Katie Pavlich

Yesterday, ABC News reporter Jake Tapper tried to get some answers from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about Operation Fast and Furious:

TAPPER:  About the Fast and Furious program, I know that there is this investigation going on internally.  Weapons from the Fast and Furious program are now showing up in the United States attached to criminal transactions.  The ABC station in Phoenix last week reported on several of these weapons from Fast and Furious turning up in crimes. How come we know so little -- the public knows so little -- about this program? And what is the administration doing to get to the bottom of these weapons, which are now showing up in crimes in the United States?

CARNEY:  I think there's an investigation going on precisely to get to the bottom of this.  And I can't comment further on it because there is an investigation going on.

TAPPER:  Can the acting head of the BATF be permitted to go to Capitol Hill to testify?  My understanding is that the -- that he's not been allowed by the administration to go there and explain what's going on.

CARNEY:  I'll have to refer you to Justice on that.  I'm not -- I don't have any information on that.

TAPPER:  It's not something that you guys are worried about and incensed about?  This is something that ---

CARNEY:  Well, Jake, I think it's being investigated for a reason.  And obviously, it's a matter of concern, and that's why there's an investigation.  But it would be a mistake for me to comment further on -- or to characterize further what happened or -- you know, how -- to rate our unhappiness about it from here.   So I think that I have to refer you to the Justice Department for that.

TAPPER:  It -- lastly, I mean, we have heard at times, you know, when the president was upset about something -- "plug the damn hole" is one such anecdote that was shared exclusively with every single person in this room by the White House. Did you -- is this president upset about this?  I mean, this is a government operation where now weapons -- I mean, the Mexicans are upset that guns are now turning up --

CARNEY:  I think you could assume that the president takes this very seriously.

TAPPER:  No one's lost their job.

CARNEY:  And we don't -- there's an investigation going on, so to comment on people's jobs and that sort of thing is inappropriate.  But the president takes it very seriously.  I think he made clear when the -- during the Mexican state visit and the press conference he had then that he found out about this through news reports.  And he takes it very seriously. 


More non-answers from the the administration on this issue. The questioning came a day after Mexican officials called for the prosecution of Obama Justice Department Officials in Mexico since crimes committed with guns traced to Operation Fast and Furious happened on the other side of the border as well as in the United States.

While the investigation continues into the U.S. operation that helped send thousands of guns south of the border, Mexican lawmakers say they'll press for extradition and prosecution in Mexico of American officials who authorized and ran the operation.

"I obviously feel violated. I feel my country's sovereignty was violated," Mexico Sen. Rene Arce Islas told Fox News. "They should be tried in the United States and the Mexican government should also demand that they also be tried in Mexico since the incidents took place here. There should be trials in both places."

Arce is chairman of Mexico's Commission for National Security, a congressional panel similar to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

His point of view is shared by many Mexican politicians, including Sen. Santiago Creel, a former Interior Minister and the likely presidential nominee next year of the National Action Party to succeed Felipe Calderone, also of PAN.

"I think we should at least try to prove that what happened in Mexico must be sanctioned by Mexican laws and under our sovereignty," Creel told us. "What can't happen is that this now ends on an administrative sanction, or a resignation. No, no, no. Human lives were lost here. A decision was made to carry out an operation that brought very high risk to human lives."

Katie Pavlich





Author Photo credit: Jensen Sutta Photography