Two quotes that stand out: Holder in November

saying "The department is currently reviewing existing gun laws to determine how best to combat gun violence and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others prohibited from possessing them."

And, in April (Obama had) "not backed off at all from my belief that the assault weapons ban makes sense."

Again, in April: "Not backed off."

In November: "The department is currently reviewing existing gun laws."

My sources tell me that at some point along this time, William "Gunwalker Bill" Newell's 2008 Tucson "pilot project" of walking guns within the US came to the attention of Holder and then Emanuel.
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Reviewing policy: November 2009.

Recruitment of the FFL holder to begin active Gunwalker operations: 17 December 2009.

Remember one of my sources' analysis previously reported:

Let me tell you what this was, and where it came from, based on a conversation I had with a long-time, well-informed veteran of American government intelligence operations the other day.

"Do you think," he asked me, "that this happened accidentally in a vacuum?" Meaning that one day "Gunwalker Bill" Newell, Phoenix SAC, just got a wild hair and decided to invent his own foreign policy. "Things like this happen because of meetings. People sit in meetings and they decide what they want to happen. And then they take decisions, make policy and implement that policy to achieve those ends." He added, "That's why State is so nervous. They signed off on this. In a meeting."

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My sources indicate that between March and December of 2009, there were a number of meetings, including Eric Holder, Rahm Emanuel and various subordinates. And the bloody-minded policy developed at those meetings proceeded along very nicely, thank you, until the death of Brian Terry, and would have after that, except for some brave ATF whistleblowers.