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.
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Labrador Calls for Resignation of Attorney General Holder Over "Fast and Furious" Testimony Discrepancies
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Idaho First Congressional District Congressman Raúl R. Labrador called for the resignation of United States Attorney General Eric Holder after evidence of discrepancies in his previous testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary was brought to light by a national media outlet. Mr. Labrador has been critical of potential abuses of the Bureau of Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BAFTE) since his March 17, 2011 letter to Oversight Chairman Darrel Issa urging his committee to conduct in-depth investigations into allegations of weapons being sold, with federal government complicity, to Mexican cartels. Over 1,500 such weapons remain unaccounted for and already one was found at the scene of the death of an American law enforcement officer. Labrador stated, “I first learned about Fast and Furious early this year from several of my constituents. I then asked Chairman Issa to hold hearings on the topic. As I attended the hearings and reviewed the evidence, I was careful to not jump to any conclusions about the extent of Mr. Holder’s involvement. However, the recently published documents that directly link Mr. Holder to Fast and Furious have convinced me that he is either lying or grossly incompetent.” Rep. Labrador continued, “The Attorney General of the United States has an obligation to provide truthful and accurate testimony to Congress. When Attorney General Eric Holder testified before Congress on May 3, his statements were either untrue or deliberately misleading. It is clear from recently-released documents that Mr. Holder did in fact know about Fast and Furious well before he publicly admitted. Attorney General Holder has a troubling pattern of failed cooperation with the legislative branch. 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.“ “He cannot avoid responsibility for his involvement with a government program that directly led to the tragic death of a decorated U.S. Border Patrol agent. As our nation’s top enforcer of the principles of law and justice, Mr. Holder has lost all credibility and should step down immediately. The question now is if Mr. Holder is he only protecting himself or is he also protecting others - perhaps all the way to the top of the administration,” Labrador concluded. Documents linking Eric Holder to Fast and Furious can be seen at CBS Newshttp://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-201 Key Facts about Fast and Furious from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Joint Staff Report (full report available online)http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Reports/ATF_Report.pdf:• ATF agents are trained to “follow the gun” and interdict weapons whenever possible. • Operation Fast and Furious required agents to abandon this training. • ATF agents complained about the strategy of allowing guns to walk in Operation Fast and Furious. Leadership ignored their concerns. Instead, supervisors told the agents to “get with the program” because senior ATF officials had sanctioned the operation. • Agents knew that given the large numbers of weapons being trafficked to Mexico, tragic results were a near certainty. • Agents expected to interdict weapons, yet were told to stand down and “just surveil.” Agents therefore did not act. They watched straw purchasers buy hundreds of weapons illegally and transfer those weapons to unknown third parties and stash houses. • Jaime Avila was entered as a suspect in the investigation by ATF on November 25, 2009, after purchasing weapons alongside Uriel Patino, who had been identified as a suspect in October 2009. Over the next month and a half, Avila purchased 13 more weapons, each recorded by the ATF in its database within days of the purchase. Then on January 16, 2010, Avila purchased three AK-47 style rifles, two of which ended up being found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The death of Border Agent Brian Terry was likely a preventable tragedy. • Phoenix ATF Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell’s statement that the indictments represent the take-down of a firearms trafficking ring from top to bottom, and his statement that ATF never allowed guns to walk are incredible, false, and a source of much frustration to the agents. Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, DOJ continues to deny that Operation Fast and Furious was ill-conceived and had deadly consequences. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congressman Labrador Demands Holder’s Resignation, but Obama Claims Holder’s Been ‘Truthful’ on Fast and Furious
by AWR Hawkins
I received an email from Congressman Raúl R. Labrador’s office today, with a letter attached that began thus: “Today, Idaho First Congressional District Congressman Raúl R. Labrador called for the resignation of United States Attorney General Eric Holder after evidence of discrepancies in his previous testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary was brought to light.”
The letter is dated October 6, 2011.
In the body of the letter, Congressman Labrador wrote pointedly:
“The Attorney General of the United States has an obligation to provide truthful and accurate testimony to Congress. When Attorney General Eric Holder testified before Congress on May 3, his statements were either untrue or deliberately misleading. It is clear from recently-released documents that Mr. Holder did in fact know about Fast and Furious well before he publicly admitted. Attorney General Holder has a troubling pattern of failed cooperation with the legislative branch. 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.“
When coupled with Congressman Lamar Smith’s (R-TX) call for a Special Counsel to investigate Holder’s statements before Congress, Labrador’s demand for Holder’s resignation may indicate that the tide has turned and that justice is being pursued regarding Fast and Furious.
Of course, President Obama is still a mile behind the curve on this one, and he’s still trying to give the impression that he believes Holder was honest with his answers to the House Oversight Committee on May 3.
Therefore this morning, following a press conference, Obama answered a Fast and Furious question by saying:
“The bottom line is the Attorney General’s testimony to both the House and the Senate was constistent and truthful. He said in both March and May of this year that he became aware of the questionable tactics deployed in the Fast and Furious Operation in early 2011 when ATF agents first raised them publically. He then asked the inspector general to investigate the matter, demonstrating how seriously they took them.”
I like Congressman Labrador’s take on things much better: particularly his assessment that Holder “cannot avoid responsibility for his involvement with a government program that directly led to the tragic death of a decorated U.S. Border Patrol agent.”
Yet while it’s time for Holder to go, he can’t be allowed to go away quietly the way U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke was allowed to do in Phoenix. Instead, he needs to resign and upon resigning he has to be prosecuted for the crimes to which he was an accessory via Fast and Furious.
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Holder may have had fingers in 'Fast and Furious' for years
Video shows aide discussing 'Gunrunner' in March 2009
By Bob Unruh
One member of Congress has started using the word "accessory" in talking about members of the Obama administration who had their fingers on the pulse of the Operation Gunrunner Fast and Furious stunt under which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ordered gun dealers to sell weapons to unqualified buyers, who then dumped them into the Mexican drug cartel civil war.
And that may include Attorney General Eric Holder.
After all, despite his sworn assurance to Congress in a May appearance on the Hill that it was only within the "last few weeks" that he even heard of the project, astack of memos reveals that if he paid attention to his office work, he knew about the situation a year earlier.
And now a video has been uncovered showing that a full two years earlier, one of Holder's associates is on camera talking about the project and what the department was doing to intercept weapons trafficking along the Mexican border through Fast and Furious.
Could Holder possibly have not been listening to what his own aide was explaining to the American public?
Here's the clip:
In May 2011, Holder told Congress, "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."
But on the video, dated March 24, 2009, some 26 months earlier, David Ogden, deputy attorney general, was talking about Barack Obama's orders to "fight" the Mexican drug cartels, using "Project Gunrunner."
"Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration's comprehensive plan. Those steps include the following: DOJ's Drug Enforcement Administration, which already has the largest U.S. drug enforcement presence in Mexico with 11 offices in that country, is placing 16 new DEA positions in southwest border field positions .., uh, field operations, specifically to target Mexican trafficking and associated violence," he said.
"The DEA is also deploying four new mobile enforcement teams to specifically target Mexican methamphetamine trafficking both along the border and in U.S. cities impacted by the cartels," he continued.
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"DOJ's bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is increasing its efforts by adding 37 new employees and three new offices, using $10 million in Recovery Act funds and redeploying 100 personnel to the southwest border in the next 45 days to fortify its Project Gunrunner, which is aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico," he said.
The question remains then, whether Holder was completely ignorant of programs that already were operating and with which his aide was fully familiar.
That's part and parcel of what members of Congress now are demanding to know, with calls for a special investigator or prosecutor and a level of outrage that suggests nothing is going to "calm down," asActing ATF Director B. Todd Jones suggested for now.
In fact,Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona's First Congressional District says there's no two ways about it: "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. When you facilitate that and a murder or a felony occurs, you're called an accessory. That means that there's criminal activity."
It was Rep. Darrell Issa who earlier, in the congressional hearing exchange with Holder, stated bluntly, "There are dead Americans as a result of this failed and reckless program. So I would say this hasn't gotten enough attention, has it Mr. Attorney General?"
The outrage was over the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, killed in an attack near the border with Mexico at a site where some of the guns that were allowed by the federal government to be taken to the Mexican drug cartel civil war were found.
In aninterview with WND/Radio America,Gosar said Holder and the Obama administration need to be "fully compliant" with congressional subpoenas and produce the information to determine "who authorized this."
He said Americans have become "collateral damage" for the program of the Obama administration.
"We have no idea where these guns are going to show up," he said. "They show up at crime scenes."
Also today, it was revealed that Holder got at least five weekly memos a year ago about the Fast and Furious that he claimed to have been informed about only this year.
The memos were released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who have been investigating the alleged criminal behavior.
"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?'" said Grassley in a statement from his office.
Issa suggested that Holder failed to provide "an honest account" of what has happened.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is asking Obama to tell the DOJ to appoint a special counsel to get to the bottom of the problem.
The memos,redacted significantly, still reveal notes to Holder from Michael F. Walther through July and into August in 2010 where he talks about "Fast and Furious": "This investigation, initiated in September 2009 in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Phoenix police department, involves a Phoenix-based firearms trafficking ring headed by Manueal Celis-Acosta. Celis-Acosta and straw purchasers are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels. They also have direct ties to the Sinaloa cartel which is suspected of providing $1 million for the purchase of firearms in the greater Phoenix area."
Similar memos to Holder are dated July 12, July 19, July 26 and other dates.
Insiders already have estimated that hundreds of deaths might be attributable to the guns that the U.S. government let "walk" into the Mexican drug war.
Smith's demand for a special counselsuggested further misbehavior on the part of Holder.
He told Obama, "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. I urge you to appoint a special counsel who will investigate these allegations as soon as possible."
Pinal County, Ariz., SheriffPaul Babeurecently told reporters he figures there were more than 300 casualties from Operation Fast and Furious, and he thinks charges are appropriate against officials who bear some responsibility.
The officials, he says, would include President Obama's buddy, Holder.
Babeu released a video in which he says that with 300 casualties and more than 2,000 weapons on the loose, the operation must have been authorized from officials above the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Sheriff's spokesman Elias Johnson says the number 300 looks high, but its based on evidence.
"Those figures are directly from not only the Department of Justice but from various federal agencies such as the ATF, folks that have been involved directly with crime scenes," Johnson said.
"Those were crime scenes where the serial numbers on the weapons match back to the numbers that were tracked by ATF. You can trace that ballistic back to the weapon that it was fired from," Johnson said.
Johnson said that the deeper the investigation goes, "you find out that this involved members of our government that went well beyond the ATF."
"Given the type of operation that was going on, this is not something that the ATF under good conscience could authorize on their own," his said. "This had to have gone up to Eric Holder."
Johnson said he and his colleaugues believe Holder was aware, "based on people we've talked to within the ATF that have been whistleblowers and acknowledged that this was totally wrong."
"Not only was it reckless but dangerous -- the proof in the crime scenes where we've found these weapons at," he said.
The biggest example, he pointed out, was the murder of Terry with one of the weapons released in the operation.
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