(Miami, Fl.) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, expressed outrage at the Bush administration’s latest attempt to dismiss a lawsuit on behalf of 95 peaceful protesters who were gassed and beaten by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents during the April 22, 2000, raid to seize Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez.

In a 19-page summary judgment motion filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Bush administration Justice Department attorneys compare Elian supporters, many of them older women who were praying the Rosary that night (it was Good Friday), to members of the radical and armed Branch Davidian cult.

In 1993 then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered federal agents to raid the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, and at least 80 people died, many of them children.  Yet even former President Bill Clinton publicly admitted that he regretted the raid on the compound, telling federal investigators: “I made a terrible mistake.  I gave in to the people of the Justice Department who were pleading to go in early …”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said: “It is ironic that President Bush has recently visited South Florida several times in an effort to court the Cuban-American vote, yet his Justice Department compares these Cuban-Americans to an infamous cult,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “This is downright offensive to all Cuban-Americans.  Why does President Bush’s Justice Department continue with the policy of defending that terrible raid by the Clinton Administration?”