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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (135632)	6/20/2012 1:02:28 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224750

Walking Guns Into Mexico Posted by: Linda Carbonell on June 19, 2012. Rep. Darrell Issa and U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder, February 2, 2012 There’s a reason I’ve avoided any stories about the so-called “Fast and Furious” program and the confrontations between Attorney General Eric Holder and House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa. The whole thing made the hairs on the back of my head stand up. That’s usually a good sign that nothing is what it seems. “Fast and Furious” is a continuation of a program begun in 2006 by the Bush administration. It’s first name was “Project Gunrunner,” and it was intended to identify and track those who purchased guns in America and smuggled them into Mexico. The tactic is called “gunwalking.” The stated goal was to track these weapons to the drug cartels, while letting the little guys get away. From the beginning, the program was challenged by members of Federal law enforcement, particularly the ATF and the gun dealers who were co-operating with the program. But during the first two years of the operation, under the Bush Department of Justice, not one single arrest was made. On this side of the border, ATF agents were told that the Mexican authorities would intercept the guns on their side. Whether or not the agents in the field believed it is irrelevant. The administration believed it and so do current Republican members of Congress like Joe Walsh of Illinois who defended the Bush portion of the gunwalking program with that “Mexican authorities co-operation” excuse, just this morning. But, here comes the hair raising part – the DoJ is investigating dozens of cases along the border of U. S. local law enforcement and town officials who have been paid off to ignore smuggling operations in their jurisdictions, and we know for a fact that the drug cartels kill any law enforcement or government official they can’t buy in Mexico. It was completely naive to think that the Mexican authorities were actually arresting the drug lords who took possession of these weapons. When Eric Holder took over the Department of Justice, a review of the program led to a restructuring of it, simultaneously with arrests and prosecutions from the pre-Holder years. Operation “Fast and Furious” was intended to stop the gun trafficking from this side of the border, but of the 2,000 firearms sold and “tracked” only 700 were recovered as of October, 2011. There have been arrests and indictments, but not at the “high level” everyone had hoped for. The flashpoint was the discovery that guns smuggled under the “Fast and Furious” program were used in the killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010. There have also been murders of our border patrol and ICE agents inside Mexico. Dissident ATF agents, men and women who kept their silence for four years suddenly were enraged enough to speak out, even though they had been objecting to the program from the beginning. Just before Agent Terry was killed, the Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives. Darrell Issa of California would be the new Chairman of the House Oversight Committee and within days of the election announced that he would be issuing subpoenas left, right and down the middle, turning over every aspect of the Obama administration, rooting out all their illegal activities….etc. etc. and ad nauseum. And at every step, he was thwarted in his determination to find something with which to charge the President or members of his administration. For Darrell Issa, the frustrated little impeacher, “Fast and Furious” was a God-send. For the past few months, Issa and Holder have been going at each other. The Senate has even gotten in on the act, with Texas Senator John Cornyn calling for Holder’s resignation. Holder has been reluctant to present everything that Issa has demanded because of on-going investigations and prosecutions. He doesn’t trust Issa not to release information that is necessary to prosecutions, and given how Rep. Michele Bachmann runs her mouth about the Intelligence Committee, that might not be a bad call. Issa wants the political points against the administration if he can’t find something to impeach someone over. Today, Issa and Holder were due to meet ahead of Issa issuing a contempt citation for Holder. The program has created a nightmare for the State Department as well, with Mexican officials suitably furious over the smuggling of American weapons into Mexico. It was an issue raised during the very first meeting between President Obama and Mexican Felipe Calderón. The Republicans were enraged when Calderón publicly criticized the gun smuggling during that visit. Large numbers of American weapons that have been found in the hands of drug cartel members. “Fast and Furious” was a disaster, but so was “Operation Gunrunner.” The whole idea that we could track these guns was ludicrous, given the state of affairs in Mexico. But this is not the way to deal with it. Congress has the power and right to oversee operations in the Executive Branch, but not to use that oversight to score political points. Darrell Issa is not the man to run this oversight investigation. He is too personally invested in trying to find something, anything, to justify his braggadocio before he took the chair. The committee has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor or independent counsel, and removing this mess from the political field would be a very good idea. lezgetreal.com