Lieberman Launches Probe of Fast and Furious Program

The heat is being turned up on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman now wants to probe what went wrong in the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation.

Lieberman has instructed staff on his Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to investigate miscommunication between law enforcement agencies, the Daily Caller reports.

A spokesman for the committee said the Connecticut senator believes “the lack of interagency coordination along the border merits further examination, and as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he has directed his staff to follow up with the relevant federal agencies on that topic.”

Under Fast and Furious, hundreds of semi-automatic weapons were allowed to cross the border into Mexico in the hope that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could trace them to drug cartel bosses. ATF falls under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department that Holder heads.

The scheme went disastrously wrong and nearly all the weapons went missing. Mexican authorities say some 300 people – including U.S. immigration officer Jaime Zapata – have been killed in Mexico with the guns, two of which were also used in the murder of U.S. border agent Brian Terry in Arizona.

So far some 90 Republican lawmakers have called on Holder to quit and the Republican-controlled House’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked him to again testify before it in the new year.