National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
Template:TOCnestleft National Committee to Free the Cuban Five began as a front of the Stalinist Workers World Party WWP to work for the freedom of five Cuban DGI agents who were captured, tried and convicted of illegal intelligence operations in the U.S. Information from this group can be found at their website, www.freethefive.org.
June 2, 2010 Press Conference in Washington, D.C.
The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five NCFCFheld a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on June 2, 2010, with the following key speakers:
- Gloria La Riva - National Coordinator of the NCFCF; a longtime open member of the WWP on the West Coast, and was a leader of some of their their fronts over the past several decades including those on Panama (i.e. Commission of Inquiry). A three part series on the WWP and their various fronts appeared in the old Washington Inquirer in late December, 1990 and early January, 1991, written by investigative reporter Max Friedman. An effort to source them will be made both here and at the WWP webpage site.
- Mara Verheyden-Hilliard - Attorney, Co-founder of the far-left legal group Partnership for Civil Justice Partnership for Civil Justice Fund along with her husbandCarl Messinio, both of whom have been active in the National Lawyers Guild NLG as representatives of the PCJ. They have been very successful in suing the D.C. government over constitutional rights violations pertaining to the right to assembly during protests at the World Bank, IMF, etc.
- Heidi Boghosian - Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild NLG. The NLG was started by the Communist Party USA to defend CPUSA members before congressional committees as well as to provide legal help for Party/supporter street thugs in labor violence. It was described by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) in their 1950/1954 reports as the "legal bulwark of the Communist Party". Over the years it has been led by CPUSA members, supporters, avowed marxists, assorted communists and radical far-left members of the legal profession. They have focuses a lot of their work in support of Communist Cuba, in overturning internal security laws, stopping police surveillance of potential marxist and/or Islamic terrorists, and in supporting illegal immigration.
- Brian Becker - National Coordinator, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition ANSWER, a national front of the WWP. Becker has been a member of the WWP and its youth arm since the early 1970's. He also was an important leader of an earlier and still existent WWP front, the International Action Center IAC, reportedly set up by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark in the late 1980's or early 1990's.
The Committee's website described the "Cuban Five" thusly:
"The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001. They are Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzales."
"The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing espionage conspiracy against the United States and other related charges. But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups, in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba. The Five's actions were never directed at the U.S. government. They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any weapons while in the United States."
"The Cuban Five's mission was to stop terrorism"
"For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans have died as a result of these terrorist attacks."
"Terrorist Miami groups like Commandos F4 and Brothers to the Rescue operate with complete impunity from within the United States to attack Cuba - with the knowledge and support of the FBI and CIA."
"Therefore, Cuba made the careful and necessary decision to send the Five Cubans to Miami to monitor the terrorists. The Cuban Five infiltrated the terrorist organizations in Miami to inform Cuba of imminent attacks. The aim of such a clandestine operation by the Cuban Five - at great personal risk - was to prevent criminal acts, and thus protect the lives of Cubans and other people."
[KW: Two unarmed leafletting planes of Brothers to the Rescue were shot down near Cuba, killing their crews. Apparently no warning was given to them to land.]
For an article about the upcoming June 2010 press conference, see the article "National Committee Exposes Secret Payments to Miami Journalists who Covered the Prosecution of the Cuban Five", http://www.freethefive.org, 6/24/2010. It has photos of the four front leaders