House committee finds Obama’s AG Eric Holder in contempt

Today, at the end of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing on “Fast & Furious,” the committee found U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. The vote was 23-17, with 100% of the Republicans for it and 100% of the Democrats on the committee voting against it.

Sean Drury reports for Mauldin Patch that the contempt move is tied to Holder’s request on behalf of the Obama administration, to invoke Executive Privilege with regard to the release of documents related to the investigation of “Operation Fast and Furious.”

Fast and Furious was a program run by the The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that saw the agency sell high-powered firearms to Mexican arms dealers and drug cartels. The goal of the program was to track the weapons and then link to criminal organizations in Mexico and the United States. The program began in 2006 during the Bush administration under the name of “Project Wide Receiver.”

The programs, commonly referred to as “gunwalking” have seen over 2,000 weapons sold, 700 of which have been recovered. At least 200 Mexican citizens have been killed with weapons tied to “gunwalking” programs.

In December 2010, however, a US Border Patrol agent named Brian Terry was killed by one of the “gunwalking” weapons. Spurred by Terry’s death, an ATF agent named John Dodson (who now resides in the Upstate) reported his concerns about the nature of the program, which ultimately led to the investigation being launched by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

As the investigation intensified, calls were made for Holder to be more forthcoming and even for his resignation in some cases. In recent weeks, the committee asked for more documents to continue the investigation, but Holder invoked executive privilege saying releasing the documents would have “significant, damaging consequences.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has announced that a full House floor vote will take place next week.

Here is Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) ripping into Eric Holder:

H/t FOTM’s beloved Hardnox!

~Eowyn

Obama administration to outlaw shotguns

Second Amendment alert!

Jack Minor of The Greeley Gazette writes:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is taking a rare step of allowing public comments prior to issuing a decision on a study that could result in outlawing certain types of shotguns currently available to citizens.

The ATF completed a study regarding the importability of certain shotguns. The basis for a possible ban is based on a loosely defined “Sporting Purpose” test. Using the vague definition almost all pump-action and semi-automatic shotguns could be banned as they are all capable of accepting a magazine, box or tube capable of holding more than 5 rounds. Other characteristics determined to be “military” by the ATF can also be used as a basis for a ban.

Ironically, many shotguns with “military” features are currently being used in shooting competitions held by the USPSA, IDPA and IPSC. The rules could also result in obscure regulations where an individual would be unsure if he is violating them or not.

Dudley Brown, Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said if the ATF succeeds with the banning of tactical shotguns it “will be the most dangerous interpretation of the 1968 Gun Control Act ever envisioned and will outlaw thousands of perfectly legitimate home defense shotguns.”

 The ATF is currently allowing public comments on the study until the end of the month. Those wishing to express concerns about the study can send an email to shotgunstudy@atf.gov

H/t Libertarian Review and FOTM’s Eye Wide Shut.

~Eowyn

Fast and Furious weapons found in Mexico cartel enforcer’s home

From The Los Angeles Times/Nation

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By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

October 8, 2011

~Steve~

Guns illegally purchased under the ATF operation were found in April hidden in violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, court records show

This arsenal uncovered by police in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in April turned out to include weapons from the ATF’s ill-fated Fast and Furious operation. (Associated Press)

Reporting from Washington—

High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.

In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The smugglers’ tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.

Full coverage: ATF’s Fast and Furious scandal

“These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there,” said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. “But that’s only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through.”

For rest of arrest warrant Pls go Here

Operation Gunrunner, We have the Smoking Gun.

Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious promise to be a scandal that could eclipse even Watergate in the extent of the Obama administration’s cover-up.

As AWR Hawkins explains on BigGovernment, Operation ‘Gunrunner’ was an Obama administration plan to sell guns to ‘straw purchasers’ with suspected ties to the Mexican cartel. ATF was banking on those purchasers to walk the guns across the border into Mexico. Operation ‘Fast and Furious’ was the plan to follow those guns until they were in cartel hands and then make apprehensions.

There are some who believe this was all an attempt by the Obama administration to flood the border with weapons in order to create a degree of chaos sufficient to convince us of the supposed-need for more gun control in America.

DOJ head Eric Holder feigned ignorance of Operation Gunrunner. But his lie was uncovered by evidence that Holder had given a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation ‘Gunrunner’ and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success.

The video below is the “smoking gun”:

~Steve & Eowyn