[NYTr] Delahunt Hearing on Terrorist Posada Update - Nov 15, 2007

[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 at 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.