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.
That is a false statement.
Several - because GW Bush doesn't seem interested in the TRUTH...
I am honestly beginning to think that the Democrats are right about impeachment - just wrong on the grounds. IT has nothing to do with Iraq...and everything to do with corruption and the giveaway of our national sovereignty. THE wrongful imprisonment of these two BP officers was a warning to the BP and all who enforce the border (what a joke) - stay out of the way of the illegal drugs and the coyotes....or you will go to prison too.
Flame Suit on....
Nope. Not interested. Unlike the Duke case, this one already went to trial. I am not interested in one sided presentation of the evidence to the public after the trial.
The problem is that there is plenty of information out there on this case and both sides make good arguments. But now that the trial is over, there are other, more pressing issues. This is not as lopsided as some would have you believe. I can only spend so much of my 24 hour days applying mental energy to a case that has already been through court.
Now, if I was their appeals attorney, I would have a different perspective.
He should just be glad he wasn't yakking on a cellphone. Can you imagine what the sentence might have been then?!
They only prepare transcripts if someone will pay for them. Why pay to have transcripts if you are found not guilty? In this case, transcripts weren't ordered until November 16, after the October sentencing.
Scratch that part. What I was thinking is why request transcripts if you didn't think you were going to appeal (which would depend on all of the other motions in process after the conviction). Only when they found out that they would get 11 and 12 years, and only after all of their motions (including those requesting reduced sentencing) had been denied, did they request the transcript as the appeal process looks like the only resort.
>>You honestly believe that if a federal agent discharges his firearm while on duty at a suspect, that there is no requirement for him to submit anything in writing????
Yep. Read the Firearms Policy yourself. It's all there.
http://www.nbpc.net/Miscellaneous/firearms.pdf
I'm surprised no one appears to be interested in the least, that Aldrete-Davila, after miraculously high-tailing it across Mexico with a bullet fragment in his butt, had his *mother* call the *mother-in-law* of Rene Sanchez of the CBP, and not only that, but Aldrete-Davila was driven to El Paso for treatment by Sanchez' mother-in-law, which raises a few questions, in my mind. How on earth did this drug runner's mama even know the telephone number? Are they related? Sounds like it, especially since Sanchez' wife's mother took the turd to the hospital.
One article I read stated that Davila and Sanchez were friends in Mexico. If true, we have a BP agent in Tucson who is buddies with a cartel drug runner and all things aside that does concern me a great deal.
What a cozy little coincidence, a drug runner and a border patrol agent grow up together in Mexico, and the drug runner runs drugs across the border where his childhood buddy patrols.
Here's some stuff on Sanchez. A cozy family friend:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54023
Office of Inspector General - Investigations
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
MEMORANDUM OF ACTIVITY
Type of Activity: Telephonic Interview with Rene Sanchez
Case Number: I05-BCBP-ELP-07117
Case Title: Unknown Border Patrol Agent
(snip)
On March 10, 2005, at approximately 11:45 PM, BP Agent Rene Sanchez, Wilcox Border Patrol Station, Arizona, telephonically contacted Special Agent Christopher Sanchez, DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), Office of Investigations, El Paso Resident Office, and provided the following information.
Rene Sanchez stated that Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila's mother, Marcadia Aldrete-Davila, contacted Rene Sanchez' mother-in-law Gregoria Toquinto and advised her about the BP Agent(s) shooting Aldrete-Davila. Toquinto told her son-in-law Rene Sanchez of the incident and he spoke to Osbaldo via a telephone call.
Osbaldo told Rene Sanchez that he was attempting to return to Mexico after a BP Agent caught him entering the United States illegally. Osbaldo told Rene Sanchez that the BP Agent that stopped him was a Hispanic male and that Osbaldo believed he could identify him because he would not forget the face of the BP Agent that shot at him and called him Mexicano mierda, which means "Mexican Shit." Osbaldo told Rene Sanchez that he heard five or six gunshots before he eventually was hit in the groin. Osbaldo told Rene Sanchez that he was shot on the United States side of the Rio Grande River.
Rene Sanchez said that his mother in law Gregoria Toquinto went to Mexico to help her friend Marcadia take her son Osbaldo to the Mexican consulate to report the shooting incident. However, Osbaldo declined to go. Marcadia advised Toquinto that Osbaldo did not want to report the incident because he had actually been transporting a load of marijuana and was afraid the Mexican and/or U.S. authorities would put him in jail.
Somebody needs to check out the family connections here, because this is just a little above and beyond for mere friends.
I agree with you RC. I've felt this was grounds for an Internal Affairs investigation just based on the little we all know about Sanchez/Davila.
Where are the investigative reporters looking to make a name for themselves?
susie
Unfortunately, OIG is an internal affairs investigation, and they are the ones that went after Compean and Ramos and gave Sanchez immunity. And now we have the OIG telling lies to Congressmen.
I'm in favor of a special congressional investigation, or special prosecutor.
I don't have a lot of confidence, these days, in special prosecutors. Perhaps Congress will make enough noise to get the attention of the people out there in flyover country who don't think we have a problem.
You are wrong. I'm certain that the two BP agents have denied bing guilty of crimes.
Is it a remote possibility that this looks FUBAR because the Feds are working to keep something from being jeopardized; like a brewing sting operation against certain buddy-buddy BP agents, officials, and drug runners?
Just a passing thought, but it could explain why the Bush Administration's treatment of Ramos and Compean seems so weird; they're being kept on ice as a form of window dressing so that the real targets of the sting don't get spooked.
I would like to think you are on to something. At this point I don't know what to think for certain.
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