"Elian and the Stormtrooper":

April 23, 2000 4:26 PM

"Elian and the Stormtrooper": that famous picture which people have wondered about, makes more sense as part of a sequence. The cameraman was just snapping away, and picked the one picture which was most dramatic. When you see it in context, it makes more sense. The agent had just entered the room and didn't know what he'd find (Great Uncle with a shotgun?).

Once he knew he'd found the kid, he clearly points his gun away.
posted by Steven Den Beste (10 comments total)

This story claims Reunion photo is authentic
posted by Dean_Paxton at 5:32 PM on April 23, 2000

The more I look at it, the more it looks like something fishy is going on. If you look at his hair in the picture from during the raid, you'll see how his hair goes very definitely downward over his forehead; but then see his hair in the reunion photo-- it goes in a completely different direction. I think it will take examination by a real expert, say, a UFO buff, before this matter is fully resolved.
posted by EngineBeak at 6:51 PM on April 23, 2000

Actually, other SWAT team members had the great uncle pinned down on a couch in the living room.
posted by da5id at 7:25 PM on April 23, 2000

From Bartcop...
posted by veruca at 8:04 PM on April 23, 2000

It'll be hard to debate today's pictures, since the family gave the roll of undeveloped film to the Washington D.C. Associated Press deputy photo chief, and let AP develop, inspect, and print the negatives.
Maybe the government finally perfected the Elian robot, though! I mean, how else can you explain why they waited three months to go in and rescue him from the Miami family -- they had to get all the glitches worked out of the robot. And since it is based on Windows 2000, they had to correct all the bugs, and Bill Gates kept hoarding the engineers to do his own dirty work, so the government clearly had to wait until everything was perfect. (Not to mention that damn pesky Roswell alien that kept eating the batteries in the robot...)
posted by delfuego at 9:02 PM on April 23, 2000

(In case anyone wants the original source of the info on the Fred Sweets, the AP photo chief who handled the film and accounted for its authenticity, it is within the third section of this CNN article at the time of this posting.)
posted by delfuego at 9:04 PM on April 23, 2000

Here's a piece on it from today's Slate, for those of you who still care. Or are bored.
And you really missed out if you didn't hear Rush this morning.
posted by EngineBeak at 4:58 PM on April 24, 2000

On a related topic: Should Reno have gotten a court order to grab Elian?

No.
posted by baylink at 12:50 PM on April 25, 2000

Apparently they did have a search warrant, which was constitutionally required to allow them to enter the house without permission from the owner. That's why breaking down the door wasn't "breaking and entering".
posted by Steven Den Beste at 2:25 PM on April 25, 2000