Gingrich Campaign Press Release - Out of Tune and Out of Touch

Originally posted on HumanEvents.org

By Newt Gingrich

When I first read last week about dozens of federal agents descending on an admired American business with automatic weapons drawn, I thought the story was bizarre.

When I learned that what prompted this attack was the Justice Department's interpretation of an Indian law, in a way that even India doesn't interpret it, I could hardly believe it was true.

The government's actions are so outside normal behavior, so lacking in common sense and such an outrage against the freedom of every American that it sounds like a scene from a dystopian novel.

The Obama Administration is engaged in a vendetta against the Gibson Guitar Company of Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee.

Gibson Guitar makes very high quality guitars and attracts customers and tourists from all over the world.

Amazingly, this was the second assault on this small business. In 2009 federal agents seized six guitars, which they have not returned despite filing no charges in the investigation.

It is so bizarre it bears repeating. In 2009, armed federal agents seized six guitars.

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, during the most recent government assault on Gibson guitar there were three dozen Australian tourists watching big government attack a small company.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service apparently believes Gibson made inappropriate use of foreign wood under a 1900 law designed to ban materials illegally exported from other countries.

Gibson Guitar maintains it has papers from Madagascar in 2009 and India in 2011 proving the wood from both countries is legal, but hasn't been given the opportunity to defend itself in court since the government has filed no charges.

There were apparently 26 armed federal agents assaulting Gibson Guitar in pursuit of endangered wood.

The Obama administration could use 26 armed agents to 1) help control the border; 2) fight drug cartels; or 3) hunt down terrorists.

But given the hard left bias of President Obama and his appointees, endangered wood from India was a higher priority.

With 14 million Americans unemployed and another 11 million underemployed or dropped out of the work force, the Obama Administration is trying to pressure Gibson Guitar into moving its wood-finishing jobs offshore.

Gibson Guitar's CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has said that federal agents actually told Gibson its problems would go away if the company just moved its operations to Madagascar.

This is beyond ideology.

It is insanity.

Congress should investigate these bizarre events and the Obama appointees responsible for the abuse should lose their jobs.

Here is the local story about the government attack: Federal agents close Gibson Guitar plant in Memphis in search for ebony.