Posada Carrilles Acquitted of All Charges

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A US court which reserves the right to publish a list labelling nations as "sponsors of terrorism" declared international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles innocent on 11 charges of perjury, fraud and obstruction of justice during a trial before a jury in El Paso, Texas yesterday – a ruling which is unappeasable .

The jury, made up of seven women and five men, arrived at a verdict following a mere three hours of deliberations. The jury had been previously coached by Judge Kathleen Cardone – appointed by George W. Bush – who once again presides over proceedings which culminate with the acquittal of Posada Carriles.

"Every time a jury reviews a case, we cannot predict what it will decide, but we respect the jury's decision," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Reardon affirmed. Reardon, attached to the Department of Justice's Counter-terrorism Section, was curiously deployed from Washington, while the government still refuses to acknowledge that Posada Carriles is a terrorist and to try him on such grounds, as per the international conventions the country has ratified.

Posada is still wanted by Venezuelan authorities on 73 charges of homicide since he re-appeared in Miami in 2005.

Upon acquitting Posada, the jury refused to acknowledge his illegal entry into the United States via the Miami River, aboard the Santrina shrimp boat – despite all of the evidence presented – and opted to believe the "coyote" tale spun by the accused.

It also implicitly refuses to recognize Posada's involvement in the bombings perpetrated in Cuba in 1997, which resulted in the death of young Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo.

A Batista police force collaborator, Posada was recruited by the CIA upon his arrival in the United States and incorporated into Operation 40, aimed at murdering supporters of the revolution during the Bay of Pigs invasion.

The CIA also recruited and trained him to conduct repressive campaigns in Venezuela, where he led the deadly DISIP "cleaning" squad operations, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where he was entrusted similar tasks.

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He was detained in Venezuela and charged with masterminding the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner in 1976, which resulted in the deaths of 73 people. Posada escaped from prison with CIA help and was tasked with heading a drug and weapons trafficking operation, controlled from the Ilopango base in El Salvador.

In November of 2000, Posada was arrested in Panama following an attempt to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro during the Latin American Summit. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for terrorism. He was released in 2004 on a pardon granted by President Mireya Moscoso, then under pressure from the Cuban American terrorist organization and its protectors in Washington and Miami.

El Paso Diary: The Posada Trial from the start or  the last day

Source
By Jean-Guy Allard

Cubadebate opens its new Web page in English

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With versions of Fidel Castro's Reflections, El Paso Diary of José Pertierra, exclusive materials from Cuba's Reasons series and news articles about various national and international themes, Cubadebate opens today its Web page in English that you can find here.

Of course, it will be always updated with information about the Cuban Five that are in jail in the United States, and the world wide solidarity for the freedom of these fighters against terrorism, that already have more than 12 years in prison after a judgment marred of irregularities and injustices in Miami.

This is the first of a series of blogs in many languages, at least 8, which we will publish in the next days, as beginning of the redesign of our Web site, public on the Internet since august 5th, 2009.

Although it is not a mimetic mirror of the Web site in Spanish, the English version of Cubadebate reproduces some of our most popular sections and the services for the Web 2.0, with its own channels on Facebook and Twitter, also it will keep opened its pages for the visitor's opinions.

• Fidel's Reflections
• El Paso Diary
• Cuba's Reasons 
• The Cuban Five

Also 

• Twitter
• Facebook

CIA attack on La Coubre

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Publication of the secret file on the  

CIA attack on La Coubre
 restricted 150 years

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The complete file of the investigation of the French CGT shipping company into the sabotage of the La Coubre vessel, responsibility for which is attributed to the CIA, is being held in the strongbox of a French maritime foundation, with a 150-year restriction on its release set by the legal counsel of the vessel’s last owners.

The file, whose existence was unknown until recently, lay for close to 50 years in the enormous collection of records belonging to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT), also known as French Line, the owner of La Coubre when the tragedy struck in Havana on March 4, 1960.

Alberto Korda’s iconic photo of Ché Guevara
was taken at the La Coubre memorial service.

The content of this file would seem to be of greatest interest, given its information on details of the act of terrorism in Havana that have never been made public. It came from the Legal Office of the defunct CGT and is marked "Classified," with the surprising prohibition "PUBLICATION RESTRICTED 150 YEARS."

The existence of such a dossier of information about La Coubre crime certainly constitutes one more mysterious element in the web of enigmas surrounding the most significant act of terrorism of the century in the Americas.

You can find the whole story here

Man says ex-CIA agent Posada gave him explosives for hotel bombing

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In an exclusive interview Tuesday, a Salvadoran man told The Associated Press that a former CIA operative gave him powerful explosives and cash to carry out a 1997 hotel bombing in Cuba.

Otto Rene Rodriguez said that he was given C-4 explosives and $2,000 by Luis Posada Carriles to enable the bombing at Havana's Melia Cohiba hotel on Aug. 3, 1997. He was later captured in Cuba with 3.3 pounds of C-4 that he said was given to him by Posada.

"Truthfully, looking me in the eyes he cannot say he doesn't know me," Rodriguez told the wire service. "He does know me. He used me like a tool."

Posada, 82, is on trial for lying to US immigration agents about his arrival in the United States in 2005, charges that carry a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison.

"An American prosecutor came here and talked to me, and I promised that if I needed to testify against (the man I knew as) Ignacio Medina, I would," Rodriguez said.

Cuba made Rodriguez available for an interview with The Associate Press to show it was willing to cooperate with the trial.

Interviews with Rodriguez and another confessed hotel bomber, Ernesto Cruz Leon, were conducted Tuesday in the presence of Cuban officials. The Associated Press had no way to verify either of their stories.

With a history of anti-Fidel Castro militancy that dates back to the 1961 CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, Posada worked through the Cold War for intelligence services in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile and Argentina.

US documents show he also worked for the CIA from 1965 to June 1976.

More . . .

Also See

> Posada trial, Day 18

Important Revelation in El Paso

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In the trial underway in El Paso against Luis Posada Carriles for lying, a very important revelation has emerged.

In her sworn testimony January 18, 2011, an officer from the Department of Homeland Security admitted that on behalf of the DHS, she asked U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck Miller to charge Posada for his criminal activities, and Ms. Heck Miller refused to do so. This took place in August, 2005.

Heck Miller: Miller refused
to lay criminal activities

At exactly the same time - August 2005 - the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta decided to reverse the convictions from the trial in Miami of the five anti-terrorist Cubans who'd been indicted by this same Ms. Heck Miller. In its landmark ruling, the Court referred extensively to the long list of crimes that the Five had tried to prevent, committed by Posada and other terrorists, and described the Miami trial as "a perfect storm" of prejudice and hostility against the accused.

What will the judges in Atlanta say now that they know that the same attorney who urged the harshest possible sentences for Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René was the one who prevented Posada from being judged for his real crimes?

On this same January 18, 2011, Ms. Heck Miller reappeared in Miami. Coincidentally, on that very day, she asked for an extension in order to respond to the habeas corpus petition filed for Gerardo Hernández Nordelo. Her concern is understandable. The only purpose for the arbitrary and unjust indictment against the Five was to defend anti-Cuban terrorism, the preferred work of Miami prosecutors, as has been proven once again, in El Paso.

Of course there were representatives of the so-called news media in El Paso. Keeping a disciplined silence, as usual.

ALSO SEE
The Lead Prosecutor in the Cuban Five Case Refused a DHS Request to Press Criminal Charges against Posada Carriles

Source

Translated by Machetera. She is a member of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity (http://www.tlaxcala-int.org).

Solidarity with Cuban Website Cubadebate

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Several media outlets have echoed the condemnation of Youtube decision to close the Cuban website Cubadebate account.

Immediately following the move by Youttube, which is owned by Google, several alternative sites offered spaces to host Cubadebate, impeding the attempt to silence the Cuban site, Cubadebate’s editor in chief Rosa Miriam Elizalde told Prensa Latina.

The first ones to come out were www.cubadebate.cu and Cubadebate 1, which are already posting reports by Cubadebate and distributing them through Youtube.

In Facebook, a group under the name “NO+CENSURA EN YOUTUBE (No more censorship in Youtube)” expressed its support of the Cuban website, along with the Bariloche Solidarity with Cuba Group in Argentina.

Elizalde said that the closing of the account is questionable since their justification is based on a video posted by Cubadebate that has been posted in numerous other websites inside and outside the network including CNN.

Luis Posada Carriles

who is currently on trial in El Paso

The famous video about the Legal Fund set up to support renowned terrorist Luis Posada Carriles —who is currently on trial in El Paso, Texas— includes a list of the fund’s main contributors. Among them are Republican Representative Ileana Ros Lehtinen; Senator Marcos Rubio, who supports the use of violent actions against Cuba; and other political figures from the state of Florida.

Youtube’s action against Cubadebate for publishing a six-minute extract of the video and not several US outlets that have stolen exclusive materials from that site without crediting the source suggests that the move is politically motivated, said Elizalde.

Rosa Miriam Elizalde explained that in order to make a complaint Youtube requires personal information that could run the risk of being handed over to the terrorist group headed by Posada Carriles.

Source

Trial of Posada Carriles

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Brian Becker, coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, speaks at the Posada Tribunal held in El Paso, TX on Jan. 9, 2011, the night before the beginning of the sham trial of Luis Posada Carriles.

Also so see

> Prosecutor: Ex-CIA agent lied about militant past

> US Attorney’s Office Has Evidence of Terrorism against Cuba

> Lawyer of Posada Carriles Vetoed Candidates to the Jury

Posada faces (minor) charges

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Victims of Cabaña flight 455

Today (Monday  Jan. 10th )  in El Paso, Texas, a U.S. government farce will take place with the opening of the trial of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in federal district court. Instead of facing charges of premeditated murder—for the bombing deaths of 73 people who died in a Cuban airliner on Oct. 6, 1976, and other crimes—Posada will only be tried for perjury and immigration
fraud.

It is widely known that Posada is responsible for the bombing of Cabaña Airlines flight 455 in 1976, which killed 73 passengers and crew members. In 1997, Posada directed a series of bombings in Havana hotels by hiring Central American mercenaries to plant the bombs. The perjury and immigration fraud charges are related to Posada’s illegal and secret entry into the United States in late March 2005, and false statements that he made to U.S. immigration officials.

In a 2006 interview with U.S. immigration, he was asked whether he had a role in procuring the help of mercenaries who planted bombs in Havana hotels in the summer of 1997. In one of those bombings, an Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo, was killed when shrapnel struck him in the lobby of the Copacabana Hotel in Havana on Sept. 4, 1997.

A proud, confessed killer

In a July 13, 1998 New York Times interview with journalist Ann Louise Bardach, Posada boasted of his directing role in those bombings. He also gave the names of his financiers in the Cuban American National Foundation. Posada notoriously told Bardach about Di Celmo’s murder, “I sleep like a baby … That Italian was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Self-confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles

Despite Posada’s admission to Bardach over the murder of Di Celmo, U.S. prosecutors are only using that evidence to prove that he made false statements to them. A twice-convened Newark, N.J., grand jury’s evidence of funds that were wired to Posada — for the hotel bombs he produced — will also be presented in El Paso. But again, only for the perjury charge.

By trying Posada for perjury and fraud, Washington is hoping that it will escape worldwide condemnation for its refusal to have Posada face real justice and prosecution for his terrorist murders. The U.S. government is fully aware of his murderous crimes because he carried them out in various Latin American countries on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The only reason Posada is even in court on Jan. 10th is due to national and international outrage over the impunity and freedom he continues to enjoy in Miami, where he walks the streets a free man.

This is why, as Posada is in the docket for charges that will only yield a minor sentence if he is convicted, activists will be outside the courtroom in El Paso to expose his real crimes of terror to the world.

As José Pertierra, Venezuela’s attorney in the extradition matter, has explained, Washington’s prosecution of Posada raises many doubts about the government’s real intent.

Pertierra says: “The real purpose of the pending trial in El Paso is to hamper the extradition request to Caracas, keep Posada on the street, and save the U.S. government a full trial that would place it next to the terrorist, on the defendant’s bench. That is why the strategy is to delay the process.”

People's Tribunal deals with the real issues 

Luis Posada is a former CIA Asset
click

While Posada faces minor charges in federal court, he was tried by a “People’s Tribunal”  yesterday (Jan. 9th )  in El Paso.

The “People’s Tribunal,” hosted by the Unitarian Universalist Community of El Paso, 4425 Byron St., El Paso,” will hear the charges of terrorism against Posada and his accomplices. The U.S. government’s support for the Miami terrorists will also be on trial.

Participants in the People's Tribunal included:

• Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General  
• Jose Pertierra, Venezuela's attorney for the extradition order of Posada  
• Keith Bolender, author of "Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba,"  (hear an interview with Keith Bolender here)
• Gloria La Riva, coordinator, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five 
• Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition  
• Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-founder, Partnership for Civil Justice Fund

We’ll bring you the Tribunal’s results 

as soon as they are available.

Also See
Excerpts from trial of Salvadoran terrorist shown 'soon' in Cuban TV special

Posada Carriles’ Trial to Include Evidences of Terrorism against Cuba

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The evidence collected by Cuban authorities and the FBI on Luis Posada Carriles’s role in the bomb attacks carried out in Havana will be included in the next trial of this terrorist, reports ACN.

According to Cubadebate, it will be the first time that a recorded interview with Posada and a journalist from The New York Times, in which he admits that he planned the attacks of 1997 to hotels in Havana, will be presented before a jury.

Cubadebate adds that at the trial, which is scheduled for January 10, 2011, in El Paso, Texas, the intention is not to demonstrate he is a terrorist but a liar, who committed fraud to the US migratory authorities when he entered the country.

According to some information published in the New Herald, this terrorist arrived in the United States five years ago, and during this time he has been tried for minor crimes so as to delay his extradition to Venezuela.

Fighting terrorism and war

click to view

Since 2005 Venezuela demanded his extradition for the blowing-up of a civil Cuban airplane in which 73 people died.

On the Texas trial, Posada is accused of lying in a routine interview with the US migratory authorities who questioned him about his role on the attacks in Havana that killed Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo.

Judge Kathleen Cardone affirmed that she decided to allow the presentation of the five-hour recordings by journalist Ann Louise Bardach because she was trustworthy taking into account she testified on a closed-door hearing on November 15, on her interview with the accused and on the management of the tapes with The New York Times.

As said by The New Herald, attorneys from the Justice Department are planning to present in the trial more than 3 500 pages of official documents from Cuba and Guatemala related to the attacks.

The prosecution said that these documents detail the attacks in Havana, those who planned them and the explosive devices used. The documents focus on the arrests, the suspects, the witnesses and the fake Guatemalan passport which was allegedly used by Posada.

The attorneys from the Justice Department will also use evidence from the FBI, which were revised by a federal instruction jury in New Jersey.

FBI agents collected documents showing money transferences of nearly 19 000 US dollars from New Jersey to Posada in El Salvador and Guatemala between October 1996 and January 1998. The FBI assumes that the money was used to finance the attacks.

However, the judged blocked hundreds of documents on the links between Posada and the CIA for more than 25 years, as requested by the prosecution. 

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Summary of major acts of terrorism against Cuba

1959 - 1997 - 1990 - 2000

Source

International Brigade to Fight against Media Terrorism Founded

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Brigade participants at the exhibition of the ICAP communication products.  

Photo: Raúl Pupo

The First International Brigade to Fight against Media Terrorism was founded on Monday at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp in Caimito in an act lead by the president of the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP), Kenia Serrano.

The brigade is made up of 58 friends from 19 countries and will host documentary screenings, art and photograph exhibitions on the Cuban Five, conferences on Cuba and exchanges between media professionals.

The founding of the brigade comes as the Sixth International Symposium on Freedom for the Five and against Terrorism concluded in Holguin with the participation of activists, political representatives, union and youth leaders from 56 countries.

The main objective of group is to raise awareness about the case of five Cuban antiterrorists who have been imprisoned in US jails for more than 12 years now.

The misguided arrest of the Cuban Five in 1998 and the subsequent travesty of justice lead to their convictions on multiple unsubstantiated charges in 2001. The Cuban Five were dedicated to uncovering plots by ultra-rightwing Cuban-American organizations based in Miami with a long record of terrorist actions against Cuba and the Cuban people.

The  Cuban 5: imprisoned for uncovering information about US based

In a trial plagued with irregularities and held in a highly biased Miami court, the Cuban Five —Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González— were given harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to consecutive life terms plus 15 years. The five Cubans were working to uncover information about terrorist activities being planned and carried out against Cuba by ultra-rightwing organizations based in southern Florida with a long record of terrorist actions against Cuba and the Cuban people. When they turned their information over to authorities they were arrested and have been in jail ever since.

In her opening words, Kenia Serrano said that the creation of the brigade is a continuation of the Sixth International Symposium on Freedom for the Five and against Terrorism, and part of the series of actions organized by ICAP to commemorate their 50th anniversary.

Also participating in the act was the Minister of Justice from Lao, Chaleune Yiapaoher, who is also the president of the Laos-Cuba friendship association.

El arca cubana: a film about terrorism

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The documentary ‘El arca cubana’ (The Cuban Ark), by Cuban filmmaker Ramon Luis Perez Martinez which takes a look at the history of aggressions and terrorist actions carried out against Cuba by mercenaries and the US government.

There have been more than 3 terrorist attacks carried out against Cuba among them  the Bay of Pigs invasion, Operation Peter Pan, which "stole" more than 14 thousand Cuban children, the sabotage of the Literacy Campaign in 1961, the Cuban Adjustment Act, which has claimed so many lives at sea and that it violates the migration accords, the criminal unleashing of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever which  killed 101 children, and the 1976, bombing of a civilian airplane, killing all on board.

> Interview with Ramon Luis Perez Martinez

> View Trailer

Also see
“He said, I am totally responsible for all of those acts and others that will come”

a Democracy Now interview with Ricardo Alarcón

34 Years of Impunity

Family members of the victims of the Barbados's Crime

On October 6, 1976 a civilian Cuban airliner took off from the coast of Barbados towards Cuba. Among the 73 passengers on board was the Cuban Junior Fencing team who were proudly returning to their island with gold medals. Along with them were 11 humble students from Guyana who were to begin studying in Cuba, five passengers of the Democratic Republic of Korea, among them a young girl. There were 57 Cuban passengers and flight crew on that plane. But flight 455 never made it to its destination. Its 73 passengers died a horrible death when a bomb, ordered to be placed in the plane by the international terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, blew up in mid air.

For the last 5 years the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has officially demanded from the United States the extradition of the criminal Posada Carriles who has been a fugitive from justice for the plane bombing and for other crimes committed in that country. After 34 years since that criminal act 73 families and an entire people continue to demand justice.

The Cuban government has declared October 6, the "Day of the Victims of State Terrorism". This declaration by Cuban President Raul Castro is an unconditional statement concerning this open wound of this small island nation as well as a symbol of the impunity of the US and the unwavering efforts of Cuba to fight terrorism.

The Committee of the Family of the Victims of the Barbados Crime, has sent an open letter to Obama demanding a trial and punishment to Posada and for the freedom of the Cuban 5.

Source

Also see

Fifty years of US terrorism against Cuba

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The Very Dark Side of U.S. History

Luis Posada Carriles’ right hand man, spills the beans

Chávez Abarca tells all! 

Terrorist plans continue from the U.S.

Cuban television broadcast a special program called “Cuba’s Reasons: The Route of Terror” featuring Salvadoran terrorist Francisco Chávez Abarca confessing that he paid $2,000 for each blast during a bombing spree against Cuba’s tourist hotels in the late 1990s.

Chávez Abarca was arrested in Venezuela on July 1, travelling on a false passport, and he was later extradited to Cuba to face charges in the bombing campaign.

During the program, he said he was hired to plant bombs by international and self-confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who currently lives in the United States, where he is awaiting trial on charges he lied to federal and immigration authorities.

He also said Posada Carriles told him the hotel attacks were backed by the CIA.

The program mixed Chávez Abarca’s confession with old footage of other terrorists already arrested in the bombing campaign detailing their roles, as well as interviews with Cuban security agents and military personnel.

Chávez Abarca commented that when one of these terrorists, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, confessed to his crimes in Havana after being captured, he was ordered to kill his family.

Source

 
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Also see

Terrorist Francisco Chávez Abarca Linked to Venezuelan Counterrevolution