From: "Bill Mattox" 

It was a major topic of discussion on the cable channels for the first
couple of days following the morning of the raid. The venue was typical
point-counterpoint, with WH detractors denouncing the lack of a warrant and
apologists defending the raid in spite of not having a warrant. I believe
that it wasn't until sometime Sunday that rumors of its existance began to
dribble out (which I mentioned in here) and later that day that its
existence was confirmed, although details were slow in coming.

To this day, there are unanswered questions surrounding the warrant. For
example, it had nothing to do with the custody point you have been making
and was issued as an "arrest" warrant for Elian for being an
"illegal alien", which he was not. Also, it appears that false
information was given by the government in order to justify it. Finally, it
appears that the district Judge who would normally be responsible for the
case was purposely avoided insofar as they waited until 7:30PM the Friday
before the morning of the raid (where he would be definitely unavailable)
and instead used a magistrate known to be friendly to the government.

"Bill Lucy"  wrote in message
news:MPG.1379705bf4508ca2989816{at}news.barkto.com...
> In article , billy-m{at}pacbell.net says...
> > At that time, even Clinton's spokepeople and apologists were operating
under
> > the assumption that no warrant existed... and were all making excuses as
to
> > why it was unnecessary.
>
> Another piece of information that I didn't know, Bill. Who said there was
no
> warrant and when did they say it?
>
> BTW -- It wasn't the Attorney General. I have a transcript of her speech.
It
> wasn't Deputy Attorney General Holder. I have the transcript of his
interview
> with Tim Russert the day after the raid.
>
>
>

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5