and that local charges will probably be brought against at least some federal officials.
October 2, 2011 – The Washington Times reports on the lack of confirmation hearings for a new ATF director. Since the Democrats control the Senate, it is clear that they do not want to hold a hearing that would force the Senate to face up to Gunwalker. The Daily Caller: Despite new disclosures, White House maintains senior officials didn’t know ATF was ‘letting guns walk’.
October 3, 2011 – NY Post editorial: Furiously unraveling – Gun scandal still growing. ABC News reports on the document dump. ABC provides no quotes from the investigative committee’s earlier testimony, quotes Newell without mentioning that his testimony was proven false by the facts, and quotes Eric Holder as saying that anyone hoping for evidence that this reaches high into DOJ will be disappointed. They describe the program as well intentioned, but poorly executed. This markedly conflicts with the reporting of CBS and the LA Times. Human Events’ John Hayward, in an article entitled, “Fast and Furious: White House Connection Grows Deeper“, contrasts William Newell’s testimony before Congress with the facts as revealed by the document dump. Hayward proves that Newell was clearly lying about the volume and content of his communication with White House staffer Kevin O’Reilly. Hayward also mentions the “graphic” (chart) of Fast and Furious recoveries in Mexico, and points out that O’Reilly’s response expresses absolutely no concern about the number of guns crossing the border. In fact, he asks if there is such a chart for the “Texas operation”. This strongly implies that O’Reilly was well aware of the purpose of both operations. Finally, Hayward points out that O’Reilly’s comments sound like someone who has found data for a term paper. While not conclusive, this tends to support the idea that the purpose of the program was to provide support for gun control. AWR Hawkins, writing on Big Government.com, also focuses upon the contrast between congressional testimony and recently revealed information. Hawkins also uses the graphic to make the point that the White House knew a great deal about the operation. CBS News: ATF Fast and Furious: New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010. Chicago Tribune: Top DOJ officials were briefed on F&F and gunwalking tactics. Fox News Video Report: New Document Sheds Light on Fast and Furious – When did Eric Holder learn about gun program? Proof that Holder knew of Fast and Furious, including guns going to cartels, long before he testified he did. There is also a memo between two of his immediate subordinates that specifically acknowledges “gunwalking”. Text report. Wall Street Journal: Justice Emails Show Officials Discussing Gun Probe. Human Events: Fast and Furious II – Follow-up to What We Know So Far. Washington Times Editorial: Fast and felonious – Obama gun warriors shoot themselves in the foot. “The “Fast and Furious” gunrunning probe is creeping closer to the Obama White House.” Washington Times: White House staffer was informed about gun probe. The San Angelo Texas Standard Times publishes an editorial by Jose De La Isla. Writing from Mexico City, he argues for a full and independent investigation. He gives us a little taste of the anger brewing in Mexico.
October 4, 2011 – YouTube AUDIO (9:57) Laura Ingraham interviews Sharyl Attkisson of CBS – White House Official Cussed at Her Over ATF Scandal. Fox News: House Republicans Request Special Counsel to Probe Holder on ‘Fast and Furious’. Dallas Morning News: Do Holder’s obfuscations clear your special counsel bar? LA Times: Emails show top Justice Department officials knew of ATF gun program. GOP seeks independent investigation of Holder. Main Justice: Holder Under Fire Anew For ATF Gun Operation. The Hill: Documents show Holder was informed of Fast and Furious operation in 2010. Politico: Lamar Smith: Special counsel must investigate Eric Holder. Human Events: Fast and Furious Bombshell: Has Eric Holder Been Caught Lying to Congress? – New surprises lurk within last Friday’s document dump. MyFoxLA: House Republicans to Request Perjury Probe for Attorney General. The State Column: McCain Blasts Holder as Smith Calls for Investigation. The Washington Times: Memo: Holder told of ‘Fast and Furious’ as early as July 2010. Latin America News Dispatch: Documents Claim U.S. Attorney General Holder Knew About “Fast and Furious” In 2010. Investors Business Daily: Indict Eric Holder. Human Events: Fast and Furious: The White House Loses Its Cool – Screaming and cussing directed at a CBS reporter. The Daily Caller: CBS reporter: White House, DOJ reps ‘yelled’ and ‘screamed’ at her over ‘Fast and Furious’ scandal. Townhall.com: Obama DOJ, White House, Screaming at Reporter Over Operation Fast and Furious. The Huffington Post: Eric Holder Investigation: GOP Presses For Probe Into Attorney General’s Possible Perjury. ABC News: Fast and Furious: GOP Says Eric Holder is ‘Either Incompetent’ or ‘Misleading Congress’. Newsmax: Holder Informed of Fast and Furious in 2010. Fox News (Greta Van Susteren): What Did Attorney General Holder Know About the Doomed ‘Fast and Furious’ Operation and When Did He Know It?
October 5, 2011 – Politico: Darrell Issa to Eric Holder: Admit you knew. The Daily Caller: AZ Congressman: Obama admin may be accessory to murder with Fast and Furious. CBS News: Informant: ATF “gun walking” went on for years. This informant is a licensed dealer who was recruited when he reported a suspicious buyer. He says that “gunwalking” started 4 years ago, under the Bush administration. The Atlantic wire: ATF Informant Is Sick About Selling Guns to Cartels. The Huffington Post: Darrell Issa Pressed To Add Bush Administration Program To Fast And Furious Investigation. Associated Press: AP sources: Bush-era probe involved guns ‘walking’. Approximately 16:00 PST – About two hours after the White House rejected the House Judiciary Chairman’s call for a special prosecutor, the acting ATF director announced that he is making 11 major personnel changes at ATF to “press the reset button”. He praised both those he demoted and both former director Kenneth Melson and the former AZ US Attorney. All were involved in Fast and Furious. Reports follow: CBS News: ATF’s new director shakes up agency. Fox News: New ATF Head: ‘We’ve Got to Hit Reset’ on Investigative Moves in Wake of Fast and Furious. The Bellingham Herald: ATF officials demoted in latest Fast and Furious fallout. Washington Post: ATF head makes 11 personnel changes in trying to move agency past gun-smuggling controversy. Wall Street Journal: New ATF Chief Shakes Up Top Ranks. Reuters: Trying to fix ties with Mexico after gun sting. AP: ATF’s new director shakes up agency.
October 6, 2011 – Major Shakeup at ATF, Main Justice.com declares. Embattled ATF shakes up staff, Politico agrees. ATF officials demoted over Fast and Furious, The Columbus Dispatch reports. Fox News: Did Eric Holder Mislead Congress? Fox News: House GOP Call for a Special Counsel. Fox News: In an on air report not yet posted on the net, Fox reports that additional documents surfaced today indicating that AG Holder was briefed on other previously unknown occasions – including a slideshow of “Fast and Furious” recoveries in Mexico. International Business Times: ATF Officials Reassigned as Fast and Furious Continues to Derail. Post: ‘Furious’ mess has Justice in full panic. CNN: New boss at ATF announces major shake-up at the troubled agency. USA Today: ATF probes gun trafficking to Mexico during Bush years. Washington Post: ‘Calm down’ about Fast and Furious gun sting, ATF acting director says. (AUDIO: 14:27) – Roger Hedgecock interviews Trey Gowdy, former federal prosecutor and Congressman on Holder’s culpability. Gowdy, who was present at both Judiciary and House Oversight Gunwalker hearings, said, “It is impossible to believe that Holder was unaware [of Gunwalker].” Further, “Either he lied, or he was the only one [in DOJ] who didn’t know what was going on.” In either case, it’s clear that if justice is served, Holder will be facing one or more charges of perjury. El Paso Chronicle: John Cornyn says Obama is “only person left with any confidence” in Eric Holder. Wall Street Journal: Parties Trade Blows Over Attorney General, Gun Probe. Fox News Latino: Lawmakers: Holder received 5 “Fast and Furious” memos in 2010. Politico: John McCain’s furious but not fast. The House Oversight and Reform Committee posts a very slick video entitled, “Holder vs White House: Who Is Accountable?” Examiner.com: Could Eric Holder be charged as an accomplice to murder(s)? KIVI-TV Boise, ID: Rep. Labrador calls on U.S. Attorney General to resign.
October 7, 2011 – CBS News: Deputy AG received detailed Fast and Furious briefing. Fox Phoenix: Are Sheriffs Calling for AG Holder to Resign? Fox News: Holder Challenges ‘Fast and Furious’ Allegations in Scathing Letter to Congress. Fox News: Holder Responds to Attacks Over Fast and Furious (Late in this story proof is offered that the Bush era program “Wide Receiver” was very, very different from Fast and Furious. DOJ memos are shown on screen that prove this. As of today Fox is the ONLY news agency to catch this. Hopefully others will take time to actually read the memos.) AP: Arizona sheriffs blast gun-smuggling operation. LA Times: Atty. Gen. Holder strikes back at GOP critics. CNN: Holder blasts GOP critics for their attacks over Fast and Furious gun operation. CBS: AG Holder responds to critics on Fast and Furious. USA Today: Holder defends testimony in ‘Fast and Furious’ gun probe. Salt Lake City Tribune: Holder answers critics on gun-smuggling issue. Wall Street Journal: Holder Defends Stance in Gun-Running Probe. CBS News (Sharyl Attkisson): Leahy plans oversight hearing with Holder This move is huge, especially if the hearings extend to “Gunwalker” in general. Although Senator Leahy is a loyal Democrat, he also represents Vermont, where support for the 2nd Amendment and the NRA is exceptional. This is the most likely explanation for why he intends to hold hearings – and why his defense of Holder and Obama has limits. If the Senate Judiciary Committee were chaired by anyone else this would not be happening. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms may hire its own investigator if Obama doesn’t appoint a special independent prosecutor. Said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb: “From our perspective, it looks like the president has complete confidence that Holder will continue to stonewall Congress and cover up this mess. The President has been asked to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the attorney general. If he doesn’t, then someone else must act.” Gottlieb further commented: “The biggest loophole we have to close is our government supplying guns to bad guys.”
October 8, 2011 – The Hill: Fast and Furious fallout puts Holder on collision course with Congress. The Hill publishes a summary Gunwalker timeline.
October 9, 2011 – Fox News Sunday VIDEO (14:57) – Issa Announces New Fast and Furious Subpoenas of Holder and the DOJ. A critical update on the latest “late Friday document dump”, carefully timed by the administration to slip in under the radar of the weekend news coverage. NewsMax : Pressure Grows for Holder’s Resignation: Subpoenas Threatened. CBS News: ATF gunwalking subpoenas may be sent this week. World Net Daily Editorial by Roger Hedgecock: What Holder Knew….. The Washington Times: Holder to get new subpoenas on ‘Fast and Furious’ program. The Daily Caller: Issa to issue new Fast and Furious subpoenas. Newsmax: Pressure Grows for Holder’s Resignation; Subpoenas Threatened. Pittsburgh Post Gazette Editorial: Impeach Eric Holder – The attorney general has lied to Congress.
October 10, 2011
– Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter to AG Eric Holder responding to This letter of October 7. Issa’s letter is posted today on the Committee Web site: “You Own Fast and Furious”. The Hill: Holder has hit new low, Issa charges. Issa: “Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you,” Issa wrote in his letter, sent to Holder on Sunday but publicly released on Monday. At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as attorney general. At worst, it places your credibility in serious doubt.” Newsmax: Issa to Holder: You’re Incompetent, Untrustworthy. Issa: “Whether you realize yet or not, you own Fast and Furious. It is your responsibility. You have made numerous statements about Fast and Furious that have eventually been proven to be untrue. Your lack of trustworthiness while speaking about Fast and Furious has called into question your overall credibility as Attorney General.” Investors Business Daily editorial:
Fast And Furious And Ugly. Fox News: Issa Responds to Holder Letter With Matching Gusto. Fox News Video: House Committee to Subpoena Eric Holder on ‘Fast and Furious’. Fox News Video: What Did Eric Holder Know? Politico: Darrell Issa: Eric Holder ‘owns’ Fast & Furious. The Daily Caller: Bob Barr: Holder not the real culprit in ‘Fast and Furious’ (He thinks the focus should be upon the BATFE).
October 11, 2011 – The New American: Calls Grow for Holder’s Resignation Over “Fast and Furious”. Breaking News – Fox VIDEO (3:04): Iran Planned Terrorist Attack with cartel support This bears a relationship to Gunwalker in two ways: 1) The ATF deliberately sent guns to known criminals prepared to support our enemies in an attack on US soil, 2) FBI and DEA kept quiet about it in order to preserve their informants in the cartels.
October 12, 2011 – House Oversight Committee Press Release: Oversight Committee subpoenas Attorney General for ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ Communications and Documents. Fox News Video: Inside the ‘Fast and Furious’ Subpoena of Holder. Fox News Video: Stirewalt and Gowdy on Attorney General Subpoena. Fox News: Issa Issues Subpoena to Holder in Fast and Furious Investigation. LA Times: Documents subpoenaed from Atty. Gen. Holder in ‘Fast and Furious’ probe. CBS News: Attorney General Holder subpoenaed for documents in ATF “Gunwalker” Fast and Furious case. NY Times: House Panel Issues Subpoena for Records on Gun Program. LA Times: Attorney general subpoenaed in probe of botched gun operation. NPR: House Panel Subpoenas Holder In ATF Gun Operation. Washington Post: House committee issues subpoena to Justice Department in guns-to-Mexico scandal. Washington Times editorial: Gunwalker is only the tip of a scandal iceberg. Washington Examiner: Holder should quit fast and furiously. Fox News: Issa Issues Subpoena to Holder in Fast and Furious Investigation. World Net Daily: Lawsuit wants to know who said what and when – Court action targets communications over ‘Fast and Furious’ scheming. Alpine Avalanche editorial: Ever vigilant: Fast and Furious an attempt at more gun control
October 13, 2011 – One News Now: Getting to the bottom of major scandal. NY Post: Congress takes aim at Holder. CNN editorial: Who will pay price for Fast and Furious? Fox News: Emails Show Justice Officials Drawing Blanks on ‘Fast and Furious’ Despite Memos.
October 14, 2011 – VIDEO (1:40) – BreitbartTV asks the burning question for which DOJ shill, Congressman Cummings has no answer: How did the President know about ‘Fast and Furious’ before Holder? CBS: “Grenade-walking” part of “Gunwalker” scandal. ABC News: Documents Highlight Bush-Era Incident Pre-Dating ‘Fast and Furious’. In contrast to yesterday’s reports, this report clearly contrasts the huge differences between “wide Receiver” and “Fast and Furious”. NPR: Double Take ‘Toons: Bag Holder? CBS News: “Fast and Furious” in focus on Face the Nation (Sunday) US News Debate Club…..Fast and Furious: Biggest Political Cover-Up Since Watergate Eric Holder Should Resign Facts Support Mr. Holder’s Truthfulness Gun Trafficking Laws Need an Overhaul Investigation Is Not A Witch Hunt But a Call for More Answers Newsmax: NRA’s LaPierre: ‘Fast and Furious’ Was Plot Against Second Amendment.
October 15, 2011 – Greeley Gazette: AG: Gun control would have stopped Fast and Furious. Why is the Arizona Sheriff’s Association calling for a special prosecutor to examine “Fast and Furious”? The Arizona Republic: Into the mind of … Paul Babeu.
October 16, 2011 -CBS News provided extensive coverage today on it’s flagship show “Face the Nation”. First, Rep. Issa and CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson appeared together presenting a great deal of solid evidence indicating that the scandal reaches high into the administration and that a cover up is under way. This was followed by Rep. Cummings who accused Issa of being on a witch hunt and that no one outside of the Phoenix ATF knew about the program, Rep. Cummings offered no evidence to refute the case made by Issa beyond the word of those under investigation. – Video of Interviews – Transcript. Newsmax: Issa: Holder Obviously Knew More About Fast and Furious Than He Admits. UPI: Issa: AG knew about ‘Fast and Furious’. Bloomberg Businessweek: Issa Says Holder Not Telling All on ‘Fast and Furious’ Probe. Mike Vanderboegh updates: SSI Exclusive: Is this any way to run a cover-up? The Empire Flounders Back. Selective Document Releases from the White House Help Prove Issa’s Case.
October 17, 2011 – CBS News: FBI hiding facts on “fast and furious” scandal? CBS News: Issa to press FBI for “gunwalking” info. Fox News: Issa Acknowledges Gun Probes ‘Similar’ — Not Identical — to ‘Fast and Furious’ Under Bush The article points out the critical differences between “Fast and Furious” and “Wide Receiver”. Mediaite.com: Rep. Issa Asked If He Is ‘Showboating’ With Fast And Furious On Face The Nation. Providence Journal Editorial: What Holder knew. Minot Daily News Editorial: Jogging Holder’s memory. Washington Examiner Editorial: Holder should fire his aides – or get fired himself. State Press: Americans “Furious” with recent gunrunning scandal. Opposing Views: Hillary Clinton to Face Heat Over Fast & Furious Gun Scandal? Fox News: Justice Department Accuses Issa of ‘Mischaracterizing’ Evidence in Probe of Operation Fast and Furious. “…sources have accused the FBI of covering up evidence to protect an informant working inside a major Mexican cartel. That informant, sources have alleged, helped pay for the weapons used in the attack that killed Terry. In addition, in recently disclosed recordings, a lead ATF investigator can be heard telling a Phoenix-area gun-dealer that an “SKS assault rifle out of Texas” had been found at the Terry murder scene.”
October 18, 2011 – Fox News: Senate Unanimously Passes Amendment Banning Funds for Fast and Furious-Style Programs. Fox News: ‘Fast & Furious’: How a Botched Operation Spawned Fatal Results. Fox News: Amendment to Ban Funds for Fast and Furious-Style Program Gains Democrat’s Support. LA Times: Sen. John Cornyn: No more ‘Fast and Furious’ gun programs. CBS News: DOJ: No 3rd gun in “Fast and Furious” murder. Longview WA Daily News: Investigate ‘Fast and Furious’ debacle. Big Government.com: Holder on Hot Seat for Fast and Furious Documents. Time: Punishment Pending. Time: Senate to End ‘Fast and Furious’ Gun Program. ABC News: Obama on ‘Fast and Furious’: ‘People Who Have Screwed Up Will Be Held Accountable’. NPR: Senate Votes To End ‘Fast And Furious’ Gun Program. CBS News: Obama on Fast and Furious: “People who have screwed up will be held accountable”. CBS News: Senate nixes gun-running stings after controversy. Pajamas Media: Obama Preparing to Throw Someone Under the Bus. Other than the great work done by CBS News (by Sharyl Attkisson, CBS investigative correspondent in the Washington bureau, whose early, solid coveragewas conspicuously interrupted by a period of silence after having established an early lead in breaking the story), Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and a precious few others, the mainstream broadcast media (led by The New York Times) maintained a strict blackout on the story for six months prior to June 14, trying their best to ignore this scandal because it doesn’t fit their agenda. The Congressional hearings finally forced their hand in mid-June. The Daily Caller: GOP reps directly press Obama on Fast and Furious.
October 19, 2011 – CBS News: Napolitano on ATF Fast and Furious: “We’re waiting for the Inspector General”. Opposing Views: Myth: 90% of Mexican Drug Cartel Guns Come from U.S.. Pajamas Media: Gunwalker: The Third Gun. Darrell Issa investigates the mysterious third gun present at BATFE Agent Brian Terry’s murder, which has been traced to a gunwalker source in the FBI. Cleveland Plain Dealer: Operation Fast and Furious a scandal that continues to build: A Closer Look. The Daily Caller: ATF priorities: Smuggle guns to drug cartels, arrest cigarette smugglers.
October 20, 2011 – The Huffington Post: Be Furious Over Operation Fast and Furious. Canada Free Press: It’s a Culture Thing ATF is hostage to an ingrained culture that has brought the agency nearly to its knees. CBS News: ATF Fast and Furious investigation: Congress tells FBI: clarify evidence in Brian Terry murder. Fox News: Congressional Investigators Target FBI Over Fast and Furious. Wall Street Journal: GOP Lawmakers Press FBI on Fast and Furious. The Daily Caller: Where is the outrage over Fast and Furious?
October 21, 2011 – Townhall.com: ATF Ignored Death Threats, Tried to Frame Whistleblower Agent to Cover Corruption. San Diego Union-Tribune: Good and bad of Issa v. White House.
October 24, 2011 – The Washington Times: Cornyn urging wider probe of ‘Fast and Furious’ – Sen. Cornyn believes that an operation much like Fast and Furious was run at the same time in Texas. The Cypress Times: Cornyn Asks Grassley, Issa For Formal Investigation Of Alleged Texas-Based Fast And Furious Operation. Examiner.com: Obama admin weak on gun prosecutions, report shows (Direct Link To Report).
October 25, 2011 – Chicago Sun Times: ATF boss: Despite ‘awry’ gun case, crackdown will continue (Interesting article. Jones, the new ATF direct repeats the party line about stopping gun smuggling to Mexico – but then talks about expanding operations that sound a great deal like “Operation Exile”, an NRA supported program from the Bush administration where ATF agents were embedded in local PDs. They then make sure Federal charges are brought against criminals using guns. Clearly, ATF leadership has decided a change in direction is needed.)
October 26, 2011 – YouTube/House Oversight and Reform: Issa Grills Obama Homeland Security’s Napolitano on Fast and Furious. YouTube/House Oversight and Reform: Gowdy to Napolitano: What Did You Know About Fast and Furious? YouTube/House Oversight and Reform: Chaffetz to Napolitano: What Role Did Homeland Security Dept. Play in Fast and Furious? The Daily Caller: Issa, Grassley: Holder needs to reveal info on 2nd agent’s murder, connections. Ticklethewire.com: Rep. Issa Suggests Homeland Chief Napolitano Moved Too Slow in Probe of Dead Border Agent Brian Terry. Ticklethewire.com: Atty. Gen. Holder Needs to Step Up and Take Responsibility for ATF’s Fast and Furious. Townhall.com: Janet Napolitano Still Giving Non-Answers on Operation Fast and Furious. Darrell Issa: Janet Napolitano slow on Fast & Furious. Main Justice: Napolitano: I was never briefed on Fast and Furious.
October 27, 2011 – Examiner.com: D.C. whispers–major Gunwalker figure hands over documents The documents supposedly directly contradict testimony by both Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano and contain details of the planning of Fast and Furious at highest levels of DOJ. They also support Hillary Clinton’s statement that the State Department was never informed of the operation. The Hill: Clinton: DOJ didn’t give State a ‘heads up’ about Fast and Furious. Human Events: Fast and Furious: Reaching the Unreachable Man
The phone call reporters never bothered to make. CBS News: Gun buyer linked to federal agent’s murder to plead guilty. Dallas Morning News: Cornyn joins leaders in questioning ATF’s handling of Dallas-Fort Worth gunrunning case.
CBS News: Clinton: Justice Dept. didn’t seek State Dept.’s permission for “gunwalking” operation.
October 28, 2011 – CBS News: ATF gunwalker update: Eric Holder to testify on Fast and Furious. TPMMuckraker: Eric Holder To Testify On Fast And Furious As Dems Call On Ex-ATF Director Melson.
October 31, 2011 – Townhall.com: Fast and Furious: NRA to Launch National TV Campaign Calling For Holder’s Resignation They have produced a 2 minute spot explaining the scandal, and they have the money to air it. Human Events: Human Events: John Hayward
Fast and Furious: 17 Members of Congress Now Calling For Holder to Resign. American Thinker: One Pivotal Week For Fast and Furious.
November 1, 2011 – NewsMax: 28 GOP Reps Join Call For Holder’s Resignation. Today’s hearing that includes Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer comments. Foxnews: Fox News on Fast & Furious: DOJ Knew About U.S. To Mexico “Gun Walking” Back In 2010. Foxnews: Senator Cornyn on Fox News: New Docs from Justice Department Raise More Questions on Fast & Furious. Foxnews: Grassley on Fox News: New Docs Lead to More Questions for DOJ on Fast & Furious. Townhall.com: Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer Blames Second Amendment For ATF/DOJ Gun Walking Mistakes. Politico: Lanny Breuer: wiretap no way to control Operation Fast & Furious. The Hill: Top Justice Dept. official: ATF should have stopped ‘gun walking’ tactics. Newsmax: 28 GOP Reps Join Call for Holder’s Resignation. Human Events: Fast and Furious: DOJ Officials Knew About Gun Walking Last April. UPI: U.S. official: Gun program ‘misguided’. CBS News: DOJ official knew of ATF “gunwalking” in April 2010. NPR: Official Admits ‘Mistake’ In Gun-Trafficking Case. The Daily Caller: Holder dumps new Fast and Furious docs as 11 more congressmen call for his resignation. The NY Times: Documents Reveal Reactions to Disputed A.T.F. Investigations in Arizona. The Wall Street Journal: Justice Official Regrets Gun Sting. Pheonix News Times: Former Arizona U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton Says He Trusted ATF Official in “Fast and Furious” Predecessor Operation; Got Memo on Gunwalking.
November 2, 2011 – PJ Media: Gunwalker: Lanny Breuer Fails to Take Pressure Off Eric Holder. Newsroom America: Justice Feared Bad Press in ATF Gunwalking Operation: Report. Arizona Daily Star: US officials knew of ‘gun walk’ issue in Sept. ’09. The Washington Post: Justice official questioned in Senate about ‘gun walking’ to Mexico. Examiner.com: Feinstein may have inadvertently confirmed Gunwalker ulterior motive. Top Justice official expresses regret for failure to warn on ‘gun walking’. Fox News: Brewer: The Buck Stops With Eric Holder. CNN: ‘Fast and Furious’ flap likely to linger. Arizona Daily Star: Ex-U.S. Attorney takes himself off case, citing gun-running controversy – Former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton will no longer represent the parents of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, because of what he called an effort by the Justice Department to link him to disgraced gun-running investigations. LA Times: Georgia terror suspects allegedly inspired by online novel – The Feds are now leveling accusations against Mike Vanderboegh, an Examiner.com reporter who just happens to be one of two bloggers who the ATF whistleblowers first contacted for help getting their story out. Vanderboegh was involved in getting the ATF whistleblowing agents both the protection of Sen. Grassley and coverage by CBS News. Now “federal agents” are accusing him of “inspiring” a group of domestic terrorists in Georgia. This looks exactly like retaliation. AP Story: Feds: Men got terror ideas from underground novel.
November 3, 2011 – The Huffington Post seems to be one of the first outlets to give Mike Vanderboegh a fair shake, followed closely by Fox News. El Paso Times: El Paso County Sheriff’s Office aided feds’ Fast and Furious. The Sheriff’s office was not told until after the operation that they were involved in “Fast and Furious”. This is further confirmation that the Fast and Furious operation was not limited to Arizona. The Dartmouth: Brooks: Too Fast, Too Furious. Wall Street Journal: Texan Guilty in Disputed Gun Probe. New American: Feinstein Favors Firearms Registration (as the “correct” response to the Gunwalker Scandal). CBS News: ATF legal counsel had “moral objections” to gunwalking. Arizona Daily Star: Two Fast and Furious guns found in AZ during searches. Fox News: New Details on ‘Fast and Furious’ This report details some of the important differences between Wide Receiver and F&F, and provides background on Wide Receiver. Examiner.com: Lanny Breuer, Asst. AG for DOJ, didn’t fool anyone as fall guy for Holder. The Daily Caller: Congressmen, rifle assoc. president: White House must address calls for Holder’s resignation. Examiner.com: Major discrepancies: Feinstein’s numbers on Gunwalker firearms.
November 4, 2011 – Fox News: Bush’s Top Cop Received 2007 Memo on ‘Gun-Walking’ Probe. The Washington Post: APNewsBreak: Bush’s attorney general got memo that mentioned gun-walking probe in 2007. Main Justice: Issa, Grassley Say Sensitive Information About ATF Whistleblower Was Leaked.
November 5, 2011 – The Hill: Eric Holder Has a Gun Problem. Andrew Breitbart Presents: MMfa Propaganda Watch: Media Matters Attacks ‘Fast and Furious’ Critic.
November 7, 2011 – TPMMuckraker: NRA: Obama Let Guns Walk To Mexico To Crackdown On Gun Rights. Townhall.com: Fast and Furious: Whistleblower Protection Reinforcement Legislation Introduced. The Wall Street Journal: Justice Faces ‘Sting’ Grilling.
November 8, 2011 – The Daily Caller: Holder to face gun-walking music at Senate hearing. Fox News: Cornyn to Holder: ‘Are You Winging This? Fox News: Fast and Furious ‘Worse Than Watergate’? Fox News: Holder Maintains He Didn’t Know About ‘Fast and Furious’. CBS News: Fast and Furious: What did AG Holder know? CBS News: Holder: I regret death of border patrol agent. C-Span.org: Video of entire Senate Oversight Committee Hearing (Note: Much more than Fast and Furious is covered). USA Today: AG Eric Holder grilled on flawed gun investigation. UPI: Operation Fast and Furious flares again. Deseret News/AP: Holder: Fast and Furious errors won’t be repeated. Salon.com: Holder: Fast And Furious Errors Won’t Be Repeated. iwatchnews.com: Fast and Furious hearing: Holder defends Assistant Attorney General Breuer (Grassley demands more documents on failed anti-gun-trafficking program). WLS: Holder regrets misleading Fast and Furious letter. TMPmuckraker: Holder: Fast And Furious ‘Not The Cause Of’ U.S. Guns Flowing To Mexico (VIDEO). The Washington Times: Holder: ‘I certainly regret’ agent’s death. The Hill: Holder: Question about ATF whistleblower should not ‘have been shared’ (video). CBS News: Holder on “Fast and Furious”: Never again. Talk Radio News Service: Holder Denies Guilt Over “Fast And Furious”. The Hill: Dems try to turn tables on Fast and Furious. LA Times: Holder decries ‘gotcha games’ in Fast and Furious testimony. Voice of America: US Attorney General: ‘Fast and Furious’ Effects to Linger. National Review: Fast & Furious Was . . . Bush’s Fault (Good coverage of the differences between Fast and Furious and Wide Receiver). New York Times: Holder Urges Lawmakers to Support Efforts to Stop Gun Trafficking (You have to read four paragraphs before anything is said about Holder’s troubles – almost like the Times went to a different hearing.) Christian Science Monitor: Fast and Furious ‘flawed,’ US agent’s death ‘regrettable,’ says Eric Holder. New York Post: Holder calls ‘Fast and Furious’ program ‘flawed,’ but defends response.
November 9, 2011 – Townhall.com: Fast and Furious Was Not Botched. The Washington Times: Family of slain border agent wants Holder to take responsibility. KTIV: Grassley doesn’t believe Holder’s story about guns program. ABC15: Brian Terry’s family: Attorney General “should take responsibility” for ATF role in Terry’s death. The Hill: Issa blasts DOJ over gun-walking letter. CNN: House Republican demands more ‘Fast and Furious’ information. LA Times: Holder’s ‘Fast and Furious’ testimony draws rebuke from victim’s kin. KUHF: Senator Cornyn Questions AG’s Response to ‘Fast and Furious’. Human Events: Fast and Furious Is Not a “Failed” Operation – Not if Democrats get their gun control laws after all. ABA Journal: Ex-US Attorney Admits Leaking Memo Intended to Make ‘Fast and Furious’ Whistle-Blower Look Bad. Arizona Daily Star: Fast and Furious memo remains secret despite leak. Orlando Sentinel: Searching for a smoking gun. Fox News Latino: Holder admits Fast and Furious blunders. Main Justice: NRAs ‘Fire Holder” Campaign Spurred by 2nd Amendment Concerns. Mason County Daily News: AG Eric Holder Admits Errors in ATF’s Fast and Furious Operation. CBS News: “Gunwalker”: Agent’s family wants death details. Tucson Citizen: Fast and Furious: Burke admits Smearing ATF whistle blower. Arizona Daily Star Editorial: The truth about Fast and Furious must be revealed. National Journal: Cornyn Says Holder Didn’t Acquit Himself on ‘Fast and Furious’. The Daily Caller: As a victim’s family speaks, 38 congressmen demand Eric Holder’s resignation.
November 10, 2011 – Hotair.com: Video: Cornyn blows up “Bush did it too” on Fast and Furious (Video). Ticlethewire.com: The NRA Guns for Atty. Gen. Holder. The Daily Caller: Grassley: Holder refusing to provide 11 witnesses for Fast and Furious interviews. The Washington Times: Grassley: Justice Dept. balking at making witnesses available. New American: Holder Cites Lack of Gun Control on Mexican Drug Cartel Problem.
November 11, 2011 – CBS News: Attorney General Eric Holder “sorry” for Terry family loss. Fox News: Family of Murdered Border Agent Breaks Silence, Lashes Out at Holder. Fox News (video): Parents of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Speak Out. USA Today: Border agent’s parents lash out against Eric Holder. Fox News: ‘Fast and Furious’ an Act of Treason? In Sight: Obama: ‘Impossible’ to Stop Gun Trafficking South. NY Post: ‘Furious’ excuse-making. Washington Times: EDITORIAL: Holder’s humanity gap – Fast and Furious apology from top lawman hangs fire. Fox Phoenix: Family of Murdered Border Agent Lashes Out at Holder. Arizona Republic: Slain agent’s memorial to include critics of gun sting
November 12, 2011 – Tucson Citizen: Truth closing in: Time for Eric Holder to resign. The Cypress Times: Holder’s Assistant Accused Of Lying To U.S. Senate.
November 14, 2011 – The London Telegraph: American Way: Whiff of scandal now taints Barack Obama. Salon: A narco’s case against the U.S. – How Operation Fast and Furious and a U.S. government informant benefited Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. Townhall.com: Fast and Furious: Brian Terry Will Change the Way America Does Business. The Cypress Times: Pressure Mounting From Lawmakers For Attorney General Eric Holder To Resign. KRGV TV: ATF Says They Still Do Not Have Enough Manpower (Unbelievably, someone at ATF thinks this is a great time to push for expansion – they even repeat the 70% lie.) The Arizona Republic (Op Ed): Goddard and Shurtleff: Congress painting ATF as the enemy (Interesting, another article trying to change the subject and again they are repeating lies – now the figure is 95%!) The New American: Holder Admits Lies in Fast and Furious, Refuses to Resign. Fox News: New Questions Surrounding Scope of Fast and Furious Probe.
November 15, 2011 – Fox News: Former Holder Chief of Staff Nomination to Court Imperiled Over ‘Fast and Furious’. KRWG News: Pearce Calls For Holder’s Resignation. The Hill: GOP letter to Obama: Holder should resign. KRGV: Battle for the Border: ATF in Houston (More pro-ATF propaganda). Fronteras: Judge Seals Murder Case Of Slain Border Patrol Agent. SSI Exclusive: They knew. Everybody knew. This one email proves it.
November 17, 2011 – Bloomberg Business Week: The Guns That Got Away (Large five page article, focusing primarily on – you guessed it – Wide Receiver. See, Bush did it too.) The Daily Caller: New emails: DOJ, Eric Holder manipulated press for favorable ‘Fast and Furious’ coverage (The interesting thing here is that people in ATF/DOJ are continuing to leak information to the press.) Latin American Herald Tribune: Mexico Asks U.S. to Extradite Alleged Gunrunners (Mexico’s government has requested the extradition of six U.S. citizens for weapons trafficking, including three people linked to a botched federal gun-tracking operation, Attorney General Marisela Morales said.) The Hill: Forty Republicans call for resignation of Eric Holder, Obama’s attorney general. The Christian Post: House GOP Letter: Eric Holder Should Resign Over Fast and Furious Scandal. Senator Grassley publishes an article with supporting documents: Facts are Stubborn Things…Deputy Attorney General Briefed on Agent Terry’s Death and Fast and Furious Connection – Setting the Record Straight on the Justice Department Hearing.
November 18, 2011 – Newsmax: White House Quiet as More Call for Holder to Quit. American Thinker: Explosive Email in Fast and Furious. Issa on CNN: Holding Attorney General Holder Accountable for Failed Operation Fast & Furious. Fox News: Obama Court Pick Grilled at Senate Hearing Over Knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious. KGRV TV: ATF Agents Bust Cartel Gun Smuggling Operation. Houston Chronicle: Did Texas let guns ‘walk’ into Mexico?
November 19, 2011 – Houston Chronicle: Did Texas let guns ‘walk’ into Mexico? ABC 7 ALBUQUERQUE: Officials Probe ATF’s Operation Fast And Furious. Canada Free Press: Indict Holder.
November 20. 2011 – Roger Hedgecock in WorldNet Daily: The ‘other’ gunwalking scandals. UPI: Report: Feds in Texas failed to nab guns. The Daily Caller: Bachmann first presidential candidate, 52nd member of Congress to demand Eric Holder’s resignation. Human Events: Rep. Bachmann Joins Congressional Calls for Holder’s Resignation.
November 21, 2011 – Fox News: Latest on ‘Fast and Furious’. Human Events: Rep. Bachmann Joins Congressional Calls for Holder’s Resignation. (???) – CBS News: ATF “Gunwalking” scandal timeline.
November 22, 2011 – Business Insider: GOP Candidates Want Eric Holder To Resign Over Fast & Furious Gun Smuggling Scandal. Fort Worth Star Telegram: Rick Perry calls for Attorney General Holder to resign. The Daily Caller: Huntsman demands Eric Holder’s resignation. Fox Nation: Perry: Holder Should Resign or Be Fired Immediately. Human Events: Holder Needs to Go, President Should Show Him the Door. Fox News: Michele Bachmann on FoxNews.com LIVE (Fast and Furious at 5:50). The Washington Times: Armed Illegals Stalked Border Patrol.
November 23, 2011 – Human Events: Fast and Furious: Brian Terry’s Killers Were “Hunting” Border Patrol Agents
November 24, 2011 – Long Island Herald: Alfonse D’Amato – It’s time for the attorney general to go
November 26, 2011 – Radio Iowa: Grassley “digging and digging and digging” into “Fast & Furious”. The Hill: Most GOP governors refuse to join calls for Attorney General Holder’s resignation
November 27, 2011 – Fox Pheonix: GOP, Dems Bicker About ‘Fast and Furious’ – Gun store owner worried about gun control. Canada Free Press: ATF and DOJ Break the Law: Conspiracy, Wire Fraud, Operation Fast and Furious.
November 28, 2011 – American Thinker: Rep. Maloney Lies about Fast and Furious. The Arizona Republic: ATF Gun Probe – Behind the Fall of Fast and Furious. The Arizona Republic: Key Question in Scandal; Why?
November 29, 2011 – The Daily Caller: Possible Hatch primary opponent calls for Holder’s resignation. Dakota Voice: Fast, Furious and Lawless Obama Regime. Main Justice: Senators Reluctant to Join House in Calling for Holder to Resign.
November 30, 2011 – The Daily Caller: Holder lashes out at The Daily Caller while refusing to address growing calls for his resignation. Fox News: ‘Fast and Furious’ Whistleblowers Struggle Six Months After Testifying Against ATF Program (The story details not only what has happened to the Whistleblowers, but how those agents who were responsible have been promoted). Fox News: Eric Holder vs. The Daily Caller: ‘You Guys Need to Stop This … You Guys Are Behind This’. Politico: Eric Holder to Daily Caller: Quit pressing me to quit. TPMUckraker: ‘You Guys Are Behind This’: Eric Holder Says Daily Caller Pushing For His Resignation. MainJustice: Holder Says Conservative Website Trying To Engineer His Ouster. Human Events: Eric Holder Demands We Stop Reporting On Him “You guys need to stop this.” Ticklethewire.com: Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Fed Up. Fox News: Whistleblowers Punished Over Fast and Furious? The Weekly Standard: Obama Admin Seals Records of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Implicated in Fast and Furious. JudicialWatch.org: U.S. Seals Court Records Of Border Patrol’s Murder. Hot Air: Holder a little testy over that whole, “why don’t you resign” thing. Washington Examiner: Dim Bulb: Attorney General Eric Holder. Slate: The Daily Caller’s Perfectly Legitimate Crusade Against Holder. Atlanta: Isakson frustrated with Eric Holder over gun operation – Sen. Johnny Isakson is calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to resign.
December 1, 2011 – NewsMax: GOP Sen. Inhofe: Holder Must Resign Over Fast and Furious. The Daily Caller: Holder blames Americans for gun-running. The State Column: Eric Holder’s ‘Fast and Furious’ problem grows. Big Government.com: BREAKING NEWS: Obama Knew About Fast and Furious in 2010? The Daily Caller: Sens. Chambliss, Corker and Risch: Eric Holder’s ‘Fast and Furious’ problem is serious, warrants close scrutiny. The Daily Caller: Inhofe demands Holder’s resignation over Fast and Furious, says he’s trying to shift blame. NRA News: Attorney General Eric Holder Blames Americans for Gun-Running. The Daily Caller: Holder calls for media silence, watchdogs scratch fleas.
December 2, 2011 – PJ Media exclusive: FBI Criminal Complicit in Brian Terry’s Death. Fox News: Memo Shows Early ATF Concern on Fast and Furious Probe Despite Claims. The Hill: Rep. Issa examining ways to reorganize ATF. Businessweek: Issa Says He May Recommend Putting Firearms Agency Into FBI. The Daily Caller: Issa: Holder should reform law-enforcement agencies or quit. The Hill (video): Rep. Issa explains why he’s not calling for resignations over ‘Fast and Furious’. Fox News: Memo Shows Early ATF Concern on Fast and Furious Probe Despite Claims. Justice Dept. details how it got statements wrong. Wall Street Journal: Justice Admits ‘Inaccuracies’ in Gun Letter. USA Today: Justice Dept. details inaccurate Fast and Furious statements. CBS News: Justice Dept. Fast and Furious emails show disagreement over response to Grassley. Politico: Top officials sent Fast and Furious false denials, documents reveal. TP Muckraker: Ex U.S. Attorney Called Grassley’s Staff ‘Stooges For The Gun Lobby’ For Fast And Furious Probe. CNN: Justice Department sends Congress 1,400 pages on ‘Fast and Furious’.
December 3, 2111 – The New American: Members of Congress demanding Holder’s resignation reaches 50, and counting – Documents Show Officials Lied About Fast and Furious. The Hill: New documents detail how Justice sent faulty info on gun walking. American Thinker: New Fast and Furious Memo Backs Up Whistleblower Testimony. AP: Romney says Attorney General Holder should quit. Big Givernment.com: ‘Fast and Furious’ Not Holder’s First Controversy Involving the Murder of an American Citizen. Fox Detriot: Memo Shows Early ‘Fast And Furious’ Concern. The New American: Documents Show Top Officials Lied About Fast & Furious. HotAir.com: Another Friday Fast and Furious document dump. Politico: The ‘Gun Lobby’ and Dennis Burke’s future. UPI: Fast and Furious denials found to be false. Latin American Herald Tribune: U.S. Justice Department Sends Congress “Fast and Furious” E-Mails. The Marietta Times: Justice Dept. details how it got statements wrong
December 4, 2011 – Examiner.com (Law Enforcement Examiner, Jim Kouri): Fast and Furious document dump: Shocking lawlessness exposed. The Weekly.com: Romney Says Attorney General Holder Should Quit. The Tampa Tribune Editorial: Operation Fast and Furious is infuriating. News Room America: Report: DOJ Gave Inaccurate Responses Over ‘Fast and Furious’. Third Age.com: ATF In Hot Water Over Fast and Furious Operation.
December 5, 2011 – WTOP: Interim ATF director: Recovering from ‘Fast and Furious’. Fox 28 (South Bend ID): Romney says Attorney General Holder should quit. TPM Muckraker: Issa’s Suggestion Of Folding ATF’s Duties Into FBI Probably Isn’t Going Anywhere. New York Post Editorial: Fast & furious lies – Justice Dept. must come clean. The Cypress Times: FAST AND FURIOUS DOCUMENT DUMP: SHOCKING LAWLESSNESS EXPOSED. Scrippsnews: Thomasson: FBI and firearms agency unlikely to merge. Mitt Romney: Eric Holder should resign for Fast and Furious mishap. Newsmax.com: Holder to Face Congressional Grilling on Fast and Furious. The Hill: Issa expands Fast and Furious probe to include alleged money laundering. TPM Muckraker: Emails Show DOJ Trusted ATF Denials Of Fast And Furious ‘Gun Walking’ Allegations. Fox News: Did DOJ Officials Lie About Fast & Furious? Fox News: DOJ Documents Raise New Questions on Fast & Furious. Fox News: New Questions About Fast & Furious – DOJ docs show officials may have lied about scandal.
December 6, 2011 – Fox News: Fast and Furious Document Dump. Ticklethewire.com: Rep. Issa Announces Investigation into DEA Letting Money Flow to Cartels. WTOP: Restoring the reputation of ATF. American Thinker: DOJ lied about Fast and Furious in letter to Congress. Huffington Post: Mexican Drug War: U.S. Accused Of Laundering Drug Cartel Money. Big Government.com: Breaking News on Fast and Furious: Holder Adds Money Laundering to Gun Smuggling. TPM Muckraker: Issa Expands Probe Of ATF’s Fast And Furious To Examine DEA Money Laundering. Florence AL Times Daily: FBI, firearms agency unlikely to merge. Roll Call (Opinion): Lightfoot: Eric Holder, ATF Agents Should Be Indicted. CBS News: Legal U.S. gun sales to Mexico arming cartels (Report details how guns sold directly to the Mexican government are diverted to the cartels. Many, many more than in Fast and Furious. 9000 guns diverted in one year. In 2009, 26% of guns sold to the Mexican military were diverted to the cartels. Administration refuses to give sales figures for 2010 and 2011. The story fails to mention that when these guns are recovered, they are counted as “US sourced”. ATF and the administration then uses these figures to justify gun control in the US.) Fox News: ATF Special Agent Talks Fast and Furious. Business Insider: REPORT: U.S. Agents Are Laundering Money For Mexican Drug Cartels. North Jersey.com: Justice Dept. details how it got statements wrong. Fronteras Desk.org: Emails Indicate Justice Dept. Tried To Conceal Gun Walking Operations. ACLJ: Obama Administration Must Cooperate with Congress on Fast and Furious. Fox News: Justice Department Under Fire Over ‘Fast and Furious’.
December 7, 2011 – CBS News: Documents: ATF used “Fast and Furious” to make the case for gun regulations. Fox News: Grassley Calls for Top Justice Official’s Resignation Over Fast and Furious. Fox News: More Testimony From Holder on Botched Gunrunning Op. Fox News: Fast and Furious: Incompetence vs. Coverup? Fox News: AG Holder to Testify on ‘Fast & Furious’. The Daily Caller: La. congressman doubles down on Holder resignation call with House floor speech. The Daily Caller: New documents tie Fast and Furious to gun-control agenda. ABC15: ABC15 Investigators in DC during Fast and Furious testimony. Politico: Eric Holder to get ‘Fast & Furious’ grilling from GOP. TPM Muckraker: Obama Has ‘Full Confidence’ In Eric Holder Ahead Of ‘Fast And Furious’ Hearing. The Washington Post: Grassley calls for resignation of Justice Dept. official over guns operation. Reuters: Senator demands ouster of top Justice official. Human Event: Fast and Furious: The Gun Control Objective. Forbes: Inside President Obama’s War On The Fast & Furious Whistleblowers. National Review Online: CBS Links Fast and Furious to Gun Control.
December 8, 2011 – AUDIO (11:51) – Roger Hedgecock Interviews Congressman Ted Poe (R-Tx) on today’s House Oversight Hearing – Under oath today, AG Holder could not say who authorized ‘Fast and Furious’. Perjury has occurred on numerous occasions. Poe calls for special counsel investigation for criminal prosecution. Holder’s position is to blame gun owners for the conduct of ATF. The Mexican drug cartels want 2 things – money and guns. This administration has directly provided both under the self-stated directive to prevent both. More hearings to come will proceed with charges of contempt of Congress. Poe gives his personal commitment to get to the truth. Despite continued stonewalling by Holder, “We will get the information one way or another.” The Hill: GOP lawmaker: AG Holder could be impeached over gun-tracking program. AP via WISN: GOP Critic Threatens Impeachment Over ‘Fast And Furious’. Fox News: Republican: heads must roll in Fast and Furious. Business Insider: Today’s Big Gun Smuggling Hearing Could Be The End For Eric Holder. The Washington Times: House Republicans say ‘Heads should roll’ in Fast and Furious operation. Fox News: Holder Suggests ‘Fast and Furious’ Guns Will Be Used in Crimes for ‘Years to Come’. AZ Capital Times: Panel chairman blasts Justice Dept. on gun probe. Christian Science Monitor: Is Eric Holder’s grip on the ‘Fast and Furious’ fiasco slipping? Newsmax.com: Rep. Issa: Attorney General Eric Holder ‘Weak and Flawed’. Newsroom America: ATF Planned to Use ‘Fast and Furious’ to Push for Tighter Gun Laws. Politico: Darrell Issa starts ‘Fast and Furious’ website. Hot Air: Issa: Holder misled Congress on Fast & Furious to cover for staff. CBS News: Lawmakers: Heads should roll over gun-walking. Tucson Sentinel: Issa launches Fast and Furious website. Contra Costa Times: Romney says Holder should quit. NY Times: Holder, Grilled on Gun Inquiry, Says He Won’t Resign. Salt Lake City Tribune: Republican: Heads must roll in Fast and Furious. KRGV: Attorney General in Hot Seat Over Operation Fast and Furious. Newsday: Republicans: Heads must roll in ‘Fast and Furious’. Savanna Now: EDITORIAL: Federal foul-up: Heads should roll. The Washington Post: Holder faces House Republicans over health-care law, ‘Fast and Furious’. Reuters: Attorney General Holder vows not to quit in gun sting case. Investors Business Daily: Holder Told To Clean Up Mess. Examiner.com: Breaking: Issa receives more damaging Gunwalker emails. NPR: Fast And Furious Questions For U.S. Attorney General. Business Week: Gun Law-Enforcement Operation Called ‘Reckless’ by Holder. The Hill: Issa brings social media component to Fast and Furious probe. AZ Capital Times: Republican: Heads must roll in Fast and Furious. Fox 5 Las Vegas: AG: Guns from ‘Fast & Furious’ will turn up for years. Townhall.com: Behavior by Department of Justice Officials May Lead to Impeachment. LA Times: Atty. Gen. Holder accuses critics of politicizing ‘Fast and Furious’ case. CBN News: Holder: Buck Stops with Me on ‘Fast and Furious’. Fox News: Holder Takes Heat from Republicans. CNN: Eric Holder grilled on gun program. MSNBC: Republican: Heads must roll in Fast and Furious. MSNBC: Attorney General Holder vows not to quit in gun sting case. MSNBC: Obama pick for tax post faces new roadblock. ABC News: Republican: Heads Must Roll in Fast and Furious. ABC News: Republican Rep. Issa Grills Attorney General Holder. ABC News: ATF Gun Scandal: Holder Declared Hostile Witness Before Congress. CBS News: Eric Holder in hot seat over “fast and furious”. CBS News: Lawmakers: Heads should roll over gun-walking. CBS News: Holder set for lawmakers’ heat on gun-walking. WBUR (NPR Boston): Fast And Furious Questions For U.S. Attorney General. The Daily Caller: Rep. Joe Walsh believes Fast and Furious purpose was to increase gun control. The Hill: Issa says administration using Fast and Furious for stricter gun laws. C-Span.org: Complete video of today’s hearing.
Selected C-Span VIDEO Highlights from Today’s Hearings:
Issa Pushes Holder for Truth on Handling of Fast and Furious
“How Is It That You & Secretary Napolitano NEVER Discussed Fast And Furious?” Congressman Chaffetz
Issa on Fast & Furious: AG Holder and DOJ Continue To Delay Oversight Investigation
Gowdy to AG Holder: Wiretaps for Operation Fast & Furious and Hierarchy of Key DOJ Players
Adams Grills Holder Over Fast and Furious Operation
Mr Attorney General We Believe You’re With Holding Documents! Congressman Issa
Congressman Lungren “You Screwed Up! You Ought To Admit You Screwed Up!”
Attorney General Holder, Does The Buck Stop With You?
December 9, 2011 – NewsMax: GOP: Impeach Holder if he Doesn’t Come Clean on Arms Trafficking ‘Mess”. The Daily Caller: Congressman attempts to transfer Fast and Furious blame onto NRA ‘radicals,’ the Senate — Holder obliges. NY Post: ‘Furious’ twisting. The Minnisota Post: Is Eric Holder’s grip on the ‘Fast and Furious’ fiasco slipping? Lubbock Online: Fast and Furious Criminal Hoax is Unraveling. Newsroom America: Holder Says No One at Justice ‘Lied’ About ATF Gun-running Operation. Canada Free Press: A Plot To Undermine The Right To Bear Arms. American Thinker: Holder Claims Former DAG Had No Knowledge Of ‘Operational Tactics’. The Cypress Times: DEMS BLAME BUSH FOR OPERATION FAST AND FURIOUS WITH FABRICATIONS. WTMA: AG Eric Holder to Congress: ‘Lying’ About Fast and Furious ‘A State of Mind’. Forbes OP ED: Fast and Furious Stonewallings Call For Eric Holder’s Impeachment. The Daily Caller: GOP congressman: Dems playing Holder’s ‘defense lawyers’ [VIDEO]. Human Events: Darrell Issa on ‘Fast & Furious’: They Made a Crisis to Limit People’s 2nd Amendment Rights (Video). Fox News (opinion): Fast and Furious Scandal Cries Out for Answers. Fox News (opinion): Holder Puts Obama in a Double Bind. Fox News: Sen. Cornyn: Eric Holder ‘Obstructing’ Investigation. Fox News: Holder a Political Liability for the Obama Administration? Fox News: Friday Lightning Round: Eric Holder’s Testimony. The Daily Caller: Rep. Sandy Adams: Holder either ‘incompetent’ or ‘not being truthful,’ should step down.
December 10, 2011 – All Media NY: Fast and Furious: Bungled and Deadly. American Thinker: Fast and Furious Victims’ Voices Live On Through Their Families. New Hampshire Union Leader: Insult to injury: Fast and more furious. PJ Media: Impeach Holder and DOJ Officials for DOJ Lies – “Holder’s brazen display before the House Judiciary Committee signals that the Justice Department is in deep trouble. It is time for Eric Holder to go. It is time for his Chief of Staff Gary Grindler to go. It is time for Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer to go. The list shouldn’t end there. The swirl of corruption also taints Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich, who managed the production of the false letter to Congress about Fast and Furious. It also taints Tracy Schmaler…Honest Americans haven’t seen this degree of dishonest defense of corruption in almost four decades. Except now, the corruption involves hundreds of murders and thousands of guns, not a burglary. The rot at Holder’s DOJ is not confined to a few political officials. It extends to entire units.”
December 11, 2011 – Bayou Buzz: McConnell Accuses Justice Department of Misleading Congress. Newsmax: Sen. McConnell Slams Holder for ‘Stonewalling’ on Fast and Furious. The Hill: McConnell says Holder ‘misled’ Congress. National Journal: McConnell Accuses Justice Department of Misleading Congress. The Arizona Daily Star: Agent’s slaying becomes rallying point.
December 12, 2011 – Newsmax: Rep. Poe: Holder ‘Dodged Questions’ on Fast and Furious. National Review: The Missing Fast and Furious E-mails. Main Justice: Tax Division Nominee Could Be Another Fast and Furious Casualty. United Liberty: The heat is building on Eric Holder. Fox News: AG Holder Under Fire. Examiner.com: Exclusive: Texas Rep. Poe: ‘F&F a ruse to go after U.S. gun sales. Fox News: No Confidence in Holder (Greta Van Susteren Says she was not suspicious until now – but she now believes Holder is hiding something. She also says that someone in the White House knew – but she is not ready to say Obama knew.)
December 13, 2011 – The Hill: House GOP proposes ‘lost confidence’ resolution on Attorney General Holder. Examiner.com: Breaking–Issa to grill Burke about Gunwalker today. Roll Call: ‘Fast and Furious’ Gets New Scrutiny – Issa to Interview Gun Sting Principal Again. The Daily Caller (Opinion): Does Holder have any shame? Daily Targum (Opinion): Obama shows weak command. Human Events: One Year Ago, Holder’s Operation Fast and Furious Came Undone – Terry’s death stopped the star-crossed gun walking program. The Washington Times: Parallels between Fast and Furious and Pancho Villa’s murder of Americans. Beloit Daily News: ‘Hiding facts on Fast & Furious’. Big Journalism.com: Fast and Furious Watch: No Coverage From NBC Nightly News in All of 2011. Big Journalism.com: ABC World News Continues To Ignore Fast And Furious. Phoenix New Times: Congressman Ben Quayle: Eric Holder Must Step Down. Still Mum on Joe Arpaio. The Daily Caller: Rep. Ben Quayle on Holder: ‘I call for his immediate resignation’.
December 14, 2011 – C-Span: Senate Questions FBI Director About Detention Rules, “Fast & Furious”. Big Government.com: One Year Ago Today, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry Was Killed With Fast and Furious Weapons. LA Times: ‘Fast and Furious’ death: Slain ATF agent’s family speaks out. Investors Business Daily: Documents Show Justice’s Breuer Misled On ‘Furious’. CBS News: Terry family marks one year anniversary of death of their son, Brian Terry, murdered border patrol agent. Fox News: FBI Director Denies Cover-Up Involving ‘Fast and Furious’ Guns Found at Border Agent’s Murder. Hot Air: Remembering Brian Terry. Fox News: Was ‘Fast and Furious’ a Tool to Push ATF Agenda?
December 15, 2011 – Fox News: Fast and Furious Scandal Gives Rise to Gun Regulation Debate (Asks question: Was program about gun control? ATF wanted to use Fast and Furious to justify long gun reporting, reporting regulation not needed because dealers already report suspoius transactions and cooperate with ATF enforcement, ATF figures on guns recovered in Mexico are bogus and explains why – Phoenix Asst. AG called cooperating gun stores “evil” – William Lajeunesse is one small step from closing the circle.) Big Government.com: Fast and Furious Update: A Timeline of When Holder and Company Shared Information. Ticklethewire.com: ATF’s Tom Brandon Named ticklethewire.com’s Fed of the Year. The Daily Caller: One year later, Brian Terry’s congressman refuses to hold Holder accountable. The Daily Caller: 75 cosponsors sign House resolution of ‘no confidence’ in AG Eric Holder. Fox News: Independent Investigation Needed for ‘Fast and Furious’? CBS News: GOP candidates: Eric Holder should be fired for “Fast and Furious”. TPM: Something The GOPers Agree On: ‘Gun-Walking’ Heads Should Roll. The Arizona Republic: Family of slain border agent Brian Terry calls for prosecution of feds. Tucson Sentinel: Family blasts feds on anniversary of Brian Terry’s death. Big Government.com: Breaking: Copy of ATF Email Wanting More Gun Control in Wake of Fast and Furious. The Washington Times: KUHNER: Obama’s Watergate (Kuhner not only goes after Holder, he makes the point that Obama may very well have known too.)
December 16, 2011 – Fox News Radio: FAST & FURIOUS INVESTIGATION. Beaufort Observer: Fast and Furious is an impeachable offense. Fox News: Are Holder’s White House Days Numbered?
December 17, 2011 – American Thinker: Fast and Furious, the U.S. and Mexico. Des Moines Register: John Carlson: It’s not fast and furious for Eric Holder.
December 18, 2011 – The Tucson Citizen: YOUR RESIGNATION, MR. HOLDER – Cong. Quayle Calls for Attorney General’s Resignation. Hot Air: Dallas Morning News: Is anyone really buying Holder’s excuses on Fast & Furious? Arizona Daily Star: FBI chief denies cover-up in Terry slaying – Congressional team still in doubt about death of border agent.
December 19, 2011 – The Daily Caller: NYT runs ‘Fast and Furious’ factual inaccuracy, favoring Holder. The Weekly Standard: Eric Holder Claims Racism Responsible for Fast and Furious Criticism. Newsroom America: Holder Cites Racism as Motivator for Calls to Step Down. National Review Online: Holder Plays the Race Card. Politicology.com: Holder Says His Critics Are Motivated By Race. The Daily Call er: Justice Dept silent as Holder charges critics with racism. Townhall.com: Want Answers About Fast and Furious? You’re a Racist. Fox News: Holder Plays Race Card? The Grio: Eric Holder tells NY Times he’s taking hits for Obama because ‘We’re both African-American’. Politico: Darrell Issa wants to hear more from Holder. The Daily Caller: Issa pick January 24 for Holder D-Day. Post Chronicle: Dems Blame Bush For Operation Fast and Furious With Lies. The Daily Caller: Congressman: Holder’s race-card play ‘orchestrated’ by Obama.
December 20, 2011 – Fox News: Is Atty Gen Victim of Racism? Human Events: Eric Holder: ‘Critics Don’t Like Me Because I’m Black’. The Week: It’s time for Eric Holder to resign. Big Government.com: Fast and Furious Update: Rep. Isaa Tells Holder To Expect More Hearings. Newsmax: Lieberman Launches Probe of Fast and Furious Program.
December 22, 2011 – Hot Air: Lieberman launches Senate probe of Fast and Furious. Hot Air: Fast and Furious: The Lieberman Follow-Up. The Daily Caller: Lieberman directs staff to examine Fast and Furious coordination. Rockland County Times: Calls Growing for Attorney General Eric Holder to be Impeached and Tried for Perjury, Other Crimes. Rockland County Times: FAST AND FURIOUS WAS FELONIOUS AND FALLACIOUS.
December 23, 2011 – Canada Free Press: One Thing to Know About ‘Fast and Furious’ – Know this: While Eric Holder plays games with Congressional investigators, the person who gave ultimate approval to this deadly travesty is still on the federal government payroll, being paid with your tax dollars. Big Government.com: The Left’s Ward on the Second Amendment Continues as Gun Sales Skyrocket. Examiner.com: BREAKING: Border Patrol commissioner leaving; Lieberman blasts process.
December 27, 2011 – Examiner.com: Holder’s OIG ’Gunwalker’ investigation passes historic milestone today. TPM Muckraker: ATF Head Could Recommend Terminations, Suspensions Following Fast And Furious IG Report. Reason.com: 11 Things Washington Post Readers Think Government Screwed Up in 2011.
December 28, 2011 – National Gun Rights Examiner: Administration/media collaboration continues Gunwalker misdirection. Ticklethewire.com: Ex-ATF Chief Blames Underlings for Fast and Furious. Human Events: Fast and Furious: Holder’s “Investigation” Now In Progress Longer Than JFK Assassination Inquiry.
December 29, 2011 – FOX19 (KY): Reality Check: Did the feds push “Fast and Furious” to enact new gun laws? Fox News/Gerta Van Sustren/Rush Limbaugh: Rush On the Record with Greta Van Susteren: Additional Segments. Newsworks.org: The 2011 Public Misconduct Awards.
December 30, 2011 – TPM Muckraker: NRA’s Fundraising Growing Quickly As They Gear Up To Defeat Obama. New American: Obama’s Anti-gun Agenda Remains Alive and Well. Big Government.com: Can the 2nd Amendment Survive Four More Years of Obama? (Don’t Bet on It) Big Government.com: Judicial Watch’s “Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” Executive Edition.
Continue to:
The Gunwalker Scandal: Overview and Timeline, Part 2
