A Pardon Ramos and Compean Plea

Do you remember one of the screwiest convictions in recent American history? That would be Prosecutor Johnny Sutton’s successful conviction of former Border Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean for discharging their weapon at fleeing drug dealer and illegal alien Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila. Aldrete-Davila was actually abandoning a vehicle full of Marijuana on the American side of the border while fleeing to get to the Mexican side of the border.

To put it simply Sutton suppressed evidence while giving Aldrete-Davila blanket immunity in some kind of witch-hunt of Ramos and Compean.

One of the last times I posted about this was when some Congressional members were attempting to pressure President Bush to Pardon or Commute the sentence of Ramos and Compean was in December 2007. At that time a Bush spokesman said no to pardons at a press conference and refused to take questions or dodged questions about Ramos and Compean.

I received an email from the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF). Actually the email was one of those paid ads that HumanEvents.com sends out CFIF paid for it.

It was one of the emails promoting the use of the Internet for chain emailing to build a Net pressure on President Bush. I am going to post that email however I am not going to use the entire bell and whistle colors of the email. There is a link to view the bell and whistle colors but I am uncertain how long that will be available.

Below is the CFIF email:

JRH 12/7/08
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President Releases Drug Dealers - Ignores Compean and Ramos

Jeff Mazzella
Center for Individual Freedom
December 7, 2008

“The fact that the president has neglected to free these men from their imprisonment while freeing drug dealers, embezzlers and other criminals is insulting to the American people. For the sake of justice, let’s hope this is not the last round of pardons and commutations.”
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher

Apparently some in the Bush Administration believe drug dealers, tax evaders and bank embezzlers are deserving of pardons...

... but former Border Patrol Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos - serving a combined 23 years for what Congressman Tom Tancredo described as "doing their jobs" - don't even deserve the time of day!

President Bush recently issued 14 pardons and two sentence commutations.

Among those issued pardons and commutations were bank embezzlers, tax evaders and a rapper, John E. Forte, who was convicted of aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

Agents Compean and Ramos were NOT on the list.

Such egregious neglect prompted Congressman Dana Rohrabacher to say:

“The fact that the president has neglected to free these men from their imprisonment while freeing drug dealers, embezzlers and other criminals is insulting to the American people. For the sake of justice, let’s hope this is not the last round of pardons and commutations.”

According to Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum:

"The end of President Bush's final term is quickly approaching. Less than two months remain until he will hand over his White House keys to Barack Obama, but we cannot let him leave office without resolving one very important issue: he must commute the prison sentences of convicted U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean!"

We could not agree more.

President Bush still has time to make things right and it's up to folks like us to make sure he does the right thing!

Time is running out for Compean and Ramos!

That's why now is NOT the time to stop pressuring President Bush and our elected officials to do the right thing and release these American heroes from prison!

Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized Blast Fax messages to President Bush and the Republican and Democrat Leadership of the House and Senate. Tell them that the arrest, conviction and sentencing of Ramos and Compean -- two men bravely defending our nation's borders -- is a gross miscarriage of justice and perhaps one of the most cynical misuses of power in our nation's recent history.

- Send My Blast Faxes -


More Harsh Words For The Administration...


Others were not as polite as Rohrabacher or Schlafly.


Conservative columnist Doug Patton called this travesty "a stench in the nostrils of every thinking American who loves justice."

Patton adds:

"But I will lose my last ounce of respect for this man as my president if he does not pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean before he leaves office. These men put their lives on the line for us just as surely as our brave troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and justice demands a full presidential pardon."


You're already familiar with the case.

1. Compean and Ramos were convicted almost solely on the word of a known illegal alien drug smuggler who claimed that Compean and Ramos shot him in the butt while he was attempting to escape.
   
   
2. Incidentally, this smuggler was attempting to transport 743 pounds of marijuana into the United States at the time of the incident.
   
   
3. In exchange for his testimony, the smuggler was granted blanket immunity and allowed to come and go across the border almost at will and was actually caught attempting to transport more drugs into the United States while waiting to testify against Compean and Ramos.
   
   
4. The court WOULD NOT allow this fact to be submitted during the trial.
   
   
5. And, in what may be the greatest irony of this whole case, the smuggler was eventually convicted of the smuggling offenses that occurred AFTER he was granted immunity and was sentenced to LESS TIME than Compean and Ramos.

Patton yet again:

"It also turns out that this low-life drug smuggler re-entered the United States at least 10 different times in 2005 and that he was caught smuggling drugs while he was waiting to testify against Ramos and Compean. These facts were not brought up at their trial."

Phyllis Schlafly stated:

"The severity of these charges and the harshness of the punishment are totally disproportionate to the violation in question. Even the illegal drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, was sentenced to less prison time than our fellow American border guards!"

Such irony is shameful!


Now is the time to demand justice!

Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized Blast Fax messages to President Bush and the Republican and Democrat Leadership of the House and Senate. Tell them that the arrest, conviction and sentencing of Ramos and Compean -- two men bravely defending our nation's borders -- is a gross miscarriage of justice and perhaps one of the most cynical misuses of power in our nation's recent history.


- Send My Blast Faxes -


Even More Harsh Words For The Administration...


The Washington Times called President Bush's failure to act, "blindness."

The Times wrote the following in a recent editorial:

"It's both baffling and disappointing that President Bush has not already pardoned two U.S. Border Patrol agents imprisoned since 2007... Time is running out for Mr. Bush to act to correct what one Congressman [Rep. Dana Rohrabacher] calls 'the worst miscarriage of justice that I have witnessed in the 30 years I've been in Washington.'"

Congressman Tom Tancredo:

"These are the kinds of men whose government failed and destroyed them - all while they were serving a cause greater than themselves. These men deserve justice. I, and many other members of Congress, have repeatedly called upon President Bush to exercise his power to pardon - but he has not done so.”

Congressman Ed Royce stated:

“Ramos and Compean have been living in the torture of solitary confinement for almost two years for something they never should have been prosecuted for in the first place. We are pleading with the Pardon Attorney to make a favorable recommendation of commutation to the President so he can finally do the right thing by these men and their families."

Blogger Andrew T. Durham claims the case "stinks to high Heaven" and wrote:

"It is literally a crime that apparently President Bush is not granting pardons to immorally imprisoned border [patrol] agents Ramos and Compean."

Now may be your last chance to make your voice heard!

At the very least, this may be President Bush's last opportunity to listen!

The time to release Compean and Ramos is NOW!


Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized Blast Fax messages to President Bush and the Republican and Democrat Leadership of the House and Senate. Tell them that the arrest, conviction and sentencing of Ramos and Compean -- two men bravely defending our nation's borders -- is a gross miscarriage of justice and perhaps one of the most cynical misuses of power in our nation's recent history.

- Send My Blast Faxes –


Yours In Freedom,

Jeff Mazzella
President
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/flash_2.htm

P.S. Please help us reach as many concerned Americans as possible by forwarding this e-mail to at least 10 of your friends and family members.


The CFIF Action Alert is a service to the conservative community. If you would like to subscribe please go to http://tool.donation-net.net/entrance/enter.cfm?dn=1043&source=2&CFID=6218992&CFTOKEN=46085308.
_________________________________

A Pardon Ramos and Compean Plea
John R. Houk
© December 7, 2008
__________________________

President Releases Drug Dealers - Ignores Compean and Ramos

Center for Individual Freedom
113 S. Columbus St., Suite 310
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-535-5836
Fax:703-535-5838

CFIF is a 501(c)(4) not-for-profit constitutional advocacy organization with
the mission to protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights.
Contributions to CFIF are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Contributions may be deductible as a business expense.

A Remembrance Of Pardons Past

Shortly after reading the Evans-Novak Political Report I received via email I stumbled upon this brilliant article that exposes the duplicity of the Democratic Party. As you know the Democrats (especially the fringe Dem haters of President Bush) are expressing public outrage of the President’s Commutation of Libby’s sentence. Keep in mind it is a Commutation and not a Pardon.

Hmmm … Let us read of Clinton’s outright Pardon’s of political cronies before he departed office.

Where is the Pardon President Bush?

As expected President Bush has abandoned Scooter Libby to the Leftist vengeance of not convicting a Neocon Republican for crimes that did not occur.

If there was a crime it was Richard Armitage outing Valerie Plame for her insignificant role in the CIA. Yet Armitage was an Arab loving Republican that did not agree with President Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Fitzgerald – the Leftist stooge – would not go after a like minded Appeaser; thus Fitzgerald went after Libby about a three year old memory which proved to faulty.

Do any of you remember the specifics of a single important moment in your life three years ago (particularly if your job was involved in a multiple series of important moments)?

What is President Bush thinking allowing such an obvious political conviction persecution? George W. Bush is becoming more and more akin to a Benedict Arnold of the Conservative Republican base.

IS THERE A BUSH AGENDA OBSCURED FROM BOTH DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS?

There is the emerging appearance of a Watergate type scandal that may link to the White House. Is the scandal related to the Iraq War? Only in an off hand way is the answer.

The scandal has to do with the mysterious choice to allow prosecution of people who are obviously framed or set up to take a fall.

The first to come mind is Scooter Libby. The purpose for his prosecution is ludicrous and had zero to do with leaking Valerie Plame’s name to the Mainstream Media (MSM). Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had a mandate to go after the person who leaked a useless CIA agent (Plame) to the MSM. Fitzgerald did not go after the person who he did know (viz. Richard Armitage); rather he went after a person that could embarrass the Bush Administration (Libby). Libby had zero to do with the leak.

The next judicial mystery has to do with Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. At first I believed this was just Left Wing bureaucracy persecuting the Conservative agenda to favor spread favor to the benefit of the Democrat Party. These prosecutions are beginning to take on the image of President Bush having a hand in the prosecutions. He has not spoken publicly of the outrageous actions. Bush’s power base is calling for Executive Pardons for Libby, Ramos and Compean; however it is as if Bush has ear plugs and blinders on.

Is there a secret agenda that even the Republican base would be horrified with? Could the unthinkable be correct put forth about Bush? Is the Bush agenda more than a Conservative agenda? Will Bush prove this an insane speculation and step up with the stones to pardon Ramos, Compean and Libby?

Support Swells for Agents Who Shot Drug Smuggler

This is for those of you that have a problem with WorldNetDaily as a rag legitimate source of information. This news is probably the second most liberal rag (considered Mainstream Media) in America.

Unlike WorldNetDaily (hint: WND Search Page), the Washington Post has not published the actual documents that have not seen the evidence chain. Of course NO ONE has the evidence on the mysterious Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Report that went missing or never existed as exposed by WorldNetDaily.
JRH
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Support Swells for Agents Who Shot Drug Smuggler:

Conservatives Lead Movement to Free Ex-Border PatrolmenBy Darryl Fears

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, February 17, 2007; Page A02

Early this week, the Bush administration urged angry conservatives to remain calm over the convictions of two former Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler, but petitions for their release continued to flood the White House.

It did not help that one the lawmen, Ignacio Ramos, was attacked by Latino gang members in his cell at the Yazoo City Federal Correctional Complex in Mississippi and beaten bloody. Days after prison officials confirmed the beating on Feb. 8, Department of Homeland Security officials admitted that an inspector general's report erroneously quoted Border Patrol agents as saying Ramos and his partner, Jose Compean, intended to kill Mexicans.

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), founder of the House Immigration Reform Caucus and a presidential candidate, visited Ramos in prison and told him of the movement against his incarceration, including candlelight vigils, rallies, and a storm of criticism on conservative talk radio and television. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) threatened to call for impeachment proceedings against President Bush if the agents were harmed in prison, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) promised to look into the matter.

John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said that the 700 people who will attend the organization's annual convention in Washington on Feb. 25 will "speak with one voice" against the prosecution and conviction of the agents. The union, which represents Border Patrol agents and other federal workers, implored Bush in a letter this month to pardon Ramos and Compean.

"We think this thing has been mishandled from the start," Gage said. "We're meeting . . . with the head of the Bureau of Prisons. I'm going to raise some hell there to find out why these guys are in that particular institution."

According to a report by the DHS inspector general's office, the incident that landed the agents in trouble started on Feb. 17, 2005, when Asvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an admitted Mexican drug smuggler, drove across the border into Texas with 740 pounds of marijuana. He saw Border Patrol agents trailing him, panicked, and drove into a ditch.

During the chase that followed, Aldrete-Davila scuffled with Compean after the agent tried to smack him with the butt of a shotgun. The agents said they saw something in the suspect's hand and feared for their lives, according to the report and court testimony.

A fusillade of bullets from Compean and Ramos missed. Finally, Ramos took careful aim as Aldrete-Davila neared the border and hit him in the buttocks.

After the shooting, the agents collected all shell casings at the scene, threw them away and did not mention the shooting to superiors, a violation of Border Patrol procedures that call for an oral report after a weapon is discharged, according to the report and court records.

Investigators granted immunity to Aldrete-Davila to lure him back across the border. The story he told was corroborated by other officers at the scene, the report said.

In March last year, Ramos and Compean were found guilty of multiple charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon, discharge of a firearm in commission of a crime, and tampering with a crime scene. Judge Kathleen Cardone issued an 11-year prison sentence to Ramos and a 12-year sentence to Compean in October. The agents appealed to a higher court, and their conservative supporters started to pressure Bush to release them.

Since the convictions, a group called Grassfire.org has collected 40,000 signatures on a "Pardon the Agents" petition. Angry congressional Republicans -- including Rep. Ted Poe (Tex.), Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.) and Rep. Walter B. Jones (N.C.) -- also wrote Bush to say they are flummoxed over why the government accepted the word of an illegal-immigrant drug dealer over that of government agents.

"There's clearly a lot of interest in this issue," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. She said the Bush administration has a policy against revealing the number of letters, petitions and requests it receives on any given matter.

"The president has urged everyone to look at the facts of the case, as they were convicted by a jury of their peers," Perino said. "There is a legal process that every defendant is entitled to, and we should let that play out."

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UPDATE: Ramos Lawyers call for a mistrial because Johnny Sutton withheld evidence.

UPDATE: Senate Judiciary Committee postpones Ramos/Compean Hearings originally scheduled for February 27 because of conflicts.

JRH
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© 2007 The Washington Post Company

Piling Evidence of Government Conspiracy

Here is further evidence that Ramos and Compean were framed by the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Texas now with further implication that the Federal Judge was in on it.

Here is a WND quote:

[Representative] Rohrabacher was harshly critical of both Sutton and President Bush.

"What Ramos and Compean got was a screw job from day one by the U.S. attorney's office in order to send a message to all Border Patrol agents," Rohrabacher told WND. "The message from Sutton was that the president of the United States makes policy on the border, so don't get in the way. If you haven't gotten the message yet, this is an open border."

He said Sutton was running a "public relations campaign" and charged that his purpose has been to "poison the well of public opinion, calling Ramos and Compean corrupt, when there never were any corruption charges, then suggesting they shot an unarmed man in the back, when we only have (the) drug dealer's word he was unarmed and the medical evidence is that he was not shot in the back."

"In the Ramos-Compean case we have lie after lie after lie coming out of Sutton's office," the congressman told WND. "And now we've got a public relations campaign to protect Sutton because he is a protégé of the president and the president doesn't want to see his career destroyed."

Rohrabacher is a Republican Representative from California. His criticism reaches all the way to the White House. If the President is involved in this heinous corruption I would have to come to the point to question his integrity on the War on Terror. If Islamofascists smuggle in chemical or nuke suitcase style WMD, it will be via Mexico.

I am praying Rohrabacher’s is just angry and that there is a localized corruption in the Justice Department and Federal Judiciary in the Texas area.

There should be ample evidence for an appeal, however the President should man up and issue a full and complete pardon.

(Here are FOUR related links: One, Two, Three and Four.)