[Marxism] MIAMI: Terrorist backers call public rally. Herald helps publicize it

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Note the Herald's help to Posada's side in this issue in the story 
below, an effort to discredit the witness against the terrorist.)
==================================================================

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Thu, Jan. 18, 2007    
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/16485139.htm

Rally in Miami

What: Some Cuban exile militant groups plan a rally in support of
fellow anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles and other imprisoned
militants.

Where: Bay of Pigs monument in Little Havana at the corner of
Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue.

When: Noon to 6 p.m. Friday.

For more information: Call Vigilia Mambisa, one of the organizing
groups, at 786-326-9986.

===================================================================
MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Thu, Jan. 18, 2007    
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/16485137.htm

POSADA IMMIGRATION CASE
Witness against militant Posada reports a bomb under his pickup
A Hialeah man helping prosecutors go after anti-Castro militants 
is an FBI informant who said he found a pipe bomb under his truck.
BY JAY WEAVER AND ALFONSO CHARDY
jweaver@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

An FBI informant who is a key witness against anti-Castro militant
Luis Posada Carriles discovered a pipe bomb attached to the bottom of
his pickup truck Sunday and drove it to the Hialeah Police
Department, law-enforcement authorities say.

Gilberto Abascal -- whose testimony also helped convict anti-Castro
activists Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat on weapons charges --
somehow spotted the device strapped to the undercarriage of his red
2005 Ford F-150 truck while he cruised around Hialeah, two federal
investigators familiar with the incident said.

Despite finding the explosive device, Abascal drove several blocks to
the Hialeah police station.

Hialeah police and Miami-Dade bomb squad officers shut down the area
and detonated the device. The police picked up the bomb scraps, which
included wires and gun shells. The FBI is now investigating, although
spokeswoman Judy Orihuela declined to comment.

Sunday was not the first time that Abascal -- who is supposed to be
in a witness protection program well outside Miami-Dade County -- has
claimed an attempt on his life. Last August, he told police that an
unknown gunman pulled alongside his pickup at a Hialeah eatery,
Rancho Grande, and shot at him, according to a police report. Abascal
told police he pulled a 9mm pistol from his glove box and shot back.

WORK FOR THE FBI

Abascal did not return calls to his cellphone or home phone. He has
worked off and on as an FBI informant on probes involving Cuban exile
militants since at least 2001. Abascal has received more than $25,000
from the FBI for his testimony, expenses and relocation.

Defense attorneys for the Cuban exiles implicated in recent criminal
investigations called Abascal a ''double agent'' whose clients are
the FBI and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Abascal -- along with federal
authorities -- has repeatedly denied that he is a double agent,
although Coast Guard officers found him among a small group that was
illegally trying to motor a boat to Cuba in 1999.

Last fall, Abascal was the main federal witness who helped convict
ant-Castro militants Alvarez and Mitat on weapons-conspiracy charges
in South Florida, and in last week's indictment of former CIA
operative Posada on fraud offenses.

A federal grand jury in El Paso, Texas, charged Posada, 78, with
lying about how he sneaked into the United States in March 2005.

The same grand jury also charged Alvarez, 65, and Mitat, 64, with
contempt of court for refusing to testify about Posada's entry. Three
other associates have been charged with contempt.

Attorneys for Posada, Alvarez and Mitat -- all in federal custody --
said their clients were not involved in any attempt on Abascal's
life.

''My client had nothing to do with it,'' Posada's immigration
attorney, Eduardo Soto, told The Miami Herald.

One defense lawyer questioned why Abascal, after spotting a pipe
bomb, would drive several blocks to the police instead of just
calling them to come and get him.

''If your information is correct, I caution law enforcement to be
very careful in verifying the claim,'' said attorney Ben Kuehne, a
member of Alvarez's legal team. ``Abascal, we believe, has an active
history of being an agent for the Castro government and engaging in
his own brand of wrongdoing.''

Kuehne also said Alvarez had nothing to do with the alleged bomb
threat: ``As much as Mr. Alvarez has spent his life trying to bring
democracy to his native land, he remains governed by the rule of law
in the United States. He would not attempt self-help remedies against
any Castro operatives in the United States.''

Many in the exile community have dubbed Abascal a traitor for
informing on Alvarez, Mitat and Posada.

HOW POSADA ARRIVED

Posada has long maintained that he came into the United States by
crossing the Mexican border with the assistance of a migrant
smuggler, not by sea -- as prosecutors now allege. By charging
Posada, the Justice Department signaled its willingness to target a
man who has been in investigators' cross hairs since 1997, when he
was first suspected of masterminding tourist-site bombings in Cuba.

A grand jury in New Jersey is looking at evidence gathered anew by
the FBI, which is focusing on money wire transfers and a reporter's
tape in which Posada allegedly confesses to plotting the Cuba
bombings, which killed one Italian tourist.

Last week's indictment is built on a statement given to the FBI by
Abascal, who said Posada entered the country on a shrimping boat
called Santrina manned by Alvarez, Mitat and others, including the
informant himself. He said the crew on the Santrina picked up Posada
on the Mexican island of Isla Mujeres and took him to the United
States.

''I have always told the truth and have not lied about anything,''
Abascal told a Miami Herald reporter by telephone last week, before
the pipe-bomb event. ``Even if they insult me or kill me, I'll
continue telling the truth.''

Posada supporters have scheduled a rally for noon to 6 p.m. Friday at
Little Havana's Bay of Pigs monument, Southwest Eighth Street at 13th
Avenue. The monument honors exiles who died trying to overthrow
Castro in 1962.

Miguel Saavedra, an organizer of the rally, said the demonstration is
designed to send a message to the White House that Posada and other
''Cuban exile patriots in American jails'' should be pardoned.

Miami Herald staff writer Laura Figueroa contributed to this report.


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