Obama, the DOJ, and a terrible decision

Here we go again, another reason we must vote Obama out of the White House this November. I'm going through chapters in Hugh Hewitt's The Brief Against Obama. This time, let's review the "Fast and Furious" debacle and cover-up.

The Obama administration in the fall of 2009 approved selling guns to Mexican drug cartels in the hope of tracing those guns to the big dealers of weapons and drugs. It all went terribly wrong when a year later U. S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in Arizona by suspected drug-smuggling operatives with two weapons that were part of this operation. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), as well as the Department of Justice, had long ago lost control of the weapons they had shopped to the cartels. In many cases, the end result appears to have been the arming of violent drug cartels south of the border.

Questions arose regarding why this was sanctioned and encouraged. However, answers have not been forthcoming from the Obama Department of Justice. The senior leadership over at ATF preferred to cooperate with a congressional inquiry, but they reported that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond. The result was that the Department of Justice, under Eric Holder, send over false denials and buried its head in the sand. The result was an obstructed investigation. In addition to not answering letters, DOJ didn't comply with congressional subpoenas. Holder's department not only stonewalled requests for information but appeared to influence the testimonies given to congressional inquiries.

Attorney General Holder didn't come off well in this disaster. When asked about the operation on May 3, 2011, he said he wasn't sure of the exact day he first heard of the operation but said it was "probably over the last few weeks." He also could not say who authorized the operation. Since then, Department of Justice memos have been released about Operation Fast and Furious that are addressed to Holder dated as early as July 2010. Either he has a terrible memory or he was lying. Neither is a great option.

The sales of Fast and Furious weapons coincided with an upswing of Mexican drug violence. Many of those who died in Mexico were killed with weapons supplied through this poorly thought out operation. This is President Obama's Department of Justice, so the buck stops with him. Just one more reason he has to go in November.

Obama and Bush both deserve credit

I am so proud of our military for taking out Osama bin Laden the other day. But the forgotten man of this affair is former President George W. Bush. Our current President failed to mention him during his speech reporting the death of bin Laden. It might be useful to take a look at the last several years to see what a debt Obama owes Bush.


We now know that CIA interrogators during the Bush administration gathered the initial information that ultimately led to bin Laden's death. The United States located al Qaeda's leader by learning the identity of a trusted courier from the tough interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, and his successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi, according to The Wall Street Journal.

President George W. Bush, not Obama, constructed the interrogation and warrantless surveillance programs that allowed this week’s action to take place. Remember how congressional Democrats and media pundits viciously criticized him for allegedly exceeding his presidential powers and violating the Bill of Rights? We were all going to live in a police state if Bush got his way, right?

After he became President, Obama set to work to dismantle the methods Bush had employed to keep us safe. In January 2009, he signed executive orders to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and limit the CIA to U.S. military interrogation methods. He made it clear that al Qaeda leaders would be tried in civilian courts. And in August 2009, his attorney general, Eric Holder, launched a criminal investigation into CIA officers who had interrogated al Qaeda leaders. Nice, huh? Our own people were being investigated instead of Islamic terrorists.

What would have happened if Obama had been in power immediately after the attack on the Twin Towers? After their "arrest," we would have read KSM and al-Libi their Miranda rights, provided them legal counsel, sent them to the U.S. for detention, and granted them all the rights provided a U.S. citizen in criminal proceedings. Of course, we would have gained no information to fight terror, and their trials would have become an anti-America farce.

The good news is that things have changed. Congressional pressure and reality have forced Mr. Obama to give up his law-enforcement approach to terrorism. Thanks to congressional funding riders, Gitmo remains open and terrorist detainees there cannot be brought to the United States. Attorney General Holder has finally dropped his ill-conceived plan to prosecute al Qaeda leaders in Manhattan, and he has now restarted the military commissions devised by the Bush administration. By the way, has there ever been such an inept attorney general?

Other good news has followed. The repatriation of Gitmo detainees has ceased, again due to congressional pressure. Mr. Obama's advisers have even publicly reaffirmed his authority to capture or kill terrorists as enemy combatants. Drone attacks have more than tripled.

Of course, Obama deserves credit for ordering the mission that killed bin Laden. But he and the American people should also recognize that he succeeded despite his urge to disavow Bush administration policies. I’m hoping that the American people, if not Obama, will acknowledge George W. Bush’s role in making last week's dramatic success possible.