That’s right. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, and it is on such a carpet Luis Posada Carriles has arrived into America on. Posada, who was released from a Panamanian prison last summer after

together with fellow terrorists Guillermo Novo, Pedro Remón and Gaspar Jiménez, were detained in November of 2000 in Panama after Cuban President Fidel Castro exposed and provided evidence of a plot to assassinate him during the 10th Ibero-American Summit in Panama’s capital.

They had been:

[c]aught in Panama City with a fake passport and 33 pounds of explosives, Posada and the three others were found guilty of endangering public safety after 3 ½ years in jail.

Posada, whose whereabouts have been a mystery (thought to be in Honduras) for the last several months, is now suspected to be seeking asylum in America.

Who is Posada Carriles? Says the Jamaican Observer:

Posada, a veteran of the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, has fought against Castro for decades and was linked to a series of 1997 bombings of prominent tourist spots in Cuba.

Says Periodico 26:

Posada Carriles serviced the US Army’s 101 División as Lieutenant during US invasion of Viet-Nam.

<snip>

his “military record” dates back to 1963 at the time of receiving military training at Fort Benning, Georgia in order to crackdown the Cuban Revolution.

Reared and nurtured at the CIA’s laboratories to produce mercenaries, Posada was a key man in Miami-based counter-revolutionary mafia. There he placed a central role as part of the RECE terrorist group  (Cuban Representation in Exile) ad later as militant of the great alliance called CORU (Coordinator for United Revolutionary Organization) aiming at undertaking terrorist actions to overturn Cuba´ s  government.

The Orlando Sentinel reports this morning:

A Cuban militant suspected of plotting to kill Fidel Castro plans to seek asylum in the United States in hopes of avoiding prosecution in Venezuela for allegedly blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, according to a lawyer who will represent him.

<snip>

If Posada is granted asylum, it could protect him from extradition to Venezuela even though it has an extradition treaty with the United States. Posada, who is Cuban-born and a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, is wanted for escaping from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting the outcome of a prosecutor’s appeal of his acquittal in the airline-bombing case.

The bombing occurred during Bush41’s tenure as CIA head.

The Kansas City Star reports a source that claims:

Posada, 77, has been in the area for about a week and has made contact with government authorities.

Peter Dale Scott in Coacaine Politics writes when Posada was arrested in Venezuela:

Posada also had materials in his possession linking him to the assassination of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington DC, a month before the Cubana Airlines bombing. In 1985, Posada bribed his way out of jail and was recruited into the Contra logistics network by fellow CIA agent and Bay of Pigs veteran Felix Rodriguez. From the Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador, Posada handled both military supply flights and shipments flown by the drug-linked airlines hired by the State Department’s Nicaragua Humanitarian Assistance Organization. (pg. 31)

Posada’s partner in the bombing was Orlando Bosch, who served eleven years in a Venezuelan jail before intervention by then US ambassador to Venezuela, Otto Reich, led to his acquittal and freedom.

Miami developer, Santiago Alvarez Fernandez, was responsible for defending Posada in Panama, and then flying him out upon his pardon. Alvarez has now retained attorney, Eduardo Soto, to represent Posada. Alvarez has been accused by the Cuban gov’t for “preparing, bankrolling and leading an armed infiltration into Cuba on April 24, 2001 on the orders of Luis Posada Carriles and he continues to concoct anti-Cuban plots.”

The diplomatic hangnail is (Miami Herald):

Venezuela and the United States have an extradition treaty.

And there is a different gov’t in Venezuela now than the one Reich negotiated with in 1989.

Dr. Julio Yao, a Professor of Law and International Law at the University of Panama, said the following about the Panamanian pardon which released the four terrorist from jail:

Mireya Moscoso [the previous President] took a decision that is completely illegal from the point of view of our constitution and also from the point of view of international treaties regarding terrorism and, of course, regarding extradition and other related matters.

<snip>

We believe that this has been an arrangement with the US and /or the Cuban right-wingers in Miami and a covert operation was implemented in order to obtain this objective.

<snip>

Posada Carriles was there [Hondurs] all the time, protected by some Cuban Americans or perhaps hidden or protected in a US military base or post or site.

<snip>

Panama has the legal right to bring him back because implicitly we have said, and the new President has said that this is an illegal action.

<snip>

So what it all amounts to is that there is a double discourse and a double standard as far as terrorism is concerned from the point of view of the United States. They were sent to the US on a Thursday and the next day, George W Bush was there in a Miami stadium addressing himself to the Cuba American right wing in Miami. So I think this was completely concocted by the intelligence and security apparatus of the United States. This says a lot about the true objective and the meaning of the fight and struggle against terrorism.

That’s right, professor. There is a double standard. This administration applies double standards to every issue they are involved in. This government is trully following an “ends-justifies-the-means” pursuit of world affairs. The Bush family hates, I repeat hates Castro, and anybody blowing up a plane, or planting bombs to derail Castro’s government is not a terrorist. And they are not a drug-dealer if they are fighting communists.

Bush’s father granted amnesty for Posada’s partner in the bombing of the passenger plane in 1989. We will have to wait and see if the circle will be completed. Given the state of heightened hypocrisy, I would not be surprised if this man is granted asylum. Bush doesn’t care a bit for Hugo Chavez, and not honoring an extradition treaty woiuld be par for the course. This administration does not follow laws they do not like. There may not be an extradition treaty in the future.

Three diaries at dKos from the end of the summer will tell you more:
[One and two by Soj and three by Meteror Blades]:

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