The Border Observer on the FBI, Jaime Esparza and the El Paso Times

This week on Tuesday, May 15, 2007, the El Paso FBI executed search warrants on the offices of County Judge Anthony Cobos and County Commissioners Miguel Teran and Luis Sarinana as well as others. Supposedly the FBI is investigating contracts relating to a company called Ready One or NCED and its subsidiaries. Bob Jones used to be head of Ready One and has been under investigation for a while.

The way the FBI conducted itself in the search and the way the El Paso Times covered the event, one would have thought that County Judge Anthony Cobos and Commissioner Luis Sarinana and not their physical offices were tragets of the search and were guilty of some federal offense. I have little if no insider knowledge of this particular invesigation but I do have a wealth of knowledge as to how this town works. And based on this knowledge I have some questions and these questions relate back to Jaime Esparza and his activities and his connections including how he handled the cases of George DeAngelis, Nancy Hollebeke, Deane and Diane Kinder, former FBI head Hardrick Crawford, former Mayor Joe Wardy, former Police Chief Carlos Leon who went on to became Chief of Security under Bob Jones at NCED/Ready One, etc. These are all topics that I plan to cover in one way or another during this campaign season as they illustrate what kind of a human being Jaime Esparza is and what he has been up to all these sad fourteen years.

All of the events unfolding this week are inter-related to the above list and pertinent to my race. The BorderObserver (which is a weekly newspaper, published by the family owned and very independent El Diario) featured an article and an editorial in its publication yesterday that all of you who read my blog and care about this town MUST read. Since we know the El Paso Times, whose editor is Don Flores, is agenda driven and relies on huge advertising accounts amounting to millions annually with government entities (which goes a long way to explain why they support every tax hike and bond issue and are slavishly devoted to certain members of government), we know that we must be very cynical about what we read by the Times. Times reporter David Crowder who has the county beat appeared on Channel 9 news (they share news) and as part of his report on the search of County offices, he actually said, "Some people beleive that where there is smoke there is fire." Why is Crowder implying Cobos is guilty of a crime. How can that be news reporting?

Please go to and read the article on the FBI and the opinion entitled Coup d'etat at www.borderobserver.com. While you read, keep in mind the following:

-Can we trust our government? What happens to us when we allow corrupt officials to flourish in office?
-When Former deputy police chief George DeAngelis reported to then police chief Carlos Leon that he had grave concerns that the drug cartel had infiltrated the El Paso police department, why did Leon turn on DeAngelis and why did Jaime Esparza indict George DeAngelis the whistle blower and not instead investigate who DeAngelis was reporting on?
-When George DeAngelis went to the FBI to report his information why did the FBI ignore him? DeAngelis had always been a credible person and was second in command of the police department. What happened?
-Why did the FBI sit back and do nothing when Esparza indicted DeAngelis and went on to have a feeding frenzy on DeAngelis while everyone watched on in silent horror? Esparza, Leon and the FBI still have bits of DeAngelis bone and gristle stuck in their teeth.
-What relationship did Esparza have with Former FBI head Hardrick Crawford?
-Why did the FBI and Esparza not notice that Crawford had very close personal ties to the Guardia family who owned the race track in Juarez and who had a very dubious reputation as being linked to drugs?
-How could Esparza and the local FBI sit and watch Crawford go on trips with Guardia, let Mrs. Crawford draw a salary from Guardia and not raise so much as an eyebrow?
-Why did it take the office of the United States Inspector General and not the FBI, to come down here and open an investigation on Crawford? This investigation ultimately led to Crawford's prosecution, conviction and prison term last August 2006.
-Where is Guardia now? Last account was he was on the run in Mexico?
-How in all this did Esparza look the other way when Police Chief Carlos Leon ordered another investigation of whistle blower George DeAngelis which resulted in the SECOND arrest of DeAngelis?
-Who is Woody Hunt?
-What connections does he have with the El Paso Times and certain government officials, if any?
-Why was it that when the Colorado papers were writing huge article after huge article about Hunt Corporation building military housing in Colorado where illegal labor was employed, there was nary a peep out of the Times for three whole days? Why would people in Colorado be more informed about Hunt Corporation than people in El Paso where Hunt is based?
-And why was it that when the Times did cover the story, THREE days later, it was all about how Hunt had nothing to do with the hiring of the illegal workers working on their project and how it doesn't matter because Hunt just got another gargantuan government contract anyway?
-What connection is there between Hunt and mega-billionaire Bill Sanders, if any?
-Why does the El Paso Times fully support Bill Sanders and the Paso Del Norte group's effort to get the city to condemn and seize land from private citizens so that he can develop it?
-Why do city leaders who support this taking of land not answer when directly asked, if tax dollars are going to be used to pay Sanders to develope the seized land?
-How is it that there is no investigation into the fact that Sanders is the father-in-law of City Rep. Beto O'Rourke and into the fact that the City Manager Joyce Wilson is also SIMULTANEOUSLY while the city is trying to take over the private land, the official spokesperson for the land hungry Paso del Norte Group Sanders is connected to?
-Why does the El Paso Times vilify the land owners who are trying to defend their property rights against a mammoth city government and a billionaire "developer" with a son-in-law on city council and a city manager connected to the billionaire and his group who want their land by painting them as tax cheats and scum bags when there is no proof of this at all?
-Why does the Times weekly attack the three members of council and the County Judge who are against the City Manager Joyce Wilson and the Sanders group and the land grab?
-Why was the El Paso Times so very against Anthony Cobos' bid for County Judge?
-Is it because Anthony Cobos is against Eminent Domain and Sanders' efforts to take the downtown land?
-Why did Times reporter Crowder say, "where there is smoke there is fire" when reporting on the search of Cobo's office? Could it have anything to do with Cobos wanting to pull the County's advertsing mega money contracts with the Times and opening them up for bid with the Times' adversary El Diario?
-Why has the Times not asked the question as to how Anthony Cobos could be a target of the FBI investigation of Ready One/NCED when he wasn't in office when contracts between the County and the company were signed?
-Former Mayor Joe Wardy took over Bob Jones' job at Ready One after it came out that Jones was being investigated.
-This is the same Joe Wardy who Jaime Esparza and the El Paso Police let go after finding a loaded gun in his bag at a secured area at the airport. If you, Joe citizen, showed up at the airport with a gun, the police would have hauled you in to Jaime Esparza who would have dragged your case before the grand jury so fast you would not have had time to breath. But Wardy can walk in with the gun LOADED and the police are slobbering all over themselves on TV excusing his actions as an accident and Esparza says he has nothing to do with it? Why?
-Can we trust the FBI?
-For years the FBI has received documented complaints regarding Jaime Esparza and they do nothing. Why?
-When attorney Stuart Leeds and I went to the FBI with a documented complaint on Esparza, they assigned one agent to attend one meeting and we never heard from them again. That was years ago. Why not talk to the witnesses, ask for more information? Others have gone to them as well about Esparza. They say they are waiting for a "Smoking Gun."
-This is the same FBI that was headed by the same Hardrick Crawford who has since been to prison.
-This is the same FBI attached to the same United States Justice Department headed by the same Attorney General Alberto Gonzales now under investigation by Congress for allowing his department to be used as guess what, a POLITICAL WEAPON. When asked to answer for his decision to fire US attorneys who refused to use their power for political purposes, Gonzales' only answers are that he can't remember and plus he is the son of poor Mexican farm hands and grew up barefoot in a dirt hut in Texas and then made it to Harvard. That's got to count for something when you use your office to break the law.--POBRECITO. Interestingly enough, the scandal broke when one of the fired US attorneys in Albuquerque, which is right down the road from here, went to the LOCAL press with the story. Can you imagine what would have happened to the same attorney here if he had gone to Esparza and the El Paso Times with the same story? Would it be unreasonable to think that the attorney would have been treated the same way George DeAngelis was which was to be arrested, thrown in jail and charged with a crime? Also keep in mind that US attorneys are the ones who ask federal judges for search warrants. If an US attorney thinks he might get fired for not seeking a search warrant on political enemies of those in power, you can see how easy it would be for a search warrant request to go out and for the system to be abused. Since we know that the Justice Department and the local FBI are riddled with scandal, can we trust them and their search warrants?
-Where is Jaime Esparza in all of this?
-If there is wide spread corruption going on in commissioner's court just one floor above his office, how come he never noticed?
-How come the only commissioner Esparza ever indicted was Betty Flores who was calling for an audit of Esparza's budget and drug asset forfeiture accounts?
-What is really going on?
-Follow the money.