Carol Lam wasn't looking to prosecute corruption when she stumbled into Duke Cunningham, Brent Wilkes (MZM), Dusty Foggo, Jerry Lewis. The case originated because of local newspaper article (San Diego Union Tribute) about Cunningham's unlikely luck in selling his Encinitas home to MZM for far more than the fair market value.
Common to the political players in this scenario is the lobbying firm run by former Congressman Bill Lowrey. Lowrey's clients surprisingly supported Southern California Republican congressmen Cunningham, Hunter, Issa and Lewis. Please recall that Issa was the source for the Border Patrol memo which was leaked shortly after Lam announced the Cunningham investigation.
Issa states he received the memo from an source in Homeland Security. What, if any, is the relationship between that source and the politics which lead to Lam's firing.
It is worth noting that Cunningham's replacement was Brian Bilbray who worked with Lowrey in his lobbying business. Bilbray had failed as a congressman in another district but was resurrected for this post. The Republican National Committee spent a great deal of money in support of Bilbray's election.
I for one do not accept the proposition that Lam was fired for any reason other than to squelch the investigation of Lewis and the influence wielded by Lowrey the lobbyist. It was no coincidence that the congressmen signing the letter complaining about failure to prosecute low level immigrant smugglers were all supported by Lowrey's lobbying efforts.

At the Voice of San Diego website where Rep. Darrell Issa is guest blogging today, I asked him about the Border Patrol report he released to the media last year. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for his response.

Posted:

"You released a Border Patrol report to the media last May with great fanfare. But, according to emails released by the Department of Justice last week, the U.S. Chief of the Border Patrol, San Diego,identified the report on May 19, 2006 as being an altered and unauthorized version of an internal intelligence report issued by the El Cajon substation. In fact, the date of the report had been changed from 2003 to 2004.

My question is whether you verified the authenticity of the report with the San Diego Chief of the Border Patrol before releasing it to the media."

'Please recall that Issa was the source for the Border Patrol memo which was leaked shortly after Lam announced the Cunningham investigation.'

The burning question in my mind is how did Issa get that report in the first place? That's a murky bit of muck to be sure -- all I have to go on are gut feelings, but my gut says that the answer to that question is important. Particularly considering the _timing_ of the leak and Issa's letter about it. I wonder if he had marching orders.

While cmc puts Rep Duncan Hunter under a microscope, I'll just mention how odd Hunter's line of questioning struck me this morning when Ike Skelton had Ret. Maj Gen Punaro, the Commissioner of the National Guard, before the committee. Hunter kept insisting that there were 20,000 unarmored Humvees in Kuwait that could be brought back for National Guard use in the states. He kept going over and over the same ground, that the previous congress had met all the budget requests of the army, but he seemed to always skip over Guard. Punaro had to keep coming back to all the gaps in funding for the Guard, even to state that Humvees aren't appropriate for domestic assignments! Very odd.

I suppose a friendly contractor made those Humvees!

Lam probably made plenty of enemies. The strippergate prosecution (city council), the city pension board (SEC investigation), and an environmental group was pushing her to look into the Bajagua project--and of course, the Mexican Mafia.

---
03/02/06 U.S. Attorney Carol Lam asked by environmental group, Wildcoast, to investigate financial ties between a local company and three current and former congressmen relative to the Bajagua project.

06/16/06 Indictments unsealed for 36 Mexican Mafia members. Lam using anti-racketeering laws to prosecute 22 members and associates of the prison gang. Other 14 indicted on drug conspiracy charges. Raul Leon said to be among top three Mexican Mafia leaders.

BinGA said:

'Tha't a lot of press - print and TV - in a very short period after Lam notified DC that she was moving ahead on the Foggo investigation.'

Thanks for that bit from the timeline, I had something similar in the back of my mind that triggered the thought when I was going through the emails. It also stinks of a political operation because of the poor quality of the report that Issa used -- in other words, I think it's the type of thing a former staffer might have lying around that could be turned into oppo material fairly quickly if finessed in the right ways. The timing is highly suggestive. Has anyone seen the actual report that Issa used? Not just original on which it's based, but the actual copy faxed or emailed or whatever to Issa that he then cited when complaining about Lam?

Ya know, I'm thinking that Leahy has the DC Madame's phone list! Oh, and someone else's phone records probably. And, um, maybe an unadulterated copy of the Constitution too? But seriously, someone has got to have come squealing to the committee already...and, I'm also guessing that Conyers and Leahy are sharing info with one another from their respective committees...and with Waxman. This is going to go critical very, very soon...meltdown to follow?

BinGA... Those dates from the TPMM timeline
are WRONG in at least the last 3 of the events you just posted. March should be May.

I mention SCG because just this morning a friend forwarded one of their "Intelligence Brief" emails, which had this bit in it:

'With the recent news controversy involving the
imprisonment of US Border Patrol agents Ignacio
Ramos and Jose Compean, it seems that the already
dicey situation on the United States-Mexico border
has gotten a bit stickier.'

'For those of you who haven't been following the story, here is a quick synopsis: Ramos and Compean were chasing an illegal alien on the border in Texas. He was driving a van containing 800 pounds of marijuana.'

'He ditched the van, ran for the Rio Grande, but was met by the agents. The drug smuggler stopped and acted as if he were going to open fire on Ramos. This caused Ramos to fire first, in what he thought was only retaliation. In doing so, he hit the smuggler on his posterior (yes, his butt).The smuggler escaped into Mexico, where his mother-in-law complained, and charges were filed against the border patrol agents. Both agents were convicted: Ramos has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, and Compean to 12 years, both for assault. Essentially, two border patrol agents are in prison for doing their job.'

Looking over Issa's "report", I also see fingerprints of an outfit like SCG. Or perhaps it could be that someone in an anti-immigration or militia group produced it. As the Voice of San Diego article points out, there are some out-of-place editorial comments in the report. There happen to be several examles of "official" reports in the document dump, perhaps later today I'll take some time to compare one of those with Issa's report. With just a cursory examination, though, it's pretty obvious that it was put together by someone outside the USA system.

First off, I was wrong in assuming that the report came from an internal USA document, it came from the Border Patrol, as Carol Lam says in her press release (cited in 3-19-2007: http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/DOJDocsPt1-1070319.pdf)

'On Friday, May 19, 2006, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, San Diego Sector, informed us that the report released by Congressman Issa was actually an alterd and unathorized version of an actual internal intelligence report issued by the El Cajon substation. The original report was labeled "Prosecution of Smugglers" for Fiscal Year 2003; the altered report was labeled "Prosecution of Smugglers (1324) Fiscal Year 2004." The altered 2004 report contained editorial comments and conclusions that were never seen or authorized by Border Patrol management.'

At the end of Lam's press release is this bit:

'In light of previous media interest in this issue, there is a possibility that the disclosure that the report is not genuine could generate substantial media interest...'

Issa's letter in the same pdf never addresses Lam's, or the Border Patrol's, contention that the document he had was a fake. He's still at it, too -- on his site this morning he cites a number of newspaper stories about Lam's immigration "issues" as evidence that the whole USA purge is a nonstory.

Since this is based on a Border Patrol internal intelligence document, I don't think there's anything comparable in the document dump. I'll look, but I believe the immigration prosecution reports in the dump all come from USA offices or the Department of Justice itself.

And finally, this is from Issa's testimony on March 6, 2007. He still stands behind the document:

'I sought information from sources in the Border Patrol, and others in the law enforcement community, about what was really happening with border prosecutions. Border Patrol agents were forced to accept a reality in which smugglers knew what they could get away with. A smuggler knew he could drive a van full of illegal immigrants across the border without fear of any consequence other than being sent back to Mexico to try again. Smugglers who were American citizens faced no consequences at all.'

'Border Patrol agents and others within the Department of Homeland Security would privately bring my office information about the problems with prosecutorial guidelines put into effect by U.S. Attorney Carol Lam created in their efforts to secure the border near San Diego from organized smuggling cartels. In May 2006, my office released to the press a memo prepared by a senior source within the Border Patrol that detailed how Carol Lam’s policies adversely affected efforts to stop smuggling syndicates. According to the memo, only 6 percent of 289 smuggling suspects caught by Border Patrol agents from the El Cajon station east of San Diego in the 12 months ending in September 2004 were prosecuted.'
(http://judiciary.house.gov/OversightTestimony.aspx?ID=764)

Stormwater, one of the border patrol inspectors pleaded guilty today of allowing hundreds of illegal immigrants to pass through his lane at the border because he fell in love with a smuggler. He was sentenced to 57 yrs in prison. One of the interesting things about Carol Lam is that she went after border patrol agents and companies that hired illegal aliens. Some people would prefer she round up a bunch of illegals and cart them off to a detention center and make a big show about it. Of course that would never change a thing- more immigrants would just come through and provide workers for companies looking for cheap hire. Lam actually went after crimes that could have an effect on the system.

As to who slipped Issa the falsified report- I don't know for sure. But the head of one of the border patrol agents union, a guy named TJ Bonner has been quoted in the press and he appeared before congress and has some reports that he authored. He is talking some of the same talking points Issa is. Especially critical of "catch and release". He, of course, wanted more agents. And I think he got them. So he had an interest in pursuing some of the same line of complaints Issa did. I'm not saying he is the one who gave Issa the falsified report- but it could have some from within the border patrol ranks as a means of getting more agents.

Interestingly- I found TJ Bonner's name in an article that was printed in several papers on Sunday. Here is part of the article:
Guidelines issued by U.S. attorneys in Texas showed that most illegal immigrants crossing into the state had to be arrested at least six times before federal authorities would prosecute them, according to an internal Justice Department memo.
The disclosure provides a rare view of how federal authorities attempt to curb illegal immigration. The memo was released this week in response to a congressional investigation of the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys.
The Border Patrol makes more than 1 million arrests a year on the U.S.-Mexico border. T.J. Bonner, head of a union representing Border Patrol agents, said it's unrealistic to prosecute all violators.
"Let's be honest, there isn't enough jail space to incarcerate everyone who crosses that border," said Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. "If everyone demanded hearing in front of an immigration judge, it would bring our system to a grinding halt in a matter of days."
Hmmmm.... the USAs in (Houston and San Antonio) Texas do catch and release too. And nobody fired them. Hmmmm, hmmm, hmm.

Kindof strange that Bonner's quote wasn't dissing the policy this time. Perhaps he has his extra union members now and is a happy camper.

Another aspect that deserves more attention is the use of the highly political group , the Minutemen. A lot of that was political theatre, but who and how they were funded and for what purpose is an unexposed story that probably also touches the USA story.

The more I think about it the more I tend to believe that it was some digruntled person in the Border Patrol who wanted to put pressure on the USAs who provided the documents, as opposed to an outside contractor or some other third-party. Also, I believe Issa when he says the report was prepared specifically for him; it reads like someone hijacked an internal draft and turned it into a plea for a policy change in the SDUSA office.

However, I still wonder who "verified" the information for Issa and why it took them so long to do so. Besides, if he got this from a Senior employee in the Border Patrol/HS hierarchy, why wouldn't he trust it out-of-hand? I wouldn't trust it, but if I was then told that this thing had bogus information in it then I'd never release it, much less use it again and again as a political prop.

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