Five Questions

As I reported yesterday, the Department of Justice has replied to Senator Grassley's letter. The letter was a classic of bureaucratic stonewalling and avoidance.

In a further report on the letter, the AP has this response from Grassley's office which indicates they are not giving up based on one letter saying "back off" from an Assistant AG.

Grassley spokeswoman Beth Pellett Levine said the Justice Department denied one aspect of allegations presented by whistleblowers and promised to give the senator a briefing. "However, the briefing has still not occurred, and documents provided with the allegations are not consistent with that denial," she said. "There are many specific questions that need to be answered in full by the Justice Department as soon as possible."

Mike Vanderboegh has posted five questions that he received from one of his insider sources regarding the letter from Assistant AG Welch. The questions, if asked in a Congressional hearing under oath, are sure to make those in charge at both ATF and DOJ squirm.

1. Has the gun used to murder Border Patrol agent Brian Terry been identified? If so, on what evidentiary basis, including ballistic evidence. If the gun has been identified, the two key questions: (A) has this gun ever been traced before? (B) if so, what do the traces show?

2. What are the locations in Mexico where "gunwalked" firearms were recovered?

3. Were any "gunwalked" firearms used to murder anybody in Mexico? If so, who? Again the Goat (Copulation) questions: (A) have any of these guns ever been traced before? (B) if so, what do the traces show?

4. Did Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer attend any meetings at which Project Gunrunner was discussed in full or in part? If so, provide (1) the date of the meeting or meetings, (2) names of all persons who attended each meeting or meetings, and (3) the unredacted write-ups of what was discussed at each meeting or meetings, as well as private, unpublished notes, e-mails and any other documents that contain information about each meeting or meetings.

[nota bene: I am making a distinction here between ATF and DOJ as institutions, in asking these questions]

5. For each of the 274 firearms recovered in Mexico, describe the extent, if any, to which Mexican authorities were advised these firearms had been transported to Mexico with the knowledge of ATF.

From what we have seen and heard, "Project Gunwalker" isn't pretty. I think the answers to these questions aren't going to be pretty either.

I want to repeat what I said yesterday after this affair. It wasn't the Watergate break-in that doomed Richard Nixon, it was the cover-up. While the mainstream press is less likely to put pressure on the Obama Administration now than the Washington Post was with Richard Nixon in 1972-74, we have the Internet now and we don't have to rely on the press doing their job. As David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh have shown, we can do it for them.