Source: Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) no. 222, August/September 2011.
by Ali Erkaslan
12 September 2011 will mark 13 years since the arrest in Miami, Florida of five Cuban intelligence agents who had infiltrated right-wing terrorist organisations in the United States to help foil terrorist attacks against the Cuban people. They remain incarcerated in US prisons. The campaign for their release is an essential part of the struggle to defend Cuban socialism. In September, Rock around the Blockade will join activists from around the world demanding the release of the Cuban Five.
Showing posts with label Luis Posada Carriles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luis Posada Carriles. Show all posts
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up Indeed!
Source: The Havana Note
by Lawrence Wilkerson, 11 April 2011.
Several nights ago (6 April), I watched “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up” at the West End Cinema in Washington. Six months ago, Saul Landau, the filmmaker, had given me an earlier rough-cut version on DVD that I had watched, but I was not prepared for the final version with all of the added footage gained by Saul’s recent sojourn in Cuba itself and the slap-in-the-face showing on the large screen.
But the added footage from the island and the bigger screen were not all that made the final version more electrifying. It was, all in all, the pro-Cuba aspect of the film that stunned me.
And it was clear that this pro-Cuba aspect was not conjured by the filmmaker but by history. Perhaps, I told myself, I knew much of this history, intellectually, academically. But I had never seen it so graphically put before me, in such a tight, cinematic package that seemed to leap off the screen almost in synch with the beating of my pulse.
The backdrop of the film was the U.S.-Cuba relationship from the 1959 revolution to the present. That relationship was portrayed quite accurately, leaving no doubt why Theodore Roosevelt referred to the island as “that infernal little Cuban Republic” even though TR pre-dated the revolution by a generation-plus. That is chiefly because the one-sided nature of U.S. policy has been the same from 1823 to the present. TR’s remark demonstrated well before the Cuban revolution, well before the dictator Fulgencio Batista, well before the U.S. mob took over Havana, well before Fidel Castro shouted “¡Bastante!” from the Sierra Maestra, well before Jesse Helms displayed his latent racism toward Cubans, just how badly the U.S. had treated its island neighbor since the beginning of our republic. So badly, in fact, that the portrayal of it, however evanescently, by a master filmmaker made one want to weep for his country and its policies. I doubt there was a single person in the audience that night who felt any differently, except perhaps the several Cubans who were present who, indeed, probably wept for el coloso del norte as well but for different reasons.
And then there was the main point, the point embodied in the film’s title.
Clearly shown and vividly documented was the fact that the United States sponsors terrorism. In Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch alone, there are overtones of Osama bin Laden and Aman al-Zawahiri, the nefarious leadership of al-Qa’ida. In the film, Carriles and Bosch as much as tell us this in their own words. Moreover, they seem to rejoice in it, as they live today undisturbed and unmolested in Miami; indeed, as heroes among the ignorant Batista-like refuse whose mother’s milk sustains them. Neither man has even the redeeming feature of religious asceticism that some would argue gives bin Laden and Zawahiri a grudging respect; instead these two terrorists seem precisely what the film depicts, criminal thugs.
Whether it is bringing down a Cuban airliner with more than 70 people on board—including the young people on the Cuban fencing team—or murdering a young Italian man in a Havana hotel, these terrorists appear to take joy in what they have done, declaring in so many words and facial expressions that such deaths are the collateral damage of war. War? Yes, a war waged from the territory of the United States—the state of Florida primarily—and against another sovereign country. A war that continues to this day with the United States doing almost nothing to stop it and, as the film depicts in subtle ways, from time to time even aiding and abetting the terrorists who are waging it.
Once, of course, the dictates and fears of the Cold War afforded a patina of credibility to this war waged from our own shores and against the laws of our own land. As a U.S. soldier for 31 years, I participated in that twilight struggle most of my professional life, so I understood its demands however imperfectly they were sometimes met. But the Cold War ended almost 20 years ago. Not the case, however, with the undeclared war against Cuba.
Perhaps the best cinematic summary of this reality was rendered in the film by none other than the current chairman of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who declared for all to see and hear that she would welcome the assassination of Fidel Castro. No matter how cynical one may have become, that is an astonishing scene. A U.S. Congresswoman asking for the murder of another country’s leader—a most egregious, unbelievable demonstration of this undeclared war with Cuba.
Most vividly and disconcertingly, however, the film goes on to portray this continuing illegal war through the case of the Cuban Five. These are the five Cuban intelligence agents who, in the 1990s, were dispatched to Florida to help the government in Havana defend itself better in this undeclared war.
We know a little of their story. After infiltrating the Cuban-American terrorists ranks in Florida, they accumulated information about planned terrorist activities against Cuba. Alarmed at what they learned, they informed their government in Havana. That government, itself now alarmed, confided in the FBI, hoping that that law enforcement organization would act on the evidence thus accumulated and break up the terrorists ranks in Florida. Instead, the FBI—no doubt at the prompting of the White House—used the information to identify the five Cuban agents, then arrested them. Afterward they were tried in a Miami Court—like trying an Israeli spy apprehended in Iran in a Tehran court. Surprise, surprise, the Cuban Five were not only convicted, twelve years later they are still rotting in U.S. federal prison with the “worst” of them having been awarded two life sentences-plus.
At the very worst, these five Cubans were “foreign agents operating on U.S. soil”, an offense warranting 18 months in jail under U.S. law. As the film makes quite clear, however, usual U.S. practice—for Russians like Anna Chapman, e.g.—is deportation. Instead, these men still languish in jail. Perhaps had they been sexy, provocative women...?
When the film ended and the short, crisp vignettes came on, interspersed among the film’s credits, the main points were hammered home adroitly by some of the film’s principal characters.
As these characters summed up from the screen, I don’t believe there was any doubt in anyone’s mind in that audience—Cuban or American—who the “real terrorist” in the U.S.-Cuba relationship actually is.
The question that had to be buzzing around in everyone’s mind, however, as they walked out of the theater—again, Cuban and American—was what to do about it?
Just like the failure to close the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, the extension of the draconian provisions of “the national security cover-up” methodology in courtroom after courtroom across America, the civil liberties-usurping parts of the Patriot Act, the military tribunals for the likes of Khaled sheik-Mohammad, and on and on in the litany of dangerous and illegal acts by the U.S. Government in the name of perfect security and corrupt, special interest politics, the affair of the Cuban Five, and all it represents about the U.S.-Cuba relationship, stains the very fabric of our democratic republic.
Recently, a long-serving veteran of the CIA wrote a heavily-redacted yet still extremely eloquent and convincing memoir of his days in that agency, days that included the most intense period of our so-called Global War on Terror during the George W. Bush administrations. Here is one of his final conclusions in that memoir:
“I saw that a few of our leaders, in their insularity and sanctimonious certainty, corrupted the laws and started to corrode our social compact. We can take actions, however, to diminish such men, and that reaffirm our society’s commitment to our principles, our institutions, and the rule of law.”
That is the answer to our question and Saul Landau has taken a powerful action.
Colonel, US Army (Retired) Lawrence Wilkerson is the Visiting Pamela C. Harriman Professor of Government at the College of William Mary, as well as Professorial Lecturer in the Honors Program at the George Washington University. His last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department's Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02). Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army, including as Deputy Executive Officer to then-General Colin Powell when he commanded the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989), Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93), and as Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia (1993-97). Wilkerson retired from active service in 1997 and then worked as an advisor to General Powell.
by Lawrence Wilkerson, 11 April 2011.
Several nights ago (6 April), I watched “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up” at the West End Cinema in Washington. Six months ago, Saul Landau, the filmmaker, had given me an earlier rough-cut version on DVD that I had watched, but I was not prepared for the final version with all of the added footage gained by Saul’s recent sojourn in Cuba itself and the slap-in-the-face showing on the large screen.
But the added footage from the island and the bigger screen were not all that made the final version more electrifying. It was, all in all, the pro-Cuba aspect of the film that stunned me.
And it was clear that this pro-Cuba aspect was not conjured by the filmmaker but by history. Perhaps, I told myself, I knew much of this history, intellectually, academically. But I had never seen it so graphically put before me, in such a tight, cinematic package that seemed to leap off the screen almost in synch with the beating of my pulse.
The backdrop of the film was the U.S.-Cuba relationship from the 1959 revolution to the present. That relationship was portrayed quite accurately, leaving no doubt why Theodore Roosevelt referred to the island as “that infernal little Cuban Republic” even though TR pre-dated the revolution by a generation-plus. That is chiefly because the one-sided nature of U.S. policy has been the same from 1823 to the present. TR’s remark demonstrated well before the Cuban revolution, well before the dictator Fulgencio Batista, well before the U.S. mob took over Havana, well before Fidel Castro shouted “¡Bastante!” from the Sierra Maestra, well before Jesse Helms displayed his latent racism toward Cubans, just how badly the U.S. had treated its island neighbor since the beginning of our republic. So badly, in fact, that the portrayal of it, however evanescently, by a master filmmaker made one want to weep for his country and its policies. I doubt there was a single person in the audience that night who felt any differently, except perhaps the several Cubans who were present who, indeed, probably wept for el coloso del norte as well but for different reasons.
And then there was the main point, the point embodied in the film’s title.
Clearly shown and vividly documented was the fact that the United States sponsors terrorism. In Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch alone, there are overtones of Osama bin Laden and Aman al-Zawahiri, the nefarious leadership of al-Qa’ida. In the film, Carriles and Bosch as much as tell us this in their own words. Moreover, they seem to rejoice in it, as they live today undisturbed and unmolested in Miami; indeed, as heroes among the ignorant Batista-like refuse whose mother’s milk sustains them. Neither man has even the redeeming feature of religious asceticism that some would argue gives bin Laden and Zawahiri a grudging respect; instead these two terrorists seem precisely what the film depicts, criminal thugs.
Whether it is bringing down a Cuban airliner with more than 70 people on board—including the young people on the Cuban fencing team—or murdering a young Italian man in a Havana hotel, these terrorists appear to take joy in what they have done, declaring in so many words and facial expressions that such deaths are the collateral damage of war. War? Yes, a war waged from the territory of the United States—the state of Florida primarily—and against another sovereign country. A war that continues to this day with the United States doing almost nothing to stop it and, as the film depicts in subtle ways, from time to time even aiding and abetting the terrorists who are waging it.
Once, of course, the dictates and fears of the Cold War afforded a patina of credibility to this war waged from our own shores and against the laws of our own land. As a U.S. soldier for 31 years, I participated in that twilight struggle most of my professional life, so I understood its demands however imperfectly they were sometimes met. But the Cold War ended almost 20 years ago. Not the case, however, with the undeclared war against Cuba.
Perhaps the best cinematic summary of this reality was rendered in the film by none other than the current chairman of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who declared for all to see and hear that she would welcome the assassination of Fidel Castro. No matter how cynical one may have become, that is an astonishing scene. A U.S. Congresswoman asking for the murder of another country’s leader—a most egregious, unbelievable demonstration of this undeclared war with Cuba.
Most vividly and disconcertingly, however, the film goes on to portray this continuing illegal war through the case of the Cuban Five. These are the five Cuban intelligence agents who, in the 1990s, were dispatched to Florida to help the government in Havana defend itself better in this undeclared war.
We know a little of their story. After infiltrating the Cuban-American terrorists ranks in Florida, they accumulated information about planned terrorist activities against Cuba. Alarmed at what they learned, they informed their government in Havana. That government, itself now alarmed, confided in the FBI, hoping that that law enforcement organization would act on the evidence thus accumulated and break up the terrorists ranks in Florida. Instead, the FBI—no doubt at the prompting of the White House—used the information to identify the five Cuban agents, then arrested them. Afterward they were tried in a Miami Court—like trying an Israeli spy apprehended in Iran in a Tehran court. Surprise, surprise, the Cuban Five were not only convicted, twelve years later they are still rotting in U.S. federal prison with the “worst” of them having been awarded two life sentences-plus.
At the very worst, these five Cubans were “foreign agents operating on U.S. soil”, an offense warranting 18 months in jail under U.S. law. As the film makes quite clear, however, usual U.S. practice—for Russians like Anna Chapman, e.g.—is deportation. Instead, these men still languish in jail. Perhaps had they been sexy, provocative women...?
When the film ended and the short, crisp vignettes came on, interspersed among the film’s credits, the main points were hammered home adroitly by some of the film’s principal characters.
As these characters summed up from the screen, I don’t believe there was any doubt in anyone’s mind in that audience—Cuban or American—who the “real terrorist” in the U.S.-Cuba relationship actually is.
The question that had to be buzzing around in everyone’s mind, however, as they walked out of the theater—again, Cuban and American—was what to do about it?
Just like the failure to close the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, the extension of the draconian provisions of “the national security cover-up” methodology in courtroom after courtroom across America, the civil liberties-usurping parts of the Patriot Act, the military tribunals for the likes of Khaled sheik-Mohammad, and on and on in the litany of dangerous and illegal acts by the U.S. Government in the name of perfect security and corrupt, special interest politics, the affair of the Cuban Five, and all it represents about the U.S.-Cuba relationship, stains the very fabric of our democratic republic.
Recently, a long-serving veteran of the CIA wrote a heavily-redacted yet still extremely eloquent and convincing memoir of his days in that agency, days that included the most intense period of our so-called Global War on Terror during the George W. Bush administrations. Here is one of his final conclusions in that memoir:
“I saw that a few of our leaders, in their insularity and sanctimonious certainty, corrupted the laws and started to corrode our social compact. We can take actions, however, to diminish such men, and that reaffirm our society’s commitment to our principles, our institutions, and the rule of law.”
That is the answer to our question and Saul Landau has taken a powerful action.
Colonel, US Army (Retired) Lawrence Wilkerson is the Visiting Pamela C. Harriman Professor of Government at the College of William Mary, as well as Professorial Lecturer in the Honors Program at the George Washington University. His last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department's Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02). Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army, including as Deputy Executive Officer to then-General Colin Powell when he commanded the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989), Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93), and as Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia (1993-97). Wilkerson retired from active service in 1997 and then worked as an advisor to General Powell.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Cuba's statement on bogus US 'terrorism list'
Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Source: Granma, 20 August 2011.
On August 18, the State Department includes Cuba, for the thirtieth time, in the bogus list of "state sponsors of international terrorism," with the sole purpose of discrediting our country and continuing to justify the cruel and repudiated the policy of blockade against Cuba.
The U.S. government, which historically has practiced state terrorism, extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, assassinations with drones, torture and illegal detentions, which has established secret prisons, which is responsible for the death hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians as a result of occupation and wars of conquest in Iraq and Afghanistan, that systematically bombed sovereign states such as Libya, does not have the slightest morals nor any right to judge Cuba, which has an unblemished the fight against terrorism and has also been consistently the victim of this scourge.
The U.S. government acts as if it had not protected, permanently, the confessed criminal Luis Posada Carriles, whom it has refused to prosecute on terrorism charges, despite having ample evidence. Posada Carriles, with, Orlando Bosch Ávila, who benefited from a presidential pardon from George Bush, is the author of the horrific bombing of a Cuban airliner in flight, which cost the lives of 73 innocent people. He is also directly responsible for the death of Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo, during the bombings of Cuban tourist facilities in 1997. Today Posada Carriles walks freely and with impunity through the streets of Miami after being acquitted in a sham trial in El Paso, Texas.
At the same time, as irrefutable proof of its double standards, the U.S. government unfairly holds in prison and punishes our five antiterrorist fighters, for preserving the lives of Cuban and U.S. citizens, and those of other countries.
Some 3,478 Cubans have been killed and 2,099 have been maimed as a result of terrorist actions, organized, funded and perpetrated from U.S. territory, often with the very complicity of the government the United States.
Political manipulation of a subject as sensitive as the fight against terrorism offends the memory of victims of the criminal acts of September 11, 2001, a fact that prompted the offer of solidarity and unconditional support of our government and people.
Cuba demands that the U.S. government punishes the real terrorists who now reside in U.S. territory, frees the Five anti-terrorist heroes and ends the policy of blockade and hostility against our country, which threatens the legitimate interests of both peoples.
Havana, August 19, 2011
See also: Venezuela Says U.S. Lacks “Moral Authority” to Judge Antiterrorism Efforts, Franklin Rosales, 19 August 2011.
Source: Granma, 20 August 2011.
On August 18, the State Department includes Cuba, for the thirtieth time, in the bogus list of "state sponsors of international terrorism," with the sole purpose of discrediting our country and continuing to justify the cruel and repudiated the policy of blockade against Cuba.
The U.S. government, which historically has practiced state terrorism, extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, assassinations with drones, torture and illegal detentions, which has established secret prisons, which is responsible for the death hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians as a result of occupation and wars of conquest in Iraq and Afghanistan, that systematically bombed sovereign states such as Libya, does not have the slightest morals nor any right to judge Cuba, which has an unblemished the fight against terrorism and has also been consistently the victim of this scourge.
The U.S. government acts as if it had not protected, permanently, the confessed criminal Luis Posada Carriles, whom it has refused to prosecute on terrorism charges, despite having ample evidence. Posada Carriles, with, Orlando Bosch Ávila, who benefited from a presidential pardon from George Bush, is the author of the horrific bombing of a Cuban airliner in flight, which cost the lives of 73 innocent people. He is also directly responsible for the death of Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo, during the bombings of Cuban tourist facilities in 1997. Today Posada Carriles walks freely and with impunity through the streets of Miami after being acquitted in a sham trial in El Paso, Texas.
At the same time, as irrefutable proof of its double standards, the U.S. government unfairly holds in prison and punishes our five antiterrorist fighters, for preserving the lives of Cuban and U.S. citizens, and those of other countries.
Some 3,478 Cubans have been killed and 2,099 have been maimed as a result of terrorist actions, organized, funded and perpetrated from U.S. territory, often with the very complicity of the government the United States.
Political manipulation of a subject as sensitive as the fight against terrorism offends the memory of victims of the criminal acts of September 11, 2001, a fact that prompted the offer of solidarity and unconditional support of our government and people.
Cuba demands that the U.S. government punishes the real terrorists who now reside in U.S. territory, frees the Five anti-terrorist heroes and ends the policy of blockade and hostility against our country, which threatens the legitimate interests of both peoples.
Havana, August 19, 2011
See also: Venezuela Says U.S. Lacks “Moral Authority” to Judge Antiterrorism Efforts, Franklin Rosales, 19 August 2011.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
What About The Terrorist Mastermind The U.S. Is Harboring?
Source: NewsOne.com, 03 May 2011.
by Casey Gane-McCalla.
Now that Bin Laden has been killed, there is still a major terrorist on the loose. A terrorist mastermind who is wanted in several countries for blowing up a plane, bombing tourist locations and trying to assassinate a prime minister.
The terrorist mastermind is Luis Posada Carrilles, a Cuban born former aide to the dictator Batista who Castro overthrew. Posada would leave Cuba after the Cuban revolution and be a major planner in the failed Bay Of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
Terrorists: Two former CIA agents, Luis Posada Carriles (l) and Osama bin Laden (r).
Posada would be trained by the CIA in America in explosives in sabotage in the USA and served as the CIA’s principal agent for Cuba.
While he was serving as an agent for the CIA, the agency began to suspect he was tied to Latin American gangsters and was involved in cocaine trafficking. Posada would embark on a plan to overthrow the leftist government in Guatemala through terrorist bombings.
In 1976, a Cuban plane flying from Barbados to Jamaica exploded mid air as a result of bombs placed on the plane. 73 people were killed including the whole Cuban fencing team, women and children. The bombs were traced to two employees of Posada’s in Venezuela.
Both of Posada’s employees confessed to the bombing and implicated Posada as the mastermind. Posada was on trial in Venezuela for the crime when he escaped from prison.
Records show that the CIA was fully aware of Posada’s plot to blow up the airplane, but did nothing to stop it or alert Cuban authorities.
Rather than disowning Posada after the plane bombing, the CIA continued to used him as an asset in El Salvador where he became a principal agent in the Iran Contra scandal, which involved trading weapons to Iran to support the Contra rebels in El Salvador [Posada was based in El Salvador, but weren't the Contras in Nicaragua? - RATB] who were fighting against the communist government.
After the scandal, Posada moved to Honduras, where the FBI said he was responsible for 41 bombings across the country.
In 1997, Posada was implicated in a series of bombing of Cuban tourist locations, that wounded eleven people, and killed a Canadian citizen. Posada would tell the New York Times that he planned the attack.
In 2000, Posada was caught with 200 pounds of explosives and arrested for plotting an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro. He was convicted but later pardoned by the Panamanian President in 2004, allegedly at the request of the U.S.A.
Posada would eventually return to the U.S.A. where he would eventually be charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and immigration fraud for entering the country under false pretenses. The jury acquitted Posada and the U.S. refused to extradite him to any of the countries he is wanted for terrorism.
Today, Posada is a free man living in Miami, despite the fact that he is wanted for mass murder in Venezuela and Cuba. Posada employed the same tactics as Bin Laden and is also responsible for the deaths of countless civilians. If the U.S. can invade Pakistan to kill an arch terrorist, what can stop Cuba or Venezuela from using special forces to invade Miami and kill Posada.
The U.S.A. has claimed that they don’t want to extradite Posada to Cuba or Venezuela for fear that he may be tortured, despite the fact [that] the U.S.A. has tortured their own terrorist suspects in Cuba themselves.
If the killing of Bin Laden was “justice,” the U.S.A. must allow Posada to be brought to justice. If not the war on terror will be marred by hypocrisy. Anybody who kills innocent people for a political cause is a terrorist, even if they worked with the U.S.A.
The U.S. can not longer harbor Posada if they want to have any sort of moral authority in the world. Like Bin Laden, Posada was trained by the CIA, and like Bin Laden Posada has been implicated in plots against the U.S.A. The CIA believed that Posada was involved in assassination plot against Henry Kissinger.
Now that Bin Laden is dead, it is time to bring the “Bin Laden of the western hemisphere” to justice. We cannot condemn terrorism against us while condoning terrorism against country's who’s policies we disagree with.
by Casey Gane-McCalla.
Now that Bin Laden has been killed, there is still a major terrorist on the loose. A terrorist mastermind who is wanted in several countries for blowing up a plane, bombing tourist locations and trying to assassinate a prime minister.
The terrorist mastermind is Luis Posada Carrilles, a Cuban born former aide to the dictator Batista who Castro overthrew. Posada would leave Cuba after the Cuban revolution and be a major planner in the failed Bay Of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
Terrorists: Two former CIA agents, Luis Posada Carriles (l) and Osama bin Laden (r).Posada would be trained by the CIA in America in explosives in sabotage in the USA and served as the CIA’s principal agent for Cuba.
While he was serving as an agent for the CIA, the agency began to suspect he was tied to Latin American gangsters and was involved in cocaine trafficking. Posada would embark on a plan to overthrow the leftist government in Guatemala through terrorist bombings.
In 1976, a Cuban plane flying from Barbados to Jamaica exploded mid air as a result of bombs placed on the plane. 73 people were killed including the whole Cuban fencing team, women and children. The bombs were traced to two employees of Posada’s in Venezuela.
Both of Posada’s employees confessed to the bombing and implicated Posada as the mastermind. Posada was on trial in Venezuela for the crime when he escaped from prison.
Records show that the CIA was fully aware of Posada’s plot to blow up the airplane, but did nothing to stop it or alert Cuban authorities.
Rather than disowning Posada after the plane bombing, the CIA continued to used him as an asset in El Salvador where he became a principal agent in the Iran Contra scandal, which involved trading weapons to Iran to support the Contra rebels in El Salvador [Posada was based in El Salvador, but weren't the Contras in Nicaragua? - RATB] who were fighting against the communist government.
After the scandal, Posada moved to Honduras, where the FBI said he was responsible for 41 bombings across the country.
In 1997, Posada was implicated in a series of bombing of Cuban tourist locations, that wounded eleven people, and killed a Canadian citizen. Posada would tell the New York Times that he planned the attack.
In 2000, Posada was caught with 200 pounds of explosives and arrested for plotting an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro. He was convicted but later pardoned by the Panamanian President in 2004, allegedly at the request of the U.S.A.
Posada would eventually return to the U.S.A. where he would eventually be charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and immigration fraud for entering the country under false pretenses. The jury acquitted Posada and the U.S. refused to extradite him to any of the countries he is wanted for terrorism.
Today, Posada is a free man living in Miami, despite the fact that he is wanted for mass murder in Venezuela and Cuba. Posada employed the same tactics as Bin Laden and is also responsible for the deaths of countless civilians. If the U.S. can invade Pakistan to kill an arch terrorist, what can stop Cuba or Venezuela from using special forces to invade Miami and kill Posada.
The U.S.A. has claimed that they don’t want to extradite Posada to Cuba or Venezuela for fear that he may be tortured, despite the fact [that] the U.S.A. has tortured their own terrorist suspects in Cuba themselves.
If the killing of Bin Laden was “justice,” the U.S.A. must allow Posada to be brought to justice. If not the war on terror will be marred by hypocrisy. Anybody who kills innocent people for a political cause is a terrorist, even if they worked with the U.S.A.
The U.S. can not longer harbor Posada if they want to have any sort of moral authority in the world. Like Bin Laden, Posada was trained by the CIA, and like Bin Laden Posada has been implicated in plots against the U.S.A. The CIA believed that Posada was involved in assassination plot against Henry Kissinger.
Now that Bin Laden is dead, it is time to bring the “Bin Laden of the western hemisphere” to justice. We cannot condemn terrorism against us while condoning terrorism against country's who’s policies we disagree with.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
The death of Orlando Bosch – ‘unrepentant terrorist’
written for RATB by Ben Watson, 08 May 2011.
On Wednesday 27 April 2011, Orlando Bosch Avila died peacefully, after a four-month spell in a hospital in Miami at the ripe age of 84 years. His wife, Adriana Bosch said she wants her husband to be remembered as a great father, husband and doctor. His daughter, Karen Bosch added: ‘I never considered him a violent man, growing up with him and I don’t relate him to any violence’. Thank goodness for family, as there are many who would disagree and with good reason.
Orlando Bosch was born in Cuba on 18 August 1926 (within a week of his contemporary, Fidel Castro) in Potrerillo village, 150 miles east of Havana. His father was a policeman and later a restaurant owner. His mother was a teacher.
In 1946 Bosch enrolled in the medical school at the University of Havana where he first met Fidel. Both were leading figures in their respective fields: Bosch was president of the medical school student body while Fidel was head of the law school student body.
The two men, from similarly middle class backgrounds, became allies. Bosch participated in the struggle against dictator Fulgencio Batista, which culminated in the successful 1959 revolution headed by Fidel. During the struggle, Bosch fled to the United States to escape arrest. On his return, Fidel rewarded Bosch with an appointment as governor of a province. The relationship turned sour as Bosch rejecting the radicalization of the revolutionary process. He quit and retreated to the mountains in central Cuba to lead an armed rebellion against the revolution. By mid-1960, Bosch returned to the United States with his family. According to his autobiography he refused to participate in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion because the USA had refused to help his rebellion.
The US National Security Archive Bosch records that Bosch was in contact with the CIA in 1962 and 1963. He became a case officer for Operation 40, a covert operation to mount another Cuban exile invasion force to depose Fidel. He also ran the Insurrectional Movement of Revolutionary Recovery (MIRR), one of a number of ultra-violent Cuban exile groups which launched attacks against their native country, killing innocent families and destroying agriculture crops. Overthrowing and killing Fidel became Bosch’s sole mission in life.
The following are a few examples of his activities:
1964: Arrested in Miami for ‘towing a homemade, radio-operated torpedo through downtown in rush-hour traffic’.
1965: Arrested for attempting to smuggle bombs out of the country.
1966: Arrested for ferrying ‘six dynamite-stuffed, 100 pound surplus aerial bombs’ up the Tamiami Trail ‘to a secret base where there was a boat we could use to bomb Castro’.
None of these charges resulted in convictions.
1970: Finally convicted for misfiring a bazooka at a freighter docked at the Port of Miami, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison but paroled after only 4 years! He violated the terms of his parole by leaving the US for other Latin American countries when he was wanted for questioning in connection with the assassination of another Cuban exile leader, Jose Elias de la Torriente.
1974-1976: US authorities rejected offers from Venezuela and Costa Rica to return him to the United States.
1976: Bosch helped found the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), an umbrella organization for the most extreme anti-Castro groups. US government documentation shows that CORU was directly responsible for 50 terrorist operations in the next 5 years. The most lethal operation happened on 6 October 1976, just west of the Caribbean island of Barbados, when 2 bombs were set-off on a Cubana Airlines civilian aeroplane in mid-air, killing all 73 people on-board.
The CIA, who had been keeping track of Bosch and his associates for years, identified Bosch, along with CORU co-founder Luis Posada, as masterminds for the outrageous action. Other participants were found guilty after trial and sentenced to 20 years, but Bosch’s case dragged on until 1986 when he was acquitted on a technicality.
In 1987, Bosch was arrested in the United States on a parole violation and held for 6 months. The powerful Cuban-American lobby put pressure on wannabe Florida governor Jeb Bush, son of the then President George Bush Senior, to intervene. Despite strong objections from the President’s own Defense Department, which labelled him as one of the most deadly terrorists within the hemisphere, all the charges were dropped and Bosch was released. He had acquired friends in high places.
Federal attorneys told a judge in 1990 that they had tried to deport Bosch to 31 different countries but all had refused to take him. Cuba’s request for Bosch to be sent to back for trial on the island was denied by the United States.
A former US attorney called Bosch an ‘unrepentant terrorist’. With so much evidence stacked against him and no final words of regret or remorse, that is exactly how he should be remembered.
On Wednesday 27 April 2011, Orlando Bosch Avila died peacefully, after a four-month spell in a hospital in Miami at the ripe age of 84 years. His wife, Adriana Bosch said she wants her husband to be remembered as a great father, husband and doctor. His daughter, Karen Bosch added: ‘I never considered him a violent man, growing up with him and I don’t relate him to any violence’. Thank goodness for family, as there are many who would disagree and with good reason.
Orlando Bosch was born in Cuba on 18 August 1926 (within a week of his contemporary, Fidel Castro) in Potrerillo village, 150 miles east of Havana. His father was a policeman and later a restaurant owner. His mother was a teacher.
In 1946 Bosch enrolled in the medical school at the University of Havana where he first met Fidel. Both were leading figures in their respective fields: Bosch was president of the medical school student body while Fidel was head of the law school student body.
The two men, from similarly middle class backgrounds, became allies. Bosch participated in the struggle against dictator Fulgencio Batista, which culminated in the successful 1959 revolution headed by Fidel. During the struggle, Bosch fled to the United States to escape arrest. On his return, Fidel rewarded Bosch with an appointment as governor of a province. The relationship turned sour as Bosch rejecting the radicalization of the revolutionary process. He quit and retreated to the mountains in central Cuba to lead an armed rebellion against the revolution. By mid-1960, Bosch returned to the United States with his family. According to his autobiography he refused to participate in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion because the USA had refused to help his rebellion.
The US National Security Archive Bosch records that Bosch was in contact with the CIA in 1962 and 1963. He became a case officer for Operation 40, a covert operation to mount another Cuban exile invasion force to depose Fidel. He also ran the Insurrectional Movement of Revolutionary Recovery (MIRR), one of a number of ultra-violent Cuban exile groups which launched attacks against their native country, killing innocent families and destroying agriculture crops. Overthrowing and killing Fidel became Bosch’s sole mission in life.
The following are a few examples of his activities:
1964: Arrested in Miami for ‘towing a homemade, radio-operated torpedo through downtown in rush-hour traffic’.
1965: Arrested for attempting to smuggle bombs out of the country.
1966: Arrested for ferrying ‘six dynamite-stuffed, 100 pound surplus aerial bombs’ up the Tamiami Trail ‘to a secret base where there was a boat we could use to bomb Castro’.
None of these charges resulted in convictions.
1970: Finally convicted for misfiring a bazooka at a freighter docked at the Port of Miami, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison but paroled after only 4 years! He violated the terms of his parole by leaving the US for other Latin American countries when he was wanted for questioning in connection with the assassination of another Cuban exile leader, Jose Elias de la Torriente.
1974-1976: US authorities rejected offers from Venezuela and Costa Rica to return him to the United States.
1976: Bosch helped found the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), an umbrella organization for the most extreme anti-Castro groups. US government documentation shows that CORU was directly responsible for 50 terrorist operations in the next 5 years. The most lethal operation happened on 6 October 1976, just west of the Caribbean island of Barbados, when 2 bombs were set-off on a Cubana Airlines civilian aeroplane in mid-air, killing all 73 people on-board.
The CIA, who had been keeping track of Bosch and his associates for years, identified Bosch, along with CORU co-founder Luis Posada, as masterminds for the outrageous action. Other participants were found guilty after trial and sentenced to 20 years, but Bosch’s case dragged on until 1986 when he was acquitted on a technicality.
In 1987, Bosch was arrested in the United States on a parole violation and held for 6 months. The powerful Cuban-American lobby put pressure on wannabe Florida governor Jeb Bush, son of the then President George Bush Senior, to intervene. Despite strong objections from the President’s own Defense Department, which labelled him as one of the most deadly terrorists within the hemisphere, all the charges were dropped and Bosch was released. He had acquired friends in high places.
Federal attorneys told a judge in 1990 that they had tried to deport Bosch to 31 different countries but all had refused to take him. Cuba’s request for Bosch to be sent to back for trial on the island was denied by the United States.
A former US attorney called Bosch an ‘unrepentant terrorist’. With so much evidence stacked against him and no final words of regret or remorse, that is exactly how he should be remembered.
Friday, 29 April 2011
US-backed terrorist Orlando Bosch dies unpunished
Terrorist Orlando Bosch Dies Unpunished in Miami
by Jean-Guy Allard, 28 April 2011
Source: Granma
Orlando Bosch, the head of the terrorist organization CORU a protégé of the Bush clan, the NCAF and the CIA, and the co-author with Luis Posada Carriles of the explosion in mid-flight of a Cubana de Aviacion plane; died in Miami this Wednesday, at 12:05 pm, unpunished for the crimes he committed.
According to a statement, his death occurred after "suffering from an (unspecified) long and painful disease." He was 84.
Bosch was born on August 18, 1926 in Potrerillo, Cuba, 250 kilometers east of Havana. He arrived in the United States on July 28, 1960 with a 30-day stay permit. However, he immediately entered the dirty war against Cuba ordered by the CIA, and directed from Florida, and he would remain in US territory until 1972.
US-backed terrorists Orlando Bosch (l) and Luis Posada Carriles (r).
His barbarian methods can be related in some of the crimes he committed and never got punished for: on September 16, 1968 he took part in the launching of a bazooka projectile against the Polish ship Polanica, anchored in the port of Miami. On November 15, 1968, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Federal Court in the South Florida District for several crimes and, at the same time, for having sent written threats to the then-President of Mexico, to Spain’s Head of State and to the British Prime Minister, in which he express his intent to damage all the ships and planes of those nations as retaliation for their ties with Cuba.
In 1972 he was released on parole, upon which he left the United States. In a clear violation of his parole terms he actively participated in the gruesome Operation Condor together with the CIA and Pinochet’s dictatorship.
More obsessed than ever with his terrorist "mission," Bosch engaged in the creation, on CIA orders, of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) in Bonao, Dominican Republic, to gather together several terrorist Miami-based groups. The creation of the organization took place on June 11, 1976 in a secret work house of the agency.
The CORU would become the most devastating Cuban-American terrorist group in the second half of the 20th century. Under the CIA and other right-wing organizations orders, they planned and executed numerous attempts, murders, and kidnappings in Miami, New York, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Argentina and even Europe.
A report issued by the Acting General Attorney General Joe D. Whitley on May 1989, declared Bosch a public enemy of the United States and denied asylum to this dangerous character for the 30-odd terrorist acts committed, among them the hideous Barbados bombing.
The US Attorney emphasized one particular terrorist act: "In October 1976, Bosch was arrested in Venezuela in relation with the bombing committed against a Cuban civilian airliner on October 6, 1976, which killed 73 men, women and children aboard."
Bosch left Venezuela under the protection of the person who did the procedures to get his "acquittal," who was none other than Otto Reich, then the ambassador of the United States to Caracas. He arrived in the United States from Venezuela on February 18, 1988, without any valid papers. Upon his arrival, he was formally arrested under warrant for his parole violation in 1974, when it was debated whether to keep him under arrest or to expel him.
According to the New York Times issued on August 17, 1989 Cuba-American congresswoman Ileana Ross-Lehtinen and other Florida and NCAF politicians were personally negotiating his release with then President George Bush Sr. The meeting was arranged by his son Jeb Bush, who won in this way the support of the Cuban right-wing of Miami for his run for governor of Florida a few years later.
In a press conference following his release, Bosch showed no remorse at all. In an open challenge, the terrorist said with haughty irony: "They may have bought the chain, but they have not bought the monkey."
His constant instigation to a terrorist war against Cuba in the media of Miami, his acknowledgement of plans to commit terrorist acts, and his hateful remarks on the victims of the Barbados bombing, are proof of the impunity he enjoyed in life. The same that Luis Posada Carriles enjoys today.
Read more on Orlando Bosch and his recent 2010 memoirs here.
by Jean-Guy Allard, 28 April 2011
Source: Granma
Orlando Bosch, the head of the terrorist organization CORU a protégé of the Bush clan, the NCAF and the CIA, and the co-author with Luis Posada Carriles of the explosion in mid-flight of a Cubana de Aviacion plane; died in Miami this Wednesday, at 12:05 pm, unpunished for the crimes he committed.
According to a statement, his death occurred after "suffering from an (unspecified) long and painful disease." He was 84.
Bosch was born on August 18, 1926 in Potrerillo, Cuba, 250 kilometers east of Havana. He arrived in the United States on July 28, 1960 with a 30-day stay permit. However, he immediately entered the dirty war against Cuba ordered by the CIA, and directed from Florida, and he would remain in US territory until 1972.
US-backed terrorists Orlando Bosch (l) and Luis Posada Carriles (r).His barbarian methods can be related in some of the crimes he committed and never got punished for: on September 16, 1968 he took part in the launching of a bazooka projectile against the Polish ship Polanica, anchored in the port of Miami. On November 15, 1968, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Federal Court in the South Florida District for several crimes and, at the same time, for having sent written threats to the then-President of Mexico, to Spain’s Head of State and to the British Prime Minister, in which he express his intent to damage all the ships and planes of those nations as retaliation for their ties with Cuba.
In 1972 he was released on parole, upon which he left the United States. In a clear violation of his parole terms he actively participated in the gruesome Operation Condor together with the CIA and Pinochet’s dictatorship.
More obsessed than ever with his terrorist "mission," Bosch engaged in the creation, on CIA orders, of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) in Bonao, Dominican Republic, to gather together several terrorist Miami-based groups. The creation of the organization took place on June 11, 1976 in a secret work house of the agency.
The CORU would become the most devastating Cuban-American terrorist group in the second half of the 20th century. Under the CIA and other right-wing organizations orders, they planned and executed numerous attempts, murders, and kidnappings in Miami, New York, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Argentina and even Europe.
A report issued by the Acting General Attorney General Joe D. Whitley on May 1989, declared Bosch a public enemy of the United States and denied asylum to this dangerous character for the 30-odd terrorist acts committed, among them the hideous Barbados bombing.
The US Attorney emphasized one particular terrorist act: "In October 1976, Bosch was arrested in Venezuela in relation with the bombing committed against a Cuban civilian airliner on October 6, 1976, which killed 73 men, women and children aboard."
Bosch left Venezuela under the protection of the person who did the procedures to get his "acquittal," who was none other than Otto Reich, then the ambassador of the United States to Caracas. He arrived in the United States from Venezuela on February 18, 1988, without any valid papers. Upon his arrival, he was formally arrested under warrant for his parole violation in 1974, when it was debated whether to keep him under arrest or to expel him.
According to the New York Times issued on August 17, 1989 Cuba-American congresswoman Ileana Ross-Lehtinen and other Florida and NCAF politicians were personally negotiating his release with then President George Bush Sr. The meeting was arranged by his son Jeb Bush, who won in this way the support of the Cuban right-wing of Miami for his run for governor of Florida a few years later.
In a press conference following his release, Bosch showed no remorse at all. In an open challenge, the terrorist said with haughty irony: "They may have bought the chain, but they have not bought the monkey."
His constant instigation to a terrorist war against Cuba in the media of Miami, his acknowledgement of plans to commit terrorist acts, and his hateful remarks on the victims of the Barbados bombing, are proof of the impunity he enjoyed in life. The same that Luis Posada Carriles enjoys today.
Read more on Orlando Bosch and his recent 2010 memoirs here.
Friday, 15 April 2011
Cuba denounces US acquittal of terrorist Carriles at the UN
UN: Cuba Denounces US Acquittal of Terrorist.
Source: Cubaminrex-Prensa Latina, 12 April 2011.
Cuba requested the UN on Monday [April 11, 2011] to distribute as an official UN document a note addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by Cuba's Foreign Ministry condemning the acquittal of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in a judicial farce in the United States.
In a press release, the Cuban Permanent Mission to the UN said that after three months of judicial farce in Texas, it took only three hours for the jury to find the notorious international terrorist not guilty.
Posada Carriles was acquitted from 11 charges of perjury, immigration fraud and obstruction of procedure, all risible accusations compared to the magnitude of his terrorist actions, including the bombing of a Cuban plane, killing all 73 people on board, in 1976 and his involvement in a
series of bomb attacks in Havana in 1997, said the note.
As Posada is acquitted, five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters are unfairly serving a collective 99-year sentence, plus two life sentences, in US prisons for informing on the plans of violent actions against Cuba conceived by terrorist groups based in U.S. territory, added the text.
During the past 12 years, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Rene Gonzalez, also known as The Cuban Five, have suffered inhuman, humiliating treatment in US prisons.
Posada Carriles' acquittal is an insult to the children without fathers, the widows and the mothers crying for the trail of death left by this terrorist, said the Cuban note.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said that what happened in El Paso is a shame as it contradicts the US much-trumpeted war on terror, which has triggered military interventions and claimed thousands of lives in other countries.
The note wondered if Washington will be able to open another legal procedure against Posada Carriles for terrorism or proceed to his extradition to Venezuela, as requested over five years ago.
It said that the United States has the obligation by law to agree to this request as it is a signatory of international agreements in this regard and in compliance with UN Security Council resolution 1373 (2001).
Source: Cubaminrex-Prensa Latina, 12 April 2011.
Cuba requested the UN on Monday [April 11, 2011] to distribute as an official UN document a note addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by Cuba's Foreign Ministry condemning the acquittal of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in a judicial farce in the United States.
In a press release, the Cuban Permanent Mission to the UN said that after three months of judicial farce in Texas, it took only three hours for the jury to find the notorious international terrorist not guilty.
Posada Carriles was acquitted from 11 charges of perjury, immigration fraud and obstruction of procedure, all risible accusations compared to the magnitude of his terrorist actions, including the bombing of a Cuban plane, killing all 73 people on board, in 1976 and his involvement in a
series of bomb attacks in Havana in 1997, said the note.
As Posada is acquitted, five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters are unfairly serving a collective 99-year sentence, plus two life sentences, in US prisons for informing on the plans of violent actions against Cuba conceived by terrorist groups based in U.S. territory, added the text.
During the past 12 years, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Rene Gonzalez, also known as The Cuban Five, have suffered inhuman, humiliating treatment in US prisons.
Posada Carriles' acquittal is an insult to the children without fathers, the widows and the mothers crying for the trail of death left by this terrorist, said the Cuban note.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said that what happened in El Paso is a shame as it contradicts the US much-trumpeted war on terror, which has triggered military interventions and claimed thousands of lives in other countries.
The note wondered if Washington will be able to open another legal procedure against Posada Carriles for terrorism or proceed to his extradition to Venezuela, as requested over five years ago.
It said that the United States has the obligation by law to agree to this request as it is a signatory of international agreements in this regard and in compliance with UN Security Council resolution 1373 (2001).
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Miami lawyer was worth every penny in Posada Carriles case
by Tracey Eaton, 08 April 2011.
Source: AlongtheMalecon
Ever tenacious Arturo Hernandez was relentless in his defense of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles and deserves much of the credit for Friday's verdict.
Posada Carriles should also thank U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone, who allowed some of the evidence against the defendant to be excluded. The judge also permitted hundreds of documents in the case to be filed under seal, so the public may never know what really went on behind closed doors unless one of the lawyers writes a tell-all book.
Read more...
Source: AlongtheMalecon
Ever tenacious Arturo Hernandez was relentless in his defense of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles and deserves much of the credit for Friday's verdict.
Posada Carriles should also thank U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone, who allowed some of the evidence against the defendant to be excluded. The judge also permitted hundreds of documents in the case to be filed under seal, so the public may never know what really went on behind closed doors unless one of the lawyers writes a tell-all book.
Read more...
US terrorist Carriles acquitted
Posada Carriles acquited on all counts
Source: South Journal, 08 April 2011.
After a three-month trial at El Paso Federal Court, it took the jury just three hours to find Luis Posada Carriles innocent of all 11 counts of perjury, fraud and obstruction of justice. Despite his terrorist records the defendant was not processed for his real crimes.
Luis Posada Carriles, accused of having masterminded the worst terrorist act in Latin America and other attacks against Cuba, of having coordinated illegal and violent actions in Central America and a CIA agent, faced a trial which, for the first time in the United States, included evidence and testimonies about his terrorism-related underground activity.
Posada has been identified as a dangerous terrorist by some US authorities; he has been on the Interpol lists and Venezuela has requested his extradition. However he has never faced a process similar to that of other terrorist suspects in the United States, or in the Guantanamo US naval base.
The charges of perjury and migratory fraud that he faced in El Paso focused on his illegal entry in the United States in 2005, as well as subsequent lies to US authorities about his role in some terrorist cases.
Source: South Journal, 08 April 2011.
After a three-month trial at El Paso Federal Court, it took the jury just three hours to find Luis Posada Carriles innocent of all 11 counts of perjury, fraud and obstruction of justice. Despite his terrorist records the defendant was not processed for his real crimes.
Luis Posada Carriles, accused of having masterminded the worst terrorist act in Latin America and other attacks against Cuba, of having coordinated illegal and violent actions in Central America and a CIA agent, faced a trial which, for the first time in the United States, included evidence and testimonies about his terrorism-related underground activity.
Posada has been identified as a dangerous terrorist by some US authorities; he has been on the Interpol lists and Venezuela has requested his extradition. However he has never faced a process similar to that of other terrorist suspects in the United States, or in the Guantanamo US naval base.
The charges of perjury and migratory fraud that he faced in El Paso focused on his illegal entry in the United States in 2005, as well as subsequent lies to US authorities about his role in some terrorist cases.
El Paso Diary: Day 39 of the Posada Carriles Trial
The Witness From María Elvira, Live!
By José Pertierra, April 6, 2011.
Source: CounterPunch.org
The María Elvira, Live! show came to El Paso this week. Luis Posada Carriles’ defense attorney turned the federal trial into a television talk show. The defense called Roberto Hernández del Llano as a star witness in an attempt to impeach the previous testimony of Cuban investigator Roberto Hernández Caballero, who had inspected the bombing scenes in Havana in 1997.
Hernández del Llano is one of María Elvira’s favorite guests. He is an habitué of television talk shows, where he holds forth on the personal lives of Fidel Castro, his wife and their children. He never offers any proof of what he says. He simply declares his assertions are true, so they can spread like wildfire in Miami’s Little Havana. Hernández del Llano tried to do the same here in El Paso.
Cuba on trial (again)
Before the witness testified, prosecutor Jerome Teresinski objected without success to Judge Kathleen Cardone. He reminded the judge that she had previously ruled that she would not allow Cuba to be put on trial. “This case is about the crimes of Luis Posada Carriles. It is not about Cuba,” he said.
The judge only partially agreed and said, “I have decided that the government of Cuba is not being tried here, but I will allow the witness to testify. As the questioning proceeds, you may object to the question, and I will decide if I will allow a response.”
Knowing that even an elephant can fit through the eye of the legal loophole the judge had just left open, Teresinski repeated his objection. “Your Honor, I don’t want to appear to quibble …”
“Hah!” bellowed the defense attorney from counsel table with a loud laugh.
Teresinski became livid. Without finishing his sentence, he said to the judge: “I see nothing funny here. His [the defense attorney’s] laughter is stunning. It is a lack of professionalism.”
The judge tried to placate him, but Teresinski continued to stew for the rest of the day. Each question that the defense attorney directed at the witness met a forceful objection from Teresinski.
The judge overruled nearly all of them, and Hernández del Llano was able to make under oath and in federal court the kinds of outrageous statements that have established his reputation as a provoking television personality on the María Elvira, Live!
The witness’ colorful declarations
He said that Roberto Hernández Caballero, the Cuban investigator who testified last month in El Paso, had personally tortured him in April 2005 at the Villa Marista prison in Cuba. He offered no details. He simply mentioned it.
The witness did not explain why he had never said this in any of his many television appearances on María Elvira, Live! Such a declaration would certainly have boosted the ratings, gotten him a raise and turned him into a hero in Miami’s Little Havana.
Hernández del Llano told the jurors that he had been a major in Cuba’s Interior Ministry (MININT), but that he resigned more than 20 years ago. He said he defected in 2007 and now lives–where else?–in Miami.
He declared that in 2003, two MININT counter-intelligence agents tried to re-recruit him. “The work that they wanted me to do involved a friend of mine and a relative, and so I refused,” he said. “Did you suffer any consequences?” asked attorney Arturo Hernández. “Yes. They threatened me and shortly thereafter, troops from Villa Marista invaded the home of my brother Pedro Hernández del Valle and evicted his family,” answered Hernández del Llano.
HHH
The direct examination of the witness sounded like blues in H flat: attorney Hernández asking Roberto Hernández about Roberto Hernández.
Roberto Hernández del Llano told attorney Hernández that Roberto Hernández Caballero was the one responsible for his arrest in 2005. “Since January of 2003, Hernández has directed an entire repressive operation against me,” said Hernández del Llano. “He tortured me physically and beat me.”
At that the judge called a recess. Maybe she wanted to sort out the Hernándezes. But also she had a number of pending matters she wanted to resolve. She has several other cases on her docket besides this one, and there were a dozen criminal defense attorneys in the courtroom (their clients in the court’s holding cell) waiting for sentencing hearings.
Arturo Hernández is not finished with his direct examination, and the prosecutor’s cross-examination of Roberto Hernández del Llano is still to come. The Government has access to the witness’ records, which includes his 2007 application for asylum. It also has access to FBI records regarding the witness and can ask Cuba for its records, assuming that the witness was actually a prisoner there.
The defense’s medical expert
Yesterday a pathologist hired by attorney Hernández also testified: Dr. Ronald K. Wright. He came to El Paso looking like Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders, in a white suit and a bow tie. With a strong southern accent, he stated that he has testified in 520 cases, 178 of which were criminal cases.
With the exception of about six cases, he has always testified for the defense. “It’s because the prosecutors have cornered the market on forensic pathologists,” he said. He testified that Posada Carriles paid him $4,500 for his testimony. If we counted only the criminal cases in which he testified and multiply them by the $4,500 he was paid for this one, Dr. Wright would have earned more than $800,000 for his testimony over the years. Not a bad gig.
Fingers
Defense attorney Rhonda Anderson questioned Dr. Wright, and he testified that the shrapnel that struck the throat of Fabio Di Celmo was not the cause of death. The thirty-two-year-old Italian businessman died, said Dr. Wright, because of inadequate medical attention by the Cubans.
“If I’d been there, he wouldn’t have died,” the doctor said brimming with confidence. Of course, the Miami-based doctor did not explain how he could be so sure that if he’d been at the side of Di Celmo he could have avoided the shrapnel that fatally wounded the decedent.
“You just needed to hold down the bleeding by putting something on it. It’s a very simple procedure,” he declared. Lifting both arms in the air and moving his fingers around, the doctor said to the jurors. “Fingers, fingers, fingers. It’s quite simple. If somebody had used his fingers, Di Celmo could have survived for several hours.”
Vanity
The vainer the witness, the easier the cross-examination. Prosecutor Timothy J. Reardon quickly managed to get the witness to admit that Fabio Di Celmo died due to a severe hemorrhage.
“Mr. Di Celmo died, isn’t that true?” he asked.
Upon hearing the witness’ affirmation, he said, “You weren’t there, isn’t that true?”
“Correct,” answered the doctor.
“Are you saying that Di Celmo did not bleed to death?” Reardon snapped.
Dr. Wright hesitated and finally said, “Well, yes. But it didn’t have to happen.”
“It didn’t have to happen, because you would have known how to attend to him immediately with your fingers?” the prosecutor asked with obvious disdain.
Reardon didn’t wait for an answer. He pivoted away from the witness and walked to the prosecutor’s table saying, “I have no further questions.”
José Pertierra practices law in Washington, DC. He represents the government of Venezuela in the case to extradite Luis Posada Carriles. Translated by Machetera and Manuel Talens. They are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity.
Spanish language version.
See also: El Paso Diary: Day 38 of the Posada Carriles Trial: The Sound and Fury of Otto Reich, 05 April 2011.
By José Pertierra, April 6, 2011.
Source: CounterPunch.org
The María Elvira, Live! show came to El Paso this week. Luis Posada Carriles’ defense attorney turned the federal trial into a television talk show. The defense called Roberto Hernández del Llano as a star witness in an attempt to impeach the previous testimony of Cuban investigator Roberto Hernández Caballero, who had inspected the bombing scenes in Havana in 1997.
Hernández del Llano is one of María Elvira’s favorite guests. He is an habitué of television talk shows, where he holds forth on the personal lives of Fidel Castro, his wife and their children. He never offers any proof of what he says. He simply declares his assertions are true, so they can spread like wildfire in Miami’s Little Havana. Hernández del Llano tried to do the same here in El Paso.
Cuba on trial (again)
Before the witness testified, prosecutor Jerome Teresinski objected without success to Judge Kathleen Cardone. He reminded the judge that she had previously ruled that she would not allow Cuba to be put on trial. “This case is about the crimes of Luis Posada Carriles. It is not about Cuba,” he said.
The judge only partially agreed and said, “I have decided that the government of Cuba is not being tried here, but I will allow the witness to testify. As the questioning proceeds, you may object to the question, and I will decide if I will allow a response.”
Knowing that even an elephant can fit through the eye of the legal loophole the judge had just left open, Teresinski repeated his objection. “Your Honor, I don’t want to appear to quibble …”
“Hah!” bellowed the defense attorney from counsel table with a loud laugh.
Teresinski became livid. Without finishing his sentence, he said to the judge: “I see nothing funny here. His [the defense attorney’s] laughter is stunning. It is a lack of professionalism.”
The judge tried to placate him, but Teresinski continued to stew for the rest of the day. Each question that the defense attorney directed at the witness met a forceful objection from Teresinski.
The judge overruled nearly all of them, and Hernández del Llano was able to make under oath and in federal court the kinds of outrageous statements that have established his reputation as a provoking television personality on the María Elvira, Live!
The witness’ colorful declarations
He said that Roberto Hernández Caballero, the Cuban investigator who testified last month in El Paso, had personally tortured him in April 2005 at the Villa Marista prison in Cuba. He offered no details. He simply mentioned it.
The witness did not explain why he had never said this in any of his many television appearances on María Elvira, Live! Such a declaration would certainly have boosted the ratings, gotten him a raise and turned him into a hero in Miami’s Little Havana.
Hernández del Llano told the jurors that he had been a major in Cuba’s Interior Ministry (MININT), but that he resigned more than 20 years ago. He said he defected in 2007 and now lives–where else?–in Miami.
He declared that in 2003, two MININT counter-intelligence agents tried to re-recruit him. “The work that they wanted me to do involved a friend of mine and a relative, and so I refused,” he said. “Did you suffer any consequences?” asked attorney Arturo Hernández. “Yes. They threatened me and shortly thereafter, troops from Villa Marista invaded the home of my brother Pedro Hernández del Valle and evicted his family,” answered Hernández del Llano.
HHH
The direct examination of the witness sounded like blues in H flat: attorney Hernández asking Roberto Hernández about Roberto Hernández.
Roberto Hernández del Llano told attorney Hernández that Roberto Hernández Caballero was the one responsible for his arrest in 2005. “Since January of 2003, Hernández has directed an entire repressive operation against me,” said Hernández del Llano. “He tortured me physically and beat me.”
At that the judge called a recess. Maybe she wanted to sort out the Hernándezes. But also she had a number of pending matters she wanted to resolve. She has several other cases on her docket besides this one, and there were a dozen criminal defense attorneys in the courtroom (their clients in the court’s holding cell) waiting for sentencing hearings.
Arturo Hernández is not finished with his direct examination, and the prosecutor’s cross-examination of Roberto Hernández del Llano is still to come. The Government has access to the witness’ records, which includes his 2007 application for asylum. It also has access to FBI records regarding the witness and can ask Cuba for its records, assuming that the witness was actually a prisoner there.
The defense’s medical expert
Yesterday a pathologist hired by attorney Hernández also testified: Dr. Ronald K. Wright. He came to El Paso looking like Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders, in a white suit and a bow tie. With a strong southern accent, he stated that he has testified in 520 cases, 178 of which were criminal cases.
With the exception of about six cases, he has always testified for the defense. “It’s because the prosecutors have cornered the market on forensic pathologists,” he said. He testified that Posada Carriles paid him $4,500 for his testimony. If we counted only the criminal cases in which he testified and multiply them by the $4,500 he was paid for this one, Dr. Wright would have earned more than $800,000 for his testimony over the years. Not a bad gig.
Fingers
Defense attorney Rhonda Anderson questioned Dr. Wright, and he testified that the shrapnel that struck the throat of Fabio Di Celmo was not the cause of death. The thirty-two-year-old Italian businessman died, said Dr. Wright, because of inadequate medical attention by the Cubans.
“If I’d been there, he wouldn’t have died,” the doctor said brimming with confidence. Of course, the Miami-based doctor did not explain how he could be so sure that if he’d been at the side of Di Celmo he could have avoided the shrapnel that fatally wounded the decedent.
“You just needed to hold down the bleeding by putting something on it. It’s a very simple procedure,” he declared. Lifting both arms in the air and moving his fingers around, the doctor said to the jurors. “Fingers, fingers, fingers. It’s quite simple. If somebody had used his fingers, Di Celmo could have survived for several hours.”
Vanity
The vainer the witness, the easier the cross-examination. Prosecutor Timothy J. Reardon quickly managed to get the witness to admit that Fabio Di Celmo died due to a severe hemorrhage.
“Mr. Di Celmo died, isn’t that true?” he asked.
Upon hearing the witness’ affirmation, he said, “You weren’t there, isn’t that true?”
“Correct,” answered the doctor.
“Are you saying that Di Celmo did not bleed to death?” Reardon snapped.
Dr. Wright hesitated and finally said, “Well, yes. But it didn’t have to happen.”
“It didn’t have to happen, because you would have known how to attend to him immediately with your fingers?” the prosecutor asked with obvious disdain.
Reardon didn’t wait for an answer. He pivoted away from the witness and walked to the prosecutor’s table saying, “I have no further questions.”
José Pertierra practices law in Washington, DC. He represents the government of Venezuela in the case to extradite Luis Posada Carriles. Translated by Machetera and Manuel Talens. They are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity.
Spanish language version.
See also: El Paso Diary: Day 38 of the Posada Carriles Trial: The Sound and Fury of Otto Reich, 05 April 2011.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
CIA, spies and videotapes
CIA, Spies and Videotapes – Cuba exposes US programme of subversion
by Helen Yaffe
First published in Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No. 220, April/May 2011.
During a state visit to Chile on 21 March 2011, US President Obama announced: ‘we’ll continue to seek ways to increase the independence of the Cuban people, who I believe are entitled to the same freedom and liberty as everyone else in this hemisphere.’ The ways sought by the US administration have been amply exposed since January 2011 through two court cases and by four Cuban agents. US policy has evolved, adapted and expanded, but the objective has remained unchanged since 1960 - the destruction of Cuba’s socialist revolution. Helen Yaffe reports.
While the US blockade has attempted ‘to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government’ (Lester D Mallory, US government official, 6 April 1960),[1] the programme of fostering internal dissent was kept secret from 1959 to 1990. However: ‘In 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the financial and logistical support to Cuban dissidents became public and was integrated into US law’ (Salim Lamrani, Znet, 15 March 2011).
Programmes were run by the CIA until 1987 when Cuban authorities used evidence from 27 undercover agents to expose illegal activities and the use of diplomatic status as a cover for CIA operations. Subsequently, government-funded organisations have been used to promote internal opposition: the US Agency for International Development (USAID), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Freedom House. US imperialism’s ‘unwavering support for human rights, democracy, and the open market system’ (Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba website) is backed by serious money. US President Bush’s administration of 2001 to 2008 ‘invested’ $166 million in pursuing capitalist restoration. The Obama administration has allocated $60 million to this end from 2009 to 2011.
The innovation since 2008 has been the use of private contractors commissioned to carry out destabilisation programmes in Cuba. Projects and funds have been filtered through European NGOs which, under the guise of defending ‘human rights’ and promoting ‘democracy’, serve the imperialist war against socialist Cuba.
Recent European funding recipients include:[2]
Imperialist hypocrisy is astonishing! First, for 50 years the US has tried to economically suffocate Cuba through the illegal blockade, which has cost Cuba $236 billion. Then it invests millions of dollars in creating an internal opposition to the revolutionary government. Second, having obstructed Cuban telecommunications through the US blockade, prohibiting Cuba from connecting to the Caribbean optic fibre cable circuit, the imperialists turn internet access into a tool for creating the impression of an internal opposition in Cuba and to encourage such an opposition to emerge.
Two court cases
Luis Posada Carriles – the CIA’s own terrorist
On 10 January the trial of CIA-trained terrorist Luis Posada Carriles began in El Paso, Texas. He is being prosecuted by the US government on 11 charges of perjury, obstructing justice and false testimony, accused of lying to immigration officials about his entry into the US in March 2005.
Carriles has been on the CIA payroll on and off since 1959. He was imprisoned in Venezuela for the bombing of a Cuban civilian aeroplane in 1976 which killed 73 people, and in Panama for the plan to blow up a university auditorium during the visit and speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000. He escaped from prison in Venezuela and was pardoned by the outgoing President of Panama. In 1998, New York Times journalist Ana Bardach cited Carriles as boasting about his responsibility for the bombing campaign against Cuban hotels in 1997 which claimed the life of Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo. ‘We just wanted to make a big scandal so that the tourists don't come any more’, Carriles told Bardach. ‘The Italian was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I sleep like a baby.’ He also said: ‘The CIA taught us everything. They taught us explosives, how to kill, bomb trained us in acts of sabotage.’ In El Paso, however, Carriles is not on trial for terrorism, but for lying to immigration officials.
The prosecution case ended in late March after calling 23 witnesses. Almost daily updates are provided by Cuban-born, Washington-based lawyer Jose Pertierra (see http://en.cubadebate.cu). Pertierra represents Venezuela’s extradition order against Carriles who became a Venezuelan citizen while working as a ‘paid asset’ of the CIA in Venezuela from 1968 to 1976. The US has refused to extradite Carriles to Venezuela or Cuba for trial, claiming he would face torture in those countries. Pertierra responded: ‘The only evidence I have seen of torture in Cuba comes from the US military base at Guantanamo Bay.’ The real issue is the information which Carriles could reveal about his work for the CIA which, in addition to terrorism against Cuba, includes the dirty war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Carriles has threatened to release his memoirs if anything happens to him.
Alan Gross – mercenaries’ mercenary
On 12 March, after a court case involving ten witnesses, nine experts and material and documentary evidence, Cuban judges found US citizen Alan Gross guilty of subversion against the state and the revolution and sentenced him to 15 years in gaol. Entrepreneur and mercenary Alan Gross was contracted by the US company Development Alternatives Inc (DAI), which in 2008 had won a $6 million contract with USAID to ‘advance democracy’ in Cuba. This involved taking communications equipment, satellite phones and laptops with internet access into Cuba to promote subversion whilst posing as tourists. At the time of Gross’s arrest in Havana on 4 December 2009 he had travelled to Cuba as a tourist five times in nine months. Gross had received similar previous contracts with USAID to operate in Afghanistan and Iraq. His employer, DAI, has won more than $2.7 billion in USAID contacts from 2000 to the third quarter of 2009.
Cuba’s Reasons – four agents reveal their work
On the evening of Saturday 26 February, Cuban television broadcast ‘Pawns of Imperialism’, an episode in the series Razones de Cuba (Cuba’s Reasons),[3] detailing close links between the internal counterrevolution, the right-wing exile community and the US government. Evidence of these links was provided by two Cuban state agents who had infiltrated the ranks of the so-called ‘dissident’ movement. The first was Moises Rodriguez, who spent 20 years posing as a counter-revolutionary, working closely with the US Interest Section (USIS) in Havana. The second was Carlos Serpa, who spent ten years posing as an ‘independent journalist’ for Radio Martí and numerous blogs and websites. As President of the Union of Free Journalists in Cuba, an organisation without members, Serpa worked closely with the Ladies in White (relatives of the US-paid opposition imprisoned in 2003), accompanying their processions through Havana.
Rodriguez received instructions directly from functionaries of the USIS, who sent him to the US to meet Carriles and informed him of plans to destabilise Cuba. Both agents explain how the USIS supervises the counterrevolution and had evidence that the Ladies in White receive payment for their activities from another known terrorist Santiago Alvarez, a subordinate of Carriles (see Cuban agents prove US finances dissidents). On the programme Serpa demonstrates how easy it is to launch a media campaign against Cuba. He rings CIA-founded Radio Marti and tells them that he was arrested and detained by Cuban police who confiscated his camera and memory stick. One hour and a half later the ‘news’ is broadcast on Radio Marti with no attempt to verify the claim. The lie becomes fact.
In the second episode, ‘Truths and Principles’, broadcast on 7 March, Dalexi Gonzalez, a Cuban engineer in computer sciences explains how in 2007 he was contacted by a internet security specialist, who visited the island as a tourist and trained him in encrypted communication. In 2008 he was given four satellite antennas camouflaged as surfing boards to enable coded information to be transmitted, to facilitate the installation of clandestine networks serving as a parallel communications system to be used in attempts to fabricate a Cuban ‘uprising’. This is a strategy we have seen in Eastern Europe and more recently in Iran and North Africa.
In ‘Well Paid Lies’, broadcast on 14 March, Frank Carlos Vazquez, explains how soon after setting up the Independent Cultural Centre in 1998 to promote the work of young Cuban artists overseas, he was recruited by CIA officials working under diplomatic cover in Havana. They hoped to foster the emergence of a critical intelligentsia to oppose the government. Twice they organised and paid for him to travel to the US. ‘I met and had work sessions with the Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley…we also met with different Latin American and Afro-American Congress people’, Vazquez said. For ten years Vazquez was informing the Cuban state about all their moves and proposals.
The programme ‘Cyberwars’, broadcast on 21 March, describes cyber-war as ‘waged using information, communications, algorithms and bytes. It’s the new form of invasion originated in the developed world.’ In 2009 ‘irregular warfare’ became official Pentagon doctrine and in 2010 the Pentagon approved a $90 billion budget for the US cyber-command. Cuba is a key target of these operations – along with Venezuela, China and Iran. 90,000 people are believed to be employed under the US cyber-war strategy, which includes obstructing the abilities of those countries to defend themselves through the internet. For example, in January 2011, Google removed the CubaDebate’s channel on YouTube, which it owns, eliminating more than 400 videos which had received 1.7 million hits over three years (see FRFI 219).
The documentary revealed the innovative way in which counter-revolutionaries ‘bloggers’ are paid - not via the USIS payroll or cash sent by Cuban exile groups. Instead their payment is awarded via international prizes from corporate agencies. Opposition blogger Yoanni Sanchez has received a total of $500,000 in this way. Film footage showed Yoanni Sanchez entering the US, Polish and Dutch embassies and chatting to a German diplomat and the CIA’s representative in Havana. There were also interviews with some of the hundreds of young Cuban bloggers who, supportive of the Revolution, do not receive prize money nor enjoy internet access in foreign embassies.
In broadcasting these documentaries the Cuban government has shown irrefutable photographic and documentary evidence that imperialist plans to destroy the socialist revolution continue. What also continues is the commitment from young Cubans who, in defence of the socialist Revolution, prefer to serve as agents of the revolutionary government than lackeys of imperialism – regardless of the material awards on offer. Cuba’s response to the counterrevolution is patient and intelligent. Aware of the opposition’s immense resources and its insidious plots, the government maintains direct communication with the Cuban people so that they are capable of knowing their enemies and defending their revolution.
________________________________________
[1] 1960s quotes cited by Salim Lamrani, Znet, 15 March 2011.
[2] See ‘Los Caballos de Troya de la CIA’ in YouTube.
[3] These documentaries are available with English subtitles at http://www.youtube.com/user/razonesdecuba#p/a or via Rock around the Blockade's website http://www.ratb.org.uk/videos
by Helen Yaffe
First published in Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No. 220, April/May 2011.
‘The majority of Cubans support Castro…There is no effective opposition…The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support [from the government] is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship… to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.’ Lester D Mallory, US government official, 6 April 1960.
‘Our objective is to accelerate the development of an opposition in Cuba’ Livingston Merchant, US government official, 14 January 1960.
‘[W]e see very little evidence that the mainline dissident organizations have much resonance among ordinary Cubans…Despite claims that they represent "thousands of Cubans”, we see little evidence of such support.’ Jonathan Farrar, Head of the US Interest Section in Havana, 15 April 2009.
During a state visit to Chile on 21 March 2011, US President Obama announced: ‘we’ll continue to seek ways to increase the independence of the Cuban people, who I believe are entitled to the same freedom and liberty as everyone else in this hemisphere.’ The ways sought by the US administration have been amply exposed since January 2011 through two court cases and by four Cuban agents. US policy has evolved, adapted and expanded, but the objective has remained unchanged since 1960 - the destruction of Cuba’s socialist revolution. Helen Yaffe reports.
While the US blockade has attempted ‘to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government’ (Lester D Mallory, US government official, 6 April 1960),[1] the programme of fostering internal dissent was kept secret from 1959 to 1990. However: ‘In 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the financial and logistical support to Cuban dissidents became public and was integrated into US law’ (Salim Lamrani, Znet, 15 March 2011).
Programmes were run by the CIA until 1987 when Cuban authorities used evidence from 27 undercover agents to expose illegal activities and the use of diplomatic status as a cover for CIA operations. Subsequently, government-funded organisations have been used to promote internal opposition: the US Agency for International Development (USAID), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Freedom House. US imperialism’s ‘unwavering support for human rights, democracy, and the open market system’ (Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba website) is backed by serious money. US President Bush’s administration of 2001 to 2008 ‘invested’ $166 million in pursuing capitalist restoration. The Obama administration has allocated $60 million to this end from 2009 to 2011.
The innovation since 2008 has been the use of private contractors commissioned to carry out destabilisation programmes in Cuba. Projects and funds have been filtered through European NGOs which, under the guise of defending ‘human rights’ and promoting ‘democracy’, serve the imperialist war against socialist Cuba.
Recent European funding recipients include:[2]
- Polish Lech Walesa Institute - provides access to technological resources and training to Cuban counter-revolutionaries and shares experience of the collapse of the socialist bloc and the so-called ‘colour revolutions’.
- Serbian OTNOP – youth opposition movement set up with funds from NED in 1998, it also receives funds from USAID and promotes ‘peaceful marches’ among Cuban youth and artists.
- Czech People in Need and Slovakian People in Peril – provide technology and training, organise oppositional seminars and international support for the tiny Cuban opposition. People in Need received $200,000 from USAID in 2010.
- Slovakian Pontis Foundation – provides access to technology and communications apparatus, prepares ‘leaders’ for transition and gives money to the families of opposition prisoners. Pontis had received $108,000 from the IRI leading up to September 2008.
- Spanish Solidarity with Cuba – Sends telecoms equipment to the island for subversive activities, provides personnel and technical advice and cultivates counter-revolutionaries as bloggers, journalists and ‘independent’ trade unionists. Between September 2008 and December 2009 they received $615,000 from IRI.
Imperialist hypocrisy is astonishing! First, for 50 years the US has tried to economically suffocate Cuba through the illegal blockade, which has cost Cuba $236 billion. Then it invests millions of dollars in creating an internal opposition to the revolutionary government. Second, having obstructed Cuban telecommunications through the US blockade, prohibiting Cuba from connecting to the Caribbean optic fibre cable circuit, the imperialists turn internet access into a tool for creating the impression of an internal opposition in Cuba and to encourage such an opposition to emerge.
Two court cases
Luis Posada Carriles – the CIA’s own terrorist
On 10 January the trial of CIA-trained terrorist Luis Posada Carriles began in El Paso, Texas. He is being prosecuted by the US government on 11 charges of perjury, obstructing justice and false testimony, accused of lying to immigration officials about his entry into the US in March 2005.
Carriles has been on the CIA payroll on and off since 1959. He was imprisoned in Venezuela for the bombing of a Cuban civilian aeroplane in 1976 which killed 73 people, and in Panama for the plan to blow up a university auditorium during the visit and speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000. He escaped from prison in Venezuela and was pardoned by the outgoing President of Panama. In 1998, New York Times journalist Ana Bardach cited Carriles as boasting about his responsibility for the bombing campaign against Cuban hotels in 1997 which claimed the life of Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo. ‘We just wanted to make a big scandal so that the tourists don't come any more’, Carriles told Bardach. ‘The Italian was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I sleep like a baby.’ He also said: ‘The CIA taught us everything. They taught us explosives, how to kill, bomb trained us in acts of sabotage.’ In El Paso, however, Carriles is not on trial for terrorism, but for lying to immigration officials.
The prosecution case ended in late March after calling 23 witnesses. Almost daily updates are provided by Cuban-born, Washington-based lawyer Jose Pertierra (see http://en.cubadebate.cu). Pertierra represents Venezuela’s extradition order against Carriles who became a Venezuelan citizen while working as a ‘paid asset’ of the CIA in Venezuela from 1968 to 1976. The US has refused to extradite Carriles to Venezuela or Cuba for trial, claiming he would face torture in those countries. Pertierra responded: ‘The only evidence I have seen of torture in Cuba comes from the US military base at Guantanamo Bay.’ The real issue is the information which Carriles could reveal about his work for the CIA which, in addition to terrorism against Cuba, includes the dirty war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Carriles has threatened to release his memoirs if anything happens to him.
Alan Gross – mercenaries’ mercenary
On 12 March, after a court case involving ten witnesses, nine experts and material and documentary evidence, Cuban judges found US citizen Alan Gross guilty of subversion against the state and the revolution and sentenced him to 15 years in gaol. Entrepreneur and mercenary Alan Gross was contracted by the US company Development Alternatives Inc (DAI), which in 2008 had won a $6 million contract with USAID to ‘advance democracy’ in Cuba. This involved taking communications equipment, satellite phones and laptops with internet access into Cuba to promote subversion whilst posing as tourists. At the time of Gross’s arrest in Havana on 4 December 2009 he had travelled to Cuba as a tourist five times in nine months. Gross had received similar previous contracts with USAID to operate in Afghanistan and Iraq. His employer, DAI, has won more than $2.7 billion in USAID contacts from 2000 to the third quarter of 2009.
Cuba’s Reasons – four agents reveal their work
On the evening of Saturday 26 February, Cuban television broadcast ‘Pawns of Imperialism’, an episode in the series Razones de Cuba (Cuba’s Reasons),[3] detailing close links between the internal counterrevolution, the right-wing exile community and the US government. Evidence of these links was provided by two Cuban state agents who had infiltrated the ranks of the so-called ‘dissident’ movement. The first was Moises Rodriguez, who spent 20 years posing as a counter-revolutionary, working closely with the US Interest Section (USIS) in Havana. The second was Carlos Serpa, who spent ten years posing as an ‘independent journalist’ for Radio Martí and numerous blogs and websites. As President of the Union of Free Journalists in Cuba, an organisation without members, Serpa worked closely with the Ladies in White (relatives of the US-paid opposition imprisoned in 2003), accompanying their processions through Havana.
Rodriguez received instructions directly from functionaries of the USIS, who sent him to the US to meet Carriles and informed him of plans to destabilise Cuba. Both agents explain how the USIS supervises the counterrevolution and had evidence that the Ladies in White receive payment for their activities from another known terrorist Santiago Alvarez, a subordinate of Carriles (see Cuban agents prove US finances dissidents). On the programme Serpa demonstrates how easy it is to launch a media campaign against Cuba. He rings CIA-founded Radio Marti and tells them that he was arrested and detained by Cuban police who confiscated his camera and memory stick. One hour and a half later the ‘news’ is broadcast on Radio Marti with no attempt to verify the claim. The lie becomes fact.
In the second episode, ‘Truths and Principles’, broadcast on 7 March, Dalexi Gonzalez, a Cuban engineer in computer sciences explains how in 2007 he was contacted by a internet security specialist, who visited the island as a tourist and trained him in encrypted communication. In 2008 he was given four satellite antennas camouflaged as surfing boards to enable coded information to be transmitted, to facilitate the installation of clandestine networks serving as a parallel communications system to be used in attempts to fabricate a Cuban ‘uprising’. This is a strategy we have seen in Eastern Europe and more recently in Iran and North Africa.
In ‘Well Paid Lies’, broadcast on 14 March, Frank Carlos Vazquez, explains how soon after setting up the Independent Cultural Centre in 1998 to promote the work of young Cuban artists overseas, he was recruited by CIA officials working under diplomatic cover in Havana. They hoped to foster the emergence of a critical intelligentsia to oppose the government. Twice they organised and paid for him to travel to the US. ‘I met and had work sessions with the Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley…we also met with different Latin American and Afro-American Congress people’, Vazquez said. For ten years Vazquez was informing the Cuban state about all their moves and proposals.
The programme ‘Cyberwars’, broadcast on 21 March, describes cyber-war as ‘waged using information, communications, algorithms and bytes. It’s the new form of invasion originated in the developed world.’ In 2009 ‘irregular warfare’ became official Pentagon doctrine and in 2010 the Pentagon approved a $90 billion budget for the US cyber-command. Cuba is a key target of these operations – along with Venezuela, China and Iran. 90,000 people are believed to be employed under the US cyber-war strategy, which includes obstructing the abilities of those countries to defend themselves through the internet. For example, in January 2011, Google removed the CubaDebate’s channel on YouTube, which it owns, eliminating more than 400 videos which had received 1.7 million hits over three years (see FRFI 219).
The documentary revealed the innovative way in which counter-revolutionaries ‘bloggers’ are paid - not via the USIS payroll or cash sent by Cuban exile groups. Instead their payment is awarded via international prizes from corporate agencies. Opposition blogger Yoanni Sanchez has received a total of $500,000 in this way. Film footage showed Yoanni Sanchez entering the US, Polish and Dutch embassies and chatting to a German diplomat and the CIA’s representative in Havana. There were also interviews with some of the hundreds of young Cuban bloggers who, supportive of the Revolution, do not receive prize money nor enjoy internet access in foreign embassies.
In broadcasting these documentaries the Cuban government has shown irrefutable photographic and documentary evidence that imperialist plans to destroy the socialist revolution continue. What also continues is the commitment from young Cubans who, in defence of the socialist Revolution, prefer to serve as agents of the revolutionary government than lackeys of imperialism – regardless of the material awards on offer. Cuba’s response to the counterrevolution is patient and intelligent. Aware of the opposition’s immense resources and its insidious plots, the government maintains direct communication with the Cuban people so that they are capable of knowing their enemies and defending their revolution.
________________________________________
[1] 1960s quotes cited by Salim Lamrani, Znet, 15 March 2011.
[2] See ‘Los Caballos de Troya de la CIA’ in YouTube.
[3] These documentaries are available with English subtitles at http://www.youtube.com/user/razonesdecuba#p/a or via Rock around the Blockade's website http://www.ratb.org.uk/videos
Thursday, 31 March 2011
El Paso Diary: Day 36 of the Posada Carriles Trial
José PertierraBy José Pertierra, 31 March 2011.
Source: CounterPunch.com
It’s one thing for an attorney to zealously defend his client’s interests and quite another for him to embrace the defendant’s premises. An attorney is most effective, when he keeps a certain critical distance.
Here in El Paso, Luis Posada Carriles’ attorney has adopted his client’s cause as his own—thus coloring his cross-examination to the point of silliness. His nutty questions about Cuba are pregnant with the false postulates of certain exiles in Little Havana who haven’t set foot on Cuban soil in more than five decades. It’s evident that the Miami defense attorney hasn’t done his research.
El Paso Diary: Day 34 of the Posada Carriles Trial
Bardach in Wonderland
by José Pertierra, 30 March 2011.
Source: CounterPunch.com
Winter said its goodbyes to El Paso last night. Spring is here. But the equinox doesn’t bring flowers to El Paso: only dust, lots of dust. Forty-mile-an-hour winds blew through this border town this afternoon. Leaving the courthouse exhausted from an afternoon of cross-examination by Luis Posada Carriles’ attorney, Ann Louise Bardach confronted the storms from the Chihuahuan Desert that blew sand in her eyes as she leaned into the wind to return to her hotel.
This is her fourth day on the stand. Bardach is now confident and self-assured as a witness. Her husband Bob gave her a kiss on the cheek, and with a brisk step she took her place, ready for battle.
Her testimony today established that Posada Carriles admitted to her 13 years ago that he was the mastermind of the bombing campaign in Havana in 1997. She also testified that Raúl Cruz León, the Salvadoran who was tried and sentenced in Cuba for having placed several of the bombs—one of which killed the Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo—worked for Posada Carriles. Under grueling cross-examination, Bardach defended the articles she had written for the New York Times in July 1998 as faithful to the statements that Posada Carriles had given during the interview in Aruba a month before.
by José Pertierra, 30 March 2011.
Source: CounterPunch.com
Winter said its goodbyes to El Paso last night. Spring is here. But the equinox doesn’t bring flowers to El Paso: only dust, lots of dust. Forty-mile-an-hour winds blew through this border town this afternoon. Leaving the courthouse exhausted from an afternoon of cross-examination by Luis Posada Carriles’ attorney, Ann Louise Bardach confronted the storms from the Chihuahuan Desert that blew sand in her eyes as she leaned into the wind to return to her hotel.
This is her fourth day on the stand. Bardach is now confident and self-assured as a witness. Her husband Bob gave her a kiss on the cheek, and with a brisk step she took her place, ready for battle.
Her testimony today established that Posada Carriles admitted to her 13 years ago that he was the mastermind of the bombing campaign in Havana in 1997. She also testified that Raúl Cruz León, the Salvadoran who was tried and sentenced in Cuba for having placed several of the bombs—one of which killed the Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo—worked for Posada Carriles. Under grueling cross-examination, Bardach defended the articles she had written for the New York Times in July 1998 as faithful to the statements that Posada Carriles had given during the interview in Aruba a month before.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Shadowy networks of repression and violence
Reflecting on January 10, 2011 - Just another day in the tangled web that connects mercenaries, bombers, the CIA, drug traffickers & NGOs across the Americas.
By Annie Bird, 08 March 2011.
Source: Rights Action.
From the Aguan region, in northern Honduras, to Santa Cruz in Bolivia, mercenaries and paramilitaries violently undermine democracy.
On January 10, 2011, a land rights activist, part of the Honduran Resistance movement, spent his first day in hiding, after being detained and tortured in Honduras. The same day, lawyers from the Union Civica Democratica (UCD) of Honduras traveled to Washington to meet with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States to discuss the case of Alejandro Pena Esculsa, an opponent of the Venezuelan government accused of possessing bomb making materials in Caracas.
And, in Texas, the trial began of former CIA agent, Luis Posada Carriles, a CIA trained bomber, charged with immigration fraud.
Why were Honduran coup-supporting lawyers advocating for a Venezuelan accused of making bombs in Venezuela, and what does this have to do with a kidnapping and torture in Honduras or an immigration fraud trial of a former CIA agent?
Though unrelated in most senses, these events illustrate the international interests at play in the Honduran coup, and bring to light some of the actors, though much remains in the shadows.
By Annie Bird, 08 March 2011.
Source: Rights Action.
From the Aguan region, in northern Honduras, to Santa Cruz in Bolivia, mercenaries and paramilitaries violently undermine democracy.
On January 10, 2011, a land rights activist, part of the Honduran Resistance movement, spent his first day in hiding, after being detained and tortured in Honduras. The same day, lawyers from the Union Civica Democratica (UCD) of Honduras traveled to Washington to meet with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States to discuss the case of Alejandro Pena Esculsa, an opponent of the Venezuelan government accused of possessing bomb making materials in Caracas.
And, in Texas, the trial began of former CIA agent, Luis Posada Carriles, a CIA trained bomber, charged with immigration fraud.
Why were Honduran coup-supporting lawyers advocating for a Venezuelan accused of making bombs in Venezuela, and what does this have to do with a kidnapping and torture in Honduras or an immigration fraud trial of a former CIA agent?
Though unrelated in most senses, these events illustrate the international interests at play in the Honduran coup, and bring to light some of the actors, though much remains in the shadows.
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
El Paso Diary: Day 22 in the Trial of Posada Carriles
Vulgar Questions
Source: CounterPunch.com (en espanol).
By José Pertierra, 01 March 2011.
The testimony from the Cuban investigator Roberto Hernández Caballero in the case of United States v. Luis Posada Carriles ended today.
Through Hernández Caballero's statements over the past three days, the prosecution managed to establish as evidence that a series of explosions occurred in Havana in 1997—also that one of the explosions resulted in the murder of Fabio Di Celmo on September 4, 1997 in the Copacabana Hotel and that others resulted in physical injuries and material damages.
The Cuban witness gave his testimony in a concrete, coherent and credible manner over the course of three days on the stand. Posada Carriles' defense attorney tried to impeach his credibility during two days of intense cross-examination but did not manage to puncture the candidness of the witness.
Poison barbs
During hours of interrogation, defense attorney Arturo Hernández needled the Cuban witness relentlessly with the kind of barbs more commonplace in the cafes of Miami's Calle Ocho than in federal court. Several times, the defendant's Miami attorney posed defiantly before the witness, as if the courtroom were a neighborhood back-alley, opened his suit jacket, put his fists on his waist and bombarded the witness with a fire hose stream of inflammatory questions. One notable sample being, "Isn't it true that you are not a real investigator, but an officer of the Cuban intelligence services?"
Lt. Col. Roberto Hernández Caballero responded with self-assurance and dignity. "I am an investigator," he said, emphasizing the noun.
The defense attorney wanted to ambush the witness by using a photograph of the damage caused by an explosion at the Hotel Nacional, but his plans were foiled by his own faulty premises: ones shaped entirely by the distorted vision of Cuba that the media in Miami provides.
"Is this the same photograph that you identified previously?" asked the attorney. The Cuban investigator first looked at the attorney—wondering what was coming—and then at the photo. "Correct," he answered. "The hotel where you said an explosion occurred on July 12th, 1997?" "Yes." "Can ordinary Cubans go to the Hotel Nacional without asking for permission?" "Yes," he answered perplexed. "Can ordinary Cubans spend the night in a Cuban hotel without asking permission?" "Yes." "Isn't it a fact that ordinary Cubans do not have access to these hotels?" "No." "Can Cubans have computers?"
Here, the prosecutor, Timothy J. Reardon, interrupted, "Objection, Your Honor. Relevance". Reardon argued that this trial is not about life in Cuba—but whether Luis Posada Carriles made false declarations to the U.S. Government. The judge sustained Reardon's objection and told Hernández, "Move on."
A Miami attorney's lesson in litigation
Almost all Americans boast that their legal system is the best in the world. In the United States, however, litigation is not necessarily a search for truth. Law students in this country learn right away that the job of a good defense attorney is to confuse the jury and twist the evidence. Posada Carriles' attorney learned this lesson well, for he knows how to turn a serious case into something grotesque and ridiculous. Today he offered us a lesson into how to confound the evidence: the point being to so bewilder the jurors that they will be unable to distinguish between credible evidence and unfounded allegations.
The Cuban government shared with the U.S. Government detailed reports of its investigations into the series of bombs that exploded in Havana in 1997. The U.S. Government is using some of that evidence to prosecute Luis Posada Carriles in the federal court in El Paso. The prosecutors are also using a Cuban investigator from the Ministry of the Interior, Lt. Col. Hernández Caballero, as a star witness. He testified that the crime scene photographs are "true and faithful representations" of the destruction left behind by the explosions.
Since he apparently felt that he couldn't discredit the photographs, Posada Carriles' defense attorney spent several hours trying to discredit the witness. Using only part of the investigative reports, the Miami attorney cross-examined the Cuban witness and elicited from him confirmation that his signature appears on only one of the reports: the one having to do with the explosion at the Aché nightclub in the Hotel Meliá Cohiba.
"I show you the investigative report from the incident at the Hotel Tritón: is your name on the report?" One at a time, he also asked about the investigative reports from the hotels Capri, Nacional, Sol Palmeras and Chateau Miramar, as well as the restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio. He thus elicited a series of "no's" from the witness, which is what he was after all along. The defense attorney wanted to leave the jurors with the impression that the Cuban investigator had perjured himself when he testified to having been present at most of the crime scenes. Thereby calling into question whether bombs exploded at all in Havana in 1997.
"If you would be so kind..."
"If you would be so kind as to examine my complete investigative report, you will see my name there," answered the Cuban investigator. But Posada Carriles' attorney wasn't interested in the truth. Instead, he barked, "Isn't it true that your name doesn't appear on these reports because you are not an investigator after all, but a Cuban intelligence officer?"
"No," the Cuban investigator responded patiently, and once again he reminded the Miami attorney that the full investigative report carries his name as chief investigator. It also names several other team members who helped him with the investigation. "That's not to say that I didn't see, that I didn't observe," added the witness. "Look, I'm a boss. I go to the crime scene, I see it, I give orders," explained the investigator, "but I have other people who conduct different details of the investigation."
When it was the U.S. Attorney's turn to question the witness, he directed the jurors' attention once again to the crime scene photographs. The photos are very important, because they are evidence that several bombs exploded in Havana in 1997. Reardon showed the witness photo after photo, and asked that he tell "the ladies and gentlemen of the jury if these crime scenes are those that you saw with your own eyes." "Yes," he affirmed as he looked at each photo.
It was then Posada Carriles' attorney turn to question the witness again. Lawyers call this re-cross. The Miami attorney asked the clerk of the court to project onto the court's television monitors the image of the Copacabana on September 4, 1997. Although the defense attorney didn't remind the jurors, that's the hotel where an explosion killed the Italian businessman, Fabio Di Celmo.
Wicker chairs
The defense attorney cross-examined the Cuban investigator at length about the wicker chairs that appear in the photos alongside the pool of blood from Di Celmo's fatal wounds. "The alleged pool of blood," as Hernández cynically referred to it.
"Doesn't it seem strange to you that the explosion could have destroyed wood but not have affected the wicker chairs?" he asked, pointing to the upright chairs in the photograph. The witness' response surprised him. "Wicker chairs are hollow. That's why the shock waves from the explosion did not knock them to the ground," said the Cuban investigator. "Wickerwork is not like the sail of a boat that fills with the wind. Furthermore, the hotel is a relatively open place," he added.
Despite the investigator's explanation, Posada Carriles' attorney persisted in trying to insinuate to the jury that the crime scene must have been altered.
The jury
Each time the defense attorney asked the same question, the witness gave him the same answer---over and over. I looked at the jurors. The notepads were on their laps and the pencils in their pockets, no one was taking notes any more. The juror with the white blouse in the front row rubbed her eyes. The overweight juror on the left stretched and yawned, and the African-American in the second row who always appears more attentive than the rest, looked uncomfortably at his watch. What must they be thinking?
And what was Posada doing?
Meanwhile, Luis Posada Carriles slept like a baby. During a break, when he sensed movement all about him, he awoke and uttered, "We shall see, we shall see."
The jurors only see the defendant, when they are in the jury box. They see an old man who naps every day. I'm sure they hear him snore. I do. They have probably also seen him awaken, usually dabbing at the saliva on his chin with the white handkerchief he keeps in his pocket.
But the jurors don't see him during the breaks, stepping briskly down the hallways of the courthouse with his papers and plastic shopping bag. They don't see him animatedly engaging with his lawyers and assistants. Could it be that his lawyers want the jurors to see him asleep? Might they be looking for the jurors to take pity on a seemingly frail little old man? Is that why his lawyers don't wake him? Is he really asleep?
The curtain falls
The scene of the defense attorney's final act with the Cuban investigator ended similarly to the play's opening scene—with great fanfare and a cascade of questions intended to confuse and obfuscate the jury.
Questions are not evidence, but they are weighty. Attorney Hernández asked these and more like them. "When you met with the prosecutors in Cuba, what did they promise you?" "Did you participate in any negotiations about the terms of your testimony?" "Isn't it a fact that the U.S. Government is paying your expenses during your stay in this country?" "Did they offer you any immunity in exchange for your testimony here? Yes or no." "Do you know what sworn testimony is?" "Do you know what an oath is?" "Questions were asked of you here whose answers were under oath. Do you know that answers offered under oath expose one to sanctions such as perjury?" "Do you feel free to answer questions about Cuba?" "Did you tell the truth when you stated that Cubans can freely enter and use hotels on the island?"
It's not necessary to detail how the even-tempered witness responded. I have rarely seen a witness as coherent and confident in front of a jury. The way in which he concluded his testimony will suffice: "The only thing that the United States asked me to do was that I tell the truth about my investigations in the case of the bombs that exploded in Havana."
Tomorrow the Cuban forensic pathologist, Yleana Vizcaíno Dimé, will testify about the autopsy she performed on Fabio Di Celmo.
To be continued.
José Pertierra practices law in Washington, DC. He represents the government of Venezuela in the case to extradite Luis Posada Carriles. Translated by Machetera and Manuel Talens. They are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity.
Source: CounterPunch.com (en espanol).
By José Pertierra, 01 March 2011.
The testimony from the Cuban investigator Roberto Hernández Caballero in the case of United States v. Luis Posada Carriles ended today.
Through Hernández Caballero's statements over the past three days, the prosecution managed to establish as evidence that a series of explosions occurred in Havana in 1997—also that one of the explosions resulted in the murder of Fabio Di Celmo on September 4, 1997 in the Copacabana Hotel and that others resulted in physical injuries and material damages.
The Cuban witness gave his testimony in a concrete, coherent and credible manner over the course of three days on the stand. Posada Carriles' defense attorney tried to impeach his credibility during two days of intense cross-examination but did not manage to puncture the candidness of the witness.
Poison barbs
During hours of interrogation, defense attorney Arturo Hernández needled the Cuban witness relentlessly with the kind of barbs more commonplace in the cafes of Miami's Calle Ocho than in federal court. Several times, the defendant's Miami attorney posed defiantly before the witness, as if the courtroom were a neighborhood back-alley, opened his suit jacket, put his fists on his waist and bombarded the witness with a fire hose stream of inflammatory questions. One notable sample being, "Isn't it true that you are not a real investigator, but an officer of the Cuban intelligence services?"
Lt. Col. Roberto Hernández Caballero responded with self-assurance and dignity. "I am an investigator," he said, emphasizing the noun.
The defense attorney wanted to ambush the witness by using a photograph of the damage caused by an explosion at the Hotel Nacional, but his plans were foiled by his own faulty premises: ones shaped entirely by the distorted vision of Cuba that the media in Miami provides.
"Is this the same photograph that you identified previously?" asked the attorney. The Cuban investigator first looked at the attorney—wondering what was coming—and then at the photo. "Correct," he answered. "The hotel where you said an explosion occurred on July 12th, 1997?" "Yes." "Can ordinary Cubans go to the Hotel Nacional without asking for permission?" "Yes," he answered perplexed. "Can ordinary Cubans spend the night in a Cuban hotel without asking permission?" "Yes." "Isn't it a fact that ordinary Cubans do not have access to these hotels?" "No." "Can Cubans have computers?"
Here, the prosecutor, Timothy J. Reardon, interrupted, "Objection, Your Honor. Relevance". Reardon argued that this trial is not about life in Cuba—but whether Luis Posada Carriles made false declarations to the U.S. Government. The judge sustained Reardon's objection and told Hernández, "Move on."
A Miami attorney's lesson in litigation
Almost all Americans boast that their legal system is the best in the world. In the United States, however, litigation is not necessarily a search for truth. Law students in this country learn right away that the job of a good defense attorney is to confuse the jury and twist the evidence. Posada Carriles' attorney learned this lesson well, for he knows how to turn a serious case into something grotesque and ridiculous. Today he offered us a lesson into how to confound the evidence: the point being to so bewilder the jurors that they will be unable to distinguish between credible evidence and unfounded allegations.
The Cuban government shared with the U.S. Government detailed reports of its investigations into the series of bombs that exploded in Havana in 1997. The U.S. Government is using some of that evidence to prosecute Luis Posada Carriles in the federal court in El Paso. The prosecutors are also using a Cuban investigator from the Ministry of the Interior, Lt. Col. Hernández Caballero, as a star witness. He testified that the crime scene photographs are "true and faithful representations" of the destruction left behind by the explosions.
Since he apparently felt that he couldn't discredit the photographs, Posada Carriles' defense attorney spent several hours trying to discredit the witness. Using only part of the investigative reports, the Miami attorney cross-examined the Cuban witness and elicited from him confirmation that his signature appears on only one of the reports: the one having to do with the explosion at the Aché nightclub in the Hotel Meliá Cohiba.
"I show you the investigative report from the incident at the Hotel Tritón: is your name on the report?" One at a time, he also asked about the investigative reports from the hotels Capri, Nacional, Sol Palmeras and Chateau Miramar, as well as the restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio. He thus elicited a series of "no's" from the witness, which is what he was after all along. The defense attorney wanted to leave the jurors with the impression that the Cuban investigator had perjured himself when he testified to having been present at most of the crime scenes. Thereby calling into question whether bombs exploded at all in Havana in 1997.
"If you would be so kind..."
"If you would be so kind as to examine my complete investigative report, you will see my name there," answered the Cuban investigator. But Posada Carriles' attorney wasn't interested in the truth. Instead, he barked, "Isn't it true that your name doesn't appear on these reports because you are not an investigator after all, but a Cuban intelligence officer?"
"No," the Cuban investigator responded patiently, and once again he reminded the Miami attorney that the full investigative report carries his name as chief investigator. It also names several other team members who helped him with the investigation. "That's not to say that I didn't see, that I didn't observe," added the witness. "Look, I'm a boss. I go to the crime scene, I see it, I give orders," explained the investigator, "but I have other people who conduct different details of the investigation."
When it was the U.S. Attorney's turn to question the witness, he directed the jurors' attention once again to the crime scene photographs. The photos are very important, because they are evidence that several bombs exploded in Havana in 1997. Reardon showed the witness photo after photo, and asked that he tell "the ladies and gentlemen of the jury if these crime scenes are those that you saw with your own eyes." "Yes," he affirmed as he looked at each photo.
It was then Posada Carriles' attorney turn to question the witness again. Lawyers call this re-cross. The Miami attorney asked the clerk of the court to project onto the court's television monitors the image of the Copacabana on September 4, 1997. Although the defense attorney didn't remind the jurors, that's the hotel where an explosion killed the Italian businessman, Fabio Di Celmo.
Wicker chairs
The defense attorney cross-examined the Cuban investigator at length about the wicker chairs that appear in the photos alongside the pool of blood from Di Celmo's fatal wounds. "The alleged pool of blood," as Hernández cynically referred to it.
"Doesn't it seem strange to you that the explosion could have destroyed wood but not have affected the wicker chairs?" he asked, pointing to the upright chairs in the photograph. The witness' response surprised him. "Wicker chairs are hollow. That's why the shock waves from the explosion did not knock them to the ground," said the Cuban investigator. "Wickerwork is not like the sail of a boat that fills with the wind. Furthermore, the hotel is a relatively open place," he added.
Despite the investigator's explanation, Posada Carriles' attorney persisted in trying to insinuate to the jury that the crime scene must have been altered.
The jury
Each time the defense attorney asked the same question, the witness gave him the same answer---over and over. I looked at the jurors. The notepads were on their laps and the pencils in their pockets, no one was taking notes any more. The juror with the white blouse in the front row rubbed her eyes. The overweight juror on the left stretched and yawned, and the African-American in the second row who always appears more attentive than the rest, looked uncomfortably at his watch. What must they be thinking?
And what was Posada doing?
Meanwhile, Luis Posada Carriles slept like a baby. During a break, when he sensed movement all about him, he awoke and uttered, "We shall see, we shall see."
The jurors only see the defendant, when they are in the jury box. They see an old man who naps every day. I'm sure they hear him snore. I do. They have probably also seen him awaken, usually dabbing at the saliva on his chin with the white handkerchief he keeps in his pocket.
But the jurors don't see him during the breaks, stepping briskly down the hallways of the courthouse with his papers and plastic shopping bag. They don't see him animatedly engaging with his lawyers and assistants. Could it be that his lawyers want the jurors to see him asleep? Might they be looking for the jurors to take pity on a seemingly frail little old man? Is that why his lawyers don't wake him? Is he really asleep?
The curtain falls
The scene of the defense attorney's final act with the Cuban investigator ended similarly to the play's opening scene—with great fanfare and a cascade of questions intended to confuse and obfuscate the jury.
Questions are not evidence, but they are weighty. Attorney Hernández asked these and more like them. "When you met with the prosecutors in Cuba, what did they promise you?" "Did you participate in any negotiations about the terms of your testimony?" "Isn't it a fact that the U.S. Government is paying your expenses during your stay in this country?" "Did they offer you any immunity in exchange for your testimony here? Yes or no." "Do you know what sworn testimony is?" "Do you know what an oath is?" "Questions were asked of you here whose answers were under oath. Do you know that answers offered under oath expose one to sanctions such as perjury?" "Do you feel free to answer questions about Cuba?" "Did you tell the truth when you stated that Cubans can freely enter and use hotels on the island?"
It's not necessary to detail how the even-tempered witness responded. I have rarely seen a witness as coherent and confident in front of a jury. The way in which he concluded his testimony will suffice: "The only thing that the United States asked me to do was that I tell the truth about my investigations in the case of the bombs that exploded in Havana."
Tomorrow the Cuban forensic pathologist, Yleana Vizcaíno Dimé, will testify about the autopsy she performed on Fabio Di Celmo.
To be continued.
José Pertierra practices law in Washington, DC. He represents the government of Venezuela in the case to extradite Luis Posada Carriles. Translated by Machetera and Manuel Talens. They are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity.
El Paso Diary: Day 21 in the Trial of Posada Carriles
A Gentleman on the Stand
Source: CounterPunch.com (en espanol).
By José Pertierra, 28 February 2011.
At 9:00 a.m. sharp, Judge Kathleen Cardone entered the courtroom. Her last encounter with the defense attorneys and prosecutors had been exactly one week ago, when the judge continued the trial to "calmly deliberate" about whether to grant either of the pending motions from Luis Posada Carriles' attorney: one calling for a mistrial, the other calling for a dismissal of the first three counts of the indictment. Those counts pertain to the false declarations made by the defendant about the 1997 bombings in Havana.
We could all feel the tension in the courtroom. Judge Cardone extended the attorneys a bleak greeting, and Prosecutor Timothy J. Reardon, III, as he does first thing every morning, stood and politely approached the podium. "Good morning, Your Honor. The government is ready for the trial," he said, knowing full well that the judge had not as yet ruled on whether to halt the proceedings. The lead defense attorney, Arturo Hernández, also stood and from counsel table cheerfully greeted the judge.
Judge Cardone's decision
"The Court would first like to address the defense counsel's motions for a mistrial or for a dismissal of counts 1, 2 and 3 of the indictment," said Judge Cardone. She then pulled out a piece of paper and read her decision out loud.
The legal impasse between the parties arose from defense counsel's allegations that the prosecution had failed to disclose certain "exculpatory" documents before the expiration of deadlines laid down earlier by Judge Cardone.
According to attorney Hernández these so-called "exculpatory documents" show that a key government witness—a criminal investigator from Cuba—is biased against Posada Carriles and had fabricated evidence in an unrelated case several years ago.
The defense counsel also alleged that the FBI knew, yet had failed to disclose, that a secretary in Guatemala, Cecilia Canel, had made statements seemingly exculpating Posada Carriles from responsibility for the bombs that exploded in Havana in 1997 and that the government had withheld two FBI reports that are favorable to the defense's theory of the case.
As prologue to her decision, Judge Cardone read aloud from the defense counsel's written motion of February 11 some of the allegations against the government concerning the exculpatory evidence. She looked firmly at the prosecutors and said, "This court has set orders for discovery deadlines. I find that the government has not met those deadlines and has withheld documents from the defense attorneys. What's more," said the judge, "if the defense had not found out on its own that these documents existed, the prosecution probably would not have turned the documents over."
"I have reflected long and hard on this," said Judge Cardone still staring at the prosecutors. She paused. At that moment, the fate of the government's case against Luis Posada Carriles hung by a thread. Government attorney Bridget Behling stole a furtive peek at her colleague, Jerome Teresinksi, who sat to her left. She looked worried. So did he.
"I have asked myself whether the government has made an untimely disclosure," Judge Cardone continued. "The answer is affirmative," she declared. "Has the defendant been prejudiced by the untimely disclosure?" she mused.
Without articulating an answer to her last question, the judge suddenly stated, "I am going to deny the motions …" She paused a moment before adding "…for now." "But I am warning you," she said to the prosecutors, "If this kind of thing should happen again…" Her voice trailed off. She didn't finish her sentence. She didn't have to.
Judges rarely declare a mistrial for failure to meet discovery deadlines unless there is evidence of prejudice to the defendant's due process rights. Here Judge Cardone did not find such prejudice and therefore could not take such a radical decision as a dismissal.
"Anything else before I convene the jury?" the judge asked. Attorney Hernández, who began the morning brimming with confidence, mumbled a disappointed "no." He didn't even bother to embellish his reply with the customary "Your Honor."
The jury comes in
The gavel sounded three times. The guard opened the side door to the courtroom, and the jurors slowly filed in to their seats. None had the slightest idea why they had been given so many days off other than what Judge Cardone had told them a week ago—that there were some "legal matters" that needed to be resolved.
After the jurors were seated, the witness returned to the stand. "It's been a long time since you were last here," said government attorney Timothy J. Reardon to the witness. "Please give the ladies and gentlemen of the jury your name." With that question, Reardon resumed the direct examination of Roberto Hernández Caballero. It's been almost two weeks, since the witness testified. He was dressed today in a light green suit, with a black shirt and black tie.
A Game of Football at Hyannis Port with President Kennedy
The lead prosecutor is a veteran Justice Department litigator. His father, Timothy J. Reardon, Jr., was a very close friend of President John F. Kennedy and one of his closest aides in the White House. Decades ago, father and son played football at Hyannis Port with the Kennedy clan.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy delivered the eulogy for Reardon's father in 1993. He told of the time a young Timothy J. Reardon, III, intercepted a football thrown by the recently elected President Kennedy. His father made him return the ball to the President, because "you must never intercept the pass of the President-Elect of the United States."
Today the boy who intercepted President Kennedy's pass is an experienced litigator with the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division and is responsible for prosecuting a former CIA agent who has been the mastermind of much of the terrorism unleashed against Cuba during the last fifty years—a terrorist campaign that originated in Washington.
A new paradigm?
Government policy is only a memorandum, a record of an agreement policymakers may retract tomorrow. For decades, the United States Department of Justice has given anti-Cuban terrorists a pass. Things may be changing.
It is significant that its Counterterrorism Unit is prosecuting Posada Carriles with the full collaboration of the Cuban government, using as a star witness a lieutenant colonel from Cuba's counterintelligence unit as well as documents prepared by forensic specialists in Cuba. The American Justice Department's Counterterrorism team working hand in hand with the Cuban Ministry of the Interior's Counterintelligence team to stem five decades of U.S.-sponsored terrorism against the island is a new paradigm for U.S.-Cuba relations.
Terrorists in our midst
As the historian Peter Kornbluh, of the National Security Archive, told me, "After the Bay of Pigs, the Kennedys unleashed a wave of violent exiles against Cuba through Operation Mongoose as well as more autonomous actions." The purpose of the CIA undercover operation known as Mongoose was to destroy the Cuban revolution. Its plans included the assassination of President Fidel Castro and other leaders, the use of sabotage and attacks on civilian targets. Terrorism was a favorite weapon of the United States in its undeclared war against Cuba.
The head of Operation Mongoose was the then U.S. Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, from the same Justice Department where Timothy J. Reardon, III, now works. While still attorney general, Kennedy began distancing himself from the Cuban extremists of Operation Mongoose.
Author David Talbot described Robert Kennedy's conundrum with the so-called Cuban exiles. "As he tried to establish control over CIA operations and to herd the rambunctious Cuban exile groups into a unified progressive front, Bobby learned what a swamp of intrigue the anti-Castro world was. Working out of a sprawling Miami station code-named JM/WAVE that was second in size only to the CIA's Langley, VA, headquarters, the agency had recruited an unruly army of Cuban militants to launch raids on the island and even contracted Mafia henchmen to kill Castro—including mob bosses Johnny Rosselli, Santo Trafficante and Sam Giancana, whom Kennedy, as chief counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee in the late 1950s, had targeted. It was an overheated ecosystem that was united not just by its fevered opposition to the Castro regime, but by its hatred for the Kennedys, who were regarded as traitors for failing to use the full military might of the United States against the communist outpost in the Caribbean."
Robert Kennedy's growing understanding of the mentality of these Cuban extremists led him to suspect them of assassinating President John F. Kennedy. On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, Kennedy called Enrique "Harry" Ruiz-Williams, a Bay of Pigs veteran and one of the leaders of the Cubans involved in Operation Mongoose, and told him point-blank, "One of your guys did it."
After President Kennedy's assassination, the United States government continued to rely on the Cuban exiles for its dirty war against Cuba. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, they were also used to help prop up military dictatorships and repressive governments in Chile, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and elsewhere. Posada Carriles was dispatched to Venezuela to head the Special Operations division of the country's intelligence service—the DISIP. In later years, he helped train death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala, becoming eventually a "special adviser on security" to Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo.
As Posada Carriles' own attorney, Arturo Hernández, told the Court in pleadings he filed months ago, "Everything that my client has done has been in the name of Washington." During opening arguments to the trial now under way in El Paso, defense counsel told the jury, "Luis Posada Carriles has been an ally of the United States his entire life. Always on the side of our country."
Have things changed? If so, has 9-11 changed them so much that the United States is now going after the terrorists it unleashed against Cuba and Latin America for decades?
Although it is true that Washington is not prosecuting Posada Carriles for terrorism or murder, it has indicted him for perjury and obstruction of an investigation into international terrorism. Some of the alleged false declarations he made involve immigration infractions, but others have to do with a campaign of terror against Cuba in 1997—that resulted in the murder of a thirty-two-year-old Italian businessman in Havana named Fabio Di Celmo.
Has the torch been passed to a new generation of prosecutors at the Department of Justice?
The Bombs
This morning Reardon showed the Cuban investigator, Hernández Caballero, several photographs from the places in Cuba where a series of bombs exploded in 1997: the Copacabana, Chateau Miramar and Tritón hotels, as well as the most famous restaurant in Cuba La Bodeguita del Medio. Two weeks ago, Reardon had shown him similar photos of the bombing damage at the Meliá Cohiba and Capri hotels, as well as at the most representative of Cuba's hotels El Nacional. The jury listened attentively to the Cuban investigator as he described the photos while looking intently at the photographs on their personal television monitors.
"We can see there the bar in the lobby of the Copacabana Hotel. The entire right side was destroyed by an explosive device," said the investigator. "That bloodstain on the floor is from the person who was wounded and later died from the wounds he suffered in the explosion," the witness pointed out.
Defense counsel shot up from his seat and objected. "This witness is not competent to offer an opinion about cause of death," he said. Posada Carriles' attorney also does not want the jury to hear that Fabio Di Celmo bled to death as a result of a piece of shrapnel launched by an explosion at the Copacabana Hotel.
He is also counting on the jury never learning that the bomb was placed at the hotel by a Salvadoran named Raúl Cruz León at the urging of Francisco Chávez Abarca and under the direction of Luis Posada Carriles. Both Cruz León and Chávez Abarca confessed, and Posada Carriles boasted the following year to the New York Times of being the mastermind behind the crime.
Raúl Cruz León admitted to Cuban authorities that he arrived at the Copacabana on September 4, 1997 at around 10:30 a.m., sat down in the lobby/bar, and asked for a "Bucanero" beer, before going to the bathroom to assemble and activate the bomb that he deposited in the base of a metal ashcan located at the right hand corner of the bar. When he finished his beer, he exited the hotel, leaving behind the bomb that took the life of Fabio Di Celmo.
"How far away from the blood was the focus of the explosion?" asked Reardon. "Just 5 or 6 meters," answered the investigator. The prosecutor did not ask and the jury did not realize that the hotel also suffered damage from broken glass, a suspended ceiling, lamps, furniture and the floor of the bar, valued at $16,700.60 Cuban pesos and more than $3,000 U.S. dollars.
"How many places did you go on September 4, 1997, where there had been explosions?" asked the prosecutor. "To three places in the morning and one more that night. Four in all," answered the witness. That day, bombs exploded at the Copacabana, the Chateau Miramar, the Tritón hotels, and finally at the Bodeguita del Medio restaurant.
With the assistance of the photos, the witness described to the jury the destruction at the Chateau Miramar. While he was there investigating, another bomb went off at the Hotel Tritón, just 3,000 meters away. "I got there in five minutes," said the witness.
"When I arrived at the Tritón," Lt. Col. Hernández Caballero told the jury, "There was already a group of experts on the scene. The alarm and worry on the faces of the guests and workers at the hotel was evident. The location of the explosion was also visible." The witness commented that three consecutive explosions had taken place in a brief period of time.
While the Cuban investigator testified, Posada Carriles' attorney held his glasses in his hand, nibbling on them, while scrutinizing the members of the jury. It was as though he was trying to read their minds. The jurors paid no attention to him. They were concentrating on Hernández Caballero's testimony. Reardon showed the witness photo after photo.
"You can see in this particular photograph one of the aluminum beams that was violently severed and landed against the wall of the Tritón's lobby," the witness pointed out. "This other shows the back of the sofa that was thrown 15 to 20 meters by the force of the explosion. It landed at the hotel entrance," he added.
The Cuban investigation established that the Hotel Tritón suffered damage to glass in the lobby, display cases and doors, its suspended ceiling, lamps and furniture, of $3,661 dollars. The same Raúl Cruz León placed the bomb at the Tritón Hotel--between the planters behind the sofa, close to some children from Spain who were vacationing in Cuba with their parents. One of them, just 14 years old, alerted the guard on duty, who immediately evacuated the children and everyone else in the lobby. There was no time to deactivate the device before it exploded. Thanks to the alertness of the Spanish boy, there were no deaths or injuries at the Tritón.
The jury doesn't know any of this, because it is not part of the case against Posada Carriles. In El Paso, he is not on trial for murder—only for perjury.
Reardon showed the Cuban investigator another photo of the Hotel Tritón. Hernández Caballero explained, "This is a photo from just before the bomb's explosion. There were some children..." At that, Posada Carriles' attorney objected. "That is beyond the scope of the witness' personal knowledge, Your Honor. It's hearsay," he said. The judge sustained the objection.
Except for the details of the photographs shown to them, therefore, the jury will not get to hear much of what happened at the Tritón Hotel on September 4, 1997.
The fourth bomb on September 4, 1997 exploded at the Bodeguita del Medio restaurant in the heart of Old Havana. "It's possibly the most famous restaurant in Cuba," said the investigator as the jury members listened to him closely. "The explosion was at around 11:50 p.m.," said Hernández Caballero. "I arrived there at 1:00 a.m."
Reardon showed him several photos of the Bodeguita. "This is the part of the restaurant where the explosive device went off," he said, pointing to the Terrace Bar located on the second floor.
Although the El Paso jury won't ever learn it, the Cuban people know that Cruz León admitted to having placed the bomb behind a refrigeration unit on the restaurant's second floor, on the afternoon of September 4, 1997, after having ordered some drinks and roasted meat. He confessed to having programmed the timer on the bomb so that it would go off approximately seven or eight hours later. Reardon showed the Cuban investigator another photograph from the restaurant. "This is the crater caused by the explosion," said the witness. "Pieces of the ceiling fell on some Mexican tourists who were eating downstairs and injured them."
The limitations of the U.S. judicial system prevent the witness Hernández Caballero from saying that the Mexican tourist, Marco Polo Soriano Villa suffered a head injury. Or that Juan José Huerta Lluviano, another Mexican tourist suffered a mild concussion and a one-centimeter scalp wound. And that Ramón Soriano Ledesma, Octavio Soriano Ledesma and Nicolás Rodríguez Valdés were also wounded in the explosion. The purpose of Hernández Caballero's testimony in El Paso is simply to establish that there were explosions in Havana in 1997. Nothing more. Having met the goal, Prosecutor Reardon ended the direct examination of Roberto Hernández Caballero.
An agitated Posada Carriles
During the break, Posada Carriles stood up to nervously ask one of his attorneys, Felipe Millán, when "la Bardach" would testify (Ann Louise Bardach, the New York Times journalist, to whom he boasted of having been the mastermind of the 1997 explosions in Havana). He also asked Millán about María Elvira Salazar, a Miami television journalist who also interviewed him about the matter. In that interview Posada is clearly heard to have said, "I have no remorse whatsoever, and accept my historic responsibility. They can call me whatever they want. The only option that we Cubans have is to fight a violent regime with violence."
Posada Carriles was also visibly upset when he heard the Cuban investigator describe the destruction left behind by one of the explosions. He blurted, "Está loco."
The cross-examination
Arturo Hernández, Luis Posada Carriles' lead attorney, approached the witness and began the cross-examination in a solemn tone. He asked the witness his name, his birthplace (Matanzas, Cuba) and his profession. But the Miami attorney did not contain his hostility toward the witness for long. "Whom do you work for?" he asked. "Isn't it true that you work for the Castro regime?"
"I work for the Cuban government. The Interior Ministry. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Operations, the Department of Crimes Against State Security," said Lt. Col. Hernández Caballero calmly. "Isn't it true that you work for counterintelligence?" Posada Carriles' attorney asked accusingly, as if it were illegal to be so employed. "Yes," said the witness, "I work investigating crimes that affect Cuban state security, but mainly I am an investigator."
"During a trial in the city of Tampa in 1997, you were asked if you worked for the DGCI. Is that true?" asked the attorney. "Yes. I work for the Directorate of Counterintelligence," answered Hernández Caballero. "But I'm not a counterintelligence expert. I investigate the facts after the crimes have occurred."
Defense counsel continued his barrage, "Yet you never told us that you worked for the DGCI."
"Because no one asked me," answered Hernández Caballero.
The defense attorney then whipped out the trick he had been keeping up his sleeve for the Cuban witness.
"Don't you remember that in 2001 you testified in Miami in the case of the five Cuban spies and denied ever working for the DGI?"
Lt. Col. Hernández Caballero smiled, sipped a little water and savored it before answering. "I don't work for the DGI. One thing doesn't have anything to do with the other," he answered amiably.
The Miami attorney obviously doesn't know that the DGCI is one thing (counter-intelligence) and the DGI something else (intelligence). They are different institutions in Cuba. Hernández Caballero works for one, but not for the other.
In Spanish, caballero means gentleman. When Hernández Caballero testified in the case of the Cuban Five in Miami, one of the defendants in that case, René González Sehweret, said he had been "a gentleman on the stand." And that's also how he conducted himself in El Paso.
The lawyers skirmish
"Your Honor, I want to make a proffer," said attorney Hernández. In legal parlance, a proffer is a preliminary offering of what will later be shown by testimony or other evidence.
To allow him to make his points outside the presence of the jurors, Judge Cardone dismissed the jury. She then asked the Cuban witness to step outside.
"We're going to establish that the mission of this witness is to conduct investigations, so that this [Castro's] tyrannical regime can continue to exist," said Posada Carriles' attorney. "This has been a complete bamboozlement of the jury by the Government to present this witness as a cop, an FBI agent or an investigator," he continued. "This person falsifies documents," he insisted, without proof. "The purpose of Castro's intelligence services is to kill or jail my client," he alleged, practically shouting. "It is the will of the dictator."
The judge then gave the floor to Reardon, but immediately tried to take it away.
Reardon began his rebuttal with a retort made famous by Ronald Reagan during his 1980 Presidential debate with Jimmy Carter, "There you go again."
"There is a back door to the front door," Reardon continued. He was referring to a decision Judge Cardone made some weeks ago in which she had prohibited the defense attorney from turning the case into a trial against Cuba in order to divert attention from Posada Carriles.
But Judge Cardone cut Reardon off before he could say more.
"Your Honor," insisted Reardon, by now very irritated. "The Court has given the defense counsel every opportunity to lay a foundation for his arguments. May I be given the same opportunity as Counsel? This court has been very liberal with the defendant, but the Court must draw a line when bias is invoked. This is way beyond the pale. Defense counsel is now confusing the jury," said Reardon. He then reminded Judge Cardone, "This witness is here to testify about the places where bombs exploded."
Posada Carriles' attorney always insists on having the last word, and he managed to do so again. "This is unbelievable naiveté by government counsel," said the Miami attorney. "The DGI and the DGCI [here the attorney appeared to have at last understood that the agencies are not the same] have engaged in extraterritorial murders in the United States and around the world. This is bias that needs to come out. If the Court allows me to call witnesses, we will show what Villa Marista is all about," he concluded.
After listening to Posada Carriles' attorney, Judge Cardone ruled that although this case is not against Cuba, she would allow defense counsel to inquire about the witness' bias against Posada Carriles, thus opening the door to questions and accusations against Cuba. "This is a plea for pity and jury nullification," said Reardon, greatly irritated.
Respect
The judge then reconvened the jury. "Are you a communist?" snapped Posada Carriles' attorney, pronouncing the word communist as if it were a sexual perversion. "Isn't it true that you have fabricated evidence? Do you know Cuba's position on the shoot down of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes? Isn't it true that Castro's regime is a sponsor of terrorism?"
Posada Carriles' attorney unleashed a barrage of accusatory questions on the witness with no link to the issues related to the case at bar.
"These questions poison the jury," Reardon objected. "I overrule the objection," said the judge. "You may proceed with your questions, Mr. Hernández." And proceed he did: with question after question meant to impress upon the jury the notion that the witness is a communist who fabricates evidence and probably tortures people at a mysterious detention facility in Havana. Posada Carriles' attorney didn't offer any proof for his allegations. He didn't have to. After all, as Judge Cardone has said repeatedly during this trial, "this is cross-examination."
Unruffled, the Cuban investigator responded to all of the questions. "Yes, I'm a member of the Communist party. No I have not fabricated evidence. I don't know the details of Cuba's official position on the shoot down of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes. No, Cuba neither sponsors nor supports terrorism."
Tomorrow, Posada Carriles' attorney will continue with his cross-examination of the witness. Today he was unable to score any points. He found himself up against a professional investigator who answered every question respectfully despite the disrespectful questions put to him by Luis Posada Carriles' attorney.
Lt. Col. Roberto Hernández Caballero remains a formidable witness, and it will be difficult for defense counsel to impeach him. He led the investigations into the bombings in Havana. He was easily able to identify the bombing scenes and describe them in detail to the jury. All the prosecutors want him to do on the stand is to evidence that bombs exploded in Havana in 1997.
Today, he did that in spades.
José Pertierra practices law in Washington, DC. He represents the government of Venezuela in the case to extradite Luis Posada Carriles. Translated by Machetera and Manuel Talens. They are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity.
Source: CounterPunch.com (en espanol).
By José Pertierra, 28 February 2011.
At 9:00 a.m. sharp, Judge Kathleen Cardone entered the courtroom. Her last encounter with the defense attorneys and prosecutors had been exactly one week ago, when the judge continued the trial to "calmly deliberate" about whether to grant either of the pending motions from Luis Posada Carriles' attorney: one calling for a mistrial, the other calling for a dismissal of the first three counts of the indictment. Those counts pertain to the false declarations made by the defendant about the 1997 bombings in Havana.
We could all feel the tension in the courtroom. Judge Cardone extended the attorneys a bleak greeting, and Prosecutor Timothy J. Reardon, III, as he does first thing every morning, stood and politely approached the podium. "Good morning, Your Honor. The government is ready for the trial," he said, knowing full well that the judge had not as yet ruled on whether to halt the proceedings. The lead defense attorney, Arturo Hernández, also stood and from counsel table cheerfully greeted the judge.
Judge Cardone's decision
"The Court would first like to address the defense counsel's motions for a mistrial or for a dismissal of counts 1, 2 and 3 of the indictment," said Judge Cardone. She then pulled out a piece of paper and read her decision out loud.
The legal impasse between the parties arose from defense counsel's allegations that the prosecution had failed to disclose certain "exculpatory" documents before the expiration of deadlines laid down earlier by Judge Cardone.
According to attorney Hernández these so-called "exculpatory documents" show that a key government witness—a criminal investigator from Cuba—is biased against Posada Carriles and had fabricated evidence in an unrelated case several years ago.
The defense counsel also alleged that the FBI knew, yet had failed to disclose, that a secretary in Guatemala, Cecilia Canel, had made statements seemingly exculpating Posada Carriles from responsibility for the bombs that exploded in Havana in 1997 and that the government had withheld two FBI reports that are favorable to the defense's theory of the case.
As prologue to her decision, Judge Cardone read aloud from the defense counsel's written motion of February 11 some of the allegations against the government concerning the exculpatory evidence. She looked firmly at the prosecutors and said, "This court has set orders for discovery deadlines. I find that the government has not met those deadlines and has withheld documents from the defense attorneys. What's more," said the judge, "if the defense had not found out on its own that these documents existed, the prosecution probably would not have turned the documents over."
"I have reflected long and hard on this," said Judge Cardone still staring at the prosecutors. She paused. At that moment, the fate of the government's case against Luis Posada Carriles hung by a thread. Government attorney Bridget Behling stole a furtive peek at her colleague, Jerome Teresinksi, who sat to her left. She looked worried. So did he.
"I have asked myself whether the government has made an untimely disclosure," Judge Cardone continued. "The answer is affirmative," she declared. "Has the defendant been prejudiced by the untimely disclosure?" she mused.
Without articulating an answer to her last question, the judge suddenly stated, "I am going to deny the motions …" She paused a moment before adding "…for now." "But I am warning you," she said to the prosecutors, "If this kind of thing should happen again…" Her voice trailed off. She didn't finish her sentence. She didn't have to.
Judges rarely declare a mistrial for failure to meet discovery deadlines unless there is evidence of prejudice to the defendant's due process rights. Here Judge Cardone did not find such prejudice and therefore could not take such a radical decision as a dismissal.
"Anything else before I convene the jury?" the judge asked. Attorney Hernández, who began the morning brimming with confidence, mumbled a disappointed "no." He didn't even bother to embellish his reply with the customary "Your Honor."
The jury comes in
The gavel sounded three times. The guard opened the side door to the courtroom, and the jurors slowly filed in to their seats. None had the slightest idea why they had been given so many days off other than what Judge Cardone had told them a week ago—that there were some "legal matters" that needed to be resolved.
After the jurors were seated, the witness returned to the stand. "It's been a long time since you were last here," said government attorney Timothy J. Reardon to the witness. "Please give the ladies and gentlemen of the jury your name." With that question, Reardon resumed the direct examination of Roberto Hernández Caballero. It's been almost two weeks, since the witness testified. He was dressed today in a light green suit, with a black shirt and black tie.
A Game of Football at Hyannis Port with President Kennedy
The lead prosecutor is a veteran Justice Department litigator. His father, Timothy J. Reardon, Jr., was a very close friend of President John F. Kennedy and one of his closest aides in the White House. Decades ago, father and son played football at Hyannis Port with the Kennedy clan.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy delivered the eulogy for Reardon's father in 1993. He told of the time a young Timothy J. Reardon, III, intercepted a football thrown by the recently elected President Kennedy. His father made him return the ball to the President, because "you must never intercept the pass of the President-Elect of the United States."
Today the boy who intercepted President Kennedy's pass is an experienced litigator with the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division and is responsible for prosecuting a former CIA agent who has been the mastermind of much of the terrorism unleashed against Cuba during the last fifty years—a terrorist campaign that originated in Washington.
A new paradigm?
Government policy is only a memorandum, a record of an agreement policymakers may retract tomorrow. For decades, the United States Department of Justice has given anti-Cuban terrorists a pass. Things may be changing.
It is significant that its Counterterrorism Unit is prosecuting Posada Carriles with the full collaboration of the Cuban government, using as a star witness a lieutenant colonel from Cuba's counterintelligence unit as well as documents prepared by forensic specialists in Cuba. The American Justice Department's Counterterrorism team working hand in hand with the Cuban Ministry of the Interior's Counterintelligence team to stem five decades of U.S.-sponsored terrorism against the island is a new paradigm for U.S.-Cuba relations.
Terrorists in our midst
As the historian Peter Kornbluh, of the National Security Archive, told me, "After the Bay of Pigs, the Kennedys unleashed a wave of violent exiles against Cuba through Operation Mongoose as well as more autonomous actions." The purpose of the CIA undercover operation known as Mongoose was to destroy the Cuban revolution. Its plans included the assassination of President Fidel Castro and other leaders, the use of sabotage and attacks on civilian targets. Terrorism was a favorite weapon of the United States in its undeclared war against Cuba.
The head of Operation Mongoose was the then U.S. Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, from the same Justice Department where Timothy J. Reardon, III, now works. While still attorney general, Kennedy began distancing himself from the Cuban extremists of Operation Mongoose.
Author David Talbot described Robert Kennedy's conundrum with the so-called Cuban exiles. "As he tried to establish control over CIA operations and to herd the rambunctious Cuban exile groups into a unified progressive front, Bobby learned what a swamp of intrigue the anti-Castro world was. Working out of a sprawling Miami station code-named JM/WAVE that was second in size only to the CIA's Langley, VA, headquarters, the agency had recruited an unruly army of Cuban militants to launch raids on the island and even contracted Mafia henchmen to kill Castro—including mob bosses Johnny Rosselli, Santo Trafficante and Sam Giancana, whom Kennedy, as chief counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee in the late 1950s, had targeted. It was an overheated ecosystem that was united not just by its fevered opposition to the Castro regime, but by its hatred for the Kennedys, who were regarded as traitors for failing to use the full military might of the United States against the communist outpost in the Caribbean."
Robert Kennedy's growing understanding of the mentality of these Cuban extremists led him to suspect them of assassinating President John F. Kennedy. On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, Kennedy called Enrique "Harry" Ruiz-Williams, a Bay of Pigs veteran and one of the leaders of the Cubans involved in Operation Mongoose, and told him point-blank, "One of your guys did it."
After President Kennedy's assassination, the United States government continued to rely on the Cuban exiles for its dirty war against Cuba. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, they were also used to help prop up military dictatorships and repressive governments in Chile, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and elsewhere. Posada Carriles was dispatched to Venezuela to head the Special Operations division of the country's intelligence service—the DISIP. In later years, he helped train death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala, becoming eventually a "special adviser on security" to Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo.
As Posada Carriles' own attorney, Arturo Hernández, told the Court in pleadings he filed months ago, "Everything that my client has done has been in the name of Washington." During opening arguments to the trial now under way in El Paso, defense counsel told the jury, "Luis Posada Carriles has been an ally of the United States his entire life. Always on the side of our country."
Have things changed? If so, has 9-11 changed them so much that the United States is now going after the terrorists it unleashed against Cuba and Latin America for decades?
Although it is true that Washington is not prosecuting Posada Carriles for terrorism or murder, it has indicted him for perjury and obstruction of an investigation into international terrorism. Some of the alleged false declarations he made involve immigration infractions, but others have to do with a campaign of terror against Cuba in 1997—that resulted in the murder of a thirty-two-year-old Italian businessman in Havana named Fabio Di Celmo.
Has the torch been passed to a new generation of prosecutors at the Department of Justice?
The Bombs
This morning Reardon showed the Cuban investigator, Hernández Caballero, several photographs from the places in Cuba where a series of bombs exploded in 1997: the Copacabana, Chateau Miramar and Tritón hotels, as well as the most famous restaurant in Cuba La Bodeguita del Medio. Two weeks ago, Reardon had shown him similar photos of the bombing damage at the Meliá Cohiba and Capri hotels, as well as at the most representative of Cuba's hotels El Nacional. The jury listened attentively to the Cuban investigator as he described the photos while looking intently at the photographs on their personal television monitors.
"We can see there the bar in the lobby of the Copacabana Hotel. The entire right side was destroyed by an explosive device," said the investigator. "That bloodstain on the floor is from the person who was wounded and later died from the wounds he suffered in the explosion," the witness pointed out.
Defense counsel shot up from his seat and objected. "This witness is not competent to offer an opinion about cause of death," he said. Posada Carriles' attorney also does not want the jury to hear that Fabio Di Celmo bled to death as a result of a piece of shrapnel launched by an explosion at the Copacabana Hotel.
He is also counting on the jury never learning that the bomb was placed at the hotel by a Salvadoran named Raúl Cruz León at the urging of Francisco Chávez Abarca and under the direction of Luis Posada Carriles. Both Cruz León and Chávez Abarca confessed, and Posada Carriles boasted the following year to the New York Times of being the mastermind behind the crime.
Raúl Cruz León admitted to Cuban authorities that he arrived at the Copacabana on September 4, 1997 at around 10:30 a.m., sat down in the lobby/bar, and asked for a "Bucanero" beer, before going to the bathroom to assemble and activate the bomb that he deposited in the base of a metal ashcan located at the right hand corner of the bar. When he finished his beer, he exited the hotel, leaving behind the bomb that took the life of Fabio Di Celmo.
"How far away from the blood was the focus of the explosion?" asked Reardon. "Just 5 or 6 meters," answered the investigator. The prosecutor did not ask and the jury did not realize that the hotel also suffered damage from broken glass, a suspended ceiling, lamps, furniture and the floor of the bar, valued at $16,700.60 Cuban pesos and more than $3,000 U.S. dollars.
"How many places did you go on September 4, 1997, where there had been explosions?" asked the prosecutor. "To three places in the morning and one more that night. Four in all," answered the witness. That day, bombs exploded at the Copacabana, the Chateau Miramar, the Tritón hotels, and finally at the Bodeguita del Medio restaurant.
With the assistance of the photos, the witness described to the jury the destruction at the Chateau Miramar. While he was there investigating, another bomb went off at the Hotel Tritón, just 3,000 meters away. "I got there in five minutes," said the witness.
"When I arrived at the Tritón," Lt. Col. Hernández Caballero told the jury, "There was already a group of experts on the scene. The alarm and worry on the faces of the guests and workers at the hotel was evident. The location of the explosion was also visible." The witness commented that three consecutive explosions had taken place in a brief period of time.
While the Cuban investigator testified, Posada Carriles' attorney held his glasses in his hand, nibbling on them, while scrutinizing the members of the jury. It was as though he was trying to read their minds. The jurors paid no attention to him. They were concentrating on Hernández Caballero's testimony. Reardon showed the witness photo after photo.
"You can see in this particular photograph one of the aluminum beams that was violently severed and landed against the wall of the Tritón's lobby," the witness pointed out. "This other shows the back of the sofa that was thrown 15 to 20 meters by the force of the explosion. It landed at the hotel entrance," he added.
The Cuban investigation established that the Hotel Tritón suffered damage to glass in the lobby, display cases and doors, its suspended ceiling, lamps and furniture, of $3,661 dollars. The same Raúl Cruz León placed the bomb at the Tritón Hotel--between the planters behind the sofa, close to some children from Spain who were vacationing in Cuba with their parents. One of them, just 14 years old, alerted the guard on duty, who immediately evacuated the children and everyone else in the lobby. There was no time to deactivate the device before it exploded. Thanks to the alertness of the Spanish boy, there were no deaths or injuries at the Tritón.
The jury doesn't know any of this, because it is not part of the case against Posada Carriles. In El Paso, he is not on trial for murder—only for perjury.
Reardon showed the Cuban investigator another photo of the Hotel Tritón. Hernández Caballero explained, "This is a photo from just before the bomb's explosion. There were some children..." At that, Posada Carriles' attorney objected. "That is beyond the scope of the witness' personal knowledge, Your Honor. It's hearsay," he said. The judge sustained the objection.
Except for the details of the photographs shown to them, therefore, the jury will not get to hear much of what happened at the Tritón Hotel on September 4, 1997.
The fourth bomb on September 4, 1997 exploded at the Bodeguita del Medio restaurant in the heart of Old Havana. "It's possibly the most famous restaurant in Cuba," said the investigator as the jury members listened to him closely. "The explosion was at around 11:50 p.m.," said Hernández Caballero. "I arrived there at 1:00 a.m."
Reardon showed him several photos of the Bodeguita. "This is the part of the restaurant where the explosive device went off," he said, pointing to the Terrace Bar located on the second floor.
Although the El Paso jury won't ever learn it, the Cuban people know that Cruz León admitted to having placed the bomb behind a refrigeration unit on the restaurant's second floor, on the afternoon of September 4, 1997, after having ordered some drinks and roasted meat. He confessed to having programmed the timer on the bomb so that it would go off approximately seven or eight hours later. Reardon showed the Cuban investigator another photograph from the restaurant. "This is the crater caused by the explosion," said the witness. "Pieces of the ceiling fell on some Mexican tourists who were eating downstairs and injured them."
The limitations of the U.S. judicial system prevent the witness Hernández Caballero from saying that the Mexican tourist, Marco Polo Soriano Villa suffered a head injury. Or that Juan José Huerta Lluviano, another Mexican tourist suffered a mild concussion and a one-centimeter scalp wound. And that Ramón Soriano Ledesma, Octavio Soriano Ledesma and Nicolás Rodríguez Valdés were also wounded in the explosion. The purpose of Hernández Caballero's testimony in El Paso is simply to establish that there were explosions in Havana in 1997. Nothing more. Having met the goal, Prosecutor Reardon ended the direct examination of Roberto Hernández Caballero.
An agitated Posada Carriles
During the break, Posada Carriles stood up to nervously ask one of his attorneys, Felipe Millán, when "la Bardach" would testify (Ann Louise Bardach, the New York Times journalist, to whom he boasted of having been the mastermind of the 1997 explosions in Havana). He also asked Millán about María Elvira Salazar, a Miami television journalist who also interviewed him about the matter. In that interview Posada is clearly heard to have said, "I have no remorse whatsoever, and accept my historic responsibility. They can call me whatever they want. The only option that we Cubans have is to fight a violent regime with violence."
Posada Carriles was also visibly upset when he heard the Cuban investigator describe the destruction left behind by one of the explosions. He blurted, "Está loco."
The cross-examination
Arturo Hernández, Luis Posada Carriles' lead attorney, approached the witness and began the cross-examination in a solemn tone. He asked the witness his name, his birthplace (Matanzas, Cuba) and his profession. But the Miami attorney did not contain his hostility toward the witness for long. "Whom do you work for?" he asked. "Isn't it true that you work for the Castro regime?"
"I work for the Cuban government. The Interior Ministry. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Operations, the Department of Crimes Against State Security," said Lt. Col. Hernández Caballero calmly. "Isn't it true that you work for counterintelligence?" Posada Carriles' attorney asked accusingly, as if it were illegal to be so employed. "Yes," said the witness, "I work investigating crimes that affect Cuban state security, but mainly I am an investigator."
"During a trial in the city of Tampa in 1997, you were asked if you worked for the DGCI. Is that true?" asked the attorney. "Yes. I work for the Directorate of Counterintelligence," answered Hernández Caballero. "But I'm not a counterintelligence expert. I investigate the facts after the crimes have occurred."
Defense counsel continued his barrage, "Yet you never told us that you worked for the DGCI."
"Because no one asked me," answered Hernández Caballero.
The defense attorney then whipped out the trick he had been keeping up his sleeve for the Cuban witness.
"Don't you remember that in 2001 you testified in Miami in the case of the five Cuban spies and denied ever working for the DGI?"
Lt. Col. Hernández Caballero smiled, sipped a little water and savored it before answering. "I don't work for the DGI. One thing doesn't have anything to do with the other," he answered amiably.
The Miami attorney obviously doesn't know that the DGCI is one thing (counter-intelligence) and the DGI something else (intelligence). They are different institutions in Cuba. Hernández Caballero works for one, but not for the other.
In Spanish, caballero means gentleman. When Hernández Caballero testified in the case of the Cuban Five in Miami, one of the defendants in that case, René González Sehweret, said he had been "a gentleman on the stand." And that's also how he conducted himself in El Paso.
The lawyers skirmish
"Your Honor, I want to make a proffer," said attorney Hernández. In legal parlance, a proffer is a preliminary offering of what will later be shown by testimony or other evidence.
To allow him to make his points outside the presence of the jurors, Judge Cardone dismissed the jury. She then asked the Cuban witness to step outside.
"We're going to establish that the mission of this witness is to conduct investigations, so that this [Castro's] tyrannical regime can continue to exist," said Posada Carriles' attorney. "This has been a complete bamboozlement of the jury by the Government to present this witness as a cop, an FBI agent or an investigator," he continued. "This person falsifies documents," he insisted, without proof. "The purpose of Castro's intelligence services is to kill or jail my client," he alleged, practically shouting. "It is the will of the dictator."
The judge then gave the floor to Reardon, but immediately tried to take it away.
Reardon began his rebuttal with a retort made famous by Ronald Reagan during his 1980 Presidential debate with Jimmy Carter, "There you go again."
"There is a back door to the front door," Reardon continued. He was referring to a decision Judge Cardone made some weeks ago in which she had prohibited the defense attorney from turning the case into a trial against Cuba in order to divert attention from Posada Carriles.
But Judge Cardone cut Reardon off before he could say more.
"Your Honor," insisted Reardon, by now very irritated. "The Court has given the defense counsel every opportunity to lay a foundation for his arguments. May I be given the same opportunity as Counsel? This court has been very liberal with the defendant, but the Court must draw a line when bias is invoked. This is way beyond the pale. Defense counsel is now confusing the jury," said Reardon. He then reminded Judge Cardone, "This witness is here to testify about the places where bombs exploded."
Posada Carriles' attorney always insists on having the last word, and he managed to do so again. "This is unbelievable naiveté by government counsel," said the Miami attorney. "The DGI and the DGCI [here the attorney appeared to have at last understood that the agencies are not the same] have engaged in extraterritorial murders in the United States and around the world. This is bias that needs to come out. If the Court allows me to call witnesses, we will show what Villa Marista is all about," he concluded.
After listening to Posada Carriles' attorney, Judge Cardone ruled that although this case is not against Cuba, she would allow defense counsel to inquire about the witness' bias against Posada Carriles, thus opening the door to questions and accusations against Cuba. "This is a plea for pity and jury nullification," said Reardon, greatly irritated.
Respect
The judge then reconvened the jury. "Are you a communist?" snapped Posada Carriles' attorney, pronouncing the word communist as if it were a sexual perversion. "Isn't it true that you have fabricated evidence? Do you know Cuba's position on the shoot down of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes? Isn't it true that Castro's regime is a sponsor of terrorism?"
Posada Carriles' attorney unleashed a barrage of accusatory questions on the witness with no link to the issues related to the case at bar.
"These questions poison the jury," Reardon objected. "I overrule the objection," said the judge. "You may proceed with your questions, Mr. Hernández." And proceed he did: with question after question meant to impress upon the jury the notion that the witness is a communist who fabricates evidence and probably tortures people at a mysterious detention facility in Havana. Posada Carriles' attorney didn't offer any proof for his allegations. He didn't have to. After all, as Judge Cardone has said repeatedly during this trial, "this is cross-examination."
Unruffled, the Cuban investigator responded to all of the questions. "Yes, I'm a member of the Communist party. No I have not fabricated evidence. I don't know the details of Cuba's official position on the shoot down of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes. No, Cuba neither sponsors nor supports terrorism."
Tomorrow, Posada Carriles' attorney will continue with his cross-examination of the witness. Today he was unable to score any points. He found himself up against a professional investigator who answered every question respectfully despite the disrespectful questions put to him by Luis Posada Carriles' attorney.
Lt. Col. Roberto Hernández Caballero remains a formidable witness, and it will be difficult for defense counsel to impeach him. He led the investigations into the bombings in Havana. He was easily able to identify the bombing scenes and describe them in detail to the jury. All the prosecutors want him to do on the stand is to evidence that bombs exploded in Havana in 1997.
Today, he did that in spades.
José Pertierra practices law in Washington, DC. He represents the government of Venezuela in the case to extradite Luis Posada Carriles. Translated by Machetera and Manuel Talens. They are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity.
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