Confirmed: Operation Wide Receiver a Controlled Delivery, Not Gun Walking

• 
• Katie Pavlich
  News Editor, Townhall
•  
•   As the heat on Attorney General Eric Holder has been turned up in the past two months about his role in the lethal Obama Justice Department program Operation Fast and Furious, the DOJ communications department has been pulling out all the stops to try and avert attention away from the Holder and onto the Bush Administration. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer claimed in testimony two weeks ago that the Bush Justice Department was using the "same" gunwalking tactics in a program known as Operation Wide Receiver, as the Obama Justice Department was using in Operation Fast and Furious. The mainstream media, including the New York Times and the Associated Press, also claimed  the "exact same gunwalking" tactics were used under Bush. Turns out, that just isn't true.
• 
  Senator Charles Grassley's office has done some digging on Operation Wide Receiver and has found the Bush program was a controlled delivery of guns in cooperation with the Mexican Government. The main differnces between Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious are these: Under Wide Receiver, 300 guns were invloved and the Mexican government was fully informed about the operation. Under Fast and Furious, 2,000 guns were involved and the Mexican government was left in the dark by the Obama Justice Department about the program.
• 
  Guns were not being "walked" in Wide Receiver, however, 2,000 guns were walked and lost in Fast and Furious under Obama. Documentation provided by Grassley's office also shows a solid effort by ATF to intercept guns before they could be trafficked back into Mexico.
  

  Operation Wide Receiver ran from 2006 to 2007, and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer has said that approximately 350 guns were walked in the case.  The Justice Department has produced very few documents from the time period when Wide Receiver was conducted, but what they have provided indicates that the case involved a cooperating gun dealer and real-time notice of suspect purchases, and yet multiple guns ended up in Mexico.  When the Justice Department revived the case for prosecution in 2009 to 2010, the prosecutors recognized these factors constituted gunwalking.
  
  On the other hand, the Hernandez investigation took place in late 2007 and involved a controlled delivery, not gunwalking.  In a controlled delivery, law enforcement watches to see that their target goes through with the steps of a crime in order to see that they have the requisite intent, but then interdicts the guns afterwards.  Documents produced by the Justice Department make clear that in the Hernandez investigation, Mexican law enforcement waiting on the other side of the border failed to interdict the weapons.  The Hernandez investigation is different from Fast and Furious and apparently from Wide Receiver in that those cases involved no safeguards and the government of Mexico was never informed about them.

  So there you have it, under Wide Receiver the Mexican government dropped the ball, guns were not being "walked." Nice try, Holder. Time to get a new tactic that doesn't involve blaming President Bush.
  
•  
•  

Katie Pavlich

Katie Pavlich the News Editor at Townhall.com. Follow her on Twitter @katiepavlich.

Pentagon nominee grilled about Fast and Furious

By John T. Bennett 

 

 

Two nominees for key Pentagon posts met resistance Thursday from senior members of the Senate panel that will decide their fates.

Republican Senate Armed Services Committee members grilled Kevin Ohlson, a former chief of staff to Attorney General Eric Holder, about whether he had knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious, a botched operation that sold thousands of firearms to known and suspected straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels.

Under questioning from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the panel’s ranking member, Ohlson told the panel he only learned about Fast Furious “in February of this year,” after he had left his post as Holder’s chief of staff.

McCain pressed Ohlson about whether he recalled reading internal memos or documents about Fast and Furious while he was at the Justice Department.

“No, senator, that never occurred,” replied Ohlson, who was nominated by President Obama to become a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Many of the weapons sold in Fast and Furious are now suspected of being on Mexican soil, and two of the guns were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

 

GOP lawmakers have criticized the operation and repeatedly questioned Holder, who has denied knowledge of Fast and Furious. Some Republicans have called for his resignation.

McCain asked Ohlson whether he learned about the circumstances surrounding Terry’s death while working as Holder’s chief of staff. The DOD nominee said he learned about it through media reports “some time” after leaving that job.

When McCain cited a weekly internal DOJ memo produced while Ohlson was still on the job that contained Fast and Furious information, Ohlson said he did not read that specific weekly memo.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also raised concerns about what Ohlson knew — and when — about the botched gun-tracking operation.

Ohlson was not the only one facing tough questions from the panel. Mark Lippert, Obama’s nominee for assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, was questioned about reports that he had clashed in the past with James Jones, Obama’s first national security adviser.

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) cited media reports that had White House officials accusing Lippert of “rank insubordination” when he was an official for the National Security Council.

Journalist and author Bob Woodward first reported in his book “Obama’s Wars” that Lippert leaked information to the media about Jones that painted the former Marine Corps general in a negative light.

Lippert denied leaking any information about Jones to the media.

“I knew Gen. Jones was the boss,” Lippert said. “It’s clear in my head that I didn’t leak to the press and there wasn’t insubordination.”

Webb also raised concerns about Lippert’s qualifications for what will be a job of increasing importance.

Lippert said he has ample experience that, collectively, has given him the “skill set” to handle the myriad issues that will arise in the Asia-Pacific realm. Specifically, he cited his time “on the ground” as a naval officer in Afghanistan, his “10 years of experience on Capitol Hill” and his time living in the region, as well as his stint with the NSC.

Webb said he and the nominee need to “have a longer conversation” about those issues before he can support the nomination.

Any senator has the power to block a nomination. It was not immediately clear whether McCain, Cornyn or Webb planned to do so.

The Hill

GOP letter to Obama: Holder should resign

By Jordy Yager 

 

 

 

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) is trying to get fellow Republicans to sign onto a letter asking for Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation.

The letter, addressed to President Obama and the first of its kind, highlights Holder’s role in the botched gun-tracking operation Fast and Furious, which was run under the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

 Walsh and nine other Republicans held a press conference on Tuesday blasting Holder for not being more responsive to congressional demands for information about Fast and Furious. Most of the lawmakers called for Holder’s resignation.

Republicans have been investigating who authorized and knew about Fast and Furious, which oversaw the sale of thousands of weapons in the Southwest region to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels. The majority of the weapons were lost, and two of the guns were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

“We call on you today to hold Attorney General Eric Holder accountable for Operation Fast and Furious — and urge you to ask for his immediate resignation,” the letter reads.

“In intentionally letting over 2,000 firearms ‘walk’ across the border into Mexico," it continues, "the [ATF] - under the leadership of Attorney General Holder - carried out an operation that left a U.S. Border Patrol agent dead, broke federal law, and attempted to build a case for gun control. Operation Fast and Furious has proved to be one of the most serious errors in judgment carried out in recent history by a federal agency.”

Walsh began circulating the letter on Tuesday and pointed to an interview that Obama did with ABC last month in which he attempted to assure the American people that people would be held responsible for the bad decisions that led to Fast and Furious.

“We ask you to fulfill this promise to the American people because, like you, they are upset and deserve answers,” said Walsh in his letter to Obama. “They also deserve accountability on behalf of their federal officials, especially those who are unelected like Holder.”


The Hill

Issa Presses DOJ Official on False Statement to Congress in Fast and Furious Probe

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa today pressed Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Ronald Weich for documents and other information related to a false statement Weich made to Congress regarding gun walking that took place in the reckless gun smuggling investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious.  According to agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) “walking” guns occurs when agents or officials intentionally allow known criminals to leave the observation that occurs during a controlled law enforcement operation with weapons.

On February 4, 2011, Weich stated the following in letter to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) who had asked about allegations that officials had intentionally allowed guns to walk in Operation Fast and Furious:

“ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.”

Evidence gathered during the course of the congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has shown that this statement was untrue – ATF, in allowing guns to walk, did not make every effort to interdict them and prevent their transfer to Mexico.  Evidence gathered in the investigation has also shown that senior Justice Department officials knew at the time Weich made his statement in February that it was untrue.

“Mr. Weich, as you are well aware, it is a crime to knowingly make false statements to Congress,” Chairman Issa writes in his letter to Weich.  “As DOJ’s principal liaison to Congress, we rely on you to be straight with the facts.  You have not been, and so your credibility on this issue has been seriously eroded.  Whether it is the case that you were fed a lie and faithfully repeated it in a letter to Congress, or whether it is the case that you took the initiative to lie to Congress yourself, you are responsible for the contents of letters that bear your signature.”

Chairman Issa’s letter demands a complete list of individuals who helped prepare the February 4, 2011, letter to Senator Grassley as well as all documents relating to the preparation of that letter referring or relating to the development of DOJ’s response to Senator Grassley’s January 27, 2011 request for information. 

Click here for a copy of Chairman Issa’s letter to Assistant Attorney General Weich

Click here for a copy of Assistant Attorney General Weich’s February 4 letter to Senator Grassley

How Can Americans Trust AG Holder & the Obama Justice Dept? #FastAndFurious

Holder pushes back against GOP lawmakers over Fast and Furious

By Jordy Yager The Hill

 

Attorney General Eric Holder is trying to get in front of the Fast and Furious controversy that has led to calls from conservatives for his resignation.

Holder has shed the low-key persona that sought to quietly deflect a torrent of mounting congressional criticism over his role in a botched gun tracking operation.

In its place, President Obama’s top law enforcement official has embraced a new strategy, actively confronting and rebuffing the serious concerns and disparaging remarks emanating from Capitol Hill while admitting mistakes made by his department, promising to hold officials accountable, and vehemently seeking to tell his side of the story. 

Read The Rest Of The Story Here

Fast and Furious: Brian Terry Will Change the Way America Does Business

• 
• Katie Pavlich
  News Editor, Townhall

The Scottsdale International Auto Museum is filled with classic cars from Thunderbird convertibles to MGs with Pink Lady and T-Bird jackets hanging next to an Elvis statue near the back, but Saturday night the museum was turned into a place for people to celebrate the life of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry by supporting his family. Nearly 100 people showed their support by bidding on donated items to raise funds for his mother, Josephine Terry. The funds will be used by Josephine to attend hearings about her son’s death on Capitol Hill as the House Oversight Committee continues to dig into Operation Fast and Furious. If you aren’t familiar by now, Terry was murdered in the Arizona desert by illegal Mexican cartel bandits. Two of the guns used to kill him, were provided through the lethal Obama Justice Department Operation Fast and Furious.

The event was kicked off with the singing of the National Anthem, followed by a beautiful rendition of the famous song “Hallelujah,” which brought tears to eyes of many in the audience.

Kris Jenkins, a friend of Brian’s, drove from Sierra Vista, Ariz. to attend the event. Like many members of the Terry family and close friends that night, she was wearing a navy blue baseball style t-shirt printed with the words “Agent Terry” on the back. Terry’s family flew all the way from Michigan to attend the event. "I'm here to support the family, support the cause," Jenkins said.

Another woman, Joan Ponath, had been in a car accident just minutes before the event started, but refused to the hospital. "I wouldn’t have missed this for the world," Ponath said.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and former Congressman Tom Tancredo were also in attendance.

"The people of Arizona love you and will always remember Brian Terry," Brewer said. "Brian was a brave and faithful warrior."

Jay Dobyns, ATF Special Agent, American hero and best selling author of "No Angel," was the emcee of the night, and made the crowd laugh by changing outfits in between speakers, just like an awards show. Dobyns also toasted to Terry’s memory throughout the night straight from a big bottle of Jack Daniels.

"I personally feel cheated I never got to meet him," Dobyns said. "This man dedicated his entire adult life to doing America's business."

A native of Detroit, Terry was a Marine, a police officer and a special operations BORTAC agent for the U.S. Border Patrol. BORTAC is described by the Department of Homeland Security as a tactical unit that provides immediate response to emergency and high-risk incidents that require skills above average border agent training. BORTAC is similar to specialized police SWAT teams. Terry tried out for and made the BORTAC team at the age of 38, an unheard of accomplishment.

"Nothing was impossible for Brian," Lana Domino, organizer of the event and a close friend to Brian said. "He would give you the last dollar in his pocket and the shirt off his back. He loved his country as much as he loved his own family and friends."

ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu joked about Brian, saying typical law enforcement work was "too easy for him," so he opted for working around "rattle snakes, scorpions, darkness and bad people," in the Arizona desert instead.

Although the event remained focused on supporting Josephine Terry in her efforts to find out what happened to her son and celebrating Brian's life in a positive way, there is no doubt an elephant was in the room. Bad decisions made by a long list of men responsible for the implementation of Fast and Furious within ATF and the Obama Justice Department, who have yet to be held accountable or face consequences for the lethal program, were in the back of everybody's mind. Those men are former ATF Field Supervisors for the Phoenix Field Division William Newell and David Voth, ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division George Gillett, former ATF Deputy Director of Operations in the West William McMahon, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and Attorney General Eric Holder to name a few. McMahon, Voth and Newell have been promoted, despite their heavy involvement in Fast and Furious.

"In America we not only believe in truth, but in justice," Babeu said, adding that as Americans we owe it to Brian and his family to ensure at the end of the day that there is justice. "We will not relent."

ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu didn't mince words when addressing the audience about what happened to Brian.

"He's [Terry] the guy with the badge that's all scratched up," Cefalu said. "These people who put us through this [Fast and Furious] will never have scuffed up and dirty badges."

And Cefalu is correct. The men behind Fast and Furious have made careers out of wearing suits and sitting at a desk, while field agents who have exposed Fast and Furious, have been out getting dirty and risking it all, just as Brian did. In this case, the men with the shiny badges made decisions to put American law enforcement agents in grave danger by providing Mexican drug cartels with 2,000 high powered semi-automatic weapons. Cefalu gave the men responsible for Fast and Furious a chance to go on stage, issue an apology and hold themselves accountable, but of course, people like William Newell and Lanny Breuer didn't show up.

"And that is exactly why I am here," Cefalu said.

Cefalu keeps a poem Brian wrote during BORTAC training in his wallet. He looked Josephine Terry in the eyes, pulled the poem out of his wallet and said the poem will stay in his wallet until she calls him and says she is satisfied, until then, he will carry it everywhere he goes.

If you seek to do battle with me this day, you will receive the best that I am capable of giving. It may not be enough, but it will be everything that I have to give and it will be impressive for I have constantly prepared myself for this day. I have trained, drilled and rehearsed my actions so that I might have the best chance of defeating you. I have kept myself in peak physical condition, schooled myself in the martial skills and have become proficient in the applications of combat tactics. You may defeat me, but I'm willing to die if necessary. I do not fear death for 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. So I will fight you, no matter how insurmountable it may seem, to the death if need be, in order that it may never be said of me that I was not a warrior." -Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

"There is a handful of people who made tragic decisions," Dobyns said referring to Operation Fast and Furious. "I'm not going to call them mistakes, because they were tragic decisions."

Although tragic and hard to believe, Brian's death comes with a silver lining. His death, along with the bravery of ATF whistleblowers who have risked their professional careers to expose Fast and Furious, have shined a blaring light on rampant corruption at the highest levels possible within ATF and the Department of Justice. Hopefully, through continuing pressure from Congressman Darrell Issa, Senator Charles Grassley and a handful of media outlets, justice will be served.

"Brian is going to change the way America does business," Dobyns said.

Katie Pavlich TownHall.com

Fast and Furious Was Not Botched

• 
 
• Katie Pavlich 
  News Editor, Townhall
•  
•  
•  
•  
  “Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.” –Special Agent John Dodson ATF Phoenix Field Division.
  As allegations surrounding Operation Fast and Furious continue to heat up, many major media outlets continue to call the fatal program “botched,” which is a factually incorrect characterization.
  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines botched as: to foul up hopelessly, to put together in a makeshift way.
  The only thing botched about Operation Fast and Furious is that the American public found out about it. Fast and Furious was carried out exactly as planned: allow straw purchasers to transfer guns to cartels, let those guns get trafficked back to Mexico and see where they end up. There was no plan to trace these guns and no plan to inform the Mexican Government of the operation, either.
  Tactics used during Fast and Furious seem like mistakes, but in fact were just part of the strategy and process of Fast and Furious. Calling the program botched implies the Obama Justice Department didn’t intentionally allow 2000 high powered guns, including AK-47s and .50-caliber sniper rifles, to walk into the hands of ruthless drug cartels without proper tracing mechanisms. The opposite is true. This was the intention of the program, not an operational mistake in the process.
  To prove the operation wasn’t “botched,” let’s take a look at some testimony from ATF whistleblowers about the operation.
  On June 15, 2011 ATF Field Agent John Dodson, one of the first whistleblowers to go public about the scandal, testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee about Fast and Furious.
  
  
  “I was involved in this operation, we monitored as they purchased hand guns, AK-47 variants, and .50 caliber rifles almost daily. Rather than contradict any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals for a short time after their purchases, but nothing more. Knowing all the while, just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, we still did nothing,” Dodson said.“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.”
  On July 26, 2011 ATF Senior Special Agent Jose Wall, who is based in Tijuana, Mexico also verified Fast and Furious was intended from the beginning to provide guns to cartels.
  “I could not believe that someone in ATF would so callously let firearms wind up in the hands of criminals. And that this activity has seemingly been approved by our own Justice Department and ATF management in the misguided hope of catching the “big fish,” Wall said. “These firearms that are now in the hands of people who have no regard for human life pose a threat to all of us, a threat to which none of us is immune.”
  ATF field agents knew Fast and Furious had the potential to get people killed, including federal agents. Vince Cefalu was one of those concerned agents and, although he knew he would face retaliation for exposing Fast and Furious to the public, he did it anyway. When Cefalu started speaking out against his superiors within ATF about the way Operation Fast and Furious was being conducted, he was approached within 24 hours and told to stop. He was also threatened and told if he didn’t shut his mouth, he would be relocated to North Dakota, a long way from where he had been working along the southern border with Mexico. Despite threats from his superiors, Cefalu blew the whistle about Operation Fast and Furious anyway, which has landed him under review for what he describes as “a proposal for removal for telling the truth.“
  In September, Cefalu explained his concerns during a Fast and Furious town hall meeting in Tucson.
  “To think that they could do this sort of operation knowing there could be a dead ATF agent at the ends of those guns made me nauseous,” Cefalu said.
  Cefalu also described the skyrocketing murder rate in Mexico as “people getting killed wholesale,” and the federal government gave cartels the guns they need to do it.
  To further prove Fast and Furious wasn’t botched in its implementation, ATF Phoenix Field Division Supervisor at the time, William Newell, described in emails that guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico was proof the operation was working.
  The only people who have been trustworthy and credible throughout the investigation into Fast and Furious have been ATF whistleblowers. ATF management officials and Department of Justice officials have done nothing but lie, stonewall and cover-up the lethal program.
  The Obama Administration botched the cover-up of Fast and Furious. Lies perpetuated by the Holder Justice Department continue to be shredded by a handful of media outlets, Sen. Charles Grassley, Sen. John Cornyn, Rep. Darrell Issa and members of the House Oversight Committee, but in no way was allowing Mexican cartels to get their hands on high powered weapons a "mistake."
  
  
  Katie Pavlich TownHall.com 
  Katie is one Journalist that who is honest and tells it like it really is!