Obama evades question on White House knowledge of IRS targeting
[DailyCaller.com]
May 16, 2013
President Barack Obama dismissed calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS scandal, and evaded a question asking if White House officials knew of the IRS targeting of conservative political groups.
“I can assure that I certainly did not know anything about the [inspector general] report before the IG report had been leaked through the press,” he told reporters during a Thursday lunchtime press conference held in the White House Rose Garden.
Obama’s evasion will likely spur public suspicions that White House officials knew about, or even supported, the IRS targeting.
When asked about a special prosecutor, Obama said he would work with investigations begun by Congress and the Department of Justice.
“Between those investigations, I think we will be able to figure out exactly what happened … and we’re going to be able to implement steps to fix it. And that, ultimately, is the main priority that I have,” he said.
“I have complete confidence in Eric Holder as attorney general,” he said in response to a question about the simultaneous scandal over the department’s investigation of phone calls by reporters working for The Associated Press news agency.
Feds admit: Gun laws won’t slow crime
[WND.com] EXCLUSIVE
February 19, 2013
By Garth Kant
Department of Justice report undermines bans
A study by the Department of Justice’s research wing, the National Institute of Justice, has the feds admitting that so-called “assault weapons” are not a major contributor to gun crime.
“The existing stock of assault weapons is large, undercutting the effectiveness of bans with exemptions,” it said. “Therefore a complete elimination of assault weapons would not have a large impact on gun homicides.” The report finds no significant link between “assault weapons” and murders.
Report: ATF review board recommends firings over Fast and Furious
[INFOWARS.com]
Wall Street Journal
December 5, 2012
Four senior managers who oversaw the ill-fated federal gun-tracking probe called “Fast and Furious” will be fired if recommendations from a disciplinary panel are accepted.
People familiar with the matter said the Professional Review Board of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent notices of its decision in recent days to bureau managers, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
In addition, two lower-level employees face disciplinary actions, short of firing. The move from the ATF’s review board is the first step in what could be a months-long process, including appeals.
Obama DOJ Scrambles To Dismiss Fast and Furious Lawsuit
[FreedomOutpost.com]
On Monday evening the Obama Justice Department sought dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee. The reason for the lawsuit is that the committee is still demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder turn over thousands of documents that he has failed to provide to the committee or to the Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Fox News reports, President Barack Obama has invoked executive privilege and the attorney general has been found to be in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents that might explain what led the Justice Department to reverse course after initially denying that federal agents had used a controversial tactic called gun-walking in the failed law enforcement operation. The tactic resulted in hundreds of illegally acquired weapons purchased at Arizona gun shops winding up in Mexico, where many of them were recovered from crime scenes. Two guns in Operation Fast and Furious were found on the U.S. side of the border at the scene of a shooting in which U.S. border agent Brian Terry was killed. In a Feb. 4, 2011, letter to Congress, the Justice Department said that agents made every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico, which turned out to be incorrect. Ten months later, the department withdrew the letter.
Border Patrol Agent Shot Dead, Another Wounded in Arizona
[Newsmax.com]
Tuesday, 02 Oct 2012 09:28 AM, Associated Press
A U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed and another wounded in a shooting early Tuesday in Arizona near the U.S.-Mexico line, according to the Border Patrol. The agents were shot while patrolling on horseback in Naco, Ariz., at about 1:50 a.m. MST Tuesday, the Border Patrol said in a statement. The agents who were shot were on patrol with a third agent, who was not harmed, according to George McCubbin, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing about 17,000 border patrol agents. “It’s a tragic reminder of the dangers the brave men and women who guard our borders face every day,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who has been investigating gun-running connected to a failed Justice Department operation called Fast and Furious.
“Just last month, I attended a ceremony with agents based at the Bisbee station naming it in honor of their fallen colleague, Brian Terry,” Issa said in a statement. “My prayers are with the family of the agent who lost his life today and his wounded colleague.“Authorities must investigate the full circumstances of this shooting. I urge everyone to think of the families of these agents and avoid drawing conclusions before relevant facts are known.”The shooting occurred after an alarm was triggered on one of the many sensors along the border and the three agents went to investigate, said Cochise County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Carol Capas.Authorities have not identified any suspects, Capas said. It is not known whether the agents returned fire, she said.The wounded agent was airlifted to a hospital after being shot in the ankle and buttocks, the Border Patrol said. He is in surgery and expected to recover, McCubbin said.
Authorities have not identified the agents who were assigned to the Naco station, about 100 miles southeast of Tucson.
The last U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot on duty was Brian Terry, who was killed in a shootout with Mexican bandits near the border in December 2010. The shooting was later linked to the Fast and Furious gun smuggling operation.
The border patrol station in Naco was recently named after Terry.
The FBI, which also is investigating the shooting, did not immediately return calls Tuesday.
Arizona straddles a major route for Mexican smuggling networks hauling drugs and illegal immigrants north to the United States, and running guns and cash profits back south to Mexico.
The area near where the agents were shot made headlines in February when border agents broke up a drug trafficking network which led to a bust of 15 tons of cocaine and marijuana. In that raid, 12 suspects were arrested.
At the time, police had seized more than 30,000 pounds of marijuana and cocaine linked to the trafficking organization, which had been active for more than 15 years, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.
The organization used backpackers and vehicles to run the drugs across the rugged, high-desert borderlands around Naco, in smuggling forays several times a week.
Once in the United States, the drugs were stored at various stash houses in Naco, nearby Bisbee and Tucson, around 100 miles to the northwest.
A report by Univision on Monday uncovered that firearms from the “Fast and Furious” operation were linked to at least two massacres in Mexico and the 57 previously unidentified firearms linked to the botched operation were recovered in sites associated with murders and kidnappings.
In one of the massacres in 2010, a commando of “at least 20 hit men,” according to Univision, opened fire on a party of 60 teenagers in Ciudad Juarez, killing 14 and wounding 12. The assailants were hired by a Mexican cartel. Three of the high caliber weapons fired that night were linked to the Fast and Furious operation, Univision reported.
Univision obtained a list of Fast and Furious weapons and a list containing almost 60,000 recovered firearms compiled by Mexico’s defense secretary and then cross-referenced the data, and got 96 full matches. The 96 firearms linked to Fast and Furious all turned up at crime scenes in Mexico from 2009 to 2010, Univision reported.
Approximately 300 Mexicans have been killed or wounded by Fast and Furious guns, estimates former Mexican attorney general Victor Humberto Benitez Trevino.
Between November 2009 and January 2011, the Obama administration arranged for licensed firearms dealers in Phoenix, Arizona to sell guns to straw buyers, who transferred them to known violent criminals in Mexico. These arms were supposed to lead federal agents in Phoenix to the Mexican criminals who acquired them. Instead, agents lost track of the guns, and in 2010, two were found near the body of slain border patrol agent Brian Terry.
Congressional Republicans have pressed for investigations and a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz skewered the Fast and Furious operation as “seriously flawed” and said agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ignored consider public safety as they let about 2,000 firearms fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels as part of the operation.
The House voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt earlier this year after he refused to turn over certain documents, citing executive privilege.
© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Read more on Newsmax.com: Border Patrol Agent Shot Dead, Another Wounded in Arizona
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Obama’s DOJ Grants ATF New Gun Grab Authority
[FreedomOutpost.com]
by Tim Brown
September 12, 2012
The Obama administration via the Department of Justice has given authority to the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to “seize and administratively forfeit property involved in controlled-substance abuses.” This means now that people who are not dealing illegal drugs, just using them and anyone who might associate with them in the same residence or be in a vehicle can have their God-given right of keeping and bearing arms revoked by the government god. In fact, no conviction is even required in these instances.
Supporters vow to keep cross in California veterans tribute despite court ruling
[FoxNews.com]
By Shannon Bream
Published July 25, 2012
Because it sits on public property, critics have long argued that the cross at the Mount Soledad Veterans Memoria in La Jolla, Calif., is an unconstitutional entanglement of government and religion. (AP File)
For decades, there has been a First Amendment battle raging over the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial in La Jolla, Calif., where a large cross anchors a tribute to Korean War veterans.
Because it sits on public property, the American Civil Liberties Union has long argued that the cross amounts to an unconstitutional entanglement of government and religion.
Obama Contributor, Who Helped Enact Assault-Weapons Ban, Ran ‘Fast and Furious’
[CNSNews.com]
Former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke (AP Photo)(CNSNews.com) – Dennis K. Burke, who as a lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1990s was a key player behind the enactment of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, and who then went on to become Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s chief of staff, and a contributor to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, and then a member of Obama’s transition team focusing on border-enforcement issues, ended up in the Obama administration as the U.S. attorney in Arizona responsible for overseeing Operation Fast and Furious.
When Obama nominated Burke to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Burke told the Arizona Capitol Times he believed he understood what the president and his attorney general wanted him to do.
“There’s clearly been direction provided already by President Obama and Attorney General Holder as to what they want to be doing, and this is an office that is at the center of the issues of border enforcement,” said Burke.
Rush: Obama created crimes with gunrunning
[WND.com EXCLUSIVE]
June 20, 2012
‘It was liberalism on parade. It’s who these people are’
Radio giant Rush Limbaugh is coming down hard on the Obama administration’s “Fast and Furious” operation today, calling it “liberalism on parade” in a misguided attempt to promote stricter gun control in America.
“The whole point of Fast and Furious was to create mayhem in Mexico among drug cartels with American-made weapons easily procured so that you and I would stand up in outrage and demand tighter gun laws,” Limbaugh said.
“It was deceitful. It was sneaky. It was going against the will of the American people. It was liberalism on parade. It’s who these people are. They want tighter gun laws.”
The White House today tried to undercut a congressional investigation of the scandal in which the Department of Justice allowed guns to be sold and delivered to Mexican drug cartels by announcing tens of thousands of documents were covered by executive privilege.
This afternoon, a House panel voted to place Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a subpoena for the documents, defying Obama’s assertion of executive privilege.
Fast and Furious amnesia hits Attorney General Eric Holder during House testimony
[FoxNews.com]
Published June 07, 2012
Attorney General Eric Holder frustrated his most fierce Capitol Hill accuser and other GOP lawmakers Thursday when asked about the Justice Department’s Fast and Furious weapons sting and which high-ranking Obama administration officials knew about the botched operation.
Holder sidestepped questions by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa about whether he or other Justice Department officials had even started to pull together Fast and Furious documents requested in an October 2011 subpoena Issa sent the agency.
“Nothing has come from your department, not a shred of paper,” Issa said tersely during a House Judiciary Committee meeting.
Issa, R-Calif., is a member of the committee. He also is the chairman of the chamber’s Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs, from which he issued the subpoena. The requests were largely related to an ill-conceived and executed Fast and Furious tactic known as “gunwalking,” which has been linked to the 2010 death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Years later, Ground Zero workers battle bureaucracy, health problems
[FoxNews.com]
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published June 01, 2012
The attacks on the World Trade center on Sept. 11 2001 released toxic particles in the air around the site causing many first responders to develop a variety of serious illness including respiratory ailments and cancer. (AP2001)
Workers who suffered health problems long after the rescue and cleanup at the Ground Zero “pile” following the 9/11 attacks say they are frustrated by a “complex” claims process that is hindering their access a $4.3 billion fund set up for them – prompting officials to promise they’ll streamline the application process.
The fund, created under the 2011 James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, is earmarked for workers and volunteers whose symptoms remained dormant for years. So far, none of the money has been disbursed, as claimants struggle to prove their presence at the toxic site in the days and weeks following the attacks, which released a toxic stew of deadly chemicals. Successful applicants can get compensation for health care expenses and lost wages.
Issa, Chaffetz confirm contempt plans for Holder over Fast and Furious
[FoxNews.com]
Published April 27, 2012; Posted April 28, 2012
House GOP leaders said Friday they are pursuing a plan to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and the Justice Department in contempt for “stonewalling” them over information regarding the administration’s failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking program.
GOP Rep. Darrell Issa confirmed to Fox News that House Speaker John Boehner gave him and others on his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform the authority to drafted a contempt of Congress resolution.
“We have a few other options (but) to a great extent we’ve been stonewalled by the Justice Department,” said Issa, R-Calif.
The news of the document and the extended meeting in Boehner’s office was reported first by The Los Angeles Times.
“We have issued a subpoena,” Utah GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a member of the oversight committee, said earlier on Fox News. “We have bent over backwards to be patient and take time. (Holder) is leading us down a path where we have no other choice.”
U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IGNORES BLACK ON WHITE CRIME
[LibertyNewsOnline.com]
04-11-2012 6:22 pm – Editorial – The Washington Times
What is it about the Justice Department and the Black Panthers? On March 24, Mikhail Muhammad, leader of the New Black Panther Party, offered a $10,000 bounty for the “capture” of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin. The Panthers distributed wanted posters, calling him a “child killer” and offering the bounty “dead or alive.” Muhammad warned that Mr. Zimmerman “should be fearful for his life.”
These acts were almost certainly criminal. Florida Code 787.01 makes it a felony to threaten someone or abduct them with the intent to terrorize. Florida Code 777.04 further criminalizes solicitation which “commands, encourages, hires or requests another person” to engage in criminal activity such as kidnapping. Solicitation to kidnap is also a federal crime, and the fact that this was unambiguously racially-based brings it within the purview of federal hate-crime laws.
There is an important moral dimension at play as well. This scandal offers an opportunity for the Obama administration to show it can act impartially and calm racial tensions. So far, the White House has failed to lead on the issue. President Obama’s high-profile public statement – “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” – was bizarre and seemed to show undue bias. Taking swift action against those who seek to incite racial violence would demonstrate that the federal government enforces the law without prejudice.
(more…)
Holder: No cover-up in ‘Fast and Furious,’ no effort to hide details of the operation
[FoxNews.com]
Published February 02, 2012
AP – Feb. 2: Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing entitled, “Fast & Furious: Management Failures at the Department of Justice.”
Attorney General Eric Holder vigorously denied a “cover-up” by the Justice Department over “Operation Fast and Furious,” telling a House panel investigating the botched gun-running program that he has nothing to hide and suggesting the probe is a “political” effort to embarrass the administration.
“There’s no attempt at any kind of cover-up,” Holder told lawmakers well into a hearing about whether he had been forthright in responding to requests of the House Oversight and Government Relations Committee led by Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
“We’re not going to be hiding behind any kind of privileges or anything,” he said.
The hearing came after Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, his Senate partner in the probe, asserted that top Justice officials are covering up events surrounding the flawed gun-smuggling probe.
THE SMOKING GUN? ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER GAVE DRUG CARTELS IMMUNITY
[LibertyNewsOnline.com]
January 17, 2012
Mary Lewis – LifeAndLibertyPAC
Testimony in a Chicago federal court claims that the Department of Justice willingly and knowing gave Fast & Furious guns directly to the bloody Sinaloa drug cartel of Mexico.
Two honorable US agents, dozens of Mexican police officers and thousands of Mexican citizens have been slaughtered with Eric Holder’s Fast & Furious guns. And now it appears that Holder’s guns did not simply walk across the border, but were knowingly and specifically delivered to one of the world’s most vicious drug cartels.
In proceedings filed in a Chicago federal court, defendant Vicente Jesus Zambada-Niebla claims that the Department of Justice struck a deal with leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, in which cartel leaders received Fast & Furious guns in exchange for providing information and assistance against other drug and crime cartel organizations.
Holder Suggests ‘Fast and Furious’ Guns Will Be Used in Crimes for ‘Years to Come’
[FoxNews.com]
Published December 08, 2011 (CWNews.com Post: December 14, 2011)
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder suggested Thursday that weapons lost during the course of the failed “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation will continue to show up at crime scenes in the U.S. and Mexico “for years to come.”Holder, in testimony on Capitol Hill that comes as the congressional investigation into the program expands, decried the “gun-walking” tactic used in the operation as “inexcusable” and “wholly unacceptable.” But a day after an influential senator called for the resignation of one of Holder’s top deputies over the scandal, Holder denied department leaders played any role in the crafting of “Fast and Furious.”
He continued to assert that top Justice officials were not told about the “inappropriate tactics” until they were made public.
Still, the top law enforcement official in the country conceded that, as a result of “Fast and Furious,” guns lost by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives remain in the hands of criminals.
GOP: Impeach Holder If He Doesn’t Come Clean on Arms-Trafficking ‘Mess’
[Newsmax.com]
Thursday, 08 Dec 2011 05:45 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican lawmakers told Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday to fire some Justice Department subordinates over the flawed arms-trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious.At a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin said impeachment is an option if Holder does not “clean up this mess” quickly.
Sensenbrenner and other Republicans hold the attorney general responsible for the operation, in which federal agents failed to track illicitly purchased weapons that were later recovered in Mexico and the U.S., many of them at crime scenes.
Former Holder Chief of Staff Nomination to Court Imperiled Over ‘Fast and Furious’
[FoxNews.com]
Published November 15, 2011
The confirmation of a former aide to Attorney General Eric Holder to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces may be in peril over his response to questions posed by Arizona Sen. John McCain about his knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious.Kevin Ohlson, who worked as Holder’s chief of staff from January 2009 to January 2011, faces a confirmation hearing on Thursday for the post. The panel with jurisdiction is the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which McCain is the ranking Republican and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is chairman.
In his response Monday to a questionnaire sent from McCain last week, both obtained by Fox News, Ohlson said he knew nothing about the operation while he was at the Justice Department.
(more…)
Justice Department Sues South Carolina Over State’s Strict Immigration Law
[FoxNews.com]
Associated Press
Published October 31, 2011
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The federal government filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to stop implementation of South Carolina’s tough new immigration law, arguing that the legislation that requires law officers to check suspects’ immigration status is unconstitutional.
Federal officials and state officials had met to discuss the issue a week ago.
The government wants a judge to stop enforcement of the legislation, which requires that officers call federal immigration officials if they suspect someone is in the country illegally following a stop for something else, U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles told The Associated Press.
Obama Administration Considered Giving More Money to Solyndra, Emails Show
[TheBlaze.com]
- Posted on October 7, 2011 at 6:57pm by
Tiffany Gabbay
According to hundreds of pages of emails obtained by Fox News, the Obama administration was considering giving an additional $5.4 million to the now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra in late August — just days before the firm filed for Chapter 11, laying off all of its employees.
The emails allegedly reveal that Energy Secretary Steven Chu and his staff were eager to find a way to salvage the distressed company, but officials at the White House, Treasury Department and Office of Management and Budget stepped in, ultimately cutting off additional funding to the company.
House Republicans Request Special Counsel to Probe Holder on ‘Fast and Furious’
[FoxNews.com]
Published October 04, 2011
EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans are calling for a special counsel to determine whether Attorney General Eric Holder perjured himself during his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Operation Fast and Furious, Fox News has learned.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, was sending a letter to President Obama on Tuesday arguing that Holder cannot investigate himself, and requesting the president instruct the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel.
The question is whether Holder committed perjury during a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3. At the time, Holder indicated he was not familiar with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program known as Fast and Furious until about April 2011.
“I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,” Holder testified.
Solyndra Executives to Plead Fifth at Congressional Hearing
[FoxNews.com]
Published September 20, 2011
AP – In this May 26, 2010, file photo, President Obama, with Solyndra Chief Executive Officer Chris Gronet, looks at a solar panel during a tour of Solyndra, Inc., a solar panel manufacturing facility, in Fremont, Calif.
Executives with the bankrupt solar energy firm at the heart of a widening federal controversy plan to plead the Fifth when they head to Capitol Hill for a hearing Friday.
A statement Tuesday from California-based Solyndra said CEO Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover have informed members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that they will not be able to provide “substantive answers” to lawmakers’ questions due to the ongoing Justice Department probe.
“Present circumstances require both gentlemen to exercise their Fifth Amendment rights in the face of questioning that might occur,” the company said.
AT&T, Google and the Obama Administration
BigGovernment.com
Posted Sep 2nd 2011 at 1:29 pm
It’s funny what a million dollars in political contributions, support for the right candidate and a liberal meme can buy you in Washington these days. For Google, it is buying them a free pass as they amass growing power in Washington and the marketplace.
AT&T, while unionized, does not have the same liberal bent as Google. They are more a traditional Beltway player. Open Secrets.org describes their strategy as “Although the company has historically favored Republicans in its political giving, people and political action committees associated with AT&T have as of late generally split their contributions between Democrats and the GOP.”
Recently both Google and AT&T made strategic acquisitions. How they were treated by the politicized Department of Justice makes an interesting statement.
9/11 Message: New Al Qaeda Leader Calls on “Muslim brothers everywhere” for US Attacks
AtlasShrugs.com
Monday, August 15, 2011
Another influential misunderstander of Islam. Does anyone else find it curious that the most devout and pious Muslims are all misunderstanding Islam in exactly the same way, reading the exact same words for over 1,400 years?
9/11 Message? New Al Qaeda Leader Calls for US Attacks ABC News, August 15, 2011In a video released three weeks before the 9/11 anniversary, new al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri urges followers to continue to target the United States.
Dressed in white, with his automatic weapon leaning against his left side, Zawahiri urges “Muslim brothers everywhere” to pursue America in the 12-minute video.
“America today is staggering,” said Zawahiri. “Hunt her down wherever you may encounter her. Hunt her down to cut what is left of her corruption’s tail.”
Zawahiri took over leadership of al Qaeda following the May 2 U.S. raid which killed bin Laden in Pakistan.
“Pursue America, which killed the ‘Imam of the Mujahedeen’ and threw his body into the sea, and then captured his women and sons,” said Zawahiri. “Hunt her down until history says that a murderous country spread corruption in the earth so God sent his faithful to her to make an example out of her.”
Posted by Pamela Geller on Monday, August 15, 2011 at 08:00 PM
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