By Tom Raum
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday , April 25, 2000

WASHINGTON –– At the request of Juan Miguel Gonzalez, four playmates of his son, Elian, will be allowed to come from
Cuba to visit him here for about two weeks, the State Department said today.

Spokesman James P. Rubin said visa requests from the four will be dealt with on an expedited basis once they are received.
One adult will be permitted to accompany each child.

Rubin noted that the department issued visas almost three weeks ago to Elian's former kindergarten teacher, a pediatrician and
a male cousin. They have not used the visas but may do so at any time, Rubin said.

Elian, his father, stepmother and half brother were moved today from nearby Andrews Air Force Base to an undisclosed
location, the Marshals Service announced. There has been speculation the family would be taken to the secluded Wye Center
on Maryland's Eastern Shore to await court action over whether Elian should be allowed to return to Cuba.

The Marshals Service remained with the family for protection, said Marshals spokesman Drew Wade.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Janet Reno, who has voiced "no regrets whatsoever" for the raid that returned Elian to his father,
defended her tactics in a 1½-hour closed-door session with lawmakers. She declined to speak to reporters as she left the
Capitol.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the first senator to leave the meeting and a defender of the administration's handling of Saturday's
seizure of the 6-year-old boy, said Reno "was objective."

"The law was followed," Leahy told reporters. However, he said the atmosphere was "still very partisan."

Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., a critic of the military-style raid, said after the session his mind had not been changed by Reno's
presentation.

"I am going to recommend... that the Senate engage in a hearing with respect to the use of force," Mack said. "I am deeply
troubled, horrified as a matter of fact, that our government would use armed force in a family home to remove a 6-year-old
child."

The session came as preliminary inquiries into Saturday's pre-dawn raid have started in both the House and the Senate.

Republicans, and a handful of Democrats aligned with those seeking to block Elian's return to Cuba, stepped up their criticism
for what they see as the Justice Department's strong-arm tactics.

The administration in turn accused Republicans of playing politics, with White House spokesman Joe Lockhart denouncing
"wild statements" by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and others.

"The top Republican leadership with one voice and very loudly condemned the operation and now they are saying, 'Let's find
out about it,'" Lockhart said today on ABC's "Good Morning America." "That's backwards. I think most average Americans
outside the Beltway will understand normal people get information first and then make a judgment."

DeLay, speaking in Montana on Monday, referred to the agents who raided the house as "jackbooted thugs." Lockhart said
DeLay's remark was "gratuitous."

"Calling members of law enforcement 'jackbooted thugs' and 'storm troopers' is out of bounds," Lockhart said. "Those who sit
by silently and allow that to go forward in the name of the leadership of their party either have to repudiate that or come
forward and say they agree with that."

Interviewed on NBC's "Today," Lockhart said that despite an assertion by Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., President Clinton had
not promised that the boy would not be seized from the Miami relatives.

Reno on Monday defended her actions anew in several television interviews.

"It was time he was returned to his daddy," Reno said of the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor. Interviewed on PBS's "News
Hour with Jim Lehrer," Reno said she struggled with different options before giving the go-ahead for the seizure – including
"going up there myself" to claim the boy.

But she said it was clear that the crowds outside the house "were going to intervene in any attempt to extract Elian from the
house."

In the end, she said, she believed she had no realistic choice but to proceed with the armed seizure. "What you saw was a law
enforcement operation that went the right way," she said.

If necessary, Reno said, she would enforce the federal order that the boy not be removed from the United States until a federal
court rules on the issue of whether he can be granted political asylum over the objections of his father.

Elian was removed Saturday from his great-uncle's home in Miami, where he has been staying since his rescue from the Atlantic
last November. The boy's second cousin and two great-uncles have been rebuffed in efforts to meet with Elian and his father at
the Air Force Base.

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., announced his panel's staff would begin "a
preliminary inquiry" into the tactics used to seize the boy. "The inquiry will focus on whether the use of such force was
necessary or appropriate under all of the circumstances," Hyde said.

Hyde said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., asked for the investigation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, meanwhile, asked Reno in a letter to provide his panel
with "all documents" related to the raid. "There is a lot of emotion on both sides of the issue" and he wants his committee and
the American people to "have all the facts," Hatch wrote.

Also on Monday, the Justice Department released previously sealed court papers saying U.S. immigration officials had
probable cause to believe that the boy was "being unlawfully restrained" at the Gonzalez family residence in Miami.

The affidavit – supporting the request for a search warrant – asks permission from a federal magistrate to execute the search
warrant at night "in order to meet the least amount of resistance from any crowd gathered outside the home, ensure the safety of
Elian Gonzalez and protect the officers executing the warrant."

                                    © 2000 The Associated Press