You forgot 2, Mr. President!

Posted: December 25, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

President Bush has disappointed his staunchest supporters no few times during his presidency – but nothing, not even his failed attempt to force a flawed immigration bill upon the nation, has been more disappointing than his refusal to pardon or commute the sentences of the incarcerated border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean.

On Dec. 11, 29 convicted criminals received presidential pardons. They included persons convicted of tax evasion, bank fraud, drug smugglers and dealers and a moonshiner. However, while President Bush was willing to extend the ultimate gift of the season to corrupt criminal elements, he stubbornly refuses to show the same forgiveness to Ramos and Compean. Unquestionably, criminal elements are now free to enjoy Christmas with their families while the two border agents languish in prison, separated from theirs.

Ramos and Compean are serving 11 and 12 years, respectively, after being convicted of assault, obstruction of justice and civil rights violations related to the wounding of Mexican drug-smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila. On Feb. 17, 2005, the agents chased Davila near the U.S.-Mexican border outside of El Paso, Texas, after Davila abandoned a van containing 743 pounds of marijuana with an estimated value of more than $1 million.

As the border agents attempted to apprehend Davila, he wrestled with Compean, ultimately escaping. As he fled, Davila produced and pointed an object that Ramos thought was a gun. Ramos fired at the fleeing Davila, but thought he had missed. In reality, Davila had been wounded in the buttocks, yet still managed to escape across the Rio Grande, where be met an accomplice who then drove him into Mexico.

Prosecutors claimed the agents had violated Border Patrol policy when they pursued Davila without supervisor approval, that Compean moved shell casings, and that both did not properly report the shots fired. Testifying against Ramos and Compean, under the veil of immunity from prosecution for his actions on the night in question, was none other than Davila himself.

T. J. Bonner of the National Border Control policy noted in Senate testimony that jurors were not told of Davila's continued drug trafficking after he was granted immunity (something for which he has since been indicted), nor that an agent who testified against Ramos and Compean is a life-long friend of Davila (a clear violation of agency policy). Bonner also testified that the shooting was justified by both Department of Justice and Border Patrol policies – and that a medical examination of Davila had supported the agents' description of events. Still, Ramos and Compean went to jail.

(Column continues below)

From the beginning of the agents' prosecution, there has been a bitter public outcry and wide ranging, bi-partisan congressional support for the border agents – all of which has fallen on deaf White House ears.

It can be argued that the agents may have dispensed their duties in a way that on some level inadvertently abrogated the strict letter of their proper protocol. It cannot be argued that they are being punished proportionately for the offense.

President Bush has made a habit of letting his penchant for brash bravado cause himself and his party embarrassment. He did it standing on the deck of the USS Lincoln when he declared, "Mission accomplished." He did it when he tried to convince his base and the nation that Harriet Miers was the quintessential best pick as the nominee to be a Supreme Court justice – leaving us to ask in retrospect: "If said were true, what did that make replacement nominee Samuel Alito?" He did it when he stood before a global media in Softa, Bulgaria and boasted, "I'll see you at the bill signing," in reference to the flawed immigration bill that subsequently suffered a much-deserved ignominious defeat. Now he purposes to make an even more egregious error in judgment by ignoring the pleas for forgiveness for two of the agents responsible for securing our borders. Something one could be forgiven for assuming he has little real interest in doing.

Here is the Link to this Whole Article:

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59356

Mr. George W. Bush is a huge and monumental Disgrace for not having yet completely commuted or Pardoning and freeing these two wrongly imprisoned and former Border Patrol agents from Prison.  Ramos and Compean are Political Prisoners of the Bush Administration.  Mr. George W. Bush along with his 'very dear’ friend Attorney Johnny “House of death” Sutton need to be held accountable for this very outrageous and travesty of justice.