Wednesday, December 7, 2011

When CBS Covers This...

The headline alone is a shocker when it comes from CBS News:

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations
The article itself goes into more detail:
ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.
On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:
"Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks." 
On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as "(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale on Long Guns issue." And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed Newell: "Bill--well done yesterday... (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case."  
 This seems like it ought to be a criminal offense, even ignoring that allowing these guns to go into drug cartel hands was a criminal offense by itself.

3 comments:

  1. Maybe CBS is trying to make up for Dan 'fake but accurate' Rather with this coverage.

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  2. The Whitehouse & DOJ pretty much admitted that there was a real story here and also guaranteed that Attkinson would keep digging after they treated her so poorly back in October.

    http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/04/cbs-reporter-white-house-doj-yelled-and-screamed-at-her-over-fast-and-furious-scandal/

    “The DOJ woman was just yelling at me,” Attkisson said. “The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me. Eric Schultz — oh, the person screaming was Tracy Schmaler. She was yelling, not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House.”

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  3. Sharyl Attkisson has done the best reporting on Fast an Furious. When you said CBS covered it, I was not surprised one bit to see her name on the byline. Given what she has written, I'm a bit surprised she's still at CBS though.

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