Ex-CIA operative tied to Cuba bombings – US jury

MIAMI, (Reuters) – A federal grand jury has accused  anti-Castro Cuban exile and former CIA operative Luis Posada  Carriles of lying to U.S. authorities about his role in bomb  attacks against tourist sites in Cuba in 1997.

In an indictment filed against Posada by the grand jury in  El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, he is accused of seeking to  “obstruct and impede” the work of the U.S. government by lying  during an immigration interview about his role in the attacks.

An Italian man was killed in the 1997 bomb blasts in Cuba  in a case the indictment highlights as an “offense involving  international terrorism.”

The arraignment of Posada, who has a long history of  violent opposition to former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has  been set for April 17 and jury selection for a trial is  expected to begin on Aug. 10.

Posada is wanted in both Cuba and Venezuela, where he is  accused of masterminding the 1976 suitcase bombing of a Cuban  airliner that killed 73 people. That bombing occurred while  Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan, lived in the oil-rich South  American nation.

The latest indictment marks the first time since Posada  arrived in the United States seeking asylum in March 2005 that  he has been linked in a court proceeding to the Cuba bombings  which killed Italian national Fabio di Celmo.

Posada’s Miami-based attorney Arturo Hernandez could not be  reached for immediate comment.

But a front-page story in yesterday’s edition of Cuba’s  Communist Party newspaper Granma called the indictment “a  surprising change of strategy” by U.S. prosecutors.

It came after “repeated requests for (Posada’s) extradition  by the government of Venezuela,” the newspaper said, adding  that it also preceded a regional Summit of the Americas in  Trinidad and Tobago next week “where the topic will inevitably  be mentioned.”

Though it branded Posada “the most famous terrorist of the  hemisphere,” Granma noted that the U.S. charges against him had  been limited to perjury and obstruction.

U.S. President Barack Obama will attend the Trinidad summit  and calls for a normalization of U.S.-Cuba ties are expected to  figure prominently there. Cuba had repeatedly accused Obama’s  predecessor, former President George W. Bush, of coddling  Posada because of his CIA past and his support in the hard-line  U.S. Cuban exile community where many regard him as a hero.

Wednesday’s indictment does not charge Posada, 81, with  planting the Cuba bombs but with lying to an immigration court  about his alleged behind-the-scenes role in the attacks at  hotels, bars and restaurants in the Havana area.

The Cuban government has claimed that one of two Salvadoran  nationals convicted in Havana of the bombings, Raul Ernesto  Cruz Leon, placed the bomb that killed the Italian and charged  that Cruz Leon was a Posada accomplice.

The Texas grand jury said Posada lied to an immigration  judge when asked if he had arranged for Cruz Leon to carry  explosives into Cuba. “(The) defendant had been involved in  soliciting other individuals to carry out said bombings in  Cuba,” the indictment read.

After entering the United States illegally in 2005, Posada  was subsequently indicted on seven immigration fraud charges  accusing of him of lying to immigration authorities, but a U.S.  judge threw out those charges in May 2007.

Earlier, Posada was jailed in Panama for plotting to kill  Castro during an Ibero-American summit in 2000, but was  pardoned by outgoing President Mireya Moscoso in 2004.

He has lived in the Miami area with his wife since he was  released from jail April 2007 on bail totaling $350,000.