Posted on 07/20/2011 4:38:06 AM PDT by marktwain
(Reuters) - An Arizona gun dealer balked at continuing to sell weapons in a sting operation meant to track arms flowing to drug cartels in Mexico as early as December 2009, Republican lawmakers said on Monday.
Two guns sold in the operation, dubbed "Fast and Furious", ended up almost exactly a year later at the crime scene where a U.S. Border Patrol agent died in a shootout with illegal immigrants trying to cross into the United States.
The sting operation is becoming a major headache for the Justice Department, which oversees the ATF and prosecutors in Arizona who ran the sting that was aimed at tracking guns to Mexican cartel leaders in hopes of nabbing them.
Republican lawmakers have accused the Justice Department of withholding for months requested documents and interviews with key officials about the program, a charge officials denied.
Representative Darrell Issa, head of the House Oversight Committee, and Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, renewed their demand for documents related to December 17, 2009 meeting with a gun dealer.
They said they have evidence that the dealer was worried about a spike in sales to those reselling the guns to the cartels: a handful of buyers bought 212 guns in a few days.
"According to witnesses, that meeting was for the purpose of convincing the gun dealer to continue selling to the suspects and continue providing information to the ATF despite misgivings caused by the high volume of purchases," Issa and Grassley said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Gunwalker ping.
Bump.
...a deal will be made in a back room and all will pass.....the American people will be told all has been taken care of, and all involved were “cleared”, let’s move forward from this “distraction”
Justice is just a word used to control the people.
ping
“The sting operation is becoming a major headache for the Justice Department, which oversees the ATF and prosecutors in Arizona who ran the sting that was aimed at tracking guns to Mexican cartel leaders in hopes of nabbing them.”
We’re talking about “nabbing” people who are already guilty of multiple crimes. How would giving them guns, even if you do know the source of the guns, help “nab” people who daily commit murder and sell drugs? I’m looking for the 25 words or less sales pitch the guy who came up with Gun Walker used to get management to buy into it. I see no mechanism where this gun running scheme would help bring down the narcos. Also, the cost; 10-25 million dollars. You’d think that for that kind of money we’d be seeing a huge string of arrests. Have there been any arrests where the primary evidence was supplied by the Gun Walker program?
I suspect that this was a scheme to prove that America was the source of the guns and that therefore, to be good neighbors with Mexico, Americans would have to give up their guns.
Now that roy ters has stuck its toes in the water, maybe the dam has finally been breeched. Time for the flood.
“I suspect that this was a scheme to prove that America was the source of the guns and that therefore, to be good neighbors with Mexico, Americans would have to give up their guns.”
And to arm marxist revolutionaries south of the border to overthrow democratic governments.
I totally agree. The only thing that may change this is the fact that Mexico wants action.
Unfortunately, this could mean only another payoff.
The only thing that may change this is the fact that Mexico wants action.
that was a forgone conclusion.
Just how was this Obamanista operation "...aimed at tracking guns to Mexican cartel leaders in hopes of nabbing them" (as Reuters claims) when it provided no U.S. tracking of the weapon beyond the border and did not inform Mexico of the operation or guns entering their country?
How did it "aim at" anything but proving the guns came from the US, were transported into Mexico and were later recovered at crime scenes in Mexico? Or the only "evidence" Obamanistas needed to attack Americans' 2nd Amendment rights and to redefine the Border Problem from being about drugs, criminals & illegals from Mexico, to being about guns from the US!
How could Reuters claim "...Melson accused the Justice Department of missteps..." when his testimony actually spoke of cover-ups, lying to Congress, using federal funds and informants to buy and smuggle these weapons...? How unless they intentionally aimed to misinform?
Yeah really.
To add to what you highlighted, this stood out for me when I read the OP.
Republican lawmakers have accused the Justice Department of withholding for months requested documents and interviews with key officials about the program, a charge officials denied.
The cheap whore reporter frames it as if there's two sides of the issue - Issa and Co. have "accused" "officials" of a "charge" that said officials have "denied."
It's an objective FACT of life (not an accusation) that Holder (not "officials") have outright refused to produce the requested documents. That the documents haven't been produced can't be "denied" any more than one can deny the stars in the sky.
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I think the weapons were going to Hezbollah that's right across the border and the intent was to use the weapons to attack American citizens.
I believe this is Reuters first crack at Gun Walker.
bump to the top
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