9/15/2011

Homeland security chief Janet Napolitano denies knowing about “Fast and Furious” during operation

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano

Πηγή: Chron
By Puneet Kollipara
Sep. 13 2011


Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Tuesday denied knowing about the existence of the controversial gun-tracking Operation Fast and Furious while it was ongoing.

Napolitano told a Senate panel she didn’t find out about the operation until around the time of a U.S. Border Patrol agent’s murder in December in Arizona.

“Given the high level of information-sharing between departments, were you made aware of the operation while it was underway?” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

“No,” said Napolitano, who was testifying under oath before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Multiple officials who played leading roles in the gun-tracking operation were reassigned within the Justice Department or resigned in late August after months of investigation into Fast and Furious, an joint federal law-enforcement operation meant to take down Mexican cartels that were importing U.S.-bought weapons and shipping drugs to the United States.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed illegal sales of firearms to straw purchasers to occur and sought to trace them back to cartels. Napolitano’s department doesn’t have jurisdiction over ATF, which is located in the DOJ.

The government lost track of roughly 2,000 firearms throughout the operation. Several were later found at the scenes of Mexican drug crimes, according to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Two of the guns were found in December at the scene of the murder of the U.S. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry.

The House oversight committee is conducting one investigation, led by Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Issa, his committee and Grassley are seeking to find out what high-ranking DOJ officials knew and when they knew it.

The DOJ’s inspector general is also investigating; no date has been set for the release of the IG report.

The FBI is still investigating Terry’s murder and has conducted interviews and forensics at the scene, agency Director Robert Mueller told the committee. Mueller declined to give further information, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

Napolitano said she couldn’t remember when she found out that guns from the Fast and Furious operation were at the scene of Terry’s death.


No comments:

Post a Comment