Secret Fast and Furious Tapes Spring a Watergate-Sized Leak

Of the four excerpts released to the public, the first one best demonstrates the angst of those involved in the operation and the necessity for everyone, including Holder, to be sure their stories matched up...

Barbados Free Press

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - When the Watergate break-ins took place in 1972, President Richard Nixon knew nothing about them.  But once he found out, he acted quickly to keep them secret, and it was his role in the cover-up that eventually led to his resignation in August 1974.  Excerpts of recorded conversations between figures in the Operation Fast and Furious U.S.-Mexico gunrunning scheme are becoming ominously reminiscent of the 1970s watershed event in American politics.

In the historically monumental Watergate scandal, Nixon’s role in the cover-up was verified when he handed over personal tape recordings of conversations he’d had in the Oval Office on the subject.

That was 1974, and this is 2011, and in an eerie twist of fate, another batch of recordings has turned up that might reveal more about Fast and Furious than the current administration wants anyone to know:  In fact, it might create more of a storm than Obama & Co. can weather.

The recordings, which seem to have been made in March 2011, are of conversations between Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Ariz., and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent Hope McAllister.  Lone Wolf was one of the gun stores used for Fast and Furious sales to straw purchasers.

Although the recordings have been turned over to congressional investigators and the Inspector General, excerpts that were released to the public make it sound like the gun dealer was extremely concerned that news of Fast and Furious was going to reach a House member or senator who would take action on it.

Howard’s concern arose from a March 9 letter from Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Tex.) and other members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder come clean about Fast and Furious.  The House committee had been spurred into action by the testimony of ATF whistle-blower John Dodson.

Of the four excerpts released to the public, the first one best demonstrates the angst of those involved in the operation and the necessity for everyone, including Holder, to be sure their stories matched up...

Click the link below to go to the Human Events report which has a transcription of the material contained in the taped recordings.

Secret Fast and Furious Tapes Spring a Watergate-Sized Leak - by A.W.R. Hawkins Human Events