I attended a briefing by Leonard Weinglass (he of the Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers fame, of the Amy Carter tribulations, and other famous efforts to achieve justice against at times huge odds) at Howard University's Law School on Wednesday, 12 September. I was stunned by what counselor Weinglass revealed...
The Cuban Five
by Lawrence Wilkerson
Sept. 19, 2007
Reprinted from:
http://thehavananote.com/2007/09/the_cuban_five.html
I attended a briefing by Leonard Weinglass (he of the Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers fame, of the Amy Carter tribulations, and other famous efforts to achieve justice against at times huge odds) at Howard University's Law School on Wednesday, 12 September. I was stunned by what counselor Weinglass revealed.
As a military officer for 31 years, I occasionally encountered Cuba. In exercises, I recall vividly that when we wargamed "the Cuba scenario" what happened was that the U.S. Navy, the FBI, the Florida State Police, the Coast Guard, and a host of other folks got involved not in invading Cuba, but in preventing a group of Cuban-Americans in Florida from doing so. I might add that such actions violated U.S. law and so, in the exercises—which were in my view very realistic—we spent our time attempting to stop several hundred small boats, loaded with automatic weapons, explosives, and lots of Cuban-Americans, from getting to Cuba. So, I was acquainted with some of the vagaries of U.S. Cuba policy.
At Howard University last week, I learned the truth about yet another vagary—"The Cuban Five." Here's a quick backgrounder.
Because the Cuban government had come to much the same conclusion as the U.S. military and did not want to be invaded by a bunch of Cuban-Americans from Florida, it decided to send five Cubans to Florida to spy on this "invasion group". (And what I haven't mentioned is that this group of Floridians is considered to be a group of terrorists by Cuban authorities. Why? Because over the past few years this group has allegedly carried out terrorist acts in Cuba and killed by some counts over 3,000 Cubans. One of these acts was to bring down a Cuban airliner with 76 souls on board, all of whom perished.)
When these five Cubans began reporting back to Havana about what they were discovering in Florida, the picture became very clear. In short, Cuban authorities were convinced that their country did indeed have much to worry about.
So, in Havana the thought was, let's give this evidence our five "spies" have gathered to the U.S. FBI. Surely, the FBI will then understand what the U.S. military already understands, i.e., the threat to peace in the Straits of Florida is in Florida not in Cuba. And so Havana did just that. It gave to the FBI the evidence its five men had gathered in southern Florida.
What did the FBI do? Well, here is the crux of the matter. The FBI turned the evidence over to the U.S. Government and it, in turn, used the evidence not to investigate and, if necessary, arrest and prosecute the law-breaking Cuban-Americans and their supporters in southern Florida, but to arrest and eventually imprison for life the five men who "spied" on these fine, loyal Floridians.
When the case came to trial, a change of venue was warranted and asked for because no Miami court was going to give the Cuban Five a fair trial, since the city is largely in the hands of some of the very Cuban-Americans and their supporters who've allegedly perpetrated these atrocities on the Cuban people and are prepared to invade the island. But the change of venue motion was denied. And of course the five were convicted.
But on appeal, in a decision by three of the judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the trial's results were thrown out—as of course they should have been on the denial of the change of venue motion alone. The Five returned to Cuba and their families, right?
No, because in a full meeting of the 11th Circuit Court with all 12 members present, the ruling of the three members was reversed and The Five went back to jail, where they have been now for nine years.
The case is being reviewed yet again even as I write. That is one of the reasons that Leonard Weinglass gave the briefing at Howard University that I attended. He wanted to inform us of this apparently egregious miscarriage of justice and solicit our support in getting the decision reversed.
If the facts are as counselor Weinglass reported, it is hard to believe that this case ever happened in the first place—unless, of course, one contemplates the real power of this group of Cuban-Americans in Florida and the hold they exercise over the U.S. Government.
But this case sort of takes the cake: to punish with life sentences men who came here to determine how and when their country was going to be attacked by people breaking U.S. law. These men were unarmed, not intent on any physical damage to the United States, and were motivated to protect their fellow citizens from invasion and repeated attacks by Cuban-Americans living in Florida.
And we have to ask also, just how is it that we have become a safe haven for alleged terrorists? How is it that we—the United States of America—may rate a place on our own list of states that sponsor terrorism?
If the facts are as counselor Weinglass reported, this case is truly the bottom of the pit. I had great trouble believing it, but I had nothing with which to refute Mr. Weinglass' superbly delivered presentation. But more than that was my four years inside the Bush Administration. You see, I know the depths to which our government is capable of sinking. Torture. Lies. False intelligence. Tyranny. Is the continued failure to resolve fairly this case against the Cuban Five, even though it began in the second Clinton administration, really so unbelievable when cast against the characters of the current administration?
Talk to your congressman or woman, please. This is a travesty. And, by the way, if you can disprove any of what Mr. Weinglass contends, fire away. America has many disastrous actions chalked up to its discredit at the moment, so to be disabused of one of such heavy import would be a gift from the gods.
The Havana Note is a group blog covering various corners of the cultural, political, military and economic dimensions of US-Cuba relations. The US-Cuba field has one big dividing line down the middle making it nearly oxymoronic to talk about "US-Cuba relations" -- except as a relationship where two parties closely related historically, culturally, and geographically nonetheless have archaic, Cold War-fashioned rules of engagement with each other.
This site will provide researchers and journalists who travel to Cuba an outlet to disseminate information and perspectives learned while there. The Havana Note, which will be regularly featured on The Washington Note, will probe the current state of US-Cuba policy and whether political realities justify revising America's approach to the eleven million person island-nation.
The Havana Note is a project of the "21st Century US-Cuba Policy Initiative" based at the New America Foundation/American Strategy Program. The initiative’s objective is to take advantage of recent developments in Cuba and the United States to redirect US-Cuba policy and relations toward a more sensible, mutually beneficial direction and forge a new consensus of national stakeholders in favor of engagement with Cuba rather than the decades-old, tried and failed strategy of isolating Cuba and its citizens.
Lawrence Wilkerson, Colonel, US Army (Retired)
Lawrence Wilkerson is the Visiting Pamela C. Harriman Professor of Government at the College of William Mary, as well as Professorial Lecturer in the Honors Program at the George Washington University. His last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department's Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02). Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army, including as Deputy Executive Officer to then-General Colin Powell when he commanded the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989), Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93), and as Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia (1993-97). Wilkerson retired from active service in 1997 and then worked as an advisor to General Powell.
Obtained from: http://www.freethefive.org
See also:
http://www.antiterroristas.cu
by Lawrence Wilkerson
Sept. 19, 2007
Reprinted from:
http://thehavananote.com/2007/09/the_cuban_five.html I attended a briefing by Leonard Weinglass (he of the Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers fame, of the Amy Carter tribulations, and other famous efforts to achieve justice against at times huge odds) at Howard University's Law School on Wednesday, 12 September. I was stunned by what counselor Weinglass revealed.
As a military officer for 31 years, I occasionally encountered Cuba. In exercises, I recall vividly that when we wargamed "the Cuba scenario" what happened was that the U.S. Navy, the FBI, the Florida State Police, the Coast Guard, and a host of other folks got involved not in invading Cuba, but in preventing a group of Cuban-Americans in Florida from doing so. I might add that such actions violated U.S. law and so, in the exercises—which were in my view very realistic—we spent our time attempting to stop several hundred small boats, loaded with automatic weapons, explosives, and lots of Cuban-Americans, from getting to Cuba. So, I was acquainted with some of the vagaries of U.S. Cuba policy.
At Howard University last week, I learned the truth about yet another vagary—"The Cuban Five." Here's a quick backgrounder.
Because the Cuban government had come to much the same conclusion as the U.S. military and did not want to be invaded by a bunch of Cuban-Americans from Florida, it decided to send five Cubans to Florida to spy on this "invasion group". (And what I haven't mentioned is that this group of Floridians is considered to be a group of terrorists by Cuban authorities. Why? Because over the past few years this group has allegedly carried out terrorist acts in Cuba and killed by some counts over 3,000 Cubans. One of these acts was to bring down a Cuban airliner with 76 souls on board, all of whom perished.)
When these five Cubans began reporting back to Havana about what they were discovering in Florida, the picture became very clear. In short, Cuban authorities were convinced that their country did indeed have much to worry about.
So, in Havana the thought was, let's give this evidence our five "spies" have gathered to the U.S. FBI. Surely, the FBI will then understand what the U.S. military already understands, i.e., the threat to peace in the Straits of Florida is in Florida not in Cuba. And so Havana did just that. It gave to the FBI the evidence its five men had gathered in southern Florida.
What did the FBI do? Well, here is the crux of the matter. The FBI turned the evidence over to the U.S. Government and it, in turn, used the evidence not to investigate and, if necessary, arrest and prosecute the law-breaking Cuban-Americans and their supporters in southern Florida, but to arrest and eventually imprison for life the five men who "spied" on these fine, loyal Floridians.
When the case came to trial, a change of venue was warranted and asked for because no Miami court was going to give the Cuban Five a fair trial, since the city is largely in the hands of some of the very Cuban-Americans and their supporters who've allegedly perpetrated these atrocities on the Cuban people and are prepared to invade the island. But the change of venue motion was denied. And of course the five were convicted.
But on appeal, in a decision by three of the judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the trial's results were thrown out—as of course they should have been on the denial of the change of venue motion alone. The Five returned to Cuba and their families, right?
No, because in a full meeting of the 11th Circuit Court with all 12 members present, the ruling of the three members was reversed and The Five went back to jail, where they have been now for nine years.
The case is being reviewed yet again even as I write. That is one of the reasons that Leonard Weinglass gave the briefing at Howard University that I attended. He wanted to inform us of this apparently egregious miscarriage of justice and solicit our support in getting the decision reversed.
If the facts are as counselor Weinglass reported, it is hard to believe that this case ever happened in the first place—unless, of course, one contemplates the real power of this group of Cuban-Americans in Florida and the hold they exercise over the U.S. Government.
But this case sort of takes the cake: to punish with life sentences men who came here to determine how and when their country was going to be attacked by people breaking U.S. law. These men were unarmed, not intent on any physical damage to the United States, and were motivated to protect their fellow citizens from invasion and repeated attacks by Cuban-Americans living in Florida.
And we have to ask also, just how is it that we have become a safe haven for alleged terrorists? How is it that we—the United States of America—may rate a place on our own list of states that sponsor terrorism?
If the facts are as counselor Weinglass reported, this case is truly the bottom of the pit. I had great trouble believing it, but I had nothing with which to refute Mr. Weinglass' superbly delivered presentation. But more than that was my four years inside the Bush Administration. You see, I know the depths to which our government is capable of sinking. Torture. Lies. False intelligence. Tyranny. Is the continued failure to resolve fairly this case against the Cuban Five, even though it began in the second Clinton administration, really so unbelievable when cast against the characters of the current administration?
Talk to your congressman or woman, please. This is a travesty. And, by the way, if you can disprove any of what Mr. Weinglass contends, fire away. America has many disastrous actions chalked up to its discredit at the moment, so to be disabused of one of such heavy import would be a gift from the gods.
The Havana Note is a group blog covering various corners of the cultural, political, military and economic dimensions of US-Cuba relations. The US-Cuba field has one big dividing line down the middle making it nearly oxymoronic to talk about "US-Cuba relations" -- except as a relationship where two parties closely related historically, culturally, and geographically nonetheless have archaic, Cold War-fashioned rules of engagement with each other.
This site will provide researchers and journalists who travel to Cuba an outlet to disseminate information and perspectives learned while there. The Havana Note, which will be regularly featured on The Washington Note, will probe the current state of US-Cuba policy and whether political realities justify revising America's approach to the eleven million person island-nation.
The Havana Note is a project of the "21st Century US-Cuba Policy Initiative" based at the New America Foundation/American Strategy Program. The initiative’s objective is to take advantage of recent developments in Cuba and the United States to redirect US-Cuba policy and relations toward a more sensible, mutually beneficial direction and forge a new consensus of national stakeholders in favor of engagement with Cuba rather than the decades-old, tried and failed strategy of isolating Cuba and its citizens.
Lawrence Wilkerson, Colonel, US Army (Retired)
Lawrence Wilkerson is the Visiting Pamela C. Harriman Professor of Government at the College of William Mary, as well as Professorial Lecturer in the Honors Program at the George Washington University. His last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department's Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02). Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army, including as Deputy Executive Officer to then-General Colin Powell when he commanded the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989), Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93), and as Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia (1993-97). Wilkerson retired from active service in 1997 and then worked as an advisor to General Powell.
Obtained from:
http://www.freethefive.org See also:
http://www.antiterroristas.cu
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What about the Cuban 69 ?
25.09.2007 15:54
At the end of the year, 69 prisoners of conscience continued to be held for their non-violent political views or activities. Twelve others continued to serve their sentences outside prison because of health concerns. No releases of prisoners of conscience were reported during the year.
• Orlando Zapata Tamayo was sentenced to three years in 2003 on charges of showing "contempt to the figure of Fidel Castro", "public disorder" and "resistance". In November 2005 he was reportedly sentenced to an additional 15 years for "contempt" and "resistance" in prison. In May 2006, he was again tried on the same charges and sentenced to an additional seven-year term. He was serving a prison sentence of 25 years and six months.
Detention without charge or trial
Scores of people continued to be held without charge on suspicion of counter-revolutionary activities or on unclear charges. Their legal status remained unclear at the end of the year.
• Prisoner of conscience Oscar Mariano González Pérez, an independent journalist who was arrested in July 2005 as he was about to take part in a demonstration in front of the French embassy, remained in detention without charge or trial.
Freedom of expression and association
Severe restrictions on freedom of expression and association persisted. All print and broadcast media remained under state control. There was a rise in the harassment and intimidation of independent journalists and librarians. People suspected of links with dissident groups or involved in promoting human rights were arrested and detained. There was an increase in arrests on charges of "pre-criminal dangerousness". Access to the Internet remained severely limited outside governmental offices and educational institutions. Journalist Guillermo Fariñas staged a seven-month hunger strike to obtain access to the Internet, without success.
• Armando Betancourt Reina, a freelance journalist, was arrested on 23 May as he took notes and photographs of evictions from a house in the city of Camagüey. He was charged with public disorder. Armando Betancourt was reportedly held incommunicado for a week at the police station before being transferred to Cerámica Roja prison in Camagüey on 6 June. He was awaiting trial at the end of the year.
Harassment and intimidation of dissidents and activists
There was an increase in the public harassment and intimidation of human rights activists and political dissidents by quasi-official groups in so-called acts of repudiation.
• Juan Carlos González Leiva, President of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, was reportedly the target of several "acts of repudiation" - involving government supporters reportedly acting with the collusion of the authorities - at his home in the city of Ciego de Avila. He and his family were repeatedly threatened by demonstrators. Juan Carlos González Leiva, who is blind, was arrested in March 2002 for "disrespect", "public disorder", "resistance" and "disobedience" and spent two years in prison without trial. In April 2004 he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, to be served at his home.
Amnesty International
Homepage:
http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas/Cuba
Cuba does it, so its A okay for America to be unjust!
25.09.2007 23:06
Cheney
The Cuban Five...
26.09.2007 12:56
New York, Sep 25 (Prensa Latina) Several US organizations demanded on Tuesday the release of five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters held in US prisons and condemned Washington violations against them.
At a gathering held as part of the international campaign of solidarity with The Five, attended by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and US Reverend Lucius Walker, a Pastors for Peace coordinator, current situation of the case was discussed, with several organizations reaffirming their commitment in defense of justice and of the human rights of the families of these men.
The Cuban top diplomat thanked the numerous organizations for their increasing support and solidarity with the cause of René González, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and Ramón Labañino, and called them on to continue fighting to achieve their release and safe return home.
Posada: grand jury still dragging out case
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD — Granma International staff writer —
WEEKS after the Miami Herald claimed that a Newark, New Jersey grand jury had completed its investigation into the sponsors of Luis Posada Carriles and that prosecutors were handling the case in the terrorist’s favor, the Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper, revealed that the grand jury is in fact continuing to investigate businessmen in the Cuban exile community.
While the terrorist is freely walking the streets of Miami, interacting with his network of murderers, Bush’s legal apparatus continues with its strategy of buying time for the old CIA agent.
In fact, the two central characters in the operation to finance many of Posada’s terrorist actions carried out from El Salvador — businessmen Abel Hernández, a resident of Cliffside Park and owner of the Mi Bandera Supermarket in Union City, and Arnaldo Monzón Plasencia, owner of the Arnold Stores chain in the same city — are now resting in peace.
According to the Star-Ledger, the grand jury has just summoned Lourdes López, assistant to Hernández, and Albín Martínez, former owner of a local Western Union agency.
Martínez revealed that the two deceased men and their accomplices had sent more than $30,000 to Posada to finance his anti-Cuba terrorist activities during the year 1997.
The grand jury has also looked at the participation of Oscar Rojas, who worked as an accountant for more than 20 years for Monzón Plasencia. However, that individual was excused from testifying when he appeared before the court on February 15, 2006, according to his legal representative, Gilberto García.
Apart from Hernández and Monzón, the two main figures of the conspiracy that is being investigated, the name of an assistant to Congressman Albio Sires also appears: terrorist Angel Alfonso Alemán, also implicated in the case of La Esperanza, the yacht accidentally intercepted by the Coast Guard in Puerto Rico as it was heading for the Venezuelan island of Margarita in an attempt by those aboard to assassinate President Fidel Castro.
No reference to the actual political role of Alemán and his involvement in that terrorist action has been published to date in the New Jersey or Miami media.
Alemán’s son, José is also suspected in the case. According to the New Jersey newspaper, the FBI has expressly forbidden witnesses from contacting the media in any way, an apparently useless precaution.
THE MIAMI MAFIA, OUT OF REACH
It is striking that during the time Posada was engaging in his campaign of terror against tourist locations in Havana, causing the death of Fabio Di Celmo, not one representative of the U.S. legal system bothered –even for a minute— the two businessmen and their Miami partners in the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), even though the CIA and FBI could not have been ignorant of that conspiracy at the time.
It has been amply demonstrated that this terrorist plot masterminded by Posada involved the complicity of members of the CANF military group in Miami, providing decisive support in executing those actions. None of their members has been investigated, despite plenty of evidence.
TONY PULLS FRANCISCO CHAVEZ OUT OF OBLIVION
As the final chapter in this ridiculous comedy, President Antonio “Tony” Saca of El Salvador, on a visit to Miami, recently stated to the Miami Herald that Luis Posada Carriles “is not welcome in El Salvador.”
What the president neglected to say, however, is that he continues to shelter Francisco Antonio “El Panzón” Chávez Abarca, Posada’s main accomplice in his country, responsible for numerous actions against Cuba, currently detained for being the leader of a “car theft ring.”
Francisco Chávez, organizer of the series of attacks that killed Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo, has been held for months at the La Esperanza penitentiary in San Salvador, the largest prison in that Central American nation. •
Translated by Granma International
The Cuban Five exposes US hypocrisy of the War on Terror
by Sabrina Johnson
Sept. 25, 2007
Reprinted from The Canadian:
"And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." This was President Bush's declaration to the world after September 11th, 2001.
In actual fact, however, this administration has exposed the undeniable hypocrisy of its "War on Terror" by granting freedom and safe haven to Luis Posada Carriles who, along with Orlando Bosch (another terrorist who was pardoned by President Bush Sr.), masterminded the first act of aviation terrorism in this hemisphere in 1976. The mid-air explosion of a Cubana commercial airliner killed all 73 people aboard. He was arrested in Venezuela and he escaped from prison during the course of his trial.
Carriles was recruited by the CIA, trained in explosives at the School of the Americas and was involved in a multitude of terrorist operations, including Operation Condor and the Iran-Contra operation in Nicaragua. From 1967 to 1975 he also worked for the DISIP (Venezuelan Intelligence Service), organizing torture sessions of Venezuelan guerrillas. In 2000 he was arrested trying to assassinate Fidel Castro with C4 explosives found in his possession, while Castro was going to give a speech at the University of Panama and, thereby, endangering the lives of all those attending. Panama's outgoing President then pardoned him just before relocating to Miami.
In 2005, Carriles was arrested for illegally entering the U.S., although a federal judge subsequently dismissed all the charges citing the government's translator's erroneous interpretation of Posada's naturalization interview. Venezuela's request to have him extradited has been denied and the Bush administration also refuses to refer to him as a terrorist, even though he is responsible for nearly 100 murders.
According to international law, if a country chooses not to extradite a terrorist, it has to try him under terrorist charges, in its own courts and this is something else that the U.S. has refused to do. By contrast, the U.S. government has had no problem incarcerating five Cuban men, who selflessly risked their lives by infiltrating well-documented terrorist groups, in order to prevent terrorist attacks against Cuba and its people.
Gerardo Hernández, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and René Gonzalez (also referred to as the 'Cuban 5') have just begun serving their 10th year of imprisonment this past September 12th. They are very familiar with the effects of terrorism, considering that Cuba has been the target of constant terrorist attacks planned, financed and organized on U.S. soil by extreme right-wing Cuban-exile organizations, since 1959, which caused the deaths of 3478 people (including a resident of Montreal, Fabio de Celmo) and permanent injuries to 2099 persons.
Some of these attacks have consisted of: the burning of vast sugar cane and vegetable fields, attacks against the Cuban Consulate in New York, the Cuban Embassy in the Dominican Republic, the Cuban Ambassador to Haiti, the Cuban Consul in Miami, the offices of the 'Revolución', 'La Calle' and 'Bohemia' newspapers, the Cuban Embassy in Caracas, the Cuban Embassy in Peru, the National Revolutionary Police, hijacking of planes and boats, burning of schools, sabotage of factories, of drinking water reservoirs, of train tracks, aerial bombings of Cuban cities, attacks on civilians' homes, bombing of a French transport ship in the Havana port (killing 101 and wounding more than 200), bombing of a supermarket, movie theatres and hotels, assassinations and the bombing in mid-air of a Cubana commercial airliner, killing all 73 civilians on board.
Sadly, this list is only an introduction of the years of terrorism suffered by the Cuban people at the hands of groups such as Commandos F4, Brigade 2506, CORU, CANF, MIRR, Omega 7 and Alpha 66, just to name a few. It should be noted that the assistance of U.S. authorities in prosecuting the individuals involved has been non-existent, though financial assistance provided by U.S. government agencies has often found its way to these terrorist organizations.
The Cuban Five posed no danger to the national security of the U.S. or to any individual. In fact, there were no weapons and not a single page of U.S. classified information found, at the time of their arrest. Nonetheless, they were arrested and placed in solitary confinement for 17 months. Everything that was seized as evidence, was immediately rendered 'classified' by the authorities and, as a result, the defence lawyers didn't have access to most of the evidence while preparing the Five's defence. The defence requested a change of venue, due to Miami's rampant anti-Cuba political bias and this request was denied.
The actual terrorists were never arrested, even though Cuban authorities had provided the FBI with detailed information on these groups' activities, samples of confiscated explosives, contact information, recorded conversations and more, some time prior to the Five's arrest.
The Cuban Five were sentenced to a total of four life sentences plus 77 years, for "conspiracy to commit espionage" and "conspiracy to commit murder", even though no proof was presented documenting either charge (for all the details on the case, see LINK). They have been serving their sentences in five different prisons scattered across the U.S., and the wives of René and Gerardo have not seen their husbands since their arrest, due to the U.S. continuously denying their visa requests to visit them.
For the first time in U.S. history, three appeals have been made and we are now awaiting the result of the third hearing, which took place this past August 20th. A press release from the Cuban 5's defence shortly after the hearing stated:
"…the Defense, demonstrated irrefutably that the improper conduct of the Government during the entire legal process against the five constituted a flagrant violation of due process that influenced the entire proceeding…Other key arguments of the Defense that demonstrate the arbitrariness of the process is lack of evidence to sustain the two main accusations "conspiracy to commit espionage and conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree" and the imposition of completely irrational and unjustifiable life sentences…Throughout the tainted process the Government admitted that its real concern was to protect the anti-Cuban terrorist groups that operate with total immunity in Miami and to punish those who fight against them."
September 12th to October 8th have been declared "International Days of Solidarity with the Cuban Five". One of the biggest difficulties has been getting the information out to the public, due to the media wall of silence around this case.
However, with recent coverage by the Washington Post, Reuters, Toronto Star, New York Times and the BBC, amongst others, it is imperative that the public (whose many relatives are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan) gets involved in the campaign and spreads the information to as many sources as possible, in order to build the Campaign to Free the Cuban Five and to expose the double standards of the Bush administration.
There will be a rally in front of the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on October 6th at 1:00pm demanding freedom for the Cuban Five.
From
Justice denied
The case of the Cuban Five continues to expose the politicisation of US courts
by Faiza Rady
Sept. 20, 2007
Reprinted from Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo, Egypt)
The New York-based International Committee to Free the Cuban Five (ICFCF) chose 12 September to launch a new worldwide campaign on behalf of five men who, on that day, entered their 10th year in US maximum security jails. Arrested in Miami in September 1998, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzales and Rene Gonzales were all charged with and convicted of "conspiracy to commit espionage" in 2001 in a legally controversial and highly politicised trial. Their sentences range from 15 years to a double life sentence.
The charge of "conspiracy to commit espionage" is not contingent on evidence of actual spying having occurred in the real world. Although the FBI seized some 800 documents and thousands of other pages from the five, not one page included classified government documents. The five were convicted, but on the nebulous charge of "intent" to engage in espionage at some point in time.
"We call on all Free the Five committees to take part in a global campaign between 12 September and 8 October," reads the ICFCF statement addressed to the "friends of Cuba". To name but a few, these include luminaries of the stature of Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, South African Nobel laureate bishop Desmond Tutu, distinguished writer and MIT professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky, African American writer Alice Walker; African American singer Harry Belafonte, editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique Ignacio Ramonet, Pakistani writer Tariq Ali, former US attorney- general and political activist Ramsey Clark, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
In an October 2003 interview with Radio Havana, Chomsky described the case of the five as "amazing". Their saga started when the Cuban government decided to investigate Cuban exile terrorist groups based in Miami following a wave of bombings of Havana restaurants and hotels in the 1990s. In 1997 alone, bombs were placed in no less than 10 Havana hotels.
Cuban government sources estimate that since the Cuban revolution, 3,478 Cubans have been killed and 2,099 wounded in attacks against the island.
In the early 1990s, the five were sent to Miami with the mission of infiltrating terrorist groups and gathering information about them. They found 64 known terrorists residing in the Miami area and provided four hours of film, showing illegal military training in various camps. The Cuban government then approached the FBI and offered to share their information on the assumption that the agency was in the business of combating terrorism.
The US government wasn't interested. Rather than act on the information and arrest their home-grown Miami-based terrorists, the Clinton administration instead arrested the Cuban Five. "Here are Cubans who are infiltrating illegal, terrorist organisations in the US which are violating US law and the infiltrators are arrested, not the terrorists. It's astonishing," said Chomsky.
In the US, the story of the Cuban Five is subject to a tight media blackout. "In the US, the story is not reported; nobody knows about it. You can find material on some Internet sites, but it's a major research project. An ordinary person cannot be expected to do that," Chomsky explained. The US media blackout is evidently political, serving to cover up what the government allows on US territory. "The Bush administration," says Chomsky, "has refused intelligence cooperation with Cuba on terrorism because it would lead directly back to terrorist groups based in the US."
In August 2005, the friends of Cuba addressed an open letter to then US attorney-general Alberto Gonzales demanding "the immediate liberation of the five young men" following the successful appeal of their sentences. On 9 August 2005, a three-judge panel with the Court of Appeals of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Atlanta published a 93-page decision declaring their convictions "null and void". The court even named some of the "Cuban exile groups of concern to the Cuban government". These include, among others, Alpha 66 and the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF).
Founded in 1962 Alpha 66 is considered as one the most disreputable among the listed organisations. Since its establishment it has been part of the autonomous operations of the CIA. Miami police intelligence documents describes Alpha 66 as "one of the most dangerous and active among the Miami-based anti-Castro organisations". Its record includes assassination attempts against Cuban President Fidel Castro, the machine-gunning of a student residence in Tarara on 19 May 1963, and -- more recently -- attacks on fishing boats and the Hotel Guitart-Cayo Coco.
Established with the active support of Ronald Reagan in 1981, CANF partly functions as a lobby aiming to pass anti- Cuba legislation in Congress. To that effect, it specialises in bribing and buying off politicians. But over and above mere politicking, CANF has financed criminal operations, the most infamous of which involved bankrolling terrorists like Cuban exiles Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch.
According to declassified FBI files (Document 9, FBI, 7 October 1976), both Posada and Bosch masterminded the midair bombing of Cubana Flight 455 on 6 October 1976 that killed all 73 people onboard. "There were no innocents on that plane," Bosch was quoted as saying. "All of Castro's planes are warplanes."
Posada, who was convicted for the bombing by a Venezuelan court, bought his way out of a Venezuelan jail in September 1985. He then pursued a career with the US- established "contra" army in El Salvador under the leadership of Colonel Oliver North with the aim of destabilising the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Mission accomplished, he resurfaced to target Cuba's booming tourist industry, the island's main source of hard currency.
On 4 September 1997, a Salvadoran national, on Posada's payroll bombed Havana's Copacabana Hotel killing Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo and wounding six others. The following year, in a front-page interview with The New York Times (12 July and 13 July, 1998), Posada admitted to have planned the bombing. He dismissed the death of di Celmo as "a freak accident", saying that the victim had been "at the wrong place at the wrong time". Not one to be plagued by guilt, his conscience was so clear, he told reporters, that he could "sleep like a baby".
He had a point. With powerful friends like CANF who enjoy political clout at the highest level of government, Posada didn't need to worry about paying for his crimes -- at least not in the US. CANF's late founder and chairman, Jorge Mas Canosa, was in fact a close friend of successive US presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton.
Like Posada, his co-conspirator, Bosch enjoyed protection from the top. In 1987, US Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich pulled the necessary strings and had Bosch cleared of all Venezuelan charges related to the Cubana Flight 455 bombing. Bosch then went to the US, where he was eventually jailed for parole violation, though not for long. Before leaving office in 1990, George Bush Sr granted Bosch a presidential pardon, despite the Defense Department's objection that Bosch was one the most deadly terrorists working within the hemisphere.
The Alpha 66, CANF, Canosa and Reich trail leading to the US executive explains the inordinately harsh sentences given to the Cuban Five. Indeed, their conviction on charges that the prosecution by its own admission failed to prove is precisely for having infiltrated terrorist organisations that are linked to the US political elite.
Besides acknowledging the danger posed by Miami-based terrorist organisations, the Court of Appeals judges ruled that the Cuban Five did not receive a fair trial in Miami because the city is beset by "a perfect storm of prejudice". Prior to this ruling, the Cubans' sentences had already been declared illegal by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention who said that Miami's biased political climate made a fair trial impossible.
Ignoring the US Court of Appeals and the UN's watchdog on illegal detention, the Bush administration refused to set the Cubans free. In a highly unusual move, the Department of Justice told the Atlanta Court of Appeals to cancel its decision declaring the convictions "null and void" and demanded that a new 12-judge panel re- examine the case. Bowing to political pressure, the court denied the five's appeal for a retrial.
On 20 August, the Cuban Five renewed their appeal for a retrial before the Atlanta Court of Appeals. Chilean Justice Juan Guzman, who attended the hearing as an observer with other distinguished international jurists, commented: "if the court really seeks justice, they should recognise the innocence of the Cuban Five."
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