WHAT THE "FAST AND FURIOUS" SCANDAL IS ABOUT.
The Osgood File. Sponsored by AJC. This is Dave Ross, in for Charles Osgood.
You've heard about the "Fast and Furious" scandal, right?
A Congressional committee just voted to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress because of it.
But let me just take a wild guess - you have no clue what it's about.
Well, you will - after this from David Harris of AJC...
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The so-called "Fast and Furious" story begins in late 2009 in Phoenix - where Federal agents noticed that suspected Mexican drug traffickers were buying big 50 caliber rifles in the U.S.
The agents wanted to grab those guns. But they were ordered to stand down and let the guns go south, so the bad guys could be videotaped and tracked - maybe leading to a Mr. Big. "Gunwalking," it was called. And it had been going on since 2005.
One problem: two of those walkaway guns turned up at the murder of a Border Patrol agent.
And when the Justice Department publicly denied having anything to do with it, it was too much for ATF agent John Dodson - who told everything to CBS' Sharyl Attkisson.
SOT - John Dodson, former ATF agent - in March of last year
"Here I am. Tell me I didn't do the things that I did. Tell me you didn't order me to do the things that I did. Tell me it didn't happen." (:08)
Of course he was upset - because those guns kept showing up at crime scenes.
And that's why Republican Darrell Issa of California says the Attorney General must reveal anything that might help his committee find out who covered this up.
SOT - Rep. Darrell Issa, Republican of California
"The frustration of this committee in not getting documents must be satisfied today." (:05)
Which leads me to what's amazing about this story: that you have a Republican-controlled House, packed with good Second Amendment gundamentalists, making a strong statement that it's not just people who kill people, it's guns that kill people - and those who would sell or cover up the sale of those guns to the wrong people need to held accountable.
We have a right to know who supplies the weapons that end up at crime scenes - no matter who they are.
The Osgood File. Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network. |
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