Was the real purpose of Fast and Furious – to capture Mexican cartel “big fish” or something more sinister, for example, sacrificing the lives of both Americans and Mexicans to advance the Obama administration’s anti-gun agenda?

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms’ Fast and Furious gunrunning debacle has triggered massive investigations by Congress, media and many others. Some basics are fairly clear.

More than 2,000 guns (the exact number may not be known) were allowed to “walk” with straw purchasers from various gun shops near the Mexican border. ATF commanders ordered field agents not to intercept the illegal purchasers, including Uriel Patino, who illegally bought 730 guns. When gun store owners advised ATF of the illegal sale attempts, ATF instructed them to complete the illegal sales.

ATF lost track of, essentially, all the guns – having only the serial numbers and descriptions.

Some of those 2,000 guns began turning up at crime scenes in both the United States and Mexico, including the murder scene of border patrol agent Brian Terry. Many citizens of Mexico were murdered with guns “walked” by ATF. When ATF agent John Dodson complained, his superiors told him, “If you going to make an omelet, you’ve got to break some eggs.”

A basic, unanswered question is: What was ATF’s “omelet?” What was the real purpose of ATF’s Fast and Furious gunrunning?

ATF claims the purpose was to catch the “big fish” by letting the little fish walk across the border into Mexico with illegal gun purchases and lead officials to the heads of drug and gunrunning cartels.

There are fundamental problems with such a facade.

First, Mexican authorities were never informed of the Fast and Furious gunrunning scheme. Second, ATF agents in Mexico were also kept in the dark. Third, ATF had no way of tracking the guns anywhere.

In spite of all that, William Newell, ATF special agent in charge of Fast and Furious, claimed, “…we took down the entire organization from top to bottom.” He was referring to the arrests of 20 low-level straw buyers, 19 of whom were released on their own recognizance on misdemeanor charges. These arrests were as far from “big fish” as one can get, and no one from Mexico was ever implicated, much less captured.

Newell compounds his lies by continuing to insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that no guns ever “walked.” “Hell, no!” said Newell, when asked. ATF has rewarded Newell’s farcical performances by promoting him to a high-level position at ATF headquarters in Washington.

So, what was the real purpose of Fast and Furious, since the claimed purpose was impossible?

President Obama, Mexican President Calderon, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and numerous others have claimed, falsely, that 90 percent of the guns used in Mexican crimes come from the United States.

Could it be the real purpose of Fast and Furious was to flood Mexico with illegal guns from the United States in order to fabricate statistics and justify gun control efforts by the Obama administration?

Eventually, the truth will come out, in spite of monumental obfuscation efforts by ATF and the Obama administration.

At best, the stupidity and incompetence of ATF’s Fast and Furious gunrunning exceeds all imaginable boundaries. I suspect something far worse.