Accused Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles Arrested In Miami
Cuban ex-patriot Luis Posada Carriles, arrested by Federal agents near Miami today, has spent his life fighting. With the CIA he helped plan the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. He supposedly left the CIA in 1968 and went on to become a major suspect in the blowing up of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people and blowing up a hotel in Havana in 1998 that killed an Italian tourist.
He spent nine years in a Venezuelan jail before escaping in 1985 without ever having been convicted. Soon after, he reportedly helped the United States run arms to the anti-Sandanista rebels in Guatamala.
In 2000, during a visit to Panama, was convicted of plotting with three Cuban exiles to kill Castro and sent to jail. Later he received a presidential pardon.
More recently, Posada claims he was smuggled over the Mexican border into Texas and came by bus to South Florida where he had been seeking asylum. Both Cuba and Venezeula have demanded his extradition in connection with the 1976 airplane bombing, a charge the Posada continues to claim as untrue.
The question is, what to do with him? I say, send him back to Venezuela. If he starts talking about his US spook contacts, too bad. It is not a good thing to harbor suspected terrorists wanted in other countries, even if those countries are not our friends. Sure, some Cuban-Americans will be angry at the Bush Administration. But that could not be any worse than demonstrating our national hypocracy to the world in regards to terrorists and terrorism.
As a frightening side note, if Posada is indeed a terrorist as claimed, then shouldn't we be a little concered about how easily he crossed the Mexican border into Texas?
He spent nine years in a Venezuelan jail before escaping in 1985 without ever having been convicted. Soon after, he reportedly helped the United States run arms to the anti-Sandanista rebels in Guatamala.
In 2000, during a visit to Panama, was convicted of plotting with three Cuban exiles to kill Castro and sent to jail. Later he received a presidential pardon.
More recently, Posada claims he was smuggled over the Mexican border into Texas and came by bus to South Florida where he had been seeking asylum. Both Cuba and Venezeula have demanded his extradition in connection with the 1976 airplane bombing, a charge the Posada continues to claim as untrue.
The question is, what to do with him? I say, send him back to Venezuela. If he starts talking about his US spook contacts, too bad. It is not a good thing to harbor suspected terrorists wanted in other countries, even if those countries are not our friends. Sure, some Cuban-Americans will be angry at the Bush Administration. But that could not be any worse than demonstrating our national hypocracy to the world in regards to terrorists and terrorism.
As a frightening side note, if Posada is indeed a terrorist as claimed, then shouldn't we be a little concered about how easily he crossed the Mexican border into Texas?
posted by Bird of Paradise at 11:16 PM
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