MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

                           Jan. 10 —  Vice President Al Gore on Monday
                           distanced himself from the Clinton
                           administration position on Elian Gonzalez’s fate,
                           telling NBC’s “Today” show that he’s not sure
                           the Immigration and Naturalization Service has
                           the “experience and expertise” to decide that the
                           6 year old should be sent back to Cuba.
                                THE INS ruled last week that the boy, who was
                         plucked from the sea on Thanksgiving Day after his mother
                         drowned while fleeing Cuba, should be returned to his
                         father in Cuba by Friday. President Clinton and Attorney
                         General Janet Reno have endorsed that ruling.
                                But Gore, who is campaigning for the Democratic
                         presidential nomination, indicated he is not so sure.
                                 Interviewed on the “Today” show, Gore said
                         he’d “like to see the dispute adjudicated in our courts,
                         where traditionally questions like ‘What is best for this
                         child?’ are decided.”
                                “It’s not clear to me that they (INS officials) have the
                         experience and expertise to really address a question like
                         that,” Gore said. “Due process ... requires that a question
                         like this be adjudicated by those who have the body of law
                         that applies and the experience in such cases.”
                                “Remember this,” he added, “this child’s mother died in
                         an effort to get her child’s freedom. And remember as well,
                         the child’s father has demonstrators paid by (Cuban
                         President Fidel) Castro chanting outside his window. There
                         is no evidence that he is expressing a sincere, genuine feeling
                         about what is in his child’s best interest.”
                                Gore proposed that the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez,
                         should “come to a place where he can speak freely and
                         settle the matter.”
                                Gore declined to discuss the subpoena issued Friday
                         by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., in an effort to delay Elian’s
                         departure. The subpoena requires the child to testify before
                         a House committee Feb. 10.
                         GOP SENATOR, GORE AGREE
                                Gore’s position that Elian’s father come to the United
                         States is inline with what many Cuban exiles and Republican
                         lawmakers are demanding.
                         Sen. Robert Smith — a New Hampshire Republican and member
                         of the committee that oversees the INS — told MSNBC that Elian’s
                         status should be settled with Juan Miguel Gonzalez coming to the
                         United States and working things out with his Miami relatives.
                                But Smith didn’t think that would happen, claiming the
                         INS ruled as it did because it knows the father is “under
                         house arrest” in Cuba.
                                And if the father’s not going to come here, Smith
                         added, Reno should meet with Elian to judge whether he’s
                         mature enough to decide for himself where he wants to live.
                                Smith visited Elian in Miami on Saturday, telling
                         reporters the boy said, “Help me. I don’t want to go back
                         to Cuba.”
                                Smith also said earlier that Elian’s Miami relatives gave
                         him information that his father may have known Elian’s
                         mother was bringing him to the United States and supported
                         that decision — something the father has denied.
                         INS, JUDGE TO WEIGH IN
                                Burton acknowledged Sunday that he’s not sure what
                         will happen next in the fight over the 6-year-old boy.
                                “Whether or not the INS will say that that (subpoena)
                         does not supersede their authority as a branch — part of
                         the executive branch — to send that young man back, that’s
                         something that we’re not sure of,” he said on ABC’s “This
                         Week.”
                                An INS spokesman said the agency would have no
                         comment on the subpoena until after its lawyers examine it.
                                The INS last Wednesday ruled that Juan Miguel
                         Gonzalez, a hotel worker in Cuba who was divorced from
                         his mother, was a fit parent and the boy should be returned
                         to his care.
                                Elian’s mother died as they tried to flee Cuba for
                         Florida. Elian was found clinging to an inner tube on
                         Thanksgiving Day.
                                He was immediately taken in by relatives from his
                         father’s side of the family in Miami who are fiercely
                         opposed to Castro.
                                 Elian’s Miami relatives on Friday filed a petition asking
                           a Florida family court to make the boy’s great uncle, Lazaro
                          Gonzalez, his guardian in a bid to keep him in the United States.
                           The judge hearing the case said Saturday she’d have a ruling
                          early this week.
                                In a national CNN poll released Sunday, 56 percent of
                         Americans surveyed felt Elian should be reunited with his
                         father in Cuba, and 35 percent backed allowing him to stay
                         in the United States. The poll had a margin of error of 4
                         percentage points, but the network did not say how many
                         people were interviewed for it.
                         BURTON VS. FATHER
                                Burton, chairman of the House Committee on
                         Government Reform, said he issued the subpoena to keep
                         the boy in the United States, at least until a court hearing.
                                Committee sources who spoke on condition of
                         anonymity said it is unlikely Elian will actually be asked to
                         appear.
                                “I want to make sure that Elian’s rights are protected,”
                         Burton said in a statement. “I am concerned that without a
                         ruling from the judges, Elian is without legal protection over
                         the weekend. I am issuing this subpoena to provide a
                         measure of legal protection while the court is considering
                         this case.”
                                Burton added that “once all sides made their case and
                         the judge renders his decision, then I think we all should
                         abide by what the court has decided.
                                “If the judge decides that the boy is best served going
                         back to Cuba ... then I think that everybody should say hey,
                         that is what the courts have decided in the legal process and
                         that should be it.”
                                Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican born in
                         Havana and who is a staunch Castro opponent, had asked
                         Burton’s committee for a subpoena, hoping it would give
                         Congress time to pass legislation making Elian a U.S.
                         resident.
                                Elian’s father angrily denounced Burton’s action.
                         “What right does that man have?” Gonzalez told reporters in
                         Cuba. “I am the father of Elian and immigration has said that
                         I am the only one who can speak for him.
                                “Why should it be delayed? Who is he? He is no one. I
                         am the father.”