ATF Feared (Wrongly) That Gun Used To Shoot Gabby Giffords May Have Come From Their Bizarre Fast and Furious Operation; Issa Releases Emails

Hm! No wonder everyone was so eager to build the narrative of a right-wing shooter!

If the gun itself was the product of a left-wing administration's botched plan (which I still do not understand the goal of), then damnit, we're going to need the hand holding to be right-wing, for "balance."

Now, Holder has claimed he knew nothing of this operation.

Do these emails refresh the witness' recollection?

“Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case and they also believe we…are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Grouops doing. It may sound cheesy but we are ‘The tip of the ATF spear’ when it comes to Southwest Border Firearms Trafficking,” Voth wrote.

If the agents didn’t like it, “Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day,” Voth wrote.

Dodson said he was told “the U.S. Attorney is on board, and it was Mr. [Emory] Hurley, and they say there is nothing illegal going on.”

What's HQ? I suppose it could be the U.S. Attorney's office. "HQ" sure sounds like more than that, though.

I like the threat to fire ATF agents who aren't willing to along with this deadly, stupid "plan." That's sweet. Tell your boss you're uncomfortable giving machine-guns to narcoterrorists, get threatened with a firing.*

Gee, I wonder why more agents aren't willing to speak up.

More talk of "HQ" keeping a close watch on the plan, which took the lives of two American agents:

“We are all entitled to our respective (albeit different) opinions however we all need to get along and realize that we have a mission to accomplish.”

He added: “Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case and they also believe we are doing what they envisioned.”

"People of rank and authority at HQ," huh? Well that does not sound like the U.S. Attorney to me. You'd just say "The U.S. Attorney."

So who are these unnamed persons of rank and authority at HQ?

Update: Duh, now that I think about it, "HQ" could just mean ATF HQ.

I suppose that's likely. But... if top-ranking ATF HQ people are watching, and the U.S. Attorney (Holder's boy) is watching, are they alone in watching?

LiveStream of Hearing: On CSPAN.

Thanks to Miss80sBaby.

* It's apparently more important than I thought to note an AK-47 is an assault rifle, not a machine-gun (or even submachinegun), and there seems to be some debate over how easily an AK-47 can be converted from civilian-model semi-auto to military-model full auto.

This was what we call "rhetoric."

But some don't like the idea that legal civilian semi-auto AK-47s are being called "machine guns," and it's a fair point, the media does insist on miscategorizing weaponry for dramatic/political effect.

posted by Ace at 12:08 PM

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