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A very interesting book
I sat next to the author on a flight into Houston, and found his book very interesting. He was an FFL and author of articles in various gun magazines. He reported a suspicious customer to ATF years ago, and at their urging, became a prominent part of "Operation Wide Receiver," which preceded "Operation Fast and Furious." He kept good notes, and this book is the result.
To make a long story short, he sold guns to Cartel buyers, documenting everything with hidden recorders and a hidden videocam, turned over the results to ATF, and was assured that the guns were being traced and cartel leaders would be taken down thanks to his work. And then given many excuses as to why no charges had yet been filed. In the end they arrested a handful of straw purchasers, and dropped charges against the one that insisted on going to trial.
After that, an Ass't US Attorney made him realize what was going on. How were they going to take down cartel leaders who were in another country? Was it done to find out which cartels the guns were going to? They knew that by the first or second shipment. To track where cartels were operating? We already knew that. The AUSA said, "I can only think of one reason why [ATF special agent in charge] Newell would allow American guns to continue to cross the border and show up at Mexican crime scenes." Neither of them had to say anything at that point.
He believes that Newell was key to the gunrunning at the outset. Then comes the presidential election, an antigun Administration, and Dennis Burke becomes US Attorney for the State. Burke boasted of having drafted the first Federal "assault weapon ban," and had later served in the Clinton White House. Burke had every reason to expand the program via Fast and Furious; he would make sure that American guns wound up at Mexican murder scenes, and set the stage for another AW ban.
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Just so I'm clear: in 2002, the President and several other high officials deliberately cooked up loose and faulty intelligence so it looked like there were WMDs in Iraq in order to make a case for war. That sounds wacky on several levels.
You see David D, letting guns go to Mexico to make the case for gun control is not a far stretch.
P.S. - And if you want a real shot to your assumptions, Google "Operation Northwoods" to see what your government almost did.
Just so I'm clear, too: "Operation Wide Receiver" (WR) was launched under the Bush administration and allowed a few hundred semi-automatic rifles - what the "gun control" lobby terms "assault weapons" - go to the cartels in Mexico. "Operation Fast and Furious" (F&F) was launched under the Obama administration, by many of the same minds as Wide Receiver, and let a few THOUSAND of the same types of rifles go to the cartels in Mexico.
Consider:
- In WR, a few hundred weapons were sold to known straw purchasers, and efforts were made to track them, which technological limitations made problematic and unreliable. The operation was cancelled quickly as a failed investigative tactic.
- In F&F, a few THOUSAND weapons were sold to known straw purchasers, and NO DOCUMENTED EFFORTS were made to track them. Despite the known failures from WR, and despite the mountain of usable evidence against the purchasers, the operation continued for months or years. It ONLY ended because of the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, in a fire-fight with cartel members, after which F&F-related weapons were recovered at the scene.
So, David D., tell me: Why do YOU think your "federal law enforcement officials" would engage in a questionable tactic, already known to be a failure when they attempted to track the weapons, this time with more weapons and no attempts to actually track them?
I suppose incredulous David D. has never heard of a "false flag" operation (such as Operation Canned Goods, used by Hitler as a pretext for invading Poland)? Did he ever read about MKUltra, in which American citizens were dosed with LSD without their prior knowledge or consent? How wonderful it must be to be as naive as David D. The tragedy (to me) is that several hundred dead Mexicans and at least two dead American LE officers are not receiving the same attention as a dead US ambassador, or the blossoming IRS scandal. Fast and Furious should have brought down the Obama administration.
Just so I am clear: Your theory is that multiple United States federal law enforcement officials engaged in a scheme to sell a large number of weapons to drug cartels in the hopes the weapons would be used in murders, in Mexico, in order to justify anti-gun legislation in this country. Is that right? It sounds wacky to me on several levels.