Monday, January 31, 2011

Cd. Juarez Newspaper On Project Gunwalker Whistleblower Case



From: El Diario de El Paso

Sunday, January 30, 2011 | 8:25:59 AM
El Paso, Texas.

Contrary to its policy to stop it, America would be allowing the smuggling of firearms into Mexico intentionally during investigations conducted and the neighboring country without knowing it.

This is one of the allegations have emerged recently in a network by employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Snuff, Firearms and Explosives (ATF, for its acronym in English), dissatisfied with irregularities alleged to have committed the federal agency. The allegations of arms trafficking were ratified by a source in El Paso. In CleanUpATF.org blog has reported anonymously, since the ATF supposedly "gives the green light to U.S. gun dealers to sell weapons to suspects, until the officers" inflated "statistics of seizures of weapons to justify the millionaire budget federal agency.

ATF officials in Washington, DC rejected the assumptions and declined comment on the blog.

The smuggling of weapons and weak U.S. laws to control their sale and use have been in the public eye since early January in Arizona a man killed six people and left 14 injured, including Congressman Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. Last week the Washington Post criticized President Barack Obama to omit the subject in his report on the State of the Union. "On Tuesday, the president left out an important opportunity to talk about why weapons sensible regulations, including those that prohibit the type of high capacity magazine used by the handle of Arizona, should again be a national priority," according to its editorial published Thursday.

Also this week, as part of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the former U.S. President Bill Clinton expressed his concern to his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, the constant flow of high-powered weapons purchased in the United States going to Mexico which fall into the hands of criminals. "America will never change its current stance on the right of citizens to own a gun, but it has a responsibility to prevent arms trafficking and international interstate," he told El Diario de El Paso an ATF employee, who asked his name not be published, experience or position within the federal agency for fear of reprisals.

Charged that the ATF has committed irregularities, such as allowing smuggling of arms to Mexico, during the course of research known as "gunwalkers." He explained that these investigative undercover agents "walk left" or "go" money or buying or selling arms to middlemen and smugglers "ant" to give the "big fish" or leader of a criminal organization.

But many times, the same agents, instead of confiscating the weapons sold to them at the border on U.S. soil to the smugglers, or stop them, they let him go to Mexico.
This "controlled delivery" occurs in Arizona and Texas, where they are usually the weapons used by drug cartels and confiscated in Mexico, he said. Worse, he said, is that the Government of Mexico know that the above is happening, noting that when agents try to expose their heads this alleged irregularity, are removed from their posts.

So have reported on the blog CleanUpATF.org several ATF employees who say they are dissatisfied with the abuse, fraud and federal agency policies. The "blogger" identified as "1desertrat" reported in mid-January that a special agent allegedly Phoenix "has approved more than 500 rifles AR-15 in Tucson and Phoenix that have traveled to Mexico." "It appears that the ATF could be one of the largest providers of assault rifles to the cartels in Mexico," he says.

The ATF employee who spoke to El Diario de El Paso on condition of anonymity could not say how many weapons involved in inquiries from the federal agency have been smuggled into Mexico, but felt that add up to 2 000 weapons for the past three years. "The ATF is not doing his work and perpetuates the problem (of illegal arms trafficking.) These weapons are killing their own citizens, their agents, "he said.

Reviews of "1desertrat" and other "bloggers," have even suggested that one of the weapons have been smuggled to the neighboring country was knowingly used to kill ATF agent Brian Terry Border Patrol in Nogales, Arizona, last 14 December. ATF spokesman in Washington, DC, Scott Thomasson, declined to comment, saying the investigation into this case, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, for its acronym in English). She rejected the alleged claims made against the federal agency that, during his research allows the smuggling of weapons into Mexico. "We do not permit the exit of arms to Mexico," he said.

The test is said, the project that launched Gunrunner United States and Mexico to reduce smuggling of weapons, which includes a database to track the origin of those who are seized in Mexico. Reported that from 2006 to date, only the ATF has produced 4 000 500 investigations and seized on U.S. soil 10 000 weapons and ammunition near a million before reaching Mexico. Furthermore, "working with Mexican authorities very closely," said Thomasson. He said the binational collaboration is so close that the ATF is coordinated, when "appropriate", with Mexican authorities in investigations into arms trafficking.

In late 2010 the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice released a report that analyzes the project Gunrunner, indicating that the ATF does not share information with other federal agencies, and communicates effectively with Mexican officials. "The federal agency does not share intelligence in a systematic and consistent with its sister agencies in Mexico and the United States," the report said. Including the offices of the Enforcement of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

However, Thomasson said there was a "good coordination" with the last two federal agencies regarding the investigation of arms smuggling. The "bloggers," by CleanUpATF.org Gunrunner have labeled the project as "a joke", acknowledging also that ATF agents allegedly "inflated" the seizure of weapons. "New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Los Angeles have never been committed to the idea of stopping the flow of weapons into Mexico. The money for this mission has been wasted and the operators in those divisions have been instructed to report any incident / investigation, no matter how far away is the Gunrunner "writes" bloquista "" X-Men. "

"It seems that the administration of ATF prefer lying to Congress, falsifying figures and altering the numbers instead of doing the job," continues the text. The ATF employee who spoke to The Journal of El Paso agreed to this, explaining that agents allegedly sometimes write in their reports weapons confiscated, even by local police, without even an investigation. This justifies the budget that the agency receives each year, he added.

The Justice Department report also noted that ATF case investigation evades which involve high-profile traffickers, focussing instead on the arms dealers.

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