Autopsy of Injustice. Let the dead teach the living in the Gunwalker Scandal.

"So that is where we are, as far as I know. The committee may have a rabbit in their hat. In fact, if they've been doing what they claim to have been doing they should have a whole warren of embarrassing rabbits for Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano and the sitting president of the United States. If. . . Maybe. . . Or, the fix is in, which means they have decided to try to save their rotten system and not the country."

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt van Rijn

It is early on the morning I fly out to Mordor-on-the-Potomac. I awoke too soon from my sleep with this essay almost fully formed in my head, and so I present it you, gentle readers, as a follow-on to the previous post, including the words above, which I am told has excited some consternation and displeasure at the Issa committee.

The term "autopsy" in its modern sense dates from the the 1650s or thereabouts. It derives from the Greek "autopsia" which means "a seeing with one's own eyes," and its spirit is embodied in the Latin phrase "Mortui vivos docent," or, "Let the dead teach the living."

There are those, and they are not only folks working for Darrell Issa, who believe that I am being too harsh, too suspicious, of the year-long investigation. Various people called me yesterday to chide me for a lack of faith and respect. "Why did you have to embarrass the Congressman about Davos?" one asked.

Truth be told, I don't care whether the independently wealthy Darrell Issa goes to Davos. Good on him, both for making the money and having the ability to jet around the world. I mentioned it only because I knew it would get their attention, these people who almost consistently refuse to answer my questions directly. Heck, I even understand that, knowing what Rachel Madcow or "Bloody Hands" Cummings would do with the knowledge to try to discredit the investigation with guilt by association.

I poked them about Davos, not because I think Issa is hobnobbing with George Soros in some grand, Alex Jones conspiracy or simply out of pique that the committee has mystified me and other more mainstream journalists with their actions (or, in most cases, inactions), but rather because I have had almost two decades of "autopsia" when it comes to federal law enforcement scandals and, perhaps more than any other observer of this, the worst of such scandals, I believe that the dead should teach the living.

(Sidenote: It is no small thing that the committee has for many weeks cut off the flow of information to "mainstream" journalists who, unlike me, actually have a pay grade. Have you noticed how many Gunwalker stories Sharyl Attkisson of CBS has done lately? Zero. Zip. Nada. Bupkus. You know why? I have no specific knowledge, but I can tell you that editors -- especially editors who are made nervous by the threat that this scandal poses to their Dear Leader's regime -- do not keep reporters on stories where the sources dry up. And the committee has in great measure dried up the flow of information on what it is that they are doing. If they are now upset that people wonder why that is and what it portends, even to the point of making unfair guesses, well . . . they have only themselves to blame.)

"Mortui vivos docent."

The Randy Weaver family. The ATF wanted to make him an informant against the Aryan Nations. He refused. In the end, the U.S. Marshals killed his 14 year old son Sammy with a shot in the back and the FBI "accidentally" shot his wife Vicki in the head as she held their 10-month-old daughter Elishiba. With optics that FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi used, he could have seen Vicki Weaver's back teeth, even firing through the door glass as he did. As Wikipedia notes, "A Justice Department review later found this second shot was unconstitutional and the lack of a request to surrender was 'inexcusable', since Harris and the two Weavers were running for cover and could not pose an imminent threat." The FBI dubbed their temporary camp "Camp Vicki" and during the ensuing ten-day standoff negotiators taunted the survivors with "Vicki, come on out, we have blueberry pancakes." The negotiators later claimed they didn't know Vicki was dead, but Lon Horiuchi certainly did.

Politicians of both parties saw to that Lon Horiuchi was protected from legal consequences. FBI Assistant Director Larry Potts (a "FOL" -- "Friend of Louie," FBI Director Louis Freeh -- was censured for his role and in the subsequent cover-up. He was allowed to retire in 1997, after also participating in the command decision at Waco.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Some of the kids at Waco before their encounter with the FBI Hostage Roasting Team.

Here's some views of the end result of your tax dollars at work:

No one -- NO ONE -- was ever punished or even inconvenienced by what they did to these children at Waco. Eric Holder was instrumental in covering up the circumstances of the Waco inferno, including the prosecution of U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston, the only federal employee who seemed remotely interested in getting to the bottom of what actually happened. In this, Holder had bi-partisan help from the GOP. (See This Is Not An Assault: Penetrating the Web of Official Lies Regarding the Waco Incident by David T. Hardy & Rex Kimball.)

This bi-partisan cover-up cooperation continued to pay Eric Holder dividends into the 21st Century. From an article by Tommy Witherspoon in the Waco Tribune, 16 January 2009:

U.S. attorney general nominee Eric Holder not questioned about Waco Branch Davidian siege.

U.S. Attorney General-designate Eric Holder was prepared to be bombarded during his Senate confirmation hearings Thursday with a host of questions about a variety of topics, including his role as acting attorney general during a special investigation into the 1993 Branch Davidian debacle.

While he fielded questions about waterboarding terrorist suspects and the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, Senate Judiciary Committee members didn’t get around to asking about the Branch Davidian investigation.

Former Attorney General Janet Reno recused herself from a special investigation that was conducted by former U.S. Sen. John Danforth into how the fire started in April 1993 in which Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and 75 of his followers perished.

Reno’s recusal left Holder, then No. 2 at the Justice Department, as acting attorney general for the purposes of Danforth’s 14-month, $17 million investigation.

Sen. Arlen Specter — ranking Republican on Senate Judiciary — indicated earlier this week that the Branch Davidian siege and Holder’s involvement in Danforth’s investigation might be a topic discussed during Holder’s confirmation hearings. Internet blogs have been rife with speculation about possible Holder testimony on the siege.

Danforth said this week that he supports Holder’s nomination and thinks he will be an excellent attorney general. He said as acting attorney general, Holder was the person to whom Danforth and his investigators submitted requests for information.

“He was very good and played it straight,” Danforth said. “I think that, oftentimes, the reaction to people in agencies or departments where there is an investigation going on is to circle the wagons. But that was not him at all. He was very forthcoming and very cooperative with us and provided the information we needed.”

Waco attorney Bill Johnston, a former assistant U.S. attorney who helped prosecute 11 Branch Davidians on murder charges, was the only person prosecuted as a result of Danforth’s investigation.

Johnston admitted that he failed to turn over his personal notes to investigators that they said revealed Johnston knew at least by 1994 that the FBI used tear-gas devices capable of sparking a fire on the final day of the 51-day standoff with Koresh.

They said Johnston also lied to a special grand jury in St. Louis about his level of cooperation.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Baylee Almon, barely alive, pulled from the rubble of the Murrah Building, Oklahoma City, 19 April 1995. She died shortly afterward.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Kenny Trentadue.

The official explanation of the bombing -- what Oklahoma investigative journalist J.D. Cash derisively called "The Lone Bomber Theory" -- was seriously complicated by credible reports of "others unknown." As I wrote recently:

A U.S. Attorney in Arizona made the proffer to McVeigh associate Michael Fortier in order to flesh out the "lone bomber theory" and divert attention away from Elohim City, the Aryan Republican Army and federal undercover informant Andreas Carl Strassmeier.

The name of that United States Attorney was Janet Napolitano.

The Oklahoma City Bombing, we now know, was at least influenced by and at worst executed by participants in a larger FBI operation called PATCON (See here and here. PATCON, and the cover-up of its deadly offshoots, was carried out under administrations of both parties. Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano are both long-time players in this cover-up, but then it has its GOP participants as well.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Brian Terry, Killed in Action, 15 December 2010, Peck Canyon, Arizona.

Let the dead teach the living. And what do these hundreds of dead -- thousands if you count the Mexican victims of Gunwalker, and I do -- as a result of federal law enforcement actions over the past two decades teach us? What do the bi-partisan cover-ups in all these cases teach us? They teach us that trusting anyone in the federal government when they utter the phrase "we will get to the bottom of it" is folly. They teach us that the Eric Holders of the world -- these evil men who commit crimes under color of law, violating the Constitution that they swore an oath to uphold -- could not succeed in their crimes without the urbane and sophisticated John Danforths of the world who cover for them.

My problem is that I have seen with my own eyes too much. I no longer trust. I can no longer be patient. For we who have trusted and been patient in our previous searches for federal justice have always been betrayed by the same people who claimed to be determined to "get to the bottom of it."

If my long education in bi-partisan perfidy in the cover-up of federal murder and mass murder has made me impatient, abrasive, untrusting and cynical, I make no apology. If we do see a complete and honest investigation of the Gunwalker Conspiracy, it would be a triumph of faint hope over jaded experience.

But that's not the way to bet.

"Mortui vivos docent."

-- Mike Vanderboegh