The Elian Aftermath

By Stephen M. Silverman

Monday September 28, 1998 12:00 AM EDT

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On this morning's "Today" show, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno defended the Saturday pre-dawn raid by armed U.S. immigration agents to remove Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives and return him to his father. Saying that she is "satisfied with the results," Reno said she "had no regrets" about using force to claim the 6-year-old. "We worked so hard to make sure this was done in a peaceful and voluntary way," Reno said of attempts to deal with Elian's relatives, who kept moving the goalpost in the negotiations. "What we did, we had to do," said Reno. "Now we need to move forward." Reno said that Elian and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, now need "quiet time together" and that politicians, protesters and even the attorney general herself "should get out of their lives."

• Father and son are now together at Andrews Air Force base, near Washington, D.C. Photos that were taken of the two of them show a beaming Elian. On Sunday, however, a weeping Marisleysis Gonzalez, 21, Elian's Miami cousin, told a news conference that the photos were faked, a charge that Juan Miguel's attorney, Gregory B. Craig, labeled "absurd."