Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles's day in court may be here

[Judi Lynn]

Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles's day in court may be here
Albor Ruiz - Ny Local

Thursday, January 13th 2011, 4:00 AM

He is 82 years old, but a kindly grandfather he is not.

Actually, Cuban-born Luis Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan and a longtime CIA operative, is a convicted terrorist in two countries who escaped from a Venezuelan jail and was infamously pardoned in Panama.

A dangerous criminal with a long and deadly rap sheet, he is named in U.S. intelligence reports as the mastermind behind the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Fight 455, which killed the 73 passengers on board, including the Cuban national fencing team. Posada Carriles is also linked to a string of hotel bombings in Cuba, resulting in the death of Italian tourist Fabio diCelmo, something he would later brag about in a 1998 New York Times interview.

"The Italian was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I sleep like a baby," Posada Carriles told the newspaper.

Not a man deterred by small details, he was convicted in 2000 of plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro during a summit in Panama. The plot called for using 200 pounds of dynamite and C-4 explosives to blow up an auditorium - listen to this - packed with college students. He served four years before being pardoned.

More:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2011/01/13/2011-01-13_terrorists_day_in_court_may_be_here.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. Granma link on the subject

EL PASO, Texas, January 11.— Luis Posada Carriles' lawyer, Arturo Hernández, challenged all potential jurors with any knowledge of the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviación airliner which killed 73 passengers, according to an AFP report.

Before closing the day's session, Judge Kathleen Cardone warned Hernández that his request to present information about the Cuban government's strategy supporting its accusations against the former CIA agent might not be appropriate and could be denied.

Responding to the defense attorney's request, prosecutor Timothy Reardon said "This isn't the History Channel", arguing that the information Hernández sought to introduce was irrelevant.

During the day's proceedings, the prosecutor directly addressed Posada Carriles and asked if he remembered the "poor Italian," referring to Fabio di Celmo, a tourist killed in the 1997 bombing of the Hotel Copacabana in Havana.

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/news-i/12enero-abogados.html

:hi:

edit to add : "ingles" - I love that expression. :)