BY HAND

BY HAND

April 23, 2001

The Honorable John Ashcroft

Attorney General

United States Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Room 5133

Washington, D.C. 20530

Re: Illegal Raid on Little Havana Neighborhood By Clinton-Gore

Department of Justice -- Dalrymple et. al v. Janet Reno et. al

(Civil Action No. 00-01773) (Southern District of Florida).

Dear Mr. Ashcroft:

Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, represents Donato Dalrymple, the “fisherman” who rescued Elian Gonzalez on Thanksgiving day, 2000, and about 50 residents of Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood who were gassed and beaten by agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service on April 22, 2000 (Easter weekend), when Elian was forcibly taken from the home of his relatives and sent back to the Communist dictatorship in Cuba. This was a day truly unprecedented in American history, a day that will live in infamy as a national disgrace. The conduct of your predecessor in the Clinton-Gore Justice Department was an affront to the courage of all Americans who fled Communist regimes to seek the liberty which our Founding Fathers gave their lives to create and preserve.

The incident provoked outrage not only in the Miami Cuban-American community, but nationwide. As a result, most political analysts attribute the election victory of George W. Bush in Florida -- the state which was pivotal to his becoming the 44^th President of the United States -- to the huge voter support which he garnered from the Miami Cuban-American community which, while spitting its vote in the 1992 and 1996 elections between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, broke over 90 percent in favor of Mr. Bush in 2000. Had its not been for this support, you would not be Attorney General of the United States. Instead, former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, one the Justice Department officials who, along with former Attorney General Janet Reno, planned, ordered, implemented, and participated in the illegal and outrageous raid, would likely be the current Attorney General under a Gore-Lieberman Administration. Not coincidentally, Mr. Holder is also deeply implicated in other Clinton-Gore scandals as well, including “Pardongate” and “Chinagate.” He, Janet Reno, and former INS Commissioner Doris Meissner are defendants in the above-styled civil rights lawsuit filed by our clients for having planned, ordered, implemented and participated in the illegal raid.

Judicial Watch is non-partisan and does not suggest that the action which we seek should turn on how the illegal raid of Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood effected and will effect the Bush Administration’s political fortunes; however, our clients feel differently. Indeed, it was reported just yesterday that, based on new census figures, if voting patterns continue, Hispanics will overwhelming break in favor of the Democratic Party in 2004, giving it a margin of victory of over 3.5 million votes in the next presidential election. Our clients thus feel that it is in the interests of the new Bush Administration to seriously listen to their legal arguments, particularly since new evidence has arisen which shows that the illegal raid, which lead to the gassing and beating of innocent peaceful Hispanic protesters who, at the time of the illegal raid, were simply praying in their front yards for Elian’s right to remain free, was the direct result of insidious racial prejudice against them.

In this regard, I am enclosing a recently published article, which appeared in Miami’s “New Times,” in the April 19-25 issue. In this article, for the first time Special Agent Rick Ramirez comes forward to reveal a culture of racial prejudice among and by the INS agents who perpetrated the civil rights violations against the Miami Cuban-American community in Little Havana. Mr. Ramirez, whose life and the lives of his family members have been threatened for telling the truth, is of Mexican-American heritage. Because of prejudice against Hispanics, he tells how he and other Spanish speaking agents were isolated from the planning sessions of the illegal raid, and only brought into the execution at the last moment -- causing them additional risk for lack of preparation.

Far worse, during and after the planning and execution of the illegal raid, he witnessed racially motivated conduct which reveals that the intent and motivation for the illegal raid had as much to do with prejudice, as a desire by those in the left-leaning Clinton-Gore Administration to, at all costs, return Elian to their “comrades” in Cuba.

Specifically, Ramirez in an interview given to Miami’s New Times and appearing in the April 19-25, 2001 issue, reveals that former District Director Robert Wallis, who has received a promotion and is now in the Dallas field office, stated after the raid that it was the “proudest moment of his life when one of his supervisors pointed a shotgun at the head of Mario Miranda,” the Gonzalez’s family security person. Miguel Domingo, Supervising Special Agent in the Fraud Unit, sent an e-mail referring to Elian as a “little creep.” Another non-Hispanic agent on the Elian team stated, “Who is going to be the first one up in a tree to shoot Elian?,” and former Assistant District Director (and now Acting District Director) John Bulger mocked the attack on Elian and Donato Dalrymple by opening a closet during a meeting with INS agents and stated, “And now a special guest.” He then went over to the closet and opened the door saying, “Come out, Mr. Dalrymple.” Mr. Ramirez also recalls a box on the floor outside of the door of Section Chief John Woods’ office which contained a picture of Elian and the proclamation, “KICK ME.” In addition to other comments, Mr. Ramirez is aware of paraphernalia in the Miami INS Office mocking the Miami Cuban-American community as a “Banana Republic” as well as soft drink holders that contain slash marks through a Cuban flag. If this was not enough, Mr. Ramirez states that Section Chief Mario Cavallo told a group of agents, “Listen up, I need you to delete everything possible from your computers, including e-mails, concerning the Elian Gonzalez raid.” This constitutes obstruction of justice.

“It is apparent that the vicious and illegal attack on Elian Gonzalez, his family, Donato Dalrymple, and other Hispanics in the Miami Little Havana neighborhood was not only the result of unconstitutional Gestapo-type tactics, but also racism.

Judicial Watch and its clients call on you as Attorney General of the United States, and as a strong defender of constitutional and civil rights, to immediately suspend the offending agents pending investigation. In addition, we respectfully request that the Department of Justice – now presumably in the hands of an Administration which will act more responsibly than the last – order an immediate criminal inquiry into not only this illegal affront to the Hispanic community, but also the apparent obstruction of justice by INS officials and agents.

Attorney General Ashcroft, now is also the time for your office to conduct a review of politically sensitive cases involving the Clinton-Gore Administration, particularly since they continue to be litigated on behalf of the American people by Clinton-Gore appointed Justice attorneys who do not have the best interests of the current Administration at heart, but instead were chosen by your predecessor, Janet Reno, for their loyalty to the last Administration.

I would be happy to sit down with you and your staff to go over these important matters and trust that action can be taken swiftly to avoid the compromise not only of justice in general, but also to send a message to the Hispanic community, now the largest American minority, that prejudice and bigotry will not be permitted at the Department of Justice.

I look forward to hearing from you on an expedited basis.

Sincerely,

JUDICIAL WATCH, INC.

Larry Klayman

Chairman and General Counsel