Unlike most Americans, you all have heard about the “Fast and Furious” operation, in which the ATF allowed guns bought in the US to make their way to drug cartels in Mexico. With the happy coincidence that, should the guns wind up back here in the US, the President could begin his push for comprehensive “sensible” gun control.
But did you know that you may have been paying for the purchase of the guns, as well?
And yet, where are today’s Woodward and Bernstein? Not in the mainstream media, that much is clear. They’re too busy running interference for Obama to presume to investigate him or his Justice Department.
Instead, once the story gets too big to bury — and that may be coming — I suspect they’ll give us a scapegoat out of ATF, and maybe a lecture or two on the necessity of gun control, without pushing too hard. This time.
Best to wait until one of their contrivances to weaken the Second Amendment actually works before they try the big push.
And yet, where are today’s Woodward and Bernstein?
As if W&B uncovered something of this magnitude. All they were chasing down was that Nixon bugged the Dems’ hotel room (in a place called something… gate… can’t remember).
¡Qué horror!
The coverup got him, not the initial “crime.”
And W&B weren’t investigating people who would have no compunction about mounting their heads on a post at the San Diego/Tijuana crossing, just for laughs.
The border atrocities aren’t being covered because journalists would genuinely be risking life and limb to expose not a Republican president but Teh Other and the people they paid off, and what kind of narrative is THAT?
Project Gunrunner funded in the Stimulus bill.
It is under this heading.
Two U.S. agents and 150 Mexican agents lay in their graves because of this fuckup, yet it’s only just now beginning to think about maybe simmering into the public consciousness a little bit.
Still, I’m stocking up on SquidCo® brand torches and pitchforks. Hope springs eternal!
I haven’t been keeping all that close to this, but I think it goes something like this:
1) ATF gets cooperation of gunshops to equip Mexican gangstas with firearms
2) Gangstas murder some people in Mexico using those guns
3) Gangstas murder some people in the US using those guns
4) ATF blames the gunshop owners
5) Gun control!
But, oops, someone snitched. If I were a gunshop owner that the ATF attempted to leave holding the bag, I would not stop pushing this until the guilty parties were put to the question. If I were them, I’d be naming names of agents, etc.
Have to get another step in there as the agents were against it too but were ordered by higher ups to allow the guns to be bought and transported to Mexico.
Geoffb – there was push back from the gunshops too. Even they knew how fucking stupid this was.
In addition to the ATF scapegoat (although Kenneth “the goat” Melson doesn’t seem interested in playing the part Holder assigned for him) angle, expect lots and lots of stories about partisan witch hunts and politically movitvated lawfare, how damaging all that is to our body politic, as well as the inevitable media thumbsucking and navelgazing while they try to work out their role in all this corrosion of public trust.
The conclusion will be shame on those mean Republicans for making us do our jobs the way we say we do, even though we don’t, not really.
From the video I saw at least two of the weapons sold had cans,(silencers) attached. I’m going to make a leap here and assume the correct paperwork and taxes weren’t done on those two weapons, a $250,000 and ten year felony rap for each incident.
Buncha people need to be standing in front of a federal judge over this.
Special. Prosecutor.
JHo, the only problem with special prosecutors is that the special prosecutors special staff of not so special career prosecutors come from the same pool of scum-sucking bottom feeders.
Which is why Scooter Libby is a felon and Bill Clinton a respected elder statesman.
JHoward–from your lips to Congress’ ears. Because you can be sure the Justice Department or Obama will never recommend it.
Bill Clinton is a bent-dick herpetic whore I think
Here’s how the gunshop straw purchases went down:
(ATF phone rings)
Gun Dealer to ATF: “Hey, we’ve got a bunch of guns going out the door and we’re pretty sure these are straw purchases”
ATF to Gun Dealer: “No problem, we’re keeping an eye on the guns, let the sale go through.”
Gun Dealer: “!?!!?!?!?!?!?!”
ATF: “You want us to shut you down for obstructing an investigation?”
Gun Dealer to straw purchaser: “So, you want help to the car with those 15 AR’s? They’re kinda heavy.”
….While the above is a fictional account, some stuff I’ve read leads me to believe I’m not far off.
If I were a gun shop owner told by ATF to sell to someone, I’d say “put that in writing, or forget it.”
I wrote my critters insisting on investigations and criminal penalties. One of those critters is a rabid leftist. I’ll be rounded up before the weekend and sent to the camps.
speaking of guns:
Latma presents: The Audacity of Dopes Band brings you “Guns, Guns, Guns!”
the Monster, great sentiment, but, ATF is a law unto itself. As such, ATF won’t document that they told a gun dealer to sell, but the ATF will darn well remember the gun dealer refused and move to put the gun dealer out of business.
I know all too well just how much government agencies can screw up your business and life. If government cannot find a legitimate reason to fuck with you, they’ll spend tax payer dollars, make something up, drag you into court, and bankrupt you and your business.
Some days I like to pretend none of this totally insane shit is happening.
It’s a great story.
I wish I could write it or report on it. I am crushed with a few huge investigations of my own.
So weird: It should have HUGE traction.
The feds will rarely put anything compromising in writing — they’re not totally stupid — but there’s a work around just FYI. On several occasions I’ve received directives from federal agencies I work with (not the BATF) that didn’t seem quite kosher — ‘ignore that regulation, for reasons quite bizarre we don’t feel it applies’ or whatever. I’ve learned to take careful notes of the meeting/phone conversation and then email my usual contact something to the effect — ‘per our phone conversation at 1445hrs today I understand that I’m being directed to ignore regulation … Unless I receive contrary instruction by 1500 tomorrow I will comply.’ This is usually only one of a series of email exchanges regarding any project so there’s a record showing that they do read and respond to my emails.
On occasion I’ve gotten a spluttering ‘we didn’t say that!’ but most of the time I get a stony silence — because they did say that, they just don’t really want to go on record as sayin’ it. It’s not quite the same as getting it in writing, but it’s about as much butt-covering as you’re likely to get dealing with the feds.
I guess my larger point is that if the feces hit the rotating blade I can demonstrate that I tried to act in good faith and informed the agency of my intended actions in compliance with their directive. They can always plead incompetence — ‘I didn’t see that email! — but they can’t say I intentionally kept them in the dark or intentionally disregarded their directives.
Good luck with that, Swen. The government is always right.
????? ????, bitches.
“On several occasions I’ve received directives from federal agencies I work with (not the BATF) that didn’t seem quite kosher ”
sure sign that you are dealing with a portion of gov’t that could be eliminated and no one would notice.
Since we seem to have plenty of alcohol and firearms, I suggest they concentrate on tobacco.
Mueller, suppressors are functionally defined. If the attached device doesn’t actually do anything to the weapon’s report then it is merely a cosmetic feature and not regulated. Some rifles are even sold with fake suppressors permanently affixed – welded onto a short barrel in order to give the appearance of a silenced short barreled rifle (what would otherwise be an NFA weapon.)
Yes, less than useless – since you are giving up actual barrel length in exchange for no loss of over all length – but often there is no accounting for taste.
On the plus side they do tend to raise the blood pressure and hackles of the hoplophobes. So there is that.
Sadly,Pitifully, it’s barely weird at all. It’s bloody predictable.When this story first leaked, I thought it would be huge. But I forgot(!), the proggs own the press. As far as they(press and proggs) are concerned, this isn’t a scandal, it’s a situation to be spun to advance the progg agenda.
I’m pretty sure we are well and truly fucked. We’ve achieved velocity on trajectory, and any change in course will involve cataclysm and blood.
Pray that there are enough true men left in our country to step up. I hope there are plans for succession being made in the event 2012 leaves DC in socialist hands.
obama says it’s republicans what are putting a gun to the head of the American people but for reals it’s obama what’s been sprinkling killy killy guns everywhere
that’s ironic to me to where it makes me roll my eyes and say that rascal jeez he sure is a piece of work
“I’m pretty sure we are well and truly fucked. We’ve achieved velocity on trajectory, and any change in course will involve cataclysm and blood.”
happy days are here again:
U.S. debt crisis might be on fast track
Oops, they did it before.
Or maybe concurrently.
oh for the days when stains on a blue dress were important.
Not “gets” — orders. As in “do this or lose your livelihood” order.
And the way the press is leaving this story on the ground — “too busy” my ass — should be the final nail in the coffin of that worthless profession. I’d say every one of them should spend the rest of their days as ditch-diggers, but we need ditches and they’d do a shitty job of that, too.
Breaking News: Source claims ATF’s Tampa SAC walked guns to Honduras
#36 see #32
Care to clue us in Roddy Boyd? Anything of interest to us
slavessuckerstaxpayersOUTLAWs?They’re also perfect in every way! Which is why my ploy works. They hate to admit that they might not be entirely on the ball at every moment, so if you send them an email of course they got it and read it. If they didn’t respond it must be because they didn’t deign to do so. Also, once they’ve opened the email their superiors can look at the logs and see that they opened it. That makes it really hard for them to deny that they knew what was going on.
But mostly it puts them on notice that if the shit hits the fan I’m going to drag out that email and wave it around — “I was just doing what I was told and I even confirmed my instructions in writing”. Thus, if any questions should arise they’re less likely to try to blame me and more likely to try to cover for me, or at least keep me out of the picture. They’re very good at pointing fingers but they won’t point fingers at anyone who can point right back at them.
Understand that I’m talking about complicated and often contradictory environmental regulations where there is a good deal of room for interpretation and everything the federal agency and my clients do is under a magnifying glass. People make their livings suing the federal government over perceived infractions of the environmental rules. I’m just trying to help them be stand-up guys and take responsibility for their decisions :)
“#36 see #32”
Good rule of thumb:
If Geoffb links it,
you gotta click it!
That is all.
That’s true of most portions of the government and particularly true of BATF. I’m with the contingent that thinks that Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be a convenience store, not a federal agency.
Motionview:
Moneywar….The hidden war on financing terrorism. It’s the biggest WoT legacy the Bush Admin has and it is completely unknown and even less understood. Clinton, to be fair, deserves a lot of credit too, having gotten the ball rolling in ’95.
It’s just a lot harder for institutional strength bad guys in the ME to sling cash around globally. Not impossible, just harder.
Very interesting RB, let us know when & how we can get a look.
I happened to see today that the Daily Mail has outed John.
They really don’t realize that their actions have consequences.
Ouch…
About the Stimulus bill and “Gunrunner”.
The “Gunrunner” provision wasn’t in the bill HR-1 which originally passed the House on Jan 28th 2009. It was inserted into the bill in the Senate and remained there when the Senate passed it (S-1) on Feb 10th and was in the final conference report which was agreed to by both the House and Senate on Feb. 13th and signed into law Feb. 17th 2009.
We send guns, dictators, and international (kangaroo) commissions to little nations like Honduras.
#27
I’m just assuming since the feds are breaking the law they’re going all the way. Real cans and full auto. The AK is one of the easiest semi auto look alikes to get to run full auto.
Some fed a-holes need to be doing hard time over this. Poor bastard boarder patrol agent out there actually doing his job and he gets killed with help from our own people. Damn right heads have got to roll.
Good point. One I missed as I misremembered the names Gunwalker and Gunrunner.