Gunrunner: DOJ releases more documents, admits that “mistakes” were made
Just before Lanny Breuer was set to testify before the Congress the Department of “Justice” decided to release hundreds of pages of documents and the reason for this latest document dump seems to be twofold to me: First, this appears to be an attempt to shift the blame for the gunwalking scandal to the left’s favorite target, President Bush; and second, to make Lanny Breuer the fall guy for Eric Holder.
Once again the Obama regime is trying to draw comparisons between Fast and Furious and President Bush’s failed attempt at tracking weapons sold to drug dealers under the Operation Wide Receiver program authorized by the former president. Lanny Breuer has now admitted that it was a mistake not to inform Eric Holder of the similarities between Operation Fast and Furious and Operation Wide Receiver:
“I did not draw a connection between the unacceptable tactics used by the ATF years earlier in Operation Wide Receiver and the allegations made about Operation Fast and Furious, and therefore did not, at that time, alert others within department leadership of any similarities between the two. That was a mistake, and I regret not having done so.”
But this does argument simply does not hold water as there was a huge difference between the two operations which the Department of “Justice” is ignoring. Under President Bush’s Operation Wide Receiver 500 weapons were sold to straw purchasers who then turned around and sold the weapons to drug lords, but that is where the similarities end.
Under Operation Wide Receiver the weapons were fitted with tracking devices–the weapons sold under Fast and Furious were not–but the tracking devices failed, and once this became known the program was immediately halted. Under Fast and Furious the weapons were never equipped with tracking devices and were untraceable from the beginning and in fact there whereabouts were only learned of after the fact when the weapons turned up at the scenes of violent crimes, such as the murder sight of Brian Terry, and that is exactly the way the Obama regime planned it to work from the failed operation’s inception.
With the first angle of the latest document dump now debunked let us move on to the second reason why the Department of “Justice” decided to belatedly release these latest documents– to protect Eric Holder.
Lanny Breuer is now claiming he is responsible for not notifying Eric Holder about Operation Fast and Furious in time to prevent the death of Brian Terry but that cannot be the truth because as we have already learned, Operation Fast and Furious was an OCDETF operation. This means that it was a multi-organizational operation which required the authorization of every department included and at last count this stood at ten government agencies if my memory serves me correctly. It would require the willing suspension of disbelief–to quote Hillary Clinton when she berated General Petraeus on the Senate floor–to believe that anyone other than the head of the “Justice” Department would be allowed to sign off on an operation of this magnitude.
There is no way that Eric Holder was in the dark about this operation considering the fact that the “Justice” Department was required to sign off on it, and up until Lanny Breuer’s “confession” Eric Holder denied that the “Justice” Department was not involved; that is clearly a lie. Senator Charles Grassley is not buying it either:
“At first glance,” Grassley said, “the documents indicate that contrary to previous denials by the Justice Department, the criminal division has a great deal of culpability in sweeping the previous Wide Receiver strategy under the rug and then allowing the subsequent Operation Fast and Furious to continue without asking key questions.”
“It begs the question why they didn’t ask the same important policy questions about an ongoing case being run out of the same field division,”
“With every document that comes out, the Justice Department loses credibility and the faith of the American people,”
The “Justice” Department’s story is now “evolving” and Charles Grassley is right on the money; the “Justice” Department has lost all credibility on this issue. At best the “Justice” Department, as well as all of the other government agencies involved and Barack Obama himself, have proven that they are woefully inept, incompetent, and unfit for the positions they hold. While at worst they are criminally negligent and perhaps even accessories before the fact to Brian Terry’s murder.
Barack Obama and Eric Holder can claim they were simply following President Bush’s lead on this issue, and they can try to make Lanny Breuer the fall guy but I for one am not buying it; all this does is open up even more questions regarding the botched and deadly operation.
Trackbacks
- Gunrunner: Eric Holder claims that emails about Fast and Furious weren’t actually about Fast and Furious « America's Watchtower
- Gunrunner: Eric Holder forced to retract statement about George Bush’s involvement in Fast and Furious « America's Watchtower
- Gunrunner: Mexican teenagers killed with Fast and Furious weapons « America's Watchtower
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Maybe by putting out a bit more documents, they think that Issa/Grassley will go off on another tangent? Kind of throwing them off one “scent” onto another? They are playing with them, that is all. The problem is, this is not a game and people have died because of their lack of experience of what they were doing. Credibility will never be a word I will associate with this administration, will you? Do you think that Lanny Breuer will take the fall for this willingly? What kind of a sentence would he get and will he be pardoned? There are alot of questions for what is going on, wish we had the answers.
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I think you may be right Lou. They are trying to confuse the issue by throwing off the scent by making several possible tracks to follow. I trust that Issa and Grassely will not be fooled and will get to the bottom of this.
It seems like Lanny is ready to take the fall, perhaps he already has a deal worked out. If he doesn’t I don’t see why he would take the fall for these guys.
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Steve, I posted this a few days ago, wanting to know if anyone had any knowledge of this. It was a comment I made to Robert,
[ I was thinking that above the CIA, ATF, FBI, etc., is the National Intelligence Council , they sit under the White House, but above all of those other departments. How might they fit in with what is going on?
They seem to produce “estimative” intelligence forward-looking assessments of national security issues ,does anyone think they have a hand in what has happened with F&F? I have not really checked into all they do, but it IS a whole other level above what we think of as the upper departments.]
I know that they want Mr. Breuer to take the fall and that might be the only plan they have at the moment. But, if what I have posted above is correct, there is a whole other tier of people before you get to the President. I just have not had the time to research this, was hoping there was someone with information about this group of people.
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Great questions Lou and I don’t know the answers. Hopefully someone will come along and enlighten the both ot us on this.
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THIS FIASCO can work ONLY under two VERY BIZARRE ASSUMPTIONS peopleASSUMPTION1) the GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO IS SO CORRUPT.
IT CAN NOT LAST UNTIL AFTER NOV2012….
ASSUMPTION 2) YOU ASSUME THE NEW GOVERNMENT WILL SEIZE ALL AMERICANS AS HOSTAGES AND YOU KNOW THEY WILL STAGE A MASS KILLING.
THUS YOU ACCEPT you have to have SOME WAY OF PROTECTING THE CIVILIANS down there when this explodes.
in short you have to have SECRET ARMS STASHES for the AMERICANS when the SH!T HITS…
This even hints you think that a POSSIBLE BESLAN II type situation is a DISTINCT AND TRAGIC POSSIBILITY now given this situation
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Winter must be coming early to D.C. because that is one big snow job. The DOJ is sadly mistaken if they think Issa is going to turn loose of this bone. This can’t be the fault of just one mid-level bureaucrat.
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“Winter must be coming early to D.C. because that is one big snow job”
Great line Jim! The DOJ is grasping at straws here and I think the are digging the hole even deeper because if they think Issa is simply going to think he got his man in taking down Breuer they are sadly mistaken. This goes all the way to the top and Issa knows it. He is giving them the rope and they will hang themselves/
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This is news in our world, but alas, I fear this is about it. I asked several folks at work what they thought about this whole thing, I guess you know the asnwer.
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I know what you are saying; whenever I ask someone about this they have not heard of it. That is an indictment of the media for this should be on the front page every day. But Issa isn’t going to let the lack of publicity stop him and he shouldn’t.
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B, I get the usual “deer in the headlights look” when I ask other adults anything about current events, EXCEPT “the game”. It is sad, because I might expect it from young people, but adults? We are selling one of our trucks and the Wheels and Deals guy, about 33, that came out to take the pics saw a political sign my husband had and commented on it. I was amazed when he said he and his friends are very involved in politics, so I guess there is hope.
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but these folks just keep digging this hole deeper and deeper. If they want to salvage their reputations and careers, they had best stop talking. Jim called it right. It’s a major snow job.
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I agree Larry, these people think that they are being cute but it is going to come back to haunt them. The more they talk the deeper the hole becomes and eventually it is going to cave in on them.
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Steve, great stuff. If the idea to enact Opp Fast and Furious by the Obama admin to the pursuit of stricter gun laws through a media firestorm over US guns in Mexico killing Americans, is not by any means a far stretch for any rational thinker. On the other hand, if the top levels were in fact not fully or partially aware of this happening, (again unlikely) then one can only conclude: The President and his Administration are an inept bunch of Doddering Boobs.
Here’s a possible scenario from MSNBS. In an astonishing act of hoodwinkedness, we learn that from a secret missile silo some where in the Heartland, Bush, Cheney, and Rummy; devise, scheme, and implement Opp Fast and Furious using “Shadow Squads” formed under the Patriot Act and infiltrating the DHS and Justice Department with the ultimate goal of sabotaging the Obama administration.
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Thanks, and I agre; even if we give the Obama regime the benefit of the doubt it isn’t much better of an option for it means that they are unfit for office and were criminally negligent.
The funny thing is, I can hear the media using the escuse you provided.
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Yeah, I’ve seen some of those documents. Sometimes entire pages are blacked out. How is it that Herman Cain talking to a girl 20 years ago gets more press than this story?
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A good question rjjrdq, it is amazing the lengths that the media will go to cover for their man. F&F should be the leading story in all the news outlets everyday and yet there is nary a mention.
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