White House Briefed on ATF ‘Fast and Furious’ Gun Walker Operation

The latest development in the “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal is the revelation that at least three White House officials were informed about the program conducted by the ATF that involved selling weapons to the various Mexican drug cartels.

The ATF plan had been to allow gun dealers to sell weapons to members of the various Mexican drug cartels, with the idea that the weapons would be traced and that members of the cartel would be thus identified and then arrested. But the ATF quickly lost track of the weapons. “Fast and Furious: weapons soon showed up at a number of murder scenes in Mexico. In effect the ATF was complicent to drug related murders in a neighoring country.

Pajamas Media reports that this constitutes evidence of a cover up on the part of the White House of the program. One of the people killed with a “Fast and Furious” weapon was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The White House apparently decided to conceal the fact that the weapons found on the crime scene of Terry’s murder were weapons sold to the Mexican cartels under the “Fast and Furious” program.

The “Fast and Furious” scandal has already resulted in the transfer of an acting director of the ATF to a window-sitting job at the Justice Department and the resignation of a U.S. attorney. Congressional investigators are now delving into the question of who knew what and when did they know it. They are thus far focusing on the ATF and the Department of Justice. But the betting is that with the revelations of White House knowledge of the operation, the probe is likely to widen.

The unfolding story of the “Fast and Furious” scandal has a depressingly familiar ring to anyone who has lived through political scandals dating back to Watergate.

First a hair brained operation that has gone wrong is revealed. With Watergate it was a burglary at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. With “Fast and Furious” it was selling automatic weapons to the Mexican drug cartel with the idea of tracking the weapons and thus identifying members of that organization. In the former case, the burglars were caught. In the latter case, a lot of people have died.

Next, the drip drip of revelations about the extent of the conspiracy, including the inevitable cover up. One does not know at this time what if any knowledge President Obama had of “Fast and Furious” before it blew up in the ATF’s face. But the whole affair smacks of yet another sordid scandal that may well consume the administration, just in time for the election.

Sources: Operation Fast and Furious Could Decimate Obama Reelection Bid,Mark R. Whittington, Yahoo News, July 8, 2011

Gunwalker: Details of Coverup Revealed, Bob Owens, Pajamas Media, September 2, 2011


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