Fast and Furious Lawsuit Filed by Parents of Murdered HSI Agent

A lawsuit charging government conspiracy and cover-up was filed last week in the United States District Court Southern District of Texas Brownsville Division by the parents of murdered ICE Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Jamie Zapata and Special Agent Victor Avila, Jr.

The lawsuit was filed against the government, straw purchasers, individual government officials, gun dealers and others deemed to share in responsibility per the complaint.

The complaint charges the United States government breached its duties “by failing to abide by policies regarding arms export regulations; safe travel; proper oversight of employees; issuing defective vehicles; gunwalking; failing to disclose known dangers involving gunwalking; and Defendant’s continued violations.

“Defendant’s violation of these statutes and federal firearm laws and regulations constitute negligence per se,” the complaint continues. “Defendant, having knowledge of the dangers posed by the violation of the statutes, proceeded with the violation of public safety statutes and federal laws and regulations in conscious disregard for the lives and safety of their agents, including Agents Zapata and Avila.

Included in the list of answers the plaintiffs are seeking is the key question that has so far evaded investigators in determining a definitive answer for: “Who authorized the gunwalking? Where is/are he/she/they now?

The Obama administration has not been objectively covered by the main stream media.  The lame stream media is using the First Amendment to promote a liberal fascist agenda, making both the broadcast and print media a progressive propaganda machine for the the the Democrat Party.

Perhaps this lawsuit will force the defendants to share the truth about Fast and Furious and the cover up. 

“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.” ― Bruce Coville

ATF Taking Comments on "Sporting Purposes" Exemption to "Armor Piercing Ammunition"

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is taking public comments on its website until December 31, with regard to how it should determine what types of projectiles meet the “sporting purposes” exception to the federal “armor piercing ammunition” law. At this time, the question centers primarily around rifle-caliber projectiles made of metals harder than lead, such as the Barnes Bullets solid brass hunting bullets.

Under the law, adopted in 1986, “armor piercing ammunition” is defined as “a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium.” A second definition, added in the 1990s, includes “a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.”

Because handguns have been made in certain rifle calibers, many bullets that were designed originally for rifles also “may be used in a handgun.” If such projectiles are made of the metals listed in the law, they are restricted as “armor piercing ammunition” unless they meet one of the law’s exemptions. Being considered at this time is the exemption for “a projectile which the Attorney General finds is primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes.”

Last week, ATF met separately with gun control activist groups, firearm industry groups, and groups representing hunters and other gun owners. The latter meeting included the NRA; Safari Club International; representatives of state wildlife agencies; and firearm and ammunition importers.

ATF has expressed two opinions about the law and exemption that warrant particular scrutiny.

First, ATF suggested that it believes that the “armor piercing ammunition” law was intended to affect all ammunition capable of penetrating soft body armor worn by law enforcement officers. NRA reminded ATF that the law was intended to protect law enforcement officers against the potential threat posed a very narrowly-defined category of projectiles: those, such as KTW and Arcane, which by virtue of their hard metal construction were designed and intended to be used by law enforcement officers to shoot through hard objects, such as automobile glass and doors, when fired at the velocities typical of handgun-caliber ammunition fired from handguns. Neither before nor since the law’s enactment, has an officer been killed due to such a bullet penetrating soft body armor.

NRA further pointed out that the legislative history of the law clearly shows that members of Congress, including the sponsor of the law in the House, Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.), a decorated former NYPD police officer, expressly did not want the law to restrict rifle-caliber bullets that happen to also be useable in handguns chambered to use rifle cartridges.

Second, ATF says it considers projectiles to not be exempt under the “sporting purposes” test if they “pose a threat to public safety and law enforcement.”  ATF also expressed concern that since the law was adopted, various new rifle-caliber handguns have been invented. On that point, NRA made clear that the sporting purposes exemption is straightforward: it applies to all projectiles that are “primarily intended for sporting purposes”—nothing more, and nothing less. Under the law, a projectile would be exempt if it is primarily intended for sporting purposes, even if it is secondarily intended for self-defense or some other legitimate purpose. Furthermore, the law does not condition its restrictive language or its “sporting purposes” exemption on the design of a particular handgun; the law is concerned only with specific projectiles that can be used in handguns. NRA cautioned the ATF against interpreting the law in a manner more restrictive than Congress intended.

For more information on ATF’s position and information on how to submit comments by the Dec. 31 deadline, go to www.atf.gov/firearms/industry/.

ATF Operation Fast and Furious Update

We received a report from Jeff Pittman that DOJ officials heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious and named as partially responsible for the program’s failure have been stripped of their government security clearances.  Others are being fired, demoted, and transferred. Criminal charges are also reportedly pending after investigations by both DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the House Oversight Committee.

The report indicates that former ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division Bill Newell, former ATF Special Agent in Charge of Operations in the West Bill McMahon and former Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division George Gillett have been fired while former Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jim Needles and Field Supervisor David Voth have been demoted.

Voth is also being sued for libel by ATF whistleblower agent John Dodson. Hope McAllister, the lead case agent for Fast and Furious, has been put on leave and transferred out of Phoenix. McMahon has been on paid administrative leave while also receiving a six-figure salary in the Philippines from J.P. Morgan, the same bank that issues ATF’s agency credit cards, according to Pittman.

We understand that these punitive actions are not only in response to the subject officials’ involvement in F&F, but also result from their mishandling of ATF agent Jay Dobyns’ arson case. Dobyns’ home was burned by criminals in retaliation to Dobyns’ ATF work, and ATF ignored the case. All the mentioned ATF officials are expected to receive full retirement benefits.

Pittman also received information that Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley may subpoena a former White House staffer who traded at least one e-mail with one of the officials involved in Fast and Furious at the ATF’s Phoenix field office.

So far the Teflon Obamanation has escaped culpability because the liberal fascist main stream media propaganda main has its back.  Anyone who has worked in federal law enforcement knows an Operation that involved gun walking to Mexico would most certainly have required approval at the highest levels of government, including the Attorney General and White House. 

Don't Ever Forget Operation Fast and Furious

Barack Hussein Obama filed court papers this week to get the House of Representatives lawsuit against his corrupt Attorney General Eric Holder thrown out.

The House lawsuit asks the court to reject a claim of executive privilege by the President, who sealed thousands of documents relating to Fast & Furious, a Justice Department operation that facilitated the smuggling of thousands of U.S. weapons south of the border.

Obama calls the House lawsuit a mere “political dispute” between the branches of government. But this is much more than a political dispute. People died as a result of Fast Furious, which makes it much worse than even Watergate where no one died. Fast & Furious has led to the deaths of more than 200 Mexicans and at least one U.S. federal agent, though most likely it was two.

Mitt Romney told the American people during the presidential debate this week that Fast & Furious guns were used to kill people on both sides of the border. “They [drug lords] used those weapons against – against their own citizens and killed Americans with them,” Romney said. “And this was a … program of the [U.S.] government.”

Romney then went on to challenge Obama for using executive privilege to cover up the administration’s role in Operation Fast & Furious: “[I]t’s one of the great tragedies related to violence in our society which has occurred during this administration. Which I think the American people would like to understand fully, it’s been investigated to a degree, but [the] administration has carried out executive privilege to prevent all of the information from coming out.”

This was the first time that many Americans heard of Operation Fast and Furious because Obama controls most of the main stream media.

Obama is invoked executive privilege, simply as an attempt to cover up details as to why the U.S. government would help send guns south of the border. Of course, we in the gun-owning community know why. It was an attempt to justify support for new gun regulations.

As stated by Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News: “[Justice Department] emails show they discussed using the sales, including [Fast & Furious] sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called ‘Demand Letter 3.’ That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or ‘long guns.’”

In other words, Operation Fast & Furious was intended to help the administration justify calls for a new gun registration scheme, which was eventually implemented (illegally and without Congressional authority) in four southwestern border states.

This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future! - Adolph Hitler, 1935, on The Weapons Act of Nazi Germany

Fast and Furious Whistle Blower Retaliation at ATF

Special Agent Vince Cefalu has been terminated, a post by the webmaster for the CleanUpATF website announced Tuesday.

“ATF’s San Francisco hatchet men just served Special Agent Vince Cefalu with termination papers in the parking lot of a Dennys,” the post reports. “They did this over a year and half after proposing the termination. Notwithstanding the transparently trumped-up nature of the so-called ‘charges’ in question, proposing a termination and then executing it over a year and a half later is prima facie evidence that the action is unsustainable and is virtually certain to be reversed on appeal.”

Characterizing “the allegations used as a basis for the adverse action” as “laughably unfounded, deliberately fabricated, and relying largely on the testimony of ATF officials who committed easily-provable felony perjury in open court and later in sworn depositions,” the webmaster predicted “that a number of the people involved in this grotesque act of bald-faced unlawful retaliation and obstruction of justice will do significant jail time before this is all over.”

The well-known whistle-blower in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed to FoxNews.com that he was fired this week.  He says his complaints about Operation Fast and Furious played a role in his dismissal.  Vince Cefalu said he was served his termination papers Tuesday in a Denny’s parking lot in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. But he doesn’t plan to go quietly.

“It will be challenged,” he said.

Cefalu, who’s served as an ATF special agent for 25 years, was first notified of the plan to fire him more than a year ago but had been on administrative leave until now. He said officials told him he was being canned for “lack of candor,” in reference to a handful of statements he made in testimony in a separate court case.

However, Cefalu has been outspoken against ATF practices for years and told FoxNews.com that his whistle-blowing on Fast and Furious “was the final straw.”

Cefalu was one of the founders of the Clean Up ATF website (CUATF) , a virtual platform for complaints about the agency. He was among the first to speak up about Fast and Furious, the failed anti-gunrunning operation that let thousands of guns slip across the U.S.-Mexico border. Weapons from the program were founded at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

An inspector general report on the operation released in September was highly critical of both the ATF and officials at the Justice Department.

The ATF, though, has previously denied that it was retaliating against Cefalu.

ATF spokesman Drew Wade confirmed that Cefalu “separated” from the agency on Tuesday, though Wade could not comment further.

“Because of privacy laws and internal policies, we can’t talk about personnel matters,” he said.

Cefalu’s first run-in with higher-ups at ATF came when he objected to what he considered to be an illegal wiretap in a 2005 case unrelated to Fast and Furious, which didn’t launch until years later.

He told FoxNews.com last year that those complaints marked “the beginning of the end.”