Operation Fast and Furious update

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Back in 1995, the miserable hack that runs the Justice Department thought he had the strategy to rid our streets of guns:

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Breitbart.com has uncovered video from 1995 of then-U.S. Attorney Eric Holder announcing a public campaign to "really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way."

Holder was addressing the Woman's National Democratic Club. In his remarks, broadcast by CSPAN 2, he explained that he intended to use anti-smoking campaigns as his model to "change the hearts and minds of people in Washington, DC" about guns.

"What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that's not cool, that it's not acceptable, it's not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we changed our attitudes about cigarettes."

Now, fast forward some 17 years and the whole idea of "brainwashing" seems rather portentous given Operation Fast and Furious: a federal gun-running scheme that allowed weapons to walk back across the border without ever any intention of tracking them back to the bad guys all in order to enforce a narrative of an unchecked flow of guns southward and into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels.

Holder's Justice Department continues to stonewall congressional investigations tempting contempt charges as well as shuffling/promoting/demoting people out of the way that were connected to Fast and Furious.

Though by no means a smoking gun but speaking of establishing a narrative, Holder's sentiments back in the 90s lay bare the mindset of an anti-2nd amendment political class warrior and his intentions of willfully misleading the general public in order to achieve an end.

Project Gunrunner/Operation Fast and Furious update

It stands to reason in our comprehensive border enforcement strategy that if we're allowing guns to flow freely back across the border and into Mexico to bolster a false narrative then we would surely be letting drugs from Mexico to walk across the border and into the U.S.

U.S. federal agents allegedly allowed the Sinaloa drug cartel to traffic several tons of cocaine into the United States in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to court documents filed in a U.S. federal court.

The allegations are part of the defense of Vicente Zambada-Niebla, who was extradited to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges in Chicago. He is also a top lieutenant of drug kingpin Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman and the son of Ismael "Mayo" Zambada-Garcia, believed to be the brains behind the Sinaloa cartel.

The case could prove to be a bombshell on par with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Operation Fast and Furious," except that instead of U.S. guns being allowed to walk across the border, the Sinaloa cartel was allowed to bring drugs into the United States. Zambada-Niebla claims he was permitted to smuggle drugs from 2004 until his arrest in 2009.

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The court documents also allege that the U.S. government is using a "divide and conquer" strategy, "using one drug organization to help against others."

Zambada-Niebla's motion seeks U.S. government records about the 2003 Juárez case involving an informant who participated in several homicides for the Carrillo-Fuentes drug cartel, while under ICE's supervision.

He also requested records about the ATF's "Operation Fast and Furious," which permitted weapons purchased illegally in the United States to be smuggled into Mexico, sometimes by paid U.S. informants and cartel leaders.

"It is estimated that approximately 3,000 people were killed in Mexico as a result of 'Operation Fast and Furious,' including law enforcement officers in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, the headquarters of the Sinaloa cartel," the court documents allege. "The Department of Justice's leadership apparently saw this as an ingenious way of combating drug cartel activities."

Ingenious, indeed.

The U.S. Government: partnering with Mexican drug cartels to smuggle guns into Mexico and now it would appear, drugs into the U.S.

We're in the very best of hands.

Project Gunrunner/Operation Fast and Furious update

A smoking gun email?

"Internal ATF emails seem to suggest that ATF agents were counseled to highlight a link between criminals and certain semi-automatic weapons in order to bolster a case for a rule like the one the DOJ announced yesterday [Monday]."

The rule requires gun dealers to report the sale of specific semi-automatic gun types to the same person within a 5 day span. Read more at the link above.

We have yet to see anything that would lead us to believe that Fast and Furious was not anything other than a plan to bolster the narrative of an unchecked flow of guns from U.S. dealers to Mexican drug cartels. And wouldn't you know it? The plan worked like a charm.


-- tailored to focus only on multiple sales of these types of rifles to the same person within a five-day period --

Project Gunrunner/Operation Fast and Furious update

A while back we were very curious as to the relative silence of the Mexican government with respect to the rogue gun-running scheme that was being operated by this country's ATF. Were they complicit in the operation? Did they not have any knowledge but were being leveraged/pressured into silence by the Obama administration? Well, whatever the case, they are silent no longer as they are calling for their own pound of flesh.

Imagine if the Mexican government purposely and knowingly sent thousands of pounds of pure cocaine into the United States as part of an investigation and hundreds of Americans died as a result. Well, that is how Mexico feels right now over Operation Fast and Furious.

Not only did the U.S. keep secret the number of weapons it helped send to Mexico, it watched as casualties mounted.

That program is reprehensible from an ethical standpoint and reprehensible for two countries that are partners in the battle (against drugs)

The federal government has both American and Mexican blood on its hands. When the responsible parties are confirmed and justice is meted out, our neighbors to the south should be granted their day in court as well.

Project Gunrunner or Fast and Furious? Take your pick

When we first reported out on Project Gunrunner, the Justice Department/ATF's scheme to let guns sold in American gun shops to walk back across the border and into the hands of Mexican drug cartels so we could better identify who the bad guys were, we could scarcely believe it and it prompted this reaction...

We.... we don't even know what to make of this.

Seriously. Someone please talk us down off this ledge.

... such was the level of our incredulousness.


Well, hang on because it gets better worse, much worse. The following is an article from NBC News from September of 2010 reporting on documents obtained from the Justice Department which detail how it is that the ATF was going to be cracking down on corrupt American gun dealers and going after high-value drug world figures.

U.S. law enforcement officials have devised an aggressive and potentially controversial new strategy to crack down on the illegal gun trade to Mexico by targeting cartel networks inside this country and "corrupt" U.S. firearms dealers, according to internal Justice Department documents obtained by NBC News.

The documents also state that the drug traffickers appear to have expanded efforts to acquire firepower in the U.S. by tapping well-developed supply networks beyond the Southwest border region in order to acquire high-powered assault rifles as well as components for improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The new strategy was prepared in recent weeks by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)’s Office of Field Operations, in the wake of stinging criticism of current ATF efforts to stem the flow of weapons to the cartels by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Labeled “law enforcement sensitive,” it calls for ATF agents to put more emphasis on monitoring the activities of U.S. guns stores and other federally licensed firearms dealers who may be assisting or turning a blind eye to gun purchases by drug cartel operatives. The report describes such “corrupt” U.S. firearms dealers as “high value targets” -- a phrase that could rile gun rights groups and their supporters in Congress who charge ATF is already too aggressive in regulating the firearms industry.

The principal thrust of the revised strategy directs that ATF agents focus on taking down the operations of high-level gun traffickers working for specific Mexican cartels rather than simply trying to arrest low-level “straw buyers,” as they have often done in the past. It also calls on agents to use more sophisticated investigative methods, such as analyzing financial and telephone records, routinely used in terrorism and organized crime cases, and to work more closely with other federal agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The new strategy document, entitled “Project Gunrunner; A Cartel Focused Strategy,” appears designed in part to address criticisms of enforcement efforts contained in a recently circulated draft report by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General. That report reviewed the efforts of Gunrunner, an ATF initiative that involves dispatching teams of agents known as Gunrunner Impact Teams (or GRITs) to cities near the border that are believed to be primary sources of weapons for the cartels.

(bold, italics... it's all ours)

And later in the article:

The new strategy document lays out the dimensions of the problem in stark terms. While shying away from specific figures -- which have been the source of fierce debate -- it concludes that “a significant percentage” of all the weapons seized from the Mexican cartels are originating in the U.S.

/picking jaw up off of ground




So, what are we to believe? That this Project Gunrunner which was alleged to be cracking down on the flow of guns across the border was simply a cover for the exact opposite... for the ATF to actually facilitate the flow of guns across the border from U.S. gun shops via straw buyers? The evidence available to us suggests it is so.

When questioned a couple of weeks back by Congressman Issa (R-CA) that miserable hack that runs the Justice Department claimed he knew nothing of Project Gunrunner or was it Fast and Furious as it was known internally?

As Project Gunrunner (the cover story) was public knowledge as per the NBC News article, we suppose the miserable hack could claim plausible deniability to having no knowledge of Fast and Furious (the real story).

This is simply astounding - no other word for it. The Justice Department releases (leaks?) documents detailing the standing up of a false operation to crack down on the flow of arms across the border (amid all the finger-wagging and tsk-tsking regarding the southward flow of U.S.-purchased guns and ammo fueling the violence along the border. Remember that? We do.) all as a feint to actually allow the flow of guns and ammo across the border.


What are we missing? We hope to god there's a reasonable explanation for all this because as it stands now, Holder and the Justice Department are either extremely duplicitous or flat-out incompetent. Either way, the miserable hack needs to go.


Again, someone please talk us down off this ledge.

Read of the day

Great news…

Or consider the case of border inspector Margarita Crispin—“precisely the kind of border corruption case that alarms us,” says William Abbott, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s criminal branch in El Paso, Texas. In 2005, he says, a federal informant tipped off the Bureau that Crispin was deliberately ignoring traffickers who moved drugs and other contraband through her border post. Then, in the spring of 2006, a van that had just gone through Crispin’s lane sputtered out of gas. The driver abandoned the vehicle and fled back across the border into Mexico—and when other inspectors opened the van’s doors, they found nearly 6,000 pounds of marijuana in plain sight. Crispin couldn’t explain why she hadn’t noticed the stash when she had examined the vehicle, according to an FBI press release on the case and an official who worked on it.

The City Journal examines the Mexicanization of American Law Enforcement, here.

San Diego State sees its business school enrollment slashed

There was some confusion yesterday as 75 SDSU students participating in a cross-border venture capital project for the university’s business school were busted by the DEA concluding a year-long undercover investigation. Authorities also seized 50 lbs. of marijuana, 4 lbs. of cocaine and weapons in raids that focused on several fraternity houses starting early yesterday morning. Story here.

And just to prove there is no satire or parody like real life, there was a mock graduation held today for the 75 arrested plus 2 students that have died recently from overdoses by those protesting the arrests and….. the two that OD’d…. ?… because they want a responsible drug policy on campus….? On Hedgecock’s radio show today, they got a soundbyte from one of these knuckleheads saying it was basically the school’s and the government’s responsibility to ensure that only “clean drugs” were available as there was too much “dirty drugs circulating that was causing these ODs.” Story here.



And if the above is any indication it came as an absolute shock to no one that it was revealed today in the much-anticipated report on how well college football athletic programs are performing academically, San Diego State’s football program was in the bottom 5 of the 119 Div. I-A programs. Story here.

Yeah… all in all not a tremendous couple of days up on the Mesa.