Posted on 10/17/2011 6:43:09 PM PDT by jazusamo
Overseer promised skeptical agents ‘most fun’ with ATF
The central characters in the failed “Fast and Furious” firearms investigation were 19 men and one woman, all legal residents of the U.S., accused of laying down hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit cash at Phoenix-area gun shops to buy an arsenal of high-powered weapons for Mexican drug smugglers.
Between September 2009 and December 2010, congressional investigators said, they purchased or aided in the purchase of more than 2,000 AK-47 assault weapons, Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifles, FN 5.7mm semi-automatic pistols and other assorted rifles, shotguns and handguns that later were “walked” into Mexico. About half the weapons remain unaccounted for.
They paid cash, as much as $900,000, and with each purchase they signed their names on Form 4473, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) document, swearing under the threat of committing a felony that they were not purchasing the weapons for someone else — that they were not “straw buyers.”
But they were, and the ATF knew it.
Most of the purchases were recorded on video equipment mounted by ATF agents in the shops of cooperating gun dealers; other buys were personally witnessed by undercover agents in the stores. Some ATF officials at the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters could watch live video feeds of the weapons being purchased.
The plan
It was part of a plan, a risky strategy to allow weapons to be placed in what agents call the “Iron River” of guns flowing south into Mexico. The goal, of course, was to feed the gun-trafficking network and to identify the big fish, the drug cartel bosses in Mexico who were paying for the weapons.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
If they can convince people that it was just a “botched operation” they can limit damage to a few operators. As a political false flag operation it is obvious that it had to come from very high up the line.
Upper management didn't count on any U. S. government employees being killed with F&F guns. IMHO, had Terry not been an agent, we would not know about this program. Those who came forward after Terry's murder would not have done so had he not been one of their own.
“It may sound cheesy, but we are ‘The tip of the ATF spear’ when it comes to Southwest border firearms trafficking. I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors or other adolescent behavior,” Mr. Voth wrote. “If you don’t think this is fun, you’re in the wrong line of work — period!
“This is the pinnacle of domestic U.S. law enforcement techniques. After this, the toolbox is empty,” he wrote. “Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers, and you get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day. We need to get over this bump in the road once and for all and get on with the mission at hand. This can be the most fun you have with ATF, the only one limiting the amount of fun we have is you!”
When government employees say things like this I wonder, what have they done we don't know about. The more I hear of F&F, the less I trust anything the government has told me. When Holder came out with the story of the plot to bomb the Israeli and Saudi embassies, my thoughts were that it was all a setup. Our government setup some halfwits so we the sheep will think our government has saved us. Holder and the rest patted themselves on the back then ran as soon as someone asked about F&F. People like Mr. Voth help me understand why there are people who believe the government was behind 911. There are monsters running our country who will do anything to get what they want. They view us as McVeigh did the children in the Murrah Building. When they kill one of us it's just "collateral damage".
Jerry Seper is a fine reporter and the Washington Times is a conservative newspaper, but this explanation is nonsensical. If the guns were tracked to the "big fish," why are there no reports of big fish being arrested after thousands of guns were supposedly tracked? If there were no arrests, then why has there been no coherent explanation of the reasons for the program's failure?
I do not understand how the tracking was supposed to work. Little LoJack devices in the guns? Follow Bob until he sells guns to Jose, then follow Jose back to El Jefe?
If the tracking method did not produce results, why wasn't F&F stopped sooner?
Wayne LaPierre's explanation makes a lot more sense, but requires a true anti-Second Amendment conspiracy within the ATF.
???
The purpose of the "F" in ATF is to violate the Second Amendment. It's not a "conspiracy," it's their entire raison d'être, their mission in life.
Defund ATF. They have lost the trust of US taxpayers. No shuffling of personnel or tweaking of goals will regain the trust. Same for TSA.
Agree. I’ve no doubt had Terry not been murdered the agents that came forward would not have.
Voth and those like him in similar positions of authority have to believe they are above the law, to make statements like he made is truly pathetic.
I believe there’s a mighty good chance that the bomb plot connected to Iran was trumped up. If not, I’d bet the decision to release the information was made because of the pressure on Holder, that supposed operation had been on going for some time. It’s way too much of a coincidence that that info was released at that time.
Gee, I thought their mission statement (from the article, iirc) was that the F was for “fun”.
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