|
| |
|
|
|
AGUSTIN BLAZQUEZ |
| |
| |
Uncovering the Travesty
Agustin Blazquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton
Thursday, April 11, 2002
Has the smoking gun been found?
The documents that former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
Commissioner Doris Meissner ordered to be destroyed in relation to the
Elian Gonzalez affair contained revealing information highly
embarrassing for the axis Clinton-Reno-Meissner.
During the highly publicized Elian saga, it was stated on multiple
occasions by the Miami relatives of Juan Miguel Gonzalez (Elian's
father) that he had told them he wanted to come to the U.S. and that he
had taken action to that aim, including the request for a visa at the
U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
According to an April 9, 2002, press release by Judicial Watch, the
public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government
corruption, copies of documents that survived Meissner's order to
destroy show that the U.S. government knew and discussed the fact that
Elian's father "had sought to leave Cuba for the United States" prior to
the arrival of his son in the U.S. And that "he was being coerced by the
Castro regime."
These documents confirm what those close to the tragic Elian Gonzalez
affair were saying at the time the events were taking place: that the
handling of the case by the Clinton administration is mired with lies,
contradictions, illegalities and blatant close cooperation between the
corrupt Clinton administration and the totalitarian Castro regime. Proof
has now survived the attempted cover-up.
Going back to The Drudge Report's disclosure published on Thursday,
April 20, 2000: That day, Attorney General Janet Reno, during an
emotional meeting with aides in her fifth-floor conference room at the
Justice Department, "discussed plans to forcibly remove Elian Gonzalez
from the house of his Miami relatives. The action could come within the
next 48 hours. 'The president wants the boy removed from the house,'"
she said.
And on April 22, at 5:15 a.m., a day before the celebration of Eastern
Sunday, and while the Miami family and their lawyers were being
distracted on the telephone by Reno, under the false pretense of
"negotiations," the raid took place as ordered by Reno 48 hours earlier.
Then, on August 15, 2000, Doris Meissner spoke at a ceremony to thank
the agents who participated in the illegal raid of the house of the
Cuban American family that resulted in the kidnapping of Elian Gonzalez.
She said, "It is truly a privilege to be here today to honor the
participants in Operation Reunion."
"I am very proud of your work and I know that every member of the INS
family shares my appreciation and pride for a job well done. Our
decision to conduct a tactical enforcement operation to reunite Elian
Gonzalez with his father after five months of separation sparked
criticism that some have sought to re-ignite on the occasion of this
ceremony. It was my firm conviction, then and now, that we did the right
thing on April 22, and we are doing it again today."
But if Meissner was so "proud" and convinced that she did the "right
thing," why did she, as revealed by Judicial Watch, "give the order to
destroy evidence and obstruct justice in the illegal raid that returned
Elian Gonzalez to Communist Cuba that resulted in the beating and
gassing of dozens of peaceful protestors by INS agents."
So Meissner, like ENRON's officials, ordered the destruction of all the
evidence showing her, Reno's and Clinton's wrongdoing.
Doris Meissner, along with Janet Reno – now aspiring to Florida's
governorship – was part of this travesty of justice, and their times
have come.
An article titled "Lawyer: INS Ordered Elian Files Destroyed" by David
Cazares, dated Jan. 5, 2001, in the Sun-Sentinel, said, "Miami employees
of the Immigration and Naturalization Service were ordered to destroy or
conceal documents and electronic mail related to the Elian Gonzalez
case, according to a deposition by an attorney who represents INS
workers."
Cazares' article said, "In a deposition given last month [December 2000]
for the federal lawsuit that Elián's Miami relatives have filed against
the U.S. government, Coral Springs [Florida] attorney Donald Appignani
testified that INS employees had told him that 'the U.S. government
could be breaking the law.' Appignani also testified that INS employees
revealed an atmosphere of contempt toward Cuban Americans at the INS
regional office in Miami, which could prove detrimental to the
government if brought out at trial before a jury."
INS Special Agent Ricardo Ramirez blew the whistle about the climate of
bigotry and intimidation at the INS Miami district offices in an article
by Liz Balmaseda published by the Miami Herald on April 26, 2001, titled
"Agent Points Finger at INS. " After his disclosure, Ramirez suffered
harassment and retaliation by his supervisors in the INS District Office
in Miami.
But the confirmation of the existence of these documents was not
disclosed until April 9, 2002, at the trial of Ricardo Ramirez before
the Merit Systems Protection Board in Miami. According to Judicial
Watch, "an INS attorney, Diana Alvarez, produced the documents during
sworn testimony in the hearing."
The documents consist of minutes of a conference call in the form of an
e-mail and a handwritten statement, both written by another INS
attorney, Rebeca Sanchez-Roig. The statement "notes that she was ordered
to destroy all documents, but retained a copy of the e-mail because she
believed Meissner's destruction orders to be improper," Judicial Watch
said.
Copies of the Dec. 29, 1999, e-mail and statement of Sanchez-Roig were
released to the public by Judicial Watch this morning, April 10, 2002,
at a press conference at the Sheraton Biscayne Bay in Miami. Sanchez
Roig's e-mail was addressed to Jack Penca and Rachel A. McCarthy, with
copies to Daniel N. Vera and Bill Gossard, following a conference call
on Dec. 20, 1999, in which Doris Meissner participated.
In it, Sanchez-Roig wrote, "The discussion turned to whether it's wise
to establish whether [the] father [Juan Miguel Gonzalez] was speaking
freely when interviewed [by INS agents] as opposed to being 'a
mouthpiece of government authority.'" She wrote that in the conference
call Meissner mentioned "that a letter had been received from Roger
Bernstein addressing issues of coercion and questioning voluntariness of
father's interview" about his desire to live in the U.S.
She mentioned Elian's father's previous "own attemps to depart Cuba" and
that it appeared that after his two phone calls made "from a pay phone
in Cuba" to his family in Miami to let them know that Elian was coming,
"the Cuban government installed what somebody described as a speaker
phone" in his house so the government officials could monitor and coach
him.
Discussed during Meissner's conference call were issues of re-scripting
the questions for Elian's father for his follow-up interview in order to
avoid pressing him on whether or not he was free to speak his mind.
Also, to reassure Castro's government that the "U.S. government would
not disclose to anyone that an additional interview would take place."
Sanchez-Roig later wrote a handwritten statement about the e-mail. In it
she wrote that "The Commissioner [Meissner] was very upset about having
this information disseminated" to the participants via the e-mail
minutes. "On December 30, 1999," Sanchez-Roig wrote, "I was ordered by
Doris Meissner to destroy this cc-mail message and all copies."
Sanchez-Roig deleted the message from her computer. She believed that
she was "being asked to do something improper" and her concerns about
destroying the message "were such that I felt it necessary to keep a
copy of the same."
She says that other employees "Dan and Rachel also kept copies of the
message. After this incident, we were ordered not to put anything
regarding Elian Gonzalez in writing. Ordered by Meissner through David
Dixon."
It is an outrage that the ultimate fate of Elian Gonzalez was in the
hands of such an unscrupulous bunch of government officials responding
to the self-serving interests of a shameless president, secretly dealing
with the Cuban tyrant.
© 2002 ABIP
Agustin Blazquez is producer/director of the documentaries "Covering
Cuba," Covering Cuba 2: The New Generation," and the upcoming Covering
Cuba 3: Elian," and author with Carlos Wotzkow of the book "Covering and
Discovering."
|
|
Augustin Blazquez is a documentary film
producer.
For a preview and information on the
documentary and books
click here:
ABIP
Back to
Agustín Blazquez'Main Page |
|
|
INFOCUBA
