NBC Cameraman Hospitalized After Elian Raid Beating

dZ · April 26, 2000, 07:54 PM

http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecov...00/4/26/164139

...Wednesday April 26, 2000; 5:35 PM EDT

NBC Cameraman Hospitalized After Elian Raid Beating
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Freelance NBC cameraman Tony Zumbado has been hospitalized as a result
of injuries sustained
when agents for the INS and Border Patrol beat him and his soundman,
Gustavo Moller, as they
were trying to film the Clinton administration's gunpoint abduction of
six-year-old Elian Gonzalez.

Zumbado was the designated pool reporter at the scene, whose video
footage from inside the
Gonzalez home was to be fed to all major broadcast and cable television
networks.

But the beating by gun-toting federal agents left both Zumbado and
Moller incapacitated for the
duration of the three minute raid, depriving television audiences
around the world of live video
coverage of the dramatic confrontation.

Zumbado's NBC colleague, reporter Kerry Sanders, was outside the
Gonzalez house in the
pre-dawn hours on Saturday and talked to Zumbado and Moller seconds
after the raid ended.

In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, Sanders said that Zumbado
began to experience
back pain over the weekend as a result of the attack. "I just got off
the phone with Tony. Now he
can't move really all that well." The NBC cameraman was removed from
his home on a stretcher
early Wednesday and was admitted to a Miami area hospital for an MRI
and other tests to
determine the extent of his injuries.

Sanders gave NewsMax.com this account of the attack that led to
Zumbado's hospitalization:

"Tony and Gustavo had parked themselves for five months now at the
corner of the house just
outside the house. The family had said all along that they would invite
cameras into the house to
document what happened. As this is all going down, one of our cameramen
by the name of Roger
Prehoda was coming in at around 5 o'clock.

"He was a little bit late that morning. And so he's walking down the
street and he sees the vans
coming. And he's thinking, 'Oh my God, this is it.'

"So he grabs his two-way radio and he says, 'It's going down, it's
going down.' That gets
transmitted to Gustavo and Tony before the vans even come down the
street. So they jump the
fence, get into the yard and they race to the door. It's a race to beat
the agents bacause he knows
they're going to be there any second."

Unknown to the NBC camera crew, INS agents had already entered the
house by the back door,
Sanders said, and were inside when Zumbado opened the front door.

"As Tony makes it to the door, somebody inside the house grabs him and
pulls him in and slams
the door. Gustavo doesn't make it in. Gustavo's outside. He said one of
the agents takes the butt
of his gun and bangs it right into his forehead, causing him to fall
down. I saw the blood on his
forehead.

"Tony is in the house but the plan all along had been that the camera
was a pool camera and it
was a live pool camera. So he's got cables that are dangling off the
back of his camera that are
now going into the house, slammed in the door. This is television
equipment, this isn't your little
home video camera.

"As the door reopens, which is only a matter of seconds, somebody is
grabbing the cables,
yanking them back. Tony's got the camera on his shoulder. They yank it
back and pull it down.
One of the cables gets pulled out of the camera, which is the audio
cable. The video cable hangs
on to the camera but it sends Tony falling backwards.

"At that point, somebody smacks him in the stomach. Tony is hit in the
stomach and goes down.
And then the agent puts his foot on Tony's back and puts a gun to him
and says, 'Don't move or I'll
shoot.'

"So, the camera is out of commission. Tony is now down and out of
commission. Tony tells me
that as he looks up around, he sees the family there and he sees these
little red dots on Lazaro's
forehead, on Marisleysis forehead. Which of course are the laser sights
from the machine guns.
He sees them all trained there and then he hears what's going on in the
back room. But he's not in
that back bedroom because he's now down on the floor with a foot in his
back and a gun to his
head saying 'Don't move.'

Sanders said that Zumbado has family members with law enforcement
background and has
actually undergone police SWAT training himself. As a former cameraman
for the Fox TV show
"Cops," Zumbado had filmed hundreds of police raids prior to the
Clinton administration's Saturday
attack.

In fact, said Sanders, NBC selected Zumbado for the key job of
videotaping Elian's abduction
because of his filmwork on "Cops," "He knows exactly what these people
are supposed to do
when they go in because he's trained to do it."

The attack on Elian's home, however, was different, Zumbado admitted to
Sanders.

"'Kerry,' he told me, 'it's amazing how humbling it is. You think you
know how it goes down. I've
been through the door with 'Cops' plenty of times on raids. I know what
it is. But it's such a
different feeling when you're on the receiving end.'"

Gorthaur · April 26, 2000, 07:58 PM

Wow. So much for "the guns were never aimed at anyone, and nobody was hurt."

------------------
Protect your Right to Keep and Bear Arms!

Jack 99 · April 26, 2000, 08:11 PM

HA HA!!

Joke's on them!

The Second is just the beginning. The rest of the BOR isn't worth squat either. Do you think the media will ever "get it"?

David Roberson · April 26, 2000, 09:49 PM

How can anyone be surprised by this? Federal "law" enforcement has for years been characterized by its utter disregard for all laws. These people pay attention to nothing but the orders they receive from their bosses. The Constitution? What's that?

"If there is going to be a Big Brother in the United States, it is going to be us. The FBI."

-- FBI Supervisory Special Agent Paul George
4/6/2000 at a computer privacy meeting in Toronto Canada.

DC · April 26, 2000, 09:54 PM

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/2000..._boy_tv_1.html

Notice that NBC is not upset that its employees were injured(previous story), rather, NBC is miffed because they were prevented from getting some film.
Malignant, corrupt whores

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>NBC Seeks Elian Coverage Explanation

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - NBC asked the federal government on
Wednesday to explain why a cameraman who tried to cover last
weekend's raid to seize Elian Gonzalez was prevented from taking
pictures.

NBC's cameraman, Tony Zumbado, was pushed to the floor
during the raid and no video was recorded inside the house of
Elian's Miami relatives. A photographer from The Associated
Press recorded several still pictures, including an image of a
federal agent with a gun pointed in the direction of the 6-year-old
boy.

Bill Wheatley, vice president of NBC News, said he doesn't
know whether agents were trying to avoid having pictures taken
or were simply trying to secure the area. Either way, the results
were the same.

``It's fair to say that our people
weren't able to do their work
because of the action of agents,''
Wheatley said.

He's asked for an explanation by
Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris
Meissner. A spokeswoman for Meissner did not immediately
return a telephone call for comment.

The Washington Post reported this week that Attorney General
Janet Reno, seeking to avoid allegations of a government coverup,
decided not to prevent photographers from taking pictures of
Gonzalez as he was seized last Saturday.

Zumbado and his sound man, Gustavo Moeller, were working as
part of a pool arrangement to take pictures for several networks,
at the invitation of the Miami relatives. They and Alan Diaz, a
free-lance photographer working for the AP, were waiting in the
yard next to their home when the raid began.

All three men jumped a fence to rush toward the home. Diaz got
there first, and was directed to the room where Elian was being
held.

Zumbado and Moeller arrived at the front door at the same time
as several INS agents, Wheatley said.

Moeller was ordered away from the house at gunpoint, Wheatley
said. He was told to get on the ground and was struck in the head
by an agent's gun barrel, causing a cut, he said.

Zumbado had made it in the house and was trying to disconnect
cables that tied his camera to Moeller. He was knocked to the
floor and knocked off balance again when he tried to get up.
While kneeling, he was told not to get up or he would be shot,
Wheatley said.

``It was very clear that he was not in a position to take pictures,''
he said.

Wheatley said the network understands the risk to its personnel
covering such an action.

``We're not naive,'' he said, ``and we're aware that they needed
to secure the area. But based on the description we have, we
believe that the agents went further than they had to and
prevented him from taking pictures.''

Wheatley said he had not received a response from Meissner. [/quote]

------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!

DC · April 26, 2000, 09:54 PM

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/2000..._boy_tv_1.html

Notice that NBC is not upset that its employees were injured(previous story), rather, NBC is miffed because they were prevented from getting some film.
Malignant, corrupt whores

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>NBC Seeks Elian Coverage Explanation

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - NBC asked the federal government on
Wednesday to explain why a cameraman who tried to cover last
weekend's raid to seize Elian Gonzalez was prevented from taking
pictures.

NBC's cameraman, Tony Zumbado, was pushed to the floor
during the raid and no video was recorded inside the house of
Elian's Miami relatives. A photographer from The Associated
Press recorded several still pictures, including an image of a
federal agent with a gun pointed in the direction of the 6-year-old
boy.

Bill Wheatley, vice president of NBC News, said he doesn't
know whether agents were trying to avoid having pictures taken
or were simply trying to secure the area. Either way, the results
were the same.

``It's fair to say that our people
weren't able to do their work
because of the action of agents,''
Wheatley said.

He's asked for an explanation by
Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris
Meissner. A spokeswoman for Meissner did not immediately
return a telephone call for comment.

The Washington Post reported this week that Attorney General
Janet Reno, seeking to avoid allegations of a government coverup,
decided not to prevent photographers from taking pictures of
Gonzalez as he was seized last Saturday.

Zumbado and his sound man, Gustavo Moeller, were working as
part of a pool arrangement to take pictures for several networks,
at the invitation of the Miami relatives. They and Alan Diaz, a
free-lance photographer working for the AP, were waiting in the
yard next to their home when the raid began.

All three men jumped a fence to rush toward the home. Diaz got
there first, and was directed to the room where Elian was being
held.

Zumbado and Moeller arrived at the front door at the same time
as several INS agents, Wheatley said.

Moeller was ordered away from the house at gunpoint, Wheatley
said. He was told to get on the ground and was struck in the head
by an agent's gun barrel, causing a cut, he said.

Zumbado had made it in the house and was trying to disconnect
cables that tied his camera to Moeller. He was knocked to the
floor and knocked off balance again when he tried to get up.
While kneeling, he was told not to get up or he would be shot,
Wheatley said.

``It was very clear that he was not in a position to take pictures,''
he said.

Wheatley said the network understands the risk to its personnel
covering such an action.

``We're not naive,'' he said, ``and we're aware that they needed
to secure the area. But based on the description we have, we
believe that the agents went further than they had to and
prevented him from taking pictures.''

Wheatley said he had not received a response from Meissner. [/quote]

------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!

April 26, 2000, 07:54 PM	#1
dZ Senior Member Join Date: May 31, 1999 Location: the Fetid Swamp, DC Posts: 7,565	http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecov...00/4/26/164139 ...Wednesday April 26, 2000; 5:35 PM EDT NBC Cameraman Hospitalized After Elian Raid Beating ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Freelance NBC cameraman Tony Zumbado has been hospitalized as a result of injuries sustained when agents for the INS and Border Patrol beat him and his soundman, Gustavo Moller, as they were trying to film the Clinton administration's gunpoint abduction of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez. Zumbado was the designated pool reporter at the scene, whose video footage from inside the Gonzalez home was to be fed to all major broadcast and cable television networks. But the beating by gun-toting federal agents left both Zumbado and Moller incapacitated for the duration of the three minute raid, depriving television audiences around the world of live video coverage of the dramatic confrontation. Zumbado's NBC colleague, reporter Kerry Sanders, was outside the Gonzalez house in the pre-dawn hours on Saturday and talked to Zumbado and Moller seconds after the raid ended. In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, Sanders said that Zumbado began to experience back pain over the weekend as a result of the attack. "I just got off the phone with Tony. Now he can't move really all that well." The NBC cameraman was removed from his home on a stretcher early Wednesday and was admitted to a Miami area hospital for an MRI and other tests to determine the extent of his injuries. Sanders gave NewsMax.com this account of the attack that led to Zumbado's hospitalization: "Tony and Gustavo had parked themselves for five months now at the corner of the house just outside the house. The family had said all along that they would invite cameras into the house to document what happened. As this is all going down, one of our cameramen by the name of Roger Prehoda was coming in at around 5 o'clock. "He was a little bit late that morning. And so he's walking down the street and he sees the vans coming. And he's thinking, 'Oh my God, this is it.' "So he grabs his two-way radio and he says, 'It's going down, it's going down.' That gets transmitted to Gustavo and Tony before the vans even come down the street. So they jump the fence, get into the yard and they race to the door. It's a race to beat the agents bacause he knows they're going to be there any second." Unknown to the NBC camera crew, INS agents had already entered the house by the back door, Sanders said, and were inside when Zumbado opened the front door. "As Tony makes it to the door, somebody inside the house grabs him and pulls him in and slams the door. Gustavo doesn't make it in. Gustavo's outside. He said one of the agents takes the butt of his gun and bangs it right into his forehead, causing him to fall down. I saw the blood on his forehead. "Tony is in the house but the plan all along had been that the camera was a pool camera and it was a live pool camera. So he's got cables that are dangling off the back of his camera that are now going into the house, slammed in the door. This is television equipment, this isn't your little home video camera. "As the door reopens, which is only a matter of seconds, somebody is grabbing the cables, yanking them back. Tony's got the camera on his shoulder. They yank it back and pull it down. One of the cables gets pulled out of the camera, which is the audio cable. The video cable hangs on to the camera but it sends Tony falling backwards. "At that point, somebody smacks him in the stomach. Tony is hit in the stomach and goes down. And then the agent puts his foot on Tony's back and puts a gun to him and says, 'Don't move or I'll shoot.' "So, the camera is out of commission. Tony is now down and out of commission. Tony tells me that as he looks up around, he sees the family there and he sees these little red dots on Lazaro's forehead, on Marisleysis forehead. Which of course are the laser sights from the machine guns. He sees them all trained there and then he hears what's going on in the back room. But he's not in that back bedroom because he's now down on the floor with a foot in his back and a gun to his head saying 'Don't move.' Sanders said that Zumbado has family members with law enforcement background and has actually undergone police SWAT training himself. As a former cameraman for the Fox TV show "Cops," Zumbado had filmed hundreds of police raids prior to the Clinton administration's Saturday attack. In fact, said Sanders, NBC selected Zumbado for the key job of videotaping Elian's abduction because of his filmwork on "Cops," "He knows exactly what these people are supposed to do when they go in because he's trained to do it." The attack on Elian's home, however, was different, Zumbado admitted to Sanders. "'Kerry,' he told me, 'it's amazing how humbling it is. You think you know how it goes down. I've been through the door with 'Cops' plenty of times on raids. I know what it is. But it's such a different feeling when you're on the receiving end.'"

April 26, 2000, 07:58 PM	#2
Gorthaur Senior Member Join Date: January 19, 2000 Posts: 851	Wow. So much for "the guns were never aimed at anyone, and nobody was hurt." ------------------ Protect your Right to Keep and Bear Arms!

April 26, 2000, 08:11 PM	#3
Jack 99 Senior Member Join Date: July 5, 1999 Posts: 1,085	HA HA!! Joke's on them! The Second is just the beginning. The rest of the BOR isn't worth squat either. Do you think the media will ever "get it"?

April 26, 2000, 09:49 PM	#4
David Roberson Senior Member Join Date: August 28, 1999 Location: Iron Station, NC Posts: 584	How can anyone be surprised by this? Federal "law" enforcement has for years been characterized by its utter disregard for all laws. These people pay attention to nothing but the orders they receive from their bosses. The Constitution? What's that? "If there is going to be a Big Brother in the United States, it is going to be us. The FBI." -- FBI Supervisory Special Agent Paul George 4/6/2000 at a computer privacy meeting in Toronto Canada.

April 26, 2000, 09:54 PM	#5
DC Moderator Emeritus Join Date: September 30, 1998 Location: Calif Posts: 4,241	http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/2000..._boy_tv_1.html Notice that NBC is not upset that its employees were injured(previous story), rather, NBC is miffed because they were prevented from getting some film. Malignant, corrupt whores <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>NBC Seeks Elian Coverage Explanation By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) - NBC asked the federal government on Wednesday to explain why a cameraman who tried to cover last weekend's raid to seize Elian Gonzalez was prevented from taking pictures. NBC's cameraman, Tony Zumbado, was pushed to the floor during the raid and no video was recorded inside the house of Elian's Miami relatives. A photographer from The Associated Press recorded several still pictures, including an image of a federal agent with a gun pointed in the direction of the 6-year-old boy. Bill Wheatley, vice president of NBC News, said he doesn't know whether agents were trying to avoid having pictures taken or were simply trying to secure the area. Either way, the results were the same. ``It's fair to say that our people weren't able to do their work because of the action of agents,'' Wheatley said. He's asked for an explanation by Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner. A spokeswoman for Meissner did not immediately return a telephone call for comment. The Washington Post reported this week that Attorney General Janet Reno, seeking to avoid allegations of a government coverup, decided not to prevent photographers from taking pictures of Gonzalez as he was seized last Saturday. Zumbado and his sound man, Gustavo Moeller, were working as part of a pool arrangement to take pictures for several networks, at the invitation of the Miami relatives. They and Alan Diaz, a free-lance photographer working for the AP, were waiting in the yard next to their home when the raid began. All three men jumped a fence to rush toward the home. Diaz got there first, and was directed to the room where Elian was being held. Zumbado and Moeller arrived at the front door at the same time as several INS agents, Wheatley said. Moeller was ordered away from the house at gunpoint, Wheatley said. He was told to get on the ground and was struck in the head by an agent's gun barrel, causing a cut, he said. Zumbado had made it in the house and was trying to disconnect cables that tied his camera to Moeller. He was knocked to the floor and knocked off balance again when he tried to get up. While kneeling, he was told not to get up or he would be shot, Wheatley said. ``It was very clear that he was not in a position to take pictures,'' he said. Wheatley said the network understands the risk to its personnel covering such an action. ``We're not naive,'' he said, ``and we're aware that they needed to secure the area. But based on the description we have, we believe that the agents went further than they had to and prevented him from taking pictures.'' Wheatley said he had not received a response from Meissner. [/quote] ------------------ "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!