Friday, March 4, 2011

Huge Scandal: ATF is "Letting Guns Walk" into Hands of Mexican Cartels

From CBS News:  
WASHINGTON - Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.
He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?
"Yes ma'am," Dodson told CBS News. "The agency was."
An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.
Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.
Dodson's bosses say that never happened. Now, he's risking his job to go public.
"I'm boots on the ground in Phoenix, telling you we've been doing it every day since I've been here," he said. "Here I am. Tell me I didn't do the things that I did. Tell me you didn't order me to do the things I did. Tell me it didn't happen. Now you have a name on it. You have a face to put with it. Here I am. Someone now, tell me it didn't happen."
Agent Dodson and other sources say the gun walking strategy was approved all the way up to the Justice Department. The idea was to see where the guns ended up, build a big case and take down a cartel. And it was all kept secret from Mexico.
ATF named the case "Fast and Furious."
Surveillance video obtained by CBS News shows suspected drug cartel suppliers carrying boxes of weapons to their cars at a Phoenix gun shop. The long boxes shown in the video being loaded in were AK-47-type assault rifles.
So it turns out ATF not only allowed it - they videotaped it.
Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets... the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.
One e-mail noted, "958 killed in March 2010 ... most violent month since 2005." The same e-mail notes: "Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone," including "numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles."
Dodson feels that ATF was partly to blame for the escalating violence in Mexico and on the border. "I even asked them if they could see the correlation between the two," he said. "The more our guys buy, the more violence we're having down there."



Senior agents including Dodson told CBS News they confronted their supervisors over and over.
Their answer, according to Dodson, was, "If you're going to make an omelette, you've got to break some eggs."


What???? This is outrageous!! ATF agents are being ordered to just sit back, watch and allow assault weapons to get in the hands of the drug cartels, allowing the drug cartels to walk away with those guns in a strategy which was supposed to culminate with taking down a major cartel. The ATF's job was to stop gun trafficking across the border but was ordered to simply watch so they could see where the cartels would end up, whether these guns crossed the border into Mexico or ended up back into the U.S.  These orders were traced all the way up the line to the Justice Department approving this policy of "letting guns walk".  These same guns are killing our own people.  Brian Terry, a border patrol agent was gunned down in December.  The two guns which were found next to him were allowed to "walk".  This is unbelievable!   An ATF agent named John Dodson has gone public with this information and is blowing this scandal wide open. So, the ATF - essentially the U.S. government - is partially responsible for the escalating violence in Mexico.  Our government is responsible for innocent lives being lost.  This program clearly needs to be investigated by Congress.  The "letting guns walk" program has had a devastating impact on both Mexico and our country so this needs to be stopped.

For some reason the embed code on the CBS video would only show half of the picture on the video so here are the links to the videos:

Here is a link to the interview with ATF agent Dodson


Here is the the link to the investigative report on the ATF 

14 comments:

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

The feds and the media want stronger gun laws. Before this story broke, they were saying it's our "lenient" gun laws that were to blame for the violence in Mexico ... yeah right.

Most Rev. Gregori said...

Teresa, I blogged on this same thing a few days ago, and what I would like to know is just how far up the chain of command did the permission for this to happen go? What does Obama know and when did he know it.?

Eric Graff said...

Just how bad is this administration? The world may never know.

Trekkie4Ever said...

I like the idea of "shoot to kill on sight." I bet that would prevent anymore drug cartel from running across our borders.

Or any undesirables for that matter.

Amusing Bunni said...

No wonder we're all screwed. I get more disgusted by the minute reading all these crimes.

Opus #6 said...

This is a foolish policy.

Unless, of course, you work high in the US government and receive bribes from the cartels. Then it is brilliant.

Follow the money.

And put an end to this sick scheme of fueling the murder-fest in Mexico.

And might this all have been part of a plan to try to blame Mexican gun violence on the US to change our laws? Oooeeee, these leftists have this thing covered on both ends. Somebody belongs in jail.

Eric Graff said...

I agree with you Opus#6 when you say this is "foolish policy" but we need to ask the tough questions. The policy in place is doomed by unarmed unprotected agents. Why would you do that? Why would you put agents in the field knowing there are AK-47’s coming from America? The disconnect is impossible for me to wrap my head around.
What is achieved by a policy born of weakness and zero protection? We have America fighting a war with bean bags for bullets in 2011? It’s suicide. If it’s not suicide what is it then? Obama has repeatedly left these agents at a disadvantage. When lives are on the line, as the border war has become, I want my 50 caliber in my hand folks. Yet no one seems to mind. Well, we do, but where is the sock puppet press? Lives are being snuffed out here. God help us.

Eric Graff said...

Leticia has the correct policy:Shoot To Kill!!
Implementation is justified but no allowed. Sick..

Teresa said...

Odie,

The libs are using this to promote their anti-gun or anti-second amendment agenda. But, yet they refuse to do their jobs and close the border. What a bunch of sick, twisted individuals.

Teresa said...

Most Rev. Gregori,

Somehow I wouldn't doubt if Obama's name is written all over this. Its obvious that he wants to take this country down a notch or two. He sees American exceptionalism as imperialistic. Its clear that he'd rather be King than President.

Teresa said...

Eman,

This administration is underhanded, crooked, and evil IMO.

Teresa said...

Leticia,

I love your idea of "shoot to kill on sight". They would certainly know that we mean business about keeping out criminals.

Teresa said...

Bunni,

Reading about these crimes ticks me off too.

Teresa said...

Opie,

I agree that we should follow the money. Our government seems to be like a mafia type of government lately. Probably. This would continue the Obama administration's blame America policy.