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Homeland security track plane { May 28 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1927358http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1927358
May 28, 2003, 3:54PM
Democrat search probe spreads to Perry, aide
Pair reportedly in DPS command post
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- A legislative investigator said Tuesday that Gov. Rick Perry and his point man on anti-terrorism were in a state police command post the day the state enlisted federal Homeland Security forces to help search for runaway House Democrats.
House General Investigating Committee Chairman Kevin Bailey, D-Houston, said Capitol security tapes show Perry entering and leaving the office of House Speaker Tom Craddick. Bailey said sources told him that Perry went from that office to the command post established in a reception area of the speaker's office.
Bailey also said Perry's homeland defense coordinator -- Assistant Attorney General Jay Kimbrough -- gave the Texas Department of Public Safety a California telephone number for the federal air interdiction service that was used to track former Speaker Pete Laney's plane during the walkout.
Laney and 50 other legislators were found later that day in Ardmore, Okla., just across the state line.
"Obviously, it raises some serious concerns about the use of Homeland Security in domestic political matters," Bailey said.
Federal officials have said they were misled by the state into assisting in the search. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has opened an investigation into possible waste or abuse of agency resources.
"This was a state matter. There should not have been federal involvement," Bailey said.
The Democrats fled the Capitol on May 12 to kill a Republican congressional redistricting plan by breaking the House quorum.
After a vote of members present, Craddick ordered that missing members be arrested and returned to the Capitol.
Bailey said his committee may look into what role Kimbrough might have had in bringing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into the search for the lawmakers.
He said he is dropping his investigation into whether the Department of Public Safety destroyed records about the search as part of a cover-up. Bailey said he believes a "technical violation" of the state Public Information Act occurred but that state police had "no criminal intent."
Bailey said Capitol security tapes also show that Jim Ellis -- a political aide to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- probably had no role in directing the hunt for the missing Democrats. DeLay, R-Sugar Land, is pushing for redistricting to give Republicans a majority in the state congressional delegation.
Bailey said Kimbrough, one of Perry's former deputy chiefs of staff, was in the DPS command center that was set up May 12 in the speaker's reception room.
"We don't know how much of a role he played, but it does appear he was very heavily involved in the process," Bailey said.
Angela Hale, spokeswoman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said Kimbrough was in the room in his capacity as an assistant attorney general, not as homeland defense coordinator.
Hale said Kimbrough had gone to the command center with Abbott's first assistant, Barry McBee, to offer legal assistance to Craddick and the DPS. McBee is Perry's former chief of staff.
Hale said McBee called U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in San Antonio to see if the FBI could be used to bring the lawmakers back from Oklahoma or whether the DPS could arrest them across the state line. She said Sutton's office said "no" to both questions.
Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt refused to discuss what Perry did while in the command center but denied he had any role in the use of federal Homeland Security resources.
"I've never had any inkling that anybody on our staff, including the governor, called Homeland Security," Walt said.
Sometime the afternoon of May 12, DeLay's staff obtained information from the Federal Aviation Administration that Laney's airplane was en route from Ardmore to Georgetown, Texas.
The Department of Transportation is conducting a review into whether FAA employees acted properly in dealing with DeLay.
DeLay said he gave the information to Craddick.
DPS Lt. William Crais apparently then called the Air & Marine Interdiction Coordination Center in Riverside, Calif., and asked for assistance in finding Laney's airplane. The service is a branch of the federal Department of Homeland Security.
Hale said Crais asked for a phone number for the interdiction service and that Kimbrough provided it.
"It wasn't his idea, and he didn't make the call," Hale said.
The interdiction service's parent agency, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said on May 15 that it had been misled into believing the search was on for a missing lawmaker's aircraft that might have crashed.
"That agency is supposed to go after terrorist and drug dealers, not missing legislators," Bailey said.
Bailey said Crais told his committee's investigators that he made the decision to call the federal agency without direction from anyone else.
"He also is saying he did not mislead the federal agency into believing a plane had crashed," Bailey said.
"My understanding is that he asked some hypothetical questions such as: How would you track a plane? What if a plane was down? How would you find a plane? That kind of thing."
DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange declined comment.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a Democratic presidential candidate and member of the Governmental Affairs Committee, Tuesday wrote White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card demanding a full investigation of how federal resources were used in the Texas walkout.
"I am writing to you ... to ensure that we have a complete picture of what happened," Lieberman said.
Republicans dismissed Lieberman's letter as political posturing.
"Someone should ask the good senator if he believes he's using government resources to further his presidential campaign," DeLay spokesman Jonathan Grella said in response to Lieberman's letter.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Homeland Security already is investigating.
"It was intended less to be a serious letter and more to be a campaign gambit by somebody who is running for the presidency," Fleischer said.
DeLay aide Ellis said he is gratified that the security tapes proved he was not in the command center. He said the investigation is a "subterfuge" by Democrats to draw attention from attempts to redraw congressional district boundaries to reflect statewide Republican voting patterns.
Democrats currently hold a 17-15 majority in the state congressional delegation. The GOP map would have allowed Republicans to gain four to seven seats in next year's elections.
"Obviously, we hope there is a special session called at some point and this is added to the call," Ellis said.
The governor sets the agenda for special legislative sessions.
Houston Chronicle reporter Karen Masterson contributed to this story from Washington, and Armando Villafranca contributed from Austin.
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