Expert: Brothers had previously ignored warnings about airspace
The accused spy's defense portrays the shoot-down by
Cuba as justified.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
Brothers to the Rescue repeatedly violated Cuban airspace
and air traffic control zones despite numerous warnings by
Cuba prior to the day of the shoot-down of two Brothers
planes five years ago, a government witness acknowledged
in court Wednesday.
Testimony by aviation expert Charles Leonard, in almost five
hours of intense defense questioning, clashed with some of
his earlier statements to prosecutors in which he painted a
more sinister picture of Cuba's actions Feb. 24, 1996, the
day of the shoot-down in which four people died.
On Monday, Leonard said that by shooting down the planes,
Cuba had ignored its own and internationally recognized
procedures because it failed to warn the planes before a MiG
blasted them.
But in answers to Paul McKenna, defense attorney for lead
defendant Gerardo Hernández, Leonard acknowledged Cuba
had repeatedly warned the United States -- and the United
States had relayed those warnings to Brothers -- that planes
might be downed if they persisted in ``provocative'' flights.
McKenna's detailed cross-examination for the first time
exposed jurors to the most comprehensive outline of the
Cuban government's perspective: That the shoot-down was
justified because the Brothers planes ignored warnings to
stop invading Cuban airspace.
``Isn't it true, sir, that Brothers to the Rescue planes ignored
warnings and entered an area that was activated as a danger
area?'' McKenna asked Leonard.
``They entered that area, yes sir,'' Leonard replied.
McKenna then asked whether a ``sane'' pilot would fly into
such an area after hearing such warnings.
``They'd do so at their own risk,'' Leonard replied.
``So,'' McKenna added, ``your normal, cautious pilot would
not fly to such area?''
``It'd be more prudent to avoid it -- if you could,'' Leonard
concurred.
The cross-examination also served as a preview for the
defense case, which is expected to start Monday. Federal
prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard they intend
to rest their case today or Friday.
Five defendants are fighting charges of spying for Cuba.
Hernández is specifically charged with conspiring to
facilitate the shoot-down. Defense attorneys do not dispute
that their clients worked for Cuba. But they told jurors in
opening statements that the defendants spied to protect
Cuba from exile ``terrorists.''
In his opening statement, McKenna pointed to Brothers'
leader José Basulto because he ignored repeated warnings
not to violate Cuban airspace.
In his cross-examination Wednesday, McKenna stuck to
that line and got Leonard to acknowledge that Basulto and
other Brothers pilots repeatedly flew into Cuban airspace to
drop anti-government propaganda or into designated danger
zones.
McKenna also used passages in a 94-page report by the
U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization to get Leonard
to acknowledge the veracity of Havana's warnings.
McKenna read sections quoting Cuban diplomatic notes to
the U.S. State Department dating from 1995 in which
Havana warns that planes that violated Cuban airspace
would be shot down. McKenna also read passages
indicating that U.S. authorities relayed these warnings to
Brothers.
Leonard acknowledged that a Cuban air-traffic controller on
the day of the shoot-down warned Basulto and other pilots
that they were in the danger zone.
But instead of heeding the warning, Basulto gave the
air-traffic controller a speech asserting his ``right'' to be in
the area as a ``free Cuban.''
``Is that the normal way to deal with air traffic control?''
McKenna asked.
``I don't think it was egregious, but it was not good,'' Leonard
replied.
But when McKenna asked Leonard if Cuba had delivered a
fair warning about the shoot-down that Brothers deliberately
ignored, Leonard disagreed.
``[The Cubans] had other options,'' Leonard said.