N.Y. Times says Cuban exile group distorts the truth
 

                  MIAMI (Reuters) -- A powerful Cuban exile group on Monday accused a
                  New York Times reporter of trying to destroy its reputation in an article
                  linking its founder to violent actions against Cuban President Fidel Castro,
                  but the newspaper said the group is twisting the truth.

                  The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) said an editors' note in
                  Sunday's New York Times, clarifying a phrase in an article published in July,
                  "underscores ... that the New York Times articles were false in their basic
                  premise."

                  The July article quoted Cuban exile guerrilla Luis Posada Carriles as saying
                  he had received money from Jorge Mas Canosa, the CANF's late chairman,
                  and other CANF leaders, to fund his anti-Castro activities.

                  On Sunday, the New York Times said in an editor's note: "Because of an
                  editing oversight one sentence reported that Mr. Posada said that
                  Cuban-American leaders had 'supported' a series of hotel bombings in
                  Cuba. The wording was not intended to mean that Mr. Posada said the
                  foundation leaders had paid specifically for the hotel bombings."

                  The note added that Posada acknowledged organising the bombing
                  campaign and the CANF had expressed support for it.

                  "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 New York Times said on Monday CANF was now incorrectly
                  presenting its editors' note as a retraction of the whole story.

                  "The fact that the Cuban American National Foundation held a press
                  conference today and characterised it as such is another example of CANF
                  spinning the story and distorting the truth," the newspaper said in a
                  statement.

                  Posada, who has been linked to bombing attacks on Havana hotels and
                  other violence against the Cuba's communist government, has given other
                  interviews since the July article, in which he has altered his statements.

                  He told CBS Telenoticias, a Spanish-language cable news network based in
                  Miami, that he had deliberately misinformed the New York Times reporters
                  who wrote the article.

                  The CANF, which vehemently opposes the Castro government and has
                  lobbied the U.S. government to maintain its 36-year-old embargo on the
                  island, had demanded a full retraction and has threatened legal action. It
                  denies it sponsored violence.

                  CANF spokesman Fernando Rojas said Monday: "The entire premise of
                  these stories has been completely discredited and exposed as a complete
                  falsehood fabricated by a reporter hell bent on attempting to destroy the
                  reputation of Jorge Mas Canosa and the CANF at whatever cost.

                  "It is a tremendous vindication that this newspaper has been forced to admit
                  its fault in giving false information that has been greatly damaging to Mr. Mas
                  Canosa's legacy and to the leadership of our organisation."

                  The New York Times has reported Posada's subsequent comments without
                  backing away from its original article. The newspaper said it could not say
                  what pressures Posada may have felt to change his story or if he had second
                  thoughts upon seeing the angry reaction of anti-Castro Cubans.

                  But the Times said that it was confident its original article quoted Posada
                  correctly and said some of what Posada said had been corroborated by
                  other interviews and recently declassified government documents.

                  Posada, who said he was trained in sabotage by the CIA in the 1960s, had
                  originally told the paper he received more than $200,000 over the years
                  from Mas Canosa, a millionaire businessman who died last November, and
                  other CANF leaders.

                  He said Mas Canosa helped him escape from a Venezuelan jail in which he
                  spent nine years after allegedly planting a bomb that blew up a Cuban airliner
                  off Barbados in 1976, killing all 73 people aboard.

                  Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.