Just. Wonderful.
Today the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee meets to hold hearings into Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner, the ATF’s secret project to track gun running in Mexico by, er, running guns in Mexico. The operation cost the lives of two American agents, and chair Darrell Issa wants to know who authorized it, what involvement ATF Director Kenneth Melson and Attorney General Eric Holder had in approving and/or overseeing the operation, and what kinds of internal objections were ignored in implementing it. The Obama administration has refused to provide documents subpoenaed by Issa and Oversight, which means that the House may issue contempt citations against Melson and Holder for their intransigence.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/06/13/contempt-charge-from-house-for-holder-over-fast-furious/
According to the reports: “ATF officials knowingly allowed the sale of 1,318 guns to 15 suspects after they had been positively identified as gun smugglers. A majority of those guns went south of the border and only about 250 have been recovered in the U.S. by police at crime scenes.”
The two Border Patrol Agents killed were Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata.
Gangs like MS-13 probably benefit from the gunrunning as well. The Feds can’t even track the illegals who traipse back and forth across the leaky border, let alone guns used by the cartels. Securing the border and vigorous enforcement of our immigration laws would do more than any scatterbrained gunrunning operation. But common sense isn’t the government’s strong suit.
Related articles
- ‘Gunwalker’ Under Fire (pajamasmedia.com)
- Video: Eric Holder Faces Contempt Charges For Obstructing Justice In Operation Fast and Furious Probe (nicedeb.wordpress.com)
- GOP Lawmakers Press Investigation of Gun Operation (blogs.wsj.com)
- http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/13/house-panel-to-weigh-subpoena-authority-in-fast-and-furious-gun-case/
There is not a doubt in my mind that this was concocted by Obummer and Holder for the express purpose of artificially increasing the number of guns that would be traced back to the U.S. and U.S. gunshops. Obummer, Hillary and other leftists have been vocal and disingenuous about the percent of guns confiscated by Mexican authorities tracable to the U.S., claiming it to be 90%. However a study found that it was actually 17% and most of them were propably guns sold to the Mexican government and military that ended up in Cartel and other mexican gangster hands. Holder has been agitating for a new “assault weapons” ban. So the whole idea of the plan was to artificially create a number/percentage that would be high enough to make gun control/gun confiscation and/or a new “assault weapons” ban more palatable to the American people.