ATF Sits and Watches Guns Illegally Shipped into Mexico

Barack Obama, leader of the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight, holds joint press conferences with the President of Mexico, while apparently, simultaneously conducting an inept and fruitless sting operation that allowed hundreds if not thousands of guns to be illegally shipped to Mexico and used in crimes both in Mexico and the US, while his ATF was sitting idly by.

Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico

An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, (John) Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen. Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.

So, while Obama talks a good fight in in his press conference, the truth is, his administration is actually making the problems worse.

...Agent Dodson and other sources say the gun walking strategy was approved all the way up to the Justice Department. The idea was to see where the guns ended up, build a big case and take down a cartel. And it was all kept secret from Mexico.

ATF named the case "Fast and Furious." Surveillance video obtained by CBS News shows suspected drug cartel suppliers carrying boxes of weapons to their cars at a Phoenix gun shop. The long boxes shown in the video being loaded in were AK-47-type assault rifles.

So it turns out ATF not only allowed it - they videotaped it.

Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets... the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.

So, the flow of firearms across the border was unimpeded, the Mexican government was not informed as to what the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight was doing... Could it get any worse? Unfortunately, yes.

On Dec. 14, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down. Dodson got the bad news from a colleague.

According to Dodson, "They said, 'Did you hear about the border patrol agent?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And they said 'Well it was one of the Fast and Furious guns.' There's not really much you can say after that."

Two assault rifles ATF had let go nearly a year before were found at Terry's murder.

Here's video of the joint press conference:



H/T Maggie's Notebook
Cross posted at Say Anything

Tiger Cub Smuggled in Luggage

Remember those questions the TSA types used to ask you at the airport as to whether you packed your own bags, did someone give you something to carry?

As I recall, there was one question they used to ask which was tantamount to asking you if you'd seen anyone tampering with your luggage while you weren't looking!

This story has a little of that element in it. From the UK Daily Mail:

At first glance it looked to airport officials like just another stuffed toy in a suitcase. But on closer inspection, the tiny tiger cub was found to be real and alive but unconscious after it was drugged.

Shocked police then arrested the woman owner of the luggage at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand where she was allegedly planning to smuggle the three-month-old animal to Iran.

It must have crawled into my suitcase! Honest!!!

The woman, identified as Thai national Piyawan Palasarn, 31, faces up to four years in prison and a 40,000 baht (£824) fine for two wildlife smuggling-related charges, police said.

She denied the luggage with the cub belonged to her and said another passenger had asked her to carry it for them, said Adisorn Noochdumrong, head of an international wildlife division at the conservation center.

The cub could have fetched about 100,000 baht (£2,060) on the black market in Iran, where it is popular to have exotic pets, Adisorn said. ($3195 USD)

Gee. There's a luggage check tag and lots of clothing and personal property associated along with that suitcase.

"If the jeans fit, you cannot acquit!" Heh.

Update: This story could give new meaning to the phrase "snarled" in airport traffic!

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