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.
"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."
The idea of a "pardon" for the two Border Patrol agents makes me sick. These two heroes -- DEFENDING their(our)Country -- deserve an apology from the traitor(s)that now occupy seats of power in our now rogue government.
Pardons are for criminals, such as, traitors -- those who would put the interest of a foreign Government, before the interest of their own countrymen -- not heroes that DEFEND those very countrymen, that the former would betray.
So I am calling on Bush to offer an apology to these heroes; and, while he's at it, maybe the rest of the Country also.
You and yours are defending illegal felons right now.
You and yours also failed to to link a single instanse of me, "illegal alien law breakers you inexcusably defend".
You lose, again.
Are you still maintaining that this travesty is "justice"? I thought you came to your senses on yesterday's thread.
You're not alone.
The point is, at the moment the trigger was pulled, did the officers think they were threaten with harm?
Which of the 15 times they pulled the trigger?
...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.
It would still be a felony. I'll run that by Mike Rivero.
You, again, thought wrong.
Think: keyboard commandos.
There isn't a single loyal American conservative to be found in their pathetic little pack.
Travis is a loyal American conservative. He was also a Navy Seal.
I just catch as many as possible--That's why I asked you if you know anything about drug smuggling or if you yourself smuggle drugs.
Of course I am insisting that Ramos and Compean receive a full pardon and more!!!
American citizens and agents on the front line should not be punished for reporting criminal drug, human and illegal alien's illegal entries into the U.S. Ramos and Compean were doing the job they were hired to do. The piece of crap drug runner is a criminal law breaker and will be treated as such.
That is your right.
American citizens and agents on the front line should not be punished for reporting criminal drug, human and illegal alien's illegal entries into the U.S. Ramos and Compean were doing the job they were hired to do.
It's also your right to be a dishonest tool.
They were not convicted for "reporting criminal drug, human and illegal alien's illegal entries into the U.S."...
They were jury convicted for Obstruction of Justice. Why omit that info?
Ramos and Compean were doing the job they were hired to do.
Again, completely false.
Talk about "pathetic little pack"...you're soaking in it.
Although I disagree with you, I do admire your succinct & hard-hitting rebuttals.
And indeed it is. Not a single loyal American conservative to be found in that cesspool of illegal alien enthusiasts. Not one.
We need sanity for their supervisors.
No such thing on FR. You Patsies are in Fantasyland, as usual.
Let's talk about felonious illegal alien Border Patrol shooters.
Patsies avoid the thread's topic when they have no argument, as usual.
Well, I'm not familiar with the situation so I don't know what I would do.
Yet, you said you disagree with me on post 70.
Perhaps you should choose a position before disagreeing with people.
I'd rather talk about law breaking illegal aliens.
And loyal American conservatives...
You don't mind do you?
No, you'd rather badger me, which is against Forum rules, because you're wrong about these felonious agents.
So transparent are the Patsies.
Ah, there you go with your little nasal whine about Forum rules.
"So transparent are the Patsies."
But not nearly as transparent as the pro-illegal alien defenders.
Lol!
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