Patterico's Pontifications

5/6/2011

ATF Bought Guns for Cartels?

Filed under: General,Gunrunner — Patterico @ 10:04 pm



Overwhelmed with work, I have not had time to blog an incredible revelation brought my attention by SPQR two days ago: ATF agents themselves allegedly purchased guns on their own and gave them to cartel members, and then lost track of them:

In a second, equally explosive disclosure, a law enforcement source tells Fox News, that ATF undercover agents were acting as the straw buyers and purchasing guns using government-issued false identifications and then providing those guns to cartel traffickers to gain credibility in their undercover roles. In that capacity, the ATF “provided 2, 50 cal. machine guns to traffickers that are loose in Mexico and unaccounted for,” the source said.

Yet, the ATF and the Department of Justice did not shut down the operation.

It was bad enough when it was merely alleged that ATF had allowed guns to be passed to cartel members. The idea that they were actually buying them and giving them to cartel members should be all over the front pages of every newspaper in the land.

Instead, it’s seven paragraphs down in a Fox News story.

Surely we will hear more about this.

And don’t call me Shirley.

22 Responses to “ATF Bought Guns for Cartels?”

  1. People need to be held accountable for not keeping Washington informed about what was going on in this operation! Heh.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  2. So let me get this straight…

    1. The BATFE provided agents with false documents to purchase TWO (2) fully functional, M2 .50 Caliber Machine Guns which are NFA controlled items requiring fingerprinting, the signature of the local or state CLEO and the payment of the $200 tax stamp from a QUALIFIED Class 3 SOT dealer, and;

    2. Supplied them to known cartel members or their associates and then managed to lose track of the weapons once they left the immediate control of the undercover ATF agents?

    Please, please tell me that the report or the BATFE are just so sloppy that they mistook a .50 caliber RIFLE for a FULLY AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUN and that is the case and not the other way around…

    I seriously think that the BATFE needs to be completely shutdown and done away with or at a minimum broken up into smaller departments with STRICT congressional oversight or judicial oversight. This is F’ing ridiculous…

    Nevyan (f2d0ba)

  3. June 17th, 1972 to August 9th, 1974 – timeframe of Watergate. It got off to a slow start but eventually picked up steam as the big names of the Administration eventually surfaced. I doubt if this will end with Obama’s resignation but hopefully it will sink his re-election with a few indictments and resignations of some cabinet officials along the way.

    SaintGeorgeGentile (0f7448)

  4. Honestly this report is a bit sketchy. Fifty caliber weapons leave a quite distinctive footprint.

    Robert Gates (6134b7)

  5. What was it they were trying to accomplish?

    Steven Den Beste (99cfa1)

  6. They were trying to prove that legal sales in the US were arming the Mexican cartels, to have an excuse to impose more gun control on us. That’s what they were trying to accomplish.

    One of Reagan’s biggest failures was not killing off the BATF. They’ve been a rogue agency from the start, just waiting for a President who’ll slip their leash, and tell them to go on the warpath against gun owners again. They’ve got that in Obama.

    Brett Bellmore (6652c2)

  7. so Big Bigot is calling Condi names?

    DohBiden (15aa57)

  8. Steven, the ATF was trying to get a big gunrunning bust to get their names in the newspapers. Its all that they are ever trying to do.

    That hunger for big score raids is what caused the whole Koresh/Waco fiasco in the first place.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  9. David Hardy comments: “While opinions may vary, I’ve always thought that undercover operations should stop short of committing acts of war.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  10. #2, Nevyan, BATF field agents who can’t distinguish between a 50 cal machine gun and a 50 cal rifle (bolt or semi auto) shouldn’t be on the payroll. 12 year old boys can do it at a glance, and a BATF agent should be able to do it in the dark and suspended upside down underwater.

    #6, Brett, got it right. SPQR was only part right, the agency is willing to put innocent lives at risk to get publicity. And, that’s what motivated them to initiate the Waco fiasco. The FBI later took over and killed those 86 people, then covered it up and prosecuted the survivors.

    ropelight (688704)

  11. > Surely we will hear more about this.

    > And don’t call me Shirley.

    Technically you called US Shirley.

    Aaron Worthing (73a7ea)

  12. Technically you called US Shirley.

    Uncle Sam is now Aunt Shirley? I think we may have gone a bit overboard with the transgender thing.

    Anon Y. Mous (f29372)

  13. My comment at #10 wasn’t sufficiently clear and failed to make the connection between Waco and Gunwalker. They both stem from the same hidden agenda: to set the stage for imposing more restricive gun control regulations.

    At Waco the BAT

    ropelight (688704)

  14. Surely you are being surly about Shirley.

    Let us all rise above this hurley-burly while it is still early.

    punslinger612 (7b10c7)

  15. Surely, you can’t be serious.

    No, don’t call me Sirius, either…
    😀

    Smock Puppet (c9dcd8)

  16. I am curious but I don’t want you furious, oh imperious one.

    punslinger612 (7b10c7)

  17. I think Nevyan may have a point. I think further research would show that the .50 caliber weapons were sniper rifles, not M2 machine guns.

    I have a feeling we’ll know which is the truth all too soon.

    The ATF’s behavior in this sting operation is outrageous and was done, at least in part, to make the ridiculous political case that stricter US gun laws are needed by “proving” that the cartels are using weapons smuggled from the US.

    bobdog (166386)

  18. “…a BATF agent should be able to do it in the dark and suspended upside down underwater…”

    The best that can be said is that a lot of them are just auditors (paper skimmers), and that the tactical/field guys were signed by their second, or third, choice after failing their interviews over at FBI/etc.

    As to your point: Yes! They should, but they can’t!

    AD-RtR/OS! (e7a3cf)

  19. I believe that what we’re talking about are Barret M-82, semi-automatic, .50BMG caliber, rifles…about $9K at retail, and they weigh about 26-lbs each (not including ammo).
    The entire problem for many (journo’s, pols, etc) is the .50BrowningMachineGun thing…they see that term and confuse the caliber with the type of weapon, because they are VERY uneducated…but hey, they’re credentialed.

    AD-RtR/OS! (e7a3cf)

  20. But they promised to check in every two or three weeks. Honest!

    Pat Patterson (5b662a)

  21. Nevyan at #2 above is crystal clear, see his point #1 which specifies Ma Duce in such detail it’s impossible to assume otherwise without ignoring his actual words.

    ropelight (a48c62)

  22. Meanwhile, since all of the real crime the ATF is assigned has obviously been solved, the ATF is now harrassing fishermen.

    The ATF needs to be dismantled.

    SPQR (26be8b)


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