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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Pajamas Media Assessment of ATF's Fast and Furious

Bob Owens, among others, of Pajamas Media continues to write about ATF's Operation Fast and Furious. Actually, I should refer to it as DOJ's Fast and Furious because they are clearly the ones behind it.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/msm-sheep-ignoring-the-scandal-of-the-century/

Let's be clear; I am not downplaying the seriousness of Watergate. It was wrong and a clear abuse of government power. Yet, it must be repeated that nobody died in Watergate. In Fast and Furious, we have two dead Border Patrol agents, one wounded and probably well over a hundred dead in Mexico, killed by these weapons that were allowed to go into Mexico rather than be seized. Now we are looking at a governmental coverup.

And where is the Washington Post (and other newspapers and organizations)? Where are those sterling investigative reporters knocking on doors late at night trying to ferret out the truth?

Scandal of the Century? I don't know, but it is a scandal in the same league as Watergate. The difference is that we are not talking about the Nixon administration here. We are talking about the Democratic Obama administration, and most of the mainstream media has no stomach or desire to pursue this.

Can you not see the hypocrisy?

5 comments:

Siarlys Jenkins said...

There goes Gary, making a mountain out of a molehill, if, indeed it is even a molehill. Gary, I believe, is sincere about this. But most of those in whom he places implicit trust are doing the work of shady gun dealers on the American side of the border, who will stop at nothing to discredit any operation that might cut into their lucrative trade with the drug cartels. Of course they are shocked, shocked, that the buyers who come to them (wink, wink) are fronting for drug dealers. The last thing they want is for the Justice Department to actually track down the flow of guns and hold them accountable.

This whole Pajamas Media escapade reminds me of the way a drug gang turned the tables on a couple of plain clothes cops in Mexico. They circulated in a barrio crowd, telling the local population, especially women, that those two men in the car over there are the ones who have been molesting young boys. The crowd furiously lynched the two before any outside forces could intervene. All or most of those thought they were exacting righteous vengeance on a couple of dangerous perverts. The drug gangs laughed all the way to the bank... as they will if this "Assessment" is accepted.

I would have expected a bit more insight from a retired DEA agent.

Gary Fouse said...

Siarlys,

The gun dealers were cooperating with ATF and selling the guns under ATF control, if I am not mistaken. Do you want to indict them for that?

Siarlys Jenkins said...

I believe to at least some extent you ARE mistaken. Possibly some gun dealers were. If so, they were cooperating in the destruction of other gun dealers' market. Are you suggesting that ALL the gun dealers in the U.S. were cooperating in tracking down where their customers were taking all the guns they've been selling? That they were ALL shocked, shocked, that some of their guns were going to the cartels?

When, in your experience as a DEA agent, did all the drug dealers in town agree to make controlled buys so you could round up all the users?

Gary Fouse said...

Siarlys,

You are losing the debate Siarlys. Are you now suggesting that the motive of gun dealers to work with ATF was to undercut other gun dealers?

Of course not all gun dealers were cooperating. This operation was based in Arizona.

"When, in your experience as a DEA agent, did all the drug dealers in town agree to make controlled buys so you could round up all the users?"

(LOL). Licensed gun dealers in states that allow them are not criminals. Drug dealers are. Are you comparing them?

I think you are in over your head on this one.

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Since when does one side of a debate get to act as judge? If you want to add up points and declare winners, let's get together and pick a neutral third party, well versed in forensics.

There is a crime being committed. The crime is selling guns, large quantities of guns, to some of the most vicious drug cartels in recent history, selling them across national borders.

Are all gun dealers committing this crime? Probably not. Its not an easy crime to track, when the same transaction over the same counter may or may not be illegal, depending on who the customer is, what the dealer knows, or should know, how large the transactions are, whether they are in cash, whether more than $10,000 in cash is involved, whether that can be proven.

Some dealers are engaged only in legal trade to American citizens, who have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Some dealers are doing a veneer of legal trade, as a cover to making most of their money selling to straw buyers (wink, wink) who they can barely plausibly claim they thought were good law abiding American citizens, who came in three times a week to buy ten high capacity assault rifles at a time. Some gun dealers are mostly engaged in legal gun selling, but happy to look the other way for the occasional cartel buy.

You are losing a bit of credibility here. An experienced law enforcement officer who doesn't know that, faster than I know it, has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious.