U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Hours after House Judiciary Committee Democrats voted to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for withholding parts of the Mueller report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the House Oversight Committee settled the 2012 contempt case against the DOJ,” The Daily Caller observed. “The case, related to the ‘Fast and Furious’ document subpoena demanded of Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder when Republicans held the majority, is now considered settled, since Democrats became the majority in the lower chamber and Elijah Cummings became Oversight Committee Chairman.”
“Old Bloody Hands” has come back full circle. That’s what I and the late Mike Vanderboegh, my colleague in exposing Fast and Furious “gunwalking” called Cummings for his repeated suppression of efforts to get the truth of government involvement in the deadly plan exposed, preferring instead to run interference for the Obama administration’s stonewalling and withholding of evidence.
Cummings had a personal culpability stake in seeing any investigation into “gunwalking” stonewalled, deflected and left to die on the vine. That’s because he was a member of the United States House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy when the Democrats were in the majority.
That was the body Mike and I wrote to—and encouraged readers to contact—back in Sept. 2009 in order to demand hearings into ATF corruption allegations:
“According to ATF employees who are risking their careers to post information on CleanUpATF.org: ‘Managers, Counsel, Internal Affairs and staff of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives have repeatedly given false testimony, concealed substantial waste, fraud, and abuse, abused their lawful authority, and waged systematic campaigns of reprisal against their own employees that dare to speak out…”
We wanted them to investigate serious complaints by veteran agents of unethical and criminal conduct. We – and they – were ignored and the conduct was allowed to continue while the Democrat-controlled Oversight Committee showed deliberate indifference to Democrat-controlled ATF corruption.
Put bluntly, had Rep. Cummings and his Democrat colleagues done their jobs back when they wielded the power, bad managers would have been identified and removed, meaning “Project Gunwalker” may very well never have happened and its victims would still be alive today.
It’s no surprise that Democrats today once more are intent on putting any official Fast and Furious inquiries into illegal activities behind them and instead want to focus public attention on non-crimes related to AG Barr’s summation and testimony on the Mueller investigation. Hundreds and counting died (and are still being victimized) from Fast and Furious – the only thing dying from the politically-motivated “Russian collusion” hoax is the truth. As such, they deserve moral contempt even if they’ll never prevail on a legal charge.
What too few, including The Daily Caller, seem to understand is that the cynical “gunwalking” scheme was also politically motivated. It’s disappointing to see a “conservative” journalism outlet repeating and parroting the ubiquitous “botched federal gun-tracking program” meme that misdirects from what really happened.
To this day, the dominant takeaway people have been subjected to is that it was a “botched gun sting.” Even NRATV repeats that crap.
That’s despite whistleblower sources claiming in early January 2011, that guns were being walked “to pad statistics.” It was through these sources that Mike and I began investigating and reporting while “real reporters” ignored the story until information coming to light could no longer be contained, prompting many to manage and spin it instead.
Simply put: Guns recovered next to bodies at Mexican crime scenes could be traced to U.S. gun stores and that could be exploited to “justify” further domestic citizen disarmament efforts.
The alternative is to reject ATF sources who proved right about everything else and believe you can “track” guns by deliberately letting them escape across the border and into the wild, which is clearly an impossibility.
Almost eight years ago, colleague Kurt Hofmann made an observation that was spot-on accurate at illustrating how absurd that claim is. He recalled the Underpants Gnomes characters from South Park, and their “business model” for explaining why they were stealing them. Using that cartoon “logic,” this is what we’re expected to believe the Fast and Furious plan was:
Phase 1: Arrange for guns to be “walked” across the border.
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Bust the cartels!
Anyone making the “botched gun sting” claim had better be able to explain Phase 2 in detail.
Fast and Furious was mine-salting. It was also a violation of arms export control laws. And the only people still demanding those responsible for the resulting deaths be held accountable are a handful of us who have no power.
Those showing true contempt are members of Congress who suppressed evidence of real and deadly criminal activity and who are now fabricating accusations where no crimes have taken place. People like Rep. Jerry Nadler of House Judiciary, who would hold Barr in contempt but called that finding against Holder “shameful [and politically-motivated”…
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.