You've no doubt heard something about this: guns were allowed to enter Mexico, as part of a sting operation run by the US government, and were acquired by drug cartels. The guns were being traced, or tracked, but it seems a majority of them were lost track of. So much for that idea.
This will likely be a story that is serious enough to influence the 2012 election. I believe that it will affect the Dept. of Justice beforehand. I expect it to be a topic raised during the campaign to question Obama's leadership and judgement as president, unless he convincingly had nothing to do with this crazy -- and very mismanaged -- sting.
The sting is already a serious story, but it is still taking shape. At the least, my hope is that this miserable gunrunning program will force some healthy changes in both ATF and DOJ.
The ATF, more formally known as BATFE -- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- is under the Dept. of Justice. (The FBI is its bigger, more famous, brother law enforcement agency.) The sting shows a need for change in the leadership of DOJ and ATF.
So far, the story goes like this: Your national government has been requiring border agents to permit guns to get into the hands of vicious killers in Mexico. A large number of these apparently "traced" guns were quickly lost track of. Hundreds, it seems.
The ATF sanctioned this effort -- as a sting against the cartels, allegedly -- to allow guns to be purchased by the drug cartels and cross the border.
Some ATF agents didn't like this, on a variety of levels -- including ethics, vow to country and good old pride in one's work -- and some spoke out amongst one another. One agent, a senior one assigned to the southwestern border, became the central voice to go public with objections.
That agent, Vince Cefalu, decided to blow the whistle, to make his strong disagreements public, after one of these ATF-"tracked" guns was pointed at an American, and its target was taken down. That was simply the last straw for the agent. He first spoke about the sting in December of 2010.
It was not a drunken American tourist who stumbled into a firefight that this ATF-sanctioned cartel gun aimed at: it was an American law enforcement agent. Yes, a gun that slipped by our ATF, with the support of an ATF program, was involved in some way in the shooting death of a border agent. A cruel twist if there ever were one. (Would it be considered friendly fire? No way, that's going too far, but it comes close enough that it disgusts me.)
Who knew what in the DOJ's top offices and among the Obama's administration other heavies, and why such a poorly managed, high-risk program was permitted, is going to be a story for a while. It could prove to be the biggest federal law enforcement scandal in years. It isn't Ruby Ridge or Branch Davidian big, but it is big. I hope it doesn't get to be that big, or worse, which it has the potential for.
The media isn't doing much with it yet. Some are ignoring it, while broadcast media's conservative pundits are bringing it up. I don't know how the left-leaning media majority will handle it when the facts come more to the forefront.
But the media, those with any journalistic integrity and objectivity, will not be able to remain so strongly on Obama's side for 2012 as in 2008. He has a very apparent record now. And his pre-2009 record glows with statements contrary to his presidential record.
This gunrunning story may help demonstrate, to anyone not still getting drunk off the hope and change KoolAid, of his lack of skill as a real world -- rather than a campaign or academic -- leader. Oh, and there is this, too: the whistleblower agent has been fired from the BATFE. So the story is going nowhere. And it certainly shouldn't be ignored by any media outlets.
-jR (aka @AirFarceOne on Twitter)
(Thanks to Drudge Report, where I saw something on this in June, and to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly for interviewing the whistleblower agent in late June.)
Posted via email from Like, Totally Political Dude! - posterous
