If you can read between the lies in this article, this is what happened.. People keep talking about how this will traumatize Elian. I think this will be nothing compared to what he will face in Cuba. This incident will be a fond memory..

ABCNEWS.com : Feds Take Elian from Miami Home

Armed Agents Storm Miami Home;
Boy on His Way to Father

Elian Gonzalez is held in a closet by fisherman Donato Dalrymple
as government officials search the home of great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez for
the young boy early Saturday morning in Miami. (Alan Diaz/AP Photo)

April 22 — Federal agents seized Elian Gonzalez from the home of his
Miami relatives before dawn today, firing pepper spray into an angry crowd as
they left for Washington with the crying and screaming 6-year-old boy.
ABCNEWS coverage of the Elian decision. RealVideo
(download RealPlayer)
More than 20 agents in several white vans arrived at the home
shortly after 5 a.m. and used rams on the home’s chain-link fence and on the
front door. The camouflage-clad agents took the frightened child out of the
arms of one of the fishermen who rescued him on Thanksgiving Day.
A short time later, a woman and man brought Elian out of the home
and put him in one of the vans, which sped off.
“If we had been armed, this would not have happened. I have lost
faith in the government,” Elian’s great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez said.
At 7 a.m., Elian’s father Juan Miguel Gonzalez left his current
residence in Bethesda, Md., presumably to be reunited with his son.
The crowd in Little Havana has now swelled to about 500. Several
tried to rip apart and burn an American flag. No serious injuries were
immediately reported.
Screaming Child
“I heard Elian scream. I grabbed him, I didn’t know what to do so I
grabbed him and ran to the bathroom. They were holding the family with guns,”
fisherman Donato Dalrymple said.
Elian was taken from the house wrapped in a blanket by a female
INS agent.
“I am not here to hurt you. I know that you are frightened. I am
here to take you to your papa,” the female INS agent taking Elian away said
to the child in Spanish, according to an INS spokesman.
Maria Elena Quesada, who was at the home, said Elian was screaming
“Help me, help me, don’t take me away” in Spanish.
“They broke the rear window and put a gun to Elian’s head,”
Elian’s cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez said.
By 6 a.m., Elian was on a government plane headed for an airport
near Washington and a reunion with his father, a government official said,
requesting anonymity. His father was told about the raid as soon as Elian was
safe and will meet him at the airport, the official said.
INS agents were explaining carefully what is happening to him, the
official said. Elian was described as subdued and calm on the plane.
He has been given a play kit including toys, Play-Doh, an
airplane, a map and a watch, the official said.

‘The World is Watching’
It was a swift and violent step in the international custody dispute
over the little boy rescued off the Florida coast nearly five months ago. His
Miami relatives have sought to retain the temporary custody they were granted
in November, while the U.S. government has sought to reunite the boy with his
Cuban father.
“Assassins,” yelled some of the approximately 100 protesters,
some of whom climbed over the barricades in an attempt to stop the agents.
The agents, wearing Immigration and Naturalization Service shirts, were armed
with automatic weapons.
“The world is watching!” yelled Delfin Gonzalez, the brother of
the little boy’s caretaker and great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez.
Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the anti-Castro Democracy Movement,
was bleeding from one ear after the raid. He said he was knocked out by an
agent using a rifle as a club.
“They were animals,” said Jess Garcia, a bystander. “They gassed
women and children to take a defenseless child out of here. We were assaulted
with no provocation.”
Elian’s cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez addressed the crowd through a
bullhorn. Her voice cracking with emotion, she vowed that Reno and Clinton
would be held responsible for any negative consequences to come from the
seizure.

Negotiations Broke Down
Kendall Coffey, an attorney for the Miami relatives, said “we were in
the middle of negotiations when they battered the door.”
“We’re angry and disgusted,” he said. “We were in communication
with the mediator handling negotiations and discussion with the government
when they knocked the door down.”
There was talk of trying to bring the families together in a
neutral area as late as 2:30 a.m. today.
In a telephone call with White House Chief of Staff John Podesta
at 2:45 a.m., Clinton said he would support action to remove the boy if the
negotiations over his release did not appear likely to succeed, White House
spokesman Joe Lockhart said.
Just before 5 a.m. this morning, President Clinton was told that
Attorney General Janet Reno believed that the negotiations weren’t going
anywhere, ABCNEWS Washington correspondent Andrea McCarran said. The agents
then raided the house.
Carlos Gonzalez said he and several others tried to form a human
chain in front of the door but were forced back at gunpoint.
Inside, fisherman Donato Dalrymple held Elian in his arms as the
agents arrived. He said agents told him “give me the boy or I’ll shoot you.”
“They took this kid like a hostage in the nighttime,” he said.
The settlement was first proposed by civic leaders in Miami
serving as intermediaries. Proposals and counterproposals flew through the
night by telephone and facsimile machine between the Miami house, the Justice
Department and the Washington office of the father’s lawyer.

Irreconcilable Differences
The government and the boy’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, insisted
that any deal contain an immediate transfer of custody of Elian to him, but
the Miami relatives have defied Reno’s order switching custody.
The relatives have cared for him since he was found clinging to an
inner tube in the Atlantic after a boat carrying his mother and other Cubans
capsized, killing her and 10 others. They and the hundreds of Cubans who
gathered for days outside their home do not want the boy returned to a Cuba
ruled by Fidel Castro.
The deal under discussion called for Juan Miguel Gonzalez and
Elian, Lazaro and his daughter, Marisleysis, to move to one of two
foundation-owned conference centers near Washington—either Wye Plantation, a
center on Maryland’s Eastern shore that has been used for Mideast peace
conferences, or Airlie House near Warrenton, Va., according to a government
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The plan called for formal custody to transfer immediately from
the Miami relatives to the boy’s Cuban father, the official said.

Staying in U.S.
Elian is unlikely to go back to Cuba anytime soon. “Elian and his
father are likely to be reunited in a few hours, but they are likely to stay
in the U.S. for many weeks or longer, until it is resolved,” said Jeffrey
Toobin, a legal analyst for ABCNEWS. “They’re going to have to settle in the
United States for several months.”
Toobin said he did not think the Miami relatives had any legal
right to even visit the boy. “I don’t think they do. I don’t think they have
any legal right at all,” he said.
The INS had sent a letter to the family April 15 to reiterate that
they no longer had legal right to keep Elian. “The Justice Department had the
legal right to do what they did this morning,” Toobin said. “They had the
legal right to take Elian away.”

ABC’s Linda Douglass, ABCNEWS.com’s Maria Durand, Amy Collins, The
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Should Children Be Heard?
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the Elian
Gonzalez case Wednesday appeared to endorse a principle human rights lawyers
have been fighting for for years.
“Everyone — including children — has the right to seek
asylum, and once they ask for protection, has a hearing on the merits under a
fair procedure,” says Elisa Massimino of the Lawyers Committee for Human
Rights.
Elian Gonzalez did not have an asylum hearing. Attorney
General Janet Reno determined he was too young to apply for asylum on his
own, against his father’s wishes.
But the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights submitted a brief
in the case arguing the Justice Department was dangerously wrong.
“What we’re looking for in this case and in any case that
involves a child is a fair process that accounts for the fact that there may
be times when a child’s interest and right conflicts with those of the
parents.”
For example, a parent who wants to take a young girl home to
a country where she faces ritual genital mutilation, or a boy to a land where
he may be forced into military service or return to a place where they can
pledge their children into bonded labor as payment for debts.
The Justice Department says it already has policies to deal
with these issues.
But human rights advocates say that ad-hoc process is not
good enough. And the appeals court made clear it is willing to consider that
argument, not just for Elian Gonzalez, but for so many other children as well.
— ABCNEWS’ Terry Moran, Miami

The gestapo tactics of the Clinton communist puppet government (the worst anti-democtatic) and most corrupt in the history of the USA under the minister of disinformation often called the attorney general (Reno) are not a surprise for this so called justice department. Political expediency to over ride the appeals courts process. The old soviet union had their KGB black cars with covered windows which would arrive and sweep people away never to be seen again. Allow the courts to decide what is in the best interests of the child, not arbitrary government interference. This action, at this time is wrong and not justifiable in law.

I think the real mistake was to hand the kid over to his american relatives in the first place. There is no question who should get custody between an uncle and a father. If the surviving parent had been a Mom there would have never been any question, but fathers don't have equal parental rights like they do in other countries. It's unfortunate that the father lives in Cuba, but at the rate Americas sliding, it'll be a communist country before Elian's 18th birthday anyway.

Kohain, The liberals WANT Elian with his dad and back to Cuba. The father very well might have threats being made at him by Castro. This has nothing to do with parental rights as far as Clinton and Reno are concerned. Have you ever known either to back up the parents in any other situation?? No. In this case, it is purely political. Once Elian goes back to Cuba, he wont be with his dad. He will be "re-educated" to brainwash him. Clinton is purely evil and he will have to answer to God for these things.

Clinton and Reno aren't known for making sound decisions. I would say that in most cases, it would be best if the boy were returned to his father, however, we are talking about a repressive communist regime here.

This is a really hard call, but considering the backing for his return to Cuba, I would have to say I would feel uncomfortable siding with Clinton or Reno, who are both dedicated to the communist cause... I have to agree with Doreen on this one. The devil doesn't send people to nice happy places, he sends them to fiery unhappy ones.

The Sharpened Pen

Dear Sharpened Pen,

I dont agree that Clinton and Reno are advocating the cause of communist ideology. Infact Clinton is
totally against the communist ideology just as you are. Please dont make us fool again and again. Clinton has exploited much in favour of multinational companies and ofcourse IFO and World Bank too.
Regards.

The difficulty you have in coming to grips with what communism is is as follows: You believe in the utopia concept, where everyone shares with one another and works together in harmony. That, in my mind, is not communism. This has, and never will come about. So essentially, socialism IS communism and that's what the democrats are all about.

Communism is big government period. It is the kind of government that interferes with every aspect of a person's life. That type of government is very much in line with what Clinton and Reno have been saying and doing. They are in truth "communists".

Leaders like Stalin and others also held to the view that government had to become bigger and take such actions as regulating and controlling industry, monitoring people's private lives, confiscating firearms and other property in order to bring about your utopia. The difficulty is, is that once they had achieved their dreams of power, leaders like Stalin decided they did not wish to relinquish that power to the people.

And so, in communist nations around the world, leaders sip the finest wines, are driven in plush cars to their destinations and partake of all the splendors of the capitalists you hate so much.

So yes Clinton is a communist. He is also a capitalist so long as it suits him. Neither capitalism nor communism really speak to the kind of change you are looking for. Capitalism is not a social model but deals only with free enterprise. Communism deals with both social and economic issues, but puts forth that an elite knows better than the whole, what is best.

What we need is not more government as the communists suggest. What we need is not more forced monopolies as some capitalists suggest. What we need is a society where everyone is given an equal opportunity to make their voice heard outside of the influence of either overbearing government, or businesses like levi's strauss which seek to force their agenda on the people.

The reason that Clinton and his allies support big corporations and the IMF etc., is the same reason that communists do. They seek to centralize power.

Communists (i'm talking about your leadership here) are working hard to bring everyone down to a certain level and yet they end up living in palaces in comparison. Some large companies are now beginning to work towards the same agenda - bringing wages down and their own profits up. As well, many lobby to inact laws which restrict competition.

The reasoning for both is the same - greed. Their power is meaningless if everyone has equal access to it so they keep it all to themselves. Communism will never work. I have my doubts as to whether it was ever intended to.

They sell the people a lie and live off them for the rest of their lives. That is reality my friend.

The Sharpened Pen

If one believes that Human Nature has (and will always) tend to abuse power (if given the opportunity), then one is naturally repelled by Communism.

The Founding Fathers of America had a healthy skepticism of Human Nature (shared by modern conservatives), which is why they setup such "rigid" checks and balances.

Not surprisingly, many modern liberals find these checks and balances to be obstacles to their utopian vision (which is why they are on the Left of the political spectrum along with Communism).

The U.S. Constitution must be circumvented in any way possible. Hence, the creation of the following notions:

* A living, breathing Constitution
* Judicial activism
* Executive Orders
* Legislation by Litigation (newest scheme)

If one does not believe in an innate Human Nature (or in Christian-speak, our sinful nature), then one imagines that Human Beings can be shaped in any fashion necessary. If we are born as empty vessels, then we can be individually constructed to create a utopian world.

Communists believe that institutions serve to construct the individual ... to create the "perfect" society. On the other hand, Conservatives believe that institutions exist to deal with individuals as they are.

Of course, experimentation with Communism throughout the 20th century has confirmed the Conservative position. When institutions have been erected to create Socialist Man, the end result has been frustration and failure.

The fact is, Socialist Man cannot be created because man is not a blank slate to be molded. He is what he is. This reality was discovered the hard way when Human Nature prevailed among the Power Elite in Communist systems -- i.e. they abused the power they were given, notwithstanding their "good intentions."

I compare the Communist with a man wearing wings who insists that he can fly. He can believe it all he wants. And he may genuinely believe he can fly. But he cannot defy the Laws of Physics. Likewise, Communists cannot defy the Laws of Human Nature.

If institutions do not deal with Human Nature as it is, they will be destined to frustration and failure. The best case scenario is that the institutions collapse upon themselves. The worst case scenario is that the administrators of the institutions respond to failure by trying to force people into being molded. Of course, this too has failed. And it always will.

Some final observations. Why do Communist systems leech off of existing system? Because you can't very well distribute wealth if you don't have wealth to begin with. And wealth cannot be created in Communist countries because Human Beings will not produce wealth without incentives. In free markets, that incentive is being rewarded for your efforts in the form of profit. But profit is measured by how others value your production. If you produced something people don't want, you won't be rewarded. Simple as that.

Human Action
by Ludwig von Mises

Man, Economy and State
by Murray Rothbard

Socialism
by Ludwig von Mises

The Road to Serfdom
by F.A. Hayek

The Fatal Conceit
by F.A. Hayek

This article is an excellent illistration of the perfect world and why it wont exist until Jeesus comes back,the ideas of conservatives vs communistic ideas and why we are going to hell in a handbasket !! Can I send this to people?? Doreen