The Truth About "Fast and Furious"

[babylonsister]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/06/27/the_truth_about_fast_and_furious.html

June 27, 2012

The Truth About "Fast and Furious"


With a House vote scheduled tomorrow to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt over the "Fast and Furious" investigation, an investigation by Fortune magazine suggests that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall in the hands of a Mexican cartel.

"Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn. Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies."

Fortune article here:

http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/

[tpsbmam]

1. Eric Boehlert just tweeted about this -- right-wing is already dissing Fortune

Eric Boehlert ?@EricBoehlert
took less than an hr. but yes, RW has now thrown Fortune mag (!) into liberal media pile. sin? undercutting RW's beloved Fast/Furious tale

[Bolo Boffin]

2. I looked for this!

I didn't see anyone had posted it! I went back pages! I'm sorry, babylonsister!

[babylonsister]

4. Bashir is talking about this now; it's a bust for the rethugs!

[babylonsister]

5. Why are you sorry?

Did you post it also? That's fine; the more the merrier, just get the word out!

[Bolo Boffin]

10. Oh, I hate double posts.

I'll get over it.

[DanTex]

3. K&R. Essential reading. Almost everything the right wing has said about F&F is a lie.

One very important fact that this article highlights is that the reason that the ATF was forced to resort to what were seemingly questionable tactics is that the NRA and the GOP have at every turn blocked common sense gun laws that would help prevent the flow of guns not just over the border to Mexico, but also to criminals in the US. For example:
--Currently there is no law that specifically prohibits gun trafficking, so instead gun traffickers must be charged for glorified paperwork violations, like "lying on a form while buying a gun" or "operating a gun dealership without a permit". These laws are not designed to prosecute gun traffickers, and as a result, they are difficult to prove and don't generally carry strong sentences.
--There is no database of gun purchases, so in order to find patterns of gun trafficking, ATF agents must collect data from individual gun stores.
--There is a loophole in the gun laws that allows gun sales on the secondary market -- private sales or sales by unlicensed dealers at gun shows -- to occur without background checks. This allows people with a criminal record to easily purchase guns.
--Because the gun crazies view the ATF as "bad guys coming to take away their guns", political pressure from the GOP has resulted in an underfunded and understaffed ATF, including not having a permanent director since 2006.

The reality is that, far from the loony conspiracy theories that the GOP is pushing, F&F should shine a very bright light on the fact that GOP/NRA has consistently weakened not only the gun laws in the US, but also the resources available to enforce them. While Issa and Co point to one border guard who was tragically killed, possibly by guns that were part of F&F, tens of thousands of Mexicans (and Americans) have been killed by guns that have been trafficked illegally. Much of this violence is a direct and predictable consequence of the GOP's continued fight against the mildest of common-sense gun laws.

In other words, Issa and his NRA buddies are responsible for far more lives lost to gun violence than any mistakes that may or may not have occurred during F&F.

[babylonsister]

7. Maybe that's why the NRA wants to get involved; then they can be the distraction. I do

think it's too late for that.

[spanone]

6. k&r...

[ErikJ]

8. WHy hasnt Issa interviewed any ATF men ?

[spanone]

9. witch hunt, nothing more... a political witch hunt