Mike Vanderboegh Will Be on Special Report with Bret Baier @ 6:00pm EST.
Something about Project Gunrunner (gunwalker, fast and furious) has been bugging me but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
This morning when I woke up I remember seeing Project Gunrunner in a bill that was discussed here. The original thread about it was a rumor thread that HR45 had been rolled into the stimulus package.
In that thread I scanned the text of H.R.1 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for gun, firearm, etc and came up with a hit.
I posted in the thread: "Only time “gun” or “firearm” appears is in the part that give $10,000,000 to the ATF for Project Gunrunner. That was H.R. 495, asking for 15,000,000 for Gunrunner".
H.R. 495 that I mentioned never made it out of committee, but it looks as it was to specifically fund Gunrunner.
Instead portions of it were rolled into the stimulus package a month later. That text found in H.R.1 is:
For an additional amount for ‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance’, $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner.
Notice that's $40,000,000 for Southern border enforcement, $10,000,000 of which specifically for Project Gunrunner. What does $10 million pay for here? It didn't hire any new agents that I am aware of.
What this tells me is that several congressmen also had knowledge of what Gunrunner was going to entail. This isn't just the ATF and DOJ. This is all levels and areas of government. Even members of the House and Senate knew what Project Gunrunner was.
Kenneth Melson
Acting Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
99 New York Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20226
Dear Ken,
Since you are, despite the most sincere wishes of others in the Department of Justice bureaucracy, still the director of your troubled agency, I thought I would give you the chance to prove it.
As you are no doubt aware, since ATF and DOJ both diligently monitor my blog, Sipsey Street Irregulars -- and also because I send copies of all my ATF posts by email to members of the ATF hierarchy including James P. "Little Jimmy" Vann (James.vann@atf.gov), Stephen Rubenstein (Stephen.R.Rubenstein@usdoj.gov), Teresa Ficaretta (Teresa.G.Ficaretta@usdoj.gov), Billy Hoover (William.J.Hoover@usdoj.gov), and Arthur Herbert (Arthur.W.Herbert@usdoj.gov) -- in the past 24 hours David Codrea and I have broken two stories regarding alleged "gunwalking" on the part of Special Agent in Charge of ATF's Tampa Field Division Virginia O'Brien. It is alleged by our sources that Ms. O'Brien, as we wrote in our first story last night, "ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious."
Here is a snippet of that story:
Acting Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
99 New York Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20226
Dear Ken,
Since you are, despite the most sincere wishes of others in the Department of Justice bureaucracy, still the director of your troubled agency, I thought I would give you the chance to prove it.
As you are no doubt aware, since ATF and DOJ both diligently monitor my blog, Sipsey Street Irregulars -- and also because I send copies of all my ATF posts by email to members of the ATF hierarchy including James P. "Little Jimmy" Vann (James.vann@atf.gov), Stephen Rubenstein (Stephen.R.Rubenstein@usdoj.gov), Teresa Ficaretta (Teresa.G.Ficaretta@usdoj.gov), Billy Hoover (William.J.Hoover@usdoj.gov), and Arthur Herbert (Arthur.W.Herbert@usdoj.gov) -- in the past 24 hours David Codrea and I have broken two stories regarding alleged "gunwalking" on the part of Special Agent in Charge of ATF's Tampa Field Division Virginia O'Brien. It is alleged by our sources that Ms. O'Brien, as we wrote in our first story last night, "ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious."
Here is a snippet of that story:
"This is confirmed as accurate," the correspondence continued. "There are emails in existence where O’Brien has advised those involved that Tampa does not have to report their walked guns because Tampa FD is not a part of Southwest Border or Project Gunrunner."
"From a first person source she is shitting herself trying to cover it up," the report stated.
No one from ATF is available at this late hour to approach for comment. This information has also reportedly been disclosed to Chairman Darrell Issa of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Member Charles Grassley for follow-up and investigation.
Tonight we ran a follow-up, and one of our sources reported:
O'Brien is in full meltdown. She ordered supervisors from around the Division to report immediately to division offices and to plan on working through the entire weekend on the coverup.
Her partner in the bungle was ASAC Scott McCampbell. At one point the case was ready to be wrapped up with arrests and remain relatively efficient but O'Brien and McCampbell decided on their own to keep it going to "get more" against the advise of thier field employees and the walked guns numbers got out of control.
OB is terrified that her intentional concealing of her walked guns is going to do her in since she disregarded orders to report to DOJ and Congress.
Nearly the same culprits above her are on the hook for this. Chait knew about it so did Hoover and Melson. The new player is DAD East Julie Torres. She took O'Brien's old DAD job when OB went to Tampa and has given OB carte blanche to do whatever she wants with little oversight.
Reportedly the shredders are buzzing.
If so, this cover-up is going on right under your nose, and, if you indeed ARE still the Acting Director of ATF, you have the responsibility to stop it immediately.
By news reports of your conversations with Senator Grassley's and Congressman Issa's staffers, you and your agency have been played like saps by other agencies, the DOJ and, likely the NSC and White House in the Gunwalker Scandal. You have been reported to have been sick to your stomach at the revelations, and claimed for your agency and yourself some measure of plausible deniability and attenuation of culpability for the tragic and bloody outcome.
Perhaps. But if you let this cover-up take place in the Tampa Field Division after having been apprised of it, what then will be your excuse?
If our sources are right, more violations of federal law are happening in your agency on your watch. You ARE the director, right?
Better hurry up, Ken.
"The shredders are buzzing."
Sincerely,
Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com
cc: Offices of Senator Charles Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa.
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