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Thursday, December 12, 2013

How The ATF Manufactures Crime

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation exposes the agency’s shameful tactics.

Since the president was reelected in November of last year, a good deal of poison has been poured into Washington’s grimy alphabet soup. Among the departments that have become embroiled in scandal are the IRS, the DOJ, the DOE, the EPA, the NSA, the USDA, and, of course, the ATF. This week, the lattermost is back in the news — and for good reason.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is probably best known these days for the failure of its disastrous Fast and Furious scheme — a botched initiative that aimed to give American guns to Mexican cartels first and to ask questions later. Under pressure, the administration was quick to imply that the mistake was an aberration. But a watchdog report, published last week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, suggests that the caprice, carelessness, and downright incompetence that marked the disaster was no accident. In fact, that it is endemic in the ATF.

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1 comment:

lmclain said...

The Romans had the same problems. They coined the phrase "Who guards the guards?". They found out the hard way that when people are given authority to do as they please without consequences, they do exactly that. Which is what we have today. You can change the country, you can change the people, you can change the time frame; you can't change human nature and frailty.