National Committee to Free the Cuban Five

Serious legal questions loom for Posada

by Jay Weaver
Feb. 25, 2008
Reprinted from The Miami Herald

Luis Posada Carriles, the anti-Castro Cuban militant, celebrated his 80th birthday this month at an undisclosed location in Miami, but many serious legal and political questions about his alleged crimes as a younger man still loom as large as ever.

In New Jersey, Posada is the "target" of a federal grand jury investigation into the series of 1997 tourist-site bombings in Havana, his attorney Arturo Hernandez confirmed to The Miami Herald. Posada has long denied any involvement in the bombings.

In Washington, Posada's alleged role in the bombing of a 1976 Cuban airliner that killed 73 people is being revisited by a Democratic lawmaker from Massachusetts who plans to hold congressional hearings on the matter in the spring.

And Posada's immigration status remains an issue with the Justice Deparment, which is pressing its appeal of a Texas judge's decision to dismiss an indictment that charged the Cuban with lying about his 2005 entry into the United States.

Indeed, everyone seems to have something to say about the former CIA-trained explosives expert who remains a freedom fighter in the minds of some and an international terrorist in the eyes of others.

Posada isn't talking to the media, but his attorney says the octogenarian is an innocent man in poor health who wants to spend the rest of his life in Miami among family, friends and exiles.

Perhaps Posada's most serious legal challenge is in Newark, N.J., where a federal grand jury, now in its third year, is weighing whether to indict Posada on conspiracy charges for the killing of an Italian tourist in a 1997 hotel bombing in Havana.

Justice officials won't comment, but they have a fax and other documents showing that Posada allegedly coordinated $3,200 in wire transfers from Cuban exiles in New Jersey to co-conspirators in Central America for the bombing campaign. Also, FBI agents have questioned jailed bombing recruits in Cuba and key witnesses in the United States and Central America familiar with Posada's alleged mission to disrupt the Cuban tourism industry.

One potential witness -- a notable writer who coauthored a 1998 New York Times series on Posada's history of violent activities against former Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- said she received grand jury subpoenas but has not testified before the New Jersey panel.

The series was based on her six-hour interview, most of it tape-recorded, with Posada in which he admitted to masterminding the Havana tourist-site bombings.

"They do not need me," author Ann Louise Bardach said.

Miami lawyer Thomas Julin, who represents Bardach for The New York Times, declined to comment and specifically refused to discuss whether Bardach had turned over her subpoenaed decade-old tapes of the Posada interview.

Julin told The Miami Herald that the tape matter was "still unresolved," without elaborating.

It's unclear, however, whether the next person to occupy the White House in 2009 will continue to pursue the politically sensitive case against Posada.

At least one member of Congress -- Rep. William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat -- is more than willing to enter the political fray.

But Delahunt's interest has nothing to do with the 1997 bombings. He's interested in Posada's alleged role in the bombing of a 1976 Cuban airliner that killed 73 people, including members of the Cuban national fencing team.

Posada was acquitted by a Venezuelan military tribunal. While awaiting a retrial by a civil court in Venezuela, Posada escaped from prison in 1985.

Delahunt, who declared Posada "a notorious terrorist" at a congressional hearing in November 2007, accuses the Bush administration of a double standard because it has refused to designate Posada as a terrorist.

Delahunt, annoyed by the government's lack of response to Venezuela's extradition request to try Posada, has drafted a resolution calling on the administration to urge the United Nations to create an ad hoc tribunal to prosecute him. He also plans to hold more public hearings on Capitol Hill.

"You cannot talk about a war on terror while Posada is still running around [South] Florida," said Caleb Rossiter, one of Delahunt's top aides.

But Posada has supporters in Washington, mainly Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California.

In defending Posada, Rohrabacher points out that a 1977 taped interview by a New York-based journalist reveals that he never admitted to planting the airliner bomb.

In a Jan. 30 letter to a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, Rohrabacher said testimony by journalist Blake Fleetwood in connection with his 1977 taped interview of Posada and fellow anti-Castro militant Orlando Bosch in a Venezuelan prison was inconsistent with the reporter's own tapes.

At the November congressional hearing, Fleetwood testified that Posada talked about his history as a CIA operative, setting up a detective agency in Venezuela and conspiring with Bosch on numerous violent campaigns against the Castro government -- including the airline bombing.

Rohrabacher, in his letter, accused the journalist of implying that Posada admitted to a "personal involvement in the bombing." After the congressman reviewed a transcript of the taped prison interview, he said it revealed that Posada "actually denied any involvement when asked several times about the downing of the airliner."

Fleetwood, a former New York Times reporter who had written a major piece on the Posada-Bosch interview for another publication three decades ago, said Rohrabacher has distorted his statements.

In an e-mail to The Miami Herald, Fleetwood wrote: "There is no doubt in my mind, from what Posada told me during my interview, that Posada was deeply involved in the conspiracy that culminated in the planting of the bomb and the deaths of 73 innocent civilians."

Hernandez, Posada's attorney, denied that his client was involved in any way. He described Posada as a patriot who fought on the right side during the Cold War, volunteered in the Bay of Pigs invasion, served in the U.S. Army and devoted his life to toppling Castro.

He dismisses the allegations of Posada being a terrorist to political hyperbole.

"There are political agendas that have been propagating a view of Posada that's not supported by the facts," he said. "Since they don't have anyone else, they have to use Posada as a poster boy that there's hypocrisy at the highest levels of government.

"He's not a terrorist. He's never been a terrorist."