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.
FN Five-sevens were among the weapons allowed to walk.
The memorandum from staffers with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform says the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration were investigating a drug-trafficking organization and had identified cartel associates a year before the ATF even learned who they were. At some point before the ATF’s Fast and Furious investigation progressed — congressional investigators don’t know when — the cartel members became FBI informants.
“These were the ‘big fish,’ ” says the memo, written on behalf of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. “DEA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had jointly opened a separate investigation targeting these two cartel associates. … Yet, ATF spent the next year engaging in the reckless tactics of Fast and Furious in attempting to identify them.”
Randy “Open Borders” Parraz at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting 1/31/12.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office provided members of the Board of Supervisors with a public update on a handful of the controversial topics afflicting the agency right now, but the airing of the sheriff’s laundry did little to change the minds of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s ardent supporters and critics who packed a county auditorium Tuesday morning.
Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan told board members Arpaio’s agency has made mistakes but has worked with county officials in the last 18 months to address many of the office’s shortcomings, including misappropriated funds and inadequately investigated sex crimes.
But those explanations did little to placate dozens of Arpaio critics who had come to ask questions of Sheridan and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and share their concerns with members of the Board.
When it became apparent that a question-and-answer session would have to wait until the end of the sheriff’s presentation, dozens of Arpaio critics left the hearing in protest.
Later, Chad Snow, a vocal critic of the Sheriff’s Office, told board members the group refused to listen to Arpaio apologists make excuses for the behavior that has led to accusations of mismanagement and discrimination within the Sheriff’s Office.
House Speaker moves forward to address problems with IRC
The Arizona Capitol Times is reporting that House Speaker Andy Tobin has introduced a host of measures that would set a special election enabling voters to decide whether to use legislative and congressional maps drawn by elected legislators representing constituencies – as was the practice prior to the passage of Prop. 106 in 2000. Democrats and Republicans worked together to draw the lines.
Arizonans are currently faced with oddly configured and decidedly partisan maps approved last month by Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission.
President Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer had what was described as an intense encounter on the tarmac after the president arrived in the Grand Canyon state on Wednesday.
Brewer greeted the president as he arrived off Air Force One, as governors often do when the president visits a state, and handed him a letter that she described as a “welcome” note to the state, and an invitation to talk about a comeback for her state.
Obama put the letter in the limo before going to greet Arizonans waiting nearby.
The Republican governor later told pool reporters accompanying the president that Obama brought up that he was a little disturbed (her wording) by the book she published last year called “Scorpions for Breakfast.” In the tome, she said the president was “patronizing” in a one-on-one meeting about border security.
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FN Five-sevens were among the weapons allowed to walk. Photo: Wikipedia
As I wrote in a post for Big Government this past Sunday, January 22, the Arizona’s legislature has decided once more to do the job the feds won’t do, and has launched its own investigation into Fast and Furious. And during an appearance on FOX NEWS this morning, Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin explained why they’ve taken this step. He said that constituents were flooding their offices with questions about the gun-running operation, and he said one recurring question was, “You’re not waiting for the feds [to do something] are you?” He then said the answer to that question was “No.”
Said Tobin:
This is an incident that occurred on Arizona soil, with Arizona business owners, [where we lost] an Arizona agent (Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry), and quite frankly we felt it needed a lot more attention. We felt our citizens needed a place to go to share their stories. Maybe there’s more there. This was a failed program right from the start and I think the idea is to put more light on it.
FN Five-sevens were among the weapons allowed to walk. Photo: Wikipedia
PHOENIX – Two men pleaded guilty to buying guns that were destined to be smuggled into Mexico, the first convictions in the federal government’s botched Operation Fast and Furious.
The men were so-called “straw buyers” who acknowledged purchasing guns that they knew were headed to Mexican drug gangs.
The goal of the federal government’s investigation was to catch weapons-trafficking kingpins, but firearms agents lost track of many weapons they were trying to trace to smuggling ringleaders, and some guns ended up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S.
Jacob Wayne Chambers and Jacob Anthony Montelongo each pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to a conspiracy charge. Montelongo also pleaded guilty to dealing guns without a license.
The pair admitted being part of a 20-person smuggling ring that is accused of running guns into Mexico for use by the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Group urging supervisors to remove him
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s political foes vowed to disrupt Wednesday’s Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting to demand Arpaio’s resignation or removal, but the board is suggesting an alternative venue for the activists to air their concerns.
Local activists for the past two months have demanded supervisors schedule a forum on Wednesday’s board agenda to discuss recent events involving the Sheriff’s Office. The forum will not be held Wednesday, however.
Supervisors instead plan to accommodate protesters at an update meeting on the sheriff’s budget, where controls placed in that budget and audits of his operations will be discussed. Sheriff’s staff and the county attorney are expected to attend. Supervisors consider it a more appropriate venue to address public concerns.
Board Chairman Max Wilson also is planning a private meeting with Randy “Open Borders” Parraz, president of Citizens for a Better Arizona, in an attempt to quell that group’s public protests.
Parraz has agreed to meet, but protesters are unlikely to back down, vowing to pressure supervisors until November, when the sheriff, the supervisors and the county attorney are up for re-election. Parraz led a similar effort in 2008.
As Arizona state officials open their own probe into Operation Fast and Furious, the head of the House panel investigating the gunrunning scandal is crying foul over a key player’s move Tuesday to assert his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions.
Patrick Cunningham, the chief of the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona, was excused from a deposition after refusing to give more than his name and title, Fox News has learned.
Cunningham informed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee through his attorney that he would use the Fifth Amendment protection after being subpoenaed last week to testify in front of congressional investigators regarding his role in the operation that sent more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa drug cartel. Guns from the failed operation were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010.
