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Fast & Furious coverup in Arizona.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  September 2nd, 2011 at 09:30 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

(H/T: Hot Air) I believe that the quasi-pop reference here is “BOOM goes the dynamite:”

Congressional investigators tell CBS News there’s evidence the U.S. Attorney’s office in Arizona sought to cover up a link between their controversial gunwalking operation known as “Fast and Furious” and the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Executive background summary, for those who don’t remember/aren’t following: Operation Fast & Furious was an incredibly ill-advised program where the federal government directed various law-enforcement agencies to permit guns to be illegally resold to Mexican narco-terrorist gangs. The above quote is referencing a situation where some of those guns were traced to the Terry murder scene: the email trail indicates that the ATF was aware of the link between the two cases from the start. This is important because the ATF later attempted to stonewall Congressional investigators out the link, in the person of US Attorney (District of Arizona) Dennis Burke.

And now you know why Dennis Burke resigned (and why ATF whistleblower Kenneth Melson was abruptly transferred a few days ago). And why House Oversight Chair Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Ranking Member (for now) Chuck Grassley have promptly expanded their investigation to include the Arizona District’s US Attorney’s office. And why questions are being asked about why Burke refused a routine request to designate the family of slain Agent Terry as being crime victims. And why questions are being asked in general, in fact. Questions like “Who authorized this program?” “What was the true oversight chain?” “Who in the White House knew the most about this program?”

No, the answer to that last one is not “Nobody in the White House knew anything about this program.” It’s just come out that the level of communication about Fast & Furious that took place between former ATF Phoenix field office head William Newell and White House national security regional director Kevin O’Reilly was deeper than Newell originally reported. While not a true smoking gun, it does indicate that early assurances that the administration was not involved in this debacle are at best unsupported…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: My usual comment about this investigation, at this stage: these things take time to develop. We’re starting to exit the ‘ask questions’ part and starting to enter the ‘here, let me pull on these loose threads here’ stage; patience is a virtue generally, and doubly so when it comes to a (potential) scandal of this magnitude. The real fun starts when people increasingly under the magnifying glass start realizing that while, say, the Attorney General can count on having a signed pardon covering his departure, they cannot…

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  • johnt

    They’re only covering for murder, what the hell ! We’ve got a nation to ruin, why bother with the little stuff? You would think this was a break in at a hotel, an address book pilfered, and the president covering up that. Now that was a crime.
    Is it consistent to say the “cover up is always worse than the crime”? If it is, at some point the Chief Clown in the WH may not be able to avoid this. The gyrations and gymnastics of our stomach turning media will be wondrous to behold. It’s going to be tough to sit on this through 2012.

  • unclefred

    If the MSM continue to ignore/reframe/divert this story, there is no reason that this can’t be kept off the radar of the average voter until long after the election. With the media in its pocket there is little pressure on the administration to comply with information requests greatly slowing the pace of the investigation.

    The exception would be if the investigators find a smoking gun that links directly to Holder or Obama. Once that broke, probably in the foreign press, we’d see grudging coverage in the MSM.

  • westcoastpatriette

    administration–news coverage would be relentless and demands for heads to roll would abound. But since this is under Obama’s watch, the MSM yawns.

  • keysconservative

    In the short time that Obama has been president the world we live in has changed. In the eyes of the MSM this is not a scandal, even if Obama authorized the program himself. The administration was simply providing Mexicans with guns Americans refuse to shoot. Nothing to see here. Move along.

  • jonnymadison

    won’t take that smoking gun and throw it in the river?

    It’s probably up to the foreign press to find the smoking gun too.

  • emorg1974

    “The administration was simply providing Mexicans with guns Americans refuse to shoot. Nothing to see here. Move along.”

  • renny

    But maybe the Mexicans will shoot another American or two during the investigation. Stranger things have happened. If they shot a journalist, they would happen faster.

  • johnt

    into river. I understand your cynicism, moderates will want to “reach out”, but not Issa. This is what causes the hysterics over at the Times, and all the media mice that follow them, to wet their Depends.
    Not that Issa cares. You need a man who recognizes human garbage when he sees it.

  • http://www.usdebateboard.com usdebateboard

    so Holder can continue to stiff arm Congress and not let Melson testify?

    Which they could not do if they just canned him?

  • runner12

    right now on this one. This very well may explode right before the election, ensuring a sweeping defeat of Obama and Co. if anyone near the WH is implicated.

    They will go to great lengths to cover this up because of it. If I were Issa I would watch my back. The attack dogs have already tried to go after him, expect that to continue along with the stall tactics of the DOJ.

  • snowshooze

    But you are spot on, they need to keep him in line.

  • emorg1974

    It seems the only MSM highlighting this story is Fox News. This seems to my simple eyes as a HUGE explosive keg that mystifies me as to why it is not being constantly spoken of in major circles. And by major circles I do not mean those within the inner circles (those of unwashed masses we call ?elites?) of Washington shenanigans but those of us working 40 + hours a week, managing families, and trying to stay informed. UGH!

    I am young to the political process, and still have much to learn and I am thankful for the activists that are on this site. But WTH!

    Here we have where the Federal government deliberately sidestepping the law, not too mention not being forthcoming with a Congressional investigation, and for what, partisan protection? They allowed arms to be sold to known narco-terrorists!

    Part of me sees why they would want to track the flow of arms from dealers to where they go but this is a horrible debacle. These are not yahoo rednecks looking to further an extreme right wing agenda but damn Mexican drug cartels. They are an enemy! (pardon my cursing, but it is upsetting and I as a father and husband feel powerless to be able to do anything)

    Each day seems to bring out further duplicitousness by the appointees of this Administration – at a minimum.

    I am surrounded by those who know not their history and are doomed to repeat it in the worst of ways.

  • runner12

    with the New Media of blogs and websites. I also believe there is a CBS news reporter (I know it is shocking) following the story.

    At the end of the day, the egos of some in the media will win out. They will envision themselves as the next Woodward and Bernstein. The problem for them is that the credit will most likely go to Fox News and the New Media; leaving the MSM looking foolish for shilling for an administration and making it evident to all that they have shredded any last ounce of journalistuc integrity.

    People who lived through Watergate have said that it came out slowly over time. The big ones always do. Often the greater the crime, the more of a cover-up.