"A US appeals court has ruled that an anti-Castro Cuban exile and former CIA operative accused in Cuba of a 1976 plane bombing that killed 73 people should stand trial for an immigration violation, court records showed on Friday.
(Please read my 'take' at the end of this piece).
Posada Carriles, 80, who lives in Miami, has been sought for trial in Cuba and Venezuela for masterminding the bombing of a Cubana Airlines jet.
He has denied involvement in the incident but Cuba and Venezuela, which are close allies, have accused the Bush administration of hypocrisy in its "war on terrorism" for not prosecuting Posada Carriles.
Posada was arrested by US authorities in May 2005 after entering the country illegally. He sought asylum, which has not been granted.
In January 2007, he was indicted on seven immigration fraud charges arising from a naturalization application and an immigration hearing.
Granma, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party in Cuba, said on Friday that the latest court decision was "a new episode of delay tactics" by the Bush administration in what Cuba views as White House efforts to protect Posada.
Along with the plane bombing, Posada, who worked for the CIA during the Cold War, is accused in Cuba of plotting 1997 hotel bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist.
He was jailed in Panama for plotting to kill Castro during an Ibero-American summit in 2000 but was pardoned by outgoing President Mireya Moscoso in 2004.
The pardon was canceled last month by the Panama Supreme Court, opening the door for a possible extradition request from that country."
I'm torn between what is true and not. The Communist governments says this man did the plane bombing as well as plotting to kill a president and bombing a hotel. That's a tall indictment. In America, he is treated as a freedom fighter for the exiled Cubans. Maybe so, but if these crimes are true, is it OK for America to use terrorists' tactics while they fight terrorism?
Or ...
Is the word "terrorism" simply another word for people or governments that have no massive weapons arsenal, and have to resort to using anything as a weapon, including throwing rocks, in order to defend their property and their view of freedom.
Declassified intelligence document and outline here:
http://www.rhc.cu/ingles/posada/posada10junio.htm
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jujulian
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