Pardon groundswell: pour it on!

The odds in favor of a presidential pardon for Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean have greatly increased in the past few weeks. Public and congressional pressure have been rapidly and steadily building for the pardon in spite of the fact that the Republican White House and the Democrat-controlled Congress are both loath to go down that road. And in spite of the fact that most of the major media have ignored or played down this explosive case--or have repeatedly misreported the facts in the case and been downright hostile toward the agents.

A typical example: the agents' hometown newspaper, the El Paso Times. The paper's headline on February 9 read, "Ex-agents lied, covered up shooting, according to report." Incredible! Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner appears on February 6 before a congressional subcommittee and admits that when he sent his top lieutenants to brief members of Congress on the Ramos/Compean case last year, they had lied to the legislators. Among several egregious lies the DHS officials told was the one that Ramos and Compean had made statements that they were going "out to shoot Mexicans." The DHS officials also lied when they told the congressmen that they had documentation to back up their charges and would be providing that evidence to Congress. Then Inspector General Richard Skinner admits that the promised evidence to back up the lies doesn't exist (and never did).

Yet, the Times' headline is that the agents lied! Buried in the story are a couple sentences of confusing, garbled syntax about Mr. Skinner's admissions before Congress. The paper does not mention Rep. John Culberson's angry charge against Skinner during the hearing: "You lied to me and you lied to all of us." Nor does it mention Rep. Culberson's call for Skinner and his lying subordinates to resign. Why not? Those seem to be eminently newsworthy and quotable quotes. The real news here, after all, is that top government officials are caught lying--repeatedly--in an elaborate, ongoing scheme to smear two distinguished law enforcement officers and railroad them into prison. But the Times simply repeats what it has been saying for the past two years; it unquestioningly reports the lying DHS officials' false claims that the agents are lying.

One of the most outrageous examples of media mendacity (or, to be charitable, perhaps we should allow for incompetence or stupidity) comes to us courtesy of National Review Online (NRO), the anointed Internet voice of "respectable" conservatism. In a February 9 piece, NRO's Andrew C. McCarthy describes Ramos and Compean as "two rogues who turned the rule of law into the law of the jungle, shooting and nearly killing a retreating suspect who posed no threat to them."

Posed no threat? How does McCarthy know that? Because the DHS Inspector General (IG) report says so. The IG report that was written by the same DHS officials who lied to Congress. The IG report that treats as gospel the word of confessed liar and veteran drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila. The IG report that was promised to Congress months ago, but was only pried loose days ago, after frustrated members of Congress filed Freedom of Information Act requests and exposed DHS deception and misconduct in a congressional hearing.

But, according to McCarthy, Ramos and Compean are "as guilty as sin," and the IG's report "elucidates that relentless fact." It does no such thing; in fact, when the IG report is carefully read (as McCarthy urges his readers to do), it is self-defeating. On page 4 of the IG report, for instance, we find that "Aldrete-Davila lied" to the DHS investigator about having been "shot while smuggling marijuana into the United States." The government's prime witness against the agents is, according to the IG's own report, a liar and a smuggler for one of Mexico's drug cartels.

McCarthy says Aldrete-Davila got away initially "because those agents chose to cover their tracks rather than slap cuffs on him." That's easily enough said by a dweeby Washington, D.C., pundit, whose most serious daily peril may be spilling mocha latte on his penny loafers or straining his pinky on the shift key while punctuating another brilliant thought with a self-congratulatory exclamation point. But while McCarthy was dispensing inky wisdom from the safety of his armchair, it was agents Ramos and Compean who were chasing Aldrete-Davila through the rugged, dangerous border terrain and trying to "slap cuffs on him."

Fortunately, the truth may be winning out. Thanks to the Internet, talk-radio, independent media, and citizen activists, the campaign to pardon Ramos and Compean continues to gain steam. Congressional staff members tell THE NEW AMERICAN that this is one of hottest issues they have seen in years. As with the Dubai Ports deal, public outrage could force President Bush to reverse course. Pour it on!