What follows is some background on the ATF Gunwalking scandal, now known as "Fast and Furious", with a few selected articles or documents leading to the decision to invoke Executive privilege. It is NOT an attempt to justify a particular position or definitively answer any questions. It is simply a sample of what has been reported leading up to the current crisis. It is a starting point for trying to make sense of it. As the real underlying issues come into better focus I will report them here.
The stated goal of allowing these purchases was to continue to track the firearms as they were transferred to higher-level traffickers and key figures in Mexican cartels, in theory leading to their arrests and the dismantling of the cartels.[8][9] The tactic was questioned during the operations by a number of people, including ATF field agents and cooperating licensed gun dealers.[10][11][12][13][14] Operation Fast and Furious, by far the largest "gunwalking" probe, led to the sale of over 2,000 firearms, of which nearly 700 were recovered as of October 20, 2011.[15] A number of straw purchasers have been arrested and indicted; however, as of October 2011, none of the targeted high-level cartel figures have been arrested.[7]
Firearms "walked" by the ATF have been found at violent crime scenes on both sides of the Mexico–United States border, including scenes involving the deaths of many Mexicans and at least one U.S. federal agent, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The "gunwalking" operations became public in the aftermath of Terry's murder.[2] Dissenting ATF agents came forward to Congress in response.[16][17] As investigations have continued, the operations have become increasingly controversial in both countries, and diplomatic relations have been damaged as a result.[2]
Further information: Project Gunrunner and Mexican Drug War
ATF "gunwalking" operations were, in part, a response to longstanding criticism of the bureau for focusing on relatively minor gun violations while failing to target high-level gun smuggling figures.[18] U.S. firearms laws currently govern the possession and transfer of firearms and provide penalties for the violation of such laws. “Gun trafficking”, although not defined by statute, essentially includes the movement or diversion of firearms from legal to illegal markets.[19]:Summary Four federal statutes govern U.S. commerce of firearms domestically and internationally. Many states supplement these federal statutes and have firearms laws of their own that are stricter. For example, some states require permits to obtain firearms and impose a waiting period for firearm transfers. Domestic commerce and importations into the United States are generally regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) and the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA). The exportation of firearms from the United States is regulated by the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 and, to a lesser extent, the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).[19]:3 Defendants are often prosecuted and convicted under provisions of statutes such as the GCA that make it unlawful for certain persons to be in possession of firearms, govern the transaction process of obtaining firearms (e.g., straw purchases), and contain penalties for the use of a firearm in a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime, or penalties for knowingly or fraudulently smuggling goods that would be contrary to U.S. law and regulation.[19]:18
In a 2012 case in San Juan, Texas, under existing 1968 Gun Control Act provisions on straw purchasing (Title 18 United States Code, Section 924(a)(1)(A)), straw purchaser Taisa Garcia received 33 months and buyer Marco Villalobos received 46 months, plus two years supervision after release.[20] In another Texas gun trafficking case, Oscar Bravo Hernandez received a sentence of 84 months for buying and sending to Mexico at least 55 firearms from a ring of nine straw purchasers who received sentences from 51 months for the most involved down to three years probation for the least involved.[21]
According to twenty-year ATF veteran Jay Wachtel, letting guns "walk" was done in the past in a controlled manner that involved surveillance and eventual seizure of the weapons.[1]According to ATF field agents involved in Operation Fast and Furious, under Project Gunrunner "ATF agents were trained to interdict guns and prevent criminals from obtaining them" and not to allow guns to walk and then disappear.[11]
Operations
There have been allegations of "gunwalking" in at least 10 cities in five states.[22] The most widely known and controversial operations took place in Arizona under the ATF'sPhoenix, Arizona field division.2006–2007: Operation Wide Receiver and other probes
The suspicious sale of AR-15s led to Operation Wide Receiver.[23]
The first known ATF "gunwalking" operation to Mexican drug cartels, named Operation Wide Receiver, began in early 2006 and ran into late 2007. Licensed dealer Mike Detty informed the ATF of a suspicious gun purchase that took place in February 2006 in Tucson, Arizona. In March he was hired as a confidential informant working with the ATF's Tucson office, part of their Phoenix, Arizona field division.[23] With the use of surveillance equipment, ATF agents monitored additional sales by Detty to straw purchasers. With assurance from ATF "that Mexican officials would be conducting surveillance or interdictions when guns got to the other side of the border",[24] Detty would sell a total of about 450 guns during the operation.[22] These included AR-15s, semi-automatic AK-pattern rifles, and Colt .38s. The vast majority of the guns were eventually lost as they moved into Mexico.[7][23][25]
At the time, under the Bush administration Department of Justice (DOJ), no arrests or indictments were made. After President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the DOJ reviewed Wide Receiver in September 2009[26] and found that guns had been allowed into the hands of suspected gun traffickers. Indictments began in 2010, over three years after Wide Receiver concluded. As of October 4, 2011, nine people had been charged with making false statements in acquisition of firearms and illicit transfer, shipment or delivery of firearms.[18] As of November, charges against one defendant had been dropped; five of them had pled guilty, and one had been sentenced to one year and one day in prison. Two of them remained fugitives.[23]
Another, smaller probe occurred in 2007 under the same ATF Phoenix field division. It began when the ATF identified Mexican suspects who bought weapons from a Phoenix gun shop over a span of several months. The probe ultimately involved over 200 guns, a dozen of which were lost in Mexico. On September 27, 2007, ATF agents saw the original suspects buying weapons at the same store and followed them toward the Mexican border. The ATF informed the Mexican government when the suspects successfully crossed the border, but Mexican law enforcement were unable to track them.[4][10]
Less than two weeks later, on October 6, William Newell, then ATF's special agent in charge of the Phoenix field division, shut down the operation at the behest of William Hoover, ATF's assistant director for the office of field operations.[27] No charges were filed. Newell, who was special agent in charge from June 2006 to May 2011, would later play a major role in Operation Fast and Furious.[4][24]
[edit]2009–2011: Operation Fast and Furious
On October 26, 2009, a teleconference was held at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. to discuss U.S. strategy for combating Mexican drug cartels. Participating in the meeting were Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller and the top federal prosecutors in the Southwestern border states. They decided on a strategy to identify and eliminate entire arms trafficking networks rather than low-level buyers.[3][28][29] Those at the meeting did not suggest using the "gunwalking" tactic, but ATF supervisors would soon use it in an attempt to achieve the desired goals.[30] The effort, beginning in November, would come to be called Operation Fast and Furious for the successful film franchise, because some of the suspects under investigation operated out of an auto repair store and street raced.[3]
The strategy of targeting high-level individuals, which was already ATF policy, would be implemented by Bill Newell, special agent in charge of ATF's Phoenix field division. In order to accomplish it, the office decided to use "gunwalking" as laid out in a January 2010 briefing paper. This was said to be allowed under ATF regulations and given legal backing byU.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Dennis K. Burke. It was additionally approved and funded by a Justice Department task force.[3] However, long-standing DOJ and ATF policy has required arms shipments to be intercepted.[4][5]
In November 2009, the Phoenix office's Group VII, which would be the lead investigative group in Fast and Furious, began to follow a prolific gun trafficker. He had bought 34 firearms in 24 days, and he and his associates bought 212 more in the next month. The case soon grew to over two dozen straw purchasers, the most prolific of which would ultimately buy more than 600 weapons.[3][5][31]
The tactic of letting guns walk, rather than interdicting them and arresting the buyers, led to controversy within the ATF.[5][32] As the case continued, several members of Group VII, including John Dodson and Olindo Casa, became increasingly upset at the tactic of allowing guns to walk. Their standard Project Gunrunner training was to follow the straw purchasers to the hand-off to the cartel buyers, then arrest both parties and seize the guns. They watched guns being bought illegally and stashed on a daily basis, while their supervisors, including David Voth and Hope MacAllister, prevented the agents from intervening.[3]
Responding to the disagreements, Voth wrote an email in March 2010: "I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumors, or other adolescent behavior. I don’t know what all the issues are but we are all adults, we are all professionals, and we have an exciting opportunity to use the biggest tool in our law enforcement tool box. If you don’t think this is fun you are in the wrong line of work – period!”[3][33]
By June 2010, suspects had purchased 1,608 firearms at a cost of over US$1 million at Phoenix-area gun shops. At that time, the ATF was also aware of 179 of those weapons being found at crime scenes in Mexico, and 130 in the United States.[8] As guns traced to Fast and Furious began turning up at violent crime scenes in Mexico, ATF agents stationed there also voiced opposition.[3]
On the evening of December 14, 2010, U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and others were patrolling Peck Canyon, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, 11 miles from the Mexican border. The group came across five suspected illegal immigrants. When they fired non-lethal beanbag guns, the suspects responded with their own weapons, leading to a firefight. Agent Terry was shot and killed; four of the suspects were arrested and two AK-pattern rifles were found nearby. The rifles were traced to Fast and Furious within hours of the shooting, but the bullet that killed Terry was too badly damaged to be linked to either gun.[3]
After hearing of the incident, Agent Dodson reached out to ATF headquarters, ATF's chief counsel, the ATF ethics section and the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, none of whom immediately responded. He and other agents then contacted Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa (R–IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who would become a major figure in the investigation of "gunwalking." At the same time, information began leaking to various bloggers and Web sites.[3]
FN Five-sevens were among
the weapons allowed to walk.[34]
On January
25, 2011 , U.S. Attorney Burke announced the first details of the case to
become officially public, marking the end of Operation Fast and Furious. At a
news conference in Phoenix Mexico
Altogether, 2,020 firearms were bought by straw
purchasers during Fast and Furious.[3] These
included AK-47 variants, Barrett .50 caliber sniper
rifles, .38 caliber revolvers, and FN Five-sevens.[34] As
of October 20, 2011 , 389 had been recovered
in the US Mexico
Also today, Rep. Elijah
Cummings (D-MD) requested a public hearing with the former Director of ATF:
Kenneth Melson.
"A hearing with Mr.
Melson would help the Committee and the American people better understand what
mistakes were made in Operation Fast and Furious, how these tactics originated,
who did and did not authorize them, and what steps are being taken to ensure
that they are not used again," wrote Cummings in a letter today to Rep.
Issa.
Rep. Cummings says Melson's
attorney has indicated Melson would be "pleased to cooperate." Below is a copy of the Cummings letter.
The
Honorable Darrell E. Issa
Chairman
Committee
on Oversight and Government Reform
Dear
Mr. Chairman:
As
I have stated repeatedly, I believe Operation Fast and Furious was a terrible
mistake with tragic consequences. As I have also stated, I support a fair and
responsible investigation that follows the facts where they lead, rather than
drawing conclusions before evidence is gathered or ignoring information that
does not fit into a preconceived narrative.
On
several occasions over the past month, you have called on Attorney General Eric
Holder to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about
when he first became aware of the controversial tactics used in Operation Fast
and Furious. The Attorney General has now agreed to testify before the House
Judiciary Committee on December 8, 2011 , when you will have another opportunity to
question him directly.
With
respect to our own Committee's investigation, I do not believe it will be
viewed as legitimate or credible-and I do not believe the public record will be
complete-without public testimony from Kenneth Melson, who served as the
Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
A
hearing with Mr. Melson would help the Committee and the American people better
understand what mistakes were made in Operation Fast and Furious, how these
tactics originated, who did and did not authorize them, and what steps are
being taken to ensure that they are not used again.
Our
staffs have already conducted transcribed interviews with Mr. Melson and the
former Deputy Director of ATF, William Hoover. During those interviews, these
officials expressed serious concerns about the controversial tactics employed
by the Phoenix Field Division of ATF as part of this operation. They also
raised concerns about the manner in which the Department of Justice responded
to congressional inquiries. Both officials also stated that they had not been aware
of the controversial tactics being used in Operation Fast and Furious, had not
authorized those tactics, and had not informed anyone at the Department of
Justice headquarters about them. They stated that Operation Fast and Furious
originated within the Phoenix Field Division, and that ATF headquarters failed
to properly supervise it.
Since
the Attorney General has now agreed to appear before Congress in December, I
believe Members also deserve an opportunity to question Mr. Melson directly,
especially since he headed the agency responsible for
Operation
Fast and Furious. My staff has been in touch with Mr. Melson's attorney, who
reports that Mr. Melson would be pleased to cooperate with the Committee.
Thank
you for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
Elijah
E. Cummings
Ranking Member
Holder
to Testify Before Congress on Operation Fast and Furious
By Lonely Conservative Comments are
off for this post
Attorney General Eric Holder
has a little more than a month to prepare for testimony before Congress on the
ATF’s deadly Operation Fast and Furious debacle. He ought to resign, either he
knew about it (which apparently he did) and is complicit, or he’s incompetent.
CBS
News has learned Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to appear
before the House Judiciary Committee regarding “Fast and Furious.” The hearing
will take place Dec. 8th.
Judiciary Committee member
and head of the House Oversight Committee Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) had
requested that Holder appear, in part to dig deeper into when-he-knew-what
about ATF’s so-called “gunwalking” operation Fast and Furious.
In May, Holder testified
that he only first heard about Fast and Furious a few weeks before. However, as
CBS News reported, documents and memos indicate he had been sent multiple
briefings mentioning Fast and Furious in 2010.
Holder later explained in a
letter to Congress that he didn’t read those memos, and that in any event,
nobody at the Justice Department who knew of Fast and Furious was aware of the
specific “gunwalking” tactics used. (Read
More)
Sharyl Atykisson seems to be
the only member of the MSM who’s the least bit interested in this scandal.
Review of ATF’s Project
Gunrunner
November 2010
This review by the
Department of Justice (Department) Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
examined the impact of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’
(ATF) implementation of Project Gunrunner on the illicit trafficking of guns
from the United
States Mexico
Violence associated with
organized crime and drug trafficking in Mexico United States United States Mexico Mexico
To help combat firearms
trafficking into Mexico Laredo , Texas
In June 2007, ATF published
a strategy document, Southwest Border Initiative: Project Gunrunner (Gunrunner
strategy), outlining four key components to Project Gunrunner: the expansion of
gun tracing in Mexico Mexico
The OIG conducted this
review to evaluate the effectiveness of ATF’s implementation of Project
Gunrunner. Our review examined ATF’s enforcement and regulatory programs
related to the Southwest border and Mexico, ATF’s effectiveness in developing
and sharing firearms trafficking intelligence and information, the number and
prosecutorial outcomes of ATF’s Project Gunrunner investigations, ATF’s
coordination with U.S. and Mexican law enforcement partners, ATF’s traces of
Mexican “crime guns,” and challenges that ATF faces in coordinating efforts to
combat firearms trafficking with Mexico.1
ABC News
[EXCERPTS ONLY]
Issa, who serves on the Judiciary committee,
has been leading the congressional inquiry into the ATF operation as chairman of
the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Issa said that not all
documents had been provided to his committee as investigators and he wanted to
know why no emails to or from Holder appeared in the thousands of pages of
documents that the Justice Department had provided to Congress.
Testifying today, Holder said that the
operation had been organized by ATF in Phoenix Washington
Holder and top officials had been grilled by Congress over an
inaccurate part of a letter sent to Congress about Fast and Furious. In a
Feb. 4, 2011 , letter sent to
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote,
“ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally
and prevent their transportation to Mexico
The Justice Department formally withdrew the letter last week
due to the statement and released a series of internal documents showing how
the letter was crafted with input from officials at the U.S. Attorney’s office
in Arizona
“Documents demonstrate that department personnel relied on
information provided by supervisors from the components in the best position to
know the relevant facts. We now know that some information provided by
those supervisors was inaccurate,” Holder testified today.
The congressional investigation and ATF agents who blew the
whistle on the controversial tactics used in Fast and Furious have shown that
the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona Mexico
“Although the department has taken steps to ensure that such
tactics are never used again, it is an unfortunate reality that we will
continue to feel the effects of this flawed operation for years to come,”
Holder said in his prepared testimony.
Holder also faced continuing questions about the accuracy of his
statements as to when he first learned about Fast and Furious.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in May, Holder said at the time
that he had first learned about Fast and Furious in the past few
weeks.
Today Holder said that he became aware of the operation sometime
in the beginning of 2011 around the time of the inquiry from Grassley.
After learning about the tactics used in Fast and Furious and
getting some conflicting information from media reports and congressional
inquires, Holder said that he had directed the Justice Department Inspector
General to conduct a formal inquiry.
February,
2012
Prepared
Testimony of Eric Holder before Congress
[please go to the link above for his prepared testimony]
U.S.
Flailing as American Guns Fuel Mexico’s Drug War
By Adam Rawnsley /
WIRED
Last month, a pair of
Mexican drug cartels got into a shootout – and killed
15 recovering addicts who happened to be working at a car wash nearby.
It’s part of a wave of violence that’s killed tens of thousands of people in
recent years. And it’s partially America Mexico U.S.
DOJ’s inspector general
report knocks the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms effort to trace the
guns and nab the weapons traffickers who are fueling Mexico America
Instead of taking down the
networks who orchestrate gun trafficking, the report found that ATF is wasting
it time on nickel and dime busts against the patsies that weapons traffickers
put up to fill out the legal paperwork to buy their guns — around two
defendants per case. Meanwhile, cases that target the networks as a whole are
yet to be filed.
Justice Department
investigators found that ATF had trouble cooperating with Mexican government
officials regarding Project Gunrunner traces because of a lack of coordination
within the various Mexican law enforcement agencies. ATF had also not informed
Mexican government officials well enough about the Gunrunner program, its goals
and successes, investigators said.
Within the U.S. government,
the inspector general found that ATF had not coordinated well enough with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite the fact that the two
agencies made nice in the form of June 2009 memorandum of understanding laying
out roles and responsibilities between the two agencies on anti-gun
trafficking.
But it’s not all ATF’s
fault. A lack of resources is also preventing the Bureau from investigating gun
trafficking in time to keep Mexico
White House Sends
‘Gun-Walking’ Docs Down the Memory Hole (UPDATED)
Thousands of documents
sought by congressional investigators about a disastrous plan by federal agents
to allow guns to “walk” into the hands of Mexico
In other words, the
political battle between the White House and Capitol Hill over the scandal
could be on the verge of going nuclear.
For a year and a half,
investigators in Congress have pressed Attorney General Eric Holder to provide
tens of thousands of documents about Fast and Furious. At first one of several
sting operations by the ATF’s Phoenix Field Division against the cartels, the
operation ended
in disaster as hundreds of guns were allowed to move freely into Mexico Arizona Dec. 14, 2010 , firefight caused the death of Border Patrol agent
Brian Terry.
Tens of thousands of
documents related to the operation could reveal which officials knew what,
and when. That is, if those documents ever saw the light of day. Republicans on
the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have accused Holder of
stonewalling investigators, and issued a (unsuccessful) subpoena in October
demanding the documents. A meeting last night between Holder and Rep. Darrell
Issa, the chairman of the committee, ended without a compromise being reached.
If today, a majority of committee members vote to hold Holder in contempt for
not abiding by the subpoena, a resolution will then have to move to the
House Floor. But because of executive privilege, Holder is no longer required
to abide by the subpoena at all.
Though without executive
privilege, Holder could face up to a year in prison and
a fine of up to $1,000. Though, that’s only theoretical. If Holder is held in
contempt by the committee, it will be among only a few attempts in decades
against an executive branch official. But no contempt action of the sort has
been prosecuted in decades except once.
Contempt actions were used
against Henry Kissinger in 1975, Interior Secretary James Watt in 1982 and
Attorney General Janet Reno in 1998. Each official was held in contempt by
committees but compromises were reached before a contempt action ever reached a
full House vote. Anne Gorsuch Burford, then-administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency, was held in contempt in 1982 by the full House,but
was never prosecuted. Karl Rove and Harriet Myers were held in contempt in
2008, but neither actions were ever resolved. EPA official Rita Lavelle was
held in contempt, prosecuted and convicted of lying to Congress in 1983.
During testimony in February,
Holder said the Justice Department has provided “virtually
unprecedented access” (.pdf) through (limited and redacted) internal
documents. “This has been a significant undertaking for Department employees —
and our efforts in this regard remain ongoing,” he said. Though, Holder also
said the documents included evidence “some of the information [the Justice
Department] provided was inaccurate” — including a letter sent to Sen. Charles
Grassley of Iowa one year ago denying
that Fast and Furious ever took place.
The Justice Department has
also maintained that 7,600 documents have already been turned over, and that
releasing more documents could harm ongoing investigations.
Fast and Furious was also
not the first ATF operation to run guns. A report released in January by House
Democrats described the plot as “the latest in a series of fatally flawed
operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix
The ATF’s history of running
guns down to Mexico
With Obama’s asserting
executive privilege, however, that’s become a lot less likely.
UPDATED: The House Committee
on Oversight and Government Reform has voted to hold Holder in contempt. Next,
the committee will send a contempt citation to the House for a full vote. The
vote was (predictably) along partisan lines, with 23 in favor to 17 opposed. Though,
it’s worth noting that the House doesn’t have to vote on it.
According to the Associated Press (via
NPR), the more likely scenario is that the contempt citation will be used
as a bargaining chip during negotiations.
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