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Homeland Security Department Used to Track Texas Democrats

  • 15-05-2003 9:29am
    #1
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭


    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.'"

    [...]


Comments

  • #2
    JohnK
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,780 ✭✭✭JohnK


    It's disturbing but least it's been exposed now. They can never say it's all innocent and will never be used for politics.


  • #3
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    Forwarded Message
    From: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw@cs.cmu.edu>
    Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 22:13:32 -0400
    To: dave@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

    [...]


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