The ATF scandal gets even messier

We've spoken many times about the ATF's "Operation Fast and Furious" debacle in these pages, most recently a week ago today. Now comes another news report demonstrating that this entire program was not only prima facie illegal, but also criminally damaging to the security of American citizens and residents.

Weapons linked to [Operation Fast and Furious] have been turning up at dangerous and deadly crime scenes near both sides of the border, including the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed last December.

The ABC15 Investigators uncovered documents showing guns connected to at least two Glendale criminal cases and at least two Phoenix criminal cases also appear in the ATF’s Suspect Gun Database, a sort-of watch list for suspicious gun sales.

All four cases involve drug-related offenses. In one Glendale police report dated July 2010, police investigators working with DEA agents served search warrants at homes near 75th and Glendale avenues in Glendale, and 43rd and Glendale avenues in Phoenix as part of a “large scale marijuana trafficking” investigation.

Police investigators reported they “obtained information that members of the (trafficking) organization were using the homes…as stash houses used to store large amounts of marijuana temporarily.”

They reported finding hundreds of pounds of marijuana, more than $63,000 in U.S. currency and three guns inside the homes. One of the recovered weapons, a Romarm/Cugir WASR-10 rifle, appeared in an official ATF Suspect Gun Summary document in November 2009, proving agents knowingly allowed the suspicious gun sale, months before the weapon turned up at the crime scene.

In a separate Glendale Police Department case, dated November 2010, detectives discovered “bulk marijuana and weapons” inside a residence near 75th Avenue and Bethany Home Road in Glendale. Investigators recovered nearly 400 pounds of drugs and several firearms from the home.

One of the recovered weapons, another Romarm/Cugir WASR-10 rifle, appeared in an official ATF Suspect Gun Summary document in February 2010.

. . .

ATF representatives denied ABC15’s open records request for documents showing other weapons connected to the Fast and Furious case that may have been involved in other crimes in the United States.

They also denied our request for an interview, saying the case is still under investigation.

There's more at the link. I'm not surprised that the ATF refused to co-operate with the news investigation. When you've got blood on your hands, and are trying desperately to wash it off before it sticks permanently, what else can you do?

To add insult to injury, a dumbass Congressman has insinuated that the scandal proves the need for tougher gun laws!

A controversial program by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that tried to track illegal weapons sales shows the need for tougher gun laws, according to a report issued Thursday by a House Democrat.

Entitled "Outgunned," the report released by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, quoted law enforcement officers on how lax or nonexistent laws and regulations on so-called "straw" purchases of illegal weapons, firearms trafficking and monitoring of the sales of assault rifles and other long guns contributed to the thriving trafficking of illegal weapons to Mexico.

The report is an attempt by Cummings and other Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to raise the issue of gun control in the investigation of "Operation Fast and Furious," the ATF program that focused on following people who legally bought weapons that were then transferred to criminals and destined for Mexico.

Again, more at the link.

Is it possible for a human being to be so dense, so incomprehensibly doltish? How can Congressman Cummings make such statements with a straight face? I can't believe he's serious when he says these things. If he was, he'd be branding himself a complete and utter moron, unfit to hold his office. Therefore, I can only assume that he's trying to make political capital out of the murder of a US federal law enforcement officer, and (as mentioned above) the use of weapons illegally trafficked by a federal agency to commit crimes against US citizens and residents. That doesn't make him stupid . . . merely contemptible.

One does hope Congressman Cummings, and others of his ilk, find themselves the victims of crimes where the perpetrators wield firearms obtained via the ATF's "Operation Fast and Furious". I can't think of a more suitable reward for such barefaced political effrontery and lack of conscience.





Peter