Fast and Furious or Dumb and Dumber?

August 5th 2012 · 5 Comments

How the Operation Appears to Have Chosen the Wrong Blockbuster

What started out as an ugly situation continues to grow increasingly worse as new information regarding the “Operation Fast and Furious” fiasco was recently released to the public.

The July 30^th article in the Los Angeles Times revealed that five ATF officials have been found responsible for the massively flawed operation.

The article states:

“Republican congressional investigators have concluded that five senior ATF officials — from the special agent-in-charge of the Phoenix field office to the top man in the bureau’s Washington headquarters — are collectively responsible for the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation …”

Even worse news for those involved: There are still two more reports to be released in the coming days that will be even more damning.

The operation itself was designed as a way to target high-level cartel members who were purchasing firearms from the U.S. through illegal means. The “geniuses” behind the plan allowed the guns to leave their control and get into the hands of the cartels.

As with many flawed plans, Operation Fast and Furious came to the public’s attention through tragic circumstances when U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a firefight with a group of five suspected illegal immigrants. When the dust had settled, two of the guns that the suspected illegal immigrants had been using were guns that the ATF supposedly had under surveillance.

So far only a fraction of the over 2,000 weapons sold during the operation have been accounted for, leaving many of us to wonder how such an operation was ever approved in the first place. Well, the report helps to enhance our understanding by describing the actions taken by the five officials in such glowing terms as:

“repeatedly risky”

“…consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques.”

“…he reverted back to the use of risky gunwalking tactics.”

“…rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them,”

“… it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field.”

“…failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required.”

“…was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized.”

Sounds like a bunch of winners to me. Even now the President and his cronies are trying to set a dangerous precedent by claiming that the information withheld from congress by Attorney General Eric Holder is “executive privilege.”

Does that mean that anything that will shine a negative light on the administration in the future is going to be withheld from the public’s knowledge?

If an operation approved under this administration has put the public in danger, shouldn’t we have a right to know the hows and the whys?

It will be interesting to see what else we learn in the coming days as to the reasons behind such an ill conceived plan, and why important information has yet to be released to the public.

It seems to me that rather than naming the operation after the hit movie series about cars and guns, they might have been better off naming it after the Jim Carey classic “Dumb and Dumber,” because that seems to more adequately describe the brains behind the operation.

A version of this column originally appeared in www.westernfreepress.com.