Attorney General Eric Holder “called to confirm a permanent ATF Director,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney* asserted during her recognized time in the February 2 House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Fast and Furious hearing.
Dismissing the proceedings as “a politically-motivated fishing trip,” Maloney used the brunt of her time to demand more “gun control,” and to conflate Fast and Furious with previous investigations. She even referenced a video where American Al Qaeda Adam Gadahn told followers to buy “a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check” at gun shows. That this is untrue and demonstrates profound ignorance of existing gun laws did not stop Maloney from exploiting it as a scare tactic to stump for even more.
At 1:26:38 into the hearing recording, Committee Chairman Darrell Issa asked for Maloney to yield, and volunteered:
I join with you in believing that Andrew Traver…should, in fact, be given an up or down vote, should, in fact, be given an opportunity to be confirmed…
Traver was the leading contender for the top slot at ATF whose history of anti-gun activism brought enough political pressure to bear to block his consideration. That Issa ceded this point has taken some aback. The Chairman may believe as a matter of principle that all nominees deserve to be voted on, or it could be a shrewd political move, as savvy observers believe Republicans will benefit from a renewed public gun control debate before the elections. Besides, the actual confirmation process takes place in the Senate, where neither Issa nor Maloney have a say.
Still, if Traver is afforded a renewed opportunity, a Freedom of information Act request filed by Gun Rights Examiner almost a full year ago (with follow-up protests over its incompleteness still unanswered and ignored—in an apparent in-your-face violation of U.S. Code) merits scrutiny. That’s because a series of heavily redacted emails included in the initial FOIA response pointed to a curious inclusion in the communications loop in Feb. 2011:
For instance, there are email responses from the Chicago Field Division with a tag line about never quitting based on the SEAL ethos. A source identifies this as coming from Andrew Traver, who has been nominated by President Obama to be the Bureau’s director. That would place him directly in the decision-making loop on the "Gunwalker" response.
Relevant emails are included in the accompanying slide show, and the scanned FOIA response source document has been posted in this correspondent’s Scribd account since early April, 2011.
If Issa and Maloney’s urgings are heeded, there are some essential questions the Senate must determine answers to, including “What did Andrew Traver know about gunwalking and when did he know it?”
Also see:
- When enforcers have an agenda
- Senate ducks Traver ATF vote
- A Journalist’s Guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' (most current volume) for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner. Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
* Corrected name: Mistakenly wrote "McCarthy" in original post.
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