The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 36

CENTRAL FLORIDA A-4 The Orlando Sentinel. Tuesday, July 23, 1 996 Top mayoral candidate in Miami has colorful past St. 1 urging voters to kick his nemesis out of office. He calls Carollo divisive, ineffective, an embarrassment. Voters listen, sending Carollo into political exile for eight years.

1 .11 I n.y- 7 1 "ft I t'HI I am part of what the American dream is all about. Joe Carollo dubbed Operation Peter Pan. Reunited with his family after six months, Carollo and his parents moved to Chicago. There he was bitten by the political bug. Elected president of his Catholic grade school and captain of the patrol, Carollo often rubbed elbows with Mayor Richard Daley and his legendary political machine.

Among Carollo's most enduring memories: standing guard at political weddings and funerals and holding the plate for the priest when Daley received communion in church. Carollo moved back to Miami at age 15, where he sprinted into the future. He finished college in two years, earning two degrees from Florida International University. At 18, he became the youngest police officer in the state, resigning from the Metro-Dade Police Department shortly after being reprimanded for placing a Ku Klux Han cartoon in a black colleague's mailbox. The cartoon, Carollo said, made fun of the KKK, but his colleague misinterpreted it.

A budding conservative looking for a place to land, he broke ranks with the Young Democrats and worked for Wallace's 1976 presidential bid, his attraction to Wallace being the populist message of smaller government. Carollo would soon run his own campaign, losing his first bid for the City Commission in 1977, at age 22. Two years later, he won, planting the seeds for eight years of tumult. Looking back, Carollo blames his past controversies on his youth and his yearning to maintain his independence. A mourner's gaze.

A man attending Monday's play. New York Gov. George Pataki told mourn-service listens to the Suffolk County Police Pipe Band ers, 'The world has lost 230 very special Divers will make attempt today to recover wreckage CAROLLO from A-1 ly ceremonial post. His opponents include a pizza delivery manager, an unemployed nurse and a community newspaper editor arrested on charges of beating his pregnant wife with a wooden hanger. None has any elective or appointive political experience.

None can claim an ounce of real name recognition, something Carollo has by the ton. After all, Carollo's past images are indelibly pasted in Miami's political scrapbook. Most of them stand in striking contrast to the matured, mellowed "statesman" his foes of old describe today. Freeze frame, 1983: There's Carollo taking the microphone after an effusive introduction by Miami's first Hispanic mayor, Maurice Ferre. Seeking re-election, Ferre expects an endorsement from the kid he had helped get elected five years before, when he was only 24.

Instead, Carollo blisters Ferre for running a racist, hateful campaign and throws his support to challenger Xavier Suarez. Ferre wins anyway, but Carollo becomes the maestro of the most sensational double-cross in Miami politics. Freeze frame, 1984: There's Carollo at a City Commission meeting comparing City Manger Howard Gary, the first black appointed to that post, to an "Oreo cookie" black on the outside and white on the inside. A month later, Carollo accuses Gary of having ties to drug dealers and money-launderers, earning a harsh rebuke from his hometown paper for his "McCarthyesque" attacks. "Mr.

Carollo is the most hateful, divisive, mean-spirited, crude individual to hold public office hereabouts in modern memory," the paper opined. Freeze frame, 1986: There's Carollo, accusing political leaders and investors of planning to gouge taxpayers by turning a tattered island into "the boating capital of the world." Backed by Suarez, who by now has succeeded Ferre as Miami mayor, the Watson Island project includes an illustrious group of potential investors bonded by their fight against communism. Among them: former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and several directors of the Cuban American National Foundation, the powerful anti-Castro lobby. But Carollo derails the plan, on a fast track for approval, by accusing the investors of having communist ties.

Angry, the investors back out and the $93-million deal collapses. Incensed, foundation President Jorge Mas Canosa challenges Carollo to a duel with swords or knives. Carollo offers to fight with water pistols. During his next re-election bid, Suarez kicks off his campaign by ASSOCIATED PHESS people, said, "We grieve for the innocents The New York Boys Choir sang "The Wind Beneath My Wings," which includes the line, "I can fly higher than an eagle." A minister, a rabbi and a priest offered prayers in English, Hebrew and French. Mourners clutched white, red, yellow and pink roses, and at the end of the service many walked into the surf, some with arms around each other, to toss the flowers into the sea.

Some added small stuffed animals to the bobbing tribute. One boy stuck a rose into the sand. The search Monday was made easier by the best weather conditions since the crash: 2-foot swells and moderate winds. The Coast Guard collected debris on the surface near the crash site, about 12 miles off Long Island. The Coast Guard's search covered 46 nautical miles north to south and 65 nautical miles east to west.

By the end of Monday, the Coast Guard said it would have scoured a total of 17,500 nautical square miles. Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom said if the crash was determined to be an act of terrorism, the FBI was ready to begin analyzing any information with hundreds of agents around the world. "There are terrorist states: Syria, Libya, North Korea, Iraq, Iran. We know who they are. We have ongoing investigations.

So whether they fit into any of those categories, or any other categories, it's not like we're blind. It's not like we don't know what's going on," he said. Lyle D. Lieberman Former Social Security Judge Ronald J. Feibus Former Social Security Arty.

FREE CONSULTATION 849-1650 800 N. Magnolia Suite 1210 Orlando, FL 32803 The hiring ol a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Before you decide. ask us to send you free information about 5 our qualifications and experience. Today, though, Carollo says he has matured into a proven leader and deserves a second chance.

He sees himself as a peacemaker, a visionary who can lead a new Miami into its second century. "I make mistakes. I'm not perfect," he said. "But I grew up in an America which was my idea of what America should be about. You get involved with politics because you want a better city, a better state, a better country." A political rebound His resurrection began only eight months ago, when he was re-elected to the commission by crushing the incumbent who had beaten him in 1987.

Today, Watson Island remains undeveloped and the foundation and Carollo remain at odds. The same cannot be said of Ferre and Suarez, who are both running for Dade County's top post. Carollo recently showed up at a Ferre function and lavished praise on the man he betrayed as the cameras rolled 12 years ago. And now Suarez uses the word "statesman" to describe the commissioner he once singled out as his greatest impediment. He credits Carollo with a number of accomplishments, including the deal to build a new arena for the Miami Heat basketball team.

Even The Miami Herald, noting the "untested caliber of his opposition" and "his generally responsible conduct" since his re-election, is backing Carollo's candidacy albeit rather tepidly. "In the land of the blind," the endorsement began, "the one-eyed man is king." That Carollo rides such a wild roller coaster of opinion might be a product of his inherent contradictions. Once a George Wallace Democrat, Carollo personally salvaged recreation money for black kids in Liberty City. A self-proclaimed populist who talks of standing up for the little people, he has been investigated several times for allegedly cutting deals to enrich himself. He has never been charged with wrongdoing.

Even his friends have a hard time pinning down Carollo. The only certainty about him, they say, is he can be counted on to say what he believes, no matter whom he offends. Ask Carollo who he really is and his reply is quick. "I am," he says, "part of what the American dream is all about." Politics learned early Born in Cuba to a teacher and electronics technician, Carollo fled to Miami alone at age 6. He was one of 14,000 children sent by fearful Cuban parents to the United States during a secret exodus "lltllllM I System itiwuii I Security riiKK Over in Acre Direct Import Now Open To Our Contract 4214 N.

Orange (12 mile south Mon Sat This v- JO, might be lost the longer the wreckage remains in the water. Surging salt water can destroy or sweep away chemical signatures on bomb materials or pieces of evidence that could later prove important The Boeing 747's two black boxes haven't been found, and investigators said they haven't heard the telltale "pings" the boxes emit, possibly because they are buried or covered with certain types of metaL Francis said Monday the search for the boxes was being temporarily suspended so workers could focus on retrieving the fuselage. The equipment used to look for the main piece of wreckage interferes with the electronics of the device needed to locate the signal from the boxes, he said. Of the 105 bodies recovered by Monday, 55 had been identified. New York Gov.

George Pataki arranged for the memorial service at Smith Point Park, one of the closest land points to the crash site. "There are no right answers when someone you love is gone," Pataki said. 'Today, there is an emptiness in all our hearts. The world has lost 230 very special people." Like other speakers, he wore a white ribbon. "Let's pursue the answers to this tragedy wherever it leads.

Let's have justice. Let's have deterrence for the future. Let's resolve to improve security and safety but most of alL let's have peace," New York's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told mourners. Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, where one small town lost 16 young We make mattresses right right in our store Excellent Quality Latex and Polyurethane Foam Mattresses Waterbed replacement Immediately available Delivery and set-up Removal of old bedding Save on brass, iron and daybeds llllll il CRASH from A-1 days ago.

The section was near the baggage compartment area of the ill-fated Boeing 747 that crashed Wednesday, CNN said. But CNN cautioned that the equipment used to detect the residue was "not considered" to be conclusive and further testing is needed. Meanwhile, ABC said the FBI for the first time is saying a missile is on its short list of possible scenarios. The network reported investigators have more than 100 eyewitness accounts of a bright object heading toward the plane before it exploded. ABC said one eyewitness saw: "Something going straight up in the air that appeared to be a flare then saw the explosion.

I have to say I think something was shot from the ground." Others saw a bright arc moving toward the plane. One saw a descending trail. The discovery of the fuselage, which came after several days when searchers were hampered by bad weather and equipment glitches, was announced at an emotional seaside memorial service. In Denver, President Clinton asked the nation to sympathize with the crash victims' families, who are frustrated at the slow pace of the investigation and the recovery of the bodies. Divers spotted at least two more bodies inside the fuselage and planned to remove them before trying to bring up the wreckage today.

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