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Make sure you watch this extended version of the above video. Someone finally comes out and says it... Almost. Sorta...
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Congressman raises stakes in 'Fast and Furious' probe, targeting Eric Holder
Rep. Lamar Smith (R) of Texas wants a special counsel to investigate whether Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress the truth about Operation Fast and Furious, a now-discredited gun-tracking program aimed at Mexico's drug lords.by Patrik Jonsson
Claiming Mr. Holder may have "misled" Congress about his knowledge of the gun-interdiction operation, Rep. Lamar Smith (R) of Texas on Tuesday asked President Obama to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether the attorney general told the truth in testimony to Congress earlier this year. The White House so far has not responded.
The Justice Department's Inspector General is already investigating Operation Fast and Furious, as is the House Judiciary Committee under Representative Smith. In addition, Rep. Darrell Issa (R) of California, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R) of Iowa are jointly pursuing a probe. A special counsel is needed, Smith said in a letter to Mr. Obama, because the Justice Department can't effectively investigate its own boss.
IN PICTURES: Mexico's drug war
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that a similar interdiction effort, called Operation Wide Receiver, occurred under President George W. Bush as early as 2006. Both programs led to indictments. Government officials have explained that the programs were born out of frustration that BATFE was prosecuting small-time arms dealers instead of hunting bigger players in the Mexican cartels.
But the programs have had no shortage of critics. National Rifle Association president Wayne LaPierre has even suggested that Operation Fast and Furious was ultimately intended to foment violence in order to build support in theUnited States for more gun control. Some gun law experts say the program may have broken federal gun-trafficking laws.
"It's a crime to obstruct Congress, and of course it's a crime to participate in international gun smuggling," Dave Kopel, a gun control expert at the conservative Independence Institute in Golden, Colo., said recently on an Independence Institute webcast. "I don't know what part of federal law allows federal officials to commit the crime of international gun trafficking." He also said, "There's a growing possibility that … there's perjury."
Revelations that the FBI and DEA were involved have raised questions about the nature of America's covert operations south of the border, and whether they're hurting or helping US security.
One problem with Operation Fast and Furious was that effective mechanism for tracing guns were never instituted. In at least two cases, smugglers who had been stopped and searched were allowed to proceed with their shipments. More than 2,000 guns ultimately "walked," meaning US agents lost track of them, and many traveled across the border. As a result, the Mexican government, which was mostly out of the loop, has called for the extradition and prosecution of US officials who signed off on the program.
The operation began in late 2009 as the US was feeling pressure from Mexico to stop the flow of arms coming from America. Justice Department officials say the details were worked out at the local BATFE level, in Phoenix, with the help of US attorney's offices. Mr. Obama said earlier this year he didn't know about the program until after Agent Terry's death Dec. 14. Two guns that US agents had lost track of were found at the crime scene.
Though memos to Holder that reference Operation Fast and Furious date back to July 2010, Holder's May testimony about when he learned of it was "consistent and truthful," Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler told news outlets Tuesday. Those references, she said, were too brief to convey much about the operation.
“As the documents provided to Congress show, not a single one of these reports referenced the controversial tactics that allowed guns to cross the border," Ms. Schmaler told the Huffington Post. "None of the handful of entries in 2010 regarding Fast and Furious suggested there was anything amiss with that investigation requiring leadership to take corrective action or commit to memory this particular operation prior to the disturbing claims raised by ATF agents in the early part of 2011."
At Congress, investigators were unimpressed by that explanation. Holder is "either incompetent or he’s misleading Congress,” Becca Watkins, press secretary for the House Oversight Committee, told Jake Tapper of ABC News.
Nor did they care that the earlier Operation Wide Receiver predated Holder's tenure. It only raised more questions about America's tactics on the border, they said.
“[W]e will get to the bottom of whether or not this practice in a smaller way may have begun on the Bush watch," Representative Issa told CNN on Tuesday. "We’re not putting it past any administration and giving anyone a pass. The American people and the people of Mexico expect us to have a zero tolerance for letting drugs come into our country or weapons go into Mexico."
The request for a special counsel, however, is not embraced by all in Congress looking into Operation Fast and Furious. Issa and Senator Grassley have resisted calling for a special prosecutor until their own investigation is finished. A special prosecutor would conduct an investigation out of the public light, which would hamper the kind of drip-drip revelations that some conservatives are hoping to use as campaign cannon fodder against Obama in next year's election.
"We don't want a Special Prosecutor, operating in secret," writes blogger James Wiles at the conservative American Thinker site. "We want a media firestorm. Let it bleed, I say."
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ATF officials reassigned in latest Fast and Furious fallout
by Richard A. Serrano
William J. Hoover, the No. 2 man at ATF, will become special agent-in-charge of the agency's Washington field office, while Mark Chait, who ran all of the field investigations around the country, is being reassigned as head of the Baltimore field office.
Thomas Brandon, who was sent to Phoenix to run the field office there and help it recover from the repercussions of Fast and Furious, will be taking Hoover's spot as deputy director.
The new assignments, along with other job changes, were announced today by Todd Jones, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis who was named acting head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this year. He succeeded ATF chief Kenneth Melson, who was reassigned to a lower-level position in the Justice Department.
Hoover had broad supervision over Fast and Furious, was given routine updates on the "gun walking" operation, and grew concerned over the number of firearms getting intoMexico without any U.S. indictments on this side of the border.
He tried to get it shut down six months after it began in the fall of 2009. But he failed, and the program continued until January of this year. During that time, a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed in Arizona and two Fast and Furious weapons were recovered at the scene.
Under the program, the ATF allowed the illegal purchase of countless weapons and expected agents to track them to Mexican drug cartels.
Instead, more than 2,000 were lost and many turned up in at least 170 violent crime scenes in Mexico.
The furor has prompted a congressional investigation and a review by the Justice Department's inspector general's office.
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