'Gunrunner' escapade to be reviewed by Congress

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says he has assigned four investigators to look into the escapade of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that has become known as "Project Gunrunner." Investigators will examine allegations that the ATF encouraged gun shops to sell guns to questionable customers so it could track the weapons as they were smuggled into Mexico. "The gun shops are often vilified for being the source, but in this case they did the right thing. They contacted the agency and were told to go ahead," Issa said. "As we get to the truth, we're going to hold those who lied to us early on accountable." Issa is also determined to break through the agency's efforts to stonewall the investigation. Kraft said Issa also supports plans for an inquiry by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "ATF and DOJ denied the existence of the program and stonewalled the senator's requests, relying on a policy of not disclosing information relating to an 'open investigation,'" Kraft explained. The operation went public in a number of reports, including one by CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, who said several agents had been ordered to "stand down" instead of intercepting the guns...more

Here again is the CBS video report linked to above:



For additional background go here and here.

So ATF lets guns "walk" into Mexico, one of which is implicated in the death of CBP agent Brian Terry. Why? Keep in mind this is an agency with a track record of botched raids staged for their budget (Waco '93), and now in Did U.S. agency smuggle guns to Mexico to justify its budget? Jeff Knox writes:

Last year the Justice Department Inspector General's office issued a scathing report declaring Project Gunrunner a dismal failure. ATF responded by requesting more money and manpower to beef up the project and backed up the requests with new, better-supported statistics. Speculation abounds that the alleged funneling of guns into Mexico by ATF (dubbed "Project Gunwalker") was done to bolster trace numbers specifically to justify bigger budgets for Project Gunrunner and/or to lend credibility to informants attempting to infiltrate gun smuggling operations.

Clearly an agency out of control.

I sit back in wonderment as I watch all these events unfold.

The U.S. has a prohibition on drugs, so Mexico exports them to us. Mexico has a prohibition on guns, so we export them to Mexico.

Thousands of people have died and both governments have spent billions of dollars, all to enforce a policy that never in history has worked - Prohibition.

We've gone beyond our policies just being foolish. They are resulting in the deaths of citizens and federal agents and undermining the basic tenets of our nation's founding.