GOA news: Fast and Furious Probe Widening!
The congressional investigation into the gunrunning scandal known as Fast and Furious is in full swing this week, with the House Judiciary Committee to hold a round of hearings on Thursday.
More and more reporters in the mainstream media are now taking a closer look at the scandal, which GOA first began alerting members to in January. Under the program, thousands of guns purchased with federal tax dollars were allowed to “walk” into Mexico, at which point they disappeared into the hands of violent drug cartels.
Just this week, the New York Times reported that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is involved in an enormous, multi-million dollar money laundering scheme aimed, like Fast and Furious, at Mexican drug cartels.
But neither program has resulted in significant arrests (not to mention convictions) of drug kingpins, and no cartels have been brought down after several years of activities by agencies spread across the federal bureaucracy.
One former DEA official expressed frustration to the Times, noting that, “My rule was that if we are going to launder money, we better show results. Otherwise, the D.E.A. could wind up being the largest money launderer in the business, and that money results in violence and deaths.”
This news infuriated Rep. Darrell Issa, the powerful chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, who announced that his investigation will be expanding to include the activities of the DEA “money-running” scandal.
In a blistering letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Issa takes Holder to task for arming drug cartels with thousands of firearms, and bankrolling their operations with millions of American taxpayer dollars—perhaps, even hundreds of millions of dollars.
Issa wrote to Holder that the DEA revelation “again calls your leadership into question. The managerial structure you have implemented lacks appropriate operational safeguards to prevent the implementation of such dangerous schemes. The consequences have been disastrous.”
With every news report, more and more information leaks out from a Justice Department that seems intent on stonewalling and misleading the Congress. GOA is keeping the pressure on congressmen to call for Holder’s resignation and to pursue possible criminal wrongdoing by government bureaucrats.
GOA leaders will be attending Thursday’s hearing and will be briefing the media on this burgeoning scandal.
It is also important to continue to remind the politicians that, according to the testimony of many current and former ATF officials, one of the goals of Fast and Furious was to bolster the case for more gun control laws here at home.
As you can see, December in Washington is turning into a lobbying blitz.
