BATFE Screwed the Pooch in Milwaukee

Another BATFE screw up?

You be the judge.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the story today. Fox News followed along with a story of their own. And poorly executed law enforcement work draws Congress in much the same way as other things draw flies.

The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) created a phony storefront, named it Fearless Distributing, staffed it with undercover agents and created a Facebook page that lured people to the location all under the guise of selling clothes and shoes. The ATF agents handed out business cards with a logo similar to the one from the movie “The Expendables” with the words “buy, sell or trade” on them. Once the store was up and running, agents spread the word that Fearless Distributing was willing to buy guns and drugs.

So far, it looks like a typical 'storefront operation' that the federal government loves to run. It's set to get the dumbest of criminals and they cast a wide net. The funding is budgeted as a "Group One" program.  As usual, results matter and money is secondary -- but does it constitute entrapment? Not in a federal courtroom the way it would usually play out in a state court. The agents in one case paid $1,200 for a firearm that would normally sell for between $400 and $700. 

Keystone Cops?

Not yet. But it's coming...

On Sept. 13, 2012, three weapons – including an M-4 machine gun – were stolen from an agent’s parked car. The very next day one of the weapons -- as well as another unrelated one -- were sold back to agents for $1,400. The M-4 and Smith & Wesson 9mm are still unaccounted for.

Senator Charles Grassley responds:

"The Journal Sentinel story reads more like an accounting of the Keystone Cops instead of a federal law enforcement agency," Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. "I'll be asking the ATF questions because if the operation was handled as badly as it was reported, it puts yet another major stain on the agency."

David Salkin unknowingly rented his building at 1220 E. Meinecke Ave. to BATFE, from which they ran their sting operation. Burglars broke into the business, ending the operation. Salkin says BATFE owes him $15,000 for damage and unpaid utility bills. The agency has refused to pay.

Typical.

Post Mortem

The Group One undercover operation didn't result in arrests or convictions of major dealers and they didn't take down a gang. $35,000 in merchandise was stolen from the undercover store and a military style machine-gun is now on the streets of Milwaukee. BATFE is in embroiled in a civil lawsuit with David Salkin who says that he's owed $15,000 because of utility bills, holes in the walls, broken doors and damage from an overflowing toilet.

When the 10-month operation was shut down after the burglary, agents and Milwaukee police officers who participated in the sting cleared out the store but left behind a sensitive document that listed names, vehicles and phone numbers of undercover agents.

Oops.

The sting resulted in charges being filed against about 30 people, most for low-level drug sales and gun possession counts. But agents had the wrong person in at least three cases. In one, they charged a man who was in prison - as a result of an earlier ATF case - at the time agents said he was selling drugs to them.

Were the special agents lying, careless or stupid? It looks like Congress will have the last word on that account.

Other cases reveal that the agency's operation was paying such high prices that some defendants bought guns from stores such as Gander Mountain and sold them to the agents for a quick profit. 

Why not? And back to entrapment, were the amounts that the government spent to buy the firearms so great as to entrap? If you can buy them from a store and then sell them to federal agents down the street for double or triple the money, would that lure an financially strapped person to make the deal? Should they go to prison for it?

ATF spokesman Special Agent Robert Schmidt declined to say how much the sting operation cost.

Group One budgets are usually one million dollars. It would be interesting to see how much the budgeted amount that BATFE actually spent.

Milwaukee is among 31 cities where the ATF has dedicated a Violent Crime Impact Team. The teams are supposed to target "hot spots" - small, high-crime areas - and go after the "worst of the worst" violent criminals, according to the agency's Best Practices report. 

The agency launched the initiative in 2004 and quickly reported "enormous" success. Agency officials touted a drop in firearm-related homicides in pilot cities and credited the $35 million effort with helping local police departments solve other crimes. 

But a U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General's report two years later found no evidence that the teams reduced firearm crimes in the targeted areas. Authors of the report cited "inadequate direction" and "ineffective oversight" by the agency. 

"We found that ATF based its analysis on insufficient data and faulty comparisons," the report stated.

No matter what happens, BATFE or any federal agency will claim success. The US Government has never been long on the truth and there is no reason to see a change of pace here.

Daniel Stiller, head of the federal defender's service in Milwaukee, said such undercover operations are rare. The case involving Gladney and Bryant suggested to him that those defendants weren't major criminals given they got guns from a store, not the street.

"I have to guess a true criminal on the streets of Milwaukee has the ability to obtain a firearm when needed from something other than a store," Stiller said.

I think that most people would agree.

The operation ran into more trouble in October, when burglars broke into the building housing Fearless and cleaned out the ATF operation. 

Late on Oct. 9, burglars made off with jewelry, clothing, auto parts, purses, Nike shoes and more, according to police reports. No one has been charged in the burglary. 

The lease states that the alarm is included in the rent. But shortly after Fearless moved in, Salkin said he told the people running the store he was cutting the phone line, which connected the alarm. He said he assumed they would hook up their own alarm. They did not. 

"You would think the ATF would know that," Salkin said.

We're clearly at the Keystone Cops level at this point in the saga.

Business owner, Salkin, said by going over on the $800 a month utility allotment and damage to walls, doors and carpeting, the ATF owes him about $15,000, which includes a month of lost rent. 

The ATF has balked, saying there was less than $3,200 in damage and telling Salkin to return the security deposit. They told him to file a claim with the federal government and warned him to stop contacting them. 

In an email to Salkin, ATF attorney Patricia Cangemi wrote, "If you continue to contact the Agents after being so advised your contacts may be construed as harassment under the law. Threats or harassment of a Federal Agent is of grave concern. Utilizing the telephone or a computer to perpetrate threats or harassment is also a serious matter."

Wow. One would think that with a million dollar budget, they could afford to clean up after the whole thing went haywire. So much for secrecy.

Turns out, the ATF has weapons stolen or loses them more frequently than the public might think, according to a 2008 report from the Office of the Inspector General with the U.S. Department of Justice. 

In a five-year span from 2002-'07, for example, 76 ATF weapons were stolen, lost or missing, according to the report. That's nearly double the number compared with the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, when considering rates per 1,000 agents.

Is anyone who has read this far surprised?

If you're really interested, reading the articles that were linked at the top of this page is a good idea. I quoted from the Journal Sentinel (highlighted).

This is the same agency that created Operation Fast and Furious and the same agency that will be getting more and special powers from the President of the United States under his new firearms initiative.

I think that I may move to Mexico just to be safe from well meaning federal agents. 

On the Practice of Lying

In Mexico the army and the federal police water board everyone just to make sure that they have the story straight. (the Mexicans use a bottle of Tihuacan and a filthy rag but it's still water boarding). And while BATFE doesn't do that, they have a real bad habit of lying about damned near everything which means that nobody will trust them even when they assert ---- "we're not lying this time." The Mexicans proudly boast that they torture prisoners and they break. They don't lie about what they do...well not all the time.

Decapitation Count in Mexico (2008-2012)

>> WARNING <<    

Some people may find this disturbing.

Before

The US policy that pushes that the drug war be fought (down there) to the last Mexican, has been disastrous and it will be felt in the new Mexican policy toward the United States. 

The United States fueled the fire through their Operation Gunwalker Scandal. We now know that the Obama Administration plans to keep Attorney General Eric Holder, architect of the Gunwalker Scandal wherein USGOV agents sold firearms through straw buyers to drug cartels without tracking them. Arming the cartels directly may not play on MSNBC, but the Mexicans take note.

After

There may be more this year so these are not final numbers, but you can use them as a fair guess. These numbers do not include decapitations where the heads were NOT displayed to the public for public relations value.

During the first five years of the Calderon administration, 1,443 decapitation cases were reported. 

Between January and November 2011, 493 cases were reported. 

-Chihuahua leads the pack with 171 reported decapitations since the start of the Calderon administration 

-Guerrero comes in second at 140. 

-Tamaulipas with 119 reported cases since the start of the Calderon administration  

-Durango almost tied for third with 115 reported decapitations. 

-Sinaloa came in fifth, which may surprise some people, with a mere 89 reported decapitations. (What happened to Sinaloa? There were a lot of murders in Sinaloa, but it would seem that the people in that area are less inclined to decapitate their victims.)

-Mexico State, Baja California Norte, Jalisco, Coahuila and Veracruz finished behind the pack.

The cost of Mexican President's US-Sponsored and funded drug war can be balanced by the embarrassingly low number of decapitations before he and his American allies "got the heads lopping". 

There were only 37 reported decapitations in all of Mexico in 2007.

During the first three years of the Calderon administration, 10.3 large-scale massacres were reported per month. During the second three years, an average of 23 were reported on a monthly basis. 

English Source: US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration
Spanish Source: El Universal

The Federation Strikes Back

There are five key accusations against ATF and DOJ made by ATF whistleblowers and other sources within FedGov:

1. That they instructed U.S. gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners.

2. That they allowed or even assisted in those guns crossing the U.S. border into Mexico to "boost the numbers" of American civilian market firearms seized in Mexico and thereby provide the justification for more firearm restrictions on American citizens and more power and money for ATF.

3. That they intentionally kept Mexican authorities in the dark about the operation, even over objections of their own agents.

4. That weapons that the ATF let "walk" to Mexico were involved in the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE agent Jaime Zapata, as well as at least hundreds of Mexican citizens.

5. That at least since the death of Brian Terry on 14 December, the Obama administration is engaged in a full-press cover-up of the facts behind what has come to be known as the "Gunwalker Scandal."

(The Sipsey Street Irregulars)

__________________________________________

There has been a national election in the USA in which nobody discussed this rather sorry chapter in American History. The candidates were mute as was the mainstream media. Maybe they felt that it had all become "history", and thus a mere footnote to the great unwashed who would soon vote for the next president and "leader of the free world".

However as unlikely as it may seem, there are people in Mexico who have dead friends and relatives, killed with firearms and ammunition supplied to cartels by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who have longer memories than the American Press.

The brother of a high ranking US federal agent was kidnapped in Casa Grande, Chihuahua and subsequently killed in Mexico, last week. The murderers dumped his body near Agua Prieta. It didn't have anything to do with Operation Gunrunner directly, however it was a message sent to US Law Enforcement and you're going to hear that message again from the Sinaloa Federation. 

This is the bottom line. When the Federation (drug cartel) gives up one of its own as a sacrificial sheep to satisfy the needs MEXGOV to look good in the press or when they need to weed out a weakling, that's ok. When the US uses "atmospherics" to track somebody that they need/want around and feed that to SEMAR, then the fir will fly.

You'll hear more of this in the future both on this blog and elsewhere. The Sinaloa Federation wants USGOV to take their law enforcement officials out of the Republic of Mexico. There was a political statement made on July 1, 2012 and that government will be seated on December 1, 2012. Look for one of the reasons behind MEXGOV restricting US Law Enforcement in Mexico to be the Gunwalker Scandal.

Operation Fast and Furious - Does Anyone Remember That?

If Barack Obama is re-elected President, it is doubtful that Eric Holder will continue on as Attorney General. Whether he is imprisoned for lying to Congress or not still has not been adjudicated. 

Yes, I understand that Attorney General Eric Holder denied that he knew anything about Operation Fast and Furious. If he lied, he should be fired for lying. If he truly didn't know, he should be fired for incompetence. Read a little further and decide for yourself.

Based on the Congressional record (prior to the conclusion of the investigation by Congressman Issa R-CA) "No one at Justice Department headquarters has been able to provide answers to the (Brian) Terry family. During their respective transcribed interviews, Monty Wilkinson stated 38 times that he “did not recall” or “did not know.” In a similar fashion, Gary Grindler did so 29 times, and Ed Siskel 21 times. In two different transcribed interviews, Dennis Burke said he “did not recall” or “did not know” a combined total of 161 times." (Congressional Report)

 Who in the Obama Justice Department did what with Operation Fast and Furious? 

Based on the Joint Staff Report prepared for Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman, US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Senator Charles Grassley, Ranking member of the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary -- 112th Congress October 29, 2012 

Office of the Attorney General

Eric H. Holder, Jr. - Attorney General

After taking office, Holder delivered a series of speeches touting a new strategy to combat Mexican drug cartels. These speeches formed the basis of a new Department strategy.

Robert “Monty” Wilkinson - Deputy Chief of Staff

Monty Wilkinson read weekly reports discussing Operation Fast and Furious, yet failed to act on the information. He believed that it was not the responsibility of the Attorney General’s office to manage or supervise the Department’s components. Before Agent Brian Terry was murdered, Wilkinson inquired about the Attorney General’s participation in announcing the Fast and Furious take-down.

Gary Grindler - Acting Deputy Attorney General

Gary Grindler attended detailed briefings on Operation Fast and Furious in 2010. He had a passive management style, waiting for staff to bring issues to him instead of seeking them out. In January 2011, Grindler became the Chief of Staff to Attorney General Holder, a position he currently holds.

Edward Siskel - Associate Deputy Attorney General

Edward Siskel was responsible for the ATF portfolio in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General during Operation Fast and Furious, even though he had no prior training or experience with ATF. He also attended detailed briefings on Fast and Furious. Siskel is currently an Associate Counsel at the White House.

Lanny Breuer - Assistant Attorney General

Led by Lanny Breuer, zDOJ's Criminal Division decided to resurrect the prosecution of Operation Wide Receiver even though the case had used the reckless and misguided tactic of gunwalking. Breuer dedicated staff resources to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona to help in Operation Fast and Furious. His staff also authorized at least six wiretap applications on his behalf in support of Fast and Furious.

Jason Weinstein - Deputy Assistant Attorney General 

Jason Weinstein authorized wiretap applications for Operation Fast and Furious. He knew about the gunwalking tactics used in Operation Wide Receiver. He failed to connect the dots between the two cases. Weinstein resigned on September 19, 2012.

Kenneth Blanco - Deputy Assistant Attorney General

Kenneth Blanco authorized at least two wiretap applications in Operation Fast and Furious.

James Trusty - Acting Chief, Gang Unit

James Trusty was a key liaison between Criminal Division leadership and prosecutors sent by the Criminal Division to Arizona.

U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona

Dennis Burke - U.S. Attorney

Dennis Burke was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona during Operation Fast and Furious. He frequently met with ATF and received updates on the case. In the early stages of Fast and Furious, Burke wanted to hold out for a bigger case instead of arresting the straw purchasers and closing the investigation. Burke resigned on August 30, 2011.

ATF Headquarters

Kenneth Melson - Acting Director

Kenneth Melson was instrumental in starting a new initiative between ATF and the Criminal Division, whereby Criminal Division attorneys assisted ATF with firearms investigations and prosecutions. Melson retired on September 19, 2012.

William Hoover - Deputy Director

Realizing that Fast and Furious had become an enormous case, William Hoover ordered an exit strategy for the investigation. The Department of Justice never implemented it. Hoover was also instrumental in briefing personnel at Department of Justice headquarters about the status of Fast and Furious, providing frequent updates to the Deputy Attorney General’s office. Hoover retired from ATF on August 1, 2012.

William McMahon - Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations—West

McMahon authorized the wiretap applications on behalf of ATF before they were sent to the Department of Justice’s Office of Enforcement Operations for review and approval.

William Newell - Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

William Newell had a history of using reckless tactics during his investigations. He believed he had the full support of senior Justice Department officials in creating and executing Fast and Furious.

When you look at the list above of who did what, it's apparent that he was correct.