m gardner Posted March 5, 2011 Report Share Posted March 5, 2011 Here's the latest on the ATF sending guns to mexico. I guess that the Zetas have been helping Hezbollah use their existing smuggling routes to enter the US and the US govt has been feeding rival cartels like LaFamilia and Siniloa supplies to help fight the Zetas and protect our southern border. Off the record though. This info has not hit mainstream news yet. It's starting to look like the Regan/Contra years again. ATF Mexican gun-smuggling sting scrutinized Agency accused of losing track of guns that wound up with drug cartels by Dennis Wagner - Mar. 5, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic Newly released U.S. records and assertions by a government whistle-blower support allegations that government agents allowed hundreds of firearms to be smuggled across the Arizona border and into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The records, released by a member of Congress, have prompted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to call for an independent review of a campaign designed to dismantle Mexican crime syndicates that purportedly wound up arming them instead. The Arizona Republic reported last month that investigators have confirmed that two weapons connected to the ATF operations were found at the scene of a December gunbattle near Rio Rico, Ariz., where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by suspected border bandits. Records detail deadly Border Patrol shooting in Arizona The controversy has engulfed Project Gun Runner, an ATF enforcement campaign. This week, the Center for Public Integrity and CBS News interviewed an ATF agent whose revelations about being instructed to let guns pass into Mexico are likely to accelerate a congressional investigation of the scandal. Justice Department authorities and their counterparts in Mexico have complained for years that cartel violence is fueled in part by a flood of weapons, mostly AK-47s, purchased in the United States and smuggled unlawfully across the border. Project Gun Runner was created in 2006 to combat that threat in Arizona by identifying and prosecuting firearms traffickers. Dozens of so-called straw buyers have been arrested, and more than 10,000 guns confiscated. However, the ATF came in for criticism from the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General last year because Project Gun Runner was catching only the straw buyers - small fish in the smuggling business. The newly released ATF documents make it clear the bureau sought to overcome such criticism by allowing firearm smugglers to make purchases in Arizona so they could be traced to bigger fish south of the border. In a case known as Operation Fast and Furious, gun dealers were encouraged to make sales to known traffickers, sometimes under surveillance. There were scores of transactions, involving more than 1,500 guns, with undercover agents and informers taking part in some deals As a result of that strategy, however, assault rifles, potent .50-caliber guns and other weapons vanished. They were later recovered by police in Mexico, often after violent crimes. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Idaho, ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has pressed the ATF for two months to disclose details of Project Gun Runner and to justify a policy that allowed weapons into a nation where there were more than 36,000 drug-related murders in four years. His inquiries, as well as those by journalists, were repeatedly ignored or met with denials from the ATF and the Justice Department. At a news conference in February, the ATF in Phoenix announced that 34 suspects had been indicted and that U.S. agents had seized 375 weapons as part of Operation Fast and Furious. None of those arrested was a significant cartel figure. The bureau's own records showed that nearly 200 additional guns purchased during the operation were recovered by police in Mexico. Two of those weapons were used by suspected bandits during the shootout with Terry. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona, ATF agents did not learn about the purchase of those guns until three days after the sale and did not have the buyer under surveillance. At the news conference, William Newell, special agent in charge of the ATF's office in Arizona, was asked if agents knowingly allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico. "**** no," he said. Yet, bureau records released by Grassley indicate that "walking" guns into Mexico was an approved strategy and that some agents were silenced when they protested that criminals were being armed and lives jeopardized. In a March 12 e-mail, David Voth, supervisor of the Phoenix Gun Trafficking Group, acknowledged a "schism" among ATF agents and warned those questioning the program that they might wind up as jail guards. "It may sound cheesy, but we are 'the tip of the ATF spear' when it comes to Southwest border firearms trafficking," Voth wrote. "If you don't think this is fun, you're in the wrong line of work - period. One of the agents, John Dodson, has sought formal protection as a whistle-blower under federal law and is providing information to the Judiciary Committee. In an interview with the non-profit, nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, Dodson said, "With the number of guns we let walk, we'll never know how many people were killed, raped, robbed. . . . There is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are gone." CBS News broadcast the interview with Dodson, along with ATF surveillance video of suspects leaving an Arizona gun store with cases of assault rifles. Kenneth Melson, acting ATF director, reacted by calling for an independent probe of Project Gun Runner. "This review will enable ATF to maximize its effectiveness when undertaking complex firearms-trafficking investigations and prosecutions," he said. In his letter to the bureau, Grassley wrote: "Getting to the truth of the ATF whistle-blower allegations in this case is extremely important to the family of Brian Terry and should be important to all Americans." Dodson told CBS News that he was terrified that a U.S. law officer might be killed with a smuggled gun and was crushed when the fear apparently came true. Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/03/05/20110305atf-mexican-gun-smuggling-sting-scrutinized.html#ixzz1FjNVBZ1t Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bug House Posted March 5, 2011 Report Share Posted March 5, 2011 ............ It's starting to look like the Regan/Contra years again............... > And/or our response to the Russian invasion of Afganistan. Did you catch this story m? http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/02/18/bs.gutierrez.sheriffs.last.stand.cnn?iref=allsearch ......seems the plight of our southern residents is getting some national attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevebeilgard Posted March 5, 2011 Report Share Posted March 5, 2011 our borders are a total shambles, and this administration is a bad joke. there will be a boiling point reached one of these days, probably when an american city is nuked. time will tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted March 6, 2011 Report Share Posted March 6, 2011 Interesting with his finger pointing that Holder takes no accountability for this. More to fuel the Mexican presidents angst towards our gun policies. Real shame this has taken place, hope an investigation is pursued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m gardner Posted March 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2011 (edited) Looks like this started during the Bush presidency and got out of control during Obama's. Bughouse, we're all familiar with that storey. Thank God it's getting some attention. All I know is that these mexicans and OTM's (other than mexicans) are a protected species. We can't kill them unless they shoot at us and they know that. Problem is that the police and border patrol have to use even more discretion when engaging them. The people I know say that the mexican army shoots at the BP and keeps them busy while the drugs are taken across the border. This is why most of them were pulled back and the checkpoints are inland now. At one of the shoots (the BP practices gunfighting) I went to I overheard a few officers dicussing this and one said to the rest that the next time one of the blankety blank blanks shoots at him he's going to blanking kill him and make a blanking pair of boots out of him. They are getting frustrated. Mark Edited March 6, 2011 by m gardner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Looks like this started during the Bush presidency and got out of control during Obama's. Yeah I noticed the 2006 there Mark. Point with Holder is that he has agreed with everything in regards to the Mexican's side on things where it seems as if the blame is being aimed towards common everyday American gunowners who are not capable of going out and buying a .50 or a full auto AK-47. Things have been being twisted by Holder and I think he has known all along about what was going down and basically trying to use misinformation to gain public support for his agenda. Disgusting the image these cowards are portraying. Far as who is to blame for initiating the project and who allowed it to continue even after they saw it was not working, I say let a full unaffiliated source investigate and let the chips fall where they may. Public does deserve to know and those involved need evaluated and dealt with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m gardner Posted March 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 I would love to see a good thorough investigation but I think this is another case of "My enemy's enemy is my friend" sort of thing. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RalloZ35 Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 our borders are a total shambles, and this administration is a bad joke. there will be a boiling point reached one of these days, probably when an american city is nuked. time will tell. I agree with this completely, america is a great country but we need to have stricter rules in some areas, like illigal aliens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Looks like the circus around this with Obama and Holder has reached a new level. Latest on this is that Obama has invoked executive privilege. Will be interesting to see where it goes from here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m gardner Posted June 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 Kinda makes you wonder what they are hiding doesn't it? Obama can't invoke executive privilege according to a 1974 law that forbids it to stop an investigation. From what we heard down here before this got to the mainstream news those documents they are hiding should be dandies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted June 21, 2012 Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 Kinda makes you wonder what they are hiding doesn't it? Obama can't invoke executive privilege according to a 1974 law that forbids it to stop an investigation. From what we heard down here before this got to the mainstream news those documents they are hiding should be dandies! Didn't the doj already destroy some of the documents? Yeah, kinda makes a person curious as to what exactly is or was there that is serious enough for the president to want to keep it under wraps enough to bring himself to the forefront of the attention around this. Says to me Obama was aware, but figured that when all this started. Holder should be impeached for holding up the process and the investigation should move forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m gardner Posted June 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 I believe it may come to light that Hillary Clinton and Janet napolitano were involved too. When the ATF began beating up on the little gun dealers for supplying guns that fueled all the violence in Mexico, Carter Country in Houston hired a lawyer and issued a statement that they had been instructed by the ATF to let bad sales to straw buyers go since 2006 from what I can find out. Then it all blew up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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