Federal bribery probe grips El Paso

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Houston Chronicle

June 24, 2007, 1:51AM
Federal bribery probe grips El Paso
Investigation links several city leaders to corruption, multiple plots

By GARY SCHARRER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

EL PASO — Alleged bribery payoffs plotted in a bathroom stall. A truckload of county records hauled off by FBI agents. A guilty plea that alleges routine corruption by a web of current and former officials.

This city of 735,000 has been riveted by a federal bribery investigation targeting a chain of suspects, including a former White House appointee.

"It's the Manhattan Project for the El Paso FBI," said one federal agent working the case, referring to the mammoth 1940s effort to develop the atomic bomb.

So far, the former chief of staff for El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos has pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiracy and fraud, admitting his involvement in alleged payoffs for county contracts.
(snip)

Ketner also described Arturo Duran, who was President Bush's former appointee to the International Boundary and Water Commission, as the "bag man" for several alleged bribery schemes.


Read more: http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4915125.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. You may find this appointee we've never heard of very TYPICAL of what we're getting from Bush!

This concerns Arturo Duran, mentioned in the last sentence of the clip above, _Bush's appointee to the International Boundary and Water Commission. Prime _Bush stock:

~snip~
.....Until recently, the IBWC has been an island of calm reserve in a sea of political turmoil, and before President George W. Bush installed Arturo Duran as Commissioner of the IBWC in January 2004, it had never been politicized in its nearly 120-year history. But Duran has been a disaster, and is emblematic of the Bush Administration’s chauvinism, unthinking actions, relentless cronyism, and corruption.
Duranoia and Duranistas

Agency employees are paralyzed with fear; fear of Duran’s paranoiac personality and irrational decision making. In his short tenure he has fired, forcibly reassigned, or pushed into retirement nearly one-third of all headquarters personnel, as well as numerous personnel from the field offices. Duran’s actions evince extreme distrust and obsessive concerns with control of employees. For example, he installed cameras and microphones at headquarters, some of which are made to look like smoke alarms, so he can monitor employee movements throughout the building and record their conversations. After an anonymous letter complaining about Duran was sent to various media, Duran seized five employee computers to have them searched; one of the computers was never returned. Since the letter was sent on IBWC letterhead, Duran confiscated all of the agency stationary from employees and still refuses to allow non-Duranistas access to agency letterhead. His inner circle, the Duranistas, are friends that Duran hired to insulate himself from the workaday employees, and these friends have been appointed at the highest level, with some of his cronies making in excess of $130,000 per year. A new website, which publicizes information about Duran’s activities is fueled by reports from current and former IBWC employees.

Duran has a groosly distorted sense of self-importance. Tired of waiting in airports, he attempted to requisition a twin-engine airplane to be on call to ferry him and his cronies around the Southwest. He only dropped the idea when one of his other minor corruptions made it into the news. He had attempted to order a “raven black,” smoked window Cadillac Escalade narco car for himself. But these petty Bushite actions are only the tip of a very large problem created by a man with a very large ego. A damnifying Department of State Inspector General report found that since Duran’s arrival, “Internal management problems have engulfed USIBWC, threatening its essential responsibilities for flood control and water management in the American Southwest,” and that “{m}orale plummeted {and} a climate of fear and disaffection spread.”
(snip/...)

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/7/17/18299/1821

[UpInArms]

3. I-Team investigates Duran's conflict-filled employment history

http://www.kvia.com/Global/story.asp?S=6655520&nav=menu193_2

The 60-page long report, all about Duran's job performance, is not very flattering.

The report states that Duran, "Undermined the morale of the agency," by creating a "climate of fear."

According to the OIG report, Duran fired senior personnel and "rewarded long-time friends with ranking positions and corresponding salaries."

The report goes on to say: "OIG was troubled also by the Commissioner's apparent involvement in the awarding of contracts....the organization may be so damaged as to be unable to carry out its mandate."

Duran resigned a few months after the report was published.

Nearly 2 years after his resignation from the IBWC, Duran is once again being asked to resign from the Thomason County Hospital Board.

[UpInArms]

2. more from your link:

Adding to the intrigue is an acknowledgment from current El Paso County Commissioner Dan Haggerty that he had met secretly with FBI agents for nearly two years.

Haggerty has long been suspicious that county contracts for goods, services and construction were rigged.

"Some of the people I have worked with on Commissioner's Court are really stupid," said Haggerty, brother of longtime state Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso. "They thought they could do whatever they were doing that was totally corrupt, not knowing that it was totally corrupt.

"If this is OK, why are we meeting in this stall in the bathroom on the basement floor of the courthouse?" Haggerty said. "Why does it smell in here?"

Ketner's pleading described a courthouse restroom meeting between Cobos (described as "Co-conspirator Five") and Duran ("Co-conspirator Seven") involving a promise of money from Duran for contracts benefiting Duran's clients.

it is beginning to appear that it is more than just having that "R" for the BFEE and its cronies - somehow they have to almost be certifiably insane to be a part of the inner sanctum circle.

[tanyev]

4. I am shocked, shocked to read that a former Bush appointee is involved.

:eyes: