Luis Posada Carriles immigration case/background

by **RebelYell** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:54 pm

WHO HAS WHAT TO HIDE ABOUT LUIS POSADA CARRILES? by Tom Crumpacker Luis Posada's immigration case is now set for hearing before a Homeland Security judge in Texas on Aug. 29. On May 21 Secretary Rice indicated the Homeland case might go on for many months and his extradition would be determined on its completion. With motions and appeals and paid lawyers, this might mean years. A provision in the 1922 US-Venezuela extradition treaty says the custodial state can keep the alleged criminal until its own proceedings against him arising from crimes committed there are completed. But surely a minor "crime" such as a traffic ticket or a failure to report to Homeland Security on entry is not what was contemplated. And even if Posada could somehow convince the Homeland judges of the validity of his spurious residency and asylum claims (that he is a US resident although he has lived abroad for 30 years; that he is entitled to asylum here although he has murdered scores of innocent people), he still should be extradited now to Venezuela because his migration status has nothing to do with extradition for trial for his alleged crime, murdering 73 innocent Cubana flight 455 passengers in 1976. So why not just send him to the extradition judge and be done with it? What's the reason for keeping him here? Delay for delay's sake? Aggravate the Venezuelan government? Weaken the US claim to be the world leader in its "war against terrorism"? None of these seem very convincing as motives, even for this Administration. According to recently declassified CIA reports ( National Security Archives, Book 153, FBI report 11/2/76 ), in custody after his Oct. 6, 1976 bombing of the Cubana civilian airliner, flight 455, Posada threatened through his co-conspirator Morales Navarette that if forced to talk, the Venezuelan government "would go down the tube" and there would be "another Watergate." George Bush Senior, CIA Director at the time of the Cubana bombing, had previously appointed Ted Shackley as his Deputy Director for Special Operations. Since Bay of Pigs, Shackley had been in charge of the JM/Wave Miami CIA station which had been training anti-Castro extremists for possible invasion, then demolitions (Posada ran the school), biological warfare and murderous incursions into Cuba. In 1976 CIA had urged several violent US anti-Castro groups to join together under one umbrella organization called CORU. It was led by Orlando Bosch and took credit for the Letelier murders in Washington, DC in September. Bush Senior has said he was not with the CIA before being appointed director by President Ford in early 1976. Joseph McBride in an article in The Nation of July 16, 1988 wrote: "A source with close connections to the intelligence community confirmed that Bush started working for the CIA in 1960 or 1961, using his oil business for clandestine activities." There's a memo from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to the State Department dated Nov. 28, 1963 concerning information developed by the Miami FBI office about groups in Miami seeking to blame the JFK murder on the Cuban government. It says the information was orally furnished on Nov. 23 to "George Bush of the CIA." Bush Senior was in Dallas then. As was another CIA operative, Chauncey Holt (now deceased), who identified Posada as being in Dealey Plaza at the time of the murder. Other sources, among them CIA agent Marita Lorenz, placed Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo there. The question arises whether their presence there can be dismissed as coincidence. After all, Bosch, Posada's accomplice in the Cuban airline bombing, was pardoned by President Bush Senior in 1990 against the strong objection of his own Justice Department, which had implicated him in more than 70 terrorist crimes. And Guillermo Novo and Posada were just last year pardoned on another bombing charge and released by the US-friendly outgoing president of Panama. Yet another anti-Castro extremist, Felix Rodriguez, who killed Ernesto Guevara and worked with Posada in the Iran-Contra supply network, has long been a Bush Senior personal friend. The official versions of Watergate and JFK murder don't make a lot of sense when one considers motivations of the supposed actors. It's now clear that Nixon ordered the burglary of Democratic National Headquarters in 1972. But what was he looking for at such great risk? In his book on Watergate, Staff Chief H. R. Haldeman wrote that when Nixon was caught on tape talking about the risk that a Watergate probe could "blow the whole Bay of Pigs thing," he was actually referring to the JFK murder, not the invasion of Cuba. As Vice President in 1960 (a political protégé of Senator Prescott Bush), Nixon had supervised the preparation of the invasion. It seems odd he would confuse these events if they were unrelated. Moreover, what could be "blown" about the Bay of Pigs that was not already known? And why did Lee Harvey Oswald kill JFK? The Warren Commission and the subsequent Congressional committees could not come up with a motive. In an effort at the time of the murder to blame the Cuban government, a photo of Oswald was spread across US newspapers showing him on a New Orleans street holding a "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" sign. But why were there no other members of the New Orleans committee? Why did Oswald give the address of the committee as 544 Camp St., which was the side entrance for the offices of Sergio Arcacha Smith and Guy Banister, both rabid anti-Castro extremists? Why were anti-Castro Cubans often seen there? Why did Oswald spend much of his time there? Why was Allen Dulles, the CIA Director who planned the Bay of Pigs and was subsequently fired by JFK, put on the Warren Commission? Why did CIA misinform the Commission on so many key evidentiary matters? The official answers to these questions seem to be "blowin' in the wind." It's like a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing. In an oligarchy where the important decisions are made in secret by a power elite, where the mainstream media is used to manipulate rather than inform, it's often difficult for the public to distinguish actual from virtual reality. In the fall of 1963, JFK was not relying much on CIA intelligence or opinions regarding Cuba. Negotiations (supposedly secret) were about to start between US and Cuba to possibly normalize relations. JFK's conditions were that Cuba distance itself from the Soviet Union and stop aiding revolutionary movements in Latin America, to which Castro seemed amenable. A key part of Allen Dulles's Bay of Pigs plan was "Operation 40." They were 40 CIA agents, mostly gunmen, whose job was to kill the leading members of Cuba's government. Some, like Posada, had previously worked in enforcement for the Batista regime. Prior to the invasion they were waiting in Dominican Republic. Their boat took off for Cuba but turned around when informed the invasion was failing. They returned to the US, and, unbeknownst to JFK, Operation 40 continued on. For years and decades, with some changes in names and personnel. Many of the original names kept appearing in connection with subsequent covert, violent CIA projects, such as Operation Mongoose, Operation Phoenix, the JFK murder, the regime changes in Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Watergate burglary, the bombing of Cubana flight 455, the Iran-Contra war, and Operation Condor which exterminated many South American progressives. Names like Luis Posada, Orlando Bosch, Felix Rodriguez, E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, Antonio Veciana, Guillermo Novo, Eugenio Martinez, Ricardo Morales, David Sanchez Morales, David Phillips, all members of the 40. In an oligarchy where the important decisions are made in secret by a power elite, where the mainstream media is used to manipulate rather than inform, it's often difficult for the public to distinguish actual from virtual reality. It's apparent that Posada could supply many of the missing pieces of the puzzles of the last 45 years. He has friends in Miami and they have brought him here to resurface after 30 years. If he needed money or a place to hide comfortably, they could easily have provided him with such in another country. What we now know about his past is enough to say that he and his friends could be using going public with his knowledge of CIA operations as a threat or extortion chip, perhaps to affect future US policy toward Cuba. This would explain why his legally required extradition is being delayed. <a href="http://baltimorechronicle.com/072205Crumpacker.shtml" target="top">Link</a>

by **DrDebugDU** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 1:20 pm

Declassified reports on Luis Posada Carriles: Luis Posada Carriles had a long relationship with the CIA. In February 1961, he joined the CIA's Brigade 2506 to invade Cuba, although the ship to which he was assigned never landed at the Bay of Pigs. While in the U.S. military between 1963 and 1965 the CIA recruited him and trained him in demolitions; he subsequently became a trainer of other paramilitary exile forces in the mid 1960s. CIA documents posted below reveal that he was terminated as an asset in July 1967, but then reinstated four months later and apparently remained an asset until 1974. The documents also show that he remained in contact with the Agency until June 1976, only three months before the plane bombing. Document 1: CIA, October 13, 1976, Report, "Traces on Persons Involved in 6 Oct 1976 Cubana Crash." In the aftermath of the bombing of Cubana flight 455, the CIA ran a file check on all names associated with the terror attack. In a report to the FBI the Agency stated that it had no association with the two Venezuelans who were arrested. A section on Luis Posada Carriles was heavily redacted when the document was declassified. But the FBI retransmitted the report three days later and that version was released uncensored revealing Posada's relations with the CIA. Document 2: FBI, October 16, 1976, Retransmission of CIA Trace Report In this uncensored version of the CIA trace report, the Agency admits that it "had a relationship with one person whose name has been mentioned in connection with the reported bombing," Luis Posada Carriles. The CIA file check shows that Posada was "a former agent of CIA." Although it doesn't say when his employment began, it indicates he was terminated briefly in the summer of 1967 but then reinstated in the fall and continued as an asset while a high level official in the Venezuelan intelligence service, DISIP, until 1974. Even then, "occasional contact with him" continued until June 1976. Document 3: CIA, June 1966, File search on Luis "Pozada" In this file search the CIA states that Posada has "been of operational interest to this Agency since April 1965," the likely date when he first became a paid CIA agent. Document 4: FBI, July 18, 1966, "Cuba" An informant reports to the FBI that Posada is a CIA agent and is "receiving approximately $300.00 per month from CIA." Document 5: CIA, April 17, 1972, Personal Record Questionnaire on Posada This "PRQ" was compiled in 1972 at a time Posada was a high level official at the Venezuelan intelligence service, DISIP, in charge of demolitions. The CIA was beginning to have some concerns about him, based on reports that he had taken CIA explosives equipment to Venezuela, and that he had ties to a Miami mafia figure named Lefty Rosenthal. The PRQ spells out Posada's personal background and includes his travel to various countries between 1956 and 1971. It also confirms that one of his many aliases was "Bambi Carriles." EARLY TERRORIST PLOTTING During the time that Posada was on the CIA payroll in the mid-1960s, he participated in a number of plots that involved sabotage and explosives. FBI reporting recorded some of Posada's earliest activities, including his financial ties to Jorge Mas Canosa, who would later become head of the powerful anti-Castro lobby, the Cuban American National Foundation. Document 6: FBI, July 7, 1965, "Luis Posada Carriles" The FBI transmits information obtained from the CIA's Mexico station titled "Intention of Cuban Representation in Exile (RECE) to Blow up a Cuban or Soviet Vessel in Veracruz, Mexico." The document summarizes intelligence on a payment that Jorge Mas Canosa, then the head of RECE, has made to Luis Posada to finance a sabotage operation against ships in Mexico. Posada reportedly has "100 pounds of C-4 explosives and detonators" and limpet mines to use in the operation. Document 7: FBI, July 13, 1965, "Cuban Representation in Exile (RECE)" A FBI cable reports on intelligence obtained from "MM T-1" (a code reference to the CIA) on a number of RECE terrorist operations, including the bombing of the Soviet library in Mexico City. The document contains information on payments from Jorge Mas Canosa to Luis Posada for an operation to bomb ships in the port of Veracruz, as well as a description of Posada and a statement he gave to the FBI in June of 1964. Document 8: FBI, May 17, 1965, "Roberto Alejos Arzu; Luis Sierra Lopez, Neutrality Matters, Internal Security- Guatemala" The FBI links Posada to a major plot to overthrow the government of Guatemala. U.S. Customs agents force Posada and other co- conspirators to turn over a cache of weapons that are listed in this document. The weapons include napalm, 80 pounds of C-4 explosives, and 28 pounds of C-3 explosives. BOMBING OF CUBANA FLIGHT 455 Document 9: FBI, October 7, 1976, Secret Intelligence Report, "Suspected Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados" In one of the very first reports on the October 6, 1976, downing of Cubana Flight 455, the FBI Venezuelan bureau cables that a confidential source has identified Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch as responsible for the bombing. "The source all but admitted that Posada and Bosch had engineered the bombing of the airline," according to the report. The report appears to indicate that the Venezuelan secret police, DISIP, were arranging for Bosch and Posada to leave Caracas, although this section of the document has been censored. In the report, the FBI identifies two Venezuelan suspects arrested in Barbados: Freddy Lugo and Jose Vazquez Garcia. Vazquez Garcia is an alias for Hernan Ricardo Lozano. Both Ricardo and Lugo worked for Luis Posada's private security firm in Caracas at the time of the bombing. Document 10: FBI, November 2, 1976, Secret Intelligence Report "Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados, West Indies, October 6, 1976" The FBI receives information from a source who has spoken with Ricardo Morales Navarrete, a Cuban exile informant working for DISIP in Caracas. Known as "Monkey" Morales, he tells the FBI source of two meetings during which plotting for the plane bombing took place: one in the Hotel Anauco Hilton in Caracas, and another in Morales room at the Hilton. Both meetings were attended by Posada Carriles. A key passage of the report quotes Morales as stating that "some people in the Venezuelan government are involved in this airplane bombing, and that if Posada Carriles talks, then Morales Navarrete and others in the Venezuelan government will 'go down the tube.' He said that if people start talking 'we'll have our own Watergate.'" Morales also states that after the plane went down, one of the men who placed the bomb aboard the jet called Orlando Bosch and reported: "A bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed." Document 11: FBI, November 3, 1976, Cable, "Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados, West Indies, October 6, 1976" The FBI reports on arrest warrants issued by a Venezuelan judge for Posada, Bosch, Freddy Lugo and Ricardo Lozano. ORLANDO BOSCH AND ANTI-CASTRO TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS Document 12: FBI, January 24, 1977, Secret Report, "Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) Neutrality Matters - Cuba - (Anti-Castro)" The FBI reports on a plot to carry out terrorist attacks that will divert attention from the prosecution of Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada in Caracas. Orders for the attacks are attributed to Orlando Garcia Vazquez, a Cuban exile who was then head of the Venezuelan intelligence service, DISIP. (Garcia Vazquez currently lives in Miami.) The report also provides some details on CORU. Document 13: FBI, August 16, 1978, Secret Report, "Coordinacion de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations) (CORU), Neutrality Matters - Cuba - (Anti-Castro)" This FBI report provides a comprehensive overview of CORU which the FBI describes as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization" headed by Orlando Bosch. The report records how CORU was created at a secret meeting in Santo Domingo on June 11, 1976, during which a series of bombing attacks were planned, including the bombing of a Cubana airliner. On page 6, the report relates in great detail how Orlando Bosch was met in Caracas on September 8, 1976, by Luis Posada and other anti-Castro exiles and a deal was struck as to what kind of activities he could organize on Venezuelan soil. The document also contains substantive details on behind-the-scene efforts in Caracas to obtain the early release of Bosch and Posada from prison. IRAN-CONTRA AND POSADA (A.K.A. RAMON MEDINA) Document 14: September 2, 1986, Contra re-supply document, [Distribution of Warehoused Contra Weapons and Equipment - in Spanish with English translation] After bribing his way out of prison in Venezuela in September 1985, Posada went directly to El Salvador to work on the illicit contra resupply operations being run by Lt. Col. Oliver North. Posada assumed the name "Ramon Medina," and worked as a deputy to another anti-Castro Cuban exile, Felix Rodriguez, who was in charge of a small airlift of arms and supplies to the contras in Southern Nicaragua. Rodriguez used the code name, Max Gomez. This document, released during the Congressional investigation into the Iran-Contra operations, records both Posada and Rodriguez obtaining supplies for contra troops from a warehouse at Illopango airbase in San Salvador. <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/">www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/</a> When Posada was arrested [in Venezuela] he was found with a map of Washington showing the daily route of to work of Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean Foreign Minister, who had been assassinated on 21st September, 1976. Herman Ricardo and Freddy Lugo were both sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. He escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985 as a result of a bribe from Jorge Mas Canosa, the head of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), an organization created under Ronald Reagan. The organization received substantial federal funds for running Radio and TV Marti, in order to transmit propaganda to Cuba. In the 1980s Posada was accused of being involved in importing large quantities of cocaine into the US in support of the Contras in Nicaragua. According to Peter Dale Scott (Cocaine Politics) Posada was second in charge of a major Contra resupply operation at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador. He was recruited by Felix Rodriguez, a long-time CIA operative who was with the Bolivian forces that captured and executed Che Guevera. Posada gave an interview to the New York Times (July 12th, 1998) , where he admitted to planning a series of bombings in Cuba. He also revealed that he had received $200,000 in US government funding via the Cuban American National Foundation for these attacks. Posada continued to take part in terrorist attacks on Cuba. In November 2000 Posada and three colleagues, Guillermo Novo, Gaspar Jiménez and Pedro Remón, were arrested and imprisoned after trying to assassinate Fidel Castro at the University of Panama. In August, 2004, President Mireyas Moscoso of Panama, pardoned Posada, Novo, Jiménez and Remón for their role in attempting to assassinate Castro. <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKposada.htm">www.spartacus.schoolnet.c...posada.htm</a> Then again Felix Rodriguez and George H.W. Bush both helped organize and recruit the Cuban exiles in the early 1960s, so I doubt whether he'll be extradited. He'll probably get his American citizenship eventually...

by **DrDebugDU** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 1:29 pm

FABIÁN ESCALANTE ON POSADA AND OPERATION 40 By *Jean-Guy Allard in Havana May 22, 2005, 15:28 “Who had the means and motives to kill Kennedy in 1963?” <img src="http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/uploads/jfkhalfsize.jpg"/> “WHO in 1963 had the resources to assassinate Kennedy? Who had the means and who had the motives to kill the U.S. president?”, asks General Fabian Escalante in an exclusive interview in his Havana office. And he gives the answer: "CIA agents from Operation 40 who were rabidly anti-Kennedy. And among them were Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, Antonio Veciana and Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia." Then: <img src="http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/uploads/posadayounghalfsize.jpg"/> Now: <img src="http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/uploads/posadaold.jpg"/> “Who were the ones who had the training to murder Kennedy? The ones who had all of the capabilities to carry it out? Who were the expert marksmen?" continues Escalante, pointing out that the case of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles has to be seen within the historical context of what he calls "the machinery of the Cuban American mafia." And in the heart of that machinery is Operation 40, created by the CIA on the eve of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, says the ex-chief of Cuban intelligence, author of The Plot (Ocean Press), about the assassination of the U.S. leader. (...) "Whom are they going to use? Operation 40. That is to say all of the specialists who are already trained, have gone through the school, have already participated in operations against Cuba...I refer to the group of Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia, Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, Virgilio Paz, Alvin Ross, Jose Dionisio Suarez, Antonio Veciana, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Felipe Rivero, who recently died, the Novo Sampoll brothers, Gaspar "Gasparito" Jimenez Escobedo, Juan Manuel Salvat, Nazario Sargent, Carlos Bringuier, Antonio Cuesta, Eladio del Valle, Herminio Diaz, Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz, Rafael "Chichi" Quintero, Jose Basulto, Paulino Sierra, Bernard Baker, who was a Cuban with a North American name -- he was a guard at the U.S. embassy -- and Eugenio Martinez, alias 'Musculito.' "And there was the team that brought together all of the North Americans: David Morales; David Phillips; Howard Hunt; Willian Harvey; Frank Sturgis; Gerry Hemming; John Rosselli, who was second head of the Chicago mafia and at that time in '62; Porter Goss, the current head of the CIA, who is in the JM/WAVE as a subordinate of Phillips and Morales." (...) POSADA, TORTURER IN CARACAS Luis Posada Carriles next appears in Venezuela. "Posada says he arrived in Caracas in 1969, which is not true, he arrived in '67. What is happening is that he is a CIA advisor and it doesn't suit him in his book to talk about that; he says he was recruited in Miami by a chief of DIGEPOL. He's a tremendous storyteller. In reality, Posada is already there in '67 helping DIGEPOL as a CIA advisor. A SOURCE IDENTIFIES POSADA AND OSWALD "There is a source who participates in a meeting in Miami in the year '63 in a CIA safe house and who, from what I remember, was related to Veciana, very close to Veciana. This source identifies Luis Posada Carriles, Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz and, I believe, the Novo Sampol brothers...and that same source later recognizes Lee Harvey Oswald as one of the participants. (...) There are several sources who place Luis Posada Carriles in Dallas on November 22, 1963, says Escalante. The ex-chief of Cuban security points to a recent investigation by the Dutchman Wim Dankbaar: "There are elements which even say that Posada was one of the shooters, which cannot be ruled out because Posada is an expert marksman. "Posada who is an expert marksman who graduated from a North American military school. Posada who afterwards becomes, together with Orlando Bosch and all of that gang, one of the leaders of the terrorist groups. Within the mechanism of Operation 40. Posada who since then has always been protected by U.S. authorities, protected by the Cuban American National Foundation, protected by Jorge Mas Canosa." (...) <a href="http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_17881.shtml">www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_17881.shtml</a> Edited by: <A HREF=http://p097.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=drdebugdu>DrDebugDU</A> at: 7/23/05 11:58 am

by **Fearless** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 4:02 pm

of a US president in Dallas... VHeadline.com guest commentarist Arthur Shaw writes: US Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and US Attorney R. Alexander Acosta in Miami may want to reconsider their impetuous decision to retry the Cuban Five for "spying" after an appeals court has thrown out their convictions. The US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed the convictions of the Cuban Five on Wednesday, August 9, 2005, finding that the "pervasive community prejudice against Fidel Castro and the Cuban government and its agents and the publicity surrounding the trial and other community events combined to create a situation where they were unable to obtain a fair and impartial trial." The Cuban Five -- Geraldo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez -- were arrested in September 1998 and convicted in 2001 on charges of, among other things, serving within the United States as an agent of a foreign government without registering with the US attorney general. They are serving sentences ranging from 15 years to life. The 11th Circuit reversal of the five convictions leaves Attorney General Gonzales and US Attorney Acosta with four choices: (1) a rehearing in the 11 Circuit or appeal from it to the US Supreme Court; (2) retry the Cubans; (3) release the Cubans or (4) disregard the rule of law and hold them without a retrial. On Thursday, August 11, Miami Herald reporter Jay Weaver wrote that "Miami's top federal prosecutor says he will retry the five accused Cuban spies whose 2001 convictions were just overturned by a federal appeals court -- most probably next year in another city. But US Attorney R. Alexander Acosta is weighing another potential legal move: challenging Tuesday's stunning decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta." So, Weaver's piece suggests that Gonzales and Acosta are going to do (2), retry the five Cubans after the prosecutors first try a long shot of (1), rehear the case on appeal. Frankly (4), to disregard the rule of law and to hold the Five without retrial is the mostly likely and the most characteristic choice for the Bush regime. It isn't that improbable that the Bush dictatorship will ship the Five to the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where the Five are sure to be tortured or murdered or raped or otherwise subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. By means of (4), the Bush regime can arrogantly tell the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to go straight to hell. However, if (2), retry them, turns out to be the case, the presence of Luis Posada Carriles within the United States and in the custody of US Department of Homeland Security will complicate a retrial of the Cuban Five. The Cuban Five were, in large part, in the United States to investigate the origin of terrorist acts that were committed in Cuba during and before 1998. Many of the terrorists acts, such a series of hotel bombings in 1997 and 1998, were operations that Luis Posada had masterminded. Hence, it a certainty that the attorneys for the Cuban Five at a retrial will subpoena Posada as a witness to testify about his "operations" against Cuba. Further, it unlikely that an impartial judge will refuse to let Posada testify on grounds of irrelevancy because these terrorist acts for which Posada has subsequently and publicly claimed responsibility were repeatedly mentioned in the first trial of the Cuban Five. Indeed, these acts against Cuba, without usually mentioning Posada ... their mastermind ... are discussed in the August 9th opinion of the 11th Circuit. Gonzales and Acosta should check with somebody who bosses them about whether its a good idea to put Posada under oath in a US court to testify about his "operations" against Cuba. For one thing, Posada may not be willing to lie under oath so that the Bush regime can save face. After all, Posada already has his hands full with the immigration and the extradition cases now pending against him. The last thing he wants and needs now is a perjury case pending against him. And Posada, after he thinks about it a little bit, may not be willing to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Opening his mouth is Posada leverage and means of influence, but if he keeps his mouth shut, then he throws away his leverage and lets the Bush regime throw him to the dogs, since the regime knows that Posada, like a stupid soldier, will "fall on the sword" for them. Without doubt, if Posada loses either the immigration or extradition case or both, he is more likely to open up his mouth in the Cuban Five retrial. And open it up big. There are all kind of things that Posada can testify about, such as, for example, the financial sources for his 1997 and 1998 bombing "operations" against the Havana hotels which include some the big-named members of the drug dealing and GOP-supporting Miami Mafia. These bombing "operations" of Posada resulted on September 4, 1997 at 12.22 p.m. in the murder of Italian businessman Fabio di Celmo, 32-year-old Genoa, Italy, native, in the Copacabana Hotel lobby in Havana. Posada's financial backers ... who are accomplices to murder ... may feel a little bit exposed if Posada takes the stand to testify. Posada may also testify about his organization and training of death squads at the behest of the US government in a number of countries, including Venezuela, in Latin America. Posada may testify about the CIA shipments of cocaine from Central America for sale in the United States to finance the Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Most exciting of all, Posada may testify about the assassination in Dallas of a US president on November 22, 1963. If Posada opens up his mouth in a Cuban five retrial, it won't be the first time. Posada opened his mouth to the New York Times in a published July 1998 interview. Posada may welcome the opportunity to testify at the retrial of the Cuban Five because that will get him back to his beloved state of Florida ... though not the city of Miami ... where his powerful friends in the Miami Mafia can still "fix" things for him because the judicial and electoral system in Florida is the most corrupt in the United States. Miami is out as a venue for the retrial for the Cuban Five because many of the potential jurors who reside in Miami have been found by the 11th Circuit to be insanely prejudiced against Cuba. Posada will smile when he considers that the probability of his testimony in a retrial of the Cuban Five will likely delay his removal from the United States if he loses in the pending immigration and extradition cases against him. Attorney General Gonzales and US Attorney Acosta will frown when they consider that Posada continued presence in the United State threatens to blow their retrial of the Cuban Five clear out of the water. The probability of being called as a witness in the Cuban Five retrial, which will extend his illegal stay in the US regardless of the outcomes of his immigration and extradition cases, will likely affect the development of the tone and substance of Posada's defense in immigration and extradition cases. Posada may try to increase his desirability as a witness in the Cuban Five retrial by making utterances ... if he gets the opportunity ... in the immigration and extradition proceedings that bear on key issues in the Cuban Five litigation. Posada attorneys, unpleasantly discovering that US Immigration Judge William Abbott in El Paso may be no-nonsense, smart, tough, and righteous ... as judges should be but rarely are .... are turning to a dilatory or a foot-dragging defense for their client. They want to slow everything down to a crawl. Attorney General Gonzales is in charge of the extradition case against Posada. The US attorney general is, for sure, conflicted. If he wins the extradition case and sends Posada to Venezuela, he pisses off the Miami Mafia. If, on the hand, he loses the extradition case and Posada stays here, then he jeopardizes the retrial of the Cuban Five ... which is a case as big as Posada's. Gonzales and Acosta would be prudent if they ... quickly ... released the five Cubans and deported them to Cuba … to free, socialist Cuba, not to the barbaric and lawless US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. <a href="http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=45584">www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=45584</a>

by **Fearless** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 4:05 pm

Aug 31, 10:10 PM (ET) By Gina Keating EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - A Cuban-born ex-CIA operative unexpectedly withdrew his petition for asylum on Wednesday, saying he feared he might be forced to reveal state secrets if he continued testifying. But Luis Posada Carriles, 77, a U.S. Army-trained explosives expert who helped carry out the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and has been accused of trying to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, will petition to remain in the United States on the basis of his U.S. military service, his lawyer said. Posada says he would be imprisoned and tortured if returned to his Communist homeland or to Venezuela, where he faces charges of helping in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. He has denied any part of a plot against Castro and the other charges of arranging bombings. The asylum hearing in an El Paso court is not a criminal matter, but the case has placed President George W. Bush's administration in a difficult position as it tries to balance its support among the powerful anti-Castro Cuban-American community with its global campaign against terrorism. Left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his ally Castro say Posada is a terrorist and accuse Washington of protecting the Cuban exile because of his past with U.S. intelligence agencies. Judge William Abbott on Wednesday said Posada has made a preliminary showing of a danger of mistreatment in Venezuela during the hearing. "It appears to my satisfaction that he has a real fear and a clear possibility of torture (in Venezuela)," Abbott said. ANOTHER COUNTRY The government will have a chance at a September 26 hearing to challenge the assertion that Posada would be in danger in Venezuela, but it has not decided whether to do so. If not, the government would be able to detain Posada for 90 days as it searched for another country to send him to. Posada, a self-described anti-Castro "freedom fighter," is a naturalized citizen of Venezuela, and has been involved in U.S. covert operations such as the Iran-Contra affair, according to recently declassified government documents. His lawyer said that he had decided for the good of U.S. security to stop testifying and end his request for asylum. "He may step into sensitive areas that could harm the security of the U.S. government or other countries," attorney Matthew Archambeault told the judge. After the hearing, Archambeault said Posada "knows a lot and could provide a lot of information ... but that has never been his intention -- to use his knowledge as a bargaining chip." Posada will apply for U.S. citizenship under a law covering aliens who have served honorably in the U.S. military -- as Posada did for one year in the early 1960s. U.S. government attorneys were planning to continue questioning Posada about a 1997 series of nightclub bombings in Havana. Posada was arrested in May in Miami and moved to El Paso for detention after he illegally entered the United States on the Texas-Mexico border. His attorneys have not contested that Posada entered the United States illegally. Venezuela's demand for his extradition from the United States has strained already tense relations between the world's No. 5 oil exporter and its biggest energy client. The country has dismissed suggestions Posada could be tortured or handed over to Cuba and promises a far trial. <a href="http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050901/2005-09-01T021005Z_01_MOL107793_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-CUBAN-DC.html">reuters.myway.com/article/20050901/2005-09-01T021005Z_01_MOL107793_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-CUBAN-DC.html</a>

by **Fearless** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:24 pm

US accused of protecting Cuban militant Staff and agencies Friday September 30, 2005 The US is protecting the "Osama bin Laden of Latin America", the Venezuelan president said today. Hugo Chavez made his remarks after a US judge ruled against deporting a Cuban militant who blew up a passenger jet in 1976. Luis Posada Carriles - who is wanted in Venezuela for the bombing - this week told an extradition hearing that he faced torture if he was returned to the country. An immigration judge in El Paso, Texas, upheld the claims, ruling that 77-year-old Mr Carriles could not be extradited. Mr Chavez said the decision not to extradite Mr Carriles allowed he Bush administration to protect one of Latin America's most notorious terrorists. "The United States is protecting the Osama bin Laden of Latin America," he said, accusing the US president, George Bush, of "double standards" in the fight against terror. Earlier this month, Mr Bush told a UN summit that "terrorists must know that, wherever they go, they cannot escape justice". Mr Carriles, a Cuban who also holds Venezuelan citizenship, is accused of masterminding the bombing of the Cuban passenger jet in 1976. He has denied any involvement in the attack, but has admitted to working against the Cuban president, Fidel Castro. All 73 people on board the Cubana Airlines plane were killed when it exploded after takeoff from Barbados. Mr Carriles escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting retrial after a military court acquitted him of the bombing. He has worked as CIA operative, and was in the US military for a year during the early 80s. In May, he was arrested in Miami for being in the US illegally. The Venezuelan authorities then asked for his extradition to stand trial for the bombing. Mr Carriles says he could not return to Venezuela because he would be tortured, and also alleges that Mr Castro attempted to have him assassinated in 1990 because of his former position in the Venezuelan security forces. Venezuela has always denied that Mr Carriles would be tortured if he was returned. The country's constitution prohibits torture, and Venezuelan officials insist his rights would be respected. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,12716,1581955,00.html" target="top">Link</a>

by **hmm** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:09 am

<a href="http://narconews.com/Issue38/article1354.html">narconews.com/Issue38/article1354.html</a> "How Authentic Journalists Caught an International Terrorist in Mexico The Daily Por Esto! Found Posada Carriles on Isla Mujeres but George W. Bush Is Trying to Set Him Free in Miami By Al Giordano Special to The Narco News Bulletin June 21, 2005"

by **Fearless** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:38 pm

Venezuela Asks UN to Compel U.S. to Extradite Terror Suspect By Bill Varner Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela asked the United Nations to compel the U.S. to extradite terrorism suspect Luis Posada Carriles to face charges that he planned the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro Moros used a Security Council meeting on terrorism to seek the extradition of Posada Carriles, who is in U.S. custody on unrelated immigration charges. President Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut diplomatic ties with the U.S. unless Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born citizen of Venezuela, is turned over to Venezuela to face trial. ``The only way to get rid of the scourge of terrorism is to combat it in a truthful manner, however it seems as though for Mr. Bush and the U.S. government that there are good terrorists and bad terrorists,'' Maduro said. He said the U.S. is guilty of ``hypocrisy and double standards'' in the war on terror. Maduro's remarks followed Chavez's speech last week to the UN General Assembly, in which he called U.S. President George W. Bush ``the devil'' and a ``world tyrant.'' The U.S. is trying to prevent Venezuela from winning a two-year term on the Security Council when the UN General Assembly elects five new members on Oct. 16. ``The U.S. government refuses to act legally against this terrorist,'' Maduro said, speaking of Posada Carriles. ``It is protecting him and there are strong possibilities for this terrorist to be let free in the coming days.'' Maduro said Posada escaped from a Venezuelan jail and fled to Central America, where he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency before entering the U.S. illegally. He said Posada has confessed to planting bombs that killed European tourists in Cuba. The U.S. mission to the UN had no comment on the Posada Carriles case. Texas immigration Judge William Lee Abbot last year barred Posada Carriles's extradition to Venezuela or Cuba, saying there was no guarantee that Posada Carriles wouldn't be tortured if he was sent to either Latin American country. To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner in United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: September 28, 2006 15:25 EDT <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=askRnXpAMA1w&refer=latin_america" target="top">www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=askRnXpAMA1w&refer=latin_america</a>

by **Fearless** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:22 pm

Published Thursday, January 18, 2007
MIAMI

Bomb Found on Truck Of Posada Witness

A pipe bomb found and later detonated by authorities during the weekend was attached to a pickup belonging to a key witness in the federal case against jailed Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

The FBI had publicly identified the owner of the truck only as a witness in a federal criminal case. But two federal officials said Wednesday the witness was Gilberto Abascal, whose testimony is key to the U.S. case charging Posada with lying during immigration naturalization proceedings.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701180597

by **Fearless** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 9:47 pm

U.S. Releases Cuban Bombing Suspect, Angers Venezuela & Cuba
Saturday, Apr 21, 2007
By: Anthony DePalma - New York Times

April 20, 2007

A 79-year-old anti-Castro Cuban exile and former C.I.A. operative linked to the bombing of a Cuban airliner was released on bail yesterday and immediately returned to Miami to await trial on immigration fraud charges.

A billboard in Havana bears a likeness of Luis Posada Carriles and reads, "Cuba declares him guilty" in the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976.

The man, Luis Posada Carriles, was released from the Otero County Prison in Chaparral, N.M., after posting a $350,000 bond on the immigration charges.

His release infuriated the authorities in Cuba and Venezuela, who have been trying to extradite him to stand trial over the 1976 airliner bombing, which killed 73 people, including several teenage members of Cuba's national fencing team.

The United States Justice Department had tried unsuccessfully to prevent his release, arguing that his escape from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 increased the risk that he might flee before the scheduled start of his trial on immigration charges on May 11.

The court rejected the Justice Department's argument, but it increased security measures by ordering Mr. Posada to be fitted with an ankle bracelet to track his whereabouts. He was ordered to remain under house detention with his wife in Miami until the immigration trial begins.

Mr. Posada, a gray-haired former intelligence operative and United States Army officer, has been detained since May 2005, when he entered the United States illegally.

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela said Thursday in Caracas, "We demand that they extradite that terrorist and murderer to Venezuela, instead of protecting him."

Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera, the chief of the Cuban Interests Section, Cuba's diplomatic representation in Washington, told Agence France-Presse yesterday, "Cuba forcefully condemns this decision and holds the government of the United States totally responsible for the fact that Posada Carriles is free in Miami."

Prensa Latina, the Cuban news agency, reported last night that 50,000 people had gathered at a demonstration in Bayamo, a city in southeastern Cuba, to protest the release of Mr. Posada and to demand that he be tried for the jetliner bombing.

The Cuban government has also accused Mr. Posada, an avowed opponent of the island's Communist rule, of plotting to assassinate the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, in Panama in 2000, and of planning a series of explosions in tourist hotels in Havana in 1997.

Mr. Posada was jailed in Panama in connection with the attempt on Mr. Castro's life but was later pardoned by Panamanian officials. He admitted, then later denied, that he had directed the wave of hotel bombings in 1997.

He has also repeatedly denied responsibility for the bombing of the plane, known as Cubana Airlines Flight 455. The jet blew apart and crashed off the coast of Barbados on Oct. 6, 1976.

Investigators in Venezuela, where Mr. Posada had been chief of operations in the secret intelligence police, traced at least one of the bombs to the plane's luggage compartment. The investigators found that two Venezuelans had checked bags through to Havana but got off the plane at a scheduled stop in Barbados.

The men had worked for Mr. Posada, who was arrested in Venezuela and charged with the bombing. He escaped from prison in 1985 dressed as a priest after associates bribed a guard.

Cuban officials have accused the United States of hypocrisy in battling terrorists by not prosecuting Mr. Posada or deporting him to stand trial on terrorism charges in another country. They routinely refer to Mr. Posada as "the bin Laden of the Americas."

Mr. Posada's shadowy past as a Central Intelligence Agency operative put the United States in a politically delicate position. In his early years, he had received military training in the United States and worked for the C.I.A. to bring down the Castro government. He participated in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Later he was involved in supplying arms to rebels in Nicaragua.

The United States has acknowledged his long record of violent acts. In court papers filed in his immigration fraud case, the Justice Department described him as "an unrepentant criminal and admitted mastermind of terrorist plots."

Mr. Posada was detained in 2005 after he entered the United States on false pretenses. According to an indictment unsealed this year, he lied when he told border officials he had paid a smuggler to drive him from Mexico to Texas. He actually entered the country on a small boat. He also lied about using an alias.

An immigration judge has blocked Mr. Posada's extradition to Cuba or Venezuela, ruling that he could be subject to torture in those countries. Efforts to deport him to another country have failed because so far no other country has been willing to take him.

His arrival in Miami yesterday afternoon set off mixed reactions among the area's many Cuban exiles, who see him as both a patriot and an embarrassment.

"We have been fighting this war on terror, and here we are releasing a man who has a history of terrorist acts and is a fugitive of justice in other countries," said Elena Freyre, executive director of the Cuban-American Defense League, a moderate exile group in Miami. "It's absolutely appalling."

But Miguel Saavedra, president of Vigilia Mambisa, a small, hard-line anti-Castro exile group, said he felt vindicated by Mr. Posada's release on bail.

"The only ones accusing him are the governments of Cuba and Venezuela," Mr. Saavedra said. "They can only accuse him because they haven't been able to prove anything. If he is sent to Cuba or Venezuela, it would be the equivalent of executing him."

Taken from: New York Times

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2277

by **Fearless** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:25 am

Posada May Participate in Chavez Assassination

Caracas, Apr 20 (Prensa Latina) The United States released Luis Posada Carriles either to kill him or to give him a new mission, which might be the assassination of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan Higher Education Minister Hector Navarro said on Friday.

The only explanation to release Posada Carriles is to kill him, because they know how to do it, and prevent him from talking about his dirty deals with the US government, or he was given a new mission, Navarro told Venezolana de Television.

The Venezuelan minister recalled that the recently released terrorist is responsible for the deaths of 73 people on board a Cuban civilian plane in 1976. He has contacts with criminals all over the world and knows how to get C-4 explosive.

In particular, Navarro pointed out that Posada Carriles, who was a member of the DISIP (Venezuela's political police), still has relations with officers from that repressive corps, who are also CIA operatives.

He added that many of those CIA agents are still living in Venezuela, participated in the 2002 coup d'etat against President Chavez and can be key elements in a plot to assassinate the head of State.

Navarro noted that in addition to the sabotage of the plane off Barbados, Posada Carriles is responsible for assassinating and torturing Venezuelans during the time he was known as DISIP's "Commissar Basilio" and headed repressive activities against left-wing movements.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID ... FD5C438%7D)&language=EN

by **Fearless** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:28 am

Is The CIA Trying to Kill Venezuela's Hugo Chávez?

by Chris Carlson

Global Research, April 19, 2007
Venezuelanalysis.com

"I want to kill that son of a bitch," said the Capitan of the Venezuelan National Guard, Thomas Guillen in a recorded telephone call with his wife. In the call, played on Venezuela's state TV channel last month, the Capitan reveals his and his father's plans to kill President Hugo Chávez. The next day, the Capitan and his father, retired General Ramon Guillén Dávila, were arrested and taken into custody for conspiring to kill the President of Venezuela. [1]

In recent weeks, Hugo Chávez has increasingly warned that the United States has plans to kill him and is stepping up its activity against him and his government. Chávez has also claimed that the CIA is working with associates of the famous Cuban terrorist and CIA agent Posada Carriles, designing plans for his assassination. But could there be any truth to all of this? Could this be a classic CIA-conspiracy to kill another official "enemy" of the United States? A quick look at the connections between the CIA and the General Ramon Guillén Dávila shows that it definitely is a possibility.

The United States manages to spread its tentacles into different countries around the world in various ways, influencing and intervening in the politics of sovereign nations. In Latin America, one of the most common ways is through supposed "drug operations." The CIA has been known to run "anti-drug" operations in countries like Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

In Venezuela, such CIA-created "anti-drug" operations were led in the 1980's by the same General Ramon Guillén Dávila who was recently planning to kill Chávez. According to the Miami Herald, Guillen was the CIA's most trusted man in Venezuela and the senior official collaborating with the CIA during the 1980's. [2]

As head of the Venezuela National Guard, Guillén worked closely with the CIA to infiltrate and gather information about Colombian drug trafficking operations. But instead of curbing drug operations, Guillén and the CIA ended up smuggling cocaine themselves, and the whole thing exploded when 60 Minutes aired an expose in 1993. The CIA had collaborated with Guillén to smuggle the incredible sum of 22 tons of cocaine into the United States. [3]

After US customs intercepted a shipment of cocaine entering the country through Miami Internatoinal Airport, an official investigation revealed that General Guillén was responsible. But according to investigative journalist Michael Levine, Guillén was a CIA "asset" operating under CIA orders and protection, a fact that was later admitted by the CIA. General Guillén was never extradited for trial in the U.S. [4]

So is General Ramon Guillén Dávila still a CIA "asset" working to knock off the Venezuelan President? Whether or not the General maintains ties with the CIA, it does seem that he would be a likely candidate for destabilization efforts against the Chávez government.

According to the web page School of the Americas Watch, General Guillén graduated from the infamous U.S. combat training school in 1967. [5] The School of the Americas, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001, is a US military facility that is used to train Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques and interrogation tactics.

As another of the many tentacles of the U.S. Empire, the School of the Americas has been called the "biggest base for destabilization in Latin America." Located in Fort Benning, Georgia, the school sends its graduates throughout the region to repress left-wing and communist movements and to influence the political situations in Latin American countries. The school has frequently supported regimes with a history of employing death squads and torture to repress their populations.

Last week, during the 5th anniversary of the 2002 U.S.-supported coup attempt against the Venezuelan government, Chávez emphasized that "the empire never rests." He assured that the United States, along with the Venezuelan elite will continue conspiring in order to remove him from power, and that they would never accept the Bolivarian Revolution.

It would be no surprise, however, if the CIA were planning to kill or overthrow Hugo Chávez. The criminal organization has a long and dirty history of covert operations including assassinations, economic warfare, and rigged elections. In Latin America alone the CIA has overthrown numerous regimes in places like Nicaragua, Chile, Panama, Brazil, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and, most recently, Haiti in 2004.

What would be more surprising is if the CIA is not searching for a way to get rid of the popular Venezuelan President. After all, Chávez has proven to be quite a threat to the interests of the U.S. Empire and their corporate sponsors. Chávez has sharply rejected Washington's neo-liberal agenda, nationalized major sectors of the economy, freed his country from IMF and World Bank mandates, strengthened OPEC, taken control of the nation's oil industry, and strengthened south-south integration across the world.

However, what is even more threatening to the interests of the empire is that the revolution in Venezuela serves as an example in the region, and is now spreading to other places. Countries like Bolivia and Ecuador are now living their own revolutions, replicating the Venezuelan experience.

It seems feasible that former CIA "asset" General Ramon Guillén Dávila was conspiring with the CIA to get rid of the most consolidated leftist movement in Latin America today. But regardless of whether or not the CIA can manage to extinguish the fire in Venezuela, it might be too late for them to control the growing wave of leftist revolutions in the region.
_____________________

1. "Presentan grabación sobre supuesto plan de magnicidio contra Chávez," ABN Aporrea.org, 07/03/07
http://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/n91527.html

2. Jerry Meldon, Contra-Crack Guide: Reading Between the Lines, 1998. http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/crack10.html

3. Howard G. Chua-Eoan, "Confidence Games," Time Magazine, Monday, Nov. 29, 1993,

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... hix-sphere

4. Michael Levine, "Mainstream Media: The Drug War Shills?," http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/essays/e6.htm

5. School of the Americas Watch, Notorious Graduates from Venezuela, http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=248

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID ... FD5C438%7D)&language=EN

by **Fearless** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:13 pm

(Thanks to Professor Pan for posting this)

U.S. Government Frees Anti-Castro Terrorist in Hypocritical Double Standard

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 04/20/2007 - 2:10pm.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

Louis Posada Carriles is wanted in both Cuba and Venezuela for terrorist activities, including the 1976 bombing of a civilian airliner that killed 73 people and a series of deadly Havana tourist hotel bombings in 1997. He was put on a list banning him from getting a visa to enter America, but he managed to come in illegally. Busted on immigration charges in 2005, a federal court has just freed Posada on bond pending his trial (despite the fact that he escaped from prison in 1985).

The judge's decision to give him bond is not the real problem - the Justice Department actually tried to prevent it and called him "an unrepentant criminal and admitted mastermind of terrorist plots." The big story here is why, in light of the "Global War on Terror" rhetoric, the Bush Administration is neither sending a known terrorist to Guantanamo nor at least granting extradition requests from Cuba or Venezuela to stand trial.

Ironically, the government's justification for Posada's asylum is that he might be tortured if sent back.

Cuba calls Posada "the bin Laden of the Americas," but Posada is not Muslim, not trying to claim any Middle Eastern oil, and anti-Castro (as a CIA operative he participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and plotted a failed assassination attempt in 2000). Apparently that makes the killing and terrorizing of innocent people OK.

As you might imagine, foreign nations and global human rights groups are having a field day blasting America's double standard for terrorism. "It is pathetic that US courts try this criminal for merely lying to the immigration authorities on his entrance in the country, and not for his crimes," said former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto. "It reminds me of Al Capone, who was only convicted for tax evasion."

Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was also critical of the decision. In a letter sent to Attorney General Gonzales, Kucinich noted that recently declassified documents have added even more evidence of Posada's guilt and urged the government to send Posada back to Venezuela for trial. "[T]o provide Posada Carriles with an opportunity to escape prosecution for acts of terror will compromise the moral credibility of the United States," Kucinich wrote.

The Bush family has a sad history of supporting known terrorists. In 1990, Pappy Bush pardoned Orlando Bosch, a friend and co-conspirator of Posada. Why? Jeb Bush requested it to boost a Cuban American's congressional campaign, which he was managing.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/229

by **Fearless** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:28 pm

by **Fearless** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:18 pm

Thinkers Want Posada Extradited

Rigoberta Menchu Wants Posada Tried

Havana, Apr 26 (Prensa Latina) Nobel Peace Prizewinner Rigoberta Menchu joined over 4,000 academics who demand the end of the pseudo-legal maneuvers with which United States protects terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Together with Menchu joined several other distinguished people who demand he be tried for his crimes or extradited to Venezuela.

The list includes South African novelist Nadine Gordimer and British playwright Harold Pinter, both Nobel prizewinners in Literature, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, of Peace, and Russian scientist Zhores Alfiorov, of Physics, also state Duma deputy.

There are new signers each day to the call published on April 16 by the network of networks in defense of humanity and against "the most infamous terrorist of the western hemisphere." The document was inked Wednesday by former Paraguayan senators Ligia Prieto and Elba Recalde, and Venezuelan poet Tarek William Saab, governor of the Anzoateguie state.

Posada Carriles is the mastermind of the explosion in mid air of a Cuban airplane that killed 73 people off the coast of Barbados in 1976.

He escaped in 1985 from a Venezuelan jail and continued working at the service of CIA in operations like the Iran-Contra scandal and the "genocidal Condor Plan," states the call.

[url]http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={24C0CF8E-D8A9-4847-94BD-008AE7D33AA1})&language=EN[/url]

More Spaniards Condemn Terrorist Release

Madrid, Apr 26 (Prensa Latina) A total of 530 Spaniards joined the 4,315-strong world list condemning the release of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

The document circulated on the Internet denounced US protection of the top terrorist in the western hemisphere and refuses to try him for his true crimes.

It recalls that Venezuela tried Posada Carriles for bombing a Cuban civilian plane in 1976 with 73 people aboard. He escaped prison and engaged in the 2002 failed assassination at Panama University of President Fidel Castro.

The signatories also urged the US to abide by the law and called it to judge Posada Carriles and judge him for his crimes.

Among the signatories lie Alfonso Sastre, Manu Chao, Belen Gopegui, Pascual Serrano, Ramon Chao, Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez, Juan Madrid, Carlos Fernandez Liria and Antonio Maira.

Others are Altea Alcalde, Belén Alemany, Miguel Angel Alfonso, Juan José Anaya, Alvaro Badía, Angel Baena, José Antonio Barroso, Ana Belén, Victor Manuel, Gloria Berrocal, Joan Fábregas, Alicia Hermida, Jaime Losada, Angeles Maestro, and hundreds more.

[url]http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID={5C289874-B5DD-4B29-9AB0-EF4DB218B5FC}&language=EN[/url]

Sotomayor Slams Posada Aggressions

Guatemala, Apr 26 (Prensa Latina) Cuban sports is one of the most affected sectors on the island due to Luis Posada Carriles terrorist actions, world record-holder in high jump Javier Sotomayor said in Guatemala Thursday.

"All our fencing team, which was returning victorious after attending the Pan-American Games, died in the mid-air explosion of a Cuban airplane off the coast of Barbados in 1976," recalled the outstanding athlete.

In statements to Prensa Latina, Sotomayor slammed the US double standard which he says mocks the struggle against terrorism.

The athlete is in Guatemala invited by the Culture and Sports Ministry at the opening ceremony of the Don Justo Sports Center in the Santa Catarina Pinula municipality, bordering the capital.

[url]http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={391D8369-DE48-480F-B298-4A42D7A00371}&language=EN[/url]

PR Terror Victim Families Target US

Havana, Apr 26 (Prensa Latina) Puerto Rican relatives and friends of Carlos Muniz Varela, a Cuban youth murdered by terrorists in 1979, repudiated the release in the US of international criminal Luis Posada Carriles, it was published here Thursday.

Raul Alzaga, one of the founders of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, told "Granma" newspaper that relatives and friends of Muniz, killed in Puerto Rico by Cuban-born right-wing groups, are storming over Posada Carriles' release.

Alzaga said "We declare our solidarity with relatives and friends of the 73 passengers who died in the mid-air explosion of the Cuban airplane in 1976, and demand the detention and prompt extradition to Venezuela of one of the responsible."

According to the brigade member, the United States plays a double role, talking of "justice and impartiality" while behind the scenes it protects "good terrorists."

"Release under bail is not a right within US laws, and for Posada Carriles it unmasked Washington hypocrisy," stated Alzaga.

Muniz Valera's murder in Puerto Rico is still unpunished after 28 years, despite evidence presented by friends and relatives to legal authorities and media.

[url]http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID={DE183E1B-98EE-4AE6-85E6-55AD0DDAFD61}&language=EN[/url]

Luis Posada Carriles immigration case/background

Luis Posada Carriles immigration case/background

Re: Luis Posada Carriles immigration case/background

Re: Luis Posada Carriles immigration case/background

Posada may testify about the 1963 assassination

Ex-CIA operative pulls U.S. asylum request

Re: US Accused of Protecting Cuban Militant

Re: how did Luis Posada Carriles really enter the country?

Re: Luis Posada Carriles immigration case/background

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