ATF Project Gunrunner

Some updates from around the news-o-sphere:

Deputy Director William Hoover and Assistant Director Mark Chait of the ATF have been demoted. Thomas Brandon, in charge of damage control in Phoenix has been promoted to Deputy Director

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-atf-personnel-20111005,0,6002965.story

Representative Issa is not happy with Eric Holder. Nor is Rep. Lamar Smith.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65208.html#ixzz1ZvlyyLq5

Representative Paul Gosar has thrown down the "accessory to murder" gauntlet. He also would like Judiciary and Oversight to get together and grill AG Holder.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/05/c...be-accessory-to-murder-with-fast-and-furious/

EDIT: And an update at MSNBC, which points out that Operation Wide Receiver (started and ended under the previous administration) resulted in nine indictments under the current administration.

The article skirts the "well, Bush did it too" line rather closely, but points out that Senator Grassley essentially said that regardless of who started it, "walking" guns needs to stop.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44788900/ns/politics-more_politics/
 
Last edited:
Accessory to murder - the actual article (above) makes a reasonable case. Let us hope we can change the non criminally charged ATF and WH Administration to the criminally charged.
 
csmsss said:
First, the only play this is really getting is on Fox News - an audience the WH has long since given up on. Frankly, this F&F fiasco isn't really resonating outside us gun folks.
Click to expand...

Not so. Fox, CBS, and now even CNN are going after this story. The L.A. Times, N.Y. Times, Washington Times, among others have been giving this story legs as well.
 
Reporters, desk chiefs and managers in the MSM are finding it more and more difficult now to ignore the story.

For one thing, they literally cannot afford to ignore it. Despite whatever their personal feelings are or how much they wish it would go away, the fact is that the operation Fast & Furious story is news. The news agencies are in the business of selling news. News equals revenue. Sitting idly by while e-zines and bloggers break the story is foregoing revenue. Watching other people report breaking news while the best that your company has is an expose on how many girlfriends Michael Jackson’s doctor had…that is going to be difficult to explain to stockholders.

Initially the MSM was neither investigating it nor reporting it. Now they are reporting it which is basically putting together a summary of the known information, and maybe discussing it between an anchor and a reporter. What I don’t see the MSM doing is investigating it. But it may be past that point now anyway.

I do think its time to appoint a special prosecutor. I don’t see a whole lot to be gained in continuing in the current state of things. I know senators love running those hearing and creating the dramatic sound bites… you can’t buy better press than that, but it’s time to appoint a special prosecutor.

I hope this doesn't become a political tool to achieve politacl ends. I would just like the truth and for people to be held accountable, either for their misdeeds or for their incompetency.
 
Last edited:
The LA Times story states that William J. Hoover tried to get operation Fast & Furious shut down six months after it began but was unable to.

If Melson was no more than a career bureaucrat, how is it that William J. Hoover couldn’t shut down the operation. I mean, who opposed him?

This seems like a story in and of itself…
 
Reporters, desk chiefs and managers in the MSM are finding it more and more difficult now to ignore the story.
Click to expand...

Well, it is tough to ignore the Chairman of the House Judiciary committee asking the White House to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Attorney General of the United States for perjury. That is a fairly big deal.

Interestingly enough, I didn't realize that this wasn't Eric Holder's first time before Congress. He was also involved in the Marc Rich scandal during the Clinton years. Apparently he was fairly forgetful during that interview as well.

Initially, I was not impressed by how the DOJ was handling this. It struck me as extremely ham-handed and Chicago-ish. The WaPo hit piece on Issa was just comical since at the time of the briefing, it was actually a Democrat majority committee and such an accusation would put many prominent Democrat representatives in the position of acknowledging that they were briefed about Fast and Furious and said nothing as well - unless of course, the briefing didn't discuss the actual gunwalking issue, in which case there is no point to the WaPo's article.

Looking back from hindsight though, there is an excellent purpose to the WaPo article. It prepared the battlefield nicely for Holder to use the same defense to protect himself (sure I knew about Fast and Furious in a general way; but I didn't know the details such as gunwalking). Of course, in Holder's case he was receiving monthly briefings on it since July, had big charts showing a massive outpour of weapons from Arizona into Mexico, and several of the people briefing him clearly did know that gunwalking was taking place.

I also like how they are pointing to the vague discussion of Fast and Furious in the released documents as support for the idea that the AG didn't know the specifics; while at the same time not acknowledging all of the documents they have withheld from the Congressional Oversight committee on the grounds of confidentiality/executive privilege. I wonder what ALL of the documents would show?

Any way, a better play by Holder than I gave him credit for with the WaPo story on Issa. It shows Holder is playing a longer view game than I gave him credit for and it shows he was more than willing to see a number of Dems on the House Oversight committee go under the bus just to gain that small advantage.
 
The Marc Rich and Puerto Rican terrorist deal in NY (I think Holder had a part in fixing that deal for Hillary's Senate race and support from the PR community) no doubt illustrated his potential utility to Obama.
 
Does anyone have any information on why William Hoover couldn't shutdown F&F in 2010?

If Melson was no more than a career bureaucrat, how is it that William J. Hoover couldn’t shut down the operation. I mean, who opposed him?
 
According to the LA Times, Hoover convened a meeting (that included a DoJ official) to craft an "exit strategy" from the operation. The Times says that the consensus of the attendees, including the DoJ official, was that Fast and Furious should continue until they could get indictments to show that the operation was productive.

The article says that Hoover laid out 30, 60 and 90 day windows to shut it down. That was from March of 2010. The first indictments were handed down ten months later.

It would appear to me that Hoover was unable to shut down Fast and Furious because somebody above him in "Justice" would not allow it.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/11/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110811
 
It's been like that for me the last week, but if you post you can see that you are seeing the last post. Maybe there's a time delay.:)

Older vid, but not the type response you might expect from someone upset over this thing, or wanting to get to the bottom of the matter and take appropriate action after a period of prolonged silence. Seems like more of a general "ho-hum", compared to the lengthy response or actions you might get if a Cambridge cop asks a guy if he's at the right house. Maybe a Gunwalker beer summit is in the works.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7371762n
 
Last edited:
I wonder if it can be shown that the idea for F&F originated in the DOJ

according to memos, emails and other material obtained by The Times, along with transcripts of sworn depositions and Capitol Hill testimony, the Justice Department provided the initial impetus for what became Fast and Furious
Click to expand...

That could be anything from putting pressure on BATFE to make higher-level gun busts (impossible if you think about it) or it could mean that DOJ came to BATFE and told them exactly what they were going to do...
 
I've got to give Jake Tapper his due. I've bashed him in the past because I felt that his past role as a Handgun Control, Inc. employee biased his coverage of the NRA and other gun issues he covered for ABC.

However, he has done really well with reporting on Fast and Furious and is one of the few reporters to continually bring it up with the President during White House press conferences, including the only one today to bring it up. You might think that having the Chairman of the House Judiciary ask you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate your Attorney General for perjury might spark a question or two. I'm surprised both that only one reporter had the nerve to bring it up and that Tapper was that reporter.
 
I haven't seen a single reporter come right out and ask the President if he was going to apoint a Special Prosecutor.

Maybe I missed it...
 
Nobody has or likely will.

Obama and cadre will ban them from the pool or something. This is past disgusting and into scary.

Just what else is out there, being covered up by "reasonable reporters"?
 
Re,post 1242,Sheryll Attkinson

I heard Rush mention ,after she appeared on Laura Ingraham,Ms Attkinson seemed scarce.Rush was wondering is someone ought to drive by and check on her for OK.Then later,he mentioned she had filed a story of some kind on Thursday.

Thats a bit of out in the open exposure.I suspect one way to stir up trouble with the press is getting caught trying to shut one up.

I hope Ms Attkinson keeps writing,and I hope Rush keeps his eye on her.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top