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TechnoratiThe Terrorist We Tolerate
The Administration's Botched Handling of Luis Posada Carriles Says A Lot About Bush's So-Called War on Terror.
LIKE PIRATES, terrorists are supposedly hostis humani generis — the "enemy of all mankind." So why is the Bush administration letting one of the world's most notorious terrorists stroll freely around the United States?
I'm talking about a man who was — until 9/11 — perhaps the most successful terrorist in the Western Hemisphere. He's believed to have masterminded a 1976 plot to blow up a civilian airliner, killing all 73 people on board, including teenage members of Cuba's national fencing team. He's admitted to pulling off a series of 1997 bombings aimed at tourist hotels and nightspots. Today, he's living illegally in the United States, but senior members of the Bush administration — the very guys who declared war on terror just a few short years ago — don't seem terribly bothered.
I'm talking about Luis Posada Carriles. That's not a household name for most U.S. citizens, but for many in Latin America, Posada is as reviled as Osama bin Laden is in the United States.
The Cuban-born Posada was trained by the CIA at the School of the Americas in 1961. From Venezuela, he later planned the successful 1976 bombing of a civilian Cuban jetliner (apparently with the knowledge of the CIA). He was arrested for the crime, but he escaped from a Venezuelan prison before standing trial.
Posada later aided Ollie North's illegal efforts to get arms to the Nicaraguan Contras, tried repeatedly to assassinate Fidel Castro and was behind a 1997 string of Havana hotel bombings. Recently declassified U.S. government documents suggest that, throughout most of his career, Posada remained in close contact with the CIA.
Posada entered the U.S. illegally in 2005. Human rights groups and the Cuban and Venezuelan governments urged that he be tried or extradited for his terrorist activities, but for several months the Bush administration denied that Posada was even in the United States.
On May 17, 2005, the Miami Herald shamed the administration into action by publishing a front-page interview with Posada (who sipped his peach drink on his Florida balcony, described his leisure reading and commented cheerfully that at first he "thought the [U.S.] government was looking for me" but eventually realized that U.S. officials had no interest in finding him). Only then did the administration detain Posada — but on immigration charges, not terrorism-related charges.
Since 2005, the administration seems to have done everything in its power to botch the immigration case against Posada, mishandling it so blatantly that on Wednesday an exasperated federal judge declared herself "left with no choice" but to throw out the indictment. Although a different judge previously ordered Posada deported, Posada can't legally be extradited to Venezuela because the court concluded that he might be tortured there.
So for now, Posada's a free man — even though the administration has sufficient evidence to arrest him for his role in either the 1976 airliner bombing or the 1997 Havana bombings. For that matter, Posada easily could be detained under Section 412 of the Patriot Act, which calls for the mandatory detention of aliens suspected of terrorism.
The administration's approach to Posada contrasts jarringly with its approach to suspected Al Qaeda terrorists. With the latter, the administration wastes no time on legal niceties. Foreign nationals have been illegally "rendered" to countries where they faced torture, interrogated in secret CIA prisons and sent to languish at Guantanamo, sometimes on the flimsiest of evidence. Even U.S. citizens suspected of terrorist activities have been dubbed "unlawful enemy combatants" and deprived of their constitutional rights. So why is the administration dragging its feet on arresting and charging Posada?
It's not as if the evidence against Posada is seriously in dispute. In 1998, for instance, he "proudly admitted authorship of the hotel bomb attacks" to the New York Times, "describ[ing] them as acts of war intended to cripple a totalitarian regime by depriving it of foreign tourism and investment." He dismissed the civilian casualties as "sad" but assured the reporter that he slept "like a baby." (When asked about these admissions in 2005 by the Miami Herald, he coyly replied, "Let's leave it to history.")
If all this sounds eerily familiar, it should. We've heard the same callous justifications for terrorism from Bin Laden and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
The administration's failure to make serious efforts to prosecute Posada is hypocritical but politically expedient. A trial might expose past CIA misdeeds and risk alienating Florida's hard-line Cuban exiles, a voting bloc the administration has long cherished.
After 9/11, the phrase "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" went out of fashion. But though no one will openly admit it, the idea still seems to hold some currency within the Bush administration.
rbrooks@latimescolumnists.com
© 2007 The Los Angeles Times
28 Comments so far
Show AllYou heard it hear first.This Posada fellow will be used to preform the next big "terrorist " attack on United State soil.Thats right guys i said it.thin about it.How much does this guy sound like Osama Bin Laden? Both Funded and Trained by the CIA,both linked to many terrorist attacks,both basically allowed to run free by the U.S. for years,even though the U.S. has "attempted" to capture Bin Laden many times.Now think about this,George Bush,thanks to a bill passed not to long ago by congress and the Senate;now has the authority to declare marshall law in times of any crisis on national soil.What better time to declare marshall law than have another terrorist attack happen in America? For all of you who still dont beleive Bush had anything to do with 9/11,or at least knew what was going to happen,give your head a shake.This should prove it once and for all,or maybe we'll have to wait for the next attack to happen,which it will,maybe by this guy,and then you'll maybe believe.A conspiracy is only a conspiracy because you dont want it to be fact.Either way forget about the '08 presidential elections,Bush isnt leaving the office anytime soon,he's already making sure of that;and besides really people,even if he did,would it really make a difference who the next president was?
There are undeniably strong enough terrorist links between ex-CIA Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch and ex-CIA G.H. Walker Bush to explain the present GW Bush administration ordering the dropping of all charges in order to insure that there will be no further probing into a deadly can of worms. GHW Bush was the boss and supervisor directing Carriles in the covert CIA operations of the anti-Castrist brigades during the early '60's and there is increasing likelyhood that they were all major players directly implicated in the assasination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Consider the irony that until this day the senior Bush still denies having worked as a secret operative prior to his nomination as director of CIA, that he 'can't recall' where he was on that fateful day in Dallas, even though he submitted a report on Oswald the subsequent day to the FBI. Most recently GHW Bush spoke praise of the Warren Commission during his funeral oration for Gerald Ford. It might have seemed to most observers be an inappropriate anecdote to bring up during the eulogy, but the Warren Commision acted as a blanket pardon to any and all implicated in the assassination, not only by officially sealing documents but by preventing any other subsequent official US government inquiry which might reveal that Lee Oswald was only the patsy for a highly organised and coldy calculated settling of scores. Had it not been the US President, and had it transpired in Belfast rather than in Dallas, no one would have blinked. Just an ho-hum Irish protestant named Bush knee-caps to the brain one Irish catholic enemy, JFK in a clearly planned and carefully executed ambush. Wake up Amerika. For more info. that fell into the collective memory hole check out:http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush.htm
nickofthyme
The reason this Antedeluvian Terrorist is kicking back in his house in Miami (who paid for it, by the way?) is because all other countries who were offered his presence either refused, or put the US on notice that they would take him and...immediately send him to Venezuela.
Its not as if the Bushies are strictly responsible for the nutter a.k.a Luis Posada Carriles. After all several U.S. administrations seem to have ignored him. As long as terrorists serve a purpose, they aren't brought to justice. The worst thing any American-aligned terrorist can do is outlive his or her usefulness to the administration in power. Saddam Hussein demonstrated that fact brilliantly. The powers that be were perfectly content to let him gas Kurds and commit other atrocities as long as he also attacked Iran and gave of his oil freely. He stepped out of line and got cocky, that's when he stopped being a "friend" and became target #1.
One more thing: Law that is not equal for all individuals, is hard to understand. It is also not in concert with general conditions, based instead on prejudice or force.
Specifically, it is based on decree or class based definitions. This is complicated, whereas equal law for all individuals, based on equal rights is simple and easy to understand.
Ultimately, the purpose of law is succesful cooperation in societal groups. Law must be simple and clear for it to be followed in an effective way.
Bush's law is not law, it's confusion. Look at Iraq. It's his baby. He and his neocons destroyed the infrastructure and the civilization. Look what they've created in the aftermath: CHAOS.
That's the Bush doctrine: CHAOS.
But, during the chaos a lot of tax dollars consistently go missing. That part is not chaos.
What underlies the neo-classical concept of the USA is the idea of an incontrovertible and clear system of logic, built up consistently from basic premises.
This is the basis of our law: Rationality...A classical system of rationality, not admitting of any mechanical conflict within the workings of its constituent and interpendent parts. This is the idea of classical mechanics: E Plurisbus Unum.
The study of mechanics helps us reduce energy waste and conflict, and to create new wealth through the utilization of natural efficiencies, through intelligent coordination.
Bush's devisive, backwoods, gothic jury-rigging of America's legal concepts has predictably lead to conflict, loss, confusion, and disaster.
Leadership should facilitate mankind along natural lines, understanding the needs and inertial power of the masses.
Law has to be respected as a guiding light, helping the billions of inhabitants to successfully dance the dance of civilization, of society, of success.
But, Bush has thrown his irrational wrench into this beautifully honed mechanism, relying instead on prejudice and emotionalism, greed, selfishness, and that sheer stupidity called will power; even his idiotic concept of belief and faith, to utterly gum up the simple and beautiful clockwork of equality under the law.
Thanks for this interesting article about legal double standards. It's no wonder that the world is in such dire straits. Inconsistent legal standards must perforce lead to chaos.
When I joined the Marines in the late 1970's, one of my first ppostings was in Pakistan aftert he 1979 invasion on Afghanistan. n there we trained a ragtag group of "freedom fighters" to blow up, kill and maim Russians and their allies. Today those same fighters are labeled "terrorists" as they use our educational tools to fight a new occupying army. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Carlos "the Jackal" was a CIA "asset". In other words he committed mass murders, at the time, with the knowledge and assistance of George Bush, Sr., and, thus, can never be allowed to stand trial. Should he be arrested on the terrorism charges, and you have named only a fraction of them, he would never make it to court alive. The list of murder victims in which Bush, Sr. has been implicated,including, very likely, President John F. Kennedy, is quite extensive.
Be sure to educate your children about the type of people who work for and with our government here in the home of the brave and land of the free. Explain to them the kinds of things they do. Perhaps, one day while flying down to the Caribbean for a family vacation, you could inform the little ones in detail, while flying at 36,000 feet, that the President's father had knowingly allowed and encouraged a man to blow an airplane out of the sky just like the one you're sitting in, full of people just like you, and not far from here. And that this same man may, for all we know, shop at the super market down the street from your school to buy his groceries. And you would never know who or what he is or what he has done.
Then explain to them the war on terror.
well said aum 33.yeah why has this not happenened..millions need to take over our capitol and remove these thugs,the world would have its greatest day...
Dr Zimmerman Robert comments:
"The Administration's Botched Handling of Luis Posada Carriles Says A Lot About Bush's So-Called War on Terror."
"The handling of Luis Posada Carriles I submit was not botched."
I am in full agreement with you Dr. Robert. This was not botched .
The last thing that the CIA and the government wanted was for this man to tell his secrets in court.
It has been reported that he if he went to trial, he had said, that he would do just that.
Ditto maryannsalo.
Terrorists can be useful, in all sorts of ways. Remember when the US Military killed Zarqawi last year? I've always suspected that killing was due to a failure in communications, or perhaps a US military commander taking matters into his own hands.
http://www.intergate.com/~daniel41/2006/06/death-of-terrorist.html
What I don't understand is why Bush doesn't give Posada Carriles a comfortable pension and send him off to some other country where he'd be out of sight. Keeping him here in the US isn't even smart.
Bush & Cheney are the world's most notorious terrorists. Surely nobody thinks that any part of the world is comforted by the unfathomable amount of senseless misery that they've caused.
The bastards in power can call it a "war on terror" a trillion times, but that won't change the reality of the matter.
Thanks to team Bush/Cheney et al, an estimated 650,000 to a million people of all ages have been brutally killed. Multiplying that number by 10 give you a conservative estimate of the number crippled for life.
Why haven't we demand that Bush/Cheney be impeached and imprisoned?
Nice correlation Bill. Ta.
It's peculiar to sign comparative rankings to terrorist acts but I'm chilled by the bombing because the shy little girls on the Cuban fencing team were actually TARGETED by that monster.
This is an excerpt from an interview with his partner-in-crime Orlando Bosch:
Orlando Bosch: I was in Caracas. I saw the young girls on television. There were six of them. After the end of the competition, the leader of the six dedicated their triumph to the tyrant etc etc. She gave a speech filled with praise for the tyrant. We had already agreed in Santo Domingo, that every one who comes from Cuba to glorify the tyrant had to run the same risks as those men and women that fight alongside the tyranny.
http://www.counterpunch.org/pertierra04112006.html
Also check out "Operation Gladio". An excellent 3 part series can be found on Google Video. The U.S.was bankrolling fascist paramilitary groups in Europe for decades, and blamed the communists for their terrorist acts.
http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/paperclip2.htm
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=2745&name=Operation-Paperclip
Much simpler to read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
Do a search also.
"The Administration's Botched Handling of Luis Posada Carriles Says A Lot About Bush's So-Called War on Terror."
The handling of Luis Posada Carriles I submit was not botched.
Until I read the sub-head, I thought Rosa Brooks was talking about a different terrorist, the one we have been "tolerating" for six long years now.
Here is another state-sponsored terrorist the U.S. is harboring: Louis-Pierre Dillais, commander of the secret French unit that blew up the Greenpeace ship in the 1980s, is living freely in McLean Virginia. He is president of the arms manufacturer FNH USA, a company that has several U.S. government contracts. The U.S. has refused requests to deport him (Democracy Now, May 10, 2007, http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/10/1418244 ).
How could he NOT know? They were both in Dealy Plaza.
Posada knows that Bush Sr. killed Kennedy.
redbadge
well said. what seems like a double standard/hypocritical stance is well answered by the strict father model of george lakoff, the cognitive scientist, in his book 'thinking points'.
Bush Junior will pardon the sonofabitch--just like his dad pardoned Orlando Bosch, Posada's partner in crime.
You saw it here first.
Legend has it that when Franklin D Roosevelt was confronted with the multiple cruelties of his ally, the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, he replied: "He may be a sonofabitch, but he's our sonofabitch."
In this case, when confronted with the multiple crimes of his ally, Luis Posada Carriles, the Bush administration will likely reply: "He may be a terrorist, but he's our terrorist."
We made Noriega a terrorist and arrested him. So in the United States of Everything, we can un-make a terrorist and set him free. What a wonderful country where "life is like a Hollywood movie; if you don't like it you can shoot it again".
Hoa Binh
This guym should be deported to Cuba immediately - - they'll know what to do with him