Posted on 01/03/2007 2:22:00 PM PST by NapkinUser
President Bush pardoned 16 criminals including five drug dealers at Christmastime, but so far has refused to pardon the two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were trying to defend Americans against drug smugglers. It makes us wonder which side the self-proclaimed "compassionate" president is on.
Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were guarding the Mexican border near El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 17, 2005, when they intercepted a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana. For what happened next, they were convicted and sentenced under a statute that was designed to impose heavy punishment on criminal drug smugglers caught in the commission of a crime.
The two agents are scheduled to start 11-year and 12-year prison terms, respectively, on Jan. 17, for the crime of putting one bullet in the buttocks of the admitted drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, and failing to report the discharge of their firearms. The nonfatal bullet didn't stop the smuggler from running to escape in a van waiting for him on the Mexican side of the border.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) called the two agents heroes. "Because of their actions, more than a million dollars in illegal drugs were stopped from being sold to our children. Bringing felony charges against them is a travesty of justice beyond description."
The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice are stonewalling requests for a presidential pardon from 55 members of Congress and U.S. citizens who have sent at least 160,000 petitions and 15,000 faxes. When the Bush administration deigns to respond at all, the official line is that the Border Patrol agents got a fair trial.
But that's not true; they didn't get a fair trial. They were convicted because the Justice Department sent investigators into Mexico, tracked down the drug smuggler, and gave him immunity from all prosecution for his drug smuggling crimes if he would please come back and testify against Ramos and Compean.
It was massively unfair to give immunity to an illegal alien narcotics trafficker while destroying the lives and families of two Border Patrol agents who risked their lives to stop him. Ramos and Compean were convicted mainly on the testimony of the immunity-sheltered drug smuggler, whose integrity should have been called into question, but Ramos and Compean were forbidden to do that during the trial.
The prosecutor even tried to get Ramos and Compean convicted of attempted murder! The jury acquitted them of that outlandish charge, but the government still asked for a sentence of 20 years for the other counts on which they were convicted.
How did the prosecution go from an administrative violation for failing to report a firearm discharge, with the penalty of perhaps a five-day suspension, to prosecution for intent to commit murder?
After the trial, two jurors gave sworn statements that they had been pressured to render a guilty verdict and did not understand that a hung jury was possible.
A major argument used by the prosecution during the trial was that our government has a policy forbidding agents from chasing suspected drug smugglers without first getting permission from supervisors. That sounds like a no-arrest policy. By the time an agent gets permission, a smuggler can be out of sight and safely back over the border.
There were a couple of factual discrepancies between the smuggler's story and the agents' testimony, but the government chose to believe the drug smuggler rather than Border Patrol agents with clean records. Ramos was nominated for Border Patrol Agent of the year in 2005, and Compean served honorably in the Navy before joining the Border Patrol.
The Bush administration tidied up Aldrete's wound at a U.S. hospital at our expense and opened the way for him to sue the U.S. government for $5 million for violating his civil rights, which he is now doing.
This case exposes the misplaced priorities of the Bush administration. The case also reminds us that our Border Patrol agents are in daily danger from hardened criminals.
The Department of Homeland Security issued this Officer Safety Alert on Dec. 21, 2005: "Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers ... have agreed that the best way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of contract killers." The alert cautions that to perform the killings, the smugglers intend to use the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) street gang, known for its unspeakable atrocities and torture.
T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. said: "There is a palpable sense of outrage and betrayal. Here, you have five convicted drug dealers being pardoned, and two Border Patrol agents, who were doing their job, fighting the war on drugs on the front lines, and they're going to prison."
This case is a test of Bush's character, compassion, and concern for drugs coming across our border. He can't duck responsibility: the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, and the judge, Kathleen Cardone, are both Bush appointees.
Nope. You?
Nope. You?
Written From Personal Notes
by El Paso Businessman Joe Loya
Father-in Law of Falsely Convicted Agent Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos
Well, ok then.
Free Nacho.
You "swat" by asking irrelevant questions and calling people fags?
You represent your ilk well.
Your fellow agents were found guilty.
Do you disagree?
When the OBL's children can't get a job because they don't speak Spanish, their property is constantly being stolen and destroyed, their schools are filled with non-English speaking kids and they themselves have to speak Spanish to get things done like I have to do, then they will change.
You agents and your Union are part of the problem. Yet, you whine the loudest.
Now this is all news to me. The normal procedure is to call the defendant's attorney and arrange a surrender. Sending in Federal Officers like this is a well known "authorized nonjudicial execution", ala Ruby Ridge or Waco.
As we know from the Ruby Ridge affair, federal officers are immune when they kill to arrange a disposition that the government wants. I lost all respect for Bush after he sent the goon squad in after Dog Chapman to serve a warrant for the Mexican government.
Oh well, one can't build a New World Order without breaking a few eggs.
Do you disagree with Bush's recent pardons?
So how much time have in working in the lawn 'forcement biz?
I know a set up and throw down when I see one.
I have no idea what you're talking about. Care to rephrase?
OK. I just did here. Anxiously awaiting your reply.
The Border Patrol it seems would be much safer handing out bottles of water and maps to the US along the border.
You really should educate yourself. For starters, read "Compromised, Bush - Clinton - Cocaine", by Terry Reed and John Cummings.
Lest anyone try to call "tin foil hat", just remember Clinton's good buddy and well known purveyor of truth, Strobe Talbot used two pages of Time Magazine to attack it's author before publication.
And anyone who a tiny bit of knowledge knows that State Police Captains that serve as Chief of the Governor's Security don't have time to work federal cases involving interstate fraud.
Heck, Captain Buddy Young had his hands full just shuttling bimbos and restocking the throat lozenges supply.
After you read it, get back to me if you have any questions. ;^)
The two border agents were convicted of Obstruction of Justice. Your "points" are irrelevant to the case.
The success he and his fellow OBL ankle biters had in getting Travis McGee banned has gone to their pointy little heads. Now, they think all they have to do is issue a threat and the rest of us will retreat.
They ought to know better.
They ought to know better.
Much like the felons you're defending.
And much like the illegal alien law breakers you inexcusably defend.
Not me. I leave doing la Raza's propaganda work to the experts around here. Didn't they share with you?
I get a kick out of how bravely they attack McGee since he's not here to answer back. You can just picture their chests swelling in pride as they admire their own courage. lol.
The point is, at the moment the trigger was pulled, did the officers think they were threaten with harm?
If that is correct, then what we have is an administrative procedural violation.
But it's well within the realm of possibilities that after the so called victim fled, the officers found something in the vehicle which told them this suspect was operating under the protection of someone high up in the US political system. That would be sufficient motivation to try and hide any evidence.
The great lengths which the government has gone to give the suspect in essence, a 'license to deal dope', plus the fact that SWAT teams were sent in to effect the arrests, kind of indicates they stumbled onto a 'approved' operation.
So someone is basically making sure the smugglers have protection.
Think of it as OSHA for the dope dealing crowd.
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