The below is not the entire Univision Operation Fast & Furious expose: it’s merely about ten minutes of it. Ten very graphic, very infuriating, and very embarrassing ten minutes of it. Don’t watch it if you have a physical/mental problem with seeing people being murdered on-screen, and for real:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y1Zz3otzos
(see also this ABC article)
It’s a useful primer for what happened: which is to say, Mexican drug cartels decided to buy guns from US shops and the US government (ATF Special Agent William Newell* is mentioned by name, but he’s not the only one caught up in this mess) decided to not only let them; they decided to track illegal gun sales by waiting to see when and where guns known to have been sold illegally showed up at Mexican crime scenes.
Please pause for a moment to think about it. And possibly participate in a calming exercise.
Moving on, there is a lot of frankly outrageous things in this clip, so let’s get into a few of the worst ones:
- Univision tracked down an additional 57 guns in the OF&F list that had been used in crimes (ones not known to Congress). One of the most awful ones? The murder of sixteen people -“mostly teenagers” – at a Juarez birthday party in 2010.
- The murder of USAF Sgt. David Booher (wrong place, wrong time, apparently) was touched on. This was more of a general observation about how brazen the cartels have gotten – Univision did not actually attempt to link the murder to Operation Fast & Furious – but it still bears noting that the US government knew precisely what kind of environment that they were attempting to manipulate with the program.
- And then there was ATF Special Agent Hope MacAllister. You may remember Ms. MacAllister from some interesting conversations that she had with one particular gun dealer; but what was brought up yesterday was her actions involving the detaining of Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta in 2010. Now, we already knew that she and the ATF let Celis go in exchange for ‘cooperation’, despite the fact that he was running drugs; we just didn’t know the stunningly unprofessional nature of her ‘recruitment,’ which involved her writing her cell number on a ten dollar bill and giving it to the new informant (who, naturally, never actually cooperated with the ATF).
And that’s just the one clip. We haven’t even gotten into all the other places in North and South America where the US government was doing the same thing that they were doing in, or more accurately to, Mexico. Or the US law enforcement officials that our government helped get killed. Or even the incredibly offensive way that the government refuses to take responsibility for any of this, or get out of the way of horrified investigators trying to trace where things went wrong. Or any of the rest of it.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: Eric Holder. Must. Resign. And the Romney-Ryan campaign MUST beat that drum every day, until Holder does. This is not about elections. This is about the honor of the United States of America.
*Newell, by the way, has lawyered up and is now claiming via attorney that the Mexicans were aware about Operation Fast & Furious. One wonders what evidence the man has for that.
Nobody cares.
Mew
(and that, in a nutshell, is the problem with F&F as an issue)
Mew
Actually, I disagree: Republicans care, and Mexico cares a hell of a lot. Univision did Obama no favors yesterday among Latino voters.
Then again, that’s irrelevant. This was awful, what was done. If I have to die on the hill of saying so, so be it.
I don’t know acat – I bet there are a lot of folks in the Hispanic communities that care about us arming violent gangs to commit acts of violent gang thuggery in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Columbia that we know of. The defense of Holder has been Operation Fast & Furious was an isolated program that was at the street level. The existence of Operation Cast Away proves that to be absolutely false (as if anyone with a functioning brain believed it anyway). I now believe the e-mails that were executive priviledged will show that Operation Fast and Furious was a part of a larger initiative of the Obama Justice Department to provide weapons and intel to Hispanic drug gangs for whatever purpose.
Just wait until the DOMESTIC part of OF&F is uncovered. The straw purchases the BATF ordered to go through in Indianapolis were more likely destined to Detroit and Chicago than Mexico, after all.
Rob – That is what I have been concerned about thank you since all of these gangs do act in the United States what about LA, Chicago, Detroit, heck Nashville, TN. That is one of the questions Issa should be asking everyone he drags in front of his committee: WHERE ARE THOSE GUNS!!!!
Oh, and I don’t care if Holder resigns or not. He committed crimes; he should serve prison time. He should serve the sentences consecutively, so he dies in prison. Since the idea here was to a) fund criminal activity in the form of straw purchases, b) illegally export firearms to a foreign nation, c) wait for those illegal weapons to be used in the commission of murders, then d) use the resulting “scandal” to violate the rights of US citizens, he’s ultimately on the hook for accessory to murder. Dozens of them.
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(And if anyone doubts that gun control was the goal, the BATF used the “increasing number of US-bought rifles found in Mexico” as an excuse to impose illegal extra reporting on licensed dealers. That “increasing number” was the result of OF&F; they were ORDERING dealers to go through with illegal sales, then declaring those sales as a reason to impose more reporting on the dealers.)
I think, Moe, that if the Univision reporting doesn’t break the “cone of silence” around F&F .. nothing will.
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I absolutely agree that it’s awful. I wonder whether Mexico would like to extradite Holder .. see him stand trial there. (introducing yet another spot for lefty cognitive dissonance .. they won’t want that to happen, but he won’t face the death penalty because Mexico is so enlightened as not to have one…)
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Thing is, as an *issue*, F&F has yet to get traction .. so unless the Univision thing bubbles over, F&F is headed for the history books as “not prosecuted while he was in office…”.
Mew
acat: I think he should have to go live in Juarez myself; unarmed of course since he believes in restricting the rights of law abiding citizens (I’ll stretch the meaning of law abiding for these purposes). I mean that is only fair right; Holder broke it- he ought to fix it and since he does believe only psychotic thugs have need of weapons, He should live in Juarez unarmed without protection. I suspect Issa’s stenographers couldn’t take notes fast enough if Holder and Breuer were facing an unarmed vacation to Juarez.
Tractionless things are the easiest to push.
Here’s the thing, if Romney stands up and directly blames Obama for the violent deaths of hundreds of Mexicans, how can Obama respond?
It’s a sledgehammer right between the eyes. If he stammers about it somehow being Bush’s fault, hit him again. This project began in Fall of 2009. You were President then, were you not? Or did you not know about an unlawful program your administration was effecting that directly affected two of your most important Departments?
There’s simply no way for Obama to win a direct confrontation on the issue.
Now, it may be true that most Americans don’t particularly care about dead foreigners.
But Mexican-descended Americans are a demographic that Obama needs to win, and a significant number of them care quite a bit.
Also, it’s a wonderful clarifying issue. There aren’t varying interpretations. Undermining welfare reform can be painted as compassionate to a large percentage of the population. This can’t. This was a program that was not only wrong, but evil.
Romney is the first person in a position to make him address the issue, and hammer him when he ducks. I dearly hope he does.
“Romney is the first person in a position to make him address the issue, and hammer him when he ducks. I clearly hope he does.”
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” Hahahaha-hoohoohoohoo-heeheeehee. And I thought MY jokes were bad.”
Really?
Who has been in a position to force Obama to answer a question?
Luke – it’s also an issue with a moral element. (As if Obama hadn’t proven amoral enough already, but it’s worth hitting again…)
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Murder is wrong in every major religion. So’s enabling it.
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The trouble, I think, has been credibility. Nobody’s been able to push F&F because it’s *so* awful .. *so* “ugly americano”.
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It’s hard to accept that it happened .. doubly so when you consider the president a “lightworker”.
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I expect, if Romney hits him, for one of the moderators to step in .. and I *hope* Gingrich has been involved in debate prep, because that’s the perfect opportunity to get a liver. (erm .. indict the media right along with Obama)
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Mew
If Romney actually brings this up during the debates, I will be impressed.