[Marxism] STUNNING: Judge hands jailed Posada a legal victory, orders release

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Miami Herald

Posted on Sat, Apr. 07, 2007

Judge hands jailed Posada a legal victory, orders release

BY ALFONSO CHARDY

Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles must be released on bond and
allowed to live with his family under house arrest in Miami while awaiting
trial for allegedly lying to immigration authorities, a federal judge
ordered Friday.

Posada was not freed because the federal government quickly filed a motion
asking the judge for a seven-day delay to review the ''adequacy'' of her
release conditions -- and to decide whether to appeal. It was also possible
Posada could be taken into custody by immigration officials as soon as he
posts bond.

Nevertheless, the ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso
was the first major legal victory for the former CIA operative since
immigration agents in May 2005 detained him in Miami-Dade County, charged
him with illegally being in the country and flew him to an immigration
detention facility in El Paso.

''The conventional wisdom was that we would not get bond,'' said Arturo
Hernandez, Posada's Miami-based criminal defense attorney. ``But this judge,
to her credit, justly considered the facts and gave us a reasonable bond.''

In the nine-page ruling, Cardone noted that even if Posada were the daring
covert operative of legend, accused of masterminding tourist site bombings
in Havana that killed an Italian in 1997 -- and even if he did escape from a
prison in Venezuela once in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban
airliner that killed 73 -- all that was in the past. She also noted that the
criminal charges against Posada, now 79 and ''frail,'' did not involve acts
of violence.

`MORE FRAIL'

Posada, the judge wrote, ``has spent his life opposing Fidel Castro. As a
result, he has allegedly been involved in and/or associated with some of the
most infamous events of the 20th century . . . the Bay of Pigs invasion, the
Iran-Contra Affair, the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, the tourist
bombings of 1997 in Havana, and even -- according to some conspiracy
theorists -- the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.''

But all those things, she added, have no bearing on Posada's current
circumstances.

''He is now older and more frail than he was when those events allegedly
occurred,'' she wrote. ``He has ample ties to the community, as evidenced by
the thousands of supporters who have signed petitions on his behalf and
volunteered their personal resources to aid in his defense.''

Hernandez said he had not relayed the news to Posada and doubts the exile
militant even knows about the judge's ruling because he is being held in
conditions of near isolation in a small cell in a county jail in New Mexico
near the Texas border.

''But if he knows, he'll be walking three feet above the prison floor,''
Hernandez said.

Conditions were better when Posada was in immigration detention, Hernandez
said, because he had access to the phone and could indulge in his passion of
painting Cuban landscapes. At a court hearing in El Paso Wednesday,
Hernandez said, Posada appeared to have lost 30 pounds and seemed subdued
but hopeful.

Posada's supporters in Miami cheered the judge's ruling.

'EVALUATING' DECISION

''It's about time they realize that Posada Carriles has always been a man
close to the United States, who has rendered services in the war against
terrorists and communists,'' said Miguel Saavedra, president of Vigilia
Mambisa.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Washington did not
rule out detaining Posada -- even if he's released on bond.

''We'll be evaluating the judge's decision and will take the appropriate
action,'' said Marc Raimondi, an agency spokesman in Washington.

After he was detained, immigration authorities charged Posada with having
abandoned his rights as a permanent U.S. resident and with being in the
country without having been admitted or paroled.

Those charges have not been withdrawn, and an immigration judge in September
2005 ordered Posada deported to any country willing to take him -- though he
prohibited removal to Cuba or Venezuela.

Posada was transferred from immigration detention to the custody of federal
prison authorities when a grand jury in January indicted him for allegedly
lying about whether he entered the country by boat or by land.

If the judge's ruling stands, Posada can post $350,000 in bond and then live
with his wife at her home in Miami under 24-hour house confinement, leaving
only for doctors' appointments or to meet with his attorney. Posada also
would be subject to electronic monitoring and not be allowed to contact
co-defendants or witnesses.

His trial is set for May 11, and he faces up to 40 years in prison if
convicted on all counts.



C 2007 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.miamiherald.com






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