You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Home Front: WoT
Project Gunwalker: A White House 'Gunwalker'?
2011-09-08
Operation Gunwalker, the rogue ATF operation to arm Mexico's cartels, extends now to three White House officials. A bell goes off with the one named Dan Restrepo.

Late last Friday, CBS News and the Los Angeles Times almost buried the news that Restrepo, the National Security Council's top man for Latin America, and two other officials, were in on ATF memos from the Gunwalker operation called "Fast and Furious."

That blows apart White House claims that it had no idea the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was encouraging frontmen for Mexico's cartels to buy weapons from U.S. gun dealers -- to "trace" them afterward.

Some 2,000 U.S. guns were sold in Gunwalker but simply disappeared -- until they turned up at massacres in Mexico and at the murder scenes of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata.

Restrepo is a political operative whose interests are more domestic than Latin American. As a result, he's botched every Latin American operation he's had his hand in, appeasing enemies and blaming the U.S.:
Ah, so he's a bagman...
  • Honduras: In 2009, Restrepo was behind a U.S. bid to swiftly declare Honduras' constitutional ouster of its president "a coup" and sanctioned the country, playing into the hands of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who had attempted to make Honduras a colony.
    There were articles about Project Gunwalker: Honduras style
  • Cuba: Restrepo was behind loosening sanctions on Castro's Cuba, which has emboldened the regime to act against Americans. While Castro imprisoned Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor who was distributing satellite phones to dissidents, the Obama administration said nothing.

  • Colombia: Its troops captured drug "kingpin of kingpins" Walid Makled, who had extensive knowledge of Venezuelan official involvement in trafficking. U.S. attorneys wanted him extradited, but Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said President Obama never asked. When IBD asked Restrepo whether he advised Obama to ask, Restrepo defensively said he did. But that's at odds with what Santos said.

  • Venezuela: Treasury Department officials complained Restrepo kept names of high-ranking Venezuelan officials with ties to drug dealers off its "Kingpin List," in a naive effort to keep pressure off Chavez.

  • Now Restrepo tries to pin Mexico's drug war not on Hugo Chavez's trafficker allies, but on gun dealers from the U.S.

    There's little doubt that's his line, because blaming U.S. gun dealers and calling for a U.S. assault weapon ban were his ideas from his days spent at the Center for American Progress, an Obama-linked think tank.

    The U.S. "will work to inhibit the flow of weapons ... across our border," Restrepo told Mexican media.

    Meanwhile, when Obama met with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, both erroneously declared that U.S. weapons fueled Mexico's drug war -- on Restrepo's advice.

    Blogger Mike Vanderbroegh thinks that if Restrepo wasn't the author of Gunwalker he'd know who is and should be called to tell Congress. Either he's kept Obama in the dark about Gunwalker, or Obama should be impeached.
    • Posted by:Sherry in Arkansas

    #6  correction...Center for American Progress, an Obama-linked George Soros think tank.
    Posted by: Mikey Hunt   2011-09-08 23:27  

    #5  To no surprise, the top radical advising Obama, Dan Retrepo, was weaned at the Far Left Soros-funded Center for American Progress run by strategist John Podesta.

    There never was a vast right-wing conspiracy as Hillary said. This was a "red" herring. It was a smoke screen to hide and divert attention from the vast left-wing conspiracy.
    Posted by: JohnQC   2011-09-08 18:22  

    #4  Maybe the democrat leadership is holding this to the side in case Obama becomes completely unelectable and refuses to step aside. Nothing like impeachment proceedings to make a loser want to vacate.
    Posted by: DarthVader   2011-09-08 16:52  

    #3  Odd coincidence.

    Indeed. At the risk of wandering off topic (moi?), go see this movie. Ignore the fact that Roger Ebert liked it. It is the real deal, without the usual Hollywood sucker punch we've come to expect. You will be awed. You will be moved. It will give you hope.

    As for Ah, so he's a bagman..., is there anyone in this administration who isn't?
    Posted by: SteveS   2011-09-08 16:38  

    #2  Figures. Top Radical Behind Obama's Flawed Honduran Strategy Weaned at Soros Think Tank
    The Obama Latin America Team is composed of: Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs; Frank Mora, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs and most importantly Dan Restrepo, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at The National Security CouncilÂ… Since assuming the presidency in January of 2009, the Obama White House mainly follows the expertise of Mr. Daniel Restrepo on issues pertaining to Latin America.

    Dan, a first generation American of Colombian and Spanish parents
    Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165   2011-09-08 16:34  

    #1  Odd coincidence.
    Posted by: Pollyandrew   2011-09-08 16:26  

    00:00