Bush on border agents: 'I'm not talking pardons' Laments failure of immigration reform, gives agency executive $60,000 bonus
Posted: January 12, 2009
9:21 pm Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
 Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean |
President Bush has extensively discussed his immigration reform policy in exit interviews and given a $60,000 bonus to a Border Patrol chief who has been criticized for not supporting Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean – but he refuses to talk about whether pardons could be in store for the imprisoned agents.
In a Jan. 6 interview with John Gizzi, political editor of Human Events, Bush said he regrets that the comprehensive immigration bill he endorsed did not prevail.
"Well, I'm sorry it didn't pass, because I felt strongly that the comprehensive approach to immigration reform was necessary for border enforcement, as well as recognizing that there are people willing to do work Americans won't do," Bush said. "[W]ithout the law, by the way, we did put fence up, and the border is becoming more secure. People are now recognizing the truth that there are fewer crossings, and we've ended the catch and release and issues like that."
Bush expressed concern for illegal aliens who risk their lives to come to the United States.
"I don't like it when the law is so antiquated that people who are willing to do hard work become contraband, they get stuffed in the bottom of 18-wheelers in order to come and do a job that others aren't willing to do. I don't think that's right," he said.
Only two days later, the Washington Times reported Bush awarded a $61,200 bonus to Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar, who has been criticized by members of his own agency for refusing to support Ramos and Compean after they were sentenced to 11 and 12-year prison sentences, respectively, for shooting at an illegal alien drug dealer while he attempted to smuggle 750 pounds of marijuana across the border.
Aguilar made headlines in April 2007 when 100 top leaders of the National Border Patrol Council endorsed a no-confidence resolution against him, citing the cases of Ramos and Compean among other complaints.
The union, which represents 11,000 of the U.S. Border Patrol's nonsupervisory field agents, pointed to Aguilar's willingness to believe the "perjured allegations" of criminal aliens over his own agents.
"Front-line Border Patrol agents who risk their lives protecting our borders have every reason to expect that the leadership of their own agency will support them," NBPC President T.J. Bonner said in the statement. "When this does not occur, and instead they are undermined by their so-called leaders, no one should be surprised when they express a loss of confidence in those managers."
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Iran recruits Somali pirates to replenish Hamas arms stocks
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
January 13, 2009, 12:38 PM (GMT+02:00)
Somali pirates help fellow Islamists
DEBKAfile's military sources reveal a secret war waged by the US, Israel and Egypt to shut down Iran's serpentine maritime routes through the Red Sea and Suez for refilling Hamas' depleted arsenal by sea. After Hamas lost an estimated 60 percent of its weapons stocks to Israeli bombardments, Iran enlisted Somali pirates to step up the flow of smuggled hardware to Gaza. Tehran is rearming the Palestinian Islamists at top speed to persuade them to carry on the war against Israel and not surrender to Egypt's ceasefire terms.
According to our military sources, the Iranian sealift is conducted along three routes:
1. The Iranian segment: Iranian freighters from the Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas sail to the Gulf of Suez. Some are intercepted by the American warships patrolling the sea against Somali pirates. US Marines board the ships and confiscate any weapons cargoes in their holds. But not all are caught; some of the Iranian freighters, especially the small vessels, escape the anti-piracy net.
Western intelligence informants report that in the past week, Iranian agents hired Somali pirates to rendezvous with their freighters before they entered the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, offload the weapons and carry them in small Somali craft to Eritrea. The pirates have strong ties with Eritrea.
The Iranian freighters sail straight back to Bandar Abbas to reload.
2. The Eritrean route: Some of the Iranian arms freighters put into the Eritrean port of Assab to unload the cargoes, which are then consigned to Sudan, where the authorities turn a blind eye, for transit to southern Egypt. At that point, they are picked up by Egyptian smuggling gangs and carried by boat to Sinai shores.
3. The European route: The Balkan ports at Montenegro and Croatia are the starting points for freighters laden with containers carrying weapons for Hamas - mostly mortars and anti-air and anti-tank missiles. They head for the Suez Canal where they drop their cargoes overboard for waiting pirates' boats to collect.
DEBKAfile's military sources reveal that Iran's seaborne arms corridor to Hamas depends heavily on three Sinai Bedouin tribes: The Tarabin, which controls areas adjoining the Israeli and Gazan borders; the Tiyaha, which rule central Sinai; and the Azazmeh, whose wide spread covers northern Sinai, the Israeli Negev, Jordan and Syria. They form a human chain to relay the Iranian shipments, including heavy Grad rockets, into the Gaza Strip.
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A Russian naval task force led by aircraft carrier docks at Syrian port
January 13, 2009, 2:35 PM (GMT+02:00)
Admiral Kuznetsov carrier heads east
The force, which includes the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Admiral Levchenko destroyer and the Nikolay Chiker salvage tug, was due to call in at the Syrian port of Tartus Monday, Jan. 12 after carrying out joint exercises with the Turkish navy last week.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that the arrival of the Russian flotilla in wartime is unusual and especially significant given Syria's role as one of the staunchest backers of Hamas which is embroiled in a war against Israel further down the coast in Gaza.
Our sources believe Moscow may be signaling its disapproval of Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that 50 Russian seamen are permanently based at the Syrian maintenance and resupply facility, the only Russian base in the Mediterranean.
Russia is expanding Tartus port, which has six piers and building a pier at a second Syrian port – Latakia.
During the Russian-Georgian War last August, the Russian government decided to turn the Syrian port into a back-up facility for its Black Sea fleet and its base at the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.
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PETER SCHIFF - DOOM UNDER "OBAMA"
PETER SCHIFF - AMERICAN DOLLAR - AMERICA IS FINISHED
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NEW GUN LEGISLATION PASSES HOUSE - GO TO = http://commentsbyt.blogspot.com/
GUN SALES ESCALATING
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FedEx President Bush! Tell him to help Border Agents Ramos, Compean
Posted: December 31, 2008
8:41 pm Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
The clock is ticking on the effort to free Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
President Bush leaves office Jan. 20. Until then, he has absolute power to pardon them or commute their sentences of 12 and 11 years respectively.
But time is running out.
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Mr. President! Free Ramos and Compean Thousands signing petition to pardon Border Patrol agents
Posted: December 15, 2008
10:01 pm Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
WASHINGTON – More than 26,000 people want President Bush, in the few days left of his presidency, to take action to free imprisoned Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, and have signed a petition seeking freedom for the two that is part of a campaign launched by WND Editor Joseph Farah.
"I am calling on President Bush to do the right thing before he leaves office Jan. 20," said Farah. "These are the pardons or sentence commutations the American people want to see more than any other. We don't want to see any more drug dealers freed. We don't want to see any other millionaires get pardons. We don't want to see any other well-connected crooks have their sentences overturned. We want to see Ramos and Compean out and their reputations restored."
Ramos and Compean are serving sentences of 11 and 12 years respectively for the shooting of an illegal alien drug smuggler in the line of duty. The drug dealer received only minor injuries and was given full immunity from prosecution by the federal prosecutor in return for his testimony against the agents.
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Top Recruiter Weighs Fat Camp For Army Recruits
.......................................................................................................................................................................GAZA - FROM STEVE QUAYLE
G-D'S WARRIORS IN GAZA = NO RULES OF ENGAGEMENT - NO MERCY - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH OF ARAB ROCKETS RAINING DOWN ON ISRAELI CITIES FOR YEARS. NO ONE CARES WHEN JEWS DIE. G-D HAS NOW CHANGED THE RULES...
ABOVE & BELOW: The destruction of the
Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST
All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.
The letter, published in Olam Katan [Small World], a weekly pamphlet to be distributed in synagogues nationwide this Friday, cited the biblical story of the Shechem massacre (Genesis 34) and Maimonides' commentary (Laws of Kings 9, 14) on the story as proof texts for his legal decision.
According to Jewish war ethics, wrote Eliyahu, an entire city holds collective responsibility for the immoral behavior of individuals. In Gaza, the entire populace is responsible because they do nothing to stop the firing of Kassam rockets.
The former chief rabbi also said it was forbidden to risk the lives of Jews in Sderot or the lives of IDF soldiers for fear of injuring or killing Palestinian noncombatants living in Gaza.
Eliyahu could not be reached for an interview. However, Eliyahu's son, Shmuel Eliyahu, who is chief rabbi of Safed, said his father opposed a ground troop incursion into Gaza that would endanger IDF soldiers. Rather, he advocated carpet bombing the general area from which the Kassams were launched, regardless of the price in Palestinian life.
"If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop."
In the letter, Eliyahu quoted from Psalms. "I will pursue my enemies and apprehend them and I will not desist until I have eradicated them."
Eliyahu wrote that "This is a message to all leaders of the Jewish people not to be compassionate with those who shoot [rockets] at civilians in their houses."
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PROVERBS CHAPTER 3 - VERSE 25
כה אַל-תִּירָא, מִפַּחַד פִּתְאֹם; וּמִשֹּׁאַת רְשָׁעִים, כִּי תָבֹא. 25 Be not afraid of sudden terror, neither of the destruction of the wicked, when it cometh;
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By: Jacob Laksin
Obama’s latest rebuff to the antiwar Left. More>
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DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 28
