And one that is not widely known . . . That Hillary had her own part in arming Mexican narco-terrorists while the DoJ was running Fast and Furious.
In 2009, the
State Department suddenly increased the number of "direct sales" of assault weapons ten-fold from the Bush era (to nearly 20,000) when the State Department's own audits showed a 26% diversion rate of these government sales to the cartels -- which in Mexico would be the Zeta's, made up of former police and military, relying on corrupt officials in office for their guns and the on again, off again enemy of the Sinaloa's who were the recipients of Fast and Furious guns . . . can you say cartel war facilitated by the US government?
Remember, back when Obama first took office it was all about guns being found at Mexican crime scenes and his totally deceptive statement that "
“[m]ore than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States”" . . .
Those traces didn't necessarily need to ALL point to retail sales from US gun DEALERS to make the point (which was Fast and Furious' intent), they just needed to be traced back to the USA . . . The State Department had its own job to do to help make that then false claim become true, Hmmmmmm. . .
The State Department refuses to release the number of sales of assault weapons it approved to Mexico for 2010 and thereafter. It sure would be interesting to find out how many assault weapons in total went to Mexico on the State Department's OK and to have Mexico account for them to see how many were diverted to the Zetas . . .
What do we really know about the interplay between the NSC/DHS/ICE/DOJ/ATF/FBI and State Department? What if there were 50,000 or 100,000 or 500,000 guns sent down there between 2010 & 2011 on the State Department's OK? Will we ever know?
Note that 26% of 20,000 in one year plus 26% of ??,??? for 2010 plus 26% of ??,??? for 2011 and on and on, far, far, far, exceeds the 1750 guns walked over 15 months of Fast and Furious.
And to complete the circle, the State Department had it's own role in Fast and Furious -- by surrendering enforcement of international arms trafficking to ATF.
The State Department is actually in charge of the Arms Export Control Act by way of
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) because of the international nature (and diplomatic ramifications) of these crimes AND THE ACTIONS REQUIRED TO GATHER EVIDENCE, CHARGE AND PROSECUTE VIOLATORS OUTSIDE THE USA.
ITAR violations are completely beyond ATF's jurisdiction and certainly beyond their expertise.
Think for a moment about the international hurdles to either jump or evade (more likely the latter, because of the likely violation of an international treaty, the Brownsville Agreement), to make ATF the lead investigators for ITAR violations by foreign nationals operating outside the USA. And people have the audacity to dismiss this as simply a "botched local ATF office operation"?
Again, because of these international concerns, the State Department is in charge of these "gun laws" and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a department of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are the enforcers of ITAR. It is known that ICE was told to stand down by DHS (who was told by State/NSC/White House?) and defer to ATF for
anything to do with guns in the border areas of Arizona (does the President invoking Executive Privilege make more sense in that situation?).
Combine Fast and Furious which armed members of the Sinaloa Cartel, with the State Department ballooning direct sales to the corrupt Mexican government which diverts guns to the Zetas, it is clear that the only real intention of these operations was placing thousands of guns sourced from the USA, into the hands of violent narco-terrorists.
One can't surmise much else.
And Hillary was right in the middle of it . . .