01-08-2011, 07:19 AM
Lethal fiasco
A Justice Dept. 'Fast & Furious' coverup?
"... In a joint April 2009 appearance with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama said: "Our focus is to work with . . . everybody who is involved with this, to coordinate with our counterparts in Mexico, to significantly ramp up our enforcement of existing laws. In fact, I've asked Eric Holder to do a complete review of how our current enforcement operations are working and make sure we are cutting down on the loopholes that are causing some of these drug-trafficking problems."
Fast and Furious began a few months later. Coincidence?
Its apparent goal was to "prove" Obama's ludicrous claim that "more than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border." That charge fits with the liberals' guns-are-evil, America-is-always-to-blame worldview -- but it's not true. The best guesstimate is that about 17 percent of firearms in Mexico come from El Norte.
Yet every new revelation makes Fast and Furious look more like a sting operation against law-abiding Americans. A clandestine assault on the citizenry by the US government cannot be tolerated in a free society....."
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/ope...z1TkpUNoXo
****
Posted on Sun, Jul. 31, 2011
Back Channels: How ATF delivered assault weapons to drug cartels
Attorney general should explain how misguided sting operation failed to trace guns.
By Kevin Ferris
Inquirer Columnist
"... The plan was to allow straw purchasers to make their deliveries, and then the ATF would trace the flow of the weapons.
But one huge detail was left unaddressed: The ATF made no provisions to actually trace the guns once they crossed the border.
The agency wasn't attaching electronic-tracking devices to the guns, and agents were not pursuing them into Mexico. They were forced to stop and watch the weapons "walk." Maybe Mexican authorities could have picked up the trail - but the ATF never told its counterparts across the border about the operation.
So, essentially, the U.S. government was now arming the very drug cartels that it was supposed to be helping Mexican officials fight.
Agents themselves were appalled. "It goes against everything we've been taught," Special Agent Carlos Canino said last week at the latest in a series of hearings on Fast and Furious by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
More than 2,000 weapons walked. Fewer than 600 have been recovered. And recovered usually means found at the scene of a crime, often a shooting or a homicide, in the United States or Mexico....
At last week's public hearing, one ATF official apologized for mistakes made, and agent William Newell said more "risk assessment" should have been conducted.
That's a start, but not enough. Rep. Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), a member of Issa's committee, agrees.
"You've got the highest-level local and regional people from ATF who are taking a fall for the team," Meehan said after the hearing. "But it's clear that they were operating with authority from above, certainly in collaboration with the prosecutor's office and, one would believe, with approvals right on up to the highest level of the Department of Justice."
Holder needs to be more forthcoming on the decisions that led to the death of Terry and others. He needs to detail how he plans to recover the other 1,400 weapons that "walked" before they end up at a crime scene. Finally, he needs to explain how the administration went from wanting to ban assault weapons to supplying them to drug lords."
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inq...rtels.html
A Justice Dept. 'Fast & Furious' coverup?
"... In a joint April 2009 appearance with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama said: "Our focus is to work with . . . everybody who is involved with this, to coordinate with our counterparts in Mexico, to significantly ramp up our enforcement of existing laws. In fact, I've asked Eric Holder to do a complete review of how our current enforcement operations are working and make sure we are cutting down on the loopholes that are causing some of these drug-trafficking problems."
Fast and Furious began a few months later. Coincidence?
Its apparent goal was to "prove" Obama's ludicrous claim that "more than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border." That charge fits with the liberals' guns-are-evil, America-is-always-to-blame worldview -- but it's not true. The best guesstimate is that about 17 percent of firearms in Mexico come from El Norte.
Yet every new revelation makes Fast and Furious look more like a sting operation against law-abiding Americans. A clandestine assault on the citizenry by the US government cannot be tolerated in a free society....."
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/ope...z1TkpUNoXo
****
Posted on Sun, Jul. 31, 2011
Back Channels: How ATF delivered assault weapons to drug cartels
Attorney general should explain how misguided sting operation failed to trace guns.
By Kevin Ferris
Inquirer Columnist
"... The plan was to allow straw purchasers to make their deliveries, and then the ATF would trace the flow of the weapons.
But one huge detail was left unaddressed: The ATF made no provisions to actually trace the guns once they crossed the border.
The agency wasn't attaching electronic-tracking devices to the guns, and agents were not pursuing them into Mexico. They were forced to stop and watch the weapons "walk." Maybe Mexican authorities could have picked up the trail - but the ATF never told its counterparts across the border about the operation.
So, essentially, the U.S. government was now arming the very drug cartels that it was supposed to be helping Mexican officials fight.
Agents themselves were appalled. "It goes against everything we've been taught," Special Agent Carlos Canino said last week at the latest in a series of hearings on Fast and Furious by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
More than 2,000 weapons walked. Fewer than 600 have been recovered. And recovered usually means found at the scene of a crime, often a shooting or a homicide, in the United States or Mexico....
At last week's public hearing, one ATF official apologized for mistakes made, and agent William Newell said more "risk assessment" should have been conducted.
That's a start, but not enough. Rep. Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), a member of Issa's committee, agrees.
"You've got the highest-level local and regional people from ATF who are taking a fall for the team," Meehan said after the hearing. "But it's clear that they were operating with authority from above, certainly in collaboration with the prosecutor's office and, one would believe, with approvals right on up to the highest level of the Department of Justice."
Holder needs to be more forthcoming on the decisions that led to the death of Terry and others. He needs to detail how he plans to recover the other 1,400 weapons that "walked" before they end up at a crime scene. Finally, he needs to explain how the administration went from wanting to ban assault weapons to supplying them to drug lords."
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inq...rtels.html
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"