Posted on 10/03/2011 11:02:27 PM PDT by neverdem
SAN ANGELO, Texas — MEXICO CITY — The inquiry into "Fast and Furious," the horrendously terrible U.S.-sponsored, anti-drug operation that spun out of control, could become all about political spin if the inquiry stays on the partisan track.
"Fast and Furious" was the name given to an ill-conceived operation by Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operatives to make guns available to Mexican organized crime. That way, the feds thought, they could find out who was using stooges to do their gun-running.
But the agency allegedly let questionable buys from legitimate gun dealers slip by and then lost control of the weapons identification and tracking.
The operation is believed to have allowed Sinaloa Cartel members to buy more than 1,900 weapons with about $1.25 million over about 15 months until January. ATF is said to have recovered only 10 percent of the weapons.
Mexican authorities have reacted in furious disbelief. "To date, United States authorities has not informed us about the failed operation, nor apologized for it," Marisela Morales, who heads the Mexican federal prosecutors' agency, told the Los Angeles Times. Mexico is owed an explanation, she said.
"In no way have we permitted it," she added, "because that would be an attack on the security of Mexicans."
The head of ATF operations in Mexico, Carlos Canino, testified at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in July that "at no time ever did I know that ATF agents were following known (or) suspected gun traffickers." So it seems ATF wasn't even telling its own agents.
A further tragedy could be in the making if the ongoing inquiry fails to ask hard questions. One of them is how many people in both the United States and Mexico have been killed, injured and in other ways harmed as a consequence of "Fast and Furious." This is a delicate matter because of consequent criminal and civil liabilities on both sides of the border.
There is no place for glee, making special-interest points or hyperbole in something this serious. It started looking like that when National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre, in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, accused U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder of stonewalling.
"This is the biggest cover-up since Watergate," he said. LaPierre has called for an independent prosecutor.
The inquiry could take a greater partisan cast now that the investigating House committee has requested documents and notes from White House staffers Kevin Reilly, Dan Restrepo and Greg Gatjanis.
On Sept. 23, Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, called for a new inquiry into any knowledge Holder might have had of the ill-conceived plan. A resignation at ATF and recent personnel changes, Smith told Holder in a letter, looks like trying to "pin this scandal on a few individuals and expect it to be forgotten."
An in-depth, connect-the-dots inquiry into "Fast and Furious" is needed, asking not only embarrassing bureaucratic questions but the transnational ones about how much mayhem, injury and death has taken place because of the operation. Maybe a U.S.-Mexico inter-parliamentary inquest (televised live, like Watergate) might be the answer.
It would help LaPierre to remember, if he has forgotten, that Watergate started as a simple break-in investigation. The cover-up was what sent a president packing.
The writer appears to be in denial. He can't seem to figure out what's the greater danger here, the crime or the cover-up. While I'm no fan of LaPierre or his methods, he at least seems to get it, and the writer needs to reserve this cautionary statement for the stonewallers at the White House.
Input needed. Have now started a new ping list called BORDER WARS since so many of these stories are starting to intersect and overlap. I would like to keep the Gunwalker threads separate. Let me know if you want on the Border Wars list. It will NOT be the same as Gunwalker, though they might overlap occasionally. Please ping me to any articles you think fit in this catagory. Thank you.
The prosecution should be fast and furious, just like the crimes, not slow and tedious.
FYI
Here are NEW videos:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2787321/posts
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I waited to check if these weren’t the old GUNRUNNER speeches. They’re not.
CBS Video
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7383343n
“We need to push for a special prosecutor now.”
Why?
What will be different about this remake of the Ken Starr/Bill Clinton show?
This article TOTALLY misses the boat.
It’s all about creating a problem in Mexico—then blaming it on our 22nd ammendment. Then eliminating that ammendment.
How are they going to do that? The couldn't get any serious gun control bills when the rats controlled both Houses of Congress. IIRC, 64 rat members of the House sent Holder a letter to forget about a renewal of the so-called "assault weapons ban. And you expect an amendment to repeal the 2nd Amendment to pass in 38 states? Go look up national polls about the 2nd Amendment. They are usually greater than 70 % in popularity for the 2nd Amendment.
They were attempting administrative infringement. Their "River of Iron" going into Mexico didn't pass the smell test. It would never pass the Senate, much less the House. Personally, I think it was an idiotic gambit to placate gun grabbers, and I think Mexico's Calderon was complicit, or else he'd be literally screaming bloody murder.
map courtesy of jdege
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