Forture Magazine: No Intentional Gunwalking in Fast and Furious

[Bolo Boffin]

Issa's so full of it his eyes are brown.

http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/

Quite simply, there's a fundamental misconception at the heart of the Fast and Furious scandal. Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.

Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case. Several, including Voth, are speaking out for the first time.

How Fast and Furious reached the headlines is a strange and unsettling saga, one that reveals a lot about politics and media today. It's a story that starts with a grudge, specifically Dodson's anger at Voth. After the terrible murder of agent Terry, Dodson made complaints that were then amplified, first by right-wing bloggers, then by CBS. Rep. Issa and other politicians then seized those elements to score points against the Obama administration, which, for its part, has capitulated in an apparent effort to avoid a rhetorical battle over gun control in the run-up to the presidential election. (A Justice Department spokesperson denies this and asserts that the department is not drawing conclusions until the inspector general's report is submitted.)

So the central allegation at the heart of Fast and Furious may well be utterly false. And yet Darrell Issa's lust for getting something, anything on the Obama Administration is so blinding that he's going for a contempt charge against Holder.

Knowing what I know, I can see my way toward Chuck Grassley acting in good faith in all of this. He was the first to raise questions about Fast and Furious after Brian Terry's death. More could still come out about his motives, of course. But Issa's selective and partisan crusade is inexcusable. This guy needs to resign.

[jillan]

1. I highly recommend that everyone reads this so they will know the truth!!!

[DearAbby]

2. Issa is too stupid..Going with BIRTHERISM 2.0

Issa purposely avoiding a real investigation? Why won't he call to the stand those who were there, those who had hands on duty with the program itself? Find out how and why this stupid Idea was hatched in the first place. Find out exactly what happened at the FRIGGIN SCENE. Get it on record.

Issa knows this, yet avoiding a REAL INVESTIGATION, by creating this CIRCUS witch hunt against Holder...Took an investigative Reporter to do your job.

NRA HACK

[Bolo Boffin]

3. I'd already read he was being very selective about investigating Obama adminstration flaws

and never the whole program. Now to find out there's legitimate questions about the actual technique being used and real evidence that it was not? Completely disgraceful.