Fast and Furious update: And now…Project Grenadewalker?!; Plus: The Indiana story
The truth is still seeping out, despite Team Obama’s best efforts to cover up and shut up the Fast and Furious whistle-blowers.
Last week, we noted the latest evidence that the scandal went straight to the top and chronicled the desperate dance of the lemons. In discussing the quiet resignation of U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Phoenix, I talked with NRA News’s Cam Edwards about Burke’s transparent attempt at liability avoidance.
Today, the WSJ spotlights the Phoenix USAO’s botched handling of an Arizona man accused of supplying grenades to a Mexican drug cartel. Business Insider provides a closer look (h/t William Amos):
The WSJ reports today that federal authorities are now investigating why the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix — the same office that oversaw Fast and Furious — released Jean Baptiste Kingery after he confessed to providing military-style weapons to the now-defunct La Familia Michoacana drug cartel.
Kingery, who was arrested and released in June 2010, confessed to manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using grenade components from the U.S. He also admitted to helping the cartel convert semi-automatic rifles into machine guns. Mexican criminal organizations are increasingly using these military-style weapons as the cartels’ escalate their wars against the government and one another.
Despite Kingery’s confession, and over loud protestations from the arresting ATF officers, the U.S. Attorney’s office let Kingery go within hours of his arrest.
Kingery’s release is now the subject of an internal probe by the DOJ inspector general. The findings in the DOJ probe were a major catalyst in the recent staff shakeup that ousted Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennie Burke and Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson from their posts.
The Phoenix U.S. Attorney’s office denies that it declined to prosecute the case, saying that it wanted to continue surveillance. The office alternatively told investigators that ATF agents wanted to make Kingery an informant, but lost contact with him within weeks of his release.
…The Congressional Oversight Committee has also expanded its Fast and Furious investigation to include the Kingery case. The Committee is investigating who in the Obama administration knew about the gunrunning program, under which ATF agents allowed more than 2,000 guns to “walk” across the border.
On a related note, Kathleen Millar focuses on the State Department and poses provocative questions about F&F and the Arms Export Control act, which brought down the architects of Iran-Contra during the Reagan years:
The Arms Export Control Act prohibits US arms merchants and defense manufacturers from selling lethal weapons and sensitive or dual-use technology to people who may want to use those weapons and technology to fire back at US citizens—at the military, law enforcement agents, and more and more often, a lot of just plain Americans who routinely miss those signs 80 miles inland on the US side of the Mexico-Arizona border warning tourists to go no further–Mexican gunmen on the prowl.
US weapons cannot be sold and shipped to countries that support terrorism, or nations, states, groups, or other entities deemed unfriendly to the United States.
I’d say Mexican cartels, especially the violent assassination squads that comprise Los Zetas, fall into that category, wouldn’t you?
Even more importantly, the Arms Export Control Act is, in fact, a servant to Article Three of the United States Constitution, which defines the act of selling weapons to those who would ‘levy war against the United States’ or ‘giving aid and comfort to our enemies’ as treason. No kidding. Treason.
If a US law enforcement agency wants to involve itself in the sale of weapons purchased from US gun dealers for export purposes–sales that may be part of an legitimate enforcement or military operation–that agency, let’s say ATF, must apply to the State Department for an exemption from the licensing requirements normally imposed on the commercial sale and export of such weapons. If an enforcement agency or military entity intent on running a covert op involving the export of lethal weapons does not obtain the necessary exemptions from State, for–listen carefully–each weapon or bundle of weapons purchased, that agency or military purchaser has committed a crime. Consider. ATF sent more than 1700 weapons across the border into Mexico–that could translate into 1700+ violations of the Arms Export Control Act.
…Forced resignations, diversionary political rationales, debates about the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law—none of this speaks to the central question. Did ATF, under advisement of its political administrators, break the laws of the United States of America?
***
Update: F&F vanguard blogger David Codrea has another investigative scoop with extensive documents on how ATF/FBI directed Indiana crime gun sales to U.S. street gangs.
Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars wants to know what Chicago ATF head Andrew Traver knows. (My background column on Traver is here.)
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Categories: Corruption,Eric Holder,Guns
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Without a doubt. However, its a moot point, as Barky sees himself as the annointed giver and primary enforcer or ignorer of all laws here.
Very disturbing.
Can we trust the DOJ to do an internal probe?
Internal probes never work. Special prosecutors do.
Mexico is demanding the extradiction of those responsible for this to Mexico to meet their justice. I say we comply and send them Holder and all of the files.
Oh come now, Michelle. That law was only meant to apply to Ollie North, not the chosen one.
Time to drain the swamp.
Oh, I don’t know. Barney Frank might disagree.
Jail time now. Prosecute them all, including the President. This is better than what they had on Capone after all.
Laws? Obama don’t need no stinkin’ laws. He makes up his own. He is Teh One. Fagetabatit! Or else!
El Presidente must go down, he must go down hard.
Wait a minute, what about all those fighter jets and other military equipment that we sell to other countries?
Is there a country out that that doesn’t, on some level, wish to do us harm? I’d say “other than Israel”, but we’re working hard to change that…
Isn’t that Obama’s rhetoric, that our policies have made us universally hated in the world? So what about the training and technology and weapons we’ve been giving the Iraqis, Afghans and probably Libyans?
They don’t fear the consequences of their actions. Why?
That worries me alot more than anything they’ve done that was against the law.
If Barky’s included in the deal, I’m all for it.
Doesn’t that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Let me guess – in order to find out where the Iranians have their nukes stored, we are providing them under the new ATF program “Nuke Walker”.
(Nuke – I’m your father…)
Can we throw in Obama too?
Of course Obama sees no wrong in this as he is a citizen of the world not the US; therefore his administration in not selling anything to a foreign country they are just selling them on the world market to other citizens of the world.
Well, I for one am not worried. Jimmy Hoffa, Jr said that he has an army waiting to take out these SOB’s.
Wait, what? Not THESE SOB’s? Awww, crud…
I will tell you, if a r president or his team done anything even close to this, there would be 24/7 msm, d’s, and the public cries for all invloved to go to jail stat! Please, Issa and Grassley keep on top of this. bho and his slimy team have got to be held accountable somehow.
L
Kinery is lucky he was not selling rare wood. If he had his @$$ would be in Gitmo right now. /sarc.
wow, these socialists want everybody armed, except us, now grenedes? that is a real wtf moment.
Because they own 95% of the media (there will be little public outcry) and 70% of the courts (there will be no jail time).
Why worry? It will all fade away… just like the credible evidence Clinton was a rapist.
There is more to this story than meets the eye. The American Thinker has this story that shows that “fast and furious” was more than meets the eye. It looks like it may have been a small part in a bigger deal with the Sinaloa organisation.
It looks to me like the Obama administration was working with Sinaloa organisation. The Obama administration would not prosecute members of the Sinaloa organization in exchange for information on a rival cartel. There have also been allegations of the Obama administration allowing for the Sinoloa organizations drugs to enter the country. It may be that “fast and furious” was another part of the deal, allowing guns to get to cartel for more information from the cartel informants. This information would be used to bring down other cartels. This would be a win-win situtaion for both the Sinoloa cartel and the Obama administration. The Obama administration uses the info to pad drug interdiction stats (and use the gun violence for gun control pushes) and the cartel gets to take out the competion.
I work in the defense industry, and those typically go one of two routes, both of which must be in compliance with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). First is Foreign Military Sales, or FMS. In an FMS agreement, the manufacturer sells the equipment to the US government, then the US government sells it to the foreign government after ensuring that everything meets the arms control agreements and has State Dept blessing. Alternatively, a defense manufacturer can sell items directly to a foreign country, but still must show compliance with all DoD and DoS requirements (including ITAR). The rules themselves are quite lengthy and detailed, and companies such as mine literally have teams of experts whose sole job is to ensure compliance.
He’s also the King of Waivers. He can just issue a waiver for this operation and exempt his cronies from the laws.
It is obvious that this administration sees itself being above the law (laws are for little people don’t you know) and therefore they can simply pick and choose the ones they want to follow and the ones they want to ignore. When you start by ignoring the constitution the rest is pretty easy.
It’s an easy mistake. Although Hoffa’s enunciation was more clear, he had that Ted Kennedy incoherence going on. That kind of built-in irrationality is bound to make it hard to figure out for any sane listener.
I’ll see if I can help:
Hoffa’s army stands against the singular male progeny of multiple female dogs (son-of-a-b!tches).
Truly a master communicator…
The illegal Kenyan in the White House and his protector in the Department of Injustice are both protected from impeachment, or even a meaningful investigation.
The reason is that Barky and Holder have all sorts of damaging information on members of Congress, including but not limited to their involvement in getting a known ineligible candidate on the ballot and elected as the putative president.
For that reason there will not be anything that touches Obama or Holder coming from this investigation or any future ones.
***
The only real (fragment or blast) hand grenades I ever saw were in the U.S. Army. And most troops think that they may be as dangerous to the guy throwing one as they are to the enemy. You can’t buy these at Walmart, Cheaper Than Dirt, or over the Internet. Yes they can be made–who wants to be the first one to throw a “home cooked” grenade and check out its time delay?
***
Converting semi-automatic rifles into full auto versions isn’t hard. Mexico has lots of skilled machinists who can build grenades or modify rifles. And they work cheap, and want to stay alive when a cartel wants something done.
***
The real prize is the Russki Rocket Propelled Grenade launch tube and RPG rockets. Easily “reverse engineered”. Any drug cartel with hundreds of millions of dollars of profit can buy or make these items. Or can buy or build normal grenades or full auto rifles–from many countries in the world. Or from corrupt officials in the Mexican Military and government.
***
There is no reason to think that the cartels get most–or any–of the real military hardware items from the U.S. gun shops. These cartels are richer than the fabled King Croesus of old.
***
However, you can never go wrong underestimating the stupidity of the ATF. Or of Comrade Obama and his Ilks desire to disarm the American People. Its the final roadblock in their plans to take over the U.S.A. and to convert it into their new dream of a third world United Socialistic States of America. That’s who these people are. Openly communist Van Jones appointment to a high government position wasn’t a bug–it was a feature! Our Constitution is a “dead letter” to them.
***
John Bibb
***
We all exist at the pleasure and whim of the almighty Barky.
We may even be graced by his waiver of the 2012 elections, PBUH.
Hello, McFly!
LMAO. And under the ATF “Seawolf Walker” program, the USS Jimmy Carter became Palestine’s first submarine.
Remember when the Government just gave away free cheese?
Definitely set a bad precendence.
I wonder how many of the crimes committed have left innocent American’s dead?
Just think, Nixon was forced to resign over trying to cover up the break in at the Watergate hotel; yet Obama is not being forced to resign when programs put into place by those he has appointed have led to the deaths of many people. Just more proof that MSM journalism has died
***
HI DONKEY_HOATIE–#24. Sometimes all the U.S. Gubmit “vetting” goes sour. Like when Jimmy Carter’s actions pulled the rug out from under the Shaw of Iran and enabled the Ayatollah Khoemaniac to take over. There were a number of anti-aircraft missile systems in Iran that would soon fall into the hands of the now hostile government there.
***
There were sub rosa reports that before the U.S. military advisor and contractor support types and their families left that the systems were sabotaged so that they would be inoperable without certain critical parts. As I remember the stories it was a pickax through the vacuum chamber of the high powered microwave power tubes used in the systems. I don’t remember ever reading that these old but excellent systems were ever made operational again.
***
John Bibb
***
This is in today’s news:
Kingery was arrested after Mexican authorities were led to him while investigating another grenade-smuggling ring in Baja California in April.
It’s nice to know the DOJ released an innocent man! /sarc
At least they are consistent. They prosecute the innocent and release the guilty.
hell, Jimmy Carter himself set bad precedence.
Only if you are a West Pointer who throws the pin and drops the grenade.
i have always said only cops and gangbangers are allowed to own guns in chicago, now it turns out i was right.
Another example would be the F-14 Tomcat. When the US deemed them obsolete and replaced them they detroyed the aircraft and all the parts so that the aging fleet of F-14′s that Iran has could not be upkept.
So you’re saying the F&F=Clear and Present Danger, just with different motivations on the part of the admin.
This admin. is sailing on the devil’s sea.
BOB is correct about Holder and Obama not being prosecuted. The investigation will prosecute the lower level people but that’s as far as it will go.
Think about this. Selling weapons to drug cartels. Those weapons come back to the USA,at some point, in the hands of Mexican drug gangs, and kill Americans.
An admin. that would do this is not on America’s side. I know it’s been said a thousand times.
Your son or daughter,aunt, uncle, father, or mother could get caught in the crossfire. Don’t think it couldn’t happen? It can.
Maybe this has been said before, but…
It’s ironic how an administration so afraid of allowing its citizens to arm themselves in accordance with the Second Amendment is willing to allow our enemies to arm themselves — and even be a willing accomplice in the process.
Going forward how could an FFL dealer ever “cooperate” with the ATF/FBI again?
Wouldn’t be the first time that a Tom Clancey novel fortold the future (so to speak).In the Tom Clancy book Debt of Honor (1994) a Japanese airline pilot crashed his 747 jumbo jet into the halls of Congress during a joint session of Congress, killing the majority of the members of Congress and the President. Sound familiar?
Is it certain it was street gangs the guns went to. Maybe union thugs instead? How else are they going to have a rebellion to put down with martial law?
Just sayin’
That would be the ring-knocker who only knocks once.
Considering the mess they made of news stories like the Tet Offensive in the 60′s, the flood of real communists in our government exposed by Whitaker Chambers and Joe McCarthy in the 40′s and 50′s (scoffed at to this day), and the worshipful mollycoddling of FDR during his original “remake” of the country in the 30′s, I’d say none of us are old enough to remember a time when the MSM was alive.
The O-stration working with Mexican drug cartels against rival gangs perhaps answers a question I`ve had for some time !
Area Sheriff`s Depts. coordinated to select a few deputies to work as Special Drug Interdiction Officers on I-26 and I-40 in the Asheville,NC area. You`ll see them with vehicles stopped and then read a few days later about (for instance) 1,100 lbs of pot and $1M in cash found and two Mexican named guys busted. Rival drug cartel members ?? Wait until they get to NC before busting them to protect informants ??
I worked with a retired Navy Chief in Iraq as contractor a few years ago from Asheville, NC. He was one of the funniest guys I ever met and one of the most Conservative as well.
See, people! I don’t always start it! And this is a MM thread, not a Doug thread.
A since of humor is how we maintained sanity in the Navy. I saw more chicken-sh!t than a Tyson janitor.
I think that goes with any branch of the military.
***
HI TRUESOLDIER–#37. Us draftee privates attributed the dumbest actions to the “90 day wonder” OCS second Lieutenants. Except for the cases where they were skilled Sergeants who became officers. Most of the West Point Grads I knew as a G.I.–or knew later in 41 years of working as a contractor were smart fine people. They knew which end of the gun the bullet leaves from–and what part of a grenade to throw!
***
At the Ft. Ord, California grenade range the post / rubber tire targets were about 20 yards over the blast wall the throwers were hiding behind. You could watch the action through a thick badly chipped up blast proof glass slot window in the wall after each volley of frag grenades–50 or so–were thrown.
***
The 2 red range active flags were about 20 yards behind the grenade pits on tall power poles. Every few volleys of grenades they were shot down and had to be replaced. And the poles looked like a giant beaver had been chewing them up. Some were half of their original diameter, with lots of splintered wood hanging off them. Forty yards behind the targets.
***
I worked with a much older retired Light Colonel who had been an adviser to one of the partisan groups in Yugoslavia during WW2. He and a radioman coordinated U.S. Army Air Force arms and food air drops to the fighters. And took coded orders and reported on results of attacks. They also went along on ambushes on the forest roads there.
***
He said that the partisans used dummy grenades when attacking Germans in wooden buildings. Threw in a few and then submachine gunned the Krauts as they ran out the back. They had taken too many casualties of their own fighters due to wounds from fragments when they used the real McCoy grenades. Or when the Germans or their collaborator buddies threw the grenades back before they exploded.
***
The Colonel was invited to a partisan reunion every few years when Tito still ran the show there. He was received well by old comrades there during the cold war. He died about 30 years ago.
***
John Bibb
***
Thats right, guns for cartels but NO GUNS FOR YOU!
During the summer of 94′ my infantry company Bco 3/327 inf out of Ft Campbell was tasked with going to West Point and training Cadets. Our platoon ran the Hand grenade range. For the most part the Cadet’s were pretty smart, but when it came to the live fire a few of them either froze up after pulling the pin (luckily they still had hold of the grenade with the spoon in place) or they dropped the grenade and threw the pin (which we then had to grab them and toss them into the next sandbag pit (the pit was concrete walls on three sides with sandbags covering the concrete).
I do know what you mean about the FF problems with grenades. My first squad leader told me about a guy that died in Panama when he went to toss a grenade into a house, but did not check to see if the door was open. He tossed the grenade against a closed door and it ended up bouncing right back towards him.
I should be clear though about the Cadets that froze up. It is no differnt than the first time you are in combat. Know one knows how they will react to a situtation until you are placed into said position. I saw some of the least likely people rise up and save the day in Iraq while the guy you expected to kick a$$ and take names freeze up and not be able to do anything.
I’ve resisted getting a gun (I’d joke and say that I get into enough trouble just shooting my mouth off) but am seriously considering purchasing a gun. Especially with the way some things are changing. My NRA member brothers would be able to help me pick out the right one.
How did Iran get a fleet of American fighter jets, in light of that part of the Constitution deeming giving weapons to people who might want to use them against us is treason?
Is there a sunset clause in there of which I’m unaware? “…but you can give aide and comfort to ‘allies’ provided you know they’re going to be ‘allies’ for 20 years…”
Giving weapons to England or Australia would be one thing. Giving weapons to any place in the middle east (aside from Israel) since 1948 is treason, IMO.
On September 6th, 2011 at 12:33 pm, happyscrapper said: Oh, I don’t know. Barney Frank might disagree.
Ha! I was wondering if I would be chastized for that comment. Just couldn’t resist! Sorry about that! But at least no one took the bait and went off topic. Kudos to all for staying on point even though I made a very clever, smart and hilarious remark.
to make it off topic, you might have to ask if bwany likes to probe, or be probed. sorry, couldn’t resist
I’m an SOB…come get me Jimmy- bring your Army of little kids too!
Hmmm…prober or probee? I don’t think I will go there.
my guess is Iran got them when the Shaw was in power and Iran was “deemed” friendly to us.
You are correct. The Shah was pro West and anti-communist. He was an influence in westernizing and modernizing Iran at the time and we used Iran in the 70′s to counter Russian influence in that part of the world, which we used to our advantage. That is until religious and communist backed revolutionaries rose in Iran. The Shah used the powers of his monarchy, military and secret police to keep them in check, violently at times.
That didn’t go over well with the Carter admin which tossed the Shah under the bus as an ally and forced the Shah to accept the return of the banished Ayatolah Komehni which ultimetly led to the Shah’s overthrow and his leaving Iran, the takeover of the US embassy, the and being denied entry to the US for treating his cancer, the failed rescue operation and Carter’s own downfall.
I’m most curious to see what our commenters of left-wing persuasion have to say about this issue. But for some reason, they all seem to be “fast-and-furiously” absent from these threads.
Nothing to see here…nothing to see here…move along…Hey! Look over there! It’s a child selling unlicensed lemonade! Get ‘em!
That is what I thought and it makes a lot of sense. One thing that many people do not realize is that first of all the Iranian people are Persians not Arabs. Secondly they were, as far as I know, the only coutnry in the Middle East region (other than Israel) where the people held a candlelight vigil for the victims of 9/11 shortly after 9/11 (on Sept 18th 2011 to be precise).
A great tour d’horizon, Hawkeye. I’d forgotten the bad old days of the previous clueless Dem. The sheer insult of denying the Shaw cancer treatment in NYC. What bastards! … the know-it-all Rabbit-killer who had to personally handle every aspect of the rescue. Blowing up planes and helos in the desert through sheer incompetence, the military chiefs _and_ their peanut commander. After all, he served once in a submarine. Contrast how Gates and Panetta crafted the Osama killing they pushed BHO into accepting. Target killed, team evacuated even losing one helo, took documents and the dead one back to probably Afghanistan, to a jet, to a carrier, wrapped in white cloth and dumped into the sea in less than 24 hours. They let BHO watch and take some of the credit.
The FandF investigation is making headway. The more headway, the more people will be talking. The cover up is working at the top, but I’m not so sure Holder and Obama will totally escape some responsibility, if for no other reason, choosing to not ask the questions they should have in regard to the operation and how it was being conducted.
I’m still convinced this was motivated by the administration’s desire to promote their American anti-gun agenda, plus use it as well, to promote the Internation Small Arms Treaty. Clinton has managed to escape this mess so far. I think she’s about to get dragged into it.
As I’ve contended for weeks, any Federal official who conducts any kind of government operation on forign soil has to obtain permission from the State Dept. This story confirms that. Failure to do so is a career ending decision and I don’t believe for a minute that the AZ US Attorney and ATF officials were ready to be summarily fired. They are well aware of that requirement, just like all the other Federal officals. It’s standard operating procedure.
The only way they could get that OK from State would be if a high State Dept. official, or appointee signed off on it without being told exactly what was going to occur; either that,or he or she knew the guns would be walking into Mexico un-traceable. In either event, it would have been obvious the guns were going to be used to kill people and would eventually be traced back to the U.S.
The bungled effort blew up on all of the people who thought they were getting away with sureptitiously providing statistics for the administration’s anti-gun stance, when our Border Patrol Officer got killed and the guns showed up at his crime scene, as well as many in Mexico and the U.S.
This thing has only just begun and Issa will not let go of it. Grassley and the Senate, who knows? Eventually it will be handed over to a Special Prosecutor. Then the real fireworks will commence.
Fine with me. Let’s make sure though we get the Mexicans to patrol their Northern border as viciously as they do their Southern Border, and then we can call it a deal.
When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s difficult to remember the primary objective was to drain the swamp.
I didn’t know Mike Tyson was a janitor.
3000 US troops in Iraq at year end.
Can we get our equipment out?
Or is it F & F times 1000?
Your comment is right on: On September 6th, 2011 at 12:15 pm, Hangfire said:
Can we trust the DOJ to do an internal probe?
Internal probes never work. Special prosecutors do.
Remember that one of the first highly publicized actions taken by the then new Administration and the DoJ was the attempted destruction of the Inspector Generals throughout the government.
This is just more of the same.