Ex-CIA operative's Texas perjury trial snowed out

[Judi Lynn]

February 05, 2011
Ex-CIA operative's Texas perjury trial snowed out
By Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The trial of a former CIA operative accused of lying to immigration officials was postponed for day Wednesday because the courthouse was closed due to a powerful snowstorm that barreled through Texas and much of the U.S.

When Luis Posada Carriles' trial resumes, it will focus on how he entered the U.S. in 2005: whether he sneaked across the Texas border, as he attests, or if a yacht helped him slip ashore in Miami, as a key prosecution witness has testified.

Posada, 82, is accused of lying under oath while seeking U.S. citizenship in El Paso about how he reached American soil, and for failing to acknowledge planning a series of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud.

Courtroom exchanges have been heated between Posada attorney Arturo Hernandez and witness Gilberto Abascal, a suburban Miami handyman turned FBI informant. On Tuesday, without the jury present, Hernandez called Abascal a "scoundrel" and made his fourth request for a mistrial since Abascal took the stand last week.

More:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/02/04/general-us-cuban-militant_8293298.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Judge bars passport from ex-CIA operative's trial

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

[Judi Lynn]

2. The Soap Opera Matters More Than the Truth

Weekend Edition
February 4 - 6, 2011

El Paso: Day 13 in the Posada Carriles Trial
The Soap Opera Matters More Than the Truth
By JOSÉ PERTIERRA

They say that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and on the seventh He rested. Gilberto Abascal completed his sixth day of testimony in El Paso but there is no rest for him. His interrogation continues.

At 9:00 a.m. sharp, the gavel sounded three times before the familiar, "Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye," the traditional Anglo Saxon call to begin a courtroom session. Every day, the Court Clerk announces the case: "The United States Court for the Western District of Texas is now in session, presided over by the Honorable Kathleen Cardone. This is the case of the United States of America v. Luis Posada Carriles, Number EP-07-CR-87-KC."

Before convening the jury, Judge Cardone always asks the attorneys if they have any issues to discuss. Lawyers almost always have issues and today was no exception. One of the prosecutors, Jerome Teresinski, asked permission to argue the merits of an eight-page document that the Government had filed electronically in the wee hours of the morning. Signed by the trio of Department of Justice litigators of the Posada Carriles case, the document is called United States' Submission in Regard to Redirect Examination by the United States of Gilberto Abascal.

Its purpose is to advise the Court that Mr. Teresinski intends to submit evidence that the witness previously provided valuable tips to the FBI that led to the conviction of certain criminal defendants in weapons cases, "in order to show that any health disorders from which he may suffer do not cloud his recollection and do not prevent him from providing reliable information to law enforcement authorities." Teresinski also argued that as a result of defense counsel's cross-examination of Mr. Abascal, the jury likely has formed a skewed picture of Abascal and the reasons money was paid to him by the FBI. He asked the Court to allow the Government to "provide the jury with a full and fair account of the reasons Mr. Abascal became an informant, and of the results of his cooperation with the FBI."

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/pertierra02042011.html

http://underneaththeirrobes.blogs.com.nyud.net:8090/main/images/kathleen_cardone.jpg

Judge Kathleen Cardone

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/posada/posada.jpg http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com.nyud.net:8090/riptide/terrorist_luis_posada_carriles.jpg

http://www.solvision.co.cu.nyud.net:8090/english/images/stories/posadacarriles.jpg

Young, and older Luis Posada Carriles