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| Project Gunwalker: Moves to the State Department |
| 2011-10-13 |
| Sources familiar with the congressional investigation into the Gunwalker Plot say that investigators are homing in on early conversations -- and meetings -- between ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division William Newell and his self-described "long-time friend," Kevin O'Reilly, a State Department employee then on the National Security Council. In Issa's last hearing, this relationship between Newell and O'Reilly was first presented. Since then, with that Friday night dump of emails, they had a month's worth of lots of communications. There was something in this for everyone, wasn't there. Next we'll hear that the Department of Education and the Mining Inspection Service were involved... This is reflected, say the sources, in the subpoena issued this week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee seeking, among other things, "All communications to or from William Newell, former Special agent in Charge for ATF's Phoenix Field Division, between . . . March 16, 2009 to March 19, 2009." The sources also say that Newell met personally with O'Reilly during this early period in the Obama administration and they believe that Newell may have "weaponized" the desire for more better statistics on the part of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others to support the "90 Percent" meme -- that 90% of weapons seized in Mexico from the drug cartels actually came from American civilian market sources. This 90% was quoted by Holder, Obama, Hillary and even Feinstein. Was later proven wrong, but was their buzz words. Newell, who the sources say was familiar with the tactic of "gun walking" from the previous failed Operation Wide Receiver in Tuscon where Newell had participated in it, probably provided the germ of the idea that "walked" weapons could be used to "boost the statistics" of weapons found at crime scenes in Mexico, in the words of an early whiistleblower in this case. If this is true, it places Kevin O'Reilly, a State Department employee responsible to Hillary Clinton, as the critical potential witness in the early history of the Gunwalker Scandal. Issa and Grassley had asked to interview O'Reilly before the end of September, but the White House says he's on assignment in the Mideast and thus unavailable. O'Reilly seeming can't testify as he has been transferred to Iraq. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #4 I just got to it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2011-10-13 17:53 |
| #3 Linkey gone. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2011-10-13 17:53 |
| #2 After Issa and Grassley get done digging, other places might have to be made in the following graphic: WaPo Fast and Furious Graphic |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-10-13 16:59 |
| #1 The trail will eventually terminate at the CIA. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-10-13 16:50 |