By Jody Reese. Union Leader Correspondent. The Online Edition of New Hampshire's Daily Newspapers. May 9, 2000
SALEM — Even in his new position of authority as chairman of the politically important Environmental and Public Works Committee, Sen. Bob Smith hasn’t toned down his politics.
Yesterday at a town hall meeting in Salem High School, the New Hampshire Republican told about 30 supporters that 6-year-old Cuba refugee Elian Gonzalez is being "re-educated" at the Wye River plantation on the eastern shores of Maryland with the help of tranquilizers.
Smith also said Elian’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, had known about his son’s trip to the United States, and had asked the Miami relatives to take care of his son until he could come to the United States to live.
"The father didn’t want him back. He had planned on coming here," Smith said.
Smith afterward said he based this comment on information he received from Elian’s Miami relatives. He said Elian’s father "made no mention of having his boy come home" when Miami doctors contacted the family after the boy arrived here last November.
"Fidel Castro was the first one to ask to have the boy come back," Smith said.
Smith added that Juan Miguel Gonzalez’ father "called Miami to tell the relatives that they had left Cuba and ‘we’re heading to America.’ . . . That came from Juan Miguel’s own household . . . " Federal agents on April 22 stormed the Miami home of Elian’s
relatives, who have been caring for the boy, and returned him to his father.
Elian cannot leave the United States until a federal court decides on the appeal the boy’s Miami relatives filed of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s rejection of an asylum petition. Oral arguments are scheduled May 11.
Elian’s Miami relatives contend Elian will be returned to Cuba against his will. "Right now this little boy is in a concentration camp on American soil. It’s surrounded by Communists. He’s got his Communist playmates there so they can re-indoctrinate him. And he’s not
going to be with his father for long when he gets back to Cuba. He’s going to one of those Cuban schools where he learns to be a good little soldier of the revolution," Smith told the gathering in Salem.
"They’ve already found tranquilizer drugs with the doctors. I think you can reasonably assume that on May 11 the little kid is going to come say ‘I want to go back to Cuba.’"
Smith later said he based his comments on published news reports that a doctor was intercepted with tranquilizer drugs leaving the compound where Elian is staying.
"My feeling is that he is being re-educated so he will not want to stay in America. He will want to go back to Cuba," Smith explained.
Smith has been involved in Elian’s case since January, meeting with Elian’s Miami relatives Jan. 8 where he said the boy told him, "Please help me, Senator Smith."
After the boy was seized from his Miami relatives’ home April 22, he accompanied several of the relatives to Andrews Air Force Base where their request to meet with Elian’s father’s attorney was denied.
Smith has criticized the U.S. Justice Department’s seizure of the boy.
"I don’t have a problem with the boy being with his father. I lost my father when I was three and a half years old, and I still miss him," Smith said. "But the issues here is more political with [Fidel] Castro."
Smith says it comes down to a play by President Clinton to secure a place in history and Castro using Elian for political gain.
"So finally it got to the point where there was a deal struck between Clinton and Castro and when that deal was struck that was the end of it," Smith said.
"Now Castro owes Clinton, and Clinton wants to, I think, maintain some legacy here probably before the end of the year he’ll be in Havana or something trying to get diplomatic relations with Cuba."
So how did Castro keep Elian’s father from defecting to the United States?
"Castro kept him in control. And he has him in control now because he has another child in Cuba and his mother’s in Cuba. She’s under house arrest right now just to make sure he comes back. So the man’s stuck. He’s a decent guy, but he’s stuck. He’s got to go
back with the kid. Clinton played right into their hands," Smith claimed.
"There’s no justification for that raid," Smith said. "If Ronald Reagan had ordered that raid under those circumstance the impeachment proceedings would have begun by the Democrats," he said.
Smith also opposed federal policy on the census, calling it an "invasion of privacy."
"On that subject my view of a census is it should be who you are, where you live and that’s it," he said. "All this other stuff is total nonsense."
One out of four homes have been getting a long census form, which asks questions about income and other personal information.
Smith said he believed the information being collected for the census was being sold to advertisers, even though it’s illegal for the Census Bureau to share the information it collects.
"And they’re using your name, lists and who you are and that’s why you’re getting that mail that you’re getting.
Smith said he wasn’t telling anyone to break the law, which requires census information to be complete, but said the long forms weren’t constitutionally required.
Smith may not tone down his rhetoric, but he has to now work with the federal government as chairman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee. And he is.
Smith supports spending $5 billion over 36 years to save the Florida Everglades, and supports the $900 million Land and Conservation Fund. He also opposes drilling for oil in the Arctic National Park in Alaska.
"We need a balance," he said of protecting old-growth forests and logging other not so ecologically important lands.
He is also working with the federal government on I-93. He says he will make sure it’s on track for 2004, which is when it’s slated to be widened from the I-93 and I-293 interchange to the Massachusetts border.
"I’m going to be right on top of this," he said. To do that he is asking the different agencies, which will regulate the project, to meet him and each other so they can work more smoothly together.
"I’m trying to use this as a model," he said. Still, Smith said he doubts, even as chairman, he can have the start date moved up, as many in Salem, Windham, Londonderry, Derry and Manchester want. "I’ll just make sure it doesn’t slip (behind schedule)," he
said. |