The investigation of a U.S. Government operation that allowed guns to be sold to buyers who then funneled those weapons to Mexican drug organizations took a huge step forward today in Congress, as three federal agents said they warned superiors to stop those plans, but were ignored and rebuked.
The controversial program known as "Fast and Furious," got its genesis in 2006 in Texas as part of "Operation Gunrunner," but went nationwide soon after, arriving in Phoenix in 2009, where it quickly drew strong opposition from some federal agents there.
"There have been grave mistakes made in this case," said Peter J. Forcelli, a Supervisory Special Agent with Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in Phoenix, who first raised the issue with his superiors two years ago.
"Allowing firearms to be trafficked to criminals is a dangerous and deadly strategy," Forcelli told a House Committee.
That was obvious to lawmakers, as the family members of slain Border Patrol agent Bryan Terry sat at the same witness table as Forcelli and two other ATF agents. The weapon used in his killing came from one of the Fast and Furious sales.
"I have never heard an explanation from anyone involved in Operation Fast and Furious that I believe would justice what we did," said ATF agent John Dodson.
ATF agent Olindo James Casa detailed how he had raised concerns in late 2009 about the undercover gun sales, but was rebuked by superiors, who then sent out what is known as the "Schism" email.
"In essence, the e-mail was a direct threat to the Special Agents who were not in agreement" with the operation to keep their mouths shut, Casa told the House Oversight Committee.
The testimony was truly extraordinary in one sense, as you do not often see three ATF agents like these blow the whistle on what they believe was a major policy mistake by their superiors and the feds.
After the agents testified, lawmakers got their chance to blast a Justice Department official over the Obama Administration's reluctance to turn over documents about the matter.
"Who authorized this program in Washington, D.C.?" asked Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), his voice rising as he demonstrated his frustration by waving around fully-blacked out documents turned over by the Justice Department.
"We've had to subpeona again and again," said a visibly frustrated Issa.
Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich became a punching bag for Issa and others during his time in the witness chair, as Republicans demanded answers and received very few, getting the basic assurance that the Justice Department is investigating the matter.
Democrats meanwhile accused GOP lawmakers and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) of wrongly releasing documents turned over by the Justice Department, arguing it could endanger the prosecution of the killer of agent Terry's killer.
Republicans all but accused the Justice Department - and Attorney General Eric Holder - of lying to Congress about Operation Fast and Furious.
While this operation began during the Bush Administration, the defensive nature of the Obama Administration in releasing information about it insures that Republicans will aggressively keep after this story in coming months.
Also an issue at the hearing was how the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix dealt with cases involving guns and gun trafficking. Special Agent Forcelli said as early as 2007, he had raised questions about why a number of gun cases were not pursued by the feds, telling lawmakers that ATF agents instead took their evidence to the state Attorney General of Arizona in order win some prosecutions.
"Despite the existence of “probable cause” in many cases, there were no indictments, no prosecutions, and criminals were allowed to walk free," Forcelli charged.
Forcelli said that lack of activity then "paved the way" for Operation Fast and Furious, where the feds sold guns to middlemen, fully expecting that the weapons would then be taken south of the border to Mexico.
By the end of Wednesday's hearing, the list of unanswered questions just seemed to keep growing - especially the politically explosive question of who had signed off on this plan in Phoenix.
Stay tuned on this one.
