For t99 sake ------this is an ongoing story so as updates become available I will post them.

PHOENIX - Weapons linked to a questionable government strategy are turning up in crimes in Valley neighborhoods.

For months the ABC15 Investigators have been searching through police reports and official government documents. We’ve discovered assault weapons linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ controversial "Fast and Furious" case strategy have turned up at crime scenes in Glendale and Phoenix communities.

It would have helped if the attempted focus at the start was on the colossal screwup itself, rather than the attempted focus being on OMG! O'BUMBLE ADMINISTRATION HATES AMERICA!! People have a tendency to tune out the extreme ends of the political spectrum when it comes to this stuff. It's the political version of crying wolf. (This thread itself is a pretty good example of it. If this thread had been started by a number of other posters and/or been written in a different style, it would have had 100+ posts by now.)

I'm having trouble deciding if this thread is hilarious or sad.

Really, you're wondering why no one cares about the mishandling/loss/bungle of 2,500 weapons to Mexican Cartels?

Would it have something to do with, I dunno, the fact that we're the world leader in exporting arms?

Last summer we sold $60billion of weapon/weapon platforms to Saudi Arabia...yes, the country where most of the 9/11 hijackers came from, and you're trying to earn your right-wing blogger badge with this?

The last three conflicts we've been involved in (GWOT, Iraq, Afghanistan) have been with entities we've sold weapons to, and that's not counting Libya. We sell weapons to countries that the State Department lists as human rights abusers and totalitarian regimes, and we've helped create the most militarized region on Earth...the middle east...through arms sales.

But go ahead, ring your piddly bell about 2,500 small arms that got boosted from some ATF dopes because it gives you wood and fuels your dislike of President Obama.

Thanks for bringing us the light of truth that we were all too blind to see.

And to be clear, it is true that this is a newsworthy story for sure. But it's also true that pretty much everyone here has written you off when it comes to political posts because of your complete inability to avoid saying extremist/dumb things. You literally can't even respond to a post making fun of you for being a partisan hack without referring to Obama as the "Zero."

If you want to discuss the ATF getting caught giving weapons to dangerous people, next time, title the thread accordingly instead of trying to turn a news-story into a process story about how American is ignoring the screw-ups of its Afro-American President.

THE FACT IS NO ONE ON THIS FORUM HAS SAID ABOUT "GUNRUNNER"ANYTHING IN THIS FORUM EXCEPT IN THIS THREAD.
My OP was an idictment on the MSM and to posters such as yourself who claim to be impartial yet were not talking about this news story. The MSM wasn't talking about it. Why? Was it news worthy?
No one on the Suque was talking about it. Until I brought it up. Why? Many would rather talk about jerking off,sex with animals when the first time you got drunk.

You may want to narrow your criticisms. Without a doubt, the media should be blasted for pretty much ignoring this story. You and I both know that is at least partly due to the fact that they're, in the main sympathetic to the administration's stated goals (although they're blind to the administration's unstated goals).

But I would suggest that you are being too harsh on this board regarding the interest level in this story. Yes, you were right to post it. Yes, there are a lot of things in this 'incident' that need investigating. But this board isn't where that happens, it's a place where you, I and everyone else say, "hey, look at this, it pisses me off (or makes me happy, or scares me, or whatever)." If others don't care, well, that's on them - you've done your part. If they get mad at you, that's on them too - why should you get angry? And you know there are people here who aren't ever going to agree with you.

So, my suggestion is (and you know how much it's worth), present your case as rationally as you can, but don't ever take this particular board seriously.

And now I'm going to try to take my own advice (good luck!)

At least an illegal alien could be president one day, and that's what really matters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYU4K201MKc

Ongoing story

Yesterday, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson answered questions from Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley surrounding Operation Fast and Furious. Melson voluntarily participated in the interview and appeared with personal counsel, meaning although the Justice Department has prohibited Melson to testify before Congress on behalf of the DOJ about the scandal, he can in fact come forward with information as an individual informant outside of the DOJ and separate from DOJ interests.

In a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder, Issa and Grassley expressed disappointment in the DOJ limiting and controlling Melson's communication and interaction with Congress surrounding the scandal but called the information Melson presented yesterday "extremely helpful," to the investigation.

Melson revealed the scope of Operation Fast and Furious reaches far beyond ATF and the Justice Department. He said the FBI, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and other agencies were heavily involved.

Well this is gonna get pretty interesting now...

*****

This morning, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley released a copy of a letter they sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on July 5 about Melson’s testimony. Melson’s revelations raise even more serious issues not only about the operation itself, but about apparent attempts by the Justice Department to mislead Congress on the details of the operation.

Contrary to the Justice Department’s denials, according to Melson, ATF agents specifically witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without taking any further action. Melson claimed that it was not until the public disclosure of the operation that he personally reviewed the “hundreds of documents” related to the case. He said he became “sick to his stomach” when he learned the full story.

*********

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF's senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF's senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process. However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear. If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have be en effectively muzzled while the DOJ s ent over false denials and bur i ed its he ad in the sand. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation.

The story that wont go away

One Congressional source familiar with the Fast and Furious investigation wondered if this computer file access was permitted so that potential witnesses could “get on the same page in a benign way” or to get their stories straight. Either way, Issa and Grassley were tipped off to this situation by one witness who did have access to the documents.

The letter includes details from an interview transcript with William McMahon, deputy assistant director for ATF Field Operations on June 28:

Continue reading on Examiner.com BREAKING: New Fast & Furious allegation about witness access to documents - Seattle gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/breaking-new-fast-furious-allegation-about-witness-access-to-documents#ixzz1Rwh4csdv

BTW this is another reason the debt ceiling talks are going to drag on...this will become one of Congress's top priorities after that.

This story creeps ever closer to Eric Holder and perhaps higher.

Bingo.

Both parties would hate this, the Repubs love the FBI and agencies like ATF (Created
to enforce Prohibition - I thought the Volstead act was repealed, why are they still around?).

The Dems don't like it either, because they don't want to see their Administration embarrassed and revealing an Orwellian Justice department, whose goal is to obstruct Justice.