Holder's claims to have only just learned of Gunrunner proven false - by his own website

by Jim Shepherd

As the Operation Fast and Furious story continues, it seems the Attorney General of the United States has more than a little explaining to do over his having very little personal knowledge of the operation that knowingly allowed a large number of American-made firearms to be illegally purchased and transported across the border to Mexican criminals.

On May 3, Mr. Holder testified (as in stated under oath) to Representative Darrell Issa's House Oversight and Government Reform committee that he only learned about the operation "in the last few weeks".

Over the weekend, The Washington Examiner's "Beltway Confidental" (http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/07/holder-...) reported that website Big Government (http://biggovernment.com/tag/gunrunner/) had quoted a speech in which Holder had, in fact, bragged about having overseen its implementation in 2009.

Holder, during a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico on April 2, 2009, boasted about Operation Gunrunner, telling Mexican authorities everything he had done to ensure its success.

Here is an excerpt from that speech:

"Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion."
---United States Attorney General Eric Holder speaking in Cuernavaca, Mexico, April 2, 2009

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't sound like the words of a man who's blissfully ignorant of an operation that flooded Mexico with illegally purchased weapons. It does sound like someone bragging about winning a race before his horse crossed the finish line. Holder's horse pulled up lame on July 4 when acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson decide to testify about Fast and Furious without having Justice Department counsel present to "advise him" on what he could-or couldn't- say.

Instead, Melson testified the operation "made him sick to his stomach" and had been taken over by the Justice Department in advance of his fully knowing the details of the operation. That stomach ache is undoubtedly going around the Justice Department, especially since Melson's on record as having his contact with Congress limited, his efforts to reassign "every senior official" affiliated with Fast and Furious countermanded and having been ordered - by his superiors at the Justice Department - "not to communicate to Congress the reasoning behind the reassignments."

For those of you wondering how the heck this is an outdoor story, the guns U.S. law enforcement officers allowed to flow-unimpeded, if not actually assisted- into Mexico were moving at the same time Holder, Mexican President Calderon and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were talking about the "river of iron" from the United States drowning Mexico with firearms being used to create havoc in that country.

That "river of iron" was the evidence they used in making the case that a crackdown on "assault weapons" and U.S. firearms dealers and owners was necessary to stop the flow.

That begs a question: did officials talk about a "river of guns" because it was great political posturing - or because they actually knew there was a river flowing - because ATF agents were supplying them at the Justice Department's insistence?

Should that prove to be the case, officials who knew about Fast and Furious would appear to be guilty of being arms-length accomplices to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry - and no one knows how many innocent (or not-so-innocent) Mexicans killed in drug violence.

It's going to go from bad to worse for the Justice Department.

Republished from The Outdoor Wire.

Additional Information:
Congressman Attempts to Misdirect ATF Investigation; Promotes Anti-Gun Agenda