It looks like the Democrat talking point about Fast and Furious is that it all started under George W. Bush and his attorneys general Alberto Gonzalez and Michael Mukasey. That's how Al Sharpton presented it on his silly show (Politics Nation) today. That is a red herring.
Sharpton also echoed Nancy Pelosi's ridiculous charge that the reason the Republicans are going after Holder is to stop him from fighting voter ID laws in several states, which she and Al refer to as "voter suppression".
As to Wide Receiver, Sharpton charged that the Republicans have not bothered to interview Mukasey as to Wide Receiver let alone call him to testify. I may be in error, but I thought I heard Darrell Issa point out in yesterday's hearing that staff investigators had interviewed Mukasey.
If not, I say bring Mukasey in to testify on Wide Receiver, by all means. I expect what Mukasey will tell them is that Wide Receiver involved ATF agents in Arizona working in collaboration with gun shops to identify straw buyers-just as in Fast and Furious. The difference is that in Wide Receiver (2006-2007), tracking devices were put on purchased weapons and attempts were made to make seizures and arrests when the ultimate deliveries were made. In addition, the Mexican authorities were also involved on the other side of the border. When it was discovered that some 300 weapons had eluded surveillance and disappeared across the border, the operation was terminated-all during Bush's term. None of this was done in Fast and Furious, which began in 2009 as an element of the overall Project Gunrunner under Obama and Holder. In addition there was never any attempt to cover up Wide Receiver. In fact, I am unaware of reports of any whistle blowers in Wide Receiver-as there were in Fast and Furious. In National Review Online, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy explains the difference between the two operations.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/282606/fast-furious-was-bushs-fault-andrew-c-mccarthy#
It is important to clear up a couple of terms here. A controlled delivery is when agents either have the contraband in custody or are surveilling it and allowing it to proceed to its intended recipient prior to making arrests and seizures. To allow guns to "walk" means that the guns were allowed to disappear into the traffic with no real effort to seize them for some investigative benefit. Similar tactics can occasionally be used with money or drugs. These are exceptional cases and require approval at the Hqs level. Wide Receiver involved attempted controlled deliveries, which are an accepted law enforcement technique. Deliberate "walking" of guns is what occurred in Fast and Furious. There is a world of difference.
But by all means, bring Mukasey in and have him testify as to Wide Receiver. If anything improper was done, let the chips fall where they may. However, none of this excuses what Holder and the Justice Department have done in Fast and Furious, which began in 2009 and the subsequent cover-up.
4 comments:
So what?
A good report on the difference between "Wide Receiver" and "Fast and Furious".
Sharpton is ramping up for his and the other race-baiters' claims that a U.S. House of Representatives vote on contempt for Eric Holder is racist, because he is the first Black Attorney General under the first Black President. I would lay large money on this. Any takers?
This is why the speaker of the House was reluctant to call a vote, but Holder and the President want to go there. They will try to turn this travesty into votes for Obama's re-election. This is also cheap Chicago style politics over the rule of law and the truth. I truly feel sorry for Brian Terry's parents.
Squid
Yeah, Nancy Pelosi, probably among others I have not caught yet, has chimed in with the allegations that conservatives/Republicans want to get rid of Holder to stop his efforts relative to "voter suppression" in Florida. Given the time factors, hard for me to see how the two can be related in any way. More lies after more lies.
Republicans don't need a reason to get rid of Holder. He offends their wounded sense of entitlement, as does the President, as did President Clinton. The reason they hate Nancy Pelosi is that she had just enough horse sense to engineer taking congress back from them in 2006. They expected 1980 to be the dawn of a Thousand Year Reich, but darn if those voters don't go back and forth trying to find some sense somewhere and not finding it anywhere.
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