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Author Topic: Anti-Castro militant seeks US asylum
Cougyr
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posted 18 April 2005 09:33 PM      Profile for Cougyr     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Anti-Castro militant seeks US asylum.
quote:
MIAMI, USA (AFP): Luis Posada Carriles, sentenced to prison in Panama for trying to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro and wanted by Venezuela for blowing up a Cuban passenger plane that killed 73, has asked for asylum in the United States, his attorney said Wednesday.

quote:
Undoubtedly assisted by the U.S. government to enter the United States, Posada has been in Miami since the end of March.
votenowar.org

It's okay to be a terrorist if he's one of yours.


From: over the mountain | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
verbatim
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posted 18 April 2005 09:36 PM      Profile for verbatim   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Yeah, he's not going to be extradited. The world sucks.
From: The People's Republic of Cook Street | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Américain Égalitaire
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posted 18 April 2005 10:25 PM      Profile for Américain Égalitaire   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Well remember if you've murdered "commies" for Uncle Sam:

quote:
"supported the interests of the United States for approximately four decades."

Then you're NOT a "terrorist!"

quote:
"I am a freedom fighter," he said.

Sickening. They'll probably erect a @%#^@!! statue to the guy in Miami.


From: Chardon, Ohio USA | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
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posted 18 April 2005 11:40 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
The Geneva Convention on refugees contains an explicit statement insuring that such people cannot get refugee status:

" F. The provisions of this Convention shall not apply to any person with respect to whom there are serious reasons for considering that:
(a) he has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity, as defined in the international instruments drawn up to make provision in respect of such crimes;
(b) he has committed a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to his admission to that country as a refugee;
(c) he has been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations."

http://www.ufsia.ac.be/~dvanheul/migration/genconv.html


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 19 April 2005 05:32 AM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Right-wing terrorist groups like the Venezuelan Patriotic Front, Miami-based Comandos F4 and the dreaded "School of the Americas" are all fascist terrorist groups funded covertly by Washington and Anti-Communist League tentacles around the world. Posada Carriles is scum.
From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
Cougyr
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posted 19 April 2005 12:40 PM      Profile for Cougyr     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I'm sure Jeff's Geneva Convention rules apply . . . anywhere but the US. Betcha he gets his asylum. He could even be Jeb Bush for President campaign manager.
From: over the mountain | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 01 July 2005 09:10 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
What Will U.S. Do With the Terrorist Carriles?

quote:
Posada Carriles and his lawyers admit that he entered the US secretly without passing a through a North American immigration checkpoint. There is evidence that he entered by sea in the Santrina shrimp boat; the terrorist and his defenders say that he entered by land. At any rate, everyone accepts that his entrance was illegal.

Entering the country without documents is not acceptable - even for a resident. A resident who decides to avoid the legal process of entry into the US, who does not pass through immigration, who does not pass through customs is deportable for that reason alone.

In order to not lose his legal status as a resident, Posada Carriles must have, at a minimum, returned to the US annually, maintained a home in the country, paid his federal taxes every year on income earned abroad and entered with legal documentation, such as a residence card or a reentry permit. There is no evidence that Posada Carriles fulfilled these minimum requirements.

Therefore, we can anticipate the results of the Aug. 29 hearing in El Paso: Posada Carriles is not permanent resident of the US. He forfeited his legal status due to his long absence. He entered the country illegally, without papers. He can be deported. If he wants to do so, he will have to proceed with the asylum defense. The judge will then choose another date for his asylum hearing.


Paerhaps the US wants to bury Posada Carriles both literally and figuratively?

In any event, it's important to keep up the pressure on the US to extradite this gusano.


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 03 July 2005 12:34 AM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
US is delaying the extradition because Carriles knows where all the bodies are buried.

He could tell some interesting stories about "covert, violent CIA projects, such as Operation Mongoose, Operation Phoenix, the JFK assassination, the regime changes in the Dominican Republic, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Watergate burglary, the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, Iran-Contra, Operation Condor which exterminated many South American progressives, [and] the 1997 Havana tourist hotel bombings."


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
N.Beltov
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posted 03 July 2005 02:20 AM      Profile for N.Beltov   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
That's quite a handle, M. Spector. Does "M" stand for Maurice?
From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Albion1
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posted 12 July 2005 06:14 PM      Profile for Albion1     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Check out this article from the website fromthewildernessn.com and also from narconews.com

quote:
FTW thanks WWW.NARCONEWS.COM

Hypocrisy Rules in Posada Case

By Bill Weaver,
Jun 25th, 2005
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/6/25/201416/689


George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and high level staff from various agencies sat around the large oval mahogany table, a gift from Richard Nixon to the United States, in the Cabinet Room of the White House. They were assessing the recent crises and the effectiveness of the intelligence community and the problems of a prying Congress, civil libertarians, and bad publicity. They especially lamented how outdated legal strictures were impeding the execution of policy. One complained that people do "not understand that intelligence problems must be treated in a special category," and that present exigent circumstances require relaxing legal standards, for "[i]t has always been the case in history where vital interests are involved," that the president has the power to take whatever action is necessary to safeguard the country. It is noted, as it has been many times since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, that "Lincoln suspended certain rights [and] we have had emergency laws . . . There are many examples." Speaking of civil liberties, Bush said "[w]e have gone too far at this business" and Secretary Rumsfeld agreed "entirely with all that has been said" and griped that because of an overly deferent attitude toward civil liberties "[w]e are being forced to give up sensitive information in order to prosecute" terrorists.

Despite the subject matter and the people involved, this discussion was not a recent one; it occurred on January 13, 1977, during the last National Security Council meeting of President Gerald Ford's administration. The same players as almost thirty years ago, with the addition of George Junior, are still at it, still working outside of law and diplomacy, still contemptuous of allies and their own citizens. Recent disclosures show an arrogance that is difficult to imagine, with numerous CIA employees violating law with impunity and living lavishly on taxpayer money at the same time.

Since Operation Northwoods, a stunning plan in the early 1960s that in part proposed for the United States government to carry out terrorist attacks against its own citizens, U.S. intelligence agencies have been seemingly willing to sacrifice countless innocent lives in their blind efforts to oust Cuban leader Fidel Castro and destroy leftist sentiment in Central and South America. There is an unbroken line of allegiance to this position leading directly from George Junior and Senior, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld back to the 1950s. A few miles away from where this is being written, Luis Posada sits in an immigration detention center. He is the living embodiment of a fifty-year-old misguided policy that was and is willing to sacrifice the innocent for an ideology. Posada's career is the career of sordid U.S. policy in Latin America, and he is a reminder that the excuses for aggression may change, but the underlying motivations remain the same. Posada was not a renegade or a convenient partner for U.S. policy; he was U.S policy.

William Cooper, the operations manager for the Iran-Contra debacle, listed Posada, under the alias "Ramon," right after "Home," on his "frequently used phone numbers" list. Posada, who was the "support director" for the operation went by the codename "Caretaker," and tellingly, since Posada and his pals had no use for diplomacy, the Department of State was pegged with the codename "Wimp." The "U.S. Government," meaning the executive branch (Ronald Reagan, Ollie North and company), on the other hand was labelled with virility; it was called "Playboy." This attitude, the disdain for diplomacy and the love of violence as a means to change, makes the U.S. shake with hypocrisy and is a betrayal to its citizens. George W. Bush continues the legacy of violence over negotiation, counting on the forgetfulness of nations and people to avoid embarrassments of the past. But Posada has lived long enough to complete the circle of embarrassment and make the U.S. Government face its own past. The U.S. has encouraged terrorism as an expedient substitute for diplomacy and the rule of law. But here in the U.S., in holding Posada captive, we are holding ourselves captive, we are pressed to face the truth of our past. Many people would rather face death than be made to face the truth, and so Posada is stowed away in El Paso, with Bush Junior and Senior, and Cheney and Rumsfeld hoping he will die before reaching sunlight again. El Paso is a good place to lose people; it always has been. Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe says in The High Window, "Nobody came in, nobody called, nothing happened, nobody cared whether I died or went to El Paso." Posada didn't die, but he did go to El Paso, and there are many who hope he never makes it out.



From: Toronto, ON. Canada | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 02 August 2005 10:02 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Posada was in court July 26 for a bail hearing. Bail was denied.

quote:
But as the hearing wound down, the judge dropped a bombshell in the courtroom. He informed both the attorneys for Posada and for the U.S. Government that he would issue a pretrial order in late July or early August requiring counsel to brief the court as to whether or not Posada’s actions in support of the Bay of Pigs invasion could be construed as terrorist actions under U.S. statutes governing detention and deportability of aliens. Abbot then pointedly noted that he looked especially forward to the government’s brief on that matter.

The court was silent. An immigration judge had just ordered a brief as to whether or not an action 43 years ago supported and funded by the U.S. government in accordance with policy taken at the highest levels, including presidential decisions, could be construed as a terrorist act under current U.S. law.

As Javier Montaño, Posada’s second-chair counsel, translated the judge’s statement to Posada, a hint of a smile came over the old man’s face. No doubt the irony was not lost on Posada, and one wonders if he will take the stand and testify at his August 29th hearing on his asylum application.

For their part, Posada’s attorneys are not saying whether or not he will take the stand, but it was made clear that both sides, the government and Posada, will be ready to litigate the matter to its end beginning in late August. If Posada does testify, the definition of terrorism will not be the main legal issue, but it will certainly be the most salient issue in the courtroom.

And we wait with anticipation to see how Judge Abbott rules with respect to whether or not Posada’s participation in the Bay of Pigs action qualifies as a terrorist act under present U.S. law. Source



From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 09 September 2005 11:24 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Posada back in court
quote:
At the deportation hearing last week, Posada agreed his entry was illegal, and during cross-examination he eventually withdrew his claim for asylum, stating through his lawyer that his further testimony on this issue might "embarrass" the US, or endanger its security, which he didn't want to do. (In fact, asylum can't be granted to someone with a criminal past.) However, Posada continues to seek CAT protection, which has been his only real claim all along.

CAT, the Convention Against Torture, provides that deportation or extradition will be deferred where the deportee or accused shows "by a clear probability" that the deportee or accused will be tortured by the receiving country. By illegally refusing to file the extradition case, Secretary Rice has assured that this issue will first be decided by an in-house lawyer, employed at will by the Justice Department to hear Homeland immigration cases, rather than a federal judge who is independent because he/she is appointed for life.

The only torture evidence offered by Posada last week was the testimony of his old friend, lawyer, partner and supervisor in DISIP, Joachim Chaffardet, who opined that Posada likely would be tortured by Venezuela. His evidence was equivocal, often using words like "subjected to humiliation or torture."
[snip]
It doesn't seem rational or just to protect a CIA mass murderer and torturer from facing justice out of fear he'll be tortured when there's no real evidence that he will be tortured. Especially when the CIA is using mental torture to interrogate people in US military prisons in Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan, and when it thinks physical torture is necessary, it kidnaps people and physically tortures them in countries like Egypt and Jordan.


Torture? No fear! Posada Carriles (77) will get luxury treatment in Venezuela

quote:
In an astonishingly spurious claim to the US court, defense lawyer Joaquin F. Chaffardet Ramos said he believed the Venezuelan government would torture his client and send him bacl to Cuba after stripping him of his citizenship. Posada Carriles says he will be mistreated if he is returned to Venezuela to face charges that he plotted and executed the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner.

From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 26 September 2005 02:33 AM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Were British Special Forces Soldiers Planting Bombs in Basra?
quote:
Spokesmen for the American and British occupation of Iraq, together with newspapers like the Daily Telegraph, have of course rejected with indignation any suggestion that their forces could have been involved in false-flag terrorist operations in Iraq.

It may be remembered that during the 1980s spokesmen for the government of Ronald Reagan likewise heaped ridicule on Nicaraguan accusations that the U.S. was illegally supplying weapons to the ‘Contras’—until, that is, a CIA-operated C-123 cargo aircraft full of weaponry was shot down over Nicaragua, and Eugene Hasenfus, a cargo handler who survived the crash, testified that his supervisors (one of whom was Luis Posada Carriles, the CIA agent responsible for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner) were working for then-Vice-President George H. W. Bush.



From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 26 September 2005 10:51 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
U.S. Government charade will result in Posada Carriles being allowed to go free in the United States.
quote:
In an August 30th hearing, Posada produced Joaquín Fernando Chaffardet Ramos as a witness to claim that if returned to Venezuela, Posada would be subjected to torture. The hearing today [Sept. 26] was scheduled to provide the U.S. Government with an opportunity to rebut the evidence of Chaffardet and to show that Posada would most likely not be subjected to torture by the government of President Hugo Chávez. But the United States refused to put on rebuttal evidence, handing Posada exactly what he wanted; a life in the United States.
[snip]
Since Posada put on at least some evidence that he may be subjected to torture if extradited to Venezuela, and the United States put on no evidence whatsoever to the contrary, there is virtually no doubt that Posada will win on this point. Extradition of Posada will be indefinitely deferred and the acquiescence on this point by the U.S. Government made the entire hearing a sham. Bush saved Posada from extradition, his brother Jeb from the wrath of Cuban exiles, the U.S. Government from major potential embarrassment, and took advantage of an opportunity to malign Hugo Chávez at the same time. But what of the "war on terror"? On this day, in this part of West Texas, for this terrorist, the war was suspended.

From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 29 September 2005 12:49 AM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
“Posada Carriles is the Osama Bin Laden of Latin America”

Chavez Denounces Cynical Decision on Posada Carriles

Great hypocrisy: USA once again demonstrates its double standards on terrorism

[ 24 February 2007: Message edited by: M. Spector ]


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Transplant
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posted 29 September 2005 04:15 PM      Profile for Transplant     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Cuban Terror Case Erodes US Credibility, Critics Say

IPS - The decision Tuesday by a U.S. immigration judge in Texas to deny Venezuela's request to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, whom Caracas has dubbed "the Osama bin Laden of Latin America", was greeted with surprise and disappointment by Latin America activists and even some former U.S. officials.


From: Free North America | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
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posted 29 September 2005 05:15 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
The most ludicrous point of all is the suggestion that he will now get to stay in the US because the US will not return anyone to a country where he might be tortured.

What? They have a whole POLICY of "Rendition" so that people may be tortured outside of the United States.

Are we supposed to believe that if Mahar Arar had mentioned he could be tortured, they US would not have sent him to Syria?

And what about the Memo to Alberto Gonzalez, now Attorney General, the "Bybee Memo"? THAT said that the Torture Convention doesn't bind the President.

What a crock.


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 15 October 2005 10:33 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Latin American summit backs Cuba despite U.S. concern
October 15, 2005
Source

SALAMANCA, Spain - Leaders from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, ignoring U.S. concern, backed a strong call on Saturday for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba and for the suspected bomber of a Cuban airliner to be tried.

The 22-nation Ibero-American summit stood by the wording of the resolution despite an unusual public expression of concern by the U.S. embassy in Madrid over an earlier draft.

"We ask the government of the United States of America ... to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade that it maintains against Cuba," a final statement said.

Spain's opposition press pounced on the resolution as a diplomatic "own goal" for Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who irritated Washington soon after taking office last year by pulling Spanish troops from Iraq.

Some newspapers said the wording of the resolution, which spoke of a "blockade" rather than an embargo, was tougher than past statements, but Zapatero said it was similar to past U.N. resolutions and described his government's relations with Washington as "suitable, correct, fluid."

The leaders also approved a Cuban-backed resolution on terrorism in which they supported steps "to achieve the extradition or bring to justice the person responsible for the terrorist attack on a Cubana de Aviacion plane in October 1976 which killed 73 civilians."

The resolution is a reference to Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative who Venezuela wants extradited from the United States and put on trial over the bombing.

A U.S. judge has ruled that Posada, who has denied involvement in the attack, may not be deported to Cuba or Venezuela, saying he faced the threat of torture.


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 15 October 2005 11:36 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
That's just great. The ones responsible for the torture gulags at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graihb, the world's largest jailers of its own citizens, the headquarters for the Skool of the Americas who've exported terrorism and torture to Latin America, are worried about the well being of a terrorist. Now I've heard everything.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 15 November 2005 08:29 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Upside Down World
quote:
In reviewing Posada’s publicly known career, the Bush family name occasionally appears. In 1960 Bush Senior was running his oil company, Zapata Drilling, out of Houston. He was also recruiting for the CIA’s planned Bay of Pigs invasion, and some CIA meetings allegedly were held in Zapata offices. Bush Senior was critical of the Kennedy Administration’s effort therein and he urged a new invasion of Cuba. A memo by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover dated 11/28/63 refers to him as "George Bush of the CIA." In 1976, when Bush Senior was made CIA Director, he put in charge of CIA special operations the head of the Miami CIA station, who had been and continued to be Posada’s direct supervisor. CIA had urged the various violent anti-Castro groups in Florida and New Jersey, such as Omega 7 and Alpha 66, to merge under one authority, which was called CORU and was headed by Bosch. At that time Zapata had drilling contracts in Venezuela, and Jeb Bush, now governor of Florida, was working for a Texas bank in Caracas. According to the recently declassified reports, CIA, which had offices, operatives and assets in Caracas besides Posada, was at least aware of the two failed attempts to bomb Cubana civilian airliners in the summer of 1976, and about a week before the successful bombing on October 6 it received a report from Posada "We’re going to hit the Cuban airliner."

As CIA Director, Bush Senior did not warn potential passengers of any of the pending attacks on Cubana airliners, nor did he advise President Ford of the project. CIA tried to get Posada and Bosch out of Venezuela before they could be charged and was involved in the successful efforts to delay the court proceedings. Bush Senior was Vice President in 1985 when Posada was helped to escape Venezuelan custody. In 1985-87 Bush Senior’s Washington assistant was getting direct reports from Posada’s partner Felix Rodriguez (a Bush Senior personal friend) in the Iran-Contra supply operation. Bush Senior was president in 1990 when he deferred Bosch’s deportation, thereby allowing him to live freely in Miami. This overruled the strong recommendation of his own Justice Department, which had implicated Bosch in over 50 terrorist crimes. Bush Junior was President last fall when the outgoing president of Panama pardoned Posada. She now lives on Key Biscayne.



From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 25 January 2006 08:29 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Washington about to annul three anti-terrorism treaties
quote:
The United States could annul three treaties against terrorism with its denial to extradite Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela. The three different documents support the formal request of that country, said lawyer Jose Pertierra who represents the Venezuelan government in the extradition case of the author of the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner off the coasts of Barbados killing 73 people on board.

The documents cited by the lawyer are the 1922 treaty signed by Venezuela and the US; the Treaty for the Repression of Illegal Acts against Civil Aviation Security, signed by both countries on September 23, 1971 and the International Treaty to Repress Terrorist Bomb Attempts, approved by the United Nations on December 15, 1997.

Pertierra explains that the US administration has avoided the use of the term terrorist in the Posada Carriles case and has turned the case
into a common immigration issue by accusing the man only of having entered US territory illegally.



Venezuela insists on extradition:
quote:
Venezuelan authorities insist that international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles be turned over to authorities in their country or tried in the US on the charge of first degree murder.

Meanwhile in Miami, the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that Posada will remain imprisoned in Texas until immigration authorities decide whether or not to deport him to a country other than Venezuela or Cuba. In the meantime he will not be released, reported the Juventud Rebelde newspaper.


[ 25 January 2006: Message edited by: M. Spector ]


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 18 April 2006 05:28 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Lawyer José Pertierra, representing Venezuela:
quote:
The Montreal Convention's Article 7 gives the US no discretion. It must either extradite or prosecute Posada Carriles for 73 counts of first degree murder in relation to the downing of the airliner. Deporting him to a third country is not an option and neither is releasing him to the community. The story of CU-455 cries out to be told to the American people. If the American people hear the true story of how those 73 people were murdered in cold blood by terrorists whom the United States prefers to shelter rather than prosecute, they'll not stand for it.
I'm not quite so sure of that.

But Pertierra goes on:

quote:
What happened to Cubana de Aviación 455 almost thirty years ago is no secret. We need simply examine the CIA's own declassified cables. At the time, this was the worst act of aviation terrorism in history, and the first time that a civilian airliner was blown up by terrorists.

More than three months before CU-455 was blown out of the sky over Barbados on that sunny Wednesday afternoon of October 6, 1976, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) informed Washington that a Cuban exile extremist group planned to place a bomb on a Cubana de Aviación flight.

The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research reported to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that a CIA source had overheard Luis Posada Carriles say less than a month prior to the bombing that "we are going hit a Cuban airliner."

Neither Washington nor the CIA alerted Cuban authorities to the terrorist threat against their planes.
....
Traveling with the group were 24 members of the Cuban fencing team, many of them teen-agers, fresh from gold medal victories at the Youth Fencing Championship in Caracas. They proudly wore their gold medals on board the aircraft. One of the young fencers, Nancy Uranga, was only twenty-three years old and pregnant. She wasn't supposed to be on board. That spot on the fencing team belonged to a pretty little twelve-year old fencer, unusually tall for her age, named María González. María had planned to participate in the Caribbean Games, and was on the tarmac at Havana's José Martí Airport ready to board the plane that would take the team to the Games, when one of her coaches gave her the bad news that international amateur rules prevented twelve year olds from competing. María reportedly was devastated, and she went to her home in Havana's neighborhood called La Víbora, and cried for three days, refusing to watch the games on Cuban television because it hurt her so much not to be there. Nancy Uranga was summoned to the Airport and took María's place on the ill fated trip to the Caribbean Games.

The fencing team was a roaring success at the Games. They won gold, silver and bronze medals. They were to return home on October 6, 1976. The athletes proudly wore their medals dangling over their clothes, as they boarded the aircraft. Cubana de Aviación 455 stopped first in Trinidad at 11:03 AM, and then touched down again in Barbados at 12:25 PM.

Nine minutes after take-off from Barbados, the bombs exploded and the plane caught fire. The passengers on board then lived the most horrifying ten minutes of their lives, as the plane turned into a scorching coffin.


Contrast the US treatment of Posada Carriles, who actively and successfully conspired to blow up a civilian airliner, killing 73 people, with its treatment of Zacarias Moussaoui, who (as the September 11 Commission found) played no direct role in the 9/11 attacks, and caused the death of nobody, but narrowly escaped the death penalty and will rot in prison for life.

[ 20 May 2006: Message edited by: M. Spector ]


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged

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