Posted on 08/23/2006 8:29:37 AM PDT by The Bronze Titan
Armed (federal?) agents bring Elian to Georgetown
Human Events, May 19, 2000
What appeared to be a group of armed federal agents-escorted by a motorcade of U.S. Park Police and Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Policebrought Elian Gonzalez to a Georgetown mansion on the evening of Saturday, May 6, 2000, for an event sponsored by R.J. Reynolds tobacco heir Smith Bagley.
Bagley and his wife Elizabeth. are major contributors to the Democratic Party and to President Bill Clinton, who has visited their Georgetown home several times for fundraising events. Mrs. Bagley formerly served as Clinton's ambassador to Portugal, and the couple are frequent guests at the White House, most recently appearing on the guest list for the "Millennium Eve" dinner on December 31.
The Bagleys also run the Arca Foundation, which uses part of the family tobacco fortune to promote pro-Cuban causes, including normalizing relations with the regime of Communist dictator Fidel Castro. Over the past five years, Arca reports that it has spent $3,048,100 in support of its Cuban campaign.
After the Associated -Press broke the news of Elian's Saturday night Georgetown soiree, former Clinton impeachment lawyer Greg Craig, whocourtesy of anonymous donors to the National Council of Churches and, previously, the Methodist Church-represents Elian's father (and, in effect, Fidel Castro) told the Washington Post that he had arranged the little get together so Elian and his father could "get out of the compound out there in Maryland and socialize."
Smoked Salmon and Shrimp
The evening event for the six-year-old Cuban boy featured a menu of smoked salmon and shrimp.
Other than.the Smith Bagleys and Craig, the guest list is unknown-although it is reported to have included Cuban diplomats from the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, D.C. When a reporter asked White House spokesman Joe Lockhart three days later if the evening had been arranged so Democratic high donors could gawk at Elian, Lockhart erupted, "What basis do you have for alleging that?"
Said the reporter: "Well, why else would a bunch of 20 very rich Democratic fundraisers want to, you know, be at a house to meet Elian Gonzalez?"
A "source close to Craig" told NBC News, "Of course it was not a fundraising event. Not one dollar changed hands. It was an opportunity for Mr. Gonzalez to meet some of the city's most prominent citizens. It was a party for the little boy . . . balloons and cake."
Of course, the Clintons did not exchange money with those who spent the night in the Lincoln bedroom or attended coffees in the White House Map Room, either.
The party fundraiser or otherwise-concluded, after four hours, at 9:40 p.m., at which time Elian and his father, escorted by their police motorcade, returned to the Carmichael Farm plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where they have been staying.
No Answers
When asked by HUMAN EVENSs if the apparently armed man seen in a Reuters photograph escorting a manifestly unenthusiastic Elian out of the Georgetown party was an agent of the U.S. government, a Justice Department spokesperson at first said she believed the escorts were from the U.S. Marshals Service.
When asked if this was the only excursion Elian had taken away from the grounds of the Maryland plantation, the spokesman at first said the Justice Department could have no way of knowing. But when reminded that Elian was apparently escorted to Georgetown by U.S. marshals-who serve under the Justice Department-the spokesperson said the department would indeed know of any trips Elian had taken in the company of U.S. marshals, but that she was uncertain if those were, in fact, marshals who had escorted Elian on Saturday.
The spokesperson said she would get back to HUMAN EVENTS with answers as to whether the escorts were U.S. marshals, whether Elian has gone anywhere else but this Georgetown party, and, whether as a matter of policy he and his father are allowed to travel anywhere at all without an escort of U.S. marshals.
After a follow-up call, the Justice Department still had no answers.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200005/ai_n8890026
A lot of folks agreed and , unlike Mr. Zizza, they won't come clean.
That's ridiculous.
Elian's mother brought him here in pursuit of freedom and upon her unfortunate death, the US INS Department assigned custody to the Miami Gonzalez family pending family court proceedings (which never happened).
This baloney about Elian being "kidnapped" has got to end.
Since Elian's father was not married to Elian's mother at the time little Elian was conceived or thereafter, this matter should have been reviewed in a family court to verify paternity and allow the Miami family to present their arguments as to why Elian should stay with them.
I know a lot about this case firsthand, Rodger - and believe me, there was nothing "correct" about the way this situation was handled.
It is the indecision that I think merits attention.
My argument, at the time, was that we needed to be consistent in the type of situations like the Elian Gonzales affair.
And that we had not ever been, and would not be consistent in such cases. Politics would always intrude. We (as a nation) would not have made the same arguments, consistently, were it a child in a similar situation - let's say from China - for geo-political reasons. But domestic politics - Cuban-Americans in Florida - provided a political demand, ostensibly (and legitemately) against dictators, that, in fact would not have been made in many other situations.
For me, I prayed for two things - for Elian to be relieved from the emotional tug-of-war no child of his age should be put through, and that God grant him the providence to learn of, understand and be free from the tyranny of Castro, if not then, then in time.
You could have adopted him and spend your earnings raising him. It is easy to sit back and complain...put your money where your mouth is. Why should I have to pay for illegals?
My take on the situation:Send the boy back,or the rest of the family dies.Castro don't play.The whole situation was ugly.As someone commented,he will be treated better than the average Cuban.PR is an amazing thing.
Wasn't my government, than was Clinton-Reno's government, you remember them, the ones who burned up innocent people in Waco?
Perhaps. But he won't be free.
Not only Mike Gallagher but also our so called 'beloved' Tony Snow was impassioned on the father's rights issue and was in favor of sending poor Elian back.
How anyone can send a child back to a country like Cuba is not only incomprehensible but cruel. It defies logic and questions their morality, decency, and humanity.
I have never been as ashamed of our country as what we did to this poor child.
President Reagan had a similar case in which a teenager named Walter refused to return to Soviet Russia. Reagan kept the case churning in the courts for years until the boy turned 18 and could apply for citizenship on his own. Elian's case could have been rolling around in the courts for 12 years - death row prisoners get longer legal appeals.
When Diane Sawyer asked Elian where he wanted to be, he said the U.S., and let's not forget that Elian's mother died so that Elian could be free.
It just goes to show the power of how an issue is politically framed. Why would the issue of "Father's Rights" pre-empt or trump "The Right of Freedom" ?
WHEN WOULD IT EVER?
Thousands of parents sent their children out of Europe during WWII. Would you return a child to his father as he is walking into a death camp?
This is what the blippen media does best - frame the argument on their terms, and "Freedom" is the least of their pet projects.
How people like Gallagher, Tony Snow, this author Tony Zizza , and other so-called conservatives could fall for the "Father" over "Freedom" scenario literally makes me sick.
I hope this Zizza guy feels better after his meaningless 'mea culpa.' Something tells me it hasn't improved Elian's prospects any .
Nonsense.
Oh, I see. You're one of ~those~ types. :-)
Elian didn't need my money, sweetheart. He already had even his college paid by private citizens. And he wouldn't have spent one day on the public dime.
So, rest easy. He wouldn't have stolen a single penny from ya.
FWIW, if I could have adopted him and spent the rest of my life paying to raise him - I would have done it in a second. Just to have saved him from a life in Cuba under Castro. But see...that's just me.
That was a 'no-brainer' as to what was right and what was wrong.
This wet/dry law is totally idiotic.
Fish in territorial waters have more rights than a family fleeing to freedom from Cuba.
Elian Gonzalez had survived the impossible. I read reports of dolphins encircling his inner tube protecting him from sharks.
Poor kid never knew the real sharks were named Reno and Clinton and all the misguided and morally bankrupt people who know nothing about Freedom, and what desperation people turn to in its pursuit.
AMEN!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.