[Bartholomew Roberts]

Originally Posted by Rep. Carolyn Maloney

But this initiative, which was identical to one launched under the Bush administration,

Unless Rep. Maloney has some knowledge she should be sharing with Congress, I am assuming she is referring to Wide Receiver, which as Sen. Cornyn already pointed out to AG Holder, has some significant differences with Fast and Furious. Among the differences are:

1. Mexican authorities were notified of the plan and attempted to interdict weapons that crossed into Mexico.

2. The ATF made an effort to put tracking devices on the weapons.

3. Wide Receiver was shut down as a scandalous failure when a little less than 250 guns went missing.

As with all Washington scandals, one must look behind the allegations. Holder explained that some of the weekly reports reviewed by his staff did occasionally mention Fast and Furious, though none of the documents (which he provided to the committee) gave any indication of controversial tactics — or that these had gone wrong. Multiple officials from Justice and ATF testified they didn’t know about illegal guns flowing to Mexico, either.

Uh, did you miss that part where the Deputy Attorney of DOJ's Criminal Division Lanny Breuer acknowledged that he knew about guns walking to Mexico as early as April 2010? Did you find his testimony that he reprimanded the ATF agents involved in it (the same ones involved in Fast and Furious) and then it completely slipped his mind to even think of it again, even as news reports of Fast and Furious broke, credible?

How about DOJ sending Ronald Weich to testify that ATF had never walked guns to Mexico, and then later qualify that statement to say that ATF hadn't DIRECTLY walked guns to Mexico - a statement that even now needs to be qualified again given John Dodson's testimony (and recording and letters) showing that he sold weapons directly to the cartel at the behest of Dennis Burke?

I asked the question; the agent agreed that our weak gun laws are, in fact, helping funnel weapons into Mexico.

The same agent (Peter Forcelli) repeatedly named Emory Hurley as declining to prosecute cases under Federal laws, which provides a penalty of up to 10 years in prison for the crime of straw purchasing. The same cases were later brought by the AZ Attorney General who successfully prosecuted under AZ's weaker state laws. Apparently the problem isn't the "weakness of the laws" but the unwillingness of the AUSA in Phoenix to pursue these cases.