NRA President Wayne LaPierre: "Fast and Furious" biggest cover-up since Watergate

By: Emily Rand
Topics: News

National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference

(Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The American people were "never supposed to find out" about ATF's "Fast and Furious" operation, NRA President Wayne LaPierre told attendees during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today in Orlando.

As CBS News has reported previously, the ATF's controversial "Fast and Furious" operation allowed thousands of weapons to be smuggled into Mexico and into the hands of drug cartels, and the operation is now being investigated by congress.

"This is the biggest cover-up since Watergate and it's time to ask the Watergate question. Who authorized Fast and Furious and how high up does it go?" LaPierre asked during his speech.

In his speech, LaPierre also accused President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder of "stonewalling" the two Congressional Investigations into the operation.

"President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder shrug their shoulders and say, "I didn't authorize it. Don't ask me," LaPierre said.

"They ran a massive campaign out the Department of Justice and the White House to manipulate public opinion and encouraged the media to slander the reputations of honest gun dealers---when they knew the truth all along."

Both President Obama and Attorney General Holder have said they had no knowledge operation was underway and did not authorize it.

As he did earlier this month, today LaPierre also called for a special prosecutor to be appointed to conduct the investigation into "Fast and Furious" and "get to the bottom of the scandal".

Earlier this week, CBS News obtained and released a series of secretly recorded audio tapes believe to have been recorded last March, in which an Arizona gun dealer and an ATF agent involved with ATF's "Fast and Furious" operation worried about the unraveling scandal.

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by Mutantone October 15, 2011 8:43 AM EDT: if only it were just the Mexican gun running but it is not:

Rahm Emanuel reports that he knew about the operations while he was at the White House. Not only high caliber weapons but conversion kits to make semiautomatic weapons full auto, and explosives as well and the makings for grenades and an uncounted number of rocket launchers.
Operation Gunrunner-in which the government authorized the sale of weapons with the intent of letting these weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, which were used to Kill an American border agent.

Operation Castaway-in which the government authorized the sale of weapons knowing they would fall into the hands of Honduran gangs, such as MS13 and the Mara Salvatrucha and the rival Mara 18, An estimated 20,590 people died violently here in the last five years, according to the Madrid-based nonprofit Observers of Violence in massive shoot outs to control the drug industry.

Project Gangwalker the ATF and the DOF allowed the straw purchases of weapons which eventually ended up in the hands of United States gang members in Indiana" Operation Community Shield," individuals are from El Salvador, three are from Mexico, one is from Honduras and one is from Haiti. ICE said the individuals are members or associates of the following street gangs: MS-13, Sur-13, and Zoe Pound. Charged in connection with the shooting of an Indianapolis police officer last week are gang members, the Marion County Prosecutor's Office Gonzalez-Ramirez is a member of the Puros Vatos Locos street gang, and Taboada-Perez is a member of the SCT-13 gang. Both have tattoos that express allegiance to those gangs, authorities said. and other weapons have been found at crime scenes in that state and surely have spread out from there to other gangs.
Now picture gang bangers in armed flash mobs, And just where did that army that Obama formed disappear to?

Add to that a state governor that thinks there should be no elections for two years until the congress can fix the problems they are facing. And Obama does not think that Americans understand democracy as well as he does.
It all leads to the UN small arms treaty that Hillary signed off on all to disarm the American populace.
And the round about EPA ammunition suspensions under the lead ban that stops the supplies of ammunition getting to the people with out congressional oversight.
And all these are now excuses to suspend the second amendment rights of the citizens. As well as the up coming elections for civil unrest.
It all sounds treasonous to me
and why is the one releasing weapons inside the USA being ignored, when the numbers of weapons from the last to operations are three times the numbers released to the Mexican one?; Reply to this comment


by WatcherDotGov September 27, 2011 11:01 AM EDT: This issue is astounding. CBS needs to get to the bottom of this. Stay on it! I'd like to see who started this mess. I have a hunch.; Reply to this comment


by hdc77494 September 26, 2011 9:16 PM EDT: You ignored the rather important detail that guns hand delivered to Mexican drug runners by ATF agents were later used to murder an ATF agent and dozens of Mexican civilians. All while the feds lied through their teeth smearing US Gun dealers accusing them of violating US law and selling illegal weapons. Apparently one of the goals of the program was to put added political pressure on Republicans to enact stricter gun control legislation. Some of these people need to be in jail!; Reply to this comment

by OIF_to_USC September 26, 2011 2:50 PM EDT

Well, everything ... was ... going according to plan -- sort of. In 2009, Hillary Clinton and the president of Mexico announced on TV that illegal American gun runners were selling guns to Mexican gangs. Almost immediately, they were proven wrong since almost all of the guns used by gangs were provided by corrupt Mexican police and soldiers or they purchased real automatic select fire weapons from Colombia and Venezuela at 1/4th the price of semi-auto knockoffs from the U.S.

Again in 2009, Obama and Holder hatched a scheme to salvage Secretary Clinton's claim about the guns coming from the U.S., and Operation Fast and Furious was put into effect where the Justice Department, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, funneled enormous numbers of guns into Mexico creating the illusion of a gun smuggling problem. The planned reason-de-affair was be to pave the way for more gun control laws to pacify liberal anti-gun voters in time for the presidential election next year. However, in the interim, two U.S. government officials including a U.S. Border Patrol officer were killed with some of those same "walked" guns. Now the cover up begins with Eric Holder lying to the U.S. House subcommittee investigating both procedural and criminal wrongdoing by DOJ and BATFE. The intrigue heightened when BATFE Director Kenneth Melson, with his attorney present, disputed Eric Holder's testimony, implying that the gun scheme was actually planned, sanctioned, and monitored by the U.S. attorney general and the president. And now most recently, we have an informant from within the ranks of BATFE saying that there was never any way to track the weapons as earlier implied, nor was there any intention to do so.

The conspiracy is now out in the open and it is being reported even by much of the same mainstream media that once turned a blind eye to this administration's wrong doing. In the meantime, Obama, [Hillary] Clinton, and Holder are walking around with blood on their hands, hoping to change the subject and that nobody will notice, and hoping that there won't be any talk of criminal hearings and impeachment. It is over for them. A best case scenario for the president and the attorney general now is that Obama will be allowed to peacefully lose the 2012 presidential election and quietly return to Chicago while Holder gets a pardon from the outgoing president as a "last official act" and avoids time in federal prison for lying to congressional investigators. An angry American citizenry is standing by and gearing up as this drama unfolds.

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by GlowBunny October 3, 2011 2:40 PM EDT: THANK YOU. I think they have the keystone cops running things in Washington. 'well what had HAPPENED was' we were gonna trace the guns....how? uuuuhhhhh we were gonna follow the buyers, yeah that's it! that's the ticket!! we, uh, were gonna use special mind powers to track the weapons, YEAH XD XD My god, you'd think they would have come up with a better cover story to begin with. They really believe that since they are 'well educated' that they are actually more intelligent than everyone else. The only transparency in Washington is how transparent their lies are.

by hearsbothsides September 26, 2011 2:46 PM EDT

Question to this organization, Why is the last Comment from a Left Plant and is the only one dated "September 25, 2011 1:31 A.M. ?
All other Comments are from September 23, 2011.Is it an accident or intentional to end Comments with this Plant trying to sidetrack everyone from the FACTS ? SOMEONE FROM FAR LEFT at CBS Just Had To Do It ?

But let me say first that IT IS SO REFRESHING TO SEE THAT FINALLY, FINALLY CBS NEWS IS REPORTING SOMETHING THAT IS NEGATIVE FOR OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. It is the first in years as I check 5 news sources daily and as of yet CBS is the only one other than FOX reporting this EXTREMELY IMPORTANT STORY. THANK YOU TO CBS
P.S. I JUST HOPE TO SEE MORE TRUE COVERAGE OF THE FACTS.

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by OIF_to_USC September 26, 2011 2:56 PM EDT: In all fairness to CBS, the "fawning media" of 2008 is coming out of their self induced Kool Aid overdose in the past 3 1/2 years, well at least some of them have. Even the leftist Huffington Post is following the CBS lead on this story.


by burbanite September 26, 2011 9:28 AM EDT: Another happy Monday morning where the news just gets bigger and brighter in this epic scandal. New evidence of the ATF's plan has just surfaced and the hole gets deeper by the minute. Now they can't use the term "botched" anymore, not when this new evidence shows that it was going exactly as planned...until they got caught. More to come this week, I can't wait!

This criminal government needs to be lined up in front of a firing squad composed of the families of the people they have murdered.; Reply to this comment


by tribulation_ September 26, 2011 1:21 AM EDT: One comment for the liberal hate mongers. Disagreeing with a failing president isnt prejudice. Using basic slang to refer to someone who is obviously The president "boy" isnt prejudice. Nomore than recognizing that Obama is General Electrics "boy" is prejudice. Trying to shut up or discredit people or groups by suggesting they are prejudice any time they dont kiss your liberal butts is clearly hate mongering. The liberal media, the democrates and you moretruthnow are all guilty of hate mongering and we are all just about fed up with it. The president we can vote out as this registered democrate fully intends to do no matter who the opposition is. CBS and the other hate mongering media i can keep an eye on and continue to promote boycotting their sponsers. But you morehatemongerernow just dont have enough exposure to even bother with except to expose you for what you truely are.; Reply to this comment

by tribulation_ September 26, 2011 12:56 AM EDT

One very good question that needs to be asked, "Why, if this felonious scandel and coverup has occured during Obamas and Holders watch, why isnt the White house and Justice department pushing this investigation and seeking criminal convictions for those responsible. There can be only one answer! Because they themselves are the felonous traitors responsible, thats why!

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by OIF_to_USC September 26, 2011 3:13 PM EDT: Obama and Holder are looking for willing, compliant and expendable subordinates to "fall on their own swords" similar to what happened after the Waco incident in the 90s. Remember, Eric Holder was mentored by the former Attorney General Janet Reno during those dark days in Justice Department history. They're fast finding themselves vulnerable and marked as the guilty people they are. There is a newer and more professional generation serving in the Justice Department and they are not as compliant and unquestioning as their predecessors.


by OkieJohn September 24, 2011 11:54 PM EDT: CBS should listen to those tapes again. The gun dealer wasn't worried he was becoming agitated at the FBI agent. He knew he had done the right thing by notifying the FBI and also that it was the FBI that drug him into this fiasco.; Reply to this comment

by Kat1157 September 23, 2011 10:01 PM EDT

I have been following the Fast and Furious debacle very closely since January. The story broke on December 28, 2010. I have read at least 1000 articles, watched the hearings and kept scrupulously up to date on the developments. Some of the comments on this story are incredibly ignorant. Any suggestion that George Bush is responsible for the Fast and Furious gunwalking scam is an outrageous lie. This genious plan was developed in Eric Holder's justice department starting in or around March 2010. All whistle blowers have testified that they had never ever been ordered by their supervisors to let guns walk before this operation was launched. John Dodson, Olindo Casa, Larry Alt, etc. ATF in Mexico has testified that they were not told of the operation even when there was a massive escalation in guns showing up in Mexico. Canino and Gil both testified to this. Many people are dead because of this felony stupid undertaking. At least 200 Mexicans and 2 American law enforcement officers have been murdered with FnF weapons. These walked weapons have turned up in 11-20 violent crime scenes in the US. They will continue to turn up because about 1400 deliberately walked weapons are still missing. This is a scandal of unprecedented proportions. It was designed and implemented by the Obama Administration. The coverup is unprecedented as well. The justice department is deliberately blocking and undermining the Congressional investigation. Those are the facts.

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by moretruthnow September 25, 2011 12:53 AM EDT: I don't think Bush has anything to do with this. I do think the state of Arizona and the NRA have a lot to do with it. When would the NRA ever care who was getting guns, tons of guns, hundreds of assault rifles. The more the merrier for the gun loving NRA and the republicans in Arizona. The republicans are in charge of that state and they are the gun loving party, not the Democrats.


by GlowBunny October 3, 2011 2:44 PM EDT: This comment is towards MORETRUTHNOW (and not at you Kat1157) What are you talking about? It's Arizona's fault? Have you lost your mind? They didn't have anything to do with this. YES we understand it's the democrats who ''hate'' guns, THAT IS the entire point of this story. That they deliberately spread guns to mexico to pretend like they were being bought here so they could start more gun control. The only people who would be affected by that are LEGAL gun owners, not the criminals, idiot.