Originally Posted by Jeanfromfillmore
Torres has connections to the Obama administration and has visited the White House. He was co-chair of Governor O’Malley’s transition team, serves on O’Malley’s Council for New Americans where they meet regularly behind closed doors, and has many friends in both the state legislature and Montgomery County government. His current wife, Sonia Mora, works for Montgomery County and serves on O’Malley’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
Mystery Man
For years, the only information publicly available about Torres was an abbreviated bio on the CASA website and a few Washington Post articles that parroted that information.28 He had apparently fled Colombia in 1987, where his brother was killed a few months later by “paramilitary forces,” went to Nicaragua or El Salvador, depending on the version, and came to the U.S. four years later.
None of CASA’s early leaders were willing to discuss him. Bette Hoover stated flatly, “If you want to know anything about Gustavo, you will have to ask him yourself.”29
We attempted to do that—for three months. We were initially scheduled for an interview on March 4th. The morning of the interview, they cancelled, but assured us they would reschedule… later. Over the ensuing months, requests were met with delays, apologies or simply unreturned calls.
CASA’s community organizer, Kim Propeack, finally informed us, “Mr. Torres is very busy and while he makes himself available for many interviews, we must prioritize them based on size of readership. In light of that, we have decided that your outlets are not a priority.”30
On July 14, 2011, however, The Washington Post published an obsequious profile of Torres by reporter David Montgomery. It gave the first detailed account of his life prior to coming here.31
Torres supposedly grew up in Medellin, Colombia. He came to the U.S. with a woman he met in Nicaragua, and married here. In 1995 he obtained citizenship, and divorced in 1996.
Between 1987 and 1991, he worked for a Sandinista newspaper in Nicaragua, which means he supported their communist revolution.
Prior to the Post article, he went to great lengths to keep a low profile. His Facebook page, shown here, provides little information, not even acknowledging his marital status.
The “friends” connections, however, establish this to be Torres. Among them are CASA de Maryland, friendly Maryland legislators and significantly, ACORN founder, Wade Rathke.
Torres’ Politics—No Mystery
Torres has organized public rallies and functions with the American Communist Party, Free the Cuban Five Committee (a Cuban front group demanding release of convicted Cuban spies), FMLN (DC branch), CISPES, and a litany of other communist, socialist and radical leftist open borders groups and individuals.
The YouTube screen capture (left) shows Torres protesting deportation of illegals in front of DHS. Watch the video.
In 2007, Torres participated in a five-day conference in Venezuela debating prospects for communist revolution in America. Torres was joined by such luminaries as Ward Churchill, the college professor fired for comparing 9-11 victims to “Little Eichmanns,” Dada Maheshvarananda, founder of the communist-alternative Prout Institute, representatives from the Socialist Workers Party, the Black Panther Party, and many others.32
Torres emphasized the importance of securing the Hispanic vote:
Both Torres and Antonio González, president of the Southwest Voter Education and Registration Project, said the road to “empowerment” is organizing Latinos to vote. “What does a revolutionary do in the U.S. today?” asked González. “Take power wherever you can” by electing Latinos to city, state, and federal offices.33
Torres serves on the Board of Directors of Organizer’s Forum, founded by Community-Organizer-in-Chief, ACORN’s Wade Rathke. Despite the complete lack of biographical information about him here, membership on this board marks Torres as a prominent member of America’s radical left.
This fall, 2011, Forum members are taking a trip to Egypt:
“There are exciting changes and developments that are currently taking place in Egypt with elections coming soon to determine leadership transitions in what has been an autocratic regime, now challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood and succession and democracy issues. (Emphasis added).”
It is believed that American radicals were involved in fomenting this year’s Middle East unrest.34 Was Torres involved in that too?
Torres’ Attitude—No Mystery
Reporting on the 2009 May Day rallies that occurred all over the United States, Socialist Worker quotes Torres, the leader of DC’s rally:
Emcee Gustavo Torres stressed that “Obama is our president not our savior,” arguing that only struggle will win broad legalization for the undocumented, (emphasis added).35
Torres threatened Minutemen volunteers monitoring CASA’s day labor centers for illegals:
We are going to target them in a specific way… Casa representatives will go out with cameras and video cameras to record the Minutemen, but that will only be the first step. Then we are going to picket their houses, and the schools of their kids, and go to their work. If they are going to do this to us, we are going to respond in the same way, to let people know their neighbors are extremists, that they are anti-immigrant. They are going to hear from us.36
Torres participated in a large demonstration on the eve of the vote for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill in 2006. CISPES quoted him as saying: “if they don’t pay attention to us now the next step is civil disobedience.”37
Torres has said: “This is the country I chose to live in… But I didn’t choose to be quiet, and to not push for changes. If I did these kinds of things in Colombia, I’d have been killed a long time ago.”38
And what could he be doing that would make him say such a thing? Helping poor “immigrants?” No.
He wants to do just what he was doing in Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela: agitating for communist revolution, this time in America.
All on your tax dollars.
CASA’s Radical Connections
Maryland Delegate Pat McDonough characterizes CASA as “a globally significant organization.”39 He is right. Torres’ and CASA’s radical associations place CASA among a vast network of communist, socialist and radical leftist organizations with international reach.
These associations are too extensive to explore in this essay. For an in-depth description of CASA’s radical connections, including a blowup of the flowchart illustration below, go to the following web link:
CASA de Maryland’s radical connections (PDF)
CASA’s Own Communist Guerilla
Given that many of those fleeing El Salvador in the 1980s were communist guerillas and FMLN supporters, it is not surprising that at least one of them should now be working for CASA. This past March, CASA representative Lindolfo Carballo spoke at a “Bring the War Dollars Home” conference sponsored by Fund Our Communities. Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin also spoke at this event.
In a video of the event, Carballo admits (right past minute 2) that he fought against both the Salvadoran Army and US forces. If true, this admission tags Carballo as a former member of the communist FMLN. While an apparently frequent CASA spokesman, Carballo is not listed among the staff on CASA’s website. Another mystery man…
Corruption and Abuse in High Places
Between August 2003 and March 2007, the State of Maryland’s Office of Legislative Audits conducted an in-depth audit of the Family Investment Administration (FIA) of Maryland’s Department of Human Resources (DHR).40 The audit found glaring problems; among other things, in 2006 alone, approximately 52,000 public assistance recipients had invalid or non-existent Social Security numbers. However, “shortcomings” were identified, “solutions” proposed and implemented. Problems solved!
Fast forward to 2009.
Paulette Faulkner has been a benefits administrator for most of her professional career. In 2009, she took a job with Montgomery County’s Office of Child Support Enforcement. Paulette is a lifelong Democrat.
Her job was to ensure compliance with child-support laws and thus had to approve all applications for welfare. Applicants are required to provide a Social Security card, picture ID and birth certificates for children.
She said that applicants began showing up with no Social Security card, expired visas and many only had a CASA ID. She would deny their benefits, as required by law.41
These applicants would then turn to her Hispanic supervisor who would reverse her decisions. Those cases that weren’t reversed were appealed and later approved by a judge.
This all struck her as very wrong, but no one in her office seemed willing to deal with the problem, so in September 2009 she wrote an e-mail to Governor O’Malley. She concluded:
What I’m confused about is this: how can an illegal immigrant appeal my decision when they are breaking the law by being in this country? Secondly how can they receive State benefits if they are illegal? … Am I aiding and abetting illegal activity? Shouldn’t I be reporting these people to ICE…?42 I am really concerned because I am a candidate for the Central Democratic Committee in my District… and I want to make sure that I am following the law.43
On October 2nd Faulkner met with DHR Deputy Secretary Stacy Rodgers. (Rodgers sits on the Governor’s Council for New Americans along with Gustavo Torres). Rodgers told Faulkner not to contact the Governor, adding that it was not her place to call ICE, and she must accept any ID with a picture on it.
Faulkner asked, “What about a CASA ID with no expiration date?” Rodgers responded that the CASA ID was a proper credential.
Faulkner informed her superiors that she would not aid and abet illegal activity. They accused her of insubordination.
On October 22nd she was called into Child Support Enforcement Director John Castellano’s office. The Director accused her of failing to inform them that she had a website for her Central Committee campaign listing her office phone. He threatened punitive action. In Faulkner’s words:
I asked Mr. Castellano if this was in relation to me sending the information regarding the applications of illegal immigrants being approved, he said to me “well did you think about the repercussions before you did that?” I told him that it should not be any repercussions because what we were doing was illegal [sic].
The next day she was ordered by her superiors to explain in writing why she was running for Democratic Central Committee in P.G. County. She went to her desk to type it but according to Faulkner, Assistant Director Debbie Hinds ordered her, humiliating her in front of her co-workers, to write her response by hand. Faulkner related:44
“I tried to explain that I suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome and that I could not write that much information by hand.”
She said that Hinds replied:
“Oh well! Mr. Castellano says you have to hand-write it.”
Faulkner says she wrote a three-page response and called her doctor because she knew she would be hurting.
On October 28, Faulkner was asked to resign or be fired. She refused to resign. She said:
“I thought it was a joke until they had the attorney in the office escort me out of the building, and they said that they would mail my belongings.”
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