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

To: steve harris who wrote (402)	6/21/2012 3:11:19 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 749

White House Spokesman: Executive Privilege Is 'Entirely About Principle' Jun 21, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER weeklystandard.com At today's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney said invoking executive privilege is "entirely about principle." The assembled reporters laughed. Watch here: Carney also got basic facts about Fast and Furious wrong, though members of the press corps were on hand to correct him. Watch here: Carney also maintained that the White House is not being hypocritical by invoking executive privilege, even though President Obama once criticized the practice. Watch here: And Carney forgot the name of the slain border patrol agent who died as a result of Fast and Furious. Watch here:

To: steve harris who wrote (402)	6/21/2012 3:18:55 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 749

Carney forgot the name of the slain border patrol agent who died as a result of Fast and Furious.

To: steve harris who wrote (402)	6/21/2012 11:32:23 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Respond to of 749

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information. On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious: "Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks." More Fast and Furious coverage: Memos contradict Holder on Fast and Furious Agent: I was ordered to let guns "walk" into Mexico Gunwalking scandal uncovered at ATF On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as "(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale on Long Guns issue." And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed Newell: "Bill--well done yesterday... (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case." This revelation angers gun rights advocates. Larry Keane, a spokesman for National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, calls the discussion of Fast and Furious to argue for Demand Letter 3 "disappointing and ironic." Keane says it's "deeply troubling" if sales made by gun dealers "voluntarily cooperating with ATF's flawed 'Operation Fast & Furious' were going to be used by some individuals within ATF to justify imposing a multiple sales reporting requirement for rifles." The Gun Dealers' Quandary Several gun dealers who cooperated with ATF told CBS News and Congressional investigators they only went through with suspicious sales because ATF asked them to. Sometimes it was against the gun dealer's own best judgment. Read the email In April, 2010 a licensed gun dealer cooperating with ATF was increasingly concerned about selling so many guns. "We just want to make sure we are cooperating with ATF and that we are not viewed as selling to the bad guys," writes the gun dealer to ATF Phoenix officials, "(W)e were hoping to put together something like a letter of understanding to alleviate concerns of some type of recourse against us down the road for selling these items." Read the email ATF's group supervisor on Fast and Furious David Voth assures the gun dealer there's nothing to worry about. "We (ATF) are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into detail." Two months later, the same gun dealer grew more agitated. "I wanted to make sure that none of the firearms that were sold per our conversation with you and various ATF agents could or would ever end up south of the border or in the hands of the bad guys. I guess I am looking for a bit of reassurance that the guns are not getting south or in the wrong hands...I want to help ATF with its investigation but not at the risk of agents (sic) safety because I have some very close friends that are US Border Patrol agents in southern AZ as well as my concern for all the agents (sic) safety that protect our country." "It's like ATF created or added to the problem so they could be the solution to it and pat themselves on the back," says one law enforcement source familiar with the facts. "It's a circular way of thinking." The Justice Department and ATF declined to comment. ATF officials mentioned in this report did not respond to requests from CBS News to speak with them. The "Demand Letter 3" Debate The two sides in the gun debate have long clashed over whether gun dealers should have to report multiple rifle sales. On one side, ATF officials argue that a large number of semi-automatic, high-caliber rifles from the U.S. are being used by violent cartels in Mexico. They believe more reporting requirements would help ATF crack down. On the other side, gun rights advocates say that's unconstitutional, and would not make a difference in Mexican cartel crimes. Two earlier Demand Letters were initiated in 2000 and affected a relatively small number of gun shops. Demand Letter 3 was to be much more sweeping, affecting 8,500 firearms dealers in four southwest border states: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. ATF chose those states because they "have a significant number of crime guns traced back to them from Mexico." The reporting requirements were to apply if a gun dealer sells two or more long guns to a single person within five business days, and only if the guns are semi-automatic, greater than .22 caliber and can be fitted with a detachable magazine. On April 25, 2011, ATF announced plans to implement Demand Letter 3. The National Shooting Sports Foundation is suing the ATF to stop the new rules. It calls the regulation an illegal attempt to enforce a law Congress never passed. ATF counters that it has reasonably targeted guns used most often to "commit violent crimes in Mexico, especially by drug gangs." Reaction Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is investigating Fast and Furious, as well as the alleged use of the case to advance gun regulations. "There's plenty of evidence showing that this administration planned to use the tragedies of Fast and Furious as rationale to further their goals of a long gun reporting requirement. But, we've learned from our investigation that reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions. It's pretty clear that the problem isn't lack of burdensome reporting requirements." On July 12, 2011, Sen. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote Attorney General Eric Holder, whose Justice Department oversees ATF. They asked Holder whether officials in his agency discussed how "Fast and Furious could be used to justify additional regulatory authorities." So far, they have not received a response. CBS News asked the Justice Department for comment and context on ATF emails about Fast and Furious and Demand Letter 3, but officials declined to speak with us. "In light of the evidence, the Justice Department's refusal to answer questions about the role Operation Fast and Furious was supposed to play in advancing new firearms regulations is simply unacceptable," Rep. Issa told CBS News. cbsnews.com credit to brumar

To: steve harris who wrote (402)	6/22/2012 10:46:18 AM
From: joseffy	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 749

Brian Terry’s mother to Holder: You’re ‘a joke’ and a ‘coward’ 02/02/2012 By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller dailycaller.com The mother of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry had harsh words for Attorney General Eric Holder after Thursday’s House oversight committee hearing on Operation Fast and Furious. “THIS IS FOR YOU SON,” Mrs. Terry posted on Facebook at about 3:30 p.m. “Mr. Holder. How come you can never say my sons name. You never have. All i ever hear you say is ‘i didnt find out or I cant say’ Im actually tired of hearing your double talk in answering questions. What a joke you are. You know my son was a real AMERICAN, a WARRIOR, and a HERO, who was also protecting COWARD POLITICANS like you.” “Hope you remember that,” Mrs. Terry added in her message to Holder before signing it: “PROUD MOM OF BRIAN A. TERRY.” Brian Terry was murdered with a weapon his own government allowed to be sold to Mexican drug cartels via Operation Fast and Furious. Like Terry, about 300 Mexican citizens were also murdered with the guns Holder’s Justice Department gave to the drug cartels. Nobody has been held accountable inside the Justice Department, and more than 100 congressmen, three U.S. senators, two sitting governors and all major Republican presidential candidates have demanded that Holder step down in the wake of the scandal. Holder has time and again refused to hold anybody accountable and has refused to step down himself. Watch: Follow Matthew on Twitter Read more: dailycaller.com

To: steve harris who wrote (402)	6/24/2012 12:44:54 AM
From: joseffy	3 Recommendations Respond to of 749

To: steve harris who wrote (402)	6/26/2012 11:47:48 PM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 749

Democrats Poised to Join Holder Contempt Vote as Boehner Presses Ahead Tuesday, 26 Jun 2012 newsmax.com House Speaker John Boehner is pressing ahead with a vote this week on whether to hold the government's top attorney in contempt of Congress, a move the White House warned Tuesday is a confrontational political ploy. But Democrats may be signing up. On Tuesday, the chief Democratic House head counter, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, declined to tell reporters how many defections he expected, but acknowledged that some in his party would consider heeding the NRA’s call for a “yes” vote. Attorney General Eric Holder faces a historic censure by the House should a contempt resolution be brought to the floor for a full vote Thursday in what Democrats say is an extraordinarily abbreviated time frame. The censure focuses on the handling of a botched plan for US agents to track guns smuggled into Mexico, and specifically over the Justice Department's withholding of documents related to the operation's aftermath. A Republican member of that committee, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, tells Newsmax that the full House of Representatives will definitely pass the orders of contempt and calls the Justice Department’s actions regarding Fast and Furious “egregious.” Gosar, who has been among those calling for Holder to resign, said Fast and Furious “really puts the administration in a quandary, because if the president really wasn’t involved, why would he have executive privilege here? “This is one of the worst scenarios I could think of because we allowed our federal government to put guns in the hands of convicted criminals and international thugs and did not follow proper protocols for law enforcement. “That’s why it’s such an egregious action.” Gosar also tells Newsmax.TV he expects bipartisan support in the contempt citation, despite the earlier party-line committee vote. “We know upper-level Justice Department officials were involved in some of the decision-making and oversight, and they could have stopped this – and that was in 2010. “So the facts are there. This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. This is where a government, particularly the Department of Justice, has gone wrong.” Amid the swirling political showdown between President Barack Obama's administration and the Republican-led House of Representatives, Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel suggested there was little likelihood that the vote would be put off unless Holder's office complies with congressional requests. "The only way to stop the vote is for the Department of Justice to turn over the documents we are seeking," Steel told AFP. At the 11th hour last week, Obama invoked executive privilege in withholding the documents, triggering allegations that the White House was more deeply involved in the scandal than it had let on. Republican Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee which voted along strict party lines to censure Holder, wrote to the president urging him to retract his decision or risk being seen as obstructing a probe. "Your privilege assertion means one of two things," Issa wrote in his letter dated Monday and made public Tuesday. "Either you or your most senior advisors were involved in managing Operation Fast and Furious and the fallout from it . . . or you are asserting a presidential power that you know to be unjustified solely for the purpose of further obstructing a congressional investigation." Launched in Arizona by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Fast and Furious was a sting designed to track weapons bought by Mexican drugs cartels. The agents had abandoned the bureau's usual practice of intercepting the weapons, opting instead to allow guns to be smuggled so they could track who they went to. But a large number of arms went missing, and two were later found at the 2010 murder scene of a US Border Patrol agent. A congressional investigation has plodded on for more than a year, but has moved swiftly recently, despite a long list of pressing legislative issues facing lawmakers. Hoyer, the number-two House Democrat, said that while the period between a committee vote and a full chamber vote on contempt has averaged 95 days since the 1970s, the House is set to take up the Holder resolution barely a week after the committee voted. "In less than nine days, this Republican led House rushes to judgment, creates confrontation, and distracts the Congress of the United States from dealing with the most important challenge confronting it, and that's creating jobs for the American people," Hoyer told reporters. The White House weighed in as well, with chief Obama spokesman Jay Carney stressing that "this could very easily be resolved" if Republicans were not bent on making the case purely political. "But it has not been resolved yet. I think that points to the obvious political nature of this effort by House Republicans," Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on Issa's committee, expressed exasperation about the push for contempt, but also hope that a showdown on the House floor could be avoided. "This has gone too far," Cummings added. "I am hoping that Mr. Boehner will step in and talk directly to the attorney general. I do believe that this can be worked out." Issa wants to know why the Justice Department sent a letter to Congress in February 2011 which inaccurately stated that no weapons were walked across the border with US government knowledge. He also wants to know why it took 10 months to retract that letter and who was involved in the deliberations. The Holder case has emerged as a political battle less than five months before the election pitting Obama against his Republican rival Mitt Romney. Boehner has scheduled the contempt vote for Thursday — the same day the Supreme Court is widely expected to rule on Obama's health care reform law. Read more on Newsmax.com: Democrats Poised to Join Holder Contempt Vote as Boehner Presses Ahead Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!