Posted on 08/01/2011 9:12:00 PM PDT by neverdem
More than 100 weapons linked to crime scenes were sold under a federal gun-tracking program, according to a new congressional report.
The report from two Republican lawmakers says the program was allowed to continue despite pleas from U.S. agents stationed in Mexico to stop arming the country’s drug cartels.
Issued by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday, the report found that Mexican law enforcement officials and U.S. attaché agents stationed in Mexico were kept largely in the dark about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) gun-tracking operation known as Fast and Furious.
As a result, the “ATF jeopardized relations between the U.S. and Mexico,” according to the 60-page report. The Republicans based their findings off more than a dozen interviews with ATF officials.
As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa will hear testimony on Tuesday from a half-dozen former and current ATF agents, including ATF attachés to Mexico and the ATF’s regional deputy assistant director for field operations.
Earlier this month, ATF acting director Kenneth Melson told the committee in a closed-door interview that neither he nor acting-deputy director Billy Hoover knew about the operation ahead of its public revelation earlier this year, according to a partial transcript of the meeting provided to The Hill by committee Democrats.
The Fast and Furious operation authorized gun dealers in the Southwest to sell more than 1,000 weapons to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels, with the stated hope of tracking the weapons to the eventual kingpins and dismantling the gun trafficking routes. But the federal officials in charge of the operation did not authorize enough surveillance of the weapons and offered no reliable method of tracing them other than if they were later recovered at a crime scene, according to ATF testimony before the committee last month.
Grassley and Issa have pursued the issue for seven months, ever since a whistleblower came to the senior Iowa lawmaker following the killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two of the guns found at the scene of Terry’s killing were later traced to sales made under the operation’s authorization.
The lawmakers want to find out who gave the ultimate authorization for the operation. Both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have decried the program. Holder called for the inspector general to investigate the issue, and Obama has declined to comment on the issue until that probe is complete.
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!
Give that man a Kewpie doll
The initial Waco raid was timed to coincide with budget hearings for the ATF. The go-code for the assault was SHOW-TIME, and they had a whole TV news crew along to chronicle the huge victory.
The team got lost and had to ask directions on the way to the Mt. Carmel compound —the mailman they asked directions from was a Branch Davidian. I’m serious.
The shooting stopped after the ATF ran out of ammo —they were permitted to withdrawl.
After the FBI arrived, the first thing they did with tanks was to repeatedly run over the graves of the buried Davidians. Then they played rabbit dying screams all night —something that made them think the end of the world was coming.
After they burned the place down, the first thing the ATF did —literally while the embers were still smoking— was to raise the ATF flag on those embers, while filming it.
Some claim there were snipers at the back of the compound, to shoot people who made it out of the fire.
Over 30 kids died in that fire. THIRTY KIDS.
What’s the big deal? 0bama is “black.”
wellll, almost.
This story has the potential to re-surface afresh for a decade with all those arms out there.
The radical lefts MO---
Manufacture a major crises.
People will cry out to be saved.
The left comes in with a "new way" (and the people get even more oppressed).
This is how all the left wing programs are created. 80% of the American people were happy with their health insurance until the radical left decided they wanted the premium payments. They sent out the trial lawyers, the cost skyrocketed, and people cried out once again to be saved.
Presto - Obomacre - a new way to save us all!
This wasn't a "stunt" by the clowns in BATFE.
This was a malign conspiracy involving the highest levels of the DOJ and, perhaps, the White House to undermine our 2nd Amendment rights.
You're selling it way short. In this case, BATFE was simply the hired hands.
Which is why we have the whistle blowers. Those involved knew what they were doing was wrong. They had to stop it. Some one had to speak up before more people died and innocent American citizens were blamed for it.
IIRC, Issa said a grand total of two tracking devices were used.
Wow. Really? A whole two? I'm impressed! (not)If they wanted to track those weapons, they would have.
This was a "manufactured crises" designed to attack U.S. arms manufactures. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind.
Good luck with the investigation.
I completely agree with you, but the Obama Media has yet to even start to explore this corruption.
I think the Obama Media is the first place to look if things need to change in this country. Barry is even starting to lose them, though, because he’s an idiot who got where he is through the hands of others.
placemark.
Nobody died in Watergate.
NOTE: Written on July 26, 2011
Yes but there may have also been a motive to arm the cartels in return for secret drug money contributions to The One's campaign....It is hard not to notice that suddenly huge amounts of money appeared in the Obama campaign account.
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