The new world view of terrorism may help Cuban secret agents when
they face their fate at sentencing for spying on both U.S. military bases and
militant exiles.
An independent reviewer is suggesting the spies' anti-terrorism mission
targeting Miami-based exiles may entitle them to something less than the
standard life sentence in federal espionage cases.
Prosecutors strongly object, but defense attorneys hope the judge adopts a
probation office view that fighting terrorism was not something contemplated by
the people who wrote the nation's sentencing guidelines.
"In the context of the Cuban spy case, the question is, 'What is your position on
international terrorism?'" defense attorney William Norris said Tuesday.
"President George W. Bush has told us that there are no noncombatants in this
battle. You're either with us or against us."
Terrorism is blamed by the defense on exiles who allegedly plotted and financed
a series of Havana hotel bombings and gunrunning trips to Cuba. A defense
witness said on the courthouse steps after testifying that he would kill Cuban
President Fidel Castro if he could.
Decoded messages passed between the spy ring and Havana talk of tailing
suspicious exiles and hunts for paramilitary training camps in the Everglades.
Some of the material gathered by the Wasp Network spy ring and Cuban
bombing investigators was secretly passed by the Cuban government to the FBI
with no apparent result.
Sentencing recommendations by the probation department are normally
confidential, but prosecutors and defense attorneys have printed excerpts in
their court filings.
The pre-sentence report doesn't suggest a specific reduction in sentence,
leaving that up to U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard. Hearings are set the week
of Dec. 10, but two defense attorneys have asked for delays.
Ringleader Gerardo Hernandez told the probation office that he lived
undercover "not to harm the citizens of this country, but in an effort to protect
his country from the terrorist acts of individuals operating against his homeland."
Lead prosecutor Caroline Miller had no public comment on the sentencing
dispute. But her court filing called Hernandez's explanation "self-serving" and
argued that an anti-terrorism mission is not a legal basis for a lower sentence.
All five defendants were found guilty as charged in June after a six-month trial.
Three of them - Hernandez, Norris' client Ramon Labanino and Antonio
Guerrero - were convicted of espionage conspiracy, which carries the
possible life sentence. Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, who are not
related, face up to 10 years on lesser charges.
Hernandez also faces a possible life term for murder conspiracy in the deaths
of four Miami fliers whose civilian planes were shot down by a Cuban MiG in
international airspace in 1996.
Sentences imposed in other spy cases that went to trial hinged largely on the
harm caused to national security. The Wasp Network, including 16 people
charged as ring members, never got any U.S. secrets.
Labanino "was engaged in a mission that anticipated President George W.
Bush's call for an international coalition against terrorism," his attorney Norris
argued. When Bush declared a war on terrorism, "there was no doubt that
Ramon Labanino and his government stood with us."
