Ogden's 24 March 2009 presser on Project Gunrunner not exactly an admission of gunwalking. On the importance of not "jumping to illusions."

Tip of the boonie hat to MidnightRider2001 for posting this.

There has been a lot of excitement in the last few days over this video and the rediscovered fact (first reported by Michelle Malkin some time ago) that stimulus funds were used to fund Project Gunrunner/Gunwalker. The same thing applies to Eric Holder's 2 April speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Some of this is not exactly reinventing the wheel but more rediscovering that the wheel is round and leaping to the conclusion that therefore it must be evidence of a hit-and-run.

Look, let's recap. Gunrunner was a program that began in 2004 under Dubya. When the Obamanoids took over, they reinvigorated it, expanded it, with all the hubris that they were capable of because they thought that now that "WE" are in power instead of the Bushies, WE (they) are going to "fix things."

Gunrunner was a public program, briefed to Congress, funded publicly, reported on to oversight committees. The press conference above is, in a sense, one of the earliest indications that the Obama administration was going to do something different with Gunrunner, but it does not prove that they came into office with the entire gunwalking conspiracy in mind.

It is important not to "jump to illusions" as one of my DC friends calls it, but rather to stick with the evidence we know. Only by doing so can we patiently build an airtight case that the Gunwalker conspirators cannot evade. We must be responsible and not make statements that do not hold up under scrutiny. We only discredit ourselves if we do. We must not, as my friend says, "jump to illusions."

So far, the best guesses of our sources says that the whole "we need more gun control so let's make a bloody mess of Mexico with civilian market firearms" decision happened (reportedly at the behest of Rahm Emanuel) sometime between the late spring to late summer of 2009.

So far, the one meeting that we do know was operationally crucial to the whole gunwalking strategy was presided over by David Ogden in OCTOBER 2009.

We do not yet have the documentary evidence to pin down when the meeting or meetings took place where the strategy that led to the gunwalking was agreed upon.

I am confident we will find that out in time, and I am told the Grassley/Issa investigation has a much better idea of that than I do at the moment.

In the meantime, it is important not to "jump to illusions." The Ogden presentation above is not "proof" of a gunwalking strategy, as some have alleged. It is just one bit of evidence in a much larger puzzle.