Teaching the Miami Herald to read: Gerardo Hernández’s habeas corpus appeal

On Sunday, December 28, Jay Weaver filed a story for the Miami Herald about the habeas corpus appeal for Gerardo Hernández, one of the “Cuban Five” who is currently serving a double life sentence in the maximum security federal prison at Victorville, California.  The article was subsequently translated for publication in the Herald’s Spanish language subsidiary, El Nuevo Herald.  The story and its headline (“In about-face, Cuban spy says planes were shot down over international waters”) made the sensational claim that in his appeal, Hernández had made a 180 degree turn, and is now contradicting the Cuban government’s position regarding the events of February 24, 1996, when two light aircraft belonging to the Miami group “Brothers to the Rescue” were shot down by Cuban fighter jets after being led toward Cuban airspace by their commander, José Basulto.

Sensationalism certainly attracts readers.  But it is not a substitute for a well-researched story, or the truth.  A careful reading of Hernández’s appeal does not lead to the conclusion stated by Weaver or the Herald.  I will write further about this in upcoming posts.  For now, these are my comments at both the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald (Spanish below).

On Anna Ardin, Israel Shamir and glass houses

Machetera

As far I can tell, the whole Israel Shamir/Anna Ardin business started back in September, when Counterpunch, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, posted an article co-authored by Shamir and Paul Bennett, announcing the “telltale signs of CIA connection surrounding Anna Ardin,” one of the women involved with the Swedish complaint against Julian Assange, whatever that case might be.

Finding Wikileaks

Okay, so Wikileaks DNS service was cut.  Thank you USG/ICANN for the timely reminder to avoid U.S. based servers and take your business elsewhere.

http://213.251.145.96