Sunday, August 21, 2011

Darn good question. "Where’s the outrage over FBI bungling?" Better, who were the Ass't US Atty's who oversaw FBI snitches in the Gunwalker Plot?

Thank you to Kevin Cullen of the Boston Globe for reminding me of this:

After the Bulger debacle, one of the alleged reforms that emerged from hearings at the federal court and congressional hearings in Washington was that an assistant US attorney was supposed to oversee the FBI’s use of informants. (Emphasis supplied, MBV)

So, presumably, a federal prosecutor signed off on the use of Rossetti as an FBI informant until sometime last year, right?

“We never discuss informants,’’ said Christina Diorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, who refused to talk about this.


That's right. The FBI needs the sign-off of at least an Assistant U.S. Attorney to use informants. It's called "The Bulger Rule" in some jurisdictions. Now, remember this?

Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday.

The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them. . .

In a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, the investigators asked why U.S. taxpayers' money apparently was paid to Mexican cartel members who have terrorized the border region for years in their efforts to smuggle drugs into this country, and to ship U.S. firearms into Mexico.

"We have learned of the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious," wrote Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The two have been the leading congressional critics of the program.

"At least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring," they wrote.

The FBI and DEA did not tell the ATF about the alleged informants. The ATF and congressional investigators learned later that those agencies apparently were paying cartel members whom the ATF wanted to arrest.


Yeah. So we need to know who the AUSA's who oversaw these informants in the various border states were, don't we?

Food for more hearings, and bad for the Fibbies reputation.

1 comment:

Mt Top Patriot said...

Hey Mike! great piece over at PJM about Gunwalker, (Of course you and Dave receive zero mention or linkage, as usual, infuriating and disgusting if you ask me, not just because of lack of due notoriety for the Yeoman's work you guys did, but also the invaluable unique virtue of your work in the enlightenment it provides).
At least the writer called it "Gunwalker"
link:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-and-the-foundation-of-liberty/?singlepage=true