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Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over F&F doc [W:116/226]

Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

What a bunch of trumped up idiotic bull****.

Holder as a public official has NO, NONE, ZERO expectation of privacy in his capacity as a constitutional officer, he is under congressional oversight as a condition of his function in office.

The only question I have is if you are of the intellectual level portrayed by your post or just desperate enough to have an emotional lever to use against those against you politically? Either way, this is a pathetic argument and should be enshrined in the basement for posterity.

"Yeah, he’s got a responsibility to protect executive privilege. That’s just part of preserving the powers of the presidency… He should do what he thinks is the right thing with regards to members of his team but preserve executive privilege."

– Mitt Romney [defending Bush decision to ignore congressional subpoena]
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

So the two low to mid-level guys were offered up to take the fifth and that just ends it all? I don't have any reason to believe Obama was "in the loop", but certainly someone higher up he DHS/DOJ chain than these two WAS.
Do you have any evidence to the contrary? I know you want it to be worse than the evidence shows, but only if wishing made it so :shrug:

If that was the extent of it then why not offer up ALL of the documents to prove it, swamp Issa and his staff with TONS of paperwork and shut him up?
If you're not a terrorist, then why not strip naked every time you go to the airport?
If you have nothing to hide, why not let the police search your car and your home on demand?

The innocent are USUALLY quite happy to cooperate.
Have you cooperated as above? If the police want to search you, your home, your family, just in case you're doing something wrong, will you cooperate? You don't have anything to hide, do you?
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Holder as a public official has NO, NONE, ZERO expectation of privacy in his capacity as a constitutional officer, he is under congressional oversight as a condition of his function in office.
Then why hasn't be been arrested?

Do you think he will be arrested? If so, for what crime?

Shouldn't Obama be arrested too?
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Failure to comply in court gets you what? A contempt citation. Whats Holder getting? A contempt citation.
Issa is a judge? When did this happen?

Holder has been issued a contempt citation? When did this happen?

Are you making stuff up? When did this happen? :lamo
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Issa is a judge? When did this happen?

Holder has been issued a contempt citation? When did this happen?

Are you making stuff up? When did this happen? :lamo


The authoritarian mindset, kinda boggles the mind of sane people doesn’t it?:(
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Yep, and the way this looks, it also may be corruption in politics at the highest levels of the WH as well.




Then why the cover up with Executive Privilege? :coffeepap:


j-mac

Pity the foo's that are the Cons... they keep striving to come up with equivalence, but consistently fall short.... Yes, the Dems have their share of corrupt officials and sex scandals, but they are consistently outdone by their Con counterparts who always boast bigger scandals involving more money, bigger wars, more hookers and wider stances .... There is no equivalence.
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

How were these guns any different that the 1000's of guns the cartels already posses? Are these somehow "bad guns" as opposed to every other gun on the planet that never kill people and should never be regulated? Do you honestly believe that someone could have thought that that "plot" you are swallowing would ever have worked? There is plenty of evidence of US guns in cartel hands already, and that has not moved gun regulation an inch. What possible benefit could outweigh the ridiculously high risk of discovery? It was a lame ass opeation to begin with and mistakes were made in the field. They should have known....Bush people thought it up first.
 
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Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Issa is a judge? When did this happen?

Holder has been issued a contempt citation? When did this happen?

Are you making stuff up? When did this happen? :lamo

Im not sure if youre trolling out of ignorance but you are aware of how House Contempt charges work and the authority they have to do so. You are also aware Issa is not a judge but can initiate a contempt charge through committee then refer it to the House.

You seem to be deliberately trolling and dealing misinformation to muddy the waters. Its not working very well. This is a poltical as well as legal process and is NOT a court proceeding despite the similarities and your poor attempts to equate the two.
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Issa is a judge? When did this happen?
Holder has been issued a contempt citation? When did this happen?
Are you making stuff up? When did this happen?
Im not sure if youre trolling out of ignorance but you are aware of how House Contempt charges work and the authority they have to do so. You are also aware Issa is not a judge but can initiate a contempt charge through committee then refer it to the House.

You seem to be deliberately trolling and dealing misinformation to muddy the waters. Its not working very well. This is a poltical as well as legal process and is NOT a court proceeding despite the similarities and your poor attempts to equate the two.
Permit me refresh your memory:

Failure to comply in court gets you what? A contempt citation. Whats Holder getting? A contempt citation.
Clearly you were stuck in the mud. I was just trying to show you the way out.
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

How were these guns any different that the 1000's of guns the cartels already posses?

Many of the guns that were doing damage in Mexico came from sources other than the US. If the guns were from the US they were likely guns given to the military that defected to the cartels in that corrupt **** hole.

Are these somehow "bad guns" as opposed to every other gun on the planet that never kill people and should never be regulated?

So not you're not happy with regulating the crap out of guns in this country, you want to tell the whole world how they should handle their guns....Good luck with that.

Do you honestly believe that someone could have thought that that "plot" you are swallowing would ever have worked?

Apparently Obama and Holder did, and two agents died as a result. Now the poor little picked on, piss ant President isn't man enough to take the embarrassment of his own decision to dupe the American people with this program, he tries to cover it up.

There is plenty of evidence of US guns in cartel hands already, and that has not moved gun regulation an inch. What possible benefit could outweigh the ridiculously high risk of discovery?

Re election Campaign.

It was a lame ass opeation to begin with and mistakes were made in the field.

On that we agree, however, we conservatives are getting used to expecting this kind of BS out of the One.

They should have known....Bush people thought it up first.

Ah...BOB...Blame it on Bush.....Again, yawn!

look, you know the differences I am sure, but I'll lay them out for you anyway...

(1) First and foremost, operation Wide Receiver did not result in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent or an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Fast and Furious did. The guns that ultimately killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and ICE officer Jamie Zapata were traced back to straw purchasers related to Fast and Furious. Zapata’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the U.S. Justice Department last week.

Further, officials have confirmed that the guns from Fast and Furious have already killed hundreds of Mexican citizens and Holder has said on the record that they will likely kill many more. The total number of confirmed deaths so far from Wide Receiver: Zero.

(2) Second, Wide Receiver, though flawed, was more of a gun-tracing operation than a gun-walking program. Gun-tracing involves putting specific safeguards in place to track firearms, such as RFID chips perhaps with video or aerial surveillance. Gun-walking is what happened in Fast and Furious, where ATF agents sold thousands of guns without a reliable way to recover them, apparently just hoping for the best.

Some of the guns from Wide Receiver were implanted with RFID chips and were actively tracked electronically. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in Phoenix also implemented aerial surveillance tactics in an attempt to follow the weapons.

However, problems reportedly arose due to poorly implanted RFID chips which were forced into the guns, bending the antennas and decreasing their effectiveness. Cartels and straw purchasers also eventually came up with creative ways to shake tracking maneuvers and overhead surveillance, such as driving in loops for hours until surveillance planes had to refuel.

Those in charge of Fast and Furious took no similar steps to strengthen their chances of recovering walked guns other than recording the serial numbers before watching them disappear in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

In fact, ATF agents involved in Fast and Furious have previously testified that they were ordered to stand down and not track the weapons even when interdiction was possible and instead “took notes” and let the guns walk across the Mexico border.

(3) Third, one must take into account the size and scope of the operations.

Speaking to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Holder said that “three hundred guns” were allowed to “walk” (although note the difference between “tracing” and “walking” above) in Wide Receiver. While there is no evidence that suggests otherwise, the figure is dwarfed by the approximately 2,000 firearms that walked in Fast and Furious. Roughly 1,400 guns were lost and about 700 have been recovered in Mexico and at crime scenes like the sites of Terry and Zapata’s murders.

(4) Perhaps the most convincing piece of evidence proving the two operations are separate from each other is the fact that Wide Receiver was shut down in 2007 shortly after it was clear the program was a failure. This was before Obama was even in office and nearly two years before Fast and Furious began.

Fast and Furious wasn’t shut down until late 2010 after the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans, a border agent and an ICE officer.

(5) Finally, unlike Fast and Furious, officials involved in Wide Receiver were reportedly in close contact with Mexican authorities during the operation, though how involved Mexican officials were is not entirely known.

What is known is that Mexican authorities were kept completely in the dark during Fast and Furious, according to the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Mexico. He announced on June 1, 2012, that Mexico would be launching its own probe into Fast and Furious.

It should be perfectly clear that both the Bush and Obama administration conducted two separate, flawed operations. One, however, was a much deadlier and larger operation.

If there is evidence of wrongdoing, or false testimony related to operation Wide Receiver, those responsible should be held accountable. But the argument that Fast and Furious is all about “politics” and should just be swept under the rug because the previous administration also carried out a similar program is irresponsible."

The 5 Biggest Differences Between Operations Fast and Furious and Wide Receiver | Video | TheBlaze.com

But I am sure that you and other libs will continue to blame Bush while the rest of the country rolls its eyes every time you do. :doh
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

So, the Presidential invocation of EP is proof of a crime?

It's proof of President Obama keeping information from the American people. Why would he do this?

Surely not to keep sensitive national security information confidential; that wouldn't further his bid for reelection. :naughty
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Μολὼν λαβέ;1060630635 said:
It's proof of President Obama keeping information from the American people. Why would he do this?

Surely not to keep sensitive national security information confidential; that wouldn't further his bid for reelection. :naughty

Of course, if the president insists protecting the separation of power doctrine it means he must be guilty of something -- like protecting our constitutional framework from legislative branch overreaching.
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Have you cooperated as above? If the police want to search you, your home, your family, just in case you're doing something wrong, will you cooperate? You don't have anything to hide, do you?

Excellent questions for President Obama and Mr. Holder.

Their answers are no, no, and exert executive privilege.
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Many of the guns that were doing damage in Mexico came from sources other than the US. If the guns were from the US they were likely guns given to the military that defected to the cartels in that corrupt **** hole.



So not you're not happy with regulating the crap out of guns in this country, you want to tell the whole world how they should handle their guns....Good luck with that.



Apparently Obama and Holder did, and two agents died as a result. Now the poor little picked on, piss ant President isn't man enough to take the embarrassment of his own decision to dupe the American people with this program, he tries to cover it up.



Re election Campaign.



On that we agree, however, we conservatives are getting used to expecting this kind of BS out of the One.



Ah...BOB...Blame it on Bush.....Again, yawn!

look, you know the differences I am sure, but I'll lay them out for you anyway...

(1) First and foremost, operation Wide Receiver did not result in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent or an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Fast and Furious did. The guns that ultimately killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and ICE officer Jamie Zapata were traced back to straw purchasers related to Fast and Furious. Zapata’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the U.S. Justice Department last week.

Further, officials have confirmed that the guns from Fast and Furious have already killed hundreds of Mexican citizens and Holder has said on the record that they will likely kill many more. The total number of confirmed deaths so far from Wide Receiver: Zero.

(2) Second, Wide Receiver, though flawed, was more of a gun-tracing operation than a gun-walking program. Gun-tracing involves putting specific safeguards in place to track firearms, such as RFID chips perhaps with video or aerial surveillance. Gun-walking is what happened in Fast and Furious, where ATF agents sold thousands of guns without a reliable way to recover them, apparently just hoping for the best.

Some of the guns from Wide Receiver were implanted with RFID chips and were actively tracked electronically. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in Phoenix also implemented aerial surveillance tactics in an attempt to follow the weapons.

However, problems reportedly arose due to poorly implanted RFID chips which were forced into the guns, bending the antennas and decreasing their effectiveness. Cartels and straw purchasers also eventually came up with creative ways to shake tracking maneuvers and overhead surveillance, such as driving in loops for hours until surveillance planes had to refuel.

Those in charge of Fast and Furious took no similar steps to strengthen their chances of recovering walked guns other than recording the serial numbers before watching them disappear in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

In fact, ATF agents involved in Fast and Furious have previously testified that they were ordered to stand down and not track the weapons even when interdiction was possible and instead “took notes” and let the guns walk across the Mexico border.

(3) Third, one must take into account the size and scope of the operations.

Speaking to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Holder said that “three hundred guns” were allowed to “walk” (although note the difference between “tracing” and “walking” above) in Wide Receiver. While there is no evidence that suggests otherwise, the figure is dwarfed by the approximately 2,000 firearms that walked in Fast and Furious. Roughly 1,400 guns were lost and about 700 have been recovered in Mexico and at crime scenes like the sites of Terry and Zapata’s murders.

(4) Perhaps the most convincing piece of evidence proving the two operations are separate from each other is the fact that Wide Receiver was shut down in 2007 shortly after it was clear the program was a failure. This was before Obama was even in office and nearly two years before Fast and Furious began.

Fast and Furious wasn’t shut down until late 2010 after the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans, a border agent and an ICE officer.

(5) Finally, unlike Fast and Furious, officials involved in Wide Receiver were reportedly in close contact with Mexican authorities during the operation, though how involved Mexican officials were is not entirely known.

What is known is that Mexican authorities were kept completely in the dark during Fast and Furious, according to the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Mexico. He announced on June 1, 2012, that Mexico would be launching its own probe into Fast and Furious.

It should be perfectly clear that both the Bush and Obama administration conducted two separate, flawed operations. One, however, was a much deadlier and larger operation.

If there is evidence of wrongdoing, or false testimony related to operation Wide Receiver, those responsible should be held accountable. But the argument that Fast and Furious is all about “politics” and should just be swept under the rug because the previous administration also carried out a similar program is irresponsible."

The 5 Biggest Differences Between Operations Fast and Furious and Wide Receiver | Video | TheBlaze.com

But I am sure that you and other libs will continue to blame Bush while the rest of the country rolls its eyes every time you do. :doh

I am satisfied that you are now in agreement that at least the guns from F&F DO kill people and keeping guns from being sold in bulk in the U.S, to individuals would reduce gun violence worldwide.
It is quite a jump for your side to finally admit that guns kill people so lets go from there.
 
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Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Here is part of a new article by Fortune magazine who investigated the whole incident. It makes it clear that no guns were intentionally allowed to "walk", they were legally purchased and there was nothing they could do about it, though they tried to get indictments. The House "investigation" is nothing but a partisan sham.

FORTUNE -- In the annals of impossible assignments, Dave Voth's ranked high. In 2009 the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives promoted Voth to lead Phoenix Group VII, one of seven new ATF groups along the Southwest border tasked with stopping guns from being trafficked into Mexico's vicious drug war.

Some call it the "parade of ants"; others the "river of iron." The Mexican government has estimated that 2,000 weapons are smuggled daily from the U.S. into Mexico. The ATF is hobbled in its effort to stop this flow. No federal statute outlaws firearms trafficking, so agents must build cases using a patchwork of often toothless laws. For six years, due to Beltway politics, the bureau has gone without permanent leadership, neutered in its fight for funding and authority. The National Rifle Association has so successfully opposed a comprehensive electronic database of gun sales that the ATF's congressional appropriation explicitly prohibits establishing one.

Voth, 39, was a good choice for a Sisyphean task. Strapping and sandy-haired, the former Marine is cool-headed and punctilious to a fault. In 2009 the ATF named him outstanding law-enforcement employee of the year for dismantling two violent street gangs in Minneapolis. He was the "hardest working federal agent I've come across," says John Biederman, a sergeant with the Minneapolis Police Department. But as Voth left to become the group supervisor of Phoenix Group VII, a friend warned him: "You're destined to fail."

Voth's mandate was to stop gun traffickers in Arizona, the state ranked by the gun-control advocacy group Legal Community Against Violence as having the nation's "weakest gun violence prevention laws." Just 200 miles from Mexico, which prohibits gun sales, the Phoenix area is home to 853 federally licensed firearms dealers. Billboards advertise volume discounts for multiple purchases.

Customers can legally buy as many weapons as they want in Arizona as long as they're 18 or older and pass a criminal background check. There are no waiting periods and no need for permits, and buyers are allowed to resell the guns. "In Arizona," says Voth, "someone buying three guns is like someone buying a sandwich."

By 2009 the Sinaloa drug cartel had made Phoenix its gun supermarket and recruited young Americans as its designated shoppers or straw purchasers. Voth and his agents began investigating a group of buyers, some not even old enough to buy beer, whose members were plunking down as much as $20,000 in cash to purchase up to 20 semiautomatics at a time, and then delivering the weapons to others.
The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal - Fortune Features
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Here is part of a new article by Fortune magazine who investigated the whole incident. It makes it clear that no guns were intentionally allowed to "walk", they were legally purchased and there was nothing they could do about it, though they tried to get indictments. The House "investigation" is nothing but a partisan sham.


The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal - Fortune Features

Come on now, we're supposed to demonize the law enforcement officers who are trying to solve this insane problem with virtually no support from Congress in terms of gun laws or enforcement funding ... and praise Congress for whining about the result of an operation that was necessary because Congress refuses to provide reasonable gun laws and adequate enforcement funding!!
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Come on now, we're supposed to demonize the law enforcement officers who are trying to solve this insane problem with virtually no support from Congress in terms of gun laws or enforcement funding ... and praise Congress for whining about the result of an operation that was necessary because Congress refuses to provide reasonable gun laws and adequate enforcement funding!!

Yes it is failed Govt. personified. The Republicans are really into self-fullfilling prophecies. They are deterrmined to make Govt. the problem if it kills us all doing it.
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

I am satisfied that you are now in agreement that at least the guns from F&F DO kill people and keeping guns from being sold in bulk in the U.S, to individuals would reduce gun violence worldwide.
It is quite a jump for your side to finally admit that guns kill people so lets go from there.

2) Second, Wide Receiver, though flawed, was more of a gun-tracing operation than a gun-walking program. Gun-tracing involves putting specific safeguards in place to track firearms, such as RFID chips perhaps with video or aerial surveillance. Gun-walking is what happened in Fast and Furious, where ATF agents sold thousands of guns without a reliable way to recover them, apparently just hoping for the best.

This is a blatant lie. No guns were sold by ATF agents, they merely monitored legal sales and attempted to get indictments but failed. Every single one of those guns would still be out there had there been no F&F operation at all. Read my link to the Fortune investigation.

Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.
 
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Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

This is a blatant lie. No guns were sold by ATF agents, they merely monitored legal sales and attempted to get indictments but failed. Every single one of those guns would still be out there had there been no F&F operation at all. Read my link to the Fortune investigation.

That Fortune piece you cited blows the ****ing doors off Issa's bull**** investigation. ****ing Issa should be held in contempt and indicted for obstruction of justice.
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Μολὼν λαβέ;1060630663 said:
Excellent questions for President Obama and Mr. Holder.

Their answers are no, no, and exert executive privilege.

You are obviously a foreigner, or you would know that the U.S, Constitution protects us ALL from unreasonable search and seizure.
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

If Obomber should be impeached, it should be over Syria - America is causing the atrocities

"Back in Nov 2011, historian and investigative journalist Webster Tarpley went on a fact finding week long visit to Syria ..."

"He says he talked to average everyday Syrians of all ethnic groups, Christian, Alawite, Sunni, ****e, Druze and across the board say they are been shot at by snipers and that in Hims in particular (where all the inital Western media reports were focused on) the people complain that there are terrorists snipers that shoot at civilians -men, women and children, random killings, simply for the purpose of destablizing the country. He said I would not call it a civil war (as of Nov 2011) and what you are dealing with are death squads, terror commandos, the kind of thing that people remember from Argentina and Central America. This is a typical CIA method. [The CIA field operations handbook describes how to launch a terrorist campaign of killings, kidnappings and torture combined with propaganda to destablize a country. People should recall that the CIA launched the 'Phoenix' operation of assassinations during the Vietnam War where approximately 200,000 people were killed in these special operations. Indeed this same type of assassinations are ongoing in Afghanistan in the so called 'Night Time Raids'. Iraq also has US dead squads too and these will increase as they withdraw the troops further. These people are good at killing and are good at training people to do it."]

What Has Been Happening In Syria? - Indymedia Ireland
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

(1) First and foremost, operation Wide Receiver did not result in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent or an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Fast and Furious did.
And the propaganda train kept a rollin', all night long . . . . .
train2.gif




 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Of course, if the president insists protecting the separation of power doctrine it means he must be guilty of something -- like protecting our constitutional framework from legislative branch overreaching.

Yes, it certainly suggests he's guilty of something (or someone whom he's protecting is). Considering this is the president who promises unrivaled transparency from his administration, and the folks he's keeping the docs from are an OVERSIGHT committee (something you conveniently keep forgetting).
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Second source, or 8th if you've been following along.:mrgreen:

Our Preznit the War Criminal -

On April 18, 2010, the front page of The Washington Post reported:

“U.S. Provides Secret Backing to Syrian Opposition. Leaked Cables Reveal Funding. “The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel that beams anti-government programming into the country…Barada TV is closely affiliated with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of Syrian exiles. Classified US diplomatic cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million to the group to operate the satellite channel and finance other activities inside Syria…The leaders of Movement for Justice and Development are former members of the Muslim Brotherhood…. Several US diplomatic cables from the embassy in Damascus reveal that the Syrian exiles received money from a State Department program called the ‘Middle East Partnership Initiative.’ According to the cables, the State Department funneled money to the exile group via the Democracy Council, a Los Angeles based non-profit. According to its website, the council sponsors projects in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America to promote the ‘fundamental elements of stable societies.’ The council’s founder and president, James Prince is a former Congressional staff member and investment adviser for Price Waterhouse Cooper…Edgar Vasquez, a State Department spokesman said the Middle East Partnership Initiative has allocated 7.5 million for Syrian programs since 2005. A cable from the embassy in Damascus , however, pegged a much higher total – about $12 million between 2005 and 2010.”

Manipulation of the UN Security Council in support of the US-NATO Military Agenda
 
Re: Justice Dept says president has exerted executive privilege over Fast and Furious

Here is part of a new article by Fortune magazine who investigated the whole incident. It makes it clear that no guns were intentionally allowed to "walk", they were legally purchased and there was nothing they could do about it, though they tried to get indictments. The House "investigation" is nothing but a partisan sham.


The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal - Fortune Features

The Washington Post has a story that highlights dysfunction at the ATF office in question and differences in opinion among participants as to the nature of the operation.

IMO, rather than focusing on the politics of the case, I believe the Congress should focus on the problem-solving aspect:

1. Request the ATF to provide specific controls were it to carry out similar operations in the future to significantly reduce the risk of a recurrence; appoint a panel of experts to review the controls for adequacy and make recommendations to address any deficiencies; bar the ATF from carrying out similar operations until the controls have been deemed adequate with enforcement via the appropriations process. One can't eliminate risk, but one probably can reduce it significantly. The description of differing perceptions about the nature of the operation (a matter of mission) contained in the newspaper article suggests that there is wide latitude for improvement given how fundamental that matter is. The description of turf battles so to speak within the office also suggests that large scope for negligence or error existed.

2. Look into what apparently seems to have been dysfunctional workplace culture/environment. If such dysfunctionality suggested in The Washington Post's article is found, demote the individuals responsible or, in the worst cases, outright fire them. If such a problem remains pervasive, restructure the office in question, even if it means replacing most or all of the senior personnel there.

3. Look into the matter of prosector conduct vis-a-vis the cases in question. If the prosecutors' caution was reasonable in that more evidence was necessary before arrests were made, then that should be the end of that angle. If, however, their unwillingness to seek indictments was unreasonable e.g., evidence for obtaining an indictment was more than sufficient, then appropriate measures to deal with that problem should be undertaken.

All of the above should depend on objective and concrete evidence. In the meantime, Congress should refrain from political stunts such as holding the Attorney General in contempt.
 
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