ATF Responsible For Arming Cartel For “War”

Too much here to quote. Read the whole thing.

The failed federal anti-gunrunning program known as Operation Fast and Furious got so out of control in November 2009, it appeared the U.S. government was single-handedly “arming for war” the Sinaloa Cartel, documents show, even as U.S. officials kept lying to fellow agents in Mexico about the volume of guns it helped send south of the border….

Meanwhile, the report claims the agents’ superiors in Washington met every Tuesday, to review the latest sales figures and the number of guns recovered in Mexico.

“How long are you going to let this go on?” Steve Martin, an assistant director of intelligence operations asked the ATF top brass at meeting Jan. 5, 2010…

Meanwhile, ATF agents in Mexico were seeing a flood of weapons coming south. When asked, ATF brass told the resident ATF attaché in Mexico things were “under control.”

“They were afraid I was going to brief the ambassador on it or brief the government of Mexico,” said Darren Gil, former ATF attaché in Mexico.
For months, officials assured Gil that Fast and Furious was going to be “shut down,” but it wasn’t.

“We’re getting hurt down here,” Gil told ATF International Affairs Chief Daniel Kumor.

Kumor reportedly raised Gil’s concerns and was told the case “was going great,” and nothing happened until the death of Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

…

The precise number of casualties in Mexico isn’t known, but ATF officials confirm the murder of Mario Gonzales Rodriguez, brother of the Chihuahua attorney general, with a Fast and Furious gun.

According to the report, the U.S. knew for eight months of the link between the ATF operation and his death, but refused to tell any Mexican officials. Finally the acting ATF attaché told the Mexican Attorney General Maricela Morales. Her reply, “Hijole,” which translates into “Oh my.”

 

There’s more there too, and someone will have to explain this new wrinkle to me:

1, We already knew they weren’t following the guns, which is preposterous enough, but instead,

2, Apparently the idea was that they were to follow the money used to buy them… but then weren’t allowed to follow the money, either.

What?

Newell said the purpose of the operation was to dismantle the entire Mexican cartel but agents testified they were not allowed to do that when they saw transfers of money and weren’t permitted to follow the money.

Newell, who as I noted earlier is courting a perjury prosecution, was kind enough to acknowledge that maybe some mistakes were made.

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