Judge throws out Posada Carriles' indictment

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Judge throws out Posada Carriles' indictment

Posted May 8 2007, 7:27 PM EDT

EL PASO, Texas -- A federal judge on Tuesday threw out Cuban
militant Luis Posada Carriles' indictment accusing him of lying
to immigration authorities.

Posada, a 79-year-old former CIA operative and fierce opponent
of Fidel Castro, was scheduled to stand trial next week in Texas
on immigration fraud charges.

Cuba and Venezuela want Posada extradited for the 1976 bombing
of a Cuban airliner, but the United States has refused to send
him to either country.


Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-0508posada,0,1510856.story

---

Source: Reuters

Judge drops charges against anti-Castro militant
08 May 2007 23:10:07 GMT
Source: Reuters

HOUSTON, May 8 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has thrown out all charges
against anti-Castro Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, less than
a week before he was supposed to go to trial.

Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said U.S. District Judge
Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas dismissed on Tuesday the seven-
count indictment accusing Posada Carriles, 79, of immigration fraud.

"We're reviewing the decision," Boyd said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N08202251.htm

[Taverner]

1. That's terrorist, not militant

[AlCzervik]

2. unbelievable, this guy will never have to answer for his crimes.

[gorbal]

38. 2 petitions you can sign-

Tell me if you know of anyothers-

http://www.porlajusticia.org/index.php?lang=2

http://www.petitiononline.com/POSADA/petition.html

[burrowowl]

3. SAY WHAT!!!!

He is a TERRORIST! #%%^&)*^&^(**^%@#

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[Straight Shooter]

12. True, but he's the BFEE's terrorist. Therein lies the difference. :(

[nealmhughes]

4. Impeach the magistrate, now. And if Gonzo won't prosecute him, then impeach him, too.

WTF do those Cuban exiles want? Oh, I know, to blow up planes carrying a fencing team to strike at the heart of Raul y Fidel. . . Why doesn't Barbados extradite them? Isn't air piracy punishable by any nation which apprehends the accused, like sea piracy?

[Robb]

5. I don't suppose I have to say who appointed her.

Freakin' absurd. First she lets him out on $350K bail, now...?

[stillcool]

6. Wow..that Texas Justice is something...

To some in Paris, sinister past is back
In Texas, a white teenager burns down her family's home and receives probation. A black one shoves a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. The state NAACP calls it 'a signal to black folks.'

By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent
Published March 12, 2007
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-There was the 19-year-old white man, convicted last July of criminally negligent homicide for killing a 54-year-old black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck, who was sentenced in Paris to probation and required to send an annual Christmas card to the victims' family.
-There are the Paris public schools, which are under investigation by the U.S. Education Department after repeated complaints that administrators discipline black students more frequently, and more harshly, than white students.
-And then there is the case that most troubles Cherry and leaders of the Texas NAACP, involving a 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.

Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120170mar12,1,1921178.story?page=1&cset=true&ctrack=1&coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

After this case not national attention, Shaquanda was released after serving one year of her seven year sentence

[bobbie]

7. Well of course, this US sponsored terrorist will never go to jail

His criminal cronies in the gov't won't permit it.

[HuffleClaw]

8. "statements by Posada Carriles... ...had been obtained unconstitutionally."

erm, so THAT is bad but its ok for that other guy to have been TORTURED?

[magellan]

10. The double standard is DISGUSTING

Posada's our terrorist so he gets all the perks, like habeas corpus, Geneva Convention protections, etc., even though he isn't a US citizen. He blew up a planeload of innocent people, but he's on our side so that's all right.

And people in this country wonder why we're so hated.

[1932]

9. I am ashamed of the complete absence of moral leadership displayed by my country.

How can there be one law for the US and another that the US applies to the rest of the world?

[mod mom]

11. Sounds like "loyal bu$hies" in Texas Court! UFB!

Maybe congress should offer Posada Carilles immunity and watch HW fall apart.

[seafan]

13. Yep, the judge is a loyal Bushie.

Judge drops charges against Posada, May 8, 2007

A federal judge issued a stunning decision Tuesday when she dismissed the immigration fraud charges against Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban exile militant who was facing trial starting Friday in El Paso, Texas.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued a lengthy written order scrapping the indictment that accused Posada, 79, of lying to immigration officials about how he sneaked into the country in March 2005.

.....

Posada was in El Paso with his lawyer, Arturo Hernandez, celebrating the surprise move by the Bush-appointed judge.

Last month she had granted Posada a $350,000 bond that allowed him to stay with his wife, Nieves, at her West Kendall apartment under 24-hour house arrest. He's scheduled to return to Miami Wednesday, Hernandez's office said.

The Bush-sanctioned terrorists enjoy unprecedented privileges and freedoms, don't they?


Now he will return to Miami to a hero's welcome, destined to spend the rest of his days relaxing in his golden years, getting off scot free for the murder of Cuban airline passengers in 1976.

The decision by Kathleen Cardone, U.S. District Judge in El Paso, Texas, clears the way for Posada to return to Miami a free man.

Cardone ordered his electronic bracelet cut off in the courtroom Tuesday. His attorney, Arturo Hernandez, told CNN the ruling was "an incredible legal victory."

Posada has been accused by the Cuban government of being involved in the 1976 downing of a Cuban passenger plane, which killed 73 people, along with a string of hotel bombings in Havana and attempts on the life of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Venezuela and Cuba have both asked that Posada be extradited, but an immigration judge in September 2005 ruled he could not be sent to either country out of concern he might face torture there.

"We are reviewing the decision," said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd. The Cuban government reacted angrily, however, issuing a statement accusing the White House of protecting Posada, who it called "the bin Laden of the hemisphere".

May the world forgive us for what Bush has wrought.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Judge Cardone was appointed to the bench by Bush, and she graduated from a fundie law school

How did this piece of work get herself on the federal bench? Who voted to confirm this rigthwing sock puppet?

Birth: 1953
Year Service Began: 2003
Appointed By: President George W. Bush
Education State University of New York at Binghamton
St. Mary's School of Law in San Antonio
Legal Practice: Private
Judicial: 388th Judicial District Court in El Paso
Family Court Master
383rd Judicial District Court in El Paso

http://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/gen_info/judges/cardone.asp

[Mika]

15. This was a deliberately botched prosecution, IMO

From the Miami Herald..

Judge frees Posada, rips feds' tactics
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/100671.html

(snip)

If the government appeals, it would challenge the judge's decision to toss out the indictment based on her analysis that the interpreter failed to accurately translate questions posed to Posada at his citizenship interview and his responses.

The judge said the interpreter, Luis Granados, used wrong words, omitted others or added words of his own to some questions and answers.

''This is not an acceptable practice in interpretation, and it caused severe confusion during the interview,'' Cardone wrote.

For example, a government lawyer -- who was with Granados -- tried to ask Posada if he had been to Mexico after he completed his jail time in Panama, where he was imprisoned in connection with a plot to kill Fidel Castro. Granados, instead, asked Posada whether he had been to Mexico before his jail time in Panama.

The judge noted that the blunder could ''cause numerous problems'' because the discrepancy undercut the United States' own timeline of how and when Posada entered the country -- which is the crux of the indictment.

Cardone questioned why immigration authorities interrogated Posada at his citizenship interview not only about his entry into the United States but also about his alleged role in anti-Castro militant activities, such as the bombings of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people and at tourist sites in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian.

She indicated the government questioned Posada on these activities to deepen its criminal investigation of Posada as a terrorism suspect, not to establish that he violated immigration law.

''The realm of this case is not, as some have suggested, terrorism,'' she wrote. ``It is immigration fraud.''

What? The prosecutors didn't notice that there was a misleading translation? Didn't know they were mixing apples with oranges (terrorism charges with immigration charges)?

The immigration prosecution was a hoax, IMO.

(snip)

An immigration judge in El Paso ordered Posada deported to any country, except Cuba or Venezuela. As a foreign national facing a final deportation order, Posada is subject to detention by the United States until authorities find a country willing to take him.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 prohibited indefinite detention for foreigners who cannot be deported, but it exempted those classified as detainees in ``special circumstances.''

Immigration administrators argue that Posada fits that category because his release could have ''serious adverse foreign policy consequences.'' But a federal magistrate in El Paso said that for the United States to continue holding Posada, it would have to classify him as a terrorist, and recommended his release.

Still, to this day, the US gov HAS NOT classified him as a terrorist.

:puke:

[ReadTomPaine]

16. Outrageous. This man should be in prison for life. n/t

[Mika]

17. The outrage should be directed at the f-ed up prosecution..

.. which was deliberate IMO.

[atreides1]

18. Maybe

But combine that with a Bushbot judge, and this was destined to happen. I'm sure an unbiased judge would have found a legal way to continue this case, even with the loss of the interview.

This judge was bought and paid for and the prosecutors knew it, and took advantage of that fact.


Medals of Freedom all around!!!!!

[Mika]

20. It was a Bushbot prosecution also.

The judge needed something to be f-ed up in order to dismiss. They gave it to her. As with most US issues concerning Cuba, the "scolding" of the prosecution by the judge was pure theater.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. Where's the Punisher when you need him?

[Judi Lynn]

21. Judge frees Posada, rips feds' tactics

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Wed, May. 09, 2007
LUIS POSADA CARRILES CASE
Judge frees Posada, rips feds' tactics

A federal judge in El Paso dismissed a criminal indictment against Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, who is now free -- unless immigration authorities detain him.
BY JAY WEAVER AND ALFONSO CHARDY
[e-mail]



RUDY GUTIERREZ/AP PHOTO
Luis Posada Carriles, right, walks to federal court in
downtown El Paso, Texas, with part of his legal team last
Friday. Posada's indictment was dismissed Tuesday.

Luis Posada Carriles plans to return to Miami a free man after an El Paso federal judge dismissed immigration fraud charges against the Cuban exile militant Tuesday. The reason: The government translator botched the English-Spanish interpretation of his citizenship interview.

In her 38-page written order scrapping the indictment, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone accused the United States government of engaging in ''fraud, deceit and trickery'' to indict Posada. She called the government's citizenship interview a ''pretext for a criminal investigation'' so it could charge Posada.

The citizenship interview was a central piece of the government's case because prosecutors had hoped to show that Posada lied under oath about how he sneaked into the United States. The dismissal is also embarrassing for the Bush administration, which has been investigating Posada since spring 2005, when he suddenly appeared in Miami.

''We're very gratified that the American justice system works,'' said Posada's attorney, Arturo Hernandez, who celebrated with his client in El Paso. ``It's an important victory for the Cuban-American community . . . We're very grateful that the aspersions cast by Chávez and Castro did not influence the court system. It's a special moment.''




Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/100671.html

---

LUIS POSADA CARRILES
THE DECLASSIFIED RECORD
CIA and FBI Documents Detail Career in International Terrorism; Connection to U.S.

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 153

For more information contact
Peter Kornbluh - 202/994-7116

May 10, 2005


Related postings

October 5, 2006
Bombing of Cuban Jetliner 30 Years Later

June 9, 2005
The Posada File, Part II
Posada Boasted of Plans to "Hit" Cuban Plane
Update - May 18, 2005 - Documents featured on May 17, 2005 edition of ABC's Nightline

Washington D.C. May 18, 2005 - The National Security Archive today posted additional documents that show that the CIA had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb a Cubana airliner. The Archive also posted another document that shows that the FBI's attache in Caracas had multiple contacts with one of the Venezuelans who placed the bomb on the plane, and provided him with a visa to the U.S. five days before the bombing, despite suspicions that he was engaged in terrorist activities at the direction of Luis Posada Carriles.

Both documents were featured last night on ABC Nightline's program on Luis Posada Carriles, who was detained in Miami yesterday by Homeland Security.

In addition, the Archive posted the first report to Secretary of State Kissinger from the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research on the bombing of Cubana flight 455. The report noted that a CIA source had overheard Posada prior to the bombing in late September 1976 stating that, "We are going to hit a Cuban airliner." This information was apparently not passed to the CIA until after the plane went down.
(snip/...)http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/index.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A bomber's tale: Taking aim at Castro
By Ann Louis Bardach and Larry Rohter, New York Times, July 1998
MIAMI -- A Cuban exile who has waged a campaign of bombings and assassination attempts aimed at toppling Fidel Castro says that his efforts were supported financially for more than a decade by the Cuban-American leaders of one of America's most influential lobbying groups.

The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, said he organized a wave of bombings in Cuba last year at hotels, restaurants and discotheques, killing an Italian tourist and alarming the Cuban Government. Posada was schooled in demolition and guerrilla warfare by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960's.

In a series of tape-recorded interviews at a walled Caribbean compound, Posada said the hotel bombings and other operations had been supported by leaders of the Cuban-American National Foundation. Its founder and head, Jorge Mas Canosa, who died last year, was embraced at the White House by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.
(snip/...)

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/144.html

[HockeyMom]

22. He was born in BROOKLYN

Deport him to WHERE? He is an American citizen by birth.

What am I not understanding about this?

[wtmusic]

25. If the crime occurred in Venezuela

he can be extradited to face charges there -- American citizen, or not.

[mitchtv]

26. I don't know about the immigration charge

But he is wanted for jailbreaking in Venezuela where he was in for terrorism/murder. I thought we were against terorism

[Judi Lynn]

27. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison awaiting his trial for the mass murder. They want him back. n/t

[seafan]

32. Posada was born in Cuba.

Posada, who was born in Cuba and naturalized in Venezuela, is accused of plotting the Cubana Airlines bombing while living in Caracas. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 and was detained in Florida in May 2005 for entering the United States illegally.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2007/04/19/militants_release_angers_cuba/

Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) is a Cuban born Venezuelan national.

....

Posada was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles

[IChing]

33. Luis Posada Carriles is a Cuban born Venezuelan national

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles

[BushOut06]

23. He's one of OUR terrorists

As long as his actions were directed towards Cuba, it's okay. :sarcasm:

[Monk06]

34. He certainly is and check out some of his pals from Operation 40

http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/view.pl?archive=137&num=17881

He was a member of Operation 40 the CIA trained covert ops/hit squad
along with E Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, professional CIA hitman Orlando Bosch,
and not surprising John Rosselli. the second in command of the Rosselli crime
family in Chicago.

[anotherdrew]

24. personally I hope a Valenzuelan extraordinary rendition team kidnaps his ass to face justice

this murdering piece of shit need to get the hell out of our country.

[wtmusic]

29. They could bean him with a fast ball

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

[Judi Lynn]

30. Absolutely! That would be pure justice. n/t

[partylessinOhio]

28. Now, we need a judge to empty Gitmo

and the prisons we have in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We need a change in America making us kinder and gentler and proud.

[gratuitous]

31. I'll agree with his attorney - it IS a special moment

But probably not in the same way he thinks it's "special."

[ngant17]

35. Osama vrs. Posada

There is far more hard evidence to incriminate Posada for numerous acts of terrorism, compared to Osama bin Ladan, it's the difference between a mountain of evidence and a molehill of evidence.

We have declared a war on terrorism but ignore the fact Posada was responsible for the one of the first and biggest acts of terrorism involving the deaths of innocent civilian passengers on an airliner in Latin America, which occured in Barbados in 1976. The FBI and the CIA and numerous other intelligence agencies had those incriminating facts against Posada almost since the day it happened. The C-4 explosive which was planted in the airline's bathroom, it was proven to have been US military issue.

So Posada walks thanks to a purely ideological decision by a partisan judge in Texas. Justice is not blind. It's easy to guess who removed the blindfold, she was quite partial in that decision.

[UNCLE_Rico]

36. And thank you for coming!

We hoped you enjoyed YET ANOTHER edition of "The Dog and Pony Show", brought to you by Dick & Bush, Inc.

[gorbal]

37. Does anyone have a link to a petition that I could sign?

I don't feel safe with people like that just walking around town barefoot and fancy-free.

[heliarc]

39. Terrorist.

I love how this guy kills a plane load of civilians and he's a militant

and the Muslim guys yesterday picked up for targeting ONLY MILITARY BASES and TARGETS are terrorists.

What a crock of racist %&$(*@##)_$

[maddezmom]

40. Feds will let Posada return to Miami as a free man

Feds will let Posada return to Miami as a free man
U.S. immigration authorities chose not to detain Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, who is expected back in Miami by this weekend.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY AND JAY WEAVER
[e-mail]

U.S. authorities signaled Wednesday they will not detain Luis Posada Carriles after a federal judge in El Paso dismissed immigration fraud charges against the Cuban exile militant. He's no longer under 24-hour house arrest.

As Posada prepared to return to Miami a free man, the Justice Department remained undecided about whether to appeal Tuesday's stunning dismissal of the criminal case.

''We're disappointed with the ruling, and we're evaluating our options,'' said Justice spokesman Dean Boyd.

But the highlight of the case Wednesday was the decision by immigration officials not to detain Posada in El Paso, meaning that for now, Posada can return to his wife's West Kendall apartment -- free from house arrest, as was required under his pretrial bond.

more:http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/102124.html