The real story on Eric Holder

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The truth about Eric Holder

Attorney General-Nominee Eric Holder is not only anti-gun, but anti-freedom

President-Elect Barack Obama named former Clinton legal aide, Eric Holder to be his nominee for Attorney General. Mr. Holder has been in keep figure in many of the Clinton Whitehouse's worst moments; from Elian Gonzales to the Waco Cover up to Clinton's "war on guns.

Now Eric Holder is poised to be Attorney General, overseeing the notoriously anti-gun Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The Waco Cover Up

Holder was a leader in the Clinton/Reno Waco cover up. U.S. Attorney James W. Blagg, who dared to publicly question the Department of Justice cover-up of the Waco/Branch Dividian Disaster, was personally removed from the investigation by then-Deputy Attorney General, and Clinton foot-soldier, Eric Holder.

From the Associated Press, September 14, 1999:

WASHINGTON--The federal prosecutor who raised questions about a possible Justice Department cover-up in the Waco standoff was abruptly removed from the case along with his boss, according to a court filing made public Tuesday.

Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder recused U.S. Attorney James W. Blagg in San Antonio and assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston in Waco, Texas, from any further dealings in criminal or civil proceedings related to the siege. [Emphasis added]

Holder appointed the U.S. attorney in a neighboring district as a "special attorney to the U.S. attorney general."

The court filing in Waco provides no explanation for the decision to recuse the U.S. attorneys' office for the Western District of Texas, to which Blagg and Johnston are assigned, but said the action took effect last Friday.

...

Johnston, in a letter made public Monday, wrote Reno recently warning that aides within her own department were misleading her about federal agents' roles.

"I have formed the belief that facts may have been kept from you and quite possibly are being kept from you even now by components of the department," Johnston wrote in an Aug. 30 letter.

Johnston also has been at odds with Blagg, his superior, and other Justice officials over the investigation of the government's actions during the standoff with the Davidians at their compound outside Waco. It was Johnston who pressed Justice Department officials to allow independent filmmakers to review evidence sifted from the charred ruins of the Davidians' compound--evidence that led to the FBI's recent admission that potentially incendiary tear gas canisters were fired on April 19, 1993.

That disclosure, after six years of denials, sparked a furor on Capitol Hill and has led to congressional inquiries and Reno's appointment of an independent investigator.

Blagg, Johnston and the Justice Department provided no immediate comment.

Holder a lieutenant in Clinton's "war on guns"

In his October 2001 comments Eric Holder implied that only terrorists and criminals buy guns at gun shows. His remarks also included his case for strengthening the unconstitutional Brady Registration Act. Holder went so far as to say that there were "numerous" and "chilling" examples of terrorists being armed at gun shows, but only provided two, incidental and unrelated incidents as evidence.

Holder's comments included this statement:

Some citizens believe that they need to purchase firearms for self-protection. If the recent increase in firearms sales is attributable to people who may lawfully purchase firearms, that is the decision of the individual and not a matter that should be the subject of government oversight. If, on the other hand, any firearm purchased in this country falls into the hands of a terrorist because no background check was done, that is another national tragedy waiting to happen. Fortunately for our nation, there is an easy and safe solution.

One measure that is an essential part of any plan is the need to tighten our nation's gun laws, which allow the easy and legal sale of firearms to terrorists and criminals. While we are appropriately discussing requiring criminal background checks on airline pilots, baggage handlers and airport security personnel, federal law does not require background checks on all firearms sales. In the interest of national security, this should be changed immediately.

Additionally, Holder was a leader in Bill Clinton's "all-out war on guns." Holder is viewed by many as a nightmare for gun rights in America. In his professional life he has advocated:

federal licensing of handgun owners

a three-day waiting period on handgun sales

rationing handgun sales to no more than one per month

banning possession of handguns and so-called "assault weapons" by anyone under age 21

a gun show restriction bill that would have given the federal government the power to shut down all gun shows

national gun registration

Holder and the BATFE

Holder has been a strong supporter of the notoriously anti-gun BATFE. After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, Holder went so far as to claim in a Washington Post Op-Ed that, "the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should keep a record of every firearm sale."

As Attorney General Eric Holder would be responsible for overseeing the BATFE, who's semi-official mantra has become "always think forfeiture." They're more concerned with confiscating the firearms of law abiding citizens for paperwork errors than living up to their oath of office to protect the Constitution -- including the 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights.

Holder and illegal search and seizure

Holder was a key Clinton Justice department spokesman during the Elian Gonzales incident, which was "resolved" by a SWAT team storming the Gonzales home in the pre-dawn hours and taking the six-year-old Gonzales child at gun point.

Byron York from the National Review remembers the incident well:

In the period before armed agents seized the child, the Justice Department had been leaking its intention to avoid any sort of armed intervention. It would all be done quietly, they suggested. When top Department officials were asked about it, they said nothing to change that impression. About two weeks before the raid, Tim Russert asked Holder, "You wouldn't send a SWAT team in the dark of night to kidnap the child, in effect?" Holder answered, "No, we don't expect anything like that to happen." Then the Department did precisely that. The day after the seizure, Holder appeared again with Russert, who asked, "Why such a dramatic change in position?" "I'm not sure I'd call it a dramatic change," Holder answered. "We waited 'til five in the morning, just before dawn."

Holder knows corruption

Former Clinton insider Dick Morris sums up Holder's association with Marc Rich, a notorious white collar criminal who had renounced his U.S. citizenship, succinctly: Holder made Rich's pardon happen.

As deputy attorney general, Holder was the key person who made the pardon of Marc Rich possible in the final hours of the Clinton presidency. Now, Obama will be stuck in the Marc Rich mess.

If ever there was a person who did not deserve a presidential pardon, it's Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire who renounced his US citizenship and moved to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for racketeering, wire fraud, 51 counts of tax fraud, evading $48 million in taxes, and engaging in illegal trades with Iran in violation of the US embargo following the 1979-80 hostage crisis.

Seventeen years later, Rich wanted a pardon, and he retained Jack Quinn, former counsel to the president, to lobby his old boss.

It was Holder who had originally recommended Quinn to one of Rich's advisers, although he claims that he did not know the identity of the client.

And he gave substantive advice to Quinn along the way. According to Quinn's notes that were produced to Congress, Holder told Quinn to take the pardon application "straight to the White House" because "the timing is good."

And once the pardon was granted, Holder sent his congratulations to Quinn.

In 2002, a congressional committee reported that Holder was a "willing participant in the plan to keep the Justice Department from knowing about and opposing" the Rich pardon.

Rich bought oil cheaply from Iran during the American embargo during the hostage crisis, and sold it at greatly inflated prices.

Holder vs. Life, Liberty, etc.

Holder's legal and professional legacy has been own of marked liberalism, corruption and race-politics. A recent editorial in the National Review outlined a number of Holder's most egregious policy positions.

He is convinced justice in America needs to be “established” rather than enforced; he’s excited about hate crimes and enthusiastic about the constitutionally dubious Violence Against Women Act; he’s a supporter of affirmative action and a practitioner of the statistical voodoo that makes it possible to burden police departments with accusations of racial profiling and the states with charges of racially skewed death-penalty enforcement; he’s more likely to be animated by a touchy-feely Reno-esque agenda than traditional enforcement against crimes; he’s in favor of ending the detentions of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay and favors income redistribution to address the supposed root causes of crime.

...In 1999, over the objections of the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, and prosecuting attorneys, Holder supported Clinton’s commutation of the sentences of 16 FALN conspirators. These pardons — of terrorists who even Holder has conceded had not expressed any remorse — were issued in the months after al-Qaeda’s 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, when the Clinton administration was pretending to be the scourge of terrorism. The commutations were nakedly political, obviously designed by Clinton to assist his wife’s impending Senate campaign by appealing to New York’s substantial Puerto Rican vote.

....Under Holder’s stewardship, moreover, the Justice Department chose, in the Dickerson case, to oppose its own prosecutors and seek reversal of the conviction of a bank robber whose voluntary confession had been elicited without Miranda warnings. Taking the Justice Department's signal, the Supreme Court overruled the lower courts and vacated the conviction, upending 30 years of precedent which had held that Miranda was not part of the core Fifth Amendment guarantee. Thanks to this ruling, rendered in the comfort of pre-9/11 complacence, terrorists tried in civilian courts — which is where Obama and Holder want them to be tried — will enjoy a powerful argument against the admission of critical confession evidence. Copyright © 2007 National Associ

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