What an amazing display of ineptitude today by the spokesperson for our President. First he forgot the name of the border patrol agent killed due to Operation Fast & Furious:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbcsw5TPyas[/youtube]
It gets better
And when it comes to the operation itself, everything has been provided to congressional investigators. And that is really the issues, isn’t it? It is, how did this operation come about? It originated in a field office during the previous administration. It was ended under this administration by this attorney general.
Jake Tapper had to correct him and tell him that no, it didn’t originate in a field office during Bush’s presidency. Of course he backpedals and says that well, um, he meant that the other operation, Wide Receiver, started during Bush’s administration.
TAPPER: It began in fall 2009. The Operation Fast and Furious began –
CARNEY: The tactic began in the previous administration.
Completely and utterly false.
In that operation the “tactic” was to track the guns and arrest the purchasers PRIOR to getting across the border. The operation was shut down when they realized that they had lost weapons across the border. The “tactic” of Fast & Furious was to allow those weapons to walk. The exact opposite of Wide Receiver.
…Wide Receiver actually involved not gun-walking but controlled delivery. Unlike gun-walking, which seems (for good reason) to have been unheard of until Fast & Furious, controlled delivery is a very common law enforcement tactic. Basically, the agents know the bad guys have negotiated a deal to acquire some commodity is either illegal itself (e.g., heroin, child porn) or illegal for them to have/use (e.g., guns, corporate secrets). The agents allow the transfer to happen under circumstances where they are in control — i.e., they are on the scene conducting surveillance of the transfer, and sometimes even participating undercover in the transfer. As soon as the transfer takes place, they can descend on the suspects, make arrests, and seize the commodity in question — all of which makes for powerful evidence of guilt.
Senator Schumer’s drawing of an equivalence between “tracing” in a controlled-delivery situation and “tracing” in Fast & Furious is laughable. In a controlled delivery firearms case, guns are traced in the sense that agents closely and physically follow them — they don’t just note the serial numbers or other identifying markers. The agents are thus able to trace the precise path of the guns from, say, American dealers to straw purchasers to Mexican buyers.
To the contrary, Fast & Furious involved uncontrolled deliveries — of thousands of weapons. It was an utterly heedless program in which the feds allowed these guns to be sold to straw purchasers — often leaning on reluctant gun dealers to make the sales. The straw purchasers were not followed by close physical surveillance; they were freely permitted to bulk transfer the guns to, among others, Mexican drug gangs and other violent criminals — with no agents on hand to swoop in, make arrests, and grab the firearms. The inevitable result of this was that the guns have been used (and will continue to be used) in many crimes, including the murder of Brian Terry, a U.S. border patrol agent.
And it wasn’t until the murder of that border patrol agent….you know, whatshisname….that the operation was shut down.
Pathetic.
And finally in a sign that even our liberal media see’s through this administration, when Carney tries to assert that Obama invoked executive privilege due to “principal” the reporters in the room burst out laughing:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okN2vCZw3pA[/youtube]
See author page
Try this yourself:
Dial USCIS’s toll-free DREAM amnesty number (1-800-375-LATE) .
One person did this 6 times and got 6 different people.
He asked all six different staff people whether someone who crossed the Rio Grande on his own at age 14 (and thus was not “brought” to the U.S. by his parents) would qualify.
Three people said yes, he would qualify, one said no, and two didn’t know.
Carney looks stoned. Maybe he’s now part of the Choom Gang?
I think Carney is probably the WORST press secretary since Nixon’s Ron Zeigler. I know it’s hard to LIE for your boss day after day, but someone like Paul Begala or Charles Shumber should give him lessons….
Not surprised. Terry was an acceptable loss for their “any means to an end” gun regulation scheme. This happens all the time with things like no-knock warrents. We are expendable if it helps the government get what it wants.
Will any reporter ask at any time, “What is the purpose of Operation Fast and Furious”? If no surveillance was done, no tracking devices used, and guns simply allowed to go from the US into Mexico, what on earth could be the official purpose?
Basically these people dont care about Soldiers in the field or Agents on the border, unless of course it gets them positive press and then its photo op time.
I used to think Carter was the worst president we have ever had, but at least he was simply inept and had bad people advising him. You knew Carter was actually trying to make things better. This administration is Dangerous and are out for number one and no one else. Greed and Corruption run rampant and no matter what it takes as long as they get what they want they will sacrifice any of their enemies and/or thier families.
As we get closer to election day, 2012, we see that the left-leaners, the liberal-believers, and the liberal/progressive idealogues, are traveling further and further afield away from reality. Even here, at FA, it is entirely obvious to all that our liberal “friends” are using make-believe as their basis for action(comments).
What is quite amusing is when we watch, or listen, to administration officials, or major liberal political figures like Pelosi, and media figures such as those found on MSNBC and the like, that our liberal “friends” receive their information from these sources. How else can we explain the nearly comical defense our liberal “friends” attempt on F&F.
@johngalt: The Obama supporters seem to be going off the deep end as of late. Their comments are getting more bizzare and irrational every day. The election is still over four months away. If he wins, those of us who have no use for him will go about our business and deal with another 4 year disaster and try to make the best of it. Can you imagine what his diehards will do if he loses in November? They’ll be passing the Jim Jones’ kool aid.
It’s unbelievable that the media just sits back and let’s the Obama Admin defecate on their profession hourly.
@Ivan: It took NBC over a year to report on it. The MSM is defecating on themselves as well. To peas in a pod.
Kid Karney is a Lawrence Academy (f: 1824) prep school baby-kins allotted spoiled brat legacy seating into Princeton University should know-know-know basic International Relation 101 Raparian Rules; specifically, if Country-A shares a river with Country-B and then deliberately, at the border, poisons the water leading into Country-B that that there is a deliberate Act of War by Country-A upon Country-B. What has happened by the Barry O’BasketCase and Eriic HoldUp by supplying fire arms to hostile factions within Mexico are acts of war.
What’s the story with Ron Paul? Why is he crazy?