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Someone has been pushing it hard for the past few days, but it has only just today topped 100 likes. Not sure what to measure it against, but 100 likes seems small. --- "That it ceased to exist, I'll grant you, but whether or not it failed cannot be definitively said." - Metropolitan (1990)
http://www.redmassgroup.com/sh...
Yeah.....
All. Set.
Look at the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
No mention of Sullivan. --- "That it ceased to exist, I'll grant you, but whether or not it failed cannot be definitively said." - Metropolitan (1990)
My understanding that under Bush, the "gun walking" involved only a few guns with tracking devices. Fast and Furious involved hundreds of guns with no trackers. Blogger Motto: The blog is mightier than a 12 gauge shotgun.
During the course of our review of Operation Fast and Furious, the OIG received information about several other ATF investigations that possibly used a strategy and tactics similar to those allegedly employed in Operation Fast and Furious, including the tactic of failing to seize firearms despite having a sufficient legal basis to do so. One such case, Operation Wide Receiver, was noteworthy because it informed our understanding of how these tactics were used by ATF more than three years before Operation Fast and Furious was initiated.
The investigation involved several straw purchasers, one of whom was a subject in both parts of the case. During the course of the investigation, the subjects purchased hundreds of firearms from a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) who was working as an ATF confidential informant and who recorded his in-person and telephonic communications with the subjects. Based on these recordings and other evidence - including court-ordered electronic surveillance - ATF agents knew that the subjects were purchasing firearms for other persons, converting firearms to illegal weapons, and transporting firearms to Mexico. However, during the course of Operation Wide Receiver, agents did not arrest any subjects and seized less than a quarter of the more than 400 firearms purchased.
The trial attorney concluded upon reviewing the case file that ATF had not interdicted the majority of the firearms purchased by the Operation Wide Receiver subjects. She included this information in e-mails to her supervisors and in two prosecution memoranda. In April 2010, Jason Weinstein, a Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) in the Criminal Division, reviewed the prosecution memorandum for Operation Wide Receiver I and concluded that ATF had allowed guns to "walk."
Operation Wide Receiver was particularly significant because it took place in part under the supervision of William Newell, the same Special Agent in Charge (SAC) who oversaw Operation Fast and Furious, and because attorneys and officials in the Department's Criminal Division who reviewed Operation Wide Receiver for possible prosecution learned that firearms purchased by subjects during the investigation had "walked." This knowledge of "gun walking" in Operation Wide Receiver by senior officials in the Department's Criminal Division and by ATF was significant to us as we evaluated the ATF's and the Department's response to Congressional inquiries about ATF firearms trafficking investigations along the Southwest Border in the wake of the shooting death of Agent Terry. We therefore decided to review Operation Wide Receiver both to assess the conduct of the investigation and the Department's communications with Congress in the aftermath of the death of Agent Terry.22
Operation Wide Receiver Part II occurred while Sullivan was ATF director. If he is claiming that he had no knowledge of the program occurring at ATF's Phoenix division, then either he was not in control of his field organizations or incompetent. Either way....
I'll pass.
It's September 2012. This is Eric Holder and Barack Obama's Justice Department making these assertions. These are the same folks that are claiming executive privilege in order to cover up their own foibles.
Anything they have to say about the Justice Department run by the Bush Administration is therefore suspect. Come on folks this is the same bunch of clowns that blame Bush for everything including hurricane Sandy !
Mr Bastien should know better to spew Democrat talking points against a Republican. His doing so makes us call in to question exactly what his motivation and agenda is.
KELLY WRIGHT (ANCHOR): The President says he knew nothing about the operation, but the Justice Department has been slow in responding. Do you think this will lead all the way to the White House being involved? SULLIVAN: I would be surprised. From our experience at ATF, firearms trafficking cases were fairly routine in terms of the nature and scope of the investigations. They didn't require authorities outside of ATF, and for the purpose of initiating it. Could folks have been briefed up, considering the violence in Mexico and the violence on the border, about the strategy, that's clearly possible. But the project itself was well within the rights of the director to essentially approve or to reject.
KELLY WRIGHT (ANCHOR): The President says he knew nothing about the operation, but the Justice Department has been slow in responding. Do you think this will lead all the way to the White House being involved?
SULLIVAN: I would be surprised. From our experience at ATF, firearms trafficking cases were fairly routine in terms of the nature and scope of the investigations. They didn't require authorities outside of ATF, and for the purpose of initiating it. Could folks have been briefed up, considering the violence in Mexico and the violence on the border, about the strategy, that's clearly possible. But the project itself was well within the rights of the director to essentially approve or to reject.
