A primer on the "Fast and Furious" scandal

cbsnews.com ^ | 26 June, 2012 | Sharyl Attkisson

[marktwain]

"Gunwalking" is law enforcement vernacular for the concept of allowing criminal suspects to "walk" off with guns, without police interdicting or tracking them. It's widely considered taboo, since "walked" guns may be used in violent crimes, including murders.

What is "Project Gunrunner"?

[WKUHilltopper]

Yep.

[Joe Brower]

[cayuga]

Is that a real shirt? If it is, where can I get one?

[mazda77]

It will be more a strategically placed IED and a few other poor souls will be sacrificed as well.

[mazda77]

Wide Receiver guns WERE tracked, they were just not tracked effectively, by the Mexican Government who dropped the ball. It was then immediately shut down because the Mexicans screwed it up.

[TigersEye]

That paragraph is a mish-mash of correct and incorrect assertions. This article is not one of Sheryl Attkinson's finest pieces of work. It is true that they let guns cross the border. But she says they let them "walk" which is in direct contradiction to the definition of "walking" that she begins the article with. "Walking" means to make no effort to interdict or track the guns. They did make efforts to track them and intended to interdict them in Wide Receiver to the best of my understanding.

The Department of Justice ’ s Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents

(above) Four ATF field agents testify under oath that they "never even heard of intentionally letting guns "walk" before F&F."

In that House testimony all four agents define "walking" just as I have and just as Attkinson did.

Another problem with what she wrote there is the assertion that Mexican authorities were not fully informed of Wide Receiver operations. That goes against all previous reporting on this.

She says in a previous paragraph about F&F "the vast majority of guns were not tracked and Mexico's government was not fully informed of the case." That is also contradictory to previous reporting in two ways. First, the only effort to track any of the 2,500 guns walked in F&F was when a field agent bought his own electronics and tried to track one or two guns. His devices failed. Secondly, it has been reported that neither Mexican authorities nor ATF agents stationed in Mexico knew anything at all about F&F operations.

[In Maryland]

It seems that CBS just can’t resist inserting a way to “Blame Bush” even when it is otherwise swimming against the tide of the LSM.

[TigersEye]

This is the first time I have seen anything that looks like spin from Attkinson. That is disappointing. Up until now her reports have been hard hitting and substantially accurate as compared to other New Media reporting. I hope she isn’t bending to CBS management now after a year of good work.

[archy]

F&F was a high-profile OCDETF (Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force) investigation. These joint task forces are always approved and run out of the DOJ. It's laughable to suggest that some low-level functionaries in Arizona dreamed up and ran a joint ATF/FBI/DEA/ICE investigation without DOJ approval and supervision.

You familiar with Operation Dutch Boy in Arizona, run by a rogue US Attorney and corrupt candidate for AZ governor, and intended to affect pending Arizona state firearms legislation? Research time....

[archy]

Wide Receiver guns WERE tracked, they were just not tracked effectively, by the Mexican Government who dropped the ball. It was then immediately shut down because the Mexicans screwed it up.

Wide Receiver guns WERE tracked, they were just not tracked effectively, by the Mexican Government who dropped the ball. It was then immediately shut down because the Mexican policia agencies infiltrated by the cartels screwed it up, possibly on orders from their narcotrafficante bosses.