[NYTr] Delahunt Hearing on Terrorist Posada Update - Nov 15, 2007 Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:49:40 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [see more coverage below from PL, AIN news] National Security Archive Update, November 15, 2007 http://www.nsarchive.org TERRORISM CASE OF LUIS POSADA DEBATED ON CAPITOL HILL Archive Analyst Peter Kornbluh Shares Declassified CIA and FBI Intelligence Reports With House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee For more information contact: Peter Kornbluh - 202/994-7116 peter.kornbluh@gmail.com Washington D.C., 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 were posted today on the Archive's Web site. http://www.nsarchive.org ________________________________________________________ THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals. *** Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com US Lawmakers Examine Terrorist Case Washington, Nov 15 (Prensa Latina) The House of Representatives is to carry out a public hearing Thursday on the case of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to analyze the protection the criminal has been receiving in the United States, where he is still free. Lawyer Jose Pertierra told Prensa Latina that the aim of the debate is to prove the differentiated treatment the White House gives some terrorists. The hearing will take place at the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Supervision, under the theme "Diplomatic guarantees on tortures: a study on why some are accepted and other are rejected. Among witnesses are academic Peter Kornbluh, main analyst of the National Security File at the George Washington University , and Ann Louise Bardach, a journalist who interviewed the terrorist by The New York Times daily in 1998. Cuba said Wednesday it was a new diversionary tactic of the US government to appeal to the Federal Court on November 6 for the release of Posada Carriles. Cuba ambassador at the UN Rodrigo Malmierca said that this action "was no more than a new smokescreen, a new act to disguise culpability of the infamous terrorist." In the debate of the issue "Information by Presidents of the Security Council's subsidiary bodies in that top organization," Malmierca denounced that United States insists on analyzing that case as a simple migratory infraction. hr iff rob mf PL-10 *** Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Public Hearing Will Question US Controversy on Terrorism Havana, Nov 15(acn) The protection afforded by the White House to notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, currently enjoying freedom in the United States, will be examined in a public hearing at the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. this Thursday. Lawyer Jose Pertierra, representing Venezuela in the case, said that the purpose for the debate is to demonstrate the special treatment the United States gives some terrorists, reported Prensa Latina News Agency. Pertierra said that the hearing will focus on the approach taken by the US administration rather than the legalities of the case and said that the US'declared war against terrorism does not allow them to go after some terrorists, while protecting others. Witnesses to the hearing are Peter Kornbluh, an analyst from the George Washington University National Security Archives; Roseanne Nenninger, sister of a young Guyanese who died in the 1976 midair bombing of a Cuban passenger flight orchestrated by Posada Carriles; and journalist Ann Louise Bardach who interviewed the terrorist for The New York Times in 1998. Representative William Delahunt, subcommittee president, criticized the double standard applied by the Bush administration on terrorism, stressing that there are no good and bad terrorists. Posada was set free by judge Katherine Cardone for simple migratory infractions not related to any terrorist actions. In the contradictory ruling, Cardone acknowledged that the terrorist of Cuban origin participated in some of the most "infamous" events of the 20th century in the political history of Central America. Posada is accused for participation in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the Iran-Contras operation, the bombing of Cubana de Aviacion flight 455 and the bombing of tourist facilities in Havana in 1997. Pertierra said that the appeal recently presented to the Justice Department by the Prosecution is a maneuver to obstruct the extradition of Posada to Venezuela to face trial for the bombing of the Cuban civilian plane. * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================