The following is a transcript of the Glenn Beck Show from yesterday.
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GLENN: We've added a lot of new stations and, you know, a lot of new people that, you know, are just, they stumbled in, they might have been drunk and the radio stuck on this station and then they're like, I can't turn it off now; I don't know what happened. And so now they're forced to listen. So there's a lot of people in the audience that doesn't -- they're not really even aware of some of the things that we have discovered on the Compean and Ramos case. These are the two border agents that were thrown in jail for what it looked like shooting somebody in the back or in the butt as they were running away, just this poor helpless victim and then trying to cover it up. That's what it looks like. That's what the government would like to have you believe. That is not the case.
We go to Tara Setmayer who has been on this case now for how long, Tara? Two years?
SETMAYER: Almost two years, yeah.
GLENN: And you and your illustrious boss in Washington have been on this case trying to set this right and so far you're beating your head against the wall. Let's start with the story, and if we could tell the story here in a five minute period here as much as you can, tell everybody the history of this case.
SETMAYER: Well, in February 2005 Ramos and Compean were on routine patrol down in Fabens, Texas along the border. A drug smuggler was detected -- well, they didn't know he was smuggling drugs yet. A border breach was detected by Compean, he radioed it in. They gave chase to a van, started to speed back toward the border. The individual, which is Aldrete Davila, he abandoned the van and decided to head for the border on foot. At the time other border patrol agents joined the pursuit and the drug smuggler confronted Compean on the other side of a drainage ditch on his way back to Mexico. At the time Compean tried to arrest him, he tried to apprehend him, they got into a scuffle and shots were fired. In the meantime Ramos is climbing down this drainage ditch to assist his fellow border agent. He hears shots fired. As he emerges, he sees Compean on the ground, he sees a drug smuggler running away. He shoots at him. He thinks he has a gun. He doesn't know what's happening. He shoots at him. He hits him, but he doesn't know he hit him because the guy kept running and escapes back to Mexico, where on the other side of the border there were other people waiting to pick him up and take him away.
As they walk back, they noticed that inside this van is a million dollars worth of marijuana, about 750 pounds. So other agents are on scene including two supervisors. The mistake they made, they did not orally report the shooting.
GLENN: But it's important at this point of the story to know that supervisors were on the scene.
SETMAYER: Yes.
GLENN: Others were there. It is almost a loophole there that they nailed them on and said, well, they didn't report the shooting. The idea was they didn't need to report the shooting. People were on the scene.
SETMAYER: That's right. And border patrol regulations state that they're only supposed to orally report it. That supervisor is supposed to file a written report. So this is a policy violation. It's not criminal. Well, three weeks go by. They catalog the drugs. You know, the guy absconded, he escaped to New Mexico. You know, routine day on the border so one would think. Anyone who knows or is familiar with what's going on in the southern border, it's a war zone there. So the fact that they weren't shot is actually a good thing.
A few weeks go by and we find out that the Department of Homeland Security has opened up an internal affairs investigation because the drug smuggler that they shot grew up with a border patrol agent in Arizona. The incident happened in Texas. Their families talk and they find out that Aldrete Davila has been shot by a border agent. So this agent in Arizona takes it upon himself to research what's going on, look for the shooting report.
GLENN: Okay. Stop for a second. This is an important thing for people to really focus on for just 10 seconds. A border agent who grew up with a drug smuggler in Mexico. Their families still talk. The drug smuggler called -- the drug smuggler's mother called the border agent and said, "My son's just been shot on the border," et cetera, et cetera. So you've got the connections now between the U.S. border agents and a drug smuggler. Now, it's never been -- nobody's ever accused this guy of being a dirty border agent, if I'm not mistaken, Tara, right?
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SETMAYER: Oh, that's correct. No one questioned or investigated the nature of this relationship.
GLENN: Correct.
SETMAYER: I mean, he was best friends with the drug smuggler's brother. He accompanied the drug smuggler's sister on her 15th birthday. They have close ties.
So we move forward. No one seems to think anything's wrong with that. They move forward and Homeland Security opens up this investigation. They send Christopher Sanchez, who is the investigator, down to Fabens, Texas and they send him over into Mexico to find the drug smuggler. They offer him immunity, free border crossing cards and free healthcare to come back across the border and testify against Ramos and Compean.
Now, at this point Ramos and Compean are arrested, and I have to tell you that when they interviewed the other agents who were on scene, those other agents' stories changed dramatically from their initial version of events to what they testified to at trial. Basically they were all given proffer letters, which is some sort of an immunity deal after --
GLENN: We won't come after you.
SETMAYER: That's right, we won't come after you if you tell us the "Real" story.
GLENN: Right.
SETMAYER: Which was that Ramos and Compean shot an innocent guy as he was running away. Now, anyone who knows Ramos and Compean or just looks at the basic facts of this case, it's reasonable for them to believe this gentleman was armed. Sara Carter, who is a reporter who broke this story nationally, she interviewed Davila's family and they said that he's been running drugs since he was 14 years old and he was never seen without a gun.
Now, during the trial that image of Mr. Davila was completely changed. He was a poor innocent waif who was just smuggling drugs one time to pay for money for his sick mother's medicine -- to get money for his sick mother's medicine. We all know that that's not true. As a matter of fact, while he was under immunity waiting to testify against the agent, he smuggled another load of drugs four months before the trial. The government knew it and they went before the judge and asked all of that evidence to be sealed so the jury would never hear about it.
GLENN: Which is highly unusual when somebody is convicted -- or when somebody else is arrested again. During a trial usually that person is thrown out.
SETMAYER: Well, the interesting thing about this, Glenn, is that he actually was not arrested. According to the -- this is --
GLENN: I know.
SETMAYER: This is where it gets interesting. According to the DEA report which we were able to obtain, about six months after all hell broke loose, they had already been convicted and Johnny Sutton was denying that the October load ever happened and he was, you know, speaking in lawyer, lawyerly terms to try to deny that that had ever happened because it was all under seal. One day the DEA documents show up at my door and it was proof and it was a full account of what happened in October of 2005 before the trial. And what happened is that Davila was identified as dropping off a load of 800 pounds of drugs at a stash house in Texas. When the DEA and border patrol raided that stash house, they were told by the U.S. attorney's office that no one was to be taken into custody at that time. That came from Johnny Sutton's office. So it's very curious why they didn't pursue arresting anyone at the stash house even though they fully identified -- the occupants of that stash house fully identified Aldrete Davila as being the individual who dropped off that load of drugs. So no, technically he wasn't arrested. Why the hell not.
GLENN: Now, Johnny Sutton at the time said there weren't any of these cards that helped people go across the border and if he knew where he was, he would make sure that he was arrested and all of these things, which have all turned out to be false. Johnny Sutton I believe is a dirty official and I believe the dirt and the grime go all the way to the President of the United States. I think this is a -- my spider senses, everything in me tells me something isn't right. But to try to get anybody to talk is impossible. I've talked to several people who have been instrumental in this case and other cases like it, who have been -- who are instrumental at the highest levels that are now starting to say, "Wait a minute, you know what, I was part of, you know, X, Y and Z and now I see I've been lied to and being used and we're in real trouble because there's something else going on. But they won't go on the air because some of these people are still sitting in those positions and they are trying to figure out what it is. But they are looking.
SETMAYER: Glenn, let me tell you. When we first start -- when members of congress first started to raise the profile of this case a year and a half ago, right before the agents had to report for it to begin their prison terms in January, there were a lot of very strange things going on, including the fact that Department of Homeland Security officials lied to four Texas members of congress.
GLENN: This is where I got involved.
SETMAYER: Yes. This is in September of 2006 when members of congress first started to investigate, they asked for a briefing from Homeland Security to say, okay, what's really going on here. Well, those Homeland Security officials told those members of congress that, one, Ramos and Compean confessed; two, they knew the guy was unarmed; and three, that they said they wanted to shoot some Mexicans that day. Well, that didn't sit too well with those members of congress. So they asked for proof of these allegations. And guess what, that proof never happened. And for four and a half months after that, the official report of investigation that was used to prosecute these gentlemen was not released. It hadn't even been finished yet, which is highly unusual. And it took members of congress complaining and going public about it for the Homeland Security department to finally release the report of investigation which they did under classified -- it was classified first. And then we said, that's not acceptable. So they released a redacted version. And guess what. None of what they claimed was in that report.
GLENN: Didn't the -- didn't the head of Homeland Security or one of the head guys of Homeland Security actually say in testimony in congress that you had been -- congressman, I'm sorry, you have been misled?
SETMAYER: Yes. He said misinformed. It was the inspector general Richard Skinner. He was being questioned by congressman John Culberson and that was his response: Well, I'm sorry, but you were misinformed. Well, you know, where I come from, that's called a lie.
GLENN: Yeah. Now, Tara Setmayer is with Congressman Rohrabacher and she and the congressman has been on this nonstop. Congressman is going to join us tone. In a few minutes I'm going to play some audio. Dan, is this the first time this audio has been heard? Okay. You probably have not heard this audio most likely. It is audio from the jurors saying, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. If I would have known these things about the drug smuggler, things would have been wildly different." And it shows how -- because remember, "The jurors have spoken. Don't you believe in the rule of law?" No, not when the rule of law has been so turned upside down on its head. Justice is justice. You've got to make sure that it is equally applied and there's not something else going on. There is something else going on. We're going to give you that audio which has not been heard and has not been played on this program until today. We will give you this audio here in just a second. And also somebody who has been very, very close to this case with some more insight coming up in just a minute. But also when -- Tara, when we come back, Tara actually had to speak to Compean and Ramos yesterday. It was just Ramos yesterday that you spoke to?
SETMAYER: Yes, just Ramos.
GLENN: And she broke the news to him. Remember, he's in solitary confinement, quote, for his own protection. We will get that story from her coming up in just a second. Don't miss a second of the next few minutes on the Glenn Beck program.
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GLENN: Tara, yesterday -- we've got about two minutes. Tell me what happened yesterday afternoon when you had to deliver the news yesterday afternoon that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had denied the appeal for Compean and Ramos?
SETMAYER: Now, I had my normal status call scheduled already yesterday and we got the decision about 30 minutes before I had to speak to Nacio and so, I being sure that his lawyer was on the phone, because I honestly couldn't bring myself to break the news to him but I was on the call and it was devastating. It was one of the most difficult conversations I've ever had to endure. Nacio was crushed. You know, he was obviously upset and his biggest concern was, Tara, what can you do to get me out of solitary confinement. These gentlemen are enduring conditions worse than prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. He is in a cell 23 hours of 24 hours a day. He is not allowed on weekends. He is not allowed to watch television. He is not allowed to socialize with anyone. He is in the hole.
GLENN: He does, he does listen to the radio, right?
SETMAYER: He does.
GLENN: He does listen to this program?
SETMAYER: He does. He's listening to this program. And Nacio, we're fighting for you. We're going to do what we can to get you out of there and keep your head up because the American people are behind you and members of congress are behind you and we're going to do whatever we can to get you out of there.
GLENN: You know, Nacio, I know you're listening. It is -- I, last week, what is it, two weeks ago I actually spent some time with your wife and it was -- I didn't take it lightly when I looked her in the eye and said, there's a lot of us fighting. There's a lot of us that believe in this cause and we are not going to give up. And it was something that you don't say lightly to somebody who has somebody in prison for something that you believe is an unjust verdict but I tell you it is a sentiment that runs through a large sector of our society that is aware of this case.
SETMAYER: Well, Glenn, I agree with you and it's amazing to me how the President and Johnny Sutton can sleep at night if they looked into the eyes of the wives and the children of these agents, I can't imagine they would feel the same way. I can't believe, was it really worth it for them.
GLENN: Tara, we will talk to you again and thank you so much for your hard work. And we'll also give you an opportunity to speak directly to Nacio Ramos coming up on the program here.
