"Wide Receiver" was the Bush era program. Approximately 650 guns were intentionally leaked to Mexico. That number was widely eclipsed by Fast and Furious, Obama era, which was thousands.
Honestly, I suspect neither the Bush or Obama administration directly knew that much about it at a cabinet level. This is not phrased thus in any official releases, but I highly suspect it was an attempt by BATFE upper middle brass to restore their image. While yes, BATFE abuses have continued since Waco and Ruby Ridge PR diseasters. 2A activists have successfully hobbled BATFE brass from "big abuses", like another Waco or Ruby Ridge. Only time 2A activists and slabs of cash are trumped are by big PR crisis involving firearms such as Columbine.
BATFE for many years has been claiming that the Mexican drug cartels are armed by American firearms. This is categorically deceptive. It has some truth, if you claim Mexican military weapons purchased from the US which are a large bulk of the numbers. They tried to make their claims true, by pressuring firearms dealers to make illegal sales. Considering that the BATFE has sole and extreme authority over Federal Firearm Licenses necessary to sell firearms commercially... The choice became "Break the law or lose your license".
The problem is not the Obama administration, per se. The problem is the Obama administration is protecting the BATFE instead of throwing the agency to the wolves, which must occur. The BATFE must be made an independent agency, not under DHS, DOJ or any other department so they have no superiors to cover for them. To send a message, the BATFE middle and upper ranks must be decimated, extreme oversight must be established, agency authority must be sharply reduced and BATFE personnel violating US laws must be tried in court. . Not for the numerous laws broken, the thousands of people killed or the threat to national security. So they do not do this again. Or something even worse.
Wide Receiver and other operations were illegal, violated the national sovereignty of Mexico, et al. But it was dwarfed by Fast and Furious. Wide Receiver used informants. Fast and Furious used government coercion and threats. Wide Receiver killed dozens. Fast and Furious killed thousands.
It. does. not. matter. Either operation justifies gutting the BATFE's authority like a trout so that the NEXT operation is does not follow the path of escalation.