DoJ Official Lanny Breuer Knew About Gunwalking In April 2010, Contradicting Previous Claim; Also Now Claims He Failed To Mention It To Anyone Else

This is a little more complicated than I'd like, but:

1. Lanny Breuer learned of the idea of the "Gunwalking" tactic itself, as performed in a Bush Administration program called "Wide Receiver." He wrote, in response to this memo informing him of the tactic, that it could prove "embarrassing" for the ATF.

2. Republicans say that this revelation contradicts a letter from Holder's DoJ, which had claimed gunwalking allegations were "false." (Yeah, if you don't understand that, neither do I; the reporter is very unclear here. My guess is that Holder claimed no guns had walked, and then later said "Well maybe they walked but I'm not lying because I didn't know they'd walked," so this admission from Breuer tends to show that's not just in error, but a deliberate misstatement.)

3. Breuer claims he never alerted his direct boss (that is, the guy directly above him in the heirarchy), Eric Holder, and then, even when the new gunwalking program Fast & Furious began, he also failed to give Holder a head's up on this potentially "embarrassing" program. I assume this is a lie, told to keep his story consistent with Eric Holder's claims that he knew nothing.

Story here.

It's a bit less tidy than I'd like, particularly since the ATF employed the tactic under Bush in Wide Receiver.

Which brings up a good question. Unknown, as of yet, is how the hell letting guns completely walk without any surveillance or tracking could possibly advance a law enforcement goal, and Eric Holder won't say. (Remember, he doesn't know anything. Right? Right.)

But if this went on under Bush -- can someone from the Bush Administration please answer the question: How was this supposed to work, exactly?

Thanks to Dr. Spank, Medicine Woman.

posted by Ace at 03:27 PM

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