Issa to Holder: Waiting for "Fast and Furious" docs like waiting for Godot
Rep. Darrell Issa
/ U.S. House of Representatives"For those of us on the Committee, waiting for the Department to move off its misguided position and produce the documents we seek has been like waiting for Godot," Issa wrote in a Thursday letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is at the center of the investigation. "Like Vladimir and Estragon, we held out hope despite mounting evidence that nothing is going to show up. We cannot wait any longer."
"Waiting for Godot" is about two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, who spend the entire play waiting in vain for the character Godot to show up.
The DOJ has provided more than 7,600 pages worth of documentation to the House committee, but Issa argued that a number of documents were withheld and that many of those that were provided have been "heavily redacted, to the point that the redactions were laughable."
"On The Daily Show, comedian Jon Stewart described a stack of pages that consisted almost entirely of large black boxes as 'prized Mondrians from his famed black period,'" Issa's letter said.
A spokesperson for the DOJ referred to a May 3 letter disputing the accusations.
"The Department strongly disputes the contention that we have failed to cooperate with the Committee's review of Operation Fast and Furious," the letter, addressed to Issa from Deputy Attorney General James Cole, reads.
In February 2011, CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported that an operation called "Project Gunrunner," run by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), had resulted in agents letting thousands of guns "walk" into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. While the operation aimed to take down a major cartel, two of those weapons turned up at the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.
The Oversight committee has since been investigating the matter, also known as "Fast and Furious," with Issa repeatedly suggested that Holder has been withholding facts pertaining to the case. Last week, Republicans on the oversight committee indicated they would take the first formal step toward contempt proceedings against Holder for allegedly obstructing the committee's investigation, which is now in its second year.
"Fortunately for us, the Department of Justice is not the arbiter of what the Committee's legitimate oversight interests are," Issa wrote in his letter. "There is a mechanism for resolving cases that challenge the limits of the congressional prerogative. The contempt process is part of that mechanism. The Department's unwillingness to recognize that an investigation into Fast and Furious is in fact a legitimate oversight interest signals we have reached an impasse and that contempt proceedings are necessary."
House Speaker John Boehner yesterday said he would not take a contempt resolution off the table, and said he would support the committee's pursuit of "a lot of unanswered question."
"I'm supporting their efforts to hold those people in the Department of Justice accountable for what happened," he said at a press conference Thursday. "The committee has work to do; they know what they have to do. They're pursuing a lot of unanswered questions. And I would hope that they would continue that."
Meanwhile, Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kingzinger became the latest lawmaker to sign a "no confidence" resolution against Holder. More than 100 House members have now either signed a "no confidence" resolution against Holder, called for his resignation, or both.
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gunrunning operations, rather than simply the straw purchasers.
During roughly the same time period, the Mexican government seized nearly 100,000 guns from cartel crime scenes and hideouts. They asked us to trace them, and we identified 68,000 of the 100,000 as coming from the U.S. So the guns "Fast and Furious" lost track of constitute just over 2% of the U.S. guns the cartels have been using to kill both American and Mexican citizens.
Issa's committee has a RIGHT to investigate this snafu, but is this really the MOST IMPORTANT subject for this key group of legislators to devote so much time and attention to? Or is it a political witchhunt by an extremely partisan publicity hound?
Which event cost more USA lives?
Under the Gunrunner operations, there was a conscious effort to track and/or interdict the weapons. In fact, many were equipped with some type of GPS tracking devices. More importantly, the Mexican authorities and the ATF attaches in Mexico were aware of and participated in the investigation. That means surviellance of the weapons could be continued once the guns crossed the border. I'm not impyling those efforts were always successful, and I'm not suggesting it was a wise investigative strategy, but at the least the Mexican authorities would have some type of clue of what was going on and where to look.
Under F&F, no such tracking efforts were made. They simply told the agents on the ground to stand down and let the guns disappear toward the border. Nothing revealed in the Congressional inquiry or any media investigation so far suggests otherwise. Also, the powers-that-be never, at any time, notified Mexico or the ATF Attache in Mexico. That fact is beyond dispute. That is criminal malfeasence at very high levels and is unforgivable, in my book.
Furthermore, the number of weapons lost during Gunrunner compared to F&F is staggering. The ATF itself estimates it lost about 2,200 guns.
I'll keep it going. No weapons lost during Gunrunner, as far as we know, has ever been linked to the murder of a federal agent. We all know how that differs from F&F.
Those are not talking points of election-year politics. Those are facts, and they are non-partisan. And F&F began in 2009. The Iraq War and the previous adminstration has absolutely nothing to do with this.
Someone made the decision to employ the dangerous, haphazard and illegal investigative tactics during F&F. Congress is trying to find out who he/she/they were, as is their right and responsibility. Any legal mind will agree that Holder has come no where close to fulfilling his or the DOJ's part in the Congressional inquiry.