Posada and US Government Found Guilty in Cuba

[Mika]

Source: Mathaba news agency

Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was found guilty Tuesday of committing several crimes against Cuba and its people at a public trial held in Havana. The United States was also declared responsible for having financed and supported his activities.

Cuba had decided to try Posada in his absence after a US judge recently dropped immigration fraud charges and released the man widely considered the most dangerous terrorist in the Western Hemisphere.

The verdict from the Anti-terrorist Tribunal came after ample irrefutable testimonies that demonstrated Posada's guilt of terrorist crimes against the Cuban revolution and US government complicity.

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Posada's long record includes organizing the 1976 sabotage of a Cuban airliner off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 persons. He is also credited with a string of attacks on Cuban tourist facilities from 1997 to 1998, and several assassinations attempts against President Fidel Castro, including the one that would have killed hundreds and possibly thousands of people at the University of Panama in November 2000.
Rodriguez said the US government protects Posada to keep him from revealing information about his past connections, commitments and ties in the carrying out of different terrorist plans in several countries.

Read more: http://mathaba.net/news/?x=554373

[EFerrari]

1. Doesn't BushCo know all of Latin America, not to mention,

Latino voters are watching this? Apart from the injustice of letting this terrorist walk, it's massively stupid.

[Freddie Stubbs]

2. We should swap him for Joanne Chesimard

[MrPrax]

3. Why?

Posada was assisted by the US government and convicted with eye-witness testimony?

Your not saying that Shakar was equipped and protected by the US government, are you? Posada blew up a whole plane; Shakur was in a shootout initiated by racist New Jersey cops?

Posada has been convicted by two separate governments; Shakur was subject of a kangaroo trial that even the UN human rights commission denounced in 1979.

:shrug:

[Mika]

4. Interesting article here..

On June 29, 2005 Senior Fellow Wayne S. Smith met with the president of the Cuban National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcón, in Havana, Cuba to discuss Cuba and terrorism. Below is a summary of the interview.
http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/cubaandterrorism/interview%20with%20Alarcon.htm

(snip)
Smith: President Bush has stated that anyone who harbors a terrorist is, in fact, a terrorist. Many Americans argue that Cuba is harboring American fugitives. How is this different?

Alarcón: First, in the case of Joanne Chesimard: she is not a terrorist. She was accused and involved with a violent act in which a policeman lost his life. This is unfortunate, but this is not terrorism. Terror is a very specific crime. How can you compare killing in cold blood everyone in a civilian airplane to an incident in which a policeman gets killed? Chesimard was involved with the African American struggle of the 1970s. Incidents like that were common in those days.

[MrPrax]

5. Yes...interesting testimony!!

Alarcón: Cuba has signed and ratified all UN and international treaties that regulate terrorism. Most importantly, Cuba cooperated with the UN Security Council with Resolution 1373, which was passed on September 28th, 2001 - just a few weeks after 9/11. Resolution 1373, drafted and introduced by the US, outlined steps to be taken to fight terror, including the need to develop bilateral and regional agreements. Cuba made specific proposals for a bilateral agreement to combat terrorism and human smuggling; however, the US was not interested in negotiating with Cuba - not even to fight terrorism. This is in clear violation of their own resolution and other anti-terrorism conventions.

Then there is the case of Luis Posada Carriles, who is accused of masterminding the destruction of a Cuban civilian airline in 1976. Twenty years ago, following his escape from a detention facility in Venezuela, the Venezuelan court declared him a fugitive and asked for his return. In fact, Article 7 of the Montreal Convention of 1971 establishes a rule that when a person is found in a country and is asked to be extradited by another country because he is accused of involvement in an attack against a civilian aircraft, the second country is obligated to extradite him. If there is no extradition, there is one alternative: that country, without exception, must try that person there, as if the alleged person had committed the crime there.

Posada has been in the US since March, and according to The Miami Herald, nobody was after him until May, when he was finally detained following a well-publicized press conference. He still has not been presented to a court of law to determine his possible extradition to Venezuela. Further, the administration has created another obstacle by arbitrarily considering his case as an illegal entry violation, which is a minor crime compared to the violation of Resolution 1373. What is the state of health of Resolution 1373 if its creator does not abide by it?

Center for International Policy

BUT BUT -- there have been racist posses, posing as 'law and order' champs, out to get people like Shakur, Mumia and Pellitier for decades? How do they miss these important differences if they are SO CONCERNED with terrorism, order, law-abiding shit, rights, cops, etc.

Hey wait a minute -- IMHO I think they are lying and I don't think they are liberal or progressive or anything other than THE Right's New Intelligensia, that will slap together Orwellian high tone apologia, like Commentary does, coz it sounds 'pur-dy' and moderate and independent and so it flatters narrow-minded people who are bigots into thinking they have 'unique' ideas.

[Judi Lynn]

6. You've got THAT right, by god. Bigots in every possible sense. n/t