Castro offers dissident exchange for 'Cuban 5' Five have been imprisoned in the U.S. since 2001 espi

[Judi Lynn]

Source: MSNBC/Associated Press

Castro offers dissident exchange for 'Cuban 5'
Five have been imprisoned in the U.S. since 2001 espionage convictions
updated 2 hours, 5 minutes ago

BRASILIA, Brazil - Cuban President Raul Castro made an unprecedented offer Thursday to exchange political dissidents jailed in his country for five Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. for espionage.

Castro, on his first official visit to Brazil since taking over as president, also reiterated Cuba's willingness to discuss the U.S. embargo with incoming President Barack Obama.

Answering a reporter's question about political prisoners in Cuba, Castro said: "We will send those prisoners you talk about (to the United States) with their families. But give us back our five heroes."

He referred to the so-called "Cuban Five," who were convicted in 2001 on espionage charges and are lionized in Cuba as heroes. Cuban exile groups in the U.S. say they were justly punished.

~snip~
The five, arrested in 1998, acknowledged being Cuban agents but said they were not spying on the United States. They said their focus was on U.S.-based exile groups planning "terrorist" actions against the Castro government.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28300783 /

[Festivito]

1. I guess that all Cubans want to come the US is not exactly true.

I wonder, did the ones held by US come by boat?

[Sex Pistol]

2. I'll tell you what, Raul, free them all and then maybe we can talk about it.

[David__77]

3. No.

Why on earth would Cuba do that? The five were only defending their country against right-wing terrorism. Such a shame that the US is behind it.

[Billy Burnett]

4. Cuba will stick to it's principled stand, I'm sure.

The Cuban five, who were monitoring US based private exile terrorist groups (with well established records of terrorist activities against Cuba), were unjustly convicted in kangaroo courts saturated with anti Cuba propaganda and political agendas. They were protecting Cuba from terrorism. They were in no way working against the US state.

The so called "dissidents" in Cuba were on the US payroll aiding and abetting anti Cuba ops for Miami based exile groups (some operated by known terrorists like Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch who have committed heinous acts against Cuban and others) and aiding and abetting the self declared enemy state of their nation and (acting as undeclared foreign agents of an enemy state that has attacked previously). This kind of activity is criminal activity in the US and most all other sovereign nations.

The five committed no real crimes against the US state. The "dissidents" on the US and Miamicuban exile terrorists payrolls did commit crimes against the Cuban state.

Why should Cuba trade criminals for heroes?


The US should do the right things:
One, release The Cuban Five for time served.
Two, stop funding anti Cuban "dissident" operatives.
Three, enforce the US Neutrality Act that criminalizes para/military attacks on another nation from US soil.


National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
www.freethefive.org

[Judi Lynn]

5. Absolutely beastly behavior by the FBI, to have taken the material the men brought to them

concerning the South Florida Cuban violent, murderous reactionary terrorists, and to watch them walk away, go home, then suddenly, arrive at their homes to arrest THEM and throw them in prison, instead of the terrorists.

I have never heard of such dirty, dishonest dealing from any government agency in my life. Utterly beyond redemption. It really goes to show you how naive the Cuban men were who came here to try to find out how to stop the violent Cuban "exile" terrorists from hurting their countrymen/women again.

This happened several years ago and I'm just as sick about it now as I was when I heard what they did.

To make it even worse, the very terrorists they came to try to stop sat right in the courtroom, in their total hypocrisy, grinning and sneering at them while the kangaroo court took them all down.

What's even worse about this is the Appeals Court found in their favor, and they should have been released. Instead, _Bush's administration simply had them take it to a court where they could win, again, and continue keeping them in isolation, scattered all over the country, unable to communicate, and unable to receive visits from anyone meaningful to them: all their loved ones are banned from coming into the country, after years of begging _{Bush to let them see their husbands,sons,fathers.}

Those men you mentioned, Luis Posada Carriles, and Orlando Bosch masterminded the bombing of the Cubana airliner in mid-air, the first bombing of an airliner in flight in history, killing all 73 people on board, including children, the entire Cuban fencing team, Guyanese medical students. Those men are heroes in Miami, with the Miami city commissioners celebrating Orlando Bosch's crimes by naming a day of the year for him: Orlando Bosch Day. He's a real hero among the fascists, and both men have worked for the CIA, as well.

[friendly_iconoclast]

7. The five were just as much spies as any 'National Endowment for Democracy' agent

It's been a well-known principle of international law for years:

If you are working secretly for a foreign government, you're a spy.

Here, Cuba, or anywhere.

Not to say a lot of the exilios aren't fascists....

[Judi Lynn]

8. Not spying on any part of our government, but upon a terrorist group in Florida. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

9. I failed to include the fact they took the info. on this violent group of murderers to the FBI,

like children, believing that once they saw what they had learned they would help them.

The Cuban "exile" terrorists have made life a living hell for Cubans since the 1960's, including bombing the Cubana airliner mid-flight, containing the Cuban fencing team, and children, and Guyanese medical students, kidnapping, murdering Cuban citizens, sending in armed small groups to assassinate Cubans, hiring assassins from other countries to plant bombs in hotels, discoteques, restaurants, etc.

Bomber/mass murderer/terrorist/CIA/Iran Contra figure, Luis Posada Carriles revealed to the New York Times journalists Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rohter that the Cuban American National Foundation paid him for his terrorist activities.

It is not allowed, legally, to conduct acts of agresssion against other countries from U.S. soil, that's the LAW. The terrorists have even bragged that the FBI turns its back when it knows they are doing things against Cubans. That's a fact.

Who the #### is going to protect these people from the monsters, since the U.S. itself, against its own law, overlooks the acts of terrorism?

The cause of these five men is a matter of concern all over the world among progressive people.

A far different situation from infiltrators butting into a country intent upon overthrowing its government.

[Sex Pistol]

6. The question is not what the five did;

rather, the question is why do the Castro's imprison those who disagree with them?

[bemildred]

10. Who is "them"? nt

[IndianaGreen]

11. The Cuban Five were spying on Cuban-American terrorist groups

The US is still protecting Luis Posada Carriles who placed a bomb on a commercial jetlines.

[Mika]

12. Keep in mind that it was recently revealed the Posada was funneling money to "dissidents" via ..

.. the US interests section in Havana. That's right. Our own government agencies were funneling private funds from a self declared and admitted terrorist to his minions in Cuba. How any DUers can defend this type of activity is beyond me, yet, we constantly see defense of these so called "dissidents" who are on the US and Miami based terrorist organizations payrolls (like Alpha 66, Brigade 2506, CANF, etc) as if they were some kind of legitimate freedom fighters (well, I guess that in the BushCrimeFamily way they are "freedom fighters").


Pathetic.