Propaganda: Bush started Fast & Furious with Operation “Wide Receiver”.

FACTS:

• Operation “Wide Receiver” was a gun tracing program, not a gun walking program.
• Tracing involved electronic tracking of guns purchased by suspected straw buyers. Walking actively sold guns to straw buyers, which were never tracked as they were under “Wide Receiver”.
• Legally operating American Gun Retailers were not recruited by the ATF under “Wide Receiver”. They were under “Fast & Furious”.
• “Wide Receiver” traced 300 guns. “Fast & Furious” walked more than 2,000 guns.
• There is no evidence any of the weapons traced under “Wide Receiver” were used in violent crimes against American Border Patrol or ICE Agents.
• Weapons in “Fast & Furious” are directly linked to the deaths of at least one Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry, one ICE Agent, Jamie Zapata, and hundreds of innocent Mexican citizens.
• “Wide Receiver” was shut down quickly after it started when it became difficult to electronically track the small quantity of weapons involved. The program was stopped in 2007, long before Obama took office and two years before “Fast & Furious” began.
• When weapons began flowing into Mexico under “Fast & Furious”, agents were denied authority to “intervene”. The were directed to “stand down” and allow the weapons to escape.
• “Fast and Furious wasn’t shut down until 2010, after the deaths of Brian Terry and Jamie Zapata.
• Under “Wide Receiver”, Mexican authorities were well briefed and updated. Under “Fast & Furious”, Mexican authorities were kept completely in the dark. The Mexican government has begun its own investigation into “Fast & Furious”.

The Blaze does a good job of summarizing the differences between “Wide Receiver” and “Fast & Furious”. See here for more information.

Fast & Furious resulted in thousands of guns being delivered into the hands of drug cartels without any benefit to US Law Enforcement. It is especially egregious considering that lessons of the failed “Wide Receiver” were not heeded by Eric Holder’s DOJ.

Two American Law Enforcement Agents were murdered with “Fast & Furious” weapons. Hundreds of innocent Mexican citizens were murdered with “Fast & Furious” weapons.

The families of Brian Terry and Jamie Zapata have a right to know exactly what went wrong. Government officials have a duty to the Terry and Zapata families to account for their errors.

Characterizing an investigation into a clearly mishandled and botched gun walking operation that cost the lives of two American citizens in not a “witch hunt”.

Obama and Holder are not above the law, nor the summons of the American People.