Pause to remember: Two Easter Eves ago, Elian was seized as picture of Jesus was trampled.

Cato Foundation website ^ | April 24, 2000 | Deroy Murdock

[laureldrive]

April 24, 2000

Clinton Regime Outdoes Itself by Snatching Elian Gonzalez

by Deroy Murdock

Deroy Murdock is a senior fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and a policy advisor to the Cato Institute.

Saturday's Nacht-und-Nebel-style seizure of Elian Gonzalez by armed U.S. agents resembled Munich 1940 more than Miami 2000. The abuses of power and excessive force in this revolting episode epitomize a federal police state that has goose-stepped from Ruby Ridge to Waco and now to Little Havana.

At 5:14 a.m. -- while attorneys for the young Cuban refugee negotiated his status with Justice Department officials -- eight Immigration and Naturalization Service officers used a battering ram to knock down the front door of Elian's great uncle, Lazaro. Wielding machine guns, the body-armor-clad agents knocked over a picture of Jesus Christ and a statue of the Virgin Mary on Easter Eve. They then kicked down another door inside the Gonzalez home.

According to Elian's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, federal agents held her at gun point while one screamed, "Give me the f - - - ing boy or we'll shoot you." An NBC cameraman said federal gunmen kicked him in the stomach, hit his sound man with a rifle butt and yelled, "Don't move or we'll shoot."

A Border Patrol agent in a helmet and goggles soon pointed his assault rifle at Elian and the man who shielded him in his arms -- Donato Dalrymple, one of the fishermen who rescued him from the Atlantic Ocean last Thanksgiving. As Elian hollered, "Help me! Help me!", he was whisked away in a white van driven by yet another federale whose face was hidden in a ski mask. Onlookers, meanwhile, were kept at bay with pepper spray.

This nauseating episode -- captured by TV cameras and Alan Diaz, an intrepid Associated Press photographer -- looked more like a kidnapping than an official act of the United States government. Then again, very little about this case has been kosher.

This raid supposedly was triggered after Attorney General Janet Reno decided that talks with the Gonzalez family had collapsed. Attorneys for the Gonzalezes say they spoke by phone with Reno and her subordinates late into the night and faxed proposals back and forth to Justice headquarters in Washington.

"For Janet Reno to say that negotiations had broken down at the time of the raid was an utter, utter lie," Barbara Lagoa, one of Elian's attorneys, told Fox News Channel.

The president previously urged the Gonzalezes to follow the rule of law -- and who better than Bill Clinton could make such an admonition? Nonetheless, it appears that federal officials trampled the rule of law when they burst into Lazaro Gonzalez's private property with a dubious search warrant. As Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe wrote in the April 25 New York Times, "it was not a warrant to seize the child. Elian was not lost, and it is a semantic sleight of hand to compare his forcible removal to the seizure of evidence, which is what a search warrant is for." Tribe, a veteran liberal, added: "Ms. Reno's decision to take the law as well as the child into her own hands seems worse than a political blunder. Even if well intended, her decision strikes at the heart of constitutional government and shakes the safeguards of liberty."

Furthermore, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled April 20 that Elian Gonzalez himself may have the right to seek political asylum in the United States, even against his father's wishes. The decision that Elian is entitled to a day in court -- specifically a May 11 INS asylum appeal hearing -- argues against his immediate transfer to his father. Juan Miguel Gonzalez is currently influenced, if not thoroughly controlled, by Cuban functionaries. His parents are reportedly in a Cuban government compound, perhaps held as collateral until their son returns to Fidel Castro's "workers' paradise." Juan Miguel has spent nearly his entire sojourn in America in the home of a senior Cuban diplomat. Imagine a North Korean boy who had escaped to Seoul awaiting a court hearing in the "neutral" territory of an apartment occupied by the Pyongyang regime's attache.

The Circuit Court also chastised the Clinton Administration for ignoring Elian's desires. "According to the record, plaintiff - although a young child - has expressed a wish that he not be returned to Cuba," the three-judge panel wrote.

"It appears that never have INS officials attempted to interview plaintiff about his wishes.

"It is not clear that the INS, in finding plaintiff's father to be the only proper representative, considered all of the relevant factors -- particularly the child's separate and independent interests in seeking asylum."

Fox News analyst Dick Morris joked that Hillary Clinton's next book will be called "It Takes a SWAT Team." The thuggishness of the Clinton Administration, reputedly the best friends a child could have, likely will scar Elian for years. Just last April 17, the Justice Department released a letter from Dr. Irwin Redlener claiming that "Elian Gonzalez is now in a state of imminent danger to his physical and emotional well-being in a home that I consider to be psychologically abusive." Perhaps the Clintons and Janet Reno believed Elian would find federal gun muzzles psychologically soothing. As Reno helpfully explained: "Elian Gonzalez is a child who needs to be cherished."

Adding further to all this intrigue is the fact that Dr. Redlener is a pediatrician, not a psychologist. As such, he is as qualified to comment on Elian's state of mind as a psychologist is to treat him for chicken pox. Beyond that, Dr. Redlener never even spoke with Elian. Unless Dr. Redlener is clairvoyant, he seems entirely unable to evaluate Elian's psyche. Redlener, it transpires, also served on Hillary Clinton's health care task force in 1993 and chaired the 1992 Clinton-Gore National Health Leadership Council. He is little more than an Administration flack with a stethoscope.

Add to this that Juan Miguel Gonzalez is represented by President Clinton's top-dollar impeachment attorney, Greg Craig. Nothing about the Elian Gonzalez case is as it seems. An adorable six-year-old boy is the latest victim of a lawless regime seemingly bent on serving the political wishes of Fidel Castro, even at gunpoint. So it goes these days in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[laureldrive]

Question:

1) What happened to the AP photos of the feds' thuggery inside the house? Does the AP ordinarily suppress its own photos?

2) Do you believe as I do that it's Elian who got W elected? The Cubans had been voting less Republican in recent years - but that stopped in 2000, when they turned out big for Bush, and helped him win Florida by a whisker. 3) Do you believe with Tom DeLay that Elian had the hand of God on him, from the moment the dolphins came to his aid in the sea - - - - and perhaps up to this very point in time? 4) Do you believe Reno, Clinton and the media will ever be held to account for getting Elian keelhauled back to Castro? 5) Why didn't Elian's defenders place him, at least while the heat was on, with a gay couple in Miami? The media and Clinton would have immediately dropped their insistence that he be shipped back to Castro.

[laureldrive]

Why didn't Elian's defenders place him, at least while the heat was on, with a gay couple in Miami? The media and Clinton would have immediately dropped their insistence that he be shipped back to Castro.

[laureldrive]

Why didn't Elian's defenders place him with a GAY COUPLE in Miami? The media and Clinton would have immediately dropped their insistence that he be shipped back to Castro.

[laureldrive]

Kidnapping this kid before dawn on EASTER was a sacrilige - - was it intentional? Did they pick the date to spit on the Holy Day?

[BornOnTheFourth]

Thanks for the reminder. I wouldn't be surprised if they picked the Easter weekend on purpose. Of course, this coming from an administration who held Ramadan with more honor...

I will NEVER forget waking up and seeing the images of Elian's abduction. I still remember the ice-cold feeling of dread and anger.

An NBC cameraman said federal gunmen kicked him in the stomach, hit his sound man with a rifle butt and yelled, "Don't move or we'll shoot."

I'm still amazed that the press didn't make a bigger deal of this incident. That just goes to show how biased they are--can't speak out against Clinton--noooooooo, can't have that!

[laureldrive]

Thank you, Florida Cubans, for defeating Gore.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

One of the many days of SHAME brought to us by the corrupt, criminal, Communist Clintonista Reign of terror!

[ResistorSister]

Does the AP ordinarily suppress its own photos?

They do not ordinarily suppress photos...but they only leave them online for awhile.

If you see one that you want to keep...make sure to save it.

[laureldrive]

I will NEVER forget waking up and seeing the images of Elian's abduction. I still remember the ice-cold feeling of dread and anger.

These were my feelings exactly. Ruined Easter for me - and a number of days after.

[laureldrive]

Have you heard MICHAEL SAVAGE'S riff where he imitates a Nazi radio broadcast boasting about the "HEROIC" raid on Elian's home, and saluting Janet Reno as a hero of the Fatherland?

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

"Thank you, Florida Cubans, for defeating Gore."

Amen! Election 2000 was God's revenge against Clinton/Gore - probably on behalf of little Elian! May God keep him safe until one day he can life in Freedom!

[AnnaZ]

 

19 March 2002

 

On the eve of the two-year anniversary of Elian's seizure at gunpoint by INS

thugs who ought to have been arresting Islamic terrorists, the Washington

Post published this pathetic follow-up, which, despite the reporter's

fundamental, blind acceptance of Elian's return to tyranny, is worth

reading:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60888-2002Mar8.html

 

[those inclined should write to letters@washpost.com and

ombudsman@washpost.com]

 

---

 

19 March 2002

 

To: Eugene Robinson, Assistant Managing Editor, Washington Post

From: Scott Holleran

Subject: Looking for Eilan

cc: Letters

 

Dear Mr. Robinson:

 

I read your story, Looking for Elian, with interest; the headline caught

my eye since not one reporter has laid his eyes on an unaccompanied Elian

since he was seized by the INS in a pre-dawn military raid two years ago.

From the beginning, I knew that finding Elian was unlikely, because he

lives in a communist dictatorship where there's no such thing as freedom of

the press, which is why those of us who think communism constitutes child

abuse opposed sending him back to that hell you described.

 

I found your story well-written and often involving -- until the end,

when you write: "The Cuban government has kept journalists away from [Elian

and his Cuba family], and the truth is that this is a good thing."

 

Good --- for whom? For Elian Gonzalez, who is shut off from freedom? For

the press, which is shut off from reporting? Perhaps you mean it's good for

the communist regime, which must repress dissent in order to survive.

Any reporter who regards being completely cut off from the media and

from any independent evaluation as good for any human being, especially a

child, should never should be sent to Cuba, let alone be assigned a story

about a child's life in Cuba.

 

Your viewpoint makes the whole premise of looking for Elian a lie -- why

bother looking for one who, according to you, will be harmed by your

reporting?

 

Knowing the history of the Soviet Union and China and that you're in the

grip of Castro, did it really never dawn on you that Elian might be shut off

from the free world because Cuba's totalitarian regime doesn't want you to

know how he lives? Are you seriously willing to take the word of a

second-rate bureaucrat mouthing Havana's dictates as the final arbiter on

the fate of a child whose life you are assigned to chronicle? Is that all it

takes to shoo the Washington Post away from following up on the biggest

story of 2000 --- a few words from a heel-clicking communist?

 

If so, the Post applies a higher standard to terrorists at Guantanomo

Bay than to a child whose mother died to bring him to America. What a

twisted hierarchy of values.

 

You refer without attribution to "a constant stream" of reporters from

whom Elian presumably must be protected, as if a reporter is more dangerous

than that thug who sure made an impression on *you*, a grown man. And that

thug is a daily presence in Elian's life, not a passing moment of danger in

an assistant managing editor's notes.

 

Journalism is the relentless pursuit of truth; you ostensibly went to

find Elian Gonzalez and, being told by threat of force that you are not

welcome, you abandoned that journey and blindly accepted the ideas of those

who refused you.

 

Looking for Elian? You weren't looking for Elian. The article is written

as if you were looking for vindication of a nation that, in one of its

darkest moments, forcibly returned a child refugee from communism *to*

communism.

 

If you were looking for such vindication--or at least moral

neutrality--you sure came away empty-handed. When the INS should have been

arresting Islamic terrorists, they were forcing a child at gunpoint to live

in tyranny. Now even the mighty Washington Post can't get a lousy photograph

to prove he exists, let alone report how he lives.

 

This nation ought to be ashamed of turning its back on that child -- and

on our founding principle of inalienable individual rights -- and your

half-hearted, failed attempt to find him demonstrates why.

 

Sincerely,

Scott Holleran

--

 

 

 

SCOTT HOLLERAN

sholleran@earthlink.net

 

 

 

 

© Copyright 2001, 2002 Scott Holleran

All rights reserved.

[Zathras]

After completing the www.frontsight.com defensive handgun class, I learned that the LE and military is trained to keep your finger OFF the trigger.

I guess "Shake and Bake" didn't take that class.

[BornOnTheFourth]

I was so furious that I called the Janet Reno's office. When they answered "Attorney General's Office." I asked them if it was the Attorney General's office of the United States because what I saw on TV certainly couldn't happen in the US! Her response: "I'm just the receptionist."

B@astards.

[green team 1999]

[laureldrive]

Cuban-Americans seem to be the Hispanics whom its permitte to belittle and oppress (at least if they're not pro-Castro Cubans).

[green team 1999]

"i told al to dump the kid"

[laureldrive]

Why didn't Elian's defenders place him with a GAY COUPLE in Miami? The media and Clinton would have immediately dropped their insistence that he be shipped back to Castro.

This one deserves a bump, if I say so myself.

[laureldrive]

"Wielding machine guns, the body-armor-clad agents knocked over a picture of Jesus Christ and a statue of the Virgin Mary on Easter Eve. "

Pilate's strongmen might have approved.

[Marine Inspector]

To bad Clinton and Reno did not use these tactics on all the illegal aliens in the US at that time.

[laureldrive]

To bad Clinton and Reno did not use these tactics on all the illegal aliens in the US at that time.

If you're implying that Elian was an illegal alien, you're wrong.

[MizSterious]

An article from the past that is worth a re-read: Untold stories in Elian case expose media bias

[MizSterious]

FYI

[BornOnTheFourth]

PING!

and remember Elian bump!

[houston1]

Who cares? I can't believe that anyone has the time to be upset about this Elian crap anymore. Don't ever post complaining that your taxes are too high from supporting all the illegal immigrants coming into this country if you wanted Elian to stay. Cuban illegal immigrant good, Mexican illegal immigrant bad, right?

[laureldrive]

Cuban illegal immigrant good

Refugees from communism deserve some consideration. The flood of illegals from Mexico are obviously in a different category.

[laureldrive]

I don't think a kid should be treated the way Reno's gun-toters treated Elian, no matter where he's from.

[Marine Inspector]

If you're implying that Elian was an illegal alien, you're wrong.

I'm not implying, it's a fact.

Read up on your Immigration Law.

[giotto]

Who cares?

Who cares? A whole lot of Cuban exiles in Miami, who changed their voter registration from Democrat to Republican right after the raid. Those several hundred votes could very well have decided the results of the 2000 election. If you can't find the compassion to care about a small child being traumatized by jack-booted Feds on Easter Saturday, perhaps you can care about the fact that Bush rather than Gore is now dealing with international terrorism.

[houston1]

If the kid had been from China, would anyone have even noticed him? He'd have been back on a plane to China before anyone knew he was here. I agree the situation could have been handled differently, but the family has some responsibilty for the way things went, they were more interested in getting TV time then in trying to resolve the situation (remember the doctored up video they released). When they refused to negotiate or meet with the father, the govt. was bound to take matters into thier own hands. I understand they have made no attempts to contact Elian since he went home, I guess they're too "distraught" (over the loss of income).

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

That's why we can't deport them. The lesson from this is that it takes one million dollars to deport one illegal alien.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Why didn't Elian's defenders place him with a GAY COUPLE in Miami? The media and Clinton would have immediately dropped their insistence that he be shipped back to Castro.

That wouldn't work. The Clintons would have just had teams of "agents" who are also "oppressed minorities" do the raid. It would have been scored as a PC wash.

[f.Christian]

You could call this a paradigm clash---good vs. Evil...

the janet-bone-in-her-nose-reno cult of the trenchcoat666-kkk-cult shot themselves in the foot and through infection it became a mortal wound to this liberal satanic beast-monster...starting with gore/clinton all they way done the line-tracks!

[ventana]

I am sorry laureldrive, placing Elian with Rosie would not have amounted to anything. Communism trumps homosexuality. You do realize that communism merely courts homosexuality in an effort to destabalize remnant Christianity, so that, once destabalized, no further opposition to total domination exists. IMHO. V's wife. (pray, during Easter).

[f.Christian]

the commy's are at it agin!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I don't think Reno is thinking about Elian right now. She's watching the Arafat situation and sees tanks and a compound while drooling like Homer Simpson over a doughnut. Throw in some children and she's making a road trip to the Holy Land.

[f.Christian]

Janthrax borneo/spearchuckers have rabies...

and all her lovers/jackboots are going to rot--BURN in hell--good riddance...oj-clinton too!

[laureldrive]

the family has some responsibilty for the way things went, they were more interested in getting TV time then in trying to resolve the situation (remember the doctored up video they released).

WHAT "DOCTORED" VIDEO? THEY HAD SOME HOME MOVIES. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT? THE HOME MOVIES WERE CERTAINLY MORE ACCURATE THAN THE SNIPETS THAT ABC GOODMORNAMERICA BROADCAST OF ITS ELIAN INTERVIEW; THEY DIDN'T EVEN LET PEOPLE KNOW THAT HE TOLD ABC HE WANTED TO STAY IN US. - -

When they refused to negotiate or meet with the father, the govt. was bound to take matters into thier own hands.

THEY WANTED THE FATHER TO COME TO THEIR HOME, WITHOUT CUBAN GOONS KEEPING EYES ON HIM. A PERFECTLY SENSIBLE REQUEST. AND THEY DID NEGOTIATE - TALKS WERE GOING ON AT THE VERY MOMENT THE STORMTROOPERS STORMED INTO THEIR HOUSE

I understand they have made no attempts to contact Elian since he went home, I guess they're too "distraught" (over the loss of income).

HOW CAN THEY CONTACT ELIAN IN COMMUNIST CUBA? THE WASH POST REPORTED LAST WEEK THAT REPORTERS HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO FIND HIM - - YOU REALLY THINK CASTRO'LL MAKE ELIAN AVAILABLE TO HIS AMERICAN KIN? HEY, YOU DON'T WORK FOR CASTRO, DO YOU?

[laureldrive]

Why didn't Elian's defenders place him with a GAY COUPLE in Miami? The media and Clinton would have immediately dropped their insistence that he be shipped back to Castro.

[houston1]

The video I speak of was the one where he angrily pointed his finger and said he would never return to Cuba, and it was obvious he was being coached by someone off camera as to what to say. The family here and in Cuba have always been in contact, they have phones there too, so if they really cared they could call or at least get a message to him through the relatives. The Miami relatives always seemed more interested in having Elian as a commodity to make a buck off of, than in looking out for his best interest, so they never got much sympathy from me anyway.

[Doc On The Bay]

'Said FAR more Eloquently than any "screed" I could possibly write!

Elian's Childhood was sacrificed for some (as yet hidden) political advantage for "the Clinton Political Machine."

To those of us who still harbor a moral Conscience, "Elian's Fate" represents a HORRIBLE RAPE of both an innocent child, & our moral values as a culture!

Until our Nation "makes the Elian Debacle Right," we carry a stain on our "National Soul" UNPRECEDENTED in our Nation's history!

I believe that the "Elian Mess" is the WORST CRIME (of MANY) that the Clinton committed in our name!

Doc

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

>>>>>no, have not heard Michael Savage at all - only reports of his program here on FR.

But yes, Gestapo General Reno certainly did Hitlery proud that day!

[AnnaZ]

I believe that the "Elian Mess" is the WORST CRIME (of MANY) that the Clinton committed in our name!

It is definitely up there in the annals of the (MANY) horrors. I remember that Saturday so clearly. I sobbed as if he had been my own child.

Until our Nation "makes the Elian Debacle Right," we carry a stain on our "National Soul" UNPRECEDENTED in our Nation's history!

Absolutely. Amen.

[f.Christian]

"Pulling it all together, what we have right here in our own country are all of the ingredients necessary for a totalitarian police state. We have a federal government that nobody in his right mind would trust, which lies to us incessantly, uses illegal force against its citizens with impunity, and collaborates with totalitarian dictators under cover of a massive propaganda campaign conducted by our supposedly free press. Our major information media are dominated by closet totalitarians who pay lip service to democracy while covertly promoting the interests of communist despots. The political opposition is made up largely of cowards who are so intimidated by our totalitarian propaganda media they are unable to offer effective resistance to even the most egregious violations of civil liberties by the... corrupt Clinton regime. They have become, in the fullest sense of the term, Weimar Republicans. And finally, we have that which makes it all possible, a listless, docile, dumbed-down public who gape mindlessly at all of the above phenomena without the slightest glimmer of comprehension, and prattle the latest propaganda cliches dumped into their empty heads by the mainstream media."

"The Elian affair has truly given us a glimpse into the abyss of tyranny. The message that comes through loud and clear is that the system isn't working. The question that remains to be answered is whether we still possess the intelligence and fortitude necessary to fix it."

Edward Zehr(deceased...nov 2001) can(not) be reached at ezehr@capaccess.org

Published in the May. 22, 2000 issue of The Washington Weekly

Copyright 2000 The Washington Weekly(defunct).

Now Free Access to All Stories at http://www.federal.com

[Republic]

Thanks for the ping.

FROM ARTICLE:Saturday's Nacht-und-Nebel-style seizure of Elian Gonzalez by armed U.S. agents resembled Munich 1940 more than Miami 2000. The abuses of power and excessive force in this revolting episode epitomize a federal police state that has goose-stepped from Ruby Ridge to Waco and now to Little Havana.

Truer words are seldom spoken. I hate what the clintons and flying monkeys did to this little boy more than almost anything else other than Waco.

I hate that they forced this little boy whose freedom came at the worst price of all-the loss of his mommy-to return to that life of hell.

Elian probably thinks life in America is like life in Cuba, now, where you never know who might come crashing into your bedroom with a machine gun pointed at you.

The HORROR of that raid, the CRUELTY of that raid, the absolute Anti-American action of that raid, which went down while the caretakers were trusting on a resolution, was simply HORRENDOUS and NONE OF OUR LAWMAKERS DID ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

Except for Senator Bob Smith, a hero in this sorry saga, standing outside the gates of Andrews air force base, which had been TAKEN over the the DOJ, demanding with all of his heart to be admitted to the base to see this little lad and his family. Our DOJ refused to let this UNITED STATES SENATOR onto ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE. Can you EVEN imagine the audacity and hitler-like actions of the clinton's and reno to KEEP HIM OFF THE BASE? A senator????? I know the DOJ was controlling Andrews, I called, so that Elian could be secreted away (translation:held prisoner along with this father and family here in America because gregg craig and bill clinton did not want to give Juan even a single chance to defect). Whoever the base commander was at the time should be ASHAMED that this went down on his watch.

Oh yeah, baby, I broke complete trust with my leaders when NONE OF THEM went after the removal of Reno for this act of dispicable cruelty.

[f.Christian]

Beast Train

Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the bad things to go
And I believe it is toast, something really bad had to go

Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the Elian Nation rising
And I believed it would be, some day it's now...here to stay

Cause going out over the edge of darkness, there crashes the BEAST train
Oh BEAST train leaving this country, takeing the big crash run

Now I've been smiling lately, thinking about the good things already here
And I believed it would be, something good is here to stay

Oh BEAST train crashing louder
Crash on the BEAST train
Come on crashing BEAST train
Yes, BEAST train crashing harder

losers jump upon the BEAST train
Come losers all onboard the BEAST train

Get our band together, go bring our song too
Cause it's getting farther, it soon will be gone for good

Now come and join the singing, it's so far from you
And it's getting farther, soon it will all be gone for good

Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the Elian Nation here
Why we go on living, why we live in happiness

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there dies a BEAST train
Oh BEAST train left this country, come Elian Nation rising!

Happy-happy-happy Easter

[rep-always]

You're welcome. I can honestly say it was a pleasure and a priviledge. God bless President Bush.

[f.Christian]

Beast Train...do you like it?

[Victoria Delsoul]

As Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe wrote in the April 25 New York Times, "it was not a warrant to seize the child. Elian was not lost, and it is a semantic sleight of hand to compare his forcible removal to the seizure of evidence, which is what a search warrant is for." Tribe, a veteran liberal, added: "Ms. Reno's decision to take the law as well as the child into her own hands seems worse than a political blunder. Even if well intended, her decision strikes at the heart of constitutional government and shakes the safeguards of liberty."