Jim Turner, D-Texas, had asked last week to hear tapes of conversations between Homeland Security officials at the Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center and a Texas Department of Public Safety officer.
According to a statement it issued, AMICC had received a phone call from the officer, who said he was concerned that, "We had a plane that was supposed to be going from Ardmore, Okla., to Georgetown, Texas. It had state representatives in it, and we cannot find this plane."
In fact the legislators were part of the Democratic caucus, which had left Texas en mass in order to prevent the state assembly from acting on a re-districting plan, which they said unfairly benefited Republicans.
Democrats want to know exactly what the Texas officer told the AMICC, to see if it was misled, by omission or commission, into deploying federal resources to aid one side in a partisan political battle.
"I made a request of you that you allow the committee to hear the tapes of those conversations," said Turner. "And I got back a response yesterday, indicating that because an inspector general investigation had been launched, we will not be allowed to hear the tapes."
But Turner said that quotes from the tapes had already been released to the media and that "there's really no basis for the department to deny the committee the opportunity to hear the tapes."
Ridge said he would review the decision not to release the tapes, but added the appropriate body to investigate the alleged misuse of federal resources was the department's own inspector general.
He confirmed that, as a Texas Republican himself, the inspector general, Clark Kent Ervine, had recused himself from the inquiry.
The department later confirmed that the inquiry would now be headed by Lisa Redman, the assistant inspector general for investigations.
Redman told United Press International that the investigation had been launched last Friday in response to an allegation from lawmakers. She said that there was no dedicated team for the inquiry. "There's no set number. As interviews come up in different locations, we'll take people in our office to do them ... whoever we need and whenever we need them."
She said she did not know how long the inquiry would take, but explained that once it was complete, the office would write a report, which would be sent to the legislators who complained, Ridge, and the local U.S. Attorney's office, to consider whether any criminal prosecution is necessary.
She said the inquiry would focus on finding out, "to whom was the request (to find the plane) made, and what exactly was the nature of the request."
She said that her office had copies of tapes of the conversations, but had not had them transcribed yet, and she did not know what they might reveal.
"What we need to find out is whether the Texas (officer) was forthright with our guys when they asked for help finding the plane," said another official, asking not to be named.
The official would not directly address suggestions that Democrats were grandstanding, but did point out that "all that happened was that one of our guys made a couple of phone calls."
Copyright 2003 by United Press International.
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