NO WONDER President Obama claimed executive privilege to prevent the public from digging up all the dirt on Operation Fast and Furious, an unbelievably botched gun-trafficking sting directed by his Department of Justice.
Just read Wednesday’s scathing report by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
It explained how this mindless operation was doomed from the start, yet still had support up and down the chain of commend, including in Washington.
If you’re a president who’s running for re-election, you don’t talk about such failures. The smart political play is to cover them up.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz didn’t pull any punches in his much-anticipated report. It appears to be nonpolitical, which is as it should be. There’s no Republican way or Democratic way to spell out incompetence.
Mr. Horowitz names 14 federal law enforcement officials who share blame. They include Gary Grindler, the No. 2 person at the Justice Department during this operation, and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who heads the department’s criminal division.
Attorney General Eric Holder wasn’t named, as investigators said they believed he had no prior knowledge of the operation, which was conducted from 2009 to 2011. That affirms what Mr. Holder has said all along. However, as attorney general, he hasn’t been forthcoming about explaining what happened and who was responsible. That’s why the House voted overwhelmingly earlier this year to hold him in contempt of Congress.
The brainiacs who conceived this operation decided it was smart to allow hundreds of guns to illegally flow from the United States into Mexico. Then U.S. agents could track the firearms and bust some big shots in charge of the violent Mexican drug cartels.
As it turned out, according to Mr. Horowitz, the program was largely run by just three agents. That’s right. Three. No wonder they lost track of the weapons that were used in crimes in Mexico and the United States, including the slaying of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.
Mr. Horowitz said the operation began “without adequate regard for the risk it posed to public safety in the United States and Mexico,” that the risk was “immediately evident” and that the “limitations and ineffectiveness of the surveillance” should have prompted Justice Department officials to determine “whether they could responsibly conduct the investigations ... under these circumstances.”
His report prompted several high-level resignations, which is proper. The others who were responsible should join them.
Mr. Holder also should be held accountable — for stonewalling. While this report said he didn’t know about the operation, he appeared to be more interested in damage control than in cleaning house once he learned about the bungling and risk-taking. Thus it’s a stain on him and the Obama administration.
On Wednesday, the acting director of the U.S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that the agency has taken “corrective actions to ensure that something like this never happens again,” adding that ATF “puts public safety first in all our investigations.”
Too bad the feds, including Mr. Holder, didn’t insist on this three years ago. Then one federal agent might be alive and fewer illegal firearms would be in circulation.