This revelation alone is of paramount importance because it lays to rest once and for all the notion that Fast and Furious was merely a local Phoenix ATF sting operation gone bad. That claim is false. The operation received its very name from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), and as such, it had to be fully cleared and approved by officials at the highest levels of government, specifically the Justice Department.Previous articles by this reporter provide details on the nature of OCDETF and why understanding Fast and Furious within the context of this Justice Department task force is crucial to getting at the truth about the scandal.
But the information only gets worse for the Obama Administration.
Holder has stated repeatedly before Congress that neither he nor the president, nor any of his top aides knew anything about illegal "gunwalking' within the Fast and Furious program or the wiretapping that was part and parcel of the operation.
However, the wiretap applications themselves show otherwise...
“We just learned that ATF senior management placed two of the main whistleblowers who have testified before Congress about Fast and Furious under the supervision of someone who vowed to retaliate against them,” they wrote before describing how senior political figures have made dangerous threats before.Grassley and Issa said that in early 2011, right around the time Grassley first made public the whistleblowers’ allegations about Fast and Furious, Scot Thomasson – then the chief of the ATF’s Public Affairs Division – said, according to an eyewitness account: “We need to get whatever dirt we can on these guys [the whistleblowers] and take them down.”
Thomasson also allegedly said that: “All these whistleblowers have axes to grind. ATF needs to f—k these guys.”
You can take the Administration out of Chicago...
BUT BUT...BOOOSHHHH did it too....
(sarc\)
It's not so much the mistakes that does an administration in, but how it handles the mistakes.
Had the Obama administration come clean from the beginning, admitting they screwed up, no one would now be talking about it. But like a Faulty Towers episode, they've turned a problem into a disaster. Well done Basil, ur, Barack.
rabbit, not true at all.
The administration wanted people killed in order to bring about gun control, that's not just screwing up, and it wouldn't go away.
SDH
The 'Obama' administration didn't just want any people killed in order to justify it's gun control... it wanted American's killed - and that is never going to go away. The Last administration to govern America that was OK with killing its own people to justify its own existance was defeated in a revolution.
It seems clear to me that Rep. Issa has noticed how James O'Keefe releases his information, the death by multiple cuts and denials, until B. Hussien gets on a podium and denies knowing who Eric the Withholder actually is, and an hour later, Rep. Issa reads into the Congressional Record, (again) how B. Hussien has co-signed Eric's mortgage...
Excellent.
When an administration makes a mistake, people can get irate, and that's as far as it goes. The resolution is restricted to the effect at the ballot box.
But if an official is complicit in activities that had as its goal the threat of violence, or of the death of a citizen, that's not just wrong, its criminal.
Fast and Furious had as its goal, to instil fear, and provide justification for legal gun ownership under further limits.
If such a goal can no longer be attained through reasoned debate and good faith campaigning, and an administration must result to covert operations where US citizens lives are sacrificed for no other reason than to change public opinion, then its time for criminal proceedings and perhaps impeachment hearings.
When an administration makes a mistake, people can get irate, and that's as far as it goes. The resolution is restricted to the effect at the ballot box.
But if an official is complicit in activities that had as its goal the threat of violence, or of the death of a citizen, that's not just wrong, its criminal.
Fast and Furious had as its goal, to instil fear, and provide justification for legal gun ownership under further limits.
If such a goal can no longer be attained through reasoned debate and good faith campaigning, and an administration must result to covert operations where US citizens lives are sacrificed for no other reason than to change public opinion, then its time for criminal proceedings and perhaps impeachment hearings.
Congress has enough evidence for not only impeachment but indictment of both the POTUS and the AGOTUS.
Watch and learn how the GOP and Dems are just two wings of the same corrupted control apparatus. One mobster does not rat out another mobster.
This will create a scandal but there will be no jail time or even surrender of office.
Very true,Occam,they just have to do enough to satisfy the peasants.
If the "system" operated as it should in a true democracy, the Pres and his A-G would be in the process of being impeached right now. This is more evidence,if any is needed,that there is in place a gentleman's agreement, just like we have here.
This is going to be embarrassing IF Romney brings it up in the debates, but that's about the only price Obama will pay, unless he loses the Top Job in November.
Occam
They are not equal. The Dems wouldn't hesitate jumping on impeachment proceedings if Obama were a Republican. The GOP leadership is scared to death of dragging the country through the trauma of impeaching the first (semi) Black POTUS. That's why the Dems nominated him. But that is what needs to happen, particularly if he is re-elected. The GOP would also need the Senate as well.
You know, I'm reminded at times like this that Janet Reno and Bill Clinton had EIGHTY THREE men women and children killed by ATF in a totally FUBAR "military" mission, and Congress did... -nothing-. That whole thing was trumped up to create anti-gun propaganda too.
Wild Bill went on to win another election after that, Janet Reno kept her job the whole time. Despite Waco and Ruby Ridge and the first WTC explosion and blowing up aspirin factories and smart-bombing tractors in Kosovo and all kindsa other crazy stuff, Wild Bill didn't even get in trouble until Matt Drudge started talking about a certain stain on a certain blue dress.
So I'm not going to get too excited about Rep. Issa and his mole until Barry's American body count gets up north of 100 or more per episode. One dead border cop and a couple red-necked Arizona ranchers don't even make it onto the radar.
Well, unless the Republican congress FINALLY grows a pair and starts to hammer these low rent Chi-town ratbags. But as Occam says, its incredibly unlikely.
"The Last administration to govern America that was OK with killing its own people to justify its own existance was defeated in a revolution"
~Chris
And that's why the 2nd American Revolution swept President BJ Clinton out of existence after the FBI killed a mother and infant at Ruby Ridge then ATF/FBI later killed 81 men, women, and children at Waco Texas.
Democrats: Killing Americans for the good of America.
Janet Reno and Bill Clinton had EIGHTY THREE men women and children killed by ATF
~The Phantom
I should have added that 2 of the women at Waco were pregnant(which adds to 83).
Oh and by the way, regarding the body count thing: consider that every US Federal department from Fish and Game to Education has a SWAT team, and Homeland Security just bought several hundred million rounds of .40cal hollow point pistol ammunition. Which can't be used in war. But which runs through an H&K MP5 real good.
The Iraq War used about five and a half million rounds a year, just for comparison purposes.
So Barry's got enough on hand to do Waco every day for about six or seven years. Just so we all know what we're talking about here.
Oz said: "I should have added that 2 of the women at Waco were pregnant(which adds to 83)."
Not if you're a DemocRat. You must be some kind of anti-Choice, Conservative keep-'em-in-the-kitchen type, Oz. You knuckle dragger!
"All these whistleblowers have axes to grind. ATF needs to f—k these guys.”
Sounds a lot like the EPA administrator appointed as environmental gauleiter for Texas, and Oklahoma, Albert Almendariz, who apppprovingly cited the example of Romans crucifying innocent civilians as a means of exacting obedience from the subject peoples of Asia Minor.
There should be an independent counsel.
With the Obama administration's "90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States" myth debunked,
F&F was developed to specifically increase the number of firearms of American origin.
I'm not sure you can say they specifically wanted American citizens dead, but bodies were a feature, not a bug.
And the Lincoln Administration won the War of Northern Aggression.
I'm wondering where the race baiters Helms and Jackson and Wright are hiding.Back to their tribal roots in Chi-town??
Just another brood of useless vipers taking Al Capone's lessons to heart; with a stock of 0.40 cal hollowpoints.
You can take the thug out of Chicago, but you can't take Chicago out of the thug.
Expect another round of blame gaming, as the vipers attempt to slither off into the shadows.
As usual with these type of 'snake eyes' operations they eventually end up injecting the poison into themselves.
I'm surprised they didn't "ICE" the whistleblowers, but that might draw too much attention in the fierce sunlight. And now another 2nd Amendment 'turf war' brought to you by the "Injustice Dept".
When does the IRS audit this motley Justice and ATF crew for tax evasion and racketeering, because when it comes to the expanding leviathan with taxpayer money, lives are not important. Or so they would have you believe...
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
*
c'mon, kate... everybody knows it's not about taking action...
it's about managing expectations...
"So remember... stay low, run fast... and for gawd's sake...
remember to zig-zag."
John Chittick @ 1:01 PM
John, you make my point. The GOP does not act like either constitutional republicans or as conservatives or as responsible Members of congress - if they put a political agenda ahead of their duty. If you want to belive it's a self serving partisan agenda that's fine, it amounts to the same thing when both parties operat this way - making them flip sides of the same coin.
Botton line is it isn't the nation's, the republic's, the constitution's or the people's agenda they carry.
Agree with Occam. A GOP or DEM administration barely matters. These agencies are out of control. No party is standing up for the constitution against all these federal agencies who grow every year and become more and more militaristic.
Related -- watch an episode of DEA sometime (on Netflix). It's so idiotic, you'd swear it was satire, but, sadly, they're deadly serious.
Nixon, Johnson, WH Boosh, Ford ( and most likely Boosh2 and Clinton) know the how and why Kennedy was assassinated, and yet we have private citizens struggling to solve the riddle
Remember those two border patrol agents that got railroaded because they shot a Mexican thug?
To my knowledge this has never been clearly explained. By all appearances, the various federal agencies conspired to keep the true facts of that incident form the public and GW Bush was definitely part of the whole clusterf@ck because of his involvement with the prosecuting federal attorney.
One of Dubya's failings was inability or unwillingness to keep a leash on federal agencies. For this you can sort of understand some of the bitching about him by leftards.
I'd bet that if ICE and Homeland security and the DEA were all rolled up permanently, there would be a net reduction in crime and no substantial risk to the public.
My not mentioning ATF was not an oversight. I think the ATF should be shut down anyway ... and as soon as possible.
When will it be time to send the US "Law Enforcement" officers to rot in hell where they belong? THEY are the damnable swill enabling these maggots. May every one of them rot in hell for dishonoring their oath to the Constitution.
False flag operations have been a long standing party mix fav with all governments since the good Roosevelt. Now people will begin to understand why not all "gun nus" are not.. well... "nuts".
F&F was not the ONLY such operation going on. It was merely the one run out of the Phoenix Field Division of BATFE that resulted in the murders of Agent Terry and Agent Zapata. It was only exposed because SOME of the BATE agents from Phoenix were honorable enough to post about this treason on CleanUpATF.org
There were SIMILAR operations going on that were run out of OTHER BATFE Field Divisions across the country. As an example, Operation Castaway, out of their Tampa Field Division, ran weapons to supporters of former President Zelaya in Honduras, with the help of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, the Orange County Sheriff's Office, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, and the Miami-Dade Police Department. There have not been ANY "Law Enforcement" officers from those organizations who are honorable enough to come forward and provide the details, even though Congressman Gus Bilirakis of the 9th District in Florida requested an explanation back in July of 2011.
Mark Matis at July 3, 2012 9:51 PM
And their wives and children???