Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Era of Big Media is Over. Just finished a conference call by Darrell Issa with bloggers on the state of the Gunwalker investigation.


Yup. First, as did many bloggers who have written on Gunwalker, I received this email message from the Issa Committee yesterday:

Update on Fast & Furious Investigation

WHO: Chairman Darrell Issa, Oversight & Government Reform Committee.

WHAT: Please join Chairman Issa to discuss the latest developments in the Justice Department's failed Operation Fast and Furious, a program which allowed guns to walk into the hands of drug cartels resulting in the death of border patrol agent Brian Terry and countless Mexican citizens.

WHEN: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 10:15AM EDT – 11:00AM EDT



It included a call-in number and access code.

Now this, to me, was a stunning development in and of itself. As I have been gleefully paraphrasing Bill Clinton recently, "The era of Big media is over." Nothing proves that more so than Darrell Issa's reaching out to bloggers in this way. Of course, it is understandable that he might be more than a little frustrated in the "authorized media." FOX runs a story last week about a "third gun" which was "disappeared" by the FBI at the Terry murder scene and no one followed up on it. I mean, c'mon, it was like finding a second rifle at the Kennedy assassination, but did anybody cover it? No, save one, and that was Sharyl Attkisson at CBS who gave us the ATF-FFL tapes this week verifying the third gun. And did CBS see fit to feature this on the Evening News? Oh, hell no. Sharyl, who was the first of the "mainstream media" to break this story, can't get out of the blog ghetto they have her in. Her Gunwalker stories are not apparently "important enough" to waste valuable broadcast electrons on. Right.

So it is understandable that Issa might turn to the bloggers who have followed this story and broken some of its most interesting stories. But it marks a sea change, folks. Remember that.

There were a number of bloggers who participated, including names frequently mentioned (and mirrored) here: David Codrea, Dave Workman, Bob Owens, Katie Pavlich, etc. Here is Katie Pavlich's story on the blogger conference call.

The questions ranged widely over the broader Gunwalker scandal. I was largely impressed with Issa's answers. Although I am a terrible note taker and the batteries died in my phone recorder just before the event, here are some of the bits I gleaned:

Issa wants to "wrap this up by the end of the year" but doesn't believe the administration stonewalling will allow him to meet that deadline. He told one blogger, "I would very much like to have a true special prosecutor on this," but pointed out that he did not want one just yet for that would cause his investigation to shut down for intents and purposes and he wanted to know a lot more before that happened so that he could make sure that the prosecutor was doing his/her job.

He indicated that the committee was investigating the following subjects: ITAR violations, the Tampa gunwalking to Honduras, David Codrea's Indiana gunwalking story, and other agencies.

I asked: about FBI complicity in Gunwalker. "Given that we now know about FBI paid informants further up the cartel chain and a third gun that 'disappeared' from the Terry murder scene indicating the FBI is covering up the true circumstances of his death, when will we see Robert Mueller and his apparently-complicit minions under oath?" Issa indicated that he thought the third weapon disappeared because "people were panicking." He added later, "The smoking gun is the gun that killed Brian Terry."

Asked about Janet Napolitano's knowledge of Gunwalker, Issa cracked that in Janet's DHS, "Freedom of information is an oxymoron." He indicated that they would continue to ask questions to get as far up the chain as possible.

Asked about the overall purpose of Gunwalker, he demurred on agreeing outright with the "conspiracy against the Second Amendment" theory which sources say was the entire point of the larger exercise, but said:

"The administration wanted to show that guns found in Mexico came from the United States."


When the transcript of the conference call is provided, I will post it on Sipsey Street.

Bottom line: I was impressed with Issa's grasp of the issues and his stated commitment. I was also struck with how much he needs our help -- all of us -- to drive this search for the truth to its proper conclusion.

Congressman Issa promised to have more such conference calls as things progress.

15 comments:

A Texan said...

True enough - but WHY? WHY? WHY?

There is only ONE reason for that, to use that (manufactured) fact to reduce/eliminate 2nd Amendment rights.

Congressman Issa, you've been doing a great job...but don't stop at that statement. Find out WHO authorized Gunwalker/FF, and WHEN, and WHO ELSE higher up the chain knew - AND WHEN. You will likely find out that it literally goes to the top. Don't be afraid to give immunity to certain scumbags if they can implicate their superiors, because it is those superiors who have been plotting to subvert the Constitution - and have gotten dozens or hundreds on both sides of the border killed because of it. This is worse than Watergate and Iran/Contra combined.

Backwoods Engineer said...

Mike,

Congratulations on being asked to this call. It shows two things: 1) YOU are making a difference, and 2) Issa knows who will speak truth on Gunwalker. You are exactly right that this is a major turning point for the perception of mainstream media in the halls of Congress. I don't want to get too hopeful (after all, my government still considers me a terrorist because I own a gun and go to Tea Party rallies), but things just might be looking up. I'm thanking God.

Nachum said...

Well done Mike. You are informing us all.

Anonymous said...

So, can the agent in the recorded conversation be identified? Is the agent a female or "gay". Only a female or a gay would have a husband as referred to in the latter part of the conversation.

This needs to be busted W I D E open. Even more so than it is. The agent in the conversation seems to indicate that she/he has names that could be subpoenaed to keep the pressure on.

These a$$holes need to be cleaned out.

Anonymous said...

You only need "WHY".

If you discover WHY something was done (and we already know that) all of the other information falls in line, answering all the other questions about WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, & HOW.

WHY was this done?:

To further extend the powers of the federal government over the second amendment by creating a need or "compelling interest". This could be used to extend that need or compelling interest to NON-BORDER STATES at a latter date and time, as well as any ancillary or greater benefits that they were able to create in the interim.

TREASON, in other words.

CONSPIRACY to commit treason.

Destruction of the Constitution and bill of rights as an end result, over time.

By means of a COVERT PLAN which has as it's operational face the "security and safety" component which can be used any time as a support and defense of the operation.

You will be forgiven at this point if your knees buckle a little. It isn't every day that this kind of, planned, organized, treason is uncovered. Mine buckled a couple of decades ago. This crap has been building for some time.

As for the rest, fill in the blanks, such as who has been attacking our country for many decades. Who has an interest in destroying this governmental system and replacing it. Who can pressure and destroy any enemy, in the world of public opinion, and reward any friend? Who are they, who are their friends and what do they believe, what are they up to. When you get those answers, ask yourself WHY you haven't heard about it in the news.

No you won't want to believe it but let the shock wear off and then do some more digging. The ground will suddenly become much softer.

Anonymous said...

Gov't gun-running, yet another violation of our rights. Add it to the list of gov’t violations of our rights:
They violate the 1st Amendment by placing protesters in cages, banning books like “America Deceived II” and censoring the internet.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns.
They violate the 4th and 5th Amendment by molesting airline passengers.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting undeclared wars for foreign countries.
Impeach Obama, vote for Ron Paul.
(Last link of Banned Book):
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526

Anonymous said...

Mike,
I love it! I have fumed for years over the MSM choke hold on the news.

Just keep hammering!

Charlie
III

John in IA said...

The closer the contact our "light-shiners" can have with the investigators, is all the better. Congrats on the invite Mike, David, et al.
I do have a question though. Did anyone happen to question Mr. Issa about why he won't abandon the meme of "making sure this doesn't happen again," instead of doggedly pursuing PROSECUTIONS for every treasonous bastard involved?

Anonymous said...

The guns to Mexico were designed to destabilize that country by giving anti government forces there more firepower.


This will allow the US to invade Mexico at some point to stop the 'lawlessness'; in other words a type of false flag operation. The ultimate pupose is to create one nation out of North America. As in 'Amero'.


If it fails or if it does not fail, they can then use the machine gun sales by the gun shops to request further controls on guns here, which either covers up the original plot or advances their goals of gun control, or Both.


As it happened word got out; now they are following plan B which is further gun controls.


Several US government entities are involved; Border patrol, ATF, FBI etc. So this is a higher up plan.


Mr. Obama is proceeding on his goal of world government based upon 'democracy' and no private property.


Notice how they operate - a Big operation, which even if it fails, yields success in another area.


They did the same thing with the big borrowing cap negotiation with Bohenner; 'gave in' but got the idea of the 'higher' 12 man group over the congress and Senate which advances their goal of a single legislative house, which can be manipulated easier. (17th amendment was part of this see W. Wilson)


Think it over - seems crazy until you step back and look at what they are doing all around the world.

Anonymous said...

For once, I'd like to see the list of charges be one that goes beyond the usual collection of laws ordinances broken.

I'd like to see a list of Constitutional Rights abrogated, and Federal restrictions IGNORED.

In detail.

Ashrak said...

Remember what Rumsfeld had to say about known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknown unknowns.

Many fish when they are hungry, but many fish for other reasons as well.

I submit that the CBS report along with works by those cited, placed alongside with a restless regular Joe population knowing about GunWalker even WITH the authorized journalists hushing it, is freaking out beltway insiders.

I might feel some faith in the GOP or its members when its own self evident media brown out about it ends. Might this engagement with New Media be part of a real outreach? I suppose it could be, but it could just as easily be lip service.

About the "Issa wants to remain in the know" factor regarding the special prosecutor. Sorry, I ain't buying that one. If not Issa, then at least John Boehner has the highest of high security clearances. I submit that much is already known that Washington insiders, politicians sitting and otherwise, aren't talking about and there is an effort underway the ferret out just how much of the unknown knowns really exist out here in blogger land.

The last thing the Establishment wants is to finally put the real real real real real story, after so many failures at tying to spin it and sweep it under the rug, it really really really wants to have its ducks in a row - this time.

Don't get me wrong, I really do want to believe in Issa. I just ain't feelin' it. And I have learned to trust my gut more than I do career politicians. I hope you are right about Issa, Mike. But I sure am left to wonder why the Speaker of the House is hush hush.....

Anonymous said...

Below in bold are some corrections to the audio transcript.

From Excerpt 1
---------

"Agent: But the problem is once it gets to dc it just gets... well you know, black-holed"


From Excerpt 4
---------

"Agent: I mean at some point they're gonna say have to say Grassley you're just gonna have to sit your a-- down. I mean that or they're gonna have to have a hearing. I mean like I said my understanding is he can't call a hearing. Somebody from the majority party has got to call a congressional hearing and as of right now..."

Bob James said...

Mr. Vanderboegh,

Thank you for your soldiering on here; everyone credits you first, or at the very least, primus inter pares, in disclosing and continuing to cover this monstrous malignancy. Please keep it up.

I'm ashamed at what my government has done here, in no particular order, to its citizens, its constitution, its own agents, and the citizens of another sovereign country. And let's not even get started with how many of these bastards have completely trashed their solemn oaths. But who's counting anymore?

Ashrak raises a good point: where's Boehner? Grrrrr. But I think Issa and Grassley have done their jobs here. They just need to keep on doing them.

Anonymous said...

I just landed on this site web surfing and have spent some time reading. It's reassuring to learn there's still Truth To Be Found on the Internet. I concur with Ashrak's sentiments. Everything .gov does (well, Almost), is Dual Purpose, really, just as he and others have indicated. I'm reserving judgment re Issa and Grassley's sincerity; the fact that they haven't already been fostered for their persistence in pursuing this treasonous .gov cabal makes me nervous about who's side they're really on and whether this "investigation" is a side-show to distract the masses from OTHER concurrent illegal intent and activity. Please keep up the good work here. I've got this site bookmarked now.
Also would love your feedback on Lame Cherry and Repubx sites. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

thank you so veary much mike