publius
Member
So far, the only person who has been fired is a whistleblower, Vince Cefalu, and the "lateral transfer" of 3 of the main perpetrators of this scheme indicates he will be the last person to lose his job over this mess.
With retained pay and benefits is my supposition.Notice that he's only resigning his directorship. He is being transferred to another DOJ assignment.
Maybe things are starting to get a little too hot in the kitchen; Melson is supposed to announce his resignation as Director this afternoon: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,4064414.story
These people (Melson and the U.S. Attn. who was reassigned) have Obama and Holder by the short hairs. If they beleived they might wind up in jail, they would sing like canaries.The current administration will do anything to keep them quiet. I'd love to see a Congessional Investigating committe get the Obamanator and his race hustler A.G. on the stand and under oath. The first question they need to ask is "What did the president know, and when did he know it?" It would most definately be Must See TV.
I would love to see Issa issue a subpoena to force the president to testify -- but that's an awfully high trump card and needs to be played wisely. Obama would get all indignant and stamp his foot and say "executive privilege", but the Supreme Court would rule against him if they follow stare decisis as much as they claim to (US vs. Nixon, 1974)
Agents Raid New Mexico Gun Store in Gun Smuggling Case
Federal agents raided a New Mexico gun store Tuesday morning and arrested the owner, his wife and their two sons on a 30-count indictment accusing them of smuggling guns across the border with Mexico. The firearms sold by the defendants included 27 AK-47-type rifles, three AR-15 rifles, two .50 caliber rifles, and two 9 mm pistols -- weapons favored by Mexican cartels, according to a federal indictment.
There is a big difference between the ruler and the ruled. We have to follow the law or else. They... not so much.Agents Raid New Mexico Gun Store in Gun Smuggling Case
...why isn't the DOJ and ATF employees getting the same treatment???
If the Oversight and Reform Committee doesn't get to the bottom of this I really think we should have some sort of protest in D.C.
That is surprising since many newspapers have been covering the topic. See the earlier post with the link to the LA Times. It isn't getting the screen time, but it has been there. Obviously, Fox is the leader in coverage due to their platform strategy. See the earlier posts today and yesterday to understand what I'm referring to.All of this shuffling of the deck crap hoping that the American people will be fooled is really [@(%ing p!$$ing me off. I swear it is like a bad magicians trick and they expect us to just swallow it hook, line, and sinker. My brother who is a moderate liberal has not even hear about all of this, I had to tell him about it today.
How about a nice, peaceful gathering of riflemen, say about 1000 in Hillside Park in Arlington, VA. It would only be a 3 mile walk to the President's Park in front of the White House. That might be sufficient to demonstrate our displeasure.
The gunwalking scandal centered on an ATF program that allowed thousands of high-caliber weapons to knowingly be sold to so-called "straw buyers" who are suspected as middlemen for criminals. Those weapons, according to the Justice Dept., have been tied to at least 12 violent crimes in the United States, and an unknown number of violent crimes in Mexico. Dubbed operation "Fast and Furious," the plan was designed to gather intelligence on gun sales, but ATF agents have told CBS News and members of Congress that they were routinely ordered to back off and allow weapons to "walk" when sold.
Run by the bureau's Phoenix division, the operation, called Operation Fast and Furious, ran from late 2009 to early 2011. Its strategy was to watch suspected "straw" gun buyers, rather than moving as quickly as possible to arrest them and seize the weapons, in the hope of identifying higher-level conspirators — as drug investigations are often conducted.
The operation was internally controversial because the firearms bureau traditionally puts a priority on getting guns off the street. It also lacked adequate controls — one straw purchaser bought more than 600 weapons, and agents lost track of hundreds.
Under Melson's leadership, ATF launched Operation Fast and Furious, through which agents were to watch -- and in some cases record on video -- illegal gun sales and then use surveillance teams and electronic eavesdropping to follow the guns and learn how the weapons were moved. The goal was to arrest cartel leaders overseeing gun smuggling on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico.
But the chase for guns and cartel leaders soon hit a dead end. The ATF was attempting to follow each of the weapons as they were moved from the straw men who bought them illegally at gun shops to what officials expected would be cartel higher-ups in the U.S., who would move them to Mexico.
The agency, which didn't have the resources to follow so many weapons, soon lost track of many of them.
Apparently LAT and NYT are more heavily invested in supporting gun control editorially than CBS.
That is surprising since many newspapers have been covering the topic. See the earlier post with the link to the LA Times. It isn't getting the screen time, but it has been there. Obviously, Fox is the leader in coverage due to their platform strategy. See the earlier posts today and yesterday to understand what I'm referring to.
CBS News has obtained a series of emails that show the White House had more information on ATF's controversial Fast and Furious operation than previously disclosed. But administration officials insists nobody at the White House knew specifically that ATF was allowing guns to "walk" into the hands of suspected gun traffickers for Mexican drug cartels.
In another email to O'Reilly at the White House on Aug. 18, 2010, Newell expresses frustration with the US Attorney's request to have agents in trafficking cases "physically inspect the firearms (that turn up) in Mexico... to show the jury that (it) was part of a trafficking scheme."