The True Story of the Life of "R.A. Bear": Inception & impregnation into the minds of the ATF via a highly placed snitch named Dan Shea of the NFATCA.

Dan Shea and John Brown at an early age.

Long-time readers of Sipsey Street will recall Dan Shea's first appearance in these pages. At the time I dubbed him a "Useful Jew" along the lines of the Lodz Ghetto's Chaim Rumkowski, for using his pulpit at Small Arms Review to make statements like:

There are a few misguided crusaders on the pro-gun side who cross the line; probably the most dangerous people there are to us because they will sacrifice anyone and anything to their generally misguided and usually self-serving agendas. Up in the mountains, we used to have a self-mocking saying. "Hey, Elmer, why don't you go poke that stupid old bear over there with a stick. Stupid old bear." The problem here is that all of the rest of us are are near that bear too. One has to wonder how much damage has been done by this very small group of "true believers" who have attacked the general employees of ATF instead of trying to effect true change in policy, regulation or law. Generally, their arguments are poorly thought out and rely on parsing words, instead of reading the laws as written and working within that as well as the existing political structure to effect real, solid changes. We need good, solid well thought out negotiation and proper legal and legislative remedies to address our issues. Join the NFATCA and help.

Now that Shea has been identified as the ATF snitch who first introduced R.A. Bear into the minds of the ATF Chief Counsel's Office and since NFATCA is back in the news as doing us all a favor making a back room deal with ATF and other entities on large-caliber ammunition (see David's column linked below), the cockroach spokesmen are popping up to defend their fellow photo-phobes.

In comments at David Codrea's Examiner column and here at Sipsey Street, The Dan Shea/John Brown/NFATCA/ATF Anti-Defamation League writing either anonymously or under the Frank Herbertian nom d'guerre of "kwisatz" attempts to defend the indefensible. Here's the one he posted at Sipsey Street:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for confirming what I already suspected. You have no idea what you are talking about. That's just fine. You wrote that Dan Shea was the president and were wrong. What else have you wrote about him that is wrong?

As for the 'public" being "invited" to this meeting let's be very clear. EPS was trying to get this shoved through without any scrutiny of any kind. NRA was unaware, NSSF, SAAMI, Safari and all the others were totally in the dark. NFATCA pulled of the emergency meeting with a week of notice and got the brakes put on a monumental cluster in the making. That very much benefits the public in my mind.

What specific ideas and concepts did you want advanced at this meeting? I'd like to know. Somehow I think that you are going to say that the ATF should be abolished. That may be very true but it is not a viable component of this meeting. So what did you want advanced?

And as far as the whole Dan shea thing, dude, you give him wayyy to much credit. Bowers supporting ATF and NFATCA, what a hoot!

Now, for the uninitiated, here are the players and names:

Bowers: Principal moderator/owner of subguns.com, a machine gun collector and enthusiast website, with a reluctance to take on the ATF and an over-active delete key.

John Brown: Friend of Dan Shea and President of NFATCA, the NFA Trade and Collectors Association (the machine gun equivalent of the NRA).

EPS: Inside ATF speak for the Enforcement Programs and Services Directorate. Since May 2010, Arthur Herbert has been the Assistant Director for EPS.

Dan Shea: NFATCA big wig, owner of Long Mountain Outfitters and Small Arms Review, as well as an ATF snitch with a symbiotic relationship with the agency, who apparently both dispensed and received information.

Now, "Anonymous" is correct when in an earlier post, I characterized Shea in a typo as "president" of NFATCA when I meant to say "de facto president." I later corrected it. Brown is President of the NFATCA, but he and Shea have, until recently, been joined at the hip -- the Bobsey Twins of the NFATCA "go-along, get-along" ATF friendly leadership.

I now know that I also made an error about the inception of R.A. Bear in my open letter to Andy Traver. Here is what I told him last Friday on the blog and in email:

The cultivation and pressuring of informants, including those at the highest levels of industry associations such as the NFATCA, is doing your agency more harm than good when it is driven not by actual police work in furtherance of the law but by the desire on the part of CCO to root out and make unwarranted criminal cases against people they view as "poisonous weasels." This agenda-driven corruption of the process opens the ATF up to self-discrediting errors such as that represented by R.A. Bear. As best I understand the beginning of the story, the CCO wanted to "get" an honest man whose only "crime" had been to defy them in court. To that end they put pressure on all their snitches to come up with anything. One highly-placed informant, apparently on the hook legally and under pressure himself from the ATF, leaned on on another man who knew the target to rat him out for any irregularity. Caught in an awkward situation, unable to satisfy a man who himself could make economic trouble for him, he gave the informant a name -- R.A. Bear. From that point Mr. Bear took on a life of his own, a process which I was honored to assist in. We gave him friends, a life history, we paged him at gun shows and machine gun shoots and, on the orders of the CCO, your agents scurried hither and yon, chasing each and every clue and always coming up empty. CCO lawyers demanded to know about him in discovery depositions, always to be told truthfully under oath, "I know of no such person as R.A. Bear."

The error I made, however, actually gave Shea more credit than he deserved. Here is the more accurate story of the inception of R.A. Bear and the impregnation of that fertilized fictional ovum into the brains of the malevolent morons of the ATF Chief Counsel's Office. We begin by deconstructing the problematic portion of the paragraph above:

As best I understand the beginning of the story, the CCO wanted to "get" an honest man whose only "crime" had been to defy them in court. To that end they put pressure on all their snitches to come up with anything.

MBV: This part is true. (Although "defy" is way the ATF CCO looked at it, his actual sin in their eyes was to be an effective expert witness for the defense.)

One highly-placed informant, apparently on the hook legally and under pressure himself from the ATF,

MBV: This part is also true.

leaned on on another man who knew the target to rat him out for any irregularity. Caught in an awkward situation, unable to satisfy a man who himself could make economic trouble for him, he gave the informant a name -- R.A. Bear.

MBV: This part is not true. The truth, for one E. Daniel Shea, is even more damning. For it is Dan Shea, and Dan Shea alone, who first gave the suggestion of corporeal form to the stuffed child's toy as ATF "person of interest."

The story starts innocently enough years before, when a man we will call The Author needed a second phone. In his own words here is The Unlikely Story of Ramsey Bear.

Earliest known photo of ATF "Person of Interest" R. A. Bear.

In the mid 1980s, the author wanted a second telephone line in his home. In order to avoid confusion in the telephone directory with the first telephone line, he obtained the second phone line in the name of his daughter's toy bear, R. A. Bear. . .

(Later), the author began writing for MACHINE GUN NEWS. After MGN closed its doors, the author became an 8% owner of a limited liability corporation that was formed to print a new magazine called SMALL ARMS REVIEW. Dan Shea was the general partner of the LLC.

The author paid for a regular subscription to SMALL ARMS REVIEW. Not wanting to wait for the slow 3rd class delivery of the magazine, and wishing to have a second copy as a reference as well, he paid for a second subscription to SMALL ARMS REVIEW. This one to be delivered by 1st class mail. In order to avoid any confusion with his 3rd class subscription, the author used the name of Ramsey Bear for the 1st class subscription.

Nearly three years ago, Dan Shea emailed the author saying that if the author was not happy with the way that things were going at SMALL ARMS REVIEW, the he would buy the author's share of the LLC. The author was in the dark regarding the possible value of his share. He queried Dan Shea regarding the detailed financial information that would be required to make a proper evaluation. Some information was forthcoming but not nearly enough to make a proper evaluation.

Per the LLC's written Operating Agreement, any shareholder, or his CPA is permitted to audit the LLC's books during normal business hours. The author sent a forensic CPA to audit the LLC's books. After two days of work, the CPA reported that he was not being given access to sufficient information to complete his audit.

To no avail, many emails were exchanged between the author and Dan Shea to resolve this situation. As a consequence, the author retained a Nevada attorney and filed litigation to require Dan Shea to comply with the rules of the LLC's written Operating Agreement.

Afterward, at a meeting of the LLC's shareholders, Dan Shea stated, "I am not going to work with you any more." After this, none of the author's already submitted stories were printed in SMALL ARMS REVIEW and the author's paid 3rd class mail subscription to SMALL ARMS REVIEW ceased to arrive. Ramsey Bear's 1st class mail subscription continued arriving but after a few months, it too ceased. In Nevada at that time, the only known connection between Ramsey Bear and the author was that both of their subscriptions came to the same street address.

During the pre-trial discovery, the author was required to provide Shea's attorney with many items of information. All of the requested items were provided but one. Thinking it hilarious that Shea believed that Ramsey Bear was a real person, the author refused to provide any information regarding Ramsey Bear, saying that whatever the bear and the author did in the privacy of their home was not a concern of Shea's.

Several months later, during depositions taken during the Len Savage affair regarding the arrested MAC10 belt fed upper, Ramsey Bear's name came up again. Both Len Savage and an expert witnesses were asked if they had consulted with Ramsey Bear while designing the arrested upper. Both answered truthfully that they knew no person named "Ramsey Bear."

So, how did the bear's name come up in a deposition that was taken in Georgia? The author cannot say with certainty. At that time though, the only known person though who thought that Ramsey Bear was a real person was Dan Shea. Perhaps Dan Shea still believes that Ramsey Bear is a real person. In August of 2010, Shea's attorney tried to serve a subpoena on Ramsey Bear in order to require the teddy bear to appear for a deposition in Nevada.

The point is, how did ATF come to be interested in R.A. Bear enough to begin asking about him in depositions regarding Len Savage? How did this morph from a personal matter with Shea to an agency investigation of a stuffed child's toy?

What follows is what can be discerned from court papers filed in Nevada as well as ATF emails revealed as part of discovery in another case. About the same time as the Shea/Author controversy began, the ATF was very upset at Georgia firearms designer Lennis "Len" Savage for testifying against them as an expert witness in the Olofson case and others.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, at the same time Dan Shea announced that Small Arms Review would no longer accept articles by or about Len Savage (Shea later gave this account himself under oath).

Thus there appears to be an identity and confluence of interests -- political, economic and bureaucratic -- ATF wished to remove the "poisonous weasel" Len Savage from competition in federal court; Dan Shea had his own reasons, founded upon, by his own words and actions, an animus towards Len Savage.

Meanwhile, and not coincidentally in this writer's opinion, in what has now become known as "The Case of the Arrested Gun," the ATF seized a firearms component -- an upper designed by Savage -- in furtherance of an "economic Waco" in order to force him out of business and out of federal court and his status as an expert witness. This campaign was almost entirely driven by the malevolent morons in the Chief Counsel's Office.

However, as a result of that case and internal ATF emails provided under discovery, we know more than a little about the symbiotic relationship between certain NFATCA board members and the ATF at the highest levels, including Shea and his Bobbsey Twin John Brown. For example, Brown forwarded emails that Len Savage had sent to him privately on to the ATF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ATF'S LITIGATION OVER THE "ARRESTED GUN."

It was as part of the ATF's search for anything to use against Savage and Shea's adoption of their anti-Savage cause, that Shea provided the name R.A. Bear. Now this could have been a cynical attempt by Shea to use the ATF's investigatory power to help him go after The Author, or it could have been ATF pressuring Shea -- who is rumored to have his own legal difficulties with the ATF, the usual pattern for ATF informant recruitment -- to give them something, anything, on Savage and his friends.

Once it became clear, through other means and venues, that the ATF had an intense interest in the whereabouts of one R.A. Bear and his relationship to Len Savage, the chase was on. In effect, Dan Shea gave the ATF a name to chase, but some of us members of the Coalition of the Willing Lilliputians fleshed out the phantom and gave him real form. And boy did they ever chase him.

The bare bones of this story initially came to me after I contacted Len for help with technical aspects of Absolved, although the story I gleaned was both absent names and incorrect in some details and later interpretation. The fault for that error is all mine, not that it exculpates Shea in any way. Quite the opposite.

The rest, as they say, is history, or at least it will be as soon as R.A. Bear "testifies" at a congressional hearing about "economic Wacos" to the utter discredit of Dan Shea, John Brown, the NFATCA and the ATF.

Fortunately, I was able to pull my bad copy of the letter to Andy Traver out of the mail before it left this morning, so I will be editing it to reflect this more perfect understanding of how Dan Shea, ATF informant, sandbagged that agency with the willing and eager assistance of the malevolent morons of the ATF Chief Counsel's Office.

The only mystery now is how will the net trolls of the NFATCA/ATF Anti-Defamation League explain this one.

Mike Vanderboegh
III

David has another exclusive: "ATF Chief Counsel’s office warned management of Gun Rights Examiner column." Ramsey A. Bear strikes again!

Burglar angst.

If the photo credit on this email is to be believed, C.O.W.L. deep-cover operative Ramsey A. Bear has struck again!

Gun Rights Examiner has obtained a copy of a January 20, 2011 email from Barry Orlow, Associate Chief Counsel (Field Operations and Information) for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, calling top management’s attention to a January 19 column posted by this columnist, “Open Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee staff on 'Project Gunwalker'.”

Written to inform the committee of whistleblower allegations and to arrange for their protection, the ultimate goal of the open letter was to prompt a full congressional investigation.

Orlow was named by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa in July for sending intimidating warning letters to witnesses about what they could not talk about, with the result that “at least one witness wanted to back out of testifying to his committee after receiving the letter.”

. . . Also receiving a copy of the Orlow email was Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars, who originally reported the gunwalking allegations on CleanUpATF and their link to the murder of border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Vanderboegh’s reaction:

Very illuminating. This very early email demonstrates something that our sources have been saying all along. Even when the rest of the media and the political class were as yet ignorant of the Gunwalker Scandal, the gunwalkers themselves, the upper management types of ATF and DOJ, were monitoring -- and acutely aware of -- every tiny development in the story as reported by Gun Rights Examiner, Sipsey Street and CleanUpATF.org. They exhibited all the tension and straining of senses that a burglar does right after he breaks a window and makes too much noise. Did anybody hear? Is anybody paying attention? Will somebody call a cop?

And who were they afraid of? A few -- very few -- dissident ATF agents and lowly gun rights bloggers who, by Internet standards, were hardly noticeable or noticed. Yet, even at this early stage, we were apparently living in their heads rent free, all expenses paid.

They had broken the window, somebody they couldn't control had noticed, and were now in the process of calling the cops. No wonder they were paying attention to you.

Ramsey A. Bear and friend. Even from retirement, this deep-cover operative of the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians continues to strike terror into the hearts of the Gunwalker conspirators.

Send in the visiting sewer maintenance worker! U.S. vs. Clark developments: James P. "Little Jimmy" Vann raises his little head in the Clark case!

From Pacer:

TEXT ONLY Minute Entry for proceedings held before Chief Judge Roslyn O Silver: Status Conference as to George Dibril Clark, III, Randolph Benjamin Rodman, Hal Paul Goldstein, Lorren Marc Kalish, James Patrick Arnberger, Idan C Greenberg held on 2/6/2012. IT IS ORDERED denying as moot 230 Motion to Preserve Electronic Mail and denying 236 Motion for Disclosure of Grand Jury Transcripts.

Appearances: AUSA Kathy Lemke and James Vann for the Government, (emphasis added, MBV) AFPD Greg Bartolomei for defendant George Dibril Clark, III, retained attorney Robert Sanders (telephonically) for defendant Randolph Benjamin Rodman, retained attorney Joseph Conte (telephonically) for defendant Hal Paul Goldstein, retained attorney Michael Smith for defendant Lorren Marc Kalish, retained attorney Michael Smith appearing for retained attorney Frederick Petti for defendant James Patrick Arnberger, and retained attorney Loyd Tate for defendant Idan C. Greenberg. Defendant George Dibril Clerk, III is present and released. All remaining defendants are not present and released. (Court Reporter Elaine Cropper.) This is a TEXT ENTRY ONLY. There is no PDF document associated with this entry. (CLB) (Entered: 02/07/2012)

Well, well. The legendary ATF version of Inspector Javert -- the Chief Counsels Office attorney who chased the imagined criminal Ramsey A. Bear for almost two years -- the hatchet man of Teresa Ficaretta -- the perpetrator of Groundhog Day in the Friesen case, where he arranged the turning over of discovery material to defense attorneys after the files had been corrupted by viruses, thereby changing his reputation from Visiting Fireman to Visiting Sewer Maintenance Worker -- the man whose appearance in ATF cases always means they are turning to shit -- yes, the one, the only James P. "Little Jimmy" Vann has reared his ugly little head in the Clark case!

The transcripts of this hearing will be available soon, and I can't wait to see what contribution the obsessed and obsessive Little Jimmy had to offer. Rumor has it that Little Javert, I mean, Little Jimmy, is still pissed off about his continuing Sipsey Street coverage. I do sincerely hope so. Perhaps we should send Ramsey A. Bear out to file a Friend of the Court brief.

Ramsey A. Bear, Little Jimmy Vann's imagined nemesis.

Sipsey Street Exclusive: The curious case of Serial Number A6042075. What exactly did the ATF & DOJ tell the grand jury in U.S. vs. Clark? A tale of machine guns, a well placed protected snitch, insider influence, contradictory rule making, doctored reports and double-standard "justice."

U.S. Attorney General Homer S. Cummings, FDR's federal law enforcement empire builder and father of the 1934 National Firearms Act.

Sipsey Street Exclusive: The curious case of Serial Number A6042075. What exactly did the ATF & DOJ tell the grand jury in U.S. vs. Clark? A tale of machine guns, a well placed protected snitch, insider influence, contradictory rule making, doctored reports and double-standard "justice."

By Mike Vanderboegh and "Ramsey A. Bear."

The assertion of federal power over guns and crime fit perfectly with Franklin D. Rossevelt's philosophy of using the government to protect ordinary American's from the hazards of modern society. . . the New Deal was nothing less than a radical retructuring of American government . . . Roosevelt portrayed gun control and crime fighting as simply one more element of the Neweal -- indeed, of the new America. . . "As a component part of that larger objective we include our constant struggle against the attacks of the lawless and criminal elements of our own populations." Because crime drained the economy, federal crime control, we argued, was essential for national recovery.

Roosevelt understood that, like many of his other New Deal reforms, a federal push in the field of guns and crime would face opposition from traditionalists committed to states' rights. . . The situation required a "New Deal for Crime." Just as Rossevelt sought to expand the power and reach of the federal government over the economy, he determined to expand its power and reach over criminals and their weapons. The man Roosevelt tapped to to lead the push was his attorney general, Homer Cummings. A bald man with a round face and piercing blue eyes, Cummings was a close confidant of the president. He wasn't the first person you'd expect to lead a revolution. One of Roosevelt's speechwriters called Cummings "the least dramatic man in the whole world." A a three-time former mayor and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, however, Cummings was well versed in politics, and Roosevelt knew he wouldn't back down in the face of public or political opposition. . .

Cummings realized that he needed troops to wage war -- in this case, a truly effective federal police force. The Justice Department aqlready had what passed for law enforcement agents in the Bureau of Prohibition and the Bureau of Investigation. Yet the former was being disbanded in the wake of the legalization of liquor and the latter was an underfunded agency devoted mainly to information gathering. The agencies were also hamstrung by the states' rights tradition. Because policing was a state function, federal agents didn't have the power to arrest people and weren't allowed to carry guns. Soldiers in a war on crime couldn't be effective armed with only notepads. . . Cummings lobbied for a significant reorganization of the Bureau of Investigation . . . Two years later, Cummings had the agency itself renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to emphasize the new role of the federal government in fighting crime . . .

Gun control required legislation, not just good public relations. Prior to being elected president, FDR had served on the executive committee of the National Crime Commission . . . (which was) an early advocate for the creation of a federal police force and the passage of federal gun control laws . . . As Homer Cummings knew too well, there was ample precedent for the Supreme Court to strike down federal regulation . . . During the first three years of Cummings' tenure as attorney general, the Supreme Court struck down numerous landmark bills enacted to speed economic recovery. It was this dilemma that led Roosevelt in 1937 to propose his infamous Court-packing plan. The idea, which turned into a major embarrassment, was originally suggested by Homer Cummings. . .

Needing to find a way to restrict criminals' access to guns without being overturned by the Supreme Court, Cummings ingeniously proposed raising taxes on firearms. . . while Congress didn't have the power to ban guns directly, Cummings knew that . . . "the power to tax involves the power to destroy." . . . The gun control law adopted by Congress was entitled the National Firearms Act of 1934. The law imposed an onerous tax on machine guns and on short-barreled (or "sawed off") shotguns and rifles. . . Few law-abiding people had much interest in machine guns or short barreled shotguns, especially when the tax almost doiubled the price. Legitimate sales of these guns dried up almost immediately. . . It also required that owners of machine guns and short-barreled long-guns register with federal authorities and submit to fingerprinting within sixty days. -- Adam Winkler, Gun Fight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America, Norton, 2011, pp.196-204.

FDR, with Homer Cummings and J. Edgar Hoover looking on, signs the NFA of 1934.

The requirement to register machine guns was embodied in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (known by the shorthand NFRTR). This list is the arbiter of legal machine gun ownership. If your weapon and name are on the list, you may play with your expensive toy to your heart's content. If not, you go to the graybar hotel for many years and pay an onerous fine. The errors in the NFRTR are legendary in the machine gun collecting community, which is represented, NRA-like, by the National Firearms Act Trade & Collectors Association (NFATCA). The current president of the NFATCA is John Brown. Other board members are Teresa Starnes, Jeff Folloder, Curt Wolf, Robert Landies, Dan Shea, Robert Segel and John Tibbetts. (Readers will recall that Dan Shea has appeared many times previously in the pages of Sipsey Street, most spectacularly in The True Story of the Life of "R.A. Bear": Inception & impregnation into the minds of the ATF via a highly placed snitch named Dan Shea of the NFATCA.)

Ramsey A. Bear & Friend. It is estimated that the ATF devoted two years and more than a million dollars to the search for this "vicious gun criminal" who was thought to assist (courtesy of confidential informants like Dan Shea) Georgia firearm designer and manufacturer Len Savage, whose court room testimony inconvenienced the ATF in several court cases. R.A. Bear stands ready to be called as a witness in the next ATF congressional oversight hearing.

These NFRTR errors were famously compounded by clerks who, over the years, would throw paperwork in the trash when their in-boxes overflowed. The ATF has previously been caught out as instructing its agents to testify that the NFRTR is "100 percent correct" even though they admit to each other within the agency that this is surely incorrect. Most recently, the Friesen case blew up in the ATF's face when it became evident that the accuracy of the NFRTR was going to be a central tenet of the defense's case. The DOJ folded and allowed Doug Friesen to essentially "pay fifty dollars and pick up the garbage" on a minor paperwork violation. The last thing the ATF/DOJ wanted was to have to defend the accuracy of the NFRTR in court, simply because it can't be done. And yet people are put in jail every week -- for long sentences with heavy fines -- based on the allegation that the weapons they are found in possession of are not listed on the NFRTR.

Such defendants can be found in the strange case of U.S. vs, Clark. Recall that U.S. vs. Clark is a Phoenix case, investigated and prosecuted by the same cast of tax-paid malefactors as Fast and Furious. An interesting motion was filed the other day in U.S. vs. Clark, with some relevant portions below:

Defendants Randolph B. Rodman, Hal Paul Goldstein, Lorren Marc Kalish and Idan C. Greenberg, by and through Counsel, respectfully move the Court for its Order authorizing disclosure of the minutes of the proceedings of the grand jury or juries returning the indictment in this case. As grounds for this motion, Counsel have a good faith belief that grand jurors were provided with erroneous and ambiguous guidance regarding the law of the case. Failure to provide accurate interpretations of the law eliminated the grand jury’s ability to return a true and fair indictment. Errors are found in the text of Count One and are set forth in more detail below. The transcripts will enable a review for context and the ability to assess the cumulative effect of the error.

Prior to indictment, this case was investigated as a conspiracy to violate Section 922(o) of Title 18. As part of the investigation and before an indictment, every machinegun identified in the indictment was submitted to the Firearms Technology Branch (FTB), the official Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) laboratory in West Virginia. There, the machineguns were examined and tested for the sole purpose of determining whether modifications made to 34 machineguns by Defendant Clark constituted new manufactures. No opinion as to the date of manufacture of any of the machineguns was rendered by any of the FTB experts who examined and tested the machineguns. The presence of substantive § 922(o) counts in the indictment means that the grand jury found probable cause without a single expert opinion.

Currently, a year and a half after indictment, there is good reason to believe that Count One will be prosecuted as a conspiracy to violate § 922(o) of Title 18. Count One is the keystone of this 106 count prosecution. Without conviction on Count One, very few of the remaining substantive counts survive. Access to the transcripts will permit timely and thoroughly briefed objections to the Conspiracy and substantive § 922(o) counts. Dismissal of an indictment is appropriate where violations of grand jury procedures “substantially influenced the grand jury’s decision to indict,” or raised a “grave doubt as to whether it had such an effect.”

What?!? Lying by omission or commission to a grand jury? Say it ain't so, Rick Vasquez! There is, according to my sources, an internal investigation of Mr. Vasquez and his relationships with confidential informants John Brown and Dan Shea. There is a larger investigation of the question of whether those two worthies transferred automatic weapons to employees of of the ATF in return for favors. Thus, I was more than a little interesting is this portion of the motion:

THE ATF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

The origin of the criminal investigation was unusual. In contrast to the opening of most investigations, it was ATF employees of the NFA Branch and the FTB lab (government employees not authorized to conduct criminal investigations) who first became suspicious of the existence of a possible violations of law. After the performance of several investigatory tasks (5), the matter was referred first to the Washington DC (Falls Church) Criminal Division and later to the Phoenix ATF Criminal Division for criminal investigation.

The matter was referred to the Phoenix Special Agent in Charge by way of a memorandum dated November 16, 2006 from an ATF Deputy Assistant Director at ATF Headquarters (The Office of Enforcement Programs and Services) (6). Prior thereto, faceless and nameless ATF employees of the NFA Branch and the Firearms Technology Branch had already interviewed ATF employees about the matter, had numerous contacts with the person in possession of SN A6042075, a suspected contraband machinegun; they had conducted an alleged laboratory test of the suspect gun; and had also returned the gun to the registrant after determining it was contraband and was illegal to possess. All this took place before the formal referral for criminal investigation on November 16, 2006.

The referral memo of the Deputy Assistant Director included the following points

_________________________________

5 The significance of this is that such conduct violates ATF internal procedures. When persons unfamiliar with criminal procedures conduct interviews or handle property in a criminal matter there is risk that evidence will contaminated. ATF employees other than Special Agents, are not authorized, trained or otherwise qualified to conduct criminal interviews of suspects, seize property, receive abandoned property, collect and preserve evidence, or submit property for a determination of its potential evidentiary value, etc.

6 This position, despite its title, is a regulatory function that oversees the programs and Services that support the main functions of ATF, including such service providers as the NFA Branch and the FTB Branch supra., and others. MOTION USGJ TRANSCRIPTS FINAL 011012.wpd Page 12 of 18

supporting the need for a criminal investigation in Phoenix:

1. George Clark, a Special Occupational Taxpayer in Arizona since 1993, converted MAC Models 10 and 11 machineguns into Browning Model 1919 machineguns;

2. Applications (7) to transfer the converted guns from Clark to various parties were found to have constant make and model designations but the caliber, barrel and overall lengths were at variance with descriptions in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR);

3. One of the suspected machineguns, SN A6042075, caliber 9mm/45 cal., barrel lengths 5.57 inches and overall length 11 inches was then registered to a Virginia FFL, John Brown, DBA Battlefield Sports and that Mr. Brown transported this machinegun to the FTB lab in West Virginia for examination;

4. Significantly, the memo failed to disclose that prior to being in possession of SN A6042075, Brown had bought and sold at least two other M1919 machineguns and was a party in eight (8) applications to transfer models 1919 that had been converted from MAC models by Clark. It was also learned in review of discovery material that Brown was an ATF Confidential Informant;

5. The examination and testing of SN A6042075 was alleged to have been performed on October 31, 2006 by Richard Vasquez, the Deputy Chief of FTB; and

6. Vasquez concluded that the MAC Model 10 machinegun had been destroyed in the conversion process and that the Model 1919 was a new manufacture which triggered a requirement for Clark to file a Form 2 (notice of manufacture of a new machinegun). Since the Model 1919 was not registered, it was a contraband unregistered machinegun.

There are major problems with statements in the referral memo:

1. The memo cites neither to a statute, a regulation, a ruling nor any case law for the principle that the conversion of an NFA registered machinegun to another model constitutes the manufacture of a new machinegun and therefore requires a new registration. The conversion process described in the memo is a zero sum game. The MAC Model 10 machinegun that was converted was one machinegun lawfully registered and possessed before the conversion. Following the conversion, it was the same one machinegun albeit in a different configuration but nevertheless still one machinegun. The NFA is a tax statute and assesses tax on “machineguns,” per se, not models. The tax assessed and collected on every make, model, design, configuration of machinegun is set at the same uniform rate – $200.00 to register and $200.00 to transfer;

2. The Report of an Official Examination and Testing of SN A6042075 on October 31, 2006 is a canard, a complete, from whole cloth fabrication. Like a unicorn,

__________________________

7 At the time, 11/16/06, Ms. Stucko reported that 22 such suspect applications to transfer had been identified from a search of the NFRTR. The actual number charged in the indictment is 34 as others were discovered through investigation.

because it is impossible to find, it does not exist. The ATF FTB Laboratory has no record of receiving SN A6042075 for testing and examination on or about October 31, 2006. There is no report of such an examination in the FTB official system of records. The non-existence of A6042075's receipt in the FTB evidence log on October 31 and the non-existence of an FTB lab report was concealed from defendants throughout the discovery period. It was discovered only after Counsel’s specific requests for disclosure of the report were ignored for over a year. Finally, in October, 2011, Defendants received definitive proof that FTB has no record of receipt of that machinegun on or about that date. That fact was made known in response to a request for collateral items, i.e., for the pages of FTB’s evidence logs for October 31, 2006 and for any other entries in the FTB’s system of records. An agency capable of persisting in such deceit, patently false statements in a criminal investigation by top level ATF Headquarters Executives, is capable of much worse. (8)

THE ATF TECHNICAL EXAMINATIONS AND LAB REPORTS

Every machinegun in the indictment (approximately 80) was sent to the FTB lab for testing. Each was found to be a machinegun. However, they had been submitted to the lab for a determination whether they were manufactured after May 19, 1986. Such a finding is the ultimate proof at issue for a violation of § 922(o). The state of the government’s scientific evidence at the time of indictment was that it did not possess a single expert opinion about any machinegun submitted to FTB for testing (approximately 400) as to the date of manufacture, the place of manufacture and the identity of the manufacturer.

After the Court ordered deadline for completion of discovery had passed, on October 13, 2011, the government disclosed an undated report labeled “Supplemental Report of FTB 2008-514-KEM/FTB 2009-114-KEM.” (Supplemental Report). This report was prepared by Richard Vasquez, the government’s designated Firearms Expert Witness and purports (9) to supplement the time, these statements support an inference that government attorneys and witnesses polluted the grand jury process by the entry of erroneous statements of law. Taken at best, these remarks represent a profound misunderstanding of the rights and privileges, duties and obligations of a person in the status of a licensed manufacturer of firearms and a Special Occupational Taxpayer.

_______________________________

8 For more than a year, Defendants have requested confirmation of the existence of an internal investigation of ATF employees and regulated persons involved in this case and/or disclosure of the report of that investigation.(the ATF Office of Internal Affairs or Office of Professional Responsibility) Unlike a unicorn, the report of such an investigation does exist and it can be found.

9 The timing, authenticity and certification of this Report has not yet been challenged nor has the government provided any reasoning or authority for shifting lab reports. This is a Mr. Vasquez’s third modification of the official reports of another and bears no indicia that it is an official record of the ATF Firearms Technology Branch. The earlier official versions of the two reports contain no opinion that the conversions constituted a new manufacture.firearms expert. (One of the supplemented reports had been amended in February of 2011). Further, the report is not dated and bears no indicia that it is an official record of the ATF Firearms Technology Branch. The earlier official versions of the two reports contain no opinion that the conversions constituted a new manufacture.

Vasquez is in "a heap o' trouble," according to our sources. So, too, is the ATF. Insiders predict that the Clark case will go the way of the Friesen case, with all serious charges dismissed, afters years of investigation time and millions of dollars spent. A member of the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians, Alvin Wombat, provides this analysis:

I did a bit of serious nosing and reliably determined the following:

There is, absolutely, a sub rosa agenda by SOME people at ATF (I am not using a broad brush here) to systematically remove all of the registered/existing machine guns from civilians. The interpretation by SOME at ATF, fostered equally by ATF Counsel and SOME ATF Special Agents, is that the law was not enacted to preserve ownership of these existing machine guns, but instead to forcibly reduce the existing supply of transferable machine guns until it reaches zero.

There is some genuine sympathy developing for what Len terms ATF's "enforcement by ambush," i.e., concocting interpretations of what constitute violations of law; not publishing them or otherwise making them known; and "announcing" them by arresting people for serious felony (there is no other kind) violations of the NFA. David T. Hardy's recent observation in a blog on his site that ATF ought to, at a minimum based on the Administrative Procedures Act, make all of its pertinent Letter Rulings available to the public, including putting copies of them in a public Reading Room. The fact that ATF has issued many contradictory Letter Rulings is raising troubling legal issues.

It would be worth thumping Congressional washtubs to get the Congressional Research Service to once again address the Letter Ruling issue, in context of H.R. 126 (Fairness in Firearms Testing Act), because that would constitute a legislative approach to the issue/problem. The key to getting THAT done, in addition to the washtub thumping, is (A) getting some action on H.R. 126, and (B) getting somebody on the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security to take an interest in these aspects of enforcement.

I recognize that an important agenda is for the Congress to address the serious mismanagement of ATF from the top down, particularly the jacking around of ATF personnel---the retaliation, the increasingly crazy/contradictory enforcement. The "enforcement by ambush" aspect is just another example of ATF Counsel and top management abuse and failure to professionally administer the law.

5. In reading some of the Clark materials, it is impossible to conclude that the U.S. Attorney understands the law, and that ATF (through ATF Counsel) is not deliberately misrepresenting the law. The fact that this involves machine guns makes it politically dicey.

6. An angle to mess with this may be to put the ATF Letter Rulings in context with the Fairness in Firearms Testing Act; in particular, the practice of ATF to concoct standards to bring certain firearms into NFA status; like the re-testing in the Olofson case; and the crazy prosecution of Friesen (which revolved around what amounted to a firearm description).

Alvin Wombat.

Attention ATF Firearms Technology Branch: Deadly new sniper rifle suitable for black ops by Ramsey A. Bear. Don't you want to chase this one too?

Remember when the ATF's Chief Counsel's Office spent almost two years and much taxpayer money chasing after the stuffed child's toy, Ramsey A. Bear? Remember when the ATF cracked down on Airsoft toys as machine guns?

Now, here's a sniper rifle fit for Ramsey A. Bear and surely just as deadly as the "Airsoft machine gun" which would actually blow up if modified the way the ATF said it could be. Behold, the LEGO sniper rifle.


Lego sniper rifle brought to you by Funny Videos

Help vindicate R.A. Bear. -- IT IS TIME TO DEMAND CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT HEARINGS INTO THE ATF'S SCANDALS.

The latest move to bring in the Chicago Gang's favorite gun grabber, Andrew Traver, to become ATF Director means, among other things, that the Obamanoids intend to try to choke off congressional oversight by saying, "See, we've got rid of that old woman Melson and the criminal fools in the Chief Counsel's Office, so there's nothing to see here, citizen. Move along."

Some heads, we hear, are already rolling. Some more will roll. The question is can we force a hearing (or force our witnesses into one already scheduled by means of pointed questions under oath). There are many ATF victims, whistleblower agents and experts who can testify -- David Olofson, Len Savage, Doug Friesen, Albert Kwan, Ryan Horsley among others. Certainly Zorro, of the Garand importation scandal and the dissident agents at CleanUpATF.org could also lend their testimony.

But the prime witness, the one personage which the ATF absolutely does not want to answer questions about is R.A. Bear, the child's stuffed toy which they spent two years and at least a million dollars chasing all over the country.

Offered up as a suspect when one of the ATF's highly placed snitches in the firearms community was pressuring an acquaintance of Len Savage's for information, R.A. Bear took on a life of his own. Popularized in this blog and others, he was paged at gun shows and machine gun shoots all over the country -- most notably at Knob Creek where agents ran all the way to the main gate to see if they could get a glimpse of the elusive Bear. The ATF Chief Counsel's Office asked witnesses about him under oath in depositions, always eliciting the response: "I know of no such person as Ramsey A. Bear."

So eager were they to wreak an "economic Waco" on Len Savage that they obsessed about a child's toy in an effort to frame an innocent man and destroy his business, simply because he had the temerity to testify against them in court on behalf of the agency's victims. All at a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.

The present day mantra of both corrupt political parties is the claim that they wish to abolish "waste, fraud and abuse."

Let's take them at their word and demand of the new Congress and Senate an investigation into the waste, fraud, abuse and crimes of the ATF. And they can start with their wild bear chase after a child's stuffed toy.

Call, write and email your congresscritters and senators today. Post this on gun discussion groups, clean government and libertarian blogs. Call and write the NRA and watch them squirm. Demand vindication for R.A. Bear.

(I have it on good authority that he will show up if asked.)

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

Radical Rhinoplasty. Michael Bloomberg's Mother's Nose Job. Getting the old gal ready to go break some more laws.

A close-up of Charlotte Bloomberg's lockwork, in all her naked glory.

So, today I went over to my good friend and favorite gunsmith Len Savage in Heard County, Georgia with a mission: to submit Mrs. Bloomberg to a complete check up with a view to get Charlotte ready for the campaigns to come as we go back to Washington state to break Bloomberg's Law -- again.

With the assistance of Ramsey A. Bear, we stripped the old lady down for her physical and discovered, among other things:

** Her barrels had been previously cut down from a longer length (originals could have been as much as 36") and one of them was dented.

** she was looser than a goose with dysentery in her lockup. She positively rattled. The girl had obviously been around several blocks and probably fired with modern smokeless ammunition. The metallurgy was incredibly soft by modern standards. Someone had risked getting blown up at some time in the past.

** Her forearm wood was badly split and cosmetically very poorly repaired, but seemed like it would hold together for a while longer.

** She needed, and got, a good cleaning. We also used Brownell's OxphoBlue to darken her complexion a bit, but not, a Ramsey observed, "as dark as Mike Bloomberg's heart." We also left all of her wrinkles and warts intact. She earned those honestly.

** There were apparent bloodstains on the wood around the lockwork and blood pitting on the lockwork itself, prompting R.A. Bear to ask, "Why Mrs. Bloomberg, what HAVE you been up to?"

The important thing was to make her functional, within the limits of her flawed metallurgy, either with brass black powder shells or perhaps (and this may be in her immediate future) .410 sleeves. I was criticized by a couple of brave Anony Mouses that I was trying to evade arrest with a wall-hanger. So that was Priority Number One.

Then there was the business of the previously lopped-off and dented barrels. Ramsey suggested, "I think the old bitch needs a nose job. It'll make her handier in a tight spot, anyway." So that is what we did.

Here is the new Charlotte with her lopped-off nose, immediately after the rhinoplasty:

Of course we wanted to keep everything out of the Randy Weaver error zone, so the barrel is now a nice 18.75 inches.

Here she is as seen full length, cleaned up, tightened up, and fully functional and ready to go out and break Bloomberg's Law again:

And here I am, posing with the old girl and the result of her rhinoplasty.

I think I'll send the tip to Mike along with an explanatory cover letter.

NFATCA Follies. All that groveling and snitching and they got exactly dick to show for it. They can't blame this one on Ramsey A. Bear.

Readers may recall my post from nearly three years ago, "The True Story of the Life of "R.A. Bear": Inception & impregnation into the minds of the ATF via a highly placed snitch named Dan Shea of the NFATCA," detailing one aspect of the machinations attendant to the symbiotic relationship between Dan Shea and John Brown and the federal gun cops.

Now we have this important post from David Codrea detailing another result of all that groveling and snitching: "NFA firearms collectors group initiated ATF gun trust rule change."

While this column expressed concerns for the new requirements, commentators weighed in emphasizing the benefits of doing away with the CLEO signature requirement, as the current state of affairs allows a police chief or sheriff to ignore the application, thus halting the firearms transfer. The change was thus represented by some as a tradeoff worth making.

“Unfortunately, we just obtained a copy of the 62-page proposal and the above statement is a false depiction of the actual proposal, as everyone was made to believe that the CLEO signature requirement would be eliminated in exchange for additional regulations on fictitious entities,” Prince explained. “ATF will NOT be eliminating the CLEO requirement and instead IMPOSING it on ALL entities.”

David concludes:

What’s apparent from these new revelations is that additional public scrutiny is required, including scrutiny of backroom deals being arranged without fanfare by special interest groups who petition for changes to regulations that will reach beyond their membership of collectors and investors. What is unknown at this time is what changes the White House will insist on before a final draft is presented for public comment. That period has not yet begun, but when it does, as today’s revelations should make clear, it will be in the interests of all gun owners to become informed and engaged.

Be sure and go to the link and pass it along. I'll have more on this later, including an interview with sources close to Ramsey A. Bear. ;-)

David and Goliath death match coming soon live on C-SPAN? The Wicked Witch of Citizen Disarmament versus Ramsey A. Bear.

"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them . . . Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, I would have done it." -- Senator Diane Feinstein, CBS-TV, 60 Minutes, 5 February 1995.

A deep genuflection and tip of the boonie hat to reader Ryan who alerted me to this analysis at Soldier Systems: Classify ‘Assault Weapons’ Under NFA…The Grand Compromise?

I was intending to do a column on this, but the Soldier Systems' piece is a good place to start. Here's the deal. The NFA is so shot through with errors and problems of administration with the relatively small (and since 1986, finite) numbers of items subject to regulation that to dump tens of millions of semi-autos into it would collapse the damn thing in a welter of lawsuits and recriminations that would demand repeated oversight hearings of the ATF. (Think cockroaches and bright lights.) And that's ignoring the non-compliance and resistance it would bring from Three Percenters. The congressional hearings up front on this particular point would be a field day for our side -- an absolute field day. Ramsey A. Bear would probably be called to testify.

This is one loaded cigar that the gungrabbers (and certainly the ATF) shouldn't want to smoke -- if, of course, they have the sense that God gave a goose.

LATER: Here's DiFi's press release, explaining:

(The Act) requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:

* Background check of owner and any transferee;

* Type and serial number of the firearm;

* Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;

* Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and

* Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration

Also, get this: "Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds." Bans, as in, we catch you with those in your gun safe you're a federal criminal. Oh, yeah, DiFi, I can really see you getting away with THAT without starting a civil war. Or not.

Dedicated to Teresa Ficaretta in her search for the "security leak" who blew the cover off her little celebration of the multiple rifle sales diktat.

Undercover operative of C.O.W.L. -- The Coalition of Willing Lilliputians.



The little man who wasn't there.

Y'all may recall Teresa Ficaretta's celebration of the DOJ's end-run around Congress' opposition to the registration scheme known as the multiple-rifle sales diktat. We heard from several sources right after my post -- which, like this one, goes straight into Ms. Ficaretta's in-box -- that Terrible Teresa was pitching a screaming hissy fit, looking for Waldo, or whoever leaked it.

After I had an uncommonly, and I must admit ungentlemanly, good laugh at her expense, I decided it might be the decent thing to do to help her out of her conniption. For reasons I explain in the email, I copied it to Henry Kerner of the Issa committee.

-----Original Message-----
From: georgemason1776@aol.com
To: teresa.ficaretta@atf.gov
Cc: henry.kerner
Sent: Tue, Aug 30, 2011 3:54 pm
Subject: Just a tip about press leaks.

My dear Teresa,

Just trying to help, but you're not looking for one security leak, you're looking for a rusty screen door with holes in it. This happens in failed enterprises when the unloved managers who unintentionally engineered their agency's own collapse and try to blame it on other people find that since there was no top down loyalty, there is no bottom up loyalty either.

Here's another tip. You saw Waldo today and didn't recognize him. It may, in fact, have been when you looked in the mirror this morning.

Have a nice celebration of your diktat.

Mike Vanderboegh
Forwarding address: Living in your head, rent-free.
Gambit, AL

PS: I copy Henry on this so you would be able to contact him if, no, let's say, when, you decide to roll on your DOJ bosses. It is in your own best interests, you know. Last one to rat in a conspiracy gets the cell. Of course I'll be happy to interview you if you like. I'll have my official press credentials by the time of the next hearing, so I can't be tossed out on my ear. ;-)

PPSS: Did you ever figure out Ramsey A. Bear? 8-)

Ain't I a stinker?


Ramsey A. Bear, home from the psy-ops wars.

All Things Felonious. Say it ain't so, B. Toad Jones. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report: "ATF uses rogue tactics in storefront stings across the nation."

"Agency said failures of Milwaukee operation were isolated, but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found similar issues in at least six cities nationwide — targeting the mentally disabled, encouraging crimes and more."

■ ATF agents befriended mentally disabled people to drum up business and later arrested them in at least four cities in addition to Milwaukee. In Wichita, Kan., ATF agents referred to a man with a low IQ as "slow-headed" before deciding to secretly use him as a key cog in their sting. And agents in Albuquerque, N.M., gave a brain-damaged drug addict with little knowledge of weapons a "tutorial" on machine guns, hoping he could find them one.

■ Agents in several cities opened undercover gun- and drug-buying operations in safe zones near churches and schools, allowed juveniles to come in and play video games and teens to smoke marijuana, and provided alcohol to underage youths. In Portland, attorneys for three teens who were charged said a female agent dressed provocatively, flirted with the boys and encouraged them to bring drugs and weapons to the store to sell.

■ As they did in Milwaukee, agents in other cities offered sky-high prices for guns, leading suspects to buy firearms at stores and turn around and sell them to undercover agents for a quick profit. In other stings, agents ran fake pawnshops and readily bought stolen items, such as electronics and bikes — no questions asked — spurring burglaries and theft. In Atlanta, agents bought guns that had been stolen just hours earlier, several ripped off from police cars.

■ Agents damaged buildings they rented for their operations, tearing out walls and rewiring electricity — then stuck landlords with the repair bills. A property owner in Portland said agents removed a parking lot spotlight,damaging her new $30,000 roof and causing leaks, before they shut down the operation and disappeared without a way for her to contact them.

■ Agents pressed suspects for specific firearms that could fetch tougher penalties in court. They allowed felons to walk out of the stores armed with guns. In Wichita, agents suggested a felon take a shotgun, saw it off and bring it back — and provided instructions on how to do it. The sawed-off gun allowed them to charge the man with a more serious crime.

■ In Pensacola, the ATF hired a felon to run its pawnshop. The move widened the pool of potential targets, boosting arrest numbers.Even those trying to sell guns legally could be charged if they knowingly sold to a felon. The ATF's pawnshop partner was later convicted of pointing a loaded gun at someone outside a bar. Instead of a stiff sentence typically handed down to repeat offenders in federal court, he got six months in jail — and a pat on the back from the prosecutor.

"To say this is just a few people, a few bad apples, I don't buy it," said David Harris, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and an expert on law enforcement tactics and regulation. "If your agency is in good shape with policy, training, supervision and accountability, the bad apples will not be able to take things to this level."

The ATF refused the Journal Sentinel's request for an interview with Director B. Todd Jones or other agency officials to address findings of the investigation. Instead, the agency provided a written statement that failed to answer any questions, and spokeswoman Ginger Colbrun suggested reporters read ATF news releases issued after the stings.

My question: Where's the ATF oversight hearings you promised the Fast and Furious whistleblowers almost two years ago, Congressman Issa? Ramsey A. Bear would like to know, too.

The E.N.D. Game and the End of Games. "No tyrannical politicians or their bureaucratic, economic or propagandist minions were harmed in the filming of this exercise." And R.A. Bear advises: "In the event of civil war, aim for the nabobs."

An Indian nabob.

A Field Training Exercise, generally shortened to the acronym "FTX", describes a coordinated exercise conducted by military units for training purposes. Field training exercises are usually practice "mini-battles" which provide fairly realistic scenarios and situations based on actual situations a unit might face if deployed. -- Wikipedia.

There were armed citizens training in the desert of Arizona and up on the Llano Estacado of eastern New Mexico this weekend. Likewise in the melting snows of Ohio and Michigan, in rainy North Carolina and Alabama, and behind enemy lines in Connecticut, Colorado, New York and out in Washington state -- and those are just the ones I know about personally. These are formally known as Field Training Exercises, or FTXs, a variety of what are sometimes sloppily referred to as "war games."

Webster's Dictionary defines the word "game" with a variety of meanings that are great and small, even contradictory. The first listing is "an activity engaged in for diversion or amusement." This is not what those folks engaged in military training were about. Diversion and amusement were the last things on their minds.

There is an increasing sense in this country that night is falling, that we are at the end of our previously bright, sunny, optimistic day and, perhaps, arriving at the sudden end of days for many of us. It is this foreboding that motivates otherwise busy people whose lives are full of competing demands to put them aside and train to efficiently defend themselves collectively -- to practice how best to kill other folks who are trying to kill them. This is no game, at least not one played for sport.

There are other definitions of the word "game," of course. Webster's tells us that among these are "a procedure or strategy for gaining an end (tactic)" and "an illegal or shady scheme or maneuver." There are a lot of those kind of games being played by forces of the militarized federal police these days. Activists in Washington state report being tailed, out in the middle of that state's eastern high desert, by small convoys white Tahoes with heavily tinted windows as well as other forms of harassment -- designed to pressure them into unforced errors of minor traffic laws so that they may be "legitimately" detained for interview and arrest. This chicken excrement police state activity actually does more to illustrate the Feds' essential limp-dicked impotence than anything else, but it also is an invitation to the kind of misadventure that can get people inadvertently killed -- or start a civil war.

Another definition of "game" is "a physical or mental competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct opposition to each other." Yet another is "animals under pursuit or taken in hunting." With these we begin to approach the mindset of those tax-paid meatheads in the white Tahoes. Their misapprehension is that the rules by which they've operated for years still obtain. (See my earlier post U.S. Marshal's Service: Risking Civil War From A Failure of Institutional Memory. Bundy Ranch -- only with bullets this time.) They really believe that they are the mighty imperial fedgov and that they've got more guns, power, intelligence and determination than those of us who still believe in the Founder's concepts of liberty do. Used to dealing with common criminals, they feel comfortable in their certainty that we're just a variant of that reality. They believe that they are the hunters and we are the game. And they will be the hunters (for we have no interest in anything besides being left alone) until they really screw up and the tables are turned, when they will become the game as well. And they will be astonished when that, sadly, tragically, but predictably, happens. Some of them terminally so.

As an amateur historian, this is not something I'm advocating -- indeed I'm doing my best to avoid it -- but it is something that is entirely foreseeable. For words on a page are powerful things and they can kill. The words that will later be used to justify the killing of you and me and many, many innocents are already written in some dry bureaucratese in an agency report, a federal judge's decision, a "Presidential Decision Directive." They will be hauled out after the fact in some Nuremberg maneuver to explain that all those deaths really weren't their personal fault. They were only executing "the law" and "policy." You don't have to be able to cite the document and page to know that. Our death warrants are already written -- if the powers that be are stupid enough to try to enforce them in their ignorance that they are in fact mutual death warrants -- a suicide pact for an entire society, a whole country, and the end of everything they and we have known.

End: noun, "a point that marks the limit of something; the point at which something no longer continues to happen or exist." -- Webster's Dictionary.

The E.N.D. Game: "Exterminating the Nabobs of Dictatorship."

I was made aware recently of another game now being played by some liberty-minded folks in this country. Mindful that 4th generation warfare requires a very different sort of FTX, these people are playing what I call the E.N.D. Game, for "Exterminating the Nabobs of Dictatorship."

Now "nabob" is not a word you encounter in conversation. The apex of its usage in American politics came about when Spiro Agnew called the news media the "nattering nabobs of negativism." Still, it is a very descriptive word for certain purposes.

According to Webster's "nabob" comes from the Hindi word navāb (nawāb in Urdu and nuwwāb in arabic) meaning "governor" during the period of Mogul Empire. It is defined as "a very rich or important person; a person of great wealth or prominence." Synonyms include "big boy, big cheese, bigfoot, biggie, big gun, big leaguer, big-timer, big wheel, bigwig, fat cat, heavy, heavy hitter, heavyweight, high-muck-a-muck (or high-muckety-muck), honcho, kahuna, kingfish, kingpin, major leaguer, muckety-muck (also muck-a-muck or mucky-muck), big shot, nawab, nibs, nob [chiefly British], pooh-bah (also poo-bah), wheel." Phew. Well, you get the idea. In the bureaucratic terms of tyranny this adequately describes the decision takers and the war makers. Not the foot soldiers. No, these are the Heydrichs, the Eichmanns, the people whose orders fill the trains, get them running in the same direction to the east -- to the showers and the ovens.

The E.N.D. Game is, as they say, in developmental stage, but its practitioners tell me that it involves "grey men" and volunteer "nabob" targets. A team of grey men and women are given the name of a target -- the volunteer nabob -- and sketchy information as to his or her job, whereabouts, etc. The grey men then flesh out an intelligence profile of the nabob, beginning with untraceable research (using anonymous computer and library open sources). This information is crafted into a surveillance plan, then an action plan. Finally, comes the field training exercise where the nabob is, shall we say, forcibly retired in a simulated sense.

A variant of the Assassination Game, the E.N.D. Game is much more complex and puts a premium on techniques that minimize forensic traces of the participants.

It is played ONLY with volunteers, as the use of such techniques on an actual nabob would be highly illegal, even absent the last act, simulated or not. Were it a video game, it would come with the disclaimer "No tyrannical politicians or their bureaucratic, economic or propagandist minions were harmed in the filming of this exercise."

It is an interesting game, and I am looking forward to seeing a complete praxis on how to win it. I only pray it comes before the E.N.D. Game is transmogrified by the events created by a blundering nascent tyranny into the end of games -- and the end of days -- for many of us.

LATER: Ramsey A. Bear, with his usual incisiveness, has distilled down the previous essay in one short line: "In the event of civil war, aim for the nabobs."

"It was learned in discovery materials that he was also an ATF Confidential Informant." The Clark Case -- which the ATF thought they'd bullied their way out of -- still has the chance of overturning their (and their snitches') applecart.

Ramsey A. Bear: He'll be laughing all the way to Little Jimmy Vann's testimony at the Issa Committee's ATF oversight hearing

The magnificent Nolo Contendere provides us with the latest Clark case documents: Clark Machine Gun "Conversion" Case Info.

Now, mind you, the ATF by using various forms of blackmail, has already compelled several defendants to make plea deals -- including threats to include their family members in the case unless they rolled. This is standard ATF Chief Counsels Office tactics. What Little Jimmy Vann didn't count on, though, was that there would be holdouts who wouldn't squeeze. Last night at midnight was the deadline for pre-trial motions in the case and Nolo has given us a couple of doozies.

The first, found here, is a Motion to Dismiss the Indictment for Outrageous Government Conduct:

Defendant, Randolph B. Rodman, by and through Counsel, respectfully moves this Honorable Court for an Order dismissing the Indictment for outrageous governmental conduct which rises to the level of a due process violation. . .

. . .The approval of Clark’s three applications was a deliberate act, the sole purpose of which was to create crimes and entrap Rodman. The method used to entrap Rodman was the manipulation of a regulatory governmental function. Rodman received and possessed S/Ns820101546 and 820101557 without ATF approvals of Clark’s applications on February 20, 2008. Prior to that, Rodman’s only involvement with the three guns was that he bought them from Clark and paid for them about four years earlier and that he was the transferee on three applications filed by Clark on December 27, 2007.

But it is the second motion which contains the dynamite:

On or about September, 2000, Defendant Rodman received machinegun Model-1919,Serial Number 820101086 along with a Form 3 approved by ATF on September 21, 2000. The Form 3 bore no indicia that the future transferability of the machinegun was restricted. The absence of a restriction on an approved form is proof positive that machinegun 820101086 was lawfully registered prior to May 19, 1986, that it was registered to Rodman in the National Firearms Register and Transfer Record (NFRTR) and was transferrable. Defendant Rodman found that the workmanship, material and aesthetics of the gun were superior - the work of a master machinist.Defendant Rodman offered the machinegun for sale, and Defendant Goldstein soon found a buyer, John Brown, an FFL/SOT in Virginia. Defendant Rodman filed a Form 3 Application describing the machinegun exactly as it was described on the form transferring it to him. ATF approved the transfer on November 15, 2000, and the gun was shipped. During Discovery it was learned that transferee John Brown sold the machine gun and transferred it to a Maryland FFL/SOT.

(MBV Note: Long time readers will recall the name of John Brown, first in late 2010 in The True Story of the Life of "R.A. Bear": Inception & impregnation into the minds of the ATF via a highly placed snitch named Dan Shea of the NFATCA, and a year later in U.S. vs. Clark, et. al. Who is ATF trying to protect with their misconduct? Themselves, their highly-placed snitches, or both? and in John Brown's previous lies are a mouldering in the grave, but his service to his ATF masters goes marching on and earlier this year The curious case of Serial Number A6042075. What exactly did the ATF & DOJ tell the grand jury in U.S. vs. Clark? A tale of machine guns, a well placed protected snitch, insider influence, contradictory rule making, doctored reports and double-standard "justice." The motion continues:

Both machineguns remained in Rodman’s inventory for a few years until machinegun A6042075 was sold to John Brown sometime in 2004. Again, defendant Goldstein had done the negotiations for the sale. Defendant Rodman applied for, and received, ATF approval to transfer A6042075; and it was delivered to John Brown on or about November 11, 2004.John Brown was an FFL/SOT in Virginia. He was President of the National Firearms ActTrade and Collectors Association (NFATCA), a non-profit trade association advocating for the interests of NFA manufacturers, importers and dealers, individual collectors, owners and others considering owning NFA firearms. It was learned in discovery materials that he was also an ATF Confidential Informant. Around time of the delivery of machinegun A6042075, the NFATCA,and John Brown personally, were involved in a joint ATF/NFATCA research and writing project to produce the “National Firearms Act Handbook,” intended as a reference guide to compliance requirements and to inform members of ATF procedures, practices and interpretations. The final handbook was completed on or about 2007 and since that time has been posted on the ATF Website. The handbook project required continuous interface between Brown and Firearms Technology Branch personnel at their West Virginia facility and particularly with the Acting Chief of the Branch, Richard Vasquez. Notably, the NFA Handbook does not mention modifications to registered machineguns, although modifications are a common practice.On or about June 25, 2005, John Brown transferred machinegun A6042075 to a Virginia resident on a tax-paid approved Form 4. The Form 4 Application documented the fact that the machinegun had been modified while in Brown’s possession. The Form notes a barrel length change from 24 to 13 inches, and an overall length change from 41 to 37.25 inches. After possessing the machine gun for a little more than a year, on or about August 25, 2006, the Virginia owner transferred it back to Brown on an ATF approved tax-paid Form 4, reflecting that the gun had been modified again: the barrel length and overall length had been restored to 24 inches and 41 inches, respectively. Machinegun A6042075 then remained in Brown’s possession and registered to him.

According to numerous discovery reports, Brown was contacted by ATF and asked to deliver machinegun A6042075 to the Firearms Technology Branch for examination and testing.The testing was alleged to have been performed on October 31, 2006, by Richard Vasquez, the Deputy Chief of FTB. The alleged FTB examination and testing of machinegun A6042075 and the purported report thereof triggered an ATF criminal investigation of defendant Clark.

In fact, machinegun A6042075 was never officially received by the ATF Firearms Technology Branch, it was never officially tested and no official report was ever prepared. These facts have been verified through FTB evidence logs. However, A6042075 was tested and examined by Richard Vasquez, then Acting Chief of the Branch at the Firearms Technology Branch facility on October 31, 2006, but the examination was performed as a private matter; and was not handled as an official examination of evidence.

Mr. Vasquez’s findings from the October 31, 2006, test were chronicled in numerous official ATF reports, to wit: Vasquez concluded that the conversion of a MAC Model 10 machinegun to a Model 1919 machinegun constituted a new manufacture; therefore,machinegun A6042075 was not registered and was a contraband unregistered machinegun. After FTB’s conclusing that machinegun A6042075 was contraband, it was inexplicably returned to John Brown who then transported the machinegun across state lines from the FTB facility in West Virginia to his place of business in Virginia.

A disturbing question arising from ATF’s treatment of the testing discussed above is why FTB examination of A6042075 was not treated as evidence or as an official work product of the Firearms Technology Branch, and why was an official report not required. The only explanation for why the entire matter was not made an official part of any ATF records was that it was treated as a matter of personal privilege. The only reasonable conclusion is that the intent of the private examination of machinegun A6042075 (in violation of numerous ATF statutes and procedures) was to conceal the fact that an ATF informant had bought, received, possessed, sold it and, infact had bought and transferred two other machineguns that were unlawfully manufactured by Clark.

In November 2006, ATF Special Agent Quartetti of the ATF Falls Church, Virginia office, was assigned the investigation of John Brown’s possession of machinegun A6042075.Special Agent Quartetti contacted Brown to arrange for an examination of the contraband machinegun. On November 21, 2006, Special Agent Quartetti met with Brown and his attorneyat Brown’s licensed business in Centreville, Virginia. Also present at the meeting were an ATF attorney and ATF employees representing the National Firearms Act Branch and the Firearms Technology Branch. Brown proposed to abandon the side-plate of machinegun A6042075, and ATF agreed to that proposal. Thus, the entire machinegun less the right side-plate was left with Mr. Brown and was never available for an official Firearms Technology Branch examination.

ATF’s practice of recognizing the right side-plate of a box receiver, such as the M-1919as the registered part of a machinegun is a long standing practice within ATF. Further, this practice is commonly known by collectors and machinegun owners throughout the industry.

Nevertheless, the facts concerning ATF’s care and custody of machinegun A6042075 becomes more inexplicable other than a desire by certain ATF employees to conceal the involvement of a confidential informant. After taking custody of the right side plate of machinegun A6042075 on November 21, 2006, it was placed into the ATF evidence vault in Falls Church, Virginia where it remained until June 15, 2007 when it was delivered to the Firearms Technology Branch in West Virginia to be tested and examined. While awaiting the examination report and while the side-plate was still in the custody of the Firearms Technology Laboratory, another strange event occurred. Special Agent Quartetti requested authority to destroy it. The report of the examination was not completed until August 20, 2007, and the right side-plate was returned to the Falls Church evidence vault. On August 8, 2008, the side-plate was destroyed. In addition, there are no photographs of machinegun A6042075 either as a fully assembled M-1919 or as a right-side plate. Thus, defendant Rodman has been prejudiced by being deprived of the opportunity to inspect and test vital evidence in this case.

On May 2, 2008, defendant Rodman was asked to abandon three Models 1919s and two MAGs he had received from Defendant Clark. Each had a Form 3 approved by ATF and was still in inventory. (It is important to note that this situation was identical to that of Brown and machinegun A6042075.) Defendant Rodman readily consented to abandon the three Model1919s merely on the claims of the ATF Special Agents. Two of these were the right-side plates of MAG machineguns. The Maryland Special Agents accepted Rodman’s abandonment of theright side-plates.

Contrasting the treatment of defendant Rodman’s surrender of side-plates to Maryland ATF Special Agents on May 2, 2008, with that of an ATF Informant, John Brown, ATF accepted the abandonment of Mr. Brown’s side plate. In fact, in an e-mail received in discovery, Acting Chief Vasquez offered to come to Brown’s place of business to assist in disassemblingA6042075 for Mr. Brown.In describing an identical situation involving defendant Rodman a little more than a year later, Mr. Sander states in the Affidavit that defendant Rodman’s abandonment of side-plates was obstruction of justice and subornation of the obstruction of justice; that Rodman’s abandonment of side plates “interfered in a federal investigation by not turning over evidence ...” and that he (Rodman) “encouraged another person to follow his example.” (Affidavit, para. 52) Mr. Sander further slanders Rodman in stating that he “appears to be hiding/concealing evidence that is necessary in this federal investigation ...” (Affidavit, page 38,para. 68) . . .

. . .In this case, ATF chose to prosecute the defendants for machineguns that had been modified where there is no law or regulation prohibiting modifications, and elected not to prosecute other individuals (i.e., government employees) where there is a clear and unambiguous statute. The NFA penalty section, § 5871, specifies, “Any person who violates or fails to comply with any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than$10,000, or be imprisoned not more than ten (10) years, or both” and Section 5812 cannot be violated by anyone other than ATF National Firearms Act Branch employees, given that only government employees are authorized to approve transfers of machineguns that “would place the transferee in violation of law ...”. Rodman is one person who was placed in violation of law.

ATF’s approval of 13 of the 34 Clark Applications is the sine qua non of every substantive crime with which defendant Rodman is charged. Absent ATF’s unlawful transfer approvals, he would never have received or possessed any of Clark’s “new” machineguns; Rodman never could have offered any of the machineguns for sale, nor have filed applications for their transfer. In short, defendant Rodman’s indictment is solely attributable to ATF’s failureto deny Clark’s applications or refer them for criminal investigations.

Actually, ATF had approved thirty-four (34) applications and none had even been challenged. Two explanations for the lack of challenges come to mind. The first and most probable explanation is that National Firearms Act Branch employees were uninformed that changes – minor or major – to a registered machinegun constitute the manufacture of a new,unregistered machinegun as the Affidavit contends, and were trained to approve applications that documented modifications of all kinds as long as the other descriptions matched.

The second explanation for ATF’s wholesale approvals could be attributable to serious institutional problems such as employee inattention to detail, carelessness, incompetence, or reckless disregard for procedures. A senior ATF Executive described the violations as“unfortunate.” (Bates, MHM000000271) Further, the cause may lay with incompetence, lack of training, supervision, management review, or executive oversight. A final explanation offered by some is that the National Firearms Act Branch, from top to bottom, is replete with waste, fraud and abuse. (The undersigned does not hold this view.)

Now I'll sign onto THAT.

There's more, much more in this motion, and readers are encouraged to go through the whole thing. My prediction is that ATF will drop the remaining charges against those defendants who held out against their previous garden variety blackmail tactics. I really don't think they want John Brown up on the stand (or their own Rick Vasquez) as prima facie evidence of ATF misconduct and lawbreaking.