Posted on 08/01/2004 2:57:57 PM PDT by Libloather
4 years after return to Cuba, Elian a normal schoolboy
BY MAKI BECKER
New York Daily News
Posted on Sat, Jul. 31, 2004
NEW YORK - (KRT) - Elian Gonzalez, now 10, hits the books in Cardenas, Cuba, where he lives with his father.
Four years after little Elian Gonzalez was plucked from the seas off Florida's coast and sparked an international custody battle, the young boy is leading a sheltered and almost normal life back in Cuba.
Elian lives with his father in their hometown of Cardenas and he still sports the same impish grin that captivated the world back in 2000.
In an interview with NBC's "Dateline" to air Sunday, Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, says he has generally kept Elian out of the limelight, even moving to a secret location in town to avoid the press.
"The media (in Miami) intimidated him, pressured him most of all," Gonzalez said in his first interview in three years. "It totally overwhelmed him."
As Elian's American relatives fought to keep him in the U.S. and his father sought to take him back to Cuba, hundreds of reporters camped out outside their Miami home, recording every movement of the photogenic little boy.
The custody clash even led to a war of words between Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and the boy's fiercely anti-Castro American relatives.
The stalemate ended dramatically as heavily armed federal officers stormed the house in the middle of the night, snatched the terrified boy and took him into protective custody.
Elian still grieves for his mother who drowned when their boat capsized on its way to Florida, Gonzalez said, but he has adjusted to life well.
"I can truly say that since his return, my son has never had to see a psychologist, or anyone else," Gonzalez told "Dateline NBC."
Elian is learning karate and has two girlfriends, Gonzalez reports.
A couple more things.
Yes, for your information, he did skip the picnics, etc.
You say he should have quit his job. As I said, he found out after the fact, what had happened inside that house. By watching the news.
He is a fairly high ranking agent on a counter terrorism task force.
He is helping to keep people like you and your children safe.
He does all sorts of things that could cost him his life.
But you couldn't possibly appreciate that could you?
Finally, I have never seen a Christian use a blessing from the Bible in a hateful way like you did.....
****May God reward your ex-husband according to his works, pressed down, shaken together, as he has done to others, may it be done to him.****
You did not mean that in a kind way. Shame on you.
Hello Elianistas!
I watched this clip with Donato last night. Wedged in between all of "the US is so evil & mean" BS, the truth was plain for anyone who wanted to see it.
The Cuban government has Elian trapped as a little prisoner, only to be trotted out for his Papa Fidel's rallies. Juan Miguel is back to waiting tables and I sincerely hope that deep inside, he is hating himself for his cowardice and stupidity.
I continue to pray for Elian and he remains on my home page until the day he is truly free. Whether it be by Castro's eventual death or by another flight to freedom.
I will NEVER FORGET!
And I wanted to add that I got a chance to meet one of the agents that participated in the raid, who later blew the whistle on the whole anti-Cuban attitude infesting the INS department. He was truly repentant of being there, but was yet another individual who got caught up in the whole stinkin' crap of the Clinton administration.
He was a fine gentleman who was later transferred away. I pray for him and his lovely family as well.
Thank you for mentioning the agent that did not approve of what went on there.
Just like my ex-husband.
Something is, and has long been, wrong with Janet Reno's judgment. (And you're right that the media never questioned it.) It probably has nothing to do with Parkinson's, however.
As far as I know, Parkinson's doesn't affect reasoning and judgment. The Pope apparently suffers from Parkinson's, yet is said to be sharp as ever.
Rick was a true-blue sort of guy. I really liked him and held no grudge against him for being there that night.
He was quite simply a good person caught up in bad circumstances. And it took some real guts to blow the whistle like he did!
He does sound like a good guy.
Furthermore you WROTE:
To: rodguy911
I don't much like your "jack booted thugs" comment.
My ex-husband is a federal agent and he was one of the agents in the house that night. He hated every minute of it.
It tore him up to have to participate in that. He had no choice. He did what he was ordered to do. The other agents with him didn't like it either.
So, say what you like about the Clintons, Reno, etc. , but the individual agents were not the problem.
148 posted on 08/02/2004 12:50:23 AM EDT by texasflower (in the event of the Rapture, the Bush White House will be unmanned.)
Make up your mind.
"As far as I know, Parkinson's doesn't affect reasoning and judgment."
FYI
According to these studies, I believe it does. No woman that has parkinson's should have been allowed to be AG:
Psychotic symptoms in Parkinson's disease: pathophysiology and management.
Bosboom JL, Wolters ECh.
Research Institute Neurosciences Vrije Universiteit, Department of Neurology, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease, in which mainly dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra in the brain degenerate, leading to a depletion of dopamine (DA) in the striatum. The most important motor disturbances of the disease are bradykinesia (slowing down of movement), hypokinesia (poverty of movement), rigidity (muscle stiffness), tremor and postural instability. ******Besides these well-known motor symptoms, non-motor symptoms may develop, such as depression, cognitive impairment and psychosis. Psychotic symptoms constitute a relatively common but nevertheless serious complication, with visual hallucinations and paranoid delusions often being most prominent.****** These symptoms are important contributors to patient and caregiver distress and are often important risk factors for nursing home placement. Exogenous (related to therapeutic interventions) factors are of major importance but endogenous (related to the disease process itself) factors might also contribute to the development of psychotic symptoms in PD. Therapeutic strategies comprise reduction of antiparkinsonian treatment, cholinesterase inhibitors and atypical antipsychotics. As psychotic symptoms in PD are often influenced by both endogenous and exogenous factors, a combination of strategies may be chosen.
Publication Types:
* Review
* Review, Tutorial
PMID: 15155149 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Eur J Neurol. 2004 May;11(5):347-51. Related Articles, Links
Click here to read
A registry-based, case-control investigation of Parkinson's disease with and without cognitive impairment.
Papapetropoulos S, Ellul J, Polychronopoulos P, Chroni E.
Department of Neurology, Regional University Hospital of Patras, Rion, Patras, Greece. spyrpap@hotmail.com
In approximately 40% of the patients, Parkinson's disease (PD) is complicated by cognitive impairment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of cognitive impairment on disease severity and motor function in idiopathic PD patients. Forty-one PD patients with cognitive impairment (PD-CI) (Mini-Mental State Examination < or =24) and 41 PD patients without cognitive impairment (PD-Control) matched for age at onset and duration of the disease were examined using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). PD patients with cognitive impairment had overall poorer motor function, worse rigidity (both axial and limb) and bradykinesia, as well as worse performance in activities of daily living compared with matched PD patients without cognitive impairment. This could either be attributed to a direct effect of cognitive impairment on parkinsonian symptoms or to decreased compliance of patients during clinical examination. PD patients should be routinely and carefully screened for dementia and caregivers should be aware of the effect of dementia on PD.
PMID: 15142230 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Nice.
Bash me for being a Yankee fan all you like, but I'm guessing you know what you can do with the "You have no clue" slur...
My clue is this: Elian's father is his only living parent. He should have the liberty to claim his son if he can...And he could...And did. And I don't care what country he comes from, even if it is communist Cuba. You, nor no one else has the right to deny him that basic human liberty...It's all about family. Don't like it? Protect your own family, but leave others alone, I say.
Don't be too hard on him. He basically had a gun to his head during the whole thing.
"My clue is this: Elian's father is his only living parent."
Which of course, gives him ownership of Elian.
"He should have the liberty to claim his son if he can...And he could...And did."
He did did he?
He claimed his son AFTER having his entire family moved into a Cuban government compound where they could be watched by Castro's security people for "safety reasons". He didn't claim Elian when he called to make sure that Elian had arrived safe, and he can't claim that Elisabet took Elian out of the country without his knowledge, because he himself gave the Miami family the heads-up of Elisabet's and Elian's departure. When originally interviewed by US State Depertment people he responded "no" when directly asked whether he wanted Elian returned to Cuba or not.
"And I don't care what country he comes from, even if it is communist Cuba. You, nor no one else has the right to deny him that basic human liberty..."
The only basic human liberty being violated here is Elian's basic, God-given right to liberty. No one considers Elian's rights, only Juan Carlos's rights, and Juan Carlos has no rights in Cuba.
If Juan Carlos had all this freedom to claim his son, what took him so long to get here?
Why wasn't he allowed to bring his WHOLE family? His wife's children from an earlier marriage where left behind being watched by Castro's security.
Why wasn't he allowed to go anywhere without Cuban security people?
Faced with all that, why the hell are you discussing basic human liberties?
I said: "Bash me for being a Yankee fan all you like".
And I didn't bash you. Do you know who Louis Gonzalez is? He plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks and got the hit that beat the Yanks in the World Series a couple of years back.
As for the rest of your post...Well...You pretty much have my opinion. Unlike others, I'm too conservative to go against "Family" for political reasons. Even family from communist Cuba.
I meant to type "at", not "in" the house.
He was not in the house. That was a mistake that I didn't notice.
I said he was "one" of the agents that was there.
How does that mean I was defending them all?
The next few lines have "he" or "him" 6 times.
I said the individual agents were not the problem.
If you took that to mean that all of the agents were innocent, then I apologize for not being clear enough for you.
It was to mean that the raid was ordered by Reno, not a field agent.
Sorry to confuse you honey.
Oh, and please don't give me one of your biblical blessings.
You don't know how to use them properly. You used it to be hateful.
Perhaps you should spend some time worrying about your own issues.
He had plenty of choice. If he was so morally opposed to his orders, he should have resigned.
Is there any order your husband would refuse to follow? What if his superiors had told him to go round up some Jews?
I think its terrible that Elain's mother died bringing him to freedom, and Elian was wrenched away by force from a loving family, to be returned to a father who was surrounded at all times by agents of the Cuban government. No one benefited from all this, except for Uncle Fidel who has a great propoganda tool.
He wasn' t in the house. He was "at" the house in the backyard. In my anger over something another poster wrote, I used the wrong word.
You have no business determining what he should or should not have done.
There is a big difference between not resigning over a raid lasting a couple of minutes, that he had no idea was going to be conducted in that manner and being ordered to round up jews.
Please. I have had enough of the self[righteousness of posters like you.
Why were Federal agents even involved in what was, at the end of the day, a simple custody dispute?
What was his role in the whole damn thing?
Only a few knew anything about the details of the raid.
If your ex is such a high-ranking Federal agent, I'm sure he knew what was going on. You can't have it both ways.
Mods, will you please pull my post #10?
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