Holder may have had fingers in 'Fast and Furious' for years!’

[Jake Martinez]

Smoking Gun?

Posted on WND.com-By Bob Unruh-On October 7, 2011:

“One member of Congress has started using the word “accessory” in talking about members of the Obama administration who had their fingers on the pulse of the Operation Gunrunner Fast and Furious stunt under which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ordered gun dealers to sell weapons to unqualified buyers, who then dumped them into the Mexican drug cartel civil war.

And that may include Attorney General Eric Holder.

After all, despite his sworn assurance to Congress in a May appearance on the Hill that it was only within the “last few weeks” that he even heard of the project, a stack of memos reveals that if he paid attention to his office work...

And now a video has been uncovered showing that a full two years earlier, one of Holder’s associates is on camera talking about the project and what the department was doing to intercept weapons trafficking along the Mexican border through Fast and Furious.

Could Holder possibly have not been listening to what his own aide was explaining to the American public?

Here’s the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PNhYk9NuNc&feature=player_embe...

In May 2011, Holder told Congress, “I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”

But on the video, dated March 24, 2009, some 26 months earlier, David Ogden, deputy attorney general, was talking about Barack Obama’s orders to “fight” the Mexican drug cartels, using “Project Gunrunner.”

“Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration’s comprehensive plan. Those steps include the following: DOJ’s Drug Enforcement Administration, which already has the largest U.S. drug enforcement presence in Mexico with 11 offices in that country, is placing 16 new DEA positions in southwest border field positions.., uh, field operations, specifically to target Mexican trafficking and associated violence,” he said.

“The DEA is also deploying four new mobile enforcement teams to specifically target Mexican methamphetamine trafficking both along the border and in U.S. cities impacted by the cartels,” he continued.

“DOJ’s bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is increasing its efforts by adding 37 new employees and three new offices, using $10 million in Recovery Act funds and redeploying 100 personnel to the southwest border in the next 45 days to fortify its Project Gunrunner, which is aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico,” he said.

The question remains then, whether Holder was completely ignorant of programs that already were operating and with which his aide was fully familiar.

That’s part and parcel of what members of Congress now are demanding to know, with calls for a special investigator or prosecutor and a level of outrage that suggests nothing is going to “calm down,” as Acting ATF Director B. Todd Jones suggested for now.

In fact, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona’s First Congressional District says there’s no two ways about it: “We’re talking about consequences of criminal activity, where we actually allowed guns to walk into the hands of criminals, where our livelihoods are at risk. When you facilitate that and a murder or a felony occurs, you’re called an accessory. That means that there’s criminal activity.”

It was Rep. Darrell Issa who earlier, in the congressional hearing exchange with Holder, stated bluntly,“There are dead Americans as a result of this failed and reckless program. So I would say this hasn’t gotten enough attention, has it Mr. Attorney General?”

The outrage was over the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, killed in an attack near the border with Mexico at a site where some of the guns that were allowed by the federal government to be taken to the Mexican drug cartel civil war were found.

In an interview with WND/Radio America, Gosar said Holder and the Obama administration need to be “fully compliant” with congressional subpoenas and produce the information to determine “who authorized this.”

He said Americans have become “collateral damage” for the program of the Obama administration.

“We have no idea where these guns are going to show up,” he said. “They show up at crime scenes.”

Also today, it was revealed that Holder got at least five weekly memos a year ago about the Fast and Furious that he claimed to have been informed about only this year.

The memos were released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who have been investigating the alleged criminal behavior.

“With the fairly detailed information that the attorney general read, it seems the logical question for the attorney general after reading in the memo would be ‘why haven’t we stopped them?’” said Grassley in a statement from his office.

Issa suggested that Holder failed to provide “an honest account” of what has happened.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is asking Obama to tell the DOJ to appoint a special counsel to get to the bottom of the problem.

The memos, redacted significantly, still reveal notes to Holder from Michael F. Walther through July and into August in 2010 where he talks about “Fast and Furious”: “This investigation, initiated in September 2009 in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Phoenix police department, involves a Phoenix-based firearms trafficking ring headed by Manueal Celis-Acosta. Celis-Acosta and straw purchasers are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels. They also have direct ties to the Sinaloa cartel which is suspected of providing $1 million for the purchase of firearms in the greater Phoenix area.”

Similar memos to Holder are dated July 12, July 19, July 26 and other dates.

Insiders already have estimated that hundreds of deaths might be attributable to the guns that the U.S. government let “walk” into the Mexican drug war.

Smith’s demand for a special counsel suggested further misbehavior on the part of Holder.

He told Obama, “Allegations that senior Justice Department officials may have intentionally misled members of Congress are extremely troubling and must be addressed by an independent and objective special counsel. I urge you to appoint a special counsel who will investigate these allegations as soon as possible.”

Pinal County, Ariz., Sheriff Paul Babeu recently told reporters he figures there were more than 300 casualties from Operation Fast and Furious, and he thinks charges are appropriate against officials who bear some responsibility.

The officials, he says, would include President Obama’s buddy, Holder.

Babeu released a video in which he says that with 300 casualties and more than 2,000 weapons on the loose, the operation must have been authorized from officials above the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Sheriff’s spokesman Elias Johnson says the number 300 looks high, but its based on evidence.

“Those figures are directly from not only the Department of Justice but from various federal agencies such as the ATF, folks that have been involved directly with crime scenes,” Johnson said.

“Those were crime scenes where the serial numbers on the weapons match back to the numbers that were tracked by ATF. You can trace that ballistic back to the weapon that it was fired from,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that the deeper the investigation goes, “you find out that this involved members of our government that went well beyond the ATF.”

“Given the type of operation that was going on, this is not something that the ATF under good conscience could authorize on their own,” his said. “This had to have gone up to Eric Holder.”

Johnson said he and his colleaugues believe Holder was aware, “based on people we’ve talked to within the ATF that have been whistleblowers and acknowledged that this was totally wrong.”

“Not only was it reckless but dangerous—the proof in the crime scenes where we’ve found these weapons at,” he said.

The biggest example, he pointed out, was the murder of Terry with one of the weapons released in the operation.”

Source:

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=352705

Note: The following articles and/or blog posts and videos relate to this disturbing issue-You Decide:

I. Holder 'Stonewalling' on Fast and Furious Probe Making Situation Worse, Grassley Says!

Posted on NewsMax.com-By Martin Gould and Ashley Martella-On October 6, 2011:

“The more Attorney General Eric Holder stonewalls investigators looking into the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal, the worse it will get for him, top Republican Sen. Charles Grassley warned in an exclusive Newmax.TV interview.

“I always tell every agency… that I have been investigating, the longer you stonewall, when the truth comes out, the more egg you are going to have on your face,” the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said.

Grassley accused Holder of refusing to turn over documents that would show how much he knew about the project that allowed hundreds of assault weapons to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartel leaders. He again urged him to cooperate fully.

“If he’s got any questions about what he meant to say or not say, cooperate with our investigation, give us all the documents that we ask for and let those documents speak for themselves,” Grassley said.

The Iowa senator was speaking as the whole Fast and Furious row threatened to blow up in Holder’s face, potentially becoming a major election issue next year for President Barack Obama, who gave his unequivocal backing to his attorney general minutes before the interview.

Under Fast and Furious, at least 1,400 assault weapons were allowed to cross the border into Mexico in the hope that they could be traced and would lead agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to the cartel bosses.

But most of the weapons soon disappeared and they have been linked to dozens of crimes south of the border, including the February murder of U.S. immigration officer Jaime Zapata who was working from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

Some of the guns were also used in this country. Two were involved in the December murder of border agent Brian Terry in Arizona; 40 were found in a stash in El Paso, Texas in January; and now Republicans say at least 11 crimes have been committed on U.S. soil with Fast and Furious weapons.

Holder claimed in evidence to the House Judiciary Committee in May that he had only learned of the project“a few weeks ago.” But newly released emails show that Michael Walther, the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center told him about it in at least five weekly memos, starting on July 5 last year.

Already the scandal has cost the jobs of several ATF officers, including acting head Kenneth Melson, who was reassigned in August.

Grassley said he personally handed letters to Holder in January asking for details of the scheme and expected full cooperation. But when he did not receive it he was forced to turn to California Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

“I thought I would get full cooperation and I could take care of it myself, but when I got stonewalled, I went to Rep. Issa and said, ‘Could you help us?’

“He started digging into it and, boy, has he been a big help. He has subpoena power because he is in the majority in the House of Representatives and what I couldn’t get, he subpoenaed and has helped the process along.

“But we have not still had the full cooperation of the Justice Department.”

Grassley was diplomatic when it came to suggestions that Obama should appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Holder’s role in the scheme. He said he is not calling for such a move at this time, while also saying that if the president wanted to live up to his campaign promise of increased government transparency he would appoint one and that he would not discourage others such as Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from making such a call.

“I am not sure at this point that I would ask for one but I am surely not going to discourage Chairman Smith for asking for one,” he said. “But I want to make it very clear, special prosecutor or not, I’m going to continue my investigation.”

Other GOP members have gone even further than Smith with both Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas and Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho calling on Holder to resign now.

“A lot of people tell you that there are a lot of reasons why Holder ought to be fired other than just Fast and Furious, but right now I’m going to limit my comments to having more certainty of personal involvement,” said Grassley. “The more we investigate the more we know that he knew about it or at least should have known about it.

“But I am after who OK’d this and then I would say, if it’s Eric Holder, then he ought to resign. But I am not going to say that Eric Holder ought to resign until I know who the person was that approved this.”

Grassley also said one of the main objectives of his investigation was to make sure a “stupid” project like Fast and Furious is never authorized again.”

Source:

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/grassley-holder-gunrunning-mexic...

II. CBS Reporter: More Revelations to Come on Holder!-Posted on NewsMax.com-By Newsmax Wires-October 6, 2011:

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/attkisson-fast-furious-holder/20...

III. CBS Reporter: White House Official ‘Screamed’ & ‘Cussed’ At Me For Coverage Of ‘Fast And Furious’!-Posted on The Blaze-By Jonathon M. Seidl-On October 4, 2011:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/cbs-reporter-white-house-screamed-c...

IV. White House Clarifies That Obama Disclosed Knowing About Operation Fast and Furious on CNN Espanol in March!-Posted on CNSNews.com-By Fred Lucas-On October 5, 2011:

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/white-house-clarifies-obama-disclos...

V. Does Fast and Furious Put Impeachment on The Table?-Posted on The Patriot Post-By Ben Shapiro (Archive)-On September 28, 2011:

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/ben-shapiro/2011/09/28/does-fast-and-...

VI. Video: Eric Holder Commits Perjury By Lying to Darrell Issa!-Posted on YouTube.com-ByTheZenoEffect-On Jul 10, 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=S7oyXFk4Loc

VII. Video: Obama Orders Launched Fast and Furious In 2009!-Posted on YouTube.com-ByMidNightRider2001-On July 8, 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PNhYk9NuNc&feature=player_embe...

VIII. Video: Justice Dept Continues Stonewalling Investigation of Project Gunrunner!-Posted on YouTube.com-By oversightandreform on May 5, 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAJoEfeExtU

IX. Video: The UN Considers Gun Regulation Treaty!-Posted on ExposeObama.com-On October 2, 2011:

http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/10/02/video-the-un-considers-gun-re...

Note:  My following blog posts contain numerous articles and/or blog posts and videos that relate to this disturbing issue-You Decide:

Did ATF provide weapons to Mexican drug cartels that were subsequently used to kill one of our own?

http://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/did-atf-provide-weapons-to...

What is the true intent of the UN Small Arms Treaty?

http://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/what-is-the-true-intent-of...

Is it important to understand the Marxist assault on the foundations of our system?

http://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/is-it-important-to-underst...

Note:  If you have a problem viewing any of the listed blog posts please copy web site and paste it on your browser. Be aware that some of the articles and/or blog posts or videos listed within the contents of the above blog post(s) may have been removed by this administration because they may have considered them to be too controversial.  Sure seems like any subject matter that may shed some negative light on this administration is being censored-What happened to free speech?-You Decide.

“Food For Thought”

God Bless the U.S.A.!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65KZIqay4E&feature=related

Semper Fi!

Jake