"Fast and Furious" is the moniker for the Obama administration program that purposely released hundreds of sophisticated rifles, handguns and other weapsons to members of the Mexican drug cartels in an effort to link their users to crimes. But a few more congressional investigative reports like the one released late yesterday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and that name will soon also describe the velocity with which what is left of the administration's credibility on law enforcement issues and U.S. border security is shredded.
Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House committee, the report focuses on the efforts of four BATF agents who brought direct knowledge of the program:
“ATF agents have shared chilling accounts of being ordered to stand down as criminals in Arizona walked away with guns headed for Mexican drug cartels,” Issa said. “With the clinical precision of a lab experiment, the Justice Department kept records of weapons they let walk and the crime scenes where they next appeared. To agents’ shock, preventing loss of life was not the primary concern.”
Among the report's highlights, according to an Issa spokesman, are these:
* The supervisor of Operation Fast and Furious was “jovial, if not, not giddy but just delighted about” walked guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico according to an ATF agent. (p. 37)
* Another ATF agent told the committee about a prediction he made a year ago that “someone was going to die” and that the gunwalking operation would be the subject of a Congressional investigation. (p. 24)
* The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords created a “state of panic” within the group conducting the operation as they initially feared a “walked” gun might have been used. (p. 38)
* One Operation Fast and Furious Agent: “I cannot see anyone who has one iota of concern for human life being okay with this …” (p. 27)
* An ATF agent predicted to committee investigators that more deaths will occur as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. (p.39)
* Multiple agents told the committee that continued assertions by Department of Justice Officials that guns were not knowingly “walked” and that DOJ tried to stop their transport to Mexico are clearly untruthful. (p. 45-50).
You can read the full report here.
