Operation Fast And Furious

This story is based on a Townhall.com story in the June issue of Townhall Magazine and a CBS News story from March.  This is one of the stories I occasionally post that I have a very limited understanding of.  In this case, I am comfortable with that because it seems as if very few people actually know (or are willing to admit) what actually happened.

Townhall Magazine reports that in 2205 the Bush administration began a pilot program called Project Gunrunner. 

The article reports: 

"Project Gunrunner allowed ATF agents to watch the purchase of weapons by "straw men" outside American gun shops, and purchasers were immediately apprehended before crossing back into Mexico. But starting early in 2009, ATF's actions through Operation Fast and Furious had the opposite result: They actually allowed and encouraged the sale of weapons to known straw-man purchasers for the cartels and let the guns flow across the southern border into Mexico."

The problem here is not the original program--it is what it morphed into. 

The CBS story reports:

"Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico.  And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets...the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.

"One e-mail noted, "958 killed in March 2010...most violent month since 2005."  The same e-mail notes, "Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone," including "numerous Barret .50 caliber rifles."

"(Federal agent John ) Dodson feels that ATF was partly to blame for the escalating violence in Mexico and on the border.  "I even asked them if they could see the correleation between the two," he said.  "The more our guys buy, the more violence we're having down there.""

The increasing violence that might have been avoided seems to be the problem here.  Representative Darrell Issa requested documents related to Operation Fast and Furious on March 16, 2011, from ATF acting Director Kenneth Melson.  Because of his being stonewalled by the Department of Justice, Representative Issa issued a subpoena on March 31.  The documents were supposed to be given to Representative Issa by April 13, but Director Melson refused to turn the documents over, citing 'on-going criminal investigations.' 

I don't know exactly what went on here.  I do know that Congress has the right to see the subpoenaed documents and share them with the American people.  I am also very unhappy that most of the media has overlooked this story.