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Fast and Furious InjusticeIt's been a long time coming, but it looks like California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has finally lost patience with Attorney General Eric Holder. In the long-running saga of Operation Fast and Furious, Issa's committee has subpoenaed a raft of so-called "gun walking" documents, and Holder's DoJ has not only refused to turn them over, it has not even troubled itself to craft a legal case for why they don't have to. Rep. Issa has been willing to let Holder off the hook in exchange for DoJ documents which would have revealed that previous Justice Department claims about the scandal were false. Under Project Gunrunner, federal agents at the direction of the DoJ allowed known illegal gun buyers to transport weapons into Mexico. Supposedly this would have led Justice investigators to leaders of the drug cartels. Instead, the DoJ lost track of the guns, which subsequently turned up at numerous crime scenes – most notably at the murder of U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry (to say nothing of the murders of literally thousands of Mexican citizens). 
Most of the media has shown a striking lack of interest in Fast and Furious. One exception has been Katie Pavlich, a young Townhall reporter and author of the recently published expose Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up. She has a ready explanation for why so few of her journalistic brethren want to report on the story. "It would complicate Obama's reelection campaign," she explains. "Most of the media doesn't want to tell a story that makes him look bad in an election year so they have been complicit in this cover-up." In a familiar echo of recent political scandals, a key emerging question is what did senior officials know and when did they know it. Issa sent Holder a letter asking about 6 Fast and Furious wiretap applications from 2010 that were approved by Assistant AG Lanny Breuer. Holder and Breuer have claimed that they didn't know about Fast and Furious until early 2011 -- after Brian Terry was killed. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder doubled down on his claims of innocence. “Fast and Furious was a mid-level, regional investigation,” he said. Pavlich thinks otherwise. She observes that "in order to apply for and have a wiretap approved, agents must submit extremely detailed information about a case." She believes firmly Holder is stonewalling. More damning still, Pavlich doesn't think Fast and Furious was just a bungled investigation. She thinks the "emails, documents, and interviews" are proof that the Obama administration's intent all along has been to accuse American gun dealers of fostering the sharp rise of gun violence in Mexico, with the ultimate goal of reviving political support for gun control laws in this country. Further Reading: Rush Limbaugh: The Purpose of Fast and Furious
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