Family of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Considering Suing Feds Over 'Fast and Furious'

[Team Sergeant]

If I knowingly sold a gun to a illegal or to a known gang member and that gun was used to KILL a Federal Law Enforcement Officer how long would it be before Federal Agents were swarming around my house with Barretts and .338 Lapuas?????

Someone in the Federal Government needs to go to jail.

Someone in the ATF needs jail time along with whomever in the
Department of Justice gave the ok to execute this debacle.

Now I want Justice for Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Team Sergeant


Family of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Considering Suing Feds Over 'Fast and Furious'
By William Lajeunesse
Published July 11, 2011
FoxNews.com


The family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry wants justice, and that may include suing the federal government.

"If the evidence shows Brian's death was proximately caused by the negligence of the federal government, there may be a cause of action," said Terry family attorney Paul Charlton.

Terry was killed in December 2010 at the hands of an illegal immigrant working for the Sinaloa Cartel while patrolling an area near Tucson known as Rio Rico.


Officials traced the gun found at the scene to Operation Fast and Furious, a weapons trafficking program run by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that let guns travel south of the border.

Generally speaking, government officials can't be sued for damages, however misguided or incompetent. Yet, there are exceptions when agencies can reasonably foresee their actions will do harm.

While it's too premature to know who likely would be fingered in a suit, it is possible that top ATF and Department of Justice officials could be the targets.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/11...#ixzz1RpCCCpiF

[tonyz]

Understanding the Federal Tort Claims Act: A Different Metaphor
Paul Figley
American University - Washington College of Law

Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal, Vol. 44, p. 1105, 2009
American University, WCL Research Paper No. 2009-25

Abstract:

When it enacted the Federal Tort Claims Act Congress waived the United States’ sovereign immunity for certain torts of the federal government. That waiver is subject to exclusions, exceptions, and limitations that may seem puzzling or counterintuitive. This essay explains the structure and operation of the Federal Tort Claims Act by comparing it to “a traversable bridge across the moat of sovereign immunity” (a metaphor used by Judge Max Rosenn in a slightly different context). The essay examines why Congress enacted the FTCA, the jurisdictional grant that allows some tort claims but not others, the pre-requisites to bringing suit, the exceptions Congress wrote into the FTCA, and other statutes that limit tort suits against the United States.


http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...act_id=1463340

[JimP]

Classic case for Felony-Murder: someone in the Fed Gubmint is in a whole-buncha-trouble.

[rdret1]

Proving Gunwalker was a proximate cause of death should be no trouble for a good attorney in a civil suit. His family will no doubt get a huge settlement.

[greenberetTFS]

I certainly hope so,maybe RL can shed a little light on this families chances of winning this suit..........

Big Teddy

[Gypsy]

Considering Holder lied about his knowledge of Fast and Furious...I'd like to think they have a case.

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by rdret1

Proving Gunwalker was a proximate cause of death should be no trouble for a good attorney in a civil suit. His family will no doubt get a huge settlement.

I don't know if that's just TV jargon but, given the testimony about the intra-agency rejoicing at higher levels that went on at the thought of real people getting killed by guns they walked, the phrase "depraved indifference" comes to mind.

[rdret1]

Originally Posted by Badger52

I don't know if that's just TV jargon but, given the testimony about the intra-agency rejoicing at higher levels that went on at the thought of real people getting killed by guns they walked, the phrase "depraved indifference" comes to mind.

It is not TV jargon; it is legal jargon:

An act from which an injury results as a natural, direct, uninterrupted consequence and without which the injury would not have occurred.

Proximate cause is the primary cause of an injury. It is not necessarily the closest cause in time or space nor the first event that sets in motion a sequence of events leading to an injury. Proximate cause produces particular, foreseeable consequences without the intervention of any independent or unforeseeable cause. It is also known as legal cause.

To help determine the proximate cause of an injury in Negligence or other tort cases, courts have devised the "but for" or "sine qua non" rule, which considers whether the injury would not have occurred but for the defendant's negligent act. A finding that an injury would not have occurred but for a defendant's act establishes that the particular act or omission is the proximate cause of the harm, but it does not necessarily establish liability since a variety of other factors can come into play in tort actions.

Some jurisdictions apply the "substantial factor" formula to determine proximate cause. This rule considers whether the defendant's conduct was a substantial factor in producing the harm. If the act was a substantial factor in bringing about the damage, then the defendant will be held liable unless she can raise a sufficient defense to rebut the claims.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedicti...roximate+cause

[incarcerated]

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/local_...o-atf-strategy

43 weapons in Phoenix traffic stop linked to ATF strategy

Posted: 07/06/2011
By: Lori Jane Gliha
PHOENIX - The ABC15 Investigators have linked an additional 43 weapons recovered during a Phoenix traffic stop to the controversial Fast and Furious ATF case.

According to court paperwork, Phoenix Drug Enforcement Administration agents discovered the guns in mid-April. They pulled over a vehicle near 83rd Avenue and Interstate 10, near the Phoenix and Tolleson border....

[Dusty]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...ugh-operation/


The failed federal anti-gunrunning program known as Operation Fast and Furious got so out of control in November 2009, it appeared the U.S. government was single-handedly "arming for war" the Sinaloa Cartel, documents show, even as ATF officials here kept lying to fellow agents in Mexico about the volume of guns it helped send south of the border.

Those shocking allegations are revealed in the latest congressional report investigating the operation.

At one point, agents say guns sold under the watch of the program took just 24 hours to travel from a gun store in Phoenix to a crime scene in Mexico. ATF agents there pleaded for help but were told nothing about Fast and Furious, which was intended to let guns "walk" in order to track them to higher-profile traffickers.

Meanwhile, the report claims the agents' superiors in Washington met every Tuesday, to review the latest sales figures and the number of guns recovered in Mexico.

"How long are you going to let this go on?" Steve Martin, an assistant director of intelligence operations asked the ATF top brass at meeting Jan. 5, 2010. None of the men responded and several quickly left the room, according to a transcript of the meeting.

By Feb. 27, 2010, Lanny Breuer, the head of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., was allegedly told that the ATF had successfully helped sell 1,026 weapons worth more than $650,000 to members of the Sinaloa cartel. The briefing included all top ATF officials, including the agents in charge in Los Angeles and Houston, as well as a half dozen top Justice Department attorneys.

"So there's no doubt after this briefing that guns in this case were being linked to the Sinaloa Cartel?" a congressional investigator asked Martin during a July 2011 interview.

"I'd say yes." Martin replied.

"Very apparent to everyone in the room?” the investigator asked.

"That's correct," Martin said.

Meanwhile, ATF agents in Mexico were seeing a flood of weapons coming south. When asked, ATF brass told the resident ATF attache in Mexico things were "under control."

"They were afraid I was going to brief the ambassador on it or brief the government of Mexico," said Darren Gil, former ATF attache in Mexico.

For months, officials assured Gil that Fast and Furious was going to be "shut down," but it wasn't.

"We're getting hurt down here," Gil told ATF International Affairs Chief Daniel Kumor.

Kumor reportedly raised Gil's concerns and was told the case "was going great," and nothing happened until the death of Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

Ironically, a year before, in December 2009, Southwest Border Czar Ray Rowley threatened to expose Operation Fast and Furious because of "the large number of guns that had already been trafficked" but ATF officials talked him out of it.

When the case was finally revealed in the press, Gil said, "never in my wildest dreams ever would I have thought of (gun walking) as an (investigative) technique. Never. Ever. It was just inconceivable to me."

"You don't lose guns. You don't walk guns. You don't let guns out of your sight."

The precise number of casualties in Mexico isn't known, but ATF officials confirm the murder of Mario Gonzales Rodriguez, brother of the Chihuahua attorney general, with a Fast and Furious gun.

According to the report, the U.S. knew for eight months of the link between the ATF operation and his death, but refused to tell any Mexican officials. Finally the acting ATF attache told the Mexican Attorney General Maricela Morales. Her reply, "Hijole," which translates into "Oh my."

[dr. mabuse]

Dusty, this is sickening.

There is no excuse.

All of the people involved in facilitating this "goat fornication soiree", if possible, should each be sued multiple times and go to prison, just for starters.

[tonyz]

Feds Silent on How Convicted Felons Bought Guns in 'Operation Fast and Furious'
By William La Jeunesse & Laura Prabucki
Published July 25, 2011
FoxNews.com

Excerpts:

In the latest chapter of the gunrunning scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, federal officials won't say how two suspects obtained more than 360 weapons despite criminal records that should have prevented them from buying even one gun.

Under current federal law, people with felony convictions are not permitted to buy weapons, and those with felony arrests are typically flagged while the FBI conducts a thorough background check.

"You cannot sanction the violation of federal law by enabling or co-enabling prohibited persons, which includes felony convictions, from purchasing firearms," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a former federal prosecutor and a member of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, which is investigating the botched ATF operation. Gowdy said he would discuss the apparent violation with committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

When asked about the breakdown, Stephen Fischer, a spokesman for the NICS System, said the FBI had no comment. However, an ATF agent who worked on the Fast and Furious investigation, told Fox News that NICS officials called the ATF in Phoenix whenever their suspects tried to buy a gun. That conversation typically led to a green light for the buyers, when it should have stopped them.
The apparent corruption of the system concerns Gowdy. "It is unconscionable and goes beyond just being a terribly ill-conceived investigation to bordering, if not crossing, into criminal activity," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...ucted-on-fast/

[Dusty]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...mit-testimony/

The Obama administration sought to intimidate witnesses into not testifying to Congress on Tuesday about whether ATF knowingly allowed weapons, including assault rifles, to be “walked” into Mexico, the chairman of a House committee investigating the program said in an interview Monday.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, said at least two scheduled witnesses expected to be asked about a controversial weapons investigation known as “Fast and Furious”received warning letters from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to limit their testimony.

Mr. Issa's committee is set to hear testimony from six current or former ATF employees, including agents and attaches assigned to the bureau’s offices in Mexico, about the operation — in which, federal agents say, they were told to stand down and watch as guns flowed from U.S. dealers in Arizona to violent criminals and drug cartels in Mexico.

The six-term lawmaker aired his concerns about the program in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors at The Washington Times on Monday.

Among other questions, the agents are likely to be asked about a large volume of guns showing up in Mexico that were traced back to the Fast and Furious program; whether ATF officials in that country expressed concerns about the weapons to agency officials in the U.S., only to be brushed aside; and whether ATF officials in Arizona denied ATF personnel in Mexico access to information about the operation.

Nearly 50 weapons linked to the Fast and Furious program have been recovered to date in Mexico. Committee investigators said Mexican authorities also were denied information about the operation.


Mr. Issa also said he is certain the Fast and Furious operation was known by most top officials at the Justice Department and that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. either knew and misled Congress, or was so out of the loop that he’s guilty of mismanagement.

“How is it that the No. 2, 3, 4 at Justice all knew about this program, but the No. 1 didn’t?,” Mr. Issa said. “Is it because he said ‘don’t tell me’? Is it because they knew what they were doing is wrong, and they were protecting their boss? Or is it that Eric Holder is just so disconnected … ?

“Whichever it is — he knew and he’s lied to Congress, or he didn’t know, and he’s so detached that he wasn’t doing his job — that really probably is for the administration to make a decision on, sooner not later,” Mr. Issa said.

Those scheduled to testify are William McMahon, ATF deputy assistant director for field operations in Phoenix and Mexico; William Newell, former ATF special agent in charge at the Phoenix field division; Carlos Canino, ATF acting attache to Mexico; Darren Gil, former ATF attache to Mexico; Jose Wall, ATF senior agent in Tijuana, Mexico; and Lorren Leadmon, ATF intelligence operations specialist.

But after receiving subpoenas, at least two of the agents got letters from ATF Associate Chief Counsel Barry S. Orlow warning them to keep certain areas off-limits, including those still under investigation. Neither of the targeted agents was identified.

Mr. Issa said at least one witness wanted to back out of testifying to his committee after receiving the letter, but the chairman declined that request. Instead he fired a letter back to William J. Hoover, deputy director of ATF, saying the “timing and content of this letter strongly suggest that ATF is obstructing and interfering with the congressional investigation.”

ATF, in a statement, said letters sent to agents subpoenaed to testify before Congress are “essentially the same as the standard document provided to ATF witnesses subpoenaed to testify in court.” It said the witnesses are “encouraged to answer fully and candidly all questions concerning matters within his personal knowledge,” but provide “guidance” about revealing statutorily prohibited information.

Mr. Orlow did not return messages left on his office and cell phones.

Snip

[tonyz]

Today's testimony at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee continues live as I post this - it appears from the dance taking place in DC today that certain members BATF, FBI, DEA, and potentially high level representatives of the Justice Department may be involved in this scandal. The name David Ogden came up during testimony - an Obama appointee - who now works for a DC law firm - it might be interesting to Google his bio at WilmerHale. It will also be interesting to see how the main stream press - broadsheet and otherwise - treat today's revelations. Some news organizations (other than FOX) may be waking up.

Botched gun-sale scheme deserves more scrutiny
ToledoBlade.com
Jack Lessenberry

Published: 7/24/2011
BY JACK LESSENBERRY
BLADE OMBUDSMAN

Excerpt:

"Frankly, while there has been nothing unethical about The Blade's not having covered it, Operation Fast and Furious probably deserves more scrutiny."

http://www.toledoblade.com/JackLesse...-scrutiny.html


The following thread contains written statements presented by witnesses today to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that may be of interest to some here:

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...t=30509&page=8

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

To sell a firearm to a felon or someone that is going to commit a crime is a felony. Having a badge does NOT change that. Some people need to go to prison and get bubba the prison rapest as a cell mate.

You're asking a lot of ol' Bubba, Bro.