If we are to believe Attorney General Eric Holder, he knew nothing about “Project Gunwalker” while it was being implemented, and did not first hear of it until a few weeks before Darrell Issa asked him about it in a May House Committee on Oversight and Government reform hearing.
If we are to believe him, any briefings he received did not discuss gunwalking. Plus he never read reports from senior staff.
If we are to believe administration apologists, not only is this so, but gunwalking was confined to the Phoenix office and the operations were conducted from the bottom, while senior ATF and DOJ managers were blissfully kept in the dark.
And Issa is on “a witch hunt.” So there.
The purpose of this column is not to debate those points—anyone paying attention knows about the involvement of other departments and agencies and documented reports of gunwalking occurring in other locales.
No, I’d like to address this new “bottom up” meme, slickly articulated by cover-up front man Elijah Cummings yesterday on “Face the Nation”:
And so in other words, it-- it was hatched in the Phoenix office of the ATF. And the-- the sad part about it is that the supervisors in the Phoenix office never communicated with people higher up. And all the evidence that I've seen points that this was a more of a local issue that never got to higher-ups. And certainly there was nothing, that nobody has said that the attorney general was briefed about it…
…Keep in mind we do know that it was the Phoenix office. We-- we know it was hatched there and that's all the-- all the testimony we have heard so far that's what we've heard. And I don't-- and I know that we will get to the-- the very bottom of it. But it is a-- a bottom-up and not a top-down situation. We know that for a fact.
Let us suspend our disbelief (and screaming) and pretend for a moment that Cummings is telling the truth. I know, but try. Here’s what else he and those he shills for are asking us to believe:
No crime has been committed. For that matter, no violations of regulations or policies have been committed, either. Even by those in the Phoenix office.
How do I arrive at that conclusion?
What happens when a law enforcement officer is suspected of criminal involvement? Typically we see them suspended while Internal Affairs conducts an investigation.
That has not happened.
I’ve received and posted a copy of ATF’s “Adverse Action and Discipline” policy and procedure. It covers everything from reprimands to suspensions to terminations, with a special crime provision for those employees who have been arrested or indicted. Despite Holder’s assurance that his Office of Inspector General is on the job and uninfluenced by those they report to, at this point, it looks like no one sanctioning gunwalking has earned themselves so much as a write-up, let alone an indictment.
Besides, does anyone think the Department of Justice would dare test Elijah Cumming’s assertions and indict, say, former Phoenix SAC William Newell, instead of transferring him to the DC office? Does anyone think if they served him up on federal charges that he would stick with the story that nobody above him was green-lighting his actions?
And if we’re to believe Holder and Cummings and the rest of the administration spinners and weavers, here’s something else we must believe:
The only agents who did wrong, warranting chief counsel’s cognizance and internal affairs investigations, and management retaliation/disciplinary actions/termination proceedings, were the whistleblowers.
They were the only bad guys in all of this.
You believe that, don’t you?
Also see:
- Cummings' objection to Issa ATF subpoena ignores own 'Gunwalker' culpability
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A Journalist’s Guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Part Six 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.
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Project Guntalker
I was on two talk radio shows yesterday discussing the latest “Project Gunwalker” developments:
- Click here for my interview with Tom Gresham on Gun Talk Radio.
- Click here to listen to my discussion with Mark Walters on Armed American Radio.
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