Al Qaeda moke channels Paul Helmke. "You can go down to a gun show & come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check."

From our collectivist media friends at Media Matters.

America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?

So, if a guy who looks like this comes up to you at the next show . . .



. . . be sure and slap a little bacon grease on all those full-auto Kalashnikovs, you Infidel Crusader boys and girls, before you hand them over for inspection.

Also, don't forget your Silver Bullet Gun Oil containing 13 per cent USDA liquefied pig fat.



On a more serious note, the prospect of Mumbai style attacks in the urban citizen disarmament zones is certainly a possibility, facilitated by our "government-monopoly-of-violence" advocates. Be advised.


Black Jack Pershing says: "If you can't wrap those pesky Moros up in a pig skin, Silver Bullet Gun Oil is the next best thing!"

Well, defecate and shove me in it. "House Democrats urge White House to come clean on Gunwalker."

Hoo-raw for David Codrea. It turns out the NRA might just be good for something after all. David's been pounding on this issue of "pro-gun" Democrats and holding the NRA's feet to the fire. Here is the result. And here is the NRA statement on the matter.

Friday, June 03, 2011

Today, 31 U.S. House members -- all Democrats -- wrote to President Barack Obama, urging him to end Administration stonewalling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Project Gunrunner," and the "Fast and Furious" program under which border state dealers were encouraged to sell thousands of guns to suspicious buyers.

In the letter, spearheaded by Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., the lawmakers called the investigative tactics "extremely troubling" and found the Justice Department's failure to provide information to congressional investigators "equally troubling." Saying that Americans deserve "prompt and complete answers," the letter concluded with a call for the administration to help "get to the bottom of this serious allegation of federal law enforcement misconduct."

Joel Rosenberg is now truly free. The fight he left behind goes on.

I've lived for the good of my nation,
Now my sons and my daughters do grow.
And I hope that my next generation
Will resemble old Rosin, the Beau.
-- Rosin, the Beau, traditional Irish wake song.

Joel Rosenberg is dead. Here's the obit in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Joel Rosenberg, a Minneapolis gun advocate and author who was arrested for packing heat in City Hall, has died.

Rosenberg, 57, died Thursday at Hennepin County Medical Center. Respiratory problems and a heart attack eventually led to major organ failure, his wife, Felicia Herman, said in an online notice posted Friday.

"Today, June 3rd would have been his 32nd wedding anniversary," Herman wrote.

In November, Rosenberg wore a holstered semiautomatic handgun when he showed up for a meeting with police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer, according to charges.

In a video of the encounter later uploaded to YouTube, Palmer can be heard telling Rosenberg that a court order prohibits people from carrying a gun in the building. Rosenberg objected, citing state statute. He avoided arrest at that time when Palmer, who confiscated the weapon, said: "Will you take this back to your car, please?"

Rosenberg replied: "You said the magic word."

More than a month later, Rosenberg was booked into the county jail on charges of possession of a dangerous weapon in a courthouse, a felony, and contempt of court, a misdemeanor. The case was still pending at the time of his death, according to his "Free Joel Rosenberg" website, freejoel.ellegon.com.

City Hall is part of the courthouse complex because it houses conciliation court on the third floor, the charges say. A sign posted in the hall that connects City Hall with the county Government Center states that weapons are prohibited by district court order.

Mark Koscielski, the owner of Minneapolis' lone gun shop, said of Rosenberg: "I liked the guy, because he was the type who would take on causes that no one else would take on.

"It's kind of sad," Koscielski said. "I won't be able to harass him anymore when he comes into the shop."

Along with various science-fiction titles, the Canadian-born Rosenberg also wrote, "Everything You Need to Know About (Legally) Carrying a Handgun in Minnesota," which was a big hit several years ago at the height of the legislative debate in the state over gun rights.

Herman said that in accordance with her husband's wishes, Rosenberg "shared the gift of life through organ and tissue donation."

Rosenberg's survivors, besides his wife, include his daughters Judith Eleanor and Rachel Hannah.

Here's a better one at Joel's blog: "Joel Rosenberg -- husband, father, mensch."

For those of you who are a little fuzzy about what a mensch is:

Mensch (Yiddish: מענטש mentsh; from German: Mensch, for "human being") means "a person of integrity and honor". The opposite of a mensch is an Unmensch (meaning: an utterly cruel or evil person). According to Leo Rosten . . ., mensch is "someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being 'a real mensch' is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous." -- Wikipedia.

Joel Rosenberg was all that, and more.

Vaya con Dios, Joel. May G-d be with his family in this hour of sadness.

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

China Has Divested 97 Percent of Its Holdings in U.S. Treasury Bills.

Gunwalker rumors.

There is a rumor floating around in ATF agent circles that Billy Hoover has approached Senator Grassley for whistleblower status. At the moment, it is an unsubstantiated rumor. If true it could be significant, for it means that Billy beat Melson to the roll. Good for Hoover, bad for Melson and everybody else above him in DOJ and White House. A top-level HQ guy like Hoover will have virtually all the beans.

Speaking of beans. There is another rumor -- which I have a greater tendency to believe since I've heard from two sources now -- floating around DC that Darrell Issa had a "VERY LARGE box of VERY SIGNIFICANT documents dumped on his desk on Tuesday from a VERY UNEXPECTED source." They are said to make the case all the way to the Oval Office. So says Waldo and friend. Are the two rumors coincidental?

One or both could be false. One or both could be true. That's the way it is with rumors.

Without comment.

ATF Graduates Hart Middle School Students and Marks 20th Anniversary of DOJ G.R.E.A.T. Program

The amazing thing is that this guy thinks this is funny.

A makeover suggestion for the ATF

Gayle Nyberg's new website.

Gayle Nyberg, the marvelous lady who designed the Nyberg flag, has a website offering long-term storage foods. Check it out.

A criticism up for discussion.

WarriorClass left this comment on the post below. I present it here, highlighted, for further discussion by the readership.

Mike,

As bad as this scandal is, it has taken over your blog. You used to inspire us, but you have lost your balance over this rather minor trip of tyranny that is but a blip in the over-all loss of our freedom.

Our country is sinking fast and we need to be reminded where of we came. The American revolution was started because the brits tried to take our weapons. The Texas revolution started for the very same reason.

It matters not what is their pretext or rational, war has been declared on the America we once knew and the government is arming our enemies.

You can push this if you want, but the bigger issue is gathering the people behind us. I think you have now lost them.

Remind them who they are, where they came from and where they can go, if they will gird up their loins and take back their country.

WarriorClass
III

Well, they obviously got THESE from American gun shows and gun shops. . . they do a land office business in LAWS rockets and 60mm mortars, right?

From The M3 Report.

NADADORES, COAHUILA

The Mexican military uncovered a cache of buried arms on a farm. Seized were machine guns of Russian origin, other weapons from China, Czechoslovakia and the US. These included rocket launcher and thousands of rounds of ammunition, grenades, camouflage uniforms, radios and chargers, tactical ammo. carriers, holsters, and numerous other related items.-El Universal

Original article from El Universal as translated by Google:

Arsenal seized from Russia, China and EU, in Coahuila

SWIMMING, Coah., June 1 (EL UNIVERSAL) .- A machine-gun arsenal of Russian imports, China, Czechoslovakia and the United States was buried in the ejido Sardines, Township Swimmers was discovered by the Mexican Army on the sixth and fourth military region of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon.

It was located five feet depth for exploration of the military, the commander informed of the sixth military region, General Dagoberto Espinoza Rodriguez, commander of the fourth military region of Monterrey, Graduate Division of General Staff, Noah Sandoval Alcázar.

According to early reports, in total, 154 rifles, seven handguns, rocket launcher, 2 66 mm caliber rockets, 4 grenades, 60 mm caliber mortars, and 2 springs, 10 guns dismantled, 4 000 629 Chargers cartridge 92 000 39 cartridges of different calibers, 435 and 4 000 full trimmings 735 individual pieces of straps.

Wrapper, holsters and other items, 23 pieces in camouflaged uniforms, shirts and pants, and 31 chargers for radio.

Also unknown is who owns the property, what will be known during the investigation.

Well, here's a big surprise.

TV Executives Admit in Taped Interviews That Hollywood Pushes a Liberal Agenda.

CleanUpATF: Seizure of Barrett Fifty in Jalisco is causing "full blown panic" at the Concrete Asshole of the Universe (ATF HQ).

ATF agent Epic Failure, posting at CleanUpATF.org notes this story:

Police in Mexico say they have killed 11 suspected members of the powerful La Familia drug cartel after a shoot-out at a ranch in western Jalisco state.

Two policemen were injured in the raid that led to the arrest of 36 people, including three top cartel leaders.

Police say the arrests will weaken La Familia, which has a reputation for violence but claims to protect local communities and promote family values.

They say the group was behind Tuesday's shooting-down of a police helicopter.

Police said they planned the raid after receiving a tip-off about a meeting between alleged gang members at a ranch in Jalisco state, near the cartel's stronghold of Michoacan. . .

Federal police commissioner Facundo Rosas said among those arrested were three top members of the cartel.

"They were hiding in Jalisco, waiting for instructions from their boss and planning an attack on a group which calls itself the Knights Templar, with which they're at war," Mr Rosas told reporters at a news conference. . .

Police said they seized 70 long-range weapons and 14 pistols, many of them encrusted with gold, silver and precious stones.

They also secured more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition and 40 bullet-proof vests.

Epic Failure comments:

Wanna lay money on where the rifles came from? Word is that full blown panic is taking place in the hallways at 99 New York Avenue. Rumor is that a 50 was also seized. The recoveries of violence guns is coming at a Fast and Furious rate!

And why would the Gunwalker scandal conspirators at ATF headquarters be in a flap about THIS little skirmish in the Mexican carnage?

The M3 Report confirms EF's rumor:

Members of La Familia Michoacana were having a meeting, and fired on a Federal Police helicopter, wounding two agents and forcing it to land, but only after killing 15 gunmen. They arrested 39 cartel members, and seized 70 guns including a .50 Cal. Barrett, 14 handguns, grenades, 40 ballistic vests, over 21,000 rounds of ammo, radio equipment and more.

You don't suppose that this was one of "Gunwalker Bill" Newell's Barrett fifties, do you?

Say it ain't so, Ken. Say it ain't so.

Darrel Issa, are you paying attention?


Barrett M82

Praxis: Practice Rifle Grenades, Surplus & Improvised. Tales of the Testing Range. Remember: when testing, Mr. Long Safety Lanyard is our friend.

American GI demonstrates how to lay communications wire across a gap (river, deep ravine, etc.) with a dummy rifle grenade, probably from an MX-306/G wire dispenser..

OK, some of the responses to my post yesterday on reproduction M76 rifle grenade launchers convinced me that I need to do this tutorial for American militia on training (aka "dummy") rifle grenades.

I will skip the commercial about how the practice of the art and science of the rifle grenadier is good, clean fun and totally legal. I will also skip the observation that a rifleman with the capability to launch grenades from his rifle AND HIT WHAT HE IS AIMING AT brings his own direct and indirect artillery support to the battlefield. I will further neglect to expound on the point that thousands of armed citizens at play with dummy rifle grenades, demonstrating increasing knowledge and competitive excellence, has a deterrent effect in the minds of certain people who wish to further circumscribe our liberties.

Having neglected all of that, on to the show.

Training munitions are as old as the wooden swords that the Romans used to train their recruits with. In the US military up until the transition from RGs to the 40mm grenade launchers in Vietnam, the principal training rounds were the


M11A4 anti-personnel grenade and the


M31 anti-tank grenade.

These can still be found at gun shows and on-line but they are quite expensive and, being made out of sheet metal, VERY fragile. If you get more than 1 or 2 shots out of them without catastrophic damage to the round itself you must be incredibly lucky or doing something wrong.


Viet Cong with an M44 7.62x54R carbine mounting a US anti-personnel rifle grenade.

Now if you're the U.S. government, such wastage is just fine. But in case you haven't noticed, our supply line is considerably shorter and thinner. Other governments, principally the Israelis and the former Yugoslavia, came up with robust and durable training munitions (both on the NATO standard 22mm).



Here are Israeli training grenades with a rubber warhead that is well-nigh indestructible. The only thing that can possibly break on the thing are the plastic fins and I have yet to have that happen. (More about these later.)

The Yugoslavians fielded two main types of rifle grenades for their SKS & AK variant rifles. InertOrd.net has this image showing both:



The larger of the two training versions is the Yugoslavian Model M68 Anti-Tank practice rifle grenade.



The M68's "warhead" is made of a white opaque polymer, and it is capped with a thick piece of rubber for repeated use.

The other looks like this:


Yugo training munition with SKS rifle.

And, as an aside, here is how the Serb police field them:



You can find all of these in onesies and twosies offered for sale at gun shows and on-line. Unfortunately, to my knowledge no one has made a systematic effort to import the Yugo examples in any quantity (the Israeli well, plumbed previously by Numrich Arms, it seems is now dry). There's an investment opportunity for somebody with a little money (i.e., somebody not me).

Service of Supply offers reusable dummy rifle grenades for World War II re-enactors.






Marine training with WWII-vintage M1A2 fragmentation rifle grenade adapter.

Also still available in somewhat greater quantities and lesser prices are the M1A2 and M2A1 adaptors for projecting hand grenades of various shapes off of a rifle grenade launcher. Here are two images of the M1A2:





And one of the M2A1:



These can used by the militia grenadier trainee by substituting dummy frags (I think you call them "paperweights" these days) in the case of the M1A2 or expended smoke grenade canisters (or even short PVC tubes filled with Play-Doh for weight) in the case of the M2A1.

There was a guy in Miami who, several years ago, was selling M1A2s for a dollar a pop in case lots. While that supply is long gone, you often can find them being resold at gun shows for as little as $5 each.

For those of you who do not wish to run the risk of playing with "paperweights". . .

(You may recall that the first ATF attention that the Davidians received was when a UPS driver reported the delivery of a broken case of such "paperweights". Yes, they were and are legal, and the Davidians are still dead.)

You will note on the first image of the M1A2 above that the fingers holding the frag to the adapter body are attached with screws. These are easily removed leaving you with a tail end that can easily (using those same screw holes) be improvised to hold on a pvc pipe front end filled with Play-Doh).

Speaking of improvisations, I noted this comment at the M76 post:

Anyone have a source for 22mm ID pipe, either PVC or aluminium? Due to high prices of training/practice rifle grenades, I've been wanting to build some practice grenades for about a year, but haven't found anything that will fit the 22mm flashhider/grenade launcher. 1/2 inch pvc pipe coupling is too large and is too wobbly, but it's the closest I've found so far.

Under NO circumstances should you use PVC for the back-end of a rifle grenade projectile of any kind. Because of the weight of the projectile, the pressures you are dealing with are, if anything, even greater than those generated by a standard round. Even aluminum must be thick enough to handle the pressure. Thin-walled seamless steel tubing is the material of choice.

There are sources for this out there, although they take some tracking down. The easiest way is to find somebody who bought one of these Israeli kits from Numrich Arms a few years ago:



The kits sold for a couple hundred bucks apiece and contained six complete training rounds as illustrated above. They also contained replacement parts that are hardly ever used, to the tune of 40 plastic fins, 32 body tubes, 12 outer sleeves, 30 spacer rings, 24 locking nuts plus 2 nut wrenches and 1 key wrench and 20 M16 ladder sights and 30 Galil ladder sights in 35/60/85 meter graduations.

See those golden beauties in the center of the box with some laid out in front? It is the 32 body tubes that we immediately noticed because with these and the plastic fins, you have the ass end of an improvised rifle grenade that will, with the threading on of a suitable base plug in the dummy warhead, make a unit that will withstand the pressures of launch.



I cannot emphasize enough that playing around with firearms involving improvisations of any sort, especially launching rifle grenades, even dummy ones, is not for the incautious or slow of wit. I say this with all the sincerity generated by my own scars of experience.

You should NEVER assume that any rifle, even one with an integral grenade launcher such as the Yugo SKS, can stand the pressure of launching a rifle grenade. YOU MUST TEST USING A LONG LANYARD ATTACHED TO THE TRIGGER OF A RIFLE THAT IS SECURELY LASHED TO A RANGE TABLE OR TEST FIXTURE. And make it a long lanyard.

Further, it is always a good idea to use standard blanks, rather than grenade blanks, to get the feel of the art. A standard 7.62x39 blank, for example, will still hurl an Israeli practice grenade 70 yards or so. A grenade blank can make that puppy sail for 300 plus meters.

Range Tales of the Stupid:

I will tell this one on myself. Back before we got a star crimp die and started rolling our own 7.62x39 GL cartridges, bright boy here got the idea that perhaps we could boost the performance of a standard blank by slipping an Estes model rocket motor in the ass end of an Israeli rifle grenade.

Theory: The standard blank would launch the grenade off the Yugo SKS, ignite the motor, which would boost the range beyond 70 yards.

Practice: I violated my own previously well-established safety rule of the lanyard and put the sucker to my shoulder at the range table with a buddy standing nearby and pulled the trigger. We got enhanced performance all right. The blank over-pressure detonated rather than ignited the Estes motor and with a deafening WHOOOM! the Israeli grenade assumed earth escape velocity, vanished in a nano-second over the back stop on a laser-like trajectory, and the engine fragments blew out the back, drawing blood from both of us. The recoil damn near knocked me down and my shoulder throbbed for a week. It took weeks for the bruise to disappear. We never did find that dummy grenade and I'm convinced that it is still floating somewhere out beyond Mars. The SKS, amazingly, was unharmed.

Boys and girls, don't try THAT one at home.

Another caution about rifle grenades. See this guy adopting the standard Army method of engaging a target with direct fire, such as when you take on a tank with an AP projectile?



Trust me, this GI's shoulder hurt like hell from the recoil afterward. It is intense. Not life-threatening or bone-breaking, just . . . intense. You only do this when you must.

Here is another way of launching direct fire, which saves your shoulder but risks your wrists. It is also generally far less accurate.


SKS grenadier during the Yugoslav break-up wars.

We practice most often with RGs in indirect fire mode, as in the photo at the top of this post. My experience has taught me to forget about rifle grenade sights and just use Kentucky windage acquired from regular practice. You'd be amazed how often you can put one in a 55 gallon drum at 200 meters once you have a bit of experience.

Praxis: Repro M76 grenade launcher attachments for M14 pattern rifles now available!

And, boy, the price is right!

I paid a hundred bucks for mine some years ago and considered myself lucky. A deep genuflection and doff of the boonie cap to Virginia Rifleman for sending me this link.


M31 HEAT rifle grenade on M14 rifle equipped with M76 GL attachment.

Gunwalker dynamite from the Foreign Policy Ass'n! What if Agent Dodson hadn't talked? MOU with Mexico! "Whose interests stood to be served?"

Kathleen Millar, writing at the Foreign Policy Association's Global Organized Crime blog, calls the Gunwalker Scandal "Obama's Weaponsgate."

When the story about ATF’s Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious broke in March, the mainstream press jumped on it, offering readers a fast and, as we now know, far too easy analysis: federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) had been engaged in an arms trafficking ‘sting’ that facilitated the sale of mostly semi-automatic weapons from US gun shops along the US-Mexico border.

Again, ATF and early press reports describe the operational objective as an attempt to infiltrate the world of illegal arms trafficking along the US-Mexico border, and to nab the bad guys somewhere down the line—the kind of anti-trafficking initiative Mexico has been pushing the US to undertake for some time.

The initial drop-kick coverage of Operation Fast and Furious, which coincided with the visit of President Felipe Calderon to the White House in early March, was, in a number of ways, a boon to the Mexican leader, who has been ‘staying on message’ with three key points, all anti-US, for years.

Calderon blames cartel violence in Mexico on 1) Washington’s lack of financial support and inadequate sharing of US intelligence, 2) the US government’s lax attitude toward cross-border arms trafficking, and 3) the drug habits of the American people.

In other words, send more money south, reinstate the ban on the sale of assault rifles in the US, and give America’s eight million drug addicts what they really need most–treatment and prevention (as opposed to prosecution and jail time).

Hmmmm . . .where have we heard this before? Could this be what they call ‘the intersection of politics and policy’?

An interesting aside: on March 3, Calderon, sharing a podium at the White House with President Obama, appeared unperturbed by the news about the ‘secret’ ATF operation, a surprise given Calderon’s typical ire regarding any US violation of Mexico’s ‘sovereignty,’ and the inviolability of the Brownsville Agreement which prohibits any unilateral US investigations into Mexico’s affairs–please note that Mexico claims it had no knowledge whatsoever of Operation Fast and Furious.

But if that’s so, why has it taken so long, weeks after the ATF ‘intrusion’ became public knowledge, for Mexico to express its official ‘outrage’? Why so slow off the block, when Calderon had a chance to defend Mexico’s ‘national sovereignty’ on March 2 in Washington, DC? Good manners?

Am I the only one who’s confused?

No, but Ms. Millar is less confused than she intimates:

Ok. Let’s get to the point.

You see, the discovery of that AK-47, which may well have been ‘planted’ at the site of Agent Brian Terry’s murder (ask a homicide detective how often a murderer leaves the murder weapon behind at the crime site—never?) had unintended consequences, because the fact is that none of this information—the operational details of Operation Fast and Furious, the fact that ATF was assuring US gun dealers that suspicious and illegal sales to straw buyers were ‘ok,’ part of an official investigation, or the links between that ATF operation and the AK-47 recovered at Terry’s murder site—none of it would have come to light except for the impassioned decision of our single career ATF agent, John Dodson, to go public with the facts—after he had registered as an ‘official government whistleblower’ in an attempt to protect himself from agency retaliation.

And that means…

The perfect PR storm–if Dodson hadn’t talked.

Dodson’s decision to lay out the connections between the weapon that killed fellow-Agent Brian Terry and an ATF operation he clearly viewed as poorly conceived and improperly (if not illegally) implemented made the current congressional investigation into Fast and Furious inevitable.

But let’s say Agent Dodson hadn’t talked.

Let’s just suppose.

The AK-47 used to gun down fellow federal agent Brian Terry, once recovered, would no doubt have been identified by ATF as a weapon recently purchased from a US gun dealer on the southwest border (ATF would have had, after all, the serial numbers and other identifying documentation).

There would have been no need to mention the existence of any ATF ‘secret sting,’Operation Fast and Furious, or any links between these ATF endeavors and the movement of the weapon used to murder Terry across the US border and into the hands of his Mexican assailants. . .

Instead, the discovery and identification of the AK-47 used to gun down a US agent as one sold by a US gun dealer and then trafficked ‘illegally’ over the border into Mexico and into the possession of the cartels might have created a ‘perfect PR storm,’ neatly reinforcing the arguments put forth, first, by Mexico’s government, which contends there would be no gang violence in that country if the US didn’t supply gangs with guns; second, by higher-ups in the US government who favor tougher gun-control laws and non-intervention in Mexico (DOJ and the Obama Administration); and, third, by the public anti-gun lobby in America.

Indeed, here’s how that story would have read: Mexico’s claim re the US fueling cartel violence is right, and worse yet, weapons trafficked from the US are no longer being used just to murder Mexicans, but to kill Americans as well.

We’re killing our own guys. . .

How fast can we say “Pulitzer Prize”?

But what if Fast and Furious was a ‘rogue operation,’ a let’s get together, guys, and just do it kind of undertaking?

Then ATF, the Attorney General and even the President of the United States may be staring down a long barrel of their own construction—a three-year Weaponsgate initiated and implemented by a US law enforcement agency that accomplished little else but the provisioning of Mexican cartels with more than 1800 assault rifles sold to them by gun dealers in the US who were, in turn, assured by ATF that this was not, in fact, illegal, but part of a ‘secret operation.’

Of course, if you follow this line of thinking to the end, you find yourself in possession of some very serious ‘what-if’s,’ threads which, if Congress decides to pull them, could unravel the careers of senior ATF officials, the Attorney General, and even the President of the United States.

That prospect isn’t stopping Representative Issa (R-Calif), who minced no words at the May 4 congressional hearing about what he sees as obstructionist ploys on the part of ATF/DOJ to escape accountability for an operation insiders say might, in a worst-case scenario, implicate the White House and DOJ in a ‘secret,’ politically-motivated US-Mexico agreement via which the US played a part in supplying concrete evidence for Calderon’s claim that US guns are fueling cartel violence.

The response to this kind of scenario could range from career-shattering scandal to criminal indictment and anywhere in between.

But Millar senses danger that the scandal may yet just go away.

Critics, including ATF whistleblowers, say OIG/DOJ and the White House have one priority in regard to Justice’s internal investigation: damage control. . .

The standoff between Issa’s committee and the Attorney General is an edgy situation. But oddly enough, the crisis has not captured the attention of the press.

In fact, it seems in danger of sliding off the public radar altogether.

Perhaps Representative Issa (R-Calif) and his staff seem are confused about the questions they should be asking?

Or maybe they’re unaware of the danger that ATF’s stonewalling presents—like it or not, there are standard ripostes, ”I’ don’t know,” the “We’re working on it” and “Let’s pretend it didn’t happen” that generally signal a cover-up is in the works.

Ask any experienced law enforcement investigator to explain the difference, in terms of efficacy, between obtaining a search warrant when you need to find concrete evidence quickly, and issuing a subpoena.

For all practical purposes, a subpoena is nothing more than ‘an order to shred’

And that’s what critics suggest is going on at DOJ and ATF—tactical stalls designed to allow time for the destruction of documents and the elimination of incriminating evidence, something that may be happening right now, as the House Oversight Committee continues to stew.

What Representative Issa (R-Calif) and Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) want and need to find out is who authorized Fast and Furious, and if the process by which the operation was authorized and implemented was “by-the-book’—or outside ATF’s legal authorities.

We also need to know why Fast and Furious materialized — the catalyst, the practical and political motives driving the initiative, and the authors of an undertaking, that from its conception through its implementation to its sad and confused conclusion, appears to have become an ‘orphan enterprise,’ with no one claiming responsibility or, in some cases, even knowledge of its existence.

Think about that.

Think NAFTA, the financial boon to US banks catering to ‘high net-worth’ Mexicans, the ideological bent and votes of anti-gun activists in the US, and the bend-over-backward machinations of US decision-makers to get past Mexico’s problems and on to its economic ‘potential.’

Then do some reverse-engineering: if the upshot of Fast and Furious, the endgame, was to provide Mexico with thousands of weapons that could be quickly and unequivocally traced back to US gun dealers, might one not assume, with no evidence to the contrary, that this was the operation’s intent? (Emphasis supplied, MBV.)

Serious accusations, to be sure.

Let Eric Holder prove them wrong.

Indeed. Millar continues:

A less cynical analysis, of course, might characterize Operation Fast and Furious as a bungled attempt (another one) on the part of ATF/DOJ to assuage the Mexican government by initiating a “tag and bag’ investigation that aimed to ‘track’ the progress of assault weapons from their purchase point (US gun dealers along the border), through their ‘illegal’ transport across the US-Mexico border, to their final destination—cartel gang members in Mexico who would, at some point, and in some not-yet-determined manner, be identified and apprehended.

The evidence, if any is ever produced, could point either way. But, believe me, we’re way beyond any “he said, she said” scenarios.

If Issa’s Committee doesn’t press on, if investigative journalism doesn’t do its job, then why the weapon used to murder a US federal agent happened to be one supplied (illegally?) by US law enforcement to Mexican gunmen may remain a largely unasked and unanswered question.

For Brian Terry’s family, that doesn’t sound like an option. And the rest of us, I’m thinking—millions of US taxpayers—have a right to know if the people we pay to protect us are really doing something else.

But Millar doesn't think that "Gunwalker Bill" Newell just got up one morning in Phoenix and invented his own foreign policy that amounted to declaring war on Mexico:

An operation like Fast and Furious doesn’t just happen. Not if it’s legal.

A Group One Undercover Investigative Operation, and Fast and Furious fits that bill, would first require departmental approval from ATF and, second, approval from its parent organization, DOJ—plans and proposals, with mission, targets and specific outcomes ready for scrutiny.

That means signatures—a senior executive at ATF, and a John Hancock from no less than an Assistant US Attorney at Justice.

After Fast And Furious gets a green light from ATF and DOJ, the same fully fleshed-out proposal, the power-point presentation and the agency-department signoff travel upwards (step three) to what’s called an Undercover Operational Proposal Committee, a body composed of senior executives from every US enforcement agency—Justice, ATF, DEA, DHS, ICE, FBI, Secret Service et al—any department or agency whose interests might be affected or intersected by the operation.

Committee approval doesn’t happen easily.

If the Committee says yea, as opposed to nay, it’s because every agency member of the Committee has been convinced that ATF’s operation doesn’t imperil its own ‘turf,’ and/or that the ATF op won’t leave it (ICE, DEA, and so on…) holding the bag in front of a congressional hearing or a federal judge (…And why exactly did you surrender jurisdictional authority, Madam Director?).

The members of the Committee might also nix the proposal of a ‘competing’ agency if someone thinks the plan is too good, an op they recognize as one they should have thought of themselves. Kill it for ATF, and “we’ll replicate the operation under our own departmental umbrella down the road.”

Yes, our nation’s finest compete among themselves, all the time, for operational clout and glory.

If the Operational Proposal Committee gives an agency, in this case, ATF, the go-ahead, it’s still not over.

Every six months, ATF would be required to reconvene with that same group of ‘unfriendly friendlies,’ to report on the success and progress of Fast and Furious, how close it was conforming to mission objectives, to financial perimeters, to deadlines and other performance markers.

Now, let’s think about this.

What are the chances that an operation like Fast and Furious, whose aim is to send operational assault rifles to criminal cartels in Mexico (with no guarantee of mission success?), via ‘illegal’ sales to Mexican straw buyers, would be approved by an Undercover Operational Proposal Committee? Zip?

Unless, of course, they had orders fdrom above.

Well, wait—that’s step three.

Back up: do we think Fast and Furious was approved in the earliest stages at the agency level, by an Assistant US Attorney General, by ATF’s Acting Director, or by his boss, Eric Holder? Now, there’s a question for the House Oversight Committee….

I don’t know—but I suspect there is, indeed, an ATF signature on a piece of paper that may or may not, at this juncture, exist (return to definition of ‘subpoena’—ie, ‘order to shred’).

A few weeks ago, word on the street was that something resembling a copy of an MOU, signed in 2008 by reps from Mexico’s Justice Department and by senior ATF officials at the US Embassy in Mexico City, an agreement that may have jumpstarted Fast and Furious, does in fact exist, and was making the rounds at DHS-HQ in Washington, DC.

A document like that could be important: it would, for example, fly in the face of Mexico’s claims it knew nothing about the gun walking op (per the terms of the Brownsville Agreement), and might, in fact, implicate not just ATF, but also Mexico’s military and its government in the construction of a plan that, in the end, benefited no one but Mexico’s drug cartels.

Imagine: ATF facilitates (illegal) transport of 1800 assault rifles into Mexico with knowledge and support of Mexican authorities and those weapons are then sold to Mexican cartels . . .

Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? Impossible? Who knows?

Maybe we should be looking for a shadowy figure lurking in an underground garage off Mass Ave. Or thinking about Calderon’s strangely muted response to news of the gun walking op on March 2-3. Or wondering why no one’s taken Eric Holder or Kenneth Melson to the woodshed over an undercover op Mexico keeps saying it knew nothing about.

Or maybe we should just keep our eye on the ball: if certain ICE or DHS officials suddenly enjoy new international career opportunities, (promotions to high-paying postings in foreign capitals), via recommendations from the Mexican government, the House Oversight Committee may want to ask why.

Silence is a valuable commodity.

But Millar says:

Back to step three: signoff from the Undercover Operational Committee…

Now, this is a different can of worms—and, I’m happy to say, not nearly as brain-bending as the ‘riddle wrapped in the mystery inside the enigma’ dilemma we encounter when we think about who in ATF and DOJ signed-off on the original gun walking plan.

Why?

Because inquiries into the decisions of a multi-agency undercover committee take us, mercifully, outside the maneuvers of the Praetorian Guard, past the close-hold machinations of an inner circle that insiders say may be operating, in this case, within ATF/DOJ.

Here’s what I’m thinking—that when ATF told reporters, in early March, that Fast and Furious was a ‘secret’ arms trafficking operation (as opposed to ‘covert’), maybe they weren’t just whistling Dixie.

The question is, ‘secret’ from whom?

The notion that the plans and proposals for Fast and Furious made it past a multi-agency law enforcement committee is hard to believe—but, again, it is just as difficult to believe that senior officials at a lower level—at ATF/DOJ—were not in on the plan.

Melson, Holder, and Obama stand before us—pawn, knight, king.

Millar continues:

Take a moment.

If this game goes south, in which order do you figure the pieces will fall?

What does Washington think?

Depends on who’s talking.

But I’ve heard rumblings, a sneaking suspicion that a coalition of like-minded individuals, a group whose various interests might be served by a shared agenda, gave a subtle nod to a plan whose existence was never intended to be acknowledged, particularly by men like Senior ATF Agent John Dodson in the agency’s Phoenix office—apparently the operational heart of Fast and Furious.

We don’t need no stinkin’ Committee?

Maybe.

Again, whose interests stood to be served?

Mexico’s, certainly.

The Obama Administration’s? Yes.

The anti-gun lobby? Of course.

ATF’s — the “little agency” with a big (once-in-an-agency-lifetime) opportunity? Ambitious ATF agents in the Phoenix office?

You tell me.

There’s a comment block directly under this post.

Enter Hillary:

Of course, there’s more.

If Fast and Furious was a ‘legal’ undercover operation, one sanctioned by agency/departmental and Committee approval, the ATF agents running it would still have had to do a fair share of hop, skip, and jumping to make it work—through strict State Department regs involving the Export Control Act; across agency ‘turf’ owned, not by ATF, but by ICE; and over a treaty, the Brownsville Agreement, which would have prohibited ATF from mounting an unilateral undercover operation involving Mexican nationals—without the knowledge and involvement of the Mexican government.

Whew.

You still with me?

Did Clinton issue exemptions to ATF agents?

I hope so, because now we’re talking Hillary Clinton, the Big Girl who runs the US Department of State.

The US State Department ‘owns’ a piece of legislation known as the Export Control Act, which prohibits the sale of certain deadly weapons and serious military hardware to foreign nationals without the express consent and the issuance of an exemption from State. Generally, in a case involving cross-border trafficking of these weapons, it is ICE which is authorized to oversee any operation or investigation involving such exemptions.

This means that even in a case where ATF and DOJ officials had signed off on Fast and Furious, even in a case where a multi-agency Operational Committee might have approved the gun walking op and ATF’s request to appropriate jurisdictional authority belonging to ICE, ATF agents would have still been compelled by law to obtain an exemption re the Export Control Act from the US State Department—each and every time they ok’d the sale of one or a bundle of weapons from a US gun dealer to a Mexican straw buyer (as part of a ‘secret’ operation).

Every time.

And in every case. (How often do you think ATF would have had to go to State for exemptions to transport 1800 weapons across the US-Mexico border?)

Now, that means that Hillary Clinton, or a high-level State Department representative with the authority to act for her, knew all the details re Operation Fast and Furious.

It also means that, with that reassuring knowledge in hand, the State Department ok’d every ATF request for an exemption to the Export Control Act each time ATF convinced a gun dealer on the US-Mexico border to let his weapons go . . . that it was not only ‘ok’ to sell to Mexican straw buyers, but almost patriotic.

This was an ‘official ATF operation,” after all.

Do we think that Hillary Clinton’s State Department bought into this arrangement?

Is that why no one from State has emerged to set the House Oversight Committee straight?

State has been strangely silent, haven't they? So, asks Millar:

Who ‘owns’ Fast and Furious?

Then we have the question of ‘jurisdiction,’ moot of course, if ATF/DOJ took the proposal for Fast and Furious before a multi-agency committee and got its approval.

But let’s pretend that didn’t happen.

ATF has no jurisdictional/legal authority to run a covert arms trafficking investigation—this responsibility belongs to ICE, which operates within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

So, how did ATF grab a ball rightfully belonging to an ‘opposing team’ (I’ve worked for Customs/ICE and know first-hand how unlikely the agency is to surrender its ‘turf’ without a fight) and run with it–for three years, no less?

And without anyone at ICE/DHS knowing the ATF operation was in play, or anyone from ICE/DHS emerging after-the-fact to deny or acknowledge the legitimacy of Fast and Furious?

Why ATF? Says Millar:

ATF’s big break seems to have materialized in 2008, when Project Gunrunner first appears on the radar screen.

Critics suggest that a seamless chain of command and communication from Obama to Holder might have made ATF the agency of choice in a situation where the goal was to assuage Calderon’s concern (or possibly reinforce his claim?) regarding the ‘substantial, on-going flow of US weapons’ into Mexico.

Involving DHS/ICE in an attempt to direct ICE to the same end would have been far more complicated, success less than guaranteed.

Too many bureaucratic speed bumps.

The operation would have been more likely to have garnered the attention of Congress and the media. An in-house operation, an Obama-Holder-Calderon production, might have looked like the best way to go.

Of course, it had to work.

But how?

If Fast and Furious was a cooperative venture with Mexico, we should know that. Mexico says ‘no,’ and while a press release on the ATF website noted Mexico-US cooperation re Project Gunrunner, the agency has not admitted a link between the subordinate investigation, Fast and Furious, and Mexico. Either the US cooperated with Mexico on Fast and Furious, or ATF undertook a unilateral ‘secret’ investigation involving Mexico’s internal affairs and violated the Brownsville Agreement.

What’s going on here? We need to know.

Because any evidence that the US did in fact sign such an agreement with Mexico, authorizing ATF, in cooperation with Mexican authorities, to implement the gun-walking ‘sting’ that provided Mexican gunman with killing tools used to fire on and murder US agents would corroborate the intent and involvement, at the highest levels, of ATF officials, of the Attorney General (either Holder or his representatives would have had to sign off on the operation), and of the President of the United States—who, as Holder’s supervisor, must be held accountable for the decisions and actions of his subordinates.

It is difficult, as well, to believe that Eric Holder would have undertaken such a risky endeavor, such a politically sensitive gamble, without a discussion having occurred between Holder and Obama before the implementation of the ATF operation. The stakes, in terms of US-Mexico relations, would have just been too high.

This should be the focus of the investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee.

Millar concludes:

It’s time to start connecting the dots.

We have an ATF operation that no one in Washington will acknowledge as ‘legal’ or ‘legitimate.’ We have no evidence that the operation was conducted ‘by the book.’

We know that Fast and Furious facilitated the sale of at least 1800 semiautomatic weapons to cartel gang members, and we know that at least several of these weapons were used, deliberately it seems, to murder our own agents. We know that these weapons were thrown down at the scene of the crime by cartel criminals.

Why?

I can think of no answer except one: that the AK-47 used to gun down US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was deliberately left at his murder site (by whom? Cartel members? Mexican federal police?) to corroborate, for the US and international media, and for the world, Calderon’s claim that weapons illegally trafficked from the US are fueling the violence in Mexico. Wag that dog.

No matter.

Because whoever threw down that weapon made a mistake: he underestimated the courage of Brian Terry’s colleagues in US law enforcement, and the need of ATF Agent John Dodson, to tell the truth.

The only question now for Representative Issa’s Committee and the American people is—do we have the guts to listen?

The Battle of Viers Mill Village: Part Two.

Original caption: Round Up Prowlers -- Four residents of Viers Mill Village, Montgomery county community, Maryland, pose with two of the weapons they and neighbors used on prowlers. Left to right, Mrs. Martha Newell, Mrs. Mary Schulz, and Mrs. and Mr. Tom Newell.

Readers will recall my post the other day on the "Battle of Viers Mill Village." Several Irregulars sent in tips on where I might find more info on this skirmish of the armed citizenry versus the crooks. Most helpful was Scott, who found this article from the Baltimore Sun. I am running down clues on the surviving participants and will have more anon. The last paragraphs are interesting, demonstrating as they do that the whole "only ones" attitude of "authority" was not entirely a product of the last couple of decades.

NEIGHBORS IN NIGHT CLOTHES SEIZE 4 SUSPECTED PROWLERS
The Baltimore Sun, July 7, 1950, page 36.

Silver Spring MD July 6 -- Men and women in night clothes, some of them armed with revolvers, rifles and knives, early this morning captured four young men suspected of night prowling recently in a veterans' housing development here.

At the crack of five rifle shots, the neighbors poured from their homes in the 4500 block Sigsbee road of Viers Mill Village and quickly rounded up the four youths and held them until the arrival of arrival of police.

The shots were fired by Mrs. Francis Andrews, 26, a young and held them until arrival of police.

The shots were fired by Mrs. Francis Andrews, 26, a young widow with two children, who used a .22-caliber rifle after the German Luger jammed.

Two Halted By Shots

The wild shots halted two of the men who, it was believed, had attempted to break into her house. She held them at bay until the street quickly filled with other residents.

In the past three weeks, prowlers have attempted several times to break into homes of wives whose husbands were working, or in the case of service men, on night duty.

Several of the men had to be restrained from beating up the four youths before the arrival of the police.

The four, who were unarmed, were charged with disorderly conduct on warrants sworn out by irate residents. Each of them posted $52.50 bail and was released for a hearing in magistrate's court at 10 A.M. July 11.

Men identified

The arrested men were identified as William F. Hauppmann, 23, a filling-station employee; Donald M. Heizer, Jr. a cook; Charles F. Clark, 29, a cab driver, all of Silver Spring, and Joseph J. Olcnik, 22, a shop foreman of Bethesda.

Clark, in turn, swore out a warrant charging Thomas C. Newell of the 4500 block Sigsbee street, with firing a gun at him.

Newell, a first class aviation machinist's mate, who serves as crew chief on Navy transport planes, was released on $52.50 bail for the July 11 hearing.

Claims Self Defense

The Navy petty officer frightened off a night prowler two weeks ago when he turned on his porch light as someone was attempting to unlock the side door of his house.

Newell told police he fired into the ground in front of Clark in self defense when the latter failed to halt. Newell said Clark had lunged at him when he fired.

The machinist mate had been alerted by his wife several minutes before Mrs. Andrews fired the rifle shots. His wife, who was awakened by the cries of their three-year-old daughter, Nancy, said she saw a car without lights racing down the block at 50 miles an hour.

Mrs. Mary Schulz, a neighbor, reported to police that there were two cars speeding in the area without lights.

As soon as he heard the rifle shots, Newell said he turned on his car lights and ran across the street to borrow Mrs. Schultz's .45-caliber automatic. When he returned, he found Clark standing on his front lawn.

Led Up The Street

At gun point, Newell led Clark up the street to where the other three were surrounded by an angry crowd of residents.

"A couple of fellows were so mad they wanted to beat the four up," said Newell. "It was lucky they didn't get hurt," he said.

Mrs. Schulz, whose husband has a part-time job at night driving a taxi for the Maryland Veterans Cab Association, said she obtained a gun for "self-protection" after unidentified men had attempted to enter the side door of her home twice at night in the past three weeks.

She and her husband were just about to retire when he looked out their bedroom window and saw a prowler at their neighbor's side door. She said her husband, Walter, ran out in "his shorts" just as the rifle shots rang out.

Believed Captured Later

The man escaped but was believed to be one captured later in another street. Mrs. Schulz said the men had parked their two cars outside Mrs. Andrews home.

Viers Mill Village has about 1,100 homes, most of them occupied by veterans.

Mrs. Schulz said that when neighbors complained to the Montgomery police here about the night prowling, "they told us we'd better arm ourselves."

Newell said that the police reported that they couldn't do anything until we actually caught the men.

Mrs. Schultz said the prowlers "are not out to rob anybody."

"They only try to get into houses where women are alone at night because their husbands are working or have night duty in the service," she said.

Charles M. Orme, chief of the county police at Silver Spring, said he would investigate reports that the residents were told by police to arm themselves against the prowlers.

Such advice from a policeman, he said, was "foolish."

Another prime example of David Codrea's "Only Ones."

Polk deputy tied naked children to desk, beat them with paddle.

Deputies say Pagoria later admitted to having a lifelong spanking fetish, and to meeting her boyfriend on SpankFinders.com. Officials said the boyfriend, who lives in another state, is also under investigation.

Investigators said they found evidence of two videos on Pagoria's phone. In both, deputies said the victims' genitals and buttocks were the clear "focal point."

According to the Sheriff's Office, the videos were about 10 minutes long, and showed the children suffered "substantial" wounds. They could be heard screaming in the videos, investigators said.

The victims names were redacted from arresting documents, it's not clear how or why Pagoria had access to them. However, officials said it was not through her employment with the Sheriff's Office.

Officials said Pagoria, a deputy for nearly six years, resigned Tuesday, in lieu of being fired.

The Failed State of California: A Modest Proposal from Walter Russell Mead.

SCOTUS Makes It Official: California A Failed State


Tom Joad: "Where we goin' now, Ma?"
Ma Joad: "Back east, I reckon. The dust bowl weren't as bad as California nowadays."

Pictures worth thousands of words.

Dr. Michael Vickers was featured in the 2006 documentary Border. His ranch, which is 69 miles north of the border, is a major smuggling route for people and drugs. He often finds dead illegals who didn't make it on his property (his wife found two of his dogs playing with a decomposing skull in his front yard in 2005), and he and his ranch hands NEVER go around unarmed. Here he is interviewed by Greta Van Susteren. It has been six years since Chris Burgard shot the footage for Border and the problems just keep getting worse.

FOX: Where do the Narcos get their weaponry? Why from Uncle Sugar, of course.