What's your take on Obama asserting Executive Privilege on the 'Fast and Furious' documents?

[sarisataka]

45. Bush did something wrong so it is ok for Obama to do something wrong too?

Is that the rational?

Bush's ATF ran Operation wide Receiver from 2006-2007. Estimated 400-500 guns made it into Mexico. Mexican authorities were informed of when the guns crossed the border. No indictments were filed until 2010.

Holder ran F&F from 2009-2011. Estimated ~2000 guns crossed into Mexico but an unknown number remained in the U.S. Neither Mexican authorities nor ATF agents in Mexico were informed the operation was happening. Twenty indictments were filed in January 2011, although none against high-level cartel members, the supposed target of the operation.

Here is the big issue that opened the worm can:

On the evening of December 14, 2010, U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and others were patrolling Peck Canyon, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, 11 miles from the Mexican border. The group came across five suspected illegal immigrants. When they fired non-lethal beanbag guns, the suspects responded with their own weapons, leading to a firefight. Agent Terry was shot and killed; four of the suspects were arrested and two AK-pattern rifles were found nearby. The rifles were traced to Fast and Furious within hours of the shooting, but the bullet that killed Terry was too badly damaged to be linked to either gun.[3]

After hearing of the incident, Agent Dodson reached out to ATF headquarters, ATF's chief counsel, the ATF ethics section and the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, none of whom immediately responded. He and other agents then contacted Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa (R–IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who would become a major figure in the investigation of "gunwalking." At the same time, information began leaking to various bloggers and Web sites.[3]

On January 25, 2011, U.S. Attorney Burke announced the first details of the case to become officially public, marking the end of Operation Fast and Furious. At a news conference in Phoenix, he reported a 53-count indictment of 20 suspects for buying hundreds of guns intended for illegal export between September 2009 and December 2010. Newell, who was at the conference, called Fast and Furious a "phenomenal case," while denying that guns had been deliberately allowed to walk into Mexico

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal

Bold 1- Agents attempted to work through the system but were ignored. Had ATF and DOJ looked into the matter, Congress would not have become involved.

Bold 2- the news conference announcing the end of F&F lied about facts the ATF knew. That immediately led to doubt about everything coming from ATF and DOJ and casting a shadow over their transparency and cooperation with inquiries.


IMO Holder should be fired. If he was aware of F&F he should have come forth with that knowledge or kept the operation on track to reach its stated objective. If he was not aware of an operation of this scope, he is not overseeing his duties properly. Also the failure of the ATF and DOJ to reply to agent's ethics reports also causes question of what Holder signals is allowable under his control. Citing EP at this point only gives Repubs ammunition for the upcoming election.