“This is in reference to your Freedom of Information Act request for access to information maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,” the response letter from Marilyn R. LaBrie, Team Leader, Disclosure Division begins.
The purpose of the request was to determine information provided to Sen. Chuck Grassley in a briefing he’d requested concerning “Project Gunwalker” allegations.
“Your request is granted in part,” LaBrie continues. "We are releasing the disclosable portions of the documents and withholding portions for the reasons shown on the cover sheet that accompanies the documents."
“In part” is an understatement, but hardly unexpected, as this correspondent predicted:
And no, I don’t expect anything earth-shaking, but I do expect anything I get will be telling in terms of what it doesn’t say.
What it doesn’t say is anything at all having to do with the primary request for “all documents, to include agendas, presentations and handouts containing information” related to the briefing itself. None were included in the response, nor was any acknowledgment even made that these were omitted.
Nor was there any apparent attempt to comply with the secondary request for “any memorandum, report, summary or other communication that describes what happened at the meeting, including a description of any oral briefing and what was said by both sides, and...copies of any such documents filed or stored, or designated for filing and storage, at the Office of Public and Government Affairs.”
What was received instead is a series of tangentially-related redacted email copies, many in the planning stages for the briefing, with names and email addresses blacked out, along with much of the information being transmitted. The 142 pages have been scanned into a single file that can be read here. Some of the highlights, as well as some of the more blatant examples of information withholding, are included in the sidebar to this story.
Still, some information has been gleaned.
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.
There is speculation that Sen. Chuck Grassley pulled attachments off a posted report (what Gun Rights Examiner was the first to post under the title “Rosetta Stone”). There’s an email telling how a whistleblower was “’called to the carpet,’ caused to participate in two meetings, was accused of lying in the first meeting, and was ordered to write a memorandum disclosing everything that he/she had told the Senator’s staff.”
There’s more, many details that interested parties can analyze and follow up on. There are threads that experienced analysts and investigators working to facilitate inquiries by Sen. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa will be able to pull to corroborate information they’ve already uncovered, and new leads for them to look into.
Something that will get them a bit closer to the truth than “a 30,000 foot description of how we investigate gun trafficking” (see sheet 21/file page 28), which is not even close to what Sen. Grassley asked for…
Also see:
- FOIA response (142 pages)
- FOIA request filed with ATF over Grassley ‘Gunwalker’ briefing
- ATF to grant ‘Project Gunwalker’ FOIA inquiry ‘in part’
A journalist’s guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' Part One and Part Two for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner.
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Project Guntalker
Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and I both had "Project Gunwalker"-related radio interviews on Sunday.
Listen to Mike on Tom Gresham's Gun Talk Radio Show with guest host Brian Wilson here.
My update segment with Mark Walters on Armed American Radio is here.
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