Obama Asserts Executive Privilege On Fast And Furious Documents

[JDPriestly]

51. This is not Watergate.

In Watergate, Nixon was accused of using our intelligence agencies for personal vendettas and political purposes. There was even some discussion associated with the scandal about assassinations. See the film, The Man Nobody Knew about William Casey.

This is not a matter in which secrets about political or personal vendettas are being protected. The secrets being protected here are about American heroes who work to investigate and eradicate criminal operations around the world. The guns were released in order to trace their path through Mexico.

I personally have a theory (which is just my own and not based on evidence) that the reason that this plan did not work was that crime and the criminal element are so widespread, so present at even high levels of society in parts of Mexico, and the criminal class so interconnected with legitimate businesses and so well protected that even this effort could not detect discernible patterns of arms distribution. That is just my guess.

In other words, I think that the attempt to identify the gangs in Mexico is ongoing because it really is a threat to us.

Obama will pay a political price for this because people will not understand why he is keeping this secret. But I think he is doing the right thing.