Posted on 06/27/2012 10:31:42 AM PDT by kristinn
A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust.
In the annals of impossible assignments, Dave Voth's ranked high. In 2009 the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives promoted Voth to lead Phoenix Group VII, one of seven new ATF groups along the Southwest border tasked with stopping guns from being trafficked into Mexico's vicious drug war.
Some call it the "parade of ants"; others the "river of iron." The Mexican government has estimated that 2,000 weapons are smuggled daily from the U.S. into Mexico. The ATF is hobbled in its effort to stop this flow. No federal statute outlaws firearms trafficking, so agents must build cases using a patchwork of often toothless laws. For six years, due to Beltway politics, the bureau has gone without permanent leadership, neutered in its fight for funding and authority. The National Rifle Association has so successfully opposed a comprehensive electronic database of gun sales that the ATF's congressional appropriation explicitly prohibits establishing one.
Voth, 39, was a good choice for a Sisyphean task. Strapping and sandy-haired, the former Marine is cool-headed and punctilious to a fault. In 2009 the ATF named him outstanding law-enforcement employee of the year for dismantling two violent street gangs in Minneapolis. He was the "hardest working federal agent I've come across," says John Biederman, a sergeant with the Minneapolis Police Department. But as Voth left to become the group supervisor of Phoenix Group VII, a friend warned him: "You're destined to fail."
(Excerpt) Read more at features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com ...
This is a long article and will be used by opponents to turn the Fast and Furious investigation in to a partisan fight. Read the article to learn what you are up against so you will be able to respond appropriately when needed.
Fortune is a TIME brand.
What does anyone expect ?
From the third paragraph - I'm sure there are other lies before that one, but that's the one I know for sure is blatant.
Look up ITAR. Also known as Export Control, it explicitly forbids you from sending weapons outside the country.
oh for cripe’s sake... how are they able to know ANY of this, and present it AS FACT, when Holder will not release the documents needed to assemble this story?????
That’s the whole f*^%ing POINT!!!
(not yelling at you kristinn)
iF this were true - WHY NOT RELEASE THE DOCUMENTS IF IT’S SO INNOCENT?
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."
‘Wide Receiver’ CI: ‘It had nothing to do with Bush or even DOJ’
New Documents Highlight Differences in Bush-Era, Obama-Era Gunrunner Investigations
In that case the DoJ and ATF have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to stop people from engaging in legal acts of commerce. They should be prosecuted for that then.
No reason for the executive privilege is there? It was written before the executive privilege was announced.
How is 'Fortune' able to investigate this, and come to this conclusion, when Issa cannot get Holder to release the documents so that Congress can do an investigation?
Wasn't that the whole point of Fast and Furious?- to intentially let guns go to Mexico and 'track' them?
For what purpose, we can not know... UNTIL HOLDER RELEASES THE DOCUMENTS
And the fantasy being concocted by the desperate MSM will be laughable in the face of ... Issa: 31 Democrats Will Vote To Condemn Holder
THE REAL TRUTH about F+F:
Some undercover DEA agents in one cartel got in a battle with some undercover FBI agents in another cartel using guns that ATF agents forced gunshops owners to sell to undercover CIA agents who were ‘gun mules’, and Agent Terry’s unit got caught in the crossfire.
The Sinola Cartel is coming out the ‘big winner’, and Obama and Calderon have promised the ‘winner’ rights to all smuggling through ARIZONA. (that is why the FEDS are all over AZ and the immigration laws).
Smuggling will drop along other areas of the border (Texas, for example) and Obama and Calderon will declare they have CLOSED the border.
An article purposely written with many an anecdotal aside to draw the reader to confidence in the author.
Very cleverly written. Points for that even though I believe it total BS.
Straw argument. Sure, they may not have targeted the drug rings...but they intentionally allowed guns to fall into whatever hands they might fall into to accelerate the flow.
The cartels would have been only one of the natural recipients.
I wonder if Obama won't help Arizona because he's afraid that Fast And Furious guns will eventually be found combing back across the border with an illegal alien. It's just a matter of time.
He doesn't want to step up illegal immigration enforcement because if they find a gun, everything would begin to unravel. He's using immigration as an excuse to look the other way on everything else.
-PJ
"Dem Adam Schiff just told me "absolutely" there was " government misconduct" in #FASTANDFURIOUS. His admission invalidates exec privilege"
This article is an attempt to further the cause of Fast and Furious, which is gun control. It drips with disdain for the right of Americans to purchase firearms without interference and registration from the Fed. ...Several things beg an explanation. If Feds observed straw purchases from American citizens who passed an instant check, why didn’t a flag go up to prevent those same people from making future straw purchases? The Fed must have had a plan or scheme going on that allowed the practice to continue. Since the Fed knew about these straw purchases, and knew they were going into Mexico, why weren’t Mexican officials notified? This entire article stinks of ass covering. Of course the real solution to this problem isn’t more gun control in the US, but more border control, and we know Obama, Holder, and the entire criminal regime running this country want nothing to do protecting our border from invaders.
holy cow!
This falls into the same level of absurdity as George Costanza on "Seinfeld" whining about being fired from his job for having sex in the office with the cleaning lady...
"Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell you, I gotta plead ignorence on this thing, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing is frowned upon... you know, cause I've worked in a lot of offices, and I tell you, people do that all the time."
This Eban is either and idiot or a tool for Obama. She trys to blame the fact that guns were walked to Mexico on prosecutors!
She states that there were no laws in place to stop straw purchasers!
She states that there were no laws in place to stop guns from going to Mexico!
So, it’s all because there weren’t enough laws in place. But it has nothing to do with gun control. To think that is to be a conspiracy nut.
Hell, this is so nuts that even George Orwell wouldn’t have been able to come up with it. But “big sister” Eban has the balls to write this screed.
Move along. Those aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
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