Gun Control & RKBA
Related: About this forumGuardian (UK):Eric Holder's exoneration by Fast and Furious report strains credibility
Can we believe that information on the disastrous gun-trafficking operation repeatedly reached the AG's office but not the AG?
Jim Geraghty
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 September 2012 17.31 EDT
Picture it: US federal prosecutors and agents, deeply frustrated over an inability to stem violence related to the drug trade and Mexican cartels, decide to pursue a bold strategy to go after arms trafficking on the US-Mexican border.
Under the plan, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will permit known gun traffickers to make "straw purchases" – legal purchases of firearms in significant quantities to be resold to criminals on the other side of the border. This sort of purchase-monitoring had been used before, but the existing law enforcement policy was to intercept the arms shipments shortly after purchase or transfer. Under the new approach, the guns will "walk" – into the hands of the cartel buyers, allowing investigators to identify how the firearms were being paid for and transported to Mexico – and set up major prosecutions of the cartels in the future.
But the more significant busts never come. Instead, more than 2,000 firearms – mostly AK-47 style rifles and FN Herstal 5.7mm caliber pistols – flow across the border into the hands of the cartels. No arrests or indictments are made. The agents on the ground start complaining. The guns start showing up at crime scenes in Mexico.
Only when gunman use the weapons to murder a federal law enforcement agent, US Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry, does the program get shut down and arrests of the "little fish" suspects occur...
Gee, I guess the NRA has gotten to the Guardian, a well-known right wing mouthpiece...
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discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,489 posts)...we all know the NRA is all powerful... unless they aren't, depending, sometimes... but they're always wrong. 
rDigital
(2,239 posts)
former-republican
(2,163 posts)Why this blind loyalty to Holder.
Do some of you really believe Holder didn't know about this?
Clames
(2,038 posts)What can you say for yourself as the AG if you are so clueless as to what your own deputy is doing? That doesn't fly in the military, a CO doesn't get to claim ignorance when the XO is having meetings and briefings about operations the CO is in charge of.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)During the 2004 US Presidential election, Geraghty was often critical of Democratic Party presidential candidate John Kerry. At the time his weblog used the name "The Kerry Spot". It was later renamed "TKS". Geraghty reported on the Killian documents and Rathergate stories on a daily basis on behalf of National Review and was critical of CBS and Dan Rather. Geraghty was one of the self described Pajamahadeen.
...
Geraghty's book, Voting to Kill: How 9/11 Launched the Era of Republican Leadership (Touchstone, September 2006, ISBN 0-7432-9042-9) argues that national security and safety in the face of terrorist threats is the key issue in U.S. politics.
Geraghty frequently mentions his maxim "All statements from Barack Obama come with an expiration date. All of them."[1][2] This recurring theme in his writing is sometimes known as "Geraghty's Rule."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Geraghty
Clames
(2,038 posts)Originality and critical thinking aren't your strong suits. We know already, you can give it a rest.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)Otherwise, what was the point of that last post? Just an empty personal attack?
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)he's incompetent because people who worked for him carried the program out without him knowing about it.
Why is it that I think you'd be one of the first to scream for the removal of the Attorney General if he was a Republican and this occurred?
friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)http://www.boston.com/businessupdates/2012/08/14/murdoch-bloomberg-back-immigration-overhaul-boston-session/cL8XbzXSW9VEmCMMZ0ZT3I/story.html
By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff
Media titan Rupert Murdoch and New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, came to Boston Tuesday evening to help press their case for making it easier for immigrants to legally come to the United States and to establish a path for existing illegal immigrants to gain legal residency.
Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp., and Bloomberg, a billionaire who started his own company before going into politics, are two of the cochairs of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a national coalition of mayors and business leaders lobbying for “sensible immigration reform.”
In a panel discussion, Murdoch argued that there is a desperate need for engineers and other skilled professionals that the United States can’t supply internally. And he said he was appalled that the United States doesn’t automatically grant work visas to people who graduate from US universities with advanced degrees, instead of forcing them to apply for restrictive H-1B visas.
“I think we are in a crisis in this country,” said Murdoch, who was born in Australia and later became an American citizen...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021189849
Sleazebag friend of Rupert Murdoch endorses Scott Brown
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/29/cape.wind.ceo.profile/index.html
By Wayne Drash, CNN
April 29, 2010 11:28 a.m. EDT
...Gordon's opponents have come from the left and right. They have ranged from one of the most powerful senators in the nation's history -- the late Sen. Ted Kennedy -- to billionaire fossil fuel heavyweight William Koch. "I'm for wind energy," Kennedy famously said. "But we ought to do it right." The Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port will have a view of the 130 wind turbines, located several miles from the shore.
Koch, founder of the Oxbow Group and a resident of the Cape, sits on the board of Gordon's nemesis, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. He's reportedly contributed more than $1.5 million to try to stop Cape Wind. Koch and his Oxbow Group have accused Gordon of duping the region, saying the Cape had better prepare for skyrocketing electricity prices. The price per kilowatt hour offshore is far higher than on land.
"This will only benefit one individual, and that's the developer himself, Jim Gordon," said Brad Goldstein, Koch's chief spokesman. "Jim Gordon can try to wrap himself around wind all he wants. That dog will not hunt here."...
When you're ready to discuss issues on their merits, instead of who promotes them or where they originate, we'll be waiting for you...
DanTex
(20,709 posts)If I really wanted to read silly right-wing conspiracy theories then I'd go over to FreeRepublic. What I find amusing here is that you tried to use the Guardian to sneak in the right-wing propaganda. Very crafty! 
friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)Much as 'heretic' was back in the Inquisition days (or frankly, "liberal" is at FR now), it's just another ploy to elicit an emotional reaction.
Like I said when you're good and ready to discuss cases on their merits instead of nattering about their sources, we'll be here...
DanTex
(20,709 posts)Like I said, loony right-wing conspiracy theories by people trying to score points against the Obama administration during the election cycle are a dime a dozen. There's nothing of substance here.
friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)Are you willing to stipulate Holder's incompetence as to hiring of staff, at least? From the IG's report that even you found credible:
"We found it troubling that a case of this magnitude and that affected Mexico so significantly was not directly briefed to the Attorney General. We would usually expect such information to come to the Attorney General through the Office of the Deputy Attorney General … [Holder] was not told in December 2010 about the connection between the firearms found at the scene of the shooting and Operation Fast and Furious. Both Acting Deputy Attorney General Grindler and Counsel to the Attorney General and Deputy Chief of Staff Wilkinson were aware of this significant and troubling information by December 17, 2010, but did not believe the information was sufficiently important to alert the Attorney General about it or to make any further inquiry regarding this development."
"As we describe below, we identified information regarding Operation Fast and Furious that reached the Office of the Attorney General in 2010 but not Attorney General Holder himself."
"[Holder] should have been informed by no later than December 17, 2010, that two firearms recovered at the Terry murder scene were linked to an ATF firearms trafficking investigation … We found that although [Holder's then deputy-chief-of-staff Monty] Wilkinson forwarded to Holder during the afternoon of December 15 three emails from the US Attorney's Office providing further details about the shooting and law enforcement efforts to find and arrest the suspects, he did not notify the Attorney General of the revelation that two weapons found at the murder scene were linked to a suspect in an ATF firearms trafficking investigation."
Holder needs to go, preferably before President Obama's second inauguration.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)Like I pointed out in my OP, the gun nuts and right-wingers have too much invested in Fast and Furious conspiracy theories to accept the Inspector General's report. Thanks for proving me right.
friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)DanTex
(20,709 posts)friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)You appear to find shouting and handwaving acceptable substitutes for political effectualness. I urge you to keep doing what you've been doing.
Of course, if you have in there in your hand a list of right-wing infiltrators on DU you might want to show it...
DanTex
(20,709 posts)It suggests that Holder knew about F&F and that the IG covered this up. Gun nuts and right-wingers like this kind of stuff because they think Holder is an evil gun-grabber.
And you know this, which is why you tried to hide behind the Guardian's center-left reputation, even though the author of the article is actually a right-wing blogger.
Unless you are so oblivious to politics in this nation that you are unaware of the fact that there is a right-wing press constantly putting out misinformation against Obama and his administration.
