CBS' Sharyl Atkkisson re-emerges: "Grenadewalker" exposed.

[SteveM]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/14/earlyshow/main20120395.shtml

On CBS' Early Show, Sharyl Atkkisson reports that a U.S. citizen has been involved with the manufacture of hundreds of hand grenades, a favorite weapon of Mexico's cartels.

"CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, who has reported on this story from the beginning, said on 'The Early Show' that the investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)'s so-called 'Fast and Furious' operation branches out to a case involving grenades. Sources tell her a suspect was left to traffic and manufacture them for Mexican drug cartels.

"Police say Jean Baptiste Kingery, a U.S. citizen, was a veritable grenade machine. He's accused of smuggling parts for as many as 2,000 grenades into Mexico for killer drug cartels -- sometimes under the direct watch of U.S. law enforcement."

But there appears to be a hitch in detaining/arresting Kingery...

"Law enforcement sources say Kingery could have been prosecuted in the U.S. twice for violating export control laws, but that, each time, prosecutors in Arizona refused to make a case."

Some of the BATFE agents tried to do the right thing...

"One ATF agent told investigators he literally begged prosecutors to keep Kingery in custody this time, fearing he was supplying narco-terrorists, but was again ordered to let Kingery go."

_________________________
Kingery was evidently making the grenades in parts, and smuggling them to Mexico. According the the report, the parts were considered "novelty" items, and "lacked sex appeal" for prosecutors.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. This issue will continue to dog the administration until they do something about it

[Hoyt]

2. As long as those who hate ATF for enforcing gun laws keep spinning, that's probably true.

I think most people -- especially the hundreds of millions that aren't into guns -- realize this was an operation gone bad. Discipline those who screwed up and the issue will be dead for most.

Right wingers will keep bitching about Obama using any incidents they can dig up.

[Katya Mullethov]

3. Look at me

Are you high ?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. !

I really did lol :D

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. You might be right if the administration actually did something about it

and quit trying to make it just go away.

[rl6214]

12. Yeah, that Sharryl Atkkinson is such a right wing tool...

Holder just keeps digging and digging deeper and deeper into that hole he's in.

[Hoyt]

13. Maybe Atkkinson hates ATF too like you guys. Hopefully people will become more critical over guns

in this country and the lax laws.

[rl6214]

17. This is about Holders refusal to cooperate and outright denials

and lies to try to cover his own ass. As an Obama appointee and close friend of the president, you should be a little more concerned that the president might get pulled into all of this. This 'sting' as you call it has absolutely nothing to do with "this country and the lax laws". Those "lax laws" didn't walk those guns into Mexico with nothing set up and no way of tracking them, the ATF did.

"Maybe Atkkinson hates ATF too like you guys."

You've got that wrong. I don't hate the ATF and I don't know where you got that from other than pulling it out of your a**.

You keep calling it a "sting gone wrong". Please show me how the ATF intended to or how they were tracking any of the guns that went across the border.

[burf]

19. She didn't seem like too much of an ATF hater

when interviewed on CSPAN the other day.

http://cleanupatf.org/forums/index.php?/topic/288-sharyl-attkisson-interviewed-on-c-span-about-gunwalker-october-13-2011/page__pid__3780#entry3780

But maybe you have some additional information you could share with us on your assertion.

[SteveM]

23. Before your enemy's list expands, please note "the right thing" in the OP.nt

[PavePusher]

14. Setting a grenade-maker loose in public -repeatedly- is SPIN?!

What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. You?

[Hoyt]

15. Haven't heard of that, and I'm sure there is more to story -- like making him an informant maybe.

Besides, some toters here carry weapons daily that can kill more people than a grenade would in many cases.

What's funny is how you guys always want to wait until the whole story is known -- and the jury has ruled -- every time some gun worshiper shoots an unarmed kid.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[Hoyt]

18. Like I said, ATF didn't send this guy down to make grenades. I think they sent him for information.

Many gunners don't like it because ATF tries to enforce gun laws in an environment where "gun culture" is pushing the envelop.

[friendly_iconoclast]

24. So making grenades was just a side job- one that the ATF knew about?

The nicest possible way of explaining your point of view is that the ATF brass/and or the U.s. Attorney's Office were criminally stupid. From the OP (once again):

"Police say Jean Baptiste Kingery, a U.S. citizen, was a veritable grenade machine. He's accused of smuggling parts for as many as 2,000 grenades into Mexico for killer drug cartels -- sometimes under the direct watch of U.S. law enforcement."

But there appears to be a hitch in detaining/arresting Kingery...

"Law enforcement sources say Kingery could have been prosecuted in the U.S. twice for violating export control laws, but that, each time, prosecutors in Arizona refused to make a case."

[PavePusher]

26. You evidently did not actually read the article.

Do you embrace your ignorance that tightly? Wow....

[oneshooter]

27. He embraces his ignorance as his reality. Sad really, very sad. n/t

[Oneka]

20. Nothing "funny" about this story

Information has been slowly flowing out, about this story, since December of 2010.

here is a link for you, maybe this can educate you about what kind of an operation this "fast and furious" really was.

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/a-journalist-s-guide-to-project-gunwalker


I doubt your agenda will allow you to see it very clearly however.

[spin]

21. I have absolutely no problem with ATF agents or any LEOs who are enforcing existing laws ...

But what we have here is something far different and it's not simply a botched sting operation that involves a local ATF office. This is a high level screw up that involves multiple agencies of the Federal government and smells to me like a operation involving the CIA. It is also not simply a problem for the Obama administration but predates Obama and goes back to the G. W. Bush administration if not further.

I hope that I am wrong but I seriously believe that if this incident is thoroughly investigated we will end up with a scandal on the level of Iran-Contra.

Let me ask you a simple question...how does a convicted felon walk into a gun store and buy dozens of firearms on multiple occasions? The ATF does not run the NICS background check system, that is the responsibility of the FBI.

Convicted Felons Buy Fast and Furious Guns Don’t we already have laws against this?
by John Hayward
07/25/2011

Jacob Wayne Chambers and Sean Christopher Stewart, both from Phoenix, Arizona, are convicted felons. Their criminal records include burglary, dealing in stolen goods, resisting arrest, and drug charges.

Convicted felons are barred from purchasing firearms under federal law… and yet these two bought over 360 guns between them, acting as straw purchases for violent drug cartels. The FBI​ didn’t stop them. Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sat and watched them buy their guns via closed-circuit TV.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45093

Your dislike of people legally carrying firearms in public should not cause you to bury your head in the sand when evidence is discovered that our government may be allowing known criminals to buy firearms and deliver them to a very dangerous drug cartel in a neighboring country.

You might notice that one of the Mexican drug cartels could have been involved in the recent plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington DC.

Iranians Accused of a Plot to Kill Saudis’ U.S. Envoy
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and SCOTT SHANE
Published: October 11, 2011

WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday accused Iranian officials of plotting to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States in a bizarre scheme involving an Iranian-American used-car salesman who believed he was hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.

The alleged plot also included plans to pay the cartel, Los Zetas, to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina, according to a law enforcement official.

***snip***

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who announced the murder plot at a news conference in Washington, said it was “directed and approved by elements of the Iranian government and, specifically, senior members of the Quds Force.” He added that “high-up officials in those agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/us-accuses-iranians-of-plotting-to-kill-saudi-envoy.html?_r=1&hp

When foreign governments believe that they can hire a Mexican drug cartel to carry out terrorist activity inside the U.S. it might be wise for us to investigate our motivations for arming these cartels.

[Hoopla Phil]

5. It never happened. It's just a conspiracy of right wing lies.

no one has been killed, Holder didn't know about it. It was just a botched sting operation - it doesn't matter that there was no mechanism in place to track the guns or grenades to the cartels. Just go on about your business and ignore the blood on the ground and on the hands of the ATF.

[gravity556]

7. Nothing to see here, people!

Just change the channel to whatever idiotic "reality tv" show is popular this year. And remember, guns are bad, unless they're owned by responsible, law abiding people. Like the ATF...Those cartels got all that stuff at US Walmarts and gun shows. Nevermind the stereotype of gun owners as racists-they're obviously willing to risk the rest of their lives in prison for the benefit of a foreign drug cartel-being anti-drug is just another stereotype to ignore.

Seriously, anti-rights folks, make up our minds for us! The conflicting stereotypes are making my head hurt.

[ileus]

10. If only they'd been able to revive the AWB this wouldn't have had to happen.

[spin]

22. Exactly. The AWB stopped the flow of parts for grenades to civilians ...

dead in its tracks.

[rl6214]

11. Those right wing reporters, always trying to stir things up that aren't there

:sarcasm: thingy just in case some of you needed it.

[aikoaiko]

25. And yet, we are told the solution to cartel violence is more paperwork for folks buying 2 rifles

baffling.

:shrug: