January 19, 2008

 

 

       

        - Linked Thumbnail to one of the Best

          Second Amendment Cartoons Ever

          Drawn, by Cartoonist Michael Ramirez

          at Investors Business Daily. Definitely

          worth the click to see it. (Note- Please

          come back to News Briefs after a suitable

          amount of laughter, we like the traffic.).

 

 

"...Firearms tracing, using eTrace technology, allows law enforcement agencies to identify

    trafficking trends of DTO's and other criminal organizations funneling guns into Mexico

    from the United States. In addition, eTrace assists criminal investigators to develop

    investigative leads in order to put firearms traffickers and straw purchasers (people

    who knowingly purchase guns for prohibited persons) behind bars before they cross

    the border.

 

    ATF recently deployed the eTrace technology in U.S. consulates in Monterrey,

    Hermosillo and Guadalajara, with six additional deliveries scheduled by March 2008

    to the remaining U.S. consulates in Mexico. ATF continues to meet with the government

    of Mexico to discuss deploying a Spanish-language version of eTrace to other agencies

    in Mexico..."

 

                                    - Excerpt from an ATFE News Release on the expansion

                                      of the eTrace firearms "possessor" tracking system into

                                      Mexico, released on January 16, 2008

 

 

 

"...Colombia today dedicated its new Explosives Information and Firearms Tracing

     Center (CIARA), a U.S.-funded project that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,

     Firearms and Explosives (ATF) helped establish.

 

     CIARA, three years in the making and the first bomb data and firearms tracing

     center of its kind in South America, will serve as the focal point for all Colombian

     military and law enforcement efforts on explosives and firearms tracing. Funded

     through U.S. Plan Colombia assistance program, its mission will be to support

     the Colombian judicial process by focusing on the prevention and investigation

     of bombings and other explosives incidents, and by tracing firearms used in

     crimes and terrorist attacks.

 

      Located on the grounds of the Colombian Judicial Police headquarters here, CIARA

      includes the Dfuze international explosives database that ATF helped develop, an

      explosives repository, national response and post-blast bomb squads, a biochemical

      unit and a firearms tracing program that will be linked to the ATF's eTrace system and

      Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS).

 

      eTrace allows participating law enforcement agencies to submit, via the Internet, firearms

      tracing requests in real time and directly to the computer at ATF's National Tracing Center

      in the United States. IBIS is the software that allows law enforcement to image and compare

      cartridges and other crime gun evidence..."

 

 

                                    - Excerpt from an ATFE Press Release on the expansion of

                                      of the eTrace system to Colombian law enforcement officials,

                                      released December 6, 2006

 

 

"...The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) National Tracing

     Center, a service oriented entity, has developed an electronic interface to its firearm

     tracing services, called eTrace....Recovered firearms are traced by Law Enforcement

     Agencies a) to link a suspect to a firearm in a criminal investigation; b) to identify

     potential firearms traffickers, whether licensed or unlicensed sellers, and ; c) to detect

     in-state, interstate, and international patterns in the sources and kinds of gun crimes...

 

     ATF has extended its on-going commitment to the law enforcement community by

     providing approved agencies with a paperless firearm trace submission system that is

     readily accessible through a connection to the worldwide web (Internet)...This tool not

     only provides users with the ability to electronically submit trace requests, but also to

     monitor the progress of traces and efficiently retrieve completed trace requests in a

     real-time environment...

 

     To access and utilize the eTrace application, the only infrastructure an agency needs

     is a personal computer and access to the World Wide Web, thus empowering even the

     smallest of agencies to comprehensively trace their firearms and perform on-line data

     analysis. eTrace access is achieved by obtaining a valid User ID. and password from

     ATF and authenticated using the eTrace site on the internet. Each participating agency

     also enters into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ATF. The MOU is

     intended to formalize a partnership between the participating agencies with regard to

     policy and procedures relative to the access and utilization of eTrace services.

     Successful access allows users the ability to enter new traces, view existing traces,

     and run reports on traces for which they are authorized..."

 

                                        - Excerpt from the "Privacy Impact Assessment for the

                                          eTrace", released on May 30, 2006 by the ATFE

 

 

"...The military also has fallen victim to spectacular security breaches, a result of too-rapid

     expansion, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos acknowledged. ' It's like a child who

    grows too fast. There are going to be problems,' Santos said, adding that to clean house,

    his ministry has dismissed 360 officers in the last two years..."

 

                                        - Excerpt from a Los Angeles Times story by Chris Kraul on

                                          issues of concern about the current status of the Colombian

                                          military and the current war on the FARC and the drug lords

                                          in that tiny country, January 18, 2008

 

 

To All,

    What, no Cuban paratroopers? Let us hope that the firearms manufacturers do not number their products sequentially:

 

In The Name Of The King?:

    It sounds like firearms owners and activists are going to have tractor-trailer-sized loads of questions for their elected representatives shortly, given recent press releases from those "service-oriented" souls at the ATFE.

 

    It seems that ATF may have been expanding firearms tracing access in quite a number of foreign locales over the past few years (Germany, Britain, Canada, and Interpol HQ are also on the list). And, in at least in the case of Colombia, foreign law enforcement officials may currently have access to U.S. domestic firearms trace databases. Said databases possibly contain such "possessor" information as names, addresses, driver's license numbers, Social Security numbers, and theoretically even serial numbers of additional firearms that are required by various states to be registered with authorities.

 

    Given the importance of the access of trace information to those mayors and activists currently focused on a "torts" approach to knock down the Tiarht Amendment and deconstruct U.S. firearms ownership, the thought of them being helped by foreign governments who have espoused a long-term support for U.N. personal disarmament policies is distressing to say the least.

 

    Add to this the possibilities towards identity theft and the nature of the human smuggling racket, one could easily think that Neville Chamberlain's reign as the Human Race's Most Gullible Public Official may finally be coming to an end. (What would it truly take to compromise a Columbian police official whose name just happens to be on the latest "Memorandum of Understanding"? Threatening his family with violence? Bribing him with some of the cocaine cartel's pocket change? Both?)

 

    Now, it is possible that access to the eTrace database is more limited, and more thoroughly supervised, than what would seem to be indicated in the press releases documented above and below. Hopefully the ATF can be importuned to "splain" most thoroughly how they are currently guarding some of the most private data that can had in a government database of a free society. Given that DEA and other law enforcement undercover operatives lives may depend upon there being massively strict protocols, the questions cannot be answered soon enough, nor swept under the rug due to the exigencies of the election cycle and the lame-duck status of the current Administration. Interested parties are probably best advised to warm up their word processors and email programs. Otherwise, the Voters From Hell might just come to breakfast if they are not dealt with promptly and thoroughly. Stay tuned.

         

Links at:

http://www.atf.gov/press/2008press/011608proj_gunrunner.pdf

 

http://www.atf.gov/press/fy05press/060205explosivestraining.htm

 

http://www.atf.gov/press/fy06press/field/120606colombia_dedicates.pdf

 

http://www.atf.gov/about/foia/pia/privacy_impact_assessment-etrace-pclo.pdf

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-colombia18jan18,1,2461927.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

 

http://www.scmagazineus.com/China-has-penetrated-key-US-databases-SANS-research-director/article/104338/

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011803277_pf.html

 

 

Question of the Week:

    Evan Halper wrote a small article in the January 18, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Times concerning Governor Schwarzenegger's admission as to a personal firearm and edged weapons collection.

 

    Apparently the Governor has acquired firearms from movie roles, which he proudly likes to maintain as momentos of a prodigious career.

 

    But what discerning firearms activists truly want to know is whether the Governor got to keep the personal mini-gun prop used in the first "Predator" movie. Apart from it looking like it could help with brush clearance in and around the hills of Los Angeles, it must be one heck of a conversation piece when Malibu society comes to call. Hopefully the Governor will let the "cat" out of the bag.

 

Link at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnoldside18jan18,1,3397682.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

 

 

By The Numbers Update:

     On eve of the South Carolina Primary and Nevada Caucus, delegate counts for the "upper tier" candidates can be found at Real Clear Politics.com:

 

Democrats:    2,025 delegates to win nomination-

    Clinton             190

    Obama             135

    Edwards            50        

 

Republicans: 1,191 delegates to win nomination-

    Romney              42

    Huckabee           32

    McCain                13

    Thompson            3

 

   Boy, do we still have long way to go.

 

Link at: 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/delegate_counts.html

 

 

 

Oh, Puhleaze!:

     Apparently whatever is in England's water supply that makes Prince Charles the kind of guy he is has gotten to law enforcement in Cornwall.

 

    It seems Cornish bobbies are implementing weapons rules in such a way as to require the registration of plastic replica swords and a classic toy gun, this last which has a flag that reads "bang" when the trigger is pulled.

 

   Let us get this story straight- UK Law Enforcement is busily ensconced back at the station registering whatever weapons of mass destruction just happened to labeled "Hasbro", while citizens and tourists are being stabbed for their jewelry and mugged for their "mobiles" (cell phones).

 

    Just wants to make one commune with the Travelocity Gnome about visiting Ole Blighty, doesn't it.

 

Link at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/7196104.stm

 

 

 

Respectfully,