A Simple Human
19th September 2012, 18:41
Not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Justice found no evidence that Attorney General, Eric Holder, knew of the "Fast and Furious" operation prior to its public unraveling in January 2011. :tsk:
U.S. Department of Justice report: A Review of ATF’s Operation Fast
and Furious and Related Matters (http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2012/s1209.pdf)
From page 465 of the report:
4. Department Leadership
a. Attorney General Holder
We determined that Attorney General Holder did not learn about
Operation Fast and Furious until late January or early February 2011 and was
not aware of allegations of “gun walking” in the investigation until February.
We found no evidence that Department or ATF staff informed the Attorney
General about Operation Wide Receiver or Operation Fast and Furious prior to
2011. We concluded that the Attorney General’s Deputy Chief of Staff, the
Acting Deputy Attorney General, and the leadership of the Criminal Division
failed to alert the Attorney General to significant information about or flaws in
those investigations.
Although the Office of the Attorney General received various weekly
reports from components in the Department that mentioned Operation Fast
and Furious, we found that Attorney General Holder did not personally review
these reports at the time that his office received them and that his staff did not
highlight them for his review. Moreover, we determined that these reports did
not refer to agents’ failure to interdict firearms or include information that
otherwise provided notice of the improper strategy and tactics that ATF agents
were using in the investigation. Although the National Drug Intelligence Center
reports (NDIC) referred to 1,500 firearms that Celis-Acosta and straw
purchasers had trafficked to Mexican drug cartels, the reports did not state or
suggest that ATF had advance knowledge of the firearms purchases or
otherwise knowingly allowed the guns to cross the border.
Investigation finds no evidence AG Eric Holder knew of 'Fast and Furious' gun-running sting (http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/19/13966068-investigation-finds-no-evidence-ag-eric-holder-knew-of-fast-and-furious-gun-running-sting?lite) (NBC News)
Investigation finds no evidence AG Eric Holder knew of 'Fast and Furious' gun-running sting
By NBC News | September 19, 2012
A long-awaited report on the U.S. government’s controversial gun-trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious” released Wednesday found no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder knew of the botched effort to trace the flow of guns to Mexico’s drug cartels prior to its public unraveling in January 2011.
The report by the Justice Department’s inspector general said there is "no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was informed about Operation Fast and Furious, or learned about the tactics employed by ATF in the investigation" before Congress began pressing him for information about it in early 2011.
The inspector general did determine that the acting deputy attorney general, Gary Grindler, received a briefing about the ill-fated gun-tracing operation in March 2010, but that the briefing "failed to alert Grindler to problems in the investigation."
The operation, which reportedly allowed some 2,000 weapons to flow across the border, has become a politically charged partisan dispute heading into the November elections, with congressional Republicans charging that the Obama administration has withheld documents that would show the involvement of senior government officials, including Holder.
On June 28, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to hold. Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to disclose internal Justice Department documents in response to a subpoena – the first time that sanction has been imposed on a sitting member of a president’s Cabinet.
The department’s inspector general spent more than a year investigating the so-called “gun-walking” scandal – in which agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, commonly known by the ATF acronym, in Arizona allow suspected gun runners to take guns into Mexico. The Fast and Furious operation was part of a broader initiative known as Project Gunrunner.
Local ATF officials and local prosecutors believed they could then follow the weapons to the cartel higher-ups in Mexico. It didn't work that way. Thousands of guns were lost and only lower-level straw buyers of the weapons were ever arrested.
Two of the weapons turned up at the scene of a shootout where a federal border agent, Brian Terry, was killed on Dec. 14, 2010, near the Mexico border, though those guns were never tied directly to his death.
Rep. Darrel Issa, R-Calif., who has led the House investigation of Fast and Furious, has estimated that 200 Mexican civilians were killed by weapons linked to the operation.
A Mexican legislator, Humberto Benitez Trevino, claimed last year that weapons that crossed the border during the attempted sting have been linked to the deaths or wounding of at least 150 Mexican civilians, but did not provide any supporting documentation or say how that number was calculated.
U.S. Department of Justice report: A Review of ATF’s Operation Fast
and Furious and Related Matters (http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2012/s1209.pdf)
From page 465 of the report:
4. Department Leadership
a. Attorney General Holder
We determined that Attorney General Holder did not learn about
Operation Fast and Furious until late January or early February 2011 and was
not aware of allegations of “gun walking” in the investigation until February.
We found no evidence that Department or ATF staff informed the Attorney
General about Operation Wide Receiver or Operation Fast and Furious prior to
2011. We concluded that the Attorney General’s Deputy Chief of Staff, the
Acting Deputy Attorney General, and the leadership of the Criminal Division
failed to alert the Attorney General to significant information about or flaws in
those investigations.
Although the Office of the Attorney General received various weekly
reports from components in the Department that mentioned Operation Fast
and Furious, we found that Attorney General Holder did not personally review
these reports at the time that his office received them and that his staff did not
highlight them for his review. Moreover, we determined that these reports did
not refer to agents’ failure to interdict firearms or include information that
otherwise provided notice of the improper strategy and tactics that ATF agents
were using in the investigation. Although the National Drug Intelligence Center
reports (NDIC) referred to 1,500 firearms that Celis-Acosta and straw
purchasers had trafficked to Mexican drug cartels, the reports did not state or
suggest that ATF had advance knowledge of the firearms purchases or
otherwise knowingly allowed the guns to cross the border.
Investigation finds no evidence AG Eric Holder knew of 'Fast and Furious' gun-running sting (http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/19/13966068-investigation-finds-no-evidence-ag-eric-holder-knew-of-fast-and-furious-gun-running-sting?lite) (NBC News)
Investigation finds no evidence AG Eric Holder knew of 'Fast and Furious' gun-running sting
By NBC News | September 19, 2012
A long-awaited report on the U.S. government’s controversial gun-trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious” released Wednesday found no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder knew of the botched effort to trace the flow of guns to Mexico’s drug cartels prior to its public unraveling in January 2011.
The report by the Justice Department’s inspector general said there is "no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was informed about Operation Fast and Furious, or learned about the tactics employed by ATF in the investigation" before Congress began pressing him for information about it in early 2011.
The inspector general did determine that the acting deputy attorney general, Gary Grindler, received a briefing about the ill-fated gun-tracing operation in March 2010, but that the briefing "failed to alert Grindler to problems in the investigation."
The operation, which reportedly allowed some 2,000 weapons to flow across the border, has become a politically charged partisan dispute heading into the November elections, with congressional Republicans charging that the Obama administration has withheld documents that would show the involvement of senior government officials, including Holder.
On June 28, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to hold. Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to disclose internal Justice Department documents in response to a subpoena – the first time that sanction has been imposed on a sitting member of a president’s Cabinet.
The department’s inspector general spent more than a year investigating the so-called “gun-walking” scandal – in which agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, commonly known by the ATF acronym, in Arizona allow suspected gun runners to take guns into Mexico. The Fast and Furious operation was part of a broader initiative known as Project Gunrunner.
Local ATF officials and local prosecutors believed they could then follow the weapons to the cartel higher-ups in Mexico. It didn't work that way. Thousands of guns were lost and only lower-level straw buyers of the weapons were ever arrested.
Two of the weapons turned up at the scene of a shootout where a federal border agent, Brian Terry, was killed on Dec. 14, 2010, near the Mexico border, though those guns were never tied directly to his death.
Rep. Darrel Issa, R-Calif., who has led the House investigation of Fast and Furious, has estimated that 200 Mexican civilians were killed by weapons linked to the operation.
A Mexican legislator, Humberto Benitez Trevino, claimed last year that weapons that crossed the border during the attempted sting have been linked to the deaths or wounding of at least 150 Mexican civilians, but did not provide any supporting documentation or say how that number was calculated.