Thread: New Fast and Furious docs released by White House

New Fast and Furious docs released by White House

CBS News Investigates
By Sharyl Attkisson

WASHINGTON - Late Friday, the White House turned over new documents in the Congressional investigation into the ATF "Fast and Furious" gunwalking scandal.

The documents show extensive communications between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell - who led Fast and Furious - and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the phone. Such detailed, direct communications between a local ATF manager in Phoenix and a White House national security staffer has raised interest among Congressional investigators looking into Fast and Furious. Newell has said he and O'Reilly are long time friends.

Newly-released White House documents (pdf)

ATF agents say that in Fast and Furious, their agency allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to be sold to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. At least two of the guns turned up at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

ATF Manager says he shared Fast and Furious with the White House

The email exchanges span a little over a month last summer. They discuss ATF's gun trafficking efforts along the border including the controversial Fast and Furious case, though not by name. The emails to and from O'Reilly indicate more than just a passing interest in the Phoenix office's gun trafficking cases. They do not mention specific tactics such as "letting guns walk."

A lawyer for the White House wrote Congressional investigators: "none of the communications between ATF and the White House revealed the investigative law enforcement tactics at issue in your inquiry, let alone any decision to allow guns to 'walk.'"

ATF Fast and Furious: Who at the White House knew?

Among the documents produced: an email in which ATF's Newell sent the White House's O'Reilly an "arrow chart reflecting the ultimate destination of firearms we intercepted and/or where the guns ended up." The chart shows arrows leading from Arizona to destinations all over Mexico.

In response, O'Reilly wrote on Sept. 3, 2010 "The arrow chart is really interesting - and - no surprise - implies at least that different (Drug Trafficking Organizations) in Mexico have very different and geographically distinct networks in the US for acquiring guns. Did last year's TX effort develop a similar graphic?"

The White House counsel who produced the documents stated that some records were not included because of "significant confidentiality interests."

Also included are email photographs including images of a .50 caliber rifle that Newell tells O'Reilly "was purchased in Tucson, Arizona (part of another OCDTF case)." OCDTF is a joint task force that operates under the Department of Justice and includes the US Attorneys, ATF, DEA, FBI, ICE and IRS. Fast and Furious was an OCDTF case. An administration source would not describe the Tucson OCDTF case. However, CBS News has learned that ATF's Phoenix office led an operation out of Tucson called "Wide Receiver." Sources claim ATF allowed guns to "walk" in that operation, much like Fast and Furious.

Congressional investigators for Republicans Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have asked to interview O'Reilly by September 30. But the Administration informed them that O'Reilly is on assignment for the State Department in Iraq and unavailable.

One administration source says White House national security staffers were "briefed on the toplines of ongoing federal efforts, but nobody in White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk."

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-2 ... 91695.html

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Did last year's TX effort develop a similar graphic?"

This is interesting. I wonder if any were found near Falcon Lake?

Originally Posted by Newmexican

Did last year's TX effort develop a similar graphic?"

This is interesting. I wonder if any were found near Falcon Lake?

=========================

Great question. I'm sure the wife and family of David Hartley would give anything to know.

Of course anyone coming forward as a material witness are murdered or bribed into clamming up within a few hours.

David Hartley's wife reported he was killed with automatic weapons fire, which she barely escaped from with her life.

He could have even been murdered with a F&F weapon.

Document Dump: White House in Heavy Communication About Operation Fast and Furious

Katie Pavlich
Blogger, Townhall.com
6 minutes ago Barack Obama March 2011:

"First of all, I did not authorize it [Operation Fast and Furious]. Eric Holder, the attorney General did not authorize it."

"This is a pretty big government, the United States Government, I've got a lot of moving parts."


Barack Obama June 2011:

"As you know my Attorney General has made clear he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico."

"The investigation is still pending and I'm not going to comment on a pending investigation"

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on the investigation if it is not completed."

New documents from the White House show extensive communications between for Special Agent in Charge William Newell, who has since been promoted to a cushy position within the Obama Justice Department in Washington D.C., and White House national security team staff about Operation Fast and Furious. In the video above, Obama claims it is his administration's policy to "catch gunrunners and put them into jail," when in fact ATF and DOJ policy under Obama has been exactly the opposite. ATF agents were told by senior officials to allow gunrunners to put high powered weapons into the hands of ruthless cartels, not to arrest them and to allow them to go back into Mexico.

From CBS News:

The documents show extensive communications between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell - who led Fast and Furious - and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the phone. Such detailed, direct communications between a local ATF manager in Phoenix and a White House national security staffer has raised interest among Congressional investigators looking into Fast and Furious. Newell has said he and O'Reilly are long time friends.

William Newell admitted during testimony on Capitol Hill in July that the White House had in fact been in contact with him about Operation Fast and Furious. Newell even referred to Kevin O'Reilly as, "a good friend." Previous to Newell's admission, the White House denied any knowledge or authorization of Operation Fast and Furious. Once Newell said he was in contact with O'Reilly, the White House then claimed O'Reilly and two other White House national security staffers knew about the program but didn't know "details."

Now, we know that White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly was heavily briefed about the details of the operation through emails and phone calls.


http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavli ... nd_furious

Originally Posted by Newmexican

Document Dump: White House in Heavy Communication About Operation Fast and Furious

Katie Pavlich
Blogger, Townhall.com
6 minutes ago Barack Obama March 2011:

"First of all, I did not authorize it [Operation Fast and Furious]. Eric Holder, the attorney General did not authorize it."

"This is a pretty big government, the United States Government, I've got a lot of moving parts."


Barack Obama June 2011:

"As you know my Attorney General has made clear he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico."

"The investigation is still pending and I'm not going to comment on a pending investigation"

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on the investigation if it is not completed."

===========================

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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-d ... to-mexico/

[quote][i]Gun shop owners and whistle-blowing agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) recently announced their concerns with a controversial government program which allows the smuggling of U.S. weapons across the nation’s southern border. In response, the Obama administration is now denying having any knowledge of the operation.

Dubbed “Project Gunrunner,â€

Documents Suggest Holder Knew About 'Fast and Furious' Earlier Than He Claimed



By William Lajeunesse

Published October 03, 2011

| FoxNews.com



For the first time, documents appear to show Attorney General Eric Holder was made aware of the Operation Fast and Furious earlier than he claimed -- up to 9 nine months earlier.

The documents seem to contradict what Holder told a House Judiciary Committee on May 3, when he said he could not recall the exact date, but he'd "probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

However, in a July 2010 memo, Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder straw buyers in the Operation Fast and Furious case "are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels."

Also, on October 18, 2010, one of Holder's chief deputies, Lanny Breuer, chief of the department's Criminal Division, told Holder in a memo that prosecutors were ready to issue indictments in Operation Fast and Furious.

Documents also show, contrary to earlier reports, the Justice Department was aware that ATF agents under the department's direction were involved in the controversial practice known as "gun walking" -- allowing illicit gun sales to proceed to track the traffickers to higher-ups. The department has said it did not allow guns to "walk."

When agents "let guns walk," they stop surveillance and allow criminals to transfer weapons to others. In this case, that meant allowing the guns to cross the border into Mexico. It is a highly controversial practice agents typically are taught not to do.

However, in an October 17, 2010 memo, Deputy Attorney General Jason Weinstein asks another attorney in the Criminal Division if Breuer should do a press conference when Fast and Furious is announced, but says, "It's a tricky case, given the number of guns that have walked."

His associate, James Trusty writes back, "It's not going to be any big surprise that a bunch of US guns are being used in MX (Mexico), so I’m not sure how much grief we'll get for 'gun walking.'"

Until now, there's been an attempt to portray Operation Fast and Furious as a rogue operation by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office. But insiders claim these documents show the Department of Justice in Washington was intimately aware of the case almost from the beginning.

In response to the documents released today, the Justice Department said Holder’s response referred to when he first learned of the “troubling tacticsâ€