Saturday, August 13, 2011
Gunwalker: U.S. Attorney Won’t Grant Victim Status to Murdered Agent’s Family
The family of the most prominent U.S. murder victim of Operation Fast and Furious is being victimized again — this time by the very DOJ officials that could one day face felony charges connected to the gun smuggling operation:
In a surprise move in a controversial case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona is opposing a routine motion by the family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry to qualify as crime victims in the eyes of the court.
The family asked to intervene as victims in the case against Jamie Avila, the 23-year-old Phoenix man who purchased the guns allegedly used to kill Terry. Such motions are routinely approved by prosecutors, but may be opposed by defense attorneys.
However in this case, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke argues because the family was not “directly or proximately harmed” by the illegal purchase of the murder weapon, it does not meet the definition of “crime victim” in the Avila case. Burke claims the victim of the Avila’s gun purchases, “is not any particular person, but society in general.”...
The DEA Admits It Had A Hand In Fast And Furious Gun Smuggling Operation
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has admitted that the agency knew about and played a role in "Operation Fast and Furious," a botched gunrunning program that allowed more than 2,000 firearms to "walk" across the border into Mexico.
In a letter to the House Committee on Oversight, obtained by the LA Times, DEA administrator Michele Leonhart wrote that DEA agents in Phoenix and El Paso were "indirectly involved" in the Fast and Furious operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The letter states that the DEA had no "decision-making role" in Fast and Furious....
The Washington Post has a Partner's Share in Terry's Death
Instead of reporting on Fast & Furious operation, they were its PR team
...On Dec. 13, the Washington Post ran a blockbuster article in its “Secret Life of Guns” series subtitled, “As Mexico drug violence runs rampant, U.S. guns tied to crime south of border” that focused on the arms trade across the Mexican border. In the article, the Post printed a list of the top 12 gun stores responsible for selling guns traced to crimes in Mexico. On top of the list was Lone Wolf Trading in Glendale, Ariz.
Joining the bylined reporters James V. Grimaldi and Sari Horwitz on the team were research editor Alice Crites and staff writer William Booth. This team worked for months with the ATF so closely that when the article was published the paper, it had prepared maps and charts based on ATF-provided statistics. Its online presentation included a video narrated by ATF Special Agent J. Dewey Webb, and a video of an interrogation of an illegal alien picked up in a weapons case in a private room with an ATF agent, apparently without the detainee knowing he was being recorded.
The AK-47 that killed Terry was sold by Lone Wolf Trading.
That means that the reporters working on the Dec. 13 story for months were completely aware that the bureau was getting its statistics from the undercover operations that allowed the guns to pass through the normal controls....