How Could "Fast and Furious" Happen?

What the gullable public doesn't grasp about their nation's government, including their military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies, is that there is often a disconnect between their missions
and their jobs.

People will look at what happened in "Fast and Furious" and be astonished that the ATF deliberately permitted large numbers of arms to be smuggled across the border to be used by vicious criminals in Mexico.

But if you understand that doing so furthered the job of ATF officers, then it's totally predictable.

The mission of the ATF is to control the possession of arms, presumably because certain types of arms, or certain types of owners, are dangerous to society when they in violation of the statutes enacted to restrict arms in ceratain ways.

However the job of the ATF is actually to make arrests and to pursue the prosecution and conviction of individuals in violation of those statutes.

If a delimma arises between their ability to make prosecutions and permitting conditions whereby more illegal arms will proliferate, which do you think the administrators of such an agency are going to choose?

What happened in "Fast and Furious" was that the opportunity arose to arrest arms middlemen by facilitating their purchases and then watching them commit the crimes they were facilitated in doing.

This is common practice in Federal agencies today. In the 1980s, when the Customs Service and DEA were given a lot of money for their jobs, they routinely created criminal oppotunities for otherwise non-crimials to break contraband laws.....and then swooped in on them for arrest and prosecution.

In the last ten years almost all the "terrorists" convicted of "attempting but never completeing" terrorist plans in the US were people who were talked into their "terrorist" schemes by FBI agents posing as terrorists themselves. It's certain most of those convicted would otherwise have never participated in any "terrorist" plots.

In "Fast and Furious" the ATF was able to observe the mules taking the guns they otherwise would not have been able to buy in their routes to Mexico, and then arrest them. It was a sure way of gaining convictions they otherwise would never have made.

By so doing they were able to boast that they had successfully apprehended and convicted arms traffickers to Mexican cartels. It's purely a numbers thing, and no one ever looks into what lies behind the numbers of convictions such agencies report as their success and reason for funding.

They just never considered that outsiders would find out that it was only made possible by permitting the cartels to receive the arms.....and I [rather than the public] would fully expect that ATF administrators
would be undisturbed by the prospect of that.

Something positive might come out of this scandal if it shines a light on such practices, including entrapement, which lie behind most of what the Federal agencies report as successes.
DTorrchia's Avatar
What the gullable public doesn't grasp about their nation's government, including their military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies, is that there is often a disconnect between their missions
and their jobs.

People will look at what happened in "Fast and Furious" and be astonished that the ATF deliberately permitted large numbers of arms to be smuggled across the border to be used by vicious criminals in Mexico.

But if you understand that doing so furthered the job of ATF officers, then it's totally predictable.

The mission of the ATF is to control the possession of arms, presumably because certain types of arms, or certain types of owners, are dangerous to society when they in violation of the statutes enacted to restrict arms in ceratain ways.

However the job of the ATF is actually to make arrests and to pursue the prosecution and conviction of individuals in violation of those statutes.

If a delimma arises between their ability to make prosecutions and permitting conditions whereby more illegal arms will proliferate, which do you think the administrators of such an agency are going to choose?

What happened in "Fast and Furious" was that the opportunity arose to arrest arms middlemen by facilitating their purchases and then watching them commit the crimes they were facilitated in doing.

This is common practice in Federal agencies today. In the 1980s, when the Customs Service and DEA were given a lot of money for their jobs, they routinely created criminal oppotunities for otherwise non-crimials to break contraband laws.....and then swooped in on them for arrest and prosecution.

In the last ten years almost all the "terrorists" convicted of "attempting but never completeing" terrorist plans in the US were people who were talked into their "terrorist" schemes by FBI agents posing as terrorists themselves. It's certain most of those convicted would otherwise have never participated in any "terrorist" plots.

In "Fast and Furious" the ATF was able to observe the mules taking the guns they otherwise would not have been able to buy in their routes to Mexico, and then arrest them. It was a sure way of gaining convictions they otherwise would never have made.

By so doing they were able to boast that they had successfully apprehended and convicted arms traffickers to Mexican cartels. It's purely a numbers thing, and no one ever looks into what lies behind the numbers of convictions such agencies report as their success and reason for funding.

They just never considered that outsiders would find out that it was only made possible by permitting the cartels to receive the arms.....and I [rather than the public] would fully expect that ATF administrators
would be undisturbed by the prospect of that.

Something positive might come out of this scandal if it shines a light on such practices, including entrapement, which lie behind most of what the Federal agencies report as successes. Originally Posted by theaustinescorts
Well they say even a blind squirrel gets a nut every once in awhile and low and behold.....I actually have to agree with some of what you wrote above in regards to the ATF, their administrators and motivations.
It goes a little bit higher up than that though. Holder, Hillary and the Obama administration had a vested interest in making the public believe that it's weapons from the USA that are the CAUSE of much of the violence south of our border. Yes I'm aware the program started before them but it was increased under Holder's watch and Hillary was taking every opportunity she could to point out publicly that 90% of the weapons down south came from the United States, a number that's been since proven to be completely false. They felt it would eventually lead to their being able to justify new gun control legislation. They simply didn't plan on it blowing up in their face like this.
DTorrchia's Avatar
The story below illustrates so much of what is wrong in regards to Fast and Furious, the mindset many of our Border Patrol Agents have been indoctrinated with and our open/revolving door immigration policy in general.
Armed illegal drug gangs patrolling on the United States side of the border with AK-47's. Border Patrol agents with bean bags in their shotguns for less lethal instead of Lethal response. Illegal FELONS who are deported multiple times but are free to simply walk across our wide open borders, armed with Assault Rifles provided to them by OUR Federal Government. It's all right there.

The icing on the cake? The second story, where Mr. Obama, who promised Americans a "transparent" government when he was elected, instead has the records regarding the killing of this Border Patrol Agent sealed. Yep, that's transparency for us alright.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...=all#pagebreak

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011...terrys-murder/
S O B's Avatar
  • S O B
  • 12-01-2011, 06:30 AM
+100 !!!
ATF ought to be a convenience store, not a government agency!
ATF ought to be a convenience store, not a government agency! Originally Posted by Glider
Try running for office with a promise that you intend to reduce any aspect of law enforcement and see where it gets you.

The American public is so paranoid and alarmed by everything the media throws at them that they'll put up with anything to make them feel safer.