Homeland Security Department Used to Track Texas Democratic Legislators

[Bill Stewart]

Yow!  Either Jon Stewart's Daily Show or Jay Leno last night
was quoting one of the Texas Republicans joking about
the Democrats being Terrorists for blocking the bill this way,
but apparently he wasn't totally joking.
(Daily Show also showed a bunch of people in chicken suits
mocking the Democrats, which is a perfectly appropriate response...)

Apparently they only have to hold out till sometime Friday,
but it's illegal to prevent a quorum in the legislature
so the Republicans are able to send Texas police after them.
I don't know if that law is intended to apply to outsiders preventing
a quorum or if it really does apply to walkouts like this one.

There's the initial posting and then a followup.

------ Forwarded Message
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 15:00:52 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave at farber.net>
Subject: Homeland Security Department Used to Track Texas Democratic 
Legislators

(someone sent me this url... here it is for the IP if you wish)

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0514-07.htm

Published on  Wednesday, May 14, 2003 by CommonDreams.org

Homeland Security Department Used to Track Texas Democrats
by Glenn W. Smith


Republicans in Washington and Austin, Texas apparently used a
Homeland Security Department agency to track Texas Democratic
legislators who left the state to block passage of a GOP-backed
Congressional redistricting bill.

This is the same Homeland Security Department that is supposed to be
making America safe from foreign terrorists. It's the agency we were
told would never be used for domestic political purposes.

But today's edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the
Air and Marine Interdiction and Coordination Center, in Riverside,
California, became involved in the Republican search for 51
Democratic state representatives who went to Ardmore, Oklahoma to
break a quorum of the House and block action on the redistricting
bill.

Here's what the Star-Telegram reported: "The agency received a call
to locate a specific Piper turboprop aircraft. It was determined that
the plane belonged to former House Speaker Pete Laney." Laney is one
of the Democrats who is fighting against the redistricting bill.

The newspaper said, "Laney's plane proved to be a key piece of
information because, (Republican House Speaker) Craddick said, it's
how he determined that the Democrats were in Ardmore. 'We called
someone, and they said they were going to track it. I have no idea
how they tracked it down,' Craddick said. 'That's how we found them.'"

The Interdiction and Coordination center "falls under the auspices of
the Homeland Security Department," the Star-Telegram reported.

Republican Craddick, at the request of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, is
pushing a redistricting plan that would eliminate five Democrats from
the U.S. Congress. Currently, the Texas delegation contains 17
Democrats and 15 Republicans.

While saying they "called someone," Craddick denied making calls to
any federal agency, but DeLay confirmed that Republicans sought the
assistance of federal law enforcement.

The action by the House Democrats, dubbed the "Heroes of the House"
and the "Killer D's" (a reference to a similar quorum-busting action
by Texas Senate Democrats in the late 1970s), has gained national
attention. Their action has also received a surprising amount of
support from Texas newspapers, which have criticized the deeply
partisan actions of Texas Republicans.

Republican leaders in Texas and Washington are furious. They have
called the Democrats, holed up in a Holiday Inn in Ardmore, "cowards"
and "terrorists."

State troopers have followed the Democrats wives, parents and
children. Troopers even staked out a hospital where one lawmaker's
premature twins  are being cared for. Staffers have been harassed.
All this has happened after the location of the Democrats was known.

Now, in a chilling revelation, we discover  the Homeland Security
Department was apparently used to try and track the Democrats'
whereabouts.

It was no doubt a ham-fisted, incautious and bungled attempt (like
the Watergate burglary) by Republicans to use all the law enforcement
they could find to overcome the Democrats' temporary advantage.

But the use of the Homeland Security Department for partisan
political purposes should alarm all Americans. It deserves a full,
complete and independent investigation.

The warnings of civil libertarians appear to have been justified.
Even if it turns out that some half-crazed Republican staffer or
independent investigator called the Air and Marine Interdiction and
Coordination Center, it raises disturbing questions about the
operations of Homeland Security and the lengths Republicans will go
enforce their will.

Americans deserve to know the details of this scandal. And they
deserve to know them now.

Glenn W. Smith is managing director/consultant to the progressive
Rockridge Institute of Oakland, California. Smith lives in Austin,
Texas. His email is glenns at affinitydynamics.com .

###
------ Forwarded Message
From: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw at cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 22:13:32 -0400
To: dave at farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] Homeland Security Department Used to Track TexasDemocratic
Legislators

Dave,

The online version of the article you sent has a link to an article in the
Ft Worth Start-Telegram, http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/5858118.htm.

The CommonDreams.org article didn't make it clear that rules of the
legislature apparently give the state cops the authority to round up
legislators if they are needed to make a quorum.  Bringing in federal
agencies still crosses the line, and the in-state tactics are questionable.
But the (partisan) reporting in the CommonDreams article leaves the reader
with the impression that it was over the line to be looking for the
legislators at all.

Mary



       Posted on Wed, May. 14, 2003

       Eyes of Texas, U.S. on truant legislators
       By Jay Root
       Star-Telegram Austin Bureau


                   STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON
                   Reps. Al Edwards of Houston, Helen Giddings of DeSoto and
Sylvester Turner of Houston talk with reporters in Austin. The three
Democratic representatives returned to the House on Tuesday.

       Wives have been watched. A former House speaker's plane was tracked.
Federal officials have been asked to intervene. Even the El Paso Police
Department has gotten involved.

       The hunt for Democrats on the lam from the Texas Legislature has
involved virtually every level of government, ranging from a house call by
local cops to monitoring conducted -- apparently unwittingly -- by a
California-based agency that normally is involved in the fight against
terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

       By Tuesday night, only one House member, Rep. Helen Giddings,
D-DeSoto, had been apprehended.

       State Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, said he believes that the
dragnet went overboard when a Texas Ranger tried to find him Monday night at
the neonatal unit of the Galveston hospital where his newborn twins are
recovering -- in intensive care. Eiland said he called the agent on his
cellphone and told him that DPS agents had already found him in Ardmore,
Okla. -- where he and most of his fellow boycotters are in self-imposed
exile.

       "It's unnecessary, bordering on harassment," Eiland said. "Let the
good guys go back to catching the bad guys and let the politicians deal with
each other."

       The Texas Department of Public Safety says it's just doing its job:
trying to haul in more than 50 Democrats who skipped town to block a
controversial vote on redistricting.

       Although their tactic isn't a crime, state law enforcement officers
have the authority to arrest members of the Legislature and deliver them to
the Capitol to achieve the necessary quorum. At least three divisions of the
DPS -- state troopers, Texas Rangers and the Special Crimes unit -- are on
the case.




[[[snip]]]


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