Sen. Grassley: Knowledge of the connection between agent Terry's death and Fast and Furious
FACT The Attorney General's Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson sent an email to U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke at 11: 18 am on December 14, 2010, the day before Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's death. The email had only a subject line: "You available for a call today?" On December 15 at 2: 14 am, Burke responded: "Sorry for going dark on you. I was at Navajo and Hopi all day and coverage was weak at best. I did get your vm. We have a major gun trafficking case connected to Mexico we are taking down in January. 20+ defendants. Will call today to explain in detail." Documents show that notice of Agent Terry's death was emailed to Burke an hour later, at 3: 31 am. According to emails produced by the Justice Department, Nathan Gray, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Phoenix Field Division, was at the press conference held that day to announce the death of Agent Terry, and was telling individuals there about the connection to Operation Fast and Furious. Thus, by the time Secretary Napolitano visited Arizona a few days later, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office were clearly aware of the connection.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Facts are STUBBORN Things, Knowledge of the Connection Between Agent Terry's Death and Fast and Furious
Setting the Record Straight on the Justice Department Oversight Hearing
“Facts are STUBBORN Things”
“…and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams, December 1770
“…and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams, December 1770
Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearings with Secretary Janet Napolitano, October 19, 2011, and Attorney General Eric Holder, November 8, 2011
Knowledge of Connection Between Agent Terry’s Death and Fast and Furious
• Senator Grassley: “Have you had any communications with Mr. Burke about Operation Fast and Furious?”
…
Secretary Napolitano: “When Agent Terry was killed, it was December 14th, I went to Arizona a few days thereafter to meet with the FBI agents and the assistant U.S. attorneys who were actually going to look for the shooters. At that time, nobody had done the forensics on the guns and Fast and Furious was not mentioned. But I wanted to be sure that those responsible for his death were brought to justice, and that every DOJ resource was being brought to bear on that topic. So I did have conversations in – it would have December of ’09 – about the murder of Agent Terry. But at that point in time, there – nobody knew about Fast and Furious.”
• Senator Grassley: “When we met that day [on January 31, 2011], did you know that the guns connected to an ATF operation had been found at the Terry murder scene?”
Attorney General Holder: “I did not.”
• Senator Grassley: “Documents produced by the department suggest that your deputy chief of staff spoke with U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke about Fast and Furious, shortly after Agent Terry’s death. Did Mr. Wilkinson say anything to you about the connection between Agent Terry’s death and the ATF operation?”
Attorney General Holder: “No, he did not. The conversations that they had were about a variety of things. I’ve looked at the emails. Now the possibility of me coming out to at some point talk about being engaged in a press conference, other matters, but there was no discussion between them of the tactics that are of concern with regard to Fast and Furious and as a result of that, Mr. Wilkinson did not share information with me about his contacts with former U.S. Attorney, Burke.”
The Attorney General’s Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson sent an email to U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke at 11:18 am on December 14, 2010, the day before Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death. The email had only a subject line: “You available for a call today?” On December 15 at 2:14 am, Burke responded: “Sorry for going dark on you. I was at Navajo and Hopi all day and coverage was weak at best. I did get your vm. We have a major gun trafficking case connected to Mexico we are taking down in January. 20+ defendants. Will call today to explain in detail.” Documents show that notice of Agent Terry’s death was emailed to Burke an hour later, at 3:31 am.
According to emails produced by the Justice Department, Nathan Gray, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Field Division, was at the press conference held that day to announce the death of Agent Terry, and was telling individuals there about the connection to Operation Fast and Furious. Thus, by the time Secretary Napolitano visited Arizona a few days later, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office were clearly aware of the connection.
The emails that have been produced by the Justice Department so far are insufficient to draw any conclusions about what Wilkinson and Burke may have discussed over the phone on December 15. Whether any follow-up conversation between them included the fact that Fast and Furious guns were found at the scene will remain unknown until Burke completes his testimony, which was interrupted on an earlier date, and Wilkinson testifies for the first time. Unfortunately, the Justice Department has to this point refused to make other witnesses with first-hand knowledge available for transcribed interviews.
It is clear, however, that multiple officials from multiple agencies knew almost immediately of the connection between Fast and Furious and Agent Terry’s death, including Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler. The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have failed to adequately explain why Attorney General Holder and Secretary Napolitano allegedly remained ignorant of that connection.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How did Sen. Feinstein get ATF gun trace data in violation of Tiahrt Amendment?
by David Codrea
Persons within the Department of Justice whose identities are not yet publicly known apparently broke the law by leaking firearms trace data to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which she introduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee record in the hearing on Department of Justice oversight earlier this month.
“If I may,” Senator Feinstein requested at the beginning of her questioning of Attorney General Eric Holder (see webcast, at the 69:45 mark), I'd like to put in the record the official firearms trace data from the Department of Justice from 12/1/2006 to 2000...excuse me, 9/30/2011...this is guns [unintelligible] Mexico.”
Left unchallenged and unsaid is how Feinstein obtained the data, which is prohibited by the Tiahrt Amendment from being shared with anyone but law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, and only then in the course of a criminal investigation. That prohibition extends even to Senator Feinstein, as evidenced by the failed attempt earlier this year by Rep. Adam Schiff “to allow Congressional committees to be included on the list of entities to which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms can disclose part or all of the contents of the Firearms Trace System database.”
While there is no reliable evidence that Sen. Feinstein knew she was improperly disclosing data she had been provided, a Senator so active in promulgating new gun laws not knowing existing ones is the most innocuous explanation if she did not. If that’s the case, it strongly implies someone at Justice used the Senator.
Per an anonymous congressional source:
It was Main Justice, not ATF, who leaked the trace data to Feinstein. I am told ATF “was blindsided” by it.
The trace data did not include any Tiahrt nondisclosure warnings.
The information was leaked to provide selective "statistics" that Feinstein could use to promote her views on gun trafficking—no criminal intelligence interpretation was provided, and the way this was done was intentional, with cognizance that the data were going to be misused.
Fair questions to follow up with: Who at Main Justice illegally leaked the data to Sen. Feinstein and did she knowingly abet a violation of the law in order to advance her agenda?
And will Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa follow up on this in their investigations?
Also see:
A Journalist’s Guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner. Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment