Federal firearms agents feared it would backfire. Rep. Darrell
Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee, has called it “felony stupid.” The response to Operation
Fast and Furious has lived up to the program’s name, with the Obama
administration under scrutiny for what now seems like a tragically
harebrained scheme.
An initiative of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives (ATF), Fast and Furious was a gun-running sting
operation that has gone badly awry, letting hundreds of weapons
flow into the hands of Mexican drug cartels and leaving at least
one federal agent dead.
When someone walks into an American gun shop to purchase weapons
and then pass them along to Mexican drug gangs, it had always been
standard operating procedure for the federal government to build
cases against these suspected straw buyers quickly and interdict
the weapons.
The brainstorm behind Operation Fast and Furious was that
letting some of these straw buyers walk off with the semiautomatic
weapons would enable the government to move away from targeting
small buyers and instead bring down entire arms trafficking
networks when the guns were traced. Unfortunately, the weapons too
often turned up again only after they had been used in subsequent
crimes, including murders.
Two guns linked to Operation Fast and Furious were found at the
scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s December slaying in
Arizona. Terry’s mother was asked what she would say to those
responsible if a gun being tracked under the program was the one
that killed her son. “I do not know what I would say to them,” she
said, “but I would want to know what they’d say to me.”
All told, over 2,000 guns — including AK-47s and .50-caliber
rifles, and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition — were allowed
to “walk” into the possession of Mexican drug lords. The ATF admits
that nearly 800 of these guns were used in crimes on both sides of
the border, endangering American and Mexican lives alike.
Special agents John Dodson, Olindo “Lee” Casa, and Peter
Forcelli all told Issa’s congressional committee that their
superiors ordered them to allow suspects to walk away with
dangerous weapons, often over their strenuous objections. The
agents testified that the strategy was never very likely to work,
because serial numbers were the only means by which they could
track the guns. GPS technology was unavailable. Forcelli called the
techniques “delusional,” estimating that guns wound up in Mexico
twice as often as the United States, and Casa said he had never
heard of letting guns walk before he worked in the ATF’s Phoenix
office.
The consensus is that Operation Fast and Furious was “reckless”
and a “disaster.” Now the only question is how far up the chain of
command the decision-making went. President Obama and Attorney
General Eric Holder have both said that they did not authorize the
program. So who did? So far senior ATF officials have taken the
brunt of the blame, but lawmakers are looking at the Justice
Department.
“The department’s leadership allowed the ATF to implement this
flawed strategy, fully aware of what was taking place on the
ground,” Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) concluded in their
report. “This hapless plan allowed the guns in question to
disappear out of the agency’s view. As a result, this chain of
events inevitably placed the guns in the hands of violent
criminals.”
Congressional investigators uncovered Justice Department memos
urging a different approach to handling border violence. “Given the
national scope of this issue, merely seizing firearms through
interdiction will not stop firearms trafficking to Mexico,” reads
an October 2009 memo from then Deputy Attorney General David
Ogden’s office. “We must identify, investigate, and eliminate the
sources of illegally trafficked firearms and the networks that
transport them.”
Issa’s committee has leaked emails showing the acting director
of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, and his acting deputy, William Hoover,
received weekly updates on the operation’s progress. The Wall
Street Journal reported that Melson may be ousted this week in
connection with the Operation Fast and Furious controversy.
Attempts to discover more information have led to a standoff
between the Oversight Committee and the Obama Justice Department.
Last week, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich protested that
some of the requested documents would endanger ongoing
prosecutions. Issa held up an entirely redacted document and
shouted at Weich. “How dare you make an opening statement of
cooperation!” the chairman thundered. “You’ve given us black
paper.”
Special agent Forcelli said simply, “Someone needs to step up
and say, ‘We made a mistake.’” Things are getting furiouser and
furiouser.
