Several days after Cuban MiGs rocketed two Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996, Cuban military and Communist Party leaders held a party and celebrated with some commercial pilots who helped simulate the shoot-down.

They even handed out rewards: rum, powdered milk and certificates of appreciation.

That's part of the account that one pilot -- Adel Regalado Ulloa, 23, an acquitted sky pirate -- has told FBI agents and federal prosecutors here during 10 months of secret debriefings on the MiG attack that killed four South Florida men, his attorney said Thursday.

``They celebrated this thing like it was some big combat victory,'' Tampa lawyer Ralph Fernandez said after releasing the account at a news conference. ``It was like we beat them at Normandy.''

A key person involved in the secret debriefings, Fernandez added, is U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck Miller, the lead prosecutor of a 10-member alleged Cuban espionage ring cracked last month.

Heck Miller, who won her first two convictions in the spy ring when a couple pleaded guilty Wednesday, is refusing comment on Regalado and Fernandez's role in the investigation into the Feb. 24, 1996, shoot-down over the Straits of Florida. Federal authorities do, however, confirm that the calamity at sea is still the subject of a federal investigation.

Fernandez is seeking political asylum for Regalado, a Cuban commercial pilot now being held in a Manatee County immigration lockup and facing deportation. In August 1996, he and two other Cubans who worked at a crop-dusting and tourism aviation firm hijacked a small aircraft, forcing a fourth pilot to fly it to the United States.

Rather than reach American shores, however, the small Polish-made Wilga ran out of fuel, and ditched at sea about 35 miles west of Fort Myers. All four were rescued by a Russian freighter. The pilot returned home to Cuba, while the other three were tried in Tampa for sky piracy -- and acquitted.

Fernandez said he chose to release a five-page synopsis of the account his client has told federal authorities over the past 10 months to pressure an immigration judge to grant his client's asylum request. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19 in Manatee County.

A Cuban American, Fernandez also said he released the information to pressure the Miami U.S. attorney's office to indict the government of Cuba or officials for the shoot-down. ``This is a homicide in international airspace. It should be prosecuted,'' he said.

Fernandez released the documents after briefing Brothers to the Rescue founder Jose Basulto on his talks with federal officials in Miami. Basulto was piloting a third Brothers' Cessna that was buzzed by the MiGs over international waters, but escaped unscathed.

Regalado, meantime, has allegedly told federal agents that the Wilga aircraft he and the others hijacked from Cuba was used in a dry run six days before the shoot-down. Cuban military authorities sought to simulate how to lock on and destroy a small aircraft like the Brothers' Cessnas. His testimony would be a key to arguing premeditation, Fernandez said.

Thursday, Basulto also berated the Clinton administration for insufficiently responding to the shoot-down.

As a sign of the times, he demanded the creation of an independent counsel like Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr to investigate the episode. Heck Miller works for both U.S. Attorney Tom Scott and his boss, Attorney General Janet Reno, who are Clinton appointees.

``Unless an independent prosecutor is assigned, we will never know the truth here,'' said Basulto, seated below an oil painting depicting the MiG attack. ``I think the crime goes much higher than the U.S. attorney's office can investigate.''