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Posted on 06/21/2012 1:32:25 PM PDT by Kaslin
Spokeskid. Good one.
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Fast and Furious and Wide Recveiver were completely different missions with completely different objectives.
“Wide Receiver” was to trace guns back to the higher-ups in the Mexican criminal organizations. The guns were outfitted with RFID devices and the goal was to track the guns as they were taken across the border. Once in the hands of the bad guys, the RFID would allow the Mexican authorities to find the bad guys and arrest them.
The traffickers got wise to the fact that the monitoring was to be done by aircraft, and wise to the fact that they could only remain aloft for about four hours before refueling. So, the traffickers would drive in circles for four hours, then once the aerial surveillance was out of gas, the traffickers would high-tail it for the border, leaving the ATF with no clue as to where the guns went. Once in Mexico, the batteries in the RFID would die within a few days, and if they weren’t found in that window of time, there would be no way of finding them unless they showed up at a crime scene.
That’s a textbook definition of a “botched operation”, and is why it was shut down in 2007. Inexcusable, yes, and heads should roll for it. But, the intent of “Wide Receiver” was never to arm Mexican cartels. That’s why they called it “Wide Receiver”...the intent all along was to get the guns back, along with arresting the criminals into whose hands the guns had found their way.
With Fast and Furious, the Obama administration revived the idea of letting guns go across the border. Except this time, with no RFID, no aerial surveillance. No plan to arrest ANYONE. Simply allow the guns to walk into Mexico, wait for them to be used in a crime, then lament about how lax U.S. firearms laws were causing havoc in Mexico. Then, pass some new gun control legislation. In effect, the Obama administration allowed hundreds to be killed in order to advance a political agenda.
It was NOT a botched operation. It did EXACTLY what they intended it to do. That’s why there were no whistleblowers for Wide Receiver but they began to surface for Fast and Furious.
Per Wikipedia:
“The tactic of letting guns walk, rather than interdicting them and arresting the buyers, led to controversy within the ATF. As the case continued, several members of Group VII, including John Dodson and Olindo Casa, became increasingly upset at the tactic of allowing guns to walk. Their standard Project Gunrunner training was to follow the straw purchasers to the hand-off to the cartel buyers, then arrest both parties and seize the guns. They watched guns being bought illegally and stashed on a daily basis, while their supervisors, including David Voth and Hope MacAllister, prevented the agents from intervening.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal
In fact, the Feds worked with gun retailers to ENSURE the laws weren’t followed so that guns would end up in the wrong hands, even going so far as running interference between local law enforcement and the straw buyers to ensure that the guns made it across the border.
The irony of it all is, the Obama DOJ began indictments for Wide Receiver in September 2009, a mere two months before starting up Fast and Furious to walk guns across the border with no intent of ever making arrests or tracking the firearms!
http://pjmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-gunning-down-the-bush-did-it-too-lie/
Nothing but the worst.
Did you see this?
Pitiful, but expected.
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