Democrats Throw ATF Agents Under the Bus-Rally Around Holder

"It was those street agents in Arizona and that Bush operation, but we put a halt to it, right boys?"


In yet another shameful development in Operation Fast and Furious, Democrats in Congress are rallying around Eric Holder's Justice Department and laying the blame off on ATF "rogue agents" and a couple of prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office in Phoenix. It is beyond disgusting.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/31/in-new-report-two-justice-officials-call-fast-and-furious-criticism-absurd/

As I have pointed out several times, the idea that street agents or even supervisory agents of ATF's Phoenix office would have concocted such an insane scheme is preposterous. Even if they had, they would have need approval from the highest levels of the Justice Department.

"It is clear that ATF agents in Phoenix and prosecutors in the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office embarked on a deliberate strategy not to arrest suspected straw purchasers while they attempted to make larger cases against higher-level targets," the report reads. 

False. That is a shameless attempt to make the ATF street agents and a couple of Arizona-based federal prosecutors the fall guys.




"The report adds that problems arose during investigations even under the Bush administration, as hundreds of weapons were lost in Mexico, but "rather than halting operations after flaws became evident, (ATF agents in Arizona) launched several similarly reckless operations over the course of several years, also with tragic results." 

False
The effort to say this all began with Operation Wide Receiver under the Bush Justice Department is clearly disingenuous. In that operation, agents attached tracking devices to the weapons. When they learned that some weapons were still crossing into Mexico, they suspended the operation. In Fast and Furious, there was no effort to attach tracking devices, nor was there any effort to surveill them into Mexico or interdict them anywhere. In  addition, Mexican authorities were never informed of Fast and Furious. How can one argue that there was an effort to nail high-level cartel figures in possession of the weapons?

"Grindler, who as acting deputy attorney general, was the department's No. 2 at the time of his briefing in March 2010, said he is "extraordinarily confident" the ATF officials who briefed him did not tell him firearms were being allowed to go to Mexico."


That statement  is contradicted in the same article.



"Previously released notes from the briefing show Grindler jotted down the name "Operation Fast and Furious." In addition, he was told that at least two suspects used cash to buy nearly 450 weapons costing tens of thousands of dollars, and he noted many guns bought in the United States were surfacing in Mexico."


Then there is the statement of DOJ official Jason Weinstein:

"In a letter to Holder in October, Issa noted that Weinstein and others approved wiretap applications, which he said "contain rich detail of the reckless operations tactics being employed by your agents in Phoenix."

"Although (Criminal Division head Lanny) Breuer and his top deputies were informed of the operational details and tactics of 'Fast and Furious,' they did nothing to stop the program," Issa wrote.

But in his interview with congressional investigators, Weinstein called that "not a fair criticism," saying his general practice was to read an application's cover memo and only examine the underlying information if the cover letter raised questions or issues, according to the Democrats' new report."

C'mon! In DEA, I participated in enough wiretap cases to know better. When a federal agency is attempting to obtain an order to wiretap, Justice officials are not just going to read the cover letter before signing off. Is this what we have in DOJ, people who just read the cover letters? What kind of dereliction of duty is that? This is the same tactic Holder is using when he claims to have never read all those memos and e-mails addressed to him. It doesn't wash.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who sits on the House Oversight Committee, is leading the interference for Holder and his cronies. He should be ashamed-not only at his covering up for them-but even more so for trying to lay this off on street agents.

Here is an updated article by Bob Owens in PJ Media today that points out the flaws-no the misrepresentations in the Democrat report.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/dems-release-false-report-on-fast-and-furious/

Our Justice Department has been thoroughly corrupted by this attorney general and his political hires, and the Democrats in Congress are trying to cover for them. When will an honest and courageous Democrat stand up say this is wrong?