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Wide Receiver vs. Fast and Furious
Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | June 22, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

Posted on 06/22/2012 12:16:02 PM PDT by Kaslin

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I'll tell you something else, folks, if I were Hispanic, you know what would really trouble me? To learn that the President of the United States had allowed assault weapons to be walked across the border to drug cartels and used to slaughter hundreds of Mexicans. If I were Hispanic, that would really tick me off.

"Holder lied, Mexicans died."

We had a call at the end of the program yesterday from a woman who kept hearing that Democrats are blaming Bush for Fast and Furious. Speaking of which, you know how the Democrats hate guns, you know how the media hates guns. I mean, they laugh at, they make fun of people who hunt. John Kerry in the '04 campaign going to some tackle and bait shop in Ohio and saying, "Is this where I get me a huntin' license?" Come on.

So they hate it. The liberals, including in the media, hate it. And yet here we have a total lack of interest about Fast and Furious. No moral outrage at all. Wouldn't you think that giving semi-automatic weapons to drug lords who use them to kill hundreds of Mexicans, and at least one American border agent, wouldn't you think that would tick off people in this country who don't like guns? Wouldn't you think that would tick the media off? Wouldn't you think that's even more of a crime than sprinkling water up the noses of mass murdering terrorists? If you have a problem with waterboarding, then how could you not have a problem with this?

Well, it's clear. The media, they're going to circle the wagons and they're going to protect this president no matter what. It doesn't matter how much of their core beliefs they have to compromise, it doesn't matter. We have a one-party news media too busy remembering Watergate. They can't get over Watergate. They're all a bunch of Woodward and Bernsteins in the press corps, and they want to go back and relive Watergate 40 years ago. That's what this is giving them an opportunity to do. Obama invokes executive privilege and they start doing retrospectives on Nixon and Watergate 40 years ago, too busy to bother looking into the Obama regime cover-up of Fast and Furious.

We had a call late in the program yesterday from a woman who wanted to know what the difference was, because Democrats keep saying that Bush started a program. Jay Carney is saying it, they're all saying that Bush started this program. Bush did have a program like this. It was called Wide Receiver. And I told you yesterday that I was going to explain to you the differences today in Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious, and they're significant and they're profound. Wide Receiver was a small scale law enforcement gun smuggling interdiction effort that involved Phoenix -- I mistakenly said Tucson yesterday -- involved Phoenix-based ATF agents working in conjunction with Mexican law enforcement. ATF supervisors and justice department prosecutors in Arizona were trying to build a case against a violent group of Mexican drug smugglers. Fast and Furious was an effort to build a case against American gun dealers and the Second Amendment. That's the stark difference.

Wide Receiver was an attempt to build a case against gun smugglers and the drug cartels, to find out who they were, where they are. The purpose of Fast and Furious was to build a case against the Second Amendment. In a nutshell, Wide Receiver began in 2005. It involved four hundred guns. All of the weapons in Wide Receiver had RFID trackers installed in them, and they were actively tracked. Only the Phoenix ATF and DOJ were involved. The Mexican government was kept fully informed. They were an active participant. In Wide Receiver, the ATF agents tried to track the guns using radio devices and aircraft. They wanted to find out where the guns ended up, into the hands of which cartels and where they were, so that a case could be made. It was an effort to track these people to find them, locate them.

The Bush administration, as part of Wide Receiver, notified the Mexican government when arms and drug smugglers were crossing. When the guns were being walked across the border or when they had been purchased legally, being taken back to Mexico, the Mexican government was notified. At least 1,400 arrests were made as part of Wide Receiver. Now, once ATF found out the smugglers were disabling the tracking devices, the RFID tracking devices that were planted in the guns, they ripped them out and then the guns were lost. So the program was shut down in October of 2007. Once the bad guys discovered the tracking devices, the program was ended, in 2007. Ended.

Now, here's Fast and Furious by contrast. Fast and Furious began in October of 2009. Obama is in his tenth month. Wide Receiver doesn't exist. It'd been shut down for two years. Fast and Furious involved over 2,000 guns. Wide Receiver was 1,400 guns. Roughly. No tracking devices were planted in the Fast and Furious guns. The regime didn't care where they ended up. There were no tracking devices. No effort was made to track them. No helicopters. There was no on-the-ground surveillance of the straw purchasers. None of it. The guns were sold, they were walked across the border, and that was it. Four federal agencies were involved in maybe as many as 10 cities in five states.

In contrast to Wide Receiver, the Mexican government was not notified the program even existed. They did not use tracking devices or aircraft to try to find and track the smugglers. The local ATF field agents were ordered not to follow the straw purchasers. Fast and Furious is as bad as everything you have conjured it to be in your mind. Wide Receiver has nothing in common, other than guns crossing the border. That's it. Federal agents, furthermore -- are you following all this, Snerdley? -- federal agents were not allowed to interdict the guns and they even ran interference for the smugglers with local law enforcement on multiple occasions to make sure those guns made it across the border.

No effort was ever made to arrest the straw purchasers, the smugglers, by local law enforcement or anybody else. And none were arrested. The program was closed down only after the deaths of at least 200 Mexican civilians and two federal agents, border agent Brian Terry and ICE agent Jaime Zapata, were linked to the smuggled weapons. Now, it is important to understand that Wide Receiver had been tried and it had clearly failed before Obama's team decided to undertake Fast and Furious.

Fast and Furious used many more guns. They didn't track them. They didn't try to stop or interdict the guns. They knew that they were going to end up in Mexican drug cartel hands, which is what they wanted to happen. To me, it's almost an inescapable conclusion that they wanted to put American guns, American purchased guns -- the guns were not stolen, they were purchased at gun shops, and then the straw purchasers working for the drug cartels were allowed to take them across the border.

As I said earlier, local law enforcement was shoved out of the way if it tried to get in the way and stop this. So it looks to me like they wanted to put American-bought guns in the hands of Mexican drug cartels in order to outrage the American public so that you, upon hearing of all this mayhem, would finally understand that our government laws are too lax and need to be tightened down. Particularly on these kinds of guns, assault weapons, because this had failed in Congress.

The assault weapons ban had failed, and that's not good enough for Obama and Holder and the rest of the Democrats who don't want you having guns. This was a way to change your mind. They created crimes. They facilitated the creation of crimes. There were two hundred Mexican deaths at the hands of drug cartels. You could not escape what was going to happen here. In fact, it was just the opposite. You had to know, if you were the regime, what was going to happen -- and you had to want it to happen.

Again, that is quite different from the goal of Wide Receiver. Remember the objective of the Bush plan, Wide Receiver, was the authorities wanted to build a case against the local drug cartels in order to put them out of business. It was a risky move, anyway. You allow guns to cross the border so you can track them. You find out where they go, find out where the cartel's headquarters are and what-all is happening. It was a risky thing to do. They shut it down. When the tracking devices and the guns were found, they shut the program down.

There were no tracking devices of Obama's guns.

There was no effort to find out where they went.

And Holder has lied so much about it. (summarized) "Oh, I didn't know about the program. When I came into office it was already underway. Nobody told me about it in months." It was dead! It died in 2007. There were two dormant years between Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious. Wide Receiver was a sting operation. There doesn't seem to be any plan for any kind of a sting in Fast and Furious, at least not against the gun smugglers.

As I say, the simplest way to understand this is the Bush administration was trying to build a case (along with the Mexican government) against a violent group of Mexican drug smugglers. Fast and Furious was an effort to build a case against the Second Amendment and American gun dealers. Because after all, if Fast and Furious worked the way the regime wanted it to, guess who is in the crosshairs? The people selling these guns (in Arizona and elsewhere) that ended up in the hands of the drug cartel.

Don't think that wasn't part of the plan, either. So now, whatever documentation there is on this is under protection of executive privilege. It's got to be pretty bad. Whatever is in there, Obama has to be very worried about it -- and that's why he's hiding it. So the question here must always be: "What's Obama hiding?" And Dick Morris said a couple days ago that it must be pretty bad to bring this up now. Because Fast and Furious, before Wednesday of this week, everybody laughed at it. Other than us.

But the mainstream media and the Democrats laughed at it. They thought it was nothing more than a branch office of the birthers, a bunch of conspiracy kooks. But now? "My gosh! This is so big that the president has invoked executive privilege. What's in there?" In 2007, when the Bush administration closed down Wide Receiver, they said: Never again. My guess is that somebody in the Obama regime discovered this program, thought it was cool, and thought it might serve a different purpose.

And it's heinous.

It's heinous what they did.

END TRANSCRIPT


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: 2deadfeds; 300deadmexicans; atf; banglist; brianterry; dea; dhs; doj; ericholder; fastandfurious; fbi; gunrunner; gunwalker; holder; ice; jaimezapata; murdergate; obama; terry; zapata
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To: dragnet2

“sending weapons in the violent corrupt black hole of Mexico was an insane idea. “

Either you haven’t read THAT NONE OF THE GUNS IN OPERATION WIDE RECEIVER NEVER MADE IT INTO MEXICO, our you are a liar trying to bash Bush. Which is it?


21 posted on 06/22/2012 1:11:44 PM PDT by CodeToad (Homosexuals are homophobes. They insist on being called 'gay' instead.)
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To: biggredd1

You got that right


22 posted on 06/22/2012 1:12:06 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin
Good discussion of the differences between Wide Receiver and F&F as well as a great retrospective interview with Dave Workman from GunTalk 11-30-2011.

Workman proves to be quite prescient.

23 posted on 06/22/2012 1:14:13 PM PDT by ProfoundMan (Time to finish the Reagan Revolution! - RightyPics.com)
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To: Kaslin

Thanks for posting. This was as clear and succinct of an explanation as exists anywhere for the differences between the two programs. Excellent. Too bad the media is not interested.


24 posted on 06/22/2012 1:16:35 PM PDT by NEMDF
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To: Kaslin
Under Bush program 1400 arrests were made

Under -0 at least two American LEO and hundred of Mexican DEAD.

25 posted on 06/22/2012 1:18:36 PM PDT by hoosiermama ( Obama: " born in Kenya.".. he's lying now or then?)
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To: CodeToad
Either you haven’t read THAT NONE OF THE GUNS IN OPERATION WIDE RECEIVER NEVER MADE IT INTO MEXICO, our you are a liar trying to bash Bush. Which is it?

Which is it? How about this?

The first known ATF "gunwalking" operation to Mexican drug cartels, named Operation Wide Receiver, began in early 2006 and ran into late 2007. Licensed dealer Mike Detty informed the ATF of a suspicious gun purchase that took place in February 2006 in Tucson, Arizona. In March he was hired as a confidential informant working with the ATF's Tucson office, part of their Phoenix, Arizona field division.[23] With the use of surveillance equipment, ATF agents monitored additional sales by Detty to straw purchasers. With assurance from ATF "that Mexican officials would be conducting surveillance or interdictions when guns got to the other side of the border",[24] Detty would sell a total of about 450 guns during the operation.[22] These included AR-15s, semi-automatic AK-pattern rifles, and Colt .38s. The vast majority of the guns were eventually lost as they moved into Mexico.[7][23][25]

Another, smaller probe occurred in 2007 under the same ATF Phoenix field division. It began when the ATF identified Mexican suspects who bought weapons from a Phoenix gun shop over a span of several months. The probe ultimately involved over 200 guns, a dozen of which were lost in Mexico.

26 posted on 06/22/2012 1:19:35 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: dragnet2
I listened to Rush today, .... Once the bad guys discovered the tracking devices, the program was ended, in 2007. Ended.

It was a bad program and was stopped. Rush questioned why the current administration, 2 yrs later, restarted another one with no tracking, when the people involved in WR said never again, bad idea (paraphrase)

F & F was shut down only after the death of a border agent.

27 posted on 06/22/2012 1:19:39 PM PDT by opentalk
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To: Son House

Look and see where DC and Chicago are in the cities with the highest drug use in the US....

Also look at the names beginning with A in the first 100 posts of the Chicago crime thread. Also note their countries of origin and it’s position on the drug routes from Afganistan....and their connections to banking...possible money laundering.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2151323/posts

Obumah may be our first “drug cartel” pResident.


28 posted on 06/22/2012 1:29:01 PM PDT by hoosiermama ( Obama: " born in Kenya.".. he's lying now or then?)
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To: opentalk; CodeToad
I listened to Rush today, once the bad guys discovered the tracking devices, the program was ended, in 2007.

Tell that to the guy in room #21

29 posted on 06/22/2012 1:30:19 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Kaslin
Rush is up to speed on this. I didn't notice any material mistakes and he's hitting all the right sore points.

Go, Rush! Hammer that jug-eared lying Marxist!!!

30 posted on 06/22/2012 2:06:23 PM PDT by TigersEye (Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)
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To: dragnet2

You can tell him. But you can’t tell him much. lol


31 posted on 06/22/2012 2:08:44 PM PDT by TigersEye (Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)
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To: dragnet2; Kaslin; hoosiermama

I see. You use Wiki for your source. I know because I read that stuff yesterday. Try again. You’re not impressing anyone.


32 posted on 06/22/2012 2:25:39 PM PDT by bcsco
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To: bcsco
You use Wiki for your source.

Lets see if you can be honest and see how long it takes ya.

You deny no weapons were lost in Mexico during Wide Receiver?

Yes or no?

"""As a result of the mistakes made in Wide Receiver, guns were lost: approximately 450 made it into Mexico. As a result, the botched operation launched in 2006 — and in this instance, actually botched — was shut down in 2007."""

33 posted on 06/22/2012 2:35:04 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: bcsco

“”””I see. You use Wiki for your source. I know because I read that stuff yesterday. Try again. You’re not impressing anyone.””””

You only see what ya want to see.

How about this slick? Ya want more sources?

You deny weapons were lost in Mexico during Wide Receiver?

Yes or no?

Wide Receiver was less than one-quarter the size of Fast and Furious, involving about 500 guns. About 450 guns made it across the border into Mexico.

http://www.humanevents.com/2011/10/07/no-operation-wide-receiver-does-not-excuse-obama-or-holder/


34 posted on 06/22/2012 2:41:24 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: opentalk

The other night Hannity had Michelle Malkin and the left wing loon Tamara Holder on his show and the subject was Eric Holder obstructing justice. That lunatic Holder spun that Fast and Furious was stopped, because it did not work, but never mentioned that Brian Terry was killed and that was the reason why it was stopped


35 posted on 06/22/2012 2:45:59 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: bcsco

What does Wiki have to do with this?


36 posted on 06/22/2012 2:49:06 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: bcsco

Where’d ya go??


37 posted on 06/22/2012 2:53:43 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: dragnet2
BTW, following Bush's scheme, the violence in Mexico only expanded by magnitudes. In fact it was under Bush, *millions* of Mexicans entered illegally...During war time no less.

You are trying to change the subject. It has nothing to do with illegal immigration

38 posted on 06/22/2012 2:53:47 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

“never mentioned that Brian Terry was killed and that was the reason why it was stopped”

Holder did go the route of “he died only a year ago.” She never mentioned his name.

IIRC, documentation goes back to March 2009 on this, meaning it was out of the chute immediately upon inauguration...so documentation/speeches could be approved in the pipeline.


39 posted on 06/22/2012 2:56:22 PM PDT by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spiritui Sancto.)
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To: dragnet2

No, I don’t deny guns were lost in WR. But it nowhere approached the number of guns lost, that were never even traced in F&F. Also, the Bush administration worked with the Mexican government. We handled surveillance of the guns between point-of-sale and the border. We then turned surveillance over to the Mexican government. Obama & Holder ran F&F below the radar and even the Mexican government wasn’t aware of the program.

Also, two American officers, one ICE, one BP, lost their lives. There is no evidence of guns used in the WR program taking the life of an American.

You want to blame Bush, then to to the DUmp where you belong. Never, ever converse with me again. You disgust me.


40 posted on 06/22/2012 2:57:52 PM PDT by bcsco
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