WASHINGTON (AP) — A second Bush administration gun-trafficking investigation has surfaced using the same controversial tactic for which congressional Republicans have been criticizing the Obama administration.
The tactic, called “gun walking,” was used in the Obama administration’s Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department’s inspector general and Congress are now investigating.
Emails obtained by The Associated Press show how in a 2007 investigation in Phoenix, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — depending on Mexican authorities to follow up — let guns “walk” across the border in a failed effort to identify higher-ups in gun networks. Justice Department policy has long required that illicit arms shipments be intercepted whenever possible.
The Bush administration also engaged in another such operation, called “Wide Receiver.”
