Your Fast and Furious update

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The long-awaited and much-anticipated Department of Justice Inspector General report on the federal government's wildly successful gun-running scheme, Fast and Furious, was released today.

Here's Fox News with some of the details:

A major report released Wednesday on the Operation Fast and Furious scandal faulted a range of federal agencies for the failed anti-gunrunning program — and has resulted in the resignation of one Justice Department official.

Jason Weinstein, the deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, is resigning in the wake of the Justice Department inspector general report on Fast and Furious. The report essentially concludes that he is the most senior department official who was in a position to stop Fast and Furious.

The nearly 500-page report was completed after investigators reviewed 100,000 documents and interviewed 130 people.

The reports also says that no one responsible for the case at ATF Phoenix or the U.S. Attorney’s Office raised a serious question or concern about the government not taking earlier measures to stop Fast and Furious.

And here's CBS News:

The Justice Department’s inspector general cleared Attorney General Eric Holder and his top deputies Wednesday of knowing about the gunwalking operation known as Fast and Furious that allowed thousands of weapons to cross into Mexico, CBS Radio News reports.

Two of those weapons turned up at the scene where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed during a shootout in 2010 with drug traffickers.

While the inspector general heaped most of the blame for Fast and Furious on investigators in Phoenix, one senior official, Jason Weinstein, is blamed for not acting to stop the tactics.

Weinstein resigned Tuesday night. His lawyer told CBS Radio News that the report was badly flawed.

Former acting director of ATF, Kenneth Melson, of whom the report was highly critical retired upon release of the report.

It's a pretty damning and scathing report that casts a wide net of blame but most importantly, for the administration, it doesn't place any of the blame at the feet of the miserable hack that runs the Justice Department.

The question remains, then: if Holder did not know about Fast and Furious then what was the purpose of the President shielding him with executive priviledge?

We are still finding it unlikely that an operation that was by definition "international" was carried out without the knowledge of the top dog.

At best, we still have a federal department that exhibited a complete lack of institutional control and wound up getting people, including two American agents killed. At worst, Holder knew about it and gave it either his tacit or active approval and support.

We're sorry. There are still unanswered questions out there. We aren't satisfied. Are you?

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