Thread: Witnesses to ATF gunrunner operation to name names

Witnesses to ATF gunrunner operation to name names

'By the end of this, they'll prove that orders came from the very top'


Posted: July 25, 2011
9:52 pm Eastern

By Michael Carl
© 2011 WND





The Project Gunrunner, or "Operation Fast and Furious," investigation is moving to the next level with hearings set this week in which the border agents who worked in the field while weapons were being dispatched to Mexican drug lords will testify.

"This hearing will focus mainly on how Mexican officials and ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) officials stationed in Mexico were kept in the dark on Operation Fast and Furious," said Becca Watkins, a spokeswoman for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The controversy is over a program set up by the federal government that reportedly allowed banned individuals to buy hundreds, maybe thousands, of guns with the knowledge they probably would be taken to Mexico and used in that nation's drug-related violence.

Investigative journalist and Second Amendment analyst Mike Vanderboegh says the witnesses probably will name names.

"There are names within Justice, not just in the ATF, that come up time and again in this. One of them is Assistant Attorney General Lanny Brewer. I rather suspect that his name will be mentioned this time," Vanderboegh said.

Vanderboegh said it looks like the government itself, from the highest level, was trying to undermine the Constitution.

"They're gradually building a case for a much wider, national conspiracy. By the end of this process, they'll be able to prove that orders came from the very top," Vanderboegh said.




They're also building a case showing that Fast and Furious was only one component of a much larger plan. I believe that's what's going to happen," he said.


U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told San Diego talk-radio host Roger Hedgecock that this phase of the hearings will focus on Mexico.

Vanderboegh said an important part of these hearings will feature ATF agents who began to make noise about the operation in Mexico.

"The hearings are going to deal with how the attachés in Mexico were severely limited by headquarters and how they were kept in the dark – how they were lied to," Vanderboegh said.

"When you have a fellow like Darren Gill who used to be the attaché in Mexico City, who lost his job because he protested too much about the fact that they were not telling the Mexicans, that the entire program was a mess," Vanderboegh said.

"Remember, as I said, Darren Gill risked his career and, in fact, lost his career by opposing the policy of not telling the Mexican government; Darren Gill is another one of the unsung heroes in this," Vanderboegh said.

"He thought that this was a policy that originated out of Phoenix, so he began to try to correct it, and he was himself corrected by the people in headquarters. He will be naming names," Vanderboegh stated.

Vanderboegh said that what happened to Gill is tragic but expected.

"When you track a dangerous tiger, you do it very carefully and methodically, and make no mistakes, otherwise you'll get eaten," Vanderboegh said.

"There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded bureaucracy that has federal power, and badges and guns, and the ability to put people in jail or wreck their lives," he added.

WND reported last week that there are rumors that the Justice Department may retaliate against the whistleblowing agents. Watkins says that Issa's committee will not let that happen.

"We are working to make sure this shocking display from the Justice Department is completely laid bare," Watkins said.

Vanderboegh believes that after Tuesday, the administration will not have the time to retaliate against agents who testify.

"I think that after Tuesday, the tiger will have so much more trouble that retaliating against ATF agents will be the least of their worries, based on information that I've heard," Vanderboegh said.

"The thing that everyone has been speculating on and waiting for is an Alexander Butterfield Moment," Vanderboegh said.

Alexander Butterfield was the Navy officer and assistant to H.R. Haldeman during the Nixon administration who revealed the existence of the White House tapes and taping system.

Historians and political analysts speculate that Butterfield's revelations led to President Nixon's resignation.

"At some point we are going to see, I predict, in this scandal, an Alexander Butterfield moment, where someone asks the question, that is critical, takes this thing all the way to the top, and the witness does one of two things," Vanderboegh said.

"He either takes the Fifth (the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution that protects a witness against self-incrimination), which in any case points in the direction for where the evidence goes, or he tells the truth," Vanderboegh said.

"And if he tells the truth, upon that truth, the Obama administration will fall ultimately," he asserted.

Vanderboegh suggested that the other major issues surrounding the Obama administration have not gained public traction because the pressure has not come from the people.

He added that the voters have to be diligent to ensure that any facts brought out by the hearings are publicly pursued.

"Nothing will ensure that Obama is held accountable except the American people and their demand that we get to the bottom of this. This is a bottom-up scandal. I mean, it was broken by alternate media on the internet," Vanderboegh observed.

"The ATF agents themselves broke it on their web site and [it was] picked up by me and David Codrea. Then we used that information to get U. S. senators to send people out to talk to the Whistleblower agents," Vanderboegh said.

Vanderboegh is also realistic about the process that will lead to the Obama administration being held accountable because of the American people's lack of indignation.

"They're hardly indignant at all, because they don't quite understand the truth," Vanderboegh explained.

"But, that's where it's up to WorldNetDaily's readers to demand of their congressman that we not only have these hearings which are happening, but that we demand a special prosecutor and follow this thing to the end," he said.

WND reported the call for a special prosecutor by Rep. Allen West, R-Fla.

"This is just another sad chapter in the Eric Holder book of ineptness and incompetence," West said. "Eric Holder needs to be brought before an investigative committee and if those charges are warranted he needs to be held accountable.

"At least the president needs to realize that Eric Holder needs to be removed from the Department of Justice … or else it appears President Obama is complicit and in approval of the actions of his attorney general," he said.

In an earlier story, WND reported that documents connected to Project Gunrunner could implicate the White House.

Larry Pratt commented that the document called for coordination with the White House.

"In the Gunrunner document, they talk about the need to have policies that are consistent with policies directed by the White House and the Department of Justice," Pratt explained.

"It seems to me that not only does this field manual describe what's been going on in bureaucratic language, it's pretty clear it's pointing that the origin of this (operation), the request or the demand for this is right up to the White House," he said.



Read more: Witnesses to ATF gunrunner operation to name names http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=326029#ixzz1TBLnVlGF

Lanny A. Breuer was unanimously confirmed as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division on April 20, 2009.

As head of the Criminal Division, Mr. Breuer oversees nearly 600 attorneys who prosecute federal criminal cases across the country and help develop the criminal law. He also works closely with the nation’s 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in connection with the investigation and prosecution of criminal matters in their districts. Mr. Breuer is a national leader on a range of federal law enforcement priorities, including financial fraud, health care fraud, public corruption, and violence along the Southwest Border. He has also been a leading voice on policy issues related to criminal law enforcement, including the scope of prosecutors’ discovery obligations in federal criminal cases and sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses. Mr. Breuer regularly testifies before Congress on the Administration’s policy initiatives and advises the Attorney General and the White House on matters of criminal law. For his work as Assistant Attorney General, the National Law Journal recently named Mr. Breuer a "Visionary" in the Washington, D.C. legal community, and he was recently ranked eighth on Ethisphere’s list of The 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics.

Mr. Breuer began his legal career in 1985 as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, where he prosecuted violent crime, such as armed robbery and gang violence, white collar crime, and other offenses. In 1989, he joined the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP, where he worked until 1997, when he joined the White House Counsel’s Office as Special Counsel to President William Jefferson Clinton. As Special Counsel, Mr. Breuer assisted in defending President Clinton in the Senate impeachment trial.

Mr. Breuer returned to Covington in 1999 as co-chair of the White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group, where he specialized in white collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation and represented individuals and corporations in matters involving high-stakes legal risks. He also vice-chaired the firm’s Public Service Committee. At Covington, Mr. Breuer developed a reputation as one of the top defense lawyers in the country. He has been recognized as a leading litigator by numerous publications, including American Lawyer ("45 Under 45"), Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, Guide to the World’s Leading White Collar Crime Lawyers, The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, and Washingtonian ("Big Guns"). He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a Barrister of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, and a member of the American Law Institute.

Mr. Breuer received his B.A. from Columbia College in 1980 and his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1985.

http://www.justice.gov/criminal/about/aag.html

The failed federal anti-gunrunning program known as Operation Fast and Furious got so out of control in November 2009, it appeared the U.S. government was single-handedly "arming for war" the Sinaloa Cartel, documents show, even as ATF officials here kept lying to fellow agents in Mexico about the volume of guns it helped send south of the border.

Those shocking allegations are revealed in the latest congressional report investigating the operation.

At one point, agents say guns sold under the watch of the program took just 24 hours to travel from a gun store in Phoenix to a crime scene in Mexico. ATF agents there pleaded for help but were told nothing about Fast and Furious, which was intended to let guns "walk" in order to track them to higher-profile traffickers.

Related Stories Feds Silent on How Convicted Felons Bought Guns in 'Operation Fast and Furious'


Meanwhile, the report claims the agents' superiors in Washington met every Tuesday, to review the latest sales figures and the number of guns recovered in Mexico.

"How long are you going to let this go on?" Steve Martin, an assistant director of intelligence operations asked the ATF top brass at meeting Jan. 5, 2010. None of the men responded and several quickly left the room, according to a transcript of the meeting.

By Feb. 27, 2010, Lanny Breuer, the head of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., was allegedly told that the ATF had successfully helped sell 1,026 weapons worth more than $650,000 to members of the Sinaloa cartel. The briefing included all top ATF officials, including the agents in charge in Los Angeles and Houston, as well as a half dozen top Justice Department attorneys.

"So there's no doubt after this briefing that guns in this case were being linked to the Sinaloa Cartel?" a congressional investigator asked Martin during a July 2011 interview.

"I'd say yes." Martin replied.

"Very apparent to everyone in the room?â€

EXCLUSIVE: In the latest chapter of the gunrunning scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, federal officials won't say how two suspects obtained more than 360 weapons despite criminal records that should have prevented them from buying even one gun.

Under current federal law, people with felony convictions are not permitted to buy weapons, and those with felony arrests are typically flagged while the FBI conducts a thorough background check.



Related Slideshow



Suspected ‘Straw Buyers’ Helped Traffic Guns From Arizona to Mexico, Say Officials



ATF’s failed Operation Fast and Furious allowed straw buyers, or those who legally purchased guns and illegally sell them to a third party, to walk guns into Mexico. Here are some of the suspected buyers who bought hundreds of guns while under surveillance by the ATF.




However, according to court records reviewed by Fox News, two of the 20 defendants indicted in the Fast and Furious investigation have felony convictions and criminal backgrounds that experts say, at the very least, should have delayed them buying a single firearm. Instead, the duo bought dozens of guns on multiple occasions while federal officials watched on closed-circuit cameras.

Congressional and law-enforcement sources say the situation suggests the FBI, which operates the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, knowingly allowed the purchases to go forward after consulting with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which initiated Operation Fast and Furious.

Under the failed anti-gun trafficking program, straw buyers -- those who legally purchase guns and illegally sell them to a third party -- were allowed to buy guns, many of which were sold to Mexican drug cartel members and subsequently lost. Related to the case, the U.S. government in May charged Manuel Osorio-Arellanes with killing Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last year using a gun purchased through the program.

Court documents show the breakdown involves suspects Jacob Wayne Chambers, 21, and Sean Christopher Stewart, 28, both of Phoenix. Police arrested Chambers for felony burglary and trafficking stolen property in 2008, a year before he began buying more than 70 guns that ended up in the hands of the Sinaloa cartel. Stewart pled guilty to resisting arrest and criminal damage in 2001 and was arrested on drug charges in 2010. He was also charged with violating an order of protection and a local municipal court issued a warrant for his arrest. Stewart purchased 290 weapons.

Click here for more on straw buyers.

"You cannot sanction the violation of federal law by enabling or co-enabling prohibited persons, which includes felony convictions, from purchasing firearms," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a former federal prosecutor and a member of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, which is investigating the botched ATF operation. Gowdy said he would discuss the apparent violation with committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

When asked about the breakdown, Stephen Fischer, a spokesman for the NICS System, said the FBI had no comment. However, an ATF agent who worked on the Fast and Furious investigation, told Fox News that NICS officials called the ATF in Phoenix whenever their suspects tried to buy a gun. That conversation typically led to a green light for the buyers, when it should have stopped them.

The apparent corruption of the system concerns Gowdy. "It is unconscionable and goes beyond just being a terribly ill-conceived investigation to bordering, if not crossing, into criminal activity," he said.

The investigation into why these men were able to purchase weapons and this sting operation gone wrong continues on Tuesday. The House Oversight Committee will hold a third hearing, focusing on what was happening on the other side of the border in Mexico.

The former and current ATF attachés to Mexico will testify that their agency never informed them of this operation.

Issa and his colleagues will also have their first opportunity to question ATF supervisors who have defended Operation Fast and Furious and the Justice Department's decisions to committee investigators.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07 ... z1TBTt1rUl

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07 ... d-on-fast/

"By the end of this, they'll prove that orders came from the very top"

I hope these two "canaries" are in protected cages.......as in body guards and security.


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WE NEED CALLS TO THE CONGRESS TODAY!

PLEASE HELP HERE
ttp://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1249293.html#1249293

These witnesses had better watch their backs...