Fast and Furious

[Lemur]

This is the most detailed expose I've yet seen on the ATF gunwalking scandal, including numerous links to original documents and firsthand reporting. Curious to hear what Orgahs think. Summary:

A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust. [...]

[A] six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case. Several, including Voth, are speaking out for the first time.
How Fast and Furious reached the headlines is a strange and unsettling saga, one that reveals a lot about politics and media today.

[Strike For The South]

These agents are going to be crucified while the politicans are going to walk scot free

The justice is palpable

[Lemur]

Doing some lunchtime reading, I find the prosecutor's behavior incredibly hard to understand.

Prosecutors repeatedly rebuffed Voth's requests. After examining one suspect's garbage, agents learned he was on food stamps yet had plunked down more than $300,000 for 476 firearms in six months. Voth asked if the ATF could arrest him for fraudulently accepting public assistance when he was spending such huge sums. Prosecutor Hurley said no. In another instance, a young jobless suspect paid more than $10,000 for a 50-caliber tripod-mounted sniper rifle. According to Voth, Hurley told the agents they lacked proof that he hadn't bought the gun for himself.

[drone]

New facts are still coming to light—and will likely continue to do so with the Justice Department inspector general's report expected in coming months. Among the discoveries: Fast and Furious' top suspects—Sinaloa Cartel operatives and Mexican nationals who were providing the money, ordering the guns, and directing the recruitment of the straw purchasers—turned out to be FBI informants who were receiving money from the bureau. That came as news to the ATF agents in Group VII.

I lol'ed. Your tax dollars at work!

[Major Robert Dump]

The only good that will ever come from any of this is that the operation was named after one of the great cinema masterpieces of our generation. I heard there is a similar operation involving pharmacies called Operation Ishtar.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Oh but I doubt this is all that atypical. It's that little issue of being a federation of states (with attending rights & powers) that mean one border state can spoil it for the rest of them, or alternatively that because there's no single definite rule book any federal sort of initiative is going to have to work around the local roadblock.

In reverse, for example, you have the Stasi NYPD.

[drone]

Oh but I doubt this is all that atypical. It's that little issue of being a federation of states (with attending rights & powers) that mean one border state can spoil it for the rest of them, or alternatively that because there's no single definite rule book any federal sort of initiative is going to have to work around the local roadblock.

I don't think this is the case. The ATF, FBI, and the prosecutors involved are all at the federal level.