Washington Paid Journalists to Spin News against the Cuban Five

Walter Lippmann

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 3 (acn) Washington paid nearly $74,400 to
journalists in Miami as part of a smear campaign against five Cuban
antiterrorists that remain unjustly imprisoned in the United States
since 1998.

The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five —as Gerardo Hernandez,
Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez
are internationally known— announced in a press conferencee on
Wednesday that the new evidence was obtained through a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request made 18 months ago.

“Fourteen names came back of journalists who it turns out were
receiving covertly monies from the US government,” said Gloria La
Riva, the coordinator of the committee.

Prensa Latina news agency reports that among those accepting bribes
is reporter Pablo Alfonso, who received $58,600 for 16 articles
published by El Nuevo Herald newspaper.

“This shows that the US Government was an accomplice to manipulating
the jury by bribing journalists that violated the principles of
impartiality and accuracy,” said Heidi Boghosian, from the US
National Lawyers Guild.

She affirmed that constitutional rights were also violated in the
process against the Cuban Five including the Sixth Amendment, which
protects the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

La Riva stated that they began a campaign calling on US Attorney
General Eric Holder to immediately move to remedy the situation and
added that the only remedy can be the freeing of the Cuban Five and
allowing them to go home.

She noted that the mission of the Cuban Five —who were monitoring
anti-Cuba extremist groupss that were planning and carrying out
terrorist attacks against the island— was to save lives. “Yet they
sit in prisoon while known terrorists and terror groups walk free in
Miami,” she pointed out.