by AWR Hawkins In July, I had a post on Big Government about an article in the El Paso Times which detailed an alleged gun smuggling operation into Mexico from El Paso, TX and/or Columbus, NM. The weapons being smuggled were not part of the 2,500 guns Holder & Co. let walk into Mexico from Arizona, but were alleged to have been regularly transported from the Dallas/Fort Worth area into El Paso or Columbus in an operation overseen by Obama’s State Department.
The weapons smuggled weren’t .22 rifles, .410 shotguns, or pellet guns. Rather, we’re talking about “anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era [as well as] grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns, and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor.” According to at least one former DEA official and one “CIA contract pilot,” the weapons were being sold to drug cartel members in Mexico, where they were being stockpiled for use at an unspecified future place and time.
And just as I currently think of Holder when I read of the DOJ’s complicity in Fast and Furious (because the Attorney General is top dog there), so too when I read about the alleged smuggling out of El Paso and Columbus overseen by the State Department, I wonder what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton knew (and knows).
With this alleged smuggling in mind, I re-read some of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speeches on border violence from 2009 and 2010 and I found myself wondering: Is Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) going to question her on these matters?
After all, it was while in Mexico in March 2009 that Hillary delivered a speech on border violence in which she outraged Americans by blaming the U.S. for the crime being committed in Mexico:
We know very well that the drug traffickers are motivated by the demand for illegal drugs in the United States, that they are armed by the transport of weapons from the United States to Mexico.And exactly one year later, in March 2010, she stood on again on Mexican soil and said:
We accept our share of the responsibility. As I said when I first came here a year ago, I think standing right here on this stage, the United States is your partner and your supporter. We know that the demand for drugs drives much of this illicit trade, that guns purchased in the United States – as we saw some of the examples outside – are used to facilitate violence here in Mexico.
The bottom line—to my knowledge Hillary has not been asked to explain the gun sales to drug cartel members that allegedly took place out of El Paso and Columbus. And that’s inexplicable, considering the State Department is allegedly on the hook for this mess.
Big Government
