Obama Made Pre-Inaugural ‘Pledge’ on Stopping Guns to Mexico

Amazing what you can learn when you take a trip back in the Obama time machine. In this case we have statements and meetings between Obama, Holder and Napolitano with Mexican officials. Plus promises to end the "flow" of weapons from the US south of the Border.

Above all there is mention of Obama's desire to reinstate the assault weapons ban in the process.

Hmmm. Did this whole administration forget all of this because it took place in the dawn hours of the new President?

Key points

Three and a half years before he invoked executive privilege in refusing to hand over to Congress internal Justice Department documents about Operation Fast and Furious--and just eight days before his inauguration--President-elect Barack Obama met with Mexican President Calderon over lunch at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., and “pledged” that he would take action aimed at stopping the flow of guns into that country from the United States.

Public statements from both Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano demonstrate that they were both personally working on this issue from their first month in office.

Glib Gibbs speaks on behalf of Obama

“President-elect Obama expressed support for efforts in the border states in both the United States and Mexico to eradicate drug-related violence and stop the flow of guns and cash,” said Gibbs. “He told President Calderón that he intends to ask the Secretary of Homeland Security to lead an effort to increase information sharing to strengthen those efforts.

“He pledged to take more effective action from the United States to stem the flow of arms from the United States to Mexico,” said Gibbs.

Seems like this was priority one from day one. Well above any other at that time

Napolitano told the committee that stopping the southbound flow of guns into Mexico was “going to be of real priority interest over these coming months.”

That same day, Feb. 25, 2009, Attorney General Holder held a press conference in which he discussed a conversation he had had with the Mexican attorney general about guns being smuggled from the U.S. into Mexico. In the same press conference, Holder also highlighted the role of the ATF in stopping the gun smuggling

Holder Speaks

“ATF is doing all that it can to ensure that we stanch the flow of those weapons to Mexico,” Holder continued. “As good partners, I think that is one of the things that we have to do. If Mexican authorities, Mexican law enforcement personnel are going to put their lives on the line, we in the United States, it seems to me, have a responsibility to make sure that they are not fighting substantial numbers of weapons or fighting against AK-47s or other similar kinds of weapons that have been flowing to Mexico.

“And," Holder said, "it was also one of the reasons why--and you'll forgive me for the Spanish that I use--to try to express to our friends, our colleagues in Mexico, in their language, our determination to stand with them in this courageous fight that President Calderon and the attorney general have started."

The Cherry on the Sundae compliments of Holder...

“Well, as President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder said. “I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.”

What better way to accomplish that than to "pin all of these firearms sales on US Gun Shops" eh??

Rather than “stem the flow of arms from the United States to Mexico,” as Obama pledged to Calderon he would seek to do, the administration, under Operation Fast and Furious, actually allowed guns to be purchased within the United States by known straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels.

Back to 2009 one last time

“So working with Customs, working with ATF, we're looking at ways that we can help suppress that traffic,” said Napolitano. “But in my view, from a Homeland Security standpoint, this is going to be an issue, working with Mexico, that is going to be of real priority interest over these coming months.”

It was in his own testimony that day that Holder had insisted "ATF is doing all that it can to ensure that we stanch the flow of those weapons to Mexico."

Much more to read here and you'll see the foundation that was laid for Fast and Furious based on the statements of Holder and Napolitano alone. Time to put Janet back on the hot seat!!!!!!


cnsnews.com...

This means they all knew all along.

Now we need to see those "Missing Link" documents please.

Somebody hurry up and "leak 'em" P-L-E-A-S-E

So you're saying Obama and Holder started their own dysinformation campaign in Mexico before inauguration?

Shocking. I wonder how this will feed into the dreams some have of banning all guns. That's the only angle I can think of. Unless Breaking Bad is a true story.

Great post...hoping that more people read this..the Mexican President new about this stuff long before fast and furious was leaked...