Reading Elian

The camera doesn't lie. But it will confess to just about anything.

Charles Paul Freund from the July 2000 issue

(Page 2 of 4)

A number of weapons and security experts have taken public issue with Reno’s characterization of the raid imagery, and what it reveals about the handling of the gun. Among them is Stephen Hunter, a member of The Washington Post Style staff. Hunter is the author of a series of successful novels in which guns play a major role, and he is highly regarded for his technical expertise. ("Hunter must have been a gun in a former life" is a typical sample of the praise he has elicited from his gun-culture readers.) Here’s what he wrote in the Post about the safety issues raised by the image.

"What struck me most about the photograph isn’t the gun itself, but the way in which it’s held. It’s very close to being out of control. These are not one-handed weapons, and except for emergency circumstances, they are not even two-handed weapons. They recoil so persuasively they must be secured at three points: They must be moored against the shoulder or the center of the chest; the firing hand grips the pistol grip and controls the trigger; and, finally, the other hand must secure the muzzle via the foregrip or a front vertical grip. The officer doesn’t even have the weapon secured against his shoulder, as police are taught to do." Although the INS claims that the gun’s safety is on, Hunter states categorically, "It is also true from the photograph that the safety is off."

Hunter’s reading of the dangers of the raid was supported by a number of security experts. "I think that the risk here was very, very high,’’ Gary Stubblefield, a former Navy SEAL who is now a security consultant, told the Boston Herald on April 23. Tom Mann of Guardian International, a security firm, saw the raid the same way. "When the government is going to use that kind of force," he told the Herald, "usually it’s when someone’s life is in danger.’’ According to Stubblefield, "You only use these kind of tactics to get the bad guy and save the good guy and there was no saving necessary here. The risk was almost unconscionable.’’

"Aggressive, Physical Resistance"

In the wake of the raid and the dissemination of the disturbing images of force, INS officials attempted to change the public perception of the pictures by shifting the point of view from which they should be seen. According to these officials, there was indeed violence at the scene of the raid, but it came from Elian’s relatives and their supporters, not from the INS. Thus, though the images indicate that the gun-wielding Border Patrol commandos are in control of the situation and are terrifying the child, that is a misperception. Understood from the point of view of the commandos themselves, the images presumably reveal a group of dedicated public servants attempting to protect themselves from a level of resistance that they had never before faced.

Agents who invaded the Miami home filed post-action reports with their supervisors. These reports were described to the press a few days after the raid, and were reported in the Orlando Sentinel on April 26. According to those reports, the agents were "jostled, screamed at, and their orders disobeyed." As Maria Cardona of the INS characterized the gist of these reports to the press, "The agents met an aggressive, physical resistance." Indeed, one veteran INS agent reportedly told his supervisors, "I have never encountered this much resistance." Similarly, The Washington Post quoted James Goldman, who led the raid, as saying, "In 22 years in federal law enforcement, the intensity level, the effort to stop us, I’ve never seen anything like it before."

Requests by the press to examine these reports were denied, but the only incident of "aggressive, physical resistance" attributed by Cardona to those inside the target house was an attempt to block the front door with a couch. All the other aggressive resistance cited occurred in the street, and included some persons linking arms in a human chain to prevent or slow the agents’ entry. INS agent Betty Mills, who carried Elian Gonzalez to a waiting van, claimed to have been pushed into some bushes, but it is unclear from the video footage who–if anyone–pushed her; she may have been jostled accidentally by a fellow agent. Agents also claimed that allies of the Miami family threw objects at them, and in fact they can be seen doing so in the video footage as the INS agents are leaving the scene of the raid.

In attempting to portray the agents as the victims of unprecedented violent resistance, government officials were in effect "recasting" the drama implied by the photographs, and reassigning the motivation for the federal agents’ behavior. The government was thus taking a page from the Rodney King defense. In the first trial of the police officers involved, defense attorneys persuaded a Simi Valley, California, jury that it was the pummeled King who was motivating the appalling action, because he continued to move while being beaten with batons. Had he only lain still, these lawyers argued, the beating would have ended.

Jose Garcia Pedrosa, a lawyer for the Miami family, rejects the INS version of motivation. "Any violence that occurred at the house," he told the Orlando Sentinel, "was brought there by Janet Reno."

"Reno Allowed Photos"

On April 25, The Washington Post carried a remarkable story headlined "Reno Allowed Photos During Elian Siege." According to this account, which was attributed only to "sources," Reno "personally decided not to prevent photographers from taking pictures" of the raid. Reno, said these sources, was "seeking to avoid allegations of a government coverup" of the kind that has haunted her since the Branch Davidian siege ended in more than 80 deaths by burning seven years before. Indeed, she foresaw that Alan Diaz himself would be present inside the house and taking photographs, said the sources, but liberally decided not to have him ejected. Her reported openness was also motivated by the fact that both her parents were journalists, according to the account.

Thus, while the content of the Diaz photographs may be unattractive, the very existence of the pictures is a supposed tribute to the government’s policy of honesty, and to Reno’s commitment to democracy, the First Amendment, and freedom of the press.

"It was a gutsy decision," Carl Stern told the Post. Stern is a former reporter who was also a Reno spokesman early in the administration. Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute saw things differently. According to him, removing the AP photographer when he was already in the house "would have been even greater police-state measures."

Attempting to limit the impact of damaging images by taking credit for those images is unusual, and may in fact be unprecedented. If the military had thought of this stratagem during the Vietnam War, for example, it could have tried to mitigate the damage of all that embarrassing footage of soldiers setting fire to villages by claiming that such images represented the very freedom that the military was fighting for. Certainly the most striking element of the story is its implication that Reno deserves extra credit for "allowing" the news media to do their job.

In fact, the Post account was one of several narratives that encouraged the public to see the pictures from Reno’s pained and empathetic point of view. In The Miami Herald, for instance, the attorney general is quoted as asking herself, "How would [Elian] feel, suddenly being put in the arms of a stranger? What would he think? How frightened would he be? And I kept thinking, I wish I could see him when his daddy gets on the plane." In an extraordinary bit of sharing, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder informed the press that after Reno had ordered the raid to begin, "She put her head on my shoulder and wept."