Thread: Legislators Want Report On Ex Agents Ramos and Campean

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4481939.html


Jan. 19, 2007, 12:24PM

Legislators want report on ex-agents
Its release could clear doubts about border shooting case, some say


By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureu


WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is wrongly keeping from Congress an investigative report that details the conduct of two ex-Border Patrol agents imprisoned this week for shooting a Mexican drug trafficker, two Houston-area congressmen charged Thursday.
The report is needed to back up a briefing given to the congressmen in September by the Homeland Security inspector general's staff, said Rep. Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican whose district includes western Harris County.

McCaul said the inspector general's aides told him and three Texas colleagues that the Border Patrol agents, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, had admitted to investigators that they "intended to shoot Mexicans" and knew the man fleeing them was unarmed and posed no threat, when they fired on him 15 times near Fabens, Texas.

"There have been a lot of allegations flying out there," McCaul, a former federal prosecutor, said in an interview. "I just want to know the truth."

The report's release, McCaul contends, could help dispel lingering doubts about the case the government brought against Compean and Ramos.

Rep. John Culberson, a Houston Republican also briefed on the case in September, offered a harsher assessment.

"It stinks of a cover-up, and I am deeply disappointed," he said.

Culberson said that during a meeting last week with Compean, the former agent flatly denied any misconduct. "The officer to me was very believable," he said.

More than 250,000 Americans have signed an Internet petition demanding that President Bush pardon the men.

In an interview Thursday with an El Paso TV station, Bush didn't rule out pardoning the ex-agents.

"People need to take a tough look at the facts, the evidence a jury looked at, as well as the judge. And I will do the same thing," he said.

Tamara Faulkner, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security inspector general Richard Skinner, said reports on open investigative cases cannot be released. The conduct of seven other Border Patrol agents remains under investigation in the case, she said.

The 2005 shooting has become a flash point in the immigration debate, with immigration-control advocates and conservative House Republicans hailing Compean and Ramos as heroes wrongly prosecuted by the government.


Convictions defended
On the other side, the White House, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton and other government officials insist that the agents' convictions were justly deserved.

"They shot an unarmed guy who was running away from them," Sutton said Thursday. "They lied about it. They covered it up. They picked up their shell casings. They filed false police reports."

McCaul has repeatedly pressed the inspector general for the report since September. An initial promise to deliver the report gave way to delays and shifting explanations for why it couldn't be delivered, said McCaul, who chaired the Homeland Security Committee's investigations subcommittee until Democrats regained control of the House earlier this month.

"We have been stonewalled and put off with delaying tactics over and over," he complained.

Faulkner declined to debate the congressmen.

She expressed puzzlement at the congressmen's insistence on getting the report, calling it a "small, small piece of a very large puzzle." The best source of information, she said, would be the trial transcript.

Sutton, the U.S. attorney in San Antonio whose office prosecuted the agents in El Paso, also is eager for the transcript to be made public, saying it could clear up many misconceptions.

But Justice Department officials and others said the court reporter responsible for preparing the official transcript has been slow in doing so, citing illness.

Compean and Ramos were sentenced in October to 12 and 11 years, respectively, convicted of violating the trafficker's civil rights and tampering with evidence for picking up their shell casings and not reporting the shooting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

michelle.mittelstadt@chron.com

Quote,McCaul said the inspector general's aides told him and three Texas colleagues that the Border Patrol agents, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, had admitted to investigators that they "intended to shoot Mexicans" and knew the man fleeing them was unarmed and posed no threat, when they fired on him 15 times near Fabens, Texas. Quote.


Does anyone here really believe these border guards would really make a statement, saying they "intended to shoot Mexicans" do you really think these men are such idiots they would make a statement such as this? I really somehow doubt this statement!

[quote]McCaul has repeatedly pressed the inspector general for the report since September. An initial promise to deliver the report gave way to delays and shifting explanations for why it couldn't be delivered, said McCaul, who chaired the Homeland Security Committee's investigations subcommittee until Democrats regained control of the House earlier this month.

"We have been stonewalled and put off with delaying tactics over and over," he complained. [quote]


Yeah, Bush will declare the report "sensitive", say it contains classified information, and it will be handed over with half of the text blacked out.

Absolutely not Nitty! Ramos was a 10 year veteran and had a stellar record. Boy, the BS has just been flying fast and furious in this case.

Originally Posted by nittygritty

Quote,McCaul said the inspector general's aides told him and three Texas colleagues that the Border Patrol agents, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, had admitted to investigators that they "intended to shoot Mexicans" and knew the man fleeing them was unarmed and posed no threat, when they fired on him 15 times near Fabens, Texas. Quote.


Does anyone here really believe these border guards would really make a statement, saying they "intended to shoot Mexicans" do you really think these men are such idiots they would make a statement such as this? I really somehow doubt this statement!

Nitty you know itsfunny that they have said "intended to shoot Mexicans" but as of today they HAVE NOT PROVED IT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM

This is insane, they are both Hispanic, why would they make such a stupid comment, the inspecter general's aides, seen to be stuck on stupid!