Holder bragged about Operation Gunrunner in 2009

On May 3, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa's committee that he only learned about the government's sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels "in the last few weeks."

But Big Government found a 2009 speech by Holder on the Department of Justice's own website that proves the attorney general was well aware of Operation Gunrunner back in 2009:

The problem with Holder’s feigned ignorance is that he gave a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation 'Gunrunner” and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success.

When questioned by the media, Holder also denied knowing anything about Gunrunner.....

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/07/holder-bragged-about-operation-gunrunner-2009#ixzz1RfBd1wtt

I just read this this morning. Not damning, just more of the usual Obama administration incompetence.

The DOJ IG review of Gunrunner at the time of Fast And Furious. If they didn't get wind of it, they noticed lack of communication and discrepancies in data in reports.

U.S. Department of Justice Office
of the Inspector General
Evaluation and Inspections Division
Review of ATF’s Project Gunrunner
November 2010.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This review by the Department of Justice (Department) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) examined the impact of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) implementation of Project Gunrunner on the illicit trafficking of guns from the United States to Mexico.
[snip]
The OIG conducted this review to evaluate the effectiveness of ATF’s implementation of Project Gunrunner. Our review examined ATF’s enforcement and regulatory programs related to the Southwest border and Mexico, ATF’s effectiveness in developing and sharing firearms trafficking intelligence and information, the number and prosecutorial outcomes of ATF’s Project Gunrunner investigations, ATF’s coordination with U.S. and Mexican law enforcement partners, ATF’s traces of Mexican “crime guns,” and challenges that ATF faces in coordinating efforts to combat firearms trafficking with Mexico.
[snip]
Despite the increased ATF activity associated with Project Gunrunner, we found that significant weaknesses in ATF’s implementation of Project Gunrunner undermine its effectiveness.

It's a rather lengthy document that shows failures to communicate across agencies and between offices. It also details data discrepancies between ATF and the investigators. I can't say whether the inconsistent data was a result of sloppy operations or because of "off the books" operations going on at the time of the investigation.

Nor can I say that the Inspector General's office dug more deeply into some areas than in others.

-PJ

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