http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fast_furious_gets_hotter_for_holder_wDCoBUrOxYF8r1GobKS89M?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=
AG Eric Holder lies to Congress’
Oversight Chairman Issa in
Covering-up DOJ Gun Gaffes
Whether you’re talking about the debt-ceiling “debate” or Eric Holder’s refusal to cooperate with the House Oversight Committee investigation, we’re beginning to detect a pattern here . . . the Obama administration believes that obfuscation and spin will win! We'll soon find out if that's true for the economy and for deliberately seeking to undermine the 2nd Amendment . . . .
According to Rajjpuut’s unofficial count: 42 times in the last two weeks, President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, and various other progressive Democrats resorted to the phrase “shared sacrifice” in discussing their attempts to raise the ceiling on the national debt, increase government spending, and expand the size of government. In all 42 out of those 42 occasions the very next words next escaping from the other side of the orators’ mouths were condemnations of the Republicans in Congress, especially those controlling the House of Representatives, for seeking to get fat “on the backs of the middle class.” In addition, Obama also said that it was the public’s worry that the debt-ceiling would NOT be increased that was causing uncertainty in the business community thus hampering hiring and contributing to last month’s rise from 9.1% to 9.2% unemployment in the nation which occurred despite 250,000 job applicants quitting the hunt for work and no longer being counted as “unemployed.” Meanwhile only 18,000 new jobs were created in June while the job numbers from April and May were revised downward 44,000 jobs.
The last claim by the President is absolutely shocking in its disregard for the truth. YES, the business community as a whole and small business owners (the segment of society most commonly attributed for creating new jobs) in particular have certainly spoken repeatedly about uncertainty . . . but it is their uncertainty with regard to Obamacare; new government regulations; energy cost; and more than anything else government spending and government interference in the businessman’s life that has caused them to keep their investment funds on the sidelines. In other words, it is Obama’s policies which are creating the uncertainty (and certainly NOT the Republicans’ attempts to slash government spending, reduce the national debt and dramatically shrink the size and scope of the federal government. The President’s fast-and-loose treatment of the truth, however, only earns second place in the BS Sweepstakes for early July.
By far the most shameless spinning going on right now is that of Attorney General Eric Holder and other spokesmen within his “Justice” Department. First of all, it is now a certainty that Eric Holder has lied under oath when discussing “Operation Fast and Furious” as to when he first learned of and how much he knew about this seemingly rogue operation that deliberately put American weapons in the hands of Mexican drug-cartel operatives and cost at least two American immigration officers their lives as well as potentially the lives of hundreds of Mexican citizens as thousands of American weapons were deliberately sold to drug cartel operatives and then allowed to flow across the southern border into Mexico. Ordinary internet viewers were already reading of the DOJ’s improprieties at least a full seven weeks prior to the time which Holder has stated in sworn testimony to Darryl Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee that he first learned of problems with Fast and Furious.
While pledging openness and cooperation with the Oversight Committee, Holder and his department have submitted countless filings of obstructions to the scope of the investigation. Even when a DOJ paper is turned over to Issa’s committee it is virtually completely blacked out except for the DOJ heading and words like “the,” “and,” “a,” “of” and “an.” While otherwise claiming privileged communications within the DOJ could not be examined. The seriousness of this matter can be calculated by this simple fact: instead of only the stalwart FOXNEWS organization and New York Post reporting on the issue, just this week (after two months!) even CNN has also begun to cover the story.
This much is certain: Both the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation deliberately left the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in the dark as to virtually every aspect of Operation Fast and Furious which was known within the ATF as “Project Gunrunner.” Throughout the life of the ill-conceived sting operation, ATF was spinning its wheels investigating people and events that the DOJ and FBI already knew everything about. Meanwhile the DOJ saw to it that American weapons were put into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels and then allowed those weapons to drop off the information grid. Two of those weapons are implicated in the deaths of the two Immigration officers.
While Holder and other bigwigs in the FBI, DOJ, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Attorney’s Office (who conducted all sorts of wire taps that the ATF was never allowed to know about) and even the Drug Enforcement Agency have been zipping lips and pointing shaking fingers at ATF acting director, Kenneth Melson as their hoped for scapegoat; truth has nevertheless begun to pour out. Melson and virtually the entire ATF have been forthrightly providing Issa’s committee with truckloads of information including documents that reveal the ATF’s initial and ongoing reservation for the wisdom of the DOJ initiated operation. Obama and Holder are pressuring Melson to resign and take the fall for the botched operation which Holder appears to have created.
The skeleton of what is now conclusively known points at Holder’s DOJ as plotting to create an embarrassment for the nation’s 2nd Amendment enthusiasts by creating scenarios implying that their shortfalls and enthusiasm for selling and buying weapons were behind much of the Mexican drug cartel armaments. However, rather than legal and normal gun sales leading to better armed drug lords, it is up to now only certain that the DOJ’s interference (while using the ATF as an unknowing stooge) has put guns into the hands of these lawless criminals. Holder is meanwhile doing everything he can to point at Melson and even DOJ underlings as the root cause of the fiasco.
In a letter to Holder released yesterday, Oversight Chairman Rep. Daryl Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley accused the Justice Department of blocking their investigation into the burgeoning scandal (which has resulted in the deaths of at least two American agents and countless Mexican civilians), muzzling the ATF and involving other federal agencies, including the FBI and the DEA, in funding the crackpot scheme.
"The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons, but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities," said Issa and Grassley in the letter.
"It is one thing to argue that the ends justify the means in an attempt to defend a policy that puts building a big case ahead of stopping known criminals from getting guns. Yet it is a much more serious matter to conceal from Congressthe possible involvement of other agencies in identifying and maybe even working with the same criminals that Operation Fast and Furious was trying to identify." The following five paragraphs are courtesy of the New York Post article linked above:
Issa and Grassley note in their letter, that had the other agencies shared information with the ATF, "then ATF might have known that gun trafficking 'higher-ups' had already been identified." Since the identities of the Mexican criminals were known to the feds, precisely what was the point of Project Gunrunner -- and why is Holder so desperately trying to stonewall by withholding hundreds of documents from Congress?
Law-abiding gun owners and dealers think they already know. With the Obama administration wedded to the fiction that 90 percent of the guns Mexican cartels use originate here in the United States -- which they do not -- many suspect that "Fast and Furious" was a backdoor attempt to smear domestic gun aficionados as part of its stealth efforts on gun controlby executive (Presidential) fiat. "I just want you to know that we're working on it," Obama was quoted as saying to gun-control advocate Sarah Brady in a March speech. "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar." Unfortunately for the administration, this one's out in the open now.
Melson testified behind closed doors on July 4, but the country needs to hear him speak -- loudly and publicly. "Let me be clear," Issa wrote to Melson in April, "we are not conducting a concurrent investigation with the Department of Justice, but rather an independent investigation of the Department of Justice." Exactly. Because this one's not just a domestic issue. A Mexican senator, Rene Arce Islas, told Fox News that he believes whoever is responsible for the monumental, lethal screw-up should be tried not only in America but in Mexico, too.
That's not going to happen, of course. Even if any prominent American officials are implicated, there is zero chance they'd have to face Mexican justice. But Issa's charge that Holder & Co. are obstructing a congressional investigation is serious. Not even the Justice Department is above the law.
The best way to disinfect the putrid mess that is Operation Fast and Furious is to expose it to sunlight. Let's hear what the attorney general and others have to say in open hearings. Because somebody's got some "splainin' " to do -- fast, before the American people get furious.
Eric Holder’s involvement is no longer in doubt, if he wasn’t aware of “Fast and Furious” he’s an incompetent and should lose his job; if he was aware (which all signs clearly point to now), he’s stepped way over the line from malfeasance into deep, deep corruption by now unabashedly heading up the cover-up . . . the real questions, given the quote from Obama’s speeches to anti-gun functions are these: How much does Barack know? When did he first learn it? Did he authorize “Fast and Furious” himself?
It now appears that Obama himself spearheaded this operation. We say that because the Obama administration is choosing to spin the screwed-up “Fast and Furious” results as indications of the need to institute anti-2nd Amendment measures immediately by Presidential fiat. This latest power-grab by the administration is being euphemistically called “new gun safety measures” and will be implemented by Eric Holder’s Justice Department without Congressional input. Presidential press secretary Jay Carney announced today that the “new steps will be made public in the near future.”
Looking for a sweeping net of proposed benefit, Carney said the purpose of the new laws will be to “prevent another Tucson.” Anti-gun zealots are refusing to notice that incompetent law enforcement by the Tucson Sheriff Dupnik (the one calling within minutes of the shooting for condemnation of the “haters” and implying that the haters included talk radio and FOXNews). Of course, the leftist enthusiast perpetrator Jared Loughner is criminally insane and had dozens of contact situations with the congresswoman he shot (as well as 18 other people including the six who were killed. Dupnik ignored several prior complaints about Loughner including at Loughner’s university.
Carney and others are tying “Project Gunrunner” to the Bush administration. This is false. Gunrunner was a Bush sting on illegal gun purchases wherein the guns were sold and the illegal recipients were immediately arrested in the United States. Holder deliberately allowed the ATF to believe that Project Gunrunner was just being continued with a new emphasis. As soon as savvy ATF agents on the ground figured out what was going on (no arrests but just following the guns into Mexico?) they were alarmed and protested loud and long . . . several of these whistle-blowers have lost their jobs already. The brilliance of the Obama administration’s “Fast and Furious” is that the guns are now forever lost unless they are found later at crime scenes. Told you it was brilliant!
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
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