If you haven’t been paying attention to this scandal, you should. Bob Owens over at Pajamas Media has an excellent run-down of the issue:
…On December 14, 2010, a special unit of the U.S. Border Patrol came across a group of heavily armed suspects near Rio Rico, Arizona. The Border Patrol team identified themselves as law enforcement officers, at which point the armed men open fire. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was hit in the pelvis by a single bullet and died the next morning. One of the suspects was captured, and two AK-pattern semiautomatic rifles recovered at the scene were identified by serial number as weapons that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) — acting in concert with and with the blessing of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — allowed weapons smugglers to purchase at U.S. gun shops. The weapons were just two of more than 2,000 firearms that ATF supervisors and the highest levels of DOJ management allowed to be “walked” across the border to narco-terrorist drug cartels in Mexico, in a scandal that promises to be more damning and deadly than Iran-Contra.
The ATF named their operation Fast and Furious, but it will go down in history by its more descriptive title: “Gunwalker.”…
The official story is that the plan was that the weapons would be traceable when used for a crime. I have some doubts about that. Naturally, most of the crimes would be committed in Mexico and the people committing the crimes would be low-level foot soldiers for the cartels. In other words, being able to identify which weapon did which crime would be pointless – we couldn’t prosecute and even if the Mexicans could, all they’d catch are the troops, not the leaders. My guess is that while the “trace” thing was in there, a more likely explanation is either to be found in rank corruption (someone bought by the cartels to provide a means of arms) or a back door way to justify gun control (and I do recall the allegations by the Mexicans and the Administration that the cartel’s guns were coming from American gun dealers).
No matter how you slice it, this is about the most stupid and criminal action a government can take. To provide weapons to criminals – for whatever reason – is to be guilty of accessory to murder. The Mexican drug cartels are the most brutal and inhuman criminal gangs imaginable. Al Qaeda is a collection of pansies compared to these beasts. They are murdering not just people who cross them, but just in order to intimidate anyone who might at some point even think about crossing them. Men, women and children are being butchered – and raped, beaten and robbed, in to the bargain. The proper answer to the drug lords is to send special forces out to kill them…not work out come cockamamie plan to provide them traceable arms.
This scandal is still in its infancy and, naturally, the Obama Administration is refusing to cooperate fully with the investigation. We can rely upon it that Holder’s “Justice” Department won’t make a move unless compelled to do so…and that means further hearings and more publicity for this horrid scandal. We really can’t let this one go; there is something very dirty going on here.
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