From USA Today August 10, 2011:

ATF operation focused on man who bought more than 700 guns

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

When Uriel Patino walked into a Glendale, Ariz., gun store last August and placed an order for 20 handguns, federal gun agents already knew the 25-year-old man as the most prolific figure in a trafficking ring that was supplying hundreds of guns to Mexico’s brutal Sinoloa drug cartel, according to federal court documents and congressional investigators.

In the prior 10 months, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced 673 area gun purchases to the Phoenix resident, congressional investigators found.

Now, Patino was back for more. And the ATF, eager for the young suspect to lead them to a bigger fish in the rich trafficking ring, was more than happy to oblige, despite concerns raised by the local gun store.

Alarmed by the size of Patino’s August request, the dealer, who was cooperating with federal investigators, asked the ATF whether a special order for the weapons should be placed because there were only four in stock.”Our guidance is that we would like you to go through with Mr. Patino’s request and order the additional firearms,” ATF Supervisor David Voth wrote the dealer in an Aug. 25 e-mail.

STORY: ATF agent calls gun-tracking program a ‘disaster’

MORE: Program tracking guns put agents at risk, report says

Even though agents knew then that guns allegedly purchased by Patino had been showing up at crime scenes in Mexico and the USA, Patino was allowed to walk away that day.

Before he was arrested in January, congressional investigators estimate that he purchased at least 720 firearms, 157 of which fell into the hands of Mexican drug cartel enforcers or other criminals on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.

Patino’s alleged activities account for more than a third of an estimated 2,000 weapons purchased as part of the ATF’s controversial gun-trafficking investigation, known as Operation Fast and Furious.

And while top ATF and Justice Department officials now struggle to explain to a congressional committee how the failed investigation had gone so wrong, federal court records of Patino’s alleged buying sprees provide an unusual view into an operation that several ATF whistle-blowers said shredded the agency’s investigative rules and may have cost the life of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

The Phoenix-based operation was shut down last December when two weapons purchased by another suspect in the inquiry were recovered at the scene of a shootout near the Arizona-Mexico border where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.

The gun involved in Terry’s killing has not yet been identified.”

ATF agents allowed weapons to be provided to individuals whom they knew would traffic them to members of Mexican drug-trafficking organizations,” ATF Supervisory Special Agent Peter Forcelli recently told members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

For months during the operation, which began in 2009, ATF Agent John Dodson told the House panel that he and fellow agents were regularly ordered to abandon surveillance of suspicious gun purchases, “knowing all the while that just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico.

“Much of that surveillance, according to the agents and House committee investigative reports, was centered on Uriel Patino.Indeed, Patino was so active that within days after the ATF investigation was opened that agents created a special file to record his purchases, said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House panel, is leading the congressional inquiry into the ATF’s activities.

“In the first 24 days (in 2009) that the ATF was on to him, Patino bought 34 guns from dealers cooperating with the ATF,” Grassley recently told the House committee.

Charged with 22 weapons-related counts, including dealing firearms without a license, false statements and money laundering, Patino is free pending trial.

His attorney, Eugene Marquez, did not respond to requests for comment.

Federal court documents describe Patino as the busiest operative in a smuggling ring that involved 19 other purchasers, known as “straw-buyers.” P

rized for clean criminal records that make them eligible to purchase weapons in the USA, the buyers are typically paid fees to purchase weapons on behalf of the traffickers.

In one 12-day stretch in March 2010, prosecutors allege, Patino purchased 72 AK-47 assault weapons.

Adding to the suspicious nature of the purchases, prosecutors noted that all of them were done at one gun dealer: the Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Ariz.

A Lone Wolf representative declined to comment.

Within days of Patino’s purchases, according to House committee records, the guns were showing up at crime scenes and in weapons caches seized in the U.S. and Mexico.

So far, 99 guns allegedly purchased by Patino have been recovered in the U.S., and 58 have been seized in Mexico, according to committee records.

As one of the agents assigned to the ATF’s operation and who later helped expose its risky nature to the public, Dodson also was among the agents who detailed Patino’s frequent visits to Arizona gun stores.

“ATF is supposed to be the sheepdog that protects against the wolves that prey on our southern border,” Dodson told the committee in recent testimony, “but rather than meet the wolf head-on, we sharpened its teeth and added number to its claws. All the while, we sat idly by watching, tracking and noting as it became a more efficient killer.”

More on ATF Fast and Furious:

“The death of Border Agent Brian Terry was likely a preventable tragedy.”

Scathing report issued by Congress on ATF “Fast and Furious” gun walking scheme

Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes”

Issa Releases Documents Showing Intimate Involvement of ATF Director in Controversial Gunwalking Operation

Brian Terry’s family statement at ATF Fast and Furious hearing

Senator Grassley blasts ATF at House hearing on “gunwalker” scandal

Statement of John Dodson about ATF gunwalker scandal: “The very idea of letting guns walk is unthinkable to most law enforcement.”

“It has become common practice for ATF Supervisors to retaliate against employees that do not blindly tow the company line, no matter what the consequences.”

ATF “walked” guns: “I believe that these firearms will continue to turn up at crime scenes, on both sides of the border, for years to come.”

Tom Horne
Arizona Attorney General

Re: ATF Fast and Furious

Dear Mr. Horne

As you are aware, ATF ran a program called “Fast and Furious” out of their Phoenix office whereby the let assault rifles “walk” into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels and various border bandits.

Two of those ATF “walked” guns, which were sold by a Phoenix area gun shop with the knowledge of ATF, were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

While various investigations are on-going at the federal level, there appear to be important state law issues involved in this situation.

I specifically call your attention to Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 Section 1201 “Endangerment”

13-1201. Endangerment; classification

A. A person commits endangerment by recklessly endangering another person with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical injury.

B. Endangerment involving a substantial risk of imminent death is a class 6 felony. In all other cases, it is a class 1 misdemeanor.

Evidence is mounting that field agents within the Phoenix office of ATF warned their superiors that the “walking” of guns could lead to the deaths of, among others, federal agents.

The warnings of these dedicated and honorable law enforcement officers were ignored by their superiors. The end result was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry died as a result of these “walked” guns.

Arguably senior officials in ATF are chargeable for endangerment under state law.

I would urge you and your staff to look into the record that has been developed so far by the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the sworn testimony by various ATF employees with an eye on what, if any, state criminal laws were violated in the course of the “Fast and Furious” project.

I am suggesting ARS 13-1201 as just one of what may be many examples of violation of state criminal laws by ATF officials.

There is a fundamental issue at stake here.

Sometimes the federal government operates as though it is not subject to any law, even at the federal level. At times it becomes obvious that in the pursuit of their mission, they disregard state law, placing their mission ahead of the public safety and well-being of the people within a state.

Just because they might be federal employees or even federal law enforcement officials, they do not have any kind of immunity for violations of the state criminal code.

I urge you to look closely at the conduct of ATF within Arizona, and investigate whether or not that conduct violated state criminal laws, And if you find the conduct of the ATF senior management did indeed violate state law, please hold those ATF officials accountable to the people of Arizona.

Thank you

Hugh Holub
Attorney at Law
P.O Box 4773
Tubac, Arizona 85646

Press Release from US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform July 26, 2011:

ATF Officials in Mexico Denied Access to Information by U.S. Counterparts about Reckless Strategy that Allowed Guns to Fall Into the Hands of Mexican Drug Cartels

Issa, Grassley release staff report focusing on impact of Operation Fast and Furious on Mexico

WASHINGTON – Findings in a second staff report released by Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley show that ATF officials based in the United States Embassy in Mexico City were increasingly worried about the alarming rate of guns found in violent crimes in Mexico from a single ATF operation based out of the ATF’s Phoenix Field Division. Issa is Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Grassley is Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“The consequences of arming Mexican drug cartels seem obvious. But even guns turning up at crime scenes in Mexico wasn’t enough for Justice Department officials to arrest straw purchasers and shut down their trafficking operations. Tragically, it wasn’t until Fast and Furious guns were found at the murder scene of a Border Patrol Agent that Justice officials finally ended this reckless and arrogant effort,” said Issa.

“It’s incomprehensible that officials at the Justice Department, the ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office would keep their counterparts at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City in the dark about Operation Fast and Furious. Keeping key details secret while straw purchasers continued buying weapons for gun traffickers jeopardized our relationship with our southern ally and put lives at risk,” Grassley said.

The report released today outlines several important findings, including:

• There was little to no information sharing from the Phoenix Field Division, ATF Headquarters and the Justice Department to their colleagues in Mexico City. Every time Mexico City officials asked about the mysterious investigation, their U.S. based ATF counterparts in Phoenix and Washington, D.C. continued to say they were “working on it” and “everything was under control.”

• Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, was clearly aware of Operation Fast and Furious and touted the case during a visit to Mexico.

• ATF officials in Mexico City were incredulous that their agency would knowingly allow guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, and they were incensed when they finally began to learn the full scope of Operation Fast and Furious and the investigative techniques used.

Issa and Grassley are leading a congressional inquiry into the ill-advised strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious.

A copy of the report can be found here

Chairman Darrell Issa Hearing Preview Statement

Tuesday’s hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will examine the effects of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) program dubbed “Operation Fast and Furious.”  Specifically, we will review the impact of this program on our neighbor to the south, on our agents working in, and on the people of Mexico.

The Committee’s task today is serious, and the Administration’s effort to impede this investigation slows our work to make public the truth of an acknowledged—and failed—operation.  The Acting Director of the ATF, in a transcribed interview with investigators, has said that the Justice Department is trying to push all of this away from its political appointees.  That is not the response this Committee, Congress and the public, should expect from the ‘most transparent Administration in history.’

In this hearing, lawmakers will hear firsthand from field agents who have worked in Mexico for years and who were systematically kept in the dark by officials in Phoenix and at headquarters about the real nature and scope of “Operation Fast and Furious.”  The Committee will also hear testimony from ATF supervisors who chose to allow weapons to flow from illegal sales in the United States directly into the hands of Mexican drug cartels—without interception or interdiction.

To date, President Obama has been keen to talk about who didn’t know about the program and who didn’t authorize it.  These answers will not suffice.  The American people have a right to know—once and for all—who did authorize it and who knew about it.

Working with our counterpart in this investigation, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Committee will remain focused on these basic questions and pursue the trail of truth to the highest levels of government.  We owe the men and women in law enforcement nothing less because it is their lives on the line. 

###
Witnesses
Mr. Carlos Canino
ATF Acting Attaché to Mexico

Mr. Darren Gil
Former ATF Attaché to Mexico

Mr. Jose Wall
ATF Senior Special Agent
Tijuana, Mexico

Mr. Lorren Leadmon
ATF Intelligence Operations Specialist

Mr. William Newell
Former ATF Special Agent in Charge
Phoenix Field Division

Mr. William McMahon
ATF Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations
(West, including Phoenix and Mexico)
 

Testimony of Carlos Canino
http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Testimony/7-26-11_Carlos_Canino_FF_Testimony.pdf

Testimony of Darren Gill
http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Testimony/7-26-11_Darren_Gil_FF_Testimony.pdf

Testimony of WilliamNewell
http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Testimony/7-26-11_Newell_FF_Testimony.pdf

Testimony of McMahon
http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/7-26-11_McMahon_FF_Testimony.pdf

Just when one thought the ATF Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal couldn’t get any worse…it did.

This from the Los Angeles Times July 17, 2011:

Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants

Reporting from Washington— Congressional investigators probing the controversial “Fast and Furious” anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday.

More…

COMMENT: Now it seems the FBI was paying drug cartel guys as informants…guys were walking guns via the ATF scheme. The FBI neglected to tell ATF about the paid informants.

Interagency cooperation? The federal government doesn’t know what that means.

Two of the ATF “walked” guns ended up at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry south of Tucson.

Now Congress and the ATF want to require gun shops to report sales of more than a couple of guns.

Maybe Congress ought to require the FBI to communicate with ATF.

“Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act,”

From Town Hall Thursday July 14, 2011::

Democrats to Introduce Gun Control Legislation Tomorrow

 

By Katie Pavlich

Democrat Representatives Maloney, Cummings and McCarthy, all members of the Minority on the House Oversight Committee chaired by Republican Congressman Issa, plan to hold a press conference tomorrow to announce new gun control anti-gun trafficking legislation in light of Operation Fast and Furious. The “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act,” is designed to “keep high powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels.”

U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) will join other members and a leading law enforcement organization for an event Friday, July 15th, 11:00 a.m. at the House Triangle to introduce the “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act,” which establishes a dedicated firearms trafficking statute to empower law enforcement to keep high-powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels.

More…

Again from Town Hall:

So let me get this straight, democrats want to punish law abiding Americans and impede on Second Amendment rights with new legislation “to prevent gun trafficking to Mexico,” however, aren’t willing to focus on the ATF and DOJ’s role in deliberately putting high powered firearms into the hands of criminals including Mexican drug cartels? It doesn’t matter how many gun control laws we have on the books if the federal government is willing to break them to push a political agenda, however, this is not surprising.

FLASHBACK:

“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.” –Special Agent John Dodson ATF Phoenix Field Division.

Damning new evidence from Capitol Hill shows that ATF Directors and Justice Department Officials knew about and encouraged the purposeful trafficking of thousands of weapons across the southern border, despite strong objections from ATF agents. Thousands of innocent lives were taken as the result, including those of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent Jamie Zapata.

The announcement of new legislation comes just a day after Townhall obtained emails showing Operation Fast and Furious was designed to promote gun control and four days after the DOJ Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who is under investigation for his involvement in the scandal, released new reporting requirements for multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles.

New York Times Editorial July 13, 2011:

Gun Mayhem Along the Border

It is an open and deadly scandal that at least 70 percent of the weapons recovered in Mexico’s bloody drug war originate in the United States, where shady gun buyers operate freely thanks to loopholes in American law. To its credit, the Obama administration has ordered the more than 8,000 dealers along the border to begin reporting multiple sales of AK-47s and other semiautomatic battlefield weapons to the federal firearms bureau.

Straw buyers have been easily purchasing thousands of fast-firing weapons on the American side to supply the cartels, which deal drugs back across the border. These guns have no legitimate place in civilian life and were banned outright for 10 years until Congress and two successive administrations failed to fight for the ban’s renewal. In Mexico, semiautomatics have been at the heart of a five-year-long drug war in which more than 35,000 people have been slain.

The National Rifle Association, of course, is greeting the new regulation as an unconstitutional outrage against the right to bear arms. But the reporting of multiple sales of handguns is already required of dealers in all 50 states. Gathering information on a buyer of two or more semiautomatic rifles within five days is logical and overdue in the four border states. The rule, issued by the Justice Department, even provides that a report will be destroyed after two years if it produces no criminal cases.

Gun lobby sycophants in Congress are calling the regulation a smoke screen to distract attention from a gun-tracking operation botched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Known straw buyers made purchases that were supposed to lead to the cartels’ main brokers. But hundreds of guns disappeared into Mexico, and two turned up at the scene of a shootout where an American Border Patrol guard was killed. If anything, the ill-conceived operation, which deserves the fullest investigation, is a measure of the firearms bureau’s frustration in dealing with porous American law.

More…

COMMENTARY: The ATF Fast and Furious scheme allowed thousands of guns to “walk” to the Mexican drug cartels.

Was it our gun laws that allowed this to happen? No.

It happened because ATF overruled its own agents who didn’t want the guns to “walk” and it overruled concerned gun shop owners who reported questionable gun sales to what looked to them like “straw” buyers.

So what is the “solution”:  mandatory reporting of gun sales. Was that the whole point of ATF’s Fast and Furious? Seems likely.

22,400 rounds of ammo seized heading south

Justice Department announces program to have semi-auto rifle sales reported in border states

And to put this in context…from the Arizona Republic July 15, 2011:

Guns in Arizona: Sales at record pace

by Max Jarman – Jul. 15, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Guns are selling at a record pace this year at sporting-goods stores and specialty shops in Arizona, creating millions of dollars in revenue for retailers.

The ability to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, general apprehension and lingering concerns that the Obama administration could crack down on gun ownership are among the sales drivers.

In Arizona, it is likely that more than 200,000 new weapons will be put in buyers’ hands after background checks this year. That figure doesn’t include firearms purchased at gun shows and through private transactions. Such non-tracked sales are thought to account for 40 percent of all sales, adding about 150,000 guns purchased annually. The estimated sales total: about 350,000 guns per year.

Retailers report that demand for small handguns that can be concealed in a purse or briefcase has soared, while sales of rifles and shotguns have remained flat or declined.

Firearms are widely available at many major retailers in Arizona, including sporting-goods stores such as Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, Sports Authority, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Big 5 Sporting Goods.

Firearms sales remain brisk to consumers across the nation, as well, and retailers make sure they are stocked up: Nationally, retailers buy more firearms than golf equipment.

The Maryland-based Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association reported that $2.8 billion worth of firearms was sold by manufacturers to sporting-goods retailers in 2010, eclipsing the $2.35 billion in golf equipment sold that year. Only fitness equipment generated more sales for equipment manufacturers, at $3.2 billion.

“Firearms traditionally have been one of the top three sellers at sporting-goods stores,” said Mike May, a spokesman for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

Sales to retailers from manufacturers have risen dramatically since 2007. And even with an 11 percent drop in revenue in 2010 compared with 2009, firearms sales at sporting-goods retailers are up more than 20 percent since 2007, May said.

In addition to major retailers and specialty gun shops, firearms are available at 200 pawnshops in the state. Many pawnshops sell new weapons in addition to firearms that have been pawned and never claimed.

Busy marketplace

The FBI reports that 123,043 people submitted themselves to background checks to purchase guns in Arizona through June. That puts the state on track to break the record of 215,379 background checks in 2009, the year President Barack Obama took office.

The federal government requires the background checks for guns purchased through dealers licensed by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Although the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, application doesn’t reflect an actual purchase, less than 2 percent of the applicants are rejected, and it is seen as a reliable indicator of gun sales and consumer demand.

In June, the ATF reported there were 1,629 licensed dealers, manufacturers and collectors of firearms and ammunition in Arizona. That compares with 1,589 in January 2011 and 1,566 in June 2010.

In Massachusetts and Washington, two states with populations similar to Arizona’s, there were, respectively, 492 and 1,155 licensed dealers, manufacturers and collectors of firearms and ammunition.

Experts attribute the relatively large number of licensees in Arizona to the state’s strong gun culture and gun-friendly laws.

Most of the license holders are dealers. In Arizona, about 1,200 of the 1,629 licensees are buyers and sellers of firearms. They range from gun shops, sporting-goods retailers and pawnshops to individuals, primarily gun enthusiasts, who hold dealer licenses so they can buy directly from manufacturers.

Walmart, which stopped selling guns at most stores in 2006 because of weak sales, has recently restocked rifles and shotguns at 1,700 of its 3,800 stores, including many in Arizona.

Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardy attributed their return to customer demand.

“People depend on us for hunting and sporting goods, and we listened to the feedback and added them back,” she said.

The Walmart stores do not sell handguns.

“We carry sporting firearms only,” Hardy said.

Although background checks are required for guns purchased through licensed retailers, no such screening is needed for guns purchased at the more than 20 major gun shows held in Arizona each year or through private transactions among individuals.

Non-licensed sales, which are hard to track, are thought to represent about 40 percent of the approximately 20 million guns that are sold in the U.S. each year.

Aaron Merchant started selling guns out of his Ahwatukee Farmers Insurance agency but outgrew the space last year and opened Merchant Firearms in Ahwatukee Foothills. Merchant said he expected his business to gross $1.5 million this year.

The shop specializes in higher-end weapons.

“We don’t sell the cheap Saturday night specials that some stores do,” he said.

No permit needed

Firearms sales in Arizona get a boost from some of the nation’s most liberal gun-ownership laws, as well as general angst and lingering concerns about tougher national gun laws.

Arizona is one of only three states where a concealed weapon can be carried without a permit.

Last year, an Arizona law that required gun owners to have permits to carry concealed weapons was repealed, allowing people 21 and older to carry guns out of sight.

Arizona dealers note that demand continues to grow for small handguns that can be concealed in a purse or briefcase, although many believe that most people interested in carrying a concealed weapon already were doing so with a permit.

Andrew Molchan, president of the Professional Gun Retailers Association in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., attributes the increase in gun sales to a number of factors, including general apprehension about the direction of the country, and worries that the Obama administration will tighten gun-control laws, and the fact that more states now allow people to carry concealed weapons, generally with a permit.

“General apprehension is good for gun sales,” he said, noting that sales tend to spike during recessions and times of political unrest.

One of the biggest drivers is fear of tighter gun-control laws. Besides the jumps in gun sales in 2008 and 2009 when Obama was elected and took office, there was a sizable jump in 1994 when President Bill Clinton banned assault weapons.

Sales soared in 2005 when it became legal again to buy semiautomatic rifles and semiautomatic pistols with large ammunition magazines.

Tragic shooting incidents also can spike sales because of similar apprehension about the enactment of stricter gun laws.

Gun sales jumped after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado in 1999, and Molchan believes the Jan. 8 attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords that left six people dead near Tucson could be driving some of the increased sales so far this year.

A slight uptick

Brittany Hightower, a saleswoman at Bear Mountain Sports in Mesa, noticed a slight increase in sales after the Tucson-area tragedy, as did Dave LaRue, owner of Legendary Guns of the West in Phoenix.

LaRue said he also saw an increase in high-capacity magazine sales after the Giffords shootings because people were worried they may be banned.

The magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition were banned with assault weapons in 1994 and became legal to own again when the ban expired in 2004.

The gunman used a Glock 19 pistol with 33-round magazines in the attacks.

COMMENT: Watch…there is going to be a big surge in buying semi-automatic rifles in the next few days.

US Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley must have had an interesting chat with ATF’s acting director Kenneth Melson on July 4th. This in regards to ATF’s “Fast and Furious” gun walking scheme that allowed thousand of wepons to end up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartel…and two of those “walked” guns were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry south of Tucson.

On July 11th Issa and Grassley sent the following letter to Attorney General Eric Holder:

July 11, 2011

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

As our investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program. Therefore, it is necessary to review communications between and among these senior officials. As such, please provide all records relating to communications between and among the following individuals regarding Operation Fast and Furious:

1) David Ogden, Former Deputy Attorney General;

2) Gary Grindler, Office of the Attorney General and Former Acting Deputy Attorney General;

3) James Cole, Deputy Attorney General;

4) Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General;

5) Kenneth Blanco, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

6) Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

7) John Keeney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

8) Matt Axelrod, Associate Deputy Attorney General;

9) Ed Siskel, Former Associate Deputy Attorney General;

10) Brad Smith, Office of the Deputy Attorney General;

11) Kevin Carwile, Section Chief, Capital Case Unit; and

12) Joseph Cooley, Criminal Fraud Section.

These records should include e-mails, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes. Additionally, any records related to communications referring to a large firearms trafficking case within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) or in Phoenix should be included in any production.

Please provide this information no later than July 18, 2011, at noon. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Tristan Leavitt in Ranking Member Grassley’s office at (202) 224-5225 or Henry Kerner of Chairman Issa’s Committee staff at (202) 225-5074. I look forward to receiving your response.

Darrell Issa Chairman
House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform

Charles E. Grassley Ranking Member
Senate Committee on the Judiciary

cc: The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary

COMMENT: It is getting harder and harder for Holder to claim he knew nothing about Fast and Furious…..

Press Release from US Department of Justice July 11, 2011:

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 11, 2011

Statement of Deputy Attorney General James Cole Regarding Information Requests for Multiple Sales of Semi-Automatic Rifles with Detachable Magazines

WASHINGTON – Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued the following statement today regarding information requests for multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines in select states along the Southwest Border:

“The international expansion and increased violence of transnational criminal networks pose a significant threat to the United States.  Federal, state and foreign law enforcement agencies have determined that certain types of semi-automatic rifles – greater than .22 caliber and with the ability to accept a detachable magazine – are highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest Border.  This new reporting measure — tailored to focus only on multiple sales of these types of rifles to the same person within a five-day period — will improve the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to detect and disrupt the illegal weapons trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations.  These targeted information requests will occur in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to help confront the problem of illegal gun trafficking into Mexico and along the Southwest Border.”

COMMENT: Maybe the first thing the Justice Department ought to do is release to Congress the names of the buyers of the thousands of guns the ATF “walked” into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels and border bandits. And a list of what crime scenes the “walked” guns have shown up at so far…and keep updating that list as more of the “walked” guns turn up at crime scenes until all of them are accounted for.

Got to remember two ATF “walked” guns turned up at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Even though the gun shops that were approached by cartel “straw” buyers and the gun shops wanted to refuse to sell, the ATF told them to go ahead and sell guns to the cartel and border bandit “straw” buyers.

So what does the Justice Daprtment do? …try and deflect attention from their crazy scheme which has resulted in hundreds of deaths…including two US federal agents so far…and make it look like the feds are cracking down.

Rather than secure the border the feds want to disarm border residents so the same thing will happen to us that has happened to the residents of many border towns on the Mexican side of the border.

Gun control means only the criminals have guns.

That is not some BS slogan. That is what has happened right next door to us in Mexico which has tough control control laws…. they disarmed their civilian population and now the cartels own major parts of the Mexican side of the borderlands and residents live in terror.

Tim King at the Salem News.com has published about the best and most comprehensive article I’ve seen about the ATF Fast and Furious scheme that allowed guns to “walk” into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels and border bandits.

Two of the ATF “walked” guns were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry south of Tucson.

Kin connects the dots and proves US Attorney General Eric Holder knew about Fast and Furious, even though Holder denied knowledge in testimony to Congress:

Holder Lied: DOJ News Release Shows Obama Admin Approved ATF Mexico Weapons Smuggling

Tim King Salem-News.com

Eric Holder gave false info. to a Congressional Committee last May about ATF operations tied to the deaths of two U.S. Agents; we have the proof.

(SALEM, Ore.) – New information indicates that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s actions are squarely behind the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) operation known as “Fast and Furious”, which orchestrated the delivery of almost 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels^[1].

Holder openly proclaimed his connection to the operation in April 2009 during a publicized speech in Mexico, then told a Congressional Committee in May 2011, “I probably heard of Fast and Furious the first time in the last few weeks.”^[2]

More….