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FAST & FURIOUS SCANDAL
Press rushes to ‘exonerate’ DHS as OIG report raises more questions than answers
Examiner
David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner
3/25/2013
Excerpt:
As with its rush to declare Eric Holder “cleared” upon release of the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General’s report, major media outlets are unquestioningly accepting Department of Homeland Security OIG conclusions from its long-awaited “Fast and Furious” report, strategically pre-released last Thursday to the Los Angeles Times.
“[T]he report determined that top Department of Homeland Security officials in Washington did not learn about Fast and Furious until [Border Patrol Agent Brian] Terry was shot to death in December 2010 and two of the 1,430 lost firearms were found at the scene of his murder,” The Times dutifully accepted, setting the tone for “legitimate media” to follow.
“Senior Department of Homeland Security officials did not learn about the flawed gunwalking tactics involved in the ATF’s Fast and Furious case until years after the investigation began,” ABC15.com chimed in. “The report, issued this month, shows senior DHS officials ‘had no awareness’ of the investigative strategies that allowed criminals to access and smuggle guns to Mexico, until media reports were published in March 2011.”
“The second of two reports examining who's to blame over the federal anti-gunrunning scheme known as Operation Fast and Furious exonerates top officials at the Department of Homeland Security,” reputedly “conservative” Fox News trustingly concluded.
"This report … makes clear that the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership were initially unaware of the operation,” The Hill reports, quoting Texas Republican and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, exhibiting a tacit acceptance that would appear to render any need for oversight unnecessary.
“[S]enior DHS officials did not learn of it until March 2011,” the DHS OIG report claimed, showing where those who are supposed to be independently watchdogging government got their assumptions from. “We found no evidence that the DHS Secretary, ICE Director, or other senior officials were aware of the Operation Fast and Furious methodology prior to publication of the news articles.”
Except media reports appeared before March.
On February 1, the Gun Rights Examiner column documented that the press was beginning to react to a barrage of exposes and pleas from this column and the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog, to the point where reports had been filed by Politico, The Arizona Republic and the Associated Press, with its report appearing in Newsday, The Los Angeles Times, CBS News and numerous other outlets.
“Former DEA chief says 3 other federal agencies knew about Operation Fast and Furious,” William La Jeunesse of Fox News wrote in another report on February 10, documenting FBI and ICE involvement.
"BREAKING: CBS to report tonight on 'Project Gunwalker'," this column reported on February 23, announcing the first "Gunwalker" report by Sharyl Attkisson.
Interested officials weren't aware of that? Really?
“He put service before self, which is a mark of heroism,” DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano proclaimed at slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s funeral the preceding December. “We resolve, I resolve, to pursue swift justice for those responsible for his death.”
Less than a week before, per the OIG report, she’d “visited OBP Arizona offices … to support the OBP staff and to assert to the USAO and to the FBI that DHS wanted an aggressive investigation and prosecution. Tellingly, the report documents “U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke traveled with her from Phoenix to the offices she visited and attended the meetings with OBP personnel. However, Burke and others did not inform her about the connection between the weapons recovered at the scene of the murder and the OCDETF operation. They did not mention Operation Fast and Furious.”
Didn’t they? Burke used to be her DHS Senior Advisor, and before that was her Chief of Staff when she was Arizona governor. He’s the guy who ended up resigning over his involvement in Fast and Furious, involvement that included leaking secret records about whistleblower John Dodson. He wouldn't be spilling his guts to make sure they were both covered?
And we’re supposed to not only accept without question that scenario, but conclude that Napolitano, with an obvious and important vital interest in a high-stakes game reaching to the White House, and an intelligence-gathering apparatus that makes Orwell’s Big Brother appear like inept neighborhood snoop Gladys Kravitz on “Bewitched” by comparison, was flat-out uninformed and waiting for The Washington Post to notice? Based on what the auditors admit they did not find evidence on, as opposed to finding evidence to corroborate such claims ... ?
.................................................. .
View the complete post at:
http://www.examiner.com/article/pres...s-than-answers
Press rushes to ‘exonerate’ DHS as OIG report raises more questions than answers
Examiner
David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner
3/25/2013
Excerpt:
As with its rush to declare Eric Holder “cleared” upon release of the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General’s report, major media outlets are unquestioningly accepting Department of Homeland Security OIG conclusions from its long-awaited “Fast and Furious” report, strategically pre-released last Thursday to the Los Angeles Times.
“[T]he report determined that top Department of Homeland Security officials in Washington did not learn about Fast and Furious until [Border Patrol Agent Brian] Terry was shot to death in December 2010 and two of the 1,430 lost firearms were found at the scene of his murder,” The Times dutifully accepted, setting the tone for “legitimate media” to follow.
“Senior Department of Homeland Security officials did not learn about the flawed gunwalking tactics involved in the ATF’s Fast and Furious case until years after the investigation began,” ABC15.com chimed in. “The report, issued this month, shows senior DHS officials ‘had no awareness’ of the investigative strategies that allowed criminals to access and smuggle guns to Mexico, until media reports were published in March 2011.”
“The second of two reports examining who's to blame over the federal anti-gunrunning scheme known as Operation Fast and Furious exonerates top officials at the Department of Homeland Security,” reputedly “conservative” Fox News trustingly concluded.
"This report … makes clear that the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership were initially unaware of the operation,” The Hill reports, quoting Texas Republican and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, exhibiting a tacit acceptance that would appear to render any need for oversight unnecessary.
“[S]enior DHS officials did not learn of it until March 2011,” the DHS OIG report claimed, showing where those who are supposed to be independently watchdogging government got their assumptions from. “We found no evidence that the DHS Secretary, ICE Director, or other senior officials were aware of the Operation Fast and Furious methodology prior to publication of the news articles.”
Except media reports appeared before March.
On February 1, the Gun Rights Examiner column documented that the press was beginning to react to a barrage of exposes and pleas from this column and the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog, to the point where reports had been filed by Politico, The Arizona Republic and the Associated Press, with its report appearing in Newsday, The Los Angeles Times, CBS News and numerous other outlets.
“Former DEA chief says 3 other federal agencies knew about Operation Fast and Furious,” William La Jeunesse of Fox News wrote in another report on February 10, documenting FBI and ICE involvement.
"BREAKING: CBS to report tonight on 'Project Gunwalker'," this column reported on February 23, announcing the first "Gunwalker" report by Sharyl Attkisson.
Interested officials weren't aware of that? Really?
“He put service before self, which is a mark of heroism,” DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano proclaimed at slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s funeral the preceding December. “We resolve, I resolve, to pursue swift justice for those responsible for his death.”
Less than a week before, per the OIG report, she’d “visited OBP Arizona offices … to support the OBP staff and to assert to the USAO and to the FBI that DHS wanted an aggressive investigation and prosecution. Tellingly, the report documents “U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke traveled with her from Phoenix to the offices she visited and attended the meetings with OBP personnel. However, Burke and others did not inform her about the connection between the weapons recovered at the scene of the murder and the OCDETF operation. They did not mention Operation Fast and Furious.”
Didn’t they? Burke used to be her DHS Senior Advisor, and before that was her Chief of Staff when she was Arizona governor. He’s the guy who ended up resigning over his involvement in Fast and Furious, involvement that included leaking secret records about whistleblower John Dodson. He wouldn't be spilling his guts to make sure they were both covered?
And we’re supposed to not only accept without question that scenario, but conclude that Napolitano, with an obvious and important vital interest in a high-stakes game reaching to the White House, and an intelligence-gathering apparatus that makes Orwell’s Big Brother appear like inept neighborhood snoop Gladys Kravitz on “Bewitched” by comparison, was flat-out uninformed and waiting for The Washington Post to notice? Based on what the auditors admit they did not find evidence on, as opposed to finding evidence to corroborate such claims ... ?
.................................................. .
View the complete post at:
http://www.examiner.com/article/pres...s-than-answers