You gotta love a good paper trail. And you can forget all that “conquer the Minotaur crap” you learned in high school, using the ball o’ twine to mark the way out of the maze. Today’s smart shoppers use an email trail to navigate the treacherous waters of an exposé. And this particular email trail is a humdinger.
Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, and take a look at this little love note, sent from the Phoenix office of the ATF. You know. The one that just saw it’s personel laterally-arabesqued, as they gamely try to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Yeah. THAT one. In the same city as the DoJ office that just got their cases reassigned to another division, so all that hard work won’t go up in smoke, after the DoJ’s Phoenix boys proved to be part of the problem, instead of part of the solution. Oh, and if you can’t read it, be sure and click on it to zoom it up nice and large.
For those of you whose computers are graphically-impaired, here are the juicy bits (emphasis mine):
We are charging Avila with a standalone June 2010 firearms purchase where he used a bad (old) address on the 4473. (924(a)(1)(A) – False records required to kept by dealer.) This way we do not divulge our current case (Fast & Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case.
My, what big lies you tell, Grandmother! All the better to deceive you with, my dear.
So let’s see. The DoJ knew nothing of the operations of the ATF on Fast n’ Furious, and the ATF had no idea that the guns they let out of the country for a bit of a walkabout ended up with the thugs that gunned down Brian Terry. Yet here’s proof positive they knew, right up front and early. And shared that data with everybody else on the team.
RUH-rho, Rhorge!
That’s the loverly thing about paper trails. (Even ePaper trails.) It’s so easy to trip up somebody with a proclivity for mendacity. So, another day, another chink in the armor, fly in the ointment, piss in the vinegar. Yep. It’s getting so thick over there ’round Phoenix way, they’re gonna have to start some initiative to feed the area homeless, with all those geese that are gettin’ cooked. What do you think…tastes like chicken?
You have an email that shows that they were doing exactly what the program was designed to do, track straw purchases and where they end and charge those responsible for multiple crimes. It’s not so much a smoking gun as a flashing sign warning you of road work ahead a few miles ahead of a giant billboard that explains the new highway expansion.
When did they track anything? And the program was “design” to obfuscate the fact that two of the weapons they were “tracking” were used to kill a federal LEO? Are those the “multiple crimes” you are talking about?
They memo was from the Fast and Furious Strike Force Supervisor to the agent in charge of the Phoenix field office about charging Avilla with a crime that did not pertain to the investigation so he would not have to divulge information to the DOJ about the particulars of the program. While some would call this sinister and indication of a cover-up those who have had to deal with this kind of work realize they are using the hold to fish for more information from a suspect to build a case. They had to of been tracking the suspect in connection with the shooting of the Border Patrol Agent. So they could have been issuing a massive email cover up right from the start, or this is a memo about the mundane day-to-day of intelligence gathering. You don’t have hard evidence of a cover-up.
I know a metaphor when I see it. But WTF does that mean?
Ooh, let’s play “Guess the Gun in the Graphic!” I’m thinking it’s a Ruger when looking at the frame and the grip texture. But, I’m also wondering if it is a single stack Smith.
To my eye, it appears to be completely CGI, thus it may well be an amalgamation of parts.