"Deportation officer accused of smuggling marijuana" October 20, 2011|Associated Press
PHOENIX - A deportation officer with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement led Arizona State Police and federal agents on a high-speed desert chase in his government vehicle, throwing bundles of marijuana out of the window as he fled, the state Department of Public Safety said yesterday.
The deportation officer, identified as Jason Alistair Lowery, 34, had been under surveillance for more than month after a known smuggler who had been arrested gave authorities a tip about the officer in an effort to get lenient treatment, according to Carrick Cook, an officer with the state agency....
Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated federal law enforcement agencies along the border for years, targeting hiring initiatives with their own people or recruiting officers.
Actually, it goes both ways.
Yup, turns out the GOVERNMENT is the BIGGEST DRUG DEALER in AmeriKa!
Between 2003 and early 2010, 129 US customs officers and Border Patrol agents were arrested on corruption charges, according to Tom Frost, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant inspector general for investigations....
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Let me exhale before getting to Holder:
"Furiously Scrubbing Reality
A cheap talking head on the Rachel Maddow show discussing the 'fast and furious' hearings said "Once you immerse yourself in this issue it's like being on acid." That was an insult to good acid, which probably can't even be found anymore, but in a way correct in that the government and media are attempting to alter perception and create a reality that has little to do with what has happened and is happening.
The media is actually all on the same side and as they march along they have this Drill Sargent screaming left-right, left-right, left-right so that they stay in line and keep their respective talking points in focus.
Republicans pretend 'gunwalker' was a leftist plot to try and further enact some gun control. Democrats pretend the repubs and the hearing and contempt charges are just wanting to make Holder and Obama look bad in an election year. Obama invokes 'executive privilege' to protect internal discussions and deliberations and the spin and debate will continue until the public is tired of hearing about it and moves on to something else.
I can only speculate and ask questions but doesn't government arms running and drug trafficking go hand in hand? Could it be that the real cover-up from both sides of the cesspool is to distract us from the fact that the U.S. government, CIA and accessories are the biggest dope traffickers in the world. This speculation will not be discussed on the nightly news.
Was 'fast and furious' set up as some sort of plausible deniability scenario in case the heavy duty big number gun running operations of the U.S. were found out? We supply the cartels directly or by proxy don't we? What do we get in return?
I've wondered about the weapons found at the scene of the dead border patrol agent. Was it as simple as the shooter(s) ditched the guns so as not to be caught with the evidence or were they left there on purpose to point at the relatively minor 'furious' operation and keep us occupied away from the bigger suppliers? Maybe that's going a little too far down the rabbit hole but rabbit holes do exist. Perhaps it's as basic as a big screw up by the feds in one of their many little operations.
The U.S. government, CIA and military drug running have a long history. From Vietnam to Iran-Contra to Mena to CIA creation of crack for the ghettos to Afghanistan today the evidence is overwhelming. Few reporters are going to touch it. They remember Gary Webb. (The Dark Alliance by Gary Webb pdf)
As always when there's big money involved, there are the banks at the center of the crime scene. The Mexican cartels and others needed money laundered and Wachovia gladly obliged.
A slew of federal charges filed in 2009 by Federal prosecutors in Florida hit Wachovia with the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act in U.S. history.Even the UN reported this:
Douglas Edwards, senior vice president of Wachovia Bank confessed they didn't do enough to spot illicit funds in handling the $378.4 billions for the Mexico's Casa Cambios. But Edwards declined to answer specific questions including how much they earned for handling the billions of dollars for the currency operation.
Overall, the amount of drug proceeds ($378 billion dollars) that the CDC deposited into Wachovia Bank actually equaled one third of Mexico's entire $1.4 trillion dollar annual GDP.
As part of the agreement Wachovia agreed to pay the government a fine of $110 million dollars with an additional fine of $50 million dollars to be paid to the U.S. Treasury Department. The total fine of $160 million dollars was less than 2% of the bank's $12.3 billion dollars in profit made in 2009. By the time Wachovia agreed to pay the hefty fine, Wells Fargo purchased Wachovia during the banking crisis for $12.7 billion. Then Wells Fargo reaped a windfall from the government, a gift of $25 billion dollars of taxpayers money as part of President Obama stimulus package in 2009. more
Drugs money saved some banks from collapse at the height of the global crisis the United Nations' drugs and crime chief claimed.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, told the Observer that there were signs that some banks were rescued by billions of dollars that 'originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities.'
He said he had seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were the 'only liquid investment capital' available to some banks on the verge of collapse last year.
Costa said that as a result, a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economics system, effectively laundering it. more
We are trapped in a media acid trip and we're not going to come down from it anytime soon. The bankers and their contractors will make every attempt to see to it. Our only chance is to spread the word ourselves. I see a great number of folks open to the idea of our government as the dope dealers and the big banks as the money launderers. It's way past time to end this madness.
--MORE w/VIDEO--"
Almost forgot what I was doing I was so engrossed in that analysis.
Now that you have some perspective here is what I'm finding in my morning paper:
"Obama invokes executive privilege in gun inquiry" by Callum Borchers | Globe Correspondent, June 20, 2012
A House committee voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt Wednesday for not releasing documents related to Operation Fast and Furious, a botched gun-tracking operation in which federal agents permitted Mexican drug smugglers to buy thousands of firearms that were eventually used in crimes.
Earlier in the day, President Obama had invoked executive privilege to deny the committee the papers it sought. Obama’s assertion of executive privilege — the president’s right to withhold information from Congress or the courts — was the first of his presidency and an escalation of a protracted power struggle between his administration and congressional Republicans.
As a senator in 2007, Obama condemned the use of executive privilege
by President George W. Bush, saying, “There’s been a tendency on the
part of this administration to try to hide behind executive privilege
every time there’s something a little shaky that’s taking place.”
The Mitt Romney campaign quickly labeled Obama a hypocrite. “President Obama’s pledge to run the most open and transparent administration in history has turned out to be just another broken promise,” campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement....
And Mitt will do the same when he assumes office.
The move makes possible a wide range of scenarios: It could prove to be purely symbolic or, with a full House vote to hold Holder in contempt of Congress, lead to Holder’s prosecution by the US attorney in Washington — a tricky prospect because US attorneys are Holder subordinates.
Contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine and 12 months in prison. No attorney general has ever been held in contempt of Congress.
And we've had some crooks in that office. Who could every forget Alberto Gonzales or Ed Meese?
The committee is seeking documents produced after Feb. 4, 2011, when the Justice Department sent a letter to the committee denying the use of “gunwalking” tactics in Fast and Furious. The Justice Department later retracted the letter, after whistleblowers said federal agents did use such tactics between 2009 and 2011, when they neglected to stop the purchase of about 2,000 guns by members of a Mexican drug cartel and allowed the smugglers to “walk” the guns over the border.
And point-of-fact Obama has been harsher on whistleblowers than Bush.
Federal agents hoped to trace the weapons back to the cartel. But the agents lost track of most of the guns, which have since been used in multiple crimes, including the December 2010 shooting death of US Customs and Border Protection agent Brian Terry.
The failed operation sparked a congressional investigation that centers on questions about who knew of and authorized the risky gunwalking, and who tried to cover it up.
Both Holder and Obama have denied involvement.
But Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, who initiated the investigation, said Obama’s invocation of executive privilege casts serious doubt over his administration’s claim that it knew nothing about the gunwalking or its cover-up....
In a letter to the committee’s Republican chairman, California Representative Darrell Issa, Deputy Attorney General James Cole repeated the Justice Department’s position that “leadership did not intend to mislead Congress” when it stated falsely that no gunwalking had occurred. It also noted that the Justice Department has issued a ban on the “flawed tactics” used in the operation....
Some Democrats on the committee suggested Issa’s dogged pursuit of the documents is aimed at embarrassing Holder and the Obama administration in an election year....
--more--"
"Boehner takes hard line on Holder contempt vote; Speaker insists White House turn over files" by Larry Margasak | Associated Press, June 22, 2012
WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner demanded Thursday that the Obama administration give in and turn over documents related to a botched gun-tracking operation, insisting that is the only way to stop a House vote to hold the attorney general in contempt.
Boehner took a hard line against the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric Holder despite a willingness by House Republicans and Holder to negotiate a settlement before the matter becomes a constitutional crisis....
Or a s*** diversion.
Two guns that were allowed to ‘‘walk’’ from Arizona to Mexico in the failed effort to track weapons were found near Terry after he was killed.
‘‘The Terry family deserves answers about why their son was killed as a result of an operation run by the United States government,’’ Boehner told his weekly news conference....
They also deserve an answer regarding all the lies told that got their sons and daughters killed in wars!!
Gun-walking has long been barred by Justice Department policy, but federal agents in Arizona experimented with it in at least two investigations during the George W. Bush administration before Fast and Furious....
Hey, look, it's okay when the top law enforcement department in this country breaks the law.
House Democrats gave no ground. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California accused Republicans of pursuing Holder to retaliate against his effort to stop suppression of voters in the upcoming elections. ‘‘I’m telling you, this is connected,’’ she told reporters....
Oh, she is telling us so it must be true (as blog editor rolls his eyes toward the ceiling).
And what's this I heard about being able to arrest Karl Rove anytime?
Then WHY DIDNJA?!!!!!!!
Maybe if you had he wouldn't be destroying the Democraps with Cro$$roads cash.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said there was ‘‘absolutely’’ no cover-up on the Fast and Furious controversy....
Confirmation there is one.
Democrats contended that the 23 to 17 party-line contempt vote in committee Wednesday was just political theater. The committee’s top Democrat, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, called the vote ‘‘an extreme, virtually unprecedented action based on election-year politics rather than fact.’’
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Related: Working Fastly and Furiously On Mexican Post
You now, it is not the egregious gun- and drug-running that bothers me so much as the waterboarding and the end of American justice -- although I must admit the drug- and gun-running have killed a hell of a lot more people.
Either way, he should be impeached if he doesn't resign.
