We Deserve Better Than Eric Holder

One of my early FBI undercover assignments found me targeting the Los Angeles family of La Cosa Nostra. It was a nine-month roller coaster ride resulting in the conviction of The City of Angels’ top fifteen mob members. There were some great one-liners but I will always remember a lieutenant warning one of his underlings, “In on the score, in on the beef.” The meaning was clear…if you are going to participate and profit from the crime be prepared to accept the consequences if caught.
Since Eric Holder has assumed the role of Attorney General I’ve watched him periodically parade in front of the cameras taking credit for the hard work of federal agents who have risked their lives to make society safer. Be it a terrorism case or a white collar crime he stands tall at the podium accepting the accolades of a sometimes fawning press. He’s in on the score!
But for all the credit he takes for the work of those within the Justice Department, he claims little knowledge and no responsibility for ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) investigation allowed guns to travel from the United States to Mexican drug cartels resulting in dead bodies on both sides of the border, including the murders of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata.
I can’t speak for Holder or the ATF. I have no personal knowledge of the investigation nor do I have knowledge of the ATF rules under which such an operation could exist. I do know a president was frequently briefed when one of my undercover investigations had international implications. Certainly hundreds, if not thousands of weapons, landing in the laps of Mexican drug cartel members had international implications. I have a hard time believing someone within the administration would not choose to alert the President, his Attorney General, and the Secretary of State. It makes no sense. The violence in Mexico was often the lead story in many media outlets. Even if you take the position the purpose of the operation was to increase gun-control regulations you have to believe those at the highest levels including the Attorney General would have been made aware of the operation. But Holder pleads ignorance, claiming in May he first learned of the operation “over the last few weeks” then in later testimony revising it to “a couple of months.”
Maybe “gun-walking,” allowing weapons illegally purchased to enter the underground stream of commerce for the purpose of tracking the smuggling routes, did not require the highest authority within the ATF and Justice. While I was on the job we needed “Attorney General” approval to “walk” drugs. Seems to me someone in DC would have thought walking guns required a little more forethought.
The ATF director and his deputy as well as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona have already stepped down or been reassigned and now many Republicans in Congress believe Holder should be next. More than three dozen members of the House, with the numbers growing almost daily, have called for Holder’s resignation. Presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry said in a recent Washington Times op-ed piece, “Either he is guilty of extraordinary bureaucratic incompetence or he is guilty of a cover-up meant to shield him from the consequences of an operation that has left at least one federal agent dead and continues to imperil many more.”
I’ve certainly lost confidence in the Attorney General and a former colleague of mine agrees. Former FBI agent and now Congressman Michael Grimm of New York, is quoted in a recent Newsmax.com article as saying “Attorney General Holder has a repeated pattern of misleading members of Congress under oath and Fast and Furious appears to be no exception. In this case, his claims don’t add up…As a consequence, I believe he has lost all credibility with Congress and the American people, which is why I am calling for his resignation.”
For me it’s more than “Fast and Furious.” It’s his announcement early in this administration of criminal trials, rather than military tribunals, for the 9/11 terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, a political maneuver which failed. It’s the allegations laid out by former attorney of the Voting Rights Section of the Department of Justice, J. Christian Adams in his new book “Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department” and Holder’s failure to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter fraud and intimidation.
It’s his naming a prosecutor, after the Statue of Limitations had run, to examine the abuse of prisoners during authorized CIA interrogations, even though the CIA inspector general completed a detailed report and the U.S. Attorney declined prosecution. I wonder if the Attorney General thought of those CIA employees when he lashed out at Rep. Darrell Issa this summer saying, “I cannot sit idly by as a majority member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform suggests, as happened this week, that law enforcement and government employees who devote their lives to protecting our citizens be considered ‘accessories to murder.’ Such irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric must be repudiated in the strongest possible terms.” I guess Holder didn’t think of himself as “irresponsible” when he called for another investigation of the CIA interrogators previously cleared.
On December 8, Holder is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to detail his knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious. For me, it’s too late. He’s been in on the score and now he’s in on the beef. The American people deserve better.