Fast And Furious, Watergate On Steroids

Operation Fast and Furious began in March of 2009 as a Department of Justice project with the full knowledge of Attorney General Eric Holder by order of Barack Obama know as Project Gun Runner. The object was to allow the sale of illegal guns from the US across the Mexican border to trace the chain leading to the major players in the Mexican Drug Cartel….or at least what was described as the mission of the project by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. (see video below)

Project Drug Runner morphed into what we now know as Operation Fast and Furious, an ill conceived, poorly planned and equally as poorly executed program that resulted in more than 2200 high powered weapons and explosive devises such as RPG’s, ( rocket propelled grenades), being sold by the Federal Government to the Mexican Drug Cartels in order to trace but in actuality failed miserably in tracing and lost track of this arsenal of weapons.

The result being hundreds of individuals maybe even into the thousands have been killed by these weapons by the Cartels and one US Border Control Agent and an ATF agent also killed by weapons that were traced back to Fast and Furious.  What was to be a sting operation because of poor planning, follow up and a complete lack of over sight turned into a debacle of murder on a scale that is almost inconceivable.

An ATF whistle blower came forth after the death of the Border Patrol Agent and informed of the failure of the operation which finally lead to Congressional hearings and investigation. Attorney General Eric Holder was brought to task in May of 2011 telling Congress he had just learned of the operation, “weeks,” before and had no prior knowledge. This was the first time Holder would perjure himself before Congress but not the last.

Internal memos revealed that Holder had been informed by Senator Chuck Grassly, (R-Iowa) in January of 2011.  Holder in a later hearing stumbled his way through testimony which called him on his earlier assertion that he knew only, “weeks, ” before May and further perjured himself when memos once again revealed he had been informed of Fast and Furious as early as July of 2010 nearly one year before the hearings began. Holder has yet to admit of his knowledge of Project Gun Runner, the beginnings of Fast and Furious which began in March of 2009 as shown in the video below.  

Throughout the Congressional investigation Holder has refused to release approximately 70,000 internal Department of Justice documents on Fast and Furious relating to the Obama administrations response to the scandal. Holder just last week was threatened with a contempt of Congress charge and released some of the needed documentation and met with Committee members on Tuesday night to supposedly negotiate the release of the remainder which the investigating Committee had narrowed down to about 1300 pages.

Holder not only continued to refuse to release the documents but his, “negotiation,” was a willingness to release all 1300 pages on the condition that the investigation be dropped and no mention of it made again in hearings or in Congress. A position that of course could not be agreed to by the Committee so the move was made yesterday to hold Holder in contempt of Congress if the documents were not released.

A surprise and shocking development met law makers upon the start of Wednesday’s proceedings.  Barack Obama claimed Executive Privilege on all remaining documents concerning Fast and Furious and the administrations response through internal memos etc. This wreaks of a cover up that now makes Watergate look like a Sunday School picnic.

During the Watergate hearings in the in the 70′s Richard Nixon claimed Executive Privilege on hundreds of documents pertaining to the Watergate cover up. The Supreme Court ruled that ONLY documents that had either Presidential conversation or meetings that were attended by the President could be held by Executive Privilege.  Holder has claimed from the beginning of the hearings that Obama knew nothing of the operation and Obama himself claimed to have no knowledge until it began hitting the news cycles in April and May of 2011.

For Executive Privilege to be claimed either Holder is lying about Obama’s knowledge or Obama is lying about when he learned of it or both. Again wreaking of a massive cover up to keep the public from knowing that Holder and Obama were aware of guns being sold across the border by the Justice Department and then an ongoing attempt to prevent knowledge of it from going public until the whistle blower came forward.

Where this is far worse than Watergate is the fact that while Nixon, Attorney General John Mitchell, Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, Charles Colson, H. R. Haldeman, John Erlichman and others clearly violated the law in the cover up over the Watergate break in, unlike Fast and Furious no one was murdered during the cover up and the break in did not result in an arsenal of weapons falling into the hands of known criminals to perpetrate a sting operation that terribly failed.

There is not evidence as of yet on how much Obama did or did not know but clearly the invoking of Executive Privilege paints a picture of Presidential knowledge and cover up on a scale not yet known. Holder is awaiting a vote by the full House next week on the contempt charge and he has clearly perjured himself on at least three occasions during hearings.

Now we face a Constitutional crisis brought on by the Obama administration and especially Eric Holder.  In order for the Constitutional check and balances as well as separation of powers to be fulfilled as intended by the Constitution, Congress must hold Holder accountable for his perjury and obstruction of justice. Additionally Obama must also be held accountable for obstructing justice by the issuance of the Executive Order on legally subpoenaed documents which the Executive Order prevents release of without appeal to the courts, thus delaying the completion of justice on this debacle turned weapons sold for Cartel murders.  If the courts then release the documents it may well be found that Obama knew much more than is being told and must be held equally accountable

If Holder and Obama are not held accountable a clear message will be sent that the three Branches of our government no longer function in a check and balance system, the Constitution will be virtually ripped asunder and Obama will get away will using dictatorial powers to prevent legal action on illegal matters pertaining to his administration.  The beginning of the end of our Republic falling to the fate of the Ceaser’s as Rome did.

Ken Taylor      

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