BREAKING NEWS: CBS News to air 2nd ‘Project Gunwalker’ segment and Grassley writes Holder again
“An ATF agent tells CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson that he was ordered to sit by and watch guns get into the hands of criminals in Mexico,” CBS News reports.
See the sidebar video for a preview of what we’ll see tonight, in what Attkisson says will be an “extraordinary follow up” to her first report which aired on Feb. 23.
“We will hear from an insider,” she says, “who is telling us on the record and on camera, how it worked that thousands of guns were allowed to go in the hands of suspected criminals with ATF knowing that they would turn up in drug cartels in Mexico where they’d be used in crimes.”
But the agents who objected within their own agency were repeatedly rebuffed, they were told to keep their mouths shut, to stop complaining about it, in one case we have an internal email that describes a supervisor telling somebody ‘If you don’t like it you can go work for the Maricopa County Jail—if this isn’t fun to you then you can go find something else to do.’
‘Department of Justice ATF have both denied that it ever happened,” Attkisson concludes, “but we have evidence to the contrary, we have documentary evidence as well as testimony and interviews with agents who are actually involved.”
Here is the full press release, just forwarded from The CBS News Evening News with Katie Couric:
March 3, 2011
TONIGHT ON THE “CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC”:
IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, ATF AGENT RISKS JOB TO SPEAK ABOUT GUNRUNNING SCANDAL
Agent Tells CBS News: “The More Our Guys Buy, the More Violence We’re Having Down Here”
Tonight on the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC (6:30 PM, ET), CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson will follow up on her February 23 report about a major scandal within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). In an exclusive interview with Attkisson, a Phoenix-based ATF agent risks his job to describe the practice of letting guns “walk,” and gives an insider’s perspective about how the ATF knowingly contributed to the escalating violence in Mexico and American border states to that country.
Following are advance excerpts from tonight’s broadcast.
On his bosses’ denial of the gunrunning practice and going public:
ATF Agent: “I’m here boots on the ground in Phoenix, telling you we’ve been doing it every day since I’ve been here. Here I am. Tell me I didn’t do the things that I did. Tell me you didn’t order me to do the things I did. Tell me it didn’t happen. Now you have a name on it, you have a face to put with it. Here I am. Someone now – tell me it didn’t happen.”
On role of ATF in violence in Mexico:
Sharyl Attkisson: “Did you feel that the ATF was partly to blame for the escalating violence in Mexico, and on the border:
Agent: “Yes ma’am. I even asked them if they could see the correlation between the two. The more our guys buy, the more violence we’re having down there.”
On finding two assault rifles at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and hoping to help Terry’s family:
Agent: “I felt guilty. I mean it’s crushing. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Agent: “First of all, I’d tell them that I’m sorry. Second of all, I’d tell them I’ve done everything that I can for them to get the truth. After this, I don’t know what else I can do. But I hope they get it.”
Sharyl Attkisson’s full report broadcasts tonight on the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC. Web exclusive elements will be available at www.cbsnews.com after 6:30 PM, ET tonight.
* * *
Be sure and tune into the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric tonight at 6:30 pm. And tell everyone you know.
Please donate and support Oath Keepers mission, every little bit helps!
March 3rd, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Wow. That was it?
I scrambled like my ass was on fire to find this because I got the e-mail like 5 minutes before air time and with no TV (right, I have no TV) I had to find a CBS stream video. But everything in the report is already in the press release. Really. Watching was a waste of my time – I had already read every word.
I am however, happy that this made prime-time news. Its a few more facts that prove the Bradys and Bloombergs of this world just live in a little fantasy world of their own, and a good blow against the BATFE gestapo. The sooner that agency is buried completely, the better off all true patriots will be.
March 3rd, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Just something for Mrs.Clinton to scream about and lie. other way for gun control.
March 3rd, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Wow I cant believe CBS even reported it, I have been boycotting CBS since the Presidential election, I still cant stand em!
March 3rd, 2011 at 6:14 pm
I’m shocked this was covered on MSM. It needs more exposure!
March 3rd, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Let’s give credit where it is due. Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea broke this story months ago, and the only reason CBS has the story is because of them.
For daily updates and access to the paperwork being filed, check here:
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/
Oath Keepers is important, but so is the 3%. Different tactics, but the same goal.
March 6th, 2011 at 7:01 am
Nothing the agencies of the federal government do can surprise me. On a more positive vein, the YouTube video by Oath Keepers is absolutely awe inspiring. Let each of us vow to honor these commitments.
March 6th, 2011 at 7:06 am
I agree with CorbinKale in post #5 – Vanderboegh and Codrea should be fully credited with breaking this story and with persisting in getting the story out to the people.
I am writing an article on this and will make sure that the credit goes to the III percenters and to Codrea’s gun rights website on Examiner dot com.
For anyone wanting the professional source for the timeline of all facts involved in this story, please visit this webpage -
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/a-journalist-s-guide-to-project-gunwalker?cid=parsely#parsely
Also of note – some readers here are surprised that “CBS even reported it”. That is a good example of the power in consciousness. CBS, like other networks, is struggling with credibility within the viewership of the American population. As they have watched their numbers go down due to viewer apathy, they have been forced to improve, to keep up with what the Internet has made available to the public in terms of “news”, and to finally become willing to publish some truth – just to survive in the business world of media. The Internet, and the interaction of people on that Internet, is exactly why CBS published this story. My message in noting this is that we the people are making gains in forcing the media to give us responsible coverage. Keep it up!
Salute!
Elias
March 6th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Federal law enforcement is conspiring against your rights.
It sounds like a plot-line from a bad action movie on late night cable.
Unfortunately, it’s also true.
David Codrea from The Examiner has put together an astonishing work of investigative journalism showing just how deep and tangled the web of lies is that the ATF has woven.
Originally, the ATF – using their “Project Gunrunner” – set out to show just how many firearms were being bought in the United States and smuggled into Mexico.
But the numbers didn’t add up quite the way the ATF wanted them to, so…
…they made up their own.
In an ongoing investigation he dubbed “Project Gunwalker,” Codrea has obtained evidence that the ATF not only made up some of the numbers, but they openly allowed several weapons to walk across the border in the hands of drug-runners so they could pad their stats and secure more funding.
I wish I were making this up, but sadly, it gets worse.
According to ATF agents, one of the firearms allowed to cross the border illegally was used in a December 2010 shooting…
…A shooting that cost the life of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent.
The articles on The Examiner go into much more detail, but for me, this was more than enough.
An over-funded, power-hungry and entirely unnecessary law enforcement agency enables criminals to do their worst simply so they can grab even more funding and power.
And a law enforcement agent loses his life in the process.
It has become so bad within the ATF that numerous agents have refused to step forward to tell their story due to their concerns regarding how high up in the Justice Department this scandal could go.
Maybe all the way to the top.
Perhaps even to the Obama inner circle. Remember their mantra: “never let a crisis go to waste.”
Let me make a prediction: when federal agencies are begging Congress for funding, the ATF is going to spin this in a way that excuses their incompetence due to a lack of funding.
And they are going to ask for more.
They will cry and whine that they weren’t able to do enough with what they have, so they should be given more power and more money in order to have a further reach.
But that’s not a prediction – just this week, that’s exactly what happened.
In the latest budget proposal, the ATF has asked for almost 200 new agents, and $54 million in slush funds… money we all know will be used for stings against mere paperwork violations and general mayhem within the firearms community.
Our plan is to quash this budget increase.
But the sad fact of the matter is that most members of Congress don’t even know about Project Gunwalker.
After all, would you know about it from watching Fox News, CNN or ABC?
They won’t even touch this story.
And that’s where you come in.
I need you to make your Congressman aware of what is happening inside the ATF.
David Codrea has done a great job at The Examiner of exposing this story and informing a large number of people.
I want every member of Congress to know about this abuse of the law and to know how much the ATF has run amok with its power.
If they don’t know, the ATF will just grow and grow with unchecked power and increased funding.
And don’t expect the institutional “gun lobby” to oppose budget increases and power expansions at the ATF – they’ve been in bed with them for decades.
Remember, the ATF is the organization tasked with enforcing gun control.
Do you want this kind of abuse to happen once they start enforcing some sort of draconian new Obama Administration gun law?
What if another assault weapons ban passes? The ATF will be given even more money and more power to enforce unconstitutional laws.
That is what will happen… unless you alert your Congressman to this illegal activity going on at the top levels of the ATF.
Call your Senators and Congressman and let them know about Project Gunwalker and the insidious abuses of power within the ATF.
They have to be stopped now before more law enforcement officers and law-abiding citizens lose their lives.
Show Congress that limiting government powers – the mandate you sent them to Washington with in the 2010 elections – includes over-zealous, redundant law enforcement agencies drunk with their own power.
Tell them about law enforcement agents dying because the ATF thinks it knows what’s best for our country.
Project Gunrunner must be exposed.
And that won’t happen until more members of Congress know about it.
I need you to make that happen.
After all, laws are meaningless if the people enforcing them think they are above them.
Fire the head of ATF, fire Janet Napoliano, fire eric holder, kill the ATF dept as These communist U.N. supporters want more form Obama sercuirty of arms of U.N.. wake up Americans.Look at comieblaster.com.www.infowars/bombshell-barack,Obama doesnt want you see this, Obama deception full lenght Hq version dvd,and Police state 4 The rise of Fema, all on you tube. Obama uses the cloward piven straegy and saul alinky.
Please tell others it is not the time to sleep. Commies in government we love.