By Tom Raum
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday , April 25, 2000

WASHINGTON –– Attorney General Janet Reno, voicing "no regrets whatsoever" for the raid that helped return Elian
Gonzalez to his Cuban father, is facing tough questioning today from skeptical Republican lawmakers.

The attorney general was to meet on Capitol Hill with a bipartisan group of 11 senators selected by Majority Leader Trent
Lott, R-Miss. The session came as preliminary inquiries into Saturday's pre-dawn raid have started in both the House and the
Senate.

Republicans, and a handful of Democrats aligned with those seeking to block Elian's return to Cuba, stepped up their criticism
for what they see as the Justice Department's strong-arm tactics.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., decried "the grotesque image" of the seizure at
gunpoint. And Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, called Reno's decision
"reckless."

The administration in turn accused Republicans of playing politics, with White House spokesman Joe Lockhart denouncing
"wild statements" by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and others.

"The top Republican leadership with one voice and very loudly condemned the operation and now they are saying, 'Let's find
out about it,'" Lockhart said today on ABC's "Good Morning America." "That's backwards. I think most average Americans
outside the Beltway will understand normal people get information first and then make a judgment."

Interviewed on NBC's "Today," Lockhart said that despite an assertion by Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., President Clinton had
not promised that the boy would not be seized from the Miami relatives.

Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., who has bitterly criticized the operation asked on CBS' "The Early Show": "How can anyone justify
using a gun to rip this boy away from his Miami family?"

Reno on Monday defended her actions anew in several television interviews.

"It was time he was returned to his daddy," Reno said of the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor. Interviewed on PBS's "News
Hour with Jim Lehrer," Reno said she struggled with different options before giving the go-ahead for the seizure – including
"going up there myself" to claim the boy.

But she said it was clear that the crowds outside the house "were going to intervene in any attempt to extract Elian from the
house."

In the end, she said, she believed she had no realistic choice but to proceed with the armed seizure. "What you saw was a law
enforcement operation that went the right way," she said.

If necessary, Reno said, she would enforce the federal order that the boy not be removed from the United States until a federal
court rules on the issue of whether he can be granted political asylum over the objections of his father.

Elian was removed Saturday from his great-uncle's home in Miami, where he has been staying since his rescue from the Atlantic
last November.

He is in seclusion with his father at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Florida family members, rebuffed twice in weekend attempts
to see the boy, waited until late afternoon Monday to try again. Again they were not allowed on the base.

Lott invited 10 other senators to today's meeting. Most of them have been critical of the administration's handling of the case.
However, two on the list – Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. – have previously
been supportive of the administration.

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., announced his panel's staff would begin "a
preliminary inquiry" into the tactics used to seize the boy. "The inquiry will focus on whether the use of such force was
necessary or appropriate under all of the circumstances," Hyde said.

Hyde said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., asked for the investigation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, meanwhile, asked Reno in a letter to provide his panel
with "all documents" related to the raid. "There is a lot of emotion on both sides of the issue" and he wants his committee and
the American people to "have all the facts," Hatch wrote.

Also on Monday, the Justice Department released previously sealed court papers saying U.S. immigration officials had
probable cause to believe that the boy was "being unlawfully restrained" at the Gonzalez family residence in Miami.

The affidavit – supporting the request for a search warrant – asks permission from a federal magistrate to execute the search
warrant at night "in order to meet the least amount of resistance from any crowd gathered outside the home, ensure the safety of
Elian Gonzalez and protect the officers executing the warrant."

The Justice Department also told a federal appeals court that U.S. officials have properly weighed the wishes of the 6-year-old
boy's father against the asylum request from family relatives in Miami.

The immigration commissioner has to respect the father's right to speak for his son, "unless there is an objective basis for asylum
indicating a divergence of interests between father and son."

                                    © 2000 The Associated Press