By David Codrea; March 9th, 2011 1:52 pm ET

ATF is “closing ranks and circling the wagons,” William La Jeunesse of Fox News reports.   See below video for the complete report.

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/atf-gunrunning-scandal-video

Noteworthy highlights:

“This is much bigger than Brian Terry,” he concludes, with an assessment that the failed ATF policy of letting guns be sold to cartels through straw purchasers is “becoming a major scandal.”

La Jeunesse, along with many mainstream reporters, is repeating the meme that the purpose behind this operation was to track the guns to a “Mr. Big.”  That does not even consider the other more cynical motivation that has been explored since Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and this correspondent first began reporting on this story: the allegation at CleanUpATF.org that the reason was to “’pad’ statistics.”

Think about it, and think about everything that has been corroborated to date: You don’t let thousands of guns escape into the wild, totally losing control of them, and knowing they will be found at crime scenes and traced back to U.S. gun stores, and then think that following a trail between a small-level buyer and a smaller-level user is going to lead you to the crime lord.  La Jeunesse’s analogy with drugs only works if you’re talking letting kilos of drugs at a time escape your oversight and then hoping to pin the major player by recovering small packets from the junkie on the other end of the trail.

It’s past time mainstream “authorized journalists” stopped parroting the line ATF would like them to follow—certainly Project Gunrunner had catching big players as a goal, but the directed way the specific walking operation devolved leads to a conclusion the mainstream press has yet to explore: that elements within ATF intended guns to be found exactly for the reasons reported by Vanderboegh and me, to score some media success stories, to justify expansion of ATF power and authority, and to help gin up public demand for more “gun control” laws, such as a renewed “assault weapons” ban prematurely floated by Eric Holder two years ago. The anti-gun coalition has been using the Mexican crime gun canard ever since to try and build political support for just such an attempt, resorting to—you guessed it—padding statistics to do it.

Back to the video: La Jeunesse reintroduces us to whistleblower John Dodson, interviews a corroborating gun store owner and gets Sen. Chuck Grassley on camera.  Of critical importance: we are reminded that Grassley does not chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrat Patrick Leahy does, and he’s protective of Holder. And we are reminded that allowing the Department of Justice to investigate itself is a “fox guarding the hen house” situation.

Which makes Darrell Issa’s pending Project Gunweasel award seem all the more likely unless he gets off his hind end and starts acting like he understands he would never have been elected to office in the first place had it not been for the support of gun owners. It’s also past time for NRA to get their members activated through its nationwide alert system, with a specific demand for hearings and a pledge to score candidates on this as well.

Finally, we learn that Grassley has, today, “grilled” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and that the unfolding scandal involves more than ATF, but also ICE and Department of Justice attorneys who not only approved wiretaps and affidavits, but very significantly “met with gun store owners giving them the green light.”

The story is catching fire.  People in high places are not having a good day. Let us see if we can’t extend their discomfort to the witness stand.

Also see:

• A journalist’s guide to ‘Project Gunwalker’ for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner.

*Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
Continue reading on Examiner.com:

Project Gunwalker ‘becoming a major scandal’ – National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/project-gunwalker-becoming-a-major-scandal?CID=examiner_alerts_article#ixzz1G8bRvIcE