a.t.f. and their gun-crimes

ATF Let Hundreds of U.S. Weapons Fall into Hands of Suspected Mexican Gunrunners

Whistleblower Says Agents Strongly Objected to Risky Strategy

By John Solomon and David Heath and Gordon Witkin |

March 03, 2011

Hoping to score a major prosecution of Mexican drug lords, federal prosecutors and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives permitted hundreds of guns to be purchased and retained by suspected straw buyers with the expectation they might cross the border and even be used in crimes while the case was being built, according to documents and interviews.

ATF Announces Immediate Review of Gun-Running Operation

Click here to read documents and interviews related to the investigation. Redactions were made by the Senate Judiciary Committee to protect the identities of confidential informants, undercover agents and cooperating gun stores.

The decision — part of a Phoenix-based operation code named “Fast and Furious”— was met by strong objections from some front-line agents who feared they were allowing weapons like AK-47s to “walk” into the hands of drug lords and gun runners, internal agency memos show. Indeed, scores of the weapons came back quickly traced to criminal activity.

One of those front-line agents who objected, John Dodson, 39, told the Center for Public Integrity that these guns “are going to be turning up in crimes on both sides of the border for decades.” Dodson said in an interview that “with the number of guns we let walk, we’ll never know how many people were killed, raped, robbed … there is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are gone.”

Dodson has taken his misgivings to the Senate Judiciary Committee as a whistleblower after his concerns were dismissed by his supervisors and initially ignored by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Sen. Charles Grassley, the panel’s top Republican — who is spearheading a probe of ATF’s actions – said “it’s time to step back” and examine the policy. Two of the guns involved in the sting operation turned up at the scene of a fatal shooting of a U.S. agent.

The Justice Department said today that Attorney General Eric Holder has asked the department’s acting inspector general to evaluate the concerns about ATF’s investigative tactics.

A CHANGE IN STRATEGY
Dodson told the Center he and several of his colleagues wanted to intercept some of the weapons but their objections were repeatedly overruled by ATF supervisors. The supervisors instructed them to simply record the straw purchases in a database, flag them as “suspect,” and monitor the suspected gun runners until evidence piled up about their connections to Mexican drug lords.
continued..........

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry...

March 3, 2011

Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
ATF agent says "Fast and Furious" program let guns "walk" into hands of Mexican drug cartels with aim of tracking and breaking a big case

Agent: ATF partly to blame for Mexico violence
An agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms claims the agency has a policy that allows guns to get in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. Sharyl Attkisson reports.
STORIES

U.S. Agencies Faulted In Mexico Gunrunning
Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.
He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?

"Yes ma'am," Dodson told CBS News. "The agency was."

An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.

Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.
continued..........

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/03/eve...

War on Drugs? No! Border War, on the 2nd Amendment

JT Coyoté
Infowars.com
March 4, 2011

In August of 2010 I published an article on these pages titled “Obama gains foreign support against 2nd Amendment.”
The article was spawned as a result of an April 2009 meeting between Mexican President Felipe Calderon and newly inaugurated U.S. President Barack H. Obama. This summit centered on Mexican fears that illegal firearms may be entering Mexico across our common border.

Revelations the last few weeks by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms whistle-blower John Dodson, show proof that not only did illegal firearms begin entering Mexico, but for the last 15 months with the assistance of the BATFE, at least 2000 semi-auto rifles and pistols from 5.56mm to 50 caliber have found there way into the hands of Mexican drug and street gangs — all with the full sanctioning of the U.S. Justice Department. This is detailed in a February 23, 2011 article titled “Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF” and then blown wide open in the March 3, 2011 follow-up,“Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico”, both written by CBS Journalist, Sharyl Attkisson.

Now that we have the background on this little Justice Department black operation called “Fast and Furious”— an operation that took place apparently without the knowledge or consent of the Mexican government — oooh, that’s gonna leave a mark, eh Hillary?
Let’s do a little “dot connecting”– let’s see if we can flesh out this operation that over the last 15 months or so has been anything but fast and furious.

Initially we learn that the program is to target individuals and groups who purchase firearms, so-called straw buyers, and then smuggle the weapons across the Mexican border. If that be the case, why were they not stopped and confiscated when they reached the border. After all the BATFE was videotaping these straw purchases. And the half dozen or so gun shops that supplied the guns were in on the sting. Well, maybe stopping straw purchases wasn’t the real reason after all. There has to be another reason why the BATFE and the Justice Department allowed these guns to make there way deep into Mexico.

There has to be a logical reason the Feds allowed “Fast and Furious” to become “Slow and Deadly” since those weapons were used to murder literally thousands of people in the bloodiest 15 months in modern Mexican history. Does this make it easier for the Drug Enforcement Agency and the border Patrol to interdict Mexican gang and drug cartel members as they cross the border? No, it does not. In December 2010 while attempting to stop cartel members crossing the border, a shoot-out erupted in which the border agent Brian Terry was killed. Two of the weapons found were from the straw purchases. this is when agent John Dodson decided to blow the whistle.

Ah, that’s it… it’s all coming together now. The only purpose for allowing thousands of American firearms to be used in the killing of thousands of Mexicans, is to get the Mexican people on board with Obama, Biden, Clinton, and others, fighting to destroy the 2nd Amendment — in a REAL War across the Mexican border.

Thank you for your courage John Dodson, you sir, are an American Hero!

J.T. Coyoté is an antique firearms expert, gunsmith, and guest columnist for the Summit Daily News

http://www.infowars.com/war-on-drugs-no-borde...

Criminal treason at the BATF

Helping arm Mexican gangsters

From the folks who brought you Waco

John Doddson: There are a few decent, courageous men in law enforcement. Sadly too few and too far between.

Why would the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms allow US weapons to be illegally shipped to Mexico?

It's pretty simple.

They want to generate more reasons to make it difficult to impossible for Americans to own weapons.(See the video below that documents that extensive program of government lying on this point.)

Wake up. Defend the 2nd Amendment while you still can.

More background on this story from our partner channel 2nsAmendmentTV.com

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1050.html

Senator Burr Spearheads Letter to BATFE, OMB
WRITTEN BY JOHN VELLECO
THURSDAY, 03 MARCH 2011 18:01
Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) sent a letter—signed by sixteen additional Senators—to the Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) opposing an enormous power grab by bureaucrats in the Obama administration.

The BATFE filed an “information collection request” with OMB to require federally licensed firearms dealers in the four states bordering Mexico (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas) to report to the agency sales of two or more semi-automatic rifles to an individual within five business days if the firearms are larger than .22 caliber and can accept a detachable magazine.

BATFE sought approval by January 5, 2011, but that request has been delayed. Nevertheless, the agency is attempting to take this action without the specific authority to do so, and in fact, is acting contrary to federal law which prohibits the collection of such data.

Furthermore, BATFE—which has a long history of violating gun owners’ rights—is also is bypassing the people’s elected officials in Congress.

The Obama administration and anti-gunners in Congress have for several years been blaming U.S. gun owners and firearms dealers for the violence on the Mexico border. But America’s Constitution and the Second Amendment are not the cause of Mexico’s violence.

Click here to read comments submitted by GOA, here to read the BATFE’s proposed rule, and here to read the letter drafted by Sen. Burr.

GOA would like to thank Sen. Burr and the following Senators for signing on to the letter (names appear in the order listed in the letter):



John Cornyn (TX)

Tom Coburn (OK)

Jim DeMint (SC)

Jeff Sessions (AL)

Mike Enzi (WY)

John Thune (SD)

David Vitter (LA)

Mike Crapo (ID)

John Barrasso (WY)

John Ensign (NV)

John Boozman (AR)

Rand Paul (KY)

Jim Inhofe (OK)

James Risch (ID)

Saxby Chambliss (GA)

Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)

http://gunowners.org/senator-burr-spearheads-...

From my e-mail.........

NRA-ILA ALERTS
Dear **********
The U.S. Senate may soon begin confirmation hearings on one of the most dangerous political appointees of Barack Obama's presidency -- and NRA-ILA needs YOUR HELP to defeat this nomination!
President Obama has tapped Andrew Traver, a committed ringleader in the gun-ban movement, to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Now, the U.S. Senate must decide whether to allow Traver to take over this crucial government post.
As a committed Second Amendment freedom fighter, you're well aware that this agency has an enormous and direct impact on you and other gun owners nationwide. And if Andrew Traver is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, it will turn back the clock all the way to the Clinton days when the full force of BATFE's enormous powers were leveled against gun stores and gun owners on an almost daily basis.
That's why I'm asking you to visit www.StopTraver.org today.
Through this special website, you can send messages directly to your U.S. Senators and make your voice heard BEFORE the Senate considers this disastrous nomination. This website also includes an important "Stop Traver" Fact Sheet with critical information you need to know about Andrew Traver.
Please understand, Traver is not just another run-of-the-mill anti-gun elitist, but a dedicated gun-ban zealot with the deepest possible ties to the national "gun control" movement.
And now, President Barack Obama wants to put him in charge of BATFE where he can inflict almost unlimited and permanent damage to our rights.
Please, visit www.StopTraver.org today and help us win this crucial battle -- for yourself and for every American who cherishes our constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Thanks in advance for your courageous help!
Sincerely,
Chris W. Cox
Executive Director
NRA Institute for Legislative Action
P.S. Anti-gun ringleaders across the country are doing everything in their power to make sure that Andrew Traver is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next Director of BATFE. You need to make your voice heard! Please, click here to visit www.StopTraver.org and help defeat this disastrous Obama nomination today!

NUGENT: Outgunned is a choice

Beanbags are fine for the playground but not for a border showdown
By Ted Nugent -The Washington Times6:03 p.m., Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Being a Border Patrol agent on our southern border has got to be a very difficult, harrowing job.

It is surely an even tougher job when our agents are told to launch “nonlethal” beanbags at armed, illegal intruders.

Rule No. 1: Never bring a beanbag to a gunfight.

Think of this: With an orgy of high-powered drug-gang violence just across our border that already has claimed roughly 35,000 lives, plus numerous reports of armed, illegal intruders crossing over the border and shooting at our police officers and committing other violent crimes against American citizens, some politically correct bureaucratic idiot directs our Border Patrol agents to launch beanbags at machine-gun-toting, violent invaders.

The result of this brain-dead, irresponsible mindset: My fellow Michiganiac, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, was shot dead by an armed illegal intruder on Dec. 14 in Arizona.

This policy, of course, is lunacy defined. Only a wild-eyed lunatic would force brave, law enforcement officers into dangerous situations without adequate firepower to stop danger in its tracks. These are the same uber-left-wing fools who sputter and scream how our law enforcement agents are “outgunned,” ignorantly blaming failed gun control laws while knowingly sending our warriors into battle with phenomenally inferior firepower. In fact, beanbags have no fire power, unless you are waging war on small kittens.

To add insult to the tragic death of Agent Terry,it now appears that certain bureaucrats within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed a known gun-running thug, whom they were investigating, to buy and transport the guns into Mexico that were used to kill Agent Terry.
continued..........

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/...

U.S. agency provides guns to kill Americans

Posted: March 11, 2011
2:45 am Eastern
© 2011

Two U.S. law enforcement officers are dead and a third seriously wounded in two separate incidents; one occurred in Arizona, the other in central Mexico, north of Mexico City.

In one case the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, had knowingly allowed the guns used to be sold to a suspected arms trafficker and smuggled to Mexico. In the other case, ATF claims the traffickers only came to their attention some months after they had purchased the gun involved in the attack.

As reported in this column back in January, Border patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down in a firefight with bandits North of Nogales, Ariz., on December 14, 2010. It has now been confirmed that two AK-47 style rifles recovered at the scene were among hundreds – possibly thousands of rifles – allowed by ATF to "walk" from U.S. dealers' shelves into the hands of known and suspected firearms traffickers and across the border into the service of Mexican drug gangs.

On February 15, 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were attacked near the Mexican town of San Luis Potosi. Agent Zapata was killed and Agent Avila was seriously wounded.

One of the guns used in the attack has been tracked back to a Dallas-area gun dealer who sold the gun to one of a pair of brothers named Osorio. ATF and DEA agents had the Orsorio brothers under surveillance as early as last November. ATF tracked purchases of numerous firearms from a variety of sources by the brothers during that time, including one batch of 40 guns, which they sold to an ATF informant who made it clear to them that he was trafficking them into Mexico. ATF says their informant was subsequently stopped and searched before crossing the border and that the guns were recovered.

Given ATF's history of withholding and/or embellishing pertinent information, it is likely that the Osario brothers were on the ATF radar long before November 2010. They certainly should have been. The story of ATF's paid informant being stopped at the border is also suspect, given ATF's admitted strategy of allowing guns to cross the border in hopes of connecting them to some high-ranking drug lord.

While ATF and politicians have tried to spin the tragic deaths of these two federal agents as proof of the need for stricter gun-control laws in the U.S., mounting evidence indicates that the largest arms trafficker from the U.S. into Mexico is the ATF itself.

(Column continues below)

http://www.wnd.com/index.php...

About those BATF guns that went to drug cartels

Congressman pushes for full disclosure by Hillary Clinton

Posted: March 31, 2011
8:29 pm Eastern
By Michael Carl
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

At least one member of Congress is getting testy over the decision by the Obama administration to refuse to respond to requests by Sen. Charles Grassley for information from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about Operation "Fast and Furious," in which the government apparently authorized the sale of hundreds of weapons to gunrunners who promptly put them into action on behalf of drug lords in Mexico.

It appears that the death toll includes at least one member of the U.S. Border Patrol, possibly more.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is sending a letter to Clinton, demanding that her office stop stonewalling the investigation of what's become known as "Project Gunrunner."

"Grassley wrote to you requesting basic information about the connection between Operation 'Fast and Furious'…. and the December 14, 2010, firefight that claimed the life of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry … I understand you have yet to respond and are likely to refuse Senator Grassley's request …. This refusal is mystifying," the letter says.

"More explicably, your refusal stands in stark contradiction to the promise of transparency promoted by President Obama," the letter said. "Given the gravity of this matter, this refusal is simply unacceptable."

The letter also demands the release of all records relating to last summer's Mexico City meeting between then-U. S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Lanny Breuer's deputy and other unnamed officials.

(Story continues below)

http://www.wnd.com/index.php...

'Gunwalker' scandal grows to consume highest level

Posted: March 31, 2011
9:55 pm Eastern
2011

As reported in this column, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, has problems – big problems – and those problems just keep getting bigger and bigger.

As ATF's problems over the "Gunwalker" operation grow, they are rapidly becoming the problems of top Justice Department and Obama administration officials. So damning is the potential of the scandal that during a recent interview with the Mexican television network Univision, President Obama made it a point to deny knowledge or complicity in the operation. He also gave a free pass to Attorney General Holder, stating that Holder had not authorized the operation, but then he admitted that someone might have made major mistakes and that he intended to investigate the matter and hold those responsible accountable.

What this all suggests is that a bus is coming and Obama is looking for someone to throw under it. Mexican authorities are furious about the ATF program, code named "Fast and Furious," which permitted, and in some cases assisted or encouraged, gun smuggling from legal US channels into the Mexican underworld – without the knowledge or cooperation of the Mexican government.

The degree of outrage was demonstrated by Obama's decision to do the one-on-one interview with Univision. To date the highest ranking official in Washington willing to answer U.S. reporters' questions has been ATF Acting Assistant Director for Field Operations Mark Chait, who initially took credit for and defended the ill-fated policy. He has since become very quiet, but his initial interviews have clearly affixed a large bull's-eye to his back.

(Column continues below)

http://www.wnd.com/index.php...

'Fast and Furious' White House gun control

Posted: April 04, 2011
1:00 am Eastern
© 2011

Since the very first days of this president's administration, the drug-fueled cartel violence in Mexico has provided a stalking horse for the gun-control agenda. Early on, both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder cited Mexican violence as a reason to renew the Clinton gun ban of 1994. After those trial balloons were shot down, the ball was passed to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who has repeatedly blamed American gun rights for Mexican violence.

More recently, the BATF cited cartel mayhem as justification for an attempt to mandate the reporting of all multiple long gun sales in border states. This regulation would force dealers to immediately report all purchases of more than one long gun if they are magazine fed and larger than .22 caliber – effectively creating a registry.

But now, shocking revelations that grow bigger every day completely undercut the argument for additional restrictions. In fact, they illuminate bureaucratic arrogance, recklessness and hypocrisy of the highest order in the hallways of the Obama administration – including the spreading stench of a massive cover-up.
continued..........

http://www.wnd.com/index.php...

E-Mails Show Federal Investigation Concerned U.S. Gun Dealers

VERTEXNews
April 15, 2011

E-mails uncovered in a congressional inquiry show federal agents investigating gunrunning on the U.S.-Mexico border ignored warnings about weapons falling into the wrong hands.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recruited American gun dealers to sell to people believed to be smuggling weapons to people believed to be smuggling weapons to Mexican cartels.

In the e-mails, one Arizona gun dealer repeatedly asks agents for assurances the firearms he sells will never end up in Mexico.
Read entire article..........

http://www.infowars.com/e-mails-show-federal-...

Chairman threatens ATF with contempt in gun probe

AP foreign,
Wednesday April 20 2011
NEDRA PICKLER

Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP)— A House committee chairman is threating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents.

The House Oversight and Government Reform committee issued a subpoena last month seeking documents relating to ATF's anti-gun-trafficking strategies along the U.S.-Mexico border. The committee is investigating reports the agency allowed assault rifles to be sold to suspected straw purchasers for a trafficking ring and that lives were jeopardized as a result.

Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (EYE'-suh) wrote to ATF's acting director Wednesday, complaining that the agency is refusing to turn over the documents because of ongoing criminal investigations.

He said the committee is legally entitled to the documents for its separate investigation.

ATF did not respond to a request for comment.
article..........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9...

Congressmen accuse White House of cover-up

Lawmakers blast attorney general for lying about weapons program

Posted: May 03, 2011
7:58 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

DES MOINES, Iowa – A pair of Republicans in Congress have fired off a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, accusing the administration of lying to cover up a government program that allegedly allowed American firearms to pass into Mexico.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., had sharp words for the Department of Justice after Holder sent a recent letter denying that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobaco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, had knowingly authorized the sale of weapons to gun smugglers as part of what has become known as "Project Gunrunner" and its suboperation, dubbed "Fast and Furious."

In a return letter sent today, the congressmen wrote that the Department's self-exonerating claims were flat-out "false."

"We are very concerned that the Department chose to send a letter containing false statements," wrote the congressmen. "The Department sent a letter on February 4, 2011, claiming that …'ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.' When questioned in transcribed interviews last week in Phoenix, agents with first-hand knowledge of ATF operations contradicted that claim."

The answers to all your questions about guns, safety and guarding your family are found in "SAFE: How to Protect Yourself, Your Family and Your Home"

"We are extremely disappointed that you do not appear to be taking this issue seriously enough to ensure that the Department's representations are accurate, forthcoming and complete," the legislators wrote. "We will continue to probe and gather the facts independently, as it has become clear that we cannot rely on the Department's self-serving statements to obtain any realistic picture of what happened."

(Story continues below)

http://www.wnd.com/index.php...

ATF agents say motive of gun smuggling was to hype anti-gun hysteria--and kill

April 11th, 2011 1:26 pm ET

Whistleblower ATF agents have made it clear as to the motive for the illegal scheme that has created an 'international incident' between the U.S. Government and the Government of Mexico. The agents themselves are adamant that their superisors planned the scheme in order to pad statistics that would show U.S. guns are fueling the drug cartels, that the U.S. has a major problem with lax gun laws, and then provide an impetus for the Obama Administration and other gun control advocates to hype up anti-gun hysteria--all in support of another round of restrictive gun laws.
continued..........

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-natio...

NRA-ILA GRASSROOTS ALERT
Vol. 18, No. 23 06/03/11

HOUSE DEMOCRATS URGE PRESIDENT
TO END STONEWALLING ON "GUNRUNNER"

Today, 31 U.S. House members -- all Democrats -- wrote to President Barack Obama, urging him to end Administration stonewalling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Project Gunrunner," and the "Fast and Furious" program under which border state dealers were encouraged to sell thousands of guns to suspicious buyers.

In the letter, spearheaded by Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., the lawmakers called the investigative tactics "extremely troubling" and found the Justice Department's failure to provide information to congressional investigators "equally troubling." Saying that Americans deserve "prompt and complete answers," the letter concluded with a call for the administration to help "get to the bottom of this serious allegation of federal law enforcement misconduct."

To read the letter, click here -- and if your representative signed it, please be sure to thank him for taking this stand for strong congressional oversight of this disastrous program.

NRA-ILA GRASSROOTS ALERT
Vol. 18, No. 24 06/10/11

HEARINGS SCHEDULED, SUBPOENAS TO BE
ISSUED IN "PROJECT GUNRUNNER" INVESTIGATION

The ongoing and escalating investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Project Gunrunner" program has ratcheted up another notch this week as it was reported that subpoenas will soon be issued to federal officials associated with this controversial program.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will issue the subpoenas in yet another attempt to find out if "Project Gunrunner" contributed to the killing of a Border Patrol agent. Rep. Issa's committee has also announced that two hearings on this disastrous operation will be held next week (Monday from 1:00 -- 3:00 p.m., and Wednesday from 9:30 -- 11:30 a.m.).

"Fast and Furious" was a part of the five-year-old "Project Gunrunner" program that encouraged border-state dealers to sell thousands of guns to suspicious buyers, even after suspecting these buyers were working for Mexican drug cartels.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Who Decided to Sell Guns to the Mexican Cartels?

By Silvio Canto Jr.

President Barack Obama has to answer a simple question: Who approved the sale of guns to cartels?

What genius came up with that one? Was it the same guy who suggested killing the Mexican trucks program and to violate NAFTA?

On June 9 we got some very disturbing news reports about these guns:

"An arsenal found in Mexico included at least five assault rifles that U.S authorities trace to a federal operation gone badly awry, according to government documents.

"The discovery appears to confirm for the first time fears cited by Republican lawmakers that a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation called Fast and Furious failed to stop guns from ending up with drug gangs in Mexico.

"The Fast and Furious program, run by the ATF's Phoenix office, monitored weapons purchases by suspected gun traffickers who were believed to be funneling weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

"Some lawmakers say ATF didn't have the means to track the guns and shouldn't have used such tactics."

This "idea" has turned into a problem for both Mexico and the US.

We call on President Obama to deal with the topic rather than give more meaningless speeches, such as "the cynical pandering of the Mexicano vote" in El Paso last month.

The Obama administration authorized a scheme that has ended up killing Mexican soldiers, policemen and civilians.

We believe that the Obama administration needs to give us an explanation.

We understand that the US House of Representatives plans to hold hearings.

I agree with that. I also read today that there is "panic mode" because a lot of embarrassing information will come out in the hearings.

Again, what genius at the Obama White House came up with this plan? It must have been the same one who came up with the Obama stimulus plan that has not stimulated anything.

http://www.mexidata.info/id3046.html

Obama administration rep 'cannot be believed'
Gun Owners chief says Issa hearings bringing out truth in 'Fast and Furious' scandal
Posted: June 16, 2011
1:00 am Eastern

By Michael Carl
© 2011 WND

The chief of Gun Owners of America said the nation is learning a lot about the administration of Barack Obama through the House hearings on "Project Gunrunner," the apparent attempt by the U.S. government to allow weapons to be sold to criminals so they could be tracked to Mexican drug cartels.

The goal was to allow a prosecution of the cartel members up the rungs to the highest ranks. The actual result has been a nearly unrestricted flow of weapons to violent criminals and a number of deaths, apparently including one U.S. border agent.

GOA President Larry Pratt says e-mails released by the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which is holding hearings on the controversial program, reveal BATFE acting director Kenneth Melson apparently had asked for – and gotten – a computer address for a video monitoring unit in one of the gun stores that was authorized to sell guns to the suspects.

That raises all sorts of questions about the Washington defense that officials knew nothing about the project and its progress.

"The documents that were released and discussed point to the fact that the Assistant Attorney General [Ronald] Weich cannot be believed. There was a letter from January that had been sent over with factual misstatements in it," Pratt said. "Weich couldn't even commit to saying who on his staff might have made that lie in his letter."

Listen to Pratt:

Pratt noted Sens. Charles Schumer, Susan Collins, Lamar Alexander and Joe Lieberman have proposed Senate Bill 679, which would exempt appointees and financial officers of government agencies from the Senate confirmation process.

(Story continues below)

http://www.wnd.com/index.php...

This is big enough to sink the President and the Attorney General.