More defense expected in militant trial in Texas

Source: Associated Press

Associated Press
More defense expected in militant trial in Texas
By WILL WEISSERT , 03.28.11, 08:37 AM EDT

EL PASO, Texas -- Defense attorneys are expected to call more witnesses in an effort to discredit the testimony of some of the nearly two dozen U.S. government witnesses at the perjury trial of an ex-CIA agent from Cuba.

The trial of 83-year-old Luis Posada Carriles is scheduled to resume Monday in El Paso.

Prosecutors say Posada lied during citizenship hearings in Texas about how he entered the U.S. and about using a false Guatemalan passport. They say he also failed to acknowledge masterminding a series of bombings in Cuba in 1997.

Posada faces 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud.

The anti-communist militant is Public Enemy No. 1 in Cuba, where he is featured on propaganda billboards and considered the nemesis of former President Fidel Castro.



Read more: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/03/28/general-us-cuban-militant_8377915.html

Ex-US diplomat calls reporter biased in court
2011-03-28 12:00:00


A conservative former U.S. diplomat testified in federal court Friday that an ex-New York Times reporter at the center of an anti-communist militant's perjury trial is biased against Cuban-Americans, especially those who oppose Fidel Castro. He then lobbed identical charges at the Times itself.

Otto Reich was Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2001 until 2004, a top advisor on Latin America under President George W. Bush. He was called as a Cuba expert by attorneys for Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuba-born, ex-CIA operative who faces 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud.

Reich condemned the work of Ann Louise Bardach, who was a contract writer for the Times in 1998, when she interviewed Posada from Aruba, where he was hiding.

Based on 13 hours of conversations, Bardach co-wrote a series of stories with then-Times Caribbean bureau chief Larry Rohter, saying Posada "proudly admitted authorship" of a wave of bombings at Cuban tourists sites between April and September 1997 which killed an Italian man and wounded about a dozen other people, some seriously.

More:
http://www.sify.com/news/ex-us-diplomat-calls-reporter-biased-in-court-news-international-ld2maAhbheh.html

You may recall _{George W. Bush} attempted twice to get Otto Reich confirmed as his choice for his Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America and was refused both times, and resorted to slipping him into position with a reccess appointment.

In his position as head of the Office of Public Diplomacy for Ronald Reagan he wielded a vicious attitude toward ALL journalists who didn't follow the company line for him, even resorting to virulent personal attacks on individual reporters, impugning their character, suggesting they were seeking sexual illicit relations with Latin American people, claiming they sought sex events of all kinds in Nicaragua, attacking some very established journalists. He also visited television newsrooms and executives and attempted to tear them new ones, and raise general hell among them.

He was cited by Congress for crossing the line legally with his propaganda tactics.

6/8/01

The Return of Otto Reich
Will Government Propagandist Join Bush Administration?

By Jeff Cohen

In totalitarian countries, government propaganda officers wield great power. They're authorized to use the media to stir up state-sanctioned passions and fears through the selective dissemination of information -- sometimes factual, sometimes phony.

If you think the United States has never employed propaganda officers, meet Otto Reich. He may soon be our country's chief diplomat in Latin America if the Bush administration has its way.

In March, Bush announced his intention to nominate Reich as assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. If he's officially nominated, it will be interesting to see how journalists handle Reich -- because from 1983 through 1986, it was Reich's job to handle journalists. That's when he commanded the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy, whose main mission was to inflame fears about Nicaragua and its left-wing Sandinista government that had come to power by overthrowing a corrupt, U.S.-supported dictator.

By covertly disseminating intelligence leaks to journalists, Reich and the OPD sought to trump up a Nicaraguan "threat," and to sanctify the U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas fighting Nicaragua's government as "freedom fighters." The propaganda was aimed at influencing Congress to continue to fund the Contras.

More:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2446

Tis has GOP fingerprints all over the place...:eyes:

And w/bush trying to get him appointed to anything higher than dog-catcher in Little Havanna, shouuld tarnish this "testimony" enough so that the defendant had better hope he does find himself in a capital case!