[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20257]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           GUNS AND MONEY SENT TO CARTELS BY U.S. GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, when most people think of smuggling, 
they envision outlaws in the dark of night lawlessly shuffling around 
guns and money to other outlaws. Most people would never imagine that 
the government of the greatest nation of the world would be engaged in 
a stealth smuggling operation by sending guns and money to 
narcoterrorists.
  It appears a group of people in the ATF and the DEA, all under the 
supervision of the Department of Justice, facilitated trafficking of 
guns and money to the drug cartels--the national enemy of Mexico and of 
the United States. These vicious cartels have inflicted terror on both 
sides of the border. They are literally at war with the Mexican people, 
the people to the south of us, our neighbors.
  First we learned that the Justice Department, with the help of the 
ATF, apparently facilitated smuggling of over 2,000 weapons to the drug 
cartels. These guns included semiautomatic weapons and sniper rifles. 
People have died because of this activity. These weapons were used to 
kill at least 200 Mexican nationals and two U.S. agents.
  The Attorney General admitted to me in the Judiciary Committee last 
week, more people are going to die, all because our government is 
helping the drug cartels in Mexico obtain automatic weapons.
  Of the 2,000 weapons smuggled to Mexico, most are still unaccounted 
for. We don't know where they are.
  The Attorney General is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer 
in the country, but he claimed last week in the Judiciary Committee he 
didn't know about Fast and Furious until recently. He either didn't 
read the memo or he didn't get the memo. What is more remarkable, Madam 
Speaker, he claims he doesn't know who authorized the smuggling ring. 
To coin a phrase from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the idea that 
Eric Holder, the head of the Department of Justice that oversaw this 
operation, was not involved or was unaware of what took place requires 
a ``willing suspension of disbelief.''
  The question is: Is there a rogue group of moles operating stealth 
activity in the Department of Justice? Apparently, no one really knows. 
The Attorney General also admitted last week that this operation was in 
fact reckless.
  It's worth noting, Madam Speaker, when a person recklessly causes the 
death of another person, it's the crime of manslaughter. If people 
under the Attorney General violated U.S. or international law, they 
need to be accountable for their actions.
  It's been almost 1 year since Agent Brian Terry was murdered and when 
we first learned about this foolish operation we now know as Fast and 
Furious. Terry was killed by one of these smuggled guns to Mexico, but 
yet no one claims to know who is responsible.
  The second part of the rogue operation was the apparent laundering of 
money to the Mexican narcoterrorists facilitated, once again, by the 
United States Government.
  According to a New York Times report last week, undercover American 
narcotics agents from the DEA laundered or smuggled millions of dollars 
in drug money to the drug cartels. How many millions, no one knows. 
They allegedly handled the money on its path to the hands of the drug 
lords. This failed operation, like with the guns, was an effort to 
track the money and bring down the cartels. Of course, the cartels are 
as strong as ever.
  The administration claimed in a statement last week that it was 
working with the Mexican Government on the operation on ``joint 
investigations to detect and dismantle money laundering networks.'' 
However, according to a spokesperson for President Calderon of Mexico, 
they had no idea the DEA was involved in this drug money laundering 
operation.
  The DEA and the ATF are under the control of the Justice Department. 
These disturbing operations facilitated the worst kind of result: They 
have resulted in people dying. And millions of money and hundreds of 
guns are unaccounted for.

                              {time}  1040

  The drug cartels are the narcoterrorists. They are the enemy of 
Mexico and the U.S. They exist to obtain money and guns, and the United 
States helped them get both. Somebody needs to go to jail.
  We need an independent counsel to investigate the Justice Department 
and the ATF. The Justice Department cannot be trusted to investigate 
themselves because the agency has lost credibility. Even Washington 
insiders responsible for Fast and Furious and money laundry smuggling 
cannot hide from the long arm of the American justice system because, 
Madam Speaker, justice is what we do in this country.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________