Replies

“We know that the FBI gave their informant money to buy weapons with, and that he bought a large number of the Fast and Furious weapons.”

If a federal agency wants firearms, why not buy them directly from the plant using a federal buyer? I assume that the cartel middleman isn’t going to demand the receipt. Why go through the effort of giving an agent “cash” and then buying them from a licensed dealer if the dealer wasn’t the focus of the activity?
If Dobson had gone to the dealer and said, “Hey, I’m a cartel buyer and I’ll give you twice the price in cash to slip me some guns,” then yes, you’ve got a case against the dealer. But giving them to a cartel middleman is ridiculous unless the stated purpose is to develop a business relationship with the middleman in the hopes he’ll lead you further up the chain. But the reason he’s the middleman is to create the separation the next level of buyer needs. The next guy up the chain isn’t an idiot. (The job self-eliminates idiots.)
Lastly, the cartels can send somebody to China or North Korea and buy whatever they want in mass quantities and have it smuggled directly to their door. Why mess around with ones and twos when you can have hundreds or thousands and hand them out the US Army armory? And, why just simple assault weapons when the Chinese and North Koreans will supply rockets, grenades, armor, RPV’s and even assault vehicles?
Let’s be generous and say the ATF/FBI/DOJ had legitimate operations going on. Okay, they’ve fallen through. So, go public and tell the taxpayers what the reasoning was, what really happened and how you’re going to clean up this mess.
BTW, what happened to the warehouses worth of seized weapons they’re always parading for the press? Why not just check some out and use them? Why spend budget when you can get them from the government for free?
Maybe what Congress needs is to insist the ATF/FBI/DOJ come to an intelligence briefing and present a business plan. “This is the purpose. This is what we’re going to invest. This is the return we expect on that investment.”
The impression I have is a high level appointee gets an idea and develops unrealistic plans in a vacuum and then hands them down for subordinates to implement.