INS orchestrated Elian grandmothers’ visit

By Julie Foster

The Clinton administration collaborated with Cuba in the Elian
Gonzalez matter, according to government documents obtained by


Judicial Watch.

“These ‘smoking gun’ documents help prove what we’ve suspected — that the Clinton-Gore administration was doing the bidding of Fidel Castro when they raided the Gonzalez home using 151 armed federal agents,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

A public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, Judicial Watch posted the documents —

two
email messages
— on its website yesterday. One, dated Jan. 19, shows administration employees held daily conference calls “to coordinate press guidance and communications with the Cubans.”

“They have lots of questions concerning the timing of litigation, so they have asked for OIL to participate,” the message continues. (OIL is presumed to mean Office of Interagency Liason.)

INS Commissioner Doris Meissner

Additionally,

Immigration and Naturalization Service
Commissioner Doris Meissner expressly orchestrated the visit of Elian’s grandmothers. Another message, dated Jan. 15, shows Meissner planned the January 2000 in consultation with Cuba, and that INS knew it could not seize Elian without a court order. Meissner also sought to hide the agency’s role in the visit.

“We spent a great deal of time discussing how the grandmothers’ visit could be facilitated,” the email reads. “The conclusion reached was that INS cannot assume the role of facilitator for this visit nor provide access to Elian. DM [Doris Meissner] was FIRM (sic) about not having any INS involvement in this initiative. If our conversations in Cuba can proceed with the understanding that INS would not be involved, then DM would be most interested in hearing more about this idea.”

Judicial Watch was given the documents as part of its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Justice Department and INS to obtain underlying information on the Elian Gonzalez case. A federal Clinton-appointed judge, James Robertson, ordered the Justice Department to begin turning the documents over to Judicial Watch on April 26.

Thus far, the Clinton-Gore administration has turned over approximately 3,000 documents, with thousands more expected. Hundreds more have been withheld, and some pages are redacted in their entirety.

Many of the documents deal directly with the current court battles over Elian’s asylum petitions and may have changed the early outcome of the case if they had been made public sooner, the group said.

INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona told WorldNetDaily that Judicial Watch’s interpretation of the documents is “completely ludicrous and reckless.”

“The conference calls were taking place between the Department of Justice and the State Department to decide what we were going to say as a government to the Cubans,” she said.

Cardona said the INS wanted it “understood that whenever the grandmothers came, we were not going to be in a position to give them Elian, no matter when they came because at that point the issue was with the federal court. … We were not in a position to be responsible for the grandmothers’ visit,” she continued. “We couldn’t plan it. They had to make that happen on their own. That’s all.”

But the INS memo clearly shows the agency was indeed involved in making the visit happen and that it even used the Catholic Church in the process.

“Our contacts in Miami believe that the Catholic Church in Miami would respond to a direct (via Cardinal Ortego) request from the grandmothers for the church’s assistance in scheduling a visit,” wrote INS employee Janelle Jones in what she prescripts as a summary of a meeting with Meissner.

“Miami’s advice was to have the grandmothers use Cardinal Ortega’s office to make contact with either Cardinal Law or Archbishop Favalora in Miami. Such a plea coming from the grandmothers would be very difficult for the church to ignore. Absent a direct request from the family, no one thinks the Miami church will get involved,” Jones continued.

When asked by WND about the letter, Cardona said an interpretation of INS facilitation is “wrong,” and pointed out that the interpretation of the memo came “from an organization whose founder sued his own mother.”

When WND asked the spokeswoman to elaborate, it was given only a vague response that Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman sued his mother over “some money.”

Fitton said the agency’s explanation is “nonsensical.”

“The documents speak for themselves,” he continued, adding, “There’s nothing ‘ludicrous’ about respect for the law.”

Responding to Cardona’s comment regarding Klayman, Fitton said, “We’ve obviously struck a nerve for them to come back with a response like that.”

Fitton explained the lawsuit Cardona referred to was necessary to protect Klayman’s grandmother, whose finances were controlled by his mother. The elderly woman was ill and required medical treatment.

Klayman sued to force his mother to release the necessary funds for
his grandmother’s treatment.

“The INS clearly has as much concern for the elderly as it does for children fleeing communism — zilch,” Fitton remarked. “In addition, that viscous attack by the INS spokesperson is unprofessional, unethical and we will be seeking to have that spokesperson fired. It shows that the INS is coordinating its scandal control operations with the Clinton-Gore White House and their outside agents.”

“If they think this is bad, wait till they see what else we’ve got,” he added.

Related stories:


‘Keep Elian Free’ nationwide protests


Secret deal made to hand over Elian?


Castro calls Cuban Americans ‘terrorist mob’


Doctors question Elian’s well-being


Castro praises U.S. media

See Joseph Farah’s commentary:


Larry Klayman is getting to them

Julie Foster

Julie Foster is a contributing reporter for WorldNetDaily. Read more of Julie Foster's articles here.