Fast and Furious Scandal: New Details Emerge on How the U.S. Government Armed Mexican Drug Cartels

Fast and Furious Scandal: New Details Emerge on How the U.S. Government Armed Mexican Drug Cartels

An investigation by Univision has apparently uncovered even more appalling information about the failed Fast & Furious gun running operation that was / is responsible for many deaths.

This ABC News story has details and a video .....

On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.

Indirectly, the United States government played a role in the massacre by supplying some of the firearms used by the cartel murderers. Three of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to a Mexican army document obtained exclusively by Univision News.

Univision News identified a total of 57 more previously unreported firearms that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites related to murders, kidnappings, and at least one other massacre.

Fast and Furious Scandal: New Details Emerge on How the U.S. Government Armed Mexican Drug Cartels

Related...

Tomorrow, September 30, Univision will be airing “Aqui y Ahora” (Here and Now) about Fast & Furious. It will document the people who lost their lives because of this program. Univision’s investigative unit found many more deaths linked to Fast & Furious and will talk about them during the special, including the killing of 16 young people at a party.

The most well known Mexican victim is Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez, a prominent Chihuahua City lawyer. His sister was Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez, who at the time was the Attorney General of Chihuahua. His body was found in a shallow grave on November 5, 2010. A few days later, the police had a shoot out with cartel members and seized sixteen weapons. Two of the AK-47s were linked to Fast & Furious.

2,000 guns were walked and hundreds are still missing. Recently, 200 showed up in Colombia. Univision notes that other guns have been found in Puerto Rico and Honduras. Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News reported last year that guns were found at twelve crime scenes across America.

Univision To Air Fast & Furious Special

I fail to uderstand how Holder earns some black role model award for being such a lying scumbag......
This is all gone down on his watch, he was censured by congress, and still hes on the winners list......
The NWO minions can do no wrong i guess.............

reply to post by xuenchen



Shhhhhh..........................

Quiet, X.

Don't talk about this, while an election is going to take place....


Unless.......You can place Bush, or Romney, at the scene of the crime.

Then, by all means, carry on, and blast away.

It's absolutely disgusting that no one has gone to jail over this yet. Whoever was responsible for this debacle is a criminal.

Hopefully the few who care will keep pushing the issue and won't let this die. A simple "resignation" won't do.

Originally posted by DiabolusFireDragon
It's absolutely disgusting that no one has gone to jail over this yet. Whoever was responsible for this debacle is a criminal.

Just imagine. The man behind the curtain, is still getting a pass, and is bucking for his second term.




And his supporters, in turn, wont bring it up, because its obviously a non-issue for them. But...........

Anything anti-Romney is.

Watch this Obama performance when finally someone has the ^*lls to even question him on the subject --

reply to post by Maluhia



It was Bushs fault..........


This guy is the biggest idiot out there.


Period.

reply to post by Maluhia


Good video

Obama looks like his usual arrogant self

How DARE they.

reply to post by sonnny1

This guy is the biggest idiot out there.

Yep he's one of the biggest but, the people who believe him are perhaps even bigger!

What a crock of fecal matter. It was Bush's fault, how could we have missed that??? Mexico needs to lean on this to stir up the ignorant. Our media seems to treat it like it's not there. Maybe some foreign pressure will rouse them. Hard to ignore a story that is being pursued by foreign news outfits.

Have you seen "End of Watch"?

Mexican drug cartels ship drugs to America, and American criminals (mostly through straw-man purchases) ship firearms to Mexico. Narcos have a massive amount of cash to do this. The ATF is too far behind the curve to keep guns out of Mexico. Understaffed, underfunded, and limited by laws to the point they can't pose any threat to Narcos. How can the ATF stop the flow of arms to Mexico, if it can't observe the action in progress? When feds investigate large-scale drug smuggling ops, they have to let some drugs/money "walk", in order to know how to shut it down.

The GOP knew this, which is why in 2005 Alberto Gonzalez and the Bush Admin started Project Gunwalker. That project led to Operation Wide Receiver, then Operation Fast & Furious. BOTH operations allowed guns to "walk" into Mexico. Let's face facts - we are at war with the Narcos in Mexico, and until the ATF can crack the flow of arms through straw-man outfits, it will never have the means to prosecute this war.

I find the actions of the GOP underhanded, in that they absolved themselves of all responsibility for a project (Gunwalker) initiated under their former DOJ head, while shifting virtually all blame onto Holder. Holder still had the responsibility to prevent active investigation records from being publicized, something he and every DOJ head are bound, BY LAW, to do. Issa knew he was asking Holder to break the law by asking for these records which pertained to still active and open investigations. Issa also showed his bias by not pursuing the investigation past a certain point, that would have involved Gonzalez or the previous Operation (Wide Receiver) under their administration which also resulted in 'lost' firearms to Mexico.

The war with the Narcos is going to have to get much much bloodier, it's inevitable, and we need to "unchain" the ATF and DEA to deal with it. This "F&F" sideshow has done nothing but cripple and diminish the ATF for political gain by the GOP. Had this happened in the previous administration, they (the GOP) would have been accusing the DNC of treason for debilitating the ATF.

I can also assure you, the ATF does not have to lift a finger to help Mexico get guns from the US. The Narcos are getting them in droves, and are posing a serious threat to not only Mexico, but the southern border and border states like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

By all means, continue deriding the ATF and Holder and accuse them of "arming Mexican drug cartels" - you are only deluding yourself into the real war taking place and doing so purely for partisan political gain. I can only hope the information gained by the ATF would have helped them pursue the Narcos and put them out of business, but not if the ATF is forced to reveal it's classified ongoing investigation paperwork. Issa is doing the Narcos a HUGE favor in this case.

reply to post by frankensence


Remember a key detail Mexico was aware of Gun Walker and worked with the ATF. If you had been following this from the start you would see the truth and not the fairy tales the administration has spread about it. By the way End of watch is a Hollywood movie and not the biography of events.

link I

he Fast and Furious investigation was initiated in October 2009, eleven months before Chait's formal policy change. With direct blessing of ATF headquarters in Washington and supervision by the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix, a special ATF strike force known as Group VII was given permission to let federally licensed gun shops continue selling weapons to straw buyers already linked to a suspected Mexican gun running operation.

Since it seems so many want to believe Obama had nothing to do with this. Plus stimulus money went to pay for the program. So much for the administration not knowing.Thread

Originally posted by hangedman13
reply to post by frankensence

 

Remember a key detail Mexico was aware of Gun Walker and worked with the ATF. If you had been following this from the start you would see the truth and not the fairy tales the administration has spread about it. By the way End of watch is a Hollywood movie and not the biography of events.

F&F is part of Gunwalker. Gunwalker is the project umbrella under which Operation F&F operates. Your reply does not offer any form of refutation of my post. And yes, Captain Obvious, I'm aware "End of Watch" is a Hollywood movie, I mentioned it as it illustrates in good order how dire the Narco wars are becoming with Mexico. You will be wishing the ATF had taken this operation 10 steps further to shut down these arms/drugs pipelines instead of piling on with GOP political maneuvers in an election year.

Gunwalker was stopped in 2007 after found out it was a total failure.

Seriously some people need to stop regurgitating msm lies, and they are lies.

Fast and furious is owned by the current administration.

Originally posted by neo96
Gunwalker was stopped in 2007 after found they found out it was a total failure.

Seriously some people need to stop regurgitating msm lies, and they are lies.

Fast and furious is owned by the current administration.

edit on 30-9-2012 by neo96 because: (no reason given)

"Fast and furious is owned by the current administration"

Owned and Operated BY the current administration

reply to post by xuenchen


They armed Libyan rebels,they armed syrian rebels, but no no they "never ever would arm Mexican drug cartels."

They really are living in their own fantasy land someone else "built that".

reply to post by neo96


You appear to be the one regurgitating lies. Project Gunrunner was not stopped, and it is the umbrella under which Operation F&F operated. In fact the SAME HEAD of Operation Wide Receiver also ran Operation F&F, Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell.

What is "Fast and Furious"?

"Fast and Furious" is the name ATF assigned to a group of Phoenix, Arizona-area gun trafficking cases under Project Gunrunner that began in fall of 2009. It's the largest of several known operations in which ATF employed gunwalking, involving more than 2,000 weapons, including hundreds of AK-47 type semi-automatic rifles and .50 caliber rifles. According to sources who worked directly on the case, the vast majority of guns were not tracked and Mexico's government was not fully informed of the case. The ATF Special Agent in Charge of the operation was Bill Newell.

What is "Wide Receiver"?

"Wide Receiver" is the name ATF assigned to a group of gun trafficking cases investigated out of the Tucson, Arizona office beginning in 2006. Like Fast and Furious, it was supervised by ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell. Sources indicate it involved about 275 "walked" guns. According to sources who worked directly on the case, the vast majority of guns were not tracked and Mexico's government was not fully informed of the case. Apparently worried that the gunwalking tactics could be viewed as inappropriate, federal prosecutors in Arizona abandoned the case. Then, in fall of 2009, Justice Department officials decided to go ahead and prosecute the case.

Who thought up the idea to use gunwalking to try to counter gun trafficking to Mexican drug cartels?

Nobody has publicly acknowledged being the architect of the plan and available documents shed no light on the answer. Justice Department officials have maintained it was a scandal brainstormed at the ATF Phoenix level. The same ATF Special Agent in Charge, Bill Newell, supervised the Bush era Wide Receiver gunwalking operation and some of the later gunwalking cases, including Fast and Furious.

What are Operations "Castaway," "Too Hot to Handle," and the Hernandez case?

Operations Castaway and Too Hot to Handle are among a dozen or so other cases ATF operated that allegedly employed gunwalking in recent years including Florida, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. In the Hernandez case, started under the Bush Administration in 2007, documents show ATF agents watched several suspects and weapons cross the border in coordination with Mexican officials who then failed to stop the suspects, so they were lost.

Virtually everything about F&F began in the Bush era, under then AG Gonzalez. Now here's the rub - I don't blame Bush or his cabinet. I think the operations had merit. They can't tackle the Narcos if they can't determine how and where the guns they buy in America are getting into Mexico and where in Mexico they end up. Keep in mind, the CRIMINALS bought the guns and smuggled them, the ATF did not interfere when suspicious gun dealers contacted them about shifty buyers.

Good or bad, undercover ops like this are a necessary part of the Narco wars. The part where the GOP crossed the line was when they demanded Holder release to the public ACTIVE, ONGOING INVESTIGATION REPORTS based on F&F and Project Gunrunner - that would have DIRECTLY AIDED THE NARCOS.

Everything- Project Gunrunner, Wide Receiver, Fast & Furious, all of it - was an ATF project, not a presidential project. The GOP are not interested in a serious investigation, because they refuse to look beyond a certain point because they do not want the full truth to come out, only enough to hang Holder on. Why do you think so many "conservatives", such as yourself (neo), refuse to even acknowledge Operation Wide Receiver or Project Gunrunner? Why do you think the Obama has refused to release docs pertaining to Bush-era ATF operations like WR? Because those are still active and open investigations, not only barred by law from release by the AG but would be of direct and imminent aid to the Narcos who are becoming a dire menace to the border states.


Here is Project Gunrunner:
en.wikipedia.org...

It was the direct project under which Op F&F was initiated.

reply to post by frankensence


Try again
2009–2011: Operation Fast and Furious

On October 26, 2009, a teleconference was held at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. to discuss U.S. strategy for combating Mexican drug cartels. Participating in the meeting were Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller and the top federal prosecutors in the Southwestern border states. They decided on a strategy to identify and eliminate entire arms trafficking networks rather than low-level buyers.[3][34][35] Those at the meeting did not suggest using the "gunwalking" tactic, but Phoenix ATF supervisors would soon use it in an attempt to achieve the desired goals.[36]

en.wikipedia.org...

Here is a comparison of wide receiver and fast & furious.link Seems that lots of folks are missing the point of how this happened. The original timing was so "perfect" with the under the radar gun control statement and the US gun's recovered in Mexico statistics. Funny thing is the 90% claim of the guns was later debunked, I wonder what that all had to do with executive privilege and fast & furious?