Posted on 04/27/2008 6:34:06 AM PDT by nuconvert
Early Elián Gonzalez raid was planned
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
Before the forced removal of Elián González from his relatives' home in Little Havana eight years ago, federal agents had another plan to return the child to his father in Cuba. But an order from Washington canceled it at the last minute.
According to statements by James Goldman, then head of operations for the U.S. immigration agency in Miami, federal agents had been instructed to seize Elián during a meeting in Miami Beach with his grandmothers at the home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, then-president of Barry University, in January 2000.
''It was a great opportunity, a golden opportunity,'' recalls Goldman, a veteran federal investigator, adding, ``I recommended that it would be the precise moment to place the child under government custody and proceed with reuniting him with his father, but the government didn't do it and Elián returned with his relatives to the house in Little Havana.''
Goldman was waiting for a green light from then-Attorney General Janet Reno, but it never came.
The revelations of the foiled plan appear in a documentary, The Story of Elián, that is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. Sunday on The Discovery Channel's Spanish language feed. The production has been in the works since mid-2006 and was directed by Bilai Joa Silar.
The documentary re-creates the events of the case, from the way the boy was found at sea on Thanksgiving Day 1999, to his return to Cuba in June 2000.
Although rumors circulated of a federal operation planned at O'Laughlin's home, this is the first confirmation coming from a high-ranking federal agent.
Goldman said that on the day in question, there were dozens of agents posted around the Miami Beach residence, all with the mission of taking Elián once the encounter with his grandmothers was concluded. The boy was then to be placed on a flight to Washington.
Raquel Rodríguez, the boy's maternal grandmother who died in 2005, and Mariela Quintana, his paternal grandmother, met with Elián in a second-story room of O'Laughlin's residence. Both grandmothers returned to Cuba days later.
The grandmothers met with Elián at the urging of Reno, who asked O'Laughlin, a Catholic nun, to facilitate the encounter.
The meeting was tense, as hundreds of Cuban exiles demonstrated outside in favor of the boy remaining in the United States.
Armando Gutierrez, who acted as the spokesman for Elián's Miami relatives, who had taken him into their home, recalled that he was alerted to the presence of immigration agents by a local law enforcement agent, precluding any immediate action.
''We knew the federal agents were watching us and following us everywhere, and that at any moment they would come for the boy,'' said Gutierrez, who said he has written a book about the case but is waiting for ''a better moment'' to publish it.
Gutierrez was at O'Laughlin's house, on the patio, with Elián's Miami relatives that day.
According to Gutierrez, there were at least two other failed attempts to take Elián from his Miami relatives just 10 days before the April 22, 2000 armed action that reunited the boy with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who was waiting in Washington.
The so-called Operation Reunion -- planned by Goldman -- occurred in a few minutes and unleashed a wave of protests throughout Miami.
Among the footage in the documentary is Elián's own testimony about the tragic events that played out at sea, when the vessel he was traveling in with his mother capsized in the Florida Straits.
''Then the boat turned over and they put me in the raft, and at that moment I began to feel afraid,'' recalled Elián, who is now 13, adding, ``I would fall asleep and each time I saw less people, and I fell asleep again and then I opened my eyes and didn't see anyone, not my mom or anyone else.''
The interview with Elián was done by a CBS team for an episode of 60 Minutes that aired in 2005, but the Discovery producers are using a selection that has not been previously aired.
See images from the documentary at ElNuevoHerald.com.
another stellar chapter in the clinton legacy.
Interesting. They had multiple opportunities, they had planning, and still they wound up with that infamous photo of the armed goons vs. the babe in arms.
Some folks can’t even do wrong right.
Yhe Dyke-Golem.
I will never forget how the Clintons stole Elian’s day in court by issuing a local warrant through a minor judge to seize Elian on Holy Saturday.
And I will never forget the family news conference that all the media ignored except for Fox News.
Elian was suppose to have his INS hearing before an immigration judge but it never happened as the Clintons and Janet Reno went to a local Miami judge on the holiday weekend and had him snatched.
I hate their stinking guts.
DUI
Impairing the morals of a minor (15-year old girl)
Don't bother looking for the police records.
I wish the supporters outside had stood up to the riot police and beaten them back. What kind of scum would obey those orders? Thugs.
I remember when the news of that atrocity broke. Compelling. And the PHOTO! You know, the house was so badly damaged, its walls and carpet permeated and stained from tear gas fumes, plus every door broken, and holes smashed in walls. ...that it was immediatley abandoned after the raid. Its utility as a houme was totally destroyed. Anyone know if it is still standing, or been bull-dozed?
I expect we won’t hear the full truth until after Fidel croaks.
It is not too difficult to believe that the thugs sent from Cuba to watch over the kid when he was in the DC area used drugs to make him feel ‘happy’ for the cameras.
As the 9/11 terrorists were putting the finishing touches on their plans, the Clinton White House was falling all over itself to appease Castro.
I second that , or at least a Cuban vote less motivated to turn out. Remember the post election scene outside the door where some sort of election panel had sequestered to turn the Dade county vote over to Gore ? ( I'm sure the details I present aren't precise)
“’’It was a great opportunity, a golden opportunity,’’ recalls Goldman, a veteran federal investigator.”
This guy is a moron. He WANTS CREDIT for kidnapping Elian? He wants to be remembered forever for snatching the child from his grandmothers and a Catholic nun? What a loon.
The Elian case caused a lot of controversy, even on FR, because it was sometimes argued as a case of "father's rights".
The problem, however, is that the Castro Government and the Clinton Administration ensured that Elian's father and his family were always held hostage.
When the grandmother's were allowed to come to the U.S., the grandfather's were kept in Cuba to ensure good behavior.
When Elian's father came to the U.S. with his second wife and second child, the Clinton Administration allowed Cuban agents to keep his wife and second child under their custody at all times to ensure good behavior from the father.
Edward T. Foote II, the former President of the University of Miami that was involved in the negotiations, stated that a deal had been reached to allow a meeting of Elian, his father, the second wife and child and the Miami family in a neutral location without any Cuban agents in order to work things out.
That loss of hostage control over Elian's father was deemed totally unacceptable by Castro's Government and that was when the final raid was authorized.
Elian's father was allowed to be a poster child for "father's rights" only as long as he or his family remained in a hostage situation at all times.
What choices would Elian's father have made if he had been given choices outside of a hostage situation?
Would he have taken Elian back to Cuba or would the entire family have chosen to defect to the U.S. just like great chunks of travelling Cuban sports teams do on a regular basis?
The Castro Government and the Clinton Administration ensured that we will never know.
ping
Them Mormon Women & Children in Texas don’t know how lucky they are that a Republican is in the White House.
The Dems said we stole Florida. Some of them still do. I think it’s more likely they lost it fair and square that Easter weekend. I mean, think about it. I bet they lost at least five hundred to a thousand votes with that raid. Probably more. There’s your margin of victory right there. Game over. Thanks for playing.
Thank you for posting the image.
Some of us need to be reminded how important it is to NEVER GIVE UP OUR WEAPONS!
I know that fat pig was “just following orders”, but I wish him the cruelest and most painful illnesses one can imagine and be damned to hell for eternity.
You forgot the laws that allowed the boy to stay in this country. I not for illegals but I will follow the law. The boy was here as a legal.
That was the whole plan, the child being drug out via machine gun armed Jack Booted Thugs, lots of photos etc.
Bush I put Slick into the POTUS job and the Clinton's returned the favor to his son.
And Al Gore is too stupid to realize he got screwed in the process. But I'm certain if he were to figure it out, he'd rationalize it as, "if just one more child is returned to a socialist hellhole, it's worth it".
Yes, the boy made it to dry land.
>>”Them Mormon Women & Children in Texas don’t know how lucky they are that a Republican is in the White House.”<<
Wrong, TexasCajun. Bush is a RINO, not a Republican.
Thank God that the Sheriff’s didn’t have to use their TANK during the invasion in order to save the children! Where have we heard that before....hmmm.....can you say Waco?
Sheriffs with tanks/armored vehicles and SWAT Teams at the FLDS compound? They would have used everything if the FLDS resisted. If not, why show up with the army of Rangers, SWAT Teams and Sheriffs in armored vehicles.
We are marching toward a Police State, pal, and we can either resist initially through diplomatic channels or succumb to their rule and live pitiful lives as peasants to the government.
BTW, I don’t think Texas had to get approval from D.C. to conduct this raid. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Bush had no say so in it whatsoever. It was a Texas thing only.
A black date in the history of Freedom, that day.
Janet Reno - she developed Parkinsons, she ran for Governor of FL running around in her red truck, lost, and then dropped of the face of the earth.
She may now have such debilitating Parkinsons that she can’t appear in public (think Mohammed Ali) but still she was one strange cookie.
Way back when she was nominated after the first two candidates (Zoe something and someone else) had to withdraw due to nannygate. I think this was the plan all along. By the time Reno came along, there was a sense of let’s just get this done and be done with it. I suspect that that was the plan all along to get her in without any real scrutiny.
Sort of the Harriet Miers strategy LOL.
Then she spent 8 years doing all the clinton dirty work and then crawled back into her hole.
Very strange story.
Yes and one many of us will never forget.
If either Obama or Hiliary gets the office, expect even worse. Even Mccain wouldnt be above doing something like this.
All in all,I am dont very pleased with the candiates. This is America, damnit. Are they telling us that with all the great minds in this country, those are the best we can find?
It is just too bad the jack booted thugs did not kidnap the wrong child.
Yes, I too have read that several times.
They both love women.
“He WANTS CREDIT for kidnapping Elian? He wants to be remembered forever for snatching the child from his grandmothers and a Catholic nun? What a loon.”
He certainly seems proud of himself. Thank goodness he’s no longer in that position.
hmmm....wrong thread?
The issue to me always was: his mother risked her life and died trying to get him here. The courts should have upheld his mother’s wishes. CASE CLOSED.
Apparently, she’s on the board for the Innocence Project (ironic considering what she did to Richard Jewell) and collecting songs for some folk song compilation and doing the lecture circuit. But yeah, she’s out of politics...thank god.
She also had a serious drinking problem.
As I understood it (read), her second in command (I can’t remember who it was...I think it was another woman) actually did most of the work because of her little drinking problem.
Some people get put on boards as figureheads. Collecting folk songs? How bizarre. I may try to Google her up and see if she is represented by some speakers bureau. The probably have to have her do lunches only as by dinner time she’s probably too far in the tank to put together a coherent sentence.
Below El Reno was Jamie Gorelick (of firewall and 9/11 commission fame) and also I think Eric Holder if memory serves. I too heard that Janet was not the real power or force.
Here is another thing about Elian. His father and mother were not married. She did, though, have his support and encouragement to take Elian to the States.
I hope Elian comes back to America to exact some revenge on the Clintons and their minions.
“Below El Reno was Jamie Gorelick (of firewall and 9/11 commission fame) and also I think Eric Holder if memory serves. I too heard that Janet was not the real power or force.”
Ah yes. You are correct.
The name Gorelick ran through my mind, but I wasn’t 100% sure.
Thank you.
“Father’s Rights” part of this case lost the Oklahoma Governship for Steve Largent.......he WOULD have been good, but he was so wrong on this.
God will deal with Janet Reno for this and for killing 80 plus people at Waco!
That would be sweet.
Well, that does get into the issues of father's rights.
Example:
Let's say my wife hates that I live in Miami and wants our kids raised in her sister's hippie commune in California. She takes our kid, gets in her car and starts driving to California. As soon as she crosses the California state line, she gets into a car accident. She is killed but my kid is O.K.
My kid is now with my sister-in-law.
I file suit to get my kid back but my hippie sister-in-law then puts forth her case to the California Courts:
"The issue to me always has been: his mother risked her life on the highway and died trying to get him here to California. The courts should uphold his mother’s wishes. CASE CLOSED."
Very true. I was just thinking about that fact a couple of days ago.
No. First of all, this father was not an involved dad. He only became involved when this became an issue for Castro. Therefore the rights and safety and future of his son come first. But aside from that...
This is not moving to another state. This is a simple custody case.
This is risking your life to flee N. Korea, dying while getting your son safely to relatives in Taiwan, and having Taiwan send him back to N.Korea.
Or escaping E. Germany with your son, dying in the process, but getting your son to the West German side, only to have the Germans send him back.
If she had been moving him here from France, you could try to argue the father’s rights.
Meant to say:
This is NOT a simple custody case
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