My Letter to Attorney General Gonzales

Please reply with something other than a form letter.

September 16, 2006

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Mr. Gonzales:

I am very disturbed about the recent arrest of Duane Chapman and his two colleagues in Hawaii. As a Texas Republican and a strong supporter of President Bush (and his father) I am very surprised that this “Janet Reno style” arrest even took place.

First of all, the U. S. Marshal’s Office could have called him on the phone and told him to report at noon, and he would have showed up. Why did it take a team of armed Marshals to force their way into a home with small children for such a high profile and well-loved man? This alone is a disgrace. Had he been given the opportunity to surrender, this never would have received the negative publicity that it has.

But, we are far beyond that point. Now everyone knows, and this is a sad day for the Bush Presidency. I’m sure he doesn’t even know whom Dog the Bounty Hunter is, let alone knows about the arrest warrant. But just as Janet Reno’s actions were attributed to Clinton, I’m afraid this might be one more pimple on the President’s butt. But I digress, as this is not about the President, but a man who risked his life to capture a serial rapist.

Andrew Luster was a fugitive from justice. Hiding in Mexico and loaded with “Max Factor” cash, he would probably still be a fugitive if not for Duane Chapman. We all know about the corruption in Mexico. Being a Texan myself, we joke a lot about visiting down south, and if you do, “don’t get thrown into a Mexican prison!” It may be a joke in these parts, but there’s some truth to it. There are quite a few Americans in Mexican prisons on trumped-up charges. It’s my understanding that our State Department is still trying to free some of them.

Why on earth, knowing how corrupt the Mexican judicial system can be, would the Department of Justice seek a warrant “because Mexico asked them to”? If the capture of Andrew Luster was an illegal apprehension, then why wasn’t Mr. Luster returned to Mexico so that his extradition could be handled properly??? I detect a double standard! If you uphold the Mexican law and send Mr. Chapman back, then legally you would need to send Mr. Luster back as well. AND I GUARANTEE YOU THAT IS WHAT MR. LUSTER’S ATTORNIES WILL ARGUE.

If a bounty hunter captured Usama Bin Ladin in Mexico and brought him to the United States, would you arrest and extradite the bounty hunter at the Mexican authority’s request? I guess you would have to, huh? This is certainly “precedent setting”.

Is President Bush aware of this? I’m not going to stop my campaign until there are some explanations. Maybe there is more to this than the public knows. At this point I’m willing to give our government the benefit of the doubt. But I won’t wait forever. This isn’t just about Duane Chapman. This is about any American who would risk his life to bring a fugitive to justice and then have his country say “thanks for the bad guy, but you stepped on someone’s toes in a third world country in the process, so you are going down.”

I hope that Mr. Chapman did something very bad to warrant these drastic measures. As much as I admire Mr. Chapman for bringing in Mr. Luster, I’d rather see him go down by finding out that he did something bad, like shoot a Mexican cop, than to find out that my government under my beloved President is selling out one of its own heroes to appease the Mexican government.

In closing, I have to ask these questions:
  • Did Mr. Luster’s attorney send a million dollars to a Mexican official in return for making Mr. Chapman’s life a living hell; as some sort of revenge?
  • Is our government dealing with a corrupt Mexican government in order to exchange Mr. Chapman for a couple of drug kingpins?
  • Why was excessive force used to arrest a man who would have walked in on his own?
  • Would you have arrested Mr. Chapman if it had been UBL that he apprehended and brought back?
  • Why is this just now coming up after three years?
This is like arresting George Clooney and his father for going over to the war-torn countries of Africa and shooting video footage to show the misery and desperation of its people simply because an African nation claims that Mr. Clooney broke one of their laws regarding filming in prohibited areas. You don’t extradite one of our citizens for something like that.

Again, I hope Mr. Chapman did much worse than catch a fugitive rapist for our government’s sake. If it’s the Democrat side of Congress that demands Mr. Chapman be released, I will, for the first time in my life, be voting Democrat. Please, say it isn’t so.

Sincerely,
Mark Faris
[My home address and phone number]
AzleComputer.com Member of Azle Area Chamber of Commerce
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