Eric Holder Resigning - Report: Scandal Ridden AG To Announce Resignation on Thursday

By Susan Duclos, via All News PipeLine

According to this breaking report at NPR, Eric Holder, one of the most controversial figures in the Obama administration is finally about to announce his resignation. From the Black Panther scandal to Fast and Furious, to the most recent screw up where his aide accidentally called Republican oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa's office to ask for help in "spinning" the IRS targeting scandal, to a high number of other controversial decisions, statements and actions, Holder has been encouraged to resign from almost the beginning of his tenure.

No doubt that at the moment there are many saying "about damn time.

National Firearms Act Is Fast Approaching (Video)

By Susan Duclos

According to the report from InfoWars News Channel, the National Firearm Act is fast approaching and, unbelievably, it would give the ATF the power to decide who a "responsible" person is in regards to owning weapons.

The same ATF, as they highlight, responsible for the Fast and Furious gun running operation where they set up a "sting" to trace weapons to Mexican cartels, lost the guns and those same guns the ATF supplied them with are killing innocent people, including a border patrol agent, Brian Terry.

The National Firearm Act would also require persons in trusts to submit photographs and fingerprints and require all applications to be forwarded to law enforcement.

Cross posted at Before It's News

The Corruption Starts And Ends With Obama, Trickles Down Through Agencies

By Susan Duclos

From 2009 to 2013, there is one common denominator with the DOE, IRS, NSA, DOJ, State Department and the EPA scandals that have rocked Washington, and that is the man that sits at the top, Barack Obama.

THE SCANDALS

Department of Energy (DOE)- Solyndra- Washington Post has the key coverage on the Solyndra scandal all on one page, and the timeline, as well as the proof that the White House knew more than it originally claimed to know.

Obama tried to cast blame on the Bush administration and that turned out to be misleading, according to ABC News, that reported at the time "However, he incorrectly suggests Solyndra received its financing from that same 2005 program.  Instead, the company’s $500 million in fast-tracked loan guarantees came from an entirely new section of the program created under Obama by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus."


Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-  Admits to Targeting Conservatives- According to the investigations the targeting of Obama's political opponents, Tea Party, Patriot and 9/12 groups, started in 2010 and continued into 2013. Pro-Israel groups were also targeted for additional scrutiny if their positions contradicted the Obama administration's. Pro-Life groups were forced to sign away their right to protest in front of the Obama supported Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. Also claims swirl that Romney donors were targeted for IRS audits immediately after Barack Obama publicly targeted those donors on his website.

 Obama claimed, " I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.  I think it was on Friday."

The congressional investigation is ongoing.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-  FOIA Request Fees- The EPA is accused of trying to charge conservative groups fees while largely exempting liberal groups. The fees applied to Freedom of Information Act requests -- allegedly, the EPA waived them for liberal groups far more often than it did for conservative ones.

The congressional investigation is ongoing.

State Department- Benghazi- On 9/11/12, terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate and safe house in Benghazi, Libya, murdering four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya. Secretary of State (at the time) Hillary Clinton as well as Barack Obama, and Obama administration officials, publicly told Americans the attack was part of demonstrations and protests over a controversial video clip. They continued to maintain that even after the story was debunked. Investigations have included testimony from whistle-blowers, emails and documents showing forces were told to "stand down" when preparing to provide assistance to those being attacked. The Obama administration has also been accused, by Congress, of hiding the Benghazi survivors from investigators. The scandal continues to grow as others agree to testify.

White House, via Joe Biden, claimed "We weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security."

The congressional investigation is ongoing.

Department of Justice (DOJ)- Fast and Furious- A federal operation dubbed Fast and Furious allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers so the arms could be traced to the higher echelons of Mexican drug cartels. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the operation, has lost track of hundreds of firearms, many of which have been linked to crimes, including the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

The LA Times has a pretty good run-down of the Fast and Furious scandal as more and more information was revealed.

As Congress was investigating, AG Eric Holder was caught in multiple lies and the Obama administration refused to provide the specified documents to investigators and when they issued subpoenas, Barack Obama claimed executive privilege to prevent damaging documents from being obtained by Congress.

At the time White House spokesman, Jay Carney said " ....everyone knows the President did not know about this tactic until he heard about it through the media...."
 

Department of Justice (DOJ)- AP Phone Scandal and Attack Against the Free Press-  The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

Directly following that revelation, it was reported and confirmed that the DOJ also tracked the movements and correspondence of a Fox News reporter, James Rosen. To justify obtaining the data on Rosen they labeled him a "aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator," in court papers, for accepting leaked information and doing his job as a reporter and reporting on it.

According to Obama's mouthpiece, Jay Carney, "Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP."

The congressional investigation is ongoing.

National Security Agency (NSA)- Domestic Surveillance-  First it was revealed the US government is collecting the phone records of millions of US customers of Verizon under a top secret court order. Read the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order at The Guardian.

The order requires Verizon, one of the nation's largest telecommunications companies, on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries. 

On the heels of that bombshell, it was revealed that the NSA also has a secret program called Prism, in which, using secret FISA court orders, the Obama administration was collecting private data, in bulk, from at least nine major tech companies about their users, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.

A class action lawsuit has already been filed against  Obama, NSA, Verizon and the DoJ.

(See- lawsuit, embedded here)

The congressional investigation is ongoing.

Other scandals, not as well publicized, listed at White House Dossier. 

 As I said at the beginning of this post, the only common denominator in all the scandals, from each of the agencies listed above, where the heads of those agencies were appointed by the man at the top, is Barack Obama.

The corruption starts with Obama and trickles down throughout his whole administration and all the agencies below.

Juan Williams Fails In Defending Attorney General Eric Holder

By Susan Duclos

With Fast and Furious, The New Black Panthers, and the latest attack against the freedom of press by the Obama administration's Department of Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder has been held in Contempt of Congress, criticized, and raked over the coals for decisions made under his rule.

Brit Hume and Juan Williams argued  on Fox News Sunday over the appropriateness of Eric Holder being in charge of investigating the Justice Department for decisions made under Holder's watch and to which Holder personally signed off on. (H/T MediaIte)

[WATCH]



Hume 1- Williams 0-

Related- The NYP poses the the question "How does Holder survive?"

So if everybody hates Eric, what’s holding him up? Normally, inconvenient officials are blithely given the heave-ho, and there’s still ample room under the Obama bus for another body or four. It’s also customary for cabinet officials to depart after the first term (see: Clinton, Hillary) as part of a general reshuffling. But not Holder.

The reason is simple: Holder is the id to the president’s massive ego, busily helping to bring about the president’s wish for the “fundamental transformation” of America from his post at Justice. Along with super-ego Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s chief consigliere and all-around Madame Defarge, he’s likely to be among the last to go.

BINGO!

A Member Of The Left FINALLY Gets It - 'Fourth Branch Of Government' Is Dangerously Off Kilter

By Susan Duclos

Pigs have sprouted wings and started flying this week.

First we have members of the liberal media stepping up and speaking out in defense of a Fox News reporter.

Democratic politicians sounding the alarm about the IRS targeting conservatives, warning "a lot more" is to come out."

Pundits from the left and the right agree on something, that being that Attorney General Eric Holder must go.

Now, Jonathan Turley, leftist and professor of  public interest law  at George Washington University Law School, suddenly discovers what he calls "the rise of the fourth branch of government," meaning federal administrative bureaucracy, and decides "it is dangerously off kilter."

Ya think?

There were times this past week when it seemed like the 19th-century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand.

Clearly, there was a degree of willful blindness in these claims. However, the suggestion that someone, even the president, is in control of today’s government may be an illusion.

The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.

Amazing.

Conservatives have been warning consistently for decades that the bigger the government gets, the more corrupt and dangerous it is to liberty and freedom.

When you have a president, like Obama, constantly claim he learned of the corruption and failures within his own administration from news reports as he did with Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, the out-of-control DOJ attacking the free press, the denial for additional security in Benghazi... etc..... then it should be obvious that there is a problem.

Yet Turley acts like he just discovered America... hey, look, I found something!!!!

Kudos to Turley for finally seeing the light, but I would ask, what took so long?

(Changes made to the headline for accuracy)

Video- White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer On IRS Scandal: 'The Law Is Irrelevant'

By Susan Duclos

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer made the rounds on Sunday talk shows and tells ABC’s “This Week," that Obama will act on the IRS scandal even before receiving a legal determination from the Justice Department.

 "I can’t speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant,” said Pfeiffer on ABC’s “This Week.” “The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.”

Video below: (H/T TWS)


There are a couple of points here about the statement "The law is irrelevant," because it is something that we have seen throughout the Obama administration time after time.

Just a few examples listed below.

When the Fast and Furious scandal broke and Congress demanded answers from the Justice Department, Barack Obama decided to use "executive privilege" powers to prevent Congress from obtaining the investigative documents they were demanding, via a letter sent to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"As I noted at the outset, the President, in light of the Committee's decision to hold the contempt vote, has exerted the executive privilege over the relevant post-February 4 documents." 

When the Senate held pro-forma sessions to prevent Barack Obama from making recess appointments, something Harry Reid did during Bush's presidency in 2007, Obama arbitrarily decided he didn't have to obey the law and made recess appointments anyway, despite the fact that the Senate was officially not in recess.

Two appeals court have ruled those appointments illegal and unconstitutional and decisions made by those appointees, invalid.

There are more examples but the gist of it is that to Barack Obama the law has always been "irrelevant" when it gets in the way of his agenda.

Then we have Pfeiffer's assertion that the Obama administration is going to  "ensure it never happens again."

From Saturday's post, the timeline, here are the "acts" Obama has taken:

• The first resignation supposedly insisted on by the Obama administration, in response to this scandal, was the acting commissioner of the IRS, Steve Miller, but by the next day ABC News reported that according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, his 210-day term would have set his last day in that post as June 8, 2013, anyway.

• The second resignation "demanded" was from Joseph Grant, commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division, but Grant was only appointed to that position on May 8, 2013 and was not running that division at the time of the targeting from 2010 to 2012.

• The woman running the agency's tax exempt and government entities division from 2009 to 2012, when the targeting was happening, was Sarah Hall Ingram, and ABC News reports she is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office.

This makes every "action" taken by the Obama administration in response to the IRS targeting of conservatives, nothing but a farce and political theater to convince the American people that the administration is doing something about it.

Both Lois Lerner and  Sarah Hall Ingram are still working for the administration being paid by the very people they have lied to, lied about and targeted. 

Not only has Obama shown no respect for the law on multiple occasions, but his responses to the illegal abuses against his political enemies by the IRS, has been nothing but  a fictional show.

To Barack Obama "The law is irrelevant."

Full Wake up America coverage on the IRS scandal can be found here.

Is Obama The Least Informed, A Liar, Or Just A Figurehead President?

By Susan Duclos

The Department of Justice seizes the Associated Press telephone records and according to Obama's mouthpiece, Jay Carney, "Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP."

The IRS targets conservative groups that opposes Obama's agenda, pro-Israel groups that disagree with Obama's policies and Mitt Romney donors that wanted to see Obama lose his reelection and Obama claims, " I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.  I think it was on Friday." (Note- White House Counsel knew back in April)

Four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11/12 after they had requested and been denied additional security and the White House, via Joe Biden, claimed "We weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security."

Fast and Furious, a federal operation allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers so the arms could be traced to the  Mexican drug cartels. The ATF lost track of hundreds of firearms, many of which have been linked to crimes, including the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

Once again, White House spokesman, Jay Carney said " ....everyone knows the President did not know about this tactic until he heard about it through the media...."

The Solyndra scandal cost at least a half-billion American taxpayer dollars before it went bankrupt, and originally the White House denied knowing the company was on the path to bankruptcy, then ABC News and others reported that the White House Chief of Staff  at the time, Bill Daley, had been informed.

Then  Obama tried to cast blame on the Bush administration and that turned out to be misleading, according to ABC News, that reported at the time "However, he incorrectly suggests Solyndra received its financing from that same 2005 program.  Instead, the company’s $500 million in fast-tracked loan guarantees came from an entirely new section of the program created under Obama by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus."

 I could go on, all the way back to Tony Rezko, but the point is, that Barack Obama or his official mouthpieces, continuously claim "Obama didn't know" what was going on in the departments that fall under his purview as president of the United States of America.

This leaves three options.

1. Giving Obama the benefit of the doubt, he truly didn't know about any of the things he claims he didn't know about, making him the least informed, out-of-control of his own administration, president, in the history of presidents.

2. He and his mouthpieces are all liars.

3. Obama is nothing more than a figurehead and others are truly running this country.

None of those options are going to be a great legacy when Historians are done with Barack Obama.

Obama Admin Attempts To Stall Release Of Fast And Furious Docs By Asking Court For Indefinite Delay

By Susan Duclos

It is ironic that just as the Obama administration is attempting to push to have certain types of weapons banned from law abiding Americans, that the Fast and Furious Operation, where the administration deliberately handed those very type of weapons to Mexican drug cartels in a failed sting operation and then lost track of those guns, is heating up.

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and hundreds of Mexican citizens have been murdered with those Fast and Furious weapons, to date.

Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder is asking a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought against it by Judicial Watch. (H/T The Jawa Report)

Via BG:

Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012.”

The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, and in mid-September the group filed a lawsuit challenging Holder’s denial. That lawsuit remains ongoing but within the past week President Barack Obama’s administration filed what’s called a “motion to stay” the suit. Such a motion is something that if granted would delay the lawsuit indefinitely.

Long story short, Obama attempted to use a presidential deliberative process privilege to prevent the House of Representatives and others, from obtaining documents pertaining to the Fast and Furious Operation, but as BG explains, the Supreme Court has previously ruled that such a privilege assertion is invalidated by even the suspicion of government wrongdoing. Obama, Holder, the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and virtually everyone else involved in this scandal have admitted that government wrongdoing actually took place in Operation Fast and Furious.

Judicial Watch Press Room has issued a release. (Full text of the release below)

Judicial Watch Files Brief Opposing Government Stonewalling:

Justice Department “has disparaged the public’s right to request records of its government”

 (Washington, DC) –Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a brief on January 15, 2013, in response to an Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) motion to indefinitely delay consideration of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking access to Operation Fast and Furious records withheld from Congress by President Obama under executive privilege on June 20, 2012 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:12-cv-01510)).

Rather than respond substantively to Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuit, the DOJ argued in court that the lawsuit should be subject to a stay of proceedings because it is “ancillary” to a separate lawsuit filed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee against the DOJ. The Court “should let the process of negotiation and accommodation [between the House Committee and the DOJ] run its course, and then decide with the input of the parties whether and how this action may appropriately proceed at that time,” the DOJ argued, effectively abrogating the FOIA.  The Obama DOJ even suggested that the Judicial Watch litigation might encourage the Congress to fight harder to get the same documents in separate litigation.

Judicial Watch counters that FOIA demands a response and that its lawsuit is more straightforward than the House lawsuit and ripe for consideration on its merits. A decision on the House Committee lawsuit, meanwhile, could be delayed for months, if not years:

This notion that [Judicial Watch’s] lawsuit is in some way inferior [to the House lawsuit] is simply incorrect. [Judicial Watch] has as much of a right under the law as the House Committee to seek access to records of Defendant. In fact, since Defendant does not challenge [Judicial Watch’s] claim on jurisdictional grounds, it could be reasonably argued that [Judicial Watch’s] right is greater – it is certainly clearer and simpler – than that of the House Committee…Whereas [Judicial Watch’s] FOIA lawsuit is ripe for adjudication on the merits, the House Committee suit could be months, if not years, away from reaching the same stage.

The DOJ also argued that Judicial Watch’s lawsuit might somehow interfere with negotiations between the president and Congress. Judicial Watch countered: “Regardless of any potential resolution in that case, Defendant in this action will still be required to satisfy its obligations under FOIA, including justifying its withholdings. [Judicial Watch’s] lawsuit simply does not vanish if and when the House Committee suit is resolved.”

Judicial Watch concludes: “[Judicial Watch] has a statutory right to the requested records and to have Defendant’s denial of Plaintiff’s FOIA request reviewed by this Court. [Judicial Watch’s] claim is now ripe for adjudication, and [Judicial Watch] is prepared to brief the issues. Defendant simply seeks to delay the date that it must justify its claims of exemption. Defendant has not demonstrated why [Judicial Watch’s] rights should be immoderately and oppressively delayed; it has only disparaged public’s right to request records of its government. For the foregoing reasons, [Judicial Watch] respectfully requests that Defendant’s request for an indefinite stay of the proceedings be denied.”

Fast and Furious was a DOJ/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “gun-running” operation in which the Obama administration reportedly sold guns to Mexican drug cartels in hopes that they would end up at crime scenes. Fast and Furious weapons have been implicated in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and countless others in Mexico.

Congressional investigators, led by Rep, Darryl Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have fought to secure records related to the Fast and Furious program, but the DOJ continues to withhold responsive records from disclosure. On June 20, 2012, President Obama made a highly controversial decision to assert Executive Privilege to shield the DOJ’s Fast and Furious records from disclosure. Executive privilege is reserved to “protect” White House records, not the records of federal agencies, which must be made available, subject to specific exceptions, under the FOIA.

The president’s assertion of executive privilege came just hours before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to congressional subpoenas for Fast and Furious records. On June 28, 2012, Congress voted 255-67 to hold Holder in contempt. (A number of Democrats joined the vote, while other Democrats, endorsing lawlessness, walked out in protest.) A second vote, 258-95, authorized the pursuit of records through civil litigation in the courts. Moreover, documents uncovered by CBS News seem to indicate that Holder may have perjured himself during congressional testimony, detailing what he knew about Fast and Furious and when.

“It is beyond ironic that the Obama administration has initiated an anti-gun violence push as it seeking to keep secret key documents about its very own Fast and Furious gun walking scandal.  Getting beyond the Obama administration’s smokescreen, this lawsuit is about a very simple principle: the public’s right to know the full truth about an egregious political scandal that led to the death of at least one American and countless others in Mexico,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people are sick and tired of the Obama administration trying to rewrite FOIA law to protect this president and his appointees. Americans want answers about Fast and Furious killings and lies.”

Judicial Watch separately filed a FOIA lawsuit against the ATF seeking access to records detailing communications between ATF officials and a White House official regarding Fast and Furious.

Obama's Fast And Furious Scandal And Univision's Report: More Guns, More Deaths And More Massacres

By Susan Duclos

As Univision promised with their Fast and Furious report, new information was reported showing more massacres, deaths and more guns were involved than what had previously been reported.

Watch More News Videos at ABC | 2012 Presidential Election | Entertainment & Celebrity News

Via ABC News:

On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.

Indirectly, the United States government played a role in the massacre by supplying some of the firearms used by the cartel murderers. Three of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to a Mexican army document obtained exclusively by Univision News.

Univision News identified a total of 57 more previously unreported firearms that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites related to murders, kidnappings, and at least one other massacre.

The Daily Caller:

The network also uncovered another Fast and Furious weapons “massacre.” On September 2, 2009, 18 young men were killed at  “El Aliviane, a rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez,” according to the report.

Univision found many of these victims through “access to the list of serial numbers for weapons used in Fast and Furious” and the “list of guns seized in Mexico,” according to English subtitles on the Spanish-language video.

“After cross-referencing them both lists, it became clear that a least a hundred of them were used in crimes of all kinds,” the subtitles read. “We found 57 weapons that were not mentioned in [the U.S.] Congress’ investigation.”

Though Univision tracked many more victims down, it said that “the death toll that this free flow of weapons authorized by ATF had in Mexico has not been tallied.”

Univision held nothing back in its broadcast, airing images and video of bloodied, dead bodies. The network showed the faces of the dead and walked viewers through how cartel operatives hunted their victims down with the weapons President Barack Obama’s administration allowed straw buyers to traffick to them.

One photo, for instance, showed pools of blood in the streets of a Mexican town after a “massacre” committed by murderers armed with Fast and Furious weapons. Video footage showed where some of the victims were killed and how the cartels chased their helpless victims to their deaths.

The Univision broadcast implicitly suggested that Americans have no regard for the victims of violence American policy helps fuel — that is, until one of those victims ends up being an American.

It wasn’t until U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder prompted whistle-blowers to come forward to Congress to publicly voice concerns about ]he program that the Obama administration stopped allowing firearms to flow into Mexico.

Another ABC News report found here.

The Obama administration's claim of executive privilege (AG letter asserting executive privilege for Obama  embedded here)  to prevent a complete open and transparent investigation into Fast and Furious, guarantees that as bad as every new detail that emerges is, the full picture has not even begun to be told.

This Univision report should be shown on every major network and cable station.

Sunday, 7pm: Univision Special On Fast And Furious- 'More Victims'

By Susan Duclos

The questioning for Barack Obama by Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos when he was interviewed on Univision became particularly uncomfortable for him when the questions turned to the Fast and Furious scandal. They highlighted the need for a special independent investigation, asked why Eric Holder had not been fired and specifically asked why Obama is not releasing the information the House Oversight Committee has requested, even issued a subpoena for, if he has nothing to hide.

A prelude for what was to come?

 Tonight, September 30, 2012, at 7pm, Univision News Investigative Unit reveals their findings after investigating Fast and Furious, which are being called a "bombshell." The report will be aired with closed captioning in English

Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Attorney General Eric Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.


Via The Daily Caller:

Spanish-language television network Univision plans to air a television special that it said reveals more violence than previously known, as well as the stories of how many more Operation Fast and Furious victims were killed, the network announced in a Friday release.

“The consequences of the controversial ‘Fast and Furious’ undercover operation put in place by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2009 have been deadlier than what has been made public to date,” the network said. “The exclusive, in-depth investigation by Univision News’ award-winning Investigative Unit — Univision Investiga — has found that the guns that crossed the border as part of Operation Fast and Furious caused dozens of deaths inside Mexico.”

Among other groups of Fast and Furious victim stories Univision says it will tell in the special to air Sunday evening at 7 p.m., is one about how “16 young people attending a party in a residential area of Ciudad Juárez in January of 2010″ were gunned down with weapons the Obama administration gave to drug cartel criminals through Fast and Furious.

“Univision News’ Investigative Unit was also able to identify additional guns that escaped the control of ATF agents and were used in different types of crimes throughout Mexico,” the network added. “Furthermore, some of these guns — none of which were reported by congressional investigators — were put in the hands of drug traffickers in Honduras, Puerto Rico, and Colombia. A person familiar with the recent congressional hearings called Univision’s findings ‘the holy grail’ that Congress had been searching for.”

 Read the rest at The Daily Caller.

CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson, who broke the the scandal open wide, aggressively investigated and reported on Fast and Furious, to the point where she said White House officials screamed and cussed at her because she would not stop, now has further information.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, have pressed, unsuccessfully, for an interview with Kevin O'Reilly for a year. O'Reilly also declined to speak to the Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) who investigated Fast and Furious. Last week, the IG issued a scathing report that criticized many officials at ATF, the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney's office and said O'Reilly had declined to be interviewed.

O'Reilly, then a White House National Security staffer, had phone and email exchanges about Fast and Furious from July 2010 to Feb. 2011 with the lead ATF official on the case: ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell. Just days after Newell testified to Congress on July 26, 2011 that he'd shared information with O'Reilly, whom he described as a long time friend, O'Reilly was transferred to Iraq and not available for questioning. Thereafter, he declined interviews with congressional investigators and the IG.

In a letter sent to O'Reilly's attorney Thursday, Issa and Grassley state that O'Reilly's "sudden transfer" to Iraq took him out of pocket in their investigation, and placed him in a position that had already been given to somebody else, raising "serious questions about O'Reilly's assignment in Baghdad (and) the motivation for his transfer there."

ABC News has a video preview of tonight's report.

ABC News Busts Obama's Lie On Fast and Furious: White House Response 'Well What He Really Meant Was'

By Susan Duclos

More fallout from Obama's Univision interview comes from ABC News' Jake Tapper, who points out that Obama's answer to the hard hitting Fast and Furious questions....... was a lie with a little, "blame Bush" tossed in.

Via ABC News' Political Punch:

Asked about the Fast and Furious program at the Univision forum on Thursday, President Obama falsely claimed that the program began under President George W. Bush.

“I think it’s important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration,” the president said. “When Eric Holder found out about it, he discontinued it. We assigned a inspector general to do a thorough report that was just issued, confirming that in fact Eric Holder did not know about this, that he took prompt action and the people who did initiate this were held accountable.”

In actuality, the Fast and Furious program was started in October 2009, nine months into the Obama presidency.

So, once again, a White House lackey is forced to explain... but, but, but, what he really meant was.........

Asked for comment, White House Spokesman Eric Schultz said, “The President was referring to the flawed tactic of gun-walking, which despite Republicans efforts to politicize this issue, began under the previous Administration and it was our Attorney General who ended it. In fact, this week’s IG report affirms this and if Republicans still have any legitimate questions about Fast and Furious, the 450-page report answers them. In light of this thorough report and Congress’s 16 month-long investigation, Republicans have no excuse to keep wasting time and taxpayer resources on politically-motivated, election-year attacks.”

Univision hosts and interviewers nailed Obama on that Inspector General's report also asking obama that if he didn't have anything to hide he should release the Documents Congress asked for, why didn't he fire Eric holder and then asked "Let’s have an independent investigation, because at the end of the day, this is the Justice Department investigating its boss and is saying they say is not at fault? Why don’t we have, very briefly, an independent investigation that is not done by the Justice Department?"

Yes, it seems only Obama, Holder and Democrats seem to think a legitimate investigation of the DOJ should be conducted by an Independent investigator rather someone in the DOJ.

Kind of like asking the fox to watch the hen house.

[WATCH]

Univision Hits Obama Hard On Failures: Why Did Obama Do So Bad?

By Susan Duclos

It wasn't Letterman, nor "Pimp with the Limp" with softball questions and his direct lies going unchallenged, and from the dodging answers on the lack of security in Libya when the U.S. Ambassador and three others died, the hard hitting questions on Fast and Furious and why Holder wasn't being held accountable, and the surprising admittance from Obama that his biggest lesson learned is that Washington cannot be changed from the inside, being told straight up that he made promises but didn't keep them, this is the hardest hitting interview to date for Obama and it came from Univision.

His dodge came when he was asked why the U.S. was not better prepared, security wise, at it's embassies on the anniversary of 9/11, Obama went off on a tangent of not tolerating violence, blaming the Mohammed movie trailer, spoke about upping security after the death of Ambassador Stevens and three others in Libya, but he never once addressed the question that was asked.... When he could not excuse the inexcusable, he deflected.

Then another uncomfortable moment, describe by Politico:

However, much of the time in front of the Spanish-language audience here was spent on Obama’s failure to get comprehensive immigration reform — something that Obama attributed to focusing instead on the economy and blaming Republicans in Congress.

But to host Jorge Ramos, that answer was not good enough.

“You promised that, and a promise is a promise,” Ramos told Obama. “And with all due respect, you didn’t keep that promise.”

Then came the hard hitting questions about Fast and Furious, why Obama is not releasing the information the House Oversight Committee has requested, even issued a subpoena for if he has nothing to hide,  as well as question why Obama hasn't fired Eric Holder. Obama spun his talking points, but the two interviewers Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos, continued and asked what conservatives have been asking since the beginning "Let’s have an independent investigation, because at the end of the day, this is the Justice Department investigating its boss and is saying they say is not at fault? Why don’t we have, very briefly, an independent investigation that is not done by the Justice Department?"

More on that portion of the interview can be found at The Daily Caller, along with the video of that segment. Reason's Hit and Run also has a piece up about that portion of the interview.

The answer that provided the most fodder for conservatives was his biggest lesson learned. In 2008, Obama's whole campaign theme was based on "hope and change", where he swore if he was elected as president he would change Washington and now he claims Washington cannot be changed from the inside.

[WATCH]


“I think that I’ve learned some lessons over the last four years and the most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside."--- Barack Obama 2012, Univision Forum

Bill Clinton brought change to Washington from the inside. When after both the Senate and House became controlled by Republicans in 1994, he triangulated, moved to the center, was heavily criticized for it be members of his own Democratic party, but managed to accomplish quite a bit working in a bipartisan manner.

The difference between Clinton and Obama has never been more stark. Clinton listened and learned when the midterms put Republicans in control of the House and the Senate, he understood that for anything to happen, he would have to move toward the middle and compromise, because the public had spoken with their votes.

In the 2010 midterms, Republicans took control of the House, with the largest turnover of seats from one party to another in over 70 years. The people spoke. Obama did not listen nor learn, he didn't move toward the middle, he moved farther to the left and guaranteed that the partisan divisions would bring gridlock to Washington.

So it was no surprise that Mitt Romney immediately hit Obama on his failure of his promise to "change" Washington and his admitting that he could not do it.

[WATCH]



"The president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. He said he can't change Washington from the inside, he could only change it from outside. Well we're going to give him that chance in November. He's going outside!"-- Mitt Romney

This brings up the title question many conservatives have been asking and very likely what some centrist Democrats have been asking among each other. Other Democrats, the far left liberals, applaud his surrender of trying to change, would rather see the gridlock than to use Clinton's success and a guide to succeed with a two party controlled Congress and White House.

Which brings us to the headlined question.

Why did Obama do so badly in the Univision interview? (Please, no teleprompter jokes)

Bryan Preston over at PJ Tatler has a hunch and makes quite a bit of sense in his analysis to that question:

President Obama leads strongly among Latino voters. Based on how reporters in the English-speaking media treat issues like Fast and Furious, he probably expected an easy ride through the Univision appearance. He probably expected to play a game of softball, as he had with People en Espanol on Friday at the height of the unrest in the Middle East. That magazine apparently let Obama bat around until his arms got tired, then tweeted their joy at being privileged to bask in his presence.

So he goes into Univision thinking “This is gonna be another easy day of hitting for the fences.” Like he handled his Presidential Daily Briefings, he didn’t do his homework. He didn’t realize that Univision strives to be more than an entertainment hub, it strives to be a serious news network. Univision goes out of its way to hire bilingual hard news reporters so it can piggy back with other local news stations and generate news content in English and Spanish (Telemundo does this too). He didn’t factor in the possibility that Univision wanted to do more than just give him straight pitches down the middle, they wanted to use the opportunity of a rare extended interview with him to get answers, and make some headlines of their own. He didn’t anticipate the threat of tough questions from real and inquisitive journalists, just as his administration didn’t anticipate the threat of terrorists using the 9-11 anniversary to give America a black eye.

What I’m saying is, Barack Obama lumped Univision in with the unserious media he tends to do — Letterman, People en Espanol, and so forth. The media his campaign gives his time to tend to slow jam the news and tell him how fabulous he is. Switching metaphors, his handlers keep the training wheels on, with the bolts welded to the frame. Univision ripped those training wheels off, sending little Barry crashing in ditch. He ended up saying he can’t change Washington, and his biggest failure has been to pander sufficiently on immigration reform when we have 23 million Americans who want work but can’t find it thanks to him and his policies. He had no answer why the consulate in Benghazi wasn’t secured or why Eric Holder has gotten away with a policy that has left hundreds of Mexican citizens and two American agents dead. He saw none of these questions coming.

Whether Obama stereotyped Univision because most media tend to make life easier for him, or he disrespected the Spanish-speaking network and its audience as such, I’ll leave for others to ponder. They’re not mutually exclusive.

Obama did miscalculate. He went in understanding Hispanics by and large are a Democratic demographic and he assumed that as such, he could give them face time, smile pretty, and take their vote for granted, simply because of the D as his party affiliation.

In December 2009, Obama received a 73 percent favorable rating from Hispanics, but that dropped to 52 percent at the end of June 2012.

What he didn't count on is that many Hispanics, while agreeing with the Democratic party on many social issues, cannot be taken for granted by Obama and Democrats and perhaps that is another big lesson that Obama will learn in 2012.

Kudos to Univision for making this interview hard hitting and not backing down in calling Obama out for his failures.

Embedded: Inspector General's Review of ATF's Operation Fast and Furious

By Susan Duclos

The 500+ page report from Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Justice on Operation Fast and Furious will be embedded below the post.

Via Fox News

A bombshell report released Wednesday on Operation Fast and Furious faulted a range of federal agencies for the failed anti-gunrunning program and accused officials in charge of a "disregard" for public safety. In the wake of the report, one Justice Department official resigned and another retired.

The sprawling report by the department's inspector general is the most comprehensive account yet on the deadly operation which allowed weapons to "walk" across the U.S.-Mexico border and resulted in hundreds of firearms turning up at crime scenes in both countries.

The report says Attorney General Eric Holder was not made aware of potential flaws in the program until February of last year. But the report cites 14 other department employees -- including Criminal Division head Lanny Breuer -- for potential wrongdoing, recommending the department consider disciplinary action against them.

One congressional source told Fox News the report was "more brutal than was expected."

The report marked Jason Weinstein, the deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, as the highest-ranking DOJ employee in a position to stop the program. Weinstein, who disputes the findings, is resigning in the wake of the report.

Another official criticized for not asking enough questions about the Furious operation, former ATF acting director Kenneth Melson, retired after the report came down.

The nearly 500-page report was completed after investigators reviewed 100,000 documents and interviewed 130 people.

The report slams both the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Attorney's Office for not taking action. The program caught the attention of Congress and the rest of the country after weapons from Fast and Furious were found at the crime scene of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Read the rest.


Report embedded below:

Fast Furious Report

Mexican Victims Of Obama And Holder's Fast And Furious Scandal

By Susan Duclos

The damage to America from the Fast and Furious scandal has been costly, lives lost, one of which was border patrol agent Brian Terry, but the untold story, until now, is the damage those assault weapons, that were deliberately sold with the intent of putting them in the hands of Mexican drug cartels in order to track them, but somehow the United States Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) managed to lose them, has done in Mexico.

The most well known Mexican victim of Fast & Furious is Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez (above), a Chihuahua City lawyer. His sister was Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez, who at the time was the Attorney General of Chihuahua. A video surfaced of Mr. Gonzalez handcuffed in a chair and surrounded by armed masked men. In it he "confessed" his sister worked with the Juarez cartel. His body was found November 5, 2010 in a shallow grave.  A few days later the police had a shoot out with cartel members, arrested eight of them, and seized sixteen weapons. Two AK-47s were linked to Fast & Furious, but ATF Acting Attache Carlos Canino was not allowed to inform the Mexican government of the connection.

La Familia used Fast & Furious guns to take down a police helicopter. The cartel shot down the helicopter, injuring two officers. A raid by the Federal Police on La Familia left 11 dead and arrested 36 others. They found massive artillery, including several guns from Fast & Furious.

The Oversight Committee's July 26, 2011 report gives at least 48 separate recoveries involving Fast & Furious weapons. A letter from the DOJ to Chairman Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley on September 9, 2011 gives in depth details on a few of those recoveries.

Mary Chastain over at Big Government provides more details from the Committee on Oversight & Government Reform investigation.

Matthew Boyle at The Daily Caller follows up on Chastain's report by highlighting that  "drug cartel operatives used weapons from Operation Fast and Furious in a failed attempt to assassinate a high-ranking Mexican law enforcement official, the El Paso Times reports in an article that follows up on an initial report from Breitbart News’ Mary Chastain."

In order to protect Eric Holder and his own administration's complicity in the failed Fast and Furious operation and deaths associated with it, recently Barack Obama claimed Executive Privilege to prevent the Committee on Oversight & Government Reform , from being given documents they issued a subpoena to Eric Holder's office to obtain.

(Letter asserting Executive privilege embedded at the bottom of this post)

Liberals are fond of claiming the investigation is a "witch hunt" against Obama and Holder, but the more information that becomes public makes it evident that this is exactly why the Committee on Oversight exists in the first place.


Executive Privilege Letter


Wake up America's coverage on Fast and Furious found here.

43 Weapons Linked With Fast & Furious Recovered At Traffic Stop- 4 Suspects Were Illegal Aliens

By Susan Duclos

ABC15 has linked 43 weapons recovered by the Phoenix Drug Enforcement Administration at a traffic stop, to the Fast and Furious operation.

According to court paperwork, Phoenix Drug Enforcement Administration agents discovered the guns in mid-April. They pulled over a vehicle near 83rd Avenue and Interstate 10, near the Phoenix and Tolleson border.

Documents filed in federal court reveal five suspects named in the case are accused of conspiring to possess and distribute “500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine…”

Four of the suspects were identified as illegal aliens and one had been admitted to the United States under a non-immigrant visa, according to court documents.

[WATCH] News report below:






H/T Fox Nation

Congress Votes On Eric Holder Contempt Of Congress Resolution Today- Resolution Passes 255/67

By Susan Duclos

This post will be updated with the result of the vote and roll call after the vote.

Today, multiple Democrats are expected to vote with Republicans in the House of Representatives to hold Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, In Contempt of Congress.

[Update] House of Representatives voted to hold Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress, the vote was 255 to 67. 17 Democrats voted for the resolution, while two Republicans voted against it. 109 NV's.

So much for it being a Republican "witch hunt".

Roll Call here


The House vote today is a Resolution recommending that the House of Representatives find Eric H. Holder, JR., Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, in Contempt Of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Embedded below is the 270 page: Report of the  of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform House of Representatives together with additional and minority views. 


CRPT-112hrpt546


Related WuA pieces on Fast and Furious:


Embedded Eric Holder Contempt Of Congress Resolution To Be Voted On In The House Of Representatives

Video- Jon Stewart Slams Obama Executive Privilege, Fast and Furious, and Eric Holder

Video-  Dead Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry, Parents Accuse White House Of Lying

Fast And Furious: Obama Asserts Executive Privilege To Hide FF Documents From Oversight Committee

Eric Holder Letter To Obama Requesting Executive Privilege Be Asserted For Fast and Furious Documents 

Embedded Letter Asserting Obama's Executive Privilege On Fast and Furious Documents 

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Votes Eric Holder In Contempt Of Congress 

RULES RESOURCE: Holder Contempt Resolutions

By Susan Duclos

Via Email:

Relating to the consideration of H. Rept. 112-546 and an accompanying resolution & H. Res. 706 – Authorizing the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to initiate or intervene in judicial proceedings to enforce certain subpoenas June 27, 2012
Summaries	H. Res. __: Recommends that the House of Representatives find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. H. Res. 706: Authorizes the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to initiate or intervene in judicial proceedings to enforce certain subpoenas.
Type of Rule	Provides each resolution a closed rule (making no amendments in order) for floor consideration.  Reported by a vote of 8 yeas to 4 nays.
Other Elements of the Rule	·         Provides 50 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform or their respective designees. ·         Provides one motion to refer at the conclusion of debate if offered by Rep. Dingell of Michigan, which shall be debatable for 10 minutes equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent. ·         Provides 20 minutes of debate on H. Res. 706 equally divided and controlled by the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader or their respective designees. ·         Provides each resolution a motion to recommit.  ·         Floor Managers: Nugent/McGovern
Floor Action Expected	The rule and resolutions are expected to be debated on the floor: June 28, 2012.