Defense rests in Cuban ex-CIA agent's perjury case

[Judi Lynn]

Defense rests in Cuban ex-CIA agent's perjury case
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press – Fri Apr 1, 8:24 pm ET

EL PASO, Texas – Attorneys for an elderly ex-CIA agent accused of lying to U.S. immigration authorities about his alleged role in deadly 1997 bombings in Cuba rested their case Friday without calling their client as a witness.

Luis Posada Carriles' attorneys called just eight witnesses in eight days — barely a third of the 23 people federal prosecutors summoned to the stand during the first 11 weeks of the oft-delayed trial. Prosecutors plan to call at least one rebuttal witness Monday, with closing arguments to follow.

Posada's face is plastered on propaganda billboards throughout his native Cuba, where he is considered former President Fidel Castro's longtime nemesis for the decades he spent trying to destabilize Castro's regime and other communist governments in Latin America. For much of that time, he had Washington's support.

~snip~
Prosecutors charged Posada with 11 counts of immigration fraud, obstruction and perjury, because they say he lied during citizenship hearings in El Paso about how he made it into the country and about having a Guatemalan passport with a false name. They also say Posada failed to acknowledge planning a wave of 1997 bombings at Cuban luxury hotels and a top tourist restaurant in Havana between April and September 1997 that killed an Italian visitor and injured about a dozen other people.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110402/ap_on_re_us/us_cuban_militant

[Peace Patriot]

1. The Associated Pukes keep describing him as an "ex-CIA agent." Is anybody ever "ex-CIA"?

We may find out from the verdict what this trial is all about. It's possible that the FBI/DOJ deliberately blew their case. This would most certainly be consistent with Obama administration "justice" (i.e., their illegal, unofficial granting of immunity to Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeld, et al, for their many crimes; their gross interference in Colombia's justice system to protect Bush Cartel pet, Alvaro Uribe, and their interference in the Drummond Coal "death squad" lawsuit here, also to protect Uribe; their pursuit of medical marijuana prosecutions in states that have legalized medical marijuana; their retention of all the police state powers that the Bush Junta rammed through, etc.)

Likely this is a show trial, to help Obama/Clinton in their efforts on behalf of multinational corporations and war profiteers in Latin America, where they have a lot of mulish leftist leaders to deal with. They will be able to point to this farcical, cosmetic "justice" for Posada--even if he is acquitted, they can say "we tried him"--a man who murdered hundreds of people for the CIA, and who is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba for the Cubana Airline bombing.

At first, I thought that there might be a CIA vs FBI internal war going on. (Since when do CIA assets get put on trial in the U.S.?) But I'm less inclined to believe that this is the "why" of this trial. I think cosmetic justice, as a political ploy, is what is going on. Even if Posada is convicted of "lying," he will likely get a slap on the wrist and probably luxury retirement in Miami.

[Judi Lynn]

2. No doubt he'll be right back in Miami, just like his accomplice, Orlando Bosch,

who was allowed back into the United States by George H. W. Bush who disregarded the decision made by his Acting Associate Attorney General, Joe D. Whitley, who strictly refused to allow him back into the country when over 30 other countries also had refused to admit him.

Posada Carriles does know where a lot of the bodies are buried, and helped put some of them there, himself. He's a true monster, like his partner in crime, Bosch, and all the other Cuban right-wing terrorists, bombers, and mass-murderers.