Despite all attempts to paint this as a Bush operation, it wasn’t. The truth is that this type of operation is a common law enforcement tool. You let the bad guys buy something and trace it back to the criminal organization and bust the upper echelon. This was the premise for both Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious. Wide Receiver started in 2005 and was shut down the end of 2007. Under this program gun were sold and were tracked through a variety of means including helicopter surveillance. The Mexican government was aware of the program and when gun were tracked to the border and Mexican officials were notified to continue tracking from their side of the border. It didn’t work. Mexican officials lost track and guns walked into the hands of the cartels.
After Wide Receiver was shut down, they decided to try it again in 2009. The big difference seems to be that there was very little if any tracking of these guns. Mexico was never aware of the program nor did we even try to notify them of any guns walking across the border. And to add insult to injury, we let a lot of guns walk. In Wide receiver a few hundred walked while in Fast and Furious, a few thousand walked. During Fast and Furious even the gun shops were complaining that there were too many guns going out the door.
When you look at both programs, you can criticize Bush for Wide Receiver. But if you do, it would seem that you can’t use that to excuse Obama. The same Justice Department officials were involved in both programs. The big difference in the two is that with Fast and Furious, you already knew it didn’t work from your experience with Wide Receiver. And if Wide Receiver didn’t work how could another program with less tracking do any better. Somebody in Justice needs to explain why they approved a second plan, why they did even try to track the guns, and why the Mexican government was never notified. No matter how you slice it, letting guns walk across an international border, without even trying to get cooperation from the other country, is a difficult plan to justify. Somebody needs to go to jail for that one. Or at least get fired.
The Democrats seem to want to use Bush as the ‘Gold Standard’. If Bush did it, it must be OK. What is wrong with those guys?