My only objection to this video is that it points the finger at Obama, and yet I doubt that he was even aware of these raids...but yet they claim it was an abuse of his Executive Power? I even doubt that Attorney General Holder order theses raids or even knew they occurred.
Yes, I agree that the Federal Agents overstepped their authority, but it does not appear that anyone really knew what the raids were about. I suspect that the agents did not know if it was a drug raid, a raid on a terrorist group, or what? That is the results of poor supervision on the part of the Justice Dept, FBI, IRS an any other department or agency involved. I even know a person who works for the DEA and they are often called in to provide support for a raid involving other suspected crimes not related to Drugs..Often times they are not told what they are looking for, they are only there to secure the building and people. Other agents do the searching. When you don't know the reason for the raid, they can only assume the worst and that requires extreme caution...and perhaps over reactions.
The odd this is that these kinds of raids have been going on even before Obama took office but the video tends to only focus on those raids from the Obama era. I am not fan of Obama, but don't like to see one sided attacks that only tell one side of the story.
In the case of the Gibson Guitar raid, I am aware of the circumstances and it had to do with Gibson importing special tight-grained spruce wood, (which is the best choice of woods for tone quality in stringed instruments) from a export company in India. Gibson was raided by Federal Agents and their supply of wood for their guitars was confiscated. It appears that Gibson did nothing wrong, but the criminal activity was on the part of the company in India who was exporting the wood to Gibson. They did not have the proper export permits and Gibson was made the scapegoat. It seams that even if the fraud was committed by the exporter, the US importer still does not have the right to posses that product?
Correction: I said it was imported Spuce wood that got Gibson Guitars in trouble. It was actually Rosewood imported from Madagascar. Rosewood is on the endangered species list and cannot be imported to the US without proper export agreements from the country where the Rosewood is produced. Rosewood is the preferred wood of choice for the Fret Boards on guitars. The exporter in India did not have the proper authorization from Madagascar to export the raw wood, because Madagascar requires that to export Rosewood grown in Madagascar, requires that some manufacturing or shaping of the wood be done in Madagascar. Gibson imported raw Rosewood which is against US and international law. That still does not justify the Federal commando raid on the Gibson Guitar factory.
I don't think the reenactment in the video was necessary and probably was over exaggerated, in as much as they are blaming this all on Obama. That speaks volumes as to where they were wanting to lead their audience. :banghead:
...Rich
