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[ Article crossposted from alt.activism,alt.conspiracy,soc.culture.caribbean,soc.rights.human,soc.culture.cuba,alt.politics.org.cia,alt.politics.radical-left,alt.journalism,alt.journalism.criticism,soc.culture.latin-america,alt.test ]
[ Author was N.Y. Transfer ]
[ Posted on 26 Jun 1996 06:07:30 -0400 ]
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
From: kwald@ceniai.cu (Karen Wald)
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 96 12:54:49 EDT
BASULTO-GATE?
by Karen Wald, Havana Cuba
What follows is the complete text of the press conference held by
Ricardo Alarcon, President of Cuba's National Assembly (parliament)
concerning the premature announcement by the White House of the
investigative report and presumed decisions of the International
Civil Aviation Commission to be announced at a meeting to be held on
June 26.
The basic points of Alarcon's charges are that the ICAO did NOT
carry out a fair and impartial investigation, that the report itself
is grossly deficient and biased, that it was written in
collaboration with US officials, behind closed doors, instead of by
an impartial investigating team.
The Cuban leader challenged the report's conclusion as to the
location of the blames based exclusively on third-hand reports of
statements allegedly made by passengers of a Norwegian cruise ship
whose exact position at the time of the events could not be
determined, and whose passengers and crew the investigators never
interviewed,
He further states that the US withheld, fabricated and altered
material, including erasing key radar reports and withholding
the tape recording -- whose transcript US authorities
presented to the ICAO investigators instead -- of alleged
conversations between Cuban pilots and their air base which
the Cubans say never took place. Alarcon challenges the US to
present this so-called tape. He also questions why the investigating
team did not use the same thorough investigative techniques in the
US as it did in Cuba, where not only was the committee given access
to all original documents, tapes, radar reports, radio
communications, etc but was also able to interview all personnel
related to this incident, check voices against tapes and tape
machines to verify that the tapes given by Cuba were not altered,
interview the operators of the equipment, etc. In contrast, the
investigative committee reports interviewing only ONE person during
its investigation in the US -- Hermanos al Rescate leader and pilot
Jose Basulto. It gives no report of what was discussed during a
total of 15 days -- in Miami, DC and Montreal -- behind closed doors
with US officials. Alarcon charges the US was telling the ICAO team
how to write the report.
Given a choice between writing articles (which might have brought me
some income) and taking the time to prepare the following English
version of Alarcon's press conference from my notes, audio and video
tapes, I chose the latter in order to give you the fullest picture
of what is being said.
If papers or magazines or other media are interested in a finished
article, you can contact me at kwald@ceniai.cu. If you choose to
use this material as is or re-write it, and normally pay for
articles, please contact me at the same email address to discuss
terms of payment and where to send it. Thank you.
Everyone else is free to disseminate this information as you please.
--Karen Wald
***********
Alarcon Press Conf June 24, 1996 NOTES
ICAC final meeting will take place in Montreal Weds. June 26 to