Posted at 5:19 p.m. EDT Tuesday, May 29, 2001

INS whistle blower charges internal threats

MIAMI -- (AP) -- An Immigration and Naturalization Service whistle blower charged in a lawsuit today that he has been threatened within the agency over his reports of anti-Cuban bias in the federal raid to seize Elian Gonzalez.

Ricardo Ramirez alleged then-Attorney General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner conspired with underlings to destroy evidence of bias and threaten agents with retaliatory action if they broke ranks to talk about it.

The federal lawsuit, which seeks $25 million in damages and a court order to protect Ramirez from threats, is an outgrowth of two other lawsuits charging the INS with civil rights violations during the raid to return the young Cuban boy to his father in April 2000.

Ramirez is under a subpoena by Elian's Miami relatives to give a deposition Wednesday in their suit. Another was filed by Donato Dalrymple, the family friend who gained fame by holding Elian as the armed agents moved in.

Ramirez, a 16-year INS veteran of Mexican descent, has said the message ``Watch out traitor'' was left on his windshield at work when word of internal dissension spread.

Examples of anti-Cuban bias at the INS office in Miami included a slash mark through the Cuban flag, a Miami seal bearing the words ``Banana Republic'' and the words ``Kick me'' on pictures of Elian.

The boy's Miami relatives unsuccessfully fought in court to keep him in a highly publicized international tug-of-war after his mother drowned during a boat crossing from Cuba to Florida in November 1999.

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001

Answers

And Reno thinks she might run for governor? ROTFLMAO

The scary thing is, what if she won?

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001