Scooter Libby and Luis Posada: How to Walk in Bushtime

[seafan]

How to Walk in Bushtime

By SAUL LANDAU
July 24, 2007

How does the commutation of the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, coincide with the release by a federal judge of Luis Posada Carriles, former top terrorist of the Western Hemisphere?
Answer: Both the commuted and the released could have spilled the beans on powerful officials for criminal conspiracies.

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"Compassionate Conservatism" means compassion only for conservatives ­ who have the goods on you?

Libby lied about the Plame affair and obstructed justice, that is he covered up larger lies told by Bush and Cheney about reasons for invading Iraq.
Posada also lied on immigration issues unrelated to his 1976 plot to bomb a Cuban airliner in mid flight. Federal prosecutors purposely bungled the case and a judge released him in 2007 after he served a short time in jail.


Behind both cases loomed a dirty secret: the accused would implicate higher ups if Bush did get them off the hook of justice. .....
Like Libby, Posada's top level political connections got scared. The official entanglements with the Bush family and this terrorist began in 1985 when US officials helped Posada "escape" from a Venezuelan prison.

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In 1992, the FBI investigated the Iran-Contra scandal and interrogated Posada at the U.S. Embassy in Honduras. Posada, recuperating from a bullet wound in the cheek, told the Bureau about Felix Rodriguez's close connections to Donald Gregg, Bush's national security adviser. Posada knew that "Rodriguez was always calling Gregg," the FBI concluded, because he "paid Rodriguez' phone bill." (Robert Parry, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & Project Truth)


Reagan officials also aided Orlando Bosch, Posada's partner in sabotaging the Cubana plane. In 1989-90, US Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich, an anti-Castro Cuban with a reputation for being a liar, convinced President Bush, against strong advice from INS and Justice, to allow Bosch to return to the United States. Bosch, a terrorist of world stature, got "harbored." The President's youngest son, Jeb ­ now Florida governor ­ belittled the INS' warnings and convinced his father.

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Every prosecutor remembered Bush's November 21, 2001 words: "If you harbor terrorists, you are terrorists. If you train or arm a terrorist, you are a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a terrorist, and you will be held accountable." What Bush didn't say was "this doesn't refer to 'our terrorists.'"

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Posada limps along Miami Beach's boulevards, sometimes with his old cohort Orlando Bosch. Libby walks the streets of Washington. Bush continues his empty rant against terrorism. Both geriatric terrorists must chuckle over those familiar grim facial expressions and the threatening words. "He who harbors a terrorist".