CBS News has confirmed that ATF Fast and Furious “walked” guns have been linked to the terrorist torture and murder of the brother of a Mexican state attorney general last fall.
That is ‘recall the Mexican ambassador to the USA’ bad. Wars have been started over less – probably not in this case, given the rather lopsided power levels of the two countries involved, but that does not excuse anything. It also answers once and for all just how much Mexican officials knew about Operation Fast & Furious / Gunrunner in the first place; and I cannot imagine that the Mexican government is pleased with us right now. I cannot actually blame them, either.
Background here: the short version is that the US government set up a program where it deliberately permitted firearms intended to be illegally resold in Mexico be resold in Mexico. Naturally, these guns were then used to kill people, including at least one Federal agent (and now, Mexican officials). There is increasing speculation that the overarching goal was to use this situation to justify more stringent gun control laws in the United States.
Heads will roll over this.
Via Say Uncle, via Instapundit.
Moe Lane
One amazing thing about this story is how long it had been out there before it ever became visible. It had been percolating out on the 2nd amendment blogs for at least a couple of months before anyone paid attention to it outside of a few sites. And I have to tell you that when I first read about it I was extremely skeptical – surely not even the Obama administration would have been this stupid.
I’m not sure that the heads that need to roll are going to roll, though, because there’s no way that the Obama administration will investigate itself, and I’m very doubtful that the Senate’s going to be willing to sign off on a special prosecutor.
Skip, from my own experience in this sort of thing it’s not surprising that it took time to percolate. The really juicy stories often do.
As to investigating themselves… heh. There’s word out that the designated fall guy for this doesn’t want to be the designated fall guy for this, and is willing to raise a stink accordingly.
“Heads will roll over this.”
Disagree. A few low-level staffers will resign, they’ll blame most of it on the guy they’ve already fired, and the press will bury the worst of it. Oh, except they’ll keep up with the “American guns cause Mexican violence” story line. Too useful to give up.