Is Eric Holder Entitled? Operation Fast and Furious or is it Operation Gunrunner? or, Project Gunrunner

They Don't Really Care About US MJ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4WZU6wWHCw&feature=related

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/07/holder-bragged-about-operation-gunrunner-2009
Excerpt:

Holder bragged about Operation Gunrunner in 2009

By: Barbara Hollingsworth | Local Opinion Editor | 07/09/11 10:33 AM

On May 3, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa's committee that he only learned about the government's sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels "in the last few weeks."
But Big Government found a 2009 speech by Holder on the Department of Justice's own website that proves the attorney general was well aware of Operation Gunrunner back in 2009:

The problem with Holder’s feigned ignorance is that he gave a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation 'Gunrunner” and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success.

When questioned by the media, Holder also denied knowing anything about Gunrunner:

"Holder's office at first vehemently denied ATF has ever knowingly allowed weapons to get into the hands of suspected gunrunners for Mexico's drug cartels," CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported.

But at the arms trafficking conference in Cuernavaca, Holder not only acknowledged the program, he bragged that he was in the process of expanding it:

"Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail."

So Holder's May 3rd denial appears to be refuted by his own words.
With 43 automatic weapons with serial numbers traced back to the ATF operation seized during a single traffic stop in Phoenix, and others showing up in crimes throughout Arizona, the ATF director now claims that Holder's department is obstructing the congressional investigation.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/06/issa-grassley-blast-holder-in-letter-after-secret-meeting-with-atfs-ken-melson/
Excerpt:

• University of Arizona MBAMultiple Locations in Arizona, Choose from 4 Programs. Learn More! ellermba.arizona.edu

Photo: AP

 

Top Republican lawmakers have authored an explosive new letter containing details of secret testimony by acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson, which reveal for the first time the extent to which his agency was involved in an international gun selling scandal.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, fired off the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Tuesday detailing what Melson told Congressional investigators in a secret July 4 testimony.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gunrunner
Excerpt:
Controversy
ATF Project Gunrunner has a stated official objective to stop the sale and export of guns from the United States into Mexico in order to deny Mexican drug cartels the firearms considered "tools of the trade".^[16] However, since September 2009 under Project Gunrunner, operation "Fast and Furious", did the opposite by ATF permitting, encouraging and facilitating 'straw purchase' firearm sales to traffickers, and allowing the guns to 'walk' and be transported to Mexico. This has resulted in the death of US border agent Brian Terry and considerable controversy.^[17][18][19]
Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) initiated an investigation with a letter to ATF on 27 January 2011,^[20] and again on 31 January 2011. ATF responded through the Department of Justice by denying all allegations.^[21] Senator Grassley responded with specific documentation supporting the allegations in letters to U.S. Attorney General Holder on 9 Feb 2011^[22] and 16 Feb 2011.^[23] ATF refused to answer specific questions in a formal briefing to Senator Grassley on 10 Feb 2011.
Indictments filed in federal court, documentation obtained by Senator Grassley, and statements of ATF agents obtained by Senator Grassley and CBS News, show that the ATF Phoenix Field Division allowed and facilitated the sale of over 2,500 firearms (AK-47 rifles, FN 5.7mm pistols, AK-47 pistols, and .50 caliber rifles) in 'straw man purchases' destined for Mexico. ^{[17][24][25][26][27][28]}According to ATF agents, Mexican officials were not notified, and ATF agents operating in Mexico were instructed not to alert Mexican authorities about the operation.^[29] Some ATF agents and supervisors strongly objected, and gun dealers (who were cooperating with ATF) protested the sales, but were asked by ATF to complete the transactions to expose the supply chain and gather intelligence.^[17][30] However, there are accusations that the ATF was attempting to boost statistics to 'prove' that American guns are arming the Mexican drug cartels and to further budget and political objectives.^[31]
Many of these same guns are being recovered from crime scenes in Arizona^[32] and throughout Mexico,^[33] which is artificially inflating ATF's eTrace statistics of U.S. origin guns seized in Mexico. One specific gun, recovered at the scene, is alleged to be the weapon used to murder Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010.^[34]

http://biggovernment.com/tag/gunrunner/
Excerpt:
News about Operation “Fast and Furious” is now ubiquitous. Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson’s Fourth of July testimony to Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa blew the cover off what appears to be one of the biggest political cover-ups in the last 50 years.


http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Security_Network

http://www.odmp.org/officer/20596-border-patrol-agent-brian-a-terry
Excerpt:

Border Patrol Agent

Brian A. Terry

United States Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection - Border Patrol, U.S. Government

End of Watch: Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Share this Memorial

Biographical Info

Age: 40
Tour of Duty: 3 years, 5 months
Badge Number: Not available

Incident Details

Cause of Death: Gunfire
Location: Arizona
Date of Incident: December 14, 2010
Weapon Used: Rifle; AK-47
Suspect Info: One at large

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed near Rio Rico, Arizona, while attempting to apprehend a group of armed subjects. The suspects had been preying on illegal immigrants with the intent to rob them.

Agent Terry and several other agents were attempting to arrest the group when shots were exchanged between the suspects and agents. Agent Terry was struck in the pelvis by a round fired by a suspect armed with an AK-47.

The wounded agent was flown to a hospital where he succumbed early the following morning.

Four members of the group were taken into custody and at least one suspect remains at large.

Agent Terry was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and had served with the United States Border Patrol for 3.5 years. He had previously served as a police officer with the Lincoln Park, Michigan, Police Department. He is survived by his parents, brother, two sisters, five nieces, and one nephew.
Print This Memorial >
Update This Memorial >

I visited your place on the LEO Memorial in Washington DC today. We all miss you Brian. Thanks again for living your life the way we all should.
USBP Agent
Nogales Border Patrol
July 3, 2011

I saw this poem at the Nogales Station with your picture on it.You are pure motivation to me, and I'm inspired by your courage!

"I have kept myself in peak physical condition, schooled myself in martial arts, and have become proficient in the application of combat tactics. You may defeat me, but you would be lucky to escape with your life. You may kill me, but I am willing to die if necessary. I have been close enough to it on enough occasions that it no longer concerns me. But I do fear the loss of my honor, and would rather die fighting than to have it said that I was without courage."

-USBPA BRIAN TERRY
Officer Robert Fierros
Nogales Police Department
July 3, 2011

I feel bad for what happened to Brian. I think there is a lack of respect for life that exists at the higher echelons where spending one loyal, hard-working man's life to gain access to drug kingpins seems to be acceptable.

It definitely is not acceptable and a good and innocent man died because of that callous disregard for the working man.

What a tragedy and I hope the family will be taken care of very well because they deserve the full support of the government agency that totally let them down.
Steve Sybesma
private citizen
June 18, 2011

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40678058/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/border-patrol-agent-killed-southern-arizona/

Reflections for Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry

Obama's Secret GunsTo Mexican drug Dealers program to end 2ndAmendment
Constitutional Rights for Americans.

  Obama basically had the Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms agency (ATF)
encourage private gun stores to sell American gun smugglers who had
clean criminal records required to buy guns, Large numbers of military
type rifles to be smuggled to Mexican drug dealers in Mexico so when
these guns turned up killing Americans and US Border Patrol near the
Mexican border, Obama could tighten up gun purchasing requirements
making it harder for honest Americans to purchase firearms, Basically to
help with the Federal Governments attempted take over of the USA using
the US military, TSA & Homeland Security. Former Wackenhut guards.
(tlb-fns)

And to think President Nixon was forced out of office for having some
Cubans steal paperwork from an opponents office ! tlb-fns


operation fast and furious - Google Search
http://www.google.com/search?q=operation%20fast%20and%20furious&spell=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&source=hp
-----------------------------------------------------

Gun-Running Timeline: How DOJ Operation Fast and Furious Unfolded |
CNSnews.com

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/gun-running-timeline-how-doj-s-operation

Thursday, July 07, 2011
By Fred Lucas
    Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in Arizona on Dec.,
2010. Two guns found at the scene had been purposely sold to gun
traffickers in a program hatched by the Obama Administration. (AP photo)
(CNSNews.com) - Operation Fast and          Furious was a program
carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(ATF), a division of the U.S. Justice Department.
    In this operation, which began in the fall of 2009 and continued
into early 2011, the federal government purposefully allowed known or
suspected gun smugglers to purchase guns at federally licensed firearms
dealers in Arizona. The government did not seek to abort these gun
purchases, intercept the smugglers after the purchases, or recover the
guns they had purchased.
    In some cases, as the government expected they would, the smugglers
delivered the guns to Mexican drug trafficking organizations.
    The reported purpose of the operation was to track and uncover the
entirety of the smuggling operations so they could be completely
shutdown. However, two rifles sold to a smuggler in the course of
Operation Fast and Furious in January 2010 ended up at the scene of the
murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep.
Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.), and Sen. Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa), the
ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are currently
investigating the operation.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/06/operation-fast-and-furious-should-end-holder-tenure
Excerpt:

But delight turned to devastation on Dec. 14, 2010 when two Fast and Furious rifles were found at the scene of Border Agent Brian Terry's murder approximately 18 miles inside the U.S. border with Mexico in the Arizona desert. The program ended the next day. Special Agent Larry Alt told the committee that Terry's death was the entirely foreseeable result of Operation Fast and Furious: "You can't allow thousands of guns to go south of the border without an expectation that they are going to be recovered eventually in crimes and people are going to die." There had also been panic among ATF officials when news first broke that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., had been shot because they feared the weapon used might be one of those sold via Operation Fast and Furious.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fast_furious_gets_hotter_for_holder_wDCoBUrOxYF8r1GobKS89M
Excerpt:

Melson testified behind closed doors on July 4, but the country needs to hear him speak -- loudly and publicly. "Let me be clear," Issa wrote to Melson in April, "we are not conducting a concurrent investigation with the Department of Justice, but rather an independent investigation of the Department of Justice."
Exactly. Because this one's not just a domestic issue. A Mexican senator, Rene Arce Islas, told Fox News that he believes whoever is responsible for the monumental, lethal cock-up should be tried not only in America but in Mexico, too.
That's not going to happen, of course. Even if any prominent American officials are implicated, there is zero chance they'd have to face Mexican justice.
But Issa's charge that Holder & Co. are obstructing a congressional investigation is serious. Not even the Justice Department is above the law.
The best way to disinfect the putrid mess that is Operation Fast and Furious is to expose it to sunlight. Let's hear what the attorney general and others have to say in open hearings.
Because somebody's got some "splainin' " to do -- fast, before the American people get furious.

http://www.insightcrime.org/criminal-groups/guatemala/sinaloacartel/item/1146-hackers-reveal-that-us-failed-to-inform-mexico-of-el-chapos-whereabouts
Excerpt:
Monday, 27 June 2011 11:32

Lulzsec Hackers: US Failed to Inform Mexico of El Chapo's Whereabouts

Written by  Jen Sokatch

 

Hackers released documents yesterday claiming Arizona law officials knew the location of fugitive drug lord Joaquin Guzman, alias "El Chapo," two years ago, but failed to inform Mexico's authorities of his whereabouts.