Doubling down on the Project Gunwalker cover-up. Getting rid of the witnesses & "Damn the dead Border Patrol agents, full speed ahead!"

William "Billy" Hoover, Acting Deputy Director ATF (on right), thought too stupid in a poll of street agents to be the first one to roll on the Project Gunwalker cover-up. is bulling ahead with the long gun registry -- "Damn the dead Border Patrol Agents, full speed ahead!"

"US Attorney to Deport Three Suspects in Brian Terry Murder - Getting the Witnesses Out of Town??"

Bob Price writes:

There are more and more questions coming out about the murder of Brian Terry and the government's role. Certainly their lack of being forthcoming with information and now this rush to get three potential witnesses out of the country add fuel to the fires of these rumors.

Someone needs to stop the deportation of these potential witnesses until Sen. Grassley's investigation is complete. And, more importantly, someone needs to come clean with the truth in this case and Operation Gunrunner.

And Robert Farago reports that "White House, ATF Press Ahead with Plans for Federal Long Gun Registry."

This was a clear indication that the ATF and the administration was going ahead with the registry—despite the Gunwalker scandal’s “lost” firearms and the obvious implication that the ATF has no fucking clue what it’s doing. According to inside sources, the public comments ran against the registry at a rate of roughly 1000 to one.

And? Even before the comments could be logged under the ATF’s enemies list (again, I’m not making that up), the ATF is officially announcing that it’s damn the damnation, full speed ahead. Acting Head Melson’s number one, William Hoover [above, right], made it official.

“I truly believe that everyone in the administration supports this and I’m pretty confident that we’ll get it done,” said William Hoover, acting deputy director of ATF, in an interview.

So, once again, the Obama administration’s opinion trumps public sentiment. But it’s worse than that . . .

There’s one little detail—well, one really important one—that’s been left out of all the nominal discussions about this long-gun registry. What happens to the information? There has been no official declaration, or document, mandating the destruction of the data within a given time period. Until yesterday.

“This is just a shallow excuse to engage in a sweeping firearms registration scheme,” NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said last year on the group’s website.

Hoover denied that the ATF is seeking to create a national registry, and said records would be kept for 24 months and then destroyed if not acted on by investigators.

Again, please note that we only have Mr. Hoover’s word for that. Show us the regulation. Meanwhile, what are the protocols for sharing the data? Will the Mexican police have access? Will the sales data be entered into the ATF’s e-Trace system so that several dozen foreign governments will have access?

Bottom line: the federal long gun registry “pilot program” isn’t dead. It doesn’t even appear to be wounded. Not to coin a phrase, that’s some scary ass shit right there.

So William J. "Billy" Hoover, Acting Deputy Director ATF, thought too stupid in a poll of street agents to be the first one to roll on the Project Gunwalker cover-up. is bulling ahead with the long gun registry, declaring "Damn the dead Border Patrol Agents, full speed ahead!"

You have to wonder what alternate universe these people are living in. Don't they read their mail? That last letter from Senator Grassley was so specific in its demands that they have to know the whistleblowers have already provided him the documents he is asking for and he is just seeing if they are stupid enough to try and lie -- again.

Well, judging by their actions, maybe they are that stupid.

"Delusional": "What the heck are you doing with over 200 AK47s?"

So ask the Three Sonorans writing here.

My comment:

“And if you think you need these guns to defend yourself from the government, you are delusional, as you will NEVER be able to compete with the US military and their tanks, fighter jets, missiles, and atomic weapons.”

Tell it to any number of guerrilla forces who fought successfully in lop-sided contests with heavily armed governments throughout history. The military utility of “tanks, fighter jets, missiles, and atomic weapons” when fighting a civil war in your own country across your own forces’ logistical tail and among its political support is limited at best. What was the word you used, “delusional”?

What you are really saying here is that YOU would never try to defend yourself against the government, even an oppressive one, because YOU perceive the odds of YOUR survival as minimal. You are extrapolating from your own cowardice.

There are certainly many, many people in this country who unlike you are indeed willing to die for their principles regardless of odds. The overwhelming majority of those are also willing to kill in righteous self defense of those principles as well.

But to posit that the federal government is too powerful to fight is not only evidence of either historical ignorance or amnesia, but also of Borg-like collectivist “resistance is futile” thinking.

Of course the people in the story above were illegals and thus prohibited persons under the law, but that is not the thrust of your argument. Your problem is summed up in your first sentence: “AK47s are not used for hunting.” By that I assume you mean that the Kalashnikov, using a relatively underpowered cartridge for game and possessing rudimentary sights is not the first choice of hunters.

Yes, well, perhaps, but your point is? The Second Amendment is not about shooting fuzzy animals or “sporting purposes” (a foreign concept imported by Senator Thomas Dodd, a former Nuremberg prosecutor, into the Gun Control Act of 1968 directly from the Nazi gun control laws).

The Second Amendment is about creating a credible deterrence of tyranny and placing it in the hands of the people to use as a counterbalance against the federal government, and if need be, its army. (Although, in practical terms, it is the sons and daughters of the “bitter clingers” who largely inhabit military ranks, and they all took an oath to the Constitution not “the government” so good luck enforcing unconstitutional orders on THEM.)

It was written by Founders who had just come out of a bloody war to do just that — fight a lop-sided war against the most powerful empire on the planet.

And if that is what you are about, the Kalashnikov works very nicely, thank you.

Don’t believe me? Ban them and watch what happens.

Mike Vanderboegh

In any case, the answer to their question: "What the heck are you (two illegals) doing with over 200 AK47s?" probably was "smuggling them south with the full knowledge of the Phoenix ATF Project Gunwalker boys."

A Grassley staffer's quote guaranteed to make the urine trickle down Eric Holder's leg. Bring yer popcorn.

Just in time for the hearings.

Remember this post from Monday, where Waldo advised us of the ATF SAC memo that reported:

SAC Andrew Traver confirmation process was moving forward. Expected to get a Hearing date within the next two weeks at which time SAC Traver will attend numerous briefings on the Hill and at DOJ and ATF will begin the process of getting SAC Traver prepared for the confirmation process.

The Chicago Tribune ran a story today on the Chicago Gang's fair-haired boy who they would like to see head of ATF -- Andrew Traver. The story, titled "Gun lobby stands firm in opposing Obama's ATF nominee," was mostly about the NRA's opposition, which really is the least of Holder and Company's worries.

But buried in the story is this quote, guaranteed to make the bladder sphincters of Eric Holder and Company unclamp in horror:

The top Republican on the judiciary panel is Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, whose spokeswoman, Beth Pellett Levine, said the NRA's concerns, or those of any group, should be explored at a confirmation hearing.

"Or those of ANY group."

Now what this means is that we may not have to wait for a straight-up investigation into the Project Gunwalker scandal -- we may only have to wait a couple of weeks until the Traver confirmation hearing to get some very embarrassing questions asked, and, presumably answered. Unless of course they all want to take the Fifth.

Bring yer popcorn, ladies and gents. Bring yer popcorn.

Oh, wait, I almost forgot. This just in: "The Washington Post is STILL dead."

Like Generalissimo Francisco, the Washington Post is still dead to the Gunwalker scandal story.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer scans the front page of the Washington Post this morning. No news is good news, he grunts. At least when Grimaldi is bought by the dialectic he stays bought.

Headed to the doctor today

to discuss among other things a generic equivalent of the heart medicine that Blue Cross/Blue Shield has decided that they no longer wish to cover and thus that I cannot afford. After that I'm headed to the wound doc to inspect the slow progress -- but it IS progress -- on my foot. I tell you these pedestrian details as a warning that my posting will be slow today, and likely late when I get back in the saddle. Be sure and go to David Codrea's Examiner column and War on Guns blog for the latest on the Project Gunwalker scandal.

Mike
III

Senator Grassley's latest letter: The street agents react. Did Acting Director Melson really call Senator Grassley an "asshole"?

An economics professor once told me, circa 1974, that this was the mathematical symbol denoting an anal sphincter, or, in the vernacular, "asshole." I later learned he had stolen the idea from a hand-drawn illustration in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, and that Vonnegut was fond of using the symbol as a tag graphic after his signature when he autographed books.

I bring that up because the ATF street agents are both reacting to Senator Grassley's letter to Eric Holder of yesterday and reporting reaction to it among the muckety-mucks. For example, here is one whistleblower in an email to me:

I love that he (Grassley) is coming after Newell and Gillette. ATF had plenty of warning that these guys are dangerous decision makers and did nothing. No one at ATF is surprised that this got so out of hand under their inept guidance. . .

The word is coming out that Melson is calling Grassley an asshole and telling people that Grassley is wrong and has no right to be asking ATF these questions. I guess he doesn’t believe in our government's system of checks and balances.

Kurt Vonnegut.


Kenneth Melson. Family resemblance? We report, you decide.

Speaking of anal sphincters, there is a whole lot of discussion by the street agents of the breed of ATF senior executive service sphincters over on CleanUpATF.org here.

Sounds like it is Melson himself who needs a proctologist and a blue rubber glove. He'll likely get that, at the upcoming oversight hearings. KY Jelly will be optional, I think.

Congressional oversight, of a sort.

Another great one from Oleg Volk.

A boonie hat tip to Pete at Western Rifle Shooters for this link.

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

National Review Online notices Project Gunwalker Scandal.

Did the ATF Allow Gun Sales to Traffickers?

Senator Grassley fires another salvo in the Project Gunwalker Scandal. ATF "refused to answer specific questions about the facts & circumstances."

Broadside from the battleship USS Iowa.

Remember the other day when deep-cover agent Waldo reported this ATF account of the meeting between ATF and Senator Grassley? --

ATF briefed Senator Grassley’s office relative to memo written to ATF and recent whistleblower allegations concerning Southwest Border. AD McDermond thought meeting went well and that ATF delegation provided full debriefing of Project Gunrunner and ATF’s Firearms Trafficking strategy overall.

Remember, also, Waldo's comments:

Note that Senator Grassley was briefed by a former Secret Service exec brought over by Truscott who hasn’t spent more than a day or two in Phoenix since he’s been here. He has never been an ATF Agent and HE is going to explain the Gunrunner debacle? He could only regurgitate what HQ and Main Justice told him to say.

Well, I guess that meeting didn't go quite as well as AD McDermond thought it did. Here, in another joint release by David Codrea's Gun Rights Examiner column and Sipsey Street Irregulars, is Senator Grassley's reply.

No, I don't think it went well at all.

As David observes: "The stakes just got higher."

Link to the pdf copy here.

Via Electronic Transmission

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

I appreciate the staff briefing that Department of Justice (DOJ) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) officials provided on February 10, 2011. However, the briefers focused on general issues related to challenges in successfully prosecuting gun trafficking cases. They refused to answer specific questions about the facts and circumstances that led me to request the briefing.

Specifically, they refused to say whether the approximately 103 weapons seized according to the Jaime Avila indictment were the only seizures related to the nearly 770 weapons mentioned in the indictment. They refused to say whether the third assault rifle purchased by Avila in January 2010—the one not found at the scene of CBP Agent Brian Terry’s shooting—has been recovered elsewhere. When asked whether ATF had encouraged any gun dealer to proceed with sales to known or suspected traffickers such as Avila, the briefers said only that they did not have any “personal knowledge” of that.

Therefore, please provide the following documents to the Committee:

1) All records relating to communications between the ATF and the Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) who sold the weapons to Avila, including any Report of Investigation (ROI) or other records relating to the December 17, 2009 meeting “to discuss his role as an FFL during this investigation.”

2) All records relating to communications between ATF headquarters and Phoenix Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell from December 1, 2010 to the present, including a memorandum, approximately 30 pages long, from SAC Newell to ATF headquarters following the arrest of Jaime Avila and the death of CBP Agent Brian Terry.

3) A copy of the presentation, approximately 200 pages long, that the Group 7 Supervisor made to officials at ATF Headquarters in the Spring of 2010.

PAGE 2

4) Copies of all e-mails related to Operation Fast and Furious, the Jaime Avila case, or the death of CBP Agent Brian Terry sent to or from SAC Newell, Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) George Gillette, Group 7 Supervisor, or the Case Agent between November 1, 2009 and January 31, 2011.

Please provide documents in batches on a rolling basis as they are identified and located. Also, please prioritize your search for documents and produce them in the following order: (1) documents in response to requests one through three, (2) documents in response to request four dated between December 13, 2010 and January 31, 2011, and (3) documents in response to request four dated between November 1, 2009 and December 13, 2010.

I look forward to receiving your response. Please provide the first set of requested documentation by no later than February 23, 2011. If you have any questions please contact Jason Foster or Brian Downey at (202) 224-5225. All formal correspondence should be sent electronically in PDF format to Brian_Downey@judiciary-rep.senate.gov or via facsimile to (202) 224-3799.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley
Ranking Member

cc: The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Chairman, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

The Honorable Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Kenneth E. Melson, Acting Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives

The Honorable Alan D. Bersin, Commissioner, United States Customs and Border Protection

David Codrea Files FOIA request on Operation Gunwalker Scandal.

FOIA request filed with ATF over Grassley ‘Gunwalker’ briefing.

Praxis: How NOT to load an SKS.

In following the links in the "SF Police seize cannon" piece below, I found this embarrassing video illustrating how NOT to load an SKS rifle.



Now that will get you killed in a serious social situation. SKS rifles, of course, are designed to be loaded with stripper clips, as below:



Of course if you don't have a stripper clip (and if you are serious about your defensive rifle you will have plenty), you can still load rounds singly through the top with the bolt pulled to the rear. It takes a real genius to make things this complicated, but, there you are.

It is not a bad idea to read the manual on a rifle before you try to load it.

Lions! And Tigers! And bears! Oh, my! San Francisco police seize artillery piece. Or so they say.

San Francisco police on foot patrol.

San Francisco Police Call Norinco SKS a “Cannon of a Rifle.”

One lucky SOB. Here's a safety tip about shooting at steel plates.

Folks, this is almost four years old, but when Threeper Ron sent it to me it was the first time I had seen it.

The video came to me with this commentary:

Turn your sound up so you can hear the bullet head back. This guy is shooting a 50 cal rifle. Watch the dust when he fires. The target is a steel plate, 1000 yards away. You can hear the ping of the hit and then hear the bullet coming back. It hits the ground just in front of him, then bounces up, hits the earmuffs, knocking them from his head. The footage is amazing. You can hear the bullet as it tumbles through the air on its course back toward the shooter. He's lucky it hit the dirt first. He is okay and obviously very lucky.

This just in: "The Washington Post is still dead." So, too, is Matt Drudge. "Woodward and Bernstein circa 1972 they ain't." Time for a cacerolazo.

A cacerolazo or cacerolada is a form of popular protest practised in certain Spanish-speaking countries – in particular Argentina – which consists in a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils in order to call for attention. What is peculiar about this type of demonstration is that the people protest from their own homes, thus achieving a high level of support and participation.

The word comes from Spanish cacerola, which means "stew pot". The derivative suffix -azo denotes a hitting (punching or striking) action, and has been extended metaphorically to any sort of shock demonstration. -- Wikipedia.

This just in: "The Washington Post is still dead."

The Gunwalker story continues to poke along, without much real investigative reportage on the part of "authorized journalists," which is no doubt a comfort to the cover-up artists of the ATF, FBI and DOJ. They know they're caught, but then they've been caught before and gotten away with it when the press failed to follow up. Even a normally astute sniffer of scandals guy like Jerry Seper of the Washington Times managed to write a story yesterday that was barely skin deep.

The largely lazy "authorized journalists" David and I have spoken with have been easily distracted by events (the best real reporter early on in this story was snatched away from it to cover the story in Egypt) or by the difficulty of getting behind the cover-up. They consistently demand that we turn over OUR sources, unmindful of the legalities and consequences for the whistleblowers, and seem incapable of developing their own, even when we point them in the right direction. Some seem unable to find the phone number of Senator Grassley's office. Woodward and Bernstein circa 1972 they ain't.

And it isn't just "authorized journalists." Matt Drudge has ignored every tip and link that David, I and others have sent him since 28 December. Alvie D. Zane has addressed this mystery by sending an Open Letter to Matt Drudge, which he invites others to cut, paste and send to Drudge.

Alvie sent me this email just a few minutes ago:

You know what’s ironic that I didn’t even swerve into? Drudge started out as an obscure one man show just putting what was interesting on his web page. A guy with a computer. A couple of guys with their computers are breaking Project Gunwalker. And where is Drudge on this story?

0

Has he become the very model of a modern media figure that he used to despise and mock regularly?

Pete at Western Rifle Shooters links to Alvie's piece and goes one step further, asking that readers "take the substance of Alvie's letter, along with David's automatically-updated log of his and Mike's work in the case, and send same not only to Drudge, but also to the following media outlet email addresses." He then lists links to a host of world-wide press outlets, from Al Jazeera to the BBC.

If this story is to move, it must BE moved by the people who want to see justice done in the murder of CBP Agent Brian Terry. It is time for a cacerolazo of the people to draw attention to this story. Some of you are already doing your best. Keep it up. Bang louder.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer scans today's Washington Post. Still nothing. Good. I wonder if Grimaldi is tired of caviar yet?

When Jimmy the Saint recommended this as "the greatest fake book ever," I had to go in search of "Peter Rabbit: Tank Killer."

Here we go again? "Oh, shit" moment for ATF once more? Two U.S. Immigration Agents Shot In Mexico.

And courtesy of Arctic Patriot we have this:

Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were shot Tuesday afternoon in the line of duty in Mexico, according to an ICE statement.

The agents assigned to the ICE Attache office in Mexico City were attacked by unknown assailants while driving between Mexico City and the northern city of Monterrey. There were no details on their condition or the precise location of the shooting.

The Mexican President's Office and Mexican immigration officials said they had no information on the attack.

Another shooting incident involving U.S. government employees and Mexican drug gangs with the details all fuzzy. I can't wait to see if this one was perpetrated by a Project Gunwalker rifle.

Barry still wants his own army.

"IRS would get 5,100 new agents under Obama budget." Gee, I wonder what he needs that many for?

Michael Savage links Washington Times story on Gunwalker.

His website links to the Jerry Seper story. Don't know if he's discussed it. I don't listen to much talk radio.

Two from Moonbattery.

First they picked up the Gunwalker scandal: "ATF Gives Guns to Mexican Drug Cartels to Undermine Second Amendment."



Second, and more surprisingly, "France Surrenders to Hamster."

Hamsters? Turns out, the "Great Hamster of Alsace" is more fierce than previously thought. Here we see commando hamsters in action:




Here, assisted by a human collaborator, a hamster soldier drills for victory march beneath the Arc de Triomphe.