Alex Jones' "DisInfo Wars" finally finds the "Gunwalker" scandal, but of course they can't mention Sipsey Street.

Groping around in the dark for a clue. Disinfo Wars strikes again.

"U.S. Senator to ATF: Are You Negligent in the Death of a US Border Patrol Agent?"

Remember when Kurt Nimmo & Alex Jones accused me of being a government stooge?

No wonder they can't do a link to a guy that Jones said on his radio show in March after the window war call that if I wasn't arrested soon, that was "proof" I was "a government agent."

Chris Dumm, writing at The Truth About Guns, has an interesting observation. . .

"Agent Terry’s Family May Sue the ATF Under the Federal Tort Claims Act."

Well, that’s where we’re headed right now. Agent Terry’s loved ones, along with the American people, deserve a full accounting of just how and “why” the ATFE knowingly allowed guns to be illegally sold and delivered to his murderers. The press may not be able to get these answers, yet, but the family can get them by filing a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

Under 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), the United States is liable for injury or loss of property or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred.

I can’t lay claim to any particular knowledge of Arizona tort law, but my gut feeling is that knowingly allowing a gun to be sold to a straw purchaser for Mexican drug gangs should expose you to the same kind of civil liability as knowingly selling another drink to a driver you suspect to be drunk. You may not intend for anyone to get hurt, but you just can’t go around doing these kinds of things when it’s your statutory duty to enforce our gun laws and not violate them.

So where are the "authorized journalists" asking sharp questions of the State Dept. about the violation of treaty & protocol in Project Gunwalker?

The world wonders. So too, I am informed, does the Mexican government.

"Torpedo . . . LOS!" My letter to Consul General Salvador De Lara, Consul General in Atlanta of the Republic of Mexico.

NOTE: The original posting of this letter indicated that the "Deputy Attorney General of the United States" participated in the meeting that decided upon what would turn out to be the beginning of the cover-up of Project Gunwalker -- the deliberate failure to tell the Mexican government. That was incorrect. The source meant to say "Assistant Attorney General." Specifically, Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Fortunately the hard-copy of the letter was not yet sent, and the correction was made before it was placed in the mail. -- MBV.

3 February 2011

CÓNSUL GENERAL SALVADOR DE LARA
Consulado General de México en Atlanta
1700 Chantilly Dr. NE
Atlanta Georgia 30324

Your Excellency,

I have been asked by someone who knows you well to brief you in writing about what I know about the scandal known as "Project Gunwalker" which resulted in the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on 14 December and especially on the deliberate, calculated and premeditated violation of Mexican sovereignty that this incident entailed.

By now I understand that you have been made aware of the questionable circumstances surrounding the death of BPA Terry -- how the ATF allowed over 2,000 semi-automatic rifles to be purchased by informants and "straw purchasers" and smuggled south of the international border in an ill-conceived attempt by the ATF to boost the agency's case for more funding in the much criticized "Project Gunrunner." In this operation, American gun stores were encouraged to allow questionable sales to go through, even when they called ATF to ask if they wished the transactions to be declined at the point of sale. (See the case of Carter's County gun stores in the Houston area.)

Here is what attorney Dick Deguerin was quoted as saying about this case, just a day before the murder of BPA Terry:

"Let me tell you something about Carter's Country. They have been co-operating with ATF from the get go," says attorney Dick Deguerin who represents Carter's Country owner, Bill Carter.

Deguerin says the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms asked Carter's Country to complete transactions, even when sales people strongly suspected the weapons were headed to Mexican drug gangs.

"They were told to go through with what they considered to be questionable sales. They were told to go through with sales of three or more assault rifles at the same time or five or more 9 millimeter guns at the same time or a young Hispanic male paying in cash. It's all profiling, but they went through with it," said Deguerin.

It was inevitable that one or more of the weapons allowed to go south without notifying the appropriate authorities of your government would end up in the hands of criminals. Brian Terry is dead from a bullet fired from one of these. Statistical probability and plain logic indicates that far more than one of your own citizens have already been killed by them since this operation began.

You should know that one ATF employee, Darren Gil, the ATF attache in Mexico City, tried to do the right thing. Though he was kept out of the "intelligence loop" by Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix, Arizona office, William D. "Bill" Newell, my understanding from other ATF agents who have now been contacted by Senator Grassley's office, is that Mr. Gil, when he learned by informal communication channels that this was happening, clashed with SAC Newell over whether your government should be notified. Newell insisted that there would be no notification of the appropriate Mexican authorities. Mr. Gil, I am told, did not take the word of a mere SAC when such an action involved possible violations of treaty and formal understandings between our two governments, contacted his superiors in Washington, D.C. In a meeting that I am told included Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Deputy Director Melson of ATF and various subordinates, it was decided to keep the government of Mexico in the dark. Mr. Gil, in return for his honest attempt to prevent an effusion of blood as well as an international incident, was forced into retirement and did so on 31 December of last year. Here, in words of an experienced ATF street agent, is what I was told on 17 December 2010:

"Darren Gil, former attache to Mexico is an honest and honorable guy. He was forcefully removed from Mexico without warning in November in large part because he wouldn't sit silent on these matters. He will tell the truth if asked by competent authority. He retired Dec 31 because of all this."

I understand that representations have been made to your government informally that this was an isolated incident. Yet, if that were the case, then why did our Attorney General Eric Holder select SAC Newell to replace Darren Gil earlier this week? He is to go to Mexico City and take over the attache position by 8 May according to ATF orders.

This again is a studied and deliberate insult to the government and sovereignty of the Republic of Mexico. To select the man who insisted that your government be lied to, either by omission or commission, cannot be otherwise interpreted.

I urge you to press this question with the U.S. State Department at the earliest opportunity. At the least, the government of the United States owes the Mexican government an abject apology for allowing this scandal to threaten the lives of Mexican citizens and the safety of your streets. Whether such an outrage demands monetary damages is, of course, a matter of consideration for your government. I would say, however, after many years of studying the ATF from near and far, that talk is cheap, promises forgotten and apologies insincere. Money damages, on the other hand, is a coin of the realm they well understand.

If I can be of further service, do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,


Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126

Putting their money where their cover-up is. Did Project Gunwalker Scandal cause the Obama administration to double down on ATF?

In what the Pravda (WaPo) editorial page calls "A small gesture on gun safety," the Borg Collective opined:

MANY PRESIDENTS, fearful of alienating the powerful gun lobby, have neglected the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Funding requests are often skimpy, making it that much more difficult for the emaciated agency to crack down on illegal sales and trafficking of firearms.

The Obama administration was headed in this direction in mid-December, just weeks before the Arizona shootings that took the lives of six people and injured 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). As The Post's James V. Grimaldi and Sari Horwitz reported, the administration contemplated reducing the ATF's budget by some 13 percent - a $160 million cut that would have brought the agency's budget to $1.09 billion and put in jeopardy key programs.

The administration wisely - and in this political climate, bravely - appears to have had a change of heart. "As part of the president's commitment to strengthening core law enforcement and homeland security functions - even as we make tough choices across the government - the 2012 budget includes robust support for Southwest border security, including an increase above current funding levels for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives," according to Margaret L. Reilly, a spokeswoman at the Office of Management and Budget. In plain English: The administration is promising to increase the ATF's budget beyond the $1.13 billion currently included in the 2011 continuing resolution. OMB declined to provide the exact dollar amount.

The administration, of course, will not have the last word, and lawmakers may still target the agency for reductions. They should not. Chipping away at the agency's modest budget would do little to reduce the deficits that continue to imperil the country's financial health, but it could have serious consequences for the effort to ensure that only law-abiding citizens get their hands on lethal weapons.

Because of federal hiring rules, for example, ATF employees brought on most recently to stanch the flow of U.S. guns used by Mexican drug cartels to murder thousands of their compatriots would probably face layoffs if the agency is further squeezed. A budget reduction also could cut into efforts to require firearms dealers in border states to report multiple sales of the kind of semiautomatic long guns favored by the cartels.

Refusing to further gut the ATF is an important, but ultimately small, gesture. Assault weapons and related accessories, including the kind of high-capacity magazine used in the shootings just outside Tucson, should be banned; the gun show loophole for background checks should be closed. We hope the president's course correction on the ATF is but the first of many steps to combat the rash of gun violence that has for too long afflicted this country and its neighbor to the south.

One thing you must give these people credit for: their Baghdad Bob insistence on the meme regardless of the facts.

But pimping up the ATF budget now, indicates that the Obamanoids are confident that doubling down can make the Project Gunwalker scandal go away. Indeed, I think they did this precisely because of the scandal. They are putting their money where their cover-up is.

Good luck with that, boyos.

Irrational exuberance

Will the ATF Gunwalker Scandal Take Down President Obama?

This is the question asked by Brad Kozak over at The Truth About Guns. I left this comment, which at the moment is awaiting moderation:

In two words, probably not. I know a bit about this because I'm the guy (along with David Codrea at War on Guns) who broke this story on 28 December, worked behind the scenes to get the Senators to contact the ATF agents (not the other way around as is being reported, and if you have any knowledge of the way the federal system treats whistleblowers you'll understand why), and first published the Grassley letters (scooping the Associated Press who had been sitting on the first one for days). David and I continue to work this story, using all the sources within and without the agency that we've developed over the past couple of years. For a summary and timeline of the how this scandal broke, go here:

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/01/sources-timeline-summary-of-atf-project.html

For David's latest compilation of posts and timeline, go here:

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/a-journalist-s-guide-to-project-gunwalker

We have both hectored and vectored "authorized journalists" onto this story, gradually convincing them of the story's credibility. You will see much more of this story in the coming year, but it started, following a single rumor posted by an ATF agent on CleanUpATF.org, with our two little blogs.

Knowing what I know from our sources about this scandal, where it came from and who it leads to, I can say that the author is engaging in irrational exuberance. There are employees of ATF and Main Justice who will certainly be risking federal prison in the coming months, including the top tier of Main Justice. I predict flatly that Holder will not survive this scandal. But Obama?

At this point, very unlikely.

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com

Video from Alvie D. Zane at The Cliffs of Insanity.

Don't take me alive.

FOX News picks up the Project Gunwalker story.

"I just can't get no respect."

Senator Calls ATF on Allegations Agency Is Allowing Guns Into Mexico

Of course, they got the public source of the website which broke the letters wrong, but hey, it is a better performance than Pravda, ah, the Washington Post.

David clarifies their error here.

Dave Workman asks the question -- "Silence in Seattle: Why is Brady Campaign defending ATF operation?"

Me and Paul, hanging out.

Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke is shrill about continuing the Gunrunner program, without even a blink about the possibility that it may have allowed guns into the wrong hands.

And here's a news flash for you boys and girls. Paul Helmke, like many of the ATF hierarchy in DC, is on my email list and has received every Project Gunwalker update since the first one on 28 December. He cannot plead ignorance.

A Journalist's Guide to the Project Gunwalker scandal.

Courtesy of David Codrea.

"Washington Post ‘Project Gunwalker’ piece lets key claim go unchallenged ."

David's latest.

David Codrea asks: Has ATF Phoenix SAC been transferred to Mexico? Yes, but perhaps that's just exactly where Eric Holder wants him.

The tied hands of Mexican drug war victims.

You damn betcha. Boy, are the Mexicans gonna LOVE him to death. Then again, maybe that's the point, to put him within range of a smuggler's rifle, thereby sealing off a potential route of inquiry for Senator Grassley. Be ironic if he got shot with one of his own "walked" weapons, huh?

Hey, Newell, maybe you should reconsider that promotion you've always wanted. Maybe YOU should be talking to Senator Grassley.

"Heer there be Dragones." My letter to the Pravda reporters. "Welcome to the Project Gunwalker Scandal story."

I sent this letter to James V. Grimaldi and Sari Horwitz of Pravda, er, ah, I mean the Washington Post, on their initial dip into the Project Gunwalker scandal waters. I copied David Codrea who emailed me back, saying, "You must make this an open letter. You simply must. It is too excellent not to share."

Well, okay. Here it is.

Mike
III

To: grimaldij@washpost.com; horwitzs@washpost.com
Subject: Welcome to the Project Gunwalker Scandal story. You're just a month late, and a few million-dollar Pulitzer questions short.
From: georgemason1776@aol.com
CC: dcodrea@hotmail.com; leibyr@washpost.com
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 03:06:52 -0500

Saw your story today. I'll post a link to it on my blog under the headline "Pravda (WaPo) Parrots Kremlin Cover-Up Line." David Codrea and I have been on this story from the beginning about a month ago, from when we picked up the first rumors of this scandal from ATF agents. And, yes, we have our own guys in the agency we talk to. Brave guys, honest guys, guys who we vectored Senators Grassley and Sessions staffers onto. Get this, these agents -- who risk everything -- did not approach the Senators. It was the other way round. We were the midwives of this scandal because nobody else would touch it and the agents were out there, twisting in the wind, willing to tell the truth at great risk to themselves.

You really ought to get out more and do a bit more than taking your crumbs from government press flacks. David is working on a update of my original timeline and summary of this story for "authorized journalists." Maybe you should get in touch with him so at least your questions can be sharpened a bit. Of course you'd have to be at least a little bit curious and drop some of your cherished notions of the way the world works. Are you willing to risk it? I copy Richard Leiby on this because he knows me from the story of the Aryan Republican Army in the 90s (my friends and I embarrassed the FBI into arresting one of the gang, Michael Brescia, with a poster campaign). Talk to him. You may doubt my ancestry, but he will tell you my footnotes and sources are always in order.

"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your Weltanschauung," to paraphrase the Bard. But if you are both curious adults willing to go outside your comfort zone, be warned. It won't be easy. Like it said on the edge of the old map: "Heer there be Dragones." And most of 'em these days drive government cars. Some of them even have chauffeurs. And some of those even own lapdog "reporters" willing to do their bidding. I'm curious. Which are you?

Mike Vanderboegh
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com

Late to the story, Pravda (WaPo) Parrots Kremlin Cover Up Line.

ATF Deputy Director Melson reads the Washington Post, confident that the cover up story is still holding.

"ATF gunrunning probe strategy scrutinized after death of Border Patrol agent."

The Fast and Furious case was one of the biggest gun trafficking cases since Project Gunrunner began in 2006. It was seen by the ATF as a response to criticism from the Justice Department's inspector general that the firearms bureau was bringing too many minor cases against straw purchasers, individuals who buy guns for others or traffickers.

Yeah, too bad the 2,000 plus rifles smuggled south with a wink and a nod -- with the deliberate failure of the ATF to inform the Mexican authorities despite their own Mexico City attache's loud protests -- got a Border Patrol agent killed. So, what do you think the next IG report is going to say? After the hearings, I mean.

Actions louder than words. Eric Holder just told the President of Mexico and Senator Charles Grassley to go fornicate themselves.

"Slap the Mexicans once more for me, Melson," says Eric Holder, "And piss on Senator Grassley's leg while you're at it."

Yesterday it was announced that William D. "Bill" Newell, the architect of Project Gunwalker, and, subsequent to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, the Cover Up King of the Southwest Field Divisions, will be handed the job of Mexican Attache for ATF. A brief email exchange with a well-informed source:

From: georgemason1776@aol.com
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011
To: REDACTED
Subject: Re: FYI

So, if I have this straight, Newell, who told Gil to screw the Mexicans, that they weren't telling them squat, is now supposed to work with them?

To which he replied:

You got it. Announced yesterday. Unf--kingbelieveable. They NEED to subpoena Newell's and Gillette's civil depositions in (the Jay Dobyns') case. That promotion won't happen.

Meet William D. "Bill" Newell, Special Agent In Charge ( SAC ), Phoenix ATF

This promotion of Newell in the middle of the "Project Gunwalker" scandal is so outrageous that it prompted another ATF agent, posting under the name of "Jumper," to issue "An open message to Senator Grassley and all members of Congress."

After an ATF Agent was retaliated against by ASAC Gillett in Phoenix for speaking with your staff, your letter to Ken Melson put ATF on notice: "This is exactly the wrong sort of reaction for the ATF. Rather than focusing on retaliating against whistleblowers, the ATF's role sole focus shold be on finding the disclosing the truth as soon as possible."

With all due respect to you and with appreciation for your present interest and efforts in Arizona, this type of behavior is routine, historical, accepted by ATF management and routinely defended by ATF counsel, especially with ASAC Gillett but, also throughout ATF management.

ATF's leadership could care less about Senator Grassley, Congressional inqueries, the No Fear Act, Victim-Witness laws, truth, honesty, integrity or anything that gets in their way of intimidating their workforce. I appologize for the harshness of my tone but your small exposure to ATF retaliations is a way of life for us.

If you expect ATF to now "find and disclose the truth" based on your censure, it is simply not in the character of the individuals involved, ATF leadership as a whole and most definitely not anything close to a priority for ATF's attorneys. THEY DO NOT CARE!

When your staff investigates the Phoenix allegations they will be met with answers packed with hollow mitigation and a series of, "I don't know", "I don't recall", and, "I thought that someone else was on top of that" answers. Expect it. This is a stone cold lock guarantee because none of the people involved have ever been held accountable for any of their bad acts. They have always won out by deflecting responsibility and lying. This is fact and proveable on dozens if not hundreds of occasions. ATF management has stuck their collective heads in the sand and allowed these people to remain in place and continue to do additional and more comprehensive damage.

If you are not directly and personally insulted by ATF attempting to sneak Bill Newell in as the Mexico Attache' under the wire, and in the face of your inquiry then you have missed the point. That is what they do. The theme on ATF's 5th floor is that it is harder to get him removed once he is in place. ATF has mocked your interest in Newell's mismanagment. They have ignored numerous examples of his failures and turned a blind eye to his bad acts. He can't run a field division with any effectiveness so what does ATF do, they give him a whole country!

Newell and Gillett are inept but ATF management will back them to the end of the earth. Expect that too.

This move, which -- given the present scandal/crisis -- could only have been approved at the highest levels of Main Justice, is Eric Holder's message to the Mexicans, whom Newell deliberately kept in the dark, and his answer to Senator Grassley's ominous letter.

By this action, which is shouting far louder than his words, he is saying: "Slap the Mexicans once more for me, Melson. And piss on Senator Grassley's leg while you're at it."

Eric Holder just told the President of Mexico and the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee to go fornicate themselves. He's saying that his cover-up is more important to him than truth and decency. All this from a guy who spoke soothing, meeching, insincere words upon the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Senator Grassley, if you want to clean up the ATF and protect whistleblowers, you'd better start with the guy who just told you to go take a flying copulation at a rolling doughnut.

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters

If it is on television, it must be true.

Senator Examines Gun Claim in Agent's Death: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

Burning the midnight oil at DOJ over Project Gunwalker.

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Three Examiner Columns on "Project Gunwalker": Two from David and one from Kurt

"Why does link for Mexican newspaper redirect to the FBI’s website?"

"Media begins noticing ‘Project Gunwalker’"

"'Project Gunwalker': Another angle from which to bring the heat."

Plumbing the considerable depths of ATF spokesman "Baghdad Tom" Mangan's 'unawareness.'

"I am 'unaware' of everything you are talking about!" -- ATF spokesman "Baghdad Tom" Mangan.

There is no credit to us, but Mr. Wagner, the author of the story below, is on both David's and my email list, and has been for some time. Plus, "Unaware" Mangan's "non-denial denial."

“There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets the credit.” -- Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Mr. Emerson was no doubt correct, but I wouldn't be human if I did not admit that the studious and seemingly complete avoidance by the press and other bloggers -- most spectacularly and without excuse by Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit -- as if we were Orwellian unpersons, chaps my considerable ass.

Phoenix-area gun store, ATF sting may be linked to border shootout.

Tom Mangan, an ATF spokesman in Phoenix, said he was "unaware of any guns allowed to go south of the border," either intentionally or inadvertently. "I am not aware of any internal investigation that's going on regarding Project Gunrunner."

Mangan is doubly "unaware"?!?

Well, of course. As a professional flack, Mangan is nothing if not skilled in the art of the non-denial denial.

Non-denial denial is a phrase that became popular in the wake of the Watergate scandal, referring to an equivocal denial, particularly one made by an official to the press. London's The Sunday Times has defined it as "an on-the-record statement, usually made by a politician, repudiating a journalist's story, but in such a way as to leave open the possibility that it is actually true."

A "non-denial denial" is a statement that seems direct, clearcut and unambiguous at first hearing, but when carefully parsed is revealed not to be a denial at all, and is thus not untruthful. It is a case in which words that are literally true are used to convey a false impression; analysis of whether or when such behavior constitutes lying is a long-standing issue in ethics. -- Wikipedia.

I rather suspect that before this is over that we will be plumbing the considerable depths of "Baghdad Tom's" unawareness.

There's going to be a lot more of this before it is over.

"ATF spokesman Tom Mangan declined to comment."