Day: August 14, 2006

Brian Ross reports on an alleged connection between acting Cuban President Raul Castro and a cocaine smuggling in the ‘90s.

Federal prosecutors in Miami were prepared to indict Raul Castro as the head of a major cocaine smuggling conspiracy in 1993, but the Clinton Administration Justice Department overruled them,  current and former Justice Department officials tell ABC News.

Overruled huh? Heh…that sounds like the Clinton Administration I know. 

The officials say Castro, as Cuban Defense Minister, permitted Colombian drug lords to pay for the use of Cuban waters and airstrips as staging grounds for smuggling runs into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s.

“It was a major investigation involving numerous witnesses that was killed at the highest levels in Washington,” said a former Justice Department official with direct knowledge of the case.

How high? Did Clinton kill it himself?

“There were numerous national security and intelligence issues that would have made the case difficult,” said Tom Cash, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Miami.

And that’s the most interesting part of this whole story. Unfortunately, we’ll never ever know about any of these “issues”. Too bad.

Convicted Colombian drug boss Carlos Lehder of the Medellin cartel testified in a 1991 federal trial that he met twice in Havana with Raul Castro to arrange safe passage for cocaine flights over Cuban airspace.

The draft indictment, as described by a former Justice Department official who saw it, listed Raul Castro as the leader of a conspiracy involved in smuggling seven and a half tons of cocaine into the United States over a 10-year period. At least a dozen other Cubans were also to be indicted.

In 1989, a top Cuban General, Arnoldo Ochoa, was convicted by a Cuban court and ordered executed with three other military officers for their roles in drug smuggling.

Cuban waters continue to be used by drug smugglers, according to federal law enforcement officials.

“The smugglers know that the U.S. Coast Guard can’t go after them in Cuban waters,” one official said.

A commenter on Ross’ site concurs:

Mr. Ross,

This was a well-known secret among the fly-for-hire community of pilots in the Caribbean. I know because I flew all over the Caribbean.

Posted by: Jose Amoros | Aug 14, 2006 11:44:08 AM

Uh, and what were you doing flying all over the Caribbean Mr. Amoros? In the “transport” business, I suppose.

C-SPAN assumes the role as ‘minder’ for CBS News.

CBS, which aired the edited version last night, has now granted C-SPAN permission to air the entire 90-or-so-minute segment this evening. Interestingly enough, C-SPAN will first air the edited “60 Minutes” version at 8 p.m., immediately followed by the entire interview.

“We agreed with CBS News that airing this interview … fits with C-SPAN’s style of airing events as they happened and without commercials,” said Terry Murphy, C-SPAN’s vice president of programming. “This is also a unique opportunity for viewers to see for themselves the editorial process at a major network news organization, and find out which portions of an extended interview actually make it on air.”

This is definitely a step in the right direction for CBS, given the justified criticism they’ve received over the past few years about biased reporting. Let’s hops C-SPAN gets permission to do this for all the major TV news networks.

As for the interview itself, I watched it last night. My first thought? Mike Wallace isn’t the Mike Wallace of yester-year. His softball questions and the playful bickering back and forth with the Iranian president were made-for-TV. I’d love to know how Wallace was picked to be the interviewer for this one, when so many others could have done a better job. Was he hand picked by Mahmoud in the hopes that there would be little bite left in the 88 year-old 60 Minutes emeritus reporter? We’ll never know.

No, it wasn’t Sheppard Smith and his Barbie Doll sidekick, but ‘foreign’ journalists hired by Fox News TV. One is confirmed as being American.

Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign journalists working for the Fox News television channel in Gaza on Monday, a witness said.

The witness, a Palestinian who worked with the two journalists, said one of them, a producer, was an American, and the other, whose nationality he did not know, was a cameraman.

The Fox News bureau in Jerusalem said it was checking the report.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction.

The witness said two vehicles blocked the journalist’s transmission truck in the center of Gaza City and a masked man put a gun to the bodyguard’s head, forcing him to the ground.

The kidnappers then sped away with the two journalists.

Similar incidents in the past in Gaza have ended with the release, usually within hours, of kidnapped foreign journalists or aid workers.

Many of the abductions were carried out by Palestinians pressing a grievance against the Palestinian government or its security forces.

It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are in the Middle East these days. Danger lurks around every corner, and no amount of negotiating will prevent future kidnappings, murders, roadside bombings, or suicide bombers from gaining their illegitimate martyrdom.

UPDATE: Reports say the American reporter is Steve Centanni.