Podcast. Free the Cuban Five

Ian Thompson of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five speaks about their case, the appeals, and the new documentary “Mission Against Terror. The Case of the Cuban Five.”
The Cuban Five are serving grotesquely harsh prison terms in the US. Why? They bravely infiltrated private terrorist groups in Miami, groups that have been responsible for attacks and bombings in Cuba. When the Five found enough evidence, they went to the FBI and said, we can prove these groups are planning terrorist attacks. For their efforts, they, not the terrorist right wingers, were arrested.
A judge refused to move the trial out of the obviously highly biased Miami area. Retired US military testified the Five broke no laws and compromised no national security. Yet they were sentenced to very long prison terms anyway, put in solitary, and not even allowed to have their families visit them.
One member of the Cuban Five was convicted of murder because Cuba shot down three invading planes sent from US terrorist groups, planes that had been repeatedly invading Cuban airspace, buzzing over homes, and ignoring direct commands by Cuban military to turn back. These planes were repeatedly warned to stop, they refused, and were shot down. The U.S. notified Cuba the planes were coming, yet one of the Five was convicted of murder because he supposedly told Cuba the planes were coming and thus was guilty of murder! And, of course, any sovereign state has the right to shoot down invading planes that refuse orders to not invade their airspace.
The Cuban Five are national heroes in Cuba, everyone knows who they are. A recent New York Times ad by the Free the Five Committee greatly increased their visibility here. They broke no laws, they should be freed. and this travesty of justice reversed.
Free the Five
MP3. 13 minutes. 4.6 MB. 2/8/05