The Case Against Fast and Furious

The Case Against Fast and Furious

Hello there. It's been a while since I've written. Today, I am going to discuss the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious. The proceedings in Congress surrounding this operation have been contentious with the President and the Attorney General. However, through the muck of it all, one can see that there is probably something going on. The purpose of this entry is not to entertain any thoughts of conspiracy, ideology, etc. The purpose of this entry is to prove that something is going on, and that Congress (lead by Congressman Issa) is not wasting their time and that there may be something more to this other than political grandstanding.

Exhibit A: Background

Operation Fast and Furious first came into the national spotlight last year when 300 Mexicans were found brutally shot. Further, an American Border Patrol agent had been found, shot dead with guns used in from Operation Fast and Furious. The object of Operation Fast and Furious was to smuggle weapons across the Mexican border and try to keep tabs on them to determine where the arms were going, presumably to a Mexican drug lord, or at least to a cartel. Eventually, the operation was exposed, and instead of the Executive Branch fessing up to it and revealing all of its details, they stonewalled Congress.

Exhibit B: Face the Nation Interview

On October 16, 2011, Congressman Issa appeared on Face the Nation to answer questions about why he was taking this matter so seriously. Here is the link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-3460_162-20121072.html

Note that Congressman Issa uses PROOF here to say that there is something wrong. Most of the pages he received from the Justice Department surrounding Operation Fast and Furious are blacked-out. If the government truly has nothing to hide, he says, why are all of these pages blacked out?

Exhibit C: Eric Holder Interview, CNN, December 2011

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2011/12/08/bts-holder-hearing-fast-furious.cnn

Note that Attorney General Eric Holder claims to know absolutely nothing about the operation, and that the Justice Department has not mislead Congress. However, the documents mentioned above have already been released, #1, and #2 he is not cooperating. It seems like something very odd is going on here. It gets worse. Note how the idea of contempt is floated for the first time here. Talk of contempt 

Exhibit D:  Holder tries to make a "Deal" with the House Committee

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/14/politics/holder-congress/index.html?iref=allsearch

Holder agrees to provide SOME of the documents and hides behind the idea of providing ALL of the documents by stating that it would jeopardize "criminal prosecutions." If they were trying to criminally prosecute people, how could statement from Exhibit C, be true? If they had just figured out what is going on, it is highly unlikely that, though a year later, they would be ready to prosecute someone.

Exhibit E: Congressman Issa wants information in exchange for dropping contempt charges

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/15/politics/holder-contempt/index.html?iref=allsearch

Congressman Issa at this point says, "We'll drop the charges of Contempt if you simply hand over the information." One would assume that a charge of contempt does not look good on resume, especially if a charge could get you into serious legal trouble. The documents are not released. 

Exhibit F: Eric Holder Cited for Contempt

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/20/politics/holder-contempt/index.html?iref=allsearch

In keeping in mind the general uncooperativeness of Eric Holder, it's quite obvious that this was coming. On June 6, 2012, Eric Holder is Cited for Contempt.

Finally, Exhibit G: Obama Claims Executive Privilege over Fast and Furious Documents

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/24/politics/holder-contempt/index.html?iref=allsearch

President Obama now gets into the fray, deciding instead to block release of the documents, citing "Executive Privilege." If there is truly nothing to hide, and this is a political grandstand by Congress, why not release the document, prove it to them, and turn into to an embarrassment on the House's end? Instead, the President injects himself into the fray.

Conclusion: Though I do not wish to get into speculation as to what is in these documents, clearly both Eric Holder AND President Obama think there is something inside these documents that could be potentially damning to them. I ask you to consider: If you're willing to let your Attorney General get cited for contempt, AND throw yourself into the fray in an election year, rather than releasing the documents and have the problem go away, clearly there is a problem in those documents. Congress is NOT wasting my time, and SHOULD get to the bottom of this. There is nothing political about it insofar as "What did the President and Attorney General know, and when did they know it?" To paraphrase a phrase from the Nixon trials. We, as the American people, need to know what is going on and why, even if the answer is something as simple as "Seemed like a good idea at the time." I rest my case.