Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico

[boston bean]

Agent Dodson and other sources say the gun walking strategy was approved all the way up to the Justice Department. The idea was to see where the guns ended up, build a big case and take down a cartel. And it was all kept secret from Mexico. ATF named the case "Fast and Furious."

Surveillance video obtained by CBS News shows suspected drug cartel suppliers carrying boxes of weapons to their cars at a Phoenix gun shop. The long boxes shown in the video being loaded in were AK-47-type assault rifles. So it turns out ATF not only allowed it - they videotaped it.


Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets... the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.

One e-mail noted, "958 killed in March 2010 ... most violent month since 2005." The same e-mail notes: "Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone," including "numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/03/eveningnews/main20039031.shtml

oh my..................

[boston bean]

1. more....

Senior agents including Dodson told CBS News they confronted their supervisors over and over.

Their answer, according to Dodson, was, "If you're going to make an omelette, you've got to break some eggs."

There was so much opposition to the gun walking, that an ATF supervisor issued an e-mail noting a "schism" among the agents. "Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case...we are doing what they envisioned.... If you don't think this is fun you're in the wrong line of work... Maybe the Maricopa County jail is hiring detention officers and you can get $30,000 ... to serve lunch to inmates..."

"We just knew it wasn't going to end well. There's just no way it could," Dodson said.

[gratuitous]

2. "If you don't think this is fun . . ."

Yes, giving murderous thugs thousands of firearms and sitting back to catalog the results. What could be funner? Well, except the predictable pop culture tie-in to a stupid movie franchise that appeals to testosterone-charged young men with more hormones than brains.

Thank goodness none of this is the fault of the administration. Of that, I am reliably informed.

[boston bean]

3. I wonder if this was brought up yesterday when Felipe Calderone

visited Obama yesterday....

[Vinee]

4. they both looked a little uncomfortable when the reporter broached the topic indirectly

IMO

[boston bean]

5. I only saw Obama and then Felipe speak. I didn't get to see the question and answer.

But I'm sure it must have been awkward.

[Badfish]

6. This appears to have started under the Bush JD

[boston bean]

7. I was searching for just that type of info, do you have a link? nt

[Badfish]

8. I was looking at this...

January. William (Bill) Newell, Special Agent in charge of the Phoenix ATF Office stated in 2008 "When 90 percent-plus of the firearms recovered from these violent drug cartels are from a U.S. source (false statement according to the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General), we have a responsibility to do everything we can to stem the illegal flow of these firearms to these thugs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,_Tobacco,_Firearms_and_Explosives

[boston bean]

10. interesting, thanks. nt

[gratuitous]

13. See, I KNEW it couldn't be this administration's fault

And there's no way they could have stopped this program in more than two years since, so the guns keep flowing into Mexico, and the completely surprising result is that a lot of people are collecting bullets in various parts of their bodies, some of them are even white.

I am, however, reliably informed that as big a fucking mess as this is, there is nothing that can be done, because compromises must be made. I am also, I am reliably informed, unqualified to comment or complain about it because of some unspecified compromise I may or may not have made over the course of my lifetime.

So yes, this is apparently a LOT of fun, and I'm trying to get used to it.

[boston bean]

9. and one of those guns was used in a murder where an ATF agent was gunned down.

On Dec. 14, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down. Dodson got the bad news from a colleague.

According to Dodson, "They said, 'Did you hear about the border patrol agent?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And they said 'Well it was one of the Fast and Furious guns.' There's not really much you can say after that."

Two assault rifles ATF had let go nearly a year before were found at Terry's murder.

Dodson said, "I felt guilty. I mean it's crushing. I don't know how to explain it."

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Our leaders have lost their minds.

[boston bean]

12. yes, let's allow people to die so we can build a case... wtf were they thinking...

[X_Digger]

14. They're thinking.. "Hrmm, it's appropriations time. How can we boost our numbers?" n/t