Former ATF Agent John Dodson was one of the chief whistleblowers on Operation Fast and Furious, a covert program that channeled over 2000 U.S. gun store guns to Mexican drug thugs. In 2011, Dodson told Congress that ATF bosses told agents monitoring these illegal guns to “stand down” and let the guns “walk.” Dodson’s cashing-in on his insider knowledge of Fast and Furious with a new book The Unarmed Truth. Americans looking for the unvarnished truth about the stingless ATF sting should look away now. The excerpt published in The New York Post offer no new insights into the extra-legal activities of an Obama administration agency gone rogue. In fact, it reveals Dodson as a mindless minion of a program whose rationale remains hidden by an Attorney General who remains in power, despite a citation for contempt of Congress. Here’s a taste . . .
As had become our routine, we would follow the straw purchasers to a stash house or other location. On occasion, they would meet up with another vehicle and pass box after box from one car to the other. I struggled to reconcile us knowing what was in each one of those boxes, where the guns were headed to, and what they were going to be used for, with how could we just watch them drive away.
There were several times we actually saw money change hands. We were ordered to always stay on the known straw purchaser, the one we already knew everything about, rather than follow the new player who left with the guns.
We recorded everything we witnessed, wrote reports about it each time and kept every document. Other than that, we just allowed it all to happen month after month.
In all, we watched thousands of weapons leave, all bound for the carnage-riddled fron‑tera, the Mexican border.
Clearly, Dodson knew what he was doing was wrong. Clearly, he knew that the ATF was doing sweet FA to keep track of the illegally purchased weapons, violating standard law enforcement protocols for “stings.” And yet he did it “month after month.” Never questioning his superiors. Or so we are led to believe. Even after his boss, ATF F&F case officer Hope MacAllister, called off a major potential bust,
On Dec. 15, 2009, DEA agents working on a similar case met with Hope. Dubbed a “deconfliction” meeting, it became clear that ATF and DEA were working some of the same people.
Since the case didn’t involve drugs, the DEA agents were eager to punt whatever information they had about firearms trafficking to ATF.
Shortly thereafter, DEA called again and dropped a fresh new nugget of intel. Acosta was planning a transfer of 32 semiautomatic AK-variant rifles to his cartel contacts in El Paso who would then take them the rest of the way into Mexico. The break of all breaks — it doesn’t get any better than that.
If the purpose of the case is to stop firearms trafficking, then you interdict this load and shut the group down. If the purpose was to get evidence on Acosta, DEA had just provided all that was needed to catch him in the act. If the purpose was to do a wire, DEA was already up on one and intercepting Acosta’s calls on the other end. If the purpose was to take down a cartel, DEA had just given us the chance to jump one rung of the ladder higher than Acosta before we ever even got up and running.
However, four days later, on Dec. 19, 2009, when DEA called with more information about the pending weapons transfer, Hope outrageously told them that we were too short on bodies because of Christmas to staff a surveillance team and so we wouldn’t be covering it.
And . . . that’s it. Dodson leaves readers with the impression that MacAllister’s excuse, while “outrageous,” was genuine. I don’t think so. Not as it’s part of a pattern of not doing squat about any of the gun smugglers. I repeat, there was not ONE SINGLE ARREST during the 10 months that Fast and Furious was in full swing (ended only after a Mexican rip crew murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry with a Fast and Furious firearm).
Later we learned that these folks Acosta was reporting to weren’t just targets of the joint DEA-FBI investigation; they had been cultivated as informants and were in fact assets of the FBI. More shocking, they had been using FBI money to ultimately purchase a significant portion of the firearms.
Take the government out of this equation and nothing gets done. No guns get purchased, because there is no FBI money to pay for them; no guns get sold, because ATF is not coercing the gun dealers to sell them; and no guns get trafficked, because ATF is not using the guise of a “big case” to allow it all to happen.
And yet the Justice Department was happy to let the farce continue, telling my ATF bosses they were doing a great job.
You can’t make this s–t up!
Back-up. Dodson just said the ATF “coerced” gun dealers to sell guns to known criminals. Never mind his grand theory that it’s all the FBI’s fault. That is completely outrageous and deserves a full investigation. The how, when, where, who and what of it.
Most importantly of all, why? Why was the DEA, FBI, ATF (and the rest) in the business of gun smuggling? As a low level ATF Agent with no apparent curiosity, Dodson’s excerpt offers no explanation. He paints Operation Fast and Furious as a genuine law enforcement goals stymied by administrative sloth and incompetence.
Judging from the excerpt, the book comes down on the side of the adage “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Dodson makes the point with a story about illegally purchased guns equipped with a GPS tracker that are lost to Agents due to bureaucratic inefficiency.
Unknown to [ATF Agent] Casa and I, there was a delay in the information we were getting; the GPS was being monitored by a technician who was then relaying the information to an analyst, who then relayed it over the phone to Hope in the Strike Force office, who then relayed it over the radio to us. Although it was ridiculous that so many links need to be in the chain in the first place (we should have had the capability to monitor the GPS directly), it wasn’t overly problematic, until . . .
Hope’s voice came out over the radio, “Does anyone have eyes on the vehicle?”
Shaking my head, I thought, You told us to stay back so we couldn’t be seen; if it can’t see us — we probably can’t see it.
Someone answered, “Negative.”
After a brief pause, the radio crackled again as Hope’s voice broke the static: “We’ve lost the tracker. It may have went down or gone somewhere where the signal can’t get out.”
There he is again: Hope MacAllister. And once again, the F&F jefe somehow manages to screw things up. Accidentally on purpose? If so, Dodson ain’t saying.
In short, The Unarmed Truth provides ammunition for administration apologists and obfuscators looking to disarm critics of Operation Fast and Furious. This real story behind a government conspiracy to arm vicious criminals—and/or monumental f-up by an amoral federal agency (or five)—remains to be told.
And henceforth one can see WHY I left Canuckistan (forever) after living there for 51 years and seeing it devolve during the last 30 years, into the pathetic police state it is now. God Bless America and always be vigilant this never happens here… even though many in power are trying their best to emulate Canuckistan’s “gun laws”.
Why do i get the sense that a car explosion is in his future?
Everything the ATF does gets f**ked up.
Here’s my suggestion; http://www.coltsmfg.com/Catalog/SpecialEditions/1877BulldogGatlingGun.aspx
Wow. Had no idea “SWATing” was a thing. There are enough mistakes made by the goons themselves.
It neglected to say if they went into the back yard and and shot his dog or lit up a basket of kittens in the living room.
Sent my Congressman a letter asking him to please not support this law. My Senators that is hopeless, as my Senators are Schumer and Gillibrand. I may give a phone call to my Congressman tomorrow if the vote still hasn’t occurred.
Swatting is really just murder for cowards who can’t do it themselves. Hopefully they charge him with attempted murder, and put him away for a long time.
Wonderful memory’s, thanks good job..
Here’s the real question:how many law abiding Americans have had their RKBA denied wrongfully due to system errors?
If a computer processing error resulting in 100,000 people being wrongfully denied the right to vote, the situation wouldn’t be permitted to stand.Yet it’s ok with guns, for some reason.
(e-spits into the dirt).
The irony is so sweet! Calling the police on someone is considered by the police themselves as “reckless endangerment”. Yes, the police are VERY dangerous.
Tyrants always appear as “Reasonable Men, Requesting Reasonable Repression”
As much as I love the Kiwis they are succumbing to the Saul Alinsky play book.
The ever changing and elastic ‘Laws’ that are only applied to those who oppose the statists enure an end to All Liberty
Okay, I own an M1A, M1 Garand, Rock River LAR-8, Ruger SR-762 and most recently a SCAR 17S. Can’t find a SCAR 17H(eavy) or I would be owning one now though the price tag is positively obscene. I think the vast majority of SCAR heavies are making their way to the military … such is the demand.
I also have the SCAR 16, a stable of AR-15 platforms including one with a TNW piston-operated upper (totally cool and very low recoil because of the overall weight), and a SIG 556. I love the 1911 .45 Auto, have great respect for and own several SW M&P .45s as well as 9 mils, and am impressed with the Springfield Armory XD and XDm series of pistols in .45 Auto as well. I’ve “recreationally” shot probably a 100,000 round (excluding .22 long rifle) jacking around at various ranges from California, Minnesota, Texas and now here in the People’s Republic of Illinois so I guess this qualifies me for having an informed opinion.
As to the Ruger SR762 I’ve found it to be an outstanding battle rifle with very few teething problems right out of the box. I did replace the rather pathetic collapsible stock that I believe is very marginal on a 5.56 AR as it is so it’s totally out of its league on a 7.62 battle rifle of this caliber (no pun intended … okay, it was intended). The first thing I did was install a Magpul STR stock and I LOVE the checkweld I get with a 30 mm tubed Millett side-focus 6×20 w/50mm objective with a Mil-dot reticle and 15 MOA turrets mated with Leupold’s high profile tactical rings. This is the same scope setup I use on my match-quality Savage Model 10 “police sniper” with a 24 inch fluted barrel which yields 1/2 MOA or better accuracy with handloaded 175 grain Nosler Match in Lake City match brass.
Though it’s not advertised as such, my Ruger’s hammer-forged SR762 barrel is definitely MOA match-quality as installed on my rifle which is a bonus for me. I use 168 gr. Nosler Match in the same Lake City brass pushed by 40.6 grains of military WC846 powder and this combo is yielding 5-shot groups in the .75 to one inch-range at 100 meters (109 yards). Definitely minute of angle for five shots. A hot barrel will open up the groups a bit but I’m still under an 1.25 MOA out to 300 meters with Ruger’s 7.62 AR. Clean bore, cold bore and first round “slingshot” loaded rounds are generally several inches low at 200 meters. I would think it would be the other way around but there’s something about barrel harmonics and warm and dirtied barrels that can cause such unpredictable “flyers”. And always remember, the first slingshot round out of a semi-auto rifle (and pistol for that matter) will generally have an inch difference in point of impact from the rest of the rounds in the magazine – all other factors being equal. Once the bore is dirtied and a few rounds have warmed the barrel, the five-shot groupings become fairly routine. Sometimes its so routine there’s a temptation to get sloppy with ones technique on those really long-range shots.
My Rock River LAR-8 and an Israeli heavy-barrel FAL on an Imbel receiver that I also use for informal “match” shooting have similar shooting traits, though the chamber on the Israeli FAL heavy barrel is a little “loose” so it produces a few unexpected flyers even with handloads. Factory Federal 168 grain Match ammo perform almost as well as my handloads and point of impact differences is little more than an inch or two at 100 meters but that could translate to much bigger differentials out to 600 or 800 meters resulting in possible misses on center-of-mass targets. 168 grainers will stay supersonic out to 800 meters and my handloaded 175 grain Nosler match with those incredible BCs should stay supersonic out to a 1000 meters or nearly 1100 yards! Muzzle velocity is around 2750 fps so they’re pretty hot.
I love my 1943 Springfield Armory M-1 Garand, I love the thump of the .30-06 and the ping of the clip. My old school Springfield Armory M1A with fiberglass upper handguard and beautiful walnut stock is equally beloved but I’ll never mount a scope on it so it’s only as good as my 59 year old Mark 1 eyeball … maybe 500 meters on a deer-size target but it won’t be one-shot-one-kill. Both rifles are incredibly accurate and reliable. The SCAR 17S is some incredible eye candy and I’m glad I have one, but personally I believe you get more bang for your buck buying one Ruger SR762 (I paid a little over $1675 brand new for mine!) and then buying a Stag/DD/RR/Del/DPMS AR of our choice for what you pay for one SCAR 17 … or 16 for that matter! But let’s face it, SCARs are cool, have a heavy bolt system which tames the recoil in either caliber (I see why some competitors use the SCAR 16 in three gun competitions). Timney makes an excellent 4.5 pound tactical trigger for SCARS as well as AR-10s. I just installed a Rock River two stage national match on my Ruger SR762 and I’m excited to see if I can still get even smaller group sizes when the weather doesn’t suck here in fly over country. Don’t make the mistake of going to 3.5 pound triggers in either AR-15 or AR-10 platforms because accidental bump fire can occur and frankly, in the real tactical world I don’t see any accuracy advantage going to a 3 or 3.5 triggers on either rifles or pistols. Four to 4.5 pound triggers yield the perfect tactile feedback that I need for quick, clean double-taps and controlled rapid fire sequences.
Off my soapbox.
I still want to go to Australia to hunt buffalo.
Thanks for the memories. I, too, was introduced to shooting, though as an adult, at the old Hoboken range. Old school and dingy, for sure, but what a great spot. I still have the S&W 4516 I purchased there.
Disarmament is not genocide,though it may enable it ? And the hyperbole is silly?
Why don’t you ask the six million Jews how they feel about that?Better yet ask their survivors since it’s so funny!Gee ya know that was soooo long ago let’s see ,oh yah waaaay back 70 years ago.My parents were alive,my grandparents were alive,my great grandparents were alive .Oh here ya go,myfatherinlaw was in several concentration camps,let’s see what’s the famous one that starts with an’A’…hmmm ge I can’t remember cause it was sooo long ago,ya he was there.and so was his family and everybody he knew,their still there.He made it out alive,but most who did died shortly later cause of complications( you know experiments and such ,by the nice Doctors)
You know maybe we should register and get rid of our guns look how we’ll it worked for Hitler and Stalin.Of course that will never happen here cause our Government is so Honest and Caring.And those forefathers who fought and died to create this country,they didn’t know anything about firearms,They just put the ,count em,123456789′ 2ND,not the third plus but the 2nd Amendment in the Constitution cause they were drinking ,beer ,rum,and wine and were really just kidding around.
You should go watch the Movie” The Patriot” again,with Mel Gibson,it’s entertaining and loosely based on real events,but depicts tyranny and arrogance of the British at the time.You should also realize ,let me say this correctly…OK I’m ready; Firearms in We The People’s Hands Means Freedom” and that was understood way before we were born.And these anti- eggheads don’t get that ,we’ll then I feel sorry for them ,but they ,you ,nobody has the right to step on our Constitutional and Inaliable RIGHT to Keep and Bear Arms.NOBODY! Sounds Corny? maybe to you ,it’s a truth we live by.
So if you want to be led to the slaughter,Cause that’s what it’s all about,isn’t it?(power) be my guest! ” As they said in days of old…KEEP YOUR POWDER DRY,BOYS!
( I know you think I’m way off base,hey it’s a free country’gee how did that happen!Hmmm?)
It states my personal convictions better than I could have stated them myself. Well done, and pass the ammo.
Not nearly as satisfying as a vast anti-gun conspiracy, but I guess I can deal with it.
Well… I really hate that guy now. But only out of pure gun envy. For just that TAVOR alone… hell… any more for one of those under folder AKs even!
Is there a grander scheme afoot? How much is the public really aware of vs what is really happening? There’s alot of closed door conversations by our elected idiots. Spending our tax dollars to limit our rights. Sadly when this house of cards collapses we will still be near the bottom of the deck. I’m betting this is no where near over. Even after time has passed.
What am I missing? John was the ONLY one to say ANYTHING – how is that fucked up regardless of how he did it? He was one man at the bottom of the totem pole against a powerful list of other that goes all the way to the POTUS and you’re gonna scrutinize and criticize him? Sorry, I think he’s a hero end to end.