CNN 2011-06-24

Stories making news "Cross Country." In Florida two firefighters have been killed battling a wildfire near Jacksonville. Officials thought that fire was contained but it flared¹ up again yesterday.

And in Georgia, a Delta² Airlines jet returns safely to Atlanta this morning after experiencing what the airline called an engine issue shortly after takeoff. Well, one passenger reported seeing flames coming from the side of the engine.

And talk about some diploma disappointment. More than 200 recent high school graduates in Plymouth, Massachusetts, will be getting new diplomas because of spelling errors. The company who printed them apologized for the, quote, "human error", and quickly reprinted them.

The head of the ATF may resign today after operation called "Fast and Furious" turned deadly for one of its own. "Fast and Furious" was supposed to take U.S. agents right to the Mexican drug cartels but here's the problem. The guns were lost. And some of those firearms turned up at the scene of a shoot-out that killed U.S. Border agent Brian Terry.

Brian's attention to detail had ensured that all the Christmas gifts he had meticulously³ selected for his family had already been bought and sent in the mail prior to his arrival. Brian did ultimately come home that Christmas. We buried him not far from the house that he was raised in just prior to Christmas day.

Drew Griffin of CNN's Special Investigations⁵ Unit has been chasing this story.

So, I mean, I guess the first question off the bat, what was the government thinking, putting weapons into the hands of cartel members?

You know, it's such a stupid and absurd program it's hard to imagine anyone ever thought it was a great idea. But here was the idea.

The problem was guns were going to fuel the violence of the cartels in Mexico. So the ATF officials thought if we could just track these guns and see where they're going, maybe we can arrest the cartel leaders who are using these guns.

The problem was they just allowed illegal gun purchases to be made in the U.S. and then the guns walked across the border. Literally⁶ walked across the border. AK-47s. There was no way to track them once they were in Mexico. And Mexico had no idea that the U.S. government was doing this. So, Mexico wasn't involved in any part of this to track these guns.Thereby⁷, the only way you could find out where these guns went literally were to pick them off dead bodies at crime scenes.

Unbelievable. So, we're not just talking about the head of the ATF, but there had to be a change of command issue, too.

Because the sources I've talked to, the ATF agents who watched these guns go across to Mexico and protested it said this was a major operation.

So, there were ATF agents that said, wait, this is wrong.

Absolutely.

So, there were agents that stepped up and said this is

I talked to one ATF agent literally watched a straw buyer undercover, and go into an Arizona gun store and buy 10 AK-47s, called his boss, do we arrest him now? Do we arrest him now? Do we arrest him now? Let's get him, let's get him, let's get him.

The answer was, no, just watch where he goes.

So

And he went across the border.

So, more people here are going to lose their jobs. It's not just the head of the ATF.

Well, the question they have in Congress. And really, this is being pushed by Darrell Issa, the Republican congressman⁸ in the House, House Oversight⁹ Committee. He wants to know who at the Department of Justice knew. Now, it looks like Kenneth Melson, the acting¹⁰ director of ATF, is going to take the political fallout for that.

Will it stop there? There's a Justice Department inspector¹¹ general's investigation⁴ going on. Eric Holder¹², the attorney general, insists he didn't know about it. The people in Congress say that's really hard to believe, because this was such an intricate and involved and expensive program to pull off.

And because, at the time, even though we now looking back on it, say this was absurd, the ATF was really excited about this. They thought they were going to score some big name arrests once this operation was over with.

We are going to stay, obviously, following this and see if, indeed, that resignation comes today.

Drew, great work. Thanks.

1 Flared   

adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The match flared and went out. 火柴闪亮了一下就熄了。
• The fire flared up when we thought it was out. 我们以为火已经熄灭，但它突然又燃烧起来。

2 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

3 meticulously   

adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心

参考例句：

• The hammer's silvery head was etched with holy runs and its haft was meticulously wrapped in blue leather. 锤子头是纯银制成的，雕刻着神圣符文，而握柄则被精心地包裹在蓝色的皮革中。 来自辞典例句
• She is always meticulously accurate in punctuation and spelling. 她的标点和拼写总是非常精确。 来自辞典例句

4 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

5 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

8 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

9 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

10 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

11 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

12 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。