FBI, Cuba, and Posada Carriles

Alfonso Chardy, Jay Weaver and Oscar Corral of the Miami Herald today share new facts on the developing case of Luis Posada Carriles.

Basically adding little and new information from a November 2006 article (by Chardy and Weaver), the Herald reporters write that an "extraordinary effort at cooperation" has taken place between the Cuban government and the FBI. They continue:

"Three federal law enforcement officers familiar with the case described the trip [to Cuba] as 'pretty amazing' and 'unheard of' because Cuba had for years blocked FBI access to witnesses, crime scenes, forensic evidence and more information in the bombing."

There's a good reason that Cuba blocked the FBI in the past. In 1998, the Cuban government invited the FBI to share gathered evidence on terrorism against Cuba originating from Miami. They presented "331 pages, record sheets of 64 known terrorists, 4 hours and 38 minutes of secret filming and 21 telephone interceptions." About 3 months later, the FBI detained the "Cuban Five" (WASP Network) who gathered some of the evidence. By the time the trial against the Five began in 2000, Cuba blocked the FBI from any more investigation.

Chardy, Weaver and Corral write that this time the FBI "agents were able to interview witnesses, review Cuba's forensic evidence -- including bombing materials -- and visit crime scenes."

Most of today's article is based on the Nov. 2006 article that highlights the 10-page affidavit by the Justice Department of June 2005. An FBI special agent, Thomas Rice, is quoted in the affidavit as saying that "the FBI is unable to rule out the possibility that Posada Carriles poses a threat to the national security of the United States." Rice is also reported as describing Posada Carriles "as a dangerous man bent on killing Castro and spreading terror on the communist-run island to destroy its tourism economy." If it is found that Posada Carriles is in fact a "threat to national security," then he runs the risk of being indefinitely detained under the Patriot Act.

The evidence against Posada Carriles that is found in the June 2005 affidavit can be best read in the November 2006 article. In addition, todays online Miami Herald article has links to several PDF's that are worth reading related to the Posada Carriles case.

In the meantime, the federal grand jury in New Jersey continues to gather evidence on the crimes of Luis Posada Carriles, as the latter waits his immigration trial on May 11, in El Paso.

What's a Polisario? (Part 9)

It seems that many have been suffering from a stupor when it comes to the Polisario.

Its clearly evident that Tew-Cardenas LLP are not interested in who the Polisario Front really are. Their main interest, shared by the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies (ICCAS), is to continue and strengthen their anti-Castro position at the expense of the facts. The allegations of the Moroccan government and the Moroccan American Center for Policy are baseless. And, it is unacceptable that an academic organization like the ICCAS should repeat those false accusations.

It is also the height of hypocrisy that members of Tew-Cardenas LLP (Al Cardenas and Roger Noriega), who are vehemently opposed to totalitarian regimes, "develop positive messages" for a nation whose King rules with "ultimate authority" over the government with the power to appoint his own prime ministers and "rule by decree" if he so wishes.

As for Oscar Corral of the Miami Herald and his decision that "it would be a good time to revisit the story of some of the victims" of the Polisario Front, Corral forgot to mention a very important fact in his "Special Report." The same month Corral wrote his article in September 2005, the UN Refugee Agency released a brief report on their recent monitoring mission of Sahrawi children in Cuba and their student scholarship program. They specifically gave "special attention" to the allegations of abuse from a 2004 Moroccan delegation. The UN mission found that "this [Cuban] scholarship programme meets the standards of treatment and care required by the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, notably in the following areas:

* minors are protected from all forms of discrimination while in Cuba, and enjoy equal educational opportunities as well as slightly more advantageous treatment in terms of material and health support provided in Cuban schools;

* the rights of the students are fully respected and guaranteed in regard to health, nutrition, culture, personal liberty and security;

* the children are not subjected to any form of abuse or exploitation of any type whatsoever. This also covers military recruitment and training and child labour activities that would qualify as exploitative as defined by the CRC;

* all information gathered during the mission affirms the voluntary nature of participation in the programme of the children, the direct role of the parents in determining whether their child would participate, and the opportunity for the children who do not wish to continue the programme, to abandon it and return home."

This scholarship program is no longer planned for extension with the UN Refugee Agency once all Sahrawis who entered in 1994 have graduated. The Polisario Front is hoping that the Moroccan government will accept their peace plan at the UN later this month, with obligation to a 1991 UN mandated referendum for independence. Polisario's struggle at the UN since 1991 is summarized well by Stephen Zunes and Ian Williams.

The Polisario Front is a legitimate movement of self-determination and independence of the Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara. Their real name is "Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el-Hamra y de Río de Oro." That's what Polisario means.

[For those interested in updates on the Western Sahara/Morocco stalemate, check out these excellent Bloggers : One Hump or Two, Western Sahara Endgame, Sahara Views, and W-Sahara.]

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8]

What's a Polisario? (Part 4)

Just this week both Morocco and the Polisario Front presented their new peace plans to the United Nations. These are plans that have been revised and debated since the 1991 ceasefire. The US has given "praise" to the Moroccan plan. The Polisario Front believes the Moroccan plan is "inadequate." It was known since the start of April that both presentations would clash at the UN.

And coincidentally, last week Oscar Corral thought it was a "good time to revisit the story of some of the victims" of the Polisario Front, in conjunction with the release of a new report by the ICCAS at the University of Miami. Unfortunately for us, both Corral and ICCAS unknowingly seem to be doing the PR work for the Moroccan government. A lucky strike for Morocco and their peace plan at the UN.

Oscar Corral's 2005 article makes a brave attempt to accurately describe the history of the Polisario/Moroccan conflict, but his real story is the plight of the former Polisario refugees and their "firsthand accusations of human-rights abuses and corruption" as victims in the camps controlled by the Polisario Front. But, this is only one side of the story. Corral acknowledges this by writing that the visit by the former refugees was "sponsored by the Moroccan government" through a group called the Moroccan American Center for Policy. And, to top it all off, our favorite Cuban-American US Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart were present at the news conference of the former Polisario refugee victims.

Corral quotes Lincoln Diaz-Balart saying: "The fact that there is an armed group such as the Polisario Front seeking power as an independent nation state in the Western Sahara, supported by terrorist regimes such as the Cuban regime is a concern."

Well, the new ICCAS report just adds more hot air. Actually, ICCAS brings no new evidence at all, just new allegations made by the Moroccan government against the Polisario Front. Since a 2001 report by ICCAS titled "Castro and Terrorism: A Chronology," the Polisario Front has already been labeled a terrorist organization along with Cuba. Now, ICCAS is basically repeating allegations by the Moroccan government saying that the Polisario Front conducts "coordination and cooperation" with an Al-Qaeda related group in North Africa. The ICCAS report sources the allegation from an AFP article from March 2007. The very same day those allegation were reported by the AFP, the Polisario Front issued a press statement calling them "grotesque lies."

[Part 5]

What's a Polisario? (Part 2)

The month following the release of the 404 POWs by the Polisario Front, Oscar Corral writes his piece for the Miami Herald when former refugees of the Polisario Front-controlled camps visit Miami. Oscar mentions that this visit is "part of an effort by the Moroccan government to discredit the Polisario Front." Oscar also attempts to summarize the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario, but concedes that "the story of the the Sahawari [sic] plight is complex." All historical conflicts are complex, so we must look at the facts.

In 1975, Spain was prepared to hand over the Western Sahara to the Sahrawi people after the International Court of Justice decided that the territory belonged to no one, and a UN mission had found that the majority of the Sahrawis wanted independence and self-determination. Those two decisions were ignored as the Moroccan government (with full support of the US and France) invaded Western Sahara with a "peaceful" Green March of about 350,000 unarmed Moroccan citizens. But, this "peaceful" invasion was secretly arranged with the Spanish government as they had a hand in the administrative authority for the new Western territory. UN Security Council resolutions were passed in order to call for the withdrawal of the Moroccan government, but these calls were ignored.

According to the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies (ICCAS) and the Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP), the Moroccan government was merely "reclaiming" their sovereignty over the Western Sahara (which they really had no legal claim to), of which they felt was based on "loyalty" to the Moroccan sultan as spiritual leader and ruler. And thus the Polisario Front was a "challenge" to that "loyalty" that had to be crushed. Well, a long war ensued throughout the eighties.

By 1982, the Polisario Front was near the brink of victory and independence until the US stepped in with military aid to the Kingdom of Morocco. The Reagan administration slapped the Polisario Front with the communist name-tag, and increased military funding from $30 million to $100 million for 1983. The US would be in total support of the Moroccan government and its King who was considered "one of Washington's best friends in the Arab world."

[Part 3]

What's a Polisario? (Part 1)

So one day I was glancing over Oscar Corral's blog (Miami's Cuban Connection) and he mentions that he's going to highlight a story he wrote back in 2005 in conjunction with the release of a new report from the Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami. Oscar writes: "Now that UM is trying to link Cuba with Al Qaeda through their Polisario connection, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the story of some of the victims."

I, just like Oscar Corral, had not heard about the Polisario Front in Morocco. So, after a little research I found not only a "Cuban connection" with Polisario, but also "Miami's Cuban connection" with the "constitutional monarchy" of Morocco. It seems that the story is much larger than what Oscar presents. Furthermore, the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front involves many international actors, and has left countless victims, not just a few that happened to visit Miami in 2005. Let's go over the story.

On September 19, 2005, Oscar Corral wrote a piece for the Miami Herald about refugees from the Polisario Front who had been sent to Cuba as children. The ever-resourceful CubaNet has the whole story here (second article). But, Corral's story was second to an earlier Miami Herald piece by David Ovalle, printed in May 21, 2005. Ovalle interviewed men who were former POWs in the camps of the Polisario Front. According to the article, the former POWs just happened to be in Miami and "sat in a circle with exile leaders and Cuban ex-prisoners at the Miami office of the Civil Society of Cuba." Ovalle quotes only one of those leaders, Ana Carbonell, the chief of staff of US Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart's office.

These visiting POWs were part of a larger media campaign that began around May of 2005. The two Herald articles were just a few among many headlines that year. The final headline was a celebration of success that came on August 18, 2005, when 404 POWs of the Polisario Front were finally released. The campaign had worked. But some would decide to continue their fight against the Polisario and their Cuban connection nonetheless.

[Part 2]