Will The Real Terrorist Please Stand Up

Uprising Interviews Saul Landau

By Sonali Kolhatkar interview of Saul Landau
Institute for Policy Studies
Monday, Aug 15, 2011
Courtesy Of "The Institute For Policy Studies"

This new documentary weighs the convictions of the Cuban 5 against the crimes of anti-Castro Cubans, and examines the historical context that motivated all parties.




Fifty-eight years ago, a young Fidel Castro and his revolutionary organization, the July 26th movement, began the Cuban Revolution. The birth of a socialist Cuba drew condemnations from the United States government, a break in all ties, and a deep suspicion of the island nation that continues to this day. Fidel Castro was the target of CIA backed assassination attempts, and most infamously the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Anti-Castro Cuban exiles headquartered in Miami have worked to unseat Castro for decades, sometimes independently, but often cooperatively with the CIA. U.S. based Cuban expatriates have been blamed for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed all 76 passengers, and also for a 1998 bombing that killed an Italian tourist at the hotel Copacabana. In 1998 Fidel Castro reached out to President Bill Clinton for help in curbing terrorism from U.S. players against his nation. The effort resulted in no arrests of anti-Cuban activists.

However, authorities arrested 5 Cubans living in the U.S., who were sent by Castro to spy on Anti-Castro activities and stop, acts of U.S.-based violence. In 2001 the Cuban 5, as they came to be called, were convicted of espionage and conspiracy to commit murder, leading to prison sentences ranging from 15 years to 2 consecutive life sentences. On June 14th of this year, Luis Posada Carriles, long-time Miami resident and a man widely recognized as a leader of the violent anti-Castro movement, including the 1976 airline bombing, was honored as a “true-patriot” by the Mayor of Hialeah in Florida.

A new documentary, Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?, weighs the convictions of the Cuban 5, against the crimes of anti-Castro Cubans, and examines the historical context that motivated all parties. The documentary features interviews with Posada-Carriles, Bay of Pigs participants, and CIA agents. Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up is directed by Saul Landau.

GUEST: Saul Landau, author, commentator, and the celebrated fimmaker of our 40 films. He was received numberous awards, including an emmy, the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, and the George Polk Award for Investigative Reporting. Landau spent time in Cuba and was present during terrorist attacks on the country. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.