From CNS News
Critics of the federal prosecutor who brought the case against two U.S. Border Patrol agents for shooting a Mexican suspected drug smuggler are accusing him of hypocrisy. They point to his involvement in an earlier anti-narcotics operation in which a paid informer allegedly committed murder but was allowed to continue his undercover role.
U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton has said that law enforcement officials must be held to the same legal standards as everyone else.
At issue is a case that has been dubbed the House of Death, after a house in the Mexican border town of Juarez where the bodies of 13 people allegedly tortured and killed by members of a drug cartel were found.
An undercover informant for U.S. law enforcement agencies, Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, infiltrated the cartel and allegedly participated in at least one of the killings.
Federal officials knew about his role in the first one, in August 2003, yet Sutton and others allowed him to continue as an informant for nearly six months, during which more murders took place.
Ramirez's lawyer said he witnessed two murders and had knowledge of all of them. Federal officials say they did not know of the murders that occurred after the first one (see related story).
Definitely check out the related story, it is an eye opener into the way the U.S. government and its agencies are dealing with illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Does not reflect well. And, Congress needs to investigate the case of the two jailed border agents even more.
In an interview last month about the Ramos-Compean case, Sutton told Cybercast News Service, "When a federal agent violates the law and commits a crime, we can't say, well, we prosecute criminals unless they're federal agents.
Retired Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) official Sandalio Gonzales, a vocal critic of how the Juarez operation was conducted, took issue with Sutton's comments.
Comparing the Juarez case to the Ramos-Compean case, Gonzales said, "It's hypocrisy at its best, or at its worst, however you see it.
"What does it say when agents allow 13 people to be murdered and he isn't holding anyone accountable?" asked Gonzalez, who was part of the multi-agency Juarez cartel investigation but later complained that the U.S. Attorney's office and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency had withheld important information from the DEA.
What can you do? Sign the petition to get Bush to pardon the border agents. Write your Congress Critter. Call your Congress Critter. Call the White House.
Also, go to Grassfire and sign the petition against Ted Kennedy's illegals amnesty bill.
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