(in reverse order – most recent to the incident in Miami)

Reuters via Yahoo! 9/28/00 Jim Loney "…..The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez, the shipwrecked Cuban boy who was caught in a furious custody battle, sued Attorney General Janet Reno (news - web sites) on Thursday, claiming the federal raid on their home to seize Elian and return him to his father violated their constitutional rights.The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Miami, accuses Reno and others of violating the family's right to freedom of expression, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and from use of excessive force by government...."

ABCNEWS 9/21/00 "…..Nine Cubans who survived when their plane crashed into waters off the Florida coast appear to be on the path to permanent residency in the United States...."

Reuters 9/20/00 Francis Kerry "…..Eight survivors from a Cuban crop-dusting plane that crashed into the sea were being interviewed by U.S. authorities on Wednesday at the start of a process to determine whether they stay in the United States or go back to the communist-ruled island. The doomed plane was whisked away from western Cuba on Tuesday in an apparent attempt to flee the country. ……. A 36-year-old man was taken by helicopter on Tuesday night to Key West, Fla., suffering severe head and neck injuries. The eight other survivors -- two men, three women and three children -- were set to remain on board the Chios Dream, being interviewed by Coast Guard officials, until late on Wednesday. ….. Cuba was still trying to clarify whether the incident was a hijacking or an asylum bid -- or both. ……."

Reuters 9/19/00 ".....A small plane with 14 people on board was hijacked from Cuba on Tuesday and was heading for south Florida, Miami police and airport officials said. ....... The plane was due to land at Miami's Opa-Locka Airport, Miami-Dade police spokesman Pete Andrews said.

Cynthia Paul, a spokeswoman for Miami International Airport, said 14 people were aboard the Russian-built Antonov An-2 Coltaircraft. ``Thirteen minutes ago it was still in Cuban airspace with limited fuel...we're told its a hijack,'' she said. ....."

Yahoo News 9/19/00 Reuters ".....A small Cuban plane with 16 people on board that had been hijacked has crashed in the Florida Straits and Cuban authorities have asked for U.S. assistance in a search, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. ``The plane is down, the Cuban authorities have asked for a water search,'' said Miami International Airport spokeswoman Cynthia Paul, adding she had no further details. U.S. officials said the plane, which left the western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio earlier on Tuesday, was an Antonov An-2 with 16 people on board. ....."

Inside China 9/19/00 Reuters "...... China sees "enormous potential" in its friendship with socialist ally Cuba and will work to further increase political and economic cooperation between them, China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said on Monday. Tang made the comments at the end of a two-day visit to the communist-ruled Caribbean island during which he held talks with Cuba's President Fidel Castro, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Vice President Carlos Lage. "My visit to Cuba was short but it allowed me to see the enormous potential in our cooperation," the Chinese minister told Cuban television after his discussions with Lage on Monday......."

9/19/00 Reuters "....Nine survivors and one body have been recovered in the Florida Straits where a small plane went down after being hijacked from Cuba, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said on Tuesday, citing the U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites)......."

News Max 9/8/00 "……A Miami lawyer and radio commentator is facing trial after being arrested while trying to help raise bail for protesters jailed in the wake of Attorney General Janet Reno's predawn armed raid to snatch Elian Gonzalez. Immigration lawyer Grisel Ybarra is one of a handful of people to face trial out of the 435 protesters originally arrested in the aftermath of the raid, according to the Miami Herald. The rest were allowed to plead guilty and assigned to community service or so-called psychological counseling. Others, such as the brother of Miami Mayor Alex Penelas and an 11-year old boy, simply had the charges against them dropped. Incredibly, Ybarra is facing up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, plus a possible investigation by the Florida Bar Association that could endanger her license to practice law, all for two measly misdemeanor charges involving her alleged refusal to obey police orders to stop blocking traffic. She is charged with resisting arrest nonviolently and disobeying a police officer's order. In pursuit of this two-bit case, prosecutors have compiled a court file on two misdemeanor charges of 200 pages, with testimony from 10 law enforcement officers, giving credence to her belief that she is being made an example to show the exile community what can happen if they dare confront federal power as they did in the Elian Gonzalez matter. "I am the example, so that the ghetto never rises again,'' Ybarra told the Herald. ….."

WorldNetDaily 8/31/00 Charles Smith "…….. Countering reports that Elian Gonzalez lays injured in a Cuban hospital with a broken jaw, a U.S. mayor said yesterday that he met with Elian Gonzalez last week and that the boy is "OK." Reports have circulated widely, particularly on the Internet, about a Miami-based doctor who claimed that Elian was recently beaten by his father and is in the hospital. Indeed, David Hoech, a retired doctor living in Miami with extensive connections inside the Cuban and diplomatic community, said: "We heard news that Elian was being treated for a broken jaw in a Cuban hospital. The next day, we established communication with humanitarian service entities and were told that he was in a Children's Hospital in Cienfuegos." ……… But the dire reports about Elian brought a rebuttal from Oakland, Calif., Mayor Jerry Brown. On ABC's "Good Morning America" yesterday morning, the former California governor said he met Elian last week, during a visit to the communist country aimed at enhancing relations between his California city and the eastern Cuban city of Santiago. Saying Elian is "OK" and not injured, Brown also discussed his views for improved trade relations with Castro and Cuba. ……"

NewsMax.com 9/1/00 Carl Limbacher "…… A federal judge in Miami has denied a motion from lawyers for Attorney General Janet Reno, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner to halt discovery in the civil rights lawsuit spurred by the government's April 22 seizure of Cuban boat boy Elian Gonzalez. The claim, filed by Judicial Watch in May, seeks damages in excess of $100 million on behalf of more than 50 plaintiffs, including Donato Dalrymple, who rescued Gonzalez from the ocean ten months ago only to have to turn him over at gunpoint to federal agents. Family friends and neighbors from Gonzalez's Little Havana block who say they were assaulted or otherwise harmed during the raid have also joined the suit………"

The Associated Press 9/1/00 "……Cuban officials announced Friday that Fidel Castro plans to travel to New York to attend the U.N. Millennium Summit, the first time the Cuban president has visited the United States since 1995. Cuba has requested visas for Castro and other top officials, who would arrive in two Cubana de Aviation jets at an undisclosed date, and has already discussed preliminary security arrangements with the U.S. secret service and New York Police department, the Foreign Ministry said in a press statement. The Millennium Summit, which begins Wednesday, will bring together more than 150 world leaders. ……"

The Associated Press 9/1/00 "…..Cuban officials announced Friday that Fidel Castro plans to travel to New York to attend the U.N. Millennium Summit, the first time the Cuban president has visited the United States since 1995. Cuba has requested visas for Castro and other top officials, who would arrive in two Cubana de Aviation jets at an undisclosed date, and has already discussed preliminary security arrangements with the U.S. secret service and New York Police department, the Foreign Ministry said in a press statement. ….."

Miami Herald 8/22/00 Rui Ferreira "……. Attorneys for two alleged Cuban spies were unsuccessful in a bid to bring a Cuban military officer to Florida to testify as a defense witness at their clients' trial. Jack R. Blumenfeld and William Norris, who represent defendants Luis Medina and Antonio Guerrero, visited Havana Aug. 6 to 11 to try to persuade Interior Ministry authorities to let the officer -- identified only as ``Col. Escalante'' -- appear live at the trial, which is expected to begin Nov. 6. The lawyers came back empty-handed and now hope that Escalante will submit a written deposition to U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard, who is hearing the case. ……"

The Cuba Free Press Project 8/17/00 Onelio Perez Rodriguez "….. Havana-Beginning in 1959, Cuba implemented censorship and prohibitions over open manifestations of ideologies; political, cultural or economic. The Castro government created a unsurmountable barrier so that the population would have no knowledge of the advancements, developments, prosperity and triumphs of the Western Nations. With this, he took the population to a point of complete ignorance about many events of great relevance. …… On the other hand, there is a great detail and time given to everything that happened in the so-called Socialist block Countries; exaggerating their successes while hiding their failures. It became evident that this had a clearly propagandist motive to show that only under socialism was a Nation able to develop and reach a consistent and leveled life style. Time took it unto itself to prove the contrary when the Berlin Wall fell, the USSR disintegrated and all the communist dictatorships disappeared from Eastern Europe. ….."

Vietnam Veterans of Florida State Coalition 10/4/99 Michael Benge "…… Cuban officials, under diplomatic cover in Hanoi during the Vietnam War, brutally tortured and killed American POWs whom they beat senseless in a research program "sanctioned by the North Vietnamese."(1) This was dubbed the "Cuba Program" by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the CIA, and it involved 19 American POWs (some reposts state 20). Recent declassified secret CIA and DOD intelligence documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the extent of Cuba's involvement with American POWs captured in Vietnam. A Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report states that "The objective of the interrogators was to obtain the total submission of the prisoners..."(2) ……….. According to former POW Air Force Colonel Donald "Digger" Odell, "two POWs left behind in the camp were 'broken' but alive when he and other prisoners were released [1973 Operation Homecoming]. ... They were too severely tortured by Cuban interrogators" to be released. The Vietnamese didn't want the world to see what they had done to them."(3) ………. POWs released during "Operation Homecoming" in 1973 "were told not to talk about third-country interrogations. .... This thing is very sensitive with all kinds of diplomatic ramifications."(4) Hence, the torture and murder of American POWs by the Cubans was swept under the rug by the U.S. Government. ……."

NEW YORK POST ONLINE 8/28/00 Laura Italiano Maria Malave "…..Dr. Charles Wetli, the chief medical examiner of Suffolk County, became an expert in the palo mayombe religion when he was a coroner in Miami, where the practice is not uncommon among Cuban-Americans. She was found floating, head up, in a knee-high jar of formaldehyde - a fully formed, perfectly preserved newborn girl with olive skin and a shock of straight, black hair. For now, she has no name, no mourners and no explanation. …….. But Manhattan police and prosecutors are sifting for clues in a grotesque collection of human remains and other black-magic relics from a Washington Heights apartment, where the baby was discovered after a tenant died in a car accident last month. …… Stillborn or murdered, the baby girl's body fell into the hands of 74-year-old Margaret Ramirez. Investigators believe that Ramirez, and possibly her son, Michael Grajales, 54, were, at the least, using the body and other remains in their practice of palo mayombe, an ancient Afro-Cuban religion related to Santeria. ……. Followers of this black-magic art - called "paleros" or "ngangaleros" - believe they can use human body parts to contact, and enslave, the spirits of the dead. The spirits are then compelled to do the palero's bidding - almost exclusively in the service of evil. "These people, these paleros, redefine evil," said one investigator, who asked not to be named. "You're dealing with the devil himself." ...... Ramirez was struck dead by a car July 17 while crossing the street near her apartment - the accident that led police to her West 164th Street chamber of horrors. ......, Her son, a recluse whose yellowed hair and beard reach down past his shoulders, became "extremely unstable" upon learning his mother died, and had to be escorted out in cuffs, Menig said. A Vietnam veteran, Grajales remains in a locked psychiatric ward of the Veterans Affairs Hospital on East 23rd Street. ……. Police found two skulls, one from an adult, the other from a 1- or 2-year-old child. The child's skull was in a ceremonial palo mayombe cauldron called an "nganga," and was coated with rotting flesh, dried blood and candle wax. ...... One recovered jar held pieces of flesh, floating in murky formaldehyde. Rank-smelling dirt - possibly gathered from a cemetery - was scattered on the floor, and statues of saints were in every corner. ...... A palo priest from Astoria, Queens, began equivocating when asked what purpose a baby's body could serve in his religion - at first asking if the body had been cut in any way (it hadn't), then pausing to think, then saying that he didn't know, and that such a use is "crazy, crazy!" "That's secret. That's secret," he added, brushing the question away with a wave of his hand. ……. "She would use the body to make an agreement with el diablo - with the devil," the priest said finally of the baby. "But it gave her no power. She didn't know what to do with it." ......... Ramirez's violent death was proof enough that she was in over her head, he said. Her spirits - maybe even the spirit of the baby girl in the jar - turned against her. "That could have happened, that the baby killed her," he said. "She may have paid with her life." ….."

Fox News 9/17/00 Terry Spencer AP "…..Lazaro Gonzalez pulled a brown paper towel from his pocket and wiped his eyes as the closing credits rolled during a preview of The Elian Gonzalez Story. Lazaro had laughed, shaken his head and bitten his lip while watching the nearly two-hour-long TV movie, which depicts the events that thrust his family into the international spotlight. He wept when the movie showed federal agents raiding his home to seize his nephew, 6-year-old Elian. And now he was angry. "Nothing is reality in that story," Gonzalez said. …….. The family's attorneys and advisers all said the movie, which airs on the Fox Family Channel at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday, does not reflect accurately what happened during the five months that Elian lived in Miami's Little Havana with his great-uncle Lazaro. ….. "Detail after detail was wrong - they couldn't even get the chronology right," said Coffey, who is not depicted in the film. Events shown in the movie as occurring simultaneously - such as Elian's December birthday party and the government's January decision to return him to Cuba - actually occurred weeks apart. The order of other events is flip-flopped. ……. Robbins said many witnesses and participants were interviewed, including Lazaro, and writer Dennis Turner then recreated the dialogue. Overall, he said, the movie is accurate in substance and tenor. "Nobody was a fly on the wall, but we believe the movie is extremely fair," he said. "We wanted people to understand why everybody fought so hard for that boy." ……. The more controversial scenes start after the boy's rescue, last Thanksgiving Day. Lazaro (Miguel Sandoval) is depicted as devoted to Elian but blinded by his attachment to the boy, by his unwillingness to anger Miami's Cuban-American community by returning him to his father, and by bad advice from Gutierrez and others. Lazaro's 21-year-old daughter, Marisleysis (former Miss USA Laura Elena Harring), is shown as a caring young woman who comes to view herself as the boy's mother. Coffey said the Miami family had one motivation: to fulfill the final wish of Elian's mother that he grow up in freedom. ……. But Robbins said his movie portrays the Miami family much as the national media did. "It is how they were viewed by the rest of the country," he said. …….Two other scenes drew hard anger. One shows Elian's first phone conversation with his father back in Cuba; Elian asks when he is going home. That didn't happen, Lazaro said. The boy would not answer when his father asked if he wanted to return to Cuba. ...... The other scene is the pre-dawn raid on April 22 in which agents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service snatched Elian from the Miami home. On film, the raid is slower and less chaotic than in reality. The agents use less force - for example, the film's agents do not fire pepper gas at the crowd outside the home, as real agents did. "They should have talked to us," Lazaro Gonzalez said. "We could have told them what really happened." ……"

Judicial Watch 9/5/00 "……A federal court judge in Miami, The Honorable Federico A. Moreno, ruled last week that discovery may proceed in a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the family members, friends, and neighbors hurt during the Easter-eve raid on Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives' home. The $100 million lawsuit names Attorney General Janet Reno, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder as defendants. Judicial Watch represents the 54 plaintiffs in the case. The Clinton-Gore Justice Department had tried to stay discovery in the matter, but was overruled by U.S. District Court Judge Federico A. Moreno in an August 29, 2000 order that read: ……. The court has considered the motion and the pertinent portions of the record, and being otherwise fully advised in the premises, it is adjudged that the motion is denied. ……. The judge's ruling means that discovery may proceed in the case. Discovery would include obtaining government documents on the raid and depositions from those with information about it, such as Ms. Reno, Ms. Meissner, and Mr. Holder. (In an earlier decision, Judge Moreno ruled that the deposition of Elian Gonzalez might have to take place in Cuba, if it were to occur.) The lawsuit alleges violations of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights of the Elian protestors who had peaceably gathered the night of the violent raid. The plaintiffs were gassed, beaten, kicked, cursed at, and had guns brandished at them during the raid. The lawsuit also alleges battering rams were used on the protestors and elderly women were gassed as they prayed the Rosary……."

AFP 9/7/00 "……US President Bill Clinton and Cuban President Fidel Castro came face-to-face for the first time, White House officials said Thursday, while downplaying any significance to the encounter.They said Castro initiated the encounter Wednesday after a lunch hosted by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for leaders attending the UN Millennium Summit."I understand it was initiated by Castro," a senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ..."

NewsMax 9/12/00 Camille Paglia "……. Fidel Castro's propaganda agency, Granma, is trumpeting his handshake with Bill Clinton. In an account he gave his press agency, Castro inferred that he really did not seek out Clinton, the meeting as simply accidental. Castro reports that "following the lunch given by the UN secretary-general, after the opening session of the Millennium Summit had ended, we were told to walk to the place where the official photo would be taken. We walked toward that spot, almost one by one, along a narrow path among the many tables." ………"

AFP 9/9/00 "……Vladimir Putin will be the first Russian president to visit Cuba since the end of the Soviet era, and the trip later this year will mark a spectacular rapprochement between Moscow and Havana. Putin and Castro agreed Friday to promote closer economic relations between their countries, ties that have been essentially stagnant since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, a Russian diplomatic source said. Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Putin would make the trip by year's end. …."

The Miami Herald 9/9/00 Terry Jackson "……When Fox Family Channel's made-for-TV movie The Elián González Story debuts Sept. 17, it's sure to raise debate in South Florida both for the way it portrays some key players in the custody saga and over the factual basis for parts of the script. ……. In the film -- the first Elián project to reach TV screens -- Gutiérrez is portrayed as a political wheeler-dealer who put the political interests of Miami's Cuban exile community ahead of the González family's wishes that Elián's future remain a family matter. ``That's what I get for not taking their money,'' Gutiérrez said after being told about his character's role. ……. A spokeswoman for Fox Family Channel in Los Angeles reaffirmed Friday that the movie is based on interviews with people close to the Elián story, including an interview she said Canava did with Lázaro González. ……. Democracy Movement leader Ramón Saúl Sánchez, a key activist in the fight to keep Elián in the United States, and Spencer Eig, one of the González family lawyers, said they had not been interviewed, although both are major characters in the film. The movie, a copy of which was sent to the nation's television critics, is highly sympathetic to Lázaro González. …….."

CNS 8/10/00 Jim Burns ".....The Miami relatives of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez are upset that the Immigration and Naturalization Service plans to honor the team of federal agents that forcibly removed Elian from his Miami relatives in "Little Havana" over Easter weekend. "I think it's a waste of taxpayers' money," said Armando Gutierrez, a spokesman for Elian's Miami relatives. "Honoring people that went into the house with machine guns to scare the hell out of a little boy -- a house where there was no guns, just simple people. It's incredible and I never knew that they would honor people for doing that," ..."

UPI 8/9/00 "……Immigration officials Wednesday planned to honor the team of federal agents that snatched Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives and returned him to his father. The ceremony for as many as 131 agents is set for Monday and Tuesday in Glynco, Ga., the site of Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. The 131 took part in the raid, many of them in support roles. Commissioner Doris Meissner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service said she would be there to honor the agents "for a job well done" during the raid..."

Chicago Tribune 8/8/00 "……After a dramatic defection that took them from a Zimbabwe jail cell to several Swedish safe houses, two Cuban doctors finally have arrived at their intended destination: Miami. On Monday night, dentist Noris Pena Martinez, 25, and physician Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, stepped off Delta Air Lines flight 885, the final leg in a journey that began two months ago halfway across the world. They were greeted at Miami International Airport by reporters and about 30 Cuban community activists carrying Cuban flags and roses. ……"

La Razon, Madrid 7/31-8/2/00 Alberto Rubio "……. Happened to check the news at one of my favorite websites, lanuevacuba.com which has the latest articles re: Cuba and the largest online collection of newspapers from Spain and Latin America, they posted an article from a newspaper in Madrid about Nelson, the little boy Spain is calling the "Spanish Elian". I guess you could call him the reverse Elian, or the other Elian. …….. Castro impedes reunion of child with his mother exiled in Spain for two years! July 30, 2000 The reverse Elian, 10 year old Nelson, lives with his sick grandmother and suffers psychological trauma because he has not been allowed to join his mother in Spain. As the media and the world talked of Cuban castaway Elian Gonzalez and world opinion praised Fidel Castro for defending the rights of children to live with their parents, he all the while had another child hostage, Nelson Manuel Aguilera, and Castro ignored the mother's request for reunification. Cuban authorities were even cruel in their treatment of the child since they said to his face that they would never allow him to leave and see his mother as if they were carrying out a vendetta to say it to his face and even though Spain had granted the child a visa. ….."

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 7/26/00 Paul Greenberg "….. I've got a five-dollar bet with another inky wretch here at the paper that this year's Pulitzer Prize-winning picture--the one that shows the federal trooper snatching a terrified little Elián Gonzalez out of that closet in Miami--won't win the Pulitzer. Why? It's politically incorrect. Besides, people don't want to think about this any more……..Elián is not just old news by now. He's not even history. He's well on his way to becoming an unperson, his every trace fading. The great, devouring beast that is the public's hunger for the sensational fell on this story and chewed it to death--day after day, sometimes hour after hour. Till fickle public opinion grew sick of the whole subject and anything to do with it……."

Freeper dejavu 7/22/00 "……. Sources tell me, immediately after he made his public decla- ration, he then asked for political assylum in Venezuela, (he was told that the ministry was going to give serious thoughts to his petition). THEN HE INFORMED THE MEDIA THAT HE WAS GOING INTO HIDDING, BECAUSE HE FEARED RETALIATION FROM CHAVEZ, OR WORST, THAT FIDEL CUBAN INTELLIGENCE WOULD PICK HIM UP BY FORCE AND TAKE HIM BACK TO CUBA. That was the last time he was seen. In my view, he should have gone straight to the American Embassy and requesting political assylum there. I think he would have had a better chance there, now his worst fears about Chavez came true, In my personal opinion, if he is lucky enough not to get caught by the Venezuelan police or the Castro Intelligence, his only hope is to cross the border into Colombia, and somehow find help to be able to get to the American Embassy in Bogota. Request assylum there, BUT REQUEST THAT HE URGENTLY NEEDS TO GET IN TOUCH WITH REPRESENTATIVE ILEANA ROSS-LEITNAM, SHE will make sure that he is given assylum. Lately, even the personel working in our Embassies, have orders (from top level of Government) to avoid giving political assylum to any cuban that wishes to defect, WHY?, Clinton does not want to make waves with Castro. The symbol of freedom and respect our Embassies stood for world wide,this Administra- tion has brought to the ground. That is probably the rea- son why the poor Rosabal is facing the predicament he is in now. Let us pray that he be able to escape the clutches of Chavez/Castro, and get to freedom. If he does, he will be able to tell the world the insides of the Castro commu- nist regime. I have a few contacts in Venezuela, and I will keep all of us informed on Rosabal s quest for freedom. ……"

Freeper Prodigal Daughter 7/21/00 "….July 21, just got news that another of Castro's estimated 1,500 security agents defected in Venezuela today. I have not heard anything more on the captain referenced in the article above except that Hector Fabian, a Cuban military expert, reported that the husband who defected in the 80's, Florentino Azpillaga, was apparently quite a defection. He was the supervisor of some 300 agents for Castro in Europe, (some were Cuban nationals but many Europeans and others) and when he defected, Castro tried to get them all called back or out of the way before all of the information was spilled, and apparently the information was pretty damaging because someone in England shot at Azpillaga and almost killed him……."

Las Vegas Sun 7/18/00 AP "……President Clinton has suspended for an additional six months a law that would allow Americans whose property was confiscated by Cuba to sue foreigners who use those assets to do business, his spokesman said Tuesday. The right to sue is contained in sanctions legislation approved by Congress in 1996. But Clinton has the authority under the law to waive or enforce the provision at six-month intervals. Clinton has consistently exercised his waiver authority since the legislation was approved. …….."

AP/Yahoo 7/18/00 Anita Snow "……With Fidel Castro in the wings, Elian Gonzalez was shown on state television Tuesday night reading the book that the Cuban president gave him to commemorate the boy's successful completion of first grade. As the camera panned over the dedication that the Cuban leader wrote to Elian in the ``The Golden Age,'' a children's book by Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, Castro's voice could be heard in the background reading it aloud. ``For when you are in the fourth or fifth grade and can enjoy one of the most tender works of Marti,'' Castro read off-camera. ..."

yahoo.com 7/19/00 Jim Abrams AP "…..The House voted Wednesday to bar the rescheduling or forgiving of Russian debt until Russia shuts down its intelligence listening post in Lourdes, Cuba. Supporters said it made no sense to give Russia debt relief when it is pouring billions of dollars into an operation that props up the Havana government while eavesdropping on America's military, companies and private citizens. But the administration opposes the legislation, arguing that Russia, like the United States, needs intelligence facilities to monitor and verify arms control agreements. Many Democrats opponents of the bill said it was a continuance of a 40-year-old failed policy of trying to isolate Cuba. The bill passed 275-146. ……."

NewsMax.com 7/14/00 Carl Limbacher "……"Christ chose the fishermen, because he was a communist," Castro said during a National Assembly debate on the fishing industry. State media reported the wacky comments Friday. ……Castro's brother and second in command, Raul, naturally agrees. "I think that's why they killed Jesus, for being a communist, for doing what Fidel defined as revolution ... that is to say, changing the situation," he said. ….."

Reuters 7/14/00 "…..President Fidel Castro has met with Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy over whose custody the communist leader launched the biggest patriotic crusade of his four-decade rule, the government said on Saturday. In what was believed to have been the first meeting between the 73-year-old Castro and Elian since the boy's June 28 return from the United States, Castro ``was able to meet and greet Elian'' on Friday during a visit with his family, a short official statement said..."

Miami Herald Online 7/16/00 Sandra Garcia "…….In their first interview since defecting in Zimbabwe, two Cuban medical workers said Saturday they plan to go to the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday and make good on a written offer for asylum in the United States. Noris Peña Martínez and Leonel Córdova Rodríguez, who arrived in Sweden a week ago, told The Herald that they have recuperated from the trauma of being abducted and jailed in Zimbabwe for 32 days and now ``we want to complete the [asylum] process we began'' ..."

newsmax.com 6/4/00 Carl Limbacher "…… Excerpts of a still-unreleased Clinton administration report on the April 22 raid that seized Elian Gonzalez indicate that the internal government review has exonerated a federal SWAT team charged with using excessive force. ……. Several of the conclusions reported by CBS are contradicted by accounts already on the record from Gonzalez family members and other eyewitnesses to the assault on the Gonzalez home. "Team members made no threats to use force against anyone in the home. ... No one on the team threatened to shoot anyone during the operation," concluded the probe. The assertion that agents didn't threaten to shoot anyone is contradicted by at least three sources present during the raid. ……Both Elian's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, and the person from whose arms the boy was snatched, Donato Dalrymple, have repeatedly asserted that agents shouted at them, "Give me the boy or I'll shoot." …….. Just minutes after the raid, NBC camerman Tony Zumbado told his network that agents physically restrained him and "told me not to move or else they were going to shoot." ......"

newsmax.com 6/4/00 Carl Limbacher "…… Another point of contention: "No team member struck anyone with a weapon during the operation," claims the report. But again, cameraman Zumbado's account of what happened to NBC sound man Gustavo Moeller flatly contradicts that denial. "My sound man got hit with a shotgun butt on the head," he said, adding that Moeller was "dragged outside - he was halfway in - and he was dragged to the fence and left there, and they told him if he moved they'd shoot." ......Kerry Sanders, a third member of the NBC crew, later told NewsMax.com that he saw clear evidence of the attack on Moeller: "Gustavo doesn't make it in. Gustavo's outside. He said one of the agents takes the butt of his gun and bangs it right into his forehead, causing him to fall down. I saw the blood on his forehead." The report also challenges Zumbado's claim that he was assaulted during the pre-dawn raid. "I was kicked in the stomach and pushed down and they kind of like put their foot on my back...," the cameraman told NBC. Fellow crew member Sanders later gave NewsMax.com this account: "Tony is hit in the stomach and goes down. And then the agent puts his foot on Tony's back and puts a gun to him and says, 'Don't move or I'll shoot.'" Zumbado was hospitalized four days after the assault, which Sanders said severely aggravated a pre-existing back problem. ......,, But according to CBS, the Clinton administration's after-action review showed that "no one was pushed or held to the floor in the Gonzalez home, that a video cameraman was not touched in the home. ..." ……."

Washington Times 6/2/00 "…..The Elian Gonzalez saga appears to be coming to a close. While many Americans have been pleased to see the small boy reunited with his father, it has to be considered what kind of life Elian - and his immediate family - will be returned to. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has been a tireless and significant actor in the Elian affair from the start, exploiting the case for political gain. Should Elian return to Cuba, as now seems more likely, Mr. Castro will continue to hold considerable sway over the life of every one of them. …….. The court's ruling wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of the INS decision, noted Kendall Coffey, a lawyer for Elian's Miami relatives, who have tried to keep Elian in the United States. It simply stated that the INS had the authority to make policy on the Elian case and that the courts didn't have the jurisdiction to reverse it. President Clinton said Thursday the case was "about the importance of family and the bond between a father and son." Mr. Clinton's observation is misleading, since granting Elian U.S. asylum would have given Elian the option of living in the United States, not the requirement to do so. ...... It is a grim childhood. As an adult, the Cuban model hardly allows families to provide for their most basic needs. Religious people, including children, indure severe repression. The regime is the ultimate arbiter of what career one may choose……."

U.S. News & World Report 6/12/00 Toni Locy "……It's almost over. A federal appeals court closed the door on Elián González's Miami relatives by ruling that U.S. immigration officials have the power to decide that Juan Miguel González speaks for his son-even if he is a communist. The Miami family members can seek a rehearing before the entire U.S. Court of Appeals and appeal to the Supreme Court. That makes it tough to say how soon the elder González might take his son home to Cuba, but given the nature of the court's ruling, it looks as if that's more a question of when than if. ……… Second thoughts. The ruling came from the same trio of judges that seemed willing in April to consider allowing anyone to file an asylum application on behalf of a young child. Legal experts say the judges obviously rethought that position. But it wasn't easy. The contrast between the legalistic text of the ruling and the more emotionally worded footnotes indicates the judges were torn between distrust of Cuba's communist government and their conservative commitment to staying out of immigration matters. ……"

Wall St. Journal 6/5/00 Robert Bork "…… If anything good came out of the appellate court's decision that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had the authority to deny Elian Gonzalez's petition for asylum, it was that the court performed its constitutional duty admirably. In the process, it revealed that Bill Clinton and Janet Reno have been lying steadily about their role in this case, and debunked some of the fallacious arguments that seem to underlie the widespread support (even among conservatives) for sending Elian back to Cuba………The relevant statute provides that "any alien" present in this country "may apply for asylum." But as the court correctly pointed out, the statute left it to the INS to decide "whether a six-year-old child has applied for asylum within the meaning of the statute when he, or a non-parental relative on his behalf, signs and submits a purported application against the express wishes of the child's parent."……. The court also emphasized repeatedly that the INS could have chosen other policies: "It has been suggested that the precise policy adopted by the INS in this case was required by 'law.' That characterization of this case, however, is inaccurate. . . . When the INS made its pertinent policy, the preexisting law said nothing about the validity of asylum application." So much for the Clinton administration's false and self-serving claims that it was merely enforcing the law......."

Miami Herald 6/5/00 Mario Garcia "…… I have never felt such confusion, never awakened to feel like a citizen in limbo. Mario R. García is president of the García Media Group and member of the faculty of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg. There is a new Cuban American in the United States: melancholic, reflective, talking a little slower, wondering what that Anglo co-worker is thinking and trying desperately to put the Elián saga behind him. I know. I am of them. ………. For the first time -- and this may be one of the blessings following Elián -- we Cuban Americans are experiencing a sense of strange solidarity. ...... What matters most today is that we all are badly hurt by what has taken place since the rescue at sea of a little boy with a cute, photogenic face. ……."

Albuquerque Tribune Via WorldNetDaily.Com 6/5/00 Bob Schwartz "…..Somewhere between the flames of Los Alamos and the smoldering of our everyday news, a little boy has been lost. Just a few weeks ago, the clanging over Elian Gonzales was shattering the stemware. Now he has been tucked away in a poll-driven purgatory, surely to emerge grafted to his father and his obviously rented suit and tie. But Elian's fate still thunders in the head of Dagoberto Ruiz. Born and raised in Cuba, Dago is a very successful Albuquerque businessman. Every cell in his body believes Elian has been betrayed by the United States. He ought to know. At one time, he fought with Castro in the Cuban revolution. ……. Dago was jailed. After months, he managed to get out and get to the United States. Like most of the Cuban refugees flush from the Castro double-cross, he, his wife and infant child went to Miami. But he couldn't find work. Catholic Social Services channeled his family to Albuquerque, where the Hispanic bedrock might offer better footing, and it did. Although a part of Dago's heart is still nestled in Cuba, his take on the Gonzales' quandary is not particularly predictable. He thinks Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, Fidel Castro, and Elian's Miami Uncle Lazaro should be charged with child abuse. He believes the solution is a constitutional one. The courts. Unlike many of us native Americans, Dago is still willing to put his patriotism and faith in that branch of government charged with finding, without asterisks, "the best interests of the child". ……… He believes the courts should have pre-empted the Barnum and Bailey media battle over the child, as well as the SWAT-adorned assault on his bedroom. That was the first moment, he says, he has ever felt sorry for and ashamed of America. ……He believes the boy should be with his father, but if they are both in Cuba, Dago is convinced, the courts cannot find that to be in Elian's best interest. In Cuba, they tear families apart to keep the communist regime together. Cuba is a country where another sugar cane-chopping kid is less useful than the inner tube Elian was rescued from. ….."

NewsMax 6/15/00 "……NewsMax.com has learned that Kirkland & Ellis, the former law firm of Ken Starr, has joined the legal team around Elian Gonzalez's Miami family. Kirkland & Ellis reportedly helped the existing legal team, headed by Miami attorney Kendall Coffey, prepare the appeal that is being filed today with the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. The new appeal will argue that the ruling by the 11th Circuit three-judge panel should be overruled. The appeal argues that a May Supreme Court decision involving a Texas case demonstrated the INS did not have the right to deny Elian an asylum hearing. The addition of Kirkland & Ellis, while bringing some higher caliber legal minds to the Miami family's legal team, also strengthens the legal team's ties to establishment Democratic party circles…….."

Reuters 6/15/00 Angus MacSwan "…..The Miami relatives of Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez launched a new bid on Thursday to block the boy from going home to Cuba with his father, asking a U.S. appeals court to reconsider its decision denying Elian a political asylum hearing. The latest legal move will further delay Elian's return to Cuba and a resolution to a saga that turned into a fierce political battle between Cuban President Fidel Castro and Cuban exiles in Miami and has provoked a national debate on U.S. policy toward the communist-ruled island. ……… Coffey said the appeal was based on the fact that the appeals court judges, while not explicitly endorsing the INS decision that Elian should go home with his father, had deferred to its authority as a government agency. A new Supreme Court ruling on a labor case showed that the court did not have to defer, he said. ``They felt they had to stand behind the INS decision. ... Now there are questions on giving deference in these kinds of circumstances. The extension of deference as wrong,'' he said. …….The appeal also insisted that the judges were wrong in their decision that Elian, as a child, did not have a constitutional right to a political asylum hearing. …..Coffey accused the INS of ``gross irregularities'' in its decision-making. The lawyers distributed copies of INS documents and notes they had obtained which they said showed the U.S. government was trying to appease the Castro government rather than acting in the best interests of the child. One handwritten note included the words ``Show Fidel we gave back child.'' ......"

Arkansas Democrat Gazette 6/13/00 Carrie Rengers "….. The federal Trading With the Enemy Act that Congress adopted in 1963 doesn't specifically mention President Fidel Castro as public enemy No. 1, but he was the inspiration for the trade sanctions, travel restrictions and spending limits the act imposes on American relations with Cuba. That didn't keep two members of Arkansas' congressional delegation from acceptng gifts from Castro worth more than the allowed $100 and bringing them into the United States. Berry, Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln and 14 other Arkansans each accepted an autographed box of Cohiba cigars from Castro. ……"It's a situation that you basically don't know what to do, but you do know you're not supposed to be rude,"says Democratic Rep. Marion Berry. He says that's often the case with a gift from a head of state. …..An employee at Costello's Cigars in Lttle Rock says each cigar is worth $25. Each box has 25 cigars for a total value of at least $625. …..Another source associated with the cigar industry says a box of Cohibas autographed by Casto "could easily be sold at Christies' auction for $10,000." …..According to the governing regulation, 31 CFR, Section 515.560, the limit on allowable imported goods is for "a foreign market value not to exceed $100." ……"

Judicial Watch 6/14/00 "….Your help is needed now! The patriots that were harmed in the illegal raid to seize Elian Gonzalez over Easter weekend are in need of your help to defend their rights and hold corrupt government officials like Attorney General Janet Reno personally accountable…….. On April 22nd, over 150 armed government agents attacked and raided the home and persons of Elian Gonzalez' Miami family and neighbors. At the time, dozens of Americans showing their support and gratitude for Elian and his family were gathered outside of the home. These patriotic Americans, present under the shield of the Constitution and gathered in peace were, reminiscent of Nazi Germany, gassed, beaten and abused by armed government agents acting under illegal orders of Attorney General Janet Reno, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner and others, working in collaboration with Communist dictator Fidel Castro. Thanks to our cases, we now have documents proving this Clinton-Gore Administration - Castro collaboration! See www.JudicialWatch.org………..Judicial Watch has formed the Elian Justice Fund to fully support and assist those Americans harmed in this illegal raid through its court litigation against Janet Reno, Eric Holder, Doris Meissner and other corrupt officials in the Clinton-Gore Administration. They must be legally punished so this unconstitutional Nazi-like outrage never happens again in our great country!……"

Newsmax 6/13/00 Jack Thompson "…… Even more disturbing news today out of Miami: It was confirmed today on Spanish-language radio station WWFE (670-AM) that substantial monies raised by the station to secure Elian Gonzalez high-quality legal representation have remained unspent. Today, Dulce Cuetara, one of the three trustees of the the "Elian Legal Defense Fund," called into WWFE to explain what had happened to the funds received to make sure Elian had proper legal help. The trustee said that months ago $210,000 was raised from listener donations, 90 percent of which was in anonymous gifts of $20 or less, many of those $5 or less. To date $40,000 has been spent on expenses, leaving more than $170,000 still sitting in the bank. The trustees say the unspent $170,000 will be given to La Liga Contra Cancer, which helps provide cancer treatment to indigent patients in Miami. ….. That's nice. Should I be so bold to ask a simple question: Did anyone tell the many people who contributed to save Elian, including hard-working immigrants, that their money was going for a cancer cure? ….. The revelation that a substantial war chest has been available for months to retain expert legal counsel, and was never used, is just one more piece of evidence that the Democratic Party hacks who have controlled Uncle Lazaro and the Miami family had no intention of saving the boy. ….."

Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 6/9/00 Luisa Yanez "……The federal agents who carried out the Elián González raid said they were the picture of professionalism, according to an internal Department of Justice report released this week. They uttered no foul words. Used no physical force. Shoved no guns in anyone's face. Used no tear gas. They went in, grabbed the boy and rushed out. Mission accomplished, the report states. But this week, one witness who was inside the house and says he has no stake in the outcome of the Elián case is challenging the veracity of the government's 51-page report on the controversial raid. "It's a pack of lies; a whitewash," said Tony Zumbado, 45, of Miami, the freelance NBC cameraman who ran inside the Little Havana house steps ahead of federal agents who stormed in at 5:15 a.m. April 22. …….."To read the report, you would think this was the most perfect, uneventful mission they ever carried out," said Zumbado, a veteran who has been on numerous police SWAT-team missions. Zumbado said the agents did everything they said they didn't do in their report. ……."The agents were physically and verbally abusive; they said every bad word in the book and kept me from doing my job," said Zumbado, who had become so tied to the story that other reporters had dubbed him "the Mayor of Camp Elián," at the media tent set up across the street from the home of Elián's Miami relatives. Others, including the boy's Miami family, attorneys and supporters who were at the house, have given a version similar to Zumbado's, but they were players in the drama. Zumbado was not. ……"

CNS Senior Staff Writer 6/9/00 Jim Burns "…… CNSNews.com has learned that two Cuban doctors who were abducted in the middle of the night and jailed in Zimbabwe after making a highly publicized appeal for asylum have been granted "refugee status" to come to the United States. A source close to the case tells CNSNews.com, the doctors will be traveling to Nairobi, Kenya "shortly" before they travel to the United States. It is not known when the doctors will be leaving for the United States or their exact destination. Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Pena Martinez, 25, were abducted by Zimbabwe armed soldiers last week and nearly shipped back to Cuba after they requested political asylum at the Canadian embassy in Harare. Zimbabwe authorities, for several days, denied they had detained the doctors. When they finally admitted to seizing the physicians, Zimbabwe officials also admitted they had tried and failed to return the doctors to Cuba. ……."

Washington Times 6/9/00 "…… The Clinton administration has insisted for months it acted independently in its handling of the Elian Gonzalez case. But Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) e-mail recently made public through the courts indicates that the White House was in very close, and probably daily, communication with the Cuban government to discuss the Elian case. Even more potentially damaging to the administration is an INS memo that strongly suggests the government agency first decided to return Elian to Cuba and later sought to find a legal justification for its decision. In other words, U.S. policy with Cuba, rather than the law, would have been the INS' overriding priority. ………..An INS e-mail dated Jan. 19 said, "DOS [Department of State] wants to have a daily conference call to coordinate press guidance and communications with the Cubans." If the INS were simply following U.S. laws, irrespective of the concerns of the Cuban government, then why would daily coordination for communications with the Cubans be necessary? This coordination would hardly seem appropriate if the INS were independently resolving immigration issues related to Elian. …….Meanwhile, an undated INS e-mail memo asks, "What is INS going to say if someone asks why, if the [regulation] didn't really require us to give notice [to Elian's father], we moved forward as we did?" The memo goes on to say, "As noted, it is my view that the [regulation] is clear. INS has no LEGAL obligation to contact the father. The INS may have no legal basis to make a determination on that issue." …"

Massachusetts News 6/13/00 "…….The boy was barely ashore before the Globe began printing large "editorials" on its front page. Only two weeks after his rescue, the paper printed a saccharine four-column piece on page one by a reporter it had dispatched to Cuba. It began this way: ……… "The first-grade classroom at Marcelo Salado Primary School contains a single green desk, on top of which rests a folded Cuban flag, six neatly stacked books, and a pencil holder. A message is taped to the back of the tiny chair: 'Elian, your seat is untouchable.'"…….."

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 6/11/00 Luisa Yanez "……The NBC cameraman who disputed last week the official Department of Justice report on the raid to retrieve Elián González has been invited by immigration officials to tell his side of the story. Veteran cameraman Tony Zumbado, 45, of Miami, who was assigned by the network to camp across the street from the Little Havana home where Elián lived, said he is set to meet with officials at 2 p.m. Tuesday at U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service headquarters in Miami. "I'll tell them whatever they want to know," Zumbado said. "As a witness, I always thought they would talk to me before they issued their report, but they never did." ……. Zumbado, one of the only people inside the house during the raid who did not have a stake in the outcome of the Elián case, is disputing the agents' accounts of their behavior. He called the government's 51-page report "a whitewash." Accompanying Zumbado will be attorneys for NBC, which has filed an official grievance with the federal agency over the treatment its crew received during the April 22 pre-dawn raid. …….. The INS invitation came in the wake of Zumbado's disputing of the agents' claims that they did not manhandle anyone inside the house or use foul language or tear gas. Zumbado said they did all those things. …….Zumbado, one of only two journalists to make it inside the house footsteps ahead of the federal agents, said he was struck in the back, thrown on the ground and kept at gunpoint near the front door, which prevented him from videotaping the dramatic events unfolding inside the house. ……Meanwhile, agents outside the house struck his sound man on the head, he said. ……"

Nano times 6/13/00 Ken Guggenheim AP "…..The number of people who flew directly from the United States to Cuba jumped by almost 50 percent last year as travelers took advantage of eased restrictions aimed at planting democratic seeds on the communist island. Last year, the Clinton administration streamlined procedures for students, athletes, artists and other groups and individuals to visit Cuba. The administration also allowed a greater variety of direct flights, which previously operated only between Miami and Havana. ……."

Miami Herald Online 6/9/00 Chris Gaither Sandra Marquez Garcia "….. The United States agreed Friday to take in two dissident Cuban doctors who were abducted and jailed in Zimbabwe after making a high-profile bid for political asylum, paving the way for their arrival in this country within days, government officials and diplomats said. ……. The decision came after an INS official from Nairobi interviewed the physicians Friday in the Harare prison where they had been detained since Cuban and Zimbabwean officials tried to clandestinely return them to Havana one week earlier. U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, who had been in touch with U.S. officials in Zimbabwe, said he was pleased with the outcome. ''I hope that these two physicians will soon be able to live in freedom.'' The INS move came two days after the United States forcibly repatriated Cuban baseball star Andy Morales, who was among 31 Cubans intercepted at sea. ….."

Judicial Watch 6/9/00 "……Further refuting recent spin by Clinton-Gore Administration spokesmen, additional Clinton-Gore Administration documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, Inc. in its lawsuits show that the Clinton-Gore Administration "collaborated" with Cuba on the Elian Gonzalez matter. Copies of these additional documents are available at Judicial Watch's Internet site at www.judicialwatch.org. …. Just yesterday, the Clinton-Gore Administration turned over a December, 1999 e-mail showing that INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, as part of the most "beneficial" litigation strategy, sought to work with the State Department and the Communist Cuban government to arrange a secret meeting with Juan Miguel Gonzalez - despite evidence that he was being coerced by the Cuban government. Additionally, an undated e-mail produced last week shows that the INS knew it had no legal basis to act on behalf of Juan Miguel Gonzalez. The document states that the "INS is giving him rights in violation of law."………. "When will the Clinton-Gore Administration begin telling the truth about their collaboration with the Castro regime? As part of their 'litigation' strategy, they sought to conspire with Fidel Castro to obtain a secret meeting with Elian's father. The Administrations actions were despicable and contrary to what they had been publicly telling the courts and the American people, " said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton……."

Miami Herald Online 6/9/00 "…… Andy Morales's fame makes him vulnerable to reprisal. The Immigration and Naturalization Service's decision to repatriate Cuban baseball-star Andy Morales, after he and 30 others were stopped in the Florida Straits aboard a smuggler's boat, underscores the muddle that U.S. policy is toward those who seek escape from Cuba. ……… After the overloaded speedboat was stopped by the Coast Guard, an INS officer interviewed each of the 31 Cubans to determine if any met the international test for political asylum: The ability to demonstrate that they fled because of a ``well-founded fear of persecution'' for their political or other views. The INS officer determined that none met that test and thus had to be repatriated. Mr. Morales reportedly gave as a reason for leaving Cuba his desire to play Major League Baseball. That answer, while truthful, flunked him. Yet the odds are high that Mr. Morales will, in fact, suffer for acting on that dream. He is not just any freedom-seeking Cuban; he was the Cuban all-star team's third baseman, a household name whose home run last April helped humiliate the Baltimore Orioles. ……"

Miami Herald Online 6/9/00 Andres Viglucci "….. Embarrassed by the attempted defection of baseball star Andy Morales, the Cuban government Thursday disparaged his talent and suggested his career was in decline, while an agent hired by the athlete's relatives in Miami said the ballplayer may explore legal ways of leaving the island. Morales, meanwhile, arrived home in a small town outside Havana, apparently unscathed but with his personal and professional future very much in doubt. Morales was forcibly repatriated Wednesday by the U.S. Coast Guard after being stopped at sea with 30 other Cubans on board an alleged smuggler's speedboat. Cuban officials insisted that Morales -- the highest-profile athlete turned back to Cuba by U.S. authorities -- would suffer no reprisals, even as a government TV commentator minimized his contributions to Cuban baseball. ……."

AFP 6/10/00 "….. Luxury residence, limousine, bodyguards and private swimming pools are all now part of the daily routine for six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez. Elian, leading the life of Riley with his family and entourage of school friends and a teacher shipped in from Cuba, is waiting for the outcome of appeals court hearings in the United States. The castaway-turned-VIP's high public profile has been curbed since the April 22 armed federal raid in which the boy was wrested from the grip of his Miami relatives. …….. The house was exchanged on May 25 for a more central location at the Rosedale estate in Washington's Cleveland Park area, a 2.6-hectare (6.5-acre) estate, used by the non-profit organization Youth for Understanding International Exchange. The family apparently wanted to be closer to stores, restaurants and other city attractions as well as to their lawyer Greg Craig. ……..Agents follow the limousine back and forth on trips to the tourist attractions made occasionally after classes taught by a kindergarten teacher brought in from Cuba. ….."

NewsMax.com 6/11/00 "…….Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is keeping two defecting Cuban doctors scheduled to come to the U.S in a Zimbabwean prison, diplomatic sources told the Miami Herald. Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Pena Martinez, 25, were due to fly from Harare, Zimbabwe to Nairobi, Kenya yesterday after the U.S. offered the pair refugee status, but thanks to maneuvering by Castro - a close ally of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe - they remain locked up at the Goromonzi detention center, the Herald reported this morning. Yesterday Castro tried to block their departure for the U.S., saying his government would issue them documents valid to travel anywhere in the world - except the United States, sources told the Herald. ……."

Fox News 6/7/00 George Gedda AP "…..The hopes of Cuban baseball star Andy Morales for a major league career in the United States were dashed Wednesday when the Coast Guard repatriated him and 30 others, five days after they were picked up at sea while trying to flee. A U.S. official in Washington said Morales was returned because he did not qualify for political asylum. Morales was among 31 Cubans who were repatriated after being picked up by a Coast Guard cutter last Wednesday near Key West. Two suspected smugglers were turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol, Coast Guard spokesman Robert Suddarth said in Miami. Morales is a 25-year-old third baseman who hit a home run last year in a 12-6 victory by the Cuban national team over the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore. The decision to return the 31 was made by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents who interviewed them. To qualify for admission to the United States, Cubans who attempt to flee must convince the INS they have a credible fear of persecution if they are returned. …….."

Miami Herald 6/6/00 Chris Gaither and Sandra Marquez Garcia "……. A desperate note written by two dissident Cuban doctors is the last trace of two would-be defectors who were reportedly abducted hours before a scheduled asylum interview in Zimbabwe, according to witnesses and diplomatic sources. Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Peña Martinez, 25, members of a Cuban medical assistance mission in Zimbabwe, were taken from their home by armed soldiers in the pre-dawn hours Friday, just days after making international headlines for publicly denouncing Fidel Castro. The hastily written note was slipped into the hand of an Air France employee Friday in Johannesburg, South Africa -- the country next to Zimbabwe -- as security agents attempted to force the doctors aboard a Paris-bound jet with a connection to Havana. Diplomats believe the two were returned to Zimbabwe after Air France refused to board the distraught doctors, who threatened to kill someone if placed on a plane back to Cuba. ……"

foxnews.com 6/2/00 Ed Asman "…… Too much Elian? Yes, I know. A lot of you are sick of the subject. But the case just keeps chugging along, and it really is high drama that forces us to focus in on subjects fundamental to our way of life: the right of a father to speak for his young child; or equally important, the question of whether a father who subjects his child to the will of a tyrant is being abusive. Or simply the haunting imagery of a mother's self-sacrifice and Elian's miraculous survival at sea ...... Not that there aren't some silly moments to all this. Like a president impeached for flouting the law invoking the sanctity of "rule of law" to make his case for sending a refugee back to a Communist dictatorship. Some of the most ridiculous comments of all, however, have come from members of my own trade: journalists who have simplified the conflict into a straight-forward custody battle, as if Elian were being asked to move from Miami to Cincinnati. ……"

Miami Herald Online 6/6/00 Jay Lefkowitz "……. Thursday's decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a bitter disappointment to those of us who wished for freedom for Elián González. Yet when Elián is finally dragged back to communist Cuba, as now seems inevitable, it won't be the fault of the three judges who handed down the ruling. Rather, as their opinion makes clear, the blame lies with President Clinton and his administration. ......... The court's unanimous decision to defer to an executive-branch agency -- even one whose policies and procedures that court clearly was skeptical of -- shows that judicial restraint is alive and well, even after nearly eight years of liberal judicial appointments. And despite the tragic consequences for Elián, in the long run Americans will be better served by a judiciary that generally defers to the decisions of the political branches and the specialized agencies that, unlike federal judges, politically are accountable. ……"

NewsMax.com 6/7/00 "……Some Clinton-Gore Administration documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, Inc. in one of its lawsuits show that the Clinton-Gore Administration "collaborated" with Cuba on the Elian Gonzalez matter. Other documents show that Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Commissioner Doris Meissner planned the January, 2000 visit of the Elian's grandmothers in consultation with Cuba and that INS knew that they could not seize Elian without a court order. Meissner also sought to hide the INS' role in orchestrating the Cuban grandmothers' visit. Copies of these documents are available at Judicial Watch's Internet site at www.judicialwatch.org. ……… "These 'smoking gun' documents help prove what we've suspected - that the Clinton-Gore Administration was doing the bidding of Fidel Castro when they raided the Gonzalez home using 151 armed federal agents," stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. ….."

Weekly Standard 6/6/00 Christopher Caldwell "…… Last week's 11th Circuit opinion, which effectively resolves the Elián Gonzánlez case and clears the way for young Elián to be sent back to Cuba, leaves us feeling a sickening sort of vindication. At no point in the whole Elián affair were Clinton administration officials "upholding," "obeying," or "abiding by" the rule of law -- to take a mere sampling from the steady stream of cant that accompanied their pronouncements on the issue. They were making it up as they went along. Let us be perfectly clear about what the court ruled. It did not find that the White House was right to send Elián back to Cuba. (Although the president continues to insist, disingenuously, that it did.) No: The court found that the White House had chosen to send Elián back to Cuba by executive fiat, and there was nothing within the bounds of judicial restraint that the court could do to stop it. Elián will soon be on his way back to a totalitarian torture state not because U.S. law requires that outcome, but because the Clinton administration has decided to send him back. ……."

National Review 6/5/00 Jonah Goldberg "….In short, there's not much left to be said, and there's no one left to persuade. Almost every angle's been covered and the American people just don't care. So, Elián will go back to Cuba and everyone will be happy and peppy and bursting with love (what's that from?). Then, when Elián comes back to the United States in fifteen years or so, either on a raft - if Castro's alive - or on an American Airlines daily nonstop - if he's dead - and says "Why did you send me back there?" Americans in huge majorities will say they were against it at the time, etc. Indeed, this reveals the key reason why Bill Clinton will go down in history as a mediocre President. People don't remember the back story or context of a decision, they only remember the decision. ……."

Miami Herald/Wall StreetJournal 6/6/00 Jay Lefkowitz "……Thursday's decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a bitter disappointment to those of us who wished for freedom for Elián González. Yet when Elián is finally dragged back to communist Cuba, as now seems inevitable, it won't be the fault of the three judges who handed down the ruling. Rather, as their opinion makes clear, the blame lies with President Clinton and his administration. The court's unanimous decision to defer to an executive-branch agency -- even one whose policies and procedures that court clearly was skeptical of -- shows that judicial restraint is alive and well, even after nearly eight years of liberal judicial appointments. And despite the tragic consequences for Elián, in the long run Americans will be better served by a judiciary that generally defers to the decisions of the political branches and the specialized agencies that, unlike federal judges, politically are accountable. ……."

Miami Herald 6/6/00 Ana Acle Jay Weaver "….. An attorney for the Miami relatives of Elián González has asked -- once again -- for a private meeting with the Cuban boy and his father, this time directing the request to attorney Gregory Craig. Reacting to comments Craig made on ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel, suggesting that reunion requests go through him, the relatives' attorney, Linda Osberg-Braun, wrote Friday: ``As you know, the González family in the United States loves Elián deeply and wishes to see him and spend some time with him. Although they have their differences with Juan Miguel [González], he is certainly family, and it would be beneficial to Elián for the families to meet and mend their problems. …..``We have repeatedly requested a meeting in every way possible, and in our view, we have been rejected. Nonetheless, please consider this letter another formal request.'' ……"

Miami Herald 6/7/00 Elaine DeValle "….. The Associated Press has decided not to authorize the use of its now-famous photograph of the federal raid that whisked Elián González from his relatives' Little Havana home by a Miami radio station that wanted to put the image on billboards across the United States. The image of an armed agent pointing his gun in the direction of the 6-year-old rafter and Donato Dalrymple -- one of two men who found him in the ocean Nov. 25 -- was to be accompanied by quotes from Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson in a campaign called ``Wake Up America'' aimed at swaying sentiment against the federal action. ….."

NewsMax.com 6/8/00 Carl Limbacher "…… The photo of a Clinton administration Border Patrol agent pointing a machine gun at little Elian Gonzalez as he cowers in Donato Dalrymple's arms is one of the most dramatic and revealing images in the history of photojournalism. So why is the American media behaving like it wishes Associated Press cameraman Alan Diaz never snagged the shot? …….. The day after the April 22 raid, major news operations like The New York Times, The Daily News, Newsweek, Time and others refused to run the sure-fire Pulitzer prize winner on their covers. …… Now a Miami radio station wants to put the photo on billboards across America as part of its "Wake up America" ad campaign; a public relations effort aimed heightening awareness about the brutality of the Easter weekend assault. But the AP is balking, telling campaign organizers that they want to "remain neutral." ……."

The Hill 6/7/00 Betsy Rothstein "…… House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) is continuing to push ahead with a low-intensity investigation of Attorney General Janet Reno's Miami raid in the wake of a three-judge panel's decision last week not to grant asylum to Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez. Judiciary Committee Democrats, meanwhile, believe the investigation is Hyde's way of seeking to avoid high-profile hearings he doesn't want, while appeasing the GOP leadership and other Republicans who don't want the boy returned to Cuba. "..."

Associated Press 6/7/00 "……City police officers created obstacles for federal agents planning to seize 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez and were considered a risk to the operation, according to an Immigration and Naturalization Service official. Miami police were deemed an ``assessed risk'' when INS agents stormed the home of Elian's Miami relatives on April 22, according to an INS memo described in Wednesday's Miami Herald. The May 4 report to INS headquarters from Robert Wallis, the agency's district director, said Miami police once used emergency lights and radios to alert Elian supporters that federal agents were in the six-block barricaded area surrounding Elian's home. At night, ``vehicles were often positioned directly behind barricades to deny vehicle entry'' and ``barrier locations were moved and access to additional streets was periodically denied until police commanders made adjustments,'' Wallis wrote. …… Wallis said the support of a local authority - whose name was deleted from the memo - was key to the success of the operation that removed Elian from the Little Havana neighborhood and reunited him with his father in Washington. …….Otherwise, ``local police would likely have impeded federal attempts to enter the subject area,'' Wallis wrote. ….."

Washington Post 6/8/00 Karen De Young "….. Two Cuban doctors who disappeared last week in Zimbabwe after announcing they planned to defect were visited yesterday by a U.N. representative at a prison outside the Zimbabwean capital of Harare, U.N. officials said. ……U.N. officials said the Zimbabwean government had told them where to find the men but had offered no explanation for their detention or comment on allegations they had been kidnapped by Zimbabwean security officials acting in concert with Cuban diplomats.......The Cuban government, in a statement issued yesterday through the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, said it was "not responsible" for the two doctors. It said they had decided to "renounce their legal status, becoming illegal aliens" in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean government was in charge of the situation, the statement said, "because the doctors refused the assistance of the Cuban diplomatic mission" there......."

Washington times 6/8/00 Tom Carter "….. The Clinton administration coordinated strategy with "the Cubans" - presumably the Castro government - to return Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, newly obtained documents revealed yesterday. …….The documents, obtained by the public interest group Judicial Watch under a Freedom of Information Act request and subsequent court order, reveal:

• The State Department sought to work with "the Cubans" - presumably the Castro government -in how to manage the way the incident would be reported in U.S. newspapers and on television.
• INS Commissioner Doris M. Meissner ordered that discussions with Cuba on the grandmothers' visit continue "with the understanding that INS would not be involved."
• That the INS, to avoid official involvement, sought through contacts in Miami and Cuba to have representatives of the Catholic Church take on a public role as an intermediary.
Three months after the grandmothers' visit in late January, the Justice Department seized the boy from his relatives' Miami home in an April 22 predawn raid…….. "These smoking-gun documents prove what we've suspected all along, that the Clinton-Gore administration was doing the bidding of Fidel Castro when it raided the Gonzalez home using 151 armed federal agents," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch……."

NewsMax.com 6/8/00 "…The two Cuban doctors who tried to defect, then were abducted by gun-toting soldiers and almost sent home to Cuba, have been found locked in cells in a Zimbabwe detention camp, the Miami Herald reported this morning. Leonel Córdova Rodríguez, 31, and Noris Peña Martínez, 25, were unharmed and locked up in separate cells at the Goromonzi Remand Center, about 18 miles from Harare, a United Nations spokesman told the Herald. After denying knowledge of their whereabouts for several days, Zimbabwe government authorities finally permitted a U.N. observer to meet for about an hour with the two doctors, both of whom had requested political asylum. ……. As reported in NewsMax Tuesday, the two would-be defectors were rousted from their beds in a pre-dawn raid by armed Zimbabwean soldiers, taken to the airport and flown to nearby Johannesburg, South Africa, where Zimbabwean and Cuban agents attempted to put them aboard a Paris-bound flight with a connection to Havana. …..After the doctors threatened to kill someone if they were forced to board the plane, the Air France captain refused to board them. They were then flown back to Harare and put in the detention camp. ......"

Associated Press 6/8/00 Jesse Holland "……. A Senate committee subpoenaed Attorney General Janet Reno on Thursday seeking all documents concerning the federal raid in Miami to seize 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, and announced plans to subpoena the State Department as well. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (news - web sites) said the Justice Department has yet to turn over all of its e-mails and documents regarding its decision in April to storm the home of the Cuban boy's Miami relatives to recover the boy for his father, Juan Miguel. ``We want everything so if hearings aren't justified, we won't hold them,'' said Hatch, R-Utah. ``If they are, we will.'' ......... Hatch also called for a State Department subpoena after a conservative group claimed the government collaborated with Cuba's government during the fight over Elian. ……. ``I believe this modification is warranted so as to inform the Congress and the public of any involvement by the State Department and the Cuban government in the raid,'' Hatch said. ``If there was no such involvement, let's establish that. We will all be better served by getting the facts out.'' ….."

WorldNetDaily 6/8/00 Julie Foster "…..The Clinton administration collaborated with Cuba in the Elian Gonzalez matter, according to government documents obtained by Judicial Watch. ……."These 'smoking gun' documents help prove what we've suspected -- that the Clinton-Gore administration was doing the bidding of Fidel Castro when they raided the Gonzalez home using 151 armed federal agents," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. ………Additionally, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner expressly orchestrated the visit of Elian's grandmothers. Another message, dated Jan. 15, shows Meissner planned the January 2000 in consultation with Cuba, and that INS knew it could not seize Elian without a court order. Meissner also sought to hide the agency's role in the visit. "We spent a great deal of time discussing how the grandmothers' visit could be facilitated," the email reads. "The conclusion reached was that INS cannot assume the role of facilitator for this visit nor provide access to Elian. DM [Doris Meissner] was FIRM (sic) about not having any INS involvement in this initiative. If our conversations in Cuba can proceed with the understanding that INS would not be involved, then DM would be most interested in hearing more about this idea." ……."

WorldNetDaily 6/8/00 Julie Foster "…..But the INS memo clearly shows the agency was indeed involved in making the visit happen and that it even used the Catholic Church in the process. "Our contacts in Miami believe that the Catholic Church in Miami would respond to a direct (via Cardinal Ortego) request from the grandmothers for the church's assistance in scheduling a visit," wrote INS employee Janelle Jones in what she prescripts as a summary of a meeting with Meissner. "Miami's advice was to have the grandmothers use Cardinal Ortega's office to make contact with either Cardinal Law or Archbishop Favalora in Miami. Such a plea coming from the grandmothers would be very difficult for the church to ignore. Absent a direct request from the family, no one thinks the Miami church will get involved," Jones continued. ……"

Associated Press 6/8/00 Jesse Holland "……A Senate committee is considering subpoenaing Attorney General Janet Reno for e-mails and other documents relating to the federal raid on Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives to determine whether congressional hearings are necessary. …… Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee's ranking Democrat, said a subpoena would be just a ploy to explain why there haven't been any hearings on the controversy over the 6-year-old Cuban boy. Republicans ``would much rather talk about hearings than hold hearings,'' Leahy said, noting that the Justice Department already has turned over ``huge number of things that haven't even been read yet.'' …….."

herald.com 6/8/00 "….. U.S. Coast Guard crews repatriated 42 immigrants to Cuba today, including baseball player Andy Morales, who was reportedly seeking asylum. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo repatriated the 42 immigrants, who were from three separate groups intercepted on the high seas over the weekend, to Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba at 10 a.m. today. A Washington government official said Morales was returned because he did not meet the requirements for political asylum. ……".

Washington Times 6/9/00 Wes Pruden "….. Everybody got a piece of little Elian Gonzalez. There's less to send back to Fidel Castro than there used to be. Fidel got a live trophy, seized from the toothless Uncle Sugar. Bill Clinton got an assurance that Fidel won't flood Florida with robbers and rapists from his prisons, sinking Al Gore the way he sank Gov. Bill Clinton in Arkansas an eon or two ago…….. Greg Craig, who is but two ambulances short of a shyster, got a high-profile client, even if he did have to mooch his fee from Democratic fat cats in Georgetown after the National Council of Churches, a refuge of dying congregations with empty pews, was forced by internal outrage to balk at coughing up the dough. The odious Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, all bosom and bombast bereft of a pulpit to call her own, got an unexpected 15 minutes of fame for her part in dispatching little Elian back to her favorite satrapy, where he won't eat nearly as well as she does………Just when it looked like this sordid episode couldn't get any smarmier, it did. Government memoranda and e-mail unearthed by court order (thanks to Judicial Watch) reveal in stark detail just how desperate Bill Clinton, the State Department and the Clinton kiddie corps are to kiss Fidel where the flies are thickest. These internal documents reveal how the U.S. government "coordinated" with Fidel the strategy for sending Elian home, even the timing of the litigation, and how it tried to maneuver the Catholic Church into taking the heat for the betrayal of Elian. And finally, how the Clinton administration colluded with Fidel Castro over how to manage U.S. newspaper and television coverage of the incident - to give "guidance." A generation ago, a suggestion that a presidential administration was trying to "manage" the news caused an uproar that ruined the reputations of decent men. Now we shall see how the mavens of the American media, who have given standing ovations to Janet Reno for her politically correct mismanagement of the Elian affair, will react to the news that the Clinton administration sought the assistance of Fidel in pulling their strings……"

Washington Times 6/9/00 "……The Clinton administration has insisted for months it acted independently in its handling of the Elian Gonzalez case. But Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) e-mail recently made public through the courts indicates that the White House was in very close, and probably daily, communication with the Cuban government to discuss the Elian case. Even more potentially damaging to the administration is an INS memo that strongly suggests the government agency first decided to return Elian to Cuba and later sought to find a legal justification for its decision. In other words, U.S. policy with Cuba, rather than the law, would have been the INS' overriding priority……."

Washington Times 6/9/00 "……An INS e-mail dated Jan. 19 said, "DOS [Department of State] wants to have a daily conference call to coordinate press guidance and communications with the Cubans." If the INS were simply following U.S. laws, irrespective of the concerns of the Cuban government, then why would daily coordination for communications with the Cubans be necessary? ……."

Washington Times 6/9/00 "……Meanwhile, an undated INS e-mail memo asks, "What is INS going to say if someone asks why, if the [regulation] didn't really require us to give notice [to Elian's father], we moved forward as we did?" The memo goes on to say, "As noted, it is my view that the [regulation] is clear. INS has no LEGAL obligation to contact the father. The INS may have no legal basis to make a determination on that issue." (Emphasis in original.) The memo also noted that the INS should quickly move forward on finding appropriate answers to potentially meddlesome legal questions. "…….Apparently the INS was more concerned about how to cover itself in the media than abiding by the law. It should go without saying that the INS ought to have considered the legal questions first rather than how to "spin them" with the Cubans. The very fact that the agency pondered these legal questions retroactively suggests that another factor, presumably U.S. relations with Cuba, was the primary concern……."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 6/9/00 Tom Carter "….A Senate Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department Thursday for documents on the seizure of Elian Gonzalez in an attempt to determine whether the Clinton administration worked with the Cuban government to return the boy to his father. The move by the Senate Judiciary Committee followed the release of documents by the public-interest group Judicial Watch showing numerous contacts between the administration and the government of Fidel Castro concerning the fate of the 6-year-old child……… "Given the importance of this issue and the history of the administration concerning the production of e-mails, campaign finance and Waco documents, I believe it is prudent to vote for this subpoena," said committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican……"

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 6/9/00 Tom Carter "….Maria Cardona, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department's Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) denied that there had been any coordination with the Cuban government over Elian's fate. "As we do with any other case that involves more than one agency, these e-mails were talking about all communication going through official channels, which in this case was the State Department," Miss Cardona said. "It was in no way, shape or form about coordinating with the Cuban government. We are not in the habit of coordinating anything with governments with which we do not have diplomatic relations," she said………A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, was livid over a report in Wednesday's editions of The Washington Times, which quoted a Jan. 19 e-mail message from an INS official. The message, titled: "Re: Daily conference calls re: Elian," says "[Department of State] wants to have a daily conference call to coordinate press guidance and communications with the Cubans." The message shows regular contact between Washington and Havana prior to a January visit by Elian's two grandmothers to the United States……."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 6/9/00 Tom Carter "….The passions ignited by the Elian saga flared again Thursday after the INS returned Cuban baseball star Andy Morales, who along with 30 other Cubans was picked up by the Coast Guard off Key West, Fla., on May 31. U.S. officials returned the 25-year-old third baseman - known in the United States for once hitting a home run in an exhibition game with the Baltimore Orioles - on Wednesday after determining that he did not qualify for political asylum. Miss Cardona, the INS spokeswoman, said the refugees on Mr. Morales' boat were all given a chance to claim credible fear of persecution - the litmus test for political asylum - but did not meet that threshold. "This group was handled no differently than anyone else. There is no new policy," she said……."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 6/9/00 Tom Carter "….Meanwhile, Judicial Watch released another batch of documents Thursday, one of which detailed an attempt by the INS to arrange a secret meeting between U.S. officials and Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, in Cuba. A Dec. 29 memo on a meeting of INS officials says: "The meeting concluded with discussion of re-scripting questions; calling on the [State Department] to discuss whether further signals could be sent to the Cuban government that they should cooperate with the interview."…….. At the time, U.S. officials had already interviewed Juan Miguel Gonzalez once at his home in Cardenas, Cuba, and determined that he was a fit parent for Elian. The INS then sought a second interview after Elian's Miami relatives had charged Cuban authorities with pressuring Juan Miguel Gonzalez to seek custody of his son. The memo discusses an optimal "litigation" strategy and proposes that the Cuban government "be advised that the U.S. government would not disclose to anyone that an additional interview would take place."…….."

Fort Worth Star Telegram 6/2/00 Bill Thompson "….. The Miami relatives of Elián González have vowed to fight on. These folks are goofy, but let's give them high marks for tenacity. They bring to mind the underdog in a boxing match I watched on television a few weeks back. The guy was trying to wrest a title from one of those big-deal champs who fires sledgehammer jabs and hit-by-a-truck uppercuts; the challenger lost the fight but won plaudits for his willingness to take a beating. So. Let's hear it for Lazaro González, Marisleysis González, et al., who endure knockdown after knockdown and eagerly bounce up from the canvas and stick out their collective chin as the U.S. government winds up to throw one more devastating punch. ……"

CBSNEWS.com 6/3/00 Dick Meyer "….. CBS News has obtained an unreleased government "After-Action Report" on the U.S. Border Patrol's dramatic, pre-dawn operation to seize custody of Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives on April 22. The report contains detailed, moment-by-moment descriptions of the actions of all six Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) team members who carried out "Operation Reunion." The key "debriefing results" contained in the report were:
* "No one on the team threatened to shoot anyone during the operation."
* "Team members made no threats to use force against anyone in the home."
* "Marysleysis Gonzalez was not touched in any way during the operation."
* "No force was required to remove Elian Gonzalez from Donato Dalrymple's arms."
* "No team member struck anyone with a weapon during the operation."
* "The fire selector lever on the MP-5 depicted in photographs (of a Border patrol agent, Elian, and Dalrymple in the bedroom closet area)...is positively in the safe position. It is virtually impossible to fire the weapon inadvertently or purposely with the selector in the safe position."..."

Insight Magazine 6/2/00 Henry Mark Holzer "…… Unfortunately, my former client Walter Polovchak retains the title of "The Littlest Defector," thanks to yesterday's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which unanimously upheld the INS' rejection of Elian Gonzalez's asylum application. …….But of everything that can be said about Elian Gonzalez's story, the most important point is what the decision of the 11th Circuit says not only about Elian's rights, but about the rights of all of us in the 21st century's administrative state to which the courts slavishly defer. Federal law provides that "(a)ny alien ... may apply for asylum." Since Elian is "any alien," the syllogism's logical conclusion is that "Elian may apply for asylum." But in the world of Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, the INS, anti-anticommunism, and the 11th Circuit, logic is subordinate to what the court's opinion called "... well-established principles of statutory construction, judicial restraint, and deference to executive agencies..." In part, logic was too formidable for the 11th Circuit, which recognized Elian could apply for asylum: "The important legal question in this case, therefore, is not whether (Elian) may apply for asylum; that a six-year-old is eligible to apply for asylum is clear." But there was more: "The ultimate inquire ... is whether a six-year-old child has applied for asylum within the meaning of the statute when he, or a non-parental relative on his behalf, signs and submits a purported application against the express wishes of the child's parent." In other words, Elian could apply, but since he was only 6, how could he apply? The court said the statute doesn't say how: "(t)he statute includes no definition of the term 'apply.'" This, according to the court, is a "gap" (the court's word) in the statute, and even though it is the duty of the courts, not administrative agencies, to interpret the law, the INS has the power the fill the "gap" with its own interpretation: "The INS, in its discretion, decided to require six-year-old children - who arrive unaccompanied in the United States from Cuba - to act in immigration matters only through (absent special circumstances) their parents in Cuba." As to the INS' conclusion that no "special circumstances" were presented even though Elian's father lived in a "communist-totalitarian" state, the court held that conclusion not unreasonable even while expressly acknowledging "as a widely-accepted truth, that Cuba does violate human rights and fundamental freedoms and does not guarantee the rule of law to people living in Cuba." The court's "restraint" and "deference" to the INS was not limited to allowing the agency to fill in the "gap: to a federal statute. It extended to an across-the-board ruling that the agency had acted "reasonably" in rejecting Elian's own application, in dismissing Lazaro Gonzalez's application on the boy's behalf, in concluding that Elian's father was not being coerced by Castro, in deciding that Elian's asylum application lacked merit, in making a preliminary negative assessment of Elian's asylum claim without interviewing him, in not accepting Elian's fears of persecution were he returned to Cuba. ….. "

Miami Herald 6/3/00 Jay Weaver Ana Acle "…..Despite a plea from Elián González's father to let him and his son return to Cuba, the boy's great-uncle in Miami said Friday he will challenge a major federal court loss in the hope of keeping the 6-year-old in the United States. Lázaro González said he has every intention of appealing Thursday's ruling by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with the federal government's decision not to hear Elián's political asylum application. ''Of course, I'm going to appeal,'' González told The Herald, saying he must meet with his lawyers in a few days to decide the next legal move. Then he joked: ''That's the secret of warfare.'' ……"

AP 6/5/00 "……The armed Border Patrol agent photographed confronting a frightened Elian Gonzalez during the April raid in Miami says ``I never purposely pointed my weapon'' at the 6-year-old Cuban boy or rescuer Donato Dalrymple who was holding him. The agent said Dalrymple voluntarily released Elian ``without any sort of a struggle'' as the agent put his hand ``firmly against Mr. Dalrymple's chest'' to control his movements, according to Justice Department documents released Monday. An Associated Press photograph of the goggled, fatigue-clad agent holding an MP-5 submachine gun prompted many who sympathized with the boy's Miami relatives to criticize the raid as an excessive show of force. The relatives said they were terrorized by the raid. ……"

EtherZone 6/1/00 Eric McClam AP "…A federal appeals court sided with Elian Gonzalez's father today in the 6-month-old international custody battle, ruling that immigration officials were entitled to deny an asylum hearing for the Cuban boy. Under the ruling, Elian must remain in the United States for 14 days to give his Miami relatives a chance to appeal…… The judges, however, denied a motion by Elian's father to replace the boy's great-uncle Lazaro in the asylum case. Had the judge granted the motion, Juan Miguel Gonzalez would have been able to drop the asylum request and take him home to Cuba. …… Today's 33-page unanimous ruling affirms a lower court decision that the INS acted properly in rejecting the asylum application, filed on behalf of Elian by his Miami relatives. The judges ruled that because no federal law directly applied to the case, the INS was required to come up with a policy dealing with "the extraordinary circumstances of asylum applications filed on behalf of a 6-year-old child." The judges said it is up to the INS - not the courts - to determine the best policy….."

TBO.com 6/1/00 Mildrade Cherfils "….MIAMI (AP) - Protesters yelled, screamed and cried today outside the Little Havana home where Elian Gonzalez once lived after a court issued a ruling that could lead to the boy's return to Cuba. Some in the growing crowd of about 100 fell to the ground sobbing after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision was announced in Atlanta. One woman vomited. Another fainted and had to be treated by paramedics. "The constitution is dead," said Roxana Rodriguez, a secretary. "There is no justice. Democracy and freedom have been thrown to the trash." But many called for calm, noting that the decision could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. ….."

NewsMax.com 5/14/00 Lawrence Auster "…..The armed seizure of Elian Gonzalez was not only a lawless act of tyranny by the Clinton government, it was an announcement, for those with eyes to see, of the beginning of an age of tyranny in America. It is a tyranny that has been taking shape imperceptibly and informally over many years, but now is becoming so blatant and systematic that it virtually amounts to a new - if unofficial - form of government. …….. Under this regime, the executive, liberated from the Constitution and from any fear of genuine political opposition, does whatever it feels like doing, from character assassination campaigns against witnesses and prosecutors to missile attacks on foreign aspirin factories to the terror bombing of foreign civilian populations, while the major media, functioning in effect as a state organ, shapes an ignorant and malleable public into agreement with whatever the executive is doing. ……

NewsMax.com 5/14/00 Lawrence Auster "…..This is especially easy when the dissident is not a public figure but simply some poor slob whom fate has placed in the path of the left. Since the legions of the politically correct do not regard such a person as a human being like themselves, they don't have to observe even minimal decency toward him. …….. This may sound extreme, but experience is bearing it out. Just as property owners had no intrinsic value in the eyes of the Bolsheviks, and just as Jews had no intrinsic human value in the eyes of the Nazis, anyone who doesn't dance to the tune of America's dominant left has no intrinsic human value. …….. These are some of the thoughts triggered by The Washington Post's front-page hit job against Donato Dalrymple four days after machine-gun-toting INS agents grabbed Elian Gonzalez from his arms. ………I won't go into the details of this unbelievably filthy piece of "journalism," which has been adequately discussed elsewhere. What I want to emphasize here is what the article tells us about the liberals' devotion to the "little people." ……..But as soon as the little people are unfortunate enough to find themselves on the other side of an issue from the left, they become inconveniences to be swept aside. Their very insignificance - their relative lack of success in life, their lack of sophistication and media savvy, their quirks, their immaturities, even their very innocence - becomes the means the left uses to isolate and humiliate them. ……"

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 29 5/3/00 Peter Kornbluh "……Shortly after the CIA's botched paramilitary invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, President John F. Kennedy established a commission to investigate the failure and to consider whether the United States should conduct similar covert operations in the future……… It was not until December 1999 that the National Security Archive learned the reason for the hold-up: The Pentagon had simply lost the report. The Archive immediately requested the document under Mandatory Declassification Review, and the multi-agency declassification process, normally subject to a long, grinding backlog, began anew. This time, thanks to the expeditious efforts of officials at the National Archives and Records Administration, the report was declassified in less than four months, an astonishing achievement for a process that under normal circumstances requires years of patience. The National Security Archive can remember no other case where the concurrence of multiple agencies -- illustrated by the dates of the "Declass" stamps adorning the cover pages of each document -- was gathered so quickly. ……."

Miami Herald Online 5/13/00 Paul Brinkley-Rogers "……An INS spokesman said that arrest attempts rarely approach the paramilitary intensity of the raid on the Gonzalez home in Little Havana…….. But advocates for immigration rights say the scene was rare only in that it involved Cubans, who are not usually the target of enforcement actions by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Elsewhere, such tactics are increasingly common, the advocates say, the result of a decade of congressional actions that have turned the INS into the federal government's largest law enforcement agency. Boasting more armed agents with arrest powers -- 16,552 -- than any other federal agency, the INS now surpasses the Bureau of Prisons (12,587 agents), the FBI (11,285) and U.S. Customs (10,359) for firepower……."

Washington Weekly 5/8/00 Edward Zehr "……The Justice Department informed the 11th Circuit Court early last week that a social worker would be selected to visit Elian Gonzalez, the six-year-old Cuban refugee boy whom they had abducted at gunpoint and are presently holding incommunicado at the remote Wye River complex in Maryland. The boy will also be visited twice weekly by a child psychiatrist. The social worker and shrink are to evaluate Elian's present condition and report on it to their superiors who will then issue a status report to the court. And who was designated to select the social worker and the psychiatrist? Why, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), of course -- the same organization that provided the masked, machine gun toting thugs who illegally snatched the boy from the home of his Miami relatives. The INS is tasked to report the findings to the court (with complete objectivity, of course). You will no doubt be relieved to know that, according to the initial evaluation, everything is just dandy. ......"

Washington Weekly 5/8/00 Edward Zehr "……Do you really think the public will get the point? They have been almost as heavily sedated with propaganda as young Elian has been tranquilized with drugs. One of my most faithful readers recently sent me an e-mail wondering why there should be any question as to who should have custody of Elian. After all, this is purely a matter between a father and his son. And a relative of mine asked: "How can a foreign government have jurisdiction when it comes to something so basic as the right of a father to his child - however horrible the father may seem?" ……… Now these are all fine people and intelligent as well. But where did they get the notion that a father holds absolute chattel rights over his offspring, regardless of his fitness as a parent? That isn't the law and it certainly is not the way a family court would view this situation, even if it involved only American citizens in a custody battle for the father's illegitimate offspring. On top of that the point is mooted by the fact that the Cuban government, not the father, will have custody of Elian if and when he returns to his native country. ……. The fact that Elian was born out of wedlock, 2 1/2 years after Juan Gonzalez, the putative father, had divorced the mother, has been discretely slid under the carpet by our propaganda media. The fact that the father has never contributed to the boy's upkeep would weigh heavily against him in a custody battle. And the testimony of an eyewitness that Juan had physically abused the mother, sending her to the hospital, would probably be disqualifying if corroborated. In fact, it would doubtless carry considerable weight even if it were not corroborated......."

Washington Weekly 5/8/00 Edward Zehr "……so why doesn't the Clinton administration allow the law to take its course instead of employing police state tactics more appropriate to the Third Reich or a novel by George Orwell? The answer seems obvious -- if the administration allowed the law to take its course they would probably lose. The situation is very much as Alan Dershowitz depicted the legal implications of the raid on the Gonzalez residence: "They [the government] had a very easy remedy here. They could have gone to a court [and] got a court order, held the family in contempt. If the family refused to leave, then they could have gotten a warrant and arrested family members who were in contempt of court. ...They couldn't have because the family was not breaking the law." ………. "Only a Court Order Can Direct a Citizen. Nobody has an obligation in this country to listen to the executive. The executive, whether it's the president or the INS, has no authority over citizens of this country." ……… "You need a court order to tell a citizen of this country to respond to the INS. And it establishes a terrible precedent for Janet Reno or any other member of the administration to set deadlines, to give orders. Citizens do not have an obligation to obey the executive. They have an obligation to obey court orders." ......... "...the 11th Circuit wanted to decide, and that's exactly why the 11th Circuit ordered him to stay in the United States, and that's exactly why they didn't seek a court order, because they knew they wouldn't get one." ……….That is a pretty damning declaration coming from one of the president's most ardent defenders during last year's impeachment proceedings. He tells us in effect that the president is acting outside the law, indeed he shows absolute contempt for the law. And nobody lifts a finger to do anything about it. ……"

Washington Weekly 5/8/00 Edward Zehr "……Yes, but that's not all. There remains the question of why they took the law into their own hands, as well as the question of how they are getting away with it. Answering the second question first, this is what happens when the rule of law is flouted. Last year Derschowitz thought that it would be okay if the law were circumvented just a little, horrible bit in the matter of Clinton's impeachment because "it was only about sex," after all. Of course, it wasn't, but even if it had been, the effect of giving Clinton a pass when he had obviously committed perjury, a felony, was to immunize him from having to obey the law, in effect placing him above the law. It will probably embolden others who succeed him to ignore the law as well, thereby making a dead letter of the impeachment process, one of the most basic safeguards in the system of checks and balances set up by the founding fathers when they framed the Constitution. ...... Thus the good intentions of those who set out to give Bill a break last year has paid off in terms of unintended consequences already, and the end is not in sight……."

4/17/00 The Weekly Standard Tucker Carlson "…… In 1975, the National Council of Churches, an organization of about 30 mainline religious denominations, published an informational pamphlet entitled Cuba: People-Questions. Written in perfect irony-free Albanian-farm-report prose, the pamphlet offers church members a short history of U.S.-Cuban relations. ……Thankfully, the pamphlet explains, the Cuban people "overwhelmed the invaders" at the Bay of Pigs, and so allowed Fidel Castro to continue providing "free or virtually free" health care and education. "Later on the leaders are to call that socialism. The poor people call it great." ……. The pamphlet goes on to mock the thousands of penniless refugees who have fled Castro's regime, dismissing them as plutocrats "disgruntled with the equalization process" who have since been "ëliberated' from their positions of wealth." It applauds the "guerrilla and other grass roots movements" around the world that are "drawing courage from Cuba." It ends with this paragraph: ...... The Cuban people, as well as Fidel, have always made careful distinctions between the U.S. government, which they oppose, and the U.S. people, with whom they feel an affinity. In short, the Cubans think their revolution is proceeding apace-and it is the American revolution that is in trouble. It is their fond hope that as U.S. citizens prepare to commemorate the bicentennial of 1776, a new spirit will put them more in touch with their roots. . . .and with reality. ……."

AP Breaking via MyRightStart.com 5/28/00 Anita Snow "…… Lawmakers and rice farmers from Arkansas began a trip to Cuba Sunday aimed at making agricultural contacts on this communist island and showing support for a partial lifting of a U.S. trade embargo. "We're anxious to see how we can provide products and open up trade with Cuba," U.S. Sen. Blanche Lambert Lincoln, a Democrat, said upon arriving Sunday night in Havana…."

AP Breaking via MyRightStart.com 5/29/00 Anita Snow "…..If the most famous child in Cuba returns to his homeland, he is likely to slip in quietly without the crowds, the cheers and the media frenzy of his time in the United States. Very few people are expected to get a glimpse of Elian Gonzalez, the first-grader lionized here as the "boy hero," the "symbolic child," the beloved "elfin prince." A national campaign that plastered the 6-year-old's face across billboards, placards and T-shirts will probably fade overnight. ……. Months ago, President Fidel Castro promised there would be no street celebrations, no parades. Foreign correspondents have been warned they will be lucky to see Elian's plane if his father wins permission from U.S. courts to bring his son home. ……"

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 5/30/00 Dave Boyer "…..House approval of permanent trade relations with China is just one more complication for another thorny trade question that Congress has postponed until after its Memorial Day recess - exports to Cuba. Politicians from agricultural districts have been gaining votes in their battle against anti-communist factions in their effort to lift the 40-year ban on sales of food and medicine to Cuba. The House will debate the issue as part of the agriculture appropriations bill after it returns June 6. Some observers say it will be more difficult for Republican leaders to argue against lifting the Cuba sanctions when the same lawmakers worked hard to assure normalized trade with China, also a communist nation. That happened last Wednesday……."

Miami Herald 5/30/00 "…….U.S. immigration official Mariano Faget, accused of revealing secrets to a friend with ties to Cuba, was found guilty on espionage charges by a federal jury this afternoon. Faget also was convicted on charges of disregarding his oath of secrecy for personal gain. Jurors deliberated about three hours last Thursday, were off Friday and Monday, and resumed deliberations this morning. Faget, 54, a high-level Immigration and Naturalization Service veteran with an otherwise unblemished 34-year career, faces up to 10 years in federal prison. Faget admitted he lied to the FBI and that he disclosed classified information without permission - two things that formed the foundation for the government's case. ……"

http://www.hermanos.org/feb24/time.html TIME Magazine October 28, 1996 Volume 148, No. 20 "….."But half a dozen Cuban-American Democrats who raised huge sums for Clinton in 1992 convinced the new President he could win Florida in '96 if he became even more anti-Castro than Ronald Reagan or George Bush had been. ...Senior Clinton aides call the cabal the "core group." It includes Maria Victoria Arias, a Miami lawyer married to Hugh Rodham, the First Lady's brother...Arias telephones Hillary frequently and often sends Clinton clippings from Florida newspapers..." ..."

Granma International (Havana) 5/30/00 "….."Today we enter a new week in the ongoing battle of returing the boy Elian to Cuba, and in the second stage of his unconditional liberation, our people, our people, are preparing with all their hearts, and without fatigue, to combatively bring about the inevitable result: Elian's return to the Motherland and his reunion with all the family members here. Elian is currently surrounded by his father, his little brother Nersy, his teacher, his cousin, his little friends from school, and now, a new member of the family: Sinde, a small dog given by the gentleman proprietor of the estate of Wye Plantation, Maryland, where Elian lived for about a month before his transfer to Rosedale, in Washington, D.C. Elian is adapting, he is learning and although he is a bit distracted, in his child's mind the idea of "are we even going to get back to Cuba?" does not obsess him. ……."

Capital Alert 5/30/00 AP "…..Miami's former police chief used a credit card for a city-funded charity to charge $92,000 in personal expenses over a 32-month period while in office, according to a Miami Herald report Tuesday. Donald Warshaw's charges for clothing, sports tickets, expensive dinners and hotels reportedly showed up on the charity's credit card statements. Federal prosecutors are investigating Warshaw's charges on the charity credit card, in addition to charges on a card he used while chairman of the police department pension fund. …."

Etherzone.com/Washington Post 5/31/00 Sue Anne Pressley "…..Mariano Faget, 54, who came to the United States from Cuba as a teenager and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen, was an acting deputy director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami when he was arrested in February on charges that he revealed secrets to a lifelong friend and business partner with connections to Cuba. ……Faget was the first immigration official ever charged under federal espionage laws. Although he had a high-level security clearance and occasional access to sensitive information, officials said, he is not considered to have done significant harm to U.S. national security. But the case is viewed by some counterintelligence officials as evidence that Cuba has built an extensive intelligence network, particularly in the Miami area. ……"

AP 5/30/00 "…..A U.S. immigration official was found guilty of espionage Tuesday for revealing secrets to a friend with ties to Cuba. Mariano Faget, 54, a naturalized U.S. citizen who came from Cuba as a teen-ager, took the stand in his own defense last week to say that he had "made a mistake" when he passed classified information to his lifelong friend, a businessman. The federal court jury also convicted him of disregarding his oath of secrecy for personal gain. …….. Faget, 54, was an acting deputy director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami when he was caught in an FBI sting calling friend and business partner Pedro Font with the name of a soon-to-be Cuban defector. He had been warned the classified information was secret…….. "

NewsMax 5/30/00 "…..The Spanish edition of The Miami Herald detailed an interview between its correspondent Frank Sesno and former NBC reporter Ed Rabel. Rabel is now an activist seeking to lift the United States trade embargo against Cuba. Last week Rabel met with Elian's father, Juan Miguel. Rabel quotes Juan Miguel as saying that as soon as the 11th Circuit Court rules, he will immediately return to Cuba. Rabel says that even if the court rules in Elian's favor for an asylum hearing, he will still leave with the child. Here is a translation of the CNN interview based on what is reported in El Nuevo Herald: Rabel: "I asked him, 'How long are you willing to stay here?', and he said: 'I'll be here until the 11th Court makes a decision, then, no matter what the decision is, I'll return to Cuba.' ……"

Miami Herald 5/25/00 Francs Robles "…..A proponent of Elian Gonzalez's return to Cuba on Wednesday cited a comment she said the boy made as evidence the 6-year-old is eager to return to Cuba. The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell said that as an INS agent fiddled with passports and travel papers at the Wye Plantation retreat Wednesday, Elian looked at his father and asked, ``Does this mean we're going back to Cuba? I want to go home.'' ……… Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Maria Cardona said the government could neither confirm nor deny that Elian made the comment. She said the INS agent who was in the room at the time does not speak Spanish and said he wasn't focused on the conversations going on in the room. ….."

UPI via NewsMax.com 5/25/00 "……Attorney General Janet Reno addressed a hotel banquet today while hundreds of her opponents and supporters in the Elian Gonzalez case demonstrated outside. Demonstrators competed for space on the sidewalk in front of the hotel, just north of Miami. A flotilla of six boats organized by anti-Castro leader Ramon Saul Sanchez cruised the Atlantic near the building. Haitians, a third group of protesters, demonstrated for treatment of immigrants from Haiti that is equal to that accorded to Cubans. Police estimated there were more than 600 protesters. Inside, Reno received a standing ovation from the audience, composed mostly of south Florida lawyers, before she delivered her speech. ……"

CNSNews.com 5/25/00 Jim Burns "…..The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) filed a complaint Thursday with the state of Maryland Board of Physician Quality Assurance, the state agency charged with licensing doctors, contending that Cuban doctors are illegally treating Elian Gonzalez. The group also contends that the communist island doctors have received approval from the US Justice Department. Doctor Jane Orient, AAPS Executive Director said, "based on the government's own reports, several Cuban physicians, who are not licensed to practice medicine in this country, have been providing medical treatment to, and possibly medicating, Elian Gonzalez while he has been residing on private property in the United States since the end of April." ….."

yahoo.com 5/25/00 Alex Veiga AP "……Hundreds of protesters with opposing views on the seizure of Elian Gonzalez were divided by barricades Thursday as Attorney General Janet Reno arrived to speak at a dinner honoring Florida's first 150 female lawyers. Cuban-Americans angry about the return of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to his Cuban father, Haitian-Americans upset about new federal rules that could separate families, and groups supporting Reno faced off, waving flags and signs and shouting their messages. More than 600 people gathered in the streets and on boats outside the beachfront hotel where Reno was speaking. ….."

Associated Press 5/25/00 George Gedda "……Elian Gonzalez and his family left their rural retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore Thursday and relocated at a historic house in Washington near the home of Vice President Al Gore. Four vans pulled up at the house at 7:40 p.m. EDT carrying the Gonzalez family, his teacher and four playmates from Cuba, along with their adult family members. Elian was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. Gregory Craig, the lawyer for Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, said the family was moving to the capital so that the father can have more immediate access to Craig. The lawyer lives in the same Cleveland Park neighborhood of northwest Washington. ……"

CNN 5/25/00 AP "……Two Cuban doctors, among a group of 152 trying to relieve the crisis in Zimbabwe's state hospitals, were reported Thursday to have sought refuge at the Canadian Embassy here in a bid to defect. Leonel Cordova, 31, and Noris Pena, 25, told Zimbabwe's independently-owned Daily News they were defecting "to fulfill lifelong dreams of leaving Cuba forever." ..."

Judicial Watch 5/26/00 "…….Yesterday, Judicial Watch attorneys for Donato Dalrymple, and innocent bystanders, plaintiffs in the lawsuit brought against Attorney General Janet Reno, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, attempted service of process on Attorney General Reno prior to her scheduled speech before members of The Florida Bar in Bal Harbour, Florida. It was Judicial Watch's intent to serve Ms. Reno without fanfare as she entered the Sheraton Hotel, and a process server was there simply to present the Court papers to her. Despite this, service of process was obstructed by the Miami and Bal Harbour police on the scene, who told Judicial Watch's process server that Reno's FBI detail would not permit service of process. The process server then