"Justice Dept faulted in gun-trafficking operation" by PETE YOST, Associated Press / September 19, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the 471-page report, Inspector General Michael Horowitz referred more than a dozen people for possible department disciplinary action for their roles in Operation Fast and Furious and a separate, earlier probe known as Wide Receiver, undertaken during the George W. Bush administration....
Once you understand the drug war you understand why it is endless. The CIA is likely the world's biggest drug-runner and uses the black profits to fund blacker operations, the Wall Street banks gobble up drug loot to launder for bottom line purposes, and government can use it as a reason for repression and the expanding of the prison-industrial complex.
In that context, does the gun-running really surprise? Guns go out, drugs come in, and $omeone $ure is happy.
The report found no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was informed about the Fast and Furious operation before Jan. 31, 2011, or that the attorney general was told about the much-disputed gun-walking tactic employed by the ATF.
Looks like a cover-his-ass report to me.
Also see: Filibuster Firefight Over Obama's ATF Nominee
Republicans backed down.
Gun-walking was an experimental tactic, barred under long-standing department policy.
That got people killed.
ATF agents in Arizona allowed suspected ‘‘straw purchasers,’’ in these cases believed to be working for Mexican drug gangs, to leave Phoenix-area gun stores with weapons in order to track them and bring charges against gun-smuggling kingpins who long had eluded prosecution, but they lost track of most of the guns.
Maybe you guys are too busy spying on innocent Americans, huh?
The experimental operations were a response to widespread criticisms of the agency’s anti-smuggling efforts. Because of thin ATF staffing and weak penalties, the traditional strategy of arresting suspected straw buyers as soon as possible had failed to stop the flow of tens of thousands of guns to Mexico — more than 68,000 in the past five years.
Was it ever really meant to succeed?
And THIS GOVERNMENT that is SO CONCERNED with GUN VIOLENCE in OUR STREETS apparently was NOT AS CONCERNED about BUTCHERY in MEXICO!
The inspector general found fault with the work of the senior ATF leadership, the ATF staff and U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix and senior officials of Justice’s criminal division in Washington.
Was anyone fired?
He also said that poor internal information-gathering and drafting at Justice and ATF caused the department to initially misinform Congress about Fast and Furious, beginning with a Feb. 4, 2011, letter....
Translation: The Department of Justice LIED to the CONGRESS!
Now I KNOW that is a CRIME!
And they put out the lame-ass excuse of communication foul-up?
--more--"
Related: Justice Dept. faulted in gun-trafficking operation
For some reason the web version of my Globe had an NYT pos.
Also see: Man sentenced in ‘Fast and Furious’ case
After he pled guilty:
"Mexican pleads guilty in killing of a US agent; Case uncovered failed ‘Fast and Furious’ tactic" by Jacques Billeaud | Associated Press, October 31, 2012
PHOENIX — A Mexican man pleaded guilty Tuesday in the killing of a US Border Patrol agent whose death revealed the botched ‘‘Fast and Furious’’ gun-smuggling operation, marking the biggest conviction to date in a case that embarrassed the federal government and prompted a series of congressional investigations.
In his guilty plea, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes admitted that he was part of a rip-off crew that sneaked into the United States from Mexico about a week before the death of Agent Brian Terry.
They stashed guns and food supplies on the US side of the border and killed Terry as they searched for marijuana smugglers to rob.
Time to legalize the pot and start SAVING LIVES!
Authorities haven’t said which member of the rip-off crew was believed to have fired the fatal shot at Terry on Dec. 14, 2010.
Of the five men charged in Terry’s killing, only two are in custody, while three others remain fugitives.
Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against Osorio-Arellanes, who could face life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction.
Terry’s death lifted the veil on the bungled federal government’s gun-smuggling investigation that was later the subject of congressional probes.
Yup, bungling and bumbling mistakes from this government. Why should we look to them for anything but looting?
Federal authorities have faced heavy criticism for allowing suspected straw gun buyers to walk away from shops with weapons, rather than arrest the suspects and seize the guns there.
Two rifles bought by a gun-smuggling ring that was being monitored through ‘‘Fast and Furious’’ were found at the scene.....
Except they were not being monitored, but that's a slight distortion so why bother?
Operation Fast and Furious was launched in 2009 to catch trafficking kingpins, but federal agents lost track of about 1,400 of the more than 2,000 weapons — including AK-47s and other high-powered assault rifles.
And yet they are trying to TAKE the GUNS AWAY from LAW-ABIDING Americans!
Some of the guns purchased illegally with the government’s knowledge were later found at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States....
I wonder HOW MANY HAVE DIED due to tis government "bungling."
The two guns found at the scene of the Terry shooting were purchased by a straw buyer for a smuggling ring suspected of purchasing guns for the brutal Sinaloa cartel, according to investigators....
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Also see:
Mexican Mischief
U.S. Government Brings Drug War to U.S. Cities
Say what?
Something else that has also been forgotten: Benghazi