Probe of assistance to exile is widened

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Aug. 31, 2004



POSADA

Probe of assistance to exile is widened

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO AND ELAINE DE VALLE
[e-mail]


Honduran President Roberto Maduro on Monday said investigators are looking into whether public functionaries allowed fugitive Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles to enter Honduras illegally after his release from a prison in Panama last week. Simón Ferro, a Miami lawyer and former U.S. ambassador to Panama, meanwhile said the call he received from Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso telling him that she had pardoned Posada and three other anti-Castro exiles was a ``courtesy.''

Maduro told reporters in Honduras that if Posada is captured, he will be deported because, ``If this gentleman is here, he is here illegally, without permission, without approval and without the agreement of the government.''

An Associated Press story said Honduran newspapers had reported that Posada was spotted Sunday eating in a San Pedro Sula hotel with Rafael Nodarse, a Cuban-American-Honduran businessman who owns the Honduran Channel 6 television station.

Posada, a long-time resident of neighboring El Salvador, and three Miami Cubans were arrested in Panama in 2000 on charges that they planed to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro. A Panamanian court dropped charges of conspiracy to murder and possession of explosives but in April convicted them of endangering public safety and sentenced them to up to eight years.Posada has a long history of anti-Castro violence, including a string of terror bombings in Havana in 1997. Cuba has accused him of involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people.

The message said: ''Ambassador, good morning. This is the president to inform you that the four Cubans were already pardoned last night and they have left the country,'' the tape says, according to the Cuban government. ``Three are on their way to Miami and the other, well, in an unknown direction. Goodbye. A hug.''
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/9540704.htm
(Free registration required)

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Funds for the legal expenses of the Cuban "exile" terrorists were raised and contributed by Cuban hardliners in Miami.

Luis Posada Carriles has worked with our own CIA at various times in his life. Anyone curious about his career in terrorism can find tons to read in a search on his name, as well as Orlando Bosch, etc.

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Panama Pardons Spur Cuban Outrage

HAVANA, Aug. 27, 2004



Luis Posada Carriles is escorted into a Panama City courtroom last year. Havana calls him “the hemisphere’s top terrorist." (Photo: AP)


"Panama's release of recognized purveyors of violence such as Guillermo Novo and Luis Posada is not only a travesty of justice, it is a danger to future victims."
Peter Kornbluh

(CBS) By CBS News Producer Portia Siegelbaum
The Chilean Supreme Court on Thursday stripped former military dictator Augusto Pinochet of his immunity. That leaves the courts free to prosecute him for the deaths or disappearances of opposition figures in the 1970s.

Just a few hours earlier, Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso was pardoning four Cuban exiles, one of whom collaborated with Pinochet’s secret police.

Guillermo Novo, along with three other Cuban exiles, were arrested in Panama in November 2000 on information provided by Cuban intelligence.

Fidel Castro’s personal security detail had swept the Panamanian capital in advance of the Cuban president’s arrival for an Ibero-American Summit. They provided Panamanian authorities with a surveillance video of four known anti-Castro extremists believed to be plotting to assassinate Castro. The plan, said Cuban security, was to plant explosives at a scheduled meeting between Castro and university students.
(snip/...)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/world/main639051.shtml

[Mika]

1. Honduran president: furious at U.S., Panama

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/9549410.htm

HONDURAS

TEGUCIGALPA - Honduran president >furious at U.S., Panama

President Ricardo Maduro said Tuesday he was demanding that the United States and Panama explain how a man facing terrorism charges may have been allowed to fly to Honduras on a false U.S. passport.

Maduro told reporters he had ordered ''an immediate investigation'' into the case of Luis Posada Carriles, who was freed from prison Thursday by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso. Officials say there is strong evidence that the former CIA operative and longtime foe of Cuban President Fidel Castro got off that plane in Honduras, leaving three liberated colleagues to fly on to Miami. U.S. officials have denied any role in the pardon of Posada.

Maduro said Posada would be treated as an illegal immigrant if caught. The 76-year-old still faces charges in Venezuela of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner that killed 73 people.

Meanwhile, in Havana, the Cuban government said Tuesday it would not send any representatives to the Sept. 1 inauguration of Panama's new president because of the recent rupture of relations between the countries.

Cuba broke diplomatic ties with Panama last Thursday after the pardon.

Real justice would be extradition to Cuba for this murderer/terrorist.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bombing Cuban hotels, to scare away Cuba's tourist trade.

How stupid can they possibly be, sacrificing human life to their filthy, bloodthirsty obsession with getting the last word?

If they hadn't been discovered before they pulled off the bombing in Panama, hundreds and hundreds of students in that auditorium would have perished, or was it thousands? Can't remember.

Wasn't it Luis Posada Carriles who was aided by the Cuban American National Foundation which bribed guards in Venezuela to turn their heads while Posada walked out of prison after bombing the Cubana airliner, and killing even children therein, wearing the costume of a priest? He has named them as his perennial sponsors, even naming his customary contact in Miami.

He should be forced to face the music. No doubt about that.

[Billy Burnett]

3. Didn't the US invade Afghanistan for harboring terrorists/murderers?

The government of Cuba takes the high road, again.

This episode highlights why Cuba has to stay on guard against US supported terrorism.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Yes, absolutely. Excellent point.

When _Bush wanted to do something about one single day of terrorism he laid waste to the country he claimed was harboring the perpetrators.

We've been harboring the perpetrators of 45 years of terrorism against Cuba, some of whom were trained in our own School of the Americas, some of whom worked for our own CIA, some who were in the Bay of Pigs, and they've even bragged about the fact that when any government official knows what they're up to, nothing's going to happen.

It was one of the terrorists in an interview in a newspaper who said that as he gloated over their sense of personal power with approval from our government. If they're going to be so powerful, maybe they should stop hiding in South Florida every time they've bombed or shot up hotels in Cuba.

On edit:

The photo above of Luis Posada Carriles wearing his suit, walking along briskly reminds me that since he can look very dapper, he probably had no trouble at all getting his bombs planted in the hotels and discoteques in Havana. He looks somewhat prosperous, and he has been, living quite well on fees received from the CANF and god only knows who else!

[Mika]

8. Yes, indeed

As you and Billy pointed out, the US government bombed a 3rd world country into oblivion in retaliation to the actions of a small cell of terrorists who's "home office" was in Afghanistan.

Cuba has every right to defend itself from, and every right to prosecute, the membership of terrorist cells (who have quasi official US gov support) operating within the US, and their client cells operating in Cuba (the so called "independent librarians", "dissidents", etc,), and elsewhere (like Posada, Bosch, Novo, etc)

But Cuba has never implemented a "preemptive strike" policy on Miami or Panama, as it would be fully justified in doing (if one believes that the US’s 9/11 retaliation on Afghanistan is justifiable). Cuba has exhibited great restraint considering the many dozens of terrorist strikes by said US based and/or sponsored terrorists.

[Judi Lynn]

9. They could have made life much more difficult during the time

they had the protection of the U.S.S.R., had they wanted to make a big noise over the decades of terrorism launched against them from South Florida and other points used by the "exile" terrorists.

They simply lived with it as well as possible, while attempting to forge ahead and survive the economic warfare imposed by the embargo and attendent legistlation.

Their hardship has made them very, very strong, and united them.

[Tempest]

4. So Bush is going to allow known terrorists into the country?

"Three are on their way to Miami"


This should be shouted from the rooftops.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Going to allow?

Heck, there's a large group of CANF members already here, including Elian Gonzales' 'Pediatrician', Orlando Bosch.

If you want to know where to find them, just look for them whenever a Bu$h has a party in Miami, they are usually in attendance.

[jmcgowanjm]

5. Venezuela had some words w/ Panama as well

“Ambassador, good morning, this is the president to
inform
you that the four Cubans were pardoned last night
and
have already left the country. Three are headed for Miami
and
the other to an unknown destination. Good bye, and all
the
best.”

The president has acknowledged that she made that
call.

This act, he added, affects the deepest sentiments
of Pan-Americanism which, in addition to the rupture
of diplomatic relations with Cuba, has already prompted
the withdrawal of the Venezuelan ambassador and
Hugo Chávez’ absence from the investiture of the
incoming president.


http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2004/agosto/mar31/36afir-i.html

[Judi Lynn]

10. The new Panamanian President is trying to make things right.......

New Panama president vows to mend Cuba ties
01 Sep 2004 22:46:15 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Noel Randewich

PANAMA CITY, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Panama's new President Martin Torrijos vowed on Wednesday to mend diplomatic ties with Cuba, ruptured last week when his predecessor pardoned four men jailed for plotting to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro.

In his inauguration speech, Torrijos said former President Mireya Moscoso's pardon of the Cuban exiles was inexcusable.

"Terrorism should be fought, no matter what its origin is. There is no room for excuses and there is no way you can justify this act," Torrijos said.

The four men were convicted for their part in a failed bomb attack against Castro at a summit in Panama in 2000. They were released last week and three of them flew to Miami, a haven of anti-Castro exiles.
(snip/...)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01366287.htm

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This is going to infuriate _Bush's trolls in the State Department when they see it publically acknowledged that Panama values the goodwill of both Cuba and Venezuela.

We can look for some new waves of attacks on one or both places from either John Bolton or Roger Noriega soon. They are determined to control all of Latin America, no doubt about it.

Bolton
Noriega

[Mika]

11. Another member of "the axis of good"

If President Martin Torrijos is bringing Panama into "the axis of good" nations (Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela) then he should expect US overt and covert ops against his administration. Luckily, if he has indeed joined the axis of good nations, he will have the solid council of Presidents Castro and Chavez to help guide his strategy.