Quote, "My thought," Agent English writes, "is not to release any information." The following month when Brian Terry was killed Voth e-mailed back, "Ugh, things will most likely get ugly." 

 

 

 

And it certainly has. Republicans have accused the Justice Department of stonewalling. Attorney General Holder has refused to turn over documents, the House cited him for contempt. William Newell denies there ever was a plan or tactic to walk guns. And a recent investigation by "Fortune" magazine concurs. That account, though, sharply disputed. As for today's report, well, the Justice Department calls it a reiteration of distortions and debunk(拆穿、暴露) conspiracy theories that its co-author, Congressman Darrell Issa, has been advancing for the last year and a half. 

 

 

 

Joining us now is a member of Congress, Congressman Issa's House Oversight Committee, Utah Republican Jason Chafettz. 

 

 

 

(没有停顿，一大恶习) Congressman, thanks for being with us. The five individuals this report claims are primarily responsible for the failures of "Fast and Furious." Was it more their actions and choices that led to the failures of the program, or a larger systematic problem within the ATF and the Department of Justice. 

 

 

 

I think it's a larger, more systemic problem because part of what the report cites is the lack of communication between ATF, the DEA, the FBI and certainly the Department of Justice and also Homeland Security, because ICE was also heavily involved in this. (句间不停顿，句中反而停顿，英美人群的坏习惯)So, what we're doing is, this is the report, first report out of three. We're also looking at the Department of justice and how they acted and then certainly the cover-up that after we got this bogus letter of February 4th, 2011 from the Department of Justice. So, …  

 

 

 

But investigators are saying right now the investigation in this report is based on what they say this is the best information available as of now(迄今为止). Do you anticipate you'll ever know the full details of this operation? 

 

 

 

Well, remember, that the House held Attorney General Holder, the Department of Justice, in contempt. It wasn't about him personally. It was the fact that there were 140,000 documents. We've received less than 7,000 of those documents. So we're here to not only investigate what happened in this botched plan but also to make sure that it never, ever happens again. And that's what we're trying to get to the bottom of, Anderson. That's why we issued this report. 

 

 

 

I want to read what the Justice Department said. They responded earlier this afternoon through their spokesperson, saying the report finally acknowledges what Attorney General Eric Holder has been saying, that flaws in the operations had their origins in the field in Arizona and occurred in part due to weak oversight by ATF leadership. 

 

 

 

They went on to say that the report, and I quote, "Reiterates many of the distortions and now debunked conspiracy theories that Representative Issa has been advancing for year and a half including the fiction that the flawed tactics used in "Fast and Furious" were somehow the brainchild of the current administration as opposed to the reality that the pattern of flawed tactics dates back to 2006 and the prior administration." Your response? 

 

 

 

Well, just because the Bush administration did it and did it poorly doesn't mean they have an excuse to continue to do it. That's part of our point here is, look, we've always wanted to get to the bottom of this no matter where it leads. Since, so I think Chairman Issa has been doing a fabulous job in putting this together it. The department of justice, though, their fingerprints are on this. I mean one of the things that brother me personally is you have the acting director of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, in almost 2 1/2 years that he was there, he met with his boss, the attorney general, Attorney General Holder, one time. And so you look at this lack of leadership, this coordination, and it's above and beyond(大于、多于、远于). Certainly there were flaws within the ATF. But you've got to look also at the Department of Justice and the interagency, interactions or the lack of interaction that led to this flawed program. 

 

 

 

Well. Representative Chaffetz, I appreciate you being on, thank you so much.