Fast and Furious: Nothing Adds Up

Hat tip to Pajamas Media

Pajamas Media is linking the below LA Times article by Richard A. Serrano, which adds new details to the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal. There are some interesting details, which I have highlighted.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110811,0,7349292.story

"Acting Deputy Director William Hoover called an emergency meeting and said he wanted an "exit strategy" to shut down the program. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for decades had dedicated itself to stopping illegal gun-trafficking of any kind. Now it was allowing illegal gun purchases on the Southwest border and letting weapons "walk" unchecked into Mexico.



But those at the meeting, which included a Justice Department official, did not want to stop the illegal gun sales until they had something to show for their efforts. Hoover suggested a "30-day, 60-day or 90-day" exit plan that would shut Fast and Furious down for good — just as soon as there were some indictments."

Highlight the words "Justice Department official" above. Sometime around March of 2010, according to the article, Justice advised the ATF to keep the operation going despite the concerns of the acting ATF deputy director.

Also keep in mind that in May of this year, over one year later, Eric Holder testified under oath before Congress that he had first learned of Fast and Furious only a few weeks earlier.

Indeed, according to memos, emails and other material obtained by The Times, along with transcripts of sworn depositions and Capitol Hill testimony, the Justice Department provided the initial impetus for what became Fast and Furious.



In October 2009, officials in the office of then-Deputy Atty. Gen. David W. Ogden, the No. 2 slot under Holder, sent a nine-page memo to supervisors on the border. Called the "Department of Justice Strategy for Combating the Mexican Cartels," it specifically instructed the ATF to broaden its scope to "identify, investigate and eliminate" the cartels. This approach, the memo added, "ensures that scarce ATF resources are directed at the most important targets."

This is where it gets very murky. How do you take "eliminate the cartels" and translate that into letting over a thousand weapons walk? I continue.

The memo did not suggest agents purposely allow illegal purchasers to walk away with guns, and Justice Department officials insist they never approved the "operational" concept for Fast and Furious. Nevertheless, the ATF viewed the memo as marching orders.



Kenneth E. Melson, the ATF acting director, told investigators that his subordinates took the memo and came up with "tactical strategies" that created Fast and Furious. "We have to go after the cartels to stop the flow of guns," he said.

William D. Newell, then the special agent in charge of the ATF field office for Arizona and New Mexico, said "the memo fitted into how we were going to address this" problem. Fast and Furious was launched the following month, November 2009, and was run out of Newell's field office.

This would suggest that Justice sent a memo to ATF about combating and eliminating the cartels, which ATF then used to come up with the idea of letting guns walk, which used street agents to conduct what was essentially an intelligence operation designed to illustrate that so many guns from the US were finding their way into the hands of Mexican cartels.  It even suggests that it was the ATF office in Phoenix that came up with the idea. I refuse to believe that for one minute. This scheme had to originate within main Justice.

Three guns were recovered. Two of them came from Fast and Furious. And still the operation went on another six weeks.

(After Fast and Furious guns were linked to the killing of Agent Terry.) Amazing. Do you think Eric Holder and his cronies at DOJ were told of this horrific connection? Remember Holder's testimony in May 2011 that he learned of Fast and Furious only a few weeks earlier.

And if the scheme originated within ATF, why did Justice Department officials resist efforts by ATF to end it?

Nothing adds up. Somebody is lying. In fact, a lot of people are lying.

And once again, the question must be asked; where are Janet Napolitano and Alan Bersin (Border Patrol director)? They have had three of their agents shot with these weapons, three killed. They should have been banging on Holder and Obama's desks and if given no satisfaction, resigned in protest and gone public. Instead, by their silence, they join in the cover-up.