The US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed the convictions of the Cuban Five on Wednesday, August 9, 2005, finding that the "pervasive community prejudice against Fidel Castro and the Cuban government and its agents and the publicity surrounding the trial and other community events combined to create a situation where they were unable to obtain a fair and impartial trial."

The Cuban Five -- Geraldo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez -- were arrested in September 1998 and convicted in 2001 on charges of, among other things, serving within the United States as an agent of a foreign government without registering with the US attorney general. They are serving sentences ranging from 15 years to life.

The 11th Circuit reversal of the five convictions leaves Attorney General Gonzales and US Attorney Acosta with four choices: (1) a rehearing in the 11 Circuit or appeal from it to the US Supreme Court; (2) retry the Cubans; (3) release the Cubans or (4) disregard the rule of law and hold them without a retrial.

On Thursday, August 11, Miami Herald reporter Jay Weaver wrote that "Miami's top federal prosecutor says he will retry the five accused Cuban spies whose 2001 convictions were just overturned by a federal appeals court -- most probably next year in another city. But US Attorney R. Alexander Acosta is weighing another potential legal move: challenging Tuesday's stunning decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta."

So, Weaver's piece suggests that Gonzales and Acosta are going to do (2), retry the five Cubans after the prosecutors first try a long shot of (1), rehear the case on appeal.

Frankly (4), to disregard the rule of law and to hold the Five without retrial is the mostly likely and the most characteristic choice for the Bush regime. It isn't that improbable that the Bush dictatorship will ship the Five to the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where the Five are sure to be tortured or murdered or raped or otherwise subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.

By means of (4), the Bush regime can arrogantly tell the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to go straight to hell.

However, if (2), retry them, turns out to be the case, the presence of Luis Posada Carriles within the United States and in the custody of US Department of Homeland Security will complicate a retrial of the Cuban Five.

The Cuban Five were, in large part, in the United States to investigate the origin of terrorist acts that were committed in Cuba during and before 1998. Many of the terrorists acts, such a series of hotel bombings in 1997 and 1998, were operations that Luis Posada had masterminded.

Hence, it a certainty that the attorneys for the Cuban Five at a retrial will subpoena Posada as a witness to testify about his "operations" against Cuba. Further, it unlikely that an impartial judge will refuse to let Posada testify on grounds of irrelevancy because these terrorist acts for which Posada has subsequently and publicly claimed responsibility were repeatedly mentioned in the first trial of the Cuban Five. Indeed, these acts against Cuba, without usually mentioning Posada ... their mastermind ... are discussed in the August 9th opinion of the 11th Circuit.

Gonzales and Acosta should check with somebody who bosses them about whether its a good idea to put Posada under oath in a US court to testify about his "operations" against Cuba.

For one thing, Posada may not be willing to lie under oath so that the Bush regime can save face. After all, Posada already has his hands full with the immigration and the extradition cases now pending against him. The last thing he wants and needs now is a perjury case pending against him. And Posada, after he thinks about it a little bit, may not be willing to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Opening his mouth is Posada leverage and means of influence, but if he keeps his mouth shut, then he throws away his leverage and lets the Bush regime throw him to the dogs, since the regime knows that Posada, like a stupid soldier, will "fall on the sword" for them. Without doubt, if Posada loses either the immigration or extradition case or both, he is more likely to open up his mouth in the Cuban Five retrial. And open it up big.

There are all kind of things that Posada can testify about, such as, for example, the financial sources for his 1997 and 1998 bombing "operations" against the Havana hotels which include some the big-named members of the drug dealing and GOP-supporting Miami Mafia. These bombing "operations" of Posada resulted on September 4, 1997 at 12.22 p.m. in the murder of Italian businessman Fabio di Celmo, 32-year-old Genoa, Italy, native, in the Copacabana Hotel lobby in Havana. Posada's financial backers ... who are accomplices to murder ... may feel a little bit exposed if Posada takes the stand to testify.

Posada may also testify about his organization and training of death squads at the behest of the US government in a number of countries, including Venezuela, in Latin America.

Posada may testify about the CIA shipments of cocaine from Central America for sale in the United States to finance the Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Most exciting of all, Posada may testify about the assassination in Dallas of a US president on November 22, 1963.

If Posada opens up his mouth in a Cuban five retrial, it won't be the first time. Posada opened his mouth to the New York Times in a published July 1998 interview.

Posada may welcome the opportunity to testify at the retrial of the Cuban Five because that will get him back to his beloved state of Florida ... though not the city of Miami ... where his powerful friends in the Miami Mafia can still "fix" things for him because the judicial and electoral system in Florida is the most corrupt in the United States. Miami is out as a venue for the retrial for the Cuban Five because many of the potential jurors who reside in Miami have been found by the 11th Circuit to be insanely prejudiced against Cuba.

Posada will smile when he considers that the probability of his testimony in a retrial of the Cuban Five will likely delay his removal from the United States if he loses in the pending immigration and extradition cases against him. Attorney General Gonzales and US Attorney Acosta will frown when they consider that Posada continued presence in the United State threatens to blow their retrial of the Cuban Five clear out of the water.

The probability of being called as a witness in the Cuban Five retrial, which will extend his illegal stay in the US regardless of the outcomes of his immigration and extradition cases, will likely affect the development of the tone and substance of Posada's defense in immigration and extradition cases. Posada may try to increase his desirability as a witness in the Cuban Five retrial by making utterances ... if he gets the opportunity ... in the immigration and extradition proceedings that bear on key issues in the Cuban Five litigation. Posada attorneys, unpleasantly discovering that US Immigration Judge William Abbott in El Paso may be no-nonsense, smart, tough, and righteous ... as judges should be but rarely are .... are turning to a dilatory or a foot-dragging defense for their client. They want to slow everything down to a crawl.

Attorney General Gonzales is in charge of the extradition case against Posada.

The US attorney general is, for sure, conflicted.

If he wins the extradition case and sends Posada to Venezuela, he pisses off the Miami Mafia. If, on the hand, he loses the extradition case and Posada stays here, then he jeopardizes the retrial of the Cuban Five ... which is a case as big as Posada's.

Gonzales and Acosta would be prudent if they ... quickly ... released the five Cubans and deported them to Cuba … to free, socialist Cuba, not to the barbaric and lawless US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay.