U.S. A.G. to Congress: "Fast and Furious should never have happened"

One of the reasons presidents have cabinet secretaries is so when something goes wrong, he (or she) can go down to Capitol Hill and tell legislators, "We admit it, we screwed up." That was Eric Holder's task this morning. As Barack Obama's attorney general, it was Holder's duty to go along quietly to the wood shed and take his licking from hostile Republicans on a Senate committee panel.

Congress is investigating two secret arms sales deals in which thousands of military assault weapons were transferred to Mexican drug cartels. Wide Receiver was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) from 2006 to 2007, during the second George W. Bush administration. Fast and Furious was operated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from 2009 to 2011, after Obama was elected. Both Obama and Holder have said that they knew nothing about either operation until well into 2011. A key Republican congressman has accused Holder of lying and has asked that he be investigated by a special counsel. That's unlikely to happen, but Holder will have to appear next month before a separate House committee chaired by the congressman, who has said that at least 200 deaths on both sides of the border could be directly attributed to Fast and Furious arms sales.

"We're losing the war against arms trafficking," said Holder. "Unfortunately, we're going to feel the effects of (ATF and DEA operations) for years to come as lost weapons continue appearing at crime scenes both here and in Mexico," the attorney general grimly told senators. Those "lost weapons" are also known as "guns gone walking," in the lingo of ATF and DEA agents who supervised the Arizona based arms sales. About 1,400 of them remain unaccounted for, U.S. authorities admit.

The Mexican government maintains that 80% of all weapons in the hands of drug cartels come from the United States. A Justice Dept. official admitted to Congress last week that at least 64,000 firearms captured by Mexican security forces were made or sold in the U.S, but Mexico says the real number is about 94,000.

U.S. secret arms sales to Mexican drug cartels:
http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/11/64000-us-made-weapons-have-been-used-by.html;
and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/at-least-200-died-from-fast-and-furious.html;
and: http://mexicogulfreporter-supplement.blogspot.com/2011/11/two-us-officials-quit-over-fast-and.html;
and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/can-guns-really-walk-from-us-to-mexico.html;
and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/us-attorney-general-in-cross-hairs-over.html;
and: ; http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/obama-will-stand-by-his-man-even-though.html.