WP: Border Patrol Cited for Inaction on Kickbacks

[Pirate Smile]

Border Patrol Cited for Inaction on Kickbacks

By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 1, 2005; Page A02

Top officials of the U.S. Border Patrol failed to act on allegations they received in 2000 and 2001 of widespread kickbacks being paid to border agents in Arizona, and later investigations by the Department of Homeland Security avoided holding high-level officials responsible, said a new government report released yesterday.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency created to protect government whistle-blowers, said in the report that the current head of the Border Patrol, David V. Aguilar, was informed as early as 2000, when he headed the agency in Arizona, that border agents temporarily assigned there were receiving kickbacks from area landlords, but he did not act. The report was sent to President Bush and Congress.

"It stretches credulity that 45 employees at a single Border Patrol station engaged in a kickback and fraud scheme for a number of years . . . without the knowledge of management," the OSC said in a statement. Homeland Security investigators "appear to have exerted little effort to follow up on evidence identified by whistle-blowers that would call into question the statements of its management."

-snip-
By sidestepping punishment of higher-ups under suspicion, "there is a real risk of creating the appearance of a whitewash," Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch said in a statement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053101423.html

[Javaman]

1. Sounds like a job for the minutemen!!!

Ta Da! Time to kick some border patrol ass!! oh wait...

Here's the prefect solution to morons* budget problems!

See, border patrol agents like money! Fire them. Hire the minutemen and they can get paid in beer and pretzels! Now there's some smart number figurein'!

Such a choice, what to do, what to do...

Keep the patrol on and we have all sorts of malfeasance. But on the other hand those minutemen guys work cheap.

So let's see, it's either kick backs or minor border wars.

Welcome to morons* America! Where even the most basic concept of border security is fucking bizarre!