Miami exile takes stand in Posada-Carriles trial

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Monday, 01.24.11
Miami exile takes stand in Posada-Carriles trial
Gilberto Abascal is a star witness for prosecution
By RJUAN O. TAMAYO
[e-mail]

EL PASO, Texas -- The trial of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles Monday began hearing testimony from a Miami exile who the prosecution is presenting as one of its star witnesses, and the defense has attacked as a collaborator with Cuban intelligence.

Gilberto Abascal, is expected to testify that he was part of an operation that smuggled Posada from Mexico to Miami in 2005 aboard the vessel Santrina, a converted shrimper owned by Cuban exiles in Florida.

Posada is on trial on 11 charges of lying under oath to U.S. immigration officials about three events: how he sneaked into the United States; his role in nine bombings that hit Cuban tourism spots in 1997; and whether he ever held a Guatemalan passport.

A CIA-trained explosives expert who has hatched dozens of plots against the Cuban government, Posada told the immigration officials that he was smuggled by land from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas in 2005.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/24/2031683/miami-exile-takes-stand-in-posada.html

[NBachers]

1. Cue up "a collaborator with Cuban intelligence" on the gramophone

Wasn't that scratchy record worn out a long, long, looong time ago?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Posada trial witness: Yacht brought Posada into U.S.

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Posada trial witness: Yacht brought Posada into U.S.
By Juan O. Tamayo | The Miami Herald

A Miami FBI informant and alleged Cuban intelligence collaborator testified Monday at the trial of Luis Posada Carriles that he helped smuggle the anti-Castro militant by sea from Mexico to Miami.

Gilberto Abascal is one of the prosecution's star witnesses in one set of charges against Posada: that he lied under oath when he told U.S. immigration officials he slipped across the Mexican border into Texas.

But Abascal's own tale is almost as intriguing as that of the 82-year-old Posada, a former CIA operative and veteran of dozens of violent plots, including nine bombings of Cuban tourist spots that killed one man in 1997.

Abascal testified he was aboard the yacht Santrina when it picked up Posada, who had lived for decades, in Mexico's Caribbean resort of Isla Mujeres and took him to Miami in 2005.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/25/107351/posada-trial-witness-yacht-brought.html

[panader0]

3. The CIA never ceases to make me proud

NOT

[Judi Lynn]

4. They loved torture when torture still wasn't cool. n/t

[rabs]

5. Judi, from your post on Jun. 07, 2007

They just seem to never go away.

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http://www.freethefive.org.nyud.net:8090/images/alvarezmitat.jpg
Alvarez and friend Mitat

The unprecedented arms surrender earlier this year led to U.S. District Judge James Cohn's decision to reduce developer Santiago Alvarez's sentence from 46 months to 30 months and his colleague Osvaldo Mitat's term from 37 months to 24 months.

Both defendants, in their mid-60s, pleaded guilty to weapons charges last fall in a conspiracy case that crossed county lines and had ties to a notorious Cuban exile militant now under federal investigation. Their high-powered team of defense lawyers characterized the firearms surrender as the end of an era for Miami-Dade's anti-Castro forces in the post-9/11 world.

The ''anonymous donors'' turned over 14 pounds of plastic explosives, 200 pounds of dynamite, 4,000 feet of detonator cord, 30 semiautomatic and automatic weapons, one grenade launcher, and two handmade grenades, among other items. The donors, who had surrendered the cache at a lawyer's office in Miami, are not under investigation.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2872560