From The Gateway Pundit …
There are now reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious. 1,000 of those guns were sold to MS13 buyers.
Congress gave the ATF $29 million in 2009 including $10 million in stimulus money for “project gunrunner,” the predecessor of “fast and furious.” A year later it got $37 million more to expand gunrunner.
Number Three Zeta Cartel leader Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar in Mexico adds to the expanding investigation …
Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, a chief of the Zeta Cartel, says “all of our guns are bought in the United States.”
Briefly quoting the Borderland Beat report linked above: “Rejon Aguilar confessed that Los Zetas have “buyers on the other side” (in the U.S.) who are U.S. citizens that acquire the arms and sell them to Los Zetas. He also admitted hearing stories that the U.S. government was selling weapons.”
The “other side” would be the Zeta’s greatest enemy, the Gulf Cartel. And the Zetas territory fronts on the US border between approximately Brownsville and Eagle Pass, Texas. The Zetas are trying to penetrate Juarez, but have not managed to “capture the place” at this time.
And of course, they hear stories out of Texas; out of the Houston ATF office’s bailiwick, that the US government is selling weapons. Or causing weapons to be sold. Weapons that can be converted to full auto quite easily, using parts that can be made in almost any well equipped machine shop.
That sounds very much like something Senator Grassley and Representative Issa should look into. For another item badly in need of Congressional oversight, let’s go to another Borderland Beat report.
FLASHBACK …
In March of 2009 Sec. of State Hillary Clinton blamed the USA for fueling Mexico’s drug wars…
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that America’s “insatiable” demand for illegal drugs and its inability to stop weapons from being smuggled into Mexico are fueling an alarming spike in violence along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Clinton said the United States shares responsibility with Mexico for dealing with the violence and that the Obama administration will work with Mexican authorities to improve security on both sides of the border.
President Barack Obama himself said Tuesday that he wanted the U.S. to do more to prevent guns and cash from illicit drug sales from flowing across the border into Mexico. But Clinton’s remarks appeared more forceful in recognizing the U.S. share of the blame. In the past, particularly under the Bush administration, Mexican official have complained that Washington never acknowledged the extent that the U.S. demand for drugs and weapons smuggling fuels the violence.
“I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility,” Clinton told reporters accompanying her to Mexico City a day after the Obama administration said it would send more money, technology and manpower to secure the Southwestern frontier and help Mexico battle the cartels.
“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”
Project Gun Runner (Fast and Furious) was launched under the orders of President Barack Obama with the knowledge of Attorney General Eric Holder. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced the Obama Administration’s new and aggressive ‘comprehensive plan’ on March, 24, 2009. The plan was aimed at disrupting gun trafficking between the United States and Mexico.
Yet, in February of 2011 the White House claimed, Mexico drug violence not an ’emergency’ …
While drug violence continues to spread in Mexico, White House officials have decided the situation doesn’t rank as an “emergency” under federal rules, officials tell NBC News. The decision scuttles — at least for now — a controversial proposal requiring gun stores in four Southwest border states to report multiple sales of semiautomatic assault rifles and other long guns to authorities.
The decision to delay the proposed federal rule, which comes amid fresh reports that rival cartels are waging murderous gun battles in the once peaceful city of Guadalajara, drew an unusually sharp rebuke from Mexico’s ambassador to the United States.
“It is certainly disappointing that politics trumps sound policy,” Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said in an email to NBC about the White House decision. “We can’t keep on fiddling while the issue of arms trafficking to Mexico continues to burn.”
The gun reporting rule was announced in December by Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, an arm of the Justice Department, as an important step that the U.S. government could take to help staunch the flow of illegal weapons to the Mexican drug cartels. […]
As a matter of fact, the USA is, in large part, responsible for the guns hiking the drug cartel wars south of the US border, and bleeding into the USA. But don’t blame the gun shop owners, as we are discovering. And those “assault rifles” Obama insisted he wanted banned from the US … Guess which guns were some of the top items involved in the “Fast and Furious” project …
In the Spring of 2009, the Obama administration called for the banning of “assault rifles” and .50 BMG “sniper rifles” due to their use in crimes by Mexican drug cartels. Obama dubiously alleged that 90% of these weapons were tracked back to the United States, implying that Americans have an obligation to surrender some of our freedoms to keep these weapons from being smuggled illegally over the border and used in Mexican-on-Mexican violence in Mexico. In this vintage clip, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre discusses Obama’s proposals with Glen Beck.
Obama backed off these proposals a month later, noting that such a ban would not be politically feasible at this time.
In Fall of 2009, the Obama Administration conceived Operation Fast and Furious, in which the ATF sold thousands of advanced weapons to Mexican drug cartels in order to track them once they were used in crimes. This policy perfectly dovetailed with Obama’s gun control arguments. First of all, by selling guns to the cartels that the ATF could definitely trace back to the US (because they were bought from the ATF), the percentage of guns used in Mexican crimes traceable to American guns would increase. ATF supervisors rejoiced at their success when they found that these guns were being used for violence in Mexico.
A major investigation and Congressional hearings need done … and heads MUST roll.
“You have the scent of high-level knowledge of serious wrongdoing and you have the smell of cover-up and I think the stench of cover-up on this gun-running operation is very strong indeed.”
HT: HotAir