Questions for the Obama DOJ and ATF

I have a few questions for the Obama DOJ and ATF:

1) Why did you send guns into Mexico over the objections of both gun dealers and field ATF agents?

2) If you wanted to track the guns to the "big fish" in Mexico, why in two years of the program did you never notify your Mexican counterpar­ts so they could arrest the 'big fish"? What was your plan to catch the "big fish"?

3) Why should we not believe the obvious and logical conclusion­, that you pumped guns into Mexico to justify more gun control here? (The first whistle blowing agent said that this was the point of the program.)

4) Why do we need more gun control (which may very well be unconstitu­tional) when under the current system dealers are stopping tons of illegal sales? Why does the DOJ almost never prosecute people who attempt to buy guns illegally? (To buy a gun from a dealer you have to sign a form that states you are not prohibited from owning a gun, you also have to leave your thumb print - so these cases are easily won.)

No new laws are needed. Stop the ATF from sending guns south and enforce the laws we have now.

The ATF Fast and Furious Scandal: An Overview and Timeline

Note: This blog's timeline will be updated several times per week in order to keep this reference current

Note: Timeline updated September 11, 2012

Introduction
(This is the place to start)

News Archives and Timeline

January - March 2011

April - May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011

October 2011

November 2011

December 2011

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012 

June 2012 

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

Fast and Furious FAQs

What questions remain to be answered?  Why is it important that the investigation continue?

 I have heard reports that DOJ has turned over all documents related to the Fast and Furious operation – that the only documents being withheld are those after the operation shut down.  Is this true?

I have heard over and over that 70-90% of crime guns recovered in Mexico come from US gun shops. Is this true?

Didn't this all start under Bush? Didn't he do the same thing? Didn't his "Wide Receiver" operation use the same tactics?

Wasn't Fast and Furious Just a Botched Sting Operation?

Hasn't Fortune Magazine Proved That No "Gun Walking" Took Place? 

I've heard that "straw purchasers" aren't really punished - that it's like a traffic ticket. Democrats are calling Federal "gun trafficking" law. What laws are on the books now? What are the penalties?

How Could Fast And Furious Have Been Used To Promote Gun Control?

Why has so much of the media ignored this story? Why have many who have covered it failed to make the connection to gun control?

Who is Bill McMahon?  What was his role in the scandal?  Why do many people believe he has been "bought off"?

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ATF Gun Running Scandal – How High Does It Go?

Many years ago, the question was; How much did the President know and when did he know it? Now, President Obama is facing the very same question. Sadly, while Watergate did not involve anyone dying, the scandal Obama faces involves a US Federal law enforcement agency facilitating the smuggling of guns that have killed hundreds of Mexicans and a US Boarder Patrol Agent. The following is a rough timeline of the current scandal that has potential to bring down the Obama presidency:

Early 2009: Secretary of State Hillery Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder blame gun violence in Mexico on US gun shops selling to smugglers. Holder calls for a new ban on “assault weapons”. Their claim that 90% of guns recovered at Mexican crime scenes come from the US is quickly disproved - not only buy gun groups, but by the liberal group factcheck.org. 60 Democratic congressmen send Holder a letter telling him that a new Assault Weapons Ban is “dead on arrival”.

At virtually the same time: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) began ordering gun dealers to sell guns to suspected smugglers. Yes, you read that right. When gun dealers called to report a suspected “straw purchase” or “gun smuggler” instead of being told to refuse the sale, or stall the buy so they could arrive and arrest the illegal buyer – something that had been ATF policy for decades – the dealers were ordered to complete the sale. They were often told to get the vehicle license number of the buyer. Many gun dealers were so dismayed by this policy of “letting the guns walk” that they demand the orders in writing (which they got), others record conversations with ATF agents and/or note their names.

Early 2008 to late 2010: Instead of arresting the smugglers, ATF agents are ordered to watch as the guns are smuggled into Mexico. Over and over they beg for permission to stop the guns from going into Mexico – every time the order is the same; Stand down. In one case senior ATF officials order the Board Patrol to release both the guns and the smugglers after they catch them. During this time, ATF facilitates the smuggling of between 3000 and 10,000 firearms to Mexican drug cartels. The guns begin turning up at Mexican murder scenes. Many ATF agents protest this policy and are warned to keep quiet because this program has been approved at the highest levels of the administration. One of these agents warns his boss that, “ It’s only a matter of time before we have to attend the funeral of a US Federal Agent killed by one of “our guns”.

Late 2010: Reports of the policy begin to appear on the insider web forum cleanupaft.org.

December 14^th 2010, just after 11:00pm: US Board Patrol Agent Brain Terry is killed with an AK-47 smuggled into Mexico with the help of ATF.

December 28^th 2010: The first whistle-blowing agent makes contact with gun rights media reporters David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh. This first agent states that the program’s purpose was to increase the number of US guns recovered in Mexico in order to justify further gun control laws in the US and increase ATF’s budget. Mike Vanderboegh breaks the story in his blog and David Codrea begins a series of reports in the Gun Rights Examiner.

Early to mid January 2011: Whistle-blowers continue to talk to David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh. They confirm that ATF Agents were forbidden to notify any Mexican police officials of the “program”. They also confirm that ICE was involved and that they were told that the highest levels of the Justice department had approved the program.

Mid to late January 2011: Codrea and Vanderboegh actively seek a mainstream reporter who is willing to tackle the story. No one wants to cover it. At the same time, they begin seeking congressional protection for whistle-blowers.

January 22, 2011: World Net Daily becomes the first news outlet outside the “gun rights” media to report the story.

Late January 2011: ATF supervisors begin threatening whistle-blowers in an effort to stop the story.

January 30, 2011: Mexican press begins reporting on the scandal. Over the next two months it becomes and remains front page news throughout the country for the next two months. Mexican lawmakers are furious and demand that the US Agents be extradited for trial in Mexico. The US Ambassador is forced to resign. In late March the Mexican Attorney General states that an investigation is under way and that he is willing to bring charges against US Officials.

January 30, 2011: Sen. Charles Grassly offers his protection to whistle blowers. His staffers begin investigating.

January 30, 2011: Fox News Online carries a story on the scandal.

February 2011: ATF officials try to stonewall Sen Grassly – in doesn’t work. He continues to demand answers. Approximately 12 ATF agents come forward to aid his investigation.

February 15, 2011: The Washington Times begins reporting on the story.

February 23, 2011: Sharyl Attkisson of CBS news becomes the first mainstream broadcast news report to report the story. She continues to dig and report for the next 6 weeks, joined belatedly by Fox News. Two brave agents go on camera to confirm the story.

March 4, 2011: Rush Limbaugh discovers the story and shares it with his 20 million listeners.

March 17, 2011: Rep. Darrel Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, calls on the ATF to answer questions and produce documents about "gunwalking" operations where guns were allegedly allowed into Mexico in order to track drug cartels. Congressional hearings are now certain.

March 23, 2011: In an interview with the Mexican TV network Univision, Pres. Obama goes on the record stating that neither he, nor Attorney General Eric Holder had knowledge of guns being smuggled into Mexico with the knowledge and aid of ATF.

March 27, 2011: The highest ranking agent yet goes on camera. The now retired agent was head of ATF operations in Mexico during the entire time the guns were going south. He described how he protested the policy over and over. The response was that this operation had been approved at the highest levels of both ATF and the Justice Department.

If you want to watch the many videos on this story, go to foxnews.com or cbsnews.com and just search for “ATF”.

Swiss Reject Gun Control Measure

The Swiss protect their nation with a citizen army. The number one sport in the country is rifle marksmanship. In order to avoid the fate of Norway - where the Nazis simply seized the armories - the Swiss reservists keep their weapons at home. This, along with the terrain, makes Switzerland a very tough nut to crack - tough enough that they were left alone in both World Wars while all nations around them were involved. In addition, citizens soldiers retaining their weapons prevents tyrants from seizing power. As a result Switzerland is the oldest democracy on earth.

Today the Swiss people - who are number three in the world in private firearms ownership - overwhelmingly rejected a referendum to require reservists to keep their issue assault rifles in government armories. The Swiss crime rate is very low, but they have a high suicide rate. The Swiss people rejected the argument that removing a method of kill one's self would reduce the number of suicides. Experience with removing other methods - such was highly poisonous domestic gas formally used in East Germany - has proven them right.

It's nice to know that there are other nations where people are citizens and not subjects.

See news story here.

Federal Gun Cops Sent Guns To Mexico

More evidence has surfaced indicating that charges that the BATFE - the agency responsible for enforcing Federal gun laws - intentionally sent guns to Mexican drug cartels in order to gain budget increases for the agency. One of these guns was later used to shoot a US Board Patrol agent.

The story started on an insider message board for dissatisfied BATFE employees. It was then picked up by the gun rights movement. After the employees contacted Sen. Chuck Grassly (R - Iowa), several things happened. First, more sources came forward including gun shop owners who were directed to proceed with sales of both handguns and semi-automatic rifles even though they normally would not have done so due to suspicion that the buyers were gun traffickers. Second, at least one of the whistle blowers was threatened with termination by his BATFE boss, in violation of federal law. Third, Senator Grassly has called for public hearings on this incident. Fourth and last: A BATFE executive has done - guess what? - called for, "increased funding to prevent a repeat of this incident".

In addition, as reflected in the linked articles below, the mainstream press has picked up on this story. Articles have not only appeared on Fox News and gun media sites - the story has now been covered by USA Today, the Washington Post and the L.A. Times - not exactly gun friendly newspapers.

The BATFE has been a troubled agency for a very long time - indeed all the way back to prohibition. In more recent years they were responsible for initiating both the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents. Sadly, it appears that things have gotten much worse in the years since.

Please check out the links below. Thanks!

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/mainstream-press-reports-shed-additional-light-on-project-gunwalker

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/101213-gun-dealer-atf-approved-sales-to-mexican-gun-runners

http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/2011/02/01/20110201phoenix-gun-store-atf-sting-border-shootout.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/02/senator-calls-atf-allegations-agency-allowing-guns-mexico/

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-02-02-borderpatrolupdate02_ST_N.htm

Nuts can be dangerous

The vast majority of the mentally ill are in no way dangerous, but some clearly are. Sadly, we were reminded of this again this past week when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot and severely wounded and several others were killed. Of course the mainstream media moved quickly, along with the local sheriff, to blame the right - specifically the tea party and Sarah Palin. They were also quick to call for new gun control laws.

In this case, the sheriff may have good reason to blame others. Three things have become abundantly clear in the last few days: The shooter (Jared Loughner) clearly is mentally ill, his politics (such as they are) are left wing, not right wing and local law enforcement could have stopped this from happening had they simply done their job.

We know that the shooter is almost certainly mentally ill because almost every civilian who came in contact with him observed behavior that caused them to both question his sanity and consider him dangerous. Numerous people interviewed by the media have testified to this and we have learned that the local Community College expelled him and required a mental health clearance before he could return. No question, this guy is more than troubled - he is nuts.

Second, we know that his politics were much more left than right. ABC News reported Saturday night that Loughner had identified among his favorite books "The Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler's National Socialist work "Mein Kampf" and the fiction classic "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" -- hardly the reading list of a Palin supporter. His rants against the government that have surfaced on the Internet don't suggest he had a conservative perspective on big government. Instead Laughner's MySpace featured a photo "showing a close-up picture of an automatic handgun sitting atop a book or paper titled 'United States History.'" Another video shows a masked man burning the American flag. For further information see this article.

Third, we know that local law enforcement had in excess of 12 contacts with the Jared Loughner - most of them as a result of his bizarre behavior - yet they never sent him for mental health evaluation. In my years as an EMT and paramedic, I transported hundreds of people on 5150 mental health holds. We know that Loughner came to the attention of the campus police at least six times - and that his behavior was bad enough to warrant expulsion - yet they never sent him in for mental health evaluation. He had additional contacts with other local law enforcement, including a traffic stop on the day of the shooting - a day in which he was acting out so severely that the first clerk he tried to buy ammunition from refused to sell it to him.

Why is this so important? Simple: Had he been sent for evaluation, he almost certainly would have been committed for further treatment. Hopefully, the treatment would have helped Jared Loughner gain a degree of sanity - but even if it did not, it would have prevented him from buying a gun over the counter. Since 1968, it has been a Federal crime for those who have been committed to a mental heath facility to buy or own guns. After the Virginia Tech shootings, the NRA joined with gun control groups to get mental health commitments added to the National Instant Check System database. Assuming the database was up to date, Loughner would not only have been prevented from buying the gun he used in the shooting, he would have committed a Federal crime buy lying on the application form. With any luck, he would have been in jail or a mental hospital instead of out on the streets killing people.

In the next few months, I expect we will see many calls for new gun control laws. When that happens, let's remember that in this case, the laws we have now were not enforced. It is possible that even if Jared Loughner had been committed, he would have purchased a gun on the black market. He had ready access to Mexico - where in spite of some of the toughest gun laws in the world, illegal guns are readily available. We will never know for sure what might have happened if law enforcement had done their job, but chances are the shooting would have never taken place.

New computer control law to be proposed by Republicans

Citing the fact that computers are regularly used in all manor of crimes, House Republicans plan to introduce three new laws to prevent identity thieves, child molesters and terrorists from gaining easy access to computers and the Internet.

The first measure will outlaw all wireless networks. “Both terrorists and child molesters use unsecured or poorly secured wireless networks to gain anonymous access to the Internet. The banning of this form of access is a small price to pay for keeping children and the nation safe. It’s just not that hard to plug in when you need access”, said one new member of the house who asked that his identity be withheld until the measure is introduced.

Although details have not been finalized, the second measure will probably require Federal registration of all computers and mobile phones. By linking the device’s electronic address (MAC address) to the owner, investigators will be able to quickly link chat room traffic, Internet posts, and all other Internet traffic to the author. This has the potential of catching not only child molesters – but identity thieves and terrorists as well.

The final measure will probably be the most controversial: The nearly complete isolation of the US portion of the Internet from the rest of the world. Only “trusted and verified” servers will be permitted through the new “National Firewall”. Lawmakers believe that this drastic action is required because all terrorist organizations and many identity theft rings are based overseas.

When asked if he thought civil liberties groups would object to the legislation, the source said, “We believe that law abiding, patriotic Americans will support these common sense measures, and that they will withstand review by the courts.”

If the preceding story angers you as much as it does me – please understand that I made it all up. You do not have to take any action to prevent this from happening, however now you know how American gun owners have felt for the last 50 years. Think about it.