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Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Iran-Contra

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Sun May 29, 2005 at 09:58:04 AM EST
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The U.S. has rejected Venezuela's request for an arrest warrant to commence extradition proceedings against anti-Castro militant Luis Posadas Carriles.

Venezuela's embassy in Washington said Friday the United States had rejected a "preventive detention request with the goal of the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles." The rejection does not affect Caracas' extradition request, the embassy said in a statement.

"We have sent a diplomatic note to the Venezuelan embassy today (Friday), saying that the request lacked sufficient basis from a legal point of view," a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

There were large protests over the decision this week. Check out this protest poster. So who is Posada and why is the U.S. refusing to turn him over?

The AP has this update today on the man who allegedly blew up a Cuban airliner in 1976 killing 73 people, tried to kill Castro and then went to work for the CIA helping Oliver North provide aid to the Contras.

In 1985, Posada was deeply involved in the Reagan administration's attempt to topple the Soviet Union-leaning Sandinistas by selling weapons to Iran and using the money for the Contra rebels, according to the final Iran-Contra report issued by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh.

...According to the Walsh report, Posada helped ensure proper distribution of some of the $6 million collected for the Contras by Lt. Col. Oliver North, a White House National Security Council aide who spearheaded the operation. The cash was brought to El Salvador from Miami by Southern Air Transport, an air cargo company that was actually a CIA front.

....After his Iran-Contra duties in 1990, Posada was shot and wounded by unknown gunmen in Guatemala. Cuba blames him for a string of 1997 bombings in Cuba, one of which killed an Italian tourist. Posada was jailed in Panama in 2000 for an alleged plot to assassinate Castro during a conference, but he was pardoned last August by Panama's outgoing president. Then in March, Posada surfaced in Miami after crossing the U.S. border with Mexico to seek asylum in the United States.

Both Cuba and Venezuela are seeking his extradition. Posada escaped from a Venezuelan jail while awaiting retrial on charges relating to the blowing up of the Cuban airliner. He has not been convicted of that crime. The conservative, Miami Cuban-American community is backing Posada and Cuba is attempting to enlist the Phillipines in its extradition request.

Posada was arrested in Texas on May 17 after he crossed the border from Mexico. He is being held on immigration charges and has requested asylum.

Posada Carriles, 77, has been under arrest in the United States since May 17 on immigration charges after requesting US political asylum. He is also wanted in Cuba for the bombings of two Havana tourist hotels in 2000, in which an Italian businessman died. He was found guilty in Panama of attempting to assassinate Castro at a summit in Panama City, but he was pardoned in 2004 by Panama's then president Mireya Moscoso.

A hearing is scheduled for June 13, when government lawyers are expected to ask for deportation and when Posada's attorneys plan to renew his asylum request.

This case is going to be a big deal for Bush, who is now being accused by Venezuelan officials of having a double standard in the war on terror.

If it came to that, it's not clear where Posada would be deported to. U.S. officials have already indicated they would not deport him to Venezuela, an ally of Cuba. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice denied a request from Venezuela, where Posada had lived for several years, to detain Posada on charges related to the 1976 Cuban jetliner bombing.

Venezuelan officials said they intend to renew that request later -- and Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Saturday blasted U.S. officials as ``hypocritical.'' ''They condemn terrorism on the one hand, and on the other they protect terrorists,'' Rangel said in a veiled reference to Posada as he led a protest demanding Posada's extradition.

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    Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Iran-Contra | 40 comments (40 topical)
    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#1)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    et al - Turning this person over to the current givernment in Venezuela would be just like turning him over to Cuba. As for the protests.... "The protesters, supporters of President Hugo Chavez...." That says it all. This man...."who allegedly blew up a Cuban airliner in 1976..." Well, innocent until proven guilty, eh? As for the contra charges, well, they worked for me, so no harm there.. And doesn't the Left call people like this "insurgents?"

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    'Anti-Castro militant'? What kind of bullsh*t is that? This ex-CIA agent ADMITS to blowing up the first civilian airliner in the W. hemisphere (Cubana airlines). He is responsible for the deaths of an entire Cuban sports' squad, in that attack, and has blown up a hotel lobby, among other crimes. He is a TERRORIST, not some kind of political operative, unless Bin Laden is a political operative too. The rightwing protects its own, and as a favor to Floridian billionaires, the guy is spirited out of Honduras, flown to the US, and then put into a Texas jail, rather than properly extradited to V., where he will go on trial for his crimes against the Venezuelan people, many of whom died in his attacks. Democracy Now! on Posada

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#3)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    PIL - There may be hope for you, yet. I mean you OBL is a terrorist to those he is attacking. (In case you don't know, that's us.)He is a hero to those who support him. All you have to do now is figure out which side you are on.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    Yeah, Jim, boohoo to you wingers, but the Venezuelans who supply 30% of US oil have EXTRADITION treaties with the US, and harboring terrorists is NOT legal under our law. Allegedly doesn't cover the terrain. This man ADMITS to terrorist acts -- indeed, he has bragged about them. Venezuela is not at war with the US, though the reverse is not necessarily true. Bush harbors terrorists, and arms violent dictators (Islam Karimov), participates in torture (rendition) -- so this is no surprise. Nor is your support. If YOUR family had been blown up in a hotel lobby, you might sing a different tune. There is no reason to suspect that this criminal would not receive a legal trial in Venezuela.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    Hey, Jimbo, OBL is the brother of a former business partner of Bush's. YOU support OBL, not me. You also supported Hussein back during the Reagan/Bush, while I was out on the streets demanding that the US stop arming him and furthering his crimes. Bush let OBL escape from Tora Bora. Why did he do that? Why did he pass on three opportunities to kill Zarkawi? Why did he attack AN INNOCENT COUNTRY over trumped up lies? YOU support terrorists, Jim, not me. And here you are defending them yet again. So naturally you want to tar others who have NEVER supported terrorists a single day of their lives, but in fact fought them from the time I was 12. The Vietnam war WAS terrorism, and you supported that fiasco too.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#6)
    by jarober on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    I thought TL was opposed to turning people over when the result would be certain death. But oh, I forgot - this guy is on the wrong side, so it doesn't matter. Makes me think that your support of Corby Schappelle would not have happened had she been a well known conservative.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    No, correction, he doesn't admit to the Cubana airliner bombing -- he is identified by the FBI as having been at the meetings planning that act. He does, though I can't find the reference off-hand, admit to the hotel lobby bombings. Anyhow, who else but the Venezuelan's ought to prosecute a terrorist who worked for V. intelligence back in the bad old days? They have the goods to take him to trial, and they have the right, and the extradition treaty. Done deal, except for Bush-liar hypocrisy. This is entirely similar to the 'work' that 'ex'-CIA agent Allawi did in Bagdad in 1995, blowing up schoolbuses and movie theaters, supposedly in order to topple Hussein (as if killing innocent people would do that).

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    'Certain death'? What makes you say that? Venezuela is not a bivoac, a bunch of natives living in tents. The guy will receive a fair trial, and he's 77 years old. So any imprisonment will result in his death, but that's certainly what his victims suffered. This is like protecting Tim McVey. You are supporting the harboring of McVey. Why would you do that, James?

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    If the administration is actually in a war on terrorism, they would prosecute this guy. If they equivocate on prosecution of this guy who may have blown up an airliner, then it must follow that the war on terrorism is a political fiction, not any genuine effort to send a signal that violence against civilian populations will lead to prosecution. Of course, given the violence against the civilian population of Iraq by US forces, it should be hard for any US official to pontificate about terrorism, but some still find a way. And Jim, yes, he's innocent until proven guilty, so let's extradite him to one of the countries that wants to try him and determine guilt or innocence. It's called due process. Extradition to countries with whom we have extradition treaties is part of the due process.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#10)
    by Andreas on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    Venezuela wants CIA terrorist extradited Bush administration forced to detain Posada Carriles By Bill Van Auken, 18 May 2005 State Department: “We don’t know if top terrorist is in US” By Bill Van Auken, 5 May 2005 Wanted for jetliner bombing Bush silent as top terrorist seeks US asylum By Bill Van Auken, 14 April 2005

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#11)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    You do know what i would do to castro don't you? and i would do it slowly, and put it on DVD, So people can watch. hate is forever, and i would have fun doing it, to old castor, but i have no love for the drug dealer in the so called Anit-castor. by the way the bush family loves the so called anit-castor boys and used the boys for many years against us all. hitler-bush-castor-saddam-fox-mao-stalin-bin laden, are all one person, evil.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    Nice try, James Robertson. I didn't take any position, I just reported the news. No, I would not support turning any human being over to a country where they would be killed or tortured. If he would be given a fair trial, that's another story. I'm just learning about this man, it's too soon for me to take a position.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#13)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:26 PM EST
    Fred, Yearning for the old Bautista mafia are we? Maybe now might be a good time for you to back up your arguements with some info as to why Castro was so bad for Cuba? He's not the problem, he's the result. And Venezuela does not have the death penalty.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#14)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    CA - Do you really believe he would get justice in Cuba or Venezuela? Come on. That's funny! PIL - Writes - "Hey, Jimbo, OBL is the brother of a former business partner of Bush's. YOU support OBL, not me." US Congressman Ford (Dem TN) announced last week that he will run for the US Senate seat vacated by Frist's leaving. The next day his Uncle, TN State Senator Harold Ford was arrested for extortion. Guess no will support the Congressman. Obviously his association with his Uncle... (That sound you hear is me laughing.) Guilt by association, eh? And no, I didn't support Saddam. I supported our USE of Saddam. Think of it as cataching a snake you're gonna throw into a pit of rats. PIL, what you refuse to understand is that the use of people such as Carriles is a time honored tactic in war. I do find it most humorous that the Left, who condemns such people as terrorists, drag their feet on calling people who blow up car bombs, "terrorist."

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#15)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    Shorter PPJ: Iraqi Car Bombers = bad terrorists Luis Posada Carriles = good terrorist

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    So who is Posada and why is the U.S. refusing to turn him over?
    Why, that's easy. He's an accused terrorist, who will never be tried for his crimes, as the "tough-on-terror" Bush admin. needs the votes of the Cuban Exile community to help his lil' brother hang onto office in FL. Ernesto Del Mundo, that's a 4.0 with high-order secondary detonations!

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    CA - Do you really believe he would get justice in Cuba or Venezuela? Come on. That's funny! Citation please if you have good reason to believe that the Cuban or Venezuelan justice systems would fail to treat Mr. Posada fairly. Myself, I am convinced that Posada could get as good a trial in Cuba as Leonard Pelletier got here in the US. And a better trial than Maher Arar got from the United States when we kidnapped, excuse me, arrested Arar. That's not saying he would necessarily get a good or fair trial, but I read somewhere that before you comment on the mote of dust in another's eye, you should remove the plank from your own.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#18)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    CA - Surely you jest. You want some Castro type justice? Oh well, at least they didn't flush his bible down the john. Ernesto - Shorter, please? OK! An enemy of my enemy is my friend.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#19)
    by Randinho on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    PPJ, The paucity of your knowledge on Posada is matched only by the greatness of your bombast. According to Honduran authorities, last August Posada entered Honduras with an altered US passport. Posada had been convicted in Panama of plotting to kill Castro by bombing the Ibero-American Summit in 2000. Panama's ex-president,Mireya Moscoso now facing corruption charges, pardoned Posada. So he is a convicted terrorist. As for republican softness on terrorism, consider that President Bush's father when his own attorney general, Richard Thornburgh recommended that Orlando Bosch be deported from the US as an "unreformed terrorist," then President Bush overruled him and allowed Bosch to stay eventually leading to his permanent resident status. Bosch was one of the other figures behind the Cubana Airlines bombing. Consider this as well:
    [Republican] Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and [Ileana] Ros-Lehtinen, with the backing of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, wrote letters on behalf of several exile militants held in U.S. prisons for acts of political violence. Some were released in 2001, including Jose Dionisio Suarez Esquivel and Virgilio Paz Romero, both convicted for the notorious 1976 car bomb-murder of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his American assistant Ronnie Moffitt, in Washington. Once released, instead of being deported like other non-citizen criminals, they have been allowed to settle into the good life in Miami.
    So, perhaps when you choose to lecture Paul in LA about terrorism, perhaps you should consider starting these lectures with the GOP.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#20)
    by Randinho on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    Left out the article link to the blockquoted text in the previous post. Here it is.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    An enemy of my enemy is my friend. Need I remind you, Jim, that this strategy gave us Osama Bin Laden? Maybe there is a better way to identify your friends? Like shared values?

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    An enemy of my enemy is my friend.
    PPJ, still treading out this tired old fallacious argument, I see. Of course, you ignore the fact that it's an incredibly short-sighted basis for policy, one that ignores the ever-present reality of Blowback. CA-My point, exactly. Well said.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    You want some Castro type justice? Your link to an anecdotal, undocmented diatribe against Che does nothing to persuade me that Cuba's current justice system could not accommodate Mr. Posada.

    Re: Anti-Castro Militant Worked for CIA During Ira (none / 0) (#24)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:27 PM EST
    Adept - Lots of "well said" floating around today. CA -