By David A. Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday , April 23, 2000 ; A01

Their orders were simple, their mission complex, their raid a tactical success. But in three lightning minutes early yesterday
morning, armed federal agents also left behind a searing image of a frightened child facing an automatic weapon.

On Thanksgiving Day, Elian Gonzalez was rescued at sea by two fishermen after the child's mother and other refugees died en
route from Cuba. Yesterday, sandwiched between Good Friday and Easter, one of those fishermen held the 6-year-old in his
arms as a federal agent in riot gear brandished a gun and ordered the boy to be turned over.

All day long, the images appeared over and over on television screens around the world: federal agents using a battering ram to
smash through the door of the Miami house where Elian was staying, police using pepper spray outside to force the crowd
away from the home, and the moment--captured forever in a still photograph--when the helmeted federal agent pointed a
weapon toward young Elian and the fisherman as they hid together in a bedroom closet.

While the raid was a tactical success, experts said, the photo created a public relations problem. And in the aftermath,
questions are being raised by Elian's Miami relatives and others about the methods the federal agents used, their decision to go
in, and the reason for the heavy artillery they brought with them.

"The way it happened is an example of the way it should not be done," said child psychiatrist Stanley I. Greenspan, who has
been watching the situation closely. "We created an unnecessary risk--the degree of severity of which is impossible to assess at
the moment."

Justice Department officials say the decision to seize the boy in the predawn raid came after all-night negotiations broke down.
That left them with no other choice but to go in.

When they did, the operation involved more than 130 federal agents who had trained for the raid and who operated under strict
terms of engagement that officials say they adhered to completely. Their goal was to get in and out of the house as quickly as
possible, and to retrieve Elian with a minimum of violence.

Justice Department officials had received reports that there could be weapons in the house and among the small crowd of
demonstrators outside. So the immigration officers and federal marshals who participated were armed and under strict
instructions to shoot only in self-defense or to save a human life.

In the end, there was a strong show of force and an abundance of threats but there were no serious injuries or deaths. And
nobody pulled a trigger, federal officials point out.

"Nobody was hurt, no shots were fired and the law was followed so it was a success," said Robert M. Bryant, former deputy
director of the FBI. "They had the lawful right to enter the premises and they have to handle the situation so nobody gets hurt,
including the family, the little boy and the officers. They secured the area, and got in and got out. . . . It worked out well."

Reno had been advised that the best time to strike was in the dark of night, when the smallest crowd of demonstrators would
be present. The plan was to go in at 4 a.m., but Reno pushed it back to 5 so negotiators could have more time. The agents
were instructed to knock on the door a couple of times, identify themselves loudly and clearly, and offer a version of the
following statement: "We are not here to harm anyone. We are here to return Elian to his father. He is not going to Cuba. He is
not going to be put on a boat."

Then, the orders were to give the family the chance to open the door and turn the boy over peacefully. When that didn't
happen, federal agents used their battering ram to enter the premises forcibly, warning those inside to turn over Elian and step
aside lest they be shot, officials say. A quick search for Elian ensued, the boy was discovered in a closet, an unarmed female
agent grabbed him and rushed him out to a van waiting outside.

"They said it should take three minutes in the house and that is exactly what it took," a federal law enforcement official said
yesterday. In discussions before the raid, federal agents training for the exercise had been implored to preserve the safety of the
child above all else and to refrain from firing their weapons. But they were also told they had the flexibility to fire if necessary in
self-defense.

"We had to make sure our agents could protect themselves," said Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. "We didn't go in
there with the intention to intimidate anyone. . . . We had information there may have been weapons in the house."

According to photographer Alan Diaz, who was doing freelance work for the Associated Press, Elian was tearful and afraid as
the raid ensued. "Que esta pasando [What's happening]?" Elian asked as the federal agents entered the house. "Nothing's
happening, baby. Everything's going to be all right," Diaz, a 43-year-old of Cuban descent, said he answered back to Elian.

The federal agent who discovered Elian hiding in the closet had his gun raised without his finger on the trigger, but his demeanor
showed determination.

"Back off," the agent wearing goggles and green riot gear told Diaz, who had developed a relationship with the Gonzalez family
and was standing nearby when the boy was discovered in the closet. In the living room, an agent had pinned Lazaro Gonzalez,
the boy's great-uncle and the leader of his Miami relatives, on the couch. In the bedroom, a Spanish-speaking federal agent
scooped up Elian.

The raid followed the final round of marathon talks between Reno and Elian's Miami relatives in a bid for a negotiated solution.
Eventually, those failed and Reno, who had been criticized for repeated delays, notified the White House of her decision to
send in federal marshals around 4:30 a.m.

"The process took too long," said Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New
York who had advised Reno on the case.

There was a growing sense of urgency in Washington that the Miami family could not be allowed to hold a child whose legal
custody had been transferred to his father and that they seemed to have paralyzed the federal government. Neither Reno nor
President Clinton wanted to trigger a riot in Miami or conduct the raid on Good Friday or Easter, sources familiar with the
strategy said. And the attorney general had been advised that a nighttime raid would produce the smallest possible
confrontation and the greatest chance for a safe exit, even though she also had been told that removing the boy at night would
be more traumatic for Elian than if he were taken during the day.

As yesterday wore on, the photo--taken by Diaz--of the frightened child in the closet looking down the barrel of a gun was
accompanied by a new image of a boy with sparkling eyes and a joyous smile climbing into the arms of his waiting father.

A LIGHTNING RAID AND A REUNION

How the transfer of Elian Gonzalez to his father unfolded.

FRIDAY

* Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, met with Janet Reno at the Justice Department at 2 p.m. Friday and pressed her to take
action.

* Late Friday afternoon, mediators arrived at the home of great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and began to exchange custody
proposals with Reno and the father by phone and fax.

YESTERDAY

* Around 5 a.m., President Clinton was informed that all-night negotiations to resolve the custody dispute had failed, and he
gave the go-ahead to seize the boy.

* White vans carrying more than 130 federal agents moved through the streets of Little Havana shortly after 5 a.m. Fewer than
100 protesters were keeping vigil.

* Agents used battering rams to take down the home's chain link fence and front door, and eight of them entered the home.

* An armed and helmeted agent grabbed Elian from Donato Dalrymple, one of the fisherman who rescued Elian, in a bedroom
closet.

* A female agent carried the boy out of the home and puts him in one of the vans at 5:15 a.m. The raid took about three
minutes.

* Elian was driven to Watson Island, where agents placed him on a helicopter.

* The helicopter took him to Homestead Air Force Base, where he was examined by a doctor and placed on board a U.S.
Marshals plane at around 6 a.m.

* The boy arrived at Andrews Air Force Base at about 9:20 a.m., where he was reunited with his father.

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