Fast & Furious

[HerbieHeadley]

"The most transparent administration ever has invoked Executive Privilege in refusing to allow Congressman Issa and Senator Grassley to question former NSA White House staffer, Kevin O'Reilly regarding Operation Fast and Furious."

"O'Reilly was transferred to Clinton's State Department in late spring 2011 and then sent to Iraq in September after documents released to the House Oversight Committee revealed extensive communications between himself and ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell who led Fast and Furious."

"Both Holder and Obama said early on they had no knowledge of the gun walking program. Obama told CNN Espanol in March, 2011 he heard it "on the news" and "the attorney general has been very clear he knew nothing about it."

Then Holder contradicted the President's statement in a May 3 congressional hearing when he said he found out about the operation "over the last few weeks.""

Read more: Blog: White House Won't Let Rep. Issa Question Key Staffer About Fast and Furious

"When called before Congress in May of 2011 on the Fast and Furious Operation, Holder indicated as an answer to a direct question regarding exaclty when he heard of and knew about the Fast and Furious Operaton, that "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,"

Since that time, numerous emails have surfaced, directed to him, not only informing him of the operation, but reviewing in detail its status. These emails date back to over a year before his testimony. In addition, a video has also surfaced where Holder went to Mexico two years prior and briefed the Mexican's on the upcoming operation."
========
"When requesting information from the Department of Justice, the Committee received volumous pages of documents, where most of them were completely redacted."

JEFFHEAD.COM - ERIC HOLDER AND FAST AND FURIOUS

 

[Assuredcw]

Issa shouldn't be asking him ANYTHING, because he didn't authorize Fast & Furious. He didn't authorize, create, or order anything having to do with Fast & Furious. So calling him on the carpet, specifically, allows the people who did this on their own without his permission to escape accountability for it.

Why should Eric Holder pay for the insubordination of his employees? He is not a baby-sitter, and there were intermediate levels of supervision that need to be held to account. I certainly hope he finds out if there was any criminal activity associated with Fast & Furious, such as corruption between our law enforcement and Mexican drug cartels. He certainly needs to be given the opportunity to look into this, because if so, those corrupt people represent a continued danger to us all.

"The most transparent administration ever has invoked Executive Privilege in refusing to allow Congressman Issa and Senator Grassley to question former NSA White House staffer, Kevin O'Reilly regarding Operation Fast and Furious."

He doesn't want to answer Issa's questions. He doesn't want to say another word about it. So Holder might have an active investigation going on it!

 

[RETS]

Issa shouldn't be asking him ANYTHING, because he didn't authorize Fast & Furious. He didn't authorize, create, or order anything having to do with Fast & Furious. So calling him on the carpet, specifically, allows the people who did this on their own without his permission to escape accountability for it.

Why should Eric Holder pay for the insubordination of his employees? He is not a baby-sitter, and there were intermediate levels of supervision that need to be held to account. I certainly hope he finds out if there was any criminal activity associated with Fast & Furious, such as corruption between our law enforcement and Mexican drug cartels. He certainly needs to be given the opportunity to look into this, because if so, those corrupt people represent a continued danger to us all.

He doesn't want to answer Issa's questions. He doesn't want to say another word about it. So Holder might have an active investigation going on it!

You've never been in leadership, have you? You've never been in a position where you are answerable to someone else, FOR someone else, have you?

You are completely blind to the point, it seems; that can only be explained by the fact that you have never had any such position, and therefore have no understanding of how such responsibility works.

 

[Assuredcw]

I'd rather not discuss my own experience too much, if you don't mind (most of us prefer to remain anonymous in this forum).

But I'm willing to say that as a member of the public, I appreciate the delicate position AG Holder might be in, because I have every reason to believe Fast & Furious is an active investigation that he does not wish to discuss, and it has nothing to do with protecting himself because he didn't authorize it.

We can speculate all day long, but if the Obama Administration has been mostly transparent, then we can assume there is a good reason for their remaining silent in this instance. I think AG Holder has achieved a lot and I want him to be free to do his job. I am very impressed with what he has done.

 

[RETS]

I'd rather not discuss my own experience too much, if you don't mind (most of us prefer to remain anonymous in this forum).

But I'm willing to say that as a member of the public, I appreciate the delicate position AG Holder might be in, because I have every reason to believe Fast & Furious is an active investigation that he does not wish to discuss, and it has nothing to do with protecting himself because he didn't authorize it.

We can speculate all day long, but if the Obama Administration has been mostly transparent, then we can assume there is a good reason for their remaining silent in this instance. I think AG Holder has achieved a lot and I want him to be free to do his job. I am very impressed with what he has done.

What has he done that you are impressed with?

Where has the Obama administration been transparent?

And when those questions are answered... It doesn't make a difference. Holder broke the law by disobeying a direct order, and by lying under oath.

PERIOD.

 

[Assuredcw]

But is he allowed to tell Issa anything confidentially? Or does what he reveals in the hearing become part of the public record?

Issa's an IDIOT if he is showing a blatant disregard for these distinctions...Holder simply is NOT going to tell him about active investigations. He shouldn't.

Where has the Obama administration been transparent?

If you don't agree, then there is nothing to discuss. But the President tells us all kinds of things, and has press conferences in the rose garden all the time.

What has he done that you are impressed with?

Oh, and I linked up to a Medicare fraud ring Holder busted - it was announced yesterday. It's a page or three back. Other things too, obviously, but go to the Justice Dept website and you'll see them.

 

[Assuredcw]

Furthermore, IMO Issa is obstructing justice by messing with the guy who is knowledgable enough to be dishing it out. AG Holder is the top prosecutor in the entire country. He is the Big Kahuna. I don't think Issa and the other members of Congress know as much as AG Holder about Constitutional Law (he is a former Federal judge under Reagan for crying out loud!) or know where the bodies are buried to root out the problems in the ATF, FBI and elsewhere.

If they want him to give them a confidential debriefing, that's one thing. But to order a public hearing, where everyone gets to hear what he's working on is not reasonable. It upsets me.

 

[HerbieHeadley]

REPRESENTATIVE ISSA'S RESPONSE LETTER TO ERIC HOLDER​

October 9, 2011

Dear Attorney General Holder:

From the beginning of the congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, the Department of Justice has offered a roving set of ever-changing explanations to justify its involvement in this reckless and deadly program. These defenses have been aimed at undermining the investigation. From the start, the Department insisted that no wrongdoing had occurred and asked Senator Grassley and me to defer our oversight responsibilities over its concerns about our purported interference with its ongoing criminal investigations. Additionally, the Department steadfastly insisted that gunwalking did not occur.

Once documentary and testimonial evidence strongly contradicted these claims, the Department attempted to limit the fallout from Fast and Furious to the Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). When that effort also proved unsuccessful, the Department next argued that Fast and Furious resided only within ATF itself, before eventually also assigning blame to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona. All of these efforts were designed to circle the wagons around DOJ and its political appointees.

To that end, just last month, you claimed that Fast and Furious did not reach the upper levels of the Justice Department. Documents discovered through the course of the investigation, however, have proved each and every one of these claims advanced by the Department to be untrue. It appears your latest defense has reached a new low. Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you. At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility into serious doubt.

Following the Committee’s issuance of a subpoena over six months ago, I strongly believed that the Department would fully cooperate with Congress and support this investigation with all the means at its disposal. The American people deserve no less. Unfortunately, the Department’s cooperation to date has been minimal. Hundreds of pages of documents that have been produced to my Committee are duplicative, and hundreds more contain substantial redactions, rendering them virtually worthless. The Department has actively engaged in retaliation against multiple whistleblowers, and has, on numerous occasions, attempted to disseminate false and misleading information to the press in an attempt to discredit this investigation.

Your letter dated October 7 is deeply disappointing. Instead of pledging all necessary resources to assist the congressional investigation in discovering the truth behind the fundamentally flawed Operation Fast and Furious, your letter instead did little but obfuscate, shift blame, berate, and attempt to change the topic away from the Department’s responsibility in the creation, implementation, and authorization of this reckless program. You claim that, after months of silence, you "must now address these issues" over Fast and Furious because of the harmful discourse of the past few days. Yet, the only major development of these past few days has been the release of multiple documents showing that you and your senior staff had been briefed, on numerous occasions, about Fast and Furious.

The Mexican Cartels

A month after you became Attorney General, you spoke of the danger of the Mexican drug cartels, and the Sinaloa cartel in particular. The cartels, you said, "are lucrative, they are violent, and they are operated with stunning planning and precision." You promised that under your leadership "these cartels will be destroyed." You vowed that the Department of Justice would "continue to work with [its] counterparts in Mexico, through information sharing, training and mutual cooperation to jointly fight these cartels, both in Mexico and the United States."

Under your leadership, however, Operation Fast and Furious has proven these promises hollow. According to one agent, Operation Fast and Furious "armed the cartel. It is disgusting." Fast and Furious simply served as a convenient means for dangerous cartels to acquire upwards of 2,000 assault-style weapons. On top of that, the Government of Mexico was not informed about Fast and Furious. In fact, DOJ and ATF officials actively engaged in hiding information about Fast and Furious from not only Mexican officials, but also U.S. law enforcement officials operating in Mexico for fear that they would inform their Mexican counterparts. This strategy is inapposite and contradicts the promises you made to the American people.

Your September 7, 2011 Statement

On September 7, 2011, you said that "[t]he notion that [Fast and Furious] reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that at this point I don’t think is supported by the facts and I think once we examine it and once the facts are revealed we’ll see that’s not the case." Unfortunately, the facts directly contradict this statement.

Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, clearly a member of the Department’s senior leadership, knew about Fast and Furious as early as March 2010. In fact, I have learned that the amount of detail shared with Breuer’s top deputies about Fast and
Furious is simply astounding.

For example, Manuel Celis-Acosta was the "biggest fish" of the straw purchasing ring in Phoenix. From the time the investigation started in September 2009 until March 15, 2010, Manuel Celis-Acosta acquired at least 852 firearms valued at around $500,000 through straw purchasers. Yet in 2009, Celis-Acosta reported an Arizona taxable income of only $15,475. Between September 2009 and late January 2010, 139 of these firearms were recovered, 81 in Mexico alone. Some of these firearms were recovered less than 24 hours after they were bought.

This information, and hundreds of pages worth of additional information, was included in highly detailed wiretap applications sent for authorization to Breuer’s top deputies. It is my understanding, the Department applied to the United States District Court for the District of Arizona for numerous wire taps from March 2010 to July 2010. These wire tap applications were reviewed and approved by several Deputy Assistant Attorney Generals, including Kenneth A. Blanco, John C. Keeney, and Jason M. Weinstein. Breuer’s top deputies approved these wiretap applications to be used against individuals associated with the known drug cartels. As I understand it, the wire tap applications contain rich detail of the reckless operational tactics being employed by your agents in Phoenix. Although Breuer and his top deputies were informed of the operational details and tactics of Fast and Furious, they did nothing to stop the program. In fact, on a trip to Mexico Breuer trumpeted Fast and
Furious as a promising investigation.

Gary Grindler, the then-Deputy Attorney General and currently your Chief of Staff, received an extremely detailed briefing on Operation Fast and Furious on March 12, 2010. In this briefing, Grindler learned such minutiae as the number of times that Uriel Patino, a straw purchaser on food stamps who ultimately acquired 720 firearms, went in to a cooperating gun store and the amount of guns that he had bought. When former Acting ATF Director Ken Melson, a career federal prosecutor, learned similar information, he became sick to his stomach:

"I had pulled out all Patino’s — and ROIs is, I’m sorry, report of investigation — and you know, my stomach being in knots reading the number of times he went in and the amount of guns that he bought. Transcribed interview of Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson at 42".

At the time of his briefing in March of last year, Grindler knew that Patino had purchased 313 weapons and paid for all of them in cash. Unlike Melson, Grindler clearly saw nothing wrong with this. If Grindler had had the sense to shut this investigation down right then, he could have prevented the purchase of an additional 407 weapons by Patino alone.

Instead, Grindler did nothing to stop the program.

Following this briefing, it is clear that Grindler did one of two things. Either, he alerted you to the name and operational details of Fast and Furious, in which case your May 3, 2011 testimony in front of Congress was false; or, he failed to inform you of the name and the operational details of Fast and Furious, in which case Grindler engaged in gross dereliction of his duties as Acting Deputy Attorney General. It is fair to infer from the fact that Grindler remains as your Chief of Staff that he did not engage in gross dereliction of his duties and told you about the program as far back as March of 2010.

In the summer of 2010, at the latest, you were undoubtedly informed about Fast and Furious. On at least five occasions you were told of the connection between Fast and Furious and a specific Mexican cartel – the very cartel that you had vowed to destroy. You were informed that Manuel Celis-Acosta and his straw purchasers were responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels. Yet, you did nothing to stop this program.

You failed to own up to your responsibility to safeguard the American public by hiding behind "[a]ttorneys in [your] office and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General," who you now claim did not bring this information to your attention. Holder Letter, supra note 1. As a result of your failure to act on these memos sent to you, nearly 500 additional firearms were purchased under Fast and Furious.

The facts simply do not support any claim that Fast and Furious did not reach the highest levels of the Justice Department. Actually, Fast and Furious did reach the ultimate authority in the Department – you.

Your May 3, 2011 Statement

On May 3, 2011, I asked you directly when you first knew about the operation known as Fast and Furious. You responded directly, and to the point, that you weren’t "sure of the exact date, but [you] probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks." This statement, made before Congress, has proven to be patently untrue. Documents released by the Department just last week showed that you received at least seven memos about Fast and Furious starting as early as July 2010.

In your letter Friday, you blamed your staff for failing to inform you about Operation Fast and Furious when they reviewed the memos sent to you last summer. Your staff, therefore, was certainly aware of Fast and Furious over a year ago. Lanny Breuer was aware of Fast and Furious as early as March 2010, and Gary Grindler was also aware of Fast and Furious as early as March 2010. Given this frequency of high level involvement with Fast and Furious as much as a year prior to your May 3, 2011 testimony, it simply is not believable that you were not briefed on Fast and Furious until a few weeks before your testimony. At the very least, you should have known about Fast and Furious well before then. The current paper trail, which will only grow more robust as additional documents are discovered, creates the strong perception that your statement in front of Congress was less than truthful.

The February 4, 2011 Letter

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this intransigence is that the Department of Justice has been lying to Congress ever since the inquiry into Fast and Furious began. On February 4, 2011, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that "ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transport into Mexico." This letter, vetted by both the senior ranks of ATF as well as the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, is a flat-out lie.

As we understand it, in March 2010, top deputies to Lanny Breuer were informed that law enforcement officers intercepted calls that demonstrated that Manuel Celis-Acosta was conspiring to purchase and transport firearms for the purpose of trafficking the firearms from the United States into Mexico. Not only was ATF aware of this information, but so was the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This information was shared with the Criminal Division. All of these organizations are components of the Department of Justice, and they were all aware of the illegal purchase of firearms and their eventual transportation into Mexico.

These firearms were not interdicted. They were not stopped. Your agents allowed these firearms purchases to continue, sometimes even monitoring them in person, and within days some of these weapons were being recovered in Mexico. Despite widespread knowledge within its senior ranks that this practice was occurring, when asked on numerous occasions about the veracity of this letter, the Department has shockingly continued to stand by its false statement of February 4, 2011.

Mr. Attorney General, you have made numerous statements about Fast and Furious that have eventually been proven to be untrue. Your lack of trustworthiness while speaking about Fast and Furious has called into question your overall credibility as Attorney General. The time for deflecting blame and obstructing our investigation is over. The time has come for you to come clean to the American public about what you knew about Fast and Furious, when you knew it, and who is going to be held accountable for failing to shut down a program that has already had deadly consequences, and will likely cause more casualties for years to come.

Operation Fast and Furious was the Department’s most significant gun trafficking case. It related to two of your major initiatives – destroying the Mexican cartels and reducing gun violence on both sides of the border. On your watch, it went spectacularly wrong. Whether you realize yet or not, you own Fast and Furious. It is your responsibility.

Sincerely, Darrell Issa Chairman House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

 

[Assuredcw]

.

 

[HerbieHeadley]

"When Issa asked if Holder was told at that point about the weapons located at the murder scene, Holder replied, "No," and then repeated his position of not knowing of it until January of 2011. Issa then asked Holder if he could provide the name of the person who informed him about it, and Holder veered off his talking points.

"I mean, I found out about it, as I said, I think, in January, February of 2011 and I'm not even sure how I found out about it. It might have been even through -- even a letter from Senator Grassley on February 9, I'm not sure if he -- if it was contained in there...I -- I again, I'm not exactly sure how I found out about Fast and Furious."

Congressman Dennis Ross from Florida later asked Holder if Wilkinson had informed him of Terry's death. "I don't know. I'm not sure who told me," Holder replied.

Ross then quoted from Wilkinson's e-mail where he had informed U.S. Attorney Burke that he had "alerted" Holder of Terry's death.

Holder: Well, he notified me, but I'm not saying it's entirely possible that I knew about it before Monty told me...

Ross: OK. And you've no reason to dispute that Monty told you about it?

Holder: Yeah, I suppose he did.

Holder quickly added that he could have received the information from a variety of places.

Ross then mentioned the e-mail where Burke had informed Wilkinson that guns connected to the operation were tied to the murder. Ross asked
Holder if he knew of that e-mail exchange.

"No, I wasn't...I was not told about this. I was unaware of this," Holder replied.

No one has yet been held accountable for Fast and Furious, and Holder keeps stating that he wants to wait for the inspector general's report, even though that investigation began a full year ago. Seven ATF staff have been reassigned, but all are still on the government payroll.

Dennis Burke of the U.S. attorney's office resigned and was joined by Assistant Attorney Patrick Cunningham last January, after he refused to testify and resigned to take a job in the private sector."

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/connecting_the_dots_on_fast_and_furious.html#ixzz1u3B1XjPQ

 

[RETS]

But is he allowed to tell Issa anything confidentially? Or does what he reveals in the hearing become part of the public record?

Issa's an IDIOT if he is showing a blatant disregard for these distinctions...he got misinformation for his trouble, too, because Holder simply is NOT going to tell him about active investigations. He shouldn't.


If you don't agree, then there is nothing to discuss. But the President tells us all kinds of things, and has press conferences in the rose garden all the time.


Oh, and I linked up to a Medicare fraud ring Holder busted - it was announced yesterday. It's a page or three back. Other things too, obviously, but go to the Jutice Dept website and you'll see them.

Furthermore, IMO Issa is obstructing justice by messing with the guy who is knowledgable enough to be dishing it out. AG Holder is the top prosecutor in the entire country. He is the Big Kahuna. I don't think Issa and the other members of Congress know as much as AG Holder about Constitutional Law (he is a former Federal judge under Reagan for crying out loud!) or know where the bodies are buried to root out the problems in the ATF, FBI and elsewhere.

If they want him to give them a confidential debriefing, that's one thing. But to order a public hearing, where everyone gets to hear what he's working on is not reasonable. It upsets me.

Three points:

1) Liars say a lot of things too. Truth is more important that grandstanding. If this government has been transparent, then it should be simple to provide even one example of that.

2) I'll check out that link, as I must have missed it somehow. Thanks.

3) Holder never tried to have a private meeting with Issa, so the Congressman is not the idiot here, nor is he obstructing justice. Holder is. As a judge, he ought to KNOW that he is not above the law. Yet, in this situation, he as acted as though he is. It is that simple. I'll make it even plainer: Holder Broke The Law. Period.


Now, Herbie beat me to posting the letters, but there you have it. We may not agree on this thing, ever, but to maintain that Holder has done absolutely NOTHING wrong is ignorant.

 

[Assuredcw]

HerbieHeadley, Issa made all of that PUBLIC. And he actually expects Holder to give detailed answers to all of it, IN PUBLIC.

I am not sure what to think, but this doesn't seem to be very intelligent to me...

It is almost as if he doesn't care what the truth is, he just seems to want Holder's head to roll.

But I do care, because it wouldn't surprise me if someone took a bribe. They might be still infiltrating Federal law enforcement, too. But Issa has closed the door to any improved communication and I don't expect that Holder will be telling him anything further.

Don't they have members of Congress with security clearances, who can be told classified information? A change of venue for this discussion might be in order. Instead of any more public hearings, there needs to be a closed-door debriefing. Then maybe one of Issa's Republican colleagues can tell him he's interfering with something important and to lay off. I certainly hope so. We need to move past partisanship and come together to clean this up.

 

[HerbieHeadley]

There are volumes of documents that support our belief that the people involved in Fast and Furious come from the very top levels of government and fully intended to keep the entire operation under wraps, provide some criminals with guns, then use their possession of those guns as an excuse to further deny law-abiding citizens in the United States the legal guns they have or intend to acquire. They would have simply had to say, “We told you so.” Unfortunately for them, the operation was exposed when one of those guns was, in fact used to kill a law enforcement officer, which just happened to be one of ours.All of these people have, in our opinion, shown their outright contempt for the foundation of our government, and they now have shown their arrogance in believing we are going to swallow this non-explanation. They should all be at least replaced and maybe prosecuted and our representatives should be asking much tougher questions, but maybe they would rather be questioning baseball players.

Is it complete incompetence or outright lying : News Headline

Operation Gun Runner / Operation Fast and Furious

 

[Assuredcw]

If it's that bad, why haven't they hauled (prior Attorney General) Janet Reno into these Congressional hearings? Fast & Furious was started on HER watch?!

Don't they have members of Congress with security clearances, who can be told classified information? A change of venue for this discussion might be in order. Instead of any more public hearings, there needs to be a closed-door debriefing. Then maybe one of Issa's Republican colleagues can tell him he's interfering with something important and to lay off. I certainly hope so. We need to move past partisanship and come together to clean this up.

Edited: Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security, did in fact attend earlier hearings, and she also denied knowledge of the situation.

 

[citizenthom]

You've never been in leadership, have you? You've never been in a position where you are answerable to someone else, FOR someone else, have you?

I was actually going to guess that Assured is either 1.) a law enforcement officer (hence the "don't question the authorities" mentality), or 2.) someone who IS in some position of power and has been in trouble before, hence her opposition to oversight of the powerful. She actually sounds a lot like some of the County Commissioners in my area who recently raised a big stink about Tennessee's Sunshine Laws (open meetings laws).

 

[citizenthom]

If it's that bad, why haven't they hauled Janet Reno into these Congressional hearings? Fast & Furious was started on HER watch?!

They might, if they find evidence from the subpoenaed documents that she is guilty of some wrongdoing. But it is Holder's job to comply with those subpoenas, and so far he is refusing to comply fully.

 

[Assuredcw]

You guys don't get it - do you think Darryl Issa is going to prosecute all of those cases?

The AG outranks Issa. He has no right to ask him anything at all, unless there is proof of an actual problem. But the only problem is, guess what - Holder won't tell him anything. But Holder never had to tell him, unless Issa can find some actual wrong-doing unrelated to Holder's failure to tell him anything.

I know a kangaroo court situation when I see one. Holder is failing to comply with subpoenas that should never have been issued in the first place. Give Janet Reno the 3rd degree. She isn't the CURRENT AG, and she might be able to talk about more.

 

[Assuredcw]

I was actually going to guess that Assured is either 1.) a law enforcement officer (hence the "don't question the authorities" mentality), or 2.) someone who IS in some position of power and has been in trouble before, hence her opposition to oversight of the powerful. She actually sounds a lot like some of the County Commissioners in my area who recently raised a big stink about Tennessee's Sunshine Laws (open meetings laws).

You can't have an open meeting about classified information.

 

[citizenthom]

The AG outranks Issa.

No, he doesn't. See, I bolded it: it must be true.

Holder is a member of the Executive Branch, appointed by the President. Issa is an elected member of the Legislative Branch. They aren't even in the same chain of command.

 

[citizenthom]

You can't have an open meeting about classified information.

Civilian law enforcement information is not and should not be classified to the public, and especially not to the courts or Congress exercising the subpoena power.