More Information Surfaces Regarding Operation Fast and Furious

More findings are coming about through Chairman Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley's investigation of Operation Fast and Furious and its link to the death of border patrol agent Brian Terry.  You can read my previous post about it here.  One of the people being investigated is Attorney General Eric Holder.  Information has surfaced regarding his knowledge of the program that is very troubling.

The Attorney General reportedly received at least five weekly memos on Operation Fast and Furious, all of which he ignored.  These began in July 2010.  At that time, he ignored at least four of those memos in a row regarding this program.  They were to Attorney General Eric Holder from Michael Walther, from the National Drug Intelligence Center.  The memos said specifically that these buyers were "responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels." 

I cannot make any sense out of this.  Why would Attorney General Holder ignore any memos that came to him, much less ones about a program of this magnitude?  It was very important that he was aware of what was going on with it, since it was giving so much more power to the drug cartels that have no problem firing at our border agents.  This was evident in the murder of Brian Terry, who was killed with a weapon purchased by drug cartels through Operation Fast and Furious. 

Mr. Holder told Chairman Issa at a House Judiciary Committee in May 2011 that he had only learned of the program and its specifics weeks before.  That would mean he learned about the program months after Brian Terry's murder.  However, at a meeting on January 31st, 2011, Senator Grassley personally handed the Attorney General two letters with information about Operation Fast and Furious.  It greatly disturbed both Chairman Issa and Senator Grassley that the Attorney General knew about this program so much earlier than he let on, and also that he knew many more details than anyone realized.  The Attorney General does say that he ignored the memos received regarding it, but cannot give an answer as to why he did. 

As Senator Grassley said, given the amount of information Mr. Holder had at his disposal, he should have at least thought to ask the question, "Why haven't we stopped them?" 

President Obama released a statement today, saying:

I think both Holder and I would have been very unhappy if someone had suggested that guns were allowed to pass through that could have been prevented by the United States of America.” 

Obviously, someone did mention to Holder that guns were being allowed to walk and he either overlooked the tip (which is what he claims, but again, cannot give an answer as to why) or he simply didn't care.  Either way, the president's statement is wrong and it makes for a frightening thought.  Someone who is in a position such as Eric Holder is, with so much power and resources at his disposal, overlooking something that was so important.  If he had looked, the murder of Brian Terry might have been preventable.  It makes you wonder what else our elected officials are overlooking and what in the past could have possibly been prevented.