Cuban Agent Awaits Decision on Appeal

[Say_What]

Background below article.

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HAVANA - In Miami, Rene Gonzalez is vilified as a spy for
Fidel Castro's government. In Cuba, he is seen as a hero who risked his freedom to protect his people from anti-communist extremists.
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His brother, Roberto, a Havana lawyer, says neither black-and-white depiction sounds much like the Rene he knows — a voracious reader, pilot and lover of the ocean who shuns the limelight.

Rene Gonzalez, who awaits news of his fate in a U.S. prison, is among five Cubans convicted four years ago of serving as unregistered foreign agents.

A three-judge panel overturned the convictions on appeal in August and ordered a retrial, citing prejudicial publicity in the original Miami trial. But federal prosecutors last week asked the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to reconsider, extending the drama.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051004/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_us_espionage
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Who are the Cuban 5?

...The Cuban 5 were convicted after a politically charged trial in Miami, in which the U.S. government charged them with threatening national security and engaging in espionage against U.S. military bases.

Nothing could be further from the truth, the Cuban 5 infiltrated Cuban-American right-wing terrorist organizations based in Miami to monitor their actions; these proven CIA-sponsored organizations have been responsible for the deaths and injury of hundreds of people in Cuba and other countries.

The Cuban 5 infiltrated these organizations to protect the national sovereignty of their homeland Cuba and to safeguard the American populous from terrorist actions within the United States. The Cuban 5 shared the information with U.S. officials when dangerous actions were planned by these terrorist organizations.

Cuba has repeatedly offered information and cooperation to the U.S. government to combat these terrorist organizations, but the U.S. government has always declined to cooperate with Cuba.

With a trial based in Miami, it was impossible for the Cuban 5 to receive a fair trial. Under the threat of Cuban American right-wing terrorist organizations, defense attorneys made motions for a change of venue, which were denied. The judge, prosecution and U.S. government officials suppressed defense evidence and made sure that key witnesses for the defense would not testify.


http://www.freethecuban5.com/page3.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. It's pretty slick work when the right-wing Cuban "exiles" can control

the workings of the U.S. federal government to the point men from Cuba who came here to find out what THEY were going to do next to harm Cubans on the island get thrown into federal prison instead.

Those men took the information they had gathered on the Miami terrorists to the FBI which turned right around and threw them into jail themselves. This is barbaric, 2nd rate behavior in a big country.

If the judge has claimed the trial was unfair, they should be allowed out of prison now, and allowed to see their families, from whom the government ALSO kept them. They were all in isolation, just as Ken Starr kept Susan McDougall.

Right-wingers are too vicious and stupid to know how to wield power. They only use it selfishly to harm their political enemies.

[1932]

2. The groups they infiltrated were "NGO" terrorist groups.

I don't know how you can be a spy for Cuba when you're reporting on the activities of criminals.

It's like if a British guy infiltrated an AlQaida cel in the US plotting a london attack and reported it to Scotland Yard -- would that guy be a spy?

[Judi Lynn]

3. You nailed it. Calling them "spies" always sounded stupid. n/t