43 guns in traffic stop linked to Gunrunner

In the stimulus bill, $10M to fund project Gunrunner. No one claims to have known about the project but it got funded and was mentioned in a speech by Holder in 2009.

Melson met investigators in secret.

Also says higher ups blocked replies to congress.

Congressman uses scandal to promote gun control

Good question: So if the identities of the Mexican criminals were known to the feds, what was the point of Project Gunrunner — and why is Holder so desperately trying to stonewall by withholding hundreds of documents from Congress?

Justice.gov news:

Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail.

No mention of the project’s more dubious operations, like allowing guns into Mexico.

Via reader Chris.

Source claims ATF agents allowed gun smuggling into the Honduras too.

Turns out the operation was widely known throughout the justice department, with meetings involving:

Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer,
Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF
William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF
Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA
Robert Mueller, Director FBI

Oops.

A twitter hashtag for the scandal.

Apt analogy: Melson is not falling on that sword.

The straw-buyer bought the guns with the FBI’s money. A counter-terrorism informant, supposedly.

Update: More:

Contrary to the Justice Department’s denials, according to Melson, ATF agents specifically witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without taking any further action. Melson claimed that it was not until the public disclosure of the operation that he personally reviewed the “hundreds of documents” related to the case. He said he became “sick to his stomach” when he learned the full story.

And the DEA?

Damning joint staff report on the operation:

The Department’s leadership allowed the ATF to implement this flawed strategy, fully aware of what was taking place on the ground. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona encouraged and supported every single facet of Fast and Furious. Main Justice was involved in providing support and approving various aspects of the Operation, including wiretap applications that would necessarily include painstakingly detailed descriptions of what ATF knew about the straw buyers it was monitoring.

Heh: Top Democrats: “If Citizens Couldn’t Buy Guns, We Wouldn’t Have Botched Our ‘Gunrunning’ Sting.”

Chris Cox writes a letter to the WaPo for their stupid assertion that the ATF wouldn’t have to breaking the law if gun laws were tougher.

Mexican senator says those involved should be tried. In Mexico.

Speaking of stupid assertions, another piece on how the poor, poor ATF is hamstrung in stopping real crime so it’s OK if they create some.

More on ATF and guns smuggled to Mexico:

David looks at the House minority report, showing the press and democrats as shills in this whole fiasco.

The press is in the tank but admits that there’s a prosecution problem.

Bob has more on the report, which leaves out the whole gunwalker thing.

Because ATF allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico and those guns were later used in murders and showed up at crime scenes in US neighborhoods, we clearly need to pass more gun laws. You know, to better equip law enforcement to combat this sort of thing. Why, it’s almost like it went exactly according to ATF’s plan.

Michael Bane: The ONLY way Fast & Furious makes sense is as a direct attack on the Second Amendment. Otherwise, it makes no sense at all.

Conspiracy timeline. More likely incompetence.

Media in the tank for ATF and the administration: you’d think their mainstream media mouthpieces might wait until the actual forum had been held.

Nope. Doesn’t fit the narrative. And they’ve been working on this narrative since 2007.

Oops:

The ABC15 Investigators have uncovered new information showing weapons linked to a questionable government strategy are turning up in crimes in Valley neighborhoods.

For months we’ve been searching through police reports and official government documents to uncover whether assault weapons linked to a controversial ATF plan put Valley communities at risk.

The Washington Post says that all those guns showing up in crime scenes that came from the ATF? Yeah, it’s the NRA’s fault. I can see how you’d think that. If you were retarded.

David Hardy has a round up.

Melson to testify.

Issa staffer says the plot does not stop at Melson.

NPR addresses the scandal.

Whistle-blower agent interviewed at PJTV.

Call to abolish the ATF.

Reports CBS news:

CBS News has confirmed that ATF Fast and Furious “walked” guns have been linked to the terrorist torture and murder of the brother of a Mexican state attorney general last fall.

Two AK-47 variant rifles were found at the scene of a shoot-out with the murder suspects. Sources say the weapons were part of the controversial ATF program in which agents allowed thousands of guns to fall into the hands of suspects trafficking for Mexico’s drug cartels.

Idiots: ATF Phoenix case agent Hope MacAllister –headed ATF’s controversial gunwalking op– today reportedly recvd national ATF “Lifesaving Award.”

Did they offset it with the lifetaking award?

ATF retaliates against whistle-blowers: “ATF served Special Agent Vince Cefalu with termination paperwork today.”

IBD: Was Fast And Furious A Gun-Control Plot?

Yes. It seems so.

Washington Post uses gunwalker as an excuse to bash the folks investigating ATF smuggling guns into Mexico. Shameful.

So reports Mike.

I’m not sure it’s the first. They’ve done something similar in the past.

Yes, obvious joke is obvious.

No, really.

LOL

Grassley comes out swinging.

Malice or incompetence? At this point, I’m going with both. They incompetently managed their malicious intent.

Here’s Andrew Traver giving a reporter a gun to shoot. And then intentionally conflating machine guns with weapons that look like assault rifles. Because we need a gun control propagandist heading up ATF.

Yeah, I linked this earlier over ATF head resigning. But this is also notable:

Terry was killed last year north of the Mexican border in Arizona after confronting bandits believed to be preying on illegal immigrants. Two weapons found near the scene of the killing were traced to Fast and Furious.

“I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe it at first,” Terry’s mother, Josephine, said when she learned the ATF may have let some of the guns used in the attack slip through its fingers. Terry’s relatives said they want all those involved in his killing and who helped put the weapons in their hands to be prosecuted.

“We ask that if a government official made a wrong decision, that they admit their error and take responsibility for his or her actions,” Robert Heyer, Terry’s cousin and family spokesman, said in a hearing last week by the House panel.

This idiotorial seems to be saying that it’s OK if ATF let a few guns in because the president of Mexico says the guns are coming from the US any way. Even though we know a lot of the weapons come from the Mexican army and most cannot be traced to the US. It doesn’t fit the narrative that the NYT wants and that ATF was trying to create, even though they had to break a few eggs.

Acting director may resign.

If Melson goes, Traver comes in?

A look at motivations and activities in the administration. I’ve heard a lot of folks wondering if this is what Obama meant back when he said he was working on gun control under the radar.

Seen on facebook: Imagine the DEA telling pharmacists to illegally sell oxycontin to known drug dealers or they would be shut down. Then imagine the DEA using the fact that more oxycontin was on the street (and hundreds of overdose deaths) as a pretext for making it harder for patients to get prescribed narcotics. This is essentially what happened with the ATF and Project Gunwalker

A whole lot of stuff from Bob.

Indications are that it was a campaign of orchestrated violence to push for gun control.

And said come home:

With the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives facing its worst scandal in decades, the man nominated by President Obama to take over as its next chief is headed to Washington this week to meet with top Justice Department officials.

Get some popcorn.

Well, not to jail. But to resign over this guns in Mexico thing. Good.

“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

A round up:

For the latest, head to John’s and keep scrolling.

Democrats say that because those in charge of enforcing gun laws are idiots, we clearly need more gun laws to enforce.

Bob: The Definitive Scandal: ‘Gunwalker’ Much Worse Than ‘Iran-Contra’

AZ Governor issues a statement: Outraged.

John Richardson notes another case of ATF allowing guns to be smuggled into Mexico. And more from Jim Shepherd.

Issa staff leaks emails. And knowledge of the operation goes to the top. And they lied about it.

NSSF has a statement and report.

Links to documents and commentary from John.

Michael Bane has more, notably speculation on abuse of power:

I think ATF believed it had enough regulatory juice to keep the gun stores involved from talking, or if not keeping them from talking demonizing them, and maybe driving them out of business, if they did.

So says Rep. Darrell Issa.

Wow.

A report from Tapscott. This is infuriating:

The supervisor of Operation Fast and Furious was “jovial, if not, not giddy but just delighted about” walked guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico according to an ATF agent.

As has been thought all along, this was likely an attempt to create a problem so that ATF could solve it. Secure funding and all.

Feinstein and Schumer call for renewing the assault weapons ban and more gun control. Perhaps they should have spent some time with some looking at the ATF with their colleagues.