The Government Accountability Office, which investigates waste, fraud and abuse in federal government agencies, reported Tuesday that its attempts to audit and investigate the Department of Homeland Security have been frustrated by the department’s lawyers.
“DHS has not been receptive towards oversight and its delays in providing Congress and us with access to various documents and officials have impeded our work,” GAO head David Walker testified (PDF) before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security.
Walker, joined by the department’s inspector general, said that department officials, and especially the office of general counsel, had delayed investigations and demanded to be present during employee interviews, in order to intimidate those employees.
“Every document we seek to review has to be reviewed (first) by the general counsel’s office,” Walker added. He said the department’s general counsel wants to “sit in on every interview,” which he deemed inappropriate.
Walker said when there are more lawyers than other staff involved, “you’ve got problems.”
“I agree wholeheartedly,” said Inspector General Richard Skinner. “It’s not a denial of information, but it’s very cumbersome to obtain information.”
Skinner also said that having a supervisor or attorney present when his office interviews an employee “sets a chilling effect” and tells the employee he’s presumed not to be a team player.
Until his resignation last month, the general counsel was Phil Perry, son-in-law of Vice President Dick Cheney. — Associated Press
The general counsel’s office insisted on reviewing “sensitive” documents before releasing them to Congressional investigators or to the inspector general, a cumbersome process which Skinner said was “structured to delay, delay, delay.”
A Homeland Security spokesman said that the statements were inaccurate and unfair.
In December, the inspector general released a semiannual report on its activities, including investigations and prosecutions of DHS employees for criminal activities. One wonders what Perry is so worried about investigators digging into.
Morale in the Department of Homeland Security is the lowest of any government agency, and has been persistently low since the department’s creation in 2003.
I wonder why.
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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Feb 08, 2007
BLOGical Thoughts » Thursday, 8 February, 2007
Fraud Guy
Feb 08, 2007
Hey, if DHS has nothing to hide, why do they have to keep bringing in the lawyers?
Fraud Guy
Feb 08, 2007
If DHS has nothing to hide, they don’t need to bring lawyers to meetings.
Ray
Feb 09, 2007
Well after all they are the
Department of
Hiding
Stupidity
;-)
George not W
Mar 02, 2007
DHS is authority for homeland security but is there a homeland to be protected by these federal sherrifs?
Homeland is a country you have been emotionally tied to
and believe in its principles and no one but only you can
protect it and make it secure. Because its your soul
and faith rather than any kind of external entity or
formalized structure you can touch.
SYS POE
Apr 28, 2007
This is why they’re hiding: they can’t handle an audit of how the Agency’s funds are spent when they send Blackhawk helicopters to raid residences of their own officers, in retaliation for whistleblowing. This is what they’ve been hiding from – but it seems like the truth is no longer a secret.
Twenty Million Dollar Lawsuit Filed Against The Department Of Homeland Security
Lead Counsel in the Erin Brockovich case joins legal team.
SANTA MONICA, Calif./EWORLDWIRE/April 24, 2007 — In a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security, former CBP Officer Julia Davis and her husband, Hollywood Producer/Director BJ Davis, uncover how the Patriot Act is being used to discourage acts of true patriots. A complaint filed in the Central Federal District Court of California (Case EDCV07-0481SGL (OPx)) names the United States of America, Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ICE Agents Jeffrey Deal and Herbert Kaufer as defendants and seeks general damages of twenty million dollars in addition to punitive and exemplary damages, special damages, petition for writ of mandate and attorneys fees. Allegations include civil rights violations, malicious prosecutions, false imprisonment, warrantless surveillance, warrantless searches, privacy violations and withholding of exculpatory evidence.
Julia Davis is a former Customs and Border Protection Officer who made a whistleblowing disclosure to the FBI/JTTF in an attempt to safeguard the nation’s borders. In retaliation for the report that exposed serious lapses in processing of applicants for admission from special interest countries, the Department of Homeland Security engaged in unprecedented retaliation against Julia Davis and her family. San Diego Director of Field Operations Adele Fasano wrote that Julia Davis “should be held accountable for what she did,” referring to Julia’s report to the FBI. San Ysidro Port Director William Ward sent a high priority Significant Incident Report to the office of former CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner, alerting DHS officials of an extremely embarrassing disclosure. ICE Agents Jeffrey Deal and Herbert Kaufer led the charge against Davis and later admitted under oath that the Davis case was declared “top priority” and was to be given “immediate attention.”
Julia and BJ Davis have been falsely charged with felony crimes and twice imprisoned; the Davis residence has been raided with a Blackhawk helicopter, stormed by twenty-seven ICE Agents armed with assault weapons and ransacked for an hour without a warrant. Prior to the raid, Julia and BJ Davis have been subjected to aerial surveillance with the Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Unit, followed by as many as eight ICE agents at each given time; their medical and insurance records have been inappropriately disclosed by the Screen Actors Guild and voluminous materials have been seized in a warrantless search of BJ Davis’ office. Agents Kaufer and Deal falsely accused Julia Davis of being a “Domestic Terrorist” and a convicted murderer, boasted of abusing Patriot Act provisions in “keeping close tabs” on the family, while disclosing highly privileged TECS records and details of FBI investigations to third party civilians and organized crime associates.
All criminal charges in prosecutions against Julia and BJ Davis have been dismissed. California State court declared Julia and BJ Davis factually innocent, ordered their arrest records sealed and destroyed and ordered the government to return all proceeds of both warrantless searches. DHS, Kaufer and Deal refused to comply with this court order. Although the DHS Office of Professional Responsibility acknowledged in writing that misconduct by Kaufer and Deal had risen well above the administrative level, their actions have not been formally investigated. The DHS Office of Special Investigations canceled their appointments to interview Julia and BJ Davis, where the evidence of criminal misconduct was to have been formally presented.
Julia Davis won a discrimination lawsuit against the DHS, with a final court order issued in 2005 that found the Agency engaged in illegal conduct and that the DHS betrayal of Julia Davis caused her to involuntarily resign from the Agency. Daniel Sutherland, the DHS Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties issued a written refusal to comply with the court order.
The current lawsuit, filed by the law firm of Wasserman, Comden & Casselman, points out that while the DHS refused to honor an award of $225,000 dollars and failed to comply with valid court orders, it expended enormous taxpayer resources to unlawfully pursue, harass, maliciously prosecute and falsely imprison Julia and BJ Davis.
David B. Casselman, Esq. has been selected by Super Lawyer Magazine from among the lawyers of the State of California as 2006 SUPER LAWYER. The law firm of Wasserman, Comden & Casselman obtained some of the largest verdicts in history for their clients. Thomas V. Girardi, Esq. of Girardi & Keese today announced he’ll be joining the legal team of Wasserman, Comden & Casselman as plaintiff’s counsel. Mr. Girardi served as a lead counsel in the Erin Brockovich case and is one of the most influential and acclaimed attorneys in the United States. The law firm of Girardi & Keese has been involved in a number of landmark cases and obtained more than one billion in recoveries on behalf of their clients.
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