Border Patrol group calls for Holder’s resignation

The National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 17,000 of the agency's nonsupervisory agents, called Monday for the resignation of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for his role in the botched "Fast and Furious" gunrunning operation that resulted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Council President George E. McCubbin III, a 25-year Border Patrol veteran, described Mr. Holder's actions in the case as "a slap in the face to all Border Patrol agents who serve this country," adding that the attorney general showed "an utter failure of leadership at the highest levels of government."

Two semi-automatic AK-47 assault weapons found at the scene of the Dec. 15, 2010, killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry were traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to "straw buyers" who bought the weapons as part of the Fast and Furious investigation.

The agent died during a gunfight with heavily-armed Mexican bandits along the U.S.-Mexico border south of Tucson, Ariz.

More than 2,000 weapons purchased during the ATF-led Fast and Furious operation were "walked" to drug smugglers in Mexico. More than 600 of them still are missing.

Mr. McCubbin said Border Patrol agents are indoctrinated from day one of their training that "integrity is their most important trait
and that without it, they have little use to the agency." He said agents who lie or show a lack of candor are disciplined quickly.

"The standard that applies to these agents should at a minimum be applied to those who lead them," Mr. McCubbin said. "If Eric Holder were a Border Patrol agent and not the attorney general, he would have long ago been found unsuitable for government employment and terminated."

"The heroism that Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry demonstrated on that cold night in the desert of Arizona was in keeping with the finest traditions of the United States Border Patrol and will never be forgotten by those who patrol this nation's borders," he said.

"We cannot allow our agents to be sacrificed for no gain and not hold accountable those who approved the ill-conceived Operation Fast and Furious," he said.

Mr. McCubbin said the "political shenanigans" surrounding Fast and Furious and the "passing the blame" must stop.

He noted that a Border Patrol agent cannot accidentally step foot in Mexico without a myriad of U.S. and Mexican government agencies being made aware, so there would have been no possible way that Fast and Furious was conducted without the knowledge and tacit approval of the Justice Department and the Obama administration.

FINISH