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Is this the writing of a man who thinks “Castro ain't such a bad fellow”?

However much his Cuban father loves him, his son -- in mind and soul, if not body -- belongs, after all, to the Cuban state.

Katie Couric, NBC's prominent political scientist, speaks sardonically of those who do not want our illustrious attorney general to send Elian to a place without the right to dissent. They must, she said, "be talking about Miami.

Some of those people in Miami who appall Couric with their zeal have experienced -- as she has not -- what Pascal Fontaine describes in the section on Cuba in "The Black Book of Communism" (Harvard University Press):

"To control the population, the Direccion Special del Ministerio del Interior (DSMI) recruits chivatos (informers) by the thousand. The DSMI works in three different fields: One section keeps a file on every Cuban citizen; another keeps track of public opinion; the third, in charge of the `ideological line,' keeps an eye on the church and its various congregations through infiltration."

The U.S. clergy who have so ardently supported the blood rights of Elian's father have not mentioned a report in the April 10 issue of Editor & Publisher about the press freedoms that readers and writers enjoy in Cuba:

"A favorite tactic is placing reporters under house arrest to prevent them from covering events that could prove embarrassing to the government. Upwards of two dozen journalist were subjected to that treatment in the past six months."

Che Guevara's laughter reverberates as I listen to the passionate indictments of those of us who are so cruel as to not understand the heartfelt wisdom of Janet Reno: "The law is very clear. A child who's lost his mother belongs with the sole surviving parent."

Even when the ultimate parent is Big Brother? On April 18, the United Nations Human Rights Commission condemned Cuba for its "continued violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

But now the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that, despite Clinton and Reno, Elian will finally have his due-process day in court, and may yet live in freedom.

- Nat Hentoff "Elian's Human Rights" 4/24/00