Ex-CIA agent viewed bombings as 'heroic'
<p>Luis Posada Carriles talks to a reporter in Miami in this Nov. 8, 2010, file photo. The former CIA operative is on trial in Texas, facing 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and naturalization fraud. He's accused of making false statements in 2005 for allegedly lying during immigration interviews in El Paso about how he got into the U.S. and about his role in a string of 1997 bombings that rocked Havana hotels and killed an Italian tourist.</p>
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - A New York Times reporter who interviewed an elderly ex-CIA agent about masterminding deadly bombings that rocked luxury hotels and other top tourist sites in Cuba in 1997 testified Wednesday that he sought out the newspaper to better explain the heroism of those attacks.
Ann Louise Bardach traveled to Aruba and spent 13 hours talking to anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles in 1998. She was compelled to testify at the 83-year-old Posada's trial in Texas after resisting U.S. government subpoenas for years on the premise that her participation would set a bad precedent and discourage sources from speaking to journalists.
Posada, who was born in Cuba, spent decades hatching schemes to topple communist governments in Latin America, primarily that of former President Fidel Castro in his native land. For much of that time, he had the backing of the U.S. government.
He sneaked into the U.S. in 2005 and underwent immigration hearings in El Paso, during which prosecutors allege he lied about how he made it into the country and about using a Guatemalan passport with a false name. They also say he failed to acknowledge planning the bombings in Cuba between April and September 1997 that tore through the lobbies and discos of hotels and a famous tourist restaurant in Havana, as well as a resort in the beach town of Varadero.
An Italian tourist was killed and about a dozen others were injured in the wave of explosions.
Posada is not on trial for the bombings, only for lying about them, prompting charges he interfered with a U.S. terrorism investigation. He faces 11 counts of perjury, immigration fraud and obstruction of justice.
Bardach co-wrote a series of 1998 stories for the Times with another reporter, Larry Rohter. In them, Posada is quoted as saying that the attacks were meant to hurt tourism in Cuba, but not kill anyone. He has since recanted that, however, saying the interviews were conducted in English, which he says he doesn't really understand.
Bardach now works for the Daily Beast, but was a contract writer for the Times in 1998. She was hired for investigative projects, and conducted interviews in Cuba and with anti-Castro activists in Florida.