Jurors acquit Cuban militant Posada after 3 hours

[rabs]

Source: The Miami Herald





By ALFONSO CHARDY
[e-mail]
EL PASO, Texas -- After deliberating for about three hours, a jury of seven women and five men acquitted Luis Posada Carriles on Friday on all 11 charges in an indictment that accused him of lying about his alleged role in bombings in Cuba in 1997 and about how he sneaked into the country in 2005.

As soon as U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone read the unanimous verdict, Posada and his three lawyers merged into a tight embrace that lasted several seconds as the federal prosecutors sat without showing emotion.

The verdict was a surprise to many observers who had expected the jurors to deliberate for a few days before reaching a decision. The observers also expected the jurors to find Posada guilty on at least some counts. No one had predicted an acquittal across the board on all perjury and fraud charges.

Acquittal caps a slow-moving trial that lasted 13 weeks and featured 33 witnesses from the prosecution and the defense.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/08/2157558/jurors-acquit-cuban-militant-posada.html#

---

The No. 1 terrorist living in the United States goes free ...

[MNBrewer]

1. I thought Peter King was the #1... maybe I was wrong

[rabs]

3. King is small fry compared with Posada Carriles

But King will be up there with Posada Carriles when he (King) blows up an airliner in flight killing all aboard (Posada blew up a Cubana de Aviacion jetliner killing 73 crew and passengers. Posada also ordered bombs placed in Havana hotels. An Italian tourist was killed).

[atreides1]

2. See

Americans do like terrorist, as long as they kill innocent Cubans!

[DeSwiss]

4. I think.....

...this should demonstrate that a majority of Americans no longer believe their government. You can't keep lying to people and expect them to become a party to your lies.

- We need a REVOLUTION.

K&R

[rabs]

6. I suspect jury fatigue in this case

It reminds me of the O.J. Simpson trial when the jury was subjected to tons of mind-boggling DNA evidence that the poor jurors (and just about everyone else) were unable to comprehend. That plus the length of the trial seemed to indicate that the jurors just wanted to go home.

Same with the jurors in El Paso. The seven women and five men had to listen to murky evidence about terrorism they probably could not comprehend from the prosecution and endless arguments and delays by the defense.

In the end, think the jurors said the hell with it and let's go home.

The Miami Cuban Mafia will be celebrating today on Calle Ocho and at the Versailles.

[freshwest]

14. I think it shows that they approve of what he did, myself.

[leveymg]

5. Federal prosecutors botched another big one. But, they were probably hamstrung by being unable to

introduce all the evidence that Posada blew up a Cubana Airliner after it took off from Barbados, reportedly with the foreknowledge of his handlers. I'm sure they did not testify.

[CBGLuthier]

7. Number 2. Terry Nichols still breathes. And I don't give two shits about the cuban compared

to the monster that is Terry Nichols. I hope he lives to be 110 and rots in prison every day of it.

[mazzarro]

9. You don't give a shit because Cuban lives are worth less

Especially if they are Cubans that still live in Cuba - I guess? This is the kind of attitude that excuse atrocities committed in the name of US on third world countries that refused to be the lackeys of the US.

[CBGLuthier]

13. That guy never blew up my friends and neighbors

Sorry if my bluntness insults your sensibilities but honestly I don't care. I am not your stupid stereotypical american you want to whine about.

The OP declared this guy the number one terrorist. Not me. I just pointed out his error.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Luis Posada's career as "the bin Laden of the Americas" spans continents, and generations.

He has terrorized people in many different countries. Like Terry Nichols? Doubtful.

[Chef Eric]

25. So, the OP named him the #1 terrorist, when you think he is the #2 terrorist.

Therefore, you don't give a shit that he goes free.

Yeah, that makes sense.

[eomer]

10. Why?

Nichols was an accomplice in killing 168 innocent people at OKC.

Posada killed 73 innocent people in the Cubana Flight 455 bombing plus one innocent person in the later series of tourist hotel bombings.

Why is one more loathsome than the other? I don't see it.

[CBGLuthier]

12. He said the guy was number ONE. Ask him why his is tops

If you can't do the math I can send you a calculator but I believe 168 is a lot more than 74.

One is more loathsome than the other because one happened to my friends and neighbors.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Terry Nichols is missing the part in his career in which he tortured prisoners routinely.

He also hasn't been publicly termed the "bin Laden of the Americas."

[TomClash]

34. Not to mention much of his handiwork

is still around.

[eomer]

19. The other happened to my friends and neighbors.

And yet I think they are equally loathsome.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

26. ''One is more loathsome than the other because one happened to my friends and neighbors.''

WTF? The world doesn't revolve around you.

[Chef Eric]

28. These rankings aren't really official. It's kind of like those "#1 Dad" coffee mugs. nt

[Judi Lynn]

16. You're telling DU you simply don't know anything about Luis Posada Carriles.

The New York Times ran a serial feature piece on an interview he did with Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rohter. After that interview, in which he admitted his part in the bombing of the Cubana airliner, and the murder of 73 people, including children, he went to Panama, where he and his cohorts were caught by the police, acting on information from a Cuban Secret Service team investigating prior to a speech by Cuba's President Fidel Castro at a huge auditorium, as they were laying their plan to bomb the entire building, killing everyone in sight.

Even then, in prison, somone managed to get into the police evidence room, and remove part of the explosives, allowing them to get a lesser sentence.

After they served a brief time in prison, Panama's President Mireya Moscoso reached the end of her term, and on the very last day she called Miami's "exile" community and notified them she was releasing Posada Carrriles and crew, and moved, herself, to Miami.

That's when Luis Posada Carriles was "sprung", and he was smuggled back into the country on the "Santrina" yacht owned by another Cuban terrorist, Santiago Alvarez, who also was discovered to be sneaking large sums of money into Cuba via the U.S. Head of the Interests Section.

Luis Posada Carriles worked for the bloody dictator, Fulgencio Batista, in Cuba.

He also worked as the head of secret police in Venezuela for the bloody monster, Carlos Andres Perez, as someone who did involve himself in torturing prisoners, some of whom remember him very clearly today.

Luis Posada Carriles also was totally immersed in the Iran/Contra crap, up to his bloody nose, which he has discussed publicly. He knows where all the bodies are buried.

Luis Posada-Carriles: A CIA made terrorist
Published: 11 January, 2011, 00:53
Edited: 11 January, 2011, 20:51

Miami, Florida is home to one of the most infamous international terrorists in the Western Hemisphere; Luis Posada-Carriles.
Coined the ‘Bin Laden of the Americas, the anti-Castro Cuban was the CIA’s dirty secret in South and Central America.

~snip~
Over 70 people were killed when Cubana Airliner 455 was bombed in 1976. A terrorist act Posada planned from Venezuela and according to CIA documents, the agency was aware of before it happened. Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, the former Venezuelan Ambassador to the US told RT, “Posada Carriles was the mastermind of the Cubana flight and still he is here.”

Posada was convicted in absentia in Venezuela for masterminding the 1976 bombing. However, not only did the US government refuse to extradite Posada to Venezuela to serve his term, the CIA continued to employ him as a key element in the Contra wars which claimed the lives of 70,000 civilians in Nicaragua. He was a leading figure in the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s.

~snip~
“He was trained, employed, paid, instructed by the CIA in the 1960s and we unleashed him on the world,” said Kornbluh who says this case is about “whether the US can hold terrorists, although a terrorist that was once our terrorist, accountable.”

More:
http://rt.com/usa/news/usa-cia-luis-podesta/

~~~~~
A BOMBER'S TALE: Decades of Intrigue; Life in the Shadows, Trying to Bring Down Castro
By ANN LOUISE BARDACH and LARRY ROHTER
Published: July 13, 1998

~snip~
The older man, Luis Posada Carriles, a former sugar chemist, became a leader of the exiles' clandestine military wing, plotting to kill Mr. Castro and planting bombs at Cuban Government installations. As Mr. Mas was building a personal fortune that eventually exceeded $100 million, Mr. Posada remained in the shadows, consorting with intelligence officers, anti-Castro militants and even, declassified documents say, reputed mobsters.

~snip~
Supplemented by additional interviews and newly declassified American intelligence reports, Mr. Posada's account is the most detailed to date of the deadly underside of the campaign against Mr. Castro's rule.

In two days of taped interviews at his hideout in the Caribbean, Mr. Posada was by turns proud, bawdy, boastful and evasive about his work as a self-proclaimed freedom fighter, which included a series of hotel bombings last year that plunged Cuba into tumult. He described, sometimes selectively, the role of his sponsors in the ostensibly nonviolent Cuban-American population, and his complicated relationship with American officials who originally trained him but now take a dimmer view of his activities.

''The C.I.A. taught us everything -- everything,'' Mr. Posada said. ''They taught us explosives, how to kill, bomb, trained us in acts of sabotage. When the Cubans were working for the C.I.A. they were called patriots. 'Acciones de sabotaje' was the term they used to classify this type of operation,'' he added, using the Spanish for acts of sabotage. ''Now they call it terrorism. The times have changed. We were betrayed because Americans think like Americans.''

More:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E2DD1331F930A25754C0A96E958260

[USA_1]

8. Civil Trial, Next?

Let's hope so and that the fascist terrorist will be drained of every last penny he has.

[Taverner]

11. Cuban Militant? How about Cuban TERRORIST!

[Judi Lynn]

17. Hideous, isn't it? These guys have been forming public opinion subtly, and not so subtly for years.

The very idea of calling this monster a "militant" defies credibility.

He hasn't had time to attend demonstrations, to do "militant" things. He's been too busy killing people, bombing places, hiring assassins, and planning more murder and mayhem.

[Taverner]

22. Militant sounds like he just shoots clay pigeons on the weekend

He killed quite a few European nationals - in fact he is wanted in the EU for many crimes

[Chef Eric]

29. The MSM have reserved that word for swarthy types from the Middle East. nt

[GodlessBiker]

15. It sounds as though witnesses exaggerated about the significance of certain ...

taped conversations, and when the defense played those conversations the witnesses had to backtrack a bit.

That never looks good to a jury. The defense lawyers did their job in deconstructing witness testimony.

[Judi Lynn]

20. We were tempted to believe this was a legitimate trial.

I guess we should have known from the way they've run this thing for the last few years that nothing was likely to happen to bring him to justice.

He'll be ultra-safe from now on, back home in the loving arms of the Miami radical right-wing murderous "exiles".

http://miamiherald.typepad.com.nyud.net:8090/cuban_colada/images/2008/05/04/posada_at_big_5.jpeg

Luis Posada Carriles, speaking with admirers
outside a fundraiser thrown for his legal expenses.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/posada/posada.jpg http://www2.pslweb.org.nyud.net:8090/images/content/pagebuilder/54858.jpg

Once a terrorist, always a terrorist.

[rabs]

23. Did the CANFers get to the jurors

Would not be surprising.

Be interesting if some of the jurors give their reasons.

[Judi Lynn]

30. Oh, it would be unnatural if they didn't, wouldn't it? They are totally tight, totally focused.

Nothing else matters to them but their right-wing, blood-thirsty agenda, getting their way in this world forever. They still intend to take back Cuba, and we all know they WILL do anything to advance their intentions. Most powerful minority in the country, and Ninoska Perez Castellon, CANF spokeswoman snarled to a reporter that they are NOT a "minority". I suppose the rest of the country is a "minority" in their eyes, just the way they saw things back in Havana!

They made so many threats, and so many people indicated their computers were being attacked back at the old CNN US-Cuba Relations message board that I didn't get up the courage for a LONG time to start posting there, and got to know the great posters there long before I posted, myself. I was scared to death of those "exile" creeps. Ruthless a-holes, and that's just on message board.

The history of their crimes against humanity and each other, even in Florida, is appalling. Their bombings and shootings, etc. caused the FBI to name Miami "America's Terror Capital."

There's absolutely no doubt they could scare jurors in El Paso senseless, permanently. Especially connecting the exile terrorist groups with the C.I.A.! They even were Watergate burglars, the always ready and willing pool of thugs Richard M. Nixon spoke of in the Watergate tapes.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. I advocate the Israeli method for this fucker.

Send in special ops, put him into a bag, fly him to a country where he'll be tried for his crimes.

[Chef Eric]

27. And the jurors sing: "We're proud to be assholes from El Paso..."

We don't wipe our asses on old glory,
God and lone star beer are things we trust.
We keep our women virgins till they're married
So hosin' sheep is good enough for us.

-Kinky Friedman

[gratuitous]

31. Yikes: unanimous for acquittal

Land of the free, home of the brave with liberty and justice for all.

It just sounds so stupid anymore.

[Octafish]

32. BFEE Skates Again

Poppy’s CIA warned about terror plots and did not stop them

[Vidar]

33. More proof that our "War on Terror" isn't aimed at the real terrorists.

[ck4829]

35. I guess that means the jurors can stop using mirrors to look under their cars now

[rabs]

36. Jurors whisked off .... Posada celebrated night before jury's verdict

(This is from an updated story in the Miami Herald.)

-------------------------------------

U.S. marshals escorted jurors out the back of the courthouse and put them in a van, ensuring they did not speak to reporters.

"I was never afraid that we were going to lose this case," Posada said, adding that he took his entire defense team out for dinner Thursday night before the jury even began deliberating.

"We celebrated this yesterday," he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/08/2157518/jurors-reach-verdict-in-trial.html#

-------------------------

So did the defense team know something the night before the verdict??

Why were the jurors not allowed to speak to the media??

[Judi Lynn]

37. Can't tell you how grotesque this additional info. is. My gosh. Damned cocky, isn't he?

I guess he must feel he's got the world by the @$$. He can go anywhere, blow up human beings, stand trial for minor offenses and still get off, without EVER being compelled to stand trial for any of the many murders he's committed.

Now he's going home to Miami to continue being treated as a hero by the radical right-wing violent Cuban mafia there.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_YTJBDUN8iSE/THR49sunHXI/AAAAAAAADXs/7AmTHl7yIkU/s400/wayne-cochran-miami.jpg

I know, "my eyes, my eyes". Just shush, and listen to the song: "Going Back to Miami."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42-N32QhIgA
This is the only thing worse than the information you just gave us!

[roody]

38. no justice here