Word: elian
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...turned," said a participant, who listened as Reno began to lay out for the President the reasons for an immediate rescue: Juan Miguel had promised to stay in the country through the appeals; the court order made that promise stick, so the relatives had no reason to worry about Elian suddenly disappearing; and, most of all, Elian needed to be with his father, and away from Little Havana's media circus. Normally dry as talc, Reno at one point waxed nostalgic about the Miami of her childhood. She said she wanted to make a move soon. "Her feeling...
Clinton had come to the same conclusion the night before, aides said, but was pleased that Reno got there on her own. "Janet," he said, "I think you're right." And a few hours later in the Rose Garden, he began to prepare the nation. "I think [Elian] should be reunited," Clinton said, "and in as prompt and as orderly a way as possible...
...group, led by University of Miami president Tad Foote, proposed a cooling-off period: both sides of the family would repair to a neutral retreat until the appeals process concluded, where Elian would be allowed to make a gentle transition from his new home to his old. The idea made some sense to Reno, but she had two conditions: first, Elian had to be put immediately into his father's custody, and a deal had to be inked fast. Reno told the go-betweens that if they couldn't work out the details overnight, there would be no deal...
Just before 5 p.m., Reno was sufficiently encouraged to brief Clinton on the deal. By midnight the feds had put a nine-point plan on the table: Lazaro and his family would hand over Elian to the government at 3:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Miami; the family would be put up at a hotel under guard and driven the next day to Washington. (The relatives claimed they didn't want Elian to fly. Justice officials assumed someone else in the family had a fear of flying, but agreed to chauffeur them to Washington anyway.) Once in Washington...
...began to grow, and Miami police worked to maintain some order while allowing angry residents to express their fury at the sudden turn. Some vented their anger on police, after they heard that an assistant police chief was sitting in the passenger seat of the INS van that took Elian away. In the minutes after the raid, Mayor Joe Carollo had made it plain that he had no advance warning whatever. Late in the afternoon he gave a press conference and denounced the government's actions. "What they did was a crime," he said. "These are atheists. They...