Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., speak on Capitol Hill after a House panel voted to cite Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over statements made regarding "Fast and Furious."
The House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee today voted 23-17, strictly along party lines, to send a resolution to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over the Operation Fast and Furious gun-running controversy in Mexico.
It now moves to a full House vote, to be held at a to-be-determined date, likely next week. A full House vote is required to actually hold Holder in contempt of Congress, which is likely given Republican control of the House.
The vote followed a decision by Obama earlier in the day to invoke the rarely-used power of executive privilege to protect the confidentiality of the documents.
Comments rapidly grew more heated throughout the day, culminating in the vote.
But Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings said the committee's GOP chairman "had no interest" in resolving the issue and was trying to pick a fight.
Ed will explore Committee Chair Darrell Issa's unprecedented political hit job tonight at 8pET on The Ed Show on MSNBC with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Jonathan Alter, Bloomberg News!
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And they wonder why they are the do nothing congress and have such a poor rating. Does this silliness ever end? We should replace the republican congress with 1st graders as I am sure they would get more done and do what is right for this country... It's not even funny anymore to laugh about them.
Just HOW Did this Criminal {issa} get into the Position he is in ??? OH - Thats Rite $$$$$$$ !!!!!
Ifor1 ---- Rite On - Rite-ON !!!!
they will do anything to make obama look bad well, REPUKES KEEP ON TRYING. you're the ones looking bad and you all should be brought up on contempt charges. how can we, as american citizens go about this?
http://www.bing.com/search?q=darrel+issa%27s+arrest+record&form=MSNH14&qs=n&sk=&x=116&y=9
If this is a Bush mess, why is it so much of a problem to release the information - and if Obama is not involved why did he use the Executive Privilege?
Why are they Not holding Dubya in contempt charges ????
The only reason information is being withheld is because there's something to hide. There can be many excuses, but there is only one reason.
This is exactly what it looks like - Obama is hiding behind executive privilege to prevent getting egg on his face.
This whole thing reeks of coverup. The GOP in this case doesn't need to do anything to make Obama look bad... this time he did it to himself.
Wake up and smell the stinky truth right under your nose. Obama is just another bent spoke in a corrupt wheel and he doesn't serve our best interests any more than George Bush or Romney. They're all totally interchangeable.
US: Mexico seized 68,000 guns from US since 2006
Thursday April 26, 2012, 3:06 PM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Associated Press
Print |E-mail
WASHINGTON — The government said Thursday that 68,000 guns recovered by Mexican authorities in the past five years have been traced back to the United States.
The flood of tens of thousands of weapons underscores complaints from Mexico that the U.S. is responsible for arming the drug cartels plaguing its southern neighbor. Six years of violence between warring cartels have killed more than 47,000 people in Mexico.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released its latest data covering 2007 through 2011. According to ATF, many of the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to ATF for tracing were recovered at the scenes of cartel shootings while others were seized in raids on illegal arms caches. All the recovered weapons were suspected of being used in crimes in Mexico.
At an April 2 North American summit in Washington, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the U.S. government has not done enough to stop the flow of assault weapons and other guns from the U.S. to Mexico.
Calderon credited President Barack Obama with making an effort to reduce the gun traffic, but said Obama faces "internal problems ... from a political point of view."
There is Republican opposition in Congress and broad opposition from Republicans and gun-rights advocates elsewhere to a new assault weapons ban or other curbs on gun sales. The Obama administration says it is working to tighten inspections of border checkpoints in the absence of an assault rifle ban that expired before Obama took office.
For more than a year, ATF has been reeling from accusations that some of its agents in Arizona were ordered by superiors to step aside rather than intercept illicit loads of weapons headed for Mexico.
The Justice Department's inspector general and Congress have been looking into the Arizona gun probe, Operation Fast and Furious.
The issue of gun control legislation hasn't been part of the Republican-led probe of Fast and Furious by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The number of all types of ATF-traced firearms manufactured in the U.S. or imported into the U.S. and later recovered in Mexico rose from 11,842 in 2007 to 14,504 in 2011, according to ATF. The figures for U.S.-sourced firearms were 21,035 in 2008; 14,376 for 2009; and 6,404 in 2010. Included in those totals, the number of rifles recovered in Mexico, submitted to ATF for tracing and found to have come from the U.S. rose from 4,885 in 2007 to 8,804 last year.
Mexico has provided ATF information on 99,691 guns. ATF determined that the source for 68,161 of the weapons was the U.S, 68 percent of the total. For the remainder, ATF was unable to determine a U.S. source or was unable to trace the request to a country of origin. The 68 percent figure is down from estimates of 90 percent in years past when Mexico was sharing less information with the U.S.
The controversial tactic of "letting guns walk" out of gun shops in the hands of suspected straw purchasers was used in Operation Fast and Furious at ATF in Phoenix in an effort to track the guns to major weapons traffickers and drug cartels in order to make criminal cases against smuggling kingpins who had eluded prosecution for years. But the tracking of the weapons was faulty, and many of them wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S. Two of the guns spotted at one point during Fast and Furious were later discovered at the scene of the killing of U.S. border agent Brian Terry.
Before Fast and Furious, ATF in Arizona had tried the gun-walking tactic in three separate investigations during the George W. Bush administration, with other tracking problems and only limited success.
During the Obama administration, ATF has undergone a management shake-up and Attorney General Eric Holder has called Fast and Furious a flawed operation that must never be repeated.
The period 2007 through 2011 coincides with Calderon's term as president of Mexico. Ineligible to run for re-election, Calderon made a government crackdown on warring drug cartels the hallmark of his six-year term. The election for a replacement is July 1. His center-right party has seen its election chances fall in the face of a wide perception in Mexico that the crackdown has not worked.
In the Obama administration's efforts to slow the illicit trafficking, gun store owners in southwestern border states are suing to overturn a requirement that they report to ATF when customers buy multiple high-powered rifles within a consecutive five-day period. To date, the program has been upheld in one federal court.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gunrunner
AP Exclusive: Second Bush-era gun-smuggling probe
By Associated Press
Published: 10/15/2011 2:14 AM
Last Modified: 10/15/2011 5:43 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) - A second Bush administration gun-trafficking investigation has surfaced using the same controversial tactic for which congressional Republicans have been criticizing the Obama administration.
The tactic, called "gun walking," is already under investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general and by congressional Republicans, who have criticized the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama for letting it happen in an operation called "Fast and Furious."
Emails obtained by The Associated Press show how in a 2007 investigation in Phoenix, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - depending on Mexican authorities to follow up - let guns "walk" across the border in an effort to identify higher-ups in gun networks.
Justice Department policy has long required that illicit arms shipments be intercepted whenever possible.
The 2007 probe operated out of the same ATF office that more recently ran the flawed Operation Fast and Furious. Both probes resulted in weapons disappearing across the border into Mexico, according to the emails. The 2007 probe was relatively small - involving over 200 weapons, just a dozen of which ended up in Mexico as a result of gun-walking. Fast and Furious involved more than 2,000 weapons, some 1,400 of which have not been recovered and an unknown number of which wound up in Mexico.
Earlier this month, it was disclosed that the gun-walking tactic didn't begin under Obama, but was also used in 2006 under his predecessor, George W. Bush.
The probe, Operation Wide Receiver, was carried out by ATF's Tucson, Ariz., office and resulted in hundreds of guns being transferred to suspected arms traffickers.
Original Print Headline: AP: Second Bush-era gun-smuggling probe
By Associated Press
‘Operation Wide Receiver’
What’s also fascinating about the documents turned over to investigators is that they reference a little-known ATF operation called “Operation Wide Receiver”, which just like “Fast and Furious,” let guns “walk” to Mexico.
The operation, run by ATF’s Tucson office and the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, started in 2006 — when George W. Bush’s Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was running the show — and ran until the end of 2007. No charges were filed.
Fast forward to 2009, when the Obama administration took over the Justice Department. The former Gang Unit inside DOJ’s Criminal Division (it later merged with the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section) reviewed the case for possible prosecution. At that time, a federal prosecutor in the unit “learned the ATF Arizona had permitted guns to be transferred to suspected gun traffickers and had not interdicted them,” according to a DOJ official.
DOJ eventually issued two indictments that grew out of the Bush-era “Wide Receiver” investigation, which were unsealed towards the end of 2010.
Before the indictments were unsealed, however, deputy assistant attorney general Jason Weinstein raised concerns about investigative methods used in the Wide Receiver case. That’s what comes up in the email.
“Do you think we should try to have Lanny [Breuer] participate in press when Fast and Furious and Laura’s Tucson [the Wide Receiver investigation] are unsealed?” Weinstein wrote in an email. “It’s a tricky case given the number of guns that have walked but is a significant set of prosecutions.”
Deputy Chief of the National Gang Unit James Trusty replied that he wasn’t sure “how much grief we get for ‘guns walking.’ It may be more like, “Finally they’re going after people who sent guns down there.”
The DOJ official said that Weinstein’s reference to the “tricky case” in which the questionable tactics were used referenced the Wide Receiver case, not Fast and Furious. “He mentioned Fast and Furious only because of his belief at the time that the cases would be announced in close proximity,” the official said.
There’s still the question of why — given how “tricky” the “Wide Receiver” case was — DOJ didn’t take any steps to ensure that ATF officials weren’t using the same types of methods. But the Republican contention that Holder or other high-level DOJ officials knew about the controversial tactics being used before the beginning of 2011? That still hasn’t been proven.
Late Update: Issa’s team responded, saying that “throwing out the ‘Bush Administration did it too defense’ reeks of desperation.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman issued a statement calling Holder’s testimony “consistent and truthful.”
ATF, Alberto Gonzales, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Darrell Issa, Eric Holder, George Bush, Justice Department, Lamar Smith, Operation Wide Receiver, Project Gunrunner
WOW when did wiki become credible?
to the old lady that said the repukes will do anything to make President Obama look bad. This had nothing to do with the president until he involved himself today. The manner in which he did smells fishy.
170 crimes committed with guns funded by f and f. No one has been charged for these crimes, Holder has retracted 2 statements after proven to be false ( in other words after he was caught lying to Congress.
To sum up: hundreds of assault weapons, over one hundred crimes with those weapons, documents that could clear Holder won't be released by himself, to clear himself, President doubles down by signing and executive privilege ( giving the air that he knows about the program), and Democrats calling it a witch hunt.
What any thinking person sees. Holder is the top law dog, loved by gun hating libs, yet the left ( that should be insane with anger becuase these guns should be illeagal) are backing the man that has the power to charge the criminals. Strange that he hasn't charged anyone and won't release the info that he has. Looks bad for Holder.
Contempt of Congress definition:
Holder provided congress with over 7,600 pages of documents and has made numerous high-level officials available for public congressional testimony, transcribed interviews, and briefings.
So Holder did not commit any contempt offense.
Article 1 section 8 does not authorize congress the power to coerce other branches of government. Any power not mentioned in article 1 section 8 is prohibited. That means the contempt charge violates the constitution.
Treason definition:
So Holder cooperated with congress and republicans committed treason?
And Holder can now arrest and detain members of congress for treason?
This is getting interesting.
Republicans only found out about the program because they started it.
Site #1:
Site #2:
Site #3:
Site #4:
And so on.
Did someone really ask why the President refused to release the names and addresses of law enforcement officials so that the criminals can't hunt them down and kill them?
A law enforcement officer was killed, Obama doesnt need to disclose his families address , that is not the issue and obviously is not being asked..that is a no brainer. What is at issue is what is being covered up, what is pathetic is what he did and this close to Election doesnt cover the fact that besides smelling bad..he is covering for someone he appointed, If he thought about this real good, he should have done the right thing, more brownie points. It wont bring the officer back but if i was a member of his family right now..i would be extremly pissed
No this all started when Fox news gave the lunatic who tried over throwing the government by throwing rocks at democratic offices to break windows, I mean really what is with you tea bagged republicans and lunatics who create conspiracies out of thin air.
Let's not forget OPERATION WIDE RECIEVER, As to WHO started it and WHEN, and what it was about.
But Wide Receiver, conducted in the Bush administration, has not received a lot of attention. According to Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler, some of the e-mails used in the attempt to discredit Holder were referring to the Tucson case, Wide Receiver.
More specifically, Schmaler said that when the e-mails mention “guns walking,” they are referring to the 2006-07 Tucson case, Operation Wide Receiver. Schmaler said neither of the officials knew about guns walking in the Fast and Furious case.
On Oct. 16, 2010, James Trusty, chief of the Organized Crime and Gang section, wrote to Criminal Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein:
“Looks like we’ll be able to unseal the Tucson case sooner than the Fast and Furious,” he wrote. “It’s not clear how much we’re involved in the main F and F case, but we have Tucson. . . . I’m not sure how much grief we get for ‘guns walking,’ it [sic] may be more like, ‘Finally, they’re going after people who sent guns down there.’ ”
This is nothing more than a witch hunt. If Mr. Issa wanted to know all the facts, he would have requested that the officials under the Bush Administration who started this program testify. Instead Issa has definitely made this a political referendum on Holder and the President under the guise of justice for the agent that was killed. Bull, bull, bull.
djj - Yes -- This Is Known as "Abuse of Power"/"Abuse of Justice" !!!! It Is Supposed to be Illegal - But when someone has Alot -O- money - Well - They Can do Anything within this Country - Disgusting and Ridiculous !!!!
poor Eric Withholder
it gonna work righties. Michael says the GOP is going choooo woooo.....
remember......righties.....the rest of the good old USA is watching this lowest rated congress in action.........oh my ribs.........
Pathetic, in the way Republican political games gets in the way of actually doing some real work of getting Americans back to work. Is Americans really that stupid to not see what's going on here. They think that only a white man should stand as the President and not any minority. What is white America afraid of really, when it's a "Black Man" in the White House, a "Black Man" Attorney General. The world is changing rather they want to accept it or not, there's no way getting pass it or around it. Republicans may think they winning the public's opinion to get votes, but they actually look like fools!
i think all you dummycrats need to say that its only because its a black thing
You Obviously have No Cognitive thought process !!!!
hey MD/MI - sure he does....just is he has to get permission first....then they push a button..............
Hey hes - Yep the automatons are here again - Just drop in some money and They Activate - of Course in a Pre-Programmed way !!!
yep....there was another group of automatons years ago that our parents and grand parents had to deal with toooooooooo..........
The white republicans know they are about to be out-numbered by minorities, and they are espousing, their true hatred for all people except, for their circle of very wealthy, white, good ole boy criminals. They are spending all of their time stealing all of the money they can from the American people, some of which are too stupid to know how they are being screwed, and continue to vote for these criminals, just because they have the (R) by their name.
stupid @!$%#ing republicans, dont they remember it was g bush who started this program? just like our @!$%#ed up econiomy, i say shoot'em all
George = Yes They do know it - They Just Cannot help themselves from being Purposefully Ignorant and Point Their fuzzy little fingers elsewhere - After They Create the Problem to Begin with --- How - TYPICAL and Predictable - They Are - hey !!!
I just want to throw this out there, for argument's sake, ISSA is going after A G Holder for contempt, Gov Walker under oath in regards to his Panel Testimony in 2011 wasn't to truthfull in regard's with the Divide and Conquer Video and his conversation with Diane Hendrick's and his answer's to the Panel, ISSA didn't bother with it, WHY? He was asked to reply back to Congr. Connolly in a letter to clarify his Testimony to the Panel. What is this? Pick and Choose, Just trying to look for some sort of explanation
Sarge - Amazing isnt it -- it Must be the Wall of money that They share and of course the MOB Mentality amongst Them !!!!
ain't that kinda like the WMD thing......first ya seeeee it and then you don't........
don't blame us....we thought it was there.............it's Obama's fault.......
B.I.N.G.O !!!!
I Will even take this One step Further -- Looks like an attempt to Block E.Holder From dealing with the voter Purging that is going on in Florida !!! Just Another Diversion from the gop-teabaggin-neo-con-Nazi"s !!!! hey !!!! What do you think ???
BINGO!
OMG - as Soon I got done typing that - they Stated that on the Al S. / Politics Nation Show !!!!
Well here we are again with the do nothing Congress. Here is the real question WHERE ARE THE JOBS STUPID CONGRESS YOU PROMISED IN 2010 when you gained control of the House? That is what's wrong with this Congress. One again concentrating on the wrong thing. People are suffering from not having a job but guess what the Congress is worried about? NOT JOBS. If they can get their nose out of Jamie Dimon and others like him a$$ then maybe and just maybe the Congress can take care of REAL matters JOBS. It always come back to the same thing JOBS JOBS JOBS.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/15/news/economy/sequester/index.htm
Lawmakers are expected to take their time deciding how to replace the sequester of automatic cuts scheduled for next year. Experts say prolonging the uncertainty will hurt hiring this fall.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Everyone in Congress says they want to help create jobs and economic growth.
But federal agencies and government contractors in the private sector, which actually hire people, may find that ironic. They are still in the dark about future funding levels because lawmakers have not said whether they will replace heavy-handed automatic spending cuts set to take effect next year.
The so-called sequester -- which no one in Congress likes but can't agree on how to replace -- would total about $110 billion next year alone. Half the cuts would come from defense and the other half from nondefense spending on domestic programs.
Most don't expect lawmakers will reach a decision until the lame-duck session of Congress after Election Day, and possibly not until early 2013.
The problem is that prolonging the uncertainty is likely to cause serious hiring slowdowns and possible layoffs, experts and businesses said.
Related: Fiscal cliff likely to cause recession
"If the deleterious consequences ... are to be averted it must be done before the lame duck. Indeed, since most elected officials will spend most of the fall campaigning, the [cuts] must be dealt with by September," according to a recent report from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Businesses and agencies need to plan for the year ahead, and they simply can't because they don't know how many contracts will be funded and how many programs they'll need to cut back on.
The point is not lost on Democrat Carl Levin, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"[T]hat uncertainty which is created by ... the specter of sequestration ... is a real threat to this economy. So not only must we avoid sequestration ... we must do it in time to avoid a severe weakening to this economy," he said at a National Press luncheon.
Those in the defense industry say the sequester is already having a chilling effect.
"In the past we'd add head count [in summer] to prepare for new work. This year, we'll clearly take a more conservative approach until we see what's going to shake out," said Samuel Strickland, CFO of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH, Fortune 500) during a recent investor call.
At Lockheed Martin (LMT, Fortune 500), the largest U.S. defense contractor, the story is similar. "We are already taking action by not hiring and training new workers, not investing in new plants and equipment and not investing in new R&D," said company chairman and CEO Robert Stevens during a Senate caucus lunch in March.
But Stevens also warned that if he doesn't get clarity soon, he may be forced to issue notice this fall of possible layoffs in 2013. The federal WARN Act requires businesses with more than 100 employees to notify workers at least 60 days in advance of a mass layoff or plant closing.
0:00/1:27Boehner's 'line in the sand' on debt
Since the sequester takes effect Jan. 2, 2013, the WARN Act requirement could mean layoff notices come out a few days before the Nov. 6 election.
But layoff notices are likely to be a measure of last resort for both federal agencies and private sector contractors, said government contracts expert Dan Gordon, who used to run the White House Office of Procurement.
Instead, he said he is expecting "a dramatic slowdown in hiring" this fall.
"It's very slow and expensive to cut back on the government's commitment under an existing contract. For both [federal agencies and private contractors] it's always easier to stop hiring than to lay off existing employees," Gordon noted.
He also expects federal agencies over the next seven months to be very reluctant to enter into new commitments with contractors, even though government has become more heavily reliant on contractors to do everything from guarding office buildings to running IT departments.
"Why make a commitment that might end up being costly to you?" said Joseph Minarik, senior vice president of the Committee for Economic Development.
Like Gordon, he believes hiring freezes are the greatest risk on the jobs front this fall.
But more than anything, Minarik said, for everyone in the public and the private sector "all the time being spent on planning for this situation is pure economic waste."
They don't have time to worry about jobs. They have to take care of all these other important things like holding contempt hearings and birth control. Out of 124 working days this year ending the last of May, Congress worked just 41 days. What a waste of taxpayer money.
Yep - and WE Taxpayers have to foot Their bills and expense's - For What ?? Talk about having your hands out for Free-Bee's !!!! Ridiculous !!!!
I thought this investigation was another jobs bill.
So what. Issa is contemptible.
If any one is in contempt, it is Issa and the 'mean and hateful' Republicans. I was a Republican, but, I had to leave because of the hate for blacks and hispanics. It was hard enough for the Black Republicans to constantly defend themselves in their communities beacuse they were Black Republicans, but, the treatment was the same from the White Republicans. If they were not calling us the N word or coons, they did everything in their power to exclude us in anything. It had gotten so bad until a private hearing was called to cool off the possible embarrassment that would have happened in the city. Very little to nothing was done. In fact, one of the Republicans stated at a meeting and I quote, "Why are all these Ns in the Republican Party. We don't need them." Rep. Issa is a disgrace to this country and the Republicans should be ashame of themselves for allowing this witch hunt to continue. I pray to God that in this up coming election, these evil people will be put out of office. May God have mercy on them for they know exactly what they are doing.
Sorry Maude, call me spiteful, but I hope God shows them NO mercy. They are going to deserve everything they get.
You are such a gdmn liar! You were never a Republican for one nano second, so don't even try! Liberals are the true racists, because they see color. Republicans on the other hand are color blind , because they see all people as human beings!
Why are these people wasting time on something that was officially implemented by the former President BUSH? Whose stuck on Stupid, now? This is an outrage!!!! What happened to their so-called JOBS BILL? The Republicans are not concerned about getting the people back to work. They only care about their corruption, greed, power and control.
Attorney General Holder has been interviewed by the FBI and several thousand pages of documents have been turned over in the DOJ's own internal investigation. Granted internal audits are just that internal. However, its doubtful that the FBI would remain quiet about any wrong doings. There are plenty of problems on the Mexican border with plenty of people getting killed due to vicious drug gang violence. One of the best ways to eliminate unnecessary deaths would be to eliminate all assault weapons and semiautomatic pistols with large ammo clips. Some of these 30 round ammo clips allow a shooter to get off a hundred rounds plus before the cops even know what is going on. But the NRA would rather see more Americans go to the funeral home than to live in a sane country with modest gun regulation that would prevent American style mass killings that other countries do not tolerate.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand all have stricter gun laws and enforcement than in America. These country's all have much lower murder rates and mass-murders in these countries are almost unheard of although people get murdered by firearms in all of these countries. Canada being closer to American firearms and the NRA has a much higher firearm death rate than New Zealand or Australia. But at least the Canadians are smarter than the lunatics at the NRA.
I forgot to add that Issa is a contemptible stupid person. He is wasting taxpayers money on an unnecessary probe. Wouldn't it be nice if Issa would help pass the American Jobs Act so unemployed people can get back to work? Doing something for the country for a change seems impossible for these vile Tea bagging scumbags who are prostitutes for their corporatist masters the plutocrats.
This must be a first Teapublicans worried about the lives of Mexicans! Oh that's right is an election year and we have to go after what ever we can to make Obama look bad. I guess GWB/Cheney should get canonized for their lack of poof of nukes which ended up taking 4500+ US lives and maiming many more! And not to mention the Iraqi loses were at least 8 times more than the US. Wasn't it the Bush administration that said "You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet" Yet they don't talk much about the 47500 killed by drug related violence.
Out of the sound and fury of Attorney General Eric Holder’s day before the House last week one thing was clear: Republican members of Congress are latching onto the conspiracy theory that the Obama administration let guns “walk” into Mexico in order to erode Americans’ second amendment rights.
Some, like Rep. Darrell Issa, have suggested that the Obama administration decided after the scandal broke to discuss the larger issue of gun trafficking and the need for better tools (like a rule requiring dealers to report sales of multiple “long guns”) to stop it.
But there’s a separate category of individuals who buy into a more outlandish scenario: those who believe that Fast and Furious was launched by the Obama administration to implement gun control. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones explains:
“If the American people learn that the motivations for all of this was to make a case to deprive them of their Second Amendment rights or to make a case to further the (Justice) department’s ability to further regulate gun rights within the United States, that would make them very angry,” said Rep. Trent Franks.
“We have an administration that has said ‘don’t let a good crisis go to waste’ and you wonder if this was actually a manufactured crisis,” Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) said on Fox News back in the summer.
“This was the most anti-gun administration in our country’s history and there are a number of us that believe the whole genesis of this Fast and Furious was to further their gun control aims right here in the United States,” Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) told the NRA.
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) voiced a similar opinion during the hearing, leading to a rebuke from Holder.
“I say this with all due respect, take a step back and think about the implications of what you’re saying, is that the Justice Department came up with a flawed program in order to justify a regulation,” Holder told Lungren.
Subscribers of this theory point to a CBS report that shows that some ATF officials discussed using the Fast and Furious cases of one of a number of examples to support a reporting rule for the so-called “long guns” preferred by Mexican drug cartels, a rule which already exists for handguns.
“Before this rule took effect, ATF would have had no idea if an individual came in and purchased 10 AK-47s from a gun dealer,” Daniel Vice of the Brady Campaign, one of many groups very unhappy with the Obama administration’s record on gun control, told TPM. “It would have been very odd if ATF didn’t look to its arrest record and gun trafficking investigations for information to support this rule because those were traffickers they had actually uncovered buying guns. The fact that ATF looked there was just common sense.”
“The idea that ATF allowed guns to go across the border not to try to stop trafficking but to later on support their authority to send a letter to gun dealers is just ridiculous,” Vice said.
If the NRA’s theory is correct, the administration evidently forgot to loop in a few key players. As TPM reported back in October, emails between the White House, ATF and Justice Department officials from December 2010 and early January 2011 show that ATF did not even tell officials in the Office of Mangagement and Budget (OMB) that they were making a request for the emergency rule. Most of the email exchanges took place after the documents CBS said it obtained.
If this theory is true, they also apparently left out officials in DOJ’s Criminal Division, who trusted the representations of ATF officials who told them that gun walking didn’t occur after Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley inquired about the matter in February.
Vice told TPM that while Fast and Furious was obviously poorly planned and executed, their lack of enforcement power explains why they engaged in the operation.
“They have almost no way to stop traffickers who are buying guns from gun shops if the gun shops are willing to make the sales, which very frequently they are,” Vice said.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/republicans_buy_into_nras_fast_and_furious_gun_control_conspiracy_theory.php
The right cares only for conspiracy tales so if you are a teavangelical you believe Obama is a muslim born in Kenya supported and put in power by evil socialists like George Soros(jew, you be surprised how many of these evil folks are look at glenn becks enemies list) and New Black Panther Illuminati members to turn America into a third world nation so they can sell white americans into slavery so it makes perfect since that Obama would be a program started before he became president to attack the NRA and implement his total take away of all guns.....because we know obama wants to take away all guns based on his taking away of no one's guns
The right is now based in conspiracy, funded and staffed by conspiracy theorists. The tea party aka the new john birch society is the second coming of the phony SRA claimers in the 80's. These people don't live in reality, the people now know that and are very disappointed.
Why is the king of insider trading on the government accountability board?
Them not having anybody from Bush administration testify is just like when they had a hearing on WOMEN's health and only called men to testify.
Lets call it what it is, THE GOP IS LYNCHING ERIC HOLDER, Rep, Issa has casted the rope over the tree limb!
Yeah, Issa is using Romneys' trees, which are just the right height for the lynching!
Eric Holder........ the one who wouldn't prosecute the black panthers for voter intimidation in 2008. The one who wouldn't prosecute the black panthers for putting a bounty on Zimerman's head. All cught on video and national TV. Why would one think he was lying? The GOP is not lynching Holder! He from the same corrupt mold as OBAMA. His executive powers is designed to protect himself! So what is Obam trying to hide? The only expalnation is that OBAMA is mentioned in the documents that Issa wanted! To all you dems under the Obama hypnotism, when I count to three, one, two three, you will wake up and realize that OBAMA is destroying our great nation.
Call it what it is Ed, the GOP has cast the rope over the limb, Its a lynching! The extreme right GOP has attacked everyone on his cabinet that resembles the President, isn't that an interesting fact. Its just basic racism , lets call it what it is!!
They aren't calling any bush administration officials even though it was started under dubya is because if they did that would hurt their case and would not hurt the president. If testimony that would be given will not hurt the President Issa and the repubs don't want to hear it.
Its a lynching Ed , Rep Issa has tossed the rope over the tree limb, and the oversight comm GOP's have placed it around his neck!!! The Right Wing GOP are attacking anyone and everyone in the executive office who looks like the President . Its Racism, lets be honest!!!
The decision — part of a Phoenix-based operation code named “Fast and Furious” —
was met by strong objections from some front-line agents who feared they
were
allowing weapons like AK-47s to “walk” into the hands of drug lords and
gun
runners, internal agency memos show. Indeed, scores of the weapons came
back
quickly traced to criminal activity.
One of those front-line agents
who objected, John Dodson, 39, told the Center
for Public Integrity that
these guns “are going to be turning up in crimes on
both sides of the border
for decades.” Dodson said in an interview that “with
the number of guns we
let walk, we’ll never know how many people were killed,
raped, robbed …
there is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are
gone.”
Dodson
has taken his misgivings to the Senate Judiciary Committee as a
whistleblower after his concerns were dismissed by his supervisors and
initially
ignored by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
Sen.
Charles Grassley, the panel’s top Republican — who is spearheading a probe
of ATF’s actions – said “it’s time to step back” and examine the policy. Two
of
the guns involved in the sting operation turned up at the scene of a
fatal
shooting of a U.S. agent.
The Justice Department said today that
Attorney General Eric Holder has asked
the department’s acting inspector
general to evaluate the concerns about ATF’s
investigative tactics.
Has the statute of limitations run out on the war crimes committed by Bush/Chaney?
Let's forget the "fast and furious" smoke screen for a moment, it is just a ways to a means for the traitors. We have Issa, the most dishonest SOB to ever hit the congress (makes Newt look angelic) We are looking at the most disrespected President ever and the lowest rated congress in history; and it's an election year. The Congress has gotten our economy downgraded and are planning to do it again, we have a Supreme Court that is clearly one sided (the side that collects the money) and a Senate that fillerbusters everything. Nothing gets done except attacks on the POTUS and US, the people of the United states by the right wing INSURECTIONESTS - not obstructionests, although they do that also, straight up insurectionest Treasonists. Strong word treason, you hang for that, if you would like to take the time to research it, in fact what the GOPTEA is doing is exactly that, treason. A sort of quote - Any interference with or the disruption of the rights of the american people is TREASON and party's participating in these acts will be charged and removed from power by executive order - In the Constitution and part of the 14th Amendmeent. No S**T - Issa, Boner, CANTor, McConnell all can be arrested and charged. The justices can be investigated and charged, you know they'll find something. This country needs to work to disband the GOPTEA - They are really just a party to help the Corporations and 1%er's turn our Democracy into a PLUTOCRACY. all the new BS laws, cutting everything, NOT creating jobs (somehow this became the POTUS' job?) because it WAS always the Congress that worked with private corps. to keep the market strong, the new way is to payoff the traitors NOT to bother them while they move our jobs and their money overseas. This all GOPTEA, all the problems caused by them and continue to f**ck the people. I can not believe that anyone can be so stupid as to even THINK about voting for ANY GOPTEA'r - How can you vote against your life? Your kids life? your friends lives? In a word - Treasonists.
Your absolutley right! But it is your do nothing senate that is the problem! Did you know there are 30 bipartism bills stalled in the senate because of your DO Nothing Harry Reid. If you idiot democrats would do your research instead of listening/reading the crap on MSNBC you might be better informed!
Then in other news Fox news viewers are more misinformed then people who watch no news.