(AP) Lawyer: 5 tapped in N.J. Posada probe

[Eugene]

Thursday, December 21, 2006 · Last updated 7:51 p.m. PT

Lawyer: 5 tapped in N.J. Posada probe

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEWARK, N.J. -- Five Cuban-Americans were called to testify in a federal grand jury
probe exploring allegations they helped send more than $30,000 to an anti-Castro
militant suspected of directing attacks on Cuba, their lawyer said Thursday.

All five deny wrongdoing, attorney Gilberto M. Garcia said. He told The Record of Bergen
County that four of his clients claim someone used their names to send transfers to Luis
Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro militant wanted in Cuba and Venezuela.

He said a fifth, Oscar Rojas, acknowledges handling transfers but says he did so only
at the request of a former millionaire businessman that he worked for and did not know
what the funds would be used for, according to The Record.

Garcia said one of his clients testified and that two gave written statements, although
he wouldn't specify which. He said two others were excused from testifying after saying
they intended to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

-snip-

Full article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Cuban_Militant_Probe.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. They seem innocent enough, don't they?

Lawyer: Probe examines anti-Castro ties in New Jersey
December 21, 2006, 5:08 PM EST

~snip~
In New Jersey, Garcia said the grand jury probe appears to involve a letter faxed by Posada to associates in Guatemala during a 1997 bombing campaign of Havana hotels, restaurants and discotheques.
(snip)

"The last thing in your mind is you are going to be sending money for paramilitary activities," the lawyer said.
(snip)

Alfonso was acquitted in Puerto Rico on charges he led a mission to assassinate Castro during a 1997 Latin American summit in Venezuela. The Coast Guard stopped a cabin cruiser he was on, along with three other men and high-powered sniper rifles.
(snip/)

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--cubanmilitant-pro1221dec21,0,4689961.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reference to their merry adventure in their cabin cruiser:

Wednesday August 26, 1998
Cuban Exile Leader Among 7 Accused of Plot
By Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rother

A member of the board of the principal Cuban exile organization in the United States was indicted here today with six other men on charges that they conspired to assassinate Fidel Castro when he was on an official visit to Venezuela last year.

The indictment said Jose Antonio Llama, one of the 28-man inner circle that runs the organization, the Cuban-American National Foundation, "obtained a .50-caliber rifle" and bought a boat for his fellow conspirators and "other persons known and unknown." Their purpose, the document charged, was "to kill, with malice aforethought, Fidel Castro at a place outside the United States."

Besides Mr. Llama, those indicted were Jose Rodriguez Sosa, Alfredo Otero, Angel Alfonso Aleman, Angel Hernandez Rojo, Juan Bautista Marquez and Francisco Secundino Cordova. A former officer of the Cuban-American National Foundation said most of the other men had been affiliated with the organization at one time or another.

The indictment did not mention the foundation, but the foundation took the indictment as an attack on itself, denouncing the charges as a witch hunt.

According to the indictment, the would-be assassins traveled last October to Isla Margarita, Venezuela, where Mr. Castro was to attend a meeting, to scout a location for the killing and picked a hilltop overlooking the airport there. In October, four Cuban exiles were arrested on a cabin cruiser by the United States Coast Guard after one of them said they were heading to kill Mr. Castro.

Federal investigators soon discovered that Mr. Llama owned the boat, which had left from a private dock in Coral Gables, Fla., that was owned by the business partner of another foundation official.

One of the sniper rifles found on the boat, later confiscated by law enforcement officials here, was registered to Jose Francisco Hernandez, president of the Cuban-American National Foundation. Last week, a lawyer for Mr. Hernandez held a news conference to say Mr. Hernandez expected to be indicted in the case and denounced the prosecution as a politically motivated attack on a group that has tax-exempt status and has said since its founding in 1981 that it espouses stricly peaceful means of effecting change in Cuba.
(snip/...)

http://www.bardachreports.com/articles/nyt_19980826.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. I'd love to know

who their 'a former millionaire businessman' is?

What is a 'former millionaire' anyway? Possibly, Santiago Alvarez who is in prison at the moment.

BTW: Talk about prison, I sure hope that jerk judge in Texas hasn't let Posada out of jail yet, especially with this new info coming out.