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Landmark Decision Overturns Cuba 5 Convictions
Maher Arar Fights to Keep Torture Suit Against U.S. Government
Alive
Did Speaker Hastert Accept Turkish Bribes to Deny Armenian
Genocide and Approve Weapons Sales?
Landmark Decision Overturns Cuba 5 Convictions
A federal appellate court in Atlanta overturned the convictions
of the Cuba 5 and ordered a new trial on the basis that the
men could not get a fair trial in the right-wing Cuban exile
stronghold of Miami. The five were accused of spying for Cuba.
We speak with Leonard Weinglass, one of the lawyers for the
Cuba 5. [includes rush
transcript]
It is being called a historic decision in the case of the
Cuba 5-five men hailed in Cuba as heroes and labeled spies
by the US government. On Tuesday, a federal appellate court
in Atlanta overturned their convictions and ordered a new
trial. The five were accused of spying for Cuba. In its ruling,
the Court said the men could not get a fair trial in the right-wing
Cuban exile stronghold of Miami.
In 1998, Ruben Campa, Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Luis
Medina and Antonio Guerrero were arrested in Florida and were
tried and convicted of espionage, conspiracy and related charges.
They were accused of spying on Cuban-American exile leaders
and U.S. military bases and convicted in December of 2001.
Gerardo Hernandez was also convicted of conspiracy to commit
murder for engineering the shootdown of two Brothers to the
Rescue planes in 1996. Brothers to the Rescue is a violent
anti-Castro, Cuban exile group that has regularly attacked
the island nation.
The five spent almost three years in jail between their arrest
and the beginning of their trial. Three of the men were given
life sentences while the other two were sentenced to up to
20 years in prison. Yesterday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
overturned the convictions and essentially agreed with the
defense that bias in Miami against Cuban President Fidel Castro
and the Cuban revolution stopped the defendants from getting
a fair trial. In its ninety-three page opinion, the court
wrote, "The entire community is sensitive to and permeated
by concerns for the Cuban exile population in Miami. A new
trial was mandated by the perfect storm created when the surge
of pervasive community sentiment and extensive publicity both
before and during the trial merged with the improper prosecutorial
references."
- Leonard Weinglass, long time civil-rights attorney and
one of the lawyers for the Cuba 5.
Maher Arar Fights to Keep Torture Suit Against U.S.
Government Alive
Canadian torture victim Maher Arar is the first person to
mount a civil suit challenging the U.S. government policy
of extraordinary rendition. Now his attorneys are fighting
the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the case. We speak
with David Cole, the lead lawyer for Maher Arar. [includes
rush
transcript]
Attorneys for Syrian-born Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, made
their first public appearance in a Brooklyn Federal Court
yesterday in Arar's closely watched civil lawsuit against
several U.S. officials. Among them: former Attorney General
John Ashcroft and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
In his lawsuit, Arar accuses the U.S. government of violating
the Torture Victim Protection Act and his Fifth Amendment
right to due process. His attorneys appeared in court yesterday
to argue against the Justice Department's motion to dismiss
Arar's case.
In October 2002, Arar was detained at JFK airport by US officials
while on a stopover in New York. He was then jailed and secretly
deported to Syria. He was held for almost a year without charge
in an underground cell not much larger than a grave, where
he was tortured. The Center for Constitutional Rights launched
Arar's lawsuit last January alleging that Ashcroft, Ridge
and other officials in the Bush administration knew Arar would
be tortured when he was deported. Arar alleges he was a victim
of the US government's "extraordinary rendition"
policy of sending people to countries that routinely use torture,
instead of holding them in the US where they have certain
rights under the constitution.
The US government is attempting to have Arar's lawsuit dismissed.
Invoking the rarely used "state secrets privilege"
the Justice Department claims that any release of information
on Arar could jeopardize "intelligence, foreign policy
and national security interests of the United States."
Last year, Time Magazine in Canada named him the country's
newsmaker of the year.
Did Speaker Hastert Accept Turkish Bribes to Deny
Armenian Genocide and Approve Weapons Sales?
Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds is accusing the FBI
of covering up improper contacts and financial dealings between
certain Turkish nationals and the office of House Speaker
Dennis Hastert. We speak with Sibel Edmonds and Vanity Fair
journalist David Rose. [includes rush
transcript]
Former FBI translator turned whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds
is now appealing her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In March
2002, she was fired and she has been fighting now for nearly
3 years to blow the whistle on US government failures prior
to 9-11. She has faced fierce opposition from the Bush administration,
the FBI and some in Congress. This week, she grabbed headlines
again after Vanity Fair published a major story about her.
What is making news from that piece are allegations surrounding
Illinois congressman and Republican Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert.
Vanity Fair alleges that Hastert may have been the recipient
of tens of thousands of dollars of secret payments from Turkish
officials in exchange for political favors and information.
In the article, titled "An Inconvenient Patriot,"
Edmonds says that she gave confidential testimony about the
payments to congressional staffers, the Inspector General
and members of the 9/11 Commission. Edmonds says that she
heard of the payments while listening to FBI wiretaps of Turkish
officials who were under surveillance by the FBI.
Sibel Edmonds speaks Farsi, Turkish and Azerbaijani. She
was hired after September eleventh by the FBI to translate
pre-9-11 intelligence gathered by the agency. She has publicly
accused the U.S of having considerable evidence that Al Qaeda
was planning to strike the United States using airplanes as
weapons.
Democracy Now contacted Congressman Hastert's office and
the Turkish Embassy for comment. They did not return our phone
calls.
- Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator who was hired shortly
after Sept. 11 to translate intelligence gathered over the
previous related to the 9/11 attacks. She speaks fluent
Farsi, Turkish and Azerbaijani.
- David Rose, investigative journalist and author of "An
Inconvenient Patriot" published in the September issue
of Vanity Fair magazine.
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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