Eric Holder – The Audacity of Contempt
This week numerous outlets reported that lawmakers including Rep Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) could hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt! This is the most outrageous turn of events – and not that the lawmakers might try this, but rather that the Eric Holder as the highest Justice Department official could actually be held in contempt!
Does this guy think he is above the laws he’s suppose to protect?
The Los Angeles Times actually has offered even coverage on this:
Reporting from Washington—House Republicans threatened Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. with a criminal contempt of Congress citation Thursday, alleging the Justice Department has refused for a year to turn over key documents in lawmakers’ investigation of the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation.
What remains shocking is not the circus that this has become, but rather that the mainstream media – with a few exceptions such as the LA Times – has sat on this story. Who needs a cover-up when the media doesn’t even try to uncover the facts?
NRA News: Rep. Trey Gowdy on Attorney General Holder’s Fast and Furious Testimony
Cam Edwards and Ginny Simone talk to Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) about Attorney General’s testimony about Operation Fast and Furious in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
NRA News: Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle on Attorney General Holder’s Fast and Furious Testimony
Ginny Simone talks to Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY) about Attorney General’s testimony about Operation Fast and Furious in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Brian Terry’s Family Alleges Fast and Furious Lies
This week our hearts really go out to the family of Brian Terry, the border control agent who was shot with a gun from the ATF’s Fast and Furious debacle, as The Los Angeles Times noted “Slain border agent’s family alleges lies over ATF gun program.” The paper reported:
The Terry family alleged that then-U.S. Atty. Dennis K. Burke told them last March that the two weapons came from a store in Texas and were not part of Fast and Furious.
This is just the latest twist we’re hearing, and suggests more of a cover up. Why would the ATF need to lie… unless every part of this debacle was already being covered up?
The article closes:
In fact, the notice says, “(then-U.S. Atty. Dennis K.) Burke actually knew within hours of Brian’s murder that they were purchased from a Phoenix gun shop under ATF surveillance the previous January” — a fact borne out by Burke’s emails.
We just ask again, why isn’t this story leading the nightly news? Where is the mainstream media outrage?
NRA News: In new ‘Fast and Furious’ Report, Democrats Clear Justice Appointees of Wrongdoing
Cam Edwards talks to Howard Nemerov from PJ Media
Holder in the Hot Seat – Blames Lack of Gun Control
So let’s get this straight, ATF ran an operation that saw a border control agent killed, and thousands of guns were let to walk to Mexico. And how does the Attorney General see it? It is a fault of lack of gun control in the United States, reports The Washington Examiner:
“ATF’s ability to stem the flow of guns from the United States into Mexico suffers from a lack of effective enforcement tools,” Holder told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today. “Unfortunately, in 2011, a majority of House Members – including all members of the majority on this Committee – voted to keep law enforcement in the dark when individuals purchase multiple semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and long guns – like AK-47s – in gun shops in four southwest-border states.”
No one this guy won’t step down, he seems to actually believe the things that come out of his mouth!
GOP Says DOJ Knew About Fast and Furious
And so it begins a game of who said what, who knew what and lots of finger pointing. This week FoxNews reported, “GOP Report: Justice officials were on top of Fast and Furious,” noting:
Top Department of Justice officials had extensive knowledge of and involvement in Operation Fast and Furious, claims a new report released Thursday, hours before Attorney General Eric Holder’s scheduled testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
This of course comes following last week’s Democratic report that says DOJ was in the dark, and tried to “blame Bush” for the gunrunning debacle.
This is a story that we will of course continue to follow.
FoxNews: Holder says no one punished ‘yet’ during testimony on controversial ‘Fast and Furious’ operation
Today Eric Holder is in the hot seat, and so far what we’ve heard is that “no one has been punished ‘yet’” reports FoxNews:
No one has been punished “yet,” Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday in a contentious hearing on the role of the Justice Department in “Operation Fast and Furious,” about which Holder insisted once more he only heard about in the winter of 2011.
But let’s ask the question why not? Holder claimed he didn’t know, but he’s known for more than a year now. So why hasn’t someone been punished?
We will be following this developing story very closely.
Does WaPo Not Care About Fast and Furious
We noted since launching FirearmsTurth.com that The Washington Post regularly blamed American guns for Mexico’s violence, but then a strange thing happened. Fast and Furious came to light and WaPo shut up about it. Now the paper does report on it from time to time, but consider this recent example, “House Democrats say Phoenix ATF to blame in ‘Fast and Furious’ fiasco.” We can almost hear a collective sigh of relief.
Over the past year WaPo has ignored the story a bit, blamed Bush as much as it could and now offers a lengthy feature story that seems to give President Obama and Eric Holder a pass.
The story notes:
Federal agents based in Phoenix, not officials at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, were responsible for the controversial tactics used in the gun operation known as “Fast and Furious,” Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said in a report released Tuesday.
A year after it became known that the operation relied on a tactic known as gun walking, the 89-page report called Fast and Furious “reckless and fatally flawed.” It puts the blame squarely on the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It also concludes that the strategy began as early as 2006.
While this is newsworthy of course, we wonder why this story is getting pick up now, and note that this report is just from one side. It is hardly the final word on the matter. And of course it offers the “Blame Bush” card. Only deep into the story does WaPo note:
Issa called the report’s conclusions a “flawed view that the Justice Department should be given the full benefit of the doubt despite a lengthy record of false statements, misdirection and a continued refusal to turn over subpoenaed evidence.”
So let’s see, offer a headline that blames the Phoenix ATF and bury any counterpoint. Sounds like journalism at its finest – yellow journalism that is.
Is Partisan Politics Polarizing Fast and Furious Hearings?
First it was “Blame Bush” and now it seems the media is ready to readily accept the findings of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. This week USA Today noted with a biased headline, “Report: Agents, not Justice Dept. to blame in Fast and Furious“:
A U.S. House minority report on the gun-smuggling probe known as Fast and Furious blames federal agents in Arizona for the flawed operation while exonerating top-level Justice Department officials.
The 89-page analysis, released Tuesday by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking minority member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is based upon five congressional hearings, testimony from 22 witnesses and about 12,000 pages of documents.
Its conclusion: “Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office.
And there you have it. The media has ignored the story for months, but now that the blame can be cast away – far away from President Obama and his henchman Eric Holder – the media has decided this is a story worth covering!
