Obama is Trying to Keep Program that Armed Drug Cartels Secret, Judge Says OtherwiseBy Derrick Broze U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the Department of Justices prior release of information related to Fast and Furious invalidated President Obamas claim that releasing details of the program would cause harm. The Department itself has already publicly revealed the sum and substance of the very material it is now seeking to withhold. Since any harm that would flow from the disclosures sought here would be merely incremental, the records must be produced, Jackson wrote. Judge Jackson is referencing a September 2012 report from the Justice Departments Office of Inspector Generalregarding the Fast and Furious program. Operation Fast and Furious was a program in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) knowingly sold guns to Mexican drug cartels. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times: The term gun walking is central to the failure of Fast and Furious. Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them. But they lost track of more than 2,000 weapons, and the Mexican government says some of them have turned up at about 170 crime scenes there. In 2012, the House of Representatives voted to hold then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congressfor his refusal to hand over documents related to the operation. These documents likely indicate Attorney General Eric Holder knew more than he admitted while under oath. On June 20, 2012, President Obama exercised executive privilege to keep the documents secret. The Obama administration has been fighting the release of Fast and Furious records since that time. Politico reports that Jackson did not rule out the possibility some of the records might still be kept private because of sensitive information related to law enforcement techniques, foreign policy concerns, or matters covered by attorney-client privilege. The Obama administration is expected to appeal the decision. The judges decision coincides with news that federal officials found a .50-caliber rifle linked to Fast and Furious at Joaquin El Chapo Guzmans hideout in Mexico. The drug lord escaped from prison last year and was found in Los Mochis on January 8. The ensuing shootout killed five men and wounded one Mexican marine. A number of weapons, including the .50-caliber rifle, were found at the scene. This article (Obama is Trying to Keep Program that Armed Drug Cartels Secret, Judge Says Otherwise) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under aCreative Commons license with attribution to Derrick Broze and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org. Worst. President. Ever. did the drug cartels have to pass a background check?? Nope! And they werent restrict to 15 round magazines or non-automatic weaponry either. And they could obtain ammo, it was the all bought up by the TSA, Homeland Security or GSA. this was an attempt to trick people into supporting the UN small arms treaty..If ATF hadnt got caught illegally smuggling firearms across the borderconfiscators would have been telling us Drug cartels were coming across the border buying them.. It was a way for the president to call for gun control if more Americans were killed. if it wasnt for Border patrol agent Brian Terry getting killed, The ATF would have gotten away with their sceme..that killing blew the lid off that whole illegal operation..and Holder never did turn over all the documentsGun owners of America have a standing lawsuit against him right now as we speak. ya know that will be overturned but KUDOS to Amy. Eric the gun walker Holder will make sure of it. Except that Holder isnt in office any more. I think Obama and his liberalist and lawless administration were scheming to do gun control thru all this and it backfired. Everything he does has a nefarious outcome. It doesnt matter. Even if they uphold the ruling and Obamas executive privilege is thrown out, the gutless congress wont do anything to him or Holder. I have never seen such a bunch of chickenshyt bureaucrats in the history of this country. It makes me wonder what Obama has on all of them. Maybe those after-hours pedophile pictures perhaps? Could be that the White House creature and his handlers prepare specific personalized offers to members of congress. 