The recently exposed ATF led Operation “Fast and Furious” has not saturated the media as it should. Budget dilemmas, economy, Casey Anthony, and other topics such as the withdrawal of surge troops in Afghanistan have played as distractionary news topics. These topics have shielded the United States government from possible violations of U.S. and international laws.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the United States is the leading nation state responsible for legal and illegal weapon sales globally with an estimated $18.55 billion in annual sales. The two runners up nations are Russia and France with an estimated average of $4.5 billion in sales annually—three times less than U.S. sales. The great majority of these weapons, specifically the illicit and or illegal sales of such, contribute to the global atrocity of the estimated 60-90% of the 100,000 plus international conflict deaths each year.
Interestingly enough, our U.S. State and Defense Departments have worked tirelessly in the destruction of small arms and light weapons in recent years. Their initiatives within the State Department alone has contributed to the destruction of over 800,000 weapons and over 80 million rounds of ammunition since its program inception. For some reason though, our own Justice Department led by Attorney General Eric Holder has initiated its own program known as “Operation Fast and Furious” that inevitably countered our own Defense and State Departments programs and violated numerous national laws.
Laws founded in programs such as the U.S. Gun Control Act, the National Firearms Act, the Arms Export Control Act, and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) have been established to specifically prevent and criminally prosecute those in violation. Leaders of the ATF and Eric Holder have broken numerous U.S. laws along with international laws which could jeopardize Barrack Obama’s Presidency—these international laws can be found in the United Nations institute for Disarmament for Small Arms Proliferation.
No one will truly know the reason why the U.S. Justice Department implemented this illegal arms initiative. While people may not know the reason, with enough advocacy and awareness of the incomprehensible and arguably illegal activities within this current administration, some light may eventually be shed among our elected officials where a comprehensive investigation will result that could eventually lead to criminal charges. An investigation could amount similar to that which just occurred this past Thursday.
In fact, after years of advocacy and awareness pertaining Hezbollah, Hamas, Lebanese, and Iranian activities inside Latin America, finally, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee met on Thursday exemplifying austere threats on the United States southern border. After the hearing, U.S. Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y. said, “I am getting the sense that we are sitting ducks here.” While this hearing pertained specifically to Islamic Terrorists and rogue regimes infiltrating Latin America, imagine what a representative like Kathy Hochul must be thinking knowing U.S. weapons, hand delivered by our ATF, could inevitably now be in the hands of Islamic terrorist operatives living and operating alongside narco-terrorists like Mexico’s notorious Los Zetas?
Casey Anthony, troop withdrawals, the economy, etc. have all shared the majority of primetime evening news lately. Sure, some outlets have marginally covered the ATF fiasco but not enough. Topics like the aforementioned have likely played as a distractionary measure to safeguard some members within this current administration. It is critical to understand though, that as of lately, some members reigning within our national spheres have violated U.S. and possibly even international laws.
Kerry Patton is the Co-Founder of the National Security Leadership Foundation, a non-profit organization pending 501c (3) status. He has worked in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, focusing on intelligence and security interviewing current and former terrorists, including members of the Taliban. He is the author of “Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies” and the children’s book “American Patriotism.” You can follow him on Facebook.
