Posted on 02/06/2007 6:18:29 PM PST by calcowgirl
A Department of Homeland Security official admitted today the agency misled Congress when it contended it possessed investigative reports proving Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean confessed guilt and declared they "wanted to shoot some Mexicans" prior to the incident that led to their imprisonment.
The admission came during the testimony of DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, according to Michael Green, press secretary for Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas.
Culberson was questioning Skinner about a meeting DHS officials had Sept. 26 with him and three other Republican congressman from Texas, Reps. Ted Poe, Michael McCaul and Kenny Marchant.
WND previously reported that at that meeting the DHS Inspector General's office asserted it had documentary evidence Ramos and Compean:
2. stated during the interrogation they did not believe the suspect was a threat to them at the time of the shooting;
3. stated that day they "wanted to shoot a Mexican";
4. were belligerent to investigators;
5. destroyed evidence and lied to investigators.
This prompted a startled and angry response from the congressman.
"You lied to me and you lied to all of us," Culberson charged. "Your office tried to paint a picture of Ramos and Compean as dirty cops, and now you come before this committee and tell us you never had the information to back up those claims."
Ramos and Compean began prison sentences last month after their actions in the shooting of a drug smuggler who was granted immunity to testify against them.
Responding to Skinner's testimony yesterday, Poe said it "explains why DHS has been stonewalling Congress."
"DHS didn't turn over the reports to us to back up their September 26 accusations for one simple reason – the reports never existed," the Texas congressman said.
"Why did it take DHS four months to admit their error?" he asked. "I wonder how much more has DHS told the public and Congress about Ramos and Compean that simply isn't true?"
Poe said he's determined to get to the bottom of DHS's claim.
"I expect this new revelation will lead to a lot more questions before we're done," he said.
Andy Ramirez, who has been involved with the case as chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol, told WND the DHS's actions "represent obstruction of justice, and they should be held in contempt of Congress, and, if possible, prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
"This admission today is yet more proof of how they are willing to distort the facts, as I have charged all along, in order to ensure a conviction," he said.
I was involved in a legal proceeding where some subpoenaed documents somehow just couldn't be delivered until a day after the proceeding, too late to do me any good. An accident? Very dubious, especially considering that I was charged for each copy and the opposing side got them free. When the system is determined that you lose, you will lose. It's very easy to rig things like that, and it's no laughing matter. The government is corrupt through and through. I worked there for years; that's how I know.
Hehehe, you can't get an attorney to flick their boogers at you for less than $200 an hour. Why waste billable hours on hand holding in a prison, when they should be spending their financial reserves on the appeal????
Incredibly enough the judge said they would be flight risks to go to Mexico. The term may well have been low security rather than low risk. Apparently prisons with cells are primarily for high risk offenders.
I'm just being silly, I guess. But seems to me, before I go on Fox News I would want to have a few facts! Just saying, that's all...
I was referring to your comment about GWB. I believe he was born in CT.
Did you even read this article?
I'd be a fool to believe that such things never happen and I certainly do not consider that a laughing matter. However, this is a high profile case. That is one "fact" that we can all agree on. This case is under severe scrutiny by not only the public but by members of Congress right up to the office of the President. Either the transcripts aren't available yet due to procedural requirements or they are intentionally being withheld. Either way "they" will have to release the transcripts and either way, we will eventually know why we had to wait so long for them.
But supposedly these agents are really hard-core criminals, worthy of an unprecedented (for cops) sentence for "using guns in the commission of a crime." Why then would they be in a "low-security" institution?
And why would they flee to Mexico, where there are drug gangs (some of whom have openly threatened them), who assassinate cops and behead them? Maybe rednesss can help us, because he is so good at seeing through what he considers implausible stories/s
It would be hard to imagine a more high-profile case than that of Sandy Burglar, but the Bush Justice Dept. has succeeded in keeping the lid on that one, too, and we peons will never, ever know the truth about it. Or about Whitewater (pretty high-profile, wouldn't you say?), Marc Rich and the rest of Pardongate, Chinagate, etc.
Every big business buys influence. That's about all Congress and the rest of govt. is good for these days: selling influence. It should surprise no one if the drug cartels, some of the most lucrative enterprises in the world, haven't infiltrated our government, including Federal agencies and law enforcement. Organized crime has done so everywhere else in the world, and the U.S. is no exception.
"Either way "they" will have to release the transcripts and either way, we will eventually know why we had to wait so long for them."
Let's hope no one gets cute and redacts pertinent passages, citing national security concerns.
Where is your source for your accusations? Links, please.
Believe me, if Someone Important wanted those transcripts expedited, they would be. As someone else has posted, the govt. has no interest in seeing them released soon, if ever. ( I wouldn't even put it past them to doctor the transcripts.) They know that every delay is painful and dangerous for the agents.
"Let's hope no one gets cute and redacts pertinent passages, citing national security concerns."
If small-time government crooks, like cops in the Balto. Co., MD police, can doctor reports after the fact, imagine what the boys in the Federal govt. can do. I think the DHS is quickly emerging as a real monster, and a threat to all our freedoms.
Ah, but the defense has every interest in getting these transcripts expedited and released. If these transcripts should have been available by now and aren't (conspiracy theories are flying), wouldn't you think that the lawyers for Ramos and Compean would be all over the MSM by now?
I heard that Ramos had been nominated for Agent of the Year before this affair happened. Someone really needs to track down the records on this case, and the source of all these rumors pro and con. I do know that when the govt. really wants to smear somebody, they have many ways of doing it. Obviously what Ramos did to Aldrete-Davila did not merit 12 years of hard time. He must have ticked off somebody important to get that kind of prosecution.
You're citing aztlan.com? Isn't that a La Raza-type site, advocating "reconquista" of the Southwest by Mexico?
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