Big Week for Project Gunwalker Scandal: Bomb Damage Assessment Time for both the Justice Department and the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians.

Readers will recall my first post from Monday morning, predicting a
"Big Week for Gunwalker Scandal," beginning with an ATF agent's suggested witness list for Senator Grassley to get to the bottom of the mess. Later that morning I posted my letter to the Consul General of the Estados Unidos Mexicanos in Atlanta -- In English AND Spanish and, more tellingly, BLOCKBUSTER: Open Source Analysis of "Fast & Furious" Bust Confirms It As An Integral Part of the Project Gunwalker Cover-up.

On Tuesday, we covered "Silence is the New Loud" with Sound of Silence: Wagering odds on a scandal, cops become crooks & Kurt Hofmann asks the 1.1 Billion Dollar Question about Project Gunwalker. Later on Tuesday we posted "STONEWALL: The empire strikes back. DOJ issues denial on death of Brian Terry." with the added professional assessment from someone in the government that it was "Standard cover-up material that even a boy of 8 would laugh at." Also on Tuesday we noted that Gun Owners of America had taken official notice of the scandal and was mobilizing its membership.

On Wednesday, we issued A Call to All Second Amendment Activists: There is a way you can help to shine the bright light of truth on the Project Gunwalker Scandal, which began to pay off by the end of the week. Later on Wednesday came "Looks like Grassley's office ain't buying the stonewall on the Project Gunwalker Scandal. Five questions for the Congress to ask under oath." Also on Wednesday came my call to remember "The nameless, faceless dead of the Project Gunwalker Scandal," damning the DOJ's apparent attitude of "What's a few more dead Mexicans in the grand scheme of things?"



Wednesday was a long, long day and around midnight I reported on the discovery of the "Rosetta Stone: David Codrea Posts Grassley Letter to Eric Holder with Project Gunwalker DOCUMENTS," Senator Grassley's bitch slap of AG Holder which concluded with the demand: "The best way to honor (Brian Terry's) memory is to come clean."

On Thursday I described some reaction to Grassley's letter and the leaked documents in ATF Whistleblowers to Senator Grassley: "Welcome to the party, pal!" In the same post I reminded readers, "But remember, the fight against this evil is an open invitation to YOU as well."

On Friday I took the lamestream media to task in "The story upon the stair. The failure of 'authorized journalists' to pick up on Senator Grassley's bitch slap of Eric Holder".

Also on Friday I mirrored on Vince Cefalu's damning CUATF piece "An ATF agent's indictment. 'ATF DIDN'T make every effort to interdict these guns or they WOULD HAVE been interdicted.'" And, later, I had fun at SAC Newell's expense by reporting on the ATF job posting occasioned by his upcoming transfer to Mexico: "Wanted: individual skilled in firearms smuggling, insulting Mexicans, threatening subordinates, massive cover-up . Lack of scruples a plus. Apply ATF."

Friday was every bit as long a day as Wednesday, for I then reported on David's call to Second Amendment activists, "David Codrea: ‘Project Gunwalker’ protest can help kill ATF’s long gun reporting proposal." I later amended that post with a link to Alvie D. Zane's letter to Arizona Governor Jane Brewer which I characterized as an excellent example of David's motto, "Any chair in a bar fight."



Also on Friday, results of our campaign began to flower in other venues. First came "Ask and you shall receive: Stacey Delikat in Phoenix comes through with the first media report on the Grassley letter to Holder."

Then I reported that the Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms had joined GOA: CCRKBA calls for Senate investigation of Project Gunwalker Scandal. I observed that the "NRA weinermobile (is) still looking for a parking place."



But I spoke only slightly too soon, because as David reports this morning: "NRA issues statement on Grassley ATF inquiry."

So here we are, on Saturday afternoon, doing a bit of bomb damage assessment from the "Big Week."

Inside reports indicate that this has been a pretty excremental week for Eric Holder and the cover-up crew, full of meetings, nasty questions, and recriminations. On our side, we keep waiting for the Empire to really strike back -- not like that ill-considered "bite me" letter they wrote to Grassley which resulted in the public posting of the Project Gunwalker documents. Lanny Breuer is the subject of some speculation on our side simply because, in the words of one of our brain trust of analysts, he is said to own "Martian intelligence." He is hip deep in this and to expect him to go quietly into the bureaucratic good night of defeat and public dishonor without a fight is a pipe dream.

We haven't seen the last of him, but then he hasn't seen the last of the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians either.

For now, today, both sides are in bomb damage assessment mode. Expect follow-up strikes from both sides of the cover-up of the circumstances of the murder of Brian Terry.

Paul Helmke's deadly hypocrisy."The Brady Campaign to Ignore the Project Gunwalker Scandal." Pay no attention to the ugly reality behind the curtain!

"Major Strasser has been shot! . . . Round up the usual suspects."

Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie. Hypocrisy is not simply failing to practice those virtues that one preaches. . . (A)n alcoholic's advocating temperance, for example, would not be considered an act of hypocrisy so long as the alcoholic made no pretense of constant sobriety. -- Wikipedia.

David Codrea brings our attention to a predictable hypocrisy by his headline: "Anti-gun groups silent on ‘Project Gunwalker.’" In his Examiner article, David rightly deconstructs the Brady Bunch's Dennis Hennigan as he declaims by loud silence: "Pay no attention to the ugly reality behind the curtain!"

Since 2006, 14 U.S. Custom and Border Patrol Agents have been killed, most recently Brian Terry, fatally wounded in December of last year with an AK-47. There is little doubt that more courageous federal officers will be struck down, with assault rifles trafficked from American gun shops. Perhaps the NRA bosses, and the House members they control, can explain to the families of the slain federal agents, and to those of the Mexican citizens who have lost their lives to drug cartel gunfire, the wisdom of depriving ATF of an important tool against gun trafficking. But please spare us the phony talk about the need to "enforce the laws on the books."

"Phony talk" indeed. If there's any explaining to do to "the families of the slain federal agents," it needs to come from the ATF, Eric Holder and the ideological supporters of citizen disarmament who seek to shield them from responsibility and retribution -- first and foremost among these last is the Brady Bunch.

David for one is having none of it:

Is it not in the interest of furthering the Brady’s purported goals to establish the truth in this? At least the ones they're willing to publicly disclose?

If not, Mr. Henigan, “please spare us the phony talk about the need to” give a Bureau that is so obviously broken even more power and authority before finding out exactly what’s wrong with it and fixing it. And “please spare us the phony talk about” how imposing even more restrictions on Americans who are already obeying “the laws on the books” is just the ticket for curing Mexico’s narcoterrorism woes.

Now Mr. Henigan surely knows, as does his boss Paul Helmke, the awful details revealed so far in the Project Gunwalker scandal. How could he not? Helmke is on my personal email list. Every time I have a Sipsey Street post about any ATF scandal -- especially Project Gunwalker -- he gets a copy in his in-box. Just as this Saturday morning he will be copied on this. (Hi, Paulie! Wanna come out and play?) And I never get a bounce-back. He must read each one, each new revelation, with all the horrified fascination of someone watching a slow-motion car wreck involving his children -- aghast, but unable to look away.

19 April 2010: Gravelly Point Park, Virginia. Paul Helmke and me in happier days. (Well, from the looks on our faces, at least I was happy. The headlines haven't been going in his direction these past few years.)

Yet as well informed as Helmke is, he has made no mention of the Project Gunwalker scandal. One would think from such studious ignorance that perhaps he will next change the name of his organization to "The Brady Campaign to Ignore the Project Gunwalker Scandal."

Knowing the real source of the weapon that killed Brian Terry, has he demanded the truth? No. He has continued to pimp a deliberate fiction. Thus does he spit on Brian Terry's grave.

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, killed with a rifle that the ATF deliberately let "walk." Paul Helmke doesn't give a tinker's damn about the truth of his death, or he would be doing something about it.

Knowing that these weapons have surely killed many innocent Mexicans, has Helmke sought congressional investigation and intervention? No. What's a few more dead nameless, faceless Mexicans when you've got a lying meme to push?

More dead Mexicans. Paul Helmke cries crocodile tears over them too.

By his silence on Gunwalker, Helmke is declaiming: "Major Strasser has been shot! . . . Round up the usual suspects."

The usual suspects of course being American gun stores, gun shows and the armed citizenry.

Paul Helmke, by his repeated insistence upon ever more power and resources for the ATF in the advancement of his own citizen disarmament agenda, which has now shown itself to have all the moral rectitude and trustworthiness of a fireman caught setting deadly fires, has lashed himself and his organization to the wheel of that criminally-run agency's ship of fortunes.

When that ship sinks, Helmke's agenda drowns with it just as surely as a frantic rat that can't make it to a bit of flotsam.

And do you know what I say?

"Torpedo . . . Los!"

In the aftermath of yesterday's "Big Day," some observations. Melson, like Cortez, burns his boats. The cavalry arrives, late and needing direction.

It is said that Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez, caught between the daunting forces of Montezuma and a mutiny among his own troops, scuttled and burned all his boats, save one small one for communication with Cuba. Thus did he quash the mutiny and direct all his soldiers' energies toward the task of defeating Montezuma.

ATF acting Director Melson, it seems, is burning his own boats. From an ATF source:

Word from the ATF executive staff caucus. Melson and Hoover have told Newell that they will back him to the end and that ATF’s position is, “we did nothing wrong”.

Of course this was on Monday, before yesterday's "Big Day." Let us recap, shall we?

From just the post headlines at Sipsey Street:

"The first Gunrunner rat is in." Is ATF Deputy Assistant Director for Intelligence Steve Martin rolling? Some agents seem to think so.

Mexican legislators demand US talks on gun scandal! All three major parties represented!

This just in: The Washington Post, rising from the dead, walks the Gunwalker walk and even mentions David and me! Well, not by name but reputation.

"Closing ranks and circling the wagons." "A major scandal." FOX News finally gets on the Project Gunwalker sidewalk.

CBS -- The Project Gunwalker questions under oath begin: Big Sis frying on Senator Grassley's Grill. She ain't done yet.

Finally! NRA weeniemobile finds a parking spot in the Project Gunwalker Scandal. "Welcome to the party, pal!' They're only a couple months late.

Okay, so I was over-optimistic about getting some sleep. One last post and it is a doozy: The House comes out swinging.

Okay, ad seriatim:

1. The cover-up is coming uncovered as more guilty players seek their own self-interest.

2. The Mexican political establishment and press is now united, demanding an explanation of the Project Gunwalker scandal.

3. The Washington Post finally deals seriously with Gunwalker in an article that, while full of meme defense, puts out the bare bones of the scandal where the DC Mandarins can see it. Major fact: something is not a DC concern for the Mandarins until the Post reports it.

4.FOX News finally got into the Gunwalker game with an excellent piece. This is important for getting the word out to people disposed to help us seek the truth on Gunwalker.

5. Senator Grassley hit Big Sis Napolitano with questions under oath about Gunwalker. And when he did, anal sphincters tightened in federal offices all over the country. Melson and his co-conspirators know that this is just the beginning and must have thought about what they're going to say when they get hauled before the Congress UNDER OATH.

6. The NRA finally showed up, demanding hearings.

7. A significant portion of House Republicans are now demanding answers. One of them, Lamar Smith of Texas, is perfectly positioned to call his own hearings.



To Melson and the other cover-up artists, this must look like the arrival of the seven sisters of doom.

For those of us who have been struggling to keep the story alive, this looks like a small, but crucial victory, especially the last two events. The NRA, late and lumbering, is now on the field. So too are the GOP congressmen. Still, some of this is going to look like a cavalry charge led by Jubilation T. Cornpone.

But even so, for all of the understandable frustration of us pathfinders who have been fighting surrounded for so long, for all of the derisive "Welcome to the party, pal!" taunts, to this soldier who has been in it since the beginning the cavalry looks, at this moment, pretty damn good. It will, however, be up to y'all -- you NRA members and Congresscritter constituents -- to keep these new troops focused and all charging in the right direction.

To Melson and Company, on the other hand, after the "Big Day" it must be starting to look like Little Big Horn. We'll see how many decide to figuratively die with him on this hill, and how many decide that now is the time hop ship back to Havana.

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

And for those of you who don't understand the Jubilation T. Cornpone reference, from Li'l Abner:

This just in: The Washington Post is still dead, and, on a somewhat lighter note, the AZ Republic is still clueless. "Nobody died at the Watergate."

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer scans the Sunday Post front page: Good, good. Again nothing about Gunwalker. Grimaldi must still be passed out on that vodka I sent him.

This just in: The Washington Post is still dead to the Project Gunwalker scandal. The Post's investigative journalism of the Watergate scandal now seems so distant from present reality that it must have occurred in an alternate universe.

Speaking of Watergate and how high this Project Gunwalker scandal extends up the Obama administration's food chain, a reporter who is actively working this story told me the other day, "I have sources who tell me this could be as big as Watergate."

To which I replied, "Nobody died at the Watergate."

Just a little something to keep in mind.

The Watergate still stands. The WaPo's reputation for investigative journalism sadly does not.

The Arizona Republic's Robert Anglen is not dead, it seems, but he could hardly be more clueless.

Studying the same documents that our ATF whistleblower so skillfully deconstructed in my post of 7 February, "Open Source Analysis of 'Fast & Furious' Bust Confirms It As An Integral Part of the Project Gunwalker Cover-up," Anglen can only muster up "Arizona has few rifle-sale limits: Law allows big purchases that feds say supply cartels."

Once again we have a reporter, this one who has been thrice-nominated for a Pulitzer, who feeds at the ATF's trough and regurgitates the meme upon request.

Still, on the theory that you can yet, with a two by four, guide the hog from the trough to the tasty truffles hidden in the forest, I wrote the following email to Anglen this morning:

-----Original Message-----
From: georgemason1776@aol.com
To: watchdog@arizonarepublic.com
Sent: Sun, Feb 20, 2011 7:00 am
Subject: For a Pulitzer-nominated big dog investigative reporter, you sure missed the point with your latest story -- and in your own back yard(?).

If you want to be nominated for another Pulitzer, you're going to have to do better than than this story (link) which is only amazing for what it missed altogether.

Try reading this exchange of mail mostly from Senator Grassley on the Project Gunwalker scandal:

(Links omitted for reasons of space.)

Then, to discover how much you missed the point of the documents you cited, go to this Open Source Analysis by an ATF whistleblower of the Fast and Furious bust which can be found here: (Link.)

Then, check out Carter’s Country in Houston as an example of ATF requests to gun dealers:

(Links omitted for reasons of space.)

My own Summary, etc.:

(Links omitted for reasons of space.)

A reporter told me the other day, "I have sources who tell me this could be as big as Watergate." To which I replied, "Nobody died at the Watergate." So far in the Project Gunwalker scandal we have Brian Terry and who knows how many nameless, faceless dead Mexicans: (Link.)

And when they hand out the next Pulitzer for investigative journalism, won't YOU be kicking yourself in the ass for failing to get the point and cover the real story -- in your own back yard?

Mike Vanderboegh

Updated Summary, Narrative, Condensed Timeline and Document Sources of the “Project Gunwalker” Scandal.

Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

Summary, Narrative, Condensed Timeline and Document Sources of the “Project Gunwalker” Scandal

16 February 2011

by Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com

David Codrea of The National Gun Rights Examiner, the War on Guns blog, and Guns Magazine columnist, may be contacted at dcodrea@hotmail.com

Summary

There are now five separate but connected accusations against ATF and DOJ officials in what has been dubbed “Project Gunwalker“:

First, that they intentionally allowed to perhaps as many as 3,000 firearms "walked" across the U.S. border into Mexico. Second, that they instructed U.S. gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners. Third, that they intentionally withheld information about U.S.-sanctioned gun smuggling from the Mexican government. Fourth, that one of the guns ATF allowed or helped to be smuggled into Mexico was involved in the death of CBP Agent Brian Terry. Fifth, that they are, now in tandem with the FBI, involved in covering up ATF and DOJ culpability in items One through Four.

Narrative and Condensed Timeline

For many months throughout 2010, the ATF's "Project Gunrunner" initiative was under fire for poor management, exaggerated statistics, etc. The agency was floundering to carry out an agenda that wasn't entirely covered by the law, stung by poor publicity and especially by an Inspector General's report which Michael Isikoff first reported leaks from on 21 September presaging the official report which was finally made public in November. Isikoff’s story said in part:

"A major Justice Department program aimed at intercepting the flow of U.S. weapons to Mexico’s drug cartels is misfiring due to bureaucratic turf battles and a failure to share critical intelligence about illegal firearms purchases, according to an internal department report."

The IG report excoriated ATF’s Project Gunrunner performance. It is now alleged by ATF's own agents that sometime in late 2009 or early 2010, the Phoenix office of ATF began to implement a policy of "walking" semi-automatic rifles south of the border -- at first with a wink and a nod, later, according to one agent:

“The agency was) not only looking the other way but actually facilitating trafficking, threatening and punishing agents who voiced objections, covering up trace information, the truth about the gun that killed BPA Terry, what I.C.E. knew, it goes on and on."

My own sources tell me that this was done at the direction of the "highest levels of Main Justice and the West Wing."

During this time, it is alleged by an experienced ATF street agent, the ATF deliberately did not inform the Mexican authorities that this was going on:

"Darren Gil, former attache to Mexico is an honest and honorable guy. He was forcefully removed from Mexico w o warning in Nov 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."

Also during this time, gun stores along the border were calling ATF and reporting multiple sales, only to be told to allow the sales to go through, and in some cases, follow the purchasers out into the parking lot to get license numbers. The case of Carter's Country in Houston (see below) is but one example. There are other firearm dealers who are willing to come forward and detail their similar experiences to the Congress if asked under oath. They are reluctant to do so without Congressional protection because their livelihoods are at the mercy of ATF regulation.

All of this, it is alleged, was done in order to boost the numbers of seized semi-automatic "assault weapons" in Mexico to justify continued, or expanded, Project Gunrunner funding.

On 12 December 2010, the Washington Post ran an article based on a leak from ATF headquarters claiming that Carter's Country gun store outlets in Houston area were guilty of flagrant straw-man sales. This storyline was attacked the next day by celebrated Texas criminal defense attorney Dick Deguerin, representing Carter's Country, who said:

“Let me tell you something about Carter's Country. They have been co-operating with ATF from the get go.” 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.

A month later I discover the story and link it as corroborative of the ATF whistleblower’s narrative.

On 14 December 2010, Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with a semi-automatic rifle in the hands of a smuggler. It is alleged by ATF street agents that this weapon was one of the "walked" rifles. An FBI murder investigation is proceeding, as is an internal ATF investigation, although the FBI has made precious few public statements and the ATF denies that they are investigating themselves. In the opinion of some ATF agents, these investigations have been used by ATF management to extort silence from agents in the furtherance of a cover-up of the complicity of ATF and Justice Department senior management in the death of BPA Terry.

What is known is that an unknown but significant number of ATF agents with personal knowledge and documents of this scandal, which has been dubbed "Project Gunwalker" by blogger and Guns Magazine columnist David Codrea, were willing to tell their story to any Senator who asked them. Although I had heard rumors of the circumstances of Brian Terry’s death from my own sources within and without the ATF and was trying to verify them as early as Christmas 2010, the first mention of these rumors in a public venue came out in postings by disaffected ATF street agents writing comments at their own website, CleanUpATF.org. I broke this story on 28 December 2010.

When David Codrea and I each became aware that there were a number of these agents who had spoken up within the agency and who were willing to tell their stories to “competent authority” -- meaning the United States Senate or House of Representatives -- we were also aware that the Congress needed to approach the agents, not the other way around. Having established round-about contact with some of these agents, we began to try to vector the proper “competent authorities” into contact with the agents.

It took some time, but we finally contacted the right person in Senator Jeff Sessions office, who put us in touch with Senator Grassley’s office. Thus it was the Senators who contacted the agents, not the other way around as has been reported.

Early on 25 January, I reported that my sources had told me that a press conference was scheduled for 10:00 AM in Phoenix. This was the announcement of the “Fast and Furious” bust which included (although the ATF did not admit the linkage at the time) the straw purchaser who bought the weapons which were recovered at the Brian Terry murder scene. Documents released as part of this press conference were later analyzed by an ATF whistleblower with damning results and published on my blog on 7 February.

The contacts with the whistleblowers and the 25 January press conference in Phoenix led to Senator Grassley’s first letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson on 27 January 2011, laying out the whistleblower‘s allegation and requesting information.

Senator Grassley also warned of the curious timing of the Fast and Furious case:

On Tuesday, according to press reports, the ATF arrested 17 suspects in a Project Gunrunner bust. William Newell, the Special Agent in Charge of the ATF's Phoenix Field Office was quoted as saying, "We strongly believe we took down the entire organization from top to bottom that operated out of the Phoenix area." However, if the 17 individuals were merely straw purchasers of whom the ATF had been previously aware before Agent Terry's death, then that raises a host of serious questions that the ATF needs to address immediately.

On 31 January 2011, pursuant to reports that the Phoenix ATF management was threatening reprisals against agents who talked about the Terry case, Senator Grassley sent another letter to Acting Director Melson, reminding him strongly of the whistleblower protection laws.

David and I were the first to post these letters on the Internet.

On 4 February, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich sent a reply to Senator Grassley which was both preemptory and insulting to his character. David and I again were the first to post this letter.

On 7 February we published a damning “Open Source Analysis of ‘Fast & Furious‘ Bust” by one of the whistleblowers which confirmed it as an integral part of the Project Gunwalker cover-up using documents and court papers from the public record.

Also on 7 February, an ATF agent writing on CleanUpATF.org proposed this witness list and questions for Senator Grassley:

Melson, Carter, Hoover, Chait - did you know of these strategies and did you approve them? Who from DOJ and the White House helped you develop your plan? Explain.

ATF Chief Counsel Attorneys - what was your role in developing this investigative stratagy? Explain.

McMahon, Newell, Gillett - what EXACTLY did you do or not do in the management of this investigation? How closely were you monitoring this significant case? Explain.

Gil, Canino, Ortiz, Kumar, Rowley - did you protest the actions being taken in this investigation and what was the result of your complaints?

Case Agents and Supervisors - who, to the best of you knowledge, was approving and supporting this investigative path? What was your plan?

ATF Phoenix Division Agents - is there a track record of retaliation, mismanagement, reprisal, hostile work environment, cover-up, lying and blind defense of such in your job? By whom? Explain.

In retrospect I’m sure the Justice Department considered the 4 February letter ill-advised, because on 9 February Senator Grassley fired back a blistering three-page salvo directly to Attorney General Holder with attached documents he obviously obtained from whistleblowers that strongly supported their allegations. Once again, David and I scooped the rest of the media by posting the letter and the documents under the name “Rosetta Stone.“ Senator Grassley concluded this letter:

The Terry family deserves answers. The whistleblowers have expressed a desire to honor Agent Terry’s memory by disclosing this information. The Justice Department should work to do the same. The best way to honor his memory is to come clean.

The Senator in his letter again suggested a meeting with ATF. That meeting happened on 10 February, and according to an internal ATF source of mine, the briefing was done by James E. McDermond, Assistant Director of ATF’s Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information. McDermond was quoted as saying he thought the meeting went well.

Today, 16 February, Senator Grassley disabused the ATF, the FBI, Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Justice of that optimistic notion with a detailed, two-page demand to AG Eric Holder for specific documents in the “Project Gunwalker” Scandal. The “dog and pony show” of 10 February apparently did not impress Senator Grassley.

The scandal, it seems, is here to stay for a while.

Mike Vanderboegh


Important Source Documents for “Project Gunwalker”


David Codrea’s Comprehensive Journalist’s Guide to “Project Gunwalker”

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


Background:

Michael Isikoff’s story of 21 September 2010 can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39282887/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Documentation and discussion of the disputation of ATF statistics used to justify Project Gunrunner can be had by contacting David Codrea, of the National Gun Rights Examiner column. Email: dcodrea@hotmail.com.

The November 2010 U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General report, "Review of ATF's Project Gunrunner" which excoriates ATF performance can be found here: http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e1101.pdf

Carter’s Country as example of ATF requests to gun dealers:

The 12 December Washington Post article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/12/AR2010121202663.html

The 13 December Post follow-up with some of Deguerin’s remarks is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/13/AR2010121305395.html

Also on 13 December the local Houston FOX affiliate ran video with more Deguerin quotes: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/101213-gun-dealer-atf-approved-sales-to-mexican-gun-runners

Open Source Analysis by ATF whistleblower of Fast and Furious bust can be found here: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/02/open-source-analysis-of-fast-furious.html

Grassley/ATF/DOJ Letters:

27 December, Grassley to Melson: http://www.scribd.com/doc/47909152/ATF1-1

31 December, Grassley to Melson: http://www.scribd.com/doc/47909228/ATF2

4 February, Weich to Grassley: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48448953/atf-2

9 February, Grassley to Holder: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48549160/RosettaStone

16 February, Grassley to Holder, et.al.: http://judiciary.senate.gov/resources/documents/upload/021611GrassleyToHolder.pdf

This just in: Senate is now referring to "Project Gunwalker" as the "Brian Terry Whistleblower Case" plus a question for ‘Project Gunwalker’ skeptics.

David Codrea asks "One question for ‘Project Gunwalker’ skeptics."

It boils down to:

"Ask yourself: How could we have known?"

David and I have been called a lot of names since we started this, even by alleged gun rights bloggers like General Sebastian Snowflake who called me "a clown." At least I'm a clown that whistleblowers trust enough to talk to.

Also, right after David posted his Examiner column above, a reader named Nicholas Dixon provided his own independent corroboration David's post.

I've called the offices of Chambliss, Grassley, and Sessions. Unfortunately the only time between my classes I have available is 11-12, when all the staffer's are in meetings or going to lunch(in DC time). But I did receive a call back from Chambliss' office, their name for it is the Brian Terry Whistleblower case.

Codrea commented:

Thank you Mr. Dixon. This is now an independent corroboration that such discussions are taking place. Reporters take note.

And, in an email to me he added:

Figures they wouldn't want to use "Project Gunwalker"...:)

So, when contacting your Congresscritters about Project Gunwalker, please refer to the official name, "The Brian Terry Whistleblower Case."

A Project Gunwalker Scandal Grab Bag: Questions, Indictments and a Congressman agrees to press for hearings.

Congressman Raúl Labrador, 1st District, Idaho.

David Codrea asks: "Was ICE agent killed with ‘walked’ gun?"

When the killing was first reported, two separate journalists investigating the unfolding “Project Gunwalker”* story asked this correspondent if walked guns were involved, but at the time it was premature to even speculate. Since revelations in this arrest show “the [arrested] men were the subject of an undercover investigation by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration in November," it’s no longer premature—at least to speculate.

The Osorio and Kelvin indictments, which continue to raise questions about timing, Osorio here, and Kelvin here.

And it is nice to see that there are at least a few Congressmen who get it:
"Idaho Rep. to urge Darrell Issa to investigate ‘Project Gunwalker’ charges."

David Codrea writes:

Two Idaho congressmen have responded to constituent requests to investigate “Project Gunwalker”* allegations. Rep. Raúl Labrador and Rep. Mike Simpson sent email replies to two constituents who have shared them with this correspondent, and which are presented in the sidebar slideshow accompanying this article.

Rep. Labrador demonstrated a familiarity with the circumstances and background of this story, citing Senator Charles Grassley’s investigation and the need to ensure whistleblower protection. Further, he made a pledge that will be welcome to advocates for expanding hearings to the House of Representatives:

…I agree that it is time for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to hold hearings on the BATFE abuses and I will encourage Chairman Issa to do so in the future.

Issa’s committed and focused involvement is essential. As The Washington Post noted in an unrelated story:

The chairman's post has almost limitless subpoena power.

Indeed it does does.

Congressman Labrador's Letter:

March 1, 2011

(NAME AND ADDRESS REDACTED)
Dear (REDACTED):

Thank you for contacting me about holding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives accountable. I appreciate hearing your thoughts and concerns on this important issue.

As you know, Senator Charles Grassley has written and asked the BATFE to respond to allegations of suspicious firearm transactions. In the letter, he questions the agency’s conduct of Project Gunrunner, which as you know seeks to lessen the trafficking of drugs and weapons into Mexico, and specifically questions whether the agency tried to silence an internal whistleblower, who noticed this error.

I understand both your concern and the importance of this issue. BATFE actions should not infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. Because of this, I agree that it is time for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to hold hearings on the BATFE abuses and I will encourage Chairman Issa to do so in the future.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. As your representative in Congress, it is helpful for me to know your thoughts and opinions on issues that are important to you. I would encourage you to visit my website, http://labrador.house.gov, where you can read about my views on a variety of issues and also sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,
Raúl Labrador
Member of Congress
1st District, Idaho

And what has your Congresscritter done on this scandal so far?

And why not?

Sound of Silence: Wagering odds on a scandal, cops become crooks & Kurt Hofmann asks the 1.1 Billion Dollar Question about Project Gunwalker.

As is often the case after we slam written torpedoes into the side of the ATF bureaucratic ship, it was deadly quiet yesterday. Not a chirp. Not a peep. We saw this before during the agency's chase for a stuffed child's toy, Ramsey A. Bear, in the Len Savage "economic Waco" case and other scandals.

When they're stunned, when they're frightened, the fifth floor clams up tight. And on the fifth floor and elsewhere the Senior Executives of the ATF are stunned and frightened. They are also, in their moments, very, very angry. Often that anger is vented upon each other in 20-20 hindsight about the decisions which have led them all now to probable ruin and disgrace, although they are careful not go shouting in the halls at each other as they have in the past, lest Waldo or one of his buddies pick up some juicy tidbit which is then reported back to the Coalition Of Willing Lilliputians for evaluation and dissemination, here and elsewhere.

For they find themselves now in a different position from that which they always thought themselves to be -- they WERE law enforcement officers, now they are just garden variety federal criminals. As a friend of mine observed, "They're all crooks now, Mike. That takes a bit of getting used to, realizing that you are now a crook when you always thought of yourself as a cop." Most are still in denial, but a few, and there's always the crafty few, are surely plotting the launch of their own personal lifeboats from the wreckage that is now the ATF's Project Gunwalker.

There were meetings yesterday in Washington on the Project Gunwalker scandal -- meetings at extremely high levels from what we hear. This is now a budding international incident, and the State Department is gradually realizing the awful extent of what this could do to our relations with Mexico and to the probable discredit this is going to create to the entire anti-firearm agenda of the administration, abroad and at home. Even some Christians in Action are gossiping about this, many of them with undisguised glee.

Among the experienced, informed street agents, talk has now gone to a sort of betting pool on who among the vain and previously powerful muckety-mucks will roll over first and thereby save their own skin from the collapse of the cover-up. Melson? Good odds, is the street wisdom. The piano player in the whorehouse. He never bargained for THIS bill of excrement that the Chief Counsel's Office sold him on. Billy Hoover? Not smart enough, is the thought, too entwined in what he was to recognize what he's become. Newell? He has the most to lose in any case, but the documents and the witnesses are there that this was approved at the highest levels. Will he use them as a life preserver?

Another topic of fervent speculation: are there really tape recordings of the various phone calls between Phoenix, Mexico City and DC made by the reluctant and careful as has been whispered?

Lanny Breuer is feared by the lesser mortals of this conspiracy, certainly, but he also, if he is human, must be frightened as well. As one of my DC friends said, "Well, hell, Mike, if the SOB was THAT smart, he wouldn't have been in the meetings."

The same friend told me this, with a laugh, "You know, I bet that right now they wished they had killed your ass in the Nineties."

Probably so. Probably so.

As the trail of cover-up goes up the chain to folks like Lanny Breuer and beyond, some people are getting nervous. I had another source yesterday fairly slam the phone down when I called after telling me abruptly, "I can't talk to YOU right now." Fair enough. We here at Sipsey Street pride ourselves on our patience. "We serve no scandal before its time."

Kurt Hofmann asks the 1.1 Billion Dollar Question about this scandal ($1.1 billion is the size of the ATF budget):

If, as a growing-by-the-day (hour?) body of evidence indicates, "Project Gunrunner" is intimately linked to the sinister "Project Gunwalker," whereby the BATFE approves some trafficking, including the trafficking of the rifles used to kill Border Patrol Officer Brian Terry, could an increase in the BATFE's budget, tied in large part to an expansion of "Project Gunrunner," not be seen as an expansion of a program--by the U.S. government--that helps arm the Mexican narco-thugs?

This is the question that the State Department is now choking on. No doubt Hillary Clinton is now looking for someone skilled at a bureaucratic CYA Heimlich maneuver. Just who will be spit out remains a matter of wager among the street agents.

Place your bets, madames and monsieurs, place your bets.

Senators now in contact with ATF agents about Project Gunwalker scandal.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. -- Sir Winston Churchill, November 1942.

David Codrea reports "‘Project Gunwalker’ sources talking to Senate staffers" and all my sources concur.

Insider sources claiming they can provide testimony and documentation to confirm allegations raised in the “Project Gunwalker” story reported previously in this column are now in contact and/or have been placed in touch with Senate staffers.

As David says, "We have lift-off."

Now keep banging on those Congresscritters to stand down the ATF from major raids until we have the whole truth about Project Gunwalker and the death of Border Patrol officer Terry.

Michael Isikoff, one of the early reporters interested in the Gunwalker Scandal without writing a word, finds more important stuff to occupy his time.

Probing Bachmann, Palin, and Gingrich, NBC's Investigative Unit Ignores Obama's ATF Debacle

The NBC News Investigative Unit has devoted considerable resources to uncovering "scandals" ranging from Marcus Bachmann's health clinic to Newt Gingrich's credit line at Tiffany to the Sarah Palin document dump, but continues to ignore a botched Justice Department operation that contributed to the death of a U.S. border agent.

Examining the trove of reports filed by NBC News national investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff over the last few months reveals a fixation on investigations involving Republican politicians and an aversion to probes concerning the Obama administration, even as other media outlets expose the controversial ATF practice of letting guns purchased in America slip across the U.S.-Mexico border in hopes the trail would lead federal agents to drug kingpins.

Just days before Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) investigation into operation "Fast and Furious" went unreported on the NBC "Nightly News," Isikoff flew to Juneau, Alaska to aimlessly scour newly-released emails during Sarah Palin's time as governor. Even MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews described Isikoff as "feverishly pouring over those documents."

As it turned out, the documents produced no scandals, forcing Isikoff to admit his Al Capone's vault moment: "So far, I don't think anybody's found any bombshells here." So uninteresting, the Palin investigation never even made it into the correspondent's online archive, dubbed the "Isikoff Files."

Something else that won't be found in Isikoff's tome of probes is a thorough investigation into the role the ATF's gun-walking practices played in the slaying of U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry, who was killed in a firefight with Mexican drug cartel members in December. As CBS reported, two of the guns found at the crime scene were part of thousands the ATF allegedly allowed gunrunners to purchase and smuggle into Mexico.

It's not like Isikoff is unaware of the Gunwalker Scandal. In fact, he was one of the early "authorized journalists" who sought out the whistleblowers through David and me.

On 3 February, responding to my post entitled, "So where are the "authorized journalists" asking sharp questions of the State Dept. about the violation of treaty & protocol in Project Gunwalker?" I received the following email from Isikoff:

-----Original Message-----
From: Isikoff, Michael (NBC Universal) (NBC Universal)
To: georgemason1776
Sent: Thu, Feb 3, 2011 3:41 pm
Subject: RE: So where are the "authorized journalists" asking sharp questions of the State Dept. about the violation of treaty & protocol in Project Gunwalker?

so where are the whistleblowers I can talk to that can verify these claims? I am eager to talk to them, but I cant make accusations without evidence.

To which I replied:

-----Original Message-----
From: georgemason1776
To: Michael.Isikoff
Sent: Thu, Feb 3, 2011 3:55 pm
Subject: Re: So where are the "authorized journalists" asking sharp questions of the State Dept. about the violation of treaty & protocol in Project Gunwalker?

I will pass your request on. I am tempted to say that other reporters are managing to find some of their own, but then, you might take that as an insult, so I won't. If any of mine are willing to talk to you I will let you know soonest.

Mike Vanderboegh

Later that evening, after we spoke on the phone:

From: georgemason1776@aol.com [mailto:georgemason1776@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 6:06 PM
To: Isikoff, Michael (NBC Universal)
Subject: Whistleblowers and getting lucky..

I have been instructed to tell you to call (REDACTED). He represents at least one. Let me know how it comes out either way (on background, of course).

Isikoff fired back:

-----Original Message-----
From: Isikoff, Michael (NBC Universal) (NBC Universal)
To: georgemason1776
Sent: Thu, Feb 3, 2011 6:08 pm
Subject: RE: Whistleblowers and getting lucky..

sure you know where he is?

To which I replied:

No. But the clue is the clue. It is what he gave us. He's actually David Codrea's initial contact. I am copying David on this. We try to cooperate and it has worked real well so far.

Mike Vanderboegh

Ultimately Isikoff contacted at least one of the whistleblowers. Isikoff did not pursue the story and the whistleblower I talked to was, shall I paraphrase, unimpressed with Isikoff.

There were a number of "authorized journalists" who pursued this story early on, but who came to the story with the attitude of, "OK, the big boys are here now. You just give us the name of your whistleblowers and we'll decide if you're lying or not."

Isikoff was one of those.

Of course we could not. All we would promise is that we would forward their contact information to the whistleblowers, some of whom we had no idea exactly who they were, and that the whistleblowers, if they so chose, would get in touch with them.

Sharyl Attkisson of CBS on the other hand was not like that. She was experienced with the security concerns of whistleblowers, worked with them, etc. That is why she got the early scoops and guys like Isikoff did not.

Isikoff did not return to the story after these initial probes, and NBC has yet, to my knowledge, to do even one Gunwalker Scandal story.

Doesn't fit with the meme, don't you know?

NBC has been the most consistent black hole of Gunwalker News. It may get into their agenda-driven processes, but it doesn't get out.

Mike Vanderboegh

Sources, Timeline & Summary of the ATF "Project Gunwalker" scandal and the death of BP agent Brian Terry.

Timeline & Summary of the ATF "Project Gunwalker" scandal and death of BP agent Brian Terry, with sources.

19 January 2011
by Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com

Summary: For many months the ATF's "Project Gunrunner" initiative was under fire for poor management, exaggerated statistics, etc. Floundering to carry out an agenda that wasn't entirely covered by the law, stung by poor publicity and an Inspector General's report that excoriated their performance, it is alleged by ATF's own agents that the Phoenix office of ATF began a policy of "walking" semi-automatic rifles south of the border -- at first with a wink and a nod, later, according to one agent:

"(The agency was) not only looking the other way but actually facilitating trafficking, threatening and punishing agents who voiced objections, covering up trace information, the truth about the gun that killed BPA Terry, what I.C.E. knew, it goes on and on."

My own sources tell me that this was done at the direction of the "highest levels of Main Justice and the West Wing."

During this time, it is alleged by an experienced ATF street agent, that the ATF deliberately did not inform the Mexican authorities that this was going on:

"(REDACTED) former attache to Mexico is an honest and honorable guy. He was forcefully removed from Mexico w o warning in Nov 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."

Also during this time, gun stores along the border were calling ATF and reporting multiple sales, only to be told to allow the sales to go through, and in some cases, follow the purchasers out into the parking lot to get license numbers. The case of Carter's Country in Houston (see timeline below) is but one example. There are other firearm dealers who are willing to come forward and detail their similar experiences to the Congress if asked under oath. They are reluctant to do so without Congressional protection because their livelihoods are at the mercy of ATF regulation.

All of this, it is alleged, was done in order to boost the numbers of seized semi-automatic "assault weapons" in Mexico to justify continued, or expanded, Project Gunrunner funding.

On 15 December 2010, Border Patrol officer Brian Terry was killed with a semi-automatic rifle in the hands of a smuggler. It is alleged by ATF street agents that this weapon was one of the "walked" rifles. An FBI murder investigation is proceeding, as is an internal ATF investigation. In the opinion of some ATF agents, these investigations have been used by ATF management to extort silence from agents in the furtherance of a cover-up of the complicity of ATF and Justice Department senior management in the death of BPA Terry.

What is known is that an unknown but significant number of ATF agents with personal knowledge and documents of this scandal, which has been dubbed "Project Gunwalker" by blogger and Guns Magazine columnist David Codrea, are willing to tell their story to any Senator who asks them. At present, their careers, their liberty and perhaps even their lives are on the line. They need whistleblower status. They remain twisting in the wind, subject to all the considerable coercive forces that any administration under pressure of the exposure of its own lawbreaking can bring.

Yet to date no Senator has stepped forward to assist them.

Not one.

Not even, with the least excuse, my own Senator Jeff Sessions, former ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose staffers Stephen Miller and Sarah Haley, have been regularly apprised by both email and phone of this and other ATF scandals. To date, Senator Sessions has taken no action. He has, to all external evidence, shamefully looked the other way and left these brave agents in the lurch.

Mike Vanderboegh


Timeline on ATF "Project Gunwalker" scandal and the death of BP agent Terry.

21 September 2010: Michael Isikoff story, written from a leaked draft report, criticizes ATF performance in interdicting smuggled weapons to Mexico: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39282887/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

"A major Justice Department program aimed at intercepting the flow of U.S. weapons to Mexico’s drug cartels is misfiring due to bureaucratic turf battles and a failure to share critical intelligence about illegal firearms purchases, according to an internal department report."

This story has followed on the heels of much disputation of ATF statistics used to justify Project Gunrunner. Contact David Codrea, of the National Gun Rights Examiner column for background. Email: dcodrea@hotmail.com.

November 2010: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General report, "Review of ATF's Project Gunrunner" excoriates ATF performance. Report found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/41724438/Inspector-General-Report-on-ATF-s-Project-Gunrunner

12 December 2010: Washington Post runs an article based on leak from ATF claiming that Carter's Country gun store outlets in Houston area are guilty of straw-man sales. Storyline attacked the next day by celebrated Texas criminal defense attorney Dick Deguerin, representing Carter's Country, who says:

"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.

I cover the story a month later here http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/01/following-various-threads-of-project.html along with links to stories and video.

15 December 2010: Border Patrol officer Brian Terry killed with a semi-auto rifle in the hands of a smuggler. Story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40678058/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

28 December 2010: My first post on the subject headlined: "Border Patrol agent killed with ATF-smuggled AR? Some ATF agents seem to think so." Link: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2010/12/border-patrol-agent-killed-with-atf.html It referred to a CleanUpATF website post (CUATF.org is a website run by ATF agents who desire that the ATF clean up its own act.): http://cleanupatf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=153

Gist of the rumor posted by ATF agent:

Word is that curios George Gillett the Phoenix ASAC stepped on it again. Allegedly he has approved more than 500 AR-15 type rifles from Tucson and Phoenix cases to be "walked" to Mexico. Appears that ATF may be one of the largest suppliers of assault rifles to the Mexican cartels! One of these rifles is rumored to have been linked to the recent killing of a Border Patrol Officer in Nogales, AZ.

29 December 2010 to 5 January 2011: We continue to get rumors from ATF agents and others that this story is correct. Among those who are hearing from ATF agents are David Codrea, myself and Len Savage, Georgia firearms designer and SOT manufacturer who has a federal court C.V. as an expert witness on firearms. Having previously incurred the wrath of ATF's Chief Counsel's Office by testifying against them in various court cases, Savage is himself the victim of what is called by the ATF an "economic Waco." Len's email is: lensavag@bellsouth.net. David Codrea runs stories both on his Examiner column and his blog, The War on Guns. David dubs this scandal "Project Gunwalker."

On 3 January, David runs a story entitled: "Media coverage of ATF corruption investigation developments nonexistent."

Here's the link: http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/media-coverage-of-important-atf-corruption-investigation-developments-nonexisten

On 5 January, I run a story which says:

Remember this story from the 28th of December? "Border Patrol agent killed with ATF-smuggled AR? Some ATF agents seem to think so."

The DOJ computers have been hitting this story big-time the last two days. Usually they out-click to CUATF.org.

Well, here's what a solid source within ATF says about this story this morning:

"It's true. Pure fact verified. Ongoing inv(estigation) I can't discuss."

Now, to be careful, let's assume that this confirmation applies only to what would be knowledge to the ATF -- that the Phoenix SAC and ASAC were responsible for allowing the smuggling of semi-auto rifles into Mexico to boost the statistics to justify Operation Gunrunner. I do know that "mainstream" reporters are working on the mysterious circumstances of the death of Border Patrol officer Brian A. Terry and getting close to verifying the rumor posted on CleanUpATF.org that he was killed with one of the "walked" weapons.

If this story makes it to the cable news cycle, there is no possibility that ATF can avoid the antiseptic qualities of sunlight on all of their criminal acts. All credit should go to the agents of CUATF who broke this story and to David Codrea who has shoved the story along and into a wider audience.

See: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/01/pure-fact-verified-atf-scandal-thats.html

7 January 2011: I report that "A long-time friend of mine . . . informs me that his sources tell him that the White House is now fully briefed on the "Walking Gun-gate" scandal and is now calling the shots. "They are in desperate need of a cover-up, but aren't competent enough to arrange one," he said with a laugh. "They don't know whether to shit or go blind."

I continue:

Among the things we know:

1. ATF’s Phoenix office allowed the guns to go across the border.

2. The ATF office in Mexico was denied permission to share this information with their Mexican counterparts. Believing this was wrong, they went over the heads of the Phoenix office and requested permission directly from headquarters in DC.

3. The higher-ups sided with the Phoenix decision to withhold the information from Mexican authorities.

As David asks: "That would make this an international law enforcement incident, would it not?"

Yes it does, and that is reported to be part of the White House dilemma.

In terms of proof that one of ATF "walking guns" was used to murder Brian Terry, it can be simply answered under oath by settling two questions:

1. What does ATF trace data show?

2. Were any prior traces ever run on this particular firearm, and what did they show?

I also report on 7 January that the CleanUpATF.org website was hacked overnight.

Link to my story: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/01/white-house-now-in-decision-making-loop.html

7 January 2011: Later that day, I post this story, based on an email I received from an ATF agent:

This just in on the Mexican end of what David Codrea has called "Project Gunwalker."

Just received this in over the electronic transom:

(REDACTED) former attache to Mexico is an honest and honorable guy. He was forcefully removed from Mexico w o warning in Nov 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.

OK, Senators and Congressmen. If you want to have a name to pursue in your investigation(s) you have only to contact me.

(Senator Sessions' office received this email, among many others on the same subject over the past months. So did his man on the Senate Judiciary Committee. We have the name of this man which is redacted but it is said he prefers to talk to Senator Sessions or other federal legislator rather than the media due to the on-going investigation. The FBI has opened a murder investigation of BPA Terry, and my info is that both Main Justice and ATF internal affairs are on this, but their traditional default position is to "investigate" in order to cover up.)

Link at: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/01/this-just-in-on-mexican-end-of-what.html

17 January 2011: ATF agent contacts David Codrea, saying, in part:

The risk that comes with me putting it out there is so great; I need to know that whomever is going to do the right things with it. It needs to stop - now. Your numbers are way too low and there's so much more: not only looking the other way but actually facilitating trafficking, threatening and punishing agents who voiced objections, covering up trace information, the truth about the gun that killed BPA Terry, what I.C.E. knew, it goes on and on. And I can prove it all. So you tell me - who do I talk to?

18 January 2011: Numerous people, including myself, spend most of the day contacting various Senators' offices, including those who had previously indicated that they would help us. By the end of the day, none have agreed to contact the courageous ATF agents who are risking so much. Most calls go to voicemail. None are returned.

Larry Pratt comes out swinging on the Project Gunwalker scandal while the "800 pound gorilla" NRA rests upon its considerable ass.

Eric Holder to Lanny Breuer, pointing at the 800 pound gorilla sitting on its ass: "What about him?" Breuer: "Don't worry, that's the NRA, he's tame."

As previously reported, FOX had two pieces on the Project Gunwalker scandal today. The better of the two was Larry Pratt's commentary on the Traver nomination which of course is intimately intertwined now with the Gunwalker scandal.

Larry came out swinging, and apparently the ATF had declined to provide anyone to defend Traver, for it was Larry vs. Megyn Kelly, who was spinning out the administration meme as best she could.

I want to go on record about one thing. When it came to David's and my attention that the whistleblowers were out there willing to tell their stories, Larry Pratt was one of the first guys we called for advice on how and who to contact to make that happen. GOA worked quietly behind the scenes, helping us get in touch with the right people in Sessions' and Grassley's offices. We also consulted him on how to help move the story along in the media. At every turn, Larry and the GOA were there to help any way they could. It is the height of irony that the FOX build-up to the story on Traver credited NRA with its opposition, whereas it was GOA that was, like the Gunwalker scandal, early in the trenches against Traver while the NRA sat back and calculated the odds, as the Lairds of Fairfax always do.

When the behind-the-scenes story of the opening moves of the Project Gunwalker scandal is finally told, you will be able to find Larry Pratt and Gun Owners of America in the index with multiple citations. The NRA? Once again, missing in action, resting upon its considerable "800 pound gorilla" ass. Of course, they will later claim credit for all of it, as they usually do -- after the fact.

Mike
III

Link: Larry Pratt takes on Obama's ATF nomination. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vir7ebYAoWY&feature=player_embedded#at=24

NRA AWOL: "Attack" of the gunweenies. Wayne LaPierre dances around the Gunwalker scandal subject in public, averting his eyes and stilling his tongue.

Wayne LaPierre, confronted with the Gunwalker scandal, reacts poorly.

So, the radio show went well, I thought.

My fellow guest (to my surprise) was Jeff Knox, and together we did a good job, I thought. We differed on one thing, though.

Jeff, having shaken the NRA bush himself, concludes that the Lairds are indeed serious about pursuing Gunwalker. So, too, it seems is CCRKBA's John Snyder who is fulsome in his praise of Lamar Smith.

Whatever. I stand by my sources in my essay of yesterday. I still think that at some level the fix is in.

As one of my sources observed: "Right after we talked earlier one of the (NRA) players was in a debate on FOX about guns and ATF and never even mentioned Gunwalker."

How do you do that, exactly? Unless, of course, you're trying to avoid the subject. Here's the "player" at work:



Why would you leave your biggest weapon in the holster and unmentioned? Why does he sound so ineffectual and defensive? The Gunwalker scandal gives him the biggest weapon ever devised to discredit the entire scheme of federal firearms control and he doesn't use it? Why? Why doesn't he just say from the jump that "the President's proposals further empower the ATF and until we get to the bottom of what really happened with the Project Gunwalker scandal, any other discussions are pointless"?

Unless the fix is in.

Kabuki theater indeed.

The NRA Lairds of Fairfax know that other folks are watching, however. The New York Times reports here that "N.R.A. Declines to Meet With Obama on Gun Policy."

WASHINGTON — More than two months after the Tucson shootings, the administration is calling together both the gun lobby and gun safety groups to find common ground. But President Obama has no plans to take the lead in proposing further gun control legislation, aides say, and the nation’s major gun rights group is snubbing the invitation.

On Tuesday, officials at the Justice Department will meet with gun control advocates in the first of what will be a series of meetings over the next two weeks with people on different sides of the issue, including law enforcement, retailers and manufacturers, to seek agreement on possible legislative or administrative actions.

The effort follows Mr. Obama’s call, in a column on Sunday in a Tucson newspaper, to put aside “stale policy debates” and begin “a new discussion” on ways to better enforce and strengthen existing laws to keep mentally unstable, violent and criminal people from getting guns.

But the National Rifle Association, for decades the most formidable force against proposals to limit gun sales or ownership, is refusing to join the discussion — possibly dooming it from the start, given the lobby’s clout with both parties in Congress. Administration officials had indicated they expected that the group would be represented at a meeting, perhaps on Friday.

This tracks with the rumors floated before yesterday. The NRA, like SAAMI and NSSF, was going to participate in a new Munich Conference on firearms. But in this case Neville Chamberlain decided, apparently at the last minute, not to sit down to negotiate other people's surrender.

“Why should I or the N.R.A. go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment in the United States?” said Wayne LaPierre, the longtime chief executive of the National Rifle Association.

He named Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has almost no role in gun-related policies, and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

Here again, in smarmy NYT-speak, is one of the effects of ignoring the Gunwalker scandal, for Hillary sure as hell was hip-deep in foreign policy aspects of that monstrous policy. But how can she be indicted without mentioning that little fact?

Why should he go? Wayne asks. I'll tell you why. To take the fight to the enemy on his own ground, to rhetorically "slap his jaws and force him to resent it" in the words of Nathan Bedford Forrest, to rock him back on his narrow-assed manipulative heels.

Now if it were me (and the chances of me becoming a Laird of Fairfax are something approaching less than zero) I'd walk boldly into meeting, and blow it up at the first sentence I got to speak with the declaration above: "Mr. President, your proposals further empower the ATF and until we get to the bottom of what really happened with the Project Gunwalker scandal, any other discussions are pointless." Then I would get up and walk out. And that would be the headline in the next day's newspapers.

But then that would be the act of a leader, not a compromised gunweenie. Even the NYT picks up on how unprincipled LaPierre's stand is:

“It shouldn’t be a dialogue about guns; it really should be a dialogue about dangerous people,” Mr. LaPierre said, adding that his group has supported proposals to prevent gun sales to the mentally ill, strengthen a national system of background checks and spur states to provide needed data.

Despite his opposition to joining the administration’s table, by his comments in an interview Mr. LaPierre sounded at times like the White House.

Indeed he did and indeed he does.

GOA's Larry Pratt, in contrast, brings up Gunwalker every chance he gets. Remember his contentious bout with Megyn Kelly? Indeed. Let's see that footage again:



That's what an interview looks like with a real leader who is on message and unafraid.


Wayne LaPierre comes out of the closet: "Yes, I'm a gunweenie! Okay? I admit it! So, there!"

No wonder LaPierre hides from the Gunwalker scandal. He might actually have to DO something for all those bucks the NRA membership pays him to represent their interests. You almost have to wonder what pictures Obama and his minions have of LaPierre. Fun with farm animals? Or just Chris Cox?

I'll believe that LaPierre and the NRA are serious about the Gunwalker scandal when they insist that any future campaign dollars will only go to national legislators who demand hearings now.

Everything else is just kabuki theater for the credulous and gullible Fudds in the cheap seats.

Until then, it is just the same old NRA weeniemobile, shuttling around, avoiding the issue.