Holder set for lawmakers' heat on gun-walking

[Valin]

CBS:

12/8/11

(AP)

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder says it was inexcusable for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to use a controversial law enforcement tactic known as "gun-walking" in an effort to identify and prosecute major arms trafficking networks along the Southwest border.

In prepared testimony for what is expected to be a rancorous hearing Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder says the Justice Department has been fully cooperative with Congress on the question of how ATF managed to lose track of hundreds of illicitly acquired weapons in Arizona that the agency was supposed to be following. Many of the guns were eventually recovered from crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S.

(Snip)

There was a plan to follow the weapons? Could have fooled me.

[Valin]