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Henry: You might recall my e-mail to Jim DeFede three years ago, before he was fired from the Miami Herald for ethics violations. I am still waiting for his reply.

Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005
Subject: Congratulations Jim DeFede
To: jdefede@herald.com

Mr. DeFede:

Congratulations! Your Miami Herald article "Terror is terror, whether its in London or Cuba," was reprinted in Granma International, the official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba.
http://granmai.cubaweb.com/ingles/2005/julio/lun11/miami-i.html
You must be very proud that the Cuban Communists appreciate your journalistic skills. Your biased and slanted perspective could make you a candidate for one of their official awards. It will certainly merit you another trip to Cuba.

You once again used selective and erroneous information by saying that Guillermo Novo "a member of the violent anti-Castro group Omega 7, was convicted in the 1976 bombing murder of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier. The verdict was overturned on appeal." You apparently plagiarized that quote from a Herald article by Jim McGee on December 20, 1983, page 8. That would certainly merit you an F grade in my class. Had you done further research into the subsequent trial of Omega 7 leader Eduardo Arocena,
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/arocena.htm
you would have discovered that Novo never belonged to that group. You also omitted the fact that Novo was retried in the Letelier case and declared not
guilty by a jury in Washington, D.C.

While your article accuses Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen of hypocrisy, it is your writings that are stamped with this trait. You must be aware that Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement seized power after a six-year terrorist campaign of indiscriminate bombings in public places that killed and wounded innocent people,
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-terrorism.htm
kidnapped scores of U.S. military personnel, did assassinations,
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-7-2-58-a.htm
and airline hijackings.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/11-17-58.htm
Members of Castro's organization carried out the first international airline hijacking during a flight between Miami and Cuba in November 1958. The plane crash-landed in Nipe Bay, killing most of those aboard, including women and children. The Herald interviewed a female survivor who actually resides in Miami. All of these events were widely reported in the news media, yet you have never mentioned it in any of your articles nor have shown any interest in interviewing any of the victims of Castro's long terrorist campaign.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-rev-58.htm

Jack Kofoed would have been proud of you. He disparaged Cuban exiles in his Herald column for more than a decade, yet the Cuban press never reprinted any of his ravings.

Dr. Antonio de la Cova

Henry,
Here a a couple of other e-mails I sent Jim DeFede in 2005 that he never responded to. It's not surprising that print media has not hired him again, not even his former employer, the tabloid Miami New Times.

Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005
To: DeFede, Jim
Subject: Congress blocks vet's attempts to see children

Mr. Defede:
Your article "Congress blocks vet's attempts to see children" in today's Miami Herald is yet another example of your selective reporting that omits criticism of the Cuban government. While you put all the blame of the U.S.-Cuba travel restrictions on the U.S. government, you fail to mention the draconian migration policies enforced by the Castro regime.
If Elian Gonzalez's parents and grandmothers were allowed to visit Elian in the U.S., why does the Cuban government not allow Carlos Lazo's family to visit him here? This is a question that you should have addressed to Cuba's Foreign Minister Ricardo Alarcon when you interviewed him last month.
That interview was an example of "soft-ball" journalism. I found it interesting that while questioning Mr. Alarcon on Cuba's support for
international terrorists, you omitted mentioning William Guillermo Morales. He is the Puerto Rican FALN member who blew off his hands and an eye while making a bomb in New York City in 1978. Morales, who escaped from prison after receiving an 89 year sentence, received asylum in Cuba in 1988 and has openly lived there since.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/us-cuba/protector.htm
You also forgot to ask Mr. Alarcon about Victor Manuel Gerena, a member of the Puerto Rican Macheteros terrorist group, who fled to Cuba in 1983 with $2.4 million from a $7 million Wells Fargo robbery. He is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list and has lived in Cuba for more than two decades.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/gerena.pdf
While you advocate Luis Posada's extradition from the U.S., you fall short of requesting the same from the Cuban government regarding these two terrorist fugitives.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Miami Herald had a looney columnist named Jack Kofoed, who repeatedly offended Cuban exiles with boorish comments. He once complained in his column that Cuban exiles apparently responded by mailing his articles to him covered with excrement. Kofoed's articles ceased after he met a tragic death. It appears to me that your columns make you the Herald's inheritor of Kofoed's biased style.
Dr. Antonio de la Cova

Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005
To: DeFede, Jim

Mr. DeFede:
It is interesting that as a journalist, you did not respond to the issues I raised regarding your selective reporting, "soft-ball" journalism, and biased style. Your silence speaks volumes.
Dr. Antonio de la Cova

Wow, Jim Defede has lost at least one hundred pounds since he was kicked out of the Herald. Check out his previous photo when he looked like the Goodyear blimp.
http://www.doggerel.com/donnah/defede1.jpg
His cut in pay must have forced a crash diet.

Notice that the "JOE" in the podium sign is much bigger than the "Garcia." Gee, I wonder what message that's meant to convey, however subliminally. I have a feeling it's NOT an accident or coincidence.

There's no doubt that he's trying to portray himself as the more "gringo" of the two candidates. This despite the fact that he was the executive director of CANF and was the head of Hispanic outreach for the New Democrat Network. It's another hair-brained strategy.

I wish he was a "gringo." At least then I wouldn't find him quite as distatsteful, since he'd have the excuse of not knowing any better.

And Henry, it's not a "hair-brained" strategy; it's classic political opportunism: appearing to be what you think people want to see. Of course, desperation may also be at work. Ugh.

It's hair-brained to think you can run away from what you are.

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