Two top Republican lawmakers are questioning the independence of the Obama administration investigator tasked with probing Operation Fast and Furious, saying it appears her office is choosing not to interview high-level political employees in the Justice Department.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa wrote a letter Thursday to Cynthia Schnedar, inspector general at the Justice Department, suggesting the office could be shielding close aides to Attorney General Eric Holder from scrutiny.
“Apparently, despite the advanced stage of its review, your office has not interviewed several key figures in Fast and Furious,” they wrote of the controversial and defunct gunwalking operation undertaken by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.
The lawmakers asked why it appears Schnedar has failed to interview three deputy attorneys generals, all appointees close to Holder. They are worried Schnedar’s report, which is expected later this year, will avoid casting blame on the Justice Department.
Due to the serious threat this family believes they now face, they have only agreed to speak to this reporter through an intermediary who is known to me and trusted. The family does not wish to reveal their name at this time but feels that speaking-out may provide them with their only defense at this point.
Last month, a man I will refer to as “Willie” took his 9-year-old son coyote hunting less than 10 miles southwest of Tucson, in a very rural area close to the San Xavier del Bac Mission which is located on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. As the two stood outside their vehicle gathering their gear, a truck pulled up a few yards in front of them.
Both the driver and passenger of this truck exited the vehicle and began staring at Willie, at first he thought they may simply be in this rather remote area for the same reason, until the passenger began shouting at he and his son in Spanish.
Willie does not speak Spanish and could not understand what the man was saying, but feeling uneasy, he told his son to get back inside their vehicle.
Then, he noticed the passenger reaching for something in his waistband?it was a pistol.
According to Willie, the gun misfired as he withdrew it, nearly hitting his cohort.
The two men did not see what Willie had in his hands, as the door of his truck blocked their view? It was an AR-15.
The Senate on Thursday blocked a move to speed along the approval and construction of the controversial Keystone pipeline, after the White House lobbied Democrats to oppose it.
A total of 11 Democrats, though, ended up breaking with the president to vote for the Republican-backed amendment — at a time when gas prices are rising and pipeline supporters are using that trend to pressure the administration to act.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after the vote that the Democrat-controlled Senate had “turned its back on job creation and energy independence in a single vote.”
McConnell, referring to reports later confirmed by the White House that Obama personally lobbied Democrats to oppose the measure, also used the vote to place blame for the pipeline’s delay squarely on the president.
Just when the Fast and Furious investigation seemed to hit a lull, and many were wondering what was going to come of it or whether it might quietly fade away without anyone being prosecuted, another weapon that was obtained via a straw purchase in the U.S. and carried across the Mexican border has been identified. This one is “connected to the murder of Immigration and Customs (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata,” which took place in February 2011. And suffice it to say, AG Eric Holder is on the hot seat all over again.
On February 8th, 2012, Bishop McFadden (b. 1947) of the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, commented on the demand that all students be taught exactly what the state wants, without exception. He went on to say, “In the totalitarian government, they would love our system. This is what Hitler and Mussolini and all of them tried to establish – a monolith; so all the children would be educated in one set of beliefs and one way of doing things.” Of course the usual suspects, such as the ACLU, immediately attacked Bishop McFadden for making such a comparison. In response the Bishop apologized for offending anyone; but he did not retreat from his point saying:
“The reference to dictators and totalitarian governments of the 20th century which I made in an interview on the topic of school choice was to make a dramatic illustration of how these unchecked monolithic governments of the past used schools to curtail the primary responsibility of the parent in the education of their children. Today many parents in our state experience the same sort of lack of freedom in choosing an education that bests suits their child as those parents oppressed by dictators of the past.
I used the example of the dictators merely to explain how an absolute monopoly in education, where parents do not have a right or ability to choose the education that best suits their children due to economic circumstances or otherwise, runs counter to a free and open society. Our support of a school voucher program has the goal of giving parents something that dictators never would, a choice in which school their children attend by being able to control the portion of the tax dollars that is designated for the education of each child.”
As it turns out, Bishop McFadden is more correct than he may know, as our current system of education came from the very totalitarian regimes he speaks of. In fact the word totalitarianism refers to a system of government where the state dictates every aspect of human behavior and achieves this largely through the education system, which becomes a political apparatus of the state.
by AWR Hawkins
On February 14th I received an email from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) office, containing a copy of a letter the Congressman just sent to Attorney General Eric Holder. In it, Issa points out Holder’s “lack of good faith,” in not complying with document requests heretofore, and to the fact that the DOJ as a whole appears “more concerned with protecting its image through spin control than actually cooperating with Congress.”
FN Five-sevens were among the weapons allowed to walk.
Wrote Issa:
The Justice Department’s request for additional time has, unfortunately, not been followed by efforts to bridge the significant differences between its legal obligation to Congress and the reality of its stonewalling. The [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee] is determined to know what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and how the Justice Department responded when it was publicly confronted with evidence of reckless conduct after Agent Terry’s death. If the Justice Department cannot commit to providing, at a minimum, a detailed description of documents it is withholding, and the legal basis for doing so, then the committee has no other option than to move forward with the contempt process against Attorney General Holder.
In addition, the letter sets forth central questions that have to be answers, among which are:
Grijalva hosts hearing on border issues
Congressman Raul Grijalva was working on border issues Friday. He hosted three other Congressmen for a tour through the Nogales area.
Texas Congressman Silvestre Reyes, Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez and California Congressman Michael Honda joined Congressman Raul Grijalva for a hearing on border issues.
Santa Cruz Sheriff Tony Estrada told them strong Federal and Local law enforcement and the border fence, have pushed violent crime to remote areas.
