Family of U.S. agent slain in Mexico demands to know gun source

[Hoopla Phil]

The lawyer for Jaime Zapata's family says U.S. officials refuse to answer questions about whether the weapons used were linked to the Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation.

The family complains that U.S. authorities in Washington and Texas have refused to answer crucial questions about the Feb. 15 ambush on a four-lane highway in northern Mexico.

"What happened with Jaime needs to come out," the family's lawyer, Raymond L. Thomas of McAllen, Texas, said in a telephone interview Sunday. "And the likelihood that these were Fast and Furious guns is certainly plausible."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guns-cartel-20110718,0,1003846.story

It may take a while, but the truth will out.

[Kolesar]

1. Best story you guys ever had...eom

[Hoopla Phil]

2. Care to elaborate?

[spin]

3. Every American citizen should be upset when agencies of their government ...

allow criminals to buy large quantities of deadly firearms that will inevitably leave a long trail of blood in both Mexico and the United States.

It doesn't matter which side of the gun control issue you are on.

It may well turn out that our government was even financing the purchase of these weapons.

Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants
Probe reveals that the U.S. agency running the 'Fast and Furious' anti-gun-trafficking operation didn't know about the alleged FBI informants. Congressional investigators are looking into the matter.

By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

July 17, 2011

Reporting from Washington—
Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday.

***snip***

In a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, the investigators asked why U.S. taxpayers' money apparently was paid to Mexican cartel members who have terrorized the border region for years in their efforts to smuggle drugs into this country, and to ship U.S. firearms into Mexico.emphasis added

***snip***

The FBI and DEA did not tell the ATF about the alleged informants. The ATF and congressional investigators learned later that those agencies apparently were paying cartel members whom the ATF wanted to arrest.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x437676

It's not a "good" story. It is a tragic story.

[Hoopla Phil]

4. I'd like to know what the poster meant by "story".

Does the poster believe that it is all a fictional story, or a good news story for political points, or something else. The post was rather cryptic.