'Operation Castaway - Casting Away the Constitution!
Operation Castaway is a BATF operation ran out of Tampa in which the agency let straw buyers purchase weapons, and then let those weapons walk out of the country under the guise of an international investigation.
This arrest warrant ( Firearms traffickers sought in Operation Castaway ) that the weapons ended up in Puerto Rico and throughout Central and South America, and have been linked to violent crimes around the world.
Here is the initial report announcing the ‘success’ of this operation being the largest weapons dealing case in Florida history. Major international investigation results.
In various comments in the report DHS and U.S. Attorneys acknowledge their responsibilities for “import and export enforcement in order to keep our citizens safe and secure”, and that taking “high-level weaponry off the streets will increase safety not only for our citizens but for people abroad”, but then incredulously fail to acknowledge that by allowing these weapons to walk across the border they were aiding and abetting the murders and violent crimes in which these weapons were ultimately utilized.
Reportedly the Special Agent in Charge of Operation Fast and Furious being ran out of the Phoenix Field Division was SAC O’Brien, whom was promoted to Deputy Assistant Director of the ATF, but then stepped down for a position in the Tampa BATF offices from which Operation Castaway was ran as part of an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force conducted by DHS Investigations, ATF, ICE, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, and the Miami-Dade Police Department.
The ‘smoking gun’ of these revelations is that Fast and Furious was not a scandal isolated to a rogue field division, but an established policy funded and enforced with interdepartmental cooperation across numerous departments of government, thereby refuting the Congressional testimony of several senior officers of government that they knew nothing of the project or operations.
Acting Director Kenneth Melson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has refused political pressures to fall on his own sword and resign as the scapegoat of the scandal, and instead appeared before Congress over the 4th of July with his own private counsel, and provided testimony that the DOJ was blocking any efforts of the BATF and other agencies to comply with Congresses investigation.
Consequentially Congress sent a 5 page letter to the Attorney General rebuking him and demanding his compliance with the Congressional investigation, and giving a stark warning the DOJ initiating reprisals against anyone offering or called to testify before Congress. Congressional Letter
Attorney General Eric Holder and other senior officers of the Administration have testified before Congress that they knew nothing of Project Gunrunner or the various operations ran under it, but the witness testimony and evidence and a review of C-Span and other televised statements prior to the emergence of the scandal prove otherwise, and indeed, appear to confirm that the orders directing Project Gunrunner and the operations under it came directly from the President of the United States.
Here is one example of C-Span video from March 24th, 2009. C-Span video
Here is the full length 31 minute version of the C-Span video of the news conference announcing the Border Security Policy, with comments and explanations by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. C-Span video
Project Gunrunner, from which both Operation Fast and Furious and Operation Castaway are linked, was actually funded by Congress in the stimulus bill, and then enacted by the President.
Information provided to the Congressional investigation reveals that taxpayer dollars were funneled by the FBI, DEA, and other agencies to covert agents, confidential informants, and known felony criminals to finance the purchase and trafficking of weapons across international borders under the supervision of BATF.
News is still forthcoming that similar operations were conducted under Project Gunrunner in Texas and several other states.
ATF Tampa Division walked guns to Honduras and to MS13 gang members The video from Fox News details how weapons that the BATF in Tampa let walk were funneled to MS13, one of the worlds most notorious and dangerous criminal organizations. MS13 is responsible for the deaths of several U.S. officers and agents both in Central and South America, and within the United States. There are many known instances in which MS13 has placed hit orders on various officers and agents in New York, California, Texas, Arizona, and in other states.
As this scandal continues to unfold with revelations that these weapons where financed and trafficked across international borders with the blessing and assistance of the U.S. Government via the policies enacted by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, how is it possible that senior members of this administration may reasonably assert that their powers under the Constitution gave them the powers and authorities to enforce foreign policy and conduct criminal investigations in such reckless fashion?
Their Acts, enforced by their orders and policies, are directly responsible for creating an open state of War along our southern border in which over 30,000 Mexican citizens have been murdered, hundreds of Mexican government officials have been murdered, thousands of American citizens have been assaulted, kidnapped, raped, and murdered in violent crimes in States along the border, and border patrol agents have been murdered with the weapons that our government allowed to ‘walk‘ under the guise of a so called investigation.
It is incredulous that the officers of our government can create the sources, mechanism, monies, and material logistics and supplies by which aide and comfort are given to illicit criminal organizations, and which ultimately abet to commission of egregious crimes and endangerments of War under the guise of investigations and sting operations conducted by their offices.
These are officers sworn to uphold the United States Constitution. Article 3 Section 3 of the Constitution defines that Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
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Thank you to everyone for joining me in viewing this edition of ‘The Patriot Code, and discussing the Nuclear Options of Political Discourse. We are the heirs of the untold sacrifices and generational suffering of innocents, patriots, and tyrants that have nourished the Tree of Liberty.
Whenever government abuses and exceeds it Constitutional authorities, and the officers of governance fear that a patriot might come along whom can postulate and illustrate in plain spoken and common language why the halls of governance should be shaken to its foundations and they should be held to account before a Jury of American citizens, be it the President or any other officer holding office, I'm your Huckleberry.
May God Bless the United States, our Armed Forces, our Law Enforcement and 1st Responders, and the Civic Virtue and Jurisprudence of our Citizens. No matter what may come, we will leave a legacy to the heirs of our struggles and to future generations so that they may reforge the equalities of a Constitutional Republic and accountability to the Rule of Law with the loving tenderance and fidelities of Honor, Civic Virtue, and Liberty.
Until next time.
For the Republic,
Robin W. Tong
source:
http://thepatriotcode.com/Articles2011/july10castaway.htm
Thank you to everyone for joining me in viewing this edition of ‘The Patriot Code, and discussing the Nuclear Options of Political Discourse. We are the heirs of the untold sacrifices and generational suffering of innocents, patriots, and tyrants that have nourished the Tree of Liberty.
Robin W. Tong
Operation Castaway: ATF Trafficked Guns to Honduran Criminal Gangs
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
July 14, 2011
July 14, 2011
Sinaloa, the largest drug trafficking organization operating in Mexico, has worked closely with Wacovia Bank. Last March, the bank revealed in court it had laundered nearly $400 million through a network of exchange houses, or casas de cambio, between 2004 and 2007.
MS-13 is known for it brutality, including the murder of 28 Hondurans when gang members sprayed a bus with automatic gunfire in 2004.
New revelations about the federal operation – dubbed Castaway – came to light after Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and acting ATF Director Ken Melson.
“In recent days, it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ have participated in the act of ‘gun walking’ beyond the acts conducted within the scope of ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’” Bilirakis wrote to Holder and Melson.
The story broke on July 6 when journalists Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea ran a story on Operation Castaway in The Examiner.
“Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious, it was reported to these correspondents this evening via private correspondence from a proven credible source,” the journalists wrote.
The ATF did not respond to the story when it was posted on July 6. The information also found its way to Chairman Darrell Issa of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Member Charles Grassley.
The corporate media has yet to give Operation Castaway the coverage so far afforded to Operation Fast & Furious.
Media Matters, the propaganda operation funded by the globalist George Soros, claims reportage on the growing scandal is some sort of right-wing conspiracy and defends the mendacity of government bureaucrats who have made excuses for the illegal operations.
Obama has said AG Holder was not aware of Fast & Furious, so it is safe to assume the Holder and the Justice Department will claim they know nothing about Operation Castaway as well.
As noted by Joseph Alan Sanchez writing for Infowars.com on Tuesday, the U.S. has shipped weapons south of the border for over a decade.
“For at least a decade now, covert operation specialist Celerino ‘Cele’ Castillo III has been telling the world that the U.S. has been shipping guns south of the border on a regular basis as a sidebar to revelations of drug running from South America into North America. And now in the summer of 2011, the BATF is under fire for observing the sale and distribution of machine guns into Mexico. Congressional testimony in recent months is revealing a calculated plan called Operation Fast and Furious,” writes Sanchez.
Adding weight to Castillo’s accusation, one of the kingpins of the infamous Los Zetas drug running gang, Rejón Aguilar, told Mexican federal police earlier this month that the group purchased its weapons directly from U.S. government officials.
For his truth telling efforts and his Iran Contra whistleblowing, Castillo was convicted in 2008 on federal charges of dealing firearms without a license in a case marked by numerous irregularities and peculiar coincidences that raised the specter of a frame-up.
Despite the denials, congressional Republicans believe the Fast & Furious scandal reaches the highest levels of the Justice Department.
They have asked the attorney general’s office to turn over a sweeping trove of emails, documents and other material to determine Washington’s role in the “reckless” operation that allowed U.S. semiautomatic weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels, according to the Los Angeles Times.
It should be obvious by now that the ATF is a renegade federal agency. Hearings should be held immediately calling for its decertification and the systematic disarming of its agents.
“Let’s transform them back into the stamp clerks (suitable for affixing labels on wine and whiskey bottles) that they once were. Then the only harm they can inflict on the body politic would be paper cuts,” writes Charles Heller, Executive Director of Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
“Take away their badges. Badges are symbols of honor from a country as great as ours. BATFE Agents can carry business cards, like any other overpaid, tax consuming, foot dragging bureaucrat. Let’s convert these morally challenged individuals from jackboots to fur boots, or at least gumshoes without guns,” Heller concludes.
In addition to providing weapons to violent drug cartels favored by bankers, the Fast & Furious operation was cooked up to make it appear Americans legally selling firearms are engaged in criminal activity.
Democrats have wasted little time blaming the Second Amendment for the violence spawned by Mexican drug cartels and gangs using weapons provided by the U.S. government.
In June, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, tried to affix blame on law-abiding Americans.
His effort, however, was doomed to failure – at least in the “rightwing” media singled out by Media Matters and its patron, George Soros – when news of the complicity of the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and a renegade ATF hit the streets.
‘OPERATION CASTAWAY’: DID ATF SELL GUNS TO HONDURAN GANGS TOO?
The “Project Gunrunner” case is now pointing towards possible ATF sales of weapons bound for Honduras, including a reported 1,000 guns to members of the ruthless MS-13 gang. The program may be a spinoff or in some way related to “Operation Castaway,“ and in reports it sounds remarkably similar to ”Operation Fast and Furious.”
Last week, the Blaze reported on the controversy surrounding “Operation Fast and Furious,” an offshoot of the Project Gunrunner program. The Attorney General is under scrutiny after allegations that the ATF knowingly allowed straw buyers in the US to purchase weapons bound for Mexican drug cartels and “let them walk,” meaning they dropped surveillance on the buyers and lost track of the weapons.There are also accusations that as part of the Project Gunrunner program, ATF agents told gun store owners to sell to suspected criminals, against the owners’ objections, and that there was a top down ATF policy that accepted the weapons would cross international boundaries.
Now, there may be even more questions for the AG coming from Congress, as “Operation Castaway” or a similar area program may have placed weapons in the hands of MS-13, an international criminal syndicate.
New reporting in Examiner links the tactics and procedures of the “Fast and Furious” with “Operation Castaway,” and claims that Castaway may have delivered weapons to the notoriously violent MS-13 gang in Honduras. The Examiner’s post cites this September 2010 press release, from the Department of Justice, Middle District of Florida, to link Tampa ATF operations with the Project Gunrunner fiasco. Examiner also claims that:
Did Operation Fast and Furious have a Tampa twin, Operation Castaway?
Republican lawmakers are alleging that Operation Fast and Furious may have had a twin in Tampa: Operation Castaway.
The new revelations have come to light as Florida Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis fired off a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and acting ATF Director Ken Melson asking them for answers about the newly discovered program.
“In recent days, it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ have participated in the act of ‘gun walking’ beyond the acts conducted within the scope of ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’” Bilirakis wrote to Holder and Melson.
“Recent reports have suggested that Project Gunrunner may not have been limited to weapons trafficking to Mexico and that similar programs included the possible trafficking of arms to criminal gangs in Honduras with the knowledge of the ATF’s Tampa Field Division and the Department of Justice’s Middle District of Florida through an operation known as ‘Operation Castaway,’” the letter read.
The controversial gun-trafficking sting operation Operation Fast and Furious was managed out of the ATF’s Phoenix field office. Congressional Republicans are investigating whether similar practices were followed elsewhere.
Bilirakis added that, as a member of the House Committees on Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs, he finds it “troubling” that the U.S. government would “willfully allow weapons to be acquired by dangerous criminal and drug trafficking organizations in direct contravention to our strategic and national interests.”
Specifically, Bilirakis asked them to confirm whether or not these new allegations are true, what monitoring and tracking processes the DOJ and ATF used to follow the guns after they were sold and whether or not Operation Castaway has been terminated.
Bilirakis sent a separate letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton asking similar questions about ICE’s possible involvement in Operation Castaway.
A spokeswoman for the DOJ didn’t respond to TheDC’s request for comment.
FILE - In this March 27, 2006 file photo, a Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and ammunition is seen at the Seattle Police headquarters in Seattle. In an effort to stem the illicit flow of weapons into Mexico, the Justice Department says gun shops in four Southwest border states will be required to alert the federal government to frequent buyers of high-powered rifles. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/13/did-operation-fast-and-furious-have-a-tampa-twin-operation-castaway/#ixzz2847mp5Gk
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