Thread: Rep.Issa says Fast and Furious subpoenas will be issued soon

Rep. Issa says Fast and Furious subpoenas will be issued soon

By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 8:49 PM EST, Sun October 9, 2011

Washington (CNN) -- House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said Sunday that he could issue subpoenas to the Justice Department this week in connection to a now-discredited federal gunrunning operation.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Issa said that he wants a better understanding of who knew what, when about Operation Fast and Furious.

"But more importantly, we have to understand at what level did the authorization really come?" he said.

"People at the top of (the) Justice (Department) were well briefed, knew about it and seemed to be the command and control and funding for this program."

The operation involved agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowing illegal sales of guns believed to be destined for Mexican drug cartels to "walk" from Phoenix, Arizona, gun stores into Mexico.

GOP calls for attorney general probe
The idea was to track the sellers and purchasers of guns to Mexican cartels, but the program became mired in controversy after weapons found at Mexican and American murder scenes were traced back to the program. Mexican officials and critics in the United States called the program a failure, saying it exacerbated the longstanding problem of U.S. weapons getting into the hands of the violent Mexican cartels.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the Judiciary Committee in May that he had known about the Fast and Furious program for just a few weeks.

He responded angrily Friday to Republican critics of his handling of the controversial operation, charging them with using "irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric."

"I simply cannot sit idly by as a (Republican) member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform suggests, as happened this week, that law enforcement and government employees who devote their lives to protecting our citizens be considered 'accessories to murder,'" Holder said in a letter to members of Congress.

"Such irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric must be repudiated in the strongest possible terms," he said.

The bitter debate followed the release last week of Justice Department documents on Capitol Hill that prompted Republican critics to charge Holder knew about the now-discredited gun operation before he previously claimed.

Holder insisted, as his Justice Department aides have for several days, that he was not inconsistent in his testimony.

At the committee's May 3 hearing, Issa, R-California, raised the subject of the program with Holder.

"When did you first know about the program, officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious? To the best of your knowledge, what date?" Issa asked.

"I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Operation Fast and Furious for the first time over the past few weeks," Holder testified.

On Sunday, Issa told "Fox News Sunday" that the Judiciary Committee has invited Holder to "come and clear the record."

"Clearly, he knew when he said he didn't know. Now the question is what did he know and how is he going to explain why he gave that answer," said Issa.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/09/politics/ ... d-furious/

Interesting, but nothing will come of it... You think Obama gonna let his corrupt DOJ take a hit.... never... All horse and pony show.

The idea was to track the sellers and purchasers of guns to Mexican cartels, but the program became mired in controversy after weapons found at Mexican and American murder scenes were traced back to the program. Mexican officials and critics in the United States called the program a failure, saying it exacerbated the longstanding problem of U.S. weapons getting into the hands of the violent Mexican cartels.

Of course, they never had control of what they were doing from the beginning. Seriously, baiting the bad guy is an investigation technique but this was a complete fail and too many guns were used in a mismanaged situation.

Dixie

Holder and the DNC will probably assemble a team of crackerjack lawyers to put a successful spin on the whole episode. Then there will be acquittal by the Mainstream Media plus an attempt to make this look like the failed Clinton impeachment attempt(which always struck me as a quixotic effort).

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What Eric Holder knew …
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But Holder's Friday letter digs a deeper hole for the attorney general. Holder denied in writing that he had ever heard of "Fast and Furious" "prior to the public controversy about it." The public controversy was the assassination of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010 with guns the drug assassins got from the "Fast and Furious" buys.

In May 2011, Holder told Congress he "became aware" of "Fast and Furious" only "a few weeks ago." Last Friday's letter contradicts that statement.

Trail of Guns, Death, and Invasion Leads To Barack Obama

http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-251834-0-da ... rasc-.html

by William Gheen
President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC
www.ALIPAC.us

October 5, 2011

So now Obama's appointed Attorney General Eric Holder has been caught lying to Congress and lying to the public, right in the middle of this scandal.

We know that the Fast and Furious scandal and the trail of guns, death, and invasion of US States leads right back to Barack Obama for several reasons.

OPERATION GUNRUNNER Information Collection Point
http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-233906-0-da ... rasc-.html