Saturday, October 8, 2011

Fast and Furious weapons were found in Mexico cartel enforcer's home

Guns illegally purchased under the ATF operation were found in April hidden in violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, court records show.

This arsenal uncovered by police in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in April turned out to include weapons from the ATF's ill-fated Fast and Furious operation. (Associated Press)

By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

Reporting from Washington—

High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF's Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.

In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The smugglers' tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.

"These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there," said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. "But that's only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through."

Torres Marrufo, also known as "the Jaguar," has been identified by U.S. authorities as the enforcer for Sinaloa cartel chieftain Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. The Fast and Furious weapons were found at one of Torres Marrufo's homes April 30 when Mexican police inspected the property. It was unoccupied but "showed signs of recent activity," they said.

The basement had been converted into a gym with a wall covered with built-in mirrors. Behind the mirrors they found a hidden room with the Fast and Furious weapons and dozens more, including an antiaircraft machine gun, a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher.

"We have seized the most important cache of weapons in the history of Ciudad Juarez," Chihuahua state Gov. Cesar Duarte said at the time, though he did not know that many of the weapons came from the U.S. and Fast and Furious.

Torres Marrufo has been indicted in El Paso, but authorities have been unable to locate and arrest him.

In the U.S., intelligence officials consider the Sinaloa cartel the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world. Weekly reports from U.S. intelligence authorities to the Justice Department in the summer of 2010, at the height of Fast and Furious, warned about the proliferation of guns reaching the Sinaloa cartel.

Under Fast and Furious, begun in fall 2009, the ATF allowed illegal buyers to walk away with weapons in the hope that agents in Phoenix could track the guns and arrest cartel leaders.

Three months into the program, El Paso began to emerge as a hub, perhaps the central location, for Fast and Furious weapons. On Jan. 13, 2010, El Paso police stumbled upon 40 firearms after following a suspicious dark blue Volkswagen Jetta that backed into a garage at a local residence, according to federal court records.

Alberto Sandoval told authorities he acquired the weapons three days after they were purchased from someone he knew only as "Rudy." He said he was paid $1,000 to store the guns and "knew the firearms were going to Mexico."

Sandoval pleaded guilty in federal court in El Paso and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison. A month later, on Dec. 17, 2010, he escaped from a minimum-security prison in Tucson; officials believe he fled to Mexico.

Two others, Ivan Chavira and Edgar Ivan Galvan, were subsequently charged in that gun recovery, along with the recovery of 20 Fast and Furious weapons on April 7, 2010, in El Paso. Those guns also were discovered by chance by local authorities, and ATF trace records show that the weapons were purchased in Phoenix two weeks before they were found in El Paso.

Chavira and Galvan pleaded guilty. Chavira received eight years in prison; Galvan is to be sentenced next month.

richard.serrano@latimes.com

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City contributed to this report

Holder Received at Least Five Memos on Fast and Furious

WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa today said that Attorney General Eric Holder received at least five weekly memos beginning in July 2010, including four weeks in a row, describing the ill-advised strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious. The memos were to Holder from Michael Walther, the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center.

The Attorney General told Issa during a House Judiciary Committee in May 2011 that he had just learned of Fast and Furious a few weeks before. Yet, on January 31, in a previously scheduled meeting, Grassley personally handed him two letters about Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa said they find it very troubling that Holder actually knew of Operation Fast and Furious much earlier, and in greater detail than he ever let on.

The memos specifically said that the straw buyers were "responsible for the purchase of 1500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels."

"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?" Grassley said. "And if he didn't ask the questions, why didn't he or somebody in his office?"

"Attorney General Holder has failed to give Congress and the American people an honest account of what he and other senior Justice Department officials knew about gunwalking and Operation Fast and Furious. The lack of candor and honesty from our nation's chief law enforcement officials in this matter is deeply disturbing," Issa said.

Grassley and Issa have been leading the investigation into who approved the strategy to allow guns to be purchased by known straw buyers who then often transferred the firearms to Mexican Drug Cartels.

VIDEO RELEASE: Who Is Accountable for Fast and Furious?

WASHINGTON, DC – The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today released a new video asking a simple question: who is accountable for the Obama Justice Department's failed Operation Fast and Furious? Oversight Committee Watchdogs and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have pushed Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department for a full accounting of the deadly program, but this investigation has been meet with silence, stonewalling and spin. New documents, however, show that Holder received at least five weekly memos - beginning in July 2010 – that contradict the Attorney General's May 3, 2011 sworn testimony denying knowledge of Fast and Furious until just weeks before.

"Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department have failed to honestly answer clear and legitimate questions about Operation Fast and Furious," said Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). "Americans deserve to know the truth."

Leahy plans oversight hearing with Holder

By Sharyl Attkisson

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

(Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

CBS News has learned the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy,D-Vt., is planning to schedule an oversight hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder.

Leahy's Republican counterpart on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has been aggressively investigating the ATF "Fast and Furious" gunwalking scandal since early this year. So far, all hearings on the issue have been held in the House, where Republicans hold a majority.

Holder responds to critics on Fast and Furious

Ariz. Sheriffs call for independent investigation of Gunwalking operation

Sen. Leahy has indicated that he believes, as a former prosecutor, the current congressional investigation must not interfere with the ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions related to firearms trafficking in "Fast and Furious."

Leahy says, "I share the President's confidence in Attorney General Holder. He has continued to demonstrate his strong commitment to tough law enforcement, transparency and integrity."

Sen. Leahy is working to schedule an oversight hearing with Holder before the end of the year.


CBS NEWS

Eric Holder Makes Desperate Attempt to Deny Fast and Furious Knowledge. (again)

By DJ Redman

Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter to Congress on Friday, once again denying the seriousness of the Fast and Furious charges that show the ATF selling assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels which resulted in the death of two border agents and hundreds of citizens on both sides of our Southern border. First of all, we must consider both the timing and method of communication chosen by Eric Holder in this desperate attempt to avoid accountability for his incompetence/culpability in this scandal.

People have died from the very guns that our government authorized the sale of, and as House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa and House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith have stated on numerous occasions, " We are going to get to the bottom of this injustice, no matter how long it takes."

Congress was in session all week long and the best Holder can do is to write a letter on Friday ? This is the same pattern of late Friday document dumps put out by the White House administration when forced to by FOIA requests, in hopes that it will be forgotten/ignored/missed by the media. Many executive orders have also been released on Friday nights in hoping to keep the people in the dark about just what our government is doing. Also of note is the fact that this letter comes one day after Senator Chuck Grassley distributed five memos citing the gunrunner operation by name and which were addressed to… Attorney General Eric Holder in July and August of 2010. So much for Holder’s constant denial that he knew about the gunrunner program, which was also parroted by President Obama in his "pass-my-jobs-bill-tantrum (speech) number 19 this week. Obama trusts Eric Holder, and that means that the public must do so also, evidence be damned.

Maybe that is because the White House has been proven to have been briefed about Fast and Furious also.

Holder’s letter reeks of propaganda-style spin and delusional denial any way you look at it. He is denying Congress the ability to hold those responsible for this travesty of justice accountable. He has shifted ATF employees close to this scandal to Washington D.C. in an obvious attempt to cover his tracks. A spokesman for Rep. Issa called the letter "unconvincing."

"If Attorney General Holder had said these things five months ago when Congress asked him about ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’ it might have been more believable," the spokesman said. "At this point, however, it’s hard to take at face value a defense that is factually questionable, entirely self-serving, and a still incomplete account of what senior Justice Department officials knew about gun walking." (emphasis mine)

Holder is desperate to sweep this scandal under the rug, and it shows by the penning of this letter. Rep. Lamar Smith is now calling for a special counsel to look into this situation and help get to the bottom of it. Issa has demanded a special prosecutor from the DOJ, yet Holder fails to mention that fact in his letter, proving again that this letter is nothing more than an attempt to deny responsibility for his departments actions. He is also seen to be trying to protect Senior Justice department members from the fallout. To add insult to injury in this letter, Holder tries to paint the investigations as some kind of plot to "heap disrespect on our nation’s law enforcement officers." That ludicrous statement would be laughable if people had not been murdered by assault weapons that were authorized by our very own government. Here is how Eric Holder wants the public to view the ATF Fast and Furious investigations: "The members of Congress that are trying to hold the people responsible for the Fast and Furious perversion of justice are somehow slandering our local police departments across America." Demanding that Holder and company he held accountable is somehow supposed to be an affront to "all law enforcement across America." This is nothing more than a simplistic attempt to pressure Congress into dropping the investigations into Fast and Furious.

So why is Holder speaking out, ( in the media on a Friday night) all of a sudden while stonewalling this investigation? Again he wants to use ‘public discourse’ to try to spin this scandal into the famous " Nothing to see here folks, just move along" method of trying to cover it up. He said Friday, he feels compelled to speak out now because "the public discourse concerning these issues has become so base and so harmful to interests that I hope we all share." Harmful to who’s interests Mr. Holder? It certainly isn’t in the public’s best interest for our government to be enabling assault weapons to be sold to Mexican drug cartels in any way shape or form here. People have died from these weapons, and what is in our best interest is that the Government employees in the DOJ, ATF, DHS, etc, be held responsible for this terrible injustice. That means you Mr. Holder, as these actions occurred under your watch at the DOJ.

In the final example of Holder’s dispicable attempt to deny responsibility for the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal, Holder says that they did not have any knowledge of supposed "flawed tactics" being used, and then tries to justify that statement with somehow trying to blame the Bush administration: " Holder also made a point of noting "the flawed tactics employed" were also used "in an investigation conducted during the prior administration." The problem with that nonsensical statement lies in the fact that there are no reports about citizens being murdered by assault weapons that were sold by our government before Eric Holder was appointed as Attorney General by Barack Obama. Tactics and methods of operation are one thing, people being murdered by assault weapons that resulted from the Fast and Furious government-sponsored gunrunning fiasco is quite another. Eric Holder is a disgrace to the word justice, and not only needs to be fired as Attorney General, but criminal charges must be filed, whether Barack Obama trusts him or not.

CD NEWS

Eric Holder Strikes Back

Congress should tell him it didn’t get his memo.

by John Hayward

Attorney General Eric Holder, caught lying to Congress when the White House released a trove of emails pertaining to the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, fired back with a sizzling letter to top House Oversight and Senate Judiciary members on Friday evening. In honor of Holder’s remarkable defense that he didn’t know about the “gun walking” operations because he didn’t bother reading no less than five briefing memos prepared by his assistants, Congress should have told Holder it didn’t read his letter.

At issue is Holder’s claim, in response to an extremely clear and direct question from House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa, that he only learned about Operation Fast and Furious about a month before his congressional testimony. This operation – and several others like it, such as Operation Castaway in Florida – involved the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, working in conjunction with the FBI, DEA, and even the IRS, permitting known straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels to purchase massive amounts of guns from American dealers and haul them across the border. There was never a serious effort made to track these weapons. They’ve turned up at the site of over 200 murders in Mexico, the scene of U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder, and an increasing number of other crime scenes in the United States.

Holder has also claimed that he didn’t understand Issa’s question, meaning he might have read the name “Operation Fast and Furious” on a memo somewhere, but didn’t know about the tactics used in the operation.

Holder’s new letter to Congress introduces a third excuse: he now claims he was aware of earlier, much smaller gun walking operations conducted by the ATF before he became Attorney General, but he was somehow unaware that multiple agencies of the Justice Department decided to increase the scale of these earlier failures by over 500%, drop all attempts at monitoring the guns with radio tracking devices, and try again. His senior officials supposedly knew about Operation Fast and Furious, but they had not the slightest clue what tactics were involved, and they never discussed it with him.

Holder justifies the thick stone wall he’s constructed around the operation he supposedly didn’t know about as “deference to the review being conducted, at my request, by our Department’s Inspector General.” Why Holder thinks that would excuse his office refusing to hand over piles of devastating documents, heavily redacting what they did hand over, and pressuring ATF agents not to testify – including a remarkable attempt to buffalo Acting ATF Director Ken Melson into keeping his mouth shut by mis-informing him of his legal rights – is anyone’s guess.

Holder is very upset about Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) suggesting the Obama Administration officials behind Fast and Furious could be accessories to murder. He tries the old “hide behind the brave officers on the front line” trick, declaring: “Such irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric must be repudiated in the strongest possible terms. Those who serve in the ranks of law enforcement are our Nation’s heroes and deserve our Nation’s thanks, not the disrespect that is being heaped on them by those who seek political advantage.”

The Attorney General thinks congressional investigators should be satisfied with the underlings he’s already thrown under the bus, and besides, it’s all Bush’s fault. “New leadership is now in place both at ATF and the United States Attorney’s Office in Arizona,” he explained. “It has become clear that the flawed tactics employed in Fast and Furious were not limited to that operation and were actually employed in an investigation conducted during the prior Administration. Regardless, those tactics should never again be adopted in any investigation.”

Holder’s letter provides a lengthy explanation of the process by which he fails to read the “over a hundred pages of so-called ‘weekly reports’” it receives. Apparently, it’s asking too much to expect the Attorney General of the United States to review a hundred pages of material every week, especially dreary, repetitive attempts to appraise him of an operation involving a huge Mexican cartel buying thousands of guns.

“To be sure, during 2010 I knew generally that ATF was conducting gun trafficking operations along the Southwest Border and elsewhere in the country,” Holder concedes, “since that is a core part of its mission given the large number of firearms flowing to Mexico each year from the United States. More specifically, however, I now understand some senior officials within the Department were aware at the time that there was an operation called Fast and Furious although they were not advised of the unacceptable operation tactics being used in it.”

That sounds halfway plausible… until you remember the exact question Holder perjured himself in response to. Unfortunately for the Attorney General, it was recorded and transcribed:

ISSA: Mr. Attorney General, we have two Border Patrol agents who are dead, who were killed by guns that were allowed, as far as we can tell, to deliberately walk out of gun shops under the program often called Fast and Furious. This program, as you know — and the President’s been asked about it, you’ve been asked about it – allowed for weapons to be sold to straw purchasers, and ultimately, many of those weapons are today in the hands of drug cartels and other criminals. When did you first know about the program, officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious? To the best of your knowledge, what date?

HOLDER: 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.

If the defense offered in his letter to Congress is taken at face value, Holder could have answered that question by saying, “I received memos describing the operation almost a year ago, but I didn’t investigate any further and I never knew what was really going on.” That would have made him look very, very bad, so he saved that excuse until he was accused of perjury.

In response to Holder’s letter, Rep. Issa’s office stated: “If Attorney General Holder had said these things five months ago when Congress asked him about Operation Fast and Furious, it might have been more believable. At this point, however, it’s hard to take at face value a defense that is factually questionable, entirely self-serving, and a still incomplete account of what senior Justice Department officials knew about gun walking.”

The really interesting part of Holder’s missive is the conclusion, in which he claims the Fast and Furious debacle proves more U.S. gun control laws are necessary. That is, of course, the reason many have come to suspect the Obama Administration pushed so many guns across the border – to provide support for domestic gun control politics. Eric Holder should have thought very carefully before adding so much weight to that theory in his letter, but he just couldn’t help himself, because he’s desperate to change the subject from his own conduct.

“As I have said,” Holder pontificates, “the fact that even a single gun was not interdicted in this operation and found its way to Mexico is unacceptable. Equally unacceptable, however, is the fact that too many in Congress are opposed to any discussion of fixing loopholes in our laws that facilitate the staggering flow of guns each year across our border to the south.” He actually goes on to criticize Rep. Issa for rudely cutting off an ATF witness who wanted to talk about “reforms to our laws that would help stem the flow of illegal weapons” during the investigation into the Fast and Furious scandal.

It’s interesting that Holder sat still for an entire week of career-threatening outrage before shooting off his letter on Friday night… the same night the White House generally dumps piles of documents it hopes nobody in the media will notice… such as the emails that put Holder in jeopardy of a perjury rap.

John Hayward is a staff writer for HUMAN EVENTS, and author of the recently published Doctor Zero: Year One. Follow him on Twitter: Doc_0. Contact him by email at jhayward@eaglepub.com.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Arizona Sheriffs Blast Gun-Smuggling Operation

Ask for criminal probe into "Fast and Furious"

Arizona Sheriffs Blast Gun-Smuggling Operation: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

Steve Krafft

By STEVE KRAFFT
FOX 10 News

PHOENIX - Was the country's top cop aware of the Fast and Furious program sooner than he says?

Attorney General Eric Holder is under fire for the federal gun running operation that put weapons into the hands of criminals and now a number of Arizona Sheriffs are calling for him to step down.

They're asking for an independent investigation into the program that came to light after the death of an Arizona Border Patrol agent.

Two guns involved in the operation turned up at the scene.

There's debate over what the Attorney General knew -- and when.

The idea behind the ATF's operation was to track guns to drug criminals by allowing guns to go from straw purchasers to arms traffickers and into Mexico, but it did not work.

"I do not think you will find anybody who thinks it is a wise idea to give guns to violent criminals and here in Arizona we are front line of this issue," said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. "All of this does not smell right. I believe this is a much larger scandal than Watergate."

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever adds, "If the administration had been forthcoming early we would not be here today..they have been denying doing distractive stuff."

We reached out to the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C. to get the reaction of Attorney General Holder.

Holder says he does not remember knowing about the Fast and Furious operation and says Republicans are attacking him for political purposes.

The sheriffs want Holder to resign or be fired.

Notably absent were Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.

Arpaio says he is holding back judgment until all the facts come out.

"It's my philosophy not to accuse a federal law enforcement agency until you have all the facts. There may be a few problems within the organization but we should not judge a federal organization..I'm talking about the ATF with some possible misdeeds. I have my own opinion but I don't think it's right to speak out. We do have the Congress to look at this," he explained.

Copyright 2011 KSAZ-TV/AP

Arizona sheriffs blast gun-smuggling operation

(AP) PHOENIX — Ten Arizona sheriffs slammed the Obama administration on Friday over a botched federal operation that that lost track of up to 1,400 weapons sold to suspected straw purchasers for Mexican drug gangs.

The sheriffs called for the president to launch an independent investigation and for Attorney General Eric Holder to step down or be fired. They also said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' 2009 operation, known as "Fast and Furious," was a betrayal of state law enforcement.

"We're down there busting our butts every day trying to keep the American public safe," said Cochise County Larry Dever, whose jurisdiction is on the Arizona-Mexico border.

"We are here to help defend America, whether it's beyond the border or any place north where the tentacles of these cartels reach into our communities across this nation every single day. And for our own government to be complicit in helping them conduct that business is offensive to us," he said.

In what ATF said was an effort to target drug cartel leaders, the agency allowed straw purchasers for drug cartels to buy thousands of weapons from Arizona gun shops. Officials say agents lost track of about 1,400 of more than 2,000 guns identified in the operation.

A number of guns have been recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, and two of the guns were found at the scene where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot to death in southern Arizona on Dec. 14. It's still unclear whether the fatal bullet came from one of those weapons or another gun.

Standing in front of a Phoenix memorial for fallen law enforcement officers, including Terry, Dever and the other sheriffs called for the truth to come out about the entire operation. Five of the sheriffs are Democrats, and the other five are Republicans.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said that Terry's families' "hearts are broken."

"They want the truth, and they haven't been given the truth," he said. "Where's the honor of our country and us in law enforcement when a brother officer is murdered in our state here in Arizona, protecting our country, and then we find out months later that two of these weapons were weapons from Fast and Furious?"

Babeu said he wants President Barack Obama to appoint a special council to conduct an independent investigation into the matter and for Holder to step down or be fired, saying that Fast and Furious happened under his watch.

"We want to get to the bottom of this. One, to find out what truly happened, and two, to ensure this never happens again," he said. "This is not political. This is a public safety issue, this is a threat against our deputies and local officers, not only in Arizona but across the Southwest."

While some of the sheriffs drove several hours for the news conference, Arizona's most famous sheriff did not attend, even though it was less than 2 miles away from his office.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Republican, said as a former federal official himself, he was reserving judgment about Fast and Furious until all the findings are released.

"It's my philosophy not to accuse a federal law enforcement agency until you have all the facts," he said. "There may be a few problems within the organization, but we shouldn't judge a federal organization — I'm talking about the ATF now — with some possible misdeeds."

He added, "I am going to let the system take its course."

Holder said Friday that his testimony to Congress about the operation was truthful and that he hasn't said more about it because it's under investigation by the Justice Department inspector general.

Holder also said that the same tactics used in Fast and Furious also were used in an investigation known as Wide Receiver under the George W. Bush administration. The operation allowed hundreds of guns to be transferred to suspected arms traffickers.

Fast and Furious has been the subject of recent congressional hearings in which the ATF acknowledged making mistakes and led to the resignations of the ATF's acting director and former U.S. Attorney of Arizona Dennis Burke, amid other personnel shake-ups.

Dever defended Burke and other state level officials, saying that they took the fall for an operation that was decided by people well above them.

"Whoever it is, needs to be held accountable," he said. "We're in a fight for our country, our constitution and our very lives."

B. Todd Jones, the ATF's new acting director, announced 11 major personnel changes this week designed to give the agency a fresh start.

At a briefing for reporters, Jones said the controversy surrounding Fast and Furious may have diminished the level of trust between U.S. law enforcement officials and their counterparts in Mexico, and that it's something the agency is going to have to rebuild.

On Tuesday, Republic Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas also called for a special council to investigate Fast and Furious, saying that Holder may have misled Congress about his knowledge of the operation.

___

Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud contributed to this report.

Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at http://twitter.com/(hash)!/AmandaLeeAP

AG Holder responds to critics on Fast and Furious

By Sharyl Attkisson

(Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In a letter to Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder has gone on the record with the most details yet about what he and other Justice Department officials knew about ATF's Fast and Furious operation, even though memos surfaced earlier this week showing multiple briefing memos mentioning Fast and Furious were sent to him as early as July of last year.

Holder says that his testimony to Congress, stating he first heard of Fast and Furious earlier this year, "was truthful and accurate... I have no recollection of knowing about Fast and Furious prior to the public controversy about it."

In his letter, Holder also criticized the House Committee investigating Fast and Furious, saying he cannot sit idly by "as law enforcement and government employees who devote their lives to protecting our citizens be considered 'accessories to murder'."

Leahy plans Senate oversight hearing with Holder

Holder maintains he didn't know about the controversial gunwalking tactics used in the case.

The Attorney General says that while he was sent received memos on Fast and Furious, they are "actually provided to and reviewed by members of my staff and the staff of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General."

As CBS News has reported, the Deputy Attorney General during Fast and Furious, Gary Grindler is now Holder's Chief of Staff. Documents provided to Congress indicate Grindler received a detailed briefing on Fast and Furious in March of 2010 and made handwritten notes on briefing materials.

However, in the letter, Holder says Grindler "was not told of the unacceptable tactics employed in the operation in his regular monthly meetings with ATF..."

"I now understand some senior officials within the Department were aware at the time there was an operation called Fast and Furious although they were not advised of the unacceptable operational tactics being used in it," says Holder's letter.

Ariz. sheriffs call gunwalker "unconscionable," call for independent probe

Holder blamed Congress for failing to consider whether "additional tools are needed to stem the flow of guns to Mexico" and warned "until we move beyond the current political climate..nothing is going to change."

Late today, a spokesman for the House Oversight Committee investigating Fast and Furious said: "If Attorney General Holder had said these things five months ago when Congress asked him about Operation Fast and Furious, it might have been more believable."

CBS NEWS

Obama on Fast and Furious: "I Have Complete Confidence in Attorney General Holder"

Thursday, October 6, 2011

President Stands by His Man, Eric Holder

By Audrey Hudson

President Barack Obama says he has “complete confidence” in his attorney general, and that neither of them was aware of the “Fast and Furious” operation that allowed the flow of firearms in the U.S. across the border to Mexican drug cartels.

“I have been very clear that I have complete confidence in Attorney General [Eric] Holder and how he handles his office,” Obama said during a Thursday press conference. “He has been very aggressive in going after gunrunning and cash transactions that are going to these transnational drug cartels in Mexico."

“He’s indicated that he was not aware what was happening in Fast and Furious.

Certainly I was not, and I think both he and I would have been very unhappy if somebody had suggested that guns were allowed to pass through, that could have been prevented by the United States of America,” Obama said.

The President also said he has “complete confidence” that Holder will “figure out who in fact was responsible for that decision and how it got made.”

However, Republicans on Capitol Hill said the responsibility lies with Holder, and some are demanding his resignation as well as an investigation by a special counsel.

“President Obama appears to be the only person left with any confidence in Attorney General Holder,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R.-Tex.).

Just hours before Obama spoke, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who are leading the congressional investigation, released five memos that were addressed to Holder as far back as July 2010 describing the ill-fated strategy. Holder told Congress during a May hearing this year he had just learned of the operation weeks before. The memos written by Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, said the straw buyers were “responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”

“Attorney General Holder has failed to give Congress and the American people an honest account of what he and other senior Justice Department officials knew about gun walking and Operation Fast and Furious, Issa said. “The lack of candor and honesty from our nation’s chief law enforcement officials in this matter is deeply disturbing.”

Grassley said the memos to Holder contained “fairly detailed information.” and should have prompted him to put a halt to the operation.

Following Obama’s press conference, Rep. Raúl Labrador (R.-Idaho) questioned whether Holder has been honest with Congress, and said that documents linking the nation’s top lawmaker to the failed operation “have convinced me that he is either lying or grossly incompetent.”

Labrador called for Holder’s resignation, joining Rep. Allen West (R.-Fla.) and Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) in linking the scandal to top officials of the Obama administration.

“Attorney General Holder has a troubling pattern of failed cooperation with the legislative branch,” Labrador said. “Because of this intentional stonewalling and his misleading testimony, I now call for Mr. Holder’s resignation. It is clear he has not been honest about the extent of his involvement with the failed Fast and Furious program and should not be entrusted with managing the Department of Justice.”

“Mr. Holder has lost all credibility and should step down immediately. The question now is if Mr. Holder is only protecting himself or is he also protecting others—perhaps all the way to the top of the administration,” Labrador said.

Earlier this week, Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Tex.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called for a special counsel to investigate whether Holder has misled Congress and to determine his role in the operation.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operated Fast and Furious in 2009 as an attempt to track the sale of thousands of guns on the U.S. side of the border to Mexican drug rings. It wasn’t exposed until some of the same weapons turned up at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R.-Ariz.) told the Daily Caller this week that Obama administration officials responsible for Fast and Furious might be accessories to murder.

“When you facilitate that, and a murder or a felony occurs, you’re called an accessory,” Gosar said. “That means that there’s criminal activity.”

The Obama administration announced this week that two of the top supervisors at ATF have been reassigned, but Grassley questioned whether rearranging the deck chairs will make the controversy disappear.

“There is a lot of effort at the Justice Department to spin the fact that the attorney general was less than candid before the House Judiciary Committee, and what better way to make that go away than a bureaucratic shuffle,” Grassley said.

“There are a lot of questions that remain to be answered," Grassley said, "and actions that need to be explained."

HUMAN EVENTS

John McCain's furious but not fast

John McCain says he wants to 'act as a unified delegation' in response to the Holder inquiry. | AP Photo

By TIM MAK

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) says he is “leaning towards” calling for the White House to appoint a special counsel to investigate Attorney General Eric Holder in the Fast and Furious gun-running operation, but wants to hold a meeting of the entire Arizona delegation first.

McCain told Fox News’ Greta van Susteren on Wednesday that if he were to call for a special counsel, he would do it along with a unified Arizona congressional delegation.

“We are leaning towards it, but I want to talk with the whole delegation and act as a unified delegation. We all represent the state of Arizona where a lot of this happened,” McCain Said. “We will reach a decision in the next day or two.”

Earlier this week, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called on the White House to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Holder lied to Congress.
McCain told Susteren that much of the Department of Justice’s Fast and Furious operation occurred in Arizona.

“I have been talking about it with Jon Kyl, my fellow senator, and members of congress from Arizona. Brian Terry, the border patrol agent, was killed in Arizona. The majority of this activity took place in Arizona, Texas as well,” McCain said.

Under the Fast and Furious program, thousands of weapons were allowed to be illegally purchased in the Phoenix area so that they could be tracked to gun traffickers and drug cartel leaders. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of these firearms, and many were allowed to cross into Mexico.

Weapons linked to the program were later linked to the December 2010 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two undercover police officers in Arizona were later allegedly assaulted by men with firearms tied to the program back in March 2010.
McCain also used his time on Fox to take a swipe at Holder.

“Frankly, I don’t get what part of [Rep. Issa’s] question that Eric Holder didn’t get when he said, ‘when did you first find out about this?’” said McCain.

In May 2011 testimony to Congress, Holder said he had only recently learned of Operation Fast and Furious. “When did you first know about the program, officially known as Fast and Furious?” Issa asked during Holder’s hearing. “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,” Holder replied.

Republicans have since released memos referencing Fast and Furious that were sent to Holder’s office from July 2010 onwards, suggesting that this is proof that Holder misled Congress.

The Department of Justice has pushed back aggressively on these claims. The DoJ said that Holder knew about the program, but did not learn of its controversial aspects until early 2011.

“The attorney general’s testimony to both the House and the Senate was consistent and truthful,” agency spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler told POLITICO on Tuesday. “He said in both March and May of this year that he became aware of the questionable tactics employed in the Fast and Furious Operation in early 2011 when ATF agents first raised them publicly, and at the time, he asked the Inspector General’s office to investigate the matter.”

Report: The Department of Justice's Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents

Here are two reports issued by the House Oversight Committee investigating Operation Fast N Furious for those who would like to be brought up to speed on this issue..

House Oversight Committee Report June 14, 2011

House Oversight Committee Report July 26, 2011

Holder Received at Least Five Memos on Fast and Furious

ATF officials reassigned in latest Fast and Furious fallout

People walk through the courtyard at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) headquarters in Washington on Tuesday, April 26, 2011. (Rich Clement/Bloomberg)

By Richard A. Serrano

Two top supervisors at ATF headquarters in Washington -- the deputy director and the assistant director for all field operations -- have been reassigned as the beleaguered agency attempts to remake itself amid the fallout from a failed gun-tracking operation along the Southwest border called Fast and Furious, according to two sources briefed on the changes.

William J. Hoover, the No. 2 man at ATF, will become special agent-in-charge of the agency's Washington field office, while Mark Chait, who ran all of the field investigations around the country, is being reassigned as head of the Baltimore field office.

Thomas Brandon, who was sent to Phoenix to run the field office there and help it recover from the repercussions of Fast and Furious, will be taking Hoover's spot as deputy director.

The new assignments, along with other job changes, were announced today by Todd Jones, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis who was named acting head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this year. He succeeded ATF chief Kenneth Melson, who was reassigned to a lower-level position in the Justice Department.

Hoover had broad supervision over Fast and Furious, was given routine updates on the "gun walking" operation, and grew concerned over the number of firearms getting into Mexico without any U.S. indictments on this side of the border.

He tried to get it shut down six months after it began in the fall of 2009. But he failed, and the program continued until January of this year. During that time, a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed in Arizona and two Fast and Furious weapons were recovered at the scene.

Under the program, the ATF allowed the illegal purchase of countless weapons and expected agents to track them to Mexican drug cartels.

Instead, more than 2,000 were lost and many turned up in at least 170 violent crime scenes in Mexico.

The furor has prompted a congressional investigation and a review by the Justice Department's inspector general's office.

richard.serrano@latimes.com

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Boehner, Issa: Special counsel should investigate AG Eric Holder

House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that House Republicans are prepared to investigate a controversial Department of Justice program aimed at identifying members of the Mexican drug cartel.

“Members of the House Judiciary Committee are going to get to the bottom of this,” Mr. Boehner said in an interview Tuesday.

“This program has raised an awful lot of eyebrows. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered and this latest revelation about when the attorney general knew what he knew, had been briefed on it, raises even more questions,” the Ohio Republican said. “So I am hopeful that my colleagues that serve on this committee will stay on it, and frankly I have no doubt that they’ll get to the bottom of this program that has caused so much chaos.”

Mr. Boehner’s comment come as California Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, increased pressure on Attorney General Eric Holder.

“He may or may not have perjured himself, but he certainly failed to answer my questions and [Rep.] Jason Chaffetz’s questions about what did he know – he implied he knew nothing when in fact he at least knew something,” Mr. Issa said on Fox News. “We certainly would like to believe that he was disingenuous but not lying. The fact is, the people who are making those statements on his behalf are lying on his behalf, period.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, said Tuesday he would send a letter to President Obama requesting the president instruct the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel.
“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,” Rep. Lamar Smith.

Mr. Holder is facing criticism after claiming he was unaware of the program. Mr. Holder, appearing on Capitol Hill earlier this year, denied any knowledge of a now-discredited federal gunrunning operation.
The Department of Justice defended Mr. Holder in a statement Tuesday.

“The Attorney General’s testimony to both the House and the Senate was consistent and truthful,” a statement read.

“He said in both March and May of this year that he became aware of the questionable tactics employed in the Fast and Furious Operation in early 2011 when ATF agents first raised them publicly, and at the time, he asked the Inspector General’s office to investigate the matter.”

STATE COLUMN

Rep. Paul Gosar on the Latest Fast and Furious News

Congressman: Obama admin may be accessory to murder with ‘Fast and Furious’

By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller

Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that Obama administration officials responsible for Operation Fast and Furious might be accessories to murder.

“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,” Gosar said in a phone interview. “When you facilitate that and a murder or a felony occurs, you’re called an accessory. That means that there’s criminal activity.”

Gosar said the government should be held to the same standard as everyone else. Fast and Furious weapons were used to kill U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, as well as scores of Mexican citizens, and he thinks administration officials should be held accountable.

“We impugn the private sector, we impugn main street America, and the bureaucracy cannot be held to any different standard whatsoever,” Gosar told TheDC, insisting that Justice Department and ATF officials “intentionally — intentionally — violated the law.”

Gosar said the administration was “showing an intentional, wanton disregard for the law,” and that “there’s got to be consequences for that.”
“Leadership has a price,” he added.

Gosar said he’s confident the Congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious will eventually include either the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, or both.

“I’ve said all along, you’re dealing with a foreign country, you’re talking about an international border — that’s the Secretary of State and of Homeland Security,” Gosar said. “If you weren’t briefing them, it’s even worse that we had vigilantes from DOJ going unchecked and we did not tell our folks in Mexico about this.”

“This should have been a Cabinet [issue], and I keep saying it all along,” Gosar continued. “He [Holder] points to Homeland Security Secretary [Janet] Napolitano in this and I would have no doubts — I’m a common sense person — that this should have also involved the secretary of state, which means everybody knew — and we’re starting to see that in the document dump from the White House.”

As new documents showing how many more senior political officials in the Obama administration were aware of Fast and Furious continue to surface, Gosar said it’s becoming clearer that senior officials in the Obama administration are responsible for the program. The latest documents to surface indicate that Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed on Operation Fast and Furious at least two times in 2010, despite Holder’s May 3 testimony that he had only learned of the gun walking operation a few weeks before his Congressional appearance.

Congress Hammers DEA on Operation Fast and Furious

Reported by: Erica Proffer

The DEA top intelligence officer met with Congressmen. The topic was border violence. DEA refused to answer all questions.

The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation Fast and Furious is under investigation by Congress. The operation tried to track gun smuggling beyond straw purchasers to previously hard-to-reach gun-running kingpins.

ATF came under fire when agents lost track of nearly 70 percent of the guns identified in the operation. Now, the Drug Enforcement Administration may have a tie to the operation.

“Your comment is that you're not going to comment on a direct question on whether or not if your agency knew about Fast and Furious?” says Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California during a hearing.

“My comment would be is that we are working with those subcommittees that are investigating Fast and Furious,” says DEA Chief of Intelligence Rodney G. Benson.

“This happens to be a member of Congress who is very interested, and you are now under oath, so maybe you could answer the question for me,” says Rohrabacher.

“That would be my comment at this point,” says Benson.

“Which is no comment,” says Rohrabacher.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the group investigating Operation Fast and Furious.

The new acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has made 11 major personnel changes as he tries to move his agency beyond a controversial operation against gun-smuggling.

KRGV.com

Holder Has Not Been Consistent on Fast and Furious

Sheriff Paul Babeu on the Latest Fast and Furious News

ATF Acting Director Jones Announces New Staff Assignments

WASHINGTON, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director B. Todd Jones today announced key staff changes aimed at refocusing the bureau's direction on its core mission.

"I have assembled a team to move ATF forward in its mission to fight violent crime and protect the American people, and to ensure that an experienced and strong staff is in place to implement that mission," Jones said. In addition, he thanked all newly reassigned ATF officials for their service and praised their flexibility and willingness to take on the tasks at hand.

Jones was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently to lead ATF following the departure of former Acting Director Kenneth Melson. The leadership change followed the reassignment of several other ATF officials within the agency following concerns raised about Operation Fast and Furious, a firearms trafficking investigation out of Phoenix now under review by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

While today's changes are geared toward refocusing ATF under a new acting director, additional staff reassignments may be warranted at the conclusion of the OIG's report.

Under the changes announced today by Jones, ATF executive staff will be reassigned as follows:

Thomas Brandon will become deputy director. He most recently served as special agent in charge of the ATF Phoenix Field Division. Prior to that assignment he was the special agent in charge of the ATF Detroit Field Division from January 2008 to August 2011.
W. Larry Ford will become assistant director of the Office of Field Operations. He most recently served as the assistant director of the Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information. Prior to that assignment he was the assistant director of the Office of Public and Governmental Affairs from December 2004 to August 2010.
Gregory Gant will become the assistant director of the Office of Public and Governmental Affairs. Most recently he was assigned to the Office of Public and Governmental Affairs as the deputy assistant director. Prior to that he was the special agent in charge of the ATF Atlanta Field Division from August 2008 to August 2011.
James McDermond will return to assistant director of the Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information, the position he held before most recently serving as assistant director of the Office of Public and Governmental Affairs. He was the prior assistant director of the Office of Strategic Intelligence from 2004 to August 2010.
Julie Torres will become the assistant director of the Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations. She most recently served as deputy assistant director of the Office of Field Operations - East Region. Prior to that she was the special agent in charge of the ATF Miami Field Division April 2004 to June 2008.
Theresa Stoop will become the assistant director of the Office of Human Resources and Professional Development. She most recently served at special agent in charge of the ATF Baltimore Field Division from November 2008 to September 2011. She had also served as chief of staff for a prior ATF director.
Mark Potter will become the assistant director of the Office of Management. He most recently served as deputy assistant director of the Office of Field Operations - West Region. Prior to that he was the special agent in charge of the ATF Philadelphia Field Division March 2003 to July 2011.
William Hoover will become special agent in charge of the ATF Washington Field Division. He had served as deputy director from May 2009 to September 2011. Prior to that he was the assistant director of the Office of Field Operations.
Mark Chait will become special agent in charge of the ATF Baltimore Field Division. He had served as assistant director of the Office of Field Operations from May 2009 to September 2011. Prior to that he was deputy assistant director of the Office of Field Operations - Central Region.
Vivian Michalic will become the deputy assistant director of the Office of Management and will remain the chief financial officer for ATF. She was the assistant director of the Office of Management from September 2010 to September 2011, and had served previously as the chief of staff for a prior ATF director.
Melanie Stinnett will become deputy chief counsel of ATF. Most recently she served as assistant director of the Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations. Prior to that she was assistant director of the Office of Management and chief financial officer from January 2006 to May 2010.

ATF's primary mandates are to protect the American people from firearms-related violent crime, criminal organizations, and the illegal use of explosives and arson; and to regulate the firearms and explosives industries.

Contact: Public Affairs Division
(202) 648-8500

SOURCE Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Fast and Furious: Holder's Story vs The Facts

Where is Accountability from Justice Dept on "Felony Stupid" Fast & Furious?

Informant: ATF "gun walking" went on for years

(CBS News)

The ATF, the agency that's supposed to stop gun smuggling, turned a blind eye for years, as hundreds of guns "walked" across the Mexican border, CBS News has learned.

In a report on "The Early Show," CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson said a confidential informant has come forward "with a fascinating story of how U.S. agents began letting guns 'walk' across the Mexican border - more than four years ago."

ATF "Fast and Furious": New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010

Gun enthusiast and licensed dealer Mike Detty said he was working a Tucson, Ariz., gun show in early 2006 when a young Hispanic man bought a half-dozen semi-automatic rifles. He paid $1,600 cash.

Detty recalled, "But then he asked if I had more, and I told him that later in the month I would have another 20 from my supplier. And he said, 'I'll take 'em all.'"

Detty said he suspected the buyer was trafficking for a drug cartel. Tucson is just an hour from the Mexican border and a popular shopping center for smugglers.

Detty notified ATF - the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. To his surprise, ATF told him to go ahead with the big sale and sent an undercover agent to watch. Then, a local ATF manager made an unusual and dangerous proposition: He asked Detty to be a confidential informant.

Detty told CBS News, "He said, 'Mike, I think we've got a real chance at taking out a powerful cartel. Can you help us?' I made that commitment. And I really thought I was doing something good."

Detty said he even signed an informant contract. As he understood it, he'd sell to suspected traffickers. Agents would track the weapons, expose the cartel's inner workings, and then interdict the guns before they could ever get loose on the street - or so Detty thought.

Detty said his business, "Mad Dawg," catered to this dangerous clientele in his living-room showroom. ATF agents watched and listened outside.

In an audio recording from a sale, Detty can be heard saying, "if your guys need more guns - " A suspect replies, "I do." Detty says, "You let me know."

"I do," the suspect repeats. Detty says, "And it's cool with me, OK?"

"I want to buy all of them that are like that. All of them I can get," the suspect says. Detty responds, "OK, I have a lot of them like that."

"I want to buy them all," the suspect responds.

Detty said ATF would have a small audio recording device. Sometimes it was hidden in a box of Kleenex," he said. One of the biggest cases was code-named: "Operation Wide Receiver."

Attkisson asked Detty, "Do you know about how many guns we're talking about?"

Detty said, "It's right around 450."

Detty came forward after things didn't work out as Detty had thought they would. Detty says he realized ATF was letting guns "walk" and instead of helping to take down cartels, he'd helped ATF arm them.

Attkisson asked, "When you look back and think in hindsight knowing what we know now - that all those guns were going on the street - what do you think about?"

Detty said, "It really makes me sick."

Attkisson noted that all this happened under the Bush administration - three years before the start of "Fast and Furious," the better-known ATF operation under the Obama administration that has come under scrutiny . "Fast and Furious" allegedly let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, and is now the subject of two investigations.

The "Fast and Furious" tactic of letting guns "walk" was exposed after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered last December and at least two assault rifles from "Fast and Furious" were found at the scene.

As for its predecessor, "Wide Receiver,": prosecutors finally, quietly, rounded up seven suspects last fall. No cartel leaders, just buyers who - critics say - should never have been allowed to put even one weapon on the street, let alone operate for years.

Detty said, "My first day as an informant, if they had said, 'Here's our plan, Mike: We're going to let as many guns go across the border as they can haul, and we're just gonna look and see where they pop up,' I'd have said, 'No way. That's not a plan. That's idiocy.' "

Attkisson said efforts to reach former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, who was in office when "Wide Receiver" started under the Bush administration, were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, his successor is under fire. Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to investigate whether Attorney General Eric Holder told the truth when he testified earlier this year to Congress about when he first knew about 'Fast and Furious.'"

According to Atkisson, "gunwalking" may not be limited to border towns.

She said, "We have found allegations of gunwalking in at least 10 cities in five states, so this apparently was not isolated to Arizona."

For more on this story, go to CBS News Investigates.