Will Reno's Raid Be Her Undoing?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 22, 2000 | by Timothy W. Maier

Fallout from the Elian Gonzalez fiasco shrouds Janet Reno and the Clinton administration. Congressional Republicans have launched hearings to see where the buck should stop.

Enraged by the Fidel Castro-like tactics used in the seizing of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, congressional Republicans immediately called for an investigation into Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to send armed federal agents to snatch the child from the home of Miami relatives in the dark hours of April 22.

"I think both branches -- the legislative and judicial -- should look into this in depth because this is a frightening event" House Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas told reporters following the raid in which federal agents armed with submachine guns stormed the home, battered in the door and tore up the house. On NBC's Meet the Press, DeLay reiterated, "You bet there will be congressional hearings. I was sickened and, afterwards, I was ashamed."

According to Democratic Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, President Clinton promised him that Elian would not be taken in a home invasion in the middle of the night. Clinton gave his word and then broke it, Graham says. But the senator adds that the president may not have been informed of the details.

Elian's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, denounced the move: "Janet Reno and everybody else, don't say you came here with no violence and that this boy's okay! How can this boy be okay when he had a gun to his head?" Renowned Los Angeles child psychologist Robert Butterworth says Reno's decision will add to this child's long-term trauma. "I cannot believe that a government psychologist would have approved this plan. This sounds like tactics used by Castro."

Clinton approved Reno's actions immediately after he and Vice President Al Gore were grilled by prosecutors for four hours over possible campaign-finance abuses, wiping that event from the news with the certainty of a missile attack. A congressional probe of the home invasion may not have approval in the polls at the moment, but Republicans seem to be acting on their civil-libertarian principles. Even Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. George W. Bush ignored polls indicating early public approval of the raid and blasted the Clinton administration.

House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma found it "troubling that the Clinton-Gore administration may be using selective law enforcement to pursue the Elian case with such overzealous vigor" even as it all but ignores enforcement of gun and campaign-finance laws, as well as laws against the stealing of U.S. nuclear and missile secrets.

House Committee on Government Reform Chairman Dan Burton of Indiana says Reno's action was "reckless and it unnecessarily endangered lives. The American people have a right to feel safe and secure in their homes. They shouldn't have to worry about federal agents breaking down their door when there is no illegal activity going on."

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said hearings will be held by that panel in early May to find out why Reno failed to seek a court order and relied on an Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS, order of dubious legality. Reno and Clinton claim a federal court approved their handling of this case, but no such order exists. The lower-court position that Reno had acted within her discretion in allowing Elian's father to withdraw the boy's asylum application also is suspect after the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals suggested the lower court was wrong because Elian had signed for the asylum hearing and Reno had failed to interview the child.

Indeed, Congress will want a series of answers and accountability for every nickel spent on this commando operation. Did Reno's indecisiveness lead to what may become the most expensive "rescue mission" in the history of the United States? Already it has cost millions and the meter is still running. While some of the legal bills of Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian's father, have been paid by the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, according to the pro-Castro National Council of Churches, the INS reportedly will shoulder some of those costs. Most of the Miami relatives' expenses are being paid by the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation, according to reports out of Miami.

Who ordered that the father-son reunion take place at Andrews Air Force Base? Only the president had that authority, which suggests the White House called the shots from day one. The posed pictures released by the government from the base show Elian smiling and hugging his father -- a far contrast from those terrifying moments during the commando-style raid in which the terrified boy begged for help.

"Elian was crying," wrote Alan Diaz, an Associated Press photographer who was inside the family's house when the raiders struck and wrote a firsthand account. "He was saying, `Que esta pasando' [What's happening]? Television news accounts show Elian screaming, `I don't want to go!' as he was wrapped in a blanket and rushed out of the house by a Spanish-speaking agent who told him, `This may seem scary, but we are taking you to see your father.' She then rushed Elian out of the house as federal agents shot pepper spray at protesters"