Posted on 11/10/2011 8:40:16 AM PST by Kaslin
“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.” –Special Agent John Dodson ATF Phoenix Field Division.
As allegations surrounding Operation Fast and Furious continue to heat up, many major media outlets continue to call the fatal program “botched,” which is a factually incorrect characterization.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines botched as: to foul up hopelessly, to put together in a makeshift way.
The only thing botched about Operation Fast and Furious is that the American public found out about it. Fast and Furious was carried out exactly as planned: allow straw purchasers to transfer guns to cartels, let those guns get trafficked back to Mexico and see where they end up. There was no plan to trace these guns and no plan to inform the Mexican Government of the operation, either.
Tactics used during Fast and Furious seem like mistakes, but in fact were just part of the strategy and process of Fast and Furious. Calling the program botched implies the Obama Justice Department didn’t intentionally allow 2000 high powered guns, including AK-47s and .50-caliber sniper rifles, to walk into the hands of ruthless drug cartels without proper tracing mechanisms. The opposite is true. This was the intention of the program, not an operational mistake in the process.
To prove the operation wasn’t “botched,” let’s take a look at some testimony from ATF whistleblowers about the operation.
On June 15, 2011 ATF Field Agent John Dodson, one of the first whistleblowers to go public about the scandal, testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee about Fast and Furious.
“I was involved in this operation, we monitored as they purchased hand guns, AK-47 variants, and .50 caliber rifles almost daily. Rather than contradict any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals for a short time after their purchases, but nothing more. Knowing all the while, just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, we still did nothing,” Dodson said. “Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.”
On July 26, 2011 ATF Senior Special Agent Jose Wall, who is based in Tijuana, Mexico also verified Fast and Furious was intended from the beginning to provide guns to cartels.
“I could not believe that someone in ATF would so callously let firearms wind up in the hands of criminals. And that this activity has seemingly been approved by our own Justice Department and ATF management in the misguided hope of catching the “big fish,” Wall said. “These firearms that are now in the hands of people who have no regard for human life pose a threat to all of us, a threat to which none of us is immune.”
ATF field agents knew Fast and Furious had the potential to get people killed, including federal agents. Vince Cefalu was one of those concerned agents and, although he knew he would face retaliation for exposing Fast and Furious to the public, he did it anyway. When Cefalu started speaking out against his superiors within ATF about the way Operation Fast and Furious was being conducted, he was approached within 24 hours and told to stop. He was also threatened and told if he didn’t shut his mouth, he would be relocated to North Dakota, a long way from where he had been working along the southern border with Mexico. Despite threats from his superiors, Cefalu blew the whistle about Operation Fast and Furious anyway, which has landed him under review for what he describes as “a proposal for removal for telling the truth.“
In September, Cefalu explained his concerns during a Fast and Furious town hall meeting in Tucson.
“To think that they could do this sort of operation knowing there could be a dead ATF agent at the ends of those guns made me nauseous,” Cefalu said.
Cefalu also described the skyrocketing murder rate in Mexico as “people getting killed wholesale,” and the federal government gave cartels the guns they need to do it.
To further prove Fast and Furious wasn’t botched in its implementation, ATF Phoenix Field Division Supervisor at the time, William Newell, described in emails that guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico was proof the operation was working.
The only people who have been trustworthy and credible throughout the investigation into Fast and Furious have been ATF whistleblowers. ATF management officials and Department of Justice officials have done nothing but lie, stonewall and cover-up the lethal program.
The Obama Administration botched the cover-up of Fast and Furious. Lies perpetuated by the Holder Justice Department continue to be shredded by a handful of media outlets, Sen. Charles Grassley, Sen. John Cornyn, Rep. Darrell Issa and members of the House Oversight Committee, but in no way was allowing Mexican cartels to get their hands on high powered weapons a "mistake."
Its obvious to me that the real purpose of this operation was to create a backlash against the Second Amendment. While this was going on, the Cabinet level perps were blaming present gun laws for the presence of these weapons south of the border.
Wonder why bay of pigs comes to mind.
And don’t forget to note how they all say that IN UNISON - singing from the same propaganda songsheet written at some kind of leftist central base. Who sends those marching orders? How are they communicated?
Holder just acknowledged it was deliberate. Ill-advised, but deliberate.
What is missing is a logical reason to do it. Without tracking, it is difficult to believe the DoJ/ATF was interested in finding out who got which rifle.
No, it is far easier to believe this was done in exchange for bribes from the cartels to the political party controlling the Department of Justice.
Sorry, but that just makes more sense.
Manufacture a crises
(arm the southern drug lords with American guns)
Wait for the people to cry out for relief
(Oh my God. People are getting killed. Something but be done about the guns!)
Blame an opponent
(evil American gun manufacturers and their friends in the NRA)
Come in with a "new way" (socialism/communism/gun control) because the "old way" (free market, Constitution, legal system) didn't work!
They always follow this same path.
(Unusually, the crises is created by the left wing trial lawyers. Driving up costs so things become unaffordable is a common left wing tactic - See Obomacare, and pharmaceuticals are next).
Remember the mantra at the time, “90% of Mexican guns come from the US”,
which turned out to be blatantly false, but it did not stop the MSM’s from repeating it endlessly.
I can’t believe people ever believed that bull. When you
have the kind of money the drug lords have Yuri Orlov sends
you a case of booze and a hooker for Christmas every year!
See post #8.
Think back to everything the left has taken over.
School CRISES (kids aren't learning - teachers union)
Housing CRISES (the poor deserve a chance - Fanny/Freddy)
Bank CRISES (Housing loans for the poor!- Dodd/Frank)
Health Care CRISES ( What about the poor sick people? Emergency rooms must treat them all!)
Pharmaceutical CRISES ( Did you ever take this sugar pill? Call us! Trial Lawyers-R-us)
The list goes on and on....."Never waste a good crises (real, imaginary, or manufactured)."
No crises = no new social programs.
No new social programs = no socialism/communism progress.
Is it possible that cartel money has corrupted US government employees and the political system?
Lobbyists for La Raza. This is not new.
Is it possible that we have acknowledged the illegal alien problem since Reagan, have been fighting a war on terror for a decade, and leave our southern border wide open to this day?
I’ve been saying all along that nothing was botched. My only conclusion is that we have drug cartels using influence to buy the best weapons available, and a few million in bribes to get the DOJ / DHS / FBI to provide them a cover story. Do some good accounting of the bank accounts both domestic and foreign of carreer gubmint officials and you’ll find the motive.
The dems used the OJ Simpson trial in 95 to divided the races.
Following the trial Screwy Louie Farrakhan(SP?) had his Million Man March which he referred to as his Million Man Army.
Brian Ross began trying to stir up the racial pot in December 95 by dredging up the Rodney King case again.
The news media as a whole storied the racial pot by claiming black churches were being burned.
Bill Clinton stirred the racial pot even more when he jumped in with the phony storied of black Churches being burned.
BC had signed the assault weapons ban, but had given his buddies the Chinese a special waver that they could ship in somewhere around 100-150,000 SKS rifles. These rifles were so cheap you could buy one for under $50. An SKS with 205 rounds of ammo was around $65. An SKS in a wooden crate with 250 rounds of ammo, cleaning kit, sling, and IIRC an ammo belt was around $75.
While the Chinese were shipping in the SKS’s they were also smuggling in full auto weapons that were destined for the gangs in LA. The Chinese were going to make sure the Clinton's did not leave the WH in 1996.
They were ginning up civil unrest and arming up the gangs in 1996, and they are ginning up civil unrest and arming up the gangs now.
Anybody want to believe it's just a coincidence go right ahead and believe it.
Me, I'm not dumb enough to believe anything is a coincidence when the Clinton's are involved.
From the article: "There was no plan to trace these guns and no plan to inform the Mexican Government of the operation, either."
The GOP, and even conservatives, seem incapable of organizing even a truthful and legitimate talking point. It is despairing!
Also...to destabilize Mexico.
They always aim to kill as many birds as possible with one stone...always.
OH yeah. I forgot this:
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2796575/posts
The 90% turned out to be 9% in actuality.
Now, when are we going to make them PAY for what they have done?
The idea was to arm criminal gangs as per Obama advisor Bernadine Dohrn. The stuff about it being a roundabout scheme to nullify the 2nd A. is just silly. These people want to let the criminals out of prison and let anarchy tear down America. They are fairly open about it. I heard Dohrn give a speech to college students.
The tactic was used in Rome. (circa 40 bc)
Who mandated it? It's a simple question.
We’ve been saying it since day one. Now there are published pieces saying it. Next it goes to the media. We’ve seen this before.
Very nice analysis.
“We’ve seen this before.”
sigh...This MO has moved statistically beyond the possibility of ignorance and incompetence (as we have always suspected). Complicit is the only reasonable motive.
These people are psycho, and they repeat themselves.
They will do the same thing over and over and over again until it works.
Since Zippo has been in office people don't just want to own a gun, people now feel there is a need to own a gun,and that number is growing every day.
That's why the gun control theory doesn't work for me.
They couldn't get gun control before. Increasing the number of people that feel there is a need to own a gun makes it even less likely.
That's a fact. I know of some liberal types who not only wanted to get their first handgun ever they are very determined to get some serious defensive training to go with it. No one who really thinks it through seriously believes that there is a ghost of a chance of disarming 120 million gun owners either.
>Is it possible that cartel money has corrupted US government employees and the political system?
I think the better question is if it’s probable.
A better question might be is it possible that cartel money has not corrupted our officials?
And at the time there was an endless parade of media whores on TV talking about how Mexican Drug Cartels were getting guns because of our lax gun control laws.
THE MEDIA WAS IN ON IT
I believe that they hoped for a second purpose; to destabilize Mexico into a civil war which would drive millions across the border and help drive the push for amnesty.
Enemies, foreign and domestic.
Agree and it’s no coincidence when the Obama is involved.
Obama has split the country in two ways one by race and by wealth.
It’s going to get very dangerous the closer it gets to the election.
If Zippo is forced out, there will be race riots in this country like we have never seen.
I also expect the “Lone Wolf Terrorist” to do exactly what the turd head Adam Gadan (or however the prick spells his name) described in his tape of a few months ago. Get guns and start shooting everyone in sight. DC snipers X 1000.
Between race riots and terrorist shooting everyone in sight, a lot of people will begin fleeing the cities.
If that happens, this country will pretty much come to a complete stop.
The next president will basically be a dictator.
I'm thinking that the beginnings of this farce began merely as a means for some to receive large payoffs, from something as "innocent" as political contributions from the leftists who want increased gun control, up to and including possibly more nefarious objectives such as direct monetary payoffs to certain individuals "to look the other way and allow it to happen" - which actually occurred as directed by high level officials in charge. But with the Brian Terry murder, it spun way out of control and into cover-up mode.
Don Winslow wrote an excellent book, supposedly fiction, that addressed how the vast amounts of money involved in the drug trade are used to corrupt otherwise incorruptable individuals. And if money doesn't work by itself, the threats that can be made to one's family or loved ones can often be used to coerce one into taking the money. It's hard to imagine, but the bribes and other payments that can be made represent only a rounding error on the cartels' financials, the money involved is so large.
That book is The Power of the Dog, and it's not for the squeamish. It is hard-hitting, graphic, and it provides a quite plausible scenario of what's been happening in U.S. / Mexican border towns of late - long after it was published.
Actually, I think that very few individuals were "in on it" so much as their political and personal beliefs allowed them to be dupes. And now they can't admit that they were so dumb.
I think this was being run like an overseas CIA operation, where those who work undercover often don't even know who they ultimately work for. I think there have been big payoffs into offshore accounts. And who has the ability to track the monies in those accounts? Why, ERIC HOLDER's Department of Justice. And HE's in a position to shut down any investigation for whatever reasons HE can come up with - just like HE did with the Black Panther voter intimidation case that was pretty much ready to go to trial when he took over.
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