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Politics : Fast and Furious-----Obama/Holder Gun Running Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carolyn who wrote (108)	11/3/2011 8:05:24 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 749

ATF legal counsel had "moral objections" to gunwalking ............................................................................ 3 November, 2011 by Sharyl Attkisson cbsnews.com An ATF attorney raised "moral objections" to a plan to provide criminals with firearms "to be released into the community, and possibly into Mexico, without any further ability by the U.S. Government to control their movement or future use." That's according to a memo written to the U.S. Attorney in Arizona in July of 2006. Yet ATF went ahead with the so-called "gunwalking," in its operation "Wide Receiver," and later in "Fast and Furious" and numerous other cases. Gunwalking refers to a controversial investigative tactic allowing guns to be sold to suspected traffickers to see where they'd end up, and try to take down a "big fish" in a drug cartel. As CBS News reported last March, Wide Receiver let hundreds of weapons "walk" in 2006 and 2007, prior to inception of the larger Fast and Furious operation in 2009 and 2010. The 2006 memo citing "moral objections" from ATF's legal counsel is among more than 600 pages of subpoenaed documents turned over this week to Congressional investigators. The memo asks then-U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton to weigh in on the gunwalking proposal. Charlton told CBS News he has no memory of the memo but "I don't believe I would have or ever did approve letting guns walk." He says his Assistant U.S. Attorney on the case at the time recently assured him the memo was disapproved. "It's almost an I.Q. test," Charlton told CBS News, meaning nobody would approve the "preposterous" idea as outlined in the memo. But he notes, "Somebody did it (gunwalking) anyway, in disregard of what was disallowed, and repeated it again in Fast and Furious." Phoenix ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell oversaw both gunwalking operations. Newell was named to head the Phoenix office in June 2006. One month later came the memo seeking approval for the gunwalking. At a January press conference, Newell was asked if guns were allowed to walk in Fast and Furious, and he replied "hell, no." That answer was soon revealed as false, and Newell was transferred to ATF headquarters. In a strange twist, former U.S. Attorney Charlton, now in private practice, represents the family of a murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Guns from Fast and Furious were found at Terry's murder scene. Because of publicity surrounding Charlton's connection to a previous gunwalking case, he's stepping aside as lead attorney for the Terry's, and handing that role to a partner.

To: Carolyn who wrote (108)	11/7/2011 7:00:25 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 749

Fast and Furious: Whistleblower Protection Reinforcement Legislation Introduced ............................................................ 11/7/2011 by Katie Pavlich townhall.com Last week Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, who has been leading the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, introduced new legislation to reinforce provisions of the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act. The reinforcement, known at the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, is badly needed in light of Fast and Furious as retaliation against whistleblowers exposing corruption within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF falls under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department) runs rampant. The legislation is bipartisan and is co-sponsored by Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee Elijah Cummings. "Whistleblowers play critical roles in exposing wrongdoing in government," said Issa."Federal employees who discover waste, abuse and mismanagement in their agency need to be able to alert agency leaders and Congress without fear of reprisal from supervisors, and within the confines of the law. This legislation establishes new protections for those who seek lawful ways to address abuse of taxpayer dollars." When enacted, the legislation will: -close judicially-created loopholes in existing whistleblower protection law; -extend whistleblower protection rights to some 40,000 airport baggage screeners; -increase avenues for intelligence community whistleblowers to safely and legally expose waste, fraud and abuse at intelligence agencies; -create specific protection in the law for scientific freedom; -ensure a permanent anti-gag statute to neutralize classifications like "classifiable," "sensitive but unclassified," "sensitive security information" and other poorly defined security labels; -establish consistency with other remedial employment laws; -strengthen the Office of Special Counsel's ability to seek disciplinary accountability against those who retaliate, and provides the OSC with authority to file friend of the court briefs in support of whistleblower rights cases appealed from the administrative level; -create a pilot program to extend whistleblower protection to non-defense contractors. Issa sent a letter to ATF Deputy Director William Hoover in June warning whistleblowers should not be retaliated against for exposing mismanagement and unscrupulous behavior within the agency or within the Department of Justice. I write to request your assurance that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) will not retaliate against witnesses who have provided information to this Committee. I make this request in light of the fact that on June 15, 2011, in a hearing before the Committee entitled "operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes," three veteran ATF special agents gave testimony highly critical of the ATF. They should not face reprisals of any kind for their testimony. No other ATF employees who cooperate with Congress should face retaliation either. The Committee relies on whistleblowers to conduct unvarnished and thorough oversight. Witnesses who choose to cooperate with the Committee must be confident that they can provide information without fear of punishment. You can read about the Jay Dobyns' case, possibly the worst case of ATF whistleblower retaliation, here. Also, you can read about retaliation against Fast and Furious whistleblower Vince Cefalu here.

To: Carolyn who wrote (108)	11/8/2011 1:23:03 PM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 749

Holder: No apology for ‘Fast and Furious’ death of border patrol agent ................................................................................ 11/08/2011 by Matthew Boyle dailycaller.com During a Tuesday Senate hearing, Attorney General Eric Holder refused to apologize to the family of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was murdered last December with a gun “walked” to Mexico as part of Operation Fast and Furious.. Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn asked Holder if he has apologized to Terry’s family for what happened to him because of the DOJ’s controversial program. Holder replied that he hasn’t. “I have not apologized to them, but I certainly regret what happened,” Holder said. Cornyn followed up, asking if Holder has “even talked to them.” “I have not,” Holder replied.