Hijacking a commercial airplane and intentionally flying it into a building is one the worst crimes one can imagine. I don’t think anyone would disagree that such an act is an act of terrorism. Anyone with a shred of compassion and decency would denounce such a crime.

But what about placing a bomb on a commercial aircraft and blowing it out of the sky? Is there any qualitative difference in the two acts? I don’t think so.

But that is exactly what Luis Posada Carriles did to a Cuban airline in October, 1976. Now, Cuba wants him turned over to Venezuela for trial.

Posada was once a CIA agent. That can confirmed here. Whether he was still working actively for the CIA in 1976 is uncertain. But his culpability for the bombing is not. Furthermore, Posada has been responsible for series of terrorist acts and attempted terrorist acts, as well as other atrocites.

:::flip:::

Luis Posada Carilles — CIA agent, explosives expert, author of a horrendous number of assassination attempts, and drug trafficker in the misnamed Iran-Contra scandal — has refused to reveal what he certainly knows about the murder of U.S. priest James “Guadalupe” Carney, who was thrown out of a helicopter in flight in Honduran territory in 1983.
Latin American Studies

Yesterday:

In a televised appearance that lasted nearly four hours, Castro read summaries of newly released US intelligence documents linking Luis Posada Carriles and other anti-Castro militants to terrorist attacks beyond the 1976 bombing of a jetliner that killed 73 people.

Castro repeated his demands that the United States locate, arrest and extradite former CIA agent Posada for trial in Venezuela, where he is wanted for trial in the airplane attack.

Posada’s attorney says he is in the United States and is seeking asylum.

But Castro also increasingly turned the focus to other militants, several of them linked to Posada. Chief among those is Orlando Bosch, a man termed a terrorist in some US intelligence documents, which also link him to the 1976 bombing.

He was pardoned by the first President George Bush.
Jerusalem Post

The Bush family has a long history with the Cuban exile community and other Latin American cold warriors. They hate the Venezuelan government. And there is also something to be said for protecting CIA agents from extradition and punishment for acts they carried out in the service of the agency. But the agency denies that Posada was acting on their behalf when he blew up the Cubana Airlines airplane. That act of terrorism killed all seventy-three passengers and crew members, including the Cuban fencing team. There is no moral difference between what Posada did and what Mohammed Atta did. If we give amnesty to Posada, we will commit a grave error.

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