Cubans mark airplane bombing anniversary (Bush protecting bombers)

[Judi Lynn]

Cubans mark airplane bombing anniversary
Thu Oct 6, 2005 2:38 PM ET

By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - Family and friends of 73 people killed when a Cuban airliner was blown out of the sky 29 years ago marked the tragedy's anniversary on Thursday by bitterly accusing the United States of harboring the bombers.

Some 200 people gathered at Havana's main cemetery to remember the victims of what Cuba views as its own 9/11, even as President George W. Bush delivered a major speech on terrorism in the United States and said that those who harbor terrorists are equally guilty.

"What happened September 11, 2001, in the United States is not foreign to us," said Margarita Morales, whose father and the junior Cuban fencing team he coached died in the 1976 plane blast.

"The families of the victims in the United States are waiting like we are for justice. ... We demand (President Bush) stop looking for excuses to protect (Luis) Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch," she told the mourners, many of whom, with tears in their eyes, wore T-shirts or carried placards with pictures of the dead.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-10-06T183817Z_01_DIT667087_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-TERROR.xml&archived=False

[Hobarticus]

1. Silly...logic is for suckers!

God told Bush to protect those ter'rists, y'see....

[saskatoon]

2. Orlando Bosch rings a bell

Isn't he one of that Cuban exile crime group that Jeb was arms around the neck with in miami years ago? Please someone who recalls that get on here

[Judi Lynn]

3. This may help.....

The Bush dynasty and the Cuban criminals

New book reveals links of two presidents and the governor of Florida with exiled hardliners

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Monday December 2, 2002
The Guardian

The brother of President George Bush, the Florida governor, Jeb Bush, has been instrumental in securing the release from prison of militant Cuban exiles convicted of terrorist offences, according to a new book. The Bush family has also accommodated the demands of Cuban exile hardliners in exchange for electoral and financial support, the book suggests.
(snip)

Most controversially, at the request of Jeb, Mr Bush Sr intervened to release the convicted Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch from prison and then granted him US residency.
(snip)

Bosch's release, often referred to in the US media as a pardon, was the result of pressure brought by hardline Cubans in Miami, with Jeb Bush serving as their point man. Bosch now lives in Miami and remains unrepentant about his militant activities, according to Bardach.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,851913,00.html#article_continue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCLUSION PROCEEDING
for
ORLANDO BOSCH AVILA


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: Double brackets are used to place notes into the text. The footnotes were consolidated for clarity.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of the Associate Attorney General
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associate Attorney General
Washington, D.C. 20530

FILE: A28 851 622
A11 861 810

IN THE MATTER OF:
ORLANDO BOSCH-AVILA,
APPLICANT

In exclusion proceedings under
section 235 (c) before the
Acting Associate Attorney General

Decision of the Acting Associate Attorney General

INTRODUCTION+
Pursuant to my responsibilities as Acting Associate Attorney General, I have undertaken a review of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) decision of May 19, 1989 concerning the applications of Orlando Bosch-Avila for admission to the United States and for asylum. This review has included consideration of the decisions of the INS Regional Commissioner and the Commissioner, the submission of Bosch to the Regional Commissioner arguing against exclusion and requesting a hearing on his asylum application, and certain confidential and nonconfidential information respecting Bosch.
-------------------------------
page 2

For 30 years Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence. He has threatened and undertaken violent terrorist acts against numerous targets, including nations friendly toward the United States and their highest officials. He has repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death. His actions have been those of a terrorist, unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and inflicting violence without regard to the identity of his victims.

The United States cannot tolerate the inherent inhumanity of terrorism as a way of settling disputes. Appeasement of those who would use force will only breed more terrorists. We must look on terrorism as a universal evil, even if it is directed toward those with whom we have no political sympathy. As United States District Court has eloquently states with respect to this very case, "the evils of terrorism do not become less because of the participants and the cause." Orlando Bosch Avila v. Perry Rivkind, 88-973-C.V.-HOEVELER (S.D. Fla. June 1, 1988) (Order On Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus). See also Matter of Rivero-Diaz, 12 I & N Dec. 475 (BIA, 1967).

As a result of this review, the conclusion is inescapable that it would be prejudicial to the public interest for the United States to provide a safe haven for Bosch. I have moreover concluded that he is an alien excludable from the United States under 8 U.S.C.- 1182 (a) (27), (28) (ii), (28) (iii), (28) (iv) and (29), and that his applications for asylum and withholding of
-------------------------
page 3

deportation should be and herein are denied. In addition, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. 1225 (c), and after consultation with appropriate security agencies of the United States, I conclude that disclosure of the confidential information upon which this decision is based would be prejudicial to the public interest, safety, or security.
(snip/...)

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_051-075/doc0054.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terrorist Connections Resurface In Florida
by Jane Franklin

~ snip ~
Back in 1989 Orlando Bosch, one of the two most notorious Cuban-American terrorists (the other is Luis Posada), was in prison in Florida. He had returned from Venezuela and was being held on a parole violation. The United States Justice Department ruled that Bosch should be deported because of his terrorist activities. The deportation order cited FBI and CIA reports that Bosch "has repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death," including 30 acts of sabotage in the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Panama from 1961 through 1968. In the worst charge against Bosch, 73 people were killed when a bomb blew up a Cuban passenger jet. Acting Associate Attorney General Joe Whitley wrote in his decision to deport Bosch:

"The October 6, 1976, Cuban airline bombing was a CORU operation under the direction of Bosch. CORU is the name of Bosch's terrorist outfit." That bombing marked the first time that a civilian passenger jet was turned into a weapon of terrorism.

Interestingly, it occurred in 1976 when George Bush the elder was head of the CIA; Orlando Bosch had been and maybe still was an agent of the CIA.

By 1989 George Bush the elder had become president. A campaign was launched to get his administration to reverse the Justice Department's decision to deport Bosch. That campaign was successful and Bosch walks free today in Miami. Among the leaders of that effort to turn the convicted terrorist into a hero were Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was running for Congress, and her campaign manager, Jeb Bush, son of the president. A primary spokesman for Orlando Bosch was one of his lawyers, the same Raoul Cantero now being considered for the Florida Supreme Court by Jeb Bush.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=2049

[malaise]

4. I will never forget that day

a family friend died in that awful tragedy on her way to Cuba to study medicine.

[Judi Lynn]

5. So very sad. And all for nothing other than terrorism.

It would take forever to get over it.

A lot of people never heard about it here. No real interest on the part of the corporate media. Of the ones who heard about it, most didn't know how many of the passengers were very young people: students, and the Cuban fencing team.

I hope someday this crime will finally be illuminated and censured they way it should have been in 1976. The thought that _Bush's family has been instrumental in making sure these mass-murderers never have had to pay for their villainy doesn't make it any easier to accept.

[malaise]

6. So much evil

in the name of freedom.

[Mika]

7. Bush said today in his terra speech..

.. that those who harbor terrorists are one and the same as terrorists.

I guess that he and his family would know.

--

Very sad anniversary. :(

[Judi Lynn]

8. Miriam Makeba arrives in Cuba on world farewell tour

Oct. 7, 2005, 9:05AM

Miriam Makeba arrives in Cuba on world farewell tour
Associated Press

Makeba

HAVANA — Miriam Makeba, on a global tour to bid farewell to the stage, has arrived in Cuba to perform two concerts.

"I am 73 years old, and have been to many different countries of the world," the singer known as Mama Africa told a news conference in Havana. "Since I'm feeling a little tired now, I decided I should return to many of the countries ... that applauded me during my career."

Makeba, one of Africa's most distinguished singers and human rights activists, was to perform Thursday and Friday nights at Havana's Cine Teatro Astral.

"We will try to give the best we can," said Makeba, wearing colorful African tunics.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ae/3385103
(Free registration required)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Special Evening With Mother Africa, Miriam Makeba

Havana, Oct 6 (AIN) World famous South African singer Miriam Makeba, currently in Cuba as part of her farewell tour, will perform tonight for a Cuban audience in Havana.

The concert -entitled "Mother Africa: Forever- will combine classic songs in her repertory with later hits.

The 73 year-old Makeba maintains her wonderfully tone voice, which made the international activist against apartheid an internationally popular artist.

The African artist, who previously visited Cuba in 1972, will also perform in Brazil, Venezuela, the US, Spain, Germany and the Vatican.
(snip/...)

http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/idioma/ingles/2005/oct6especial-makeba.htm

Song samples available at Amazon for those unfamiliar with her wonderful voice:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000063RUE/ref=pm_dp_ln_m_2/103-5237692-9018260?v=glance&s=music&vi=samples

[Say_What]

9. Radio Progreso: Cuban-born terrorist receives kid glove treatment in U.S.

Bosch's accomplice Luis Posada-Carilles in the bombing. Jeb Bush lobbied Old Bush to pardon Bosch and in 1992 he did just that. Now MonkeyBoy is gonna free Posada. Like father, like son.

The BFEE--what a family :sarcasm:

<clips>

Cuban-born terrorist receives kid glove treatment in U.S.

Incredibly, in a matter of months, the notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles may be walking the streets of Miami as a free man. According to the decision of U.S. Immigration Judge William Lee Abbott on September 26, 2005, Posada should be excluded from entering the U.S. but will not be deported to Cuba, his place of birth, or Venezuela, his adopted country. These are the two countries that would like to try Posada for alleged terrorist acts. Venezuela formally filed a timely extradition request, but the Judge apparently ignored it. Posada will be detained for now, but he will be eligible to request freedom in ninety days under a controlling Supreme Court precedent unless another country accepts him.

There is little if any doubt that Posada is an international terrorist. He twice confessed – bragged – to masterminding a series of bombings in Havana hotels and restaurants in 1997 designed to scare away tourists and resulting in the death of an Italian visitor. He was convicted in Panama of endangering public safety in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Fidel Castro in 2000. And there is compelling evidence he was behind the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people in 1976. Among other things, CIA and FBI documents show he attended at least two planning meetings for the attack. Asked by a Miami Herald reporter about other attacks, he answered, "Let"s leave it to history."

Posada escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985 before the conclusion of his re-trial in a civilian court after his acquittal in a military court was overturned by a military court of appeals. Earlier this year, Posada turned up in Miami and essentially dared Homeland Security agents to come and get him. He reportedly was seen in public in Key Biscayne, and was returning from a press conference in the Everglades when he was finally apprehended.

Judge Abbott's decision represents an astounding reversal of fortune for this fugitive, who had been hiding in Latin America. With all the tough talk in the Bush administration about fighting terrorism, it is hard to imagine that someone with Posada's pedigree would be allowed to stay in the U.S., let alone be set free.

http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Amaury_Cruz&otherweek=1128661200

[Judi Lynn]

10. Progresoweekly is one fine publication. Brave, too, considering

one of their major people has had his businesses bombed, his employees physically assaulted, etc. just because he has dared to tell the truth in Miami and elsewhere.

It's great rprogresso writers are saying this in Miami to the Cuban-Americans there who are NOT part of the violent rabble. The truth needs to be aired. People need to know what has happened, despite all effort to conceal it.

Terrific Emperor card!

[Say_What]

11. 1976 NYTs article about the bombing

This was only one month after the assassination of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington. Old Bush covered up the fact that Letelier was a victim of Operation Condor, which the US had prior knowledge of. The same terrorists were involved in both indicidents.

Luis Posada Carriles spoke of plans to "hit" a Cuban airliner only days before Cubana flight 455 exploded on October 6, 1976, killing all 73 passengers aboard, according to this declassified CIA document from 1976. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB157/

<clips>

78 Are Believed Killed as Cuban Jetliner Crashes in Sea After Blast
ridgetown, Barbados, Oct. 6 (AP)--Cuban passenger jet plunged into the sea near this Caribbean resort island today while the pilot was trying to return to Barbados after an explosion on board. Officials said none of the 78 people aboard survived.

Barbados Coast Guard launches and Bridgetown port tugs that hurried to the crash site, 11 miles offshore, with an armada of pleasure boats, found only wreckage and bodies. The plane was an Air Canada DC-8 that had been loaned to Cubana, the Cuban nationalist airline.

British West Indian Airways, the agents here for Cubana, said the plane carried 78 people--58 Cubans, 25 of them Cuban employes, including the crew; 11 Guyanese; 5 North Koreans; 2 Trinidadians, and one person each from Colombia and Venezuala.

The Cuban airline has flown a regular service between Havana and Guyana with stops at Kingston, Bridgetown and Port-of-Spain for the last two years.

Unscheduled flights carrying Cuban troops to Angola, which made refueling stops in Bridgetown, caused a political furor last November and were stopped by the Barbados Government.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/100776cuba-airliner.html

[grasswire]

12. George H.W. Bush paroled Orlando Bosch, the terrorist

Bush released him on parole against the order of the INS. Bosch still lives in Florida. A mass murderer with a rap sheet a mile long.

[Mika]

13. The Miami family used Orlando Bosch as Elian's pediatrician.

Not kidding. They really did.

[Say_What]

15. Bosch was a busy boy during his career as a terrorist, among those

he conspired to assassinate was Kissinger, which he plotted while in the Costa Rica in 1976. That year a wave of bombings, killings and kidnappings swept North and South America and took the lives of three Cuban diplomats, 76 innocent people on the Cubana airliner, and Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffit in a car bomb in Washington DC. Most of this mahem was claimed by Bosch's terrorist organization CORU.

In 1960 the CIA placed him and his followers in the Everglades for training for the Bay of Pigs invasion, or so they told him. The CIA found him "too wild, too uncontrollable and unpredictable" to include in the Bay of Pigs so they left him stranded in the Everglades. He also lived for a year in Pinochet's Chile and is reputed to have met in person with Pinochet. According to the sources of one of the FBI guys investigating the Letelier assassination, Pinochet promised to accept Bosch as the president of the Cuban exile government.

This and much more about Bosch and the Cuban exile terrorists in the book Assassination on Embassy Row, John Dinges and Saul Landau. Probably the most well researched book on the Letelier assassination.

Below from FBI records:

<clips>

... (340) Whether or not Bosch was the principal conspirator in the bombing of the Cuban airliner, it is known that his Cuban Power movement, which merged with other Cuban activities in 1976 (61) to form a Cuban Secret Government (62) engaged in acts of terrorism. (63) This latter group was linked with numerous recent bombing incidents, (64) an assassination attempt against Henry Kissinger, (65) the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. (66) and the bombing of the Cuban Airlines plane.
(341) Orlando Bosch, a zealot, turned out to be the most aggressive and volatile of the anti- Castro leaders. That alone could validly raise the question of possible association with the assassination of President Kennedy. In addition, the committee was presented with an allegation that specifically connected him to a conspiracy. (67) but investigation failed to support the claim that Bosch had been in
---------------------------------------------------
page 92

Dallas in November 1963 in the company of Lee Harvey Oswald. When asked, Bosch told the committee he was at his home in Miami when he heard President Kennedy had been shot. (68)

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_051-075/doc0059.html

[Judi Lynn]

14. Documentary on Cuban Five Screening in Canada

Documentary on Cuban Five Screening in Canada

Havana, Oct 5 (AIN/Prensa Latina) Hundreds of Canadians now know the truth about the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in the US through the documentary Mission Against Terror.

Radio Havana journalist Bernie Dwyer and TV director Roberto Ruiz are the producers of the notable documentary receiving considerable acclaim in European nations.

The documentary briefly describes the history of US aggressions and sabotages against Cuba since 1959.

It deals particularly deals with the case of the Cuban Five, who infiltrated Miami's terrorist groups with the objective of protecting the Cuban revolution and stopping the bloody wave of aggression against the Cuban people.

The Five, as they are universally called, were arrested and subjected to an unfair process by a court in Miami. Despite the unanimous decision by three judges of the US Court of Appeals in Atlanta, the anti-terrorist fighters remain jailed in high-security prisons in the US.
(snip/...)

http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID=%7BF0AB091C-B21D-4E11-9481-9ED2EEAC25C7%7D&language=EN