Witness in ex-CIA operative case had mental issues

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Defense attorneys for an elderly ex-CIA operative and anti-communist militant on trial for perjury argued Wednesday that a top prosecution witness' history of schizophrenic episodes and hallucinations make him unreliable.

Government informant Gilberto Abascal is key to the federal charges against Cuba-born Luis Posada Carriles, a personal nemesis of Fidel Castro. Abascal claimed he was on a boat that helped Posada sneak into the U.S. through Miami in 2005, though Posada told immigration officials he came across the Texas border.

Posada, 82, also is accused of lying during federal immigration hearings in El Paso about his involvement in a series of 1997 bombings in Cuba. He is charged with 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud.

In an effort to discredit Abascal, Posada attorney Arturo Hernandez introduced a medical evaluation from the Social Security Administration that indicated Abascal suffered from "severe schizophrenic symptoms" from 2002 until August 2004.

The symptoms stemmed from head injuries Abascal suffered after falling about 14 stories while working at a construction site in 2000, and he went to a Miami hospital emergency room in June 2004 with hallucinations. Abascal could control the problems with proper medication, according to the records.

Abascal, on the witness stand since Monday, said he sometimes suffers from insomnia and depression, but maintained that he is not schizophrenic.

"I don't know what the doctors put" in their records, he said.

Upon repeated questioning from Hernandez, he told the defense attorney: "I'm afraid of you."

"You've had me under surveillance for six years," Abascal snapped, alleging that Hernandez's office has watched him to find evidence that could be used against him during Posada's trial.

Hernandez chuckled, then said, "you have no reason to be afraid of me."

U.S. Attorney Jerome Teresinski objected several times as Hernandez questioned Abascal, after objecting to Hernandez introducing the 223 pages of Social Security records. Twice, the attorneys spoke privately with U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone.

When Hernandez continued to question Abascal about mental problems, Teresinski said he was "harassing the witness." Cardone dismissed the jury and Hernandez called for a mistrial, saying accusations by Abascal and Teresinski that he acted improperly had biased the jury.

The judge refused the request. She noted the high number of objections, saying part of the problem was that Abascal had been evading Hernandez's questions for two days.

"This is cross examination. It can sometimes get heated," Cardone said. "But, regardless of that, I'm not here to limit the cross."

Discussion of Abascal's medical records came after Hernandez spent hours introducing bank files showing that Abascal claimed to have no income in order to receive disability payments - but was actually working as a handyman at the time and collecting checks in other people's names.

Abascal, 45 and a native of Cuba, also admitted paying no federal taxes in 2005 and said that, despite his claims of being indigent, he made about $100,000 as co-owner of a Florida chicken farm.

He also dodged Hernandez's questions constantly, finally telling the defense attorney, "you have an obsession with money."

Abascal is central to the government's case because he testified that he was on a shrimp boat converted into a yacht that traveled to the resort island of Isla Mujeres in Mexico, picked up Posada, and helped him slip into Miami in March 2005.

Once in the U.S., Posada applied for citizenship and underwent a series of immigration hearings. During them, he said he paid a smuggler to drive him from Honduras, through Mexico and across the Texas border. He also failed to acknowledge his role in a series of 1997 hotel bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist - even though he gave an interview to the New York Times admitting responsibility.

Posada is public enemy No. 1 in Cuba, featured on propaganda billboards. He participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion, though he was not one of the invaders who made it to Cuban soil. In the 1980s, he helped support U.S.-backed "contra" rebels in Nicaragua.

Posada was arrested in Panama amid a plot to kill Castro during a visit there in 2000. He went to prison, but was eventually pardoned - then turned up in the U.S. He was held in an immigration detention center but released in 2007, and lived in Miami as the current case against him proceeded.

Cuba and Venezuela accuse Posada not only of the 1997 Cuban hotel bombings, but also of organizing an explosion aboard a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people. A U.S. immigration judge has previously ruled that he couldn't be deported to either country because of fears of torture.