I love it when the media actually does their job. Fortune Magazine investigated the whole “Fast and Furious” scandal. You know, the one where Republicans are accusing ATF of allowing guns to be sold to Mexican drug cartels, two of which guns were used to kill border patrol agent Brian Terry.
I knew something didn’t make sense when the same people who accuse the Democrats of trying to curtail second amendment rights were complaining because Obama didn’t arrest people for buying guns. But I didn’t realize how overblown and politicized this has become until now.
It turns out that the ATF was not purposely letting guns “walk” and end up in Mexico. The truth is that the gun laws are so weak in Arizona that there were no grounds for arresting the people that ATF knew were buying guns for the Mexican drug cartels. It simply isn’t illegal to purchase these guns and then either sell or give them to someone else. Indeed, the ATF has been criticized in the past for trying to arrest people for just this!
And the guns found at the scene of Brian Terry’s murder? The ATF had been notified of the purchase of those guns after the fact, and dutifully entered their serial numbers into their database. But they had never even seen the guns, nor had any chance to seize them. Nor could they have seized them if they had wanted to, since they were legally purchased.
There are many other parts of this controversy that are entirely made up.
But that’s politics.
Interestingly, even Jon Stewart’s humorous take on Fast and Furious gets it wrong:
4 Comments
I think both the DOJ and Holder jumped into damage control immediately without even checking the facts themselves first, which gave the appearance that they did something wrong. Then claiming executive priviledge just shrouds everything in mystery that turns into conspiracy thinking. I think in this case sunlight would be the better prescription.
I read the fortune mag piece and while it did bring up concerning and good points it derived much of its info from those who stand to have fingers pointed at them. I listened to Eban talking on CNN last night and she pointed out one piece of information about 1 suspect who was unemployed and purchased $300,000 worth of weapons and claimed that the ATF said they were powerless to stop. What I know of financial laws and money laundering is that either that person carried cash into the store or had cash or deposits into their bank account. There are strong financial crime laws in place and it would be too easy to trace those funds. It would be relatively easy to determine if money was funneled into that persons account for the purpose of purchasing weapons for distribution. So what I’m saying is if the ATF didn’t know how to track the finances they should have partnered up with an agency that does and not doing so makes me believe they were either negligent or incompetent.
I’m sure more info will begin to come out and it will be interesting to see it unfold. I’d just caution against throwing all your eggs in one basket based on one article. If the top brass, which includes Holder simply folded and bailed before determining the facts then that also speaks of poor leadership and lack of loyalty to those you lead.
PATRIOTSGT: If the top brass, which includes Holder simply folded and bailed before determining the facts then that also speaks of poor leadership and lack of loyalty to those you lead.
I disagree – it speaks of people who have seen faulty evidence, misdirection, and lies used time and time again to bring down people and institutions who had done nothing wrong. Being innocent isn’t enough anymore, especially in the court of public opinion. Just ask Acorn. Ask Shirley Sherrod. Ask Sandra Fluke what it’s like when the conservative machine gets their claws into you. Ask Planned Parenthood. Etc.
Though I do agree with the “lack of loyalty” part, especially in the Shirley Sherrod case – the USDA should have stood behind their employee in the case of obvious smear tactics.
Unforunately, doing what’s right is rarely politically wise, or even expedient. But I wish someone would call the right on their disgusting tactics.
Oh, and Anonymous, you forgot “ClimateGate”.