U.S. House to subpoena Attorney General for role in gun trafficking operation

The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee plans to subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder this week as part of its probe into Operation Fast and Furious, a plan to let thousands of guns sold in the U.S. get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, reports Fox News.

Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said he wants to know "what did they know, and when did they know it?" according to Politico.

Operation Fast and Furious was a sting run by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives between 2009 and 2010 as part of its investigations into illegal gun trafficking. The result was hundreds of powerful guns crossing the border into Mexico and the cartels, leading to the deaths of many Mexicans and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last year, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

Rep. Issa (R-CA) said on Fox News Sunday that "we didn't just have a few (guns) not be tracked. The whole program was about not tracking them until they were found in the scene of crimes. And they didn't just allow. They facilitated just one guy buy, one straw buy, over 700 weapons," he reportedly said.

Attorney General Holder allegedly made remarks in a letter to Congress that the operation was "fundamentally flawed" but that he did not mislead lawmakers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The investigation was called by 10 sheriffs in Arizona, where the operation took place, who demanded that a special counsel be appointed to look into Holder's role into the operation that allowed more than 2,000 guns into Mexico by agents illegally selling guns to "straw buyers," in hopes they would lead them to a larger criminal network, according to the Cronkite News. 

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