gun-running – Moe Lane

Democratic gun-grabber Leland Yee arrested for running guns.

Because I apparently did something nice for somebody recently, and this is God’s way of showing His appreciation.

Seriously, this is amazing: “Known for navigating the state Capitol’s backrooms and this city’s complicated political landscape, state Sen. Leland Yee now is accused of consorting with notorious felons, accepting money for his cash-strapped political campaigns in exchange for favors and promising undercover FBI agents he could deliver connections to international gun runners.” They actually noted his political affiliation (Democrat) – note, though, that as per this article by my RS colleague streiff they apparently had to be prodded into doing it – and favorite hobby-horse (gun control*), and you will find very little in that article that is dull. But there is one item that needs to be pushed back on: “Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, called the allegations against Yee “shocking” and “surreal.”” Continue reading Democratic gun-grabber Leland Yee arrested for running guns.

Friday’s Fast & Furious Fallout: Fatal Falsehoods From Feds?

To give a quick background: Operation Fast & Furious, of course, was an incredibly botched government program where federal law enforcement agencies handed over firearms willy-nilly to Mexican narco-terrorists and then lost track of the weapons… no, really, that’s what they did, and the next person who comes up with a legitimate and/or sane reason for them doing that will be the first. As you might imagine, Congressional watchdogs – Republican ones; the Democrats are largely hiding from this one – are a bit perturbed about this, not least because it turns out that the Justice Department gave out patently false information when asked about it the first time. Which is to say, DoJ denied that it handed over firearms willy-nilly to Mexican narco-terrorists and then lost track of the weapons.

At any rate, I think that the paragraph quoted below from the AP piece tells you everything that you need to know about why the official Obama administration’s response to inquiries about Fast & Furious is widely considered to have been insufficient, inexcusable, inappropriate, and just plain insolent: Continue reading Friday’s Fast & Furious Fallout: Fatal Falsehoods From Feds?

Fast and Furious update: Ken Melson’s secret testimony.

The sound that you’re hearing is the muttered “Uh-oh” of a plethora of staffers at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives. Of particular interest is the letter that Oversight Chair Darrell Issa and Judiciary Ranking Member (for now) Chuck Grassley sent to Attorney General (for now) Eric Holder regarding Melson’s testimony… but we’ll get that in a moment.

For those coming in late: Issa and Grassley are investigating the horrifically botched Fast & Furious program that Justice/BATFE had put together, starting in late 2009. F&F was this ingenious method by which the federal government ended up knowingly and deliberately permitted illegally-resold firearms to be supplied to Mexican narco-terrorists; said narco-terrorists then proceeded to use those guns to shoot various hostages, Mexican civilians and police officers, at least one US Border Agent… as you can imagine, the Mexican government is not exactly pleased about any of this, which is why elements within said government are currently muttering about extradition treaties. This is where Kenneth Melson comes in: he is the Acting Director of BATFE, and was apparently picked to be the duly-assigned sacrificial lamb in this particular drama.

Only, it turns out that Melson doesn’t actually believe in any of that dulce et decorum est pro Duce mori stuff; so he grabbed a lawyer and started talking to Issa & Grassley – on July 4th, no less. Continue reading Fast and Furious update: Ken Melson’s secret testimony.

#rsrh Fast & Furious update. It’s bad.

It’s very, very, very bad.

CBS News has confirmed that ATF Fast and Furious “walked” guns have been linked to the terrorist torture and murder of the brother of a Mexican state attorney general last fall.

That is ‘recall the Mexican ambassador to the USA’ bad. Wars have been started over less – probably not in this case, given the rather lopsided power levels of the two countries involved, but that does not excuse anything. It also answers once and for all just how much Mexican officials knew about Operation Fast & Furious / Gunrunner in the first place; and I cannot imagine that the Mexican government is pleased with us right now. I cannot actually blame them, either.

Background here: the short version is that the US government set up a program where it deliberately permitted firearms intended to be illegally resold in Mexico be resold in Mexico. Naturally, these guns were then used to kill people, including at least one Federal agent (and now, Mexican officials). There is increasing speculation that the overarching goal was to use this situation to justify more stringent gun control laws in the United States.

Heads will roll over this.

Via Say Uncle, via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

150+ Mexicans killed by Operation Fast & Furious?

Bob Owens over at Pajamas Media has done a good job walking through the utter disaster that was Operation Fast & Furious (short version: the US government deliberately let Mexican narco-terrorist groups get their hands on illegally-purchased firearms). But note this paragraph:

The eventual — perhaps inevitable — death of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent killed by criminals armed with at least two “walked” AK-pattern semi-automatic rifles finally shut the program down in December of 2010. The shooting death of an American cop was the final straw for the ATF whistleblower who exposed the program, which may also have contributed to an estimated 150 or more Mexican police and soldier shootings, and many of civilians. Had a whistleblower come forward earlier, all might have been alive today.

Continue reading 150+ Mexicans killed by Operation Fast & Furious?

Joe Biden, International Gun-Runner.

(I turned this into a caption contest, over at RedState.)

Yes, I know: as Lord of War kept pointing out, the top five arms dealers in the world all have permanent seats on the UN Security Council. And I don’t mind selling arms to the Lebanese government, assuming that they don’t end up firing them off at Israel and/or Turkey. I don’t even mind doing so as part of, as Andrew Malcolm rather sardonically notes, a rather heavy-handed hint that it might be best if the freely-expressed electoral will of the Lebanese people freely expresses itself as not liking Hezbollah quite so much this time around. But…

Did you have to send Biden, Mr. President? I mean, there were high explosives around; don’t you think that was a little, you know, unsafe?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.