NPR: Justice Dept. Details How It Got Statements Wrong (Fast & Furious)

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=143075639

Justice Dept. Details How It Got Statements Wrong

Justice Dept. Details How It Got Statements Wrong
by The Associated Press

WASHINGTON December 2, 2011, 10:56 pm ET WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday provided Congress with documents detailing how department officials gave inaccurate information to a U.S. senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border.

In a letter last February to Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had not sanctioned the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser and that the agency makes every effort to intercept weapons that have been purchased illegally. In Operation Fast and Furious, both statements turned out to be incorrect....

...In an email four days later to Justice Department colleagues, then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Phoenix said that "Grassley's assertions regarding the Arizona investigation and the weapons recovered" at the "murder scene are based on categorical falsehoods. I worry that ATF will take 8 months to answer this when they should be refuting its underlying accusations right now." That email marked the start of an internal debate in the Justice Department over what and how much to say in response to Grassley's allegations. The fact that there was an ongoing criminal investigation into Terry's murder prompted some at the Justice Department to argue for less disclosure....

...The emails sent to Capitol Hill on Friday showed that Burke supplied additional incorrect information to the Justice Department's criminal division that ended up being forwarded to Breuer. For example, Burke said that the guns found at the Terry murder scene were purchased at a Phoenix gun shop before Operation Fast and Furious began. In fact, the operation was under way at the time and the guns found at the Terry murder scene were part of the probe. Breuer was one of the recipients of that information. In written comments this week to Grassley, Breuer said that he was on a three-day official trip to Mexico at the time of the Justice Department response and that he was aware of, but not involved in, drafting the Justice Department statements to Grassley. Breuer says he cannot say for sure whether he saw a draft of the letter before it was sent to Grassley....

More details here:


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/02/143067851/justice-withdraws-inaccurate-fast-and-furious-letter-it-sent-to-congress

Justice Withdraws Inaccurate 'Fast And Furious' Letter It Sent To Congress

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69680.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57335983-10391695/docs-show-justice-department-debated-response-to-congress-about-gunwalking-fast-and-furious-scandal/

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/FgWGW4YOsWQ/

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-02/erroneous-gun-letter-based-on-u-s-attorney-documents-show.html

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/02/files-on-fast-and-furious-program-given-to-congress-panel/


Lots and lots of CYA on evidence, for those willing to dive into this sump of denial, willful ignorance and flat-out mendacity.
This also puts paid to the prior assertions of certain ATF apologists here that the problems with F&F were ginned up by a coalition
of disgruntled ATF agents and Republicans in Congress