BajaNomad
Not logged in [Login - Register]

Go To Bottom
Printable Version  
Author: Subject: ATF Promotes, Transfers Supervisors in Charge of "Operation Fast & Furious"
Gypsy Jan
Ultra Nomad
*****


Avatar


Posts: 4275
Registered: 1-27-2004
Member Is Offline

Mood: Depends on which way the wind is blowing

[*] posted on 8-16-2011 at 07:58 AM
ATF Promotes, Transfers Supervisors in Charge of "Operation Fast & Furious"


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-gun...



“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain

\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna

\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
View user's profile
Dave
Elite Nomad
******




Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 8-16-2011 at 01:45 PM


Always thought fast & furious was a good idea who's downfall was in the details. Don't know whether I'd necessarily blame these guys, though. The guns were gonna get to the cartels...one way or another.



View user's profile
MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
********




Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
Member Is Offline

Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day

[*] posted on 8-16-2011 at 09:57 PM
The Devil


Is ALWAYS in the Details. And, the Road to Hell is paved with GOOD Ideas ?

Any other Cliches Apply ?

Other than Success (or competency ?) never being a requirement for promotion in Civil Service ?

OH, Yeah.............There's that "Rising ABOVE the level of Incompetency" that seems to be standard in DC.
View user's profile
Woooosh
Banned





Posts: 5240
Registered: 1-28-2007
Location: Rosarito Beach
Member Is Offline

Mood: Luminescent Waves at Rosarito Beach

[*] posted on 10-14-2011 at 04:14 PM


Grenades are now part of this. The cartels LOVE the grenades- who doesn't like big explosions?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/14/earlyshow/main2012...

(CBS News) There's a new twist in the government's "gunwalking" scandal involving an even more dangerous weapon: grenades.
"Gunwalking" subpoena for AG Holder imminent

CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, who has reported on this story from the beginning, said on "The Early Show" that the investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)'s so-called "Fast and Furious" operation branches out to a case involving grenades. Sources tell her a suspect was left to traffic and manufacture them for Mexican drug cartels.

Police say Jean Baptiste Kingery, a U.S. citizen, was a veritable grenade machine. He's accused of smuggling parts for as many as 2,000 grenades into Mexico for killer drug cartels -- sometimes under the direct watch of U.S. law enforcement.

For more on this investigation, visit CBS Investigates.

Law enforcement sources say Kingery could have been prosecuted in the U.S. twice for violating export control laws, but that, each time, prosecutors in Arizona refused to make a case.

Grenades are weapons-of-choice for the cartels. An attack on Aug. 25 in a Monterrey, Mexico casino killed 53 people.

Sources tell CBS News that, in January 2010, ATF had Kingery under surveillance after he bought about 50 grenade bodies and headed to Mexico. But they say prosecutors wouldn't agree to make a case. So, as ATF agents looked on, Kingery and the grenade parts crossed the border -- and simply disappeared.

Six months later, Kingery allegedly got caught leaving the U.S. for Mexico with 114 disassembled grenades in a tire. One ATF agent told investigators he literally begged prosecutors to keep Kingery in custody this time, fearing he was supplying narco-terrorists, but was again ordered to let Kingery go.

The prosecutors -- already the target of controversy for overseeing "Fast and Furious," wouldn't comment on the grenades case. U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke recently resigned and his assistant, Emory Hurley, has been transferred. Sources say Hurley is the one who let Kingery go, saying grenade parts are "novelty items" and the case "lacked jury appeal."

Attkisson added on "The Early Show" that, in August, Mexican authorities raided Kingery's stash house and factory, finding materials for 1,000 grenades. He was charged with trafficking and allegedly admitted not only to making grenades, but also to teaching cartels how to make them, as well as helping cartel members convert semi-automatic rifles to fully-automatic. As one source put it: There's no telling how much damage Kingery did in the year-and-a-half since he was first let go. The Justice Department inspector general is now investigating this, along with "Fast and Furious."




\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
View user's profile Visit user's homepage
Oggie
Nomad
**


Avatar


Posts: 312
Registered: 6-16-2009
Location: Carlsbad, CA/BOLA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Missing Baja

[*] posted on 10-14-2011 at 04:25 PM


Emails: Bush-Era Embassy, Prosecutor's Office Approved ATF 'Gun Walking' Tactic

Ryan J. Reilly | October 14, 2011, 5:00PM


As House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) continues to try to pin the flawed "gun walking" tactic employed in Operation Fast and Furious on the Obama administration, it's becoming increasingly clear that problems with ATF's Phoenix division date back at least into the Bush era.

TPM has obtained the documents relating to another Bush-era ATF operation (on top of Operation Wide Receiver) which deployed the "gun walking" tactic. The development was first reported by Pete Yost of the Associated Press.

In fact, ATF officials wrote in 2007 that the gun walking tactic had "full approval" of the U.S. Attorney's Office being run by an interim Bush appointee and that the U.S. Embassy in Mexico was "fully on-board."

Under DOJ policy, illicit arms shipments are supposed to be intercepted whenever possible. But the emails show that just like in Operation Fast and Furious, official planned to allow guns to "walk" across the border and into Mexico in an attempt to identify traffickers higher up in the operation (rather than low ranking "straw purchasers," who are difficult to prosecute thanks to the lack of an anti-trafficking gun law).

On Sept. 27, 2007 -- when the Justice Department was reeling from the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- ATF agents in Phoenix and Mexico were conducting partial surveillance of suspects who purchased numerous weapons at a federally licensed firearms dealership.

After they watched the group purchase 19 weapons on Sept. 21 and 24 and additional weapons on Sept. 27, they watched as the weapons crossed the border into Mexico.

"Phoenix AZ ATF agents observed this vehicle commit to the border and reach the Mexican side until it could no longer be seen," ATF assistant director Carson Carroll wrote in a Sept. 28, 2007 email. "We, the ATF (Mexico) did not get a response from the Mexican side until 20 minutes later, who then informed us that they did not see the vehicle cross."

A few days later, William Newell -- the ATF official in charge of the Phoenix division -- tried to assure colleagues that everything would be okay.

"I know you have reservations but please rest assured that this will go as planned, as allowed per MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) with Mexico, with full approval of the USAO (confirmed again late this afternoon), and will have big payoffs for us and the Department in addresing (sic) Mexico's concerns that we (US) aren't doing enough to address their concerns," Newell wrote in an Oct. 4, 2007 email. "Trust me, I'm with Gov't."

"Wow, I feel so much better," William Hoover, the ATF Assistant Director for Field Operations wrote in an email the next morning.

Hoover's emails lay out all the questions that congressional and Justice Department investigators are examining about Fast and Furious.

"This is a major investigation with huge political implications and great potential if all goes well. We must be very prepared if it doesn't go well," Hoover wrote in a Oct. 5, 2007 email.

"I would like to discuss the following: Have we discussed the strategy with the US Attorney's Office re letting guns walk? Do we have this approval in writing? Have we discussed and thought thru the consequences of same? Are we tracking south of the border?" Hoover wrote in the email.

A later email from Anne Marie Paskalis, senior counsel in charge of field operations on Oct. 5 indicated that the U.S. Attorney's office "is not yet fully on board with this investigation."

At the time, the U.S. Attorney for Arizona was Daniel Knauss, who was serving on an interim basis after the Bush administration fired Paul Charlton in the course of the U.S. Attorney scandal.

Newell also wrote that the U.S. Embassy, which at the time was being run by Bush appointed ambassador Antonio Garza, "was fully on-board with this and they are a key player in authorizing any such case."

Another individual told Newell that the ambassador "was not suprised (sic) that the Mexicans missed the load," according to his email.

Eventually, Newell shut the case down.

"I truly appreciate your enthusiasm about this case and I'm sorry I had to damper that as well as get you jammed up - for that I'm truly sorry," Newell wrote to ATF assistant director Carson Carroll.

"I think we both understand the extremely positive potential for a case such as this but at this point I'm so frustrated with this whole mess I'm shutting the case down and any further attempts to do something similar," Newell wrote. "We're done trying to pursue new and innovative initiatives -- it's not worth the hassle."

The case sat dormant until prosecutors reviewed the case during the Obama administration and decided to file charges.

Issa's investigators have had the documents and emails on the 2007 case for months, but he hasn't said anything much about them. Issa's office said that pointing to the Bush-era program "reeks of desperation," but said that he would "get to the bottom" of the Bush-era Operation Wide Receiver.

Hoover is now special agent in charge of ATF's D.C. field division, while Newell was reassigned to a job at ATF's D.C. headquarters.




A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child.
Knights of Pythagoras

Funny how falling feels like flying
for a little while - Bad Blake
View user's profile
Cypress
Elite Nomad
******




Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
Member Is Offline

Mood: undecided

[*] posted on 10-14-2011 at 04:40 PM


Oh yea! Bush did it!:lol: And Obama? Heck, he just found out about it on the 7 th. hole, caused him to miss a birdie! But, he did better on the next hole.:lol::lol:
View user's profile
Oggie
Nomad
**


Avatar


Posts: 312
Registered: 6-16-2009
Location: Carlsbad, CA/BOLA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Missing Baja

[*] posted on 10-14-2011 at 06:18 PM


One is as bad as the other was my point.



A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child.
Knights of Pythagoras

Funny how falling feels like flying
for a little while - Bad Blake
View user's profile
BajaRat
Super Nomad
****




Posts: 1302
Registered: 3-2-2010
Location: SW Four Corners / Bahia Asuncion BCS
Member Is Offline

Mood: Ready for some salt water with my Tecate

[*] posted on 10-14-2011 at 06:46 PM


Sadly more lives will be taken with those weapons, nice cushy reassignments will be handed out and both sides of the border will pay. I'm sure we will be paying for their nice retirement packages as well.
View user's profile

  Go To Top

 






All Content Copyright 1997- Q87 International; All Rights Reserved.
Powered by XMB; XMB Forum Software © 2001-2014 The XMB Group






"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen. The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez

 

"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt

 

"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes

 

"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn

 

"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law







Thank you to Baja Bound Mexico Insurance Services for your long-term support of the BajaNomad.com Forums site.







Emergency Baja Contacts Include:

Desert Hawks; El Rosario-based ambulance transport; Emergency #: (616) 103-0262