Napolitano Grilled on Operation Fast and Furious

Yesterday was DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s turn to get roughed up by Rep. Darrell Issa, who is  spearheading a probe into ATF’s controversial Operation Fast and Furious. The Operation encouraged Arizona gun dealers to work with ATF and sell assualt weapons to straw purchasers, all with the hopes of tracing guns to the Mexican cartels.

Two federal agents under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement HSI Special Agent Jamie Zapata and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, were killed as a result of Operation Fast and Furious, yet Napolitano denies knowing anything about the program or speaking to Attorney General Eric Holder about the operation up to this point about.

When asked if she would assign an inspector general within DHS to investigate the connection between Operation Fast and Furious and the death of two of her agents, she refused to give a straight answer. Napolitano also says “we should all be outraged by the death of Agent Terry,” yet doesn’t show any outrage, just as Holder and Obama have not shown any outrage over the program.

At a House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Issa lit into Napolitano, suggesting she acted too slowly to look into the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of a Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed last December in Arizona.

At the time, two guns recovered from the scene were linked to the controversial ATF Operation Fast and Furious.

Napolitano had testified during the session that said she had held off inquiring into the relation between the controversial Fast & Furious operation and Terry’s death because that matter was being looked into by the Inspector General at the Justice Department.

Issa pointedly said that Terry was killed on Dec. 14 and the IG probe was requested by Attorney General Eric Holder in February, Politico reported.

That, he said, left a gap for her to explore the matter.

“You had two dead agents…..It has been months and you tell me you weren’t doing it because of an IG investigation,” said Issa.

“Wait just a minute,” Napolitano countered. “That insinuation is not accurate.”

Issa responded: “For three months, you had a dead Border Patrol agent and there was no IG investigation. What did you do between December and February to find out about Fast & Furious?….People on the ground knew those were Fast & Furious weapons found at the scene within hours. It wasn’t something that wasn’t known. It was known at the time.”

Eventually, she said the goal was to find Terry’s killers.