Barack
Obama's 'I Am Not A Crook' Moment
By T.L. Lewis
WSJ.com
The Senate Subcommittee on Western
Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Global Narcotics
Affairs might get a little more heated than
usual on March 31, 2011. Among the panel
members is Kenneth Melson, Acting Director
of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives (BATFE).
The hearing will be
the first opportunity for senators to
question the Acting Director of the ATF
about events surrounding Customs Agent Brian
Terry's death and the Gunwalker Scandal.
Gunwalker, also called "Fast and Furious,"
was a deviation from Project Gunrunner that
only tracked guns being purchased for use in
the drug war raging in Mexico. Gunwalker/Fast
and Furious actually allowed the guns to
"walk" south of the Mexican border without
the knowledge or permission of the Mexican
government.
Nearly a week
after Sharyl Atkisson presented the first
major network report of Project Gunwalker on
CBS Evening News, all three major political
parties in Mexico asked for a clarification
of the events surrounding the project. On
March 8th, the
Associated Press reported
that "Congressman Humberto Trevino estimated
Tuesday that 150 shooting injuries or deaths
have been linked to guns that were allowed
to proceed into Mexico as part of a U.S.
effort to build cases against traffickers."
On March 13th
Univision, a Spanish language network,
broadcast two interviews, one with John
Dodson, the subject of Sharyl Atkisson's
first report on the growing scandal. The
other interview was with Rene Jaquez, the
former ATF attaché to Mexico. Both men
reported knowledge of the operation and
Dodson claimed that it had been ongoing
since at least the end of 2009. Yet, when
asked about the scandal, President Obama
could only say that he had not authorized
it.
Earlier this week
Barack Obama sat down with
Univision's star anchor Jorge Ramos
and was asked the direct question: "The
Mexican Government complains that they were
not informed about the 'Fast and Furious'
operation (Gunwalker). Did you authorize
this operation and was President Calderon
properly informed about it?"
President
Obama responded quickly and firmly stating
that neither he nor Attorney General Eric
Holder authorized the operation. This was
Barack Obama's equivalent to "I'm not a
crook" statement. The question is not
whether the President authorized it; it is
when he knew about it. Did the President of
the United States know about Project
Gunwalker when he slapped the back of
President Calderon and told him that they
were working to stop the flow of guns, when
in fact the operation was engaged in just
the opposite?
In the Univision
interview Obama revealed more than he would
have liked. At one moment he tried to claim
that the American government has "too many
moving parts" for him to keep up with things
like Project Gunwalker. It was a thinly
veiled attempt to divert the conversation,
but it left Obama looking as if the injuries
and deaths of at least 150 Mexican nationals
didn't rate his attention. However, that
fact is getting a lot of attention in Mexico
where the PGR, or the Mexican Attorney
General's office is seeking information on
U.S. agents who might have committed crimes
by facilitating the movement of arms into
Mexico.
Alberto Morales of
El Universal, a Mexican national
newspaper closely following the
developing scandal, has subsequently
written
an article based on the CBS report
by Sharyl Attkisson that featured Darren
Gil, former ATF attaché to Mexico. In
the interview Gil revealed that he had
on numerous occasions requested
permission to inform the Mexican
government about "Fast and Furious."
This would seem to be in direct conflict
with the impression left by President
Obama only hours before that high-level
officials had no knowledge of the
operation.
In the interview, Darren Gil
revealed that when he asked his
supervisor about Fast and Furious he was
told that "not only is the director (of
the ATF) aware of it, but the Department
of Justice is aware of it." Sharyl
Attkisson asks: "They didn't want you to
inform your Mexican counterparts?" Gil:
"That's correct."
When the scandal first broke
on CleanUpATF.org and was brought to light
by the strident efforts of
David Codrea
of Examiner.com
and
Mike
Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars,
there was a flurry of activity between
Washington and the Phoenix office of the
ATF. A serious effort to cover up the
scandal took place, evidenced by a letter
from Scot L. Thomasson, Chief of the ATF
Public Affairs Division wherein Thomasson
directs other public information officers to
"proactively push positive stories this
week, in an effort to preempt some negative
reporting, or at minimum, lessen the
coverage of such stories in the news cycle
by replacing them with good stories about
ATF."
Kenneth Melson as the
Acting Director must have some of the
answers that Eric Holder and boss Barack
Obama refuse to address. Among the sitting
committee members are Republican Marco Rubio
of Florida as Ranking Member and Democrat
Tom Udall of New Mexico, either one of whom
are in a position to ask some tough
questions. While New Mexico has not been
featured in the border violence, it is
doubtless that some of the estimated 2,500
weapons allowed to "walk" into Mexico have
impacted the state that shares a border with
Mexico and is only miles from the cartel
hotspot of Ciudad Juarez. Marco Rubio as a
rising force in the Republican Party could
seize this opportunity to strengthen his
brand and expose the cynical nature of the
Obama Administration.
Should either
Tom Udall or Marco Rubio choose to take an
active role in discovering the truth behind
Project Gunwalker, they might ask a few
important questions at the hearing. Since
the president has disavowed the
authorization of Fast and Furious for
himself and Eric Holder who then authorized
the project? With millions of taxpayer funds
going into this project for the past two
years, when was its existence revealed to
the President and the Attorney General? Is
it typical for the Director of the BATFE to
engage in international activity without the
knowledge of the Attorney General,the
President of the United States or the
Secretary of State? In a letter dated
February 4, 2011, Assistant Attorney General
Ronald Weich responded to a question put to
him by Senator Charles Grassley by stating
that straw purchases of weapons had never
been "sanctioned" by the ATF, is that a true
statement?
Update: Kenneth Melson backed out of the
hearing. Perhaps the House Government
Reform Committee will have better luck
securing a subpoena, I have a feeling
they are going to need it.