Leaked Report: Mexican Drug Smugglers Who Killed Brian Terry Were Stalking Border Patrol With Fast and Furious Guns

A couple of weeks ago, the case of the people accused of killing U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was completely sealed in federal court, preventing the public from seeing evidence and hearing testimony about court rulings and arguments.

This Washington Times report, out today, gives you a good idea why the case was sealed from the public. According to leaks from the sealed records, Agent Terry’s killers were stalking Border Patrol agents AK-47s  supplied by the ATF.

Five illegal immigrants armed with at least two AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole known as Mesquite Seep just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and one U.S. agent was killed, records show.

A now-sealed federal grand jury indictment in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry says the Mexican nationals were “patrolling” the rugged desert area of Peck Canyon at about 11:15 p.m. on Dec. 14 with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents.

At least two of the Mexicans carried their assault rifles “at the ready position,” one of several details about the attack showing that Mexican smugglers are becoming more aggressive on the U.S. side of the border.

According to the indictment, the Mexicans were “patrolling the area in single-file formation” a dozen miles northwest of the border town of Nogales and — in the darkness of the Arizona night — opened fire on four Border Patrol agents after the agents identified themselves in Spanish as police officers.

Two AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene came from the failed Fast and Furious operation.

Using thermal binoculars, one of the agents determined that at least two of the Mexicans were carrying rifles, but according to an affidavit in the case by FBI agent Scott Hunter, when the Mexicans did not drop their weapons as ordered, two agents used their shotguns to fire “less than lethal” beanbags at them.

At least one of the Mexicans opened fire and, according to the affidavit, Terry, a 40-year-old former U.S. Marine, was shot in the back. A Border Patrol shooting-incident report said that Terry called out, “I’m hit,” and then fell to the ground, a bullet having pierced his aorta. “I can’t feel my legs,” Terry told one of the agents who cradled him. “I think I’m paralyzed.”

Bleeding profusely, he died at the scene.

I get a migraine when I think that we were arming our border patrol agents with bean bags, while arming the the violent  drug cartels with AK-47s. It’s almost too much to bear.

John Hayward has another good question for Holder when he faces Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Reform Dec. 8:

Perhaps Congress should ask Eric Holder if he knows that Border Patrol agents are being stalked by death squads with a taste for the kind of guns Fast and Furious pushed across the border.  It’s probably all laid out in another memo Holder didn’t read.

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to blast Holder for his outrageous stalling tactics. 52 Republicans are now calling him to step down. I was hoping the corrupt SOB would be gone by Thanksgiving.

I don’t expect the IG report to be anything but a whitewash. I’d love to be proven wrong on this one, though.

See also:

Main Justice: Grassley Accuses DOJ of Stonewalling on Fast and Furious

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