http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...on/6119043.htm
Posted on Wed, Jun. 18, 2003
Report says Texas authorities not helpful in investigation
BY JAY ROOT
Knight Ridder Newspapers
AUSTIN, Texas - (KRT) - U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials thought something was "fishy" last month when Texas state police officials asked them to help locate a missing airplane believed be carrying state legislators.
Then, when they tried to find out how the terrorism-fighting agency got snared into the hunt for quorum-busting Democrats last month, the Texas Department of Public Safety "consistently interrupted and challenged" federal investigators.
Those revelations are contained in papers released Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security - all part of an in-house investigation into what assistance was provided by the department's plane-tracking Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center.
DPS officials declined comment.
The 35-page report released Tuesday afternoon said the federal agency made a handful of phone calls and spent a total of 40 minutes on the case - which it described as "a typical request from a law enforcement agency."
However, in supporting documents released on the agency's Web site Wednesday, an employee at the California-based air interdiction center later determined "it was more than a routine request."
The search for the AWOL legislators began on May 12, when more than 50 House Democrats broke a quorum to kill a redistricting plan. The air and marine center was called that night after House Republicans began looking for a plane belonging to former House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center.
DPS later found the plane in Graham - with no legislators in sight - after the Federal Aviation Administration helped identify the spot where it had dropped below radar.
During its exchanges with the DPS and a West Texas airport operator, officials at the air and marine center became suspicious about whether the call from Texas was appropriate, particularly after the DPS said it couldn't give details about the search effort.
"They all agreed it sounded `fishy,' " the report said.
Also emerging from the documents are contradictions about who was involved in the decision to get Homeland Security involved.
In a sworn deposition in a related civil lawsuit, DPS Lt. Will Crais said he acted alone.
But in his interview with federal investigators, Crais reportedly said "several individuals requested him to look for the airplane," and that he called the air and marine center at "the direction of unnamed individuals."
During the interview, Crais asked if he had to name the individuals. He was told by the investigators that they "could not compel" him to - and he did not, the report said.
DPS officials interviewed as part of the federal probe were also described as uncooperative.
"The (Homeland Security inspector general's office) was consistently interrupted and challenged by DPS participants that questions were not within the scope of the ... investigation," the memo said.
Republicans say the report shows no wrongdoing occurred. Democrats, meanwhile, are pressing for more investigations. U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, asked U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to launch a probe, citing in particular the DPS' failure to name those "several individuals."
"These documents, provided to the Judiciary Committee late last evening, are the smoking gun that shows a cover up of Texas Gate," said Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the panel.
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© 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
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