In my office I send a weekly report detailing my activities to the AG. I can bet he has no idea what is in them. In my agency alone there is almost 45 pages of info.

I'm sure he had no clue what was in those reports, there are tons of the, from all the DOJ offices.

Anonymous wrote:The issue now isnt the success or failure of Fast and furious. Probably would have blown over if holder admitted a failed program and fired a few folks ...... But he released a letter to congress in feb 2011 stating that they had no knowkedge at the DOJ of Some aspects. Then a few whistleblowers have gone to congress with evidence that holder did indeed know what was going on so alledgedly he purjured himself in front of congress. So.. Looks like the cover up may end up being worse than a failed govt program.

This is not quite accurate. The whistleblowers actually went to the media. What was revealed was that regional offices of the Justice Department filed weekly reports about their activities. Some of these reports included high-level information about Fast and Furious. While the weekly reports were addressed to Holder, it's not clear that they ever made it to him or, if they did, whether they contained enough information to accurately describe the operation.

The most damaging aspect is Justice's original denial that there was a gun walking operation. That could have been a result of poor communication inside the Department. The leaked documents that I've seen do mention Fast and Furious, but don't mention gun walking (at least the ones directed to Holder). It's possible that this could come down to a Clintonian definition of the phrase "head about". When Holder said he hadn't heard about Fast and Furious, did he mean that he literally never heard about the operation or did he mean that he never heard about the fact that Fast and Furious was a botched sting operation that had allowed a bunch of weapons to circulate out of control in Mexico.

The issue now isnt the success or failure of Fast and furious. Probably would have blown over if holder admitted a failed program and fired a few folks ...... But he released a letter to congress in feb 2011 stating that they had no knowkedge at the DOJ of Some aspects. Then a few whistleblowers have gone to congress with evidence that holder did indeed know what was going on so alledgedly he purjured himself in front of congress. So.. Looks like the cover up may end up being worse than a failed govt program.

Anonymous wrote:Then eric holder kept having to change his story twice on when he knew. Then Obama said he knew nothing about it, then they refused to turn over 10000 pages of documents, then holder got a contemp warning then the stuff Obama knows nothng about was witheld under executive priviledge. Lots of smoke.

Yes, because the Attorney General knows everything that goes on in the Justice Department. It's like a tiny little law firm.

Then eric holder kept having to change his story twice on when he knew. Then Obama said he knew nothing about it, then they refused to turn over 10000 pages of documents, then holder got a contemp warning then the stuff Obama knows nothng about was witheld under executive priviledge. Lots of smoke.

"Fast and Furious" is the name of a US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm, and Explosives program intended to stem the flow of guns from the US to Mexico. It is part of a larger program called Project Gunrunner. Project Gunrunner was started in 2006 under President Bush. The idea was to allow guns to be purchased in the US and transferred to Mexico in order to trace the weapons to the "bigger fish" behind the gun smuggling operations. This strategy is called "Gunwalking".

Under Bush, the gun walking operation was called Operation Wide Receiver. It ran until Obama was elected. The Obama Justice Department reviewed the project and relaunched it as Operation Fast and Furious. In 2010, Border Patrol officer Brian Terry was killed with a weapon that has been allowed to walk under Operation Fast and Furious. Many agents and other knowledgeable about the gun walking operations believe the programs were mis-managed and that the US government was not able to keep track of the weapons. As a result, the weapons ended up being used in many crimes in Mexico, as well as the killing of Terry. Therefore, critics contend that US officials are to blame for these crimes. Congressional Republicans have been trying to get documents from Attorney General Holder that they believe will prove their case. Holder and Obama believe the Republicans are on an election-year witch hunt and Obama declared that the documents were protected by Executive Privilege.

Many right-wingers have conspiracy theories that the gun walking operations were ultimately aimed at increasing gun control in the US. Even Darrel Issa -- the Republican heading up the hearings on the matter -- has said he shares that concern.

On vacation and blissfully away from the news.

Would someone please explain in a non-political, non-editorial post what the term "Fast and Furious" means? Somehow, I've missed this and am too lazy now to research.