Gunrunner: “Justice” Department violated federal law while implementing Fast and Furious
As if it wasn’t bad enough that Eric Holder has committed perjury, obstructed justice, and tampered with evidence at the murder scene of Brian Terry it is now being brought to light that the “Justice” Department was possibly in violation of two federal laws which were specifically written to ensure the federal government did not transact with drug cartels when the deadly operation known as Fast and Furious was implemented:
A few years ago, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701, the follow-on to the Trading with the Enemy Act) was expanded in order to criminalize anytransactions between U.S. entities — to include departments and agencies of the U.S. government — and all foreign drug cartels.
I am familiar with these prohibitive statues because several years ago, while serving as the senior drug analyst for the Senate Intelligence Committee, I was tasked to initiate and became the principal drafter of legislation which became known as the Kingpin Act (21 U.S.C. §§ 1901-08). The Kingpin Act is an extension of the highly successful IEEPA sanctioning program specifically targeting Colombian drug cartels. It expands sanctions authority against various drug cartel operations worldwide — including Mexico — which have been determined by the president to be threats to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.
And even if Eric Holder was ignorant of the law ignorance of the law is no excuse from it: Read more…
Videos: Madison Rising
While making the rounds to all of the sites I check out on a daily basis I learned of a rock band called Madison Rising on Friday while at The Daily Caller and I just had to share a couple of their videos with everyone. Madison Rising takes their name from founding father James Madison and they are a pro-liberty, pro-freedom, pro-America, pro-military band and I think regular readers here will enjoy the message they are spreading.
The first video is their first single, it is called “Walking Through That Door” and it is quite emotional, the second is called “Soldiers of America.”
AMEN TO THE ONES ON THE BATTLEFIELD!
Gunrunner: “Justice” Department tries to explain how it provided false information to Senator Grassley
In the latest Friday document dump the “Justice” Department released internal documents which are supposed to show how the department ended up sending Senator Charles Grassley a letter which contained false information about the murderous Fast and Furious operation.
The new position of the “Justice” Department goes something link this: Dennis Burke (who has resigned) and William Hoover (who was reassigned in return for his silence) were debating in emails over how much information should be handed over to the investigation because Brian Terry’s murder was still being investigated. Naturally this means they wanted to release less information.
While this debate was going on they began to draft the “Justice” Department’s letter to Charles Grassley (this is the letter which contained lies about what the “Justice” Department knew and when they knew it) and while this letter was being drafted some false information just happened to be inserted.
When it was announced that Anwar al-Awlaki–an American who emigrated to Yemen to take up arms against the United States–was killed an a drone attack in Yemen I was not saddened, because this man was a traitor to his country and was killed while actively trying to convince people to up arms against his country. Yet I was worried because of the precedent it set. Here is part of what I wrote when it was learned that Barack Obama targeted al-Awlaki for death:
We are entering a grey area here. What is the difference between Anwar al-Awlaki and Faisal Shahzad– the failed Times Square bomber? After all, Faisal Shahzad is also an American citizen who tried to wage war on American soil. Yet Shahzad was granted his rights under the constitution and read his rights. Both men have decided that America must be attacked; Anwar al-Awaki is trying to entice Muslims to fight against the United States, while Faisal Shahzad actually carried out an attempted attack– with the help of the Taliban– that would have been successful if the bomb had exploded, and he was probably influenced by al-Awaki. The most obvious difference is the fact that Shahzad was an American on American soil while al-Awaki is an American hiding overseas.
I do not have a problem with the handling of the Shahzad case to this point. I understand fully that as a United States citizen who was arrested on American soil he will receive the full rights granted in the United States constitution, including the reading of those rights
So my position at that time was this: if an American is overseas plotting against the United States he forfeited his rights under the constitution, but if an American is at home and caught plotting against the United States he should be offered a trial as is his constitutional right. The distinction between the two cases being one might be in a battlefield while the other is on the homeland.
But what happens if the United States is deemed a battlefield? If this sounds outrageous to you, consider this: a bill was introduced by John McCain and passed by the Senate which shortly could be headed to the president’s desk which would deem the United State a battlefield and would give the president unprecedented powers.
Section 1031 of the NDAA reads: “Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force … includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons…. [including] [d]etention under the law of war without trial….” This “indefinite detention” section hands over to the executive branch the power to have the military arrest U.S. citizens. No trial needed. Simple suspicion would suffice.
This would make it legal for the president to arrest and detain American citizens indefinitely if considered a threat, rendering the protections of the constitution null and void because the United States homeland is also a battlefield. And apparently this is something that is supported by Barack Obama because his lawyers have stated that the Executive Branch has sole authority to make citizens military targets without first going to the courts for a search warrant.
Barack Obama can decide all on his own who he deems is a threat to the United States and we have already heard people equating the Tea Party to terrorists, and Joe Biden has already declared that working with Republicans is akin to negotiating with terrorists so the question is this; is it too much of a leap to think that Barack Obama could declare that anyone who is opposed to him is someone who should be detained for the good of the country?
In my opinion there is no case in which it is justified to deny a United States citizen who is arrested on American soil his right to a trial by jury, even in the case of treason, yet with the exception of Ron Paul I wonder how many of the Republican candidates for president would agree with me.
Gunrunner: Did the FBI kill Brian Terry?
From some of the articles I have read, but not written about because they contained insinuations but did not come right out and make accusations, I have developed a theory which I did not feel comfortable writing about until now.
We know through previous reports that when Brian Terry was murdered he encountered a Mexican drug gang, and we know that everyone in that gang was either killed or captured at the scene where Brian Terry was murdered except for one person. We also know that the FBI was on the scene, and we know that three guns were recovered at the scene, but one “disappeared” because it could be traced back to an FBI agent who was undercover in a Mexican drug gang.
The official government excuse for tampering with evidence at Brian Terry’s murder scene was as follows; the government removed the third weapon because it could be traced back to the agent and they did this to protect the undercover FBI agent. The question is this; what were they protecting the FBI agent from?
If they were protecting the FBI agent from being uncovered by the drug cartel wouldn’t it have been prudent to whisk him from the scene before he could have been discovered by the drug lords? Yet he was allowed to disappear along with the third weapon. My theory is simple: the FBI informant became engaged in a firefight with Border Patrol Agents and he is the one who actually fired the shot–with the removed weapon–that killed Brian Terry and he is the one person from the gang who avoided capture. And that is what this whole government coverup has been designed to hide from the beginning.
Newt Gingrich and the Fairness Doctrine
When thinking of Newt Gingrich it is hard for me to get past that image of him sitting on the couch with Nancy Pelosi and talking about his belief in manmade global warming. He has since said that making that commercial was one of the stupidest things he has done in his life. So I suppose we could give him a pass on that one issue, but what about his opposition to the Paul Ryan budget? He called it right wing social engineering, was this a stupid mistake also?
What about his previous support for healthcare mandates, TARP, the bailouts, stupid mistakes all? We know he doesn’t consider his past support for amnesty as a stupid mistake because he still believes in a “path toward legality.” It is a stupid position he still holds, not a stupid mistake from the past. Newt Gingrich is frequently called the smartest man on the stage during the Republican debates, if this is true how can he possibly have made so many stupid mistakes in his past?
But there is one issue that I just found out about yesterday, and it may be the most troubling of all; back in 1987 New Gingrich actually CO-SPONSORED a bill which would reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. This bill came thisclose to becoming law as it passed the House and the Senate before being vetoed by President Reagan.
There is a pattern emerging here; either Newt Gingrich has made a series of stupid mistakes in the past, or he is not the conservative he claims to be. Newt Gingrich is surging in the polls and it can’t be because of his past positions and policies, it can only be because he speaks well. Didn’t we learn anything from 2008?
Why am I being so hard on Newt Gingrich when Mitt Romney has at least as many flip flops in his past? It isn’t because I am supporting Romney, because I am not; it is simply because we all know that Mitt Romney has no core values other than the belief he should be president, we know he will say or do whatever he needs to in order to get elected and we don’t expect anything but this from him, but Newt is pretending to be something he is not and he seems to have quite a few people fooled, but he really isn’t all that much different from Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney is a legendary flip flopper, but it turns out that Newt Gingrich is just as flip floppy as Mitt Romney.
There really isn’t much that needs to be said about this story, it speaks for itself. In the interest of operating the most honest and open administration in the history of the United States–and coincidently just shortly before Eric Holder is set to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee–the Obama regime abruptly sealed the court documents related to the murder of Brian Terry.
Eric Holder and the Department of “Justice” has been stonewalling the investigation into Fast and Furious since the beginning; they have obstructed justice and tampered with evidence, Eric Holder has perjured himself, and now the public will no longer have access to the documents related to Brian Terry’s murder. Every action Eric Holder has taken since the story broke reeks of a government coverup of epic proportions and this action is no different, and in fact makes it seem even more likely.
Gunrunner: Eric Holder blames the media for his unpopularity
One thing that we know about liberals is that they do not believe in personal responsibility. They always claim victimhood status while blaming every one else for their shortcomings. Barack Obama is a perfect example of this; he is still blaming President Bush for the fact that all of his policies have failed instead of admitting the truth about his policies.
The latest example of this is Eric Holder and the Fast and Furious scandal. Over 50 House members have now called for his resignation due to what is either his involvement in the scandal, or his incompetency for not knowing what was happening within his department. When a reporter for the Daily Caller asked Eric Holder to respond to the requests for his resignation Eric Holder said this:
You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it
Holder is right: This isn’t a grassroots movement of conservatives calling for Holder to step down, it’s a concerted effort by a supposed media organization to push him out
Latest New Hampshire primary poll (11/29/11)
The latest Rasmussen New Hampshire primary poll has been released and it shows Mitt Romney leading Newt Gingrich by a margin of 34%-24%. This would seem like a comfortable lead for the former governor of Massachusetts, but it shows us that Newt Gingrich is making stong gains in the granite state.
Before Newt Gingrich won the endorsement of New Hampshire’s largest and conservative newspaper, the Union Leader, Mr. Romney enjoyed a 41%-14% advantage over Mr. Gingrich, that gap has closed considerably in less than a week. When it was learned that Newt Gingrich had won the endorsement of the Union Leader I wondered how much impact a newspaper endorsement still held but it certainly appears as if this endorsement has had an impact after all.
This poll was conducted on Monday, the day after Newt Gingrich won the Union Leader endorsement, so one has to believe that this endorsement has indeed been beneficial to Newt Gingrich’s campaign. If this is the case we can expect to see the polls tighten even more as the days move on because the Union Leader has gone into full attack mode on Mitt Romney (not that I have a problem with that) and will not let up until he is taken down.
In what I feel is a surprise another person with questionable conservative credentials, John Huntsman, has moved into fourth place with 11% of the vote, breaking into double digits for the first time.
Ron Paul’s poll numbers are unchanged from the last New Hampshire poll and he remains in third place with 14% of the vote and all other candidates are in single digits.
The race here in New Hampshire is starting to get real interesting as Mitt Romney was expected to win the primary by a large margin, unfortunately both front runners’ conservative credentials are in doubt and at this point it looks as if, much like in 2008, the Republicans are going to offer a candidate who is just a Democrat-lite rather than a true conservative and that means that Barack Obama’s reelection is all but certain.
Of course this all could change next week…..at least I hope so.
Gunrunner: The “Justice” Department illegally leaked gun tracing information to Dianne Feinstein
I wrote a post back in April of 2009–before Fast and Furious became public knowledge–about the United States government possibly using the violence at the Mexican border to implement gun control laws on law abiding citizens based on the 90% lie. Once the lie was exposed the Obama regime decided to “prove” the lie by implementing Fast and Furious as a means to ensure that guns sold in the United States turned up at the scenes of violent crimes rather than admit the regime was caught in a lie.
I have written numerous posts on the criminality of the Obama regime related to Fast and Furious, and of the “Justice” Department up to and including the fact that Eric Holder perjured himself back on May 3rd of 2010, but now it appears as if someone in the “Justice” Department has committed yet another crime.
America's Watchtower 