US indicts Cuban exile Luis Posada, links him to bombings

A federal grand jury handed up a new indictment against Luis Posada Carriles, for the first time linking the Cuban exile militant in a U.S. legal proceeding to a series of 1997 tourist-site bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian national. The superseding indictment from the grand jury in El Paso does not charge Posada, 81, with planting the bombs or plotting the bombings but with lying in an immigration court about his role in the attacks at hotels, bars and restaurants in the Havana area. The perjury counts were added to the previous indictment that accused Posada of lying in his citizenship application about how he got into the United States. Another new charge is obstruction of a U.S. investigation into ``international terrorism.'' The indictment marks the first time since Posada arrived in the United States seeking asylum in March 2005 that the government has said he was involved in the Cuba bombings. A federal grand jury in New Jersey had been investigating Posada's alleged involvement in raising money for the bombing campaign among Cuban exiles in Union City, but no charges have been handed up there. The new charges almost certainly will dismay Posada's supporters in the Cuban exile community who view the exile militant as a hero in the continuing struggle against the Cuban regime. Posada could not be reached for comment, but his Miami attorney, Arturo V. Hernandez, said his client is innocent. ''This superseding indictment is under analysis, and once we complete that review my client intends to plead not guilty to the additional counts,'' Hernandez said in a telephone interview. The FBI office in Miami had been gathering evidence on the bombing, which killed Italian national Fabio di Celmo at the Copacabana Hotel in Havana. Agents had traveled to the Cuban capital to investigate Posada's connection to the attacks. Agents talked to witnesses to the bombings, reviewed Cuba's forensic evidence and visited the sites where the bombs exploded. Also, the FBI compiled a document alleging a conspiracy involving Posada as mastermind of the bombings. That document claimed Posada hid plastic explosives in shampoo bottles and shoes to be smuggled into Cuba weeks before the Sept. 4, 1997, bombing. 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 that Cruz Leon was a Posada accomplice. Cruz Leon is mentioned in Wednesday's superseding indictment. In count two for perjury, the grand jury said that Posada lied to an immigration judge when asked if he had arranged for Cruz Leon to carry explosives into Cuba in 1997. ''I have never seen nor met Raul Cruz, and I have not done any arrangement to send him to another place,'' Posada replied. The new indictment Wednesday said that Posada's assertion was false because the ``defendant had arranged to send and sent an individual named Raul Cruz Leon to Cuba to transport and carry explosives into Cuba to carry out said bombings in 1997.'' The new indictment also accused Posada of lying when he was asked in immigration court if he had been involved in the attacks. ''Well, were you involved in soliciting other individuals to carry out the bombing in, the bombings in Cuba?'' Posada was asked in court by an immigration trial attorney. ''No,'' he answered. He was then asked how he could reconcile that denial with the interview he gave The New York Times in 1998 in which he was quoted as claiming responsibility for the bombings. Posada testified that The New York Times probably quoted him accurately, but that what he said was wrong because his English was poor.