Roger Hedgecock
© 2011
Did Obama and Attorney General Holder secretly allow U.S. purchased weapons to wind up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels to justify a new round of federal gun-control laws? The evidence for this impeachable offense is growing.
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee will be convened by Chairman Darrell Issa to consider the latest revelations involving "Operation Fast and Furious," an exploding scandal now known as Gunwalker.
Both Chairman Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, believe that the Bureau of Firearms, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives, or ATF, an agency of the Obama Justice Department, ran a program out of the Phoenix, Ariz., ATF office from early 2009 through 2010 that allowed thousands of guns to be purchased by "straw buyers" in Southwest states' gun shops, over the objections of the gun-shop owners, then "walked" south across the border to the waiting hands of the murderous Mexican drug cartels.
ATF at first denied the existence of the operation, then called it a "sting gone wrong," then went into stonewall mode when CBS News documented the operation with on-camera interviews of the ATF agents who were involved and who objected to watching as guns walked over the border.
These ATF agents were ordered to observe and not arrest as hundreds of guns at a time were purchased by known "straw buyers" for the cartels. When the buyers handed off the guns to others who were headed to the border, the agents were told to follow the buyers, not the guns. Some sting.
The agents went public to the media when these guns, identified by serial numbers, turned up at the site of shootouts with cartel gunmen that claimed the lives of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in Arizona and ICE agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico.
The Mexican government is furious, too. These "walked" guns have been identified in the murder of more than 150 Mexican law-enforcement and military personnel in the ongoing war between the drug cartels and the Mexican government. The Mexican Congress has opened its own investigation with powerful Mexican senators calling the ATF operation an act of war on Mexico.
Sen. Grassley stated last week that congressional investigators have evidence of a cover-up at the Justice Department. His statement was based on congressional investigators questioning the acting director of the ATF, Kenneth Melson.
Melson, you may remember, was supposed to resign two weeks ago, taking the fall for the Gunwalker scandal. He refused to go and instead showed up with his private lawyer to tell Issa's investigators that there is a "smoking gun" internal memo in the Justice Department indicating that "political appointees" (appointed by Obama) in the Justice Department were involved.
Melson also told Issa's investigators that Justice had filed affidavits in court under oath in support of wiretaps in "Operation Fast and Furious" "inconsistent" with later denials by Justice Department officials of the facts of the ATF operation. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee will be convened by Chairman Darrell Issa to consider the latest revelations involving "Operation Fast and Furious," an exploding scandal now known as Gunwalker.
Both Chairman Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, believe that the Bureau of Firearms, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives, or ATF, an agency of the Obama Justice Department, ran a program out of the Phoenix, Ariz., ATF office from early 2009 through 2010 that allowed thousands of guns to be purchased by "straw buyers" in Southwest states' gun shops, over the objections of the gun-shop owners, then "walked" south across the border to the waiting hands of the murderous Mexican drug cartels.
ATF at first denied the existence of the operation, then called it a "sting gone wrong," then went into stonewall mode when CBS News documented the operation with on-camera interviews of the ATF agents who were involved and who objected to watching as guns walked over the border.
These ATF agents were ordered to observe and not arrest as hundreds of guns at a time were purchased by known "straw buyers" for the cartels. When the buyers handed off the guns to others who were headed to the border, the agents were told to follow the buyers, not the guns. Some sting.
The agents went public to the media when these guns, identified by serial numbers, turned up at the site of shootouts with cartel gunmen that claimed the lives of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in Arizona and ICE agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico.
The Mexican government is furious, too. These "walked" guns have been identified in the murder of more than 150 Mexican law-enforcement and military personnel in the ongoing war between the drug cartels and the Mexican government. The Mexican Congress has opened its own investigation with powerful Mexican senators calling the ATF operation an act of war on Mexico.
Sen. Grassley stated last week that congressional investigators have evidence of a cover-up at the Justice Department. His statement was based on congressional investigators questioning the acting director of the ATF, Kenneth Melson.
Melson, you may remember, was supposed to resign two weeks ago, taking the fall for the Gunwalker scandal. He refused to go and instead showed up with his private lawyer to tell Issa's investigators that there is a "smoking gun" internal memo in the Justice Department indicating that "political appointees" (appointed by Obama) in the Justice Department were involved.
Melson also revealed to investigators that guns were bought by, and then sold to, cartel related individuals who ATF agents did not know at the time were also paid informants of the FBI and/or DEA. This means the American taxpayer has been paying for all sides of this war.
Former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel famously taught us that Obama views every crisis as an opportunity to advance the (progressive) agenda.
Mexican cartel violence along the border is the crisis. Gun control is the agenda.
Beginning in 2009 and continuing to this day, Obama, Janet Napolitano and even Hillary Clinton have claimed that guns purchased in gun shops and gun shows in the U.S. are fueling the civil war between the Mexican government and the drug cartels. Now we know that Obama's Justice Department goosed the flow of guns south with an $80 million ($10 million from the "stimulus") ATF operation. It was not a sting, but rather a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Even with the growing "Gunwalker" revelations, the push for more gun control lives on.
Over the weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story with the headline, "ATF data defy theory, tie U.S. gun flow to cartels."
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer are cited in the article demanding restoration of the expired federal ban on "assault weapons." The senators base their demand on ATF reports that 70 percent of the 29,284 weapons recovered in cartel related crimes in Mexico and submitted to the U.S. government for tracing in 2009 and 2010 were "United States-sourced firearms."
Given the Chronicle's headline, you would think the cartels get all their guns from the U.S. In fact, the Mexican government confiscated more than 300,000 weapons in cartel-related actions during 2009 and 2010. Only 29,284 were submitted to the U.S. government for tracing because the rest came from other sources. And CBS News has reported that as many as 3,700 of those weapons were in Mexico courtesy of the Obama administration's Operation Fast and Furious.
The recently captured third ranking leader of the Los Zetas cartel bragged to Mexican interrogators that all the cartels were buying guns from the U.S. government. There is new evidence supporting that claim.
Pajamas Media quotes Phil Jordan, a former CIA agent and former leader of the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center, claiming that the Obama administration is also running guns directly to the Zeta cartel through the State Department's U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program. 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."
Given the "crisis" of guns in the hands of the cartels (in a country with strict gun-control laws) partially caused by gunrunning by the U.S. government itself, it is beyond silly for Feinstein and Schumer to advocate more gun restrictions on U.S. citizens as the answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment