Congress: ATF ignored Mexico gun warnings

Federal officials ignored pleas from U.S. diplomats in Mexico to stop their gunrunning sting, a congressional report released Tuesday said. Carlos Canino, attache for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the embassy in Mexico City, told House investigators: "This is the perfect storm of idiocy. There was no gray area here. We knew that these guys were trafficking guns into Mexico." The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released the report before its hearings Tuesday, where Canino is to testify, Politico reported. The staff of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped write the report. Grassley and House panel chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., have been leading the investigation of the ATF's mishandled Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed thousands of illicit firearms to get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The report states at least 122 guns from the operation were found at 48 crime scenes in Mexico or intercepted en route to cartels. ATF higher-ups in Phoenix and Washington ignored their agents' warnings until Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in Arizona last December and two AK-47s sold in the Fast and Furious sting were found at the scene, the report says.