posted 05-17-2003 07:10 AM
Free to agree with rethuglicans or shut up!
>Are We Looking at the New
Sicherheitsdienst and
Gestapo?
Unter direkter Parteikontrolle???
DeLay's Plumbers? Homeland Security
Tracks Democrats http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=669
The Nation
The Online Beat
05/14/2003 @ 6:18pm
The Department of Homeland Security's
Air and Marine Interdiction Division (AMID)
says its mission is to "Protect the Nation's
borders and the American people from the
smuggling of narcotics and other contraband
with an integrated and coordinated air
and marine interdiction force."
So it is easy to understand why Texans were
scratching their heads when they learned that
the division's Air and Marine Interdiction and
Coordination Center in Riverside, California,
played a critical role in tracking down the
Democratic legislators who went missing
from the Texas Capitol this week.
The revelation that the federal anti-terrorism
agency joined the Republican-sponsored hunt
for the Texas legislators has sparked a fury
in Austin and in Washington.
While the Texas Democratic Party is calling
for an accounting of all the state and federal
resources employed in the partisan dragnet,
Congressional Democrats in Washington are
demanding to know how and why a
Department of Homeland Security
tracking center in California was pulled
into the service of the Republican
leadership in the Texas State House.
The federal angle is the latest twist in the
bizarre saga of Republican abuse of power
and Democratic counter moves in Texas.
The story of the absent legislators is big
news, not just in Texas but in Washington.
US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay,
R-Texas, was furious with the Democrats,
whose absence will prevent enactment of
a redistricting plan DeLay had crafted to
increase the number of Texas congressional
districts likely to elect Republicans from
15 to 19.
The legally-dubious gerrymandering
scheme has been a top priority of DeLay;
the powerful Republican leader admits he
has even discussed it with President Bush,
a former Texas governor, who reportedly
told DeLay, "I'd like to see that happen."
As it became increasingly clear that DeLay
would not get his way -- the absence of the
Democratic legislators has denied the Texas
Republican leaders the quorum needed to
approve the redistricting plan before a
Thursday deadline -- he blew up.
The man politicos refer to as "The Hammer"
was so angry that he speculated on Tuesday
about whether federal law might allow FBI
agents to travel to the Oklahoma hotel
where 51 Democrats were staying, arrest
the lawmakers and return them to Austin
before the deadline.
U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett,
D-Texas, said it appeared that
Republican leaders were trying to
make federal law enforcement
agencies "Tom DeLay's personal
police force."
DeLay's dream was not to be, however.
When Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick,
DeLay's man in Austin, asked the Federal
Bureau of Investigation or the US Marshall
Service to do the GOP's bidding, the offical
response was "no."
US Department of Justice spokesman Jorge
Martinez told reporters that responsibility
for tracking down the legislators "falls
squarely within the purview of state authority,
and it would not warrant investigation by
federal authorities."
But, according to the Fort Worth Star-
Telegram, the federal Air and Marine
Interdiction Division did get involved in
the investigation.
The division, a combination of old
Customs Department agencies that
now operates under the jurisdiction
of the Bush Administration's Homeland
Security Department, has long used its
California facility to monitor efforts to
illegally enter the United States via the
skies or waterways.
The Star-Telegram reports that, after
the Texas Democratic legislators went
missing early this week, "The agency
got a call, it's unclear exactly from when
or from whom, to locate a certain Piper
Turbo-Prop aircraft."
The Air and Marine Interdiction and
Coordination Center in Riverside reportedly
tracked the aircraft in question -- which
belongs to former House Speaker Pete
Laney, one of the departed Democrats
-- to Ardmore, Oklahoma.
When questioned, Republican Tom
Craddick admitted that the information
about the plane's location was critical to
solving the mystery of where the
Democrats had disappeared to.
"We called someone and they said they
were going to track it," Craddick said of
the plane. "That's how we found them."
As it turned out, Oklahoma authorities
laughed off attempts by the Texas
Department of Public Safety to extend
their authority across the state line.
So knowing where the Democrats were
sleeping was of little consequence.
But the nagging question of how the
Department of Homeland Security got
pulled into the investigation lingers.
Craddick won't say who it was that
promised to track Pete Laney's place.
And the usually precise Tom DeLay goes
a little vague when it comes to answering
questions about his meddling in state
and federal affairs.
That hasn't stopped Texans from asking
questions, however.
"I thought the Department of Homeland
Security was supposed to be busy
monitoring terrorist threats -- especially
external terrorist threats," says Sarah
Wheat, a Texas abortion rights activist
who, like many Texans, says she is glad
the Democrats went AWOL. "The only
threat the Democratic legislators pose
is to Tom DeLay's political agenda and
a whole bunch of bad bills."
Texas representatives in
Washington from trying to get
to the bottom of what appears
to be a serious abuse of federal
power.
U.S. House members from Texas have
written U.S. Attorney General John
Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary
Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller,
demanding details regarding federal
involvement in the search and seeking
an investigation of DeLay's efforts to
enlist federal help in the search for
the Texas legislators.
[My comment: Good luck with that demand!]
U.S. Representative Martin Frost,
D-Texas, expressed his outrage by
making a historical comparison,
explaining that, "Not since Richard
Nixon and Watergate 30 years ago
has there been an effort to involve
federal law enforcement officials in
a partisan political matter."<
zieg....
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posted 05-17-2003 12:39 AM
