Fast and Furious Secret Wiretaps

Full article:
http://www.martinezreport.com/2012/06/29/issa-brings-stack-of-wiretap-applications-onto-h-o-r/

In the midst of a fiery floor debate over contempt proceedings for Attorney
General Eric Holder, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa
(R-Calif.) quietly dropped a bombshell letter into the Congressional Record. 

The May 24 letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member on the
panel, quotes from and describes in detail a secret wiretap application that has
become a point of debate in the GOP’s “Fast and Furious” gun-walking probe.

The wiretap applications are under court seal, and releasing such information
to the public would ordinarily be illegal. But Issa appears to be protected by
the Speech or Debate Clause in the Constitution, which offers immunity for
Congressional speech, especially on a chamber’s floor.

According to the letter, the wiretap applications contained a startling
amount of detail about the operation, which would have tipped off anyone who
read them closely about what tactics were being used. […]

“The wiretap affidavit details that agents were well aware that large sums of
money were being used to purchase a large number of firearms, many of which were
flowing across the border,” the letter says.

The application included details such as how many guns specific suspects had
purchased via straw purchasers and how many of those guns had been recovered in
Mexico.

It also described how ATF officials watched guns bought by suspected straw
purchasers but then ended their surveillance without interdicting the guns.

In at least one instance, the guns were recovered at a police stop at the
U.S.-Mexico border the next day.

The application included financial details for four suspected straw
purchasers showing they had purchased $373,000 worth of guns in cash but
reported almost no income for the previous year, the letter says.

“Although ATF was aware of these facts, no one was arrested, and ATF failed
to even approach the straw purchasers. Upon learning these details through its
review of this wiretap affidavit, senior Justice Department officials had a duty
to stop this operation. Further, failure to do so was a violation of Justice
Department policy,” the letter says.

Full article:
http://www.martinezreport.com/2012/06/29/issa-brings-stack-of-wiretap-applications-onto-h-o-r/