Fast and Furious: Sponsored by NRA
TPM has obtained the documents relating toanother Bush-era ATF operation (on top ofOperation Wide Receiver) which deployed the "gun walking" tactic. The development was firstreported by Pete Yost of the Associated Press.
In fact, ATF officials wrote in 2007 that the gun walking tactic had "full approval" of the U.S. Attorney's Office being run by an interim Bush appointee and that the U.S. Embassy in Mexico was "fully on-board."
Under DOJ policy, illicit arms shipments are supposed to be intercepted whenever possible. But the emails show that just like in Operation Fast and Furious, official planned to allow guns to "walk" across the border and into Mexico in an attempt to identify traffickers higher up in the operation (rather than low ranking "straw purchasers," who are difficult to prosecutethanks to the lack of an anti-trafficking gun law).
Strange, I haven't heard any conservatives lambasting Bush for the same strategy....
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Mr. Stirrh8red will be right along to say, "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one.".
ReplyDeleteSo the crux of your "B-b-b-but Bush!" defense is that the Obama administration is at least as incompetent as the Bush administration in this. On that we agree. Now let's drop the partisan shades and let them know that this activity won't be tolerated during this administration or any future administrations. The firing of Eric Holder, who either knew it was going on and should answer for it or was so incompetent that it was going on underneath his nose, would be a good start. Passing it off as acceptable because of previous administrations missteps is wrong and will just lead to further abuses.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I can buy into any theory that puts Obama in the same category as Bush.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting article:
ReplyDeletehttp://reason.com/blog/2011/07/11/theres-still-no-evidence-that:
There's also the word of Acting ATF Director Ken Melson, who told Oversight last week that Holder had no knowledge of Fast and Furious. The entire transcript from that hearing has not been released, but according to the Washington Post, “people familiar with [the hearing] said that [Melson] indicated that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. did not know about [Fast and Furious], that it would be unusual for other Justice Department officials in Washington to know the details and that the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix was overseeing the program.”
If anonymous weren't asleep in his civics class, he would know that Holder, as AG is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government, amongst his other duties. I doubt someone with that extensive a brief is going to know all the goings on of his agency.
Although, I do appreciate Anonymous's opinion of Holder's godlike qualities. While I know him and will vouch that he is a pretty good person: Any attribution of Godlike omniscience is wholly innappropriate to any human being.