Did the Obama Administration Help Smuggle Guns into Mexico?

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

Submitted by may on Fri, 2011-06-17 01:59
 

Hearings are taking place in our Capitol on Operation Fast and Furious.  It appears that a part of this Operation included efforts by the Obama Administration to allow more than 1,000 guns to be illegally smuggled into Mexico?
Was it the intent of the Obama Administration to escalate gun violence caused by the Mexican drug cartels, trace the guns used in the violence to gun shops in the United States, and use this information as an excuse to infringe on legal gun sales and gun ownership in the United States?  Was the gun smuggling somehow connected to Obama’s efforts to control gun ownership in the United States?  Hopefully clarification in this important matter will be forthcoming.

US Border Patrol agents, members of Congress, and the Mexican government are all very concerned as to what has been happening.  Gary Bauer reported on Thursday,

Can you believe the Obama Administration was running guns into Mexico, arming the drug cartels?  That may sound like a bad joke, but it was the focus yesterday of a very intense hearing on Capitol Hill into a program known as Operation Fast and Furious.

In 2006, the Bush Administration launched a program of sting operations to identify illegal weapons dealers on the American side of the border who were supplying guns to Mexican drug gangs.  But some time in 2009, top officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms decided to allow the weapons to cross the border, hoping to track them in Mexico.  The plan horrified rank and file agents, who objected strenuously.

During yesterday's hearing, three ATF agents testified that they had repeatedly requested permission to stop the weapons shipments but were overruled each time by superiors.  Last year, their worst fears were realized when Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot and killed along the Arizona border.  Two weapons found at the scene were later identified as part of Operation Fast and Furious.

For months, Republican members of Congress have been demanding information about this program and who authorized it.  The Obama Justice Department has stonewalled their requests at every opportunity.  Holding up entire pages of redacted material, Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, blasted a top administration official for claiming they were cooperating.  Issa said, "You've given us black paper."

If the Obama Administration were secretly arming good guys rather than bad guys, the situation might be quite different.  Arming Mexican drug cartels is not a good thing.
Once again it appears that Barack Obama and his Administration are the cause of the problem rather than being a part of the solution.  Will the Republicans have the courage to take any serious actions in this matter?








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