Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman has directed the staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which he chairs, to examine miscommunication between law enforcement agencies related to the Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious.
A spokesperson told The Daily Caller Wednesday that Lieberman “believe[s] that the lack of interagency coordination along the border merits further examination, and as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he has directed his staff to follow up with the relevant federal agencies on that topic.”
Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who legally purchase guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.
At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown.
Fast and Furious was only one of several of the programs in Project Gunwalker. One, based in Arizona.
In the Houston area, the BATFE and DOJ had started proceedings against one of the chains of stores that sold the weapons to the straw purchaser/s. After said stores’ employees contacted the local BATFE office with their suspicions.
That’s right; the Feds were planning on busting the very stores that were ORDERED to sell weapons to the cartel buyers, against their better judgement. IIRC, Carter’s Country was one of the chains involved, but I cannot locate the articles from 18-24 months ago.
@Thundergod
This is one that deals with that fiasco. No comment from BATF, of course.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/13/AR2010121305395.html