Never letting a crisis go to waste is a core belief of the Obama administration. As the incoming Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel infamously championed the practice:
“Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before.”
In 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed the sentiment when she told a Brussels audience to “never waste a good crisis” while talking about climate change. At about the same time, Clinton was responsible for pushing a provably false narrative that 90% of the guns used to commit crimes in Mexico came from the United States.
Just a few short months later, Clinton announced that she would support the United Nations’ efforts to regulate arms sales. Clinton said the following in a written statement:
“Consensus is needed to ensure the widest possible support for the Treaty and to avoid loopholes in the Treaty that can be exploited by those wishing to export arms irresponsibly.”
Barack Obama himself promised Mexico that he would push the U.S. Senate for ratification of an international gun treaty that would operate under the auspices of preventing guns from entering Mexico illegally from the United States. It was a tall order that required two-thirds of the Senate to approve.
While the administration was pushing an agenda by pushing false narratives, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) was allowing high caliber weapons to be exported irresponsibly to Mexico and placed in the hands of murderous drug cartels. Known as Operation Fast and Furious, it was part of the larger Project Gunrunner program.
There is now ironclad proof that the decision to allow straw purchasers to buy AK-47’s and .50 caliber Barrett rifles which then were ‘walked’ into Mexico was made by someone extremely high up within the ATF and possibly Eric Holder’s Justice Department. The last straw for a growing number of whistleblowers was when two of those weapons were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry last December.
When a gun shop owner expressed grave concern about this policy to ATF Phoenix Supervisor David Voth in an email, he was told to continue selling weapons illegally. When that same shop owner expressed concern for the safety of Border agents six months before Terry’s death, Voth told him to continue.
In reality, it was this and other gun shop owners who were acting responsibly; a government agency – who Attorney General Eric Holder is ultimately responsible for – acted worse than irresponsibly.
Initially, the ATF denied it was allowing these guns to ‘walk.’ It lied. Now, its Director has ignored a subpoena and countless requests for documents by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton have both denied requests for information as well.
The evidence in this scandal is increasingly pointing to officials extremely high up in this administration. At that point, the dots are not too far apart to connect.
Guns being transported into Mexico illegally is certainly a ‘crisis’ made exponentially worse by the resultant deaths. Such a crisis, if properly exploited, could serve as the impetus for getting the Senate to ratify an international weapons treaty.
Until and unless Clinton, Holder, and ATF Director Kenneth Melson prove to us that a crisis wasn’t created in order to do something they could not do before, what else are we left to conclude?
Ben Barrack is a talk show host on KTEM 1400 in Texas and maintains a website at benbarrack.com