In March of 2009, Hillary Clinton blamed the increase in Mexican violence on guns obtained in the U.S:
Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians
Obama repeated this charge on a visit to Mexico in April of 2009:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/17/obama-blames-us-guns-in-mexico/?page=all
Obama even claimed that 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico came from the U.S:
The problem was that this simply was not true. The ATF was forced to admit that in fact only 17% of guns recovered in Mexico could be traced back to the U.S. The other 83% of guns recovered couldn’t be tracked at all. This created a huge problem for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the entire anti-gun crowd. They looked foolish when the real numbers came out.
Maybe it’s just me, but operation Fast & Furious looks like a really convenient solution to the problem. The ATF allowed the guns to “walk” and be transported to Mexico. It appears as though some of the famous stimulus money was provided to speed along the process. One could make the argument that Fast & Furious did a lot more than ignore gun walking; it encouraged and enabled gun walking.
Why would anyone think this is a good idea? It is hard to believe that some local ATF supervisor dreamed this up. That makes no sense at all. The Obama administration was on record complaining about the number of guns being shipped to Mexico. Any ATF official in his or her right mind would only recommend proposals to reduce gun trafficking. That is what people do! If your boss is upset about something, you find a way to fix the problem. I can’t even imagine the logic that would cause an ATF official to propose something like Fast & Furious under the circumstances.
But what if someone needed evidence of guns being smuggled into Mexico? What if, say, the President and the Secretary of State had both been embarrassed by making absurdly false accusations about the number of guns being smuggled to Mexico? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a recovery of a lot of guns in Mexico that could be traced back to the U.S? Wouldn’t that help show that the President & the Secretary of State were right all along? Suddenly Fast & Furious makes sense.
The only think we know for sure is that both Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama made absurdly false claims about the number of gun recovered in Mexico that could be traced back to the U.S. We also know that Fast & Furious was implemented in September, 2009, just a couple months after their very public and embarrassing lie was exposed. That sure seems like more than a coincidence!
The following article from the LA Times reveals some critical information:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/03/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20111004
The following excerpt from the memo is chilling:
Either way, he added that “it’s not going to be any big surprise that a bunch of US guns are being used in MX, so I’m not sure how much grief we get for ‘guns walking.’ It may be more like, ‘Finally they’re going after people who sent guns down there’ “
Please note that they are not surprised to discover that a lot of U.S. guns are being used in Mexico. Really? If only 17% of the guns being recovered in Mexico could be traced back to the U.S., wouldn’t finding a “lot” of U.S. guns in Mexico be a big surprise? There also doesn’t appear to be much surprise or concern over the gun walking. The only concern was with regard to how to avoid the blame. They decided it would be ok because “Finally they’re going after people who sent guns down there.”
This is far more consistent with an administration more interested in proving U.S. guns were walking to Mexico than slowing down the process. There is not even a hint of a concern that guns originating in the U.S. are being used by murderous thugs to kill people in Mexico.
Today Obama saId that the “People who have screwed up will be held accountable:”
That was an interesting choice of words. Did they screw up by allowing all those guns to migrate to Mexico, or did they screw up by getting caught? Perhaps if Obama used a little of that stimulus money to install mirrors in the White House he might have more success in identifying the person responsible.
TDM