Borderline Security

I first came across the work of Authentic Journalist Bill Conroy in the San Antonio Business Journal where, last autumn and winter, his reporting on federal agencies cut so close to the bone that the FBI made motions in court to get permission to "hack" Internet sites that had published supporting documentation (fortunately, the courts told the FBI to get lost).

Conroy has completed a very interesting book about corruption in the US Customs Service (formerly part of the Treasury Department, now part of "Homeland Security"), and we're honored to begin publishing it, chapter by chapter, with your comments, here on Narco News.

Oh, and Conroy will also be a professor next July and August at the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism. Stay tuned for details.

Ethical policymakers and federal officials in positions of power would read your book. The future of our democracy depends on citizens standing up for what's right in the workplace and/or the public sphere.

Wasn't that supposed to be the lesson from 9/11/2001?

Trevor,

You hit the nail on the head. That is what should happen -- "standing up for what's right in the workplace."

Unfortunately, a whole host of bureaucratic pressures prevent problems from being addressed. Too many people in middle management find their careers benefit from maintaining the status quo and so they're afraid to rock the boat -- while those at the very top circle the wagons at the first sign that their power may be threatened. It is no longer about right and wrong, but rather only about winning.

The frightening thing about this institutional morass is that our current political leaders likely only made the problem worst by taking a lot of megabyte dysfunctional federal agencies and combining them into one gigabyte agency -- the Department of Homeland Security. It seems to me that's similar to networking a bunch of broken, incompatible computers and arguing they'll somehow run better.

Conroy writes in his prologue, "The allegations raised by these whistleblowers boil down to an assertion that Customs is operated through a “good-ol’-boy” system of management that has perpetuated a culture of reprisal, cronyism and corruption."

That is a mouthful of truth, and I've personally been choking on it about as long as I can stand to. I'll try not to spew - and break the golden rule on www.narcosphere.com - never be boring!

My husband and colleague, Chuck Armsbury notices how often the enforcers 'come together,' be it a banquet for awards, press conference or funeral, and the gathering is called the "law enforcement community" by the press.

What is that? Law Enforcement Community?

My earliest memories include the 'Borderlands' culture that Conroy begins to describe to the world, in the prologue to Borderline Security. My father and uncle joined the Border Patrol following WWII, and both of them had one son. Both of the sons followed their father's footsteps into "Border" service, though the elders did transfer to Immigration and Naturalization, and die of cancer shortly after retirement. Their sons stayed in the Patrol, and one of them is my brother, Gary Patrick Callahan.

After 19 years in the Border Patrol, my brother began serving 27 years in federal prison.  He has 10 years left to serve on a drug conspiracy.

What is Law Enforcement culture?

Connotations of a group within a group come to mind. How 'subgroups' think and act-out, is called  'culture' in the US portion of the Americas.

Police culture is old news, but indeed a growing threat, in that the cultures are merging, as they agencies are brought under one umbrella.  

When it is the Enforcers, is it a sub-group from within? Not really, because they can by law, act outside of law, but then -- the lines blur. Today? We can't tell the bad guys from the good ole guys. (A line from a song I'll get up enough nerve to share beyond a small circle of friends at present.)

I have great personal interest in Bill Conroy's investigative journalism that will unfold at www.narconews.com. My response is to extend an early appreciation for an interactive manuscript reading.  Amazing! I thank you Bill Conroy, and Narconews for not only presenting ideas and information, but serving people by inviting open exchanges of ideas and information.

Before borderland security for my father, uncle and brother, was military service. My father and brother did a lot of brutal killing before they entered domestic policing. Semper Fi and all that. Does that figure in? I wonder repeatedly.

Me? I didn't kill, nor did I join the Patrol. Why didn't I follow my father's footsteps to war, killing and domestic policing?

Tell me Bill Conroy, what else did I miss because I wasn't a second son my father longed for, but a daughter instead?

Nora Callahan

You can't tell the bad guys from the good ole guys
and children die in drive-bys

Comes a storming midnight raid
another innocent man lays dead

Hear our cries!
People arise!
No more lies!

I took a path down memory lane to encapsulate life as the child of a Border Patrol Agent turned Immigration Officer. It is posted in a Notebook here in the Narcosphere.

I intend to add some commentary in Borderline Security, ask some questions, and share an anecdote now and again. I ran it by Conroy, and he was cool with it. If I get long-winded, I will add a link to extended thoughts on particular subjects that stick in my craw' as they say.

I read Chapter Three and downloaded documentation. I'll send it to my brother, but he's been sort of comatose the last couple of years. It would be good to share his comments on this from prison. Having such a conversation might prod some life back into him. I try things, usually not consistently due to lifestyle his imprisonment tossed me into.

So, reading about the Whistleblowers Woes, coming from the camp of the Convicted Corrupt, I think the line between the two camps are thin indeed.

How much demoralization do civil servants suffer, before they say, 'What the hell?' and put their own hands into the cookie jar? What is the old saying? If you can't beat 'em - join 'em? What's good for the goose, is good for the gander? When it start's stinkin' from the top down, folks start saying things like, "You can't fight City Hall." Whew, but we've got excuses!

Over the years, I've been privy to a number of conversations with Customs, Border Patrol and INS servants in good standing, leastwise, on paper. They didn't become whistleblowers, but their complaints and disillusionment, rivaled my fathers.

One recently retired Border Supervisor, stationed here in Colville, Washington, but often pulled for 'detail' in various Arizona sectors said things were getting worse and worse. So, how does the embittered civil servant chose the 'high road?' No pun intended. For more, you can visit my Notebook entry entitled, What is an Internal Affair?

I read the civil servant's anguished words, twice, then twice again. A Hispanic agent writes, as if bereft, more than words pour out of the email shared in Chapter Four. I quote one particularly poignant group of thoughts, before I share some of my own.

"I am deeply concerned that we are facing a moral bankruptcy of leadership in the Office of Investigations. Persons in power seem truly to believe that their authority and leadership derive strictly from the position they encumber, rather than from the integrity, knowledge, experience and dedication that you find within the heart and mind of the individual, and not in any position description. Leadership must be kept strong by strong people, not weakened by cronyistic appointments and incompetence."

cronyism - favoritism shown to friends and associates (as by appointing them to positions without regard for their qualifications)

Is cronyism a result of systemic authoritarianism?

authoritarianism - A political system where the administration of government is centralized. The ruler's personality may play an important role in maintaining the system and advancing the notion and practice of extreme authority as a political virtue. It is characterized by the curtailment of individual freedoms; excessive reliance on actual, and the threat of, violence and punishment; virtual unaccountability of government officials; and the aversion of the decision-making process to consultation, persuasion and the necessity of forging a policy consensus.

And so it goes in this agency - it's not what you know and how you live it, it's whom you know, and white folks have more power. It's old news, but heartbreaking nonetheless. It's old news that is important every day, because people, not just institutions are damaged.

Hispanics and other minorities are organizing because racism is systemic. I understand the strategy of organizing within one's own community, but in the same breath, am wondering how people of all color are organizing to confront the authoritar-, er cronyism in the agency. My father, a white guy, could have written the correspondence Bill Conroy shares with us in Chapter Four.

The border patrol has always been directed by mostly, white combat veterans, and in the mid-80's declared militarization, when they declared the drug war. The drug war pushed immigrants to harsher regions of the dessert, and it appears historical record, a flood of corruption followed in the sectors of the Sonoran desert of Arizona/Mexico.

I think it's everywhere now. Disease spreads, and people sick at heart -- no matter what the reason - war or betrayal - are sick. The mix entire in federal law enforcement -- from the cronies to the embittered front-line civil servant -- is enormous.

"Are we only good enough to be subordinates and not leaders?" The Hispanic agent asks.

What are all the sentiments behind such a question?

I know that people that serve their governments mostly do so, because they take great pride in citizenship. They trust their leaders when they sign up - be it military service, or border service -- any government service.

What happens to the civil servant, or soldier who finds out their leaders have betrayed them? According to trauma specialists -- it is a life changing experience - not for the good! New in trauma research are recent conclusions regarding political betrayal, or leadership betrayal.

Betrayal trauma occurs when the people or institutions we depend on for survival violate us in some way. Repetitive betrayal, even in the 'grown-up' leads to chronic conditions that run the gamut of neurophysiological response. Dr. Judith Freyd has written a number of books on it, and currently leads Oregon University's Psychology Department.

For more on political betrayal and trauma, visit my latest notebook entry at http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/3/1/19 2648/9938. And thanks, Bill for another revealing chapter on law enforcement corruption.  A subject, sad to say, dear to my heart, the definition of 'dear' this instance: Costly!

Correction on source -
Jennifer J. Freyd, University of Oregon is researcher who has written books on betrayal  trauma.