Karmic Payback
It appears that the United States has less than twenty-four hours to decide what to do with an illegal immigrant by the name of Luis Posada Carriles.
CNN mentioned the story today.
Weeks after sneaking across the border from Mexico and going into hiding in Miami, fugitive Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles was whisked away by U.S. Homeland Security agents.
Why Homeland Security? Why not the INS? Well, it seems that Mr. Posada Carriles has a "history:"
Cuba and Venezuela have been after Posada for decades over his alleged role in blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 people.
But wait, there's more:
Declassified FBI and CIA documents made public Tuesday link Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, who is seeking asylum in the United States, to a plot to bomb a Cuban airliner in 1976 and indicate that he was on the CIA's payroll for years.
So now the government has a dilemma. Venezuela and Cuba want this man because they believe he is a terrorist, and, in light of the documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, it appears he may very well be a terrorist. Much of the current US foreign policy revolves around the "War on Terrorism" meme. However, it looks like this gentleman is one of "our" terrorists. What to do? What to do?
Back to the CNN transcript. Wolf Blitzer had Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald on for his take:
Well, what I'm going to write for my column tomorrow, Wolf, is that I think if the Bush administration is smart -- and that's not always the case -- but if it were smart in this case, it could use this and turn the tables on Castro, and turn it from a propaganda-defeating to a propaganda victory.
What do I mean by this? Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, are turning this into a major propaganda bonanza. They're saying, here we have the U.S., allegedly the world champion against terrorism, harboring a terrorist. This is hypocritical, this shows the U.S. is not serious.
Now, if the Bush administration wanted to turn this into a propaganda victory, what it should do is deport Mr. Posada Carriles, perhaps not to Cuba, not to Venezuela, not a country where he would be fried by a kangaroo court, but to another country that would take him, and then turn the tables on Fidel Castro and say, now it's your turn to arrest and deport the 77 terrorists and other lawbreakers that Cuba is harboring that the FBI is looking for, and the hundreds of other international terrorists that are living a peaceful and happy life in Cuba, which by any international standard has become sort of a Club Mediterranean (ph) for international terrorists."
Merciful heavens, and I thought I was cynical. Still, the Administration has only until Thursday to make its decision. Political asylum? Deportation to Venezuela (with whom we have an extradition treaty)? Mexico? The Hague? It's bound to be an interesting decision.
UPDATE: 5/20/05
It appears the government is holding its cards close to the chest. The NY Times reports that Posada Carriles has been charged with "illegal entry."
Homeland Security Department officials said Thursday that they had charged Luis Posada Carriles, the violent anti-Castro militant, with illegally entering the United States.
The charge could be the first step in the deportation of Mr. Posada, 77, who resurfaced outside Miami and was arrested on Tuesday after 45 years of shadowy combat against Fidel Castro.
It also represents a legal and political dilemma for the Bush administration.
Mr. Posada, who served both the Central Intelligence Agency and Venezuela's spy service in the 1960's and 1970's, is wanted in Venezuela in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 people. The government of Venezuela wants to extradite him under international law.
The report makes clear that the US definitely does not want to deport the man to Venezuela.
Oh, and a correction of sorts to my post: the reason that the Department of Homeland Security has the matter is that the INS is now part of that department. My bad.
CNN mentioned the story today.
Weeks after sneaking across the border from Mexico and going into hiding in Miami, fugitive Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles was whisked away by U.S. Homeland Security agents.
Why Homeland Security? Why not the INS? Well, it seems that Mr. Posada Carriles has a "history:"
Cuba and Venezuela have been after Posada for decades over his alleged role in blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 people.
But wait, there's more:
Declassified FBI and CIA documents made public Tuesday link Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, who is seeking asylum in the United States, to a plot to bomb a Cuban airliner in 1976 and indicate that he was on the CIA's payroll for years.
So now the government has a dilemma. Venezuela and Cuba want this man because they believe he is a terrorist, and, in light of the documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, it appears he may very well be a terrorist. Much of the current US foreign policy revolves around the "War on Terrorism" meme. However, it looks like this gentleman is one of "our" terrorists. What to do? What to do?
Back to the CNN transcript. Wolf Blitzer had Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald on for his take:
Well, what I'm going to write for my column tomorrow, Wolf, is that I think if the Bush administration is smart -- and that's not always the case -- but if it were smart in this case, it could use this and turn the tables on Castro, and turn it from a propaganda-defeating to a propaganda victory.
What do I mean by this? Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, are turning this into a major propaganda bonanza. They're saying, here we have the U.S., allegedly the world champion against terrorism, harboring a terrorist. This is hypocritical, this shows the U.S. is not serious.
Now, if the Bush administration wanted to turn this into a propaganda victory, what it should do is deport Mr. Posada Carriles, perhaps not to Cuba, not to Venezuela, not a country where he would be fried by a kangaroo court, but to another country that would take him, and then turn the tables on Fidel Castro and say, now it's your turn to arrest and deport the 77 terrorists and other lawbreakers that Cuba is harboring that the FBI is looking for, and the hundreds of other international terrorists that are living a peaceful and happy life in Cuba, which by any international standard has become sort of a Club Mediterranean (ph) for international terrorists."
Merciful heavens, and I thought I was cynical. Still, the Administration has only until Thursday to make its decision. Political asylum? Deportation to Venezuela (with whom we have an extradition treaty)? Mexico? The Hague? It's bound to be an interesting decision.
UPDATE: 5/20/05
It appears the government is holding its cards close to the chest. The NY Times reports that Posada Carriles has been charged with "illegal entry."
Homeland Security Department officials said Thursday that they had charged Luis Posada Carriles, the violent anti-Castro militant, with illegally entering the United States.
The charge could be the first step in the deportation of Mr. Posada, 77, who resurfaced outside Miami and was arrested on Tuesday after 45 years of shadowy combat against Fidel Castro.
It also represents a legal and political dilemma for the Bush administration.
Mr. Posada, who served both the Central Intelligence Agency and Venezuela's spy service in the 1960's and 1970's, is wanted in Venezuela in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 people. The government of Venezuela wants to extradite him under international law.
The report makes clear that the US definitely does not want to deport the man to Venezuela.
Oh, and a correction of sorts to my post: the reason that the Department of Homeland Security has the matter is that the INS is now part of that department. My bad.
posted by Diane at 6:06 PM
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