A half truth is a full lie. A year before this broke there was a flurry of press-release based news stories saying how American guns were fueling Mexican violence.
This was a naked attempt to lay the Mexican civil war at the feet of american guns laws. If fast and furious was not exposed, it was a perfect cover for Obama to sign the UN treaty and to reinstate a tougher version of the assault rifle ban.
It was a blatant criminal attempt to undermine the 2nd amendment.
In order for such a scheme to work and not look blatantly manipulated, they’d have to pick a better method than telling a US armament dealer to ignore legal restrictions on their customers.