Elian Gonzalez, family, moved to new location
US OKs visit by Cuban playmates
By Tom Raum, Associated Press, 04//00
WASHINGTON - Elian Gonzalez and his Cuban family moved today to a secluded location on Maryland's Eastern Shore as the Clinton administration arranged to have four playmates visit him. In a closed-door meeting, Attorney General Janet Reno failed to quiet Republican criticism of her decision to use force to reunite father and son.
In a closed-door meeting lasting about 1 hour and 45 minutes, Reno told 13 senators that the possibility of firearms in the house of Elian's Florida relatives was a key consideration for the military-style raid, participants said.
But she apparently was unable to change any minds. While several Democrats praised her performance, Republican senators emerged from the session with fresh criticism of Reno and the pre-dawn raid in Miami.
"Many of the questions were not adequately answered," said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who had arranged the meeting.
Lott announced hearings into the raid next week by the Senate Judiciary Committee -- and suggested that Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, would be among those sought for testimony. He conceded, however, that Gonzalez probably couldn't be compelled to testify, given his status as a Cuban national.
Members of both parties said the exchanges with Reno had been cordial, but that criticism was freely expressed by many attendees.
Meanwhile, U.S. marshals moved Elian, his father, stepmother and half brother from the apartment at nearby Andrews Air Force Base, where they had stayed since Saturday night, to an estate on Maryland's rural Easten Shore.
State Department spokesman James Rubin said they were relocated to the Aspen Institute's secluded Wye River Conference Center to await court action over whether Elian should be allowed to return to Cuba.
Rubin also announced that, at the father's request, four playmates of Elian -- each accompanied by an adult -- will be allowed to come from Cuba to visit him for about two weeks. A teacher and cousin, previously granted visas, planned to fly to the United States on Wednesday.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, a supporter of Juan Miguel Gonzalez's effort to be reunited with his son, said the children are friends of Elian from his school and neighborhood in Cuba and were being brought here to create "a sense of normalcy for him about the life he has lead and will lead."
President Clinton, meanwhile, said Elian's reunion with his father, nearly five months since the 6-year-old was rescued after a shipwreck in the Atlantic, "was long overdue." He urged that the family be given "the space it needs to heal its wounds and strengthen its bonds."
Speaking at an unrelated White House ceremony, Clinton also praised the federal agents who swooped in and removed Elian from the Miami house on Saturday morning for a "very, very difficult job to do with no easy choices."
He also warmly commended Reno -- a warmth she did not get from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
"This use of force was totally unnecessary," Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., said after the meeting. And Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said that despite Reno's expressions of concern about guns, "they had no evidence of guns in the house." Nor were any found, he said.
Officers were in the house for just three minutes, and the only object of their search was Elian.
But Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, one of only three senators invited by Lott to the session sympathethic to the administration's handling of the case, told reporters, "they chose to show force so they wouldn't have to use force."
"We don't need 100 armchair attorneys general," Daschle said, speaking of the 100 Senate members. At the same time, the Democratic leader said he would not oppose Lott's plan to hold hearings -- although he said did not see why there was such a rush.
A senior Justice Department official, speaking on condition of not being identified, said Reno's meeting was not tense nor adversarial and that there were no heated exchanges.
Lott opened the meeting by outlining the areas that he wanted Reno, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner to cover: the negotiations with the Miami relatives over the past few months and the last few hours before the raid, the justification for the use of force and where things go from here, the Justice official said.
The official also said the government arranged for one of the three doctors who previously interviewed Juan Miguel Gonzalez and Miami relative Lazaro Gonzalez -- Dr. Paulina F. Kernberg, a professor of psychiatry at Cornell University Medical College -- to interview Juan Miguel again Tuesday.
The doctor also was to assess when Elian could be interviewed, the official said.
The purpose of the interviews was to determine whether and how the Florida relatives might visit Elian, this official said.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., an opponent of the raid, accused Clinton of breaking a personal promise to him that the Florida home of Lazaro Gonzalez would not be raided at night. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, asked about such a promise on NBC's "Today Show," denied that the president made such a commitment. But Graham retorted: "Joe Lockhart was not in the room when the statement was made."
Reno did not speak to reporters when she entered the Capitol or when she left.
As she was leaving, spontaneous applause broke out among some tourists who had been standing near the elevator from which she emerged. Reno acknowledged the applause with a slight smile.
With the drama now moved squarely to the Washington area, Cuban-Americans in Miami upset over Elian's seizure called a general strike. Workers stayed home, students skipped school and businesses closed, bringing honking cars and Cuban flags to the streets of Little Havana.
Attorneys for the Miami family filed a motion Tuesday in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, asking a guardian to be appointed who could check on Elian's well-being and make sure he stays in the country -- at least until his asylum hearing.
The court, in turn, issued an order asking attorneys for Juan Miguel Gonzalez to file a response by Wednesday afternoon, stating any reasons why this shouldn't happen.
Armando Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Miami family, said they hoped this could clear the way for the family's attorneys -- and even the family -- to see Elian.
"That's the whole thing; they would love to see the little boy," Gutierrez said. "We're concerned about how Elian is doing."
Elian Gonzalez, held by Donato Dalrymple, is taken by U.S. federal agents from his Miami relatives in a pre-dawn raid Saturday.
