KOPEL: Calderon misfires on U.S. gun control

Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to Washington last week featured his usual lecturing of Americans about gun control. This time, he had some good ideas, although he remains wedded to many bad ones, too. A polite guest, Mr. Calderon did not mention the “Fast and Furious” operation during his public events with President Obama. But reports indicate that he did bring it up privately, and he was furious - justifiably so. From late 2009 until early 2011, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) orchestrated the delivery of more than 2,000 firearms to Mexican drug cartels. According to Mexico’s attorney general, those firearms have been used in 200 homicides in Mexico. Another victim was U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, killed in December 2010.

If Mr. Obama gave Mr. Calderon the same explanations that his administration has been propounding since last year, there was no reason for Mr. Calderon to take Mr. Obama seriously. The administration’s all-purpose excuse of “It’s Bush’s fault” has been applied to Fast and Furious. From 2006 to 2007, the very same Phoenix ATF office that perpetrated Fast and Furious ran a similar operation, which supplied more than 400 guns to Mexican drug trafficking organizations. The head of the Phoenix ATF office, gun control enthusiast William Newell, led both operations.

The difference is that when ATF headquarters in Washington found out about Mr. Newell’s gun-walking, they took immediate action, which led to the operation being shut down. But during the Obama administration, they enthusiastically supported Fast and Furious.

Mr. Calderon also called for gun registration in America. He should have first consulted his fellow Washington visitor, Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Three days after the Obama-Harper-Calderon summit in the District, Canada took its final steps to eliminate the nation’s registry

“Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to Washington last week featured his usual lecturing of Americans about gun control.”

And strangely enough, no mention of the DOLLARS used to purchase illegal drugs flowing to his country?

Please allow me to provide the truthful translation of what the Mexican President ACTUALLY said:

Hello, I am the obedient sock puppet of the large drug cartels. Please have your idiot citizens continue to purchase billions of dollars worth of illegal drugs as it is making the large cartels rich. Your gun laws however are allowing smaller cartels to arm themselves, and therefore hurting the profit margins of my employers, the large cartels. Please keep buying drugs, but stop selling guns to my competition, least my employers cut my huevos off and install a new president.

Was Calderon furious about the heavier arms the State Dept. "exports" to Mexico?

"Grenade-walking" part of "Gunwalker" scandal

And this...

Worse Than Gunwalker? State Dept. Allegedly Sold Guns to Zetas
Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative and one-time leader of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center, claims that the Obama administration is running guns to the violent Zetas cartel through the direct commercial sale of military grade weapons:
Jordan, who served as director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center in 1995, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons purchased in the Dallas area through El Paso.
(snip)
“They’ve found anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era,” Plumlee said. Other weapons found include grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor.

More about State Department involvement...

— has sources claiming “Obama’s man in the State Department,” (former) Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg, was the State Department operative who helped Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and the Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General David Ogden formulate the strategy that led to the tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious.
Steinberg took office as Deputy Secretary of State on January 28, 2009
A little more than two years later, it was announced that Steinberg's time in the Obama State Department was over. From the New York Times, 30 March 2011:
Mrs. Clinton heaped praise on Mr. Steinberg, describing him as an “indispensable” partner. “On every foreign policy challenge, big and small, he has helped formulate our policy and oversee its execution,” she wrote. Mr. Steinberg, she said, played “Oscar to Jack Lew’s Felix,” referring to Jacob J. Lew, her other deputy, who left earlier this year to become Mr. Obama’s budget director.

Want to read even more about State Dept. involvement? ...

Sipsey Street Exclusive: "In at the beginning." The State Department & the Gunwalker Scandal.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.