I can't believe I haven't written anything on "Operation Fast And Furious" yet.
There's been too much insane competition for subject matter. That's my only excuse.
Here's the story as I understand it.....
The Obama administration wanted to prove that American guns were going across our border with Mexico. They wanted to show that it was guns, rather than our insane Prohibition laws, that were causing the violence along the border.
As usual, the crowdsourced explanation from Wikipedia is the best one:
Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, is in a little trouble because of this mess, but not at the level you would expect. The White House is circling the wagons, and is putting on the Full-Nixon.
Let me repeat what happened here....
There are two explanations for the violence in Mexico - 1) American Prohibition Laws, or 2) American Guns Crossing The Border.
In an effort to sway public opinion, the ATF purchased a bunch of guns and knowingly sold them to the reps of Mexican Drug Lords.
In an effort to sway public opinion, the ATF purchased a bunch of guns and knowingly sold them to the reps of Mexican Drug Lords.
In an effort to sway public opinion, the ATF purchased a bunch of guns and knowingly sold them to the reps of Mexican Drug Lords.
I know that a lot of people love Barack Obama, and he's thrown a lot of taxpayer money to his supporters (more than any other president) and he makes good speeches that make Statists nod along with a warm damp glow of contentment. There's a competing school of thought that claims he's the dumbest human to ever step foot in the Oval Office, much less work there.
Here's CNN's Anderson Cooper on the anguish of the Zapata family. They're not letting Holder or Obama off the hook, no matter who was programming The Teleprompter during the operation:
The solution to this mess? Stop voting for Fascists.
I don't speak for every Libertarian running for office in 2012, but I don't think we'll ever, ever, ever purchase guns, sell them to the reps of Mexican Drug Lords, WATCH as they cross the border, and then lose track of them.
We will never, ever do that.
Hell, the slowest students in a Special Ed class would never, ever do that.
Pics came from here and here.
There's been too much insane competition for subject matter. That's my only excuse.
Here's the story as I understand it.....
The Obama administration wanted to prove that American guns were going across our border with Mexico. They wanted to show that it was guns, rather than our insane Prohibition laws, that were causing the violence along the border.
As usual, the crowdsourced explanation from Wikipedia is the best one:
The ATF gunwalking scandal came to national attention in the United States in 2011 after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ran a series of “gunwalking” sting operations between 2006 and 2011. This was done under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner, a project intended to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico by interdicting straw purchasers and gun traffickers within the U.S. “Gunwalking” or “letting guns walk” was a tactic whereby the ATF knowingly allowed thousands of guns to be bought by suspected arms traffickers ("gunrunners") working through straw purchasers on behalf of Mexican drug cartels.
The stated goal of allowing these purchases was to continue to track the firearms as they were transferred to higher−level traffickers and key figures in Mexican cartels, in theory leading to their arrests and the dismantling of the cartels. The tactic was questioned during the operations by a number of people, including ATF field agents and cooperating licensed gun dealers. Operation Fast and Furious, by far the largest "gunwalking" probe, led to the sale of over 2,000 firearms, of which fewer than 700 were recovered as of October 20, 2011 (2011 -10-20). A number of straw purchasers have been arrested and indicted; however, as of October 2011, none of the targeted high−level cartel figures have been arrested.
Firearms "walked" by the ATF have been found at violent crime scenes on both sides of the US−Mexico border, and have been found at the crime scenes involving deaths of many Mexicans and at least one US federal agent, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The “gunwalking” operations became public in the aftermath of Agent Terry's murder. As a result, dissident ATF agents came forward to Congress. As investigations have continued, the operations have become increasingly controversial in both countries, and diplomatic relations have been damaged as a result.These weapons have been found at more than 170 crime scenes in Mexico. Another of our Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, Jaime Zapata was murdered with one of the guns. Eric Holder has been trotted in front of Congress to lie about what emails he did and didn't receive about the operation.
Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, is in a little trouble because of this mess, but not at the level you would expect. The White House is circling the wagons, and is putting on the Full-Nixon.
Let me repeat what happened here....
There are two explanations for the violence in Mexico - 1) American Prohibition Laws, or 2) American Guns Crossing The Border.
In an effort to sway public opinion, the ATF purchased a bunch of guns and knowingly sold them to the reps of Mexican Drug Lords.
In an effort to sway public opinion, the ATF purchased a bunch of guns and knowingly sold them to the reps of Mexican Drug Lords.
In an effort to sway public opinion, the ATF purchased a bunch of guns and knowingly sold them to the reps of Mexican Drug Lords.
I know that a lot of people love Barack Obama, and he's thrown a lot of taxpayer money to his supporters (more than any other president) and he makes good speeches that make Statists nod along with a warm damp glow of contentment. There's a competing school of thought that claims he's the dumbest human to ever step foot in the Oval Office, much less work there.
Here's CNN's Anderson Cooper on the anguish of the Zapata family. They're not letting Holder or Obama off the hook, no matter who was programming The Teleprompter during the operation:
The solution to this mess? Stop voting for Fascists.
I don't speak for every Libertarian running for office in 2012, but I don't think we'll ever, ever, ever purchase guns, sell them to the reps of Mexican Drug Lords, WATCH as they cross the border, and then lose track of them.
We will never, ever do that.
Hell, the slowest students in a Special Ed class would never, ever do that.
Pics came from here and here.
2 comments:
"Here's CNN's Anderson Cooper on the anguish of the Zapata family. They're not letting Holder or Obama off the hook, no matter who was programming The Teleprompter during the operation"..."
Don't forget
Brian Terry, the Border Patrol agent killed in AZ with weapons linked to the Fast and Furious debacle.
And the other nameless victims - according to none other than Eric Holder himself: "unfortunately, we will feel its effects for years to come as guns that were lost during this operation continue to show up at crime scenes both here and in Mexico."
Sorry for the mini-rant, but this is a hot button with me. I work in Laredo a few days of the week. I rent a small apartment to stay in when I'm down there. Some of my neighbors are Border Patrol agents. The night Jaime Zapata was killed a few of us were sitting outside, grilling and having a few beers. All of a sudden cell phones started ringing. To say the atmosphere changed would be an understatement. Zapata worked out of the Laredo office for a few years, and some of the agents knew him. Holder, Napolitano, et al. were lucky they weren't there that evening.
Operation Fast & Furious was sanctioned under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a major DOJ program. The approval process for OCDETF requires sign offs from each of the OCDETF member agencies: ATF, DEA, FBI, IRS-CID, U.S. Marshall Service, and ICE.
After each agency representative approves of the operation, the document is sent up the line through DOJ. It is then reviewed by career and appointed DOJ lawyers. The OCDETF program director had to approve of the operation and the funding.
Let's see Holder hand over the un-redacted proposal, including the approving signatures.
Either the ATF office in Arizona wrote something totally different in their proposal, like something lawful was going to happen during the operation, or they were told to write whatever you wish, because it will be carried out according to the wishes of the political people at DOJ, DOS, DHS, and Treasury.
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