New GOP platform condemns Fast & Furious, blame agent's death on operation

FILE: June 11, 2012: Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the League of Women Voters National Convention in Washington. (AP)

The Republican platform ratified this week by party members at their national convention “condemns” the Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious, saying “reckless actions” associated with the failed gun-tracking program resulted in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and others.

The 62-page document does not mention Terry by name. However, Terry was the only border agent killed in connection with the operation. Guns allowed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to slip across the U.S-Mexico border and into the black market were found close the where Terry was killed Dec. 14, 2010, in a shootout in Arizona.

“We condemn the reckless actions associated with the operation known as Fast and Furious,” the document states, while also commending House Republicans for holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his refusal to cooperate with their investigation.

The federal officials behind the operation had hoped the thousands of weapons could eventually lead them to Mexican drug cartel leaders, but agents instead lost track of the guns.

The platform was approved Tuesday at the party convention in Tampa, Fla., and takes a clear conservative stance on major issues like Medicare and illegal immigration and on such emerging ones like drone surveillance.

Beyond calling for smaller government, lower taxes and the right to gun ownership, the We Believe in America document supports pending legislation to “prevent unwarranted or unreasonable governmental intrusion through the use of aerial surveillance” and calls upon the United States to honor its relationship with American Indians.