[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 17 (Thursday, February 2, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FAST AND FURIOUS AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT STONEWALLING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, when most people think of smuggling, 
they envision outlaws recklessly sneaking guns, contraband, and money 
to other outlaws.
  Most people would never imagine that the government of the greatest 
Nation in the world would be engaged in helping a criminal smuggling 
operation by sending guns and money to narcoterrorists south of our 
border.
  No, this isn't a Hollywood movie. Unfortunately, this has become a 
reality in Washington, D.C.

                              {time}  1030

  The Justice Department, with the aid of the ATF, facilitated the 
smuggling of over 2,000 weapons to the drug cartels south of the 
border--the national enemy in Mexico. Reports indicate those weapons 
were used to kill at least 200 Mexican nationals and two U.S. law 
enforcement agents.
  The Justice Department appears to have gone wild. Instead of 
enforcing the law, rogue operatives in the Department of Justice seemed 
to be recklessly encouraging violations of law. Who's responsible for 
this conduct?
  Over a year has gone by since the murder of Brian Terry, border 
agent, and we still don't know who was in charge. Brian Terry was 
murdered by one of those Fast and Furious guns. The Attorney General 
said he was unaware of Fast and Furious. He claims that he either 
didn't get the memo, or maybe he didn't read the memo.
  Well, according to the latest of group of emails sent over to 
Congress, he did get the email. According to emails sent to Congress 
Friday night, Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke notified Eric Holder's 
deputy chief of staff--via email--about Brian Terry's murder hours 
after it happened. Later that day, he notified the Department of 
Justice that the murder weapon was from Fast and Furious. Imagine that. 
Holder's staff member implied that he alerted the Attorney General.
  So who knew what and when? The Attorney General apparently knew not 
days or months but hours after that murder occurred. Did he, the 
Attorney General, know about this operation? Did he approve it? In any 
event, the Attorney General should resign because it all happened under 
his watch. He is the one in charge of the Justice Department.
  When he appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in December, 
the Attorney General also told me that he did not know who in his 
department was responsible for making the decision of Operation Fast 
and Furious. So is the Attorney General now claiming there is a rogue 
operation of moles in the Department of Justice that authorized and 
carried out these smuggling missions? We want to find out.
  To coin a phrase from then Senator Hillary Clinton on another 
subject, the fact that he did not know about this massive operation 
requires a ``willing suspension of disbelief.''
  The Attorney General is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer 
in the country. Whoever did know about this and approved it may have 
violated U.S. or international law. They need to be held accountable 
even if it means somebody goes to jail. But that is not the case.
  The rogue criminals responsible for carrying out Fast and Furious 
still work in the Justice Department. These individuals have not been 
fired or criminally prosecuted for their reckless actions. Some have 
actually been promoted or transferred. It all looks like an organized, 
deceitful attempt to hide the stench of Fast and Furious from the 
American people.
  Apparently, the Department of Justice believes in order to catch a 
criminal, you have to be like a criminal. We need an independent 
special counsel appointed by the President to investigate the Justice 
Department and the ATF.
  The Department of Justice cannot be trusted to investigate themselves 
because the agency has lost credibility on this issue. The DOJ has 
stonewalled providing information to Congress. If the DOJ has nothing 
to hide, why do they keep hiding information from us? The Justice 
Department has to be removed from investigating Fast and Furious. 
Otherwise, Mr. Speaker, this would look like a bunch of burglars 
sitting on a jury trying a burglary case. That would sort of look bad; 
wouldn't it?
  People died in this reckless, misguided operation. We owe it to the 
American people and the people of Mexico to get to the bottom of this.
  In many States when a person commits an offense, if he recklessly 
causes the death of an individual, the definition of that offense is 
called manslaughter. Even Washington insiders responsible for Fast and 
Furious cannot hide from the long arm of American justice because, Mr. 
Speaker, justice is what we do in this country.
  And that's just the way it is.

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