Latin America: Week in Review, United States

Eric Holder To Face Congressional Subpoena For Operation Fast And Furious

October 10, 2011 By Staff

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Fox News Sunday that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder and other top Justice Department officials this week in connection with Operation Fast and Furious. The operation, run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), allowed suspected members of drug gangs to purchase weapons and take them across the border, with the goal of building a case against Mexican drug cartels. The program caused a storm of controversy, however, after the AFT lost track of more than 1,000 guns — two of which were found in December at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Holder’s role in authorizing the failed plan has come under scrutiny. He told Congress in May that he only learned about Operation Fast and Furious a few weeks before, but congressional investigators later released memos addressed to Holder dating back to July 2010 that refer to the program by name. “We want to know what did they know and when did they know it,” Issa said. “But more importantly we have to understand, at what level did the authorization come?”

Read more from The Houston Chronicle, and watch the interview with Issa in the video below.

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