Monday, February 06, 2006

Cuba: You Don't Know Mr. Miami Terrorist #1 Orlando Bosch?




Family members of victims to US terrorism mourn under 138 black flags, one for every year since the Cuban independence in 1868.

In case anyone reading this doesn't know what the heck I am talking about with this Bush connection to the Miami Cuban exile terrorist thing, consider these excerpts from a 2002 UK Guardian article, citing a pretty good book I just finished: Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana, by (no Fidel lover) Ann Louise Bardach.

During the War on Terrorism, Jeb Bush, has been instrumental in securing the release from prison of militant Cuban exiles convicted of terrorist offences.

Jeb Bush hired a Cuban ex-CIA agent and ex-con (embezzlement) Camilo Padreda, to be his campaign's finance chairman, only to see him get caught bilking the Fed's (HUD).

Later Jeb was on the payroll of someone had earlier assisted the CIA in Castro assassination attempts. He was paid $75,000 for consulting on a real estate move that never even happened. "I want to be very wealthy," Jeb Bush told the Miami News when questioned during that period.

Most controversially, at the request of Jeb, Mr Bush Sr intervened to release the convicted Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch from prison and then granted him US residency. According to the justice department in George Bush Sr's administration, Bosch had participated in more than 30 terrorist acts. He was convicted of firing a rocket into a Polish ship which was on passage to Cuba. He was also implicated in the 1976 blowing-up of a Cubana plane flying to Havana from Venezuela in which all 73 civilians on board were killed.

Bosch's release, often referred to in the US media as a pardon, was the result of pressure brought by hardline Cubans in Miami, with Jeb Bush serving as their point man.

In July this year, Jeb Bush nominated Raoul Cantero, the grandson of Batista, as a Florida supreme court judge despite his lack of experience. Mr Cantero had previously represented Bosch and acted as his spokesman, once describing Bosch on Miami radio as a "great Cuban patriot".

Other Cuban exiles involved in terrorist acts, Jose Dionisio Suarez and Virgilio Paz Romero, who carried out the 1976 assassination of the Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington, have also been released by the current Bush administration.

2 Comments:

Blogger jsb said...

No homage to the thousands who perished during Cuba's post-revolutionary reign of terror. I guess those who protested against communism and were shot don't deserve a star on the Malecon.

5:55 AM  
Blogger leftside said...

I don't believe in the death penalty (and neither does
Castro anymore) so I won't defend the killing of anyone. But you have to realize who these "murdered" were - they were the real murderers themselves. After the revolution, people badly wanted revenge against the people who terrorized them in their communities - Batista's army and secret police - who totured and
killed 20,000 prior to the triumph. Others were people
who were on the CIA payroll or vestiges of the millionaires who were attacking the wildly popular
Government. They were people who attacked or collaberated during the Bay of Pigs, or a CIA backed
rebellion in the middle of the country.

Do you think the US would spare the life of a traiterous insurgent on own homeland? They were not mere non-violent dissidents. They left records of their political murders, from which trials were held. Do you really expect the Cuban people to honor those folks? Also, many accounts have Castro
playing a moderating role in those days.

4:42 PM  

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