When Is a Terrorist "Mastermind" Not a Terrorist? (Posada Carriles)

[struggle4progress]

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (IPS) - On the 30th anniversary of the first mid-air bombing of a civilian airliner in the Americas, .... the administration of President George W. Bush said it opposed the release of Luis Posada Carriles and argued that granting him freedom on bail may have "serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States".

But, while referring to Posada as "the admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks", the administration declined to officially declare him a terrorist under the USA Patriot Act which, unlike the immigration law, gives the government authority to detain him indefinitely.

"If Luis Posada Carriles does not meet the definition of a terrorist, it is hard to think of who would," observed Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the independent National Security Archive (NSA).

On Thursday, the NSA released a number of recently declassified government documents that, like others released in recent years by the archive, strongly implicate Carriles in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 shortly after it left Barbados en route to Havana, killing all 73 people aboard ...

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35030


Bombing of Cuban Jetliner
30 Years Later

New Documents on Luis Posada Posted as Texas Court Weighs Release from Custody

Washington D.C., October 5, 2006 - On the 30th anniversary of the first and only mid-air bombing of a civilian airliner in the Western Hemisphere, the National Security Archive today posted on the Web new investigative records that further implicate Luis Posada Carriles in that crime of international terrorism. Among the documents posted is an annotated list of four volumes of still-secret records on Posada's career with the CIA, his acts of violence, and his suspected involvement in the bombing of Cubana flight 455 on October 6, 1976, which took the lives of all 73 people on board, many of them teenagers.

The National Security Archive, which has sought the declassification of the Posada files through the Freedom of Information Act, today called on the U.S. government to release all intelligence files on Posada. "Now is the time for the government to come clean on Posada's covert past and his involvement in international terrorism," said Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Archive's Cuba Documentation Project. "His victims, the public, and the courts have a right to know." ...

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB202/index.htm

[razors edge]

1. but he's our terrorist.

heck, we still got the school of americas, not finishing this guy off only shows a link to powerful influence. I am never surprised by these as*****s incompetence, they can't even remember the first rule of assassination.

[Mika]

2. Cuba: CIA Sabotaged Cuban Plane

Two related interesting articles..


Cuba: CIA Sabotaged Cuban Plane

Washington backed the creation of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, attended by Posada and Bosch in June 1976, and the order was: "Do whatever you want against Cuba out of the US territory," they stated.

On July 9, 1976, a bomb exploded in luggage on board a Cuban airplane in Kingston, Jamaica. The following day, another device detonated in offices of an air company in Barbados and in the same month, Artaignan Diaz, technician of the Cuban shrimping fleet, was murdered in Merida, Mexico.

As part of the plan, said investigators, Cuban diplomats Crescencio Galañena and Jesus Cejas were kidnapped and murdered in Buenos Aires, and in September, former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier was killed in New York.

On October 6, a Cuban airplane exploded and this was termed as one of the most horrendous crimes in the history of the Continent, and the US government was the mastermind of this action for supporting the terrorist plan, ended investigators.

--


30 Years Since Bombing of Cubana Airliner

After being pardoned by his terrorist buddies and authorized to remain in the country by US President George H. Bush, he was released and received a comfortable residence in Miami.

In that south Florida city he was considered a hero by the right wing Cuban American elements and appeared frequently on television where Bosch openly talked about his assassination and threats of all type against the Cuban people, without ever receiving the minimum of comments by the authorities.

Posada Carriles also became a beneficiary of President George W.

Bush?s protection, despite the American leader"s own intimidating remark when he said "whoever protects a terrorist is as guilty as a terrorist itself." Only the sympathy or the commitment or Bush for Posada and his partners, explains the conduct of the executive which has jeopardized the credibility of the international crusade against terrorism.

The dangerous terrorists, secretly entered the US in March 2005 and only after the protests made by Fidel Castro was Posada Carriles arrested and subjected to drawn out legal process after being charged as an illegal immigrant.

Over the past 18 months, Washington has not formulated charges against Posada Carriles, despite the fact that the terrorist has given a number of public statements about his criminal activities.

It is enough to read the book "Along the Paths of a Warrior" and the interview conducted by journalist Maria Luisa Bardach of the NY Times published on July 12 and 13 of 1998.

In these he admits with absolute cynicism his participation in the bombing of the Cubana airliner and the actions against the Havana hotel where the young Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo lost his life.

This also shows that he has received the support of the Cuban-American National Foundation and the obvious sympathy of the US authorities in the investigation of his terrorist activities against Cuba. "As you can see," Posada told Bardach, "the FBI and the CIA don"t bother me; I am neutral to them. Any time I can help, I will." With such history, Posada has turned into a hot potato for Bush upon his arrival in the US, forcing the White House to delay a maneuver in an attempt to release the terrorist.