Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jmhollen who wrote (631738)	9/23/2004 8:05:24 PM
From: Doug R	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

americas.org Miami business leader Santiago Alvarez chartered two small planes to fly the four men out of Panama as soon as they were pardoned. One plane took Jiménez, Novo and Remón, who are U.S. citizens and Miami residents, to Opa-locka Airport in Florida, where they were greeted by family and supporters. Alvarez would not say where the other plane took Posada Carriles, a longtime asset of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who was never naturalized in the U.S. Unnamed Honduran officials told the Miami Herald that a U.S.-registered Learjet 31A landed at San Pedro Sula and discharged a passenger carrying a U.S. passport, No. 076050572, for “Melvin Cleyde Thompson.” U.S. officials said the passport number actually was assigned to an unidentified woman. An airport employee later identified “Thompson” as Posada Carriles, based on a photograph. Posada Carriles was apparently picked up by a wealthy Cuban-American-Honduran businessperson who could not be contacted afterwards. (MH 8/27/04, 8/29/04) Posada Carriles has been charged in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviación airliner, which resulted in the death of all 73 passengers, and a string of bombings in Cuba in 1997 in which one Italian tourist was killed. The three other men also have violent pasts. Jiménez served six years in a Mexican prison for the attempted kidnapping of Cuban diplomat Daniel Ferrer in Mérida in 1976 and for the death of a man accompanying Ferrer. Jiménez escaped from prison and returned to the U.S. He was also indicted for a 1976 bombing that blew off the legs of Miami radio personality Emilio Milián; those charges were later dropped. (MH 8/27/04) Moscoso’s decision to release the men brought widespread condemnation. Students at the University of Panama demonstrated for seven hours on August 26 to condemn Moscoso for “sponsoring the flight of these terrorists.” Protesters blocked the Trans-Isthmus highway, and classes were suspended. (La Prensa (Panama) 8/27/04) Gaspar Salama, governor of Colón province, resigned, saying he was “ashamed” of the president’s pardon. (MH 8/27/04) Cuba broke diplomatic relations with Panama in protest, although the rupture is likely to be healed soon after Torrijos takes office. Torrijos’ designated foreign minister, Samuel Lewis Navarro, said he would try to reestablish relations as soon as possible. The Venezuelan government withdrew its ambassador and announced that President Hugo Chávez Frías would not attend Torrijos’ inauguration “to avoid a meeting with the president, Mireya Moscoso.” The Venezuelans were protesting Mosoco’s claim that Posada Carriles would be killed if he was extradited to Venezuela, where he faces charges in connection with the 1976 airline bombing; Venezuela doesn’t have a death penalty. (LJ 8/28/04 from correspondent) The administration of U.S. president George W. Bush refused to condemn the pardon, which came one day before Bush was to appear at a campaign rally in Miami, a stronghold of rightwing Cuban Americans. The administration’s position shocked Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. “These are bad guys. The absence of a statement says a lot,” she said. “It is the most preposterous violation of what this administration stands for” (referring to Bush’s “war on terrorism”).