Fast and Furious: The Wiretap Applications

Congressman Darrell Issa is claiming that 6 wiretap applications involved in Fast and Furious show that senior Justice Department officials had to be aware of the controversial aspects of ATF's Operation Fast and Furious. Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings has sent Issa a letter in DOJ's defense that is only partially correct.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/05/issa-wiretaps-show-immense-detail-about-questionable-fast-furious-tactics/?test=latestnews

Elijah Cummings' letter to Issa only goes so far. It is true that federal law enforcement agencies send perhaps thousands of wiretap applications to Justice for review and approval each year. It is true that most of them go no further than line attorneys who review them for legal basis. It would not be realistic to expect that the attorney general or even his immediate deputies be familiar with each one, let along review them. It is also true that the wiretap application could have left out certain investigative details, such as the "walk" aspect.

However, Operation Fast and Furious was so out of the ordinary-involving an operation in which thousands of weapons were allowed to be purchased under surveillance then proceed across the border into Mexico without interdiction and without any involvement of the receiving country (Mexico), that the question still begs-who originated this idea? If indeed, as Issa claims, information that reveals this technique is contained in the application documents sent to line attorneys in DOJ, that would have raised a red flag, would it not? Even if the applications did not disclose the "walk" technique involved, the question still begs-who originated this idea? Cummings' letter does not address this.

Cummings also drags up the Bush-era  operation Wide Receiver, which involved putting tracking devices on weapons and attempting to follow them to the border with the Mexican police cooperating on the other side. It was discontinued because the investigators learned that some weapons were still getting across the border absent such control. To use this different operation as a defense is a red herring.

It is entirely conceivable that wiretap applications sent to DOJ could have been written without that one little investigative detail (that weapons were being purchased under surveillance and deliberately allowed to "walk" into Mexico and disappear). In that case, line attorneys could have processed the applications without higher involvement. For the third time, I repeat; that still doesn't tell us who originated the operation. If the applications did, in fact, mention this technique was being used, the line attorney, upon seeing this in the application, would have had to alert his or her superiors that something very much out of the ordinary was going on.

It just doesn't square.