Apparently the White House did know about Fast and Furious. The ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix office told the National Security Director for North America about the operation because,
“He was asking about the impact of Project Gunrunner to brief people in preparation for a trip to Mexico… what we were doing to combat firearms trafficking and other issues.”
Obviously Operation Fast and Furious only falls under that umbrella in the loosest definition of “combat firearms trafficking” you can come up with; as we’ve seen in the past couple of months, the ATF was more enabling firearms trafficking than actually combatting it. Hell, they were even letting convicted felons buy guns as part of this “program.”
And now Congress’s report has accused the ATF of arming Mexican cartels for war. When guns you allow to be sold to known straw purchasers take less than 24 hours to get from the point of sale to the scene of the crime, then your lame attempt to “combat firearms trafficking” isn’t working at all.
Heads are going to roll because of this. For many Mexicans and Americans living near the border, they already have.
