Monday, March 14, 2011

ATF PUT GUNS IN THE HANDS OF MEXICAN CRIMINALS - THE JOKE OF OBAMA'S HOMELANDS SECURITY AGAINST LA RAZA TERRORISM

One Indictment Issued in ATF Operation That Allegedly Put Guns In the Hands of Mexican Criminals
Monday, March 14, 2011

By Edwin Mora



Attorney General Eric Holder. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(CNSNews.com) – One indictment has been issued in connection with the gun-tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which allegedly allowed thousands of guns to be funneled to Mexican criminals.

With regard to the “Fast and Furious” operation, “there’s been one indictment at this time,” Scot Thomasson, the ATF's public affairs chief in Washington, D.C., told CNSNews.com.

“We don’t speak to open investigations, especially investigations that are under indictment,” said Thomasson. “I can tell you that an indictment was announced on January 25 against 20 defendants.”

A Mar. 9 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder signed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) and 13 other members of that panel states, “Internal ATF documents show that ATF’s supervisors became increasingly concerned about the pace of the investigations” in connection with the “Fast and Furious” operation.

“There seems to have been little effective coordination between ATF and the [Justice] Department as a whole [in carrying out the operation],” states the letter. “While guns continued to cross the border, the Department was apparently slow to approve wiretaps and to bring prosecutions.”

“It was only this January, 15 months after ATF initiated the program and a month after [Customs and Border Protection] agent [Brian] Terry’s murder, that the [Justice] Department finally issued its first indictment on evidence from the program,” said the letter.

The ATF’s “Fast and Furious” program is based out of Phoenix, Ariz., and is part of the larger “Project Gunrunner.” The latter is being executed in an effort to stem the illegal flow of guns from the United States into Mexico.

GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee who sent the letter to Holder, who leads the Justice Department, demanded answers by March 18 to whistleblower allegations that the “Fast and Furious” operation “allowed straw buyers for criminal organizations to purchase thousands of guns so that ATF could track them across the border.”

On Thursday, Mar. 10, Holder told the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee that he has "made it clear to people in the [Justice] Department that letting guns 'walk,' I guess that's the term people use, is not something that is acceptable. We cannot have a situation where guns are allowed to walk, and I've made that clear to the U.S. attorney, as well as the agents in charge of various ATF offices."

Holder’s comments were in response to a request by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) for him to comment on “Project Gunrunner.”

According to the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), which first reported the whistleblower allegations on Mar. 3, the “Fast and Furious” operation started in October 2009.

The CPI revealed that about 1,998 firearms are involved in the investigation, including 797 that “were eventually recovered as a result of criminal activity on both sides of the border — including 195 from inside Mexico — after they were used in crimes, collected during arrests, or interdicted through other law enforcement operations.”



Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

What is “worse,” according to the letter by House GOP members, is that “two guns from the [Fast and Furious] program were found at the murder scene of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry in December.”

“We find it ironic that the government allowed guns to be trafficked into Mexico as part of a program designed to stop guns from being trafficked into Mexico,” stated the letter. “We are also troubled that ATF engaged in activities that may have facilitated the transfer of guns to violent drug cartels while simultaneously attempting to restrict lawful firearms sales by border-area firearms dealers.”

According to CPI, the ATF’s “Feast and Furious” program “was met by strong objections from some front-line agents who feared they were allowing weapons like AK-47s to ‘walk’ into the hands of drug lords and gun runners, internal agency memos show.”

Furthermore, the GOP letter noted that the ATF carried out the operation despite the Justice Department Inspector General criticizing the agency’s ability to trace guns.

Following the CPI report about the controversial ATF operation, Attorney General Holder directed his department’s inspector general to look into U.S. efforts to go after gun traffickers along the southwest border.

The six questions the Republican committee members want the Justice Department to answer, as stated in the Mar. 9 letter, are as follows:

1. How many weapons have been allowed to pass to Mexico under the program knows as “Fast and Furious? Is the program still active?

2. Who at ATF Headquarters approved the program?

3. Who in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona approved the program? On what authority did the Office approve the program?

4. Did ATF or the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix coordinate the “Fast and Furious” program with Department? Did the Department approve the strategy?

5. What changes or improvements has ATF made to its eTrace [electronic tracing] program and its ability to use intelligence to target gun trafficking organizations in general?

6. Does ATF view the “Fast and Furious” program as a success?



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