[NYTr] Alarcon Says US People Could Help Free the Cuban 5

Wed Sep 5 17:00:31 EDT 2007

[In addition to their truly dreadful CBS Evening News coverage of the
Appeals hearing and the Cuban 5 case, CBS has published an article by
Portia Siegelbaum on an interview with Alarcon about the Cuban 5, which
follows the ACN story below. -NY Transfer]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles

Alarcon Says American People Could Help Release the Five

Havana, Sept 5 (acn) The head of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon 
said the possibility of having the Five men imprisoned in the U.S 
released earlier depends very much on the support they receive from the 
American people.

"The first step is to let that people know the truth. This is what we 
need to keep on demanding," said the Parliament president.

In the daily TV Round Table show, Ricardo Alarcon, gave legal and 
ethical details of the Five's case, showing the double standards of the 
U.S' policy and its hostility towards Cuba. The statements were the 
continuity of an interview he gave last August 27 also broadcasted on 
Cuban TV.

The President of the Cuban parliament said the American government is 
aware of the effect that the support of the American people could have 
on international opinion. For that reason the media has been instructed 
to refer to the Cuban men only as "spies."

Alarcon said the American government has turned a blind eye on news 
releases that show Washington's political bias against the Five. He 
mentioned the articles posted by London's BBC and the New York Times, 
which were very objective, but they are not willing to follow the case.

It will be nine years on the coming September 12, since Gerardo 
Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Rene 
Gonzalez, were sent to American jails.

That day in 1998, the Five Cuban men were arrested and later subjected 
to a politically biased trial in Miami. The judicial process ended in

2001 with the judge handing down harsh sentences on the men, whose only 
crime was to infiltrate Miami-based extreme right groups that operated 
with Washington's consent, organizing and conducted terrorist actions 
against the Cuban people.

Alarcon pointed out that the U.S does not have evidence proving that 
the Five were conspiring to commit espionage or murder. However, they 
are serving outrageous terms in jail.

All the evidence is available online to all news agencies willing to 
report on the issue, Alarcon said. He mentioned the internet portal of 
the U.S Justice Department, on the South Florida Court, "look up the 
U.S. case against Gerardo Hernandez," he pointed.

Alarcon said on one occasion, the American government decided to remove 
the second charge -conspiracy to commit espionage- from the files of 
three of the defendants -Gerardo, Ramon and Antonio-, as long as they 
pleaded guilty to other crimes. However, the third charge would not be 
taken to the negotiating table. Instead, seeking to please the 
Miami-based Cuban-American community, a charge of quadruple fist degree 
murder was added to the case.

The U.S government ended up recognizing in writing before the Court of 
Appeals of Atlanta, that the charges had been manipulated. Now we have 
to wait until the Court overrules such allegations, explained the Cuban 
official.

The head of the Cuban parliament went on to say that the Cuban Five 
acted under the principle of "State of Necessity," comparing the case 
with that of former U.S president Jimmy Carter's daughter, who was 
arrested in the late 1980's for taking over a building to protest 
against the CIA. Eventually, she was released on the grounds that she 
and the other 14 people accompanying her had committed minor crimes to 
avoid a greater one.

Likewise, Alarcon mentioned the case of Zacarias Musagüi, accused of 
being involved in the Sept 11 attacks. He noted that the mother of 
Moroccan-born Musagui was allowed to visit her son. Meanwhile, the 
mothers of the Five Cuban men are patiently waiting in line to get an 
entry visa to the U.S to be able to see their sons.  "It is the right 
of any prisoner, irrespective of the crime they committed, and in this 
case the Five did not even threaten nor shoot any body, nor did their 
relatives," Alarcon stressed.

Ricardo Alarcon concluded the interview by saying that no one should 
think that is doing too much for the Five. "We are Not even doing a 
fraction of what they are doing themselves, with their constancy, 
resistance and leading the battle for justice and for their release.

                                    ***

CBS News - Sep 4, 2007
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/04/world/main3233005.shtml

Interview: Alarcon On "Five Heroes"

Sept. 4, 2007(CBS) Almost nine years after their arrest on charges of
spying on the U.S., five Cubans are awaiting an appeals court ruling.
Portia Siegelbaum spoke with Cuban parliament president Ricardo Alarcon
about the case.Cuban parliament president Ricardo Alarcon says the
handling to date of the case of the five men known on the island as the
"Five Heroes" means one thing: “That the U.S. is not yet in the
position to fight anti-Cuban terrorism and that’s a real threat to our
life and the safety of the Cuban people.”

He insists that the Five’s only crime was to infiltrate anti-Castro
exile groups to try to stop violence against the island and that the
prosecutors failed to prove anything else.

Yet, he says, while the five men are serving long prison terms in the
United States, “terrorists” such as Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles,
indicted for blowing up a civilian airliner in mid-flight, walk free in
Miami. The cases, he says, are “absolutely inseparable” and that among
other groups the Five had been monitoring was one linked to Posada.

“Cuba has had for almost half a century a need to protect ourselves. We
didn’t attack anybody, we didn’t use violence, we didn’t use war, we
just used what is referred to now in America as human intelligence.
Well these five are real heroes because they sacrificed their lives,
they run many risks, imagine to be inside those criminal groups without
being a criminal, you are risking everyday to be discovered by them and
getting killed. It wouldn’t be the first case in Miami.

“Perhaps the most flagrant example of misconduct was that the trial of
the Five had to take place in Miami. In your country practically
everyday some defendant gets change of venue in order to preserve his
right to a fair and balanced hearing. The government insisted on having
that trial in Miami,” stressed Alarcon.

He notes that the discussion on venue coincided with the Elian Gonzalez
custody saga, which only concluded when the federal government sent
special troops in to rescue the boy because the Miami police and the
Miami mayor had refused the U.S. attorney general’s order to turn the
boy over to his father for return to Cuba. All the proceedings,
according to him, were poisoned by that atmosphere.

Worse yet, according to Alarcon, is the excessive sentencing of the
five men including a guilty ruling on a charge that the prosecution
confessed it could not prove. That charge, against Gerardo Hernandez,
was of alleged conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree in the
downing of the Brothers to the Rescue plane.

“In May 2001, when the court was going to recess, when they were
approaching the end of the process…the U.S. [prosecutor] tried to
change that charge saying that they couldn’t prove that charge and they
wanted to modify it…. The judge said, ‘its too late, we have spent 7
months discussing that, now it's up to the jury to decide if they agree
with you or not.’ Then they [the government prosecutor] appealed to the
11th Circuit in Atlanta [where the defense is currently appealing]…The
attorney general acknowledged he could not prove his accusation and
asked for it to be modified,” says Alarcon.

The jury, says Alarcon, knew of the U.S. government prosecutor’s
efforts to drop the charge of conspiracy to commit murder for lack of
proof. It nevertheless found Hernandez guilty of it and sentenced him
to an additional life term.

“Only in Miami can such a thing happen. Only under the atmosphere of
fear and pressure,” says Alarcon, who has been the Cuban government
official heading up the efforts to get the sentences reversed.

The defense’s current appeal is not the first time the Atlanta court is
hearing about the case and Alarcon finds that encouraging. “We should
be really very optimistic.”

The recent sentencing in two similar cases also give him hope.

“The United States of America vs. Khalid Abdel-Latif Dumeisi, an Arab,
an Iraqi. This man was found guilty of being an agent from the Saddam
Hussein Regime and not being registered as such at the Department of
Justice. Being an unregistered agent is the only violation the Five
really committed. But this guy was arrested in Chicago when the U.S.
was at war with the Saddam Hussein regime. Sentence of Mr. Dumeisi, 46
months in jail-- 3 years and 10 months. And the prosecutor in this case
and the court determined that this man was not spying on the U.S.
because he was only spying on the anti-Saddam groups of exiles in
Chicago…The Five have been sentenced to four life terms plus 75 years
and their only clear crime was the same as Mr. Dumeisi.

“This other example is from last month. The Federal Court in New
Jersey, the United States of America vs Leonardo Aragoncillo. A
Philippine person, an official of the FBI. This guy was an official, an
analyst I think, of the FBI. He was found guilty of espionage. Real
espionage, substantive espionage, according to his indictment. The FBI
found that he had transmitted to a foreign government 736 secret
documents, from the White House, State Department and the Pentagon.
Found guilty with material proof of espionage, sentence 10 years of
incarceration.

“The Five are entering their tenth year of incarceration for having
committed the same crime as the Saddam Hussein agent and without having
been accused of stealing a single piece of paper, a single piece of
information,” Alarcon points out.

The defense team is hoping that the Atlanta Court of Appeals will take
two decisions: one, to drop the charge of conspiracy to commit murder
and two to change the life sentences given to three of the men for
conspiracy to commit espionage-- not for actually spying.

“Atlanta has the possibility to dismiss everything … [the Five’s] only
crime was to try prevent death and violence, to prevent terrorist acts
at a time when the U.S. is involved in a so-called war on terrorism,”
concluded Alarcon.