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Latin America's "Bin Laden" Denied Bail, Judge
Cites Posada's Terror Record
Rove's Backers Use "CounterSpy Defense" in CIA
Leak Case
FLASHBACK: Renegade CIA Officer Phillip Agee Calls Outing
of Valerie Plame "Dirty Politics"
Wife of Guatemalan Rebel Killed by CIA Asset Says CIA Operatives
Engaged in Criminal Acts Should be Exposed
Latin America's "Bin Laden" Denied Bail,
Judge Cites Posada's Terror Record
Leading anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is denied
bail in his Texas immigration trial. We speak with a U.S.
immigration lawyer who has been retained by the Venezuelan
government to represent it in the case as it continues to
demand his extradition as well as the Chair of the National
Lawyers Guild's Cuba Subcommittee. [includes rush
transcript - partial]
We being today with a case we have been following closely
for years. And that is the case of the Cuban-born former CIA
operative Luis Posada Carriles, the man identified by Havana
as a leading anti-Castro terrorist. He is currently in immigration
detention in Texas and awaits an asylum hearing in late August.
He is currently being held on charges of illegally entering
the country, but that is just a grain of sand in this case.
He stands accused of a wide range of crimes and alleged crimes
against Cuba and its president Fidel Castro. Not the least
among the charges against Posada--the 1976 bombing of a Cubana
Airlines plane, killing 73 people including the entire Cuban
Olympic fencing team.
The Venezuelan government has demanded his extradition. Washington
has said it will not hand him over, saying that Caracas is
in the service of Fidel Castro. There is also the issue of
Posada's alleged attempt to kill Castro in 1998 when he was
attending a Latin American summit as well as the 1997 hotel
bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist. Just some
of the long list of charges against him. But none of those
are part of the current proceedings. At least not officially.
On Monday, in an El Paso, Texas immigration court, Judge
William Abbott rejected a request by Posada's lawyer that
he be released on bond, ruling that Posada must remain in
detention until his case is resolved. In his ruling, Abbott
cited allegations that Posada is a terror suspect and said
he was concerned Posada would flee. Abbott listed a series
of terror allegations against Posada over several decades
and said even Posada's participation in operations against
Cuba in the early 1960s could be considered terror under today's
standards. The Miami Herald reported that the judge's statement
seemed to catch by surprise Posada's lawyer, Matthew Archambeault,
who said he interpreted it to mean the judge would include
the Bay of Pigs invasion -- which was organized by the U.S.
government . In response, Judge Abbott said, "It doesn't
necessarily matter who helped it...The question is whether
that kind of activity today would be defined as aiding terrorism
or participating in acts of terrorism.""
According to The Herald, Posada played a role in the Bay
of Pigs operation but was not part of the invasion force itself.
It was after that that Posada allegedly joined the CIA, moving
to Venezuela in the late 1960s. In Caracas, Posada served
as a senior Venezuelan security officer and later operated
a private security agency.
He was arrested and charged in connection with the blowing
up of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people. Acquitted
by a military court, Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison
in 1985 before a civilian court could reach a verdict. Posada
was detained in Miami-Dade on May 17 and accused of entering
the country illegally. The Venezuelan government has demanded
his extradition since then, but has been denied.
- Jose Pertierra, a Washington DC-based immigration lawyer.
He has been retained by the Venezuelan government to represent
it in the Luis Posada C `arriles case here in the United
States. He joins us on the line from Caracas, Venezuela.
- Robert Parry, veteran investigative journalist and author
of the new book "Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the
Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq." For years he
worked as an investigative reporter for both the Associated
Press and Newsweek magazine. His reporting led to the exposure
of what is now known as the "Iran-Contra" scandal.
Rove's Backers Use "CounterSpy Defense"
in CIA Leak Case
We speak with veteran investigative journalist Robert Parry,
who writes that Karl Rove's defenders are rebutting accusations
about the White House aide's leaking of a CIA officer's identity
by using an argument that parallels a rationale cited by leftists
who defended CounterSpy after a CIA officer exposed by the
magazine in 1975 was gunned down in Greece.
More than two dozen Democratic senators on Monday asked Congress
to investigate the White House leak of undercover CIA operative
Valerie Plame.
In a letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of
Tennessee and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, senators said
the outing of Plame most likely compromised her safety. John
Kerry of Massachussetts who authored the letter said, "Can
anyone argue with a straight face that Congress has time to
look at steroid use in baseball but doesn't have the will
to provide congressional oversight of the leak of a CIA agent's
name?"
The letter cited information reported in the press suggesting
that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Vice
President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - Lewis Libby - exposed
Plame's identity.
- Robert Parry, veteran investigative journalist and author
of the book "Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush
Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq." For years he worked
as an investigative reporter for both the Associated Press
and Newsweek magazine. His reporting led to the exposure
of what is now known as the "Iran-Contra" scandal.
His latest piece, on ConsortiumNews.com
is called "Rove's
Backers Use Counterspy Defense"
FLASHBACK: Renegade CIA Officer Phillip Agee Calls
Outing of Valerie Plame "Dirty Politics"
Whoever in the White House exposed Valerie Plame could be
charged under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
We rebroadcast an interview with former CIA officer Phillip
Agee, for whom, many believe, the Act was written.
The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 made
it a felony to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert
government agent.
Many believe the law was passed in direct response to former
CIA officer Philip Agee blowing the whistle on CIA dirty tricks
in his book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary." George
H.W. Bush, who was vice-president when the law was passed,
said some of the criticism of the Agency undermined secret
U.S. clandestine operations in foreign countries.
So seriously did the Bushes take the crime of exposing CIA
operatives that Barbara Bush, in her memoirs, accused Agee
of blowing the cover of the CIA Station Chief in Greece, Richard
Welch, who was assassinated outside his Athens residence in
1975. Agee sued the former first lady and Mrs. Bush withdrew
the statement from additional printings of her book. Still,
at a celebration marking the fiftieth anniversary of the CIA,
the elder Bush again singled out Agee in his remarks, calling
him "a traitor to our country."
- Phillip Agee, interviewed on Democracy Now!, October
2, 2003.
Wife of Guatemalan Rebel Killed by CIA Asset Says
CIA Operatives Engaged in Criminal Acts Should be Exposed
Is it ever justified to blow a CIA operative's cover? We
speak with human rights attorney Jennifer Harbury - her husband
was a Mayan leader who was killed by a CIA asset in Guatemala.
Republicans are defending Karl Rove, one of the people involved
in the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Karl Rove
is one of the most powerful officials in the Bush administration.
Ironically it was under another Bush administration - the
Reagan/Bush administration - that the Intelligence Identities
Protection Act was first passed. This act imposes strict penalties
on the outing of covert CIA agents. And it is the Democrats
who are insisting that this law be enforced. But there is
another side to all of this that has been left out of the
discussion. And that is, human rights activists and torture
victims have, for years, been harshly critically of the CIA's
human rights abuses in among other places, Latin American.
And they have called for CIA agents and operatives who have
committed crimes to be publicly identified in order to bring
them to justice and shed light on CIA support of criminal
activity.
Jennifer Harbury is one of these people. Her husband was
a Mayan guerilla leader in Guatemala who was killed by a CIA
operative.
- Jennifer Harbury, director of the Unitarian Universalist
Service Committee's Stop
Torture Permanently campaign. She is a human rights
lawyer, author of "Searching for Everardo: A Story
of Love, War & the CIA in Guatemala" and the forthcoming
"Truth, Torture and the American Way: The History and
Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture"
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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