Fast & Furious Did Not Begin Under President Bush Am I the only one completely frustrated by the

Republican response (or non-response) to the Dem accusations of a Republican Holder witch hunt and political gimmick and trying to link this tragic episode to planned voter-suppression in pursuit of the truth about the origin of F&F? Am I the only one who is mad as hell at the tepid, feckless Republican non-reaction every time the Dems and Obama administration say, over and over, that the 'concept' of gun-walking began under the Bush administration? "Operation Wide Receiver," the Bush-era operation was run out of Tucson between 2006 and 2007, ending before Bush left office and before Fast and Furious began under Obama in 2009. Wide Receiver used the common law enforcement tactic of "controlled delivery" in which the illegal sales of weapons were allowed to take place, the movements of the weapons were closely monitored and the end purchasers were then apprehended. It involved gun-tracing---and NOT gun-walking. Under the "controlled delivery" of Wide Receiver, agents didn't just write down the serial numbers and let the guns disappear as in Fast & Furious. They closely and physically followed the guns from American dealers to straw purchasers to Mexican buyers. Most importantly, Wide Receiver was run in close cooperation with Mexican authorities---who were kept IN THE DARK on Fast & Furious! In contrast ATF agents involved in Fast & Furious HAVE TESTIFIED under oath that they were ORDERED not to track the weapons, and in cases where interdiction was possible they were ordered to stand down and actually watch the weapons walk. ATF Special Agent John Dodson has testified how in one instance guns were sold to known illegal buyers who took them to a stash house. Against orders from his superiors, Dodson kept the stash house under surveillance and when a vehicle showed up to transfer the weapons to their ultimate destination, he called for an interdiction team to move in, seize the weapons and arrest the traffickers. His superiors refused, and the guns disappeared without surveillance. The differences between Wide Receiver and Fast & Furious are vast, starting with the fact that Wide Receiver produced no dead bodies, which werent only Americans in this F&F case, but hundreds of Mexican nationals who have been killed by Fast & Furious weapons. And while we all know Bryan Terry was shot in the back and killed, where is the outrage over the idiotic policy that had its agents facing those with lethal AK-47s but Terry and his team were armed only with a non-lethal bean bag gun? Should an American patriot's challenge to scumbags be: "Halt ... or I will cause you welts!?" Why isn't ANYONE in the Republican party, including the RNC, saying: We believe this F&F program was initiated, without tracking, with one purpose in mind: to create an environment where violence on both sides of the border would give the president, the DOJ and

the DHS, the ammunition to rally their party and their constituency AGAINST the second amendment, the right for law-abiding Americans to bear arms, and FOR the repeal of that amendment." That is the truth. And that is why Obama issued an Executive Order to prevent that information from coming out. And if that is NOT the truth you know damn well Obama would love to prove it to give himself another reason to spike his Osama football. There can be no deals its the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Eric Holder doesnt get to pick which documents hell turn over. The Congress has the Constitutional responsibility to provide oversight, and Eric Holder and the Obama administration does not have the option of picking and choosing which parts of the laws of this land they want to uphold. Republicans can blame themselves in no small part: It is BECAUSE there have been SO MANY instances over the last 3-1/2 years where feckless Republican leadership in the Congress ALLOWED the Obama administration to do just that instead of pouncing immediately on Constitutional violations and legal infractions, that we find ourselves where we are: a rogue Obama administration without respect for, or fear of, what the Republicans will do and what the possible final results CAN and SHOULD be.

___________________ by Lori Wallach Boxer June 24, 2012