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| Home Front: Politix |
| Project Wide Receiver: Background |
| 2011-10-05 |
| The link will return to Rantburg -- there are two links in this background info. Details of Wide Receiver that the AP article that is being posted by every new organisation left out. Wide Receiver --- posted Wednesday, June 15, 2011 Mounted approximately five years ago out of the Tucson office, Wide Receiver may have actually been the template used -with equally inept results- by the now-infamous Phoenix operations. In Operation Wide Receiver, Tucson agents allowed the sales of more than 500 firearms to known straw purchasers. Like Gunrunner/Fast and Furious, the operation apparently backfired. Some firearms in Wide Receive were equipped with RFID tracking devices. In Wide Receiver, it seems the illegal purchasers seemed more than slightly knowledgeable of the way the ATF and how to take their aerial and electronic tracking procedures down. Knowing the time aloft numbers for virtually all planes used in government surveillance, the buyers had a simple method of getting their purchases across the border undetected. They simply drove four-hour loops around the area. As surveillance planes were forced to return to base for re-fueling, the smugglers simply turned and sprinted their cargo across the border. The RFID tags also turned out to be problematic. Rather than making large enough holes for the tags to be laid out inside weapons, agents force-fit them into the rifles. That cramming caused the antennae to be folded, reducing the effective range of the tags. And an already short battery life (36-48 hours maximum) meant that should purchasers allow the firearms to sit, the tracking devices eliminated themselves. This sounds like something out of "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" but it's not. To date, Wide Receiver hasn't really amounted to much in the way of interdiction, enforcement or prosecution, despite the huge amounts of surveillance video and audio evidence collected and the millions of dollars expended. To date, sources tell us the only charges filed in the ongoing investigation are for falsifying Form 4473s. Not much of a return on an investigation that consumed millions of dollars in man-hours and money and placed the lives of law-abiding firearms dealers and their families in jeopardy. Additionally, we have seen documents proving the Justice Department is not only aware of Wide Receiver, they're having problems with material witnesses and confidential informants who are concerned about the overall investigation and their personal safety. Seems the confidential nature of the investigation was no better run than the rest of the operation. Newell -- Posted Thursday, June 16, 2011 the same man that is involved in Fast and Furious, who has now been reassigned, and was a lousy witness at Issa's last hearing. You could almost "see" the lies coming out of his mouth. 1desertrat said: This really sickens me to see Gillett getting rewarded for a history of misconduct and incompetence. It also appears he has not taken any heat on approving the Tucson version of phoenix's "Gun Walker" in Tucson called linebacker or wide receiver (something like that)where he and Newell approved "walking" several hundred assault rifles to Mexico. Also, get this ......he approved the signing (and paying) of the FFL dealer as a CI, paid him as a CI and allowed him to profit from the illegal straw purchases ATF directed him to do.....what a deal! What do you think would be happening right now if one of those guns were linked to the Tucson shooting of Rep Gifford? How about it Senator Grassley.....are these ATF supervisors really the "untouchables"? Retaliation by ATF management is a way of life in ATF. Why......because all know management is corrupt and will pull out all stops to protect one another and NOTHING ever happens! |
| Posted by:Sherry |