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According to Sanchez-Roig, INS officials believed Elian's father was being monitored by the Cuban government when he made the angry calls to the United States demanding Elian's return. He also may have previously sought to immigrate to the United States.
The INS--i.e. Meissner, reporting to Reno, reporting to President Clinton--rejected out of hand Elian's standing to apply for political asylum (PA). But that was apparently not the advice Meissner received from Sanchez-Roig, who said that the U.S. government could "potentially accept the child's asylum's application and advise that there is no prohibition on age to child filing application. As such PA should proceed."

And that is far from the most infuriating revelation. According to Chardy, "Hand-scrawled notes at the bottom of the two-page memo said then-INS Commissioner Doris Meissner ordered the destruction of the memo one day after it was written when she learned of its existence. According to the notes, Meissner ordered that no more discussions related to Elian be committed to writing." Luckily for the cause of truth, someone at the INS had forwarded the e-mail out of the system by the time Meissner tried to sweep over her traces.

An enraged bump. Howlin, I've pinged you here because I remember we debated this issue. With all due respect to your position regarding parental rights, here is some evidence that Juan Miguel was acting under duress. Had both he and Elian been granted their day in court, we could have known the truth.

It is a sound, respectable debate about the rights of a child to seek asylum versus the wishes of the parents. But when the Clinton Administration got involved, the debate was bastardized.

Regardless of what my position was at that time, I made it and stood by it based on what I knew at that time. And you know my position was based on the written law.

Now, being presented with facts that change that equation -- AND investigated by no less than Christopher Caldwell, who I respect as a journalist -- it would be foolish of me to stick to that position now, wouldn't it?

Unless, of course, I was a butthead, which, as most of you know, I am not......LOL. Perhaps, in hindsight, I should have realized that every single word that came out of that administration was a lie.

If I could have one wish, it would be that George W. Bush would rid the government of these lying, thieving, immoral people. I don't think that's a lot to ask; and it would be more than enough for me, regardless of whatever else he does while he's in office.

I would so dearly like to be able to BELIEVE the people who run my government.