Word: posada
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...exile groups that had allegedly aided in bombings of Cuban tourist hotels. A swap release of the five isn't likely. (A U.S. appellate panel did rule that their trial had not been fair, but another panel affirmed their convictions this year.) But Obama could respond by prosecuting Luis Posada Carriles, an exile militant who allegedly took part in the hotel attacks as well as the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner in which 73 people were killed. FBI evidence links Posada to the crimes, but the Bush Administration has let him remain free in Miami, - inviting charges...
Either way, Posada remains in Miami keeping a low profile. Occasionally his critics will demonstrate against him on the streets of Little Havana, sometimes leading to verbal confrontations with his supporters. But that noise dies down fairly quickly. After last week's ruling, however, Posada may find himself once again leaving Miami for the legal maelstrom...
...Posada's life does read like a tropical spy novel. Though he maintains Venezuelan citizenship, he has worked often with the U.S. since Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in 1959, serving in the Army and then assisting the CIA in adventures like the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Iran-Contra operation under President Reagan. In 1990, gunmen believed to be Cuban agents shot him several times in the face and torso in Guatemala but failed to kill him. Through it all, as recently declassified FBI and CIA documents indicate, he has been accused of taking part...
This summer, Panama's Supreme Court overturned that pardon, and Panamanian officials must now decide whether to seek Posada's extradition from the U.S. If they do, it would be hard for the U.S. to ignore international opinion and not hand him over. Given the bitter relations between Washington and Havana, it would simply look as though the Bush Administration were ignoring its own uncompromising anti-terrorist tenets in order to spite Castro. A U.S. immigration judge ruled that Posada would likely be tortured if he is sent to Venezuela - which is ruled by the pro-Castro government of left...
Others feel the federal appeals court should have gone even further and reprimanded the Administration for treating Posada like an immigration scofflaw instead of a man widely considered an international terrorist. "I worry that these cases... have the tendency to make very bad law," says Miami attorney and immigration law expert Ira Kurzban. The U.S., he insists, shouldn't be "willing to tolerate terrorists as long as they are your friends...