Fast, Furious, Feeble...

by Jim Shepherd

The old joke about the NCAA's somewhat selective enforcement of basketball rules went like this: "The NCAA's so mad at Kentucky that they're giving Slippery Rock three more years of probation." Translation: the NCAA was going to protect its own even if it sometimes meant the innocent were punished.

Seems the Justice Department could work well with the NCAA, at least when it comes to Operation Fast and Furious. Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder played both fast and furious while testifying to the Senate Judicial Committee.

The fast: "I want to be clear: any instance of so-called 'gun walking' is unacceptable," he told the Committee, "The operation was flawed in it concept, and flawed in its execution."

Tough talk from the man whose department has ultimate responsibility for BATFE. So, too, was Holder's saying "We are losing the battle to stop the flow of illegal guns to Mexico."

Maybe I'm being a bit over the top, but few battles are won when the so-called enforcement officials are essentially cooperating with the criminals. To continue the NCAA basketball analogy: the officials had whistles, but they weren't about to blow them, no matter how out of control and violent the game.

Under fairly brisk questioning from Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, Holder was reminded that "The bottom line is it doesn't matter how many laws we pass if those responsible for enforcing them refuse to do their duty -- as was the case in Fast and Furious."

Holder countered that remark by reminding Senator Grassley that he had issued a directive saying that "gun-walking" was illegal and should never be repeated. He then made an appeal to the committee for a strengthening of the ATF and full-funding for the ATF to combat gun-running.

Say what? At this point -as the evidence continues to mount that ATF had run more than one of these operations and it becomes amazingly obvious that the "nobody saw nuttin'" defense isn't working, it would seem that he should be offering a proposal for dismantling ATF and dividing everything ATF - except the jail sentences for those responsible for the "gun walking"- among other law enforcement agencies.

At this point, I can write- with confidence- that Fast and Furious wasn't the first of these operations. Operation Wide Receiver, initiated in 2006, also allowed illegal firearms to be moved across Arizona and into Mexico.

My confidence comes from face-to-face conversations with the confidential informant who sold many of those guns to Mexican criminals or their agents. Documents, communications exchanges with government officials, and other evidence forms what would seem to be a defensible body of evidence that this operation, too, went too-far and put lives at risk.

No matter how Attorney General Holder tries to spin the matter, there were obvious criminal acts committed in the course of both of these operations. Granted, the digging for the truth is along party lines, but the Congressional investigations are not the "headline grabbing Washington 'gotcha' games and cynical political point scoring" the Attorney General would like you to believe.

In the Justice Department, it seems the primary concern at this point is preserving careers and maintaining control over a situation that has obviously spiraled well beyond the bounds of even the most egregious misconduct.

Lives have been lost as a result of a calculated and cynical indifference to the bounds of legality - apparently in the hopes of creating a headline-grabbing, career-advancing bust.

One day there will be a conclusion written to both Fast and Furious and Wide Receiver. When that happens, we can only hope that full credit is given where credit is due.

Republished from The Outdoor Wire.