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[12/12/1999 – 12/14/1999]
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[12/12/1999 – 12/14/1999]
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Presidential Electronic Mail from the Automated Records Management System (ARMS)
Automated Records Management System (ARMS) Email from the Office of Policy Development (OPD) Bucket
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RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (NOTES MAIL)
CREATOR: Lisa Ferdinando ( (CN=Lisa Ferdinando/OU=WHO/O=EOP [ WHO ])
CREATION DATE/TIME:12-DEC-1999 16:00:27.00
SUBJECT: CNN Late Editon, December 12, 1999
TO: Dorinda A. Salcido ( CN=Dorinda A. Salcido/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Brian A. Reich (CN=Brian A. Reich/O=OVP@OVP [ UNKNOWN ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Emily Karcher (CN=Emily Karcher/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Gilbert S. Gonzalez (CN=Gilbert S. Gonzalez/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Maura M. Pally (CN=Maura M. Pally/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Jennifer H. Smith (CN=Jennifer H. Smith/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Rebecca J. Salay ( CN=Rebecca J. Salay/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Kristina Wolfe ( CN=Kristina Wolfe/O=OVP@OVP [UNKNOWN
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Nicole L. Davison ( CN=Nicole L. Davison/OU=OPD/O=EOP@EOP [ OPD ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Jenni R. Engebretsen ( CN=Jenni R. Engebretsen/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Natalie S. Wozniak (CN=Natalie S. Wozniak/OU=NSC/O=EOP@EOP[NSC
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Dawn M. Chirwa ( CN=Dawn M. Chirwa/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: David Vandivier ( CN=David Vandivier/OU=OMB/O=EOP@EOP [ OMB ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Lindsey E. Huff (CN=Lindsey E. Huff/OU=NSC/O=EOP@EOP [ NSC ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Steven Reich ( CN=Steven Reich/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Thomas D. Janenda ( CN=Thomas D. Janenda/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Toby C. Graff (CN=Toby C. Graff/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Michael A. Hammer ( CN=Michael A. Hammer/OU=NSC/O=EOP@EOP [ NSC
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Victoria L. Valentine ( CN=Victoria L. Valentine/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Rebecca L. Walldorff ( CN=Rebecca L. Walldorff/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Heather M. Riley ( CN=Heather M. Riley/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Jonathan M. Prince ( CN=Jonathan M. Prince/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Steve Ricchetti ( CN=Steve Ricchetti/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP WHO
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Rachael E. Sullivan (CN=Rachael E. Sullivan/O=OVP@OVP[UNk
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Jeffrey A. Shesol (CN=Jeffrey A. Shesol/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Mark A. Kitchens (CN=Mark A. Kitchens/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Gordon Li ( CN=Gordon Li/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Steven J. Naplan ( CN=Steven J. Naplan/OU=NSC/O=EOP@EOP [ NSC 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Paul K. Engskov (CN=Paul K. Engskov/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Anne M. Edwards (CN=Anne M. Edwards/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Melissa M. Murray ( CN=Melissa M. Murray/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Eli G. Attie (CN=Eli G. Attie/O=OVP@OVP [UNKNOWN ]).
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Nanda Chitre ( CN=Nanda Chitre/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Thurgood Marshall Jr ( CN=Thurgood Marshall Jr/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Jeffrey M. Smith ( CN=Jeffrey M. Smith/OU=OSTP/O=EOP@EOP [ OSTP 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Elizabeth R. Newman ( CN=Elizabeth R. Newman/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Megan C. Moloney ( CN=Megan C. Moloney/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Dag Vega (CN=Dag Vega/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO D
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Leslie Bernstein (CN=Leslie Bernstein/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Anthony R. Bernal ( CN=Anthony R. Bernal/O=OVP@OVP [ UNKNOWN ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Joseph P. Lockhart ( CN=Joseph P. Lockhart/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Justin L. Coleman ( CN=Justin L. Coleman/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Joshua Gotbaum ( CN=Joshua Gotbaum/OU=OMB/O=EOP@EOP [ OMB 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Christine L. Anderson ( CN=Christine L. Anderson/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Stephen N. Boyd ( CN=Stephen N. Boyd/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Matthew T. Schneider ( CN=Matthew T. Schneider/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Scott Hynes (CN=Scott Hynes/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Irma L. Martinez (CN=Irma L. Martinez/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO J)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Beth Nolan (CN=Beth Nolan/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Lisa Ferdinando (CN=Lisa Ferdinando/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP. [ WHO D
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Anne W. Bovaird (CN=Anne W. Bovaird/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Michael K. Gehrke ( CN=Michael K. Gehrke/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Michele Ballantyne ( CN=Michele Ballantyne/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Ruby Shamir (CN=Ruby Shamir/OU=OPD/O=EOP@EOP [ OPD )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Aprill N. Springfield ( CN=Aprill N. Springfield/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Ann C. Hertelendy ( CN=Ann C. Hertelendy/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Kimberly S. Anderson (CN=Kimberly S. Anderson/OU=OA/O=EOP@EOP OA D
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Sean P. O'Shea (CN=Sean P. O'Shea/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Laura J. Lewis (CN=Laura J. Lewis/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: James E. Kennedy ( CN=James E. Kennedy/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Katharine Button ( CN=Katharine Button/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Alejandro G. Cabrera ( CN=Alejandro G. Cabrera/O=OVP@OVP [ UNKNOWN 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Joshua S. Gottheimer (CN=Joshua S. Gottheimer/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Melissa J. Prober ( CN=Melissa J. Prober/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Sarah E. Gegenheimer (CN=Sarah E. Gegenheimer/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Rochester M. Johnson ( CN=Rochester M. Johnson/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: June Shih (CN=June Shih/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Jason H. Schechter ( CN=Jason H. Schechter/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Alison Muscatine (CN=Alison Muscatine/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP WHO ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Laura D. Schwartz ( CN=Laura D. Schwartz/OU=WHO/O-EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Gene B. Sperling ( CN=Gene B. Sperling/OU=OPD/O=EOP@EOP [ OPD ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Barry J. Toiv (CN=Barry J. Toiv/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Sara M. Latham (CN=Sara M. Latham/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: William A. Halter ( CN=William A. Halter/OU=OMB/O=EOP@EOP UNKNOWN
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Jennifer Ferguson ( CN=Jennifer Ferguson/OU=OMB/O=EOP@EOP [ OMB
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Lowell A. Weiss ( CN=Lowell A. Weiss/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Julia M. Payne (CN=Julia M. Payne/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Richard L. Siewert ( CN=Richard L. Siewert/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: [email protected] ( [email protected] @ inet [ UNKNOWN )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Robin M. Roland (CN=Robin M. Roland/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Melissa G. Green ( CN=Melissa G. Green/OU=OPD/O=EOP@EOP [ OPD ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Jennifer M. Palmieri ( CN=Jennifer M. Palmieri/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Douglas B. Sosnik ( CN=Douglas B. Sosnik/OU=WHO/O-EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TEXT:
CNN LATE EDITION
DECEMBER 12, 1999
SPEAKERS: WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN LATE EDITION
STEVE ROBERTS, CNN COMMENTATOR
TUCKER CARLSON, CNN COMMENTATOR
BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT
SUSAN PAGE, CNN COMMENTATOR
ALAN KEYES, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
RICARDO ALARCON, CUBA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT
SPENCER EIG, GONZALEZ FAMILY ATTORNEY
U.S. SENATOR JOHN KERRY, (D-MA), SENATE
INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
U.S. SENATOR JOHN KYL, (R-AZ), SENATE INTELLIGENCE
COMMITTEE
BLITZER: It's noon in Washington and Havana; 9:00 a.m. in Los
Angeles; 5:00 p.m. in London and 8:00 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you're
watching from around the world, thanks for joining us for this 90-minute
LATE EDITION.
We'll get to our guests shortly, but first let's check in with
CNN reporters covering the hour's top stories.
We begin at the White House where the Clinton administration is
warning Americans to be careful about suspected terrorism around the new
year. Correspondent Kathleen Koch joins us live from the White House.
Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, if it's troubling
news for any U.S. citizen living or traveling overseas, the administration
says that the U.S. has received specific and credible information that
terrorists are targeting such Americans between now and early January,
when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ends.
The State Department is now warning all Americans abroad to be
very alert, and if possible to avoid large gatherings or celebrations
where it believes such terrorist attacks are mostly likely to take places.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We believe we have
an obligation to let the American people know when there are potential
terrorist threats, and we are concerned about Americans traveling abroad
and being in large groups, and we are suggesting that if they do travel
abroad, that they be in touch with the American embassy and the consulate
and take care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: The most likely suspect behind the planned attacks, U.S.
officials says, is assumed terrorist Osama bin Laden. He is suspected to
have been behind the two U.S. embassy bombings in Africa last year on
another target.
Today of course is the State Department's security at the State
Department last week, a Russian listening device on the very same floor as
the office of the secretary of state. On one Sunday morning news
broadcast, a top lawmaker said: Clearly security was very lax.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE PORTER GOSS: I think the administration has
been inconsistent. I don't think this is a priority that they've had at
the top of their list. I wish they would have spent more time and energy
on it. They have under invested in it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admits that the
department must do a better job of protecting itself against spies.
Reporting live at the White House, I'm Kathleen Koch.
BLITZER: Thanks, Kathleen.
We now go to Cuba where the case of young Elian Gonzalez has
prompted mass demonstrations across that country. CNN's Havana bureau
chief Lucia Newman, joins us now with the latest.
Lucia.
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Wolf.
Well, the streets of Havana today are conspicuously quiet.
There are none of the mass demonstrations that we had seen throughout the
week. They have been put apparently on hold.
The interpretation is that the Cuban government has decided to
call a truce in the demonstrations, at least for now, to prepare a better
climate for U.S.-Cuban migration talks, which are due to start here in
Havana tomorrow morning.
Now there's a lot riding on these talks. The Cuban government
has made it very clear that the accords which were signed in 1994,
1995--and I should backtrack saying that these accords effectively put an
end or prevent the mass exodus of Cuban boat people and rafters to the
United States.
And Havana says that unless little Elian Gonzalez is returned
to Cuba, these accords could flounder.
The Cuban government is also very, very much opposed to a
policy that the United States has called the wet foot/dry foot policy,
which effectively allows Cubans, Cuban rafters and boat people who
actually make it to U.S. shores to stay there. Havana argues that this is
the sort of policy that encouraged Elian Gonzalez's mother and those who
were in the boat with her to try to make it to the United States, to put
her own life at risk--as we know she drowned trying to get to the United
States--and also to put Elian Gonzalez's life at risk.
BLITZER: Well, obviously we've lost Lucia Newman. We've had
some technical problems. We are going to back to Havana and join Ricardo
Alarcon--he's the Cuban official, the president of the Cuban national
assembly--as soon as we get that line back.
In the meantime, let's go to Miami and speak with Spencer Eig.
He's a lawyer representing Elian Gonzalez's American family, his
relatives, here in the United States.
Mr. Eig, thank you so much for joining us on LATE EDITION.
EIG: Good morning, Mr. Blitzer.
BLITZER: What is happening with the boy Elian, the six year-old
boy, right now?
EIG: Well, right now he and his family are taking a day off.
They all need a little break, particularly the family, from the pressures
of all the political events swirling around them. They have been working
very hard to shield Elian from all those things, so today they have gone
to Disney World to give Elian a fun day at the park.
BLITZER: Does the boy speak with his father back in Cuba?
EIG: Yes. He speaks with his father every day, usually,
sometimes more than once a day. The family here and the family in Cuba
have always been a close family and they are working very hard to keep to
keep Elian's father involved, and to allow them the opportunity to talk,
and get together.
BLITZER: Is this a close relationship that the boy Elian has
with his father? Was there a loving, good relationship over these six
years?
EIG: Oh, well, I think that they had a good relationship, the
details of it I don't know here. Elian has never asked to go back to his
father. His family says that you would expect if a six year-old boy was
homesick or wanted to go back, he would cry and demand. He has never done
that. He is very happy with his family here in Miami. He has said he would
like for his father and his father's little baby to come and visit him.
BLITZER: Do you believe the father is a fit father?
EIG: I don't know whether or not the father is a fit father. I
have no reason to particularly think not. I feel very sorry for Elian's
father he has suffered a tremendous loss in this situation as well. I mean
it is not an ideal situation for anyone. What we are trying to do here is
make the best of bad situation. It started with divorce, the horrible
situation in Cuba that compelled Elian's mother to seek freedom. Her
sacrifice for her son. The situation is not a great one. Thank God, for
Elian it has an opportunity to come out OK. He is really doing well and
getting his childhood back.
BLITZER: The point that those who are arguing that he should be
with his father, they are making is that his relatives here in the United
States are pampering him with all sorts of toys and luxuries that he
obviously doesn't have access to in Cuba. As you said, today they are
taking him to Disney World. Obviously, every six year-old boy, when
confronted with these kinds of luxuries, these kinds of toys and wonderful
things, they are going to be seemingly happy on the surface, but isn't
there a fundamental question, as a father, that the father should have the
right to be with his son?
EIG: One of the essential parts of being a father is protecting
and sacrificing for the welfare of one's child. In this case, to send
Elian back to the situation in Cuba, could be so horrifying, it could
cause such danger, potential of persecution, that although it is hard for
his father, and I feel for his father, the best thing for Elian is that
his father continue to sacrifice. And then hopefully we will be able to
work out this situation.
I call upon the Cuban government, as many people have in this
country, to allow Elian's father to come to the Embassy or U.S.
intrasection and request a visa to visit his son here. And not just alone.
Let his father come with his new child, and his new wife, and his parents,
all of Elian's grandparents. Let everyone who is concerned come to America
to visit Elian, see how well he is doing here. Let the whole Gonzalez
family gather around the kitchen table and see if we can't just work this
out as a family, not as an international incident. That is not really
appropriate for a six-year-old boy.
BLITZER: If this boy were from England or France or any other
country in the world, would it make a difference? The fact that he is from
Cuba, is that the single reason why you don't think he should be sent back
to his father?
EIG: The situation in Cuba is a major concern. It is a
horrifying situation for children in Cuba. No milk ration after age seven,
forced into labor camps at age 12. The state really views themselves as
having custody of the children anyway, not the parents. And the children
are forced to mouth slogans of ``viva la revolucion" that they don't
believe.
Why should Elian be subjected to that after what he has been
through? He has the opportunity to live a life of dignity here. His
father, I think, knowing that, from overseas if he was free to really
express his view then he might say in his heart, thank God my son has
reached the land of freedom.
BLITZER: Mr. Eig, you know what the Cuban's government's
position so that the parents who were divorced, the mother illegally--the
mother simply kidnapped the son without the father's knowledge, without
the father's permission, and brought the kid--took the kid on a boat;
risked his life, the kid obviously survived, the mother did not. That's
the Cuban government position, that he was kidnapped and he should simply
go back to his dad.
EIG: Well, interestingly the first whole week of this, while
his father and many people were talking about the situation on television,
nobody mentioned kidnapping. This story somehow emerged out of the Cuban
foreign ministry later. I wouldn't pay any attention to it. I think it's
besmirching the name of a very courageous woman who died trying to give
her son freedom and who can't answer back.
But, the situation need not continue as a tragedy and it need
not continue as a political show. If the Cuban government will allow the
whole Gonzalez family to come here and visit and not hold any of them
behind hostage, so they can all truly express their views and see what's
going on, the situation could be resolved in a way that's good for Elian,
that's good for his father, that's really what's important.
BLITZER: But, when you say it should be resolved, under no
circumstances do you see Elian Gonzalez's going back to Cuba?
EIG: That's certainly not in Elian's best interests. One of the
steps that we have taken here in Miami, here in the United States of
America in the last few days, is to file applications to assure Elian of
due process of law. This way he won't be victimized in some political
deal, that has nothing to do with him, but he's entitled now, to a
determination of what's in his best interests. And I think it's a great,
and uniquely American gift.
BLITZER: The final decision, though, will be made by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, the INS. How long do you think
this process is going to be drawn out legally in potentially in court,
before a final decision is made about Elian's fate?
EIG: I don't know how long it will be. But I believe the
ultimately decision will be made by a judge who is independent, who can
hear the evidence, and who can make a fair decision. And that's the best
way, that's due process of law. That's the American way, let the decision
on Elian's future be removed from politics. From international posturing,
let it be about Elian and his future.
BLITZER: And if the judge rules he should be with his father
back in Cuba, will you stand for that, will the family members of the boy
that you represent, will they stand for that?
EIG: The family members here, all the attorney's, we all
believe in the due process of the law. We all believe in America's
democratic system, and we intend to utilize it all to its fullest to
protect Elian's interests.
BLITZER: Finally, we're going to be speaking with the head of
the Cuban national assembly, Ricardo Alarcon. There have been these
massive demonstrations, as you know, in Cuba. It seems, though, as much as
you and everyone else says this should not be a political football, it has
become a political football between the United States and Cuba. That
certainly is not in the best interests of this little boy.
EIG: Well, if it's become a political football, than perhaps
Mr. Alarcon and the Cuban government should call a time out and let the
families work it out in a way that's in Elian's best interests, and not
manipulate a six year old boy who has already suffered so much for
political advantage.
BLITZER: OK, Spencer Eig, thank you so much for joining us.
Obviously this is a difficult decision, we're going to get more from
Ricardo Alarcon, the head of the Cuban national assembly.
But when we return, we'll talk with two U.S. Senators. They
also will weigh in on this Gonzalez custody case, plus a security breach
at State Department. Did Russia gain top secret information? We'll ask
Republican John Kyl and Democrat John Kerry when LATE EDITION continues.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The
question is, and I think the most important thing is, what would be best
for the child?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: President Clinton commenting on the case of Elian
Gonzalez.
Welcome back to LATE EDITION.
Joining us now are two members of the Senate Intelligence
Committee. In Boston, Massachusetts, Democrat John Kerry. And in Phoenix,
Arizona, Republican, John Kyl. Senators, welcome back to LATE EDITION.
And I'll start with Senator Kerry, you just heard the lawyer
representing the American family of Elian Gonzalez, make the case that
this little, six-year-old boy should be allowed to stay here in the United
States. What's your feeling on this very, very complex situation?
KERRY: Well, my feeling is that the president hit the nail on
the head, and the lawyer at several points, not always, but at several
points, also said we are a country that believes in rule of law. We have
very specific process for the reuniting of children with father,
step-fathers, we have family law in this country. It places the child's
interests foremost, and that's as it ought to be
To whatever degree, politics enters into this. And there's
obviously, now, a fair amount of sort of Cold War rhetoric. I would hope
both countries would view this as an opportunity to reach beyond that, to
find a new opening of opportunity for how we resolve this kind of issue.
His father ought to first and foremost, if he is really
interested in his child, be willing to do anything to get him back, and
that includes coming to the United States. It's very clear, we would say
to him, "Look, you can go back any time you want." I mean he has
choices.
And the government of Cuba ought to take advantage of this--and
really work it through the process. It's really, I think, something that
should be viewed as an opportunity, not a moment to renew the Cold War.
And secondly, most importantly, let's put the child's interests first.
Family, child, and that's what we ought to resolve through the legal
process.
BLITZER: Senator Kyl, as you know, the Cuban Adjustment Act
says that if a Cuban reaches the United States, steps foot on the United
States, that Cuban is allowed to stay.
Now, even if the father were to come here, and show that
there's a loving relationship between the father and the son, and he wants
to take his son back to Cuba, do you envisage any circumstances, where
that Cuban Adjustment, after assuming family members of the little boy
here in the United States, want to exercise it? That he will be allowed to
go back to Havana?
KYL: It's my understanding that that act simply permits
American law then, to apply. That he will not be forcibly returned to
Cuba. It's also my understanding that the law of Florida, will determine
the question of custody here: that his father will have to appear, either
in person or through attorneys; will have to make his case for the return
of Elian to Cuba, if that's what the father requests.
So it does require the participation of the father. But under
the Florida law, it will be up to the judge to make a decision as to where
the child goes.
BLITZER: Senator Kerry, in terms of the overall U.S./Cuban
relationship, you hit upon this a little bit, is this going to be a major,
major setback, in any effort that may have been underway by the Clinton
administration to try to improve the relationship with Fidel Castro?
KERRY: Well, I don't think it should be. I mean it doesn't have
to be. Obviously both sides have started off with a heightened rhetoric
that doesn't serve either country very well.
I view it as an opportunity. We should right as an opportunity.
I would hope Castro would view it as an opportunity. I mean, what do they
have to fear? They have--I mean after all, the mother, the step-father,
and I think it was about nine others, or eight others, left his country.
Why did they leave? They left for the same reasons that countless
thousands of people have tried to leave Cuba. You're not going to change
that over this child.
To somehow rekindle the--you know, that fundamental reality of
what life in Cuba is like, and apply it in the political realm to the
resolution of what happens to this child is wrong.
BLITZER: All right.
KERRY: I think that it's a great opportunity for us to move
forward in the relationship, not backwards, and I hope we can do that in
the days ahead.
BLITZER: All right, Senator, stand by, we now have Ricardo
Alarcon live from Havana. He's the president of the Cuban National
Assembly, a senior official of the Cuban government.
Mr. Alarcon, thank you so much for joining us.
I want to get right to the question that U.S. officials that
now have been suggesting: Will the father, Juan Gonzalez, Elian's father,
be allowed to come to the United States, be given a visa, to make the case
why this little boy should be brought back to Cuba?
ALARCON: Wolf, two weeks ago our government presented to the
U.S. intrasection, a diplomatic note requesting that this child be
returned to his father. Together with the note there was a formal letter
by the father requesting that. Two weeks after--today--we are still
waiting. If the U.S. recognizes the right of the father and his four
grandparents. All of them live here. They are right to look after, to love
and continue to protect their child, as they have been doing for five
years.
Then, even now, there is a lot of talk--and I listen more or
less to parts of your program--you have a lawyer, you have politicians who
talk about the possibilities of discussing, deciding. I have to say that
they forgot a very simple thing: family rights, the family institution,
family values, which appear from time to time in your political debate.
When are those values here now?
BLITZER: OK, Mr. Alarcon, Mr. Alarcon, excuse me for
interrupting. But if the father--and the father obviously wants his son
back, why not simply allow him to come here to the United States, listen
to, for example, what Senator John McCain, a Republican presidential
candidate said earlier today on Fox News Sunday. Listen to what Senator
McCain said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
U.S. SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I
think his father should come to the United States or even to a neutral
country and then declare his intentions for this son. I don't think any
father in the world wants his son to grow up under communist tyranny
without a lack of opportunity that he would have in a free and democratic
nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Mr. Alarcon, that's a widespread opinion in the
political establishment here in the United States. What do you say to that
argument, that the mother risked her life to get her son to freedom here
in the United States and he shouldn't be forced to go back to communist
rule in Cuba?
ALARCON: Well, first of all, I don't know if Senator McCain was
on the boat with the mother to witness what were really her will at that
time. There are some stories in Miami that even question that.
But apart from that, this small boy is not the son of a
senator, not the son of that lawyer that you interviewed. He's a human
being that grew--as this historian in the New Herald says: "Elian grew up
surrounded by loving relatives." And this is headline of the Boston
Globe, I think: ``In Cuba, A Shattered Family Waits"--for two weeks.
And now they are still are putting conditions: The father
should come to prove that he's the father.
And at that--you know, this two weeks, this small child has
been sent to a house in Hialeah where lives so-called distant relatives.
They have received some sort of pressure or encouragement from the
Cuban-American National Foundation that hired that lawyer that was in
front of you this morning, and other lawyers, and preservations (ph)
people, investing big dollars just to prevent a child to go back to his
father and to his four grandparents. Why?
BLITZER: Mr. Alarcon
ALARCON: Because of (inaudible) senators to decide what the
lawyers
BLITZER: Tomorrow, as you know, the U.S. and Cuba are scheduled
to resume talks on immigration. Will those talks go forward as scheduled?
ALARCON: Yes, certainly. I understand that the Assistant
Secretary of the State that will lead the U.S. delegation is here. He
arrived yesterday. We look forward to serious discussions. Addressing
mainly to the fundamental point, which is the continuation by the U.S. of
a policy, that encourage illegal immigration that provoke this, that
provoke suffering.
Why don't you have you a Cuban--you have a Cuban Adjustment Act
that justify all this wet/dry thing that--are you going to have Mexican
Adjustment Act? A Haitian Adjustment Act? Are you going to change that
policy or are you going to abide by the law?
BLITZER: Mr. Alarcon, will you raise the issue of Elian
Gonzalez in the talks tomorrow in Havana with the U.S. government?
ALARCON: I beg your pardon. I could not
BLITZER: Will the issue of Elian Gonzalez be on your agenda,
when the talks resume with the U.S. government in Havana tomorrow?
ALARCON: Well, we are in touch with the U.S. representatives
here in Havana, and also with the State Department in Washington. I will
tell you, on a permanent basis, discussing how to resolve this matter. And
I am confident that the U.S. would act, as President Clinton suggested the
other day, abiding by the laws. The laws are very clear, the boy belongs
to his father, belongs to his family. And nobody should interfere with
that.
BLITZER: OK.
ALARCON: Not the (inaudible), not the slandering us, this
so-called lawyer used this morning. But simply respecting family rights.
It's as simple as that.
BLITZER: OK. Ricardo Alarcon, I know that this issue is not
going away any time soon. Thank you so much for joining us on LATE
EDITION.
We have to take a quick break. When we come back, more
questions for Senators John Kerry and John Kyl. I'll ask them about the
revelation of a spy in the State Department, and a warning about
international terrorism as the new year approaches. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to LATE EDITION. We're continuing our
conversation with two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee:
Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts; and Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona.
Senator Kyl, how concerned should Americans be about the State
Department warning to be very careful as the New Year approaches traveling
around the world because of an alleged credible piece of evidence there
could be terrorism aimed at American citizens?
KYL: I think we should be very concerned. I talked with a staff
member of the Intelligence Committee this morning, who is convinced that
the State Department's warning is based upon very specific and credible
evidence that there could be a terrorist attack against Americans,
particularly abroad.
And I believe that Americans traveling abroad should seriously
take the advice of the Secretary of State to check with the American
consulate to avoid large crowds, specifically situations in which there
could be a large number of people killed. This is a serious proposition.
It should be taken seriously.
BLITZER: Senator Kyl, is the threat that you are hearing about
coming from Osama bin Laden?
KYL: The--it is not for me to say on this program where the
threat specifically is coming from, but these kind of warnings are not
made lightly. They are based upon specific and credible evidence and I'm
persuaded that it exists.
BLITZER: Senator Kerry, is the Clinton administration doing
enough to deal with these kinds of worldwide terrorist threats against
U.S. interests?
KERRY: They are doing a huge amount at this point. 1 mean,
could we all do more? Probably we could. But the fact is there are certain
limitations at this point in time.
I mean, one of the problems is for instance, Russia and the
capacity to get full cooperation there. We've had difficult relations with
the Chinese. We are also seeking better cooperation there. So we are
working with very great international difficulties and constraints, but
I'm convinced there is a huge amount of attention and focus on it or this
kind of warning would not be issued.
BLITZER: Are you suggesting, Senator Kerry that the Russians
may have information dealing with terrorism that they are not sharing with
the United States because of other strains in the U.S.-Russian
relationship?
KERRY: What I'm saying is that the disorder in Russia today and
the level of criminality within the Russian system, which is well-known,
has led us to have a joint conference and various efforts, which the vice
president has helped initiate, on terrorism and criminality. And within
that context, when you have that kind of disorder and you have that much
criminality, there is a capacity for terrorists to flourish.
Part of what you are seeing in Chechnya right now is a reaction
to their definition of terrorism. They have had bombs in Moscow,
apartments blown up, other kinds of problems, so there is a great deal
of--of--instability in a region where we would obviously much prefer to
have stability because it empowers us to better be able to deal with
terrorism.
BLITZER: Senator Kyl, you and Senator Kerry are members of the
Senate Intelligence Committee, you are privy to all sorts of classified,
sensitive information. This week a lot of Americans, and assume you, were
stunned to learn that the Russian government, that the Russians had
allegedly placed a very sophisticated listening device on the 7th floor at
the State Department, in a sensitive conference room. How surprised were
you? How serious is this?
KYL: Not at all surprised, and it's very serious. I wasn't
stunned at all. American people need to realize that this kind of thing
BLITZER: Weren't you stunned that they could get away with it?
That the Russians, presumably, had that kind of expertise to go into the
State Department and plant a listening device in a conference room?
KYL: Not at all. The American people have to realize that just
because the Cold War is over doesn't mean that the Russians have stopped
spying. Their spy organization, the successor of the KGB, called the SVR,
continues to engage in all kinds of activities that they always did. They
are very good at it. They are very sophisticated. We shouldn't be
surprised at all.
In fact, I think the American people need to back us when we
ask for more resources, both in terms of funding for new technology in a
defensive mode, to protect ourselves from this kind of espionage, from the
Russians, from the Chinese and from others, and also to permit us in this
new age of technology to be able to gather information better ourselves.
Getting back briefly to the terrorist point, it is the ability
of the United States to penetrate terrorist organizations and to intercept
signals that tells us that there may be activity afoot for which we need
to issue warnings. And that kind of technology advantage is slipping away
with the spread around the world of the ability of these people to
communicate with encryptic devices, through fiber optic transmissions and
others that make it very, very difficult for us. We need a much larger
effort, a more robust effort, in both our defensive and our offensive
capability with respect to espionage.
BLITZER: Senator Kerry how concerned should Americans be right
now, that the Russians may have had an inside--someone on the inside
helping them plant this sophisticated device inside the State Department,
that individual may still be at large and, the second part of the
question, how concerned should we be that if this happened once, why not
happen a bunch other times, in other sensitive areas of the U.S.
government?
KERRY: Well, I think Americans should be concerned. I don't
think we should be alarmed, if you can draw that distinction. I mean, I
think it happens. John Kyl is right, I mean, look they're spying, we're
spying. I mean, don't forget that. John himself just referred to the
information that we need to gather in order to be safe. We are very busy
around the world ourselves doing everything we can to gather every piece
of information that will help protect the United States of America and the
interests of our citizens. And that's how we have the ability to make a
warning about the potential of some kind of terrorist activity.
We do that, our allies do that, and sometimes even, in terms of
business today, there's a great deal of--of, sort of, corporate spying
that goes on also in order to advantage people within the business world.
I mean it's an enormous enterprise. So no one should be surprised by this.
Alarmed? I don't think it's a cause of enormous alarm, because
thank God, we have made progress in terms of denuclearizing, reducing that
level of threat, and not having weapons on hair trigger and pointed at
each other. We continue a threat reduction effort with Russia. We're
working very hard on that score with China.
So I think, I mean, is there someone probably still at large?
The answer is, yes. It clearly appears that way because they have no
record of Mr. Grozny (ph) going into the building, and--someone, had to do
a very sophisticated job when no one was looking, in order to install that
particular bugging device in the way that it was installed. So this is a
very professional, technical job, and, I indeed believe, as I think most
do, that there was some kind of inside help. I think they're working
diligently to try to find out where that was, and my suspicion is, they
will find out.
RUSSERT: All right, Senator Kyl, we have to take quick
commercial break but very, very, quickly, do you agree that there probably
is someone still at large right now?
KYL: Yes, it appears so because Mr. Gusev apparently never had
access to the State Department himself. Clearly somebody else inside the
building had to be involved in the planting of the device.
BLITZER: All right, let's take a quick commercial break. A lot
more to talk about with two senators, members of the Intelligence
Committee, stay with us on LATE EDITION.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to LATE EDITION. We're talking with two
members of the Senate Intelligence Committee: Democrat John Kerry of
Massachusetts and Republican John Kyl of Arizona.
Senator Kyl, Boris Yeltsin was in China this week, had some
tough talk about the United States, about President Clinton. Listen to
what President Yeltsin said earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS YELTSIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (THROUGH TRANSLATOR):
President Clinton allowed himself to pressure Russia. He seems to have,
for a second, for a minute, for a half a minute, forgotten what is Russia,
that Russia possesses a full nuclear arsenal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Senator Kyl, President Clinton later shrugged that off
and seemed to joke about it. Is this serious, the fact that Yeltsin is now
reminding us, reminding the entire world, that Russia's a nuclear power?
KYL: I don't think that there's a suggestion that he would
actually use those nuclear weapons against the United States just because
we object to his policy in Chechnya.
But it's not a joking matter, because the Russians,
unfortunately, at this point in history have an inferiority complex.
They're only good at one thing and that is threatening with their nuclear
arsenal, and they want respect in the world. The problem is, they don't
act in a way to engender respect. In fact, primary foreign policy for them
these days is doing whatever they can to tweak the United States, and that
includes going to China and making nice with the Chinese about Taiwan,
even though they understand the United States cannot stand by and allow
the American--excuse me, the Chinese to threaten the Taiwanese.
So it is a way for Yeltsin to try to remind the world that
Russia is important after all because they have those weapons. But that's
not what makes a great nation. A great nation would act more responsibly,
would act more in line with the family of nations that has learned to get
along together in a civilized fashion.
BLITZER: All right
KYL: Unfortunately--if I can just add one thing--the elections
about to take place in Russia are against a backdrop of extreme
nationality, and the popular thing in Russia these days is to talk in an
even more bellicose tone than Mr. Yeltsin is. That's not going to bode
well for the future.
BLITZER: We don't have a lot of time, Senator Kerry, but I want
to get your take. As you know, the Israelis and the Syrians resume peace
negotiations in Washington this week. Very optimistic comments coming from
the Syrian foreign minister earlier today. He said, ``I am so optimistic
to say that a few months could be enough to reach a peace agreement." He
goes on to say that ``we are going to Washington with good intentions. We
are serious about making peace with Israel."
In Israel there are reports today that any withdrawal from the
Golan Heights would require extensive U.S. financial assistance to Israel
and perhaps even to Syria. Is the U.S. Senate ready, in your opinion, to
come up with the money to pay for that kind of peace agreement?
KERRY: I think it depends on the structure of the agreement. I
was in the Middle East a few months ago. I met with Prime Minister Barak,
I met with King Abdullah, and it was very clear to me from those
conversations that the moment is really ripe to move forward with Mr.
Assad. I mean, there are many reasons for his wanting to do that now.
I think we have waited so long for this and worked so hard for
it, that if Syria were to make peace, I have no doubt that the United
States Senate--Congress would be very supportive, as long as it didn't put
us in I think some sort of dangerous situation.
I can't imagine that. I don't believe that would be the
outcome. I think we have a neutral, helpful role to play here. I think if
our monitoring capacity of one kind or another were to lend support to
that, Americans would welcome that completely. The Congress would be very
excited about it, and I think it could really open other enormous
possibilities in the region.
BLITZER: All right. Unfortunately, Senators, we are all out of
time.
Senator John Kerry, Senator John Kyl, always good to have you
on LATE EDITION. Thank you so much for joining us.
When we return, the race for the White House. We'll talk with
Republican presidential candidate, Alan Keyes, about his campaign and
plans for overtaking GOP front-runner, George W. Bush. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEYES: If you can't stand on your own two feet, if you're
always looking for somebody else to put words into your mouth, then at
that critical moment of decision, who's going to take the place of the one
who should be making the judgments?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Republican presidential candidate and former UN
Ambassador Alan Keyes, taking a jab at Governor George W. Bush at CNN's
GOP debate in Arizona this past Monday.
Welcome back to LATE EDITION. Joining us now from the campaign
trail in Des Moines, lowa, is Alan Keyes. Ambassador Keyes, good to have
you with us on LATE EDITION.
KEYES: Glad to be with you, thank you.
BLITZER: Well there's--thank you, thanks for joining us.
There's a new CNN-Time magazine poll just out today, shows McCain at 37
percent, Bush at 33 percent, Steve Forbes at nine percent, Alan Keyes at
five percent. You are ahead of Gary Bauer and you are ahead of Orrin
Hatch. But still a lot of people, and you know this, a lot of people are
saying, Alan Keyes is not going to be the GOP nominee. Why is he going
through all of this hard work, clearly it's not easy running for
president.
KEYES: I have no idea why people would reach that conclusion,
and certainly not on the basis of a bunch of phony, manipulated polls that
do not reflect anything that may happen at the voting booth. There is no
record that suggests that these polls are accurate in those predictions
whatsoever. And they preempt the judgment of the American people. I pay no
attention to them.
I think as people are focusing on the candidates, on the
substance, we're getting a very positive reaction from around the country,
and I think that as these debates and other things go forward, we're going
to find that the American people, do in fact, prefer substance and they're
not willing to give the palm to birth and to wealth just because that
happens to be somebody's criteria. I think the American people are going
to make their choice based on quality.
BLITZER: The birth comment, presumably referring to George W.
Bush, the wealth, I assume referring to Steve Forbes. You know, he's
running a new ad in New Hampshire. Listen to what he's saying about his
place in this campaign, and then I want to get your reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: December 3rd, after the debate, the Union Leader
made Steve Forbes their choice in the GOP primary, stating that he is head
and shoulders above the others. Conservative leadership and a
determination to restore a sense of decency to the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Steve Forbes says he's the true conservative in this
race, and that he should have that role, not necessarily you or Gary Bauer
or anyone else.
KEYES: Well, I think that the people are the folks who are to
make that judgment. I put the highest priority right now on meeting the
moral challenge of this nation's life, which I think a lot of folks around
the country recognize to be the major challenge we face. We don't have a
big economic crisis, we not in the midst of some big international crisis,
but we are in the midst of the worst moral crisis in the nation's history.
And I think that has to be addressed as our top priority. We've got to
deal with issues that poison our allegiance to the moral principles the
country was founded on, starting with the issue of abortion.
I have made this concern with the moral future of the country,
the top priority of my campaign and of my public life over the last
several years, and I'll continue to do so. I think that's what this
election is really about, and as that issue is put before America--and we
see in the context of the taxes and the control of schools, and the
control of our lives and futures. I think Americans will realize that we
need to have somebody in the White House who understands the deep
principles of this nation, and can help the nation think through how they
apply to the challenges we face today.
BLITZER: All right, Ambassador Keyes, we have a caller from
Fullerton, California, please go ahead with your question for Alan Keyes.
Fullerton, can you hear me?
QUESTION: Yes.
BLITZER: Go ahead with your question.
QUESTION: Dr. Alan Keyes, I think you're a great candidate, I'd
love to see you be president. The news media is not covering you as much
as you you deserve. What can your supporters do to get more name
recognition?
KEYES: Well, I think there is a role for the public at large.
In making sure that when the media practices its repression, they call
them on it, and we have been finding that around the country. Folks
reported to us over the Internet, for instance, from their different
communities around the country, that a lot of the newspapers acted as if I
didn't even participate in the first two debates, even though there were a
lot of objective indicators out there that people around the country felt
I won those debates and that my performance was the strongest.
But in the news media and other media outlets, many of them
didn't even mention my name. And none of them really acknowledged the
strength and intensity of the reaction to my performance around the
country. When that happens, people need get in touch and let their
feelings be heard. Write the letters, call the news outlets. Let them know
that you're aware that they are, in fact, lying to the American people,
and they should stop.
BLITZER: One thing you did say in that debate, in the first
debate that was very, very controversial, accusing the news media
generally of racism because you are a black American, conservative black
American, that the news media were ignoring you, and it was racist policy,
a deliberate policy, but what evidence do you have to make that kind of
very, very serious accusation?
KEYES: I have the evidence of the consistent media practice. I
don't fit the stereotype of a black American, that media people seem to
think is out there.
Have we forgotten that the essence of racism and prejudice is
not hatred, but bigotry and prejudice? If people don't fit your
stereotypes, you exclude them, you cut them out. That was at the heart of
the deep problems in America, that had to do with race.
Many people in the South and the old South used to profess
their great affection for black Americans, in their place. What did that
mean? Well, when they fit stereotypes that we mean to impose upon them.
That's what the American media is doing, and the evidence is out there in
the way that they act and have reacted.
I was talking to--I talked to other day by one of my colleagues
who said that a lady whose editor at the "U.S. News and World Report,"
Jody Allen, had actually made the remark that if I wasn't black, I
wouldn't even be in the debates. A more virulantly racist remark I have
never heard in my life. Completely disregarding my qualifications,
completely disregarding my ability, completely disregarding my
performance, in order to make a dirty, little remark based entirely on
race.
It's things like that, that I think deeply hurt this country.
And the media ought to stop it.
BLITZER: All right. Let's take another caller, from Sarasota,
Florida. Go ahead with your question for Alan Keyes.
CALLER: Good afternoon.
My question Mr. Keyes is on that subject, when you cite racism
as an element of bigotry by the left, I think you're missing the point.
The bigotry practiced by the left is not against the color of your skin,
sir, it's against your ideology. It's the Thomas affect.
KEYES: No, no.
CALLER: The--it's okay in this day and age to hate
KEYES: Can I answer that?
BLITZER: Go ahead Ambassador Keyes, go ahead with your answer.
KEYES: No, I just wanted to say I used to try to make that
argument. But it doesn't wash now, because we've got controls in the
field. You know, a control in a scientific experiment is somebody who has
all your characteristics with one change in the variable.
And as long as Gary Bauer is in this field being treated with
greater respect than Alan Keyes, and he has consistently been treated with
greater respect, then I think you have a problem trying to make the case
that this is ideological. It's not. It's ideology combined with race.
They will not tolerate a black American, who isn't a
step-and-fetch-it of the liberal left. And therefore, they exclude me.
That is a bigoted reaction, and it needs to stop.
BLITZER: But Gary Bauer did do better than did you in the Des
Moines--in the lowa straw poll last August.
KEYES: Yeah, so one indicator. Orrin Hatch hasn't been treated
with disrespect because he came behind. And I run consistently ahead of
Gary in most other indicators of what's going on in the election out
there, that the media professes to take seriously.
So you can't, you can't say that this is in any sense, a fair
judgment or fair treatment. It reflects, I believe, the unwillingness to
allow a black American to stand forth, express views that are not
consistent with the racial stereotype of the media, and get--and let those
views be presented to the American people. That's what I think is going
on.
BLITZER: All right. All right. Alan Keyes, stand by. We have to
take a quick commercial break. For our international viewers, World News
is next. For our North American audience, another 30 minutes of LATE
EDITION. We'll get the news headlines from Gene Randall and take more of
your phone calls for Alan Keyes.
Then our LATE EDITION roundtable, and Bruce Morton's ``Last
Word." It's all ahead when LATE EDITION continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to LATE EDITION. We'll take more of your
phone calls for Republican presidential candidate, Alan Keyes in just a
moment, but first, here is Gene Randall with the hour's top stories.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: Thanks, Gene. Now back to our conversation with
Republican presidential candidate, Alan Keyes. Ambassador Keyes, let's go
through some issues in the headlines right now. First of all, as you know,
the first lady this week said she doesn't support the don't ask/don't tell
policy on gays in the military. The president in an interview with CBS
News only yesterday suggested that he also doesn't think the policy has
worked. Do you think that individuals should be judged by their conduct or
their sexual orientation when they want to be in the U.S. military?
KEYES: Well, I think in this particular case, we are judging
people by their conduct, and that conduct is incompatible with the morale
and good discipline of the military. And therefore, folks who insist on
that lifestyle should not be part of our military, in my opinion. I think
we are wrong to try to use our military for these kinds of social
experiments.
We need an effective tool for the defense of this country and
we need to respect the requirements of the integrity of the
professionalism and discipline of the military. And I think this whole
business that the Clinton administration has been doing, is wrong, and I
would put a stop to it as president.
BLITZER: Would you also then take the next step and say that
homosexuals, lesbians and gays should not be police officers or
firefighters?
KEYES: I think that my job as president of the United States,
will be to decide what are the requirements for our military security for
which the federal government is responsible. I would not usurp the
decisions of the state and local governments with regard to their police
and fire forces. I think that is something for people in the states and
localities around the country to decide.
BLITZER: All right. What about this little six year-old Cuban
boy who is in Florida right now. Do you envisage under any circumstances
letting this boy go back to his dad in Cuba?
KEYES: Oh, well certainly. I think that in the first instance
we have to make a judgment that is consistent with our respect for family
bonds and obligations. We have to be careful to make a determination, one,
that those families bonds in fact exist and have been respected and
honored by the father. Two, that in point of fact it is his real desire
that his son should return to Cuba, and that I think can only be done if
you have him come out of Cuba, where he can in fact make a decision in
freedom.
But the notion that we would put politics and ideology ahead of
our respect for the authority of a father, if in fact he is a father who
wishes to exercise his familial responsibilities. I think that is going
too far in the direction of putting ideology ahead of our respect for
family bonds. If on the other hand, the mother's decision to come out of
Cuba was based on the existence of persecution, things that actually
affect the welfare of that child, then I think we would have to let the
relatives here in United States be the ones whose familial bonds we
respected. But I think that has to be judgment made in best interests of
the child, with respect for the family bonds and obligations that I think
even governments have to pay heed to.
BLITZER: Do you think, George W. Bush, Ambassador Keyes, is
qualified to be president of the United States?
KEYES: I don't think that is a judgment for me to make. I think
it is for the people to make that judgment. I do believe that he has
failed in his articulation of the priorities that face this country. He
wants to put the moral crisis of the nation on the back burner. He does
not have the courage to address forthrightly the issues like abortion that
deeply affect our moral character. I frankly don't believe he has the
depth of understanding to articulate the relationship between this
country's moral principles and the great serious practical issues, whether
it is abortion, income taxes, social security, and so forth that we face
today.
I don't think he understands that at bottom, as a people we
must apply our moral principles and constitutional principles consistently
if we are to maintain the integrity of our conscience and way of life. On
those grounds, I do not believe he should be the Republican nominee, and I
do not support him. That is why I'm in the field.
BLITZER: OK. Tough talk, blunt talk, that we have gotten used
to hearing from Alan Keyes. Thank you so much for joining us on LATE
EDITION. We hope you will come back.
KEYES: Thank you.
BLITZER: And when we come back, George W. Bush stumbles on the
campaign trail, and Vice President Al Gore sharpens his attack on Bill
Bradley. That and the week's other political developments, when we go
around the table with Roberts, Page, and Carlson. LATE EDITION continues
right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Time now for our LATE EDITION roundtable. Joining me:
Susan Page, White House bureau chief for USA Today; Steve Roberts,
contributing editor for U.S. News & World Report; and Tucker Carlson,
political writer for the Weekly Standard.
As far as George W. Bush this week is concerned, listen to some
of these headlines that we just picked randomly: jabs by opponents of Bush
subtly poke at his intellect; George W. not so invincible; GOP rivals
question Bush's experience; poor debate reviews dim Bush's luster.
Pretty bad week for George W. Bush.
ROBERTS: It was, and part of the reason is that George Bush is
two different candidates. In person, he remains a very effective and even
dynamic, certainly appealing figure. On TV, it turns out he's not really
that good. And I don't know whether it's because he's uneasy, whether he's
inexperienced, whether he's trying to be too cautious. But that natural
ebullience that comes across very strongly in person is not coming across
on the tube.
And it's not as if the Republicans are having buyer's remorse
yet, but they're uneasy, because they've put a lot behind this guy,
they've bet a lot on this guy. He's only been in two campaigns, two
governors races in Texas. People are starting to get nervous whether he
really has enough experience to carry through the campaign.
BLITZER: You know, Tucker, Warren Rudman, the former senator,
was on Meet The Press earlier today. He's a supporter of John McCain, but
he was rather blunt in talking about some of the shortfalls--fallings of
Governor Bush. Listen to what Warren Rudman had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN RUDMAN, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: I didn't think he looked
good at all. I thought he looked programmed, I thought he looked stiff.
You know, and that's just one debate. But the fact is, he did not live up
to expectations and John McCain exceeded expectations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Partisan talk, obviously. But did--is there buyer's
remorse among Republicans as far as George W. Bush is concerned?
CARLSON: Well, remember a couple of months ago when Senator
Moynihan said of Al Gore, "Oh, he can't win." I think a lot of
Republicans have bought that line. It's sort of a glib line, but they've
thought all along, ``Well, in the final analysis, Gore's just
unelectable."
And I think this week for the first time, a lot of Republicans
realize that that's not true. Al Gore can win. Al Gore could be president,
especially if he faces someone who does as poorly in the debates as Bush
did. And I think that's--the panic is just beginning, but I think it's
beginning to dawn on a lot of Republicans that maybe Bush isn't taking it
seriously. This is a big problem, and they're starting to kind of freak
out.
PAGE: But, you know, there are always ups and downs in
campaigns. You're never going to have a straight line. George Bush had
been doing really well.
George Bush has an incredible infrastructure to fall back on.
He has an awful lot of money to spend, he has an organization in a lot of
states where McCain hasn't been, and he also has the advantage that his
chief opponent, or the alternative to George Bush/John McCain, is widely
unacceptable to the kind of establishment Republicans.
I think that this has not been a good work week for George
Bush, but I think he remains the prohibitive favorite for the nomination,
and we'll see how things play out in the general election.
BLITZER: You know, but Steve, a lot of Republicans still don't
feel comfortable with John McCain. Listen to what Mitch McConnell had to
say earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
U.S. SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Well, he would have to do
a lot of work to reconvince--to convince a lot of Republican-based voters
that he's one of us. Because the issues he has emphasized in recent years
have all been Democratic issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, Mitch McConnell is the leading opponent in the
Senate against campaign finance reform. John McCain is the leading
advocate of campaign finance reform. They detest each other, and so Mitch
McConnell's comments are hardly surprising.
McCain is trying to position himself as an outsider. He did
come across I think pretty well in the debates. He has--there was a
sparkle to him, a liveliness that George Bush did not have.
But as Susan said, that only goes so far. I mean, what does he
do the Wednesday after New Hampshire? He doesn't have an organization in
other states. So I think McCain is going to be the flavor of the month,
but I'm not sure he has it for the long term.
BLITZER: All right. Tucker, you know, we've also seen another
development this week: Al Gore coming out big time, taking off the gloves,
going after Bill Bradley. In fact, in almost every speech, he rips
Bradley's policies. Listen to this little clip that we selected at random.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE, DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRESIDENTIAL
CANDIDATE: It's quite another thing to say--to propose a possible tax
increase for no other reason than to try to cover your bases when you have
this big gaping hole in a campaign proposal that you can't fill in any
other way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: What do you think about the new strategy from Al Gore?
CARLSON: I think it works. I mean, was it Al Gore's mother in
'88 when he first ran for president said--her advice was something along
the lines of: relax, be yourself and attack. That's very good advice.
I mean, Bill Bradley had advanced to the position he's advanced
to by being sort of mysterious and playing this kind of anti-candidate
candidate. And I think Gore is right to try and pull back the curtain on
that and say, ``Look, actually if you listen carefully to what Bill
Bradley's saying, there's not a lot of there, and some of it's, you know,
a little off."
PAGE: Well, we're reminded this week--I was out with Gore
several days--what a fierce campaigner he is. He showed us before in 1988
he was the candidate who raised the issue of prison furloughs against
Michael Dukakis in the primaries before the Bush people had heard about
it.
PAGE: He's a very fierce campaigner, he's effective on the
attack. I think he's found his footing after that some uncertain months at
the beginning, and I think the other side of this is that Bill Bradley
seems almost disdainful of this as old politics. It maybe old politics,
but it's old politics. It has a history of working--Bill Bradley needs to
respond more effectively to the complaints than the points that Al Gore is
raising.
ROBERTS: But Gore is being a little disingenuous. And let's be
honest, there he was attacking Bill Bradley. You know, he's going to raise
taxes and then a week later, under questioning from reporters, he admitted
that he probably too would have to raise taxes to finance this health
care
BLITZER: And they're both talking about tobacco taxes, which
all Democrats presumably support raising.
ROBERTS: I think Al Gore, I agree that it's been effective, but
I think he is in a position of magnifying his differences with Bill
Bradley, when in fact they aren't very great, and he's making a lot out of
these differences and also, as I say, he's attacked Bradley on the tax
issue, when in fact when he was pressed, he really had to concede that he
has the same position.
BLITZER: Tucker, what point should Bill Bradley come back and
hammer Al Gore?
CARLSON: Well, he should do it immediately. I mean, as far as
I'm concerned, never let an attack go unanswered.
BLITZER: But what bout taking the high road which is what he
says he doesn't want to get into that mud.
ROBERTS: Please, God.
CARLSON: I mean, I don't know. There may have been a lot of
people elected to high office taking the high road. I've never heard of
one. I mean, no, I think Bradley needs to hit back hard. I think this
heart thing is a problem.
I mean, Bradley was apart from however serious or not his
actual heart condition is, Bradley appeared to be dishonest about it, or
at least didn't reveal this earlier when lots of other candidates--every
other candidate has provided the press with a long medical history and he
didn't. And so I think he could run into a little of a Tsongas problem.
BLITZER: Makes it look a lot worse when it comes out like this
as opposed to volunteering this kind of information.
CARLSON: Of course it does.
BLITZER: All right, stand by, we have to take a quick break.
Just ahead, for the first time since his administration began, President
Clinton lit the national Christmas tree without the first lady at his
side. We'll ask the roundtable about the president home alone when LATE
EDITION continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to our LATE EDITION roundtable. A nice
picture of the Christmas tree, just outside the White House.
Susan, the president made this symbolic lighting of the
Christmas tree, but the first lady was symbolically not there. Are we
reading too much into it? Look at these--the video from that day. Usually,
all these years we have seen Mrs. Clinton at that kind of event. She was
not there this time. She's busy getting ready to run for Senate.
PAGE: Not just symbolically not there, not there in any form at
all. Yes, it is a little odd. And Mrs. Clinton is clearly prepared to move
to New York as soon as they have some furniture in that house of theirs.
But the vice--the president was in Arkansas this week, and he
made it sound like that's where he plans to move back after the White
House. I think this is going to be sort of an interesting and odd time
with the first lady, both physically in a different place, and pursuing a
kind of future agenda while the president is kind of wrapping up eight
years in the White House at a different kind of life stage.
BLITZER: You know, the administration of the president came
into office talking about gays in the military, don't ask, don't tell.
Now, seven years later, Mrs. Clinton is having her own views expressed.
Listen to what Mrs. Clinton said this week on this very sensitive subject:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON: I don't believe ``don't ask, don't tell" has
worked. And I don't believe it is ultimately the policy that we should
have in our military.
I don't have the carbon copy issues with anybody, including my
husband. I mean I would think that we are all our own persons, who stand
for public office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Although, Steve, this weekend the president seemed to
jump on her bandwagon saying she's right.
ROBERTS: Well, the key words were there were ``stand for public
office." Because for seven years, she has been part of the
administration, she has been a representative of their policies, in the
same way Al Gore has been. Both of them are going through a transition,
both the vice president and the first lady, from being part of the
administration to being candidates on their own. And both of them have had
trouble making that transition.
And she, I think, is looking for not only issues to distance
herself, that's familiar, but also, she's thinking a bit more like a
senator. Bill Clinton had to support ``don't ask, don't tell" because he
couldn't get anything better through the Congress. When you're running for
the Senate, you can say anything you want, you don't have to worry about
getting the majority.
So she can distance herself in part, because she's also in a
different place, with a different mindset.
BLITZER: She's going to be distancing herself on other issues,
substantive issues in the coming weeks and months, as well. Right, Tucker?
CARLSON: Oh sure. And Harold Ickes in fact, said that on this
program a couple weeks ago, that she'll be staking out her own territory.
But what's interesting in this case is that the president himself said,
"Yeah, well I agree with my wife who disagrees with me."
And so you start to think that maybe he should talk to the
president about it and get something done about this policy. I mean, you
know, it was this kind of weird I disagree
BLITZER: He is, he is after all, the commander-in-chief.
CARLSON: Apparently. And, but I have to say one thing about
Mrs. Clinton. I mean her voice, that's hard--you know, I'm a big believer
in silly, shallow things like voice and appearance making a big difference
in politics. And boy, her voice is just like a rake on a chalkboard. It's
hard to imagine her getting far, sorry.
BLITZER: Tucker Carlson, Susan Page, Steve Roberts: our round
table. Always great to have you. You'll be back next weekend.
When we return, we'll reveal what's on the cover of this week's
major news magazines. Plus, Bruce Morton's last word on the United States
and Panama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORTON: Leaving means closing U.S. military bases, which will
cost Panamanians 18,000 jobs. But maybe they'll finally be able to feel
like a real country again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Bruce reflects on the end of a long and controversial
era.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Time now for Bruce Morton's ``Last Word" on the
handover of the Panama Canal. The ceremonies begin this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MORTON: It was Herman Cortes, a Spanish explorer and
conquistador, imperialist we would call him nowadays, I suppose, who said
in 1524 that a path across the Isthmus of Panama would be worth more than
the conquest of Mexico. Ten years later, Charles V of Spain ordered a
survey of possible canal routes. Then things slowed down.
The French began work on a canal in 1881. The effort went
bankrupt and some 20,000 workers died, mostly of malaria and yellow fever.
The U.S. started it up again in 1904, after helping Panama secede from
Columbia, and the canal opened in 1914. Five thousand more workers had
died by then of other diseases. They'd pretty much got rid of malaria and
yellow fever in the Canal Zone by then.
During the debate about actually letting panama run the canal,
California Republican Senator S.I. Hayakawa reflected on the U.S. role in
helping Panama secede said, "We ought to keep it. We stole it fair and
square."
We did keep it for almost a century. Everyone who worked in the
Canal Zone worked for the U.S., lived in company houses, shopped in the
company store. But now under a treaty negotiated during Jimmy Carter's
presidency, the U.S. is leaving. The Senate approved the treaties in 1978
by just one vote more than the two-thirds majority required.
And of course, the U.S. invaded Panama in 1989 because the U.S.
didn't like its dictator, Manuel Noriega, probably a way of saying, we can
get you anytime. Leaving means closing U.S. military bases which will cost
Panamanians 18,000 jobs, but maybe they'll finally be able to feel like a
real country again.
U.S. conservatives, meanwhile, are alarmed because a Chinese
company will run the port facilities. One Congressman warned this will
mean China's domination of Panama.
UNKNOWN: If we do nothing, I can guarantee you within a decade
a communist Chinese regime that hates democracy and sees America as its
primary enemy will dominate the tiny country of Panama and thus dominate
the Panama Canal.
MORTON: Retired Admiral Thomas Moore said China could sneak
missiles into Panama. But the publicly traded Chinese company runs
facilities in 17 ports, including Britain's three largest. Its top manager
in Panama is British. The number two is American. And none of its 500
employees in Panama is Chinese.
It's the latest echo in the old "Whose canal is it anyway?"
debate. But the debate is over. The transfer ceremony is December 14th,
the actual turning over is December 31st. And in the new century the
panama canal will belong, finally, to Panama. I'm Bruce Morton.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Thanks Bruce. Time now for a look at what's on the
cover of this week's major news magazines. Time has an exclusive on the
Columbine tapes. The killers tell why they did it, on the cover.
U.S. News has a special report on Americans working harder than
ever, on the cover.
And on the cover of Newsweek: people of the century, from the
trenches to the streets, how ordinary Americans made history.
And that's your LATE EDITION, for Sunday, December 12th. Be
sure to join us next Sunday and every Sunday at noon Eastern, for the last
word in Sunday talk. Former independent counsel Ken Starr and Republican
Senator John McCain. And I will see you tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m.
Eastern on The World Today.
For now, thanks very much for watching, enjoy the rest of your
weekend. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
END
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (NOTES MAIL)
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SUBJECT: CBS 60 Minutes, December 12, 1999
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TO: Douglas B. Sosnik ( CN=Douglas B. Sosnik/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO ])
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TEXT:
CBS 60 MINUTES
December 12, 1999
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell`
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RET. LT. COL. ROBERT MAGINNIS: People that are gay
that come into the military today have been, I think, hoodwinked in terms
of thinking the military's gay-friendly. It's not.
JAVIER TORRES: Here is another soldier in the same
position I am, and he was gay, and he got murdered over that fact.
ED BRADLEY, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What
did the other guys say after Barry Winchell was murdered?
TORRES: There was some who was, like, "Hey, just
one less fag to deal with. I mean, they don't really belong here
anyways."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEO MCKERN: I was about to put to Mr. Justice
Oliphant (ph) the inexcusable manner in which he sighs and rolls his eyes
to heaven when summing up the case for the defense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORLEY SAFER, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over):
If you're looking for a lawyer whose command of the English language is,
more often than not, more than the other side can cope with, you just
found him. Trouble is, Horace Rumpole is not available. Worse than that,
he doesn't even exist except in the mind of the British novelist John
Mortimer.
GEOFFREY ROBERTSON (ph): John's great achievement in
Rumpole is to create a lawyer that the world could love. I mean, we--we
have far fewer lawyer jokes in Britain than you do in America, largely
thanks to Rumpole.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The reason
the U.S. dumped millions and millions of gallons of Agent Orange on South
Vietnam was to destroy thick jungle like this that provided cover for the
Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army. But the American servicemen who
sprayed it didn't know that it also contained a deadly byproduct, dioxin.
DR. TRAN MAN HONG (ph) (through translator): Areas
that were sprayed by Agent Orange have 10 to 20 times more birth defects
than normal. This girl is 6 years old, but she still cannot speak. She
can't even sit up by herself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE WALLACE, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mike
Wallace.
SAFER: I'm Morley Safer.
BRADLEY: I'm Ed Bradley.
STEVE KROFT, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Steve
Kroft.
LESLEY STAHL, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Lesley
Stahl. Those stories and Andy Rooney tonight on 60 MINUTES.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRADLEY: The conviction this week of a soldier at
Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for the murder of a fellow soldier who was gay
has placed more light on the Pentagon's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy
than the Pentagon ever wanted. The policy, which President Clinton signed
into law six years ago, was designed to make it possible for homosexuals
to serve in the U.S. armed forces.
Before that, gays were banned outright. Now, while
open homosexuality is still against the law, gays are allowed to serve as
long as they don't publicly reveal their sexual orientation. And
commanders are forbidden from asking any members of the armed forces if he
or she is gay.
Despite that, the latest figures from the Pentagon
show that nearly twice as many gay troops are being discharged from the
military now as when the policy was first adopted. And a group that tracks
verbal and physical harassment cases against gays in the military says
they've reached an all-time high, none more horrifying than the murder of
Private Barry Winchell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Winchell was 21 years old when he was
beaten to death this past July by Private Calvin Glover, who was sentenced
to life in prison this week for repeatedly striking Winchell in the head
with a baseball bat while he was asleep in his barracks. Private Winchell
had never publicly disclosed that he was gay, but his mother, Patricia
Kutteles, says that according to testimony in the case, there was a
perception that he was gay, and that he had been harassed on a daily basis
by his fellow soldiers at Fort Campbell.
PATRICIA KUTTELES: I found he had been harassed for
three or four months, labeled as being gay.
BRADLEY (on-camera): By other soldiers.
KUTTELES: By other soldiers, and nothing was done to
stop it.
BRADLEY: So there were superior officers at Fort
Campbell, in his unit, who knew that he was being harassed?
KUTTELES: Yes, they knew he was being harassed
daily.
BRADLEY: And what did they do about it?
KUTTELES: They did nothing. They didn't intervene.
His sergeants asked him if he was gay. That shouldn't have ever even
happened under the "Don't ask, don't tell."
BRADLEY: "Don't ask, don't tell" means the
sergeant is not supposed to ask him.
KUTTELES: Right. It's against the law. He's
not--he's not to ask him.
BRADLEY: What does that say to you about the "Don't
ask, don't tell" policy?
KUTTELES: Oh, that it's useless.
BRADLEY (voice-over): At the time Barry Winchell was
murdered, a private named Javier Torres, who is no longer in the Army, was
also stationed at Fort Campbell and, like Winchell, also concealing his
homosexuality.
JAVIER TORRES: Here is someone else, another
soldier, in the same position I am, and he was gay, and he got murdered
over that fact. When I heard it, inside I was scared. I was shocked. But
on the outside, I pretended to be, like, "Cool. No big deal. Just a
fag," you know? And that was the part that hurt the most because here I
am, gay--I mean, obviously, I was scared. I was fearful of my own life.
BRADLEY (on-camera): What did the other guys say
after Barry Winchell was murdered?
TORRES: There was some who was, like, ``Hey, just
one less fag to deal with. I mean, they don't really belong here
anyways." You know, I mean, ``It`s their fault for putting themselves in
that position. They should know better."
BRADLEY (voice-over): The "Don't ask, don't tell"
policy also explicitly forbids gay harassment of any kind, but Private
Torres says not a single day went by when he didn't hear slurs against
homosexuals, like the time his entire platoon chanted an anti-gay slogan
during a five-mile run around Fort Campbell.
TORRES: It was pretty much, from what I can
remember, ``Faggot, faggot down the street, shoot him, shoot him till he
retreats."
BRADLEY (on-camera): Who was responsible for this? I
mean, was there a sergeant there?
TORRES: It was a sergeant who was singing it.
BRADLEY: So the sergeant is singing this for the
platoon?
TORRES: Yes. It's supposed to be our motivation to
run.
BRADLEY: ``Faggot, faggot down the street, shoot
him, shoot him till he retreats?" Was this before or after the murder?
TORRES: It was after.
BRADLEY: So after a soldier is murdered because the
soldier who killed him thinks he's gay, a sergeant is leading his men on a
run with an anti-gay chant? What did you do?
TORRES: I sang it. I had to. I mean, I couldn't be
the only one not singing it.
BRADLEY: So when you hear all of this talk during
this time that you're in the military, did it ever occur to you that maybe
you should say something to someone?
TORRES: Of course, but who? You have no one you can
go to in complete confidence and say, ``Hey, this is going on, and this is
bothering me because of this reason."
BRADLEY: What about the chaplain? You couldn't go to
the chaplain and say..
TORRES: They Il turn around and go to your chain of
command. "Don't ask, don't tell," you know? You told, so they have every
right to go and tell whoever needs to know about it.
BRADLEY (voice-over): Finally, Private Torres
decided he'd had enough and told his superiors he was gay.
TORRES: I decided I can't live like this anymore. I
can't. I can't put myself in this position where I have to live a lie
every day. I mean, I was to a point where I was crying in my room because
I was so alone. I have never felt so alone in my whole life. I wanted to
serve my country. I wanted to make myself better, but I didn't want to do
it this way.
BRADLEY: So after almost two years in the Army,
because he publicly revealed his homosexuality Javier Torres was
discharged on September 16th.
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis, who believes
homosexuals should not be allowed to serve openly in the military, was one
of the authors of `Don`t ask, don't tell." Now retired from the Army, he
has reached the startling conclusion that the policy he helped to write is
inherently unfair and may even be dangerous for gays.
LT. COL. ROBERT MAGINNIS (RET.): People that are gay
that come into the military today have been, I think, hoodwinked in terms
of thinking the military's gay-friendly. It's not. We've deceived them
into joining the military with promises that we're not going to be able to
fulfill. And unfortunately, we may have set ourselves up for terrible
crimes such as the one that was committed at Fort Campbell.
BRADLEY (on-camera): Does anyone like this policy?
MAGINNIS: No one likes this policy. I haven't found
a single person.
BRADLEY (voice-over): How did such a policy, which
no one seems to like, become the law of the land? It was a compromise
between President Clinton, who wanted to lift the long-standing ban on
homosexuals in the military, and opponents at the Pentagon and in Congress
who fought to keep it in place. While "Don't ask, don't tell" may appear
more accommodating to gays, the fact is they still can't serve openly, and
for good reason, according to retired Lieutenant Colonel Maginnis.
(on camera): When you say that homosexuality is
incompatible with military service--why?
MAGINNIS: OK. Cohesion, first of all. Cohesion is
the glue that hold small units together. But also
BRADLEY: So how do homosexuals break down this
cohesion?
MAGINNIS: Well, one of the things
BRADLEY: Give me an example.
MAGINNIS: One of the things we did in Ranger
school--we would, for instance, take this--this poncho liner, which was
something that we would wrap ourselves in when it was cold, so you're
sharing body heat. If there's anything of a perception of--of
inappropriate behavior that you think that might result from that--you
have to have total trust that not only are they going to, you know, go out
there and pull your wounded body off the battlefield, but that they won't
do anything untoward in that setting.
BRADLEY: So if you were under that poncho, sharing
that body heat with
MAGINNIS: And I've done that.
BRADLEY:
a soldier who was gay, that would make
you uncomfortable.
MAGINNIS: Oh, it definitely would make me
uncomfortable.
BRADLEY (voice-over): Pentagon officials insist
anti-gay sentiment is not to blame for the rising number of homosexuals
being discharged from the military. Rather, they claim the majority of gay
servicemen are leaving voluntarily and declaring their homosexuality as an
excuse.
MAGINNIS: Recruits today are softer physically, and
they just don't have the mental--you know, they can't deal with the stress
of what they--they`re experiencing. So I see this as an easy out.
BRADLEY: But Army Reserve Lieutenant Steve May, who
is gay, says he's not looking for an easy way out. May is also a state
representative in Arizona, and during a political debate in the
legislature over the issue of medical benefits for gay partners, he
acknowledged his homosexuality. And for that the Army is trying to force
him out of the military.
(on camera): On the face of it, you've clearly
violated the "Don't ask, don't tell."
STEVE MAY: Well, obviously, people know. My soldiers
know that I am gay.
BRADLEY: Well, doesn't that then give the Army
grounds to take some kind of action against you? I mean, it is "Don't
ask, don't tell," and you told.
MAY: And I told, but I told, of course, while I was
a civilian. I think the policy, on its face, is immoral. At the same time
the Army tells me I'm supposed to be honest and live my life with
integrity, they` re asking me to lie about who I am. And while my
constituents expect me to be open and honest with them--not to talk about
my private life, but not to lie about it--the Army is asking me to lie
about it.
BRADLEY (voice-over): Lieutenant May, who still
commands a platoon in the Army Reserves, is planning to sue the U.S. Army
over the constitutionality of the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which
he says promotes a violent anti-gay atmosphere that is driving homosexuals
out of the military.
MAY: The military says homosexuals are unfit for
military service, therefore we must discharge them as soon as we find out
that they are gay or lesbian. That's their official policy. So this, of
course, all gets translated by the soldier into "Gays are bad. They
shouldn't be here."
BRADLEY (on-camera): Why would you want to be part
of an organization that rejects you because of who you are, your own
identity?
MAY: My obligation is to serve my country. I'm
willing to defend my nation. I'm willing to die for my country, and I have
been since the first day I put on that uniform. The fact that the military
has an absurd policy that in my opinion is immoral in no way decreases my
obligation to be willing to die for my country.
BRADLEY: Since the murder of Barry Winchell, the
Pentagon announced new guidelines that require all military personnel to
receive anti-harassment training throughout their careers. That's in
addition to required briefings on the "Don't ask, don't tell" law that
all members of the armed forces were supposed to be receiving since 1994.
We asked the Pentagon to show us any of their
training programs concerning gays in the military. They told us there
weren't any going on at the present time.
TORRES: Two weeks before I got discharged, we had
one of those meetings, and it lasted about a good, oh, between 20 and 30
seconds. And the first thing he says, "This is a meeting about fags.
Don't bother them. They won't bother you. If you know someone's gay or a
fag, just let it be. Go your own way, and let them go their own ways. And
that's all that has to be said. So leave the fags alone."
BRADLEY: So the sergeant is using the term "fag."
TORRES: Uh-huh. It was making the whole situation a
joke, like it really didn't matter. You know, "I'm supposed to talk to
you about this stuff. Just bear with me for about 20 or 30 seconds, and
then we can all go on our little happy ways." I mean, pretty much,
everyone was laughing.
BRADLEY (voice-over): The debate over the rights of
homosexuals to serve in the military may be taking a new turn. The armed
forces are now facing a recruitment crisis, one of the worst manpower
shortages in decades. And while the military has a $268 million ad
campaign this year for new recruits, it has also been discharging more and
more gay service members.
MAY: The Army, the Air Force, the Navy will not be
able to continue to defend the nation if they continue this policy of
mandatory discrimination. Just today the Army announced they were going to
offer $20,000 signing bonuses for two-year enlistments. That almost
doubles the income of a young private. At the same time, they're
discharging three to four service members every day not because of
qualification, not because of performance, but simply because these
soldiers have said ``I am gay."
BRADLEY: Since "Don't ask, don't tell" became law,
nearly 4,500 people have been discharged from the military because of
their sexual orientation. And legal advocates for gays say they've
documented more than 2,000 cases where commanders violated the policy by
asking about a service member's sexual orientation, by investigating their
private lives or by condoning harassment. At the same time, no one has
ever been officially punished for those violations of the policy.
So what does the Pentagon have to say about all of
this? They declined to be interviewed, but officials there told us that
they have a zero-tolerance policy regarding the harassment of gays and
that "Don't ask, don't tell" is being implemented fairly and lawfully.
(voice-over): But don't try telling that to Barry
Winchell's mother.
KUTTELES: The idea he was murdered is overwhelming.
That it's--that it was a soldier, that he was asleep on a military base,
where I thought he was protected--it's beyond words. He had tried to be
the best soldier the Army had, and it doesn't matter. He's dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRADLEY: In a CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT interview
yesterday, President Clinton, under whose leadership the "Don't ask,
don't tell" policy became law, now says the policy is way out of whack
and is not being carried out as he intended and the military promised in
1993. The president also said the entire policy toward gays in the
military should be reexamined.
END
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (NOTES MAIL)
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CREATION DATE/TIME:13-DEC-1999 11:29:48.00
SUBJECT: immigration
TO: Irene Bueno (CN=Irene Bueno/OU=OPD/O=EOP [ OPD ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TEXT:
LEXIS-NEXIS Universe Update Report: December 13, 1999 at 11:27
Results from this Update: 28
Next Update: December 13, 1999 at 12:00
Access your results at:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/In.universe/pnews/emailAlert?_pnewsAlert=0x00010
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I of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse
December 13, 1999, Monday 10:22 AM Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 141 words
HEADLINE: US immigration officials meet father of custody battle boy
DATELINE: HAVANA, Dec 13
BODY:
US immigration officials on Monday met with the father of a
six-year-old boy
at the center of a custody battle between Cuba and the United States.
The meeting took place in Cardenas, the home town of the father, Juan
Miguel
Gonzalez, 150 kilometers (90 miles east of Havana), the president of the
Cuban
parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, said here.
The son, Elian Gonzalez, was rescued from the sea last month when a boat
taking him, his mother and step-father from Cuba to the United States
sank. His
mother and step-father drowned.
Elian's father is demanding the boy's return to Cuba but relatives in
Miami
want him to remain in the United States.
US immigration officials are seeking documents from the father proving
his
paternity in an effort to resolve the custody dispute which has dragged
on for
nearly three weeks.
cb/cw
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
2 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Associated Press
AP Worldstream
December 13, 1999; Monday 10:20 Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
DISTRIBUTION: Europe;Britian;Scandinavia;Midle
East;Africa;India;England;Asia
LENGTH: 417 words
HEADLINE: URGENT HAVANA: anti-Castro exiles.
BODY:
In an appearance Sunday on the ABC television program "This Week,"
National
Security Adviser Sandy Berger urged: "This boy should not be a political
football; he should not be a political pawn."
The dispute comes as Cuban Americans travel to Havana on a half-dozen
daily
charter flights set up under the 1994 and 1995 immigration accords bearing
smiles, hugs and Christmas gifts ranging from Barbie dolls to bicycle
tires.
Wearing a cowboy hat and a broad smile, Miami construction worker
Osvaldo
Benitez stepped off a flight at Havana's Jose Marti airport carrying a
gym bag
loaded with presents.
"I feel great, because I'm going to spend Christmas with my family,
who I
haven't seen in so many years," said Benitez, as he gave a bear hug to a
relative who came to pick him up.
Cuba claims U.S. policy has been contradictory.
Before the meeting with Elian's father, INS officials handed a letter to
Cuba's Foreign Ministry asking for birth and marriage certificates, as
well as
proof of custody, to back his claim for the child. But the same agency
gave
temporary custody to the father's relatives in Miami.
Vice President Al Gore suggested Saturday that the father should be
allowed
to visit the United States to discuss the boy's best interests.
The Miami relatives Elian's great-aunt and great-uncle argue he would
have a
better life in the United States. The Cuban government news agency Prensa
Latina
said this week that under that argument, poor children in the United
States
should be taken from their parents and given to rich families.
Valdes said the big problem is the Cuban Adjustment Act, an American
law that
lets almost any Cuban reaching U.S. shores apply for residency, and the
U.S.
government's willingness to delegate decisions to local officials in
Miami.
Valdes said U.S. laws create a 115-kilometer-wide (73-mile-wide) "no
man's
land" between Cuban and U.S. waters across which people are lured by the
promise of automatic citizenship, at risk to their lives.
Valdes himself was one of about 14,000 Cuban children sent to the United
States between 1961 and 1964 to live in foster homes or orphanages under
a U.S.
government operation named "Peter Pan," which played on fears that the
Cuban
system would undermine the authority of parents.
"Some children lost all contact with their culture," said Valdes, who
thinks Elian should be returned to his father. "Too many external forces
have
played with too many Cuban kids for 30
ears."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
3 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Associated Press
AP Online
December 13, 1999; Monday 10:17 Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 800 words
HEADLINE: Cuba Boy's Dad Meets U.S. Officials
DATELINE: HAVANA
BODY:
U.S. immigration officials met early today with the father of Elian
Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy who has become the subject of a custody
battle that has escalated tensions between the two countries.
The move, announced by Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon
outside U.S.-Cuba immigration talks, could determine whether boy returns
to the
communist island-nation.
A U.S. official in Havana confirmed the meeting between INS
representatives
and the father took place, but would not give any details about what was
discussed.
It was not clear whether Cuban officials were present during the
meeting. The
U.S. government had insisted on a meeting with the father to determine
whether
the boy should be returned to his homeland, but the Americans said U.S.
officials should meet with the father alone.
The dispute threatned to poison the atmosphere at today's U.S.-Cuba
immigration talks, even as Cuban-Americans stream into Havana this
Christmas on
daily flights set up under recent immigration accords.
U.S. officials want the immigration talks, which are held twice a year,
to
focus on issues such as methods for issuing visas. But they fear
discussion may
be dominated by Cuban protests over the case of the little boy.
William Brownfield, the lead U.S. negotiator, said he looked forward to
fruitful talks.
"All immigration issues are on the table," he said before entering
meetings. But many wonder if the talks will even get to a conclusion.
"The Cubans may walk out of the talks," said Nelson P. Valdes, who
heads
the Albuquerque, N.M.-based Cuba Research and Analysis Group. "But I
don't
think a massive exodus of refugees is in Cuba's interest."
Elian was found Thanksgiving Day, clinging to an inner tube off the
coast of
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after a boat accident that killed his mother
during an
attempt to illegally enter the United States. He has been staying with his
relatives in Florida since his rescue.
The State Department has said the boy's return is in the hands of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service and Florida courts.
Cuba has mounted mass rallies demanding he be returned to his father.
Juan
Miguel Gonzalez. Lawyers for relatives in Miami have petitioned for
political
asylum on behalf of the boy, who has become a cause celebre among
anti-Castro
exiles.
In an appearance Sunday on ABC's "This Week," National Security
Adviser
Sandy Berger urged: "This boy should not be a political football, he
should not
be a political pawn."
The dispute comes as Cuban-Americans travel to Havana on a half-dozen
daily
charter flights set up under the 1994 and 1995 immigration accords bearing
smiles, hugs and Christmas gifts ranging from Barbie dolls to bicycle
tires.
Wearing a cowboy hat and a broad smile, Miami construction worker
Osvaldo
Benitez stepped off a flight at Havana's Jose Marti airport carrying a
gym bag
loaded with presents.
"I feel great, because I'm going to spend Christmas with my family,
who I
haven't seen in so many years," said Benitez, as he gave a bear hug to a
relative who came to pick him up.
Cuba claims U.S. policy has been contradictory.
Before the meeting with Elian's father, INS officials handed a letter to
Cuba's Foreign Ministry asking for birth and marriage certificates, as
well as
proof of custody, to back his claim for the child. But the same agency
gave
temporary custody to the father's relatives in Miami.
Vice President Al Gore suggested Saturday that the father should be
allowed
to visit the United States to discuss the boy's best interests.
The Miami relatives Elian's great-aunt and great-uncle argue he would
have a
better life in the United States. The Cuban government news agency Prensa
Latina
said this week that under that argument, poor children in the United
States
should be taken from their parents and given to rich families.
Valdes said the big problem is the Cuban Adjustment Act, an American
law that
lets almost any Cuban reaching U.S. shores apply for residency, and the
U.S.
government's willingness to delegate decisions to local officials in
Miami.
Valdes said U.S. laws create a 73-mile-wide "no man's land" between
Cuban
and U.S. waters across which people are lured by the promise of automatic
citizenship, at risk to their lives.
Valdes himself was one of about 14,000 Cuban children sent to the United
States between 1961 and 1964 to live in foster homes or orphanages under
a U.S.
government operation named "Peter Pan," which played on fears that the
Cuban
system would undermine the authority of parents.
"Some children lost all contact with their culture," said Valdes, who
thinks Elian should be returned to his father. "Too many external forces
have
played with too many Cuban kids for 30 years."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
4 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Associated Press
AP Worldstream
December 13, 1999; Monday 10:16 Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
DISTRIBUTION: Europe;Britian;Scandinavia;Midle
East;Africa;India;England;Asia
LENGTH: 185 words
HEADLINE: URGENT HAVANA: little boy.
BODY:
William Brownfield, the lead U.S. negotiator, said he looked forward to
fruitful talks.
"All immigration issues are on the table," he said before entering
meetings. But many wonder if the talks will even get to a conclusion.
"The Cubans may walk out of the talks," said Nelson P. Valdes, who
heads
the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Cuba Research and Analysis Group. "But
I
don't think a massive exodus of refugees is in Cuba's interest."
Elian was found Nov. 25 clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, after a boat accident that killed his mother during
an
attempt to illegally enter the United States. He has been staying with his
relatives in Florida since his rescue.
The U.S. State Department has said the boy's return is in the hands of
the
Immigration and Naturalization Service and Florida courts.
Cuba has mounted mass rallies demanding he be returned to his father.
Juan
Miguel Gonzalez. Lawyers for relatives in Miami have petitioned for
political
asylum on behalf of the boy, who has become a cause celebre among
anti-Castro
exiles.
MORE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
5 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse
December 13, 1999, Monday 07:45 AM Eastern Time
SECTION: Domestic, non-Washington, general news item
LENGTH: 368 words
HEADLINE: Father of Cuban boy to meet US officials: report
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Dec 13
BODY:
The father of a six-year old Cuban boy at the center of a custody battle
between Cuba and the United States will meet with US officials near
Havana, Cuba
Monday, to establish his right to have the child returned to him, US media
reported.
NBC news reported that the father of Elian Gonzalez will meet with
officials
to show documents proving his paternity, in an effort to resolve the
custody
dispute which has dragged on for nearly three weeks.
Until now Juan Gonzalez had refused to meet US immigration officials
investigating the matter, demanding that a date for the boy's
repatriation to
Cuba be set in advance of any talks.
The emotionally charged debate over Elian's fate comes as Washington and
Havana are scheduled to hold talks Monday to discuss Cuban immigration to
the
United States in general.
Havana claims the US immigration rule that allows Cubans to claim
asylum once
they have set foot on US soil prompts many would-be emigrants to risk
their
lives to cross the 150-kilometer (90-mile) stretch from Cuba to Florida,
often
in flimsy vessels.
Elian, who survived a November 25 shipwreck in which his mother and
stepfather drowned, is in the care of relatives in Miami and has been
given a
temporary residence permit as a Cuban refugee.
The boy's biological father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who lives in Cuba,
asserts
that the boy's mother, from whom he was divorced, took Elian away without
his
permission.
Two US officials reportedly will travel to Juan Gonzalez's small fishing
village 80 miles (132 kilometers) east of Havana in a bid to settle the
dispute.
Elian is being cared for by relatives in Miami while US immigration
authorities process an application for admission. Relatives took Elian to
Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida Sunday, for a day of recreation.
Juan Gonzalez, who reportedly met with Cuban President Fidel Castro
about the
matter Sunday, is said to be concerned that his son could be coerced by
relatives to tell US officials that he wants to remain in Miami.
US lawyers representing Elian filed an application for political asylum
last
week on grounds that the boy has "well-grounded fears of persecution" if
he is
returned to Cuba.
sg/ga
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
6 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Content and programming copyright 1999 Cable News Network
Transcribed under license by Federal Document Clearing
House, Inc. Formatting copyright 1999 Federal Document
Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the
materials contained herein may be used in any media without
attribution to Cable News Network. This transcript may not
be copied or resold in any media.
CNN
SHOW: CNN EARLY EDITION 07:00 am ET
December 13, 1999; Monday 7:33 am Eastern Time
Transcript # 99121303V08
SHOW-TYPE: LIVE REPORT
SECTION: News; International
LENGTH: 354 words
HEADLINE: Custody Battle Over 6-Year-Old Boy Casts Pall Over U.S.-Cuban
Immigration Talks
BYLINE: Leon Harris, Lucia Newman
HIGHLIGHT: The international dispute over a 6-year-old Cuban boy has not
diminished. The custody battle has been a strain on U.S.-Cuban relations
and it
casts a pall over the immigration talks between the two countries set for
today
in Havana.
BODY:
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND
MAY BE
UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The international dispute over a 6- year-old
Cuban
boy has not diminished over the weekend. The custody battle has been a
strain
on U.S.-Cuban relations and it casts a pall over the immigration talks
between
the two countries set for today in Havana.
And our Havana bureau chief, Lucia Newman, is covering both the custody
battle and the immigration talks. Lucia joins us now live from Havana.
Good morning, Lucia.
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Leon.
Indeed, the U.S.-Cuban immigration talks are set to start here in a
Havana
hotel in about three hours. The heads of both the U.S. and the Cuban
delegations are trying to sound optimistic, saying that they're looking
forward
to discussing a wide range of immigration issues. But it's very clear,
given
the tensions between both countries over Elian Gonzalez that these
immigration
talks are probably going to be the most heated since the U.S.-Cuban
immigration
accords were signed five years ago, Leon.
HARRIS: Lucia, can you tell us whether or not -- we've been hearing
rumors
that there maybe some communications between U.S. officials and the
father and
the father's -- the rest of his family there in Havana. Do you know of
anything
like that underway right now?
NEWMAN: Well, I can say that the Cuban government publicly has not said
whether it would or would not allow the father to go to the United
States, as
some people in the United States have been suggesting, including Vice
President
Al Gore. As of at least five minutes ago, an official from the U.S.
diplomatic
mission here in Havana said that there has been no visa request made as
of yet
by Mr. Gonzalez to go the United States. And, of course, if there's any
change
in this, we'll be back with you with the latest, Leon.
HARRIS: All right, Lucia Newman reporting live this morning from Havana.
Thank you much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR
SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
7 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Telegraph Group Limited
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
December 13, 1999, Monday
SECTION: Pg. 10
LENGTH: 235 words
HEADLINE: International: Asylum sought for shipwrecked boy
BYLINE: By Philip Delves Broughton in New York
BODY:
LAWYERS for the family of a six-year-old Cuban boy found clinging to an
inner
tube off Florida after his mother died trying to reach America have
requested
political asylum for him.
Elian Gonzalez has become the subject of a dispute between America and
Cuba,
with members of his family and politicians in both countries arguing over
where
he would have a better life.
With encouragement from President Fidel Castro, an estimated two million
Cubans have demonstrated for the return of Elian during the past week,
with
600,000 surrounding the US diplomatic mission in Havana on Friday waving
Cuban
flags and chanting "Free Elian".
His father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who was not married to his mother, has
asked for his son to be sent back to Cuba but has refused to travel to the
United States to petition for his return.
The boy is staying with his great-uncle and great-aunt in Miami.
They have said he will have a far better life in America, something his
mother was ready to die for, than with his father in Cuba.
Vice-President Al Gore said at the weekend that he believed Elian's
father
should be granted a visa to travel to America to make the case for his
son's
return.
"The child's mother sacrificed her life for her dream so that this boy
would
grow up in freedom," he said.
"I would like to see the boy's father express himself without
intimidation or
fear concerning this boy's future."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
8 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Sentinel Communications Co.
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
December 13, 1999 Monday, METRO
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A12
LENGTH: 85 words
HEADLINE: REPORT: FOREIGNERS HELD YEARS ON MINOR CHARGES
BODY:
DALLAS - The Immigration and Naturalization Service has jailed nearly
300
foreigners for more than three years, including some people never
convicted of a
crime in the United States, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday. Some
have
been jailed for arriving with inadequate travel documents. And some of
those who
have been convicted of crimes in this country - the INS says the majority
have
serious criminal histories - are being held despite having completed their
prison sentences, the newspaper said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
COLUMN: OTHER NEWS TO NOTE
SOUTH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
9 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
December 13, 1999, Monday, THREE STAR EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A5
LENGTH: 636 words
HEADLINE: NATION
BYLINE: From News Services
BODY:
WASHINGTON
"Don't ask, don't tell" remains valid, aide says
The U.S. policy on gays in the military of "don't ask, don't tell" is
still
valid even though the rule hasn't always been enforced fairly, a top
administration aide said Sunday.
Sandy Berger, President Bill Clinton's national security adviser,
offered a
softer version of remarks Saturday by Clinton, who said the policy is
"out of
whack" and not being carried out properly by military leaders, according
to
press reports. Clinton said the rule has been used in some cases to
harass gays
in uniform, the opposite of its goal.
Berger said on ABC's "This Week" that Clinton isn't abandoning the rule
or
blaming military leaders for failing to implement what was one of
Clinton's
first policy moves after taking office in 1993.
Berger said the administration will see if new regulations put in place
by
Defense Secretary William Cohen enable more uniform enforcement of the
policy.
ELLICOTT CITY, Md.
Judge will consider prosecution of Tripp
A state judge will take up the question this week of whether Linda
Tripp can
be prosecuted under Maryland's wiretap law for recording a telephone
conversation with Monica Lewinsky from her home in suburban Washington.
Howard County Circuit Judge Diane Leasure will oversee two pretrial
hearings
that could be an albatross for Democrats who pushed for the prosecution,
because
the case will resurrect the White House sex scandal while Vice President
Al Gore
is fighting for his party's presidential nomination.
Tripp, the former White House secretary whose disclosures led to
Clinton's
impeachment, is scheduled to come to trial Jan. 18, six days before the
Iowa
caucuses.
Lawyers say the proceedings could be postponed until later in the year,
possibly when the presidential race is in full stride.
BOSTON
States may work together to control drug costs
New England legislators are considering combining their six states'
populations into a purchasing group to wrest deep discounts for
prescription
drugs from drug makers, The Boston Globe reported Sunday.
The notion of concerted state action is gaining momentum in New England
as
the best course to rein in prescription drug expenditures that are rising
by 15
percent a year, the newspaper said.
Pharmaceutical cost increases are outstripping all others in the health
sector and threaten to surpass total hospital expenditure in the next
year or
two, the Globe said. Prescription drug spending in the six New England
states
totals about $ 5.4 billion annually, the newspaper said.
A Vermont state legislator, Sen. Peter Shumlin, told the Globe that he
will
host a meeting Thursday in Montpelier of legislative leaders and policy
advisers
from the other states to discuss how they might work together to control
the
costs of prescription drugs.
SOUTH
DALLAS
Report details jailing of nearly 300 foreigners
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has jailed nearly 300
foreigners
for more than three years, including some people never convicted of a
crime in
the United States, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.
Some have been jailed for arriving with inadequate travel documents.
And some
of those who have been convicted of serious crimes in this country are
being
held despite having completed their prison sentences, the newspaper said.
Until 1996, foreigners ordered deported generally could be held for a
maximum
of six months. But the law now requires the immigration service to
indefinitely
detain foreigners who pose a flight risk or a public-safety threat until
they
can be removed from the United States.
A panel of five federal judges recently ruled that the agency violates
foreigners' fundamental right to due process by holding people
indefinitely.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
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Copyright 1999 News World Communications, Inc.
The Washington Times
December 13, 1999, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: PART A; COMMENTARY; EDITORIALS; Pg. A18
LENGTH: 568 words
HEADLINE: A child, not a pawn
BODY:
Elian Gonzalez has become a pawn. The six-year-old Cuba boy was rescued
Thanksgiving day by the U.S. Coast Guard off the coast of Florida after
surviving two harrowing days at sea, clinging to an inner tube. To U.S.
and
Cuban governments, however, he is not a young individual whose rights
should be
respected. He is merely a vehicle for reaching political ends.
Elian's mother and stepfather perished at sea when an overloaded power
boat
holding thirteen Cuban refugees capsized. The boy's father claims he
wants
Elian to return to Cuba. The boy's great-aunt and great-uncle in Miami
have
also petitioned Florida state courts to have permanent custody of him.
The White House insists that in deciding custody of Elian, it will
uphold the
best interests of the child. It has become increasingly clear, however,
that
the administration is pursuing what best serves of U.S.-Cuban relations.
This
is a tragic turn of events for a courageous little boy.
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has orchestrated massive anti-U.S. public
protests over U.S. refusals to have Elian returned to Cuba without due
process.
Mr. Castro should be careful lest his people take a liking to public
demonstrations. The United States, meanwhile, shouldn't be bullied by the
dictator's posturing.
This, however, hasn't been the U.S. reaction. Instead, the White
House has
taken a series of steps to politicize the case. In a reversal of policy,
U.S.
officials said the Justice Department rather than state courts in Florida
will
decide the future of Elian Gonzalez. The Justice Department has
concocted a
convoluted legal argument for sending Elian back to Cuba.
Cubans who reach U.S. soil normally are "paroled" into the United
States, a
procedure that permits them to live in the country for one year before
their
immigration status is decided. But Justice Department officials have
argued
that since Elian was taken directly to a hospital, he was therefore never
formally paroled into the country - even though he was later turned over
to his
relatives in Miami. INS officials have similarly said they were not
legally
obliged to let Elian remain in the United States because he was given only
temporary entry. Interestingly, INS spokesman Mike Gilhooly told The
Washington
Times that he knew of no previous case where a Cuban refugee had been
given a
deferred inspection and was later forced to return to Cuba.
"The question is - and I think the most important thing is - what would
be
best for the child. And there is a legal process for determining that,"
said
President Clinton last week. Well, the fact that Elian would be sent
back to a
country ruled by a brutal dictator ought to figure into legal
considerations.
This detail hasn't been explicitly recognized by Mr. Clinton, the Justice
Department, or the INS.
The Cuban government has responded to the administration's overtures
rather
uncooperatively. Last week, the Cuban government blocked delivery of a
letter
from the State Department to Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, asking
him to
present proof that he is the father of Elian. In this repressive
context, it is
still quite unclear what Mr. Gonzalez truly wants for his boy.
Elian deserves to have his rights under American law upheld. Beyond
that, he
deserves a process that looks at what is in his best interests, taking
all the
aspects of the case into account.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
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Copyright 1999 British Broadcasting Corporation
BBC Monitoring Latin America - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
December 12, 1999, Sunday
LENGTH: 781 words
HEADLINE: Cuba: National Assembly president says immigration talks withUSA
to go
ahead
SOURCE: Prensa Latina news agency, Havana, in Spanish 1130 gmt 10 Dec 99
BODY:
Text of report by the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina
Havana, 10th December: Cuba and the United States will hold immigration
talks on 13th December according to schedule although the meeting will be
held
in a tense atmosphere where numerous questions will be pending.
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada confirmed last
night
the date for the next contact between the two countries in this capital,
when
addressing participants of the International Meeting of Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGO), which opened here on 6th December.
During his ample lecture on Cuba-US relations, he reviewed at length
the
topic that has caught the attention of 11 million Cubans and caused the
concern
of every sensible person in many countries of the world: The return to
Cuba of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez, who is being withheld by US authorities
against his
father's wish.
The minor was saved after being located out at sea, following the
shipwreck
of a small boat with 14 people on board. Eleven of those people died,
including
the boy's mother and stepfather; two others are also in US territory.
Referring to this, the Cuban parliament's president confirmed that the
child
had to be returned immediately to the country according to the law.
He explained that the issue regarding Cuban-US relations, albeit
affected by
the latest events, would be discussed with respect to basic issues in
order to
offer a general overview.
Alarcon commented that the year ends with very clear circumstances
concerning the confrontation between the two countries, a fact that has
been
personally admitted by President William Clinton, other US people, the US
Congress, and US institutions.
Talking about the level of ties, he said this is exemplified by the
fact
that Cuba is the only country in the world to which the United States
forbids
and prevents the sale of food and medicine.
Regarding this, he emphasized that, nevertheless, the US propaganda
insists
on showing that the economic, trade and financial blockade the United
States
imposes on Cuba has been eased, particularly by allowing trade in vital
areas.
He denied such a situation and considered that, even if legal trade were
possible with that country, the existence of the blockade would render
practically non-existent the actual possibilities of carrying out those
purchases in the US market.
Regarding the attempts to reach a better understanding on issues of
common
interest, the parliamentarian leader recalled the failure of the internal
efforts exerted in that direction given the negative reaction of
right-wing US
groups.
He commented that the US president could do nothing regarding Cuba in
this
respect because the Helms-Burton law left him without the authority to
modify
the policy towards Cuba.
Alarcon alluded to an interview granted by Clinton to the mass media in
November, when the leader discussed that issue and said that Helms and
some
legislators refused to allow the trade of food and medicine with Cuba.
Part of the blockade policy is the systematic effort, strictly exerted
throughout the world, to cause confusion and to give an impression of the
situation that does not correspond to reality. The most critical issue is
possibly that of food and medicine, Alarcon emphasized.
He referred to the Cuban issue that frequently appears in all the
media,
dealing with a crisis that currently prevails in the bilateral relations
and
that is linked with the manipulation of information. The assembly
president
commented that the situation deals with attempts to hide the truth and
take the
war against Cuba to the level of ideas and propaganda. Ricardo Alarcon
told the
NGO representatives that they had had the opportunity to learn aspects of
this
dealing with the kidnapped boy's incident and immigration. He added that
the
events that had occurred represented clear evidence of a manipulation
intended
to show that immigration was a phenomenon that only exists here.
He mentioned countries like Haiti, Santo Domingo and Mexico, where
immigration is much larger than in Cuba; and he commented that,
nevertheless,
the adjustment act favours Cubans in an exceptional way.
The Cuban Adjustment Act explains that it is applicable to every Cuban
citizen who arrives in the United States in any way, even if he does not
pass
through any immigration unit, and this gives him the automatic right to
obtain a
residence permit. Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon said that,
despite
these facilities, over 95 per cent of the Cuban people who legally
travelled to
the United States had come back, during the most difficult years of the
dispute.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
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Copyright 1999 The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
December 12, 1999, Sunday THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2537 words
HEADLINE: INS faulted in extended dentions;
Agency defends lockups despite lack of charges
SOURCE: Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News c1999, The Dallas Morning
News
BYLINE: Dan Malone
BODY:
Nearly 300 foreigners from more than 30 nations - including some who
have
never been convicted of a crime in the United States - have been
imprisoned for
more than three years in an international quagmire that offers little
hope for
release, accord ing to records obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said it is not holding
the
foreign prisoners in secrecy, but it refuses to identify these 294
longest-held
prisoners and about 5,000 others.
Some of the foreign inmates have been jailed for infractions as
routine as
arriving in the U.S. with inappropriate travel documents. But even those
who
have been convicted of crimes in the U.S. - and the INS says the majority
have
serious criminal histories - are being held "post-punishment" after having
completed their prison sentences.
The immigration agency says a Justice Department privacy policy
prohibits it
from disclosing their names. The federal Privacy Act, though, does not
cover
foreigners who are in the U.S. illegally. The law limits its scope to "a
citizen
of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent
residence."
Even as the government has broadened the priva- cy rights of
undocumented
immigrants, a panel of five federal judges recently ruled that by
indefinitely
jailing the immigrants, the agency has violated their fundamental right
to due
process.
INS' dilemma
"We can't win," said David Venturella, INS assistant commissioner for
detention and removal. "If we try to remove people and we detain who we
think
are serious criminals, we get banged over the head for that. Then when we
release someone and they end up committing a crime, we get banged over
the head
for that. It's very frustrating."
Some of the prisoners face ostensible life sentences because the U.S.
won't
release them, and their homelands won't accept them. Resolving their
status is
further complicated by strained or nonexistent diplomatic relations with
the
countries involved.
The practice of jailing some prisoners indefinitely, on long-resolved
criminal charges ranging from murder to shoplifting, has drawn criticism
from
the American Bar Association, immigrants' rights groups and a former U.S.
parole
commissioner.
"Is it going to be that these people are confined for decades and
decades
for simply stealing a loaf of bread?" said Llewelyn G. Pritchard, a
Seattle
lawyer who chairs an ABA committee on immigrant affairs. "Their
punishment so
far outstrips the gravamen of their crimes, it is appalling. This is
outrageous
in America, that we're treating people like this."
Oliver Keller, former U.S. parole commissioner and past president of
the
American Correctional Association, said the practice is "as evil as any
Soviet
or Chinese abuse of prisoners."
Marc Mauer, who studies sentencing trends and is the author of The
Race to
Incarcerate, said the identities of prisoners "has always been assumed to
be a
matter of public record."
"In a totalitarian society, the whole prison system is shrouded in
secrecy,"
Mr. Mauer said. "Nobody knows who's there or why they're there. The whole
notion
of access to information about the deprivation of liberties is
fundamental to a
democracy.
"None of this suggests that the INS has anything to hide, but we don't
known
that unless they provide the information."
International impasses
INS spokesman Russ Bergeron said the agency has no choice but to keep
some
of the immigrants behind bars.
"We have absolutely no desire to keep any individual in detention one
minute
or one day longer than necessary," Mr. Bergeron said. "However, we have a
responsibility to protect the public. If we release them and it's your
mother or
father or wife or daughter who is the victim of their next crime, how do
we
explain to you why we released them?"
The INS said it has deported almost 177,000 people this year. But
impasses
between the United States and the prisoners' home countries have, at least
temporarily, prevented the agency from deporting an additional 3,500.
The agency has long acknowledged detaining foreigners it cannot deport
but
has said the number of prisoners held for substantial periods of time is
"infinitesimally small."
As of April 2, 1999, according to INS records obtained by The News
under the
federal Freedom of Information Act, 294 people from 34 countries had been
incarcerated for three years or more in facilities scattered across the
country.
Until 1996, foreigners ordered deported generally could be held for a
maximum of six months. But changes in the law now require the INS to
indefinitely detain deportable foreigners who pose a flight risk or a
public-safety threat until they can be removed from the U.S.
Within the INS' far-flung patchwork of federal institutions and county
jails, these indefinitely detained prisoners are known as "lifers."
A costly policy
The indefinite-detention policy is expensive. At a daily cost of $ 55
per
person, according to INS estimates, the group's prolonged detention has
cost
taxpayers at least $ 17 million during the last three years.
While the majority of the prisoners, according to the INS, have been
convicted of serious crimes, the agency has declined to release any
records
detailing their specific crimes. The only personal information the INS has
disclosed about the 294 prisoners is where they are from and, in some
cases,
where they are being held and how long they've been imprisoned.
The information that the INS has released paints only a partial
portrait of
those in long-term custody.
Officials say their records don't include any of the 1,750 so-called
Mariel
Cubans being held by the INS. The Marielitos were among the 125,000
Cubans who
came to the U.S. in 1981 in a succession of "freedom flotillas." The
agency
provided no information on how long the Mariel Cubans have been
incarcerated but
said none have been held continuously since their arrival in the U.S. 18
years
ago.
INS also acknowledges that the 294 figure does not include people such
as
Nasser Ahmed, an Egyptian who was released this month after being held
for more
than three years. Mr. Ahmed, jailed on allegations that he had links to
terrorists, was not convicted of a crime.
Mr. Venturella said he has no exact figures but he believes that the
INS is
holding other foreigners similarly accused. "There probably are
individuals like
that, not many, but there probably are," he said.
Conflicting records
Some people, such as Bi Meng Zheng, have been held by the INS for long
periods despite never being charged with a crime. Mr. Zheng was picked up
after
illegally entering the U.S. from China. Before his release in February,
he spent
more than four years in INS detention.
The News learned that the INS has held some foreigners for as long as
three
years in a 1998 interview with Mr. Bergeron, the agency spokesman. The
newspaper
filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act in May 1998 to
obtain the
names of those the prisoners in question.
In a response dated Aug. 31, 1998, the INS notified The News that it
could
not find any records of prisoners "detained by the INS for three years or
longer." When Mr. Bergeron was asked where he got his information, he
said the
statistical records upon which he relied no longer existed.
In the interim, however, The News obtained from a person outside the
agency
a copy of an INS report, written on INS letterhead and dated Aug. 14,
1998, that
identified the number and nationality of the prisoners.
Finally, in October 1999, the INS released sketchy and conflicting
information that documented the existence of some of its longest-held
prisoners.
One document, titled "Long-term detainees in INS custody for over three
years as
of 10-1-99," enumerated 61 people from Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
who were
in INS custody.
Some crimes violent
In interviews, agency officials said those people all had committed
crimes
in the United States, some violent, that required their deportation.
Another record dated April 2, 1999, documents 294 people from 34
countries
who had been "in INS custody for three years or longer." The documents do
not
note how many of the 294 had committed crimes.
Of the total, 247 people come from places, such as Cuba or Southeast
Asia,
where diplomatic relations with the United States are strained or
nonexistent,
and to where deportation is difficult.
INS records also show that the agency has jailed 47 people from 30
other
countries - including Venezuela, Poland, the Philippines, Mexico, Jamaica
and
India - that have well-established relations with the United States.
Judicial opinion has been divided on the constitutionality of
incarcerating
people whom the INS cannot deport. Some federal courts, such as the 5th
U.S.
Circuit, which oversees Texas cases, generally have approved of the
practice.
But last summer, a panel of five federal judges in Seattle ordered the
INS
to release some foreigners it was holding because the government had no
real
hope of ever deporting them. "It is excessive to detain an alien if
deportation
will never occur," the panel wrote.
"We must necessarily balance the likelihood that the government will
be able
to effectuate deportation against the dangerousness of a petitioner and
the
likelihood that he will abscond if released.
As the probability
that the
government can actually deport an alien decreases, the government's
interest in
detaining that alien becomes less compelling and the invasion into the
alien's
liberty more severe."
Blasted by judge
The federal judges also criticized the INS, saying it failed to
"meaningfully and impartially review" the cases of the jailed immigrants
to see
whether they should be released. The INS this year began a new review of
the
foreigners it is incarcerating.
In one case, the judges ordered the INS to release Binh Phan, a
27-year-old
Vietnamese whose last conviction was for selling $ 20 worth of cocaine.
They
concluded that he "has served more time in INS custody than he served on
his
sentences for all his prior crimes."
In another case, convicted burglar Son Thai Huynh, the 31-year-old son
of an
American soldier and a Vietnamese mother, was ordered released from INS
custody after the judges found that the agency had made scant effort during the
last two
years to deport him.
"It is clear there is no definitive end to Mr. Huynh's detention," the
judges ruled. "The INS' only formal request to Vietnam for his travel
documents
occurred in November 1997, nearly two years ago."
The panel also wrote that "Mr. Huynh's criminal history, though
lengthy,
does not suggest any grave danger to society."
The INS' policy of shielding the identities of those in its custody
stems
from the 1994 U.S. Senate race in California between Dianne Feinstein and
Michael Huffington, according to Carl Stern, who was the Justice
Department
spokesman from 1993 to 1996.
Both candidates had been accused of hiring undocumented immigrants. Mr.
Stern said media interest in those cases led the Justice Department to
revise
rules on what information the INS can disclose about foreigners.
Extending privacy
On June 21, 1996, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno approved a policy
that
extended privacy rights to everyone in the United States, regardless of
immigration status.
"The object was to give aliens the same protection under the Privacy
Act
that was provided for U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens," Mr.
Stern
said.
It is that policy that the INS now cites in declining to release the
names
of people it has in detention.
"Prior to those decisions, we routinely released information on these
individuals," Mr. Bergeron said. "It's out of my hands."
Philip S. Anderson, immediate past president of the American Bar
Association, said withholding the identities of the foreign prisoners is
"contrary to the basic precepts of this country."
"I think any desire of the government to prevent a legitimate inquiry
into
the identity of these people should be challenged in court," said Mr.
Anderson,
who practices in Little Rock, Ark. "This goes to the heart of the way the
INS is
doing its job."
The INS policy of withholding the identities of its prisoners is at
odds
with the practice of several states and even some other agencies of the
federal
government.
For example, virtually every state, as well as the federal government
and
the military, will provide lists of inmates on their death rows, and some
states
go much further.
Public record
Glen Castlebury, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice,
said he considers the identities of prisoners in the nation's
second-largest
prison system to be public record. Many states, he said, publish a list
of their
inmates on the Internet.
In Florida, the state's Web site provides prisoners' names, birth
dates,
personal information, criminal backgrounds and photographs.
"It's pretty fundamental when the state takes custody of someone, they
have
to account for what they've done with that person," Mr. Castlebury said.
"I
sometimes wonder if they [INS officials] are reluctant because they don't
know
where their people are."
In the early 1980s, most foreigners held for long periods by the INS
were
housed in large, central facilities such as the Atlanta Federal
Penitentiary and
the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, La.
Today, the INS houses prisoners in about 190 facilities in more than
two
dozen states, including the Dallas County Jail and the Texarkana Federal
Correctional Institution.
Dispersing the prisoners across the country, sometimes in remote
locations,
and frequently transferring them from one facility to another makes it
"very
difficult for these people to retain any kind of [legal] representation,"
said
Christina DiConcini, the director of an ABA project on immigrants'
affairs.
Where are they?
It can also make it difficult for the INS to keep up with where its own
prisoners are housed.
For example, an Oct. 1, 1999, document states that the INS had five of
its
longest-held 294 prisoners in Tangipahoa Parish Jail in Louisiana. But a
Tangipahoa Sheriff's Department spokesman said the INS removed all five
prisoners from the jail two weeks earlier, on Sept. 17.
The INS said it has been forced to house its prisoners in other
agencies'
jails because of congressional funding restraints.
The agency said it has been unable to deport the immigrants because
their
home countries won't accept them, but in some cases foreign officials
question
the prisoners' nationality.
The INS, for example, said nine of the 294 longest-held prisoners are
from
Laos and it has not been able to persuade the Laotian government to
accept their
return.
But a spokesman for Laos said the inmates whom the INS wishes to deport
don't have the paperwork needed to prove that they are Laotian. Mai
Sayavongs, a
spokesman for the Laotian Embassy, said his country would accept the
repatriation of any of its citizens, even those who have been
incarcerated in
U.S. prisons, as long as they have proper identification.
"It is our duty," Mr. Sayavongs said. "We have to protect our
citizens."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO(S): 1. Nasser Ahmed. 2. Bi Meng Zheng. CHART(S): (1-2 DMN)
1. One
Agency, Two Accounts. 2. People Without A Country.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
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Copyright 1999 The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
December 12, 1999, Sunday THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1484 words
HEADLINE: Boy revives U.S.-Cuba bitterness;
Custody fight fires up Castro loyalists, exiles
SOURCE: Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
BYLINE: Tracey Eaton
DATELINE: MATANZAS, Cuba
BODY:
MATANZAS, Cuba - Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a modest, small-town doorman,
sat
dazed as thousands of Cubans waved color posters of his son, Elian,
suddenly the
most famous first-grader in the Americas.
The mass demonstrations in Matanzas and 16 other cities Friday were the
largest of their kind ever held on the island, Cuban officials say. More
than
2.2 million Cubans - a fifth of the population by government estimates -
streamed into parks and plazas to demand that 6-year-old Elian be
returned to
his father.
Cuban President Fidel Castro has vowed that "heaven and earth will be
moved"
to get the boy home.
Fishermen found the boy clinging to an inner tube off Florida's coast
on
Thanksgiving Day after a voyage that had killed his mother and nine
others.
Almost overnight, the shy boy was thrust into the center of a bitter
custody
dispute laced with all the venom of Cold War politics.
On one side are the Cubans, who say the boy belongs with his father, a
Communist Party member who lives in Cardenas, a town of 95,000 east of
Havana.
On the other side are the boy's relatives in Miami - and a host of
Communist-hating exiles - who say U.S.-style freedom for the child is more
important than the father's rights.
The battle over Elian is sure to come up Monday when U.S. and Cuban
officials meet to discuss extending a 5-year-old migration pact between
the two
countries, a Western diplomat said Saturday. The Cubans "have made it
clear this
will be topic Number 1."
On Friday, attorneys for the boy's Miami relatives filed an asylum
petition
in Dallas that says the boy faces persecution if returned to Cuba.
Immigration officials first must decide whether to formally admit
Elian to
the United States, a question that was deferred when he went to the
hospital
after being found in the ocean. That decision will come after a meeting
on the
boy's fate that the Immigration and Naturalization Service has scheduled
Dec.
23, said Roger Bernstein, a Miami attorney for Elian's U.S. relatives.
Asylum petition
Even if the government decides Elian should not be admitted, perhaps
because
of the father's custody claim, attorneys hope the asylum petition would
block
the boy's return to Cuba.
"There is a well-founded fear of persecution," said Linda Osberg-Braun,
another of the family's attorneys.
The asylum petition was filed at a Dallas INS center that processes
immigrant applications from the southeastern United States.
Elian's fateful journey began Nov. 22 when he and his mother, Elizabet
Broton, and 11 others climbed aboard a 16-foot boat and headed north.
By the second day, the boat's outboard engines failed, and it soon
began to
sink. The passengers clung to inner tubes, but one by one got tired and
slipped
into the sea, a survivor later told reporters. Only Elian and two adults
survived.
After his rescue, the boy spoke to his father by phone and told him he
had
seen his mother drown.
Father's surprise
In Cuba, the boy's father said he didn't know his ex-wife was taking
their
son out of the country.
"All she told him was that they were going camping for the weekend,"
said
Noel Ramirez, a friend and co-worker of the father. "We were surprised
when we
found out she had left."
Mr. Gonzalez, 31, and Ms. Broton, 30, a hotel maid, divorced 31/2
years ago,
but they had a "very civilized" relationship, Mr. Ramirez said.
"She was a good mother, and he was very close to his son," he said.
"After
school, he'd usually go to his father's house and spend the afternoon
there.
Then at 6 o'clock, he'd be taken to his mother's place."
On many weekends, Mr. Gonzalez brought his son to where he has worked
for
the last 11 years, Josone Park in the seaside resort of Varadero, west of
Cardenas. Tourists and locals visit the park for its lush gardens, lake,
restaurants and swimming pool. Mr. Gonzalez let his son play there while
he
worked, greeting guests, showing them around and opening doors.
"He was a great father and should get his son back," said Mr. Ramirez,
a
waiter at the park. "I know a lot of Americans would agree. And if the
Statue of
Liberty weren't made of bronze, I bet she would bow in shame, touch the
water
and put out the flames in her torch."
After the divorce, Mr. Gonzalez married Yosbel Perez, 27, a cook. They
had a
baby boy, Jianny, about three months ago. A relative told Cuba's state-run
Juventud Rebelde newspaper that she worried that Elian would be jealous,
"but
the opposite happened. The baby is his pet. He's crazy about him."
Fatal trip
The boy's mother moved in with a man named Lazaro Romero, who also
died in
the fatal trip across the Florida Straits. Mr. Castro accused Mr. Romero
of
organizing the voyage, illegal under Cuban law, and called him "an
absolute bum
who never worked."
The Cuban president also said that Mr. Romero had evidently made an
illegal
trip to the United States last year and returned to Cuba.
"The man's story was that he had gotten bored, that he couldn't
adjust" to
life in the United States, Mr. Castro said. Once back in Cuba, "he was
jailed
for 14 or 15 days and then freed."
Mr. Romero's family couldn't be reached. One of his acquaintances
wasn't
quite as critical of him, saying he survived like many Cubans, selling
things on
the black market and getting money any way he could - "by inventing," as
locals
put it.
Mother praised
In Miami, exiles praise Elian's mother as one who risked everything for
freedom. Radio stations call her son "the last hero of the millennium,"
and his
new friends there have showered him with gifts, everything from portable
radios
to bicycles.
On average, six Cubans every day secretly pack their belongings and
board
rickety smugglers' boats bound for Florida.
U.S. officials say people leave because of the grim economic
conditions.
Cuban officials blame a U.S. law that allows Cubans - and no other
immigrants -
to obtain legal residency if they're able to reach American soil without
getting
caught.
The number of Cubans willing to take the risk has risen in recent
years.
About 2,200 made the perilous trip across the Florida Straits from
October 1998
to September 1999, up from 600 the previous year, U.S. officials say.
But the tragic voyage of Elian Gonzalez has energized Cubans.
Island protests
About 120,000 people gathered in Matanzas, east of Havana, on Friday.
Organizers placed Elian's tiny desk from school on stage, and his
classmates
stood around it, chanting, "Free Elian! Free Elian!"
Children sang tributes to the boy and protesters screamed, "Down with
imperialism! Homeland or death!"
"We will win," Elian's father, looking weary, told the crowd.
Castro loyalists call the protests spontaneous outbursts.
"These help strengthen the revolution, but it's not planned that way,"
said
Marta Rojas, a prominent Cuban author.
Others accuse the Castro government of staging the huge rallies to
distract
people from their everyday economic troubles.
"I agree the boy should be returned, but these protests are getting to
be
too much," said a female hotel worker who requested anonymity.
"Everywhere you
go, it's "Free Elian! Free Elian!' It's like we're getting a daily
injection of
Elian. It's on TV all the time, and there's no getting away from it."
Back in Cardenas, the boy's hometown, his grandmother is making him a
uniform for karate class, and neighbors are guarding his house.
"We're sure the boy will come back," said one neighbor, Juana Hurtado,
60.
"The United States doesn't have anything he needs. He and his mother had
everything they needed here in Cuba. School is free, education is free.
And as
far as material things, money isn't everything. There are a lot of people
who
have money, but they're unhappy."
Photos of Elian were plastered on doors and houses. Cardboard signs
read,
"11 million Cubans are committed to your liberty" and "The people are
Elian's
lawyer."
Across town, the boy's classroom - No. 21 at the Marcelo Salado Primary
School - has been turned into a kind of shrine.
Students take turns looking after Elian's books and desk, and locals
file in
by the hundreds to sign a book demanding the child's return to Cuba.
"For the freedom of little Elian" reads a message on the first page.
It's
signed simply, "Fidel Castro."
The boy began attending the 972-student school in August.
"He is very timid, but intelligent. You have to push to get him to
answer a
question, but once he answers he has something to say. He's very
sensitive and
usually got to school early, not late," said his teacher, Yamelin Morales.
"I gave him the job of sharpening other students pencils so he'd meet
people
and lose some of his shyness. He was cute walking around with his little
sharpener, shaped like a crocodile.
"We just miss him and want him back."
Staff writer David LaGesse in Washington, D.C., contributed to this
report.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO(S): (1. Agence France-Presse) Cuban protesters launch a
kite,
demanding the return of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez. 2. Elian Gonzalez
Fidel
Castro vows that "heaven and earth will be moved" to get the boy home.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
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Copyright 1999 The Indianapolis Star
THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR
December 12, 1999, Sunday ,CITY FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A24 ,BRIEFLY NATION/WORLD
LENGTH: 677 words
HEADLINE: Briefly Nation/World
BODY:
U.S. citizens are warned of possible terrorist acts
WASHINGTON
Americans throughout the world were warned Saturday by the State
Department
that there is "credible evidence" terrorists could strike at large holiday
gatherings.
A worldwide caution issued by the department told U.S. citizens abroad
to
avoid large crowds and gatherings and to keep a low profile.
The statement gave no details of the evidence but said "the information
indicates that attacks could be planned for locations throughout the
world where
large gatherings and celebrations will be taking place" from now until
early
January.
24 Cuban refugees get to shore in Florida Keys
MIAMI
Two dozen Cuban refugees were taken into custody Saturday as they came
ashore
in the northern Florida Keys.
The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Border Patrol agents rounded up 24
refugees,
several of whom were believed to be members of the same family, just off
Tavernier Key.
The Cubans were found on a mangrove islet off Tavernier Key.
The group was handed over to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Services
for processing.
Under U.S. immigration policy, Cuban refugees who reach land usually are
allowed to remain in the country. Those intercepted before setting foot
on U.S.
soil usually are returned to Cuba.
WTO protestors crash rally for Seattle police
SEATTLE
Critics of the Seattle Police Department, under fire for its handling of
protests during the World Trade Organization meetings, nearly upstaged a
rally
by supporters at a downtown park Saturday.
"Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Police brutality has got to go," demonstrators
chanted as
city and law enforcement officials took the podium to thank more than 400
citizens packed into Westlake Park.
The speakers spoke loudly into the microphone to ensure that all could
hear
above a steady stream of protest chants.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild staged the rally and was selling
"Battle of
Seattle" T-shirts commemorating events during the WTO talks Nov. 30
through Dec.
3, which included the smashing of downtown store windows, slashing of
squad car
tires and more than 500 arrests of demonstrators.
Mediator could be named next week in Congo war
KINSHASA, Congo
A mediator to help negotiate talks to end Congo's civil war could be
named as
early as next week, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said Saturday as he
neared the
end of a tour of Africa in search of solutions to the 16-month conflict.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has said it is not possible
for the
organization to get deeply involved in settling the war unless the parties
themselves name the facilitator for talks intended to chart the political
future
of this huge central African nation.
Congolese President Laurent Kabila agreed Saturday that a mediator was
immediately needed, Holbrooke said, adding that the other parties to the
war had
earlier agreed.
The ambassador said he had spoken by telephone with Salim Ahmed Salim,
secretary general of the Organization of African Unity, who planned to
convene a
meeting Tuesday to try to decide on a facilitator.
III for several months, Arafat's eldest sister dies
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip
The eldest sister of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died Saturday.
She was
82.
Inam Abdel Raouf Arafat Al Kidwah died at Al Amal Medical Center, where
she
had undergone treatment for various illnesses for seven months. The exact
cause
of death was not immediately known.
She is the oldest of Arafat's five siblings. She was described in
various
Arafat biographies as the mother figure in the Palestinian leader's life
after
his mother died when Arafat was a young child.
On Arafat's request, his sister's funeral service was a private one,
with
only family, close friends and high ranking Palestinian officials
attending, a
Palestinian official speaking on condition of anonymity said.
A Palestinian official said Arafat was crying during the service and
was very
emotional at the burial site.
President Clinton called Arafat on Saturday to express condolences, said
White House spokesman Barry Toiv.
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
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Copyright 1999 National Public Radio (R). All rights reserved. No quotes
from
the materials contained herein may be used in any media without
attribution to
National Public Radio. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole
or in
part without prior written permission. For further information, please
contact
NPR's Permissions Coordinator at (202) 414-2000.
National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY (1:00 PM ET)
December 12, 1999, Sunday
LENGTH: 252 words
HEADLINE: MIX OF POLITICS, DIPOLOMACY AND LAW IN THE CASE OF
ANCHORS: LIANE HANSEN
BODY:
LIANE HANSEN, host:
The case of six-year-old Cuban refugee, Elian Gonzalez, which has been
making
news this past week, pits political and diplomatic interests against legal
considerations. And as NPR's news analyst Daniel Schorr observes, the
combination does not mix well.
DANIEL SCHORR:
Bad cases, they say, make bad law. Add politics, you get worse law. In
1995, the Clinton administration, appalled by the influx of Cuban boat
people,
some of them criminals, made an agreement with the Castro government. It
provided, and I quote, "Cuban migrants intercepted at sea by the United
States,
and attempting to enter the United States, will be taken to Cuba,"
unquote.
Congress enacted an exception for immigrants with extraordinary ability
in the
sciences, arts, education and athletics. That opened the door to
defecting
Cuban baseball stars. For the rest, the law was clear: Cubans who wanted
to
come to this country would have to apply for visas in Havana.
Then a dilemma arose in the form of a six-year-old boy found clinging
to an
inner tube off the Florida coast. His mother and stepfather lost with
nine
others in a powerboat that had sunk. Young Elian Gonzalez, was turned
over to
his great-uncle and great-aunt in Miami, and by extension, to the
Cuban-American
community; a poster boy for America's long-standing feud with Castro's
Cuba.
In Cuba, there were huge demonstrations for the return of Elian. The
State
Department unmoved said, 'Elian's custody was a matter for the Florida
courts.'
In the United States, we have laws that we follow and uphold, the
spokesman said
rather self-righteously, what laws did he have in mind? American laws
uniformly
recognize the custody rights of a biological parent. And the
Cuban-American
agreement of 1995 was clear about return of migrants intercepted at sea.
President Clinton, clearly embarrassed about the question at his news
conference last Wednesday, sought to distance himself from the dispute
with a
plea to do what was best for the child. Slowly, the unmovable
bureaucracy began
to move. Forget about having to argue in the Florida courts, an agent of
the
Immigration and Naturalization Service would visit the father in Havana
and ask
him to establish his parenthood by a birth certificate or other
document. And
then, hold your, breath, and then the Clinton administration might face
up to
the passions of the Cuban-American community and send the boy home to his
father. This is Daniel Schorr.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
16 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 National Broadcasting Co. Inc.
NBC News Transcripts
SHOW: NBC NIGHTLY NEWS (6:30 PM ET)
December 12, 1999, Sunday
LENGTH: 256 words
HEADLINE: POLITICAL TENSIONS GROW OVER CUBAN REFUGEE ELIAN
ANCHORS: JOHN SEIGENTHALER
REPORTERS: ANDREA MITCHELL
BODY:
JOHN SEIGENTHALER, anchor:
What will become of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez, still in Miami after
being
spirited out of Cuba on Thanksgiving day? The cat and mouse game between
Cuba
and the United States is a daily event. NBC's Andrea Mitchell is in
Havana
tonight.
ANDREA MITCHELL reporting:
As easily as the government turned the protests on, today it turned
them off.
No marches. No speeches. After a week of escalating tensions, Havana
turned
its attention to preparing for Christmas. A pause in demonstrations,
officials
said, to open a window for diplomacy. But in Miami, Elian Gonzalez'
relatives
are not about to let him go. Today's strategy, a photo opportunity to
show him
playing, to support their claim that he is better off in the US. The
family says
the Clinton administration should honor the last wish of Elian's mother,
who
died trying to escape from Cuba.
Mr. ROGER BERNSTEIN (Family Lawyer): What the American people should be
asking themselves is why would--why would this--why would Elian's mother
and
stepfather flee Cuba and get on a raft and risk this young boy's life?
MITCHELL: All this raises the stakes for Bill Clinton, who arrived in
the
Miami area for a political fund-raiser today, makes it harder for the
administration to return the boy to his father in Cuba. Elian's father
has
still not agreed to meet with US immigration officials and document his
parental
rights, not until the US agrees to a very limited interview.
Ms. PAMELA FALK (Cuba Policy Analyst): It looks like he'll say that he
wants
his son back in Cuba, back in his home environment. But you never know,
and so
I think that is why the Cuban government has discouraged him from even
meeting
with the--the immigration officials here.
MITCHELL: Despite the political confrontation, the US flag was actually
unfurled on the outskirts of Havana today, a soccer game between high
school
students from Hoomfield Hills, Michigan, and a Cuban team. The calm in
Havana
today is deceptive. It could be only temporary. If this standoff
continues for
too long, there will be too much political pressure on both sides for a
diplomatic solution. The stakes are very high for Fidel Castro. Just
today,
more refugees were picked up off the Florida coast. There is always a
threat
that if Elian Gonzalez is not returned, Cuba could once again flood the
US with
refugees. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Havana.
LANGUAGE: English
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Copyright 1999 The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
December 12, 1999, Sunday
SECTION: NEWS Pg. A-1
LENGTH: 1917 words
HEADLINE: Rich in diversity; The future of California can be seen in
southeastern San Diego, one of the most racially mixed areas in the county
SOURCE: STAFF WRITER
BYLINE: Leonel Sanchez
BODY:
Kevin Nash came back to Southeast San Diego a few years ago.
Only it was not the place he remembered. It wasn't even called
Southeast San
Diego anymore.
African-Americans like him no longer were the majority. There was no
majority.
Much has been said about changing demographics in the state, where
minorities
soon will outnumber whites. That already has happened in southeastern San
Diego. To look at that community, one of the most diverse in San Diego
County,
is to glimpse the future of California.
The community once was mostly white, then blacks were the largest ethnic
group. Now, at the turn of the century, it is truly multicultural.
Nash, 35, works at the San Diego Mediation Center's office at 47th and
Market
streets. He mediates disputes, mostly between landlords and tenants, in
the
area where he grew up.
He returned to San Diego three years ago after living in San Francisco
for 15
years.
While he was gone, Latinos and Asians grew in numbers while the number
of
whites declined and the African-American population stayed about the
same. These
four groups range in size from 17 percent to 36 percent of the area's
total
population of about 150,000 people.
African-Americans remain a powerful voice in the densely populated area
that
is east of state Route 15, north of National City and mostly south of
state
Route 94, which is better known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway.
The Urban
League, the Black Contractors Association, the Voice and Viewpoint
community
newspaper and other well-known African-American-led organizations are
based
here.
Most of the region is within the city's 4th District. In the early
1990s,
Councilman George Stevens, who still represents the area, led a campaign
to
banish the term Southeast San Diego, saying the name had become
associated with
crime and minorities due to negative media coverage.
Residents formally buried the name in a casket at Mount Hope Cemetery
and
urged people to use the proper names of individual neighborhoods that
make up
the area, names such as Encanto, Mountain View, Chollas View, Skyline,
Valencia
Park, Emerald Hills and Paradise Hills.
Nash is getting to know the community again. He is finding out it is a
place
of many voices.
Crime is still a problem, but it does not define this community. The
crime
rate in the 4th District is lower than the citywide average. Home
ownership is
high and redevelopment is producing jobs. A multicultural hub is
emerging at
Euclid Avenue and Market Street, where the Malcolm X Library and the
Tubman-Chavez Multi-Cultural Family & Youth Center opened in the
mid-1990s.
The rainbow-themed murals along Imperial Avenue in Encanto celebrate the
community's diversity. The Tubman-Chavez center's name was inspired by
area
schoolchildren's essays about black abolitionist Harriet Tubman and
Mexican-
American farm labor leader Cesar Chavez.
Drive around these canyons and hills, and you will see a melting pot of
influences where different cultures live side by side.
'We all bleed'
At the regular meeting of the Forever Young Seasoned Consumers Club,
the talk
among the seniors turns back time to the 1940s, when African-Americans
like
Jewell Hooper were moving to San Diego.
Now 80, Hooper is still active in the southeastern community as a
volunteer
at the 4th District Seniors Resource Center at the Tubman-Chavez center.
Hooper, a retired federal worker, became active in the late 1960s after
moving to Broadway Heights, a part of Encanto. There she met Verna
Quinn, who
was white.
Quinn talked Hooper into getting involved with the Broadway Heights
neighborhood group.
"We were the terrible two," Hooper said, recalling their years taking
on City
Hall.
Hooper misses her friend, who died last year. The athletic complex at
the
Encanto Recreation Center was renamed in Quinn's honor.
Race was never an issue between the two. When they met, "Verna tried
to keep
whites from moving because we were moving in," Hooper said.
"She'd say 'Look, they're people. We can be friends. We all bleed the
same
color blood.'
Civil rights
High on a hill that overlooks San Diego Bay, Catherine Montgomery looks
from
her house at the community she helped to shape.
In the 1960s, Montgomery held civil rights meetings in her Emerald Hills
house and participated in marches. She was the first African-American to
serve
on the city's planning commission. For years, she worked for a state
agency
that investigates housing and employment discrimination.
Now in her 70s, Montgomery is less involved but her choice of projects
aims
to benefit an increasingly diverse community.
Montgomery helped lead the campaign to build the Malcolm X Library.
Her goal
now is to raise $100,000 for the library's technology fund, which bears
her
name.
She is halfway to her goal, but she needs help.
The fund's biggest contributor died last year. Montgomery was in a car
accident recently. She was not seriously hurt, but the accident got her thinking that it is time to "start smelling the
roses."
Mexican candy
In Mountain View, Rosa Hernandez is helping a local organization
founded by
an African-American to reach out to Spanish speakers.
Hernandez, 41, works part-time as a bilingual tutor for the Homeys Youth
Foundation on Federal Boulevard. Her years studying English at the nearby
Educational Cultural Complex are starting to pay off.
She visits Spanish speakers in their homes and teaches them how to
prepare
their children for elementary school.
The foundation's founder, Clinton Pearson, said he hired Hernandez, a
Mexican
immigrant, after hearing about her volunteer work at the elementary
school her
five daughters attended.
Pearson, who grew up in the area, said Hernandez is a role model for
Latino
parents. She earned her high school equivalency diploma and passed the
U.S.
citizenship test in recent years.
There is a resiliency in this family's character.
Hernandez and her husband, Marco, were the only Latinos on their block
when
they bought their home in the early 1980s. Now they are among the many.
When the house burned down in 1987, they built a bigger one.
During tough times, the family has sold Mexican candy to keep the girls
enrolled in a Mexican dance group that meets at Christ the King Catholic
Church
just outside the neighborhood.
The girls are bilingual, but they speak Spanish to their parents.
Hernandez has shown that she can hold her own among English speakers.
A math
teacher once urged her to drop his course because he did not believe she
could
keep up with the rest of the English speakers in the classroom.
Hernandez insisted on staying. She got a B.
People power
Teresa Lucas was a university professor in Manila when she emigrated to
the
United States to join her family in 1990. Lucas was one of the last
members of
her family to leave the Philippines.
Over a 20-year period, her parents, three brothers and three sisters
have
made the trip to America and settled in Paradise Hills, which has a
sizable
Filipino population.
Lucas was fluent in English when she arrived. Like many Filipinos, she
learned English at an early age in the Philippines. She also learned
about
democracy there through her work as an activist.
Now in her 40s, she still is organizing Filipinos, but in a different
country, in a place where racial differences can get in the way of
community
harmony.
Lucas, who works for the Union of Pan Asian Communities in San Diego,
helped
organize forums last year that brought together Filipinos and African-
Americans
to discuss tensions after the fatal shooting of a black Morse High School
student and the arrests of two Filipino teen-agers.
Earlier this year she helped form the Paradise Hills Collaborative, a
group
made up mostly of Filipinos.
The group is concerned about reducing crime and improving schools in the
Paradise Hills area. But it also has set more modest goals, such as
securing
more bus stops along Paradise Valley Road to ease the strain of walking
for
seniors who live in the area.
Lucas hopes to attract people of all color to the group. She has faced
bigger challenges.
In 1986, she participated in the "People Power" revolution in the
Philippines
that peacefully brought down a dictator and installed a democratically
elected
president.
Lucas was among the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who mobilized
against
the government of Ferdinand Marcos. Their success was exhilarating.
"We felt so liberated," she said.
Finding answers
Kevin Nash majored in urban studies at San Francisco State University.
But
he looks at the area where he works through the eyes of a native son.
Most of the disputes he mediates do not involve race, but he has become
a
student of race relations. With the help of translators, he shows recent
immigrants and refugees how to resolve conflicts.
Nash bridges one gap by using the Spanish he has learned in recent
years.
The diversity of southeastern San Diego is intriguing to him because of
the
many possibilities. One of his favorite symbols is the Tubman-Chavez
center
because of the unity it represents between Latinos and African-Americans.
"That's what it's all about," Nash said one day while driving around
the area
doing outreach work.
Recently he witnessed two racially charged events that told him a lot
about
hopes and challenges of the diverse communities that live in southeastern
San
Diego.
At O'Farrell High School, he attended a community forum to discuss the
fatal
shooting of an African-American by San Diego police who were trying to
arrest
him in Mission Beach. Latinos joined blacks in denouncing the shooting.
They
vowed to march together through downtown San Diego.
Nash was pumped himself after watching people speak out, but he missed
the
march, which took place without incident. That same day, though, he
witnessed a
brawl outside his office between dozens of young African- Americans and
Latinos.
After police restored order, Nash asked some of the youths what
happened. Two
youths were arguing and then started swinging. No one seemed to know
what they
were arguing about.
What he saw disappointed him.
"It reminded me how much work has to be done," Nash said.
He wasted no time offering his services at the middle school attended
by some
of the youths who brawled. In March, he plans to do something bigger.
On March 24, the Mediation Center, which has four offices, has scheduled
activities throughout San Diego County that aim to educate people about
conflict
resolution through discussion.
"We're calling it a 'Day of Resolution,' Nash said.
Southeastern snapshot
White Black Latino Asian
1960 61,497 39,397 (no breakdown)
1970 42,667 37,302 (no breakdown)
1980 32,164 44,363 34,013 12,227
1990 30,119 39,068 46,705 31,597
1998 26,293 39,243 55,656 35,324
San Diego's ethnicity
The racial and ethnic makeup of San Diego has shifted dramatically in
recent
decades. The Latino and Asian populations have increased throughout the
city
and the county, partly because of high immigration rates. From 1990 to
1996,
some 102,561 legal immigrants were admitted into San Diego County by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. More than half hailed from three
countries: Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The city of San Diego's population by race:
White Black Asian Latino
1980 76.1% 8.8% 6.5% 14.9%
1990 59% 9% 12% 21%
1998 55 % 9% 13% 23%
GRAPHIC: 1. Many voices: Kevin Nash, who grew up in southeastern San Diego,
talked with new homeowner Gloria Barraza in his old neighborhood. Nash is
getting to know the community again after living in San Francisco for 15
years.
2. Tradition: Friends helped Milagro de Campo count dollar bills that were
pinned to her during dances at her birthday party recently at Paradise
Hills
Community Park. 3. Keeping traditions alive: Cousins Virginia Gonzalez
(left)
and Judy Del Rio greeted with a kiss at the Folklorico Cristo Rey evening
dance
class. Rachel Toledo (seated) and Anita Villanueva (right) are also in the
class. (A-23) 4. Coming together: During an Associated Student Body
activity
planning session, Morse High School students discussed new T- shirt logos
for
promoting school spirit. (A-23) 5. Learning: Tamika Dean, a counselor
with Head
Start, held Tuandrea Beasley, 4, while watching an animated storytelling
session
at Malcolm X Library. (A-23) 6,7,8,9. Melting pot; The collection of
neighborhoods in the southeastern region of the city is one of the most
diverse
places in San Diego. The southeastern part of the city is roughly the
same as
San Diego City Council's 4th District, which includes these neighborhoods:
Chollas View, Webster, Mount Hope, Lincoln Park, Mountain View, Paradise
Hills,
Bay Terraces, Jamacha, Lomita Village, Skyline, Oak Park and Emerald
Hills.
(A-23) 6. Southeastern snapshot (A-23) 7, 8,9. San Diego's ethnicity; The
racial
and ethnic makeup of San Diego has shifted dramatically in recent
decades. The
Latino and Asian populations have increased throughout the city and the
county,
partly because of high immigration rates. From 1990 to 1996, some 102,561
legal
immigrants were admitted into San Diego County by the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. More than half hailed from three countries:
Mexico, the
Philippines and Vietnam. (A-23) 1,2,3,4,5. PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
photos
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
18 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
December 11, 1999, Saturday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 26
LENGTH: 764 words
HEADLINE: Grozny refugees leave ravaged homes for tent cities;
Many elderly must stay behind, others refuse to flee homeland
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder Tribune News
BYLINE: DAVE MONTGOMERY
DATELINE: ZNAMENSKOYE, Russia
BODY:
ZNAMENSKOYE, Russia - Terrified refugees from the Chechen capital of
Grozny
began thronging into makeshift tent cities Friday on the eve of a "leave
or die"
ultimatum by the Russian military, while possibly thousands remained in
the
besieged city, either too defiant or too infirm to leave.
Three thousand tents were erected in this Chechen city awaiting an
expected
flood of refugees from the Russian military's threat to lay waste on
Saturday to
Grozny, less than 40 miles south of here. The first wave of refugees
described
Grozny as a devastated city without food or water, where many, including
elderly
residents of a nursing home, were still holed up as the deadline
approached.
"My father and uncle are still there," shouted Visani Elmursayev, 24,
as he
was processed at the local immigration office. "They decided to stay
against all
odds to look after our home. If my father is killed, I'll go fight
against the
Russians."
The promised offensive marks a new phase in the 2-month-old military
attack
on the breakaway republic by as many as 100,000 Russian troops, and
appears
linked to Russia's approaching Dec. 19 parliamentary elections. Having
lost a
1994-96 war with Chechen rebels, the Kremlin wants to capitalize on
widespread
support for the current campaign and to boost the fortunes of its anointed
political party, Unity.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, designated by President Boris
Yeltsin
as his choice in next year's presidential election, also is reaping
political
benefits from the offensive and has soared steadily in public opinion
polls
since the onset of the fighting.
However, the ultimatum - which Russian generals have since described as
merely a warning - has touched off an international uproar, prompting the
United
States and other Western nations to condemn Moscow's conduct. Russian
leaders
have defiantly pursued the military campaign anyway, and on a state visit
to
China this week, Yeltsin brushed aside criticism from President Clinton,
pointedly noting that Russia is still armed with nuclear weapons. Putin
later
sought to soften the international uproar.
On Friday, leaders of the European Union meeting in Helsinki, Finland,
said
they planned to dispatch a delegation to Moscow to urge the Kremlin to
ease its
Chechen policy. At the same time, Putin said contacts have been under way
with
Chechen envoys, including two vice premiers and President Aslan
Maskhadov's
government, but thus far there have been no breakthroughs.
As Russian troops moved within four miles of Grozny Friday, Chechen
rebels
fought back by exploding a huge chlorine tank, unleashing a toxic cloud
over the
city. Although the tactics apparently were aimed at thwarting the advance
of
federal troops, Russian military officials said the release of the gas
caused an
undetermined number of civilian casualties. There are at least 26 such
tanks in
the city, the officials said.
Nearly 200 refugees were registered in Znamenskoye in northern Chechnya
at
midday Friday, but Russian officials said they expected the numbers to
swell in
the final hours before the ultimatum. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Bayramov, a
deputy
commander in Chechnya who oversees the refugee settlements, said
estimates vary
widely on the number of citizens still in Grozny.
Arriving refugees said that thousands of citizens stayed behind rather
than
leave their homes.
Several refugees said a group of elderly residents remained in a nursing
home, unable to escape.
Some refugees said they believed that many residents without a radio
might be
unaware of the ultimatum.
The refugees said that Grozny was already under fierce shelling when
they
left, and most said they braved heavy fire to escape.
"In a word, it's a disaster for civilians," said 27-year-old Hamsat
Yunsov.
"Everything is under fire. Firing was so heavy, it was difficult to leave
town."
In announcing the ultimatum, Russians opened up a new refugee route
extending
from Pervomayskaya at the northern edge of Grozny through Znamenskoye to
the
northwest boundary of the small self-proclaimed independent republic, but
several refugees said they were harassed by Russian troops as they reached
Pervomayskaya, and some were ordered to turn back.
Vladimir Yevgenyev, 69, an employee of a now-destroyed oil refinery in
Grozny, said he was reluctant to leave the city of his birth, but said he
decided by midweek to flee.
"It was unbearable," he said. "They were shooting all the time with all
kinds
of weapons - airplanes, mortars, artillery. We left everything behind.
All I
have now is what I'm wearing."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
19 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Stuart News Company
Press Journal (Vero Beach, FL)
December 11, 1999, Saturday
SECTION: A section; Pg. A13
LENGTH: 514 words
HEADLINE: CUBAN BOY'S LAWYERS ASK FOR ASYLUM STATUS
BODY:
MIAMI (AP) - Lawyers for the 6-year-old Cuban boy at the center of an
international custody dispute filed a petition Friday for political
asylum in
the United States, which could extend his stay with his Miami relatives
for at
least 60 days.
The lawyers for Elian Gonzalez said they were worried that he might be
sent
out of the country if the application was not filed.
Roger Bernstein, one of the boy's five lawyers, said the Immigration and
Naturalization Service has 60 days to respond to the petition and give
the boy a
hearing. "We are very confident he will be given a full opportunity to
explain
why he fears returning to Cuba," Bernstein said.
Elian was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Fort
Lauderdale on
Thanksgiving Day, having survived a boating accident that took the life
of his
mother during an apparent attempt to illegally enter to the United States.
U.S. authorities placed him with his great-aunt and great-uncle living
in
Miami, who said they could provide him with a better life in the United
States.
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has demanded that his son be
returned to
Cuba and has refused to go to the United States or a neutral country to
petition
for his son.
INS spokeswoman Maria Elena Garcia could not discuss the specifics of
Elian's
case, due to privacy laws.
She said a person who is granted asylum is given permanent residency
status
after a year. If the person comes from a country that does not have
relations
with the United States, such as Cuba, he would not be deported if the
asylum
petition is denied.
In Cuba, mass demonstrations demanding the boy's return spread across
the
island Friday.
Tens of thousands of people crowded around the U.S. Interests Section in
Havana for the fifth day in row, waving red white and blue Cuban flags and
placards bearing Elian's image. "Free Elian! Free Elian!" the
demonstrators
cried.
Earlier in the day, state television showed hundreds of thousands of
citizens
gathering at provincial capitals across the island. This week's protests
are the
largest pro-government demonstrations on the island - except for annual
May Day
celebrations - on the island since 1980.
The custody dispute cast a shadow over U.S.-Cuban migration talks
scheduled
Monday in Havana, but both American and Cuban officials said the meeting
is
expected to continue as planned.
The dispute comes amid Cuba's growing anger over what it says is the
U.S.
government's failure to abide by 1994 and 1995 migration accords signed
to stop
a flood of people leaving the island on rickety rafts and inner tubes.
Under the agreements, U.S. officials are to send Cubans rescued at sea
back
to Cuba and allow those who make it here to stay. Cuban officials are to
prevent
people from leaving the communist island illegally.
Sen. Bob Torricelli, D-N.J., whose state has the nation's second-largest
Cuban-American population, said at a news conference in Little Havana,
Miami,
that the boy's fate should be determined by U.S. laws in U.S. courts.
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
20 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 Star Tribune
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
December 11, 1999, Saturday, Metro Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 7A
LENGTH: 302 words
HEADLINE: Lawyers for U.S. relatives ask court to grant political asylum to
Cuban boy
SOURCE: News Services
DATELINE: Miami, Fla.
BODY:
Lawyers for the 6-year-old Cuban boy at the center of an international
custody dispute filed a petition Friday for political asylum in the United
States. The lawyers for relatives of Elian Gonzalez said they were
worried
that he might be sent out of the country if the application wasn't filed.
Roger Bernstein, one of five lawyers working for free in support of
Elian's relatives in Miami, said the Immigration and Naturalization
Service has
60 days to respond to the petition.
Elian was rescued off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day, having
survived a boating accident in which his mother was killed while
apparently
trying to illegally enter the United States.
U.S. authorities placed him with his great-aunt and great-uncle in
Miami,
who said they could provide him with a better life in the United States.
Elian's
father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has demanded that his son be returned to
Cuba and
has refused to go to the United States or a neutral country to petition
for him.
In a crescendo to a week of protest, an estimated 2.2 million Cubans
demonstrated in the main plazas of the island's 14 provincial capitals
Friday to
demand that the United States return the boy. They echoed President Fidel
Castro's outrage over what he calls "a flagrant kidnapping by American
authorities."
While U.S. attorneys are attempting in federal court to block the
boy's
return, their efforts are unlikely to overcome U.S. law and international
agreements that normally require children to be returned to their closest
living
relative, legal analysts say.
Elian attorney Carmen Morales said, "We have a child who lost his
mother
while bringing her child to freedom. We are not against the father. We are
against Elian growing up under a totalitarian regime."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
21 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 The Indianapolis Star
THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR
December 10, 1999, Friday ,CITY FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A23
LENGTH: 598 words
HEADLINE: Cuban protesters seek rescued boy's return
Most want 6-year-old found off Florida coast to come home as talks with
U.S.
continue.
BODY:
HAVANA -- Thrusting fists in the air and chanting political slogans,
hundreds
of thousands of Cubans flooded Havana's coastal highway Thursday to press
for
the return of a 6-year-old boy who was rescued off the Florida coast two
weeks
ago.
Schoolchildren, workers and housewives marched by the U.S. Interest
Section
shouting, "We want Elian! We want Elian!" as Fidel Castro's government
revved up
its propaganda campaign in the fight to bring Elian Gonzalez home.
Throughout Havana, employees were instructed at workplaces to
participate in
the march, and teachers brought their students after classes ended for
the day.
The communist daily Granma promised a turnout of at least 300,000.
Officials
used buses to bring marchers in from as far away as 100 miles.
The protests were the largest pro-government demonstrations seen on the
island in recent years.
Although the demonstrators were obligated to participate, most Cubans
feel
true sympathy for the shy kindergartner who was rescued on Nov. 25 off the
Florida coast. His mother died in the apparent attempt to emigrate
illegally to
the United States.
The child was placed under the care of his paternal great-aunt and
great-uncle in Miami, but his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has demanded
that he
be returned to Cuba. The Miami relatives want the boy to stay and say
they can
provide the boy with a better life in the United States.
The case grew complicated on Wednesday when Castro said in a letter
read at a
protest that evening that Gonzalez was not willing to go to the United
States or
meet with U.S. officials in his quest to be reunited with his son.
The father did not want to meet with U.S. functionaries until they
could tell
him when and how his son would be returned to him.
The U.S. government Wednesday night proposed that Gonzalez be
interviewed by
U.S. immigration officials in Havana to determine that he is the boy's
father
and has assumed his parental responsibilities to the child before
deciding if
the boy will be returned.
The chief of the U.S. mission in Cuba said Thursday she was awaiting
word
from Cuban officials.
"They said they would not have an answer for us until this evening,"
said
Vicki Huddleston, head of the U.S. Interests Section. By the late
afternoon, no
decision had been made, but Cuban authorities had asked some questions, a
move
U.S. authorities viewed as positive.
The proposal asks that Gonzalez bring along any documents to establish
his
parenthood and parental rights, said Justice Department spokeswoman Carol
Florman.
The custody dispute cast a shadow over U.S.-Cuban migration talks
scheduled
Monday in Havana, but both U.S. and Cuban officials said the meeting is
expected
to go ahead as planned.
The dispute comes amid growing anger by the Cuban government over what
it
says is the U.S. government's failure to abide by 1994 and 1995 migration
accords signed to stop the flood of tens of thousands of people who left
the
island on rickety rafts and inner tubes the summer of 1994.
Under the agreements, U.S. officials are to repatriate Cubans rescued
at sea,
and Cuban officials are to prevent people from leaving the communist
island
illegally.
Another potential immigration dispute flared up on Monday, when six
Cubans
hijacked a fishing boat at knifepoint and took two crew members hostage.
The
boat was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard off the Florida Keys, and the
suspected hijackers were arrested.
The six suspected hijackers -- five men and a woman who appeared to be
in
their teens and early 20s -- were turned over to Cuban authorities.
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
22 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 The Indianapolis Star
THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR
December 10, 1999, Friday ,FINAL EDITION
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A38
LENGTH: 428 words
HEADLINE: The Cuban boy
BODY:
The mother's wishes for her son couldn't have been clearer. She gave up
her
life in the pursuit of a new and better life for her family in the United
States.
Now the 6-year-old boy who survived a hazardous raft ride from Cuba is
at the
center of international controversy.
Florida relatives of Elian Gonzalez say they can give him the better
life his
mother sought. His biological father wants him back in Cuba. Fidel Castro
insists on it.
The dispute "will not stop until the boy Elian is returned to Cuba,"
Castro
vowed in a statement read Wednesday night at a gathering of tens of
thousands
outside the U.S. interest section in Havana.
With the mother and stepfather dead, having drowned in the waters near
Miami's coast, it seems reasonable to send Elian back to his home
country. But
what's reasonable and what's right aren't always the same.
First and foremost, the United States must verify the father's identity
and
true wishes for his son.
On Wednesday, U.S. immigration officials sent a letter to the man
requesting
a meeting at the American interest section of Havana where State
Department
personnel are stationed. The letter asked him to bring along any birth,
baptismal, medical or school records, family photographs or testimony of
neighbors to establish his parenthood and any divorce or other records to
establish his claim to exercise parental rights.
Yet that may be insufficient to assess the father's state of mind, free
from
Castro's pressure. If the Cuban dictator is so confident of the answer, he
should let the father travel to Miami for an interview.
Perhaps Castro is not so sure. His Wednesday night statement made clear
the
father will not go to the United States. Nor will he accept an interview
with
U.S. officials if he is not first told the day and the hour of his son's
return.
The United States has already done enough to satisfy Castro's concerns
and
the demands of international law. Earlier this week, American officials
recognized that Elian's father can assert his claim to take his son back
to
Cuba. They also agreed to return a group of six suspected boat hijackers
to the
island.
Coincidentally, the incidents occur just as U.S.-Cuban migration talks
are to
start Monday in Havana.
It's sad that the hope for freedom leads some Cubans to ride on rickety
rafts
or commandeer boats at gunpoint in order to realize their dream.
Elian's mother had a dream. In her memory, and in honor of her courage
in
fleeing a repressive communist regime, the United States must try and get
Elian's father on U.S. soil.
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
23 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Cincinnati Enquirer
December 5, 1999, Sunday
SECTION: METRO, Pg. B06
LENGTH: 967 words
HEADLINE: UPS didn't promote pilot to high enough job to fire him
BYLINE: BEN L. KAUFMAN
BODY:
United Parcel Service didn't deny promoting pilot Frank Robbins Dorsey
just
so it could fire him for union organizing.
However, UPS failed to promote him high enough to remove him from the
protection of federal labor law.
In a clear decision, 6th Circuit Judges Gilbert S. Merritt, Eric L.
Clay and
Ann Aldrich sent the case back to the trial judge in Louisville with
orders to:
Grant summary judgment to Mr. Dorsey.
Let jurors decide how much UPS owes him for violating his rights.
"It is undisputed that UPS first transferred Dorsey from one job to
another,
then refused to allow him to return to his old job and discharged him -
all
expressly because he engaged in union organizing activity," Judge Merritt
wrote.
UPS never denied it.
The pivotal question was whether U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II
erred
when he said Mr. Dorsey was a manager whose union organizing was not
protected
from retaliation by the federal Railway Labor Act.
He wasn't, the 6th Circuit said. Instead, he was a "subordinate
official"
protected by that law.
Judge Heyburn also said Mr. Dorsey failed to claim the transfer itself
was
impermissible retaliation under the law.
That misread the complaint, Judge Merritt wrote, and Mr. Dorsey wins
that
point, too.
The 1926 Railway Labor Act was amended in 1936 to add airline employees
to
workers whose right to unionize was protected.
Mr. Dorsey was a flight training supervisor who tried to organize other
flight training supervisors, assistant chief pilots, and supervisors of
systems
operations, flight standards and flight testing.
UPS responded by making him an assistant chief pilot, a position with
more
management responsibilities.
Whether that made him management forced the 6th Circuit to look for
definitions.
They said neither a federal appellate court nor the Supreme Court had
defined
"subordinate official" and the term "official" is not found in other labor
rulings.
So the judges turned to the definition used by the National Mediation
Board,
which oversees disputes under the Railway Labor Act. The court concluded
that a
protected "subordinate official" could be a worker "at a higher level
than mere
employees and laborers with no supervisory authority."
No one wants Mark Alexander Zhislin, an immigrant who abused this
country's
welcome.
Born in Kharkiv when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, he and his
family
came to the United States to avoid religious persecution in 1979.
Before long, Mr. Zhislin began breaking U.S. drug laws. He was
convicted in
Florida in 1983 and 1985, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS) tried to deport him in 1988 before the Soviet Union broke up.
Mr. Zhislin persuaded an immigration judge to grant him a discretionary
waiver in 1989.
A year later, Mr. Zhislin was caught shipping marijuana. He pleaded
guilty
and was sentenced to five years in federal prison.
In 1995, he was released, and the INS ordered him deported to post-
Communist
Ukraine or Israel. Since then, he has been in INS custody.
In September 1996, INS refused to free him on bond, saying he was a
threat to
society. Israel refused to admit him, and Ukraine refused to let him
return. INS
flew him to the Dominican Republic, for which he had a tourist visa, but
that
Caribbean nation denied him entry.
Mr. Zhislin says he has failed to win a visa from 34 countries, and he
wants
to be freed from INS custody.
To that end, he sued the INS, saying it has no right to detain him
indefinitely when it appears that circumstances will prevent him from
ever being
deported.
U.S. District Judge John T. Nixon in Nashville refused to consider the
case.
He said Congress barred federal courts from hearing challenges to the
constitutionality of a deportation order or the right of the government to
enforce such an order.
Mr. Zhislin appealed and got his first break.
6th Circuit Judges David A. Nelson, Danny J. Boggs and Eric L. Clay
said a
recent Supreme Court decision made it clear that Mr. Zhislin's challenge
did not
fall in categories forbidden to court review.
They sent the case back to Judge Nixon for a hearing.
Nine days of freedom cost drug dealer Peter Robert Wilson 18 months in
prison.
Had he begun his original sentence of 64 months in the federal prison in
Ashland, Ky., on Jan. 20, 1998, Mr. Wilson's lies might never have been
uncovered. But he failed to turn himself in as promised.
Nine days later, he was identified and arrested during a routine traffic
stop.
He pleaded guilty to failing to report to prison, and Assistant U.S.
Attorney
David Bunning in Covington agreed to recommend a reduced sentence for
acceptance
of responsibility.
The deal died when the probation officer preparing the presentence
report
learned that Mr. Wilson's real name was Robert Paul Matthews. His criminal
record began in 1959 with teen-age felony convictions for burglary and
theft.
"It was so long ago, I didn't think it mattered," Mr. Wilson explained.
Instead of a reduced sentence, Mr. Bunning sought an increase for
obstruction
of justice, and U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman agreed.
Appellate attorney Gary Sergent said the youthful convictions could not
be
used to increase the sentence, but 6th Circuit Judges Harry Wellford,
Karen
Nelson Moore and Ronald Lee Gilman said that wasn't the issue.
Mr. Wilson's sentence could be increased to 18 months because Judge
Bertelsman's original decision on the failure-to-report sentence might
have been
different if he'd known about Mr. Wilson's deceit.
Similarly, the appellate court said, Mr. Wilson's guilty plea did not
entitle
him to a reduced sentence for acceptance of responsibility because he
misled the
court and probation officer about his identity and criminal record.
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
24 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 FT Asia Intelligence Wire
All Rights Reserved
Copyright 1999
Copyright 1999 CHINA DAILY
December 5, 1999
SECTION: News
LENGTH: 292 words
HEADLINE: China- World review
BODY:
WASHINGTON
Clinton signs spending budget
US President Bill Clinton signed a US(USDollar) 390 billion spending
package
for fiscal year 2000 on Monday, declaring that the deal hashed out with
the
Republican opposition would preserve America's position as the world's
leader.
"This budget strengthens that role with greater investments in our
nation's
strong defence and our nation's diplomacy," Clinton said at a White House
ceremony while flanked by members of the Republican-led Congress. Clinton
reached the budget deal with Congress on November 18 after intense
wrangling
forced him to sign several emergency stopgap spending measures to prevent
many
government operations from shutting down after the fiscal year began on
October
1.
JERUSALEM
Israeli economy back on track
Israel is on track to solid economic growth in the new millennium
fueled by
a high-tech boom, but economists warn that it will not be enough to rid
the
country of its unemployment woes. The official treasury forecast is for
gross
domestic product to grow by 3 per cent next year from an estimated 2 per
cent
during 1999, but banks and economists said its projections could prove
overly
cautious. The economy has the potential to grow 6 per cent thanks to a
resumption of the peace process with Prime Minister Ehud Barak's taking
office,
a technological revolution and the recent increase in immigration from
countries
of the former Soviet Union, which is boosting consumption, said Ptashia
Bar-Shavit, economist at Israel's leading bank Hapoalim.
Copyright 1999 Copyright 1999 China Daily. Source: World Reporter
(Trade
Mark) - Asia Intelligence Wire.China DailyAsia Intelligence Wire</XEName>.
Source: World Reporter (Trade Mark) - China Daily.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
25 of 28 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 1999 M. Lee Smith Publishers & Printers
KENTUCKY EMPLOYMENT LAW LETTER
DECEMBER, 1999
SECTION: Volume 10, Issue 3
LENGTH: 416 words
HEADLINE: If you hire illegal aliens, watch out -- they're protected by
antidiscrimination laws
BYLINE: Greenebaum Doll & McDonald PLLC
BODY:
Undocumented workers -- or those who are working in the United States
illegally -- are entitled to the same remedies for unlawful discrimination
available to other workers under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in
Employment
Act, the ADA, and the Equal Pay Act, according to EEOC guidance issued on
October 26, 1999. The remedies include back pay, reinstatement, hiring,
and
other appropriate relief.
EEOC's rationale
The EEOC said it believes that "the federal discrimination laws protect
all
workers -- the entire American workforce regardless of their citizenship
or work
eligibility
Simply stated, discrimination against anyone just
won't be
tolerated."
Possible conflicts with IRCA
There have been concerns that the EEOC's latest guidance may conflict
with
the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which prohibits employers
from
knowingly hiring undocumented workers. The EEOC has stated that
undocumented
workers hired before IRCA went into effect (in 1986) would be entitled to
be
hired or reinstated if they were discriminatorily denied a job or
terminated.
That same entitlement would also apply to undocumented workers hired
after
IRCA took effect, according to the EEOC, unless the employer knows the
worker is
undocumented. In that case, the worker's eligibility for reinstatement or
hiring
will depend on his or her ability to satisfy IRCA's verification
requirements
within a reasonable time.
Opposing viewpoints
Criticizing the EEOC's guidance, Senator Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said
that it
would "require employers to hire back individuals who had been fired when
it is
illegal to have hired them in the first place." The EEOC contends,
however, that
its guidance is consistent with IRCA:
If employers were not held responsible for discrimination against
unauthorized workers, it would create an incentive for unscrupulous
employers to
engage in unlawful workplace conduct. This would directly undermine the
enforcement of the immigration laws by encouraging the employment of
unauthorized workers. It would also harm authorized workers who might be
denied
jobs or be subjected to a work environment [that] tolerated
discrimination.
Bottom line
Don't hire undocumented workers! If you do, you're not only subjecting
yourself and your company to potential penalties under the IRCA, but also,
according to the EEOC, to monetary damages and other relief available
under the
federal civil rights laws. Copyright 1999 M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 1999
Email Completed
Time of Delivery: December 13, 1999 11:28 am EST
Email Number: 59:0:5034140
RECORD TYPE: FEDERAL (NOTES MAIL)
CREATOR: Rex Wockner <[email protected]> ( Rex Wockner <[email protected]> [ UNKNOWN ])
CREATION DATE/TIME:14-DEC-1999 17:22:07.00
SUBJECT: NC11615: New Gallup poll on military gays
TO: Rex Wockner <[email protected]> ( Rex Wockner <[email protected]> [ UNKNOWN ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TEXT:
Do not publish this item in any form without permission from the
originating media operation. Do not post this item in any online
forum. This is a small, free mailing list open only to my friends.
CNN TODAY 13:00 pm ET
December 14, 1999; Tuesday 1:27 pm Eastern Time
Transcript # 99121403V13
News; Domestic
Gallup Poll: Americans Split Over Issue of Homosexuality and Gays in the
Military
GUESTS: Frank Newport
BYLINE: Natalie Allen
HIGHLIGHT: In a recent Gallup Poll, Americans are split about evenly over
whether they support the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, with 50 percent
supporting it and 46 opposing. Fifty percent of Americans currently find
the gay lifestyle acceptable, and 46 percent oppose it.
BODY:
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, does "don't ask, don't tell" sound right
to the public?
Frank Newport joining us now from the Gallup studio in Princeton, New
Jersey, with the results of his latest poll on this topic -- Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Well, Natalie, it's an
ambiguous
policy, as everybody's been talking about, and actually the American
public's reaction is to some degree ambiguous; it's not clear-cut either
direction. But we can show you what we have.
We asked Americans about "don't ask, don't tell" going all the way back to
1970 -- 1993, then 1994, and we just re-asked it, this weekend. Support
was split at the beginning, there, and then, as you can see here, support
for the policy went up in 1994. In our most recent poll, here, it split
about evenly.
Now, the 46 percent that oppose it, we went and asked them why do you
oppose it, and by far the vast majority of those oppose it because they
think that gays should be open in the military. In other words, opposing
it is a liberal position, is what we had found.
There are political differences, and based on what I just said, this is
what you would expect. It's Republicans, 58 percent, who are most likely
to support the current policy, even though it was promulgated by Bill
Clinton himself. Republicans are more conservative on issues relating to
gays. They support the "don't ask, don't tell." As you can see, Democrats
more likely -- less likely to support it, more likely to oppose it.
They're more likely to favor gays being openly in the military.
We can put this in a little context. We've been tracking for many years at
Gallup, the last 18 or so years, Americans' attitudes towards
homosexuality. This question says: Is that an acceptable lifestyle or not.
It's the bottom bar that said yes. You can see, that was actually -- had
been low through the years. In our most recent poll, this year, it about
breaks even in terms of Americans thinking that homosexuality is
acceptable or unacceptable.
The bottom line here is, even as of 1999, there's still a big split in
attitudes in America about the whole issue of gays and lesbians. It's
still, by no means, strong favor for the idea of open gays in society or,
Natalie, in the military itself.
ALLEN: Well, is there a difference in gender on this topic, Frank?
NEWPORT: Yes, very interesting, the stereotype is that men are more
homophobic; that's true. We find that both in general on homosexuality and
in our most recent poll, men are much more likely to support "don't ask,
don't tell." Women are more likely to say -- oppose it and say, let's
change the policy.
ALLEN Frank Newport of Gallup, thanks, Frank. We'll see you next time.
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (NOTES MAIL)
CREATOR: Morley A. Winograd@OVP@EOP@LNGTWY@LNGTWY (Morley A.
Winograd@OVP@EOP@LNGTWY@LNGTWY[UNKNOWN])
CREATION DATE/TIME:14-DEC-1999 14:58:51.00
SUBJECT: Gays in the Military
TO: Paul J. Weinstein Jr.@EOP (Paul J. Weinstein Jr.@EOP [OPD])
READ:UNKNOWN
TEXT:
Message Creation Date was at 14-DEC-1999 14:52:00
Paul:
FYI.
Morley
Forwarded by Morley A. Winograd/OVP on 12/14/99
02:51 PM
Elizabeth J. Potter@EOP
12/13/99 07:53:07 PM
Record Type: Record
To: Morley A. Winograd/OVP@OVP
cc:
Subject: Gays in the Military
Here is a 4-5 page memo on the policy. It includes the background,
status,
recommendations and some appropriate language that can be used. G2K
issued a
statement tonight. I think Gore's statement might be farther out than my
suggested talking points. I will get you a copy of the statement.
ATTACHMENT I
ATT CREATION TIME/DATE: 0 00:00:00.00
TEXT:
The following attachments were included with this message:
TYPE : FILE
NAME : dadtmemo.doc
END ATTACHMENT I
ATTACHMENT 2
ATT CREATION TIME/DATE: 0 00:00:00.00
TEXT:
Unable to convert ARMS_EXT:[ATTACH.D68]ARMS23472546J.336 to ASCII,
The following is a HEX DUMP:
END ATTACHMENT 2
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Morely Winograd
FR:
Julian Potter
RE:
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" Policy
DT:
December 13, 1999
Background
Seven years ago the Clinton/Gore Administration was elected into office and
attempted to fulfill a campaign pledge to issue an Executive Order (E.O.) prohibiting
the mandatory discharge of gay military personnel.
Congress, the military and the public vehemently opposed the E.O. and instead, 10
USC Section 654-known as the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" Policy
(DA/DT/DP) was codified into law.
Under this new policy, servicemembers can be discharged if they (1) state they are
gay, (2) engage in hand holding, kissing or other physical contact with a person of
the same gender, or (3) attempt to marry someone of the same gender.
These reasons for discharge are identical to those in place since 1981. But, under
the old regulations being homosexual was, by definition, incompatible with military
service; under the new law gay people can, in theory, serve as long as they keep
their orientation private and refrain from "homosexual acts."
President Clinton, Congress and military leaders agreed to their part of the
"DA/DT/DP" policy to implement new limits to gay investigations:
End affirmative efforts to pursue suspected gay members:
Stop asking service members about their sexual orientation;
End witch hunts and prevent anti-gay harassment;
Implement the law with regard to the privacy of servicemembers.
STATUS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POLICY
The policy has been in effect since February 1994. Over that time period we have
seen soaring gay discharges. In 1998, the Pentagon fired 1,149 people under the
"DA/DT/DP" policy, in 1997 it was 997. That amounts to 3-4 persons per day, costing
the military $31 million in training and replacement costs.
The frustration with these discharges is that it is not clear that the firings are
because of a gay servicemembers violation of the "telling" part of the policy,
but rather it appears that military personnel have gone beyond the limits of
investigation and violated the "asking and pursuing" part of the policy.
It is well documented that servicemembers across the country continue to be
interrogated, investigated, harassed and threatened about their sexual orientation.
Psychotherapists have turned in gay members. Partners are being interrogated
about their kids. Servivemembers are threatened with prison unless they confess to
being gay or accuse others as gay.
The Servicemembers legal Defense network, a non-profit legal aid and watchdog
group set up to help people hurt by this policy has directly assisted over 2000 men
and women facing harrassment, withch hunts and death trhreats since this policy
was enacted.
In addition to difficulties with the policy, the base climate surrounding gay
servicemembers has gotten completely out of hand. On July 6, 1999, Private First
Class Barry Winchell died at Fort Campbell, KY, after he was attacked and brutally
beaten with a baseball bat in his barracks, by a fellow soilder.
The military leadership at Fort Campbell allowed an anti-gay climate to thrive.
Fellow soldiers have testified that the beating death of Winchell came after months
of vile anti-gay name-calling and harassment, rumor mongering and inquiries into
Winchell's private life.
Defense Secretary William Cohen today ordered a full review by the Pentagon's
inspector general into how the military's `don't ask, don't tell" policy is being carried
out, with a report due back in 90 days. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon, who
announced the new investigation, said that spot checks would be made on bases
and installations of all the services.
He said that Cohen shared President Clinton's recently expressed concerns
that the policy was not working as intended. ``Clearly there are issues that need to
be addressed," Bacon said. He said that ``any steps that are warranted" as a result
of the inquiry would be taken by the Pentagon to make sure that instances of
harassment are not condoned.
POLITICAL SITUATION
Because of the Presidential election, and the tragic death of Barry Winchell,
politicians have been talking about this issue and "breaking the code of silence"
about the policy.
Candidate Bill Bradley spoke out against the policy in the Advocate interview (Sept
99) and during the debate in New Hampshire (Oct 99). He said the policy does not
work, it is a failure. Gays and lesbians should serve openly in the military as with
dozens of other professions.
Mrs. Clinton spoke out in New York (Dec 9, 99) said the policy had been a failure, if
elected she would work to overturn the policy. She doesn't believe "don't ask, don't
tell" has worked, and called for a policy under which gays and lesbians could serve
without discrimination or harassment. "Fitness to serve in the military should be
based on one's conduct, not one's sexual orientation," she said.
The President said his policy was to have gays serve openly, yet in 1993 he lost in
a vote with the Senate 68-32. "Let me remind you that the original intent was that
people would not be rooted out, that they would not be questioned out, that this
would be focused on people's conduct, and if they didn't violate the code of conduct,
and they didn't tell, that their comings and goings, the mail they got, the associates
they had, that those things would not be sufficient to kick them out of the military, or
certainly subject them to harrasment"
The President continued, "what I would like to do is to focus on trying to make the
policy that we announced back in '93 work the way it was intended to, because it's
way -- it's out of whack now, and I don't think any serious person can say it's not."
On December 13 Reuters article by Charles Aldinger states that "The front-running
candidates for the White House, Democrat AI Gore and Republican George W.
Bush, support the Pentagon policy under which gays and lesbians are allowed to
serve in the military if they do not openly discuss their sexual orientation.
On a Saturday Radio talk show, Barney Frank (D-MA) has called upon Vice
President AI Gore to change his position on gays in the military, to one
supporting the policy's termination. "I think he should go beyond [criticism]," Frank
said, "and I think as a Presidential candidate, he's fully entitled to give his position
which I hope will be that it's a mistaken policy." "I know there's this sense that 'Oh
well, the Vice President is not supposed to disagree with the President.' I think that's
wrong," said Frank.
Frank continued "I think as a Presidential candidate, he's fully entitled to give his
position" in suggesting that Gore separate himself further from his administration's
record on the issue, Frank went as far as to compare Gore's situation to that of
former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. "I know there's this sense that 'Oh well,
the Vice President is not supposed to disagree with the President.' I think that's
wrong," said Frank. "I think that Hubert Humphrey paid a price in 1968 because he
delayed making clear his differences with Lyndon Johnson over Vietnam."
The Vice President's public position on this policy is currently in line with Governor
Bush and Senator McCain. Now, that is out of whack.
It is painfully clear Tim Russert and the debates must ask both Gore and Bradley
about his position on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
RECCOMENDATION
The Vice President should align himself with the other democrats. He needs to be
honest and admit the policy has not been implemented as was intended.
If asked whether "President Gore" or the next administration would lift the ban on
gays in the military, as Mrs. Clinton, Bill Bradley and the President, all seem to
advocate, he can say:
"We learned three critical lessons about gays and military service in the past
seven years.
First, gays and lesbians always have served honorably and well in our armed
forces, and they will in the future. They have fought, bled and died to protect and
defend us. Let's never forget that and the debt we owe them and all veterans.
Second, we learned that changing the military policy takes a powerful consensus,
and cannot be achieved without education and willingness of our military leaders
and the American people.
Third, experience shows that the compromise we have in place does not work
fairly, either for the military or for service members.
As President, / will have the best minds together to work with our military to
reform the implementation of this policy, or abandon it altogether. What / know is
that the President cannot achieve it alone, and we will need a smart, bipartisan
strategy to put it right.
President Truman courageously acted to ban racial segregation among our
troops over a half-century ago, however, it has taken decades to live up
to that promise in the hearts and minds of the American people, too. /
believe we are up to the challenge today."
Today as Vice President, / vow to work very closely with the Department of
Defense to ensure that this policy is implemented in the manner it was fashioned.
The Administration and the leadership at the Pentagon must make it crystal clear
that anti-gay harassment has no place in the U.S. military. We will work to
implement this policy in a fair and just manner.
/ applaud Secretary Cohen's move to issue a full investigation by the Inspector
General, but that should not delay any training, guidelines and outreach to make
sure that the current policy is implemented fairly.
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I'm quite sympathetic with what she said. I think -- that
was the position that both of us brought to the White House. But I think -- there's one
thing that may be not clearly understood. The reason that I went for don't ask, don't tell
is that it's all I could do because I had a clear signal from the Congress that if I
implemented my policy, they would reverse it by overwhelming majorities.
I didn't implement don't ask, don't tell until the Senate voted 68-32 against the policy
that I wanted. So I think it's very important -- for me, what's important is that the policy,
as implemented, does not work as I announced it and as the leaders of our military at
that time in '93 pledged to implement it.
I can only hope this last brutal beating death of a gay soldier will give some sobering
impetus to a reexamination about how this policy is implemented and whether we can
do a better job of fulfilling its original intent.
Let me remind you that the original intent was that people would not be rooted out, that
they would not be questioned out, that this would be focused on people's conduct, and if
they didn't violate the code of conduct, and they didn't tell, that their comings and
goings, the mail they got, the associates they had, that those things would not be
sufficient to kick them out of the military, or certainly subject them to harassment.
So what 1 would like to do is to focus on trying to make the policy that we announced
back in '93 work the way it was intended to, because it's way -- it's out of whack now,
and I don't think any serious person can say it's not.
Q
How are you going to do that, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're working with the Pentagon now to do it. I mean, I think
there's a greater awareness now that it's just not -- it's not being implemented as it was
announced and as it was intended.
Now, as for -- but I don't have any problem with what she says, because that's -- after
all, that's what I said back in '93, and if anybody -- you know, if there's a sense in the
Congress or in the next White House that that ought to be done, then maybe together
they'll have enough votes to do it.
Clinton proposed "don't ask, don't tell" during his first year in
office. It took effect in February 1994. The Pentagon reported that 1,145
people were discharged from the armed forces last year for homosexuality, up
from 997 in 1997. The lowest number of such discharges was 617 in 1994.
Last August, the Pentagon updated "don't ask, don't tell" guidelines to
require all troops to undergo periodic training on tolerance and to assign
the task of investigating alleged homosexual activity to senior officials.
It continues to bar inquiries into sexual orientation while allowing
discharges for service members who engage in homosexual conduct or show a
"propensity" for it, such as stating that he or she is gay.
Last week, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton flatly said she doesn't
believe "don't ask, don't tell" has worked, and called for a policy under
which gays and lesbians could serve without discrimination or harassment.
"Fitness to serve in the military should be based on one's conduct, not one's
sexual orientation," she said.
"I don't have any problem with what she says," Clinton said Saturday.
He said his wife's statements reflected the position "that both of us brought
to the White House," but he decided on the current policy as a compromise
after it became clear to him that there were sufficient votes in Congress to
overrule him.
"So what I'd like to do is to focus on trying to make the policy we
announced back in '93 work the way it was intended to," Clinton said. "It's
out of whack now, and I don't think any serious person can say it's not."
Clinton said officials at the Pentagon and the White House were working
on smoothing out the problems with the policy. "I think there's a greater
awareness now it's not being implemented as it was announced and as it was
intended."
Earlier Saturday, Clinton said he was profoundly saddened by the case of
Army private Barry L. Winchell, 21, who was beaten to death by his barracks
roommate, 18-year-old private Calvin N. Glover, at Fort Campbell, Ky. He
said he looked at photographs of the killer and victim side-by-side in a
newspaper and thought, "They could be my children."
"I was aching for the young man who had died, and for the young man whose
life is now destroyed, who wasn't born hating that way. Somebody had to
teach him to do that," Clinton said
[another topic]
Gays in military could become U.S. election issue
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? While the U.S. military claims that its "don't
ask, don't tell" policy toward homosexuals in uniform is working, the 1994
rule has come under heavy fire and could emerge as an issue in next year's
presidential election.
The front-running candidates for the White House, Democrat AI Gore and
Republican George W. Bush, support the Pentagon policy under which gays and
lesbians are allowed to serve in the military if they do not openly discuss
their sexual orientation.
But civil rights groups are pushing hard for a change that would treat
homosexuals without any bias, charging that more gays are being dismissed
from the military now under the policy than before and that open harassment
of suspected gays is increasing.
Even President Bill Clinton, under whom the policy was introduced, said
the rule has not worked the way it was intended. His comments on Saturday
came two days after first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, running for the U.S.
Senate in New York, said she does not believe the rule is "ultimately the
policy that we should have in our military."
"I think one thing that's maybe not clearly understood is the reason that
I went for 'don't ask, don't tell' is that it was all I could do, because I
had a clear signal from Congress that if I implemented my policy, they would
reverse it by an overwhelming majority," the president told CBS radio.
"Let me remind you that the original intent was that people would not be
rooted out, that they would not be questioned out, that this would be focused
on people's conduct, and if they didn't violate the code of conduct that
those things would not be suspicion to keep them out of the military or
certainly subject to harassment," Clinton added.
The issue was put in the spotlight in the past week after a military jury
at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, convicted and sentenced an Army private to life
in prison for beating a gay infantryman to death with a baseball bat as the
victim slept.
Testimony in the trial of Army Pvt. Calvin Glover, 18, of Sulphur,
Oklahoma, suggested his victim, Pfc. Barry Winchell, 21, of Kansas City,
Missouri, was harassed by troops for months before his death and base
commanders did nothing to stifle intolerance. Jurors rejected Glover's
contention that he committed the crime on impulse while drunk.
POLICY CALLED A FAILURE
"The policy is a failure. Period," said C. Dixon Osburn of the
Washington-based gay rights activist group Servicemembers Legal Defence
Network. He said the rules were not benign and protective of gays as the
Pentagon claimed, but actually fostered "a policy of violence."
"No command should ever allow harassment to thrive against any service
member for any reason," Osburn said.
Pentagon figures show that 1,145 people were forced to leave the armed
services in 1998 under provisions of the Military Homosexual Conduct Policy,
as it formally is known, compared to 617 in 1994, when the policy started.
The policy allows gays to serve, but continues a ban on homosexual acts
and requires gays to keep their sexual orientation private. It also requires
the military not to ask servicemen about their sexual orientation.
The compromise was reached after Congress in 1993 officially relaxed the
military's 50-year ban on gays.
Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, mounting a tough challenge to Gore for the
Democratic presidential nomination, said gays should be allowed to serve
openly in uniform.
In Washington, Defence Department spokesman Ken Bacon stressed that
Defence Secretary William Cohen has spoken out repeatedly against intolerance
of any kind in the military.
"I don't think you can declare the policy a failure based on one gruesome
murder at one Army post," he said on Thursday.
Bacon noted that Fort Campbell's commanders have agreed to investigate
thoroughly other reports of harassment of gays as well as unsupervised and
unpunished drinking on the post.
INCREASING NUMBER OF GAY TROOPS OUSTED
Bacon conceded that increasing numbers of homosexuals were being removed
from the military, but said it was because they were violating the
department's rule by speaking out openly about their homosexuality and
leaving senior offers no alternative but to move legally against them.
While federal district judges in the past have ruled against the policy,
calling it discriminatory, higher courts have upheld the rule. They say the
military is a special case in which order and discipline are paramount.
Clinton promised to eliminate all restrictions on gays in the military
when he ran for office, but later faced opposition from senior military
officers who said gays openly serving in close quarters with other troops
would damage "good order and discipline" in the ranks.
The Pentagon since has performed a delicate balancing act to implement
the policy, upholding the right to remove gays for violating the rule while
pressing commanders not to search out homosexuals without strong evidence.
"In August, Secretary Cohen made it clear ? as he had shortly after he
took office ? that there is no room for a climate of harassment or
discrimination within the military based on sexual orientation. That's the
policy," Bacon said.
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (NOTES MAIL)
CREATOR: Patrick M. Dorton ( CN=Patrick M. Dorton/OU=OPD/O=EOP [OPD])
CREATION DATE/TIME:14-DEC-1999 09:03:35.00
SUBJECT: FYI -- guidance requests - for 11:15 am today. thanks
TO: Robert F. Wescott ( CN=Robert F. Wescott/OU=OPD/O=EOP@EOP OPD
READ:UNKNOWN
TEXT:
Forwarded by Patrick M. Dorton/OPD/EOP on 12/14/99
09:03 AM
Jason H. Schechter
12/14/99 09:00:46 AM
Record Type: Record
To: See the distribution list at the bottom of this message
cc: Jennifer M. Palmieri/WHO/EOP@EOP, Barry J. Toiv/WHO/EOP@EOP,
Richard L. Siewert/WHO/EOP@EOP
Subject: guidance requests - for 11:15 am today. thanks
DPC
scotus, school vouchers (wp, usa today) - does our voucher policy
distinguish between private and parochial schools?
OPL/NSC
don't ask, don't tell (all papers - )does potus agree with vpotus on
elimination of don't ask, don't tell?
NEC
reduction in imf, summers (wp) - do you have tps?
Counsel's
bush, mccain, campaign finance (nyt al) - is campaign finance still a
possibility in last year for potus?
Message Sent
To:
Anna Richter/OPD/EOP@EOP
Elizabeth J. Potter/WHO/EOP@EOP
David C. Leavy/NSC/EOP@EOP
Natalie S. Wozniak/NSC/EOP@EOP
Patrick M. Dorton/OPD/EOP@EOP
James E. Kennedy/WHO/EOP@EOP
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (NOTES MAIL)
CREATOR: Jason H. Schechter ( CN=Jason H. Schechter/OU=WHO/O=EOP [ WHO ])
CREATION DATE/TIME:14-DEC-1999 09:00:53.00
SUBJECT: guidance requests - for 11:15 am today. thanks
TO: James E. Kennedy ( CN=James E. Kennedy/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO 1)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Natalie S. Wozniak (CN=Natalie S. Wozniak/OU=NSC/O=EOP@EOP [ NSC
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Elizabeth J. Potter ( CN=Elizabeth J. Potter/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Patrick M. Dorton (CN=Patrick M. Dorton/OU=OPD/O=EOP@EOP [OPD])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: David C. Leavy (CN=David C. Leavy/OU=NSC/O=EOP@EOP INSC ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Anna Richter (CN=Anna Richter/OU=OPD/O=EOP@EOP TOPD )
READ:UNKNOWN
CC: Barry J. Toiv (CN=Barry J. Toiv/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOF [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
CC: Richard L. Siewert (CN=Richard L. Siewert/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO )
READ:UNKNOWN
CC: Jennifer M. Palmieri (CN=Jennifer M. Palmieri/OU=WHO/O=EOP@EOP [ WHO D
READ:UNKNOWN
TEXT:
DPC
scotus, school vouchers (wp, usa today) - does our voucher policy
distinguish between private and parochial schools?
OPL/NSC
don't ask, don't tell (all papers - )does potus agree with vpotus on
elimination of don't ask, don't tell?
NEC
reduction in imf, summers (wp) - do you have tps?
Counsel's
bush, mccain, campaign finance (nyt al) - is campaign finance still a
possibility in last year for potus?