Sharyl Attkisson, CBS, who isn’t as “disappeared” as some had feared (and others had hoped):
n a letter to Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder has gone on the record with the most details yet about what he and other Justice Department officials knew about ATF’s Fast and Furious operation, even though memos surfaced earlier this week showing multiple briefing memos mentioning Fast and Furious were sent to him as early as July of last year.
Holder says that his testimony to Congress, stating he first heard of Fast and Furious earlier this year, “was truthful and accurate… I have no recollection of knowing about Fast and Furious prior to the public controversy about it.”
In his letter, Holder also criticized the House Committee investigating Fast and Furious, saying he cannot sit idly by “as law enforcement and government employees who devote their lives to protecting our citizens be considered ‘accessories to murder’.”
[…]
As CBS News has reported, the Deputy Attorney General during Fast and Furious, Gary Grindler is now Holder’s Chief of Staff. Documents provided to Congress indicate Grindler received a detailed briefing on Fast and Furious in March of 2010 and made handwritten notes on briefing materials.
However, in the letter, Holder says Grindler “was not told of the unacceptable tactics employed in the operation in his regular monthly meetings with ATF…”
“I now understand some senior officials within the Department were aware at the time there was an operation called Fast and Furious although they were not advised of the unacceptable operational tactics being used in it,” says Holder’s letter.
Holder blamed Congress for failing to consider whether “additional tools are needed to stem the flow of guns to Mexico” and warned “until we move beyond the current political climate..nothing is going to change.”
Late today, a spokesman for the House Oversight Committee investigating Fast and Furious said: “If Attorney General Holder had said these things five months ago when Congress asked him about Operation Fast and Furious, it might have been more believable.”
Looks like the parameters of the DOJ’s defense have been set: top officials had some knowledge of the program, but they will maintain plausible deniability with respect to specifics — in particular, anything having to do with operational tactics.
It’s possible, I suppose, that Holder and his Deputy AG were simply incurious and allowed this program, which met with resistance from ATF agents, to continue along without their intimate knowledge — at which point we can only say of them that they are disappointingly incompetent and failed to maintain oversight over their own Justice Department. However, given what we know of Holder’s stewardship of Justice — which has been marked by a repulsive adherence to leftwing political partisanship — I think it fair to remain skeptical, as the House Oversight Committee seem to be doing, at least at first blush.
The question is, will the GOP continue to press the issue now that Holder has signaled his entrenchment?
ot solyndra document dump
Link
Really? Holder’s going with the Hillaryesque “I don’t recall”?
OT: Brewers! Beast Mode! Beer!
That’s right Eric, it’s not like you’re Janet Reno torching a Waco compound. I mean, your body count is higher, but at least it wasn’t women and children, right?
Little known fact: Eric Holder is a giant D-Back fan.
Holder’s decision to go with an “incompetence” defense squares with his earlier success in the Marc Rich debacle, so, figgers.
Isn’t the key to the investigation simply a matter of putting those Holder deems culpable under the heatlamp and squeeze until they finger the higher ups, after which, rinse and repeat? That’s what happens, I’ll bet, though of course it may take some time.
Warning the plebes that unless they stop demanding answers, these kinds of events (wherein Federal agencies continue giving the most criminal elements the weapons they need to commit their predatory acts, and all at taxpayer expense) are going to keep happening…
I have the same seven words resounding in my head… “When in the Course of Human Events…”
Sixth inning? check
Brewer’s score? check
Nine outs.
Get ’em.
Snake sushi for Saito: carves ’em up and eats ’em, raw.
Shaw is clearly using performance enhancing drugs. I demand an asterisk for that inning.
Hairston came up in the O’s organization I think. So, snake bit.
Let’s get out of this inning. Please, please, please, please…
Well, that was exciting. Howsabout we don’t do that again in the 9th.
And verily I say unto you that pardons shall fall like manna, raining from the heavens wherein resides the Messiah’s autopen.
Especially in the months of November-December 2012 if he loses in that November.
This is a nightmare.
“Especially in the months of November-December 2012 if he loses in that November.”
no time to lose
Democrats Introduce Bill to Seal Up Obama’s Presidential Records
The Brewers win!
The Brewers win!
The Brewers win!
scott walker to blame: #occupymadison
Nyger Morgan just said fuck like three times in a row on live tv.
That’s beast mode.
Please tell me this went to an actual OWS event.
Please!
That was a bit more adventure than I’d hoped for. Pheeew
Oh. My Diamondbacks lost. That’s teh suck.
And John Galt has dug in his heels…
We’d better hope BHO leaves office January ’13 or this Republic might never recover.
Wouldn’t that sort of end with Kenneth Melson, who’s already dropped dime with Issa and Grassley?
Big Brotha and the Holder Company suck at muzzling too.
I’m thinking it wouldn’t be Melson so much (besides, as you’ve noted, he’s already been forthcoming, yet no-one on the committees has indicated they have the goods on Holder yet), but the DoJ people Melson points to (“officials at DOJ”) who would be the right path up the chain to Holder.
So it’s Miller vs Budweiser.
Let’s do this thing.
Guess I’m rooting for Milwaukee now.
In little league I always played right field. A McGehee with a World Series ring would be surreal.
Budweiser has horses. What’s Miller got?
Tits!
Cardinals are the most communist of all the birds, btw. Sorta obvious when you look ’em.
I once played golf with a guy who’s job was to be in charge of Budweiser’s Red, like where it showed up on packaging and in advertising and whatnot. He was a commie to the bone.
I don’t find that surprising at all, sdferr. Not at all.
Unless, and until Holder clarifies exactly which specific tactics of the program he considers unacceptable, which specific tactics he therefore finds acceptable, and when he became aware of each of them, then his position is as shiftless as it is Clintonian.
He’s concerned now, about “public discourse concerning these issues . . . we all share”, but wasn’t concerned to learn a year ago what was going on when guns were put into the hands of criminals? Sure looks that way to me. I’d be satisfied if he ends up swinging by his metaphorically bureaucratic neck.
LBascom said:
But do we know that? I’ve only read that upwards of 200 Mexican citizens were killed, nothing about gender or age.
The cartels do kill women, that much I’ve read. Haven’t seen anything about the headless bodies of children being left hanging from bridge railings — but maybe the cartels think bragging about infanticide would be bad for public relations.
I actually typed that with a straight face.
“yet no one on the committees has indicated they have the goods on Holder yet”
I’d say if you include the black panther dismissal, Gerald Walpin firing, and Gibson guitar persecution there’d be enough “goods” for impeachment.
If Obama wants to play hardball by refusing to allow an independant counsel that would be the next pitch.
“Having the goods” in the particular sense I meant it and having the goods in the looser sense of knowing he’s a douche-bag are separable things Danger, or at least, so I believe. When asked whether Holder lied to the committee, Issa hedges. I have only to ask “why?” to reach my conclusion.
Yeah sdferr,
I was thinking it’s time to expose the douche-bag to prime time scrutiny.
The alphabet stoups won’t be able to overlook it and Holder won’t be able to play the Clinton sympathy angle.
Bonus – collateral damage conentrated on Obama
Oh, and hopefully Issa is only appearing to hedge and just letting Holder dig a deeper grave before he pulls the trigger.