Cuba denounces acquittal of former CIA agent Luis Posada as a farce

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Cuba has denounced as a "farce" the acquittal in the United States of Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA agent who is accused of terrorist attacks against the island.

The foreign ministry said Friday's verdict, which found the 83-year-old not guilty on all 11 counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and immigration fraud, showed the US continued to protect a known terrorist.

"This is an additional demonstration of the support and shelter the American authorities have historically given him," it said in a statement over the weekend.

A jury in El Paso, Texas cleared Posada Carriles after deliberating for just three hours, an unexpectedly swift climax to a closely watched 13-week trial which cast fresh light on the octogenarian's lengthy career as an anti-communist agent. The defendant, a hero to militant anti-Castro exiles, hugged his lawyers and told reporters he was grateful to the US, the court and the jury for what he said was a fair trial.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/10/luis-posada-cuba-denounces-us-acquittal-cia-agent

[Diclotican]

1. alp227

alp227

It is telling a lot about the US, and the government, when a known terrorist like mr Posada Carriles, who have been known to use terror tactics to kill and to scare innocent sivilians... If the terrorist are your own, like an CIA agent, then it's okay... Even a cort cant at least let the trial go ahead, so it can be be given evidences...

But this prove also, that parts of your own government are not capable of given everyone a fair trial.. Or to get gulty ones where they belong - specially if they have been using terror FOR the benefit of the United States of America, even tho I doubt it was to the benefit of the US to blow up cuban airplanes filled with sivilians with no known conections to the Cuban regime.. Or to kill sivilans in South America..

Diclotican

[EFerrari]

7. The CIA doesn't really work for the American people.

They work for the American oligarchy. It's pretty much a criminal organization in national security drag.

[Diclotican]

9. EFerrari

EFerrari

The CIA have never worked for anyone than they self.. The last President who in fact was in sharge of the CIA, was Truman/Eisenhower.. Mr Truman treathend even with dispansion of the whole CIA, becouse they acted behind his back many times in late 1940s, early 1950s. Many of the coups the CIA was behind in Europe and in Latin America in the late 1940s, was against the order of the US president... Elements inside CIA, have allways been out of controll. Like other Agency's their goal have been the means.. Not to protect the population in their contry.. The big players inside CIA have a lot of power over the rest.... Far more power than they might deserve to have access to

And the irony, is that CIA was made, to protect the US.. from enemies outside and inside the country.. But today, parts of CIA is maybe more danger to itself, and to the american population than til anyone out there, who really want evil to happend...

Diclotican

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. You forget Bush I

Former CIA Director

[EFerrari]

13. Reagan had CIA in dirty ops all over the place.

The National Endowment for Democracy, like the CIA before it, calls this supporting democracy. The governments and movements against whom the financing is targeted, call it destabilization. The NED was not an aberration of an other wise legal, accountable, non-interventionist Reagan foreign policy. Among the other stories of international intrigue and violence of the Reagan era worth noting are:

South Africa: Working closely with British intelligence, the U .S . provided South Africa with intelligence about the banned and exiled African National Congress, including specific warnings of planned attacks by the group and the whereabouts and movements of ANC leaders. As part of South Africa's reciprocation, it sent 200,000 pounds of military equipment to contra leader Eden Pastora.

Fiji: The coup of May 1987 bore all the fingerprints of a U.S. destabilization operation-the deposed prime minister, Timoci Bavadra, in office only a month after being elected over the conservative former Prime Minister Ratu Mara, was intent upon enforcing the ban upon nuclear vessels in Fiji ports; two weeks before the coup, Gen. Vernon Walters, he of extensive CIA involvement over the years, visited Fiji and met with the army officer who staged the coup; at the same time, Ratu Mara was visiting U.S. military headquarters (CINCPAC) in Hawaii; the AFL-CIO/CIA labor mafia was well represented, working against the nuclear-free Pacific movement; and several other similar components of a now all too-familiar scenario.

Grenada: The invasion by the U.S. military in October 1983 was accompanied by a battalion of falsehoods that stands out even in an administration noted for its creation of dial-a-lie. The "democracy" installed in the country reached fruition this year when the government banned the importation, by name, of over 80 leftist books, and later suspended Parliament to block a no-confidence vote.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/Reagan_CIA.html

Lots more. List begins about half way down the page.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Everyone should see this list. I'm posting 4 more entries from it:

~snip~
Libya: Along with Nicaragua, Ronald Reagan's manic obsession, culminating in the April 1986 bombing which took the lives of about 37 people, all civilians but one, and wounded some 93 others. The dead included Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's young adopted daughter; his other seven children and his wife were hospitalized. "Our evidence is direct, it is precise, it is irrefutable," announced the President of the United States in explaining that the bombing was in retaliation for the Libyan bombing nine days earlier of a West Berlin nightclub frequented by American servicemen which killed one soldier and injured many other soldiers and civilians. The evidence of Libyan culpability in the Berlin bombing, how ever, was never directly or precisely presented to the world.

Surinam: In December 1982, CIA Director William Casey told the House and Senate intelligence committees that President Reagan had authorized the CIA to try to topple Surinam ruler Col. Desi Bouterse, supposedly leading his country into "the Cuban orbit." Even though the committee refused to approve the covert operation, there is good reason to believe that the administration did what it wished. An invasion of the country was scheduled for July 1, 1983 by Florida-based mercenaries-Americans and others. It was called off only after being discovered by the internal security agency of the Netherlands, the former colonial power in Surinam.

Seychelles: The country's leader, France Albert Rene, amongst other shortcomings in the eyes of Washington, was a socialist, pursued non-alignment, and wanted to turn the Indian Ocean into a nuclear-free zone. For this he was the object of various American destabilization conspiracies beginning in 1979. In November 1981, the CIA reportedly was behind a mercenary invasion of the island nation which originated in South Africa and got no further than an armed battle at the Seychelles airport.

El Salvador: The Reagan administration's bloodiest intervention. Largely obscured has been the extent of direct American involvement in the fighting. At least a dozen Americans have been killed or wounded in helicopter and plane crashes while flying reconnaissance or other missions over combat areas. There have been numerous reports of armed Americans spotted in combat areas, a report by CBS News of U.S. advisers "fighting side by side" with government troops, and reports of other Americans, some ostensibly mercenaries, killed in action. By 1983 there were more than two hundred U.S. intelligence agents (about two-thirds of them from the CIA) operating in El Salvador. At least until 1985, CIA paramilitary personnel were organizing and leading special Salvadoran army units into combat areas to track down guerrillas and call in air strikes.

More at EFerrari's link.

Absolutely overwhelming.

Thank you for the link, it's one to save for future use.

[EFerrari]

12. American presidents disown the actions of the CIA

when embarrassing facts become public. :)

[frebrd]

2. Damned well was a farce! eom

[msanthrope]

3. Looks like the judge had the case right in 2007, when she threw the charges....

What a Bush-era farce, and too bad the Obama DOJ got stuck with this turkey.

He had great defense lawyers.

Irony of ironies???? He can't be deported to either Cuba or Venezuela, for fear of torture, per an immigration judge ruling....

[roody]

4. I served on a jury that spent more time than that on a

simple drunk driving case.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. They are used to government directed verdicts in Cuba

Not so much here

[EFerrari]

6. If they meddle in cases in other countries

do you seriously believe they don't do it domestically?

Posada can't be convicted. He knows too much.

[joshcryer]

8. If you have evidence of jury tampering, you should make it known to a DA.

Of course, if I recall correctly, you think they were just "tired out."

[nalnn]

11. Was this a trial?

And, if so, was it an objective and fair trial? Does anyone have knowledge or opinions about this they could share with me?

[EFerrari]

14. If you search his name here at DU

you'll get some good threads on the progress of this trial.

[nalnn]

17. Thanks

I'll try to do that.

[EFerrari]

19. Here's one search:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/searchresults.html?q=Posada+Carriles+trial&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&sa=Search&domains=democraticunderground.com&client=pub-7805397860504090&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. It was a jury trial and he was found not guilty

The AG is not whining about it, but clearly some are

[nalnn]

18. If the trial was fair

Why complain I ask.


& Thanks for the response.

[EFerrari]

20. Yes, clearly "some" who want this internationally known terrorist

to face consequences for his murders of innocent people.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

22. He was not on trial for that...and if they jury system is to mean anything

unpopular acquittals need to stand up.

[EFerrari]

21. Here's Amy Goodman's report of this morning.

CIA-Trained Airline Bomber Set Free After Acquittal by Texas Jury

Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative best known as the suspected mastermind of the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban airline jet, was acquitted Friday. He wasn’t facing terrorism charges, but eleven charges of perjury, immigration fraud, and obstruction of justice. Although the U.S. government believes he is an international terrorist, Posada Carriles was freed on Friday. Will the Obama administration let him walk the streets of Miami?

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/11/cia_trained_airline_bomber_set_free