Emails Show How 'Fast and Furious' Ambush News Unfolded At Justice Dept.

Georgia Public Broadcasting ^ | January 27, 2012 8:59pm (EST) | Carrie Johnson

[Texas Fossil]

For the first time, the Justice Department has made public a series of sensitive messages that passed to the highest levels of the agency within hours of an ambush that killed a U.S. border patrol agent along the Southwest border in December 2010, igniting a national scandal over a gun trafficking investigation gone wrong.

Justice officials sent the documents to Congress late Friday evening, only a few days before Attorney General Eric Holder is set to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. "Tragic," responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson. "I've alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General..."

Only a few minutes later, Wilkinson emailed again, saying, "Please provide any additional details as they become available to you."

Burke then delivered another piece of bad news: "The guns found in the desert near the murder [sic] ... officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store."

[Marine_Uncle]

Representative Issa knows what must be done at this point.

[Upstate NY Guy]

“IF” we had a responsible media that cared about this country ..... many resignations and trials would follow?

You are exactly right Tammy8. And it looks like we are going to have to do the work the media refuses to do. I am spending quite a bit of time linking and posting these F&F discoveries to various political and local news websites. If we can all do a little of that every week, in our own localities, then maybe when can raise awareness and build momentum for the charges to be filled.