Sipsey Street Irregulars: CBS: ATF legal counsel had "moral objections" to gunwalking, but Bill Newell didn't.

Friday, November 4, 2011

CBS: ATF legal counsel had "moral objections" to gunwalking, but Bill Newell didn't.

"Hey baby," said Bill in a husky voice redolent with desire, "Ya wanna go for a walk?"

The more the White House clumsily leaks about Wide Receiver, the more they inadvertently add to the data base which explains about Fast & Furious.

Sucks to be them right now, huh?

The 2006 memo citing "moral objections" from ATF's legal counsel is among more than 600 pages of subpoenaed documents turned over this week to Congressional investigators. The memo asks then-U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton to weigh in on the gunwalking proposal. Charlton told CBS News he has no memory of the memo but "I don't believe I would have or ever did approve letting guns walk." He says his Assistant U.S. Attorney on the case at the time recently assured him the memo was disapproved.

"It's almost an I.Q. test," Charlton told CBS News, meaning nobody would approve the "preposterous" idea as outlined in the memo. But he notes, "Somebody did it (gunwalking) anyway, in disregard of what was disallowed, and repeated it again in Fast and Furious."

Phoenix ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell oversaw both gunwalking operations. Newell was named to head the Phoenix office in June 2006. One month later came the memo seeking approval for the gunwalking. At a January press conference, Newell was asked if guns were allowed to walk in Fast and Furious, and he replied "hell, no." That answer was soon revealed as false, and Newell was transferred to ATF headquarters.

They don't call him "Gunwalker Bill" fer nothin'.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Shouldn't that gun be in his mouth?; November 4, 2011 at 7:54 AM
journeytogao said...: Little stories here and there don't add up to the same picture. From this story it seems Newell wanted to walk guns -- to release them into the community to see where they turned up -- and didn't get approval. Operation Wide Receiver went ahead and failed because of inadequate ATF efforts to track the guns and because ATF's Mexican counterparts failed to come through. Supposedly Newell shut down the operation in frustration at that point.

So did he want to walk guns or didn't he? He thought the idea was good enough to put in a memo in 2006, but in January 2011 he denied it? Was Brian Terry's death the only thing that made a difference? I'm surprised he didn't try to "collateral damage" this and "unavoidable tragedy" that his way out of Terry's death, or better still point the finger in triumph: "U.S. guns killed a federal agent!!!"; November 4, 2011 at 11:29 AM

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Sipsey Street Irregulars

Friday, November 4, 2011

CBS: ATF legal counsel had "moral objections" to gunwalking, but Bill Newell didn't.

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