Project Gunrunner involved the surveillance of straw purchasers buying weapons, but those purchasers were immediately apprehended before crossing back into Mexico or tranferring arms to dangerous criminals.
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State-run media liars ....
FLASHBACK:
July 20, 2007
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0720/p01s05-usfp.html/%28page%29/2
According to an internal ATF report summarizing just 10 investigations in the Phoenix office since 2006, the gunrunning probes yielded almost 1,000 firearms probably “bound for Mexico, southern Arizona, and southern California.”
In one of those cases, ATF officials documented an unlicensed merchant who spent at least 100 days selling firearms at gun shows over the course of a year, violating a law that permits such individuals to divest themselves of their gun collections only once in their lifetimes. Agents reported seizing 129 firearms from this dealer, but “due to the fact that most of the firearms sold by the defendant were obtained from secondary sources and then resold, little documentation exists that would link [guns used in crimes] to the defendant,” the report said.
Another ongoing case involves a straw-purchase scheme among a foursome suspected of trafficking 130 firearms to Mexico, southern California, and Arizona. The document states: “To date, 21 [of those 130] firearms have been recovered in crimes, including 16 of them in Mexico. A firearm recovered in Mexico was used in the shooting of a Mexican police officer.”
“Our priority is curbing gunrunning in the Southwest,” says Newell, who currently manages 24 ATF agents working cases here in Phoenix.
“When Bush, a Republican, was president, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Tucson, Ariz., used a similar enforcement tactic in a program it called Operation Wide Receiver. The fact that there were two such ATF investigations years apart in separate administrations raises the possibility that agents in still other cases may have allowed guns to “walk.”
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We have been dealing with this Bush “Wide Receiver” connection on another thread. There is a link to Bush (if the source is accurate) AND a disconnect from Bush to Obama. If the source is correct, it needs to be acknowledged AND distinguished from Bush. I hope Freepers can follow the exchange below and comment.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2787817/posts?page=30#30
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“Is there any past reference to “Operation Wide Receiver”, “Wide Receiver” and Bush, or ATF, or firearms or ... ???
I cannot find anything, even in news archives.”
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That was my reason for my questions/article post 30. I am operating on the assumption that the DOJ has some “Wide Receiver” link to Bush, but if true, I question that the operation was conducted in the same manner. The info in post 30, if correct, suggests different methods.
The earliest ref to “Wide Receiver” that I can find is by Sharyl Attkisson on March 8, 2011:
Multiple sources now tell CBS News the questionable tactics were used in more than one operation, and date back as far as 2008 in the Tucson area. One case was called “Wide Receiver.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/08/eveningnews/main20040803.shtml
BUT, back to my post 30 source, dated June 2011. The first link links to this story:
http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/features/224570
In that article they say:
“Mounted approximately five [FIVE] years ago out of the Tucson office, Wide Receiver may have actually been the template used -with equally inept results- by the now-infamous Phoenix operations.
In Operation Wide Receiver, Tucson agents allowed the sales of more than 500 firearms to known straw purchasers. Like Gunrunner/Fast and Furious, the operation apparently backfired.
Some firearms in Wide Receive were equipped with RFID tracking devices. In Wide Receiver, it seems the illegal purchasers seemed more than slightly knowledgeable of the way the ATF and how to take their aerial and electronic tracking procedures down.”
http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/features/224570
MestaMachine (Posts 45, 46, 48): Per Maggief’s question:
Did you ever hear of “Wide Receiver” before Sharyl Attkisson mentioned it in March 2011?
Have you ever seen “Wide Receiver” in connection with GunRUNNER, rather than GunWALKER?
Take a look at Post 30 and the links:
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Thread source for this exchange:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2787817/posts?page=30#30