ATF Death Watch 6: Trials and Tribulations

My step-daughter recently asked me how she should deal with unflattering gossip at school. I told her to do nothing whatsoever. In two days, her classmates will have moved on to something else. The political corollary: a week is a long time in politics. The stonewalling version: postpone all legal moves against you as long as humanly possible.o wit: “A judge has postponed the trial for 20 people accused of participating in a ring that brought more than 700 guns to be smuggled into Mexico for use by a drug cartel,” the AP reports . . .

The trial was set for June 7, but U.S. District Judge James Teilborg (above) moved it to Feb. 28.

Amongst those twenty jailed until next winter: Manuel Osorio-Arellanes. That would be the career criminal allowed to stay in the U.S. The Mexican national turned American ex-con recently indicted for the second degree murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The man who shot Terry with guns enabled by the ATF, as part of their disgraced initiative Operation Fast and Furious.

I said it before: there are two categories of people who know exactly what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was doing with their gun smuggling enablement programs. There’s the ATF and the criminals with whom they “worked.”

Obviously, the ATF brass aren’t going to come clean—unless their enemies in Congress force them to rat each other out. We’ve seen some of that. And we’re seeing some more of it today [via thehill.com]:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is vowing to block President Obama’s nominations until he gets detailed answers on a controversial program that resulted in drug cartels acquiring more than 1,300 firearms from the U.S.

Grassley is pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) on who initiated the “Gun Runner” program that authorized the sale of guns to people acting as straw purchasers for drug cartels in Mexico. Gun Runner might have contributed to the death of at least one federal agent.

But whenever malfeasance enters the political arena it’s subject to political influence. The ATF has friends in high places. Friends who knew about/approved the gun smuggling who will do their level best to keep the details hidden.

The courts are an entirely different matter. While judges are not above the influence, they tend to follow things called laws, which require full disclosure.

Lest we forget, Osario is on trial for murder. He and his colleagues don’t want to rot in prison—any more than they have, are and will. They know all the gory details about Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, and they have every incentive to spill their guts. In open court.

I’m not saying that the feds worked behind the scenes to postpone this trial to cover-up their illegal activities until the Gunwalker scandal can be put on a low simmer or the 20 witnesses to their crimes can be hushed-up and/or deported. I’m merely suggesting it.

After all, these are easy cases. As the Brits would say, the feds have the gun smugglers dead to rights.

Records show that two rifles purchased by a man accused of buying guns for the ring were recovered at the scene of a December shootout near the Arizona-Mexico border that left a Border Patrol agent dead.

Prosecutors say the ring bought more than 700 guns to be smuggled into Mexico for use by a drug cartel.

Authorities say the ring is believed to have supplied the Sinaloa cartel with guns.

The ATF is in this murder up to their eyeballs. So is the DEA. And the ICE. And yes, even the Border Patrol has much to answer for (i.e. shooting beanbag rounds at night at men armed with ATF-enabled ARs). The only place the truth will ever come to light is in a court of law. And maybe not even then.