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As the Gunwalker scandal chugs along, the “meaning” of the Operation Fast and Furious seems set in stone. As I’ve asserted in this series and in my Washington Times editorial, the mainstream media has bought what the ATF and the Obama Administration have been selling: F&F was a “botched sting.” Which would make U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder at the hands of drug thugs wielding ATF-enabled firearms nothing more than bad luck. And U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s role nothing more than that of a busy bureaucrat betrayed by rogue underlings. As House Oversight Committee member Paul Gosar points out even if that’s true—which it isn’t—Holder needs to go . . .
“[Holder] needs to resign,” the Arizona Republican said. “I don’t see there is a way here that facilitates good, conscientious oversight at the Department of Justice.
“If he had no oversight and he knew nothing about this, he was incompetent. If he knew about this, then he was lying — and that’s perjury.”
Gosar’s interview with newsmax.com is part of the war of words between the Arizona Republican and the Democratic Attorney General, who accused Gosar of using Fast and Furious to score political points. Gosar says there’s more at stake than party politics.
“If there is one thing that America needs, it’s confidence in their bureaucrats, that they stand by the same rules that they are enforcing on other people.”
I’m not so sure about that. We need less bureaucrats, not better bureaucrats. Hypocrisy is endemic to the breed.
It’s easy to get caught up in the mechanics of this thing (God knows I have) and fascinated by the tendrils that extend into every corner of federal law enforcement. I have no doubt that Operation Fast and Furious was approved (if not conceived) by the White House and its surfeit of spooks, as part of its wider pro-Sinaloa drug cartel policy.
But the plain truth is that Operation Fast and Furious was run by the ATF, a tax collection service elevated to agency status by Ronald Reagan. An unnecessary expansion of federal reach that justified its existence by “solving” problems of its own creation (i.e. entrapment). If there wasn’t an ATF sitting around dreaming up ways to extend their power, none of this would have happened.
Fast and Furious is the logical result of a federal government bloated by hundreds of billions of dollars in “anti-terrorist” funding. Is it any surprise that Gunwalker is linked to the DHS, ICE, CPB, FBI, NSS, IRS, DOJ and State Department? ALL of them are a hammer looking for a nail. What is Fast and Furious if not a nail creation scheme?
With so many cops and not enough criminals, “proactive policing” has become Uncle Sam’s m.o. As Judge Napolitano points out, the recently revealed Iran “plot” to assassinate a Saudi on U.S. soil looks like yet another sting operation made of whole cloth. The Judge is also right about the timing of its revelation: it’s purely political, and deeply cynical.
For our purposes, the fact that the “DEA” informant in the case pretended to be a member of Los Zetas drug cartel (of all people) indicates that the feds are continuing their zealous anti-Zetas policy—which included the ATF’s “guns for goons” Sinaloa subsidy.
The Zetas connection is such a blatant PR move that I’m beginning to wonder if the Mexicans didn’t plant an ATF-enabled gun at Special Agent Jaime Zapata’s murder scene. How did the weapon get from the ATF smuggler to the Sinaloans to the Zetas? Coincidence?
Representative Issa’s subpoena includes a request for docs related to Zapata’s murder. We can only hope that Issa’s relentless search for the truth about Gunwalker will yield accountability. Actually, that’s not right. We can take steps to downsize the federal government, starving it of cash so it doesn’t have the manpower, money or time to make shit up.
No matter who wins the next election, I don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon. But I reckon that’s the way America’s headed. This scandal has the potential of pushing America into reconsidering the size and scope of its government, by establishing the link between bureaucratic bloat, a profound disregard for the rule of law and the death of at least one innocent man.