Holder bragged about Operation Gunrunner in 2009

[IScreamSundays]

Source: Washington Examiner

On May 3, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa's committee that he only learned about the government's sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels "in the last few weeks."

But Big Government found a 2009 speech by Holder on the Department of Justice's own website that proves the attorney general was well aware of Operation Gunrunner back in 2009:

The problem with Holder’s feigned ignorance is that he gave a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation 'Gunrunner” and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success.

When questioned by the media, Holder also denied knowing anything about Gunrunner:

"Holder's office at first vehemently denied ATF has ever knowingly allowed weapons to get into the hands of suspected gunrunners for Mexico's drug cartels," CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported.

But at the arms trafficking conference in Cuernavaca, Holder not only acknowledged the program, he bragged that he was in the process of expanding it:

"Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail."


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[Kolesar]

1. Right-wing slant for free in DC's new daily paper, the Washington Examiner

Right-wing slant for free in DC's new daily paper, the Washington Examiner
February 02, 2005 8:24 pm ET
0 Comments

On February 1, a free daily tabloid arrived on newsstands and in mailboxes in the Washington, DC area: the Washington Examiner. The new paper is owned by Denver billionaire Philip F. Anschutz, an Evangelical Presbyterian who has bankrolled numerous ultra-conservative causes and has donated at least half a million dollars to Republican committees and political candidates. The Examiner's first three editorials all took hardline conservative positions.
...

http://mediamatters.org/research/200502030002

[Long Shadow]

5. If, as you say, the story is slanted and Holder did not utter the quote...

he can sue them. Are you defending Holder, or simply attacking the messenger?

"Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail."

[cherokeeprogressive]

7. Here's a link to his speech directly from the DOJ's website. Not exactly a secret.

http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090402.html

[jpak]

2. More nutjob GOP anti-gummint black helicopter fearin' crapahola

Why is this LBN on DU?

[onehandle]

3. 'Remember Ruby Ridge' 'news' of the day. nt

[Upton]

4. Yep..

http://salem-news.com/articles/july092011/holder-atf-death-tk.php

[jimmyflint]

6. I'm not surprised.

I would be surprised if lawyers with the DOJ didn't lie. Over the past few decades DOJ lawyers lying seems to be par for the course, Attorneys General included imo.

[Octafish]

8. You can't run a mob in Prohibition without guns.

Where would that lead?
No Prohibition?
Then, there'd be no profits.
That's un-American.

[X_Digger]

9. Not necessarily..

Project Gunrunner is an umbrella project from the previous administration.

Project 'Fast and Furious' does fall under the aegis of PG, but knowledge of one does not mean knowledge of the other.


Now, some DOJ official signed off on the warrants that the ATF wanted in gun shops so that they could watch suspected gun runners- but we don't know how compartmentalized that knowledge was kept.

Don't jump the gun (pun intended).


eta: For those who might not know the difference.. 'Project Gunrunner' is the general initiative at the ATF to stop gun running to mexican cartels. 'Project Fast and Furious' is the ill-thought-out project to allow (even pay for, if the latest allegations have any truth) guns to be sold to known cartel contacts, on the vague expectation that they would be able to trace them to MX. Nobody can explain how these guns were to be tracked- other than being recovered at crime scenes- which is what happened at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Terry's murder.