[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12589-12590]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    UNCOVERING A GOVERNMENT COVERUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ose). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sandlin) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SANDLIN. Mr. Speaker, as you know, we are here tonight to discuss 
a very chilling issue, the intentional destruction of evidence by a 
government agency and the subsequent stone-walling and coverup by the 
Federal Government.
  Mr. Speaker, as has been discussed here previously, Members of the 
Texas State Legislature recently properly excused themselves from the 
floor of the Texas statehouse in order to break a quorum, a proper 
procedure provided for by the House rules and by the Constitution. This 
angered partisan Republican interests in Washington, and thereafter the 
Homeland Security Department, charged with fighting terrorism in this 
country, used Federal Government assets for political purposes, trying 
to track the plane of former Democratic Speaker of the House Pete 
Laney.
  Embarrassingly, Secretary Tom Ridge and the Department of Homeland 
Security has now been forced to admit that they have an audiotape and a 
transcript of communications between Homeland Security and Texas law 
enforcement; and, despite that admission they were forced to make, the 
Department of Homeland Security has said they will not release the 
tape, thus taking part in this improper coverup.
  This morning, further disturbing news came out of Austin, the State's 
capital. As I mentioned earlier, there is an admission of communication 
between Homeland Security and law enforcement in Texas. When the 
Department of Public Safety learned that inquiries were being made to 
obtain this information, they went into high gear, presumably at the 
direction of higher-ups, because, Mr. Speaker, as we were all shocked 
and dismayed to learn, the information held by the Department of Public 
Safety was intentionally destroyed, another part of the coverup.
  Here is the quote from the DPS Commander of Special Crime Service, 
Tony Marshall, in an e-mail uncovered by the Fort Worth Star Telegram 
under an open records request. The DPS got caught with this e-mail. 
``Any notes, correspondence, photos, et cetera, that were obtained 
pursuant to the absconded House of Representatives members should be 
destroyed immediately. No copies are to be kept.''
  In an attempt to cover up this coverup, DPS exacerbated the problem 
with this statement. ``This is why DPS destroyed the records. We are 
prohibited under the Code of Federal Regulations, 28 CFR part 23, from 
keeping intelligence information that is not related to criminal 
conduct or activity,'' and it goes on.
  There are only two problems with that statement. First, it simply is 
not true. Nothing in the regulations suggests, demands or requires the 
destruction of evidence. Secondly, it is improper and in violation of 
the law to collect this information in the first place.

[[Page 12590]]

  You see, as with most cover-ups, they failed to tell you the whole 
story, and each new story makes the last story worse, because the truth 
is the very regulation that the DPS incorrectly cites as the reason to 
destroy this evidence states that there must be ``a reasonable 
suspicion that the individual is engaged in criminal conduct or 
activity as a condition precedent to entering this information in the 
data bank in the first place.''
  In other words, to even collect this information, there must be a 
reasonable allegation that a crime has been committed.
  This data is for tracking criminals. The regulation specifically 
mentions crimes such as drug trafficking, loan sharking, trafficking in 
stolen property, gambling, extortion, smuggling, bribery, corruption.
  Homeland Security and DPS, in one of their many stories, claimed that 
they were merely looking for a plane that they thought was missing or 
may have crashed. Now, of course that is not true either. But missing 
planes are located through the FAA and law enforcement, not by using 
criminal databases improperly in violation of the law.
  Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
  Homeland Security, produce the tapes. Homeland Security, produce the 
transcripts. Department of Public Safety, do the same.
  We respect DPS in Texas. They are a great agency. We know they were 
not doing it independently. They were doing it at the direction of 
others. They were following orders.
  You know, Sharon Watkins blew the whistle on Enron. Arthur Andersen 
got caught shredding documents. Cover-ups just do not work.
  Is this a serious problem, or is it just a third-rate burglary, as we 
learned about in our history lessons? Mr. Speaker, only time will tell.

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