By Andrew Taylor - Associated Press
WASHINGTON The Senate voted yesterday to effectively block the Justice Department from undertaking
gun-smuggling probes like the flawed Operation Fast & Furious. In an interview yesterday with ABC News President Barack Obama said We will find out who and what happened in this situation and make sure it gets corrected."
The vote came as the Senate debated a $128 billion spending measure that would fund Justice Department operations and those of several other cabinet agencies for the 2012 budget year already under way.
That program aimed to break up networks running guns to Mexican drug cartels but lost track of hundreds of the weapons some of which were used to commit crimes in Mexico and the United States.
The 99-0 vote would block the government from transferring guns to drug cartels unless federal agents continuously monitor or control" them.
The amendments sponsor Sen. John Cornyn R-Texas called the vote just the first step towards ensuring that such a foolish operation can never be repeated by our own law enforcement."
The Justice Department already has stopped the program.
A Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the amendment essentially reflects department policy.
Operation Fast and Furious was a gun-smuggling investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives aimed at tracking small-time
illicit gun buyers up the chain to major traffickers in an effort to take down arms networks. But ATF agents lost track of many of the weapons.
Fast and Furious came to light after two assault rifles purchased by a man now indicted as a small-time buyer turned up at a shootout in Arizona where Customs and Border Protection agent Brian Terry was killed.
The operation is the focus of an investigation by House Republicans who have questioned whether Attorney General Eric Holder has disclosed all he knows about the botched operation.
Holder already has halted the practice of allowing guns to walk" in an effort to track them to arms traffickers saying in a recent letter to lawmakers that those tactics should never again be adopted in any investigation."
The operation was designed to respond to criticism that the agency had focused on small-time gun arrests while major traffickers had eluded prosecution.
The Justice Departments inspector general has already criticized the ATF for focusing largely on inspections of gun dealers and investigations of straw purchasers rather than on higher-level traffickers smugglers and the ultimate recipients of the trafficked guns."
