Christine M. Flowers: Iran-Contra, the Sequel

REMEMBER the Iran-Contra hearings?

It was a blockbuster, complete with blonde ingenues (pretty Fawn Hall, the Siren of Shredding), handsome Oliver North (Mel Gibson with medals) and despicable villains (terrorists, Communists and, for his critics, a clueless commander in chief). I'm still fascinated at the way we turned serious foreign-policy decisions into fodder for the afternoon soaps crowd. It was supposed to be a public airing of an important national-security controversy that instead devolved into a platform for partisan theatrics.

It was the warm-up for the Clinton impeachment trial that - perjury notwithstanding - should never have become the sideshow of stained dresses and linguistic acrobatics.

But that's the way things work in D.C. Which, I suppose, is better than a complete and total coverup when something goes wrong. Like what's happening with Operation Fast and Furious.

Haven't heard about it? I'm not surprised, since the media (with the exception of Fox News and some conservative websites) have taken a virtual vow of silence about this meltdown in our increasingly embarrassing Justice Department.

For those not in the know, here's a quick summary:

In October 2009, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Phoenix field division established a gun-trafficking group that implemented "gunwalking," a euphemism for letting criminal suspects or "straw purchasers" walk away with illegally purchased guns. According to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, gunwalking was ostensibly designed to identify "members of a trafficking network and build a large, complex conspiracy case."

The feds were trying to stop the flow of illegal weapons by essentially using a combination of "tracking" and "entrapment." (Coming from an administration that blames the National Rifle Association for making it easier for criminals to obtain weapons, that's a bit ironic.)

Without evidence of Fast and Furious being effective (and despite questions about its legality), the program continued until Dec. 14, 2010, when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered near the Arizona-Mexico border by members of a Mexican drug cartel. Four suspects were arrested and, a day later, ATF agents confirmed that weapons purchased as a result of Fast and Furious were found at the murder scene.

As a result of Terry's murder, people began to talk. Some of them apparently contacted Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, who initiated an investigation.

In response to questions from Grassley, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote a letter in which he denied that the Justice Department had any knowledge that weapons were being "gunwalked" into Mexico for use by the drug cartels: "the allegation . . . that ATF 'sanctioned' or otherwise 'knowingly' allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers and who then transported them to Mexico is false."

Ten days later, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Jaime Zapata, was murdered in Mexico. There was strong evidence that the gun used to kill Zapata also had fallen into the hands of drug dealers through "gunwalking."

A month later, at a hearing of a Senate appropriations subcommittee, Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison asked Attorney General Eric Holder about the program. Holder replied: "I've . . . made clear to people in the department that letting guns walk - I guess that's the term that the people use - that letting guns walk is not something that is acceptable."

Shortly thereafter, the Mexican attorney general's office issued a statement confirming that it was aware that Justice had a program essentially letting smugglers purchase guns while under U.S. surveillance.

Feeling the heat, President Obama went on Spanish-language TV and said, "Well, first of all, I did not authorize it . . . Eric Holder did not authorize it."

Nice of him to try to help a friend. But this is unacceptable from our commander in chief, and his attorney general. How could there be such a sensitive operation going on (guns to drug cartels, just like guns to Iran) without these two men knowing about it - especially the attorney general?

I guess we'll just have to wait for the next installment of "As the Guns Walk" to find out if any laws were broken, or lies told.