MX Agents Missed Vehicle w/guns-Calderon's Phony Outrage

UPDATE: MX Agents Missed Vehicle w/guns-Calderon's Phony Outrage:Mx Agreed to Controlled Arms Trafficking (F&F) since 2007!

Posted by Buela Chivis in the Forum

UPDATE 11.5.11 PM: VERY interesting..and Article on Calderon follows this update...Paz. Buela

Headlined "Meeting of the attorney general with Mexican Attorney General Medina Mora," the briefing paper informed Mukasey that the tactic had been tried unsuccessfully but that the ATF wanted to try again and wanted Mukasey to persuade Mexico's attorney general to provide a team of corruption-free Mexican agents who would assist in the effort.

The briefing paper for Mukasey — dated two days after he was installed as attorney general — was among hundreds of pages of documents that Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., subpoenaed in his investigation of Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department turned over the material this week to the Issa-chaired House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Not fully detailed in this document was the reason for the failure — that Mexican authorities south of the border fell down on the job, claiming they didn't see the vehicle carrying the guns that the ATF agents had alerted them to.

In Section G, titled "Arms Trafficking," the briefing paper for Mukasey states that "of particular importance, ATF has recently worked jointly with Mexico on the first-ever attempt to have a controlled delivery of weapons being smuggled into Mexico by a major arms trafficker." It adds: "While the first attempts at this controlled delivery have not been successful, the investigation is ongoing, and ATF would like to expand the possibility of such joint investigations and controlled deliveries — since only then will it be possible to investigate an entire smuggling network, rather than arresting simply a single smuggler."

"To that end, it is essential that a Mexican vetted unit be assigned to work with ATF in this regard," the document states. "ATF's attache in Mexico City has briefed Attorney General Medina Mora on this attempted controlled delivery, and stressed the importance of such a vetted unit being assigned," the paper states.

The language in the briefing paper to Mukasey referred to the second of two Bush-era probes and covered events that had occurred in that second probe in the preceding two months — specifically, a probe that began when an ATF agent identified several suspects from Mexico who were buying large numbers of weapons from a gun shop in Phoenix.

ATF emails from the 2007 probe obtained last month by the AP show there was concern inside the agency that its Phoenix office had engaged in gun-walking that resulted in guns disappearing inside Mexico — and that perhaps the tactic should be stopped.

"Have we discussed the strategy with the US Attorney's Office re letting the guns walk?" Hoover, the headquarters official, asked in an Oct. 4, 2007, email to William Newell, then ATF's special agent in charge of the Phoenix field division.

The probe ran into trouble after agents saw the same suspects buy additional weapons from the same store and followed the suspects south toward the border at Nogales, Ariz., on Sept. 27, 2007. ATF officials notified the government of Mexico to be on the lookout. ATF agents saw the vehicle the suspects were driving reach the Mexican side of the border, but 20 minutes later, Mexican law enforcement authorities informed ATF that they did not see the vehicle.

The 2007 probe referred to in the briefing paper for Mukasey operated out of the same ATF office that more recently ran the flawed Operation Fast and Furious. Both probes resulted in weapons disappearing across the border into Mexico. The 2007 probe was relatively small — involving more than 200 weapons, just a dozen of which ended up in Mexico as a result of gun-walking. Fast and Furious involved more than 2,000 weapons. Nearly 700 of the Fast and Furious guns have been recovered — 276 in Mexico and 389 in the United States, according to ATF data through Oct. 20, the latest available.

Pete Yost-AP
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PGR knew of arms trafficking, reveals EU

Reports of the Bureau of Alcohol Control, Tabacco, Firearms and Explosives in Mexico City revealed thatEl Universal at least since 2007, Mexico and the U.S. agreed joint traffic operations "controlled" arms.

WASHINGTON .- Mexico and the U.S. agreed, at least since 2007, to conduct joint operations traffic "control" of weapons to try to identify and dismantle smuggling networks that have given enormous power of fire to the cartels, reveals information from the Office Alcohol Control, Tabacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF, for its acronym in English) in Mexico City.

It is clear from memos and emails to those who had access at El Universal, joint operations date back to 2007 when the then Attorney General of the Republic, Eduardo Medina Mora, had been briefed on the details of the operations by adding of the ATF.

"The addition of the ATF in the city of Mexico has reported to the procurator (Eduardo) Medina Mora this controlled delivery attempt, and emphasized the importance of a group of certified agents," he said in a report prepared for the former attorney of the United States, Michael Mukasey, in November 2007.

Medina Mora, Mexico's ambassador to the UK, denied authorizing the entry of weapons into the country.

He explained that since his appointment in office-in 2006 - had meetings with attorneys from the United States, where "they discussed many issues, many schemes of cooperation, but I can assure you that at no time explicitly discussed the possibility or the authorization with respect to any controlled delivery operation of weapons, "he told Radio Formula.

"I have no recollection, and I remember, I assure you, if that issue had been addressed," the former official said.

However, he said that such a program "never has been allowed because it was totally out of the logic of the pursuit of intelligence information to build cases against people accused based on the crime involved."

In the report, prepared during the administration of George W. Bush stated: "Recently, the ATF has worked together with Mexico in an attempt, for the first time a delivery of arms control."

However, in an email sent by Carson Carroll, ATF official, then deputy director for field operations, is in doubt which was the first time: "We have already walked weapons to Mexico."

El Universal