Liberals Try To Deflect Attention From Fast and Furious

Same Tactics?

An article by Associated Press reporter Vernon H. “Pete” Yost has recently received much attention because it claims that Operation Wide Receiver, a gun walker operation begun under George W. Bush, used the “same tactics” used in Operation Fast and Furious. Suddenly liberals have become interested in Operation Wide Receiver since the MSM has been forced to cover Operation Fast and Furious and the allegation of perjury against Attorney General Eric Holder.

Operation Wide Receiver Did NOT Use The Same Tactics As Operation Fast and Furious

Did both operations allow straw purchases of guns? Yes, but… the primary difference between Operation Fast and Furious under Obama and Operation Wide Receiver under Bush is that under Obama guns were allowed to go back into Mexico without interdiction or arrests. The “same tactic” was NOT used under President Bush. Project Gunrunner, started as a pilot program in Laredo, Texas, of which Operation Wide Receiver was a part, involved straw purchasers buying weapons, but purchasers were apprehended before crossing back into Mexico or transferring arms to criminals. Straw purchaser arrests and prosecutions have fallen under Obama’s administration, so much so it’s almost as if the Obama Justice Department has no interest in prosecuting illegal straw purchasers.

Operation Wide Receiver Was Different

1. There was no massive cover-up of Wide Receiver. Although the ATF did not advertise the existence of Operation Wide Receiver, that’s quite different from Obama, Holder, and others who tried to hide the larger and deadlier Fast and Furious operation.
2. There was actually a serious attempt made to track the Wide Receiver weapons. In the case of Fast and Furious, there was absolutely no effort to track guns. ATF agents have testified they were expressly ordered to stand down when they tried to follow the cartel straw purchasers.
3. Operation Wide Receiver was shut down after its weapons dropped off the screen and the ATF realized it had blundered. Operation Fast and Furious was shut down because two of its weapons were discovered at the scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder.
4. Operation Wide Receiver was less than one-quarter the size of Operation Fast and Furious. Not only was Fast and Furious much larger, but it was only one of several gun walking operations launched by the Obama Administration.

Operation Wide Receiver was a botched law enforcement operation, while the gun-walking programs of the Obama administration were intentionally criminal, and arguably terrorist acts, arming violent narco-terrorists waging war on Mexico, a U.S. ally.

But that’s just my opinion.