Judge: Gov't must provide records or say why not (re: drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 2/26/09 | Nedra Pickler - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON – A judge has ordered the federal government to turn over documents related to the shooting of a fleeing drug smuggler or explain why it's withholding them. The shooting led to the imprisonment and presidential commutation of two U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, filed Freedom of Information Act requests two years ago with the departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security for records relating to the drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila.

The departments did not provide any records, so the group filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington.

In response to the lawsuit, the government said the Davila records were "clearly exempt" from Freedom of Information Act requests because they would be an invasion of privacy. Therefore the government did not conduct a search for all relevant records.

[DTogo]

Ramos and Compean deserve some payback - BIG TIME!

[Dov in Houston]

“Uncle Sam” needs to payback bigtime on this one. Ramos and Compean went to prison while a drug smuggler was granted immunity to smuggle another load (or two) into the US and testify against the agents who shot him in the butt. IMHO they should have brought him down instead of hitting his a$$

[AuntB]

Invasion of privacy, my big toe!

I was about to post this article, thanks, NormsRevenge

I hope this judge digs all the way up the chain of this phoney mess. They SHOULD find plenty of bending over by DHS lawyers to please Mexico.....

Exposing the Dept. of Job Security (who is Philip Perry?)
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=+Exposing+the+Dept.+of+Job+Security+%28who+is+Philip+Perry%3F%29

[snip] It appears Philip Perry (Head council for DHS-Married to Dick Cheney’s daughter) may have also been involved with the Ramos/Compean prosecution and resulting ‘confusion’ over statements, testimony, investigation by Homeland Security. Perry resigned this month to ‘spend more time with family’.

Remember Skinner is the one who admitted to congressmen last week that Homeland Security had ‘misled them’ about statements Ramos and Compean made to the Homeland security investigator.

The full article mentions Duncan Hunter being one, along with GAO and others, who has questioned the problems of DHS council’s office under Perry.

[Cyropaedia]

Remember, Rep. Dana Rohrbacher discovered through FOIA requests that the DEA told the DoJ that OAD had been impliciated in a another major drug transport, and yet the DOJ still arranged for OAD to have two additional passes ("Golden Tickets") allowing him unaccompanied, unlimited, entries into this country for designated periods of time.

[calcowgirl]

PING!

RAMOS/COMPEAN Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on or off this list.

[Pelham]

This could get interesting. I hope Johnny Sutton will be worried to hear of this.

[calcowgirl]

Despite warnings pointing out the obvious, they sent R&C to high security prisons filled with gangbangers who quickly beat up Ramos. Instead of transferring R&C to a club-fed type prison, they put them in solitary confinement for two years, treatment usually afforded only the most unruly criminals.

By comparison, Aldrete Davila is sitting in Fort Worth FCI, a "low security institution housing male offenders."

Doncha just love this form of "justice"? /s

Name                    Register #  Age-Race-Sex  Release Date   Location 
OSVALDO ALDRETE-DAVILA  09567-280    28-White-M   02-24-2016     FORT WORTH FCI  

[AndrewC]

In response to the lawsuit, the government said the Davila records were "clearly exempt" from Freedom of Information Act requests because they would be an invasion of privacy.

A truly breathtaking hypocrisy in light of this statement by Sutton.

Reality: Agent Ramos has never received any formal recognition or award for being the Border Patrol Agent of the year. In fact, he has been arrested on at least two occasions for domestic abuse and was formally disciplined for conduct unbecoming a federal officer.

So much for invasion of privacy.

[AuntB]

“By comparison, Aldrete Davila is sitting in Fort Worth FCI, a “low security institution housing male offenders.””

Maddening!

[FOXFANVOX]

Hi CC. This is very interesting. Philip Perry came to my attention when I was nosing around Google for Ramos-Compean info. His close connection with Michael Chertoff [rotating in and out of the same high powered Latham and Watkins legal firm in DC and the associations of both with Homeland Security] as well as the connection of both to Pres. Bush made for an interesting conspiracy theory on why Ramos and Compean got steamed rolled. Being the Veep's son-in-law added more intrigue. Intensive Searching for info on Perry led me to believe he may have used his super secret connections to scrub the Internet of any pertinent info. No proof, just my feeling.

The snip repeated below from AuntB makes this connection seem worthy of "objective" investigation.

************************************************************ [snip] It appears Philip Perry (Head council for DHS-Married to Dick Cheney’s daughter) may have also been involved with the Ramos/Compean prosecution and resulting ‘confusion’ over statements, testimony, investigation by Homeland Security. Perry resigned this month to ‘spend more time with family’.

Remember Skinner is the one who admitted to congressmen last week that Homeland Security had ‘misled them’ about statements Ramos and Compean made to the Homeland security investigator.

The full article mentions Duncan Hunter being one, along with GAO and others, who has questioned the problems of DHS council’s office under Perry.

************************************************************

Let's hope this can lead to some resolution for the Border Agents as to why the full power of Johnny Sutton's office was brought to bear on them. And why a smear campaign against the agents was waged in congress and in the press by DHS and Sutton.