US citizen pleads guilty in 1968 air hijacking (to Cuba)

A 67-year-old man on Thursday admitted hijacking a plane four decades ago and forcing it to land in Cuba, telling a judge how he threatened to cut a flight attendant's throat to get access to the cockpit, where another man held a gun to the back of the co-pilot.

He said Pena Soltren began asking to return to the United States as far back as 1979, but U.S. authorities did not clear the way for him to do so until recently. The requests, he said, were ignored or greeted with indifference until U.S. authorities approached him last year.

You have an admininistration that is friendly with Communist terrorist radicals and has turned several loose.

It isn't about remorse, it is about a "New Amerika".

Other news item about Cuba the same month as the hijacking:

NOVEMBER 1968 : (ELDRIDGE CLEAVER FLEES THROUGH CUBA TO ALGIERS, WHERE HE WOULD RUN AN INTERNATIONAL HQ FOR THE BLACK PANTHERS) The Algiers connection probably stems from the fact that in November 1968 Eldridge Cleaver had evaded a murder charge by fleeing via Cuba to Algiers, from which he ran an international headquarters for the Black Panthers.
27 posted on 05/03/2005 12:35:02 PM PDT by Fedora

* 1960s : (CUBA ESTABLISHES RELATIONS WITH ALGERIAN FLN, SHIPS WEAPONS TO THEM THROUGH MOROCCO; ANTI-WESTERN AFRICAN LEADERS ARE TRAINED IN CUBA) Castro established relations with the Algerian FLN; official and public support was extended, weapons were shipped to the FLN through Morocco (1960-1961). Cuba provided shelter, medical and educational services and cooperation in the fields of counter-intelligence and intelligence.
* African leaders from Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Spanish Guinea, Tanganyika and Zanzibar arrived in Cuba for military training. - “CASTRO AND THE INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, A CHRONOLOGY,” by Eugene Pons with a foreword by Jaime Suchlicki, Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies, Occasional Paper Series, September 2001

I wonder if Eric Holder approached this guy in person?

Neuman said his client's motivation to return was because "he was sincerely and profoundly remorseful." He said Pena Soltren had never committed a crime before or after the hijacking, which occurred at a time when they were so common that numerous attacks could occur within a year. The hijackers, Neuman said, managed to sneak a gun on the plane by hiding it in a diaper. "His wasn't even the only hijacking that day. It was not considered an act of terrorism like it is today," Neuman said.

I'm guessing the lawyer probably wouldn't consider this incident some years before an act of terrorism either:

1954 : (WASHINGTON DC : US CAPITOL : PUERTO RICAN "NATIONALISTS" ATTEMPT TO MURDER US CONGRESSMEN) There's also the case of the Puerto Ricans who wounded 5 congressmen at the Capitol in 1954, shooting from the gallery.---28 posted on 02/13/2006 1:22:28 PM PST by July 4th | To 16 ***** Yes, he [Clinton] pardoned some who were involved in the attack on Congress in the 1950s. I don't know if he or Carter pardoned the persons involved in the Blair House shootout.Unfortunately, Cuba and now [2006] Venezuela want to sponsor the Puerto Rican independence movement to be a running ulcer in the side of the U.S. 5 posted on 02/13/2006 12:50:22 PM PST by GAB-1955| To 3

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