ATF Project Gunrunner

Report of gun probe was the headline in a small National Briefs item in 1 Feb issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, page A-10

The piece went on to note that Democrats on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee on Tuesday published a report on the disputed gun trafficking investigation ... Has the text of this report been released,and if so, where?
 
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They allegedly have dirt on Issa. Dirt=control

Yep, Issa is compromised. BTW: Jay Bergey has been a friend of mine for 50 years.
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Dirt would imply they have something they can hold over Issa's head. If it was already published (and 12 years ago at that), then I don't see how that is going to be leverage effective enough to compromise Issa.
 
I know that when banks coperate in an investigation - they have their legal team meet with the feds, they outline the purpose and scope of the investigation, and they get certain protections from possible damages and things like that.

If a gun dealer was going to cooperate with BATFE, why wouldn't the dealer at least take a lawyer with him and get it documented?
 
Response to Thallup Post # 1920.

The report by the San Fransco Paper concerning the employment of junior EOD personnel is contrary to my experience. In 1972 until I ceased having and active interest in EOD operations around 1979, EOD units were understrength.

They were so undermanned that young solders would arrive in a unit one day and be deployed on missions the following day. It was not unususl for very junior men to deploy with a Senior EOD Tech on VIP missions.

Additionally, they were often deployed on Presidential Missions, like the world Series, as a coningency incase the President were to attend. Often the Secret Service would NIX an event after the advance work had been done and they determined that the President or other VIP could not be protected.

If it weren't for Rep Issa, this investigation would have been buried long ago.

My Representative serves on the Committee and I routinely write him and encourage him to continue the investigation.

Each of us should be doing the same with our Representatives.

Conversly, those members of this blog, whose Representatives signed on with the minority report should write their Representatives and protest their vote.

These letters, use snail mail e-mails get deleted, should be respectful, logical and factual. There are enough quotes in this blog to convey the facts to these Congressman. Don't threaten. Threat letters get ignored.

If your Rep ignores you get out and vote. Before you vote support an opposition canidate whose position is positive on 5a issues and get others with like mind on the issues to vote as well.

We recently had a stealth election in our county. It was not advertised. The hope was that the opposition would not show up in sufficient numbers to beat the "Machine". When I found out about the low turn out, my wife and I started calling everyone we knew and got out the vote. The proposition was barely defeated, The 20 or so voters we got to the polls may have turned the tide.

Remember your vote does count. Local elections are often decided by under 100 votes. A solid block of 5a grass root supporters can change the antigun City and County governments.

Get Active now November is to late.
 
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So if you cooperated with the Feds, does that give you any protection?
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Great Scott, this is what I talked about before! To recap: a couple of years back, we pulled the paperwork for a sale that turned out to have been a straw purchase. While conversing with the field agents, one asked what I did if I suspected a straw purchase.

I told him that we stopped the sale and booted the offender from the premises. He suggested that we allow the sale to go through and call them with the customer's information after they'd left. I told him that seemed like a good idea, and that I'd consider it.

I was lying. It might seem like, hey, I'm helping out, but at the end of the day, I'd be breaking the law. No matter what agreements they might have made with me, those would have been conveniently forgotten if things went sour, and I'd be left holding the bag.

I imagine Andre Howard meant to help on some level. I'd like to see what kind of leverage the ATF used, good or ill, to gain his cooperation. But at the end of the day, he did knowingly and willingly break the law.

He can claim he was cooperating with an investigation, and he might even have some documentation to that fact, but I can bet the government's attorneys are going to downplay it as much as possible. In any case, he's going to have a very hard time with this in front of a jury.
 
More hypocrisy. The same people who want to sue gun dealers and weapon makers have all been suddenly struck dumb. Go figure.

My guess is that they will pay after a long court battle. If they can get into court.
 
It could get interesting if he can prove that ATF agents threatened him if he didn't go along with the sales. That would be just what the State of Arizona needs to issue arrest warrants for federal agents and provoke a constitutional crisis. I think it might go a little differently than when Idaho tried to prosecute Lon Horiuchi for murder after the Randy Weaver fiasco and a federal judge sprung him.
 
zxcvbob:

Identified voice recordings of conversations (threats) would likely be absolutely fascinating in court, if those recordings were ever played within the hearing of a trial jury. Personally speaking I can imagine the objections voiced by DOJ attorneys, including something about the unauthorized, therefore illegal recording of said conversation.
 
alan said:
Identified voice recordings of conversations (threats) would likely be absolutely fascinating in court, if those recordings were ever played within the hearing of a trial jury. Personally speaking I can imagine the objections voiced by DOJ attorneys, including something about the unauthorized, therefore illegal recording of said conversation.
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Federal law and the laws of 38 out of the 50 states only require the consent of one party to tape record a conversation. I'm fairly certain that Arizona isn't one of the twelve two-party consent states. Even if it were, the Feds have argued that Federal law applies to anything involving interstate commerce, thus I would argue that Lone Wolf was dealing with a Federal agent, pursuant to a Federal firearms license, involving firearms that were in interstate commerce, and thus Federal law should apply.

If he has the recordings, I don't think there's a problem getting them admitted.
 
I'm guessing it wasn't an accident the suit was filed the day before Holder goes to Congress to testify again. PJMedia even has an opinion piece with Eric Holder's prepared statement to Congress and a rebuttal of it at: http://pjmedia.com/blog/fisking-eric-holders-prepared-remarks-for-the-fast-and-furious-hearing/

With the recent revelation that two DOJ prosecutors took bribes and were not prosecuted for it; I am a little worried that Fast and Furious will get overlooked in light of the latest scandal; but hopefully they keep their eyes on the prize.
 
I've heard some of the tapes and Andre Howard doesn't do himself any favors with the way he talks on those talks. He comes across very conspiratorial on those recordings. I know he released a statement afterward explaining that his atitude on the tape was feigned - or something to that effect, but the bottom line IMO, is that those recordings do not make him look good.

I think the lawyer for Brian Terry's family will have a field day with those tapes.

I'm not saying Howard should be put out of business. It does seem however that it's very profitable to be in league with the BATFE and their gun running schemes.

Maybe a better way to run a sting operation would be for BATFE to provide the cooperating gun dealer with the guns, pay the dealer a handling fee, but take the proceeds in as evidence.

I don't know... but I can see from the viewpoint of Brian Terry's family, whether or not Andre Howard was merely cooperating with a federal investigation or not... when the dust settles, he is a guy who made significant profits off of weapons that were used to kill Brian Terry.
 
From what I understand, it's pretty difficult to sue a prosecuting attorney / DA.

But I think it would have been cool if the Terrys had named Burke in this suit.
 
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