** CUBA [and non]. 2 in spy case enter not-guilty pleas
Posted on Fri, Jan. 20, 2006 U.S. & CUBA
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...printstory.jsp

A couple at Florida International University charged with being
covert agents for the Castro government pleaded not guilty in Miami
federal court. BY JAY WEAVER

A pair of Florida International University employees pleaded not
guilty Thursday at their arraignment in Miami federal court, and
their lawyers later decried their detention in solitary confinement as
pretrial punishment.

The couple are accused of operating as covert agents for Cuba's
communist government for decades, using shortwave radios, numerical-
code language and computer-encrypted files to send information about
Miami's exile community to Cuban intelligence commanders.

Carlos M. Álvarez, 61, a tenured professor, and his wife, Elsa
Prieto Álvarez, 55, a mental-health counselor, were denied bond on
Jan. 9 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton. The South Miami
couple are charged with failing to register with the federal
government as foreign agents.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.

FLIGHT RISKS

Last week, Simonton said she believed that the gravity of the charges
against the Alvarezes, their past academic trips to Cuba and their
contacts in Fidel Castro's government made them flight risks if they
were released on bond.

Their attorneys, Steven Chaykin and Jane Moscowitz, said Thursday that
``their presumption of innocence has been eviscerated.''

This is not the first time at least one of their names has surfaced in
official investigations into the Castro government's alleged spying in
South Florida.

Congressional testimony by Florida Department of Law Enforcement
agents in 1982 attempted to link Elsa Prieto Álvarez to the Antonio
Maceo Brigade, founded in the 1970s by young Cuban exiles who often
split with their parents and supported the Cuban revolution.

The agents said Elsa Álvarez had been identified as a member of the
brigade by the Rev. Manuel Espinosa, a Hialeah preacher and self-
proclaimed double agent, who died in 1987.

But on Thursday, her lawyer strongly denied that allegation. ''She was
never a member of the Antonio Maceo Brigade,'' Moscowitz said.

Andrés Gómez, the longtime brigade leader, told The Miami Herald that
Elsa Alvarez was not a brigade member -- although he did not rule out
that she may have attended a brigade meeting or taken a trip to Cuba
with the brigade from some other U.S. city.

During the 1982 congressional testimony, the FDLE agents also warned
the federal government that several Cuban exiles, including Elsa
Álvarez, were providing sensitive information to Cuba's government
just as Miami was struggling to absorb more than 125,000 Mariel
refugees, hundreds of them prisoners with serious criminal
backgrounds and patients with severe mental illnesses.

TESTIMONY

Testifying before a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating Cuba-
related terrorism in South Florida, Sergio Piñón, then an FDLE agent,
accused Elsa Alvarez of sending along to Cuba private information on
mentally ill patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Moscowitz denied that her client had access to Jackson records or
that she had passed along such information to Cuba.

The couple's attorneys sharply criticized their clients' detention
before trial. They said they will appeal the denial of bond and
challenge their solitary confinement in the Federal Detention Center
in downtown Miami. The Álvarezes are on paid leave from their FIU
jobs.

''We think they are being inappropriately detained,'' Chaykin, who
represents Carlos Álvarez, said after the brief arraignment. ``They
are being punished for a crime they were not convicted of.''

Moscowitz said it has been particularly hard for her client, Elsa
Álvarez, to be separated from the couple's 12-year-old daughter.
''She is in distress,'' Moscowitz said. ``But somedays she is full of
fire. She is ready to fight.''

Their indictment, which included no mention of top-secret U.S.
government information being disclosed, came months after the couple's
admission because of additional investigative work in the case,
interim U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said.

Their confessions were videotaped this summer, according to one law
enforcement source familiar with the case.

But the couple's attorneys dispute that claim. They said that some
of Carlos Álvarez's statements may have been videotaped by the FBI,
but that Elsa Álvarez's statements were not recorded in any way.

Miami Herald staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report.
(c) 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved. (via Mike Cooper, DXLD 6-014)

dxAce
Mihigan
USA

- And your point is, DX . . .

Connection to numbers stations and all..



dxAce wrote:
** CUBA [and non]. 2 in spy case enter not-guilty pleas
Posted on Fri, Jan. 20, 2006 U.S. & CUBA
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...printstory.jsp

A couple at Florida International University charged with being
covert agents for the Castro government pleaded not guilty in Miami
federal court. BY JAY WEAVER

A pair of Florida International University employees pleaded not
guilty Thursday at their arraignment in Miami federal court, and
their lawyers later decried their detention in solitary confinement as
pretrial punishment.

The couple are accused of operating as covert agents for Cuba's
communist government for decades, using shortwave radios, numerical-
code language and computer-encrypted files to send information about
Miami's exile community to Cuban intelligence commanders.

Carlos M. Álvarez, 61, a tenured professor, and his wife, Elsa
Prieto Álvarez, 55, a mental-health counselor, were denied bond on
Jan. 9 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton. The South Miami
couple are charged with failing to register with the federal
government as foreign agents.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.

FLIGHT RISKS

Last week, Simonton said she believed that the gravity of the charges
against the Alvarezes, their past academic trips to Cuba and their
contacts in Fidel Castro's government made them flight risks if they
were released on bond.

Their attorneys, Steven Chaykin and Jane Moscowitz, said Thursday that
``their presumption of innocence has been eviscerated.''

This is not the first time at least one of their names has surfaced in
official investigations into the Castro government's alleged spying in
South Florida.

Congressional testimony by Florida Department of Law Enforcement
agents in 1982 attempted to link Elsa Prieto Álvarez to the Antonio
Maceo Brigade, founded in the 1970s by young Cuban exiles who often
split with their parents and supported the Cuban revolution.

The agents said Elsa Álvarez had been identified as a member of the
brigade by the Rev. Manuel Espinosa, a Hialeah preacher and self-
proclaimed double agent, who died in 1987.

But on Thursday, her lawyer strongly denied that allegation. ''She was
never a member of the Antonio Maceo Brigade,'' Moscowitz said.

Andrés Gómez, the longtime brigade leader, told The Miami Herald that
Elsa Alvarez was not a brigade member -- although he did not rule out
that she may have attended a brigade meeting or taken a trip to Cuba
with the brigade from some other U.S. city.

During the 1982 congressional testimony, the FDLE agents also warned
the federal government that several Cuban exiles, including Elsa
Álvarez, were providing sensitive information to Cuba's government
just as Miami was struggling to absorb more than 125,000 Mariel
refugees, hundreds of them prisoners with serious criminal
backgrounds and patients with severe mental illnesses.

TESTIMONY

Testifying before a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating Cuba-
related terrorism in South Florida, Sergio Piñón, then an FDLE agent,
accused Elsa Alvarez of sending along to Cuba private information on
mentally ill patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Moscowitz denied that her client had access to Jackson records or
that she had passed along such information to Cuba.

The couple's attorneys sharply criticized their clients' detention
before trial. They said they will appeal the denial of bond and
challenge their solitary confinement in the Federal Detention Center
in downtown Miami. The Álvarezes are on paid leave from their FIU
jobs.

''We think they are being inappropriately detained,'' Chaykin, who
represents Carlos Álvarez, said after the brief arraignment. ``They
are being punished for a crime they were not convicted of.''

Moscowitz said it has been particularly hard for her client, Elsa
Álvarez, to be separated from the couple's 12-year-old daughter.
''She is in distress,'' Moscowitz said. ``But somedays she is full of
fire. She is ready to fight.''

Their indictment, which included no mention of top-secret U.S.
government information being disclosed, came months after the couple's
admission because of additional investigative work in the case,
interim U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said.

Their confessions were videotaped this summer, according to one law
enforcement source familiar with the case.

But the couple's attorneys dispute that claim. They said that some
of Carlos Álvarez's statements may have been videotaped by the FBI,
but that Elsa Álvarez's statements were not recorded in any way.

Miami Herald staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report.
(c) 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved. (via Mike Cooper, DXLD 6-014)

dxAce
Mihigan
USA

Amused? Hardly.

The Ana Belen Montes case was certainly more significant.

wrote:
- And your point is, DX . . .

Connection to numbers stations and all..



dxAce wrote:
** CUBA [and non]. 2 in spy case enter not-guilty pleas
Posted on Fri, Jan. 20, 2006 U.S. & CUBA
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...printstory.jsp

A couple at Florida International University charged with being
covert agents for the Castro government pleaded not guilty in Miami
federal court. BY JAY WEAVER

A pair of Florida International University employees pleaded not
guilty Thursday at their arraignment in Miami federal court, and
their lawyers later decried their detention in solitary confinement as
pretrial punishment.

The couple are accused of operating as covert agents for Cuba's
communist government for decades, using shortwave radios, numerical-
code language and computer-encrypted files to send information about
Miami's exile community to Cuban intelligence commanders.

Carlos M. Álvarez, 61, a tenured professor, and his wife, Elsa
Prieto Álvarez, 55, a mental-health counselor, were denied bond on
Jan. 9 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton. The South Miami
couple are charged with failing to register with the federal
government as foreign agents.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.

FLIGHT RISKS

Last week, Simonton said she believed that the gravity of the charges
against the Alvarezes, their past academic trips to Cuba and their
contacts in Fidel Castro's government made them flight risks if they
were released on bond.

Their attorneys, Steven Chaykin and Jane Moscowitz, said Thursday that
``their presumption of innocence has been eviscerated.''

This is not the first time at least one of their names has surfaced in
official investigations into the Castro government's alleged spying in
South Florida.

Congressional testimony by Florida Department of Law Enforcement
agents in 1982 attempted to link Elsa Prieto Álvarez to the Antonio
Maceo Brigade, founded in the 1970s by young Cuban exiles who often
split with their parents and supported the Cuban revolution.

The agents said Elsa Álvarez had been identified as a member of the
brigade by the Rev. Manuel Espinosa, a Hialeah preacher and self-
proclaimed double agent, who died in 1987.

But on Thursday, her lawyer strongly denied that allegation. ''She was
never a member of the Antonio Maceo Brigade,'' Moscowitz said.

Andrés Gómez, the longtime brigade leader, told The Miami Herald that
Elsa Alvarez was not a brigade member -- although he did not rule out
that she may have attended a brigade meeting or taken a trip to Cuba
with the brigade from some other U.S. city.

During the 1982 congressional testimony, the FDLE agents also warned
the federal government that several Cuban exiles, including Elsa
Álvarez, were providing sensitive information to Cuba's government
just as Miami was struggling to absorb more than 125,000 Mariel
refugees, hundreds of them prisoners with serious criminal
backgrounds and patients with severe mental illnesses.

TESTIMONY

Testifying before a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating Cuba-
related terrorism in South Florida, Sergio Piñón, then an FDLE agent,
accused Elsa Alvarez of sending along to Cuba private information on
mentally ill patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Moscowitz denied that her client had access to Jackson records or
that she had passed along such information to Cuba.

The couple's attorneys sharply criticized their clients' detention
before trial. They said they will appeal the denial of bond and
challenge their solitary confinement in the Federal Detention Center
in downtown Miami. The Álvarezes are on paid leave from their FIU
jobs.

''We think they are being inappropriately detained,'' Chaykin, who
represents Carlos Álvarez, said after the brief arraignment. ``They
are being punished for a crime they were not convicted of.''

Moscowitz said it has been particularly hard for her client, Elsa
Álvarez, to be separated from the couple's 12-year-old daughter.
''She is in distress,'' Moscowitz said. ``But somedays she is full of
fire. She is ready to fight.''

Their indictment, which included no mention of top-secret U.S.
government information being disclosed, came months after the couple's
admission because of additional investigative work in the case,
interim U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said.

Their confessions were videotaped this summer, according to one law
enforcement source familiar with the case.

But the couple's attorneys dispute that claim. They said that some
of Carlos Álvarez's statements may have been videotaped by the FBI,
but that Elsa Álvarez's statements were not recorded in any way.

Miami Herald staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report.
(c) 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved. (via Mike Cooper, DXLD 6-014)

dxAce
Mihigan
USA

The couple are accused of operating as covert agents for Cuba's
communist government for decades, using shortwave radios, numerical-
code language and computer-encrypted files to send information about
Miami's exile community to Cuban intelligence commanders.

- and in light of 9 /11.

- it all looks so trivial..

Trivial? Really? You have spies operating within your country. Here's a
couple you know about, how many others are working there and what
nationality and for what purpose?

From: "RHF"
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
Date: 23 Jan 2006 05:21:06 -0800
Subject: And you thought those numbers stations were just for your
amusement...

For One and All-Ski,

So you are arrested as a Communist Spy
and your Attorney's Name is "Moscow"itz ! )

So you are a "Tenured Professor" at an
American based {International} University
and you are a Communist Spy - - - - - -
Question - Aren't They All ! )

does anyone see the humor here ? ~ RHF
.
.
No.