Project Gunrnner
CCRKBA urges inquiry into ATF’s ‘Project Gunrunner’
- CCRKBA Friday, February 11, 2011 BELLEVUE, WA
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/33233
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is urging its members to contact the Senate and demand a full and open inquiry into a controversial gun trafficking sting operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that may be linked to the December slaying of a federal peace officer.
After Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was killed in a shootout two months ago, two of the guns recovered at the crime scene were traced to a sale that was part of the ATF’s “Project Gunrunner” investigation. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has asked the ATF about this case, and has been met by bureau stonewalling. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder this week, Sen. Grassley said it is time to “come clean” about this operation.
“For two years,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “we’ve been hearing from Holder and others in the Obama administration about a so-called ‘iron pipeline’ of American guns across the border. Only after the recent arrests in Arizona did we learn, through court documents, that hundreds of guns were allowed to be purchased by alleged straw buyers, while ATF conducted its investigation. Now, according to various news reports, two of those guns showed up at a crime scene where a federal officer lost his life. What is going on here?
“CCRKBA applauds Sen. Grassley’s persistence in trying to get at the truth,” he continued. “We are asking our members to call their Senators and encourage them to support Grassley’s inquiry effort, and press for a full Senate investigation.
“We also want to know if ATF officials tried to retaliate against agency whistleblowers who have cooperated with Grassley’s office,” Gottlieb added, “and we are delighted that the senator is pushing forward.”
“Wouldn’t it be ironic,” he observed, “to learn that while the Obama administration was blaming our gun rights for the drug war violence in Mexico, its own gun sting operation was a major source of illicit firearms?”
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
MORE INFORMATION: http://mail.aol.com/33474-111/aol-1/en-us/mail/DisplayMessage.aspx?ws_popup=true
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/33233
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is urging its members to contact the Senate and demand a full and open inquiry into a controversial gun trafficking sting operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that may be linked to the December slaying of a federal peace officer.
After Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was killed in a shootout two months ago, two of the guns recovered at the crime scene were traced to a sale that was part of the ATF’s “Project Gunrunner” investigation. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has asked the ATF about this case, and has been met by bureau stonewalling. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder this week, Sen. Grassley said it is time to “come clean” about this operation.
“For two years,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “we’ve been hearing from Holder and others in the Obama administration about a so-called ‘iron pipeline’ of American guns across the border. Only after the recent arrests in Arizona did we learn, through court documents, that hundreds of guns were allowed to be purchased by alleged straw buyers, while ATF conducted its investigation. Now, according to various news reports, two of those guns showed up at a crime scene where a federal officer lost his life. What is going on here?
“CCRKBA applauds Sen. Grassley’s persistence in trying to get at the truth,” he continued. “We are asking our members to call their Senators and encourage them to support Grassley’s inquiry effort, and press for a full Senate investigation.
“We also want to know if ATF officials tried to retaliate against agency whistleblowers who have cooperated with Grassley’s office,” Gottlieb added, “and we are delighted that the senator is pushing forward.”
“Wouldn’t it be ironic,” he observed, “to learn that while the Obama administration was blaming our gun rights for the drug war violence in Mexico, its own gun sting operation was a major source of illicit firearms?”
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
MORE INFORMATION: http://mail.aol.com/33474-111/aol-1/en-us/mail/DisplayMessage.aspx?ws_popup=true
UPDATE
Obama snubs Issa on subpoena for ATF documents
April 19, 2011
http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/20/obama-snubs-issa-on-subpoena-for-atf-documents/
For the first time since Republicans took control of the House and gained the power of congressional subpoena, the Obama administration has declined to comply with a subpoena issued by top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa.
In the face of a subpoena by Issa, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) provided no documents by the April 13 deadline, according to an April 20 letter from Issa to ATF’s director, Kenneth Melson.
Issa is threatening contempt proceedings if ATF does not comply.
At issue are documents related to Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, in which ATF allowed American guns to be smuggled into Mexico and sold to Mexican drug cartels. The goal of the program was to track the illegal weapons and drug markets after they were used in crimes and abandoned using ballistics information and serial numbers for the guns.
A spokesman for ATF declined to comment about the matter saying, “we can’t respond to the media or anyone else until we respond to the chairman himself.”
But in an April 13 letter to Issa, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch cited the Justice Department’s policy not to disclose details about “ongoing criminal investigations” as a reason not to comply with the document demand.
Issa says the objection is spurious.
“We are not conducting a concurrent investigation with the Department of Justice, but rather an independent investigation of the Department of Justice,” Issa says in his April 20 letter, citing three historical examples of congressional oversight of Justice Department investigations, including during the Teapot Dome scandal in 1922.
ATF did provide access to four documents for “in camera” review at Justice Department headquarters, Issa says, but the documents were “general” and did not “directly pertain” to Operation Fast and Furious, in which guns were permitted to be smuggled to Mexico.
In his letter threatening contempt proceedings, Issa provides as attachments several documents he has obtained independently from his official request to the agency.
One of the documents included is a “significant information report” showing that two AK-47 rifles allowed to be sold to Mexican drug cartels were recovered from the scene of border patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder.
Issa says any decision to allow American guns to be sold to Mexican drug cartels was likely made by top-ranking Justice Department officials.
“It is nearly unfathomable that our government would allow straw purchasers to illegally acquire automatic weapons and transport them into Mexico, in furtherance of an ATF-led and inspired investigation. As I understand Department of Justice operations, such programs would require the approval of top officials,” Issa says.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/20/obama-snubs-issa-on-subpoena-for-atf-documents/#ixzz1K5ttruc6
