DOJ On Fast And Furious: 'Hey We Lied. So What' ?

President Obama's Department of Justice has formally withdrawn an 'inaccurate' letter on Fast and Furious it admits was sent to Congress earlier this year to answer formal inquiries about the program that saw over 2,000 weapons deliberately placed in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The program led to at least 200 murders,including a US Border Patrol officer.

In a document dump late last Friday afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole sent nearly 1,400 pages of emails and other documents to the investigative committee of Rep. Daryl Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley that, among other tidbits, laid bare the details of how the bogus February 4th letter to Grassley was drafted.

The February 2011 letter in response to Grassley's statements in committee that the Senate Judiciary Committee had received allegations the ATF had sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers. The letter said in response that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) makes "every effort" to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally before they cross into Mexico. It added that the allegation that the ATF had "sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons" to suspicious people was false.

As we now know, both of those statements were outright lies.

The paper trail shows that Dennis Burke, a former U.S. attorney who has since 'resigned', and William Hoover, then the deputy director of the ATF who has since been reassigned, were the parties that mostly provided the false information to those officials who drafted the letter. What the documents don't show, of course, is the all-important intent. Misleading Congress is a felony - but only if it can be proven that the perpetrator knew the information was false and intended to deceive.

This is also known as the Hillary Clinton get-out-of-jail-free card. It's not enough to prove that someone prepared fraudulent legal documents and profited thereby. You have to prove intent.

And of course, Attorney General Eric Holder has told lawmakers that so far he has no evidence anyone intended to deceive them. But he's going to look into the matter!

The e-mails also show that Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general for the department’s criminal division, received versions of the letter on four occasions via email. Breuer forwarded the emails to a personal account but somehow forgot about it - he testified to the investigative committee that he “cannot say for sure” whether he viewed the drafts.

Breuer admitted on Oct. 31 he knew federal officials allowed assault weapons to be trafficked by straw buyers to the Mexican drug cartels as early as April 2010, 10 months before the department denied doing it in the letter to Grassley.

“Any instance of so-called gunwalking was unacceptable. This tactic was unfortunately used as part of Fast and Furious,” Holder admitted to Senators at a Judiciary Committee hearing Nov. 8. “This should never have happened.”

Ah, but it's obvious that someone intended it to happen. Here's a revealing e-mail exchange between US Attorney Dennis Burke and former ATF Deputy Director Hoover:

“What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations ... but, instead, lobbing this reckless despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer,” he wrote in a Feb. 4 email.

“Well said Dennis. Thank you!” Hoover replied.

Senator Grassley, who along with Rep. Issa has been leading an investigation into Fast and Furious for most of this year, has been quite outspoken about the operation and the attempted coverup. Th elatest batch of documents raises a lot of new questions about who knew what and when they knew it. Expect a number of them to come up when Attorney General Holder testifies in a House oversight hearing December 8th.

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DOJ On Fast And Furious: 'Hey We Lied. So What' ?

President Obama's Department of Justice has formally withdrawn an 'inaccurate' letter on Fast and Furious it admits was sent to Congress earlier this year to answer formal inquiries about the program that saw over 2,000 weapons deliberately placed in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The program led to at least 200 murders,including a US Border Patrol officer.

In a document dump late last Friday afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole sent nearly 1,400 pages of emails and other documents to the investigative committee of Rep. Daryl Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley that, among other tidbits, laid bare the details of how the bogus February 4th letter to Grassley was drafted.

The February 2011 letter in response to Grassley's statements in committee that the Senate Judiciary Committee had received allegations the ATF had sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers. The letter said in response that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) makes "every effort" to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally before they cross into Mexico. It added that the allegation that the ATF had "sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons" to suspicious people was false.

As we now know, both of those statements were outright lies.

The paper trail shows that Dennis Burke, a former U.S. attorney who has since 'resigned', and William Hoover, then the deputy director of the ATF who has since been reassigned, were the parties that mostly provided the false information to those officials who drafted the letter. What the documents don't show, of course, is the all-important intent. Misleading Congress is a felony - but only if it can be proven that the perpetrator knew the information was false and intended to deceive.

This is also known as the Hillary Clinton get-out-of-jail-free card. It's not enough to prove that someone prepared fraudulent legal documents and profited thereby. You have to prove intent.

And of course, Attorney General Eric Holder has told lawmakers that so far he has no evidence anyone intended to deceive them. But he's going to look into the matter!

The e-mails also show that Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general for the department’s criminal division, received versions of the letter on four occasions via email. Breuer forwarded the emails to a personal account but somehow forgot about it - he testified to the investigative committee that he “cannot say for sure” whether he viewed the drafts.

Breuer admitted on Oct. 31 he knew federal officials allowed assault weapons to be trafficked by straw buyers to the Mexican drug cartels as early as April 2010, 10 months before the department denied doing it in the letter to Grassley.

“Any instance of so-called gunwalking was unacceptable. This tactic was unfortunately used as part of Fast and Furious,” Holder admitted to Senators at a Judiciary Committee hearing Nov. 8. “This should never have happened.”

Ah, but it's obvious that someone intended it to happen. Here's a revealing e-mail exchange between US Attorney Dennis Burke and former ATF Deputy Director Hoover:

“What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations ... but, instead, lobbing this reckless despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer,” he wrote in a Feb. 4 email.

“Well said Dennis. Thank you!” Hoover replied.

Senator Grassley, who along with Rep. Issa has been leading an investigation into Fast and Furious for most of this year, has been quite outspoken about the operation and the attempted coverup. Th elatest batch of documents raises a lot of new questions about who knew what and when they knew it. Expect a number of them to come up when Attorney General Holder testifies in a House oversight hearing December 8th.

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Fast And Furious: Holder Stonewalling And Refusing To Allow Witnesses To Testify

An angry Senator Chuck Grassley said today in a statement that Attorney General Eric Holder is continuing to stonewall congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

Holder's latest tactic is to deny Department of Justice clearances to 11 of the 12 witnesses Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa have requested be made available to the committee for testimony.

“We have requested 12 Justice Department witnesses be made available for transcribed interviews,” Grassley said in a Thursday Senate Judiciary Committee executive business meeting. “Despite the department’s promises of good faith cooperation, only one witness has been provided so far — former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke. The department has refused to schedule interviews with any of the other 11 witnesses. That’s not the good faith cooperation I was promised, and it is unacceptable.”

One thing Grassley and Issa are particularly interested in finding out is who was behind a February 4th letter the Department of Justice sent to Congress, which made false claims that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( ATF) did not freely allow guns to be trafficked into Mexico.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Holder’s deputy and the head of the DOJ Criminal Division, admitted last week to the committee that the DOJ’s claims that the ATF did not allow guns to walk across the border were a pack of lies.

“It also appears from those documents that Mr. Breuer’s deputy, Jason Weinstein, knew about ATF walking guns in both operations,” Grassley said on Thursday. “Anyone who knew about gunwalking in any case, also knew that the department’s initial letter to me was false. The attorney general said the letter was based on the best information available at the time. But senior officials at headquarters, like Breuer and Weinstein, knew better.”

Ouch.

It's Special Prosecutor time,I think. Scooter Libbey was railroaded on far less evidence. And nothing he was accused of doing killed anyone.

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Fast And Furious: Holder Stonewalling And Refusing To Allow Witnesses To Testify

An angry Senator Chuck Grassley said today in a statement that Attorney General Eric Holder is continuing to stonewall congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

Holder's latest tactic is to deny Department of Justice clearances to 11 of the 12 witnesses Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa have requested be made available to the committee for testimony.

“We have requested 12 Justice Department witnesses be made available for transcribed interviews,” Grassley said in a Thursday Senate Judiciary Committee executive business meeting. “Despite the department’s promises of good faith cooperation, only one witness has been provided so far — former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke. The department has refused to schedule interviews with any of the other 11 witnesses. That’s not the good faith cooperation I was promised, and it is unacceptable.”

One thing Grassley and Issa are particularly interested in finding out is who was behind a February 4th letter the Department of Justice sent to Congress, which made false claims that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( ATF) did not freely allow guns to be trafficked into Mexico.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Holder’s deputy and the head of the DOJ Criminal Division, admitted last week to the committee that the DOJ’s claims that the ATF did not allow guns to walk across the border were a pack of lies.

“It also appears from those documents that Mr. Breuer’s deputy, Jason Weinstein, knew about ATF walking guns in both operations,” Grassley said on Thursday. “Anyone who knew about gunwalking in any case, also knew that the department’s initial letter to me was false. The attorney general said the letter was based on the best information available at the time. But senior officials at headquarters, like Breuer and Weinstein, knew better.”

Ouch.

It's Special Prosecutor time,I think. Scooter Libbey was railroaded on far less evidence. And nothing he was accused of doing killed anyone.

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Democrats Try To Spin Fast And Furious To Attack The 2nd Amendment

The Democrats just provided fresh evidence to those who've speculated that the real reason behind Fast and Furious was a cynical plot to create a series of violent tragedies to build a groundswell of support for stricter gun control and even outright confiscation.

Democratic lawmakers contend that Operation Fast and Furious exemplifies the need to strengthen U.S. gun laws to give federal law enforcement officials more tools to prosecute criminal weapon traffickers.

“This hunt for blame doesn’t really speak about the problem,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein at a recent Senate Judiciary hearing while discussing Fast and Furious.

“And the problem is, anybody can walk in and buy anything, .50-caliber weapons, sniper weapons, buy them in large amounts, and send them down to Mexico. So, the question really becomes, what do we do about this?”

The ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) have introduced a dedicated firearms trafficking statute, but it has stalled in the House Judiciary Committee.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, which has taken the lead investigating Fast and Furious, say that discussing gun laws and the botched operation are very different.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who worked as a federal prosecutor for six years, pointed to the federal sentencing guidelines for possession of illegal automatic machine guns, saying that the second illegal machine gun guarantees life in prison.

“When I hear people trying to make this a political conversation about the need to reform federal gun laws, what do you want other than life?” said Gowdy in an interview with The Hill. “I get it, I’d want to change the subject too if I were them. I’m happy to have a conversation about broader gun laws, but we’re going to do it after Fast and Furious.”

The 'problem', Senator isn't our current gun laws - it's that our Department of Justice happily allowed straw buyers to purchase weapons and traffic them across the border, something very much already against existing US law. The problem is that you, as a sitting Senator are actually defending this for partisan political purposes.

Of course Senator Feinstein hails from the Leftist asylum of California.

This latest push from the Democrats makes accusations that Fast and Furious was engineered by the Obama Administration to 'prove' the need for harsher restrictions on Second Amendment rights a lot more believable. And it shows that the Democrats are quite willing to try to shield Attorney General Eric Holder from his lies, mismanagement and incompetency in the matter.

Democrats Try To Spin Fast And Furious To Attack The 2nd Amendment

The Democrats just provided fresh evidence to those who've speculated that the real reason behind Fast and Furious was a cynical plot to create a series of violent tragedies to build a groundswell of support for stricter gun control and even outright confiscation.

Democratic lawmakers contend that Operation Fast and Furious exemplifies the need to strengthen U.S. gun laws to give federal law enforcement officials more tools to prosecute criminal weapon traffickers.

“This hunt for blame doesn’t really speak about the problem,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein at a recent Senate Judiciary hearing while discussing Fast and Furious.

“And the problem is, anybody can walk in and buy anything, .50-caliber weapons, sniper weapons, buy them in large amounts, and send them down to Mexico. So, the question really becomes, what do we do about this?”

The ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) have introduced a dedicated firearms trafficking statute, but it has stalled in the House Judiciary Committee.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, which has taken the lead investigating Fast and Furious, say that discussing gun laws and the botched operation are very different.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who worked as a federal prosecutor for six years, pointed to the federal sentencing guidelines for possession of illegal automatic machine guns, saying that the second illegal machine gun guarantees life in prison.

“When I hear people trying to make this a political conversation about the need to reform federal gun laws, what do you want other than life?” said Gowdy in an interview with The Hill. “I get it, I’d want to change the subject too if I were them. I’m happy to have a conversation about broader gun laws, but we’re going to do it after Fast and Furious.”

The 'problem', Senator isn't our current gun laws - it's that our Department of Justice happily allowed straw buyers to purchase weapons and traffic them across the border, something very much already against existing US law. The problem is that you, as a sitting Senator are actually defending this for partisan political purposes.

Of course Senator Feinstein hails from the Leftist asylum of California.

This latest push from the Democrats makes accusations that Fast and Furious was engineered by the Obama Administration to 'prove' the need for harsher restrictions on Second Amendment rights a lot more believable. And it shows that the Democrats are quite willing to try to shield Attorney General Eric Holder from his lies, mismanagement and incompetency in the matter.

Fast And Furious: Did 'Bush Do It Too'?

As Fast and Furious continues to metastasize out of control, the Obama Administration and its media sycophants have a brand new variation on their usual theme 'Bush did it too'.

What they're talking about is something called 'Wide Receiver'. CBS reporter Sheryl Aktinson is one of the few dinosaur media reporters even covering Fast and Furious, and alleged that Wide Receiver also had some of the same 'Gunrunner'aspectd Fast and Furious did.

Well it did, and it mostly didn't. Jim Shepherd in The Outdoor Wire reveals just how different the admittedly botched Wide Receiver was from Fast and Furious:

In Operation Wide Receiver, Tucson agents allowed the sales of more than 500 firearms to known straw purchasers. Like Gunrunner/Fast and Furious, the operation apparently backfired.

Some firearms in Wide Receiver were equipped with RFID tracking devices. In Wide Receiver, it seems the illegal purchasers seemed more than slightly knowledgeable of the ATF and how to take their aerial and electronic tracking procedures down.

Knowing the time aloft numbers for virtually all planes used in government surveillance, the buyers had a simple method of getting their purchases across the border undetected. They simply drove four-hour loops around the area.

As surveillance planes were forced to return to base for refueling, the smugglers simply turned and sprinted their cargo across the border.

The RFID tags also turned out to be problematic.

Rather than making large enough holes for the tags to be laid out inside weapons, agents force-fit them into the rifles.

That cramming caused the antennae to be folded, reducing the effective range of the tags. And an already short battery life (36-48 hours maximum) meant that should purchasers allow the firearms to sit, the tracking devices eliminated themselves.

Let's summarize the differences, shall we? Wide Receiver actually made an attempt at surveillance, but was stymied by equipment problems and the resourcefulness of the cartels.

In addition, Wide Receiver was conducted in cooperation with the Mexican government - not kept secret from them as Fast and Furious was.

Fast and Furious made no use of tracking devices, prevented local law enforcement from interfering with the smugglers, on multiple occasions, and federal agents were not allowed to stop the flow of weapons. The whole idea behind Wide Receiver was to nab the smugglers and cut off the traffic.

Wide Receiver allowed something like 450 guns into Mexico before the Bush Administration and the Mexican authorities realized it had failed. Fast and Furious allowed over 2,000 weapons into the hands of the cartels without any intention of arresting the straw buyers and smugglers. And this might just be the tip of the iceberg. CBS News’ Attkisson mentions allegations of “at least 10 cities in five other [Mexican] states”, which means that Holder’s Department of Justice may have intentionally sent more than 12,000 weapons into the hands of the cartels.

Of course, the most important difference, aside from the death toll is that Holder and the DOJ already knew that Wide Receiver had been a failure.They had the advantage of hindsight and went ahead and did this anyway.

And that, frankly, amounts to criminal negligence.As opposed to a botched law enforcement program.

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Fast And Furious: Did 'Bush Do It Too'?

As Fast and Furious continues to metastasize out of control, the Obama Administration and its media sycophants have a brand new variation on their usual theme 'Bush did it too'.

What they're talking about is something called 'Wide Receiver'. CBS reporter Sheryl Aktinson is one of the few dinosaur media reporters even covering Fast and Furious, and alleged that Wide Receiver also had some of the same 'Gunrunner'aspectd Fast and Furious did.

Well it did, and it mostly didn't. Jim Shepherd in The Outdoor Wire reveals just how different the admittedly botched Wide Receiver was from Fast and Furious:

In Operation Wide Receiver, Tucson agents allowed the sales of more than 500 firearms to known straw purchasers. Like Gunrunner/Fast and Furious, the operation apparently backfired.

Some firearms in Wide Receiver were equipped with RFID tracking devices. In Wide Receiver, it seems the illegal purchasers seemed more than slightly knowledgeable of the ATF and how to take their aerial and electronic tracking procedures down.

Knowing the time aloft numbers for virtually all planes used in government surveillance, the buyers had a simple method of getting their purchases across the border undetected. They simply drove four-hour loops around the area.

As surveillance planes were forced to return to base for refueling, the smugglers simply turned and sprinted their cargo across the border.

The RFID tags also turned out to be problematic.

Rather than making large enough holes for the tags to be laid out inside weapons, agents force-fit them into the rifles.

That cramming caused the antennae to be folded, reducing the effective range of the tags. And an already short battery life (36-48 hours maximum) meant that should purchasers allow the firearms to sit, the tracking devices eliminated themselves.

Let's summarize the differences, shall we? Wide Receiver actually made an attempt at surveillance, but was stymied by equipment problems and the resourcefulness of the cartels.

In addition, Wide Receiver was conducted in cooperation with the Mexican government - not kept secret from them as Fast and Furious was.

Fast and Furious made no use of tracking devices, prevented local law enforcement from interfering with the smugglers, on multiple occasions, and federal agents were not allowed to stop the flow of weapons. The whole idea behind Wide Receiver was to nab the smugglers and cut off the traffic.

Wide Receiver allowed something like 450 guns into Mexico before the Bush Administration and the Mexican authorities realized it had failed. Fast and Furious allowed over 2,000 weapons into the hands of the cartels without any intention of arresting the straw buyers and smugglers. And this might just be the tip of the iceberg. CBS News’ Attkisson mentions allegations of “at least 10 cities in five other [Mexican] states”, which means that Holder’s Department of Justice may have intentionally sent more than 12,000 weapons into the hands of the cartels.

Of course, the most important difference, aside from the death toll is that Holder and the DOJ already knew that Wide Receiver had been a failure.They had the advantage of hindsight and went ahead and did this anyway.

And that, frankly, amounts to criminal negligence.As opposed to a botched law enforcement program.

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FBI and DEA Foil Iran Plot To Murder Saudi Ambassador

The FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency( DEA) were responsible for thwarting what was referred to as an assassin-for-hire plot by Iran to kill Saudi ambassador to the US Adel al-Jubei.

A naturalized U.S. citizen holding Iranian and U.S. passports and a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard will face conspiracy charges for their part in the plot.

The Iranians, of course are denying it out of hand, although a spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Iranian government was awaiting details about the accusations that he described as a "fabrication" by the U.S.

Meanwhile the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington issued a statement Tuesday thanking U.S. authorities for stepping in.

"The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the embassy's statement said.

The Saudi ambassador was not the only one on the hit list. U.S. officials said the suspects also discussed attacking Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington and possibly Buenos Aires, Argentina. There's a huge Hezbollah cell there, for those who've forgotten.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, later told CNN he was confident the plan was sanctioned by the Iranian government.

"The quickness of the decisions that were made in order for certain elements of this to fall into place tells us that it is clearly tied to the highest levels of the Iranian government," he said.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, are charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, an FBI agent's affidavit released Tuesday alleged.

Arbabsiar was arrested in September. Shakuri remains at large, the FBI said.

Authorities developed the case against them with the help of an undercover informant posing as an associate of a Mexican drug cartel, officials and court documents said.

The Mexican drug cartel detail ought to raise some hackles. Regular members of Joshua's Army have known about the link between terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and drug cartels for quite some time. Both groups, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan have drug sales and processing as an important part of their finances and have done deals with various cartels in Latin America,the Mafia and Union Corse' in Europe and the Chinese Triads in Asia. And if terrorism expert Steve Emerson is correct, a number of Hezbollah operatives and sympathizers have already gotten into the U.S. via our porous southern border.

I also found it interesting that Attorney General Eric Holder took a few minutes today to take credit for the FBI and DEA's work. A question comes to mind:Why is it that Eric Holder claims to know absolutely nothing about operations like Fast and Furious that ended in disaster, but is presenting himself as being entirely in the loop and responsible for an operation he had absolutely nothing to do with that ended successfully? Especially ironic since the Iranians may very well have approached one of the Mexican cartels to buy weaponry the cartels got hold of via Holder and Fast and Furious.

And then of course,there's the timing. The announcement of an arrest that took place two weeks ago at a press conference today by an Attorney General who's already been caught lying to Congress and is about to subpoenaed is, well, just a mite suspicious, wouldn't you say?

As for the Iranian plot itself,I remember a time when this would have constituted an act of war, just like seizing a US embassy and taking American diplomats as hostages once would have been. Instead, this is going to be played down, with maybe some rhetoric that signifies absolutely nothing.And Iran knows it.

The Mullahs aren't stupid. They know weakness when they see it, and they see it in Obama the same as they once saw it in Jimmy Carter.

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FBI and DEA Foil Iran Plot To Murder Saudi Ambassador

The FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency( DEA) were responsible for thwarting what was referred to as an assassin-for-hire plot by Iran to kill Saudi ambassador to the US Adel al-Jubei.

A naturalized U.S. citizen holding Iranian and U.S. passports and a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard will face conspiracy charges for their part in the plot.

The Iranians, of course are denying it out of hand, although a spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Iranian government was awaiting details about the accusations that he described as a "fabrication" by the U.S.

Meanwhile the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington issued a statement Tuesday thanking U.S. authorities for stepping in.

"The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the embassy's statement said.

The Saudi ambassador was not the only one on the hit list. U.S. officials said the suspects also discussed attacking Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington and possibly Buenos Aires, Argentina. There's a huge Hezbollah cell there, for those who've forgotten.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, later told CNN he was confident the plan was sanctioned by the Iranian government.

"The quickness of the decisions that were made in order for certain elements of this to fall into place tells us that it is clearly tied to the highest levels of the Iranian government," he said.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, are charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, an FBI agent's affidavit released Tuesday alleged.

Arbabsiar was arrested in September. Shakuri remains at large, the FBI said.

Authorities developed the case against them with the help of an undercover informant posing as an associate of a Mexican drug cartel, officials and court documents said.

The Mexican drug cartel detail ought to raise some hackles. Regular members of Joshua's Army have known about the link between terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and drug cartels for quite some time. Both groups, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan have drug sales and processing as an important part of their finances and have done deals with various cartels in Latin America,the Mafia and Union Corse' in Europe and the Chinese Triads in Asia. And if terrorism expert Steve Emerson is correct, a number of Hezbollah operatives and sympathizers have already gotten into the U.S. via our porous southern border.

I also found it interesting that Attorney General Eric Holder took a few minutes today to take credit for the FBI and DEA's work. A question comes to mind:Why is it that Eric Holder claims to know absolutely nothing about operations like Fast and Furious that ended in disaster, but is presenting himself as being entirely in the loop and responsible for an operation he had absolutely nothing to do with that ended successfully? Especially ironic since the Iranians may very well have approached one of the Mexican cartels to buy weaponry the cartels got hold of via Holder and Fast and Furious.

And then of course,there's the timing. The announcement of an arrest that took place two weeks ago at a press conference today by an Attorney General who's already been caught lying to Congress and is about to subpoenaed is, well, just a mite suspicious, wouldn't you say?

As for the Iranian plot itself,I remember a time when this would have constituted an act of war, just like seizing a US embassy and taking American diplomats as hostages once would have been. Instead, this is going to be played down, with maybe some rhetoric that signifies absolutely nothing.And Iran knows it.

The Mullahs aren't stupid. They know weakness when they see it, and they see it in Obama the same as they once saw it in Jimmy Carter.

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AG Holder Ignores Questions On Fast And Furious, Flees From Press Conference!

And in a related vid, here's Rep. Darrel Issa commenting on Holder's 'testimony'.

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AG Holder Ignores Questions On Fast And Furious, Flees From Press Conference!

And in a related vid, here's Rep. Darrel Issa commenting on Holder's 'testimony'.

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Issa Says Fast And Furious Subpoenas Could Come As Early As Next Week

And Attorney General Eric holder is at the top of the list.

Rep. Darrel Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley's investigative committee on the farcical and deadly scheme to allow guns to be purchased and then literally walked across the border for sale to the Mexican drug cartels has to be one of the worst scandals ever to hit American government. It resulted in the death of at least 200 people, including two American border patrol agents, left over 1700 automatic weapons in the hands of some of the worst criminals in the world and it defies common sense.

Unless, as some people have alleged, the whole idea had the agenda in the first place of secretly creating a horrendous situation to game the American people into widespread support for stringent gun control. Of course, if that was the case, than the rationale for the Department of Justice's stonewalling and reluctance to cooperate with the investigation becomes a lot clearer. And the whole thing fits nicely into the typical progressives' notion of knowing what's best for the little people and shoving it down their collective throats by whatever means necessary.

The latest smoking gun was the memo reluctantly released after a subpoena by the committee which showed that Attorney General Holder almost certainly lied to them when he testified that he'd only heard about Fast and Furious a 'couple of weeks ago.' The memo showed that he;d actually been thoroughly briefed by Gary Grindler, Holder’s chief of staff and the former acting deputy attorney general as early as March of 2010. And internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before the hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious from the head of the National Drug Intelligence Center and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.

Holder recently hit back with a letter to the chairman and ranking members of three committees with jurisdiction over the DOJ, claiming that the entire investigation and criticism of him in particular was politically motivated. I suppose the race card gets pulled out next.

“It appears your latest defense has reached a new low,” wrote Issa in his reply.

“Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you. At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility in serious doubt.”

While there have been calls for the White House to appoint a special prosecutor, the Obama Administration has so far resisted them. That leads to other questions about exactly how far up the ladder this goes, and what sort of conversations are going on right now between President Obama and his Attorney General.

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Issa Says Fast And Furious Subpoenas Could Come As Early As Next Week

And Attorney General Eric holder is at the top of the list.

Rep. Darrel Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley's investigative committee on the farcical and deadly scheme to allow guns to be purchased and then literally walked across the border for sale to the Mexican drug cartels has to be one of the worst scandals ever to hit American government. It resulted in the death of at least 200 people, including two American border patrol agents, left over 1700 automatic weapons in the hands of some of the worst criminals in the world and it defies common sense.

Unless, as some people have alleged, the whole idea had the agenda in the first place of secretly creating a horrendous situation to game the American people into widespread support for stringent gun control. Of course, if that was the case, than the rationale for the Department of Justice's stonewalling and reluctance to cooperate with the investigation becomes a lot clearer. And the whole thing fits nicely into the typical progressives' notion of knowing what's best for the little people and shoving it down their collective throats by whatever means necessary.

The latest smoking gun was the memo reluctantly released after a subpoena by the committee which showed that Attorney General Holder almost certainly lied to them when he testified that he'd only heard about Fast and Furious a 'couple of weeks ago.' The memo showed that he;d actually been thoroughly briefed by Gary Grindler, Holder’s chief of staff and the former acting deputy attorney general as early as March of 2010. And internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before the hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious from the head of the National Drug Intelligence Center and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.

Holder recently hit back with a letter to the chairman and ranking members of three committees with jurisdiction over the DOJ, claiming that the entire investigation and criticism of him in particular was politically motivated. I suppose the race card gets pulled out next.

“It appears your latest defense has reached a new low,” wrote Issa in his reply.

“Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you. At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility in serious doubt.”

While there have been calls for the White House to appoint a special prosecutor, the Obama Administration has so far resisted them. That leads to other questions about exactly how far up the ladder this goes, and what sort of conversations are going on right now between President Obama and his Attorney General.

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Smoking Gun Surfaces On Fast And Furious - Did AG Eric Holder Lie To Congress?

It certainly looks that way.

Under pressure from Rep. Darrel Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley's investigative committee, The Obama Administration finally did a partial document dump on 'Fast And Furious' , a botched Department of Justice operation that deliberately allowed the sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels. It led to the death of an estimated 200 Mexican citizens and at least one US border patrol agent.

In his testimony at a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder denied he knew anything much about Fast and Furious, saying "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

Now, a number of the internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious from the head of the National Drug Intelligence Center and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.

Rep. Issa said back in June that he was certain Holder knew all about Fast and Furious and implied that he deliberately lied to the committee in his testimony. It looks like he was right.

Holder's story? The officials in those emails were talking about a different case from before Eric Holder became Attorney General. And anyway, Holder misunderstood that question from the committee - he did know about Fast and Furious - just not the details.

That makes him either a liar and perjurer or someone way too incompetent to be Attorney General. Personally, I'd vote for both, especially considering the ongoing coverup.

Just like Watergate, we're left with the same old question - What did Eric Holder know, and when did he know it? And did it go even further up the ladder?

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Smoking Gun Surfaces On Fast And Furious - Did AG Eric Holder Lie To Congress?

It certainly looks that way.

Under pressure from Rep. Darrel Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley's investigative committee, The Obama Administration finally did a partial document dump on 'Fast And Furious' , a botched Department of Justice operation that deliberately allowed the sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels. It led to the death of an estimated 200 Mexican citizens and at least one US border patrol agent.

In his testimony at a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder denied he knew anything much about Fast and Furious, saying "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

Now, a number of the internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious from the head of the National Drug Intelligence Center and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.

Rep. Issa said back in June that he was certain Holder knew all about Fast and Furious and implied that he deliberately lied to the committee in his testimony. It looks like he was right.

Holder's story? The officials in those emails were talking about a different case from before Eric Holder became Attorney General. And anyway, Holder misunderstood that question from the committee - he did know about Fast and Furious - just not the details.

That makes him either a liar and perjurer or someone way too incompetent to be Attorney General. Personally, I'd vote for both, especially considering the ongoing coverup.

Just like Watergate, we're left with the same old question - What did Eric Holder know, and when did he know it? And did it go even further up the ladder?

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