The Obama administration is desperately trying to pretend that operation Fast & Furious started under George Bush. There is a good reason for that. The more people learn about Fast & Furious, the more angry they become. What really happened is that under the Bush administration there was a program called Operation Wide Receiver. ATF operatives observed guns being sold illegally. They let the transaction get completed, followed the guns and then tried to apprehend those who received them. Sometimes, embarrassingly, the bad guys got away. This is a pretty standard law enforcement tactic that has been used for decades. It is the standard practice of watching the little guy and hoping he leads to the big guy.
Following is an article from Investors Business Daily, that describes the two programs:
The big difference is that under Fast & Furious, agents were prevented from tracking weapons at all. The following two paragraphs explain this very clearly:
ATF agents involved in Fast and Furious have testified that they were ordered not to track the weapons and in cases where interdiction was possible they were ordered to stand down and actually watch the weapons walk.
ATF Special Agent John Dodson has testified how in one instance guns were sold to known illegal buyers who took them to a stash house. Against orders from his superiors, Dodson kept the stash house under surveillance and when a vehicle showed up to transfer the weapons to their ultimate destination, he called for an interdiction team to move in, seize the weapons and arrest the traffickers. His superiors refused, and the guns disappeared without surveillance.
While this was clearly stupid, stupidity itself is an inadequate explanation. ATF agents ready, willing and able to intervene were prevented from doing their jobs. Why?
There have been other cases where Federal Agents were prevented from doing their job. There is even a report that CIA agents were prepared to take out Osama bin Laden, but that they couldn’t get permission from then President Bill Clinton. It appears as if the U.S. knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding for over 8 months before they finally got the necessary permission from President Barack Obama to take action. Perhaps this was just another case of indecisive and incompetent leadership.
But, in this case, it could be even worse. One has to wonder whether or not at least some people in the Obama administration wanted guns to walk to Mexico. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had made false claims that a majority of guns recovered in Mexico came from the U.S. They used these false claims to make the case for more gun control. The ATF quickly corrected the record and explained that a majority of weapons recovered in Mexico couldn’t be traced at all. One would assume that the Obama administration was less than thrilled at being embarrassed by an ATF spokesman stupidly answering a question truthfully. Perhaps the best explanation for Fast & Furious is that the ATF was taking heat and someone was looking for a way out.
It obviously would really help the Obama administration if suddenly a lot of guns recovered in Mexico could be conveniently traced back to the United States. Problem solved.
There is no evidence of this, but the logic is pretty obvious. Several top level conservatives has opined that this was the whole point of Fast & Furious. The truth is we don’t know what happened, we just know that the Obama administration has desperately tried to prevent the disclosure of critical documents.
We also know that the DOJ gave a letter to a congressional committee that was a lie. It is important to remember what lie was told:
“the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives makes “every effort” to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally before they cross into Mexico. It added that the allegation that the ATF had “sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons” to suspicious people was false.”
The DOJ has admitted this was not true. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before congress that he had only learned about Fast & Furious a few weeks earlier. When e-mails were discovered proving that this was not true, Holder “corrected” his testimony. Then just a few days ago, Holder arrogantly said that former Attorney General Michael Mikasey had been briefed on this. Senator Grassley, who apparently talks to Mikasey, immediately realized that this was another grandstanding lie. He challenged Holder to either provide documents proving that this was true, or to apolologize to Murkasey. Holder sent a deputy to sheepishly admit that Holder had made an inadvertent mistake.
We don’t know the truth, yet, but we sure know who has been telling lies. Under the circumstances, who in their right mind would consider trusting Eric Holder to investigate this? I think we are headed toward a Special Prosecutor and I expect this story to move at light speed.
So far everyone agrees that Fast & Furious was stupid, perhaps criminally stupid. But, as pointed out above, stupidity is an inadequate explanation.
TDM
This is just a guess from connecting the arviechd News Dots; there was a News Story which broke some months earlier, and then just vanished from the airwaves, which stated that Obama was looking to the UN to pass a resolution that would make it unlawful for private U.S. citizens or gun shows to sell or trade guns. I would not put it past him to deliberately try to create an International incident to further this agenda; if this was the case, then it was there intention for the guns to get into Mexico, but not for anyone to know who, when, or why it happened. Since they would know that the Mexican Government would easily identify where the guns came from, and that would create the perfect International incident for the UN to act upon. Shalom!
Sujata: Good point. It is hard to see how anyone, other than the Obama administration, gaining from U.S. guns showing up in Mexico. I would like to think this is not true, but there are too many concidences to ignore.
TD<