Luis Posada Carriles, CIA, Bush and Venezuela

[Michel Collon <michel.collon at skynet.be>]

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WHAT THE CIA COULD LEARN FROM VENEZUELA:
THE CASE OF LUIS POSADA CARRILES
By Eva Golinger**
May 2005

The stir raised by the recent news of a political asylum petition submitted
by one Luis Posada Carriles, Cuban by nationality and wanted international
terrorist, has placed the Bush Administration in a conundrum. If it grants
asylum to Posada Carriles, it negates its universal declaration of a ?war on
terrorism? that includes ?those who harbor or refuge terrorists?. But if it
denies asylum to Posada Carriles, not only does the U.S. Government turn its
back on a former servant of this country, since Posada was an agent of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the 1960s to an unknown date, but it
also is placed in the most delicate situation of deciding whether to
extradite him to Venezuela, where he is a fugitive from justice, sending him
to some third country considered neutral where he could be tried for his
crimes, or giving him protected status in the U.S., which would grant him
rights to reside and work freely in the confines of the world?s superpower
and top warrior against terrorism. Granting the extradition of Posada
Carriles to Venezuela would be treated by the international media as a
victory for President Hugo Chávez, a pill hard to swallow for a Bush
Administration that has supported several efforts to oust the Venezuelan
leader over the past few years.

As a result of this rather sticky situation posed to a second term Bush
government, State Department and White House spokesmen have refused to
recognize Posada Carriles? presence in the United States, despite the known
fact that his asylum application has been submitted to the United States
Citizenship and Immigration Services Department. Approximately six weeks
ago, news stories on local Florida channels began broadcasting information
about the clandestine arrival of Luis Posada Carriles to US soil. Soon
after, his attorney, Eduardo Soto, announced that Posada Carriles would
apply for asylum based on his service to the Central Intelligence Agency
during the cold war and his fear of political persecution should he be
deported to his native Cuba.

An application for political asylum can only be submitted once an individual
enters the United States, and it must be presented within one year of entry.
In order to be eligible for asylum, an individual must meet the definition
of a ?refugee? under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), defined
as ?someone who is unable or unwilling to return to and avail himself or
herself of the protection of his or her home country or, if stateless,
country of last habitual residence because of persecution or a well-founded
fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in
a particular social group, or political opinion.?

However, an individual who meets the definition of ?refugee? under the INA,
can be barred from receiving political asylum per the following sections of
the Act:

An applicant will be barred from being granted asylum under INA § 208(b)(2)
if he or she:
	 1.	Ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the
persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality,
membership in a particular social group, or political opinion
	 2.	Was convicted of a particularly serious crime (includes
aggravated
felonies)
	 3.	Committed a serious nonpolitical crime outside the United
States
	 4.	Poses a danger to the security of the United States
	 5.	Firmly resettled in another country prior to arriving in
the United
States (see 8 CFR § 208.15 for a definition of ?firm resettlement?)

An individual will also be barred from being granted asylum under INA § 208
if he or she is inadmissible under INA § 212(a)(3)(B) or removable under INA
§ 237(a)(4)(B) because he or she:
	 1.	Has engaged in terrorist activity;
	 2.	Is engaged in or is likely to engage after entry in any
terrorist
activity (a consular officer or the Attorney General knows, or has
reasonable grounds to believe, that this is the case);
	 3.	Has, under any circumstances indicating an intention to
cause death
or serious bodily harm, incited terrorist activity;
	 4.	Is a representative of
	a.	a foreign terrorist organization, as designated by the
Secretary of
State under section 219 of the INA, or
	b.	a political, social, or other similar group whose public
endorsement
of acts of terrorist activity the Secretary of State has determined
undermines United States efforts to reduce or eliminate terrorist
activities;*
	 5.	Is a member of a foreign terrorist organization, as
designated by the
Secretary of State under section 219 of the INA, or which you know or should
have known is a terrorist organization;
	 6.	Has used a position of prominence within any country to
endorse or
espouse terrorist activity, or to persuade others to support terrorist
activity or a terrorist organization, in a way that the Secretary of State
has determined undermines United States efforts to reduce or eliminate
terrorist activities.*

(*These two categories were added by the Uniting and Strengthening America
by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
(USA PATRIOT Act, P.L. 107-56, October 26, 2001), which was passed in
response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.)

Luis Posada Carriles is a fugitive from justice in Venezuela and an
international terrorist, so defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigations
(FBI), and therefore cannot be granted political asylum under U.S. law. In
1985, he escaped from a minimum security prison in Venezuela dressed as a
priest with the help of the U.S. government funded Cuban American National
Foundation, after nine years of detention for his involvement in the 1976
bombing of a Cubana de Aviación airplane that killed all 73 people on board.
At the time of his escape from prison, the case against Posada Carriles for
his role as the co-author of the Cubana airlines bombing, along with fellow
anti-Castro Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch, was on appeal. As such, a
conviction was never obtained, despite ample evidence to put Posada Carriles
behind bars for a few decades. Bosch was jailed for eleven years for his
involvement in the bombing, and was released by corrupt judges that made
deals with then U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Mr. Otto Reich, who along with
mega financial and political support from the Cuban American National
Foundation and the first Bush administration, secured Bosch?s entry into the
United States. Note that upon Bosch?s arrival to the U.S. in 1988, he was
detained by immigration services, since he had also been classified by the
FBI as a ?terrorist?, but President George H.W. Bush gave him an official
?get out of jail free pass?, a pardon that has allowed him to live freely in
Miami ever since.

Two of the other accomplices in the bombing, Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo
Lozano, known as the Venezuelans who actually placed the bombs aboard the
October 6, 1976 flight out of Barbados, were convicted for their role in the
terrorist act and spent more than twenty years in prison in Venezuela. Both
Lugo and Lozano completed their prison terms and continue to reside in
Venezuela.

Recently declassified documents from the CIA and the FBI, obtained by the
Washington-based non-profit National Security Archives, provide ample
evidence confirming Posada Carriles? involvement in the bombing of the
Cubana airplane along with other acts of terrorism, as well as his status as
a CIA agent. A CIA secret document dated October 1976, states, ?We have
determined that this agency had a relationship with one person whose name
has been mentioned in connection with the reported bombingBoth Lugo?s and
Lozano?s employer in Caracas is Luis Posada Carriles, former head of the
Counterintelligence Division of the Directorate for the Services of
Intelligence and Prevention (DISIP), the Venezuelan civilian security
service. Posada is a former agent of CIA. He was amicably terminated in July
1987 but contact was re-established in October 1967We continued occasional
contact with him?

Another U.S. Government document confirms Posada?s status with the CIA:
?Luis Posada, in whom CIA has an operational interestPosada is receiving
approximately $300 per month from CIA?

A November 1976 FBI document affirms that Posada Carriles participated in at
least two meetings planning the bombing of the Cubana airplane: ?Some plans
regarding the bombing of a Cubana airlines airplane were discussed at the
bar in the Anauco Hilton Hotel in Caracas, Venezuela, at which meeting Frank
Castro, Gustavo Castillo, Luis Posada Carriles and Morales Navarrete were
presentMorales Navarrete told the source that another meeting to plan the
bombing of a Cubana airliner took place in the apartment of Morales
Navarrete in the Anauco Hilton. This meeting was also prior to the bombing
of the Cubana airliner on October 6, 1976. Present at this meeting were
Morales Navarrete, Posada Carriles and Frank Castro?

In addition to this newly revealed evidence, Posada Carriles, upon his own
admission to the New York Times in an interview seven years ago, was
involved in a series of missions to ?blow up Cuban people and places?. He
masterminded several bombings in major tourist spots in Havana that caused
terror throughout the city and resulted in the death of an Italian tourist.
In November 2000, Cuban President Fidel Castro accused Posada Carriles of
planning to assassinate him in Panama during an international conference.
Posada was arrested and found with 33 pounds of C-4 plastic explosive and
given an eight-year prison sentence for ?endangering public safety?.
Outgoing Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, an ally of the anti-Castro
Cuban community in Florida, pardoned Posada Carriles as a last act before
leaving office, causing international outcry for releasing such a dangerous
terrorist.

Ample evidence exists as to Posada Carriles? numerous terrorist activities.
Venezuela has a pending warrant for his arrest for charges of homicide in
the Cubana airlines bombing. The CIA and FBI?s own documents confirm Posada
Carriles? participation in several terrorist organizations and other
activities. Venezuela?s Supreme Court has authorized the extradition request
under Venezuelan law, maintaining the charges against Posada Carriles are
still valid.

Under the 1922 Extradition Treaty between the United States and Venezuela,
?any person who may be charged with or may have been convicted of any of the
crimes committed within the jurisdiction of one of the Contracting Parties
and specified in Article II of this Convention, while said person was
actually within such jurisdiction when the crime was committed, and who
shall seek an asylum or who shall be found within the territories of the
other? shall be ?delivered up to justice? to the appropriate nation.
Article II of the Treaty includes the crimes of ?murder, assassination,
manslaughterand the attempt to commit murder.? Posada Carriles has been
charged with several counts of homicide, murder, by the Venezuelan courts,
for his role as the intellectual author of the Cubana airline bombing, which
killed 73 people. The bombing, as confirmed by the CIA and FBI declassified
documents, was planned by Posada Carriles and conspirators in the Anauco
Hilton Hotel in Caracas, in the weeks prior to the attack. Therefore, the
requirements of the Extradition Treaty are clearly met.

So then why, if the legalities have been fulfilled, is the U.S. wavering and
skirting around the issue?

Could the Bush Administration truly believe that it owes Posada Carriles
?protection? because of the years he served the interests of the U.S.
Government first as a soldier in the U.S. Army during February 1963 to March
1964 and subsequently as a CIA agent? Osama bin laden was also a trained and
paid agent of the U.S. Government back during the Afghani war against the
former Soviet Union. But the Bush Administration was quick to put a ransom
on his head and declare him an international terrorist after the September
11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil. Could Posada Carriles be receiving special
treatment because his terrorist activities have never been directed at U.S.
interests? Maybe the waffling is meant to appease the Miami-based
Cuban-American community, long a supporter of the Bush family, including the
all-important Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, whose job would be in jeopardy
if the Miami Cubans were snubbed.

Posada Carriles was also once the Director of Counterintelligence at
Venezuela?s FBI equivalent, the DISIP. Certainly that is a higher position
than a mere CIA agent receiving a $300 per month stipend. Yet Venezuela does
not feel as though it owes Posada Carriles any kind of ?protection? or
special treatment. As soon as the Venezuelan Government discovered his role
in the bombing back in 1976, a warrant was issued for his arrest. He wasn?t
given a break because of his ?service? to Venezuela as an intelligence
agent. And even though Venezuelan interests weren?t directly affected by the
Cubana airline bombing, the Venezuelan Government clearly comprehends the
definition of ?international terrorist? and ?crimes against humanity?.

It?s not surprising that a nation that unsigned itself from the
International Criminal Court and that has never ratified international
treaties and conventions on human rights and terrorism is potentially about
to provide refuge to an international terrorist. What is surprising is that
U.S. citizens continue to allow such unquestioned hypocrisy in their
government. Are members of the U.S. community going to allow their
government to condone acts of terrorism against other nations and to refuge
international terrorists, so long as they don?t hurt any U.S. citizens?

Orlando Bosch was labeled a terrorist back in the 1970s by the FBI, yet
today he resides freely in Miami with the blessing of the Bush family. A
host of other former dictators and tortures have been given refuge in the
?land of the free.? Will Posada Carriles meet the same fate?

The Venezuelan Government is mature enough to accept that its former
intelligence director committed a crime and must be brought to justice. The
CIA should stick its tail between its legs and follow Venezuela?s good
example. This isn?t about Bush saving face with Chávez and Castro, it?s
about one man responsible for the horrific deaths of innocent victims paying
for his crimes so that those victims? families can finally have peace.

**Eva Golinger is a Venezuelan-American attorney specializing in
international and immigration law. She is the author of The Chávez Code:
Cracking U.S. Intervention in Venezuela, available through her website,
www.venezuelafoia.info and on Amazon.com. The FBI and CIA documents
regarding Luis Posada Carriles mentioned in the article can be viewed at the
National Security Archives webpage:
<http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/index.htm>http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/index.htm.