Antonio de la Cova polemic with the Miami Herald on Cuban spies Silvia Wilhelm and Marifeli Perez-Stable

-----Original Message-----
From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2009 9:55 AM
To: Tamayo, Juan - Miami
Cc: Miriam Marquez<MMarquez@miamiherald.com>;Mike Sallah<MSallah@miamiherald.com>;Jay Weaver<JWeaver@MiamiHerald.com>;David Landsberg<DLandsberg@miamiherald.com>;Anders Gyllenhaal<AGyllenhaal@miamiherald.com>;Manny Garcia<magarcia@miamiherald.com>;

Subject: Silvia Wilhelm article

Juan,
  I was disappointed after reading your article on the Silvia "Flippety" Wilhelm lawsuit. You omitted mentioning that major parts of her deposition are posted on blogs.
 http://babalublog.com/2009/09/castro-agents-of-influence-anyone/
  The Miami Herald could have acquired a copy of the Wilhelm deposition from Goldfinger Reporting in Miami.
  The deposition makes it obvious why Wilhelm quietly dropped her lawsuit through a settlement.
  1. She acknowledges having met privately in the Hotel Nacional from five to ten times with Amado Soto, who convicted spy Carlos Alvarez identified as an intelligence agent who was his handler. The Alvarez deposition acknowledges that he likewise met with Soto at the same place and in the same private manner, sometimes accompanied by Wilhelm.
  2. Wilhelm admits to also having met with Cuban officials Jorge Bolanos and Jose Cabanas. U.S. intelligence agencies have identified both of them as Cuban intelligence agents.
  3. Wilhelm admits that as a result of Simmons' denunciations, she did not receive any threats, although she had been frequently threatened in the past.
  4. Wilhelm stated that Simmons statements made her nervous and that she had to take Valium given to her by her physician husband. Then she immediately retracts herself by saying that all she took was an antihistamine to fall asleep. Had the case gone to court, her husband could have lost his medical license for giving her Valium without a prescription.
  5. Wilhelm could no prove that she had been economically affected by Simmons' statements. On the contrary, after she shut down her Puentes Cubanos non-profit operation on June 30, 2009, she began a new identical corporation for profit called Cuba Puente.
  6. Wilhelm admitted knowing convicted spy Carlos Alvarez since 1962 and suspected spy Alberto Coll since 2001.
  There are other admissions in her deposition that expose her Cuba rapproachment work as nothing more than a lucrative enterprise for someone without a college degree. She was receiving up to $2,000 for each of her trips to Cuba plus salaries from the organizations she headed.
  Wilhelm also admitted that she had financed Edmundo Garcia's radio program "La noche se mueve." She also gives many names of other people involved in her money-making schemes and activities.
  Wilhelm states having paid her attorney $75,000 as a starting fee and takes a big financial loss by ending her lawsuit.
  I am not surprised that your article omitted investigating or reporting these facts. The Herald has a reputation for being very shallow when reporting on Cuban espionage activities. You have Marifeli Perez-Stable on the board of contributors at the Herald, who was publicly accused by Simmons, Armando Valladares, and two DGI defectors of being a Cuban intelligence operative, and the Herald has steadfastly refused to investigate these accusations for years.
  If the Herald won't let you investigate or publish these facts, I hope that you include them in your upcoming book on Cuban espionage.
  Best wishes,
  Tony de la Cova
 

-----Original Message-----
From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2009 7:40 PM
To: Juan Tamayo<JTamayo@miamiherald.com>;Anders Gyllenhaal<AGyllenhaal@miamiherald.com>;David Landsberg<DLandsberg@miamiherald.com>;Jay Weaver<JWeaver@MiamiHerald.com>;Manny Garcia<magarcia@miamiherald.com>;Mike Sallah<MSallah@miamiherald.com>;Miriam Marquez<MMarquez@miamiherald.com>;Wilfredo Cancio<canciow@yahoo.com>;ombudsman@miamiherald.com<ombudsman@miamiherald.com>;

Subject: Response to Miami Herald article "Charges against columnist don't add up"

Edward Schumacher-Matos
Miami Herald Ombudsman

Dear Sir:

I am responding to your article “Charges against columnist don’t add up,” in today’s Miami Herald,
http://www.miamiherald.com/ombudsman/story/1287091.html
in which you repeatedly mention me. Your piece contains factual errors and important omissions.

You state that Defense Intelligence Agency career officer Chris Simmons and other writers “rely heavily” on my research to accuse Professor Marifeli Pérez-Stable of being a Cuban intelligence “agent of influence.” Simmons has publicly stated  that for decades he has had access to the government debriefings of some twenty-five former Cuban DGI and DI intelligence officers. I am astonished and humbled that such a gifted spy catcher would have to largely depend on my academic research for his assertions.

On August 6, 2008, Simmons stated on Babalu blog radio:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/simmons.mp3
"I had access to a colleague who debriefing, a recent debriefing of a former DI [Cuban Directorate of Intelligence] officer who was working what is called M-1 U.S. targets. But most specifically, he worked the academic section of U.S. targets and in the early first half of the 1990s. Now, this is the critical part because she [Marifeli Perez-Stable] says that her support of the regime ended back in the eighties. Her case officer recalled meeting with her in Ottawa, Canada, in mid 1991, and she was still an active agent of Cuban intelligence. So, no matter how she tries to spin, spin it that this may have been an indiscretion of her youth, I got the notes from her case officer who outed her. So, her usefulness to the regime ended when that second officer stepped forward."

On April 11, 2002, a Miami Herald article by Juan Tamayo
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/brito.htm
indicated that Orlando Brito Pestana, a “top Cuban spy” who had recently defected, was “brought to the United States for debriefings on Havana intelligence operations in Canada, America and Panama.” Brito, “one of the most senior Cuban intelligence officials to defect in recent years,” was the “head of Cuba's intelligence office in Canada” until February 13, 1994, when “Canada expelled him and another Cuban diplomat for spying.” It appears that Simmons was alluding to Brito’s debriefing when identifying Perez-Stable’s Cuban intelligence case officer in mid 1991.

You also mention that I “spent six years in a U.S. prison in relation to the attempted bombing of a bookstore owned by a suspected Castro sympathizer.” You omit mentioning that the arrest occurred in May 1976, after FBI agent Vincent Warger told me that Martín Cruz and Lázaro Santana were Cuban DGI agents operating in Miami
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/vince-warger.pdf
An FBI informant and provocateur, who received $3,900 for orchestrating the case against my two co-defendants and I, linked these DGI agents and the adult bookstore. The porno shop immediately closed and its owners quickly disappeared, apparently returning to Cuba.

I have never spoken to or communicated with Professor Pérez-Stable. What you perceive as my “tormenting” her to make “a cottage industry,” started on November 27, 2006, when I sent my friend, Miami Herald investigative editor Mike Sallah, information about the Cuban intelligence link to Pérez-Stable that I had put on my academic website
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/marifeli.htm
Sallah replied that he would request from an FBI contact in Miami a copy of the Jesús Pérez Méndez debriefing that describes Pérez-Stable as being “controlled” by Cuban intelligence. Sallah then introduced my wife and I to editor Manny García in his office on the afternoon of January 3, 2007. During a lengthy conversation, I provided García with information on the activities of DGI agents in Miami, including Cruz and Santana, and suggested that the Miami Herald file a FOIA request with the FBI for a copy of the Pérez Méndez debriefing.

The next day, I sent García an email that concluded by saying: “I share the belief of many compatriots that the Herald needs to balance its investigative reporting of the Cuban exile community. So far, it has only focused on Cuban Americans and has not done investigative reporting on the activities of the Castro agents and sympathizers denounced by Pérez Méndez and by Castro dialogue turncoat Rev. Manuel Espinosa in 1980.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espinosa.htm
I truly hope that after the retirement of Executive Editor Tom Fiedler, the Herald will be able to mend its relationship and credibility with the majority of the Cuban exile community and embark on a new course.”

Sallah later told me that the Herald never filed the FOIA request nor did they do any further investigation into the activities of the Castro agents that I mentioned.

Your article further states: “Until now, there has been no full, clear public response from Pérez-Stable about the charges against her.” However, when my copy of the Pérez Méndez debriefing was posted on the Internet, including Herald reporter Oscar Corral’s blog “Miami’s Cuban Connection”
http://blogs.herald.com/cuban_connection/2007/03/ana_menendez_on.html
Pérez-Stable had her friend, attorney John de Leon, send letters and emails threatening a lawsuit for “libelous and slanderous statements” to writer Paul Crespo, bloggers Henry Gomez and Valentin Prieto, and Indiana University administrators and I.
http://heraldwatch.blogspot.com/2007/03/herald-contributor-attempts-to-silence.html
De Leon claimed that these “false” and “extremely injurious” and “outrageous accusations” against Pérez-Stable “caused severe emotional pain and distress to her and more importantly they have created a tremendous risk to her livelihood and to his [sic] personal safety and well being.” Surprisingly, in spite of all the threats and allegations, no legal action was ever taken.

That same year, when Silvia “Flippity” Wilhelm was being investigated by the FBI for espionage activities, she also turned to de Leon for assistance, according to page 265 of her deposition on June 15, 2009.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Wilhelm.pdf
Wilhelm, on December 4, 2008, sued Simmons for implicating her in Cuban espionage, but in her deposition (pp. 202, 207, 211) she admits having privately met in Havana with DI agent Amado Soto more than “five times” in a Hotel Nacional room that was bugged with microphones. Confessed and convicted Cuban spy Carlos Alvarez acknowledged in his 2003 FBI interrogation (pp. 618-620)
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Alvarez-spy-7.pdf
that he and Wilhelm had communicated with Soto, and that Soto was the intelligence officer who had recruited him.

When Simmons filed a legal motion to obtain Wilhelm’s bank records as part of his defense, her attorney raised an untenable objection.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Wilhelm-7-08-09a.pdf
Weeks later, Wilhelm, who had paid her attorney $75,000 and refused to provide her bank records, filed a notice of resolution of the case, and stipulated that the terms be kept confidential.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Wilhelm-9-02-09.pdf

Herald editors and reporters demonstrate naiveté when asking Pérez-Stable to admit to the same espionage criminal activities for which her friend and colleague Professor Carlos Alvarez was sent to prison. Your article omits that it was Alvarez, during his FBI interrogation, who admitted that Mercedes Arce was his intelligence handler (p. 80-82)
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Alvarez-spy-1.pdf
and linked her (p. 489) to Pérez-Stable.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Alvarez-spy-6.pdf

Your article indicates that the Miami Herald will not further investigate the Pérez-Stable case, even though you acknowledge that her responses “raise as many questions as they answer.” You claim that “Unless her critics can come up with something firm, their accusations border on paranoia and slander.” In response, as a scholar and a former investigative journalist, I propose that the Miami Herald:

1. File a FOIA request for the Jesús Pérez Méndez FBI debriefing of 1983, as I suggested nearly three years ago to Sallah and García.

2. File a FOIA request for the Orlando Brito Pestana CIA and FBI debriefing of 2002.

3. Request that Professor Pérez-Stable produce her 1991 U.S. and Cuban passports to disprove that she was in Canada that year meeting with Brito.

Failure to proceed in this elementary manner can be perceived as disregarding journalism ethics and neglecting investigative reporting in pursuit of sustaining a whitewash.

I am also asking that the Miami Herald afford me equal time by publishing my response, without omissions, on the same “Issues and Ideas” page on which your article appeared.

Sincerely,

Antonio de la Cova, Ph.D.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 10:59 AM
To: Tamayo, Juan - Miami; juan tamayo
Subject: Kudos

Juan,
  Kudos for your article in today's Herald "Cuba's spy 'walk-ins' target U.S., experts say." I see Chris Simmon's prints all over that piece.
  Speaking of DGI walk-ins, FBI agent Vince Warger told me in December 1975 that Martin Cruz Baez in 1964 had been in a walk-in SEVEN times at the U.S. mission in Czechoslovakia offering information, but was always turned away. In 1966, Cruz and his passive homosexual companion and DGI agent Lazaro Santana Yaniz arrived on the Freedom Flights and settled in New York for five years, doing factory work, before moving to Miami. Their covert work included collecting and indexing information from Cuban exile newspapers. They did a professional survey among exiles to find out who was the most trusted exile leader and came up with TV newscaster Manolo Reyes. Cruz and Santana approached Reyes, showed him their survey, and stated that they were willing to assist him in the creation of a new exile group under his leadership. Reyes promptly called the FBI. Warger provided all this information for me. You should locate Warger. He is retired in Miami, and tell him that you read his deposition online
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/vince-warger.pdf
  Now, if you could only file FOIA requests for the debrifings of Jesus Perez Mendez and Orlando Brito Pestana, you could build an entire "cottage industry" on that data for a book.
  Cheers,
  Tony
 

----- Original Message -----
From: Tamayo, Juan - Miami
To: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 11:18 AM
Subject: RE: Kudos

Thanks tony
Now that I am working full time for enh/tmh again i have put aside many of my intel interestes.
a question, didn't you FOIA for the perez mendez debriefing?
cheahs
 

-----Original Message-----
From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 12:36 PM
To: Tamayo, Juan - Miami; juan tamayo
Subject: RE: Kudos

  I had no need to FOIA the Perez Mendez debriefing. As I have repeatedly stated, around 1986, a Puerto Rican police intelligence officer who provided security when the governor attended our Cena Martiana activity, showed me a copy of the original, with all the FBI routing markings. The officer wanted to know my opinion if Perez Mendez was being truthful about all the other people mentioned in the debriefing, because he confirmed that what was said about Castro agents in Puerto Rico was correct. The agent did not let me photocopy the document, which came from an FBI-Puerto Rican Police Task Force file, because he was concerned that it might have secret markings to track its circulation. Instead, he let me "meticulously" copy it by hand. I didn't put it on the Internet until 2006.
   Perez Mendez said in his debriefing: "MARIFELI receives $100 for each tourist that travels to Cuba with the CIRCULO DE CULTURA CUBANA."
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Perez-Mendez-debriefing.pdf
Perez-Stable admited to the Herald: "I worked for the Círculo and received a modest salary." At the time, she was also drawing another salary as Assistant Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York--Old Westbury. The Ombudsman did not make this connection nor did he pursue this line of questioning.
  I would not have changed a letter or manipulated that debriefing document, knowing that the FBI has the original and that I could later be disproven in a lawsuit.
  That's why Perez-Stable, in spite of all the initial threats and blustering never took legal action. She did not want to open a Pandora's box like Flippity, who terminated her lawsuit after Simmons requested her three bank account records. I have no doubt that as part of the secret settlement, in cases like this, she ended up paying Simmon's legal fees, which would signal an admission of defeat and culpability. She paid her attorney a $75,000 start up fee. I assume that Simmmons had a similar fee,which means that Flippity's indiscretion cost her more than $150,000.
  When she initially sued, Flippity was unaware that Carlos Alvarez had implicated her up to the hilt. Then, during her deposition, her attorney didn't coach her to be terse, and instead blabbered uncontrollably, opening the door to numerous other questions.
  By now you must have gotten the copy of my email to the Herald Ombudsman who wrote a whitewash for Marifeli. I am convinced that the Herald will not print my response nor proceed with any of my suggestions, such as getting the FOIA debriefings of Perez Mendez and Brito or requesting that Perez-Stable produce her 1991 passports to disprove that she was in Canada meeting with Brito.
  The Herald also has not investigated the link between Perez-Stable and Jesus Diaz (1941-2002) the ICAIC official and DGI agent who filmed "55 Hermanos" in 1978 about the Antonio Maceo Brigade. Confidential sources state that he had an affair with Perez-Stable and the now old-maid became a rabid Patria o Muerte. In 1991, the same year that Perez-Stable met with Brito in Canada, Diaz got tronado and migrated to Spain, where he adopted the same line of criticism toward the regime that Perez-Stable has emulated.
  If the Herald restrains your investigations, like in the case of Flippity's lawsuit, where not all the evidence was mentioned, I hope that you will continue with your book project.
  I am convinced that when the Cuban State Security archives open in the future, the evidence about Perez-Stable and other spies will make the Herald look like a ridiculous apologist. It's the same thing that happened with the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case, on which academics built entire careers defending them and the liberal media found it hard to accept the verification of the KGB handler.
  Cheers,
  Tony

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ombudsman (MHPC)" <ombudsman@miamiherald.com>
To: <delacova@latinamericanstudies.org>;
<edward_schumacher-matos@harvard.edu>
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 12:15 PM
Subject: RE: Response to Miami Herald article "Charges against columnist don't add up"

Dear Professor de la Cova,

Sunday, I am going to run a collection of some of the responses I have received to the column on Marifeli Perez-Stable. Thank you very much for your long and considered note.  I would like to lead with yours, but the most space I can give is 300 words.  That is twice the length of the normal letter to the editor, though the responses are running in my column space and not as normal letters to the editor. I wonder if I could ask you to cut your letter below to what you think are the main points.  I think that you can choose better than I can; I wouldn't want to do an injustice.  I am happy to add the address of your website for readers wanting more detail.

I am copying this message to my personal email address in hopes that you might respond there.  I do not follow the Ombudsman box with the same regularity.  I would need the edited letter by Wednesday morning, if you agree to do so.  I hope that you will.

Best, Edward Schumacher-Matos
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
Sent: Monday, November 2, 2009 9:38 PM
To: ombudsman@miamiherald.com<ombudsman@miamiherald.com>;
Cc: Mike Sallah<MSallah@miamiherald.com>;Manny Garcia<magarcia@miamiherald.com>;Jay Weaver<JWeaver@MiamiHerald.com>;Juan Tamayo<JTamayo@miamiherald.com>;Anders Gyllenhaal<AGyllenhaal@miamiherald.com>;David Landsberg<DLandsberg@miamiherald.com>;Miriam Marquez<MMarquez@miamiherald.com>;
Subject: Re: Response to Miami Herald article "Charges against columnist don't add up"
 

Dear Professor Schumacher-Matos,

Thank you for your belated response and offer. However, the 300-word limit response that you offer me is certainly much smaller in comparison to your 1,685-word article
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/issues_ideas/v-fullstory/story/1287091.html
and to Professor Marifeli Perez-Stable's 700-word response published in the Herald on October 22.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1294122.html

In her article, Perez-Stable continues to fail to address the serious allegations against her in the FBI and CIA debriefings of two high-ranking Cuban intelligence defectors, Jesus Perez Mendez in 1983 and Orlando Brito Pestana in 2002. Their statements implicate her in Cuban intelligence activities for more than a decade up to 1991.

You give me less than two days to revise my letter at a moment when I am extremely busy grading forty-eight essay exams for two classes this week. It is unfortunate that you waited fifteen days before replying to my email.

If you read my message again, you will see that its purpose was to rectify "factual errors and important omissions" in your article. I concluded by asking that the Herald afford me equal time. I am reiterating that I am not asking for the same amount of 1,685 words that you employed, but rather 700, which is what the Perez-Stable response amounted to. Limiting my reply to 300 words would be highly unfair, but not unusual for the Herald. If the Herald will not grant me this request for a 700-word rebuttal, I would prefer that you do not edit my email, as I previously requested, as my response will then appear disjointed and important facts will be omitted.

I have no doubt that among the responses that you plan to publish will be letters from Perez-Stable’s friends, including accused Castro agents Raul Alzaga and Francisco G. Aruca. Their personal attacks against me date back three decades. Mr. Alzaga financed a lawsuit against me in Puerto Rico in 1984 by the widow of his former business partner
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/demanda.htm
The initial dismissal injunction on my behalf languished in the Puerto Rico Supreme Court for fifteen years, before there was a ruling in my favor and the rest of the case was dropped. Perez-Stable, in spite of her lawsuit threats against me through her attorney John de Leon, failed to take legal action.

Even if I am not granted the 700-word rebuttal, I hope that you and the Herald will not abandon the new leads I have provided in this case. Although you wrote that you were unable to locate defector Jesus Perez Mendez, he appeared on the Maria Elvira Live TV program on November 2 and 3, 2006. That is what prompted me to release his full debriefing for the first time after twenty years and personally asked Mike Sallah and Manny Garcia to investigate it. I don’t understand how the TV program staff was able to locate Perez Mendez but the Herald was not.

I also suggest that now that you know that the second defector, Orlando Brito Pastrana, was Perez-Stable’s handler in Canada in 1991, that you first consult with Chris Simmons and ask if that was in fact the person whose debriefing he was referring to when implicating Perez-Stable in Cuban intelligence activities. It should also not be difficult for the Herald to locate Mr. Brito and question him about his relationship with Perez-Stable. As I previously indicated, she could have easily disproved the accusations against her by showing her 1991 U.S. and Cuban passports to indicate that she was not in Canada that year meeting with Brito. I also want to reiterate my previous suggestion that the Herald file FOIA requests for the Perez Mendez and Brito debriefings with the FBI and the CIA. It would be a neglect
of investigative journalism ethics not to do so after new details have emerged in this case. I am sure that your students would agree with me on this point.

Please let me know as soon as possible if the Herald is willing to grant me the 700-word rebuttal that I am requesting, the same amount of words Perez-Stable used for her response.

Sincerely,

Antonio de la Cova, Ph.D.
 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marquez, Myriam - Miami" <MMarquez@miamiherald.com>
To: <delacova@latinamericanstudies.org>
Cc: <esm@schumacher-matos.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 3:22 PM
Subject: response runs sunday
 

   Dear Prof. de la Cova, I haven't been able to locate a phone number for you so I wanted to touch base about your e-mail last night. The ombudsman's follow-up column of reactions for this weekend will contain 300 words from Mr. Simmons, as well as shorter letters from other readers. Below you will find the information you sent to us summarized in 330 words. I will grant you the extra 30. I have taken the points you made in your e-mail and put them into a succinct letter. It will run this Sunday.
   The ombudsman's column focused on Prof. Perez-Stable and what evidence exists. Your letter focuses on the evidence you believe is not being tapped. It covers all the bases you mention in your email and
includes your website so that readers can have the opportunity to check out the information. This is fair comment, and I believe the readers would benefit. As I offered before, I would prefer that you summarize the letter yourself, but with the deadline upon us, I can't wait past today,  Wednesday.
    If you would like to reword the letter below and keep it to the same length (I'm being overly generous because the usual word limit is 150), please do so today and send it to the ombudsman and
HeraldEd@MiamiHerald.com and cc me. If you need to reach me, I'm available at 305-376-3618 or you can send me your phone number and I'll call you. Saludos,

Myriam Marquez
Editorial Page Editor
The Miami Herald
 

In his Oct. 18 ombudsman column, Edward Schumacher-Matos challenged Florida International University professor Marifeli Perez-Stable's critics to "come up with something firm" that would "warrant a full
scale investigation by the paper" on whether she has been an agent for communist Cuba. As I indicated to him and the Herald, a second Cuban intelligence officer linked to Perez-Stable, Orlando Brito Pastrana, who defected in 2002, has now been identified for the first time as Perez-Stable's handler, who met with her in Canada in 1991. Brito has appeared on various TV programs in Miami. The Herald should locate him and ask about his former relationship with Perez-Stable. In 2007, I also suggested to Herald editors to file FOIA requests with the FBI and CIA for the debriefing of Cuban intelligence agent Captain Jesus Perez Mendez. In her response to the ombudsman column, Prof. Perez-Stable omitted addressing her previous relationship with Perez Mendez. The Herald should make a FOIA request for the intelligence debriefing of Orlando Brito Pastrana as well. You can find various documents on espionage and Cuba at www.latinamericanstudies.org. If the Herald neglects to pursue these new leads, the
ombudsman's article will be interpreted as a whitewash of Perez-Stable's alleged involvement with Cuban intelligence activities for more than a decade. In similar cases, academics and journalists built entire careers defending the innocence of convicted Soviet spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and Alger Hiss. When the Cold War ended, the Soviets acknowledged the role of the Rosenbergs and other spies.
       I have no doubt that just like the recently declassified FBI interrogation of confessed and convicted spy Carlos Alvarez further linked Perez-Stable to a third Cuban intelligence agent, Mercedes Arce, in the future other declassified documents will produce more incriminating evidence. Some day in the foreseeable future, when there is a regime change in Cuba like there was in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the State Security archives will be available and we will know the full extent of these ventures.

Myriam Marquez
Editorial Page Editor
The Miami Herald
 

-----Original Message-----
From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
[mailto:delacova@latinamericanstudies.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 10:02 PM
To: Marquez, Myriam - Miami
Cc: Landsberg, David - Miami; Gyllenhaal, Anders - Miami;
edward_schumacher-matos@harvard.edu
Subject: Re: response runs sunday
 

Dear Ms. Marquez,

Thank you for your response. As I indicated in my telephone conversation this evening, your editing of my various emails into a 330-word response to the ombudsman's article, should not be published, as it does not fully represent what I desire to express. My emails to the ombudsman were, as I have indicated from the start, for the purpose of pointing out his "factual errors and important omissions." What I have repeatedly requested is for an op-ed piece with the same equal amount of 700 words that Professor Marifeli Perez-Stable was allotted for her response. The ombudsman initially denied my request because he said that you considered it "character assassination to keep repeating charges without any real further proof." In contrast, you stated during our phone conversation that I was being denied an op-ed response because the main focus of the article was on Perez-Stable and not on me. I indicated that I am the second most mentioned person in the article and would review it again to prove my
point.

An analysis of the ombudsman article reveals that my name is mentioned eight times in seven paragraphs. There is a total of 356 words on those seven paragraphs. You have limited me to a 300-word response and your revised unauthorized version of my emails has an "overly generous" total of 330 words.

I stated to you that I am a scholar, with numerous academic publications, and presently hold a full-time university position. I object to any publication under my name that has been edited or revised without my approval. I clearly stated to you that unless the Miami Herald grants me a 700-word op-ed piece for my response, I do not want my mutilated emails published as a reply to the ombudsman's article, because they would be out of context and omit what I consider important issues.

You responded that you would consult with your superiors, executive editor Anders Gyllenhaal and publisher David Landsberg, and obtain their approval or denial of my request.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Antonio de la Cova, Ph.D.
 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marquez, Myriam - Miami" <MMarquez@miamiherald.com>
To: <delacova@latinamericanstudies.org>
Cc: <edward_schumacher_matos@harvard.edu>; "Gyllenhaal, Anders - Miami"
<AGyllenhaal@miamiherald.com>; "Landsberg, David - Miami"
<DLandsberg@miamiherald.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 11:30 AM
Subject: RE: response runs sunday
 

Prof. de la Cova, I'm sorry we couldn't work this out. As you have requested, we won't use any quotes from your e-mails, though we'll do our best to get across your points as part of the summary of all responses that the ombudsman received.

Myriam Marquez
Editorial Page Editor
The Miami Herald
 

-----Original Message-----
From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
[mailto:delacova@latinamericanstudies.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 3:29 PM
To: Marquez, Myriam - Miami
Cc: edward_schumacher_matos@harvard.edu; Gyllenhaal, Anders - Miami;
Landsberg, David - Miami; Tamayo, Juan - Miami
Subject: Re: response runs sunday

Dear Ms. Marquez,

Thank you for your response, which is what I expected from the Herald, taking into consideration its track record against the Cuban exile community during the last half century. You do not state who turned down my request for a 700-word op-ed piece or the reason why it was denied to a university professor like myself. On October 19, after the ombudsman's article appeared, I emailed reporter Juan Tamayo: "By now you must have gotten the copy of my email to the Herald Ombudsman who wrote a whitewash for Marifeli. I am convinced that the Herald will not print my response nor proceed with any of my suggestions, such as getting the FOIA debriefings of Perez Mendez and Brito or requesting that Perez-Stable produce her 1991 passports to disprove that she was in Canada meeting with Brito."

All your efforts and these various email exchanges during the last few days have proven to be a moot issue as it has always been the Herald's intention to manipulate the facts.

It is now evident that the ombudsman's piece was indeed an attempted whitewash of the allegations of Cuban espionage by Professor Marifeli Perez-Stable for more than a decade. However, as a result of his article, defector Orlando Brito Pestana has now been identified as Perez-Stable's intelligence handler who met with her in Canada in 1991. The same way that editors Manny Garcia and Mike Sallah did not follow up nearly three years ago on my suggestions for investigative reporting on Castro espionage in Miami, I am sure that the Herald will likewise not pursue the new leads further linking Perez-Stable to Cuban covert activities.  I believe that the Herald will make no effort at questioning Brito on this issue nor will they do FOIA requests for his FBI and CIA debriefing and that of defector Jesus Perez Mendez.

The Herald keeps insisting that Perez-Stable has not been charged with a crime. The nation abounds with criminals who were never caught and that does not make them innocent. The fact that three years ago Perez-Stable used ACLU attorney John de Leon to threaten me, university administrators, writers, and bloggers with lawsuits for slander and defamation and never carried it out, speaks volumes about her complicity as a Cuban agent. Hopefully, what people will remember is that Perez-Stable and her intimate friend Mercedes Arce are spies and the Herald suppressed the truth. My exchange of emails
with the Herald and all of the information related to this case will be on the Internet forever.

Since the Herald executive editor and publisher have denied me the opportunity to respond in a scholarly manner, on fair and equal terms with those afforded Perez-Stable, I am reiterating my request that my name and comments that I raised in my emails to the ombudsman be omitted from his response, or in any way mentioned or alluded to in the Herald.

Sincerely,

Antonio de la Cova, Ph.D.
 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marquez, Myriam - Miami" <MMarquez@miamiherald.com>
To: <delacova@latinamericanstudies.org>
Cc: <edward_schumacher_matos@harvard.edu>; "Gyllenhaal, Anders - Miami"
<AGyllenhaal@miamiherald.com>; "Landsberg, David - Miami"
<DLandsberg@miamiherald.com>; "Tamayo, Juan - Miami"
<JTamayo@miamiherald.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 3:43 PM
Subject: RE: response runs sunday

Prof. de la Cova, Thanks again for sharing your perspective. As I stated  previously, it's unfortunate that you do not want to write a long letter. We are honoring your request not to run the 330-word summary of your e-mails. In the interest of full disclosure, we are also explaining to readers that we offered you space but that you wanted a column and so you declined to allow publication, as is your right.

Myriam Marquez
Editorial Page Editor
The Miami Herald
 

-----Original Message-----
From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org
[mailto:delacova@latinamericanstudies.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:43 PM
To: Marquez, Myriam - Miami
Cc: Manny Garcia<magarcia@miamiherald.com>;Edward Schumacher-Matos<edward_schumacher-matos@harvard.edu>;Tamayo, Juan - Miami<JTamayo@miamiherald.com>;Landsberg, David - Miami<DLandsberg@miamiherald.com>;Gyllenhaal, Anders - Miami<AGyllenhaal@miamiherald.com>;
Subject: Re: response runs sunday
 

Dear Ms. Marquez,

Your email makes it obvious that the Herald will not honor my request as stated in my last email "that my name and comments that I raised in my emails to the ombudsman be omitted from his response, or in any way mentioned or alluded to in the Herald," since I was not given an equal opportunity to respond to the ombudsman's article as was allotted Marifeli Perez-Stable.

It is hypocritical to claim that the Herald has an "interest of full disclosure" regarding my situation, but fail to have the same "interest of full disclosure" toward investigating the new link between Perez-Stable and her second intelligence handler Orlando Brito Pestana. The fact they they were meeting covertly as late as 1991 in Canada indicates that she lied to the Herald and on her own website when purporting that "by the late 1980s she changed."

I am sure that the Herald will not accurately explain that the rebuttal space offered me was less than half of that allowed Perez-Stable, nor the specific reason why I was denied such courtesy and fairness. I believe that I am being capriciously subjected to classic Herald manipulative tactics. That is one of the reasons why the Herald has little credibility in the Cuban exile community and has lost so much general readership. Just ask editor Manny Garcia what his aunt thinks of him and the Herald. You are probably aware of the same adverse opinion of the Herald and of your own articles, as expressed to me by your late step-father's family, especially your step-uncle Jose Lopez Sainz.

As I previously indicated, I will post our entire exchange of emails on my academic website and on various blogs so that readers will be able to comprehend Herald duplicity and manipulation.

Sincerely,

Antonio de la Cova, Ph.D.