[ilbegone]

Congress gets reports on jailed border patrol agents

By Sara A. Carter

02/01/2007

Long-awaited incident reports regarding the case of two convicted El Paso Border Patrol agents were delivered to Congress on Monday evening but have been classified secret from the general public.

The Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investment and Oversight obtained the report after submitting an emergency Freedom of Information Act request for the documents.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said he will not review the classified documents until they are made available to the public. Poe expects a redacted version will be made available soon.

"I want to read what the public will get to read," Poe said. "The real question regarding this case is, why did the federal government spend so much money to prosecute these Border Patrol agents and give full immunity to a known drug smuggler with more than $1 million of marijuana in his vehicle? I'm anticipating the report, but I don't suspect it will answer the question."

After five months of delays, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General delivered the documents pertaining to the case of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who were convicted last March of the nonfatal shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said last week that Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner refused to deliver what he had promised House members since September.

McCaul was one of the first House members to have the classified report but he cannot speak on the contents of it.

"The only people who can view the report are the members of Congress," said Jack Hirschfield, spokesman for McCaul. "Within the next few weeks we will get a redacted report that the public can view."

Reps. John Culberson, Kenny Marchant, McCaul and Poe - all Republicans who represent Texas - said Skinner told them during their meeting last fall that Ramos and Compean had confessed to knowingly shooting at an unarmed suspect and that they "were out to shoot Mexicans."

Ramos and Compean are now serving 11 and 12 years, respectively, in federal prison.

The drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, is suing the U.S. Border Patrol for $5 million.

http://www.sbsun.com/ci_5132071


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Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner refused to deliver what he had promised House members since September..

Reps. John Culberson, Kenny Marchant, McCaul and Poe - all Republicans who represent Texas - said Skinner told them during their meeting last fall that Ramos and Compean had confessed to knowingly shooting at an unarmed suspect and that they "were out to shoot Mexicans."

Something stinks here, an allegation last fall by the HS Security Inspector General to four Congressmen that two Border Patrol agents were "out to shoot Mexicans", but refused to release a promised report for months. Members of Congress submitted a freedom of information act request to get it.

Is there some creative fiction which had to be dreamed up to get the story right in writing?