Partisan politics plague probe of ‘Fast and Furious’

“Fast and Furious,” the federal government’s ill-fated operation to track gun sales along the Mexican border, set out to penetrate drug cartels before it spiraled out of control.

Under the program, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives watched, but did not arrest, purchasers of high-powered weapons with hopes of tracking the guns back to the cartels. Instead, the ATF lost track of more than 1,700 guns, some of which later turned up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, including two found near Tucson where a Border Patrol officer was shot to death. Others could well have found their way to street gangs on both sides of the border.

The Times has reported in recent weeks that nearly two years ago, agents caught the main target of the gun-smuggling investigation, Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta, red-handed as he tried to sneak ammunition across the border. But agents released him after he promised to cooperate with an agent who wrote her telephone number on a $10 bill. Acosta, who was wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, disappeared across the border and was not arrested until last year, after Fast and Furious was shut down. As it turns out, the drug lords ATF hoped to snag with Acosta’s cooperation were also FBI informants. Yet the ATF only learned about the drug cartels’ ties to the FBI much later.

How did so much go so wrong with this operation? Unfortunately, congressional attempts to investigate Fast and Furious have become mired in partisan politics. Darrel Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has demanded that the Department of Justice produce some 93,000 documents. But Issa’s demand loses some of its credibility and lapses into political theater when he threatens Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. with criminal contempt for failing to cooperate. Still, his questions deserve an answer.

Efforts to uncover failings in the program have not fared much better in the Senate. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has done little more than write letters that appear to be an attempt to somehow balance a political ledger. He’s written to the Justice Department’s inspector general, who is also investigating Fast and Furious, to ask if the inquiry will include questions about a similar program launched during President George W. Bush’s administration.

That’s precisely why the time is past for partisan wrangling. What is needed is a thorough and timely investigation that uncovers what went wrong and what safeguards are needed to prevent future stumbles and ensure that operations at the border are under control. The inspector general’s inquiry may yield important information, but that could take more than a year. In the meantime, lawmakers should stop using Fast and Furious for political gains -- that won’t stop the illegal flow of guns or the killings.

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