Fast and Furious: A Diplomatic Incident

Eric Holder
2011 Fousesquawk Jerk of the Year winner


Hat tip Daily Caller

In addition to being a scandal of immense proportions within the US, Operation Fast and Furious is also a diplomatic incident between the US and Mexico. In this case, Mexico is the aggrieved party.

It is a fact that the media, for obvious reasons, has ignored this scandal, which has resulted in the deaths of two US agents and hundreds of Mexicans. In addition, some of my readers have challenged me to show where Mexico has publicly complained about Fast and Furious. Here it is from the Mexican ambassador to Washington himself.

We may never know how many diplomatic notes have been passed between the two countries over this issue, but it is a fact that the Mexicans were not told of what was going on. Otherwise, they might have been in a position to continue surveillance of the weapons in Mexico, make arrests, and even find cartel leaders in hiding. To be fair, one must assume the reason they were not told was because of corruption and the probability of compromise. That is hardly an excuse, however, for allowing thousands of guns to enter Mexico and proceed directly to the cartels. We might as well have directed DEA to return seized drug shipments back to the cartels in Mexico.

Now that the Mexican ambassador has spoken out, is it not time for the media to get involved in this story? Or does it have to be left to the conservative blogosphere to carry the investigation? In a sense, this is a repeat of the John Edwards scandal, in which the media ignored the rumors about Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter during his campaign and the secret love child. It was left to the National Enquirer to break the story. Even after the Enquirer caught Edwards visiting Hunter and his daughter in a Beverly Hills Hotel, the media said nothing for several days until the Enquirer proved its story beyond any doubt. The same thing is happening here.

Does anyone seriously doubt that had the Bush administration been in office during Fast and Furious or had a candidate like Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney been involved with Hunter, love child and all, the media would have been all over this? Does anyone really think that had Alberto Gonzalez been attorney general, the media and the left would be pooh-poohing Fast and Furious?

Watergate was  a scandal that involved the Nixon administration and the president himself-at the least in the cover-up. It was an abuse of power. Fast and Furious has resulted in hundreds of deaths in a neighboring country, not to mention two US agents. Yet, our Justice Department is covering it up, hiding some 80,000 documents from Congress, while Holder perjures himself before Congress. It is also a diplomatic incident. Yet our Secretary of State says nothing. Our head of Homeland Security studiously says nothing though two of the dead are her own agents.

And nobody seems to care. Sean Hannity got it right when he said (several times) that the news media in America is dead.