Kelly Terry Willis
Proud Sister of Slain
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry
Justice for Brian Terry Fund
(P.O. Box 1891, Merrifield, VA 22116-8091)
Dear Friend of Justice,
I'm
writing you today because I'm told you are a fair person who would recognize a
grave injustice and help to make it right. Because of this, I'd like to ask you
for two favors and I hope you will say "yes" to both of them.
You
may have heard of my brother, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry [who grew up
in the suburbs of Detroit], and how he was shot and killed near the Mexican
border as a result of the now infamous "gun walking" scandal known as
"Operation Fast and Furious."
My
mother, like any mother, is trying to understand her son's death. But our
family's questions about what happened the night my brother was gunned down by
criminals near the Mexican border have been met by the Obama Administration
throwing up one stonewall after another in an attempt to cover-up their illegal
actions.
Because
of this, I'd like to ask if you would sign and return the enclosed Note of Support to my mother, Josephine
Terry.
Let
me explain why this favor is so important. For more than two years, my mother
and the rest of our family have been trying to get answers to the most basic
questions about Brian's death – all to no avail.
We've
gone through all of the proper channels in asking for answers and have gotten
nowhere in all this time. My mother is very frustrated with the lack of
cooperation from the Obama Administration.
More
than a few top officials in the Obama Administration have worked diligently to
keep the de-tails surrounding "Operation
Fast and Furious" from becoming public.
When
the news about "Operation Fast and Furious"
first broke, there were a few news outlets that kept the story in their
headlines.
But
when the terrible school shooting in New Town, Connecticut occurred, it dominated the news and you heard
scarcely a word about "Operation Fast and Furious."
Then
the newspapers and the television news channels seemed to only cover the
resulting call from the Obama Administration to "end gun violence."
In
addition, the IRS and Benghazi scandals that have consumed the Obama Administration
have pushed "Operation Fast and Furious" off the front pages. And this
is why my mother is so discouraged...
My
mother always counted on the sustained public outrage over "Operation
Fast and Furious" to help her get the answers our family needs
from the government officials.
Now
my mother worries that our family will never again have the public support we
once had. She also worries that our family has lost the grass roots support
needed for us to get the answers to our questions about Brian's death.
That's
why I pray you will sign the Note of
Support to my mother so she will know that good people such as you will
never forget "Operation Fast and Furious" and that she still has the
grass root support of people like you backing her effort to find out all the
answers about Brian's death.
Your
signature, along with thousands of others, on the Note of Support will show my mother that she is not standing alone
in her fight against the Obama Administration's bureaucrats and politicians.
I've
even gone to the expense of including a reply envelope with my letter to make
it a little easier for you to respond. Please use the reply envelope to rush
your signed Note of Support back to
my mother today.
Before
I ask the second favor of you, please let me tell you something about my
brother Brian and how he died and what has happened to my family since the day
he was killed over two years ago.
Brian grew up in the suburbs of Detroit as a normal kid with a charismatic personality and
loads of friends. He was a good student and graduated as runner-up
valedictorian in his high school class.
After
graduating, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and loved the discipline, work and
prestige of being a Marine. He spent most of his tour of duty in Italy as a Military Policeman preparing for his law
enforcement career.
When
Brian was honorably discharged from the Marines he became a uniformed police
officer in the same suburbs of Detroit where he was raised.
In
2007, after many interviews and much anticipation, Brian was accepted into the U.S. Border Patrol. He graduated from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Academy with flying colors and was elected President of his
699 member class.
It
didn't take long for his Border Patrol supervisors to recognize Brian's amazing
physical attributes and leadership skills. He was recruited to become a member of the Border Patrol's elite
Tactical Unit (BORTAC) and he once again completed the grueling training
exhibiting his proficient physical stamina and leadership.
I've
enclosed a picture of Brian in his BORTAC uniform.
Brian's
BORTAC unit was assigned to southern Arizona where he patrolled the desert hills and rugged
canyons near the Mexican border - - some of America's most dangerous real estate. This was an area of
many gun battles between rival Mexican drug cartels and smugglers. It was a
true war zone.
But
by 2010, Brian was on top of the world. He had achieved his goal of becoming an
elite federal agent and he loved the job of protecting the U.S. border and his fellow citizens.
Brian
came home for a visit in late October of 2010. The whole family had a wonderful
time with him and we made plans for him to be with us again at Christmas.
But
instead of enjoying the Holiday festivities with Brian... we buried him on December
22nd, near the home in which he was raised.
My brother was gunned down and murdered
by drug cartel criminals on December
15, 2010 near the Mexican border in the now infamous "gun
walking" fiasco known as "Operation
Fast and Furious."
"Operation
Fast and Furious" was an ill-conceived and failed attempt by the
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to use illegal straw
purchasers of assault rifles and other dangerous weapons to deliver, or "walk,"
the weapons to the hands of violent drug-trafficking gangs.
But
don't confuse "Operation Fast and Furious" with a good-intentioned
government program that accidentally went wrong.
On
the contrary, "Operation Fast and Furious" was a premeditated and
well-coordinated scheme by our own U.S. government officials to intentionally sell thousands
of AK-47 type assault rifles and
other high-powered firearms to gun runners knowing that the guns would then be
delivered to vicious criminals in the Mexican drug cartels.
In
fact, the ATF knowingly let one straw purchaser buy 700 weapons, over dozens of
occasions, and then stood by and watched as the weapons were turned over to the
leaders of the Mexican drug cartels.
The
two AK-47 style assault rifles which were found at my brother's crime scene
were purchased at a Glendale, Arizona gun store, by a known criminal gun runner, eleven
months before my brother was shot and killed.
ATF
agents had previously observed this same gun runner make multiple straw
purchases of weapons and knew he was engaging in criminal activity by doing so.
But
rather than intercepting the firearms and arresting the gun runner, the ATF
allowed the gun runner to deliver the AK-47 type weapons to members of a
Mexican drug cartel.
"Operation
Fast and Furious" was an ongoing, months-long program in which an estimated 2,500 - 3,000 AK-47 type assault
rifles and other high-powered firearms were purchased from legitimate Arizona gun dealers, by known criminal gun runners.
Federal
agents then allowed these gun runners to "walk" with these guns and
disappear into the Arizona desert. The firearms would only reappear when they
were found much later at crime scenes... like the one in which my brother was
shot and killed.
The
illegal gun walking of "Operation Fast and Furious"
went on non-stop for fifteen months... and it only ended after my brother's
death!
I'm
not a political person and I'm not looking to score political points in my
quest to find the truth and secure justice for my brother.
But
I have to point out that President Obama, who [was then and] is now actively trying
to "end gun violence" by banning the sale of the AK-47 type rifle, is
the same President Obama whose
administration was actively encouraging the sale of thousands of these AK-47
type rifles and other high-powered weapons and all the while knowing they
would end up in the hands of the outlaw Mexican drug cartels.
There
can only be terribly bad outcomes when these kinds of guns are sold to some of
the most vicious people on the face of the earth.
As
one ATF agent later said, "We
weren't giving guns to people who were hunting bear; we were giving guns to
people who were hunting other humans."
The
assault rifle that was used to kill my brother was supplied to the killer by
our own federal government.
There is no way around this fact...
...and this is why the Obama
Administration is trying to cover it up.
The
ATF and the Obama Justice Department initially tried to sweep the facts
surrounding my brother's murder under the rug. And, the mainstream media was
there to assist their favorite bureaucrats and politicians in the cover-up and
never mentioned "Operation Fast and Furious."
But
with the help of a few persistent Members of Congress and a few honest
journalists, the story of my brother's murder and "Operation Fast and Furious"
slowly became more widely known.
As
the story unfolded there were some news reports that knowledge of "Operation
Fast and Furious" reached all the way to the highest levels of the
President Obama's Department of Justice.
In
fact, Eric Holder, President Obama's hand-picked Attorney General, has had to
change and clarify his own sworn testimony to Congress concerning "Operation Fast and Furious"
because emails turned up that contradicted his prior statements.
But
it has been over two years since Brian was murdered by drug cartel criminals
and my mother and the rest of our family still don't have any good answers.
Exactly what happened the night Brian
was killed still remains a mystery...
...even to my mother and the rest of our
family.
Some
Members of Congress have demanded to know the circumstances of what happened in
the desert [near Rio Rico, Arizona] that night but President Obama is now
claiming something called "Executive Privilege" and won't release
emails that contain details of what happened that night.
I'm
not a lawyer and I don't pretend to know about all the legal aspects of this
but I know the facts...and I know right from wrong.
And the facts are that the various
departments and agencies of the United
States Government have more than 80,000 pages
of letters, notes and emails regarding "Operation Fast and Furious" and my brother's death. President
Obama and his lawyers have thrown up a smokescreen of questionable legal
maneuvers to keep these documents from becoming public.
That's right...
...President Obama is holding back more
than 80,000 documents which would give my family the answers they deserve about
Brian's death and how it came to be.
A
month after Brian was laid to rest in Michigan, a beautiful public memorial service was held in Tucson and over a thousand people attended, sharing their
grief and paying their respects to Brian and his ultimate sacrifice. Everyone
in my family except my father, who was unable to travel due to health reasons,
went to Arizona to represent Brian at the memorial service.
We
had received a lot of conflicting and confusing information about exactly how
Brian came to be shot and killed. So when federal officials asked our family to attend a briefing while in Tucson, we jumped at the chance to finally get some clear answers
to the questions we had.
Our
family met with representatives of the Border Patrol, the FBI and the
Department of Justice in a conference room in our hotel. However, these Obama
Administration officials gave us almost no information and refused to answer
the many questions we had regarding Brian's death. In fact, it was so bad, two
of my family members became disgusted with the run around we were getting and
eventually walked out of the meeting.
That
meeting was the moment when we realized our own government – despite all the
posthumous awards and memorials it had given Brian – was now covering up the
truth about Brian's death. We were not only heart-broken about Brian's death
but were now insulted by the audacity and lack of candor from Ii' these government
officials.
Just
two months after the disastrous meeting with federal officials in Tucson, news media reports began to emerge describing a
disastrous gun trafficking investigation known as "Operation Fast and Furious"
and its role in Brian's death. That's when we decided to hire an attorney to
help us learn the truth about Brian's murder.
And
after much soul searching, our family decided that the only way we were ever
going to find out the facts behind Brian's death was to file a lawsuit.
We
also decided to establish the Justice
for Brian Terry Fund to provide a means to help pay for the legal costs in
the prosecution of our claims against the government.
My
mom, dad and siblings have always been proud, flag-waving Americans and we
aren't the type of people who march at demonstrations or go to protest rallies.
In
fact, we are such solid citizens that we never in our wildest dreams thought
that our own government would lie to our faces about how Brian died. But that
is exactly what the Obama Administration officials did!
This
is why my mother, father and the rest of the family decided we had no choice
but to file a lawsuit against the federal government agents and attorneys
responsible for "Operation Fast and Furious."
We
came to the realization that this is the only way we would ever learn what
really happened that night in the desert near Rio Rico, Arizona.
And
now I'd like to ask you for the second favor. Will you please contribute
$25, $39, $50, $100 or even $250 or $500 to the Justice for Brian Terry Fund?
I'm
not used to asking people for money but, quite frankly, I don't know who else I
can ask at this crucial time.
There
is no way that our family can afford the cost of this lawsuit by ourselves.
That is why I hope you will grant me this second favor as well and send a
contribution of $25, $39, $50 or more to the Justice for Brian Terry Fund,
today.
Unfortunately
for us, these Obama officials' legal expenses are being paid for by the U.S. government and a bottomless pool of taxpayer money.
I
know the government lawyers think they can delay any court action on this
lawsuit until we finally lose the will to fight – or we run out of money.
I
can promise that my family will never quit fighting until we learn the truth.
But we will need your contribution of at least $25 to help pay the legal costs
and keep the lawsuit moving through the courts.
I'd
like to make a special deal with you to show you how much my family needs and
appreciates your support at this time.
If
you contribute a minimum of $39, to
the Justice for Brian Terry Fund will send a hard-cover copy of the New York Times Best-Seller, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest
Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-up.
The
book, Fast and Furious, was written by Katie Pavlich, a Washington investigative journalist who is also a frequent
commentator on Fox News. No other reporter has worked harder or been more
successful in tracking down the facts about "Operation Fast and Furious."
It's
a book you can't put down and, unfortunately, the story is all true. It lays
out the whole outrageous saga of "Operation Fast and Furious"
with names, places and dates.
If
you can see your way to contribute $69,
the Justice for Brian Terry Fund will
send you two copies of Fast and Furious:
Barack Obama Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up.
That
way you can give one copy to a friend or relative and keep one for yourself.
Here's
what Michelle Malkin, the best-selling conservative author and commentator said
about the book, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless
Cover-Up.
"Everything you need to know – and the mainstream
media won't tell you – about the Fast and Furious 'gun walking 'scandal... Don 't let these bloodstained bureaucrats get away with it."
I
don't want to let them get away with it and I don't think you do either. But
your contribution of at least $25 is urgently needed if my family's lawsuit is
to move forward through the courts.
There
are a lot of expenses that aren't readily apparent in a big case like this.
Filing fees, court costs, research expenses, private investigators, paralegals,
expert witnesses, travel expenses and even everyday items like copying, faxes
and telephone bills are all part of what makes a lawsuit like this so
expensive.
Of
course, the Obama Administration officials are hoping that this great expense
forces my family to quit and withdraw the lawsuit.
This
is why it's so important that we can count on you to help keep the lawsuit
against the Obama Administration officials on track and moving forward so we
can know the facts around my brother's death and the ill-advised "Operation
Fast and Furious."
So
please, right now while you are thinking about it, write your check for $25,
$39, $50, $69 or even $100, $250 or $500 to the Justice for Brian Terry Fund.
Believe
me, there is no way my family can afford to fight the legions of taxpayer
financed attorneys the government has at its disposal without your help.
My
family hopes we can be ready for whatever happens with the best legal case
possible against the Obama Administration. This will take a lot of money and we
don't have an unlimited budget for lawyers like the federal government.
Will
you please help with a contribution
to the Justice for Brian Terry Fund? And remember if you can send a donation of
at least $39, you will receive a
hard-back copy of the New York Times Best-Seller, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama
Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up and if you can send $69, you will receive two copies of
this book.
I
apologize for my long letter but I wanted you to know the whole story about my
brother and what my family has been through and what we are still facing. Thank
you for letting me take some of your time today.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Terry Willis
Proud
sister of Brian Terry
P.S. Please don't forget to
sign and return the Note of Support
to my mother, Josephine Terry, and return it, along with your contribution in
the envelope I have included with my letter. Your signed Note of Support will
let my mother know that good citizens like you will never forget "Operation
Fast and Furious," the Obama Administration's disastrous and
illegal gun running scheme (Justice for Brian
Terry Fund, P.O. Box 1891,
Merrifield, VA 22116-8091).