Operation Fast and Furious: Report Shows that ATF 'Stonewalled' Agents on Gun "Walking" Scandal Probe

To be honest I haven't posted much on "Operation Fast & Furious".  I posted something when the whistleblower  broke the story wide open but other than that I've been watching from the sidelines as this whole fiasco has become unveiled and as revelations from the investigation being conducted by Rep. Issa have come to light.  This whole operation was nonsensical.  What kind of rejects would jeopardize lives both here in America and in Mexico with a policy where you don't follow the guns but let them "walk"?  I guess having an agenda to push - gun control - was more important to this administration than caring about peoples' lives.  I feel so sorry for Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's family.  My continued thoughts and prayers go out to his family. They deserve answers, they deserve to know the truth.  The persons who authorized this operation need to be held accountable for their actions. Now the report shows that the ATF has 'stonewalled' agents on this gun "walking" scandal probe.  That's not too surprising since this administration either lies, misinforms or covers up anything that doesn't favor this administration's policies.

I found this article via Roger Hedgecock.

Washington (CNN) -- U.S. officials kept their Mexican counterparts in the dark about a widely criticized gun-trafficking probe even as rising numbers of weapons reached the hands of Mexico's drug cartels, a congressional committee reported Tuesday.

The Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also held back key details about "Operation Fast and Furious" from agents based in Mexico City when they raised alarms, according to the report.

"Not only were they stonewalled by their colleagues, they were actively thwarted in their attempts to find out what was happening," the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee concluded.

"Fast and Furious" has been the subject of congressional investigations since December, when two weapons traced to the operation were found at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent's killing in Arizona. More than 2,000 guns may have reached the hands of the cartels as a result of the probe, in which ATF agents allowed weapons bought in the United States to "walk" into Mexico.

"ATF senior leadership allegedly feared that any such disclosure would compromise their investigation," states the report, written by the joint staff of the committee. "Instead, ATF and DOJ leaderships' reluctance to share information may have only prolonged the flow of weapons from this straw purchasing ring into Mexico."

Carlos Canino, the ATF's acting attache in Mexico City, informed the country's attorney general of the probe only after learning that guns monitored by the investigation were involved in the killing of the brother of a top prosecutor in Mexico's Chihuahua state. Canino said he disclosed the operation despite the absence of clear direction from Washington "because I did not want her to find out through media reports where these guns had come from."

"If I hadn't told the attorney general this, and this had come out in the news media, I would never be able to work with her ever again, and we would be done in Mexico," the report quotes Canino. "We just might as well pack up the office and go home."

Even then, ATF officials in Mexico City did not learn the full extent of the "Fast and Furious" probe until after it was shut down, following the December killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

The operation began in late 2009 and concluded in January. Investigators say the ATF allowed more than 2,000 weapons to be purchased illegally and transported in to Mexico, where heavily armed drug gangs have been battling Mexican authorities for control of the streets for several years.

CONTINUED 

Huge Scandal: ATF is "Letting Guns Walk" into Hands of Mexican Cartels

From CBS News:  

WASHINGTON - Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.

He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?

"Yes ma'am," Dodson told CBS News. "The agency was."

An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.

Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.

Dodson's bosses say that never happened. Now, he's risking his job to go public.

"I'm boots on the ground in Phoenix, telling you we've been doing it every day since I've been here," he said. "Here I am. Tell me I didn't do the things that I did. Tell me you didn't order me to do the things I did. Tell me it didn't happen. Now you have a name on it. You have a face to put with it. Here I am. Someone now, tell me it didn't happen."

Agent Dodson and other sources say the gun walking strategy was approved all the way up to the Justice Department. The idea was to see where the guns ended up, build a big case and take down a cartel. And it was all kept secret from Mexico.

ATF named the case "Fast and Furious."

Surveillance video obtained by CBS News shows suspected drug cartel suppliers carrying boxes of weapons to their cars at a Phoenix gun shop. The long boxes shown in the video being loaded in were AK-47-type assault rifles.

So it turns out ATF not only allowed it - they videotaped it.

Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets... the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.

One e-mail noted, "958 killed in March 2010 ... most violent month since 2005." The same e-mail notes: "Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone," including "numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles."

Dodson feels that ATF was partly to blame for the escalating violence in Mexico and on the border. "I even asked them if they could see the correlation between the two," he said. "The more our guys buy, the more violence we're having down there."

Senior agents including Dodson told CBS News they confronted their supervisors over and over.

Their answer, according to Dodson, was, "If you're going to make an omelette, you've got to break some eggs."

What???? This is outrageous!! ATF agents are being ordered to just sit back, watch and allow assault weapons to get in the hands of the drug cartels, allowing the drug cartels to walk away with those guns in a strategy which was supposed to culminate with taking down a major cartel. The ATF's job was to stop gun trafficking across the border but was ordered to simply watch so they could see where the cartels would end up, whether these guns crossed the border into Mexico or ended up back into the U.S.  These orders were traced all the way up the line to the Justice Department approving this policy of "letting guns walk".  These same guns are killing our own people.  Brian Terry, a border patrol agent was gunned down in December.  The two guns which were found next to him were allowed to "walk".  This is unbelievable!   An ATF agent named John Dodson has gone public with this information and is blowing this scandal wide open. So, the ATF - essentially the U.S. government - is partially responsible for the escalating violence in Mexico.  Our government is responsible for innocent lives being lost.  This program clearly needs to be investigated by Congress.  The "letting guns walk" program has had a devastating impact on both Mexico and our country so this needs to be stopped.

For some reason the embed code on the CBS video would only show half of the picture on the video so here are the links to the videos:

Here is a link to the interview with ATF agent Dodson


Here is the the link to the investigative report on the ATF