Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Possible U.S. Payments to Gun Smugglers Probed by Congress

Congressional investigators looking into a U.S. law enforcement program to track guns shipped illegally to Mexico are examining whether government-paid informants were involved in smuggling weapons. Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, and Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, have been investigating a program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that allowed illegal purchases in the U.S. in an effort to link guns to Mexican drug cartels. The lawmakers said they want to know whether suspects identified in that program were serving as informants for other law enforcement agencies without ATF’s knowledge. “The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities,” the two lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that was released today. Congressional investigators are looking into whether the Drug Enforcement Administration or Federal Bureau of Investigation paid any informants involved in gun smuggling, according to a congressional staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity and wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Issa and Grassley’s letter to Holder said they had “very real indications” that the gun traffickers the ATF tried to identify were “already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants.”...more

1 comment:

Bodrie said...

This is going to eventually make it's way all the way up to Obama. I'm sure that Erick Holder is going to be offered up as the sacrificial lamb in an effort to protect Obama, but it won't work. This has become an act of treason and grounds for impeachment. The President has supplied weapons to an enemy of the United States - the Mexican Drug Cartels. He funded the activity and encouraged it to create a premise to introduce more oppresssive gun control laws. It is disgusting.

Bodrie
A Gun Enthusiast Speaks