Sipsey Street Irregulars: A Project Gunwalker Scandal Grab Bag: Questions, Indictments and a Congressman agrees to press for hearings.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Project Gunwalker Scandal Grab Bag: Questions, Indictments and a Congressman agrees to press for hearings.

Congressman Raúl Labrador, 1st District, Idaho.

David Codrea asks: "Was ICE agent killed with ‘walked’ gun?"

When the killing was first reported, two separate journalists investigating the unfolding “Project Gunwalker”* story asked this correspondent if walked guns were involved, but at the time it was premature to even speculate. Since revelations in this arrest show “the [arrested] men were the subject of an undercover investigation by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration in November," it’s no longer premature—at least to speculate.

The Osorio and Kelvin indictments, which continue to raise questions about timing, Osorio here, and Kelvin here.

And it is nice to see that there are at least a few Congressmen who get it:
"Idaho Rep. to urge Darrell Issa to investigate ‘Project Gunwalker’ charges."

David Codrea writes:

Two Idaho congressmen have responded to constituent requests to investigate “Project Gunwalker”* allegations. Rep. Raúl Labrador and Rep. Mike Simpson sent email replies to two constituents who have shared them with this correspondent, and which are presented in the sidebar slideshow accompanying this article.

Rep. Labrador demonstrated a familiarity with the circumstances and background of this story, citing Senator Charles Grassley’s investigation and the need to ensure whistleblower protection. Further, he made a pledge that will be welcome to advocates for expanding hearings to the House of Representatives:

…I agree that it is time for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to hold hearings on the BATFE abuses and I will encourage Chairman Issa to do so in the future.

Issa’s committed and focused involvement is essential. As The Washington Post noted in an unrelated story:

The chairman's post has almost limitless subpoena power.

Indeed it does does.

Congressman Labrador's Letter:

March 1, 2011

(NAME AND ADDRESS REDACTED)
Dear (REDACTED):

Thank you for contacting me about holding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives accountable. I appreciate hearing your thoughts and concerns on this important issue.

As you know, Senator Charles Grassley has written and asked the BATFE to respond to allegations of suspicious firearm transactions. In the letter, he questions the agency’s conduct of Project Gunrunner, which as you know seeks to lessen the trafficking of drugs and weapons into Mexico, and specifically questions whether the agency tried to silence an internal whistleblower, who noticed this error.

I understand both your concern and the importance of this issue. BATFE actions should not infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. Because of this, I agree that it is time for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to hold hearings on the BATFE abuses and I will encourage Chairman Issa to do so in the future.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. As your representative in Congress, it is helpful for me to know your thoughts and opinions on issues that are important to you. I would encourage you to visit my website, http://labrador.house.gov, where you can read about my views on a variety of issues and also sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,
Raúl Labrador
Member of Congress
1st District, Idaho

And what has your Congresscritter done on this scandal so far?

And why not?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: They have done NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING.; March 2, 2011 at 7:04 PM
David Codrea said...: If there's one thing readers can do right now to really set off the second stage booster on this it would be to turn the heat on Issa. Contact him yourself, get your friends to contact him and spread the word on blogs, forums, email lists, etc.

If Issa weighs in on this it will literally terrorize responsible BATFU management--I may start a pool to see which one will rat out the other ones first.

Please help make that happen?; March 2, 2011 at 7:13 PM
eddymatthews said...: What have my reps done? Not one thing. After repeated e-mails, nada. Conservative talk show hosts that say they are patriots, nada! I'm talking about Texas! and I am talking about someone who reps the area where Carter's country is. I am tired of diversions! It is time to raise some hell and go to these "rep's" offices with some signs and I am going to do my best to organize that. Funny thing, my computer slows down while I am trying to convey this. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm; March 2, 2011 at 7:47 PM
WarriorClass said...: 175 years ago today, day nine of the siege of the Alamo...

I have sent numerous emails to my congressman and senators as well. Let's take the Texas reps to task, eddy! I'll go with you.

WarriorClass
III
Texas; March 3, 2011 at 7:51 AM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

Sipsey Street Irregulars

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Project Gunwalker Scandal Grab Bag: Questions, Indictments and a Congressman agrees to press for hearings.

4 comments:

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