Posted on 03/21/2009 3:09:19 PM PDT by kellynla
Former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were given long jail terms for shooting at a fleeing drug smuggler, today told Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck that they were sustained by prayers of the American people and their spirits were lifted by their letters.
The two were interviewed on Beck's program in their first television interview allowed under the terms of their probation after President Bush commuted their sentences on his last day in office. They just were released from ankle bracelet restrictions and still face limits on with whom they can talk.
One of the restrictions is that the two cannot talk to each other after they each spent about two years of their decade-long sentences in jail. Beck interviewed them separately.
Ramos said what was important was "knowing that so many people were supporting us, receiving their letters, their prayers. I can't thank everybody enough."
A few minutes later, Compean echoed the statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Are you saying that because they are hispanic, they were guilty?
Oh, I thought you were saying the opposite of what you are apparently saying. Or something.
:)
I had the same reaction.
One of the conditions of their release, like parole, they are not allowed to “associate with convicted felons”. For that reason, they are not allowed to talk to each other.
I was there. I am so thankful for this day.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Ping!
My prayers were answered.
Thanks for the ping, CCG.
I also would like to know what the connections were of the border agent who initiated this investigation. [The one who was better friends with the drug smuggler’s family than with his own band of border agents.]
That would be Rene Sanchez.
I believe he was indicted (per info in the court transcript) but I could never track down his full name to follow the case.
I believe you read that exactly opposite of its intent: that looking at those two great families reinforces support for the agents (see subseq posts on this thread).
Yes, thank you, that was who I was trying to recall. Perhaps we can trace down his current status at a later date. For now, I am just enjoying the Agents being free. 8)
Since I correspond largely with calcowgirl, I never really had a chance to thank you for your extraordinary efforts, as well, to free Ramos and Compean. So, “Thank you”, very much.
Ditto that... what he said. Thanks, LadyCalif.
You are correct. The fathers of those families are good people.
Oh, good. You saw the comment. I just didn’t want that one to go unanswered.
:-)
No, I couldn’t possibly keep up with every thread and every group that takes sides here.
FYI...this sent by our former border patrol agents.
Agent accuses Sutton of cover-up in drug murders
Informant in case handled by prosecutor of Ramos-Compean seeks asylum
________________________________
Posted: March 13, 2009
11:45 pm Eastern http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91733
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Agent accuses Sutton of cover-up in drug murders
Informant in case handled by prosecutor of Ramos-Compean seeks asylum
________________________________
Posted: March 13, 2009
11:45 pm Eastern http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91733
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
A Mexican national’s appeal in federal court for asylum because of his work as an American government-paid informant against the drug cartel marked another chapter in a case in which a former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent continues to allege the U.S. government – including U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton
– is hiding its complicity in the cartel’s murder of more than a dozen people.
Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez-Peyro, better known as “Lalo,” appeared in federal court earlier this week to fight extradition, arguing his life would be in jeopardy if he were forced to return to Mexico
.
Lalo, according to Sandy Gonzalez, a former special agent in charge at the DEA office in El Paso, Texas, wore recording devices and taped at least one of the tortures and murders of more than a dozen people between July 2003 and January 2004. The murders allegedly were orchestrated by the Santillan family, headed by Heriberto Santillan-Tabares, a top operative in the Ciudad Juarez drug cartel.
Gonzalez told WND he believes Sutton was aware of the “House of Death” murders, prompting a letter in February 2004 to the prosecutor alleging possible criminal violations by U.S. government officials.
“Instead of investigating my complaints, Sutton complained about me to the DEA and the Justice Department in Washington,” Gonzalez told WND. “My superiors in Washington told me to leave this matter alone and to be quiet.”
Gonzalez asserts the mainstream media have left unreported the active role of El Paso-based U.S. Attorney Sutton, the Department of Justice, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration
and the Department of Homeland Security
in an ongoing, elaborate cover-up.
Gonzalez says that although Santillan was prosecuted under drug and murder charges, Sutton allowed the drug kingpin to plead guilty to the drug charges, with the agreement the murder charges would be dropped.
Sutton’s office did not respond to repeated requests by WND for comment. The Department of Homeland Security also did not respond. The Drug Enforcement Administration referred WND to the Department of Justice, but the DOJ did not reply.
In exchange for giving information to U.S. law enforcement authorities through his penetration of the Santillan drug cartel, Lalo received nearly a quarter-million dollars.
In a statement issued by his office, Sutton argued Santillan’s 25-year sentence for the drug offenses effectively “took him off the streets.” Sutton also contended the murders were appropriately tried in Mexico, where most of them took place.
But critics such as Gonzalez have contended that by dropping the murder charges, Sutton was covering up offenses the U.S. government knew had been committed by its paid informant, Lalo.
Sutton is the prosecutor who came to national prominence for his role in prosecuting Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean for shooting a fleeing Mexican drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who brought 750 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. in 2005. On his last day of office, President Bush commuted the agents’ 10-year mandatory prison sentence, arguing it was excessive punishment.
Sutton’s office fought to keep the jury in the Ramos and Compean trial from being informed about a second load of 750 pounds of marijuana Aldrete-Davila smuggled across the border while under immunity to testify against the agents. Aldrete-Davila subsequently pleaded guilty to federal drug smuggling charges and was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison.
Asylum appeal
Appearing before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Minnesota Tuesday, Lalo asserted he was pleading for his life and claimed his work as a paid U.S. law enforcement informant should qualify him for asylum in the U.S.
An immigration judge in Minneapolis previously ruled Lalo qualified for asylum, but the Department of Justice, via the Bureau of Immigration Appeals, appealed the ruling to the 8th Circuit. A decision is expected within months.
Gonzalez was forced to retire from the DEA after making his allegations. He traveled to Washington on his own expense to meet with the senior staff members of two U.S. senators and wrote letters to the Office of Inspector General in the Justice Department and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.
He contends the government, nevertheless, continues a cover-up.
“Nobody has been able to get copies of the Joint Assessment Team report prepared by ICE and DEA investigators who interviewed over 40 individuals about this problem,” he said. “I suspect the reports would reveal that government officials knew about these murders and just sat there and did nothing to stop them.”
Gonzalez believes the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security are implicated in the cover-up at the highest levels .
“DEA de-activated Lalo after he was caught at the border with marijuana,” Gonzalez said. “But Justice Department officials went to New Mexico and pressed state law enforcement officers to drop the drug charges, so ICE could continue using Lalo as an informant against the cartel.”
Andy Ramirez, chairman of the nonprofit advocacy group Friends of the Border Patrol, told WND that Mexican officials have known about U.S. government involvement in paying Lalo to be an informant since at least 2004.
“The Mexicans are smart enough to remain silent in the ‘House of Death’ case, because they could easily blackmail the U.S. government, since the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice were involved at the highest levels in covering up the case,” Ramirez told WND.
“And they’ve done just that,” he continued, “considering the border and immigration policies that were implemented as well as prosecutions of law enforcement officers.”
Rep. Ted Poe told WND he believes the prosecution of Ramos and Compean began when the Mexican government demanded the Bush administration investigate and prosecute the Border Patrol agents.
WND also reported that in a separate case, U.S. Attorney Sutton decided to prosecute former deputy sheriff Gilmer Hernandez of Rock Springs, Texas, only after a Mexican consulate wrote a series of letters to U.S. law enforcement officers and political officials. Hernandez was sentenced to prison for discharging his weapon at a fleeing van of Mexican illegal aliens after the driver tried to run him over.
“Johnny Sutton charged that Ramos and Compean were guilty because they failed to report they had discharged their weapons against Aldrete-Davila when he fled back across the border and that they picked up their spent cartridges from the field,” Ramirez observed.
“Yet, Sutton himself has done far worse, Ramirez charged, “in covering up the tortures and murders he authorized as he continued to pay his informant Lalo, even after Sutton knew Lalo was participating in the tortures and murders in Juarez.”
Gonzalez agreed.
“I wrote a letter to Sutton from my capacity as the highest DEA official in El Paso,” he said, “and Sutton ignored my allegations that U.S. federal law enforcement officials mishandled the informant and may have been involved in criminal misconduct by allowing murders and tortures to be committed by their paid informant.”
Ramirez insisted an independent special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the case and “report back to the American people.”
Only an independent federal prosecutor with the power to investigate and prosecute can get to the bottom of this and bring those responsible to justice,” he said.
“Yet, here we have a case where alleged torture and murders took place with the full knowledge of ICE, and U.S. Attorney Sutton,” Gonzalez argued. “A cover-up by DHS and DOJ took place, yet nobody in Congress even begins to question it. Call it any name you want, but it’s still a double standard.”
A little more damning than policing up one’s brass, eh?
I suspect that many prosecutors are involved in multitudinous sleazy deals and on the wrong side of many ethical challenges.
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