people who were hunting bear, we were giving guns to people who were killing other humans. >> when did you first know about the program officially, i believe, called "fast and furious"? >> i'm not sure of the exact date but i probably heard about fast and furious the last few weeks. >> why did this obama administration purposely allow the illegal transfer of more than 2,000 weapons that they knew, according to this memo, that were going to go to mexico. >> the guns that we saw these individuals buy would start turning up at crime scenes in the united states and mexico. who authorized this program that was so felony stupid that is got people killed? >> it was related to me that they didn't have to explain anything to me. i was to do as i was told. >> are they lying or are you lying? >> sir, this investigation is we did not let guns walk. >> you are entitled to your opinion, not to your facts. >> it's actually a colossal

failure to leadership, within atf, within the united states attorney's office. >> this is one of the most shameful moments in our government's history. >> this is one of the saddest days in my six years in congress. we will not rest until every single person responsible for all of this, no matter where they are, are brought to justice. >> welcome to the special edition of hannity. tonight we continue our investigation into operation "fast and furious." the highly controversial program by the atf. we've been following this story for months and it seems each and every week more information comes out that makes the scandal appear worse than previously thought. now the operation grew out of the atf's southwest border initiative called project gun runner which began under the bush administration with the intent of reducing violent crime associated with mexican criminal

organizations operating in the u.s. and mexico by preventing those organizations from getting guns. but the ill-conceived program went off course, eventually empowering the very activity it initially was out to suppress. tonight more details of an ever unfolding story. >> in 2001 the atf gave them $21.9 million to expand the project called project gun runner. one of the off shoots was operation fast and furious which was run out of the phoenix, arizona field condition. it incorporated a new gunwalking strategy that allowed suspects to literally walk away with illegally purchased guns in hopes that the straw purchasers would lead them to bigger fish in the gun trafficking networks. >> it's then that this thing turned ugly. we had a toxic and deadly combination of incompetence,

bureaucratting malfeasance, and an anti-gun agenda. this sense that they needed to do everything in their power to smear gun dealers and blame them for the problem. >> more than 90% of the guns recovered in mexico come from the united states. many from gun shops that lean our shared border. >> what is most ironic, of course, is that the gun dealers themselves who were warning these top officials that things had gone wrong. >> ice becoming obvious that the largest suppliers of the mexican gun violence is the vaftv. it's not -- they are using the dealers as the cape body. >> the atf allowed the sale of 2,020 firearms to suspected smugglers. while approximately 1400 of those firearms are still on the streets and unaccounted for. several hundred have been linked to criminal activity, including the december, 2010 murder of border agent brian terry, who was killed near arizona by suspected operatives of a

mexican drug smuggling organization. internal atf e-mails confirmed two weapons found at the scene had been purchased earlier that year as part of the fast and furious program. >> they are dead americans as a result of this failed and reckless program. >> the notion that somehow or other this justice democrat is responsible for those deaths that you mentioned, that assertion is offensive. >> january, 2011, iowa senator charles grassley, the ranging member of the judiciary committee sent aler to kenneth, writing members of the judiciary committee have received numerous allegations that sanctioned hundreds of salt weapons to purchasers who transported these weapons throughout the southwestern border area and into mexico. assistant attorney i don't know ronald weish responded by calling the allegations flat-out false. then in february another

innocent american loses his life. 32-year-old i. c. e. jamie sapatta was gunned down by members of a dangerous drug cartel. one weapon was a traced to a weapon under the operation but officials will not confirm it. fast forward to september when a second crime in arizona was linked to the botched operation. an aff investigation revealed that two weapons sold to suspected traffickers turned up at a violent confrontation between police and two suspects outside of phoenix. weeks later court documents revealed that another 40 firms sold through fast and four russ turned up in el paso, texas in january of 2010, making it the third known discovery in the u.s. of weapons lost through the program, and the first on this side of the border outside the phoenix area. in march president obama was

publicly asked about the operation for the very first time by spanish tv network univision. >> there may be a situation here in which a serious mistake was made. if that's the case, then we will find out and we will hold somebody accountable. >> on may 3rd, attorney general eric holder testified before the house judiciary committee. >> when did you first know about the program? >> i'm not sure of the exact date but i probably heard about fast and four russ for the first time over the last few weeks. >> rewind to a 2009 arms trafficking conference in mexico where holder delivered a speech not only acknowledging project gun runner, but bragging about its expansion saying, quote, my department is committing 100 new atf personnel to the southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing project gun runner. just days ago brand new documents were leaked to news organizations that indicate that eric holder also new about the program by july of 2010, according to the dated memo to

holder from michael f walter, the director of the national drug intelligence center. >> it's ironic, of course, that when the damn first broke, eric holder promised to get to the bottom of the problem. we know eric holder has been the source of the problem all along. >> june 13th, the first hearing on operation fast and four russ, was held by the house oversight committee. at the hearings california congressman darryl isa grilled assistant ag weish. >> you made a statement on the statement you signed on the 34th, atf makes every effort to interdict weapons of that been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to mexico. isn't that statement false now with what you know? >> obviously there have been allegations that call into serious question. >> with the documents of that now been provided and made public that let you know that

statement was false? >> that's why you are investigating and that's why we are investigating. >> also testifying at the hearing were three current atf agents that were involved with fast and furious. >> prior to my coming to phoenix i had never been involved in or heard of an rags that law enforcement officers let guns walk. the idea is unthinkable to most law enforcement officers. i and others repeatedly raised concerns with our supervisors. in response we were told we simply did not understands the plan. >> three weeks later on july 4th, facing mounting scrutiny over the botched operation, and calls for his resignation, nelson appeared secretly before congressional investigators from the house oversight committee and the judiciary committee where they were to protect political appointees at the top of the department n a joint statement isa and grassley argued, quote, if his account is accurate that

atf leadership appears to be effectively muzzled while the doj sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand and the damaging revelations just keep coming. ." >> in july, bill nuwell told congress he discuss the the case with the white house national security staffer as early as last september. an admission that once again directly calls into question president obama's rebeated denials that neither he nor attorney general holder had any knowledge of operation fast and furious. >> guns draws money. those are the the commodities of the cartel enterprises. >> meanwhile heads are now starting to roll. in august they announced acting atf director, kenneth nelson, and u.s. attorney dennis burke were leaving their posts. nelson to become an advisor on forensic science and burke to leave government all together.

assistant u.s. attorney emery hurley was reassigned to a lesser position. but according to the los angeles times, newell's supervisors, the atf director of operations in the west, were transferred from arizona to washington to be, yes, you guessed it, promoted. >> and coming up next, the disturbing details of what happened to border patrol agent brian terry, the face behind the story. red lobster. amuch as you like ny way you like, like new sweet and spicy shrimp, all for $15.99. my name is angela trapp, and i sea food differently. ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

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>> the fast and furious story may have never come out had it not been for one major tragedy. it started near the mexican border. >> for mexican drug cartels crossing the board is just the beginning. >> they have miles to walk before they get anywhere. >> stepped up enforcement near cities have pushed them into remote areas like the peck canyon, a notorious dangerous smuggling corridor 14 miles north of the fence. >> the terrain is rough. it's not drivable by vehicle, it's not drivable by atv. the violence in that area is very high. >> much of peck canyon looks more like afghanistan that the united states. >> there are numerous caves throughout these canyons and mountains. it's very extreme terrain. you can't get here to deploy except by air. >> yet it's this rugged landscape that the cartels wage wore against each other on american soil.

>> you have the mules packing the drugs and they are armed, and then you've not the people who are going to rip them up. >> it's been called smugglers paradise, the area is a hotspot for armed cartel rip crews. >> rip crews are specifically aiming at ripping off drug loads from their competitors. they are the most dangerous kind of criminals one can encounter on the boarder. most of them have former military backgrounds from the mexican army and sign up with the drug traffickers just to do these kinds of remote area tactical operations. >> they don't have any problem assaulting people, they don't have any problem shooting people. >> if they go back into mexico without their merchandise, they are going to get killed. so that's what is making it so tough for us to fight it and it is getting very violent. violence against other groups and in particular violence against border agencies officers and other law enforcement.

>> on the night in to 2010, brian terry was part after small elite tactical teamworking to track rip crews in the darkness near peck canyon. >> agent tear's infiltrate into an area in the canyon, and they set up on interdiction zone and on a trail. >> keep in mind brian has worked that team of special operations operator or working in the dark of night. this is truly rough terrain. >> they soon encountered a group of at least five men, each armed with automatic weapons. a fierce shootout ensued. >> in the end one mexican national, a member of a rip crew, lay wounded and brian terry was dying. >> last night border patrol

agent brian a terry was shot and killed in the line of duty's encountered several suspects near arizona. >> brian terry's life of service to god, family, country and core is a life well lived. >> our stronghold along that border was agent terry's final stand. >> it doesn't get easier, i will tell you that. i do not relish as a chief of the border patrol handing out folded american flags to surviving family members. >> it was his last night of work before going home to michigan for a christmas vacation. >> brian did ultimately come home that christmas. we buried him not far from the house that he was raised in just prior to christmas day. >> there are times when you just

can't hold back the tears because it's like losing a son, it's like losing a nephew, and i truly felt like he was a true son of the united states of america and he was lost that night. >> at the scene of the shooting agents arrested a man and recovered three ak-47-type assault weapons. two were purchased in arizona by a man that was under surveillance as part of the fast and furious operation. he was arrested the next day. >> where did you first hear about it. >> on the media, newspapers. i never really got a call until it was brought out in the newspapers. i just was flabbergasted. i didn't believe it at first. >> ballistic tests could not identify the weapon but lawmakers were outraged. >> brian tear's loss was preventable, it was regrettable

and preventable. >> what makes his death so shocking to his family is that he did not die on a foreign battlefield he died not in iraq or afghanistan but in a desert outside of arizona. in 18 miles inside of the u.s.-mexican border. his killers were not taliban insurgents or al-qaeda fighters, but a small group of mexican drug cartel bandits heavily armed with ak-47 assault weapons. >> the family is not just left to grieve, but to look for answers. >> every one of the men and women involved in fast and furious can say in absolutely sincerity, men and women who were of good faith and wanted to do the right thing, but they hadn't thought about the consequences of their actions and that inability to look into the future to understand the risks that they were taking is their down point and maybe,

although we don't yet know, the reason for brian terry's tragic death. >> a very sad, a very unnecessary story. now if you would like to help the terry family and the family of other fallen border patrol agents, just go to borderpatrolfoundation.org. i get free shipping on all my basspro.com orders when i pick'em up at the store. get free shipping at basspro.com when you ship to the store with no minimum purchase. but think about your heart. 2% has over half the saturated fat of whole milk. want to cut back on fat and not compromisen taste? try smart balance fat free milk. it's what you'd expect from the folks at smart balance.

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>> welcome back to the special edition of hannity. fox news correspondent has been closely following this story since it broke and he uncovers who knew what, when and where these guns end up once they crossed into mexico. >> we weren't given guns to people who were hunting bear. we were giving guns to people who were killing other humans. that is insane. in conceivable. you would never think that because atf does not do that. if i had known that that was, in fact, occurring, i would have called atf headquarters. >> most agents didn't know about fast and furious. those who did followed orders. >> it was related to me that they didn't have to explain anything to me. i was to do as i was told. >> agent john dodson blew the

whistle after the murder of brian terry. it ended the program, but not the carnage in mexico. this lawyer, the brother of a former state attorney general, tortured and killed. 21 dead in a shootout in senora. a helicopter down near mexico city. all committed with guns sent to mexico with u.s. government consent. >> these guns gain turning up at crime scenes in the united states and mexico, and yet we still did nothing. >> nothing. while fast and fourious guns showed up in the hands after drug cartels. >> it confirms what many mexicans believe, that there's this conspiracy from the runs to sell guns to mexico. >> conspiracy or poor judgment in letting guns walk. >> fast and furious is unique and here is why. in the past a suspected straw buyer would be arrested in the parking lot or down the street. but in fast and furious they

were recruited by the atf and u.s. attorney general's office. multiple sales and no arrests is and virtually no surveillance outside the store. >> that allowed a handful of thugs to buy guns. >> he's 18 to 25, maybe up to 30 years old who needs a couple hundred extra bucks and noise somebody that noise somebody that has a way to make a couple hundred bucks. they walk into a store, they fill out a form, they pie a couple of rifles, and they walk out and give it to the guy. he gives them a few hundred bucks and that's that. >> adrian represented a man who recruited a dozen straw buyers out of this shop in phoenix. including jamie who bought the gun that killed brian terry, and others purchased 290 guns. out of 20 fast and furious defendants, 19 were back on the

street within hours of their arrest. >> alfredo? >> yes. >> i'm a correspondent with fox news s there anything you want to say to the people who have been harmed by the guns that you bought? >> no. >> i'm not going to say anything. talk to his lawyer. >> together the group bought some 2,000 weapons while agents watched cameras installed by the atf inside gun stores like lone wolf. >> were they every told sure, go ahead with the sale? >> yes, sir. that's part of the problem is that they were -- we would say do you want us to stop selling them? is there something we should be aware of? >> no, continue to sell them. >> more than one store panicked as boxes of assault weapons flew often their shelves 13 into pickups bound for mexico. >> i wanted to make sure none of the firearms would or could end up south of the border in in the hands of the bad guys wrote the scottsdale gun club. i'm look for reassurance the guns are not going south or in

the wrong hands. in response the atf lied assuring their dealers would not see mexico. >> how many hundreds or thousands of weapons did you allow to be purchased knowing that they were going to mexico? >> the purchase was being done by a criminal organization. >> but you facilitate it had. you allowed it, did you not? >> phoenix agent bill newell authorized the operation. he believed sending guns south would expose the gun trafficking network. from the gunmen and money men in mexico to the smugglers, transporters and straw buyerings. >> they purchased over a thousand firearms. some of the purse were procuring them at 10 to 20 at a time. at the same time approximately 200 firearms in the investigation were recovered in the united states and mexico. i could not believe that someone in atf would so callously let firms wind up in the hands of criminals. >> in the u.s. guns have shown up in arizona and texas.

mexico they have been found at crime scenes from tijuana to acapulco. >> how many people were killed or injured here in mexico as a result of fast and furious? hundreds, officials say, but the exact number is not known. why? because when mexico attempted to trace the guns, the u.s. said the information did not exist when in fact if did. which is why many feel betrayed. >> i obviously feel violated. i feel my country's sovereignty was violated. >> he heads mexico's judicial committee. he and others say the u.s. broke international law by knowing by sending guns south. >> this program was a great mistake at its conception. as absurd. especially because human lives were put in danger. >> how many weapons do we have in the united states orxd mexico that are out there that are the result of fast and furious that we do not know where they are? >> you are looking in the ballpark of anywhere from a

thousand to 1500, 1800 guns sil. >> what's your best guess on how many of those were mexico and how many of those were united states. >> i would say two to one mexico versus the u.s. >> mexico now wants to extradite those responsible for authorizing fast and four russ. >> it will be very important that in the united states they are prosecuted or at least there is some repercussions in terms of not only those who were involved, but those who allowed this to happen. >> targets of the congressional investigation include atf agents, hope mcallister, david roth, george gillette and bill newell. u.s. attorneys dennisberg, pat cunningham and mr. hurley supervised them in phoenix. >> kennel on and assistant attorney general lanny brewer are both to have approved the program. at the top attorney general eric holder and president obama claim they know nothing, though some

investigators believe otherwise. >> coming up we detail the newly uncovered memos that could bring eric holder's troubled tenure at the justice department to an abrupt end. xdçóñi okçóçóxd

>> today president barack obama and his attorney general have been able to avoid much of the blame for the deadly failure of the atf controversial gun running operations. new details and memos continue to emerge, the spot light of the scandal is beginning to shine on the highest els of the united states government. in fact, the chairman of the house judiciary committee, law har smith, has called on the white house to appoint a special matter. let's look how the growing political scandal has evolved in the recent months. >> the american people deserve prompt and complete answers to this operation. >> letting guns walk is not something that is acceptable. >> this is one of the most shameful moments i think in our government's history.

days in my six months in congress. >> special agent newell, what were you thinking some i think that's what we are all scratching our heads about. >> are they lying or are you lying? >> there are far more questions than answer when is it comes to who is responsible and who should be held accountable for the atf failed experiment known as operation's fast and four russ. not only does the attorney general deny having any knowledge of this gun oning scheme, he denies it played any roll in the deaths of federal agents brianry and jason zapatta. >> to know it is responsible for the dental you mentioned that's correct assertion is offensive. >> what if it's accurate, mr. attorney general? >> as holder continues to claim he first heard about operation fast and furious in may of this year, new documents obtained by congressional investigators show otherwise. on october 18th of 2010, holder was informed by his

deputy that prosecutors were preparing indictments in the case. but it doesn't end there. several months earlier in a july, 2010 memo, the director of the nation's drug intelligence center tells holder so-called straw buyers in operation fast and furious are, goes, responsible for 1500 firearms that are then supplied to the mexican drug cartels. >> not everyone is surprised holder finds himself emersed in scandal. >> eric holder has a long history of mismanagement, scandalous decisions and deadly decisions. i people who put him in that appointment in the first place bear blame. they have to answer for their bad decisions because, look, with eric holder, the writes was on the wall. there was no question that you were going to get anything other than an obstructist, corruptacrat in office and that's how he runs the agency.

>> he has refuse today turn over key documents to congress throughout the investigation. >> sir, if you are going to count pages like this in discovery, you should be ashamed of yourself. the pages go on like this forever. you have given us black paper instead of white paper. how dare make an opening statement, how dare you make an opening statement of cooperation. we've had to subpoena again and again. >> a house oversight committee report industries in great detail the type of interference being encountered by investigators. quote, doj leadership denied allegations that gunwalking occurred in fast and four russ by adopting an overly narrow definition of the term. they argue that gunwalking is limited to cases in which atf itself supplied the guns directly." internal justice department documents call into question this claim as well in an october 2010 memo a deputy attorney general described the number of guns of that walked as

significant. with all the new revelations the question that remains is whether or not the attorney general will be able to weather this storm. >> there's a teflon coating around so many of the top obama officials and i think is for the american people, will you allow that coating to stand after you know what's going on with the scandal, after you know the hell that brian terry and his family had to go through? when people decide in 2012 who they want running the white house, they will get to decide if they want somebody like president obama who put eric holdner place. >> but we may not need to wait until 2012 because now even the white house's knowledge of and involvement in fast and four russ is being exposed. on july 26 for the very first time atf special agent in charge bill newell informed he notified a top official at the white house about the operation back in september, 2010. >> isn't that a little bit unusual for a special agent to

have direct e-mail contact with the national security staff at the white house? >> he's a friend of mine. >> how many times did you talk to him about this case? >> the specifics of this case? i don't think i -- i don't think i had one specific conversation with him about the specifics of this case. >> could you take the word "specific" out and answer the general? did you talk to him about this case? >> i might have talked to him about this case, yes, sir. >> following that hearing more details about newell's correspondence with former national security aid kevin o'reilly had been made public. the white house has released extensive e-mail communications between both men showing they discussed in great detail the progression of the administration's efforts along the southern border. however, still to this day president obama denies having knowledge of the program. >> i have complete confidence in attorney general holder in how he handles his office. he indicated that he was not aware of what was happening in fast and furious.

certainly i was not. i think both he and i would have been very unhappy if somebody had suggested that guns were allowed to pass through that could have been prevented by the united states of america. >> and coming up, one of the people most responsible for bringing all of this to the public's attention, that's congressman darryl issa. he tells us one of the most shocking details coming up next. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. ♪ [ female announcer ] the road is not exactly a place of intelligence. highway maintenance is underfunded,

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and we follow them up there to live by an unbreakable promise, stitched into every uniform of every captain who takes their command: to fly. to serve. >> welcome back to this special edition of hannity. as you have seen throughout this hour we probably would not know much about the operation fast and furious controversy if it were not for the tireless pursuit of the facts by congressman darrell issa, who is the oversight and reform committee. thank you for being with us. welcome back. >> thanks for having me on, sean, and thanks for covering this important issue which americans and mexicans lost

faith in their government because of what was done by our officials at the justice department. >> well, there's a couple of things that bother me about it. i think it comes down to a very simple we. what did the attorney general know, when did he know it, and did he tell you the truth when he testified on may 3 of 2011 and said i probably just heard about this for the first time in the last few weeks? we know this is a lie, correct? >> we certainly know that he failed to meet the duty of candor. if he now says, well, i thought you were asking a different question, he certainly stretched what one could answer when you said when did you know about. so either when or about seemed to have tripped him up. >> failure to meet the duty of candor. good thing in your opinion the political business because in my little old world i call that a lie. >> you know, in any reasonable voter's mind, in any reasonable citizen's mind, he owed us an

answer, and he didn't give it to us truthfully. there's no question about that. there is some technical terms for what he did or didn't do. and one of the reasons that we want him back before the committee to answer fully and honestly and completely on this one subject is he owes us that. you don't come before the judiciary committee headed by lamar smith and not answer truthfully when it's the committee you report to, it's for accountability by the american people. he knew about fast and furious. how much he knew, we would like to be able to ask him. >> what about the new documents that have surfaced that said the attorney general was sent briefing on fast and furious as far back as july of 2010 which again contradicts his statement to congress. we have these two justice department officials in the e-mail exchange october 18, 2010. it's a tricky case given the number of guns of that walked but a significant set of prosecutions. the reply i'm not sure how much

grief we get for gunwalking. it may be more like, well, finally they are going after people who send guns down there. so it seems like they were calculating the political fallout for of from fairly early on. >> they absolutely were. that's one of the points, sean, the reckless disregard for the effects that 2000 plus assault weapons, including sniper rifles that have brought down aircraft in mexico. that's the real crime here. yet we can eventually figure out what lanny brewer new and how much he work is -- orchestrated it. and certainly eric holders has a lot to account for. but the american people and the people in mexico that relied on us to cooperate and help them, they are owed a change that is permanent. if you will, we hope for a change you can believe in. >> you said that we have a paper trail of so many people knowing that the only way the attorney

general didn't know is he made sure he didn't want to know. >> absolutely. >> well -- >> lanny brewer was running this operation to a great extent. he had intimate knowledge. he thought it was a good operation with, in fact, bad execution. when you have the number two, the number three, and now his chief of staff all very involved in this, they are in that paper trail, it's hard to believe that he wouldn't know. sean, if i can just add one date, march of 2009, the attorney general flies to mexico city and makes a significant speech in mexico. >> that's right. >> telling about what they are going to do. you can't have that level of promise and commitment, and then say that for the next two years you didn't know about it. >> i'm a big baseball fan. didn't roger clemens go under oath for congressional committee? >> roger clemens failed to meet a duty of candor in the eyes of the justice department and he was tried, and, quite frankly,

was basically bankrupted by our government prosecuting him. now, we can debate about when he deserved it, but henry waxman preferred that and led him to trial. eric holder certainly has some explaining to do about whether or not he was truthful to our committee. >> guys doping themselves in baseball is serious because it distorts because it ruins the game. thousands of mexicans are dead and many by these guns. >> thank you, congressman. >> thank you. >> as the scandal continues to wind its way all the way up the chain of command; there any precedent for what is taking place inside the justice department. we will take a look back at past controversies that may shed light on what happens next. straight ahead.

>> bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firms, the atf, is at the center of the fast and furious scandal. but the organization is no stranger to controversy t goes back to the days of president clinton. but oddly, it may be the watergate scandals of the 1970s that is most similar to the events unfolding at the doj today. >> i know you are praying for me for a peaceful and quick

conclusion to the events. >> the atf was involved in few clinton era controversies that have become synonymous with botched operations. >> the agents involved should have been immediately terminated. >> ruby ridge pitted the federal government against randy we've on a remote mountaintop in idaho where he fled with his family after accused of illegally selling shotguns to an undercover atf agent. >> it was totally inappropriate conduct by the atf department. >> they lay siege to the we've home after a u.s. marshall doing surveillance on the property was shot and killed in a gun battle that also left we've's 14-year-old son left. and days later his wife was shot in the head while she cradled their baby. and in the wake of the siege fbi

agents had illegal coverup and the chief spent a grier prison for trying to destroy the bureau's internal report on ruby ridge. less than year after rub by ridge in april of 1993 came the atf's raid on the branchtive individualian come bound where they were allegedly ordering firearms and explosives. >> it was not going to lead to an ultimate peaceful resolution and eliminate any safety or risk to the children in the come pound. >> after a shootout four atf agents were dead, 16 wound and six consult members died, as well. a standoff ensued, lasting 51 days until janet reno said it need today end. the consult members told if they

refused to come out, tier gas would be inserted into the compound. >> we have what appears to be a fire going on right now. >> both sides blame another for the ensuing fire, which took the lives of dozens of branch dividians, including children. >> there were two stories about which side caused monday's inferno that took 86 lives. the fbi insist consult members started the blaze as part of a suicide packet at the david of david koresch. >> many called for reno's resignation. >> surprise would be a mild word to say that anyone that would suggest that the attorney general should resign because of some religion he is fanatics murdered themselves. >> in the end two atf agents were terminate bud attorney general reno kept her job. in the scope of american politics, though, the fast and furious scandal may actually bear the most resemblance to

watergate. >> what did the president know? and when did he know it? >> while the watergate scandal began with a small group inside president nixon's re-election campaign, it quickly spread through the executive branch up to the president himself. >> i began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. well, i'm not a crook. >> congressional hearings have made it clear that the fast and furious scandal has spread quickly from the atf phoenix office to the top of the department of justice. >> when did you first know about the program officially, i believe, called fast and furious? >> i probably heard about fast and furious for the first time over the past few weeks. >> their operations. this one has gotten a great deal of publicity. >> yeah, there are dead americans as a result of this failed and reckless program. so i would say that it hasn't gotten enough attention, has it, mr. attorney general? >> notice necessarily -- well,

there's an investigation that is underway. >> 19 peopleñr involved in the watergate scandal wound up behind bars, and so far twelve justice department officials have been implicated in the fast and furious scandal. it remains to be seen what the consequences will be for their actions. but watergate may provide guidance for those on the ropes in the justice department today. ironically it may be richard nixon that put it guest.t( >> in any organization, the man at the top must bear the responsibility. that responsibility, therefore, belongs here, in this office. i accept it. >> the question now is will attorney general holder heed his warning? >> we will be following all the latest developments as this story continues to unfold. we will bring them to you right here on hannity. thank you for being with us and have a great night.