Fast and Furious: Holder knew since 2010, lied to judiciary committee

[Acid Trip]

ATF Fast and Furious: New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20115038-10391695.html

WASHINGTON - New documents obtained by CBS News show Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious operation as far back as July 2010. That directly contradicts his statement to Congress.

On May 3, 2011, Holder told a Judiciary Committee hearing, "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

Yet internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious.

The documents came from the head of the National Drug Intelligence Center and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.

In Fast and Furious, ATF agents allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to cross the border and fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

It's called letting guns "walk," and it remained secret to the public until Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered last December. Two guns from Fast and Furious were found at the scene, and ATF agent John Dodson blew the whistle on the operation.

Agent: I was ordered to let guns "walk" into Mexico

Ever since, the Justice Department has publicly tried to distance itself. But the new documents leave no doubt that high level Justice officials knew guns were being "walked."

Two Justice Department officials mulled it over in an email exchange Oct. 18, 2010. "It's a tricky case given the number of guns that have walked but is a significant set of prosecutions," says Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division. Deputy Chief of the National Gang Unit James Trusty replies "I'm not sure how much grief we get for 'guns walking.' It may be more like, "Finally they're going after people who sent guns down there."

The Justice Department told CBS News that the officials in those emails were talking about a different case started before Eric Holder became Attorney General. And tonight they tell CBS News, Holder misunderstood that question from the committee - he did know about Fast and Furious - just not the details.

[RBP]

I have little faith in government in general right now.

[JoeyB]

I have little faith in government in general right now.

Which is the number one goal of the tea bagger movement.

[FBD]

:lol: joey, can you look up and tell me where the tea party supports anarchy?


no?



that's what I thought. that's part of the issue - leftists seem to have no compunction over simply making up shit about people they disagree with, just so that others who are also uninformed will not wish to side with..."common sense." do you think it would have had as much support as it did if it werent for the tons of ordinary people who normally dont give a shit and dont want to make a stink or protest shit because they have far better things to do? first the tea party didnt exist. then it was contrived astroturf. then it was simply made fun of. now the model is being emulated by leftists :rolleyes: :wave:

contrast that to the bunch of entitled children blocking the bridge and demanding....what, exactly? oh yeah - that bunch doesnt even know wtf they want!



Holder is guilty as fuck here and needs to go to prison. Party at my house when it happens, because I'm a patriot and I celebrate treasonous traitors getting what they deserve.

[Acid Trip]

More on this story. A Congressman suggests that administration officials who knew about Fast and Furious should be tried as accessories to murder.

Congressman: Obama admin may be accessory to murder with ‘Fast and Furious’

http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/05/congressman-obama-admin-may-be-accessory-to-murder-with-fast-and-furious/

Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that Obama administration officials responsible for Operation Fast and Furious might be accessories to murder.

“We’re talking about consequences of criminal activity, where we actually allowed guns to walk into the hands of criminals, where our livelihoods are at risk,” Gosar said in a phone interview. “When you facilitate that and a murder or a felony occurs, you’re called an accessory. That means that there’s criminal activity.”

Gosar said the government should be held to the same standard as everyone else. Fast and Furious weapons were used to kill U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, as well as scores of Mexican citizens, and he thinks administration officials should be held accountable.

“We impugn the private sector, we impugn main street America, and the bureaucracy cannot be held to any different standard whatsoever,” Gosar told TheDC, insisting that Justice Department and ATF officials “intentionally — intentionally — violated the law.”

Gosar said the administration was “showing an intentional, wanton disregard for the law,” and that “there’s got to be consequences for that.”

“Leadership has a price,” he added.

Gosar said he’s confident the Congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious will eventually include either the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, or both.

“I’ve said all along, you’re dealing with a foreign country, you’re talking about an international border — that’s the Secretary of State and of Homeland Security,” Gosar said. “If you weren’t briefing them, it’s even worse that we had vigilantes from DOJ going unchecked and we did not tell our folks in Mexico about this.”

“This should have been a Cabinet [issue], and I keep saying it all along,” Gosar continued. “He [Holder] points to Homeland Security Secretary [Janet] Napolitano in this and I would have no doubts — I’m a common sense person — that this should have also involved the secretary of state, which means everybody knew — and we’re starting to see that in the document dump from the White House.”

As new documents showing how many more senior political officials in the Obama administration were aware of Fast and Furious continue to surface, Gosar said it’s becoming clearer that senior officials in the Obama administration are responsible for the program. The latest documents to surface indicate that Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed on Operation Fast and Furious at least two times in 2010, despite Holder’s May 3 testimony that he had only learned of the gun walking operation a few weeks before his Congressional appearance.

Like House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Gosar thinks that May 3 testimony was “misleading.”

Chaffetz told the TheDC on Tuesday that he thinks Holder was “less than candid.” Smith has called for an investigation into the truthfulness of Holder’s comments, and Issa has publicly questioned the attorney general’s veracity as well.

“I certainly believe that he either misrepresented the facts or he’s sufficiently incompetent that he didn’t know what was in his weekly briefings,” Issa told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday evening.

At this time, it’s unclear what Holder’s future will be. When TheDC asked Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan if he thinks Holder should resign over these allegations, Jordan replied that he’s not sure at this point, but he expects Issa and Smith to bring Holder in front of their committees to answer the questions under oath again.

“I spoke with Darrell [Issa] briefly this morning,” Jordan told TheDC at a Wednesday breakfast for reporters. “I think that they’re looking to get the attorney general to come in and testify.”

“My guess is it might be a joint hearing of both Judiciary and Oversight with the attorney general,” Jordan added. “So we’ll see. And I think what’s appropriate is let’s get him under oath in front of the respective committees and then see how that process plays out.”

Gosar said that while it’s troubling that the attorney general may have misled or lied to Congress, it’s important not to lose sight of the real issue here: The Obama administration allowed guns to walk to Mexico in Operation Fast and Furious, which he says is more “egregious” than the possibility that Holder lied to Congress.

“You had gun dealers who said, ‘Listen, I don’t feel comfortable selling these guns,’ and the ATF said, ‘Sell the guns,’” Gosar said. “Then, when you had special agents trying to do surveillance, they [the ATF] told them to stand down. They were intentionally doing this, they’re showing an intentional, wanton disregard for the law, and there’s got to be consequences for that.”

[Acid Trip]

This just keeps getting better. Now Obama officials are screaming/swearing at a reporter covering the story.

CBS News Reporter Says White House Screamed, Swore at Her Over Fast and Furious

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cbs-news-reporter-says-white-house-screamed-swore-her-over-fast-and-furious_595011.html

The Fast and Furious scandal, in which the Justice Department knowingly gave Mexican criminal gangs thousands of guns, just keeps escalating. The latest development centers around whether or not Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress about having knowledge of the controversial gun trafficking operation. Recently released documents say Holder was briefed about the operation long before he told the Judiciary Committee he was first aware of what was going on. (Holder now claims he misunderstood the question was being asked.)

What's more, CBS News investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson -- who's been covering the scandal from the beginning -- says in an interview on the Laura Ingraham Show today that the White House and Justice Department have taken to screaming at her for reporting on the story. You can listen to the full interview below, but here are the key excerpts from Attkisson:

In between the yelling that I received from Justice Department yesterday, the spokeswoman--who would not put anything in writing, I was asking for her explanation so there would be clarity and no confusion later over what had been said, she wouldn't put anything in writing--so we talked on the phone and she said things such as the question Holder answered was different than the one he asked. But he phrased it, he said very explicitly, 'I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.'

Ingraham: So they were literally screaming at you?

Attkisson: Yes. Well the DOJ woman was just yelling at me. The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me. [Laura: Who was the person? Who was the person at Justice screaming?] Eric Schultz. Oh, the person screaming was [DOJ spokeswoman] Tracy Schmaler, she was yelling not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House."

Finally, Attkisson notes that the White House is claiming that a thorough investigation of the scandal is unwarranted:

[The White House and Justice Department] will tell you that I'm the only reporter--as they told me--that is not reasonable. They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I'm the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I'm unfair and biased by pursuing it.

[FBD]

curious to see if administration officials will be held to the same standard as everyone else when being an accomplice to murders...

[Acid Trip]

curious to see if administration officials will be held to the same standard as everyone else when being an accomplice to murders...

Unfortunately I think you already know the answer to that one.

[FBD]

:lol: Occupy Wall St!