Alcohol, Tobacco And Murder

Posted 09/15/2011 06:24 PM ET

Scandal: Weapons linked to ATF's "Fast and Furious" operation have been tied to at least eight violent crimes in Mexico, including three murders and four kidnappings. At least Solyndra doesn't have a body count.

Administration scandals are piling up fast and furious, no pun intended, but none is worse than the gun-running operation that operated under the umbrella title of Project Gunrunner. Fast and Furious, a deadly subset, gets deadlier by the day.

A letter dated Sept. 9 from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch sent to Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles Grassley, who's been looking into the scandal on the Senate side, provides what it acknowledges is an incomplete list of crimes made possible by guns allowed to "walk" into Mexico as part of the operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

According to the Justice Department letter, among the Fast and Furious firearms used in violent crimes was an AK47-type assault rifle that was purchased by a Fast and Furious suspect and recovered Nov. 14, 2009, in Atoyac de Alvarez, Mexico, after the Mexican military rescued a kidnap victim.

Two AK47-type assault rifles bought by Fast and Furious suspects were recovered in Sonora, Mexico, after a shootout between cartels July 1, 2010. Two murders were reported in the incident using the weapons.

Two AK47-type assault rifles purchased by Fast and Furious targets were recovered in Chihuahua, Mexico, on Nov. 14, 2010, after "the kidnapping of two individuals and the murder of a family member of a Mexican public official."

This is believed to be a reference to the terrorist kidnapping, torture and murder of Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez. Rodriguez was the brother of then-Chihuahua state Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez.

In addition, it is now known that a third gun linked to Fast and Furious was found at the scene where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010 at the hands of an illegal immigrant working for the Sinaloa Cartel just 10 miles from the Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz.

In addition to Agent Terry, Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in a separate incident by a weapon allowed to "walk" into Mexico from the U.S. In a letter that DOJ officials turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was acknowledged that at least 11 violent crimes in the U.S. involved weapons traced to ATF's Fast and Furious operation.

The Los Angeles Times reports that these crimes occurred in multiple cities in the southwest including El Paso, Texas, where a total of 42 Fast and Furious weapons were seized at two separate crime scenes.

We may never know how many deaths, kidnappings and other criminal activities were facilitated by the more than 2,000 weapons that were allowed to "walk" into Mexico. We do know that ATF agents have testified that they were ordered by their superiors not to interdict the weapons flow.

A video shows former Deputy Attorney General David Ogden telling reporters at a Department of Justice briefing of steps to expand Gunrunner "as part of the administration's comprehensive plan" and as the "president has directed us." At least one National Security Council staffer was informed by ATF of the program's status.

The administration that has given us "cash for clunkers" has also given us "guns for gangs" in a cynical attempt to foment violence in Mexico for which the U.S. gets blamed in pursuance of its gun-control agenda.

As bad as the crony capitalism of funding insolvent green energy companies in exchange for political contributions might be, no one died at Solyndra. As we've said, if the president knew, he should be held accountable.