Jul 27 2011
Conservatives Target ATF While Ignoring Source of Arms Trafficking
The House Government Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing yesterday, hammering officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) about the growing scandal over operation Fast and Furious. An estimated 1000 firearms were trafficked to Mexican drug cartels under the watch of the ATF, as part of a failed anti-gun tracking program. Firearms trafficked under Fast and Furious have been found at multiple bloody sites. Last December, a gun traced back to Fast and Furious was found at the scene of a gun battle where US border patrol agent Brian Terry was killed. Yesterday William Newell, former special agent in charge of the Pheonix ATF office, testified, “It was not the purpose of the investigation to permit the transportation of firearms into Mexico.” ATF officials acknowledge their goal was to track US guns trafficked by low level “straw buyers” to leaders of Mexican cartels. At issue is whether ATF agents allowed guns to be “walked” across the border to then disappear into cartel weapons caches. ATF whistleblower and Mexico City attache Jose Canino says he repeatedly warned his colleagues that the program had backfired, arming cartels instead of disrupting them. Canino eventually blew the whistle to Mexican Attorney General Marciela Morales. The Oversight Committee is also digging deep into how much the Department of Justice knew about the ATF’s operations, and how close the information came to the White House. The DOJ has denied any wrongdoing. In the word of one Republican congressman, “Both sides of the aisle and the American people are furious.” However, the investigation is spearheaded by GOP Committee Chairman Darryll Issa, who vowed to overwhelm the Obama administration with investigations after his party regained control of the House early this year. Politico reports the ATF has also been a target of the NRA, which has played a major role in keeping the agency without a permanent director since 2006.
GUEST: Ted Lewis, Human Rights and Mexico Program Director at Global Exchange
Find out more at www.globalexchange.org.
4 Responses to “Conservatives Target ATF While Ignoring Source of Arms Trafficking”
I think everyone knows where the guns came from….gun shops in the U.S., that’s not the story. The story is that our federal government enable and encouraged illegal gun trafficking into Mexico, which resulted in the dealth of an American border agent and countless Mexican nationals.
Is your headline meant to be obtuse or are you incompetent?
…and you should be stoked that a person actually read your story
Listened to the show. Didnt hear much about the goverment letting guns go to Mexico. Heard a lot about how the cartels get guns thru US gunshows, so the gunshows should be eliminated. Bottom line is BATF, under the Obama administrations DOJ, has broken the law, leading to the death of a border patrol agent, and is now stonewalling a Congressional investigation. Rep Issa’s investigation deserves support. The taxpayer deserves an accounting.
Project “gunrunner” and “Fast and Furious” are failed goverment/media effort to stir up public sentiment against the rights of US gunowners, including the right of law abiding gunowners to freely sell and exchange firearms with friends and relatives, and to freely assemble with others to exchange ideas, information and legal firearms in a Constitutionally guaranteed manner. Remember the USSC has now ruled that it is an individual Constitutional right to KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. The antigun lobby, made up of various front groups that favor disarming the American population such as the Joyce Foundation, The Brady Campaign, and George Soro’s groups, fear gunshows as a social venue where gunowners of all political persuasions get together and build solidarity. These groups generate a continuous stream of media disinformation designed to turn the public against gun rights. Sorry to see your show fell into supporting this effort against the RIGHTS of US citizens.
If you would like to see what happens when the general public is denied the right to own firearms for self defense you only need look across the border to MEXICO where firearms ownership has long been denied to the average citizen. Any military caliber weapons are prohibited to Mexican citizens; with a great deal of effort and paperwork you MIGHT get a permit for a single shot .22 rifle. When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns…the drug gangs murder citizens at will, and force them into illegal activities with the threat of violence. Remember the drug gangs have BILLIONS of dollars and FLEETS of aircraft…if they want weapons they can purchase them by the planeload from international outlaw gun dealers who have access to military weapons from corrupt and failed nation states. The thought of the international drug gangs using straw buyers to purchase a couple of guns at SE US gunshows is laughable. If anyone from Mexico is smuggling a gun over the border it is probably an otherwise innocent civilian desperate to defend their family from endemic violence.
Using this sorry scenario to justify attacking the Constitutional Rights of US citizens is NOT laughable. To register to vote in my town you swear an oath to “preserve and protect the Constitution of the United states from all enemies foreign and domestic.” No exceptions for the ones appointed to goverment office…or elected…or the self appointed such as Mr Soros.
A last comment: the National Rifle Association is the nations oldest and largest (over 4 million members, only AARP is larger )
civil rights organization. It was formed by Union civil war officers to secure the rights of freed slaves to own firearms for self defense against the KKK. The radio show referred to the NRA as if it is a wacko fringe group….
Please change the name of the ATF whistleblower and Mexico City attaché from Jose to Carlos Canino. JOSE is Jose Wall, the ATF Senior Special Agent.
Thank you