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| Project Gunwalker: Cover-up in ATF Gunwalker Case? |
| 2011-09-02 |
| Sharyl Attkisson of CBS makes the case. She's getting credit for breaking the story, but her first sources are a couple bloggers.... 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. Well, CBS News is now on the case. Nothing to worry about folks, the truth will out... Terry was murdered in Arizona near the US border last December. Two assault rifles ATF had allegedly allowed onto the street without interdiction were found at the scene. But the US Attorney's office working both the Terry murder and the "Fast and Furious" operation did not immediately disclose the two had any link. Two Republicans investigating the scandal, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) say there's evidence that officials at ATF and the US Attorney's office sought to hide the connection. In a letter, Grassley and Issa say the lead prosecutor on Fast and Furious, Assistant US Attorney Emory Hurley, learned almost immediately that guns allowed onto the street in his case, had been recovered at Terry's murder. "(I)n the hours after Agent Terry's death," says the letter from Grassley and Issa, Hurley apparently "contemplated the connection between the two cases and sought to prevent the connection from being disclosed." The Justice Department recently transferred Hurley out of the criminal division into the civil division. An internal ATF email dated the day after Terry's death reveals the quick decision to not disclose the source of the weapons found at the murder scene: "... this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case." Another ATF email indicates that the justification both offices used to not charge the suspect with crimes related to the murder scene "was to not 'complicate' the FBI's investigation." ATF whistleblowers revealed the link between the two cases to Congressional investigators and CBS News, saying their supervisors were attempting to cover it up. Today's letter from the Congressional Republicans also criticizes Hurley's boss, US Attorney Dennis Burke. It says Burke denied a connection between Fast and Furious and Terry's murder in court, but recently "readily admitted the connection" in an interview with Congressional investigators. Burke resigned from his job on Tuesday. The Justice Department had no immediate comment. Burke and Hurley were not immediately reachable for comment |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #11 yep. It's Friday night. Mea Culpa |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-09-02 22:59 |
| #10 What did Holder and Obama know and when did each know it? I would dearly love this scandal to explode in their faces about a year from now. Wouldn't that be sweet timing? Watergate had a lengthy gestation period. (With apologies, Frank, I think you meant conflating instead of convoluting.) |
| Posted by: kcs 2011-09-02 22:45 |
| #9 I'm concerned that they keep convoluting Fast and Furious ( a clearly lame-brained plan that lead to deaths) with Gunwalker (less lamebrained) in an effort to minimize the issues. They were two different plans |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-09-02 22:18 |
| #8 "Project Gunwalker: Cover-up in ATF Gunwalker Case?" Does a bear sleep in the woods? |
| Posted by: Barbara 2011-09-02 21:34 |
| #7 I know I am being pushed that direction Pollyandrew, especially as the stink begins to build. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2011-09-02 18:51 |
| #6 Didn't someone ask Obama a while back about his lack of progress on gun control, and he replied that he was working on that behind the scenes? Was Project Gunwalker what he was referring to? |
| Posted by: Pollyandrew 2011-09-02 16:07 |
| #5 Thanks Sherry, and I'll remember to thank Sharyl as one of the good ones. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2011-09-02 14:18 |
| #4 It's always the cover up that gets you. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2011-09-02 13:15 |
| #3 *ahem* "For now, congressional investigators are tightly focusing their probe into the actions of the Department of Justice and the ATF, and have spent very little time — publicly, at least — delving into the roles that the FBI and DEA have played in the scandal. Likewise, investigators have not yet focused their energies on the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney that just resigned as a result of his actions in the plot and coverup, was the long-time chief-of-staff for Napolitano while she was governor of Arizona. It is unlikely that a high-risk operation run on Napolitano’s “home turf,” where she had been both governor and state attorney general and was still responsible for national security, happened without her being personally briefed." soooo Holder and Incompetano may be linked. Smells like Obama pardons on the way out the door |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-09-02 12:59 |
| #2 Remind me again how many federal agents were killed as a result of the watergate break-in? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2011-09-02 11:04 |
| #1 Actually, Doc Steve, she's been close and hard on this story. CBS actually pulled her off the story for a full month, and she fought to get it back. She is keeping it front and center. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2011-09-02 10:43 |