MIAMI, Sept. 3, 2007
"Five Heroes" From Cuba Await Their Fate
Arrested In 1998 For Spying On The U.S., 5 Cubans Await Court Ruling That May Bring Freedom
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Play CBS Video Video Cuban Spies Await Ruling
Nearly nine years after their arrest, five Cubans convicted of spying for Fidel Castro's government could win their freedom. That doesn't sit well in Miami, reports Kelly Cobiella.
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Jose Basulto lost four of his friends when Cuban fighter pilots shot down planes flying alongside him. (CBS)
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Airplane logo of Brothers to the Rescue, which flew missions into Cuban airspace to drop anti-Castro leaflets. Two of the planes were shot down. (AP)
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The Cuban exile was flying a private plane toward Cuba in February 1996 when he saw a flash and smoke, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.
Cuban fighter pilots shot down two other private planes flying alongside Basulto, killing four of his friends.
They had been on a mission with Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exile group, which had been flying missions into Cuban airspace to drop anti-Castro leaflets over Havana. Basulto didn't know it at the time, but his group had been infiltrated by Cuban spies.
"They are all murderers!" Jose says
In 1998, the U.S. government charged and convicted the spies - for infiltrating the Cuban exile groups, and attempting to steal U.S. military secrets.
The spies are appealing their conviction on the basis it was impossible to get a fair trial in Miami, where hating Fidel Castro is practically a pastime - and sometimes has escalated into real violence against Cuba. The Cuban government says these men were only protecting their country against exiles who posed a threat.
Militant Cuban exile groups were openly training in south Florida in the 1990's. Cuban exiles had been linked to a string of hotel bombings in Cuba.
In Cuba, the spies are known as the "Five Heroes," wrongfully imprisoned. Meanwhile, the man Havana considers responsible for the worst of terrorism in Cuba, Luis Posada Carriles, is a free man living legally in Miami. Posada is accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 passengers. To Cubans, he's a symbol of U.S. hypocrisy in the war on terror.
"This is a festering injustice," says Leonard Weinglass, who represents one of the five, Antonio Guerrero, in the appeal to have the convictions overturned.
"I think we absolutely can win this trial in any venue in the United States outside of Miami," Weinglass says.
"We didn't attack anybody. We didn't use violence. We didn't use war," says Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly. "We just used what is referred now in America as 'human intelligence.'"
The exile community calls the Cuban five killers. The Cuban government says the U.S. would not hesitate to shoot down any plane that invaded america's airspace.
Click here to read Portia Siegelbaum's interview with Cuban parliament president Ricardo Alarcon about the case.
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The secrets of tennis legend 
Luis
First of all it implies that the Brothers to the Rescue plane were shot down for entering Cuban waters, when it is a fact that they were shot down in International waters and had not attempted to enter Cuban waters on the day they were shot down.
None Of Us Are Free - Lynyrd Skynyrd
http://www.lyrics007.com/Lynyrd%20Skynyrd%20Lyrics/None%20Of%20Us%20Are%20Free%20Lyrics.html
WHY IS IT NOT ONE MUSLIM COUNTRY GRANTS EQUAL RIGHTS TO NON MUSLIMS???
FASCIST NAZI TERRORISLAM SAYS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATES ISLAM LAW...
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
For example, in 1981, the Iranian representative to the United Nations, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, articulated the position of his country regarding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by saying that the UDHR was "a secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition", which could not be implemented by Muslims without trespassing the Islamic law.
http://www.un.org/terrorism/
http://www.un.org/terrorism/strategy-counter-terrorism.html
http://www.un.org/
But the accepted assumption in India is that most of India''s Muslims were converted to Islam through the sword. Meaning the Indians were given an option between death or adopting Islam. The third option was getting examined in Islam religion along with heavy taxes- Jeziya (poll tax) and Kharaj (property tax).
http://adaniel.tripod.com/Islam.htm
this is what fascist nazi islam calls peace....
are you ready to live under islam rule as a non muslim???
apartheid fascist nazi islamic style
Rights of Non-Muslims in an Islamic State
http://www.sullivan-county.com/id3/islamic_state.htm
But the exile community calls the Cuban Five killers.
The U.S. government has charged and convicted the Cuban Five spies - for infiltrating the Cuban exile groups, and attempting to steal U.S. military secrets.
Wonder who they will swap spies for??