While polls generally favor the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service decision to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba, the Clinton administration has found itself under attack from Republicans and parents who want the same treatment for American children detained overseas by an estranged spouse with no legal standing. Moreover, such touching concern for parental rights would be far more persuasive had this same administration not sat on its hands in cases involving American mothers who have custody papers over their American-born children, but whose American children have been illegally kept from them by relatives living overseas, usually with the cooperation of foreign governments. The State Department, apparently feeling the pressure, held a secret press conference with selected invitees only to counter criticism.
Reporters didn t question the statement.
Such statements are news to parents such as Pat Roush, who has been fighting for years just to see her kids, who are being detained illegally in Saudi Arabia. Last year embarrassed officials from the State and Justice departments testified before congressional committees that they don t file criminal kidnapping charges or demand countries to return children. They don t even ask ambassadors to intervene. They never ask the question. The Department of Defense is considering adopting a new policy that would exempt some military personnel from participating in the mandatory anthrax-vaccine program.