by David Safier
The Star's Tim Steller punches another hole in the Republican meme that Fast and Furious was a crime-of-the-millenium outrage unprecedented in recent history.
True, Fast and Furious was a botched ATF operation that let guns walk into Mexico without yielding the hoped-for results of leading us to the higher-ups in the Mexican crime chain. But recently two similar operations were uncovered, carried out during the Bush administration, including the 2006 Operation Wide Receiver which was based right here in Tucson.
True, attack dog Darrell Issa tried to point out the difference between the Bush- and Obama-era operations:
". . . we know that under the Bush administration, there were similar operations but they were coordinated with Mexico, they made every effort to keep their eyes on the weapons the whole time."
The only problem with Issa's assertion is that it's wrong, as Steller points out:
From what I've seen so far, that's not true. In one 2006 investigation, Tucson-based Operation Wide Receiver, hundreds of guns went to Mexico, and that country's government apparently was not involved. In another Arizona investigation, which began in 2007, there appears to have been at least one attempt to inform Mexican officials.
In fact, according to Steller, in the Tucson operation, coordination with Mexico would have destroyed the operation.
(For Fast and Furious wonks, Steller links to his previous stories and well as others about the Wide Receiver Operation.)
Government agencies screw up frequently, sometimes because of incompetence and sometimes because, as Robert Burns once wrote,
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley, [Approximate translation of "Gang aft agley": Often go awry]
Screw ups need to be pointed out and examined. If they are willful or negligent, those responsible need to be dealt with accordingly. But if you're looking for the most egregious gun "crime" of the past decades, it's not Fast and Furious or Wide Receiver. It's the wanton sales of arms to people who buy them with obvious criminal intent, for dissemination and use in this country and in Mexico. If Issa was a dedicated public official, that's the problem he would be investigating and trying to correct.