All posts in Janet Napolitano

Congressman blasts ICE for releasing alleged child rapist

by Admin on March 24, 2012 in Homeland Security, ICE, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Janet Napolitano with 1 Comment

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 06: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (R) speaks at a news conference with Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton October 6, 2010 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released an illegal immigrant and alleged child rapist — who is accused of incest — because he has a child who is a U.S. citizen and has no prior criminal convictions or immigration violations.

After being released, the suspect, Amado Espinoza-Ramirez, escaped his ankle bracelet. He skipped out on his next immigration court hearing and is now a fugitive from justice, free in the United States.

ICE’s explanation for Espinoza-Ramirez’s release is part of a press release by Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas. The Judiciary Committee has oversight over immigration policy.

Smith was moved to act following a report from The Daily Caller on Espinoza-Ramirez, who was picked up in Chicago and ultimately charged with 42 counts of predatory sexual acts. On Sept. 2, ICE took custody of Espinoza-Ramirez, releasing him with an ankle bracelet monitor later that same day.

The suspect failed to show up for his scheduled hearing on Nov. 18. ICE would provide no information on how he might have maneuvered out of the bracelet.

ICE issued a statement to Smith that was identical to one quoted in TheDC report, except for one additional sentence: “The decision to release Mr. Espinoza-Ramirez from ICE custody was made based on the fact that he had no prior criminal convictions, no prior immigration violations, and is the parent of a U.S. citizen child.”

As a result of that added information, Smith issued this statement:

“It’s insulting to Americans that ICE deliberately released a criminal immigrant suspected of multiple counts of child rape back onto our streets. This reckless decision is ultimately a failure of the Obama administration’s lax immigration policies. And it shows that this administration is willing to put illegal and criminal immigrants ahead of the safety of our children.”

“Obama administration officials have made clear that it is not their priority to deport and detain all illegal and criminal immigrants. The administration has issued new deportation guidelines that could allow potentially millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. without a vote of Congress. And the president’s budget slashes funding for detention space and instead funds programs that release illegal and criminal immigrants into our communities.”

Smith’s office stated that the case of Amado Espinoza-Ramirez is an extreme example of a larger problem. Back in November, the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for the records of every suspect that was brought to the attention of ICE, but ICE decided not to act on the information.

The House Judiciary Committee wanted to use the data to cross-reference against criminal records to determine how many people who wound up in ICE custody were ultimately released and went on to commit further crimes.

The House Judiciary Committee would specifically like to investigate the effectiveness of a June 2011 memo from ICE Director John Morton, which was supposed to guide ICE agents in identifying dangerous suspects.

Initially, critics of the Obama administration seized on the fact that Morton directed ICE agents not to pursue suspects whose only violation was of immigration law. The memo has since come under fire because its implementation has led to numerous dangerous criminals being released. Amado Espinoza-Ramirez is the latest example to gain media attention.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/24/congressman-blasts-ice-for-releasing-alleged-child-rapist/#ixzz1q4aX3x9A

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‘Fast and Furious’ Linked to Immunity Deal Between U.S. and Sinaloa Cartel, Trafficking Defendant Alleges in Court Papers

by Admin on January 4, 2012 in 2nd Amendment, ATF, Border Patrol, Bryan Terry, Fast and Furious, Homeland Security, ICE, Janet Napolitano, Justice Department - Eric Holder, Project Gunwalker with No comments

By Edwin Mora
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The Border Gun ScandalIn this Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 picture, an American flag on a resident’s home waves in the breeze near a U.S. Border Patrol truck blocking the road leading to a search area near where U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed northwest of Nogales, Ariz.  (AP Photo/Arizona Daily Star, Greg Bryan)

(CNSNews.com) – An alleged Mexican drug trafficker awaiting trial in a Chicago federal court claims that the notorious Sinaloa cartel received weapons from “Operation Fast and Furious” under an alleged immunity agreement that the U.S. government made with cartel leaders, in exchange for information on rival gangs.

The defendant in a trafficking case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Vicente Jesus Zambada-Niebla, also claims the immunity deal allowed the criminal cartel to “continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs” into the United States.

He wants the U.S. government to provide documents relating to the botched gun running sting operation along the southwest border, arguing that it would benefit his defense.

Operation Fast and Furious, which began in September 2009, saw the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives supervise the sale of guns to straw purchasers with the intent of tracing the guns to Mexican drug trafficking organizations and prosecuting their members. The ATF allowed about 2,000 guns to be sold in this manner.

The operation came under congressional scrutiny after it was linked to the December 2010 murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry at the hands of Mexican bandits.

, member of the United States House of Represe...

An investigative report, spearheaded by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), found that most of the weapons provided to Mexican criminals under the operation were going to the Sinaloa cartel, arguably one of the world’s largest drug trafficking organizations.

In a court pleading filed last July, Zambada-Niebla made the claims about an immunity deal.

“Mr. Zambada-Niebla believes that the documentation that he requests will confirm that the weapons received by Sinaloa Cartel members and its leaders in Operation ‘Fast & Furious’ were provided under the agreement entered into between the United States government and [a Mexican lawyer] on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel that is the subject of his defense …,” it said.

English: Official photo of United States Senat...

“Mr. Zambada-Niebla believes that the documentation will also provide evidence showing that the United States government has a policy and pattern of providing benefits, including immunity, to cartel leaders, including the Sinaloa Cartel and their members, who are willing to provide information against rival drug cartels.”

The defendant argued that he is protected from federal prosecution for trafficking drugs into the U.S. between 2004 and 2009 under an alleged immunity deal struck between the U.S. government and Sinaloa leaders.

According to court documents, Zambada-Niebla claims that the immunity deal provided the cartel’s leadership with “carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States” in exchange for information on rival drug cartels.

U.S. prosecutors deny the existence of such an immunity deal between the U.S. government and the cartel.

Nevertheless, the U.S. government last September filed a motion to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act, which is aimed at assuring that national security information stemming from criminal cases – such as details associated with CIA operations – are not leaked to the public during court proceedings.

In a court pleading filed in September, U.S. prosecutors claimed that Zambada-Niebla’s allegations about Fast and Furious have no merit.

“Defendant requests all information in the possession of the U.S. government related to an ATF investigation referred to as ‘Fast and Furious’…” it said. “Defendants request related to Fast and Furious … and other unrelated matters are gratuitous and wholly unrelated to any legitimate discovery issues in this case.”

Zambada-Niebla, who was arrested in Mexico in March 2009 and extradited to the U.S. eleven months later, is accused of smuggling tons of cocaine and heroin into the U.S.

He claims he was working on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, court documents show.

The defendant’s pleading highlighted a July 2011 letter sent by Issa and Grassley to Attorney General Eric Holder, “suggesting that multiple United States agencies were employing as informants members of Mexican drug organizations.”

“The evidence seems to indicate that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons, but that tax payers’ dollars in the form of informant payments, may have financed those engaging in such activities,” the pleading added.

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3 more suspects revealed in Zapata murder case

by Admin on January 4, 2012 in Border Patrol, Illegal Immigration, Jaime J. Zapata, Janet Napolitano, Mexican Cartel War, Zetas with No comments

By EMMA PEREZ-TREVINO, The Brownsville Herald

Jamie ZapataThe identities of three more suspects linked to the murder last February of ICE Special Agent Jaime J. Zapata have been confirmed through a review by The Brownsville Herald of federal court documents.

Indictments against the three are still sealed, but another court document identifies them as Ruben Dario Venegas Rivera, alias “El Catracho”; Jose Ismael Nava Villagran, alias “Cacho”; and Francisco Carbajal Flores, who has at least four aliases.

Those three join Julian “Piolín” Zapata Espinoza as suspects indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in connection with the Zapata murder, the document indicates.

The case also involves the attempted murder of Victor Avila, also a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Zapata and Avila were working together in Mexico when they were attacked.

Only the indictment against Zapata Espinoza, who has been extradited from Mexico to the United States, has been unsealed.

On Dec. 21, Mexican authorities handed Zapata Espinoza to the FBI at the international airport in Veracruz, Mexico.

The next day, he pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington to a four-count indictment that charged him with murder, attempted murder, attempted murder of an internationally protected person, and using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, causing death. Each count also carries the charge of aiding and abetting and causing an act to be done.

The indictments against Venegas Rivera, Nava Villagran and Carbajal Flores were still sealed as of Tuesday.

But the U.S. Attorney’s Office mentioned the indictments against the three men and Zapata Espinoza in a notice to the federal court on June 24. The notice said a court reporter had accidentally taped over the April 19 grand jury testimony of an FBI special agent in the investigation into the attack on Zapata and Avila. Zapata was a native of Brownsville.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the notice that because the erasure had been an unintentional error, prosecutions of the four men who were indicted should not be affected. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also stated that it did not foresee calling the FBI agent as a witness in any trial, meaning the testimony would not be discoverable; in other words, it would not have to be provided to the defense.

According to the court record, a federal rule requires that grand jury proceedings be recorded by a court reporter or recording device. The U.S. Attorney’s Office maintains that the rule also states that the validity of prosecutions is not affected by the unintentional failure to make a recording.

The court record does not indicate if the court has responded to the U.S. Attorney’s Office notice.

The four suspects mentioned in the notice of the U.S. Attorney’s Office also were listed by the Mexican Attorney General’s Office among those arrested in Mexico after the attack on Zapata and Avila.

Zapata and Avila were attacked Feb. 15 by two suspected hit squads of the Zetas drug cartel, the U.S. Attorney’s Office states in court records.

The record says the two hit squads, or “estacas,” were comprised of eight armed Zetas members who forced the agents’ vehicle off the highway and ordered the agents out. As the agents attempted to identify themselves as U.S. diplomats, the attackers opened fire.

As reported earlier, the two agents had been assigned to the ICE attaché office at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and were traveling on official business in a vehicle bearing diplomatic plates in the state of San Luis Potosi when they were attacked.

Following the arrest of Zapata Espinoza, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said he had confessed to being the leader of a Zetas cell in San Luis Potosí and also to having led the attack on the two U.S. agents.

The Mexican Attorney General’s Office said Zapata Espinoza maintains that confusion led to the attack on the agents because his Zetas group believed that a rival group was in the vehicle. Zapata Espinoza later recanted and claimed that Zapata and Avila had provoked the encounter.

The federal court record regarding Zapata Espinoza’s indictment states that he was a member of one of the hit squads involved in the attack.

The court record states that the investigation continues and that much of the evidence and many witnesses to the attack remain in Mexico. Several of the members of the hit squads remain at large, the documents indicate. Zapata Espinoza is being held without bail.

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Eric Holder “regrets” false letter to Congress, blames white people.

by Admin on December 21, 2011 in 2nd Amendment, ATF, Border Patrol, Bryan Terry, Fast and Furious, Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, Justice Department - Eric Holder, Project Gunwalker with 1 Comment

The Examiner

US Attorney General Eric Holder is feeling the heat over Fast & Furious. His department oversaw a vast gunrunning operation that sent thousands of firearms to Mexican drug cartels. Two members of Americans law enforcement have been murdered with these guns. The Mexican government estimates that over two hundred Mexican citizens, including many law enforcement officers, have been murdered with these weapons.

The operation violated US law, Mexican law, and international treaties between the US and Mexico.

The Wall Street Journal even accused the DOJ of facilitating the sale of fragmentation grenades to Mexican drug cartels. They base they claim on Internet DOJ documents that have been released.

Internal memos show that Fast & Furious was a ”false flag” operation to justify more gun control measures in the United States.

Eric Holder gave a statement to Congress under oath claiming that he had only learned about the operation “a few weeks ago.” Internal DOJ documents prove that he had known about the operation for at least ten months. Shortly after, Barack Obama admitting knowing about the operation for a longer period of time than what Holder had admitted too.

Holder now tells the press that he ”regrets” giving Congress false information in a letter about Fast & Furious. However he has yet to address accusations of perjury in his under oath testimony to Congress.

Sixty US House members are calling for Eric Holder’s resignation. Rep. Ron Paul called for his arrest and prosecution. He says the operation was “criminal,” and a ”false flag.”

However, Eric Holder characterized his critics as white racists. He said the scandal has been blown out proportion by white people who are only attacking him because he is “African-American.”

Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson went even farther.He said critics of Eric Holder are ”white supremecists.”Johnson is well known for crazed outbursts. He once stated on the House floor that the island of Guam might ”capsize” from overpopulation.

Many of Johnson’s black colleagues disagree with his extreme sentiment. A staff member for the Congressional Black Caucus said members are ”divided” on Holder. The staffer characterized the position of the caucus as feeling that Holder should be investigated but not subjected to a ”witch hunt.”

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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Press Conference Statements From 12/15/11

by Admin on December 16, 2011 in Arizona, Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Janet Napolitano, Justice Department - Eric Holder, Sheriff Joe Arpaio with 1 Comment

Sheriff’s Response to DOJ Letter, which you can read about here, here and here.

speaking in Phoenix, Arizona on February 26, 2011.

Image via Wikipedia

(Maricopa County, AZ) The following statements were made by Sheriff Joe Arpaio during a press conference held on 12/15/11 in response to the 22 page Department of Justice letter received 1 hour prior to DOJ press conference.

“Before we get started today, I want to say something to the citizens of Arizona and the rest of the nation.

On the surface, it may appear that today’s findings and actions by our federal government are directed towards this Sheriff and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The truth of the matter is that this is a sad day for America as a whole.

Today, the federal government moved to do everything it can to put this agency out of the illegal immigration enforcement business.

We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration. We have been responsible for finding and identifying 25% of the nation’s illegal alien criminal offenders through the 287G program. Sadly, much of that work will no longer be permitted by the Obama administration.

Today the federal government cancelled our 287 G agreement. What that means is that we are no longer able to verify the immigration status of any criminal offender brought into our jails. This was a program responsible for detecting over 44,000 illegal alien criminal offenders since 2007, many of whom we can assume were deported by ICE officials back to their country of origin.

Now with the cancellation of this agreement, illegal criminal offenders arrested and brought into my jails will go undetected and ultimately dumped back onto a street near you. For that, you can thank your federal government.

By their actions today, President Obama and his band of merry men might as well erect their very own pink neon sign at the Arizona-Mexico border saying Welcome All Illegals to your United States…. Our home is your home.

On Sept 28, 2011, President Obama was questioned at the White House, by Hispanic journalist and asked why there was no resolution in the civil rights investigation against me for allegedly racially profiling Hispanics. He stated that he had to be careful to comment on individual cases handled by the DOJ. The president stated he challenged the AZ Law (1070) that was supported by me, because he thought there was a great danger of naturalized citizens with Latino surnames could potentially be vulnerable to questioning.

It is interesting that after 100 days in Office by President Obama, that the Democrat Chairmen of the judiciary Committee in Congress initiated this investigation.

After all this time, the head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division, who reports to Attorney General Holder, held a press conference December 15, 2011, which is 2 days after the Supreme Court agreed to accept the 1070 lawsuit.

It’s also interesting that Perez came to Phoenix for the press conference on the anniversary of the brave border patrol agent Brian Terry’s death, who was killed because of the failed Justice department’s “Fast and Furious” case, which is presently holding hearings this week on Attorney General Eric Holder.

Just this week, 2 Democrat Latino US Congress men from Arizona, joined by several other Latino Legislatures want me to resign my office. All of these same Democratic elected officials, throughout the years, have been criticizing my enforcement of State and Federal Illegal immigration laws.

Candidates for President of the United States – Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann recently visited me in my office, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Mitt Romney also called me – all interested in my successful enforcement of illegal immigration and asked for my endorsement

Recently in New Hampshire, I endorsed Texas Governor Rick Perry for President of the United States. It should be noted that all this political activity made national news.

The Justice Department takes issues with our policies in the jails – it should be noted, the US Marshall Office, under the Department of Justice, gave my Office high marks. In the past when we did a crime suppression operation in Guadalupe, high homeland security officials were present and praised us for my operations stating we performed in a professional manner, even though this operation caused some controversy in that town.

We have a civil rights racial profiling case brought by the ACLU, which will be before a federal judge with oral argument on summary judgment next week. Is the DOJ press conference, among other reasons, geared to poison the court against our position in this civil rights case?” states Sheriff Arpaio.

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Terry family wants criminal charges against officials responsible for Fast and Furious

by Admin on December 16, 2011 in 2nd Amendment, ATF, Bryan Terry, Fast and Furious, Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, Justice Department - Eric Holder, Project Gunwalker with No comments
On the anniversary of his death, the family of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry released a strong statement calling for criminal charges to be pursued against those ultimately responsible for Operation Fast and Furious — the gun-walking program that led to Terry’s murder.

Terry was shot on Dec. 14, 2010, in Peck Canyon in Arizona. He died early the next morning. He was killed with weapons the Obama administration allowed to be sold to Mexican drug cartels via Operation Fast and Furious.

Terry’s family wants Obama administration officials held accountable with criminal charges.

“Our priority continues to be the successful arrest and prosecution of all the individuals involved in Brian’s murder,” the family said in a statement. “However, we will continue to press for answers and accountability from our government. Those responsible for such a misguided and fundamentally flawed operation must be held fully responsible for their decisions which allowed so many weapons to flow to the criminal element on both sides of the border. We now believe that if it can be shown that laws were broken, then all those responsible for Fast and Furious should be held criminally liable.”

Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Holder’s Department of Justice. It cleared the way for thousands of weapons to get to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who legally purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.

At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown.

In an interview with The Daily Caller on Thursday, Terry family attorney Pat McGroder said the slain agent’s relatives don’t think it’s their place to pick out who should be charged, but they do think justice must be done.

“The family believes in the rule of law,” McGroder told TheDC. “Brian Terry upheld the rule of law and all they want is to ensure that whoever may have criminal culpability as measured by the investigation’s results and the discretion of the U.S. Attorney’s office that whomever may have criminal culpability is brought to answer for those criminal charges. That’s all they’re saying. They’re not pointing the finger, they’re not trying to do the job of the FBI, they’re not trying to do the job of the U.S. Attorney’s office — they’re simply ensuring that that which Brian stood for, and that is upholding the rule of law, in fact does apply to their family.”

McGroder added that another track the family is considering is civil litigation. There aren’t currently any active cases against the administration on that front, but McGroder said he’s looking into whether the family can move down that road. “There are two tracks: the criminal justice system, and we’ve talked about that,” he said. “The other is the civil justice system and currently we’re investigating whether it would be under the umbrella of the federal tort claim act or whether it be against any other people or entities that may be responsible in and under our civil justice system.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/16/terry-family-wants-criminal-charges-against-officials-responsible-for-fast-and-furious/#ixzz1gj2fu7Ma

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Sheriff Joe Arpaio: ‘Don’t … use me as a whipping boy’

by Admin on December 15, 2011 in Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Janet Napolitano, Justice Department - Eric Holder with No comments

Joe arpaio

LA Times

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday he would cooperate “the best we can” with demands for changes to his Phoenix-based department, which federal prosecutors said had illegally arrested Latinos, abused them in the county jails and failed to property investigate hundreds of reported sex crimes.

But Arpaio, whose national prominence is partly due to his pugnacious nature, added: “And if they are not happy, I guess they can carry out their threat and go to federal court.”

Arpaio was responding to Justice Department findings released Thursday that found the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office had engaged in a “widespread pattern or practice of law enforcement and jail activities that discriminate against Latinos,” according to a letter of warning sent to Maricopa County officials.

Assistant Atty. Gen. Thomas E. Perez described businesses raided when Latinos gathered out front, inmates mocked with racial epithets and 432 cases of sexual assault and child molestation, often involving Latino victims, that investigators botched. The Justice Department is expected to file suit in U.S. District Court in Arizona asking a federal judge to order changes in the sheriff’s office.

At an afternoon news conference, Arpaio criticized the federal findings — the result of a three-year civil rights investigation -–  as “a sad day for America as a whole.”

In response to the report, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Maricopa County jail officers’ authority to detain people on immigration charges, meaning they can’t continue to hold immigration violators who are not charged with local crimes. Arpaio said that would only lead to the release of jail inmates being held on immigration charges after committing previous offenses.

“Don’t come here and use me as a whipping boy for a national and international problem,” he said. “We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration.”

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Incompetano Cuts Ties to Sheriff Joe

by Admin on December 15, 2011 in Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Janet Napolitano, Obama Foreign Policy, Obama Propaganda, Secure Communities, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Voter Fraud with No comments

Who couldn’t see this coming. This adminstration is the most corrupt in the history of the United States. The dictator has spoken concerning illegal immigrants. Get as many in here as you possibly can before the next election.
Arpaio_ignores_calls_fe7534204-364e-49ea-af54-f8f97e7c404a0000_JPG

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security is cutting ties with an Arizona sheriff accused of a wide range of civil right violations.

Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday the department is ending an agreement with the Maricopa County sheriff’s office that allowed trained deputies to enforce immigration laws.

It’s also restricting the office’s use of the Secure Communities program, which uses fingerprints collected in local jails to identify illegal immigrants.

Napolitano’s announcement came shortly after the Justice Department released a scathing report accusing Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office of committing a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos.

Justice Department investigators said the abuses included a pattern of racial profiling.

Read more: http://www.abc15.com//dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/homeland-security-cuts-ties-with-sheriff-joe-arpaio#ixzz1geaawEMs

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Breaking: Issa receives more damaging Gunwalker emails

by Admin on December 8, 2011 in 2nd Amendment, ATF, Border Patrol, Bryan Terry, Fast and Furious, Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, Justice Department - Eric Holder, Project Gunwalker with No comments

Conservative Examiner

, member of the United States House of Represe...

Congressman Darrell Issa says he has received new damaging information on Fast and Furious.Credits: (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa, R-California, whose committee, the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, is investigating the Project Gunwalker scandal, stated late today after a hearing that he has received more damaging emails on the scandal within the last 24 hours.

Citizen investigative reporter Mike Vanderboegh is in Washington to attend the hearings of the House Judiciary Committee as it questions Attorney-General Eric Holder on the Fast and Furious fiasco. Vanderboegh reports that Issa dropped the bombshell today but will wait until tomorrow to release the information.

That information, according to Vanderboegh, is so explosive that a political tsunami could occur:

Wouldn’t be surprised, now that Issa dropped the tactical nuke of more emails “turned over last evening” n(meaning that somebody else has rolled — either Breuer or Weinstein — that Holder’s resignation “for the good of the administration to avoid further distraction will be announced late tomorrow.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Breaking: Issa receives more damaging Gunwalker emails – National Conservative | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/breaking-issa-receives-more-damaging-gunwalker-emails#ixzz1g0co4kCD

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U.S. Seals Court Records Of Border Patrol’s Murder

by Admin on November 30, 2011 in 2nd Amendment, Border Patrol, Bryan Terry, Crime and Border Security, Fast and Furious, Janet Napolitano, Justice Department - Eric Holder, Project Gunwalker with No comments
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 08: U.S. Attorney G...

The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.

Instead, federal law enforcement officers lost track of more than 1,000 guns which have been used in numerous crimes. In Terry’s case, five illegal immigrants armed with at least two semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and Terry got hit.

We know this only because Washington D.C.’s conservative newspaper got ahold of the court documents before the government suddenly made them off limits. The now-sealed federal grand jury indictment tells the frightening story of how Terry was gunned down by Mexican drug smugglers patrolling the rugged desert with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents.

You can see why the administration wants to keep this information from the public and the media, considering the smugglers were essentially armed by the U.S. government. Truth is, no one will know the reason for the confiscation of public court records in this case because the judge’s decision to seal it was also sealed, according to the news story. That means the public or media won’t have access to any new or old evidence, filings, rulings or arguments.

A number of high-ranking Border Patrol officials are questioning how the case is being handled. For instance, they wonder why the defendant (Manuel Osorio-Arellanes) hasn’t been tried even though it’s been almost a year since Terry’s murder. They also have concerns about the lack of transparency in the investigation, not to mention the recent sealing of the court case.

Osorio-Arellanes is charged with second-degree murder. The four other drug smugglers fled the scene and their names were blacked out in the indictment. In 2006 Osorio-Arellanes had been convicted in Phoenix of felony aggravated assault and in 2010 he was twice detained for being in the U.S. illegally.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this month to address the flawed gun-tracking program, Attorney General Eric Holder said it’s not fair to assume that mistakes in Operation Fast and Furious led to Terry’s death. Holder also expressed regret to the federal agent’s family, saying that he can only imagine their pain.

 

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