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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    White House turns a blind eye

    http://www.whittierdailynews.com/opinions/ci_5304334

    White House turns a blind eye

    Feb 25, 2007

    WE don't see how President Bush can ignore the plight of former U.S. Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos much longer.

    A month ago we called on the president to pardon these two men - who are serving terms of 12 and 11 years, respectively, for the 2005 shooting of Mexican drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-

    Davila - because of the unseemly way federal prosecutors in Texas put together the case against them.

    In that month, new information has made the whole affair look even more unseemly, and the momentum to review the case or grant Compean and Ramos pardons has grown.

    At Sen. Dianne Feinstein's request, the Senate Judiciary Committee has agreed to hold hearings on the matter soon. Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote letters to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and directors of federal border protection and prison agencies, requesting information on the agents' case. She wrote that the agents' prison sentences were too harsh and that questions about the case need to be answered.

    The White House maintained that it would not consider a pardon for the former agents until the transcript of the court case was released. Now that it has been released, the administration can review the case.

    Here are some of the facts about the case that have surfaced in the past month, most of them unearthed by Sara A. Carter, reporter for our sister newspaper, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:

    Richard Skinner, inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, admitted under oath that high-ranking members of his office had given false information about the two agents to four members of Congress during an earlier private meeting.

    In a meeting with Elizabeth Redman, assistant inspector general for investigations, and Tamara Faulkner, inspector general congressional liaison, the congressmen had been told that the two agents "were out to shoot Mexicans" the day they shot Aldrete-Davila, and that the smuggler posed no threat to them. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, called for the resignations of all who misled Congress after Skinner admitted those statements from his subordinates were false. We join him in that call.

    A Nov. 20, 2006, report from Homeland Security - written 21 months after the shooting - directly contradicts key conclusions reached by the department's own investigator in a memo written less than a month after the shooting. The earlier report stated that all the Border Patrol agents at the scene, including two supervisors, knew about the shooting but failed to report it. The later report said nine other agents at the scene did not know the shooting had taken place and were not responsible for reporting it.

    The two agents were prohibited by their own agency's firearms policy from filing a report about the shooting. The policy states that agents involved in a shooting must give an oral statement to supervisors, who must file the written report. But the agents were convicted partly due to prosecutors' argument that the two failed to file a report about the shooting.

    Ramos was beaten by six inmates at the prison in Mississippi where he is serving his sentence. Prison officials were not even smart enough to keep this former law enforcement agent separated from inmates who might have something against the Border Patrol.

    So many of the government employees involved in this case come off looking like liars, bumblers or both, that we can't believe the White House won't come to the conclusion that Compean and Ramos were railroaded.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Rockfish's Avatar
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    Richard Skinner, inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, admitted under oath that high-ranking members of his office had given false information about the two agents to four members of Congress during an earlier private meeting
    Skinner and those high-ranking officials deserve what the two border agents undeserviingly got. They are the real criminals here. We need to know who the are and who told them to fabricate such statements. I hope this brings down the whole bloody mess.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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