WASHINGTON - CBS News has obtained secretly recorded conversations that raise questions as to whether some evidence is being withheld in the murder of a Border Patrol agent.
(Scroll down to listen to the audio)
The tapes were recorded approximately mid-March 2011 by the primary gun dealer cooperating with ATF in its "Fast and Furious" operation: Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Arizona. He's talking with the lead case ATF case agent Hope McAllister.
The tapes have been turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General.
As CBS News first reported last February, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to "walk" onto the streets without interdiction into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in its operation "Fast and Furious."
The conversations refer to a third weapon recovered at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Agent: I was ordered to let guns into Mexico
Court records have previously only mentioned two weapons: Romanian WASR "AK-47 type" assault rifles. Both were allegedly sold to suspects who were under ATF's watch as part of Fast and Furious.
Also, a ballistics report turned over to Congressional investigators only mentions the two WASR rifles. The ballistics report says it's inconclusive as to whether either of the WASR rifles fired the bullet that killed Terry.
Law enforcement sources and others close to the Congressional investigation say the Justice Department's Inspector General obtained the audio tapes several months ago as part of its investigation into Fast and Furious.
Then, the sources say for some reason the Inspector General passed the tapes along to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona: a subject in the investigation. It's unclear why the Inspector General, who is supposed to investigate independently, would turn over evidence to an entity that is itself under investigation. The Inspector General's office had no immediate comment.
(Listen to the audio below)
In the audiotapes, AFT Agent McAllister tells Howard that a third weapon recovered at the Brian Terry murder scene last December is an SKS assault rifle. Agent McAllister claims to know that the SKS "had nothing to do with" the Brian Terry murder and, unlike the WASR's, did not trace back to the Lone Wolf gun store.
It's unclear why a weapon would be, in essence, missing from the evidence disclosed at the crime scene under FBI jurisdiction.
Agent McAllister and Howard (the gun dealer) also discuss various Republicans and Democrats in Congress who are investigating Fast and Furious. They express concern that whistleblower ATF special agent John Dodson has further evidence that could be damaging to the government.
Transcript of the audio below:
Agent: Well there was two.
Dealer: There's three weapons.
Agent: There's three weapons.
Dealer: I know that.
Agent: And yes, there's serial numbers for all three.
Dealer: That's correct.
Agent: Two of them came from this store.
Dealer: I understand that.
Agent: There's an SKS that I don't think came from.... Dallas or Texas or something like that.
Dealer: I know. talking about the AK's
Agent: The two AK's came from this store.
Dealer: I know that.
Agent: Ok.
Dealer: I did the Goddamned trace
Agent: Third weapon is the SKS has nothing to do with it.
Dealer: That didn't come from me.
Agent: No and there is that's my knowledge. and I spoke to someone who would know those are the only ones they have. So this is the agent who's working the case, all I can go by is what she told me.
Audio link.
4 comments:
Michael, you asked "when is Darrell Issa going to go after the FBI cover-up?"
By my reckoning about 6 weeks after the last shipment of mukluks and parkas are offloaded at the loading docks in Hell!
('Course I always WAS an optimist.
[quote]
"It's unclear why a weapon would be, in essence, missing from the evidence disclosed at the crime scene under FBI jurisdiction."[unquote]
"Unclear" ? That's funny. Of course, in reality land, it's BLINDINGLY CLEAR "why a weapon would be, in essence, missing from the evidence disclosed at the crime scene under FBI jurisdiction"!! Because they're all criminally lying sacks of shit...that are realizing that sooner or later the shit is going to hit the fan and someone is going to the big house...that's why! DOH!!
You will never find a greater source of scum and villainy than Mordor on the Potomac.
Well maybe Moscow's up there too....
Come to think of it, they started all this didn't they?
I notice that defending Issa's "handling" of this "investigation" is getting harder and harder for those who ave long held him up as a champion in this debacle to accomplish.
Notice that there are ALREADY talk in media about a special prosecutor regarding Solyndra.....
Gee, why has media tanked the GunWalker Scandal all along?
Issa should have been clobbering Barry with GunWalker, but the reality is that he has not done so. Worse yet, John Boehner hides from it as much as media does. Heck, CBS is talking about it more than Boehner is! Come to think of it, I cannot think of a single instance that Boehner has talked about it or been asked about it.
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