High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.
In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The smugglers’ tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.
“These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there,” said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. “But that’s only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through.”
Torres Marrufo, also known as “the Jaguar,” has been identified by U.S. authorities as the enforcer for Sinaloa cartel chieftain Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman. The Fast and Furious weapons were found at one of Torres Marrufo’s homes.
I want to see how the media tries to help the Obama administration out of this mess. Be sure and share these stories on Facebook, especially the ones from CBS News, the L.A. Times, etc.
The fierce battle over a botched gun-tracking operation is intensifying and has put Attorney General Eric Holder on a collision course with his critics in Congress.
Republicans are calling for his resignation in the wake of Fast and Furious, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives operation that may have inadvertently contributed to the death of at least one federal agent.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has called for an independent investigation of Holder, and the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wants to have Holder testify again before Congress.
[…]The torrent of scrutiny comes after a series of internal Justice Department memos were released this week and show that Holder was informed about the existence of Operation Fast and Furious last year.
Holder testified in May before the House Judiciary Committee that he did not learn about the operation until earlier this year. Officials with the DOJ say Holder was referring to when he learned about the controversial tactics, known as “walking” guns into the hands of known and suspected criminals, that were employed by the operation.
[…]”The Attorney General’s denials of any personal knowledge will have to be tested against all the evidence as the investigation continues, just as the Department’s initial denials were,” Beth Levine, a Grassley spokeswoman, said.
The article also has a nice timeline of events in case you are new to the story.
A majority of Arizona’s county sheriffs on Friday called upon President Obama to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the government’s botched gun-smuggling case known as Operation Fast and Furious.
At a Phoenix news conference, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said the sting operation, which allowed an estimated 2,000 firearms to reach narcotics cartels in Mexico, was a betrayal that should lead to the removal of Attorney General Eric Holder and possible criminal charges against those responsible.
“I believe that this is a much larger scandal than what took place in Watergate,” said Babeu, who is president of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association.
[…]ATF whistleblowers first exposed the practice after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a December shootout with banditos near Nogales, Ariz., involving a pair of semi-automatic rifles that traced back to Operation Fast and Furious. Their revelations led to congressional hearings in which agents and Justice Department officials have been criticized for evasive and dishonest testimony.
To date, the scandal has forced the replacement of ATF administrator Ken Melson; reassignment of the bureau’s top Arizona agent, William Newell; and the resignation of Dennis Burke, former U.S. Attorney for Arizona.
[…]Ten of Arizona’s 15 sheriffs joined in the call for an independent counsel probe. The sheriffs, including Democrats and Republicans, said they were motivated by public-safety concerns, not political partisanship.
“I feel like we’ve been betrayed by our government,” said Tom Sheahan, sheriff of Mohave County.
“We’re in a fight for our country, our constitution and for our very lives,” added Larry Dever, sheriff of Cochise County. “Who really is responsible for helping to arm the people we are fighting every day on the border?”
My prediction? Holder resigns before the end of October. I would like to see Obama put on the stand to testify as well on this issue and on Solyndra. It would nice if Holder and Spinner were both in jail before election day 2012. Like in real jail cells.
It’s a Zogby poll, so it could be off by 6-8%, in my opinion. But still.
Excerpt:
Herman Cain has opened up a 20 percentage point lead among likely Republican primary voters in the race for the Presidential nomination, and also holds a narrow lead among all likely voters over President Barack Obama.
Cains share of the GOP primary has jumped 10 percentage points since Sept. 26 and is now at 38%. Mitt Romney is second with 18%, followed by both Rick Perry and Ron Paul, at 12% each.
The Oct. 3-5 IBOPE Zogby interactive poll also matches Cain, Romney and Perry against Obama. Cain led Obama, 46%-44%, while Obama is one-point ahead of Romney, 41%-40%, and leads Perry, 45%-40%.
As for President Barack Obama, both his job approval (41%) and the percentage who believe he deserves re-election (38%) are virtually unchanged from recent polls.
Republican Candidates (asked only of the party’s primary voters)
If the Republican primary for President were held today, for whom would you vote?
Candidate
Oct 5
Sept 26
Sept 12
Aug 29
Herman Cain
38%
28%
12%
8%
Mitt Romney
18%
17%
14%
12%
Rick Perry
12%
18%
37%
41%
Ron Paul
12%
11%
11%
11%
By the way, in that video up above, he mentions AEGIS warships, like the Arleigh Burke DDG I posted earlier. He explains that his foreign policy will be “peace through strength”. Watch that video, it will you help to understand why people are raising Cain.
Unemployed Wall Street protesters only have themselves to blame for lacking a job, so says Herman Cain.
The Republican presidential candidate insisted that the demonstrations were being “orchestrated” to help President Obama.
“I don’t have the facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama Administration,” Cain told the Wall Street Journal.
The Tea Party favorite then argued that the plight of the unemployed was their own fault.
“Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself. It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed,” the ex-Godfather’s Pizza CEO declared.
The fiery remarks come as protest organizers plan for their biggest demonstrations yet — at least 2,000 people are expected to gather in lower Manhattan Wednesday.
Last week, 700 protesters who spilled onto the streets near the Brooklyn Bridge were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct.
Cain acknowledged that the banking industry played a role in the 2008 economic meltdown, but argued they were no longer responsible.
“They did have something to do with the crisis that we went into in 2008, but we’re not in 2008, we’re in 2011,” Cain said.”…These demonstrations, I honestly don’t understand what they’re looking for. To me, they come across more as anti-capitalism.”
Cain’s campaign has been picking up steam since he won Florida’s straw poll last month.
And in a recent Rasmussen Reports poll, Cain trails Obama by just five points in a head-to-head matchup.
Normal politicians don’t talk like that. Can you imagine RINO Romney saying something like that? No way.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard a more offensive interview on MSNBC than the one I just heard from Lawrence O’Donnell with Herman Cain. In one interview O’Donnell managed to accuse Herman Cain of not only sitting on the sidelines during the civil rights movement, but also of dodging the Vietnam war. His contempt for a black Republican has never been more clear.
At one point in the interview, O’Donnell asked Cain where America would be right now if Rosa Parks took his dad’s advice to stay out of trouble and just sit in the back of the bus. Seriously. It was like he was trying to prove that Cain hadn’t earned his black skin or something. It was terribly offensive and I hope Cain never steps foot again in the studios of MSNBC.
I will say that Cain proved he could hold his own and not be rattled by the offensive assumptions of these whackos on MSNBC. He hit back in the interview several times but always kept his cool. He could have hit back more in my opinion but overall I think he did great.
It’s a long interview but it covers four main topics: Brainwashing, Civil Rights Movement, War dodging, and the 9-9-9 plan.
Even Mediaite’s radical leftist Tommy Christopher doesn’t like the interviewer:
Based on his interview with GOP supernova Herman Cain, a cynical person might think that MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell is trying to push the upstart candidate over the finish line for the Republican presidential nomination. On Thursday night’s The Last Word, O’Donnell conducted an interview that surpassed unfair, sped through the tollbooth at offensive, and came to rest in the parking spot marked “Reserved For Despicable.”. . .
Let me start by saying this: I like Lawrence O’Donnell, and not just for his contribution to the ultimate liberal television show, The West Wing. O’Donnell is part of a new breed of liberal commentator who doesn’t talk himself into a corner, and viewers into a coma. He takes strong positions, and expresses them with aggression and clarity.
I also don’t like Herman Cain, for a variety of good reasons, some of which O’Donnell touched on in his interview. His victory in the GOP primary race would be great for America, as it would keep a party, hell-bent on fundamentally crippling the government’s ability to govern, out of the White House for at least four more years.
That’s why my reaction to O’Donnell’s interview with Cain was so shocking. I’m not the kind of person who says things out loud to himself, or to the TV screen, but throughout O’Donnell’s grilling of Cain, I found myself doing just that. “What the f***?. . . Are you f***ing kidding me?”
Rather than debate Herman Cain on his substantive weaknesses, O’Donnell opted to pull at symbolic threads from Cain’s own personal history. The portion of the interview that will cause most stomachs to churn will probably be when O’Donnell tried to shame Herman Cain for “sitting on the sidelines” during the Civil Rights movement.
(There really isn’t any racism, but from now on, any leftist who disagrees with Herman Cain is going to be called a racist on my blog)
WINTERY KNIGHT 