Exclusive Special Report by Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea WASHINGTON, DC:

Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) wrote a letter today to Attorney General Eric Holder and Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Kenneth Melson expressing "deep concern about reports that [ATF and DOJ] have participated in multiple acts of 'gun walking,' purposely allowing firearms to pass from straw purchaser into the possession of criminals and other dangerous third party organizations."

"These reports," Bilirakis writes, "raise troubling questions about the motives, intentions, and competency of the ATF and DOJ."

 "In recent days," he notes, "it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ may have participated in the act of 'gun walking' beyond the acts conducted within the scope of "Operation Fast and Furious'…and that similar programs included the possible trafficking of arms to dangerous criminal gangs in Honduras with the knowledge of the ATF's Tampa Field Division."

 Referencing his membership on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Bilirakis asked for answers to the following questions, including whether ATF Tampa and DOJ "allowed weapons to be trafficked to Honduras." Click here to see the complete letter and questions.

 A point of clarification by Mike Vanderboegh, one of the two online journalists who broke the Tampa/Honduras gunwalking story, involves the appearance that Operation Castaway was necessarily the cover used for the trafficking. In an update filed today, Vanderboegh notes: You will note the question mark in the header of the first story after "Part of Operation Castaway?"

Here is the exact wording:
 "Whether the allegations of our source refer to the on-going Operation Castaway remains at this hour unclear, but our source is certain that O'Brien has allowed the 'walking' of straw-purchased firearms to Honduras using the same failed strategy as the Phoenix Field Division's Operation Fast and Furious. That Operation Castaway involved arms smuggling to Honduras is also certain."

This is careful language for a reason. We asked the question because although other sources suggested it might be related to Operation Castaway we could not confirm it. We went with what our central source (who was closest to the source of the story than anyone else) said, which was that although he was certain of gunwalking to Honduras he was not certain it was a part of the Castaway operation.

Our second story, my analysis piece on "Why Honduras?" and my letter to Melson included nothing about Castaway. Elsewhere on the Internet and in the mainstream media, others made the connection to Castaway, which may have been related to a combination of this language in the DOJ press release on Castaway, "Operation Castaway remains an ongoing investigation…

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