[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 17 (Thursday, February 2, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                GETTING TO THE TRUTH OF FAST AND FURIOUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Arizona (Mr. Quayle) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUAYLE. Mr. Speaker, it has been more than 1 year since the 
tragic death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed 
using weapons that were purposely walked to deadly drug cartels in 
Mexico as part of Operation Fast and Furious. Since Agent Terry's 
death, the responsible Federal Department, the Justice Department, and 
its leader, Attorney General Eric Holder, have obfuscated every attempt 
to get to the bottom of what went wrong with this disastrous operation.
  Despite the best efforts of the Justice Department to hide the facts, 
we now know many disturbing things about Fast and Furious. This ill-
conceived operation began in November of 2009. Since that time, the ATF 
has sanctioned the sale of thousands of weapons to straw purchasers who 
transported these weapons across the United States' southern border and 
into the hands of Mexican criminals.

                              {time}  1050

  The ATF lost track of these weapons until they began turning up at 
crime scenes in the United States and Mexico. As a result of Justice 
Department incompetence, the United States actively armed dangerous 
cartels that have wreaked havoc in Mexico and put our own Federal 
agents directly in harm's way. Our hard-won trust and the relationships 
we've built with the Mexican Government as both countries seek to 
combat the cartels has been severely strained, which has harmed our 
efforts to get drug-running under control.
  Operation Fast and Furious hasn't just been a failure; it's been a 
tragic failure. It is believed that hundreds of Mexicans have lost 
their lives through the use of these weapons, and at least one U.S. 
Federal Agent, Brian Terry, has lost his life.
  When an operation goes so horribly wrong, it is important to find out 
why and who was responsible. The Congress has acted on its oversight 
responsibility; and in doing so, we've asked Attorney General Holder 
directly about the operation. On May 3, 2011, Attorney General Holder 
testified before the House Judiciary Committee. When asked when he 
first knew about Operation Fast and Furious, he stated, ``I'm not sure 
of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the 
first time over the last few weeks.'' However, we now know that weekly 
memos addressed to the Attorney General, which included briefings on 
Operation Fast and Furious, began crossing his desk nearly a year 
before that.
  When it became clear that his May 3 testimony was untrue, the 
Attorney General later revised the timeline in which he claimed to have 
knowledge of the operation. On November 8, 2011, Attorney General 
Holder claimed that he had in fact first learned about the operation at 
the beginning of 2011, which, again, is belied by the fact that he was 
receiving memos about the operation much earlier than that.
  But we now know that even that revised and extended time frame is 
incorrect. Just days ago, the Justice Department finally released 
documents, which included a December 14, 2010, email exchange between 
the Attorney General's chief of staff and the U.S. Attorney for the 
District of Arizona, stating that the Attorney General had been alerted 
of the shooting and death of Agent Terry on the day of the shooting.
  A troubling picture has emerged of the Holder Justice Department. 
From the Attorney General's own testimony, it would appear that he is 
either frighteningly unaware of major operations taking place in his 
own Department or that he did know about Fast and Furious, did nothing 
to stop it, and refused to take responsibility when it failed.
  It has been more than a year since the death of Agent Terry, Mr. 
Speaker, and we still don't have the answers the American people 
deserve and Agent Terry's family deserves. We know we won't get these 
answers from a proper internal investigation from the Justice 
Department. Far from the Department investigating itself, it has 
covered up for itself.
  A year of delay, denial, and obfuscation is enough. A year of 
nighttime document dumps full of blacked-out pages and redacted 
information is enough. A year of senior Justice Department officials 
pleading the Fifth is enough. It's time that we get to the bottom of 
why Fast and Furious happened and restore accountability to the 
Department of Justice. That's why I introduced H. Res. 532, which calls 
on the President to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate 
Operation Fast and Furious as well as the Attorney General's role in 
it.
  Without a special prosecutor, the only other way to get to the truth 
is through impeachment proceedings and the investigations that come 
with those proceedings. With all of the vital work before this House, 
it would be far better to avoid the distraction and the cost that 
impeachment proceedings would bring. I hope the President agrees.
  I urge my House colleagues to support this resolution so that we can 
finally get to the truth and ensure no more innocent lives are lost due 
to this Attorney General's failure.

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