Mexican body count climbs as Fast & Furious unravels in audio tape

Today’s Seattle Times and Associated Press report about the dumping of 35 bodies beneath a highway overpass near downtown Veracruz city is proof enough that the drug cartel war in Mexico is far from over, and one is left to wonder if any guns from Operation Fast and Furious played a part in those slayings.

That was, after all, one of the concerns that apparently panicked people involved in the botched operation after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in January; whether one of "their" guns was involved.

Suspected drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at rush hour beneath a busy overpass in the heart of a major Gulf coast city as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened drivers. Mexican authorities said Wednesday they are examining surveillance video for clues to who committed the crime.—Seattle Times

The Fast and Furious scandal is beginning to unravel in a tangle of tape; not government red tape but secretly-recorded audio tape revealed this week here, here and here by CBS News while Fox News has an exclusive interview with the attorney for the Arizona gun dealer who made the tapes. The owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company secretly recorded conversations he had with Hope MacAllister, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, earlier this year as the story about the botched gun trafficking sting operation began breaking.

Disclosure of the tapes could put an end to stonewalling by the Department of Justice that both Sen. Charles Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa discussed during interviews this week. Grassley’s exclusive interview with this column appeared here, and Issa’s telephone press briefing with on-line journalists was covered here. On the other hand, release of the tapes could bring even less cooperation from Eric Holder’s Justice Department.

After all, CBS News reported that the Justice Department’s Inspector General apparently had the tapes months ago. And what did the Inspector General do with those tapes? Turned a copy over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, which the Inspector General is supposed to be investigating. Here, according to CBS, is the IG’s explanation for that:

A spokesman from the Office of the Inspector General today said, "The OIG officially provided the United States Attorney's Office with a copy of the recordings in question so that the USAO could consider them in connection with the government's disclosure obligations in the pending criminal prosecutions of the gun traffickers. Prior to receiving the tapes, the OIG made clear that we would have to provide a copy of the recordings to the United States Attorney's Office because they would need to review them to satisfy any legal disclosure obligations."

Grassley told this column late Monday that he has been surprised at how big this scandal has become. It reaches far beyond anything he initially imagined, but perhaps it is now making more sense why the ATF and Justice Department so quickly circled the wagons and engaged in what has been revealed as a full-blown cover-up.

Grassley admitted that Democrats in the Senate will block any attempt to launch a full-scale investigation and hold hearings. However, he is glad that Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is in the hearing process.

In the past few days, the Fast and Furious web has rapidly expanded, while the silence from the Justice Department and the Obama White House is deafening.

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