Word: posada
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Ever since Luis Posada Carriles was smuggled into the U.S. three years ago, he's become an international poster boy for double standards in the war on terror. But a federal appeals court may now prompt the Bush Administration to follow its own post-9/11 principles...
...When Posada was detained after sneaking into the United States from Mexico in 2005, the U.S. could have extradited him to Venezuela to face charges in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed all 73 persons aboard. He denies involvement, but declassified FBI documents implicate him in the crime. (A questionable military trial in Venezuela had acquitted Posada of the bombing charge and he was in jail awaiting a civilian retrial when he escaped from that country in 1985.) This time, federal prosecutors opted to try him on charges of lying about how he got into...
Since then, the 80-year-old Cuban exile has lived with relatives in Miami, a free man - prompting critics to call it hypocritical for the U.S. to give Posada a pass while sentencing Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Ahmed Hamden, to 66 months in prison this month for providing material support to al-Qaeda. "By any reasonable definition, [Posada] is a terrorist," says Dennis Jett, a former U.S. ambassador to Peru and now a professor at Pennsylvania State University's international affairs school. "He may not be a threat to the U.S., but he is to the people...
Last week, however, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rescinded Posada's go-free card, reversing the El Paso judge's ruling. Now the anti-Castro militant, who has also been linked to 1997 bombings of tourist sites in Cuba that killed an Italian man (a charge he later denied), could be facing life behind bars again - if, that is, the Bush Administration hauls him back into detention and continues to pursue its immigration case. It's unclear whether the Texas court will reinstate his bond, and Posada's Miami attorney, Arturo V. Hernandez, says he'll appeal...
...terrorism-sponsor designation would also prompt Venezuela to counter more loudly with the case of Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban exile wanted in Venezuela for allegedly masterminding a 1976 terror attack on a Cuban jetliner in Caracas, which killed 73 people. The U.S. refuses to extradite Posada despite FBI evidence implicating him in the crime. The 80-year-old, who lives freely in Miami, denies the accusations. Chavez has long argued that the Posada case proves what he calls a U.S. double standard on terrorism...