When the U.N. s Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) investigated the siting of the February 24, 1996

When the U.N. s Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) investigated the siting of the February 24, 1996 shootdown off the coast of Cuba of two light aircraft rent exotic cars in new york registered to the Miami group Brothers to the Rescue, suddenly all the evidence supporting U.S. claims about it occurring over international waters became very difficult to find.  And this despite the fact that the U.S. government rent exotic cars in new york expected an incident to occur and had warned all its radar installations, and presumably, satellite eyes, to be especially alert that day.  But with the objective evidence suddenly missing, the ICAO investigators came up with a weird, rent exotic cars in new york subjective triangulation to support U.S. claims about the location.  Naturally, the ICAO Council refused to endorse such a bizarre report.
One of the points of that triangulation came from Royal Caribbean Cruises Bjørn Johansen, first officer on the ship Majesty of the Seas, who thanks to Brazilian researcher Fernando Morais, we now learn based his testimony about the site of the shoot-down on a visual observation of the site where his own ship was which he wrote down on a piece of paper and not the electronic register that marked the ship s location in the Florida Strait.   Now you tell us.  Jean Guy Allard has more:
The main witness for the federal prosecution against the Cuban Gerardo Hernández Nordelo rent exotic cars in new york was the first officer on a U.S. cruise line whose owners contributed at least $25,000 to help create the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), and whose paramilitary wing organized, financed and promoted terrorist actions against Cuba.
Hernández, one of the five anti-terrorists arrested by the FBI while he was infiltrating rent exotic cars in new york Cuban American terrorist groups, was sentenced to two life sentences plus fifteen years in prison for a charge related to the downing of two light aircraft belonging rent exotic cars in new york to a counter-revolutionary organization in Miami that illegally flew over Cuban territory on February 24, 1996, despite warnings not to do so.
The Norwegian-American Bjørn Johansen, first officer rent exotic cars in new york on the cruise-ship Majesty of the Seas, belonging to Royal Caribbean Cruises, had Pete Whelpton as his second in command when the aerial incident occurred.  Whelpton was a CANF member and director of a so-called Commission for the Economic Development and Reconstruction of Cuba, well-known for its attacks on the island.
This information rent exotic cars in new york surfaced in an article in the latest edition of The Havana Reporter , an English language weekly published by Prensa Latina.  The Havana Reporter reported rent exotic cars in new york that Fernando Morais, an author of a book about the Cuban Five called The Last Soldiers of the Cold War , recently published in Brazil, commented on these facts at the book launch in Brazil.
In a series rent exotic cars in new york of articles published by The New York Times in 1995, the president of the Cuban American National Foundation at the time, José Francisco Pepe Hernández Calvo mentioned Royal Caribbean Cruises as one of 40 businesses rent exotic cars in new york who contributed $25,000 to create his organization.
This is the same Pepe Hernández who was opportunely saved in 1997 from facing charges in the saga of the La Esperanza yacht, intercepted in Puerto Rican waters on its way to carry out an assassination attempt against the Cuban leader Fidel Castro at Isla Margarita.  Hernández had provided a 50 caliber Barrett rent exotic cars in new york rifle to the murderous crew.
The most absurd part of the case against Gerardo Hernández and the rest of the Cuban Five occurred in May of 2001 when midway through the trial proceedings, the federal prosecutors admitted that there was insufficient proof against Hernández on the third count related to the aircraft, and requested that it be withdrawn because of the impossibility of obtaining a conviction.
The deliberately hostile Judge Joan Lenard refused to receive the request.  The prosecution then presented an extraordinary appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, where the same request was rejected.  The jury, led by an employee of the U.S. federal government, oriented itself against the accused, most notably through its belief in the testimony from the Norwegian-American sailor.
In the case of Gerardo Hernández, the prosecution maintained that the aircraft had been downed in international waters.  The United States has repeatedly refused to turn over its satellite imagery from that date for fear of confirming the truth of the statements coming from Cuban authorities about the location of the incident.
This entry was posted in Latin America / Caribbean , USA / Canada and tagged Bjørn Johansen , canf , Fernando Morais , gerardo hernández nordelo , Joan Lenard , Majesty of the Seas , pepe hernández , Pete Whelpton , Royal Caribbean , The Last Soldiers of the Cold War . Bookmark the permalink .
Just one or two days after the shootdown, the Cuban agent fled to Havana and held an incredible press conference detailing at GREAT length all the various bombing and strafing runs that Brothers rent exotic cars in new york to the Rescue had conducted during his tenure there.
Matt, I don t have access to that transcript and believe it would be hard to get at this point. I do have copies of the Lucia Newman interview with Roque, here , and the Juventud Rebelde interview (Spanish only) here . The information that Roque provided rent exotic cars in new york about BTTR s concealed activities is only part of the story though. The bigger story is that wherever the shootdown occurred, the US govt. could not make a case that Gerardo Hernández had anything to do with it, and admitted as much to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. That the jury convicted him anyway, without proof, and that he has received no relief on appeal, is something truly criminal.
I was a huge advocate at the time of pushing McKenna (one of the Cuban 5 lawyers) to INSIST that Roque s videotaped testimony under oath be permitted from Cuba, but I think McKenna as a sole practitioner was simply overwhelmed.