Posted on 06/18/2012 5:47:12 AM PDT by marktwain
I see Attorney General Eric Holder is getting grilled again by Congress about Fast and Furious, the operation in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms stood by as straw purchasers illegally bought guns in Arizona for Mexican drug traffickers.
Apart from legal and political issues surrounding Fast and Furious, I wish someone would explain to me why this was supposed to be a good idea in the first place.
I could see ATF trying catch to straw purchasers in the act of buying. But having let the buyers walk away from the gun shops, what did the agency expect to achieve, if and when the guns got into traffickers' hands in Mexico — where ATF has no authority?
One of the guns turned up at the scene of the killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Even without Fast and Furious, the traffickers Terry faced would have been armed.
That said, Fast and Furious was a plan that went south, in more ways than one.
>>The plan “went south” when people found out about it. Up until that point, it was working as designed.<<
Exactly right.
What I find frustrating is that it’s extremely easy to make the case you make whether it’s true or not, yet we’ve not been able to aggressively make that case.
The Left fabricates fictions about the Right out of whole cloth on a continuous basis, and the MSM consistently goes along with them and spreads the propaganda line.
But here we have a nearly clearcut case of a government agency, possibly (probably?) going all the way to the top of the Justice Department, and maybe even to the President himself, attempting to subvert the 2nd Amendment, and getting people killed in the process, and we can’t get traction for the story.
Why can the Left make similar stuff up and get traction, whereas the Right can’t do so even with plenty of evidence at hand? Granted, the MSM isn’t a megaphone for the Right, but with alternative media, the MSM is losing its grip.
What I think is that the Republican leadership in Congress is still too timid, and is letting Issa and others twist in the wind unless and until they come up with absolutely ironclad evidence. But by the time they get it, the Dems will be able to use the “old news”...nothing new here...argument, and coast on through the scandal yet again.
We don’t need to convict anyone for Fast and Furious. We need to convince the majority of gun owners that the intent of Fast and Furious was to take away their guns. For that, we need publicity, not lawyers. And for publicity we need real leaders willing to take the fight public. The goal should be at least one Drudge headline every 2 or 3 days, so that the average gun owners, many of whom vote Democrat, learn what this administration tried to do to them.
I suppose the author is right that they would have been armed anyway but it's interesting that two of the guns they had were from F&F and another one was from a Texas gun shop from another Project Gunrunner op out of a Texas ATF office. They weren't "traffickers" though they were a "rip crew." Murderous armed thieves there to steal from actual traffickers. With help.
There is reason to believe that Agent Terry's BORTAC team knew nothing about the rip crew and the rip crew knew nothing in advance about Agent Terry's team.
FBI Criminal Informant Complicit in Brian Terry’s Death (PJM Exclusive)Previously, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death in Peck Canyon, Arizona was described as a chance meeting that led to a firefight: an illegal alien “rip crew” working for the Sinaloa cartel was hoping to find other illegal aliens and to rob them at gunpoint. Instead, they stumbled across a Border Patrol unit and murdered Agent Terry.
Last week, the Washington Times offered a new version of the encounter: they reported that the rip crew was not hunting illegals, but Border Patrol teams — with the intention of engaging them in combat.
Sources now tell PJ Media that neither version of events is accurate: the rip crew was not waiting for a chance encounter with other illegals, nor did the members intend to engage American law enforcement agents.
The rip crew was in Peck Canyon that evening with the intention of stealing money and drugs from a specific shipment of which they had prior knowledge.
(snip)
The rip crew knew to be in Peck Canyon that December evening because a CI working for the FBI found out about a smuggling run — from the FBI.
(snip)
A source tells PJM that the FBI knew from wiretaps that the CI was using their information to set up an ambush. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) — through its own CIs and communications intercepts — was also aware of the planned assault. Neither the DEA nor FBI warned Border Patrol about the expected criminal activity.
(snip)
Multiple sources tell PJM that this third weapon “disappeared” because it was the weapon carried by the FBI CI who ran the rip crew. When it was recovered near the scene of the murder and subsequently traced by the ATF, it traced back to the FBI CI via the gun shop in Texas where it was purchased.
(snip)
Neither agency bothered to warn Border Patrol to keep their BORTAC teams out of Peck Canyon that evening. As a direct result of this FBI and DEA failure — combined with Homeland Security forcing BORTAC units to carry less-lethal beanbag rounds in some of their primary weapons — Brian Terry’s under-armed four-man unit walked into an ambush against a heavily armed rip crew, at least five of whom were carrying rifles.
Brian Terry’s murder was entirely preventable. The incompetence of the DEA and FBI let his Border Patrol unit walk into an ambush. After the ambush, it appears the FBI tampered with evidence to cover up that one of their informants was involved with the murder of a federal agent.
ICE Agent Jaime Zapata and his partner, Victor Avila, were ambushed at a fake roadblock in Mexico. Were they set up? If so by whom?
That'd be 96598.
Imho we are one vote in the SC away from seeing the 2nd removed. The 5-4 decision (think it was last year) imho said the 2nd's removal could happen at any time. Wishing it weren't so, yet knowing time is short where Americans will be asked and then told to lay down their arms and the 2nd is removed. All am saying is it has to happen for those (in power) to gain absolute control over Americans. When it will happen is up for discussion. Since it will happen (imho arms removed and the 2nd) is not up for discussion, just when, regrettably. All on the same page know why. Control ... Control ... Control. If those in power cannot regain their control as the situation worsens, one can be certain there is a backup plan and if that fails there are backup plans to backup plans (imho). Regrettably (and imho) there are no backup plans by We the People who will have to survive those who are now in power when the time comes for those in power to come for the American people's God given right of self defense.
I think back to the way this country was started ... with 'regular' folks banding together & fighting the British from behind stone walls and trees. Hopefully, there still lurks in the hearts of some Americans, the 'fire of liberty' that will flame up and cause us to fight back against those who would "control" us. I see a spark in the way the Tea Party came about ... not giving up hope yet, but folks are going to have to be willing to sacrifice life, fortune & sacred honor again on and for home turf .... something that hasn't happened since the Revolutionary War.
I believe your post is on target. You and I just made another one of those lists kept on computer activity (imho). Am too old to make a difference on this end of the computer. The young are headed for terrible times. I’ll last (once they come for the 2nd) about two weeks (maybe three). May we WIN, and may Liberty and Truth WIN.
“Apart from legal and political issues surrounding Fast and Furious, I wish someone would explain to me why this was supposed to be a good idea in the first place.”
This just flabbergasts me. After all this, this “journalist” needs to buy a clue.
Where has he been for the past two years? And he’s writing in Arizona, for G-d’s sake.
Dem handlers are not giving the press this story... the only thing the MSM knows is that it's 'no big deal'. The old days of some reporter sitting around sucking his thumb and thinking about an issue are O-VAR - 'doting court eunuchs' of the MSM have failed to notice what they've become...( the PR unit of the Democrat Party)
“Where has he been for the past two years?”
JOHN VAUGHN, BAJO EL SOL EDITOR, is baby-stepping up from articles like these:
Owl burrowed into aircraft
Yuma native and Algodones dentist had many passions in life
There’s always a backstory to tax articles
Somerton mayor might be jumping gun on recyling savings
http://www.yumasun.com/reporter-profile/byjohn-vaughn-bajoelsoleditor-498
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.