Friday, May 11, 2012

Congress Report On Fast and Furious

From the El Paso Times: Firearms connected to Operation Fast and Furious were used in the 2010 slaying of the brother of the former Chihuahua state attorney general, according to a U.S. congressional report.The report said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced two of the weapons suspected in the murder of lawyer Mario González Rodríguez, but did not report this fact to the Mexican government until eight months after the tracing.
The joint congressional staff report "The Department of Justice's Operation Fast and Furious: Fueling Cartel Violence" was prepared for U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., two lawmakers who are spearheading an ongoing investigation into the ATF's controversial operation.
"On October 21, 2010, drug cartel members kidnapped Mario González Rodríguez from his office," according to the 2011 congressional report. "At the time of the kidnapping, his sister Patricia González Rodríguez was the attorney general of the state of Chihuahua."
Mexican officials said Patricia González Rodríguez was already on her way out because the new governor had been installed and a new state prosecutor was going to be appointed.
"A few days after the kidnapping," the congressional report said, " a video surfaced on the Internet in which Mario González Rodríguez sat handcuffed, surrounded by five heavily armed men wearing masks, dressed in camouflage and bullet-proof vest."...
Then, Mexican federal authorities, following a shootout with drug cartel suspects, seized 16 weapons and arrested eight men in connection with Mario González Rodríguez's murder.
Mexican officials submitted information about the weapons to the ATF's e-trace system, and the ATF traced two
AK-47s to Operation Fast and Furious.The congressional report said that an ATF email indicated that ATF officials in Phoenix who knew the two assault rifles came from the controversial operation withheld the information from Mexican officials until June 2011.
In congressional testimony, Carlos Canino, the ATF's acting U.S. attaché in Mexico, said he's the one who finally notified Mexican federal Attorney General Marisela Morales about the weapons-tracing and their link to the death of Mario González Rodríguez.
The report said Morales was shocked and remarked, "Hijole!," which the report said translates into "Oh, my."
Canino feared an international incident might break out with Mexico if the information leaked out to the news media instead of being sent through government channels. He told U.S. lawmakers that he did not want to undermine the trust that U.S. law enforcement had developed with their Mexican counterparts in the war against the drug cartels....
Weapons traced back to the operation have been recovered in eight Mexican states and in Mexico City, and most of them were destined for the Sinaloa drug cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, the congressional report said.
And, at least eight Fast and Furious-connected weapons were recovered at crime scenes in Juárez and four in Chihuahua City between 2010 and 2011.
The Sinaloa cartel has been waging a bloody battle against the Carrillo Fuentes organization that's killed nearly 9,500 people in Juárez alone since 2008.
On Jan. 13, 2010, the El Paso Police Department seized 40 rifles on the East Side that the congressional report said were connected to Fast and Furious. Weapons connected to the operation also were recovered in Columbus, N.M.
The number of Fast and Furious weapons found at Mexican crime scenes could be higher because the information provided to congressional investigators remains incomplete, the report said.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20518887/report-guns-used-mexico-lawyers-murder-traced-atf-operation?source=rss_viewed

Again, please remember that one of the guns in Fast and Furious was used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry:  
http://www.odmp.org/officer/20596-border-patrol-agent-brian-a-terry
Please tell me once again why Eric Holder and members of the ATF are still not in jail and President Obama has not been impeached because of Fast and Furious?

1 comment:

  1. "Although plenty of evidence exists showing that two guns found at the scene of agent Brian Terry’s Dec. 14, 2010, slaying in Arizona were part of the operation, we found no federal ballistics information confirming that the bullet that killed Terry was fired from one of the guns."




    http://www.politifact.com/texas/article/2012/feb/03/politifact-texas-digs-fast-and-furious/

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