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BY BLAKE HANSON AND MARC STEIDLER
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A new subpoena is putting a new spotlight over a controversial program called “Operation Fast and Furious”. It’s pitting the Justice Department v. Congress. More specifically: Representative Darrell Issa v. Attorney General Eric Holder. CBS News reports..
“The subpoena will come from the House Oversight Committee led by Republican Darrell Issa, it will ask for communications among senior Justice Department officials related to Fast and Furious and ‘gunwalking’, and it will list those officials, more than a dozen of them, by name.”
So what is Fast and Furious? The Houston Chronicle provides some context...
“Agents allowed illegally bought guns to ‘walk’ across the border to Mexico instead of interdicting them in an effort to trace the weapons to Mexican drug cartel kingpins. Of 1,400 guns lost, two were found at the scene of the Dec. 14, 2010, murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.”
A blogger forThe Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry points out what some are calling an obvious lie from Holder, writing...
“The most recent push by Issa and others in Congress was spurred by news that Holder knew about Fast and Furious nearly a year earlier than he had previously admitted. In May of this year, he told the House Judiciary Committee that he had ‘probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.’”
Much of the mystery is over whether Holder knew about Fast and Furious. But the real question might be, did Holder know enough about the operation to be responsible? Congressman Issa says yes, Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren asked why...
VAN SUSTEREN: “Do you have any reason to believe the attorney general of the United States knew about the operation that was going on with ‘Fast and Furious’ prior to his testimony in May?”
ISSA: “He certainly knew the name ‘Fast and Furious.’”
VAN SUSTEREN: “But the actual operation who was going on, because that's the controversy.”
ISSA: “No, Greta, the controversy is he swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. When he answered, I only learned about it a couple weeks ago, he certainly was not answering fully he knew about the name, knew x, y or z about it, but didn't understand it fully if that's the case.”
Who to believe? The heavyweight match “Issa vs. Holder” is using the media as it’s boxing ring. CNN reports...
“In recent days, a letter from Holder to Issa, implied that Issa is ‘more interested in using this regrettable incident to score political points than in addressing the underlying problem’.
Issa fired back, questioning Holder’s competence and credibility and saying ‘you own fast and furious.”
Holder tells Fox News, his Department will undoubtedly comply with the subpoenas.
Transcript by Newsy