By David A. Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday , April 23, 2000 ; A01
Their orders were simple, their mission complex, their raid a tactical success. But in three lightning minutes early yesterday morning,
armed federal agents also left behind a searing image of a frightened
child facing an automatic weapon.
On Thanksgiving Day, Elian Gonzalez was rescued at sea by two fishermen after the child's mother and other refugees died en route
from Cuba. Yesterday, sandwiched between Good Friday and Easter,
one of those fishermen held the 6-year-old in his arms as a federal agent in riot gear brandished a gun and ordered the boy to be
turned over.
All day long, the images appeared over and over on television screens around the world: federal agents using a battering ram to
smash through the door of the Miami house where Elian was staying,
police using pepper spray outside to force the crowd away from the home, and the moment – captured forever in a still photograph –
when the helmeted federal agent pointed a weapon toward young
Elian and the fisherman as they hid together in a bedroom closet.
While the raid was a tactical success, experts said, the photo created a public relations problem. And in the aftermath, questions are
being raised by Elian's Miami relatives and others about the methods
the federal agents used, their decision to go in, and the reason for the heavy artillery they brought with them.
"The way it happened is an example of the way it should not be done," said child psychiatrist Stanley I. Greenspan, who has been
watching the situation closely. "We created an unnecessary risk – the
degree of severity of which is impossible to assess at the moment."
Justice Department officials say the decision to seize the boy in the predawn raid came after all-night negotiations broke down. That
left them with no other choice but to go in.
When they did, the operation involved more than 130 federal agents who had trained for the raid and who operated under strict terms
of engagement that officials say they adhered to completely. Their
goal was to get in and out of the house as quickly as possible, and to retrieve Elian with a minimum of violence.
Justice Department officials had received reports that there could be weapons in the house and among the small crowd of
demonstrators outside. So the immigration officers and federal marshals who
participated were armed and under strict instructions to shoot only in self-defense or to save a human life.
In the end, there was a strong show of force and an abundance of threats but there were no serious injuries or deaths. And nobody
pulled a trigger, federal officials point out.
"Nobody was hurt, no shots were fired and the law was followed so it was a success," said Robert M. Bryant, former deputy director of
the FBI. "They had the lawful right to enter the premises and they
have to handle the situation so nobody gets hurt, including the family, the little boy and the officers. They secured the area, and got
in and got out. . . . It worked out well."
Reno had been advised that the best time to strike was in the dark of night, when the smallest crowd of demonstrators would be
present. The plan was to go in at 4 a.m., but Reno pushed it back to 5 so
negotiators could have more time. The agents were instructed to knock on the door a couple of times, identify themselves loudly and
clearly, and offer a version of the following statement: "We are not
here to harm anyone. We are here to return Elian to his father. He is not going to Cuba. He is not going to be put on a boat."
Then, the orders were to give the family the chance to open the door and turn the boy over peacefully. When that didn't happen,
federal agents used their battering ram to enter the premises forcibly,
warning those inside to turn over Elian and step aside lest they be shot, officials say. A quick search for Elian ensued, the boy was
discovered in a closet, an unarmed female agent grabbed him and
rushed him out to a van waiting outside.
"They said it should take three minutes in the house and that is exactly what it took," a federal law enforcement official said
yesterday. In discussions before the raid, federal agents training for the
exercise had been implored to preserve the safety of the child above all else and to refrain from firing their weapons. But they were
also told they had the flexibility to fire if necessary in self-defense.
"We had to make sure our agents could protect themselves," said Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. "We didn't go in there
with the intention to intimidate anyone. . . . We had information
there may have been weapons in the house."
According to photographer Alan Diaz, who was doing freelance work for the Associated Press, Elian was tearful and afraid as the raid
ensued. "Que esta pasando [What's happening]?" Elian asked as
the federal agents entered the house. "Nothing's happening, baby. Everything's going to be all right," Diaz, a 43-year-old of Cuban
descent, said he answered back to Elian.
The federal agent who discovered Elian hiding in the closet had his gun raised without his finger on the trigger, but his demeanor
showed determination.
"Back off," the agent wearing goggles and green riot gear told Diaz, who had developed a relationship with the Gonzalez family and
was standing nearby when the boy was discovered in the closet. In
the living room, an agent had pinned Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy's great-uncle and the leader of his Miami relatives, on the couch. In
the bedroom, a Spanish-speaking federal agent scooped up Elian.
The raid followed the final round of marathon talks between Reno and Elian's Miami relatives in a bid for a negotiated solution.
Eventually, those failed and Reno, who had been criticized for repeated
delays, notified the White House of her decision to send in federal marshals around 4:30 a.m.
"The process took too long," said Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York who
had advised Reno on the case.
There was a growing sense of urgency in Washington that the Miami family could not be allowed to hold a child whose legal custody
had been transferred to his father and that they seemed to have
paralyzed the federal government. Neither Reno nor President Clinton wanted to trigger a riot in Miami or conduct the raid on Good
Friday or Easter, sources familiar with the strategy said. And the
attorney general had been advised that a nighttime raid would produce the smallest possible confrontation and the greatest chance
for a safe exit, even though she also had been told that removing the boy
at night would be more traumatic for Elian than if he were taken during the day.
As yesterday wore on, the photo – taken by Diaz – of the frightened child in the closet looking down the barrel of a gun was
accompanied by a new image of a boy with sparkling eyes and a joyous
smile climbing into the arms of his waiting father.
http://washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=wpni/print&articleid=A63731-2000Apr22
© 2000 The
Washington Post Company
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday , April 23, 2000 ; A01
Their orders were simple, their mission complex, their raid a tactical success. But in three lightning minutes early yesterday morning,
armed federal agents also left behind a searing image of a frightened
child facing an automatic weapon.
On Thanksgiving Day, Elian Gonzalez was rescued at sea by two fishermen after the child's mother and other refugees died en route
from Cuba. Yesterday, sandwiched between Good Friday and Easter,
one of those fishermen held the 6-year-old in his arms as a federal agent in riot gear brandished a gun and ordered the boy to be
turned over.
All day long, the images appeared over and over on television screens around the world: federal agents using a battering ram to
smash through the door of the Miami house where Elian was staying,
police using pepper spray outside to force the crowd away from the home, and the moment – captured forever in a still photograph –
when the helmeted federal agent pointed a weapon toward young
Elian and the fisherman as they hid together in a bedroom closet.
While the raid was a tactical success, experts said, the photo created a public relations problem. And in the aftermath, questions are
being raised by Elian's Miami relatives and others about the methods
the federal agents used, their decision to go in, and the reason for the heavy artillery they brought with them.
"The way it happened is an example of the way it should not be done," said child psychiatrist Stanley I. Greenspan, who has been
watching the situation closely. "We created an unnecessary risk – the
degree of severity of which is impossible to assess at the moment."
Justice Department officials say the decision to seize the boy in the predawn raid came after all-night negotiations broke down. That
left them with no other choice but to go in.
When they did, the operation involved more than 130 federal agents who had trained for the raid and who operated under strict terms
of engagement that officials say they adhered to completely. Their
goal was to get in and out of the house as quickly as possible, and to retrieve Elian with a minimum of violence.
Justice Department officials had received reports that there could be weapons in the house and among the small crowd of
demonstrators outside. So the immigration officers and federal marshals who
participated were armed and under strict instructions to shoot only in self-defense or to save a human life.
In the end, there was a strong show of force and an abundance of threats but there were no serious injuries or deaths. And nobody
pulled a trigger, federal officials point out.
"Nobody was hurt, no shots were fired and the law was followed so it was a success," said Robert M. Bryant, former deputy director of
the FBI. "They had the lawful right to enter the premises and they
have to handle the situation so nobody gets hurt, including the family, the little boy and the officers. They secured the area, and got
in and got out. . . . It worked out well."
Reno had been advised that the best time to strike was in the dark of night, when the smallest crowd of demonstrators would be
present. The plan was to go in at 4 a.m., but Reno pushed it back to 5 so
negotiators could have more time. The agents were instructed to knock on the door a couple of times, identify themselves loudly and
clearly, and offer a version of the following statement: "We are not
here to harm anyone. We are here to return Elian to his father. He is not going to Cuba. He is not going to be put on a boat."
Then, the orders were to give the family the chance to open the door and turn the boy over peacefully. When that didn't happen,
federal agents used their battering ram to enter the premises forcibly,
warning those inside to turn over Elian and step aside lest they be shot, officials say. A quick search for Elian ensued, the boy was
discovered in a closet, an unarmed female agent grabbed him and
rushed him out to a van waiting outside.
"They said it should take three minutes in the house and that is exactly what it took," a federal law enforcement official said
yesterday. In discussions before the raid, federal agents training for the
exercise had been implored to preserve the safety of the child above all else and to refrain from firing their weapons. But they were
also told they had the flexibility to fire if necessary in self-defense.
"We had to make sure our agents could protect themselves," said Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. "We didn't go in there
with the intention to intimidate anyone. . . . We had information
there may have been weapons in the house."
According to photographer Alan Diaz, who was doing freelance work for the Associated Press, Elian was tearful and afraid as the raid
ensued. "Que esta pasando [What's happening]?" Elian asked as
the federal agents entered the house. "Nothing's happening, baby. Everything's going to be all right," Diaz, a 43-year-old of Cuban
descent, said he answered back to Elian.
The federal agent who discovered Elian hiding in the closet had his gun raised without his finger on the trigger, but his demeanor
showed determination.
"Back off," the agent wearing goggles and green riot gear told Diaz, who had developed a relationship with the Gonzalez family and
was standing nearby when the boy was discovered in the closet. In
the living room, an agent had pinned Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy's great-uncle and the leader of his Miami relatives, on the couch. In
the bedroom, a Spanish-speaking federal agent scooped up Elian.
The raid followed the final round of marathon talks between Reno and Elian's Miami relatives in a bid for a negotiated solution.
Eventually, those failed and Reno, who had been criticized for repeated
delays, notified the White House of her decision to send in federal marshals around 4:30 a.m.
"The process took too long," said Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York who
had advised Reno on the case.
There was a growing sense of urgency in Washington that the Miami family could not be allowed to hold a child whose legal custody
had been transferred to his father and that they seemed to have
paralyzed the federal government. Neither Reno nor President Clinton wanted to trigger a riot in Miami or conduct the raid on Good
Friday or Easter, sources familiar with the strategy said. And the
attorney general had been advised that a nighttime raid would produce the smallest possible confrontation and the greatest chance
for a safe exit, even though she also had been told that removing the boy
at night would be more traumatic for Elian than if he were taken during the day.
As yesterday wore on, the photo – taken by Diaz – of the frightened child in the closet looking down the barrel of a gun was
accompanied by a new image of a boy with sparkling eyes and a joyous
smile climbing into the arms of his waiting father.
http://washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=wpni/print&articleid=A63731-2000Apr22
© 2000 The
Washington Post Company