U.S. appeals dismissal of case against Cuban militant Posada

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

U.S. appeals dismissal of case against Cuban militant Posada
The Associated Press
Published: November 6, 2007


EL PASO, Texas: Prosecutors have appealed a federal judge's decision to dismiss an immigration fraud case against anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles.

The aging militant is wanted in Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen, on charges that he plotted the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner from Caracas.

Prosecutors filed the 73-page appeal Monday with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

The case against the former CIA operative and U.S. Army soldier was dismissed in May after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso concluded that federal authorities used trickery, fraud and deceit in trying to pursue a criminal case against Posada. He was accused of lying on an application and during an interview to become a naturalized citizen.

Cardone also concluded that a translation of the interview "is so inaccurate as to render it unreliable as evidence of defendant's actual statements." Cardone said the government's actions were "so grossly shocking and so outrageous to violate the universal sense of justice."



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/06/america/NA-GEN-US-Cuban-Militant.php

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[Judi Lynn]

1. US Government Appeals Court Decision To Release Ex-CIA Contractor-AFP

US Government Appeals Court Decision To Release Ex-CIA Contractor-AFP

Tuesday November 6th, 2007 / 23h47


MIAMI (AFP)--The U.S. government Tuesday appealed a federal court's decision that led to the release of Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted by Havana and Caracas for the deadly 1976 downing of a Cuban airliner.
(snip)

In its brief to a U.S. appeals court in Texas, the government insists, however, that "the record shows no deceit or trickery, nor outrageous conduct that justifies the extreme sanction of dismissal."

The government stressed the circumstances at the time "gave the defendant no license to lie to the interviewers."
A Cuba-born Venezuelan national, Posada Carriles was jailed in Venezuela in 1976 for allegedly masterminding the downing of a Cuban jet off Barbados.

He escaped in 1985, was sentenced to eight years in jail in Panama for a 2000 bomb plot to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, and was pardoned four years later.

U.S. authorities are reportedly investigating whether Posada Carriles was involved in a 1997 Havana hotel bombing that killed an Italian tourist.

More:
http://www.easybourse.com/Website/dynamic/News.php?NewsID=334436

[robinlynne]

2. Just in case it is not clear: The man is a terrorist, wanted in several countries.

The US will not extradite him.

[NoGodsNoMasters]

3. As much as it saddens me...

I don't think this guy will ever get what he deserves. Washington's gonna pull a Pinochet and stall things until he dies of old age and it goes away. Kinda puts the "war on teror' in perspective, huh?

[Judi Lynn]

4. DOJ Asks Court to Reinstate Posada Charges

DOJ Asks Court to Reinstate Posada Charges
Government Appeal Continues Legal Trek of Storied Cuban Militant
By JASON RYAN
Nov. 6, 2007 —


The saga of a former CIA operative, allegedly responsible for engaging in numerous rebel activities against Cuban leader Fidel Castro, continued Tuesday, as the Justice Department filed an appeal to reinstate charges against him that were dismissed earlier this year.
(snip)

In May a federal judge dismissed the case against Posada, upholding the defense's claim that audio tapes of his interviews with immigration officials in the case were inaudible, and that there were inaccuracies in some government translations. The judge allowed him to return to Miami under supervised release.

The case is seen as tricky for the U.S. government, since Posada was allegedly trained by the CIA for the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, and then later became the chief of the Venezuelan secret police's surveillance unit. Additionally, authorities say Posada spearheaded anti-Castro activities, including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner flight, which killed 73 passengers onboard.

Posada has also been linked to a hotel bombing plot in Havana in 1997, and an attempt to blow up Castro in Panama in 2000. The former CIA operative was eventually released from a Panamanian jail in 2004 as part of a general amnesty agreement.

The year after his release from Panamanian custody, Posada was arrested by U.S. immigration officials after his alleged illegal entry into the United States in 2005. The case languished in immigration courts, since Posada had applied for political asylum and U.S. citizenship.

More:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=3828954

[1932]

5. Is this how the career prosecutors in the DOJ have been spending their time since Gonzalez left?

[Judi Lynn]

6. They're reall professionals, aren't they? This bomber/mass murderer has been basking in the warm

glow of hero worship in Miami for a long time, after he was pardoned by _Bush's good pal, and current Miami resident, former Panamanian President Miriya Moscoso (who called her friends in Miami to tell them she had pardoned him and the other would-be assassins as soon as she released them the day before she left office) with only the detour through a Texas jail after he had called a press conference in Miami to boast about being free again!

Looks as if the only time he'll serve will be the time he spent in Texas, waiting for them to figure out a way to snarl the legal aspects up so badly he'd never be forced to pay for his mass murder of 73 souls, including the entire Cuban Olympic fencing team, some of them teenagers, on the Cubana airliner, brought down in the first airliner inflight bombing in history.

There were also medical students from Guyana onboard. Luis Posada's friend and co-conspirator, Orlando Bosch, was quoted in a newspaper article in Miami saying, "There were no innocents on board that plane."