Head of union wants probe of case against 'innocent men doing their job'
Posted: January 18, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The head of a union representing most Border Patrol agents is calling on President Bush and Congress to appoint a special counsel to investigate the case of agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who began prison sentences yesterday for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler.
TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 60 percent of the nation's agents, called the convictions an outrage.
"This case involves two innocent men doing their job, trying to secure our borders," he told WND. "They were defending themselves against an armed drug smuggler, and yet they end up in prison. How is that possible?"
On Tuesday, federal Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso, Texas, denied Ramos' and Compean's contention they were not a flight risk and rejected their motion to stay out of prison on bond while they appeal their case to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Bonner told WND the agents' imprisonment will have a detrimental effect on the willingness of Border Patrol agents to go out and enforce immigration laws.
"The Bush administration is sending a message to all law enforcement officers," Bonner told WND, "that it is to be 'hands off the border, leave it wide open, don't you dare do your jobs or you too will end up in federal prison.' "After this travesty of justice," he continued, "why would any Border Patrol agent stick their neck out trying to apprehend a Mexican drug smuggler, especially when you realize that you could be the one who ends up behind bars?"
The Bush administration continues to argue on background that Ramos and Compean lied to Border Patrol officials and covered up evidence, asserting the Mexican drug smuggler was not armed and had attempted to surrender peacefully.
Bonner disagrees, arguing there were "only three people who saw what happened on the other side of that levee – Agent Ramos, Agent Compean, and the Mexican drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila."
"The agents testified that the drug smuggler did not have his hands up, that he was running away, and that he pointed an object at them that they believed to be a gun. So, the agents opened fire," Bonner said. "Essentially, what the White House is saying is that they believe the word of a drug smuggler over the word of two sworn federal agents."
The Bush administration further charges Ramos and Compean failed to file a report that was required after their weapons had been discharged.
Bonner argues that under Border Patrol policy, Ramos and Compean were required to make an oral report, not a written report.
"The agents did fail to make an oral report, but under Border Patrol policy, that failure merits at most a five-day suspension. It is not a crime, it is an administrative violation."
Bonner said a lot of Americans are wondering why the Bush administration seems to be making an effort to represent the case the way the drug smuggler wants it seen.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53823
They don't throw this many charges at guys they've caught with over 2,000 pounds of marijuana," Ramos said. "There's murderers and child rapists that are looking at less time than me.
Ramos, 37, and Compean, 28, are set to be sentenced Aug. 22 for shooting Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican citizen, on Feb. 17, 2005, in the small Texas town of Fabens, about 40 miles south east of El Paso.
A Texas jury convicted the pair of assault with serious bodily injury; assault with a deadly weapon; discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence; and a civil rights violation. Compean and Ramos also were convicted of four counts and two counts, respectively, of obstruction of justice for not reporting that their weapons had been fired.
The jury acquitted both men of assault with intent to commit murder.
But the conviction for discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence requires a minimum 10-year prison sentence. The sentences for the other convictions vary.
On July 25, the El Paso U.S. Probation Office recommended to Judge Kathleen Cardone that each man get 20 years.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4141562
This is worse than unjust. What is up with president Bush? He pardons drug dealers during Christmas, but won't pardon the two federal border agents. Maybe if they had Euro-american sounding names, they would've been pardoned.
Provides links to info about Bush pardons of drug dealers...
http://www.nbpc.net/
Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean - America shames itself by your prosecutions.
Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos Jose Compean
http://agentramos.blogspot.com/
http://ramos-compean.blogspot.com/
Tom Tangredo was guest on O'Reilly Factor this evening.
http://tancredo.house.gov/irc/WYB.2006.06.22.html
O'Reilly didn't have a clue - he kept saying the two agents broke the law - they hid the facts, covered-up. He said he thought they'd be pardoned, eventually, but they needed to be made an example so we don't have more border patrol agents "breaking the law."
Right O'Reilly, let's make an example of them for an administrative mistake, but let the illegal aliens free reign.
O'Reilly spent a portion of the segment on the border agents, then moved on to Tancredo's presidential bid. He said, you won't win... you make too much sense.
That was extremely odd, wasn't it?
O'Reilly must have read this: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/border-agents.htm
Devvy Kidd viewpoint
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd206.htm
Why is it Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are held to a higher standard than Bush. This is what is puzzling.
We have yet to learn what President Bush knew about potential threats to U.S. before September 11, 2001. Was there a cover-up? Bush didn't even testify to the 9/11 Commission under oath or in public hearing. Was there a cover-up? We have yet to have any decent questions answered about when precisely Bush knew that a plane or more than one plane may have been hijacked that morning. Was there a cover-up?
We'll never know, because President Bush escapes accountability by the 9/11 Commission hearings, and there have been no Congressional hearings wherein President Bush has been required to testify under oath.
The inaction of Bush to pardon these two men is the downfall of Bush. It is all down hill from this point forward. Whereas many political conservatives supported Bush on the war on terror, they are leaving his camp in droves on this border security issue. They will leave quicker after Bush's failure to pardon law enforcement agents who faced death day in and day out.
We need our Congressional reps to do more than they are doing. Obviously, letters to President Bush and AG are not enough.
Dana Rohrabacher
http://rohrabacher.house.gov/news/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=50972
Phyllis Schlafly
...
How did the prosecution go from an administrative violation for failing to report a firearm discharge, with the penalty of perhaps a 5-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 immunity-motivated repeat 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 U.S. 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 December 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, 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."...
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2007/jan07/07-01-03.html
January 14, 2007 at 13:23:58
An Open Letter to All Border Patrol Agents by Doc Farmer
Dear Border Patrol Agents, Officers, and Employees,
excerpt
There have been many calls for the president to provide a pardon for these two gentlemen. Fifty-one congressmen signed a letter asking the president to intervene on their behalf. Well, George W. Bush did issue some pardons a short while back. However, he was apparently too busy pardoning convicted drug dealers to get around to pardoning two men who were wrongly prosecuted and persecuted for trying to stop a drug trafficker who was illegally in our country.
Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are scheduled to report to prison on January 17, 2006. Illegal Alien and Drug Smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davilla is laughing all the way to the bank.
If this isn't a perversion of justice, I don't know what is.
There are nearly 30,000 border patrol agents, officers and employees currently out there, doing a very necessary but very hard job.
Now I, as an American, am going to ask you to do something very, very hard.
I'm asking all of you, on January 17, 2006, to quit your jobs.
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=173146
2 Border Patrol Agents to Turn Themselves in Today for Shooting Mexican Drug Runner
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 By Liza Porteus
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244193,00.html
Border agents sent to prison
Angry Republican congressman calls President Bush 'disgrace'
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53805
Pardon Border Agents, Mr. President By Mike Blair
Fifty-one members of Congress on Dec. 11 sent a letter to President Bush
asking that he commute the sentences of or pardon two U.S. Border Patrol officers sentenced to a combined 20 years for shooting a fleeing illegal alien drug trafficker they had caught smuggling 80 pounds of marijuana and 20 pounds of cocaine across the border from Mexico.
Presidential press secretary Tony Snow has called the pardon issue “nonsensical.” But the appeal to the president, headed by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), urges Bush to issue “Christmas pardons.”
Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean encountered Osbaldo Aldrete-Davilla on Feb. 17, 2005, in a van containing drugs near a levee road along the Rio Grande River, near the Texas town of Febens...
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/pardon_border_agents.html
Border Agents Plead for 'Christmas Pardon.'
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759777/posts
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush issued 16 pardons Thursday and commuted the sentence of an Iowa man convicted of drug charges.
Six of the federal offenses were drug crimes, while others included bank fraud, mail fraud, the acceptance of a kickback, a false statement on a loan application and conspiracy to defraud the government over taxes.
Seven of the 16 received no prison or jail time, instead getting probation or a reduction in their military pensions.
The longest sentence was nine years, for aiding cocaine distribution, followed by a six-year term for conspiracy to possess marijuana.
With this batch, Bush has issued 113 pardons and commuted three sentences in his nearly six years in the White House, according to spokesman Tony Fratto.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/21/bush.pardons.ap/index.html
More
http://freedomfolks.blogspot.com/2006/12/remember-ramos-and-compean.html
http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/compeaniv1be.html
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