In a revelation that confirms what ATF whistleblowers and anonymous sources in the government have been saying for over a year, the former head of the DEA--the Drug Enforcement Administration--stated yesterday that at least three other federal agencies knew about the illegal operation known as Fast and Furious.
Tony Coulson served as head of the South Arizona division of the DEA at the time the Obama Administration was conducting the illegal scheme of sending firearms to Mexican drug cartels. According to Coulson, the DEA, the FBI, and ICE--Immigration Customs and Enforcement--not only knew about Fast and Furious but played a role in the operation.
In an interview with Fox News, Coulson stated that some agents within the three agencies tried to stop the ATF from walking guns into Mexico:
“Clearly, we went too far,” Coulson said. “The question we had among rank and file law enforcement was, ‘When is someone going to call ATF on this, when is someone going to tell them to stop?’”
But when these agents objected to the ATF operation, said Coulson, supervisors told them to back off.
Further, Coulson stated that he himself raised objections to the program with at least two other federal officials:
Coulson claims he raised objections to then-DEA chief Elizabeth Kempshall, but was told it was taken care of. After attending a meeting with ATF agent in charge Bill Newell, Coulson said that’s when he and other agents “knew (Fast and Furious) was not some sort of benign, pie-in-the-sky publicity stunt. Guns were actually getting in the hands of criminals.”
Coulson went on to make the following stinging indictments against the three agencies involved, all corroborated by documents obtained last Thursday:
- Twice in 2009, ICE agents were told by their supervisors to stop investigating the practice of gunwalking into Mexico by the ATF after a clash had occurred between agents in the two agencies.
- ICE replaced a senior agent because he objected to the manner in which supervisors were handling the ATF operation.
- The DEA helped the ATF initiate the Fast and Furious program when one of its own suspects helped supply weapons to the Sinaloa drug cartel. Rather than interdict and prosecute, DEA officials turned over to the ATF its entire case concerning those firearms.
- The FBI investigated two high level drug cartel suspects but turned them into informants who were given 'national security asset' status and are now considered 'un-indictable.' The ATF was never alerted due to the fact that the FBI was aware of Fast and Furious and wished to keep their own operation separate.
The fact that these agencies were all aware of Fast and Furious further underscores previously reported stories in which government insiders claimed that multiple agencies within the federal government were fully aware of and regularly briefed about the illegal operation, including the State Department, DHS, and the White House itself.
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