Gun Runner Did DOJ Conspire With The Mexican Government?

As more details of Operation Gun Runner emerge it becomes difficult to sort out the details. This blog has sought to inform its readers as those details emerged but now its time to connect some of the dots. What does the public know about Gun Runner and what does that information suggest.

1. Operation Gun Runner was begun early in 2009. It was authorized by the Justice Department and in part funded by the stimulus bill. At that time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, and President Barack Obama all made public statements about gun violence on the Mexican border frequently citing the 90% figure as the percentage of illegal firearms in Mexico that originated in the US. The actual percentage was probably 8%. It might be worth noting that they have done little to close that border since.


2. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot and killed on December 14, 2010.


3. On February 15, 2011 agents Victor Potosi and Jamie Zapata were ambushed and agent Jaime Zapata was killed.


4. On June 6 of this year CBS reported that a Mexican helicopter
   was shot down by Mexican terrorists using a .50 caliber rifle that was linked to Operation Gun Runner. Both agents Terry and Zapata were killed by weapons linked to Operation Gun Runner, aka Operation Fast and Furious. Using the 8% figure the probability of all three of these crimes
   being committed by felons using guns purchased in the US is about 1 in 1953 or about 3 time the odds of drawing a full house in 5 cards.
   Were the guns planted after the fact?


5. On February 23 of this year CBS broke the Gun Runner scandal and followed up with the video below. CBS has not backed off from this story while the other networks have given it sparse attention.


6. On June 14 the
   Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released its report. The report stated:

   The Phoenix Field Division established a Gun Trafficking group, called Group VII, to focus on firearms trafficking. Group VII initially began using the new gunwalking tactics in one of its investigations to further the Department’s strategy. The case was soon
   
   renamed “Operation Fast and Furious,” and expanded dramatically. It received approval for
   
   Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) funding on January 26, 2010. ATF
   
   led a strike force comprised of agents from ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
   
   Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the
   
   Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
   
   
   It was no longer solely a BATF operation.

7. From
   the Abilene Reporter:
   

   On July 3, Mexican authorities captured Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, known as Z-7, one of the original 14 principle leaders of the extremely violent Zetas drug cartel. He disclosed his belief that the U.S. government was involved in facilitating arms to a rival criminal gang, the Gulf cartel. According Mexico City's daily Excelsior, he stated to federal police that for a time buyers for the rival gang said even the U.S. government was selling arms and facilitating transport of them and there seemed to be some kind of agreement with the authorities.

8. Gun dealers did report suspicious gun sales. Still they have legal liability. Were they coerced into participating in the operation under threat of losing their licenses as firearms dealers? Troublingly, even if they knowingly made illegal sales to criminals at the behest of law enforcement, that wouldn't immunize them from prosecution. And the Mexican government has lawyered up. It hired the law firm, Reid Collins & Tsai, LLP to pursue “claims against certain entities and individuals in the U.S. believed to be participating in .  .  . the illegal manufacture, import/export, or sale of weapons, or other conduct that may be harming Mexico.”
   
9. The Obama administration issued new gun sales reporting requirement that are both onerous and sweepingly broad.

This brings us to the question: Did the Obama administration conspire with the Mexican government to attack US firearm dealer and manufacturers? It is known that in some cases the ultimate purchaser was a paid FBI informant so someone in the Justice Dept knew the destination of the guns. Was the informant an agent of the Mexican government or the drug cartels? or both? Was the DOJ aligned with one drug cartel against another? As Brit Hume at FoxNews has said, the odor of Watergate is all over Fast and Furious but no one died in Watergate.