Forward from mart ABSOLUTE AND COMPLETE CRIMINAL HYPOCRISY! - Fw: Pardoned Terrorists Enter the U.S.
============================================== Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 23:17:44 -0600 From: "Luis A. Martin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Pardoned Terrorists Enter the U.S. President Bush Sr. also pardoned Orlando Bosch, a terrorist who admitted bombing a Cuban airplane in 1976, killing all passengers. Protests against the latest pardon must be conducted at Panamanian consulates. Immigration and Homeland Security offices must also be picketed for allowing entry of the terrorists into the U.S. Luis Martin ---------- By Elida Moreno PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's outgoing president on Thursday pardoned four Cuban exiles jailed for plotting to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000 and three or them flew straight to Miami, a haven of anti-Castro groups. The pardoned men were among six sentenced in April for their part in the failed attempt to bomb a University of Panama auditorium where Castro was due to speak during a summit of Iberian and Latin American leaders. President Mireya Moscoso, who leaves office next week, said she freed the Cubans for humanitarian reasons. Her decision was certain to infuriate Cuba, which had warned it would break ties with Panama if the men were pardoned. Three of the plotters were Cuban-born U.S. citizens and on their release they flew directly to a small airport in Miami, where they were met by their families. The fourth was prominent anti-Castro activist Luis Posada, who escaped in the 1980s from a Venezuelan jail where he faced charges of planning the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada is not a U.S. citizen so did not travel to Miami, and it was unclear where he was. Moscoso said she freed the four because they were convicted for relatively minor crimes rather than attempted murder and she denied claims the United States had pushed her into it. "No foreign government has pressured me to take the decision," she told a news conference. "I knew that if these men stayed here, they would be extradited to Cuba and Venezuela and there they were surely going to kill them there." A Panamanian court in April sentenced the Cuban exiles to prison terms of 7 and 8 years on charges of endangering public safety and falsifying documents. It ruled there was not enough evidence to try them on charges of attempted murder. DRESSED AS A PRIEST Cuba wanted the men extradited and Venezuela also sought Posada. He was never convicted of the Cuban airliner bombing but was arrested in Venezuela and denied bail for 9 years until he escaped prison disguised as a priest in 1985. Panama's President-elect Martin Torrijos said he disagreed with the pardon and pledged to work to repair any damage to relations with Cuba once he takes office next Wednesday. Torrijos is a centrist and the son of popular former dictator Omar Torrijos who negotiated a 1977 treaty with Washington that led the United States to hand over control of the Panama Canal. Union leaders also blasted the pardon and rallied their members to take to the streets in protests. In Havana, a foreign ministry official said Cuba had not yet received > official word of the release of the four men. On Sunday, Cuba said diplomatic ties would be automatically broken if Panama pardoned "these monstrous criminals." Panama responded by ordering Cuba's ambassador out of the country and recalling its own ambassador in Cuba. Panamanian media speculated the pardon was requested by the United States, whose decades-old dispute with Cuba has been fanned by President Bush's tough new restrictions on traveling or sending family remittances to the island. Moscoso has enjoyed close relations with the Bush administration. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/VL0olB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Peruuta ryhm�n tilaus l�hett�m�ll� s�hk�postia osoitteeseen: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kominform2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
