Friday, March 11, 2011 Ann Louise Bardach will testify against Luis Posada Carriles on Wednesday<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/ann-louise-bardach-will-testify-against.html> She will be, without a doubt, the key witness for the prosecution against Luis Posada Carriles in his trial for perjury. U.S. Justice Department prosecutors have announced that they will rest their case after she testifies.
In 1998 she published an *article*<http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/12/world/a-bombers-tale-taking-aim-at-castro-key-cuba-foe-claims-exiles-backing.html>in the New York Times, where that Miami criminal scum boasted of having directed a series of terrorist acts against Cuban tourist hotels in Havana in 1997. Below are the first two paragraphs of her article: MIAMI A Cuban exile who has waged a campaign of bombings and assassination attempts aimed at toppling Fidel Castro says that his efforts were supported financially for more than a decade by the Cuban-American leaders of one of America's most influential lobbying groups. The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, said he organized a wave of bombings in Cuba last year at hotels, restaurants and discotheques, killing an Italian tourist and alarming the Cuban Government. Mr. Posada was schooled in demolition and guerrilla warfare by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960's. Posted by Cuba Journal at 3/11/2011 11:33:00 AM<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/ann-louise-bardach-will-testify-against.html> 0 comments<https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19674712&postID=7923686431146859238> <http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=19674712&postID=7923686431146859238> Labels: Ann Louise Bardach<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Ann%20Louise%20Bardach>, Cuba <http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Cuba>, Luis Posada Carriles<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Luis%20Posada%20Carriles>, Miami Terrorists<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Miami%20Terrorists> Witness: Ex-operative said he smuggled explosives<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/witness-ex-operative-said-he-smuggled.html> *Associated Press*<http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/03/10/general-us-cuban-militant_8349785.html> By WILL WEISSERT , 03.10.11, 04:31 PM EST EL PASO, Texas -- A key prosecution witness testified Thursday that he heard a former CIA operative and anti-communist militant discuss how to smuggle explosives into Cuba during a period in 1997 when a series of bombs were exploding at top Havana hotels. Cuban-American engineer Antonio "Tony" Alvarez worked for a Florida-based investment firm that built a power plant in Guatemala. He said he shared an office there with two associates who introduced him to Luis Posada Carriles, now charged with 11 federal counts of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud. Posada, 83, isn't charged with the bombings, only for lying about them under oath. Born in Cuba, he spent decades crisscrossing Latin America as a Cold Warrior largely backed by the U.S. government and was considered a nemesis of ex-Cuban President Fidel Castro. But Posada sneaked into the U.S. in 2005 and underwent immigration hearings in El Paso, during which prosecutors allege he lied about how he made it into the country and about using a Guatemalan passport with a false name. They also say he failed to acknowledge masterminding the bombings in Cuba between April and September 1997, which rocked hotels and an iconic tourist restaurant in Havana and a resort in the beach community of Varadero, killing an Italian tourist and wounding about a dozen others. Alvarez, 75, told jurors he began to suspect Posada and his colleagues when he discovered disassembled calculators and an empty plastic tube marked "C-4 Dangerous Explosives" and bearing a stamp from "Mexican Military Industries" in his Guatemala City office. He said he then installed a hidden intercom system and heard the three "talking about money for distributing bombs." "They were talking about the manner in which the defendant would send some explosive materials to Cuba," Alvarez said, using fluent English to recall a conversation that was in Spanish. "The defendant said they have a mechanic who works for Aviateca Airlines who will help them out and bring the materials." Aviateca was then Guatemala's national carrier. Posada attorney Arturo Hernandez objected and part of that answer was stricken from the record as hearsay, but the jury heard it anyway. Asked how he recognized Posada's voice, Alvarez replied, "because of the particular way he speaks." Posada has a deep slur, the result of being shot in the face during an assassination attempt in Guatemala in 1990 that cost him part of his tongue. Alvarez said he didn't record what was said, only remembered it. Still, he was the first witness since the trial began nine weeks ago to directly link Posada to explosives. Previous testimony focused only on his boasts about having been involved. Alvarez said he alerted Guatemalan authorities and that when they did nothing, he contacted the FBI. In 1998, Posada granted an interview with the New York Times, saying he wanted to generate publicity for the Cuban bombing campaign. He was quoted as saying that those attacks were meant to scare tourists, but not kill anyone. After Alvarez, the prosecution's lone remaining witness is Ann Louise Bardach, the reporter who interviewed Posada. Alvarez said that at age 15 or 16 he began dating Lidia Castro, the half-sister of Fidel. He said the pair was in love for nine years but broke up in 1959 - the same year Castro's rebels took power - because he had an affair. Alvarez said he fled for the U.S. in 1961, after being warned that Raul Castro, who became Cuba's president in 2009, was out to get him. Hernandez quizzed Alvarez about his relationship with the Castro family. Alvarez responded that he has no plans to return to the island as long as the Castro brothers are still in charge. Alvarez also described working as an informant for U.S. Customs between 1984 and 1986 against a New York City restaurant owner with ties to Colombia's Medellin Cartel and drug lord Pablo Escobar. Alvarez said he was a frequent customer at the eatery and posed as a man looking to launder money. He said he even wore a wire - but was never paid for his services. Hernandez suggested Alvarez associated with drug traffickers and also said he became wealthy from U.S. government payoffs, but Alvarez said his wife's cancer treatments had drained his finances. Mention of her health caused Alvarez to cry on the stand. *Diario de El Paso: Las razones de Tony Álvarez*<http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2011/03/11/diario-de-el-paso-las-razones-de-tony-alvarez/> Posted by Cuba Journal at 3/10/2011 04:55:00 PM<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/witness-ex-operative-said-he-smuggled.html> 0 comments<https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19674712&postID=8747737289471307008> <http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=19674712&postID=8747737289471307008> Labels: Cuba <http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Cuba>, Luis Posada Carriles<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Luis%20Posada%20Carriles>, Miami Terrorists<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Miami%20Terrorists> Tuesday, March 08, 2011 Friend of Italian tourist killed in 1997 bombing in Cuba testifies at Luis Posada Carriles' trial<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/friend-of-italian-tourist-killed-in.html> By Juan Carlos Llorca (*Canadian Press*<http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5h27ylvVV0nlmMmZHe2Zz355pki2A?docId=6177409>) March 8, 2011, 7:45 a.m. EL PASO, Texas A friend of Italian tourist killed in the 1997 bombing of a Havana hotel has provided harrowing testimony detailing the explosion and resulting carnage during the U.S. trial of a former CIA operative accused of immigration fraud who is suspected in that attack. With the help of an interpreter, Enrico Gollo, 45, told the jury Monday how he and his then-wife were having a drink with Fabio di Celmo in the lobby bar of Havana's Copacabana Hotel when the bomb went off. "The first thing I can remember was a big noise, I didn't immediately understand what was happening. My ears were ringing, there was lots of smoke," said Gollo recalling the Sept. 4, 1997, attack. A bomb, placed inside a metal ashtray in the lobby bar sent shrapnel flying through the air, slicing di Celmo's jugular. "He was all covered in blood, near him a big lake of blood, there was a lot of blood coming out of him," Gollo said of his friend of 17 years. Di Celmo was driven in a private car to a nearby clinic where he was pronounced dead upon arrival, Gollo said. Twelve other people, including Gollo's wife, were injured that day. Cuba-born Luis Posada Carriles, 83, is accused of lying to immigration officials during citizenship hearings in El Paso about how he sneaked into the U.S. in March 2005, and of failing to acknowledge planning the Copacabana bombing and other attacks on Cuban hotels and a top Havana tourist restaurant in 1997. He is also accused of perjury and the obstruction of justice in a terror probe. Posada told The New York Times in 1998 that he was behind the bombings, which he said were meant to cripple the Cuban tourism industry. He has since recanted those comments. Tuesday's testimony is expected to focus on the Havana bombings. The Cuban militant spent decades traversing Latin America, often backed by Washington, working to destabilize communist governments. He is Public Enemy No. 1 in Cuba, considered ex-President Fidel Castro's personal nemesis, and his attorneys say the Cuban government is bent on seeing Posada dead or incarcerated. A paid CIA agent for at least 12 years in the 1960s and 70s, Posada participated indirectly in the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 and later moved to Venezuela, where he served as head of that country's intelligence service. He was arrested for planning the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. A Venezuelan military court dismissed the charges, but Posada escaped from prison before a civilian trial against him was completed. In the 1980s, he helped Washington provide aid to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. In 2000, he was arrested in Panama in a plot to kill Castro during a summit there. He was pardoned in 2004 and turned up in the U.S. the following March. Posada was held in an immigration detention centre in El Paso for about two years but released in 2007 and has been living in Miami. *Diario de El Paso: El amigo de Fabio*<http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2011/03/08/diario-de-el-paso-el-amigo-de-fabio/> Posted by Cuba Journal at 3/08/2011 09:52:00 AM<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/friend-of-italian-tourist-killed-in.html> 0 comments<https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19674712&postID=6665616824581215203> <http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=19674712&postID=6665616824581215203> Labels: Cuba <http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Cuba>, Luis Posada Carriles<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Luis%20Posada%20Carriles>, Miami Terrorists<http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/Miami%20Terrorists> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> 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/
