Illegal Protest

The supporters of Ramos and Compean sure get tired of beating the drum calling for their release when we continue to see that President Bush has zero compassion for them and in fact is probably responsible for urging their unjust prosecution, through his buddy Johnny “House of Death” Sutton.

Here’s an editorial from the Washington Times that sums up the facts in favor of releasing them quite nicely:

Last week, the White House released a list of 29 pardons issued by President Bush. It included drug dealers, carjackers, a moonshiner, a man convicted of stealing government property and another for receiving kickbacks in military procurement contracts. Conspicuously missing were former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean — who are currently serving 11- and 12-year federal prison sentences, respectively, for shooting a suspected drug smuggler in the buttocks on Feb, 17, 2005, about 30 miles southeast of El Paso. The border agents were convicted by a federal jury on charges that included assault with a dangerous weapon; lying about the incident; and violating the alleged smuggler’s Fourth Amendment right to be protected against illegal search and seizure. The Ramos/Compean prosecutions are but one in a series of questionable ones undertaken against law enforcement personnel who used force against criminals or illegal aliens by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, a longtime political ally of Mr. Bush.

*snip*

There is a growing, bipartisan understanding in Congress that Ramos and Compean do not belong in prison. Lawmakers ranging from conservative Republicans like Mr. Rohrabacher and fellow California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter to liberal Democrats like Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts have raised objects to the incarceration of Ramos and Compean. The president should correct this oversight now and pardon the men so they can be home with their families for Christmas.

Amen! I wish I could tell you how many times in the past year I have called the White House Comment Line (202-456-1112) to plea for the release of these innocent Border Patrol agents. These guys are in worse conditions than many suspected terrorists who are being held at Guatanamo Prison. They even have restrictions on the kind of Christmas cards that can be sent to them for crying out loud! Can you believe it - no cards with GLITTER on them? What the hell are these guys in solitary confinement going to do with GLITTER pray tell? Make a bomb maybe?

If you would like to send them some Christmas cheer here is how you can do it - this is from Chelene of Save Our State

Ramos & Compean may not know their appeal outcome until sometime in February. At this time, it looks like Ramos & Compean will spend Christmas in Federal prison. (A miracle could happen, so keep praying!!)

Joe Loya told me that his son-in-law will be in solitary confinement on Christmas eve and Christmas day so that the other prisoners can accept their guests on this holy holiday. What this means is that Nacho will be sitting in his solitary confinement cell during Christmas. Most likely the same for our other hero Compean.

So let’s join together to give them some Christmas cheer!!! Please send paper only Christmas cards to our heroes. (All Christmas cards with glitter, gloss, etc…will be returned to sender. Please send paper only cards.) If you can afford a little extra, send an unwrapped Christmas gift like paper photos (photos printed from your computer on office paper only); a magazine subscription or newspaper subscription (must come directly from publisher); or a book (no hardcover, paper only cover, no gloss).

Addresses below must be accurate and complete when sending:

Ignacio Ramos
#58079 - 180 FCI
Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution
37910 N. 45th Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85086

Jose Compean
#58080180
Federal Correctional Institution Elkton
P.O. Box 10
Lisbon, OH 44432

And if you would like to send a Christmas card or gift to Monica and Joe Loya, please send to the following address:

The Ramos Family
P.O. Box 972925
El Paso, Texas 79997

Our heroes could use some Christmas cheer!! Thank you!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Chelene Nightingale

Today in New Orleans, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case for releasing Ramos and Compean pending their new trial. The Justice Department has repeatedly DENIED this to our former Border Agents.

Word is - Johnny Sutton was RENOUNCED by the judges. Some in court descriptions to follow below.

Finally a court of law is seeing the blatant INJUSTICE perpetrated against Ramos and Compean and I predict they will be home with their families by spring. I further predict that Johnny Sutton will probably quietly resign when they are released, before the beginning of their new trial, where we can only hope the real truth will be told. Without a credible witness, I don’t know how they can even HAVE a trial and as a result it should be THROWN OUT. Next - Ramos and Compean get to make MILLIONS of dollars to tell their story.

Read the full article here at World Net Daily.

The U.S. government admitted today in federal court that the prosecution’s star witness in the criminal trial of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean – confessed drug dealer Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila – lied under oath.

No! You can’t be saying a career drug smuggler *lied* under oath! Oh my God what is the world coming to!

“He told some lies on the stand,” Mark Stelmach, the assistant U.S. attorney representing prosecutor U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said under questioning by a three-judge 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in New Orleans.

Ramos and Compean are appealing prison sentences of 11- and 12-years respectively for a 2005 incident in which they fired on Aldrete-Davila as he fled back into Mexico after smuggling 750 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. near Fabens, Texas.

“Today the justice system worked the way it is supposed to,” Tara Setmayer, communications director for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., told WND immediately following the hearing.

Setmeyer, who attended the hearing, said, “I feel cautiously optimistic the judges will make a ruling quickly.”

“Based on the nature of the questions from the judges, it seems as though the government made their own bed and now they have to lie in it,” she said.

According to Setmayer, Judge Patrick Errol Higginbotham questioned Stelmach closely about why the prosecution had sought to seal from the jury information about a second smuggling attempt by Aldrete-Davila after Sutton’s office gave him immunity and a border pass.

Higginbotham rebuked Stelmach’s suggestion that Aldrete-Davila’s drug history prior to the Feb. 17, 2005, incident with the border agents was not relevant to the trial. The judge argued the second load was relevant because it showed Aldrete-Davila had a brazen disregard for the law, a key factor in evaluating his testimony for the prosecution.

“It defies common sense in the street world,” Higginbotham told Stelmach, “to believe Aldrete-Davila was a poor mule, as he represented at trial, instead of an actual player in the world of the drug cartels.”

As WND reported, the defense lawyers in the appellate briefs filed for Ramos and Compean had argued that the likelihood Aldrete-Davila was carrying a firearm was greatly increased if he was a major player for the drug cartels.

Aldrete-Davila was the only witness who testified at trial that he was unarmed. Since he was not apprehended and frisked on the scene, it was his word at trial against the word of Ramos and Compean. The border agents both testified they saw Aldrete-Davila pointing a shiny object they believed was a gun as he ran away.

“Before the hearing today we were skeptical because we know the government is good at lying,” Joe Loya, father-in-law of Ramos, told WND in a telephone interview.

“Now we are optimistic justice will prevail,” he said. “The government had to admit today the prosecutors let Aldrete-Davila commit perjury at trial.”

The judges today questioned the government closely about the appropriateness of prosecuting Ramos and Compean under 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c), a law passed to require an additional 10-year minimum prison sentence, if felons in the act of committing crimes such as rape or burglary carry a weapon.

WND has reported the Ramos and Compean appellant briefs argued the law was never meant to be applied to law enforcement officers in the pursuit of their duties.

Judge E. Grady Jolly commented the “government overreached” in applying 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c) to Ramos and Compean.

From Joe Loya through Robin Hvidston - here is what he observed in the courtroom today:

Joe Loya reported the following from the 5th Circuit Courthouse, New Orleans, Ramos and Compean Hearing

Before three federal judges:

Ramos and Compean’s attorney was allowed to speak for one half hour, no interruptions

The prosecuting attorney was interrupted “every three minutes” by all three judges. “The attorney could barely complete sentences without the judges firing away at him.”

The judges were familiar, in depth, with the case

They grilled the prosecuting attorney relentlessly on the following:

Why did the government allow Davila to lie under oath

Why did the government grant this special immunity

Why did the government prosecute law enforcement officers use of a gun using a law designed for criminals

Why did the government seal information

Apparently, the judges were merciless on the prosecuting attorney

Johnny Sutton DASHED out of the courtroom - avoiding all reporters

Joe Loya said there will be coverage on Lou Dobbs, Fox 11 did interviews, as well as America’s Most Wanted

Just when you think there can’t be any more said in outrage about the case of Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, someone like Wes comes along and spells it out very eloquently indeed!  Thank you for saying what we have all been thinking or trying to say!

An officially-sanctioned ‘inmates running the asylum’
The good guys rot while the bad guys get fat

Wes Vernon

Wes Vernon
October 22, 2007

This column hopes to awake from a bad dream any minute now. Bad enough two of our protectors are in solitary confinement. But enemies who want to kill us are living very well on our money?

Time to wake up

This can’t be real.

It can’t be true that a drug smuggler illegally crashing our border was given immunity to testify against the law enforcement officers who tried to arrest him, can it?

Oh, but our government, which we depend on to “preserve, protect and defend” our system of government, would naturally seek to “preserve” and “protect” our free society by “defending” us against the bad guys, right?

I mean surely our own government would never seek out a dangerous drug-smuggling criminal in a foreign country and bring him back here and grant him immunity to testify against the border guards who blocked his efforts to destroy our kids’ lives. Surely, that didn’t really happen, did it?

It did? And they gave this guy free health care and unconditional border-crossing cards to testify against those pesky border patrol agents. Really? You have got to be kidding.

In cahoots with the criminal

By now, those not inhabiting another planet for the last year are aware of the plight of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. They were sentenced to eleven and twelve years in federal prison, respectively, for wounding a Mexican drug smuggler who brought 743 pounds of marijuana across the U.S./Mexican border at Texas.

Shooting at a drug smuggler: naughty, naughty!

Later, the U.S. government learned that the smuggler — Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila — had been shot in the buttocks as he avoided arrest, although the agents thought they had missed him before he reached the Mexican border because he had kept running, jumped into a waiting truck, and showed no signs of injury.

Upon learning of the drug dealer’s complaint, the keystone cops at the Department of Homeland Security did their “poor baby” routine and swung into action.

To cut to the quick, the agents ended up being prosecuted for shooting an unarmed victim, even though that “victim” while on the run had pointed at them with what looked like a gun.

An update

So now, some 48 (at last count) members of Congress have fired off a letter to Michael Mukasey — President Bush’s nominee for Attorney General urging that he “consider and address our concerns related to” the imprisoned agents.

The congressmen get right to the nub of the prosecutorial abuse question when they suggest, “Given the close personal relationships between [the federal prosecutor in the case, Johnny] Sutton, President Bush and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, numerous questions regarding the propriety of this prosecution remain unanswered.”

To make matters worse

Led by Congressmen Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and John Culberson (R-Tex.), the letter continues, “Both officers are being held in Special Housing Units (SHU) of medium security facilities and are confined to a single cell 23 hours a day in conditions worse than those enjoyed by suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Ignacio Ramos was placed in SHU because he was assaulted in a different facility earlier this year and his assailants were never charged.”

Further, the lawmakers note that while Ramos’s status as a former cop is “problematic” in prison, the federal guidelines specify that “administration detention status is supposed to be ‘non-punitive,’ used for ’short periods…not to exceed 90 days,” as opposed to the 10 months that Ramos has experienced.

The comparison

While the agents spend 23 hours a day in their cages — with only 1 hour outdoors permitted each day — detainees at Guantanamo are granted the privilege of living in a communal setting that offers more freedoms and perks. Moreover, these terrorists are allowed 9 hours access to exercise and recreational facilities. Picnic and ping-pong tables are available to them, as are soccer fields and volleyball courts.

No special meals or extra food privileges for the border agents. At one point, Ramos lost over 30 pounds, while at Guantanamo Bay, terrorists take in 4200 calories daily, with weekly Sunday ice cream parties and access to McDonalds or Subway. Some detainees have added pounds since arriving at “Club Gitmo.”

Ramos and Compean eat alone in their cells, while GITMO detainees enjoy meals eaten together within cellblocks.

No TV for the patrol agents, whereas the killers or would-be killers of innocent human beings have permission to watch Arabic programs and soccer highlights.

Ramos and Compean are not allowed access to the library, have a limited commissary, and cannot participate in education or general work programs. At Guantanamo, however, the detainees receive visits from librarians with books and magazines. Also chess, checkers, and playing cards are provided on request.

After a brutal assault by 5 inmates, Ramos did not get to see a medical doctor for several days. At GITMO, the cutthroats and would-be suicide bombers get the same medical treatment as U.S. military personnel in state-of-the-art medical facilities.

---

Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer and veteran broadcast journalist.

I’d love to have included the entire article but that’s just not kosher in blogger world.. so PLEASE visit the article link here to read the rest of the excellent editorial…

It’s now been over 247 days that Nacho Ramos and Jose Compean went to prison for doing their jobs as Border Agents. If you don’t know the whole story, please visit this link at Digger’s Realm for starters on some background on their case.

The webmaster for Save Our State, Richard McLean, has done a wonderful thing! He has put up two web sites that make it very simple for you to communicate with the two imprisoned Border Agents. They are only allowed to read letters. I believe they are not even allowed to read BOOKS for crying out loud! They are in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for their safety. Imagine being alone in a cell for 23 hours a day for 247 days!

Think about how many things you have done, how many TV shows you have watched, how many times you have eaten out at a restaurant, how many sports events etc, you have watched in 247 days. Well Nacho Ramos and Jose Compean are living in suspended animation. They are political prisoners of our current corrupt government.

Here is where you can communicate with these two heroes and let them know we are still out here fighting for them.

Email Nacho

Email Jose