Terrorist Orlando Bosch Working as a News Commentator
by Angel Rodriguez Alvarez
Jan. 23, 2007
Reprinted from ACN
The latest twist in the wacky legal process against terrorist Luis Posada Carriles came last week when a commentary by international terrorist Orlando Bosch was published in Miami’s El Nuevo Herald newspaper in which he attempts to exonerate his old partner from his bloody crimes.
For Orlando Bosch to do this is understandable, but for the Herald’s editor to do so reveals the close ties between the newspaper and the ultra rightwing Cuban-American terrorists and questions the ethics of the newspaper’s independent principles.
The editors of the El Nuevo Herald seem to have forgotten the long criminal history of the author of the article entitled The Punishment of Posada Carriles, in Bosch attempts to turn his compatriot, in to a US hero worthy of the highest honors and recognition.
The renowned Miami newspaper granted Bosch a space to show his indignation for the appeal presented by a federal judge on October 5th, 2006. In the article, Bosch states that the release of “Luis” —as he calls him— would have serious implications for US foreign policy.
This method allows Bosch to distort history by evaluating the important services offered to the US of the terrorist actions executed by both criminals during decades against the Cuban people, many of which were carried out in US territory.
Thanks to the willingness of the El Nuevo Herald, Orlando Bosch takes for granted that the participation of his friend in the infamous Iran-Contras Scandal is part of the struggle in favour of democracy.
We should not forget that this operation, which was to support and fund the dirty war against Nicaragua, included drugs and arms trafficking.
The El Nuevo Herald evidently shares Bosch’s conceptions that actions in the fight against communism in Cuba are justifiable, like the bombing of a Cubana airliner that killed 73 innocent people on board and the bombing of tourism installations in Havana where a young Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo, was killed.
The paper admits that the attempted bombing of the Tropicana Night Club and the main auditorium of the University of Panama full of tourists, Cuban workers and hundreds of Panamanian students, were thwarted only due to Cuban State Security efforts.
And Bosch of course, takes the opportunity as a “commentator” to explain how he was released in the US after fleeing from a Venezuelan jail, thanks —according to Bosch— because of popular support and not because of the decision of George Bush Senior, a promoter and accomplice, like his son, of anti-Cuban plans organized for decades by the CIA and rightwing elements based in southern Florida.
We should recall that when Posada Carriles entered the US a court ordered his detention for being a danger to US national security.
Now, when proven terrorists like Orlando Bosch are given the luxury to write for the US mass media that proclaims itself the leader in the fight against terrorism, it is important to remind the editors of the Nuevo Herald that “services” offered by these individuals to the US has taken the lives of more than 3,000 Cubans and provoked serious injuries to another 2,000.
Cuba’s Bin Laden Gets Miami Podium
by Circles Robinson*
Jan. 24, 2007
Reprinted from ACN
Osama Bin Laden need not look to Arab media outlets to broadcast his reasoning for waging war on the US. The Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald’s sister Spanish language daily, would probably be more than willing to host his messages and maybe even pay him to boot.
Last week, the Herald gave unrepentant terrorist Orlando Bosch space to defend Luis Posada Carriles, another self-exile from Cuba the FBI once called the most dangerous terrorist on the continent. The newspaper did not say whether Bosch is being paid for his column.
The Miami Herald was immersed in another ethical scandal last fall after it admitted having paid US government agents doubling as reporters and columnists. The matter ended when Jesus Diaz, the publisher who recognized the conflict of interest, was he himself forced to resign while the dismissed “journalists” were welcomed back.
Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch are not your everyday pistol-toting gang members. They have bragged about blowing up a plane full of people, placing bombs in hotels, murdering diplomats and other juicy crimes. In her book “We placed the bomb and So What!” Venezuelan journalist Alicia Herrera allows Bosch and company the chance to volunteer their long list of deeds.
Bosch is free in Miami because the president’s father George H. Bush gave him a presidential pardon and residency in 1990 that washed over his life-long record of terrorist activities in the United States, Cuba and a host of Latin American and European nations. Logically, he believes his buddy Posada deserves the same treatment.
Posada is currently being protected by the US Immigration Service from extradition to Venezuela where he was a naturalized citizen. As a smokescreen, he faces a seven-count indictment on lying about how he “snuck” into the United States, which could actually lead to his release from custody.
Like Posada Carriles, Bosch is seen as a God in the Republic of Miami by diehard exile groups and a spider web of others reaping the benefits of hundreds of millions of US taxpayer’s dollars flowing to those who slander, lobby against and conspire to commit violent acts on neighboring Cuba.
Last Friday, a Free Posada demonstration took place in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana. When a peaceful group of counter demonstrators unveiled their banner calling Posada a terrorist, they were brutally attacked by members of the angry crowd.
On numerous occasions these same groups have threatened and used violence and intimidation against anyone from business owners to jury members and journalists who oppose their hard-line stance on Cuba. That’s their brand of American democracy and they get away with it in Miami-Dade County.
According to Bosch in his Herald column, the charges against Posada for false testimony don’t compare with “the services Luis has given to this great nation during the Cold War,” which merits his being allowed to walk.
If that logic is allowed to stand, Osama Bin Laden has no reason to fear being captured. He like Posada was a close collaborator of the CIA and the US Armed Forces and he too fought communism tooth and nail. Doesn’t he deserve the right to retire in a condo on Miami Beach?
Bosch went on to give his view on the US occupation of Iraq: “When you act with justice, the dogs of hell bark and the United States should not fear this, much less the government of President George W. Bush who decided to go to war in Asia to free a people.”
The administration couldn’t have a better defender of its “war on terror.”
*Circles Robinson is a US journalist living in Havana. His articles and commentaries can be read at: www.circlesonline.blogspot.com
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