Are they REALLY this stupid? To select Cover-Up Queen Jamie Gorelick as the next FBI Director?!? Why? To keep the lid on Gunwalker?

Jamie Gorelick, Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Justice Department under then-Attorney General Janet Reno from 1994 to 1997. From the Oklahoma City bombing to the 9/11 Commission, Jamie Gorelick IS the undisputed Cover-Up Queen.

Chris Neefus, CNSNews.com, reports:

The Obama administration reportedly is considering former Clinton administration official Jamie Gorelick, among others, to become the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Perez first reported the news last week, citing “U.S. officials” familiar with the situation.

The Perez article, headlined "White House Intensifies Search for Next FBI Chief," said in part:

The Obama administration is ramping up its search for a new Federal Bureau of Investigation director, as Robert Mueller's term approaches its end in early September, with former Bush and Clinton administration officials and a federal judge among those being considered. . .

The candidates being discussed, according to U.S. officials, are James Comey, Kenneth Wainstein, Patrick Fitzgerald and Merrick Garland. Also in the running, the officials said, are Michael Mason, John Pistole and Jamie Gorelick. . .

Messrs. Comey, Garland and Pistole didn't respond to requests for comment. Messrs. Fitzgerald, Wainstein and Mason, and Ms. Gorelick declined to comment.

Moe Lane, writing at Red State, comments:

Fox Nation reports that Jamie Gorelick is on the Obama administration’s short list for new FBI Director. Gorelick’s political rap sheet is a thing of wonder: it includes Fannie Mae, Countrywide Loans, defending Duke University after the lacrosse case, (most infamously) the Gorelick Wall - and these days she’s the defense lawyer for British Petroleum. Which basically means that Gorelick brackets the entire political spectrum in terms of offensiveness, from conservative to progressive. Not a full bracket, of course. There are no reports that the woman is also involved in piracy, human trafficking, the international drug trade, and/or arms smuggling, after all… but then, there are only twenty-fours in the day, and seven days in the week.

Bitter humor aside, let me be blunt. Nominate Jamie Gorelick for any position in this administration and the resulting confirmation hearing will make the Harriet Miers debacle look like a Sunday School picnic. Republicans will get off of their deathbeds in order to fight this nomination - because while Democrats have managed to make themselves forget that Gorelick penned an order that helped to cripple our internal counter-terrorism protocols before 9/11, REPUBLICANS HAVE NOT. As to legislators… the question is not whether Republican Senators will sign off on this. They will not. The question is how many Democratic Senators running for re-election next year will be willing to take yet another metaphorical bullet for this administration by supporting Gorelick’s nomination. I suggest that the number is less than the administration thinks.

But surely this is merely a rumor: nobody in the administration is really stupid enough to nominate a woman who is this notorious.

Right?

Of course if they are determined to stonewall the Gunwalker scandal, and they need a cover-up specialist at the FBI, there's no one more skilled than Gorelick.

Praxis: Militia Logistics -- Pistol Belts, Stainless Steel Drink Bottles and Multi-Use Pouches.

All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE) rig, circa 1973, with distinctive "Y" shoulder harness instead of the "H" style of the M1956.

Stopped by the thrift store this morning and scored a USGI ALICE LC-1 belt with metal buckle, size large, in excellent shape with near new plastic canteen, NBC cap, dated 1986, canteen cover OD, near new dated 1982 with side pouch for water purification tablets and a WWM-marked stainless steel cup with butterfly handle, new, dated 1989, all for $2.99.

Pistol belts have been around for a long, long time in the U.S. Military.

Doughboys in World War One had the M-1912 belt below.



The pistol belt was originally intended for soldiers who were not riflemen such as officers or crews of tanks or other equipment who were more often armed with pistols. The grommet holes in the belts allowed for holsters, first aid pouches and the like to be suspended from the belt. Riflemen had their own belts with pouches for .30-06 rifle ammunition clips, both for the World War One standard M1903 Springfield and M1917 Enfield and the World War Two standard, the M1 Garand.

The M1912 was superseded by the M1936 Pistol Belt.


The M-1936 was a slight modification of the M-1912 with a more secure buckle. This was the standard pistol belt of the World War Two and Korean War GI.

This basic belt went through modernization. With the advent of more magazine fed weapons in World War Two, such as the M-1 Carbine, the M-1 Thompson and M-3 "Grease Gun", etc., it was realized that pouches could be configured to fit on the existing M1936 belt. Thus, in World War II and Korea, every soldier armed with something other than the M-1 Garand or the BAR (which also had its own belt for magazines), used this "modularized" system.

After Korea, battlefield experience led to a better rifle with greater magazine capacity (the M-14), a new, lighter cartridge (the 7.62 NATO) and better load carrying equipment.

This was the M1956 system:




M1956 Canvas Pistol Belt.

The M1956 gear is canvas (which many prefer because it is quieter in the bush than nylon; and which equally many people don't like because canvas soaks up moisture and rots in hot, wet climates). The M1956 gear was the first to introduce what has become known as the "ALICE clip," a metal slide-lock retainer for attaching gear to the belt.

The M1956 gear also introduced the "butt back," which like the pistol belt has gone through many modifications over the years.

Early pattern M1956 "buttpack" showing ALICE attachment clips.

Because of the complaints about canvas gear in the climate of South Vietnam, the Army began to modify the M1956 canvas gear by making the design in rot-resistant nylon.


The M1967 "Davis Belt" kept the M1956 design with the exception of the material, nylon, and the "quick release Davis buckle." Unfortunately it had the tendency to come undone at the worst possible time.

The M1967 Individual Load Carrying Equipment was a modernized version of the M1956, designed specially for Vietnam. Even so, the M1967 gear did not entirely replace the M1956 equipment, and the canvas and nylon equipment were mixed together to form composite webbing, since both types were fully compatible with each other.

After Vietnam, the soldier's individual combat load was reconfigured again to the ALICE system, as you can see in the first photo at the top of the post. Throughout the years since, the belt has remained very similar, the biggest change being the search for the perfect buckle.

This early-pattern LC-2 is the type I picked up at the thrift store today.


Early Pattern LC-2 Belt with metal buckle.


Second Pattern LC-2 Belt with plastic buckle.



Late pattern LC-2 Belt with improved plastic buckle.

In the 1990s and on into the 21st Century the men and women of my unit, 1st Alabama Cavalry and other constitution militia formations, were most often accoutered with some combination of these largely interchangeable pieces of load bearing equipment. Often the ALICE clips were used only long enough for the trooper to determine the best arrangement of gear on their belt and then the clips would be substituted with nylon 550 cord, which is much quieter, never rusts and doesn't dig into your flesh when subjected to stress when worn.



Stainless Steel Drink Bottles and Thermos Containers

I also picked up a selection of stainless steel drinking bottles and thermos-type insulated containers. For example, I got three of this style (as above, except in unpainted stainless) for $.39 each.

They hold 13 oz of liquid and are made of # 304 food grade stainless steel and are guaranteed to be "Lead safe, Phthalate, and BPA free. Conforms to or exceeds U.S. and European safety standards."



I also scored 6 of these 750ml containers with the logo of a local bank on them. The logo will succumb to acetone, I have no fear. The cost? $.59 each.

Also picked up three of these stainless Thermos containers:



The price was $.99 each. They hold a liter of liquid, hot or cold.

I like all these because they are stainless and they have wide mouths making cleaning easy.

Finally, on my recent stop at A-A Surplus in Leeds, I picked up one of these in Woodland. I like multi-purpose pouches.



The Specialty Defense Systems M-4 Double Magazine MOLLE CQB Pouch, Style 4050 holds two 30 round magazines for the M16/M4 series weapons, has a flap cover with adjustable Velcro closure to facilitate magazines fitted with Mag-Puls. Also features external elastic webbing to hold either a single or both mags securely in place. The example I picked up also has two elastic loops for 12 shotgun shells or anything else you want to thread through them. I am told that the pouch can hold a single M-14 magazine or even serve as a field-expedient pistol holster for many medium or large frame sidearms.

It can be attached directly via its MOLLE straps on the back to IBA, FLC, RACK or any other gear with PALS webbing. They can even be attached to any of the "old fashioned" pistol belts above. It is Magpul 5.56mm P-Mag compatible but not Magpul 5.56mm Mag Assist, Ranger Plate, L-Plate compatible.

The price? On a quantity deal VERY competitive. Call Darrell at A A Army Surplus Store, 8216 Parkway Drive, Leeds, AL 35094 (Phone: 205-699-4209)

Laura Ingraham: "The ATF gunrunner scandal, even worse than first thought."

Link.

"If it were not for Sharyl Attkisson and a few brave ATF agents, would we even know this is happening? Probably not, so thank God they are alerting us to this story."

True but incomplete. But that's okay. The domestic enemies of the Constitution know exactly where this scandal came from, and the parts played by David, me and all our friends of the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians. On the battlefield, recognition from your enemies that you are the one beating them is the only recognition that means anything. ;-)

Senatorial job opportunity: Grilling Melson like a hot dog about the Gunwalker Scandal. Will he plead the 5th now that his bosses have denied all?

In American criminal law, "pleading the Fifth", also known as "taking the Fifth" or "demanding the fifth", is the act of refusing to testify under oath in a court of law or any other tribunal (such as a Congressional committee) on the ground that the answers that would be given could be used as evidence against the witness to convict him or her of a criminal offense. -- Wikipedia.

The alleged "honest piano player in the whorehouse" is about to get up on stage to dance or sing.

A friend in DC sends this announcement with the question, "What do you suppose Melson is going to get asked?"

A Shared Responsibility: Counternarcotics and Citizen Security in the Americas

U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Global Narcotics Affairs

Presiding:

Senator Bob Menendez
Date:

Thursday, March 31, 2011
Time:

02:00 PM
Location:

419 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Agenda

If written testimony is available, it will be posted immediately after the hearing adjourns.

Panel One

William R. Brownfield, of Texas
to be an Assistant Secretary of State (International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs)


The Honorable R. Gil Kerlikowske
Director
National Drug Control Policy
Washington, DC

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

The Honorable Douglas Fraser
General, USAF
United States Southern Command
Doral, FL

Panel Two

Dr. Vanda Feldab-Brown
Fellow, Foreign Policy
Brookings Institution
Washington, DC

Dr. Cynthia J. Arnson
Director
Latin America Program
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington

Mr. Stephen Johnson
Director, Americas Program
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Washington, DC

What is the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs?

Wikipedia tells us that the committee

"is responsible for United States relations with the nations of the Western Hemisphere, including Canada and the nations of the Caribbean. The subcommittee also deals with boundary matters, and U.S. policy with regard to the Organization of American States. Specific matters within the region that fall within the subcommittees purview are terrorism and non-proliferation; U.S. foreign assistance programs; and the promotion of U.S. trade and exports. The subcommittee also exercises general oversight over the activities and programs of the Peace Corps and all U.S. foreign policy, programs and international cooperative efforts to combat the flow of illegal drugs or substances."

And who sits on this committee?

Members, 112th Congress

The Committee is chaired by Democrat Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and the Ranking Minority Member is Republican Marco Rubio of Florida.
Majority

* Bob Menendez, New Jersey, Chairman
* Barbara Boxer, California
* Jim Webb, Virginia
* Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire
* Tom Udall, New Mexico

Minority

* Marco Rubio, Florida, Ranking Member
* Mike Lee, Utah
* Jim DeMint, South Carolina
* Johnny Isakson, Georgia
* John Barrasso, Wyoming

Now, what do you suppose are the chances of getting one of these ostensibly Second Amendment-supporting Senators to ask a series of questions designed to get at the truth of Melson's knowledge of Gunwalker, or, force him to take the Fifth Amendment? Sounds like a Senatorial job opportunity for someone who wishes to establish his Second Amendment bona fides and make a headline or two, or three.

Folks, we have until next Thursday to make this happen.

And Melson, you bumbling, willing tool of a very deadly criminal enterprise, you might want to study this. Heck, Ollie North is still around. Call him up and ask how he did it.

LATER: I note that great minds think alike. John Richardson:

You would think at least one of these six senators would use this opportunity to force Melson to spill on what he knew, when he knew it, and who else was involved. If they don't take advantage of this, they should be ashamed of themselves. If you live in a state represented by one of these six, call their office and ask (or demand) that they ask the hard questions that need to be asked of Kenneth Melson and the ATF.

Praxis: Libyan Resistance Militia efforts to train up and field immediately a combat-worthy force is a subject of study for all militia.

This story in USA Today weeks ago touched on the frenzied attempts of the Libyan resistance to field a competent armed force out of willing volunteers who brought nothing to the party but will and good intentions. The results have been almost catastrophic for the resistance. American constitutional militiafolk should look on the Libyan experience as a cautionary tale. There is no substitute for consistent, thorough tactical training.

Start thinking about how you would react in a similar situation. What is the state of your logistics? How to deal with identification-friend-or-foe? What clothing? How could you fill the gaps? What would you do with newbies who are more likely to shoot themselves or you instead of the enemy?

Here's a collection of photos I picked off the net just from today:

What a hoot. The Darth Vader of the Gunwalker scandal in the former Soviet Union to lecture them on "corruption." ROFLMAO! I'm dyin' here!

A deep genuflection and tip of the boonie hat to Kurt Hofmann for this link. "Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division Speaks at the 3rd Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States Summit on Anti-corruption."

Commentary on Obama's categorical denial on Gunwalker scandal by a DC insider. "Obama is falling into a trap that is probably of his own making."

Why won't people believe me without question anymore?

I received this commentary from a long-time DC insider:

This is stunning--President Obama one-on-one with a Mexican journalist, and no handlers? President Obama considers a Mexican journalist more important to talk with about Gunwalker than the American people, the American
press/media, and the Congress?

If I'd not see this, I would not have believed it. This is proof of some combination of ineptitude (getting caught); not having a Plan B to handle something going awry (unskilled implementers); hubris (thinking that a bunch of pointy-headed intellectual knuckleheads could pull off a strategy so blatantly stupid); and what I'd call a Black Swan (from Nassim Taleb's book of that name, "the highly expected not happening", footnote on page xviii, meaning that President Obama and his retinue expected ATF Special Agents to carry the water, and they didn't.) Instead, they disavowed the activity. Quite profound, in my view.

Where does this go from here? How can President Obama give an exclusive interview to a Mexican journalist, and ignore the U.S. media? That can't and won't last.

President Obama is falling into a trap that is probably of his own making, or which was undertaken with his orders, by talking about Gunwalker. The reason is that every time he talks about Gunwalker, people will associate Gunwalker with him, exactly what he DOESN'T want. He should have offered up a minion, but he didn't. That means the buck is gonna stop with him---figure he's gonna get vicious? If people are going to be held accountable, which people? West Wing or ATF?

From CBS & Univision: "Well first of all I did not authorize it. Eric Holder the Attorney General did not authorize it." "Son, you're on your own."

Link. Univision's Jorge Ramos scores another coup in the Gunwalker scandal.



Transcription:

Ramos: "The Mexican Government complains that they were never informed of the Fast and Furious operation, did you authorize this operation and was President Calderon properly informed about it?"

Obama: "Well first of all I did not authorize it. Uh, Eric Holder the Attorney General did not authorize it. He's been very clear that our policy is to catch gun runners and put 'em into jail. Uh. So what he's done is he's assigned uh, a, an IG, an Inspector General, to investigate what exactly happened here."

Ramos: "Who authorized it?"

Obama: "Well, we don't have all the facts that's why uh, the, uh, IG is in business, to collect the facts.

Ramos: "You were not even informed about it?"

Obama: "Absolutely not. This is a pretty big government, uh, the United States government. I've got a lot of moving parts. Uh. But, uh, I want to be very clear, and, uh, I spoke to President Calderone when he came to visit just a few weeks ago our policy is to ramp up the interdiction of guns flowing south because that's contributing to some of the security problems that are taking place in Mexico. And what we're doing is trying to build the kind of cooperation between Mexico and the United States that we haven't seen before, uh, that ensures that, uh, we have a comprehensive approach. Uh, I've said to President Calderone and I've said publicly, we’ve got obligations. It’s not just Mexico's problem it’s also our problem. We’ve got to reduce demand for drugs which is why even though we’ve got obviously significant deficits we’re allocating 10 billion dollars in our budget to try to, uh, reduce demand through prevention programs and education programs. We have to make sure were enforcing, uh, the kinds of, uh, measures that will stop the flow of guns and cash down South that is helping to fuel these trans-national drug cartels. So, we initiated excellent cooperation. Uh, there may be a situation here in which a serious mistake was made and if that’s the case then we’ll find out and well hold somebody accountable.

Ramos: Mexico was not informed then?

Obama: Well, if I wasn’t informed I assure you that Mexico wasn’t either.

If I might make a point here.

Hey Breuer, Melson, Hoover, Chait and Newell. I don't know if you noticed but you've all just been burned, discarded, thrown under the bus by your boss of bosses. "The Secretary has disavowed all knowledge of your actions."


Or, to quote the Reverend in Blazing Saddles: "Son, you're on your own."



Pretty high pucker factor, huh? I betcha "Gunwalker Bill" Newell alone could make Hope diamonds out of lumps of bituminous coal with his anal sphincter right now.

Any of you recovering your own sense of self-preservation enough to want to get in touch with Senator Grassley, drop me an email. I'll be happy to make the introduction.

Mike Vanderboegh
ATF Scandalmonger, First Class and the alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.

Interesting observation on Obama: Ideological modus operandi as basis for Gunwalker . "The question is not did he approve it. Did he disapprove it?"

"I am not a crook."

Writing at National Review, Stanley Kurtz writes about Obama's decision making on Libya:

Obama doesn’t tell you what he’s thinking. He keeps his motives to himself. Cherished long-term ideological goals are advanced as pragmatic fixes to concrete problems in the present.

And:

But if Obama shifts “pragmatically” between competing foreign-policy orientations, the stances themselves are intensely ideological, and almost entirely unavowed.

And:

Yet Obama has so far been reluctant to fully explain any of this to either Congress or the American public, perhaps because he realizes that the ideological basis of his actions would not be popular if openly admitted. If Obama were a different sort of president, we would have all heard about “responsibility to protect” long ago. The country would have thoroughly debated Power’s ideas, and the public would have quickly recognized the core motives of the president’s actions in Libya.

Instead, the president’s long-term goals have remained murky. He’s been impossibly vague on regime change, narrowly focused on the danger to Benghazi, and has said relatively little about the aspirations of Power and her associates to enshrine the principles and precedents of humanitarian intervention in international law.

As with health care, Obama’s talk isn’t working because he cannot afford to specify broader ideological motivations he knows the public won’t buy.

Here we see the same ideological modus operandi that formed a basis for the Gunwalker scandal. Obama has always been intensely anti-firearm. The gun confiscationist advocates like Helmke were thus puzzled when Holder was slapped down early on a new "Assault Weapons" Ban. Did Obama stop being anti-firearm? No. He just recognized it as not doable without considerable blow-back, thus he had to bide his time, puzzling friends and enemies alike.

Unless, of course, a "crisis" could be produced to shift the poll numbers and justify it politically.

This makes more sense than the two other excuses advanced to date:

a. The "Monty Melson and the Search for 'Mr. Big'" idiocy -- identified as such early on by the ATF agents themselves.

b. "'Gunwalker Bill' Newell's Excellent Rogue Foreign Policy Adventure" -- already disproved by what few documents we have.

Obama, like most men, is what he is, as well as a creature of habit. He cannot escape it. An ideological modus operandi that obtains in one part of his world view surely extends to other parts.

Viewed from Kurtz' insight, the Gunwalker scandal makes perfect sense.

And I just received this from one of my DC contacts:

Mike -- the obvious just hit me... if there's inter-agency participation in this mess, there's a coordinating agent, i.e., someone from the National Security staff at the White House making these horses pull together...

Add the foreign policy connection, and it's a "slam dunk" that the White House has had a key role...

and Obama probably did not sign off on any paper... something like USMC requests for artillery support: Silence implies consent... The question is not did he approve it. Did he disapprove it?

Yep, gittin' a bit close to The Man...

Obama Says He Didn't Approve "Fast and Furious"!

"I am not a crook."

This just in from John Richardson at No Lawyers -- Only Guns and Money.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Obama Says He Didn't Approve "Fast and Furious"
According to tweets from CBS Investigative Reporter Sharyl Attkisson, President Obama was asked this evening about Operation Fast and Furious and and ATF's "gunwalking". He stated he didn't approve the operation.

@SharylAttkisson
President Obama tonight was asked about ATF Gunwalking Scandal, subject of @CBSEveningNews investigation.

@SharylAttkisson
President Obama stated that he did not approve the ATF operation. Watch @CBSEveningNews @katiecouric for the latest Gunwalking developmts

I am looking for when and where Obama stated this and will post the full text when it is available.
Posted by John Richardson at 10:19 PM

"I did not have sex with that woman. Miss Lewinski." -- Bill Clinton.

Watch out for parsing here. When he would have presumably given the go-ahead in early to mid 2009, "Fast and Furious" (the name for the Phoenix part of the operation) hadn't been chosen yet.

Laura Ingraham led off her show today with a blistering indictment of the Gunwalker Scandal (and when I called in I couldn't get past the screener.)

Seriously. Told him who I was, my part in the opening of the scandal and how I wanted to thank Ingraham. All the schmuck had to say was 'Thanks for calling" and hung up. Sheesh. Tough screener.

Now this is a nice touch.

Illegals Wearing USMC Uniforms Caught in Allegedly Stolen Gov't Van.

The "Baghdad Bobs" of Gun Control Ignore the Gunwalker Scandal.

There is no Gunwalker scandal! You have been misinformed!

"De-funding gun enforcement puts U.S. at risk," says Rep. Michael Quigley.

Meanwhile, "Prohibitionists can’t get stories straight as ‘Gunrunner’ scandal unravels."

PRC spank.

I would say, "incredible" but this is the same industry that took Jihadis out of the Sum of All Fears and substituted American neo-Nazis. John Milius must be spitting nails.

CBS "will be with this scandal until Holder and Napolitano leave in disgrace & Emanuel is having heart-to-heart chats with a Special Prosecutor."

The battle of the eyes.

Robert Farago follows up on CBS with Gunwalker Scandal Spreads to DHS, USMS, DEA, ICE, AUSA.

In response a couple of commenters sneer at CBS. My response to them:

Anyone who sneers at CBS or doubts the story a. doesn't know sh-t from shinola about this scandal; and b. must be cognitively dissonant, trolling for Obama, or both.

Many other reporters and networks tried to get the whistleblowers to talk to them. Usually they came swaggering in to David and me and said, "OK, the Professionals are here, little boys, just give us your sources and we'll find out if you're lying." I could give you names, we have the emails, but what's the point? Each failed on fundamental issues of trust and operational security until CBS. They approached us, having read all the material and documents, and began by asking really intelligent questions. Then they approached the agents by being, first and foremost, sensitive to their position. Thus it is no wonder that after all the arrogant bullsh-t of previous media suitors, CBS got the nod.

They have been doing a great job since day one and if it strikes you as remarkable that it is C B S of all networks that got this story and has stayed on it like a terrier on a rat ever since, I must say that it does me too.

But don't doubt them -- their skills or their facts. They will be with this scandal until Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano leave in disgrace and Rahm Emanuel is having heart-to-heart chats with a Special Prosecutor.

Mike Vanderboegh

I would add one thing. My faith is in CBS only by extension from Sharyl Attkisson, et. al. It is entirely possible that now, with the great eye of Mordor on the Potomac belatedly focused on this little hobbit of a scandal about enter the bowels of Mount Doom, that considerable political pressure is being brought on CBS and parent company to kill this story. In that case, I can certainly see a bright and happy future for Sharyl Attkisson and staff at whatever other network, probably FOX, that would pick up such an already-developed and promisingly developing story. The only thing is, Mordor would have drawn even more attention to the scandal in the process. Don't you like "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenarios when the other guy is caught in them? I know I do. ;-)

Sauron: "That says 'UPS' not 'CBS' you idiot."

Gríma "Gunwalker Bill" Wormtongue, cringing: "Please master, don't let them flay me alive at hearings!"

Obama's Field of Nightmares. "If you hold hearings, they will come."

"If you hold hearings, Mr. Congressman, they will come."

Writing at The Hill's Congress Blog ("Where Lawmakers Come to Blog") Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) says: Stop putting guns into hands of 'narco-terrorists'. Not a bad plan. Here's a better one: "If you hold hearings, they will come." Both the ghosts and the guilty.

Praxis: Unorthodox links to the internet. Savvy techies are finding ways to circumvent politically motivated shutdowns of the internet .

A tip of the boonie hat to Irregular WG for this link.

WITH a tin can, some copper wire and a few dollars’ worth of nuts, bolts and other hardware, a do-it-yourselfer can build a makeshift directional antenna. A mobile phone, souped-up with such an antenna, can talk to a network tower that is dozens of kilometres beyond its normal range (about 5km, or 3 miles). As Gregory Rehm, the author of an online assembly guide for such things, puts it, homemade antennae are “as cool as the other side of the pillow on a hot night”. Of late, however, such antennae have proved much more than simply cool.

According to Jeff Moss, a communications adviser to America’s Department of Homeland Security, their existence has recently been valuable to the operation of several groups of revolutionaries in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. To get round government shutdowns of internet and mobile-phone networks, resourceful dissidents have used such makeshift antennae to link their computers and handsets to more orthodox transmission equipment in neighbouring countries.

Technologies that transmit data under the noses of repressive authorities in this way are spreading like wildfire among pro-democracy groups, says Mr Moss. For example, after Egypt switched off its internet in January some activists brought laptops to places like Tahrir Square in Cairo to collect, via short-range wireless links, demonstrators’ video recordings and other electronic messages. These activists then broadcast the material to the outside world using range-extending antennae.

According to Bobby Soriano, an instructor at the Philippine branch of Tactical Tech, a British organisation that teaches communication techniques to dissidents in five countries, such antennae can even foil government eavesdropping and jamming efforts. Directional antennae, unlike the omnidirectional sort, transmit on a narrow beam. This makes it hard for eavesdroppers to notice a signal is there.

Citizens banned?

Another way of confounding the authorities is to build portable FM radio stations. One broadcasting expert, who prefers not to be named but is currently based in Europe, is helping to develop a dozen such “backpack” radio stations for anti-government protesters in his native land in the Arabian peninsula. Though these stations have a range of only a few kilometres, that is enough for the leaders of a protest to use them to co-ordinate their followers. The stations’ operators act as clearing houses for text messages, reading important ones over the air for everyone to hear.

Conventional radio of this sort cannot, unfortunately, transmit video or web pages. But a group called Access, based in New York, is trying to overcome that. To help democracy movements in the Middle East and North Africa get online, it is equipping a network of ham-radio operators with special modems that convert digital computer data into analogue radio signals that their equipment can cope with. These signals are then broadcast from operator to operator until they reach a network member in an area where the internet functions. This operator reconverts the signal into computer-readable data and then e-mails or posts the information online.

Satellites provide yet another way of getting online, though they are expensive to connect to. It is, however, beyond the authorities in most places to shut down a satellite operated by a foreign company or country. The best they can do is try to locate live satellite links using radiation-detection kit similar to that supposedly employed in Britain to seek out unlicensed televisions. The result is a game of cat and mouse between the authorities and satellite-using dissidents. Tactical Tech, for example, has trained dissidents in five countries to rig satellite dishes to computers in order to get online. It advises some users to log on only for short sessions, and to do so from a moving vehicle.

Such dishes can also be repurposed for long-range internet connections that do not involve satellites. Yahel Ben-David, an electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, who has designed secret cross-border links to the internet for people in several countries, does so by adding standard USB dongles designed for home Wi-Fi networks. Thus equipped, two properly aligned dishes as much as 100km apart can transmit enough data to carry high quality video. Moreover, the beam is so tightly focused that equipment a mere dozen metres away from its line would struggle to detect it.

Creative ideas for circumventing cyber-attacks even extend to the redesign of apparently innocent domestic equipment. Kenneth Geers, an American naval-intelligence analyst at a NATO cyberwar unit in Tallinn, Estonia, describes a curious microwave oven. Though still able to cook food, its microwaves (essentially, short radiowaves) are modulated to encode information as though it were a normal radio transmitter. Thus, things turn full circle, for the original microwave oven was based on the magnetron from a military radar. From conflict to domesticity to conflict, then, in a mere six decades.

Sharyl Attkisson on the Laura Ingraham show the other day.

For those of you who missed it earlier.

CBS Two-Fer Tonight: Agent Jaquez speaks out. More agencies implicated. Plus, Wayne LaPierre has finally come to Jesus on the Gunwalker Scandal.

ATF gunwalking scandal: Second agent speaks out

South of El Paso, Texas, on Mexico's side of the border, lies Juarez - the most dangerous city in the world. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports ATF Special Agent Rene Jaquez has been stationed there for the past year, trying to keep U.S. guns from being trafficked into Mexico.

"That's what we do as an agency," Jaquez said. "ATF's primary mission is to make sure that we curtail gun trafficking."

That's why Jaquez tells CBS News he was so alarmed to hear his own agency may have done the opposite: encouraged U.S. gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexico's drug cartels. Apparently, ATF hoped that letting weapons "walk" onto the street - to see where they'd end up - would help them take down a cartel.



Jaquez is so opposed to the strategy, he's speaking out. "You don't let guns walk. I've never let a gun walk."

Yet ATF agents told us they were ordered to let thousands of weapons walk. Two of them, assault rifles, were later found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona last December. Another gunrunning suspect under ATF surveillance was linked to the shooting of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata. And sources say many more "walked" weapons turned up at Mexican crime scenes.

Jaquez said, "I think this incidence is probably one of the darkest days in ATF's history."

But ATF wasn't working alone on the case known as "Fast and Furious." Documents show ATF had conference calls with "DHS" (Homeland Security). "USMS" (U.S. Marshals) and DEA. An "ICE," or Customs agent, was on ATF's Fast and Furious team. They were advised by an "AUSA," or Assistant U.S. Attorney under the Justice Department.

Justice Department head Eric Holder said the inspector general is investigating. "The aim of the ATF is to try to stop the flow of guns. I think they do a good job in that regard. Questions have been raised by ATF agents about the way in which some of these operations have been conducted. I think those questions have to be taken seriously, and on that basis, I've asked the inspector general to look at it."

Jaquez is second sitting ATF agent to come forward and speak out to CBS News on the controversy.

Jaquez says one of the most difficult things for him is believing that his own agency inadvertently put innocent lives at risk. Jaquez has family - uncles, aunts, father and sister - living in Mexico. "Any one of us could have been shot with one of those guns."

Jaquez says he's left wondering whether runaway violence in Mexico can be partly blamed on the agency tasked with stopping it.

PLUS:

NRA reacts to CBS News investigation on ATF "gunwalking"

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has asked Congress to investigate allegations that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) allowed thousands of weapons to cross the US border into Mexico, knowing they were likely to be acquired and used by Mexico's drug cartels.

Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the NRA, told CBS News that his group has heard from many of its law enforcement members who are outraged at the so-called "gunwalking" by ATF.

"They wanted to prove that there were guns flowing to Mexico, so they set up an illegal pipeline to send guns to Mexico," speculates LaPierre. "When does it stop being law enforcement and start being a criminal enterprise? To prove there's islamic terrorists are they going to start manufacturing and selling explosives? It just makes no sense."

It was ATF agents from the agency's Phoenix office who blew the whistle on the controversial practice to CBS News, to Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), and on blogs such as "Clean Up ATF". The gunwalking was allegedly allowed in a case known as "Fast and Furious" out of Phoenix, and also allegely allowed in a case known as "Wide Receiver" out of Tucson and supervised by Phoenix.

Phoenix ATF executive Bill Newell is quoted as having told reporters "Hell, no" when asked if he had ever allowed or approved gunwalking. Since then, ATF and the Department of Justice which oversees the agency have not repeated the firm denial. Justice Department Chief Eric Holder told Congress two weeks ago that the idea of gunwalking is wrong and said he's asked the Inspector General to investigate.

As to why guns would be allowed to walk, something that is normally strictly forbidden, agents say there seemed to be an idea among supervisors that the strategy of letting guns walk to see where they'd end up in Mexico would somehow help them build a big case and take down a major cartel. They were never able to take down a cartel, but the weapons began showing up at crime scenes all over Mexico. Two of them were found at the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December. Authorities are looking for possible links to the death of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata.

"A a relationship between equals . . . is not accomplished by sending arms to another country, without notice."

My thanks to the M3 Report of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS for the translation of this opinion piece in the Colombian newspaper El Pais by Jorge Ramos:

What the U.S. should (and should not) do

If America wants better relations with its southern neighbors, it can do many things including the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. But, definitely, do not send weapons. In the process of carrying out this initiative, dubbed “Operation Fast and Furious’, U.S. federal officials allowed more than 1,700 illegal guns to be brought into Mexico from the United States without notifying the administration of President Felipe Calderón. That is not done between neighbors. According to the complaint of John Dodson, agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF is the acronym in English, the plan was to introduce the weapons into Mexico so U.S. agents could trace the movements of them, with hope that it would allow the authorities to locate criminal groups and drug traffickers. The problem, Dodson said, is that weapons had no special markings or hidden tracking chips, so it was almost impossible to follow his path.

These weapons, many of which were handguns and semiautomatic rifles with great destructive power, perhaps already have been used to kill innocent people in Mexico. It is impossible to know how many of them are being used to commit crimes. But there’s more. While ATF is now reviewing their strategies, the operation of “controlled delivery” of weapons in Mexico has not ceased. “None of these people have said that this activity will stop,” Dodson said in an interview from Phoenix. “Nobody has said that we have suspended this policy at any time during the investigations.” Dodson decided to reveal the Operation Fast and Furious after the murder in Arizona of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, on December 14, 2010. Several officials believe the gunmen in the Arizona desert had targeted a group of four men from the BorderPatrol. The team was trying to apprehend criminals involved in attacking undocumented immigrants that illegally enter the United States through the desert.

Two of the weapons that were allowed into Mexico as part of Operation Fast and Furious were found in the place where Terry died. Dodson said he felt some responsibility for the death of Terry and that he decided to speak out against the arms smuggling operation. That’s understandable. But what about the Mexicans who have probably lost their lives at the hands of armed criminals? Who will speak for them? Many people today are in danger because of this illegal U.S. activity, about which the Mexican government was apparently never informed. So now that President Obama prepares for his trip to Latin America, it is a good time for Americans to learn a valuable lesson: America must never carry out an operation like the Fast and Furious in foreign lands. Never. What America should do is use their influence to promote openness and cooperation with Latin America. It is quite clear that Afghanistan, Iraq and the recent uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are at the top of the agenda of the Obama administration. But still, I have been watching events that affect the countries Obama is to visit in Central and South America, and his visit can benefit everyone involved. In addition, Obama is quite popular in the region. His predecessor, George W. Bush, however, was not viewed with sympathy for their unjustified and unnecessary invasion of Iraq. Obama does not have to do much to do well in Latin America. But this trip is about emphasizing that these countries are all important U.S. partners.

Undoubtedly, Brazil is the economic engine of South America. Chile hopes to become the first developed country in Latin America. And El Salvador is showing the world that a leftist government can have a stable relationship with Washington. “Ideologies are not important,” said the president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes. “El Salvador can build, along with the United States, a development partnership.” At this point in the game America should know that U.S. alliances with Latin American work. The cooperation works, but not the imposition of their strategies on other nations. Information sharing is not working covert operations abroad. Dan Restrepo, national security adviser in the White House, told me recently: “America, under the leadership of President Obama, wants to work as partners, as equals,” with these nations. And that, a relationship between equals, is what he loves about Latin America. But it is not accomplished by sending arms to another country, without notice.