sábado, octubre 01, 2005

Posada Cariles - CIA Terrorists - Torture

Stories in the news at the moment show us the complete hypocrisy (as if we needed more examples!) of the US position on the 2 Ts: Terrorism and Torture.

Posada Cariles

Luis Posada Cariles has just been before a judge charged with illegal entry into the US. According to an article in the Miami Herald:

"Immigration judge William Abbott ruled that Posada will not be deported to Venezuela because Abbott believes Venezuela would likely torture him -- a claim Venezuela has vehemently denied."

Of course, what proof did the judge have that Venezuela would torture him? None whatsover:

"The judge hinged his decision on testimony from Posada and Venezuelan lawyer Joaquin Chaffardet, an old friend of Posada's who told Abbott that Venezuela would surely torture Posada. Abbott also took into account Venezuela's relationship with Cuba."

"The United States government is concerned that the growing economic and political ties between Cuba and Venezuela might persuade President Chávez to allow Cuban agents to come to Venezuela where the respondent could possibly suffer torture," Abbott wrote.

I was obviously under the mistaken impression that decisions taken by judges in court had to be based on fact, not just feelings or presumptions, and especially feelings or presumptions from the defendant and his friends...

We can also glean from the Miami Herald article that the Dept of Homeland Security who prosecuted the case, "did not call any witnesses against him"... & "Abbott noted that DHS did not present a clear case for sending Posada to Venezuela".

"Jose Pertierra, a lawyer who represents Venezuela on the Posada case, ripped prosecutors from the Department of Homeland Security for what he perceived to be undue leniency"

"DHS gave this decision to the judge on a silver platter,'' Pertierra said. ``We feel very deceived with the conduct of the prosecutors and DHS, which didn't litigate this case in good faith."

"Abbott claimed that he would have made the same ruling for “the most heinous terrorist or mass murderer”—Posada is both—“if he or she could establish... the probability of torture in the future.” Earlier in the proceedings, he said that he would grant deferral of deportation to Adolf Hitler if Hitler could prove such a threat."

Of course, if Posada Cariles' friend Joaquin Chaffardet had been given a lie detector test he would have passed without problems, referring to the past history of Venezuelan torture when he was in charge of course:

"Chaffardet was the secretary general of the DISIP, the Venezuelan secret police. He hired Posada as chief of operations of this repressive force. The Cuban terrorist had been trained by the CIA and the US military in interrogation techniques, torture and bomb-making. When he arrived in Venezuela in 1967, Posada was on the payroll of the CIA.

Posada put his US training to work, directing the interrogation and torture of political prisoners. Survivors of Posada’s clandestine prison have testified to being subjected to beatings, electric shocks, mock executions and other forms of torture. A number of these prisoners were murdered or disappeared.

Afterwards, Chaffardet was a partner with Posada in a private security firm from which the bombing of the Cuban jetliner was organized. Chaffardet is a fanatical right-wing opponent of the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez."

CIA Terrorists

What else do we know about Posada Cariles then, and is it fair to call him a CIA Terrorist?

Luis Posada Carriles had a long relationship with the CIA. In February 1961, he joined the CIA's Brigade 2506 to invade Cuba, although the ship to which he was assigned never landed at the Bay of Pigs. While in the U.S. military between 1963 and 1965 the CIA recruited him and trained him in demolitions; he subsequently became a trainer of other paramilitary exile forces in the mid 1960s. CIA documents posted below reveal that he was terminated as an asset in July 1967, but then reinstated four months later and apparently remained an asset until 1974. The documents also show that he remained in contact with the Agency until June 1976, only three months before the plane bombing.


Document 1: CIA, October 13, 1976, Report, "Traces on Persons Involved in 6 Oct 1976 Cubana Crash."
In the aftermath of the bombing of Cubana flight 455, the CIA ran a file check on all names associated with the terror attack. In a report to the FBI the Agency stated that it had no association with the two Venezuelans who were arrested. A section on Luis Posada Carriles was heavily redacted when the document was declassified. But the FBI retransmitted the report three days later and that version was released uncensored revealing Posada's relations with the CIA.

Document 2: FBI, October 16, 1976, Retransmission of CIA Trace Report
In this uncensored version of the CIA trace report, the Agency admits that it "had a relationship with one person whose name has been mentioned in connection with the reported bombing," Luis Posada Carriles. The CIA file check shows that Posada was "a former agent of CIA." Although it doesn't say when his employment began, it indicates he was terminated briefly in the summer of 1967 but then reinstated in the fall and continued as an asset while a high level official in the Venezuelan intelligence service, DISIP, until 1974. Even then, "occasional contact with him" continued until June 1976.

Document 3: CIA, June 1966, File search on Luis "Pozada"
In this file search the CIA states that Posada has "been of operational interest to this Agency since April 1965," the likely date when he first became a paid CIA agent.

Document 4: FBI, July 18, 1966, "Cuba"
An informant reports to the FBI that Posada is a CIA agent and is "receiving approximately $300.00 per month from CIA."

Document 5: CIA, April 17, 1972, Personal Record Questionnaire on Posada
This "PRQ" was compiled in 1972 at a time Posada was a high level official at the Venezuelan intelligence service, DISIP, in charge of demolitions. The CIA was beginning to have some concerns about him, based on reports that he had taken CIA explosives equipment to Venezuela, and that he had ties to a Miami mafia figure named Lefty Rosenthal. The PRQ spells out Posada's personal background and includes his travel to various countries between 1956 and 1971. It also confirms that one of his many aliases was "Bambi Carriles."
During the time that Posada was on the CIA payroll in the mid-1960s, he participated in a number of plots that involved sabotage and explosives. FBI reporting recorded some of Posada's earliest activities, including his financial ties to Jorge Mas Canosa, who would later become head of the powerful anti-Castro lobby, the Cuban American National Foundation.

Document 6: FBI, July 7, 1965, "Luis Posada Carriles"
The FBI transmits information obtained from the CIA's Mexico station titled "Intention of Cuban Representation in Exile (RECE) to Blow up a Cuban or Soviet Vessel in Veracruz, Mexico." The document summarizes intelligence on a payment that Jorge Mas Canosa, then the head of RECE, has made to Luis Posada to finance a sabotage operation against ships in Mexico. Posada reportedly has "100 pounds of C-4 explosives and detonators" and limpet mines to use in the operation.

Document 7: FBI, July 13, 1965, "Cuban Representation in Exile (RECE)"
A FBI cable reports on intelligence obtained from "MM T-1" (a code reference to the CIA) on a number of RECE terrorist operations, including the bombing of the Soviet library in Mexico City. The document contains information on payments from Jorge Mas Canosa to Luis Posada for an operation to bomb ships in the port of Veracruz, as well as a description of Posada and a statement he gave to the FBI in June of 1964.

Document 8: FBI, May 17, 1965, "Roberto Alejos Arzu; Luis Sierra Lopez, Neutrality Matters, Internal Security-Guatemala"
The FBI links Posada to a major plot to overthrow the government of Guatemala. U.S. Customs agents force Posada and other co-conspirators to turn over a cache of weapons that are listed in this document. The weapons include napalm, 80 pounds of C-4 explosives, and 28 pounds of C-3 explosives.

Document 9: FBI, October 7, 1976, Secret Intelligence Report, "Suspected Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados"
In one of the very first reports on the October 6, 1976, downing of Cubana Flight 455, the FBI Venezuelan bureau cables that a confidential source has identified Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch as responsible for the bombing. "The source all but admitted that Posada and Bosch had engineered the bombing of the airline," according to the report. The report appears to indicate that the Venezuelan secret police, DISIP, were arranging for Bosch and Posada to leave Caracas, although this section of the document has been censored.
In the report, the FBI identifies two Venezuelan suspects arrested in Barbados: Freddy Lugo and Jose Vazquez Garcia. Vazquez Garcia is an alias for Hernan Ricardo Lozano. Both Ricardo and Lugo worked for Luis Posada's private security firm in Caracas at the time of the bombing.


Document 10: FBI, November 2, 1976, Secret Intelligence Report "Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados, West Indies, October 6, 1976"
The FBI receives information from a source who has spoken with Ricardo Morales Navarrete, a Cuban exile informant working for DISIP in Caracas. Known as "Monkey" Morales, he tells the FBI source of two meetings during which plotting for the plane bombing took place: one in the Hotel Anauco Hilton in Caracas, and another in Morales room at the Hilton. Both meetings were attended by Posada Carriles. A key passage of the report quotes Morales as stating that "some people in the Venezuelan government are involved in this airplane bombing, and that if Posada Carriles talks, then Morales Navarrete and others in the Venezuelan government will 'go down the tube.' He said that if people start talking 'we'll have our own Watergate.'" Morales also states that after the plane went down, one of the men who placed the bomb aboard the jet called Orlando Bosch and reported: "A bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed."


Document 11: FBI, November 3, 1976, Cable, "Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados, West Indies, October 6, 1976"
The FBI reports on arrest warrants issued by a Venezuelan judge for Posada, Bosch, Freddy Lugo and Ricardo Lozano.


Document 12: FBI, January 24, 1977, Secret Report, "Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) Neutrality Matters - Cuba - (Anti-Castro)"
The FBI reports on a plot to carry out terrorist attacks that will divert attention from the prosecution of Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada in Caracas. Orders for the attacks are attributed to Orlando Garcia Vazquez, a Cuban exile who was then head of the Venezuelan intelligence service, DISIP. (Garcia Vazquez currently lives in Miami.) The report also provides some details on CORU.

Document 13: FBI, August 16, 1978, Secret Report, "Coordinacion de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations) (CORU), Neutrality Matters - Cuba - (Anti-Castro)"
This FBI report provides a comprehensive overview of CORU which the FBI describes as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization" headed by Orlando Bosch. The report records how CORU was created at a secret meeting in Santo Domingo on June 11, 1976, during which a series of bombing attacks were planned, including the bombing of a Cubana airliner. On page 6, the report relates in great detail how Orlando Bosch was met in Caracas on September 8, 1976, by Luis Posada and other anti-Castro exiles and a deal was struck as to what kind of activities he could organize on Venezuelan soil. The document also contains substantive details on behind-the-scene efforts in Caracas to obtain the early release of Bosch and Posada from prison.

Document 14: September 2, 1986, Contra re-supply document, [Distribution of Warehoused Contra Weapons and Equipment - in Spanish with English translation]
After bribing his way out of prison in Venezuela in September 1985, Posada went directly to El Salvador to work on the illicit contra resupply operations being run by Lt. Col. Oliver North. Posada assumed the name "Ramon Medina," and worked as a deputy to another anti-Castro Cuban exile, Felix Rodriguez, who was in charge of a small airlift of arms and supplies to the contras in Southern Nicaragua. Rodriguez used the code name, Max Gomez. This document, released during the Congressional investigation into the Iran-Contra operations, records both Posada and Rodriguez obtaining supplies for contra troops from a warehouse at Illopango airbase in San Salvador.


Torture

Of course this whole use of the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT) is a farce, as the above demonstrates. Posada Cariles was trained by the CIA at Fort Benning (School of the Americas). The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia

A closer study of the SOA reveals that most of the extreme right wing dictatorships had members of their armed forces and police trained in torture techniques at this school.
Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned. Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

Pusla aquí para leer en español: La Escuela de las Américas

The other link between CIA terrorists and torture is provided by the recent case of Italian Authorities issuing arrest warrants for 13 US citizens for the kidnapping of an Egyptian imam. Of course the CIA secretly flew him to Egypt where he was tortured.

We also now know that the terrorist in charge of the operation was in fact a US Diplomat (now currently serving at the US Embassy in Mexico). NB. Virtually immediately after publishing this information, Betnie M. Medero-Navedo's name disppeared from the above accreditations list for the US Embassy in Mexico, according to Reforma (copied at Archivo Z date 01 Oct 2005) in Mexico (resultados desde 06/Jun/2005 a 06/Dic/2005 tips de búsqueda
1. 01-10-2005. primera.Rastrean en Mexico a 'agente de la CIA' (Artículo)):


"Rastrean en México a 'agente de la CIA' Por Ángel Villarino Reforma
REFORMA / EspecialROMA.- La Policía italiana ubicó en México a la diplomática estadounidense
Betnie Medero, a quien el Gobierno italiano acusa de haber participado en el secuestro y tortura de un ciudadano egipcio en Milán hace dos años.
Por ese caso, la justicia europea ha emitido 22 órdenes de captura contra presuntos agentes de la CIA, incluyendo a Medero, por actuar sin respetar las leyes europeas en territorio italiano.
De acuerdo con el diario Corriere della Sera, que cita fuentes estadounidenses, Medero trabaja para la Embajada de Estados Unidos en México.
En la página de internet de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores mexicana, Betnie Marie Medero Navedo aparecía hasta ayer como primera secretaria de la Embajada estadounidense, sin más información.
A principios del 2003, la fiscalía antiterrorismo de Milán denunció el secuestro del imán Abu Omar a manos de agentes de la CIA.
Según el fiscal, los agentes estadou-nidenses trasladaron a Omar a Egipto y lo sometieron a violentos interrogatorios con ayuda de la Policía de ese país africano.
El pasado jueves, la Policía italiana encontró vacío el apartamento de Medero en Roma.
Versiones policiacas señalan que ella fue uno de los cerebros de la misión contra Omar, que habría sido coordinada desde la Embajada estadounidense en Roma, donde trabajó como segunda secretaria hasta que tuvo lugar el plagio.
El jefe del comando fue identificado como Bob Lady, un antiguo Cónsul de EU que dirigía desde Milán las actividades clandestinas de la CIA y que habría coordinado personalmente el secuestro.
El Gobierno de EU ha defendido en diversas ocasiones su capacidad para realizar misiones secretas en países aliados, aunque nunca ha admitido secuestros de musulmanes en Italia
.".

According to US Senate records she was appointed by "Executive Nomination" to the US Diplomatic Service in 1998. Originally from Puerto Rico, there is no information on this woman at all, but she does apparently keep in touch with her classmates , although it seems they can't contact her (obviously not if she is CIA).

But of course this practice called "rendition" is tacitly approved by the US Government.

More articles:
US accused of protecting Cuban militant (the Guardian just can't quite bring itself to call him a terrorist can they?)

Pentagon dismisses new report on US military torture in Iraq

LUIS POSADA CARRILESTHE DECLASSIFIED RECORD CIA and FBI Documents Detail Career in International Terrorism; Connection to U.S.

Case of Cuban Exile Could Test the US Definition of Terrorist

Posada says Castro is persecuting him

Judge: Posada to stay in U.S. for now