AP: Posada Indicted on Immigration Charges

[Eugene]

Posada Indicted on Immigration Charges

The Associated Press
Thursday, January 11, 2007; 5:16 PM

EL PASO, Texas -- An anti-Castro Cuban exile being held by U.S. immigration officials
was indicted Thursday on one count of naturalization fraud and six counts of making
false statements in a naturalization proceeding, the Justice Department said.

Luis Posada Carriles, 78, is a former CIA operative with ties to the failed Bay of Pigs
invasion in the 1960s. He has been accused of plotting the 1976 bombing of a Cuban
jetliner in Venezuela.

The governments of Cuba and Venezuela want Posada, who has born in Cuba and is a
naturalized citizen of Venezuela, sent back to the South American country to face trial
in the bombing.

The indictment alleges that Posada knowingly lied on his application and under oath
when applying for naturalization to the United States in September 2005 and April 2006.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011101255.html

[twilight_sailing]

1. An important story,

hope it gets some play.

[endarkenment]

2. Odd that he isn't referred to as a terrorist.

In fact a wanted terrorist harbored by our country. I guess it is ok to blow up civilian airplanes if you are rightwing fascists creep.

[EFerrari]

3. I guess he's not a terrorist if he's our terrorist. n/t

[Rick Myers]

4. Another one of Poppy Bush's boys goes down!!! n.t

[saigon68]

8. Another killer stays free

[Scurrilous]

5. Grand jury indicts Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles and two associates

<snip>



"A federal grand jury in El Paso, Texas handed down a seven-count indictment today against Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, charging him with lying about how he sneaked into the United States in March 2005. It is the first time the CIA-trained Posada has been charged with a crime in the United States.

His chief benefactor, Santiago Alvarez, and another supporter -- Osvaldo Mitat -- were also indicted after they refused to testify before the same grand jury today. They were charged with contempt of court when they invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The indictment accused Posada, 78, of making false statements to immigration officials about how he arrived in the United States. Posada has insisted he came through the Mexican border, but the indictment asserted Posada entered the United States by sea aboard the shrimping vessel Santrina crewed by Alvarez, Mitat and others.

This is the first time Posada has been criminally charged in the United States, the country he viewed as an ally and safe haven because of his past connections to the CIA and the U.S. military. By indicting Posada, the federal government ensures his continued detention."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16438781.htm

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. They're going after Alvarez and Mitat too!

Cuban exiles Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat cut plea deals on one count of conspiring to possess illegal weapons, which carries a five-year maximum prison penalty. The men, who remain in custody, face sentencing Nov.

http://sdfla.blogspot.com/2006/09/santiago-alvarez-and-osvaldo-mitat-to.html


After Alvarez smuggled Posada back to the US, him and Mitat were getting ready for 'Return to Bay of Pig'. The FBI busted them in Alvarez's Broward County Condo complex, with enough weapons and explosives to cause a major bloodbath.

[roody]

6. The last president (Bush buddy) of Panama

let Posada out of jail in Panama shortly before leaving office. She lives in Florida now.

[Judi Lynn]

14. What a dirty politician she is, Mireya Moscoso.

Hope she really lives it up in Miami. She's among kindred spirits.

Here she is, sitting between Laura _Bush and Condoleeza Rice, in an African-American music concert. I read that this is very unusual when an official from another country accompanies the pResident and his wife to one of their own local functions.


Sick, wasn't it to see her spring free. a mass murderer like this? If they hadn't caught him and the others in Panama, there would have been many, many people killed when their bomb went off in that university auditorium where Fidel Castro was scheduled to speak.

[roody]

16. Moscoso---full of flies!

[Judi Lynn]

19. Very appropriate! n/t

[Say_What]

26. Posada Carriles indicted on immigration charges in find-the-terrorist shell game

From NarcoNews. Love that title: Posada Carriles indicted on immigration charges in find-the-terrorist shell game

<clips>

....The Los Angeles Times report also points out that the indictment returned this week against Posada Carriles on immigration-related charges might be one way for the Bush administration to quell public outrage over the hypocrisy of his administration’s failure to hold a known terrorist accountable for his past bloodshed.

Thursday's grand jury indictment "shows that the Justice Department is serious about pursuing Posada but still leaves his case in the immigration courts instead of addressing his terrorist background," said Peter Kornbluh of the independent National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Kornbluh suspects the Bush administration is reluctant to put Posada on trial for sabotage or acts of terrorism because of his close ties to U.S. security and intelligence operations over the years.

Soto has also alluded to his client's knowledge of clandestine activities and their potential to embarrass past Republican administrations.

President George H.W. Bush, the current president's father, was CIA director during the Iran-Contra affair in which Posada played a key role.

The truth can be such an inconvenient thing for power.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/1/13/124216/357

[ShockediSay]

9. Deport the Terrorist! nt

[Say_What]

10. LOL Cuban jokes at the Sun Sentinel...

At the end of the article you can post a comment and read other comments. Here's a few...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

why are Cubans so f----ing loud? so the blind can hate them too..
what do you call it when a Cuban has one arm shorter than the other? A speech impediment
what do you call a successful Cuban? a drug dealing thief.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's another from Proud Mexican:

"We don't like Cubans.
You get free entry and we have to sneak in."

and this response from Proud Cuban:
We deserve it and you don't."

Ricardo responds to Proud Cuban:

"You suddenly reminded me of why I hate arrogant sons of bitches who stake out a piece of the United States as "theirs" and then proceed to dump their garbage out the window. Standing on the shoulders of generations who built this country without respect shows you for the low-life you are. And your particular nationality has nothing to do with it. You lack of character says it all."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pretty good dog fight going over there. :evilgrin:

Here's the link: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-0111posadacarriles,0,4717903.story

[WindRavenX]

11. Red Sox fans rejoice!

;)

[Say_What]

12. COHA: Posada Carriles: Washington's Preferred Terrorist

Excellent analysis by COHA about Posada and the Cuban 5

<clips>

The Bush Administration is harboring perhaps the Western Hemisphere’s most insidious terrorist, whose application for U.S. citizenship is presently on the docket and if granted, would represent an effrontery to this nation’s bona fides, as well as the legitimacy of its worldwide anti-terrorist crusade and what remains of its good name abroad The White House feverishly searches for a country willing to receive Posada in order to spare it from having to cross swords with the Miami leadership by either extraditing him to Cuba or Venezuela, or trying him here The Posada case as well as the Cuban Five represents perhaps a defining moment in which the Bush administration’s ideological passions have snuffed out a proper application of justice – an unacceptable sense of ethical values and public rectitude Meanwhile, the fate of the Cuban Five, whose crimes were negligible compared to Posada’s homicides, does not seem to either confuse or disturb Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Thus, the White House will likely have a problem regarding who it denominates as a “terrorist” and who it fetes as a patriot The upcoming immigration hearing for Luis Posada Carriles, the 78 year-old felon who is a self-confessed co-conspirator responsible for the detonation of a bomb which killed 73 passengers and crew members aboard a Cuban passenger airliner as it flew over Barbadian waters on October 6, 1976, represents a huge political burden for the White House and its deteriorating relations with Latin America. The disposition of the case will now also test the authenticity of the U.S.’s War on Terror, since Posada is responsible for some of the worst pre-9/11 crimes perpetrated in the Western Hemisphere. However, he has never been conclusively tried for being one of the region’s most notorious psychopaths, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) lawyers as well as his detractors continue to cavil over whether he should be accorded the gallows or be granted U.S. citizenship.

Posada originally had admitted to a New York Times reporter of masterminding the 1976 bombing of Cuban Flight 455, in which 73 passengers lost their lives, including a nine-year-old girl, Cuba’s award-winning national fencing team, a young mother-to-be, as well as Guyanese and North Korean travelers. However, in deference to the ultra rightist faction of Miami’s Cuban exile community, Washington has repeatedly offered its protection to this world class criminal from prosecution by U.S. authorities or in any other germane jurisdiction. In doing so, the Bush administration almost has gone out of its way to debase the process of shaping a corpus of applicable international standards against terrorism by protecting those whom others might describe as “terrorists,” who are considered to be in good standing by some U.S. authorities. But, as the Washington-based lawyer, Jose Pertierra – who has been retained by Venezuelan authorities to represent their country’s interests in this case – explains “the fight against terrorism cannot be fought à la carte.”

A Case Wrought with Painful Irony Washington has heard continuous international appeals, mainly as a result of Havana and Caracas initiatives, that Posada (who is both a Cuban national and Venezuelan citizen) be brought to justice. Venezuela and the U.S. have an extradition treaty in place dating back to 1922, which obligates the U.S. to immediately extradite any Venezuelan national in this country who has been indicted on murder charges in their home jurisdiction. Under the applicable terms of this bilateral treaty, Venezuela formally applied for Posada’s extradition in May of 2005. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration immediately rebuked this effort by maintaining that the leftist, pro-Castro nature of the Venezuelan government would preclude a fair trial to Posada in a Venezuelan courthouse, and that the defendant would be subject to torture: a self-serving assumption that U.S. prosecutors have never bothered to evidence.

http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=106&num=27278

[Say_What]

13. Miami Herald: Cuban exile militant, 2 allies indicted

The Oligarch's Daily is referring to this POS as "legendary militant". How about calling him what he is: "terrorist and murderer".

<clips>

Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles and two supporters were indicted in Texas, ensuring that Posada will remain in detention for the foreseeable future.

...The prosecution of the 78-year-old former CIA operative, a hero to some in Miami's exile community and a terrorist to others, likely ensures that he will not be released anytime soon. Posada's freedom loomed closer after a federal judge in El Paso set a Feb. 1 deadline for the U.S. government to justify the militant's continued custody by immigration authorities.

''This is an act of desperation on the part of the U.S. government to maintain Luis detained,'' said Eduardo Soto, Posada's immigration lawyer. ``My client has always represented to me that he entered via the border by land. . . . I stand by what my client has always represented to me.''

Soto said he planned to ask that Posada be freed on bond.

By charging Posada with defrauding the government, the Justice Department signaled its willingness to target a man who has been in investigators' cross hairs since 1997, when he was first suspected of masterminding a series of tourist site bombings in Cuba. A grand jury in New Jersey is looking at evidence gathered anew by the FBI, which is focusing on money wire transfers and a reporter's tape in which Posada allegedly confesses to plotting the bombings.

...One of the bombs killed an Italian tourist while sitting at a hotel lobby in Havana.

In taped interviews, Posada later told writer Ann Louise Bardach, then under contract with The New York Times, that he was responsible for the attacks. But in testimony in immigration court last year Posada recanted, saying his English was poor and he did not express himself accurately.

The New Jersey grand jury has issued a subpoena for Bardach's tape, which she is fighting.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16441431.htm

[Judi Lynn]

15. Don't forget, he's also a bomber, and an Iran-Contra figure.

He also's responsible for the murder of the Italian tourist when he blew up a hotel in Cuba.

Good old Luis Posada Carriles. Referring to that killing, he assured Ann Louise Bardach, "I sleep like a baby."

[Mika]

18. He also said that the children who died on the Cuban airliner that was bombed..

.. were acceptable collateral damage in their war against Castro.

:puke:

[Judi Lynn]

21. That was cold, wasn't it? He's an ass.

Luis Posada Carriles as a young bomber.

[Say_What]

22. Posada accomplice, Orlando Bosch Avila, when asks about the bombing said,

"there were no innocent people on that plane" :puke: :puke: :puke:

[Judi Lynn]

28. So typically stupid and vicious. Yeah, those children can be very bomb-worthy, can't they?

He knows he's got nothing to worry, sitting on his gnarly old mass-murdering, bomber's ass in a city with a City Commission which voted to name a DAY after him, and a STREET, as well.

I'd like to see him say that in a NORMAL town, to NORMAL people. They wouldn't be naming a day for him.

[mod mom]

17. Perhaps Congress should give him protection if he is willing to spill some beans.

[Judi Lynn]

20. He could be very dangerous to them if he decides to talk.

After his interview with the New York Times reporters, the Cuban American National Foundation got involved and got him to retract some part of his claims which affected them.

He'd probably still be loose in Florida, if he hadn't been so pompous he decided to call a press conference and give the local reporters an interview. It wasn't until after that happened that the FBI arrested him.

This is the same man who boasted to the New York Times reporters several years ago that the FBI always looks the other way when the South Florida Cuban militants conduct their raids, etc., against Cuba.

He's actually a constant threat to the government now, as he's got a big mouth, and loves attention, and has been involved in some very heavy business.

[Say_What]

23. Here's a link to the NYTs expose...

http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/071398cuba-commando.html


April 1997, Bombs begun to explode at Havana's finer hotels, an operation Mr. Posada says he directed.

[Judi Lynn]

27. That's SO GOOD! I wouldn't be surprised to learn they got a prize for this series.

It's just great from beginning to the very end.

Anyone with time should be sure to read this part, as well:

Authorities Knew of Bombing Campaign, Says Cuban Exile
By ANN LOUISE BARDACH and LARRY ROHTER

GUATEMALA CITY -- During the summer of 1997, bomb explosions ripped through some of Havana's most fashionable hotels, restaurants and discotheques, killing a foreign tourist and sowing confusion and nervousness throughout Cuba. It was something shocking and inexplicable in a police state notorious for its tight security, and from one end of the island to the other, people speculated about who might be responsible.

At his office here in the mountains of Central America, a Cuban-American businessman named Antonio Jorge "Tony" Alvarez was certain he knew the answer. For nearly a year, he had watched with growing concern as two of his partners -- working with a mysterious gray-haired man who had a Cuban accent and multiple passports -- acquired explosives and detonators, congratulating each other on a job well done every time a bomb went off in Cuba.

What is more, Alvarez overheard the men talk of assassinating Fidel Castro at a conference of Latin American heads of state to be held in Margarita Island, Venezuela. Alarmed, he went to Guatemalan security officials. When they did not respond, he wrote a letter that eventually found its way into the hands of Venezuelan intelligence agents and FBI officials in the United States.

Venezuelan authorities reacted energetically to the information, searching for explosives on the island where the meeting was to be held. But in the United States the letter elicited what Alvarez described as a surprisingly indifferent response.

An agent in the Miami office reached him by phone, Alvarez recalled in recent interviews, and said a colleague would call soon to arrange to speak with him. In the meantime, he urged Alvarez to leave Guatemala immediately.

"He told me my life was in danger, that these were dangerous people, and urged me to get out of Guatemala," said Alvarez, a 62-year-old engineer. "But I never heard from him again."
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/071298cuba-bombs.html

Thanks for posting the link. It's had a LOT of critical acclaim in the 10 years or so since it's been published, and it also got the Cuban American National Foundation very angry. Screw 'em.

[Roland99]

24. 78 years old? $20 his health is failing and he'll be dead soon.

But the US can say they tried to try a criminal.


:eyes:

[acmavm]

25. Indictments don't impress me. I care about the sentencings

and whether or not they are carried out.

As someone once said, even a ham sandwich can be indicted for something.

[leesa]

29. America...harboring it's own terrorists...Venezuela is calling...