URL: Php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/_Elian/elian.htm. Eric Rasmusen, Indiana University, Dept. of Business Economics and Public Policy, Kelley School of Business, Room 456, 1309 East Tenth Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-1701, (812)855-9219. [email protected] , Php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ "NBC cameraman says INS agents on Elian raid were physically and verbally abusive," LUISA YANEZ Sun-Sentinel Web-posted: 1:33 a.m. June 9, 2000. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,32000000000111800,00.html
"Zumbado said the agents did everything they said they didn't do in their report. "The agents were physically and verbally abusive; they said every bad word in the book and kept me from doing my job," said Zumbado,...
Kendall Coffey, the lead attorney in the Miami family's effort to keep Eli�n, said he too was "astounded" at the report's claims, specifically that no pepper or tear gas was used. "I felt the fumes myself," said Coffey, who was in the back of the house negotiating by telephone with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.
... Also supporting Zumbado's version is Donato Dalrymple, who ran with the boy to a back bedroom. Dalrymple filed an affidavit with the federal court in Atlanta giving his version of the agents' actions."
"Our indications are that no profanity was used, no one was knocked to the ground or held forceably at gunpoint during the raid," said Maria Cardona, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. At first, Zumbado said he didn't plan to speak out about the raid. He gave his account that day, but has kept quiet since. Zumbado said he understood the rough behavior of the agents, who were on a military-style mission. But he said he found insulting the sanitized version of the agents' behavior in the report.
... Zumbado would like the committee to hear his side of what happened. The night of the raid, he said he jumped a fence and dashed to get inside the Miami relatives' home. Steps ahead of the agents, Zumbado said one agent grabbed his camera cord and tried to push him backward. He still managed to get inside the house and someone closed the door. The report says someone put a couch across the front door. Agents used a battering ram to get in.
Once inside, Zumbado said agents knocked him to the floor and kicked him in the lower back. He said his camera was slammed down on his stomach and he was held at gunpoint on the floor, prevented from filming the taking of the 6-year-old. ...
According to the government's report, "The video cameraman inside the Gonzalez home was not touched in any way by the entry team. Contact with him was limited to one team member, who gave him a verbal command to remain seated as the team passed by the chair where the cameraman was seated."
Several agents complained that they tripped over his cable, which extended to the outside of the house. One agent, who said he spoke to the cameraman, gave this account: "As I passed through the living room, I saw a chair to my immediate right with a man attempting to get up. As he was getting up, he had his hands on a shoebox-sized item on the floor in my path. I told the man in a loud voice, 'Police! Stay down.' " The agent admitted he stepped on Zumbado's camera, but by accident. "The size of the item I stepped on would be consistent with the size of a video camera," the report said. "I did not want the person seated in the chair to get up and I did not want him to have anything in his hands. I did not recognize the box as a video camera. I did not see any other team members have contact with him." Zumbado laughed at the account. "They must have gone in there blind."
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Lawyers for Elian's Miami relatives are mostly pro bono volunteers DAVID C�ZARES Sun-Sentinel Web-posted: 12:13 a.m. Apr. 25, 2000 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,30500000000105806,00.html
"I would guess that if these lawyers were billing at their usual hourly rates, there's probably well over a million dollars in fees," said Miami lawyer Neal Sonnett, chairman of the American Bar Association's coordinating committee on immigration law.
Besides the lost billable hours, there's also the question of expenses for copying and other services and travel.
Some, like Bernstein and Osberg-Braun, have allowed their firms to absorb some of the costs, though they would not say how much money they have spent.
... So far, only a few of the attorneys have submitted requests for reimbursement from the Eli�n Gonz�lez Defense Trust Fund at Ocean Bank, which has raised about $250,000 in pledges. Trustees of the fund, set up at Guti�rrez's request, have been reimbursing the attorneys for the costs of interpreters, transportation, court filing fees and other expenses.
The contributors' names have not been made public, but Guti�rrez has said much of the money was amassed in small donations prompted by a radio marathon on five Spanish-language stations.
For the wealthier attorneys, however, the lost earnings haven't been a problem.
"I have not incurred any costs for the firm," said Garc�a-Pedrosa.
"The money I've spent was out my own pocket. I'm not getting paid. My firm is not getting paid."
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REASON * July 2000 Reading Elian The camera doesn�t lie. But it will confess to just about anything. By Charles Paul Freund http://www.reason.com/0007/fe.cf.reading.html
A number of weapons and security experts have taken public issue with Reno�s characterization of the raid imagery, and what it reveals about the handling of the gun. Among them is Stephen Hunter, a member of The Washington Post Style staff. Hunter is the author of a series of successful novels in which guns play a major role, and he is highly regarded for his technical expertise. ("Hunter must have been a gun in a former life" is a typical sample of the praise he has elicited from his gun-culture readers.) Here�s what he wrote in the Post about the safety issues raised by the image.
"What struck me most about the photograph isn�t the gun itself, but the way in which it�s held. It�s very close to being out of control. These are not one-handed weapons, and except for emergency circumstances, they are not even two-handed weapons. They recoil so persuasively they must be secured at three points: They must be moored against the shoulder or the center of the chest; the firing hand grips the pistol grip and controls the trigger; and, finally, the other hand must secure the muzzle via the foregrip or a front vertical grip. The officer doesn�t even have the weapon secured against his shoulder, as police are taught to do." Although the INS claims that the gun�s safety is on, Hunter states categorically, "It is also true from the photograph that the safety is off."
... Agents who invaded the Miami home filed post-action reports with their supervisors. These reports were described to the press a few days after the raid, and were reported in the Orlando Sentinel on April 26. According to those reports, the agents were "jostled, screamed at, and their orders disobeyed." As Maria Cardona of the INS characterized the gist of these reports to the press, "The agents met an aggressive, physical resistance." Indeed, one veteran INS agent reportedly told his supervisors, "I have never encountered this much resistance." Similarly, The Washington Post quoted James Goldman, who led the raid, as saying, "In 22 years in federal law enforcement, the intensity level, the effort to stop us, I�ve never seen anything like it before."
Requests by the press to examine these reports were denied, but the only incident of "aggressive, physical resistance" attributed by Cardona to those inside the target house was an attempt to block the front door with a couch. All the other aggressive resistance cited occurred in the street, and included some persons linking arms in a human chain to prevent or slow the agents� entry. INS agent Betty Mills, who carried Elian Gonzalez to a waiting van, claimed to have been pushed into some bushes, but it is unclear from the video footage who�if anyone�pushed her; she may have been jostled accidentally by a fellow agent. Agents also claimed that allies of the Miami family threw objects at them, and in fact they can be seen doing so in the video footage as the INS agents are leaving the scene of the raid.
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With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff Tuesday May 23, 2000; 4:47 PM EDT INS Investigating Beating of Elian Camera Crew http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2000/5/23/154129
NBC reporter Kerry Sanders, who was also assigned by the network to cover the raid, told NewsMax.com that Zumbado and Moeller gave him identical versions of the assault minutes after INS agents sped away with Elian. Zumbado was later hospitalized for back trouble, Sanders said.
When Irvine asked Cardona why the NBC crew would simply make up such a story, the INS spokeswoman told him, "It could be because they needed an excuse for not doing their jobs."
But by Tuesday things had changed, with Cardona telling NewsMax.com, "[The Internal Audit Office] is working with NBC on getting accounts from both the cameraman and the sound guy."
On April 26, network Vice President Bill Wheatley formally requested that the INS explain why the camera crew was roughed up, complaining, "It's fair to say that our people weren't able to do their work because of the action of agents."
... Though the beating investigation is ongoing, Cardona hastened to add, "At this point our preliminary information is that no one in that house was touched physically."
However, Cardona admitted that agents involved in the raid were never asked directly about assault allegations by Zumbado and Moeller.
"[The agents] were not interviewed specifically about those two instances. They go through a process, which is something that is always done, called a de-brief. And each agent goes through what happened in that house from their own standpoint. And there is no indication that anyone in that house was physically touched."
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"Operation Reunion Afte Action Report", INS document posted on the Miami Herald website.
"A total of five (5) bodyguards were identified who provided a continuous presence around the subject..."
Then where were they at the time of the raid?
"One cameraman, who refused orders and inhibited the security of the operation, was sprayed with O/C spray by the restraining officer."...
d. Warrant. The OIC of the Recovery Team approached the door of the residence, knocked on the door 5 or 6 times, and announced in Spanish and English that they were federal agents with a search warrant. When there was no response, the OIC knocked again 5 6 [sic] times and repeated the announcement. When the occupants, who had allowed a journalist to enter after the teams arrived, failed to respond, the Breach Team was ordered to open the door."
E. High Risk Entry. The breach team effected a forced entry, as the door was closed and a sofa had been placed in a blocking position behind the door upon our arrival. ... Prior to departure, a copy of the warrant, in a sealed envelope, was dropped on the floor."
How could the journalist (two of them actually--Diaz the photographer and the second NBC cameraman) have gotten in the house if there was a sofa blocking the door?
The people in the house, including a former U.S. Attorney, say that no search warrant was left behind.
"The need for absolute operational security necessitated the development of a special "Non-Disclosure Statement" which was signed by each participant as they were "read in"."
The necessity of the statements for security is a lie, of course. Note, however, the strong desire of the government to use legal penalties to stop its agents from talking to the press *afterwards*. It would be interesting to see those statements, since if they were needed only for security, they would provide no penalties for agents talking to reporters *after* the raid.
This report was released only about June 8, Presumably it was not written near the April 22, date of the raid, since there was no reason to delay release. Thus, it could have been written to fit facts that came out later without being caught lying.
On June 5, it seems that other debriefing reports were released, but I have not seen those.
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