House sues Obama admin for Fast & Furious documents

John Boehner and the House Republicans just threw down the gauntlet at the POS in the White House and his henchman, Eric “I won’t prosecute New Black Panthers ’cause they’re my people” Holder.

Stephen Dinan reports for The Washington Times that House Republicans today asked the federal courts to intervene and force the Obama administration to turn over documents from the botched Fast and Furious gun-walking operation, escalating what had been a simmering constitutional crisis.

In a bipartisan vote in June the House held Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents the House had subpoenaed as part of its official investigation.

The administration first said it would try to work out a way to release the documents and said they didn’t show anything incriminating. But the White House later reversed course and claimed executive privilege prevented them from having to release the information.

House Speaker John A. Boehner said that since the Obama administration ignored a congressional subpoena — something the courts have long recognized as valid — lawmakers were left with no choice but to ask the courts to referee: “By stonewalling Congress and ignoring a contempt order, the Justice Department has left the House no choice but to take legal action so we can get to the bottom of the Fast and Furious operation that cost border agent Brian Terry his life.”

Border agent Brian Terry

Terry was killed in December 2010 in a gun fight with bandits who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Two of the weapons recovered at the scene were part of Fast and Furious, an Obama administration operation that was supposed to try to track guns being sold to Mexican cartels, but which lost track of the weapons, allowing thousands to stream across the border.

The operation was halted in the wake of Terry’s death, but left Mexican authorities enraged and members of Congress demanding to know more.

Read the rest of the Washington Times article here.

~Eowyn

Hillary Clinton masterminded Fast & Furious

Our Dave just issued an apology and retraction of his previous post on a video purportedly showing Obama and Eric Holder knew about the ATF Mexican gun-running fiasco called “Fast & Furious” or Project Gunwalker which took the life of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. It turns out the video and claim are bogus. I commend him for his honesty!

Then I got this email tip from beloved fellow PatriotUSA — that Hillary Clinton is the mastermind behind “Fast & Furious”.

Although this article was published last October, I didn’t know about it. Did you? Here are excerpts.

~Eowyn

Blofeld and Hillary: Separated at birth

Breaking: new evidence shows Hillary a mastermind behind Gunwalker

Anthony Martin – Conservative Examiner – Oct. 10, 2011

[...] new evidence has surfaced indicating that not only was Hillary deeply involved in the scandal but was one of the masterminds behind it.

According to investigative citizen journalist Mike Vanderboegh, sources close to the development of the Gunwalker scheme state that early on, Hillary and her trusted associated at State, Andrew J. Shapiro, devised at least part of the framework of what would later become Operation Fast and Furious. It was Shapiro who first described the details of the proposed scheme early in 2009 just after the Obama Administration took office.

Vanderboegh relates the following:

My sources say that as Hillary’s trusted subordinate, it was Shapiro who first described to the Secretary of State the details of what has become the Gunwalker Scandal.

The precise extent to which Hillary Clinton‘s knowledge of, and responsibility for, the Gunwalker Plot, lies within the memories of these two men, Shapiro and [Deputy Secretary of State James] Steinberg, sources say.

The sources also express dismay that the Issa committee is apparently restricting itself to the Department of Justice and not venturing further afield. The House Foreign Affairs Committee, they say, needs to summon these two men and their subordinates — especially at the Mexico Desk at State — and question them under oath as to what Hillary Clinton knew about the origins of the Gunwalker Scandal and when she knew it.

There is one other thing those sources agree upon. The CIA, they say, knows “everything” about the “Mexican hat dance” that became the Gunwalker Scandal.

The ‘Steinberg’ mentioned in the quote above is Hillary Clinton’s former Deputy Secretary of State, who was appointed directly by Barack Obama and was considered from the start to be an ‘Obama man’ whose objective was to carry out the wishes of the President in the State Department.

Hillary had said of Steinberg,

Clinton said Steinberg had been a “fixture” at meetings with the National Security Council (NSC) and frequently represented the US State Department at the White House.

That statement is key. Hillary herself stayed out of all meetings dealing with strategy concerning the euphemism the Administration used to designate Gunwalker, ‘strategy meetings on Mexico and the problem of drug and gun trafficking.’ Hillary’s absence would give the impression that she had no connection to the scheme while making sure that her views were represented by Steinberg and Shapiro, both of whom were fully complicit with the details that developed concerning how to pad statistics on U.S. guns in Mexico.

Read rest of the article, here.

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