ATF Death Watch 84: The Office of Inspector General Takes One for the Team

The Obama administration’s coverup of the ATF Gunwalker scandal keeps getting worse. We now know that FBI investigators found not two but three ATF-enabled firearms at the U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder scene. CBS has released audio tapes of conversations between Andre Howard—owner of the gun store that sold drug thugs two of the weapons used in the crime—and ATF case agent Hope MacAllister. The tapes confirm the existence of a third gun and the ATF’s knowledge of same. They also prove the FBI’s participation in the Terry assassination coverup. This after the FBI subverted its NICS criminal background check system to allow ATF-approved gun smugglers to purchase weapons to sell to the Sinaloa drug cartel. So far, so bad. But here’s the really bad news for Obama’s Boyz. . .

Then, the sources say for some reason the Inspector General passed the tapes along to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona: a subject in the investigation. It’s unclear why the Inspector General, who is supposed to investigate independently, would turn over evidence to an entity that is itself under investigation.

All the high level officials involved in this cluster-you-know-what have refused to provide specifics about Operation Fast and Furious citing the forthcoming Office of Inspector General (OIG) report. I can’t reveal that information as it’s subject to an ongoing investigation, blah, blah, blah.

The assertion that an internal investigation will finger the guilty within the DEA, FBI, CIA, CPB, ICE, IRS, DOJ, DHS, State Department and White House was always inherently suspect. The CBS revelation obliterates even the idea of OIG impartiality. The Inspector General’s credibility on the Fast and Furious fatalities is finito.

In fact, the OIG is now implicated in the Gunwalker scandal. Someone somewhere must have put enormous pressure Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson—recently appointed to the Government Accountability and Transparency Board—to roll over on this one. Which means that there must be plenty of other types of insect life under the Fast and Furious rock.

In fact, it’s hard to know where the ATF scandal begins and where the corruption ends. Setting aside the recent revelations about Obama administration handouts to corporate pals, it’s clear that the White House’s duplicitous efforts to prop-up President Calderon’s government are taking place in an entire lanscape of U.S. federal corruption. boderlandbeat.com:

Two former law enforcement officers allege that they cannot get anyone to investigate allegations that the Mexican drug cartels have corrupted U.S. law officers and politicians in the El Paso border region.

Greg Gonzales, a retired Doña Ana County sheriff’s deputy, and Wesley Dutton, a rancher and former New Mexico state livestock investigator, said that instead of arrests and prosecutions of suspects, their whistle-blowing activities have resulted only in threats and retaliation against themselves . . .

Both men were confidential sources for the FBI in El Paso and assisted with investigations over an 18-month period.

Gonzales and Dutton allege that the FBI dropped them after “big names” on the U.S. side of the border began to surface in the drug investigations . . .

Gonzales and Dutton said both or either one of them helped with federal investigations that were successful, including the arrest of Special FBI Agent John Shipley. Shipley was convicted of weapons-related charges after a weapon he sold someone turned up in Chihuahua state at a scene where a firefight took place between Mexican soldiers and drug traffickers.

However, they said, they are concerned that other serious allegations have not found their way to court.

More allegations? What are the odds? More importantly, where’s the big picture?

As bad as the Gunwalker scandal is—and we haven’t even touched upon the death of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata at the hands of drug thugs wielding ATF-enabled weapons or the guns-to-Honduras black bag job known as Operation Castaway—the Bureau and its co-conspirators would like the public to see the scandal as an isolated oopsie.

Truth be told, Fast and Furious was part of an government-wide policy towards Mexico that has failed, is failing and will fail. Spectacularly.

As Mexico heads towards the 2012 elections, as Los Zetas fight for their survival against a new U.S.-lead effort to exterminate them, the war for control of Mexico is getting much, much worse. The cartels are shooting Congressmen, disemboweling Twitter reporters, taking control of legitimate business and infiltrating American cities. And that’s not including their “normal” criminal activities (kidnapping, human trafficking, prostitution, drug smuggling, etc.).

It’s ironic. The ATF claims they were letting gun smugglers smuggle guns to Mexican cartels in order to catch gun smugglers. You know: to help stop the killing south of the border. In fact, they were more-or-less sending guns across the border to help Sinaloas kill Zetas. The ATF’s efforts were part of a wider effort to pick winner and losers amongst Mexico’s bad guys—instead of standing firm for democracy and the rule of law.

That said, how could America have done that without sealing our southern border, with all the political, social and economic fallout that would entail? We couldn’t. So instead, we send Mexico an endless supply of guns, grenades and other weapons of war—both officially (through military and police sales) and unofficially (through the ATF and others).

I’m not a big fan of gun control. But arming bad guys is never a good idea. Like Mexico, unlike the architects of Fast and Furious, we will reap what the ATF has sowed. If a single American “civilian” is murdered by an ATF-enabled gun, the real cost of the ATF’s arrogance may finally be revealed. Sad, but true.