Left I on the News

I've written before about the case of Robert Ferro, a case which has received zero national attention despite the fact that Ferro was caught with the largest cache of weapons ever seized in the United States (more than 1,500 firearms including 35 machine guns!), the fact that Ferro is a man who had served two years in prison for the possession of five pounds of C-4 plastic explosive, and despite the fact that he claimed his arsenal was to be used in an attack on Cuba. Evidently that last fact was the critical one.

And now, as with the recent dropping of charges against Luis Posada Carriles, the government has decided that prosecuting "good" terrorists (or even calling them terrorists or charging them as such) isn't a priority. Federal prosecutors originally charged him with only five charges of illegal weapons possession, but last week, they went further and reduced those charges to only one -- possession of 17 firearms and one hand grenade. Ferro was certainly never charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Ferro isn't a special case, however. Oh no. Another huge cache of weapons (dozens of machine guns, rifles, C-4 explosive, dynamite, detonators, a grenade launcher and ammunition) seized in the United States was seized in Miami, from two allies of Posada, Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat. Alvarez and Mitat were sentenced to prison, but are about to have their sentences reduced to time served (about a year). Why? Because they turned over some of their arsenal to the Feds. By the way, Alvarez is the one who smuggled Posada into the United States, a crime even if Posada were a normal illegal immigrant, and a major crime considering Posada is a convicted (in Panama) felon (not to mention a known terrorist). Alvarez has not been charged with any crime in that instance. Hold your shock.

Labels: Robert Ferro