ATF's 'Project Gunwalker' - Whistleblowing ATF Insiders - Agent Brian Terry - Bumping Up Operation Gunrunner Numbers - ATF Street Agents Appalled

Source: examiner.com

A journalist's guide to 'Project Gunwalker' - Part One
February 2nd, 2011

UPDATE NOTE: Due to Examiner.com column character limitations, this chronology encompasses from Dec. 28, 2010 through March 8, 2011. For updates after that, please click here to see Part Two.

The following is a summary and time line of articles appearing on the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog and Gun Rights Examiner, reflecting original reporting on the developing "Project Gunwalker" story by Mike Vanderboegh and myself. That's the purposely ironic name I assigned it, a parody of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive's "Project Gunrunner," and it refers to allegations by whistleblowing ATF insiders that:

* ATF management was allowing potentially hundreds of semiautomatic firearms to be walked across the Mexican border in order to pad statistics used to further budget and power objectives.
* Mexican authorities were kept in the dark, and protests that they should be informed were overridden, first by the Phoenix ATF office, and ultimately by higher-ups in Washington, DC.
* A gun used in this operation was involved in a December 2010 incident in which a Border Patrol agent was killed.

Border Patrol agent Brian Terry killed with ATF-smuggled AR? Some ATF agents seem to think so.

The original allegations were posted on CleanUpATF.org. Vanderboegh and I, who have a history going back years of documenting allegations posted there, and pressing for congressional hearings to investigate the claims, were both contacted independently by various ATF insiders claiming to have corroborating information and documentation. Mike vetted his sources and I used my contacts to help validate that my informant was who he represented himself to be. Mike and I did what we could throughout our separate and coordinated investigations to test and corroborate what was being told. We also had a small circle of behind-the-scenes consultants, including firearms designer Len Savage, and a few other knowledgeable advisers, all with contacts and informed insights of their own, and all of whom have earned our trust over the years.