"Disgraceful and Wrong-headed"
Published 11th May : The Bahama Journal
We live in times that are truly interesting.Ours is that time in world history where the greatest empire in the history of the world is seemingly beset with one challenge after the other. It is distressed within and beset from abroad. And as it tries to steady itself in an already uncertain world it finds itself challenged by some of the standards it has set for so very many others.By way of illustration we need only reference what seems its own studied disregard for the rules it has laid down concerning terrorism.Today we react to news coming in from the United States of America. This new information concerns the legal fate of an old terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles.As the government put Al Capone out of business by convicting him of the nonviolent crime of tax evasion, U.S. officials had hoped to use immigration violations to neutralize a militant anti-Castro Cuban exile accused of terrorism.The effort appears to have failed at the first hurdle in El Paso, Texas, when U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone tossed out the indictment against the 79-year-old Luis Posada Carriles on technical grounds.In this regard, we need only reference that myriad of gyrations and maneuvers it has sought to employ in the sorry case of Luis Posada Carriles. In the latest installment of hypocrisy run amok, Posada Carriles finds himself described as a man who is free to go about his business notwithstanding the fact that he is a wanted man.This man is wanted by both Venezuela and Cuba for crimes he committed against scores of men, women and children, some of whom were shot down out of the sky over Barbados.Research that suggests that Posada Carriles bears direct responsibility for certain atrocities that taken together define him as a terrorist.Information reaching us informs that the National Security Archive has posted additional documents that show that the CIA had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb a Cubana airliner.The Archive also posted another document that shows that the FBI's attaché in Caracas had multiple contacts with one of the Venezuelans who placed the bomb on the plane, and provided him with a visa to the U.S. five days before the bombing, despite suspicions that he was engaged in terrorist activities at the direction of Luis Posada Carriles.It is also of some interest to us that a Cuban American lawyer Jose Pertierra is currently monitoring this case from the United States of America.He is rightly of the view that "the international community is outraged by Washington's protection of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles."We agree with Mr. Pertierra.We could not agree with him more when he says "Washington must detain Posada, extradite or try him for the bombing of a Cubana airliner in 1976 killing 73 innocent people on board and the assassination of an Italian tourist after the bombing of a Havana hotel in 1997."We are also minded to agree with this attorney when he suggests that the battle to try Posada Carriles can be won because Washington's position is politically and legally unsustainable.It is true that Posada Carriles must be tried as an assassin and not as a liar.At this juncture it should also be pointed out that a broad based coalition of people from around the world has called on the United States of America to do the right thing.For them this right thing would be for the United States to use the same kind of zeal it used as it sought to bring the Libyan trained terrorists to trial for the crimes they committed when they blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland.In this regard it is most interesting to note that the Libyan government and lawyers for families of the 270 people killed when Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up over Scotland in 1988 have come to a tentative agreement on a $2.7 billion settlement, according to documents obtained by CNN.Under the agreement, Libya would pay the $2.7 billion into an escrow account that would be released in phased segments over 10 months to a year. The families would not have access to all of the money -- about $10 million per victim -- until after U.N. and U.S. sanctions are lifted and Libya is removed from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.Today nothing such seems in the offing in the instance of all those matters that implicate Luis Posada Carriles in a skein of allegations concerning acts that are clearly terrorist and most definitely murderous.He is apparently being allowed an opportunity to live happily ever after that time when there were credible allegations that he had committed crimes against humanity.He is living happily ever after in the United States of America.This is a disgraceful and wrong-headed denouement to a thoroughly disgraceful situation.
We live in times that are truly interesting.Ours is that time in world history where the greatest empire in the history of the world is seemingly beset with one challenge after the other. It is distressed within and beset from abroad. And as it tries to steady itself in an already uncertain world it finds itself challenged by some of the standards it has set for so very many others.By way of illustration we need only reference what seems its own studied disregard for the rules it has laid down concerning terrorism.Today we react to news coming in from the United States of America. This new information concerns the legal fate of an old terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles.As the government put Al Capone out of business by convicting him of the nonviolent crime of tax evasion, U.S. officials had hoped to use immigration violations to neutralize a militant anti-Castro Cuban exile accused of terrorism.The effort appears to have failed at the first hurdle in El Paso, Texas, when U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone tossed out the indictment against the 79-year-old Luis Posada Carriles on technical grounds.In this regard, we need only reference that myriad of gyrations and maneuvers it has sought to employ in the sorry case of Luis Posada Carriles. In the latest installment of hypocrisy run amok, Posada Carriles finds himself described as a man who is free to go about his business notwithstanding the fact that he is a wanted man.This man is wanted by both Venezuela and Cuba for crimes he committed against scores of men, women and children, some of whom were shot down out of the sky over Barbados.Research that suggests that Posada Carriles bears direct responsibility for certain atrocities that taken together define him as a terrorist.Information reaching us informs that the National Security Archive has posted additional documents that show that the CIA had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb a Cubana airliner.The Archive also posted another document that shows that the FBI's attaché in Caracas had multiple contacts with one of the Venezuelans who placed the bomb on the plane, and provided him with a visa to the U.S. five days before the bombing, despite suspicions that he was engaged in terrorist activities at the direction of Luis Posada Carriles.It is also of some interest to us that a Cuban American lawyer Jose Pertierra is currently monitoring this case from the United States of America.He is rightly of the view that "the international community is outraged by Washington's protection of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles."We agree with Mr. Pertierra.We could not agree with him more when he says "Washington must detain Posada, extradite or try him for the bombing of a Cubana airliner in 1976 killing 73 innocent people on board and the assassination of an Italian tourist after the bombing of a Havana hotel in 1997."We are also minded to agree with this attorney when he suggests that the battle to try Posada Carriles can be won because Washington's position is politically and legally unsustainable.It is true that Posada Carriles must be tried as an assassin and not as a liar.At this juncture it should also be pointed out that a broad based coalition of people from around the world has called on the United States of America to do the right thing.For them this right thing would be for the United States to use the same kind of zeal it used as it sought to bring the Libyan trained terrorists to trial for the crimes they committed when they blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland.In this regard it is most interesting to note that the Libyan government and lawyers for families of the 270 people killed when Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up over Scotland in 1988 have come to a tentative agreement on a $2.7 billion settlement, according to documents obtained by CNN.Under the agreement, Libya would pay the $2.7 billion into an escrow account that would be released in phased segments over 10 months to a year. The families would not have access to all of the money -- about $10 million per victim -- until after U.N. and U.S. sanctions are lifted and Libya is removed from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.Today nothing such seems in the offing in the instance of all those matters that implicate Luis Posada Carriles in a skein of allegations concerning acts that are clearly terrorist and most definitely murderous.He is apparently being allowed an opportunity to live happily ever after that time when there were credible allegations that he had committed crimes against humanity.He is living happily ever after in the United States of America.This is a disgraceful and wrong-headed denouement to a thoroughly disgraceful situation.
posted by teekoe at 5:37 AM
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