A SMEAR FALLS APART

On a wingnut radio show, I heard the claim that Richard Skinner, the Inspector General for the Dept. of Homeland Security, told Congressmen that in the future he would not share information with them. This was in the already inflammatory context of the two border patrol agents who are now in jail.

Thanx to Lexis-Nexis, we find that Skinner said nothing of the sort:

MCCAUL: I want to thank the gentleman for yielding his time to me.Mr. Skinner, let me first say that I appreciate your honesty in response to my question. But the fact remains that members of Congress were misled by your office, and members of this committee were misled by your office. Your office is charged with the responsibility of holding the Department of Homeland Security accountable. My question to you is what are you going to do to hold your own office accountable.

SKINNER: The first thing we're going to do is I am now asking my office to go back and reconstruct the series of events that led to the misrepresentation at the meeting that those members of my staff had with your staff. That's the first thing I want to do.

The second thing I want to do is look at what processes and internal controls we could put in place to ensure that we don't repeat this mistake again. One of the lessons learned -- and because this was the first time that we -- we generally don't provide briefings prior to the production of a report from which we can read and relate to and provide assurances of its accuracy.

And one of the things we may have to do is tighten our internal controls and our policies with regards to briefing of congressional members or for that matter, even departmental staff and leaders until our products are finished and we have assurances up the chain that the internal controls, checks and balances are in place and I have some level of assurances that what we are going to be said or responses to questions that we are going to be asked are, in fact, accurate and reliable.

[snip]

SKINNER: To set the record straight, we did not investigate Compean and Ramos. We investigated like a shooting incident. We investigate all shooting incidents.

[snip]

JACKSON-LEE: And you would welcome any other investigation that might put this right, if you will, or might add some more light on the subject?

SKINNER: Yes, I would welcome anyone to come in and investigate.

SOURCE:

Copyright 2007 Congressional Quarterly, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

CQ Transcriptions
February 7, 2007 Wednesday
TYPE: COMMITTEE HEARING

LENGTH: 21179 words

COMMITTEE: HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE

HEADLINE: REP. BENNIE THOMPSON HOLDS A HEARING ON CHALLENGES FACING THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

SPEAKER:
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON, CHAIRMAN

LOCATION: WASHINGTON, D.C.

WITNESSES:

COMPTROLLER GENERAL DAVID WALKER, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
NORMAN RABKIN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HOMELAND SECURITY AND JUSTICE ISSUES, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
HOMELAND SECURITY INSPECTOR GENERAL RICHARD SKINNER