Wednesday night on Politics Nation, Katherine Eban of Fortune magazine threw a major stumbling block into the GOP’s much-ballyhooed Fast and Furious investigation, in which Republicans are seeking to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt.
For her Fortune story, published Wednesday, Eban reviewed 2,000 pages of confidential documents and interviewed 39 people who could shed light on allegations that guns bought by ATF-surveilled "straw purchasers" wound up in the holsters of Mexican drug lords.
“There was no effort to get more guns to the straw purchasers,” Eban said in an interview with host Al Sharpton, summarizing her findings. “The ATF agents in question did everything that they could to seize guns, and basically prosecutors determined that they didn’t have grounds under the laws as written to seize most of the guns that wound up flowing ultimately to criminals; that is a far cry from guns being walked.”
Eban told Sharpton that the only ATF agent who deliberately conducted a gun-running operation was John Dodson, who acted as the prime whistle-blower and witness in Republican hearings on the program.
“The agents and the prosecutors say they were following the laws as written," Eban added. "It’s not a question of throwing the laws aside. That’s not what occurred. Nor was it the case that there was actually a tactical plan to let the guns walk.”
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What it boils down to is another attempt by the Republicans to create a diversion away from Romney and the election as they know they cannot win as it stands. This is only the begining not the end and we as Democrats and honorable American citizens it is in our best interest to bring these people down at any cost. I submit you use your imagination to get the desired results
It seems that nowhere in this article do they mention that the Bush admin had a similar program that notified the Mexican police, had RFID Chips in the weapons, secured the conviction,s and reclaimed the weapons even after the criminals removed the RFiD Chips, and then closed the sting operations in 2007 before Obama's admin took over.
I would expect the article may have truth in it but,
the reason that Holder is in the hot seat is that he
1. REFUSED TO TELL THE FACTS AND
2. TURN OVER THE DOCUMENTS REQUESTED TO SHOW THE TRUTH
He and others still are trying to blame someone, anyone, any where
with a new story every day it would be easier to turn them over
There are no agents or criminal investigation to protect
if what he told the house committee is true
so to turn them over would not place anyone in jeopardy
Who is doing the diverting here? What it boils down to is Brian Terry is dead because of this administrations' gross incompetence. Hardly an honorable thing for Democrats or any American citizen.
Brian Terry is dead because of weak gun dealing laws brought to us by the NRA and the Republican party.
"The agents faced numerous obstacles in what they dubbed the Fast and Furious case. (They named it after the street-racing movie because the suspects drag raced cars together.) Their greatest difficulty by far, however, was convincing prosecutors that they had sufficient grounds to seize guns and arrest straw purchasers. By June 2010 the agents had sent the U.S. Attorney's office a list of 31 suspects they wanted to arrest, with 46 pages outlining their illegal acts. But for the next seven months prosecutors did not indict a single suspect.
On Dec. 14, 2010, a tragic event rewrote the narrative of the investigation. In a remote stretch of Peck Canyon, Ariz., Mexican bandits attacked an elite U.S. Border Patrol unit and killed an agent named Brian Terry. The attackers fled, leaving behind two semiautomatic rifles. A trace of the guns' serial numbers revealed that the weapons had been purchased 11 months earlier at a Phoenix-area gun store by a Fast and Furious suspect."
The guns left where Brian Terry died did not walk. ATF agents did everything in their power to seize them after they were bought legally. Prosecutors deemed they had insufficient grounds to arrest the straw purchasers.
Fortune report complicates Fast and Furious story.: ’There was no "gun walking" The Republicans fail again.’
Thanks for a truthful report on what our "congress" (House of Rep), is doing wasting OUR TAX DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There should not be a paper in this country that has not pickup on this story. It's refreshing to have an article that was investigated by a true journalist. So many news agencies repeat what they hear before they verify if the story is true or not.
This whole story that the right wing is saying is a smoke screen. Shame on America for continuing to repeat and report their created history and stories. It's like saying you receive any story from Fox that is true. To even say they report news is an insult to the news journalist who investigate stories and report instead of making it up. Thank You Fortune.
Thank goodness we still have some outstanding news journalists investigating and reporting the news. Once again the Republicans are trying to bring Obama down in any way possible with lies that do nothing but hurt this country. I only hope come election time we let the Republicans know that it does not work. Americans are smarter than that.
I think Katherine Eban should be elected to the House of Representatives, as she certainly does a far better job investigating than Darryl Issa. What a political hack, but who's surprised that this felonious congressman is less than ethical.
We could hardly consider Fortune to be a left-wing socialist rag now, could we? But I just heard John Mica, the cartoon congressman, get vicious with Soledad OBrien about this and use the most insulting terms possible to describe the article and the writer. This must hurt.
This is not a mere diversion, but a serious attempt to take out AG Holder because he is going after the illegal and unconstitutional voter suppression laws the GOP so desperately needs to steal, once again, a Presidential election. They need to keep it close enough for rigged machines and corrupt state officials to pull it off. A large enough margin and even they cannot heist the thing. But it has already been heisted once again by the supremes.
This was all cooked up by the NRA to try and get the Attorney General in a bad spot. The Republicans have shown that they completely under the power of the NRA. The NRA sez jump and they ask how far. NRA sez squat and #@$% and they ask how much and what color.
We all know this is a smoke screen but how do we stop congress from the what they are doing?
Good article, explains what is really going on in congress.
If her article is true why did Holder lie to congress and say there were guns sold ? How did she get access to 2000 documents on this dispute when congress had only gotten 8000. and there is over 100000 documents pertaining to this case. Why is Holder offering up certain documents but only in a briefing not handing them over? Why did Obama Use Executive Privilege in this case if there was not guns sold. Her article has many holes in it that Holder has shot up ? If Holder had nothing to hide why not turn them over and make the Republicans look foolish? Like Nixon said it is not the crime that will sink you it is the cover up!
This as in most everything the Republicans do will come back to haunt them .They should have been dart players as they are becoming very good at cheap shots
I"m glad we delighted Mr. Gowdy has a viable Democrat opponent in SC who wants to stress that Judiciary Committee should protect the safety of the American people instead of engaging in a wild goose chase. Secondly, if rep Gowdy is so concerned about the border patrol, why did he voted to decrease funding of the border patrol? Also, 30 %of guns from straw buyers can be chasesd to gunshows that do not do background checks. The tragic cirumstances of Terry's death should not be politicized.
I'm delighted Mr. Gowdy has a viable Democrat opponent in SC who wants to stress that Judiciary Committee should protect the safety of the American people instead of engaging in a wild goose chase. Secondly, if rep Gowdy is so concerned about the border patrol, why did he voted to decrease funding of the border patrol? Also, 30 %of guns from straw buyers can be chasesd to gunshows that do not do background checks. The tragic cirumstances of Terry's death should not be politicized.
Every member of the House who voted for the contempt citation must be really pleased that the NRA gave them a passing grade, so they can count on the NRA to help fund their next re-election campaign. No matter that their constituents might be watching. There were many witnesses they could have called if they had actually been interested in seeking the "truth," but that would not have been as sensational.
you guys who said Holder was withholding information or that he wasn't truthful about it being a Bush Administration program have not been keeping up. Issa and other members of the committee already publicly stated that the program started under the Bush Administration and the when Holder was notified of it, he immediately ended it. In fact, Holder was the one who alerted Congress about the program. You must have been sleeping under a rock over the past month or so. They all also said that Holder had already turned over an enormous amount of documents and that the ones not given to them were offered under a deal that Issa did not like. You must also be blind to the fact that there have been leaks from the committee and that was the reason the withheld documents were not given. Holder has been reportedly very open with the committee amidst the disrespect the Republicans showed him, which has reportedly been unprecedented. You probably have also not been aware that this was about Holder investigating and stopping some of the states which suppressed voters' rights with their new legislation in an effort to deny supporters of the President from voting, as well as enforcement against other illegal initiatives the RNC and Koch Brothers tried to push. This has nothing to do with the Obama Administration running guns to created stronger gun laws in this country as (Not surprisingly) incorrectly reported by Fix News and the NRA, as the program, once again, was started during the Bush Administration ended by Holder. It was also reported in the committee that the superiors of the ATF supervisors had no knowledge of the program during either administration. You need to be wiser people. Fixed News continuously lies to you and feeds you misinformation, but you still watch that crap, and for what reasons, to stay ignorant?