[Ppnews] FBI & Puerto Rican Congressman Serrano

Political Prisoner News PPnews at freedomarchives.org
Fri Apr 21 18:17:45 EDT 2006



----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:CongressmanSerrano at mail.house.gov>CongressmanSerrano
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 10:07 PM
Subject: FBI & Congressman Serrano

Dear Friends,
I am forwarding, for your information, a 
translation of the exchange between FBI Director 
Robert Mueller and myself. This was published in 
Puerto Rico's El Nuevo Dia newspaper on March 29, 
2006. Included is a transcript of the 
exchange.  Please feel free to forward to your lists.
Thank you for your interest in this issue.
Adios,
Congressman Jose E. Serrano



  "Disinterest" in Investigation on FBI's Conduct.


Wednesday, 29 March 2006

By José A. Delgado
jdelgado at elnuevodia.com

WASHINGTON - It seems that there is not interest 
from the FBI Director in finding a middle ground 
in the disagreement with the government of Puerto 
Rico over local investigations into the recent conduct of the FBI.

In private, the FBI has indicated to Democratic 
aides to the Judiciary Committee that it does not 
trust the work of Puerto Rican law enforcement agencies.

An exchange Tuesday between Congressman José 
Serrano, who is of Puerto Rican birth, and the 
director of the FBI, Robert Mueller - in an 
Appropriations Subcommittee hearing-speaks for itself.

On one side, Serrano, Democrat of New York, and 
number two in rank for the minority on the 
Subcommittee that reviews and funds the FBI's 
annual budget, emphasizes the belief that the FBI 
overstepped in recent operations. Meanwhile, 
Mueller concentrates on defending his agents 
without opening the way for an agreement or 
denying that he does not trust in the Puerto Rican government.

Serrano began his questioning with a general 
reference to the criticisms that have been made 
about the FBI for its role in the death of 
Machetero leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios on the 23rd 
of September, 2005. He refers to allegations that 
the independence leader could have survived if he 
had not been left to bleed for more than 18 
hours. He also brings up the FBI's actions 
against journalists during an operation on February 10, 2006.

The following is a partial transcript of the 
Congressman Serrano's questioning of the FBI chief.

SERRANO (...) And so one of my questions to you 
is, in terms of an investigation, do you believe 
that federal agents in Puerto Rico are obligated 
to comply with commonwealth subpoenas?

MUELLER: Well, let me, if I could, before I 
answer that question, perhaps put in context the 
events in which you discuss, which I know are difficult in Puerto Rico.

But, first of all, the arrest of Mr. Ojeda Rios. 
You're well aware that he had been a fugitive for 
a number of years, was convicted in abstentia, 
being not only a participant in, I think it was, 
the 1984 robbery up in Hartford but had been 
leader of the Macheteros who were responsible 
over a number of years for a number of terrorist 
attacks in which persons have been killed.
I think it is wrong to say that he could have 
been captured at any point in time. He was known 
to be dangerous and known to be armed. And, 
again, to put it into context, as we discussed 
shortly thereafter, in the course of an effort to 
apprehend Mr. Ojeda Rios, one of our agents was 
shot in the stomach and two others -- and he is 
lucky to be alive today -- and two others were 
shot in the head, and they were lucky not to have 
been injured because they had appropriate head gear.

And so putting it in context, I understand what 
you're saying but I do want to put it in the 
appropriate context. As we discussed shortly 
after that incident, because of the questions 
raised, I asked the inspector general to do an 
independent investigation, and the inspector 
general is now doing that independent 
investigation, and I look forward to seeing the results of that.

With regard to the other incident, my 
understanding is that six search warrants are 
being executed, that at one of those places in 
which the search warrant was being executed, as 
the agents were leaving, the perimeter, which had 
been established and which one establishes 
whenever one does a search warrant, was broached 
by a number of people and that at that time there 
was mace used but at that time agents were pelted 
with rocks, cars were damaged and the like.

Now, again, putting that in the context, what 
I've asked for is an investigation there. I 
offered the investigation to the inspector 
general. The inspector general requested that our 
inspection division do that investigation. We're 
currently doing it, and it is being monitored by the inspector general.

Whenever there is an instance such as this, I 
have in the past and will continue to seek 
independent investigations so that we can determine what the actual facts are.

In final answer to your question, in terms of 
whether or not agents of the FBI need respond to 
a subpoena from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 
I have to leave that to the Department of Justice. It's a legal issue.

SERRANO: OK. On the issue of just -- I know that 
in a way this is somewhat heresy but it has to be 
brought up, two days after your office contacted 
me you in fact were kind enough to leave a 
message on my cell phone that morning immediately 
saying that you were getting on the 
investigation, and I told you later that I appreciated that.

Two days later, and, again, just for the record, 
I took a call in my office from a very distraught 
person who said, "I'm a former Marine, I am 
pro-statehood for Puerto Rico, you can't get more 
American than that," he told me. "And I'm very 
distraught because I've been an FBI informant for 
the last couple of years and I told the FBI where 
Ojeda Rios was at the every step of the way for 
the last couple of years. I told them when he was 
in church, I told them when he was at the 
supermarket, I told them when he went for a jog, 
and I feel somehow responsible that he was killed 
because he could have been gotten somewhere else 
and yet they chose to do it this way."

Now, I didn't know what to do with that 
information. I'm certainly not going to call the 
FBI and say, "Guess what? Is this guy one of your 
informants," because I know what the answer to that would be.

MUELLER: I would have appreciated it.

SERRANO: Well, but you read about it. You read 
about it, because what I did was I told him, "You 
should contact a newspaper person who might 
actually speak to you," and that person put a 
whole newspaper perhaps somewhat on the line by 
writing a couple of columns in New York verifying 
to the extent that they can verify that this guy 
gave information that indicated that he was 
indeed an informant and he had told the FBI where 
Mr. Ojeda Rios was all of the time. No one 
questioned the fact that a warrant for his arrest 
could be executed. He was a fugitive, period.

Everybody questions why local authorities, and 
here is the crux of this issue, why on all these 
incidents local authorities are not allowed to 
participate to the point where the state, the 
superintendent of police in Puerto Rico is on the 
record writing to Congress and writing to anyone 
who will listen that he was never informed that 
the FBI was there, that they wanted to go and 
participate. This is the chief of police. Mr. 
Toledo is a former FBI agent, 23 years of 
service, a hostage negotiations expert, and he 
said nothing that was done to that moment could 
have prevented us from speaking to Mr. Ojeda and doing some other things.

And I told you personally and I pointed out in 
public how bad we all feel about any FBI agent 
that was hurt during this incident.

But one of the things that happened was that the 
attorney general says that the FBI called him or 
the U.S. Attorney's Office called him, told him, 
"Get your people over to the place. This is what's going on."

When they went over there they were asked to 
remove themselves, and one of the questions that 
continues in Puerto Rico is, why were local 
officials not informed and when they showed up 
turned away to the point now that leads us to 
another issue, and I want you to just see if you 
can comment on this, at a briefing that the FBI 
had with the Judiciary Committee staff, they said 
that they usually do not let people, law 
enforcement in Puerto Rico know when they're 
going to be involved in an operation because they 
can't trust the local law enforcement with that information.

Now, first of all, do you know about that? And, 
secondly, if that's true, then we have a bigger 
problem here, because any locality that can't be 
trusted with information by the FBI, then there's 
an issue that this committee and the FBI, the 
White House and everybody has to deal with. How 
much can you tell me about how much trust there 
is between the FBI and the local law enforcement authority?

And, lastly, on that issue, even if that's true, 
why would the FBI want to promote that as a 
discussion in public that local authorities 
cannot be trusted rather than working on it to resolve that problem?

MUELLER: Well, you've asked a lot of questions 
here. As to much of the factual detail...

SERRANO: And I'm being as brief as I can, believe me.

MUELLER: Yes. As to much of the factual detail, 
again, the inspector general is looking at those 
facts that you allege, including what you 
indicated were at least heresy from this 
informant. I can tell you I was no aware. I do 
not believe that we had Ojeda Rios identified, 
this locality identified for a substantial period 
of time before the incident occurred.

With regards, and I'll speak generally, not 
specifically, there are occasions throughout the 
country where, for whatever reasons, there may be 
individuals in particular police departments whom 
we believe cannot be trusted. I'm not going to 
speak to Puerto Rico specifically, but this 
happens. And when it does happen, we work around it.

I can tell you, as you well know, our second 
priority in the criminal side of the house is 
civil rights. We're often called upon, whether it 
be public corruption or civil rights 
investigations, to investigate police 
departments, to investigate those who on day one 
were executing search warrants with but on day 
two come under suspicion because of violation of 
civil rights or public corruption. And those 
cases where we feel that there is a risk to the 
investigation, then we keep it tight to the vest. 
Again, I want to emphasize that I'm not talking 
about any particular jurisdiction, only to say that this does happen.

SERRANO: Now, if you're not aware, and I would 
bet you are but I'm not going to ask if you're 
aware -- there is a major image problem for the 
FBI in Puerto Rico. Folks who live in Puerto 
Rico, for the most part, dramatically so, are 
very supportive of all federal agencies. That's 
the relationship for 107 years, 108 years. Yet 
the FBI continues to run into deeper and deeper 
discontent from the public from all segments of 
society. Whether they're pro-statehood or for independence, there's a concern.

What can be done or does the FBI care in trying 
to promote a better image in Puerto Rico? And why 
is there a belief that the FBI will continue to 
behave in a way that folks in Puerto Rico think 
is not proper and nothing will ever come of any 
investigation? I mean, right now the state 
government is trying to conduct an investigation. 
They've sued you and Mr. Gonzales and the whole 
Justice Department because they can't get any cooperation from you, basically.

Mr. Fratchatelli (ph), the local director, came 
out and said, "They did a great job and that's 
all there is to it." "With great dominion," was 
the way he said they handled the operation.

What can be done to improve the image of the FBI?

MUELLER: Let me start by saying, yes, we care 
very much about the image of the FBI in Puerto 
Rico. I am tremendously disappointed that events 
have resulted in a undercutting of the trust that 
the people of Puerto Rico legitimately should 
place in the FBI. And one of the reasons that I 
asked the inspector general to do the 
investigation is so that we have some independent 
entity that is looking at it and will report back on what happened.

And I ask the people of Puerto Rico to understand 
that in these particular incidents we were 
executing our responsibilities as federal 
officers and in doing so these events happened. I 
would hope they would put it into context and 
wait for the results of the investigation to see 
exactly what happened. My hope is that the 
results of the investigations will assuage some 
of their concerns about the FBI.

But I will say that the FBI is, whether in Puerto 
Rico or around the country, those agents do a 
terrific job. They are protecting the people of 
Puerto Rico, not just from terrorists but from 
bank robbers, from narcotraffickers, from those 
who commit white collar crime, and that the 
people of Puerto Rico, while this may be a 
sensitive issue for them, should not forget the 
role that the FBI is undertaking to secure their 
safety from terrorists, criminals, narcotraffickers in Puerto Rico.

SERRANO: Let me close with this, Mr. Chairman: A 
couple of years ago, March 16, 2000, actually -- 
I needed to know this for this morning's meeting 
-- I asked Director Freeh how much the FBI was 
willing to talk about the previous 60 years of 
the way that the FBI had treated the Puerto Rican 
independence movement. And to the shock of 
everybody, starting with me, Director Freeh said 
that there was a time when the FBI had not 
behaved properly and that he was hoping that this 
could be remedied. And immediately, beginning 
with that day, he began releasing, and you have 
continued, something I appreciate, releasing over 
1,800,000 pages of files on the Puerto Rico independence movement.

Most of them, admittedly by Director Freeh and 
now by people who've analyzed it, showing that 
there was a directed attempt to break and destroy the independence movement.

There are some folks who took that as an 
indication that a new day was coming for the 
FBI's behavior in Puerto Rico over those 60 
years. Now, many of us are afraid that some of 
that behavior has started again. And so all I can 
tell you is be aware of that. Be aware of the 
fact that you're hearing this from a member of 
Congress who's supportive of the work the FBI 
does, who's never held back on supporting your budget or on your activities.

But right now, you know, you and I are in the 
same profession. We do 100 good things. We do one 
bad one and the people will remember the bad one. 
Right now the folks of Puerto Rico may not be 
concentrating on all the good things that you 
talk about, which we know to be true, but on the 
fact that on two incidents within the last year 
they behaved the way they used to behave for 60 years, and that's not good.

MUELLER: Well, I would disagree with you in terms 
of their behaving the way they did in the past. We have not gone...

SERRANO: No, no. I'm saying that the people 
across the board are concentrating on that as a 
sign that that behavior is back and never left, 
and that's not good for you, it's not good for 
me, and it's not good for our country.

MUELLER: And I ask you to keep an open mind. I 
ask the people of Puerto Rico to keep an open 
mind. I had to talk to the wife of that agent who 
was shot in the stomach. I had to talk to those 
agents who barely survived that night. And so I ask them to keep an open mind.

SERRANO: Someday I'll have you speak to some of 
the people who feel that the FBI years ago did great harm to their family.



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