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It is unconscionable that you are advocating a policy of abject appeasement toward Fidel Castro’s regime, while undermining President’s Bush war against terrorism. You are advocating relations with a terrorist state whose leader pledged on May 2001 at the University of Tehran, that their alliance would bring U.S. down to its knees. This was an ominous threat that came to fruition on September 11 with the brutal terrorist attacks to our country. Was Castro aware of the attack? Was he part of the planning? Russian Prime Minister Putin’s reaction after the attack attests to that possibility.

“Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees," Castro said at the University of Tehran. "The U.S. regime is very weak and we are witnessing this weakness from close-up.” .....Castro's own warning to the United States during his swing through the Middle East last May.

REPUTED LEADER OF GREEK GUERRILLAS IS CHARGED IN MURDERS

By Anthee Carassava
The New York Times
Colaboración:
Armando F. Mastrapa III
New York
E.U.
La Nueva Cuba
Julio 20, 2002

ATHENS, July 19 — A 58-year-old mathematician believed to be a ringleader of the guerrilla group November 17 was charged today with crimes including murders, bomb attacks and bank robberies carried out during the 1980's.

The suspect, Alexandros Yiotopoulos, appeared in court, where he requested the assistance of a lawyer and extra time to prepare his deposition. He was granted a two-day extension.

Completion of that first legal procedure could lead Mr. Yiotopoulos to confinement in a maximum-security prison on the outskirts of Athens pending trial in connection with a string of attacks by November 17.

The Marxist-Leninist group, named for the date of a violent student uprising in 1973, has haunted Greece for nearly three decades. It has killed 23 people it accused of helping American or imperialist interests, including American intelligence officers, Turkish diplomats, a British military officer and several Greek businessmen.

It has long been on the State Department's list of terrorist groups. Despite pressure from the United States for action against the group, Mr. Yiotopoulos was the first person suspected of being a senior member to be identified by the Greek authorities. The pressure has only grown as Greece prepares for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis promised that the police would thoroughly investigate the case.

"The time has come for the terrorists finally to account for their acts," he said in his first public comments since Mr. Yiotopoulos's arrest on Wednesday. Mr. Yiotopoulos has denied the charges against him.

Two other suspects were charged today with being foot soldiers in the group, bringing the total number of people in custody in the case to eight. The authorities said at least six more arrests were expected by the end of the week.

"It's like peeling an onion," said the United States ambassador to Athens, Thomas Miller. "We've got a strong sense of the perimeter, but we don't know what more we'll find as the case unfolds."

The police say they have fingerprints of Mr. Yiotopoulos from a November 17 weapons cache in Athens. The cache, hidden in an apartment building, was found after Greek counterterrorism agents questioned a man wounded in a bungled bombing attempt on June 29. That man, Savas Xiros, is among those in custody.

A four-page printout of a proclamation, found with the weapons cache, featured text corrections in handwriting that matches Mr. Yiotopoulos's, the police said.
"The investigation is ongoing," said a senior police official. "But rest assure that our cause for calling him a leading figure is well founded."

In Washington on Thursday the State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, said it was premature to discuss any possibility that the United States might seek the extradition of Mr. Yiotopoulos and November 17 members linked to attacks against Americans in Greece.

Mr. Yiotopoulos was born in Paris. His ties to armed violence, the authorities say, date to his student years in Paris and the rebellious groups he formed as part of a Greek resistance movement that helped topple the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.

Mr. Yiotopoulos, an admirer of the guerrilla leader Che Guevara, went to Cuba for urban guerrilla training, according to a report in the Athens daily To Vima. His father, Dimitris, was a prominent figure in the Greek and international Trotskyist movements.