Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to appear before House Republican Darrell Issa’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday. It is expected that the hearing will be a contentious hearing over the Mexican-border gun-running called “Operation Fast and Furious.” The operation, which is designed to monitor the flow of weapons, allowed illegally purchased firearms to be taken from U.S. gun shops across the Mexican border to drug cartels. Hundreds of weapons came up missing or were unaccounted for and two of the weapons that went missing were found at the site where Brian Terry, a Border Patrol agent, was killed in December 2010.
Republicans and Democrats are trying to figure out who knew what about the operation and when. The hearing on Thursday will be the beginning of the fight over “Operation Fast and Furious.” The report is projected to be complete in at least a couple more months. The Justice Department’s inspector general will continue to work on a detailed account of the birth of the operation and who was involved. Holder reportedly promised that those involved will be held accountable.
