. >> mr. noel. >> there was never a specific time when he that. >> please stay away from words like specific. they worry me. did you get to an understanding that you had a known buyer buying from these people with an intent to traffic them to the cartels? was there a time? >> throughout the investigation we had information. >> what was the first time that you have that information? that this group was trafficking firearms. >> that you have a known buyer mr. acosta or that group and that the purchasers, some of the straw purchasers they were buying from redact providing to these people for their purpose of transporting? >> i ask you this question very simple. wait a second. you have been here is a paid nonanswer are so far and i appreciate that you have been here is a paid nonanswer, but there comes a point where i go wait a second. 730 weapons bought by a man who had no money. every penny he bought with he had to get from somebody. you knew that at some point. you knew who was buying them and you a

i know you sat down with this group mr. noel, but somebody higher up than you made a determination that for the first time atf is going to run this. we have heard from this panel and we have heard from the panel prior today that this is a complete aberration to the way atf has done things. where would that have come from? >> well maam, importing the strategy together for this case the strategy came from several places. the department adjusted originated a draft in january 2010 about how to combat southwest border drug trafficking by mexican drug cartels and one of them dealt with firearms trafficking that said three tzipi located strike forces a mere interdiction is not the answer. you have to go after the structure and the organization of whatever it be, firearms, human drug trafficking to make the biggest impact. >> and who would that memo have come from? >> i do believe that memo came down from the deputy attorney general's office. >> and then, so now we are going to change the strategy. it is going to be a different way to c

. >> mr. noelhere was never a specific time when he that. >> please stay away from words like specific. they worry me. did you get to an understanding that you had a known buyer buying from these people with an intent to traffic them to the cartels? was there a time? >> throughout the investigation we had information. >> what was the first time that you have that information? that this group was trafficking firearms. >> that you have a known buyer mr. acosta or that group and that the purchasers, some of the straw purchasers they were buying from redact providing to these people for their purpose of transporting? >> i ask you this question very simple. wait a second. you have been here is a paid nonanswer are so far and i appreciate that you have been here is a paid nonanswer, but there comes a point where i go wait a second. 730 weapons bought by a man who had no money. every penny he bought with he had to get from somebody. you knew that at some point. you knew who was buying them and you allowed