Posada Had Admitted Assassination Attempt Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Luis Martin POSADA HAD ADMITTED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT The article below is offered from the archives of the Carlos Balino Institute as a background reference to a recent article in which the Panamanian authorities announced that Luis Posada Carriles and others will not be charged with the attempted assassination of President Fidel Castro. Notice the unconcerned attitude of Posada Carriles regarding the potential consequences of his arrest. Panamanian authorities attribute it to evidence that Posada had called off the assassination attempt at the last moment, an incredibly naive claim! More likely, Posada's unconcern and the fact that he "informally" confessed the plot to authorities is more likely a sign that he felt to be in safe haven and reasonably sure of an eventual acquittal. The reader may also note Posada's statement as reported by Panamanian authorities: ...."he (Posada) told them the plan was to pack an automobile with plastic explosives and then detonate it as Castro's motorcade passed. But he decided that too many other people would be killed, the authorities said, and decided to drop the idea." Is Posada really concerned with killing any number of innocent people? He had previously confessed to masterminding a series of bombs in Havana hotel lobbies. When asked by The New York Times about an Italian tourist killed there, he replied: "It is sad that someone is dead, but we can't stop. That Italian was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time." and he boasted, "I sleep like a baby." Posada's statements, as told by Panamanian police, raises more questions. Was Posada really concerned with a possible high number of innocent victims? Could an explosion by a passing motorcade yield an unacceptable number of dead? Or was the University of Panama -not a street motorcade- where Fidel was to speak to an audience of over 2,000 the real intended site of the terrorist attack? Is Posada being shielded from a law suit being filed by the University? This article shows that the process to free Posada was set in motion closer to the time of his arrest. This time, he will not escape but will be freed in the likely scenario of the Cuban exiles who were acquitted in Puerto Rico several years ago on charges of attempted assassination. In an interesting parallel to the Posada case, one of them, as I recall, had also told INS authorities at the time of his arrest, that the intent of the mission was to assassinate Fidel Castro. Luis Martin CBI * * * Miami Herald - January 13, 2001 PANAMA: EXILE SAYS AIM WAS CASTRO HIT by Glenn Garvin One of the four Cuban exiles arrested in Panama last year in connection with an alleged plot to kill Fidel Castro told investigators in an ``informal conversation'' that he planned to assassinate the Cuban leader with a car bomb but changed his mind at the last minute, Panamanian authorities say. In a series of interviews with The Herald this week, the officials also offered the most complete account yet of the events leading up to the arrest of four alleged conspirators last November - including a disclosure that Castro himself personally delivered a key piece of information to Panamanian investigators. According to the officials, 70-year-old Luis Posada Carriles, a veteran of countless previous anti-Castro conspiracies, told investigators that he called off the plan to kill Castro during a Latin American summit in Panama because too many innocent people would have been harmed as well. Posada Carriles and three Miami men are in jail here on charges of illegal possession of explosives and conspiracy. However, Panamanian officials - who spoke on condition that they not be identified - admitted their case against the men is extremely weak and predicted that they will be acquitted at trial. Extradition of the men to Cuba, which Castro has demanded, has been flatly ruled out at the highest levels of the Panamanian government, the officials said. In addition to Posada Carriles, the others are Gaspar Jimenez, 65; Pedro Remon, 56; and Guillermo Novo, 61. SUMMIT ARRESTS The four were arrested Nov. 17 during the Ibero-American Summit, after Castro warned Panamanian security forces that Posada Carriles was in Panama City to assassinate him. According to the version of events provided by Panamanian officials, the Cubans brought as many as 100 security agents to Panama to prepare for the summit; some of them were under cover as teachers and businessmen. But the Cuban government never offered any evidence that Posada Carriles was in Panama until Castro himself was passing through the reception line at Panama City's Tocumen International Airport Nov. 17. As he shook hands with Panamanian officials, Castro said he needed to meet with them at his hotel - ``I've brought some information from Havana for you.'' CASTRO'S NEWS About half an hour later, at the hotel, Castro told the Panamanians that Posada Carriles had entered Panama earlier in the month and was staying at a Panama City hotel under an assumed name. The Panamanian officials immediately dispatched a team of policemen to the hotel. But what they did not know was that, immediately after meeting with them, Castro gave a press conference at which he revealed Posada Carriles' presence to the entire world. ``If any of those four guys had been watching television, they would have gotten away,'' said one Panamanian official. Instead, two of the men - Novo and Remon - were arrested in the street outside the hotel when they tried to run after spotting the police. Posada Carriles and Jimenez were arrested upstairs in their hotel rooms, where they had just awoken from naps. GROUNDS FOR BELIEF ``That's why I'm inclined to believe Posada Carriles when he says the plot had been called off,'' said a Panamanian official. ``He wasn't acting like a guy who was stalking Castro. Instead of watching TV, trying to figure out Castro's plans, he was sleeping. That doesn't sound like an active assassination plot to me.'' The three Miami men continue to insist that they came to Panama merely to protest Castro's visit, authorities say. But Posada Carriles, in informal conversations, has admitted that he was here to kill Castro, according to the same sources. They said he told them the plan was to pack an automobile with plastic explosives and then detonate it as Castro's motorcade passed. But he decided that too many other people would be killed, the authorities said, and decided to drop the idea. Because Posada Carriles talked about the plan but would not provide a sworn statement to investigators, however, his declarations cannot be used as evidence. And, the Panamanian officials admitted, the links between the accused plotters and the only significant physical evidence in the case - a briefcase full of plastic explosives found in a rental car they were using - are too weak to win a conviction. STATE'S CASE WEAK ``I think that's going to be a pretty difficult case to sell in a courtroom,'' said one official. ``I don't see any way we'll get a conviction.'' Posada Carriles' attorney, Rogelio Cruz, denied that his client has said anything at all about the case to police. ``Neither he nor any of the others has given a formal statement on this case,'' Cruz said. ``They'll go free,'' he said. ``It's just a question of when.'' * * * Posada Not Charged with Assassination Plot - 20-Feb-02 at 13:04 by Jane Franklin In the February 20 Miami Herald is an article from El Nuevo Herald by Wilfredo Cancio Isla headlined "Castro foe won't face murder plot charge." Luis Posada Carriles and the other three defendants--Gaspar Jimenez, Guillermo Novo, and Pedro Remon--were arrested in Panama in November 2000 on suspicion of planning to assassinate President Fidel Castro while he attended an Ibero-American Summit meeting in Panama City. The defendants, who have been held in Panama, "still may be tried for falsification of documents, illegal association to commit a crime and possession of explosives." Defense lawyer Rogelio Cruz "did not rule out the possibility" that the four Cuban Americans might be released on bail before May when a preliminary hearing is expected. siempre, Jane Franklin ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-02.27.02-00:56:58-25497