‘Guns across the Border’ tells inside story of Operation Wide Receiver CI

Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 26 April, 2013 | David Codrea

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“Operation Wide Receiver,” a precursor to “Operation Fast and Furious” wherein U.S. guns were bought by straw purchasers and “walked” under the noses of ATF investigators into Mexico, has been the subject of numerous Gun Rights Examiner reports. The central figure in those reports was Mike Detty, a gun writer, a firearms dealer, and the confidential informant who literally risked his life over the course of years to do what he believed was right, only to find the obvious criminals weren’t the only ones he couldn’t trust.

Detty has written about his role in a book that’s so new it doesn’t even officially release until next Wednesday. “Guns across the Border: How and Why the U.S. Government Smuggled Guns into Mexico” tells his story in an easy to read narrative that’s nonetheless engaging from the outset, and that held me throughout.

There were major differences between the operations, the most significant being that, unlike in Fast and Furious, information about Wide Receiver was contained, and there is no evidence there was ever any awareness in Washington, let alone a cover-up. But to validate that, as Gun Rights Examiner advised readers in October, 2011:

[T]his correspondent has been communicating with [Detty] since March of this year, introducing him to investigators for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in August. This has not been reported on previously due to guarding Detty’s interests, and the same commitment not to exploit information shared in confidence that whistleblowing ATF agents have learned to trust.

Because of the extensive reporting done here, I was very pleased to learn from Mike that he was writing this book, more pleased to be included in a pre-publication draft review, and flat-out honored to be asked to write the Introduction,

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This sounds like a worthwhile read to see what happened in the system from an inside view of Wide Receiver.

[AuntB]

BTT