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Judge cites terror concerns, rules Posada must stay in jail
Luis Posada Carriles must remain in detention at the Texas border city of El Paso after an immigration judge denied his request for release on bond.
By Oscar Corral
ocorral@herald.com
The Miami Herald
Jul. 26, 2005
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12222041.htm
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
El PASO -- An immigration judge on Monday rejected a request by Luis Posada Carriles to be released on bond, ruling the Cuban exile must remain in detention until his case is resolved.
Judge William L. Abbott cited allegations that Posada is a terror suspect and concerns he would flee if granted bond.
Listing a series of terror allegations against Posada over the years, Abbott said even Posada's participation in operations against Cuba in the early 1960s could be considered terror under today's standards.
Abbott's statement seemed to catch by surprise Posada's lawyer, Matthew Archambeault, who interpreted it to mean the judge would include the Bay of Pigs invasion -- sponsored by the U.S. government -- as an act of terror under today's definition of terrorism.
''It doesn't necessarily matter who helped it,'' the judge said, in response. ``The question is whether that kind of activity today would be defined as aiding terrorism or participating in acts of terrorism.''
A former CIA operative, Posada played a role in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs operation but was not part of the invasion force itself. Afterward, Posada joined the CIA and participated in post-Bay of Pigs CIA-backed Cuba operations before moving to Venezuela in the late 1960s. In Caracas, Posada served as a senior Venezuelan security officer and later operated a private security agency.
He was arrested and charged in connection with the blowing up of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people. Acquitted by a military court, Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 before a civilian court could reach a verdict.
Posada was detained in Miami-Dade on May 17 and accused of entering the country illegally. He was sent to a detention facility in El Paso.
Posada showed up at his second court hearing since his detention with his face heavily bandaged from skin cancer surgery. He seemed to be wearing a bullet-proof vest underneath his red government-issued jump suit.
Archambeault told the judge he planned to renew his request to transfer Posada's case to Miami, citing Posada's skin cancer. Archambeault also dropped Posada's contention that he is still a U.S. resident, noting that his client was withdrawing that claim because he didn't want to add peripheral issues to the case.
Another issue Abbott cited was Venezuela's extradition request for Posada. He said that according to U.S. law, a person detained in the United States for being illegally in the country and who is suspected of terrorism in another country must remain in custody.
The judge rejected a request by Posada's lawyers to throw out the government's evidence against Posada on the ground it's hearsay. Abbott said hearsay was admissible in immigration court.
Abbott said unless Posada openly insists on the witness stand that media reports about him are ''not true,'' the judge would not suppress newspaper clippings that the government has included in its evidence package.
The judge came down hard on Posada. He said he would likely consider Posada's conviction in Panama on charges of possessing explosives as a valid prior criminal record barring him from admission to the United States -- despite a Panamanian presidential pardon last year that enabled Posada and three other exiles to walk free after being arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Under immigration law, a foreign pardon does not protect a foreign national from being denied admission into the country.
''The conviction does seem to exist for immigration purposes,'' Abbott said, adding: ``He's here as an uninvited guest. . .There are potentially a number of different charges Mr. Posada can face.''
The federal evidence against Posada also includes use of a false Salvadoran passport to travel to Miami in April 2000, six months before Posada used the same passport to enter Panama where he was arrested in the alleged assassination conspiracy. That issue was not raised Tuesday.
The immigration service's lead prosecutor in the case, Gina Garrett-Jackson, said Posada is subject to mandatory detention.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 29, when Posada's asylum trial is expected to begin.
Herald staff writer Alfonso Chardy in Miami contributed to this report.
Where is Posada?
July 19, 2005
Gary Webb - Presente!
Please Distribute Widely
Dear Colleague,
Reporting from El Paso, Texas, where U.S. officials claim they have international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in custody, Bill Weaver receives conflicting signals from authorities about whether Posada - wanted to face trial in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airlines passenger flight, among other terrorist crimes - is where officials say he is... or not. Weaver reports:
"Credible information has it that Posada is no longer in El Paso. Additionally, two separate calls to the detention facility supposedly holding Posada yielded differing information concerning his upcoming bond hearing. During a call this morning, employees said that the bond hearing set for the 25th will be accomplished electronically, with neither Posada nor his attorney to be present. Later in the day, however, a second call to the detention center yielded the information that Posada was "most definitely" at that facility and that he would be present for the bond hearing next Monday.
"Bill Conroy, well known to regular readers of Narco News and the Narcosphere, said that he checked with sources on the inside and could not confirm that Posada had been moved. But one of his sources said that 'it would not be a big surprise if Posada were moved. They could move him on a whim, claiming he was under threat or for some national security pretense. [The government] want[s] to control [Posada] as much as [it] can without killing him.'"
Weaver wields recently declassified U.S. government documents to show that, historically, wherever Posada has been, George H. W. Bush Sr. has not been far behind.
One now-public 1976 CIA memorandum (linked from Weaver's report) stated, just 100 days before the passenger jet bombing, "a Cuban Exile extremist group, of which Orlando Bosch [a long-time partner of Posada] is a leader, plans to place a bomb on a Cubana Airline flight traveling between Panama and Havana."
It does not get any clearer than that, notes Weaver. The director of the agency that, according to its own documents, had foreknowledge of this terrible terrorist crime was, in 1976, George Bush, Sr. Weaver also traces the paper trail of Bush Senior's uncanny knack for being close to each of Posada's major terrorist acts and escapes from prison. In the Posada case, the "War on Terrorism" boomerangs, once again, on the Bush family and its sponsorship of some terrorist acts while purporting to oppose others. Read this very interesting report, with links galore to source documents, via The Narcosphere:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/7/19/25839/6898
Meanwhile, if anybody finds Luis Posada Carriles out there, be very careful. He should be considered highly dangerous, and, worse, George H. W. Bush, Sr. can't be very far away.
From somewhere in a country called América,
Al Giordano Correspondent
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
narconews@gmail.com
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Judge cites terror concerns, rules Posada must stay in jail