www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/5907697.htm
Says Iraqi Police Can Succeed - 02:52 PM EDT 42 11 Troops Die in Iraq; A one-sentence order sent by e-mail on the morning of May 14 was apparently carried out, a DPS spokesman said Tuesday. The revelation comes as federal authorities are investigating how a division of the federal Homeland Security Department was dragged into the hunt for the missing Democrats - at the request of the state police agency. Addressed to "Captains," the order said: "Any notes, correspondence, photos, etc. The head of a state House panel looking into law enforcement's role in the search expressed outrage at the order, obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram under the Texas Open Records Act. It would appear as though there is something to hide," Bailey said. Dan Flynn, said he found word of the document destruction disturbing but took a dim view of conducting a legislative investigation of the incident. But he said probing DPS' role in the search for the Democrats would be a "political football" best left to others. House Speaker Tom Craddick, a Republican, recently said the investigating committee could look at the issue if it wanted to. It was Craddick who originally ordered the DPS to find the Democrats and return them to the state Capitol so that the House could achieve the quorum necessary to bring up a congressional redistricting bill. DPS spokesman Tom Vinger could not say Tuesday who, if anyone, gave Marshall the order to destroy records, but he said there was nothing inappropriate about it. Since this was not a criminal investigation, we feel it would be inappropriate to keep any files," he said. Angela Hale, spokeswoman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, said it would be a crime to destroy records that had been requested under the Texas Open Records Act. It could not be determined late Tuesday if there was a standing request for the records before they were destroyed. Hale said destroying records before state guidelines allow it would not be within the purview of the attorney general. Rob Wiley, past president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said it may not be a crime, but it is not how state agencies typically handle records. May 14, a day before runaway Democrats began returning to Texas. Federal officials and published reports have named Crais as the law enforcement officer who called for federal help in locating a plane owned by one of the missing Democrats. The DPS would neither confirm nor deny that Crais was the one who called in the Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center, a division of Homeland Security based in Riverside, Calif. The federal agency, which normally tracks drug smugglers and terrorists, made some phone calls but never found the plane. In a statement last week, the customs enforcement agency that oversees the interdiction center said it only became involved after the DPS indicated the Piper Cheyenne belonging to former Texas House Speaker Pete Laney may have gone down. More recently, the Homeland Security Department has declined to release tapes or transcripts of the conversations between DPS and the federal interdiction center. In Washington on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge - in an appearance before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security - was asked why the information had not been released as requested by several Democratic members of Congress. Ridge said he would review the denial to release the tapes but pointed to an investigation of the matter being conducted by the department's internal watchdog. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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