Cuban Five celebrate being freed by Obama.
Video: Family members of murdered Brothers to the Rescue pilots tearfully denounce release of remaining Cuban Five spies and murderer by Obama:
A group led by Obama bundler Jodie Evans, Code Pink, plans to hold a celebratory meeting in Cuba next month with Cuban spies, including one convicted of murdering Americans, who were freed by President Barack Obama.
Listed on Code Pink’s agenda for their week-long February trip to Cuba is a meeting with the Cuban Five:
“Monday, February 9— Overview and city tour
“9:00 AM Meeting with Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) Possible meeting with Ricardo Alarcón, Kenia Serrano,Fernando Gonzalez and the Cuban 5″
Obama, who had previously freed two of the spies, freed the remaining three last month in a deal with the Castro government.
One of those Obama freed, Gerardo Hernandez, was convicted of conspiring to murder four members of Brothers to the Rescue and was serving two life terms.
Brothers to the Rescue flew small planes over the waters between Florida and Cuba searching for Cubans fleeing the Castro brothers’ island prison. The group reportedly aided in the rescue of about 4,200 Cubans.
The group drew the ire of Fidel Castro for also occasionally violating Cuban airspace to drop anti-communist leaflets over Havana and coastal Cuba. Castro personally gave the order to shoot down the unarmed planes, which took place over international waters on February 24, 1996. Two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down in the attack, a third escaped.
A Cuban pilot and espionage agent, Juan Pablo Roque, who had infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue by acting as a fake defector returned to Cuba the day before the shootdown.
Killed in the attack were U.S. citizens Carlos Costa, Mario de la Pena and Armando Alejandre, and permanent U.S. resident Pablo Morales. (Source: LA Times)
The Cuban Five were part of the ‘Wasp Network’ set up by Cuba’s communist government to spy on Cuban exile groups and the U.S. military in Florida.
Eight years ago Code Pink visited Cuba as a guest of the Castro government with flavor of the moment Cindy Sheehan to protest the U.S. terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
The Ladies in White, a group of women whose sons, husbands and brothers were imprisoned by Cuba for peaceful pro-democracy activities wrote an open letter to Sheehan beseeching her to inspect the cruel conditions of Cuba’s prisons.
“”At the same time you and your noble followers fight for the closure of the U.S. prison at the Guantanamo naval base … just a few miles away at the provincial Guantanamo prison in Cuban territory, peaceful and defenseless political prisoners suffer inhumane conditions, (living) without potable water and with poor nutrition, deficient medical assistance, insects and rodents, limited visits and precarious communication,” the letter said.
“”We exhort you to visit the prisons of Cuba, chosen randomly, and not those prepared” by authorities, it added.”
Code Pink blew off the Ladies in White according to a report by EFE (independent translation):
“The pacifist delegation headed by Cindy Sheehan will not meet with the “Ladies In White”, the group of wives of jailed dissidents, nor will they visit Cuban prisons during their current visit to Cuba to demand the closing of the U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base.
“”We are here as American citizens, feeling responsible for what our government does”, said Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Ladies For Peace, who is accompanying Sheehan in her visit to the island.
“We are not here to see the problems which exist inside of Cuba, but to protest the abuses being committed in Guantanamo, although we defend the respect for human rights throughout the world, added Benjamin, who said she wasn’t aware of the open letter sent by the Ladies in White to Sheehan.
“In the open letter which was divulged in Havana on Monday, the Ladies In White, a movement which began in 2003 after the imprisonment of 75 dissidents, asked for a meeting with Cindy Sheehan and urged her to visit any Cuban prison.”
Weeks after that Code Pink visit in January of 2007, which included co-founder Jodie Evans, Evans served as a co-host for Barack Obama’s breakthrough Hollywood fundraiser for his nascent presidential campaign. Obama had to know Evans was working with the Castro government against the United States.
Evans later was named a fundraising bundler for Obama, a vetted position, and ended up donating tens of thousands of dollars to Obama and the Democrats in the 2008 election cycle.
The relationship between Obama, Code Pink and Cuba continues to this day with Code Pink meeting with Valeria Jarrett, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Obama as well as the group taking more trips to Cuba.
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