U.S. contractor found guilty in Cuba trial

[rabs]

Source: REUTERS




By Jeff Franks – 2 hrs 27 mins ago
HAVANA (Reuters) – American contractor Alan Gross was found guilty on Saturday of working to destabilize Cuba's communist government, Cuba's state-run television reported, and now faces up to 20 years behind bars in the latest blow to U.S.-Cuba relations.

A panel of judges reached the widely expected verdict after two days of testimony including a vigorous defense by Gross, and now must decide his sentence, which will come in a few days, the report said.

Cuba accused Gross, 61, of distributing sophisticated satellite communications equipment for Internet access under a U.S. program that is outlawed and considered subversive by the Cuban government. He was officially charged with "acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state."

Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year sentence for the longtime development worker, who has been jailed since his arrest in Havana on December 3, 2009





Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110306/wl_nm/us_cuba_usa_contractor;_ylt=AurR5r9COY57VzjUNytVwVdvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJucmdobGdlBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwMzA2L3VzX2N1YmFfdXNhX2NvbnRyYWN0b3IEY3BvcwMyBHBvcwM1BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3VzY29udHJhY3Rvcg--

---

An "American contractor," for whom? A "development worker" for what purpose?

(hint: USAID)

[sasha031]

1. we're at it again

:eyes:

[rabs]

2. The Cuban Five

Kinda looking for a possible exchange -- Gross for the Cuban Five.

Speaking of trials, we don't know much or even hear much of the secret U.S. military tribunal trials at Guantanamo Bay.

And how about the trial in El Paso of the most notorious terrorist now on U.S. soil -- Posada Carriles? That never makes the MSM.

[sasha031]

3. Oh yes Posada Carriles

haven't thought about him in a long time.

it would be nice if there would be an exchange, but doubt it.

Maybe we can get AlJazeera covering these dark secrets from the past.

[joshcryer]

4. Doubtful, State Dept thinks they'll just deport him like they do all high profile prisoners.

[rabs]

6. deport him like they do all high profile prisoners.

Cuba has deported "all high profile prisioners" Really, such as? Names please.

Why has the United States not deported

Posada Carriles, who only blew a Cuban airliner out of the sky? Planted bombs in Havana.
"Goni" Sanchez de Lozada, responsible for a massacre in La Paz

and a bunch of others.

[joshcryer]

7. Have you seen "The Pawns of the Empire"?

Cuba has a habit of exporting dissidents, and it has even become a little strategy that people use in Cuba to get a free pass to leave Cuba (as The Pawns of the Empire showed). A few Black Spring dissidents were given this "opportunity." The State Department doesn't really care about Alan Gross (if they did they would not have allowed him to go on his suicide mission).

I think if the US gave one iota about Alan they would give Cuba Carriles, I hope that is the eventuality.

There won't be an exchange for The Cuban Five, though.

[rabs]

10. No, have not seen it

We are not talking exporting "dissidents", but exporting criminals and terrorists.

[joshcryer]

38. I did not say the State Dept. was correct in thinking that.

I am saying they don't care and expect him to be deported.

[Wilms]

5. Assuming he did what Cuba says he did, did Gross know that he was doing it?

Or was he used by USAID?

Story mentions USAID giving him a "tourist visa".


Gross worked in Cuba on a tourist visa under a controversial U.S. Agency for International Development program aimed at promoting political change on the island.

The programs have been criticized in the United States for doing little more than provoking the Cuban government.

[joshcryer]

8. It appears he got a USAID grant and used it stupidly, very much so.

He was probably aware of the consequences but it obviously went over his head, otherwise if fully grasped how idiotic he was acting he wouldn't have done it. USAID dropped the ball by allowing him to go off on a one man mission to screw himself.

[Wilms]

20. That sure sounds like a lame/CYA pro-USAID talking point. n/t

Now, what do REALLY think went down.

[joshcryer]

40. USAID grants are seen as helping people. Alan Gross did Palestinian work.

He gets money from USAID and then he goes to Cuba and breaks their laws. He did this openly. Either he thought that USAID would cover him or he thought that he wasn't doing anything terribly bad or he did know it and went about it the entirely wrong way.

I personally don't like USAID because it is unsustainable.

[Wilms]

47. The dog ate his notes so he had to wing it.

Come back with a few links. Not really into debating your unsubstantiated assertions.

[joshcryer]

49. Fair enough, I'm simply going by life experience.

If you interpret Alan Gross' actions even after hearing his denouncement of USAID as being covertly spying, then that's your choice. I think it's an irrational position to take though. People don't want to put themselves in jail for 20 years over trivialities.

For instance, I think that Manning was also being stupid as fuck (talking to a known FBI informant about what he did?). I disagree that he should have to spend the rest of his life in jail for being stupid. I will push for a pardon for him once Obama gets reelected.

[Wilms]

53. OHHHH. He DENOUNCED US-AID. He MUST be innocent.

You've been working this thread really hard. Take the rest of the day off, Josh.

No kidding.

Plus you need to rest up before your big push to have Obama get him pardoned.

:eyes:

[joshcryer]

56. I never said he was innocent.

Please attempt to read.

[Wilms]

57. Then he's guilty, and you're running interference for the spooks.

Like I said, you're working overtime. Give it a break.

You should join an apologists union so that you can take a weekend off from time to time.

[joshcryer]

59. Just trying to interject some balance here.

It's often missing from these kinds of discussions.

[Wilms]

61. All you're doing is blowing hot air. n/t

Fair and balanced. :eyes:

[joshcryer]

63. I have not once insulted you.

But you have no desire to be respectful.

People can read what I write and make their own minds up.

[Wilms]

70. What's disrespectful are your adolescent excuses and linkless assertions.

Not that I'm insulted. I'm merely used to it.

[joshcryer]

71. I can't provide a link to my own opinion.

But if you'd like a link to a factual assertion that I've made I will happily provide it (it appears no one is questioning most of the stuff I'm saying here, only the mindset of Alan Gross, and my opinion of his idiocy).

You pretend that Alan Gross' idiocy absolves him or something, it of course doesn't, and it doesn't absolve USAID, if anything it is an indictment toward USAID as it shows that they don't care about their own citizens.

[Wilms]

73. Oh. So those are just "opinions" based on worldly travels.

And no. I don't think idiocy is a defense, nor did I suggest it.

[rabs]

9. Went over to read the Cuban version

and he is most unhappy with him being used and fooled by the U.S. government. (Translation is mine)

-------------------

Gross reconoció que fue utilizado y engañado por la DAI (Development Alternative Inc.), empresa contratista de la agencia gubernamental norteamericana USAID, subordinada al Departamento de Estado, que se encarga de programas de desestabilización política contra gobiernos que no son del agrado de la Casa Blanca en América Latina y muchas otras partes del mundo.

Gross admitted that he was used and fooled by the DAI (Development Alternative Inc.), a company contracted by the U.S. government agency USAID, which is attached to the U.S. State Department, and which is in charge of programs to politically destabilize governments ...

Acusó a la DAI de haberlo puesto en peligro y conducirlo a su situación actual; de arruinar la vida y la economía de su familia.

(Gross) accused the DAI of having putting him in danger and in his current predicament: ruining his life and the economy of his family.


For readers of Spanish

http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2011/03/05/concluso-para-sentencia-juicio-contra-acusado-estadounidense-alan-gross/

[Judi Lynn]

11. It should be interesting learning more of what his position is. This is very unexpected, isn't it?

He was in and out of Cuba around 9 times, if I remember correctly, in a very short period of time, which attracted the attention of the customs people.

Also, someone within the Jewish community in Havana told an interviewer that American Jewish people have visited themselves, sometimes bringing computers and cell phones for their Cuban acquaintances, and they were never stopped and questioned because they were never suspected of subversive activities.

There's a quote somewhere from a former CIA person who said USAID does things openly now the CIA used to do covertly.

Sure hope the complete truth IS going to be revealed in this situation. What are the chances? It would have to be published in a source outside the U.S.!

Thank you for throwing light on how Gross is posturing on this.

[ngant17]

13. Gross should have campaigned against the embargo

which would have done more positive changes for the Cuban people, rather than to act as a pawn and tool for State Dept.
It's a little late to criticize his 'handlers'. He picked the wrong side of the ideological battle and he has to pay the consequences for his ill-advised actions.

Had he gone on record as denouncing the boycott and embargo, and acting within that framework, it certainly would have reduced his employment possibilities with CIA/USAID but OTOH he would not be facing 20 years in jail for all this trouble.

[joshcryer]

42. I am sure he is anti-embargo.

Without an embargo he could just go to Cuba and sell his equipment as a business. (Cuba would have to lift a lot of their own self-imposed restrictions because the Cuban people would demand it.)

[joshcryer]

41. Gross is posturing? Would you have done what he did knowing the risks?

Gross is finally proving what I've been saying all along, he was just another pawn.

[dipsydoodle]

12. What's the opposite of

How gross ?

On Friday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton again demanded his unconditional release.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12657855

I don't think they much attention in Cuba to women who wear pantsuits.

[Vidar]

14. Great news. Of course, this means millions more squandered by the CIA

on exploding cigars and the like aimed at Castro.

[boppers]

15. Free speech = death.

Castro deserves the noose he gives to others.

[martymar64]

17. Yeah ,bring back Batista and his death squads!

:boring:

[FLPanhandle]

19. Dumbest comment I've seen in a long time

Like it's an either or option. :eyes:

[martymar64]

22. That's what the Miami Mafia exactly has in mind.

If you doubt me, look at Honduras.

They're planning just that for the people of Cuba.

[FLPanhandle]

23. Again, the choices are not limited to Castro or Batista style governments

No matter what some groups way wish.

It's silly to view a totalitarian Castro regime as a choice to an totalitarian Batista government. There are many other options out there for the people of Cuba to choose from. Maybe they'll choose a free and open democracy.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[joshcryer]

50. Yes, if the US lifts the embargo they should completely reject the Miami claims to property.

It's been 50 years, you don't just get huge swaths of a country just because relations are normalized.

[FLPanhandle]

66. Possible, but highly unlike.

Almost anything is possible. Likely is a different story.

Batista is dead and his exile in Miami are dying off. They are an after thought in all this or just a bogeyman for Castro now.

[Judi Lynn]

35. The Cuban "exile" beast Congresspig Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was a blur as she streaked to Honduras

immediately after they violently kidnapped the elected President Zelaya, to huddle with coup President Roberto Micheletti, just like the pathetic James DeMint, and his coterie of Teabagging fools hurtled to Tegucigalpa to huddle with murderous pig Roberto Micheletti.

Cuban Batistiano "exiles" have had an inordinately large voice in US policy toward the Americas since the 1960's. They aren't bright enough to recognize their importance stems from their value as political pieces in the war between the racist, greedy Republicans and progressive people who believe in the value of ALL people, not the greedy, pushy, pompous, and Caucasian alone at the suffering expense of everyone else in the world.

Whereas the entire rest of the U.S. had scarcely ever heard of the Cuban "exiles" in Miami before a child was seized by the Cuban idiot Mafia, who stood over him like a pack of mad dogs, people started learning all about them in short order back around 2000. They have been given the world on a platter in their occupation of South Florida, and seizure of control of Florida politics and its large electoral value in US American national presidential elections. All Cubans, no matter what their past criminal status are given INSTANT legal protection the moment they drag their asses to this country, instant work visa, social security, US taxpayer-provided Section 8 housing, food stamps, welfare, medical treatment, financial assistance for education, low cost loans, etc., etc., etc., whereas other nationalities are chased down, and deported, once found.

This country would be packed like a sardine can if other nationalities were given the instant clearance for admission, regardless of their pasts, and a full array of benefits to make immigration irresistible. Yet Florida Cuban "exiles," like their CANF mouthpiece, radio host, and self-appointed spokesperson Ninoska Perez-Castellon, snarled to an interviewer, "We are not a minority." Their racism keeps them from wanting to be identified with ordinary people of other national heritages, like Mexicans, and African-Americans, etc., here in the States.

You're 100% right about their plans for Cuba. They fully intend to dismantle their world-famous health system, and education system, and the Cuban people are well aware of it. They (actual Cubans) are in no way amenable to having their advanced medical and educational systems stolen and destroyed, and being returned to the feudal, racist system they had at the hands of the same clowns who moved to the U.S. to avoid the retribution of the Cuban people after the Revolution.

[Ghost Dog]

16. This "sophisticated satellite communications equipment for Internet access"

would be what kind of equipment, exactly? Does it need a satellite dish antenna?

Who sells it and at what price? Is it this kind of kit:



/... http://www.ariasat.af/srvc_vsat5.html

[FLPanhandle]

18. Can't have people openly communicating when you are a totalitarian government.

However, the guy was crazy to try to distribute this equipment there. The Cuban authorities don't play around.

[EFerrari]

21. Yes, we throw flowers at spies in this country. n/t

[FLPanhandle]

24. Come back with an example of the US doing the same thing.

Not some off topic example either, something exactly the same.

[martymar64]

26. Miami declaring a holiday for terrorist Orlando Bosch, for one.

Not deporting Luis Carriles Posada back to Cuba is another example.

[EFerrari]

28. The police here routinely take the cell phones and laptops

of people they are harassing for DHS. And we let journalists like Sami al Haj rot in Gitmo for years.

Oh, beautiful for patriot's dream -- .

[FLPanhandle]

30. What does that have to do with banning free public communications?

Not on topic.

[Judi Lynn]

36. As the people interviewed in the Havana Jewish community indicated, other Jewish Americans

have visited THEM over time, OFTEN GIVING THEM COMPUTERS, CELL PHONES and they were never approached as they were NOT believed to be there to subvert the Cuban government.

"Banning free public communications?" Really? Previous heads of the U.S. Interests section in Havana have been active in giving out freely, portable short-wave radios to anyone who would take them to listen to the Cuban-"exile" managed, staffed, programmed, controlled propaganda channel (although FINANCED at a desperately hidous cost by the U.S. taxyapers) Radio Marti.

[EFerrari]

27. We did worse to the Cuban Five and don't even bother

to tell me it's not worse. They were here to gather information on terrorist plots, they turned it over to the FBI and instead of being thanked, they were arrested.

There is no high horse to climb on.

[FLPanhandle]

29. Not saying the US is a saint

But your example isn't anywhere near relevant to the original topic, as I knew it wouldn't be.

[JVS]

31. How is it not relevant?

[FLPanhandle]

32. It's an intellectually weak approach in a debate

The Cuban government acts oppressively. We can discuss that and condemn it regardless of the fact the US has done bad things too. Instead of discussing the original point, the poor debater will just ignore it and say "well, what about the x, y, & z bad things the US has done".

Just a tactic that would get condemned in a debate class.

Talking about the Cuban Five doesn't justify Cuban authorities from blocking free communications between their citizens, its just a weak smokescreen tactic.

[JVS]

33. Arresting spies isn't oppressive though. It's what all states do.

[FLPanhandle]

34. Except he wasn't spying in the traditional sense

He wasn't stealing state secrets. He was providing the people of Cuba a means of communication that wasn't monitored by the government. They may call it "spying", but it's not.

[joshcryer]

52. They don't call it spying, Article 91 is extremely broad.

Basically any actions that can be even remotely seen as hurting the state can get you arrested, as the Black Spring reformers saw, simply asking for the ability to independently chose candidates to the National Assembly is enough to be charged on Article 91 (right now those candidates are chosen through Candidate Commissions, and those commissions are seen by pro-democratic forces as being a sham, since you must show "exemplary revolutionary actions" to be chosen; to some this is seen as being the best bootlicker).

You don't even have to take money from a foreign state to be charged on this law, simply "acting in the interests" of a foreign state makes you a criminal.

[joshcryer]

45. The law he was arrested on is so broad that it would hardly qualify in any other state.

Right now American citizens can send money to any Cuban (thanks to Obama). There are hundreds of Cuban reformers who will gladly take that money. As soon as they take it they can be labeled, at any time, agents. It's a risky business being pro-democracy in Cuba (the Black Spring only underlines that fact).

[Judi Lynn]

37. You don't indicate how the Cuban authorities block free communications between their citizens,do you

Stop trying to attack excellent posters and work from the facts.

If you had taken the time to read an article already posted here twice, you'd have to acknowledge people in the Havana Jewish community have already said that US American Jewish friends, relatives, etc. visiting them have often brought along computers, cell phones, etc. and donated them to Cubans, and they were NOT questioned.

[FLPanhandle]

39. I just looked at their own words

The government said Gross tried to set up "clandestine networks of info communications outside the control of Cuban authorities to feed counter-revolutionary provocations".

Computers on Cuban networks and traditional cell phones are easily monitored. The authorities don't like Gross's technology because it's "outside the control of Cuban authorities".

Nice to see someone defending totalitarian and controlling regimes. :eyes:

[joshcryer]

48. People love the whole "taking the side of the law" argument, because it's a win-win.

If you "take the side of the law" you can win any argument. "It was illegal, he shouldn't have done that." It's not the morality or the ethics of the law, and indeed, people are hardly inclined to discuss that at all (in fact, I highly doubt anyone will tell you if they think a law is morally or ethically sound when it comes to those states that they defend; and if they do they will blame "outside forces" for it rather than the governments that made those laws). There was one person defending the law of a man who had sex with his 18 year old student, because it was illegal, that's the end of that, no room for discussing whether or not it was right (eventually he admitted he didn't agree with it, but that didn't change anything).

This will be interesting when SuperWiFi can penetrate the island of Cuba. Not that they aren't pro-jamming frequencies, but to jam over 50 frequencies would be nearly impossible without affecting the US, and the FCC would come down hard on Cuba for trying it.

[joshcryer]

46. As I said before, cell phones and computers are not internet.

It's a false equivalence. Gross probably could've got hit with the "being subversive" law even if he didn't have satellite internet equipment.

[joshcryer]

44. Smokescreen tactics are all they have.

[joshcryer]

43. They infilitrated a military base and used broadcast frequencies that is is illegal for citizens.

I bet the vast majority of Cuban Five supporters don't even know the extent to which they were operating.

[Judi Lynn]

54. They were so open they took their findings, as EFerrari pointed out, to the FBI,

so trusting, like children, in their belief that once the FBI understood the actions Hermanos al Rescate planned against Cuba they would most clearly move to ARREST Jose Basulto's group, since it is contrary to U.S. law to conduct acts of aggression against other countries from U.S. soil.

Clearly they had total faith they were operating in good conscience for the protection of their fellow man/woman in Cuba. Clearly they misplaced their faith in the U.S. government.

[joshcryer]

55. They didn't tell the FBI that they were listening in on military frequencies.

They didn't tell the FBI that they had infiltrated a military base.

Let's play the "law is everything" game, a card so often pulled.

US citizens cannot even listen to those frequencies, we cannot buy equipment to do so, legally, and we cannot modify our equipment to do so, legally.

They thought they'd play both sides and failed.

At least their trial was open to media and they had a good defense and all the paperwork relating to their trial is available for anyone to scrutinize. I cannot say the same for Alan Gross.

But I can say the Cuban Five were just as idiotic as Alan Gross, both were played by their respective governments.

[Judi Lynn]

60. Haven't seen any references to "listening in on military frequencies" by the 5.

It would be helpful to be able to read more about that.

From Truthout, concerning this case, for others who've not had the time to become familiar with an explosive situation which took 5 men attempting to protect their homeland from US American Cuban terrorists, and put them in prisons, WITHOUT any possiblity of seeing their loved ones, in isolation, perpetually. Hideous.

Case of Cuban Five Brings Up Nuanced Meaning of Terrorism
Monday 13 September 2010
by: Yana Kunichoff, t r u t h o u t | Report

~snip~
In the late 1990s, the Five infiltrated Cuban-American exile organizations that opposed the Castro government, many of which had a violent history of attacks against Cuba as part of "La Red Avispa" - the Wasp Network.

They were arrested in 1998 and sentenced in 2001 on 26 counts of spying on the Cuban exile community in Miami and US military bases, acting as unregistered foreign agents and conspiring to commit crimes against the United States.

In addition, one of the Five was sentenced to life in prison on a murder conspiracy charge for tipping two Cubans off not to fly with Brothers to the Rescue, an anti-Castro group that regularly flew planes over Cuba and dropped leaflets, the day the Cuban military shot down two of the group's planes in 1996 and killed four of its members.

However, the defense has argued that during the Five's time in the US they collected no classified data and did not enter into off-limits military bases. One of the five, Guerrero, worked in the metal shop of a US naval base in Florida and, according to his attorney, "Guerrero had never applied for a security clearance, had no access to restricted areas and had never tried to enter any."

~snip~
Robert A. Pastor, a professor of international relations at American University, who was President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser for Latin America, said, "holding a trial for five Cuban intelligence agents in Miami is about as fair as a trial for an Israeli intelligence agent in Tehran. You'd need a lot more than a good lawyer to be taken seriously."

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/case-cuban-five-brings-up-nuanced-meaning-terrorism63207

[joshcryer]

64. Oh I take it you didn't actually read the court paperwork?

The conviction was actually overturned on the basis of the jury possibly being corrupted by Miami, but the appeal was reversed when the judges found that there was no way, given the evidence, that any other jury could not have made a reasonably similar conclusion.

[joshcryer]

58. BTW, Cuban Five got 7 months trial by jury. Alan Gross got 3 days, no jury.

Please spare me the equivalency.

[Judi Lynn]

62. The Cuban 5 got months and months of propaganda from the media, and a hostile court,

filled with the very same vipers they were attempting to thwart in their terrorism of Cuban people, the same murderous assholes who openly boast of their raids on Cuba, and their assassination trips to bump off Cuban people they hate, the very same right-wing scumballs, like Jose Basulto, who, himself, once flew airplanes straffing railroad trains, shooting at Cubans decades ago, sitting right in the courtroom smirking at them, and hissing threats.

Yeah, 7 months of "trial by jury" by jury members fully aware if they didn't serve up the required votes against these men, they, too, would have to look over their shoulders every day for the rest of their lives, right there in the same town the U.S. FBI named "America's Terror Capital." Car Bomb City.

Some ####ing "trial by jury," youbetcha. Same trial which was overturned for a time by the US District Appeals Court, until the right strings were pulled and the full court much later overturned the earlier appeals decision.

[joshcryer]

65. Clearly not knowing the particulars of the case I take what you say with a grain of salt.

The particulars of the case, including all of the findings, are fully available to you. Please read them.

edit: there is no indication of tampering as you suggest it. And trial by jury is far better than trial by a panel.

[Judi Lynn]

67. Tampering, you say? Really? It's far beyond "tampering." That's for Cuban drug dealer cases,

like Willie Falcon and Sal Magluta, whose trials lost witnesses, attorney, to murder, jury members, etc.

To even claim things won't be predestined in hot political trials like this one in a city like Miami is astounding.

A very incomplete look at political violence in Miami from an article written om 2000, gives a decent comprehensive example of how and why a simple "jurist" would be hard-pressed to go against the prevailing sentiment there concerning national Cubans trying to protect their countrymen against Miami terrorists:

The Burden of a Violent History
By Jim Mullin Thursday, Apr 20 2000

1968 From MacArthur Causeway, pediatrician Orlando Bosch fires bazooka at a Polish freighter. (City of Miami later declares "Orlando Bosch Day." Federal agents will jail him in 1988.)

1972 Julio Iglesias, performing at a local nightclub, says he wouldn't mind "singing in front of Cubans." Audience erupts in anger. Singer requires police escort. Most radio stations drop Iglesias from playlists. One that doesn't, Radio Alegre, receives bomb threats.

1974 Exile leader José Elias de la Torriente murdered in his Coral Gables home after failing to carry out a planned invasion of Cuba.

1974 Bomb blast guts the office of Spanish-language magazine Replica.

1974 Several small Cuban businesses, citing threats, stop selling Replica.

1974 Three bombs explode near a Spanish-language radio station.

1974 Hector Diaz Limonta and Arturo Rodriguez Vives murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1975 Luciano Nieves murdered after advocating peaceful coexistence with Cuba.

1975 Another bomb damages Replica's office.

1976 Rolando Masferrer and Ramon Donestevez murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1976 Car bomb blows off legs of WQBA-AM news director Emilio Milian after he publicly condemns exile violence.

1977 Juan José Peruyero murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1979 Cuban film Memories of Underdevelopment interrupted by gunfire and physical violence instigated by two exile groups.

1979 Bomb discovered at Padron Cigars, whose owner helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1979 Bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1980 Another bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1980 Powerful anti-personnel bomb discovered at American Airways Charter, which arranges flights to Cuba.

1981 Bomb explodes at Mexican Consulate on Brickell Avenue in protest of relations with Cuba.

1981 Replica's office again damaged by a bomb.

1982 Two outlets of Hispania Interamericana, which ships medicine to Cuba, attacked by gunfire.

1982 Bomb explodes at Venezuelan Consulate in downtown Miami in protest of relations with Cuba.

1982 Bomb discovered at Nicaraguan Consulate.

1982 Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre defends $10,000 grant to exile commando group Alpha 66 by noting that the organization "has never been accused of terrorist activities inside the United States."

1983 Another bomb discovered at Replica.

1983 Another bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1983 Bomb explodes at Paradise International, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1983 Bomb explodes at Little Havana office of Continental National Bank, one of whose executives, Bernardo Benes, helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1983 Miami City Commissioner Demetrio Perez seeks to honor exile terrorist Juan Felipe de la Cruz, accidentally killed while assembling a bomb. (Perez is now a member of the Miami-Dade County Public School Board and owner of the Lincoln-Martí private school where Elian Gonzalez is enrolled.)

1983 Gunfire shatters windows of three Little Havana businesses linked to Cuba.

1986 South Florida Peace Coalition members physically attacked in downtown Miami while demonstrating against Nicaraguan contra war.

1987 Bomb explodes at Cuba Envios, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes at Almacen El Español, which ships packages to Cuba.

More:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2000-04-20/news/mullin/2/

[joshcryer]

68. I read the findings, I read the court documents, I do not find any sense of this nonsense.

Nice conspiracy theory you've invented there. If you think you have evidence for it I suggest you contact a DA to prosecute those who were involved in your conspiracy.

[joshcryer]

51. Got into a big debate about this one. People are unaware how the internet is unregulated...

...and how the citizens of the United States have open access to unlicensed frequency. That is, they actually thought you had to be licensed to be an internet provider (you don't, you have to be licensed to be a business, but free internet cooperatives are just as common and they don't require regulations). The internet is a funny thing, it can't work if it is highly regulated.

[hack89]

69. What threat did he represent to the Cuban government?

there is no indication that he was spying in the traditional sense - what state secrets did he have access to and could have stolen?

What he did would not be a crime in most countries - free movement of information and ideas is not a threat to most countries.

[joshcryer]

72. Google "MININT Cyber Lecture Video"

It's all clear once you understand how the Cuban government views free information flow.

[boppers]

74. Heck of a read.

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=7111

Thanks for the tip.

[joshcryer]

75. No problem, the translation is kinda poor, but that site does a lot of good translations overall.

It gives you insight into what some people of Cuba think about their own government.