Why is the U.S.
government refusing to hand over the satellite
footage of February 24, 1996? Why the U.S. media
silence about such a scandalous event?
• GERARDO
Hernández Nordelo, one of the Cuban Five
incarcerated in the United States, has submitted a
request for habeas corpus relief on the basis of new
evidence.
The case of Gerardo, sentenced to
two life terms plus 15 years, is highly significant
in demonstrating that a number of U.S.
administrations are not prepared to review the trial
proceedings, however much evidence emerges of
illegal methods utilized to condemn the detainees.
Richard Klugh, a member of the Five’s
defense team, has exposed the fact that the U.S.
government is still refusing to present documented
evidence asked for in order to clarify exactly what
happened concerning the downing of two light
aircraft on February 24, 1996. Access to material
compiled by investigators at the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) was not allowed to be
presented before the Miami District Court 15 years
ago, and the new demand from Gerardo’s defense
attorney has also been refused.
This position of refusing to allow
anyone else to see evidence only known to Washington
which, in its submission of 123 pages and three
appendices against Gerardo, barely mentions the
issue in a twisted five-line paragraph, is highly
suspicious.
Ricardo Alarcón, who was Cuba’s
representative to the ICAO in 1996, noted that no
U.S. court had jurisdiction over the February 24
incident, or only in the event of it having taken
place in international airspace. The ICAO
investigation revealed a surprising fact. Despite
prior warnings by the Cuban government, U.S. radar
stations either did not record the incident, or
presented contradictory information, or destroyed
that information. The only "evidence" supplied by
U.S. authorities is the testimony of the captain of
an aircraft operating (by chance?) out of Miami and,
according to new details, the owners of the aircraft
were financial contributors to the Cuban-American
National Foundation (CANF).
Hence the interest in the satellite
footage, first on the part of the ICAO and
subsequently on the part of Gerardo’s defense. The
U.S. government has never denied the existence of
those images, it admitted having them, but nobody
else has been allowed to see them for the past 15
years.
Why is the U.S. government refusing
to hand over this satellite footage? Why the U.S.
media silence about such a scandalous event?
•
