NORTHCOM's Joint Task Force North (JTF North), also based in El Paso at Biggs Army Airfield, was formed after 9/11 out of the JTF-6, a command established during the Reagan era to provide the military arm for the drug war. Today, JTF North is tasked with providing military support to federal law enforcement agencies in the identification and interdiction of all suspected transnational threats to North America, and as such is the U.S. military's primary day-to-day domestic operational command. U.S. Army North (ARNORTH), the land component command of NORTHCOM, is headquartered at Fort Sam Houston; it oversees JTF North and is the military's domestic operational authority for weapons of mass destruction response and all counter-drug/counter-narcoterrorism functions. -- Top Secret America, A Washington Post Investigation.
Admiral James Stavridis and friends at EPIC, January, 2009.
Long time readers will recall that I first wrote about EPIC, Joint Task Force North and DOD's NORTHCOM back in early April with the headline "El Paso Intelligence Center: What did EPIC know about Project Gunwalker and when did they know it? Likely answer: Everything and early."
"EPIC," I wrote, "is one of those shadowy government intelligence gathering assets that doesn't get a lot of publicity and doesn't want any either."
In that article, I quoted the DOJ website:
In 1974, the Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted a report entitled A Secure Border: An Analysis of Issues Affecting the U.S. Department of Justice to the Office of Management and Budget. The report provided recommendations on how to improve drug- and border-enforcement operations along the Southwest border. One of the recommendations proposed the establishment of a regional intelligence center to collect and disseminate information relating to drug, alien, and weapon smuggling in support of field enforcement entities throughout the region. In response to that study, the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) was created and was initially staffed by representatives of the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs Service, and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Agencies currently represented at EPIC include the Drug Enforcement Administration; Department of Homeland Security; Customs & Border Protection; Immigration & Customs Enforcement; U.S. Coast Guard; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Secret Service; U.S. Marshals Service; National Drug Intelligence Center; Internal Revenue Service; U.S. Department of the Interior; National Geospatial–Intelligence Agency; U.S. Department of Defense; Joint Task Force–North; (Emphasis supplied, MBV.) Joint Interagency Task Force–South; Texas Department of Public Safety; Texas Air National Guard; and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
Now, Sharyl Attkisson reports "AFT Fast and Furious update: Congress seeks Defense Department records."
Was a Defense Department organization aware of Operation Fast and Furious? A new letter from Congressional investigators obtained by CBS News asks the provocative question.
The letter from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is addressed to the Commander of Joint Task Force North in Fort Bliss, Texas.
Read the letter
It asks for all records pertaining to "Fast and Furious," the ATF case in which agents let thousands of guns "walk" into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. The idea was to try to take down a major cartel. Instead, weapons turned up at violent crimes all over Mexico and at the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.
The Congressional Republicans are also asking for information on a case in which the Columbus, New Mexico Mayor, Police Chief and a village official were arrested on gun smuggling charges. Sources tell CBS News that ATF allowed guns to "walk" in that case, as well.
"We understand that JTF North may have been aware of Operation Fast and Furious," says the letter ...or similar operations involving other agencies in which weapons may have been transferred south of the border."
JTF North is a Dept. of Defense organization tasked to support federal law enforcement agencies in identifying and interdicting suspected threats along the border.
JTF North had no immediate comment. The Justice Dept. Inspector General is looking into Fast and Furious and related matters, as the request of Attorney General Eric Holder.
To bring those of you who missed it up to speed as to why this is so important, please take a trip down the Sipsey Street memory lane to my first post on EPIC here.
At the time, Former El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) director Phil Jordan was quoted by The Daily Caller on the subject of the Gunwalker Scandal, and the significance of his words were not lost on Kurt Hofmann, who forwarded them to me:
Jordan, however, is almost certain Holder knew about it, even if he wasn’t the one who approved it. “The Attorney General would have to be briefed, if not a daily basis, on a weekly basis,” Jordan said, because the program is of a controversial nature. “This program has been going on for some time.”
My sources confirm that Joint Task Force North, which is "totally plugged into EPIC and its other participating agencies" was "perfectly positioned, and in fact tasked, to monitor everything DOJ, DHS, FBI, DEA and ATF knew and did on the border and south of the border." Another said "The only agency that knew more was CIA."
I will have more on the CIA and State Department nexus soon.
In the mean time, the White House cover-up conspirators went to bed tonight with headaches. If, that is, they get any sleep at all.
The noose tightens.
5 comments:
ATF and JTF-6 have a history..
"I was in JTF-6 and was watching Waco unfold about five months before the raid.
I saw the original support request (SR) and the Davidian weapons list when it came in, and a drug lab was referenced. I also know that ATF specifically placed a drug nexus in the SR to justify JTF-6 support.
Additional intel I was told about but wasn't in the SR was the Branch Davidians were reportedly transporting coke from Mexico to clandestine airfields in Texas.
To my knowledge, no evidence of a lab was uncovered in the Mt Carmel rubble and no confirmation of air smuggling was ever confirmed.
I also debriefed all SF that returned from MTTs taught to LE, pre-raid.
All our guys were back prior to the raid.
They published a piece in SOF magazine that was spot on sometime around 1994.
I can't speak to the other DoD elements. "
It seems as though things will be uncontrollably coming to a head even as Holder whistles past the graveyard. Too many people beyond political appointees will not fall on their swords to keep someone else's secret.
There really can be no reasonable, or even realistic, doubt that every Alphabet agency, bureau and Department was in on this "policy" from the get go.
Barry, drunk on power, among other substances, was pitched a plot and loved it. He gave the nod and on it went.
Articles of Impeachment should have been filed already. John Boehner most certainly should be leading the way on that front and instead he remains silent. All the while, the GOP presents Mr. Progressive Mitt Romney and "Adding another tax is the solution" social-justice, federal reserve meister Herman Cain or even the open border man Rick Perry as the "alternative".
The ongoing corruption going happening, disguised as governance, this day is absolutely disgusting.
"The House Committee can properly receive and store information up to the TS/SCI leve."
This is well played.
Having been in on the Nixon impeachment procedings, Hillary knows very well how a fight on
"Executive Priviledge" grounds would be conducted. She would shop around for a sympathetic
judge (perhaps a Clinton appointee) and fight a strategic withdrawl until both sides were exhausted.
Issa and Grassley have deftly managed to avoid this trap.
Who can forget Bill Clinton's "I loathe the military" comment? Hillary will find few supporters among the DoD's rank-and-file. They will throw her to the wolves, if it can be done safely.
This gives Issa and Grassley the perfect opportunity to get the same security briefings that were undoubtedly presented to the Secretary of State, which saves them from having to navigate a thicket of lawyers and DoJ redactions to sensitive material.
The hunt is clearly on.
Safeties off, gentlemen and may God preserve you. That is a sharp-toothed lion and she will not go
without a fight.
MALTHUS
They should have asked for everything on JWICS as well, if they are cleared for TS-SCI. DOD might be more than happy to provide anything they have. They might not know anything, but hitting up SOUTHCOM might not be a bad idea either.
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