Post date: Sep 20, 2012 6:53:46 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 20, 2012) (POOL) - The Inspector General of the U.S. Justice Department, Michael Horowitz, testified on Capitol Hill on Thursday (September 20), regarding "Operation Fast and Furious," the botched anti-gun-trafficking operation which led to the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Michael Horowitz, Inspector General of the U.S. Justice Department, tells lawmakers on Capitol Hill that "systemic" mistakes were made, but that there was no outright cover-up in the botched anti-gun-trafficking effort known as "Operation Fast and Furious."
Horowitz said his report on the operation found a number of "systemic" mistakes, but no evidence of a cover-up.
"In Operation Fast and Furious, we found that no one responsible for the case, either at the Phoenix Field Division, or at ATF's headquarters, or in the U.S. Attorney's Office, raised a serious question or concern about the government not taking earlier measures to disrupt a firearm trafficking operation that continued to purchase firearms with impunity for many months," Horowitz told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
U.S. congressmen investigating Fast and Furious criticize the operation for allowing as many as two thousand guns bought by low-level suspects to slip into Mexico. The aim of the operation was to track the weapons and use them to identify higher level buyers within Mexican drug cartels.
During the hearing on Thursday, several Republican members of the committee sought to highlight the lack of communication within the government regarding the controversial nature of the operation.
"It is shocking and troubling to me that we did not, that the Department of Justice never communicated to the senior people at the Homeland Security, where one of their agents was dead, and still has not to this day, I've questioned them. The secretary of Homeland Security did not ask the attorney general what was going on, nor did we ever communicate with secretary...secretary of the State Department so that she could deal with this situation. We pour thousands of weapons into Mexico and we never bother to tell the secretary of state?" Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz asked.
Horowitz concluded that while there was no outright cover-up of information regarding the operation, there needs to be significant reforms within the Justice Department with respect to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the agency that conducted "Fast and Furious."