Delahunt Examines Case of Luis Posada Carriles In Capitol Hill Hearing Today
Nov. 15, 2007
Reprinted from the office of William Delahunt
Today, Congressman Bill Delahunt held a hearing of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight on the case of Luis Posada Carriles, an alleged Cuban exile terrorist currently living in Miami, FL. The hearing was entitled "'Diplomatic Assurances' on Torture: A Case Study of Why Some Are Accepted and Others Rejected"
Click here to view the opening remarks of Congressman Delahunt: QuickTime • WMV
Click here to read the testimony of Chariman Delahunt and the witnesses:
• The Honorable Bill Delahunt (PDF)
• Mr. Arturo V. Hernandez, Attorney-at-Law
• Mr. Blake Fleetwood, Freelance Journalist
• Mr. Peter Kornbluh, Senior Analyst, The National Security Archive, The George Washington University
• Ms. Ann Louise Bardach, Bardach Reports
• Roseanne Nenninger, N.D., Naturopathic Doctor, sister of Raymond Persaud, victim of the bombing of Cubana Flight 455
Terrorism case of Luis Posada Carriles debated on Capitol Hill
Archive Analyst Peter Kornbluh Shares Declassified CIA and FBI Intelligence Reports With House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
Nov. 15, 2007
Reprinted from National Security Archive
Washington DC, November 15, 2007 - In the first Congressional hearing held on the controversial case of violent Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight invited National Security Archive Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh to testify on formerly top secret CIA and FBI intelligence reports linking Posada to the October 6, 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner. In his testimony, Kornbluh argued that the declassified records demonstrated that Posada had concrete foreknowledge of the bombing; was in possession of a surveillance report on Cuban targets that included the doomed plane; received coded messages immediately after the plane went into the ocean from the men who placed the bombs; and was quickly identified by multiple FBI and CIA sources in Venezuela as one of two masterminds of the attack that claimed the lives of all 73 passengers and crew.
Kornbluh called Posada “one of the most prolific purveyors of political violence in recent history” and said that the evidence in the plane bombing was “more than sufficient” to have detained Posada for acts of international terrorism under the Patriot Act. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to designate Posada as a terrorist and a judge dismissed immigration fraud charges against him last spring. Posada now lives freely in Miami, as does Orlando Bosch, who the CIA and FBI both identify as a co-conspirator in the plane bombing. “The United States now finds itself in the frankly inexplicable position of having not one but both men who our own intelligence agencies identified as responsible for bringing down a civilian airliner living free and unfettered lives in Florida,” Kornbluh told the Committee.
Kornbluh was joined at the hearing by Dr. Roseanne Persaud Nenninger, the sister of one of the Guyanese teenagers killed on the plane. In her testimony, Dr. Nenninger said she wanted to put a “human face” on the victims of the plane bombing by talking about her brother Raymond Persaud, a 19-year-old science student on his way to Havana with a full scholarship to study medicine. She called on the Subcommittee, chaired by Congressman William Delahunt, to investigate fully how the Bush administration had allowed Posada to go free, so that her family and those of all the other Cuban, Guyanese and Korean passengers could finally see justice done for their loved ones. Ann Louise Bardach, who interviewed Posada for The New York Times in 1998 on his involvement in a string of hotel bombings in Cuba, also testified on her extensive research into Posada’s many violent activities.
Kornbluh’s testimony and the five documents that he reviewed for the House Committee are posted below in PDF format:
"Luis Posada Carriles and the Bombing of Cubana Flight #455"
Testimony of Peter Kornbluh, Senior Analyst, National Security Archive, Before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, November 15, 2007
Document 01 - CIA Intelligence Report on Posada and Bosch, Oct 14, 1976
Document 02 - Ricardo's handwritten Surveillance Report
Document 03 - Ricardo's detonator diagram
Document 04 - FBI Cable, Oct 7, 1976
Document 05 - Kelley letter to Kissinger, Nov 5, 1976
Congress takes up Posada case
by Wilfredo Cancio Isla
Nov. 15, 2007
Reprinted from The Miami Herald
The case of anti-Castro exile Luis Posada Carriles will be the subject of a congressional hearing Thursday afternoon in Washington that was called by the Democratic leadership in the House.
The public hearing is set for 3 p.m. before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, chaired by Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass.
''We're going to look into the different ways the government behaves when dealing with individuals who have been detained for similar reasons worldwide,'' said Delahunt, who favors taking Posada to trial for his alleged participation in terrorist acts.
The congressman, a strong critic of the Bush administration, said the purpose of the hearing is ''to send a message of credibility'' about the handling of international terrorism by U.S. institutions.
''Different treatment for individuals linked to terrorist activities is untenable,'' Delahunt said. ``There are no good terrorists and bad terrorists. Terrorism is always condemnable.''
The governments of Cuba and Venezuela blame Posada for the blowing up of a passenger airplane in 1976 that killed 73 passengers and crew and for bombing attacks on Havana tourist facilities in 1997.
A grand jury in New Jersey is still investigating Posada's possible ties to the 1997 explosions. One of those blasts killed an Italian tourist.
The hearing will take place barely a week after the Department of Justice appealed a May 8 ruling by federal Judge Kathleen Cardone, who dismissed charges against Posada, 79, for violations of immigration law.
Witnesses at the hearing will include historian Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive at George Washington University; journalist Ann Louise Bardach, co-author of an interview with Posada published by The New York Times in 1998; and Roseanne Nenninger, sister of a Guyanese medical student who died in the 1976 airplane bombing.
The subcommittee also has invited Arturo Hernández, Posada's principal attorney, to appear.
''This hearing occurs in a political context that tries to put pressure on the Department of Justice so it will act against my client,'' Hernández said. ``But I will be there to defend the rights of a man who has devoted his life to confronting the dictatorship that has ruled his native land for the past 48 years.''
Kornbluh is expected to testify about declassified documents that presumably link Posada, who was recruited by the CIA in 1961, to violent activities against the Cuban regime and to other covert operatives in Central America.
Bardach said on Wednesday that her participation will be limited to ``clarifying biographical data about Posada's trajectory and to provide information about [her] newspaper articles on the case.''
Last year, Bardach revealed that the FBI office in Miami had destroyed evidence about Posada's alleged participation in the Cuba attacks in 1997.
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