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NewsMax.com.
Wednesday, April 10, 2002.
Clinton administration Immigration and Naturalization Service chief Doris
Meissner gave an order to destroy evidence related to the Elian Gonzalez case, a
former INS attorney is now alleging.
In documents obtained by the public interest law firm Judicial Watch, INS
attorney Rebecca Sanchez-Roig contends that the former top Clinton official
directed her and other INS lawyers to delete an e-mail summarizing a December
1999 conference call where concerns were discussed about whether Elian's father,
Juan Miguel Gonzalez, was being coerced by Fidel Castro's government in his
efforts to return the boy to Cuban soil.
The e-mail Meissner allegedly ordered destroyed noted that she and other
participants in the conference call discussed "whether it's wise to
establish whether the father was speaking freely when interviewed as opposed to
being 'a mouthpiece of government authority.'"
The message also noted that Cuban government operatives had set up a speaker
phone in Mr. Gonzalez's home in order to monitor and coach him during important
telephone conversations.
The e-mail also suggests that INS officials wanted to "re-script"
questions for a follow-up interview with Mr. Gonzalez so as to avoid pressing
him on whether he was speaking freely or not.
"Furthermore, it was stated [during the Meissner conference call] that
the Cuban government would be advised that the U.S. government would not
disclose to anyone that an additional interview would take place," the
e-mail said.
In a handwritten note she made on her printed copy of the e-mail, INS lawyer
Sanchez-Roig says Meissner was very upset that the e-mail summary of the
conference call had been copied and disseminated to participants - and that she
wanted all electronic copies destroyed.
The full text of Sanchez-Roig's signed note reads as follows:
"On 30 Dec. 1999, I was ordered by Doris Meissner, Commissioner through
COC: David Diken - Rachel McCarthy to destroy this cc-mail message and all
copies. The Commissioner was very upset about having this information
disseminated.
"I indicated to R. McCarthy, after speaking with Dan, that I had been
ordered by my boss to write message and forward to her and Jack. Dan and I
discussed [illegible] R. McCarthy voicing concerns about destroying cc mail
message - sort of cover-up.
"Notwithstanding, I deleted message from my computer, and also from
Dan's and Bill's. My concerns about destroying message were such that I felt it
necessary to keep a copy of same.
"I believed I was being asked to do something improper and I voiced
those concerns to Dan and Rachel. Dan also questioned why destruction of
message, but the orders came from Meissner and we were obligated to delete.
"Dan and Rachel also kept copies of message. Tel. conf. held on 12/20
was not confidential in service. State was present during T.C.
"After this incident, we were ordered not to put anything regarding
Elian Gonzalez in writing. Ordered by Meissner through David Dixon."
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told NewsMax.com Wednesday that the
Sanchez-Roig note warranted legal action by the Bush Justice Department.
Drawing a parallel between DOJ's blanket indictment of an accounting firm
over similar allegations of evidence destruction in Enrongate, Fitton said, "Will
Doris Meissner now go the way of Arthur Andersen?"
The Sanchez-Roig note emerged as part of a lawsuit filed by INS agent Rick
Ramirez, who contends that the agency had an anti-Hispanic bias against the
Gonzalez family and had obstructed justice.
The INS had turned over to Judicial Watch the Sanchez-Roig teleconference
e-mail two years ago - but without her note citing Meissner's order to destroy
it. | 
