THE 5TH ESTATE
By Robert S. Finnegan
05/04/2014
Marine Corps Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi remains in a Mexican prison as of today, charged with gun possession after being arrested on weapons charges following a mistaken border crossing.
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USMC Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi |
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Jill Tahmooressi |
From the Wayne Madsen Report:
Another U.S. gun-running operation discovered, one with connections to Pentagon
National Guard sources have revealed to WMR that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' controversial Operation Fast and Furious gun-smuggling investigation in Arizona and Mexico. The operation's stated intent was to track the smuggling of weapons from the United States to Mexico. The denial of documents and e-mail about Fast and Furious to the U.S. House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee has resulted in the first ever contempt of Congress vote against a Cabinet member, Attorney General Eric Holder.
WMR has learned of a California state investigation of the smuggling of U.S. military weapons, originally reported to have been lost in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, by members of the California National Guard. The investigation is also focusing on the embezzlement of California National Guard funds by National Guard officials.
In addition, the investigation of the smuggling of war zone weapons into the United States is not limited to California. WMR has been told by National Guard sources of similar investigations in Texas, New Jersey, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Mississippi, and other states. The embezzlement of National Guard funds is also reported to be under investigation in some of the states.
Recently, a member of the North Carolina National Guard, Staff Sergeant Josepoh Debose, a member of the North Carolina National Guard Special Forces unit that operates in close liaison with the U.S. Army's Special Forces command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was arrested by federal agents in Smithfield, North Carolina for smuggling weapons from the United States to China. The weapons ended up in some 16 cities and provinces throughout China and, although investigated jointly by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and FBI, may be part of a covert CIA and George Soros operation to destabilize China. Chinese authorities arrested 23 people and seized more than 100 weapons and more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition. Debose was linked to the shipment of several weapons packages to China. One shipment was made from Queens in New York. The serial numbers of the weapons had been filed off.
The investigation of the smuggling ring began when Chinese security officers arrested a Chinese man at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The man was transporting weapons into China. Private gun ownership is illegal in China.
In 2007, the former Blackwater private military firm came under a federal investigation when it was discovered that former employees of the firm were involved in smuggling weapons into Iraq from the United States. Two ex-Blackwater employees, Kenneth Caldwell and William Grumiaux, pleaded guilty to the possession of stolen firearms in violation of interstate and foreign commerce laws. Both agreed to cooperate with federal investigators.
Ironically, when the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee investigated Blackwater and its chairman Erik Prince in 2007, it was current committee chairman Representative Darrel Issa, who charged that the then-committee chairman, Democrat Henry Waxman, was engaged in a witch hunt against Blackwater and Prince. Referring to Prince, Issa stated that the committee report on Prince and Blackwater was "an attempt to paint this gentleman and his company" in an unfavorable light to appease "Democrat eyes." Last October, Issa, as chairman, sent a letter to President Obama in which he wrote that several questions originally posed by Waxman about Blackwater's State Department contracts, which were assumed by its two successors, Xe Services and Academi, were never adequately answered by either the Bush or Obama administrations.
An Iraq war veteran of the Mississippi National Guard, John Buster Jones, was indicted and arrested in a federal sting operation for attempting to traffic guns to gang members. Seven others were also indicted in the sting operation.
In Texas, Governor Rick Perry has, according to our sources, demanded a full investigation of Texas National Guard embezzlement and gun trafficking.
In April, retired Arizona National Guard Colonel James Burnes of Maricopa County was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for embezzling some $2.8 million in charitable funds earmarked for Arizona National Guard personnel and their families for emergency assistance. Burnes had been the resource manager for the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs between 2003 and 2011.
Earlier this year, a Michigan National Guard sergeant was caught embezzling funds from a Michigan National Guard armory in Adrian. Weapons and other materials, including machine guns, TNT, ammunition, artillery shells, grenades and launchers, pistols, land mines, mortars and mortar rounds, detonating wire, regular and sniper rifles, and pistols have been stolen from National Guard armories in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Alabama, and Utah.
Last December, federal authorities rounded up a drug smuggling ring in Camden, New Jersey that was also involved in in trafficking U.S. military weapons. The New Jersey Air National Guard took part in Operation Jumpstart.
Although weapons smuggling to Mexico was the focus of Fast and Furious, there has also been an increase int he smuggling of weapons from the United States to Canada, with the Interstate-75 corridor being noted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as the favored route for the smuggling of weapons into Ontario from Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, and Florida. In response to the weapons trafficking, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has slashed funding to the Canadian Border Services Agency.