The Capture and Release that Led to the Death of Agent

The Capture and Release that Led to the Death of Agent
Brian Terry
Al Ritter

So there is no mistake about who instituted Operation
fast and Furious we need a time line. Democrats want Republicans to believethat the ill-fated program was started by President George Bush, but that just isn’t true. Project Gunrunner was Bush’s program but didn’t involve the illegal passing of automatic weapons into illegal gun dealers hands, unfortunately operation Fast and Furious did.

I equate Fast and Furious to an FBI investigation about say the Mafia and a murder for hire issue. To blend in the FBI does actual murders and claims it is merely an investigation, thereby becoming the very thing they are investigating. Of course the FBI was never involved in such a thing but we can see the flawed thinking that went into Fast and Furious.

Barack Obama took the office of President on Jan 20, 2009 and it wasn’t until October 2009 that Operation Fast and Furious started under the ATF. Up until now we never really knew the aim of the program but through the Freedom of Information Act the Times/ Tribune were able to obtain documents that show the actual aim of the ill-fated operation.

Previous to the commencement of Fast and Furious on April 16, 2009 President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon issued a joint address that 90% of all guns used by drug cartels in violence in Mexico come from America. Later Secretary of State Clinton repeated those same figures as did several high ranking Democratic lawmakers. This figure was later discredited as the real figure was closer to 17% but even that figure is disputed because the Mexican Government never gave us all the weapons only particular ones they hand-picked, so the figure is probably still too high.

In an effort to prove that guns are evil and should be removed form America, the Obama Administration instituted Operation Fast and Furious through Eric Holder and the ATF in October 2009. Through the documents obtained it was found that the ATF was after 20 individuals suspected of illegal gunrunning activities. On top of that list was Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta a 24 year old gunrunner from Mexico. He was suspected of being the top gunrunner with connections to the Mexican Cartel. On May 2010 Celis-Acosta was detained in a remote area of Arizona. He was found with 74 rounds of ammunition and nine cellphone in his old BMW.

ATF Special Agent Hope McAllister the lead agent in Operation Fast and Furious personally questioned Celis-Acosta, knowing full well his real identity there was no case of mistaken identity. Celis-Acosta promised to cooperate with McAllister, so the promise seemed enough for McAllister and she released him even though he was the ATF’s top target!

On December 15, 2010 was the fateful day that Border Agent Brian Terry was gunned down by an actual weapon passed to an illegal gunrunner by the ATF. One can’t help but to wonder if Terry’s murder would have happened at all if this operation never happened.

Operation Fast and Furious shut down as a direct result of Terry’s death in January 2011, a mere 15 months after it began. On February of 2011 Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta was arrested with the 19 other targets of Operation Fast and Furious………none of which have actually been prosecuted as of yet.

It seems very sad to me that this Administration has seen fit to make this a political football. Operation Fast and Furious was started to prove the grossly overinflated claimed percentage of American weapons in the hands of the Mexican drug cartel. The eventual aim of this administration is to take guns out of the hands of the citizens of our country, unfortunately this have not only backfired, but have virtually blown up in the collective faces of this Administration, embarrassing us not only in the world’s eyes but in the eyes of the citizens who were used as the Administration’s pawn.