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The U.S. Justice Department sold firearms across Mexican border to identify weapons trafficking networks. The tactic resulted in violent crimes on both sides of the border.

‘Operation Fast and Furious’ - Weapons Trafficking Tactic Backfires - but no changes in personnel are made

Lawmakers are calling for Justice Department officials to resign or be fired over Operation Fast and Furious. The “Fast and Furious” tactic called for gun dealers to sell firearms to purchasers on the Mexican border as a way to identify members of trafficking networks. The weapons were not tracked or reclaimed and were later used in violent crimes and fatal shootings on both sides of the border.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) called for one of Attorney General Eric Holder's top deputies to resign over controversial federal gunrunning probes. In a fiery speech on the Senate floor, Grassley called for Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division, to step down.
Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been investigating the Fast and Furious case for eleven months. He said in his speech that it is "past time for accountability" at the senior levels of the Justice Department.

Grassley’s charges against Breuer's involvement in the tactic included two separate gunrunning probes. He accused Breuer of withholding information from Congress and the attorney general after he learned in April 2010 about an earlier gunwalking operation during the latter years of the George W. Bush administration. That operation was called Wide Receiver. Grassley contends that if Breuer had spoken up, the subsequent operation known as Fast and Furious could have been stopped. Operation Fast and Furious was linked to the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry last year.

The ranking Republican harshly critisized Breuer for a February 2011 letter from the Justice Department to Congress that erroneously stated the ATF did not allow guns to walk into Mexico. Though Breuer said he had no knowledge at the time of that letter that gave that false statements, documents turned over by the Justice Department later revealed that Breuer received several updates on the February letter, and that he not only knew of the letter but had detailed knowledge of the incorrect statements it included.

"His complete lack of judgment and failure to deal with gunwalking when he first learned of it in April 2010 was bad enough, but this is the final straw," Grassley said. "If you can't be straight with the Congress, you don't need to be running the Criminal Division. It's time to stop spinning and start taking responsibility."

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