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Emails show top Justice Department officials knew of ATF gun program
LA Times ^ | October 3, 2011 | Richard A. Serrano

Posted on 10/04/2011 3:41:53 PM PDT by neverdem

Memos from 2010 show some in senior positions were aware of tactics used in a surveillance operation in which firearms were allowed into Mexico in a failed effort to catch drug cartel leaders.

Senior Justice Department officials were aware that ATF agents allowed firearms to be "walked" into Mexico, according to a series of emails last year in which they discussed two undercover operations on the Southwest border, including the failed Fast and Furious program.

In the emails that the department turned over to congressional investigators, Justice Department officials last October discussed both the Fast and Furious gun-trafficking surveillance operation in Phoenix and a separate investigation from 2006 and 2007 called Operation Wide Receiver. In Wide Receiver, which took place in Tucson, firearms also were acquired by illegal straw purchasers and lost in Mexico, the emails say.

The term "gun walking" is central to the failure of Fast and Furious. Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them. But they lost track of more than 2,000 weapons, and the Mexican government says some of them have turned up at about 170 crime scenes there. Two were recovered at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent's slaying in Arizona in December.

Justice Department officials have said repeatedly that they knew nothing of Fast and Furious tactics until ATF whistle-blowers went public this year with allegations that guns were being illegally purchased with the ATF's knowledge.

Justice Department officials, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing investigations into Fast and Furious, said that although senior department officials knew that guns were "walked" in the Wide Receiver investigation...

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Mexico; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banglist; fastandfurious; gunrunner; gunwalker; thosepeople

1 posted on 10/04/2011 3:42:03 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

This whole administration is rotten to the core. It only remains to be seen if Obama is voted out or impeached. The leftist MSM hysterics will be great entertainment as they deny, deny, deny, and are finally dragged, kicking and screaming, to admit the truth about their “savior”.


2 posted on 10/04/2011 3:54:35 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: neverdem

I was shocked to see the LA Slimes covering this.

Then I read to the end and saw they are bringing “It’s Bush’s Fault” Wide Receiver into it.

So the LA Slimes isn’t really covering it. The LA Slimes is trying to provide cover for their messiah obastard...


3 posted on 10/04/2011 3:59:04 PM PDT by piytar (The Obama Depression. Say it early, say it often. Why? Because it's TRUE.)
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To: ozzymandus

It is surprising (well, shocking, really) that someone in the US government:

a. actually thought that this was a good idea

b. actually thought that the Mexicans wouldn’t be upset about it.

I am pretty certain that countries have declared war over a lot less.


4 posted on 10/04/2011 4:28:15 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: piytar
I was shocked to see the LA Slimes covering this.

Then I read to the end and saw they are bringing “It’s Bush’s Fault” Wide Receiver into it.

So the LA Slimes isn’t really covering it. The LA Slimes is trying to provide cover for their messiah obastard...

That's not so. The author, Richard A. Serrano, has been covering this story, Gun Walker in all its variant names, almost daily for months, maybe since March. That's long before anyone heard of Wide Receiver. It's been known for a while that Gunrunner started under the Bush administration.

5 posted on 10/04/2011 4:34:20 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: piytar

Every man woman and most children can figure out Obama, not only Holder, was in on the deal from the start and briefed daily or so. Nixon was impeached for much less and the secret bombings were during war. What are these libs excuses? Oh,they are LIBS.


6 posted on 10/04/2011 4:36:35 PM PDT by Lumper20
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Next on MSNBC, anonomous sources say republican presidential candidates had a secret dinner where roast puppies and kittens where served.


7 posted on 10/04/2011 5:51:07 PM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ...In the US the number is 54%)
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Next on MSNBC, anonymous sources say republican presidential candidates had a secret dinner where roast puppies and kittens were served.


8 posted on 10/04/2011 5:51:57 PM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ...In the US the number is 54%)
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To: piytar

Anderso Cooper tried to sandbag Darrel Issa with a “Didn’t Bush do it?” red herring tonight. they just can’t stop trying to blame all Obama’s crimes on Bush.


9 posted on 10/04/2011 10:03:58 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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