The Elian Gonzalez Travesty: Where Was Hillary?

The American Spectator ^ | March 11, 2016 | Paul Kengor

[Cincinatus' Wife]

[snip]

..Elian awoke to be spotted by two fishermen. He was brought safely to American shores, vindicating the sacrifice his mother made. She literally gave her life for him. He was free at last.

Or so he hoped.

Elian was taken in by relatives honoring his mother’s wishes. The story immediately made international headlines, and then Fidel descended, holding a staged press conference in Havana with Elian’s (divorced) father. Obviously not free to speak his mind, Elian’s dad demanded the child’s return.

What would the Clinton administration do? What would President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Attorney General Janet Reno, do?

As the media assembled in profusion outside the tiny Florida home in Little Havana where Elian was staying, we got our answer. Reno issued an edict to the family to surrender the boy by April 13. The family refused.

And so, late at night on Good Friday 2000, while most of America slept, as did Elian, armed federal agents from the INS grabbed their gear and guns and got ready. As the night grew late, they stormed the one-story house before dawn, broke down the door, and seized the screaming Elian, whisking away the terrified child.

...Another great victory for Fidel.

[snip]

“I believe personally that this little boy should be with his father,” said Clinton in April 2000. At the time, the First Lady was running for the U.S. Senate seat in New York, where her opponent was Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who she accused of trying to “politicize” Elian. It was an amazing charge. Giuliani was defending Elian, not politicizing him.

More than that, both Giuliani and (ironically) even Vice President Al Gore supported legislation to grant Elian permanent resident status in the United States. Hillary Clinton not only opposed the legislation but accused Giuliani of “turning this young boy into a political football.”

[snip]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Ted Cruz Calls Elian Gonzalez Saga “A Sad Day For America”

"........“As president that’s exactly what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna enforce the law. We are going to deport those here illegally, secure the borders, and keep this country safe,” he continued. “And that astonishes many in the media but it should be the president’s responsibility, especially in an age of terror.”

Cruz emphasized the frontline of terror was both in airports and the southern border. Turning to Gonzalez, who was returned to Cuba after a long custody battle, the Texas senator emphasized the episode as a sad chapter in American history.

“I suspect you are referring to Elian Gonzalez, who they actually sent goons in to snatch a six-year-old boy and wrongly return him to an oppressive Communist dictatorship. That was a sad day for America when you saw the federal government sending stormtroopers with machine guns to grab a six-year-child whose mother had died trying to give him freedom and instead for us to send him back to Fidel Castro.”

[McGruff]

Ted Cruz Calls Elian Gonzalez Saga “A Sad Day For America”

I’ll agree with that. And where was Governor Bush during this. Hiding somewhere.

[Doogle]

....will ODUNGO meet with fugitive Joanne Chesimard while visiting? Possible talks about a pardon?

[rrrod]

To this day the topic of Elian is HOT in S Florida. Folks need to remember his mother died just off shore while bringing him to freedom.

[Twinkie]

Any time anybody comments on the “Clintons”; it’s always
deflected back & cast as “Bush’s fault”. - I wish the
people of this country would get a bait of those two
Grifters & they better do it soon. Bill & Hill both are
about at the end of their life expectancy. (I’m about
Hillary’s age; and I can attest to the age factor &
deterioration.)

[exDemMom]

And now that poor little boy is a bitter, angry young man, filled with socialist nonsense and ripe for erupting in violence against those he sees as his oppressors.

The damage that the Clintons did to this innocent little boy, taking him away from loving relatives and delivering him to Castro to raise as a warrior for communism is unforgiveable.

I wonder what happened to Elian’s father, after Castro and the Clintons used him to get Elian into Castro’s clutches? We’ve seen Elian paraded about since then, but what about his father?

[ryderann]

I remember that after he was turned over to the Cuban government, and while still in the US, the boy was forced to take Miltown.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Elian will get over it. I’m more concerned with the interrogator who tortured McCain in the prison camp. He should face American justice.

[originalbuckeye]

And don’t ever forget that Elian was housed, with his father and a bunch of his school friends, at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland, so he could be reindoctrinated into Communism. I was speechless that the Clintons arranged for him to be taught Communism ON OUR SOIL. But let’s face it, Leftists have never thought about Communism the same way we view it. To Leftists, Communism is a better way of life......as long as they are in charge of it.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Anyone remember that week? Elian was taken from his family by armed force on a Sunday night.
By Wednesday, SOUTH PARK had developed an episode on some eastern European acrobat children fleeing to the USA, the episode ended with agents breaking into the place where Kenny was at the time and he was machineguned exactly like this photo.
From From Sunday night to Wednesday night. Wonder if the SOUTH PARK developers paid their artists overtime.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A good example of "caring for the children" was on display during the Elian tragedy when Marian Wright-Edelman, Hillary Clinton and the Children's Defense Fund, - - Dr. Irwin Redlener (Children's Health Fund), Reno's Justice Dept. hand picked pediatrician being passed off as a psychiatrist, walked hand in hand with Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, Thom White Wolf Fasset (General Secretay of the United Methodist Church), Joan Brown Campbell - - (National Council of Churches) and the mainstream media, insisting a child would be healthier and happier raised by Castro in communist Cuba.

[AC86UT89]

I’ve always thought the way Clinton handled the Elian Gonzales incident in 2000 angered enough voters - especially Cuban- Americans- in Florida to move the state - and the election - narrowly to George W Bush later that year. Had Clinton fought to keep the little Cuban boy in the US, Gore would have won the election in 2000.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Elian moved from Wye River estate to Youth for Understanding International Exchange : Elain, family moving to Washington “….. and we have Marian Wright Edelman,Children’s Defense Fund and Judith Viorst down the street,” said resident Laine Kaufman, referring, respectively, to the child advocate and the writer. “And of course we have Gregory Craig.” ................. The reason for the move is unclear. Some news reports indicate that Cuban diplomats were weary of having to get permission from the State Department to travel 25 miles outside Washington to visit the family. Other accounts had the group feeling isolated at Wye River.

Another child advocate (Janet Reno’s hand picked pediatrician for Elian) Dr. Irwin Redlener— Children’s Heath Fund

via 2002 FR Thread

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/601506/posts

and another

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/601467/posts

[armydawg505]

I guess this storm trooper fits in well now with Obama’s regime. I wonder if he has any regrets or gets any push back now over what he did, pointing that rifle in the face of a little boy? He should.

[armydawg505]

Maybe our Emperor can discuss that with his gracious hosts during his visit to North Vietnam. And all the other missing Americans and the torture our guys received..... You think any of that will come up? Not a chance.

[bog trotter]

Just where he was when Terri Schivo’s rat husband wanted her starved and dehydrated to death so he could get on with his “sweetie”. ABSENT!

[Jimmy Valentine]

Bill Clinton will burn in Hell until the stars burn out for what he did. Elian was rescued by Dolphins who kept the Sharks away. The Cubans here declared him an “elegua” , a holy child protected by God. The day he was stolen is the day I joined Free Republic.