Posada ally surrenders arms cache

[Mika]

Posada ally surrenders arms cache
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16494392.htm
A longtime Castro foe turned over a new cache of weapons in
Miami in the hope of reducing his prison sentence and that
of an exile colleague.

An ally of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles turned over a stockpile of illegal machine guns, dynamite and a grenade launcher to federal agents this week in a bid to reduce his prison sentence, several sources familiar with the arms surrender said.

Santiago Alvarez, a wealthy Miami developer convicted last fall on a weapons-conspiracy charge, arranged for the turnover of the new cache of firearms on Wednesday at his attorney's office in downtown Miami, sources said.

Alvarez and convicted co-defendant Osvaldo Mitat are seeking to reduce their respective four- and three-year prison sentences by one or more years. The unusual arms surrender has no connection to Posada's latest troubles with federal authorities.

The Alvarez stash consisted of dozens of machine guns, rifles, C-4 explosive, dynamite, detonators, a grenade launcher and ammunition, sources said. The cache was considerably larger than the nine illegal firearms seized by federal agents in late 2005 when Alvarez and Mitat were first indicted on weapons charges in Broward County.

But no.. Cuba has no need to defend itself from S.Fla based terrorists.

[acmavm]

1. WTF? He gives the Feds more evidence of what a thug he is and

that's supposed to be leverage to reduce his sentence?

Why don't the average American get the deals that rich people and imported thugs like this get?

[benEzra]

2. Holy cow, where'd they get that stuff?

Smuggled into the country? Stolen from the U.S. military/national guard?

[Mika]

3. Cuban exile smugglers operate at will in the Gulf and in S Fla. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. The first cache that they busted him with had C4 explosives

Where the f did he get that?

[Mika]

4. Kick for the evening folks.

:kick:

[Scurrilous]

6. Brief clash breaks out at pro-Posada rally

<snip>

"A brief fracas broke out today at a Little Havana gathering in support of Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban exile militant facing federal prosecution in Texas and possible deportation -- if the United States can find a country willing to take him.

About 100 people gathered just before noon at the Bay of Pigs memorial at Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue. They were playing loud music, holding up signs and exhorting motorists to honk their horns in support of Posada, 78, who is being detained in El Paso, Texas.

Others, such as employees of nearby stores, came out to watch.

Then, around 12:30 p.m., a handful of college-aged counter-demonstrators appeared across the street, denouncing Posada as a terrorist.

Miguel Saavedra, president of Vigilia Mambisa, an anti-Castro group and one of the organizers of the rally, yelled, "Communists!"

Then a group of about 30 people ran across the street, impeding traffic. The two sides briefly clashed, and a Posada critic was hit in the head with a microphone before the counter-demonstrators were chased down 12th Street.

Otherwise, the pro-Posada gathering was mostly peaceful."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16502461.htm

[Say_What]

9. MiamiGUSANO logic: ``Those men aren't a threat. They don't have any ties to the Taliban or Iraq.''

only in Gusanoville Miami are terrorists considered heros. From the article:

Organized by a half-dozen anti-Castro groups, the pro-Posada demonstrators carried signs declaring Posada a hero and reading, ''You Like Freedom. Cubans Do Too,'' ''Posada: An American Hero'' and ``Posada: US Hero, Prisoner in the US to Please the Enemy of the US.''

Saavedra, who spent most of his time yelling into a megaphone, called the U.S. prosecution of Posada on charges of lying about how he sneaked into the country ``ridiculous.''

''He has brought a lot of justice to many people,'' he said.

The majority of people at the rally were Cuban exiles, such as Betty Aquit. Aquit, who says her husband, Reynaldo, spent 15 years in a Cuban prison, said that now -- when Fidel Castro is seriously ill -- is not the time to make an example of Posada.

''Cuba is almost free,'' she said, ``Why now?''

[burrowowl]

7. Kick!

Amazing!

[Judi Lynn]

8. I remembered reading testimony by Ricardo "Monkey" Morales Naverette,

another man also involved in the bombing of the Cubana airliner in 1976, who also had worked in shadowy jobs in pre-revolutionary Cuba and Venezuela, and with the U.S. Government in Angola, etc. I recalled reading he had discussed how easy it is to get C-4, how prevalent it was. Wanted to run down that material and post it, but got side-tracked by this link which came up first, which shows very well how heavily armed these reactionary right-wingers are in South Florida:

“The Cuban exile groups of concern to the Cuban government included Alpha 66 <168>, Brigade 2506, BTTR, Independent and Democratic Cuba (“CID”), Comandos F4 <169>, Commandos L,CANF <170> , the Cuban American Military Council (“CAMCO”), the Ex Club, Partido de UnidadNacional Democratica (PUND) or the National Democratic Unity Party (NDUP), and United Command for Liberation (CLU).” (Idem pp. 45-47)<168>Orlando Suarez Pineiro, a Cuban-born permanent resident of the United States,served as a captain in Alpha 66 for about six years. R90 at 10373-74. On 20 May 1993, heand other Alpha 66 members were arrested while on board a boat with weapons in the Florida Keys. Id. at 10391-92, 10397-401, 10415-16. The weapons included pistols withmagazines and ammunition, 50 caliber machine guns with ammunition, rifles with clips, andan RK. Id. at 10397-400. Pineiro was tried and found not guilty of possession of a Norinko AK 47 rifle and two pipe bombs. Id. at 10424. Pineiro and other Alpha 66 members were also stopped and released while on board a boat on 10 June 1994, but their weapons andboat were seized. Id. at 10409, 10411-14. The seized weapons included a machine gunand AK 47s. Id. at 10411-14. United States Customs Agent Ray Crump testified that, on 20 May 1993, he participated inthe arrest of several men whose boat was moored at a marina in Marathon, Florida. Id. at 10429. The boat held: several handguns; automatic rifles, including one fully automatic rifle; four grenades; two pipe bombs; a 40 millimeter grenade launcher; a 50 caliber Baretta semiautomatic rifle; and a bottle printed with “Alpha 66" which contained “Hispanic propaganda . . . , . . . crayons, razors, stuff of that nature.” Id. at 10431-33, 10434. He alsoparticipated in an investigation of a vessel south of Little Torch Key, about ten miles south of Marathon, Florida, on 11 July 1993. Id. at 10433-34.The vessel was carrying four men, numerous weapons, and “Alpha 66 type propaganda.” Id. At 10434. The weapons on the vessel included an AR 15, two 7.6 millimeter rifles and ammunition magazines. Id. at 10438. Following this investigation, the men were not arrested, and the weapons and vessel were not seized. Id. at 10438-39. United States Customs Agent Rocco Marco said that he encountered four anti-Castromilitants on 27 October 1997, after their vessel, the “Esperanza”, was stopped in waters off Puerto Rico. R90-10449. He explained that U.S. Coast Guard officers searchedthe vessel and found weapons and ammunition “hidden in a false compartment underneath the stairwell leading to the lower deck.” The officers found food, water bottles, camouflagemilitary apparel, night vision goggles, communications equipment, binoculars, two Biretta 50 caliber semiautomatic rifle with 70 rounds of ammunition, ten rounds of 357 hand gunammunition, and magazines and clips for the firearms. R90 at 10453-59. The leader of thegroup, Angel Manuel Alfonso of Alpha 66, confessed to Rocco that they were on their wayto assassinate Castro at ILA Marguarita, where he was scheduled to give a speech. Id. at 10452, 10467. Alfonso explained to Rocco that “his purpose in life was to kill ” and that it did not “matter if he went to jail or not. He would come back and accomplish the mission.” Id. at 10468
(snip)

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:M0LIsqsimYoJ:www3.itu.int/MISSIONS/Cuba/RESUMEN%2520DE%2520LA%2520DECISION%2520DE%2520LA%2520CORTE%2520DEL%2520ONCENO%2520CIRCUITO%2520SOBRE%2520CASO%2520DE%2520LOS%2520CINCO%2520ing.pdf+Miami+Cuban+exiles+C4&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For DU'ers who have paid attention to the fact an appeals court found the trial in Miami of the Cuban 5 (who went to Miami to learn what plots these terrorists were hatching against Cuba in order to forewarn Cuba) had been prejudiced and that it must be retried somewhere else, while the 5 Cubans remain in prison, there's a sinister note introduced in the link above, in that the jurors said that "they felt pressured and even expressedconcern that they were filmed “all the way to their cars and their license plates had beenfilmed.”"
(snip)This represent a little bit of intimidation, wouldn't you think?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's one apparent source of some of their weapons: corrupt U.S. service men:

ARRESTED FOR TRYING TO BUY MISSILES
Two anti-Castro Cuban paramilitary leaders were arrested on June 2 in Miami on charges that they sought to buy a Stinger missile and other advanced weapons from an undercover US federal agent posing as a corrupt army sergeant. The two, Rodolfo Frometa and Fausto Marimon, are prominent members of Commandos F-4, a group that split off from another anti-Castro paramilitary organization, Alpha 66, earlier this spring. ... Frometa and marimon were among seven Alpha 66 members taken into custody after Coast guard officials found a cache of weapons, ammunition and money in their 18-foot boat, as they were en route to Cuba to carry out a military action.
(snip/)

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/142.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Quick look at Posada's last known bomb plot:

~snip~The diplomatic tensions originated around issues of international terrorism and, in particular, in relation to the case of the four criminals of Cuban origin who were sentenced in April 2004 for terrorist activities. In fact, Luis Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, Pedro Remón Rodríguez and Guillermo Novo Sampoll, notorious members of a Latin-American terrorist network and instigators of several dozen attacks against innocent civilians, had attempted to assassinate the Cuban president Fidel Castro during the Hispano-American summit in November 2000. A bomb containing 15 kg of the explosive C4 had been placed in the university enclosure where more than 2000 students had gathered to hear Castro’s speech. According to the statements of the Panamanian authorities leading the investigation, the attack could have caused hundreds of victims. (2)

Following the judgement and sentencing of Posada Carriles and Jimenez Escobedo to eight years imprisonment and of Remon Rodriguez and Novo Sampoll to seven years, objections were made about the lack of proportion between the seriousness of the charges against the guilty parties, and the lightness of the sentences. According to the Panamanian Penal Code, terrorism-related activities are liable for the maximum sentence, namely life imprisonment. Furthermore, the four people concerned faced aggravating circumstances because of their previous criminal records. (3)

For example, Luis Posada Carriles, former CIA agent and professional mercenary, is a specialist in mass killings. He has been responsible for innumerable terrorist attacks against Cuba and has shown indiscriminate cynicism and fanaticism motivated by his anti-revolutionary hostility since 1959. His acts of assassination are innumerable. Having been a CIA instructor, a member of the Ranger Corps of the USA, an explosives expert and a specialist in acts of marine piracy, he is equipped with a sound paramilitary training. He was operations chief of the Miami-based criminal cells Comandos L and RECE, whose activities have left a trail of ruin, blood, and desolation.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=6323

[Say_What]

10. Plenty more where that stash came from.....

these wackos are just a small part of the MiamiGUSANO terrorist groups in the Bush Brothers Banana Republic. See Judi's post for more detailed information... and check the photo below. The Santrina with Posada aboard runs aground on a sandbar--this was all documented by NarcoNews and Por Esto. Search their website for more information.


Isla Mujeres fishermen save the S.S. Santrina run ashore on a sandbar on March 14, 2005
Photo: D.R. 2005 Mario Alonzo, Por Esto!