Mark Conrad, a former supervisory special agent with U.S. Customs, has landed a major endorsement in his bid for a top post within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association (FHLEOA) is now officially in Conrad’s corner. FHLEOA describes itself as “a network of federal law enforcement professionals committed to finding positive and creative solutions to the challenges facing the federal Hispanic law enforcement community in the United States.”
In an endorsement letter, send to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, FHLEOA’s national president states the following:
Dear Mr. Card:
This letter serves as recognition and strong endorsement of Mr. David Mark Conrad for the positions of Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security.
Mr. Conrad’s qualifications, training, education and experience make him the outstanding candidate for either of these positions of authority and sensitivity to the rights of all Americans. He is a retired Supervisory Special Agent for Internal Affairs in the former U.S. Customs Service, and is currently an assistant professor of criminal justice at Troy University in Dothan, Alabama.
Mark is a well known and highly respected career hands-on law enforcement officer.... The Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association is proud to endorse him for these critical positions in the nation’s newest and most important Cabinet Department.
Mark submitted his on-line application to the Presidential Personnel Office on November 4, 2004. He enjoys the full support of our association’s National Executive Board. With confidence and respect, I urge you to consider him for these positions.
Respectfully,
Sandalio Gonzalez
National President
Narco News first reported on Conrad’s bid for a leadership post within DHS in December of last year.
From that story:
Changing of the guard?
Conrad admits ... that his bid for the post is a long shot, one that is not likely to succeed absent a grassroots movement within the agency.
Conrad now works as an assistant professor of criminal justice at Troy University in Alabama and as a legal advocate for federal law-enforcement employees who have discrimination and whistleblower claims against the government. Conrad, a 27-year Customs veteran who retired in 1998, rose through the agency’s ranks to take on the post of Supervisory Agent in Charge of Customs Internal Affairs -- a position in which he had responsibility for a nine-state area and two foreign locations.
While with Customs as a supervisor in Internal Affairs, Conrad says he made some enemies, because he played by the book.
“We were just looking for the facts, and not trying to satisfy some manager who might want those facts to change,” he says. “I’ve been asked to change testimony, or to leave stuff out of reports, or to clear individuals, or to make people appear guilty. My response was always, ‘No fucking way.’”
Conrad says if he somehow got the nod as commissioner, “one of the first things I would do is restore the morale of the people in the agency.”
“I’d get the mean, vindictive, retaliatory spirit out of there,” he adds. “This stuff needs to end, now.”
Conrad says he would address the problems in the agency systematically, by identifying the bad supervisors and changing the guard. He also would set up an assessment program to identify early on those within the agency who have supervisory skills or potential and assure those people are put on track to succeed in those posts. In a nutshell, the cronyism within the agency would come to an end.
“This can’t be done overnight, but people have to know the future is bright, and that there are opportunities for good people to advance,” Conrad stresses.
Conrad says he sent an application to the White House in November advancing his name as a candidate for the commissioner’s post at CBP (Customs and Border Protection). Conrad adds that he also put his hat in the ring for two other leadership posts within DHS -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Office of Inspector General -- where he says his experience lines up well with the job requirements.
Conrad has earned a reputation for calling things as he sees them, even when it means putting his career at risk. As evidence of his integrity, check out the excerpts below from a July 1998 interview he did with Sam Donaldson of ABC News – PrimeTime Live. Conrad appeared on the TV show over the objections of U.S. Customs’ brass.
DOUBLECROSS: U.S. CUSTOMS EMBARASSED BY SMUGGLING INFORMANT
SAM DONALDSON, ABC NEWS: Last month, President Clinton called for cooperation among nations in the fight against drugs. But what if the people who are supposed to be keeping drugs out of the United States instead are putting the government smack in the middle of dealing drugs? Tonight, a six-month PrimeTime investigation reveals how agents of the U.S. Customs Service turned a pot smuggler into a big-time cocaine kingpin and then turned a blind eye while he poured billions of dollars of cocaine onto the streets of America. Tonight, Forrest Sawyer talks to Rodney Matthews, a smuggler turned top informant who became one of the biggest embarrassments in US Customs history.
... ANNOUNCER: Did U.S. Customs agents allow one of their own informants to flood drugs onto the streets?
... FORREST SAWYER: (VO) Mark Conrad runs internal affairs for Customs in Houston. A 27-year veteran, Conrad spoke to PrimeTime in New York over the objections of the Customs Service.
MARK CONRAD: We got in bed with Rodney Matthews and the importation of a humongous amount of narcotics coming into the United States.
FORREST SAWYER: (on camera) And the reason wasn't because they (law enforcement) were dirty?
MARK CONRAD: No. The reason is there's a great deal of pressure on agents in the field to make cases, to make the big one. And the bigger, the better.
FORREST SAWYER: ... The Customs Service investigation ... found no evidence of wrongdoing. ... The reason, Mark Conrad says there was a cover-up that continues to this day.
MARK CONRAD: We hide things. We cover them up. We don't -- we're not honest at times within our own organization, and we're clearly not honest at times with the media.
FORREST SAWYER: (on camera) You know, I think a lot of American people are going to be shocked to hear that letting drugs hit the street is what we really do in the drug business.
MARK CONRAD: It would never be officially condoned. You'll never find any policy that approves of it, but it happens routinely in virtually every situation where you're dealing with informants.
... SAM DONALDSON: The head of the US Customs Service declined our request for an interview. In a letter, he stated it is not Customs policy to allow illegal drugs to disappear and said they learned valuable lessons from the Matthews case. But public affairs officers at Customs were quick to tell us theirs is not the only agency to let cocaine hit the streets....
When’s the last time you heard that kind of honesty from the head of a major law-enforcement agency?
The bigger question: Does the White House want to hear that kind of honesty?
Stay tuned ....
