N.Y. Times admits error in exile story

             The New York Times said Sunday it erred in reporting that Cuban exile Luis
             Posada Carriles had claimed that Jorge Mas Canosa and other exile leaders had
             supported his terror bombings of Havana hotels last summer.

             In an Editors' Note on page 2, the newspaper blamed ``an editing oversight for
             allowing that wording in a July 12 article that unleashed an uproar among
             supporters and foes of the Cuban American National Foundation.

             ``The wording was not intended to mean that Mr. Posada said the foundation
             leaders had paid specifically for the hotel bombings, The Times said.

             ``In the interviews [with the Times], Mr. Posada acknowledged having organized
             the bombing campaign. He also noted that leaders of the foundation had publicly
             expressed support for the bombings, which they characterized as an act of internal
             rebellion.

             ``But, as was made clear elsewhere in the article, Mr. Posada said Mr. Mas and
             other leaders of the foundation did not earmark money for specific operations, and
             asked not to be told how he used their funds, the note added.

             The note made no reference to the rest of the story, which most significantly
             alleged that the late Mas Canosa had ``personally supervised the flow of financial
             support to Posada for his anti-Castro attacks.

             Posada, a CIA-trained veteran of the exile war on Cuba's communist government,
             has acknowledged telling The New York Times in a tape-recorded interview that
             Mas Canosa was his main financial supporter.

             But in three interviews after The Times published its article, Posada has claimed
             that he lied to the newspaper about Mas to lead its reporters away from the real
             source of his finances.

             Posada has also claimed he was misquoted in other parts of the New York Times
             story.

             In interviews with The Herald, Posada and his friends have always sought to
             separate the source of the money he used for anti-Castro operations from those
             exile donations he received for living expenses.

             In a 1994 autobiography, for example, Posada thanked Foundation Chairman
             Alberto Hernandez and others for paying his medical bills after he was shot 12
             times in an assassination attempt in Guatemala City.