Judge bars passport from ex-CIA operative's trial
By WILL WEISSERT , 02.04.11, 05:28 PM EST
EL PASO, Texas -- An elderly ex-CIA operative on trial for immigration fraud scored a victory Friday when a federal judge refused to allow into evidence a Guatemalan passport bearing his picture but a false name.
The ruling could undermine some of the charges against Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-communist militant and public enemy No. 1 in his native Cuba. Prosecutors argued that the passport - and its stamps - indicate that Posada sneaked into the U.S. by sailing into Miami and not by crossing the Texas-Mexico border with a smuggler, as he claimed during citizenship hearings in 2005 in El Paso.
Posada, who turns 83 this month, also is accused of failing to acknowledge during those hearings his involvement in a series of hotel bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian tourist in 1997. He is charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and immigration fraud.
Prosecutors said the passport's stamps show that Posada went to Isla Mujeres, near the Mexican resort city of Cancun, in March 2005. That's where they believe Posada boarded a yacht called the Santrina and slipped ashore in Miami.
Two of the 11 criminal counts against Posada accuses him of lying about having the passport with his picture but issued under the name Manuel Enrique Castillo Lopez.
More:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/02/04/general-us-cuban-militant_8293298.html