What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five

by Stephen Kimber

Overview

Winner of the 2014 Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction East Coast Literary Award


What Lies Across the Water recounts the events leading up to the arrest of the Cuban Five, five Cuban anti-terrorism agents wrongfully arrested and convicted of “conspiracy to commit” espionage against the United States. In response to decades of deadly attacks by Miami-based, anti-Cuban terrorist organizations, Cuba dispatched five agents – Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González – to Florida to infiltrate and report on the activities of these terrorist groups. Cuba even passed on information their agents learned about illegal activities to the FBI. But, instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI arrested the Cuban Five on September 12, 1998. The five men would be illegally held in solitary confinement for seventeen months and sentenced to four life sentences in 2001. The terrorists these five men tried to stop remain free to this day.
In light of America’s supposed post-9/11 zero tolerance policy toward countries harbouring terrorists, the story of the Cuban Five illustrates the injustice and hypocrisy of this case: why were these men who tried to prevent terrorist attacks against Cuba charged with espionage against the U.S? And why does the U.S. continue to protect and harbour known terrorists?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781552665428
Publisher:	Fernwood Publishing
Publication date:	08/01/2013
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Stephen Kimber is a professor of journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax and an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters vii

Prologue 1

Building the Nest: December 12, 1990 - February 1994 10

Rescuing the Brothers: March 8, 1994 - December 1995 54

Shootdown: January 1996 - December 1996 89

Stinging the Wasp: May 22, 1996 - December 26, 1996 114

"Something Serious": January 1997 - August 25, 1997 132

"This Is Really Fierce": September 4, 1997 - November 1997 145

"A Duty to Prevent": November 15, 1997 - December 1997 169

The "Memphis Incident": January 24, 1998 - April 14, 1998 174

Gabo's Secret Mission: April 18, 1998 - June 10, 1998 184

"I Sleep Like a Baby": June 15, 1998 - August 13, 1998 199

"The Very Heart of Our System": September 4, 1998 - September 15, 1998 215

Aftermath: September 15, 1998 - 224

Whatever Happened to… 259

Acknowledgments 261

Endnotes 263

Selected Bibliography 278

Index 281

Editorial Reviews

Provides the key information and analysis needed to understand the case of the Cuban Five

Danny Glover

Far from being a boring account of deeds and misdeeds, Kimber employs eloquent prose and an enjoyable style to draw the reader into the tangled layers of terrorism and murder, espionage and deception, propaganda and myths, life sentences and impunity, meanness and hatred, love and sacrifice, romance and solitude, patriotism and delusion, good intentions and bad, and lies, lies, and more lies.

Havana Times

This book removes the thin fabric of lies around the case of five Cuban intelligence agents who came to Miami to fight terrorism … This book has the detail and the analysis. Read it.

Saul Landau

An invaluable and informative account of the last chapter of the Cold War between Cuba and the United States – a story that is alternately bizarre, surreal and ever suspenseful.

Ann Louise Bardach

The most complete – and moving – account of the Cuban Five I’ve yet read.

Wayne Smith

Provides the key information and analysis needed to understand the case of the Cuban Five”

“The most complete – and moving – account of the Cuban Five I’ve yet read.”

“Far from being a boring account of deeds and misdeeds, Kimber employs eloquent prose and an enjoyable style to draw the reader into the tangled layers of terrorism and murder, espionage and deception, propaganda and myths, life sentences and impunity, meanness and hatred, love and sacrifice, romance and solitude, patriotism and delusion, good intentions and bad, and lies, lies, and more lies.”

“This book removes the thin fabric of lies around the case of five Cuban intelligence agents who came to Miami to fight terrorism … This book has the detail and the analysis. Read it.”

“An invaluable and informative account of the last chapter of the Cold War between Cuba and the United States – a story that is alternately bizarre, surreal and ever suspenseful.

From the Publisher