Appeals Court Orders Cuban Militant to Stand Trial in El Paso

Source: KDBC

EL PASO, Texas (AP) _ An appeals court today ordered Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles to stand trial in El Paso on immigration fraud charges.

A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the anti-Castro militant should stand trial on charges that he lied in his 2005 bid to become a U.S. citizen.

The criminal case against Posada was dismissed last year when U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that the government engaged in trickery and deceit. Defense attorney Felipe Millan, in El Paso, says his legal team is reviewing the lengthy decision.



Read more: http://www.kdbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8844900

And he should stand trial in Venezuela for blowing up a civilian airliner.

and injuring people. He even boasted about it in a N. Y. Times series he did with reporters Ann Louise Bardach, and Larry Rohter. The series ran as "A Bomber's Tale," and left no doubt what he's been doing all these years.

He would have never been brought to court if he hadn't gotten too self-important after he sneaked back into the country, and imagined the government wouldn't touch him. He fancied it'd be a good idea if he gave PRESS CONFERENCES in South Florida, where his supporters live, and probably embarrassed the government which would ordinarily have simply looked the other way and let him live out the rest of his terrorist's life.



Young Posada Carriles





Big Five Club in Miami supports Luis Posada Carriles legal defense fundraiser
Sun May 04, 2008

One reason several traditional Cuban exile groups organized a tribute dinner to Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban exile militant, emerged during the Friday night event when one of his closest supporters rose to introduce the guest of honor.

Nelly Rojas, a longtime Posada friend, told the packed banquet hall at the Big Five Club in west Miami-Dade, that supporters will soon be asked to contribute money for the Cuban militant’s legal defense fund.

Rojas said the Luis Posada Carriles Support Group was being “reactivated’’ and that soon it will stage a series of events aimed at raising funds to pay for Posada’s legal expenses.

Rojas said money was needed to cover anticipated “considerable’’ expenses associated with Posada’s pending criminal case stemming from an indictment in El Paso, Texas. The indictment accused him of lying to immigration officials about how he sneaked into the United States in March 2005.

More:
http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/big-five-club-in-miami-supports-luis-posada-carriles-legal-defense-fundrais/

after all, Carriles' victims were mostly brown skinned and/or poor, the sort of "chusmas" the Cuban elites looked down upon until Fidel kicked them out of their perch.

They yearn for the good old days when they were the ONLY big fish in a considerably smaller bowl.

You know, it's a shame what has happened to the Havana Yacht Club, they just let it fall apart, didn't they? How DARE Cuba spend its money raising the living standards of those who had been kicked to the curb, instead of supporting the elites in the lifestyle they expected and demanded at everyone else's expense.

What could make a maggot gag is their universal expression of approval of that knuckle-dragging, blood-feasting idiot.

He hasn't been accused, and there is no credible evidence that he ever set an unoccupied SUV on fire or picketed a fur store. Let's hold the "terrorist" label for the people who really deserve it, shall we? I mean, if we're going to call everyone who blows up an airliner full of people a "terrorist," then the word just loses all its meaning.

The man you defend is as much a terrorist as Osama bin Laden!

From Venezuela's Embassy:

Venezuela requests preventive arrest of Luis Posada Carriles with the purpose of extradition

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Washington, D.C.

PRESS RELEASE
MAY 13, 2005

VENEZUELA REQUESTS PREVENTIVE ARREST OF LUIS POSADA CARRILES WITH THE PURPOSE OF EXTRADITION

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela today formally requested the preventive arrest with the purpose of extradition of Venezuelan citizen Luis Clemente Posada Carriles, Identity Card No. V-5.304.609, who is allegedly in the United States. The request was delivered to the U.S. Department of State at 11:40 a.m.

Pursuant to Article XI of the Extradition Treaty signed by Venezuela and the United States on January 19, 1922, officials of the Consular Section of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the United States presented the necessary documentation and required translations to an official in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State, the office responsible for processing such requests.

The request for Posada’s arrest was presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by the 36th Court of Control of the Penal Circuit of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas, in accordance with Article 394 of the Organic Code of Penal Processes and based on the extradition request presented by this court to the Chamber of Penal Adjudication of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice on April 27, 2005.

On November 2, 1976, the now-defunct Penal Court for the Federal District and the State of Miranda established “the culpability and consequent penal responsibility of Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada as co-authors of the fire that occurred on Cubana de Aviacion flight CU455.” According to investigations by the Directorate of Intelligence and Preventative Services (DISIP) of the Ministry of the Interior, the fire was caused by an explosive device detonated within the airplane that resulted in the death of 73 people. Pursuant to the court’s findings and the investigations carried out by the Ministry of the Interior, a warrant was issued for the detention of Luis Clemente Posada Carriles for participating in the commission of the crimes of aggravated homicide and production of weapons of war.

Posada Carriles remained incarcerated in various penitentiaries in Venezuela from 1976 until August 18, 1985, when, after various attempts, he escaped the General Penitentiary of Venezuela, thus evading the legal process against him. Consequently, the charges filed against him by the Fourth and Sixteenth state prosecutors of the Public Ministry were not imposed, as a preliminary hearing was not held. A further warrant for his arrest was duly filed with Venezuelan authorities.

On August 21, 2001, the Fourth Tribunal of the Penal Circuit of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas, having been informed of Posada’s detention on November 17, 2000 at the Hotel Coral Suites in Panama City, Panama for possession of explosives, agreed to initiate the proceedings before the Supreme Tribunal of Justice to request his extradition from Panama to Venezuela. Said request was presented by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in January 2001 and was consequently denied by the Government of Panama through Executive Resolution No. 6 of February 28, 2002, that which resulted in a presidential pardon on August 26, 2004.

In order to formally charge Posada Carriles, the Thirty-Third State Prosecutor requested his arrest for the following crimes: Cooperation in the execution of qualified homicide, pursuant to Article 83 of the Penal Code and treason, pursuant to Article 464, Clause 3 of the Code of Military Justice.

A warrant for Posada’s arrest was issued on April 14, 2005, in accordance with the content of Article 5 of the Organic Code of Penal Processes and Article 49, Clause 3 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

© Copyright 2002 - 2008. embavenez-us.org. Todos los derechos reservados.

http://www.embavenez-us.org/news.php?nid=1211

August 3, 2005

Inconsistencies in the War on Terror
Why Extradict Hamdi Isaac and Not Posada Carriles?

By JOSÉ PERTIERRA

The day after his detention in Rome, the Ethiopian Hamdi Isaac received the news that he would be extradited to London. He was told in no uncertain terms that he had no recourses available: no right to a bond, no immigration hearing to attend, no administrative proceedings to delay his extradition. It was enough for Italian authorities that he was wanted by London for the terrorist attacks this past July 21. According to the Italian news agency, ANSA, Hamdi´s extradition will be expedited.

Why are things so different in the United States? In what legal limbo can a terrorist who is accused of 73 counts of premeditated murder find shelter? What is the status of Venezuela's request for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles?

The inconsistency in this so-called war against terrorism is glaring. Whereas Hamdi´s extradition to London will take place in a matter of days, Luis Posada Carriles´case languishes, and after a more than a month and a half the United States has yet to even name a prosecutor to handle the extradition case in court.

The United States instead stubbornly insists on plodding along with an immigration case, premised on the inconsequential charge of Posada´s visa violations. The authorities want to hypnotize us with the immigration case in El Paso, so that we forget the extradition matter pending in Washington. They want to show us the undocumented immigrant detained in El Paso since May, so that we do not discover the terrorist that they sheltered for more than four decades.

A storm, however, may be brewing in El Paso. Washington didn't count on the legal audacity and courage of a previously unknown administrative judge in El Paso. A few days ago, Judge William Abbott told one of Posada´s lawyers that it doesn't matter if it was the United States that organized and planned his client's actions. According to news reports, the attorney was astonished to hear Judge Abbott tell him that under U.S. immigration laws there is no such thing as good terrorism and bad terrorism. Terrorism is terrorism, period.

http://www.counterpunch.org/pertierra08032005.html

Venezuela wants CIA terrorist extradited
Bush administration forced to detain Posada Carriles

By Bill Van Auken
18 May 2005

Federal agents detained the anti-Castro Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in Miami Tuesday shortly after he held a press conference where he told reporters that the government was not looking for him and he felt no need to hide.

The arrest, in which Posada was whisked away in a Blackhawk helicopter to an undisclosed location, followed weeks of implausible denials by the US State Department that it had any knowledge as to his whereabouts or even whether he was in the country.

Venezuela’s government last week issued a formal request for Posada’s extradition from the United States to face trial on charges of organizing the 1976 bombing of a civilian Cuban airliner in which all 73 passengers were killed. At the time of the terrorist attack, the Cuban exile was both a long-time asset of the US Central Intelligence Agency and a former senior official in DISIP, Venezuela’s secret police.

Washington’s pretense that it had no idea of whether Posada was in the US was definitively shattered Tuesday with the publication of a front-page interview with the 77-year-old terrorist in the Miami Herald. The newspaper reported that the interview was conducted in Miami in a “luxury condo—just a few blocks from offices of the Department of Homeland Security.”

Posada’s presence was hardly news in Miami, where his arrival in late March was widely reported by the Cuban-American media. Fundraising events were organized on his behalf, and over a month ago, the terrorist’s lawyer held a press conference to announce that he had initiated proceedings with the government to secure him political asylum in the US.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/may2005/posa-m18.shtml

Learn to use sarcasm smiley. Counting on people to read a post all the way through to the last sentence just doesn't pay.

Learn to use sarcasm smiley.
Learn to use sarcasm smiley.
Learn to use sarcams smelly.

Guess they've arranged a trial and conviction so Bush can pardon him. What a privileged life these Cuban=American terrorists live.

Probably a lot of records were destroyed during the reign of Porter Goss. CIA records, that is. Immigration records, also? State Dept?

a long time friend of the shrub family.

I can't help but think that perhaps Posada Carrilles' legal team may have had a legal point. Posada Carrilles was a high-profile defendant with good lawyers. What is the likely fate of a mcuh more modest immigrant who some Boosh-era prosecutor has decided to railroad with the sort of "justice" that the Ashcroft/Gonzalez era Justice Department metes out these days?

I hope the NEXT federal prosecutor goes after the wretch competently and by-the-legal-numbers and gets a conviction or two.

It's as if Hitler indicted himself on traffic violations, and hired judge, jury and lawyers to show how innocent he is, of the traffic violations--and of everything else, by implication--and to declare him innocent for life on all crimes, past, present and future.

Frankly, I think that's what impeachment would amount to, for Bush/Cheney, if ever this benighted Congress moves the question. They're all so fucking guilty, they can't indict Bush/Cheney. But if they did, its purpose would be to show how pre-emptive war, killing a million or so innocent people, torturing prisoners and shredding the Constitution can't be considered crimes if the Decider decides they are not, and thus Bush/Cheney are exonerated of all their horrors.

The way Cheney was indicted/exonerated by the Libby trial. Yeah, he's guilty. So what?

Lying to immigration officials, eh? Har-har.

:thumbsup:

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
No. 07-50737
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Plaintiff - Appellant
v.
LUIS POSADA CARRILES
Defendant - Appellee
United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
F I L E D
August 14, 2008

(PDF file)

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions%5Cpub%5C07/07-50737-CV0.wpd.pdf


-

The fact he dismissed it, went right to the real story is more than most people would have expected, by now.

Cannot wait to hear more on this.

I'm saving this item for future reference. It's really exceptional. Going to re-read it later this evening.

Thank you so much for providing this document, Mika. :hi:

Cuba critical of Posada ruling
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/644408.html
Cuba said the reinstatement of a charge against Luis
Posada Carriles is a U.S. tactic to prevent his extradition.

The Cuban government on Friday called the reinstatement of a criminal indictment against Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles a ''maneuver'' to delay and prevent his extradition.

In the first official Havana reaction to Thursday's ruling by a New Orleans federal appeals court, the Cuban foreign ministry issued a statement saying the opinion could shield Posada from trial abroad as a terrorist.

Posada, 80, sneaked into the United States in March 2005 and told authorities he crossed at Brownsville, Texas, with a migrant smuggler. A federal grand jury, however, indicted Posada on Jan. 11, 2007, on charges that he lied in his naturalization proceedings about how he entered the country. Federal officials said they had a witness who saw Posada transported from Mexico to Miami on a shrimping vessel.

A federal judge in El Paso in May 2007 threw out the indictment on the grounds federal authorities committed ''fraud, deceit and trickery'' to implicate Posada in a lie. The appeals court said U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone erred in her analysis.

Posada sought asylum in the United States, claiming the Cuban government was persecuting him. While an immigration judge denied asylum, he prohibited Posada's removal to Cuba, his birthplace, or Venezuela, where he became a naturalized citizen. Judge William Abbott, however, said Posada could be deported to any other country willing to take him. Cuba has not requested Posada's extradition; Venezuela's request has received no official U.S. response.

The governments in Caracas and Havana accuse Posada of involvement in terrorist acts such as the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people and the bombing of Cuban tourist sites in 1997 that left one person dead.

Posada has denied any role in the plane bombing. Initially, he was quoted in The New York Times as claiming credit for the tourist-site bombs, but he told Abbott in El Paso in 2005 that he misspoke in the interview because his English is poor.

The Cuban foreign ministry's statement said Havana viewed the appeals court ruling with suspicion because it came ''all of a sudden,'' three days after the Panamanian vice president, Samuel Lewis Navarro, expressed interest in Posada's extradition.

Last month, the Panamanian Supreme Court overturned Posada's 2004 presidential pardon granted for a conviction in a 2000 case in Panama City where the exile militant was convicted in connection with an alleged plot to kill Fidel Castro. Posada has denied any role in the alleged plot.

His Miami attorney, Arturo Hernandez, scoffed at Cuba's analysis of the appeals court ruling.

''It's a patently false assertion,'' said Hernandez, who is preparing a petition for a rehearing at the appeals court. ``It's in line with Havana's penchant for propaganda.'

Sudden order for Posada to stand trial

BARELY three days after the vice president of Panama confirmed that his country is to apply for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles, the Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which has broken records in its slowness in considering the case, has suddenly ordered that the terrorist be tried in El Paso on charges of immigration fraud.

According to the El Paso Times daily, a three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that Posada should be brought to trial on charges of lying to the federal authorities in his attempt to gain U.S. citizenship.

The decision constitutes a new episode of dilatory measures directed at providing a false justification for the Bush administration to save the CIA agent who, for more than 40 years, has devoted himself to dirty operations for that agency. (JGA)

http://www.granma.cu/INGLES/2008/agosto/vier15/Posada.html

Posada Carriles is not the only criminal given refuge by the Bush regime:



U.S. grants asylum to former Bolivian minister accused of genocide

THE granting of asylum to former Bolivian Defense Minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín by the United States could complicate relations between the two countries, according to the Bolivian ambassador in Washington, Gustavo Guzmán. Sánchez Berzaín is accused of being the mastermind of a period of military repression known as "Black October", which left 67 people dead and 417 injured, the majority indigenous small farmers and workers in the natural gas industry.

The situation is "irritating" and "complicates the relationship between Bolivia and the U.S." said the diplomat who added that his government will call on the U.S. ambassador in La Paz, Phillip Goldberg, to explain the U.S. position.

http://www.granma.cu/INGLES/2008/junio/lun16/minister.html