There was no public cover story. It was not to have gone public in the way it did. This would not have gone public at all, if Brian Terry had not been killed and two (perhaps a third) weapons at the site been linked to F&F.
That was the point at which the wheels came off the wagon. It has been a slow process of chipping away at the stone wall ever since.
I can’t see lower level ATF&E taking the blame for this. Nor can I see it really having originated at lower levels. Field agents would not have the gonads to initiate something like F&F on their own. How would you explain this to your supervisor after the fact?
In my opinion, this goes to Holder at least, perhaps all the way to the top. If they get four more years to cover their tracks, the truth will never see the light of day on this one.
Given the facts that the operation was actually run out of the office of the U.S. Attorney (Dennis Burke) and involved the cooperation of the FBI and DEA, you can safely assume that somebody higher up in the DOJ authorized it.
And given that both the State Department and Homeland Security were involved, as well, strongly suggests the authority came from even further up the ladder.