letter of june to Obama

Mr President Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington DC 20500

Mr President,

Last month, your country distinguished itself when a commando squad of U.S. Special Forces assassinated Bin Laden, not far from Islamabad.
After the September 11th 2001 terrorist attack, Bin Laden became the United State’s most wanted terrorist. According to Pakistani authorities, neither the members of the commando squad nor the C.I.A. agents who planned this operation declared their presence on Pakistani territory, nor did they demand any kind of authorization from the authorities for this intervention.

When I heard of this assassination, I couldn’t help from thinking of another terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles. This individual, an ex-member of the C.I.A., a terrorist who plants bombs, an assassin, a torturer and a drug trafficker, is behind, among others, numerous terrorist attacks against Cuba that have caused many deaths. I imagined a Cuban commando squad landing at Miami, attacking Posada Carriles’s residence, killing him and throwing his body into the Caribbean Sea. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, an action of this kind would have provoked a general outcry all over the world, and would have caused terrible retaliation against Cuba on the part of the United States, and of the international community…

Mr President, you decorated the members of this commando squad with the United State’s most distinguished medal. And yet, five Cubans who infiltrated the Florida Mafia terrorist movement to ward off terrorist attacks against their island found themselves in prison in your country, for almost thirteen years now. Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, and René González, did not storm Posada Carriles’s residence nor did they kill anyone. All they did was collect important information on the terrorist’s schemes so as to prevent numerous terrorist attacks. They took, of course, false identities, for obvious reasons in this type of mission.

It is clear that for your country there are good terrorists and bad terrorists! The terrorists supported by your government and encouraged in their works of death against Cuba are the good terrorists.

The farce that was Posada Carrile’s trial in El Paso is a flagrant proof of this. This extremely dangerous terrorist came out of his trial without the slightest sentence, thereby killing his victims twice.

The judges who did all they could to exonerate Posada Carriles are the same ones who went to great lengths to condemn the five Cubans to long prison sentences. They continue, by the way, their dirty work, supported and even encouraged by U.S. authorities at the highest levels.
We learned that your government had demanded the Miami court of justice, last March 26th, to refuse Gerardo Hernandez’s request for Habeas Corpus, and then several days later, those of René Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero. The government that you’re in charge of doesn’t even want to listen to, during a hearing, Gerardo Hernandez’s pleas that are nevertheless pertinent for defending his case.

The fact that the government spokesman in this appeal is Caroline Heck-Miller, does not explain all. Of course we knew that the prosecuting attorney had used all his powers to indict the Cuban Five and had refused to move their trial outside of Miami. Of course we knew that the Homeland Security had demanded Caroline Heck-Miller, in August of 2005, to charge Posada Carriles with terrorism, and that she refused to do so. But without the backing of the government of the United States, Mr President, the prosecuting attorney would never have behaved in this way.

The arguments that the Cubans put forward when they solicited Habeas Corpus are serious, as several of them refer to corrupt practices on the part of the government that you represent. For example, to pay reporters so they publish false information is not a small matter! This is nevertheless what went on during the Cuban Five’s court case, as we found out in 2006. They had to create a deleterious atmosphere in order to influence the members of the jury, and also to make them afraid. Judge Lenard herself, during the Cuban Five court case, had been disturbed by these provocations and had voiced protestations.

I could go on and on for a long time on this subject, but seeing as it’s a political subject, you couldn’t be anything but perfectly aware, Mr President, of the innocence of these five Cuban patriots. We are still waiting for you to accord executive clemency that would at last give them back their liberty that they never should have been deprived of.
Please accept, Mr President, the expression of my most sincere humanitarian sentiments.

Jacqueline Roussie

translated by William Peterson
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Copies sent to: Mrs. Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano, Mr. Harry Reid, Eric Holder, Pete Rouse, Donald Werrilli, John F. Kerry and to the Ambassador of the USA in France.