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11/25/02: 3 Years Ago Today, Little Elian Pulled From the Ocean
AP

Posted on 11/25/2002 12:53:06 AM PST by Recovering_Democrat

On this day in history, 1999:

Five-year-old Elian Gonzalez was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The boy, his mother, stepfather, and eleven other Cubans had boarded a small boat in Cuba and attempted to cross the ocean to the U.S. Elian was one of three to survive (his mother and stepfather both drowned). He lived with relatives in Miami until he was seized by the INS in an early morning raid on April 22, 2000. He returned to Cuba with his father on June 28.


TOPICS: Announcements; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: castro; clinton; cuba; elian; gregcraig; liberty; reno
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Let us never forget the child who was returned to a Communist land, destined to be a symbol and puppet for the totalitarian regime of the murderer Fidel Castro.
1 posted on 11/25/2002 12:53:06 AM PST by Recovering_Democrat
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To: Recovering_Democrat
Thank God Cuban-Americans vote Republican. I believe their votes are why George W. Bush is in the White House today.
2 posted on 11/25/2002 12:54:14 AM PST by Recovering_Democrat
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To: Luis Gonzalez
ping
3 posted on 11/25/2002 1:01:40 AM PST by agitator
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To: agitator
Thanksgiving 1999...

Elian/Donato washed Bush ashore in Miami---

gore-reno-clinton out to sea!

Seems like yesterday!

4 posted on 11/25/2002 1:13:34 AM PST by f.Christian
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To: Recovering_Democrat
I wonder if Carter asked Castro of Elians well-being?

Nah... he was too occupied licking Castro's boots.

5 posted on 11/25/2002 1:20:29 AM PST by johnny7
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To: Recovering_Democrat
The clintonized INS and Justice Department sent Elian back
to Cuba at gunpoint while rolling out the red carpet for 20 (and probably thousands more) osama bin laden loyalists.
6 posted on 11/25/2002 1:21:48 AM PST by billclintonwillrotinhell
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To: Recovering_Democrat
Thanks for the reminder of Elian's saga. I often wonder what he's thinking and whether he'll set off again from the shores of miserable, rotten Cuba.
7 posted on 11/25/2002 1:52:52 AM PST by PoisedWoman
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To: Recovering_Democrat
And "the photo" of what soon followed reminded enough Red Nation citizens of the naked brutality of the Klintons/Gore Regime to save us from 4-8 more years of hell.
8 posted on 11/25/2002 2:22:07 AM PST by glc1173@aol.com
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To: Recovering_Democrat
The Clinton's, Reno and Holder will all burn in HELL for sending that poor child back to Cuba. Political opportunism at its worst.

Regards,

9 posted on 11/25/2002 2:24:19 AM PST by Jimmy Valentine
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To: Luis Gonzalez
Elian ping.
10 posted on 11/25/2002 5:17:23 AM PST by TxBec
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To: agitator; TxBec
Listen to Donato's memories of that rescue on Radio FreeRepublic.
11 posted on 11/25/2002 5:45:47 AM PST by Luis Gonzalez
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To: Recovering_Democrat; Registered
One of Registered's best works


12 posted on 11/25/2002 5:47:58 AM PST by McGruff
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To: Luis Gonzalez
Three years already? Any update has to how he is doing?
13 posted on 11/25/2002 5:48:20 AM PST by RepubMommy
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To: Recovering_Democrat
Illegal alien returned to home country.
14 posted on 11/25/2002 5:49:25 AM PST by nolaw0ady
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To: Recovering_Democrat
FAMILY VALUES PING ! Elian is with his father- nuff said. Where's US Senator Bob Smith when you need him...
15 posted on 11/25/2002 5:56:50 AM PST by freepersup
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To: nolaw0ady
Illegal alien returned to home country.

Ignorant poster types nonsense.

16 posted on 11/25/2002 5:58:40 AM PST by RMDupree
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To: freepersup
Elian is with his father- nuff said.

Father = Fidel Castro. Nuff said.

17 posted on 11/25/2002 5:59:44 AM PST by RMDupree
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To: nolaw0ady
Your legal ignorance speaks volumes

Reno's Raid was Based On a Tissue of Lies

Andrew P. Napolitano

Bill Clinton and Janet Reno have been insisting that Saturday's armed assault on Lazaro Gonzalez's house was necessary to uphold the: "rule of law." Who are they trying to kid? Presumably not the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which Tuesday enjoined the government from moving Elian Gonzalez outside the jurisdiction of US courts specifically, to the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington. The order also gives Ms. Reno until 4 p.m. today to explain why the court should not appoint an independent guardian to represent Elian.

The Elian Gonzalez case is a custody dispute. In Florida, as in all states, custody disputes are addressed by state family courts, not federal courts, and focus on one paramount issue: What are the best interests of the child not the interests of a parent, not the interests of a president, not the interests of a foreign government. Has there ever before been a case of a child's custody being changed by the force of the federal government without a specific court order authorizing it?

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 US Circuit Court of Appeals that ordered Ms. Reno to keep Elian in the US and denied her request for an injunction requiring Mr. Gonzalez to turn the boy over.

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 after 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 US citizenship once they've been in the US 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 notide Jo Elian's lawyers, could have peacefully transferred custody.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Ms. Reno, fearing accusations of a cover-up, 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. But Associated Press photographer Albert Diaz was hiding in a bedroom. He positioned himself in time to take the shot seen round the world: a federal agent aiming an automatic weapon at the chest of a six-year-old boy.

In a free society the moral legitimacy of government depends on its fidelity to the truth and to established law. Mr. Clinton and Ms. Reno, after more than seven years, have shown once again that they don't know--or don't care--how much they to weaken the fabric of our culture.

Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2000.

Mr. Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge, practices law in Newark, NJ, and teaches constitutional law at Seton Hall Law School.

18 posted on 11/25/2002 6:14:35 AM PST by McGruff
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To: Recovering_Democrat
In North Carolina, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Dept seized my 4 year old son from his mother as she hid him away from me, all the while hiding out with her illicit man friend. Seized him I tell ya ! Yes, they too would have used force if there was resistance. And yes, the big bad judge issued the legal ruling permitting this seizure.

FWIW I raised my son as a single parent from age 4-18. He is an upstanding productive citizen and will turn 23 next year.

NEWSFLASH: It is the way of law enforcement, to use force if need be, to enforce the law, hence the name, l-a-w e-n-f-o-r-c-e-m-e-n-t. OBEY the law, illegal aliens. OBEY the law, American citizens. OBEY the law, Miami residents.

FAMILY VALUES became a secondary issue to the Republicans. Just like their liberal couterparts on so many other issues, they chose ideology first !
19 posted on 11/25/2002 6:16:01 AM PST by freepersup
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To: RMDupree
Hardly, nice try.
20 posted on 11/25/2002 6:17:04 AM PST by freepersup
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