"Wallis admitted, under examination by Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman, that the ‘proudest moment of his life’ was captured in an Associated Press photograph of INS Supervisory Special Agent Gwenn Reed holding a shotgun to the head of a prone and ‘spread-eagle’ protestor – Mario Miranda – during the illegal INS raid to return young Elian Gonzalez to Communist Cuba. Mr. Miranda is a retired Miami police officer and was responsible for safety and security around the Gonzalez home. Wallis’ testimony came during a Merit Systems Protection Board hearing for INS whistleblower and Judicial Watch client Rick Ramirez. Mr. Ramirez ‘blew the whistle’ on anti-Cuban and anti-Hispanic bigotry in the Miami INS office, as well as INS supervisors’ orders to destroy all documents and computer records concerning the Elian Gonzalez saga. Earlier testimony from INS attorney Diana Alvarez confirmed that the orders to destroy documents and records came from INS Commissioner Doris Meissner. …

The Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, March 7, 1976, begins by asserting that, "GUIDED by the victorious doctrine of Marxism-Leninism; BASING OURSELVES on proletarian internationalism, on the fraternal friendship, help and cooperation of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries and on the solidarity of the workers and the peoples of Latin America and the world...."

EDUCATION IS INDOCTRINATION

Chapter I, Article 6 of the Cuban Constitution says: "The Young Communist League, the organization of the vanguard youth, under the direction of the Party, works to prepare its members as future members of the Party and contributes to the education of the new generations along the ideals of communism, by means of their participation in a program of studies and in patriotic, labor, military, scientific and cultural activities."

MARXIST MASTERS CITIZEN SLAVES

Chapter IV, Article 38 states that "The state orients, foments and promotes education, culture and science in all their manifestations. ...

"a) the state bases its educational and cultural policy on the scientific world view, established and developed by Marxism-Leninism;"

LIKE BUSH AND GORE, CASTRO PUTS A PRIORITY ON EDUCATION

"b) education is a function of the state. Consequently, educational institutions belong to the state. The fulfillment of the educational function constitutes a task in which all society participates and is based on the conclusions and contributions made by science and on the closest relationship between study and life, work and production;

"c) the state must promote the communist education of the new generations and the training of children, young people and adults for social life...."

SUBJECTS ARE FREE TO AGREE WITH THEIR RULERS

"d) artistic creativity is free as long as its content is not contrary to the Revolution. Forms of expression of art are free...."

PARENTAL CONTROL OF EDUCATION (INDOCTRINATION) IS MANDATORY

Chapter IV, Article 39 states that "The education of children and young people in the spirit of communism is the duty of all society. ...

"It is the duty of the family, the schools, the state agencies and the social and mass organizations to pay special attention to the integral development of children and young people."

RELIGION IS SUBORDINATE TO REVOLUTION

Chapter VI, Article 54 states, in part, that "The law regulates the activities of religious institutions.

"It is illegal and punishable by law to oppose one's faith or religious belief to the Revolution; to education; or to the fulfillment of one's duty to work, defend the homeland with arms, show reverence for its symbols and fulfill other duties established by the Constitution."

ELIAN IS SET TO BE FIDEL'S MODEL CHILD

Marika Lynch and Frances Robles write for the Miami Herald (mlynch@herald.com, 5/17/00) that "Modeled after groups in the former Soviet Union, the Pioneers [to which Elian Gonzalez has been conscripted] instill communist ideals through songs, schedule weekend trips to help with harvests in the countryside, and instruct children to repeat the group allegiance 'Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che [Guevara].'

"Membership is expected for Cuban children, who join in the first grade and wear the Pioneers uniform to school. Parents of students who refuse to enroll are ostracized, labeled counterrevolutionaries and denied promotions at work, said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. Pioneer members also are instructed to tell on their parents if they make statements against the revolution."

ELIAN PORTRAYED IN HIS "YOUNG PIONEER" PRISON UNIFORM

"The pictures, released in the Cuban daily Granma, confirmed the worst fears of many Cuban exiles, who believed the boy will be brainwashed by the Cuban government as long as he is with his father. ...

"'No,' Ramon Chong, a security guard who came to the United States four years ago, told [his wife]. 'It seems communism has penetrated the United States.'

"Gladys Chong, who wore the neckerchief in her youth, was shocked. 'They didn't even wait until he got to Cuba to start conditioning him!' said Gladys, a 44-year-old dental lab assistant."

THE SILENCE OF CONGRESS IS NOT GOLDEN -- IT IS COWARDLY

"The images also troubled Dr. Marta Molina, a psychologist who in her 20-year career in Cuba said she treated 500 children with problems she said stemmed from communist indoctrination. 'The oppression has already started,' Molina said.

"The Pioneer uniform is part of a strategy to ensure the boy's return, she said, by convincing Elian that he wants to return to Cuba so he will tell the courts as much."

CONGRESSIONAL INACTION LETS CLINTON AND CASTRO DRUG AND BRAINWASH ELIAN

Tom Carter writes (Washington Times, 5/18/00, p. 1) that "New photographs of Elian Gonzalez, in the uniform of Cuba's communist youth Pioneers, taken at Wye Plantation in Maryland in the care of U.S. government chaperones, were cited by Miami exiles yesterday as 'further proof' that he is being brainwashed there by 'communist propaganda.' ...

"Granma, Cuba's Communist Party daily, on Monday published five photographs showing Elian in the Pioneers uniform -- a blue kerchief and white shirt with a logo of Cuban patriot Jose Marti on his breast. Granma said the photographs were taken at the Maryland retreat where Elian has been staying....

"Since Elian arrived at Wye Plantation, several of Elian's schoolmates from Cardenas, Cuba, have come to the United States to stay with the boy. Elian's schoolteacher also came to continue the children's lessons, along with a Cuban physician."

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO GENERALISSIMO FIDEL

"'As far as Elian is concerned, he is back in Cuba, pledging allegiance to the "Maximum Leader,"' said Frank Calzon of the Center for a Free Cuba. 'He is in a Potemkin village with his teachers and schoolmates, learning to be Fidel's "New Man," selfless and obedient in the class struggle. ...'

"'He is continuing his education by the arrangement of his government,' said Carole Florman, Justice Department spokeswoman. 'We do not think there is anything inappropriate about it.'"

IS SOVIET-STYLE BRAINWASHING ACCEPTABLE TO LOTT AND HASTERT?

"Cuba's Pioneers were created on the model of groups in the former Soviet Union. Children join when they enter school and wear the uniform to school through the 12th grade. ...

"The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba....has reproduced pages from a Pioneers manual that instructs children, some as young as Elian, in games called 'Bridge Attack,' 'Mine Layers,' 'Night Infiltration,' 'Eliminate the Sentry,' 'Coastal Infiltration,' and 'Throwing Grenades Through Windows.'

"Pioneers learn at camp to assemble and disassemble military rifles blindfolded. ...

"Ninoska Perez of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) said Pioneers are expected to inform on their parents if they say anything the government construes as critical of Cuba's communist government."

FOX NEWS NETWORK COMPARES FAVORABLY WITH CNN -- THE CASTRO NEWS NETWORK

According to Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes (New York Times, 4/29/00, p. A25), "What most people didn't know was that 10 hours before the raid, Fox News, along with six other networks and four Miami television stations, received a letter by fax from Gregory Craig, who represented President Clinton during his impeachment trial.

"In his letter, Mr. Craig identified himself as counsel to Elián's father, whose actions are orchestrated by Fidel Castro. 'I am writing,' Mr. Craig said, 'to ask that you please refrain from broadcasting any such coverage' of a raid because of the psychological damage it could inflict on the child.

"After deliberation, I concluded that we could not honor Mr. Craig's request. Our journalists, along with our competitors', covered the raid and resulting turmoil. (We also, alone among the recipients of Mr. Craig's fax, told viewers about his request immediately.) But I am troubled by Mr. Craig's attempt to prevent the public from seeing what happened.

"Who determines what news is fit to print or televise? Had an enterprising photographer not been in the house, Americans would not know what had happened. The reason you did not see video of the raid is that the NBC crew, assigned to supply pictures to all the networks, was roughed up and forced to the ground with a rifle butt. I am astounded that NBC has not more vigorously pursued the protection of their journalists."

"Miami Mayor Joe Carollo fired the city manager yesterday, just days after the mayor demanded the firing of the police chief for not warning him about the raid to seize Elian Gonzalez.

"Mr. Carollo had asked City Manager Donald Warshaw to fire Police Chief William O'Brien, saying he 'lost all confidence' in the chief for not telling him that federal agents were about to raid the Gonzalez home early Saturday. ...

"Only the city manager can fire the police chief, and Mr. Warshaw has said he wouldn't do it, setting the stage for the confrontation. The police chief is answerable only to the city manager.

"The police chief knew an hour in advance of the 5:15 a.m. raid, but has said he didn't want to tip off the mayor, who unlike Chief O'Brien, is Cuban-American and had openly sided with the Cuban boy's Miami relatives."

CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS HAVE UNCONSTITUTIONALLY UNDERMINED LOCAL ELECTORAL ACCOUNTABILITY --- BECAUSE "HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER CALLS THE TUNE"

"'This was a police issue, not a political issue,' Chief O'Brien has said.

"The mayor also is demanding Chief O'Brien's firing for letting the police department's second in command, Maj. John Brooks, get involved in the raid.

"Maj. Brooks rode in the van that whisked Elian away. Police said Maj. Brooks did so in order that other police officers on duty at the house would realize that it was an official action. Officers on the scene had only a moment's notice of the raid.

"Days before the raid, the mayor had declared that Miami police officers would not help federal agents remove the boy from the Little Havana home." Source: Washington Times, 4/28/00, p. A14

RENO'S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES TO TERMINATE LOCAL CONTROL OF POLICE

Darlene Hutchinson, Publications Editor for the Law Enforcement Alliance of America (Shield, Winter-Spring 2000, p. 22), writes that "A legal battle is now being waged in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio, pitting the legal weight and limitless financial resources of the U.S. Justice Department against that town's right to control its own police department."

JANET WANTS LOCAL COPS WHO DON'T OBEY CLINTON POLICIES TO RETURN FEDERAL GRANT MONEY

"At stake is no less than the fate of local agencies everywhere to control their own destinies versus an emerging pattern by the Clinton Justice Department aimed at federalizing municipal police departments, not to mention the states-rights concerns and the blurring division between the branches of government. ...

"[S]ince Columbus and the police union have decided not to sign the consent decree, the Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the city to recoup all federal grant money awarded over the years. Some would call this extortion.

"Bill Capretta, president of the Capitol City Lodge No. 90 of the Fraternal Order of Police in Columbus, says the lawsuit is the 'latest step in a Justice Department campaign to impose federal (law enforcement) standards on police departments nationwide.' ..."

FEDERAL MONEY ALWAYS HAS STRINGS ATTACHED

"Many have asked how the federal government could threaten to recoup grant money spent years ago by local administrators; what authority do they have to extort the local police? In fact, these powers were vested in DOJ by the 1994 Omnibus Crime Act.... Now in accordance with the authority derived from this act, the federal government has deemed the city of Columbus incapable of correcting such 'wrongdoing.'

"So, essentially, any department which has accepted any federal grant money, and whose actions could be construed as inappropriate by a DOJ official (often a White House appointee), and who won't give in when faced with a 'consent decree,' may have to pay back the millions of federal dollars accepted and spent over the years (which could include everything from COPS grants, to money from 'violence against women' legislation, to victims funding, training money, etc.)."

CLINTONISTAS TARGET 12 CITIES

"Incidentally, The Columbus Dispatch reports that no less than 12 other cities nationwide are the focus of similar investigations...."

Family Research Council's Washington Update (4/28/00) reports that "Fidel Castro said that the U.S. agents 'did it well.' Referring to photographs from the operation, Castro said, 'You can see obviously that the people were well-trained.' However, like one true friend to another, amid all of his words of admiration, the master of these kinds of tactics was kind enough to offer Reno some advice for improvement. Castro suggested that U.S. officials erred by allowing photographs of the raid, noting that they should have foreseen that they would be used in 'a war of images.'

"Castro echoed Reno's explanation that U.S. officials used heavy weapons because there might be weapons in or near the house. On the other hand, commentator George Will observed that 40 percent of American households have guns, calling it noteworthy that federal agents managed to hit a house that didn't have any. Doing so would be much easier in Cuba. There gun ownership is illegal, allowing Castro to blather, 'We do it with unarmed people.'"

CASTRO'S DISARMED POPULACE MAKES INTIMIDATION EASIER

John Rice adds from Havana (Washington Times, 4/28/00, p. A14) that "Cuban President Fidel Castro says if his agents had raided a house to retrieve Elian Gonzalez, they would have gone in unarmed. ...

The kidnapping of Elian Gonzalez from the peaceful home of law-abiding American citizens by 151 armed Federal police, accountable to the President of the United States -- who, in the dark of night, knocked down the front door with a battering ram, destroyed family property, gassed and physically abused the inhabitants -- gives stark warning to everyone who loves justice, hates tyranny, and harbors concern for our liberty and security.

The abuse of power in this instance, is, unfortunately, not unprecedented. On many occasions during both Republican and Democratic Presidencies, armed Federal police from a variety of agencies have violently transgressed the right of American citizens to be secure in their homes from arbitrary political assault.

One of the most visible examples of such abuse occurred earlier in the Clinton administration at Waco, and again at Ruby Ridge. In each of these cases, U.S. citizens peacefully occupying private dwellings were killed, in consequence of reckless, unconstitutional actions by agencies of the U.S. government.

What makes the armed invasion of the Gonzalez home and the psychologically brutal seizure of Elian unusual, and particularly dangerous, is the personal involvement of the President of the United States, who precipitously embarked on a course of action clearly in conflict with a ruling, just days before, of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

CONSTITUTION PROHIBITS "STANDING ARMY" OR "PRAETORIAN GUARD"

Although Mr. Clinton was the perpetrator of the criminal, unconstitutional acts cruelly executed on April 22, 2000, it is the Congress of the United States which is ultimately culpable for this historic miscarriage of justice, and it is Congress which bears the burden for corrective action.

The Founders of our American republic had a rightful concern about the creation or existence of a "standing army" by means of which military force would be concentrated in the Federal head in such a manner as to threaten the independence of the several states and the liberties of their citizens.

Amendments IV, IX, and X of the Bill of Rights, added to the Constitution of the United States, manifest the Founders' concern about the Federal government assuming powers not expressly delegated to it by the states.

They were crafted to guard against any such usurpation or abuse of power:

"Amendment IV: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

"Amendment IX: The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

"Amendment X: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

CONGRESS CONTROLS THE PURSESTRINGS

The judiciary can prescribe, but, lacking control of the pursestrings, it cannot enforce the conclusions which it has posited. Only Congress can strip a lawless Executive of the resources required to perpetrate unconstitutional conduct of the sort incurred in the Gestapo-like pre-dawn raid on Saturday of Easter weekend.

FEDERALIZATION OF LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MUST BE REVERSED

One example of the subversion of the doctrine of "separation of powers" was the failure of the Miami and Dade County police to report directly and primarily to the elected executive authorities of the jurisdictions from which, at least theoretically, the local police derived their authority.

This breakdown of accountability to duly elected local officials manifests the degree to which Federal subsidy and regulation of local law enforcement, made possible by decisions of the Congress, has destabilized the checks and balances of Constitutional liberty.

PRESIDENTIAL GESTAPO IS A THREAT TO LIBERTY

Similarly, the creation of an out-of-control Federal Praetorian Guard, of which the INS police force is just one element, is particularly ominous.

Too many domestic Federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)Donato Dalrymple, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), the Fish and Wildlife Service, et cetera, have been unconstitutionally accorded the authority to bear arms against the citizens of the several states.

In appropriating funds for such purposes, Congress is itself disregarding the intent of the Framers in limiting the Federal government to its delegated, enumerated powers.

CONGRESS IS AN "ACCESSORY BEFORE THE FACT" TO CLINTON'S ABUSE OF POWER

And by failing to hold President Clinton accountable for his long train of unconstitutional and criminal conduct, it is Congress which bears responsibility for facilitating the entrenchment of the dangerous precedents which have now been established.

It is not too late for Congress to change course and limit future abuses, but, to do so will require a rigorous reexamination of all Federal expenditures which extend law enforcement authority to agencies of the Executive Branch.

NO TRIGGER-LOCKS ON RENO'S ASSAULT WEAPONS

The assault in Miami reminds us also of the importance of fully respecting our Second Amendment rights. There were no trigger locks on the assault weapons used on April 22 by camouflaged INS agents of the Federal Gestapo.

How then can Congress justify imposing such restrictions on weapons available to the U.S. citizens from whom the Federal government derives its authority?

When the government has a monopoly, or even a preponderance of force, the liberties of the people are far less secure.

Certainly it was chilling to see officials of the U.S. government assert that the possibility of an American family legally possessing firearms was somehow a justification for the invasion of their home by trained killers armed with machine guns.

It is past time for Congress to disarm an out-of-control Federal bureaucracy and to fully honor the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

WILL CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS DO THEIR DUTY?

It was well established that William Clinton was a dishonorable and Constitutionally corrupt lawbreaker when the leadership of the U.S. Senate decided to so stipulate his impeachment trial as to virtually assure that he would not be removed from office.

For that reason, too, it is, now more than ever, the urgent obligation of the Republican leadership in Congress to act to restrict and rein in the unaccountable domestic military capability which they have unwisely assigned to Mr. Clinton's control.

Suzanne Fields comments (Washington Times, 4/24/00, p. A19) that "We did it the way Fidel Castro would have done it. By force. What a tragic story for Easter weekend, at the end of the week of the feast of Passover. The Jews celebrate the escape from slavery. Christians glory in the Resurrection.

"Now we have the story of our government trampling on the Fourth Amendment, the one guaranteeing the refuge of the home, invading a private home, ripping a child from a family at gunpoint, seizing him from the secure arms of those who nurtured him after his mother died, severing him from the family who took seriously the mother's fight for the boy's freedom.

"Asylum is more than a word.

"Elian, who was saved by the dolphins who nudged his little legs back inside his inner tube, loved the friendly mammals who swam with him to safety. They showed more delicate regard for Elian than our government has. Elian, who was plucked from the sea by Donato Dalrymple after two days without food or drink, loved the fisherman who found him. This is the same fisherman Elian held tightly around the neck when the storm troopers kicked down the front door and ripped him from the security of his second home.

"Elian, who was nourished emotionally and whose heart was revitalized by Marisleysis Gonzalez, his 21-year-old cousin, loves the woman who made him a home in a new home. This is the woman who pleaded with storm troopers to drop their assault rifles, to put them away so Elian wouldn't have them shoved in his face. Hadn't the kid had enough terror in his life? Instead they threatened to shoot anyone in their way."

CLINTON HAS DISHONORED AMERICA

"Black Easter. Black Passover. America stands before the world with a stain of dishonor that has been seen in every country in the world over and over again, the photograph etched on front pages around the globe and played endlessly on television screens during the time most Americans and millions of people around the world regard as the holiest week of the year. What we hear from the White House is great relief that it didn't turn into Waco, where Janet Reno gave the order that incinerated the children she said she wanted to save from 'child abuse.' (She later admitted that there had been no child abuse.) You take your comparisons where you find them."

SHAME!

"The administration applauds the strategy. Nobody was killed. The storm troopers succeeded in the sneak attack just as the Arabs did in the Yom Kippur War against Israel: Sneak in when the religious people least expect it. Score high points for cynicism.

"Heavy-handedness joined with heartlessness begets shame. A child was traumatized. America's government looks like a collection of cowardly bullies. Janet Reno, never a mother herself, shows that she hasn't a clue to a child's feelings. (She gave Elian Play-doh for the airplane ride to work out his anxiety. Ah, yes. Play-doh would do it.) ..."

TERROR, INTIMIDATION, NIGHTMARES

"Memory holds dread. How secure can Elian feel at night, tucked in his bed, when he hears a noise in his house? His terror, after all, was real, not the stuff of a childish nightmare. Every mother who has ever cradled a frightened child in the middle of the night knows how difficult it is [to] shoo away the monsters of the darkness. (Any mother could have told Janet Reno this.) How much more difficult for Elian?

"When President Clinton spoke to reporters afterward, apparently expecting to bask in the admiration of the 64 percent -- or maybe it was 54 percent and 59 percent -- of Americans who want Elian returned to Cuba, he looked surprised that the first question was about why he had authorized the 'excessive' use of force. The polls had assured him that Americans thought the boy should be reunited with his father, weren't they now pleased that he had arranged just that? He turned abruptly and walked away. He wouldn't take questions, after all. He would wait for happy pictures."

NO ONE IS SAFE

"The administration never expected cameras to document the violent snatching of Elian. But we saw what happened, and how. So did everyone else."

"In issuing his further injunction, Judge Edmondson acted on the motion of lawyers speaking for Elian Gonzalez 'by and through' Lazaro Gonzalez. That is, the Miami family still speaks for the boy in the eyes of the 11th Circuit. Indeed, in the original opinion that found the boy had appealed for asylum, the court included a pregnant footnote: 'The INS, in its response to Plaintiff's motion, said it would consent to an injunction requiring the INS to bar Plaintiff's departure from the United States if this Court also entered an order directing Lazaro Gonzalez to present Plaintiff to the INS, as directed by the INS, for transfer of care to Plaintiff's father. We decline to proceed in that manner.'

"That is, the Court had been asked and declined to order the change of custody; to respond less than 48 hours later by sending in men with gas masks and guns shows an astounding contempt for the court. ...

"The more closely you look, the smellier it gets. Already the legal case is unravelling. The INS affidavit submitted by the INS for the warrant clearly states that the grounds for such an action has to do with INS authority to seize illegal aliens. But it is not clear that Elian Gonzalez, who had an appeal pending on his asylum case was an illegal alien. More to the point, while the INS may have the authority to seize illegal aliens to deport them, the INS does not have the authority, absent a court order, to seize an alien on Janet Reno's stated grounds: enforcing her custody determination." The Wall Street Journal, 4/26/00, p. A26, Editorial

Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute comments (National Review Online, 4/24/00) that "It happened now because of the decision from the Appeals Court in Atlanta, which asserted Elian's right to asylum. Time was clearly working against Clinton and Fidel, and the president panicked."

"USEFUL IDIOTS" IN THE MEDIA PROVIDE COVER TO CASTRO'S DGI -- AS FIDEL CELEBRATES LENIN'S BIRTHDAY

"Now that Elian is under the control of the DGI, the Cuban secret intelligence service, he can be manipulated to say what they want him to, and his dictated words will be broadcast and amplified by the vast army of useful idiots in the mass media who today -- with delicious irony, Lenin's birthday -- censored the devastating AP photo of Elian facing that submachine gun. ..."

IN CUBA, IN VIETNAM, IN IRAQ, AMERICA DESTROYS THOSE WHO RISKED THEIR LIVES FOR US

"It came to this because of the failure of the American political class to fight for our freedoms against an administration that has relentlessly expanded its powers and diminished our liberties. Secret courts have been created to 'try' immigrants the government wished to charge with 'terrorist activity,' and, as a handful of us predicted at the time, these dreadful Star Chambers have been used against men and women who fought for us, most notably the Iraqis driven out of their country by Saddam's tanks after having been betrayed by Clinton."

CONGRESS NEVER HOLDS CLINTON ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS CORRUPTION AND ABUSE OF POWER -- IT IS HIS VICTIMS WHO ARE PUNISHED

"Civil servants have been trampled, from the employees of the White House travel office who were first fired and then pursued by the FBI, to Linda Tripp, whose privacy rights were thrown to the wind by the disgraceful William Cohen and the corrupt Kenneth Bacon. We now know that many other government employees were threatened with the mailed fist if they revealed the existence of presumably incriminating e-mails in the bowels of the White House."

G.O.P. 'GONADS OUT OF PRACTICE'

"All these, and many more, have been cowed into silence or submission because they had no protectors. The Republican Party, which bears the unwelcome responsibility to challenge the Clinton Administration and contest its appetite for ever-greater power, has hypnotized itself into believing that it must always behave in accordance with the latest survey of public opinion, as if winning elections were the highest calling of the politician. With exceptions that we can count on the fingers of one mutilated hand, the Republicans have been ambivalent, ambiguous, or silent about the fate of Elian, as they were about Waco, and Ruby Ridge, and the Star Chambers, and the innocent civil servants, save for Billy Dale, who at least got his legal costs covered by act of Congress."

THE SELF-INDULGENT MEDIA IS IGNORANT OF COMMUNISM, EVEN AS IT SYCOPHANTLY SUPPORTS ITS PROTAGONISTS

"Worst of all, the intelligentsia -- including most of the media stars, whether in Hollywood or the television studios or the editorial offices -- is either totally ignorant of the nature of Communist tyranny, or wittingly obscures it. I recently spoke with a media friend, a brilliant and reasonable person with healthy political instincts, to whom I posed the question: 'If a mother and child had escaped from a slave plantation in Carolina in the 1850s, and only the child had made it to Massachusetts on the underground railroad, and then the father stood up on his plantation and demanded that his child be restored to him, would you have sent him back? And remember that the Fugitive Slave Act required that the child be sent back.' He said, 'but you can't compare Cuba with slavery.'"

CUBAN SLAVERY IS IN A CLASS BY ITSELF

"He was right, but not in the way he thought. He did not know that the American slaves of the antebellum South, who suffered under one of the most evil tyrannies imaginable, were nonetheless freer than the Cuban slaves of today. The slaves had freedom of religion, which is denied to Cubans, and the slaves had neighbors in the North who were actively working for their freedom, which the Cuban slaves today, alas, do not. Clinton's ships patrol the ocean, looking for freedom-seekers in order to send them back to Cuba."

IN TOTALITARIAN DEMOCRACY YOU ARE FREE TO ENDORSE YOUR MASTER

"With that sort of ignorance, we may well be doomed, as Tocqueville darkly predicted, to a new form of tyranny, never seen before in human history, in which we will deceive ourselves into thinking we are free simply because we are permitted to vote for our slavemasters.

"Tocqueville said that such people would be 'more than gods yet less than men,' deprived of freedom yet entitled to select our tyrants. That is our present danger."

Andrew Napolitano writes (Wall Street Journal, 4/26/00, p. A26) that "The agents who assaulted Lazaro Gonzalez's house early Saturday morning did have a search warrant. But a review of the affidavit on which the warrant was based shows that the raid was constitutionally flawed, unlawful and repugnant to the language and spirit of the then three-day-old decision of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that ordered Ms. Reno to keep Elian in the U.S. and denied her request for an injunction requiring Mr. Gonzalez to turn the boy over."

JUDGE MOORE BYPASSED FOR CLINTON HACK

"True to form, the administration lied to the American people. The first effort to hide the truth was the application for a search warrant. The Immigration and Naturalization Service didn't present it to Judge Michael Moore, the federal district judge in Miami handling the case. Rather, the INS waited until 7 p.m. on Good Friday, when a federal duty magistrate, not familiar with the case and notoriously pro-government in his rulings, was available to hear warrant applications."

PERJURY IS THE CONSISTENT PATTERN OF CLINTON'S PRESIDENCY

"The affidavit presented to the magistrate was signed by Special Agent Mary Rodriguez of the INS. Ms. Rodriguez told the magistrate that Elian was being 'concealed' at Lazaro's home, that the boy was 'unlawfully restrained' there, and that INS Deputy Director of Investigations James T. Spearman Jr. had already ordered the arrest of Elian because the boy was 'an illegal alien.' In response, the magistrate issued a search warrant."

OFFICIAL MISREPRESENTATION AND FALSEHOOD RELIED UPON TO MAKE THE RAID "LEGAL"

"Thus the power that the government invoked to invade the house was that conferred by Congress when contraband or evidence of a crime is being hidden. That was hardly the case with Elian, who was often present, for all the world to see, in Mr. Gonzalez's front yard. Moreover, the INS itself had designated Mr. Gonzalez as Elian's guardian and had placed the boy in his great-uncle's house, revoking that parole just nine days before the raid."

JANET RENO IS AN APT PUPIL OF HER CORRUPT BOSS

"What the affidavit omits is as revealing as what it says. Ms. Reno justified her agents' use of tear gas, guns and violence by claiming a fear of weapons in Lazaro's house. Ms. Rodriguez's affidavit says nothing of the kind. Ms. Reno claims she seized the child for his own best interests. There is no allegation in Ms. Rodriguez's affidavit of mistreatment or likely harm to Elian by his Miami relatives. Ms. Rodriguez also didn't tell the magistrate that Aaron Podhurst, a well-respected Miami lawyer and a longtime friend of Ms. Reno, was feverishly mediating negotiations between lawyers for the government, Elian's father and Lazaro Gonzalez even as the affidavit was being filed."

ELIAN CATEGORIZED AS A CRIMINAL TO JUSTIFY RENO'S SNATCH

"The application for the warrant is also troubling because, according to Richard Sharpstein, one of Miami's best regarded criminal-defense and immigration lawyers (and, as of Monday, a member of Elian's Miami legal team), the INS never arrests Cuban aliens without evidence that they have committed a crime. This restraint on the part of the INS is consistent with the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which makes Cuban nationals eligible for U.S. citizenship once they've been in the U.S. for a year.

"It is clear that the 'search' warrant was just a pretext to get into Lazaro Gonzalez's house. No legitimate federal purpose was served by the raid. Elian was lovingly cared for by blood relatives; he was not 'involuntarily restrained'; and a federal appeals court was soon to hear his appeal of Judge Moore's denial of his right to apply for asylum. A simple court order, sought with notice to Elian's lawyers, could have peacefully transferred custody."

RENO LIES FROM START TO FINISH

"The Washington Post reported yesterday that Ms. Reno, fearing accusations of a coverup, ordered her agents not to obstruct photographers. If this is true, the agents apparently weren't following orders. The first agent to enter the Gonzalez home kicked, maced and assaulted an NBC cameraman, ensuring there was no video footage of the agents ransacking the house and seizing Elian."

Freelance photographer Alan Diaz gave this first-hand account of events inside the Gonzalez home in Little Havana (Associated Press, 4/22/00):

"'They're here! They're here!' a cameraman shouted in the darkness. Then, suddenly, all was chaos.

"Somehow, before a team of federal agents went in, I hopped a fence and ran inside the modest home where Elian Gonzalez had lived since he was rescued from the ocean on Thanksgiving Day.

"Inside, family members screamed. I heard the door slam shut behind me. 'Go to the room -- go to the room,' someone said, directing me to the bedroom Elian shared with his cousin Marisleysis. I rushed in and fumbled for a light switch. Elian wasn't there.

"I banged on the bedroom door of Elian's great-uncle Lazaro. Angela Gonzalez, his wife, opened the door. Elian was in a closet, cradled by Donato Dalrymple, one of the two fishermen who had rescued him. Dalrymple clutched Elian in his arms."

CUBAN-AMERICAN PHOTO-NEWSMAN WAS TRUSTED BY ELIAN

"The boy was crying, asking adults, 'Que esta pasando' -- 'What's happening?' 'Nothing's happening, baby. Everything's going to be all right,' I said. What else could I say to the child whose saga I had chronicled for almost five months.

"As a 43-year-old freelance photographer of Cuban descent, I had developed an unusual relationship with the Gonzalez family and the 6-year-old child whose life I had been capturing on film for AP.

"Before Saturday, I had taken hundreds of photos of Elian: dragging his bookbag as he walked to school; playing in the yard; at the circus. Nothing compared to the intensity of the raid."

"IT TAKES A VILLAGE" OF FEDERAL POLICE TO TERRIFY A CHILD

"When it began, I did what I always do: I started shooting photos. And I worried what the agents might do if they saw me, camera focused, ready to capture their every move.

"We waited. Angela watched the locked bedroom door. Thirty seconds passed. Agents banged on the door, then broke it down and burst into the room, guns raised.

"'What's happening?' Elian asked again, through tears.

"I was nearby. 'Back off,' the agents told me.

"A U.S. Border Patrol agent, wearing green riot gear and goggles and holding an automatic rifle, confronted Dalyrmple, who was clutching the frightened boy.

"I stood, back against the wall, shooting photographs as agents grabbed the boy. As they left the room, I started to follow. 'Back off!' an agent screamed. I stopped."

AN AMERICAN FAMILY ASSAULTED IN THEIR HOME

"In the living room, agents had pinned Lazaro on the couch. He was in a rage, crying, wanting to go after the child.

"A Spanish-speaking female agent picked up Elian and rushed from the house, placing him in a waiting white van. The doors slammed shut and the van sped down the street with Elian inside."

According to NewsMax.com (4/24/00), "If you thought Saturday's Associated press photos of a Clinton administration goon pointing a machine gun at Elian Gonzalez were horrifying, imagine how much worse the imagery might have been with video cameras rolling.

"NBC cameraman Tony Zumbaudo [sic] was indeed on the scene, complete with state-of-the-art video equipment and a sound man. So why hasn't America seen any video of administration gunmen rampaging through the Gonzalez house, tear gassing its occupants and pointing a weapon at Elian's five-year-old cousin?

"Because at the outset of the military-style assault Zumbado was [viciously] attacked inside the house while his soundman was held captive outside."

FREE PRESS KNOCKED DOWN, MACED, AND BEATEN BY BUREAUCRATIC STORMTROOPERS

"'(Zumbado) said he was knocked to the ground by agents and kicked in the stomach,' reported USA Today. 'We got maced, we got kicked, we got roughed up,' the NBC cameraman told The New York Times. The assault left Zumbado incapacitated for the duration of the three minute raid. Bingo, no video."

"FREEDOM OF THE PRESS" FORCIBLY TERMINATED

"NBC News colleague Kerry Sanders told radio host Don Imus Monday morning that the cameraman had just reached the doorway of Elian's house when armed agents pushed him inside, slammed the door and began kicking him. The cables to Zumbado's sound equipment still stretched to his partner outside.

"There, another Clinton goon bashed the Zumbado's sound man on the head with the butt of his rifle and forced him to the ground. While training his machine gun on the NBC technician, the federal agent reportedly kept his foot on the man's head."

GOVERNMENT GOON SQUADS INSTRUCTED TO PREVENT VISUAL EVIDENCE

"Think about that. Two members of the mainstream press were apparently singled out for attack by government agents in a way that prevented NBC from recording what would have been one of the most shocking video moments of all time.

"According to Marisleysis Gonzalez, who conducted tours through her home after the assault, armed agents broke down several interior doors, completely trashed her room and broke Elian's bed. ...

"All of this happened while cameraman Tony Zumbado lay writhing in pain on the floor.

"The Clinton-Reno goon squad had expected that at least one video cameraman would be present. Only last week CBS News reported that the prospect of videocams capturing a kicking and screaming Elian as he was being torn from his relatives loomed large in administration planning.

"Reportedly, fear of such a recording contributed to Attorney General Janet Reno's reluctance to launch the assault immediately after her April 13th deadline for the boy's return expired."

NO "RODNEY KING" FOOTAGE OF OFFICIAL THUGS ATTACKING A PRIVATE HOME

"As it was, the still photos shot by the AP's Alan Diaz were enough to fuel charges that the Clinton gang had stooped to Gestapo-like tactics. The impact of video footage shot inside the house would have likely been one hundred times that of the notorious Rodney King clip."

Karen DeYoung writes (Washington Post, 4/23/00, pp. 1, A20) that "'They took this kid like a hostage in the nighttime,' said Donato Dalrymple, the fisherman who was holding Elian when federal agents cornered him.

"Elian was already in the air before the stunned, pepper-sprayed crowd around the relatives' home seemed to know what had hit it. Marisleysis Gonzalez, Lazaro Gonzalez's 21-year-old daughter, ran outside and fell to the ground in tears. Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the exile Democracy Movement, who for weeks had organized the demonstrators in a round-the-clock vigil, seemed initially in a daze that he said resulted from a blow delivered by the butt of an INS agent's rifle.

"Later, Marisleysis Gonzalez erupted in anger as thousands awoke to the news and began to fill the Little Havana streets that were already manned with police outfitted in riot gear.

"'She's lying,' she said of Reno's insistence that the agents had used minimum force. 'They acted like dogs. ... They could have done this in good faith. I told her personally ... I didn't want violence.'"

CLINTON DOES HIS DIRTY WORK IN THE DARK

"Although Elian was clearly seen crying out in fear as he was carried into the van, agents reported that he was calm as the vehicle raced to a U.S. Marshals Service helicopter at a nearby staging point. ...

"Reno and Meissner, already dreading the possibility they would have to take Elian by force, had resisted a nighttime raid on grounds that the 'optics' -- what the television cameras trained on the house 24 hours a day would see -- were already likely to be bad enough. But law enforcement personnel had told them that was the time when the crowds were lightest and least alert, and when the traffic conditions were optimum for fast entry and exit from the neighborhood.

"Traffic signals in the area around the house were set to blink yellow and red during the early morning hours until 6 o'clock, they said. ..."

OBEY OR DIE!

"Using a battering ram -- a long, solid metal tube they had brought with them -- the agents pushed in the door.

"'When they came in,' Marisleysis Gonzalez later said, 'I stood in front of everybody, all the family behind me. I begged them, "Please don't let the boy see the guns. I'll give him to you." ... They said, "We'll shoot you, we'll shoot you." And then they ran into the bedroom, they broke the doors.' ..."

GOVERNMENT PSYCHIATRISTS DO THEIR PART TO CALM THEIR PRISONER

"Meissner said the Miami-based female agent carried Elian from the van to the helicopter, stayed with him through the quick physical exam and boarded the airplane with him. He didn't say much, she reported, but responded easily to questions. He cried once during the flight to Washington, but she opened the shade and got him to look at the sunrise. He colored, and he played with the Play-Doh they had provided for him. He ate something. At one point, he fell asleep on her lap. ...

"Juan Miguel carried Elian inside, the little boy's arms still draped around his father's neck. A crib and children's bed had been set up in the living room, with a double bed in the bedroom. U.S. marshals had moved in next door. Several Cuban officials were present, along with a few beefy INS officers...."

According to The New York Times (4/24/00, p. A17), "Marisleysis González said: 'I looked at those machine guns and I said, "I beg you. I beg you. Please don't do this. There are kids in this house. They didn't care. They put guns on my cousin's head right there. "You move I'm going to blow your brains out."'"

Kevin Johnson reports (USA Today, 4/24/00, p. 1) that "Just after 5 a.m. Saturday, Aaron Podhurst had U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno on hold. Podhurst, a Miami attorney, was fighting fatigue and struggling on his other telephone line to seal a deal that would peaceably reunite Elian Gonzalez with his Cuban father.

"Podhurst, a friend of Reno's for 30 years, knew the clock was ticking. But as he spoke with an attorney for the boy's Miami relatives, he was confident an agreement was in the offing. He could feel it, more so than at any other time since being drawn into the negotiations as an independent mediator 48 hours before.

"But at 5:15 a.m., Podhurst said his conversation with attorney Manny Diaz, the lawyer for Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, dissolved in complete panic.

"'Oh my God, Aaron,' Diaz shouted into the phone from inside the Gonzalezes' small house in Little Havana. 'The marshals are here! The marshals are here!'"

THE LINE TO JUSTICE WAS DEAD

"Then the line went dead. Watching on television, Podhurst was astonished to see federal agents storming out of the house in Little Havana with the little boy. When he picked up the phone to reconnect with the attorney general, he could hardly speak through the disappointment. ...

"Podhurst and others involved in the negotiations said they were perhaps only hours away from striking a deal that would have made Saturday's chilling predawn raid unnecessary. ..."

CLINTON FEARED NEGOTIATIONS WOULD SUCCEED

"'I was flabbergasted,' said University of Miami President Edward Foote II, who along with Podhurst and two other community leaders had been working behind the scenes since Thursday morning to bring the parties together. 'We did not see an issue on the table that was a deal-breaker.'"

Juan Forero and Felicity Barringer report (New York Times, 4/23/00, p. 15) that "'It's not right to shoot tear gas at people who are in their homes,' said Hector Alvarado, 28, holding his shirt over his tearing eyes. 'We were arguing with the police, asking for liberty for Elián. Then they came and started firing.' Another protestor, Eduardo Santana, said: 'They came right at us, shooting tear gas at us. There were children there. The tear gas hurt. I fell right there. I couldn't breathe, but they said, "Go, get out," and pushed me back.' ... Many of the protesters, in fact, viewed the police as brutal aggressors, equating their tactics with the ones they said were employed in Communist Cuba. They saved their harshest language for Attorney General Janet Reno...."

MAYOR CAROLLO'S JURISDICTION INVADED BY FEDS

"'My personal feeling is that what our president of our country and our attorney general ordered was one of the most shameful acts I have ever seen,' said Joseph Carollo, the mayor of Miami. 'It is one of the most disgraceful and shameful acts in the history of our government.'"

The Washington Times asks, editorially (4/25/00, p. A14), "Does the end justify the means? 'The bottom line is that it was successful,' says Doris Meissner, INS Commissioner, to CBS's 'Face the Nation,' by way of explaining the government's outrageous, pre-dawn invasion of the Gonzalez home. Americans must face the terrible fact that such a sentiment reverberates with more echoes of dictatorship than democracy. Ms. Meissner, of course, is the same official, who, three hours after the child's pre-dawn seizure, tried to assuage concerns for a scared little boy with news that Play-Doh had been provided on the aircraft that spirited him away from Miami. 'The squeezing of Play-Doh is the best thing that you can do for a child who might be experiencing stress,' she said. The mind boggles."

COMMANDO RAID DESIGNED TO RENDER JUDICIAL PROCESS IRRELEVANT

"'We do not believe he has a right to apply for asylum,' she said, adding, chillingly, 'His father speaks for him.'

"Why is that chilling? As Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, one of the Miami family's lawyers, pointed out in response, Ms. Meissner has effectively endorsed the government's effort 'to eliminate somebody's right to an appeal by a commando raid.' After all, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, loving father though he may be, opposes his son's pending plea for asylum, a plea which the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has deemed worthy of a hearing. That means that Mr. Gonzalez and his son stand in legal opposition."

GREG CRAIG IS COUNSEL FOR THE CUBAN TYRANNY -- AND THE U.S. DEPT. OF INJUSTICE

"Meanwhile, who speaks for the father? The answer, of course, is the increasingly ubiquitous Mr. Craig. One of the most disturbing aspects of this story to emerge is the as-yet-unplumbed powers of Mr. Craig. Aaron Podhurst, a long-time friend of Janet Reno's who was on the phone negotiating with her up until the raid began, says that it was Mr. Craig -- not Miss Reno as Bill Clinton likes to say -- who had veto over the whole deal, a factor that was unbeknownst to Mr. Podhurst and the other intermediaries working the phones that night. Why?"

ONLY ONE SOLUTION WAS ACCEPTABLE TO CASTRO: SEIZURE OF ELIAN

"Did the U.S. government even want a peaceful solution? Despite the charges that the Miami family, in Miss Reno's words, continuously 'moved the goal posts,' it looks more and more like it was the U.S. government that wouldn't play ball. Last week, a group of concerned and prominent Miami citizens, including the above-mentioned Mr. Podhurst, jumped into the negotiation process to make a deal. Consider the oddity of Mr. Craig's reaction to this development, as reported by The New York Times: 'Word of renewed negotiations was not greeted warmly in Washington,' the paper reported. '"It had a huge adverse impact on Juan Miguel's confidence in [Miss Reno],"' Mr. Craig said of the new round of discussions laid out by Miss Reno. Why? Wouldn't that 'loving father,' as they say, hang on for a peaceful solution to avoid the trauma of a nighttime raid?

"There is compelling evidence that a solution was in fact at hand. Mr. Podhurst, Carlos M. de la Cruz, chairman of the board of trustees at the University of Miami and of Eagle Brands, as well as the Miami family's lead lawyer Kendall Coffey, have all attested to this. 'I believe a deal was within minutes, or an hour away,' Mr. Podhurst told NBC on Monday."

"CHILDREN'S RIGHTS" ADVOCATES NOWHERE TO BE FOUND

"Still more questions abound, not least of which being, 'Who will protect Elian's legal rights in his pending asylum case?' The harder questions pertain to the perilous fate of the rule of law in our nation, questions that Americans must not be too cynical to ask. What is behind the Clinton administration's obvious obsession with sending this boy back to Cuba before his case is aired in court? Does Fidel Castro have some hold over the president?"

"A COORDINATED CONSPIRACY"? CUBAN GOV'T, U.S. GOV'T, LEFT-WING MEDIA

"Why are members of the Cuban Interests Section permitted inside a U.S. Air Force facility to do who knows what to Elian? And why is the media so supinely content to let this story be managed by the government, 'courtesy Greg Craig?' It makes you wonder whatever happened to that old New Left mantra, 'Question Authority.'"

"Was the pre-dawn raid by armed federal agents necessary to reunite Elian Gonzalez with his father? According to the first director of the Justice Department's asylum policy and review unit, Roger Pilon, the rationales offered by the Justice Department 'do not withstand scrutiny.' ...

"'The Justice Department's night raid on the Miami home of Elian Gonzalez was an unconscionable exercise of police power, made all the worse by its exercise at the very moment a settlement was being reached,' Mr. Pilon said.

"'The plain reason for the raid was to change the posture of the legal case the Miami family had brought on Elian's behalf. When the 11th circuit panel decided unanimously last Wednesday that the INS had denied Elian his rights under the law, the department realized that it had to move quickly to try to moot the legal proceedings -- which it may have done, not by force of law but by brute force. This is a shameful episode in this nation's history.'" Source: Washington Times, Inside Politics, 4/25/00, p. A6

CLINTON ACTED SWIFTLY TO PREVENT ELIAN FROM SEEKING U.S. ASYLUM

David Von Drehle points out (Washington Post, 4/24/00, p. A17) that "Attorneys for the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez are worried that their case in federal appeals court will be torpedoed following Saturday's dramatic raid to seize the boy. ..."

CUBAN AGENTS SEEK TO ISOLATE ELIAN AND CHANGE HIS MIND

"Kendall Coffey, a Miami lawyer representing the boy's great-uncle, charged that Cuban agents are now working with Elian's father 'to get Elian to renounce his desire to remain in this country.'

"If the boy changes his mind, the case in federal appeals court is likely to evaporate, independent legal experts said, and Coffey agreed. It is 'the way the Justice Department can overcome the ruling of the appeals court, which strongly suggested that [Elian] has legal rights to apply for asylum.' ..."

"'It seems to me that a strategy the father might employ is for him to simply withdraw the asylum request and moot this whole thing out,' said Theodore Klein, a prominent Florida lawyer who was at the center of a case that the Miami relatives have used to support their own cause."

COMMUNIST FATHER, UNDER CASTRO'S CONTROL, HAS ELIAN ON THE FAST TRACK BACK TO CUBA

"'Now you've got a father who is in custody of his own child,' Klein continued. 'His father can say "Elian, my good boy, sign here." And he signs. How could the court look behind that?'"

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS DID NOT EXPECT ELIAN TO BE SEIZED

"Last week, a panel of judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there is a strong case to be made that the 6-year-old requires a full hearing on his application for asylum -- a complicated legal document signed painstakingly in a child's uncertain block letters. The court ordered that Elian remain in the United States until this question is decided. Oral arguments are scheduled for May 11."

CLINTON AND CASTRO HAVE JOINT CUSTODY OF ELIAN

"The judges relied heavily on two theories in issuing their order:

"First, that Elian's best interests are not necessarily represented by his father. The judges seemed disappointed that the government never interviewed Elian to examine this issue. They cited the fact that great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez was Elian's caretaker as a reason to pay heed to his views.

"And second, the judges theorized that the boy is able to file an asylum application -- indeed that Congress, when it wrote the law, set no limits on the age of asylum seekers. ...

"The attorneys for the Miami relatives are preparing to seek a court order allowing great-uncle Lazaro, cousin Marisleysis and a sympathetic doctor to meet with Elian. 'We need to minimize the possibility that he will be administered "therapies" by Cuban psychologists,' Coffey said."

Joyce Howard Price reports (Washington Times, 4/24/00, p. 1) that "Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, a Democrat, said President Clinton promised him three weeks ago that the boy would not be taken in the middle of the night.

"'I stood in the Oval Office with the president of the United States, and I said: "Mr. President, this is a very sensitive issue that's happening in my community. One of the things that has made it so tense is that people feel insecure 24 hours a day. There needs to be some commitment by the federal government that they will not attempt to take this child in the nighttime so that there can be a relaxation of that tension."

"'The president of the United States made that commitment to me that there would be no taking of this child at night. I felt that my -- the promise that had been made to me had been abrogated."

CLINTON HAS CONTEMPT FOR THE PEACEFUL EXERCISE OF 2d AMENDMENT RIGHTS

White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart was asked (Press Briefing, 4/24/00), "did the President know ahead of time that the raid was going to be carried out by federal agents in swat gear with automatic weapons? Did he think that was appropriate?"

Mr. Lockhart responded that "The President knew the general details of the raid. And the President does think that it's appropriate. There was information that there might be guns in the house....there is information about people in the house who had concealed weapons, permits."

NewsMax.com (4/25/00) reports that Senator Bob Smith told Mike Savage on San Francisco's KSFO that "he was shocked when he arrived at Andrews Air Force Base and was told -- though he was a U.S. Senator -- he was barred from entering the base. He was also surprised when he was greeted at Andrews -- not by military officials who alone should have jurisdiction at the base -- but armed federal [marshals] who explained they were in charge at Andrews."

AS IN NAZI GERMANY, LOYALTY HAS BEEN SHIFTED FROM THE CONSTITUTION TO THE FUHRER

"Sounds like shades of the class movie Seven Days in May. Savage quickly explained to his audience what you have is a 'putative coup.' By that, Savage said, federal officers demonstrated on the raid of Elian's home -- and the efforts to bar Smith from the air base -- that their loyalty is not to the Constitution but to the President himself."

CAJONE TRANSPLANT NEEDED

"Will the Republicans do anything about the massive abuse of power?

"Smith said, 'If they had cajones they would, but don't hold your breath Michael.'"

Robert Novak comments (Washington Post, 4/24/00, p. A25) that "When U.S. marshals forcibly removed Elian Gonzalez from public view and placed him behind locked doors at Andrews Air Force Base, he drew closer to the grasp of the Castro dictatorship's psychiatric wing."

U.S. MILITARY BASE ADMITS CASTRO OPERATIVES -- BUT EXCLUDES U.S. SENATOR BOB SMITH

"Even a U.S. senator, Bob Smith of New Hampshire, could not gain admittance to the military installation for himself and the boy's Miami relatives Saturday night. But Greg Craig, the Washington super-lawyer paid by undisclosed donors to represent Juan Miguel Gonzalez, in a moment of candor revealed that Castro diplomats from the Cuban Interests Section were present at Andrews when Elian arrived."

CLINTON WANTS BRAINWASHING TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE JUDICIARY INTERVENES

"Will Cuban psychiatrists be at the air base and later at the Wye conference center before the May 8 federal court hearing determines the boy's fate? That is Castro's clear desire, and Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida expressed fear that Elian would be 'brainwashed on U.S. soil.' Two things are certain: Desirability of life in Cuba will be drummed home to him the next two weeks, and Communist psychiatrists will join in the mind-adjustment once he arrives there, if not before."

CLINTON AND RENO ACTION CONTRADICTED INTENT OF U.S. APPEALS COURT DECISION

"This is the background of the dawn raid in Miami. Contrary to Justice Department claims that the Florida relatives defied the law, the highest federal court to hear the case last Wednesday rejected Attorney General Janet Reno's arguments. The extraordinary opinion by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals not only enjoined Reno from removing the boy from the United States until the hearing but turned down her plea to hand Elian over to his father immediately.

"However, the court did not prohibit such action, and Reno peremptorily broke off negotiations with the Miami family and sent in paramilitary agents. Had she not, there is little question that Elian on May 8 would have professed his desire to stay in Florida -- a legitimate aspiration for a 6 year old, says the 11th Circuit."

5 A.M. ON SATURDAY OF EASTER WEEKEND WAS THE BEST TIME FOR CLINTON TO LIMIT MEDIA COVERAGE OF HIS GESTAPO-STYLE RAID ON THE PRIVATE HOME OF LAW-ABIDING AMERICAN CITIZENS

"Thus, considering the Clinton administration's overriding desire for better relations with Castro, it was necessary to seize the boy. The optimum time was the Saturday of Holy Week, when members of Congress are scattered to the winds.

"It probably will not require an expert Communist brainwasher to turn around a child's preference, but Castro has revealed his intentions. Cuban officials, telling the Associated Press that Elian has been 'psychologically abused,' declared that 'psychologists would help him recover' once he is in Cuba."

PSYCHIATRISTS ARE CASTRO'S CLERGY TO CHALLENGE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND "RE-EDUCATE" ANTI-COMMUNIST APOSTATES

"The original visa application for Juan Miguel listed six psychiatrists and psychologists to come here. Any number of practitioners can be slipped into the country without fanfare -- and presumably beyond locked gates at Andrews or Wye. In any event, the Castro regime has announced they will be assigned to his retinue in Havana."

ELIAN'S SOUL WILL BE IN CASTRO'S CUSTODY

"The mere mention of 'Cuban psychiatry,' in the scandalous Soviet image, is chilling. When the World Psychiatric Association in 1983 condemned the Soviet Union for using psychiatry to punish dissidents, Cuba joined the Soviets in leaving the organization in protest. The Cubans never returned (though the Russians did) and they still follow the old Kremlin model.

"'The Politics of Psychiatry in Revolutionary Cuba,' published in 1991 by Freedom House in New York, reports Cuban state security agents are 'able to commit anyone in their custody to the forensic ward of a psychiatric institution.' One case history: Dr. Samuel Martinez Lara, a Cuban psychiatrist, was diagnosed with '[psychopathy]' and told he had to be 'insane' to oppose the regime. This is the caliber of health professionals who will treat Elian.

"An affidavit filed in the current federal court case by Marta Molina, a Cuban psychologist, said Elian upon his return 'immediately will be taken into seclusion to reindoctrinate him in the ways of the Communist ideology.' Based on her treatment of Cuban children, Molina predicted 'the indoctrination and silencing of his thoughts and memories of the United States will lead to depression and psychological confusion.'

"Castro's propaganda apparatus last week unveiled the air-conditioned government 'guest house' (with swimming pool) where Elian will live in Cuba. A dozen classmates, taken from their parents, will live with him. Will Greg Craig demand that they be reunited with their fathers or will Cuban psychiatrists suffice?"

Tim Golden writes (New York Times Sunday Magazine, 4/23/00, p. 65) that "if Castro had chosen among the cousins for one to champion his crusade, he could not have done better than Juan Miguel. Following in his father's path, Juan Miguel joined the Union of Young Communists at 15 and threw himself into the duties it presented: attending political rallies, volunteering to work on the agricultural harvest, keeping an eye on the 'revolutionary morale' of his comrades. He became a full member of the Cuban Communist Party at the tender age of 24, an achievement he called 'the proudest thing that can happen to you.' ..."

JUAN MIGUEL ABANDONED WIFE AND INFANT SON FOR "FOOLING AROUND"

"Juan Miguel, who liked to spend some of his comfortable salary at bars and discothèques, began to go with other women. Sitting around the dining-room table recently with his parents, his second wife, Nersy, 23, and their infant son, Hianny, Juan Miguel spoke uneasily about the breakup of his first marriage, mentioning the long, stressful effort to have a child. His mother reminded him of another issue. 'Yeah, it was mostly because of the way I was,' he said. 'How to put it? It was probably my fooling around with other women, being on the street.' Finally, in May 1991, they divorced. Then, several months later, they were living together again. ... After months of bed rest and prenatal checkups, Elisa gave birth on Dec. 6, 1993. ...

"For a while, some of their friends said, the little boy with his father's eyes and his mother's nose seemed to hold the couple together. But after a while, the relationship buckled again. As much as Elisa cared for Juan Miguel, she told her girlfriends, she was tired of his running around. Juan Miguel, for his part, said he felt different, too. 'She was like a sister to me,' he said. In February 1997, 11 years after they were married and two months after Elían's third birthday, they separated for good. 'It was the same as before,' Juan Miguel's mother, Mariela, 51, said, looking sadly at her son. 'The same motive.' ..."

JUAN MIGUEL PROMISED CASTRO HIS LOYALTY

"By the time Elían was rescued on [November] 25th, Juan Miguel had been put in touch with the foreign ministry in Havana, which two days later sent the United States a diplomatic note seeking the boy's return. Soon after that, Juan Miguel González of No. 170 Cossío Street, Cárdenas, found himself face to face with the Comandante en Jefe.

"Castro asked him how he felt about the situation and what he wanted to do. 'He told me I could do what I pleased,' Juan Miguel said. 'If I wanted to leave, I could leave. Nonetheless, I told him no. My decision was clear.'"

JUAN MIGUEL'S CONDUCT WAS SCRIPTED BY FIDEL

"Having taken the measure of his man, Castro was quick to recognize the episode's political potential. ...

"It is probably fair to assume that Juan Miguel would have been willing to swim to Miami to pick up his son. Still, he may have been stopped from going right away not so much to prevent his defection (whatever the strength of his principles, his family could always have been kept behind) but also because the Cuban government was in no great hurry for the drama to end. Castro told visitors as early as December that he expected the case to drag on in American courts for months, and he has managed it accordingly, ordering up protest rallies, television programs, and 'Free Elían' T-shirts on a massive scale. Within weeks of his rescue, Elían had become the biggest revolutionary symbol since Che."

COWARDLY TYRANT CLINTON EMULATES HIS COMMUNIST ROLE MODELS

Cal Thomas points out (Washington Times, 4/26/00, p. A14) that "Until recently, the knock on the door in the middle of the night by armed agents of the state was the history of Jews in Nazi Germany, or Russians in the old Soviet Union. It was the stuff of novels by Arthur Koestler and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Then came Ruby Ridge and Waco and now Miami. No wonder Fidel Castro praises Janet Reno and Bill Clinton. They performed as he would."

AMERICA CAN CLAIM NO MORAL SUPERIORITY --

"The frightening pictures tell the story of a 6-year-old boy seized by heavily armed and masked agents of the Clinton-Reno dictatorship. Miss Reno claimed there were 'reports' of guns in the Gonzalez home. One recalls the 'reports' of child abuse at Waco to justify the assault that Miss Reno turned into a crematorium. Beijing can't wait for the next American challenge to China's human rights record or a mention of the Tiananmen Square massacre. ..."

-- SO LONG AS POLITICAL SCUM RULE OUR LAND

"This administration would not order attacks on Afghanistan during Ramadan. It has honored Jewish holidays. But for the mostly Catholic neighborhood of Little Havana in Miami, it didn't mind disrespecting the holiest weekend on the Christian calendar. ..."

"REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP" IS AN OXYMORON

"Where are the Republicans in this? What happened to the pledge by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, to pass legislation granting citizenship to Elian Gonzalez? All we get from them are worthless after-the-fact condemnations."

"'This is a day of glory for our people,' Mr. Castro said. But he added: 'Tomorrow the battle continues.'

"About 400,000 people were called to a historic sugar refinery to celebrate the breakthrough in the personal and political drama that has gripped the island for five months. ...