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Voltaire - Action by US Authorities in Regards to the Extradition Request June 20, 2005 N°4 - ISSN : 1762-5157 UNITED STATES, TERRORIST STATE Available Arab Brain Time The Confessions of INTERNATIONAL OP-ED The International Herald Tribune has resumed discussions about the Luis Posada Carriles role of advertisement in the implementation of the “Great Middle East” Latin America is mobilizing to support the extradition request against Luis Posada policy objectives. The Carriles, currently sheltered in Miami and paper is again giving the protected by the Bush Administration. The floor to two specialists, Cuban-born terrorist has become a symbol Maurice Lévy and John of the US methods of hemispheric M. McNeel. Though they domination and its double standard: on the have both reached one hand, they declare a global war on different conclusions, the terrorism and, on the other, they use it. initial hypothesis of This case is even more outrageous these two authors is the considering that, four years ago, protected same: the Arab States by his impunity, Posada Carriles revealed might be driven to accept any policy all the truth to the New York Times. page 2 provided that it is well sold to them. page 8 JUNE 13, 1971 The Pentagon Papers Daniel Ellsberg, a high U.S. official, who felt indignant at the reality of the Vietnam war, decided to illegally send the documents in his hands to the press. On June 13, 1971, the U.S. East coast reference daily, the New-York Times, started the publication of those Pentagon Papers: 7000 pages of classified defense secrets. Those revelations had the effect of a bomb. Far from what was presented by the official propaganda, they brought out the disastrous political handling of the war as well as countless atrocities. President Richard Nixon and his administration vainly tried to ban the publication in the name of national security. Daniel Ellsberg would pay dearly for his public- spiritedness, but gave the U.S. democracy new DOUGLAS WOOD’S ACCIDENTAL FREEDOM encouragement, making people become rapidly According to the official version, Australian hostage Douglas Wood was aware of their opinion and the U.S. retreat from set free on June 14, 2005 by the Iraq forces near Baghdad, as a result Vietnam. of a routine control. In an ordinary statement, basically identical to that of the rest of the governments under similar circumstances, the Australian authorities asserted that they had neither paid the ransom nor made any kind of political concessions. By the end of 2003, 203 foreigners had been taken hostages in Iraq, either for mean or political reasons. Of them, 33 were murdered, some in a sordid manner; 85 released; 3 escaped and two were rescued. Through original investigations and analysis, everyday the Focus section highlights a trend in international events. United States, Terrorist State The Confessions of Luis Posada Carriles Latin America is mobilizing to support the extradition request against Luis Posada Carriles, currently sheltered in Miami and protected by the Bush Administration. The Cuban-born terrorist has become a symbol of the US methods of hemispheric domination and its double standard: on the one hand, they declare a global war on terrorism and, on the other, they use it. This case is even more outrageous considering that, four years ago, protected by his impunity, Posada Carriles revealed all the truth to the New York Times. On July 12 and 13, 1998, the New York Times Published a series of long articles based on interviews with Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, which caused different reactions in the United States and abroad. In his statements to the American news daily, Posada Carriles openly acknowledged, with complete cynicism, his participation in terrorist activities and the financial support he received from the Cuban American National Foundation. The activities include sabotage, assassination attempts, and other similar actions against Cuba like the sabotage against a Cubana airliner off the coast of Barbados in 1976 that killed 73 innocent people, including the Cuban national junior fencing team. Those revelations explain the current lack of Page 2 June 20, 2005 Voltaire - www.voltairenetwork.net action by US authorities in regards to the extradition request. In the first of those articles, the newspaper read: “A Cuban exile, who has waged a campaign of bombings and assassination attempts aimed at toppling Fidel Castro, says that his efforts were supported financially for more than a decade by the Cuban-American leaders of one of America’s most influential lobbying groups. “The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, said he organized a wave of bombings in Cuba at hotels, restaurants and dance clubs, killing an Italian tourist and alarming the Cuban Government. Posada Carriles was trained in guerrilla warfare by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960’s. “In a series of taped interviews at a walled Caribbean compound, Posada Carriles said the hotel bombings (in Havana) and other operations had been approved by leaders of the Cuban-American National Foundation. Its founder and leader, Jorge Mas Canosa, who recently died, was embraced at the White House by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.” The article in the New York Times continued as follows: Although the tax-exempt foundation has declared that it seeks to bring down Cuba’s communist government solely through peaceful means, Posada Carriles said leaders of the foundation discreetly financed his operations. Mas Canosa personally supervised the flow of money and logistical support, he said. “Jorge controlled everything,” Posada said. “Whenever I needed money, I said: give me $5,000, give me $10,000, give me $15,000, and they sent it to me.” Posada Carriles estimated that over the years Mas Canosa sent him more than $200,000."He never said, ’This is from the foundation,’” Posada Carriles recalled. Rather, he said with a chuckle, the money arrived with the message, "This is for the church."” According to the authors of the articles, “for the first time Posada Carriles described the role that he himself played in some of the most important episodes of the Cold War, in which Cuban exiles were key players. He was trained for the Bay of Pigs at a camp in Guatemala, but did not participate in the landing on Cuban beaches (...) Cuban exiles like Posada Carriles were recruited by the CIA for subsequent attempts on Fidel Castro’s life.” “Jailed for one of the most infamous anti-Cuban attacks - the 1976 bombing of a civilian Cubana airliner - he escaped from a Venezuelan prison to join the centerpiece of the Reagan White House’s anti-Communist crusade in the “Western Hemisphere”: Lieut. Col. Oliver North’s clandestine effort to supply arms to Nicaraguan contras.” The New York Times went on: “Some of what he said about his past can be easily verified through recently Page 3 June 20, 2005 Voltaire - www.voltairenetwork.net declassified government documents, as well as interviews with former foundation members and American officials.” The newspaper highlighted a statement made by Posada Carriles, who noted that “American law enforcement authorities maintained an attitude of benign neglect toward him for most of his career, allowing him to remain free and active.” The New York Times noted that: “The exiles’ foundation, created in 1981, sought to portray itself as the responsible voice of the Cuban exile community, dedicated to weakening the Castro regime through politics rather than force. Thanks to that approach and millions in campaign donations, the foundation became one of Washington’s most effective lobbying organizations and a principal architect of American policy toward Cuba.” “Any evidence that the foundation and its leaders were dispensing money to Republicans and Democrats while they supported sabotage and bombings could weaken the group’s claim to legitimacy.” The newspaper then stressed that “Posada Carriles’ remarks hinted that the foundation’s public advocacy of purely non-violent opposition to Castro was a carefully crafted fiction (...)” In his interviews and in his autobiography, “The Roads of the Warrior,” Posada Carriles said he had received financial support from Mas Canosa and Feliciano Foyo, treasurer of the group, as well as Alberto Hernández, who succeeded Mas as chairman. In his autobiography, Posada Carriles said foundation leaders helped pay his medical and living expenses and paid for his transportation from Venezuela to Central America after his 1985 jailbreak. “At times—Posada Carriles said—cash was delivered from Miami by other exiles, like Gaspar Jiménez, who was jailed in Mexico in the 1976 killing of a Cuban diplomat there. Jiménez is now an employee of the medical clinic that Dr. Hernández operates in Miami, according to employees at the office.” The authors of the article recalled that: When the bombs began exploding at Cuban hotels, the government there asserted that the attacks had been organized and paid for by exiles operating from Miami, a claim it bolstered with the videotape of an operative confessing to have carried out some of the bombings. More recently, reports in The Miami Herald and the state-controlled Cuban press tied the operation to Posada Carriles. However, the New York Times said that American authorities had made no effort to question him about the case. Posada Carriles attributed that lack of action in part to his longstanding relationship with the CIA and American law enforcement agencies. “As you can see,” said Posada Carriles, “the FBI and the CIA don’t bother me, Page 4 June 20, 2005 Voltaire - www.voltairenetwork.net and I am neutral with them. Whenever I can help them, I do.” The newspaper indicated that Posada Carriles gave conflicting accounts of his contacts with American authorities. Initially he spoke of enduring ties with United States intelligence agencies and of close friendship with at least two current FBI officials, including an important official in the Washington office.
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