Terrorist Posada Carriles May Skip April 17 El Paso Hearing

[magbana]

"Alleged terrorist Luis Posada Carriles may skip El Paso hearing
By Adriana M. Chávez / El Paso Times
Posted: 04/10/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO -- Alleged terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is expected to be arraigned next week on federal charges that accuse him of being involved in the 1997 bombings that targeted Cuba's tourists areas.

Posada, 81, a former CIA operative and U.S. Army soldier, is scheduled for arraignment April 17 before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone.

But his El Paso lawyer, Felipe Millan, said Thursday that he would attempt to have Posada skip next week's hearing.

Posada was indicted Wednesday on 11 counts, including perjury and obstruction of a federal proceeding. The indictment is the first time U.S. authorities have accused Posada of being involved in the bombings.

Trial was set for Aug. 10 in U.S. District Court.

In 2005, Posada was arrested and held at a detention center in El Paso on charges of lying to federal authorities in a bid to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

An immigration judge in El Paso ordered Posada deported but also said he should not be sent to Cuba or Venezuela because of fears that he would be tortured. Posada, who is free on bond, has been living with his family in Florida.

Venezuela and Panama are interested in Posada. Vene zuela sought Posada's extradition in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Panama wants him in connection with a plot in 2000 to kill Fidel Castro during Castro's visit to that country.

Posada has denied any wrongdoing.

On Thursday, a group of activists seeking Posada's extradition to
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Venezuela said they would come to El Paso for Posada's new trial.

Members of the National Committee To Free The Cuban Five, a San Francisco-based organization seeking to free five Cuban nationals who were convicted 10 years ago of spying on the United States, said they would organize pro tests in El Paso during Posada's trial to demand that Posada be sent to Venezuela.

Livio di Celmo, whose brother Fabio di Celmo died during the 1997 bombings in Cuba, said Thursday he and his family have been waiting 12 years for U.S. officials to link Posada to international terrorism. "My family and I will never give up on the hope of obtaining justice," Livio di Celmo said.

Adriana M. Chávez may be reached at [e-mail]; 546-6117.

"
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_12111509

[Peace Patriot]

1. Fears that he would be tortured in Venezuela?

"An immigration judge in El Paso ordered Posada deported but also said he should not be sent to Cuba or Venezuela because of fears that he would be tortured. Posada, who is free on bond, has been living with his family in Florida."

Which government of the "western world" repeatedly violated the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the U.S. Constitution and every human rights convention it ever signed, by operating torture prisons throughout the world?

Venezuela? Cuba?

Which government of the "western world" operated a torture prison on the island of Cuba?

I'm certainly glad to see the U.S. government finally taking some legal action against this U.S.-employed terrorist--however lame the action may be ("lying to federal authorities"--I mean, really)--and to see a U.S. newspaper reporting on Posada relatively objectively. But, jeez, to perpetuate the damned lie that anyone is tortured in Venezuela, and the probable myth that prisoners are tortured by the Cuban government, in the same article, is just more of the same goddamned slander and lies that have been going on about Venezuela, throughout the Bush Junta, and about Cuba for over forty years.

Who tortures prisoners? Who slaughters a hundred thousand innocent people to get their oil? Who lets their war criminals run around loose, giving lucrative speeches and planning libraries in their own honor?

Not Venezuela. Not Cuba. Our own government is the chief agent of these horrors in the world. And it is bad reporting to let this lying judge's statement stand outside of quotation marks and without contradiction.

[Mika]

2. Simply amazing hypocrisy, isn't it?

This ruling went down right when some of the more tame pics of US run Abu Ghraib prison torture/abuse were a hot item in the MSM.

Simply amazing hypocrisy.


:hi:

[EFerrari]

3. It's surreal. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

4. He's probably afraid to leave the protection of his Cuban "exile" community now.

If he's even partially conscious, he should realize he's worth more DEAD to the U.S. Government, like the C.I.A., and assorted politicians he's been involved with through Iran-Contra, etc., than he is alive.

At this point he's a liability.