Fast and Furious is a mess. It’s bigger than we were first told, it involved a greater variety of weapons than we were led to believe, and it’s deadlier than the Obama administration let on. (In addition to U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry’s death, there have been hundreds of deaths in Mexico with Fast and Furious weapons, many of which continue to show up at crime scenes in both Mexico and the U.S.)
Moreover, as details keep leaking out, it looks more and more like it’s a mess that originated in or near the White House. And the recent discovery of secretly recorded conversations, which CBS News alleges may show some evidence is still being suppressed concerning the death of U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry, make it easy to remember what similar recordings did to the Nixon presidency in 1974.
Compounding these issues is the fact that there are still outstanding questions regarding the rocket launcher, grenade launcher, assault rifles, and C4 explosives found near the Mexico/Texas border.
There are still questions about the gun smuggling operation out of El Paso, where it is alleged that Obama administration officials have been selling military grade weapons to drug cartel members in Mexico. (Perhaps this explains the rocket launcher, grenade launcher, assault rifles, and C4?)
Supported by at least one former DEA official and one “CIA contract pilot,” the allegations are that weapons have been regularly transported from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to El Paso, Texas and/or Columbus, New Mexico. From either of those locations they then crossed into Mexico.
But as of yet, there is no word on a serious investigation into these matters.
And not unlike Fast and Furious, the El Paso situation has only gotten messier with time. On Monday the El Paso Times ran a story alleging that just as officials have looked the other way while guns were smuggled across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, so too they are looking the other way while drugs are being smuggled across from Mexico into the U.S.
Two men, Greg Gonzales and Wesley Dutton, both of which were “confidential sources for the FBI in El Paso and assisted with investigations over an 18-month period,” allege that “they cannot get anyone to investigate allegations that the Mexican drug cartels have corrupted U.S. law officers and politicians in the El Paso border region.”
Both men are alleging that “small aircraft regularly drop drug loads on ranches or other properties along the U.S.-Mexico border, and that some U.S. law officers escort the loads to the next stop.”
Although these things are “alleged,” the sad news is none of them are hard to believe because we’ve seen our own government do far worse during the last two years.
Just think about it: We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our own government oversaw an operation that allowed 2,500 weapons to be sold to straw purchasers and that those weapons were intended to cross an international border (illegally) and end up in the hands of Mexican cartel members. And we know for certain that those guns have been used against Mexicans and Americans alike.
No wonder Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) contends that Americans were “the known collateral damage” in this mess.
An administration capable of this kind of treachery is certainly capable of letting a few drug runners land a plane, empty their payload, and take off safely, don’t you think?