Fast and Furious: Obama's Watergate?

Remember Watergate? I do. There are still a quite a few of us around that remember the two things headlining the nightly news in the early 70's. Vietnam and Watergate. Both were extremely divisive and both were tearing the country apart at the seams.

Ask anyone what they know about President Richard Millhouse Nixon and you'll usually get a one word response: Watergate.

There was a whole lot more to his presidency than Watergate. Nixon opened relations with China. He escalated, then ended, our involvement in Vietnam. He reaffirmed agreements with the Soviet Union over Cuba, started the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration, oversaw the first large scale integration of public schools and endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment (although it was never ratified by the requisite 38 states). Whether you're pro or con on these things doesn't matter, they are still a part of his legacy. Very few people remember his responsibility for any of these and I don't believe he is given credit for them with today's students but they do credit him for, and remember, Watergate.

Did Nixon break into the Watergate complex? Of course not. Watergate wasn't so much about the actual break in as it was about the scandal of the President of the United States attempting to cover up the fact that he knew about it and so did high level members of his cabinet and others close to him.

Apparently we now have another President trying to cover up. Who knew about Operation Fast and Furious and when did they know have been among questions the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have been asking. Some of the President's supporters are already crying foul and saying this isn't the same thing. Well guess what, I agree with you. This isn't the same. Innocent people didn't die because of Watergate but they have, and still are, dying because of "Fast and Furious."

For the few who may not be familiar with Operation Fast and Furious it was an undercover investigation which began in late 2009 with a teleconference between Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, ATF Director Kenneth Melson, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, and Director of the FBI Robert Mueller. This conference also involved several prosecutors from the Southwest. It was an attempt to track guns to kingpins of the Mexican drug cartels. It was to be run by the ATF's Phoenix office. They were going to attempt to identify and eliminate arms trafficking networks instead of just street level, or low level, buyers. Some of the key players were supposedly street racers operating from an auto repair shop, thus the name from the movie Fast and Furious.

I was a Law Enforcement Officer for 23 years. Most of that time as an investigator/detective. For several of those years I served in an undercover capacity working narcotics and gun running cases. Every Law Enforcement Agency is there to "Serve and Protect." You are there to protect and never, ever, put the public at risk. Never allow guns or drugs to get away from you. Occasionally we had to do a "walking" sting where the guns or drugs were allowed to leave my possession for a short time but they were always kept under strict surveillance and tracking. I worked cases in conjunction with the ATF and and the agents I worked with never would have allowed guns to disappear. Once we tracked them to their final destination we immediately made arrests and reclaimed them. You NEVER allow guns or drugs to get onto the streets. If it looked as if we would lose the item the operation was immediately shut down and the weapons or drugs were taken back into our possession. If these items were lost during an operation in which I was involved I would have been fired on the spot, and should have been. There are no excuses.

Therein lies the problem with Operation Fast and Furious. There was no attempt at interdiction of the weapons which were being purchased and transferred to the cartels in Mexico. They were allowed to "walk." In other words just let them go. Department of Justice and ATF policy have always required gun shipments to be intercepted. Apparently their thinking was that we'll just arrest who ever has the weapon in their possession when we see it again. This has to be one of the most ill advised operations in history. A rookie officer would have known this was just plain stupid. This wasn't just a few guns, over two thousand including the FN 57 which carries an armor piercing .224 caliber round, AK-47's, .50 caliber sniper rifles and assorted other rifles and pistols were allowed to get into the hands of Mexican drug runners. This was very controversial within the ATF as the agents knew people were going to die from the weapons they were letting walk. They had been through this type of gunrunning operation earlier where the guns were tracked, surveillance carried out, and arrests were made when they were handed off. During Fast and Furious the agents were not allowed to intercept the suspects and weapons. Two agents, Olinda Casa and John Dodson attempted to intervene and were stopped by their supervisors. Supervisor David Voth sent out an email in March 2010 in an attempt to quell the questions within the agency over Fast and Furious. http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/Grassley_2011_03_page14.pdf

Guns traced back to operation fast and furious started turning up quickly at crimes scenes on both sides of the border. One of the most notable was that of Border Agent Brian Terry. On December 14th, 2010 Terry and other agents were patrolling approximately 11 miles from the Mexican border in Arizona when they came across five illegal immigrants. A firefight occurred leaving Agent Terry dead on the desert floor. Two AK-47 type rifles were found at the scene and traced to operation fast and furious. After hearing of the murder Dodson and several other agents attempted to bring the operation to the attention of ATF Headquarters, ATF Chief Counsel, the Ethics office and even the Justice Department's Inspector General and didn't receive a response. Several then decided they had no alternative but to contact someone who may be able to stop this madness. I'm sure they knew this was probably a career breaker but morally felt they had no alternative. So they contacted Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa who was the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and an investigation was started into Fast and Furious.

In January 2011 Senator Grassley sent two letters to Acting Director of the ATF. One requesting information into the operation and a second accusing the ATF of going after the whistleblowers. Congressman Darrell Issa began a congressional investigation as Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and, as it should be, he has been like a pit bull and not backing down regardless of political pressures.

As has been the Obama administration's answer to everything that has gone wrong since they came into power, they gave the same answer to this debacle, "It's Bush's Fault." Sorry, not this time. The ATF did carry out a similar operation during 2006 and 2007. Only a few hundred guns were purchased and this was done with the knowledge and assistance of the Mexican government. It was agreed that the Mexican officials would intercept the weapons once they crossed the border and the suspects would be arrested. Surveillance was done and tracking devices placed on the weapons. Once the criminals learned of the tracking devices they figured out how to disable them. When the firearms started disappearing the operation was shut down and the files closed with the notation, "Never Again." During Fast and Furious the Mexican government was never notified an operation was ongoing. There was never an attempt to arrest the suspects or retrieve the weapons on the Mexican side of the border. How could they when the US was conducting these operations without their knowledge?

The Attorney General, Eric Holder testified, under oath, to the House Judiciary Committee on February 3rd, 2011 stating that he had only heard about the operation  "for the first time over the last few weeks."  Documents were revealed that showed he had been sent briefings on the operation as early as July 2010. On June 7th Holder testified for the seventh time, still stating there were no "high level officials" with knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious. By this time several thousand pages of documents had been turned over to investigators. There are still approximately 1400 pages which have been subpoenaed and not turned over. Holder continued to refuse to turn over these documents and was threatened with a contempt citation. Early on June 20th President Obama invoked executive privilege over the documents after Holder had earlier sent a letter requesting Obama to do this.

If there is nothing to hide why did Holder only turn over documents in a piecemeal fashion? Why did he request the President invoke executive privilege? From everything I can find a President can only invoke executive privilege in a case he was personally involved in. So if he didn't know about Fast and Furious he can't make the claim. If he did know then he has some serious explaining to do.

It seems I still have more questions than answers. Why did the news media not start reporting on this from the beginning? They only made  mention of Fast and Furious after the threat of the contempt citation. Where are our Woodward and Bernstein? We need someone to really go after the truth. Without a strong and free press we may never know what really happened. I'm talking about a press that does not attempt to whitewash everything this president does.

Heads should roll over this. If it goes all the way to the top, then so be it. If it doesn't then why not turn over the documents? Either way the American Public needs the truth. If not for each one of us in this country, then at least for the people killed by these weapons which were placed into the hands of criminals by this administration.

Please get the facts and look at all sides of this argument. Don't just take my opinion on this. Get on the internet, look at reliable news sources from the TV or radio. I hope that everyone who reads this will share it  via Facebook, email, whatever it takes to get the population to stand up and shout. Call your elected representatives and beg them to get to the bottom of this. Our country cannot take much more scandal from our elected politicians. Thanks for reading.

Great Day. Beautiful Partner. Wonderful Ride. Amazing What You Can Find If You Just Look.

I ran a little harder than usual yesterday so I could try and get my load delivered to Graniteville. If I could pull it off it would allow me to get home to spend a little of father's day with Diane and make it to church with her last night. I did it, and actually had a few minutes to spare. That also was beneficial in finally giving me a lazy day with absolutely nothing on the "to do" list. I asked Diane if she was up for a motorcycle ride as she's never been more than about 25 miles at a time. The passenger seat on a Harley Sportster is not the most comfortable ride over a long distance. She wanted to get away for awhile and so did I.

Fill up time. 

We left with no destination in mind and no particular direction to go. We went to Kent's Corner in Graniteville and topped off the bike. It took every bit of $3.48.

Diane taking photos

Vaucluse Mills Pond

Diane wanted to go toward Vaucluse. Her mom and dad had lived there when they were first married, they are both buried there and, she still has relatives living in the area. So off we went. We traveled back down Bettis Academy Rd. and turned onto Old Vaucluse Rd. We have been here several times as Diane goes there frequently to take care of her mother and father's grave site and make sure the flowers are fresh. The ride is beautiful with high pines on each side but the road is in a terrible state of disrepair. The community sits in a deep valley and as you drop down the hill into the town it gives you a false sense of what is to come. As you cross the one-lane bridge into town the old Vaucluse Mills Pond is on your left. On the right is one of the many Graniteville Mills buildings which have been long vacated and are now dilapidated. The community echos the look of the mills. Some homes are vacant and boarded or have just been left and are falling apart. Almost all of them are old mill houses that were rented from the Mills by the workers when they were first built and then later they were sold. People working at the mills and living in the homes were given first option to buy them. The rents were low on the homes when they were owned by the mill but so was the pay. It was extremely hard work. I have family and friends who worked in the mills, including my wife who worked at the Hickman Mill in Graniteville for a short time right out of high school. The mills closing took a toll on the people living here, not only financially, but psychologically as well.

From there we followed SC 191 toward Graniteville. This is an amazing place to ride a motorcycle. It's only about 5 miles but the road twists and turns and there is a stream running alongside. We wanted to stop to take pictures but the traffic was backing up and I had to speed up since there are no pull offs.

As you pull into Graniteville the first thing you notice, once again, are the closed mills. They are everywhere. The mills here employed thousands of people in their heyday from all over the Central Savannah River Area. As the jobs were outsourced, the mills slowly closed. 

The mill closings were not the only problems this community has had to overcome. When I went to work for the Aiken County Sheriff's Office in early 1987 as a narcotics investigator it was the number one narcotics area in the county and probably within fifty miles. It was the epitome of the crack epidemic in the 80's. The people of this community were actually being held hostage in their own homes. It appeared to be an unsolvable problem. It took a concerted effort of the Graniteville community, and all law enforcement agencies in the county. We did it. We retook this community with the help of the citizens who were tired of being pushed around by a bunch of loser punks and began to push back. It took a lot of courage to face off against them and ID them to us but they did it and won.

Avondale Mills came in during the 90's and bought out what was left of Graniteville Mills allowing some of the people to remain employed. Then fate came crashing down again on January 6th, 2005. 

On that date a Norfolk Southern Railway train encountered an open switch causing it to run onto a siding containing a parked train. 16 cars derailed including the locomotive. One car was breached that contained chlorine gas. Nine people died, over five hundred were sent to hospitals, and more than fifty-four hundred citizens had to be evacuated. They had to overcome the heartbreak of losing friends, neighbors, and loved ones. Added to the tragedy Avondale Mills used this as an excuse to close the final mills and move out of town.

Train Derailment Memorial

Once again the people of this community picked themselves up, cleaned themselves off and pushed right back. The community is mostly made up of God fearing, honest, hard working people. These people want to work. They don't, and never have, wanted handouts. New industry began to locate here several years ago and continues to come in. Over the last several months the factories here are beginning to expand along with new factories and warehouses being built. The colleges in the area took on the challenge of retraining the workers and the county worked out incentives to lure new industry. I was so glad to see the way these people have pulled together and overcome so many obstacles that were thrown in their paths.

It was nice stopping there, walking around, looking at the town remembering how people can work together to overcome anything.

Horse Creek Valley Veterans Park

Next we rode through Horse Creek Valley seeing the progress being made there, especially around the Langley Pond area.

Then we stopped at the Horse Creek Valley Veterans Memorial Park. This is a beautiful park that was built from donations and anyone close should go and visit. It is on Hwy 421 in Burnettown.

We then continued into Augusta and had lunch at Bill's Family Restaurant on Peach Orchard Road. It was wonderful as usual. If anyone wants to have a good lunch for a reasonable price this is the place to stop. When I was a teenager over 40 years ago I would stop here for breakfast on Saturday mornings. I was 16 years old and thought I was cool going into a restaurant and sitting at the counter like the older guys. It still has the same ambiance as it did back then and the food is still great. Lunch including meat, 3 vegetables, bread and your drink for $7.50 is not bad at all.

After lunch we rode through my childhood neighborhood on the south side of Augusta. Next it was off to the Old South Augusta Lock and Dam. We parked and walked over the locks and out onto the catwalk. Diane said she had never been on them. I thought as many times as we had been there we had walked out there. We then left for the ride back home.

I loved the day. Diane and I had a wonderful day together and saw and relived some wonderful times from our past. We also learned that you don't have to spend a fortune going out of town on gas, food, motels and shows. Our total cost for the day was $18.48. There is so much to see right in your own back yard if you'll just take the time to look.

40 Years Away From the Church, But I'm Back

My last post was about politics and this week it'll be about religion. I know I'm treading on dangerous ground because those are two things guaranteed to get an argument started, if not an all out brawl when discussed in a crowd. Fact is, I didn't need to be in a crowd when I was growing up. All I had to do was sit, listen, and watch my own family when they started to discuss either one, especially religion.

On one hand was my Dad. He was what I called a "functioning drunk." He would work all day, but then stay out drinking and partying most of the night. Then there were the occasional binges where he would stay drunk for days on end but, he somehow ended up sobering up and heading back off to work. He was a new car salesman, and one heck of a salesman because when he sobered up his job was always waiting on him. I was watching him work his magic on a young couple one day when the dealership owner walked up behind me, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Boy, that man could sell ice to eskimos." One day at the dealership a few of us were talking about our beliefs when my Dad walked up. I asked him what he believed in. He smiled and said, "I believe there's a butt that fits every new car seat made and I believe in 100 proof JW Dant." He laughed and walked away. To him that pretty much said it all. He didn't have a lot of religion in him, or at least none that he talked about, but say the Lord's name in vain and he'd backhand you across the room.

On the other hand was my Mom. She was the daughter of a Church of God minister and evangelist, the Reverend "Happy Tom" Brooks. She didn't attend church a lot but she made sure that her children were there every Sunday, even if it was to simply put us on the church bus or drop us off at the church. We would go see my Grandfather preach occasionally in Greenwood at his home church, or if he was near Augusta preaching a revival she would take us to hear him. While Mom and us kids were in the church Dad would usually sit in the car drinking. Mom believed in God but I saw her start to question her faith and beliefs as she started approaching mid-life. She finally divorced my dad when I was about ten and I watched her as she drifted farther and farther away from her long held beliefs. This sure didn't help me because by then I was questioning my own faith and as I watched her I became even more disillusioned.

Then there was a silver lining. All I had to do to renew my faith was to spend time with my grandfather. He had always been my hero, the person I looked up to. I would go spend weeks during the summer with him and my grandmother. I loved them so much and they were the stability I didn't have in my life. Every evening we would gather in the living room where my grandfather would read a passage from the Bible and then we'd kneel and pray. He instilled a deep love of God in you and was an inspiration to everyone he met.

I continued in the church as I became a teenager, attending Southgate Baptist in Augusta, Ga where I had been going since I was a little kid. After I got my license I would drive myself to church instead of hanging out with my friends somewhere. Even though I was watching my mom drift away from religion I was starting to find my own way. When I was seventeen I was dating a young lady from my high school who was also a believer and we would attend services together. Usually she would go on Sunday mornings with her parents to their church and we attended my church together in the evenings. We were always dressed for church and never would go in jeans or anything loud, which was the norm in the early 70's. I had let my hair grow out although it was no where near my shoulders and it was always neat and clean. One Sunday night after church as we got in the car and were preparing to leave someone tapped on my window. I looked over and it was the good preacher, Reverend Kent. He told me, "We don't need your kind in this church." I was puzzled and asked him what he was talking about. He said, "Long haired, dope smoking hippies," and he turned and walked off. The good Reverend, calling me names without even really knowing me. I had never and, by the way, have never, smoked dope. Sure my hair was a little long, but like I said it wasn't even down to my shoulders. I was not a happy camper. I called him a hypocrite and drove off.

The Long Haired Hippie

Reverend Kent had been my preacher since I was a young child  and a he had demeaned and embarrassed me in front of someone I cared about and it cut me to the core. This really made me think and I thought about it for a long time. Maybe mom was right to leave her beliefs behind. I would not go back to church after that incident and shortly after that started to go downhill fast. The church had been a calming influence on me and since it wasn't there I began staying out late, skipping school and even work. My girlfriend broke up with me, partly because of the way I had started acting and treating her and partly because of the fact that I refused to step into another church although she tried. I never spoke of that incident to my grandfather because I didn't want to hurt him and I knew what it would do to him if he knew I had walked away from the church. He died a few years after that thinking I was still in the church and I was glad he never knew.

About eleven years after that incident I still hadn't stepped foot inside another church other than for my grandfathers funeral and a couple of other special occasions I felt obligated to attend. I was working as a Detective with the Greenwood Police Department and working part time at the Chrysler dealer as a salesman with my father. One afternoon my dad called me back to his office and there was another man sitting in there with him. He asked me, "Do you remember this man, he's your old preacher, Dr. Kent." I told Kent that I definitely remembered him and also told him that he was the reason I had never been inside another church. I reminded him of the incident that night and you could see the blood drain out of his face as he remembered. This time I was able to turn and walk away.

Over the years I've mellowed and I knew in my heart that I still believed in God, even if some of his messengers were hypocritical. My wife and I tried going to several different churches in recent years but something was always missing. It seemed as if everyone was looking at you, judging. I felt like I was under a microscope. Was my car nice enough? Was I dressed right? Then there was the constant dissention within the churches, people talking about other people in the church. It was just reinforcing my belief that I was better off without a church. God knows I believe and if the churches are like that I'd be better off to only worship in my home. I'm sure it all stemed from the incident at Southgate. Still I still felt like something was missing in my life. My wife was feeling the same thing.

One night I was sitting out in the middle of nowhere in my truck and just messing with the computer and looking at Facebook when there was a mention of Faith Riders Fellowship Church in Aiken. I had heard of them before but hadn't really given it much thought. This night I was bored so I started looking at anything I could find about the church. The more I found out the more I liked and I thought, "What the heck, worth a try." The next morning I called the wife and told her what I had found and asked if she wanted to give it a try. She agreed and since I was on my way home and would be there on Saturday we decided we would go that Sunday. We got there and saw the motorcycles under the porch and cars in the parking lot and I almost backed out thinking that maybe this wasn't quite what we were looking for. It was ironic that we had first really had our first "semi" date there and I kissed her the first time near where the entrance is now back when the place was a bar. I say it was curiosity, but more likely it was the hand of God, that got the better of us so in we walked in. From the minute we got to the door we were welcomed with handshakes and hugs and it felt truly sincere. Everyone made us feel at home, as if we had been members forever. I found out the Preacher, Reverend Jack Atkinson and I had worked together in the late 80's and early 90's at the Sheriff's Office in Aiken and I had also worked with the associate pastor JD Bledsoe at the Sheriff's Office. I had casually known some of the other members through the years and so did the wife. The sermon was fantastic and the music was wonderful. I left there on cloud nine. I didn't want to put any notions in Diane's head because I knew she would go along with me regardless of how she actually felt so I casually asked her what she thought after we left. She said she loved it. So did I. She asked if we were coming back that night and I told her I didn't think so since I had a lot to do to get ready to go back on the road the next day and I really didn't want to overdo it that quick. After we ate lunch I asked if she really wanted to go back and she said she did. I agreed and off we went to another great service. She has been there for every service since and anything else they need help with. I go every time I'm home.

Some people are former, retired, or current law enforcement officers and some are hard core bikers with records. There are all ages and races. No one looks down on anyone else and I have yet to hear any of the dissention or back-stabbing that I saw so frequently in other so called houses of God. I'm sure from time to time things aren't perfect here, but these people have learned to look inside a person to see what is there and work through their problems.

Diane and I have finally found that church home we have been looking for.

Politics

I wanted to use this article to say congratulations to my former partner and old friend Sonny Cox for his win in the Republican Party primary for Coroner of Greenwood County.  Also to my cousin Bob Fisher for his primary win in his bid for a seat on the County Council of Greenwood County.  I have known Bob since he was born and have known Sonny since we began working together in 1980 at the Greenwood Police Department on uniform patrol. We were transferred to the Detective Division within a couple of months of each other and being the "new guys" we worked together to help each other.  I know both as men of deep faith. I know their honesty and hard work ethic. They both see what needs to be done and go all out until the job is completed. I know they will both work hard to improve the lives and conditions of those who live in Greenwood County. I wish both of them the best and know the citizens of Greenwood County will not go wrong by putting them into their respective offices. Again congratulations to both.

And now on to my political aspirations. I have none. Don't get me wrong, I have thought about it from time to time, going to the extent of meeting with supporters and financial backers this year in a possible bid for the Sheriff's office in my home of Edgefield County. The current Sheriff, Adell Dobey, had not announced if he would seek reelection and rumors were that he would not. My condition for running was that I would not run against him. Why attempt to remove a man, who in my opinion, is doing a good job and working hard to bring the Sheriff's Office into the 21st century? One of the backers also had backed the Sheriff in each of his campaigns and picked up the phone and called him.  He stated that he was running, and would be announcing within the following two weeks. End of meeting. Could I have made a difference? No doubt, but the man in the office had been making positive strides since being elected and has done an excellent job with an underfunded and understaffed department. Why divide the citizens when most are supportive of our local law enforcement?

Where did my interest in politics come from? I guess I can trace it back to being a teenager about 40 years ago. I was working in downtown Augusta and was sent to the old Post Office to pick up a package. When I got there a political candidate was giving a speech. All the fanfare amazed me. The flags, music, hundreds of people. I couldn't get close but was told it was George McGovern, Democratic Presidential candidate in 1972. He didn't fair well in his bid for the office but regardless of the candidate I became an instant fan of politics, not having a personal interest in running for public office, but the way public policy was made and the persons responsible for doing this. What are the machinations of politics?

Growing up in the 60's and early 70's I saw people were very passionate in their beliefs as evidenced by sit-ins, protests, and clashes with police over their politics. Anyone living in that era can't forget the Democratic National Convention in 1968. People were either ultra conservative or ultra liberal.  There seemed to be no middle ground. I had friends on both sides of the political spectrum and I began to question my beliefs. Where did I stand? I listened to both sides and saw that each had certain ideas that I could, and did, believe in. Since then I have considered myself a liberal conservative. In other words I lean more toward conservative policies and policy makers but I still believe in certain liberal ideals.  As far as who gets my vote, it depends on the person, not their party.  I do tend to vote more along Republican lines but in certain cases vote for the Democratic candidate.  I don't just pull the lever for the full republican party. The Sheriff I was talking about earlier is a Democrat, I would have run as a Republican.  He will get my vote.  I believe if everyone would look at the person, where they stand, what they will do, and have done, for their constituents and what have they done in the past, this would be a lot better country.

Do your homework. Look and listen to each candidate. Look behind the media spin and check what both sides are saying about this candidate.  Then just use your God given common sense and truly make your choice from what your brain and heart are saying.

Until we meet again these have just been my ramblings as I cruise along in the slow lane watching this great nation pass by through my windshield.