Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : About that Cuban boy, Elian -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yogizuna who wrote (4004)	5/2/2000 8:13:00 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9127

Hi Yogi--- It sounds as if Podhurst was screwed by his own appetite-- he should have skipped dinner-- or scrambled up an omelet. From the Miami Herald- The last-minute negotiations suffered a setback when the chief Miami mediator says he stepped out of his house for a quick dinner -- just as Reno faxed firm settlement terms at 10:48 p.m. Friday. The fax sat in the exercise room of mediator Aaron Podhurst's home until 2:59 a.m. Saturday, when Reno sent her final offer, leaving the Miami side not fully aware of significant new terms until the last minute. Prominent civic leaders, trying to avert a damaging raid but wanting to give the Miami family a face-saving compromise, crafted a ''six-point term'' paper that never conceded custody of Elian to his father or his Miami family. When the carefully worded document -- penned by the family's lawyers and vetted by prominent exile leaders -- arrived at the Department of Justice, lawyers involved in three months of negotiations recognized it as a step back from earlier deals. ''What the hell is this?'' one Justice source said, describing the reaction to the family's offer. ''This is obviously lawyerly language. We said, What is going on here?'' Negotiators for Elian's Miami relatives say Reno waited far too long to let them know just how much she disliked their offer, leaving them with false hope. On the eve of the raid, Reno warned the Miami side that only a hand-over of Elian would resolve the impasse. But Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle and caretaker, went to bed that night without committing to give Elian back to his father during a ''family reunification.'' Two days before, he had promised an exile group he would never hand the boy over. By Friday, Reno was firmly resolved that the only way to get Elian was by a forced raid. Miami civic leaders faxed their terms at 4:52 p.m. At 7:20 p.m., the Department of Justice obtained a warrant to raid the Gonzalez home. Once Reno decided to use force, she moved swiftly April 22. She launched the raid 10 hours after securing the warrant, though the document gave her nine more days to act. Under pressure from the White House to resolve the standoff, she had the child removed shortly after talking to the president's chief of staff that morning. Representatives for Elian's great-uncles and cousin believed Reno would never come into the heart of the exile community to remove the boy while negotiations were afoot. They badly underestimated her level of frustration over the impasse and Lazaro's refusal to hand custody to the father. As federal agents sat poised to storm the house, the family lawyers asked to call it a night on negotiations. The last-minute negotiations were fraught with miscommunications. Reno was the only person speaking to Miami mediator Podhurst and Gregory Craig, lawyer for Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. Neither side saw each other's faxed proposals in the hours before the raid -- only versions offered by Reno. Podhurst relayed information from Miami Lakes to the family lawyers in Little Havana. All agree this contributed to a failed deal. Eight days later, some in Miami look back and see the prescription that had been written. ''We were headed for a showdown,'' said Armando Codina, a prominent Miami businessman who pushed to patch together a last-minute deal. ''Then you look at the proposals. They said they were close. They were not even close.'' ''We put all our money behind a horse that could not win,'' said Pedro Freyre, an attorney and advisor to the civic leaders. ''There was no legal way we could win.''