> The Immigration and Naturalization Service is actively
> investigating allegations that a federal SWAT team beat up an NBC
> camera crew as it was preparing to film last month's raid on the
> home of Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives, NewsMax.com has
> learned.
>
> "That issue is now being taken up by our Internal Audit Office,"
> INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona told NewsMax.com in an exclusive
> interview Tuesday. "They're looking into it more closely."
>
> Last month, Cardona told Accuracy In Media's Reed Irvine that
> the machine-gun-toting agents denied having "any physical
> contact" with freelance NBC camerman Tony Zumbado and his
> soundman Gustavo Moeller. The two had been designated as the sole
> source to provide network "pool" video coverage from inside the
> house.
I've posted about this subject here before, but it bears repeating...
What isn't mentioned above is that the designation of 'sole source
to provide network 'pool' video coverage' came from the Miami gang,
not from any 'network pool', because Zumbado, a Cuban-American
himself, was openly supportive of the Miami gang...
And Zumbado was interviewed live on MSNBC shortly after 7am the day
of the raid...barely two hours after the event.
He not only showed no signs of being 'roughed up', he told a very
different story than the one he seems to be saying now. He repeated
this early version of events later that same day, in yet another
live MSNBC interview, done about midday...
In his early version he claimed that he was immediately knocked
unconscious by the front door, because that was where he was sleeping.
No mention of being 'roughed up'. No mention of waking up outside.
No mention of his soundman buddy. No claim of equipment or tape being
destroyed. Zumbado had to keep reiterating to the anchor interviewing
him that the reason he didn't get any tape footage was due to being
knocked unconscious when the INS first entered, he made it a point to
claim of being taken so much by surprise before losing consciousness
that he never had time to even lift his camera, let alone get it ready...
> Cardona's denial came after Zumbado told MSNBC, "We got maced.
> ... We were told to lay on the floor. ... I was kicked in the
> stomach and pushed down and they kind of like put their foot on
> my back and told me not to move or else they were going to
> shoot."
Again, as I mentioned above, this is at odds with Zumbado's original
description of events made just a few hours afterwards...in his first
interviews, he never mentions mace (indeed, we now know that mace wasn't
used, but pepper spray...perhaps a minor point, but it shows that
whomever is writing this article isn't doing research).
Zumbado's original interviews had him claiming of being immediately
knocked out, and knowing nothing of what happened afterwards until he
conveniently regained consciousness just moments after the INS left. No
kicking in the stomach, no pushing him down (because he was already on
the floor, supposedly sleeping, when the INS came in). No jackboots on
his back. No agents telling him not to move or else they'd shoot. No,
in his original description he repeatedly stated he was knocked out cold
by the door when the INS first entered, and that he had no knowledge of
what happened thereafter, until he came to just after the INS left.
> While the NBC cameraman was being attacked inside the house, his
> soundman, who was still outside, was hit on the head with the
> butt of a shotgun, then held at gunpoint for the duration of the
> raid.
This perhaps is true. But it would have to be the soundman who would
have to verify what in fact happened to himself. What we have here is
hearsay, inadmissable in a court of law. Anything that Zumbado claims
happened to the soundman is NOT due to his direct observation, but what
he would have been told by the soundman and others afterwards...
> NBC reporter Kerry Sanders, who was also assigned by the network
> to cover the raid, told NewsMax.com that Zumbado and Moeller gave
> him identical versions of the assault minutes after INS agents
> sped away with Elian.
Perhaps. But all this statement tells us is that a colleague of theirs
claims they described the same thing...not WHAT they described.
Sanders should be aware of Zumbado's original interviews, which describe
a totally different event than what is now being described...
>Zumbado was later hospitalized for back trouble, Sanders said.
Again, Zumbado was interviewed within two hours of the raid, and a
second time about 5 to 6 hours later. Not only did he not look 'roughed
up' (neat clothes, no bruises or abrasions), he looked very hail and
hearty, and indeed stressed to the anchors interviewing him, when they
asked if he was okay, that he indeed was fine and felt fine and wasn't hurt.
> When Irvine asked Cardona why the NBC crew would simply make up
> such a story, the INS spokeswoman told him, "It could be because
> they needed an excuse for not doing their jobs."
Based solely on Zumbado's ORIGINAL version, I tend to side with Cardona's
suspicion. Here we had a Cuban-American, hand-picked by the Miami gang
because his sympathies supported their cause, who spent the night inside
in what seems to have been a bizarre pajama party. Zumbado is hardly
an objective, disinterested bystander.
And it was obvious in the first interviews he did with his colleagues at
MSNBC, that he felt he needed to explain why he conveniently did NOT
tape what really happened inside. So he told them he was knocked
unconscious when the agents first entered. He explained it as an
accident, not a deliberate attack upon himself by the agents. Indeed,
one of the anchors specifically asked him if the agents had attacked
him, and Zumbado said they had not, but that he had been accidentally
knocked out when they first entered.
Even at the time, I felt the story was suspicious...especially since, if
he had really been knocked out, one would think his employers would have
insisted that he seek medical advice immediately, to rule out any
neurological damage. I suspect that Zumbado, rather than being knocked
unconscious in the first moments of the raid (if indeed he was ever
knocked unconscious), DID manage to start taping...but the tape he shot
probably does more to support the INS than to damage it. So he
decided to destroy the tape, and concoct a story explaining that he
never got to shoot any footage, and why...
His first version was that he was knocked out before he could get any
footage. His current version seems to be one of starting to tape, but
having the tape destroyed by the INS.
> But by Tuesday things had changed, with Cardona telling
> NewsMax.com, "[The Internal Audit Office] is working with NBC on
> getting accounts from both the cameraman and the sound guy."
This is SOP.
> Though the beating investigation is ongoing, Cardona hastened to
> add, "At this point our preliminary information is that no one in
> that house was touched physically."
This jibes with Zumbado's ORIGINAL account.
> "[The agents] were not interviewed specifically about those two
> instances. They go through a process, which is something that is
> always done, called a de-brief. And each agent goes through what
> happened in that house from their own standpoint. And there is no
> indication that anyone in that house was physically touched."
And tape PROVING that statement would not serve the Miami gang's
allegations, and so gives credence to the suspicion that Zumbado
would wish to find an excuse for explaining away its existence...
> Should the NBC crew's charges pan out, it could mean big trouble
> for the agency.
I don't think they have anything to worry about. All they need to
do is get a copy of those two Zumbado interviews done within hours
of the raid.
> Among the charges leveled by Dalrymple: INS agents employed
> unnecessary and excessive physical force, including the use of
> pepper spray inside the house. Justice Department spokeswoman
> Carole Florman said Monday that no pepper spray was used inside
> the house.
And if what the Justice Department says is true, it gives another
reason for Dalrymple and the rest of the Miami gang not wanting a
videotape of what really DID happen inside of the house to exist...
June
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