[Ppnews] Cuban 5 - Matt Lawrence and Brothers to the Rescue
Political Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Wed Jan 6 10:51:04 EST 2010
Matt Lawrence and Brothers to the Rescue, to the back of the class!
MissMachetera (at) gmail (dot) com
January 5, 2010
http://machetera.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/matt-lawrence-and-brothers-to-the-rescue-to-the-back-of-the-class/
The holiday season behind us at last, Machetera
can finally turn her attention back to her vast
publishing empire and her overflowing mailbox.
As faithful readers know, occasionally Ill
elevate a letter from the comment section to a
post of its own, if it merits a point by point
response. The writer of this particular letter,
a certain Matt Lawrence, writing from an email
address created in homage to the amusing name of
his fictional pilot character, Trig Combs, has
begun copying and pasting his letter not only to
Machetera but to
<http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article19457>other
solidarity activists writing on behalf of the
Cuban Five. Copying and pasting is sheer
laziness if youre going to defend terrorists
like Brothers to the Rescue, the least you can do
is try to be original but then again, that camp
has never been known for its excess of
brainpower. (Note to Lawrence: hangar is spelled
with an a unless its the kind you put in your closet.)
Lawrences primary purpose in writing appears to
be to hawk his book. To borrow Obamas pet
phrase, let me be clear. Thats not going to
happen here. His secondary purpose is to smear
the courageous Cuban Five. Thats really not going to happen here.
Now lets begin:
Lawrence: Thank you for publishing the article on the Cuban Five spies.
Nice try, opening with a compliment followed by a
smear. In their mockery of a trial in Miami, the
Cuban Five were never convicted of espionage,
generally defined as an attempt to obtain
government secrets. This was because they had
obtained none, nor had they tried to obtain
any. They were convicted instead of what lawyers
call the darling of the prosecutors nursery,
that is, conspiracy to commit espionage which
means that there was an agreement that perhaps
they might have gathered government secrets at
some unknown time in the future. See my
<http://machetera.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/a-state-department-at-the-service-of-petty-interests-the-ongoing-torture-of-adriana-perez-and-her-husband-gerardo-hernandez/>previous
reference to the film
<http://machetera.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/a-state-department-at-the-service-of-petty-interests-the-ongoing-torture-of-adriana-perez-and-her-husband-gerardo-hernandez/>Minority
Report, which explores this topic in greater
detail, where Tom Cruise plays the Pre-Crime
detective who arrests people on the basis of
thought crimes. In Miami, this strikes hardly
anyone as unusual but in the rest of the United
States of America we are still a little horrified by the concept.
Lawrence: I, along with my co-author, a
three-time Pentagon appointee, flew rescue
missions with the Brothers To The Rescue, owners
of the two planes shot down by Cuban MiGs-thanks
to the work of these very spies.
An interesting but not particularly unusual
admission. Lots of people were fond of taking
joyrides with the terrorist group. David
Lawrence, the former editor of the Miami Herald
(any relation?) and Dennis Hays, who later became
Ambassador to Suriname were quite open about
their flights with the Brothers. Of course a
Pentagon appointee would have been
welcomed. BTTR flew with the full faith and
support of the U.S. Government. Naturally those
involved prefer to refer to the flights in the
former military aircraft as rescue missions,
ignoring the fact that aside from being first and
foremost a very successful moneymaking operation,
BTTR was actively planning to smuggle or airdrop
weapons into Cuba. (ICAO report, page 86.)
Lawrence: Our book (unpaid advertising deleted
here) is the result of a 13 year investigation,
and is a compilation of the court documents,
trial evidence and public record surrounding this
case. (Unpaid advertising deleted again) was
recently the subject of a CBS4 Miami
investigative report which resulted in the same findings as ours
.
Imagine that. A Miami TV station comes out in
support of a terrorist cause. Will wonders never cease.
Lawrence: 1) U.S. government officials knew
beforehand of the shoot down and did nothing.
Specifically involved, Governor Bill Richardson,
NSC Sandy Berger and Richard Nuccio.
This is partially true. The U.S. government knew
that the BTTR provocations were foolish and risky
and asked the BTTR to stop. Mr. Charles Smith,
supervisor of the Miami FAA office in the early
through mid-1990s held repeated meetings with
BTTR, in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996, to try to
convince them not to violate international law or
United States regulations, and to warn them that
they were committing offenses which could be and
should be punished. (NTSB examination re:
suspension of José Basultos pilots license,
July 5, 1996). But at the same time, although
Basultos license was suspended, he continued to
fly and openly informed Mr. Smith that he would
do so, reasoning correctly, that the U.S.
Government would not take further action against him.
On the day in question, BTTR filed a flight plan,
indicating that they would proceed down the
eastern portion of the Florida peninsula toward
Cubas center, and then fly west in order to
return to Key West. They immediately did the
opposite, crossing west toward Key West from the
outset, then south and then west again, with the
full knowledge of the air traffic controllers
watching them, who were in possession of the
flight plan. These flight controllers uttered
not a word to the pilots about their deviation from the authorized flight plan.
Basulto has long been irked that the U.S.
military failed to send up its own fighter jets
on February 24, 1996, to ignite the long hoped
for military confrontation with Cuba. After all,
hed done his part to get the show on the
road. Another betrayal just like the Bay of
Pigs! He has written letters questioning the
integrity of military officials who refused to
launch the aircraft and presumably this is the
point of the literary invention Lawrence is
pushing. But there is an astoundingly simple
reason the hoped for military confrontation never
took place. The Cuban MiGs were acting entirely
within sovereign Cuban territory and the military
knew it. A military intervention was completely
unjustifiable. It would be left to diplomatic
pressure to site the confrontation elsewhere, and
up to Basulto and others to profit from the re-siting.
Lawrence: Members of Cuban government asked U.S.
diplomats repeatedly, What would happen if we
shoot them down? This indicates the Cuban
government planned the attacks using information
gathered by the Cuban Five and the larger ring of
Cuban spies, La Red Avispa, most of which plead guilty without trials
.
Honestly, this is silly. Of course the Cuban
government has plans to defend itself. Is Dick
Cheney the only person in the world with that
prerogative? They didnt need the Cuban Five to
do that for them. Thats what radar and combat
aircraft are for. Now lest Machetera be
inundated with more letters arguing that the
Cessnas flown by BTTR were civilian aircraft on a
purely humanitarian mission, despite the evidence
to the contrary from the ICAO report, lets
review the facts. BTTR aircraft were acquired
for BTTR from the U.S. military by Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen and had seen military service in
Central America. And Cuba has a long, terrible
history of attacks launched upon it from aircraft such as this:
Cuban sugar fields have been burned by small
aircraft. Cuban cities have been attacked from
small aircraft. Explosives have been hurled from
small aircraft. Sabotage has been carried out
from small aircraft. Biological substances have
been introduced into our country from small
aircraft. From aircraft such as those of [BTTR],
actions of sabotage have been and are being
planned against installations of the Republic of
Cuba. (Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, U.N.
Security Council meeting, July 26, 1996.)
Now, the mention that most of the Cubans arrested
in Miami admitted their guilt rather than face
trial is an interesting one. Its true that
there were originally 14 Cubans arrested as part
of the Red Avispa (Wasp network), four of whom
managed to return safely to Cuba, and five of
whom caved under the considerable pressure and
enticements (green cards, relocation, witness
protection, anyone?) offered by the U.S.
attorneys office, opting not to go to trial. My
arithmetic says thats not a majority pleading
guilty no matter how you count it.
The fact that the Cuban Five did not cave under
illegal and inhumane pressure makes their case
only more remarkable. Knowing they had done
nothing wrong, and fully convinced of the justice
of their cause, which was to save the lives of
fellow Cubans by uncovering and thwarting
terrorist plots against Cuba before they could be
carried out, they refused the numerous plea
bargains offered them and refused to sell each
other out to save themselves, no matter what the
consequences. These are the actions of innocent
men, not guilty ones. Years and years later,
after consequences that have indeed been
dreadful, and after being forced to endure the
extra-judicial punishment of visits from family
members delayed or completely denied on the basis
of absurd excuses by the U.S. State Department,
they remain what they were all along: innocent men and Cuban heroes.
Lawrence: 2) The Cuban spies infiltrated military
bases, exile organizations and the Brothers To
The Rescue as well as our Defense Intelligence
Agency (re: Ana Belen Montes). They were given
fair trials, found guilty and sentenced to prison
terms to pay for their crimes.
Go back and re-read the trial transcript for the
Cuban Five. The infiltration of military bases
mentioned here is laughable. Antonio Guerrero
was pushed to take a job where, as what, by
whom? Ill help you out. He took a job as a
janitor at Boca Chica airfield, as suggested by
an agent at the government employment office who
testified at the trial about her repeated insistence that he take the job.
Whether or not Ana Belen Montes had a fair trial
is questionable at the least. Its certainly a
fair bet that the punishment meted out to her was
more proportionate with the DIAs need to save
face after having promoted her to such commanding
heights, than it was for any actual damage caused
the U.S. government. When it comes to the Cuban
Five however, its insulting to insist after the
Atlanta Appeals Court said otherwise, that their
trial was fair. It was not. It was completely
rigged, with the government concealing
exculpatory evidence under cover of national
security, under a perfect storm of community prejudice.
Lawrence: 3) Our military had multiple radar
sites monitoring the Florida Straits on the day
of the shootdown and held interceptor aircraft on
the ground at HAFB, Homestead, FL as the attacks
occurred. The two planes shot down were over
international waters and at no time posed a threat to Cuba.
See point 1 above. Isnt it curious that our
military had multiple radar sites monitoring the
Florida Straits on the day of the shootdown and
yet none of them were able to produce any radar
evidence whatsoever for the investigation
immediately launched by the U.N.s International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)?
It is so completely curious that it is a point
upon which Ricardo Alarcón and Basulto actually
agree. Major Jeffrey Houlihan of the U.S.
Customs Service was called to a meeting on
February 17, 2006 and warned that one week later,
on February 24, Basulto and his pawns would be
flying towards Cuba expressly to provoke a
political incident. Houlihan was reminded of
this the day before the flight, February 23rd, as
well as the morning of the 24th. Heads up, Houlihan.
But Houlihan wasnt the only one alerted. On
February 13, the State Departments Office of
Cuban Affairs contacted the FAAs Office of
International Aviation, informing it that
something might occur in connection with these
flights and they should be alerted
on February
23, the various U.S. communications control
centers received instructions warnings from
the authorities to the effect that certain
flights that were to take place the next day
should be appropriately documented. Yet what was
the result of all these warnings about
documentation, when the ICAO announced that it
would be collecting radar data for its
investigation? The data was erased. The radar
data provided by Cuba, immediately following the
incident (in contrast to the United States, which
delayed and obfuscated as long as possible before
admitting to the erasure) was completely disregarded.
So the siting of the shootdown was based not on
hard, objective, radar data (which clearly showed
it occurring over Cuban waters) but on a bizarre
subjective triangulation that the ICAO was
pressured to accept by U.S. diplomats, consisting of the following:
* A communications cassette tape copy with
six crucial minutes mysteriously deleted.
* The self-reported position of a
cruiseliner, which was likely inaccurate.
* The self-reported position of a fishing
boat which has never been proven to exist.
On this spurious basis and no other, the
shootdown, which Cuba had every right to perform
as a legitimate act of self-defense over its own
territory, and which the United States of America
would have performed far sooner and without
hesitation, was removed to international waters,
unleashing a series of reactions beginning with
the looting of Cubas frozen assets by the
families of the downed pilots and others, and
ending with the incarceration and torture of five
men who had nothing to do with it.
Lawrence: (Unpaid advertisement deleted) is
endorsed by Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, two
Defense Intelligence Agency Analysts and the head
of the University of Miamis Institute of
Cuban-American Studies among other experts and scholars.
The fact that this vanity publication is endorsed
by the dim bulb Lincoln Diaz-Balart is not to
your credit. Two DIA analysts the same who
promoted Ana Belen Montes, I wonder? The
University of Miami, which hosted the CIAs
JM/WAVE station for so many years? Lets stop
there before this gets even more embarrassing.
Lawrence: Please visit our website (unpaid
advertisement deleted) and turn up your speakers;
listen to the intro
its the voices of the
Perez-Perez brothers, the Cuban MiG pilots
stalking and shooting down civilian aircraft and their Cuban handlers.
No, I have a better idea. Lets visit an excerpt
from your outstanding fictional treatment of one of BTTRs provocations:
Combs looks to Harevan, his eyes excitedly wide,
saying, Were gonna see Habana from the thirty-three today!
I thought youd like that, Basulto Juan Carlos
tells his friend, patting him on the back. But
stay north of the 23:30, he whispers to Combs;
warning the American aviator to stay well north
of Cubas twelve mile territorial limits.
Trig winks at Juan Carlos, saying slickly,
Cmon, you know I play by the rules.
Now, lets talk numbers; or not, sneaky Santos
smirks. Remember to call your location when you
cross the pizza line and again when you see the
casa. (House), the flight coordinator reminds
them. [...] Remember, use the Alpha number
first, then Beta and so on. Subtract the
latitude from the alpha phone number and the
longitude from the beta. With any luck the
Coastie on the other end will come up with the
same answer you did when he works the equations
in reverse; and friggin Fidel wont have any way
of knowing where these planes rafts are other
than watching us orbit them. The young pilot
speaks with the knowledge of a CIA operative, yet
he still posses (sic) the innocence of his young, limitless life.
[...]
Havana tower, Havana tower, Havana tower, this
is N zero, zero, Charlie Foxtrot, Combs calls to
Cuba, seeking permission to enter airspace that
is legally international; yet claimed by the
bearded bastard to be his Air Defense Information Zone.
(Macheteras note re Air Defense Information
Zones, aka
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Defense_Identification_Zone>ADIZ:
Any aircraft flying in these zones without
authorization may be identified as a threat and
treated as an enemy aircraft, potentially leading
to interception by fighter aircraft. The exact
nature of the external ADIZ claim of the United States is unclear.)
[...]
Charlie Foxtrot, answers a distinctly but
barley (sic) audible male Cuban voice in the squelch of the headset.
Good morning, sir, were crossing the
twenty-four in five minutes and we will be in the
area around four to five hours on a humanitarian
search and rescue mission. We are responding
three, four, eight, three, at five hundred feet.
Roger? Trig distinctly tells the tolerant
because they have to be Havana tower of his flight intentions.
Thank y0u, the Cuban controller responds in English.
For your information, the area of our operations
is north of Havana today, so we will be in your
area and in contact with you. Roger? Combs
says, as he forces to commit the Cuban in agreement again.
Sir, be informed that the zone north of Havana
is activated, you are in danger behind the
twenty-four north parallel, the thick, accented
voice emanating from the Havana air traffic
control tower coldly warns menacingly.
Hearing the controllers response in his headset,
a perturbed Cuesta flips the middle finger of his
right hand at the control panel, still saying
nothing, but trying to write down every word on
the back of his mission planning form.
Were aware that were in danger each time we
cross the area south of the twenty-four but we
are willing to do it as free people, Combs
prophesizes (sic) to the Communist controller
before releasing his microphones push to talk button.
(Macheteras note: Pilots radio communications
with air traffic controllers are not like an open
speakerphone, where multiple parties can be heard
at once. Only one voice can be heard at a time
all others are pre-empted. While BTTR is
clogging the radio with this nonsense, real
commercial airliners carrying many hundreds of
passengers are unable to communicate with Havana
air traffic controllers. Reader Advisory: the
following passage is as vulgar as it is revealing
of the true intentions of this crowd.)
So fuck you, you communist cock sucker, were
coming to your activated zone behind the
twenty-fourth to save some human lives and if you
piss me off Im coming back with a C-130 full of
love to drop all over you. Just like the old
days, Combs spouts off in a vulgar diatribe only
his crew can hear, genuinely aggravated by the
indifference of the Cuban controller.
Tim Harevan laughs at his pilots furor.
Thanks, we copy that information, Castros air
controller acknowledges, oblivious to the furious
fusillade unloaded in his direction between official transmissions.
Lawrence: The TRUTH may not always be heard in
the spoken word, yet it is always found in peoples actions!
Amen to that.
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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